Stories of SevTech

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Age 2 Resources

It's one thing to hold your breath and try to break into an underwater cavern that you are pretty sure exists down there to bring back a few shards of prismarine. It's another to make an assault on an underwater temple. Sure these weapons made with the prismarine shards work well under water. Yes this armor loves the water and makes me faster. It's not enough to breath though.

For that I've set in place a network of totems. Base, then squid, and then enderman on top. I can use the loss of night vision as a hint to get back in range, fast, or else drown. Turns every attack down here into a hit and run ballet. I wait for an opening, peaking around a doorway or a wall, when spikes retracts I dash in, strike a blow as I pass and then return. Sometimes I build totems on two sides of a guardian so I can dash back and forth.

Eventually I solve the maze. I find the guardians. I slay them, and the protections on the temple breaks. Out comes the hammer. Down go more totems. The treasure is mine. Gold. Great greedy blocks of the stuff. The first I have owned. Rare, but I need little of it, yet.

The temple itself is a greater treasure. Many, many blocks of prismarine, shards from the lanterns still a glow with light here in the water, and a most curious treasure, multiple rooms of sponges. I don't have to take the entire temple with me in a single visit, I can return latter to pillage these remains, but I could have broken the entire thing down, had I chosen. I'd brought the right table to repair my tools, and with them made with prismarine the temple itself gives me the materials to repair them.

A silk touch gem is out of my reach, and even if I could craft one I've not yet made a sufficiently advanced tool forge to infuse it into one of my tools. That though is not an absolute block. Nither is an inability to enchant my tools. No, a head made of sponge is the key. While harmless as a weapon, it's very useful in a tool, as well as in my armor. As a pick it'll let me draw forth things from the earth without breaking them. Something I've been desiring for a while, even if I am far more likely to use this as a shovel for such things as grass blocks.

Hammer. Pick. Haste totems. Nearly unlimited resources to repair them. Time. Everything I need to get down to some serious work.

If only life was that simple though. I am completely out of andesite that I'm using to make the walls. Course while I was in the darkness, seeking deposits of this useful stone, I found something else. Quite a bit of lapis to take home with me. Perhaps I will find uses for it as well.

Maybe I should have marked the first of these blocks I placed. Some buildings have a proper keystone. With how often these walls are being built and rebuilt to get everything just right though I'm not sure I could even find where I started. This though is the start of the next section of the fortress. I didn't start here, even though there was a water block to work with, just like the other part, there was a cave I wasn't entirely sure about down there. That will make this a bit more complex.

I did a bit more work and then went down into the caves under the base. I'd spotted samples as I'd worked, some unidentified, but I knew if I poked around in the caves a bit I'd find something useful eventually. Nice to find a large amount of iron under the base, easily brought back out to the surface.

A chest, lava, and time. With those all the iron I found will become blocks, easily stored and used latter. My time divides between working on the walls, clearing spaces, pouring blocks and getting more andasite from the lands of darkness.

This establishes the separation from the front of the fortification from the rest of the castle. Or at least I think it will. There was an intrusion near the surface of the mountain that had overgrown with dirt, a grassy swath that ran down from the top of the peaks down to the other side. I've preserved some of it while keeping the idea of my base here.

That storage wall isn't a wall anymore, almost more space behind it instead of infront of it now, going to have to move it the next time these walls stop moving. One hammer stroke at a time I make more and more space. Someday there will be floors, sometime there might be towers and turrets and guards. For now there is only myself and this work.

Further into the new section, leaving stairs behind as I carve away the stone. Faster to dig down, once you know what's below you. Cut across, cut down, clear away the earth.

With patience any structure can be built. With time anything can come down. I've used both and turned a mountain into a fortification. A base to live within, build within, and work on my projects.

I've been using some of the gold that I looted from the temple to make a few casts but mostly I've been using clay. This is perhaps the most important of the casts and maybe the one I should have made first. So many clay buckets I won't have to make anymore to move lava with just one bucket of iron. Such an improvement, but I was caught up in my building and didn't notice.

Likewise I should have noticed that I could do better with the faucet. I've had glass, and I've had iron for a while. Why not just make one of these instead? As long as I've got the right number in the chest I'll get nice even blocks as a result. Sand into glass by the stack without having to be there. Yes. Please.

With gold less rare, I could make more casts, more parts and worry less about having to melt the clay for one time projects. So I went out with the glass melting down to where I had samples that I'd not been able to identify before, and found that one of them was gold. It was quite a bit of work to locate the vein, but once I did, it was an embarrassment of riches.

It's not even. It's not neat. I'm still proud of my work. It fits in with the beautiful world around it and is a part of it, growing from it. I'm proud of it, and it is mine.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Growth

Exploring under my base it seems this new age has a few other problems that I'd not expected. Lava itself seems to be alive now, climbing out of streams of the stuff to throw fireballs at me. Not that difficult to deal with, but another thing to remember.

I'd found a few bees in the wild, hives that had given me my first taste of honey, but now I've discovered how to make a proper apiary to house them. They seem to be quite tame and not too interested in stinging me now.

The bees should also make farming easier. This watering can will help as well. It's not the fastest improvement, but all these little improvements stack up. Might be time to make another garden again. I didn't make too large of a stockpile, though it's not run out yet.

If only I could move corn, it would go well in the back between tomatoes and hot peppers. There's small patches of melons and pupmpkins, canola, rice, cotton, cocoa and pretty much everything I can. Can't get the hemp to grow inside yet, but the market was quite willing to trade some of my gold for some industrial hemp seeds that don't mind the artificial light.

Turning back to that strange altar and the blade, I took the time to prepare some tranquility for myself. I could have started this earlier on, but I had food enough to heal quickly, but now things are costing enough that I can't wait on such things as much. Now I can feed power into the altar much faster and more efficiently.

The orbs are starting to get hard to make. I'm going to need to make quite a bit more capacity to go with the self sacrifice that I've already prepared, I can't just keep using my own health as a buffer to refresh these transformations halfway through.

If my hand slips and I use the knife too eagerly it's easy to injure myself enough to lose experience. That's not the only way, encounters with monsters often end up with one mistake too many made to survive. With this simple tome made from an old arcane scroll dropped long ago, it will store my experiances for me and ration it out as I need it latter.

In the hunting dimension I've gone for overkill. Multiple full sets of totems. I've taken to running in, drawing the attention of a few foes and then baiting them back here to my base to harvest the demonic will that I need to power the tools.

With enough will stored, I've taken the chance to make myself one of the bows that's empowered by the demonic will as well. There's even a full set of tools that might be worth exploring, though I doubt they will be faster, though perhaps they will clear multiple blocks at once? Could be of use in some places.

While I've got an embarrassment of riches, a full set of the runic tablets seems in order as well. While one of them seems to be slightly imperfect in the crafting and thus less useful then I'd hoped, I am quite glad to have made them all.

With a single bucket of life essence carefully placed it takes very little of a garden to push this still early structure to the limit of my ability to draw. I'll need some more exotic material to make an orb capable of transforming more paths and expanding the reach.

Speaking of materials, I've hunted enough to collect a full set of wild dog pelts for my boots. Same protection against falls as the boots of slime, but also helps me move a little faster. Unfortunately these are not as durable as I'd like, so I have to remember to take them off when I am outside the base, lest a beast that strikes me down cause them damage.

Before using gold on things that are useful to me, I'm going to check to see what the overlords want me to make for them. I'd not noticed that I'd not been able to make nuggets simply, I'd not crafted anything that required them, but there is a special cast to pour into for them.

A simple pan cast though seems to be enough to make pearls from the ender dust that drops from those teleporting fiends. Not enough of them in the hunting dimension, or anywhere else, for me to ever get much of the ender pearls, so I must hoard them carefully and use them sparingly.

I've had ironberries for a while. Could even have made a bit of iron from them. It's better to brew with them though. It will take me a while to make anything worth drinking, but eventually I might have an entire range of brewed potables. Not quite potions, but something.

The rest of my gold? Not quite all of it, but a lot of it is here as these chests. Crates and smaller chests for storing the less valuable stones and piles of cobble that overflow the drawers, but this should be enough storage for a while.

Storage for myself, on the other hand, takes upgrading my backpacks yet again. I can wear one and carry another easily enough, any additional ones I wanted to carry would complicate things more then I like. Good thing that's enough storage, for now.

A golden apple takes quite a bit of gold, and then only using it to make a charm, perhaps that's something other then gluttony, but I am proud of it.

While I'm seeing to upgrades, a layer of sponge added to my armor makes it so that I feel blows that much less. You'd think that bronze, sponge and prismarine wouldn't make the best looking armor, and perhaps that's right, but it's enough to protect me and that's enough for me. I've also gone through and made sure that my weapons are as upgraded and prepared as I can get them. Copper for the experience on the tools, prismarine so that water will not slow me and then as much durability as I can manage.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Prologue

Exploration of the surface eventually lead to the discovery of a sample cluster that hinted at the existence of crystals below, and gave me a handful of glittering dust. Deep below in the heart of the earth the crystaline ore glimmered. Not normally how I'd discover such things, but so generous a quantity from this one vein that I might never need to mine any of this again. On the other hand, I saw no signs of any structures with the starry crystals within them.

