Chapter 44: Speed build

After heading home, the sun starts to descend. I spend a large amount of time gathering the materials. Mostly a massive quantity of stone, some dirt, and grass. I will start with the island before building on top of it.

Mindlessly humming a familiar tune, I burn moonlight gathering a metric ton of supplies. When you set your mind to it, resource gathering is easy; still boring though. I have good tools though so it's tolerable.

I mostly dug under the earth and hollowed out underlayers of earth. This stops scars from forming on the earth; they can be rather unsightly. I also gather a supply of Acacia for the bridge. Having sealed the hole while I am underground, I found monsters a non-issue.

Aside from all those the final, currently important additions. Glowstone, I loosely considered Glowstone torches but I think Glowstone behind glass will be best. It's not like people will live there; it being perpetually bright is not a concern.

I head home for a short rest, just an hour to last me the night. I want to build it during the night, solely for the wow factor. I am a magician at heart.

Begrudgingly getting out of bed, my alarm clock blaring like the purge. I had already allowed Chic to roam back at the island. The building will take too long to have a companion. To shake off the tiredness I lightly exercise, running around; general body movements.

Feeling sufficiently energized I stealthily return to the town. Find the town most quiet I begin my plan. Having crafted an angel block so I didn’t have to nerd pole my way up into the sky. I do hope people take a while to spot it, wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Heading outside the town wall, a reasonable distance, just cusping over the treeline. You never know how the town will expand. I have a plan mentally written up for now. It will be expanding upon by connecting smaller islands for other activities. For now, a center part will be a small fountain area, obviously not built. But I plan for it to be the core of the island and host a small floating building.

Roughly the core will be 10x10 blocks squared. Outside of that, the island will be broken down into 4 sectors. Each of roughly equal in size which is 40x40. That makes the total island 90x90. Nothing too large for now. Of course, the irregularities contained within an island and its circular format will still take place. You can mentally fill in the rest.

Building the ‘great ring’ as I call it. Basically, the outline the island will stem from. I fill it in with stone then cover it with a layer of dirt. Placing grass sparingly across for it to naturally spread. Having the base disk in place, I start working below. Continuing my original format, I create the spiral downwards, making it a rather flat island. Since this will have other adjacent islands attached, once of course I have prepared the main island. As much as I wish I could produce several islands instantly; I do not.

This time, I don’t focus heavily on producing a natural look. It's supposed to be an attraction, corners are eye-catching. Although I still spent a great deal of time rounding some corners to their shape flowed better.

Sitting on the edge of the island, I take a short break. Eating an apple, while looking over the slumbering city. By now over half the night is over. I have gotten very skillful at using both flight and my builder's wand. Combined with prior experience and knowledge this island was made in record time. Tell you what I will do, il make them very flat, to not spend too long on each.

Bitting the bullet I create 4 small islands off each corner of the island. They are roughly 30x30 in diameter. I made them only a few stones deep each, creating stalagmites to make up the stubbly appearance. It looks slightly wonky, but erecting a perfect island in one night is a monumental task. I will further refine them later, but having created them all; rough as they are. Is a massive success, builders wands are such cheats.

Thankfully I had the foresight to create the original island with adjacent islands in mind. So, they don’t look foreign, just odd. The Shorter island bottom definitely helps. I spend the rest of the evening and into the early rise of dawn producing a few floating asteroids and mini-islands on different plains to add depth.

The background is just as important as the picture. I noticed earlier a few astute viewers had spotted it during the evening. Yet now a massive wave of people are staring and pointing. Feeling slight embarrassment creep upon my face, I call it a day.

I am exhausted, I will continue after I sleep a bunch. I just placed a telepad on top of the island. Almost teleporting straight into my bed. I have been awake too long and I’m shattered. Sling, of all my companions, actually stays within my room today; keeping me company.

I appreciate the gesture even if I fell asleep in record time. That night I dreamed of a spirit visiting me. Blessing me with the reminder of a wonderful mod. Clay soldiers; definitely will be a hit for war games and other such activities. To which I will definitely be including.

Waking up, sore, and still groggy. From a look at the clock, it's early afternoon. I quickly head back to the island after eating a tasty breakfast including oats, glasses of milk, and a variety of fruits.

With an objective in mind, I begin connecting the adjacent island with bridges. Working with rowan wood because I love the color. I keep them relatively flat with fence posts. I break up the fences with blocks, Glowstone ontop. Below I create arches appearing to hold the bridge while also adding fences to imitate support. The final touch was creating a small arch on each end of the bridge. I create one for each island.

After which I take stone bricks and place pathways, connecting all 4 bridges to the center of the island. I start placing Glowstone, shielded by the glass along the paths and dotted throughout the islands; mostly random. I am too lazy to measure. To add color, I use a large array of colored glass. It doesn’t really affect the lighting ability but adds a fun glow to the island.

