Minecraft: The Haven Trials/3CHP

Chapter 17
WereDragon then mentions to Cece that although they will be looking for the materials to make the wither, Cece will have to build it, because if another player builds a wither and that wither is killed by a different player, the victory goes to the person who built it. WereDragon also mentions to Cece that the location of the second trial is home to three wither skulls, and that when the wither is killed, the nether star that it drops is then placed on a beacon in the mountains, which transports players to the third and final trial. A creeper then suddenly appears, but the two and Cranky easily dodge it before it explodes. The three then dig out an underground shelter and discuss about their plan, which obviously involves creating the wither and killing it. Cece wonders as to how she would be able to find soul sand, but WereDragon mentions that the Ocury had modded the Nether out of the server. Luckily, as she states, there is a soul sand valley modded into a small cavern, but is filled with lava and several hostile mobs. WereDragon then suggests that they build the wither in a stone mountain not far from the beacon, and Cece appears to endorse that idea. WereDragon then mines out the torches at the entrance to the shelter, covers it up, and the two rest for the night.

Over the next few days, the three (Cece, WereDragon, and Cranky) travel throughout Anarchia, eventually finding an oasis. WereDragon says for Cece to get down, and she does. They focus on the lake, in which some Anarchians are there. All of them are wearing diamond armor and one has a multi-colored head. WereDragon then mentions that its the crew of Declan. Declan himself, according to WereDragon, is a mean Anarchian, in which he and his group hang around the locations of the Trials and kill off the new people for XP. Unlike the other Anarchians, though, Declan and his crew are able to teleport, even after completing the Trials, leading many to think that the Ocury use them as a way of preventing others from completing them. WereDragon and Cece decide to make another underground shelter, but Cece soon realizes that Cranky is missing. WereDragon says not to worry about it as the underground shelter is made. Much later, Declan and his crew start leaving the lake, so WereDragon and Cece decide to dive in and scout it for a wither skull. Cece soon finds one, but the two swim back up to the surface as they are losing air. Just then, Cece notices Declan with Cranky attached to a lead. Declan attaches the lead to a fence post and then charges at her and WereDragon.

Chapter 18
Cece is knocked into the water as WereDragon and Declan battle each other. While that happens, Cece decides to swim underwater to retrieve the wither skulls that are in the lake. Although she is successful, numerous hostile mobs soon spawn as sunset becomes night. Cece then takes the lead off of Cranky, and, to her surprise, it follows her. Declan then fires an arrow at Cece, but Cranky swallows it whole. Declan then scurries off into the night while WereDragon kills off a witch. The three (Cece, WereDragon, and Cranky) then head back to their underground shelter, relieved that they are away from danger. Cece prepares to reset her spawn point, but WereDragon stops her, noting that they should return to the lake to retrieve the wither skulls. Cece then shows that she already got the skulls, much to WereDragon’s relief. The two then reset their spawn point, with Cece mentioning to WereDragon that it might be a while before she rejoins the server due to stuff going on in real life. The two consider about messaging each other before Cece logs off for the night, with WereDragon mentioning to her that she prefers to be called 'Aminata' from then on, as it is her name in real life.

Chapter 19
The next morning, Cece smiles as she heads to school, mentioning to Iya about what happened with Jo and how she’ll meet up with Reesa in Minecraft. Cece then meets up with Jo at school, and the two chat and discuss about Anarchia come break time. Cece considers having Jo join the server to help her and Aminata go through the rest of the Haven Trials, but Jo mentions that he only plays Minecraft on his phone as his grandma doesn’t have enough money to afford a game console. Cece decides to text him the server address later as the two continue eating lunch, with Cece feeling embarrassed about having Jo involved despite them being friends. Break time soon ends, and the two start heading back to class. Mr. Gbenga notices them and has Ofure apologize to them for saying and doing "mean things". Cece and Jo giggle to themselves as Mr. Gbenga mentions to Ofure that her punishment will be writing down "I will not be a bully" a thousand times.