Seems that the knowledge of the stars is something I can ask from the unknown beings that respond to the dark rituals. The sacrifices might not be the only thing I am paying them for this knowledge, and they piece it out to me a tiny bit at a time. I worry what it might be costing me, but I have to know.

I had to construct this table to enter this age, but once I did there wasn't much I could do with it. Seems like I've not really entered the age I've unlocked until I can actually make use of what I've made. The top of my base is high enough to give me a little light to work with.

A lightwell to capture the starlight and collect a drop at a time as I spend the crystals I took from deep in the earth. So far from the sky they couldn't do what they exist to do. To shine.

Another bit of crafting, a resonator. This will help me to see where in these lands there is the best resonance with the starlight. Sadly there isn't much of it to be found here where I've made my home. Still, this close to the stars I've got certain advantages.

Can only go so far with just the starlight and altitude though. It's going to take a lot of marble and a lot of work to make a structure to focus the light for this altar to make it powerful enough.

The glowing dust, combined with a crystal, and the glowing starlight lets me form a paste that grows a more powerful crystal. In the process of breaking it free from this matrix a little bit of the glittering dust can be recovered. By using a chisel I was able to relocate some of the raw crystal ore here so that I could work with it. Rumor has it that this makes the process better.

Using the crystals to farm up more of the starmetal dust, and adding focusing mirrors to my structure, my reach extends again by another small amount. While I wait to have enough to progress, I study the sky with my telescope and see what I can find from the notes I bargained for.

There are a few things I can craft while I wait as well. The glitter of glass, the power of gunpowder, magic in the aquamarine, and the power from the starlight. Thus do I gain another way to illuminate the darkness.

The linking tool has less uses when you have to make your own enhanced crystals to collect the starlight, but I will not miss the opportunity to craft it in a night with the stars shining brightly.

The least of the crystals are turned to starlight. A fluid hopper drains it off into a container, making a stockpile that is being turned into more and more crystals. A few of these buckets are taken to repair crystals that I've carefully sharpened.

All that time gives me one perfect crystal. What I seek will take me more of these, and I must keep this one in preparation for when I can make this perfect crystal into one that will focus the light from the stars for me.

That dust I prepared before, I can concentrate and amplify it into a better form of light. I'll need these for projects I am building, for things I am making, and for producing light in all places of the worlds.

Finally, I have found it. Two bits of the glowing dust, combined with light and a material that blots out the light and dampens it. Stone for substance and iron to carry forward as the substance all this will infuse into. Combined with as much starlight as I can manage with this structure and I finally get some of the star metal that I've been seeking.

Having constructed the starlight ingot, it seems that it might function as a key to progress elsewhere, but I have other plans in mind with the first of them. Sunset. Starlight. Twilight. Yet not yet.

The starmetal is the first resonating material that can be worked with in the ways of regular metals. This opens up possibilities in my crafting and infusion. The first of these I seek to make, a device that will cause me to align myself with the stars.

Quite a large space and much resources are taken in building a place where I can attune myself to the stars. It takes careful planning, focus, and the luck to come on it at just the right time. And so I've taken the power of the stars into myself, and attuned with the light.

Water. Flowers. Light and starlight. With storm the ground is struck. Stricken the worlds break. Into twilight.

Thus into twilight go I. A hard slung stone might be able to reach the castle, the most protected place of this realm, but to reach it myself I must solve many tasks and trials. The beauty is though worth it.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Twilight

"Just on the border of your waking mind, there lies another time, where darkness and light are one. And as you tread the halls of sanity you feel so glad to be unable to go beyond. I have a message from another time."

Into the twilight.
I've got my atlas, and it's of some use, always able to tell me where I've been. That's not quite enough though. Not here. Not in a world so large and so dangerous. There are many places that I just can't go, bound with spells that make entering them nigh deadly. Thus I must find something to help me. The first part of this is to craft an enchanted feather that scribes on paper by itself.

With that I can make a map of this region. The magic in the quill lets it mark things I wouldn't know about and safely lead me away from the most dangerous of places, including the castle I nearly landed inside of, in a land where the rain burns in silver shards from the sky.

This does not look like much, but this is one of the most valuable things I could find in an early minor hill. I'll want more, much more of it for projects latter, but this is enough to get things started for me. Having gotten this, I move on to the first challenge I should be facing, and taking the redstone with me.

Sentient bow wasn't quite as powerful as I was hoping, but I can always collect more souls to upgrade it further if I want to take a little time in such practices. Souls and blood, expensive costs, but worthwhile rewards. The naga went down in time, and gave me a few scales. I hunted a few of her sisters as well before I returned, because I wanted to make the set of armor from them.

I keep encountering these unusual growths of mushrooms. These almost seem like there should be somebody living inside of them. As empty as ever, and as strange as ever. Mystery unsolved.

Ah, here we go. One of the hedges twisted into a maze. With the transformation powder I could shift the wolves that spawn here into ones that I could tame, had I need of a larger pack of companions. What I am here for though, is just under the ground, protected by the hedge. Whatever formed this place did not want the treasure casually raided from below and continued the walls into the ground with magical reinforcements. This maze stone is what I needed, an unnaturally hard substance.

There was more then a little marble in the hills. When I returned I found I had enough now to make the vast open form that focuses the starlight for the attunement altar. Even though crystals are plentiful here, I don't want to use them wastefully, thus I am only going to attune one of them, and myself, before pushing onward into the stars.

With a chisel to properly decorate the maze stone, I can make the next altar. It required a few other bits to properly integrate the unusual nature of the twilight stone into the starlight structure but I'd found most of them already.

The naga wasn't a pushover, and I know the latter foes to be more dangerous still, thus I knew I had to turn to the limited brewing I could do. A strangely rustic brew to slowly regain my health, but better then nothing at all.

With some of the plant I'd found I am able to use this condenser to make some very basic brews indeed. None of them can be upgraded to be stronger with this limited machine and quite a few things are beyond my reach, but it is of some little help.

Thus better prepared I take on the tower. Sure I could skip it entirely, climb to the top and hammer my way in, but if I did that, the rewards inside would go unclaimed. Light. Time. Potions. Patience. Some of the best weapons in the world, when used right.

As long as the lich does not set his tower ablaze to try to take me with him, the fight isn't too hard to one properly prepared. As the power of my atunement grows it should become easier and easier to win. This one didn't drop the treasure I wanted, and his tower likewise was without what I sought.

Six of his ilk had to fall before I'd gotten everything I desired from them, and a number of things that I as yet couldn't use, but knew I'd need in time. Curiously the wand that would have made the fight against the others a fair challenge was once again the very last to fall. In the long run though it might be the lifedrain wand that saves me the most trouble.

North of my entrance, there was a frozen land. I'd seen ice before and even knew where I could harvest ice spikes myself, but this frozen cave was packed with the stuff. While a weapon of sponge is useless in combat, it is useful in harvesting such things. Likewise the fur of these creatures is well worth the harvest, worth taking the time to farm. They are not just something that stands in the way of my advancement, they are a stepping stone in my conquest.

A combination of silk touch to remove ice without breaking it and the climbing gloves gets me to the top of the ice with ease. The inside of the tower itself was a less enjoyable climb. Deep in the frozen heart of this castle was the frozen queen herself, and after her defeat I took away the pillaged loot of her domain and returned home.

After the trip I did a bit of house keeping. Raised some sheep. Grew some flowers. Felted the wool onto thatch cubes to form blocks of it. Refined my wine making technique until I had something quite worth drinking. This could combine with the rather basic potions I'd made before to help me through the harder spots that where to come.

That wool? Well, I'd encountered somebody who needed it. A vasty and mighty beast living in a ruined temple. The rewards for help where not much, but some things you complete because it's the right thing to do. Others because it's there.

While the wine was brewing and the flock growing the wool, I took the time to make offerings until the entire collection of constellations was complete in my book.

Each night I turned my sight to the sky until I'd recorded the positions of everything in the sky and found everything that those whispers had spoken of to me. Perhaps I won't need to know all of these, but it gives me a certain feeling of achievement to have them.

For now, and until the dawn, look to the skies. See what you can, learn what you will, and see what resonates inside yourself. Take what you can, and make that power yours.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Collected, Expanded

A full set of constellations, and some more materials from the twilight realm, a bit of work and I've made the starlight infuser. With this I can take some of the existing materials I've gotten and make them better, bending the power of the stars for my own ends.

The first of these infused gems has been used to improve one of the most refined and powerful of the crystals into a form that could capture light by itself. Some of that light I direct into the crafting table, so as to be able to craft other things more easily.

The more important use of it though is to infuse the light of the stars into the iron directly, without having to use the longer and harder crafting method. Seems though that I don't have anything that can harvest it.

Though, on second thought, from that frozen tower, some of the chests had armor made from knightsteel. A few of them combined and I've got one fully repaired. A simple enough matter to melt that down and make a single plate from it. That plate now becomes a hammer that can crack this puzzle for me.

