13

Chapter 13 All Aboard

Frustrated I return to my base. Screw the frozen area. I'll try again when I'm in a better mood and have time to actually waste.

Once back I don't waste any time in setting up farms for crystal bamboo and chorus trees. I'm really glad I test it out there too. It turns out the chorus trees still have silverfish infesting them. Testing them doesn't give me a way to stop it either.

Silverfish just seem to randomly spawn from chorus trees. Worse, they can infest stone blocks and spawn from them as well. They're more aggressive than in the game. If they ever get out I can easily see them devastating enormous sections of the world.

At least they can't climb. Growing the trees in endstone lined pits seem to work well enough for now. It's not like I'm going to need enormous amounts of them. I'm just happy I can finally build Gates!

I actually assemble my first one back on Lorassyon just so I can actually see how far it reaches. I measure and estimate that it covers five thousand blocks. It seems like a random number. Not really sure why it's that amount.

I also can't seem to alter the destination at all. It sends me exactly five kilometers forward unless I would appear inside something solid. Than it stops short. Even out to sea works. I just appear in the air.

I can alter it slightly as long as I build a second portal and link them. There is only a hundred meter leeway though and the linking is permanent. All the conditions seem really arbitrary.

Still. Teleportation no matter how conditional will be invaluable to my plans.

Crystal bamboo is almost better than the chorus trees. It's the most versatile plant I've encountered so far according to my powers. If I had this back when I was first starting I would be much further along. Well, it would have given me a head start at least.

The plant can be used in both mature and immature stages. It's fully grown when it reaches twenty feet. If it's harvested at any point before then it counts as immature. Young shoots don't drop seeds but can be processed to yield string or sugar. They can also be eaten or used as livestock feed.

It was when they were full grown that they proved so amazing. When the bamboo was fully grown the sap, in a process that was basically magic, hardened into something like glass. The stalks could then be smelted for the glass, somehow processed for paper or just substituted for sticks.

None of that was really special to me now since I've established myself. Which was why it was almost better. It would have been amazing to have much earlier. Still a renewable source of glass and sugar can always come in useful.

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The whole time I experimented with my new plants I kept an eye on the Exit portal. I have no intention of being caught by surprise. Not that I should be since I made sure to smash one of the crystals. The dragon shouldn't show without all four crystals.

Like I hoped the one I smashed is growing at the same rate as before. I estimate a crystal, from start to finish, will take about two months to grow. Leaving the dimension confirmed it. Eight days in the overworld later and a new dragon appeared in the End.

It was much easier this time. I only waited a week so had several days to prepare. I made sure to keep the island clear of enderman. Not easy when they can stand on the water and seem to be drawn there.

I flooded the island with troops. A thousand spider jockeys roamed the island, all waiting for my command. I had TNT rigged to collapse the towers after they spawned and endstone bunkers scattered around. I didn't have a windlance still, but I did set up a dozen arrow storm turrets.

Honestly it felt like overkill. I would have been too if I hadn't been attacked right in the middle of the fight.

The crystals finished growing on time. As close as I can tell exactly sixty four days in total. Right away pillars of light fell from the sky onto the land where the obsidian pillars stood. The light made it very obvious when the pillars rose from the ground.

The crystals I placed all shattered and the exit portal is replaced with a pillar of fire. That... wasn't in the game. I hate when things change. I hear the roar of a dragon and see beams of energy from all of the pillars so I hope it's working.

Abruptly the fire cuts off and there's an ender dragon perched on top of the portal.

"First Wave!" The spider jockeys waiting for the command rush up the pillars, intent on destroying the crystals. I have two more waves just in case, but the dragon seems to be ignoring them.

I almost attack when it crouches oddly and does something surprising. It lays an egg. What the hell? Does it do this if there isn't an egg there?

While I'm thinking it finished and takes off. It scorches the pillars, but it's too late. Without any end crystals to worry about I give the order for everything to attack. My second wave climbs up to give themselves vantage points and everything on the ground fills the air with arrows.

I watch my plan unfold perfectly. At this rate I won't even have to join. And the dragon makes a pass. That's a lot of dead skeletons. Why can't they scatter? Stupid simple minions.

And that's when my plan fell apart. Three ships pull up. Some of the largest I've seen and each one packed with soldiers. Well, if soldiers meant viking berserkers. Screaming, barely armored men charging strait into battle. No plan, no formations. Idiots.

At least these men had some armor. I might even admire it if it wasn't made from wood. I recognized the materials, the armor was made from crystal bamboo. It's ironic that warriors who act like vikings seem to be armored like samurai.

The armor is very pretty I'll grant you. Not like that should matter. Judging by the way they move it's also very light, but in the face of the dragon seems pretty pointless. Maybe it helps against endermen?

And of course I can't forget about their magic. Still not sure how it works but rows of spikes extend from a few of them. A few of them even use elytra to land in the middle of a group of skeletons before causing skeletal jaws to burst from the ground.

They're attack came at the worst time. My skeletons aren't smart enough to fight two enemies at the same time. Their armor is good enough that the archers can't just mowing them down. Instead of supporting my rapidly dwindling supply of skeletons I have to use my turret against this new enemy.

Sure their armor is good enough to stop an arrow or two. A stream of arrows lets me cut down a whole swath of them. And since they're vikings, they all charge me. A dozen or so in the lead are suddenly covered in spectral scales so shelter the rest from my arrows.

I keep shooting until they get close. Then I put up a wall and drop a pallet of TNT before retreating. I sprint to the next turret even the explosion wipes out my closest pursuers. At least that part works. I swing behind the next turret and resume firing.

