The Survivalists: Book One
Into The End

An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure Series

*Nate BoxDollar Enterprises

1: A Letter From Far Away

I knew I was in trouble when I saw the three spider jockeys approach me. Yes, three! I could see the spider’s bulging red eyes and their sleek, black skin. And it is impossible to miss their eight legs. The skeleton’s eyes, well, they had no soul in them. Their hollow bones creaked and reflected what little light there was in this cave into my eye. I whipped out my iron sword and quickly stabbed one of the skeletons and then used TNT to destroy the rest of the invaders..
“Ha,” I muttered to myself.
The mine is so dark, I can barely see a thing. I put down a torch and to my surprise, I saw the bright blue glow of diamonds. Now all I had to do was cross the sea of lava to get there.
I pulled out a bucket of water and poured it out. The lava changed to obsidian. I scooped up the water and repeated the process until I had reached the diamonds.
I went over to the ore and mined the diamonds. Seven in total. Not bad! It’s been a great day in this cave, for earlier I had also found redstone, gold, and iron. And you can’t forget lapis Lazuli! Pretty good for a day’s work. Or maybe it’s been two. Or possibly five? Say, I should use that redstone and gold to make a clock, I thought to myself.
I start hearing a hissing sound. Gee, what could that be? I think. I obviously know it’s a creeper. I ran away far enough to notice its features. Made out of some sort of plant, it had no arms and had an ever-sorrow face. If it got near you it would explode, dealing enough damage to kill you in one shot. You have to be nimble to eradicate this green beast.
The creeper hisses the same hiss in some players’ nightmares and expands until… I barely avoid death. The explosion the creeper made leaves a crater in my wake.
That’s enough for one day. (Or possibly five, I still need that clock) I retrace my steps back to the mouth of the cave and go back home.
While I’m on the subject of home, I should probably tell you a bit about it. It has a nice iron door, a proud icon of how just a little thing can protect you from so much. There is a falling sand trap for defense, just enough to suffocate an unlucky zombie. Soul sand is useful for slowing enemies down, and when you take a step on its brown, sticky surface you can hear the screams of ones not so lucky as yourself. I have an alarm system to notify me of any intruders. And that’s just the outside. Inside, the first room is my bedroom. It’s not that big, but all you need for a bedroom is a bed, right?
The next room is my crafter room. It has a cobblestone generator (very useful if you want to mine stone without worrying about zombies and whatnot). I also have an enchanting table, with a book full of only the best enchantments, an anvil for repairing damaged swords, and all the necessities. A crafting table, a furnace, and a lever that opens a secret chest. It holds all my valuables. I plop my iron, gold, redstone and diamonds into the chest, and put the coal in the furnace. Finally, at the end of the room, stands a Nether Portal. Strange whispers emanate from the purple glow of the portal. Not to brag but I have survived The Nether numerous times. It is a horrid place, with hostile pig-monsters, lava cubes a foot taller than you, black skeletons that wield stone swords and inflict upon you a disease long lost in time, and blazes, demons of flame and ash, that shoot fireballs at you and swarm in the dozens. And the ghasts, humongous, ghost-like jellyfish-type creatures, shoot bombs out of their mouths that light on fire and do half the damage of a creeper. And everywhere you look, there is bound to be a pool of lava. If you fall in, you’d better hope you have a potion of fire resistance because water evaporates in The Nether, so there is no saving yourself. The only reason people got to The Nether is for the loot, and it is not for the faint of heart.
The final room is the kitchen. It boasts a humble chest and crafting table. Outside on the farm I grow wheat, melons, pumpkins, carrots, and potatoes. Not only do I never run out of food, I have too much! I have to craft new chests every other day! Other Minecraft farmers reading this… you know how I feel. In addition, I have a Nether wart farm for all your potion brewing needs. Potions of health, resistance and speed, I have it all.
So now that you’ve had the grand tour, back to my life. Currently I’m in the crafter room smelting iron and enchanting some swords. Hmm… Smite or sharpness? I think I’ll go with sharpness. DING-DING!!! My alarm rang. I assumed it was just a pig or something that stumbled upon the tripwire. DING-DING!!! again? I went outside to see what the commotion was but when I went outside and there was nothing there except a book.

