Forge That Armor, Oliver

TinkerTown

Desert Biome, OverWorld

Steve, Alex, Eve and Jake were all standing just outside Oliver's shop. His shop was constructed of chiseled sandstone, and cobblestone. A sign hanging over the door read Oliver's Customized Armory & Repair Shop.

Jake grabbed the handle to the door and pushed it open. The door squeaked as it opened. A bell above the door dinged. Jake, Steve, Alex, and Eve all walked into Oliver's Shop. Jake shut the door behind them.

Oliver, a young blockhead with brown hair came walking out from the backroom. He was wearing a red shirt with a black leather vest, with blue jeans and black boots.

Oliver took the goggles he was wearing off of his eyes. He put them into his inventory. His hands, face, and hair were covered in soot from the coal burning fires used to smelt metals into armor. He walked up to the counter and greeted everyone.

Scattered all around the shop were wooden armor stands. Some were empty, while there were few that had actual armor on them. Lanterns hung from the ceiling by chains, lighting the shop up brightly. Oliver saw Jake and smiled.

"Ahh Jake," Oliver said, "you've returned."

Jake laughed as he raised his arm and rubbed the back of his neck. Oliver hadn't seen Jake since he left to join the resistance sometime ago.

"I have. I've also brought some friends along too. They're in need of some armor and weapons," Jake said.

Jake, Steve, Alex, and Eve all walked over to the counter. Oliver grabbed a small red cloth off of the glass counter to wipe his hands clean of dirt and grime. He then held his hand out to shake hands with Steve, Alex, and Eve.

"Nice to meet you all," Oliver said, "I'm Oliver. The legendary armor and weapons craftsman. So you need armor and weapons huh? May I ask what for?"

"We're preparing for a battle," Steve answered, "a battle that will change the OverWorld forever."

Oliver squinted his eyes and crossed his arms. What kind of battle were they preparing for? How was this battle going to change the OverWorld forever? Oliver was curious to find out.

"A battle you say?" Oliver asked.

"You are correct," Steve responded as he glanced over at Eve, "could you show him the book please?"

Eve nodded. She reached into her inventory and grabbed the blue covered book out of her inventory. Oliver looked over at Eve and raised one eyebrow at her. She set the book down on the countertop.

Oliver un-crossed his arms and grabbed the book. He looked at the cover and read the title. The boom was simply titled The Prophecy. Such a simple name, but a lot of meaning behind that title.

He then proceeded on to open the book. As he read through the book, he flipped from page to page. Every time he turned the page, his eyes widened. He now understood what battle was going to be fought in the days to come. Oliver realized that Steve and Alex were more special than he had originally thought.

After scanning through the rest of the pages of the book, he closed it. He set the book back down on the counter. Oliver was at a loss of words. How should he react to what he had just read? Excited? Scared? Nervous?

Eve grabbed the book and put it back into her inventory. Oliver stared at Steve and Alex. Now that he knew why they had come to him, he now needed to clarify a few things. He had questions about this so-called prophecy.

"If I'm understanding correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you two are the saviors? The blockheads that will dethrone that wicked witch and free us from her reign?" Oliver questioned, "am I right?"

Steve and Alex both nodded their heads.

"That's right," Steve mentioned, "that's why we've come to you. In order to fight, we need protection while in combat."

Oliver quickly glanced over at Jake, and then back at Steve and Alex. He faintly smiled.

"Well you guys have come to the right place then," Oliver said as he set his hands down on the table. He leaned slightly forward. "So what kind of armor did you guys have in mind? Iron? Diamond? Gold?"

"What about Netherite?" Steve asked, "do you have any of that laying around?"

Oliver leaned back and stood up straight. He crossed his arms again and sighed. He scratched the back of his head a few times. Oliver tried to remember if he even had any Netherite in the shop.

Believe it or not, Netherite was a rare and valuable crafting material. It was hard to acquire, and difficult to craft armor with. The only place Netherite could be retrieved from was the Nether.

Because the Nether was so dangerous, many craftsmen didn't dare travel there to retrieve Netherite, hence why it was rare and hard to acquire. Oliver had only traveled to the Nether twice since he became a blacksmith.

Oliver was a well experienced craftsman. From forging swords that could light on fire, to crafting the simplest tools and weapons. He was one of five blockheads worldwide to wield such experience.

