Death Water and Nomad’s Underground Base

I followed behind WakingNomad as he led me and Zukin down a winding hallway. The hall branched off in several places, but Nomad knew the way by heart. As long as we kept up with him, we wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost. If we fell behind, however, we might never find our way out; the paths intersected with each other in no apparent order, and some of them were actually infinite. Nomad brought us to a water fountain attached to the wall. He told us about a man who died drinking from the fountain. Nomad assured us that the water wasn’t what killed him… He actually fell and hit his head on the edge of the metal structure. Even so, the water carried the essence of his soul at the time of death, so Nomad wanted us to drink some of it and acquire his strength. I approached the water fountain first and took a long drink. The water seemed alive, but it tasted like death itself. Before Zukin could have her drink, Nomad continued along. I kept a medium distance between our guide and my partner. As long as I could still follow Nomad, Zukin could follow him by following me.

We came to a more powerful water system. This one held the essence of a number of souls defeated on the green moon. The water poured down into a stone basin where it was drained and recycled. The pressure inside the pipes was tremendous because of all the souls inside the water, so it was difficult to take a drink from this fountain, but I did it anyway. Nomad laughed as I gained the strength of a hundred fallen invaders. I don’t recall Zukin trying this one. We continued on our way, and the maze of hallways opened into an enormous cavern. Nomad led us to a dirt mound on the edge of a bottomless pit. He gave us instructions, but neither of us understood. They seemed to be in another language. Zukin followed him into the dirt and took a shovel. She started leveling out the mound. I summoned an industrial excavator and began doing something similar – except I pushed the dirt to the sides, leaving a flat area in the middle with a circular dirt wall around it. Nomad walked past our dirt structures and stroked his chin.

“You call that a zombie cave?” he asked Zukin.

“A zombie cave…?” she murmured. Was that what we were supposed to build? I put a roof over mine and inadvertently caused it to slump in the direction of the bottomless pit. The dirt solidified and turned into stone. When Nomad looked over at mine, he shrugged.

“Not bad. It almost looks real.” He walked down to the end of the structure and looked up. That side of it was jagged and lumpy.

“I could touch this part up,” I admitted. Nomad seemed to agree. From there, he took me and Zukin to another part of the cavern where a bunch of mansions had been constructed. These were owned by other dreamers. Nomad showed us a vacant building and announced that one of us could move in. As we toured the mansion, Zukin seemed to get the impression that I was trying to steal her energy. I was confused until I found Asuzu in Nomad’s underground civilization. She accused me of trying to kill her. In actuality, she was stealing Zukin’s energy, so she was doing far more harm…

“Survival mode is hard…” Asuzu complained. I figured she was talking about Minecraft, as little as that had to do with anything.

“No, it’s not,” I responded. “As long as you understand it, it’s easy.”

“I’ll have you banned!” she threatened. She summoned Nomad and explained that I had tried to steal her belongings and kill her. She also mentioned that I didn’t think survival mode was hard. Nomad ignored everything except that last part.

“Yeah, right…” he laughed. “Survival mode is insane.”

“Only at the beginning,” I argued. “It gets much easier after you’ve established a base of operations.”

“I wish Onidis was here…” Asuzu cried. “He wouldn’t treat me like this…” It enraged me to hear her so much as mention Ben’s online name. I resisted the urge to cut her down.

“Onizel doesn’t need any more of your drama, Asuzu. He’s got better things to do with his life.”