Day Twenty-Nine

There's something odd about the grass...

The world I woke up in was not the world I fell asleep in. Something had changed. It was in colour of the grass, in the quality of the morning sky.

Somethings don't change, though.

 I listened to the zombies burn, eager to step out into this new world. The creeper climbed up atop my camp and refused to come down. I waited a minute with my bow ready but he did not show, so I bolted for it. I was out of my cavern for a second at most when I heard the 'ssss' and the creeper exploded at my back. I quickly ate my mushroom soup and turned to see if there were anymore following me.

More creeper.

I took out the second creeper with my bow and turned east, looking out at the strange new world.

.

.

The grass was crisp underfoot, the trees all seemed somewhat browner than previously. But the landscape itself was not noticeably different. Over a small hill, I found myself looking over a small canyon.

.

.

I tired to head directly east through the gap between the nearer hill and the larger mountain, but that did not work out too well.

I'll just head through here...

...or not.

Instead, I headed to the north of the mountain.

That looks better.

As I reached the top of the mountain, I realised that in my bewilderment at my new surroundings, I had somehow completely forgotten to place my sign. Whoops.

There we go. Wait. What?

Yeah. That's better. (This was some time later)

Just over the next mountain, the landscape changed rather, uh, abruptly.

.

.

It was as though a god had cleaved a clean slice in the world, stretching as far as I could see to the north and south. I headed south to see if I could find the end of it. I found a 'corner' of the old world soon enough.

The cleft ends just beyond that hill.

I returned to where I first came across the cleft and jumped down into the water. Looking back, I could see pockets where caverns had been interrupted, veins of iron and coal, and a dribbling waterfall.

Looking north.

And south, past the corner.

I decided to head north to see what I could see.

.

.

And that's the northern corner.

I returned again to my eastern path and continued on. After passing through some huge trees, I came across an inlet from a northern ocean.

Greener pastures.

Nice and shady.

Where I need to go.

Ocean to the north.

One way down...

Jump!

Splash!

I swam across the water and climbed up the opposite side.

Up we go.

I would not have found my path across if not for this cow's ingenuity.

As I was jumping up to the next area of land, I glimpsed what at first I thought was the face of a creeper. But it was orange. I jumped again but I could not get high enough to see it. I would have to walk closer. I was pretty nervous. What new devilry is this? Some crazy orange mob out to get me. I gripped my spade (yeah, I wasn't really thinking) and headed forward.

Oh god what are they?!

So many of them!

About this time, I realised they weren't actually moving. A few more seconds and I realised what they were: jack-o-lanterns! I still approached nervously, afraid they would jump to life and attack me.

.

I took one with me and left the rest. Over the next mountain, I came to understand that my previous use of the term 'forest' had been hyperbolic, to say the least. Tree stretched to the south as far as I could see, and further.

Looking south.

South east from a bit higher up the mountain.

My immediate eastern path, though, was not so thickly covered. I could still see the sky as I walked and in the distance rose thin white lines on the horizon.

What's that in the distance?

Snow!

 The soft crunch of grass is a sound that has constantly been with me on this trip. Even in my camp at night, others are walking on the grass outside. The only time I cannot hear it is when I am at sea. To have that crunching sound suddenly replaced with the soft thud of feet in snow was alarming. Truly, this was foreign land.

Looking north as I head up a hill.

Mushrooms.

Winter wonderland.

Whoah. Steady.

The snow thinned and I came across a large group of red mushrooms under some trees. Just as I started to pick them, the sky darkened. 

Lots of mushrooms!

Mushrooms will have to wait.

I dug down into the top of a small hill and covered the ceiling in glass so I would know what was waiting atop me in the morning.

Digging camp was hard when this amazing sunset kept distracting me.

All safe, but something is missing...

There we go. Happy Halloween.

Day Twenty-Eight

Once again, sorry for the time between updates. But I have handed in my final assessment for the semester and should be returning to regular, consistent updates for the foreseeable future. So on with Day Twenty-Eight!

I avoided the cavern behind the wall and dug down into the earth instead. I found nothing but stone and returned to base long before the sun came up. I packed my workbench and furnace and waited for the morning. There was little noise coming from outside for a while, but not long before dawn the zombies and skeletons made themselves known.

Zombie against the lightening sky.

.

