《Minecraft: loading new world》


 Chapter 1.Minecraft: loading new world

    It was a beautiful day outside, where the rivers were lazily running through the hills, the trees covered the earth with rich branches that left shadows all around them, and the animals were living in peace with nature.


    Suddenly, something different disturbed the peace, a black spot appeared out of nowhere in the air, it was plain and mesmerizing at the same time, it didn''t stop just there it grew bigger and bigger when suddenly as it stared it stopped.


    Out of the black spot a man was roughly thrown out, he was not a normal man, he was tall, wore a plain white shirt and some black pants, he had brown hair, brown eyes, and the most unusual thing, he was made of squares. But he wasn''t the only one like that, the trees were made of squares, the earth had the shape of a square, and even the animals had the edges of a square.


    It was a world made of squares.


    _______________________________________________


    I opened my eyes only to be immediately blinded by the sun.


    "Ugh* why is the sun so strong? and why-.... Is that a tree from Minecraft?"


    Suddenly I stopped rubbing my eyes and looked confused at the tree of a popular game from my childhood, after a few quiet minutes trying to understand what had happened I started to look around only to see that everything was cube-shaped.


    "Did I watch too many Minecraft videos and now I''m having dreams about it?"


    That could be possible since it wouldn''t be the first time when I binge-watched a show or a game and went to sleep quickly afterward. And if I didn''t finish the series, my mind would try very hard to continue that activity even in my sleep.


    But still, this one felt different.


    "Maybe I can even open up my inventory *Ha Ha"


    *POP*


    Suddenly a gray window appeared, which took me by surprise.


    "What! Is this my inventory? and it''s empty, who would''ve thought."


    I say this to no one in particular, but this action alone managed to calm my nerves which were slowly rising.


    "Well, let''s go and have some fun until I wake up! "


    I got up on my feet and went to do one of the most essential steps of the game, which was getting some wood.


    The tree was not too far from me, and with excitement that I didn''t know I had, my punch went full force at the defenseless tree trunk.


    "AW! Why did it hurt? Isn''t this supposed to be a lucid dream?"


    Then the new reality struck me like a brick. I wasn''t dreaming, I felt pain, I''m alive in this bizarre world. How did I get here? my memory is a little fuzzy but I don''t remember dying like other characters.


    But I put a stop to that train of thought because I knew it was not the time for me to panic but take action and build a shelter before night. I looked at the position of the sun, it was right above me, which meant that I only had half of the day before it was dark.


    I looked at the tree again with determination.


    "With pain or not I still have to get wood. Sorry tree, nothing personal. "


    Then I started to punch the block like a madman, until all of a sudden the block of wood disappeared with a simple pop sound, leaving the tree floating mysteriously in the air, ignoring the laws of gravity that I was so used to. Still in pain, I looked around to see where the block was, but with no luck.


    I then remembered that I had an inventory now, so I quickly opened it and there it was, a piece of Oakwood occupying one of my previously empty slots. On the upper right corner, there was my crafting 2 x 2 square, where I quickly put the login, and converted it into 4 planks, then out of those I took 2 to craft 4 sticks.


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    " I may be desperate to work quickly, but that doesn''t mean that I should work stupid, I don''t know if I can nor do I want to find out if I can destroy my hands handicapping myself, so I''ll use a stick to be safer"


    My inventory was a 9 by 4 square with two separate smaller squares beside the inventory tab that represented my hands. I dragged the stick to my right hand, and out of nowhere I had a straight stick with the length of a meter, it felt unnatural but beautiful.


    I swung the stick at the tree block with newfound force, but instead of the wood cracking like expected, my stick snapped into two to my great surprise.


    "So sticks are not indestructible as in the game, they''re more like a real stick in a way. Maybe it would work if I stabbed it instead of swinging at it?"


    And I raised my hand with another stick, and stabbed the top of the log with it, and to my relief the stick didn''t break, and a crack appeared on the wood block.


    "Yay for my fists, but time is ticking so should quickly upgrade to the wooden axe, but for that I the crafting table. Don''t know how that would work, but this is Minecraft now, so I shouldn''t question it."


    I broke the rest of the tree down and started to prepare the crafting table while waiting for the leaves to decay.


    After it was done and placed on the grass, I started to notice something different. The crafting table looked more 3D, I mean I am in a 3D world in general but the texture in the game was just a cube with an image on it so it didn''t feel too real, but the one in front of me had depth, it had design and texture to the touch, it even had some tools beside it that I could pick it up.


    I tried to take one for a closer look, but then an invisible force stopped me from taking it more than one block away from the crafting table.


    "So I can''t use those as a weapon, I can only use them for crafting in some way. But first, let''s see if I can make the axe in the first place. "


    I put the recipe in the 3 x 3 squares, 2 sticks, and 3 wooden planks, then like magic a holographic arrow appeared pointing to a wooden axe placed in a square.


    I tried to grab the axe, but my hand went through the image like it wasn''t there.


    "Hmm, maybe I should use those tools around the table? "


    I picked up a hammer and hit the center square of the recipe, the sticks and planks started to deform and merge, but it wasn''t completely done, so I hit it a few more times, and then a wooden axe appeared out of nowhere on top of the crafting table.


    "Wow! I didn''t expect that to happen, and -AUCI! The edge of the blade is pretty sharp, even if it''s made from wood."


    With the new tool at my disposal, I started then to cut down more trees around me with more ease and efficiency, and even though I could see the durability going down, I didn''t need to worry since I could always make a new one.


    Slowly the sun started to go down, I decided to stop collecting and start building my first shelter in this new world.


    Quickly I opened up my inventory to see my progress.


    -70 Oakwood


    -23 sticks


    -10 Apple''s


    "Even though I had to make another axe, that was a pretty good harvest if I say so myself! But now I''m hungry and thirsty, looks like this world isn''t like the Vanilla Minecraft that I know of, I should look for a source of water now, then I''m going to build around it. "


    After I broke the crafting table, I started to wander through the woods searching for my next location. Luckily for me after about 10 minutes of wondering I started to hear the noise of running water, I quickly got there and saw a 3-block-wide river.


    With a smile on my face, I started to get closer to it.


    "Not too small and not too deep, this is perfect for me! "


    But even with this stroke of luck, It was a bit of a challenge for me to drink since I didn''t have palms or a bucket where I could hold the water, so I had to get on all fours to drink it directly from the source, hoping that the water was drinkable.


    After I had my fill, I ate two apples and started to look more closely around me to see what kind of place I was now.


    It was a small clearing surrounded by woods, and the river running through the center of, it was the perfect place to start a small base.


    " Ok, let''s start building then! "


    I quickly made a 5x5x3 tall house cube out of wooden planks, with a doorframe facing right towards the river, but quickly after I placed the door to fill the space.


    The newly placed door didn''t have windows like in the game, instead, it was smooth wood down. Maybe it''s better this way since I don''t want to be shot by a skeleton through them.


    After everything outside was done I went inside where it was dark, and that didn''t make me too comfortable, I didn''t have torches to light up the place, and I didn''t know if mobs could even spawn there like in the game.


    So the only choice that I could think of at the moment was to use slabs on the floor to stop my growing anxiety.


    Outside is slowly getting darker and darker, and even though the door looked very sturdy I didn''t trust it too much, so I put some planks on the door leaving space only for my hand to go through where I can freely open the door.


    After everything was done I crashed on the wooden floor in exhaustion. I''m in a different world, a video game world on top of that, and I don''t even know how I got here! Why I''m I even here? Will I be able to get back to my home planet?


    Slowly my mind grew tired like my body, even though I used an axe to get materials that still made me exhausted. With a bed or not, I''m going to sleep, tomorrow me is going to deal with the rest of the problems.


    I closed my eyes and sent my mind into the sweet embrace of sleep.

 Chapter 2. New world, new day

    Once the sun goes down, the living are getting ready to sleep, while the undead is raising for the hunt, they may be week individually, but their strength is in their endless numbers. Undead flesh, endless flying arrows and many more horrors brought by the moonlight.


    But there''s still hope for this corrupt world, once the moon goes to sleep and the sun starts to rise, the monster''s shall flee in fear into the darkness. Otherwise, they''ll be cursed with ethernal burning.


    ___________________________________


    I woke up sore all over my body. I don''t know how this body works, but the nervous system looks like it works like my old body. I get closer to the barricaded door and try to open it up through the empty space between the plank and the slab. It wasn''t easy but I finally managed to push out the door letting the sun light up the dark room that I was in.


    "Looks like it''s morning outside, and hopefully the monsters have gone into hiding as well. They''re turn to suffer now!"


    Even though it was daylight outside I didn''t break the barricade yet, but instead I listened for another 10 more minutes in case I hear some footsteps noises.


    After I was only greeted by the calming sounds of the flowing river, I finally broke down the block obscuring my door, but I didn''t relax until I checked every part around my house in case of any surprise monsters.


    "Ok! The coast is clear with no zombies in sight. What''s the plan for today? "


    I looked at my house in it''s full glory, at the trees behind it and the open field.


    ,, Looks like I need to fence this area. But I think I should get some coal first, to make some torches for some light at night. But I''m not crazy enough to get into a cave without an armor. So burning some charcoal it is! Let''s get some cobblestone!"


    I started to dig the stairway to stone a bit further away from my camp, I didn''t want to have a monster hideout too close to me.


    I used my wooden shovel to dig the dirt out, and I didn''t have to dig for too long, because 3 blocks deep I could already see the gray stone under my feet, I then switched to my wooden pickaxe to mine the new uncovered stone. This time it took more swings to break it, more than a log.


    After I mined 15 stone blocks, now I had to get back and make a furnace and new tools to work faster around here.


    I got into the house and put the recipe for furnace in the crafting table, but something weird happened. Instead of the normal holographic arrow pointing at the crafted item, now the arrow was covered by a big red X, and when I touched it a text appeared:


    _Insufficient levels on Crafting Skill_


    "What do you mean I don''t have levels in crafting? Since when do I need levels to craft something in Minecraft?"


    I looked at the message gain and thought how different this world is from the original game, even if it looks the same. I opened my inventory to see if I missed something by chance, but to no avail.


    "Maybe I have a different tab for Skills? "


    Then out of nowhere a tab appeared in front of me.


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 1


    73/100 xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    _______________________________________________


    "I... I did not expect that to happen. So now I have to level up to be able to craft stuff? What''s the max level?"


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I keep asking questions that nobody will answer. Besides crafting, looks like I need to to lvl up Enchanting, Brewing and Trading?


    "Is the Trading skill related to the villagers by any chance? I wonder if I can communicate with them in this world, since this world does not necessarily follow the Minecraft rules."


    But since I didn''t know about the Skills tab, maybe I''m missing some other stuff that I don''t know about.


    I tried different popular words from video games, but the only one that showed results was the STATUS command.


    _______________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name:???????


    Health: 20/20


    Attack: 1


    Defense: 1


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    _______________________________________________


    "I don''t know if it''s good or bad, or if I can grow them naturally, or only with weapons and armor? And why isn''t my name written?"


    I decided that I shouldn''t focus on those questions for now since nobody is going to answer them, instead I should figure out how can I lvl up my skills so I can actually survive out there and not hiding every night in darkness with wooden tools.


    Since I already have some xp, I can only assume that I got those from crafting. So let''s craft some more for the next level.


    After some testing in the hut, I found out how much Xp gives for everything I made:


    -Planks 1xp


    -Sticks 1xp


    -Slabs 3xp


    -Tools 10xp


    -Door 3xp


    -Chest 7xp


    -Wooden bowl 2 xp


    -Stairs 5xp


    -Fence 4 xp


    -Gate fence 5 xp


    I didn''t get the Xp per item, instead I got it per conversion, so when I used 2 planks to get 4 sticks, I didn''t get 4 xp but instead just 1xp, and if I used 4 planks I''ll get 2 xp. But I wanted to stop here since I didn''t want to waste all my wood in one go. I then opened my skills tab, and that had a small change.


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 2 *UP


    165/1.000 xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    _______________________________________________


    But now I wanted to see if I could make a furnace since I leveled up, and once I put the recipe on the crafting table again, this time I wasn''t blocked by a red X, instead I could actually craft it.


    Once I had it in my inventory, I checked my skills tab to see how much xp I got from a stone recipe. And from 165 xp it got up to 175 xp, so 10 xp like the wooden tools, but once I crafted a stone pickaxe the numbers went up to 225 xp.


    "So that means that I''ll get 50 xp per stone tool, but the threshold now is 1.000 xp, so for the next level I would probably need 10.000 xp. But at least the unlocked recipes will give me more xp."


    After I crafted the pickaxe, I decided to mine more stone and upgrade my tools.


    Once I was done, the sun was at its peak on it''s way down, I quickly made a stone axe, stone hoe, stone sword and another stone pickaxe. I then put the furnace in my hut and the two chests besides each other, and like in the game it became a doubled chest, but unlike the game the merging process creeped me out, it looked like they came to life and tried to eat each other, it wasn''t a long process but it was an unpleasant one. Once I opened it up, there was only darkness and a second later I was greeted by the the chest inventory tab besides my inventory tab, I moved some sticks into it and then looked at the darkness in the chest again, and there was no change in it. I tried to put my hand into it, but once I was a block in I was stopped by an invisible force.


    "Ok, I know this how it''s supposed to work in the game, but it''s very weird when I see it in front of me, I mean how does it even work?"


    The more I thought about it, the more the headache grew, so I decided to ignore it and just check the furnace.


    Once I put my hand on it, the furnace tab opened up like the chest, I split what wood I had left in 2,and put one up and one down for them to burn as fuel. After that, all of the sudden I had light in my house.


    "Oh yea! The furnace is a light source once it burns something."


    I then walked outside to chop down some trees for more wood. After half an hour I got back only 3 charcoals were done, so that was 1 charcoal in 10 minutes, I put more wood in both slots of the furnace, and took out the fences out of my inventory to start putting them around my hut.


    The process of fences merging was as weird as the chest one, where the two individual poles started to grow arms once they were near each other, and then conecting so well that you couldn''t tell difference of the two arms.


    Unfortunately I didn''t have enough of them, so I had to chop more wood and then craft into more fences. After I was done with my hut fence, I then started to fance another area around the river.


    "This is where I''ll plant my crops, but is this fance tall enough to even stop anyone?"


    The fance was a block tall, so I tried to lean over it, I was able do it but after half a block an invisible barrier stopped me. But this barrier wasn''t too hard, I knew that I could jump over it if had enough speed and force, but I hoped that the animals or the monster''s didn''t have that.


    Now it was time to till the land for crops to be planted. I had to actually tilt the earth block manually, otherwise when I tried to hit it with the hoe it just broke the block. After I was done, I had about 12 tilted patches ready to be used, they only needed the seeds, and those came from grass which luckily I had enough around me.


    I got close to a patch, and started to punch it to break it, but to my surprise instead of seeds coming out, the grass just bent backwards like normal grass.


    "Well this is embarrassing... "


    After I few tries, I found out that I can get the seeds by pulling the grass out or cutting it with a hoe. I quickly got enough seeds and planted them in my farm.


    "I hope I don''t have to wait too much for the wheet to grow, I don''t want to wait a few months for some bread."


    I then entered the hut to see that the furnace stopped emitting light. I checked to see how many charcoals I have now, and it was 32. I quickly took them out and with some sticks I finally had torches.


    I put one on the wall, and the torch was already lit giving light to the dark room. It was weird seeing it, I tried to blow it out and I could surprisingly, but once I did that it didn''t light up again.


    "Ok, so the torches are lit at the beginning, but they can be extinguished, and won''t lit back up again, this is an interesting discovery."


    After that I made more torches and put them in my house, around the house and around the farm.


    Then I quickly headed inside because the sun started to go down, announcing the start of the night, and even with the fances around to protect me, I only felt comfortable enough to sleep without a barricade.


    "I wonder what I should do tomorrow?"

 Chapter 3. Im not alone

    I woke up with a sore body again, but this time I was hungry and thirsty on top of that. I took a few apples from my inventory to ease up my growling stomach, but I still had to drink water from the river, luckily I have a wooden bowl so I can scoop some water with it.


    I opened the door wide letting the sunlight warm up my skin, I then checked my fenced area for zombies or other monsters, but found nothing inside or outside of it. But what I found out, was that every torch was extinguished, which puzzled me since the ones in the house were still burning.


    "Maybe the wind put out the torches? I think I have to upgrade them to lanterns or glowstones from the Nether."


    I looked around, I was surrounded by green nature and took a deep breath.


    "Ok! Let''s start the day, I''ll drink some water, check the crops, and then I''ll go mining and hopefully I''ll get some coal or iron."


    I did exactly as I planned, I drank some water from the river and then filled up some bowls for later use, and then I looked over the fence at my growing crops. I think they started to grow since I can see a little green popping out, I then walked towards my mine and summoned a stone pickaxe in my right hand.


    Once I arrived at the digging site, I realized that it was very dark in it, and I didn''t like the atmosphere surrounding it. I took out a torch in my left hand and I switched from the pickaxe to a sword. I descended slowly into the mine while the torchlight pushed the darkness away from me. At first, I didn''t see anything out of place, but all of a sudden the sound of a low growl came from behind me, I quickly turned around to see from the dark corner someone green coming towards me growling and trying to grab me.


    I started to panic so I slashed him with force, and it did cut him, but that didn''t seem to bother him too much, the wound was clear to see between its shredded clothes, but he was getting closer while I tried to back away from him. I didn''t manage to get too far before I hit a wall with my back.


    "Well, it''s now or never, AHHHH! "


    With panic in my heart but cornered, I started to scream and lunged at him, stabbing him in the face, it didn''t get too deep, but this move was enough to slow him down severely. I tried to pull out my sword, but it was stuck in his head, and the sword didn''t come alone, I panicked and moved more frantically which was a bad move since that made him able to scratch me, bringing me more pain than I expected. I started to scream again and pushed the sword with him, which ended up with him hitting the ground with a loud crack, and then he stopped moving.


    I gasped for air as the adrenaline was slowly leaving my body, I brought the torch closer to see the monster better, and there it was, the infamous zombie, he was as tall as me with shredded clothing, his face even with the shape of a square was hard to look at, no nose, some missing teeth, black hair but missing in some places, and the worst of all it was the smell of a rotting corpse.


    I didn''t know if this world had diseases, but I didn''t want to have something like this anywhere near me. Usually, zombies like him would burn under the sun in the game, probably that''s how he got here. The body was still here, so it wouldn''t disappear in a puff of smoke and leave me with a piece of rotten flesh.


    " Does that mean that I have to actually dispose of this body? "


    So many questions, but the aching on my arm got my attention, that was the place where the zombie managed to scratch me, it was bleeding a little, but just to be safe I opened my Status.


    ________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name:???????


    Health: 18/20


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    Attack: 5


    Defense: 1


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    _______________________________________________


    "So that was 2 hp worth of damage, luckily it doesn''t show that I''m infected or any other debuffs, but why did my attack increase?"


    I looked at the sword in my hand, then put it in the inventory, and looked at my status again and it was back to 1.


    "So, I can change my status with tools and armor, I don''t see any levels in here, so I can''t get stronger that way."


    I took an apple from my inventory and ate it in hopes of increasing my regeneration, then looked back at the corpse. I needed to get it out of here, I didn''t want to mine with a rotting body around me. So I put some torches on the walls around me to not have any more surprises, then I dragged the body outside the mine, it wasn''t too heavy nor too light so I wasn''t putting too much effort into it, but once I got him on the surface I was surprised for the second time In one day.


    Once the sun touched the zombie, it combusted with fire like it was soaked in gasoline, I thought I was going to burn my hands then and there, but luckily I was quick enough to let go. The flames lasted around 3 minutes leaving behind only some bones.


    "Well, that just happened."


    I took a bone from the ground and tried to put it in my inventory, it went in without a problem, then I tried to craft it, and it worked again, giving me some bonemeal. This was good news for my farm since I can now speed grow the crops.


    "Maybe this was a blessing in disguise! Let''s not think too much about the fact that I could''ve lost my life right then and there, or the fact that I killed something for the first time, yeah, let''s look at the positive side and deal with the rest another time! "


    I put the rest of the bones in my inventory and walked to the river to clean my wound. Even if I didn''t get any negative status effect, I didn''t want to risk it.


    After I was done with that, I got back to mining for about half of the day. It was a tiring process where my hands became numb from the constant vibrations, I had to even craft another pickaxe while I was down there, but I was out of torches so I had to end the session there. And it wasn''t wasted work, out of this mining session I got a few stacks of cobblestone, a stack of coal, 56 copper ores, and lastly 13 iron ores.


    I quickly got into the house and crafted a few more furnaces and put them on my wall, then I divided the iron among each one of them and put some coal as fuel, and then all of a sudden 4 furnaces started to blast the heat in the small room.


    Once I was done with that, I emptied out my inventory of the excess items, and then I took out my stone axe to get some more wood since I was out of it already.


    The next few hours were spent cutting down trees, replanting saplings, and collecting the apples and sticks left on the ground.


    With this much movement, it made me hungry, and even though I ate apples, they were too sweet for a constant diet. I looked at the bonemeal in my inventory and then at my farm, I took it out of the inventory and now I had some white powder in my hand, nothing suspicious with that. I got closer to one of my farm blocks and started to spread it carefully, all of a sudden, the plant started to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, but the growth stopped as abruptly as it started at one-third of the way.


    "Wow! If this isn''t magic I don''t know what is."


    I put the rest of the bonemeal on the plant, and from light green, it changed to a radiant gold. I took the hoe out to cut it like I cut the grass, and I got 3 wheat out of it. Enough to make one bread, I quickly converted the rest of the bones that I had and used them as well.


    Now with 18 wheat in my inventory which meant that I could make about 6 loaves of bread, but when I wanted to make the bread, I wasn''t able to do it because the red X stopped me again. I quickly checked my skills tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 2


    675/1.000 xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    ________________________________________


    " I don''t know why, but I guess I have to be level 3 to craft food?"


    I wasn''t too far away from the next level, and the most xp I got was from the stone tools with 50 xp each. So I quickly made 7 stone swords and got to the next level, and when I tried the bread again it did work but not the way I expected it to work, what I expected was a loaf of bread, but instead, I got some unbaked bread.


    ,, Well this is a way to do it, and I guess it does make more sense. Now I have to put them in the furnace to bake. "


    I took the iron ingots out and put the bread in, and in 10 minutes I had freshly baked bread.


    ,, Auci! That''s hot, but it tastes like a piece of normal bread, so that was a big success for my diet!"


    I ate it all and put the remaining ones in my inventory. Then I took out the iron ingot and tried to make a pickaxe, but I was stopped again by the all-powerful red X.


    "Ok! I think that''s enough for today, I''m going to stress with this tomorrow, I''m going to sleep!"


    Today it was a wild ride, I killed a zombie, mined for ores, used magic to grow food, and even baked a loaf of bread.


    I was too tired to do anything else, so I just shut my eyes and went to sleep.

 Chapter 4. Grinding levels

    This morning started a bit better than the last one, but I would love to sleep in a bed next time.


    I drank some water and ate some bread with an apple as a dessert.


    I then checked my skill tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 3


    145/10.000xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    ________________________________________


    "Ok, so at level 1 I can craft wooden recipes, at level 2 I''ve gone up to the stone, at level 3 I can craft food and copper probably, so the next level would most likely be the iron recipes. So the plan for today is to grind the xp until I''m able to upgrade my equipment."


    But first I had to do the chores around the house, which fortunately were just checking the crops and looking out for any other mob around my base. I know it''s not a lot, but I''m sure that with time things will get more busy around here.


    Once I was done with that, I looked at my house and thought I should upgrade it a bit, since it already started to feel cramped with the furnace, crafting table, and double chest in one room.


    "Now the question is, what kind of house should I build? I have 3 options:"


    1. Underground House


    2. Upgrade the current one


    3. One in the air


    Everyone had its advantages and disadvantages, the underground one was a safe space but it would be very annoying to get in or out of it, and it involved a lot of digging.


    The second one is a pretty standard one, where it''s easy to build but I have to pay attention to more walls when everything is finished. And the last one built on some pillars would be better against monsters in case I''m attacked, I mean with the logic in this world, even if I lose the support of the house, the house would just float with no problem, this world is very weird where it follows some certain rules, but completely ignore the others, I wonder how it can even work.


    As I was thinking about my options, I decided to go with the second one and just upgrade my hut to something more pleasant.


    I started to dig the base of the house in a T shape, then replaced the dirt floor with some wooden slabs for double xp and more resources, two birds with one stone. Then I started to use wood as the outer pillars, followed by one black behind the actual wall, it would be 3 blocks tall followed by one row of normal wood, and finishing with the roof made out of staircase and Oakwood.


    After the layout was done, I decided to make some holes in the walls and pluck them with fences since I didn''t have glass yet. The inside wasn''t too fancy, not because I''m a minimalist but because I didn''t have any blocks to decorate with.


    When I entered the house I was greeted by a hallway with some chests on each side. Then as I walked further I could choose to go towards the right to the furnace room or to the left where it was a small living room with some badly made furniture that used barrels for storage.


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    To get to my bedroom I have to climb the stairs into the attic, which is an empty room for now, since I don''t have a bed yet.


    "It''s not much, but it''s honest work! Downstairs it''s where I''ll be working and relaxing, and when I want to sleep I can just go upstairs, where is more safe."


    The sun was already on its way down, but it wasn''t too late yet, so after a late lunch I decided to do some upgrades to my walls as well, from the wooden to cobblestone. I crafted some stone fences with all the cobblestones I had stored and started to put them outside. Unfortunately, because it took more time to break the fence than to put it down, that meant that I couldn''t finish it before the moon came out.


    But even as tired as I was I couldn''t help but be happy with what I accomplished today, so I went to sleep with a smile on my face.


    ----------


    The next day I woke up, had my usual breakfast, and got ready to finish the wall, but when I stepped outside I saw something unexpected.


    My walls covered a lot of land, but what they didn''t cover was the water, since the water was running like a river I figured that there wasn''t a point for me to wall off that side as well since anything that got in would most likely get washed away.


    What I didn''t expect, was a white sheep trying to eat my crops, only to be stopped by the wooden fence around the farm. That proved to me that the river wasn''t a safe defense and that I now had to decide what to do with the sheep. I couldn''t sheer it since I didn''t have the scissors yet, and I didn''t want to kill it since I didn''t know how to butcher the body once it was dead, so the only option remaining was to make a place for it until I can find a new friend for the sheep or got scissors.


    I quickly put down the new area where the sheep was going to live and carefully approached the animal that was still trying to get to the wheat for who knows how long and lightly touched it, luckily it didn''t even flinch so I gently pushed it into the barn and closed the gate.


    With that out the way I got back to upgrading my walls, which was a tiring process that luckily I managed to finish until noon, and of course, this time I made sure to extend the wall after the river, and just to be extra sure I made the whole wall one block taler so I won''t have any more surprises.


    And now I had a house to stay in, a wall that protected me, and the most important thing, a sheep that could give me wool once I had some shears and then I could finally make a bed. But I need to be level 4 at Crafting to be able to work with iron, and unfortunately, I wasn''t too close to it even after I built an entire house.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 3


    2.156/10.000xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    ________________________________________


    Which means that I have to craft more strategically now. From my tests I found out that the stone tools give the most xp, doesn''t matter what tool it is, each craft gives 50 xp. So the cheapest recipe with the most gain would be the stone shovel, but I have an interesting plan that might work, and for that I needed swords.


    Unfortunately, I''ve used all my resources already building a house, so now I have to go back to mining to get cobblestones of all things.


    After a few more hours of mining the sun was almost out but I got home with 7 stacks of cobblestone, 1 of coal, 32 pieces of copper, and 10 more of iron. I put the iron ore to smelt and then started to make some stone swords. I stayed up late to craft as much as I could but after 30 swords I was too exhausted to continue so I had to go to sleep one more night without a bed.


    --------


    The next morning I quickly ate some food, drank a bowl of water, and got back to crafting right away. Put the materials on the table, hit it a few times to merge them, take the sword, and put it in inventory only to see it''s full of swords, so then you have to empty it in a chest since items won''t despawn in this world, then get back to the crafting table to repeat the process. It was a tiring process, but the thought of sleeping in an actual bed kept me going, and a bit after noon with 127 swords crafted I finally reached my goal:


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4 *UP


    6/100.000xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    ________________________________________


    "Yes! Finally, the torture is over! "


    It was a moment of celebration, so I did that by eating what I had and even used the last bone meal to give some wheat to the sheep so I wouldn''t be the only one celebrating.


    With that done I quickly got some iron ingots and crafted my first iron tool ''The Scissors''. I then run to the sheep while grinning only to stop and realize one problem.


    "How do you shear a sheep?"


    In the game, you can do that with just one click, but this is not like in the game. I opened the scissors and tried to cut a bit of the top, and it worked, I continued to cut a bit more when all of a sudden the top of the sheep lost its wool leaving behind only the skin, but only the top part was shaved off, the sides still had some white wool on it, I then looked in my inventory and there it was a wool block.


    "Yes! I can do this."


    I cut the wool on the sides as well and now I had 3 blocks of white wool. I jumped to my crafting table and crafted the long-expected bed, the moment of truth was there, and it was finally done, no more sleeping on the hardwood floor, I quickly climbed the stairs and placed my bed down.


    It was a white bed, with a white pillow and covers, having the same design as in the game.


    I jumped straight into it and fell asleep not too long after.

 Chapter 5. Exploring the unknown

    I woke up from the best sleep that I had in my entire life, I even felt the fatigue that I didn''t even know leaving my body. I then walked into the living room and sat on the chair that I improvised with a staircase block. I took out an apple from my inventory eat it for breakfast.


    "Maybe it wasn''t such a good idea to celebrate by eating all the bread that I had, but now I''m back to eating apples. "


    I looked around the house to see how much of a mess I made yesterday. Some swords were lying here and there, and some mini cobblestones were right beside the crafting table, it wasn''t that bad overall. In my crafting frenzy, I started to find out some things, like when you dropped a block from your inventory it shrunk to a fourth of its size, and if you dropped another block, it started to absorb it without changing its shape, but surprisingly when I dropped a sword it didn''t change its size, it was as I had it in my hand. That made me think that I could use a dispenser to shoot swords at my enemies instead of arrows since it still did damage even if I didn''t hold it in my hand.


    I also found out that my inventory and the chest inventory stopped time when I put things in it, so when I took a load of bread out it was still warm which surprised me the first time I did that. I also left an apple out in the open to see if this world had the concept of rotting organic matter, and even though it wasn''t rotten yet, it did show color changes.


    After breakfast was done, I started to do some cleanup, putting stuff in the chest and sorting what I had in the chest already, while I was doing that I also started to think what can I do with all those swords, I had to change my original plan or start to get rid of the excess.


    "Maybe when I''ll find some lava I''ll bring a bucket up here to burn it. Speaking about exploring, I should start crafting some iron tools so I can do that. "


    I took my 21 iron ingots and crafted a sword, a pickaxe, an axe, a bucket, a helmet, and lastly the most powerful item in the game, the shield. I equipped what I could and took some other items that I thought would help me on this exploration, I then opened my status screen to see what changed:


    ________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name:???????


    Health: 20/20


    Attack: 6


    Defense: 3


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    ________________________________________


    "So the iron sword gives me 6 attack damage and the helmet only 3 defense, but I guess it''s better than nothing. "


    I then finally stepped outside to be greeted by a graveyard. What do I mean by that? It just so happens that 5 skeletons were lying down in my yard, they didn''t move since daytime so that wasn''t a worry for me.


    "I know I didn''t replace the blown-out torches, but I didn''t expect this to happen. Maybe they spawned here at night, but couldn''t run to cover since they were blocked by the wall. Well some free bones for me then! "


    I quickly collected everything and walked outside my walls. I wanted to explore the source of the river and maybe take it with me, so I surrounded my house where I could see the water only to make me stop and raise my shield in a defense position.


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    At the entrance of the canal to my yard, a tall spider was trying to get in with not much success. I carefully walked closer to it only to see that it didn''t try to get in, instead, it was just floating and hitting its head into the wall.


    "How did it die? It doesn''t look injured in any way. Are spiders, perhaps not good with water? "


    I got it outside the water to see it more closely, its body was black except for the 8 red empty eyes, it was hairy all over with the back side being the biggest over the whole body, that''s where the string was most likely. I easily cut through it with my sword, and as I expected there was a string in it.


    "So I have to butcher the monsters to get their items. I''m not looking forward to when I have to get ender pearls."


    I put the string in my inventory and buried the corpse just in case. Then, I finally started my exploration trip towards the source of the river.


    The trip was a long one but not a boring one, I found some sugar cane that I immediately took, and I also found a flock of chickens that I would most likely try to catch when I get back, but the most important thing that I found was an actual cow calmly drinking some water,


    " Finally I can drink something else besides just water!


    But the cow wasn''t my goal for this journey, and on top of that I didn''t even have wheat on me where I could bait it, so I continued on my journey until I arrived at the entrance of a cave where the water came out. As I got closer to the cave, I noticed that the surrounding area was covered in spider webs, which wasn''t a good sign. I cautiously walked forward, making sure to keep my shield up at all times.


    As I got closer, I noticed that the spider webs were denser and denser, making it difficult to see what was ahead. Suddenly, a spider jumped out at me from behind a nearby wall. I quickly raised my sword and shield, ready to fight.


    The spider was bigger than the one I had encountered earlier, and it seemed more aggressive. It lunged at me, trying to sink its fangs into me. I dodged to the side and swung my sword at it, hitting it in the abdomen. The spider let out a hiss, and I could see fury in its eyes.


    I knew I had to be careful. I kept my shield up, waiting for the spider to attack again. It lunged at me, but this time I was ready. I swung my sword, cutting off one of its legs. The spider let out a cry of pain and tried to back away, but I pursued it.


    The fight was intense, but I managed to defeat the spider. I collected the string it had but didn''t bother to bury this one, and continued on my journey. As I got closer to the source of the river, I encountered more spiders. Some were smaller and easier to defeat, while others were larger and more aggressive. I fought them all, determined to get to the source of the river.


    Finally, after what felt like hours, I arrived at the source of the river. It was a beautiful sight. The water was crystal clear and sparkled in the sunlight that came from an opening from the ceiling. I filled my bucket with the source water, and it felt different, when I was at home I tried to fill it with just running water, and even though it worked when I put it out it was just like normal water spreading and disappearing in the grass. I looked at the filled bucket in my hands thinking about how useful it would be to have a steady supply of water at home.


    I looked around some more to see some coal and iron here and there, but what got my attention was a block of wood.


    "Is that... is that a mineshaft!?"


    I couldn''t believe my luck with this trip, I switched my sword with a torch but kept my shield up in case of any attack.


    As I walked through it I found a lot of spiderwebs but no spiders, but there were a lot of mine carts with chests in them, and the loot wasn''t bad at all.


    - 32 torches


    - 56 rails


    - 15 glow berry


    - 5 loaves of bread


    - 6 melon seeds


    - 3 pumpkin seeds


    - 13 iron ingots


    - 1 golden apple


    I didn''t expect to have a golden apple so soon, it looked about the same size as the normal one but it had a golden color. Now I finally had a secret weapon in case I was getting too hurt and I needed to heal quickly.


    I was very happy with this trip, I got so much loot and a lot of information as well.


    But then I realized that I had to make my way back home, and the spiders were still there, waiting for me. I took a deep breath and started my journey back. The spiders were just as aggressive as before, and I had to fight my way through them, but fortunately, I didn''t need to use the golden apple, and of course, I didn''t forget to take as much string as I could.


    It was exhausting, but I finally made it back home. I was covered in spiderwebs and dirt, but I had accomplished what I set out to do. I had found the source of the river, I had defeated the spiders, and got a lot of loot. As I sat in my chair, eating an apple with bread and resting, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. I had survived another day in this strange world, and I was ready for whatever came next.

 Chapter 6. Upgrading the farm

    With all the items that I got from the expedition, I decided that it was time to upgrade my farm. I wanted to expand my barn to have space for the chickens and the cow, I can also do that with the crops since I got some new seeds, which means new kinds of tasty foods to try.


    With that, in mind, I started to work, I changed the wooden fence to a cobblestone one, made three separate barns for each animal which were even bigger than the original one, and made the farm even bigger where I could plant more wheat, and finished off everything with a separate farm for the melons and pumpkins.


    "And everything is finally done! But why do I feel like I forgot something important?"


    I looked at everything I''ve done today and then it hit me.


    "The water! I took the only source of water and forgot to put it back."


    Because of that, I had to rearrange some stuff since I only had one bucket of water that I had to split between the plants and the animals.


    Once I was done with that I started to tilt the field so I could plant the seeds, then some sugar cane, used the bonemeal to speed up the growth of the melons and pumpkins, and finished collecting the wheat to make some bread.


    "Finally everything is ready, so now I can bring the animals."


    I took some wheat and seeds with me for an easier time catching them and followed the trail that was left by the river before I took it. It was weird seeing the path of wet dirt starting to change to grass but what bothered me the most was the fact that I most likely took the only source of water in this ecosystem, even though in the game it wouldn''t be such a big deal, in this world animals actually need water.


    But even with those thoughts bothering me I had to continue, I had to survive. I didn''t have to walk for too long before I found the small flock of chickens that I baited with seeds to my house. Instead, the cow was more troublesome to find since it wandered off to who knows where. I keep looking at the surroundings where I last seen it for a good hour until I hear a moo in the distance, I quickly follow the direction where the sound came in hopes of finding it. And luckily I found the cow not too long after, and it wasn''t alone, it was actually with its family.


    So two adult cows and a child were following the smell of wheat that I had in my hand to my house where I safely put them in the barn.


    After successfully bringing all the animals to my newly expanded farm, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of pride in what I had accomplished. My farm was now bigger and better than ever before, and it was all thanks to my hard work and determination.


    As I walked back into my house, I couldn''t help but notice the chests full of swords that I had crafted for my levels. They were a stark reminder of the dangers that lurked beyond my farm, but also a reminder of the effort that I had to put in order to survive and improve in this world.


    Suddenly, an idea came to me. I had plenty of string from the spiders that I had encountered on my last expedition, and I could use it to tie the swords onto the walls of my base. It sounded like a crazy idea, especially for the game, but this is not the game, I''m not so limited here and this will serve as a warning to any potential attackers that I am not to be messed with.


    I quickly set to work, I filled my inventory with the pointing weapons and went towards the stone fence where I carefully tied the swords onto the outer walls with the spider string. It took some time since I didn''t really know how to do it and it wasn''t something easy to do neither the world was made to be used like this, but eventually after a lot of trial and error I managed to do it, I had every sword securely fastened to the wall. The sight was impressive, and I couldn''t help but feel a sense of satisfaction in what I had done, no spider or other mob would be able to get over this obstacle. But to be completely safe I had to light up my yard so mobs wouldn''t spill inside the walls, torches didn''t work since the wind could blow them out, so I had to upgrade to the lantern and it just so happens that on my last trip, I found some iron.


    I quickly crafted a few and made a pole design with a wood fence where I put the lanterns, it didn''t look too good but it did its work on lighting up the place, with the added benefit of never running out.


    As I stood back to admire my handiwork, I realized that even if I was in a new world without explanation or a goal, I didn''t give up, I realized that my farm was not just a place of work and survival at this point, but also a reflection of who I was as a person. It was a testament to my skills, determination, and bravery, and I was proud of what I had accomplished.


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    I walked into my living room and ate some bread with apples as usual but finished with a bowl of milk that put a smile on my face.


    It was too early to go to sleep now, so I had to think of what to do next, my base is pretty secure with what I have now and I don''t even need to go outside with the exception of getting wood and go mining.


    "That''s it! I''ll dig a tunnel from my house to the mine and even use the rails as a method of transportation."


    Excited about my new project, I grabbed my new iron pickaxe and headed out to the mine. As I walked down the familiar path, I couldn''t help but think of all the resources I would be able to collect more efficiently once the rail system was in place. It would also make it easier for me to move around without the fear of being attacked by mobs in the dark.


    Once I reached the mine, I started digging the tunnel. It was a lot of work, but I knew it would be worth it in the end. I had to make sure that the tunnel was wide enough for the rails to fit and that it went straight to my house without any obstacles in the way. It took me a few hours to finish the tunnel exactly as I wanted and it''s pretty hard to orient yourself underground, but I knew how important it would be so it had to be done.


    With the tunnel complete, I started to work on the rails system. Even if I didn''t collect a lot of iron on my last expedition I did take the rails that were on the floor in the mineshaft plus a few extra from the abandoned chests, so I had plenty of resources to work with. I started by laying down the track and tried to use my minecart to see how it would go. I wanted to make sure that the ride was smooth and that I wouldn''t have any problems with the track in the future.


    With the track secure, I started to work on the station. I wanted to make sure that the minecart would stop at the right place and that I could easily get in and out of it. I started by building a platform where the minecart would stop and then built a staircase leading up to my house.


    As I worked on the station, I realized that I could also use the rails to transport goods back and forth between my house and the mine. I could put a chest in the minecart and fill it with items from the mining session back to my house without having to carry everything myself. It would save me a lot of time and energy.


    With the rails system complete, I couldn''t wait to test it out. I got into the minecart and started to make my way back to my house. The ride was smooth, and I could see everything clearly thanks to the torches along the way. When I reached my house, the minecart stopped automatically at the platform, and I got out easily using the staircase.


    I couldn''t be happier with my new rails system. It made everything so much easier and efficient. Now, I could focus on other projects and expeditions without having to worry about being attacked by mobs.


    After such a long day of work, I decided to go to sleep, and of course, I had a bed this time.


    A new day started, and I didn''t have skeletons in my yard which showed that my light system worked.


    But a new day means I have to work again, and today I decided to go mining to finally get a full iron armor probably get some diamonds even though those are at -64 depth. The only problem is that I didn''t know how to check if I was on the right coordination, so the only option left is to get to deep slate which is level 0 depth, and count the blocks down from there.


    I packed some food, torches, and a pickaxe, and made my way to the entrance of the minecart rails. I hopped in, and with the flick of a lever, the cart started to move automatically, taking me deep into the underground.


    As I traveled into the mine, I could feel the temperature dropping. I knew I had to be careful not to get lost, so I marked the walls with torches as I went along. I decided that it was for the best to do some strip mining but I wanted to start it from level 0, so I started digging. It didn''t take me long to reach the deep slate level, once I was there I thought I should try my luck with finding some diamantes, so I started to count the blocks down to make sure I was at the right depth.


    I didn''t find the diamonds but instead, I was lucky to find a cave system, which was filled with valuable resources. I saw iron, coal, and redstone which I didn''t have yet everywhere I looked. The first thing I did was to mine all the iron ore I could find. It took a while, but eventually, I had enough to craft a full set of iron armor, so the first goal was already accomplished.


    Next, I decided to go for the diamonds. I knew they were rare and difficult to find, but I was determined to get some. I searched for hours, digging through the rocks, but I had no luck. Just when I was about to give up, I saw a glimmer of blue in the distance. It was a diamond!


    I quickly dug around it, making sure not to be any lava around. When I had collected all of the diamonds in the area, I decided to head back to the surface. I had a lot of valuable resources with me, and I decided that I didn''t want to get too greedy and lose my life to a creeper blowing me up while I was distracted by mining. Plus I couldn''t wait to start crafting with what I already got.


    I started to backtrack to where I came from and even had to fight a few zombies that came from the unexplored tunnels, but with a sword and a shield I was doing much better than the first time I met one.


    When I finally made it back to my house, I immediately went to my crafting table and began to work. First, I crafted a full set of iron armor, which I put on right away. I could feel the strength and protection it gave me, and I knew that I was now better equipped to face any dangers that lay ahead. Next, I decided to make some new tools since I used most of them in this mining session.


    With my new armor, tools, and weapons, I felt ready to take on any challenge that awaited me in the Minecraft world. I had come a long way since the first day I arrived in this blocky world, and I knew that there was still so much more to explore and discover.

 Chapter 7. Abandoned village

    With the new equipment that I made, I felt more powerful. I felt like I could actually start to explore this world. I had two plans to choose from:


    1. Grind some more for the next level in crafting in the hope of being able to use the diamonds.


    2. Explore more in the hope of finding some information about a way back, or finding a village.


    I didn''t know what to choose, both options had their strong point, so I decided to check my skills and stats first.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    2.803/100.000xp


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    ________________________________________


    ________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name:???????


    Health: 20/20


    Attack: 1


    Defense: 16


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    ________________________________________


    "Well I''m very far away from the next level in crafting, and by the way things progressed until now, I''m guessing that next I''ll be able to work with gold instead of diamond, and while there are a few good items made with gold it''s not worth it. So that leaves me with exploring more in the hope to find some information about this world and maybe a way to get back."


