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While I'm home, I decide to just do the next Psi Tutorial, Eidos Manipulation. I do an EXTREMELY simple spell (two items) to roll my position back five seconds. It's hard to think of a use, but one would be jumping off something when there's no good way to get back.

So, to test it, I jump off the roof (wearing my bouncy boots for ouchie prevention, of course)



And it works! Kinda cool to un-fall back onto the roof. I decide to leave it in my gun, I mean CAD, because it could be useful if I fell into a toxic pool or something similar. I take out Overgrowth, which I don't think I'm going to need for quite a while with all the food I have piled up.

Out of curiosity, I check for the next tutorial and - there isn't one. I'm done. So I guess there won't be a whole lot of Psi stuff going forward, although I'm sure I'll have ideas for more spells. And, of course, I never *have* gotten my blinkfoot spell consistent.

So back to Astral Sorcery. I'm currently at perk level 5. To unlock Singularity, and get the other methods for gaining perk points, I'll have to get a total of 11 levels. And that means a LOT of slime slicing.



So up to the Slime Islands I go.



And whackwhackwhack. I'm not going to post more slime slicing pictures because they all look the same after a while. And, especially, because they all look the same to ME. Damage Screenshots took over 1100 pictures of slime slicing in the course of playing this episode (!), and I got so sick of searching through them I just threw them all into the trash - along with some informative and commentary pics I'd made while up there, but it just wasn't worth wading through all that slime slicing.

I spend all day up there, and in the process get more perk advancement than in all of the Aevitas Expeditions. I'm up to level 7 now.



I toss numerous stacks of Blue Slime down the original mineshaft, now serving as impromptu garbage disposal. Then it's up to the roof for stargazing.

Stargazing is a big success! I trace Pelotrio and Fornax - entirely from memory! And then I see a new constellation with nine stars - which has to be Aevitas! This one I can't do from memory. I consult my Astral Tome, and then trace it out.



Nada. Maybe I didn't do it right. Once again:



Bingo! And now I can see the Singularity node in my Astral Tome perks. Plan is on!



My Crystal sword is worn down from all that Slime slicing, so I sharpen it on the Grindstone.



For some time I have been trying to enhance my Rock Crystals with Liquid Starlight. They grow with each application, and then when at max size they split into two, one somewhat purer. I've been repeating this over and over, aiming for perfect crystals (which improve the quality of rituals and tools). Except, once I got past 95% purity, it didn't work so well, because the crystal no longer reliably split. I have been at 98% aiming for 100% for several days - at least 8 applications. FINALLY I got the split - and my perfect crystal! Although, now, I fear it will be really hard to split *that* one.

And now I start into a routine. Next day, back up to the Slime Islands, whackwhackwack (times about 100). Then back home at night to work on crystals, sharpen my sword, and do chores.

The next day is the same, except that this time my sword has gotten too small from all the sharpening. so I grow it to max size using Liquid Starlight (which *completely* ruins the edge), and then grind it back to excellence.

The next day, however, isn't so routine. I Blinkfoot over to the islands but the spell misfires. There are still mobs on the ground, so I bounce back inside my fence, between the hotel and the Alter. Thias should be safe but...

SSSSSSS! Creeper!



I run, getting far enough to minimize the damage to me. There's a hole in the ground but no structural damage. So I head over and start filling the whole and.

THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!



I grab my crossbow as it swells up for the boom and barely manage to get it.

Clearly, I've got significant security issues.



There's one spot with 0, which might be doing it. I light it up. Otherwise I only find some 2's, and light them up just in case. We'll have to see if this is enough. I will also need to check the fencing - it's all fenced in, but there might be a place to jump in.

Then it's back up for another day of slime slicing.



And now I'm at 11. Actually, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; just 4 (double length) days. Taking Singularity gives you three roots for free; I take Evorsio (experience from mining and 20% added mining speed), Aevitas (experience from building and +2 hearts), and Vicio here. Armara, the one I don't take, gives you experience from taking damage and I always try to minimize that.

