13. First Battle
13. First Battle
What do I do?
It's my mistake. If I had waited a bit longer by the bridge, the monsters wouldn't have spawned while Asagi and Ranma were running away.
It was a mistake to freak out at the sound of a Creeper and just bolt. I didn't know they'd spawn like crazy the moment I went past 24M.
"Whew~"
Ranma whistled. He was amazed to see the monsters constantly spawning in the Monster Farm I'd built. Asagi also looked fed up.
"How many are spawning in there?"
"About 70 to 140, I'd guess. Since up to 70 spawn per chunk. If that area is one chunk, it's 70, and if it spans two, it'll be up to 140."
"140 in such a cramped space?"
"That's exactly how it works."
I pointed my finger at where I'd built the Monster Farm in response to Asagi's question. Because monsters kept spawning, the ones pushed to the edge due to lack of space were falling off the cliff.
"That's unexpected."
"But what's that?"
Ranma, who had been staring at the spot where monsters were spawning like mad along with me and Asagi, pointed at a monster he'd never seen before. I turned my head to where Ranma was pointing. And I was shocked.
It was wearing a pointed hat on its head, and its nose hung down to its Adam's apple, dangling. Its messy hair, poking out from under the pointed hat, fluttered in the wind. It was a monster wearing a purple robe.
A Witch.
"It's a Witch!"
"Eh? A Witch? Does that mean it uses magic?"
Ranma asked back, surprised by my shout. I shook my head. Witches don't use magic. They fight by throwing potions. If you get hit, your energy keeps draining as if you've been poisoned until you die.
It's not necessarily a monster you'd call dangerous, but a Witch is an important monster. Especially in Sky Block.
But it's a shame it appeared now.
"We need to capture that thing alive."
"Capture it alive?"
"Yeah, capture it. We need that thing to make life comfortable, way later on."
Capturing it right now would be a pain in the ass, and we have no immediate use for it anyway. A Witch only becomes useful when we can get Gold Ingots. And we have no idea when we'll be able to properly get Gold Ingots.
Collecting Gold Ingots will be even harder than Iron Ingots.
"It's impossible right now. Going in there is just asking for death."
"Right? But why aren't they coming over here?"
"Because they're out of detection range."
I said that and placed planks on the 2M-wide bridge, blocking the entrance. Even if they don't attack because they haven't detected us, it doesn't mean they won't roam. If one happens to walk toward the bridge and detects us, it'll be a total shitshow.
"Is this it for today?"
Ranma asked as I blocked the bridge. I nodded. We managed to get a Bow for ranged attacks, but we only have 3 Arrows. That means it's over after 3 shots. With this amount, we'd have to hit every single one just to kill one Spider. The 3 arrows are meaningless right now.
"How futile. We couldn't do much more than this."
Asagi muttered, feeling dejected. I felt futile too. But it would have been better to figure out a way to deal with the Creepers and prepare for the Phantoms that would appear soon. We have until tomorrow, but I was skeptical about collecting the remaining 10 pieces of Spider Web in that time. It would be impossible.
Spiders don't burn up when morning comes after they spawn. It would be nice if only Spiders remained, but the same goes for Creepers. That's one of the shitty things about Creepers. When a Creeper appears, there's only one answer. Deal with it, or die.
"If we just wait until morning like this, everything except Creepers, Spiders, and Witches will burn away."
"There are more monsters remaining than the ones that disappear. Annoying."
"Right? Witches might not spawn anymore, so what we need to pray for is that as many Spiders as possible spawn."
At least 10 Spiders need to spawn. I know that's an absurd probability, but if we can't collect them and fail to make a Bed, we'll have to experience the shittiness of being pestered by Phantoms every night and having to sleep during the day. If we're unlucky, we could die, and the platform we're standing on right now isn't that wide, making it even more dangerous.
"Then what should we do now?"
I shrugged at Asagi's question. What can we do? Hunting is over. Dealing with the Creepers and Witches is only possible after morning comes and all the undead monsters burn to death.
"We have to sleep."
"With monsters over there?"
Is she saying it's hard to sleep because she's anxious? Still, there's no choice. If we don't sleep now, it's highly likely we'll all end up in poor condition. Phantoms will start appearing from tomorrow night, and if that happens, we might face the misfortune of having to sleep during the day. Or we could build a small Hut and sleep together.
.......
