Chapter 9: Hell is hellish for sure

Today I did not wake up bright and early, first it is cloudy and muggy, second, I am not in a bright mood for what I planned for today. Third its afternoon. I slept in hard apparently. I must be subconsciously either dreading or preparing for this fiendish school trip.

Either way no escaping, I guess. I start to think of what I can do to prepare myself. I choose the safest route, build a base around the portal, and bring my flint and steel with me. I am not stupid. I don’t have a /home it can get really risky if I lose the portal. Making a minecart and some rails I create a short rail network between my room in the overworld and into the nether.

Stepping into the nether it is very hot but I noticed right before I entered as the heat was seeping through, it also seems cold is seeping through my end of the portal. I choose to finish off the rail and then use the cart to bring a massive pile of bricks in a chest inside the minecart. I create a large room, before creating a second layer outside so I have a room inside a room.

I realise that it's going to get even hotter outside the cooled area around the portal. I noticed the other day I had pumpkins, one actually started growing, finishing it and then producing 3 more I then collect the pumpkins and bring them into the overworld side of the portal.

I then go on a little adventure inside my jet to the mountain, collecting as much snow as I can fit in my chest. Flying back, I put my plan into action. I am spawning golems. “Please work” I pray to Felix. I placed the last block, the pumpkin, and it started moving, sweet, hot damn it worked. I do a little jig as I realise, I just created life in the most basic of forms. Thank you, weird magic pumpkins.

Creating a fence around the brick shed containing the portal I spawn a second golem which both are now producing a lot of snow. This will cool down the outside area of the overworld portal side and as a side project produce lots of snow. Next, I spawn 2 inside the now actually really cold room now, even with the portal form of a grill in the middle. The cold is fighting the heat. I slowly allow them to move around and generate even more snow, they seem to be resisting the heat. I plan on moving them inside the portal but if I do it too soon, they will melt. I need to let them get the ambient temperature far lower. I also will now have a fridge which is useful for things that can perish. I did notice some bread going mouldy so an unintended side effect of me hating heat has helped a lot.

For now, I can only leave them to do snowy things. They do seem rather stupid. Maybe then can get smarter, only time will tell.

Alright while I am working on golems, I speed up another pumpkin before crafting an iron golem, then fencing in the immediate area I live. I will be placing Glowstone instead of torches since torches exhaust themselves.

I should point out that golems, iron ones are expensive, I now need to go mining again sigh. I choose to go while I have the thought in my head. The portal won’t be useable for a while. I grab a decent amount of iron and some more coal while I am at it.

What was once a strip mine is now a large maze of swiss cheese that I can only loosely navigate, hence why I’m still down here, little lost I am. This is annoying. It didn’t take me long to escape but I can only chuckle at such a situation. I got lost in my own mine I excavated personally. Just crazy.

Heading back home I check my now protected farm, specifically my massive crop of unknown seeds. Taking a hoe, I create a small crop of pumpkins, I move the minicio to a place where I can slowly expand the crop.

It seems some of the seeds are becoming small bushes, perhaps they will be useful and edible. My crop of sugarcane is doing well. One of the seeds I think could possibly be wild root. I will check another day. A few are becoming flowers and others are just weird looking plants. The flowers are the most likely to be magical, the normal crops technological and the bushes random, assorted mods that include food. That’s my base guess. I should get a seed identifier, it is not WAILA but it is a good idea.

I will put it on the back burner, for now, I expand my ploughed area for future crops. It should be nice when I go to plant something and don’t have to do a bunch of work for a relatively small appearing job. It’s the little things.

Before I go, I harvest the sugarcane, planting a little more than turning the rest into paper the odd 2 left out I turn into sugar. I will play with it later but I admit I was tempted to eat the sugar. I head outside my fenced area its dark at this moment, choosing to armour up with an axe I go hunting, no interesting monsters until I see a skeleton with a bow, here we go I waited for you.

I sprint at it weaving into trees at an angle to dodge the arrows, one grazes the side of my armour knocking the wind out of my lungs, I dash behind a tree to catch my breath as it gets closer I run out before jumping at it and pushing the bow of course before its knocked arrow strikes me. I then stand up as it grapples for my legs and smashes its skull with the back of my axe.

It gets obliterated into many pieces. I head home with bones and a few arrows that day, along with some rotten flesh from a poor zombie. Shouldn’t have attacked me and you wouldn’t be spoils of war now, would you?

Heading home I plant some more pumpkins and try the bone meal as a method for quickly growing. It works, but it still grows naturally. Faster then the devil can, can. Sadly, it doesn’t cause it to grow pumpkins so I grow some more using the devil can.

With more snow and pumpkins on hand, I walk into the portal shed. It is actually rather chilly. One of the golems has wandered into the portal and started terraforming the other room into a winter wonderland, its no longer beaming heat through the portal.

Going through the portal I feel a pretty much tropical temperature over here now. I place down 5 more golems. I go home grabbing wood and create a large fence perimeter and then open the doors to allow the snow golems to spread snow further.

Got to admit this is genius. Equipping only my iron chest plate and helmet, axe in hand I start exploring the nether, the flint and steel is tied to my leg. I don’t wander too far, no more then a few hundred blocks since the heat quickly gets much hotter the further away, I go. I will overrun the immediate area with snow golems in time. Since they are infinite cold machines that are stupid easy to make.

