I awoke to the light of the sun once again lighting up my room. This time, my mind and body were quick to shake off the morning fuzz, and I got out of bed. It was probably from the honey I had consumed last night, filling me with energy. I made my way out into the living room where Mom was relaxing and reading her book again.

"Good morning, dear." she greeted.

"Good morning, Mom." I energetically replied. She looked up from her book.

"Oh, you can go ahead and play with your friends today. Mom's not planning to do anything right now." she assured. I nodded.

"Okay, bye Mom." I went outside and met the shining sun again.

I pondered what to do before deciding to pay a visit to Andrew and went towards his house. Adults, mostly men, passed by me as they headed off to work, and a group of other kids passed me by, ignoring me, as they laughed amongst each other.

I reached the house and knocked on the door. Soon after, it opened and I was greeted by the sight of Ralph and his cranky expression. Immediately, I looked down anxiously.

"Oh... hey... Ralph..." I mumbled, my voice filled with unhidden nervousness. I remembered from the dinner discussion last night of how his mother had been one of the ones Mom had spoken to yesterday, and he clearly was not happy from the talk he and his mom must've had.

"What do you want, scrub?" he growled.

"I was just... wondering if Andrew was home..." I muttered. He paused for a moment before answering.

"Andrew's not allowed to leave the house today. Ended up making a fisherman really mad yesterday and he complained to Mom. Neither of us are going anywhere." I heard Andrew's voice somewhere behind him.

"Is that David?" his voice asked. Ralph looked back.

"Yes, shut up." he replied as he looked back at me.

"Tell him I can't go outside today-"

"I already told him, shut up." he snapped, looking at me again.

"Oh... okay... I guess I'll go then..." As I turned, I heard him call my name and looked back at him.

"Look, I'm... sorry that you guys got beat up that day..." He looked conflicted but continued. "For what it's worth, I think Drake took it too far." I briefly looked up into his eyes and could see the sincerity in them. I remembered when the Bad Bats had attacked me, Ralph was the only one who didn't join them.

"Th-thank you... I'm fine..." I assured him with a slight smile before leaving.

Andrew may not have been available, but Emily probably was. I immediately headed towards her house.

Once I arrived, I knocked at the door, which was opened by Ms. Blueheart, Emily's aunt. She looked down at me.

"What does the lad want?" she asked in a cold voice.

"Um, I was wondering if Emily wanted to pla... to hang out?" I said, immediately correcting myself. Playing was something that little children did. Hanging out was what older kids did. She continued to stare at me for a moment before calling for Emily. A moment later, Emily appeared beside her aunt, a smile already plastered across her face.

"Hey David!" she greeted as she stepped outside. She looked back at Ms. Blueheart, who spoke.

"Remember Emilia, back before dark. No matter what." she said sternly. Emily nodded.

"Yes, Auntie." Emily replied, and Ms. Blueheart closed the door, leaving the two of us alone.

Emily put her arms behind her back as she bent forward, her face closer to me as she closed her eyes.

"So, what do you wanna do today?" she asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know, I was thinking you had a plan." I admitted.

"Well, I was thinking, since Drake wants to fight you tomorrow during combat class, maybe we should teach each other to fight?" she suggested. I thought about it.

"My dad taught me how to fight with my fists, and I learned a lot." I explained to her. Her face changed to a worried look.

"You really think Drake would use his fists, David?" she questioned. I gave her a funny look, wondering what she meant.

"Well, what else would he use?" I asked. She glanced into my eyes.

"Um... swords?" My eyes went wide with shock. I hadn't even considered that we might be using swords tomorrow for combat class. Now, I was terrified of what tomorrow held.

"But... surely they wouldn't let kids use swords on the first day of school, right?" I stammered.

"David, I think there's a big chance of that. Come on, we should go somewhere away from here." With that said, she took my fist and together we rushed through the village. I didn't know where she was taking me, and once we started to leave the village border, I tried asking her questions, but as usual, she ignored them.