"You know what?" Oliver said, "I think I have some in the back room. Let me go check."

"Thank you Oliver," Alex said.

"You're welcome," he responded as he walked back into the back room.

There were dozens of wooden chests all around his back room. Many of those chests held crafting materials, finished armor, and even a couple of potions.

In the corner of the back room, there was a burning furnace with coal in it. The fire inside the furnace popped and spewed hot ashes out onto the stone floor. Resting up against the wall next to the furnace, was a long wooden table.

There were crafting tools lying on the table, along with unfinished armor as well. Because the furnace was so hot, it made the entire room hot.

Hanging on the walls all over the room were item frames. One frame had a shiny iron sword on it, while another had a shiny ruby helmet on it. Oliver used the item frames to store his most precious creations.

Oliver was digging through chest after chest, trying to find out if he had any Netherite ingots. Without the ingots, Oliver wouldn't be able to craft the Netherite armor Steve and Alex had requested. But there was, however, an alternative armor type...diamond.

After digging around in multiple chests, Oliver finally came across some Netherite ingots. Thank goodness for that. It's been a while since Oliver traveled to the Nether. For a moment, he had almost forgotten all about the ingots. Surprisingly though he didn't...which was a good thing.

Once he was certain he had Netherite on hand, he walked out of the back room and back over to the others. They were all waiting patiently.

"It seems as though you two are in luck," Oliver said, "I have some Netherite. Now before I begin forging your armor, I have to ask you two a question."

Steve and Alex both looked over at Oliver. Eve had wandered off to go explore the other types of armor in Oliver's shop. Of course she didn't need any armor mainly because she wouldn't be participating in the battle. Fighting wasn't one of her strengths anyways.

"Jake mentioned that you two also needed weapons too, right?" Oliver asked.

"We do," Alex responded.

"Do you have a perforation on what kind of weapons I should craft?" Oliver asked.

"Only the best and strongest," Steve said, "surprise us."

As Steve and Alex were preparing themselves for the battle, Merlin was still lying flat down on the ground. He was still in pain from the rough impact when he fell.

After lying on the ground for quite some time, he had finally regained his strength to get back up onto his feet. He hoisted himself back up. Merlin was still listening for the faint and distant cry for help. But he didn't hear anything. There was nothing but silence everywhere.

Not being able to hear the cry worried Merlin. It wasn't too long ago that he had first heard the cry for help. Merlin was surrounded by many oak trees. It was dark.

Suddenly he heard a loud giggling sound. Merlin turned his head to look in the direction from where the giggling sounds were heard. Footsteps and leaves crunching could be heard.

"Who's there?" Merlin shouted loudly, "show yourselves!"

He didn't get a response. The only response he got was laughing and giggling again. A twig had snapped. Merlin quickly reached into his inventory to grab his wooden wand out. Not letting down his guard, he held his wand tightly in his right hand. He wasn't afraid of nothing.

Emerging from the darkness, three tiny dark green goblins had appeared. All three of the goblins stared at him, not blinking once so ever. They smiled and laughed evilly once more.

"Well hello Merlin," one of the Goblins said. The goblin was holding a stone axe in his hand, "the Queen's been expecting you for quite some time now."

"You don't scare me," Merlin mentioned as the tip of his wooden wand began to glow a dark blue color. He aimed it directly at the three Goblins. "Whatever it is that Nora wants, she isn't going to get it."

Goblins were known to be cruel and hostile creatures. They weren't creatures you wanted to mess around with. If you were to ever come in contact with one, you'd better run.

"We'll see about that," the Goblin responded.

Right after he had said that, a pumpkin was put over his head. The orange pumpkin wasn't carved. The Goblin that had put the pumpkin over Merlin's head quickly snatched Merlin's wand out of his hand.

"What the heck?" Merlin's muffled voice said, "get this thing off of me right now!"

The Goblin's didn't say anything back to him. They simply just ignored him. To be honest, they didn't care about him. All they cared about was handing Merlin over to NightMare. That's all they were focusing on.

"After all this time in hiding, he managed to fall for our simple trap," one goblin mentioned, "good job on coming up with that idea."

"Don't thank me. All I did was use the oldest trick in the book. I'm shocked that he actually fell for it. What a dummy," the other goblin said.

"Well good job anyways," the goblin in charge said, "now let's get this rat back to the Castle. She'll be very pleased to see what we've accomplished."