[Congratulations, you have completely understood Stone Block!]
[Crafting feature has been updated.]
[You can now craft items with Grimslate as material; the limit is your own imagination.]
Ben sat down on the smooth ground and let out a long breath of relief.
He stored his pickaxe back into his inventory and let a small grin appear on his face.
"Finally…" he muttered.
The first grind had been a boring, repetitive slog.
Now the fun part started, designing the whole base and making it work.
He lay back on the floor and let his thoughts run.
'This should be like the old base, but this time I have a lot of vertical space to use.'
The tunnel was a thousand blocks tall.
It was like standing at the bottom of a skyscraper and looking up to the top.
He looked toward the ceiling.
"The top probably has around 250 blocks less in width.
Leaving that empty would be a waste of space."
The tunnel carved by the worm's body had a circular shape.
The 1000-width section Elvira mentioned was in the middle.
From there, it shrank down little by little until it was 750 blocks wide at the ends.
A loud buzzing sound passed through the tunnel again.
Ben floated toward the center and started to sketch the base layout in his mind.
The main usable section was 1000 blocks in width and 750 in length.
He planned to step it down in sections along the length, over 125 blocks total, forming a pyramid-like structure with a huge flat surface on top.
Each step would have a different depth, between three and five blocks.
He planned a labyrinth on both ends.
Under those mazes, he wanted hidden pathways for ambush routes.
That way, he could move under the surface if he needed to.
He also planned to install pipes for releasing Eldergleam dust and add other traps.
On top of that, he needed an efficient logistics system that let him move items between different parts of the base.
The finished layout in his mind was a complicated network of paths, layers, and trap lines.
Before he could start digging all that out, he had to lock in the final design.
This time, he wanted a real stronghold.
'I could flood the lower section with water and turn it into an underwater zone.
I could raise fish there for food and maybe other uses.
For more space, I should build upward.
Even if each floor is only 10 blocks tall, I could fit 100 floors easily… Maybe I will need them taller, though.'
He had seen the Hellworm's size with his own eyes.
Because of that, he felt sure that one day he could create a massive creature.
Maybe not as big as the Hellworm, but still huge.
His thoughts jumped ahead.
If he could make a beast the size of the Hellworm, he could move his base into its stomach and turn it into a walking fortress.
The creature creation system was very flexible.
The only real limits were the materials and parts he could collect.
"Now, for materials… By my rough estimate, just covering this space would take at least 800,000 blocks…" he said.
The number made him sigh.
Still, every big project had to start somewhere.
"Alright, let's get to work."
He floated toward the side of the tunnel and started laying what he decided to call the ground floor.
After he placed the first block, he dropped down and stood on it.
"Alright, one block at a time."
He placed a few blocks to his left and right, then moved forward and repeated the process.
When he finished a 5x5 patch, he sat down cross-legged and looked down.
The ground floor was in the middle layer of the tunnel and spanned 1000 blocks in width.
Below that, there was a huge open drop, 499 blocks straight down.
A question came to his mind.
"Now, does my building system defy gravity or not…?
If not, I do not think I can fill all these layers without making columns to hold everything in place…"
He decided to test it.
He stood at the edge of the patch and started placing blocks outward in a straight line, one after another.
"Alright, this will be the eleventh block…" he said.
The moment he set it down, a loud crash echoed through the tunnel.
BAM!
Ben swallowed and leaned over to look down.
"Fuck… it did not even hold.
It just fell straight down like magic."
"MY BELOVED!!!
Did something happen?!"
Elvira flew over at once, drawn by the noise.
She thought there had been an attack or accident.
When she saw Ben standing there, only staring downward with a confused look, she sighed in relief.
She followed his gaze and let out a quiet chuckle.
"I did not do it on purpose," Ben said before she could speak. "Looks like I will need to build a bunch of pillars to support this layer."
"Why not just start from the bottom instead?" she asked.
"No, I want to fill the lower area with water."
"This much?
Where are you planning to get all that water from?" she asked.
"I will find some underground lakes and move everything here."
"But, my beloved, did you not say we are in a hurry?" Elvira asked.
"I am not worried.
There is plenty of material everywhere.
We can just make a hundred workers and build everything fast," Ben said.
"Hmm… You know, you would probably get more stability if you turned these blocks into floors, like at the first base," she said.
"No, I want to use these as a foundation, to make sure it is hard to dig through.
I will put the floors on top of this block," he said.
"I see…" Elvira replied.
While Ben and Elvira kept working on their base, far away at the same depth, another place burned with a different light.
A huge fire roared inside a massive dome-shaped cavern.
In the center, a colossal flame burned like a miniature sun, throwing long shadows across the stone walls.
Around the fire stood a group of humanoid beings.
Their bodies looked like dark stone, hard and glossy like obsidian.
Pairs of molten eyes glowed in their faces like hot embers.
Their hair had a metallic shine that caught the flicker of the flames.
They moved in unison and chanted in deep voices.
"Praise the Eternal Flame!
Through it, fire, the Ashborn will be born!"
One of the figures stepped forward.
His heavy footsteps echoed across the floor as he walked toward the central blaze.
The fire crackled and roared as he took his first step into the sacred flames.
"AAARGH!" he screamed.
The sound tore through the cavern as the fire bit into him.
The flame seared his body and carved its power into his stone flesh.
His molten eyes flared brighter.
His rocky form twisted and reshaped as the fire worked on him.
The others lifted their hands toward the cavern roof.
Their voices joined together in a single loud chant.
"PRAISE THE ETERNAL FLAME!
Praise the AshKING!"