We traveled across the field, moving around a large bending river, and eventually reached a birch forest. There were birch trees in every direction, except for the one we came from, though as she continued to pull my arm, the village slowly disappeared from sight.

Another moment later, we had stopped in a small clearing of the woods, right next to a lake. Emily went over to a dirt block that jutted out from the ground before turning to me, a massive smile on her face. She began to twirl.

"This is my happy place. I come here whenever I'm feeling down, and it always cheers me right back up!" As she spoke, I saw a wolf suddenly approach. Unlike the one I had encountered a few days ago, this one didn't look angry. Instead, it looked passive, even happy, as it went right up to Emily. She squealed in joy and began to rubbed it all over.

"I loooove these guys!" Emily exclaimed. "I think they come from the nearby snowy forest. They're so adorable!" The wolf panted and let out a pleased grunt as it went to the ground and rolled over, presenting its stomach to her with its legs in the air. "I love you so much!" she said to the wolf, giving it a furious rub-down. A moment later, the wolf barked, got back up to its feet, and gave Emily a lick on the cheek, and went back on its way.

It wasn't what I envisioned when I thought of a happy place, but the wolf was awesome. I was surprised to see a wild wolf seemingly so friendly to Emily, considering how vicious their reputation was. Thinking about it though, it made sense to me. Who wouldn't want to be Emily's friend? She was probably the most friendly person in the whole world.

Emily looked back at me sheepishly. "Sorry about that, I got a little carried away. They're so cute though. Anyways, we should train or something."

"Okay, give me a sword." I requested.

"What sword?" She raised her fists sheepishly.

"I thought-I thought you had swords..." I muttered. She put her fists on her waist and tilted her head in that obnoxious pose as she split her legs apart.

"Now, why would I have swords? You know we aren't allowed to have them, David." she reminded. I sighed. We were going to have to make them then. And to make a sword, we'd need a crafting table first. In order to make a crafting table, we'd need wood. I turned towards the nearest tree and walked to it.

"Alright, I'll just hit this tree until it breaks..." I said nervously. I had seen some of the adults break trees occasionally when they needed wood, so how hard could it be?

Readying myself, I raised my fist, then slammed it forward with as much force as my body could muster against the hard surface. Immediately, pain filled my arm and I grunted from the shock. Clutching my left fist with my right fist, I turned back towards Emily. She was sitting on the dirt block, barely holding in her laughter, and doing a poor job at hiding it. I scowled in annoyance.

"I'd like to see you try to break it!" I yelled at her. She smiled back.

"Nah, I'm not that stupid. But I will help you out." She jumped down from the dirt block and came over to me. She then raised her fist and looked at me. "Let's do it together." I nodded and lifted my other fist. We both began to hit the log. I used less force than I first did, since that made it easier to keep hitting it. Cracks formed across the log's surface, and before long, it broke down to a portable block. I grabbed ahold of it and tried to remember how to craft a crafting table.

I needed to turn the log into wooden planks, so as I held the log, I concentrated and imagined breaking down the log into planks. The log then changed to four plank blocks. After that, I imagined placing the four planks into four different crafting slots in my mind, and then they merged together into a crafting table. Smiling at my achievement, I placed down the crafting table and it grew much larger, almost as large as Emily and I.

"Good job, David." she complimented. Remembering that I needed more wood, I turned to her.

"We need more wood." She nodded in understanding, and the two of us began punching the next log until it broke down. I took the log, but we needed more still, and the next log was floating outside of our reach, so I grabbed Emily by her armpits and lifted her up so she could reach it, grunting with the effort. She was pretty heavy, but I was strong enough to keep her up as she got to work, punching it repeatedly. It took longer, but the log broke, and she caught it and tossed it down to me. Taking the log, I helped her back down to her feet.

I remembered the crafting recipe and turned to the crafting table, changing wooden planks into sticks, and then placed one stick at the bottom, followed by two planks above. They quickly shot together and turned into a wooden sword. I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw the weapon and grabbed ahold of it. Emily was getting excited, I could tell by the way her legs were shaking.

