Quit Horsing Around!

Finding the first few diamonds of his Aftercraft life took Technoblade only half a day. The excitement and anxiety made him so tired that Technoblade refused to do anything else.

"Three," he sighed. "Only three."

However, it was better than one. At least he had just enough to make that enchanting table.

The crafting workshop would take two hours to create that enchanting table, so Technoblade decided to take the rest of the day off.

"That's right," he spotted something in his inventory. "I have a saddle. Let's get me a horse. Walking is for peasants!"

Passing his nether portal chamber with an unlit portal, Technoblade ran to his sugarcane farm. He had some apples from chopping trees if the horse was fussy. They ate sugar and apples, right?

It was a long run to the meadows, and Technoblade changed the blocks he used this time. There were so many random pieces of cobblestone that he might be confused with them. Hence, he followed the trail and split off from the main exploration path with spruce planks instead. That way, he could easily mark out different areas of the vast meadow and revisit the area.

"If memory serves me right, the horses were in that direction because I recall being distracted by the fishes."

Indeed, revisiting this place brought back both fond and terrifying memories. Being in the middle of an open field while getting attacked wasn't Technoblade's most enjoyable memory. However, he lived to tell the tale and was even equipped with a bed this time.

"It won't happen again," he swore. "I came prepared."

The only problem was sleeping, only to find his horse missing as it wandered off in the night. However, the master tactician in him foresaw the problem, and that's why he came with all the logs and wood planks he possibly had.

That's right. The only way to teach a horse how to quit horsing around was to put him in the priso- stable. Technoblade might not have the luxuries of building a great stable in the middle of an open meadow, but he was a fast builder. As long as he had his horse where he wanted it to be when morning came, it's a good stable as any.

Ping!

"Oh, we have an enchanting table now. Too bad it will have to wait. I'm busy."

Ping!

A system notification. Now, that got Technoblade's interest.

[Congratulations on crafting your first enchanting table. A new system shop department has been made available to you. You can access it using your system shop. Happy shopping!]

Technoblade blinked at the brief message. Did the system just…

Stopping mid-sprint, Technoblade quickly opened the system shop to check the new department store. He had no idea if ADHD carried over to Aftercraft from Earth, but his limited attention was robbed when he learned there was a new system function.

The shop looked similar to what he knew previously. He had special skills he could purchase using levels, some skills he could grind manually that have levelled up considerably since he last checked about a month ago and on the next tab, that was the new department the system admin mentioned.

"An enchantment shop?"

In the instant that he selected that tab, Technoblade felt a flood of emotions bursting.

This… this…!

"... is my birthday present? Oh, wait. I meant death day. It's long overdue but thank you, system admin!"

…

The system admin refrained from commenting about Technoblade's misunderstanding as they watched from afar how the Potato King explored his new shop.

Everything from mending to the curse of vanishing could be purchased in the enchanting shop. However, there was a catch. Although it held all the trades from villager librarians, it needed many levels of experience and lapis to exchange for an enchantment. This could become a problem as Technoblade did not have a very functioning experience farm.

"I'll think about this later," he closed the shop. There were some unfamiliar enchantments in the shop but nothing overwhelming with his [Enchantment Reader] ability.

The [Enchantment Reader] skill did not only tell him what those enchantments were and how much they cost. It explained to him the different tiers and upgrade options. Some of the custom enchantments could only be applied to certain items that Technoblade was unfamiliar with. It was an important skill to obtain, and suddenly, Technoblade wondered if he should look into completing more miscellaneous side quests.

It was late afternoon by the time Technoblade decided to resume his journey to find the horse. He split off from the river and chanced upon a ravine in the centre of the meadows that he narrowly avoided falling to his death. The Feather Falling enchantment would be greatly appreciated for adventuring but for now, Technoblade speed-bridged to the other side of the ravine and left spruce planks along the way.

Although he spotted several other animals like pigs and cows, the horses took a little longer to locate. Eventually, Technoblade found a herd of wild horses grazing near the edge of the massive meadows. They had big butts, long swishy tails and spotted coats. Technoblade wasn't a horse breeder, but he knew the most rebellious-looking horse had to be the strongest of that herd.

