1.7.10 Worlds Beyond (custom pack)

[ICountFrom0]

Mods:

Spoiler

AE2 Stuff
Another one bites the dust
applecore
applied energistics
atum: Journey into the sands
BdLib
BiblioCraft
Bibliocraft: Bibliowoods biomes o'plenty edition
Bibliocraft: Bibliowoods Natura Edition
Biomes O' Plenty
Blood Magic
Blue Power
Botania (r1.7-221) (Sorry Vaskii)
CodeChickenCore
CoFH Core
CoFHLib
Colourful Portals Mod
Crafting Pillars mod
Deadly World
Ender IO
Ender Zoo
Extra Achivements
Extra Utilities
ExtraCells2
ExtraTiC
Floating Ruins
Forbidden Magic
Hardcore Ender Expansion
Hunger Overhaul
Iguanas Tinker Tweeks
InfiniBows
Inventory Tweeks
Lava Monsters
Mantle
Minechem
Mapwriter 2
Natura
NEI Addons
NEI Intergration
Nodal Mechanics
NotEnoughItems
NotEnoughKeys
OpenBlocks
OpenModsLib
Pam's BoneCraft
Pam's Harvest the Nether
Pam's HarvestCraft
Progressive Automation
Railcraft
Redstone Arsenal
Simply Jetpacks
Solar Flux
Special Mobs
Thaumcraft
Thaumcraft Mob Aspects
Thaumcraft NEI Plugin (DjGiannuz version)
Thaumic Tinkerer
The Erebus
The Elysium
The Spice of Life
The Twilight Forest
Thermal Dynamics
Thermal Expansion
Themal Foundation
TiC Tooltips
Tinkers Construct
Tinkers' Mechworks
UBC Ore Registar
UndergroundBiomesConstructs
Waila
Waila Harvestability
WAILA Plugins
Wawla - What Are We Looking At

Highly modified CFG files, mostly for "balance"

I shouldn't be surprised, my luck with other worlds being what it is, turns out there was somebody else in that empty world, and they where experimenting with expanding the range and power of portals. They pushed just a little too hard, the entire world collapsed. I fell out. Out is the only world for it, picture standing on the inside of a balloon when it pops.

This new world, thin. I can feel just how thin it is. Magic in the very air. It feels good after the stark dry lack of magic in the last one. If even technology can push too far, then there's no reason not to use every tool I can.

So, I landed...

Spoiler: landing

Those towering peaks, they remind me of the mountains near my last base, and I admit I felt an urge...

Thoughts of linking the mountain tops with platforms and bridges. Living high in the air above the world. It might be safer then being down here with the monsters. I will see what the world brings me, but first I must make myself safe against the monsters. There's a small scrubland of a forest, a few blocks of wood quickly stolen while trying to stay out of the thorns, then right up the side of the mountain.

About halfway up, a spot slightly tricky to reach, having to drop down from slightly further up, there was a large patch of dirt in the wall. With my hands I carved out this small hole. Enough to keep me safe for the night. I remembered how useful the tools from the tinker clan where, and started to construct the tables and benches, but the materials didn't quite respond the way I remembered, something fragile about them. Stone shattered without even fitting onto the tool rod. Still, wood tools worked for the stone. I dug down into the most amazing caverns I'd ever seen, and soon I found copper.

Back to the surface, break a few seeds, punch some sand, some gravel, clay from the edge of the scub and the stone into a furnace....

Oh, and...

Without iron and technology, a bucket of clay for the lava to heat my smeltery. I also had to go back down and dig for aluminium. Realized that I'd no gold, and no way to get it, so I needed that to blend with the copper so I could make the molds, or else there was no point to the lava.

The smallest possible structure. Copper melted down, my tool repaired, and back into the mines. Now I was able to collect some iron. I needed three for a bucket, four for a watering can, more for the pick... Not going to be enough for armor though. Much of the iron has been a poor substance giving only nuggets. A fuel hungry process to refine it, and rough on my tools to collect it. Even when I've been able to pry tin from the hard rock and make myself something as durable as bronze it does not last long enough.

This offers a solution though. Ancient bone. I was able to harvest a number of these blocks to make a set of armor and a sharp little blade. Not as impressive as what the tinkers provide but light and swift. This will keep me safe until I can get the resources for something more. As long as I keep my garden out here, monsters should have trouble reaching me.

Still, even if I sit here with the watering can, a small field is slow in growing. I am almost always hungry. One can live with this, but to live too long without variety will pale. It does not satisfy. From the cliffs I saw there is a bit of a field beyond, I'll have to try to get some seeds from there. More wood from the scrub and forest. Then maybe I can stop thinking bare survival in this strange land.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

Nice so far! Your writing style is great.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Bit of time spent in that garden of mine means that I've got just a little more freedom to explore. A bit of food carries me safely further afield, gives me time I can use to properly reinforce that bolt hole. Even a bed. The view from my bed is improving, but it's not home, not yet.



