Chapter 185: All that is left is rock

Excerpt from the book “Mining” By Durell

Mining is by no means safe, I assure you. Many have died trying to reap the resources of the earth. Read this book, and just maybe, you will have a sharper and wiser mind for delving into the darkness.

At the end of the day, darkness is where monsters dwell. Either through you creating the darkness or opening a tunnel into a space of the stuff.

The amount of times some kind of monster has snuck into my mineshaft. I could buy the earth, I tell you.

The most prolific monster you will face is spiders. Nasty little bastards with fangs that will leave the bedridden. Look for webs and avoid mineshafts. Fire is effective against both the spiders and the webs they spin.

You should also keep an eye on what you’re mining. If the stone feels abnormally soft, stop mining. It may very well contain silverfish. The burrowing bastards will hide in anything resilient they can find.

Now, if you hear a hiss, book it. Run and hide, and hope that the hiss stops. Creepers will be the end of you. One explosion is all it takes to cause one of two scenarios. First, causing the mine to cave in, crushing you with no hope of living. The second is it will blow a hole into an area riddled with monsters. Good luck with both.

Aside from that, you will find your fair share of zombies and skeletons. Primarily thanks to those damn paladins using mines as makeshift graveyards for the poor. Bury them in your own catacombs, you bastards.

So, my advice. Bring a flint and steel, a shield, some good running shoes, and a sword. Hopefully, you don’t need any of it, but better safe than sorry.

A low rumble woke me. How much I slept is a mystery, but the dark windows and heavy eyes lean on the minimal side.

Sitting up, tired, confusion clouding my mind. It didn’t take long for another rumble to occur, a slight tremor moving through the air like static. Adrenaline released, the tiredness disappeared like a phantom of the mind.

Getting up, I gaze out the window. Looking past my island, I see a red cloud. Not crimson, rusty. Like the swirling clouds on mars of another celestial body. Jumping out my window, I fly towards my shield. Which is thankfully keeping it on the outside.

Reaching the shield, I get a closer look. It appears the dust is eating away at the protection. Of course, being automatically replenished using energy, but still scary.

Flying lower, I see Jengals mother gazing at the cloud from the door to the castle.

She has a look of concern painted on her face.

Turning back to the cloud, I move through my shield into it. Armor already on, I brave the dust, falling towards the earth.

Looking at my energy gauge, I see it slowly chipping away.

After reaching the ground, even with low visibility, I immediately noticed a lack of vegetation. The earth seems to be withstanding the storm quite well, but the trees and shrubs not so much. What little plant life remains is in the form of dead twigs and hardy moss behind stones.

“I knew something like this would happen.” They must have had recipes for what? A week? The planet is already wrecked. I just hope the wise ones had a bunker or something in place.

Now, do I try and rescue them or let them suffer the consequences? What am I saying? Of course, I am gonna try and save them. Not like I am under any threat currently. Now, if my life was at risk, I don’t think I would have the nerve to even attempt it.

First things first, let’s try and save my town. Rushing towards the city, it isn’t long before I hear the screaming. Standing on a home, I set some wood on fire as a beacon.

“Come to me as fast as you can; I will teleport you to safety!” I shout as loud as I can.

“Where are you?” I hear.

I continue to shout, “Follow my voice.”

Eventually, a man and women come into view, huddled under bundles of clothing. With haste, I grab them and teleport them to the dead zone. Taking the chance to hollow out a massive space for all the people I will be bringing there. I leave a sign telling them to walk towards the pull.

I continue to fly around, shouting for people. A handful of people are rescued this way, but nowhere near all of them.

Next, I teleport to the vampires’ home, finding most of them asleep. Waking them up was annoying, but once awake, I teleport them too. I gave them 10 minutes to collect their valuables.

Once done, I return to my island and hastily prepare a radar. Iron, gold, diamond, red stone; simple stuff. It’s a radar for people, with a few hundred blocks in range.

Returning to the town, I fly around with great haste, picking up the hidden people. Those within their homes, and the smart ones within a bunker. All were grabbed. Thankfully, during a crisis, no one complains if you promise them safety.

The next step was to visit every single individual town. Hunting down everyone I could find before moving on. In some cities, the mist was thicker than it was in others. Some it was only a slight vaper, causing metals to turn brown and leaves to wilt.