    But first, I needed to prepare some stuff for the second expedition, I crafted a compass since I remembered that it always points to my spawn location, and my current base it''s not too far away from it. I also wanted to craft a map but unfortunately, the sugarcane didn''t grow yet, so I didn''t have enough paper, but the compass was enough in case I got lost.


    I also took some other necessities, and with a newfound sense of purpose, I set out to explore the vast Minecraft world, hoping to discover more about this strange place and find a way back home. My first goal was to leave the forest that I spawned in. As I walked through the dense trees, I found myself marveling at the beauty of this world. The leaves rustled gently in the breeze, and sunlight warmed my exposed skin making me smile with comfort.


    After several hours of wandering through the forest, I emerged into a wide-open plain. The grass was tall and green, and the sky was a brilliant blue. I saw some animals living their peaceful life here, with a pound not too far away to cool down if it got hot. I felt a sense of awe as I took in the landscape, but I had to continue my journey for answers. So I filled my bucket with a water source, only to see that what I took didn''t recover itself back even if it was surrounded by other sources of water.


    "So I can''t make infinite water sources, unfortunately."


    As I made my way across the plain, I noticed the landscape starting to change. The tall grass gave way to sand, and soon I was walking through a vast desert. The heat was intense, but to my luck, I had a neat item that could help me endure more specifically a bucket with endless water, so I pushed on, driven by my curiosity to see what lay ahead.


    After several more hours of walking, I finally saw something on the horizon. It was a small cluster of buildings, half-buried in the sand. I ran toward it with excitement and hope, but as I approached, I realized that it was an abandoned village, long since forgotten by its inhabitants.


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    The hope I had running here left as quickly as it came, but it wasn''t all gone, as at last I found the first sign of civilization, and that I could find a village with actual people in it and not cobwebs. But even if the village was abandoned it was still a treasure trove of information, so I cautiously entered one of the buildings, which appeared to have been a blacksmith''s workshop. Inside, I found a chest containing some basic supplies, including food and water, which I gratefully took, but I also found some iron and 3 blocks of obsidian.


    With my newfound supplies, I continued to explore the rest of the village. Most of the buildings were in ruins, with broken windows and collapsing roofs. I found myself wondering what had happened to the villagers who once called this place home. Had they been attacked by monsters, or had they simply moved on to greener pastures?


    As I walked through the empty streets, I came across a few more chests, containing some basic tools and materials. But what really caught my eye were the bookshelves. I knew from the game that I could use them to upgrade my enchanting table to get better enchantments. But I was curious if I could take a book out of the shelf and read it, and surprisingly I could. But once I opened it, I couldn''t understand what it said, only that it was written in an enchanting language. A little disappointed I carefully removed the rest of them from the abandoned houses and added them to my growing collection of supplies.


    As I approached the center of the village, I saw a large building that stood out from the rest. It was a small church, with a bell tower and stained glass windows. I hurried inside, eager to see if there was anything of value within.


    To my surprise, I found a brewing station set up at the altar of the church. It was a rudimentary setup, with just a few bottles and some basic ingredients, but it was clear that the villagers had been experimenting with potions before they were forced to abandon the village.


    Excitement coursed through me as I realized the potential of brewing potions. With the right ingredients, I could craft potions that would give me temporary boosts to my abilities, or even help me to heal faster. I carefully packed up the brewing station and added it to my growing collection of supplies.


    I looked one more time at the village in case I forgot to check a house, but I already looted every house. The sun started to set so I decided to spend the night here, I chose a place that had a bed in it covered the holes in the house, and finished it by barricading the door and windows.


    "I can''t believe I''m back at the point where I have to hide in a house with no windows, how ironic. At least I have a bed now. "


    I ate some bread and drank some water before going to bed and falling asleep right after.


    After I woke up from my deep slumber, I felt a newfound sense of determination. I knew that I needed to find more clues about the new whereabouts of the villagers since they could maybe help me with my problem, so I decided to get outside and start my journey only to be met by an arrow passing my head bearly missing it, I quickly looked across the street to see the perpetrator of this surprise attack. It was a skeleton that was hiding in the house without a door but an intact roof, the skeleton prepared another arrow to shoot but I was already with my shield up ready to block it, I quickly ran to attack and managed to defeat the skeleton with only two hits.


    "Well, this is one way to wake up from my drowsiness."


    I looked at my first skeleton that had a bow and tried to take it, but unfortunately, the bow was so damaged that when I tried to pull it, the string snapped making it useless now.


    "How could the skeleton even use it?"


    I just left the bow there and started my search for clues about where those villagers could be. I wandered through the vast desert, but with no luck in sight, at this point, I even wondered if they were here or gone to another bibiome. I didn''t want to think that they all died, at least not yet.


    As I continued searching the desert, I stumbled upon an ancient temple. The temple was hidden in the sand, and it looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. I felt excited to finally find something else besides dunes of sand, but I had to be careful since this place is filled with explosives and even though in the game I can respawn, I didn''t want to test that mechanic in this world.


    I dug the sand around the temple to find the entrance, and once I found it, I stepped inside the dark temple, I noticed that the walls were covered in hieroglyphics so I took a torch out to see better. The hieroglyphics told the story of an ancient civilization that used to live in the area. I studied the hieroglyphics, hoping to find some clues about the villagers.


    Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me. I turned around and saw a group of skeletons standing in front of me. The skeletons were residents of the temple, and they didn''t look too keen on sharing their home with me.


    The fight started with arrows coming at me, I quickly blocked them with my shield but unfortunately, I didn''t manage to block all of them so a few of them actually managed to hit me, if I hadn''t had the iron armor I''m sure I would''ve been severely hurt, but even the armor I felt the damage in my health. I had to end this fight quickly otherwise it would be the end of me, I put one touch down for light and took out my sword, and attacked the first skeleton, with two smooth swings I defeated it but the other skeletons had enough time to draw the bow for another round of shooting, I blocked what I could and retreated behind a pillar, I quickly blocked one way with some blocks and waited for the first skeleton to pop its head for decapitation.


    The sound of bones walking was getting closer and then I saw the edge of the bow, that''s when I knew I had to strike, with a single swing I decapitated my enemy and already started to rush towards the last two. They had their bows ready but I was already attacking one of them and finished it as quickly as I could, unfortunately, the other skeleton managed to shoot me before I raised my shield, but it didn''t manage to live long either.


    "Omg, I can''t believe I''ve done this! Am I crazy to rush into a fight like this? I should''ve just gone outside and the sun would''ve dealt with them."


    As the adrenaline started to wear off, I realized how hurt I was, even with the iron armor I took some damage, so I lit up the place before sitting down to rest and took out my food which I ate to help with my regeneration.


    "I hope the loot is worth it at least. "

 Chapter 8. Temple treasure

    As I was sitting down to recover I looked around the room more closely, it was built with sandstone that had hieroglyphics telling a story of a forgotten time, a time of prosperity and peace, but suddenly a black portal appeared that started to consume the world. I tried to read the rest of the story, but I couldn''t do that since the last few blocks were either missing or the drawing was destroyed.


    "That was interesting to see, even though that world looked much more different than now, maybe the world became like this after the black portal appeared. But what happened at the end? Did the portal win, or did the inhabitants manage to defend their home? "


    I didn''t stay too much on that question since there was nobody in here that could answer it. So I decided to look in the 3 chests on this floor hoping to find something useful.


    The first chest contained some bones, which of course I took since I could use them to make more bone meal, very useful for my crops. The second chest had some iron ingots and strings, which could be used to make weapons and tools and help me get to the next level. The third chest was something more special, it had some gold ingots and emeralds, which I could use to trade with villagers for useful items when I hopefully find them.


    I felt satisfied with those findings, but from what I remembered, there weren''t supposed to be chests on the entrance floor, but it still was the marked terocata on the floor. Fortunately, I remembered that there was a TNT trap, so I proceeded with caution, making sure to avoid any pressure plates on the floor. I took my pickaxe out and slowly made my way to the secret floor. Once I finished my staircase I found the hidden treasure. I started to open the chests, and realized that this was the true treasure of the temple, I found some gunpowder, iron, gold, emeralds, and even more unique items such as a saddle and an iron horse armor. But the biggest prize in all of this was a glowing golden apple.


    "Is that... is that an enchanted golden apple?! One of the most overpowered items In the game? "


    I was excited about such an item, once I ate it I could be invincible for a few minutes and even gain extra health, I don''t know how it would work but I would only use it in extreme emergency cases.


    Once I was done with the chest I decided to take the TNT from the trap as well, in case it was needed for my own trap. But under all that TNT there was a layer of brick stone.


    "A secret room after a secret room? Why so many secrets? "


    I carefully checked the surroundings of the new room in case it had any traps but found nothing dangerous, so I decided to break into the room, it was a small empty room with one exception. A map hung on the wall, I looked closer but I didn''t recognize the place, but it did show me something that I recognized and gave me hope. On the map I could see a desert temple and a bit further there was a village.


    "This is the map of the desert I''m in right now, and it even shows the surrounding biomes! "


    But the most amazing information about this map is that it showed another village besides the desert one.


    "Now the question is how am I going to get there, since it doesn''t have a white dot that represents me and where I''m going. "


    After some more thinking, I decided to take the map with me and see if I could work with the cartography table to find out more.


    I checked around in case there was a third secret room, but there was none.


    I then carefully made my way back out of the temple and onto the desert sands. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, so I decided to go directly to my base, but I had to be quick to arrive before nightfall.


    Unfortunately, the journey took longer than I expected, even with the compass that helped me to not get lost the night managed to catch me, but I was very close to my base since I started to recognize some places. As I was walking, I heard the eerie sounds of monsters starting to appear, I didn''t see the process, but I heard them. I picked up my pace, trying to get to my home as quickly as possible.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    But my efforts were in vain as I was suddenly ambushed by a group of zombies and skeletons. I drew my sword and fought them off as best I could, but their numbers started to overwhelm me. I knew I had to retreat and find higher ground to fend them off.


    I spotted a nearby hill and sprinted towards it, with the undead horde hot on my heels. Just as I reached the top, I heard a strange hissing noise that I had never heard before. I turned around and saw a strange creature with four legs and a green body, staring at me with beady eyes.


    It was a creeper, and before I could react, it exploded with a loud bang, throwing me off the hill and dealing me significant damage. I quickly ate the normal golden apple to regain some of my health and looked around to see if there were any more monsters nearby.


    Fortunately, the explosion had taken out most of the zombies and skeletons that had been chasing me, and the remaining ones were easy enough to defeat. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my way home, keeping an eye out for any more creepers


    I soon arrived at my base wall which brought me immense happiness to see it, I quickly got in and went straight into my house. I was gasping for air from all the running and fighting.


    "Well, I met my first creeper in this world and did not enjoy it. Who would''ve thought that a suicide bomber is not friendly enough to have some small talk?"


    I checked my status to see that my health was 13/20 even after the healing from the golden apple, if I had another accident with a creeper I most likely had to use my new enchanted apple.


    I was exhausted and wounded from the battle, so I decided to rest and recover before doing anything else. I went to my chest to grab some food and went to sleep in.


    The next morning I woke up refreshed and in full health, I went downstairs and looked in my chest and realized that even with the recent loot that I got from the expedition, I was running low on basic supplies.


    "I need to restock I guess."


    So I took out my axe and went to chop some wood, and while I was outside I decided to check out the animals as well. The small cow looked like it was growing up with no problems, so I gave the whole family some wheat as a treat, but they didn''t start kissing so I''m guessing that they weren''t ready for another member in their family. The sheep was still alone so it just enjoyed the wheat in peace, but the chickens on the other hand weren''t so calm, once they were fed some seeds, they started the process of making a baby which was very weird to watch, but the results were still the same.


    While I collected the eggs from the ground I remembered the map that I had found in the desert temple and decided to use it to locate the next village. I took the map and headed to my crafting table to make a cartography workbench, hoping to mark the location of the village on my map.


    As I looked at the map, I realized that I needed to add an empty map to the cartography table to make a copy of it. I went to my chest and searched for some papers but didn''t find any, fortunately, the sugar cane grew a little while I was away, and combined with the ones that I found on my expedition I managed to craft an empty map.


    But when I looked at the empty map I realized that I made a mistake, since I took it out of the Inventory the map started to complete itself. It wasn''t completed but I still could see how my house looked from above.


    "Well great, now I have to make a new empty map! Actually, I can just expand the existing map and I''ll explore what''s empty to know where I have to go towards the village."


    And with the cartography table, it was much cheaper. Once I was done and took out the map, a white dot suddenly appeared on the map.


    "I can see where I''m on the map now. that''s very convenient but why does it look so different from the other map?"


    As I looked closer I started to see what was the problem. The map from the temple was an old map, and it didn''t update when I made it bigger, and ever since I came to this place I chopped a lot of trees and built my base. And the new map has my house on it since it was recently made.


    "Now I just need to gather some supplies and head over there."


    I went to my chest and grabbed some food, weapons, and tools to take with me. I also took some of the gold and emeralds I found in the desert temple, hoping to trade with the villagers for more supplies.


    While I was collecting the items I started to think of what to do when I got there, could I communicate with them? Are they even smart enough to hold a conversation? How would the trading go? Would they look like in the game or closer to me? Would they even accept me or think I''m a danger?


    So many questions, but that did not discourage me from continuing, this was my first interaction with a civilization of this world and I did not want to mess it up.


    With everything I needed, I set out towards the village, excited to explore again with the hope that I''d meet some people at the end of it.

 Chapter 9. Hello stranger

    POV: Unknown villager


    I looked out over the village from the top of the church. The wind flew over the wooden rooftops while the people walked calmly on the gravel road.


    Ever since I was stationed here, I kept wondering if it was a curse or a blessing.


    _______


    Everything began on the day of the ceremony, where the world would bless me and other teens with our future jobs. And when the time came I was blessed with the job of the cleric, It''s one of the rarest jobs you could get. It was so rare, that it elevated me to a small noble which was the only way to get in the nobility besides being born into it.


    I had to pack up my things and leave for the academy since it was mandatory, but it was paid for by the Royal Family at least.


    The day I had to leave for the capital was one of joy and sorrow for my family, but with everything I needed in my inventory, I went to the academy. The journey was a long one but safe nonetheless, I heard that in the outer lands at night, monsters come out of the darkness to take the lives of common folks, but with the intellect of humanity combined we found out their weakness which was the light, after that the royal family generosity was shown when they spread all over the kingdom the unending light of the lantern, once that was done the monsters didn''t attack the people anymore but we still had to be careful when going too deep into the forests at night.


    As I arrived at the big city in the capital, I was amazed by what I saw. The whole city was surrounded by a wall of stone bricks 5 blocks tall and well-lit, the buildings were so tall and grand that I had to crane my neck to see the top. The streets were bustling with people of all shapes and sizes, all dressed in the finest clothes and accessories. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the air, making my stomach rumble with hunger. I felt like a small fish in a big pond, but at the same time, I was excited to explore this city.


    I made my way to the academy, which was located in the heart of the city. The building was even grander than I could have imagined, with its towering spires and intricate carvings. I registered myself at the academy and was assigned a dorm room. As I made my way to my room, I marveled at the architecture of the building. The walls were made of brick stone, and the floors were made of white concrete. It was like living in a palace!


    Once I settled into my dorm room and introduced my name to my new roommates, I decided to explore the campus. The academy was huge, with numerous buildings dedicated to different subjects. There was a building for crafting, a building for combat, a building for history, and so much more. I was amazed at the sheer size of the academy and the number of students who attended.


    Over the next year, I spent most of my time attending my courses and studying. The academy was more challenging than I had anticipated, but I was determined to excel in my studies. I took courses on brewing and crafting, hoping to level up my skills and become a master in these areas.


    In the brewing class, I learned how to make various potions using different ingredients, but I was shocked by the fact that at level 1 I could only brew awkward potions in which I had to use one ingredient that you could buy from the academy, unfortunately, the potion didn''t do anything by itself making almost completely useless. but like every first level after 10 of those potions I went to the next level where I could craft the same thing with the exception that I could now throw the potion and it breaks, but now I had to pay for two ingredients. Even though the beginning was not that exciting, I learned from the library what I could do in the future levels, from running faster than a horse at Level 3 to a potion that can kill your enemy with only a drop at the legendary Level 7.


    In my crafting class, I learned how to make various items, including weapons, armor, and tools. I started with the basics, like wooden swords and stone pickaxes, but soon moved on to more advanced items like iron armor that I couldn''t make yet. I even managed to craft a few rare items, like a bow and lanterns. If I came back with this knowledge to my village I would be the richest villager overnight.


    As the year went on, I became more confident in my abilities and started to make a name for myself in the academy. I even joined a guild with some other students who shared my interests and skills and studied in the library the most recipes for every skill and what would be the most efficient way to level them up.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Unfortunately, the popularity was also my downfall. In the second year, I had my first interaction with the true nobles, and it wasn''t an enjoyable one, they started to pick on the commoners for their lack of wealth and knowledge.


    One day, they invited me to join their group, which I refused, and that''s when the bullying got worse. They would make fun of me in front of my classmates, spread rumors about me, and even steal my crafting materials. It was a constant battle to maintain my dignity and not let them get to me. Those last two years were a nightmare where I even stalled on my skills, with the Brewing one being at Level 3 and a half, and the Crafting at Level 4.


    Despite all that, I persevered and continued to study hard. I even managed to catch the eyes of an official who worked at the palace. He was impressed with my skills and offered me a job as a clerk. It was a dream come true, I could finally escape this hell away from those nobles, and concentrate on my passion and growth, but unfortunately, the nobles found out and were infuriated.


    They knew they couldn''t let a commoner like me work at the palace, so they came up with a plan to get rid of me. They framed me for stealing valuable items from the academy and presented false evidence to the officials. I was devastated when I was found guilty and was exiled from the capital as punishment.


    I was sent to a small village, but this wasn''t a normal village it was the furthest village from the capital at the borders of the country where they had only one lantern as a light source for the night, and on top of that it was a broken village.


    A broken village was something that I found out while I was browsing through the library. The village was a small one that had only corrupted people who were thrown out from the cities or villages.


    Corrupted villagers were normal people who were suddenly corrupted by an unknown power that made the people dumber to the point that they could barely speak. It''s unknown what causes the corruption but they are exiled to those villages In fear of spreading the corruption to the rest of the population.


    I didn''t know what to do, I thought of running away and hiding somewhere else, but then they''d go to my village and arrest my parents so I couldn''t do that, with a defeated sight I decided to pack my things and went to the village.


    But when my friends heard about my situation, they started to help me with what they could, they gave me books and ingredients for potions, and they even managed to sneak out a block of soulsand so I could grow my own nether wart. And I was very thankful for them and their help, and with a final goodbye, I left for the village.


    The journey was longer than anything that I''d done before, and even though it started safely, after halfway there the roads didn''t have lights anymore, the path was more dangerous, and the nights were a death sentence to travel. In that journey, I fought my first zombie with my iron sword, and luckily I took some combat classes so it wasn''t that hard, but I decided to make a fort every night and walked in the morning until I arrived at my destination.


    At first, I was terrified to be exiled to such a village, but I had no other option. As soon as I arrived, I realized how bad the situation was. The village was barely livable, and the corrupted villagers were all around. I was afraid that I would be corrupted too, but I had to make a living somehow.


    I decided to use my skills and knowledge to help the villagers in any way I could. I noticed that they lacked basic light to keep the monsters away, so I started to make some lanterns and put them all over the village so the monsters wouldn''t spawn, I started teaching them how to grow their crops better and improve their yields. At first, they were resistant and didn''t trust me, but over time, they started to see the results of my teachings and came to respect me.


    As time passed, I realized that corruption was not just a disease that affected the mind, but it was also a disease that affected the soul. I saw how the villagers had lost all hope and were living in poverty and misery. I tried to help with what I could and make a place more liveable.


    It wasn''t easy, but I started to gain their trust and respect. I was no longer seen as an outsider but as one of their own.


    _____


    As I recounted how I got here, I started to smile bitterly and climbed down to brew some more potions. But as I checked the chest I realized that I was out of ingredients to my disappointment, so I had to go to the next village to buy them.


    I left the church and walked to the nearby house and knocked at the door.


    "Bob the librarian!"


    The door opened and a tall man with a big nose responded.


    "Village head?"


    " I''ll be going to the next village to buy some more ingredients, please tell the other. "


    "Ok, Bob will! "


    After I told him that, I took some emeralds and other items with me and left for the nearby village.


    POV: ?????


    The journey was the longest one that I had, even with the map it took two nights of nonstop walking until I was almost there. The nights were a nightmare to walk through, I had to stop most of the time, dig a hole, and wait for the daylight to come. This made me think that I should search for a horse for easier and faster travel next time.


    But it didn''t matter since I finally arrived, I could see the structures in the distance, and they were not abandoned. I quickly ran towards the village and managed to see a villager like in the game with the exception that it had its arms beside his torso like me.


    "Hey, Hello there!"


    The villager turned to look at me.


    "Hello, stranger. "

 Chapter 10. First touch with civilization

    "Hello, stranger."


    The villager answered.


    "I-Uhh... "


    Oh no, I''ve been so excited to talk with someone who just started the conversation without a plan, and now I don''t know what to say.


    "I came from far lands to trade with you! My name is-"


    "Stranger has emeralds?"


    "Uh... Of course, I have emeralds! "


    I then took out an emerald from my inventory to show it to him. When the villager saw the green rock in my hand, a flash of light ran through his eyes.


    "Stranger always welcome to trade! "


    "Ok, your speech is a bit weird but it''s better than just a hum. So how can I trade with you? I don''t see a uniform that would tell me what you sell."


    "Bob too poor for uniform. "


    "Aha... So your name is Bob?"


    "Yes! I''m Bob the farmer! "


    "Oh, so you''re a farmer. "


    "Bob is a farmer, yes. "


    The villager looked proud when he said that. Even though my first interaction with a normal person didn''t go as I expected, it felt good to finally talk with someone who could answer you back. I''m pretty sure that people would think that I''m crazy if they saw me when I talked with myself out loud.


    "So Bob, do you want to trade? "


    "Bob wants! "


    As he said that, an unknown tab appeared before me out of nothing. It looked like a normal Viliger trading tab with the exception that it had only one trade.


    20 Wheat ¡ú 1 emerald


    "You only trade wheat for emeralds?"


    "Bob trades others as well."


    So he does have other trades but I can''t see them. Is this where the Trading skill is used? I guess I have to level up my skill to get other trades.


    "OK Bob, I want to trade some wheat for emeralds, is that ok with you?"


    "Bob happy to trade! "


    Pleased to hear that, I took a stack of wheat out and handed it to him. But instead of taking it he just looked weird at me.


    "Bob doesn''t need stranger wheat."


    "How else am I supposed to trade then?"


    "Give wheat to system. Stranger weird."


    I hesitantly took the wheat back and looked at the system tab again. I then touched it with the grains and all of a sudden they disappeared from my hand leaving it empty. I didn''t see an emerald popping out of nowhere so I checked my inventory next, and there they were 3 emeralds and the rest of the wheat. I then opened my skill tab to see how much XP I got from this transaction.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    10.320/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    30/100


    ________________________________________


    So I got 30 Xp out of all that, that would be 10 Xp per individual trade. Unfortunately, I don''t have any more wheat to trade and get to the next level to see what would change. But wait! If this is a village, then maybe there are other villagers that I could trade with.


    "Bob! Are you the only one in this village?"


    "Bob not alone. "


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    "Perfect! Can you show me around if you don''t mind?"


    "Bob, happy to show. First stranger meet Vilige Head."


    As he said that, he turned around and started walking towards the village.


    I wasn''t too far behind him. The village was small, with the houses looking broken and patched with unmatching blocks, and the path was made with gravel, there were some other villagers outside who looked at us for a moment before continuing to do what they had done beforehand, but what surprised me the most were the lanterns on the houses to prevent the zombies from spawning, looks like I wasn''t the only one with that idea. We didn''t walk for too long and we arrived at a tall building made of cobblestone. It was the church.


    We stopped in front of the door and he knocked it with force.


    "Village Head!"


    But nobody responded, he kept knocking at the door with no results. Until from behind, we heard somebody call us.


    "Bob looking for Village Head?"


    It was another villager who looked pretty similar to Bob with the exception of having a hat, it was a librarian hat.


    "Bob is looking for Village Head. Bob found stranger. "


    "Ahh... Hello? "


    "Village Head left the village, coming soon from trading."


    "Ok."


    Bob then turned to me.


    "Sorry stranger, Village Head not here."


    "Don''t worry Bob, thank you for showing me around, I can walk around and maybe trade with some of your friends."


    Bob nodded his head and then left, leaving me alone. I then turned towards the other villager with the hat, but he was getting back into his house.


    "Hey! Are you a librarian by any chance? "


    The villager stopped and looked at me again.


    "Bob is librarian."


    "Is your name also Bob?"


    "Yes."


    "But the man that brought me here isn''t also named Bob?"


    "Yes."


    "Isn''t that confusing for everyone? "


    "No, I''m Bob the librarian, he Bob the farmer. "


    "Is everyone in this village named Bob? "


    "No."


    "Phew, so only you two are the exception."


    "No."


    I looked at the librarian with a confused face.


    "I give up! I wanted to ask you if you wanted to trade. "


    Once I said that, a light flashed through his eyes and I could see he paid more attention to me.


    "Bob like to trade! "


    Once he said that a trading tab appeared in front of me.


    23 Pages ¡ú 1 emerald


    It was exactly as I expected, only one trade with the farmer, unfortunately, I had only 30 pages with me so I could only trade with him one time. But he seemed pretty pleased with that and returned to his house.


    I also started to explore the village on my own and traded with who I could. I found out that everyone is named Bob, the only difference is that they can tell each other apart from their profession, and that would bring trouble if there were two villagers with the same profession, but surprisingly there weren''t, it was one villager for each job except the cleric which I''m guessing is the Head.


    But even with all of this the most important thing was that I managed to level up my trading skill to level two.


    I then walked to a villager that I thought was the farmer.


    "Hey there! Are you Bob the farmer? "


    "Yes, stranger. "


    "That''s awesome, would you like to trade."


    The villager happily opened up his trading system.


    20 Wheat ¡ú 1 emerald


    1 emerald ¡ú 6 bread


    Yes! I did it, I unlocked the second row. So with each level, I can unlock a new row of trading. I quickly spent the emeralds for bread to get as much XP, and it stopped trading after I spent 12 emeralds. I then looked at my Skills tab:


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    10.360/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 3


    230/10.000


    ________________________________________


    It''s only been a day and I already managed to level up twice! If only crafting would be that easy to level up.


    I then looked back at the trading tab only to see something I didn''t expect.


    18 Wheat ¡ú 1 emerald


    1 emerald ¡ú 6 bread


    I didn''t unlock a new trade but instead, I got a discount. Now that''s interesting and could be useful when I have to get a lot of emeralds.


    "Thank you, Bob, I got a lot from you."


    "Bob happy! Bob rich now."


    I wonder how the system works for him.


    "I''m happy to hear that Bob. By the way, could I borrow a house to sleep in tonight since it starting to get dark? "


    "Strangers not allowed, but you no stranger anymore, you friend."


    I was shocked to hear that, but I felt good to earn their trust. He then guided me to an empty broken house and left after I thanked him.


    I started to fix the house with what blocks I had and then lit up the area with some lanterns that I brought. I then entered a house and lucky there was a green bed waiting for me, I put my head on the pillow and fell asleep.


    _________


    "Help! Help! "


    I quickly got up once I heard the shouting, I looked around confused, and saw that it was still night. I can still hear some shouting from outside and I quickly got up and checked out.


    Once I was outside I saw why the villagers were shouting. They were running like headless chickens while some zombies and skeletons followed them.


    I quickly took out my shield and sword and attacked the monsters. The fight wasn''t too hard since I started to get used to fighting with them after all the encounters I had, so I finished quickly. But right when I was about to ask what happened, I heard shouting from the other side of the village, I quickly ran towards the danger, but stopped once I arrived.


    There was a monster that I knew about, but didn''t manage to see even once in all the time I''ve been in this world, it was an Enderman.


    The Enderman was tall and slender, with long arms and legs. Its eyes glowed a bright purple, and it seemed to be studying me intently. It had a block of wood in his hands, and the villagers were just scared looking at him. Surprisingly he didn''t seem interested in attacking them, I knew that Endermens were dangerous, but I couldn''t help but feel curious about this one. As I approached it cautiously, the Enderman started to teleport around me, as if trying to confuse me.


    I drew my sword and shield, ready to defend myself if necessary. The Enderman seemed to sense my readiness and stopped teleporting. Instead, it stared at me for a moment before slowly disappearing into the shadows.


    I was relieved that the Enderman had left without attacking me, but I couldn''t shake the feeling that it was watching me from afar. I then checked the rest of the village for other monsters, but the Enderman was the last one.


    I took a deep breath and sighed in relief that it was over, I turned around and wanted to tell the villagers to get into their homes and wait for the daylight, but was interrupted by a chant.


    A chant of the village.


    "Hero! "


    "Thank you, hero! "


    """" Hero!"""


    The whole village was there chanting those words in harmony. It made me a bit embarrassed to hear that, but tossed those feelings and started to shout.


    "People of the village! I did not do something heroic, I only did something that everyone with power would. Now the night is still dangerous, so please get back to your houses and wait for the daylight. "


    They slowly stopped their shouting and returned to their homes. I also returned to my house and went to bed.


    "In the morning I have to seriously build some defenses for this village."


    With that in mind, I went to sleep.

 Chapter 11. Building defenses

    The next morning, I woke up to the sound of people greeting each other, and the sun shining through the broken windows of my temporary home. I got up and stretched, feeling a bit sore from the fight the night before.


    I then got out of the house where I could see the aftermath of the fight last night, the ground was full of skeletons from monsters. The villagers started to collect the bones and clean up the place.


    As I looked around the devastated village, I knew I had to do something to protect these people. I had the power and the knowledge to make this village safe, and I couldn''t let them live in fear every night.


    I didn''t know how they survived until now, but I''m going to make sure that they won''t have to ever worry about the night coming.


    I started by gathering as many resources as I could find. I went to the nearby forest and chopped down trees, collecting wood for walls and fences. It was a tedious task but luckily the village was surrounded by a big forest, and with me chopping down the trees, I obtained wood while also taking out the places where the zombies could hide in the daytime. My iron axe even broke two times, so I had to buy another two from the weapon smith villager. But after half a day of chopping trees, replanting, and using bonemeal to fast grow them I finally felt that I had enough resources to start working.


    As I worked on building the defenses, I noticed some of the villagers watching me from afar. They seemed hesitant to approach me, but I knew that they trusted me, especially after what happened last night. So, I invited them to help me with the construction, and they gladly accepted after I explained what I intended to do.


    Together, we worked tirelessly throughout the day, building walls, fences, and a watchtower. But while working with them I started to observe some stuff about those villagers, while they could build and break blocks unlike the game, they couldn''t break blocks as fast as me with the same tools, actually, it took three times more hits to brake a block then I would, and even when they put blocks down they were slower then me, it took them three seconds for them to place one block down, and it''s not like they did it intentionally, they just couldn''t do it faster, the system didn''t let them.


    What else surprised me, was the fact that they could craft in their inventory like me, they could use even the crafting table, but I didn''t know if they were limited by skills as well.


    We also created traps and defenses to prevent monsters from approaching the village. Even if it was an empty trench, it was enough to do its job.


    With everyone working together, we managed to finish the wall before the night came. The wall was 5 cubes high with wooden planks and wood as pillars, it was 4 blocks thick and you could even walk on top of it, as gates we used normal fence gates, then I started to craft and trade some lanterns so I could illuminate the wall, now the zombies couldn''t come in, nor could they spawn in anymore.


    I looked around at our creation, feeling proud of what we had accomplished together. The village was now safe and secure, and the people could finally sleep soundly at night.


    But the peace and happiness were interrupted by a shout from the gate.


    "What happened here?! "


    POV: Unknown villager


    I arrived at the neighboring village when the sun was almost down. This village looked better than the one I was staying in and it even had a wooden fence surrounding it. It wasn''t the best defense I''ve seen but it kept most of the monsters outside. The path was well-lit with plenty of lanterns so the monsters won''t be able to spawn inside.


    The sun started to set, and everyone was getting back in their homes. It was too late for me to trade with someone, so I will be sleeping here tonight.


    I went towards the village head house and knocked on the wooden door.


    "Toby, It''s me! Open the door, please. "


    I suddenly heard some running footsteps coming closer and then the door was opened with force.


    The person opening the door was a tall man with brown hair, an average nose, and wore an armorer uniform.


    "I don''t recognize anyone by the name of ''Me'', from what I remember."


    Toby was a friend that I met in the academy in the first year, we got along well since we came from the same background from a faraway village. When he heard about my exile, he was furious, but unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything, instead, he recognized the place that I was going to telling me that it was close to his village, he told me that he''d get back to the village once he finishes the year to help me with what he could. He was a true friend who managed to help me with resources when I had a rough time in my village.


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    "Haha, Toby. I know that you''re a dad now, but you don''t have to make so many dad jokes. "


    "What do you mean, Bobby? Of course, I have to, it''s my responsibility to do that as a dad! "


    I smiled at that and went into his house. I sat down on the wooden chair, and he gave me a loaf of bread with a bowl of milk. I thanked him for the food and began to eat.


    He sat opposite me and waited patiently for me to finish the food. Once I was done he asked me:


    "So you came for the usual items? "


    "Yes of course, but not only that. I''m one potion away from getting to the next level, so I wanted to ask you if you have any materials for the next recipes. "


    "You know that I''m not as smart as you to remember what you''ll have for the next level. What do you need more exactly? "


    "Well at level 4 Brewing, I can finally do the strength and jump boost potions. So I need rabbit''s foot or some powdered blaze."


    "Wow, so you''re entering the last stage in the beginner alchemist. Congratulations! I think I have some rabbit''s foot from hunting around here. But you know well that I don''t have access to blaze powder, only the royalty and the academy have access to them."


    "Yeah, I know that. I guess I''ll take what rabbit''s foot you have then. Is it ok if I use the usual trade? "


    "Of course, one swiftness potion for 15 sugar canes, and another one for the rabbit''s foot that I have. I don''t think I have more than 3 unfortunately."


    "Thank you, it''s always a pleasure to trade with you. "


    "I could''ve given you those for free, but you''re too stubborn to accept them."


    "You know me well Toby."


    I said that with a smile.


    "Ok, now that the business is over, tell me how are things going in your village."


    As we got more comfortable, I told him about the progress that I''ve made with the village, about how I finally managed to light it up enough, so that monsters won''t spawn in the houses or the middle of the village, I also told him about the next project of putting a fence around the village to be fully secured.


    He told me about how his business was going, and how hard it is to take care of a kid that can run faster than you.


    We didn''t talk for too long since I was tired from my journey. So he guided me to an empty room to rest, while telling me we could continue tomorrow.


    I was suddenly awakened by the screams and shouting of people outside. I quickly got up and took out my iron sword and ran outside to see what was happening.


    When I arrived at the door I saw some men with stone swords and shields running towards the wooden fence. I followed them and saw what made the village panic.


    One fence was missing which means that now zombies and skeletons were walking in the village. I quickly drank a swiftness potion and started running towards the closest zombie. I slashed him with unmatched speed and defeated him without a problem, but I didn''t get to rest as an arrow barely passed me, I then turned at the skeleton that was preparing another arrow and ran towards him.


    I kept doing that with every monster that I could, and lucky, there weren''t too many monsters. So with the help of the villagers, we defeated them all relatively quickly with no casualties.


    I wanted to ask what happened here and who would do such a horrible thing. But before I could do that the culprit showed itself.


    All of a sudden, a tall black monster with purple eyes appeared in the middle of everyone while holding the missing fence in his arms.


    I looked in horror at the creature, I heard legends about the tall monster, the only one smart enough to pick up blocks and able to teleport at will, because of that, only a knight with full iron armor and a shield can defeat it. But it''s hardly killed even then since it usually runs if he''s outmatched.


    It was the Enderman.


    As I was thinking what to do, Toby finally came running unusually fast with an iron chest plate and helmet, he then took out an iron sword and a shield and attacked the Enderman but didn''t hit him since he teleported.


    Toby lifted his shield for any attacks and waited for the monster to appear. Not too long after, the Enderman appeared a few blocks away from him looking at him and then at us, he left the fence down and teleported away, but no matter how much we waited he didn''t reappear.


    "I think he left..."


    "Yes, I think we intimidated him with our numbers."


    "OK people, we won! We fought the monsters and came on top. Pick up the loot from the monsters and get back to your homes, tomorrow we''re going to celebrate this victory! "


    Toby shouted to people. The people shouted in joy and started to clean up the place.


    "Thank you, Bobby, you did a great job defeating so many monsters. Because of you, we didn''t have any casualties."


    "It''s only natural that I''ll help when I can. But now I''m worried about my village."


    "I can see why you would, but it''s suicide to travel at night. Rest well and you can go when the first ray of light comes."


    "That''s true, I''ll do that then."


    I then went back to my room and tried to get back to sleep.


    The next morning, when the first sign of light rose I quickly got up, said goodbye to my friend, and ran towards my village.


    The journey was more dangerous than usual, I saw some monsters so I had to hide from time to time. But after a few tiring hours, I finally arrived at the village. And what I saw there horrified me.


    What I expected to see was just a few houses and the villagers working normally, instead what greeted me was an imposing wall of wood. It was 5 blocks tall with even a path to walk on the walls. I only saw this kind of wall at the great noble''s estate. And that took weeks to finish with experienced people.


    But what I saw was equally impressive and it''s only been done in one day that I''ve been gone. I don''t know if I should be glad or horrified by this.


    I decided to get quickly inside and see if the villagers were ok.


    I entered the village through the gate fences and started to shout when I saw a person.


    "What happened here?! "

 Chapter 12. The village head is back

    From the gate came an angry villager, he was a bit different from the others, he was a cleric, and I could tell that since he was wearing the same outfit as the cleric in the game, he also had hair, unlike the other villagers. Once he arrived closer, he looked at everyone with worried eyes, after he made sure that everyone was ok he finally looked at me.


    "So are you the one that made all of this? "


    The villager looked at me with hostility and spoke a full sentence, which surprised me.


    "Uhh... Yes, my name is-"


    "I don''t care who you are! With what purpose did you come here? Who sent you? "


    The villager looked worried at my iron armor. But before I could try to respond another villager spoke up for me.


    "Village Head! Hero no danger, hero saves village from monsters at night! "


    "Are you saying that you were attacked by monsters last night as well?"


    The villagers nodded their heads.


    "You there! Tell me what happened in detail."


    He said that while pointing at me.


    "I don''t know why you''re so mad but ok. I came from faraway lands in the hope of finding people to trade, I followed a map that I found in an ancient desert temple that led me here. Once I got here I made some treadings with the people in this village. But it was getting late, so I asked if I could stay here. Bob showed me an empty house where I slept until I heard a scream that woke me up. I saw that the village was attacked by monsters so I quickly defeated them. There was also an Enderman here, but he quickly teleported once I got close to it. After that fight I realized how defenseless this village was, so with the help of everyone here we built this magnificent wall."


    The villager looked intense at me, but I could see that he wasn''t hostile anymore just cautious.


    "Bob the librarian, is that true? "


    "Yes village head!"


    "Thank you..... hero, for the help. Sorry if I seemed aggressive, I''ve just come from the neighborhood village that was attacked last night by the monsters with the help of an Enderman. I was worried that my village was also attacked so I tried to get back as quickly as possible, but the road was more populated with monsters than usual, which only furthered my worries. Thank you again for building this wall, it''s a great peace of mind, for my people."


    "Oh, it sounds like you''ve been through a lot. And don''t worry about that, I only did what anyone with power and knowledge would do."


    I tried to comfort the village head by saying that, but he only looked like I was a weirdo for saying that.


    "If you say so... Can you tell me where you came from hero? you don''t look like the people from this kingdom."


    "I- Uh... I came from a faraway land where everyone looked similar to me, but I came in peace and intending to trade."


    I started to get worried about those questions. I just found out that there is a kingdom, so that means that this world is much more advanced than the one in the game. Even this villager is capable of having a full conversation with me, which made me happy and horrified by its implications. I just don''t want to be hunted because I look different.


    The villager looked at me and then responded.


    "I think I read something about you at the academy, are you perhaps a wondering trader? "


    "Wandering trader? I guess you could call me that."


    Let''s just go with that, until I''ll find more information about this world and its inhabitants.


    "Well wandering hero, we welcome you with open arms! And thank you for helping this village so much. People of the village! it''s time to celebrate with milk and bread for our new wall and it''s the hero!"


    The village started to cheer loudly and chant our names.


    """Hero!""" """Village Head!"""


    They started to bring bread and wooden bowls filled with milk. I also brought the apples that I had which they happily took.


    The party lasted until nightfall, then everyone retreated into their home to rest their tired body.


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    I was also preparing to go to some sleep when I was summoned to the stone church, where the village head lived.


    Once I arrived at the wooden door, I started to get anxious, and despite that, I still knocked.


    "Come in! "


    The voice responds from the other side. I opened the door and finally saw what the interior looked like. The floor and the walls were made with cobblestone, on the right side of the building was a lone white bed, and on the left side were some chests and barrels as storage. What caught my eye though was at the end of the room. There was a campfire with a trapdoor above it, and on top of the trap door was the brewing station. It was a weird setup for sure, but before I could examine it more carefully, the villager spoke.


    "I''m sorry if I scared you when we first met. I thought you were sent by the nobles to cause me trouble. Not everyone can afford a full iron armor, and with your..... appearance, that made me even more skeptical."


    Looks like this villager has some problems with the nobility, I wonder why? And why is he so different from the other villagers I saw?


    "Don''t worry about it, I made a drastic change to the village without your permission, it''s understandable for you to panic. But I see you different than the others.... "


    "Thank you for understanding. And it''s not that I''m different. It''s that everyone in here is a person touched by the corruption. Once a person is corrupted they start to lose hair and intelligence, usually to the point that they can''t even speak. It''s a miracle that they can even speak at all."


    "Interesting, I never heard about something like that. But what are you doing here? You don''t seem to be corrupted."


    "I don''t know how your kingdom is run, but even here, this is not common knowledge. I only found out about them by accident, while I was browsing through the library. They''re not a common occurrence, and the ones that do appear are usually exiled to a faraway village for fear of spreading corruption to others. As for why I''m here. Let''s say that some nobles didn''t like me, and decided to punish me this way."


    Now that''s a bomb full of information. There is something that corrupts people in this world. The civilization is advanced enough to write down information in books, and I think the nobles have control of what regular people can do and can''t. I wonder how much they keep hidden from the community folks. And what did the village head do, that infuriated them so much for him to be punished as such?


    "Sounds like you have a rough time then. I''m also curious if your name is Bob by any chance?"


    "No, of course not! Only the villagers in here have that name as an easier time to remember and communicate."


    "Ok, that''s pretty weird, so what is your name if you don''t mind me asking?"


    "I can see your confusion, but don''t worry. My name is pretty distinct from the others. My name is Bobby!"


    He said that while spreading his arms, to show how grandiose it was. I looked at his face in case this was a joke but he was pretty serious, and I didn''t know how to respond. So then I looked at the brewing station and asked:


    "I see you''re a cleric, do you also make your potions by any chance?"


    I asked that since in the game, the brewing station is only used to get the cleric job, and ironically not selling any potions, with maybe the XP bottle if you count it.


    "Oh yes! I''m fortunate enough to be almost at level 4, at my brewing skill."


    He said that with pride. So they do have the skills system, I wonder if they know what''s the maxed level. And how can I ask him about that without giving myself away?


    "Wow, congratulations! But why do you have this set up?"


    "Oh, I don''t have access to blaze powder, so I have to use the campfire to heat the station. Unfortunately, I also have to control the heat, since it doesn''t give the perfect temperature like the blaze powder does."


    "So you''re using the trap door to block or let the heat in? That''s pretty ingenious."