"Wow, a wooden sword..." she said, taking in the sight. Holding the weapon in my fist, I felt like one of those heroes from the story books who would save the world from an evil monster. Smiling, I raised the sword to the sky, my body filling with courage. I'd always wanted to be like one of those heroes, the ones who would save the day from the bad guys.

"You look like a knight, David! Now, do mine!" she demanded excitedly. I nodded and put away the sword, bringing out another stick and two more planks and repeated what I did, making a second wooden sword. I gave it to her and she gazed at it in her fist, entranced for a moment as I pulled mine back out. She looked back at me.

"Okay, I don't know how to use this, but maybe by swinging them around we'll get the hang of it." she said.

"Um... but I don't want to hurt you..." I replied, unsure what to do. She quickly raised her sword.

"There's no getting out of this, you punk! You'll never be able to defeat me!" she growled in a deep voice, ignoring what I said.

"Come at me, if you dare!" she challenged, putting on her evilest face with a small grin visible. Before I was able to come at her, she came at me and began swinging her sword at me. I backed up to avoid them, stumbling backwards to try and avoid falling down a block while she slowly followed.

"Hey, that's not fair!" I shouted, but she kept going. I held my sword up weakly, but one of her swings ended up knocking the sword out of my grip, and I lunged away to avoid getting hit.

"You can't beat me, David! I am invincible!" she cackled.

"Wait, time out!" I hollered, and she soon stopped.

"Boo! There won't be any time outs when you fight Drake, you know." she pouted. I ran by her to pick my sword back up, then ran back.

"Alright, I'm going back to swinging. You'll never defeat me, David!" she yelled maniacally, flailing the sword around as she slowly approached me. I gripped the sword tightly and felt sweat particles forming on my body as I waited for an opening.

After a moment, I swung my sword at her, but her sword struck mine, and it bounced back. I hesitated, I couldn't find a way past her attacks. But I didn't want to lose against her. I decided to brute force it and go for another attack.

As I let out a yell, I felt my body fill with a strange feeling, a feeling that empowered me, as I lunged towards her, swinging my sword at her.

By the time I realized what had happened, I was standing past her, and she was on the ground, clutching her arm. Realizing what I had done, I quickly rushed to her, throwing my sword down.

"Are you okay? I don't know what happened, but I didn't mean-" She quickly interrupted me.

"Are you kidding? That was awesome! What the heck did you do!?" she exclaimed as she rushed back to her feet. "You were glowing purple, and then you knocked the sword out of my fist!"

"I... what?" I stammered, trying to recall what had happened. All I could remember was being filled with a strange energy, and then rushing at her, quickly disarming her.

"That was so cool! Can you do that again!?" she requested as she quickly grabbed her sword again.

"I-I don't know what that was, but maybe...?" I mumbled as I went back over to my sword and grabbed it. She smirked.

"What's this? Mr. Hero has gained some kind of new power? Well, it doesn't matter, you'll never be able to defeat me!" she cackled in her deep voice and swung her sword again. I stepped back to avoid it and held my sword up, hoping that whatever had happened to me would happen again. One moment passed, then another. But nothing changed. Maybe I need to just go at her again? my mind suggested. I decided to test my theory and charged at her.

As I swung my sword, it met with her sword, but her swing was stronger than mine, and she knocked me to the ground with a grunt. She stopped swinging upon seeing this.

"You okay? It didn't look like you did it that time." she pointed out. I nodded as I got back to my feet.

"Yeah, maybe we shouldn't be messing with these weapons." I told her.

"Maybe... but that thing you did was pretty cool, whatever it was." she replied. We looked at each other. I could see the grin creeping back up on her face for a moment, before she looked past my head. Her face changed to interest, before it became horror. Confused, I started to turn around, right as she yelled, "Watch out!" and pushed me down to the ground. As I fell, I heard something heavy fly past us.