Never quite feels like enough, always one more job you need to do. I made a ladder up to my base so I wouldn't get so hungry climbing up here to sleep through the nights when they get too dangerous. It is dangerous out there, monsters I've never seen before. So having used up my supplies of wood, and not yet feeling secure enough to make a tree farm I thought it best to return to the scrubland. It isn't the best forest to get wood from, full of holes, full of thorns, and without much that I can harvest for seeds.



Looking around from that beach I'd seen that the surface of the world was not just full of holes, but entire chunks of it had been ripped free to float in the air. I cleared a little and then went up to explore. Seems like a patch of coral garden had been ripped out of the ocean, water was still flowing down and I used that to claim where otherwise I had no right to be. Ground bound earthling I, these islands are fortresses lifted beyond reach. Quite the view, maybe one of these would make a fine home, someday.



First the sounds of silverfish, ones that blind me, ones that poison me, swift they move and bite once I open the wall. At first I wasn't able to even get a peek inside, draw them away, kill a few, break a hole in the other side, draw some away, eventually a torch inside. Course much of the floor was more silverfish as it took me a while to secure the island, some of the torches disrupted as more silverfish broke free of the ground. Once I had a few lights further inside, sitting on well placed obsidian I started to make some headway. Then there was silence, I trust the silence less then I would the sound of monsters. I know I'd not gotten enough of it lit to render the chamber safe. I took a brief look and saw it, the bane of many adventures, a sky struck creeper, glowing with a field of crackling force. It was slow progress to win even against 2 of them. Silverfish, and the charged creepers, from one endless font. Never have I seen the like.



This, is not home. Even if I cleared all the stone I could not be sure of my light. The chest had little of use but I was glad to see it. To fight through that without gaining anything would have been a bit of a blow. So, splash, into the water, down into the scrub, and I collected a few more tree fruits and quite a bit more wood. I cleared out the shoreline enough to get a good look around. Looks like there's more clay that I left behind, seems I could make that smeltery a bit larger.



After a while I was able to punch a hole through the forest, and I'd found that there was indeed some grasslands, better places to get seeds but even here there's been trouble. Holes in the ground everywhere, and the decimated remains of a greatwood tree.



Almost none of it left, though the rock that fell from the sky is in itself a good resource. I've still got an attraction to the darker stones and the skystone has quite a nice texture. The crater left rather a large hole, bits scattered, singed and thrown in all directions. Quite a few useful resources exposed, copper, iron, even a bit of tin. I've been short on tin for a while, bronze being so very useful, but also seems to be the best tool I can make for now.



Maybe it was the skyrock that shattered the land, the fissures are everywhere, I wouldn't be much of an adventurer if I resisted the temptation to explore. Most of them are small, quite a few of them are close enough to link up if I break a few blocks in the right places. The beaches almost always have some sandstone, warning me that I've reached the end of that run.



Even spawners are showing up at random in these narrow little fissures. Almost no space to fight monsters, lots of light render it safe enough for now.
Not the most dangerous creatures down here. I heard these long before I was able to see them.



A giant silverfish, armor plated, spawning more of the kin and rapidly regenerating. A very tricky fight. Still, when I surfaced I found I'd gone to the far end of the planes, at the edge of the forest.



Enough animals here to let me start a farm, once I'm ready to settle down.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

Another great update!

 

[rdemay91]

Keep this going I enjoy it and the mountains look awesome

 

[Mindfeak926]

Loving the story line here hope you keep it going.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Having found enough animals for any future farm I might need, I tell myself not to hesitate in taking the lives of other animals as I progress further into the woods and the darkness. If nothing else I have need of the chicken, a most versatile food. Perhaps a bit of beef would not go wanting as well if I was able to find a few. Though, sadly, this is not my luck, still, I got some more food and prevented the forest from burning down.



Two large pools of lava with forest right up against the edge of the pool, in both cases I was just in time in clearing away the forest before the flames could jump beyond the edge of the pool and the further expanse of trees where I'd not be able to prevent it from spreading beyond saving. This also brought me into the foothills of a mountain that, once climbed showed to be a dormant volcano.



While I might have found snow on the upper slopes of the mountain that is a temporary home, the sheer cliffs are hard to climb. I did stop to collect some here, and with it I'll have a slightly better range of food as well. Still I hope to find some way to make more before I run out, this was a long trip, a dangerous one, and the portents are unfavorable. The more I explore, the more dangerous things seem to be and a mountain where I remembered seeing one not, tis time to return home, as humble as such a hole can be.



Home, humble home. A little time clearing plants as I was working through the forests achieved a few more seeds, a few more plants, some of them even useful. Though even things I dislike can be garden vegetable or seed soup, if nothing else soup stock can be made from almost anything. I should have made this lunchbox before, if only cooking was that simple.