But now I've got another problem. My plan was to pile up a bunch of projectile-enhancing perks to fight the Ender Dragon. It's possible to get over +200% projectile damage, which would be murderous on my 16 point damage crossbow. Except my hover help isn't reflecting this. I have +10% damage already, but my bolt has only gone from 6 to 6.12 (so 2%, not 10%) and my crossbow bonus damage hasn't increased at all. Clearly there's some incompatibility with Tinker's; hopefully it's just in the display but maybe not.

If the Astral Sorcery perks aren't a big boost I may just use a vanilla bow with some Astral Sorcery enchantments. Still good, but I am really appreciating the ease of aiming with the crossbow. The drop in flight is negligible, so it's just point and shoot.

I consider the possibility that the perk will work for bolt damage but not the crossbow. That would favor a lighter but faster crossbow.



I can't speed up my spare wooden crossbow any more because it's out of improvement slots. So I make a flimsier crossbow with a paper binding, to give an extra improvement slot. But that only gets the draw time down from 1.73 seconds to 1.61 - not a game changer.



There's also an improved bolt I've been able to make for a while, but never got around to because my iron bolts were adequate. I'm doing them now as research. Manyullyn is the top Tinker's material for damage, so I put it as the tip for a bolt core. The base damage is (supposedly, after Astral Sorcery) 9.86, but here's a version with Diamond added to make it comparable to the current 6.16 of my Iron Bolts.

I then put 2 levels of Sharp on it to get to 13.96, for a total of 24.46 fired from the Iron Crossbow. My understanding is that damage is supposed to be damage in the formal Minecraft sense, half a heart, but the one-shotting ability of the Iron bolts seems to indicate it's actually damage in *hearts*. I guess in that case it might be good enough to handle the Ender Dragon even if my Astral Sorcery enhancements don't work out. Does the Ender Dragon have armor?

Incidentally, with these bolts I'd actually deal damage faster with my new flimsy-but-fast crossbow (13.96/1.61 = 8.67 damage/sec) than I would with my Iron Crossbow (24.46/3.47 = 7.05 damage per second). But for now the one-shotting ability is more valuable. If the Astral Sorcery enhancements affect even just the bolts then very soon Manyullyn bolts in the fast wooden crossbow will one-shot and I'll probably switch for the speed.



While I'm down there I try making some Clear Glass panes. Clear Glass is a Tinker's material that (under certain circumstances) is, well, clear, making for great view windows. Panes would be a efficient choice sometimes, but even though the wiki says the 6 -> 16 recipe for vanilla glass works for Clear, it didn't work for me. The wiki also say you can pour clear glass in this Casting Table. But, what comes out is a vanilla glass pane, not a clear glass pane. So I guess the wiki is for a different version and I'm not going to have clear glass panes because they just don't exist in this version.

Sniff.

And now, for something completely different! I head back upstairs to work on it.



And now I find that starting with Discidia was completely the wrong decision. The different roots give different experience, and here you see the effect of travel experience from Vicio. Just puttering around in my base has gotten me from level 11 to level 15. My base isn't even that big! I was expecting I'd have to map out a max map for a couple levels via Vicio. This is just ridiculously easy.

I'm going to try to tackle the problem of the unsafe oceans with DaVinci's Vessels, the descendant of the revered Archimedes' ships. Yes, I *could* just shut off the problem animals, as I have with some land animals, but I like a challenge, so first I'll see if I can deal with it using DaVinci. Besides, moving ships are really cool, and I've used these mods for my last 3 journal worlds, although I've avoided the signature airships since the first such journal because I thought they made travel *too* easy.



This is the Ship's helm, which allows you to control your vessel.



And this is the Steam Engine, which either is necessary for a vessel to move or makes it faster, depending on configs. Based on forums, I thought the default was now "required" but it's not in my configs. If I had my druthers, I'd have them required for airships, as a disadvantage for that extremely easy transportation method, but not boats, where vanilla provides strong options.



Air balloons are needed for airships, but I'm not making them for that; I have a decorative idea.



That night, on the third try, I generated a second perfect rock crystal from my Liquid Starlight growth efforts. So it's not *that* hard to generate perfect crystals and I was just unlucky with my first.