Now that I have easy access to star metal it doesn't take me long to make a full set of the amplified collector crystals. These are so very much better then trying to use the small mirrors to amplify the collected light.

First upgrade the place the mirrors where collecting starlight to maintain the crystals in top condition, and then use the collected light to push the altar into a more complete form.

With this I've pushed the study of the starlight as far as I can, and I can start getting the most valuable rewards for my work. I can craft almost anything and infuse the starlight into it with any aspect I need.

I've taken the power of flight for myself. Not perhaps as mighty as having my own wings, or the raw power of a jetpack, but the most modest form, some simple gliding. With my wand though also infused I can gather starlight into it and be launched higher and faster then the simple gliding would normally allow. Exploration and travel are now much easier and less frustrating.

Two crystals. Both of them carefully enhanced, sharpened, purified, and grown. Formed into a blade, and then in turn sharpened again, and repaired with more starlight. Taken further by infusing yet more starlight into it. This blade is perhaps not the ultimate weapon, but it will serve me well. A reward well earned for all this effort. While I could do something much the same and make other tools, I come to hope that I will only need this one, it was not a trivial task.

Starlight infused into a sapling forms a ghostly tree. Other saplings fall from it and in time plant themselves, only to grow again and again. The wood and berries get harvested as I get time and as I remember. There might be better ways to grow trees for myself, but this will serve me well enough for as little lumber as I need of late.

I already have mazestone, because I was slightly sneaky and took some from under a hedge. Seems that it is meant to come from a larger maze, one that lives under the surface of the swamp. In addition to the boss and the food I need to protect me from the aura of the fire swamp, there's a well protected vault. The stone takes a long time to break, but with water, a haste totem, and patience...

... the vault reveals the treasure to me. While this mazebreaker does work faster on maze stone, I find the other harder stones of the world are no easier to take with this pick. On the other hand the enchantments on it are rather impressive. If I could just get two of them together so I could combine them, and perhaps mending, I would be rather fortunate.

Inside the fireswamp of the hydra, there was also a nest of vexatious minions. This made things a bit more complicated of a fight with the hydra then it normally is. With a rather mighty bow though the beast was no more. My bow? Mostly steelleaf. I've gone so far as to put raven feathers on the arrows, to be a proper hunter of this realm.

Head of the hydra to act as a key into a stronghold in the darkness. Other beasts just as mighty would have opened my way but I had this one on hand after my previous victory. Into the deep dark underground, hunting for the uneasy spirits.

Seems somebody left a trap for me. Guess I should say it's here to guard the treasure from me. Still if I can discover it and notice it, it's not much of a trap. Loot here is rather nice, and there's more then a few spawners and other things worth having in here as well.

With the defeat of these uneasy spirits, the machines of the tower will answer to me with less trouble. I might though take my time to track down a few more sets of these uneasy spirits because the armor is rather nice, if only for my collection.

In the center of the trackless woods, a tall tower of sturdy wood stands, full of unusual and arcane machines. At the top is a crying ghost with burning tears. Such is my quest.

Such unusual foodstuffs are not the only things to be found. I took some of the timbers from here, a number of the pistons, and the cores out of some of the experiments. This will save me trouble in crafting latter, keeping me from having to harvest traces from the woodbore beetles.

The crying ghost is an easier fight with a strong bow. Without a strong bow I had to use the machines of the tower pull it down within my reach. A few shots with the bow, and then I had to charge another of the machines. I thought that would be all, but the crying ghost rained a storm of tears. A leap from the top, and a strike of lightening, a skeletal form, and the soldiers of death burst forth to fight me.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Tiny Victory

If I'd been a bit smarter, I might have tried to fly from the top of the tower, even with the storm, and never had to fight the army of the dead that had lain in wait for me. Still, with a good charge in my wand, and a bit of skill, I was able to circle around the center of the storm of acid rain and reach the clouds.

While the giants should have had the lamp, they had left it underground for safe keeping. Normally I'd have had to come down here first to gain the magical beans to reach the lofty heights they live in, but not this time. Oddly the trolls did not use obsidian in order to protect the stolen beans. The basalt used is a much weaker material.

The vault protected by the work of the giants deeper in the caves though, was still rather well protected. I had to fight off a swarm of trolls and foes, light up and protect a region, and then break the giant protective blocks around the trove.

With the lamp, the fast growing thorns where able to be neutralized. Without this special fire that can burn as fast as the vines grow, the vines swarm out of the hillside and take over all the space they can reach.

Inside the vines the first towers at the edge of the castle can be reached, and a space that before had been empty seems to be filled with hostile natives. I'd not seen the like before, and they are not the only guard. I had to weave through the towers, fighting these foes as I worked towards the core. Under some of the towers are vast chambers protected with forcefield mazes. Something seems incomplete.

Beautiful, but incomplete. Inside the central castle I found more of the giant guards. This castle does not want to be breached, the fight is monumental in scale. Still, I did make it to the top.

Seems that there will be more here, in due time. Still I'd gotten what I needed from this realm. It was the source of magical fire, the lantern, that I'd come here to obtain. Perhaps I'd not even had to go this far, the key items of here seeming to be ones needed for astral sorcery, and a rather strange engine that I don't understand.

The stolen loot of a world. Including one of my proudest finds, the complete notes of an explorer who had been in the twilight before me. Some of these are quite hard to obtain due to how jealously the gnomes protect them.

My time in the twilight passes. I may venture into it again, but it will be to only take what I need. There are no mysteries in this place for me now. Only resources and rewards. Projects to be made, and things to bring home so that I can further progress. I've taken the darkness. I've taken the twilight.

There's a strange engine in my notes that I should make, but it requires more then I can craft in the traditional way. I've learned to expand my crafting with starlight, but this engine needs nothing of the stars, technology and magic don't play nice together. Still if I take some of what I learned, an alloy of materials I've already seen works as a way to craft this engine. Still, there are parts I am missing.

I'd made sacrifices, and taken knowledge from those outsider beings, but I'd done as little as I could with the abyss. Keeping it in a cave isn't secure. A few times creatures from outside nearly escaped the containment. Thus it is needful to do more with it, to let myself know things better left unknown.

It cost me much struggle to collect the monolith stone, but it is one of the few things that can contain the creatures from outside. Further building without corners, in a round structure also seems to help. Still nothing will keep them forever from this world.

Thus this tower is a small, but safe distance from the rest of the fortress. Hopefully just far enough to keep me out of trouble, save when I force myself to work with this insane subject and strange magic.

The outside creatures, if they think themselves unobserved, will build structures and monuments designed to breach the walls between worlds. To weaken them and let more into this realm. From that though I've taken these statues, and placed them here, in the hope that I can force this process to go two ways. Not to strengthen the walls, but to let myself, eventually, take the fight to them.

While before I was making sacrifices, requesting knowledge, now I'm purposefully pulling from them, risking being noticed as I combine some of them with the materials of this world. Making more and more powerful structures to continue my reach deeper into this mystery.

The incomprehensible magics of that other place are thus funneled from the chamber above, into this chamber below where I use them. It's not quite far enough away that I won't be noticed, but it might gain me a little time to escape if things went horribly wrong.

I was able to craft most of the implement to breach the walls of the realms, but it refuses to resolve the final riddle for me. Seems there are things I must obtain before I can solve it. In the meantime though, I've managed to form a cage, this device will let me move more dangerous things then the small animals that I'd previously carried around. A boon for farming.

A nightmare. I'm sure of it. I woke in my bed after this. So it must have been a nightmare. Yet, it did seem so very real. Maybe if it is this dangerous, I will stay away, at least for a while. I will let that riddle stay unsolved.

Let the tower rest quietly, let it rest undisturbed. Let is slumber at the edge of my walls. Let us appreciate it, but at a distance. Let it be a safe distance. Let it be enough.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: preperations

Took me the longest to find the herb from the highest of mountains, took me a bit more exploring then I'd have liked, but I've got the means to fly now, even if landing is a bit of a problem sometimes. That sudden stop. A bit painful. Oddly though it's the cave plant that is so very common underground that seems to have trouble in captivity. Even when I grow 4 at a time, I barely get 5 to replant. I might have to try larger gardens of these.

Because landings are so painful, and because the first set of the dog pelt boots are nearly destroyed, I've taken the time to make a refraction table and engrave the glass to give me mending. There seem to be a number of things the stars could teach me about enchanting, but it all seems slightly beyond my grasp. Perhaps I need to pay more attention to what stars are out while making my plates.

The sponge pick let me collect some packed ice from that northern clime I found. Pillars of this dense packed ice growing in strange formations up there in the heart of winter. The dogs move just a little bit faster, but the corners are a bit strange. I might have to tinker with things just a little to see if perhaps some well placed fences might keep the boys on track a bit better, or if they'd complain about being blocked by it. They are all good boys.