They're using shields now. I'm impressed, I didn't think they were capable of any kind of tactics. It's crude, but still recognizable as a shield wall. Worse some of them are putting up walls made of woven bones. My arrows can eventually chew through them, but it lets them take cover.

I pull out one of my special turrets and proceed to set everything on fire. It was intended for a naval battle, but this seems desperate enough to justify. Fire charges blanket the island, especially where they're standing. I'd normally hesitate, but the dragon hadn't been idle. I don't really have any troops left to worry about.

With the island burning I take off. Using a rocket I jet over to the ships. After the mess they made there was no way I was going to let any of them survive.

Working on a theory I cut free and store the dragon skull from each ship. Just in case I also use TNT to put a hole in the side of each ship and then collapse the masts. No use taking chances.

Not sure if it was my efforts or not, but none of the ships attempted to leave. Between the dragon and the fires everyone died. At least I assume so. I know I wasn't bothered by anyone while I was building golems.

Afterwards it was fine. The golems didn't do much more than distract it, but that's all I needed. The dragon preferred them since I bunkered down in an endstone hut. From there I used a turret to whittle down it's health.

Then I had to clear out the ships. Of course they weren't all nice enough to all die. Inconsiderate bastards. They had taken shelter in the remains of their ships. At least my sabotage kept them from escaping.

When I send my troops in I keep careful watch, but it seems it was unnecessary. None of the survivors used any magic. Not sure why, but at least it meant my golems had an easy time of it.

When it was finally over I really wanted a drink. Gods that was horrible. I really hope I'm not going to keep having problems with the natives.

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Salvaging the ships is pretty straight forward. I just tore it apart and stored everything. Their lack of variety in materials made it pretty easy. The only thing of note I discovered was an enchanted chair.

Seems like I was right about the skulls. The chair lets me see through the skull's eyes and control the ship like my boats. Simple, easy and apparently beyond my ability to recreate. Well, without access to Osteomancy. Which seems aptly named from what I've seen.

At least it lets me know they do have their own branch of magic. More than enough reason to not wipe them all out. At least until after I get a chance to learn it.

What I could do though was make use of that I stole. It was simple to built a ship and set up a skull and control chair in it. Testing out various ship builds takes quite a bit of time since I have to keep building and tearing apart the ship.

Using the chair is an odd sensation. It's like playing a video game in a way. You can see what the skull sees, but it's like a screen set across the room. Clear, easy to make out, but also lets you keep track of what else is in the room. Well, as long as you don't get distracted. And of course if all of this is internal.

Of course the skull had limits on what it could propel. It didn't help I had to conduct the tests twice. Obsidian isn't exactly a buoyant material in the overworld. I couldn't assume anything would work the same.

When I finally finished my testing I secure my base in the End and leave. I don't intent to return for quite a while.

Then I build myself a ship in the overworld. I build as heavy a ship as possible crossing the designs of a carrack with a whaling vessel. I wanted something as close to unsinkable as possible. It had a hull several feet thick so it sat fairly low in the water. Combined with the lack of a mast and it had a very small profile for it's size.

Of course I don't just rely on normal materials. I set up several wardstones and runes throughout the ship. Fire resistant, protection, unbreakable, mending I stack as many enchantments as I can fit in the hull. I just regret not having any iron wood yet. Hopefully one of the merchant families will come through soon.

The ship was enormous for a wooden vessel, sitting at sixty meters long and twenty across. Almost every ship I've seen here was only half that. Even with the thick hull and internal supports I had a ridiculous amount of space.

I set aside the area under the poop deck for myself. I ended up an enormous suite, a crafting area, a storage area, as well as a tiny barracks. The barracks only housed a few dozen golems, but they were more to protect the control chair than the rest of the ship.

The cargo hold normally would take up the bottom deck or two. Mine barely spanned a few rooms worth of space. Instead the rest of the bottom deck was filled with an elaborate farm. Aside from the lack of spawners my ship was just as self sufficient as any of my waypoints. I can even generate wood by growing trees on the top deck.

It was when I was arming my ship that I felt regret. The Windlance would have been perfect for naval warfare. Any siege weapon really. I have a few arrow storm turrets, but that's not nearly enough to sink a ship.

Of course I carry a dispenser filled with fire charges and dynamite arrows, but I don't want the defense to rely on my presence. Hopefully the troops will be enough.

My top deck was a dedicated barracks contain an army of undead to repel boarders. My undead troops are all outfitted with armor and weapons. They're also wearing the same two layers of armor I am. Except of course they it's made from plain steel. No way am I going to bother making that much Valyrian steel. Not that they really need it. With how thick their armor was they should be more than capable of holding off an army by themselves.

They all look pretty bizarre since they're also wearing jack o'lanterns as well. Stupid weakness to sunlight. I'm using a mixture of skeleton archers and mummies for my army. It's not like speed matters much when confined to a ship.

Originally I wanted baby zombies, I could have packed so many more inside my hull compared to anything else. However even as callous as I am, sacrificing actual babies is a bit much. Even the thousand troops I do create take forever to equip.

I've only used a fraction of the space, but it was way too tedious to keep assembling them. If I wanted tedium I would just have settled down somewhere was a merchant prince or craftsman.

My ship might just be too big. I feel like I have an entire island and no idea what to do with most of it. My barracks were intended to fill an entire floor and are only a third full. Now I have three more decks and no idea what to do with them.

In the end I use the space to create a fabric farm. Artificial pasture for sheep, an extra tall area for crystal bamboo and a heavily fortified spider farm. I don't like risking one of my spawners, but I'm going to need the silk.

Sailing is slow. The trip is going to weeks or even months and I refuse to waste that time. No one has experience with airships so there isn't any point waiting to experiment with them.