The Enchanted Creeper, page 1
Also by Greyson Mann
The Creeper Diaries
Mob School Survivor
Creeper’s Got Talent
Creepin’ Through the Snow: Special Edition
New Creep at School
The Overworld Games
Creeper Family Vacation
Creeper on the Case
Secrets of an Overworld Survivor
Lost in the Jungle
When Lava Strikes
Wolves vs. Zombies
Never Say Nether
The Witch’s Warning
Journey to the End
This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.
THE CREEPER DIARIES: THE ENCHANTED CREEPER.
Copyright © 2018 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.
Minecraft® is a registered trademark of Notch Development AB.
The Minecraft game is copyright © Mojang AB.
This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Special thanks to Erin L. Falligant.
Cover illustration by Amanda Brack
Cover design by Brian Peterson
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-5107-3750-1
E-book ISBN: 978-1-5107-3754-9
Printed in the United States of America
DAY 1: THURSDAY
You know how grown-ups are really good at taking something FUN and making it feel like WORK?
Well, that’s what happened with the Enchantment Club. It was SUPPOSED to be a club, anyway. But it turned into a CLASS. With homework. And quizzes. And stacks and stacks of books.
I’ll tell you what—our teacher, Mrs. Collins, pretty much sucked the fun right out of enchantments. I mean, the quizzes she gives are TOUGH.
What’s the difference between the Punch and the Knockback enchantments? How can you get the Frost Walker? Which enchantment works with a sword—Fire Aspect or Flame? Gosh, I don’t know, Mrs. Collins—that’s a real head-scratcher. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
And here’s the real kicker: you can’t even CHOOSE which enchantment you get on something. It comes down to pure dumb luck. And my luck really stinks lately.
We started the week by enchanting tools. Me and my buddy Sam Slime brought in pickaxes from home. Sam’s looked shiny and new, but mine looked like something Sam’s cat had dragged in from the swamp next door.
See, Dad gets really attached to his tools—like they’re his precious babies or something. Even though this pickaxe has a dull, wobbly head and the paint is chipping off the handle, Dad could barely part with it. He made me PROMISE to take good care of it and bring it home in one piece. Okay, Dad. Whatevs.
But when it was my turn at the enchantment table, I forgot all about how old that pickaxe was. I put it in the slot on the side of the table, then I dropped a piece of lapis lazuli in the other slot.
Mrs. Collins only lets us use ONE piece of lapis lazuli. There’s room for up to three, and I’ve heard that the more you use, the more enchantments you get—or something like that. But apparently the school budget is pretty tight, so … I dropped in my one lousy piece and tried to be grateful. (Mom says I should practice that, since Thanksgiving is coming and all.)
Anyway, this thick book with a gold cover sits on the table, and as soon as I put a chunk of lapis in the slot, the pages of the book started fluttering. Sparks began to fly, and my heart thudded in my green creeper chest. I felt like a witch brewing potions—all powerful like. Which enchantment would I get?
Sam had already gotten the Fortune enchantment for his pickaxe. If he mines with it, he can get WAY more diamonds and emeralds than usual.
And his girlfriend, Willow Witch? She got Silk Touch. She’s pretty excited about that, because she can mine more glass for her potion bottles. (Witches are really into that sort of thing.)
When it was my turn, I crossed my toes, hoping for the Fortune enchantment. I could see it in my mind—the diamonds and emeralds practically LEAPING off cave walls and right into my backpack.
But I didn’t get Fortune. You know what I got instead? Unbreaking. GREAT. That means Dad’s wobbly old pickaxe will never break. He can keep it forever. Dad will be THRILLED.
I wanted a do-over. But the thing with enchantments is, you pretty much get what you get. There are no second chances. It’s like Life sticking out its tongue at you and going “Neener-neener-neener!”
And you know what made things worse? Sam said he wasn’t even going to USE his Fortune enchantment for diamonds and emeralds. No sirree. He was going to use it to collect more MUSHROOMS. To make mushroom stew. To share with his cat, Moo.
REALLY???
The only mob in the room who seemed more disappointed than me was Bones. That skeleton LOVES to poke fun at other mobs with his bony fingers and his gang of spider jockeys. He pretty much made my life miserable last year, when I first started Mob Middle School.
But here in Enchantment Class, the ONLY thing Bones wants to enchant is his bow. That dude is all about his bow and arrows. But Mrs. Collins slid her little glasses down on her nose and said that we aren’t learning how to enchant weapons and armor “just yet.” We’ll be sticking with tools for another week.
I caught Bones mocking her behind her back, just to impress his spider jockey friends. But for once, I couldn’t blame him. I mean, another week of TOOLS? That meant I was going to need a lot more of them from home. (And Dad was going to have to learn to share.)
