Seven witches are destroying this world by raising an army of undead warriors. My job is to hunt and kill them. Perhaps killing these witches will restore balance to the world.

Five witches have been slayed: two more remain.

This is my journey. My only goal is to tell a good story.

Days 75-76

I have died too many times now. My failure at Decimation Island was a clear sign: I could not navigate this world without proper weapons and armor. The enemies are too many. Even with all the work I’ve done to slay the world’s witches, the undead are as numerous as ever.

First, I needed food. The apples I was getting from my trees just weren’t staving my hunger. I needed bread, something filling. I went back to my crops, which were a little bigger, but they needed to grow faster. If I could kill skeletons at night, I would have all the bone meal I needed to fertilize these crops.

Once I was confident my crops could take care of themselves, I went back to my hole in the ground, my makeshift shelter, and started digging down. Soon, I found iron, and knew I was on the right path.

I improved my pickaxe and continued digging. Soon, I had a breakthrough, and found a decent cave system.

I had my bow with me, retrieved from my storage chest above ground. My horse Lightning was still safe, but I really needed this bow. If monsters crept out of the darkness while I was mining, this bow might be my only protection.

To my surprise, I didn’t hear the hisses and snarls of fiends while exploring underground, but rather, the clucking of a chicken!

How a chicken got underground I have no idea! There were no air vents, no passages to the surface. This cavern wasn’t that large.

This chicken could be very useful. Bread was a good food source, but meat was better. The chicken would lay eggs, and some of those eggs would hatch into chicks. Perhaps my days of struggling with food were over!

To lead the chicken out of the cave, I needed seed, something I was out of at the moment. To keep the chicken safe, I sealed her in a vault until I could return.

Days 77-78

I was finding iron, but didn’t have enough yet for a suit of armor. Just as I was preparing a second trek into the caves, a massive typhoon hit the island.

It lasted all day, and I was worried it would flood my island and my caves. The storm was so intense I could hear the rain and the thunder a hundred feet underground.

When I explored the caves, I found plenty of skeletons. I killed them without suffering a scratch, and now had the bone meal I needed to fertilize my crops. Once the rain let up, I put the bones in the dirt, and soon had a full crop of wheat.

My bread problem solved, now it was time to worry about meat. I lured the chicken from the caves with fresh seed and built her a small pen.

As soon as that task was completed, a wild creeper appeared! I didn’t even hear it sneak up on me. The creeper exploded before I could react appropriately. I suffered no injuries, but my island wasn’t so fortunate.

The hole looks much worse than it really is: the creeper didn’t do that much damage. In fact, this creeper exploded in exactly the same spot as the first creeper all those days ago: I didn’t fill in the hole that well after the first attack.

The caves exhausted of material, I finally had enough iron for a suit of armor!

I even had quite a few ingots of iron left over: these would make great tools and weapons.

Just as I clamped the armor around my body, I was attacked by a zombie villager! It traveled across the sea in broad daylight, making a beeline straight toward me!

As I slayed the monster, I contemplated what this could mean. The monster attacks were increasing, and now real, living people were attacking my island. A witch had to be on my tail. This island wasn’t safe anymore. I had to leave as quickly as possible.

The island was now a forest, so I had plenty of wood for the journey ahead. In one afternoon’s time, I cleared the island of every tree. I replanted the trees when I could, but I wouldn’t be sticking around long enough to see them mature.

As the sun set, I looked at the beginning of my land bridge. I had to leave tomorrow. Waystation Island was unsafe.

Day 79

At dawn, I gathered my effects and prepared to leave. I wasn’t bringing Lightning or all my prized possessions yet. I needed to make sure I got past Decimation Island first.

The chicken wasn’t much interested in laying eggs: I guess my plan for a fresh stock of meat wouldn’t come to fruition. I named the chicken Henrietta and let her out of her pen. This island was hers now.

I stepped onto my land bridge and started running down the completed section. The land bridge would take me all the way to Decimation Island before I had to continue construction: that’s what I was worried about.

Once I arrived, though, I saw few monsters, but I did find an Enderman. Perhaps he destroyed most of the undead? I gave him a wide berth. If he was clearing this island, who was I to intrude?

I crossed to the end of the island, searching for a point to launch the next segment of the land bridge, and lo and behold, I found in the water a skeleton archer, the same one that almost shot me to death.

He was weakened by the sun, but did I have sympathy for him? Not in the slightest. A couple arrows to the head shattered his skull, and he drifted to the bottom of the ocean.

By nightfall, I’d gotten a good start on the land bridge. Now that I had some distance between me and Decimation Island, I could work in peace.