A day, a night, another day and more has passed. I've been building. One thin layer between me and the void isn't enough, not nearly enough for comfort. I've heard the stories of those who simply slipped, bodies clipped right through, or the slightest wobble in reality became them awaking in bed, below the stone. This, shall not be me.
I don't even start to feel safe until the blue light of sky is around me. Until the starry void of eternit has mellowed to something that I can pretend is sea and sky. Slightly higher then where I started.
Such a mutable world. There was a building, but before I arrived it was sundered and shattered.
Where it once was, I built my world of wood.
Now I stand on stone. Each stage has replaced the old. When I succeed in giving the overlords what they need, this too shall pass, all replaced again with a rebuilt world, or so they say. They said as much last time, and then told me this that I'd only done one small sector's work.
Out there, distances that I cannot see, is there another person growing trees to get the wood to fuel these demands? Me, I've grown a small forest, see the wild wood grow, in twisted branches and mighty oak.
With this much space I don't need to stand with watering can or bonemeal and tend each one separately, I can just let nature grow the trees, then come through with shears and axe, then come back down with stacks.
Down here, just one layer deeper. I placed everything that was the world into these chests. Unsorted and unsifted, but I did find that I have more resources then I'd thought. Just enough. Hardened from diamond hammers, this one can do the job of many at once, perhaps next time I'll think to enchant it.
With this hammer I processed every ore shard and had a look again at the demands of the overlords.
They gave me a tree so strange that I have no proper words to describe it, and yet so delicate that any blow causes it to melt entire. The slimeballs from the leaves, an odd fruit have an indescribable taste. The texture is not good, but once dried they are slightly gummy, almost a candy. I can't say it's desirable, but it makes a good change from bugs and stale food until I regrow my garden.
Before I can have much of anything again, the water comes back out of buckets and into a small pool here. Latter this will be a well, and the pool a larger one on a lower level, but for now, enough water to keep itself flowing and wooden barrels for clay again. With the clay, and sand, again I rebuild, this time no tiny smeltery.
It's not full size and it's not a swarm of self sorting monsters but this one is big enough for any purpose I might need for now, until I grow to overwhelm it. Plans, always plans, and always forward. See the clock, ticking away, and a chest that fills itself. Satisfaction, and of course an urge to the next project. Good things to feel while alone in the sky.
Behold, lava. Still I must feed manually from the chest above my extruder but I don't yet consume it fast enough to need more. I'm growing a stockpile that I will, soon, be able to make into obsidian and more varied materials. I shall again have a sword and my tools, they can't always be flint.
The overlords tempt with many odd suggestions for power, and here at the edge I place them, and sift for more resources. Redstone is always scarce but time becomes more, as long as I am patient. So here I throw all the power I have at getting more of what I spent to get the power. Such is the cycle, but like a drill, each turn brings us forward.
Until the result is, instead of overkill, pure light and clean power, enough to keep this always going.
(I'd actually contemplated making solar early on. Tier 1 solar takes almost nothing and a furnace upgrade lets it heat a furnace instead of fuel. I might have need of that in another attempt elsewhere..)
So I pleased the overlords for a while, built machines and displayed them, took them down again, and worked forward. Worked through my resources until I needed more, and then I made more. Grew the forest and took it down, and grew it again.
Then I remembered, these tools, they are good, but not yet perfect. I'd not yet rebuilt my workspace, and so that became next. Something done just for me, and it pleased me too. Further, 4 blocks of iron then let me rebuild the unstable wooden tool station into a proper forge. I have now the tools, to make better tools. The drill turns.
A project just for me. A kitchen in the sky. Pantry is still a bit bare but I can work on that, I will work on that, soon. I also need to figure out how to get fuel into the stove more efficiently. I'm using nuggets of charcoal right now. A stack of them looks like they will last me, but then I'll have to add more myself. Surely I can automate it a little more.
Even a Barrel can be automated, if you look at it properly. Each shearing of leaves making dirt to make the forest slightly larger. To grow a stockpile for my garden, and a stockpile to be sifted to catch more wind blown seeds.
Wind. Blown.
There's another idea. I just need to tap that endless wind. But, not today.
With these stones as shields in place, the trees can only grow so high, this makes them easier to harvest while I'm doing the work myself. When I started, a large tree was a wealth, but it was also costly, taking much more resources to cut it down. Once I had those resources I desired the large ones more. Now that I have so many trees I find myself not desiring them, while still knowing I will again change my mind.
With this work I find myself, hungry, and so a new task.
In the sky this is unseemly wealth. It's also only the start of my plans. Wheat, carrots, potatoes, egg-plant, lettuce, sugar. Even cactus and mushrooms. Apples, dragonfruit. Cocoa! The overlords have given hinting temptations that is just the start. Though I am slightly uneasy, if the magic here is strong enough that the eggplant actually has eggs, it might be dangerous to hatch them. I should make... a machine.
The chickens might serve as sacrifice, so that I need not spill of myself for this. It is a tempting thought. From just the start of chickens, perhaps I might grow a mighty and dark altar. Or maybe not, this thing is dangerous.
My eyes do not enjoy seeing naught but bare cobble, and a land so thin below my feet, even with the knowledge of more platforms below is not comforting. So I've made a proper start. Solid and decorative, stone and brick. Though I'll need a better light then torches. Right now I'm still just a spilled bucket from disaster.
