Day three of The Merchant of Minecraft!, Michael Deering's February 2015 Minecraft Hardcore Challenge. The most emeralds at the end of the eighth day wins. Basket ended day two underground with two emeralds, digging toward the sound of water, and opens this one with a promise: "Now we're going to find out what's on the other side of this wall."
A new plan
Basket has been watching how other entrants handle this month, and one idea stands out: don't stay in one village. "They are sort of going to be going from village to village and pillaging it, which is actually something I didn't really even consider." The zombies took a lot of the home village's villagers, but nothing says those are the only ones Basket can trade with. "So I can definitely go somewhere else and go to a different village. So that's what I'm going to work on in the rest of the challenge."
Gold, lapis and coal
That plan has to wait, because the cave is right here. Diamonds aren't the goal this month, but "it's really hard not to check over here." Basket expects the torches to draw zombies, and a zombie does show up. Basket mines a patch of gold and lapis ore and keeps grabbing coal. "Actually, the coal is important." Coal is what the fisherman buys, and "I think there's actually two different types of villagers that want coal, so that'll be good."
Around the lava
The cave opens onto wide pools of lava, and there's still no bucket. "Let me get around this lava without dying." Basket digs along the edges, cooks iron in a furnace set up underground, and wears through another pickaxe. Basket keeps calling out mobs: "Ooh, bad guy. Come around." Then the inventory fills. "Looks like my inventory is full," Basket says, and starts working back toward the surface, keeping an eye out for skeletons and creepers along the way.
A bucket at last
On the way out, Basket finally crafts a bucket and fills it with water. Back in the shaft it's night, so the time goes to the furnaces. Five gold ore get smelted, "five isn't really enough to make anything, but that's okay," and some iron becomes one more pickaxe even though it could have been trade goods. Basket says the armor is full now. A trip through the chest picks up raw porkchops in case there's a trader for them, and the junk stays behind.
Coal for the fisherman
Basket climbs the ladder into the village under a red sky. "It's actually pretty quiet up here." The walled-in fisherman wants string and coal, and Basket has lots of coal. At 21 coal per emerald, the trades go through one after another, and the emerald count climbs from two to seven. The fisherman's other offers are still there: an enchanted fishing rod for 8 emeralds, one more than Basket holds, and a fish-cooking trade Basket turns down. "No, that's a bad trade." Green sparkles go up around the villager. "So now he's happy."
The sun comes up over the wheat, and since it's morning, Basket ends the day there, hoping the next episode brings "a bunch of trades." The episode ends with Basket alive in the village with seven emeralds. The credits follow, with no gameplay after them.