The Stranger from the underground Part 2

Beyond the oak wood double doors was a small library. Barely enough room to be called an actual room. More of a large closet with two large bookshelves for side walls and a podium against the third wall on the opposite side of the door.

The podium held a thin closed book with a picture of a feather pen. The book had an aura to it. An aura of mystery but also of danger.

I took the book in hand and opened it to the first page. There was a sound of rusted gears moving as the podium top lifted up. I heard a click as they all stopped and the podium opened up to show an antique key.

I took it and left the small closet room as I read the first page of the feather pen book.

...

Those who read this must be ready to learn something that you would probably wish had been forgotten. I write this with incomplete knowledge as I am about to travel to a new adventure in search of the lost hero.

The first you will need to know is, I am not like the villagers. I come from a small underground society of great scientist. Ones that weren't prepared for a sudden lava burst. Lava that flooded the entire city and left nothing to remain.

On the bookshelf to the left of the door is a jar. It's filled with samples from Experiment #22-0. The flower next to it wasn't from 22-0 but rather it mysteriously appeared when 22-0 took down a nearby skeleton.

It seems to be alive but also dead. When you touch it, something poisonous happens but a few moment later, you're unaffected. Strangely enough, I can't pull a petal to study this peculiar flower. A flower that I had only ever seen in the higher ups office of the great underground city.

Honestly, Experiment #22-0 wasn't the first I had constructed. Yes, I built 22-0. Built it from a legend the villagers talked about. Didn't believe you could summon such a terrifying creature with such easily collected items.

The first time I constructed the monster it was mere curiosity. It wrecked havoc across the village. None of us could stop it or contain it. I thought that it would the last thing I ever saw.

That was when the hero showed up. He fought the monster with a simple iron sword and no armor. It took a while but he eventually won. He wields strength that no other human would be able to handle.

He most definitely knows secrets about this world but act like everything is okay. When I first met him, is when I realized he knew more than anyone else. he looked at me, who dressed differently than everyone else and said, 'you're not apart of the code'.

Now, I'm following after that same hero to save him.

...

The thin book ended there. I looked to the shelf left of the door. The flower was gone but the jar was perfectly taken care of.

I grabbed it from the shelf and almost dropped it when I had recognized what it was.

Soul sand was impossible to get anymore. Only the government could go into the second world. Nobody knew how to get into that world anymore. The knowledge was forgotten by the common people.

Even though we could no longer go into that world. We still had to know what the resources of world looked like. Especially what soul sand looked like since it was such a dangerous object in the wrong hands.

But the author of the books said they had constructed the monster. Meaning it could only be one thing, a wither. The same kind of monster that attacked the city 20 years ago. Nobody knew where it came from but I could guess where it was from now. Anybody with common sense would be able to.

I closed the doors after putting the book back and looked around for a place where the key would go. Nothing seemed to have a keyhole. All the doors had no lock, as if knowing nobody could break into this special area.

There was a hallway on the same wall as the double doors. It's where the colored carpets led to. It had a corner so all I could see was a wall.

I took a small peak around the corner. As I had guessed, there was three doors. Each door had a colored carpet leading to the entrance. pictures on them to match the books under the carpets.

The doors however, had no handles. I pressed up against them hoping they were just swinging doors, but none of them moved. Not even a window to see what inside the room.

With the feather pen book in hand, I couldn't help but wonder if the gears were the keys to the doors.

I went back to the table and picked up the book with blue vines.

Nothing happened, no gears sounding, no pieces lifting up. Everything was simply the same.

I put the book down wondering if I had gotten the idea wrong. I picked up the book with the tall monster. Again, nothing changed. I sighed thinking this isn't going to work.

Apart of me wanted to walk right back up the stairs after putting away the books and key. The rest of me was saying to try again. My curiosity was the deciding factor.

I grabbed the last book from its place and stacked it with the other books. I could see now that each of them was roughly the same size and all were shockingly thin.

It took a moment but as I was about to put the book back, I could hear the sudden sound of gears turning. With the gears turning came lights from where the books had been. I grabbed all three and waited for the sound of a door opening in the hallway.

I smiled waiting following the lime green carpet to it's door. The door opened slowly, the scent of plants and fresh air came from inside.

I pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked in. There was moss growing on the ground. a table and chairs in the middle of the room, like a desk.

Vines grew on the walls and flowers were growing in the corners. Not a single cobweb or insect was in sight. The place was well taken care of like the garden above. On the wall opposite of the door, was something I had not seen in front of me but rather in museums.

Old time furnaces, a crafting table, a smithing table, a slightly broken anvil and an ancient looking barrel.

