I think I need to take a break. I spent so much time getting my armor, weapons, and potions ready, and I lost EVERYTHING. I easily took out the first few crystals, but when it was time to climb up is when things started going wrong. I opened up the first iron cage to get at the Crystal, swing my sword and was instantly killed. I didn't know that the crystals would deal damage when destroyed, much less that it would go through full diamond armor with protection 4 on each piece. I respawned and rushed back to get my stuff, but only a few things fell from the tower. On my climb back up, I was knocked off into the void, losing what I did manage to grab. I went back one last time and managed to get to the top of the tower, retrieving the rest of my items. I decided to go for the next tower and go for broke. On my climb up the last tower, I was knocked off again, with the rest of my gear. At that point I had lost a total of 29 diamonds, all of which were items that were fully enchanted.

I don't have enough diamonds to make even half of the items I had before, much less re-enchant everything. At least at this point I have a villager I can buy mending books off of, but it's still going to be such a huge grind to get back to where I was that I'm tempted to just put the game down for a while.

Thanks for reading.