Beta 1.0 Test Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  DEAR READER

  MASTER CRAFTER

  Beta 1.0 Test

  Book One of the Master Crafter Series

  By Harley Vex

  CHAPTER ONE

  "Okay, Mike. Reach that flag, and you're off to the races." Feedback fills my VR helmet as I turn my gaze upward at the black and gray castle that just might change my life.

  My heart hammers. My palms sweat. I almost forget that I'm standing in my tiny apartment rather than at the drawbridge of Vox's build in Creationist, the Monster Crag Castle. The dark structure and mountain it's in are made of blocks, sure, but that doesn't take away from my nerves. Shadow-filled windows promise monsters and traps that even the most seasoned players will take at least an hour to conquer.

  Typical. Vox, a famous gamer, is known for his challenging maps made in Creationist's blocky, yet amazing sandbox universe. He changes the inside of the Monster Crag Castle every week, adding new traps and secret rooms, and after months of waiting, it's my time to capture the obnoxious yellow flag on the highest tower. It's so far up that the flat cloud deck partially obscures it. The hazy, pixelated sun is setting behind me. Other players' avatars spawn in while I wait with a mix of Lego-like people.

  Lexi221 has joined the game.

  Bartman_SK has joined the game.

  Half of the contestants this week have the default monk skin. Faces with plain smiles and pixel eyes. Brown tunics and trousers. Plain hoods the color of dirt. Hopefully, they're just noobs. Well, one guy at the end has downloaded a pixelated skin of The Rock. The pixels make what's supposed to be an intimidating snarl look like he's trying to take a dump. Yeah, scary.

  I hold up my avatar's hand and flex my blocky fingers. At least my skin is just a guy with jeans, a black T-shirt, and glasses that my sister Natalie made for me. I'm trying, but not too hard.

  Until now.

  I've been waiting months for this.

  Natalie's relying on me.

  If she loses her job and can't pay her medical bills—

  ,_andCupid has joined the game.

  I blink, taking my attention off the feed at the bottom of my view. "The flag," I say out loud, refocusing on the Monster Crag Castle. I won't get paying livestream subscribers for nothing. I've got to entertain. Prove my skills. And get that sweet flood of new subs every winner of this weekly game gets.

  My ten-year knowledge of Creationist is about to pay off.

  Thousands of Vox's subs are watching, and some of them will follow me if I win. Though Vox's subs can't hear me, my few dozen trial subs, the ones watching from my first-person view, can. "Okay, guys. We're getting this flag. I'm going to make out with it. I've been studying this gorgeous castle for a year." I lift my hand and sink to my knee, pretending to admire the ugly, misshapen structure. I'm the only one. Vox is known for sadism, trolling, and most of all, killing.

  And I, Mike Wattles, AKA TheWattleman, am all about exploiting Creationist to the hilt. When I break out on GameTube, everyone will see my mob traps and auto farms.

  Ding.

  Ding.

  My heart leaps. Two new subscriber signups. Paid, too. Trial subscribers make a wimpy tink noise when they log on.

  My first two paid subscribers.

  My spine tingles. Just playing this map after climbing the six month wait list is paying off. I'm tempted to swipe my subscriber chat into my view with my glove, but I hold back. I need full focus.

  "Whoever just subscribed to TheWattleman, thank you," I say, turning my head. "That means a lot to me right now. I'd chat, but I need to make sure I don't embarrass myself in front of you."

  All twelve of this week's contestants stand at the mouth of the drawbridge which stretches over a river of pixilated acid. Straight ahead is an open doorway built to look like it's got fangs. The orange glow of sunset falls on everything. Soon the countdown will begin.

  I need to vocalize my thoughts. "Okay, so I don't spot that off-yellow color that signifies a Falling Stalactite in those fangs. Those creamed a couple of players last week. And I don't see any signs of a Tripwire across the entrance." A few bats, harmless mobs, fly out into the deepening dusk. Bats avoid the nearly invisible Tripwires, providing one of the few ways for Players spot them from far off.

