The climb to the surface was difficult, not because I got tired, but because each step of the climb was 1 block high, so I had to lift my leg a meter in the air to climb another step, the first thing I would do when I got back would be to mine 2 more blocks high and place cobblestone stairs to make the trip easier.
Once at the top I finished changing the cave walls to stone and built a temporary block ladder and climbed up to the surface.
The forest was as I remembered it, maybe a little quieter, it seemed that the last 2 days of endless hordes of zombies had mesmerized the native beast population, at least within an area around me, although I don't know how big it is, it made survival much easier, as most of the mobs would kill the native beasts during the night and die during the day, making the area much safer for me.
A quick glance at my map told me there were no creepers nearby, thankfully, but there were a couple of spiders resting in the sun, when I went over to look, still on guard and with sword raised, they just ignored me and continued to lay there resting and basking in the sun.
In the game the spiders became peaceful during the day if they received sunlight, and they weren't very scary, basically they were a rectangle with 6 tubes coming out of them, but in real life they were much scarier, they were a block in diameter and looked quite ferocious, like the man hunting spiders of earth.
On the one hand I thought about killing them, the thread would be useful to make wool and a bed, but on the other hand they looked fucking scary and I had not yet seen how realistic combat would be in this new world, nor how effective my sword would be against them, so I decided to leave the combat test for something simpler, a zombie should be the ideal candidate, but until that happens there is still a long day.
The first thing I do is to go around the perimeter around the hole where I went out, the last time I cleaned the trees that had fallen by the fight of the monsters, but it seemed that some others had fallen again, I took them out quickly with the axe and hitting the smaller branches made them became saplings in my inventory.
Curiously the name of the object was just a sapling, it didn't say which specific tree it was from, the same happened with the logs and planks, they behaved just like the normal wood in the game, but they didn't have their own name, they were just wood.
When I finished with the wood I made a stone pillar of 4 blocks wide and I went up while I was building, until I exceeded the height of the trees and continued climbing a little more.
The forest from the top was so lush and full of trees that I could barely see scattered patches of ground, behind me I could see a large mountain in the distance, and in a small flat patch on the side halfway to the top I could see some smoke flying through the sky, whether it was a natural fire or a human construction was something I did not care to discover for the moment.
Apart from the mountain I couldn't see anything else that stood out from the forest, it seemed that everything interesting, if there was anything, was hidden by the trees, I would have to make a trip on foot if I wanted to find something more interesting than the leaves.
Breaking the pillar I had made I returned to the ground, where I began to clear the area around the entrance to my house of trees and bushes, then I took the 12 stone stacks I had just from making the 2x2 descent to 200 meters deep and placed them at a distance of 20 blocks on each side of the entrance to the cave, I made a wall 4 blocks high but only 1 block thick, I hoped that not seeing what was inside would deter the monsters from trying to enter rather than relying on the thickness of the wall to stop them.
When I finished the wall I had little more than a stack of stone left, I made a small ladder of blocks attached to the wall to climb up to see over the wall and I saw that it was already starting to get dark.
I set up a crafting table near the entrance to the cave and made 6 wooden doors, placed 2 on the outside wall, so that I had a way in and out, and then set about fixing the entrance to my house, which was simply a 1 block wide climb.
First I expanded the climb to 2 blocks wide, and then I covered it with real cobblestone stairs, luckily it wasn't a huge climb or I would feel very tired of having to craft hundreds of stairs, on the other hand the descent that goes down to my house in the depths would have to stay as it is at least for a while.
When the stairs were ready I built a small shed around them and raised it 1 block off the ground, that way when it rained the rain would have to flood 1 whole block inside my walls before I could enter the cave.
I put another pair of stairs to go back down from the roofed shed and then I put 2 wooden doors, the last 2 would go to the entrance of my subterranean house, just in front of the stairs going up.
When I finished caging the entrance to my house and walling the surroundings it was already starting to get dark, and considering that my walls are 44 blocks long and wide I made a few torches to illuminate the inside, to prevent monsters from appearing, that would make the construction of the wall completely useless.
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While waiting for it to become completely dark, I used the stone shovel to remove the soil and place it again so that it would stay firm while I walked and be leveled at the same height, I felt happier walking on soil that I placed myself, and it was more comfortable that it was perfectly levelled.
I couldn't get much out either, the stone shovel has a durability of 130 after all, but I could do the area around the stairs and it would be enough for now.
By the time the stone shovel was broken I could already hear outside the walls as there was a myriad of mobs.