I made the mistake of asking Mom for help when I got home. And when she heard I needed to collect old tools for school, she kicked it into high gear. Mom can get a TAD carried away with things like this.
She said it’d be great to clear some clutter out of the house, especially since Aunt Constance is coming for Thanksgiving. Mom is always trying to impress her big sister. It’s like this competition thing. Who can knit the longest scarf? Whose house is the tidiest? Whose children are the best behaved? (Mom usually loses on that one. I mean, I’M a pretty decent kid, but I can’t speak for my three sisters.)
Now Mom is on a MISSION to cut clutter. She started with the gardening tools she keeps in the chicken coop. Then she decided to clear out some of the chickens, too. Yup, that’s right—we have a whole coop full of chickens in our backyard, plus a sheep named Sock. (Don’t ask. That’s a whole other story.)
Mom decided those chickens would be happier back at the farm where she got them. When she started eyeing up Sock the Sheep, like she was going to send him back too, my baby sister started bawling. Cammy LOVES Sock. And when Cammy doesn’t get her way, she blows sky high. (That’s why we call her the Exploding Baby.)
So Sock gets to stay, at least for now. But I’m starting to think I’ll have to hide my pet squid, Sticky.
Then Mom came in and started cutting clutter INSIDE. She filled a gazillion boxes with stuff to donate to the Creeper Charity. (I guess they send things to homeless mobs in the Nether or something.) Blankets, books, toys—you name it. If it wasn’t nailed to the floor, Mom stuffed it into a box. She took a couch pillow right from under my head!
“Less is more,” she keeps saying. “You kids don’t need all this stuff. You can share.”
Yeah, RIGHT. Cammy hasn’t really learned how to share yet. And my Evil Twin, Chloe? Nope—she’d rather burn her things than share them with me.
The only sibling I have who SOMETIMES shares is my big sister, Cate. We call her the Fashion Queen because she has a closet full of clothes and costumes. When I needed a rapper costume for the talent show last fall, she hooked me right up.
I can tell Mom is ITCHING to get into Cate’s closet and clean it out, but I’m hoping she holds off. See, there might be some leather armor in there that I can use in Enchantment Class. So if Cate has to chain herself to her closet door to keep Mom out, I might have to join her.
The other part of the house Mom can’t get into yet is Dad’s garage. He told Mom he’s working in there, helping Chloe with her science fair project. “Official school business,” he told Mom. “It’s top secret.”
Well, I happen to know EXACTLY what Chloe’s project is. It’s a dispenser made out of cobblestone that shoots fire charges—mini fireballs, like blasts shoot in the Nether. How do I know, you ask? Because every time I’m in the yard, Chloe tests it out on ME. She aims that dispenser right at me and zings me with fireballs.
Sometimes,
The worst part is, I haven’t come up with a science fair project of my own. I mean, any mob who knows me KNOWS I’m not a fan of science. Math? Sure. Art? Yup. But science? Not so much.
Still, I have to come up with SOMETHING. Partly because my life’s mission is to beat my Evil Twin EVERY chance I get. And partly because of the prize.
See, last year, the winner of the science fair got a bag full of emeralds, and you know what she did with it? Bought a jukebox. Yup, I heard it with my very own ears from my buddy Eddy Enderman. Her own personal jukebox. If I had that in MY room? I could listen to Kid Z’s rap songs ALL night long.
So every time Chloe zings me with a fireball, I remind myself that I’m going to zing her right back—by winning the fair. And I have a BIG advantage: Chloe doesn’t take Enchantment Class till next semester. So I’m thinking I can use enchantments to make a killer science fair project—one that will blow Chloe’s dispenser right out of the water (er, I mean the garage).
The only problem is, I don’t have a SINGLE idea for a project. And with the homework from Enchantment Class, plus my regular homework, plus all the work it takes to stay out of Mom’s way (so that she doesn’t find me standing still and donate ME to some charity), I don’t really have time to come up with a science project.
I’d almost given up—until school last night. We were in Enchantment Class, and Willow Witch was bummed out about the enchantment she got for her shears. “Potions are WAY better than enchantments,” she said. “At least with potions, you can choose which one you want to brew.”
I agreed with her. (And let me tell you, THAT doesn’t happen very often.) But so far, I’d been getting pretty lame enchantments, too.
Well, Mrs. Collins overheard us and said that you CAN choose which enchantments you give to things.
HUH?
Sure, she said. You do it by enchanting books. Books let you save enchantments for later. Then you can use something called an anvil to transfer those enchantments from books to other things.
She pointed to this big black anvil in the corner of the enchantment room.
Well, I just about fell off my chair. We’ve been enchanting for almost a week. So WHEN was Mrs. Collins going to get around to teaching us how to use that anvil? I asked her that—as politely as I could.