A quick snooze to reduce the chance it'll start raining, and then it'll be time to start on my new ship!

Next Episode: The wind in my sails!

I spot a Harvestcraft swampy garden, which I haven't yet seen, but it has a Mulberry; not particularly interesting since I have plenty of different fruits.



And, once again, I get turned around and end up on the east coast. But I'm paying attention, and now I know why. The Shield biome just north of my base has hills in it, and then the Bog north of that has a messy mix of land and water (by design). It's just natural to veer east to avoid these; they're not all that onerous but still enough hassle to avoid, and just a moderate amount ends up with me coming out on the east coast. But this time I really want to be on the west side of that long peninsula, so I make a left turn (not at Albuquerque) and head back.



Oh come ON! Level 17 just from this? That's the Bog to the left, BTW.



This toxic pool in the bog is the kind of reason I'm carrying the Eidos Reversal spell to undo my motion. I should probably crank it to 10 seconds or so.



Soon I reach the water and construct my boat. The Air Balloons were for the sails - I think they have a "sailier" texture than wool, plus they're lighter and so the boat will float higher. I also find the sound effect for placing/removing them is this nice airy "fwoomp", which is a pleasant bonus.

In a real world boat the helm would be on deck, but I put it on top of the mast, hoping to get away from the critters in the water. I'm not really expecting it to work, but here's hoping. It will look a bit odd with me steering from the crow's nest, but whatever. I'll get better views too.



Hungry sharks prowl the water, hoping for a taste of Zeno meat. Wiki says they only attack players wounded and low on hearts. Not much of a problem for me, currently running at 13.5 hearts, but the Wiki was wrong about eels, and I'm uncomfortable.

Let's see how my crossbow works on it.



One-shot kill. And with the old iron bolts, even (I had both in my inventory to see which the mod picked. It picks the first in reading order.) Sharks are supposed to have 15 hearts, so more evidence that my Tinker's damage is measured in hearts.

I skewer the other shark as well, and then daringly jump in to collect the drops, which can (and do) include Prismarine shards. No problems.



It's dusk, so I snooze to have a whole day for sea trials tomorrow. Remembered my bed this time!

Come morning, I load the engine with a stack of coal, Blinkfoot up to the crow's nest, click on the helm there to bring up the interface, assemble ship, mount ship and:



It doesn't work. Unfortunately the screenshot doesn't show the problem, which was immediately apparent in the game. When the wood of the deck becomes the ship, there is no water placed were it was. So the ship is sitting in a hole in the ocean. And it can't go *anywhere*. After some poking around on the internet, I find the mod author saying ships have to be built entirely above the water. I thought I'd built in the water in previous journals, and a reassembled ship has to deal with placing water anyway - but maybe not? Or maybe it's been changed.



Just that brief operation used up 5 coal, so these steam engines are pretty piggish. Possibly a concern.



So I rebuild the entire boat one block up, a surprisingly tedious operation that takes most of the day. I do notice my enhanced reach from the Vicio perk - I can reach one more block, and that's really helpful with the sails.



At one point I jump out into the water and promptly get attacked by an eel - saltwater?. I'd left their config alone as, unlike with freshwater, I hadn't had trouble with them in the past but they may have to go too. Or maybe it's a freshwater eel swimming over from the Bog. Diediedie!

Then back to the crow's nest, assemble, mount, and:



It works! And fun too. I go a little bit out and then come back in.

There is one problem, though. The middle part of the sail is connected to the rest of the boat diagonally and doesn't assemble with the rest of the boat. It's just left hanging in air. Sorry, forgot to screenshot.

As I'm approaching shore, I hit the "C" key to brake (yeah, random keybindings) and - am greeted by the Psi Tutorial screen. Ahh! Mod keybinding conflict! (WRUNCH)

I ground on the beach, but don't get stuck (I *have* gotten Archimedes' ships stuck in the past and had miserable experiences digging out blocks to get loose.) So just back up a bit, equals key to align the boat to the minecraft grid, and then - what was the key to disassemble? (consult keybindings) - Oh, it's backslash. Well I guess that's fairly logical.