Though you can see that I've made a small upgrade. There was something shocking underneath the clay deposits at the lake on the edge of the scrubland. I was hearing sounds. Slithering, scuttling, a hissing squeak, and then a sizzle. I removed the water, dug under the clay and found a small lava pool with a spawner. My entrance into the cavern let in water that reacted with the lava, cooling it, quenching it and the few dark places became a small chamber, dark enough for the silverfish, and tight enough of a space to make the fight difficult. Still, the fight was worth it, I'd not gotten much silver before and these supplied me with silver, and more importantly a small measure of emerald. This wasn't the first new danger I'd seen.



Staying close to home, exploring the underground caverns and seeking the elusive diamond, I was spotted by, her. I very quickly found that this was no ordinary lady, and even no ordinary witch. I'd been expecting a potion of poison, perhaps a few hearts of damage if it splashed on me from harming. Nay, in her hand is a throwing potion of withering. With full health and well fed it was a near thing when hit by just the edge of that effect, damage enough to be feared. I walled her away and I'm keeping my tunnels well lit.



Even when I'm trying to simply mine a quiet grid in the lower regions, seeking for shiny blue rocks so that I can reinforce my tools and quest beyond, sometimes I cannot resist the temptation. Here you see the end of a mine system of some previous explorer, perhaps even the work of some civilization that passed before I arrived, and why it ended here. One cannot continue a rail line casually through a volcanic cavern. Fire in the darkness, lava in the deeps. I know I am mortal...



... still some treasures tempt me into a brief run into even such an inferno. If I cannot find the shiny blue stones, these fading green ones, beloved of the villagers, will have to do. Still I will need the blue stones eventually. Other times the danger itself draws me forward. I've lit this room and then drew back so that you can see it more clearly, and more safely.



See the sandstone out of place? Below it lays a spawner. Zombies. I do admit I spent quite a bit of time here. I found that I had myself a need for the zombie flesh. Seems strange to me that I wasn't able to bundle them together 64 at a time. Four stacks and half of another as I can only bundle 32 at once here.



One of the zombies had the first potato that I'd seen in this world. Another had a carrot. The flesh I needed took many fights, with the smaller zombies being able to escape to attack me, sometimes plagued and contagious, or worse. The rewards are worth it. When I've grown these vegetables I'll have more easy food then before. Only soy and cattle provide more options. Still, the most valuable prize was not the vegetables, the armor, the weapons or even the fishing poles.



Pig Iron.

I've never seen it so scarce before as in this world. A single iron bar, purrified in the smeltery with a block of emerald, and a gross of zombie flesh to refine just a single ingot of pig iron. It is a strange material. Hard enough to break obsidian free from the ground, brittle enough that shards of bacon splinter off from it for snacking.

I made good use of this pick to mine out quite a bit quietly under the sea. When I had crossed a far distance under the waves I carved for myself a tunnel upwards. I found a small but deep pool of lava.



A single pocket of water in the stone nearby let me turn a small pocket of it into obsidian. I walled off the rest of the pool and started to dig. There was a most unsettling surprise as a portion of the lava at the very edge of the pool, in the very stones itself, rose up into a creature. The lava itself alive and attacking me. Spitting fireballs at me. I shattered the stone that held back the water to keep myself cool as I fought it, and diverted some water to cool that lava too. Now I will be twice as careful when harvesting this brittle stone with so many magical properties.



When I reached the surface, I found that the same thing had happened here. Some stone fell from the sky, the ground fissured and cracked and monsters like none I'd seen before. The trouble was not local. It must then be a property of the magic of this world. Something about the thinness of dimensions that formed this reality. Many thin dimensions stacked together like cards. The sum total of them enough to catch me. This rock like none other I'd seen, these too must be caught by these thin worlds. It explains the strange items I've seen within them.



Home again, with the obsidian. I was able to craft some alumite, enough to keep me going for a while. A better sword, a pick strong enough to be of use for a long while. There was also a strange book in one of the chests, something about it seemed almost alive. Still it looks like for all that I have found, there is something I am lacking. Wheat. Ordinary seeds. A most basic item. Magic has changed so many things into unfamiliar forms, this most simple of items I've yet to see even a sign.

One last item crafted ...




I make this look GOOD.

 

[ICountFrom0]

(This update took longer and photographed less well then normal. Mostly because there was just insane masses of grinding and prep work. As I've already done "this is taiga, this is magical forest, this is garden style biome travelogues in previous worlds, well once you've seen one snow covered hill you've seen them all, so I didn't photograph them and I won't be posting them.)

