A whole new world

[aestrix]

There is a forest that likes to pretend that it's ordinary. It isn't, it's quite bizarre. Every night, in fact, zombies and other horrible monsters swarm this place, looking for people to kill. Not that they've found anyone, the forest itself is quite empty of residents. But they search anyway, during the night, shambling and groaning and occasionally leaving body parts lying around. Those disappear pretty quickly, but it still happens. Then the day comes, and they depart to who knows where, swearing (if mindless monsters could think, or in fact swear to anything in particular) that they'l be back the next night. Repeat ad nauseum.

It's currently in the day portion of this cycle of directionless attempts at violence. Maybe this day will be different from all of the others.

But then, probably not, it's a very boring island without anyone here.

Comments

[aestrix]

She isn't interrupted, this time. But the remnants of the slime she killed slowly fade away, like she was never partially covered in goo at all. How... tidy.

[greatestgift]

Well why'd it have to go and explode on her in the first place, then?

She makes a door and places it and finishes the roof. There. And now she goes outside again and looks for the creepy guide-thing.

"What's the pickaxe for?"

[aestrix]

The guide is wandering around aimlessly outside. He looks up when addressed. "You should do some mining to find metal ore. You can craft very useful things with it."

[greatestgift]

"Ugh," says Sable. "How?"

[aestrix]

"Use a pickaxe to mine through dirt, stone, and other materials. Some pickaxes are better than others - a copper pickaxe couldn't mine through obsidian."

[greatestgift]

"Am I going to need to mine through obsidian? Oh, whatever," she says.

She puts her axe and sword away and gets out her pickaxe and, rather than start randomly assaulting surfaces until she finds something useful, extends her groundsense down and out to see if she can sense anything. "Ow, ow, ow..."

[aestrix]

There is copper and iron down there! They're surprisingly pure veins, divided up into cubes.

[greatestgift]

Of course they are. Of course.

Sable assaults some dirt with her copper pickaxe.

[aestrix]

The dirt doesn't stand a chance. The iron and copper are exactly where promised, and predictably consolidate into two little perfect cubes of ore.

[greatestgift]

She climbs up again, filling the dirt back in along the way.

"What do I do with the ore?" she asks the guide.

[aestrix]

"Now that you have some ore, you will need to turn it into a bar in order to make items with it. This requires a furnace!"

[greatestgift]

She sighs heavily.

"How do I make a furnace."

[aestrix]

"You can create a furnace out of torches, wood, and stone. Make sure you are standing near a work bench."

[greatestgift]

"Ugh."

She has some stone left from her mining adventure. She goes inside and collects up some torches from the wall and stands next to the workbench to see if it has furnaces available.

[aestrix]

It does! She can make a furnace, now.

[greatestgift]

Sable makes a furnace and puts it next to the workbench. Now what can she do with her ores?

[aestrix]

She can turn them into bars. Not a large amount of bars, but bars all the same. Something can likely be done with these bars once made.

[greatestgift]

She converts as much ore as possible into bars.

[aestrix]

She now has three copper bars and four iron bars! This doesn't seem like a lot.

[greatestgift]

It really doesn't. She goes back outside.

"You. Guide. If I leave you out here by yourself are you going to get eaten by a slime or something?"

[aestrix]

"Hello! My name is Dylan. In order for a room to be considered a home, it needs to have a door, chair, table, and a light source," says... Dylan. "Make sure the house has walls as well."

[greatestgift]

"Thank you," she says, rolling her eyes. "If it wasn't for you I definitely would've forgotten the blighted walls. Does that mean you want a house?"

[aestrix]

"There are many different ways you can attract people to move in to our town. They will of course need a home to live in."

[greatestgift]

"I object to both the 'our' and the 'town' in 'our town'," says Sable. "On the other hand, if more people show up maybe one of them will have a soul. Fine. I'll make your blighted house."

She starts clearing trees again. Aggressively.

[aestrix]

Dylan has nothing else to add. He smiles vacantly, again, and wanders around some more.

The trees don't know what hit them. Well. Okay, that's not true, they are completely aware that it's an axe. But they are powerless to stop the tree-based assault.