***

I opened the book and read it:

We are the Survivalists. We hide in the shadows and you don’t see us unless we want you to. We have elite armor, weapons, and tools made out of the finest diamonds possible. Why are we writing to you? No, you are not our next victim. We want you to join our crew. You have more potential than you know. You have strategy, athletics, acrobatics and wits. In order to join you have to help us do something our small group has never been able to do alone… DEFEAT THE ENDER DRAGON. Find our base in the jungle beneath the tree with the pink wool. You have half an hour.

P.S. Destroy this book as soon as you read it!

Okay, okay. This is obviously junk mail. If I chose to follow these instructions, I would most likely be trapped by some jerk and forced to give up my valuables. Even if it was real, I would have to face THE ENDER DRAGON??? Are you kidding me??? No thank you. Nuh-uh. No way… I looked back at my house.
It’s the same thing, over and over again. Farm, sleep, mine, craft, sleep, repeat. What if I could be a part of something… bigger? What if… something exciting could happen for once?
I took out my flint and steel. This is it, I thought. No turning back.
I lit the book on fire and took off towards the jungle.

2: Searching for the Base

“UUUUGGGHHHH.” That was me. I just really don’t like the jungle. The trees are so tall and thick. It takes ten whole minutes just to travel a couple dozen feet. Cocoa beans, lumber and watermelon are the only reason I would ever come here. Unless I wanted a cat…
I thought pink wool in the jungle would stand out. WRONG! Leaves hide almost everything. I’m starting to feel as if I should give up and just go back. Oh! OH! I see it! The tree with pink wool! Then I pause. If these guys have been staying alive as long as I have then this tree must be booby-trapped. Luckily, I have a strategy for booby-trapped blocks. It’s quite simple actually.

20 seconds later…

KAAAABOOOOMM!!! Problem solved. Can you guess what my strategy was??? Of course you can. I blew up the whole thing. It takes care of all the traps. Unless the trap was TNT… Then it would just make everything worse. I look down at the massive crater I had just made. I see a ladder! I climb down wondering what I would face at the bottom.

***

“Is it him?”
“Maybe?”
“Let’s ask?”
This chorus of voices surrounding me made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. So, I introduce myself. “Hi! My name is Nate! And I am honored to be wanted as part of your group.”
“It is him,” the girl said. ‘My name is Jill.”
“I’m Mike,” the boy on the left said.
“You can call me Mark,” the boy on the right said. “And I’m the leader.
“Good for you,” I responded. “So, do I get diamond armor before or after we defeat the Ender Dragon?…”
“Shush!” Mark (rudely) interrupted. “We have more important things to discuss!”
“Mark has a bit of a temper, but he’s a good leader.” Jill whispered to me quietly. “Follow me. This is what we call our map room.”
I walked into a huge room, probably bigger than my entire house. There were glowstone lights, quartz walls, and even an emerald block in the center of the room. An E-M-E-R-A-L-D block! Do you know how rare emeralds are? Not including trading with villagers, some people say that emerald is the rarest ore in Minecraft. It looked… beautiful. On another wall, there was this quite large map, showing everything from my house to the mesa biome, like, 150 chunks away!
“So, what are these ‘important matters’?” I ask.
“Tell me, have you ever encountered a… griefer?” Mark said to me.
“Whoa, a griefer?” I replied. “Steer clear of those dudes. I had a friend once who was cornered by a group of griefers and had to give up all his stuff. He got so mad he left, and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Exactly,” Mark said. “Griefers are the main reason we Survivalists have never been able to get to the end. Griefers and other mischief-makers rule the strongholds, and our small group has never been able to defeat their large army. But you, Nate, are just what we need. We don’t need some dude dressed in diamonds but has no idea what he’s doing! We need a guy who knows how to survive. We will give you the upgrades and we will give you the weapons but what we need is you Nate, because you have ideas and wits none of us have thought of or have. Like that cobblestone generator. Amazing idea! Why didn’t I think of that? So, I have one question to ask you: will you be a Survivalist?”

***

First off, let me say I am totally blown away by that speech. I’m flattered! Did you hear what he said? Secondly, how did he know I have a cobblestone generator? Have they been… watching me? Anyway, I have one word to say to Mark and one word only: “Yes.”
Mike, Jill, and Mark cheered.
“Today my friends,” Mark said, “We prepare for the End.”

