Properly bricked in to my new base, I begin using the resources I have to make my life easier. I begin with three things, all equally pointless.
First up, I try to craft some wooden armour. This has no effect since there is no such thing as 'wooden armour', so I don't really know what's up with that or why I tried it. And anyway, if you could make a chest plate out of any material you fancy in Minecraft, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be wearing a pork suit.
Secondly, I make a bed using the wool I gathered earlier on. On the whole this is also pointless - the major benefit of beds is that they can be used to reset your spawn point, so if you die, you end up back in the last place you slept. As I'm playing in Iron Man Mode (if you've not got the premise already, once I die the game and blog is over) this is a useless function for me.
Of course, I could use the bed to quickly skip past the night, but I'd like to use this time out to dig a bit deeper into the cave and get some more resources. I may venture into the giant cavern I found tomorrow, so it'd be good to get something together for that prospective adventure.
Thirdly, I accidentally make a boat. Look, I don't know why, and I don't know how it happened, but for some reason I now have a boat in my inventory.
Don't get me wrong - I shall look forward to using it when I want to travel across a body of water... but right now, in this cave, at night time, short on wood, when I'm trying to make a settlement and really don't want to travel anywhere, I'm not particularly thrilled about being the new owner of a boat.
That will teach me for being too click-happy with my wood.
Determined to make something useful, I take my remaining cobble and craft a stone sword and a stone pickaxe. I then set to work expanding the back of the cave, and while doing so uncover some iron ore... and lots of it! A furnace is constructed to immediately smelt this into usable iron while I explore onward...
... and find even more iron ore! Man, this is the best cave ever. I'm so glad I blocked myself into this little hidey-hole. And we're so near to the surface, too - I dig up a couple of the blocks and I'm immediately met with the starry sky. I block the hole up, move on a few steps and do it again. More starry sky. I move on a few more steps and d...
... ERM. ARGH.
Lava begins to pour through the hole in the ceiling at an alarming rate, and I'm stuck in a small space due to my earlier tactic of blocking myself right in (hey, it sounded smart at the time - admittedly I'm failing to remember why.) I back into the wall so quickly I feel my spine jar in real life.
Watching the lava flow towards me slowly yet relentlessly, the most logical thing to do would be to use what little time I have to turn around, quickly knock down my makeshift wall and escape. Instead, I stand there like a terrified n00b, stare at the lava and pant "oh god oh god ohgodohgodohgod" as there is no indication it isn't going to flood the whole place. However, it luckily stops pooling a foot away from me... so yeah, screw you - my tactics may seem unconventional, but they get results, man.
Recovering from my minor heart attack, I gingerly set about containing the lava pool and use cobblestone to push the flow back into the corner of the cave. I (surprisingly) accomplish this without dying, all the while wondering where the lava came from as the cave is only about two blocks beneath the surface and it's so rare to find lava pools on ground-level (and I didn't notice a gigantic bloody lava pool up there when I first found the cave entrance.)
But no matter - life goes on. For now.
I bagged a fair bit of iron before the accident, and continue to do well on this front afterwards. Night still reigns outside but I feel a bit cocky after the near-miss and venture outside of safety. I don't go far - just to the other little nook of a cave outside my own - and the little expedition makes me iron-rich to the point where I feel giddy. Giddy with iron! Hah! While you're reading this, know that I probably have more iron than you.
In fact, I have enough to make some life-preserving essentials for my adventure into the cavernous, monster-infested deep. I lay my iron out on the humble crafting bench - Going far below the surface is dangerous, and nobody should try it without an iron boat... er, sorry. I mean some iron armour. God, it seems to be all about the boats with me today.
The little dig around not only gave me enough iron to make a swanky protective suit, but also a fancy iron sword. Yay! Swoosh, swish! Avast ye, skallywag! Ok enough now.
I throw my spare stuff in a chest for safe keeping. I've spent so long doing all of the above that it's night again, so I go to bed. Yeah, in a suit of armour. Don't knock it until you try it.
And after a good night's sleep, it's finally time...
Time to quit stalling. Time to embrace adventure.
Time to head to the cavern.
Time... to stop trying to fabricate a sense of drama by utilizing a carefully chosen sentence structure.
ONWARDS!