    "Thank you. You know my job and my skills, but what are yours if you don''t mind me asking?"


    I started to panic a bit since I didn''t know if we even had the same system, or what was a normal amount of levels to have for a skill. I then quickly opened my Skills tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    10.600/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 3


    340/10.000


    ________________________________________


    It had gone up from the building of the wall and a few more trades with the villagers, but I didn''t know if what I had was a lot or too little. But I decided to be truthful and improvise based on his reaction.


    "I only have level 4 in Crafting and level 3 in Trading."


    "Trading? I never heard of that skill before, is that related to your wondering trader job?"


    "Yes, I was as surprised as you when I suddenly got this out of nowhere."


    That''s a pretty nice cover-up story if I say so myself. Can''t answer questions that I don''t know the answers to.


    "I''m sorry to hear that, I hope it''s not too bad of a skill though."


    "I don''t think it''s that bad, since it can give me a very small discount to certain trades."


    "That''s pretty good! Be careful who you''ll tell that around those lands since some people would be very interested in your skill."


    Bobby warned me, which made me realize that I was too open with my secrets, and only because I finally had a normal conversation in maybe a month.


    "I''ll be careful from now on then."


    "That''s good. Do you have a plan on what to do next?"


    Once I was asked that, I realized that I don''t have a lot of plans, I bearly have short-term plans, but I don''t think I made any long-term plans besides maybe getting home. And I don''t even know how to do that, or if it''s possible to do it on the first chance. The more I thought about this, the more I realized how much I distracted myself with work, so I don''t have to face the new reality.


    "From your expressions, I''m guessing that not. Don''t worry, you can stay here as much as you like until you figure things out."


    I looked at him and saw that he was pretty uncomfortable with my reaction. How kind of him to comfort me, I should probably get some sleep after such an eventful day.


    "Thank you, Bobby, is it ok if I sleep in the same house as the last night?"


    "Yes of course! I''m sorry that I don''t have something more comfortable for a traveler like you."


    I smiled and told him not to worry as I retreated to my logging to sleep.


    Once I sat in the bed, I didn''t manage to sleep right away, all these new thoughts I had now hunting me. But after some time, the exhaustion finally caught on, and I managed to fall asleep.

 Chapter 13. Mysterious stranger?

    POV: Bobby


    The Trader closed the wooden door after he left. Whatever I expected to find when I returned, was surely not this, I still don''t know how to react to this encounter.


    The first time I saw the wall, I was impressed but also scared that maybe pillagers had raided the village and made it their base, but once I saw that everyone was safe and sound, the only worry left was the person standing in the middle of them all. He was a tall man, with a full iron armor on him which showed that he had power and wealth. I thought he was a knight sent by a noble to check on me, but I quickly dismissed that once I looked closer at his face, I saw his nose, or more so the lack of one. The more I looked the more things looked weird, but I didn''t manage to get too much information, unfortunately, because he was covered in iron armor.


    After I managed to calm down, I asked what happened while I was gone, and although I do care about my people, I know that they''re not the best storytellers. So I had to ask the Trader for more details. And while he told me a very short version of what happened, it was shocking nonetheless. The village was attacked by monsters as I feared, but the Trader managed to defeat them, and even chase the Enderman out of the village. I suspected that it was someone that I saw in the neighborhood village, which worried me. A story like that would be pretty shocking in general, one human against a wave of zombies and winning without any casualties. But the shocking part came after all that, together with the villagers they started to build a wall, not just a simple fence surrounding the village, no a full-on wall 5 blocks tall, and to finish all of that in just half a day, which is an impossible task to accomplish in the first place. But let''s just say that with enough manpower they managed to do that, another impossible task they managed to do was to gather all the materials for all of that. It takes an incredible amount of time to break the wooden blocks, even with the tools, and my villagers do not have an attention span long enough to break the trees. So that only leaves the Trader who either has a method to break blocks faster or already has a few stacks of wooden blocks in his inventory for some reason. But even with all that mystery I''m grateful for what he did, he did a better job in half a day than I did in a few weeks of working. I then decided to celebrate the new defense, to ease up the villagers after my outburst.


    After a while, I retreated to my home and told one of the villagers to call the Trader to my place once everything was over.


    After a few hours, I heard a knock at my door, and I let the Trader in. I did call him a trader, but I wasn''t too sure about that since I didn''t have too much information about that job in the first place, the only thing that I know is that a wandering trader walks vast amounts of land to trade with different people with exotic items. I tried to get some information out of him about his skills especially, and as I thought, he had a skill that I never heard of, the Trading skill, which is what he said it''s true then it''s a good skill that could attract the attention of some unwanted people, unfortunately, he doesn''t know how he got the job in the first place. He also seemed interested in my brewing station, so there''s a potential trade in the future if he wants some potions. Maybe we''ll exchange some information as well, I''m pretty curious about what the world outside the borders looks like. I asked what plans he had for the future, and suddenly he froze, then started to make a painted face so I had to end the talk there, since we were both tired, most likely.


    Now alone again, I had to think for the next plan, since the village is safer than ever now. I looked around my room and stopped at my homemade brewing station.


    "I should level up in brewing."


    Even if I was tired, the excitement of getting to the next level after one more potion gave me enough energy. I took an awkward potion from a beral and entered the brewing station inventory. I then put the potion at the base and added some sugar to the top as the main ingredient. Now, usually, I''ll use some blazepoder as a heat source, but unfortunately, I didn''t have any right now so I had to improvise, I opened the trapdoor under the station and let the heat of the wash all over it. I could now see the brewing progress bar.


    Now that contraction would''ve been a breakthrough in the field of alchemy if it only didn''t have this one major flaw. When you put the blaze powder as a heat source you don''t have to worry about the process. But with this method, you have to control how much heat should stay, otherwise, the potion bottles would break from overheating, and you had to guess most of the time when the time was right to do the change since there was no visual indicator of the change until it was too late.


    On top of that, after all that suffering, your final product would be only half as good as a normal one. My potions last for around 30 minutes, while a perfectly good potion lasts for a full hour. But that didn''t discourage me since, even with all of those, I still get the same amount of XP as a normal potion.


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    Finally, after the last particle ran through, the potion was done. I then quickly checked my skill tab:


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 5


    312/1.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 3


    10/10.000


    _______________________________________________


    "Finally! I''m level 3 now."


    I started to do a small victory dance and went to bed after realizing how late and tired I was.


    "I wonder if the Trader has some blazepoder, or knows where to get some. I''ll ask him tomorrow if he''s ok."


    I then went to sleep with a smile on my face


    POV: ???????


    The light of the day woke me up from my deep slumber. It wasn''t the best sleep that I had, but it wasn''t the worst either. The bed in Minecraft is a miracle of sleep, which I deeply appreciate. Now I had to decide what to do with my life in this world. I didn''t want to have a mental breakdown right now, in this unknown world. So I pushed all my unease into one small box threw it into the deepest parts of my mind, and dealt with the aftermath another time, a better time hopefully.


    "Let''s decide on some plans then."


    After some thinking, I decided for my long-term plans, I should find as much information as possible about different worlds and how they work. They have about 3 dimensions in this world, so it must have something. One other thing would be to defeat the Ender Dragon. Usually in the game, once she''s defeated, the game is theoretically over and you even get an end-screen conversation with some unknown beings. Maybe that''s a way for me to get back home.


    As for short-term plans. I think I should level up my skills, especially the crafting one so I can craft some diamond armor, maybe even a netherite one. But I don''t know at what level I can do that, so I don''t know how long it would take me.


    I also want to finish the defense of this village with an iron golem, so I won''t have to worry about them once I leave. If I can make one in the first place.


    So the next course of action would be, to do some mining and get a lot of iron. I should also ask Bobby if he has a pumpkin by any chance since I didn''t see one growing in this village.


    With all of those new plans for me to follow, I exited the house with a smile on my face.


    I then went to some villagers to do some more trading to level up my skills, and because they restocked their merchandise only twice per day. Once in the morning and once at noon.


    But on my way to find the Fletcher, Bobby found me and asked me a bizarre question.


    "Morning Trader! I''m happy to see you doing well. I wanted to ask if you sell blazepoder by any chance."


    I wondered why would he ask me that, and then I remembered that the wondering trader has some unique trades, unlike the normal villager. And since I''m supposed to be one, he asked me just in case.


    "Sorry, Bobby. But I don''t have any blaze roads or blaze powder on me. But I do know where to get them from."


    "You do!?"


    "Yes of course. Blaze roads comes from the monsters named Blaze, after you get the item, you can craft it into blaze powder."


    "I never heard of that monster before, where can you find them?"


    "You find them in the Nether fortress, usually there''s a spawner that pops them into existence. But be careful when farming them, since they can catch you on fire with their fireballs."


    "I don''t recall seeing a Nether kingdom on the maps at the academy."


    "Oh no, the Nether is another dimension, where the world has a ceiling, most of the blocks are red, with lakes filled with lava and danger at every corner."


    "That sounds like Hell!"


    "It has that nickname."


    Bobby looked at me like I was a madam by telling him all of this.


    "Then how are you supposed to be able to get to that dimension?"


    "Well, the only way to get there is to use a portal made with obsidian."


    "You''re talking ability the unbreakable block? How are you supposed to make a portal out of a block you can''t mine?"


    "It''s not that it''s unbreakable, it''s more like it''s very hard to break and you need to do it with a diamond pickaxe to get the block."


    "Oh, then that''s an impossible task then."


    The village head lowered his shoulders in defeat after hearing that. And I could see why, neither of us had a high enough level at crafting, and my trading skill was not high enough to access the diamond pickaxe trade. But that didn''t mean we had no hope.


    "That''s not the only way to obtain obsidian through."


    " Is there another way?"


    I could see hope returning to his eyes.


    "Yes! The obsidian block is not naturally spawned, it''s the aftermath of water running into a lava source. And with that information, we can bring lava to where we want to make the portal and use the process to make the obsidian in the shape of the portal."


    "That sounds as complicated, as mining the obsidian itself."


    "It''s not as complicated as it sounds. I can do this alone with no problem. My only question for you is if you want to come with me.


    Bobby looked shocked at my question. But not for long before he was in deep thoughts.


    " Yes, this is a chance for me to grow, even if it''s dangerous."


    "Perfect, then I want you to do something while I''ll mine for resources."


    "I don''t know too much about mining, unfortunately. "


    "Oh, don''t worry I''ll be able to do that by myself. I want you to find some pumpkins if you can."


    "Pumpkins? We don''t have it here, but I guess I can get some from the neighborhood village. What for?"


    "Don''t worry, it would be for the defense of the village while we will be gone."


    "I don''t see the coloration between those two, but I''ll see what I can do."


    He then left towards his house, probably to get some provisions for the journey.


    I also continued on my way to trade with some villagers, I needed more emeralds and more XP, the grind never stops.

 Chapter 14. Lets make an iron golem

    After I finished trading with the villagers, I decided to start working on the mine.


    I started with doing a small hut in the corner of the village, then I dug straight down for about 20 blocks where I made a room 6 blocks wide and 2 blocks tall.


    "Ok, I don''t want to do a staircase as I did at my house, and I think one of the villagers will get lost in here. So it''s better to just use the latter, and make my storage room here."


    I put down some more chests and furnaces to smelt while I was mining.


    With all of that done, I started to strip mine for iron. I dug a tunnel two blocks tall for about 50 blocks then move three blocks to the left or right and mine back towards the hub, and repeat the process.


    Once I was out of room to mine from my hub, I would just go down a level and repeat the process.


    I don''t know how long I''ve been in the mines, but a voice brought me back from my grinding.


    "What''s happening here!?"


    I quickly climbed up the stairs to see what was the problem. Once arrived, I saw Bobby looking very confused at my mine lobby.


    "Hey, Bobby! What brings you to my humble mine?"


    "Humble? Mine? What did you do here Traveler?"


    "Well, I told you that I''ll mine for some resources. I want to get you an iron armor before we go."


    "When you said you''ll go mining, I expected that you''ll go searching for a cave to mine from. Not disappear for three days and mine under the village."


    "Has it been really that long? It''s hard to tell the time when you are underground. I even put a bed here to not waste time by keep going to the surface."


    "That would explain why you didn''t come up. But what did you do here exactly? I only see some tunnels. And while I''m impressed with your mining speed, I don''t see the point of mining like this."


    "It''s true that is not the most efficient way to mine, it''s still at the top. It''s called strip mining, where you choose a path to dig and then start another tunnel two blocks to the side. That way you can see the resources from all the sides without mining every block."


    "That''s actually.... pretty ingenious. I expected at most you''ll do a tunnel 5 blocks wide and put a railway to move faster."


    "That''s also a way, but it''s pretty inefficient. Did you manage to get the pumpkins?"


    "Yes, I don''t know why you''ll need it though. If you wanted a pumpkin pie you could''ve told me to get that."


    He told me that while handing me the 5 pumpkins. Fortunately, Bobby didn''t have to drop them on the ground for me to pick them up, he just gave them to me normally through a handshake.


    "While I would like to eat a pie, this is not why I requested them. I want to use them to make an iron golem."


    "Iron Golem? What is an iron golem?"


    I looked at him in case he was joking with me, but from the look on his face, he didn''t seem so. It''s surprising that he doesn''t know about them, since in the game, players usually use villagers to make iron farms. Which is an inhumane thing to do if you actually think about the implications of what you''re doing to those poor people.


    "An Iron golem is a creature made completely out of iron that would protect people from monsters or other people if they attack someone in the village. They are tall, white with long arms to attack, it has around 100 HP, and does 15 damage or more to almost every monster."


    " 100 HP! Does 15 damage or more! What kind of monster is that? The legendary diamond sword was rumored to do around 7 damage, and you''re telling me you want to make a monster that punches me dabble that?!"


    I''ve seen Bobby shocked a few times since I met him, and that wasn''t a long time ago, but I think I just reached a new level of shock for him, and it was amusing to see it.


    "Precisely so! Think about it. We''re going on a dangerous journey for more than one day, and while I do think the walls are good enough to keep the villagers safe, I would feel much better if I knew that an iron golem would protect the people in case of an accident."


    Bobby started to think about the suggestion that I said. But not too long after he nodded his head to show his approval of my idea.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    "So how do you make an iron golem? I never even heard about him, and I don''t know how you know about them."


    "Well, with something of that strength, it needs a lot of materials, 4 blocks of iron, and one pumpkin more exactly."


    "That''s a lot of iron, it would take a few weeks of mining to get that much iron. And it would be pretty expensive to buy it as well if we even get the chance to buy it."


    He wasn''t so shocked anymore to my disappointment, I think he''s either starting to get used to it or gave up understanding me.


    "There''s no need to worry about that since I already got all the iron that we needed and more!"


    I then showed him a separate room that was full of furnaces running. It was too hot when they were all smelting the iron and other ores that I found so I made a separate room to not my the whole mine a sauna. I quickly got in and took what ores that were already turned into Ingots and got out while closing the door behind me.


    Besides the door sat Bobby with a shocked face again.


    Yes! There was still hope for some more surprises in the future.


    "How much did you mine Trader?"


    "Hmm... Excluding everything else besides the iron. I have a total of 112 iron Ingots."


    I quickly looked at him again for any good reaction, but he just turned around and climbed up the stairs to the surface and then yelled from the top with a monotone voice.


    "I''ll be waiting for you up here until you''re done with the preparations!"


    "Well, that was a reaction I did not expect."


    I said that to myself.


    But I then quickly got back to work. I took all the iron I had and craft it into iron blocks, iron armor, iron tools, and the last piece of the puzzle a scissor. All of this took me about two hours to finish, and then I finally stepped outside the mine after three days.


    The light of the sun almost blinded me once I opened the door. I was too used to the weak lite of the torches so I had to take a moment to get used to the new environment.


    Once I was able to adjust to the new light I went a bit further from the mine and built a 3 blocks tall cage and started to build the T shape of the golem, I then finished everything by putting the pumpkin on top.


    Of course, nothing happened, since the pumpkin hasn''t been sheered. But a voice interrupted me right as I was about to do that.


    "Trader! You managed to prepare everything you need? What''s up with the big box?"


    "Oh, Bobby! Yes I did, I''m trying now to make the golem. As for the purpose of the box.....Well the funny thing about me is that I know how to make an iron golem, but I never tried it before, so I don''t know how the golem would react once he comes to life. But you know the saying. It''s never too late to try!"


    A look of horror appeared on his face.


    "Trader n-"


    *Poff*


    He was Interrupted by a sudden smokescreen appearing in the box.


    We both started to cough from the sudden smoke, and after a little while I was finally able to see the golem.


    He was tall enough to almost reach me, he had long arms that reached the ground, a big iron chest, and the head looked pretty similar to a villager. His red eyes started to look up at me.


    "Uh... Hello?"


    "What happened? did it work?"


    "Yes, and he seems peaceful for now."


    I then tried to give him a few simple commands, that he followed without a problem. I quickly broke the box for him to be able to move around, which he did not long after.


    "It-it looks so majestic. I can feel the power emanating from him. Does he follow only your command?"


    "I don''t know, try to ask him something."


    He looked unsure at me but he still tried.


    "Move to the right... please?"


    The golem looked at Bobby with curiosity but didn''t follow his request. I said the same order and he did it without skipping a beat.


    We tried a few more things with him and found out that, while he does follow every command of the creator, he can only follow simple commands like, go there, attack, and sit down. You can also transfer or share the authority with others which was a good thing since that meant we can leave it to one of the villagers from here in case an emergency happens.


    But first, we had to introduce the golem to the village and hope that they''ll accept him and not be scared.


    We didn''t walk too much before we arrived at the center of the village. The people started to gather already after the commotion we caused with the big guy. They didn''t have the courage to get too close to him, unfortunately.


    "Brothers of this village! I brought here a new family member, someone that is not afraid of the night, someone that will fight the monsters to protect us! So please, make our new guardian feel welcome."


    After the impressive speech was done. The villagers started to slowly get closer to us. Some of them even touched the gentle giant, with no reaction other than a curious gaze.


    After they saw that he wasn''t dangerous, they got more comfortable around him, and one of them even said something interesting:


    "Guardian, Big Bob! "


    Once everyone heard that they started to hum at each other for a bit before they all agreed and said it again.


    """Welcome, Big Bob!"""


    I watched in fascination how each village welcomed the new guardian.


    "Well big guy looks like you have a name now. Welcome to the family Big Bob!"


    Once I said that I saw a quick flash of light going through his ruby eyes. But I don''t know if that was something that I imagined or really saw.


    O decided not to stay too much on that and told Bobby that I''ll go to get the portal ready. He told me he understood, and that he''ll stay up here


    to sort things out.


    So after I''ve been outside for a few hours, I now go back into the mines. This time with the objective of caring filled buckets with lava to open a portal to hell. What could go wrong with that?


    After I got back to the mining hub, I crafted a few empty buckets and went into one cave system that I found while strip mining. I keep going down until I saw the soft glowing light of the lava.


    I quickly collect what I needed and went back to a room that I specially prepared for the portal.


    It was room in the deep slate layer for extra safety, I had to carefully make the shape of the portal since I was playing with fire and I only had one source of water.


    But once I transformed the last block of obsidian, I took a breath of relief while looking at the masterpiece.


    I felt proud of what I did, scared of what I was about to do, and finally determined to see it done until the end.


    I then took out the flint and steel and lit up the portal.

 Chapter 15. The Nether

    Purple particulars started to gather around the newly lit fire.


    They began to consume the tall flame and then moved to the middle of the portal. A distorted image started to appear in the empty frame, but not for long before it cleared itself.


    On the other side, I could see the red ground spreading everywhere, and lava falling from the sky.


    "It''s more creepy to see it in person than on a screen, that''s for sure."


    I passed my hand through the portal and felt the heat of the nether. I felt like I was in a room filled with furnaces and they were all smelting or cooking something. I don''t know how the fire resistance potion or the enchantment works, but I sure hope that it can alleviate some of the heat since it would be a nightmare to wear armor in there.


    I finally gathered enough courage to step through the portal, and a wave of heat washed all over me. I had to quickly take the helmet off my head since I couldn''t handle the heat. The rest of the armor was still as hot but it was still bearable. But I wouldn''t like to move too much with armor on, less much so fighting in one.


    Well, have to move carefully here then. I then started to build a small cobblestone house to cover the portal. I didn''t want to be stranded here after a ghast blows out the portal for having a bad day.


    It didn''t take long before I was finished with the stone house, then I quickly got into it only to be impressed how similar to the game it was. It wasn''t complete darkness, even in this enclosed spaces without a light source.


    I then went back to the Overworld and was immediately more comfortable with less heat bothering me.


    "Now that the preparations are done, I should call Bobby as well. I hope I''ll get a good reaction out of him this time as well."


    I quickly climbed the stairs to the surface and went looking for the village head. Fortunately, he wasn''t too hard to find, he was still in the middle of the village trying to show people how to use the golem. I decided to watch from the sideline until everything was done, and while I did wait for a bit, I was not getting bored looking at the villagers that managed to order the golem to accidentally destroy a house.


    After everything was done and fixed, I brought Bobby to the portal room.


    "Wow! You weren''t kidding when you said that Nether was another dimension. And you actually managed to make obsidian, the unbreakable block."


    He then looked closer into the portal only to see a wall of cobblestone.


    "I don''t see the red world you described to me though."


    "Oh don''t worry about that, just take this armor and shield, and cross to the other side."


    Bobby looked at the items in my hand, then at me, then back to my hands. He looked surprisingly touched by this gesture, he almost cried as well but managed to hold it in.


    "Are you ok Bobby? Did something happen, did I go too far? I''m sorry I didn''t mean that."


    He then looked me in the eyes and said:


    "Don''t say sorry Trader. I''m just overwhelmed by what you did to me. You saved my village, built a wall, made an iron golem as a guardian for the people, then opened the portal to another dimension just so you can help me look for ingredients for my alchemy, and now you''re giving me a full iron set of armor without me saying thank you or paying you in any way. Sorry for the outburst, but I want to thank you for what you did for me, for what you did for the whole village."


    After he said that, he left the room in a hurry.


    "I feel like I shouldn''t follow him right now. His emotions are in a mess."


    I was taken by surprise, by the sudden change in Bobby. But if I tried to think about everything from his perspective I would be shocked as well. A person suddenly comes and saves your family from an accident, looks at your broken home, and decided to build you a new one, then he asks you about how your studies go, only to tell him that you''ve been thrown out of the school because you got in a fight with the rich kid there. Then like a hero he just brought you to a better school than before by paying everything up already. And all of that from a stranger that you know nothing about, and expects nothing in return.


    Yeah, I think that''s an appropriate reaction to have, especially because we meet just a week ago.


    After a little while, Bobby came back looking much better, but still had a little red around his eyes.


    "Thank you for waiting, and sorry for that shameful display. I wanted to tell you, something Trader, I know I don''t have much to give to you, but I want you to know why I''m here, and how much this meant to me."


    After that, he proceeds to tell me his story, how he got the job as a cleric, how that opened an opportunity to get to the academy, how he tried to learn everything he could to change the life of his village to a better one, how he made friends in the first year and had high grades, and then everything changed from the second year when he refused to join the noble group, how he still tried to persevere through all of the bullyings and even catch the attention of an official from the palace.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    But it all came to an ending once the nobles heard about that, and framed him for stealing from the school, once at the trial, he was given a harsh punishment without the option to even defend himself. The punishment was equal to death since he had to take care of an infected village, they hoped for him to get infected as well, and die in a monster attack. But after he got here, he took pity on those people, he repaired their homes, thought them how to grow crops, and even wanted to make them a wall for protection until I came.


    Of course, even if he was working in the village, he didn''t forget to grind for the next level in his profession, he didn''t give up, he wanted to get back and take revenge on those who wronged him.


    After he finished saying his story, I learned a lot about this world, about what he went though, and how dangerous people can be here, more so than the monsters of the night.


    But not long after he finished his story, he just put the iron helmet on his head and went through the portal.


    "Bobby no-"


    It was too late, he already passed through the portal, but he didn''t get too far before he stopped, and threw his helmet on the ground, gasping for air.


    "It''s too hot..."


    I then followed him through the portal and asked if he was ok to continue.


    "I''ll manage it!"


    He responded through gasps. He then started to walk towards the door and open it, and then froze in place.


    On the other side of the door lay the vast world of the Nether. Rivers of lava fell from the ceiling into the melted sea, red rocks surrounded us from everywhere, and the occasional strider walked calmly on the sea of lava.


    "Is-Is this the Nether? How can life survive through such harsh conditions?"


    Now that''s a question that I didn''t have the answer to, but I decided not think too much about it since nobody is going to answer us.


    "Let''s go Bobby, but be careful of your surroundings, this place is filled with danger."


    He nodded to me in understanding, and then we started to walk in one direction and occasionally placed some cobblestones to mark our way back to the portal.


    We walked for a few hours before the scene started to finally change, it was a soulsands valley with the occasional bone blocks poking out the ground.


    "Why is there so much soulsand here? Are you telling me that even the nether wart is brought from here?"


    "Yep! But you can only find them in the fortress, unfortunately. Be careful, usually, there are a lot of skeletons here."


    Not too long after I said that, a skeleton appeared out of nowhere and started to shoot arrows at us.


    We quickly got in a fighting stance and started to run towards the enemy, with two of us it was easy to overwhelm him, but until we arrived at the skeleton, another two appeared and started to attack us. We did the same thing with them, but others appeared to take up their place.


    After a few minutes of fighting and overheating, we realized that this can''t continue, so we decided to just defend and pass the valley.


    After a few more stressful minutes under the shower of arrows, we managed to get out of that nightmare. Then I quickly made a small box so we can actually rest in peace, and replenish our energy.


    "That was more intense than the knight training. Why would anyone want to live in here?"


    "Well from what I understand, they don''t really have a choice. And even if we brought them to our world, they''ll turn into monsters for some reason."


    Bobby nodded his head in understanding, the asked me a question:


    "I always wanted to ask you this, but how do you know so much? how to make an iron golem, hot to make obsidian, even the knowledge of this dimension?"


    I knew that It would be a time where I''ll be asked this question, so I thought of an acceptable answer.


    "Once you travel as much as I did through the world and its ruins, you can find some pretty interesting stuff, the only downside is the loneliness in all those journeys."


    "I''ll love to hear your stories, and how you even started to make such a big decision to travel."


    I smiled awkwardly at that.


    "I''ll probably do that another time, I''m too tired now for storytelling."


    He nodded and took out some bread to eat, I also took mine and drank some water from my bucket to cool myself off.


    After an hour of rest, we decided to continue our journey. This time we meet the zombie pigmen, and I had to stop Bobby from making a mistake that would''ve killed both of us.


    After I explained to him the consequences of hitting one of them, he thanked me profusely for stopping him. Luckily like in the game, the zombie pigmen didn''t seem too interested in us, so we passed them with ease.


    We walked more until the scene changed again, this time to a red forest. The red trees were everywhere with light coming out of them.


    We watched in fascination at the beauty of this strange nature until a low growl got our attention.


    A huge hoglin was running full speed at us.


    "Sh- *Boom*"


    I was suddenly hit with force and fell on my back from the knockback. I quickly checked my health, only to see it went down by 10 points to my horror.


    "Trader no!"


    Bobby started to swing with rage at the new enemy. With a few grunts, I also got up and joined in the fight.


    The hoglin had a lot of HP so we had to stab and slash him a few times, but we Finally managed to defeat him after letting out one last cry of pain.


    Both of us were panting from the intensity of this fight.


    "Are you ok Trader? How much HP did you lose?"


    "I''m ok for now, but I don''t want to join a fight too soon-"


    But before I could finish my sentence, the sound of another low growl coming closer caught our attention, and this time it wasn''t just one. we both looked at each other and booked it from there, with the hoglins on our tails.


    We run as fast as we could, but even with the trees as obstacles they didn''t lose us, and everything got worse when we arrived at a dead end. We were too tired to fight, and Bobby couldn''t place blocks fast enough to tawer up like me. So we raised our shields and prepared for the worst.


    But when all hope seemed lost, a lone figure dropped from above right in front of us in the way of the upcoming death, it placed a mushroom on the floor and turned towards us with no fear about what was about to happen.


    We both waited in suspense for the upcoming collision, but instead of us being trampled by the pigs on steroids, they started to screech in fear and run back to where they came from.


    Bobby and I were too shocked to process what happened, but we didn''t have the luxury to stay shooked for too long, because a feminine voice got our attention.


    "What are you doing here outsiders!"

 Chapter 16. Hidden tribe

    A furious voice brought our attention to the hero. It was a tall woman that had a hoglin head, actually no! It was a hoglin head on top of the woman''s head like a tribesman that I''ve seen in movies from my world.


    She had red eyes that looked mad at us, black hair bearly seen under the hat, and wore clothes made of lather with some symbols painted on them. In her hand was a golden axe ready to strike us at any sudden movement.


    "Are you trying to take over this forest as well? it wasn''t enough that you stole all our striders, you want now to take our hunting grounds as well!


    What is she talking about? stealing striders, stealing a forest? Is she confusing us with someone else?


    " I don''t know what your talking about miss, we just got here and suddenly got attacked by that hoglins! "


    She looks suspiciously at us but lowered her axe.


    "Your ugly armor got me confused with the others from the fortress. But your not as arrogant as them, nor as good at fighting. So what are you two doing here?"


    I didn''t know if I should feel relieved or insulted by that comment, but we also lowered our weapons and relaxed our tense bodies.


    "We came here in search of blaze roads, can you perhaps help us with some information?"


    "Though luck for you guys, there''s only one fortress around here, and it''s occupied by outsiders like you. Except that they were actually smart, and came with enchanted armor for this unbearable heat."


    Ok, she was clearly trying to insult us at this point.


    "Well excuse us for being too poor to afford the advanced iron armor."


    "Yeah, whatever you say, outsider. So what''s your plan now?"


    While I was angry at her attitude, I had to calm myself down and talk with Bobby about what we should do now. But before we started to talk I asked one more question.


    "Uhh... do you by any chance have blaze powder to trade?"


    She looked suspiciously at me.


    "What do you have to trade outsider?"


    Happy that she was even willing to consider it, I quickly took on this opportunity and used my knowledge from the game.


    "In my travels, I stumbled upon a forgotten ruin, in there I found some records about your people. It was written that you called yourself the piglins, and you like to trade with gold."


    I then took out a gold ingot from my inventory in case I needed it for this occasion.


    For the first time, I saw her having another expression besides disgust and suspicion, it was a face of pure surprise. She then quickly grabbed our hands.


    "Follow me."


    She led us through the forest at a fast speed. and then we arrived at a wall of netherrack, she then started to knock twice on the wall. After a few seconds of silence, a voice was heard beyond the wall.


    "Who is it?"


    "It''s me, Undying flame, open this place up!"


    Not too late after that, an entrance was created by breaking the blocks. On the other side was a long tunnel with two piglins as the guards that had wooden pickaxes. The woman took our hands again and guided us deeper into the tunnel.


    We walked for around 10 minutes making turns from time to time before we finally arrived at the end.


    On the other side of the tunnel was a huge opening with tall red trees, their trunk was big enough that they even had houses on them, actually every house was in the trees, there were stair laters that helped with climbing in them, and every tree had a suspended bridge to connect them.


    On the ground people walked calmly through their day, some were just talking and farther from everyone else, were some people that trained with their crossbows.


    It was a unique and beautiful sight to see. This was vastly different from the game, this was a community, and even in this harsh environment, some people managed to live through all of it''s challenges.


    We arrived at the biggest tree that had a door in it.


    "You two stay here while I talk with the shaman."


    She then entered the house while closing the door with force.


    Now that we were alone, Bobby finally spoke.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "This is a fascinating place to be in, and it would be even better if we could trade for some alchemy materials. But Trader, is it really such a good idea to be in the middle of a village with unknown intentions?"


    "Bobby my friend, that''s a great point you bring up, but unfortunately I''m as clueless as you on this front. We will be going with the flow for now."


    He looked shocked at my casual reaction, and then just accepted the situation. Not too long after, the door opened, and the woman signaled us to come in.


    We entered the house tree, and were met with a huge room that had red vines coming from the ceiling. On the walls, there were frames with different items, from alchemy ingredients to gold and even one nephrite scrap. On the floor were empty potion bottles and behind the blue wood table, stood a shaman-looking pigling with a baby hoglin in his arms.


    He looked at us and gently petted the baby hog and spoke in a deep mysterious voice.


    "Ah, travelers from another world, I se- *Oink oink*


    Suddenly the baby hog started to move heretical in his arms while crying in furry.


    The man startled by the sudden movement dropped the animal.


    Once the hog got on his feet, he headbutted the shaman in the leg and ran into the next room while shorting.


    " Auci! Y-you... I''m so going to pork chop you so hard when you grow big and fat!"


    The mysterious atmosphere was abruptly stopped by the sudden comical event. The shaman looked much younger than I expected, he had blue hair and red eyes like the Flame girl, and he was about as tall as me and covered in robes of leather with more strange symbols.


    He then looked at us and coughed in awkwardness.


    "Hello there travels, I heard you wanted to trade with us using gold. We''re more than happy to do that of course. Just one small request from us."


    He then leaned on the table and suddenly changed his eyes color from red to blue, and in a threatening voice spoke.


    "Don''t. Endanger. The tribe."


    The air was so heavy that I thought I''ll suffocate, I then looked at Bobby and he didn''t look any better.


    "Y-yes, we promise."


    Once he heard that, his eyes got back to normal, and sat down on the blue chair.


    "I''m glad we came to an understanding. My name is Blue flame, I''m the shaman of this tribe. So what do you want to buy from us?"


    Bobby was the first to speak.


    "We want some brewing ingredients, more specifically, some blaze powder and I think magma cream for fire resistance potions."


    "Oh, I didn''t know your world also had shamans!"


    "Uh... We don''t really have them, or I haven''t heard about them, I''m a cleric, that''s my job chosen by the world."


    Bobby said that with pride.


    "Oh yes, I think I read about your world job system, but my ancestors didn''t manage to gather too much information unfortunately, since for some reason the system didn''t work in our world.


    " What?!"


    Both of us said in surprise. I then quickly tried to see if it was true. But the only tab that appeared was the Status one.


    _______________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name:???????


    Health: 20/20


    Attack: 1


    Defense: 15


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    _______________________________________________


    "It''s true! But why? how is this even possible?"


    "Yeah, and why would the skills tab just disappear?"


    "Are you saying you can open your Status tab?"


    "You can''t Bobby?"


    "No... "


    Now everyone looked at me with curiosity, which made me feel uncomfortable.


    "Hmm, that''s an interesting case that I haven''t heard or read about. I wonder why are you an exception."


    The shaman spoke while changing his eyes again.


    "I don''t know why myself, but this isn''t why we came here, we came to trade."


    "Hmm.... true, we don''t have too much blaze powder, but we can give you enough for about 20 gold ingots. Is that ok with you two?"


    I didn''t know if this was too much or too little for all the items. But I have over a stack of gold from my mining session, so I could afford it anyway. I then looked at Bobby and we both nodded our heads.


    "We''re going to take them."


    After I said that I dropped the bars on the table, which made the shaman smile.


    "I think I understand why those brutes in the bastions like to trade so much with your kin. I heard your name is Bobby, would you like to trade some recipes with me while I bring the ingredients?"


    Bobby''s eyes started to light with excitement and quickly followed Blue Flame to the other room, leaving me with the silent girl alone.


    "It''s been a while since I''ve seen him so excited about something. But if you managed to pass his test, that means you are trusted enough to not endanger the tribe."


    She then turned at me.


    "Don''t you feel hot in that armor?"


    "I do feel pretty heated in here, but you know what they say. Safety first!"


    The Undying Flame chuckled at that.


    "It does sound pretty smart, but I don''t know how wise it is to keep that armor around here. Follow me, those guys won''t come out for a good while if your friend is anything similar to my friend."


    She then left the house, and after a few seconds, I also followed her. We started to walk through the tribe, everyone looked at us and some even greeted us, or more likely they greeted Undying Flame. I even found something shocking through one of those interactions.


    "Good news Tribe Head, we got another healthy baby strider."


    So apparently the Undying Flame was the head tribe of this place, no wonder she was getting along so well with the shaman.


    "That''s good news Leaf, I''ll go there to check myself soon."


    She responded with enthusiasm, then walked with more speed towards the outer area of the tribe. We walked for 10 more minutes until we arrived at a pool of lava that had 5 Striders and 2 babies. They were bathing in the melting lava like it was nothing.


    Undying Flame got close to the nearest strider and started to do something I did not expect. She gently petted the head and then took out a wooden bowl and started to milk the strider. She then took out another bowl and filled it, then she gave one to me.


    "Drink this."


    I looked at the drink, and then at her, and back at my drink but didn''t move. She just smiled and drank her bowl of strider soup. After a few seconds of waiting and nothing happening, I decided to risk it as well.


    The liquid run through my throat, and it felt like finally having water after 3 days of walking in the hot desert, and it didn''t stop just there, the heat started to leave me, and I finally felt comfortable in my armor.


    "This will give you about an hour of fire resistance, how do you feel?"


    "This is amazing! I feel amazing, I feel like I can finally breathe normally."


    She just laughed at my comment.


    "I''m glad that helped you, unfortunately, we recently lost our bigger herd, so we have to ration what we have left."


    She said with a sad voice.


    "What happened?"


    "You remember when I made that comment about you two stealing the red forest?"

 Chapter 17. Friend or foe?

    POV: Blue Flame


    It was another boring day in my workshop. Ever since the outsiders took our red forest with most of our striders, I couldn''t make fire resistance potions anymore, or at least not so much, since the main ingredient for them is the milk of the striders. They shouldn''t even know about our existence since we rarely trade with them, they usually prefer to do business with those brutes in the bastion.


    If I think more carefully, they did invite us to come under their protection, but we refused since we didn''t have any dangerous monsters around here. The brutes were more in danger than us, since beside them was a blue forest, home of Endermans, and the fortress taken over by the outsiders on the other side.


    And us refusing them, probably made them mad enough to sell us to the outsiders. Those bastards would sell even their brother for gold.


    As I was just sitting bored and thinking about what to do for the rest of the day, a clash in the next room got my attention. With a sigh, I stood up and checked what happened.


    "It''s you again! Can''t you stay out of trouble for one minute!"


    A small hoglin looked back at me with a confused expression. Then just went back to headbutting the chest. I had to quickly stop him in case he somehow manages to break it, and then make a bomb with wooden bowls and glass bottles.


    While the dimensional poket was extremely useful, it could be dangerous if it broke and had items inside.


    The perpetrator for this mess was Hog Chop, a gift from my dear friend Undying Flame. She randomly chose to give this to me, to not complain about boredom anymore or something similar.


    I didn''t like him the first time I put my eyes on him, I mean who ever heard of rising a hoglin as a pet? They were wild creatures to fear and respect, not to cuddle in your arms.


    But the Flame didn''t take no for an answer. She was always stubborn like this, and that''s why she''s the chief of the tribe now.


    So with a sigh, I decided to keep it, but as a sign of opposition, I named him Hog Chop, which I think he somehow understood the meaning, and looked very angry at me ever since.


    I took him in my arms and feed him some Nether wart which he gladly took. While I was thinking about how to deal with the little guy the front door of my house was abruptly opened, then as quickly as it opened, it was closed again.


    "Blue! Where are you?"


    It was my dear old friend the Chief.


    "I''m here Flame! What''s the hurry, did someone got shot with an arrow again? "


    I said that in a bored voice while I entered the main room with Flame looking lost on what to do, which was a rare sight.


    "No Blue. I just met some outsiders in our forest again, but this time they were chased by a group of Hoglins. So I decided to save them, so more won''t come to investigate their death. But once I saved them, they said that they weren''t with the ones from the fortress."


    She then took a pause to breathe.


    "Do you know what that means? It means that another portal got opened! And they even want to trade with us!"


    I was surprised by the sudden wave of information and also worried the implications of that.


    "Ok wait! So there''s another portal open?! Did someone else figure out how to break obsidian, I don''t know if that''s good or bad news."


    "And there''s more! And the actual reason I''ve come to you in the first place. One of them called me Piglin."


    I froze when I heard that. That was an ancient name we named ourselves after the great war, there''s not much information from that time, but the great war was so destructive, that the Nether was created as the aftermath. I don''t know what we fought, or even if we won, but that was the name chosen for the people stuck in here.


    But with time, we started to split, we started to fight for resources, and started to forget about our history, I only know about this because I like to study in general and stumbled on this from an old, torn manuscript.


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    It was shocking history for me, and I shared it with my friend Flame.


    "What exactly did he tell you?


    "He told me that in one of his travels, he found a ruin that had information about us and that we liked to trade for gold."


    "Hmm, I think he found the ruins of the first expedition that got here a few hundred years ago. They did stop visiting us not too long after unfortunately. I''m wondering what destroyed such an advanced civilization, I read that they had enchanted diamond equipment."


    "So what should we do with them? I brought them here because they want to trade with gold."


    "Are you crazy! Why did you bring them here? What if they will endanger our tribe?"


    "That''s why I brought them here. I want you to look at them, and if they''re going to be a problem we''re going to end their journey here."


    She said that with a cold voice that made me shiver.


    But I understand why she did that. Ever since I was little I had a special ability that allows me to see the truth. It was a rare ability even in my old tribe, which unfortunately is no more. I was lucky enough to be adopted into this tribe as a child when I was lost and hopeless.


    "Ok then, bring them here."


    She nodded and walked towards the door.


    Meanwhile, I was thinking about how I should greet them. And after I looked at my arms I got an idea.


    Not too long after the two strangers came in. They wore iron armor typical to the outsider, but theirs was not enchanted which made me admire their breviary or stupidity.


    But even if they wore the same armor there was a big distinction between them. One of them had a big nose similar to those in the fortress, while the other one didn''t have a nose at all, he somehow looked similar to us than to his companion.


    But you could feel that he was not from here, he had an unique aura surrounding him.


    I didn''t stare for too much, because I started my genius plan. Be as mysterious as possible and scare them a bit.


    Unfortunately, my plan was completely thrown into the lava, by my pet Hog Chop who decided suddenly that he doesn''t like pets anymore. Which made me angry and I lost my temper for a bit.


    I quickly calmed myself down, and casually started the conversation with our guests but ended it with a heavy request. I used my ability and some pressure to show how serious the request was.


    It worked, they didn''t have any intention to endanger the tribe.


    Then I went back to a more casual tone and decided to test their knowledge of how valuable gold is here.


    Surprisingly, it was not a lot. I started with double the price for all the items and they accepted it after a bit of thought.


    I don''t think they know that golden armor has the passive ability to cool you down once worn. The outsiders don''t wear them since it''s much more expensive and less durable than the iron ones.


    I already started to feel bad for them, they only came here for alchemy ingredients. And I respect the pursuit of knowledge and hard work.


    So I invited Bobby with me to exchange some recipes and hopefully get some information about the other world.


    And I was not disappointed. Their world has much more resources than ours, and a bigger variety of potions than I could imagine. A potion to make you invisible, stronger, or faster.


    Those would be very sought anywhere in the Nether, the only downside is the system limit.


    This made me more eager to trade with them, they had so many items that could make our lives much easier. But we didn''t have too much to trade with them, brewing ingredients were good, but not enough to get stacks of iron or enchanted books.


    I tried to find out the location of the portal from him, but he was pretty secretive about it, but he told me some surprising information.


    "Don''t bother to find the portal, you can''t come to our world anyway."


    "Hmm, what do you mean?"


    "Trader told me that once a creature from here comes into our world, they''ll become a monster. I don''t know if this applies to you as well, but I wouldn''t like to risk it."


    "Your friend the Trader, he was also the one that wanted to trade in the first place right?"


    "Yes, he was the one who had the guts to make that request in the first place."


    He was either trying to scare me into not trying to go into their world, or he was trying to warn me.


    I tried to ask him about his friend, but he told me he didn''t know too much either, and what he did know he wasn''t willing to share. But he did warn me of him.


    "Don''t try to make an enemy out of him. He''s much more capable than he looks like, and if you respect him, he''ll give you a pleasant surprise from time to time."


    He said that with a vague smile.


    That made me think how mysterious this person was, I hope that my friend Undying Flame was handling him well.


    I then got back to a more casual conversation and exchanged some tips on brewing. I could see he was passionate about this subject, he studied a lot for it, and whenever I said something, he paid maximum attention to every word I said.


