"Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere..." Arcum sung monotonously as he walked around the chamber room, grabbing loot from mobs corpses and picking up his thrown items. "Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share..."
Arcum had taken the bones of the skeletons for bone meal, also grabbing their bows and the arrows embedded in the walls and floors.
Walking toward the walls, Arcum pried his trident out of the wall, taking the breeze off of the wall with it, flinging it off the trident prongs and onto the floor.
Putting the trident back into his inventory, Arcum took breeze rods from the breezes, looting their corpses of everything he could before standing up and dusting his hands off.
He wasn't going to bother stacking all the mobs together, it would be a waste of time.
"I've cleaned up enough."
Looking around the room to ensure that he grabbed everything mob-related, checking his inventory to see his axe, sword, trident, and the newly obtained loot, he closed the GUI.
"Spoils of war, here I come," Arcum trumpeted, walking to the loot that had spewed out of the spawners after the chamber was cleared.
Laying on top of the blocks were baked potatoes, emeralds, and trial keys. Arcum went over to each spawner, one by one, picking up the loot that had came out.
Making his way to the center of the room, he opened the copper trapdoors and started down the stairs and back into the hallway, stopping by the vault just as he's about to exit into the main room.
After a small debate, Arcum pulled out one of the newly obtained trial keys and inserted the key into the keyhole, watching as the vault swallowed the key and started making noises.
To his disappointment, albeit unsurprised, the loot from the vault were iron ingots, emeralds, and wind charges.
"Well, at least the wind charges are good," Arcum thought, trying to rationalize his luck. "Eh. I'll force everyone I know to open vaults so the luck evens out later."
Opening the copper door and stepping back into the main room, Arcum finds the trio at the bottom floor, pointing and gesturing to the chamber around.
"Something up?" Arcum asked, using his enlightened ideas to head down the copper pillar by digging his trident into the side, jumping up and grabbing onto the handle to slide down.
"That's new," Stelle commented, pointing out Arcum's unorthodox way of heading down. "Trying to be cool now?"
"I was always cool," Arcum retorted, before cringing, visibly and internally. "I'm trying something different. Anyways!"
Arcum looked around, ignoring the cringing faces of his companions. "So what are we waiting around for?"
"Stelle said she was tired," Hysilens explained, gesturing to Stelle who started to sit on the floor. "So its a break."
Opening his inventory, Arcum pulled out an ominous bottle and held it up to show the group. "I was planning on starting an ominous trial so that we could open up some of the blue vaults."
"I don't wanna work anymore," Stelle complained, leaning back onto her hands and sighing dramatically. "We've been working for so long!"
"Stelle is right," Lingsha agreed. "We've been down here for quite some time. A break is needed for food and rest."
"And," Lingsha added. "You told me that this wouldn't take long. I need to return to attending to the injured."
"You've already finished what you sought to do," Hysilens pointed out. "Set up farms."
Arcum removed his helmet to scratch the back of his head, before nodding in agreement.
"Fine," he agreed, putting the helmet back on. "We can take a break and head back up."
The entire group made their way back up the staircase leading to the base.
"So, who's reporting to the General?" Stelle asked.
"I'm assuming I need to," Arcum said. "I was the one leading this."
"I'll make a quick visit to help," Lingsha chimed in. "A quick report of the process before I head back to the clinic."
"What will you two be doing then?" Arcum asked, looking at Stelle and Hysilens.
"Food," Stelle replied. "I'm hungry. And Hysilens will be joining me, right?"
"... sure," Hysilens replied, not fighting the decision.
Breaking the surface, the group left the mines, following the path back to the base. Some people were spending time walking around, talking, others still practicing in the training field.
"So I just follow you?" Arcum asked, looking to Lingsha.
Lingsha nodded, before waving goodbye to Hysilens and Stelle, walking off, expecting Arcum to follow.
"See you two in a bit," Arcum said, waving and following Lingsha.
The two make their way along the path and toward the main building, where Jing Yuan should be. Lingsha opened the door, holding it open for Arcum to walk in.
The building was well made. There were bookshelves around, leaves and flowers in pots around the building, with desks and large rooms made for meetings.
"This is well made," Arcum commented. "Why don't you spend more time in here?"
Lingsha deadpanned.
"I'm quite busy, given the injured patients," she chided. "If I could spend more time... I still wouldn't."
"You must hate working," Arcum commented.
"It is a necessary evil," she returned.
"... she's like my spirit animal..." Arcum thought, teary-eyed.
"You're all back already?"
Jing Yuan's voice broke Arcum out of his thoughts as the general came out from one of the adjacent rooms. "I see you've gotten new gear, too."
"Hello, General," Lingsha greeted. "Mr. Arcum here—"
"Don't call me Mister," Arcum butted in. "It makes me sound old. You're probably older than me."
"... Arcum here, as I've seen, has finished the main room of the Trial Chambers, and already turned it into a 'farm,' as he so calls it."
"Is that so?" Jing Yuan asked, tilting his head curiously. "That was faster than anticipated. How does it look down there?"
"Very good, thank you for asking," Arcum responded with a wide grin, not noticing the disgusted look on Lingsha's face, coupled with her aggressive head shaking.
"I'll have to see it for myself when time permits," Jing Yuan commented. "If need be, I can explain how it functions to those not familiar once you demonstrate it."
"Sounds good," Arcum replied. "We're on break now, because Stelle got lazy."
Jing Yuan nodded and put his hand to his hip. "You must have worked hard."
"It wasn't too bad," Arcum reassured, before changing topics. "Is there anything interesting in this base, by the way? I do want to take some inspiration, given I'm not a builder."