After the third town, I was exhausted. It must have been hours of constant work. Using my time in the bottle, I have a speed nap. Just grabbing the barest amount of rest before continuing. It must of too quite a few days, but I eventually found most of each town. Some had fled the villages or tunneled too deep. At the end of the day, I couldn’t get everyone. Still felt like shit for it, though.

Once I had gotten everyone I could to the room, I addressed a big issue I noticed on the last day. Teleporting to the entrance to the blind spot, I see a congregation of people. Obviously too scared to enter the giant black portal.

“Our savior,” a lean and tall man addresses me. He wears garbs of white and gold, a religious man perhaps.

“Hello, you guys need to go through that portal.”

“What’s on the other side?!” a woman asks from his side.

“A safe place, safe compared to the world we are in right now. You know, the one being eaten by a rust-red mist.”

They share looks of uncertainty.

“Look, you don’t have much food or water; there’s food and water on the other side. I’ll go first.”

With that, I step through the portal. Having forgotten about the time dilation for a moment. It wasn’t long before people were getting ejected through the white exit right behind me because of it. I caught those that I could.

Once the people stopped flying through, I looked around. Seeing quite a large encampment of houses. More farms have sprung up, and people bustling around and doing things. 3 or so weeks must have elapsed. I think it’s a 1 to 7-time dilation anyway. Kind of difficult to measure exacts for this kind of thing.

It wasn’t long before the human catapult attracted the attention of the pseudo town. People gathered around quickly.

“It’s him,” one thin man shouted out. Dropping an ax and rushing over.

A lot of hushed whispers echos out. The man prostrates himself, “thank you, oh merciful one, for saving us.”

With him, several others out of the quickly increasing crowd also prostrate themselves. A lot stay standing, thankfully. Stepping back in slight shock, I cough out the next few words.

“Anyway…. Let me give you guys the rundown of this place.

It’s a safe haven designed by me. Surrounded on all sides by an empty void. But on the inside, food and materials are built infinitely on the crops you may have already seen. Of course, your population will increase far too quickly for this place to cope. That’s why ships and space suits are in several docking bays around the edge. Using them, it’s up to you guys to build new living spaces.

The fundamental principles are, seal it completely. Place dirt, plant trees. Let a bit of air in from another biodome for the plants to breathe. It will quickly become a habitable area. Which you can then farm and live in. Continue this process, and you guys have an unlimited utopia.

Now, It will be hard at first. You guys must propagate the resource-generating seeds. They do produce more seeds, all be it only a few per entire crop.

Now, you might already know, but there are vampires among you.”

That one sentence got a few nods and a few shocked faces.

“But they are friendly; please treat them with respect. Let them trade resources for your blood. These vampires are good people, carefully selected from many people. Their strength will be vital for improving this place. They will build far better because if something goes wrong, they won’t die in a vacuum.

This is where I will leave you guys. Checking in occasionally, of course. I’ll try and create a route for you guys to access the old world. To gather resources that are simply not possible here. But, it is hard. This place is hidden from divine view, an anomaly among planets.

The final thing I will say. If you can, that white portal will return you to the old world. An underground bunker deep in the sea. But the suction and repulsion force is brutal even for me. If you guys work out a way to move through it safely, you have my blessing to do so. If I think of something, I will help. Please have a good life and preserve this place.”

With that, I left. Just walking straight through the white portal back home. Finding not a soul remaining in the bunker room. Just in case, I plant a few food crops, some material crops and make them livable. Adding some beds and furniture, Glowstone for light. Something simple.

When returning home, I contemplated the people I had saved. Most of them are strangers. Of course, some I knew, like members of my town. I hope they don’t destroy the utopia. Or at least wait until some people split off before self-destructing to perverse the human race. It is possible with the resource seeds I’ve supplied. It will be interesting to see how things change. Time does move faster out here, after all.

While back home, I work on a better radar. Increased range at the cost of it being significantly more expensive and annoying to make.

Using said device, I gave one last brief sweep over the towns. It didn’t bare fruit, but that only tells me that the rest have burrowed underground or had extremely well-protected homes in the wilderness. It wouldn’t surprise me; people now have the tools.

I will miss the biomes of this world. The forests were beautiful, the oceans colorful, and the sands warm. Now all that remains is desolate rock and smoky air.

Felix really has a lot to answer for. How long until he grows completely bored and wipes the world to start anew?

A scary thought.