This was miserable.
No matter how safe this "Celestial Forge" may be, trying to sleep on a solid concrete floor was absolutely miserable. The PDA had blueprints for a bed, but no fabricator. So while the place seemed to do its best to make me comfortable with the perfect air, it was of little use. Gradually though, I went to sleep.
I found myself in a black void. The place was truly a sight, with wispy purple clouds floating about. The void was inhabited by countless stars of varying colors and sizes.
"What is this place?"
As I turned around, I saw a great billowing apparition in the distance. The massive shape was like that of an anvil. The anvil was massive on an uncomprehensive scale but was coated in rust and damage. Yet, the mass of rust had a small patch where gleaming silver metal shined through with bright light. As I looked more closely, the region had a bright golden layer of flames eating away the rust.
Producing the flame was a long glowing thread feeding from four stars, all of which seemed to have connected in a glowing array of chains. As I got closer, I felt a deeper connection of sorts. Three of them were closely intertwined with one another and had a sterile and clean feeling to them. It did not take long for me to realize this was the link I held with the subnautica tools. The last one was gray star and had a very old but lively feel to it. It also had actual thought and consciousness to it. It was safe to say I found the local friendly neighborhood elf. Yet, I heard a rumbling noise. Suddenly, I watched the golden chains reach and grab four more stars with a flash of silver.
For a moment, I thought it was over when a woman in green appeared. Her shirt was light green, were tucked in brown work trousers and black boots. Her hair was a soft orange and eyes a verdant shade of green. In one hand was a pickaxe with a crystalline blue head. In her other hand, she held a strange glass globe filled with a sliver liquid. Her appearance suddenly hit me, especially the pickaxe.
"Alex?"
She closed her eyes and gave a serene smile, before she threw the glass container at my face. I covered my eyes, but the glass shattered harmlessly as her concoction covered my body. My mind felt a violent jolt as a deluge of information invaded my head.
It was like having a life flash before your eyes that was not yours. Innumerable years of studying the deepest and unknown secrets of Overworld, the meticulous study of alchemy, and the coveted magics that lie sleeping within both the nether and the overworld. This went beyond the recipes of the game, many other concoctions existed for effects that were not normally available. I
t was strange to see a world once thought as a pixel game in this light, but it was enlightening in the extreme.
I finally awoke, feeling surprising well rested in spite of the horrid floor. Yet, I felt a certain weakness in my body.
"Awake finally?"
Deliah stood over by the door as she gazed softly on me. She had her mask off, enjoying her time without a cover. Her piercing silver eyes reminded me of a wolf.
"Yeah, I think I understand this place a little more."
"Good, we had another addition as you slept."
She pointed over to the corner opposite to the crates to a door. The new door was a rustic farm door, identical to the spruce door in Minecraft.
"I haven't explored it yet, as I figured you would recognize it and know if it is dangerous."
"The door is from a video game called Minecraft. I felt a connection to it while I slept."
I walked over to it with Deliah quickly coming to my left and I opened the door.
I was greeted by a very homey room. Unlike many video games and the edgy labs, this was a Minecraft lab. The room had a golden mass of a glowing rock incased in beautiful wooden frames as a light. An actual brewing stand stood over in the corner, its blaze rod occasionally giving off a streak of light. A dark wooden shelf sat next to it, with various jars filled with different ingredients. A metal cauldron sat in the opposite corner, waiting for use. Next to it was a pool of water, presumably an infinite water source. One of the walls held a reddish fungus growing out of a disturbing brown sand. Nether Wart no doubt. The opposite wall to that one held something wonderful.
A bed.
A small bed, but an actual bed nonetheless. The bright green covers looking extremely inviting alongside the soft white pillow. A bookcase sat alongside it, the spines listing different topics on acquiring alchemical ingredients.
"What do know of this place?"
"The connection I received last night was on this world's alchemy and magic. Nothing that lets me shoot fire balls, but extremely useful stuff. Most importantly, a new source of resources."
"New source of resources?"
"Yes, part of the knowledge I received showed me how to create a portal to a realm called the nether. It's extremely dangerous, but the stuff we could get would be tremendous. Some of the potions we could brew would be of serious use."
Deliah looked skeptical. I didn't blame her.
"But a lot of this stuff requires obsidian to work."
That's the snag. Can we find any volcanoes around? Every power I get revolves around finding a particular resource."
That's when the PDA pitched in unexpectedly.
"Scans indicate large amounts of igneous rock in the river. It is likely that volcanic minerals can be found with proper travel up the river. Additionally, calorie intake is recommended."
That is my cue.
"Are you up for the trip Deliah?"