In previous versions I've had problems with falling off the boat after disassembly but not now.



Nine more coal for that brief outing. Yeah, piggish. Probably more than a stack per daytime period.



Sunset already? On a double length day, even. Where does the time go?



So, come morning I reattach the sail, using a spar this time to connect it, and - importantly - test reassembling the boat after it's been disassembled in the water. This tripped me up in my To the End of the World journal, because the large, cool-looking boat I built did fine on its first outing, but every time I reassembled it it ended up in a hole in the water and couldn't go anywhere without a crazy job refilling the ocean. In the end I wound up travelling the million blocks on a three-block jetski.

The boat travels fine, but I get a glitch which makes me think this endeavour won't work. While I'm up in the crow's nest I suddenly get animations of an eel-ish thing around me. So maybe they can still attack me while I'm 7 blocks out of the water? Long teeth, I guess.



Now I head back, using Blinkfoot to deal with the terrain issues. But the Bog is absolutely crawling with the psycho timber wolves. I check the configs and, yes indeed, I have them off in Bog. Hopefully they're left over from earlier trips; Better Animals creatures generally don't despawn when the chunk is unloaded. If not, I have trouble.

Then back home, and



Seriously? Almost to 19 now? Just from going to and returning from the coast? Well, I'm still going to use those points.



I take a couple more perks producing marginal benefits to combat, but I do get this boost to Reach, which I'm very happy with given how nice that first extra block already feels. My main goal, and I'm almost there, is one that gives 30% bonus damage to projectiles. Not sure what I'll do with the spares.

There's one more thing I want to make before heading out, but that will have to wait for the next episode: Sorcerous Sailing Setup!

From here on, Astral Sorcery has a lot of recipes that use Stardust, which you make by grinding Starmetal on a Grindstone. This turns out to be - um - a grind. The first one I made I had to spin the Grindstone over 20 times before the Starmetal converted to Stardust. After than I counted the next 3: 28 spins, 41 (!!), and 8 (whew!). That's going to be a lot of work.

After this I head up to the roof altar to make the Celestial Altar block. I have to make some Illumination Powder first, and then:



Hmm. My super altar isn't so super all of a sudden. The problem is likely that it's New Moon, and that's the moon phase with the weakest starlight (although the best time to stargaze in the real world. Go figure.) Well, I'll probably be able to make it tomorrow.



Since it looks like the engine on my boat will consume vast quantities of coal, I'm roasting some of my Redwood to Charcoal. I'm also casually farming Redwood via saplings; I don't want to chop any more of the big trees because I can't replace them and they're an important part of the scenery.



Al-most fall. So I'll want to get moving soon, because I don't want to go around freezing the scenery. While waiting for the next day, let's build the Celestial Altar support.

I've been doing a poor job of planning my ground layout. Normally I just place things where I think they'll work but Astral Sorcery demands a LOT of space for all the Altars and such and ideally it would have been pre-planned. But this is also a first time through so I'm still *learning* what it takes.

And now that bites me. Where do I put the Celestial Gateway? I can't think of a good spot, so I put it next to the chicken coop. I started off putting it on top of the ground, but that looked awkward, so I recessed it into the ground:



And literally as I write this, I realize the arrival gate should be - at the front of the hotel! Well, I can move it; it's not that big.

I also make the supplies to make a second Celestial Gateway (for the other end) and stuff them in the Traveller's Knapsack.

Next evening, I do have the power to craft the Gateway block, so I do. Now I need to make another. Time to grind some more Stardust.



The first takes only one spin of the Grindstone! Yay! And then the second takes SIXTY-TWO! ARRGH! The next two are somewhere in between; I didn't record them.



I place the block I've already made on the support structure and test the Gateway. When you move in you see these lights on the Gateway and it appears you are surrounded by a black sphere. The other Gateways are stars on the sphere. It's black in my case, because there *aren't* any other Gateways yet.

You certainly can't accuse Astral Sorcery of not looking good.

Now I go to make the Gateway block for the second Gateway, to be placed at the first locale I want easy access to:



Not enough power? I just made one! Maybe it needs to store up?