For a moment I look back at the picture I took and then at this land I caused. Not a single growing thing left. Animals yes, but plants? Nothing but naked grass, and in places I ripped that up with my mattock as well, to get a few more seeds. It felt like days, I lost track of time. While the sun was up, I harvested. When night fell, I fought. I made special tools to harvest the land faster, a scythe. I was reluctant to use so much metal to reinforce the tool forge for such purposes, but being able to clear more land in a swing then in seven blows was worth it. It was also helpful against the spider queens with broods of spiders that tried to swarm me one night. Still my sword fared better when I had to fight death knight zombies on huge skeletal steeds. It was as if the earth itself was protesting my attempt. Still I did find what I was seeking. After days and nights, after clearing the entire plains and into the garden and even part of the forest, I finally found some wheat seeds. The most ordinary of things, but that book told me I'd need them.



On the other hand, with the rest of the plants I was able to take seeds and cuttings from, barley, wheat, rice and another small upgrade to my kitchen, my cooking has become something wonderful. I'm not just snacking on raw vegtables and toast sandwiches. Seasoned roasts, flavorful coffee, mixed fruit drinks, such wonders in such a primitive place. The presser is something else wonderful. No having to squeeze the apples by hand, just feed them in between the pistons and watch the magic. In such a place as this, it is the height of technology.

Well, almost.



That sulfur from the lava monster was more of a boon then I'd expected. With it I was able to construct a primitive battery, one that stores in redstone a more then reasonable amount of power. Engines, and those with a bit of tinkering became the thrusters, and then I need only produce the harness to hold it together. Though it seems this used up quite a bit of my resources, it was worth it. Still, I was left with a mystery, how was I to charge and power this, for I had no machine so advanced.



Behold, potatoes. Behold too the view. In my explorations I was often on this high peak. With the clockwork wings from the tinkers notes and a glider I found it was often much better to climb up as high as I could and then slowly and gracefully glide down, using the jetpack in only the shortest of bursts. I do admit this picture is not of my first flight, the first time I was exploring with my new strength, I perhaps squandered it finding cows. Beef had been a long time, though pork was plentiful, and I was always thankful for both, but I never seemed to have enough leather. That first hunt went into making the glider and it opened the sky to me.



I'd seen this island from the floating one and wondered about the odd grass on it, so it was a tempting first exploration. On it I found the strangest trees you could picture, dripping slime that had somehow congealed. I had heard of such things but do not recall having a chance to grow them before. The island was also home to huge and aggressive cubes of slime that tried to knock me off into the air. Though now such things do worry me little, I admit I was rather annoyed and killed a fair lot of them before my temper passed. There was another island I could see, just a short hop...



This one a wooden structure. The one I had managed to swim up into with the use of the flippers had been stone. The fight inside was short, but brutal. I'd never even thought that such forms of creeper could exist, much less be sky kissed as they where. I made sure to never let them get more then the briefest look at me, hitting hard, using stealth and sneak attacks from all angles and getting light in there as quickly as I could.



Another battle won, on another island, there was an entire string of them in close to the base. Danger should never become routine, and it never was. Often the creepers where not alone in the little buildings. Others where likewise there to secure the treasure.



While I'd seen the sigil before, on the last world it was inactive, and refused to wake. I'd heard rumors that it was possible using the rift energy on the dragon island to waken and stabilize it, with a vast sacrifice, I never had the chance. This other thing, if the rumors are true, is a device meant to draw power from similar forces, and represents a key to shatter an entire world. Explains why it would be guarded by such nightmares.



I say rumors because I do not entirely trust the notes I found. They show that I am not the first person to adventure in this world, that I am not even the first on this path, but it does not mean I have to accept it as truth. I tested the notes I found about the forge and the smeltery. I tested the strange weapons that the books described, and I will test these notes, the same way I intend to test the books of botanical magic and thamagurgy that I have found. In a world this thin I cannot depend on what seems to be fading technology. If I am to be stuck here in such a strange nexus, I will embrace the tools I am given, no matter how strange, as I always have.



I digress.

Far to the south, even beyond the volcano, I found why the region filled me with dread. It looks like a quiet forest, a mystic and peaceful grove. While the hobgoblins that live here are peaceful, if a bit greedy and demanding, the forest was not. It was almost entirely overrun with spiders. Tree after tree had nests of them. Poisoned mandibles; chittering, clattering as they chased at me from every shadow, time and time again. Seven? Eight? I lost track of the number of times that a tree I thought would be safe was instead an infested nest of poison and death. Still, I found worse places.

There was a floating island that I could see from quite a distance because of a steady drip of lava from a cavern half formed in the base of it. I dare not speak of the fighting. It was not an easy time and often I was knocked from the island entirely. Often enough that once my jetpack did not respond. I was above the ocean and had nowhere to land to recharge. So, I dove. I found a pocket of air and an unlikely cave.



I progressed deep within this cave, collecting much needed resources, taking samples of the stones when I found these. When the skeletons can use a lava flow to gain advantage in fighting one another without seeming to mind the damage, the fight ahead of you is about as bad as it is possible to be. I carefully lit the chamber, working through the wall and placing torches from cover. Once I was sure there would be no more, then I started to draw them out, one at a time. The trick? No one trick would work, you have to adapt and be lucky. Then return for the prize they guarded. This was not the first time I'd found a chamber under the ground, but it was the most strongly guarded.



