Mindcrack UHC XV

Ultra Hardcore XV had begun. VintageBeef spawned in the middle of a desert, with the bedrock wall towering up before him. Instantly, he spun around to make a quick surveillance of the land. No one was in sight, though the desert did seem to stretch in every direction as far as his render-distance would allow. On the horizon, Beef spotted a familiar outline.

"Oh man! A village this early on." He exclaimed in joy and began his journey towards the sandstone village.

The rules of this UHC were pretty much the same as always: No strip-mining, no X-Ray, et cetera. Nothing that would give anyone an unfair advantage.

The main difference was that alliances were now allowed. Guude had suggested it, saying that it'd add that extra bit of excitement to the mix if your enemy became your friend, then killed you while your back was turned. There was only one issue with the 'alliance' addition. During a fight, you had to treat everyone as an enemy, including your teammate. It was either that, or players might join together and gang up on solo-players, and that was definitely an unfair advantage.

Beef was pretty indifferent about the whole 'alliance' thing when they discussed it. He didn't really care either way, but had at least supported it when Guude had made his suggestion.

Now, he was somewhat regretting his decision as he thought of loopholes to the rule of treating everyone as an enemy as he approached the village. A group of Testificates grunted in their usual disapproving Squidward way as Beef neared. To his surprise, it was a large village and contained not only a blacksmith, but a naturally spawned Golem. It clunked along the sandstone pathway, completely oblivious to the possible enemy sneaking into the blacksmith.

Beef opened the chest inside and found an iron helmet, iron chest-piece, iron pickaxe, iron sword and two POPSIC!

"No way!" Beef cried, collecting the items and storing them in his inventory. He donned the armour and drew the sword cautiously. He just knew that any second he'd come across something awful since he'd made such a good discovery. For all he knew, Etho was crouched right outside the doorway, bow drawn, wearing all-diamond armour somehow. It'd be just Beef's luck to be killed by Etho again.

He shook his head to clear it. He was just being paranoid now. There was no way Etho would have diamond armour this early. Then again, it was Etho he was talking about.

Beef exited the blacksmith, clutching his iron sword tightly. He cast an anxious glance around and crept further out into the desert. With perpetual daytime, there was no hurry to go caving. Beef hadn't even punched a tree yet, and already he had some iron gear and food. Besides, he still hadn't raided the crops of the village yet, or built up the courage to face the Golem. He knew he had to, despite the risks.

Within a few clicks, Beef found a villager that traded an emerald for thirteen wheat. He beamed and set to work collecting the crops of the village. Soon, he had enough to buy a bunch of emeralds and then went searching for some good trades. To his shock, he found one villager that sold a diamond sword for thirteen emeralds. He bought it without hesitation.

"Hey -- thanks, guy!" Beef smirked at the Testificate while clutching his new diamond sword.

After fully raiding the village for all that it could give him, Beef began his journey into the desert. He made it about thirty blocks when he came across another sandstone structure.

"Oh come on. A Desert Temple?!" He grinned. "I'm way too lucky this UHC."

Beef entered the surprisingly cool temple and examined the woollen pattern on the floor. Silently, he pulled out his iron pick and began digging a stairway down to the four chests. He quickly disarmed the TNT trap and began searching the chests. The first one held five rotten flesh, three bones, two iron and an emerald. The second chest had three gold, four rotten flesh, an iron ingot and a nametag. The third held golden horse-armour (useless for this UHC), five gold, three bones and another emerald. The final chest had a Bane of Arthropods II diamond sword, two bones and five more rotten flesh, along with an iron ingot.

Beef took out the diamond sword in awe and sheathed in quickly. His hoarder-nature made him collect all of the other items, too, including the fourteen zombie flesh.

He also found himself tempted to grab the TNT, but resisted and began climbing back up his stairway with many more items. He wasn't even twenty minutes into UHC Season Fifteen and he already had two diamond swords, enough gold to make a golden apple, enough bones to get at least one dog, enough food to last him through the whole of the Season, enough emeralds to be used as bribery and enough rotten flesh to start a canning business.

Overall, it was the best start Beef could've asked for.

Beef collected some supplies from the land after finding a forest. Namely coal and wood, plus two apples. He made some iron boots out of what he found in the Temple, then created a golden apple which sat happily and unused in his inventory. He had a stack of torches which he made shortly after finding a massive coal vein in what looked like a cave opening, but really just led down to a dead-end. Still, he had taken no damage. Soon, though, it was time to go mining. Beef knew he had to find diamond to make an enchantment table and he had to find more iron to make a bucket plus iron leggings. It was a dangerous thing, mining during UHC. It was especially so while they were using the latest update which included Dinnerbone's beloved 'improved' skeletons.

It had been about forty minutes since UHC started, and only now did Beef need to go mini-

Dinnerbone was shot by Skeleton

Beef couldn't help but burst out laughing. That was the best thing that could've happened. Ironic on so many levels and still simply funny. It gave Beef the morale-boost he needed to enter the dark cave mouth yawning in front of him. He swallowed and let the darkness engulf him on his quest for materials.