Should we build a Hut?
Come to think of it, a Hut doesn't seem like a bad choice. Sleeping in the same space as Asagi, wouldn't that be surprisingly sweet?
I shook my head after thinking that far.
No, no, I'm not confident I won't get an erection while sleeping in the same space as Asagi. If I got caught by Asagi with an erection, I felt like my dick might get chopped off.
That can absolutely not happen.
Still, if Phantoms really start appearing, there'd be no other way but a Hut. To collect wood, we have to chop down trees as fast as possible during the day and replant saplings, but the moment we act at night, there's nothing to do after chopping down the trees that grew during the day and planting saplings. Plus, I didn't want to live in fear, not knowing when a monster might pop out.
I shook off my worries and lay down on the spot. It's useless to worry about it now anyway. Tomorrow's me will handle tomorrow's problems. There was no answer even if I worried now. The only solution seemed to be telling Asagi and Ranma to go catch them even if it was dangerous, but if I said that to them now, I felt like they'd throw me off the cliff first and then think of another way.
"Isn't there anything we need to check regarding the Creepers?"
"I am curious about their explosive power. We're just not doing it because it's dangerous."
I answered Asagi's question as she looked down at me. The explosive power of a Creeper is 3 based on Minecraft. If you use the Gunpowder dropped from killing a Creeper to make TNT, the explosive power is 4, and in Minecraft, if a Creeper explodes nearby, you die in one hit even if you're wearing a full set of Diamond Armor on Hard difficulty. You can block it almost perfectly if you hold a Shield, but we need 1 Iron Ingot to make a Shield right now.
The problem is, now that we've received reality adjustments, I don't know how much explosive power 3 is. Even if it's just enough to blow away a few blocks like in real Minecraft, it's threatening. But if it's the explosive power of real TNT, we're all dead the moment it goes off.
Basically, the size of one block here is 1M in width, length, and height. The size of TNT is no different. It means a volume of 1 cubic meter of TNT. This is going to explode?
The explosive power of TNT is 4. It's 1 higher than a Creeper. If the Creeper was made based on the power of real TNT, it's game over if it explodes. That was also the ultimate reason why I couldn't experiment with Creepers.
"Let's not catch Creepers if we can help it, unless we herd them to the edge as much as possible and throw them off the cliff."
"Is it possible to throw them off?"
"That's honestly dangerous too. The Creeper's explosion time is 1.5 seconds. We have to throw it off within 1.5 seconds. This is just information I know, too. It might be different here. If we're unlucky, it could explode instantly and we could all die."
"Still, it would be good to figure out what state the enemy is in."
"That's true, isn't it?"
"I will do it."
Say what?
Asagi suggested it calmly, without expression. It seemed like she meant she would participate in the experiment herself. Come to think of it, the only person here who can test the Creeper is Asagi. Because she's the fastest. Was it the Hawk Technique? Asagi, who has speedster abilities, might not get hurt if she's lucky, even if the Creeper explodes on the spot, if she pulls back quickly.
But the worry of whether I could drive Asagi into a death trap just because of that wouldn't go away. I glanced at the Monster Farm, and about 7 Creepers had already spawned. And one Witch, a whole bunch of Skeletons and Zombies, and fewer Spiders than Creepers. 10 is a number that's out of the question.
When a Creeper starts to explode, if the player moves far away, it stops exploding and chases the player. Wouldn't that be possible for Asagi? Luring it to the cliff... No. No.
I shook my head.
There's a better way.
"Asagi-ssi, I've thought of a very good method."
"What is it?"
The only person recognized as a player in this world right now is me. Then what about Asagi and Ranma? How are they being recognized?
Could they be recognized as Villagers?
If so, the Creepers would treat Asagi and Ranma like invisible people. Because Creepers ignore Villagers.
Skeletons and Zombies attack Villagers and everything else without discrimination, so they attack Asagi and Ranma too. But Creepers don't. An interesting point in Minecraft is that if a monster attacks another monster, whether by mistake or not, the two will fight each other.
If Asagi uses her signature fast movements to aggro the Skeletons, they will shoot arrows. At Asagi.
What if we use a Creeper to block that?
What action will the Creeper take? Will it rush at the Skeleton and self-destruct?
It would be better to experiment with that first. First, we need to check if the Creeper rushes at Asagi, in other words, if it really recognizes Asagi as a Villager.