It was quite unnerving reaching through the hopping zombies to open the chest, but I succeeded without incident. The chests provided gunpowder, a pig-saddle, a loaf of bread, a bit of the electrical redstone, and most importantly a couple of buckets. Buckets were extremely handy, as nothing put out burning flesh faster than a bucket of water, and as this was Hardmode, it was one more precaution against failure. Now, to deal with the zombies: I could probably dig up underneath the zombie-cage to destroy it safely, but I chose rather to attempt to harvest the zombies. Creatures in Minecraft drop useful items when killed, and while zombies dropped the least useful resource of the monsters (feathers... zombies apparently are OCD about collecting feathers), if I could successfully build a trap to kill them, I would be better prepared if I came across a skeleton or spider dungeon. I dug my way under the dungeon, clearing the area out entirely, and digging a pit to trap the zombies. The buckets came in handy for completing my trap with a waterfall to drag the zombies into the pit and drown them. The last step was to knock out part of the dungeon floor, and run to safety.
Success! The trap wasn't exactly perfect, but it was still successful. This was a first for me, and I could now mine in peace without worrying about the zombie-hoard. One of the most important lessons I've learned playing Hardmode in video games was prioritizing defense. A complete set of armor (and sometimes a spare set) always comes before iron tools and sword. With that achieved, I headed back outside to hunt for more pork.
Of course pigs proved just as rare as that first day of hunting. In my search, I came across a pumpkin patch;
A flower patch;
And a creepy, creepy, creeper. The best I can tell from studying them is: they never sleep; they explode when you come near; they always seem to be in a perpetual state of panic. Putting all of this together and all of this together I've come to conclusion that sleep triggers their (and often my) demise, and that they suffer from narcolepsy.
There they are! Cursed pigs are so hard to find in this place.
I stocked up on as much ham as I could carry, then I rushed back to my home to take shelter for the night. I was beginning to wonder exactly what was so different about Minecraft's Hardmode; as of yet I was still alive, and I had a solid foothold on survival. I explored the rest of the small cave surrounding the zombie dungeon with no incident, and so I decided it was time to begin mining down into the earth. This proved to be perhaps the longest, most uneventful stretch of the game yet. After what felt like hours I finally found something worth mining.
Finally, some redstone! And how far down did I have to dig to find this?
I really wasn't sure if it was actually worth it. Sure, it was probably the safest way to find resources, but spelunking always seemed to go faster. Well, I turned back to mining, knowing it couldn't be too much longer before I broke through into-
Great... a small enclosed underwater lake at the earths core. Seriously, I could actually see bedrock under the water.
Frustrated, I turned and started mining through the right hand wall of the cave. Fortunately this proved to be far more fruitful than mining down.
Now that I actually had something to show for this, I headed back up to empty my inventory of valuables; nothing would be more frustrating than losing these diamonds in a creeper explosion. Strangely enough, there was a skeleton waiting for me in the main room of my base. It didn't prove too dangerous in the enclosed space, but it forced me to double-check for openings it might have come through. I couldn't find any weaknesses right off, so I turned my attention to another problem I had encountered on my first run of the game: wood shortage. Last time, I had tried growing a tree underground, and this had proved fatal. This time, I decided to plant trees on top of my shelter; I would have to leave safety to get more wood, but at least I could fix the problem with the tree shortage. When I first started up in this world, I had managed to collect two saplings when I cut down those trees; and now that I had a bit of bonemeal, it was only a few minutes of plant-grow-chop down to have a decent forest available.
I was starting to feel comfortable in this world. As bleak as it was, I had managed to beat the odds, surviving long past where I should have. I had little difficulty eliminating the threats that I encountered, I had resolved most of my resource shortage issues, and I had a friendly spider move into my house while I was out. Wait a minute...
Oh dear.
More tomorrow!
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