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A new update being introduced was always a time of celebration for the hermits. There were always so many new things to do and discover as the world around them evolved; some of them were happy to just stumble across the new changes, while others threw themselves into documenting everything to see what benefits they could get from it. It was always hectic, and Xisuma was often working double-duty trying to keep the server stable while everyone rushed about to push all the shiny new buttons.
This time around, though, everyone was curious. Mojang had been oddly cagey about some specific details of the update: there were new structures that could spawn in certain biomes, but what you could find in said structures was a complete mystery. With excitement building among the crowd, Xisuma issued a challenge: the first person to find one of the new structures and discover what was inside would earn a prize. Not that it took a prize to convince many to go on a search anyway, but it didn’t hurt either.
With minimal idea of what the structures were supposed to look like or where they could be, the competition had a rocky start. Despite that, though, the hermits persevered; they’d had a good amount of time to prepare and draw plans before the update took effect, and were already placing bets among themselves on who would win the grand prize. Some split off into groups, like the Convex, while others decided to go solo as they charged ahead into new chunks to tear them apart from top to bottom to look for any clues.
The heat of the badlands biome was starting to get to Ren as he trekked across the mesa on his own. He cast an eye to the sky above; sunset was a short while off, at which point one of the more Phantom-fearing hermits (Mumbo, probably) would sleep and he’d barely have any reprieve from the hot sun. He could always just move on to a bordering biome that had some more shade, of course, but he’d feel like an idiot if it turned out he’d walked right past the goal and another hermit found it while he was off splashing around in a river.
Even if that did sound pretty tempting.
Ren shook his head and headed over to one of the tall multi-coloured cliffs. He’d just camp out in one of the caves for a bit; he needed to rest, and the darkness was welcoming for once. The stone felt cold through his clothes as he walked further in, away from the light, but Ren sat down against one of the jagged walls and dug around in his inventory. He’d packed light for the journey, what with the unknown dangers he could encounter: some food, torches, enchanted armor and tools, and some blocks in case he needed to build up or wall an area off. Not anything he was in threat of losing forever, or would be costly to replace… although he would owe Grian an arm and a leg if he lost all this armor. The idea of stumbling into a dungeon without being fully equipped wasn’t too appealing, though, so sacrifices have to be made…
He bit into a golden carrot and looked around. The cave went deeper into the cliff than he expected; it looked like he’d stumbled onto a cave system rather than just a shallow opening. Well, hey, he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to find some loot while he was here. Ren got up and strode deeper into the cave, striking a torch alight as he did so; the flame cast bouncing shadows around him as it wavered, and Ren looked at the unsteady light with some concern.
The stone floor beneath him changed texture. Ren looked down, saw rough stone lead into a set of darker-coloured steps, and was unprepared for when the torch went out.
The sudden darkness crashed in around him to where for a moment he thought he’d legitimately gone blind. Ren felt around, cautious; he’d stumbled into the entrance to a dungeon of some kind, with smooth bricks that felt ice-cold as he ran his hand over them. Attempting to light another torch failed miserably; he only had a few short moments of being able to see the stairway into darkness before it burnt out.
The thought of contacting the other hermits to let them know he’d found something occurred to him. He almost did; he reached into his pocket with one hand, fumbling around for his communicator, but stopped as soon as his hand closed around it. He wanted to learn more about this place first. Sure, by finding the structure he’d likely won already, but it wasn’t just about finding one, it was about finding what was in it.
At first he thought the dark material around him was some new form of obsidian, but his pick broke through it with ease. Ren held the block he’d mined out of the wall close to his face as he examined it, then stowed it away to get a better look at later, along with one of the stair blocks. His eyes had mostly adjusted by now, and with all of his senses on high alert Ren delved deeper into the dungeon.
The first thing he noticed was that it was deserted. No mobs, no traps, nothing. Not even any bats. The only sound besides his footsteps and breathing was cave ambience echoing around him. He stopped checking for traps a few rooms in, and the few chests he’d found in side rooms hadn’t contained anything too spectacular. Ren had half a mind to turn around and head back, let everyone know that the reason Mojang hadn’t said anything was because there wasn’t anything (and then probably find out that False or Cub had gotten here first), when he saw a light up ahead.
