The first light of morning painted the snowy landscape in hues of pale blue and soft pink. Inside the cabin, the familiar sounds of the family stirring and the aroma of breakfast filled the air.
After a simple meal together, uncles Kael and Rhys announced their plan for the day. Rhys had previously spotted a group of mountain goats in the higher elevations, and with their food stores lacking, He decided today was the day to hunt them.
Neil, overhearing their plans, decided to join them. He saw it as a perfect opportunity to reach the mountain area and mine some much-needed stone for his new underground project.
Soon, the usual morning bustle took over. The others dispersed to their various tasks, leaving Neil to head towards the mountains with his two uncles.
Upon reaching the foothills, they discussed their approach. Neil suggested he would follow Rhys to the area where the goats had been sighted, assist with the hunt, and later he will go to cave for start mining stone.
Hearing this everyone start searching for a while, Afterwards Rhys led them to a rocky outcrop where a herd of nine mountain goats grazed peacefully.
A quick discussion ensued to plan the hunt. Neil proposed a trap. Taking out his blocky stone shovel, he efficiently dug a pit three blocks deep, two blocks wide, and five blocks long in the snow-covered ground.
His uncles watched in amazement at his speed and the clean, cubic shapes of the excavated earth. While Neil dug, Kael and Rhys busied themselves collecting sturdy tree branches, sharpening their ends to create deadly spikes.
Once the pit was complete, they carefully filled it with the sharpened branches, concealing them with a layer of small, leafy boughs.
Their plan was for Rhys and Kael to approach the goats from the opposite side, scaring them into a panicked run directly towards the camouflaged trap. While Neil positioned himself near the pit, ready to warn his uncles if they inadvertently got too close in the heat of the chase.
With everyone in position, Rhys and Kael began their approach, shouting and waving their arms from behind the unsuspecting herd.
As expected, the startled goats bolted, their hooves pounding against the snowy ground as they fled towards the concealed danger. Rhys and Kael kept up the chase, their shouts echoing through the mountain air. One by one, the nine mountain goats stumbled and fell into the hidden trap.
Soon, Neil and his uncles gathered at the edge of the pit, looking down at their successful bounty. A wave of relief and happiness washed over them at the prospect of so much food.
However, the challenge of transporting nine goats back to the cabin, which was a considerable distance away, quickly dampened their initial excitement.
Suddenly, an idea sparked in Neil's mind. He considered using his inventory. He had always instinctively limited its use to items that originated from his interaction with the "Minecraft" layer of reality like wood from cut trees, mined stone, and so on. He had never tried storing anything else, like his clothes or gathered food.
Hesitantly, Neil asked Kael and Rhys if he could try something with one of the dead goats.
His uncles exchanged a look. After a moment, Rhys nodded. "Go on, lad," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "You don't have to be so polite all the time, you know. You helped us immensely with that pit. We wouldn't have dug it so quickly, and those goats might have been long gone, or worse, we could have hurt ourselves trying."
Neil nodded, a warmth spreading through him at his uncle's words. He then dug a small, stepped incline into the side of the three-block-deep pit, allowing them to safely reach the bottom.
Rhys and Kael carefully checked each goat to ensure they were indeed dead. Only after confirming this did they allow Neil to approach the carcasses, mindful of the potential danger if one were still alive and panicked. This small act of consideration made Neil feel a surge of warmth.
Neil knelt beside one of the goats, his uncles watching with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. He mentally opened his inventory screen. Seeing no immediate reaction from the dead animal, he reached out and touched its cold fur. Still, nothing happened.
A wave of disappointment washed over him. Just as he was about to retract his hand, a thought flickered in his mind. He focused, and silently willed the word, "Collect." Instantly, the goat's corpse beneath his hand began to shimmer and gradually disappear, pixel by pixel, until it had completely vanished.
Neil stared at the empty space for a moment, shock giving way to a surge of excitement. He quickly switched his mental focus to his inventory screen.