    I had a pleasant time with him, but every good moment has to come to an end. So after a few hours, I gave him the ingredients he came for in the first place and went back into the main room.


    There Flame and Trader were discussing something so intensely that they didn''t even see us coming.


    "Uh... Undying Flame, what happened?"


    Both of them jumped when I spoke.


    "Blue Flame! When did you guys get here?"


    "Not too long ago, but you two were too preoccupied with something else to see us. So what was so serious?"


    She hesitated a bit but responded quickly.


    "I told him about the incident with the forest."


    I opened my eyes wide open at that. If she told him about that incident, that means she wants to involve them in our plan to recuperate it. And it''s surprising since we just recently meet them.


    But then Trader spoke:


    "Bobby, we need to make a decision together for this. Can we get some privacy?"

 Chapter 18. Should we help?

    I took Bobby with me a little further while the piglins decided to give us some space.


    Bobby looked at meet confused but also curious about what we talked about while he was away.


    I took a deep breath and tried to remember everything that happened while we were apart so I can accurately tell him.


    I was with Undying Flame beside a small lava lake where I found out that striders can be milked and their milk has the ability to give fire resistance for an hour.


    She then proceeded to explain to me how their tribe lost a red forest.


    It was a normal day of hunting and taking care of the striders, but everything changed when the outsiders attacked. With their enchanted armor and shields, they could easily fight against wooden and gold weapons.


    But the Nether does not look kindly on weak people, so even with those disadvantages, they managed to kill a few of the invaders before deciding to retreat and leave the forest behind.


    Unfortunately, her parents were killed in the battle, and the tribe who just lost their leader wanted revenge with blood. At that time Undying was the voice of reason, she was the one to take the mantle from her parents and became a chief.


    There was some opposition at first, but she crushed them with what everyone respected the most.


    Strength.


    That day, she got the name of Undying Flame, she promised revenge, but not now. They were wounded and hot-headed, they needed to plan and then strike.


    I was shocked when I heard the story, but I couldn''t see how that was relevant to us.


    "I want your help to get back our forest."


    She said with a serious voice.


    I looked suspiciously at her.


    "Pardon me for being honest, but while your story is sad to hear, it''s not related to us in any way. Well actually endanger ourselves more by painting ourselves as an enemy to the royalty."


    I do like to help the people in need, but while she saved us from the hoglins, I don''t feel like I should endanger my and Bobby''s life to repay that debt.


    And I still think the shaman ripped me off with that deal.


    She nodded her head in understanding.


    "I understand why you''ll be suspicious, and since we recently just meet you won''t be inclined to easily help us. But I don''t ask you to help us with fighting. I ask you to give us resources so we can fight back by ourselves."


    That made me think for a bit. They probably wanted iron armor and weapons, which is better for us, since from what I understand only the royalty had access to the portal. So if they were suddenly attacked by a bunch of piglins with iron armor, they''ll be taken by surprise in more then one way.


    "That doesn''t sound bad, but I won''t give them for free, what do you have to exchange for so much labor?"


    "Leather, gold, brewing materials, and ender pearls."


    I looked at her face in case she was joking, but that wasn''t the case, she was dead serious.


    "From what I saw in your tribe, you don''t have enough gold to even make armor, much less to trade with, leather can be valuable but it''s not something unique to this world. Brewing materials are useful, but I don''t think you''ll have enough for all the iron. And lastly, the ender pearls are impressive since from what I understand it''s hard to win a fight with an Ederman without them running away, but again, I don''t think you''ll have enough after the fight, since I suspect you''ll use them."


    She bit her lip in frustration, which made me feel bad for responding like this. But I had to put boundaries or else people would take advantage of my kindness. And what she asked wasn''t a small thing, I only managed to get over 100 iron ingots after mining for 3 days straight. What she''s asking me is to mine enough iron to make armor for a few dozen people which could accumulate over 1000 iron ingots.


    And from what I understand, only I can do that quickly. While the villagers in this world are capable of mining, they''re too slow in comparison to me.


    Even if I did mine nonstop for a whole month, I still have to craft them which would take a while. It was a hard task to do and something you can''t ask casually, especially from someone who you just met.


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    "I-I can give you the location of an unclaimed fortress."


    Now that got my attention, an unclaimed fortress can be very valuable, especially if it has chests like in the game. The only problem with that would be that I have to actually capture it, and that''s not an easy task to make a Nether fortress safe. It was infested with black skeletons that can do a lot of damage from what I remember, plus the withering debuff which was not pretty.


    The only way to stop that is to spawn-proof the whole fortress. Which in the game took a lot of time and resources, I don''t want to think how much it would take here. So while the fortress can be a great boon, it''s not worth the hassle.


    " It does sound like a good offer, but it''s more efficient to trade for blaze roads than to actively hunt for them I''m a dangerous fortress."


    She bit her lip harder went to a nearby wall and punched it, followed by a scream. That actually scared me, but she quickly turned back to me.


    "I''ll give you myself as the payment, I don''t care what you intend to do with me but help us to get our land back."


    That actually shocked me, I didn''t understand how important this fight would be because she was so calm and calculated most of the time. But I could see now, that she won''t stop at anything to get her revenge. If I didn''t help her now she''ll just do a suicide mission or something similar. This made me hesitate a lot, but after thinking about what to do, I decided to accept some of her offers.


    "Ok, I''ll accept the offer for the items and the location of the unclaimed fortress, but I have to talk with my friend Bobby if he wants to go through all this."


    She finally gave a smile and nodded in understanding.


    We then went back to the house I''m the big tree and discussed some details on what to do if he accept it. I told her what time it would take to get the materials done and why, and she offered to send some of her people to help mine, but from what I remember once a nether mob enters the overworld, they will become zombified. She was surprised by that information and got a bit suspicious of its credibility. But before we could argue how I got that information, we got surprised by the shaman and Bobby.


    "And that''s what happened while you were away."


    Bobby looked at me with his lower jaw hanging.


    "So let me get this right. I''ve been away from you for a few hours at most, but you manage in that time to make a promise to gather the resources equivalent to a small noble fortune, in exchange for some rare items, a fortress location, and a person. But what is the most shocking thing from all of that.... is that I can see you actually pull it off."


    "First of all, I didn''t accept the third deal, and secondly, thank you for believing in me?"


    I wasn''t sure how to react to that, but I know I was walking into a mess, so I''ll take what I can get.


    "So do you want to accept their request?"


    "Didn''t you already accept it?"


    "I kind of did, but I''m asking you for permission to use the portal in your village."


    "What do you mean by that? You are the one who made the portal, it''s not mine."


    "Yes, I don''t what to endanger your village so you can refuse, but if you accept it, I''m most likely to use the mine under the village, if you don''t accept it, I''ll get back to my home base and built a portal there."


    He then looked at me, with a look of searching if I was serious.


    "Trader, you made so much for me and my village, I won''t abandon you when you need the most help. So if you''ll accept the deal, I''ll also accept it."


    That made me smile. I finally made a friend in this world, and it''s someone that would stick with me until the end.


    "I''m glad to hear that."


    I then started to shout for the piglins to come back.


    "We finished discussing, you can come back!"


    And not too long after the two piglins came back and waited anxiously for our answer.


    "We decided to help, and take on the offer."


    Undying Flame''s face lit up with happiness, while Blue Flame had mixed emotions.


    But then we sat down and started to discuss the details of how to get, what to get, and how much to get.


    They wanted equipment for 50 people, so that would be 50 full iron armor, plus swords or axes and shields, Bobby even offered to make some potions of strength and speed, which they gladly accepted it.


    In total it would be roughly 1.350 iron ingots, which it would take a good time to mine, even if I had a few clever ideas to cheat the system it would still take about a month to finish everything.


    Bobby looked at me like I was a madman for even thinking it was even possible to do it so quickly. We also talked about the crafting after I get the raw materials, and decided to try and see if we could share some of the responsibility with the piglins to make some them themselves.


    Even if they didn''t have access to the system, that actually helped them since they could still use the crafting table, but without restrictions.


    We didn''t know if we also lose those limitations if we crafted in the Nether. Well, have to experiment once we get back.


    With everything planned down, we decided for the payment to be paid in half''s, the first one after we delivered everything, then they will show us the location of the fortress, and the second half after the battle.


    With everything done, we decided to get some rest. I don''t know what time is it in here since it doesn''t have a day-night cycle, but with everything that happened, it felt like it''s been one week.


    While it was two days at most in reality.


    We didn''t get a normal bed, but we did get a carpeted room where we could sleep more comfortably, which I guess it''s better than nothing. And I didn''t want to find out if beds are explosive or not.


    We slept pretty well overall. The next day we took our items and went on toward the last block of cobblestone we put to mark the way home.


    Of course, we weren''t alone this time. Undying Flame and two more piglins decided to come with us as guards and to know where that portal is.


    They also had to build a base of operation after all.


    We didn''t search for too long before we found the block that we were looking for.


    The way back was much easier thanks to the bodyguards that actually know what to look out for when you were in the Nether. So after a few hours, we arrived at the cobblestone hose.


    It wasn''t the most beautiful thing that I build, but it brought me joy when I saw it. We quickly entered it and saw the almighty portal still there doing its magic.


    "Ok! Let''s get to work then."


    Bobby and I stepped through the portal back to the out world.

 Chapter 19. Cheating the system

    We climbed to the surface in the compounds of the village, where I could finally see the blue sky and the light of the sun. The wind danced through my clothes and made me appreciate that I''d come to this world instead of the Nether where I would''ve suffered constantly from a heat stroke.


    This expedition was not in vain though. we got what we wanted and more. But also we have more work to do than ever before.


    I didn''t intent to actually mine non-stop to get all the iron. I don''t know how much It would actually take, but there are a few ways to make it easier and faster.


    "Hey Bobby, do you think you can get me an enchanted book with fortune?"


    "A fortune book? They''re not that easy to get, and I''m sure it would be pretty expensive as well."


    If they are that precious, then I don''t think you could buy them with emeralds, and I''m sure I don''t have enough of them either, so I had to give something else in exchange. I looked back at the mine and got an idea.


    "If I have something valuable enough to exchange, do you think you can get one?"


    He shifted his head and started to think.


    "I can''t promise anything, but if it''s valuable enough you can get a book at level 1."


    "Perfect! I''ll be back soon then."


    Then I went back into the mine with my trusted pickaxe. I remember that in my strip mining session, I stumbled upon a cave system that I didn''t fully explore since I didn''t want to deal with the mobs at that time.


    But now I''m back here with the intention of going deeper.


    I started to think about what options I have. Emeralds are too common and easy to get, even though they''re the currency of this world, I most likely don''t have enough neither did I want to use them. I then thought about obsidian, it''s an unbreakable block for them, so it would be even more valuable to them. The only problem with that plan is that it''s an unbreakable block for me as well.


    So that made me come up with the idea of getting diamonds. The people in this world are advanced enough to build a kingdom, but I''m sure that they lack the information on where to find diamonds exactly, the only way they could find diamonds would be to find them in a cave, which I''m sure that all of them have been explored and kept secret for the higher class.


    With that plan in mind I entered the cave system.


    After a few hours of fighting and searching I finally found the block loved by everyone, the diamond.


    I quickly broke them and retraced my steps back to the surface. I then looked for Bobby, which was not too hard to find since he was playing with his new materials and brewing some potions. And from what I could see, he doesn''t do it for XP anymore but for the numbers of portions to give to the piglins.


    "What''s my good witch doing!"


    He was startled by my sudden presence.


    "I was brewing some speed potions to travel faster. Witch, what does that mean?"


    "You don''t know? In this world, it should be when a villager is struck by lightning, and then it would go through a transformation where they''ll keep throwing debuff potions at everyone that doesn''t like them. I don''t know how true that is, since it waw mostly a legend when I read it."


    And I also don''t know if it can be considered an enemy in this world since villagers are smart here, so there''s a chance that they also can be reason with.


    "Hmm, interesting. I haven''t heard about that legend, but if it would be true, then a witch is a grandmaster level at brewing, only for being lucky or unlucky to be struck by lightning."


    "Grandmaster level? What level would that be? "


    "You don''t know? That would be at level 7 the last level. Every skill is mastered at level 7, but it''s very rare for someone to reach that level in 60 years, especially if you''re not rich."


    Now that was a lot of information in one go. I finally found out what the last level of this system is, I also found out that a villager has a lifespan of 60 years, which makes me wonder what mine is. Is it 60 like them, or am I immortal like the game character?


    So much new information, but I had to get a hold of myself since I''ve come here with a reason.


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    "I found something that maybe you can exchange for the fortune book."


    I then took out a diamond from my inventory.


    His reaction made me smile for a moment.


    "Is-Is that a diamond!"


    He reached for the diamond with trembling hands only for me to drop it on the ground.


    "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"


    He then quickly picked it up and looked frantically for any cracks.


    Meanwhile, I laughed on the ground while trying not to die from the lack of air.


    "Haha, it''s so funny that I almost had a heart attack."


    He said with a sarcastic voice.


    He had to wait a few minutes for me to calm down and be able to talk with him again, after one final gasp, I managed to calm myself down.


    "Ok, sorry for that. Do you think you can get the book with that diamond?"


    He still looked suspicious at me but chose to respond anyway.


    "I don''t really know that. The diamond is a very rare gem that only Royalty and high nobles can actually use. You can get a few stacks of emeralds for this if you manage to sell it, and that''s a big if!"


    Well that sucks, I knew that the diamond would be rare, but not that rare. I guess I have to try some other ores.


    "How about gold?"


    "Hmm, it''s less valuable than a diamond but still more valuable than the emerald. I''ll have to go to the city to actually sell them though. And as I mentioned before, I''m exiled."


    "What if you wore the full iron armor, would anyone recognize you?"


    He wanted to deny that idea, but then he stopped and started to think more.


    "If I borrow the horse from my friend in the next village, and start acting arrogantly like a noble, I think I can actually pull it off. The guards usually don''t want to deal with the nobles anyway, so if they can recognize one they''ll let him pass without checking them up. But it would still take a few days for me to get back. "


    "That''s no problem! I''ll just mine until I find iron, but I won''t break it until I can put the enchantment on a pickaxe."


    "That''s a great idea! And sorry that I have to ask, but can I borrow some iron to give to my friend in exchange for the horse?"


    "Sure that''s not a problem. While your down there, you can also pick up the gold."


    He then thanked me and went to the mines.


    "First phase is in motion, time to start the next phase."


    Mining that much iron will take a long time even with fortune on the pickaxe. The real reason I thought I could take on such a big request was that I would use something that every player would say it''s a broken mechanic in the game. But first I needed to gather some resources for this to work.


    So for the next few hours, I gathered materials and sold them to villagers until I thought I had enough emeralds. Then I stopped in front of the most important villager for this mission.


    The armorer villager.


    "Hey there Bob, how are you?"


    "Good, hero."


    "I''m glad to hear that, do you want to trade?"


    The villager smiled and opened up his trading tab.


    3 emeralds ¡ú iron boots


    4 emeralds ¡ú iron helmet


    "Indeed the villagers are the most broken in the game."


    I smiled and bought all the stock that he had. I now had 12 helmets and 12 pairs of boots. And the best part was that it resets at noon.


    "The only thing that is actually hard to do, is to get enough emeralds to afford these."


    But it was way better and faster than actually mining the iron. Unfortunately, I can only get the boots and the helmet, so I still have to mine for the chest plate, pants, and weapons.


    For the rest of the day, I kept collecting materials to trade for emeralds and then trade it back for more armor, I then went back to the mines and stored everything that I got in the chest.


    "Well trading is done for today, let''s go do some actual mining now. "


    For the next five days, I kept trading and mining. I had to stop trading on the third day since I got all the equipment that I needed already, I had never seen a villager happier than Bob.


    The fifth day was special because Bobby finally arrived with the fortune book.


    I was casually mining in a random tunnel when I heard a sudden shouting from the main room.


    "Trader! I''m back with the enchanted book and much more!"


    I stopped hitting the stone block in front of me and started running toward the voice. Once I arrived there, Bobby held a light glowing book with pride.


    "Look what I got here my friend."


    He then headed me to the book to look at it.


    "It''s fortune 3 enchantment! I didn''t expect you to get such a high-level one."


    "It wasn''t really cheap, I had to pay 34 gold ingots, but I figured you''ll want the best if you had the option."


    He wasn''t wrong about that, there''s a big difference between a fortune 1 book and a fortune 3.


    "I did get the book, but I hope you know how to put the enchantment on the tool since I don''t."


    "You didn''t ask the seller?"


    I said that in a panicked voice.


    "If I asked that, it would''ve broken my character of a prideful noble."


    He looked away in shame.


    I started to smile and decided not to make fun of him this time.


    "Yes, I know how to transfer the enchantment, follow me."


    I then went to the anvil and opened it''s tab, I put a fresh pickaxe in the first slot and the enchanted book in the second one, then out of nowhere a new text appeared under the final slot.


    Level 42 / Level 4


    I could finally see my levels, I thought they didn''t exist in this world. And it looks like I''m level 42, and it would take 4 levels for this enchantment.


    I took the hammer beside the anvil and started to hit the final slot to merge them together like I do with the crafting table. And after a few hits the magical pickaxe was finished.


    I took it out to see it better. It was like a normal iron pickaxe, with the exception that the metal had a faint purple glow pulsing from time to time.


    "This is the first time I''ve seen an enchanted item, It looks... amazing."


    Finally, with this pickaxe, I can finish the iron request. I then prepared to go and test the enchantment on an iron vein only to be distracted by a scream coming from the surface.


    It was a high-pitched scream, it was a scream of a child.


    Bobby and I looked at each other and run to the surface to see what happened.

 Chapter 20. POV

    POV: Undying Flame


    We finally arrived at the portal location, it was covered in a block that I haven''t seen in my entire life, it had a similar texture to the netherrack but with a grey color.


    Once we got inside I could finally see the portal that connected the two worlds. It was made with the hardest materials you can find in both worlds.


    Obsidian


    We looked to the other side and saw only a gray wall. Bobby explained that it was a stone wall, since the portal was built underground for safety reasons, it was interesting to see what another world looked like, even if what I saw was limited.


    Once they left to do their business, we also started to work on ours.


    While I could see that cobblestone is more resistant than netherrock, it wasn''t blending with the environment. We would like to hide this portal as best as possible.


    So for the next few hours, we made the cobblestone base into a normal netherrock hill with a hidden entrance.


    We then rested and ate something while looking at the portal. Now it was testing time.


    The Trader or how I liked to call him the Explorer, told me that we would turn into monsters if we tried to cross over their world. This makes me think that he''s lying, since they still could cross into our world without problems.


    Or he''s scared that will attack his base. And I wouldn''t do that, especially from someone that we requested help.


    But even with all of that, I would like to go and see if what he told me was the truth.


    "Vine! go to the other side of the portal. But if you feel any sudden change in your body come back quickly. "


    The man nodded at my command and went over to the other side without fear or objection.


    For the first few seconds nothing happened, Vine just looked around the portal room with curiosity, but not too long after he suddenly stopped and grabbed his chest in pain.


    He tried to get back, but he was in too much pain and just lay down in the fetal position. I started to panic and went to the other side to grab him and get him back through the portal.


    After a few minutes of trembling, he started to get back to normal.


    "So he wasn''t trying to scare us when he said that we can''t cross the portal."


    I gave some food to Vine to recover faster and decided to not speak about this to our helpers.


    For the next few days, the Explorer came from time to time, to give us some strange food like bread, and apples. They were very different from the mushroom stew or strider milk we made at home, but they were still very good in their own way.


    He also gave us the first set of iron armor with shields and weapons. And I could feel their defense was way above the golden armor, but It didn''t give a cooling effect like gold, unfortunately, so we have to equip the new armor when well drink some striders milk to get the fire resistance buff, or just tank the heat, which was not desirable.


    He also gave us some iron pickaxes to mine around the base and design to our liking. The pickaxe was fast as gold and more resistant than wood. It was a godly tool to have in any situation, no wonder the outsiders had so many resources when they attacked us.


    And as the days passed we kept progressing with the iron gathering, soon well start the crafting session.


    Then finally prepare for the battle.


    POV: Bobby


    I went down to the mine to get the gold and iron from the chests, Toby would be very surprised when he''ll see those riches.


    Just thinking about his reaction puts a smile on my face.


    "Maybe this is how Trader feels when he''s scheming something."


    After I took everything that I needed, I decided to go straight towards the neighboring village.


    And to finish this mission faster I decided to use some speed options on myself.


    With the additional boost, I arrived at the village in just two hours, which was a new record for me.


    I then went straight to my friend''s house and knocked on his door. And I didn''t have to wait for too long before it was opened.


    "I''m sorry if I''m mistaken, but I think it''s too early to collect the taxes, sir."


    He looked at me with suspicion, but still exerted the aura of the head of the village.


    "What are you talking about Toby, it''s me, Bobby."


    A look of surprise appeared on his face, he looked at me from top to bottom just to be sure that he was seeing right.


    "Bobby! I didn''t recognize you in that armor, how did you even manage to get one?"


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    "It was a gift from my new friend."


    "Ha, I also want friends like that. Come inside and tell me everything, looks like you''ve done a lot since your last visit."


    I then entered the house and sat down at the usual table. We talked about the progress in the village, about how a wandering trader managed to change everything that I know in just a few weeks.


    He also gave me this armor as a gift and brought a guardian for the village in case I was gone.


    "Bobby... are you hearing yourself? You sound like you''re describing a dream. Did you sleep well those days? Did you have too much pie from the pumpkins I gave you last time?"


    "I know it sounds crazy, even I only half believe myself, and I went through all of those experiences. But you can''t deny the proof in front of you, how else can you explain the iron armor."


    He looked suspicious at my armor but nodded his head in understanding.


    "I guess that''s true... just be careful then, if something is too good to be true, then probably is too good to be true. So why did you decide to visit me today, I don''t think you wanted to only show off your new armor."


    I then told him the reason that I came. I told him that I needed his horse to impersonate an arrogant noble, to get into the city without being checked out, and finally to buy a fortune book.


    He listened until the end, and even though he said it was a crazy idea it was not an impossible one. He decided to let me borrow the horse to get there faster and to help me impersonate better.


    I thanked him and said that I''ll leave right away to get things done as quickly as possible.


    Toby was surprised by my rush, but he still lead me to his stable, to his horse, and even gave me some wheat to feed the horse on the road.


    I thanked him again and got on the horse. But before I left, I dropped him 30 iron ingots and ran as quickly as the horse could so I wouldn''t hear his protest.


    The journey lasted around a day before I arrived at one of the big cities. There was already a line of people waiting to get in, but I decided to completely ignore them and speed up toward the guards.


    One of them wanted to stop me, but another guard held him before he got too close. I then quickly passed by them and dropped a few emeralds without looking back.


    "I can''t believe that actually worked."


    My chest was still pounding from the adrenaline rush of doing something wrong.


    I went to an inn and decided to sleep there since it was starting to get late already.


    The room was a bit expensive for me, but I decided to do it anyway since it had a stable, and I still had to keep up my facade of a rich person, plus it was only for one night.


    The night went without a hitch, but as soon as I finished my breakfast I went to the auction house.


    While an auction house usually does auctions with rare items, they only do that once a month, and the rest of the days they sell semi-rare items like a normal shop.


    I went into the big building, it was beautifully made with quartz block and birch wood, there were some small pillars with item frames as expositions, and in them was an enchanted iron sword, a golden apple, and even a name tag.


    "Hello there sir, how can I help you?"


    A nice lady came to me with smiling.


    "A yes, I''m looking for a gift for my father''s birthday, I want something special, so I thought he''ll love an enchanted book. Preferably one with fortune."


    "That''s a great idea, sir! We have a level 1, 2, and 3, which one would you like?"


    "Hmm, I want the best for my father, so a level 3 of course!"


    "That''s wonderful, it would be 160 emeralds, good sir."


    " I don''t have that much change on me right now, can I use other items for this transaction?"


    "Uhhh... I''ll have to get my boss for this."


    She then went to the back, and after a few minutes came back accompanied by an old man with a beard, strong arms and healthy looking.


    "Good sir, from what I understood, you want to purchase an item with a different currency than emeralds."


    I just rolled my eyes like I was annoyed.


    "Yes, you understood right."


    "What would you like to use good sir?"


    "Gold."


    And then I took an ingot from my inventory to show it to them.


    Both of their eyes went wide in shock at the golden color in my hand.


    "G-good sir, may I ask where are you from?"


    "You may not, now can I use them or do I have to go to a different shop?"


    "No no, you can use them, it would be around 36 gold ingots, but I''ll give it to you at 34 ingots for showing such an embarrassing moment."


    I nodded at that insane price like it was nothing, but internally I was bleeding just from hearing that number. Fortunately, I had enough to buy it, so I didn''t get to embarrass myself.


    Once I gave them the gold, they quickly got me the book, and then I run straight to my horse to get out of this city.


    I took a different route on my way home, in case someone was following me, so I arrived at my friend''s place two days later at night.


    I knocked at his door, and he let me in to sleep for the night.


    The next day after he told me a grumbled thanks from the iron, I left for my village at a slow pace, there was no reason to be in a hurry anymore.


    After half a day I finally arrived and went straight into the mine where I was sure to find the Trader. And after a quick shout, he immediately proved my point.


    He was very happy and impressed that I managed to get such a high leveled one. Which made me a bit embarrassed, until I remembered the price that I had to pay. But as usual, he didn''t seem bothered by it.


    He then put the enchantment on the pickaxe and went to test the new tool on some iron, only to be stopped by a high-pitched scream.


    It was the scream of a child. In this village, there wasn''t even a woman, let alone a child.


    We both started to look at each other, then ran to the surface.


    POV: A little girl


    It was a normal day, dad was busy helping the villagers, while mom was talking with the other moms in the village.


    But everything changed when uncle Bobby came again to visit us. Last time he wanted some pumpkins for his own garden, I hope he knows how to make a good pie as Mom does.


    I was bored in my room, so I listened to the adults talk from the staircase. And I heard amazing tales from uncle Bobby.


    His village had tall walls like the ones from the big city, he also had a secret guardian to protect his village while he was away.


    It was amazing to listen to his stories, but unfortunately, he had to leave soon.


    I tried to ask dad if I could visit the village and see the big walls with the legendary guardian. But he was too busy playing with the gift he got from uncle Bobby to pay attention to my request.


    So I went back to my room, mad, and hid under the covers.


    But two days later, almost at night, uncle Bobby came back with the horse, happier than ever.


    It was too late to get back to his village so he decided to spend the night here.


    Then I decided to be a sneaky fox. The next day when he left, I took some bread and pie with me and followed uncle Bobby to his village.


    The sun was up, so there were no monsters on the way, and uncle seemed too happy to notice me following him.


    But after a tiring journey, we finally arrived, it was good, because I was starting to get scared and almost went to him.


    Once we arrived, I was shocked by what I saw. There was a tall wall made with wood and planks, it looked even prettier than the city walls, the gate was big and had fenced gates, which looked nice.


    Uncle run somewhere else, but I was big enough to explore the village alone.


    "I can''t wait to see the guardian. I wonder if it''s a dog or a cat."


    I then happily jumped towards the center of the village. But suddenly something came out from the corner of the house that made me stop.


    It was a tall white shiny creature, it was the biggest thing that I had ever seen. I started to get scared, my legs froze in fear, and the monster looked its eyes into mine and started to come towards me.


    I got more scared, and when he reached his arm to me I started to scream and cry while calling for my parents.

 Chapter 21. How to deal with a child

    We arrived at the source of the noise and found something that I did not expect.


    Sitting on the grass black was a small child with long brown hair, crying her eyes out while calling for her parents.


    The reason for her crying was standing calmly with his hand reaching out to the little girl. He only wanted to give a red flower to the small child.


    "Lily! What are you doing here?! Does your dad know you''re here?


    The girl turned her face at us while still sobbing, and shook her head in denial.


    " Your parents must be worried sick then! The whole village would be turned upside down looking for you."


    Unfortunately, this observation did not help in calming the child down. It did the opposite actually, she started to cry more realizing how much trouble she got into.


    Realizing what he did, Bobby calmed down and went to hug Lily. The iron golem seemed to understand that he was scaring the girl so he slowly retreated to give them some space.


    He looked a bit sad from that rejection, and I completely forgot that they liked to give flowers to children. Nor did I think that he''ll ever met one.


    After a few minutes in the hug, Lily managed to calm herself down and looked back at the being that scared her, while holding strongly to Bobby''s clothes.


    "W-Who is he?"


    "Him? He''s the guardian that I told your father about. He protects the people in this village from the real monsters."


    "Is-Is he friendly?"


    "Of course the golem is friendly! Look, he just wanted to give you a flower, he didn''t want to hurt you."


    He said while pointing to the golem''s arm.


    The girl then tried to get closer to the giant, still holding onto Bobby''s sleeves, and quickly took the flower.


    "T-thank you mister golem."


    The giant just simply stood straight and then went back to patrolling. Even though I''m pretty sure that the golems don''t have emotions, I could see a light of satisfaction in his eyes when he was turning.


    "Ok Lily, it''s time to get you back to your parents. I''m sure they''re worried sick now."


    The girl just looked at the ground ashamed and nodded in understanding.


    "Let''s go then, it''s going to be a speedy ride. "


    He then drank a potion of speed and picked up the girl, and started to run at incredible speeds.


    "Well, that just happened."


    I looked around the village in case there was another surprise that I didn''t know about, but the only notable thing was some fading purple particles, which made me more cautious.


    After finding nothing, I decided to get back into the mine and finally use the new pickaxe.


    I arrive at a 6-iron vein with determination in my eyes. I hit it with force until it finally broke, and instead of the usual ore, I got two.


    "Now that''s good to see."


    I said that with a smile and continued to break the rest of them as well.


    "I got 11 iron ores from this vein alone, not bad."


    With the new helper in my hand, I went through other tunnels to break some other veins that I found.


    After a few hours, I got back with an impressive number of 324 iron ores, 112 gold ores, and many other resources.


    I then looked proudly at the riches that I just put in the chest.


    "I think I can buy a small city with this many riches."


    I joked to myself.


    "I mined all the iron that found in those 5 days of tunneling, so I''m starting to get sick of mining now, probably I should start crafting some stuff to change the pace."


    I then took the iron and started to make some swords and shields, since I didn''t need to use that much iron for them.


    Even if it was repetitive work again, it still felt nice to see the magic of crafting every time I made a new weapon.


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    By the end, I managed to do an impressive number of 15 iron swords and 5 shields.


    "That''s not bad if I say so myself. How''s my skills tab looking?"


    I then opened up the tab.


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    12.600/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    _______________________________________________


    Now that''s some big numbers we have here. I even leveled up my Trader skill, which opened up the second row for the villagers. But only the first trade from the second row, I''ll probably get the next trade in the next level.


    But the Trading skill started to catch up with my Crafting skill, which mean that I was not using the crafting table often enough, or I didn''t use my new level efficiently.


    With every new level I got, I can use new materials for different recipes, I''m level 4 now so I can use one of the most often used item in recipes, the iron.


    "Time to do some experiments."


    After a few hours of testing different recipes that I could still remember, I arrived at the most efficient way to level up with as few resources as possible.


    And the winner of that testing session was the almighty iron shovel.


    For any tool I make, I get exactly 100 XP, while for every armor craft, I get another 200 XP.


    And while the armor gives me much more XP, it''s too costly in iron in comparison to any tool I could make. And the cheapest tool that I can make is the iron shovel with only just one iron ingot and two sticks.


    The only downside is that I don''t have a reason to make that many shovels, nor can I afford to try to get to the next level now, since all the iron that I have now, will have to be used for the armor and weapons.


    "Well that sucks, but at least I know what to strive for when I''m finished with this quest."


    With everything done, I decided to visit the surface and see if Bobby managed to get back from his escort mission, but when I climbed the ladder I found out that it was already dark outside.


    "Well, if he''s not here now, then he''ll be back tomorrow. Let''s check on the church then."


    I went to the tallest building in the village and knocked on the wooden door.


    No response.


    I then carefully opened it and saw that nobody was home.


    "So he chose to sleep at his friends village, maybe I should visit him as well, to introduce myself. And with how often Bobby is visiting them it must be a pretty good place.


    I chuckled at my joke and then looked around the room once more, and my eyes landed on the brewing station.


    "Hmm, maybe I should try to make some potions, I''m sure Bobby won''t mind if I borrow some of his ingredients."


    I checked his barrel to see what he got, and while it wasn''t much, it still had enough for me to try. I took out some nether wart and entered the brewing station inventory.


    Luckily there were still some blazes left to heat it. I filled a bottle with water, put it in one of the empty slots, and added the ingredient on top.


    After a few minutes of waiting, the potion was finally done. I checked my tab to see if I did it right, and the brewing skill had some new XP.


    "I mean... it feels kind of underwhelming, why does Bobby make it look so hard that you need to go to the academy."


    I then looked at the barrel to get some more nether wart, only to realize my mistake.


    "So that''s why is so complicated."


    While his stock was enough for what he needed, I remembered that you could use a lot more ingredients for different potions, even if his level didn''t allow him to make them yet.


    It was easy to make potions, but getting the materials was another story, especially if you didn''t have connections or money to get them.


    So the academy wasn''t all about teaching, it was also a place to make connections with each other, a pretty ingenious plan.


    But if I think more carefully now, schools in my world also had that purpose, or more exactly the colleges had that role.


    If you studied at a cheap or expensive college, you still learned the same thing with the exception that the teacher can do it better from one side than the another.


    But when you pay more money, you don''t have access only to better teachers, but also to other students that are rich or have the potential to be rich. So if you made the right friends, you could be set for life without a worry.


    Bobby didn''t have that luck, or maybe he did, but it also got the wrong attention, and because he didn''t have powerful connections, enough to defend him, he missed the big opportunity.


    "That''s such a shame, he tried his best as well."


    I decided to stop here. I didn''t want to use all the limited ingredients Bobby had.


    But before going to bed I also wanted to check what was on top of the church. I climbed the latter only to be disappointed to find a single block of soul sand with some nether wart growing on it.


    "So this is his farm, much smaller than I expected. But maybe this was all he could take from the academy before he was expelled."


    But even if this was sufficient for him, I think I could make a better one.


    With a new plan in mind, I quickly went to the portal room and saw the piglins causally eating some of the bread that I gave them.


    "Hey there guys, can I ask you for a small favor?"


    "If it''s not too complicated, we are willing to help Explorer."


    Undying Flame responded. For some reason, she calls me The Explorer, and if I think about it Bobby calls me The Trader as well. Nobody in this world seems to knows my name, not even the system.


    That was truly bizarre.


    "It''s nothing too complicated, I just wanted a few blocks of soul sand. Here''s an iron shovel to make it easier, and if you get some bones and don''t need it, you can also give them to me."


    She nodded, took the shovel, and went outside the base.


    I looked more carefully around the base and saw a few changes. They replaced some of the cobblestones with nether bricks, which looked way better than what I did, so I hopped they''ll keep doing it.


    But with them gone, I also had to start my preparation.


    So I quickly run to the church and dug a small room under it, I took some stones that I smelted and made them into stone bricks.


    With those, I started to decorate the room and light it up with some lamps.


    "Now I only need the soul sand and to plant nether warts."


    I looked proudly at what I did, I used stone bricks, stairs cases and logs as the decorative books and I really liked it how it turned out.


    " I wonder what reaction he''ll have once he finds out that he has a new basement, Hehe."


    I then got the sand filled with souls from the piglins and put it in the new room, planted the magical crop, and went to my house to sleep since I was very tired from all the activities I''ve done in one day.


    "I think I overdid it for today. Hope I''ll manage to catch Bobby''s reaction tomorrow."


    I closed my eyes and darkness started to embrace me.

 Chapter 22. Preparing for battle

    The next day I woke up at noon since I slept pretty late last night. And with a good stretch, I was ready to start my day.


    I went outside where the light of the sun warmed me up.


    "Morning Trader! Did you sleep well last night?"


    "With those beds, it''s hard not to sleep well. How did your escort mission go?"


    "Escort mission? I guess you could call it like that, it went well as I expected it to be. Once I arrived at the village, everyone was searching for the little girl, Toby''s wife was on verge of crying as well. But when they saw me with the little troublesome maker in my hands, they almost suffocated her from so many hugs. Of course, she didn''t escape the scolding afterward, but they were more than happy to see her."


    He then sights thinking at the events from the last night.


    "But It was starting to get late and I was tired, so I decided to sleep at them again."


    "At least she arrived safe at home."


    "Yes, and by the way, did you use my brewing station, since I''m missing some enter warts from my stash, but I found only one awkward potion made."


    "I got found out already! Yes it was me, I wanted to try brewing a few potions potions, but stopped once I saw that you didn''t have too many resources."


    "While I''m not too angry that you used my equipment, where is the rest of the nether wart?"


    "Oh yes, I used them for something else of course."


    I said that with a mischievous smile.


    "Wh-what did you do with them, Trader? "


    "Well let''s find out what''s different in your home."


    He looked at me suspiciously but then followed me to the church.


    He started to carefully approach every chest and corner of the church, he then went upstairs and a few moments came back.


    "So you also took the farm upstairs."


    Once he arrived down he finally saw a trapdoor beside the pillar. He carefully open it and saw more staircases going deeper.


    He looked at me, then the hole, and back at me again.


    "Go on, I worked pretty hard for that room after all."


    He sighed in defeat and went down. I also followed him closely to see his reaction.


    Once he arrived he looked in surprise at the new basement, the walls were made with stone bricks and the support beams were made of wood. At the top of the walls, there was an upside-down staircase to merge the walls with the slabs in the ceiling.


    "That''s... pretty impressive that you managed to do that in just one night. You are also good at interior design."


    "Well that''s a lame reaction, and thank you?"


    "There are so many times when you can surprise me before I''m getting used to it."


    "Tsk!"


    "But thank you for the surprise, this will greatly help with my leveling."


    We looked at the room for a bit more before deciding to get back to our actual jobs.


    He started to make more potions while I got back to mining.


    --------


    After two weeks and a lot of broken pickaxes, I finally managed to gather all the iron and craft it. And my XP showed that pretty nicely.


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    28.150/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 2


    110/1.000


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    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    _______________________________________________


    I was a quarter on my way to the next level at crafting, which Bobby told me was an impressive feat to do since most of the villagers die before reaching the next level. And while he thinks I''m around the same age as him, he doesn''t know that I started to level up just for a few months ago.


    I also made a few potions to get to level 2 in brewing, and with that, I found out that villagers can only have two skills. They have to choose between Crafting, Brewing, and Enchanting.


    And if you''re born in a village you don''t have those options, most of the villagers take the Crafting skill and never touch the others since they don''t have the resources to level them up.


    Bobby was very shocked when I told him that I had 4 skills. He asked me how is that possible, but the only response I could give was that I didn''t know.


    Which was mostly true, I did suspect why I did have them, but I don''t know why I''m here as a player in the first place.


    But with everything done we took as much as we could in our inventory, then gave them to the piglins to carry back to their tribe.


    "I don''t know how I should feel about this. We help those people to fight against my people so they can get back the land that my people took. But if we lose the land we can also lose some of the resources that would go toward the academy. And while I did get expelled from there I understand that it''s not the academy''s fault, the nobles just have too much power in it."


    "Yeah, I can understand your predicament, but I already made a promise to them and I don''t intend to go back on my word."


    He let out a deep sigh and nodded in understanding.


    "Next time they''ll come we''re going with them as well, that way we can carry everything that''s left and finish everything in just one trip. Plus maybe they will tell us about the fortress."


    "I think that''s a good idea, I''m curious how a fortress would look like, or even a Blaze monster."


    I forgot that Bobby doesn''t have the same knowledge as me, he''s just been following me while also trusting me that I was right with all the information I gave out of nowhere.


    I''m glad to have such a trusting friend.


    After a few hours, the three piglins came back.


    "We finished transporting the first big batch, and Blue Flame was very thankful for those potions Bobby."


    "I''m glad to hear that, we thought we should help you carry everything for one last trip."


    The piglins looked at each other for a while before nodding their head in acceptance.


    And with that out of the way we filled our inventories and went on a journey through the hot lands of the Nether.


    The whole journey we were led by the piglins, since they broke the cobblestone trail, so it won''t lead the enemies to our base. Which is a smart decision that I did not think about.


    We arrived at the secret entrance, where they proceeded to do the secret knock.


    The blocks that covered the entrance were broken quickly not too long after, and then a long tunnel greeted us.


    We walked for a few more minutes before we arrived at the hidden tribe. Everyone seemed happy to see us, which was weird since it implies that everyone was ready for the war and accepting it.


    We stopped at the big Tree and entered Blue Flames house, then put everything in the prepared chests.


    "Thank you for giving us those resources. We will always remember your kindness in those trying times ."


    "I can''t say that I''m glad to do that, but I understand the implications. Can we stay to hear the plan for the battle? Maybe I and Bobby can share some insights if we have."


    "Hmm, I guess there''s no problem with that."


    Then all four of us sat down at a table.


    "From what you told us, the people in your world have a night-day cycle, and they sleep at night. When do you think it''s going to be the night time in your world?"


    "Well, we left at noon from our world and traveled for a few hours before we arrived here, but not enough to be night yet. So I''ll say about 5 to 6 hours before they fully fall asleep."


    I responded to their question.


    "I can roughly guess when that would be. We plan to attack at that time. We even know that around that time they will change shifts, so we won''t get any surprise reinforcements."


    Undying responded.


    Blue Flame continued.


    "We also know that they are 20 people at all times there. So we have the numerical advance plus the surprise attack. The only thing we have to be careful it''s they''re enchanted weapons, I heard reports where one of them had a sword that lit Hoglins on fire when used."


    "I think that''s the fire aspect enchantment, I''m impressed that someone with that enchantment is sent here. But you can minimize their effects with a fire resistance potion."


    Responded Bobby and the two piglins thanked him for that information.


    "We''re going to surround the camp and surprise them with an attack with our crossbows. Then a few selected people will ender pearl into their camp and start attacking the rest of them. While they are distracted with them, the second team will come out with the iron axes and break down the wooden fence surrounding their camp. Once they broke enough of them, the main team will come out and attack the rest of the camp."


    That sounded like a solid plan, take out people with arrows first, then once they started to bring their shields up, surprise them again with warriors that appear out of nowhere that have iron armor like them. And while they''re preoccupied with them, the defenses are torn down and then a bigger mob will come to attack them again.


    "That sounds like a solid plan. For the fire aspect, you''ll use the strider milk, they''ll be faster with the speed potion, and the surprise attack team can do a lot more damage with the strength portions."


    "Exactly! would you two also like to join the fight?"


    I and Bobby looked at each other for a moment and shake our heads in denial.


    "We won''t join the fight, but we would like to come with you and see how the fight is going to play out."


    And in case something happens I will use my secret weapon as well that way.


    "Hmm, I guess it''s better than nothing. Thank you again for everything you''ve given us. We will show you the location of the unclaimed fortress after this as promised."


    "I''m glad to hear that, I wish you all success and to come back alive."


    With the planning done, we started to spread the weapons and armor to everyone that would fight.


    From what I''ve seen, the villagers and the piglins have to equip the armor manually, they can''t do it from their inventory like me, so that process took a while.


    After a few hours, everyone was equipped with iron armor, iron tools and weapons, and one potion on top of that.


    The time was getting closer, so Undying flame gathered everyone at the center of the tribe.


    "Everyone! The time for our revenge has come. Those outsiders started to attack us without a reason, they killed our parents and friends, and then they proceeded to steal our strides. I promised you vengeance once I became the head of the tribe, and I''m here to deliver it as promised. With the help of our new friends, we can fight the enemy on equal ground and even more."


    I could feel the rage starting to rise through the crowd.


    "My people! rejoice, it''s time to take back what was ours. It''s time for war!"


    The warriors started to shout cries of war.


    They started marching towards the war.

 Chapter 23. The battle

    POV: head knight


    We arrived at the strider''s camp to change shifts with the other squad.


    "What did I do to deserve this hellish punishment?"


    I started to think back to what started this. It was the second year of the academy, and that was the year we started to interact with the peasant classes.


    And as per tradition, we had to show who were the rules of this country. We had to make sure that the lower classes didn''t start to get any funny ideas that they are equal to us. So we did some light bullying, enough not to catch the attention of the teachers.