Groaning, I pushed myself back up with Emily, and looked for what had tried to attack me, to find a giant black creature with glowing beady red eyes and several spindly legs. It was as large as us and looked ready to kill. Terror filled my body as I realized that it must've been a spider.

"Uh..." I stammered as it turned back to us, letting out a hungry hiss. I could see a similar look of fear plastered across Emily's face. The spider took a few sudden and calculated steps towards us, before lunging again. I cried out in terror, but heard a yell from Emily as she struck the beast. I watched as she yelled for me to help, as the spider circled around her. My body was trembling intensely, but I realized that she needed help now!

I let out a shrill cry and ran at the massive monster, swinging wildly at it. After one hit, the spider hissed and jumped back, then lunged at me. The weight of its body was enough to take me down, and I tried desperately to push its head away. Its legs wrapped around me painfully tight as it lurched down and struck my shoulder with its mouth. The pain filled my body and I cried out in agony. I heard another yell as Emily swung at it. A few more swings, and the spider let out a pained hiss as it exploded into smoke particles, a floating string where it had been. I lay there, stunned for a moment, before Emily lifted me back onto my feet.

"David, it's nighttime. We... we have to go back to the village, now!" she demanded. I noticed she was right-somehow, we had totally missed that the sun was gone. The tall birch trees must've prevented us from seeing the changing time. She looked up at the sky in panic. "Oh Notch, Auntie is going to KILL me!" she stammered. As she did so, I heard the moaning of something else scary around us. I shook off my own panic.

"Let's worry about the creatures that actually want to kill us!" I reminded her as I quickly picked up my sword. I also picked up the string. Together, we ran back in the direction of where the village was at. As we went, I could see green people moving towards us, appearing from behind trees with their moaning calls as they reached desperately for us. I picked up the pace, the last thing I wanted was for them to get ahold of me.

We soon made it out of the forest. I could see across the dark fields where many different creatures. And behind us were a ton of the green people shambling after us. I heard Emily speak up.

"Let's split up! They'll never be able to catch both of us!" she yelled.

"Emily, no!" I hollered back, but she was already running away. That was a terrible idea!

I tried to keep up with her, but saw her quickly approaching the bendy river and froze, watching as she began to swim across it. My heart pounded as my feet were stuck in place.

I had a crippling fear of large bodies of water, and the idea of crossing a river terrified me beyond anything else. I looked to pass around it like we had this morning to reach the birch biome, but there were a ton of monsters in the direction. And behind me were a bunch of green people that were quickly closing in on me.

"Oh my Notch..." I stammered, panicking. I rushed towards the shore of the river, catching the attention of a pale monster holding a bow, which it immediately raised upon seeing me. I quickly realized it was a skeleton. It fired an arrow at me, but the arrow missed, embedding itself into the ground at my foot.

In my panic, I noticed a dark blue squid rise from the surface of the water and immediately lunged onto it, desperately praying to the Creator to keep me out of the water. The squid tucked in its tentacles before surging them back, launching itself towards the other side of the lake slowly.

I felt pain filled my back as an arrow pierced it. Tears poured from my eyes as I looked back to see the monster try to reach me by crossing the water, only to begin sinking down below the surface as it opened its mouth in shock and tried to slowly lift itself back up to land.

A short moment later, the squid had reached the other side of the river, and I lunged onto the sandy shore, treasuring the ground beneath me. I turned back to the squid.

"Th-thank y-you..." I said to it. I wasn't sure if it understood, but it looked back at me as it swam back down into the dark depths of the river. I picked myself back up and charged towards the village, which was in sight.

I soon noticed something green approach me. It didn't look like the green moaning people, but it had four legs and stood up tall. It had a face I had known for years when I had the head of it, a face that I had loved for so long. It was a creeper, in the flesh. It stopped right next to me and began to swell in size, flashing white as it did so. I heard a sizzling sound as it swelled. Hearing from my dad of how deadly they were, I knew I had to get away fast, but I wasn't fast enough, as it exploded and my back filled with severe pain. I cried out in pain as I was knocked to the ground, the damage was taking its toll on me and I was feeling very weak.

