Dirdle wrote:This thread is good and you should feel good.
I always feel good. You trying reverse psychology on me bro? No matter. Look down - next chapter, get-u.
Chapter 8: Completion (I miss having a slightly larger font for the title -.-)
Two days of working at the hand crank, three more weaving some sailcloth, and one last one braiding some rope, and I'm done with hemp. I never imagined it would take so much work to finish...but I've got enough to get the machinery made in the windmill. Since I'm lacking the precision-made axles I'm used to, I've decided that I'll transmit the mechanical power through rope, braced by wooden planks. It won't be able to transmit power too far - my guess of about 3 meters is as far as it'll get before tearing itself apart - but I have plans to make gearboxes too, which should solve that problem. The only Thing I own which needs power is that grindstone...am I putting too much work into this? I know I need a break. Sleep now, holiday tomorrow.
The odd fog which had lingered a little during these cold days seems to have burnt off this morning. Perhaps winter isn't coming after all. In the distance, I can see the tiny platform I lived on to begin with and it's floating block of mystery. Beyond that...
Wow, the monsters must have really hated this place. It's still first thing in the morning and I can see the slowly disintegrating remains of things that had burnt apart in the sunlight. No spiders or creepers about though...stupid things must have fallen off.
Having a quick look around I got what would have once been an armful of bones and an astonishing 4 enderpearls. They don't seem quite as heavy as they once did. Strange that. Even strangers...how many endermen must have come and gone over time for this place to be damaged so much? Have I really not been down here in so long? No matter. I had originally made this place so I could 'study', before getting distracted by cursed alchemy. In truth, I could have been distracted by anything after the first few days. The monsters just don't seem as smart as I remember them being. Sure, If I got too close, I'd have everything gunning for me without fail; I lost track of the number of times I had to run for my life. When left alone however...normally they would just mill around, fall in holes or off the edge. I don't know how they get here, but...A supply of bones would be nice. Maybe there would be a way to trick them all?
I'll spend the rest of the day laid in my field. Maybe I'll come up with a good idea.
This was probably a bad idea, but I guess I got caught up in the moment. I decided to see where alchemy would lead me if I just started from base stone and threw things together. So far, it seems I can derive a fair few things just from stone, so long as I have enough of it. The most obvious result was the creation of Iron ore; very little of it, but know it can be done open up a whole load of possibilities. The other results were...curiously fascinating.
Redstone, and glowstone. Both fairly rare minerals, both with unique qualities. Redstone I'm more familiar with; compressed into wire, it controlled most of the machinery in the factory I once owned. A very simple, but very useful discovery; moreso since I realised I may be able to use it to make the gearboxes for my windmill. They would work without it, but they would probably jam up every other hour. Glowstone I'm not quite so familiar with. It's not really a 'stone' in any sense of the word. What I learned in the academy; mainly when I was maintaining and building the aggregators there, was that glowstone is actually a concentrated form of a very rare particle in the air. Under the right conditions, it clumps together around an object, and results in this very powdery dust. Of course with a bit of pressure it can be changed into glowstone; small crystals that emit light constantly. Thoughts on aggregators aside...I heard rumour that this was a component in the philosophers stones that the tutors in the academy normally made. It may have just been bait for the apprentices then, but now...
If I could make a simpler stone, maybe one of these 'lesser' stones, would it affect me less? I feel tired today. Maybe a more normal one would be less draining to use. It still feels like the world is shaking around me whenever I even hold this one...has it always been like that? Time to sleep some more I guess.
Ok, the gearboxes and axles are finished. They're hardly a work of art, but this should at least make breadmaking a little less tiresome. For now I'll move one of the millstones up to the windmill, and get it all hooked up. I had a thought last night, about making a new philosophers stone. Glowstone is a matirial that doesn't really exist as such, and...for some reason it reminds me of those enderpearls...in the same was white reminds me of black. If so...I figure I need a base for it to form around, and something like charcoal, which bears a resemblance to glowstone. Hmm.
One storm and it'd probably break apart, but for now...the sails of the windmill are done, and all hooked up. It's loud; wooden axles shouldn't be as efficient as metal ones, after all - but it's powering the millstone well enough. Now I can make more flour. Grind more hemp.
...that's all I've got. Is this thing really worth all the effort I put into it? At least bread is nice.
I attempted to make a philosophers stone today. I'm getting the impression that flour, seeds, pumpkin and dirt won't work alongside the glowstone.
I attempted to make a philosophers stone today. Sand, gravel, flint, charcoal, coal, iron...nothing yet.
I attempted to make a philosophers stone today. Cactus, saplings, sticks....still nothing.
Redstone. It has to be redstone. So perhaps I threw it together by accident, but there's few ways of separating the two powders one mixed, even if done so by accident. Normally redstone will glow dimly when pressured, but this mixture burns like a pebble picked up after being in the sun in summer. It feels right somehow...but it won't form together. The first one just...merged. no real way of describing it differently, but i feel this is different. It needs to be bound somehow.
Random side effect. Took out the first stone, to compare it with the enderpearls, see if I noticed anything. Turned out they can be transmuted into diamonds. What use do I have for wealth in this place.
I attempted to make a philosophers stone today. Glowstone, redstone and 'living' slime. I did it.