"Not that I know of," Jing Yuan acknowledged. "However, you could take a look around. You must not have gotten time to look around at what has been built."
"Sounds fun. I'll do that then, thank you for the suggestion."
Jing Yuan nodded. "If anything else comes up, please feel free to let me know. Otherwise, take care."
Arcum left the room soon after, Lingsha following behind him.
"Going back to the clinic now?" Arcum asked as they stepped outside.
"I am."
"Have fun," Arcum said casually. "Make sure to take a break now and then."
"If I could, I would," she replied curtly before turning away from Arcum and walking off. "Take care."
Arcum watched as she walked off, a feeling of annoyance and perhaps even a hint of regret. "If only I could get a healer into my group. That'd be nice."
Despite the feeling inside his stomach, Arcum brushed it off, heading moving to head to the center of the base to look for his group.
"Oh," Arcum thought. "I forgot to ask where Fugue went. Eh. I'll find her eventually."
Arcum decided to take a small shortcut through buildings to attempt to get closer to the center of the large base, still unfamiliar with the large layout. Walking into the alley, it was larger than Arcum would usually make his base. So safe to say, large.
He was still surprised that this was only built in two days, especially with such detail. Although the base was missing quite a bit of progression, all the blocks were blocks you could get from the beginning of the game, with enough people collecting resources.
Or having a giant 'Lightning Lord,' that also worked, too.
"I swear! I saw a zombie right there! You have to believe me, David!"
Arcum turned at the shout, watching another player point towards a random shadowy wall while looking at another person.
"A zombie? Here?" Arcum thought.
Arcum looked around, as if trying to spot the zombie. It was daytime, so the zombies shouldn't be out, much less inside the base.
"Are you sure you weren't seeing things?" David said. "I doubt it, Carlos."
"Haven't you heard? This base is haunted!" Carlos shouted to David. "People have said there were zombies, skeletons, even creepers in the base! But they all just disappear!"
"... ever think you're all schitzo?" Arcum insulted in his head. "It's a pretty good explanation."
"Whatever. It's just your imagination, Carlos," David continued to insist. "Let's go. We needed to check in at the house first."
"I swear!" Carlos insisted, walking along with David. "They hear giggles. Some even swear they see some small girl, wearing some red Japanese-looking outfit with a kitsune mask, being all creepy!"
Arcum watched as the two disappeared, leaving him alone in the alley.
"Whatever. Like ghosts are real. It's just like how summoning Herobrine with gold blocks, redstone torches, and netherrack... wait, can you actually do that now?"
"I kind of want to see if you can summon Herobrine now," Arcum thought.
Suddenly, the rattle of a skeleton was heard behind him.
Instinctively, Arcum whipped out his trident, twirling around and lobbing it behind him to where he heard the skeleton rattle.
The trident flew through the air, straight towards the skeleton, that stood in the middle of the alley.
Woosh!
The trident flew through the ribcage of the skeleton, phasing through it, a hint of red embers flaring out as it went through, before disappearing like it was never there.
The skeleton still stood there, however, unmoving.
"... I'm schitzo."
Arcum rubbed his eyes, looking at the skeleton still there.
He rubbed them one more time.
Unfortunately, the skeleton still stood there, unmoving. It made sounds of rattling bones, but other than that, it did nothing.
"Yeah..... I'm not dealing with that."
Deciding against dealing with ghosts, Arcum walked towards the skeleton and past it. Walking to where his trident was thrown, he quickly grabbed his trident, deciding to take the main path instead of the alley.
As he walked away, Arcum swore he could have heard a girl's small giggle, emanating from the alley. He paid it no mind—he would truly be schizophrenic if there was a creepy girl with a creepy giggle.
Arcum briskly walked along the pathway into the center of the base, looking around for his companions.
Soon enough, he spotted Stelle and Hysilens, sitting on a bench, made of two oak stairs. Stelle was eating a baked potato, while Hysilens nodded at Stelle's comments while looking around.
"Hello," Arcum said as he walked up to the two. "We're done."
"Done? Nice," Stelle responded. "Did you eat?"
"I have food in my inventory," Arcum replied, looking to Hysilens. "Did you eat? Stelle's eating right now."
Hysilens shook her head. "Later."
"Suit yourself," Arcum said as he took out a baked potato to eat. "By the way, I think this base is either haunted, or a lot of people are schizophrenic. Including me."
"What do you mean?" Stelle asked, tilting her head.
"There's ghosts. I think?"
"Actually, I have expertise on ghosts," Stelle replied. "I was actually on a ghost-hunting squad."
"Oh, great!" Arcum replied sarcastically. "Then be a Ghostbuster and deal with it, pretty please?"
"Was it green? It could be a heliobus," Stelle said, munching on the potato. "That's all the ghosts I know."
"No," Arcum said. "I threw my trident through it, and it was red."
Stelle swallowed and thought for a little. "Red?"
"Yes, it was red," Arcum confirmed. "It was either a ghost, my imagination, or an illusion."
"Let's go there then," Stelle said, standing up. "I need to see to confirm my suspicion."
Hysilens stood up when Stelle stood up, stretching her arms above her head.
"What's your suspicion then, oh great Ghostbuster?" Arcum prodded.
"Could be Sparkle, honestly," Stelle said with a casual expression. "But I won't know until I see!"
"I'm assuming it's someone you know from other worlds, correct?" Hysilens asked, looking at Stelle.
"From Penacony, Land of Dreams," Stelle replied. "She was invited there, just like the Express. She's fun. But I sometimes don't get her."
"Well... I shall leave this entire encounter in your very capable hands then!" Arcum congratulated, patting Stelle on the back. "Lead the way, you social butterfly."