"I'd be more concerned about your own physical state. It is you who has a more dire need for food and water."
"What else are we supposed to do?"
"I'll use that scanner of yours's and I will find something for you to eat. I have the energy to move about. You do not. Perhaps you should try experimenting with those potions. Maybe you can find a way to obtain something useful."
"You're probably right."
She picked up the scanner off the floor where I sat it.
"Farewell, don't do anything rash."
With that, she left the Celestial Forge.
Looking back on it, I probably should have had the scanner run everything here. I decided to just relax for a good while on the bed and think.
Alongside, the standard potion effects, pretty much every effect to exist in the game is now possible. The only one not to be included was Bad Omen, and that was not even a true potion effect. Moreover, these potions were once limited in duration and intensity. This no longer seems to apply provided you have the ingredients. Each time you amplify, the cost triples. I could very much create a Potion of Harming V if I wanted to, or a Potion of Night Vision that last several hours assuming I paid the increased cost.
Also, enchanting is possible as well. Assuming I do something of some sort of note, such as processing ore or ending a life, I can acquire experience from this. This experience, like in the game, can be used to use to enchant items.
This also suffers few limitations now. Unlike the game, the enchanting process can controlled much more. Instead of rolling a dice, it is more akin to forcing your will onto the object. With proper practice, you can even push enchantments past what is possible in the game. I'm kind of curious how the enchants will affect more advanced armor and weapons.
This place also offered many other things. The infinite water source could be used for drinking. The cauldron could be used to boil water for safe drinking as well as cooking. The soulsand from the netherwart farm could be used for an eternal flame. The glistening melon might retain seeds since it is translated into real life.
That's not mentioning the nether.
The nether would extremely useful. Aside from an infinite supply of gold and brewing ingredients, the scanner would pick who knows how much up there. They never went into advanced mineralogy in Minecraft, but a lot of mods drew conclusions on all the materials there. Nether quartz was often used in a lot of computers in mods and may have who knows how many uses.
I can't help but wonder how the soul sand translates into Warhammer40k. This stuff could make or break us.
Soul sand is obviously filled with souls, if the faces of exhaustion and horror peering at you was not an indication. I have no clue how those souls interact with the warp. Will those be souls by the standards of Warhammer? If they are, then taking this stuff out of the Celestial Forge will be disastrous. It would be like taking raw and bloody meat in front of a tiger. You'd be begging for a daemon incursion.
That's casually ignoring that I'm currently staring at the faces of the damned in the nether wart farm.
It was truly surreal.
After lounging about, I decided to try Minecraft alchemy. They failed to go into how hard this actually is.
First, I had to mash up netherwart into a pulp. The stuff was absolutely disgusting and felt like a terrible mixture of hard and slimy. It took me a lot of work to ring it down to a usable form. Curse Alex and her ability to lift dozens of Eiffel Towers worth of weight.
After that, the substance was heated by the brewing stand until it liquefied. Since it followed the newer updates, the stand required blaze powder to function. Otherwise, the stand will run out of power and cool off. The powder itself was not pleasant to hold, feeling like burning hot sand at the beach.
After all of this, I placed sugar in the top and watched it melt into the awkward potion. Gradually, the bright dark blue potion became lighter while gaining a shimmer. After a brief time waiting for the distilling, the stand lost its heat as the process finished.
What used to be three glasses of water was now a light blue potion shimmering with a purple sheen. The bottles all shined with magical power, ready for use. I admit I was rather reluctant to test these things, but here goes nothing.
Grabbing a bottle, I took a sip.
It was a sweet flavor, with a vague floral background taste. More importantly, my perception shifted a little bit. My vision felt a bit more tunneled, and the world seemed to slow around me. Other than that, nothing was wrong, and I opted to finish the bottle.
My perception had definitely stretched by quite a bit and time seemed slowed down drastically. My body felt like it was half its weight, and like it had less friction in its movements. Walking out into the main lobby, I decided to sprint in a circle around the interior.
My speed was definitely increased. Either a 20% increase was stronger than I imagined, or the potion is a lot more potent in real life. I reckoned I could keep up with Deliah now.
Hours have gone by, and Deliah had still not come back. Now she is no prissy elf princess, and she could probably fight of a few of the less crazy things this universe has to offer. She is not stupid, so she'd evade anything exceedingly dangerous.
I'm beginning to worry, so I'll open the warehouse to see if I can find her. That, and I begin to get antsy from being cooped up all the time. My terror from my current setting has finally begun to fade. So I open the door... to be greeted by an angry Deliah dragging some scaly animal. It took me a few second to realize what had happened.
"You couldn't get back in, could you?"
"What do you think?"