Once they burnt, I could not hear anything else walking around. I was worried, as I had camped near the coast, that skeletons may be standing in the water, still alive and waiting to shoot at me, but my fears were unfounded.

Sunrise.

Creeper back west.

Let's do this.

Down on the beach, just as I was about to put my boat down, I looked north and spied the largest clay deposit I have ever seen. I mean ever.

Clay!

The deposit was two deep. In all, I collected over 120 clay. Really, I have no use for clay, but I could not just walk past the greatest deposit of it I have ever encountered; the miner in me wouldn't allow it. So when I finally took to the sea, I was weighed down with an inventory full of clay.

Eastward bound.

.

Forest to the south-east.

Land ahoy.

I pulled up on the sand, blinked, and a mountain appeared before me, just to the south. Perhaps I had outraced the world-generator for once.

Oh, hello there.

.

I walked around the basin of water for a closer look, then walked up the northern side of the mountain, avoiding the greater incline.

Looking up at the mountain.

Mushroom on the northern face.

Looking south at the mountain as I pass it to the north.

The land dropped around me. The mountain to the south had dropped down as quickly as it had risen up. Soon, despite my best attempts to avoid climbing, I found myself on a peak higher than the land on all four sides.

Forest to the north-east.

Looking south.

I headed south where the the way down seemed softer. There, looking both back west and east, I caught myself checking the date on my computer--had I stumbled into a desert biome?

Looking at the desert, south and west.

South west past the rear of the mountain I saw from the coast.

The sandy land continued east, too, but with a large body of water in the center. I worked my way back down to sea-level and started across the sand. As I walked, I could hear zombies moaning somewhere beneath me.

East across the sand.

Ah. That would explain the moaning.

Hee hee.

The moans of zombies followed me across the sand, occasionally joined with the hisses of spiders. Beyond the sand, I continued east over a small hill.

Just another hill. Nothing special.

 I can honestly say I was not expecting what I saw as I started down the far side. It actually took me a second to comprehend that I was looking at a lavafall.

Oh my.

Before going down to inspect the falls, I mined the two coal deposits visible in the above photo, the second of which turned out to be quite large. I didn't really need more coal, but I would probably have to use quite a lot to smelt all the clay I dug up. By the time I finished mining the coal and walked down to the lava fall, sadly, the pigs were no more.

:(

.

So that was an unexpected highlight of the day so far. It's not often you find yourself mere metres from a lavafall. Moving on, a high mountain blocked my passage east. Instead, a canyon to the north-east seemed the easiest path.

Path to the north-east.

.

Cliffs to the north of the canyon.

I turned to the right to take a photo of the cliffs, and discovered a tunnel leading back through the mountain to the east. Well. How could I say no to that.

A tunnel (and a death-defying mountain pig).

A quick glimpse to the north-east before heading into the tunnel.

Into the tunnel I go.

.

Much like the earlier lavafall, I did not at all expect what I saw when I came through the eastern side of the tunnel and looked to the south. Though, this was even more startling as I never expect to ever see this.

Wha?!

Oh my.

Oh my, indeed.

I was dumbstruck. Either of these falls alone would have been an incredible sight, but both of them side-by-side must surely be one of the most remarkable sights I have seen thus far. Absolutely incredible.

Looking north-west.

Both falls and the tunnel I came through.

Transfixed on the falls, I had not noticed just how strange the rest of my surroundings were until I finally decided to move on.

Crazy mountains to the north-east.

Floating islands to the south.

Looking back west at the falls for one last photo, I realised just how late the day had gotten.

So beautiful.

I decided to mush on for a few more miles. Over the next rise was a shallow crevasse leading down into a dark cavern. I avoided the cavern, but went into the crevasse to mine the visible iron.

Tempting, but no thank you.

Yes, please!

I headed north around a mountain and through a forest before it was time to finally make camp.

Heading east around a mountain.

Looking back west at said mountain.

East through the forest.

Time to rest.

On my last post, people commented with a lot of clever tips and ideas for ways I could avoid being swamped by mobs every morning. There were lots of great tips and I am grateful for all of them. Though, yet again, I waited too long and managed to forget every single suggestion as I frantically dug into the northern face of a small hill to make my camp. In future days, I promise to try out some of the tips people have made.

Looking north as the stars come out.