Alex turns in the direction of the monstrously loud roar and raises her shield as the phantom draws near. She successfully blocks what would surely be an incredibly powerful dive attack from the monster with her shield and I notice the thing taking a hell of a beating. The phantom moves with supernatural swiftness and turns to flee.
My soldiers dash across the battlefield, silently sprinting towards the skeletons. The undead archers who are trying to fight Alex get blindsided by beings they recognize as fellow undead and get nailed by attacks. The other phantom howls supernaturally loudly and I telekinetically open the door to what I assume must be Alex's shack and telekinetically push her into the shack. This happens as the phantom is diving down to attack her and causes the monster's attack to miss.
I glare at the phantom and equip a sword I've enchanted to be effective against the undead. When the monster tries to fly away I grab it with telekinesis and pull it towards myself before stabbing it in the head. It bursts into flames and turns to face me but I leap into the air and kick it away while pulling my sword out of the weird almost manta-like flying monster's head. It takes burning damage and glares at me as it tries to fly away. Alex speeds out of the door of her house and I can sense her annoyance with me causing me to laugh internally, though she also looks at the monster and I can see her hesitate.
The thing is gigantic, at least fifteen feet long from tail to head and has an enormous wingspan. It is much larger than a normal phantom should be which would be comparable in size to the player character. I approach it, even as the other phantom lets out a screech and comes charging towards Alex. I leap into the air as Alex raises her shield to block the phantom's strike, and I crash onto the burning phantom with my sword. I stab it twice before pulling out my wand and blasting the creature with a fire cantrip. Alex blocks the attack of the phantom attempting to strike her, even as the phantom I'm on top of perishes. The surviving phantom flees back to the skies above the battle.
More undead begin to spawn and when a creeper spawns between Alex and her shack I dispatch it with gestureless telekinesis. I look at Alex and summon my book before using it to toss her a party invite. She accepts, allowing me to both protect her more easily and also see her stats. It helps that she now has access to several class features thanks to my potent gamer system.
The surviving phantom tries another diving attack and I, in a show of flexibility, stretch my arm out behind me, point in its direction, and fire a holy spell at it. A streak of radiant light flies across the night sky and hits it, which causes it to roar in pain before setting on fire. It begins to turn in midair but dies before it reaches its default height.
I summon my Traveling Stage item and use True Undeath to bring it to life. I point at the entrance to the thing as my undead soldiers continue to fight monsters, and Alex, understanding my meaning, runs into it. I help my minions with the last enemies before using the guild feature to message them to head home as more undead spawn. None of them see Alex and my true undead are not normally targeted by Minecraft undead so my soldiers turn and run.
I add the stage to the guild and order it to head home, causing it to begin to move of its own volition and power similar to how I can bring buildings to life. I telekinetically toss myself towards the stage and open the door with telekinesis. I leisurely fly through the entrance, before landing in the back part of the structure. Alex watches me dramatically enter my carriage and smiles at me.
I can't speak but I can message her using the party system. Amber is asleep right now as it's decently late at night and close to midnight. At midnight the sun comes out and destroys the undead. I use my book to message Alex and introduce myself. I hope she can read, but I believe she should be able to.
"Hello, my name is Lalo. What is yours?" I ask. I suspect that my message will appear to her almost like a message in the chatbox online Minecraft players are probably familiar with. I watch her eyes go wide as she sees the message.
"I'm Alex." She replies. I nod at her and she smiles.
"I heard the fighting and came to help. Do you need food?" I ask, and she thinks to herself for a moment before nodding. I give her some bread and she jumps up and down in approval before eating. She eats like a Minecraft character does and the food vanishes in seconds. I glance at my book and see her health, both the actual health she has and the protective field generated by HP System, beginning to increase and improve.
"We can come back for your things tomorrow. I have begun to build a community nearby. Let's go there for now." I tell her. She doesn't protest, and I can sense that she's grateful for the assist. The carriage falls silent as we both feel satisfied with what's been said. We quietly move across the wilderness and in minutes, amusingly enough longer than it took for my undead troops and I to reach Alex in the first place, we reach the edge of the community. My undead troops are busy fighting against local undead, and so I instruct the carriage to take us to the mansion. It does as it is instructed, and we are able to reach my home. Alex slips out and darts into the mansion, and I note that this version of Alex seems to be a generically competent though not superhumanly so adventurer.