I identify a nether brick structure, perfect blazes I will be coming for you soon. Heading home I start getting even more pumpkins. I could be patient but I could also spawn a stack of golems.

Which I did and it took me a good 4 hours of awful watering. Thankfully not from scratch like other plants.

And with that, I spawn about another 10 inside the perimeter and then the other 54 outside of it allowing them to wander around cooling the nether. If damned souls go here, I am sure they appreciate my early Christmas gift.

As fun as it is watching hot vs cold in real life, I should find other things to do, while they do their thing.

I, first of all, go mining, grabbing extra materials, smelt even more stone. Standard stuff. Next, I start collecting the purple wood for my future base, it will make a lovely floor.

With that sorted I make the intelligent decision to go into the deep forest in search of the source of those magical particles.

It is not unreasonably far from where I am but I choose to clear out about 100 trees in that direction as both a guiding path and so I feel safer. I now have a clear path almost to it, and it definitely did not take me all night and the better part of the morning just to do it! “I am tired” but my curiosity shall be sated. After a quick nap, 2 hours later I’m back and ready to go exploring, if not slightly sluggish from just waking up.

Suiting up once again “sigh” I start my trek into the thickly forested area. It's honestly really beautiful around it here lots of colourful flowers with slight sunny rays dancing through the leaves as the wind blows. Really background art beautiful. With an array of slightly different shades of green, the canopy is almost camouflaged. As I walk in the air feels cleaner, but heavier like another gas is permeating it, odourless but still noticeable.

“Shock” And there is the danger, a bloody wisp. Known to be annoying, relatively unimportant and tend to guard important things. But a forest fits the bill for just general appearance. Since they rarely drop anything good I will just back away and go around no need to kill a magical entity such as it. Never know what you will piss off by accident.

None the less my venture continues, I enter deep and find my self near a crystal-clear white liquid, liquid Ethereum. Basically, liquid energy for Ars Magica 2, this will be important later on but for now, I don’t have needed materials to start the mod. Nearby I see a real treat, crystal flowers. It makes sense they will be near such a source of energy.

Before in the game they were everywhere and prolific but honestly based on what they are, mana is drawn from the ground and crystalised it makes sense that they are near sources of energy, I harvest about 8 leaving 3 just in case they have a natural form of propagation. You never know in this new mod. For now, though taking this treat home I store them in my chest.

I have dallied for enough time to get some blaze rods and nether wart. At least I am slowly making progress on mods. Normal Minecraft is far easier and clear cut so I am likely going to go down that line to get comfy before delving deeply into mods since both I lack resources to do the latter and it’s a little scary. I know Minecraft back to front, even having used many mods things are already tricky not to mention how Felix has changed them.

But none the less even with the little opportunity I shall take the best advantage of the mods I can.

I pondered this train of thought as I walked through the wonderfully seamless portal, I could even stand in both dimensions at the same time it’s great. And lovely and temperate. I am not cooking in my own skin which is a bonus. I will have to see if I can find ways of improving snow golems.

Before I go to the fortress which is a trek in a warm direction I go and collect a lot of Glowstone, stacks upon stacks of dust which I slowly pile at the portal, safe and sound. I at least want something for my trouble. I also gathered a small quantity of quartz just in case I need it.

Finally taking a deep breath I bite the bullet and walk towards the fortress, the golems did a great job making a massive area of cold, not massive enough as the heat quickly rises as I go to the fortress. Still better than without so I can’t complain. In my free time, I will pump out more golems I will tame the nether. I build some nether brick stairs; I have a pickaxe of course. Up till I reach a ledge where I can enter the first part of the fortress. I can’t carry much on me, what I have is in my 2 hands or tied to my body. I think I’ve gotten a little more muscled honestly. All these carrying items too and frow does wonders for your abs.

I don’t hear any blazes for now but as I wander, I quickly find some nether wart and soul sand it sits on, I gather as much as I can before bringing it to the stairs for transportation to the portal later, I do a few trips to grab it all. As I am on my third trip, I hear it “clack, click” the sounds of skeletons but I don’t think it’s a normal skeleton, ah I see you. A charcoal black skeleton with flames in its eyes. A stone sword. I expected to see you but I hoped otherwise. One hit and you're weakened. “Wither skeletons” I back away but it is coming for me and I can’t run so easily, not with big boy armour on. It does a dash for me, faster then any skeleton should be. I block its sword with my axe but I get pushed back hard, it is strong.

Losing ground, it keeps attacking me from different angles. A few strikes my armour but I haven’t gotten weakened yet, my armour is doing its job but it’s corroding my armour quickly.

Backing away again I parry a sword strike, which is very difficult with an axe before going in for a strike. It pushes into me messing up my overhead strike. Toppling over the unexpected move I tumble away. I can’t win this not without a second weapon I need a sword. Running forward at a last-ditch gambit I push it back and knock it to the ground. I strike its skull but it lives. Cracked “durable bastard isn’t you”. Seeing my opportunity has passed I do a runner as it chases after me I have just enough of a distance to get down the stairs. It chases me but I manage to get near a snow golem which does little more than push it back but with several of them, it can’t touch me.

Il be back tomorrow with another weapon but for now, I am too sleep deprived for this. Heading home I throw my armour to the side and fall into my bed. Apparently dying your bones black makes you a far better fighter. I feel like they were supposed to be a hard enemy in Minecraft so they have been skill boosted here. Drifting away at chuckling to my impatience “il steal one and make it a training partner for practising combat, a good idea haha”