Chapter 20
That night, Cece forwards the message that Reesa had sent her to Jo, editing it for his needs, along with a note about Soul Sand Valley. After doing so, she gets a message from Aminata about playing on the server every weekend so they could get to Haven as quickly as possible. Cece types back that she has a friend that could help them. Aminata doesn’t seem sure at first, thinking that she can’t protect two people, but after Cece mentions about how he was able to help herself complete the first Trial by just looking at the map, Aminata sends the coordinates of the Soul Sand Valley, which are soon forwarded to Jo. Cece then shuts down the game console and rests for the night. That weekend, Cece and Aminata are back on Anarchia, having arrived at Soul Sand Valley. Cece wonders as to where Jo is, and Aminata hopes he’ll show up before they’re done collecting soul sand. The two then enter a nether portal into a cavern of with lava flowing everywhere and soul sand lining the bottom. Aminata then says to Cece to not move as endermen spawn nearby. The two then carefully gather the soul sand that they need while avoiding ghasts and hoglins, and not long after, they go through the portal back to a sky on the brim of sunset. Jo is still nowhere to be found, so Cece and Aminata decide to make an underground shelter close by and rest. The next morning, the two leave the underground shelter with Jo still nowhere in sight. Aminata then says for Cece to consider having Jo meet them up in the mountains, knowing that they always have to be on the move. Cece ponders this for a moment, remembering that Iya had told her about friendships having ups and downs, before deciding to go ahead with it.

Chapter 21
Cece, Aminata, and Cranky soon arrive at the mountains, which ends up taking about a whole day. Aminata starts looking for the cave that she had hollowed out, but has no luck. Cece considers finding a new one, but Aminata mentions that it would have to be hollowed out just enough for them to fight the wither, also mentioning about hostile mobs and silverfish that could spawn. As its getting late, the two dig a small hideout and rest for the night. The next day, Cece and Aminata carve out a tunnel to a room big enough to spawn the wither. Aminata then explains to Cece about the strategy to kill the wither as she gives her three buckets of milk, four pieces of bread, a golden apple, two potions of strength, and eighteen arrows. The milk is used for the wither effect, while the arrows are the amount used up before the wither becomes immune to them. Cece then places down the soul sand in a T-shape, followed by two wither skulls. Just as she prepares to place down the third skull, another player screams her name as they run toward her. The player has iron armor and an iron sword with the name 'JoJo_Hobbit', leading Cece to believe that it is Jo. Aminata tries to block Jo off, but he mentions that with the coordinates that Cece had given him, he was soon noticed by a group of other players, which is why he ran toward the mountains with the group in pursuit. Then, unbeknownst to Cece, she inadvertently places down the third wither skull, leaving the four (Cece, Aminata, Cranky, and Jo) no choice but to run toward the tunnel entrance. Declan soon appears with two other Anarchians in diamond armor and block off the tunnel, charging at the four just as the wither explodes.

Chapter 22
As Aminata and Jo fend off Declan and his two crew members, Cece goes after the wither, which had already started destroying several blocks that housed silverfish. Cece starts shooting arrows at the wither, being successful in hitting it. The wither then shoots three wither skulls at her, but she ducks out of the way, letting the first two skulls target one of Declan’s crew members instead, apparently killing them. The third is a bit slower, hitting Cece in the chest. Cece drinks some milk to cure the wither effect, followed by dousing a potion of regeneration. The wither is soon down to half of its health, leaving Cece no choice but to eat a golden apple. A wither skull then hits her as she drinks a bucket of milk, leaving her down to half-a-heart. Cece decides to use the totem of undying, putting it in her off-hand while she uses her main hand for the sword, slashing at the wither with everything she has. As her health dips to zero, the totem of undying kicks in, giving her regeneration and absorption. Soon, Cece finally kills the wither whilst basically ignoring its wither skulls with a single blow from the sword, dropping the nether star as the chat congratulates her on completing the second Trial. As she picks up the nether star, she quickly realizes that she never cured herself of the wither effect from the skulls, leading her to quickly drink another bucket of milk. Cece then hears someone screaming her name.

