Attack of the Zombies (6 page)

Mr Mayer met us at the Portal and informed us
that for the duration of the disturbances we were now under the
command of the Captain, BUT, whenever there was time we would
continue our lessons. No excuses - DO WE UNDERSTAND?

Yes sir. What is it with all the shouting
today? He went on to explain that our duties would be building
fortifications and accommodation blocks for the incoming troops.
Man, this sounds serious. Oh, and when we are no longer in a class
room situation we are to refer to him as Colonel Mayer -
UNDERSTOOD?

Yes sir - way cool, Colonel Mayer, that's
like really senior or something.

The Captain set us to work the moment Colonel
Mayer finished with us. Our job was to mine for cobblestone,
*yawn*
but without building materials no
one could construct anything.

All day - that's how long we worked, I must
have mined 10,000 Cobblestone blocks today, oh ok, maybe not that
many but is certainly feels like it. Any usable Ore's were stored
in a huge warehouse erected at the mine's entrance, everything else
was sent to the camp by rail cart.

The first of the accommodation blocks had
been built by the time we finished mining and we are all staying
here tonight. No one is aloud to leave their block after sunset,
anyone who disobeys orders will answer to the Captain for military
punishment.
*gulp*

What already? I forgot that the moment you
lay down on your bed in the Survival Room you wake to a new day.
Really messes with your head but at least I feel refreshed.

This morning we are on defense building
duties. That has got to be better than mining.

Nope, I was totally wrong. Mining was much
more fun than building defenses. All we did was stack Cobblestone
blocks all morning. Twelve blocks deep by twenty blocks high,
surrounding the whole camp. I don't know what they expect but it
will never get through these walls!

Yes, this afternoon was so much fun, we went
back to school. Mr Larrson, or should I say Major Larrson, started
our Enchantments class today and we have been given the task of
making and enchanting Weapons and Armor for the whole army! We
started by making 100 x Diamond Swords. I have never seen so much
wealth but I suppose it's different in the Survival Room, pity we
can't take them home with us, I'd never have to work again. Not
that I have actually ever worked before - after all, I am only
eleven!

After we completed Crafting the Swords the
real lesson started - Enchanting 101.

Someone had already been busy and built an
enchanting room, ready for today's lesson so we were all set up
ready to go.

Major Larrson informed us of the theory
behind enchanting. Simply put, you can enchant objects on an
Enchanting Table, but to get higher level enchantments you need to
surround the Enchanting Table with bookshelves. "Uh Sir, um, Major,
Mr Larrson."

"Yes Jeb, and how about you call me Major
Larrson, that way you will not be guessing whether school is in
session."

"Right, Major Larrson sir." Yeah I know,
messed it up already! "I see the Enchanting Tables but there are no
Bookcases, does that mean we are only making basic
enchantments?"

"Good question Jeb, and no, we have been
instructed to make higher level enchantments wherever possible, so
your first job is to make the bookcases, 15 per enchanting
table."

"Why can't someone else make the bookcases
and let us get on with enchanting the Swords?" asked Hoody.

"I can see someone has not read the course
book I supplied at the beginning of term. Has anyone here actually
read it yet?"

"Yes Major Larrson, I have," replied
Pippa.

"Good, then maybe you can inform your
unprepared friend why it will be necessary for him to build his own
Bookcases before he begins enchanting."

"Yes Major. Enchanting any object requires
Experience Points or XP, and the more you have the higher the level
of enchantment you can produce. As we are all still noobs we have
little to no XP so we need to engage in an activity that will
generate XP."

"Very well said Pippa, it's nice to see I
still have some considerate students."

"Uh Major, surely the quickest way to gain XP
points is to kill mobs, you don't suggest we have to kill Zombies
or something, do you?" stammered Gravy.

"No Gravy, although the time will come when
that will be expected of you. Today you will be killing Mobs but it
will be an easy task, if maybe a little distasteful. To make
bookshelves we need Books, and to make Books we need Leather and
Paper, in fact 45 pieces of Leather and 135 pieces of Paper per set
of 15 Bookcases."

"Uh Major, where are we going to get 45
pieces of Leather each. Cows only drop 0 to 2 pieces of Leather
when you kill them so being realistic, we are going to have to kill
about 100 cows each and there's like 120 of us, that's thousands of
cows!"

"Yes Pippa, you are almost correct. We will
work in groups of four and gather the materials required to build
one Enchanting Room per group. There is a farm established not far
from here, cared for by some villagers who also cultivate Sugar
Cane for the Paper. Right, form into Groups of four, grab your
Swords and follow me," replied Major Larrson, strolling from the
room.

And that was how we started enchanting. It
was gross, then fun then totally gross again. The first Cow I
killed was messy and gross but sooo awesome. I walked up to it
hacked away at it while it tried to run, blood sprayed everywhere
until it eventually died and dropped some Meat. What, after all
that no Leather!

