Day 24 - The Big Cave

I stepped out of my tower refuge and had a quick look around, reminding myself of the surrounding landscape. As if by magic, a creeper appeared.

I swung at him, but he was already starting to explode so I dodged back out of the way. Result: a big hole in the ground.

Today's journey was mostly uneventful. It was still nice to be amongst the rolling grassy hills, and I seemed to be retracing my steps a lot as the opposite bank was often dotted with my markers. I spotted a picturesque waterfall spilling down into a pond.

I passed a meadow where the sheep and cows were frolicking merrily together.

I also came close to entering a land of vast mountains, but my route curved away as I reached the first one.

Eventually it was getting dark and I was nowhere near any large cliffs, so I dug down and made a little homely hole in the ground.

I decided I'd stock up on cobblestone here, so dug the base of my home down and almost immediately broke through into a dark passageway. I threw in a torch and set about widening the entrance.

The cave disappeared into the darkness. I set out to explore it, dropping torches as I went to light the place up.

It turned out to be a fairly extensive cave system, with lots of twisty caves plunging down into the depths of the world, the occasional cavern with optional exits going off in different directions, but so far no sound of enemies.

After mapping out several dead-ends, I found myself on the edge of a large, dark, vertical shaft that I immediately named "The Big Pit". I had to go down and explore it.

I carved a set of steps into the side of the pit, working my way down and around the edge. Then I looked up and saw, standing in an alcove opposite me, waiting patiently, a menacing creeper.

I continued down, but the creeper decided to leap off his ledge to get me, landing just a few blocks below my current position.

This was a good position for me to be in, as I had a definite advantage and could swing my sword at his head without fear of him climbing back up. He had a zombie friend down there too, who I also killed off before jumping down to the bottom of the pit and examining my options.

Several caves headed off in different directions and I took some time to explore them, but ultimately none of them went anywhere. I had hoped that one might continue down and take me into the realm of diamonds, but it was not to be on this occasion.

I now realised I had been down here some time and it might well be morning already, so I attempted to retrace my steps back up to the surface. Oddly, I got completely lost a couple of times, but found new connecting caves with glowing lights in the distance which marked out caves I had travelled before.

I eventually made it back to the top and indeed daylight was streaming through the windows of my door. I wondered how much of the day I had lost already?