Our return trip up the mountain actually did have a little excitement. Part of the way up, we ran into a lizard. Between me and Zaka, we killed it pretty quickly. Then he asked Zeb and I to wait there with it, while him and the other goblin went back to the village to get some people to harvest it and bring it back to the village. Thankfully, we were less than a third of the way up the mountain, so it only delayed our travel a few hours. The delay did cause Zaka and the other goblin to end up staying the night up on the mountain.
As far as things on the mountain are concerned, the water collection pool on the terrace seemed to work well, so we have plenty of water up here now. One thing I want to check is the efficacy of the concentrated bark water now that it's sat for a few months. We're also going to need a very large amount of charcoal in the coming months, so I'm inclined to start chopping a bunch of trees down along the path down the mountain we're planning on building. Outside of the melting and carrying of the crystal material down to the apparatuses down in the crystal lab, we actually both don't need to be down there while we wait for the crystals to cool or to apply them to the apparatus, so I have a few projects that Zeb can start working on in that time.
The first is the path and cart system outside. While I would like to use a double system of carts, the rope we have available to us made from natural fibers would decay too fast due to exposure to the elements. So instead, we'll just use a single system for carts, with the carts themselves resting at the lower position on the track. We'll still install a winch at the top of the track to help pull carts up and down if they're too heavy, but the rope will have to be brought along to use.
The second thing I'd like to do is start some exploratory mineshafts in the cavern. The main purpose of these will be to use tectonic sense to find new materials, and hopefully, more crystal bubbles. Depending on how big these crystals need to get to be brought out into the sun, it's going to take a lot of crystal material, and I don't like the idea of using the bigger crystals for it if I can avoid it. This will also give us yet another source of stone for the stair and cart system.
As for what I can do while I wait for the crystal material to cool, I can either separate lightstone, expand the crystal waste storage, or process more of the metal ore. I'm inclined to work on lightstone as much as possible though, since it isn't just visually lighter, but it is less dense, so building the carts out of it would be useful. I'll also need even more of it for the larger crystal apparatus. The one after that as well, and so on.
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The test with the crystal in the aged bark water had mixed results. From my records, it seems to have lost about 25% of its mana conductivity, which for a few months isn't bad. If we can't replace the water in that amount of time, then at least it's not worthless. We also checked the crystal, and it seems to hold the same charge as before. The next step is making a container large enough and thick enough to attempt to move it to the surface. We're going to start having an issue with crystal waste soon though if they don't survive at this size. I'm not sure we can move a container large enough for crystals any larger than this one.
That said, the thing we're concerned about losing is the mystery gas, not as much the crystal material. We have plenty of solid crystal material stored down in the waste room. Thinking about it that way, we should actually move the crystal further down so that it doesn't charge much. The crystals don't seem to break until they're full, or maybe overcharged, so if we can actually get the crystal far enough, then we could make a large vacuum chamber on the surface. If we could maneuver the crystal into a large chamber on the surface before it breaks, then we can at least recover the gas. What a pain to work through. Hopefully it won't come to that.
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I'll get this crystal's container prepared, and then we'll test this one to determine if we need to go through all that hassle.
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After three days of work, I've got the container made around the crystal, alongside having run a trial with an empty container with extra weight in it to make sure that Zeb and I could haul it to the surface using the carts. Today, we're going to attempt to bring it to the surface.
Once all the checks are done and we've drained the crystal, Zeb and I start hauling the crystal up to the surface. Along the way I keep checking with tectonic sense to see if it has broken or not. We actually get the cart all the way to the point where the exit to the cave is a mere minute away before I can tell the crystal has broken, although it is taking a while to actually disintegrate. I decide we should take the cart back down to the apparatuses, and drain the gas into them, rather than melting the crystal material first.
As much as I'd like to build a large furnace down here to melt crystal down, I'm a little too worried about oxygen usage to burn a furnace for hours down here every day. With the carts though, we can probably heat and transport eight containers instead of four at a time. Then the crystals will almost be cool enough to use when we arrive. It'll speed up the crystal work, but give me less down time individually.
Since I'm going to be working on this for awhile, I'll spend a day or two getting Zeb set up with the plans for both the exploratory mineshafts and the stairs outside. I'll make him a stone level, like I used with water, except it'll have a line in it with a slope to make all the stairs and mineshafts at. I'm aiming for a seven an a half degree grade. I'll notch an approximate 30 and 60 degree, then halve the 30, and halve it again to get to that point. It won't be perfect, but approximate should be good enough here. That grade is plenty shallow to hopefully prevent accidents, but steep enough the cart will roll under its own weight. Then he can just use the tool to easily keep a regular slope.
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Well, Zaka returns tomorrow, and I've just managed to regrow a crystal back to the size of the previous one. We've gone through a lot of charcoal in that time, so it was a good call in cutting trees down from the path down the mountain that we needed cleared anyway. The charcoal we had from before lasted until the first few trees started falling from our cutting process.
Zeb and I have been splitting these trees for levels between us. Between the trees I cut before while working on the dam, and these ones, I'm all the way up to level 36. It isn't that high considering the amount of time it's been compared to when I was an imp, but on the other hand, if it weren't for all the trees I've been cutting down, I probably wouldn't have gained this many levels either.
Level: 36
HP: 1514/1514
MP: 626/626
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike
As for Zeb, he's also been gaining some levels, but it isn't all that fast either. Plus he didn't cut all those trees down near the village either.
Level: 58
HP: 760/760
MP: 139/139
Traits: Mimicry
Magic: Stone Shaping
I've been keeping up on taking intermediate notes on previous levels as well, and it's getting quite comprehensive. After Zeb prestiges once or twice more, I think I'll start to have a better understanding of the basis for how this whole system works out. Of course, I'd like to have even more goblins' values for things, but that sounds like quite the pain to try to find out for now, especially with the projects I'd rather be working on right in front of me.
The current maximum crystal apparatus size is for growing two foot tall crystals. The next size I'm going to try to build is for four foot crystals. It's quite the jump, but given how much time is lost regrowing a crystal from scratch when it breaks, I'd rather jump up quite a bit and trim it backwards rather than go through multiple intermediate steps. This apparatus alone is going to take quite a few days to build, and then I still need to build the extra large vacuum chamber on the surface to put the crystal in for recovering its gasses if it breaks.