This one is short and happy. Basket and Scoti tidy up the last corners of the Valley of Blood, carry the White Crystal and their first emerald block to the Nexus, and spend the reward on their first upgrade. The death counter reads Scoti 7, Basket 3 when it starts, and it doesn't move.
One last sweep
They finish off a roof that was full of creepers, then go looking for hidden spawners. A chest has the Quartermaster's Cuirass, with Protection I, Unbreaking V and +10% Max Health. "I got all the hearts." There's a flash potion too.
They walk past the spot where Scoti jumped and died, check the top of a building with a ladder, where there's a spawner to take out, and look through a little barracks with no chest in it. The plan is to make sure there isn't a way down they missed before leaving the area for good.
The White Crystal
"All right, despite my best efforts to ruin us, we have made it to the monument with the first emerald block and the first crystal." Crystal first. It goes in, nothing seems to happen for a second ("it scared me"), and then the message comes up: Congratulations! You have defeated: Valley of Blood. That's 1 of 16.
The first emerald block
Basket puts the emerald block on the bonus monument, and the chest above it lights up green. "The ancient gods have sent you a present."
The chest holds gold nuggets, golden apples, glowstone, a book and two things that matter. One is The Punisher (Level 1), with Sharpness IV, Smite II, Fire Aspect I and Knockback I, unbreakable. "True justice knows no mercy." It's the same weapon as last time. "I now have three infinite use weapons right now, so it's not as important as before."
The other is a bedrock block, marked 1/12, and the book explains it. Every bonus chest has one, and bedrock is what the upgrade room takes. "Oh, you can upgrade block every time."
Picking an upgrade
On the way they pass a target practice room. Hit the button and it spawns things to shoot at. Then the upgrade room: put a bedrock block on the piston in front of a shrine to unlock its basic upgrade, and a second one on the same piston for the advanced version.
So they read every shrine's book. A few of them:
- Arcane Strike: kill a mob and there's a 20% chance of 12 damage to all nearby enemies.
- Frenzy: a 65% chance of two seconds of Strength after a kill.
- Healing: Regeneration I after 15 seconds without taking damage.
- Divine Shield: a two-heart absorption shield that refreshes every 70 seconds.
- Adrenaline Rush: eight seconds of Speed after a kill.
- Scavenging: a 10% chance of an iron ingot per kill, but only after a checkpoint they haven't reached, so "this one's useless for us right now."
Heliceo's own book recommends Frenzy and Arcane Strike first. One of them likes the healing one, but the area damage wins out, and the bedrock goes on the Arcane Strike piston.
Mostly celebrating
"This is going to be a short episode, probably. Mostly celebrating." One crystal of 16, one emerald block of 12, one upgrade, and still 7 and 3 on the death counter.