Well, I'll do some other preps. I'm anticipating a risk of death, so I don't want to bring my hard-to replace stuff along. So I'm leaving my Manyullyn armor, my Crystal Sword, and my Tinker's picks. To replace them, I enchant a Diamond Helmet, getting Prot IV /Unbreaking III. Then for the boots, I'm offered Fire Resistance III, which is lousy since I already have a Fire Resistace IV boots. So I enchant an Iron pick, getting Unbreaking III, Efficiency III, and Fortune II. Hmm, would have used Diamond if I knew I was getting THAT. That'll be my travel pick. Then another pass at the Boots, getting Prot III and Depth Strider II. A pretty useful armor set, all told.



Then I make 4 empty maps and bring 2 stacks of paper to convert them to max maps. One I put in the Bibliocraft Atlas to test the autocreate function.



The preps took half the day, but now I'm done. So I try an alteration to the hotel windows. I like the change; I think it looks better but somehow it's still not quite right. I leave it on while I stew on it.

I also collect some colored wool, including dying one sheep each purple and black, two colors I don't have. This requires a lot of chasing sheep who have escaped from the mysteriously leaky fences. I guess I have to build a barn.

You'll notice it's raining, which is bad for getting enough power to finish that second gateway. Maybe I'll just leave without it.



Miraculously, though, in spite of the rain, I have enough starlight power to make that second gateway. So I'm ready to go!

Snooze the night and then out bright and early.

(The next few lines can be sung to the verse of "Jingle Bells" if you feel compelled)

Over the Sheild hills and through the bog and



Still with the wolves? Ka-chunk!

Get to the dock, and start up the boat, forget the triumphant selfie - (end song)

Yeah, probably would have been an iconic shot and I forgot it. Great.



I head out and holy moly is this thing FAST! Within seconds I'm in view of this BoP Flower Island just offshore. I'd actually seen it way back in Episode 2, but I forgot to mention it with the literally shocking developments in that episode. I think Flower Island was an attempt to make a signature biome; the concept of the oversized flowers is compelling but the actual megaflowers are - underwhelming.



In 2 1/2 minutes, from my screenshot timings, I'm here, which is about 1500 blocks traveled in 150 seconds, or roughly creative flying speed.



This is a mix of Cherry Blossom Grove and Seasonal Forest that I zipped past where those pink dots were on the coast.

I zoom north along that coast, passing unremarkable Ice Plains. Shortly after I pass the corner the Bibliocraft Atlas makes a map:



Hmm. Centered at my current location, and so NOT tiling with my map wall. Basically useless (centered maps are good for showing off a particular location, but that's not the case here.) Maybe I should have had auto-center off? I couldn't find any documentation.

So I stop the boat, disassemble, activate an empty map, expand it to max level in in the crafting table at the bow of the boat, and:



OK, that's more like it.

I go to reload the engine and realize I forgot to bring the coal I was planning. There's only 9 left. so it takes about 40 to travel the length of a max map. Well, I'll probably be OK with a slightly slower boat when it runs out.

Blinkfoot back up to the crow's nest, reassemble the boat, mount, and head on.



On the next map the coast immediately heads back south. Here on the cape is the RTG version of BoP Glacier. This is one of the few biomes that's distinctly different from the source; it's got these blue glaciers on it and generally flattish terrain, although with an occasional mountain. Think Antarctica.



Then the coast heads off irregularly to the south west before turning back east, with a deep bay overlooked by a Highlands escarpment.

It's getting dark, and I've gone all day without an eel attack or a jellyfish strike. Hey, maybe this new ship is going to make ocean safe! Great, I always love a good sea



ZAP! Jellyfish strike. I swear, it was exactly like that. Just as I was starting to think the boat would protect me, I got hit. I'm shocked (in multiple senses) but not surprised, because that's how Archimedes and DaVinci have always worked - the boat's hitbox becomes *your* hitbox when you're mounted.

But, it's not really that bad. I only lose 2 1/2 hitpoints before the poison effect fades. Then, since it's dark and I don't yet trust the boat for night ops (plus I'm exploring coastline and want to see) I disassemble the boat and sleep on the bed on deck.