    But one of the students caught our attention. His name was Bobby, and even though he received the same treatment as the others, he didn''t give up, he actually started to work harder.


    And while the peasants are lower than us, we also know that our families came from them, so he earned our respect through his determination.


    We decided then to give him a chance to change his life, a chance to climb up the ladder. But he made the insulting choice to refuse us, we couldn''t take a no as an answer, that would make the others think that we are soft on the hard workers.


    So we had to step up our game, the bullying got worse for him, and surprisingly he still persisted through all of that, the other students started to see hope in him, and once we heard that he caught the eyes of an official from the Royal Palace, thing''s got worse.


    We knew that we had to stop this at all costs, or the lower class will start to think they have a chance to do better.


    With all that in mind, we started to look for dirt on him, but we didn''t find anything, he was clean as a sheet of paper.


    "No worries, if there are no problems we make them for him."


    Said one of the higher nobles. It was a risky move, but a necessary one. So we stole some research papers from the director''s office and left some evidence that would lead to Bobby.


    Once the headmaster found out, he quickly brought Bobby to questioning. But we we''re faster, we bribed the judge to not even listen to his story and just straight up exile him.


    He couldn''t do something like that right away, but he did something that can be arguably worse. He was sent to take care of an Infected village, and with some luck, he''ll be infected and forgotten.


    With that out of the way, we continued our school years normally for the next three years.


    But on the last year, we found out who actually was the one that wanted to hire Bobby, she was the princess of this kingdom, and one of the candidates to be the next ruler.


    And while she left us alone through those years, she didn''t forget about what happened. She was too preoccupied with the political wars to come after us right away, but she was finally free now to do as she pleased.


    Unfortunately, my family was too weak to defend me like the rest of my friends, so I was the only one punished while my friends were just warned or had to pay a fine.


    I was sent to guard one of the secrets of the Royal Family as a punishment.


    And that sounded more like a reward than a punishment for me, it was an opportunity to climb up the social ladder, to make connections with bigger nobles. That was my specialty after all.


    How wrong I was, I found out why she considered this a punishment. With the new assignment, I found out where we got our potion resources.


    It was from another dimension called the Nether, it was a shocking discovery. But that means that the Royal Family won''t let me go back so easily, since they still wanted to keep this a secret.


    That wasn''t even the worst part, once I entered that dimension I was hit by a wave of heat, it was everywhere in the air. Everything was red and with lava.


    "Who would want to live in such a place!"


    But hope hasn''t abandoned me fully yet. Everyone that was tasked with defending the fortress was given a fully enchanted iron armor with protection 1, fire protection 1, and unbreaking 1.


    This was so impressive since only my father, the head of the household was able to have fully enchanted iron armor. And I don''t think it was as good as what I had now.


    And that wasn''t the only thing. From what I understood, the second prince took a liking to my actions against her little sister project, so he decided to reward me with the position of the head knight in one of those squads, and an enchanted sword with fire aspect.


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    It was an amazing item that can be done only with the help of someone that had level 5 on their enchanting skill.


    But even with all of that, it was an annoying job to do. We recently got some information that you can have fire resistance buff from drinking striders milk from those brutes over the lava lake.


    Of course, this information was not free, but they seemed to love gold more than emeralds so we used that to loosen their tongues.


    Once the prince heard that, he quickly send us to search for those creatures to gain more influence.


    Unfortunately, while we did find them it was an impossible task to catch them, let alone milk them. And the ones that we caught didn''t do too well outside the lava.


    We were ready to abort this mission when the prince managed to buy some information from those brutes again. It was about the location of some tribesmen that raised striders as cattle.


    So we attacked that place afterward. There was no need to negotiate with those lesser beings.


    Though we caught them by surprise, they still managed to kill a few of us before retreating into the red forest. But we killed more than half of their numbers, so we won''t see them anytime soon. And if they did attack us, we would kill them all with our superior armor and weapons.


    They bearly had two people with armor, and it was gold armor, the weakest of them all.


    After the fight, we looted the battlefield, cleaned it up, and repaired the wooden fence to keep those brutes out of our new land.


    The prince was happy about the news. The new milk helped lessen the costs of fire protection enchantments, and it was way cheaper than potions to make.


    But with the new land, we had to spread our forces even more, since we couldn''t move the striders and we didn''t kill all the tribesmen, there was a chance that they will attack us in revenge and to get their land back.


    So now I''m here looking bored at the abnormality huge lava lake, while the other team went back home to sleep in the Overworld.


    But all of a sudden I heard the goat horn.


    It was the alarm signal.


    I quickly ran towards the noise to see what caused the alarm, but once I arrived at the scene I was greeted by an arrow flying at me. I quickly blocked it with my shield.


    I looked at the source of the arrows and saw some of those tribesmen shooting at us with crossbows.


    "We are under attack! Raise your shields and block their arrows. We can attack them once they exhausted their ammunition."


    I started to yell out orders, and the knights responded like well-functioning pistons.


    The deadly rain lasted for a minute before stopping. I quickly looked at my troops to see that we only had two casualties, and it was probably from the initial attack.


    "They''re out of arrows, attack them before they reload their crossbows!"


    Once I gave the order, the knights lower their shields slightly before starting to run toward the archers.


    But we didn''t manage to run two blocks before, some green balls were thrown again at us, and in horror, I recognize what it was.


    "Those are ender pearls! Prepare for melee combat!"


    Then seven tribesmen appeared from where the pearls landed. But something was different about them, they weren''t the same ones as the ones we attacked last time. They had actual iron armor and swords.


    "This is not right."


    I whispered to myself.


    And I was right, you couldn''t get iron in this dimension. So somebody was supporting them from outside. But who? Only our kingdom has access to the portal from what I know.


    I have to report this to his highness as quickly as possible.


    The brutes started to attack us without hesitation, so I took my enchanted sword out and started to attack the closest one to me.


    We had greater numbers, and while they did have iron armor, it was not enchanted like ours. So once I saw an opportunity I slashed the skin of the brute.


    "Ha! Burn to death you brute!"


    But while the brute started to catch on fire as I expect, he didn''t trash around in pain as I expected, actually, the fire started to diminish from him.


    He just looked at the fire disappearing and started to maniacally laugh while running at us to continue attacking.


    A blocked the incoming sword, but the force that came was far greater than I expected, so it knocked me back a few steps.


    His sword didn''t have any enchantments for sure. But his attacks were like they had knockback on them.


    I looked closer at my attacker and finally saw what was so different about them. Besides the armor, there were some faint particles floating. It was hard to see, but on a closer look I saw that it was orange and red.


    "How did you get strength and fire resistance potions!?"


    The brute just smiled at my observation and continued to attack.


    I wasn''t the only one attacking him, so I let my subordinates hold him while I analyzed the battlefield.


    They were only 7 of them and 18 of us, the archers won''t attack us since they wouldn''t want to shoot their friends.


    While they did have better equipment than expected and a few potions effect. We were still out numbering them by almost three to one, we still had a chance to defeat them and then kill the rest of the archers before they run away.


    I looked around the battlefield once more to be sure that I didn''t miss something important. And then something else caught my attention.


    At the fence around the camp, there were a few tribesmen with armor like the ones in the camp. But they didn''t seem like they wanted to come and help them, they actually started to break down the fence with some iron axes.


    And before I could wonder what they were trying to do, what I saw next shocked me to the core.


    Once there was a big enough hole in the fence, out of the woods came out a hoard of those brutes running at unbelievable speeds.


    "T-this is impossible. I have to report this to the main camp."


    It was impossible to win this fight at this point. It was better to use these useless subordinates to hold down the enemies while I run back to the main base.


    I quickly looked at my Status to see what my health looked like. Luckily I could afford to tank one shot as long as it wasn''t to the head.


    I started to quickly run towards the main camp, I climbed the tall red hill only to hear a hissing sound coming closer to me.


    I turned my head to see what was cousin that, only to see a big red arrow with smoke at its tail coming towards me.


    Luckily it would''ve hit me, only if I was a block higher than now, so I was safe from the strange arrow. But before I could fully relax and continue my escape the strange arrow hit the wall and an explosion was made.


    The damage was high, but the worst part was that it knocked me down from the hill.


    The ground came quickly to me, I didn''t even manage to raise my hands to protect my head before I hit the ground.


    There was no pain, everything just turned black.

 Chapter 24. Aftermath

    I lowered my crossbow after I saw the fleeing knight fall to its death.


    I looked at the weapon in my hands, the weapon that video used to take a life.


    I didn''t feel anything, I did not feel any remorse or regret.


    "Maybe something is wrong with me... "


    I whispered to myself.


    "What was that Trader!?"


    "What was what?"


    "The exploding arrow! How did you do that?"


    "You mean the firework? I mean this is not its original purpose, but this is one of the most powerful weapons in this world. Nothing can protect you from its blast."


    He just looked at me with a shocked face. I also just realized that I didn''t hear the noise of the battlefield anymore.


    I looked down to see if the battle has finally ended, but the people suddenly stopped and just looked at the place I shoot my firework at.


    The piglins and villagers were shocked.


    Could it be that they didn''t know the existence of such items?


    But the sock didn''t last for long before they continued to attack each other.


    "That looked like an arrow with a TNT, how did you find that recipe?"


    "Uhh, I rather not answer that question if I could."


    I said that in embarrassment. I don''t think I can keep answering that I found information in ancient ruins before Bobby will start to get suspicious.


    "If you don''t want to say, I won''t force you. But you said that this was one of the best weapons in this world. Does that mean that there are others as powerful as this one? And you know how to make them as well?"


    Bobby looked at me with a serious expression.


    I didn''t want to lie to him, Bobby was my first friend in this new world, a friend that trusted me without a question. I''m surprised that it took so long to actually ask me more serious questions, I wanted to be truthful with him, but I didn''t feel ready to tell him my whole story.


    I''m afraid that I''ll get too attached to him, to this world and then I wouldn''t want to return to my original world anymore, I wasn''t ready to give up on my original goal.


    The only reason I suspect I''m still sane from all that I''ve been through, it''s that I still see this world as a game, not as my new reality.


    And I''m afraid to make that transaction.


    But I didn''t want to keep my friend in the dark, so I''ll tell him half of the truth.


    I looked back at Bobby with a serious expression as well.


    "Yes, I do Bobby, I know information that even the wisest human in this world would be shocked to hear. I know how to create weapons that can destroy countries before getting killed, I know how to find items that can cheat death, I even know how to bypass the barrier of this world even. And how do I know those things? It''s because I''m not from this world, nor from the Nether. I''m from somewhere more complex that I don''t want to talk about. So in conclusion, yes I do know how to make more dangerous weapons."


    We looked at each other for a few more moments.


    "O-ok... I don''t know how to react to that information, but thank you for trusting me with your secret."


    Then we looked back at the battle. They were almost finished as well, with only three more villagers remaining, and with the overwhelming numbers against them, it didn''t take too long before they were finished as well.


    Once the final knight fell to the ground the whole tribe started to cheer in victory.


    Undying Flame climbed somewhere higher and started to shout:


    "My people! We have won the battle, we avenged our lost friends and families."


    People started to cheer to the declaration.


    "But it''s not over yet, we have to collect everything in this place before the next team will come back. Unfortunately, we can''t defend the forest, so will have to move somewhere else."


    And after a few more minutes of celebrating, they started to loot the bodies and move the striders with fishin'' roads that had a mushroom at the end, they also used buckets with lava to keep the animals hot and healthy all the way to the new location.


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    After a few hours of hard work, the bodies were looted and burned, and the striders moved safely to the next location.


    With everything done, everyone started to march back to the tribe in a happy mood, even if there were losses in this battle, it was way lower than if they attacked without our support.


    We arrived at the tribe where we started to truly celebrate the victory. Strider milk, cooked meat, and mushroom soup were served in abundance.


    Happy songs were sung, and games were played, and the people were more than happy to include us in their celebration.


    I heard stories of their hunts, stories of their trades, and even love stories through the tribe.


    I had a lot of fun with them, and Bobby looked like he enjoyed himself as well. But after a few hours, we got tired so we retreated to sleep in our quarters.


    The next day, everyone was back to their normal activities. It was like they didn''t just party all night.


    I went to Blue''s house and knocked at the door, and after a few moments a response came:


    "Come in."


    I opened the door and entered the house. In the middle of the room were Blue Flame and Bobby talking with each other about brewing and different recipes. In the coroner of the room stood the head of the tribe bored out of her mind on a chair.


    Once I was in full view they all looked at me.


    "Morning Trader or I think it''s morning. It''s hard to tell the time in this dimension."


    Bobby greeted me. I could see that he was a bit stiff from our last discussion, but he didn''t seem like he wanted to give up our friendship, which I was glad.


    Blue Flame had a neutral expression so I couldn''t read too much from him. But Undying face lit up when she saw me, finally something to end her boredom in this house.


    "Congratulations on your victory guys! I''m glad that you managed to come back alive."


    "We couldn''t do it without your help. And we thank you again for that. As promised we will give you the items in time, and when you want to, we would show you the location of the fortress."


    "Don''t forget that now I also belong to you."


    Undying Flame spoke and made everyone in the room freeze.


    "T-there''s no need to do that anymore since we agreed to take only the items and the location of the fortress."


    I tried to deny her offer.


    "We won''t be able to hold the cost with only those two. We would be in debt to you for our whole lives with how much you two helped up. So I want to give myself to lessen the debts of my tribe."


    I looked at Bobby for some help but he looked as uncomfortable and confused as me.


    "You seem uncomfortable with this deal. How about instead of taking only the head tribe as your slave, you''ll take her role in the tribe? And you don''t have to rule it yourself, you could let me and Undying Flame do it for you like we always did. With this you''ll be the owner of the whole tribe, but we''ll do most of the work as usual."


    That idea sounded much more pleasant then the first one.


    But I felt like something was wrong with this deal and I couldn''t put my finger on what. I looked at Bobby again and he seems like he liked this deal better than the first one.


    "Ok, well do that."


    "I''m glad to hear that. And I''m happy to have such a powerful guardian like you."


    Both Undying Flame and Blue Flame smiled at each other once I accepted their deal.


    This made me think that they aimed for this in the first place, and I was just led by the nose to this point.


    I didn''t know how to feel about this. On one hand, I didn''t feel comfortable with owning a slave, a female one on top of that, and on the other hand, now I had a whole tribe under my protection, but they could take care of themselves without my input as usual. So I was the owner of the tribe but only in name, where everything would just go back to normal since I don''t plan to move in this hot dimension.


    After we discussed a few more details we decided that it was time to leave for the fortress.


    I started to prepare some items for this journey, it wasn''t too much, and in case of emergency, I still had two more fireworks left to shoot.


    This time only Blue Flame was the one that would show us the way to the fortress, since Undying still had to organize some stuff in the tribe so she stayed behind.


    We drank the strider''s milk for fire resistance and equipped our iron armor for protection. With all that prepared we started our journey toward the unclaimed fortress.


    It was a long journey, took a few days to arrive there. But the journey was not boring at all.


    On the way there we passed through a blue forest and saw an abundant number of endermans, which fortunately didn''t attack us as long as we didn''t look them in the eyes.


    But I did feel that those endermans were different from the first one that I saw. But I couldn''t tell what was different.


    Bobby also found out about the existence of ghasts which greatly disturbed him.


    "What''s with that huge ghost? Is that what the souls of the monsters become when they die?"


    "Not really, the souls usually get trapped in the soul sand, where you can see them constantly screaming in pain."


    I joked to him. But Blue Flame and Bobby took it seriously, and when they saw the texture of those blocks their faces paled.


    I didn''t know if what I said was true, nor did I want to find out. But I was surprised to see that even Blue didn''t know about this, even though he lives in this world.


    We also saw a ruined portal, but the gold and chest were looted way before we came.


    And on this trip, I also killed my first animal, and not in a pretty way. It was in an actual brutal way, I used flint and steel to light on fire a hoglin to see if it would give cooked meat. The screams of agony made me rethink my way of actions and made me wonder if some information it''s worth testing.


    It was also the time that I found out that I had to actually butcher the pig, and I did not have any experience, but with Blues help, I manage to learn it pretty quickly, since it wasn''t as complicated as in my world.


    The meat to our surprise was cooked.


    But after a long and tiring journey, we finally arrived at a big dark structure that was stretching over a huge lava lake.


    Once we got closer to the bridge that connected with the fortress we started to see something unusual.


    "Blue Flame, when you said that the fortress was unclaimed did you exclude the skeletons from the equation?"


    "You can''t have a fortress without monsters, that''s why there are so many outsiders in the fortress. They have to kill the constant wave of monsters that keep spawning. But I don''t think those monsters are normal. They seem too.... organized."


    And his observation was on point. I did expect to see a lot of monsters in the fortress, but they didn''t walk around the tall bridges mindlessly. They were walking in small groups like they were on patrol, even the entrance was guarded by two skeletons with stone swords.


    Actually, the fortress was run only by black skeletons, I couldn''t see any other mob besides them.


    "What happened here?"

 Chapter 25. Forgotten times

    POV: Forgotten Knight


    The war was a short one but very brutal.


    It was nothing as we have ever seen before. Everything that the enemy touched started to corrupt, and lost men on the battlefield turned against us in the form of monsters.


    Nobody knew who started it, and nobody knows who won at the end, we only knew that the portal was closed all of the sudden without a sign.


    But the world was too damaged after the war. While the source was blocked, the corruption was still spread through the world and it kept opening small portals for the monsters to spawn at night.


    But the corruption didn''t just bring monsters to our world, it also started to change blocks, trees, and even people.


    So the world decided to cut the broken parts and seal them away with the unbreakable block.


    I was snatched away by the word as well, healthy or not, the corruption was too strong for me to oppose, so I joined their ranks not too long after.


    But I was different from the other monsters, I was special, and I was chosen by darkness to rule over the fortress.


    The world has forsaken me, but the unknown embraced me and accepted me.


    So I killed everyone in the fortress, raised them as skeletons, and put them to guard it.


    I was the ruler of the undead fortress for hundreds of years, I was something that I couldn''t even dream to be when I was alive.


    But it all ended abruptly once a sudden structure appeared out of nowhere in the middle of my fortress.


    It was a frame made of obsidian, but inside the frame was an image of a room filled with blocks long forgotten by time.


    It was a portal to my original world.


    "Finally! I shall rule the world that abandoned me. Fear shall run through their bones!"


    But before I could gather my skeleton army, a group of people covered in enchanted diamond armor started to attack my base.


    They went through my soldiers like they were made of paper. I only managed to escape since I was the only monster with diamond armor.


    But with that defeat, my hatred towards the living only grew stronger, I wanted revenge, but I was too weak to get it.


    So I looked for an opportunity, I looked for a chance to strike back.


    I saw them explore the new world, I saw them trade with the locals that I did not even bother to acknowledge their existence. I waited days, months even years.


    It would''ve been impossible task for the living, but I did not have such weakness, I was undead.


    I''m a withered skeleton.


    And one day, the opportunity came. Suddenly the reality around the fortress started to bend, the space was in conflict with itself and an explosion was heard in the portal room.


    Everyone at the fortress started to panic, so I took that opportunity and attacked in the confusion.


    By the time they realized what was happening, I already killed the most powerful people, the rest were not a challenge to me.


    Once I took over the fortress, I raised them to join my cause as withered skeletons. They were more powerful than any normal skeletons, and they had better armor as well.


    But unfortunately, they were still as dumb as the original ones, only following my orders without much thinking.


    I finally looked at the final room.


    The portal room.


    The place looked awful, like the aftermath of a big explosion, but the most important piece was still there, the portal was in the middle of the crater, but with the exception that it didn''t show the other dimension. It was only an empty obsidian frame.


    I didn''t know how to turn on the portal, but I knew that they knew how to, and they could do it whenever they wanted. They could come back whenever they finished with the aftermath of the explosion and retake the fortress.


    So I decided to repair the room and filled it up with my best archers and warriors.


    And waited, waited for weeks, for months, I waited for years, and then hundreds of years. And then the living finally came, but not from the portal.


    The living infiltrated my fortress from the outside instead of the other dimension.


    They were 3 strangers with just some iron armor. A pitiful sight to see, but the desire for revenge on the living was still strong as ever.


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    "I shall take your souls, pitiful mortals."


    POV: ??????


    We looked at the fortress in front of us. It was different from what remembered in the game, it was much bigger and much more complex.


    There were some additional rooms that I didn''t recognize, every one of them still in the same style as the rest of the fortress.


    "Is this what a fortress looks like? No wonder it''s called like that, I don''t see anyone being able to attack it."


    Said Bobby in awe.


    "This is not how a normal fortress looks like. This is way bigger than the ones that your kingdom has."


    "Why do you sound so surprised by the fortress, weren''t you suppose to know about this?"


    "I did know the location of the fortress from some ancient text that I found where my ancestors traded with its inhabitants. But I''ve never been to this place myself, it was too far and the outsiders stopped making contact with us hundreds of years ago so there was no reason to check it out."


    Blue Flame responded to the question. Which did not help me lessen my worries about the undead army patrolling the walls of the fortress.


    This was supposed to be an unclaimed fortress with a few monsters here and there where we could deal with them.


    Not this unbeatable fortress.


    "I think we should give up on this fortress. I don''t see how we can defeat so many monsters packed in one place. And we don''t even know what controls them."


    I said that with regret.


    The journey was long and tiring, and the sudden surprise did little to boost our morale.


    "I don''t think we should give up yet, It''s true that we can''t capture the fortress, but we can gather some information at least."


    Blue suggested.


    "The security looks pretty tight, how do you suggest doing that?"


    "Explorer, how fast can you mine?"


    "Faster than normal people, why?"


    "Well use your mining skills with this."


    He said while taking out a bowl with strider''s milk.


    "You want to swim in lava and climb through one of those pillars?"


    Blue just nodded his head in affirmation.


    I''m sure this could go wrong in so many ways, but I''m also more intrigued by the chance to do an infiltration mission, through a lake lava on top of that.


    "Let''s give it a try then."


    We drank magic soup and went for a swim in the lava.


    The sensation was weird, it felt like we had an invisible layer of protection between the melting lava and us.


    I didn''t feel anything but the heat was still strong.


    We managed to arrive at one of the pillars and I started to mine it with my iron pickaxe.


    The pillars were big in length and height, so it took an hour to arrive at the top, luckily we didn''t need torches since there''s no such thing as total darkness in the Nether.


    We carefully looked at the long halfways and bridges for any skeleton patrol.


    We then quickly entered the closest room once we saw that it was clear to move.


    The room was small but had a few chests in it, I opened one and I was shocked by what I saw.


    "Why is this chest full of stacks of blase roads?"


    Both Bobby and Blue shoved me to the side to see the chest as well. Then with trembling started to take out the items.


    "T-this is such wealth. Who would leave those just laying around?"


    The rest of the chests were also full of different ingredients for potion brewing.


    Blue and Bobby quickly filled their inventory of those Ingredients, and I took only a stack from the rare or annoying ones to get such as rabbit''s foot, Glistering melon, Ghast tear, pufferfish, golden carrot, phantom membrane, and of course fermented spider eye.


    I didn''t have a lot of items on me, but with the new stacks, it started to get full. And I''m more than sure that my brewing friends we''re filled to the brim with these items.


    I looked around the room more carefully in case I missed something, and we did.


    In the corner of the room was a brewing station on a brick block and it looked like it had 3 potions made and forgotten.


    I opened that inventory of the station and was shocked to find that it had invisible potions.


    "Hey guys, stop looting and look at what I found."


    The two of them stopped and looked at the two potions in my hands.


    "Is that what I think it is?"


    Bobby then quickly took a potion from my hand.


    "It is! it''s a level 6 potion, the invisibility potion. This is something few people ever achieved in the whole history of my kingdom."


    "That means we can use this in case of emergency if we get found out."


    Bobby looked offended by the suggestion of using this priceless treasure, but he understood the intentions and nodded his head.


    Each one of us had a potion in case of emergency, which was better then nothing.


    This was only the first room and we already were shocked by its riches. So we decided to risk it and explore further.


    But it wasn''t as easy as the first time we did it, there were more patrol teams walking the hallways, and we almost got caught a few times. But by accident, we found out that while the skeletons were moving organized, that didn''t mean they knew what they were doing.


    We found out that the skeletons weren''t actually smart, I don''t think their even satinet. They were more like robots following an order, and if suddenly a block appeared in the middle of the road, they just passed it like it was supposed to be there.


    So whenever we saw a group of skeletons coming toward us we just boxed ourselves and let them pass.


    This way we managed to check a few more rooms. Unfortunately, we didn''t find too much like in the first one, the most we got was a chest with a few stacks of gold which Blue Flame was more than happy to take them.


    We continued to explore the fortress until we got closer to the center. For some reason, the patrol teams got fewer than before, and then we saw something different than usual.


    At the end of a hallway stood a lone skeleton, guarding the entrance of next room. But it wasn''t a normal skeleton, this skeleton was equipped with iron armor, and instead of a stone sword it had an iron one.


    "What should we do? I don''t think it would move anytime soon from there, and we can''t dig our way there either."


    "Well there''s only one, so I think we can take him as long as we don''t get hit by the sword. I don''t know how withering debuff feels like, and I don''t want to find out either."


    I was supposed to get its attention while they hid. Once the skeleton passes the wall the two of them will quickly attack it from behind and kill it.


    The two of them were a bit hesitant but accepted the plan.


    I then walked in the middle of the hallway in plain view.


    "I''m here you uh... you ugly!"


    The skeleton just tilted its head before coming towards me with the sword ready to fight.


    I turned the opposite way and started to run, with the skeleton right behind me.


    Once I passed the meeting point I quickly turned and blocked with my shield the incoming sword.


    "Attack now!"


    When I said that the head of the skeleton just flew out of its body hitting the floor hard.


    But instead of the monster just dropping to its knees and die, he just started to frantically swing its swords in hopes to hit someone.


    We were taken by surprise but managed to gather ourselves and attack the skeleton in coordination.


    After a few heavy swings, the skeleton finally stopped moving.


    "I did not know that they can do that, I hope we don''t -"


    But before I could finish my thought I was interrupted by the sound of footsteps walking toward us.


    We all looked where the skeleton was guarding and saw in horror how a group of skeletons in full iron armor marched towards us.


    "Oh no, RUN!"

 Chapter 26. RUN

    The group of skeletons came at us at great speeds. They had iron armor and some of them were even enchanted.


    "Why are they so powerful? This was supposed to be an unclaimed fortress."


    I was frustrated at the situation, but I couldn''t do anything except run.


    Fortunately we were faster than the skeletons, so we didn''t get cornered. We managed to get out of the center area onto the huge bridges.


    But as we kept running away from the initial group I started to notice another thing that I did not like to see.


    On to the other bridges, the normal withered skeletons started to come towards us as well. Whoever controlled them really wanted to trap us for good.


    I told my companions what I saw, and their faces paled at the new information.


    The first room we passed, we quickly entered and blocked the entrance with blocks, then started to grasp for air.


    "We should be safe for now. We can think of a plan to get out."


    "Can''t you mine through the walls and make another path that won''t have enemies on it?"


    Blue suggested that to me.


    That sounds like a good start, so I started to break one block from each wall beside the entrance.


    What we found was not to our liking, two of the walls led to a free fall in the lava while the last one led to another bridge that was starting to get filled with skeletons at the moment, of course, I closed that as quickly as I opened it.


    "This is not good, we can''t mine a tunnel out of this and we don''t have any striders'' milk to just jump in the lava lake. Any other ideas?"


    "We could-"


    *Crack*


    A noise interrupted Blue from continuing his idea. The noise was something that run shivers through our spines, it was the sounds of blocks breaking.


    We looked at the source of the noise, and to our horror, there was a cracked pixel on the barricaded block at the entrance.


    "How is a monster able to brake blocks!? T-this fortress is wrong in every way possible, does anyone have any ideas how we can get out of here?"


    We looked at each other for a moment, and I looked quickly through my inventory In hope to find something that could help us.


    "I got something. Everyone still got the invisible potion right?"


    Both of them nodded in affirmation.


    "We can drink them and try to walk through the confused crowd. But that would be too risky since at one wrong move we could just get a debuff and give out our position."


    "So what''s the plan then?"


    "Well climb onto the roof of this room, we''ll have to be careful not to be shot by an archer. You two will drink the invisibility potion and while I distract them you two will run out of this place. Once your far enough I''ll drink mine and try to meet with you outside the fortress."


    "What do you mean you''ll distract them? Are you trying to get yourself killed, you won''t even survive long enough for us to leave this place in the first place. It''s a stupid idea!"


    Bobby turned down my idea quickly.


    "I''ll normally agree with you on that, but I have something that can help me be invincible for a few minutes."


    As I said that I took an item from my inventory and showed it to them.


    "A golden Apple? I know that they are very rare and can give you powerful buffs. But I don''t think they are enough to make you invincible."


    Bobby looked impressed and confused I''m the same time at the apple.


    "This is not a normal golden apple, this is an enchanted golden apple or a God apple. I found it in one of my expeditions in an ancient desert temple. Long story short once I ate this thing I''ll have regeneration, absorption, resistance, and fire resistance. And as if this wasn''t enough I''ll also get another 16 HP besides the base starts."


    Both of them looked at me with an open mouths in shock.


    "How does such an item even exist?"


    "No wonder is called a God apple."


    "Yes, it''s a very rare item that even I''m shocked that I managed to find it. But back to our original plan. I''ll eat the apple and start running in the opposite direction of when you two would run, once I think you two went far enough, I''ll jump into the lava, where the fire resistance will protect me, and I''ll drink the invisible potion to get out of the lava unseen. Just to be safe we should meet at the last place we camped."


    Once they understood that it wasn''t a completely suicidal mission, they accepted the plan.


    I built a staircase to the ceiling that I just broke and told them to drink the potion.


    They did so and I also prepared to eat the apple, but not before telling them one last thing.


    "Oh yeah, if I don''t return in one hour that means I''m dead and you should just retreat home."


    "" What!""


    I couldn''t see their expression since there was nothing to see, but I could hear the shock in their voice. And before they started to respond to my statement I ate the apple and jumped into the swarm of deadly skeletons.


    Only after a few bites, I could feel the buffs taking effect, I felt stronger, faster, and more resistant than ever in my life. I felt like I could take on the world and win.


    The skeletons seemed taken back by my sudden arrival, but not for long before they started to swing at me.


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    I raised my shield and stopped what I could but I was literally surrounded so I was still hit.


    "Let''s hope I''ll still have armor by the end of this."


    Even though I took damage, I could also feel the super regeneration keeping my in full health.


    But even with that, I couldn''t stand there and just take it, so I pushed what I could with the shield and ran in the opposite way of the exit. It just so happens that it would get me more deeply into the forest and less likely to be able to jump in the lava which was not a good sign.


    The skeletons were right behind me ready to take my life. Fortunately or unfortunately all the monsters were sent after us, so while I did walk into the heart of the structure, there weren''t any enemies in my way, only behind me.


    Different rooms were running past me, I saw some gold blocks, armor stands with diamond armor, and even an enchanting room. But I couldn''t go in any of those while being chased much less to loot them.


    While I felt invincible after I ate the apple, I started to get tired really quickly from all this running, and all of the sudden the hallway came to an end. And at the end of a hallway was a room, but a different room than the others that I saw, the walls were made of iron blocks instead of the usual nether bricks, it looked like the most important room in this whole place, and I was rapidly approaching it.


    "Well, it''s now or never."


    I entered the iron room, turned, and blocked the entrance with two rows of brick blocks.


    "That should take them a while to break in."


    "Yes indeed, it would take some time."


    In horror, I quickly turned to see who spoke.


    The room was not too big but was fully made of iron, in the center was an empty frame portal, and beside the portal were 5 wither skeletons.


    And not any ordinary skeletons, every monster was equipped with diamond armor, some had diamond swords, others had crossbows but the fifth one was the most unique one.


    The skeleton was taller than me, which didn''t say much since every wither skeleton was already taller than me. But this one was even taller than them, the skeleton was four blocks tall, with a black crown on top of its head, and his eyes were purple instead of the emptiness like the others. And of course, it had a diamond armor, but it had to be different from the others, it had to be fully enchanted.


    "I have to say that I''m surprised mortal. I did not expect to be attacked from this dimension. I thought I''ll be visited by my friends through this portal."


    He said while pointing at the empty portal.


    "I don''t think it''s healthy for your bones to stay in constant stress of when the portal it''s going to open and pour out enemies."


    "Hahaha!"


    The skeleton king started to laugh at my joke which made me more uncomfortable than relieved.


    "I must''ve been isolated for far too long that I even laugh at bad jokes like those. For making me laugh I''ll make your death painless. Get him, my minions."


    As he said that, the arches started to fire their arrows at me without hesitation.


    I didn''t just sit and took them, I blocked them with my shield which started to wear down from the constant stress.


    After they finished the first row, the diamond warriors were next to attack me. I did not want to test my sword skills with them, so I kept running in circles around the room and used my crossbow to shoot the armored skeletons.


    They didn''t even bother to dodge or block the arrows, they just let their powerful armor tank them like it was nothing.


    This was not a good sign for me, I was starting to get tired and the archers didn''t sit there and just watched, but kept shooting arrows at me.


    I needed a plan and a fast one.


    "Hey, there king! How about we fight just the two of us, I''m sure that your bones grew moss from all the time you''ve spend here. If I win, I get to live, if I lose I''ll let you kill me."


    I said that while blocking a sword incoming. I then rolled and swung my sword at its legs, which didn''t do anything because of the diamond armor.


    "Hmm, while what you said is true, I don''t see a reason to take a risk and kill you myself, when I could just wait for a few more minutes for you to get tired and let my minions finish the job."


    That didn''t give me too much hope. I had one last offer before I was out of ideas.


    "What if I''ll open the portal for you, if you win."


    I raised my shield again for another attack. But this time it didn''t come, actually, nothing came my way. I look around in confusion only to see that every skeleton just froze in its place.


    The skeleton king moved from his place for the first time. I could feel the pressure rising with every step he took.


    He kept coming closer and closer until he was just one block away from me.


    "Do you speak the truth mortal? If this is a lie, I''ll make you wish you were dead"


    He said that with a heavy voice that rung through the whole room.


    "Y-yes of course. I always keep my promises, and you still haven''t defeated me yet."


    "Ha! I admire your guts mortal, I''ll remember you once I''ll take over the world with my armies."


    He then positioned himself into an attack stance.


    "Ready when you are mortal."


    "I''m rea-"


    But before I could finish my sentence he threw an ender pearl at me.


    I quickly ducked as the pearl flew over my head, then turned to face my enemy only to be greeted by a diamond sword that went through my armor.


    The diamond sword was too sharp, and my armor was not enough to stop it. I felt the burn through my abdomen, I took heavy damage, and I could feel the withering debuff starting to affect me.


    I quickly jumped back and covered my fresh wound.


    "Huh, you''re more lively than I expect from such a heavy hit. I did see some particles around you that I didn''t recognize, those must''ve been more powerful than I expected. But how long can you keep up with this?"


    He said that while running towards me. I quickly took my crossbow out and shot at him.


    He then stopped in shock, what came towards him was not a normal arrow, this one made noise and had smoke at its tail. But before he could dodge or block the firework hit him in the chest.


    He flew backward from the knockback and hit the ground hard.


    "Yes! Take that you bone monster."


    But I didn''t get to enjoy the moment for too long before another ender pearl flew from the particle bomb.


    "Shi-ahhh!"


    Even though I rolled in the opposite direction from the pearl, he seemed to anticipated that, and stabbed my leg.


    "I have to say mortal, you did surprise me with that weapon, it''s the first time I''ve ever seen one like this in my hundreds of years of life. Not even in the great war I saw something like this. But it''s your loss, keep the end of your deal and I won''t torture you."


    He said while pointing the sword at me. I could feel the regeneration fight the withering effect, and it could keep up, but not for long, I could feel that the effects of the apple will soon end, and the withering was not too keen on leaving me anytime soon.


    "O-ok, I''m a man of my word."


    I then used my sword to get up and support myself while walking toward the portal.


    The skeleton king looked closely at my every move. I took the flint and steel from my inventory and lit the portal up.


    The process of the portal opening started, and the skeletons got on their guard for any danger. Once it was open I could see what was on the other side.


    It was an identical room to the one we were in with the exception of looking like it was blown by a few blocks of TNT, I then quickly went to the other side.


    "HaHa! I can''t believe it, you''ve actually done it, after hundreds of years, I can take my ravage over the world! As a reward, I''ll take your life without feeling pain."


    He said that while slowly walking towards me with the sword in his hand.


    I didn''t give up yet, I took the last firework from my inventory and started to load it into the crossbow.


    The skeleton stopped in the obsidian frame and started to inspect the room with curiosity until he saw my actions.


    "There''s no need to struggle anymore mortal, while your weapon is powerful, it''s not something that can kill me, do you know how much that arrow damaged me? Just two hearts, and those already healed! Just give up and embrace your death mortal, I''ll make a fine soldier out of your corpse."


    I finally finished loading my crossbow and looked at him.


    "Who said that I wanted to hit you?"


    And then fired the crossbow.


    The king looked in confusion and then horror when he saw where the explosive went. He tried to move but it was too late, the firework hit the corner of the portal.


    For the next moment I saw how reality started to bent unnaturally , and then the portal closed with the king screaming in pain.


    He was cut in half by the portal, the diamond armor didn''t stand a chance, his head looked at me with hatred and while his purple eyes started to fade he spoke one last time:


    "C-curse you mortal."


    Then the eye sockets went black.


    I started to grasp for air, I was too tired, and the adrenaline started to fade, I just sat down to rest, the lights started to fade, and my head started to get dizzy.


    I fell asleep on the floor from exhaustion.

 Chapter 27. End of volume 1

    POV: Bobby


    Trader jumped into the crowd of skeletons before I could comment on his remark.


    "He has guts I''ll give him that. Let''s go then, the quicker we get out of this place the faster hell come back."


    The Blue Flame said.


    I nodded at his comment and got ready to jump down. We didn''t have to wait for too long because our hero decided to run towards the heart of the structure, taking almost all the enemies with him.


    We both jumped and carefully navigated through the remaining skeletons not to alert them.


    We moved quickly but had to stop in our tracks once we saw that the exit was guarded extremely well by monsters, and they somehow started to block the exit.


    "That doesn''t look good, any plans on how to get through them?"


    I could feel Blue looking at me.


    "If we only had the exploding arrow, maybe we could''ve blown them."


    As we got more frustrated and thought of more desperate ideas, the monsters suddenly stopped.


    A taller monster appeared between the skeletons and just picked one up and threw it over the bridge.


    The skeletons looked stunned at the sudden turn of events before attacking the new enemy.


    But even with their numbers, nobody could hit the attacker. Because the attacker was an enderman.


    "I''m I seeing things wrong or is an enderman fighting with a group of withered skeletons?"


    "I''m confused as you my friend Bobby, this is the first time in my life I''ve seen something like this."


    We looked as the skeletons were completely trashed by the constant teleporting monster. Once it was finished it just looked in our direction, screamed, and teleported.


    We started to panic and looked around us in case it could somehow see us and decided we were next.


    But after moments of nothing happening, we took a sigh of relief and run towards the now empty exit.


    The rest of the way was easy to run since there were no monsters on our way and even if they were, they couldn''t see us.


    "Maybe we should stop for a bit and see if there are any changes at the fortress, we''re far enough that they won''t ever catch us even if they somehow see us."


    I said that out loud since I didn''t know where Blue was.


    "Where are you?"


    "Follow my voice, I''m beside the blue tree."


    After a few moments, I felt a hand on my face which I quickly slapped down.


    "You found me, now stop searching, and let''s look at the fortress."


    I then turned my head towards the enemy base where my friend was distracting the enemy so we could escape.


    We waited a few minutes without much to see, until all of a sudden the air started to vibrate, it was not a noticeable difference, but we saw that something happened at the fortress.


    "We have to check out."


    I didn''t wait for Blue to respond and ran back toward the enemy base.


    I arrived quickly at the entrance we just run through.


    It was still the same, but something felt different, I went a bit further and saw a skeleton, but he didn''t act normal, it felt different.


    The skeleton just looked confused, and then walked into a wall like a mindless monster.


    "Bobby! Where are you, Bobby? I''m at the entrance and you better get here before you get us both killed!"


    I looked one last time at the confused skeleton and then run towards Blue location.


    "Blue the skeletons are acting weird, I think Trader managed to somehow defeat whoever controlled them."


    "I''m glad to hear that Bobby, let''s go to the meeting place as was originally planned."


    Blue responded with an angry tone. I don''t think he liked when I made him follow and find an invisible person, but he was right, we had to get back to our last stop.


    And after a few minutes of running towards the place, we finally arrived and sat down and relaxed.


    An hour passed and no sign of Trader nor another invisible person. We started to get worried.


    Another hour passed and the invisibility effect finally wore off, and neither of us looked too good.


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    After another hour Blue was the first one to brake the silence.


    "Bobby... I think we should leave."


    "No! The plan was stupid but not impossible, he has to come back! He even defeated the one controlling the monsters."


    Blue looked at me with a sad look.


    "Ok, well wait for one more hour."


    And another hour passed without any sign of our friend coming back.


    Blue told me something, but I couldn''t hear him. We started to walk, everything went beside me in a flash.


    And all of a sudden I was at my portal. I don''t even remember how I got here, I think Blue tried to talk with me through the journey but I don''t remember anything.


    I thanked Blue for bringing me here and went through the portal to my world.


    I went to the surface and the light of the sun washed all over me, this made me stand in place and accepted the warmth of the sun.


    Then I went to my house with heavy steps.


    "Bobby! Where were you!?"


    All of a sudden I was ambushed by someone. I looked confused at the attacker that held me in his arms.


    It was my old friend Toby.


    "Where were you? I''ve been looking for you for the past few days. And what happened to your village, you did tell me that it''s gotten better but I thought you exacerated with your stories."


    "Wha-Why are you here Toby?"


    "Oh yes, well I bring good news, my friend, your exile was revoked! I also bring bad news I think, now you''re called to the palace for unspecified reasons."


    "What, what do you mean my exile was revoked?"


    "Well, a few days ago a knight come to my village looking for you. Once I asked what was the reason, he told me that you are free to get back to society and that you are summoned to the crown as quickly as you can. I was surprised by that, so I asked if I could bring you the information since I was a good friend of yours. He seemed pretty tired and didn''t want to go any further to serch for you, so he accepted it."


    "That knight was either the most unprofessional person I heard, or this is someone that wants to get me in more trouble by making me commit a crime of coming back."


    "I don''t think it was a fraud. He also gave me this book."


    He then headed me a book, which had a text written in it that said that I was excused by this unfair punishment, and summoned to the palace.


    But what caught my attention was not the text, it was the person that sign it.


    "Elizabeth Mending... This is the princess, the candidate for the throne!"


    That meant that this was serious business and I had to quickly get to the capital.


    I thanked Toby for everything that he''s done and went running towards the capital.


    Once I get there, maybe I''ll find a way to figure out what happened to Trader.


    Maybe I can find the Trader.


    POV: Unknown monster


    The world was boring, and being one of the most powerful monsters was fun until every villager ran from you.


    They didn''t know how to take a joke, and always called the ones in iron armor. And they were not too geared to play with me.


    So I decided to retreat to the smaller villages which didn''t have people with iron armor.


    I also found out that most of my brethren were here. But they didn''t seem too eagerd on doing pranks like me or exploring the world. They always wanted to find the perfect block that they can pick and treasure it.


    I wasn''t as obsessed as them with that, which maybe made me a bit isolated from them. But no matter, I could find my entertainment through making trouble for the humans.


    One particular night I decided to take a fence block which allowed the dummer monsters to Infiltrate the village.


    Panic was soon ensured through its inhabitants. That brought a smile to my face, but that didn''t last for long since they started to push back against the sudden attack and even won.


    I was mad at them for destroying my beautiful prank, so I teleported between them. They soon started to panic once they recognized me, which made me smile.


    But not for too long, since another human in iron armor came to attack me.


    I didn''t like this village so I decided to just leave it, no point in playing here anymore. After a few teleports, I arrived at another village, this one didn''t even have walls to stop the monsters.


    And I already saw some of them attacking the houses. I decided to vent my frustration on some villagers, but I was interrupted again by someone in iron armor. This one looked even more stacked than the last human.


    I looked closer at him and saw that he was a bit different from the others, he didn''t have a funny nose, and he also felt different from the rest.


