Day 344: no diamonds

Day 344:

I’ve carved as much around the lava lake as I dare. I’ve harvested granite, diorite, andesite, and obsidian (which is really really hard and takes a long time to mine correctly unless you like breathing shards of volcanic glass) but no diamonds.

Not a single one.

I’m down to the core bedrock here, so it’s not like they’re deeper. At this point I’m just assuming there aren’t any diamonds near this lake and I’m moving on.

Day 343: hot stuff

Day 343:

I’m digging around that giant lake of lava I mentioned. It’s got some good ore around it, and I’m hoping there will also be diamonds. On big rocky planets, diamonds usually form near volcanic activity because that’s where the pressure is. On a light rock like this one, I don’t know if there’s even enough pressure to make diamonds or if somehow they were picked up from a bunch of other rocks slamming together to make this one.

Either way, looking for diamonds where they’re most likely.

It is hot working near lava. I know that’s obvious but it’s really hard to overstate exactly how hot it is. This is one of those cases where I’m actually glad I don’t have a thermometer because if I did, I’d probably feel even worse.

And since the presence of hot lava does not seem to keep the monsters away, I’m working in all the armor I can manage to work in, so that makes me even hotter.

I’m glad there’s a spring in the stone here because I’m drinking a lot of water. And breathing it—the spring water plus the heat means it’s a steam room.

There aren’t any wrinkles in my armor, that’s for sure.

Day 342: Diamond

Day 342:

I went to the deepest part of the chambers I’ve mapped, then headed down until I found a door I’d put in to remind myself to mine, and crossed through.

From there, I dug until I found a pool of lava next to a pool of water. I glassed over the pool of lava (I’m still confused on why that works) and glassed up the pool of water. There’s a lot of obsidian I might be able to dig out later if I make another diamond pickaxe, but those seem to be the only things strong enough to break obsidian.

I ought to make an obsidian pickaxe.

Anyway, on the other side of of the lava pool was some ore, and I dug through that and hit some dirt and then some gravel and in that gravel I found some diamond.

Not a lot, not even enough to make another helmet, but more than I find topside.

So I’m counting this day as a success.

Reader, whoever you are and wherever you are, and however you found this bamboo book of my log, I hope that today you have found success as well, in whatever way you measure it.

(I also hope you are my rescuer and we’re currently eating a delicious lobster dinner on board your ship and laughing about how good life is not on that rock.)

Day 341: thinking down

Day 341:

The direction toward the mountain must have been flooded at some point in the past because there are a lot of little caves with big drops that all seem to be interconnected and deadly.  Even just trying to build floors across them is somewhat dangerous because you don’t want to lose your footing and fall into a hole that might be another hole away from the first hole.

Especially when any of them could be filled with monsters waiting to eat me.

(Well I presume eat me, they may just want to kill me.)

So I’m thinking I’m going to go over my maps tomorrow and figure out where I left the last deepest spot to dig so that I can find some more diamond. Because I’m going to need something stronger than leather and the armor I made from the last cache of diamond is looking pretty bad.

And now I’m going to sleep on my nice warmish bed which is definitely on firm ground.

Day 340: Nope on the pumpkin

Day 340:

I got the crops planted except for the pumpkin. Somehow I managed to collect a pumpkin that had no seeds.

I might carve it into a jack o’lantern and see if it scares the zombies.

Right now I’m going to bed though. Hoeing a garden uses very different muscles than swinging a pickaxe and my body is calling me names.