"David!" I faintly heard the call of my mom, and I answered it with my own.

"Help!" I yelled to her, my voice weak. I tried as hard as I could to pick myself back up to my feet. It hurt, and I knew that if I got hit hard enough again, I was a goner. I limped slowly towards the village, my limbs growing heavier with each step. It was hard keeping my head up, and I bumped into something else. Something with a black body. Panicking, I slowly stepped back and looked up to see a massively tall but thin creature. Purple particles floated around it, and it looked down to meet my eyes with its own purple eyes. Its jaw briefly opened to reveal vicious-looking teeth before closing again as it regarded me with deep interest.

"Please... no..." I groaned as it took a step towards me, reaching out towards me with its arms. I heard a scream from my mother as she ran over to me with one of the iron golems. Mom quickly slammed her iron sword against the back of the enderman, causing it to stumble past me, its unnaturally long limbs flailing wildly.

"Get away from my son, you child abductor!" she snarled angrily.

It turned around and let out a terrifying distorted shriek of anger, opening its jaws once again as it lunged at her, taking Mom down to the ground and striking her with its arms. The iron golem brought its arm against the enderman in a powerful strike, knocking it off her with ease. As the golem and enderman were fighting, I heard another scream from somewhere behind me. It sounded like Emily!

I saw Emily further back, scrambling to get away from a green person that had grabbed ahold of her leg. Her face was full of terror as she cried, the desperation in her voice resounding in my head. I could see the broken tip of her wooden sword buried in the green guy's arm. Another green guy was fast approaching her. Realizing that she needed help now, I made my way to her as fast as I could, pulling my sword out as I quickly limped to her. I could hear Mom call out for me.

"I have to help her!" I yelled back as I was closing the distance. The second green guy made it to her and quickly threw itself onto her, biting down on her arm as she screamed, her agonized voice breaking through the night sky.

"EMILY!!!" I yelled and felt a strange energy fill me as the pain started to fade. Quickly, I began to run to her as fast as I could.

The moment I reached them, I slammed my wooden sword onto the green guy that was on her with enough force to knock it far enough for her to crawl away. I then struck the green guy that had grabbed her leg, and after a few hits was able to get it to let go. With several tearful whimpers, Emily sprinted back to the village, not even looking back at me.

I felt the energy fade and the pain immediately returned, causing me to feel incredibly weak again as the two green people turned to me, angry that their previous victim got away.

One of the green guys lunged at me with hungry snarl, and I swung my sword at it, feeling the weapon deal its last hit as it broke against the monster's skin. What remained of the weapon quickly burst into smoke, and I fell back against the ground, panicking.

"No..." I stammered as the monsters closed in, closing my eyes as I waited for them to pounce.

Just then, I heard heavy thumping, and the sound of something heavy slamming against the two as they grunted in pain. Opening my eyes, I could see what looked like Bob the golem defending me, slamming his arms against the monsters until they burst into smoke.

When it was all over, Bob looked down at me, his normally cold stare filled with warmth as he gently lifted me up in his arms and carried me towards Mom. It felt comforting, being in his powerful iron arms, after all I had just been through.

Mom appeared in my sight and looked at him.

"We're taking him back to the house." she ordered him, and the iron golem nodded. She stared at me with a look of immense anger, and I knew that the worst wasn't over yet.

"David, you are in big trouble mister. We will talk about this when your father gets back." she growled.

"Okay..." was all I could sorrowfully mumble.

A moment later, we arrived back at the house, thankfully without any more monsters attacking us. Mom took me from Bob's grasp, thanking the golem for his work as she brought me inside. Sure enough, Dad was nowhere to be seen. She set me on the wooden couch and gave two cooked steak to eat while she went back out in search for Dad.