Next morning I awake to this inspiring sunrise. Oooh, that's Flower Fields! Beside being pretty, I'll not lack for dyes now.



The on around the coast. I continue roughly southeast and soon transition back to the spawn max map, encountering a Tropical Rainforest and then a - Bog? Dead Forest? Not entirely sure.

This is another case where it would look better if Minecraft smoothed its biome colors a bit more.

I had been thinking I wanted the Harvestcraft tropical crops but now that the opportunity to get some arrives, I don't feel like bothering. Sure, there are a lot of recipes I can't make; but there are plenty I *can* and I certainly don't need more food. So I just go on.



Then a Land of Lakes, an Ice Plains, and the Moor I saw in episode 35. That forest in the background has the river I could use to get home, but this is all going so fast and so well I decide to continue on and try for a complete circumnavigation of the continent.

I get to the end of the spawn map. I'm missing the map to the SE of there, but I'm short of maps and want to save what I've got left for the north end of the long skinny peninsula leading to the desert and the Steppe. So I don't make a map. There's very little of this continent on that map anyway.



Then back up the east side of the continent (the aforesaid penisula, mostly), staying a bit out to sea to look for stuff (nothing found) and expand my maps.



I pass the Steppe, sighting the Arcane Shrine I looted liberated in Episode 34.

At this point I have to stop and drop down to the deck to make another map.



This shark looked ENORMOUS in the game and I'm sure it's a great white; but the size doesn't come through in the screenshot.



The peninsula turns out to extend only a little past the map edge. As I round it I see these frozen-looking trees. I guess it was an attempt to modify RTG Ice Spikes after I left the RTG team? But somebody seems not to have thought about what happens if the Ice Trees extend into adjacent non-frozen biomes because they're melting and making a total mess. I may fix that in my version of the mod.

Then I get my second jellyfish strike of the trip. It's not really dangerous but it's really unpleasant at the keyboard; I feel a visceral shock everytime it happens.



And then I'm back on the spawn map. Night is falling so I spend another night out on the boat.



Come morning I head out to go along the north coast of the Flower Island, just to know where it is. I endure my 3rd jellyfish strike.

Then back to my start. And the circumnavigation of the continent is complete! *That's* something you could never do in vanilla from 1.7 through 1.17 (because the whole world is one big continent), and prior to that, while possible, it was a monstrous endeavour because the continents were *so* big, and frequently overlapped.

So then back home and



STILL still with the wolves? I get attacked by 5 on the way home, twice in pairs so I actually take some damage (I'm in my bouncy boots so not super-armored, plus they do deal serious damage). I'm starting to wonder if the config is actually working. If not, there were a ridiculous number of wolves just hanging out in the biome. That's possible; there's a problem with the way Better Animals does ecology: predators eat prey but don't starve and don't despawn. So the prey die (eaten), and some get replaced with predators, until all the animals in the biome are predators. Lesson: don't simulate ecology incompletely. If hungry predators starved, it would work out.



And home, to see the fruits of my exploration. The continent is pretty small, even for Geographicraft generation. But you'll note, Geographicraft managed *two* hot climate zones even in a small continent dominated by ice and cool climates. None of those 8,000 block trips in old vanilla here. There was a reason I originally called it Climate Control!

Normally I'd switch gears and do something else for a bit. But winter is coming (have I heard that somewhere? It's like a really bad ending traumatized me and shoved something out of my memory) and that will mean probably about 6-7 episodes and 2 weeks real time before it will be spring and time to explore again. I'd really like to find a village and it looks unlikely there's one on this continent: the biomes I've seen but not yet explored are generally snowy or heavily forested or too rugged and so there won't be any villages. So I think I'm going to get some more paper for the missing 3 maps for a 3x3 and then make a run around the edge of the 3x3 max area. Really long ocean crossings are rare in Geographicraft (unless you alter the configs to cause them) and so I'm likely to find *something* along the way. I'd like to have a few more maps for what I find but I may not get the paper in time. So:

Next Episode: prepping for more voyages, and back out.