Finally getting somewhere

     We made our way down back through the passages we had gone through to get to where we had ended up. Despite the apparent danger of the entire exploration and the numerous unexplained things we had come across, we all seemed rather down. As though we had hoped to find something down there, regardless of the dangers. Unfortunately, the little we had found seemed to be inconclusive to regard it logical to remain there... As we passed the waterfall that ran alongside the tunnel, UOPETA went back with AMPHIS and THEROS to the shack, whilst I returned to where I had left off. I tired to continue with the job at hand, but I found myself turning around out of fear to look back the way we had come, in case I saw something. Every time I turned around, I saw nothing but darkness... But that did little to calm my nerves. I made little progress in the hour that I remained there, and in the end I headed back to the shack. The others were a little surprised to see me, but after explaining what it felt like, they seemed to understand.

"Do you want me to take over then? I don't mind..."

I shook my head. I wanted to do it, but I just needed some time away. Some time to collect my thoughts and calm down. It was probably a bad idea to have gone straight back to work after exploring, so it was my fault I felt like how I did... THEROS and AMPHIS seemed to be having lots of fun decoding the books that remained. Thinking though, the word 'fun' doesn't really apply, although they did seem very enthusiastic about the job. After a short rest, a drink and something to eat, I was ready to go back to the job at hand. UOPETA decided that he'd come with me.

"Actually, if you extract that diamond, maybe I can craft a pickaxe of my own and I can help you!"

That actually sounded like a good idea! We headed off to where the diamond remained in the tunnel, and with a few minutes of mining, the diamond was free. Back to work!

     UOPETA has gone off to the shack to make use of the newly excavated diamond. Meanwhile I went back to the far end of the tunnel and began to mine the wall in front of me once more. I was beginning to think that either we weren't going to find anything, or that we had already gone past it. All we had found was a large pool of lava, a dark tunnel that led to nowhere in particular and lots and lots of stone. I doubt SERVERE had that in mind when he assigned us this task. The whole idea about finding something that existed millions of years ago seemed a little crazy to me. A building that was once populated with these mysterious Endermen... Hang on... Endermen... Purple particles... Stopping for a moment, I took the image of the glowing purple particles from my pocket and studied it intently. After a few moments I was convinced of something that logically made no sense. Two purple particles in particular were larger than the rest, and sat beside one another as though they were... Thinking back to that book AMPHIS decoded... Finis... I remembered the proposed image of these Endermen and distinctly remember those glowing, purple eyes... Looking back at the photo, I felt like I had made some sort of discovery! But... SERVERE had said that the Endermen were an extinct civilisation... Could there really be any more left...? Maybe I was jumping to too wild a speculation. Maybe it was just a few sparks that were altered by the heat haze... I put the photo away and tried to shake the thought from my mind, but it remained there for some time. That is until I found something else to occupy my attention. As I continued with the wall, I found a portion of very dark rock. Lighting a torch and raising up to the wall, I noted the odd illusion as though the wall was absorbing the light, and I realised what I was looking at. Obsidian!

Why would obsidian be around here...? I began to think about the obsidian plant, and how the process of obsidian was made, I instantly backed off! On the other side of that wall of obsidian, or maybe even above, there was likely to be lava! I could hear UOPETA coming down the tunnel now, whistling to himself, and I waited until he was beside me. I pointed out the obsidian and he went over to investigate it...

"Very strange... This has been shaped... No way is this natural..."

Getting closer to it, I looked at where UOPETA was pointing, and realised that he was right! The edges of the obsidian wall were smooth. Definitely not the product of naturally-created obsidian.

"I'd say it was safe to go through there. Good job we both have diamond pickaxes now!"

I neatened up the wall on the left side, removing the stone to expose as much obsidian as possible, but instead I ended up exposing a small tunnel... UOPETA stopped mining the obsidian wall beside me and looked down the long obsidian tunnel.

"Do you think this is of any significance?"

Definitely! Following UOPETA through it, he came out to the end and stopped again, letting out a long, low whistle... As I emerged from the tunnel, I could see what UOPETA meant... This was definitely significant!

"Ah! Glad to see you're making some progress! I knew I was on the right track..."

UOPETA and myself span around to quickly see an Elite armoured suit appear out of nowhere... SERVERE!

Syeonyx signing off