As I ate the food, I lay in silence, dreading what was coming next once Dad got back. The pain thankfully was slowly fading away as I consumed the beefy food.

A moment later, I heard the door open as Mom, followed by Dad, returned. Seeing the look on Dad's face, I knew he was furious. He went in front of me.

"David Stonefield, I want to know what the hell you were doing outside the village past sunset." he growled.

"I'm sorry, Dad, I really am." I stared at the ground as I spoke.

"Were we not clear enough about how dangerous it is after dark? You could have died out there, David!" he boomed. "And according to what Mom said, you were about to!"

"I'm sorry, Dad..." I repeated to him. He paced back and forth, his head down.

"You can't be doing this, David! You have no idea how lucky you are to still be alive! There are many other kids who did what you did and didn't have that luck." he shouted. "Do you know how hard that would be on us, to never see you again, all because you made this incredibly stupid decision!?" Mom turned to him and spoke.

"Joseph, that's enough..." she told him.

"No, Maria. This was the dumbest thing he's ever done. He's damn lucky to be alive right now!" he hollered.

"Joseph, you've made your point. David needs to think about what he did." she pointed out sternly.

"I... Agh!" he grunted as he stomped into his and Mom's room. Mom guided me back into mine. I felt the tear particles forming as I sat in my bed. Mom knelt at my bedside. A moment of silence passed before she reached behind my back and pulled something out. Holding it out in front of me, I realized it was the arrow that that skeleton had hit me with while I was on that squid.

"When I saw this in your back, it hurt to see you like that, David." she said, tossing the arrow away as it despawned. She clutched my head in her arms. "I just wish that I knew why you did that..."

"I... I just..." I tried speaking, but as I spoke, my throat tightened and the tear particles began to fall from my face. "I wanted... to train with Em-Emily for tomorrow ag-against Drake. I do-don't want him to beat me u-up ag-again..." Hearing this, she rubbed the side of my head.

"It's going to be okay, David." she gently promised. "Dad trained you to be able to defend yourself. You're going to be okay."

"B-but you don't know that..." I sobbed, "The Bad B-Bats are evil. They'll find some w-way to g-get m-me."

"David, do you want to know something that will help you not worry?" Mom asked. I nodded.

"David, earlier today, your dad met with the teacher, the one from Diamond City. He made sure that she promised to keep an extra close eye on you." she informed, her voice retaining its kindness.

"Yeah, b-but... isn't that what she says to every parent?" I muttered somberly.

"Here's the thing though, your dad is someone that she has to listen to." she revealed. After a sniffle, I looked up at her.

"He is?" She nodded.

"One day, you'll understand. But for now, just know that she will be keeping you safe from the unruly kids." Mom promised. She brought her lips to my forehead and gave me a kiss, then pulled back. "Good night, sweetie." I wiped the tear particles away and looked back at her and I laid down on the bed.

"Good night, Mom." With that, she stepped outside the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts. It was crazy to think that tonight was so close to being my last. I genuinely could have died... I thought. That would've meant no more hanging out with my best friends, no more eating tasty food, and no more family, or comfy sleeping, or having fun. What would have even happened to me? Would I have just disappeared like those monsters?

I shrugged these thoughts off, they weren't doing any good for me. What was important was that I need to rest off the night before morning arrived. Fortunately, the exhaustion from everything that had happened made it pretty easy to drift off to sleep. I dozed off.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a strange place. The sky was filled with darkness, and I stood on a strange yellowish pale surface that somewhat resembled cobblestone, but not really. There were great pillars of a black kind of material that shot into the darkened sky, and I couldn't see the top.

Standing off in the distance, I noticed what appeared to be something light blue that contrasted with the environment. Squinting my eyes, I could make out that it was humanoid, and whatever it was, it was looking directly at me. After I blinked, the figure disappeared, much to my surprise.