3: End Preparation

I wake up in my new bed. I’m not used to living underground so I didn’t sleep very well. I had already moved, I had put all of my stuff into my friend’s surplus of chests. I stepped out of my room, which by the way was incredible, made out of smooth quartz and white concrete and a glowstone chandelier. I was ready for a day of preparation.

***

I walked over to Jill and asked, “Hey Jill, do you have any diamonds?”
“How many do you need?” She replies.
“Um, two please.” I said. I held the valuable gems gingerly and, by combining them with a stick, crafted a diamond sword.
“Hey um… maybe you can enchant it using our enchantment table,” said Jill.
“Oh, I almost forgot, thanks.”
I enchanted it to do extra damage so it could be even more powerful. I already had an enchanted bow (It shot flaming arrows and did double damage) I rush off to find Mark, who told me to come see him tomorrow (he said this yesterday). Then I remember I found diamonds the other day, so I gave the diamonds I found the other day to him.
“Thank you, this is much appreciated. By the way, I have a little present for you.” He steps to the side and reveals an armor stand equipped with enchanted diamond armor. “You’re gonna need these for the battle with the Ender Dragon.”
After I thank Mark, like a million times, (Diamond armor is valuable, with a net worth of like eighty billion dollars) I go to bed because it was getting late. The next morning starts the training, and I have no idea what the day would bring.

***

I woke up and was immediately greeted by Mark.
“Good morning. Today we shall test whether or not you have the combat skill to fight an entire army.”
I’m led to an almost pitch-black room, lit with nothing but a few redstone torches. I realized monsters can spawn here because of the low light level. I turned to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. There was nowhere to run.

***

I kept my eyes wide open and looked around for hostile monsters. It was a large room, I want to say roughly one thousand square feet. To make it worse, before Mark put me in here, they had replaced my diamond armor with chain mail and my diamond sword with an iron one. Not too shabby for sure, but it might not be enough to protect me from the amount of monsters I think to be in here.
An arrow flew at me. A skeleton! I rush at it and clobber it with three blows of my sword. Then I pull my special strategy that no one knows: Run around in circles and blindly swing my sword. I took out at least five zombies, only losing a single heart. I quietly ate some steak to refill my hunger bar.
I see Mark looking at me through the door. He nods.
Then I go berserk.
I ran at dizzying speed and ruthlessly hit everything I could. I don’t really know what I’m doing, it’s as if I’m tapping in to something long lost, something about my ancestry…
The door opens and I go outside. Mark, Mike, and Jill were all there. I was panting and I felt the adrenaline going away. I felt like I could sleep for the next week and a half. We all stood in silence for what seemed like forever.
Finally, Mark says, “I think we are ready for the End.”

4: Battle For The Portal

Mark guides us to the nearest stronghold.
“I believe this one has the least amount of griefers.” Mark says. “At least, I hope.” Mark seems to notice our worried expressions and states rather quickly, “Plus, there might be treasure here.”
Jill flips a switch on a tree and the floor opens up beneath us.

***

“We are in the stronghold.” Mark says proudly.
Before I can take in our surroundings we were attacked by a leather-clad griefer. He only wielded a wooden sword so we took him down quickly and proceeded with the exploring. The walls were made of cracked, mossy stone bricks. I read somewhere that if you broke one of these it would release a silverfish. Harmless on their own, if you got swarmed by them, they could kill you instantly. We went into the fountain room and were attacked by another griefer, this one not alone. Mark and Mike, the two M’s of our group, charged at them and mercilessly stabbed them repeatedly. Our diamond largely outmatched their leather. We destroyed them without a struggle.
We found a library in the next room. “So many books!” I commented. “We could learn so much here…”
I looked at a book, with a dark green cover, that read History of Minecraft. It seemed to be… calling to me. I walked toward it, halfway in a trance. Before I could open it, Jill exclaimed, “I found treasure!”
I blinked my eyes twice, and looked over to her. I walked over there and opened the chest. “Nothing but rotten flesh,” I said with a sad tone.
“It’s already been looted,” Mark said with an angry tone.
“Yeah, by us!” It came from a voice behind us. Four griefers, all wearing iron armor and toting diamond swords. They had menacing expressions on their faces, and I don’t think they were here to chat.