As was this building, but with enough work you can turn anything to your advantage. Even foes that wish to feast on you. Cursed black skeletons. Rabid zombie pigmen. Burning creatures of pure fire. Blocks of slime and lava come to life. Some of these even more dangerous then the normal ones, vamperic, giant, or just brutal. My trap was not perfect, but it was enough.

A most lovely bonus, it was returning from here, flush with victory that I saw... No, I think I'm going to think about it just a little longer, make sure it is clear in my head.

Won't take me long.

 

[ICountFrom0]

(For anybody who'd like to go like my earlier ones:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/world-diary.2676/
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/world-diary-ftb-light.9583/
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/another-one-of-these-threads.44456/
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/mechworld-techworld2-narration.48594/
Thank you folks, enjoy today's stories)

I made up my mind. I packed up. I'm ready. I'm moving.



Your backpack can hold quite a bit of things if you pack it right. Course I had to upgrade my jetpack to pull it off, as well as a few other things. It's a good thing I tamed the hellspawn spawner. It's not as lucrative as an actual trip into the nether but it'll give me a taste.

I saw a garden, and at the edge of it I saw this forest, dark, quiet, eerie and lovely. At the edge you can see the garden, lovely woods, and perhaps even that fungal forest at the far edge. The most unusual creatures exist here, rosesters, mooshrooms, poison spiders and more endermen then you normally see.



Everything that was in my base makes such a strange pile when I'm setting it out in the middle of a clearing. Now lets get a better look at things...



Oh, yes, this is going to be a nice view. Now, lets see, mark out the edges with some cobble. Get some torches down, clear out some of the underbrush. The tree moss still grows once I cut some and I'm saving the dead saplings and the dead trees, always nice to be able to decorate a little.



Took a little while to clear everything. I reinforced the outer walls and took another try at getting enough light. I'm getting fallen knights and little caves near the surface are spawning cave spiders. I can hear them. I can dig them up and fight them. Then I hear more. It's not a spawner, they are just showing up. I am glad of these walls. This may be home, but I've picked a dangerous place.



There's the first bit of the tower wall in place and the start of the floor. Marking out just a framework of where things will go. I'll have to level it out and make a barrel to collect the poison. I'm not sure it will serve a function in any way for anything at any time. Possibly a moat, not that it would stop the spiders or the zombies or the fallen knights. It wouldn't stop anything here would it? Maybe I should think of something else.



Reinforced the walls, placed some of the marble in the floor. The contrast appeals but I don't have much of this material. There's a few other white stones. There's more choices for the walls. I'll have to figure something out. I think something might be wrong with the shape, I'm going to think about it.



Dug up the ground, got the stone in place. It's almost right. I remember there's some more materials I could get from the region I started in. More skystone, more basalt, more granite, a bit more chalk. I'm going to have to go caving eventually to get the materials. I see some mining in the future for nothing more then the stone for my tower.



I've made just a little bit of a change to the outline of the tower and then cut away some of the landscape around it to make sure that even if a monster was to spawn up in a tree it wouldn't be able to fall in on top of me. I moved the chests from the staging area down here and started to setup my machines again. Now that I've a home it is time to stop waiting.

 

[ICountFrom0]

I took a long look at the supplies that I had gathered in the old base. I wanted to use up as few of them as I could before I'd made some proper ore processing. Sure I have my grindstone and I can normally get better results then I would if I'd just smelted the block in the oven. The big ole smeltery also does a good job, and in large batches being able to cast blocks saves me time, still that costs lava and I still have to carry that out in tanks.

I sat down with a bit of a manual for a while, reading up on the benefits of this ender IO product. The company seemed rather proud of the products they sell. Well, they say products, but I got little more then these few guides of things I was now allowed to make. Still it was nice that they explained things so well, otherwise I'd not have had any chance of understanding so much magic blended with technology. Using the brains of the zombies to sort and filter, shocking to learn that the zombie heads still had unliving and functioning brains in them.



Not about to pervert and debase science to that degree (yet) I started simple. Little more then a generator and a SAG mill to start. One of the first things I did was to use some flint I had to coat a grind wheel to better pulverize other gravel into flint. I collected some sand for latter use as well, very efficient process. Not as efficient as I'd like though. I rather quickly fixed that, forming replacement grinders for the SAG mill out of dark iron that I'd looted from the floating islands. Next was an Alloy Furnace, while I could process the dust into ingots with the furnace, or even in the smeltery, but this gives me more options. Not that I've got many options, the higher materials require things I've still only got in a limited supply. Most limited is my glowstone. I'd found a few dusts in the depths, the occasional stalactite would have a pinch of dust in it. These two became the first things I used in the alloy furnace, and then a double layer capacitor. Now my generator ran much more efficiently.

