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Today, I'm going on the offensive.
I still haven't forgiven those creepers for blowing me to pieces, and I need to start building my resources, so I decide on killing two birds with one stone by raiding a cavern. That decided, the real question is . . . where is a cave, anyway? It doesn't take long to find a likely spot to begin my subterranean expedition.
It's not quite what I had in mind, but this underwater hole looks like it could serve our purposes nicely. I can hear zombies in the depths, so I'll have to proceed cautiously. I start mining a staircase down around the whirlpool, and find an iron deposit in the process. I also almost fall into the wet darkness.
I block off the waterfall, carve the rest of the stairs, and mine the ore, but it looks like this is a rather small cave.
There's no sign of the zombies, but I can hear them moaning nearby, so I grab my pick and start digging. Several blocks in, there they are:
Perhaps a direct assault is not the best idea. I dig another tunnel, several blocks higher. Nope, still a bit close for comfort.
Unfortunately, the sun is setting, so I beat a hasty retreat to my cliff dwelling, where I spend the night digging a staircase into the earth. I find some more iron, too. Finally, I make myself a bow, and dig up a couple of seeds for use in my future indoor farm.
Things heat up fast when I walk outside - two creepers detonate ineffectively, and a pair of burning zombies lurch after me. Another creeper jumps out from behind a tree, but I chop him up easily enough. I also slice a passing cow for a bit more leather, which I turn into a hat. With this, along with the sunglasses I added to my character model, you have to admit that I cut quite the dashing figure.
You can stop laughing now.
On returning to the cave, I take a different approach. I carve an entirely new tunnel from the surface down to the cavern roof, where I break through a take a quick look around. It looks empty.
I chisel some stairs and look carefully around the cave. It is empty, and is almost as small as the earlier section. No ores, and strangely, no more zombies. Perhaps they knew I was coming.
The sun's going down again, and I'm making my stately way back to base when I pass this:
Now THAT is a cave.
Once again, I spend the night mining, and have my mood improved by finding deposits of iron, flint, and even gold as I continue downward.
By morning, I'm loaded with new arrows and ready to fight. I give the rising sun a minute to cook the wandering undead, then polish off a nearby creeper. On returning to the lake where I found the two caves, I spot another creeper swimming, and dispatch him as well.
I decide to explore the upper passage of the cave first, and grab my torches. Unfortunately, I slip and fall into the beginning of the larger lower passage, and immediately hear the sound of flying arrows. The skeleton, who had apparently been waiting in ambush behind an outcropping of dirt, chases after me with unnerving speed. I abandon any semblance of dignity and scramble out of the cave as fast as possible, leaving the skeleton to roast in the noonday sun. He doesn't die fast, though, and a couple of his arrows find their mark.
Sore and annoyed, I try once again enter the cave. I nervously scuttle down the upper tunnel, placing torches as I go. It turns out to be fairly short, but I do find one respectable iron deposit.
I proceed to clamber down the piles of gravel into the next tunnel, which is a bit more impressive.
Whoa.
The room turns out to be a spiral, and leads down to a tight tunnel culminating in an overlook of another large room, complete with a creeper. A side tunnel (with no creeper) leads me deeper, and ends with a nice iron vein. I happily grab my pick and dig it up.
As I break through the last piece of ore, I'm suddenly struck by the horrible realization that I've broken one of the most important rules of mining:
Never mine straight down.
The ground crumbles beneath me, and I plunge into darkness. Fortunately, I survive the impact, and enough light filters down from the hole above me that I can see a little bit around me. Maybe I'm not so bad off after all, I think to myself.
That's when I hear the growls.
Next: "Help!!!"
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