***

It was a hard fight, and the griefers were as good fighters as we were. Swords clashed, arrows fired, but we all had better armor, so I liked our odds. The one I am fighting leans in and whispers, “There are much more of us in the portal room. Even if you make it there you will die anyway. So, you might as well just give up everything in your possession and maybe we will let you walk away alive.”
“Never!” I shouted in reply. And with one final swing of my sword, I defeated this underestimating enemy.
“What do you think of the diamond armor?” asked Mike.
“I think it’s amazing!” I said in reply. “I only lost four hearts during that battle. Honestly, I wasn’t even worried.”
We went lower into the stronghold and found some kind of dungeon. I went into a jail cell and pretended to be trapped. “Free me!” I said to my friends. They all laughed. It was nervous laughter though. They stopped laughing when they noticed a chest.
“Wait!” Mark said. “Check to make sure the chest isn’t trapped.” After we made sure it wasn’t trapped, I opened it and found…
“Gold and diamonds!!!” I exclaimed. We gave all of the loot to Mike (he was kind of just holding everything so we didn’t run out of space in our inventory). We kept going.
Finally, we made it to the portal room. Almost a dozen griefers lurked there. The battle to win the war was about to begin.

***

A griefer in the back of the room shouted, “COME AT ME BRO!!!” He was wearing diamond armor. I took it that he was the leader. “WE RULE THIS STRONGHOLD AND ALL THAT IS IN IT. WE WILL ANNIHILATE YOU!!!”
Battle cries shook the stronghold as the griefer army yelled maniacally.
“CHARGE!” Mark shouted back. And we did just that. Putting all the things I did in training to work, I jabbed, parried, and clobbered the griefers, and just like in the training room, I started to feel something strange, like my genetics were working in perfect harmony to destroy all in my path. Mark, Mike, and Jill took out more. We had destroyed roughly half of them, but now they had realized our strength and had started using strategy.
All at once we were all stabbed from behind. Our armor negated most of the damage, but now we were worried. Then suddenly we were splashed with potions. We were poisoned and now weak. Mark quickly tossed each one of us a potion of regeneration. I drank it and slowly, all my hearts came back.
“FOR THE SURVIVALISTS!!!” We all yelled as a battle cry as we charged straight for the leader.
It was an intense battle, and the griefer was possibly a better fighter than Mark was. But we were a team, and we fought like a team. Mike scored critical hits, while Jill threw potions of poison and harming at the griefer. Mark and I took him from both sides and sliced at him. He was overwhelmed and was destroyed.
“Score!” I yelled. “He dropped his sword and armor! That’s a valuable drop.” We all cheered. Then we looked at the remaining members of the griefer army.
They glanced at each other nervously and one of them shouted, “EVANCIBUR IS DEFEATED! RETREAT!”
Evancibur… have I heard that name before? I mean, it’s a weird name so it stands out but still… I feel like I’ve heard it before…
“And now, for the big moment.” Mark said excitedly. He placed down Eyes of Ender in the empty spots of the portal and it sputtered to life. Then we all jumped in.

The fight of our lives was about to begin.

5: The Dragon’s Bane

We instantly transported to a sea of Endermen. Tall figures with lanky limbs, they are completely black, the purest of all blacks, with purple eyes that could put you in a trance. Be warned, for if you do look into their eyes, they will turn hostile and destroy you. They have double the health of humans and do so much damage. I made sure to keep my eyes down so they didn’t get provoked. I then heard the dragon roar, and I knew in an instant this fight would be harder than any of us thought.
We made our way to the center of the middle island, a vast circle of End stone, a moon-like block, all floating in space. In the very middle there was a bedrock altar. That was where the exit portal would appear should we defeat the mighty beast. On the edges of the island there were tall pillars of obsidian, each with an End Crystal on top of it. End Crystals were a combination of glass and magic with runes on the sides. They healed the Ender Dragon. Without them, the Ender Dragon would be weak.
Mark shot an arrow at one of the pillars. The End Crystal exploded.
“That got the Ender Dragon’s attention.” Jill said nervously.
“Quick!” Mark shouted. “Shoot the crystals!”
We did as he said. Luckily, the dragon flew too close to one of the crystals, and when I shot an arrow at the crystal the explosion dented the dragon’s health. Eventually all the crystals were destroyed and the dragon had no way to heal.
The Ender Dragon growled and shot a fireball. It flew toward us and we managed to dodge it–all except for Mike.
“I’m hit!” Mike shouted. Jill handed him a potion of healing and Mike’s health was restored.
We all continued to shoot arrows. The Dragon came to rest at the podium and shot Dragon’s Breath. Dragons Breath was a poison gas and if you touched it you would be hurt. Armor doesn’t do anything against Dragons Breath so that makes it even worse. I slipped and accidentally stepped in it, and my health was reduced to half of my original health. I ran away and shot arrows at the dragon from a distance.
Eventually, the dragon’s health was reduced to three-fifths of its original health. We were finally making a dent in this menacing boss mob.

