trapped, with a fall to his death in front of him and the monster behind him. Afraid that he was about to die before he had even started playing the game, Stan balled his fists and turned toward the monster, ready to fight. Then he stared.
The monster had stopped chasing him. It was running back toward the woods, away from him and not toward Charlie. But the strangest part was that smoke was rising off its skin; Stan caught the putrid stench of burning flesh. The monster was making loud moaning noises, and Stan was sure that it would be screaming if it could. Suddenly, the monster keeled over and burst into flames. It writhed on the ground until it had burned out of existence, leaving nothing but a small piece of rotten flesh in its place.
Charlie walked out of the woods, staring in shock at the small piece of flesh on the ground. Stan wore a look of equal bewilderment. Charlie turned to Stan.
âWhat was that thing?â
âI donât know man, but it definitely was not a player.â
âMaybe it was one of those monsters that were mentioned in the book. Maybe it was a Creepy, or whatever you call it.â
âLet me look.â
Stan flipped open to the section of the book describing monsters, and on the first page he found what he was looking for. He read the description written next to an illustration of the monster they had just encountered.
ZOMBIES
Zombies are hostile mobs, or creatures, that spawn at night or in dark areas. They are the easiest hostile mob to defeat as their attack pattern consists of simply walking toward the player and trying to attack. They will burn when exposed to direct sunlight. They are also able to break down doors, and are the main attackers during a siege on an NPC village. They drop rotten flesh when killed.
As Stan finished the passage, Charlie said, âSo that was a Zombie? And those things are supposed to be really easy to kill?â
âApparently so,â replied Stan. He picked the flesh up off the ground. âDo you think this stuff is safe to eat?â
âI doubt it.â Charlie frowned, staring at the rancid lump ofgreen and tan meat. âCheck the book.â
After a little searching in the Items section, Stan found the page describing the flesh.
ROTTEN FLESH
Rotten flesh is an item dropped by Zombies and Zombie Pigmen and found in Temples. It can be eaten, but it is inadvisable to do so as it has a high chance of giving you food poisoning. It is not, however, poisonous to dogs.
âSo, I guess we shouldnât eat it unless weâre really, really desperate,â said Charlie.
âYeah, youâre right,â agreed Stan. âBesides, we each get two pieces of bread from that chest up there, plus a sword. That sword should be helpful for fighting off any more monsters that turn up.â
âAgreed. So letâs get the stuff and go! Itâs still morning; weâve got an entire day to get to this Adorian Village before more monsters come out tonight.â
The two players walked back up the hill to the chest, where they each took two pieces of bread and a wooden sword. They then went to the top of the hill and looked around until Charlie spied the path. Bread in their inventories and swords in hand, Charlie and Stan started on the road to the Adorian Village.
CHAPTER 2 Â Â THE FIRST NIGHT
T he trees around the pathway had been cleared out, so there was light shining down on the two players as they walked down the road to the village. There were no monsters on the path, but they spotted a few in the woods. Zombies seemed to be the most common, as they were all over the place, but the players noticed a few others, too. Charlie pointed out, deep in the woods, what appeared to be a Zombie but thinner and less substantial, and Stan could have sworn that, from what he could see in the dim light, it was holding a bow and had a quiver of arrows on its back. Once, when Stan looked up into the trees at the sides