Around the back side of the island, there's a spot that looks like it might be a perfect natural harbor. With a bit of work perhaps it can even be deepened enough for a great ship to take shelter within. I've already had rafts, and a boat isn't too hard to craft, a few of them here and a little dock would suit this bit of land very nicely.

I've tucked some animals that where wandering around my island safely inside this pocket of earth where there was a bit of growth inside a cave. They seem content enough here with the grass, but I will try to find a better home for them eventually. I'll also have to remember to use the cage to move the buffalo, there is no reason to leave them at the old homestead.

In my earlier preparations I'd neglected my defense. Not that I've not prepared myself some armor, I've prepared both tinkers armor and some more conventional sets to work with. Apparently though I've neglected to make myself a shield. The regular one seems easy enough to craft, but it looks like this more durable one requires me to pour the metal plate directly into place.

I've been slowly brewing mead, wine, and a number of other brews, but alewart is just a tiny bit of a pain to craft. If I do this though, with a number of bottles already in the barrel, waiting, I can fill them from the buckets rapidly, and build up a stack. Taking the stack of alewart bottles back to my brewing wall, it only takes time to brew up some perfect ale.

The device from the druids, formed in the circle of stones, changes a sapling into a strange tree from another land. Where the atmosphere of that world within the tree touches ours, a portal forms. I'm uncomfortable with portals, and I don't intend to go through into another world without preparations, but this does give me access to more materials.

The tree itself is made of a wood that is resistant to the axe and slow to cut even with my powerful lumber axe and the ability it has to clear entire sections at a time. Still I was able to take sections of this wood up to the chopping block and form it into planks. I have to admit the texture of the logs have a certain appeal, I might have to do something with them.

A number of rudimentary tools and wooden goods are able to be made from the planks of this otherworldly tree. While none of them seem to be stronger then what I've got to work with, they have a certain feel to them, a resistance to wear that little else has, and might be useful inside that realm.

One of the rarest and most exotic treasures from the twilight realm, a rare sapling in robust health. With this I can have one of the grandfather trees, one of the towering mighty sages in my own humble lands.

A mighty tree, it looks good here, on the headland outside my humble harbor. Perhaps a lantern on it in the future to help lead ships home? It's not quite right though, not with what else I'm planning for this space.

I want vines. I don't want just any vines though. Sure there's some from the jungles, and I could bring some from the twilight, but sometimes, just sometimes, when you open a portal tree, it has vines from that other world on it. Course being things of another realm they resist my attempts to farm them, so instead I must carefully encourage them to grow.

Over time I've replaced the wood in the tree with wood from that other world. I've started on some of the leaves, and the vines are growing down properly. This needs a touch more work before I'm completely satisfied with it, but I've a beautiful portal tree for myself now. A grand and powerful grandfather tree that towers and looms. Slightly aglow with otherworldly aura, a dire sensation that raises the hair on the back of your neck.

 

[Danekjovax]

Nice story thus far! Keep it up! I want to see where you take this. You've already done several things differently than in my playthrough, but that's the magic of MC. ;2)

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Cleaning up

Yes, I've built the portal. No, it's not time yet. I had a proper start on my base before I went into the twilight shadows. I'm going to finish putting my place in order before I go between the worlds.

Sometimes it's a progression of small changes. Sometimes the entire world becomes new overnight. I tend to prefer to make the large changes in a rush and then work on the details over time. I can spend an entire joyful week tinkering and teasing at the edge of a platform, trying changes in light and stone until I'm pleased with the result.

So while I might rush to claim the space and make it mine, in turn it'll be a long time until such spaces feel like home. Makes sense to me to claim a region and make it safe first, then worry about how I'll use it latter.

What once was a mountain, is now a fortification. Yet somehow the nature around it feels as if nothing has been lost. Much of what was growing has been preserved,and some of it will even be improved, in the small ways that the nature of growing things can be improved.

I'd placed the walls before I'd hammered out the details inside. Much of the mountain still remains to be removed. I've no fancy technology to help me in this, it's still one swing of the hammer at a time.

Some time with a pick works out the little details in the edges and lets me finish my work. Not faster, but there are places where I can't just hammer out in broad strokes. There's two patches that I couldn't quite fit the shape of the world, but I've found a solution for them as well while working.

It seems that this part of the world desires to be another tower. It makes sense with the water so close on all sides. Perhaps I can install some kind of light or beacon here so that I can see it from far away and guide my ships home.

Around the rocky ledges, likewise there's this spot that refuses to fit the lines of form that I want for my castle. But what is a castle without a tower? In this case, a tower or two.

While it took some experimentation, I was able to get the tower in place without too much trouble. A few other places are crying out for attention, wanting to be streamlined or fixed into a form they will keep until the end of this world. Others quietly wait for me to notice what they should be.

This was one of those nice surprises. I'm not able to put everything from astral onto it but much of the supplies from astral fit into it nicely. I've not figured out the top, perhaps it will get rather larger.

One last look around. The outside is looking quiet satisfactory now. Sure, there's always a bit more I could be doing with it, but this is quite enough for now. I can't keep working on things to delay the portal forever.

Even taking the time to make myself a proper floor for the inside isn't going to occupy my time for too long. I'm going to have to give up and give in eventually.

Not quite yet, but eventually. I'd collected a few sheep, and I can't leave them floating in the air forever. This patch of wall looks like a nice place to bring in some grass from outside for them to nibble on occasionally.

Some transformation powder from the twilight will ensure that some of my sheep become proper rams. I probably can't collect everything within my base, but while there's space enough I'll include what I can. Maybe the entire bottom floor will be a place teaming with life.

A full rainbow of bleating creatures. Though a few of the growing things to complete the rainbow are missing. I'll have to make a note to keep an eye out for them, what with the entire worlds to explore.

Just a sneak peek at a device that I'm tinkering on. Mushrooms are an important crop, but a bit difficult to grow. I've seen such structures before but never tried to make one. I think I'm missing something though. I'm going to take this down again and think about it.

While I'm thinking though. I'm going to try a change of pace. Maybe inspiration will strike me while I walk the worlds a while.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: another day, another age

First things first. New place, new base. As I've not been here before I don't know how much of a stronghold I'll need, so I've hollowed out a tree as a temporary fortification.

The overlords said I needed these gems. I thought that was the only reason to be here, but once I entered another set of options opened up to me, leading me through a number of things I could do in this place. Still, I could just take these stones and run.

Don't have to go far to find a tower, and it did want me to find one. The tower seemed to wake up as I approached, wisp lights leading me inside. Each level of the tower challenged me, containing me in a small space with monsters and the spawner, requiring me to defeat them all to pass higher.

Top floor had something I wanted though. Wrights, and a ledge high enough up to be safe from them. It didn't take much effort to snipe them at range until the ring fell. It's not flight, neither is my mantle, but it's a small step closer.

With that in hand, I broke the final spawner, the tower started to crumble, and I had to race out the bottom with it threatening to land on my head. Once it had settled, I returned to clean out materials from it for latter use.

My first trip out wasn't a bad experience. Pots and chests have given me a selection of items, though it seems I won't be able to get everything I want from just the surface. Have to stash all this back at my base and then dive down and see what I can find.

It seems that those who lived here before also explored in these depths. Though it was far enough in the past that there is naught but ruin here. Ruin and echoing darkness.

A glow. Deep in the caves. In a pool of strange water. There is a light. Something glowing. A small crystal in one of the stalagmites. Seems some of the vibrancy of this realm was long contained here. I was able to recover a shard of it for myself.

I took a few more trips, gathered more from the depths and from other ruins on the surface, and once I had enough taken from the world in my little stronghold, I turned to making use of it. The first task was a purifier to return things to a pure form, including the gems I'd taken.

Deposits of limestone, chunks of them ground produced a flux, but the grinder has many uses, though much of them are tasks I'm waiting to do in the comfort of my own base.

With the limestone and a double barreled furnace I'm able to get the occasional additional ingot from the resources I've mined out in the depths below. Some sort of reaction of the limestone flux and the burning sulfur in this atmosphere perhaps? I honestly don't know.

The sulfur is also a fuel for this other device, the animator. It's capable of creating things from the blueprints of the item scrolls, as well as imparting life from the crystals into some of the more exotic things of this realm.

I'll have to explore further on the surface to find everything I want, and that means a more potent cure for the blight on this realm. The sludges are key to this, I cook them in the furnace, and then combine that with the sap that I had been using to restore myself, making a much more useful sap jelly.

I've got more then enough in the storage room, overflowing with the treasures of this realm. A brief pause before I explore, so that I've a safe place to return to when I do head out. I still distrust this realm so I refuse to build down at the level of the land and the water. I've taken another tree and expanded it. Stilts down to the solid stone beneath the soft ground.

At the heart of this base, doors that I will use to reach many worlds. A floor ornately carved inside simple walls. As much as the torches are the right light for this realm, I want something more comforting for inside.

The glass of the lanterns protects the flickering flame from the damp rot of this realm. I'll still be blighted as I pass through this chamber, but it feel much more secure and homely. I could be content here.