And she said, “Later. When you’re ready.”
LATER? An anvil isn’t going to help me LATER. I have to come up with a science project NOW.
I took another look at the anvil. That hunk of iron reminded me of something I’d seen in Dad’s garage. See, he got this pile of iron ingots after a golem was destroyed in a nearby village—destroyed because of a “creeper incident,” Dad told me. And yeah, he sounded kind of proud about that. (Iron golems and creepers don’t really get along.) Dad kept the iron because he thought he could make something out of it someday. He can build pretty much anything.
So now I’m home from school, and I’m thinking that “someday” might be TODAY. Dad has enough iron to build an anvil. And I NEED an anvil. Can I convince him to help me build one? Maybe—if I make a plan.
The science fair is at the end of the month, so … here’s what I’m thinking:
I’ll start in on Dad tonight, after a good day’s sleep. (“Creepers need their sleepers,” Dad always says.)
And by the weekend? Dad and I will be pounding iron, side by side, out in the garage. I’m telling you, Chloe and her fire-spitting dispenser don’t stand a chance.
DAY 2: FRIDAY
Turns out, convincing Dad to help with the anvil wasn’t hard AT ALL. See, after I told Mom that the anvil was part of my science project, she HAD to let Dad keep his huge pile of iron ingots—and all kinds of other crud in the garage that he says he needs for the project.
Dad looked so relieved, a trickle of sweat ran down his creeper face. He went out to the garage before dinner last night and started banging away on that iron. But Mom made me stay inside and finish my homework. I guess she picked up my backpack to move it to “its proper place” and felt how heavy it was.
So I banged out my math homework. Then I read my history chapter. Then I studied all of the enchantments that start with F. I decided to save my science reading for last, because … well, you know. Why do NOW what you can put off till later?
That left just one thing: my Language Arts essay. We have to write two of them a week, which is a LOT. But our new teacher lets me write RAP songs instead of essays. She’s a fan of all kinds of writing, she says. FINALLY—a grown-up who gets me!
So I wrote to the sound of Dad pounding on that anvil. Then, after I’d put the finishing touches on my genius rap, I went out to check on Dad’s progress.
That’s when I ran into Chloe.
If you’re wondering how Chloe feels about Dad helping me with my anvil, I’ll tell you. She’s thrilled about it.
Why? Because every time I walk out to the garage, she zings me with a freakishly fast fireball.
Click! Puff! Zing! (Ouch!)
Click! Puff! Zing! (Ouch!)
Click! Puff! Zing! (Ouch!)
Yup. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
I actually have little green welts on my skin. I even scratched one to make it bigger, so I could run crying to Mom and rat out Chloe.
But then I remembered I had my own “on the sly” thing going on with the anvil, so I decided to leave Mom out of it.
Besides, I had work to do! (No, not my science homework. I was hoping that would somehow do itself.) I had to figure out how to enchant a few books so that by the time Dad finished the anvil, I could start USING the thing.
But would Mrs. Collins let me enchant a book in class? Or would she just slide those little glasses down on her nose and say, “LATER, Gerald. You’re not ready.”
ARGH.
I made a plan on the way to school last night. Enchantment Class is after lunch, but I wasn’t going to wait that long. No, sirree.
I decided to pay Mrs. Collins a friendly visit during the lunch hour. It sure beat sitting next to Ziggy Zombie, who was going on and ON about his science project. It has something to do with blisters and rashes. He actually pulled off his running shoes to show me the other day. “If I run a mile WITHOUT socks, I get THIS kind of blister,” he said proudly. “But if I run TWO miles …”
Well, last night, I didn’t stick around to see those blisters. I took a run of my own—right down to the library. See, the library and the enchantment classroom are next door to each other. And Mrs. Collins usually hangs out in the library. So I wandered in, all whistling and stuff, pretending I was just looking for a good book to read.
I tell you what, if Mob Middle School ever decides to offer Acting Class, I could TEACH it.
I examined every inch of every book on the first shelf. I turned my head sideways to read the spines. I leaned in and SMELLED those books. I cozied up to them the way Dad does with his tools in the garage, as if they were my own precious babies.
And Mrs. Collins noticed. “Need a book, Gerald?” she asked.
I pretended to think about it. Then I shook my head. “Actually, Mrs. Collins, I want to MAKE a book. Ever since you mentioned those enchanted books, it’s all I can THINK about! I dream about enchanting books someday.” Then I sighed super loudly. “I only wish I didn’t have to WAIT.” I scrunched up my eyes and might have even squirted out a tear.
Well, Mrs. Collins ate my performance right up. She hurried over and patted my back. “There, there, Gerald. I can see how much you LOVE books. And I appreciate your initiative.”
