George looked around the mossy clearing and noticed something very strange. A Mossy Zombie, different from the others, was much taller than usual. One of its lanky arms ended in a sharp edge, resembling a scythe. The flower that had originally sprouted from its shoulders was gone, and a green, glowing core was pulsing in its chest.
He promptly approached the big zombie, and a menu popped up.
[Evolved Mossy Zombie
Armor: 4
Health: 56
Attack Damage: 21
Effects: Strength 2, Resistance 2]
This one must have killed a lot of mobs. George couldn't remember exactly how many were needed for a mossy mob to evolve, but it was pretty damn powerful.
George decided to look at his stats, just in case the mossy symbiote indeed affected his health and damage.
[George
Health: 60
Attack Damage: 10+Tool damage]
"Oh, I'm so much stronger than before! Taking down a zombie only takes one critical hit."
The symbiote indeed affected him. In a good way, it seems.
George grinned, pleased with his strength. Without thinking much of it, he decided to test his speed by sprinting across the mossy clearing.
His feet barely seemed to touch the ground. In what felt like no time at all, he skidded to a halt at the far end. Blinking in mild surprise, he glanced back at where he'd started.
"64 meters in approximately four seconds? That makes me roughly 60% faster than world-class athletes if I calculated it right," he muttered, a slow grin spreading across his face.
George was relatively active before his little accident. He had decent cardio and usually played soccer with his little brother.
'My brother... I wonder how he's doing?'
George brushed those thoughts aside. Now that he was much stronger and had the reinforcement ability from the moss, he felt safe enough to search for a nearby cave to collect stone and other ores.
After briefly surveying his surroundings, he noticed a small cave entrance just inside the edge of the moss. The moss hadn't spread far in that area since it was close to its boundary.
George examined the cave entrance and slowly approached it. He decided to mine some stone near the entrance to craft basic stone tools before venturing deeper into the cave.
As he mined some extra stone for a furnace, George cautiously moved further inside. The inside of the cave was incredibly dark, even darker than the caves in Minecraft he had explored on his computer.
As he ventured deeper, he heard a sound that echoed through the cave, as if bones were rattling.
"A skeleton," he thought to himself.
At the same time, George noticed some iron ore on the far wall of the cave.
He quickly summoned two mossy mobs and started making his way toward the iron. As he approached, he saw a thin, blocky figure of a skeleton hiding behind a small crevice. The two mossy mobs immediately rushed towards it. Unexpectedly, an arrow slipped through the two mossy mobs and struck George straight in the chest. The arrow stopped as if hitting a solid wall and clattered to the ground.
"Ouch, Ouch!" he hissed.
While the arrow had drawn blood, because of his enhanced health, the arrow only made a shallow surface-level wound. But it still hurt.
"Damn, I should be more careful," he remarked.
George cautiously approached the iron ore embedded in the wall and raised his stone pickaxe above his head. With just three strikes, the block shattered. After mining the entire vein, he collected an impressive eight raw iron ores.
Encouraged by his success, he decided to continue searching for more ore. After wandering around for a while, George spotted several iron veins beneath a smaller cave opening. Excitedly, he moved toward the iron deposits.
Just as he was about to jump down, a zombie stumbled beside him. Too impatient to let the mossy mobs kill it, he swiftly raised the axe and split the zombie's head in two. The number 28.5 popped up, and the zombie immediately turned into smoke.
"Woah, that was a lot of damage," he murmured excitedly.
George quickly jumped down into the cavern, realizing it was relatively crowded. He spotted three zombies and one spider. The mossy mobs promptly surrounded him, standing guard protectively. While the mossy mobs engaged the zombies and the spider, George took the opportunity to mine some iron.
As he mined the last iron vein, he uncovered a small coal vein behind it. After extracting the coal and the remaining iron, he checked his haul: 34 raw iron and five pieces of coal. Not too shabby.
The mossy mobs swiftly dealt with the four hostile creatures and then looked at George with unfocused eyes. Satisfied, he nodded before making his way up from the cavern and jogging to the entrance. Climbing out, he headed towards the crafting table he had set up earlier and crafted a furnace.
Once the furnace was placed down, George added the five pieces of coal and the 36 pieces of iron to it.
While waiting for the iron to smelt, George's gaze was fixed on the distant trees as the wind gently brushed against his face. He sighed, feeling melancholic just an hour after waking up.
After checking the furnace, he confirmed that the iron had finished smelting. He quickly grabbed the iron and turned to the crafting table, where he fashioned a complete set of iron armor—boots, leggings, a chestplate, and a helmet.
As he mentally opened his inventory menu, he equipped the armor in its designated slots. However, he noticed that the iron armor he placed in his inventory didn't appear on his body.
"Does this really protect me?" he thought nervously.
Wanting to test his armor, George made his way toward the nearest mossy mob: a cow.
[Mossy Cow
Health: 27
Attack Damage: 6.3
Effects: Strength 2, Resistance 2]
He prompted the cow to attack him, and to his surprise, it rushed at him, ramming its head into his chest. The hit knocked the breath out of him and left a dull ache spreading across his ribs, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd expected. He only staggered back a single step, wincing slightly as the number "3.31" floated into view above him, marking the damage he had taken.