Climbing up the wall I could see that there were zombies roaming around the forest, and in the distance I could see a couple of skeletons too, luckily they didn't see me, as I only had my eyes above the wall, the rest of my body was leaning on the side ladder and only my head was sticking out above the wall.
I could see a zombie near the door hovering and he seemed to be relatively alone, the rest were more scattered around the trees, so I climbed down from the wall and went to the door, I made sure there were no other zombies nearby and opened the door slowly, luckily it seemed that the slamming sound that a door normally makes didn't happen this time, maybe because of how slowly it moved.
Peeking my head out I could see the zombie about 5 blocks from the door, and with a "pts pts pts pts" I got his attention and he turned to look at me.
Slowly he started walking towards me, and I backed further into the walls, when the zombie passed through the door I let him advance a few more blocks and then ran around him, I passed him by the side several blocks away, there was no need to get close yet, and I closed the door again, placed 4 blocks of stone in front of the door to be safer and then focused my attention on the zombie.
It was walking towards me slowly, and it looked like a normal person, only rotten and green, it was missing some pieces here and there, but I didn't doubt its strength, in the game a zombie could easily kill a player if I wasn't careful, and I didn't know at what difficulty the real world was considered.
It could easily take out half my life in one hit, or it could corner me against a wall and slowly kill me, in the game zombies weren't capable of grabbing you, but in the real world I wasn't willing to test whether or not they were capable of restraining me and slowly eating me.
I wasn't willing to let him lay a finger on me, if by any chance he was stronger than me and threw me to the ground it was game over, so first I kept my distance from him, I watched as he moved towards me and observed him carefully, he was slow, slower than me walking, but not slow enough to give me confidence to kill him, I had no experience handling a sword, and I didn't know how effective it would be, so I started to circle around the zombie, it seemed that it was harder for him to turn than to advance, I approached until I was a block away from him and started to run around him, when I reached his back I advanced before he could turn around and I gave him a sword in the head from above, the blow disoriented him a little and he staggered, I took the time to give him another cut in the neck and move away before he turned completely around.
Now with more distance I could see him again and I didn't like what I saw, his wounds disappeared in seconds, but I was sure they were not immortal, I had seen a lot of rotten flesh lying on the ground the first day I found the dead panther, she had killed a few, so they were not immortal, I repeated the process of running up to his back and hitting him and with the fourth blow the zombie disappeared, he turned into white smoke shortly after falling to the ground, and in his place was some zombie flesh and some experience.
Picking up the experience was weird, as I approached it flew into my body, and if I concentrated I could feel it inside me, like a cloud in the void.
Looking at the place where the zombie was I started to consider the fight, it was obvious that he was cured the first 2 hits I gave him, but the third could not heal and the fourth hit he died, that gave me something to think about, my theory was that the zombie had a life bar like me, which technically was like a shield or a regeneration bar, when the zombie was hurt it reduced the hearts in its bar to heal its physical body, and zombies in the game had 10 hearts, with an iron sword you could kill a zombie in 3 hits, so what I think happened is that it took me 3 hits to wipe out the zombie's health bar, and that's when its body started to behave like a normal body, and a sword to the head was enough to kill it.
That was interesting, but bad news at the same time, it meant that all the mobs would fight 100% even if I cut off an arm for example, there was no way I could weaken an enemy to kill it more easily later, it was unfortunate, but there were ways to overcome the problem, I only needed a bow, and I could farm mobs in the safety of my walls, and go out to collect the materials later.
But that was a future that was still far off, I needed thread first, which meant a fight with a spider, which was a bit scary if I was honest.
With the zombie dead there was no need to stay out, no need to keep fighting, I had already learned how combat worked, at least in some extent, and there was nothing to gain from staying out killing zombies all night, the most I could get was rotten meat, and maybe some iron or potatoes, but I wasn't interested at the moment, I'd rather have all the armor before I started killing real mobs.
I climbed back up the wall and peeked my head over, I could see zombies and the occasional skeleton wandering around the forest, and on my map I could see that there was a creeper nearby.
It took me 15 minutes to notice him, even if I looked directly where it told me he was, and the only reason I noticed him is that he moved, I tried to look for him in the brush, but it turned out he was the brush, a big bush just got up and started walking a bit, he stopped next to a tree and sat down again, camouflaging himself with the environment.
I would have to be more careful when I left the safety of my walls, always watching the map, because I didn't think I would be able to detect them among all the other plants around.
I sat on the wall for another hour, until I decided that it was enough and went back down to my cave.
Once I was down I placed the two remaining doors and covered them with stone just in case, then I lay down on the floor and in a short time I was sleeping peacefully.