"Come here!"

It was a shame he did not find any string. He would have considered making a carrot on a stick and adopting a pig mount instead. Pigs were fast when given superior speed positions, and they matched his appearance as a Pig Overlord better than a horse. For now, he would put up with this inferior species but first, he had to tame one.

Getting onto the back of every horse he could get his stubby arms on, Technoblade was thrown off in less than five seconds. The activity of trying to tame a wild horse that skrrted away from him after yeeting him took a considerable amount of stamina.

If a horse took ten yeets to tame, Technoblade would be out of stamina in just half a day. This wouldn't work.

"Alright," he stared at the defiant beast in its pixel eyes and retrieved those spruce planks. "You leave me with no choice."

Not wanting to alert the gang of bullies on the field, Technoblade worked on a wider perimeter and lit the insides with many torches that seemed unnecessary. However, he did not want to be disturbed by petty mobs in the brief time when his day-night sleep cycle was fucked up.

He was going to tame every one of these horses and come back for them until none were left in this makeshift stable.

The building process took a while, and it wasn't the prettiest, but it was functional. Technoblade looked at his work and slept the night off to congratulate himself on the fine work.

As soon as the sun rose the next morning, Technoblade fed three horses with sugar and ate his breakfast. There was no way these horses would yeet him through those walls, right?

Only one way to find out.

Climbing onto the back of a brown horse with a white spotted coat, Technoblade rejoiced as the horse remained oblivious to the additional weight on its back. Everything was sunny for two whole minutes before the temperamental beast reeled and threw Technoblade off its back.

With a heavy oof, Technoblade found himself back on the grass. It did not cause him any health points, but it took considerable stamina. Calculating his stamina, Technoblade estimated that he could only afford to be yeeted another eight more times before he had to crawl into bed to avoid forcefully sleeping on his feet.

Eight times… he had to pick his victim. Technoblade might spend about two days feeding to placate it and creeping onto their backs to tame them if every horse was as stubborn as the most stubborn horse. Honestly, he had no idea how the Minecraft mechanics worked when it came to taming horses. However, the average player would know that a horse usually took five to ten attempts to tame it. Unless the horse is a major dick, any reasonable horse worth its hay bale would be tamed within ten attempts.

Sighing, Technoblade prayed the Aftercraft system admin was kinder about horse taming. Technoblade fed the same brown horse sugar again and mounted it. After three more attempts, the horse finally stopped throwing him off, and Technoblade saw a system notification informing him that the horse was now officially tamed and belonged to him.

"Would I like to access my stead's inventory? Yes, please!"

Accessing the horse's inventory was as simple as it could be. After opening his regular inventory interface, all Technoblade had to do was to click on the tab beneath his character profile and change over to his horse's character profile. He could select certain items to equip his horse with, and his only option was a saddle.

"Nevermind," he closed the inventory and hopped off. There weren't enough saddles, and this brown mare did not have enough speed. She wasn't the worst horse, but Technoblade wanted options.

Boy, options did he find. The most stubborn horse took Technoblade fourteen attempts to tame it, and halfway through taming this wild herd, he ran out of apples and sugar. Luckily, he had all the time in the world to pick his prize stead. The taming process was painfully long in Aftercraft, and Technoblade gave up on a regular sleep cycle. It was nighttime, but he wasn't tired enough to sleep it off.

Hence, he stacked up to peek at the monsters spawning outside the temporary stable. Killing monsters and grinding for levels felt stupid at the moment, and most of the available enchantments from the shop could not be selected due to the poor enchanting table setup. He did not blame the shop. After all, the enchanting table was in his inventory, and the bookshelves were back at his prime mansion.

"Do I really want to spend several hours until the sunrise to return?" Technoblade asked himself.

…

Weighing his odds, the King of Potato decided against dashing off with his horse. The horse might be fast, but he had no guarantee they would make it past his moat. The gates to his safe haven aren't tall enough. He did not want to suffer a fractured skull from smacking into stone bricks in the dead of night.

Instead, Technoblade took that time to read up on all the quests available to him. He wanted to complete some side quests that would enrich his quality of life.