Category: One Among the Dead

17Day 677:

I got bored early this morning and started mining again, even though I knew that the zombies were still around and it was still too dark to go aboveground.

I found that under the granite was a vein of diorite, and under that was a vein of andesite, and under that was a vein of coal…

… and under that was a large cavern filled with zombies.

Fortunately (?) an exploding giraffe-zombie took most of them out in attempt to kill me. The rest I dumped a large load of granite onto, and hopefully they’re buried forever.

(Doubtful. It was a very big chamber. And they are, theoretically, already dead. So they have time to dig out.)

Anyway not long after that I prioritized getting back to the surface because I was out of food, most of my tools had broken mining or killing zombies, and I was really tired.

Back home for a long nap and a good dinner, and now I’m going back to bed.

Day 676:

I’m currently writing this from under a river.

I was mining the river for sand when I came across a vein of granite. So of course if you’ve been paying any attention you know I’m going after that granite vein.

One of the things I’m decent at is setting  up a makeshift roof under a body of water — usually the sea, in my case, but a river will do. (Rivers and seas have their own challenges , as do any mining operations involving water.)

Anyway, I created a little cavern under the riverbed and above the vein of ore… and started mining it… and lost track of time…

So here I am under the river and my makeshift watch says it’s well past dark, so leaving isn’t really an option. I have food, and some fresh water (and a river above me I can carefully get some from if I need it) and a few torches and my notebook, but this wasn’t exactly the way I was planning to spend the night.

As an added bonus, I can hear zombies. I don’t know why I can hear zombies, but I can hear them. Which means no sleep tonight.

Day 675:

I’m marking off large areas and cleaning them up so I know what I’m up against. Found a cave, cleaned it out of what little ore it had, then filled it up with fill so I wouldn’t need to deal with it. Found a steep cliff, cut it down to a more climbable surface (you never know when you need to run around here) and used it as part of the fill. You know, general stuff.

I’m starting to collect the sand now, and get it somewhere that I can haul it back to my forges to smelt.

I have a terrible headache and I don’t know why. I come home tired every day, which is good, but my eyes are aching. I wonder if I need to invent sunglasses somehow. Maybe with the glass.

Day 674:

Sure enough, some of the trees (and the road) had caught fire by morning. I put them out and lined the whole thing with brick and put an end to that nonsense.

But it made me aware of exactly how dangerous these outer areas I haven’t explored are… and in new ways all the time. So I’m going to clean them up and figure out what I’m up against here.

Hopefully I’m up against a lot of sand, actually. I could use some.

Day 673:

Today I learned that while surrounding lava with glass will keep it contained, it can still set a wooden road on fire.

I also learned that if a local merchant and two llamas are nearby, they will stand around and watch the road burn.

Neither of these things please me, but at least I know where I stand with the locals. (A few feet away, also watching the road burn, in this case.)

So I’m going to spend tomorrow rebuilding the hopefully not-on-fire road in the hopefully-not-on-fire woods, only this time, with brick.

Nursery rhymes have to pay off sometime, and we’re going three little pigs on this one.