After getting so used to the oppressive darkness, the light was nearly blinding. Ren stumbled out into a room larger than any of the others in the dungeon so far, with more of those black brick walls and pillars of equally-dark stone. Glowstone was set into the ceiling and floor in intricate patterns, circling a platform in the center of the room with what looked… kind of like an armor stand, uh, standing atop it. Of course, much like everything else in this place, the armor stand was black– Ren couldn’t fault the dungeon for sticking to an aesthetic, he supposed. What was so special about this, though? Maybe Cleo or Keralis could have some fun with it.
Shame he didn’t have the book on him, though. Ren circled around the armor stand a couple of times, thinking. Should he break it? Probably not until he was certain he could without it being lost. But… what did it do? It didn’t accept any of his items or weapons when he tried putting them in the armor stand’s hands, and didn’t accept his helmet either. Weird. Running out of ways to interact with the weird entity, Ren settled for the thing that always worked: putting his empty hand on it.
The armor stand moved. Ren backed up as it vibrated, shining brightly with light, then… vanished. “What.” Maybe it teleported? Or… maybe he’d picked it up? Confused, Ren searched through his inventory.
His shadow began to move.
Unaware, Ren didn’t see his shadow stop mimicking him. One solid-black hand rose up out of the floor, then another, as his shadow dragged itself out of two-dimensionality. The glowstone lights began to dim. Sensing that something was wrong, Ren closed out of his inventory and came face to face with
* Renthedog’s shadow has been summoned
himself. Solid black, melding into the dim light and black stone of the room, with piercing glowing yellow eyes. Yellow particles flaked off the mob’s skin and drifted up around it before fading away, reminding him a bit of an Enderman. The two mirror images stared at each other blankly. Was it hostile? Was it a boss? His communicator beeped as reactions from the other hermits to the summoning message flooded in; distracted, Ren pulled it out to check.
He didn’t get a chance to. The shadow struck, its sword cutting through the air and into his arm. Ren hissed in pain and pulled out his own sword just in time to parry the next strike; the shadow seemed to anticipate his moves, deftly avoiding his swings, but it was slow and he’d managed to corner it up against one of the walls. Triumphant, Ren prepared to deal the final blow.
The shadow faded into a puff of smoke as soon as he cleaved through it. Ren wasn’t sure what he expected it to drop, but he never would’ve expected it to be a verifiable loot pinata; he stared in surprise at the pile of enchanted armor, tools, food, and torches at his feet. Well then! Proud of himself for dispatching the shadow so easily, Ren scooped everything up into his inventory. He paused, however, at the last two items the shadow had dropped: a block of black stone bricks, and a set of black stone stairs.
Something in the back of Ren’s head clicked. It was common practice for hermits to name their tools, and Ren was no exception. It made it easier to tell which was his, and added a layer of personalization he had fun with.
Which made it suspicious that the new set he’d gotten from the shadow had the exact same names, enchantments, and durability.
Ren’s eyes widened. He’d cloned his inventory! A grin spread across his face as the meaning of this fully sank in. Could it duplicate shulker box contents too? What would happen if he fought the shadow again? Ren had a short daydream of being literally buried in diamonds and could barely contain his excitement as he spun around. He’d found some sticks in one of the “junk” chests; Ren slapped down a crafting table and set to making an armor stand, but paused as he got to the last piece of the puzzle. He didn’t have a stone slab on him… but he was surrounded by black stone. Some excavation later and he’d procured himself a black stone slab; hoping for the best, Ren put it all together and was rewarded with the same strange black armor stand he’d encountered. Still buzzing with excitement, he placed it down on the platform, activated it–
* Renthedog’s shadow has been summoned
–and the shadow’s sword buried itself in his chest. Ren stared in shock at the sheer, overpowering hatred in the shadow’s burning yellow eyes. Its mouth cracked open into a feral grin, and Ren could swear it was laughing.
* Renthedog was slain by their shadow