  A floating green 10 appears before us on the drawbridge, and everyone stops fidgeting.

  "And here we go," I say. The 10 turns into a 9 as darkness rolls over the sky, deepening with each wave. A single lantern comes to life far above, illuminating the yellow victory flag.

  The monk beside me kneels as if this will be a footrace. Yes. A noob. I'll let him go first. No doubt he'll sprint across the drawbridge and into a trap right inside that dark interior of—

  The drawbridge.

  "Wait." I focus on the bridge. "Do you see what see?" I force myself to sing the line to that Christmas song.

  Trapdoors look almost identical to Hardwood Planks except for the backward wood grains. And the drawbridge, today, is littered with them. In the dim light, even I almost missed it. They're triggered by Tripwires, but the Tripwires can be placed under the Trapdoors as well as above. They just work a bit differently that way, activating just the stepped-on Trapdoor instead of all the Trapdoors in the area.

  "Well, we're in for a nice surprise," I say, knowing the other players can't hear me.

  An orange 3 morphs into a red 2 which in turn transforms into a black 1.

  And then with a loud wolf howl, Capture The Flag begins.

  I hang back, watching the other avatars bolt across the drawbridge.

  Click. Click. Click. Trapdoors trigger, opening one by one. The bottom of my view explodes with red death messages as other players land in the acid below, vanishing into puffs of smoke as they die. My mind races. There's a ten-second delay on respawning. I can see which trapdoors are open. They have a ten-second delay before closing, too.

  "Time to go! And I hate parkour." I break into a run and jump onto the first solid piece of wood.

  Acid spreads out below. The Rock is trapped on the low shore of the moat. He stares up at me, jumping up and down. "Well, someone's constipated."

  I make my second jump, and then my third, heart racing. I'm almost at the entrance when the whooshing of players respawning sounds behind me at the start of the bridge. The Trapdoors close with a round of clicks. All sense of victory flees. I'm first. A target. Now to find a way to defend myself or set a trap before players or mobs catch up to me.

  My vision adjusts automatically to the dark as I enter the castle. Three dark brick hallways branch off. All should have secret rooms. Time to choose. "The middle. Vox set up crushing walls there last week, so he likely won't this week."

  I enter the ar
ched corridor. Passing Lanterns, Potted Plants, and empty Barrels, I search the black and gray bricks of the wall for uneven surfaces. Nothing. No secret doors. And the hallway dead ends without a Loot Crate to speak for it. There's a hard-to-see hole in the ceiling, at the very end of the hall, but no ladder leads up to it. I wait for monsters to drop from it. Nada on that, too. "What? This can't be right." No hallway in MonsterCragCastle has nothing.

  My heart races. I'm losing time. There's nothing here but a few Potted Plants, Barrels, and blocks of Straw. "Well, time to dumpster dive," I say, using the popular term for searching Barrels. Sometimes Barrels hold crappy loot. They can't hold anything halfway decent unless you hack the game. "If I'm lucky, I'll find an old Wooden Dagger." Cursing my luck, I lift the lid to the closest Barrel, eyeing the corridor for player names, which show through walls.

  Three players have made it in. They're heading left. A few more death messages crop up. MandyPie dissolved in acid.

  I reach into the Barrel. Its small inventory pops up as a gray box with square slots. Straightening, I tap each item and watch them zip downward into my inventory. Dirt Clod. Dirt Clod. Grape Seeds. Grass Clod. Single Unlit Torch. Stinky Fertilizer.

  My pulse roars in my ears. "I'm feeling really good about my chances!" This whole corridor is a troll.

  Two more players enter the castle, pause, and head right. No one ever has weapons at the entrance or I'd be dead. But elsewhere—

  Bartman_SK has been killed by Cyndie_Kitty.

  "Yeah. Time to figure something out." That's what I do best. There must be something I can use to my advantage. I eye the ceiling hole and then the Potted Plant. Then I think of the crappy loot I just found.

