Free Quest for Justice by Sean Fay Wolfe Page B

move, Stan. If Charlie were in any condition to fight right now, he would have lost the match due to taking damage from both you and Kat. And Kat! To produce a strike with a stone sword that does that much damage to someone wearing a diamond helmet! Very impressive, both of you!”
    Stan tried not to look too proud of himself, seeing as he had just injured his best friend. Kat, meanwhile, was trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.
    â€œWell, Charlie, you’d better not fight anymore seeing as you don’t have a helmet, but we still have to finish this fight. Kat, where’s your sword?”
    â€œOver there,” she said sheepishly, gesturing to a handleand several chunks of stone. The impact with Charlie’s helmet had reduced her weapon to rubble.
    â€œGirl, you are good at this!” Sally laughed as she picked up the remains of Kat’s sword from the floor. “It must have taken a ton of power to shatter a stone sword in one blow. Here,” she said, picking up Charlie’s sword off the ground and tossing it to her. “Match point! Ready? And . . . FIGHT!”
    This time there was no contest. Kat was simply more talented with a sword than Stan was, and she delivered a blow to his leg and won the match in a matter of seconds.
    â€œPoint to Kat! Stan, zero . . . Kat, three. Kat wins!” she boomed. “Now, come on, I still have crafting to show you guys.”
    The three friends stripped off the training suits with pleasure—they were really quite uncomfortable after a while. They followed Sally down the ladder and into the crafting room below them.
    Sally explained that the tables with tools on them were called “crafting tables,” and that they used these to create a wide variety of different items. Sally handed them each a copy of a book exactly like the one Stan had gotten out of the chest that first day in Elementia.
    Sally gave Stan, Kat, and Charlie instructions to craft certain items, and she said to use anything in the chests to do so. They all proved to be quite capable of crafting. Theycrafted their own wooden planks and then crafting tables, and then some sticks, a stone sword, a stone axe, a bow, some arrows, and leather armor.
    After they had learned how to craft sufficiently, and Sally had explained how to smelt (changing the properties of certain blocks by putting them in a furnace), they headed back to the room, with a long, hard, successful day behind them. Sally once again came to talk to Stan. He was waiting—it was becoming a thing that they did. She sat down.
    â€œYou’re really good with a sword,” she said.
    â€œNo I’m not! Kat was better!” he said, wondering why she would say this.
    â€œYes, she is better with a sword than you are. But you were innovative. Once you realized what you were doing, you managed to score two points with two people going against you. That’s not something just anybody could do.”
    â€œThanks,” he said, smiling at her. “I had a good teacher.”
    She smiled back at him. “You’d better get to bed, noob. Tomorrow’s your day with Jayden, and you can’t expect him to be as nice as me. Get some rest. You’ll need it.” And with that she went to her own bed.

CHAPTER 6    STAN AND STEVE
    S tan woke up the next morning to a hissing sound.
    â€œVery funny, guys,” he mumbled. “That actually sounds a lot like a real Creep—aaauuuggghhh!”
    This time, it was no prank. An actual Creeper was standing right next to Stan, and he was staring right into its horrible, empty face. The monster was beginning to swell, and in the split second before the inevitable explosion, Stan flew at the monster and punched it in the face.
    To Stan’s amazement, instead of exploding, the Creeper flew backward. As it walked back toward him, it suddenly keeled over sideways, an arrow protruding from the side of its head. Everyone woke up to