Welcome to "The Diary of a Miner"; a blog detailing the adventures and mysteries that I, Syeonyx, embark upon in my quest to further my mining and survival skills! It'll be tough, there will be good times and bad times, but I'll always be alive to post my adventures... probably...

Day 111: Lucky break

     After everyone awoke from their slumber, we met in the discussion room to plan out the procedure for the day. Me, UOPETA and THEROS know that we're going to heading off to test the new stone, but I've decided it would be best to bring my diamond pickaxe along. Even if we find an inactive portal, there's no point in just leaving it. COLUS has accepted that getting to the last portal may prove troublesome. There is always the option of building a boat, but that would be incredibly time consuming. Then I remembered the boat I built! It had been a long time, and last time checked it was still under HoN Co. control, but I doubt it would have been moved! It was worth a shot, and it was practically on the way to the last portal site. I put the idea forward to COLUS and he seemed okay with the idea.

"You three will go out and destroy any and all portals that you find. I'll let you settle on how to to tackle the last portal site. You may need to acquire water transport, so, for times' sake, it may be worth looking for Syeonyx's old boat. If it's there, I would take it, but if it's not, at least it's not much time taken from the operation. Once all of the of the portals are destroyed, return here and we may have gained some progress with the tunnel. Once you have returned, you will go out to the tower, check on your progress and return again, hopefully with any materials you need. Depending on the situation, you may be drafted in to help us with the tunnel."

He went on to explain about the roles everyone else will be playing: OROTHO, himself and Amie will be planning out the entire operation. Calculating the direction, distance and orientation, whilst AMPHIS and THEXIS do what they would usually do, however they may be called in to begin the construction of the tunnel. That's if they get that far whilst we're gone. After we left, THEROS picked up the map from the library and we all went back to the lab to pick up the stone. The huge chunk with a hole in it now lay on the ground close to the glass wall of the Creeper chamber. As expected, the Creepers were hissing and spitting, cowering in the far corner. It got me thinking: how come the Creeper that had come through the portal wasn't scared of the stone? Maybe it couldn't detect it from the Nether-side of the portal... Maybe the proximity to the stone when it passed through was the reason it exploded in the first place... It didn't matter now; what's done is done, it can't be changed. We headed out towards the exit, hoping that the light would be low enough for us to remain undetected to any stragglers.

     From the base, we made our way to the east to the coast, and then followed it North East all the way to the portal location on the map. The journey was very long and arduous. We had the benefit of the light rising on our side, as well as the time. We would easily make it to the first portal before the end of the day, but from then on, it became more difficult. We would have to backtrack to a small island crossing, head South East to the far end of the crossing, then backtrack once more and head North West to the location on the far Northern side of the island. After that, it will be another long journey to the South East to the Southern end of the island. From there we can either head to the West to search for the boat that HoN Co. seized, or try and swim it once we get to the main body of water. Either way, when we get there, we may be going diving anywhere.

"Why did you leave the boat there? It's a valuable tools, especially in this type of terrain."

THEROS snapped me from my daydream. I explained that I didn't really have much of a choice; after returning from destroying a portal, I found a guard close to the boat and was forced to leave it behind before continuing back to my house. I think it was large enough to carry us all, but it had been awhile, and that was based on it still being there. After that small exchange, we were silent the rest of the way there. The journey was taking ages; the journey to the conducting tower from the base took long enough. The distance between the base and this portal was nearly twice as long! After just past the half way point, it began raining quite heavily, so getting wet was no longer an issue. The rain persisted all the way there! As we got close to the area, our surroundings become more arid, and the rain began to ease off. Up ahead, we could see the existence of a huge heat source; as the rain fell, small poofs of smoke would rise back into the air, and the area surrounding it was slightly lighter than the other areas. As we got closer, there was a definite change to the temperature of the surrounding air, and the rain seemed to almost cease entirely, aside from the occasional drop or two. Here it was. The lava pit on the map, and a large hole besides it... Odd... I don't remember seeing that hole there before when I last came across this pit...

     The hole that stood beside the lava pit was a danger for two reasons: 1. we didn't know if there were any guards, Creepers or undead down there, including any Affinitas cages, and 2.the pit of lava seemed to be directly positioned above the stairway that led down from the hole. We would have to be careful on approach, and to be extra careful, we were all ready with the blowpipes! We entered the hole one by one, and we were able to see a light source up ahead. Unlike the portals, it wasn't casting a usual purple light around. Instead it was bright yellow... Like a torch. Was there someone down here already? Carefully edging around the corner, we soon realised that the light source was due to a dangerously close lava flow heading down. The main pathway continued to curve around to the right, and we followed it to the end, where the familiar mossy cobblestone walls became visible. The moss extended along each surface of the wall, ceiling and floor, with oddly symmetrical waterfalls either side of it.

"Bingo!"

UOPETA stepped aside, and the before us was a secondary portal; lit up with torches and casting its own purple light around the chamber. THEROS slowly removed the new stone from the bag and held it in the palm of his hand.

"What happens if this doesn't work? What do we do then?"

"Nothing we can do. We'll just have to leave this on here... We don't have any other choice... Pass it here..."

THEROS hesitated for a moment, and then reached out and placed the stone into UOPETA's outstretched hand. UOPETA walked forward slowly and carefully, holding the stone a little way in front of him. Once he was within range, he placed the stone on the base of the portal, and cautiously stepped back.

"Fingers crossed everybody... Fingers crossed..."

We all stood in a line, watching it in the hope that it would begin to crumble. The wait was agonising; the silence was so deep that I couldn't even hear anyone breathing! Then, a few seconds after UOPETA had backed up towards us, the stone began to dim in colour until it disappeared, and the purple rift of the portal warped to the welcoming shade of sickly green. It was working! We watched in awe as the portal was ripped to shreds by the immense power shifts that were taking place, until the entire obsidian frame disappeared, and the rift slowly shrank into itself, plunging us all into darkness... There was silence for some time... No-one moved, or spoke...Then...

"Mission success!"

Syeonyx signing off

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