  "Lightbulb!" I could make what players call a "ghetto elevator" by placing two Tripwire Bases beside each other and then an empty Pot on top of them. The Bases glitch and send the Pot skyward if an object or a player is placed inside. And if you want a controlled ascent, Grape Vines can act as guides.

  But I don't have Tripwire Bases.

  Or do I?

  "I've got an idea! Ghetto elevator, here we come. And Vox, you are a sneaky rat," I say, running back to the entrance.

  I've got Dirt Clods. They're a means to get under the drawbridge. Thankfully, no one is crossing it, though The Rock is still stuck on the shore of the acid river. Vox would have placed the Tripwire Bases under the drawbridge, attached to either side of the bridge to hide them from view. I run to the side, careful not to fall over the rocky edge, and just barely see the bottom of a gray Tripwire Base under the bridge.

  "Okay. This next part is easy." I crouch, sneaking to the very edge of the drop-off, and highlight a section of Stone below me. Then I place a Dirt Clod on it, which sticks since blocks in Creationist mostly don't obey gravity. That allows me to drop about a meter so I'm facing not one, but three square Tripwire Bases. Vox has three on each side of the drawbridge, anchoring the hidden Tripwires.

  "Yes. I just need two." They're breakable by hand, so I punch the first, which pops off the stone wall and into my inventory. The entire Tripwire pops out of existence with it. Then I place another Dirt Clod beside the first, walk over the second Base, and do the same. "And ladies and gentlemen, I've got what I need!"

  LilyHilly has fallen to their death.

  I gulp. That could be me if this doesn't work exactly right.

  I rush back into Monster Crag Castle and back down my middle corridor. The bottom of my vision is constant death messages. Someone respawns with a whoosh behind me.

  I've got time and frustration on my side, so I ignore the others. The previous completion record was twenty-eight minutes. "We're about to make some magic happen. Ever seen one of these?"

  I kick a Potted Plant first since I need it empty. I make a comment about plant cruelty as I work, and the Plant (yes, such a creative name) explodes into Sticks and Leaves. The items zip into my inventory but I ignore them, punching the Dirt Clod inside the Pot to break that, too. Bingo. Empty Pot. Now I need a second Pot to grow my Grape Vines.

  I leave the Pot there for now and kick the other Plant. It breaks, and I remove the Dirt Clod. Then I tap my left arm to bring up my inventory. The bronze box appears in the center of my vision, with rows of smaller boxes inside that hold my items. I tap the Stinky Fertilizer, highlighting it. "I can't believe I'm going to have to thank literal crap for this." Then I tap the Grape Seeds and hit my left arm again, closing out my inventory. Now I'm holding one object in each hand.

  I push one Pot under the hole in the ceiling, place the Stinky Fertilizer inside it, and then place the Grape Seeds on top of that. I stand back as Grape Vines grow, crawling up the wall and forming my guide. Vines can be used as ladders, but randomly break when you do, so you're lucky if you don't fall to your death using them that way.

  "Wow. This is climbing up several floors," I say, watching as the green glow of the Fertilizer continues and continues. Finally, the Grape Vines quit growing up into the darkness and the Fertilizer reverts to a Dirt Clod. There's no more room for them to grow. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the Mike Wattles Elevator Ride Into Probable Death!"

  Step Two. I place the Tripwire Bases side by side, one on each side of the filled Pot. A faint Tripwire appears between them, cutting through the transparent Grape Vines, and I break the other Pot with my hand until it drops as an item and shoots into my inventory. I repeat the process to place it in my hand, where it appears as a shrunken version of itself, and I highlight the Tripwire (a move that requires finesse) and place the empty Pot.

  It waits, ready for me to get in. Tripwires react to weight, but Salvos Corporation never fixed a glitch where such a short Tripwire doesn't detect weight until an actual player touches it. I jump, aiming for the Pot, and I find myself sitting inside it and bracing.

