When I opened my eyes, I saw Mom standing up, going over things in her inventory. We were inside a dirt shelter, which confused me for a brief moment until I recalled the events that had taken place yesterday.

The campfire in front of us was still burning, although once Mom noticed me awake, she came over and picked me up as she brought out a bucket of water and poured it over the campfire. The fire quickly went out with a hiss, but the water spilled all over the shelter. I could feel a few water particles land on my feet, and my heart beat heavily as the liquid surrounded us. A moment later, it disappeared into the ground and Mom set me back down.

I was wide awake now, and once I was over my shock, I let out a sigh of relief.

"It's morning now, dear. Time for us to set out for the nearest village." Mom reminded, and she quickly got to work disassembling our dirt hut, breaking it down to portable blocks that she would stow away into her inventory. As she did so, I felt rain particles continuing to fall from the sky and refamiliarized myself with the environment around us, the many oak trees surrounding us indicating that we were within the oak forest. When she was finished, Mom grabbed ahold of my fist and brought out a map with the other.

"Follow Mom, alright David?" she ordered. I nodded and we set out in a direction.

"Now then, according to this map, Stonefield Village should be around twelve hundred blocks to the north..." she thought out loud, mostly to herself as she focused on the map. "Honestly, if it weren't for this map, we'd have no idea where to go across this huge world. Thank goodness I grabbed it."

As she was speaking, I took an interest in our surroundings. This was the furthest I'd ever been from the village, and I didn't recognize anything around us. I spotted a cluster of what appeared to be bushes of roses to our left, right by a shallow lake. And to our right, there was a spring, and somehow, what remained of an oak tree was hovering above it in defiance of gravity, not even touching the ground. There were also animals around us, I could see a flock of chickens right next to the spring. Some were even swimming in it, flapping their wings as they tried to keep them dry in the rain. Ahead of us was a herd of cows, which let out passive moos as we approached them.

"Mom, can I pet one?" I asked her eagerly, pointing to the cows ahead. She took one brief glance at them before looking back down at the map.

"No, David. We don't have time to pause. If we're going to reach the village by nightfall, we need to keep moving." I groaned in longing as we passed by the cows, who hardly even gave us a glance as they went about their business walking around and bumping into each other.

Moments passed before we left the forest and reached a large plain. As we passed through it, we came upon a large river that sliced the plain in two, directly in our way. I looked up at Mom anxiously, but she calmly guided me towards the river. We reached the shore.

"There's nothing to worry about, David." she confidently said as she pulled out dirt blocks. Mom then began to place them down, building a path across the river that soon reached the other side of the river. She gestured for me to follow as she treaded back towards me.

Taking a look down into the river, I tried to see the bottom, but it was so dark and murky, and the rain didn't help either. I tried to take a step onto the bridge, but cold feet got to me and I was stuck in place. What if something lunged out and grabbed me and pulled me into the depths below, never to be seen again? Mom stopped right beside me and lifted me up onto her shoulder.

"It's okay, David. It's just water." she calmly said as we began to cross. I held onto her shoulder tightly. I noticed a squid emerge from below the water, giving us a look before it swam back under the surface. I couldn't help but remember a few nights ago when I had managed to work up the courage to jump onto one of them to get me out of safety. For some reason, I wasn't very scared of them, maybe because I used to watch them swimming around all the time with my friends whenever we hung out near the river at our village. But I had a feeling there were worse things that dwelled out of sight beneath the water.

Before long, we reached the other side, and Mom put me down onto my feet again. She pulled the map out.

"We just crossed the long river, which was around the halfway mark between the two..." Mom looked up at the sky, but it was still raining. "Hard to say what time it is with the sun being hidden. We should keep up the pace." We continued to cross the plain.

Moments later, we reached another oak forest, or maybe it had been the same? Regardless, we went into it, though a moment later we reached another plain.

After several more moments of walking, I saw what appeared to be a settlement in the distance. I pointed it out to Mom, and she looked back at the map.

"That's it! That must be Stonefield Village!" she exclaimed, her voice full of excitement.

"It's also turning night!" I stated, noticing the red horizonal lights of the invisible setting sun to our left.

"You're right. David, we need to hurry!" she replied and began to run, lugging me behind her. As we ran, the landscape around us slowly darkened.

While we approached the settlement, I could see a man in iron armor at the edge of the village, holding a torch. He seemed to notice us and gestured for us to come.

When we reached him, he and Mom began to speak.

"Come on in! Stonefield is open to refugees from Blockfield!" he assured urgently.

"You know what happened?" Mom asked, surprised, and he nodded.

"We heard the news from the first newcomers that arrived early this morning. We have a shelter right by the library. You won't miss it-it's well-lit with torches." he revealed. Mom nodded in understanding and we continued.

By now, the light of the sun was completely gone, and with no moon out due to the storm, it was completely dark everywhere that wasn't lit by a torch. We soon stopped by what looked like a massive cobblestone building with several torches covering it. Mom and I went inside to be greeted with the sight of other families, some of whom I recognized. Unfortunately, I couldn't see Emily or Andrew or their families here, which only made my increasingly heavy burden of concern larger. I really wanted them to be okay.

There were beds all around the place, and Mom guided me to the double bed towards one corner of the room. She then knelt beside me and pulled some food out of her inventory.

