Obviously I went down to explore. I was running low on rail tracks so I was going to need more iron ore anyway. I was in the cave system for a very short while before I came across a bunch of monsters. I couldn't quite get at them so I started digging a narrow path to come at them from the side. It seemed like the reasonable thing to do... but no. Cave-in!
Unlike the previous cave-in, this one was serious. I was completely buried and couldn't escape. I died and when I re-spawned my first thought was for all the equipment my corpse had left behind. I quickly ran back to see what could be salvaged and saw a complete mess of sand and ocean. After several minutes I managed to stop the flow of ocean water and had recovered my gear:
While I was excavating, I heard monster noises. A lot of them.
Because of the recent cave-in I was very careful about where I was going to dig and I eventually managed to find a room filled with monsters of every kind. After dying a few times I managed to clear them out and discovered the most expansive cave system I've found so far. There are several enormous caverns:
And they're sometimes separated by very narrow openings. I barely explored down here at all because I was carrying a lot of stuff that I didn't want to lose. I tried finding my way back to the entrance but that proved extremely difficult. A few times I thought of just digging straight up and out, but I was worried I was still under the ocean somewhere. Eventually I found my way out and went to finish my railway.