I've taken a trip out to try to gather the materials that grow thick on the ground of this world, and this time I was able to tame one of the giant frogs into a companion. He's faster crossing this realm then I am so is very much a help. He only asks that I keep him healthy and fed on dragonflies that he sees as a treat.

A few of the slugs followed me through the tree. I've contained them in a bit of fence, and as they seem willing to take treats from me, fed with a bit of the sludge. Might be worth the trouble to farm a few of them. Everybody needs a hobby and I've heard of stranger pets.

Here is one of the places I found. This tree took quite a while for me to find, and then I found a number of them all at once. The sap in these slow growing and long lived trees crystallizes into something very much like glass over time, and I need quite a bit of it. That though I am able to get mostly from stumps. From these living ones, I need only a cutting from one of the vines. That, and a moment to appreciate the beauty of them.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Between, Betwixt

A strangely spooky space. Oddly majestic structures in the swamps. Two fortresses standing sentinel in the night under a riven sky. Yet I am guided to seek the top of the tower, though perhaps this mission wasn't intended by those who guided me here.

The vast central chamber seems to not be linked in any direct way to the top, though there are a few chambers here that are worth investigation. The longer I spend down here, the more monsters are waiting for me above, I must hurry, I must not linger overlong, though the treasures be tempting.

As I climb, the very ground tries to fall out from under me. With the magically reinforced strength the rest of the structure has, I know this must be some form of trap. The most powerful tool I have to disarm this trap is a simple chisel. One brick at a time I reinforce the falling tiles and cross the bridges.

Not the summit but within one more hard climb of the top. Up here are both the wrights from these crystals where they escape into existence in this world. Further monsters had gathered here while I was dealing with the traps below. It was a brief, hectic, and slightly dangerous fight. Just a warmup.

A sword, as a key, stored as four pieces each protected by a trap. Though if you fight through rapidly with a good strong pick you can survive by just fighting through. This sword is no joke weapon, a stout blade and an attack even better then the sweep of the sword for handling swarms.

Without the blade, there is no way into there, and while you might sneak up into the arena, you find yourself there alone with this chamber still sealed.

When your family has had issues with portals for generations, you get to know the feeling of thinness. This isn't the first void in the worlds that I've encountered, but this is the first one that's had something so kindly warning me to beware.

From the darkness some primal ancient evil. Wrapped in magical spells and bindings that protect it from my attacks. Not from it's own attacks though, some of them are able to be returned to punch small holes in the defenses of this strange otherworldly being. Quick followup shots with my little bow was enough to eventually force a retreat, and I took my rewards.

One of the towers of my fortress, near to where the portal is, just seemed like the right place to build. I want a structure here, in my own place, to work further with what I brought back from that other realm, a place where I can study it without being constantly plagued.

I've collected the loot of a world again. It's not a complete collection, but it's enough to continue my studies. It took a bit of exploration and persistence to make sure that I'd gotten every one of the plants. There's also this herb lore book that I was able to assemble from hints, but it seems that I'll need to finish it myself.

The little lizards that make a home in the bushes seems to be quite sensitive to the magic of that realm. Further it seems to camouflage itself naturally and that is effected by the essences that I am trying to track down and refine. I need only grind up samples of every one of the plants and test it on these little creatures. Once I am done I will release the ones that survived.

Plants from that world need soil with things in it that I just can't find in this world, and to maintain it I have to keep composting materials from there and digging it into the soil. Other plants grow rather more easily. Those are the ones I compost to maintain the more exotic ones I need to collect essences and finish my work.

For plants that thrive in the water, a little more care has to be taken, but they will grow and spread as long as there's enough soil and compost to keep them happy. Just has to be under water. I'm particularly fond of this blue coral, I might have to do something with it.

For each of the aspects, I selected a few of the plants, ground them, combined them, and brewed until they'd broken down into the water absolutely. Then into the alembics to purify each aspect so they could be separated. If I have need I can combine these aspects to form potions to help me in my explorations.

Though one of the things I now find myself needing requires me to go back into the other world. Under the ground I eventually found a cavern with tar beasts sleeping in a deep pool of tar. Eventually I was able to get one defeated without wrecking the heart.

Testing a brew on my good swamp boots, to gain another small advantage for the coming fight. Then having discovered that my brewing is sound, I prepare for the final push.

That heart, given life again with the animator, combined with another brew and two radically divergent items from the world produces the final item that I will need, mummy bait.

The dreadful mummy grows from such a heart. The shiny gem attracts the demons of the peat, the sludge binds it all together. It's a strange and dreadful demon that grows from this strange seed. But it was the last of the challenges that I had to face here, and the reward is perhaps the most powerful of the rings.

With that, I've done all that I've been instructed to do in this world. There's a few more things that I might still get. I've not yet found an explanation of what would drive a culture to punch holes in reality when you live in a world so thin, or of just what happened to them.

Knowing that such portals are dangerous, I still made a rather large one for myself here. I brought some of that world to my own, knowing the risks. For as long as this lasts, I've a bit of otherworldly beauty here in my home.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Back in the saddle again

New age, new builds, and the first thing to do is make sure I've got enough room for everything. An entire stack of storage drawers, looking as good as I can get them to look and fit in well with the rest of my base. Trying to find something for the front face is perhaps the hardest. I've tried snow, and now I'm trying aura blocks, maybe I'll find something else in the future.

Everything that was in my base is now neatly broken down and boxed up. All those half made projects torn down and stored so that I can come back to a clean slate when it's time to come by and make them properly. You never really know how much you've collected until you see it all piled up like this in so many chests. I've made a pile more of the golden chests so that there's room to sort these and put them all away.

Given a choice of doing a lot of work sorting, and going for a nice walk to find the new materials, I went for the nice walk. Lead was the first ore I found and it was rather close to my base. Looks like most of the things I'd use it for will require me to make plates and setup at least that much of my base again, and it would make some nice armor. Perhaps just a bit latter.

Limonite, it's not uncommon being that it's iron with some impurities, but because those impurities are what I want and not the iron itself I'm going to have to find a lot of it. The nickle itself isn't going to be useful as ingots either, will instead be used a bit latter on so I've got time to collect more of it. So I'll just take this, mark a few others, and then keep moving on.

Ah, platinum. Lovely stuff. Rare as diamonds in most cases. I wasn't expecting to find this before the others but I kind of stumbled onto it From samples I'd accidentally found before it looks like I've got enough near me on the map that I'll have a rather tidy little stash of this, once I've made up my mind to break it down. Not yet though, one more ore to find.

Curiously I've had better luck finding aluminum in the twilight, so many large deposits of it that I've slipped down to collect while in my explorations of this realm. With being able to finally add redstone to my hammer this goes so lovely and fast that I'm not even tempted to put down totems anymore.

A quick step into a litch tower that I'd noticed before to blocks that I'd noticed didn't behave in the way that I suspected they should be behaving. The tilled earth and wheat that was acting so strangely was indeed something else. Soul sand and nether wart. While the nether wart is reluctant to grow for me there seems to be enough in these towers as long as I ration it carefully.

In my base I'm going with another giant tree for my twilight region. I'd been thinking about this for a while, it's why I went with one of the round towers as the location for my portal. Because of that thinking ahead I don't have to make more star metal in order to relight the portal, I just have to build around it. It's just a shame how difficult it is to collect the logs from the tower of the Ur Ghast. Even the door I've taken from there.

Inside view of the twilight tower, going to have to put more chests in here to hold the looted treasure of another world. I didn't quite collect everything I wanted while I was in there before. A number of rare treasures remain to be found in there, as well as a few things that have newly arrived with this update. This is an empty chamber just waiting for me to fill it with proper decorations.

Trying to make a rather impressive centerpiece for the tower I've taken some of the rare soil from the troll caves and the magical beans to grow a magical vine. I wasn't sure it was the best of ideas given that I'd spent so long making these walls and if something went wrong it would simply grow the stones away.

The good news is, it worked quite well. Though honestly not as well as I'd like. Going to just have to pull it down and think of something else. On the other hand covering the top of the chamber with cloud really helps pull the look together.

This corner with the portal needed a little something, so I've put down suits of armor from the twilight. I've been thinking about putting down sets of every armor I can get to fill in some more of the space and to remind me of my growth through the ages. Tucked away in the corner by the chests is an experiment I was toying with, it responds oddly to redstone but still does seem to be eatable without too many adverse effects.

Pulled down the entire vine, and grew a few more to get blocks enough for this little project. Just a little path around the edges and it feels so much safer then it being in the middle, not as much of a chance of falling off with it this way, and space enough to tinker a bit more in the future. I've also cleaned up most of the light whisps and replaced as many of them as I could with fireflies.

Flight isn't the most overpowered thing in the twilight, it's this leaf scythe. If you think you hear spiders, clear away the tree until you find them, and within that chest is the loot. Mostly it's melons, but sometimes the rarest and hardest to find items in the entire twilight are in here, the magical saplings. While I was clearing much of the twilight I took the time to hunt every tree I could find, and brought home the treasure.

