Chapter 28: Hunt for animals

Excerpt from the book “Dimensions” By Seng

Limbo… a curious dimension. By far one of the tamest I have come across. I originally found it after exploring a pocket dimension. Not my proudest moments but I fell down a hole. The damned place is a prank, I refuse to believe otherwise. At first, I was very concerned but after exploring I quickly found a wooden door. Leaving, after I took samples of the ground for further study. I found myself in an odd location. Checking the stars, I found I was not too far from home. Reaching home, I checked Old Man Rigs library. After pouring over the books, I found many accounts of the dimension.

No accounts of deaths are recorded. Although trusting that is foolish. Since if you died it's unlikely people knew you are in another dimension. After depositing my sample, I quickly started mapping out the limbo, exploring It, and experimenting with the odd textures material it's made out of.

‘Rising from bed’ doing my best zombie impression while I wonder if anything I have can be used for a tea. With the idea firmly planted in my head, I head to my garden. ‘walking unsteadily’ I find my way to the garden. harvesting a handful of raspberry leaves, sneakily eating a handful of the berry as well. Taking them to my kitchen I lightly boil the leaves in water. After 10 minutes I strain the leaves, pour myself a cup, and then stir one sugar inside.

‘Taking a small sip” I am instantly awakened from the luxurious taste of a fruit tea. Realizing this would make a lovely morning routine; I get to preparing some teas for future use. I take a large quantity of the leaves and tie them inside a cloth bag. Lightly hitting them with an iron ingot. Hanging the bundle outside to ferment over the day. Fermented berry tea is superior.

Lightly sipping my tea as I prepare breakfast. A bundle of berries with a slice of toast. At least I am being healthy. I have no choice in it but still got to look on the positive side of it. Getting my armor on, rarely do I leave it off, the flight being addicting and the protection important. I head to my mod area in the castle, crafting an ender eye. Using that I make an unstable dimensional portal. It functions as a random teleport. With the ability to get home easily and the golden compass, I finally have the confidence to be a little crazy.

Gathering up supplies, food water – et cetera. I am especially careful to make sure I have my golden compass and telepads.

I am doing this for a few reasons: civilization, I am unlikely to find it just wandering around, as far as I can tell this world is massive. Resources, I noticed resources vary from place to place. I hope the randomness of this door will allow me access to a wider variety of supplies. And finally, adventure. Who doesn’t love a good adventure? Low risk and everything.

‘Steadying my breath’ I step through the swirling portal haphazardly placed. After a disorientating blur of shifting reality. I find myself falling, everything is black – limbo. Of course, tiny chance of me ending up here and it's on my first attempt. ‘sighing in resignation’ at least it's only an inconvenience. Touching upon the soft ground, I look around. ‘shiver running up my spine’ “Eerie”. Everything is in different shades of black. And the giant monoliths are creepy as hell. ‘slowing my breathing’ I find my bearings and promptly run down. At the bottom of this world is one of the 2 exits, the easiest to use as well.

‘jumping onto the floor I quickly find myself back in the overworld. With a quick rush, I am on a bed of black fabric. See? Easy to escape. Finding myself on a rocky mountain range. Relatively small in size. Time to get exploring.

‘Taking flight’ I start heading in a random direction. It's freeing knowing I can go anywhere I want. I don’t want to ever lose this. Mountains often have sheep, so with an eye for fluffy clouds, I cast my gaze over the mountains. No immediate sheep in my sight but I have time.

I noticed it’s a little cold, even though I have armor on. Must be freezing. Flying over the rolling cliffs I find myself coming to the edge of the mountain I am on a frozen river. Following the river, I find a magical appearing frozen waterfall. A wonderful sight. Going to the bottom I find less snow but it's still very cold. As I follow the river, I come across a large blue flower, a lotus. A source of experience but more than that; a beautiful flower. Collecting it for future decoration.

Aside from the winter wonderland vibe, I feel very small. All the mountains are terrifyingly large. Still, I am happy this is a view to die for. Hopefully not literally.

After flying for what feels like hours, I feel like I have made little progress. Another giant biome. Broken up by spruce trees. I finally found something different though. Some redwood trees. Which I collect for my collection of building materials. Continuing on.

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I come across a curious little structure. At first, spruce obscured it but after flying closer I spotted it. An indent in the ground surrounded by spikes of snow “how odd”. Looking around I don’t see any chests. Digging under it, careful not to disturb the delicate snowy structure. Nothing under it. So, either it's just a curiosity or I can't use it without a prerequisite. Either way, il leave it for the next person to enjoy.

Before I go; placing a sign next to it I mention how I had no idea what it is. Wishing them luck on figuring it out I sign my name at the bottom.

