Chapter Text
Avery was quite the adventure type of a player. Sure he loved PvP and skywars, but adventure was a hobby that seemed like something he could relax to after a practically difficult game of Skywars.
Avery lived in a small cabin, in the middle of nowhere if you don't count the village over the mountain behind his house. Avery built the hut himself, it wasn't the prettiest but it was definitely one of his best works, and his. He wasn't a great builder, but Avery liked to say he did a pretty good job on it!
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After a long day of adventure Avery was heading home, when he saw what seemed like a bunker? Sure, it was uneven but not enough to be natural, especially when it had a door placed in the entrance.
It was already getting dark, so Avery thought he would just quickly check it out before heading home.
After all, it can't be anything too strange. …Right?
Avery tried to calm himself down although it was clearly abnormal. He took in a deep breath before opening to the oak door, and nearly tripping on the immediate staircase that followed. Avery caught himself on the stone wall, steadying himself and trying to calm his racing heart.
When Avery came down the short stairs the first thing he saw was the chest in the middle of a long rectangular mine. Though, it was probably because it had a bloody hand print on the lid of the chest.
Avery was stunned for a moment before moving towards it. As he opened the chest he saw a variety of different minerals, but the thing that stood out was a book.
Stained with blood and ink, the book looked like something out of a crime documentary. But definitely not old, since when Avery touched it his hands got stained with ink that hasn't fully dried yet.
Whatever you do, at
the crossroads, don’t
turn left.
Don’t be fooled. It’s listening
You can’t outsmart it
It’s listen tom e
It’s watching me
It isn’t from this world
At the crossroads
don’t durn left
At the crossroads
DONT turn left
At the crossroads
don’t turn left
ATt the crossroads
dont durn left
At the crossroads
don’t turn left
At the crossroads
don’t turn left
At the corssroads
don’t turn left
23-2 29 2, 24 29 10-2
10-3 4, 19 30-4 15, 6
10-2 10-3 10-2
The words seem to be written in a rush, confusing and messy. The letters were written in blood, almost dry it seemed like blood mixed with ink.
Avery swallowed hard.
This was definitely not normal… And what did this even mean? What the hell are crossroads?
He thought, his mind going in circles dozens of questions running in absolute anarchy in his head.
This didn't make any sense…Nothing here did.
Avery shut the book before everything could get too out of control. Sure, none of this made sense, but he had to keep his promise to himself and go home to deal with this tomorrow.
Avery put the book in his inventory and rushed out of the mine, his thoughts raising.
The walk to his house felt longer than it actually was. It was already dark, and looking at how high the moon was only confirmed that it was probably past 10 pm.
In a bit, Avery finally made it home. He opened the door, turning on the light as he walked in. He took off his backpack, stretching after he felt the weight lift off his shoulders. His muscles were aching after a long day of walking and climbing, but his mind showed no interest in taking a break.
Avery went to bed hoping, praying that he would be able to fall asleep quickly. He hoped he would be able to wake up rested enough to go out and explore that mine, to finally understand what was up with that book. Minutes passed feeling like hours. Avery just wanted to be able to turn off his mind the same way he was able to close his eyes. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. Eventually Avery gave up on falling asleep and just went downstairs to get a glass of water.
The house was dimly lit, warm in the heat of a summer night. Avery couldn't say he enjoyed the heat, but he loved the animals that would come out during the summer, and he liked the flowers that would bloom. He filled the glass with cold water, drinking it before coming up the stairs back into his room.
It was surprisingly easy to drift off after that.
I guess it was the heat that didn't let me fall asleep after all, huh?
Avery last thought before falling asleep.
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When Avery woke up the sun was only rising – he usually slept in, but the desire to find out about the book was too unbearable to let his mind rest.
He got ready, coming downstairs to pack his backpack for the journey. Avery reread the book multiple times. He didn't quite know what it meant by “crossroads” but he imagined it as something of a labyrinth. He knew that he was horrible with directions, so he took some red string so as not to get lost, as well as some food, water, and some bandages; in case he got hurt.
It took a while, but after he had everything packed and ready. Not forgetting to take the book, Avery took off, excited to finally scratch the itch to get to the bottom of the book’s mystery.
When he finally got to the mine it was around noon; as when he last checked the sun was right above his head, so that would be his best guess.
Avery opened the door to the mine, making sure not to trip up on the same small first steps twice. He went down into the mine with the same chest as he saw the day before. Nothing changed. The only things that showed time had passed were the dried blood with ink, and a small layer of dust that gathered on the top of the chest’s lid.
Avery opened the chest –making sure there wasn't anything new– but there was nothing different. Avery closed the chest getting up to his feet. The mine still faintly smelled of blood, but it was probably just because of his nature as a mob that made it more noticeable.
He tied the red string around a boulder in a pile of rocks in the corner, hoping he tied it tight for it not to rip. Avery took the bloody book out of his inventory, rereading it yet again.
"Don't turn left, huh?"
There were three doors on his left.
Is that what they meant by crossroads? Probably not, right? I shouldn't test it.
Avery took out his pickaxe mining into the right wall.
It didn't take long for him to enter what seemed like a cave. He wasn't mining often – he was more into PvP and exploring – but even he noticed something was off with the cave walls. They felt too unnatural, too smooth, too consistent… But hey, who was he to know it wasn't just some strange weird phenomenon?
Avery walked further into the cave, the air became thick – harder to breathe in – but something caught his eye. A tree with moss surrounding it. There should be a lush cave near, right? But as far as he knew trees didn't naturally spawn in lush caves, and to add on that near the tree was another. This one was smaller, decorative, man made. Avery immediately got an urge to leave, but it was equally leveled with a craving to explode, to understand. He kept on moving.
As he moved through the cave, the amount of moss only increased – green growing larger, bigger, consuming the stone walls – but with the multiplying amount of moss the trees also became more frequent to spot. It felt like the cave itself was evolving to be alive. As the air became more moist Avery could feel the moss compress under his weight, releasing water that soaked his shoes and he tried not to trip over the roots of the trees.
Avery felt the path getting wider as it opened into an enormous cave, hundred times bigger than before. It was extremely unnatural, with huge trees at least twice larger than the ones on the surface. There weren't any other shortcuts, the path ended in a sharp stop and the amount of the red string he had was not enough to cross this huge cave.
Avery thought about taking a break for now to think of what to do next.
After about 30 minutes he decided to cut the string before he came down, and then place it down again if he wanted to keep moving forward.
He took out his sword, cutting through the wool string with ease. He goes down the steep edge not taking much damage because of his nature as a slime.
As Avery walked through the forest he couldn't help but feel the smell of blood getting stronger. It was weird, he didn't see any blood yet. Was it maybe in the tall grass? Could be, it wasn't like he was looking down.
He kept walking and then saw a hand print on a tree trunk – golden mixed with red – it was hard to see on a brown background, but surprisingly he noticed it. Avery went off the main path coming closer to it, to maybe follow it if the trail kept going. He wasn't sure if it would, but it did – though to be his surprise and maybe horror.
The path led off the main track and onto a small trail, which was just tall broken grass that looked like someone walked through it not too long ago. The trees were much thicker in this area, and most of them had similar bloody hand prints.
Avery finally started to see a small opening in the trees. He thought it might be another way into this messed up mine – but to his horror it was what seemed like a knight lying in bloody armor in the tall grass.