    I decided to retread for now and observe him from distance.


    And I''m glad that I did that, for the next few days I''ve been shocked by what the human did.


    He built a wall around the whole village in just a few hours. This is an impossible feat even by my standards.


    And he didn''t stop there, he created a monster, or something similar with blocks. It was fully made of iron and just patrolled the village. I tried to say hello, but his eyes told me that he wanted me dead, and I didn''t want to try my strength with him.


    This human was different the anything that I''d ever seen. He kept doing some new stuff and then just went underground for days.


    One day I decided to go into his hole to see what kept him so long underground.


    And oh boy I was not disappointed, tunnels besides tuneless that went deep in to the heart of earth.


    While I kept exploring the maze, I stumbled upon a room that had a frame made of one of a few blocks that I couldn''t pick up.


    But in the frame was like a door to somewhere else, I went through it and found myself in another world.


    It was a fascinating place, nothing as I had ever seen before, new blocks, new monsters, and surprisingly I even saw some of my brethren.


    But once I tried to communicate with them they seemed even less interested in me than the ones from home, so I couldn''t talk with them too much.


    But they did tell me about a place where people that hunted us lived, and I should stay away from there.


    The warning was in good intentions, but that only fueled my curiosity.


    You could see the surprise on my face when I found out that the weird human was there as well once I decided to check the place out.


    "This guy is always where the fun is."


    So for the next few days, I decided to follow him again.


    And I was not disappointed with that decision. I saw a fight between the humans of this world with the humans from my world, I even saw an exploding arrow.


    After this, I follow his little group to a huge structure filled with black skeletons. They got found out once they got too deep.


    It was fun to see them run in panic with a group of skeletons behind them.


    But then realization struck me. If the human died, I couldn''t see more fun stuff, so I quickly went beside the room they decided to barricade in and found out their escape plan.


    I didn''t like it, I didn''t care about the two normal humans, they could die for all I cared but I wanted my favorite human to live. But the two boring ones had to get out safely so my human could leave.


    The plan started great, and as I expected from my favorite human he defied all odds and survive against a sworm of skeletons.


    I stuck with the two humans though, and it was good that I did since I had to beat up a few skeletons that blocked the exit.


    Once I did that I announced that they could continue their running while I teleported in search of my favorite human.


    But after a few minutes, I felt a distribution in space. It didn''t feel good, and it didn''t last for too long before disappearing, I quickly teleported to the source only to see another portal but this one was not working, it just had a half skeleton with blue armor laying in it.


    The other skeletons just looked confused and lost.


    Fortunately, I didn''t see the corpse of my human, he must''ve gone through the portal and closed it.


    I didn''t know how to open it, but I knew one thing.


    I had to find my human.

 Chapter 28. Where Im I?

    I slowly started to open my eyes, the eyelids felt heavy making the process harder than usual.


    After a few moments of trying to keep my eyes open, I finally managed to focus my eyes enough that I could see the room I was in.


    But to my surprise, I wasn''t in the iron room that I last remember. The roof was made of wood and I was actually sitting on a bed.


    The rest of the room was also made of wood and had even some paintings on the wall, I tried to stand up on the bed and realize that my mouth was dry and my stomach empty.


    "Where am I?"


    While I studied the room, I took the single food item that I had in my inventory and filled my stomach.


    "Hmm, golden carrots are not bad, no wonder they are the best food in the game."


    After I felt full, I got up from the bed and walked outside the room hoping to find some water.


    The house wasn''t very big, there were four rooms in total one kitchen, one bedroom, one storage room, and one weird room that had a cauldron.


    I looked in the chests and I found a bottle of water which I quickly drank, I also found out that my iron armor was there.


    "How did they get my armor off me? "


    I was very confused by this.


    "The durability is awful, I should get a new one, probably try to make a diamond armor at least, or enchant my iron armor with mending."


    While I was browsing through chests I heard the front door opening. I quickly closed the chest and ran to see who was my savior.


    The person seemed surprised to see me up, he looked like a normal villager with the exception of having a mole on his nose and a tall hat on his head.


    Then realization struck me, and I quickly drew out my iron sword.


    "A witch!"


    "Well, that''s a rude thing to call your savior."


    He just looked unimpressed at me, with a hand behind his back.


    "So you won''t suddenly through a splash poison potion on me?"


    His eyes started to narrow in suspicion once I said that.


    "Looks like you know something about my people, I''m impressed, to say the least. From what I know I''m the only person around this parts in this particular situation, and everything that I know about this came from the ruins where I found you. What else do you know?"


    "You''ll promise not to splash me then?"


    He seemed to relaxed and nodded.


    "I don''t know too much, I only know that to get the witch job you have to be struck by lightning and survive, and then you suddenly have level 7 on the brewing skill."


    The expression of suspicion turned into surprise as soon as I finished saying that.


    "That... that would explain the intense pain I felt on that night, also why I was surrounded by fire."


    From his reaction, I could tell that the memory was not pleasant.


    "So... you were the one that brought me here?"


    "Yes! I was surprised by the sudden disturbance in the ruins. And after a few hours of searching through the rooms, I finally found the source of it. That''s where I found you laying unconscious beside the obsidian structure. You weren''t alone either, what were you even trying to summon in this world?"


    He then took out a skeleton''s head. It was the withered king, it was bigger than a regular Skeleton and it had a black crown on top of it.


    "Yeah, I didn''t try to bring that monster to this world, I actually tried to run from him. Did he also by any chance had an enchanted diamond armor on him?"


    "I did find an enchanted diamond chest plate, but we''ll, I don''t think you''ll be able to use it."


    He then switched the head to the diamond chest plate which I quickly recognized. But it wasn''t looking too good, it was actually missing half of it. Looks like when the portal closed itself, it cut the skeleton in half, and even the diamond armor was not strong enough to withstand it.


    "I can see why you say that. Thank you for saving me."


    "No problem, what were you even doing in those ruins? And how did you even find them?"


    "I wasn''t looking specifically for those ruins, I was running from that unusual monster, I saw that obsidian structure that led me to another place that I didn''t recognize. Once I crossed it, the skeleton came after me, but for some reason, the gate closed itself cutting the monster in half."


    The witch looked suspicious at me but nodded his head in understanding.


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    "I''m guessing you don''t know where you are then. Welcome to my humble home, you are now in the Sandstone Kingdom. Where are you from?"


    "From the name, can I guess that this land into in the desert?"


    "Your right."


    I started to panic, looked like Nether works the same as in the game. So when I traveled a block in the Nether it was eight blocks in the Overworld, and I traveled a few days just to get to the fortress.


    But that wasn''t even the worst part. The worst part was that I don''t even know in what kingdom Bobby lives.


    I was in a pickle.


    "You ok there? You look pretty nervous."


    "I''m ok, but not at the same time. Here is the problem, I lived with a friend recently, but funnily enough I don''t know where he lives nor in what kingdom he is. So I''m very confused right now."


    "You don''t know where you live?"


    He said with a confused tone.


    "pretty much."


    The witch started to sigh and massage his nose bridge.


    "Ok, let''s say I''ll believe you. You are in the Sandstone Kingdom, there are two more kingdoms as our neighbors. The Coral kingdom where they have access to the ocean, and the Stone Kingdom where they have access to a lot of mines. And there''s the unclaimed land filled with monsters and pillagers, but I''m pretty sure you''re not from there since your skin is not gray. So which one sounds more familiar?"


    Well, I''ll learn something new today, and I''m pretty shocked. I think when I spawned I was at the edge of the monster territory, and when I explored the temple I was in the Sandstone land, and Bobby didn''t talk about ports so I can assume that he lives in the Stone Kingdom.


    "Yeah... I think my friend is in the Stone Kingdom."


    "Good, that''s progress. I don''t know how you got here, but you should be able to reach your home in a few weeks of travel."


    "That''s a lot of time. But I guess I have to do it, I''m sure my friend is worried sick about me."


    "That sounds concerning, you should go as quickly as possible then. Also, do you want to take this head with you? My reputation is not the best, and I don''t want to have more reasons to make people more scared of me."


    He then pushed the skeleton head into my arms without waiting for an answer.


    "Thanks? Also, what''s your name?"


    "Oh yes! Where are my manners? My name is Froggy, my parents were inspired when they first saw a swamp, and ironically enough now I live in one."


    He started on a cheerful note but ended with a sarcastic and sad voice. Looks like his childhood was not too happy.


    "That''s an interesting name indeed. My name is-"


    "WITCH! GET OUT AND GREET THE GREAT NOBLE FERDINAND THE 4TH."


    I was suddenly intrepid by shouting from outside.


    I looked at Froggy with confusion while his expression turned to someone that doesn''t want to deal with his noisy neighbor because it was too annoying.


    But after a heavy sight, he still went outside.


    I followed him but didn''t exit the house. I just looked around the area of the house from the door frame.


    Froggy said that he lives in a swamp, but while it was technically the truth, it was a very small swamp, I could see the end of it from where I stood.


    I looked down to see 3 villagers waiting for Froggy. Two wore iron armor, while the third one was dressed in fancy clothing. The young noble tried to look mighty but I could see that he was actually scared of the witch. The guards stood between them in case of any sudden attack.


    "What do I owe to have such honor of meeting his greatness."


    The young noble got more courage when he heard that.


    "Greetings cursed one. I seek your help, it''s a matter of urgency and great importance."


    "I''m afraid that I don''t sell harmful potions, my lord."


    "You dare interrupt the lord you scum? "


    One of the guards took out his sword preparing to attack.


    "Stand down my guard, we''ve come here in search of help, not for blood. We do not seek poison, I''m curious if you have a cure for the infected."


    Froggy just turned and walked back to the house not even bothering to respond.


    "You''ll be handsomely rewarded if you do help."


    You noble tried to get his attention.


    "There''s no such thing as a cure for the infected, now leave me alone, and don''t waste my time."


    He started to climb the stairs to the house before I spoke.


    "Does infected by any chance mean that someone got bitten by a zombie and now it''s a zombie itself?"


    "Yes, that would be true. Who may you be?"


    The young noble looked at me with suspicion.


    "It doesn''t matter who I am, but what matters is that I have a cure for that."


    Froggy looked at me in horror and quickly pushed me back into the house and closed the door.


    "Are you trying to get yourself killed? You can''t lie to a noble, especially with something like this. Just take some provisions and go back to your friend."


    He said that while holding my shirt with a force that I did not expect to see.


    "I wanted to do that. But if I can help that noble maybe he would give me a camel or a horse to make my journey faster as a reward."


    He then looked at me with suspicion.


    "And how do you plan on curing an Infected one."


    "I can''t do it alone, unfortunately, I need your help."


    He finally let me go but still looked intensely at me.


    "I''m listening. But if your saying something stupid I''ll finish you off right now."


    "Well, that''s a bit over the top. The way to cure an infected person is to splash them with a weakness potion and then feed them a golden apple."


    Froggy then closed his eyes and started to think really hard, then quickly opened them.


    "That may actually work."


    "You believe me just like that?"


    "Yes, I have my own ways to know if you''re laying or telling the truth. But there''s only one problem. I do know how to make a weakness splash potion but I don''t have the necessary materials."


    He looked regretful that he couldn''t help with that.


    "And I also need an actual brewing station, I can''t use the cauldron that I usually use."


    "I may be able to help with that."


    I then took the blaze roads that I looted from the fortress and showed them to him.


    "This is... How did you get these?"


    "It doesn''t matter, it''s important that I got them."


    I then went to the nearby crafting table and crafted the brewing station.


    "This-this is amazing, I can do so much with this."


    Froggy looked with admiration at the new station.


    "Yep, and here are the fragmented spider eye and the golden apple for this to work. I only need your skill level. "


    "I don''t know how you have so many precious items on you, but I won''t complain about it."


    He then took the items from me and started to get to work.


    And after a few minutes, I had 3 weakness splash potions in my inventory. With that finished, I went outside at the three villagers waiting patiently for me.


    "Did you say that you know a way to cure the infected ones? If you dare lie to me, your punishment will be death."


    He looked serious with that threat.


    "No worries, I know what I''m doing, even the witch agreed with my unusual method."


    The young noble looked surprised by that statement.


    "Come with us then. The sooner we cure the person the better."


    He then turned and I followed soon after. But before we could get too far we heard a shout from the swamp.


    "Wait for me, I''m coming as well!"


    And we looked at Froggy as he was running towards us.


    "I''ll be coming with you and help in case something goes wrong."


    The tree villagers looked uncomfortable by his suggestion but decided to let him come.


    Better safe than sorry.


    With everything done, the five of us went on a journey through the desert to cure a zombie villager.

 Chapter 29. Curing a mother

    The journey was long and tense. While they came asking for help from Froggy, the witch title didn''t have a good reputation to make them feel comfortable around him.


    The night caught us when we were almost at the first village, and monsters started to appear all over the dry sand.


    There were a lot of them, much more than in the forest village that I''d been to. So I and the guards took our iron swords out and raised the shields, I had to attack more carefully since I left my broken armor at the witch''s house.


    The noble just stood there with a shield to stop any arrow incoming in his way not bothering to even help us defend.


    We were in constant movement so we wouldn''t be surrounded, which resulted in not too many kills, a small hoard started to gather after us. Things started to get so intense that I considering just sprinting away, but Froggy managed to save the day by throwing a slowing potion on them.


    This gave us enough time to outrun the horde.


    After a few minutes of running, we finally saw the village, it had a 5-block tall wall surrounding it, and the materials were a combination between sandstone and smooth sandstone.


    The villagers on top of the walls soon saw us getting closer and quickly opened the gates.


    One we safely got inside, the horde just parted ways once they lost sight of us. The noble asked for a place where we could sleep, and the towns guard responded respectfully by showing the way to the tallest building in the village.


    "Well stop here for tonight, and tomorrow we''ll leave at the first sign of light. Don''t worry, I''ll be paying for your rooms as well."


    The noble kid said with a tired voice.


    The inn had only three free rooms, so Ferdinand took one for himself, the guards another one, and me with Froggy the last one.


    Once we got in the room I spoke to Froggy for the first time since we started this journey.


    "Why is everyone so afraid of you? Even the town''s guards looked ready to attack you. Did you do something?"


    "Weren''t you also ready to attack me when you saw me?"


    I was speechless when he pointed that out, and he seemed to enjoy my reaction.


    "When I first become a witch my village was attacked by monsters. I don''t know how they passed the wall, but I only managed to survive because they didn''t seem too interested in me once I became a witch. After everyone found out what happened they started to see me as a bad omen, so for the safety of everyone and myself I decided to live somewhere isolated."


    "I''m sorry to hear that... But why did the kid ask for your help then?"


    "While most common folk fear me, the noble society knows the truth. They aren''t afraid that I bring bad luck, the only thing they fear is that I''ll join the Pillagers."


    "That... sounds like a headache for them, sorry for asking this, but why are you still alive then?"


    From what I remembered from my world, the nobles weren''t to excited to have a threat in their territory.


    "Because I''m a master at potion brewing. I''m the only master in this whole kingdom, the next highest one after me is only at level 3 in the brewing skill. The Stone kingdom has a monopoly over the blaze powder, and we don''t know how they get it, unfortunately. So most of the time nobles come to me to make their potions while also bringing the ingredients since they have the connections to get them."


    "That''s pretty good for you then."


    "You could say that."


    After this discussion, we decided to get some sleep since tomorrow we''re going to continue our travel and we should arrive at our destination by the end of the day.


    The night went quickly, but we got woken up by a banging at our door.


    "Wake up! It''s time to leave."


    And then it was followed by silence.


    I quickly got up and ate what I had in my inventory, which was golden carrots.


    They actually tasted really good, almost addictive.


    Froggy wasn''t a morning person, so I had to be a bit rough with him to get him out of the bed.


    "W-what time is it?"


    "I don''t know but it''s time to leave, so get up."


    With a heavy sigh, he finally got up from the comfort of the bed.


    We went downstairs where the three villagers were already there eating at the table.


    The noble boy didn''t look like he was fully awake either. But after they ate some bread and drank some water, we finally continued our journey.


    This time we managed to arrive at the city before night fell.


    It was my first time seeing a city in this world and I was not disappointed.


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    The place was huge and full of houses of different shapes and sizes.


    And everything was surrounded by a wall 10 blocks tall, it wasn''t made with sandstone like the earlier village, but with actual brick stone.


    "Wow, this place looks amazing!"


    "This city has been ruled by my family for generations, it''s one of the safest places in the whole desert."


    Ferdinand said with a proud voice, while the guards nodded their heads in agreement.


    We entered the city without the guards even checking us. The streets were full of life, villagers were standing at stalls selling items or advertising their trading tab.


    I looked closer at a sign from a tool smith and I was shocked by what I saw.


    1 iron 10 emeralds ¡ú iron axe


    1 iron 11 emeralds ¡ú iron pickaxe


    1iron 9 emeralds ¡ú iron shovel


    "Why do they have those


    weird prices? "


    "What do you mean weird prices? They only advertise their trading tab. This one is pretty good actually, most of the iron axes cost 1 iron and 15 to 20 emeralds. This shop must be pretty popular."


    I was stunned when I heard that. I just found out that the villagers have a different trading system them me. And it actually sounds worse than what I have.


    Maybe my Trading skill helps me more than I expected. They don''t have my skill so they have access to all those sales from the beginning, while I have to grind to get the next tab of sales.


    But in exchange, I get better offers than them, which I don''t mind.


    "But how do they make a profit from this then?"


    "You ask some weird questions. The system will take some of the costs but it would give you a portion of it in your inventory. Depends from person to person and when you have two items for a trade then you can choose what to get from those two."


    Froggy explained while looking suspiciously at me. Once I realized that I quickly changed the subject before he asked more questions.


    "Oh, of course, I knew. What do you trade by the way?"


    His face went sad and silent once I said that.


    "I haven''t been able to access my trading tab ever since I''ve become like this. At least I can use someone else''s tab to buy items."


    For the rest of the walk, we were silent. While the guards and the noble heard our conversation they didn''t seem to be interested in it. Actually, they tried to avoid talking with us as much as possible for some reason.


    Fortunately, I didn''t have to suffer in this awkward silence for too long since we arrived at the noble''s estate.


    It was majestic, it was inspired by the desert temple design with smooth sandstone and different clay blocks.


    It was guarded by villagers with fully enchanted iron armor. Which impressed me, to say the least.


    We entered without a problem and walked on the long hallway to a big room, it was the throne room.


    There was a big throne in the middle of the room, where a man with fancy clothing stood looking at us intensely.


    "Ferdinand, my son! I heard you ran away from home a couple of days ago. I did not expect you to be back so early, and you brought new friends with you."


    He suddenly looked bored.


    "Did you run out of emeralds or what?"


    "Father, this is not why I left and you know that. I left in search of a cure for mother."


    The air suddenly got tense once Ferdinand finished saying that.


    "You know there''s no such thing as a cure for the infected ones. If those people claim they know, there''s a high chance they are scamming you which makes me wonder if they''re idiots or have big guts."


    "They''re not random strangers that I found on the road father! I went to the swamp to meet the witch and they said that they have a cure."


    "You went to the coursed one you say."


    He then looked more carefully at us before fixating his sight on Froggy.


    "I can see that he''s a little paler than normal, while the other one doesn''t have a nose. Is what my son said true? Do you have a cure for the infected O cursed one?"


    "It was my friend''s original idea, but I think it''s feasible."


    "Hmm... and what would be the process?"


    "Well use a weakness potion to weaken the infection, and then we''ll feed her a golden apple where the last bit of humanity she has in her will fight back for control over the body."


    The noble looked like he was digesting the new information and then nodded his head.


    "An expensive item to have and a potion that only you can make. How convenient for you? If you lie to me there will be heavy consequences, but if you manage to cure my wife I will reward you properly."


    That made me a bit scared but Froggy looked more sure than me in the process so I decided to push my worries down as well.


    Then we were guided toward the underground cells by some guards.


    It was long and lit by lanterns. After a bit of walking, we finally arrived at the last cell where we could hear the noises that a zombie usually makes.


    The iron door was open with the help of a lever, inside stood a zombie villager tied to chains to stay in place.


    "Well, do your job, Witch."


    The young noble said from distance with mixed emotions in his voice.


    Froggy looked at me and I nodded my head in understanding.


    I took a potion from my inventory and throw it at the mad zombie. Once the potion was broken and the content got over her skin. The zombie just stopped and looked confused at me.


    Then Froggy came from behind me and shoved the golden apple in the zombie''s mouth while she was still confused.


    We couldn''t make her eat the whole apple but looks like one bite was enough, once the piece of the apple got inside the zombie she started to growl in pain.


    She started to trouble uncontrollably and tried to run but was held firmly down by the chains.


    "What did you do to my mother!"


    An angry voice was heard from outside the cell.


    "Don''t worry, this is a normal process. After a few hours, she should be back to normal."


    I said with confidence.


    The reaction was similar to the game but a lot more exaggerated, which I took as a sign that the method actually worked.


    And after a few intense minutes, we could already see the change.


    The green color started to slowly fade, and while the process looked painful it was working.


    "I-it working, she''s starting to get better."


    Tears started to appear around his eyes, and the guards started to cheer.


    After they saw that it was actually working we went back to the throne room to spread the good news.


    "I heard the good news, I am beyond thankful for your help. You just performed a miracle! What rewards would you like my dear heroes."


    The noble looked very happy to see us, and he looked like something heavy was finally lifted from his shoulders.


    "I would like some more alchemy materials."


    Said Froggy quickly.


    "Hmm, while it''s not something easy to get it''s something that can be done. How about you my friend? From what I understood the method was actually your idea in the first place."


    "Yes, your greatness. I don''t need much, I only want a horse or a camel for transportation."


    The noble just looked at me like I said a bad joke.


    "Only a horse? I can''t just give that to our heroes. The people will say that I''m taking advantage of you. Pick something else besides the animal."


    I then started to think about what I could request from them.


    I don''t need emeralds since I can get them pretty easily, diamonds or other precious metals would be good but I can''t even use them yet.


    As I looked around the room my eyes fell on a guard.


    Or more exactly on his enchanted armor.


    "Can you help me raise my Enchanting Skill?"


    The whole room got silent once I said that.


    "Hmm... While the enchanting is usually reserved for the nobles, I can help you get the first levels of enchanting as a reward for saving my family. Consider it done. Now it''s time for celebration!"


    The whole court erupted in cheers of happiness.

 Chapter 30. Enchanting

    POV: Unknown villager


    It was a hot day as usual in the desert. I drank a bowl of water from the fountain while looking at my son practicing his swordsmanship, he started to get better by day.


    I''m sure his father would be proud once he sees him finish. While I was watching my son training a servant came up to me.


    "Miss Beatrice, you''ve been summoned by your husband to the study room."


    "Did he say the reason for his calling?"


    "I''m afraid not Miss, but he said that you should come as quickly as possible."


    The servant responded while bowing her head.


    "Ferdinand! I''ll be going to see your father keep up the good work."


    "Ok, Mother!"


    He yelled then went back to his training.


    I also got up from my chair and went towards my husband''s study room.


    After a short walk, I arrived at a wooden door where I gently knocked.


    But no response came, I knocked again with more force, with the same result.


    "Honey I''m coming in!"


    I then opened the wooden door only to be greeted by darkness.


    This was unusual to see, the room was supposed to have windows and even at night, it was illuminated by lanterns.


    I slowly stepped out since this was not normal for sure, but I was suddenly pushed into the dark room by an invisible force followed by the door closing leaving me in complete darkness.


    "Hey! How dare you do this to me, open up the door and I''ll kill you quickly!"


    I tried to open the door but it was firmly held from the other side. I tried to break the door with an iron sword from my inventory but even when I managed to do it, instead of a hallway I only saw two stone blocks blocking my exit.


    While I started to wonder who would do such a thing, I heard a growl from the darkeness.


    I quickly turned to bearly see a zombie coming towards me. This made me panic, I didn''t have experience fighting with monsters and I was not looking for a fight in the dark.


    The zombie came closer to me and I held the sword to stop him from coming closer. The zombie didn''t seem too fazed by it he just pushed the sword to the side.


    In a panic, I just swung the sword and I managed to wound him.


    A growl of pain was the following noise. I tried to get as far as possible from him only to be struck from behind.


    I felt the teeth biting into my flash which made me scream in pain.


    I turned quickly only to see empty air.


    "An invisible zombie? Who would do such a thing? Oh no, I can feel the infection spreading."


    I started to feel weakened, the zombies came closer to me hungry for more flesh.


    Suddenly I could hear someone from outside trying to break into the barricaded room.


    But it was too late, when the light of the sun finally entered the room the zombies started to catch on fire including the invisible one.


    My husband entered quickly in the room and saw me on the ground slowly turning into a monster.


    He yelled something to the guards that I couldn''t understand anymore, I was in pain, and I started to feel hungry.


    I was picked up by two guards and guided to the cells, the sun started to damage me, so when I was finally underground I felt cold but better.


    Chains were put on my arms and legs so I couldn''t move.


    I felt that I was losing my sanity, hunger started to overtake me, and I lost the notion of time.


    Days started to merge, they tried to talk with me but with no success, until one day someone new came.


    I was hit by a potion which took me by surprise, and before I could process what happened something attacked my mouth which I instinctively bit.


    It was a big mistake. I could feel my mouth burning and the rest of my body started to tremble in pain.


    I screamed in pain until I lost my voice. And I could hear cheering from outside for some reason.


    But surprisingly after a few hours of torture I could feel a change, I could feel the never-ending hunger leaving me, and I could feel my heart beating again.


    And finally, I felt like I could talk, I felt human again.


    And my husband was there in the room with me, waiting patiently.


    Once he saw that I didn''t tremble anymore he came with an impossible speed and hugged me tightly.


    Then in a broken voice, I heard:


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    "Welcome back."


    POV: ???????


    The party was wild, to say the least, there were songs, dances, food and animals all in one place.


    Everyone seemed happy to have the lady of the house back.


    They showered us with food and compliments. They even showed us a little fun game of theirs called "Drink the bowl" which consisted of drinking a whole wooden bowl of suspicious stew.


    I was hesitant at first, but I gave in to all the pressure and drank it.


    And I could safely say that I''ll never do that again. Once I drank one sip I could feel the effects of the soup taking place.


    I never got drunk in my old world but I think it''s pretty similar to the nausea effect that I just got. The room started to spin around me, my insides were not doing any better either. I didn''t even know suspicious soup had this effect.


    But after everyone had their laugh at my suffering, they gave me some milk to wash down the debuff.


    The rest of the party was crazy until the end.


    Once the sun come out the party was finishing. We were tired from all the activities, so some servants showed us the way to our rooms.


    This time we had our own separate rooms. It was a big room with a golden bed, red carpet, and a balcony where I could see the beautiful city.


    But I couldn''t enjoy the view for too long since I fell asleep once my head touched the pillow.


    _______


    Once I woke up it was getting dark outside. I then got up from the bed and washed my face with the water in the cauldron that was in the room.


    After feeling refreshed I finally got out of my room and walked through the big halfways until I saw a person to which I quickly asked where I could get some food.


    They were kind enough to guide me to the kitchen or the storage area where I had some cooked chicken and bread.


    "I''m sorry to interrupt your meal sir, but the head of the household has requested to meet with you in his office."


    I swallowed the last piece of bread that I had in my mouth and nodded my head in understanding.


    The servant turned and started to walk away, and I quickly followed him.


    After a few minutes of walking, we arrived at a wooden door which the servant knocked on a few times before opening it.


    "I brought the hero, sir."


    "Thank you, Jeremiah, is the second one still asleep?"


    "I''m afraid he''s a heavy sleeper sir."


    "Thank you again, you can leave us."


    The servant proceeds to do a small bow before leaving the room.


    The noble then told me to sit down on the chair, which of course I did.


    "I called you here so I could teach you about enchanting, I won''t share everything since I''ll get in trouble with the other nobles, but I can help you level up your skill until level 3. You do have the option to choose that skill right?"


    "Yes of course! But where is the enchanting table?"


    He started to laugh once he heard that.


    "Looks like you do know something about enchanting, but it''s not that easy to level up the skill. The process of enchanting something is to write the enchantment on a paper, then you can use the enchanting table to bring the paper to life."


    "I didn''t know about that. I thought you had to enchant a book, not a piece of paper, and how about tools and armor?"


    "I''ll be surprised if you did know. As for why paper or book there''s a simple answer for that. You first need to enchant a paper, which would be a temporary enchantment that would last a day before losing it''s effects, that''s why well transfer it to a book where it can be enchanted indefently, or you can use it on an item for the same results."


    "That sounds convenient, when can I start?"


    The noble started to laugh loudly.


    "I like your enthusiasm, but it''s not as easy as you think. Take a look at this, can you guess what it says?"


    He then headed me a book which I quickly opened. I don''t know what I expected but for sure not this.


    The book was filled of an unknown language that I didn''t understand.


    I looked back at the noble and saw him smiling at my reaction.


    "It won''t be as easy as you think. Usually, I''ll teach you the language so you can grasp it better, but since you''ll only go until level 3 I''ll just teach you the enchantments that you want to know and you''ll memorize them."


    "I guess that''s better than nothing. What can I do at level 1? "


    "That''s a good question. At level 1 you can use almost any enchantment one time per item, at level 2 you can put two enchantments on one item. And finally, at level 3 you can put three enchantments on one item."


    "Does this go all the way to level 7?"


    He just smile but shook his head.


    "Not really, at level 4 things start to get more complicated that''s why we''ll stop at level 3. Do you know any enchantments that you''ll want to try?"


    He didn''t seem too keen on sharing too much about the higher levels, and I don''t think I could force him anyway. So I started to think about what enchantments I''ll want to learn for my future use.


    "I''m thinking about protection, unbreaking, sharpness, fortune, and can I do mending as well?"


    The noble looked shocked once I said that.


    "I''m once again taken aback by how much you know. Protection, sharpness, and unbreaking are possible, as for fortune we don''t have a copy of it in our library, there''s most likely in the Royal Library though. As for mending, which I''m surprised that you even know about, it''s a level 5 enchantment together with silk touch."


    I listen carefully as this was a different enchanting system than the one that I was used to. I don''t know if it''s better or worse, but I could lean towards better since I can enchant what I want instead of gambling on it.


    "I''ll learn what you have then."


    "We shall do that then."


    He then proceeded to take out 4 enchanted books which he handed to me.


    I quickly took them and looked at their enchantment.


    It was protection, efficiency, sharpness, and unbreaking.


    I opened each one of them and it was full of the unknown language as the first one that I saw.


    "I do appreciate the high expectations of me. But I don''t think I can memorize a whole book."


    "You don''t need to memorize the whole book, of course, otherwise nobody would be able to enchant. You only need to memorize the first page, and the rest I''ll show you what to do once you finish."


    He then headed me a book with a pen and told me to write specific letters of the weird alphabet.


    Of course, he was looking intensely at my writing, he pointed out if a letter was too large or too small. Apparently, the letters have to be pretty precise to be recognized by the enchanting table.


    And after a few hours, I finally managed to finish my first page.


    "Congratulations, you did a great job. Now it''s time for the magic to happen."


    He then got up from his desk and proceeded to show me the way to the enchanting room.


    Fortunately, it wasn''t too far, and after a bit of walking we arrived at a room full of bookshelves, and in the middle was the legendary enchanting table.


    It gave a faint blue light on the library''s floor, and once we got close enough the book opened automatically towards us.


    "This is the enchanting table. We use it to enchant our items, take this lapis lazuli and put it in the enchanting tables tab."


    I took the magical ore and entered the tab. But it was different than what I remembered, the design was similar to the game but it didn''t have the space where I could choose the enchantments, I only had a box where I had to put the lapiz with my levels below.


    "How many levels does it say you have?"


    "50."


    "That''s pretty impressive, you must''ve been fighting with a lot of monsters to get so many levels."


    "I guess you could say so. Where do I put the paper now?"


    He then took my paper and put the page in an empty book, and then gave it back to me.


    "Just gently leave it above the enchanting table and leave it to its job."


    I looked confused at those instructions but proceeded to do it anyway.


    Once I did that, the book started to float, pages started to flip rapidly and letters started to gather from the nearby bookshelves towards my book.


    And after a few moments of gathering holographic letters, the book started to glow stronger and stronger, until it suddenly stopped, closed and just lazily floated above the enchanting table.


    I was still stunned by these visual effects, but I was interrupted by a voice praising me.


    "Congratulations on making your first enchanted book! Let''s keep going."

 Chapter 31. I didnt ask

    The night went pretty quickly and I managed to make an enchanted book for everything that I was shown, and I could already see the progress:


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    28.530/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    50/100


    _Brewing lvl 2


    110/1.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    _______________________________________________


    I was halfway to the next level since I''ve done another protection book besides the first one. The only one that I managed to memorized how to write it.


    It wasn''t too hard to memorize them if you tried. The hard part was writing everything like a printer, the exact same way as the original one.


    Alexander, the name of the noble father, showed me what happened when I gave an imperfect page to the enchanting table.


    It was anti-dramatic, to say the least, the enchanting table didn''t make the book float like the others, it just let it fall down like a normal item, I don''t know how it knew that it was wrong but it didn''t give me an enchanted book.


    "I think that''s enough enchanting for today, at this speed you''ll be able to get to your goal in about a week. You should go and meet with your worried friend since he kept asking about you ever since he woke up."


    "I completely forgot about Froggy! Thank you again for your teachings Lord Alexander, I''ll meet my friend as quickly as possible."


    He just smiled at me and waved me goodbye as I was leaving the room.


    As I was walking along the long hallways, I realized two things.


    This place was huge with lots of rooms and hallways, and I also realized that I was lost.


    "Is this place a maze? Maybe I can ask a servant to guide me."


    But there was nobody around me. I walked more and saw a doorway that led outside to a beautiful garden.


    "Maybe I''ll find someone outside working in the garden."


    I walked on the gravel path towards the fountain that was in the middle of the garden, there I finally found a person.


    She was wearing a white robe while looking lost at the sky.


    "Sorry to bother you miss, but could you point me the way towards the guest''s rooms?"


    The women seemed startled by my sudden presence and looked in panic at me. She then started to study me more carefully, especially around my nose area.


    "Yes, I think I can help you with that. I''ll do something better, I''ll lead you there."


    And before I could respond she was already on the move toward the building. I didn''t want to get lost again so I quickly followed her.


    We didn''t have to walk for too long before we started to see more people working around the palace, but they all seemed to look differently at us. Or more precisely at the lady that guided me.


    Then the servant that called me the other day to meet the lord came to us.


    "I''m glad to see you doing well miss. May I ask you what brought you outside of your recovery room?"


    "Hello there Jeremiah, I left that room since I felt cramped, I''m perfectly healthy now I don''t need to stay looked up in a room, actually I feel better than ever. Now, if you''ll excuse me I have to guide our hero to the guest''s room."


    Jeremiah tried to talk back but didn''t manage since the lady started to walk away clearly not interested to continue the conversation.


    I followed along, but this time more cautiously.


    "I''m sorry that I didn''t recognize you miss. I may be disrespectful with my sudden request."


    "Don''t be sorry, when you first saw me I looked completely different, I''m embarrassed to be seen at such an ugly state. But I wanted to thank you two for saving my life. I don''t know what my husband would''ve done with me if I stayed a zombie for too long. We don''t look too kindly on people that keep monsters alive intentionally."


    For the rest of the trip, we walked in silence until we arrived at a door that I recognized.


    I gently knocked and a voice responded from the other side.


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    "Who is it?"


    "It''s me, can I come in?"


    I heard footsteps running towards the door and then it was opened.


    "Thank the System that you''re ok, where have you been the whole night? I checked your room but it was long empty, and when I asked the servants they told me you were summoned to the household office. Why did it last so many hours?."


    Only after he finished his rantings did Froggy see that I was not alone.


    "I see you two get along quite well. I came here to thank you from my heart for saving me. I don''t know how to even repay you two back."


    "There''s no need to thank us. We were glad that we could help, and our rewords are currently being paid, so you don''t need to worry, you can focus on recovering so everyone in this estate would feel more at ease."


    Froggy responded awkwardly.


    "If you say so, I''ll do as you suggested. Thank you again for saving my life."


    She then bowed deeply to us before leaving.


    "It feels good to save a life, and it feels good to hear a gratitude interested of an insult."


    Froggy said absent-mindedly, which made me realize that he''s been suffering ever since he became a witch.


    Even if he chose to isolate himself, the parting curses and hate didn''t leave him in his isolation.


    "Yes, maybe if you keep doing this you''ll change your reputation to something better."


    I tried to be helpful, and that made Froggy think about something, which I guess it was better then getting depressed.


    "I was with sir Alexander, the head of this household to learn enchanting. I managed to enchant five books."


    I said that as I showed him a book that I made.


    "Protection 1, that''s a pretty good start you only need some armor to put it on and then it''s perfect. How long do you think it would take for you to get to level 3?"


    "From what I''ve been told around a week. Which I guess it''s good since I have to get back to my friend as quickly as possible."


    "A week? That means that they heavily invested into you."


    This made me a little confused. I mean enchanting is not easy as in the game but I don''t think it''s too hard either, once you get the hang of the writing rules you can just copy the enchantment that you want and then level up pretty fast.


    "Of course, from what I can understand it would take around a month to get the first two levels on the enchanting skill, we can''t raise cows easily in the desert so the only leather we have it''s from horses, camels, and bunnies. The first two are too good for transportation to be raised for lather and the bunny can only give you a fraction of one leather piece. And the fact that Sir Alexander teaches you directly shows his dedication to this since he has to take time from his busy schedule to make time for you."


    Once I heard all of that I realized how much they invested in me. I was too used to the game mindset where everything is easy to get, where you could afford to throw items out.


    But not in this world, it''s not as easy here, but it''s still possible.


    "I didn''t think about that. Did you get your ingredients?"


    I tried to shamelessly change the topic.


    "Yes I did, I got a lot of nether warts which are the base for most potions."


    He responded happily. Which made me remember something.


    "Oh yeah. I guess I could give you those since I can''t use them anyway."


    I said that while I handed him some of the brewing materials that I looted from the nether fortress.


    "Wh-whats all of this? How did you get them, are you royalty by any chance?"


    I could see panic starting to gather in his eyes which was not something I expected. I had to come up with an excuse quickly.


    "No I''m not, don''t worry. I have a special job called Trader that allows me to access rare trades that you wouldn''t normally find. And those are some of them. Maybe you can make me some potions if you feel like you have to pay me back."


    He was still shocked by the new wealth but nodded his head. And after some hesitation, he took out something that I did not expect to see from him.


    An enchanted diamond sword.


    "I''m sorry that I kept it from you, but this sword was with the monster besides you. You can have it."


    He then handed it to me.


    Once I read the enchantments I was shocked, to say the least, it had sharpness 3 unbreaking 2 and even mending to repair itself.


    "This-this Is an amazing sword! Are you sure you want to give it to me?"


    "It was from the monster that you defeat it, so I just returned what was originally yours. I just feel bad now since I wanted to keep it for myself. Don''t worry I''ll still make you potion as well."


    He said awkwardly, which I didn''t know how to react to. I don''t think I defeated the monster fairly, I didn''t stand a chance when I fought him, I took a big gamble with the portal move. If I was killed before I could close the portal I would''ve brought a catastrophe to this world that I think it was not ready to deal with. But the sword was too good to just refuse it.


    "Thank you."


    We then went to our separate rooms where I proceed to take a nap to recuperate some of the lost energy.


    ______


    The next few days were spent trying to memorize the four enchantments and leveling up my Enchanting skill, everything was smooth sailing I managed to memorize two of them and I made fewer mistakes with my measurements. I even managed to level up my skill halfway in the second level.


    But everything good must come to an end. On the fourth day, an envoy full of guards heavily armored with enchanted iron came to this palace.


    It was an envoy from the royal family, the sultans daughter.


    "I greet the Alexander ruler of this house."


    "I greet the daughter of the ruler of this nation, Cleopatra. What brings you to my humble home?"


    The two nobles greeted each other respectfully.


    Froggy and I were listening from the corner trying not to gather their attentions.


    "I heard a miracle has happened here, and I wanted to see if it was true."


    Alexander didn''t look too happy to hear that.


    "Indeed it''s true, tragedy has struck my house where my wife was infected. But once all hope was lost a miracle happened that brought her back to the living."


    "This is a fascinating story indeed, where are the heroes that helped to bring such a miracle?"


    I don''t think Alexander mentioned us anywhere, so how did she know about us?


    "They''re not available right now I''m afraid."


    "Not even to meet the princess of this kingdom? I''m sure they''ll make some time to meet with me. From what I know they haven''t left yet."


    The air started to get tense around the room, everyone looked uncomfortable with the execution of the two nobles.


    "Jeremiah, call our guests here if they can."


    The servant made a small bow before coming to fetch us and brought us where we last wanted to be, the center of attention.


    The princess was tall wearing some red enchanted leather armor, that was matching with her long red hair.


    "Oh, how lucky of us! They could meet us after all. I''m glad to see you two heroes helping my kingdom. As a reward, I''ll invite you two to the royal Palace!"


    Everyone was in shock, while Froggy and I did not feel too comfortable with the sudden invitation.


    "Thank you for your generosity, your majesty. But I''m afraid we have to refuse the invitation, I have to get back to my people to say that I''m safe."


    I tried to reject the invitation as politely as possible.


    "I''m sorry to hear that, but I didn''t ask you. I ordered you."


    Once she said that her smile dropped and the guards behind her took out their swords pointing them at us.


    "What''s the meaning of this? You dare raise your swords in my house? Do you want to start a war!"


    Alexander yelled with an angry voice. His guards also started to take out their swords.


    "Calm down sir Alexander, I promise their absolute safety. It''s just that my father wanted to meet them in person. The sooner the better, so you better not stand in my way in case you want to cause trouble for your city."


    The princess told him with a threatening voice.


    The noble after a few intense moments of internal conflict, decided to order his men to put their swords down.


    "I''m sorry heroes, but I have to priorities my house first."


    This left a bad taste in my mouth.

 Chapter 32. Sand palace

    While the princess ordered us to come with her, she wasn''t unreasonable enough to take us right then and there. She was kind enough to let us get our items from our rooms before we left.


    Of course, this was with the exception that we were supervised by at least one of her guards. I didn''t have too many item''s to take since I had everything with me all the time, and because I had a bigger inventory then a villager which I found out with Bobby''s help.


    Froggy managed to sneak a few potions to me, and I had the option to have some alone time with Alexander in his office.


    "I''m sorry that I''ve betrayed you two. But don''t lose hope yet. While they are forceful with this invitation, she did promise your safety the whole journey. This means that you two would be treated as guests of honor with a few limitations. Of course, I do intend to help you two get out as soon as possible, but I can''t do anything now, I have to gather some more political power to pressure them."


    The noble tried to assure me, which helped me feel a bit less betrayed for being thrown in the lion''s mouth so easily.


    He also gave me the four enchanted books that I made with some empty books so I can practice my writing event without him.


    The only thing stopping me now was getting an enchanted table myself. Which would take a while to get it.


    After an hour of gathering our stuff, they didn''t wait for even one more minute and now we''re outside the beautiful city back in the dry desert.


    They were thoughtful enough to let us ride the camels, of course, they were in leads so we wouldn''t take our chance to run with them.


    And after a bit of walking, I mustered enough courage to talk with our kidnapper''s leader.


    "May I ask Your Highness why is that we are required to meet the Sultan at such short notice?"


    The princess looked at me from her heavy armored camel with an annoyed expression.


    "I don''t know weirdo. My dad heard about you two somehow managing to cure an infected person and he now wants to meet you two as soon as possible."


    "If you are curious about the cure we can give you the process with some potions to do it yourself."


    I tried to say something that could probably get us out of this situation.


    "I also asked him something similar. But my old man was too stubborn and told me he wants to meet you two face to face."


    This was worrying to hear.


    If they wanted the information on the cure, I would be more than happy to share, the only downside is that they need Froggy since he is the only one that can make the weakness potions.


    And this makes me feel even worse since I selfishly dragged down Froggy with me only to get a horse to get home faster, which I kind of got, but it''s not going the way I want to unfortunately.


    "We won''t be arrested or something like that right?"


    "I gave my promise that I''ll keep you safe, and when a royalty promises something. Nothing can break it."


