Chapter 19: Back to the Grind
Mark didn't know which mod the Home Return Scroll came from.
But it didn't matter. He was back in the world of Minecraft.
He stared at the familiar mossy cobblestone, the chests, the groaning zombies, and a wave of relief washed over him.
It was like that feeling of coming home after a long, exhausting day, kicking off your shoes, grabbing a snack, and finally relaxing with your favorite game.
"Ah, this is the life..."
He swiftly dispatched the nearby zombies, almost letting out a whoop of joy.
But he was still stuck in a mineshaft. Time to head back to the surface.
"Nothing's changed. It's like time froze."
He looked around. The monster spawner was still lit up with torches, the Book of Ages lay on the ground, everything was exactly as he'd left it.
Of course, that was just how Minecraft worked. When a player left an area, it stopped updating. Everything froze in time until the player came back.
"Never thought that Mystery Island mod would send me to the Marvel universe..."
He stared at the golden book on the ground.
Now it made sense. The cover of the Book of Ages had those weird symbols on it. Maybe it was some kind of interdimensional portal, who knew?
He shook his head, had Steve pick up the book, and headed back to the surface.
Logically, he should probably take a break after his adventures in the Marvel world. But Minecraft was different. Building, exploring, it was like playing a game, not working. It was relaxing.
Back in his makeshift base, he stuffed Steve's backpack with pickaxes and headed straight back into the mines.
He needed to restock. That fight with Obadiah had taken a toll on Steve's gear.
His sword and shield were practically worn out. He needed to get some new equipment, and fast.
Luckily, survival mode was a breeze for Mark.
In just a few hours, Steve had gathered a ton of ores.
Stacks of coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, redstone, even copper, tin, aluminum, and lead from those Industrial and Tinker's Construct mods.
He even found a decent amount of diamonds.
Thank goodness he'd gotten that Alchemy Bag from a Lucky Block in the Marvel world. Otherwise, he would have had to make a dozen trips back and forth to carry all that cobblestone. Turns out, the Alchemy Bag wasn't so useless after all.
With enough ores collected, he had Steve build a bunch of furnaces to smelt everything and turn cobblestone into smooth stone for building a proper house.
While Steve was busy smelting and crafting, Mark started thinking about his next move.
After his trip to the Marvel world, he had a bunch of new mods: More Furniture, GraveStone, MovePlus, Mysterious Island, Pam's HarvestCraft, Biomes O'Plenty, MiniMap, Avaritia, Chinese Translation, Tinkers' Construct, Mutant Creatures, and Industrial Age Mod.
He decided to ditch Industrial Age and Pam's HarvestCraft right away.
He'd already explained why Pam's HarvestCraft was a no-go. Industrial Age was similar. It was a massive tech mod with super complicated crafting recipes. And he didn't have any helper mods to show him those recipes. Trying to play it would be a nightmare.
Forget about Quantum armor and Nano swords.
He'd probably blow himself up just trying to craft a basic energy storage block.
He also tossed More Furniture, GraveStone, and Avaritia.
More Furniture was mostly useless. It was all about decoration. He couldn't exactly use a fancy couch as a weapon in the Marvel world, could he?
(How did More Furniture even get added in the first place?)
Imagine pulling a chair out of your bag and trying to whack someone with it.
That would be ridiculous.
What was he, Jackie Chan in that furniture store fight scene?
As for GraveStone, Mark knew it just turned your death messages into a fancy gravestone. He was in survival mode, so he'd just respawn at the spawn point if he died. No need for a gravestone.
And Avaritia...
He really wanted to play with that mod, but it needed a ridiculous amount of resources.
Plus, the crafting recipes were insanely complex. He'd need a guide just to figure out how to make a wooden pickaxe.
After ditching those mods, he finally came up with a plan.
First, he was definitely going to explore the Mutant Creatures mod.
That Ender Hand was super useful. He wanted to take down some of those mutated Enderman bosses and get more Ender Hands. Maybe those would boost his force field powers in the Marvel world.
The Mutated Zombie King had some cool drops too.
And that Hulk Hammer... he could have an epic showdown with Thor someday.
Besides Mutant Creatures, he was most excited about Tinkers' Construct.
That mod added tons of awesome weapons and tools. And it was super easy to get started.
It even came with a handy manual.