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100 dark oak wood 1 slot
30 dark oak wood 2 slot
79 stick 3 slot
1 goat 4 slot
Seeing the newly added "goat" icon in his inventory filled him with excitement. He had actually stored something that wasn't a direct result of breaking or crafting! A new understanding of his inventory's potential dawned on him. He could seemingly collect anything he wanted.
Just as this realization hit, a soft "ding" sound echoed in his mind, and a holographic prompt appeared before his eyes:
Unlock a new recipe: [ Ram Block ]
Unlock a new recipe: [ Viking Helmet ]
Excitedly, Neil immediately switched his mental interface from his inventory to the crafting table.
A familiar 3x3 crafting grid floated in his vision, alongside a comprehensive list of Minecraft recipes – planks, stairs, basic tools, and countless others. He hadn't consciously used these recipes in this life, his muscle memory from his days as a "Minecraft pro player" before his illness allowing him to craft instinctively.
However, at the top of the recipe list, two new entries flashed in vibrant colors. Intrigued, he mentally clicked on the first one:
Ram Block
Recipe: 9 Goat Horn in all 9 slots of the crafting table.
Below the recipe, an image of a blocky, horn-covered block appeared, accompanied by its description:
The Ram Block is a block-breaking oriented block crafted from goat horns. With the help of a piston, the Ram block can damage and break blocks, much like a goat ramming into a tree.
Break speed depends on the hardness of the block. Additionally, it will be able to break anything up iron-tier block .
Does not work with enchantments as it's a block.
Also inflicts knockback and damage on entities when pushed.
He then mentally selected the second flashing recipe:
Viking Helmet
Recipe:
Top row: Horn - Iron Ingot - Horn. Middle: Iron Ingot - Empty - Iron Ingot. Bottom: Empty - Empty - Empty.
Below the recipe, an image of a blocky helmet with prominent horns and iron accents appeared, along with its description:
The Viking Helmet is a life-saving piece of equipment crafted from goat horns and iron. It provides the player with strength and speed on lower health.
Neil stared at the new recipes, a wave of disbelief quickly followed by overwhelming excitement washing over him.
While the Minecraft abilities granted by the Artifact were already incredible, the real world offered a far greater variety of resources than the game. The appearance of entirely new recipes, ones he had never seen in his previous life, meant that every new item he encountered held the potential to unlock even more possibilities.
It dawned on him that the new recipes had appeared immediately after he stored the goat corpse in his inventory. This confirmed his suspicion: to unlock more recipes, he needed to collect new items.
Lost in his thoughts, Neil was jolted back to reality by his uncles' voices. They were staring at the spot where the goat had disappeared, their faces a mixture of shock and confusion. "Neil! What in the world did you just do?" Kael exclaimed.
Snapping out of his reverie, Neil explained, a little awkwardly at first, that he had a kind of… inventory. Seeing their bewildered expressions, he elaborated, "It's like a storage space that moves with me. I can put things in it and take them out whenever I need them."
Rhys frowned, trying to grasp the concept. "How much can you put in this… space? And does it feel heavy?"
Neil shook his head. "I don't feel any weight, no matter how much I put in. And as far as I can tell, there's no limit."
A look of understanding dawned on Rhys's face. "So… could you put the rest of the goats in there?"
He gestured to the remaining carcasses. "It would save us a long, hard walk, and leaving them here would only attract predators."
"Yes, I can do that," Neil replied, nodding eagerly. He began to touch each of the remaining eight goats, mentally willing them to "collect." One by one, they vanished.
With all nine goats safely stored, Neil turned to his uncles. "Why don't you two head back? I'll fill in the pit so no one accidentally falls in."
His uncles readily agreed, and while they started their journey back towards the cabin, Neil meticulously replaced the snow and loose earth, erasing all traces of their successful hunt. Once the area was safe, he turned and followed his uncles, the weight of nine goats surprisingly absent, the possibilities of ram blocks and viking helmets swirling in his mind. They reached the cabin not long after.