So now my eye turned back inward. I'd food enough still stored, those chests are large but not infinite so it would not be forever that my food lasted. To do this wisely I would craft two more things. A sprinkler to help the plants grow, and a device that generated water. I paged through the notes I'd found on Thermal Corp's machines and found the one I wanted. I found myself glad to have made the alloy furnace as the redstone was rather reluctant to smelt into signalium. This is the key to a good start.



I spent a little while with my seeds, looking through them, thinking about what I could cook from the products of them, what was the best start for my garden. I made my selections, tilled the soil and started growing. I'll be able to make some epic meals from this and gladly. Hearty breakfasts and a fancy beef dish served with spinach. I've also planted quite a bit of wheat for the seeds, barley, oats, corn to make bread, with peanut butter and many jellies. A variety of sandwiches will keep my lunches novel and interesting. Rice, beans, a few other key vegetables, and soy for when the meat runs out, this will keep me going for the long run.



Now that my needs are taken care of again, out I went to dig some clay. Clay and sand, good enough bricks, and from that a coke oven. I can use this with wood to make charcoal a fair bit more efficiently too. The coal coke would produce even more power. Power enough to fill a capacitor bank and charge my jetpack. I'd used up most of my good stone in making these solid walls and much of my redstone. It was time to plunge into the earth again.

Even under the ground there is life.



There is beauty, life by the fragile glow. I left this here in this ravine. Then returned to collecting this soft smooth white stone. I'll craft it into floors and perhaps pillars. It has a subtle luster that draws the eye. I'll collect as much as I can, then return for more until this patch is gone. Likewise there where a few dark patches that will make strong walls.



Higher, thicker, building more and more. I've already used the space I have, upward I go, upward I grow.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Building such a tower takes a cost on the landscape. I've driven through the side of a local hill and hollowed out a cavern. Such a cavern as I made would be enough to make a base within, if I'd not the ambition to make a tower looking over the land.



Truth told, it would not have been nearly as easy without the hammer I forged. Electrum and reinforced plates of bronze. Even used some invar for the handle. It can do no job for me save that of breaking stone, but it needs no other task. Given a silky gem I have little need to smelt the blocks, I take them whole from the earth and place them back into the tower. Silk touch, even on a tool designed to move only stone does have a few other purposes. It has been an age since I've used mycelium and mushrooms to farm them. Normally I grow them with bone meal and harvest them when they grow giant. Still, there is temptation in automation.

Still, is not a project today. Today I am working on my tower and making preparations. Outside my base has stood this strange obelisk from the first, it is mostly quiescent, rarely causing trouble, though it does sometimes spawn a zombie. Still I do not think it safe to leave it in the open.



Thus I have encased it within obsidian. Not mere rough volcanic glass, but carefully harvested and polished to reflect the baleful influences back within. Then carefully built a passage to link it with my tower. I've also set into it a door as climbing out through the roof was starting to be tedious.



With the influx of stone and now being saved the trouble of smelting it, I am able to spend more of that time on building. The shapes and curves of the building are really starting to show, the walls becoming more and more impressive.



Behold my kingdom.

Okay, not kingdom, there's little in the forest but spiders, endermen and the strange scavengers that call themselves Pech. I still don't understand why I was drawn to make my base here.

In this darkness.



Though, it is home. Stone by stone. It has grown on me.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Looking back, one small project I've not mentioned. As much as I dislike having to be out in the land for any portion of this project of mine but there are few trees that are content growing under a low roof. Yet some things grow well.



Here are the tools of a starting botanist's trade, petal apothecary, a source of water, a crafting table and some storage. From that and the fruits of the land I formed a Pure Daisy and set it to work. Mana spreader, mana pool, dilute and true, the dayblooms drawing in the light of the sun to provide the mana and get everything here started. All this had to last just long enough for me to get a proper start. More petals into mana petals, glowstone to infuse the blooms, and soon I had hydraginas that could withstand the water.



These thirsty friends are eager enough to make mana for me, not the best source but content to produce over time. While I had to keep the dayblooms in light and remember to take to my bed instead of working through the night. Now I did mention that I needed glowstone for the flowers to resist the water, mana offers me alchemy and from that magic I was able to manage certain conversions.



Spending all that time by the water got me to thinking, and the longer I was inside working on my projects the more I needed to get outside. Not for long, and perhaps it was just a lack of the sun, so many days and night working down in the mines, processing the materials, sometimes you need the beach.



Long as I'm at the beach some time fishing, smartly up a tree as swarms of creepers can ruin what is otherwise a very relaxing way to spend a day.

Fish is also key in a number of better foods. I cooked my catch and then looked at the fruits of my harvest. It was long hours spent in the makeshift kitchen and I admit that I used soy as a substitute more times then I would prefer. I shall have to investigate gathering some of the local animals, the mooshrooms, the rosesters and some pigs. Most troublesome but most essential product is the dough. I kneed to make sure to automate this, perhaps more then anything else in my base.