Along the edge of the island, I place fences for safety. Along with placing signs for designation. One of the main sectors is selected for carnival events. Another for a play area, mostly designed for children. I also create a parkour area. To which leads to a small island I erected above that sector of the island. Under the while parkour area is slime blocks. Having slime seeds made this a rather easy endeavor. I will create the actual parkour soon. The final area is designated as an arena.

The arena is not designed with mortal combat in mind. It will be mostly a woolen area with a variety of slime blocks, wool, and objects to jump and run over. I will also include tight narrow ways over soft blocks for games of trying to knock people off.

Heading home I gather a large amount of wood; a large variety. Going to the carnival area, I start building a large number of stalls, as many as I can fit with a walkway in the middle. Each with enough space for a small activity. Each stall uses a different wood but similar designs. A counter of half slabs with a reasonably sized back area. A small roof with a slight point. I use trap doors on the counter for entry and exit. Keeping it authentic. I kept it basic for now, party activities will be added soonish.

Heading to the parkour area, which I spent the rest of the day doing right! Nothing is worse than a bad parkour area. I segmented it into 3 parts. Easy, medium, and hard. The first part is relatively easy jumps and a small ladder segment. I added a couple tough jumps that require a run and a grab along with a sneaky slime block in the middle. A challenge; but not evil. At the end of this, a small floating platform stands. Which is the start of the medium difficulty parkour area.

This area I had a lot of fun with. Adding tricky jumps, areas with steep declines, requiring trust in your own body. I also added fence posts and tricky ladder posts. It may be more difficult than I intended, but it's worth it. This whole structure spirals upwards, safely within the bounds of the slime blocks. I added a large rising fence to stop any unlucky souls from bouncing out.

After completing the medium area, another slightly larger platform stands. It has a sigh with my personal congratulations and telling them to try hard. After this, you use this platform to enter the hardest section. Also, the shortest, but I did everything in my power to make this area diabolical. Truly evil, few blocks, mostly fences, blind jumps, and a multitude of other evil parkour tricks I know in Minecraft.

And right at the end, an island, to which I planted a spirit sapling, along with a large amount of fauna. As a reward for reaching the top? I placed 3 pedestals with an ender letter above each. Written instructions on how to use them and a secret code to tell me. Upon getting this code I’ll think up something on the fly and reward them.

I spent what little daylight remained to touch up the parkour area, really improve it. When night falls, I spend some time further improving the islands. Focusing especially on the rather ugly smaller islands. The northernmost one I designate as a clay soldiers’ area. I will also repurpose the holo space within for a much larger clay soldiers’ arena and a maze; later.

I head towards the governmental building, seeing what the mayor has to say. A smile blooming over my face. I can’t wait to see his reaction.

Not being afraid of flying, the Jiggs already up having built the giant bloody island. Speaking with the clerk, he tells me I can go straight in, the mayor is apparently expecting me. Scary, how did he know I was coming?

Unperturbed I head straight to his door and knock twice. “Enter” I hear in a gruff voice. Entering casually, I am immediately put-on guard as he grabs my chest plate and pulls me towards him. At first, I panicked and was about to pull out a weapon, but seeing his face I dropped my arm.

He just looks at me before shouting “How!” “You built that faster than the builders guild.”

He drops back looking at me, a dizzying array of emotions passing his face. “So, you like it then?”

He slumps in his chair defeated. “You, my friend; are an anomaly.”

He called me a friend, we made progress. “It should be finished in a few days, once you get actual people working the infrastructure, I am building you will have your wish.”

He just looks at me, “Can I see it?”

Looking at him like he's dumb, “You have a flying belt, come on.” ‘motioning him to follow.’

He looks confused, before realization dawns on him. If he was embarrassed, he didn’t show it. Flying towards the island under the cover of darkness, as much as my Armor can be covered. Chuckling to myself. We come upon the island.

The mayor who now is quite agile in the sky quickly begins exploring. Checking the signs for all my plans. He turns to me “Truly I am impressed. Even with just this, you have done a lot. But with all these ideas you have for the building. I can't wait to try it out.” He pauses looking directly at me, almost through me. “Need anything, just say. I definitely want to support ‘motions around’ this.”

I speak in a chipper tone, “Will do, for now, I am tired so I am going to bed.” Feel free to explore while I’m gone.” No more words needed he started darting around every erected structure, just exploring it like a child.

Having headed home, I find my bed welcoming. Eating poached egg on toast to hold me over the evening. I keel over my bed. Exhaustion catching up. I love building but even I think this crazy. I want a super builders wand. Still, this is enough for now. It was fun.