    From her gestures, I could guess she didn''t want to be here as well, but she seemed pretty serious about promises which made me feel a bit better in those confusing times.


    I then walked a little slower and I was beside Froggy again.


    "I''m sorry that I brought you into this mess."


    I said with a low voice.


    He just looked at me weirdly and shook his head.


    "While it''s true that they captured us because of the cure, it''s not all your fault. The nobles tried to rope me into one of their houses for a few good years, even the royalty tried. But I was too afraid to choose just one so rejected all of them, and since I''m not in any house they''re satisfied enough to just trade with me from time to time."


    He tried to reassure me.


    "I''m actually sorry for you since they don''t really need you. They only need me, but for some reason, they want both of us in the same place."


    This made me think about the reason for our bringing.


    Froggy has already a reputation as the best alchemist in the whole kingdom so it''s reasonable for the powerful people to want him, and with the new knowledge of curing infected people, he''s even more valuable than before.


    But what about me?


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    They don''t know that I''m from another world, I don''t think they know that I came from the Stone Kingdom.


    I don''t think they know that I can brake, place and craft faster than them, or the fact that I know some forbidden knowledge.


    So then why do they also need me, I just came to this desert. They shouldn''t even know that I''m here.


    The more I thought about this the less it made sense. And from talking with Cleopatra I think even she was confused about my bringing.


    I was deep in questions that nobody in this group could answer so I had to do what I''ve always done since I''ve come into this world.


    Ignore it until it''s solved Itself.


    The journey was surprisingly comfortable. We were truly treated like special guests, we ate cooked meat, drank milk, and had plenty of rest.


    Even at night we settled down and lit up the camp and around us with lanterns. Because of that we rarely had problems with monsters, and the best part was that we didn''t have to fight with them like the first time we came here.


    After traveling for five days we finally arrived at our destination.


    If the city shocked me when I saw it for the first time, this one could give me a heart attack.


    Saying that it was huge it''s an understatement, the city was separated into three parts separated by different walls, the outer part which was the largest was surrounded by a wall 5 blocks tall.


    It was the place where the common people lived, the houses looked pretty cramped from up here. And I could see the market close to a second wall which was bigger than the first one.


    The second layer was separated by another wall 10 blocks high from the first district.


    The streets were more spacious, the buildings were much bigger and there wasn''t too much activity on the streets. What was most different in that place, was that it was the noble''s area.


    The houses were beautifully decorated with rare blocks like grass and water fountains. I could even see a couple of animals in the yards.


    Finally, all of this was overshadowed by the last district.


    The wall was 20 blocks tall, but even such tall walls could not hide the beauty of the palace.


    This was the Royal Palace. It had the style of a desert temple with the shape of a pyramid, and while I couldn''t see all the beauty from there because of the tall wall what I did saw impressed me, especially the tip of the building that was made entirely out of gold blocks which reflected sunlight.


    "This city is huge! How old is this place to have so many buildings?"


    I said in awe.


    This world kept impressing me more and more the more I saw it.


    I''m tempted to take a backpack and start traveling the world just to admire it.


    "This city had stood the waves of time, its origins predate even the great war, It was a city that even other nation''s envied. But after the war, there have been a lot of casualties and a loss of knowledge. This is what we have left to remember our otherwise forgotten history."


    The great war came again. I heard it first with the skeleton king when he commented on my weapon and I still don''t know who was fighting who since even a monster from the Nether knew about it, which is another dimension all together.


    "I heard legends about a great war that happened between the first monsters and the humans, but I didn''t think it was real."


    Fortunately Froggy asked instead of me.


    "It is very much real as it was deadly. Unfortunately, we don''t have any information on what caused it or what stopped it, we only know that the corruption suddenly stopped coming which showed that we won. Of course, the monsters still come at night since theres still some corruption in this world that hasn''t healed yet, but from the records, in the time of war even the almighty sun could not banish them."


    I was curious to hear that since the official game had some lore but it wasn''t too known like the other games.


    Though I do think that this world has a completely different history than what the developers thought since it''s alredy getting further and further then the original.


    "Of course, because we are one of the oldest cities our specialty is Enchanting, there won''t be an enchanted book you won''t be able to find here."


    She said with pride.


    "That''s pretty impressive, but who are the other older cities?"


    I asked wondering if they had their own specialty.


    "That would be the capital of Coral kingdom and the capital of Stone kingdom. Coral specialty is trading and crafting while Stone specialty is mining and potion making."


    She wasn''t as enthusiasmated to praise someone else''s nation as hers.


    We decide to stop talking when we arrived at the entrance of the first wall.


    And of course, nobody dared to stop us, a group with Princess Cleopatra as its leader surrounded by villagers armed with enchanted iron armor, especially if they weren''t paid enough for this.


    The people on the streets were trying to stay out of our way as much as possible but they still stopped to look at us while we passed in wonder and fear.


    We didn''t have to travel too much before arriving at the second wall.


    This time the guards were prepared to intercept us but stopped once we got close enough for them to recognize the princess.


    The noble section was beautiful to see up close, the road was made with Stone bricks, unlike the first layer which was shoveled dirt.


    People here were also looking at us, but not with fear as the others, they looked more shocked to see someone so important outside walking on their streets .


    The view was beautiful until we arrived at the final wall.


    There, the guards finally stopped us.


    "Welcome back Princess Cleopatra, your father has been eagerly expecting you. Should we check the people that you''re brought?"


    The guard was here to actually greet us but looks like he also wanted to check on us. I don''t know how they''ll do it but I''m sure I''ll get in a lot of trouble with how much stuff I have in my inventory.


    "They''re guests of honor so they shall be treated as such. Now move so I can meet with my father."


    "Yes, your Highness."


    The guard bowed and moved out of the way to let us pass.


    Once we passed the last wall, I finally saw what those big barriers were hiding.


    Stone statues with horses and villagers'' faces, garden with different biomes and plants. The pathway was made with white concrete, which was Ilumainated by the lampposts besides the road.


    And all of this led to a huge entrance to the palace.


    We walked for a few minutes in the huge halfway where we saw more statues and different precious blocks on display until we arrived at one final room.


    The throne room.


    There stood an elite group of guards that was equipped with enchanted diamond armor.


    They all stood guarding besides the tall pillars, with a stoic expression but ready to attack at any danger.


    In the middle of the room stood a huge throne made with gold, diamond, and even emerald blocks.


    And on top of all that stood a man who wore fancy clothing that was studying us with his eyes.


    The ruler of this land.


    Sultan Amun the Enchanter.


    "Heroes, welcome to my palace!"

 Chapter 33. Prophecy

    "Heroes, welcome to my palace!"


    The Sultan greeted us with a smile while opening his arms.


    "I''m sure you must''ve been surprised by the sudden invitation to the palace. But when I first heard about the miracle I was pleasantly shocked, and not only me but my friend the pope as well. He was so shocked that he wanted to meet you two as soon as possible."


    Once he said that, another person came from behind one of the big pillars. He was an old man with a long white beard and a heavily decorated white robe.


    He looked at us with eyes full of wisdom and peace.


    "It''s a good day to meet the person chosen by the system. I''ve recently had a vision where a calamity shall fall over this world. Hoards of zombies would attack nations all around the world, all of it led by a zombie leader that would not be affected even by the sun, like in the times of the great war. But do not lose hope, a hero shall arrive to defeat the calamity and save us all!"


    The old man said in a mysterious voice.


    But this was not what caught my attention, there is a monster Lord that will come to this world to wreak havoc, and there will be heroes as well.


    "Classic demon Lord and hero story."


    I whispered to myself.


    This made me think if I was the chosen hero and if this was the reason I was summoned to this world.


    "Do you think we are the heroes that would fight against the calamity?"


    Fortunately Froggy asked the question instead of me.


    "Don''t think so my son. The hero would be out of this world and from what I understood it''s not here yet. The time should be close to the beginning of the next year."


    So I wasn''t the chosen hero? I don''t know if I should feel disappointed or relieved that I won''t have to shoulder such a big responsibility.


    But if I''m not the chosen one, not Froggy, why are we here in the first place?


    "Why did you bring us here then your Hollyness? "


    "I heard you two can make miracles and bring back an infected person to life. I want you two to help the hero defeat the enemy or at least alleviate the casualties of the upcoming hoard."


    This made us both confused.


    "But before we''ll help you two grow, we want to see the miracle in person. To the deep chambers!"


    We didn''t manage to stay confused for too long before the king Intreputed us to a new order which the soldiers were kind enough to follow.


    They took us by our arms and dragged us to the basement of the palace.


    What is with this country and them being so forceful with everything? I''ve just been here for a few days and I went to an underground prison twice.


    Is there something that I''m missing?


    Fortunately, the guards didn''t drag us the whole time. Once they understood that we knew how to walk on our own two feet they just let us to walk by ourselves.


    We walked for a few minutes, where we passed a few cells with villagers that seemed to have lost all hope in their eyes.


    The further we walked the weirder it got. At first, it was cells with humans and then it changed to cells filled with monsters.


    Zombies, Skeletons even a creeper were being kept behind iron bars.


    "Isn''t this frowned upon?"


    I asked in worry as we kept walking along the stone hallway.


    But nobody seemed too eager to answer my question.


    Finally, we arrived before an iron door at the end of the hallway, where a lever was pulled down which opened it.


    Inside the room was a zombie villager that stood in an iron cage, the rest of the room was filled with chests, furnaces, and even a brewing station.


    "Is this a resource facility?"


    "Yes, this is the room where we try to see if we could change the monsters back to normal or tame them. Unfortunately, nothing gave us good results.


    Finally responded to my question, and it was the old pope, which now looked more like a mad scientist than a friendly old man.


    "Now, what do you need to be able to perform the miracle young souls?"


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    "Uhh, we need a weakness potion and a golden apple."


    Froggy responded.


    "Golden apple you say, we did try that a few experiments ago but the subject just died like it ate positions, are you sure about that?"


    "Very much your Hollyness. I could make the potion but I don''t have the apple to complete the transformation."


    "We can give you that without a worry, just do your brewing Witch."


    The old man said with a trace of spite in his voice.


    But Froggy either chose to ignore that or didn''t hear it since he started to make the potion already.


    We all watched intensely as he finished the potion which he quickly gave to me.


    "Let''s do a miracle again Trader."


    I got the potion while wondering how I got this name again.


    At this point, I suspected that this world refused to hear my name.


    But I had a task to do now, so I threw the potion at the zombie villager while Froggy shoved the magical apple in its mouth.


    The zombie stopped growling at us and started to scream in pain while trying to get out of the cage.


    "We got a similar reaction when we just used the apple last time. Are you sure this is working witch?"


    "This is what we did last time and it worked. It''s the same reaction and in a few minutes the green skin should change its color back to normal."


    The old man narrowed his eyes but chose to observe the transformed.


    And as promised, after a few minutes of the zombie struggling in pain we could finally see the change appearing.


    The skin started getting lighter which brought the pope closer to inspect the change.


    "Fascinating! It''s working, a miracle is happening in front of us! You have proven yourself, rejoice and accept our teachings."


    The old man then quickly turned towards us with his arms open like he just gave us a blessing.


    "Sorry your Hollyness, but this is too sudden for us to react, we need some time to decide on what to do."


    The Pope froze in his place but then quickly got himself back.


    "Of course, I understand that it''s so much to get understand in such short notice so we will leave this room so you two can talk in privacy."


    A howl of pain was coming from the zombie''s cage.


    "Mostly alone."


    He smiled at us and went outside with the guards, leaving me, Froggy, and the transforming villager alone.


    "What is happening here? They are keeping monsters under the palace, they seemed to want to control them and I think some of their experiments involve humans."


    I said that while starting to wonder what I got myself involved in which made me more worried.


    "Trader! Calm yourself down."


    Froggy tried to reason with me.


    "We have to decide now what to do. I think they''re more interested in me than you, I think the only reason they brought you here at all is that you''re my friend, and that''s a weakness that they can exploit."


    Once he finished saying that it made me think.


    Froggy''s whole village was destroyed and I don''t think he managed to make a new friend with his new look, that''s why the nobles couldn''t actually force him anywhere.


    Now he''s here with me as a friend, this was an opportunity that the Sultan had to take advantage of and get a hold of Froggy the witch.


    This made me more relieved since I would be kept safe for leverage against the witch, but it also made me very angry since I''m being used as blackmail against my savior and friend.


    "What should we do then? I don''t think they''ll let me get out easily if I tell them that I''m not interested. And even if I accept their offer, when the hero will come for sure they won''t let me go on a journey with the chosen one."


    "That''s true, we have to gather more information since we are not sure what is really happening. Why is the pope so interested in me, is the prophecy true, and what are they even trying to teach us?"


    "So we will have to accept their offer and look for an opportunity to escape from here. And even if we manage to escape will most likely have to leave the whole country."


    I tried to summarize the plan.


    "Exactly so. By the way, I''ll call you Trader from now on since it''s not a good idea for them to know your real name."


    "Your not the only one that calls me that."


    I sighed in exasperation.


    "What do you-"


    Froggy was Interrupted by the heavy knock on the iron door.


    "Have you two decided yet? I know it''s not a good idea to rush such an important decision but the Sultan would like the know the answer as soon as possible."


    The old man screamed from the other side.


    We looked at each other one more time before nodding our heads in understanding and opening the door.


    "We made our decisions and were ready to meet the Sultan to shear it."


    The old man''s face lit up once he heard that. He then proceeds to quickly guide us back to the throne room where the Sultan greets us again.


    "I''m blessed to have such hero''s in my kingdom. Are you two also willing to pick up the mantle of saviors for this world? "


    "Yes, Sultan! We decided to join the training program."


    "I''m glad to hear that! You two shall start as soon as possible. Do you have any requests?"


    I then raised my hand to get Sultan''s attention.


    "I would like to have access to the palace library if possible."


    The Sultan didn''t look too happy to talk with me, which furthered the theory that I''m only here as a liability for my friend.


    "I guess we could arrange that."


    The Sultan finally agreed after some thinking.


    "I thank you for your generosity, almighty Sultan."


    This was a perfect opportunity to gather more information about our surroundings, with this I could start to plan my actual revenge for imprisoning me and Froggy.


    And maybe there''s a chance that I would actually find some Information about my main goal.


    A way to get back home.


    Not long after we gave our response they decided to lead us to our own rooms where we could stay for the rest our staying.


    Fortunately, we weren''t too far away from each other, but our rooms were huge, to say the least.


    I had a double bed with a huge frame, a cauldron with water to wash, a fireplace with a big couch, yellow carpet on the ground and it even had a balcony that showed the beauty of the city below us.


    Froggy''s room was similar to mine, and once we finally saw our rooms a servant took Froggy right towards the brewing room leaving me alone and confused.


    "They are really eagered to have him."


    I said to myself.


    I then started to study my room in more details, could I hide somewhere in here, could I jump out from here?


    And after a few minutes of searching, I found out that we are on the third floor, with guards constantly patrolling under us, on the walls there were archers and I don''t think there was something hidden there.


    "Looks like we can''t escape through here. Let''s go to the library then."


    I said that and went towards the closest villager that I could find and asked him to guide me.


    And after a few minutes, I was in front of a huge doorway that lead to the biggest library I have ever seen.


    It was like I was living in a movie, with walls filled with books and there were multiple floors filled with full bookshelves.


    Everything was illuminated by lanterns and at the ceiling, there was glass that let the sunlight to come in.


    "Well, it''s time for research."

 Chapter 34. Life鈥檚 complicated

    POV: Bobby


    After a long and tiring journey, I finally arrived at the front of a huge gate which was guarded by guards that had iron armor.


    The palace was huge with five big towers that each had a golden bell in it.


    The roof was made with oxidized copper that gave a beautiful sight, while the rest of the building was made with wood and Stone bricks.


    But while I was admiring the architecture a guard came my way.


    "Stop right there, what''s the reason for your visit?"


    One of the guards came at me.


    "I''m Bobby and I was called here by Princess Beatrice."


    "Please wait here while we check this information."


    "I have a book signed by her if this would help."


    I said that as I took the book from my inventory to show it.


    He looked at me then at the book in my hand and back at me before taking the book to look at it.


    "It''s signed by her majesty. Well, guide you to her chamber then."


    And like that, I passed the imposing wall with no problem.


    We walked for a short while before another servant took me to show me the exact room with the princess.


    And after a few minutes, I was finally in front of the most important person that I''d seen in my entire life.


    Princess Elizabeth Mending.


    She was a tall woman with blue eyes and blonde hair, she wore a red dress that made her look very imposing and powerful.


    "Bobby is a student that likes to work hard and has a brewing talent, it''s what I heard. It''s nice meeting you, and I''m sorry for the late greeting."


    She said while raising her arm to greet me.


    "It''s not a problem your Highness, I''m sure you had your challenges before you could contact me."


    I shook her hand awkwardly.


    "I know that it sounds like a bad excuse on my part, but it''s true. Father has recently gotten sick so the political field started to get pretty ruthless, and my odds don''t look too good. I was lucky that my second brother made a mistake and lost a team of powerful knights on a stupid collect mission."


    I think she was talking about the last team of knights that the tribe took out.


    I guess I helped her indirectly somehow which I didn''t know how to feel about it.


    "I know that you intended to hire me to make potions, but I''m not sure what you need me for now, since it''s been a very long time since I made any progress."


    That was not even close to the truth, I made a lot of progress ever since I went to the Nether, especially when I made potions for the tribe, I even managed to level up my skill again.


    But she didn''t know that, she didn''t need to know yet at least. I wanted to see what I was needed for first before I could decide what my next course of action should be.


    "That is a valid worry to have, you''ve been kicked out of the academy too early and unjustly. And you''ve been sent out at the edge of a nation in hopes of you dying, I''m sure you had plenty of worries when you got there, I can''t give you back the lost years from the academy, but I can give you enough resources that would help you level up extremely fast. So do you want to work for me?"


    She held her hand for me to accept the deal with only a shake of the hands.


    "I''m pretty tempted by the offer, but I don''t want to be ever thrown out like I''m a broken tool, I want to have some stability, I want to have access to the royal library and to get a pass in the Royal garden where you get the potions ingredients."


    I wanted to research more about what the Trader showed and told me, I also wanted to find out if there Is a way to control monsters. And if I get approved to see the garden I''ll most likely get access to the Nether as well where I could supervise the fortress and its teams, and with that information I could warn the tribe if the kingdom is looking for revenge on them. We helped them too much for them to vanish all of the sudden, and they''re the only ones that can help find out what happened to Trader.


    I''m more than sure that he''s not dead. He has to be alive.


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    "I could give you access to certain areas of the library but seeing the garden is not that easy. If you show your usefulness I could make an exception and maybe make you my right hand where you''ll have access to the garden."


    The princess tried to encourage me. But I knew the true reason why she couldn''t show me the garden. After all their garden is a whole other dimension, one pretty hot as well, if I can make fire resistance potions, I''m sure that would increase her reputation in the political world since they lost the striders to get their magical milk, and lucky for me I was at level 5 on the brewing skill which meant that I could make the potions. And if her reputation would increase my chances increase as well, I just need to hide those precious ingredients that I got from the fortress somewhere where not everyone could see.


    "I''ll take the deal then. Could I perhaps get a private room where I can store some items safely without someone stealing them?"


    "Are you implying that my home is a place full of thieves?"


    She said with an angry voice which made me tremble a little.


    "I''m not saying that, but I''m sure that when I''ll start to catch the attention of your brothers they''ll start to sabotage me in any way they can, to make me stop or get me on their side."


    I tried to reason for myself, which made her calm down a little.


    "That could happen I guess, follow me then."


    She then went into the corner of the room where a block that I had never seen stood.


    It was dark with some green and it even had something that resembled an eye


    "This is an Ender chest, a specialty from the Coral Nation, it''s a chest that only you can have access to it. Wherever you put it here you can find it in any ender chest all over the world, and only you have access to it. Try to put something in it."


    What she described to me sounded like a magical chest and a very convenient way to safely keep your valuables, but I didn''t want to put something precious from the start, so I took the book that I got from the princess and put it in the chest.


    She then proceeded to put a stick in the chest as well.


    "Now check the contents of the chest and be surprised."


    And I did as I was told, once I opened the chest tab I was surprised to see that only the book was there and not together with a stick.


    "This is amazing!"


    "It is indeed, but unfortunately only the Coral Kingdom knows how to make them, and they don''t sell them for cheap."


    She said with a disappointed voice.


    "There are 6 ender chests in total, one for every member of the family and one in the throne room for everyone to access. You can use that one if it''s not occupied, and in case of an emergency, you can use mine. Is this good enough?"


    "This is perfect for me, thank you."


    I said that as I quickly started to put my precious ingredients into the magical chest.


    "I''m glad to hear that Bobby, welcome to the team!"


    POV: Blue Flame


    The way back home was not a pleasant journey, to say the least. The Explorer didn''t come to our meeting place even after a few hours of waiting, and Bobby didn''t take it too well.


    He''s still in shock and walks empty-minded through the hot lands.


    And I understand his feelings, I feel more frustrated from this than anyone since I was the one that was supposed to know more about this fortress, I said that this fortress was abandoned and they trusted me. They even paid us a lot through the recent battle with the outsiders.


    I even blame myself for suggesting gathering information in the first place. If I didn''t say that maybe we could''ve avoided this accident.


    The walk back home was filled with pressing silence. I tried to talk with Bobby from time to time, but he was like an empty husk just nodding his head from time to time and keept walking.


    Finally, after a few days, we arrived at his portal. I thought getting him back to his world would make him feel better than staying in the tribe.


    And the fact that he finally spoke in days made me believe that the choice was right.


    With that done, I had to get back home and bring the bad news to my chief as well. It was never a good feeling to be the one that brings the bad news.


    But It had to be done, so after a few hours, I was back in the tribe waiting outside a wooden door, it was Undyings house.


    "Let''s do this."


    I took a deep sigh and knocked ok the door.


    "Who is it? You can come in."


    A voice was heard from the other side, and I opened the door as instructed.


    Inside stood a woman with red hair working on a crafting table, she just finished making some arrows before turning to me.


    "Oh, it''s you Blue!.... What happened?"


    "What make''s you think that something happened?"


    "You usually barge in here like it''s your own house. The only time when you''re not doing that is when you''ve done something bad. So what happened?"


    "I... I did not realize that. But you''re right, I bring bad news from the last expedition. The journey towards the fortress was long but relatively safe, but once we got there we saw that the fortress was not abandoned as we thought, there were black skeletons that were moving in order like there were sentients."


    "But didn''t you tell me last time when you read about it that it was supposed to be empty?"


    "Yes I did, but it wasn''t like that once we got there."


    "Weird, so that''s the bad news? They feel like we scammed them?"


    She said with a disappointed sigh, which I completely understood. If that would''ve been the case that would''ve severely damaged our relationship with them, and we would lose the connection to a world filled with resources that we can''t get.


    If only it was that simple.


    "Unfortunately not. We decided to explore the fortress and gather some information about what happened and found some treasures. We got too greedy and went too deep and they found us."


    She froze when I said that, but keept listening.


    "We tried to run but it was too late. So the Explorer decides to distract them while we snuck out with an invisible potion. We managed to do that with his help but I think he died while taking out the one controlling the monsters."


    Once I finished telling her what happened she took a deep breath.


    "You did what! What was the point of trading your life for some stupid treasure? Not only we lied to them about the fortress they also lost life there. This is worse than the worst-case scenario, we would be lucky if Bobby won''t reveal the location of our tribe to the outsiders as revenge."


    I didn''t think of that. And while I don''t see Bobby doing that, he was also devastated by this incident that maybe something snapped inside him that would change his way of thinking.


    "What should we do then?"


    "We have to apologize to Bobby and make everything in our power to make him forgive us."


    "But I already sent him through the portal, how are we supposed to contact him now?"


    "Then we have to get into their world where we could contact him."


    She said with a serious face.


    "But how? You told me yourself that we can''t go into their world without getting effect it by it."


    She forcefully put her hand on my shoulder.


    "I may have a plan that would work out, but I need your help for that."

 Chapter 35. Plans to escape

    It''s been a few day''s since I''ve been stuck in this palace, the library was huge so I was not bored while looking through it. There were stories about history that thought me a lot about this world like the fact that every Nation has its specialty.


    The Sandstone Kingdom is specialized in enchanting items, the ruler of this country has to have level 7 in the enchanting skill before they can even be considered a candidate for the throne. They''re also the only nation that knows how to break the obsidian block which they keep close to their hearts as a secret. With that resources, they have certain advantages in trading with the Coral Kingdom to get some good deals since they live in a desert after all.


    The Coral Kingdom is the only kingdom that is not connected to the unclaimed land, which sounds like a good thing but they have their challenges with the monsters as well. While they''re the only nation that is connected to the sea it also brings problems called drawn and phantoms every now and then to challenge their warriors.


    Their specialty is Crafting, it''s not a nation ruled by a king or nobility, they have a hierarchy of who is the richest is also the smartest. A country is a big place for trading, there travels wealth unimaginable to normal people every day.


    It was a fascinating thing to read about.


    The Stone Kingdom has a specialty in the Brewing skill since it''s the only nation that has access to blaze powder and other resources from an unknown source.


    A fan fact about the royalty there is that their name is Mending, which is connected to every royalty because each one of them has a trade with mending surprisingly. This is a way to show that they are chosen by the system by being given a rare trade that only they have access to.


    Now I don''t know if their truly born this way, or they just keep changing jobs until they got the desired book like in the game. But this is one factor that keeps them in the ruling line for sure.


    From what I read in the books that I saw, the other kingdoms don''t know about the existence of the Nether, and I think not even the Stone Kingdom knows the existence of the End dimension.


    And finally but not least, the unclaimed land. This territory was bigger than even the three nations combined.


    With such a vast empty land why is nobody trying to occupy it?


    Well, it''s a simple reason for that. The whole land was filled with monsters. And while the nobles were equipped enough to deal with some monsters it wasn''t as easy as it seems. The deeper you go the more monsters you meet, some of them won''t stop spawning even when you put a light source down.


    And even if you managed to go through all of that to find the lost cities and their forgotten knowledge. You''ll be stopped by the biggest obstacle.


    Corruption.


    The deeper you go the closer you get to the battlefield that took place a long time ago. Even if the portal was closed, the corruption was still there slowly expanding its domain.


    When a villager stands for some time in corruption, a change starts to appear in them, they suddenly lose their speech and reasoning. They become the villages that Bobby was tasked to take care of.


    That''s how you become an outcast in here.


    Luckily I was spawned pretty close to a nation so I didn''t have to deal with too many monsters, and I don''t know if the corruption would effect me the same way as the villagers.


    But I wasn''t only reading in the library this whole time.


    I tried to meet with my witch friend to see what he learned and what kind of propaganda he was going through, but I haven''t been able to see him those past few days, which was not a good sign to see.


    So I felt that I needed to do something to help him, something that could help both of us.


    I needed a way to escape from this beautiful prison.


    But I already started to see some trouble in my escape plan.


    My genius idea was a classic one, that was so foul proof that nothing could go wrong.


    Dig a tunnel.


    But I had to be careful while digging the tunnel since I had people watching after me from various corners of the library.


    Once I found a place where I was pretty sure that I was not seen I started to dig down on the wooden floor which took longer than usual since I only had an iron pickaxe to use. After a few minutes of hitting the wooden block, I was finally able to break it which showed me a sandstone block.


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    "Jackpot!"


    I then started to brake that block as well which was faster since I used the pickaxe.


    But while I started to plan how I should meet with Froggy and escape this place I was blocked by a block that I never expected to see here, an obsidian block.


    "What''s an obsidian block doing here? It can''t be that this whole palace is on top of an obsidian platform."


    I broke some more blocks only to see more and more obsidian under me.


    There were three blocks between the floor and the obsidian base.


    "I know that Sandstone kingdom is special because it knows how to brake obsidian, but I don''t think there''s enough lava in this whole desert to cover the whole palace."


    I had to stop digging since my supervisors were starting to wonder where I am.


    I quickly covered the small tunnel that I just did and opened a book right before the librarian checked me from the corner.


    "Excuse me, sir. Do you know perhaps how can I find my friend Froggy?"


    The man looked surprised that I talked with him.


    "Are you referring to the hero that can cure the infected?"


    "That''s him."


    "He''s too busy you can''t meet him yet."


    "What do you mean he''s too busy to meet me, what''s he doing?"


    "He''s going through the program that would let him be a good companion for the Hero of course."


    "Wasn''t I suppose to take the same course as him?"


    "Uhh, yeah... I think they forgot about you."


    The librarian tried to avoid his eyes from mine once he said that.


    That was a weird reaction to have. He looks like he does know where my friend is but doesn''t want to help me.


    Then it hit me. The Sultan wanted to keep the two of us separated as looming as possible so he can have control over Froggy''s movement.


    This made my mouth taste sour, so I decided to end my learning for today and digging plans and try to search for my friend more carefully even if they didn''t want to guide me.


    I exited the library and started to wander around the place trying to remember every path that I took so I won''t get lost.


    I managed to walk for a few minutes like that before a guard with iron armor stopped me.


    "Sorry sir, what are you looking for?"


    "I''m looking for my friend, you can recognize him by the title of the witch."


    "I think I recognize that name, follow me and I''ll be guiding you there."


    The guard responded calmly which took me by surprise.


    I expect to be told that I''m not supposed to meet him like the librarian, but the guard seemed more friendly and just led me along the hallway.


    After a few minutes of walking, we stood outside a door that I was quick to recognize.


    "This is my room, what does that have to do with my friend Froggy''s location?"


    I asked the guard confused about the situation.


    "Your friend is too preoccupied for now, so he requested to be left alone until he is free again."


    The guard answered with a smile which left me shocked realizing that I''ve just been tricked.


    "I wish you a pleasant day sir."


    He then turned and left me alone.


    I was frustrated by what just happened and went into my room.


    "At least there''s some privacy in my room. Maybe I should start making plans about escaping in here from now on."


    Unfortunately, I was on the second floor so I couldn''t mine underneath my room.


    Or maybe I could.


    I broke a block from the floor in one of the corners of my room, and underneath was a room filled with barrels on the walls.


    "Is this a storage room?"


    I looked more carefully around the room in case someone was there, but fortunately for me, I was alone.


    I then carefully claimed down and looked through the barrels only to see food in them.


    There was cooked and uncooked meat, there was bread and there was milk, every kind of meal that I could think was here. But what truly caught my attention was the barrel that was full of coal.


    "This must be the storage room for the kitchen. I hope nobody will be mad If I take some coal with me."


    I then took out a stack of coal and put it in my inventory before getting back to my room.


    The only thing that I was missing was some wood and I could finally make some torches that can light up the tunnels that I would make under the palace. That way I won''t have problems with monsters who would suddenly appear while I work on a way out.


    I then went outside my room again and walked towards the guard that was suddenly by my door guarding it.


    "Hey there, is there a facility where I can increase my level of Crafting?"


    The guard looked suspiciously at me.


    "Yes we do have such a room, it''s the crafting room, but it only has materials for the first three levels."


    "I guess I''ll have to use what I have. I don''t want to fall behind my friend and not make any progress. I know I don''t have a brewing talent but I want to help the hero in any way that I can."


    While the guard was still suspicious of me he still guided me to the Crafting room.


    It was a big room with a few crafting tables here and there but the rest of the room was filled with labeled chests.


    I went towards the one that was filled with wood and took some sticks and planks out.


    With the new materials that I got, I could finally make what I truly wanted.


    Torches.


    I made four snacks of torches which took around half an hour to make, and I also used some of the wood to make some chests where I would put the blocks that I''ll mine.


    With everything done I started to look more carefully around the room to see if there was something else that caught my attention.


    There were chests filled with wood, some with stone and cobblestone and the rest with wheat.


    "This is truly for the first three levels of the crafting skill. Once you get to level four, there is no iron that can help you get to the next level faster."


    I took a bit more wood with me and some wheat.


    I kept the wood in my inventory while I used the wheat to craft some bread.


    If I was stuck here, why shouldn''t I profit from the free stuff and increase my levels, even if it is only by a small percentage?


    So for the next few hours, I was crafting bread which was a weird concept as always.


    I even put some bread in the furnace to bake while I was working, so by the end of my grinding session I had enough bread that I could take with me on my escape, so I won''t keep eating the golden carrots.


    With everything that I needed in my inventory, I went towards my room with the guard right behind me.


    But once I got in my room he stopped right at the door without taking a step closer.


    "Time to see how much I can dig."


    I then took out my pickaxe.

 Chapter 36. We finally meet

    POV: Froggy


    I was taken into a room by this librarian almost with force.


    The room was one that I would dream about from time to time. It had a few brewing stations, not some old cauldron like I had in my house.


    There were chests full of ingredients for making potions, but not for all the potions.


    Nobody knows all the potions besides the Stone Kingdom, and they''re not too willing to share it with the other nations.


    But this isn''t a problem for me. Ever since I''ve become a witch my head was filled with information about every potion possible, and what every potion does.


    That''s why I knew that Trader''s curing method would work.


    My head is in a mist with all the information that I have, so I have to concentrate on the specific thing so I could remember what I want.


    This may sound like an awesome ability to have. I suddenly got struck by lightning and I get my brewing skill up to level seven, which would make me a master in any kingdom that I''ll go in.


    But there''s no such a thing as a free power, there had to be a downside as well.


    My skin got lighter, I got uglier, and the most damaging of them all is that my system is now broken.


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 3


    ERROR/ERROR


    _Brewing lvl 7


    1.235.500/??????


    _______________________________________________


    I had never seen or heard about such a skill tab.


    The ERROR message usually appears only when you reach the max level on a skill, but it appears on my crafting skill which is only level three, and the brewing skill just got even weirder.


    Before I was changed, I had levels in my crafting skill like any regular villager. I was one of the few people that managed to get to level four, which was a rare sight to see in such a small village.


    I could see a bright future for me with hardworking and my high-level skill combined, but everything changed on that stormy night which was a rare sight to see in the desert. I was outside taking care of the chickens so they could get back safely when all of a sudden I was in intense pain.


    I heard the chickens dying around me with sounds of flame surrounding me. I was in pain for what felt like hours, but was most likely just a few minutes.


    Once I was finally able to gather enough strength to get up I was greeted by another sight of horror.


    Beyond the small wall of flame was my village which was getting attacked by a horde of monsters that appeared out of nowhere.


    I started to panic and took my stone shovel from my inventory.


    And in pain with my hands trembling I hit the first zombie that I saw.


    But when I hit the zombie I was not overwhelmed by the horde as I expected, instead only the zombie that I hit started to attack me while the others ignored me like I wasn''t even there.


    After a few good swings, I finally managed to defeat the monster and quickly went to the next one.


    But even after all of that, I was too late, the monsters managed to slaughter everyone in the Village except for me.


    I could see familiar faces walking on the dirt path with empty and dead expressions.


    They were infected and turned into monsters as well.


    And when I thought that things couldn''t get any worse the sun finally got out of the rainy clouds which brought light all over the broken village.


    And with the sun out the zombies started to burn and whine in agony.


    So even in death my friends and family had to suffer for one last time.


    I shook my head as I tried to lack up those memories again.


    "This is the place where you can try all the potions that you ever wanted to. I''m sure that even though you have such a high level you didn''t have the resources to use to its full potential. Here we want to help you use it"


    The librarian smiled at me like he was doing me a huge favor with this. But I''m more than sure that they''ll take the potions that I make as soon as I finish them.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    But even if I knew that, I couldn''t complain to his face since I was a detained honor guest.


    "I''m thankful for such an opportunity and I''m sure to use it fully."


    I responded with a smile which seems to satisfy the librarian.


    "I''ll be here to answer any questions that you have, with recipes and with resources. You don''t need to feel restrained."


    I smiled at that, and for the next few hours, I was as clueless as possible about some of the recipes that I already knew.


    But after everything was over and he stashed the potions in a chest I decided to go and meet with Trader to see how''s he doing.


    But once I got to his room I was surprised to see it empty. I then asked a guard that stood there.


    "Sorry to bother you, but do you know by any chance where my friend could be?"


    The guard looked surprised to see me.


    "Sir witch! Your friend is at the library studying right now I believe."


    That would make sense, he did request access to the library so he could gather some more information. This is a pretty good idea to request since the palace must have a vast library of knowledge of all sorts of things.


    He is probably looking for a way to get us out of here, maybe I should visit him to see how''s he doing.


    "I''m glad that he''s doing so well, where is the library by the way?"


    The guard started to look more uncomfortable when I said that.


    "Your friend said that he didn''t want to meet with you now sir. He said that he wanted some privacy for a while."


    That was a weird response. I''m more than sure that Trader doesn''t want to isolate himself from me without a reason, which leaves out the only other option which is to separate the two of us as long as possible.


    I wanted to insist on finding out the location of the library at least, but the guard''s lips were pretty sealed on that matter, so I had to give up for now.


    I decided to just stay in my room until he''ll come back to his room or look for me as well.


    But after a few hours of waiting I was starting to get tired so I decided to go to sleep.


    The next day I was served a meal and then brought back into the brewing room where I made more potions, and the librarian tried to teach me my job, which he did a very bad job.


    It kept going like that for a few days when I tried to meet with Trader, but he was too busy in the library or was increasing his level of crafting skill.


    I tried to be more forceful with the guards and the servants, but that only ended up with me changing my rooms so I won''t bother them so often.


    But after a few days of this going on and off I got mad and decided to lock myself in a room and I told them that I won''t get out until I will meet with my friend Trader.


    I felt like a child that throws a tantrum to his parents that he didn''t get the gift he wanted on his birthday.


    They tried to reason with me with empty promises but I stood my ground, I didn''t want to be manipulated anymore.


    And after a few hours, I heard a knock on the door.


    "I told you already, I won''t come out until I can meet with my friend."


    "Well congratulations, you managed to convince them. They finally let me meet you."


    I was presently surprised to hear Trader''s voice, so I quickly broke the blocks that held the door.


    "How was your reading time? I heard you got tired of me and didn''t want to be bothered while you studied."


    I said that with a big smile on my face.


    " I was too busy studying? What about you? I was told you were too busy with the training to meet me."


    He came into the room and closed the door behind him right as someone else tried to come in, and he managed to block the door with two blocks at unbelievable speed.


    "What are they making you do in that training course anyway?"


    "Just potions, theirs trying to teach me how to brew potions from scratch like I haven''t been doing this for the past few years. I already know all the potions recipes ever since I''ve become a witch. And the last gift you gave me it''s more expensive than everything they have in that room. I mean do you know how hard is to get a pufferfish in this desert? They don''t even have a recipe for that. They have an incomplete manual for brewing potions, which doesn''t surprise me since the Stone Kingdom has a monopoly on that information."


    "You seemed to have that pent-up for a long time. Are you feeling better now?"


    I just sighed when he said that.


    "You have no idea how much better I feel. I had to look dumb to that librarian so he wouldn''t get too suspicious of me. How did your studying go? Managed to find a way out yet?"


    Once I mentioned that, he started to look more uncomfortable which wasn''t a good sign to see.


    "Let''s say that I didn''t waste time and tried to find a way where we could escape. And the best thing that I came up with was a tunnel that would get us out."


    "A tunnel, that would take us ages to get out!"


    "That would be a problem if it was a normal person doing it, but here''s another secret about me."


    He then proceeded to take out an iron pickaxe and hit the stone floor. But what truly surprised me, was that after five hits the sandstone block broke, which is impossible since I''m more than sure that the pickaxe wasn''t enchanted.


    "How did you break the block so fast? it should take way more than this to break it normally."


    "That''s one of my secrets, I can brake blocks faster than the average person and I can also place blocks almost instantly."


    He then covered the hole with the same block that he took in an instant, which again is a surprise since it would take around two seconds to place a block normally.


    "How did you do that?"


    "That''s a little secret of mine for now. What I wanted to tell you is that even if I can brake the normal blocks fast I can''t brake obsidian with this pickaxe."


    "Why would you need to brake obsidian in the first place?"


    He didn''t respond to my question but instead, he started to make a hole in the ground again.


    I looked confused at what he was doing, and when I wanted to ask what he was doing he finally responded.


    "You can see it yourself."


    He pointed at the obsidian under his feet, which surprised me.


    "What''s that obsidian doing there?"


    "I don''t know, but it''s under the whole palace for sure."


    "How did they find so much obsidian? I thought it was a rare block and very hard to break."


    "I''m as confused as you my friend. For the past few days, I''ve been digging tunnels in hopes to find an exit, but it''s too hard to do it without barking at someone''s floor accidentally."


    "I can see the problem as well. So what''s the plan then?"


    "I don''t have that much of a plan, so for now I''ll keep digging until I''ll find a way out for us."


    I didn''t like the sound of that plan, but I guess it''s better than nothing.


    We had to stop our secret meeting there since the servants and the guards started to break the door with the barricade.


    "We have to stop here for now. I''ll dig a tunnel to your room and we can talk more often then."


    Trader said, which I was quick to agree with.


    He closed the hole he just made and the guards finally managed to break the door.


    "Dear hero please don''t scare us like that. if you needed some alone time with your friend you could''ve just said so, you didn''t need to use such extreme measures. What if something happened to you and we couldn''t help?"


    The librarian looked at me worried which made me sigh.


    "I''m sorry mister. I didn''t want to scare you like this, fortunately, I just finished my discussion with my friend so I''m ready to get back to business as usual."


    His face lit up once he heard what I said.


    "We can forget such a small mistake as long as your getting back to training. Come this way, hero, time must not be wasted."


    With a final sigh, I went after him.


    It would be a boring few weeks for sure.

 Chapter 37. Through the portal

    POV: Undying Flame


    For the next few days, I gathered enough materials to let Blue make some potions that I think would help me survive in the other world.


    He seemed surprised when I first told him about my plan, he didn''t like it, he tried to stop me but I had to remind him that I had to be the one that should do this risky mission to show our sincerity.


    After a few grunts, he accepted it only if I promised that I wouldn''t die stupidly with this plan.


    I just laughed and said to him that I planned to die in battle.


    Now I was with Blue in front of the portal and he finally handed me the potion.


    "I don''t know where you got this idea, but theoretically it should work. This is a regeneration two potion that is only possible because of the materials that I got from the fortress. From what Bobby told me, there''s no such thing as a level two potion in their world. The system doesn''t let them. But our world doesn''t follow the system, so I could make it from some ancient scrolls, but this is my first time making such a potion so I don''t know how long it would last."


    After the long explanation, he finally handed me to the potion.


    "Thank you Blue Flame, and sorry for making you worry so much."


    He just gave me a tired smile and nodded his head.


    I then turned towards the portal and took a deep breath before passing to the other side.


    I didn''t feel any different in the first few moments, maybe just a bit colder than usual which was a new experience.


    But I didn''t have to wait for too long before my head started to hurt, and my stomach was next as well.


    I quickly had to take the regeneration potion before I couldn''t move from the pain.


    Once the liquid run through me, I could feel the change right away.


    I could feel my health fighting back the sickness and even overcoming it.


    "Are you ok there?"


    Blue asked concerned.


    "Yes, I''ve never felt better actually. It works Blue! I can go to another dimension without dying!"


    "I''m glad to hear that Chief, but you have to move quickly before the time runs out."


    "How long does it last?"


    "The normal regeneration potion would last around an hour, but because this one is a better version than the original one it would last shorter. So about half an hour."


    I was shocked to hear about the short time I had in my hands. Most of the potions usually last between two to three hours, but now I''m in an underground tunnel in a new world and I have to find someone in just half an hour.


    "I still have two more potions don''t forget."


    He then carefully passed me the bottles through the portal, which I quickly took.


    "Good luck out there chief, and don''t die."


    I nodded and started to climb the ladders.


    The portal was deeper than I thought, the black stone turned gray and finally, I was in another long and cramped tunnel.


    I continued walking until I arrived at a huge room filled with chests and a lot of other entrances to different tunnels.


    I curiously looked around, but the tunnels seemed like they were spreading endlessly.


    "Is this how they mined for iron? How did they manage to mine so much in such a short time?"


    I looked in one of the chests and I was shocked by the number of block, but what truly shocked me was the amount of gold they had.


    It was stacks upon stacks of gold, it was so much gold in this chest that it would make a normal pigling think it was dreaming.


    "I knew they were not normal, but not this abnormal. They could''ve bought the whole tribe three times over if they wanted to."


    I decided to close the chest, since I didn''t want to be tempted more than I already was.


    I look around some more until I found another ladder that was going up.