I turned around and saw it much closer to me. It looked like it was wearing a light blue armor, but then I noticed that the figure appeared to be a skeleton. Shocked, I scrambled to get away from the being. I felt compelled to reach into my inventory and was surprised to find a wooden sword within it. Quickly, I pulled it out as I slammed into the figure in front of me, causing me to fall back down to the ground.

I stared back up at the armored skeleton, and it was glaring at me. Glowing purple eye lights were visible within its eye sockets, and it had a menacing look to it.

Letting out a cry, I desperately pushed myself back up and turned to run from it, only to find it appear in the direction I had turned. I froze-this creature, whatever it was, was not going to let me get away.

"Leave me alone!" I screamed as I swung my wooden sword at it. Almost faster than I could comprehend, the skeleton created a gold sword out of thin air and swung it at mine, twirling our blades together before the momentum ended with me losing my grip on the weapon, causing it to go flying away.

I stumbled back, raising my arms protectively, expecting it to strike me down. I waited for an attack. But it never came.

"This... this is the one the Patron has chosen to become the savior of the Overworld?" the skeleton spoke in an ancient heavy but wispy voice. "How come? So small, so frail, so fearful... He holds none of the power of those that came before him..." Cautiously, I lowered my arms to look back at the skeleton.

"You're... not going to kill me, are you?" I asked, my voice trembling. It continued to stare at me with its purple eye lights. It was hard to read its expression, but it didn't look happy.

"I have no interest in such. Now, get up." I quickly got back to my feet and faced the skeleton. It was wearing full light blue armor which even fully covered its arms, unlike any armor I had seen before. It looked like it might have even been diamond armor, but it looked very beat up. There were some vicious tears into the armor, and some places were even missing pieces of the armor, like one of its legs and one of its arms. I noticed with nauseating certainty that there was what looked like a burn mark on one corner of the skeleton's skull, and a huge gash that looked like it might've come from an axe that broke through the other side of its skull. This skeleton had been in some major fights.

"I sensed the usage of the Spirit of Hope. That was from you." it proclaimed with certainty.

"The what...?" I replied, full of confusion. I heard a sound from it that might've been a sigh, but was moreso a rattling of bones.

"The Spirit of Hope. That purple energy that empowers you. It was a sign that you have been chosen to uphold the legacy of those that came before you. I am one of such who preceded you." it explained, its voice stern.

"The Spirit of Hope... a sign... legacy... I don't get it." I muttered shyly. A grunt from it followed.

"I don't expect you to. You are but a child. On top of that, our world has not needed such a savior for centuries. I will attempt to guide you as you make your way down your chosen path. Now, collect your sword. A warrior must never be without his weapon." the skeleton ordered. Not wanting to disobey it, I quickly made my way to where the weapon had landed and grabbed it. I paused to consider what the skeletal warrior had said. Was I really destined to be a hero? And not just a hero, but one of the biggest ones? The skeleton paced back and forth, the clattering of its armor audible as it moved.

"Your skill is unrefined, uncontrolled. You clearly have little experience with wielding such weaponry. As such, I will approach this with the patience required of your mentor. You may call me the Spectral Hero. Alternatively, you may call me master or mentor, if you see fit to it." it instructed. "We will train for many years. The skills that will be required of you to defeat the Great Evil that looms in Minecraftia's future demands it. Do you understand this, boy?" I nodded anxiously, and the skeleton continued pacing as he spoke.

"Learn to relax, little one. I have no intention of harming you. I intend to do the opposite-to strengthen your skill with the blade and other tools until you have reached the skills needed for you to become the hero of the Overworld." He told me to relax after stating that I would need to slay a Great Evil, and he told me I was going to become the hero of the Overworld... How was I supposed to relax after hearing that?

"Our time is approaching an end, for now." He turned to look at me. "Boy, I am sorry for what you will be subjected to as the one true hero. But for the world to persist through the darkness, you will have to suffer trials that will test everything. From one hero to another, rest well, for life as you know it will change forever." I tried to speak up, but he then raised his sword up, and then lowered it to the ground, and my whole world faded away.