Chapter #3 Matt Forbeck's MineCraft Dungeons The Rise of the Arch-Illager

Ashcraft Minecraft Podcast

Archie wandered lost in the plains, distraught over being kicked out of the only tribe-the only family, really -he’d ever known. His entire life he’d worried that no one actually liked him much. That the only ones who even seem like they might tolerate him had only been doing so out of politeness.

And now he had proof.

When the tribe had been given a choice between Thord and him, they’d thrown Archie to the mercy of the mobs. Given how Illagers prized strength over anything, he’d been expecting it to happen however, But he’d still hoped for something better. Without the protection of the tribe he’d probably be dead within a week.

He wondered how he’d go. Would a zombie take him down? Would a skeleton skewer him with an arrow? Or would a creeper come hissing up behind him and blast him to nothing?

As night fell, Archie did what he’d been trained to do if he was ever caught out alone in the open after dark, something that had rarely happened to him before. It was supposed to be the only way to protect yourself From the roaming hordes of undead mobs that came out at night to claw and tear at the living.

So Archie found a hole in the ground -a bit of a depression, really -and jumped into it. Then he buried himself under the earth.

He knew he’d done a bad job of it right away. It wasn't like he’d carved out of proper space in the ground below himself and then sealed himself in. He’d just done the best he could, which came down to covering himself with as much loose dirt as he could manage.

It didn't take Archie long to realize he couldn't breathe - or at least that the fear that gripped him made it feel that way. Maybe that was the kind of thing that people with proper tools and discipline could manage by making themselves a well protected space, but Archie had neither such implements nor the know-how to use them.

Terrified by the tight confines and gasping for air, Archie clawed his way back up out of the dirt and stood there exposed under the night sky. It was a big World, he knew, and he was a tiny Illager. Maybe the mobs would just miss him?

He looked around the woods through which he had wandered, hoping perhaps that they could offer him some shelter. In the day, the trees kept the sun off his head, but now, in the darkness, they seemed like they only gave cover in which all sorts of nameless nightmares could hide. He peered around them in every direction, fully expecting death to leap out from behind them.

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