Chereads / Pickaxe and Table / Chapter 14 - John the traveler

Chapter 14 - John the traveler

Travelogue day something something,

I have left the grasslands for a better future with my family, Bohk. The grasslands are filled with....grass, not that much to spare. The trees have little to no variation and little amounts of resources.

It has become harder to harvest iron due to its scarcity. I suspect the overworld still has some geographical logic to it. There is are no mountains around, just hills. I am looking for a river right now.

___________________________________________________

John left the place where he met Bohk and went looking for mountains. During the time he spent mining in the grassland, he found no ravines, no underground caves and no diamonds. When John kept digging downards his body felt heavier and heavier and the air felt heavy, almost as if breathing in water.

When John managed to collect material to build a nether portal he almost died when he went inside. Moisture in his body was being ejected and evaporating at extreme speeds. His armor was absorbing heat strong enough to burn his skin. So John left the nether realm for later and used the obsidian in the portal to make his castle floors.

John was staying at a resource unhealthy place and that wasn't very economic for him. He left for the mountains. Mountains are usually made when two tectonic plates collide underground and escape upwards to the surface. The normally mantle deep precious minerals would then be dragged along the colision and deposit themselves closer to the surface. John was banking on these details. Since there were no remarkable mountains nearby, John wanted to find a river and walk against the current.

Rivers Flow from elevated areas and flow to the sea. Those elevated places would definitely include mountains.

John didn't count the days and nights and kept walking in a direction he chose. During the night he met hoardes of zombies that he smashed away with his giant mace. The Skeletons, John used a greatsword a foot thick to fight with. John used a variety of weapons to fight the different kinds of monsters. His favourite weapons were the mace and his anchor axe.

The anchor axe was a full iron giant pickaxe with sharpened edges. It was designed in a way that as long as a part of the head touches the enemy they would be cut. the pummel was ring shaped and could be attached to a metal chain allowing it to be spun around and deal damage to multiple enemies.

The mace represented John's brutality and the pickaxe represented technique....and a little bit of brutality.

During John's travel through the grassland he found sheeps the size of cows back in earth. They had long horns that bent upwards and then to the side. The attacked exactly like the cows except they were more agile and peaceful.

They would only retaliate when they sense bad intentions otherwise they were easy to cuddle animals. John even had the idea of taking one as a pet but it didn't matter how much he fed one, it wouldn't leave the herd.

One of John's subgoal in the grasslands were to get a mount but he had seen no horses so far and the sheep was hard to domesticate. He could only keep walking at his own pace.

A few days later, John saw his first ever creeper. It was disgustingly green and the four tiny legs moved like centipede legs. John didn't like the monster at all. It moved like a freak and exploded when it got close, it was a creature that shouldn't exist.

John took out his Anchoraxe with it's chain attached and swung it towards the green monstrosity. The creeper was split in half but still managed exploded, Throwing away John's achor-axe and creating a ten meter blast radius where the center was disintegrated.

John stood back up and walked towards the crater. He was mentally berating himself for underestimating yet another creature from the overworld. That blast managed to split his anchor in half, imagine if he recieved a direct hit. At the center of the deppresion a pile of black dirt.

*gasp* "could it be.."

Went towards the pile of black dirt and ignited it. The dirt quickly ignited and burned off while exuding smoke in large quantities. It was a combustible substance, Gunpowder. The applications of this substance was extremely useful to John and he could finally make explosives.

John stored what was left of the gunpowder and made sure to make a mental note to kill every creeper he sees. The journey must go on.

It took a couple weeks for John to find a river, and it was the most serene river he had ever seen. The waters were clear and fish swam here and there. The river was 10 meters wide and sat atop a sedimentary bed. John was going to go for a swim when he noticed the fishes suddenly move in erratic ways.

A black figure dashed towards the fishes and started eating them. It was a giant squid even longer than John's height. It's tentacles were filled with barbs and sunction cups that latched onto the fish and brought it into it's gaping maw rowed with razorsharp teeth.

'fuck that' John left the site and started walking along the river side. He was sure that it would bring him to his destination.It would take a long time since he still hadn't seen any sillhouetes of mountains but he wouldn't rush it. John was simoultanously training his body by carrying dirt blocks in his inventory. he could currently carry two stacks of dirt blocks with each block weighing 15 kgs.

John was continously keeping his hunger bar full and would dig up dirt if he felt the weight getting lighter. He had a rule that only when he can carry 6 inventory slots with a full stack each that he would go to the nether.

A lonesome metal man walked beside the river in search for diamonds....

___________________________________________________

'Ethero is the ambient particle energy within the atmosphere. It is capable of changing the physiology of an organism depending on the saturation of ethero within the organisms body. The most effective utility of ethero is its ability to change or imitate physical matter.