The next one was a little easier, I walked up
to it and in one swift blow cut it's head clean off and I was
rewarded with a piece of Leather and some Meat. Cool city man. I
got stuck into it then, spraying cow blood everywhere but after
about my twelfth or thirteenth Cow the novelty wore off and all I
could see were their cute eyes staring at me as I sliced into them.
Gross, I started to feel sick to my stomach, this was just wrong,
so much death.

I stopped and looked around at all the
floating Leather and Meat, it was everywhere. Some people were
laughing and shouting to one another, others were bent over puking.
Man, so very, very wrong. I caught Major Larrson's eye and he
walked over to me.

"Everything ok here Jeb?"

"Yes Major," I replied, 'it's just that it
seems wrong to slaughter so many cows."

"Really? This is the only way to get Leather,
and without Leather there are no Books, without Books there are no
higher level enchantments, do you understand Jeb?"

"Yes Major."

"Good, now apart from a little nauseated, how
do you feel?"

I was about to say disgusted when I realized
I felt incredible, totally pumped and it was then that it hit me. I
had been gaining XP points with every Cow killed. Duh, that's why
we had to do it ourselves, without the XP we could not enchant. I
looked up at Major Larrson and he just laughed, slapped me on my
back and said, "I can tell by the look on your face that you feel
incredible and it has finally sunk into your block head that the XP
points are increasing your Experience Level - Feels great doesn't
it?"

Man, that was an understatement, I suddenly
felt like Superman. I could hardly reply, I had a grin a mile wide
stuck to my face. Laughing again Major Larrson ushered me back
towards the Cows. "Go on Jeb, get some more Leather and XP, it is
the way it is done here so you may as well enjoy it."

At this point I need to apologize to any
vegetarians because I dashed back into the enclosure and started
slaughtering Cows like it was going out of fashion, and yes, I
really enjoyed it. I realized that you can't attribute Minecraftia
values to the Overworld. They are different worlds and should be
treated accordingly.

When all the cows were butchered, yeah for
some reason that sounds better than slaughtered, we gathered up all
the Meat and stacked it in chests in the supply room, that should
be enough to feed the troops for days. We then gathered the Leather
and took it back to the class room.

"Ok everyone, count your Leather pieces, you
need 45 per group, if you have more than you need pass it on to
another group."

We counted up our Leather and found we had
collected 62 pieces. Man, I guess we all got into Cow butchering in
a big way. We passed the excess over to Pippa's group, seems she
doesn't mind killing Zombies but cute cows were another thing
altogether.

"Ok people, we now need Paper and Wooden
Planks. Right, place your Leather in the Chest assigned to your
group and follow me." We then all marched off to the other side of
the farm where a huge Sugar Cane field had been planted.

"Ok everyone, listen up, you need to harvest
135 Sugar Cane per group. Only cut the top two blocks and leave the
bottom block intact, that way the Sugar Cane will continue to grow
without re-planting. Ok, get to it and meet back here when you are
done."

We all dashed into the Sugar Cane plantation
and hacked away, gathering the Sugar Cane into our inventories as
it fell. After we had all we needed we headed back to Major
Larrson, who had moved over to a small Wood.

"The final task is to gather some Wood to
make 90 Wooden Planks per group, so cut 23 Wooden Blocks each. Come
on people, move it, move it, we don't have all day!"

We dashed into the woods and made short work
of gathering the Wooden Chunks then headed back to the class, ready
at last to make our enchanting rooms.

I am exhausted. I enchanted twenty swords
today, yep twenty. All that XP I built up is gone but hopefully it
has gone to a good cause. Seems like we still have a Zombie problem
as Major Larrson had us all enchant Diamond Swords with the Smite
enchantment, that's the one that causes extra damage to undead
mobs. The best enchantment I cast was a Level IV, which I thought
was pretty cool until Numbers swaggered up with a Level V
enchantment. Yeah Numbers, you rock, now push off and let me bask
in my Level IV for a few more minutes.

Spent the day mining again, loads of hard
work but some good laughs as well. The other half of the class were
using the Ore we mined to finish the Portal defenses. Sounds like
it's just in time as there has been a meeting called for this
evening, everyone must attend. Will let you know what happens.

Man, did not get back until this morning, the
meeting went on all night. I'm exhausted but have to go straight
back out to work. Will fill you in later.

At this pace I won't have to worry about the
Zombies killing me, Major Larrson will work me to death long before
that happens! Anyway, I have a few minutes before I have to go back
out so let me fill you in on what's happening.

First off, this is more serious than any of
us guessed. After the first search party went missing the Captain
sent a Platoon of heavily armed soldiers through the portal, but
none of them returned. The Headmasters was beside himself and
ordered the portal sealed but Major Larrson convinced him to send
through a stealth team to find out exactly what we were up against.
What's a stealth team? Oh they are really cool. Major Larrson
knocked up a batch of Potions of Invisibility and the team slipped
through the portal, totally invisible. They were scheduled to
return within 2 hours but burst back through the portal less than
10 minutes later. They were immediately marched off to the command
centre and we were all left wondering what happened, until the
meeting.