As I was clearing a few more of the towers a litch dropped something that I'd not seen before, a rod of shielding. Seems that this will let me have the same shields that they form, but it won't last as long as when one of them uses it. Also seems it will be difficult to recharge, so I must use it sparingly. Still is a great treasure from this twilight place.

I've mapped and explored and solved. Covered the land around my portal, and then all the lands around those. I've encountered all of the beings of this world time and time again, slaughtered them and taken the treasures for myself. My home contains an ever expanding collection of the loot of worlds and nowhere I visit remains unchanged.

One last trophy for my collection, the single hardest block of the twilight, requiring even more trickery then the knightmetal. I took all the material I could from the tower of the Ur-Ghast and I used tools on it to corrupt it, and then placed it into a deep hole, where nothing could escape, deep under my base.

From that infested wood swarms of towerwood borers tried to flee as I destroyed the planks, but they had nowhere to go. In the slaughter I collected stacks of towerwood escence. That combined with redstone and ghast tears gave me caramite, the substance that gave life and power to the blocks of the tower. Once compressed into blocks I had it, the rarest treasure of the twilight.

With my explorations in the twilight complete, it was time to make myself a humble little home in it, a safe place to exit the portal into, little more. A quiet place here by the river, though I did need to clear a few trees to make myself a tidy little garden as well. Sprinklers, beehives, the finest fertilized soil, even a totem to encourage growth.

Each crop I'd yet found I've given a small plot here. A place to grow in a tidy little walled garden. If I hunger I just need to come here and harvest a bit, then take it back with me to cook and prepare it properly. Not bad for a tranquil twilight grove, is it?

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Searching

I know where I should go next. Ten blocks, and a spark, obsidian to make a path. I wouldn't even have to make it myself, the world is littered with nether portals in the hot places. I've always had the strangest aversion to going through such portals though, and to do so before I must. On the other hand it seems that the experiments of the caramite towers must have involved the nether, places near the cores had some of the netherrack that I need. Just have to grind it and then filter the dust.

For another piece I return to the twilight, take one of the wrath spawners from the large hills and apply twilight powder to it. Turning shadow into fire, I can collect some of that fire for myself. Blaze powder, rather then blazing rods, these seem to be lesser specimens compared to what's in the nether most times. Still this is enough for my purposes. With the blaze to make the coil and the ability to further cook the ground netherrack into hellfire ingots I can progress without such a portal.

A timer isn't the hardest of redstone devices, and it lets me pulse the gearbox so that the blue flame is maintained without my having to cycle the power myself.
With this stoked fire a kiln takes little work, it's little more than bricks that I took from other structures in the twilight. With the kiln I can make urns and a crucible. Perhaps later I will also make planters. The crucible is progress, the urn lets me make a strange form of steel with a few uses worth investigating as well.

A heated crucible is quite useful indeed. While I could always repair the armor by combining it and melt that down in the smeltery, that requires many sets of armor to be combined as it only works on well repaired items. Instead the crucible gives me less, but from these broken pieces. It's also where I combine the iron with the soul urns to get the magically aspected soul steel.

With the change in age I pulled down. With the change of age I rebuild. Not that I could improve much on the basics, a grindstone is a grindstone, a saw is a saw. Though I know I will be returning to these machines to make automated forms of them elsewhere as needed. Though I do not know what purpose gathering 8 vines together on one stick could ever serve me, that I would automate it, it is nice to have the option.

Kiln, crucible, stoked cauldron for glue and a regular cauldron for cooking. Another set nicely automated, complete with switches to turn them off when I have not the need of them, would that I could silence the turning of the watermill as easily. I'd thought of marking the stoked cauldron, to help prevent me from having accidents with hellfire or blasting oil, but I remembered, such signs never prevented such mishaps before. If I didn't notice that I was putting things into a cauldron that was too hot, I never notice the sign either. Only thing I can really do is remember that I am a fool, and to keep this away from anything valuable.

Thus, promptly, do I place the soul steel anvil, made one ingot at a time, so very slowly and painfully, right next to it. I can hammer out a number of metal forms on this, from springs to armor plates. Armor made from soul steel is protective and helps you to resist many effects, but can cause some trouble if you try to wear it outside of combat. Perhaps I will make a set for the sake of decoration latter, but in the meantime I'm going to focus on more practical builds for a rather limited resource.

With spring bellows I can remove the timers from the stoked fires, letting me use them for other projects. The first soul steel was a byproduct of making the hellfire dust, but the more soul steel I made, the more hellfire dust I get. I've made entire sets for all the stoked fires, rather then just swapping them out now that I've got enough. The extra I've combined with charcoal to make a more powerful fuel. Though the grills work without my adding fuel to them, I'm sure I'll need this in due time, so it's best to stockpile it now while I can.

The smeltery I broke down was a small primitive thing. I'd not put much effort in with making grout and building the smeltery before but with the grinder nicely setup, without having to hand crank it I can make it by the stack. Getting it into bricks works well with a timer properly set, one pulse, one brick, and a hopper to take them away. Just a matter of coming back later to pick up the bricks, then rebuild the smeltery larger, and feed another stack in. A large smeltery means I can process more in a batch and batch crafting is the closest to automation at the moment.

Including large batches of golden chests. With these I was able to organize the huge mess of chests that I'd been using as random storage and pulling from as needed to make things so far. Now there's a proper place for everything, and of course that means it's time to start making and gathering more things. Always the way of it, no amount of storage is ever enough, and with the new metals of this age I've so many options. Mechanical power though won't get me further, not down the paths I want to walk.

Throwing myself back into magic, the magic of the skies has expanded. Perhaps though instead it's just my own mind that has grown and that's let me understand things better. Seems that I was having trouble making these Containment Challices because I lacked something that was strong and also had the right resonance. With obsidian I'm able to craft this ornate tank. Though it can't be moved and retain fluid like the barrel, it is able to interact with the lightwell and other pieces of focusing materials for astral.

Pairing it with the starlight infuser allows the altar to function more efficiently, requiring less of the starlight to infuse each item crafted in it. Any gain of efficiency is nice when I've got to give every crystal an aspect before using it if I want as much from each one as possible. With the uncommon nature of aquamarine in this world, I can't just throw a stack of them at any project I want to make. Now that I've got this working, I might though use a few of them to make my floor look a bit better with infused wood, though not yet.

As I've got a proper astral tower in place, it's time build the capstone. The crafting altar structure fits nicely above the tower, and a bit more work adds four of the structures to boost a crystal to produce the most it can. It's slightly tricky to launch myself up there with the wand, so a ladder goes neatly onto one side as well. This results in a bit more space to work with, I'm sure I can find another project to take up some of that soon, in the meantime there's a few things I can do to prepare myself to progress further.

I've got to prepare another special crystal to help focus the celestial crafting altar, and as the turn of the skies allow I'll make sure to get them all. There's not a lot of things that require the additional crystal to help the starlight focus, but I might eventually find more things I can do. In the meantime the aspect that I've been slowly nurturing has been progressing well, though I've mostly been trying to advance my perks rather then use them for anything useful. If I pass my time wisely while collecting my attuned crystals for future projects.

With the additional focus of the attuned crystal guiding my hands, I'm able to make a device that can view stars even further and dimmer.

This perhaps is the furthest I'll ever be able to see, these constellations are very dim indeed. Yet the effects of them can still be studied, and aspects of them are useful as a way to add further nuance to the crystals that I've already attuned to the stars. Perhaps I will use it to make the rituals more powerful when I decide to make use of them.

To make sense of them though, I am forced to make further deals with the darkness. I need to infuse the parchment this way, though the path into darkness goes. With each of these I'm able to understand another of those dim and distant ways, another constellation comes into focus.

This is one of the craftings that I'd prepared for earlier, a common constellation but with it I'm able to focus a shifting star that would otherwise reset my progress and remove what I'd gained with my perks. Instead it will change my path, though some would say perhaps I should have started on this path, instead I found my own way.

With a new path open and the end of the training of my perks behind me, I've selected skills that I think will gain me the most. While gliding with a mantle is good, it's better still to fly. Another aspect of my growth lets me collect what drops as if I was a magnet from afar, sadly not everything, but most of what I act on will come to me. From the path to these, I am able to collect some defence and protection, and then boost it with the power of one of the faint and distant knowledges I've collected.

I've not yet learned everything I can of astral, but until the stars shift to let me pass, I've taken as much as I can from it for now. The hint of darkness before is but a warning of deeper darkness to come. But that is where I must go if I wish to avoid the fire. Though I will keep my eyes on the stars, there is one mystery left in them that I desire. That will come, in time.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: the Wheel history

I sat down with the astral, though I could not gain more from it, except beauty. A farm worth of logs, treated and infused with starlight and suddenly my floor has much more contrast to it. A look that stands out better. You can really get a feeling for the space now.

If I am to avoid the fire, I must return to the darkness. I've already the tower, and as is my nature I've taken the best parts of the world I'm reaching into and attempted to show them in a cultured and beautiful way. I must be careful though, the corelium that flows like water in that world is capable of tainting the water of this world and transforming it, as well as a number of other substances, on contact. If I was to spill and release this in a space not yet prepared, the spread could be devastating.

