The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
a stone shovel and pickaxe to expedite the process of creating the house. The remainder of the wood had been used to make torches together with the coal.
Stan quickly used his axe to gather a fair amount of wood, which he then converted into planks through crafting. Then they made sticks, which, with the cobblestone, became a stone sword, a stone axe and a stone pickaxe. For good measure, Kat used leather from some cows she had killed to craft a cap and tunic, leaving her iron armour in the chest. She also crafted a new cap for Stan. They put their good weapons and all their excess materials in the chest, and Stan used the compass to find his way back to the Apothecary’s house.
It turned out that Kat’s worry for her tools’ safety was for naught. The Apothecary didn’t even ask for their weapons upon their entering his house. Stan saw that he had set up two new chairs to accommodate the extra guests. Stan was excited. The Apothecary seemed to have been anticipating their arrival. They were all introduced and then sat down.
“So, now that we’re all here, tell me: Why do you hate the King so much, and why do you want him overthrown?” asked the Apothecary.
With the help of Kat and Charlie, Stan told the Apothecary everything that had happened to them since they had joined Elementia. They omitted no details, even though there were certain things that Kat obviously would have preferred they had left unspoken, such as the part where she had almost killed Stan and Charlie. But as Stan recounted every injustice, every instance of prejudice, every senseless murder, it only increased his feeling of hatred for King Kev and the overwhelming desire to convince the old player sitting across from him to join their cause.
The Apothecary said nothing until Stan finished the story of Charlie acquiring Lemon (who was sitting outside with Rex, guarding them from monsters and the King’s men). Then he spoke. “Well, I can certainly understand why you so dearly want to see my old friend King Kev dead,” said the Apothecary gravely.
“What do you mean, ‘your old friend’?” said Kat quickly, and Stan noticed her hand moving towards the stone sword at her waist.
“Oh, don’t worry, he certainly isn’t my friend any more,” said the Apothecary, and Kat’s grip relaxed, though her hand didn’t move from the sword. “Trust me, that evil dictator is the reason I have to live out here as an old hermit. If I had my way, I would reopen my chain of apothecaries in the city.”
“Wait, you mean you owned all those abandoned apothecaries that we saw in Element City?” asked Kat.
Stan remembered. There was at least a store on every street, all closed up and abandoned. All of them had “Apothecary” written on signs above each empty window display.
“That I did. You told me your story. Would you like to hear mine?”
Stan and Charlie nodded enthusiastically, and even Kat said, “Yes, please, sir.”
The old player chuckled. “All right then, please try not to get bored and fall asleep. Let’s see, where to begin …
“I joined this server in its very earliest days. Elementia was one of the first extremely successful Minecraft servers, and I joined Elementia within a week of its founding. King Kev, the operator of this server, used his operating powers to found Element City in that meadow. He and I were good friends, as we were with a number of others. However, I always felt unfulfilled, like I was meant to do something else in Minecraft besides build.
“Then we learned of the alternate dimensions. Soon thereafter, the King opened Elementia’s first portal to the Nether.”
“Excuse me, sir,” interrupted Charlie, “but could you please explain to me what, exactly, the Nether is? I’ve heard people talking about it, but I don’t really get what it is.”
“Of course,” the Apothecary said. “The Nether is a dimension reached by constructing a portal. It is a hell-dimension of lava and fire, populated by mobs far more terrible then those of the Overworld we are in now. When the portal was first opened, most of the players stayed away from it, fearing the dangers. But I kept finding myself drawn towards it. I explored every aspect of the Nether, yet I couldn’t find what it was that I was looking for.
“One day, on an update, Nether Fortresses were added. These were even more treacherous than the rest of the Nether, but they held two valuable pieces of loot: Nether Warts and Blaze Rods. The rods were used to craft brewing stands, and the warts were the bases for potions.
“I had found my calling. The brewing of potions is what I am good at. I loved it so much that I opened up a chain of apothecaries around the city, and even changed my name to Apothecary1. Those were the good days.
“But then, with the server being as successful as it was, there was an influx of new players to the server that continues to this day. All of them wanted a piece of the upper class. Naturally, the King tried to spread the wealth, but there were just too many players. I had gained a seat on the King’s Council of Operators by this time, and there was a player on the council who was the King’s best friend, named Avery007. Avery was an advocate for the new players, and he wished to eliminate the class barrier. He was gaining a huge following. He was a very gifted public speaker.
“It was at this point that the King became incredibly paranoid, afraid that he would lose his absolute power. He had granted Avery operating powers a while before this, and he was afraid that Avery was going to overthrow him. This led him to implement the Law of One Death, changing the mode of this server to Hardcore PVP, meaning that you cannot return to Elementia after death. He and Avery then battled, using their operating powers to fly high over the city. I tell you, it was a spectacle – two operators battling is the most amazing thing you will ever see. In the end, though, Avery was overpowered. He was killed and banished from the server. By the next day, the King had killed three other people with strong followings on the server. With Avery gone, the King was the only operator remaining.”
“That is very interesting, sir,” said Stan, which he sincerely meant, “but where do you come into this?”
“Oh. Well, you see, I was still very much in the King’s favour, although I was very upset with him for killing and banishing those players, all of whom were my good friends. But paranoia had twisted King Kev’s mind by that point. There were rumours of a rebellion going around, so any of the alleged leaders of the hypothetical rebellion were killed. That’s why no sane player who is in league with the King today would even joke about overthrowing him.
“My problems started when a rumour came up that the apothecaries in Element City were providing potions to a rebellion movement. I was lucky. Four of my friends and I were accused by King Kev of treason on the same day. There was me; there was the chief of Redstone Experiments, Mecha11; and there were the three Chiefs of Exploration, Bill33, Bob33 and Ben33. There was a high amount of unrest in the kingdom due to the number of people that the King had killed, so he pledged to never kill anyone again unless they were proven guilty. Instead of killing us, King Kev banished us from the city, warning us to never again run into a government official, or we would risk dire consequences. I opened my own Nether portal here in the jungle and began stockpiling potions. I have no idea what happened to the Mechanist, or to Bill, Bob and Ben.
“So you see,” said the old player, and Stan sensed that he was about to say something important, “if you truly want to overthrow the King, I would be happy to use my knowledge of Elementia’s inner workings, as well as the potions I have stockpiled, to help you in any way that I can.”
“Thank you!” Charlie threw himself at the Apothecary, and began wringing his hand. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Yes, we really appreciate your help, sir,” said Kat, and Stan could tell that she finally trusted him.
“So I have a question, sir,” said Stan, voicing something that had been on his mind since that morning. “How many people do you think that we’ll need to launch an assault on the King’s castle in Element City? If we can take the castle, then we’ll have control over the city.”
The old player thought for a moment and then said, “Well, I imagine that the King probably has around