Towards the sky my edifice of black stones rises, and on it another chamber grows. This one a simple sphere, dark stones hewn from the volcano, though something in me is not quite satisfied with this. I will have to make adjustments, in due time I will know what they are.



I've been working hard and playing hard, fishing, cooking, mining, crafting, and even a touch of magic. I've prepared long and done research, inside the sphere I prepared and then cracked the boundary, I've opened a portal into another place. With botania's bounty I crafted a magnet, the traveler's sash, and a ring of aura to keep my mana tablet charged, my armor repaired. I've also produced the strongest, most powerful, the mightiest jetpack I could manage. With an entire world, I knew I'd need it. I also suspect that I will need my tools, I'd sharpened my sword, improved the mattock and made some moss for my scythe.



The chamber is unfinished, the room will be decorated with what I find within.

I stand here, on the edge of a very long step.

A deep breath.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Into the portal and ...



I am not entirely sure it was meant to work like this. Though I was prepared for many things, I was not entirely ready to be quite this far above the land when I awoke through the portal. The good news is that the water below would be a safe landing. I left my jetpack switched off, thinking that I'd be here a while, one can never be sure just what one of these worlds will contain. I admit to having a little information about this place from the same lore that instructed me on making the portal to breach the wall, but there are places here unlike I'd even heard of before.



The night sky is far, dim, and so lightly spread with stars, the ground around me glimering with fireflies, the forest here tamed and kept, ground mostly clear of cover, only the magical blooms making sparkling light here and there. Somebody lived here once. Somebody loved this place. Maybe somewhere there is somebody living who is still tending this place. Though most tales of travelers speak of ruins and dark towers and not friendly natives.



A hedge maze, slightly overgrown but the topiary hedges seem to be keeping the shape properly. Still I can hear the chittering of spiders under the chattering of cicadia, I know this maze is not safe. Still, I've got tools enough to make it easy. I got a good look from above, then used my scythe to chop the shortcuts to make it through in best time. Normally I'd be turned close enough for spiders to spawn long before I could reach the clearing with them, but with this I am able to quickly chop a hole through to them before an entire pack has gotten organized to ambush me. It did do quite a bit of wear to my tools, the lore of the tinkers leads to good weapons and tools but they don't last forever when used in such harsh conditions. Yes, harsh, the hedge is bespelled and tries to attack you even as you are fighting through it. A painful experience and my scythe wore down much further then it would have otherwise.

Nearby there's a hill and within the sound of monsters. Just a small hill with few treasures but...



... this is the most redstone I've ever seen in my life. Such a treasure, so much of technology depends on this strange red dust. While it took me a few hours to make this place safe, I shall say it was worth it. Knowing that I've such things to fall back on I do not feel troubled about using what I've found now.

I do find myself wondering what else is in this world, how many other treasures are in this land, but I keep encountering the strangest protections. The swamp that I could see from where I'd landed had clinging clouds of mosquitoes that left me hungry, injured and itchy as they drove me from the water. The tree so tempting that grew protectively over it was absolutely out of reach. My travels have been in a great wide arc, that tree rarely completely out of sight as I went around the swamp and on the far side of it, this.



The very stones of this tower resist the swing of my pick and pull themselves together. My understanding of this place is starting to shift. It might not be love in this world. It might be hate of everything else. I'm driven from the swamps. I'm driven from the tower. I'm driven with burning rain from even the hills.



The other end of this bare and dry field in this forested realm is a dark and dread inspiring forest. I could only take a few steps into it before the least glimmer of light that shone in from the world was cut off and I was driven out by monsters. There is only one spot I saw in the distance that I have not investigated. A sharp high mount covered in snow but I could not find a way to reach it with such places in my way. If I am to be able to explore here without being herded like a beast I will have to fight.



Even the least of these beasts is an incredible fight. Over and over we clashed, and over and over I drew away to catch my breath and tend my wounds. Likewise so did this naga heal herself each time I paused in my attack. The scales of her thick enough to reflect my blow and hard enough above that I could only make a strike count on her countenance. I did not manage to win until I'd returned to my base and looted through some of the leavings of monsters past. A few carefully hoarded potions from battles with witches and the even more rare potions taken as tokens from other harsh victories.



It seems that I'm going to need to go through greater effort and more preparations if I am going to win these fights, for she was the least of the foes here, if I can trust the story I've heard.

(Since the end is never told, we pay the teller off in gold, in hopes he will come back, but he can not be bought or sold)

 

[Master_Builder_800]

man you should write a book with this in it your narrating is awsome!

 

[APproject]

Sounds like you're narrating The Road. Fun stuff

 

[ICountFrom0]

(okay folks, if you want an idea how long this one took, the last 2 where BACKLOG posts. Also, if you like it, please like it)

What better to fight back against a world where nature has been twisted in so many ways then the power of nature tamed to my own ends? Thus flowers, bonemealed, sheared, and some of them enchanted. Flowers dusted with glowstone, grass purified with mana, then combined with those enchanted petals and the Hydroangeas are ready.