Seeing the structure marked Goodluck apparently because shortly thereafter I find something wonderful. Sheep, finding a heard of around 20. I approach them; they just continue to graze with no fear at all. Placing down a Telepad I start moving them to my island using my golden lassos. Moving the whole herd onto my island. Taking the time to fence a portion of my island for them to roam in. Don’t want them wandering off the side of the island or into my castle. Most of them are white, 1 grey and 1 black. Clearly, the natural selection made white priority here.

After appreciating my cattle, I head back to the snowy environment. I leave the telepad in case I ever want to come back here again. I head in a different direction now, further down the mountain. I am in a very good mood ‘dancing through the sky’. I finally have a source of protein and milk. I would prefer cow's milk but beggars can't be choosers. I should hunt some honey down. Not today as I am in a bad biome for it. I should track a local hive down and make an apiary.

At least it's free compared to the hundreds of pounds back home. I could potentially complete the mods involving bees. I never completed them previously, to time consuming and tedious.

It quickly started snowing, continuing to fly with confidence. Hoping my suit is as good as it seems, finally escaping the snow-caps of the mountain area. The weather quickly changes to sleet, then rain as I descend further. Finding myself in a spruce forest I carefully check the ground. After a while, I find a couple gardens of unknown types resulting in a large variety of vegetables. I also come across some wild berry bushes; uprooting the whole bush to take home. Keeping my eye out for other varieties of food but no luck.

Flying for a while I come across a medium-sized pond, slightly murky with light yellow alga growing on top. I spot a few frogs and a toad but nothing amazing.

Making a small wooden pier I pull out my fishing rod. You never know. Carefully throwing my hook into the nicest part of the pond I start to relax. Tension from the adventure draining away. Sometimes it's nice just to relax. Looking into the pond carefully I can see movement, so I am hopeful.

‘peacefully enjoying the quiet pond’ Only noise being small rustling from a couple insects and frogs.

After some time, I finally get a bite, clearly not by anything strong but I bring it in any way. Fighting the creature; I finally managed to exhaust it after a while. Bringing it to the surface I find a massive crayfish of some kind. The crustation is reminiscent of lobster. I will be eating well today. Collecting it quickly inside my golden lasso, I mentally mark this spot for crustation. Now I just hope it's not poisonous. I would be disappointed.

Feeling like that’s enough for today I concentrate on my necklace. A brief moment later I find myself on top of a snowy peak. Setting the location to home I teleport. Nausea I once got is lessened now, still getting a rush from the sensation of speed though.

Heading to my kitchen to start preparing dinner. Steamed vegetables with whatever this thing is. Preparing vegetables, carrots, potato, and leek. Large cuts steamed in a manual steamer.

Bringing water to the boil I take the creature and clean it. Scrubbing its shell, soaking it in water. Placing a small handful of salt into the water; setting the crustation down I take my chef knife. Piercing through the skull and down to destroy the brain. For ethical reasons before throwing it into the water. Taking the potatoes, I finish them in the over before taking the other vegetables, plating them up. Taking the creature out when the shell is a rich purple. I remove the head, placing it aside. Removing the tail and claws I set the rest of the creature aside.

Cracking the claws, I squeeze out the muscles before cutting the tail down the middle and cracking shell. The tail came right out. Lightly seasoning it I place it on the vegetables. Finding sling a stone's throw from the door I give it the extras before enjoying the meal.

It tasted mildly fishy but not too overpowering. I was never a big crustation fan but after living with so little it broadens your horizons a little. Finding Chic so I can give them some. Clearly appreciating it because I had to escape the spider as It tried to hug me with a body clearly not designed for such motions.

After finishing my meal, I head outside, enjoying the slightly warmer air. Winter is coming but that’s natural. Wandering over to my small fish pond I check to see how they are doing. Pleasantly surprised to find more silver scaled fish. The salmon is gone sadly. Now I have 2 sources of protein.

‘casting my gaze over the sheep’ at least they are eating well, the grass is spotty in places already. Feeding them some wheat in hopes they would reproduce didn’t work. But I will keep feeding them wheat hopefully to speed up the process. Once I know I have a steady source of animals I can start butchering them. The males have horns so gender is easy to spot. 3 to 1 female to males; I wonder why? Likely some kind of dominance thing I assume.

Checking my farm, it's going well. I should automate the crafting processes when I get a chance. Although it's not a big concern. Taking my flight suit I work on my castle for a short while, cleaning up some edges, using a chisel to round out some corners. Making it less blocky. Nothing large but small things. I also chisel into the sides and start cutting decorations into the stone.

Finishing my diary for the day I consider what I should do tomorrow, night is approaching after all. Maybe some magic practice. Well, we will see tomorrow, won't we?