Greetings.
I am a man in a suit who has fallen into the world of Minecraft.
Here I am outside the south gate, wrapped in diamond armor.
Last time, I built a watermill and wheat fields.
Today I am leaving town to seek out an ancient city chest.
I want to open it. I am also rather afraid of opening it. A promising start to an underground outing…
Before departure: wool, Night Vision, and a flight to the forest
Let us step back a little, to the preparations before I leave.
The chest at the wool collector I built earlier holds 40 white wool and four gray wool.
I take wool from here and brew long-lasting Night Vision potions to pack as well.
The things I gradually build around town are helping me get ready for adventures. That is a pleasing thought.
I fly to the forest with my elytra.
There is soil beneath my feet and a tree trunk nearby: an ordinary scene above ground.
From here, I start digging a way down.
I dig a spiral staircase downward and continue into a narrow deepslate passage.
With my pickaxe in hand, I face a torch and more darkness beyond it.
Treasure is tempting, but having a way back matters too…
Approaching an ancient city chest, wool in hand
An ancient city!
With Night Vision in use, I look around from beside the chest at stone buildings and spreading sculk.
Lava runs down the cavern wall. This looks nothing like town.
It is beautiful, and yet I cannot quite relax.
Looking back down beside the same chest, there is white wool right next to it.
I connect the floor as I approach and put wool down too.
The soft block I normally use for building feels rather reassuring today.
Minecraft’s official sculk shrieker article describes using wool to block the transmission of vibrations.
That does not mean placing wool makes every situation safe.
I am staying cautious here as well.
There I stand with wool in hand, a sculk shrieker right beside the chest.
With lava behind me too, I feel as though I might be the one to freeze in place. Ha.
No getting greedy: today, I am opening just this one chest.
I ease it open… and there are several potions inside!
What I bring home this time is six Potions of Regeneration II, one pair of iron leggings, two leads, and 12 sculk blocks.
The leggings have Curse of Binding, so I resist the urge to put them straight on.
But… there are no disc fragments, which I had been hoping for.
There will be no crafting a music disc today. I take the contents home instead.
There are places I have not explored, but this is where I turn back toward town.
Back into daylight, then storing the loot in town
Up from underground and back into the forest!
The blue sky between the trees is a relief.
It is the same forest, but it feels much brighter than before I went down.
I fly back to town with my elytra and put what I brought home into a storehouse chest.
Six Regeneration potions lined up make a satisfying haul from a single chest.
The green Night Vision potions still in my inventory are supplies I prepared myself.
Those are separate from my ancient city souvenirs.
This is me when I arrived back outside the south gate.
Seeing myself among the town’s trees and buildings, even the air seems different from underground.
Only one treasure chest, but getting home and putting things away is part of the adventure too.
Finding everything I want is not a promise treasure hunting makes.
Next time I head out, I want to remember both the preparations and when to turn back.
That is all for this time.
Greetings.