Category: One Among the Dead

Day 280:

So here’s a weird thing: since I sealed in that massively large chamber I dug out at the end of last month, the only native species that’s appeared in have been bats and gelatinous cubes.

Well, and the duckens that followed me down.  But they’re almost literally everywhere at this point.

The bats are pretty obvious: they flew down the steps and followed me like the duckens did.

But the gels are bigger than my stairways. I have no idea how they’re getting in. I’ve got no indication they know how to use door knobs.

They die pretty easily, but I’d rather not have to kill them at all. I don’t like being attacked every time I try to go upstairs to make more pickaxes. And they’re so loud just constantly squish squish squish that I’m almost not sorry I’m killing them.

Day 279:

I chased a vein of ore out of the chamber I was in down a good 4 meters, and found myself in another cave I’ve previously mined out. (Although apparently I didn’t do a thorough job if I just chased a vein of ore in there… on the other hand, I’m missing my laser-guided mineral scanner, so I’m not beating myself up over it much.)

So now instead of straightening up the one I was in (which was pretty clean to begin with) I’ve started reshaping this one. Because I’m already digging the wrong direction, why not keep going?

Day 278: I found more of that strange blue rock that resembles diamond, but that I can shape like metal into armor and weapons.

A little more on that:

At first I thought it was legitimate diamond, which is not at all valuable on the open market, seeing as they can be manufactured really easily in the engine system of a standard ship.

But then when I nailed one still in the wall with my pickaxe one time, I realized that it dented instead of shattering. Diamonds are crystals, so they tend to split along their crystalline structure, which is why they’re easy to make so shiny.

Whatever this stuff is, it’s more like transparent aluminum. I can hammer it, heat it, shape it, pretty much whatever I want.

It takes a looooong time to work because it’s hard as, well, diamonds, but it can be done.

So I’d used the first load of diamonds to make myself some better armor, and compared to the leather and iron and cloth I’d been using before, it lasted a really really long time.

But it still eventually disintegrated into uselessness.

So now that I’ve found some more, I have to decide: armor? pickaxe? shiny bling for a night on the town?

I’m too tired to decide, and all I can think about right now is how much I’m sick and tired of fish sandwiches. So it’s off to bed and a decision to make later.

Day 277: Not sure how I did it, but some flour and egg white seems to have covered up the ink on the map nicely. I’ll have to see how it ages to see if it works.

Meanwhile, I dug one layer down from the giant chamber and found that this new chamber was right next to one I’d dug previously, so that was a nice piece of convenience for a change. Most of my work at this level looks like it’s going to be smoothing things out and making them neat.  I like neat things, they’re easier to measure, and easier on the tools.

I’m still not totally confident in my maps, but I’m really confident in my pickaxes, and that’s the important part.

Day 276:

Got up this morning and double-checked my map… discovered that the reason I thought I’d dug into the wrong chamber was I was on the wrong page… apparently I have two almost-identical chambers in roughly the same location but they’re four floors away from each other.

(I try to change the color of the stone I’m using every floor, but I’ve only got a few colors: polished grey stone, polished diorite, polished andesite, and polished granite, so I rotate between them as I go down. It sort of works, but obviously if I lose count of what floor I’m on it doesn’t really help much.)

Next up: I need to figure out how to paint over the very large cavern I added on the very wrong page of my maps. Egg white maybe? I’m not sure. Wish I had the net right now to look up recipes.

Or call for help.

Whichever.