I opened the tree sapling book and there was a picture first. The picture was titled 'the hero'

...

Though these villagers do not have the technology I need, They most certainly have some helpful tools that I will use to remake my cities technology. That was my first thought after going around the village.

How wrong I was when I thought that.

These villagers do not focus on technology. They believe the hero will always save them when there is trouble. If not the hero, the golems.

I do not know where the golems come from. Even the villages do not know. I know little about the golems. Only that their body is made of pure iron and they posses no brain.

The hero taught me to make one. it's disturbing how they are made in a similar manner as Experiment #22-0. They do not show aggression so I left them be.

I watched these iron golems be used by the hero as an iron farm. None of the villagers mind it.

...

The thin book ended there. I looked around the room once more but there wasn't any strange contraptions. Everything looked normal. The only thing I found out of place was the desk and chairs in the middle of the room.

Who could she possibly have a meeting with if the villagers weren't interested in technology. Would it have been the keepers who now watch over the house.

I pushed the vines off the table top. The tree sapling symbol was directly in the middle of everything.

I put the thin sapling book down and listened to the sound of gears running. The second door of blue vines had opened.

I walked up and pushed the door open. Inside the room was hot. It was like sitting on beach in tropical weather with no clouds in the sky.

The walls were made of red nether bricks. Something only multimillionaires with connections could get.

Though the room was small, the walls could sell probably sell for enough to buy another mansion.

Not even mentioning the countless treasures in the room that even billionaires had a hard time finding. The blue and red vines that grew from the ceiling. A clear container with odd colored fungus mushrooms on the nether brick desk.

A door on on the side of the room led into another small closet like room in the back.

A set of perfectly preserved netherite armor caught my attention first. Who wouldn't be intrigued by netherite in front of their eyes. After all, it was so rare when the nether was free to everyone but now it was a like a mythical item. Nobody knew how to make it, not ever the government.

Netherite did not exist anymore. There was no way to get it and no proof that it had existed before. It was simply something in books... but now it was before my eyes.

I looked around the room and a small desk had the same picture as the thin book in my hand. A picture of blue vines. The the side of the desk was a purple see through unknown object. Almost like a piece of cloth. The pattern moved around in swirls and shot out sparkles every so often.

I wondered what it felt like, maybe silk? Possibly polyester? I reached my hand for it but it wasn't a piece of cloth at all. My hand went right through it and disappeared beyond it. It felt hot, a lot more than the room I was in.

My instincts were telling me not to cross but my curiosity pushed my feet to move forward.

Inside was like a large version of the small room. Cliffs and ledges everywhere around. Strange trees that resembled the fungus mushrooms in the containers. Lava was everywhere, a sea on the ground and flowing from the very top.

I opened the thin book finally and started to read.

...

The nether was the most unusual place to explore. I came with the hero and looked around with him. The most peculiar place I had ever seen. There was one thing that bothered me, the piglins.

Zombified piglins had no interest in us but the usual piglins attacked us if we did not wear gold. This wasn't the only thing I found out of the ordinary. Their trading system is completely gold. Much like my homes trading system. Their rare netherite armor even resembles the scout armour of our armies. It's less refined then I'm used to but it is definitely the same material.

It makes me very worried what the higher ups of my village participated in. Where they had travelled to. As well as why they were so unprepared for lava when they have most certainly seen a lava world.

...

I closed the thin blue vine book and went back through the portal. After placing the book on the desk, I walked to the last door as the gears ran. I didn't wait this time as I opened the last thin book with the tall monster figure.

...

I can't make an observational journal for this supposed world. I'm not even sure it exists anymore. This portal could lead me to nothing. The hero went in and has yet to return. He said he would be back soon. That he knew he could pass the final test and become what he called a true hero.

I have no clue what it was that he aimed for but I knew that his path was dangerous. He said that the tall monsters, known as enderman, are from this world but I'm skeptical. I've seen their blue lands in the nether and I do not believe they come from this third world.

I do know one thing though, something in the world has felt very wrong since he left. Something that none of the villagers have felt but the other survivors of the underground city felt it.

This is why I am going. I probably won't return, after all I know that I am not made to pass this test. Rather, I am going to go and see if something bad has truly happened.

...

I opened the door and it was barely enough to call a room. There another portal. This one looked like endless darkness with stars like the sky. It was covered by a protective glass and bars. On one side of the portal was a desk with the book picture and a key hole beside it.

I placed the book down. The protective glass moved out of the way.

I took the key that I had gotten from the first journal and placed it in the keyhole. Ever piece of me was telling me not to turn the key but I did it anyways.

As the bars moved to the side, I jumped into the seemingly endless void.