I step out of my carriage before returning it to my soul. Alex explores the mansion and I shake my head in mild amusement as she darts from room to room, though she manages to avoid those occupied by people and only barges into empty ones. It's very odd, and I half wonder if she can see the floating name plates above people's heads or something which could certainly explain her ability to avoid occupied rooms. It takes me a second to realize she's actually using the mini-map to avoid occupied rooms, and I laugh as she excitedly darts from space to space. The sun creeps out over the horizon and I hear distant undead mobs begin to burn as a result of their exposure to the sun's rays. After a few minutes my friends begin to awaken, with the last one to wake up being Amber.
"There's messages in the chat… ALEX?!" She types into the party chat. For her and for Alex their process of dealing with the party system's chat feature seems to be a purely mental exercise akin to my telepathy. I'm a little jealous, though I could do person-to-person telepathy if I wanted. Alex exits my room and darts downstairs. She's the last to wake up but the first out of her room and when her head appears at the top of the stairwell she leaps down from the second floor. She flashes red as she takes a bit of "Damage" but she begins to regenerate even as she moves and shakes Alex's hand.
"Hi! I'm Amber, and I'm a big fan." She says excitedly. Alex laughs, and I note that she seems curiously unaffected by the drawback that reduces intelligence, though of all of Minecraft's characters Endermen, the dragon in The End, and player characters seem among the most intelligent so it could be the case that even if she takes an intelligence hit she's still pretty smart.
"I'm Alex. Lalo saved me last night and we're gonna head back to my place later today, right?" She "says" into the chat. I turn and nod, and make a mental note that she might be incapable of speech though at the same time it could be that she's just quiet. I don't want to jump to conclusions based on limited evidence.
"We should get you some better equipment before we head back to your home. Though if you want you could just stay here… We're building a community and I do tend to just help people at random. I helped them," I type, before gesturing to the maids who have no idea what's being said, but who can tell that Alex and I are chatting. "And now they live here with me. You could stay here too." I offer. Alex gives me a thoughtful look and tells me that she's open to it but she does have an attachment to her home. I nod and I give her a plain stone pickaxe before taking Amber and her to the mines.
As we slip out into the early morning light Alex takes in the sight of dozens of figures, mostly men but a few women as well, working in the area and dispatching creepers. In a few cases they do so with guns, which fill the area around my home with a series of loud sounds.
"Go ahead and get your own materials. I'll turn them into quality stuff." I tell both of my fellow party members. They nod at me, and I watch them go into a tunnel where some of the undead are busy mining. The undead warriors nod at Amber and Alex, before turning back to do their work. I think it's interesting that no one physically acknowledges Alex, but the guild chat begins to go crazy. I smile, though I don't laugh, as I read people excitedly reacting to Alex's presence. I'm a bit impressed that so many people realize that the person is Alex, especially since I never explained the concept of jumpchains to my undead warriors and they have little idea what all is going on.
Alex and Amber mine for a few hours, and when they come across iron and the like they actually mine it instead of tagging it for future mining. By the time they return to me they both have plenty of iron, with Alex casually revealing that she has the abilities of a true player character in Minecraft, including the inventory by handing me stacks of iron ore. I take the stuff and use my crafting feature to turn it into ingots instantly, which surprises Alex. All three of us head up and out of the mine and are standing not far from it when I place down my crafting bench. I turn the iron into full suits of armor and nearly instantly enchant it with dwarven sorcery before giving it to my friends. Both equip their armor, and I note the ways that their eyes widen as they put it on.
"I just got a new skill. 'Heavy armor'." Amber tells us, though she's used to getting new skills. She's fought a few undead monsters under very controlled circumstances and has gained a handful of combat related skills. Alex is mystified by also having gained the same skill and tells us she has through the group chat. I nod at my friends, having gained the same skill they now have as one of my immediately attained skills due to time I spent fighting in the arena in Generic Monster School. Mine is a decently high level, even despite my grinding drawback thanks to my cheesy build, and skill "levels" seem unaffected by the level-cap drawback which is a good thing since it helps me grind my skills.
When we're fully armed and armored I summon my traveling stage item and note the sun's position high in the sky. It's almost mid-day, but in this world that means it's almost six in the morning rather than noon. We enter my carriage and I instruct it to take us to Alex's house. As the carriage begins to move I turn to the party chat, typing into my book.
"Alex, when we get to your house I recommend you just… pack up the whole thing and move everything to our space." I tell my new friend. She looks at me curiously and thoughtfully and I can sense that she's thinking.
Today's been a big day for Alex. She's had her life saved, made multiple new friends, received high quality new gear, gained new abilities, and been shown a safe place far from the wilderness. I sense her appraising me, and I can tell she's thinking about what to say.