In the darkness of the wastelands I voyaged. I took samples, harvested blocks, and brought them back to make this slice, decorated and neat, much safer then the strangeness beyond the portal. I looted temples, collected tools, and I melted them down to make newer better ones. I plunged into the depths to get a pure form of corelium that wasn't possible to be found in this world. Then I made a new set of tools out of that. With twilight to repair them, and the refined metal of the wastes to harden them, my tools are better then ever.

I took the ender from the teleporting ones, infused starlight into it until it blazed, forming something that would normally seek, but for a completely different purpose. With materials taken from the darkness, wrapped around this blazing unknown, I was able to turn it to another purpose. It did seek the stone. The powerstones of the wasteland are produced by leaks from another dimension, a deep red throbbing power that resists almost every effort to collect it. Yet my new tools are up to the job. Such a stone is now the crowning glory of my tower.

This transmuter is what I passed into the darkness to obtain. As long as I keep it fueled with materials from the abyssal realms it can transform items and break them down. Anything the corelium can change, and more are able to be manipulated by this machine. Normally this would not be a dramatic advantage, but a few of the things it can fracture are special.

Drawing from the stars, some of the netherack taken from the twilight is hardened into a block of nether brick. The most basic of blocks from the flames becoming a rather more solid building block. Yet I cannot use this, not yet. I've had this option for a while but it didn't take me anywhere.

Taking the brick that I've obtained with twilight and starlight, and exposing it to the transforming darkness, the brick fractures into separate bricks. These I am able to use. Normally I'd have to make a sludge of nether materials and wastes and then bake it. Instead I simply let the entropy of eternity shatter and break it.

Likewise, there is quartz in and around the final castle at the core of the twilight. The darkness swallows the blocks and returns quartz in fragments and shards for me to use. This gives me access to some of what I need most from the flames without having to brave them myself.

With access now to these building blocks of the nether, I am able to make a furnace that can become hot enough to render iron into steel. A block at a time, infused by the coal coke that I spent so long baking, produces steel that I can work with to make so many things. Someday I might brave the fire, but not today, for today I have taken what I need from it without ever risking myself to it.

The first of my steel, broken from the block, hammered into plates. With those plates wrapped around the blocks of the furnace it is reinforced. The addition of a hopper and some chests and I've got a more advanced furnace. It becomes a simple matter to stack up the iron blocks and carbon in the chest, and let it slowly collect for latter. I will need much steel, it seems.

Another few precious blocks of steel, hammered into plates and used with the coke oven blocks gives me another form of that as well. An improved coke oven that is quite content to be fed from a chest with a hopper and work through the coal to feed the furnace. The creosote goes into a tank and over time I gather much of it, though for what I have planned I will need much as well.

The sun passed into shadow today, I know the sign. Tonight I infuse the light of Horlogium into some of my purest crystals. A space is cleared where the sky can be seen, and two of these are arranged to feed ritual. The nature of time bends in the effect of the ritual of Horlogium. For some it moves slower, but in this way I should be able to make things move faster.

To save me from having to travel outside to get water, I've contrived a contraption. Over time this will fill tanks for me that I can draw water from as I need it. Not the fastest of ways but it will meet my needs. Near it I've placed a ritual anchor, this channels the effects of Horlogium away from where the stars shine, down here within my base. With it thus placed what would take all night will take far less time indeed. Practically applied magic, to take this primitive science further then it could go by itself.

Over to the crafting table, I've had some luck in finding materials of this age, but I've got to record that fact if I want to advance. While I've not found much use for these materials that I've collected, I am going to keep collecting them until I'm sure I have enough. With the storage I have, I can afford to let it pile up for a bit.

Treated wood. The next step in unlocking technology. This extended crafting table lets me work with blueprints to more effectively produce components for the large machines that I will need to make. First though my mind turns towards power. I've this unused corner in my base that seems to be the right size for one of my projects.

It always starts with the first. This is the first of my waterwheels. It takes a bit of work and a lot of creosote. At the core it's only a little steel, but it adds up when you plan on doing quite a few of them.

First level. Simple enough. Three groups with two sets of three. Eighteen wheels. This takes six of the coils, and that means an almost absurd about of wire. Blocks broken into ingots. Ingots hammered into plates. Plates cut into wires. Wrapped into treated sticks and then formed into coils to take power from the rotation of the wheel. Step by step, slow turn by slow turn.

Does me little good to just have the water wheels in place though by themselves. If I want them to move I'll have to flow water on them, or something else, and that means a structure. I've got a few options with treated wood, including a scaffolding that I can climb on as I work. That will make this entire project a bit easier. Specially with my wanting to wear the Farriday Suit to protect myself.

Hitting my stride here, the falling starlight turns the waterwheels and power flows up the wires to the top. Means I have to be careful to not shock myself as I continue to work on this. I built one tower up and then out to make the support structure. Just a bit more work, being careful to place every wheel in the right place. Be a shame to have to pull this down in order to service a wire in the middle.

Glorious. Perhaps far more of these then any sane person needs, but I've never done things in half measures. Given a space in the mountain that calls for such a structure, I am not the kind of person to refuse it existence. So here it stands, turning wheels and spinning coils generating power to keep things going.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Getting an IN on Industry

Leather. Still troublesome to make, but I want a rather lot of it to make these conveyor belts. With this step I can start to have systems of machines moving items between them for me, instead of me having to do it all myself. These belts are not destined for that. I've another use in mind, something else that I want to automate.

The hunting dimension, a place where the monsters are more then willing to throw themselves onto my blade and drop items for me. As long as I protect myself well the darkness here is no danger at all. Instead I've lit up the land as far as the eye can see. Not a single block where monsters can exist safely to the horizon and beyond.

Four spots, and in them I've placed fast belts, channeling anything in these dark spaces into tunnels below them. With these being the only darkness in this world the monsters are eager to slip into existence. Down there in the hole they can't reach me, they can only be pushed down into the deeper paths, only to be collected together again.

Redstone lanterns placed just so let me turn off the flow of monsters again. It'll take a bit of time to make sure I've got them all perfectly in place and wire them with redstone so that I can control this from a distance. For now though it is enough that I can stop the flow of these while I am working on it. Nothing says a project has to be done all at once.

The flow of monsters, down the dark path underground, onto the better belts and then up into the spikes. With that angled belt even the smaller beasts are driven into the spikes. With the hatch on the belt anything that falls from these monsters is collected into some hoppers for latter processing. This took me quite a bit of work to get quite right.

I had to reinforce these streams with totems as some of the monsters liked to fight each other when they couldn't reach me. Some of them even thought it better to detonate by themselves instead of waiting for the spikes. Still after a few more tries I was able to contain the first of these streams of creatures that want nothing more then to escape and destroy me for trying this.

From the belts, to hoppers and back to more belts, this is where the drops from four streams will join. A number of the ways I've tried to collect the remains from the monsters only let them escape. Other ways left some of them to build up in stacks that caused troubles as they couldn't be collected, or worse allowed some monsters to escape to seek vengeance.

Lower chamber closed with trapdoors, the belts feeding into a system of storage drawers, one for everything I was expecting and crates to cover the things I wasn't or overflow. With upgrades I should be able to collect quite a bit from these monsters over time. Even the armor can be recovered and turned into resources in the crucible. The rarest drop is less rare with time enough, now that I've automated the monsters.

Setting up the redstone and adjusting the lights, now I can easily stop the stream of monsters with a single switch. A little more work and I'll gather the controls into some central location to make things even easier.

Four pads, each tuned to a biome with slightly different streams of monsters. This gives a wider river of monsters and thus more resources set up for the automation. I briefly tried one of them as an echo of the nether, thinking I could delay entering into that place but the result was too dangerous. A sky full of ghasts and no ability to control them.

There's been changes in the lands between. Somebody's figured out how to make a proper map of these shifting lands between worlds. I've taken my time in another tour and filled out some of these maps to make a better record of my trips in these Betweenlands. In taking my time here I once again fell for the beauty here, strange and like nothing else.

I'd never seen this before. The sporlings are not uncommon hiding in the fungus and of course I've seen the lizards before. Yet I've not seen this. A sporling taking a lizard for a ride across the waves of roots. Normally the lizards hide in the bushes, perhaps the mischievous fungus caught one hiding and will be thrown soon, perhaps this one is tame. Neither wanted to stay to tell me though.

A curious song. I turned and came in close. Closer. A creature that's made a moment of peace by playing music. It didn't want to let me close enough and perhaps that is for the best, being that I've taken out so many monsters here. Still I might have liked to hear a bit more music.

Returning back to the tower, I had some more item scrolls to work though. One of them turned up a magnet. While I've tinkered some with blood magic and I've got one from there, but that has costs. Perhaps if I'd gotten this first I'd have saved some pain and blood, but more tools are always better than no tools.

Four neat sets of armor, tucked under the stairs to the tower. I like the little display they make, the little touches like this add character to my build. I've a few more bits of tinkering in mind before I call the betweenlands builds completely done.