Time passes, sunrise and sunset, but for now the sun does not matter for the water brings me my energy now. I spent so long underwater using these potions that I felt like I'd become kin with the fish, a most unusual feeling. While a smaller system links up well enough by itself, with this many flowers in a small chamber it is best to go in and adjust all of them by hand. 96 flowers, 96 bindings, 4 more for the spreaders to the distributor.



In this magical world, I am turning it to my strengths, drawing out the power even in a tank of water. This softly gurgling tank is the heart of the tower, tendrils of power flowing into placid pools just awaiting my demands, and the demands on it are many.



Not the least of the demands on my resources is the production of these softly glowing green ingots. Terrasteel. The strength of diamond, the craftability of iron and more mana then I care to think about. From these I am forging an entire set of armor and the lore speaks of another portal that can be formed with this.



A further look at the lore tells me that the linkage is too unstable for me to explore there, though with my luck with such things I cannot be sure that I won't land there someday as it is my wyrd to wander it seems. When I contacted the elves on the other side of the portal they where most informative. Seems the worlds here had collided in a most unpleasant way. This is why the remaining shards of this place are woven of so thin a skein.



The elves also agreed to trade materials and not just the lore of forgotten ages. Some I quickly used to improve my equipment. Other bits of information allowed me to more efficiently move this mana, sparks, sparks of madness, and inspiration. One of the inspirations was to gather together the rest of my magic into one place. Though the resource I need the most of to make this work, for now, comes only from combat, so this is as far as this goes.



Back below into the base, to the small core of tech that I've left almost untouched these last few days, since I made that jetpack. The first improvement comes fast, a bit of cable so that the stored power can flow to any device, not just to the nearest. I know not why that simple concept escaped me for so long. Perhaps it is because I mostly use this to recharge my jetpack and to draw what I need from ores.



Many and many of the ores did I use, and more redstone then I had seen before. An entire hill denuded of the glowing dust to make these, and the gears where not the most costly of the expenses in my preparations. I embrace the cost, boldly.



One makes tools to make a forge, then from the forge more tools to improve the forge. This is true even with this better tech. It is a strange and unusual mixture of things I need to make my tools.



From them comes an entire wall of mighty machines. Carefully tweeked and augmented. Cryothium to purify and extract crystalline cinnabar from the stone, the cinnabar used to preserve the rare essences in the ferrous ore, more rare then diamond and brought to the surface. A shiny ore, most of it used to contain the strange magics of the ender to form enderium.



One single ingot reserved to make a blade, stronger then any other that I've known. Rapier wit alone is not enough, but a blade this fine will piece into the weaknesses of my foe, slide between the plates and scales and let none stop me. Thus an entire wall of machines is just enough to make a sword, and to upgrade some few of them even further.



Though no matter how efficiently I upgrade the machines, how little power they use, they still do require power. I used dayblooms before, drawing power magically from the sun, now I turn my thoughts to that again. Reflecting mirrors, focusing lenses, structures of wood to frame it and redstone to transmit the power. Clusters of them formed around a transmission coil and then those placed around a simple machine core. It looks like I could make this even more efficient and powerful, but for now my resources are too limited to make more then this one.



Machines from the sun, magic in the flowing water, but there's a resource that only combat gives me, experience. There was a spawner I found that had armored zombies, creepers, and a swarm of spiders erupting from the caged evil in the darkness. This can be tamed, if I build the right structure to funnel them and contain them.



Flowing into the channel, then against cactus to remove the spiders from the stream. Delivering them to me after a drop, they stand, stunned. The room well stocked with storage and the tools I need to breakdown or repair the armor from the zombies. I am prepared to spend many and many a day here.



Truth of it, many days did pass with little more then these simple combats to pass the time, but I did grow proficient with my new place, and with the essence of my foes my own experience grew in each passing day.



My will imposed on what once was just a floating stone ripped from the earth with darkness in the core is now a safe structure in the sky itself. Spider silk, gunpowder, zombie flesh and many flavours of strange and exotic items that drop rarely from the special foes. The armor seems to come in gold, steel and even the occasional piece of diamond. More time passes, but I am rewarded.



The rewards spent, experience into books, the fruit of the enchanter, even dark steel consumed to help refine the raw essence. The force of magic brought to imprint from the books into the equipment so expensively wrought. With these, now, I make ready.

 

[the_j485]

Do I want to know what a hydrogina is?

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

Plse spoiler images... Pwwwweeeeaaaasssse, reading is impossible as entire page jumps every time an image loads.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Hydroeangeas are Botania flowers that consume source blocks to convert into Mana.

 

[the_j485]

Hydroeangeas are Botania flowers that consume source blocks to convert into Mana.

I know, man. It was a joke