Normal air can be combusted by using ethero as a catalyst, the ethero can be manipulated to turn into fuel for ignition while sorounding air would support its formation. It is Theoretically possible to create any material by using ethero as long as one knows the structure of the material and the mass needed to form it. Transmutations heavily reliant to ethero particles are not permanent, it is advised that ethero should be used to guide the Transmutation and not supply it.

There are two ways for humans to manipulate ethero;

the first one involves direct influence. By passing it through the body and willing it to come out in a different form. This process can be extended and enhanced by tools that can use the sorrounding ethero to amplify the channeled ethero. This process requires experience and knowledge of the product to produce firm results. In an advanced level, one can produce fire from their body and eject it towards a target or transfer energy to a tool that will do it for them.

The second one is external manipulation. By using electromagnetic waves carrying impulses from one's brain the ambient ethero can be manipulated to work outside the body. Many animals can produce non-bodily sourced signals to communicate therefore proving the electromagnetic impulse theory. Since sound is just different vibrations in the air, it is completely plausible for a spectrum of waves to affect ethero particles. External ethero manipulation is extremely difficult and those who practice it have no advantages towards Direct influence users. So far, External Manipulation has only been observed as a supporting evidence for the spirit theory to exist.'

A black haired teenager was reading her notes about the basics of ethero. It was a subject everyone of her peers was interested in, she was as well. Ethero allowed people and animals survive the passage of time. While animals are naturally talented in using it for the survival of their species Ancient Humans used it as a tool.

The term ethero came from the two ancient words "eihth"(air) and "hearoh"(fire) together it was "air fire".

The teen learned that the first humans accidentally made fire by wishing for it. The knowledge of ethero started then. Primitive ethero usage was called Toungues of Fire because everyone back then used chants to summon fire.

It was now an age of scientific advancements and the mysticality of ethero was being stripped of. Even Scrying and clairvoyant abilities were different forms of ethero usage that bounced information with waves.

The blackhaired teen raised one of her hands with her palm facing the ceiling. She took a deep breath and relaxed her body as she focused on making a spark on her hands.

After a few seconds of silence, a few sparks lit up before a small purple flame appeared. Her brown eyes sparkled in excitement at her success but also broke her concentration and extinguished the small purple flame.

"Aww, you broke it.." a girly voice came from behind her.

"wah! you! how many times do I Have to tell you not to sneak up on me!" the Teen shouted in shock, realization and anger.

The friend in question was her friend of many years, Aluna Grent. A member of the Grent family that ruled the kingdome they were in. With their natural platinum white hair and ability to learn things extremely fast.

Aluna grent was a Granddaughter of the current ruler but she wasn't arrogant and spoiled, which was the reason why many people were friends with her.

"I didn't sneak up on you. I was behind you this whole time." Aluna told her best friend Vell while trying not to sound suspicious.

Vell only narrowed her gaze at her friend and spoke in a monotone voice, "what do you want?"

The white haired teenager thought her friend was angry at her so she replied with a sorry tone,

"I just thought you were sad that you didn't manage to get your flame on the first day..."

"No need to worry, I understand that everyone has different starting points but we all eventually arrive at the same destination" she wasn't sad, she just wanted to go back to her room a write a message to her mother that she misses but got distracted by her notes. "also, if I recall correctly you also didn't get a flame"

"Oh yeah~ I didn't want anyone to feel insecure about not having a flame early on so I held back." She spoke in a thoughtful way.

"Hmmm... kinda patronizing but understandable. Now, show me you flame"

The Grent girl opened her hand and summoned a palm sized red fire almost instantly. Her face was smug at Her display but she wasn't arrogant about it. She had practiced long before her peers even knew how to properly start a spark.

"yeah that's a good fire" Vell nodded in appreciation.

It was weird how people different kinds of flames but no one knew why. There was no variance in temperature or any additional materials for each flame. There was even a time in history where same colored flames were a sign of two people being soulmates. Not even the smart people of the association knew why and could only make up theories.

"Its an ok fire, My grandfather can actually create lighting in his hands!"

"everyone in master class can do that...."

"Yeah.... but can they turn air into solid!?"

"Definitely"

"what!? no way! my grandfather said he was the greatest of all time!"

"ahhh.. you poor girl~ believing in the tales of the elders, tsk tsk. Thats a big no-no. The next thing you know they'll tell you how the fought daemos everyday on their way to school and had to swim upstream to get there"

"That's exactly what grandfather told me!"

"And you actually believed him!?" the shock was unhidden in Vell's voice.

"....yeah..."

Meanwhile in a palace far away was an old man who sneezed multiple times already.

"Haiiya~ im getting old, the weather is already getting to me."

completely unaware that his grandaughter's undying belief was being shattered by her bestfriend.