PixlBit

Mark and I are still chasing achievements for the XBO version of Minecraft. This day was like a mini lifetime.

Things got off to a great start. I enchanted my sword with Loot III and my bow with Fire I. With those and Mark's stuff, we summoned and killed The Wither and defeated the Endor Dragon. My many times in the Nether battling it out in hopes of a wither skeleton skull to drop paid off. I finally got the last one thanks to my Loot III sword. Then we summoned The Wither deep in a mine and battled it out until we won. Mark used his sword and I my bow that shot flaming arrows. I wasn't very effective because The Wither deflects missile attacks and I got burned by my own arrows. Mark got it done though. As for the Endor Dragon, we both got into the End portal and built a nether chest for resupplying us after each respawn. The nether chest shares its contents with every other nether chest in any dimension: The End, The Nether, or The World. We also created beds near the portal so we'd respawn there and be able to jump right back in (sleeping in a bed sets the location of a respawn). First we destroyed the pillars that heal the Dragon. Then I used my bow and Mark his sword, and we killed it good. 

After those big achievements, I wasn't sure what to do next, so I started looking at the remaining achievements and knocked off a bunch of fairly easy ones like: dyeing a full set of leather armor, creating 16 different colored wools, and creating a potion, among other things. The potion creation was particularly helpful because I learned how to make one that grants fire resistance. One of the biggest killers in this game is fire, either from lava, or various mobs that throw fireballs at you.

So I felt really prepared as I entered a natural cave to do some serious mining for the mega amounts of iron ore we were going to need for the last few achievements. I gathered a lot of iron ore before I found lava pools and began looking for diamonds. Well, I think I got entranced by the pools of lava as I dug out around them because I hardly noticed the sounds of a skeleton sneaking up behind me. Next thing I knew, I was head over heels and floundering in the lava. Every time I tried to jump out, that skeleton would shoot me with another arrow and back I'd go. Even my potion of fire resistance wasn't enough to save me. I died with all that iron ore plus my loot sword, fire bow and 40 levels of progress. I was really unhappy about it and contemplated quiting. 

But, Mark was doing really well over in his mine, and so I went on a long journey with my horse around the world looking for a pumpkin to make the head for an Iron Golem and, possibly, a personal search for meaning. I didn't find either. After that, I basically moped about, destitute of valuable equipment and resources, burned and bruised from my long adventures. I gathered my seven dogs in Mark's house and told them stories of my adventures in The End battling the Endor Dragon and fighting off the dreaded Wither. They seemed very attentive. I rewarded each of them with lots of rotten meat collected from zombies. I felt better but I knew it was time for an early retirement.

Then one dark lonely night, I got really crazy and blew myself up with four TNT. It made a nice big crater in the ground and threw me high in the air. After that, I ran into the Nether with no weapons and looked for Nether Quartz (a good source of XP when mined). I didn't find any. A wither knight found me though, and then so did several blazes and then a ghast. Soon I was flying over the edge of a cliff and down into a vast sea of lava. What a way to end. Better to burn out than fade away, I say - literally. 

And that's another day in Minecraft for me, another lifetime for Steve (the character's name apparently). I feel like I just played a long RPG with lots of grinding for levels. You always need some resource you don't have to get something done in Minecraft, and then it takes a good long time to acquire it. I'm always thinking about ways to speed up the labor but it's not easy. These sim-like games want you to take it slow. I just need an axe with Efficiency IV on it like I did earlier today. That thing was like a jack hammer. It cut stone like butter. Too bad it wore out. Darn it.