Triple Life [3rd Life SMP]

3. Meetup

As it turned out, the ravine Grian spotted wasn't very long at all, but it went incredibly deep. Grian whistled as he leaned over the edge. He could see lava and deepslate way down there. It looked like one side of the ravine opened into a larger cave system, but he was nowhere near prepared enough to go down there.

He instead glided down to a ledge and mined a vein of coal ore, wanting it for torches and to feed his furnace and campfire back home. Once he cleared out the coal, he was pleasantly surprised to see iron ore. Not much, but still a wonderful find. He mined all of it, grinning to himself.

When he had placed the last piece of iron in his inventory, he again looked down into the depths of the ravine. Tumbling down there and not managing to get his wings open in time would almost certainly result in death. Part of him wanted to go back up and put torches around the ravine to warn people of its presence. But he decided not to. If people ended up falling in, that was their problem. Nothing like a good environmental hazard to take care of a few lives.

Grian squinted as his eyes adjusted and he began to make out what seemed to be sculk way down there. Surely he hasn't already found a way into the Ancient City? But then, it could just be the start of the Deep Dark biome. The actual city might be more difficult to get to.

Still, he wasn't up for investigating right now. He instead stuck to the ledges where he was in sunlight, walking along and mining the occasional coal vein, along with copper, figuring he could decorate with it. He didn't find any more iron, though.

He sighed, hoping Doc had better luck than him. He jumped over to another ledge so he could knock a zombie down, watching it fall and die upon impact with the ground. He laughed and went further down. He wasn't going into the Deep Dark, he told himself. He was just going to go slightly deeper so he could possibly find iron, or diamonds if he was really lucky.

Grian landed where the deepslate began. Oh yeah, there was a much bigger cave system down here. It opened into a huge cavern, and his eyes widened slightly at the sheer amount of hostile mobs lurking in the darkness. He could see sculk in different areas as well, and he looked around, trying to find where the largest clusters were. The city was likely directly below spawn, but he couldn't be sure.

He started to step in a promising direction, then hesitated. He had no armor yet. Those mobs could easily kill him. He backed away, staying in the thin strip of sunlight that reached this far down. Grian tensed as some zombies noticed him and headed his way. He got out his torches, deciding to light up the area as much as he could, but he soon had to open his wings and flee. Some slightly panicked flapping and he was out of their reach, back up on the surface. He watched as a few zombies stepped into the light and began to burn, then laughed at them.

There was still time before the meetup, so he went over toward the ice spikes biome, figuring he might as well catch some fish. He didn't have a fishing rod but he could use his claws to snatch fish just as effectively.

As he headed over, he ran into Etho, who was traveling with Cleo. "Hey guys!" he greeted them.

"Grian! Good to see you," Etho said, a smile reaching his eyes. "Enjoying the weather?"

"Oh it is wonderful here," Grian laughed. Though he had grown, so had Etho, so the height difference between them was the same as it usually was. He glanced up at his fellow alpha, feeling wary like when he was near Lizzie, but it wasn't so bad now that he knew what to expect. "This would be a great vacation spot."

Etho laughed too. "Of course. A winter wonderland. I'm glad I dressed warm. And Cleo, well..." He glanced over at her, and she raised her brows. She looked cute, in black tights and a baggy, striped shirt that hung off one shoulder. Her arms were completely exposed, but then, Grian was pretty sure she couldn't feel temperature that well. Then Etho confirmed it. "She makes me cold just looking at her but apparently she feels fine."