  I fly upward with a boing sound and into the dark. Vines rustle as the Pot flies up them, but they don't break. They never do for objects. I sail up...up...waiting to take damage from some unseen trap. In the dark, I can barely make out the surrounding bricks zipping past. I spot a couple of ledges that lead to what must be secret doors, but nothing else.

  I must be bypassing several floors of fun and adventure.

  Excitement fills my chest. "Thank you, crap!" A faint, square outline of light draws closer. A Trapdoor that leads somewhere. My Pot stops at it as my head makes contact. That's another glitch. Pots can be forced to climb Grapevines, but they're hard to get back down.

  A double chime sounds.

  A donation.

  A freaking donation. My first one. And with the way I'm going, the start of many more.

  I mutter a thanks. Thinking of Natalie propels me upward. Then I push open the Trapdoor above me.

  "Oh, no. Here's the Probable Death."

  CHAPTER TWO

  This high floor of Monster Crag Castle is a deathtrap all by itself. Vox has no needs to add crushing walls or falling acid to this space, because it's decorated with a black, vaulted ceiling, Lanterns, red carpet, and two rows of upright Coffins that stand between me and a stairway that must lead outside to the roof. A large window looks out on the roof just behind the Coffins opposite me, but without a means to break the glass, it might as well be a stone wall.

  And Coffins can contain Vampires, who emerge when a player passes their location. No Tripwires needed. They're some of the toughest mobs in Creationist. With no weapons, I've got no chance. They'll kill me in seconds and even running to the stairs, gauntlet style, will have the same result. Vampires are also fast, can turn into Bats, and reappear in front of you in no time.

  And if I die, I'll have no easy way back up here. The empty Pot will remain at the top of the secret shaft, unreachable.

  "A Loot Crate," I say, eyeing the wall beside me. "Please, let there be a Hardwood Stake in there. At least then I can lure the Vampires out one at a time and maybe kill them." It's one of the few weapons that work, and if I could find a Vendor Block and enough materials to make a Switch, I could make a "stake sho
oter" and eliminate my need to get close to the vamps. But first, the crate. I remain half out of the hole, taking a breath. Moving too fast will get me killed, and the crate is just too far away to reach.

  I stay in place. All the players are below me now, their names darting around the corridors. Another death message appears. "Okay. No rush. But I think I can just reach that crate." I lean towards the Loot Crate, which glows slightly. "Yes!" I reach out with my hand, and though I don't actually touch it, its big inventory opens for me.

  "Oh. Of course," I say, eyeing the Weak Bow and the Arrows it contains. Useful against all but Vampires. But I tap them and they shoot into my inventory.

  And then I see it.

  The steak.

  As in, the meat, not the actual weapon.

  "Vox!" I shout, dragging out his name as my pulse races in my ears. I'd laugh if my whole future wasn't riding on this.

  Then I take a breath. "Figure this out, Mike. You can do it." I talk as I think, discussing my plan. Hardwood Stakes are craftable—you fill all the slots of a Crafting Center with Hardwood Logs—but there's no wood here other than the Coffins themselves, and those drop Planks when broken. Some parts of the castle have Logs for rafters and support beams. And there must be Vendor Blocks somewhere to shoot toxic Potions and arrows at players. That'll work. I think of the ledges I passed on the way up and know I'll have to brave climbing back down the vines, and then possibly back up again.

  Standing up, I break the empty Pot, putting it back in my inventory. Then I lower myself by crouching, and find myself holding onto the Grape Vines. I look down and move my hands vertically which sends me creeping downward.

  "I am praying to the Creationist gods right now," I mutter, "and that's not a pun." The Vines creak as I creep downward, letting me know I could plunge to my death any second. But a ledge comes into view and I lean in that direction, and find myself standing on it. It goes in a few blocks before ending at an apparent dead end. "Success. We've found a new secret tunnel! Let's see if this is a sliding door or something simpler."