"I can see the wisdom in that," She admits, causing Amber to smile. "But I have an attachment to my home." She tells us. I nod and don't type anything for a second. I think about my options before feeling multiple perks activate when I happen across an idea.
"Okay in that case what if my allies and I construct a safe passageway to your home? We could create something like a network of rails leading to your home and to ours, and erect walls around your home." I offer, and though I sense her suspicion she falls quiet for a while.
"Why do you want to help people?" She eventually and perceptively asks. Amber laughs when Alex messages us this.
"Helping people is Lalo's whole thing. He is… almost annoyingly nice." She says, surprising me. I smile at her as she continues to speak.
"Lalo just… likes people. And in this world there's not a lot of other people to like." Amber explains, causing Alex's eyes to widen.
"'This world'? Have you been to other places?" She asks, and I can't immediately tell if she means full-on other worlds like other jumps and thus universes or if she means somewhere like the Nether or The End. Amber's eyes widen as she realizes her error.
"We've been to the nether. Before we lived where we live now," Amber says, suddenly. "Lalo was able to befriend some of the local creatures but the home we made was attacked by ghasts. It's a… sore memory." Amber adds, and I nod, opting to go along with this.
"You befriended those pig-monsters?" Alex asks, and I nod. Piglins. Easy enough to befriend if you know how they work. All it takes is something like a gold helm or gold boots and they'll be your friends for life. If it's me I could probably befriend a piglin brute if I really wanted to.
"That's amazing. I don't know how to do that." She admits, which is interesting. Alex has been to the Nether, knows about piglins or at least hoglins, but does not have a player character's level of knowledge regarding how the Nether works. This could also explain her not understanding the importance of light, but I'm still not sure if she just lacks torches or if she doesn't know why they matter.
We make it to her home shortly after seven in the morning, and she goes and retrieves her items. As she does I begin to get to work fortifying her home and I ask Amber to do the same.
I start by dotting torches around the landscape while Amber starts to erect the most important kind of defense one can have in Minecraft: a wall just two blocks tall. We can both hear Alex getting her gear, the sound of someone opening objects like treasure chests and hitting objects filling our ears as we get to work.
In a few minutes there's a wall not far from Alex's actual house, and the landscape is illuminated by torches. Amber and I are efficient. Alex walks out of her home and gasps when she sees what we've done.
"Whoa my home looks… different." She admits, into the party chat and I laugh.
"Torches, or more specifically light, keeps monsters from spawning and one small, but critical, part of defending one's home is having clear boundaries. They help corral mobs into tightly packed spaces which can allow for more effective defending of one's home." I tell her over the chat. I watch her eyes go wide as she takes in this new information and I am forced to reassess some of my earlier thoughts.
It seems like Alex is smart and capable of learning but that she lacks absolutely essential information. I suspect that this is how the Stilted Dialogue drawback is manifesting for someone as important to the world as Alex/the player character. It's not hitting her as hard due to both its low cost, and the fact that Alex is a potential player character and thus ought to be quite smart. It is almost certain that the fact that we're communicating telepathically rather than through actual words helps a little bit. The drawback that causes me to be mute doesn't shut off my telepathy and it's also a low-cost drawback so other low-cost drawbacks should be fairly simple and easy enough to get around.
"I'll ask my friends to begin making a set of rails leading to your home tonight." I tell Alex, and she nods. Amber smiles wryly at me calling my undead minions "My friends" but it's not incredibly off-base. I'm one of the most ethical necromancers I could imagine and I actually work to equip my undead and treat them with some modicum of decency.
"Do you have your items?" I ask and Alex nods at me. The three of us turn around and enter my carriage before heading back home.
Another stint of jumper time begins as Alex comes home with us and begins to adapt to communal living. In the weeks that follow Alex begins to spend more and more time with Amber and I, learning from us while we participate in group living. We teach Alex some of the basic stuff there is to learn about Minecraft and show her how to stop encountering phantoms, which causes me to learn that she really doesn't need sleep. This makes her the first living person I've met in a while who doesn't need to rest their mind from time to time. I note, over time, that she is sharply perceptive and I begin to anticipate something really curious: she may have perks, or something perk-adjacent of her own.
During the day Alex, Amber, and I work hard with the community, building farms using water we encounter in one of the tunnels that expands and opens into a cave, and working on houses. Alex also begins to make friends after I extend an invite to the guild to her, allowing her to speak to the undead warriors in the "organization". Thankfully she can't see messages sent before she was added to the guild otherwise I'd have to answer a lot of questions. I also, unsurprisingly for me, teach Alex some basic magic.
