Neil reached the mouth of the mountain cave, the familiar, roughly hewn entrance a stark contrast to the pristine snow outside. Stepping inside, he descended the stair-like path he had previously carved into the earth. Today, his focus was singular: finding iron.
The idea had taken root while he was at home. An automatic stone generator, powered by lava and water, seemed like an efficient way to acquire the vast quantities of stone he would need for his underground project. The goat horns he had collected promised the ability to break stone blocks with relative ease. Now, he needed iron to craft the buckets necessary for transporting lava and water. Beyond iron, he also kept an eye out for redstone and any other materials that might aid in automating the entire stone generation and collection process.
Pulling a torch from his inventory, he continued down the stepped tunnel. The cave was already twenty meters deep, but with the light of the torch, he felt confident venturing further. He switched to his stone pickaxe and resumed digging downwards, extending his stairwell into the darkness.
Time passed quietly as Neil chipped away at the stone. Suddenly, his pickaxe broke through into empty space. A cave, he thought, his curiosity piqued. He began digging to his left in a stepped pattern, creating a new descent to the cavern floor.
Reaching the bottom, Neil cautiously surveyed his surroundings, the flickering torchlight his only guide. He scanned for any signs of movement or danger but finding none, he decided to explore. Earlier, upon entering the cave, he had crafted four torches from a piece of coal and a stick. One he held, and the others were readily accessible in his shortcut bar. Now, he placed one torch on the ground as a marker, leaving two in reserve.
The passage he had entered seemed to be a dead end or offered only a single path forward. As he ventured deeper, he assessed the cave's dimensions. It was narrow, perhaps three blocks wide and of similar height. Soon, the passage terminated without revealing any mineable resources.
Just as he was about to turn back and continue his downward digging, a flash of red on the cave wall caught his eye. Thinking it might be clay or a similar material, he swung his pickaxe. The reddish block broke apart easily and was collected into his inventory. A thought prompted him to open his inventory, and the sight of the collected block made his jaw drop.
His inventory displayed:
Hematite: This ore has a reddish color and contains a high percentage of iron (around 70%).
(Use furnace to extract the iron ingot)
Speechless, Neil stared at the description. After a moment to process this unexpected discovery, excitement surged through him. He had found iron!
A realization dawned on him. The ores and resources in this reality might not adhere strictly to the rules of the game he remembered. Had it not been for his curiosity about the red color, he might have missed this valuable find entirely. Shaking off his surprise, he continued mining the vein, soon accumulating fifty blocks of hematite and forty blocks of quartz.
Quartz: A very common mineral that can occur as crystals or veins.
Satisfied with his initial haul, he decided to return to the spot where he had placed his first torch. Reaching the marker, he decided to construct a furnace to smelt the hematite into iron ingots. He opened his inventory.
Page 3-
288 stone 1 slot
50 hematite 2 slot
25 coal 3 slot
100 dirt 4 slot
100 dirt 5 slot
100 dirt 6 slot
60 dirt 7 slot
40 quartz 8 slot
His mining had yielded a significant amount of stone, increasing his stock from seventy-one to two hundred and eighty-eight. He selected eight stone blocks, leaving two hundred and eighty behind. Using the crafting interface, he arranged the eight stones to form a furnace, leaving the center middle slot empty.
The stone furnace materialized. He placed it on the ground, a sense of anticipation bubbling within him. This was the first time he would be using a crafted item beyond simple tools and structures.
He pondered how to use the furnace. The ore blocks were a full meter in size; they wouldn't simply fit inside. But as he touched the furnace, a familiar screen appeared before it, identical to the furnace interface from his past life's game.
The screen displayed slots for the item to be smelted (top left), fuel (bottom left), and the resulting smelted item (right). He placed one block of hematite in the smelting slot and one piece of coal in the fuel slot, leaving forty-nine hematite and twenty-four coal.
As soon as he placed the coal, a progress bar began to fill, indicating the smelting process had begun. Knowing it would take some time, he decided to rest against the cave wall.
After a while, he stood up and approached the furnace to check on his iron. Touching the furnace again brought up the familiar screen. The smelting and fuel slots were now empty. But as his gaze drifted to the output slot, his mouth fell open in disbelief. He almost thought he was hallucinating.
There, in the output slot, was the unmistakable image of an iron ingot, and below it, the number "1000." Stunned, he wasn't sure whether to believe his eyes.
Regaining his composure, he touched the iron ingot image. Instantly, a thousand iron ingots materialized directly into his inventory. It was remarkably efficient, saving him the tedious task of manually collecting each one.
Opening his inventory, he moved the massive quantity of iron ingots from his main "0" page to his designated "5" page, where he stored metals for easy access.
(Page "0" store any item he mine or collect then he place them into different pages for easy access )
His shortcut bar remained below the "0" page. He then examined his newly acquired wealth.
Page 5-
100 iron-ingot 1 slot (1 to 10)
total of 1000 iron-ingots
The sheer number was staggering. He recalled that in the game, one block of iron ore yielded only one iron ingot. Here, one block of hematite had produced a thousand! The initial worry about a lack of iron now seemed comical. He had more iron than he currently knew how to use.
The experience reinforced a crucial lesson: his knowledge from the game was a guide, not an absolute rule. He would need to experiment and observe the properties of things in this reality firsthand.
Deciding to examine a single ingot, he withdrew one from his inventory. It appeared in his hand, a solid piece of metal roughly ten centimeters long, eight centimeters wide, and five centimeters high. After a moment of inspection, he returned it to his inventory.
Knowing that time had passed while he was underground, he decided to head back to the surface. Climbing the one-meter blocks would be difficult at his age, so he needed to craft some stairs. He remembered the crafting recipe for stone stairs required six stone to create four stairs. That seemed inefficient. He recalled another useful tool: the stonecutter.
The stonecutter required three stone and one iron ingot to craft. Thankfully, breaking stone in this reality yielded usable stone blocks directly, unlike the cobblestone of the game. He accessed his crafting interface, placing one iron ingot in the top middle slot and three stone blocks in the middle row. The bottom row remained empty.
Instantly, a stonecutter materialized. He took it out and placed it on the ground. The moving blade looked surprisingly dangerous. He wondered if it could be used for cutting other materials. Remembering his lesson about not relying solely on game knowledge, he decided to test its capabilities later, back at home.
Touching the area below the blade, a new screen appeared, featuring an input slot above and an output slot below. Items placed in the top slot would be processed and appear in the bottom.
He checked his inventory, noting his two hundred and seventy-seven remaining stone blocks. He decided to craft seventy-seven stone stairs, figuring that would be sufficient to ascend. Placing the stone in the input slot of the stonecutter, the stairs were created instantly, unlike the furnace's time-based processing.
He moved the stack of stone stairs to his quick slot and mentally commanded "Collect" for the stonecutter and furnace, storing them on his "0" page. Taking his torch in hand, he began his ascent, placing stairs as he went.
After some time, he reached the surface, having used all seventy-seven stairs. The cave he had dug now plunged ninety-seven meters into the earth – twenty from his initial digging and seventy-seven from the stairwell.
Emerging from the cave, he noted that the sun was beginning its descent. It was time to head home. The walk took a while, and by the time he arrived, the sun was nearing the horizon. Other family member were also returning from their day's work.
Soon, everyone changed into their more comfortable home clothes, shedding the dirt and sweat of the day. They gathered for dinner, and afterwards, Neil announced his intention to sleep, feeling the exhaustion of his mining expedition. One by one, the others also retired for the night, and a peaceful quiet settled over the cabin.