Chapter 23
The screaming is revealed to be Baba, Cece’s father, who scolds her for being on the console at 1:30 in the morning. He is about to pull the plug on the console when Cece asks to save and quit first. He reluctantly obliges, and Cece does so before shutting down the console. She also mentions to Baba that she was completing something to find Reesa. Baba feels like it makes no sense, and Cece says that it is complicated. She then changes into her pajamas, brushes her teeth, and gets tucked into bed by Baba, who soon apologizes to her for his actions while saying that he’ll talk to someone about a new number for Mr. Njinga. Cece then says that there are other friends in Minecraft that need her help. Baba then says to Cece that she should not play games for the weekend due to plans to go to the Independence Day party, and to make some friends in real life. Cece then mentions that the people she met in Minecraft are her real-world friends, leading Baba to a compromise, saying that he’ll try to get in contact with someone about Reesa if no video games are played – either console or tablet – through the weekend. Cece reluctantly agrees, with Baba wishing her a goodnight and leaving the room soon after. Cece then pulls out the tablet from under the bedclothes and prepares to open a video streaming app, but quickly notices messages from Jo, wondering where she was while also saying that Aminata is gone.

Throughout the weekend, Cece is itching to get back on the game console, but she keeps her promise with Baba and instead joins in on the Independence Day festivities, which culminates with a dance party that Sunday that the Gemshore Estate usually holds in a park in the center of the estate. Iya considers for Cece to invite Jo, who eventually says that he’ll try to show up. On the day of the dance party, Cece stands in a corner of the park, wearing a dress make out of "green-black-and-white Ankara fabric" when Jo shows up, wearing white sneakers and a T-shirt with a "fancy clockwork owl" on it. As the two sit in some chairs, Iya notices them and has someone bring a tray of chicken and rice for Jo to eat, along with a Coke to drink. Jo then asks Cece about why she isn’t on Anarchia, and she mentions about the deal that she had made with Baba, knowing that she’ll be back on Monday. Cece then asks about what happened with Aminata, but Jo signals to her that he is busy eating. Upon finishing, he mentions that she was killed by Declan, and thinks it was his own fault for leading him and his friends to her and Aminata. Cece feels like that it wasn’t his fault because he simply didn’t know an ambush would happen. Jo then asks Cece if she could apologize to Aminata regarding what happened, and although Cece says that she won’t be able to until Monday, that she hopes that Aminata is okay. The two (Cece and Jo) then starting walking around the park, laughing at people being dumbfounded about card tricks. Jo then decides to go dance in the center of the park. Cece laughs at Jo as he moves his body around in all sorts of directions before soon joining him in dancing.

Chapter 24
With the weekend over and the party concluded, Baba informs Cece that he was able to know that Mrs. Olumide down the street has Mr. Njinga’s most recent number, but that he won’t be able to get in contact until next week as Mrs. Olumide is away on vacation. Cece doesn’t mind about it because of Reesa being in Haven on the Minecraft server, knowing that Aminata is the one she absolutely needs to talk to. Early on Monday morning, Cece messages Aminata, saying that Jo apologizes for what happened and that she’ll still help her complete the third trial if needed. Cece then heads off to school, but has trouble getting through the day. Algebra in Mr. Gbenga’s class bores her, and basic science is difficult for her to understand. Luckily, Jo helps her out during break time by looking over notes, but the boost from that soon fades away when break time is over as Cece is in a class learning the language of Hausa, along with letter writing (Rubutun wasika). By the end of the school day, Cece feels tired as Iya picks her up, mentioning to her that although her day was rough, it’ll get better because she doesn’t have to go through it alone. Keeping that in mind, Cece soon notices that Aminata is on Anarchia despite not answering her message, so she decides to go back into the server.

Upon rejoining, Cece soon realizes that she had died when fighting the wither as she spawns back at the hideout that she and Aminata had carved out in the mountain. Cece is relieved that the nether star is still in her inventory, and also notices that Aminata is in the hideout as well, possibly AFK. Cece is about to ask when Aminata suddenly turns around, saying that she saw her messages and that she doesn’t feel as bad as she did. Aminata then says to Cece that she and Jo don’t have to worry anymore as she decides to quit, knowing that both of them have one life left, and that if either of them die during the third Trial, it’ll be all over. Cece says to not give up now, knowing that they’ll die trying, which makes Aminata reconsider her decision. Just then, Cece also notices that Cranky is missing, and Aminata mentions that Declan and his crew must’ve taken him, much to Cece’s shock. They decide to go retrieve him before heading off to the third Trial.