During the night Alex rests just commonly enough to stop phantoms from spawning, and causes me to discover that phantoms aren't keyed to me as a matter of fact. I suspected this before I met Alex, because no phantoms spawned during my first few nights here but having it confirmed when phantoms spawn above Alex two weeks into her beginning to mostly stay with us is good knowledge. Other nights she actively participates in monster fighting. It takes her a full month to question why we don't have walls and torches everywhere, to which I respond that there's enough of us and enough of us are armed, that we don't need those measures. I do, however, agree to teach her how to make walls and the like in exchange for her help in fully fortifying our base.
Some minor cosmetic changes to our home occur during this time as well. We create illuminated tunnels underneath the mansion that lead to safe areas under the various houses, as well as to the mine. This tunnel complex is created mostly by me going all Beholder on the space underneath our grand complex, and lit up by undead minions with torches. We also plant flowers in some areas, purely to beautify the space. It's a small touch but a nice one.
Beyond minor cosmetic changes one big change is that we build a fully functional network of rails, including powered ones, to Alex's home. We test it a few times and I send a small number of undead warriors to live in that place full-time as Alex's own live-in protectors. The rails themselves are fortified by being placed on pillars I create using spare stone blocks, and being surrounded by plenty of torches. In all we've created a fairly safe home.
A full third of the time we're supposed to spend in this world passes with everyone adjusting to daily life quite well. It is late one evening when Alex and Amber are with me that the next big changeup to our lives occurs.
"So… I've been thinking about this for a while now and I want to ask for Amber and your help with something." Alex telepathically informs us. In the milliseconds after she transmits this message to us I receive a "Quest", the first one I've ever gotten.
[Alex's Request. Quest type: Personal request. Quest Conditions: Take Alex into the Nether and help her settle a personal score. Quest reward: To be determined.
I read the quest details and flick the notification away as Alex's face reveals she's constructing more of a message.
"Some years ago I ventured into the Nether. When I was there I found a structure, a large… fortress of some kind. I fought strange creatures and I lost. I died and… woke up back in this world, but with nothing and far from where I first appeared. My personal belongings are still in the fortress. Could you help me avenge myself and get my gear back?" She asks. I look at Amber curiously and she flashes me an exasperated smile knowing that I am likely to accept this request. I look at Alex and type my message.
"Alright, sure. But we're gonna need better gear." I tell her, causing Alex to laugh. She's nonverbal like me, in the sense that she can do stuff like laugh and make some sounds but she can't actually speak. It's been months, if she could speak I'm sure she would have by now. Still if it somewhat protects her from the… dumbification of the Stilted Dialogue drawback I'm glad she can't speak. Amber smiles at me when I accept her request.
"Can you reach the portal you used to enter the Nether?" I ask her, and she surprises me with what she says next.
"I don't need a portal. I can just step into the Nether at will. But… every time I do I go alone." She admits, which confirms that she's some version of The Traveler, the origin option. Their boosted capstone perk lets them do stuff like travel from dimension to dimension with single footsteps. I let out a quiet laugh.
"Okay… In that case Amber and I still need a portal." I reply, which Alex nods at.
"And for that we need obsidian. And even for THAT we either need a lot of buckets or diamonds." I write. Amber, familiar with the cheesy method of creating portals, nods at what I'm saying. Alex looks at me in confusion and I shake my head.
"We either need diamond pickaxes to mine obsidian or we get… creative with things and create obsidian in the shape of a portal. But I'm gonna be honest, we should first focus on improving our gear." I tell my two companions. Neither protests what I'm saying, and we quietly resolve to venture out to the mountain Amber and I first discovered a few months ago.
Early in the morning of the next day we are decked out in our full protective gear, equipment that I've enchanted with both regular Minecraft enchantments, though at a basic level, and with dwarven sorcery runes. Amber and I take off into the air and I use telekinesis to take Alex with us. She's not a fan of this form of travel, but she does not attempt to protest it and in minutes instead of in hours we find ourselves at the base of the mountain. When we are a few dozen blocks from the entrance to one of the caves located on the surface we drop to the floor though for me that's just a matter of coming as close to the floor as I can without touching it. I let go of Alex and she lands gracefully.
"Okay… Let's go get some diamonds." Alex says into our chat. I nod and look in my grimoire. The quest's details point me in the direction of the cave we're heading towards, and we begin to walk towards it. We slip into the cave and spot a long, slowly-descending tunnel. The fact that it goes downward is good, as our current height level diamonds would be quite weird, if not impossible, to find.