"You must be hungry after all that traveling. I know I am." As soon as she mentioned food, I felt my stomach rumble, as though responding with a plea. She gave me a cooked porkchop, and we both ate our food together. The general vibe of the place was gloomy, as a lot of the other people we were sharing the room with had sad expressions. I noticed a few had kids which looked familiar. They must've been other village kids that had escaped that creature's attack on the school. I could see several beginning to go to sleep.

"How long are we going to stay here, Mom?" I asked her once I finished off my porkchop.

"However long it takes." she replied solemnly. I didn't know what she meant by that. "David, the next days are going to be rough, so I want you to try and bear with me."

"Yes, Mom..." I responded sadly.

"It might be a good idea to try and make some... even more friends." she suggested in a cautious tone.

"I hope my friends are alright..." I somberly said. After a pause, she replied.

"I think they'll be okay." she stated shallowly.

After a moment, she went onto her bed.

"It's late, David. Time to get some sleep." she ordered. With a nod, I went to mine and lay down on it.

The bed felt similar to my bed at home, but it didn't have the same sense of comfort as mine. It didn't help that it was a red bed, not lime green, either. I couldn't help but miss home and it took longer for me to get comfy enough to feel my eyes close and drift off to slumber.

As I opened my eyes, I saw the same scene as before-a yellowish landscape with the black sky, and dark pillars piercing into said sky. Before long, the familiar sight of the Spectral Hero appeared in front of me. His purple eyes burrowed into me.

"The day has come. At last, your training shall begin. Draw your weapon, boy." he ordered. I reached into my inventory and felt the wooden sword and pulled it out.

"Now then, the first thing I shall teach you is how to use your weapon effectively." He held his fist out, and a golden sword materialized within it. The blade glowed with a strange purple energy. "You had gone through the very basics on the first day of your school, I wish you to show me what you retained." he requested sternly. I looked at him with confusion.

"D-do you want me to just... attack you?" I asked him.

"I want you to try, boy." he ordered as he held his golden weapon out in front of him.

"Okay... Please don't attack me..." I requested nervously as I approached the huge skeleton, looking up at him. I swung my sword at him a few times, but he deflected each hit with his sword. Stunned, I tried hitting him a few more times, but he kept blocking the hits with his own blade.

I began to grow frustrated, as I swung repeatedly my hits kept getting knocked away. He continued to stare at me with a stern face, but I got the feeling he was judging me. I swung again, but he knocked it aside. Swinging again, only to be slammed away.

"Come on!" I growled as I tried desperately to land any hit. Soon, he slammed his sword against mine with enough force to knock it out of my grip, where it tumbled to the stony ground. I quickly picked it back up, a scowl on my face.

"Feel no shame, boy. As you currently are, you are incapable of posing a threat to me." he assured, although I didn't feel very good hearing that. "You have only begun to learn the very basics of swordplay. I will teach you the next step now." He raised his other arm and pushed it to the ground beside him. A dark skeleton immediately appeared there out of thin air. It looked similar to the Wither he had told me about, but wasn't the same. It looked moreso like a tall skeleton that was black instead of white. The dark skeleton was huge-even taller than the Spectral Hero. It stood still as though it wasn't even alive-or rather, wasn't awake.

"This is a Wither skeleton." the Spectral Hero explained. "A being that originated from another world. Under normal circumstances, a fight against such an opponent would easily end in your death. However, I shall use them to spar with you." he informed.

"If-if that thing can kill me, w-why would you want me to train with it?" I asked him, suddenly nervous around the creature.

"You need not fear for your life-I have control over many things in this realm. And even in the unlikely case that you do perish, you would simply awaken in the morning. We would meet again the following night, boy." he revealed. Still, the thought of me dying, even if it didn't mean much, still terrified me.

"Now then, while you attacked me, I noticed that you take many pauses in your attacks. This leaves you open to counterattacks. So, this is what I want you to do." He whistled, and the wither skeleton turned to him. In one swift movement, it drew a grey sword from its waist with a shing! as it watched the knight with a blank expression on its face.

"I want you to focus on a strong offense for now. Try and double the damage you deal by going for two hits before pausing, rather than one hit. As I shall demonstrate-" With that, he began to attack the wither skeleton. He swung his sword once, then immediately followed up with a second attack. The wither skeleton blocked both, but didn't counterattack. He turned to me.

"Now, you try." he ordered. Cautiously, I approached the dark skeleton. It turned to me, but did not attack. It simply stood in place, holding its sword in front of it and above me.

I swung my sword at it, which it blocked, before going straight for another. Although as soon as I swung the second time, I lost my balance and fell to the ground.

"I recommend you to take a step forward after the first strike, boy! Maintaining your balance is vital in a fight." the ghost knight explained. Pushing myself back up, I positioned myself, and then swung once. The attack was blocked, but I listened to the Spectral Hero and stepped forward as I swung a second time. The wither skeleton took the hit with a flash of red.

"Very well. You have succeeded in performing this lesson." the Spectral Hero said. He raised his arm, and the wither skeleton crumbled into smoke particles. "This session has come to an end. The sun arises." he pointed out as he fixed me with a stare. "This is only the beginning, boy. The path of heroism is a path shared by few. And already you have taken the interest of some of the Divines. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen." he said ominously.

"The... Divines?" I repeated with curiosity. I'd never heard of that before.

"Those that govern our world and others. You will learn more of them later on. But for now, focus on your training. Stay vigilant, and do not falter from your path." With that, he raised his golden sword, and the dreamscape faded away.