In the roots of my tree, my own little Splat. Bouncing along by itself on the hoppers, all I have to do is sit here with my shovel and clean up the sludge it makes. The jelly is useful in a number of foods including a very curious pear jelly that is very tasty and a better way to protect myself then the raw sap.

There is a pocket of green earth in a corrupted swamp, a spirit tree has been able to fight it off, but it's clear that it's taken some of it into itself in the process. I suspect that it's been drawing it into itself, becoming more and more filled with corruption and rage. I tried bringing the tree back to full strength by adding more light in the places that seemed to call for it. Sadly it wasn't enough, it only brought forth more rage. I had to put it down, and this green place faded soon after.

I was though able to save some of the saplings. I raised them into lesser trees as I expanded the little grove I'd previously planted. They seem quite content in this garden of mine and even playful with the native fish at times.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: eternal bloody struggle

Yes, that mob farm was just to get the graves dust. I'm going to need quite a bit of it in order to make this floor. The other worldly dark marble is one of my favorite blocks, always tempting to work with it and given the design of this floor that gives me every excuse I needed.

While I've not used even a serious fraction of the first level, what I want to make will use so much space that I find it needful to put this build on a second floor. Sure, the view was nice, seeing to the roof, but I can do without that.

I think I've figured out a pretty good look. Dark black trim, marble floors, and that deep red to seperate it. It's starting to fill in quite nicely. Perhaps I should spend some time standing by the mobfarm to get enough marble to finish this all at once, but I want to move my project forward.

Faux Beacons let me figure out where the beams will be so that I can punch the appropriate passages for them to see the sky. Not one, not two, but three altars, and while I could have made this a little smaller if I'd let them overlap, knowing that I will want separate sets of runes makes the larger footprint important. Someday though I'll align things so that I need 4 less beacons.

I've started with self sacrifice like we all must when using blood as power, taking the runes from the first clumsy explorations and then expanding on them. Likewise I've rebuilt the little patch of tranquility and then expanded on it further, as netherrack has been revealed to me properly.

Self sacrifice and tranquility isn't enough though. A pile of binding reagents, and some gear that will be tied to me produces a set of demonic armor that will grow more and more powerful with time and training.

The most important of these for progression is the blade, and I could have done only that, but I am taking my time to explore this rarely taken option. For with this I can pull a shard of another kind from my foes.

Blood shards. Crystalized suffering contained in a drop of the slain foe. These don't work for blood to feed the altar, but it does have an amplifying effect on the magic involved. The mob farm is a convenient place to get my slaughtering done.

The last piece of the puzzle that is my floor plan is this lighted mimic block. I can hide this inside of other blocks and cause them to function as lamps, lighting up the floor a bit more. Not enough to keep monsters from spawning all by itself but enough that I can see better.

The blood crystals form into bricks that let me make a tier 4 altar. That in turn lets me upgrade the orb and expand the tranquility garden another step. I've also been training the armor, toughening the palms for the blade, boosting my health. There's a limit to how much I can progress this training, but it's still a help. Costing me the same amount of life, but getting quite a bit more power from it each time.

Primitive automation so that I can click out the runes one at a time with the hopper to drop them in, it's not the fastest, it's not the safest, but it's not hard to keep up with the demands as long as I have enough good food to repair my health.

The upgrades to the structure also expand what I can do with the lifepoints in the network. I found this curious alchemy table, and while it seems to be mostly there to make potions, that isn't the only function. Though I do think I will investigate this rumored potion of flight, eventually.

Leather. I don't have to work with water and salt and let it cure and dry anymore. Not when I can turn the flesh of my foes, through the use of my own blood, into something that's close enough to real leather for me to use it in any crafting. With this I can change out the belts in the mobfarm for the fancy leather ones, they may be slower, but they are better at handling items.

The other curious find is this thing that isn't quite a potion. The Draft of Angelus. It improves the bond between me and the armor, doubling it's intelligence, this will let me train it further to get even more from every drop of my life that I spend here. While I can't push blood magic any further without going into another world, this will let me get as much from it as I can. Though I will have to go into another world, and soon.

 

[ICountFrom0]

Spoiler: Deeper into Darkness

Last time I was here, I delved into the core of this world, and took what I could. With this refinement I was able to make better tools for myself. Now that I have returned I shall have to use them to go even deeper into these worlds. The first challenge, I must combine these things and break the prison to release the next boss to fight.

A beast that summons and consumes dragons to sait her hunger, and yet she must fall before I can progress. The good news is that I've been able to take her on in the sky and deny her the support that would have empowered her. She's not the only challenge here though.

I had to handle unknown objects, infused with starlight, and wrapped in corelium to find a place in the world where some of the power of the next one leaked. I took some of that for myself, and the sight of the dreamer, and infused it into the staff that had breached into this world.

This more powerful staff was able to open another gate for me, into a dread realm. While before the weak spot let a slow trickle of power collect over uncountable time, now I will try to collect some of that for myself.

Well, not QUITE yet. I want to leave a proper structure behind me as I pass into the next realm. Mayhap I'll need some sheltered space to retreat into from something more dangerous then I had previously expected.

Some mighty disaster tainted this realm, nearly the entire surface consumed with the red blight. The purple material is actually the last of the healthy remains of this world. I collected much of the ore from these healthy spots, but such things are not what I need to progress further.

Time taken to upgrade the staff, and I was then able to get a handle on the energies of this world. Staff in hand I fought the tained natives until I could rend enough from them to have a hint of the essence of this world. Feed this back to the Necronomicon and the knowledge within grows another step.

From the most dangerous of the foes, the ones most tained, I was able to take shards of Dread, and transmute them into ingots of this stuff. The infected material is dangerous, and given half a chance it'll infect more worlds, but properly used and contained it will help me with what I want.

The Crystalizer is more effective in rendering dreadium from the fragments I take from the infected subjects of that world and lets me obtain it from more sources. The vast quantity that was required to make it will be repaid in short order.

While the transmutor was useful for breaking things down into parts, like blocks of nether bricks into the bricks themselves, the crystalizer breaks things down even further, into just the slightest shards. Those I could recombine and recraft a number of ways, though few things could be restored into a form of lasting use there are a few stable formations.

Seems I was meant to come this far before I crafted the capture net, and all to bring a humble sacrifice so that I could pay with a life other then my own to form the latest key. A key in two parts, and each at a high cost, lives and energy.

To recharge the book I had to make an even better power network, more statues feeding into the relays. Even that way it took quite a while, and all with those who stand beyond starting to notice me. Such attentions are uncomfortable and sometimes hard to survive. For now I am safe, but perhaps not always.

Two parts of the altar of Cha'garoth, to serve as a key into the Lair. I had to dig deep into the mountain to find the entrance, and did further to form a passage back out. Never take on such a battle as this without a safe retreat, not when there is any other option.

Within the Lair there are many of the guards that I had seen outside, and the deepest red nature of this place makes it clear that the blight spread through here. There was even a statue with blocks of the raw metal, just waiting to be taken by anybody with power enough.

Inside a being completely corrupted by the Dreadplauge, I dared not get close enough to become infected, and used every trick I had to attack from as far away as possible. Many guards tried to stop me, and the fight was mighty and dangerous even beyond the reach of that terrible bite.

Even in death the creature taunted me. Yes the dirt was there, and in a way that is a rather precious thing, a single block of completely untainted soil in this world. The most important thing though was the key it had taken from me. The key though, was not unchanged.

I had to work my magics on the key again to repair it after being in the presence of that plague beast. Such exposure is corrupting and transforming, and with careful work I was able to focus it and make the key ready again to rend deeper into the veil of worlds.

In that small remnant of the untainted land I build a brief bastion. A small simple structure to protect the portals, so that I would not be hard pressed if I had to return through here in a hurry.

Likewise I took the time to upgrade the place where the statues stand. By forming the sacred structures I am able to draw power from the outside beings without them noticing me as an intruder. When done right they mistake me for a worshiper and the blind eyes of them pass by me without striking me down.

This deepest world is wrapped in void and darkness. The few fragments of land here far away and far between. Yet there has to be something here, or else what was the point of this madness? This dread fever, the blight, the plagues?

 

[Tianyulong]

I really like the way you write those little blurbs after each image.There's not a ton there, but what is present is enough to get you engrossed in the journey. I'm struggling to think of a way to articulate what I mean, but I wanted to acknowledge the effort you put into these posts.

 

[ICountFrom0]

I really like the way you write those little blurbs after each image.There's not a ton there, but what is present is enough to get you engrossed in the journey. I'm struggling to think of a way to articulate what I mean, but I wanted to acknowledge the effort you put into these posts.

Thank you. They say a picture is a thousand words, but without the words my pictures lack direction. Maybe someday the pictures will do enough by themselves, but for now the two are hand in hand while I progress forward with my skill.

If you want a bit of a laugh, have a look at the older stories inside the spoiler block of the first post... it's something.

 

[ModRealms]

Loving this! Can we see an Ages Of The Sky version in the future too?