***
We kept shooting more arrows, and the Ender Dragon kept shooting more fireballs. “We’re hit!” both Mike and Mark said. “We’re weak,” Mark said. “We have to regenerate. You and Jill will have to fight the Ender Dragon on your own for now.”
It was going to be hard with just two people, but the dragon’s health was reduced to a quarter now, and I knew Jill and I could defeat the monstrous dragon that ruled the End dimension.
“I have an idea!” I shouted to Jill. I placed a bed down on the podium. Then, when the dragon came down, I punched my bed and it exploded. Nobody knows why beds explode in the end, but they do. The dragon’s health was reduced to almost nil. Jill then fired the kill shot and the Ender Dragon, once a mighty beast with control over life and death itself, was destroyed.
Mark and Mike rushed over to gather the XP the dragon dropped. My level now reaches triple digits.
“Round two, anyone?” Mark said, looking at the dragon egg. It is not common to know you can respawn the Ender Dragon if you combine the dragon’s egg with four end crystals.
“Let’s just go home.” I said. We jumped through the portal that had appeared at the podium and I felt more triumphant than I have ever felt in my life.

***

6: It’s Just The Beginning

We spawned back at our base. I took a look around and I let out a sigh of relief. Me and my friends had just defeated the Ender Dragon! The only thing as hard as that is beating the wither, which we may or may not attempt. *wink*
“I need to go enchant some stuff or else my levels will never be used.” Max said happily. Mike, Jill, and I went off to do the same.
“We need to throw a party.” Jill said. “With cake and cookies and a jukebox.”
“Agreed.” Max and Mike said. We started to enchant swords, armor, and bows. I even enchanted a fishing rod cause hey, why not? I felt like the happiest dude in the world and, in a way, I was. I had friends, a butload of loot, and the satisfaction of defeating not only a large army of griefers but A DRAGON.
Eventually it turned to night and we all went off to bed. I fell asleep with a feeling of happiness.

***

Well, it’s been a few weeks since we defeated the Ender Dragon and the Survivalists were still going strong. We have treasure hunted, fought monsters, and basically had fun getting new treasures and valuables.

Oh, and we did have that party. The cake was great.
Things have changed a whole lot since my cobblestone generator days and harvesting crops. I now have diamond armor and much more treasure.

We are a team.

We are friends.

We are the Survivalists.

Epilogue

“Sir, He is growing stronger. He is getting closer to unlocking his true potential. He defeated me, and I am your advisor. That should not have been possible.”
“Was he alone?”
“No, he had a group of friends. The Survivalists, they called themselves.”
“Evancibur, we have been together for millennia. You have never failed me… until now. You were lucky you had that totem of undying.”
“Yes my lord, and I cannot express my gratitude enough.”
“We cannot let him live. He could be the only one who might be able to stop me.”
“I understand that sir.”
“This… survivalist group. They protect him. GET RID OF THEM!”
“Yes, my lord. The white eyes will not submit!”
“Do not kill him. I need him… Alive.”

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my mom for her editing skills and my dad for his support. Also, thanks to StoryTastic, the platform I published this on.

And thanks to YOU for reading this book.

About The Author

NateGG has been playing Minecraft since the first grade. He plays on PS3 and Pocket Edition. He also has Minecraft Dungeons, which he plays on Nintendo Switch.

Be on the lookout for The Survivalists: Ep 2

Venture to The Nether

Nate and the rest of the Survivalists are noticing some strange things: Trees disappearing overnight, crops in the farm being smashed, and four pieces of white wool, arranged in the shape of two eyes…

They know they are being watched so they up the security. Obviously they didn’t do it well enough because the next day their entire potion supply disappears.

They now have no choice but to go to The Nether to refill supplies.
Though The Nether is a harsh and hostile place…

What else is at work here?

Find out more in:

The Survivalists: Book 2
Venture to The Nether

This story belongs to NateGG. Any copying or distribution of this story is not permitted.