    "I guess I''m still going up."


    So I started to climb the ladder toward a strange light.


    But once I got to the top I was beyond shocked by what I saw.


    Something cold run through my lather clothes, the colors of everything were so vibrant, and the ceiling... the ceiling was so high that I couldn''t even see it.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I didn''t know how to react, I knew that it was a different dimension but I didn''t expect the difference to be so big, it felt like everything was overwhelming me and I didn''t know what to do.


    *SLAP


    "Focus Undying, you have a mission to do, and it''s timed on top of that."


    The slap brought me back to reality so I finally started to act more rationally.


    I looked around some more and I saw some storage houses made of cobblestone and another brown block that I didn''t recognize.


    "This must be their tribe."


    With that knowing I started to walk towards that closed house.


    There I finally saw someone that looked like an outsider with their big nouse just wandering through the strange houses.


    "Hey there, do you know where I could find Bobby?"


    The stranger turned towards me with a curious look but didn''t say anything.


    "Can you understand me?"


    I walked closer to him but suddenly stopped once I saw a huge shadow appearing from the corner of the house.


    It must''ve been three blocks tall with broad shoulders and a small head, the creature was white like the iron armor and had long arms that almost reached the ground.


    The creature looked at me confused and reached his arm towards me, I tried to run out of its reach but I was already caught and lifted like I was just a piece of string.


    The iron creature showed me to the stranger, but he just raised his shoulders like he didn''t know what to do with me as well.


    Since they both seemed confused the creature just walked from person to person asking what to do with me. Nobody seemed to know who I was or what I was, some of them weren''t even interested in me.


    Finally, there was someone that could talk.


    "Wha their big guy, I still can''t get used to you... Iron golem was it? What do you need."


    The person talked with the iron giant with a bit of fear in his voice.


    "Hello there stranger my name is Undying Flame, can you please tell this iron golem to let me down?"


    He finally seemed to notice me captured in one of the iron arms. His eyes narrowed with suspicion.


    "Who are you, and what happened to your nouse?"


    "My nouse? That''s my normal nouse, I don''t think there''s anything wrong with it. Anyway, I came here in search of a man named Bobby."


    The man got tenser when he heard that name.


    "Why do you need him?"


    "I want to apologize for a mistake that I and my people did to him."


    Once he heard that his expression started to relax.


    "Then your a few days too late I''m afraid. He was called to the palace to meet with the princess and I didn''t hear from him ever since. I''m only here to take care of his village while he is away. My name is Tobby by the way."


    He raised his hand for me to shake it. But unfortunately, I was only able to just stare at it since I was still held by the golem.


    "Oh yeah, Iron Golem you can let her down."


    The golem nodded his head and gently let me down.


    "Thank you. When do you think Bobby would come back?"


    "I don''t know, I''m still waiting for a letter that would tell me his situation."


    "Then I have to get to him, I can''t afford to wait for an unknown amount of time."


    "Well, the palace is a few days away from here."


    "A few days? I can''t-"


    Suddenly pain run through my head like never before, followed soon by the pain in my stomach.


    The potion effect wore off already so the pain came back with force.


    I quickly took out a potion from my inventory and drank it like it was no tomorrow. Which it was in my case if I didn''t.


    Finally, after the last drop was in my body I could feel normal again.


    "Are you ok?"


    Toby asked me worried.


    "Yes, but I better get back home quickly before I run out of potions."


    "Well as I was saying, Bobby is too far away, and I don''t think you know how to get there even if I told you."


    This wasn''t a good thing to hear. If Bobby went to the palace, maybe he was already telling the people from the fortress about our tribe''s location.


    I had to do something and it had to be fast.


    "Can you perhaps guide me to the palace? Of course, it won''t be for free, I could trade you some potions in exchange."


    I said that to him while holding the last regeneration potion in my hand.


    "Hmmm, I''m also worried about my friend so I''ll accept your deal. Well, take my horses to get there faster, when do you want to leave?"


    "I need a few hours to get ready, so I''ll come to you as long as you are still in this village."


    He nodded his head in understanding so I started to sprint towards the ladder that went deeper.


    I almost got lost through the tunnels but after a few minutes, I was back at the portal where Blue waited for me anxiously.


    "Undying! Your back!"


    Blue said with a relieved voice.


    Which made me realize that I may stayed a little too much in the other dimension.


    "Of course I''m back. I told you that I wouldn''t die in such a stupid way."


    He just smile at my comment and asked me how the apology went.


    "Unfortunately I didn''t meet him, he was called to the palace apparently and he didn''t respond for a few days."


    His face started to turn white when he heard that.


    "W-what are we going to do now?"


    "You''ll get back to the tribe and move everyone to a new safe location while I go searching for him to give him the apology.''


    "That''s too dangerous for you, and I don''t think you have enough space In your inventory to hold that many potions."


    What he said was true, with only half an hour of regeneration I couldn''t make a journey of a few days, so I had to think about a solution.


    "If only we had some redstone I could make the potions last longer even if it''s the weaker version."


    "Redstone?"


    "Yeah, it''s like the glowstone dust with the exception that is red."


    This made me think about the many chests that were in the large room, one of them had a lot of ores including what I think was redstone dust.


    "I think I can get you one of those but I have to borrow it from Bobby''s chest."


    He didn''t look too comfortable with the notion of almost stealing but understood the cause.


    So I quickly got up the stairs, and run through a few chests until I finally found the Redstone dust, which I took a stack.


    Blue thanked me and started to brew the potions right then.


    After a few minutes of waiting the first batch were ready.


    "Ok, here''s one. But be careful since this is only a normal regeneration potion and it won''t be as strong as the last one."


    I took the potion, passed through the portal, and drank it.


    The wait wasn''t long before I could feel the change, it wasn''t as strong as the first one but it was enough to keep it on hold.


    "It''s good enough, make me a few more and I''ll leave as soon as possible."


    "I don''t think you''ll have enough time even if you have the extended potion."


    "Then what do you suggest we do, we don''t have a lot of options here."


    He took a big breath and then spoke.


    "I''m going to teach you how to do it yourself, and once you know I''ll give you all the Ingredients you need to make it yourself."


    That made me stop and think.


    And it was a pretty good idea. Only the people in the overworld were limited by the system, and we didn''t have that to stop us.


    "That''s a pretty good idea, please teach me."


    So far the next half an hour we stood at the brewing station where Blue showed me how to make a regeneration potion.


    After everything was done, I had the materials, the tools, and a few potions made from the lesson.


    "Thank you Blue again, and take care of the tribe while I''m gone, Bye!"


    I waved my hand and went through the portal once again.


    It was time to explore the new world.

 Chapter 38. Enchanting room

    It was a beautiful day outside, the sun spread its worm light over the desert, the people were calmly doing their jobs and I was also doing my job.


    I was digging a tunnel to an unknown destination, and the heat of the torches didn''t make this job any easier.


    "Why is this place so huge!"


    I yelled in frustration.


    I took a clock from my inventory to see what time it was, since I felt like I should return to my room before my lunch would come and find it empty.


    "Well, at least they didn''t suspect me when the clock mysteriously dissapeard."


    I smile mischievously at my comment, but only for a short moment before I realized that I may be late for my meal.


    I quickly put everything back in my inventory and run back toward my room.


    Unlike the game I couldn''t sprint jump through a two-black tunnel without hurting my head, I had to be satisfied with casual running while being careful not to accidentally extinguish the torches on the wall.


    In a few minutes, I was back in the storage room while carefully claiming into my room.


    *KNOCK KNOCK


    "I''m up, in up! you don''t have to knock so hard."


    I quickly covered the hole in the floor and went to open the door.


    A female villager was waiting for me on the other side.


    "Your lunch is here sir. Cooked chicken with some milk."


    She held a wooden plate with a cooked chicken and a bowl of milk.


    "Thank you, after my long nap I feel pretty hungry."


    She just nodded her head and went back to her job.


    I closed the door behind her and look at the pressure plate with the food.


    "Still shocked as the first time I saw them use a pressure plate as a small portable table. I think I''ll use this idea as well when I get home."


    I put the food in my inventory since I already ate while mining. After all, I had to go through the food storage room to get to my tunnel.


    "I guess I''ll have to go to the library soon as well."


    I stretched my arms, my legs and waited a few minutes before getting out of my room.


    Right behind me was a guard that always follows me when I was out of my room.


    Ever since the day where I wandered aimlessly through the palace in search of Froggy, I always have a guard with me.


    The only place I had some privacy was in my room, where I only stayed at night and at noon. The time I''m supposed to sleep.


    Finally, I arrived at the library where the guard stood at the entrance with the other guards, while I got inside the huge room.


    I walked for a bit more before the second supervisor came to greet me.


    The librarian.


    "Hello, there Trader, excited for another day to study?"


    "I just can''t get enough of it, Clay. This place is too beautiful and rich in knowledge to not use it."


    I responded with a smile.


    Clay was happy to hear that and went back to his desk, it was a normal day for him after all and since I didn''t do too much in the library besides reading he didn''t need to be preoccupied with spying on me.


    After all, he was a person that liked to read books above doing anything else.


    I started to browse through the shelves full of books.


    ''History of the Sandstone Kingdom''


    ''The great wall of the Undead''


    ''Thousands upon thousands''


    Those wore some interesting titles some of which I read while others I just browsed through.


    I finally stopped at one of the books with an interesting tile.


    ''Level 1 enchanting''


    "Ohh, I didn''t expect to see this book opened to the public."


    I took it off the shelf and went with my fingers through it.


    Inside were different pages with the unknown language but at the top of the page was the name of the enchantment which greatly helped.


    It was an interesting book, and it even had some observations besides each of the enchantments. How long the text should be, how tall the letters or short must be.


    I took the book to the nearest table and with paper and a pen I started to write down some of the enchantments diagrams.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    After a few hours of trial and error, I had three enchantments in my hand.


    Efficiency


    Unbreaking


    Fortune


    Of course, each and every one of them was at level one but it would greatly improve my mining speed even if I felt that it would be wasted on a stone pickaxe.


    "If only I could find the ore storage area, then I could make another iron pickaxe and I wouldn''t feel so stingy with the current one. It''s almost broken as well."


    I talked with myself in frustration.


    But with a quick shake of my head, I threw those thoughts to the side and went to the librarian who was deep into his book.


    *Aham


    "I''m sorry to bother you mister Clay, but is there an enchantment room that I could use?"


    Clay looked up from his book with dissatisfaction.


    "An enchantment room, why would you need such a thing?"


    "I have the enchantment skill, and I think it would help me greatly if I could increase it."


    The villager raised an eyebrow in surprise.


    "We do have such a room, but I don''t think you''ll be allowed in it since it''s only for the royal family or special guests to use."


    "Aren''t I also a special guest?"


    The librarian''s eyes narrowed at my statement.


    "You are a special guest for the palace, but I don''t think you''ll be allowed to use it right now. Maybe if you get permission from one of the Royal members this would change."


    "And how can I have a meeting with one of them?"


    "That''s for you to figure out."


    He said that and then went back to his book while trying to ignore any more attempts to question him more.


    With a sigh, I decided to end my visiting time at the library for today.


    I took the papers for each enchantment with me and went outside the library.


    As I was preparing to get to my room a voice that I didn''t recognize called me.


    "Trader! One of the great heroes that came up with the idea of curing the infected. How do you like your sitting? I hope nobody was rude to you in here."


    The person that called for me was a young man with a white robe that had some golden patterns on it.


    "I didn''t have any problems in here o great prince. Every servant was very polite with me all the time."


    The boy smiles with satisfaction at my statement.


    "I don''t think we''ve met, how did you know that I was the prince?"


    "I do recognize that we''ve never met, but the respect the servants show towards you shows your high status."


    The prince looked around the hallway more carefully to see that the servants and the guards were bowing or half-bowing toward him.


    "That is true what you say, I didn''t think about that. Trader, I''ve come with an offer for you."


    The young man suddenly changed the subject.


    "My father seemed to take great interest in your friend Froggy while choosing to ignore you. Can you guess why?"


    The young man looked curious about my reaction.


    "I''m afraid I don''t know what the great ruler thinks, so I can''t make a judgment."


    Of course, I knew why he would choose Froggy instead of me. Froggy was already a high-level witch while I was an unknown bump. I bet he wants to waste as few resources on me as possible.


    My response didn''t seem to please the prince.


    "What a shame, I thought you were smarter than this. I''m in a good mood today so tell me, is there anything you desire to make your stay more comfortable?"


    I looked for an opportunity to enchant some stuff, but I didn''t think I would get it so soon.


    "If I don''t have to hold back, can I get access to the Enchantment room?"


    This took the prince by surprise.


    "I didn''t expect you to have the Enchantment skill."


    "Of course I do, I can even show you my work."


    I took a page from my inventory and showed it to him.


    He carefully took the page and started to look at it.


    "I think you''ve recently got this skill if I''m not mistaken."


    "Yes, how could you tell?"


    "I can see the ambition through those writings, but there are some small mistakes here and there. The enchantment table won''t even take this page."


    That surprised me since I thought I copied it pretty correctly after all.


    "You don''t have to be ashamed about your work. The important thing is that you want to improve yourself. But for your request, I can make an exception and let you use it."


    "Thank you for your generosity, your Highness!"


    "For a price of course."


    I looked suspicious at him once he said that.


    "What price?"


    "Ohh, nothing much you don''t have to worry about it. I only need you to do a few enchantments for me."


    That made me a bit confused. I knew that you needed to have a high level of enchanting before you were even considered a candidate for the throne, so why would he need me to enchant something that he could easily do himself?


    "You don''t have to worry so much about that. I only need you to get to level five and then you can help me."


    At level Five I could make unique enchantments like Mending, Flame, and others like that.


    I still didn''t know what he would need me to do, but this would probably be my only chance where I can have access to the enchanting room without having to break in.


    "I''ll accept your deal prince."


    He made a small smile when I accepted his deal and gave me the page back with another book.


    "This book was signed by me, you should be able to get where you want without any problem."


    I took the book that he gave to me and looked if it had any traps if it was even possible, but the only thing that I saw was an empty book sign by Amun.


    "Thank you for your generosity, sir Amun."


    He smiled at that and then guided me to the enchanting room.


    And it wasn''t even that far from the library, I could write the enchantment while I was studying in the huge library, then I would walk for a few minutes until I could enchant them.


    The guard at the entrance looked at us before he gently opened the door.


    "Wellcome back your Highness."


    "It''s good to be back indeed, but this time I won''t be the one to use the enchanting room, my friend here would like to raise his skill level. Please treat him with respect, I even gave him a token of my appreciation."


    The guard looked at me before nodding his head in understanding.


    We then entered the long-awaited room, where I was greeted by a surprisingly small room.


    The walls were filled with bookshelves, chests, and even some maps, but what really took me by surprise was the obsidian ceiling.


    "Is this whole room surrounded by obsidian?"


    I asked in surprise.


    "Looks like you did learn some stuff from that old and dusty library. Yes, it is. Since only important people use this room it''s only natural to be one of the safest rooms. Of course, because we''re the biggest producer of obsidian in this world, why shouldn''t we use it as well."


    The prince said with pride in his vice.


    "Do you have an enchantment that you want to try?"


    He looked at me curiously.


    With a bit of hesitation, I took the last two papers that I had in my inventory and gave them to him.


    He quickly took them and studied it carefully.


    "Interesting choice, Fortune and Unbreking. Those are pretty good as well, you can take an empty book from that chest and use it. You do have enough levels right?"


    I nodded my head and went to get a book from the chest he showed me. I then proceeded to put the two pages in the book and went to use the enchanting table that was surrounded by some bookshelves.


    "You can take the lapis from the barrel in the ground."


    Right beside the enchanting table was a barrel that was full of lapis ore.


    I took two of them and put them in the inventory of the enchanting table.


    I then let the book float above the magical table and let it do its job.


    Fortunately, I didn''t have to wait for too long before I could feel the experience leave me and the book getting enchanted.


    Once everything was over I quickly took the book to see if it worked.


    And the inventory showed me exactly what I wanted to see, a book with the unbreaking and fortune enchantment.


    A slow clap was heard from behind me, which made me turn around.


    "Looks like the process was a success. It would be a pleasure to do business with you."


    I don''t know what I got into, but now I have a business deal with the Royalty.

 Chapter 39. journey to the palace

    POV: Froggy


    The past few weeks have been weird, the first few days they tried to teach me how to brew potions while the rest of the weeks they tried to teach me about the history of our kingdom which was interesting to hear, with what I think some parts that they exaggerated.


    But hope wasn''t lost, fortunately, Trader''s ability to dig really fast managed to give me some hope that we would get out of here, which calmed my worries a little.


    I tried to meet with him through more legitimate means, but the servants made some pretty good excuses for how I can''t meet him. They even have an axe in case I want to protest again by locking myself in a room, which only made my desire to leave more strong.


    Outside was night with the moon above the cold desert.


    Suddenly I heard a block breaking from the floor.


    This didn''t scare me, I just casually removed the carpet that was on top of the breaking block.


    Not too long after, light came from the ground, with a person that didn''t have a nose.


    "Bonjour!"


    Said the strange person.


    "You''re speaking weird again Trader. How are you doing?"


    "I''m doing good, thank you for asking. I''m just very tired from all the mining and sneaking that I have to do. I don''t know how long I can keep this up."


    He said that while getting out of the hole.


    "Well unfortunately I don''t have a potion that can help you mine faster. I actually feel pretty useless."


    "Nonsense Froggy, you''re not useless. Your job is to distract everyone so they don''t look too closely at me. So your job is very especially to our escape plan, so please be as popular as possible."


    He said that with a smirk on his face.


    I just shook my head at that comment and handed him a golden carrot.


    "Oh wow, thanks for the goods. So how''s the program going?"


    I took a big sigh.


    "It''s just boring, I don''t make potions anymore so they started to teach me how to fight and some history. It was interesting at the beginning but I think I''m not made for this. I like to throw potions at the enemies than to swing a sword at them."


    He nodded his head in understanding.


    "Well, I also have some good news and bad news for me. I heard some of the servants that they are starting to prepare for the new year party that would happen in a month. So that would be the best time to escape from here since everyone would be distracted."


    "That''s good to hear, what''s the bad news then?"


    "I have to find a way out in only one month."


    He gave a tired sigh, which I totally understood. While I do a lot of work with my program, it''s not as stressful as his job. He has to appear busy in public during the day and at night when he''s supposed to be asleep he''s actually digging a tunnel.


    The only thing that keeps him somehow energetic is the golden carrots surprisingly. Fortunately, I had plenty to give.


    "It''s not that as bad as it sounds. From all the digging that I''ve done, I think that I know where most of the things should be. The only thing that would make me worry would be if the walls were connected with the obsidian foundation. Then we''ll be in an obsidian box and it would be a nightmare to break out."


    That didn''t sounds like an ideal thing to find out.


    "Is there a way that I can help out?"


    "I don''t think we can make a beacon and it would be too obvious. Maybe if you can get me an iron or diamond pickaxe, I can enchant it and mine everything faster."


    "Hmm, I''ll see what I can do."


    With the serious conversation out of the way, we started to talk more casually until he had to leave to get some rest.


    I didn''t pay too much attention since I was thinking about how I could help my friend to make his tunneling easier.


    The pickaxe wasn''t an easy tool to get, or not easy enough to not rise suspicion.


    But after a few twist and turns I decided to just ignored everything and went to bed to get some sleep.


    The next morning I woke up to the brutal shaking of my blanket which did terribly for my sweet dreams.


    "Sir please wake up! The instructor waits for you outside to start the training."


    With a grant, I got out of my comfortable bed and ate some breakfast, before heading down to do my morning exercise.


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    "Time to start another day I guess."


    POV: Undying Flame


    The start of the journey was slow, even with the help of the horse which was an amazing experience, we were still not moving fast enough.


    Mostly because I was easily distracted by everything that I saw.


    The green trees, the colored ground, the beautiful flowers, everything was a new experience for me.


    Because of this I almost forgot a few times to drink my regeneration potion to keep me alive.


    I talked with Tobby on the road which was a great source of information, he said that there were places like the village I''ve been to, but much bigger, with lots more people roaming the streets.


    But there wasn''t such a thing as an iron golem, since this was surprisingly only in this village specifically.


    That took me by surprise since an intimidating guard like that would be pretty useful in any situation to have.


    I didn''t tell him about my place, or why I want to meet with Bobby specifically. Fortunately, he seemed satisfied enough to know that I want to apologize to him, even though he doesn''t know why.


    Which I was very grateful for.


    Finally, we stopped our horses to make our camp for tonight since it started to get dark.


    "Well camp here tonight, and tomorrow afternoon we should arrive at the palace."


    I nodded in understanding and started to put the fence around our small camp.


    While I didn''t see many mobs from my dimension, I did see some interesting monsters in the distance. Some were green, there was the occasional skeleton and even a four-legged creature that seems to greatly discomfort my guide.


    With everything done, we stayed at the worm campfire which brought me some comfort.


    It reminded me of home, even if the heat was not even a little bit comparable.


    "So how long have you known Bobby?"


    He asked an unexpected question.


    "Not too long, I only had the chance to meet with him recently when he was with his friend. The two of them helped us greatly with our recent conflict. But unfortunately, we couldn''t repay them as much as they helped us. We actually did the opposite, we had incomplete information about a certain location which ended up with his friend''s death."


    The more I talked the worst I felt.


    "That''s why I want to meet with him as soon as possible so I can apologize for our mistakes."


    This seems to put Tobby thinking as he didn''t seem too eager to continue the conversation.


    At least he didn''t resent me, which I greatly appreciate.


    We stayed a few more minutes in silence before I said that I''ll be the first one to sleep while he stays for the night shift.


    He nodded his head in understanding and wished me a good night.


    _______


    I was suddenly awake by the noise of a shield blocking an arrow.


    I quickly got up and assisted the situation.


    We were surrounded by a small horde of monsters.


    The green ones were stopped by the fence but the skeletons were still able to shoot arrows at us.


    I quickly got up and equipped my shield to help in the fight.


    Arrows were coming towards us, lucky they didn''t manage to hit us since everyone was so cramped that it was hard to aim at us.


    And while we were being attacked we weren''t necessarily in danger, we only had to take out our swords and slash at the fence area to kill them.


    After a few intense minutes of fighting, we could finally see the hope at the end of the tunnel. The archers were killed first and the rest of the zombies couldn''t damage us.


    "I think we can finish this fight pretty soon."


    Toby happily announced, which suddenly made me worry.


    And as I feared something we didn''t expect occurred.


    Another green monster joined the small hoard, but this one was shorter, this one was much different than the others.


    "It''s a creeper, get away from it!"


    Toby said with a panicked voice.


    The creeper started to inflate itself, and right before it was about to explode, an enderman appeared out of nowhere and punched the creeper in the face.


    The knockback was powerful enough to push the creeper away from the fence.


    Then a powerful explosion was heard and a new hole was created in the ground, but it didn''t affect the fence.


    Both of us were shocked about what we just witnessed, and before we could get the chance to recover the enderman teleported in front of us and started to scream at us.


    My heart stopped, expecting a powerful blow at any second, but after the tall monster finished its scream, it stood back up, looked around, and then teleported away.


    For the next few minutes, there were no sounds with the exception of the small hoard of zombies.


    "Did the enderman help us?"


    "I-i think so?"


    After we decided we won''t be surprised attacked by the helpful monster, we got back to finishing the last zombies that were screaming at the fence.


    Finally, after everything was done the sun came out bringing the corpses on the ground, leaving the battlefield empty.


    "Do monsters help you in this world?"


    "What do you mean in our world, but no, this is the first time I''ve seen something like this. The monster just pushed away the creeper so it won''t destroy our fence and then screamed at us but chose not to attack us."


    We both took a deep breath and decided to take a break before leaving again.


    Luckily while the horses got scared by this surprise, they didn''t manage to break the lead.


    After an hour of resting and eating, we got back on the horses and went straight towards the palace.


    The rest of the day was uneventful, we passed by trees and sometimes some wild animals before finally arriving at the first sight of civilization.


    Tobby called it a city, it was a huge gathering of houses, and it was even bigger than the bastions of those brutes. Everything was surrounded by powerful walls and guards were constantly on them.


    Inside there were some strange houses that were squeezed together only leaving space for the road which was filled with people.


    "This place is amazing, how many people are there?"


    "The city? It should be a few tens of thousands. The city is indeed amazing, and how everything works inside it''s so different that it feels like a different world. But we won''t go in there. Or at least not yet."


    "What do you mean?"


    "The palace is not here, this city only grew because it was close to the palace. Follow me."


    We then galloped for a few more hours before arriving at another amazing structure.


    It was like nothing I''d ever seen before, it had tall towers, it had large walls and it was imposing.


    I couldn''t even begin to imagine how many resources it would take to build something like this.


    And I don''t even want to think about how many people are needed to run this place.


    We soon arrived at the gate where some imposing guards came towards us.


    "Where you invited by someone to come here?"


    The guard looked at Tobby while asking the question.


    "Yes, I was invited by my friend called Bobby, you can send a message to him that his friend Tobby has arrived."


    The guard looked suspiciously at us before sending someone to check on the information.


    I got closer to Tobby and whispered to him.


    "I thought you didn''t get any letters from Bobby, so how did you get invited?"


    "I didn''t get any letter that invites me, but they don''t need to know that. Once Bobby hears that we''re here for him, he''ll lie for us to be able to get in."


    He whispered back.


    I needed in understanding, and also was impressed by his cleverness.


    After about an hour waiting the guard finally came back saying that we were allowed to get in.


    With that permission, we passed the imposing walls.


    It was time to apologize for my mistake.


    I hope Bobby will be willing to forgive us.

 Chapter 40. Possible danger

    It was a normal day for me, I''ve been to the library where I copied as many enchants as possible. And after I felt tired from all of that I then would go to the enchanting room where I''ll try to get them enchanted.


    Some of them were accepted while others didn''t get any reaction from the enchanting table. It was very frustrating at that time since it didn''t show me what was wrong, nor did I have someone that could teach me what I did wrong.


    At least I made improvements with my enchanting skill, and I also decided to enchant only the paper, even if it was a temporary thing.


    I didn''t want to give those guys more materials than necessary even though they could''ve done this job a lot better and faster then me, and with this method, I didn''t occupy too much inventory which I''m sure they appreciated. I don''t think level-one enchantments are that popular around here.


    I did find out that after a week passed the enchanted paper would turn back to a normal empty sheet, even if it was in a chest, which took me by surprise.


    Unfortunately I can''t keep doing this kind of enchantment since I can put only two enchantments on a piece of paper.


    But my skill tab didn''t look too bad.


    _______________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    29.125/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 3


    130/10.000


    _Brewing lvl 2


    110/1.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    _______________________________________________


    "Finally I''m level 3 in enchanting! Unfortunately, I have to get back to enchanting books. But this leaves less chance for error since it won''t accept the book. So I should level up more efficiently with this method."


    The progress brought a smile to my face, it felt nice to see your skills improving. Especially if you could visually see it like in a game.


    Even though I was technically in one.


    But the fan part of the day is over, now it''s time for the not-so-fun part, but still a necessary one.


    Mining the tunnel.


    It wasn''t as hard as the first time I''ve done it. I luckily managed to find a storage room with broken iron tools. I took some of them, put them in a furnace to get some iron nuggets, and then I was able to make an iron pickaxe after all that trouble.


    And the best part about this was that I think that I took all of that from a trash room, so nobody would bat an eye if something goes missing from there.


    Of course, once I''ve got another pickaxe I enchanted it with unbreaking three and efficiency one.


    I didn''t get enough time to make too many enchantments, plus I didn''t want to destroy the random anvils that I use.


    Back into my room I took out a golden carrot from inventory which I quickly ate for more energy.


    Then I went down into the food storage room, which further lead me to my hidden tunnel system.


    I walked through the hot empty tunnels until I arrived at the last place I stopped.


    I hit the block in from of me until it broke, I then took the item from the ground, and continued to do that until suddenly something changed my pace.


    I was greeted by a wall of obsidian.


    "This doesn''t look good."


    I tried to mine around it, but I was still blocked by the wall of obsidian.


    "Looks like this is the worst-case scenario. We''re in an unbreakable box. Well, have to use that actual entrance to get out."


    I took a deep sigh and decided to see what was my position in the huge box.


    I mined up, until finally I was greeted by light. It was from the side instead of the ceiling as I was expecting it.


    "I think I minded into the wall itself."


    I looked through the hole and fortunately, I wasn''t in a place easy to see.


    Through the one-block hole I could see some trees, the green grass and even some flowers.


    "I think I''m in a garden or something similar."


    I carefully got out and looked around for any signs of life.


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    There was no one that I could see, which was a good start.


    After walking in circles I finally figured out where I was. I was in sight of my balcony.


    There was only one more room besides mine that had a balcony, and that was Froggy''s old room which now is empty.


    "This is a pretty good spot to have an exit. I only need to figure out the guard''s schedule and the location of the gate. Then we can make a plan on how to get out of here."


    I couldn''t wait to tell Froggy the good news. I finally made some progress and this would surely brighten up his mood.


    With the new discovery, I decided to stop here and explore at night when there was less visibility for the guards on the walls.


    I''ll probably ask Froggy for a night vision potion and maybe invisibility.


    We''ll most likely have to use invisible potions when we''re going to escape. We only need a distraction for the guards at gate so we can open or break the iron doors.


    I went back through the narrow tunnels into my comfortable room. I was tired and dinner won''t come for a few hours so I decided to take a nap until then.


    _____


    * Knock knock


    Someone was knocking with power at my door which startled me.


    I quickly got up to see that the moon was already outside shining through the cold desert.


    "I surely missed dinner. But who would look out for me at such a late hour then?"


    I walked to the door to open it, only to be surprised that my guest was actually the prince himself.


    "Ahh, hello there prince. I did not expect a visit from you at such a late hour...or at all."


    The prince looked curious around to room and then back at me.


    "You must''ve been asleep, I''m sorry for disturbing you at such a late hour."


    I did sleep for a few good hours, so now for sure, I won''t be able to get back to it.


    "I didn''t manage to fall asleep yet sir, so there''s no problem."


    The prince just smiled and nodded his head pretending to believed my lie.


    "I''m glad to hear that. I came here to ask about your program with the enchantment skill?"


    "I recently got it to level 3"


    "Already? That''s some great progress in such a short time. I''m happy for your success, now that you''ve got this far I can help you speed up your progress in the next few days."


    This took me by surprise. I thought the prince would want to contact me only when I get to level 5 where he could request me or something, but it seems that he wants to help me get there faster.


    And the only reason that he would suddenly change his mind would be because he doesn''t have enough time for me to get there naturally.


    This made me think for a minute, there has to be a reason for his rush.


    But the only thing that came to my mind was the new year party, which is in two weeks.


    "This would be an honor for me to be guided by such a brilliant man."


    The young prince took my compliment with a smile.


    "Of course, anything for my new business partner. We''ll meet tomorrow at the library where we would start our first lesson."


    He then turn around and walked away.


    "Well, this just happened."


    I quickly closed the door and started to think about what just happened.


    The reason that he wants me to level up as soon as possible is because I need to do something for him that he can''t do or is not allowed to do.


    He is maxed level in the enchanting skill for sure, so that leaves the option where he is not allowed to do it himself.


    There are a few rules when it comes to enchanting, especially in the Sandstone kingdom. But the only one that would truly affect a prince would be to make a forbidden enchantment like the curse of biding.


    In the game, the only way to obtain a curse of biding book or enchantment is through a treasure chest.


    But here you can actually make the enchantment yourself. It has the same effect as in the game where you can''t take it off but here it also has another ability, which is that it binds the wearer in one place for a few moments.


    That''s why it''s a forbidden enchantment that is punished with death no matter your status.


    The question is why would he want me specifically to do it? I''m sure he can make one himself and hide the fact that he did it.


    "I think he wants to put the blame on me, if anyone finds out. I guess I have to get out of this place before I''m thrown under the bus."


    With that out of the way, I decided to check on Froggy and tell him everything that I''d found today.


    _____


    "Froggy, Froggy! "


    I tried to wake up the witch with a strong shaking but to no avail.


    "Why are you such a heavy sleeper?"


    I kicked him out of bed which finally brought him back to the real world.


    "Wha-What''s, happening? Do I have to get back to training already?"


    "Oh good thing that your awake. I thought you fell asleep."


    Froggy didn''t look too pleased about my joke.


    "What brings you here at such a late hour?"


    "Well, a few things happened while I was mining today. For starters, I finally reached the wall."


    The sleepiness from his eyes quickly went away as soon as heard what I said.


    "That''s some really good news. Does that mean we can finally escape once the party will start?"


    "Unfortunately it''s not that easy. While I did find the wall I also found out a problem when I got there. It''s the worst-case scenario. We''re in an obsidian box."


    His face changed to one of disappointment when I said that.


    "So what''s the plan now?"


    "It didn''t change too much from the original, we only need another distraction that would make the guards leave their post for a few minutes while we get away."


    "And how do you plan to do that?"


    "I''ll probably dig some more and find a room that I''ll light it on fire."


    "That''s... I guess that could work."


    "Yes, but I think I have another problem. Do you know by any chance about the curse of binding enchantment?"


    "Curse of binding?"


    He repeated with a confused face.


    "Ok, let me take you back to the beginning. Remember when I told you that I''ve got access to the enchantment room? Well, the prince just visited my room a few minutes ago and wanted to start helping me to level up my enchantment skill."


    "I mean it''s a little bit weird not not that dangerous."


    "Let me finish first. The prince let me use the enchanted room only because I''ll help him with some enchantments. But he''s already maxed on that skill, so why would he need my help, why would he suddenly want to help me increase my level?"


    Once I finished sayin everything, I could see Froggy starting to think about it.


    "So is this when the curse of binding comes in?"


    "Yes! I read in the library that this enchantment is a very dangerous one, it forces someone to wear or equip an item and to never let it go. The enchantment is so dangerous, that it''s a crime punishable by death if you get caught."


    "Why would he want to do such a thing to you? I don''t think you ever did something to him that would make him want to kill you. And I think there are better ways than this one to assassinate you ."


    "I don''t think he wants to kill me specifically. I think he wants to use that enchantment at the next party, and then throw the blame on me. He couldn''t teach a random person from the palace since nobody would want to get in trouble here. Then the two of us came out of nowhere, both of us have hatred towards this place since were basically prisoners, so nobody would be that surprised if we did something bad. And since he can''t get you, especially when you''re too busy with the training, that only one left is me. Nobody would be surprised if I did something for revenge."


    Froggy looked shocked when I explained my theory.


    "I don''t know if that''s true, but if it is, we''ll have to do something about it."


    "I don''t think we can really do something to prevent it. The sooner we''re going to leave from here the better would be for both of us."


    He nodded in understanding.


    "Well, I''ve told you what I wanted to tell you, and for the next few days maybe I won''t be able to visit you. So I''ll get back to exploring around the walls for a bit. Do you have night vision potions by any chance?"


    He searched through his chest before handing it out to me.


    "Thanks, hope you''ll manage to get back to sleep."


    I then jumped back into my hole and went for more exploring.

 Chapter 41. Guests

    POV: Bobby


    I was surprised, to say the least when I looked at the two people in front of me.


    The day started great with me in the lab increasing my level of brewing when suddenly a guard came to me, to announce that my guest''s have arrived.


    Confused, I asked the guard what he was talking about.


    He responded that two people claimed to be my guests, and one of them is named Tobby.


    Then I realized, that I forgot to send a letter to my friend to say that I''m ok. From his perspective, he gave me a summoning book which made me disappear for a few weeks without giving him any signs of life.


    I''m sure this must''ve worried him to the death.


    I told the guard to let them in since I was expecting them.


    Luckily for me, for the past few weeks, I''ve increased my reputation in the palace to the point where I don''t need to be under surveillance 24/7.


    With this kind of trust, I''m able to invite someone to the castle without asking the princess first.


    She would get a report later of course. But I don''t think she would be against my decision.


    After a few more minutes of waiting, the two guests where staying in front of me.


    I look at my friend that is beaming with happiness to see me alive and well.


    "Bobby! You better have a good explanation for making me worry so much."


    He then gave me a strong hug which took the air out of me.


    "And why didn''t you tell me you got a new friend."


    He said that in a whisper while pointing at the other guest.


    The woman was tall with a strange hat on her head, she didn''t look to comfortable to be here, her eyes we''re dancing at every wall for something to distract her and not look at me.


    I didn''t expect to see her now or here, I didn''t even know she could walk in this world, I guess Trader doesn''t know everything after all.


    "Undying Flame! I did not expect to meet you today... or here in general. What brings you here?"


    I involuntarily said with a cold voice, which surprised me.


    I thought I had enough time to adjust my emotions to my friend''s disappearance.


    I know that they were the ones that gave us the wrong information, but it''s also our fault that we got greedy and walked deeper into the fortress instead of retreating home.


    And logically I could understand them, I can even say confidently that I forgive them.


    But emotions work in funny ways, they''re really stubborn sometimes, and it''s not the best time usually when that happens.


    Finally, she stopped looking at the walls and looked straight into my eyes.


    "Hello Bobby, I''m sorry for the sudden surprise. I came here in the name of my tribe to apologize for our mistakes. You can do whatever you choose with me, but please spare my people."


    She then kneeled and put her head to the ground.


    This got awkward really quickly, and I didn''t like the looks of judgment from my friend.


    "Undying Flame, please get up since this is very embarrassing for me."


    She quickly got up and looked intensely at me again.


    "I want to forgive you, but my heart is not ready yet. But do not worry, I do not intend to harm your tribe. This is something between you me and Blue. There''s no need to involve innocent people."


    Once I said that, it was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders and she could finally breathe in peace.


    Her expression was that of relief, happiness, and gratefulness before changing suddenly to one of pain.


    She started to grab her head, then quickly her stomach.


    And before I could ask what was happening she took a potion from her inventory and drank it.


    Once the bottle was empty she took a sigh of relief.


    "What just happened, are you ok?"


    "I''m not supposed to be able to walk in this world. That''s why I have to constantly drink regeneration potions to stay alive in this world."


    That took me by surprise.


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    Looks like Trader was right after all. The people from the Nether are not able to walk into our world.


    But somehow, she managed to defy that danger by drinking expensive potions like it was water.


    How did she have so many potions?


    But this made me realize that her coming here actually show''s her regret for what happened.


    "Looks like the two of you have an interesting story together which I would love to hear about it. But now I''m more curious about what did you do those days where you didn''t have enough time to send me a letter to say you''re doing fine."


    This would be a long day.


    I started to tell them about how I arrived at the palace to meet Princess Elizabeth. Then I accepted her offer to work for her in exchange that she would let me increase my level of brewing skills and let me visit the garden that has all the alchemy ingredients.


    Ever since then, I''ve been doing as much brewing as possible to increase my level to the one required by the princess.


    If I wasn''t doing that, then I would try to make friends with some of the servants around here to make them more comfortable around me, and hopefully, they won''t sabotage me while I gather information about a possible way to find Trader.


    "You think Trader is still alive?"


    Flame spoke with a surprised voice.


    "I don''t have any proof, but I think Trader managed to open up a portal in the fortress and escape through there. That''s why the space was shaken and the monsters suddenly stopped."


    "A fortress, a portal? What are you talking about Bobby? Have you finally lost your mind in grief?"


    Toby looked at me like I was a madman, which I totally understood.


    Even if I didn''t meet Trader for a long time, the stuff he showed me while he was here was so out of the ordinary that my perception of what was normal and was not got twisted.


    "No Tobby, I didn''t lose my mind, or at least not yet. My friend that you brought to apologize to me is not actually from this world. She''s from a world called the Nether where there are rivers and lakes filled with lava, the ecosystem is totally different from us. But the most notable thing about that dimension, is that is the place where we get most of our alchemy ingredients."


    The new information made him freeze in place, he looked intensely at my face in case I was pulling his leg but I had a stern face. He then looked at Undying and she just nodded her head in affirmation of my revelation.


    "You two are not joking. I need a minute to process all of this."


    He sat down and started to massage his big nose.


    "So you''re telling me that there''s more than one dimension and you''ve already been into it. And in that dimension, you''ve lost your new friend, and you want to get back there to the fortress filled with monsters to see if your friend actually managed to escape."


    "That''s a very simplified version of what happened but it''s true."


    "Well, that would explain why you suddenly got so preoccupied. At least you managed to get a guardian that would protect your village while you away."


    The iron golem does indeed bring me a lot of comfort knowing that it''s looking over the village in my absence.


    "I think you two are tired from the long journey. You should get some sleep and then we can continue our conversation once you two are rested."


    They both nodded in understanding and I called a servant to show them the way to an empty room where they could rest.


    The servant nodded her head and went outside with my friends to guide them somewhere where they could rest in peace.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have enough influence to get a guest room, so they''ll have to be satisfied with the servant''s room.


    After the sudden visit, I didn''t feel like getting back to work anymore, so I decided to go to the library in search for more information related to Nether.


    On my way to the library, I meet with the princess.


    "Good morning Prince''s Elizabeth."


    "Oh, Bobby! I heard you had guests today, I hope everything turned out well, and you didn''t have any problems."


    "There was no problem princess. They''re getting some rest now."


    "That''s good to hear. Oh and before I forget about it, the Sandstone kingdom invited us to their new year''s party in a few weeks, and I was chosen to represent my family. This year is special because they''re preparing for the coming of the great hero. They even prepared two companions that can help the hero to defeat the great evil."


    "The Sandstone kingdom? The one in the desert? And what do you mean the coming of the great hero?"


    "I take you not a very religious person."


    "I do appreciate the system and what it does for us, but I don''t feel like worshipping it."


    " I can understand your point of view. But in the Sandstone kingdom, they won''t be as accepting as us. The pope in there had revelation from the system about the upcoming calamity and a great hero that would oppose it."


    "And we''re going to believe that?"


    "If it was any other person then there would be second guesses, but because it''s coming from the great pope who has proven his ability to communicate with the system, this must be taken seriously."


    This took me by surprise.


    I never thought the system was actually sentient and could see the future. Maybe I should go more often to church to learn more.


    "So who are the chosen helpers for the Hero?"


    "Well, their both an odd block. One of them is a witch and the other one is someone that doesn''t have a nose. They managed to find a cure for the infected."


    "They what! I thought it was impossible to bring a person back once it got infected."


    "Well, they somehow managed to do it. That''s why they''ve been chosen to help the hero to defeat the great evil."


    "I see, but why did you tell me all of this?"


    She just looked at me and smiled.


    "I want you to find the best gift for those heroes, I want to be on their good side and maybe they''ll tell us the cure as well since the Sultan won''t be inclined to share it."


    This was not a simple request, it was a test for me to show how I can handle an important job.


    She started to trust me but not enough to make her feel comfortable. She needs proof that I''m also capable to do some unique jobs.


    "I''ll find the most suitable gift for them, my princess. Thank you for your trust."


    I said that while I bowed slightly.


    I needed to show confidence and gratitude for such an opportunity.


    She smiled and greeted me one last time before she left.


    "I guess I won''t be stopping at the library today."


    I have to find more information about those two, what their skills are and maybe their preference if possible.


    And for that, I needed to find a broker.


    I asked some servants that I''d managed to befriend while I was here, and luckily someone knew one.


    That night I went to an old inn where I meet a normal-looking person just casually eating a bowl of red soup.


    "Are you the Black Ear?"


    "Depends who''s asking."


    "The palace."


    He stopped eating his soup and his face got serious.


    "What do you want to know from me?"


    His voice was more heavy and his body language got more defensive.


    "I heard you have some information about the heroes in the desert."


    "I hear a lot of things for the right price."


    "Don''t worry, the price won''t be a problem."


    I said that as I took out a few potions from my inventory and put them on the table.


    A flash of greed run through his eyes as soon as he saw them.


    "It''s always a pleasure to do business with rich customers. So what specifically do you want to know?"


    He said that with a clever smile as he got more comfortable.


    This would be a long night.

 Chapter 42. He is alive!

    POV: Bobby


    I was running in the dark on the empty streets, my breath started to run out before finally arriving at the walls of the city.


    "Halt! Oh, it''s you sir, would you like for us to bring your horse back?"


    "Yes *Huff, as soon as possible *Huff."


    After a few minutes of waiting I was able finally catch my breath and I had my horse ready.


    I then climbed the horse and started to ride it towards the palace at full speed.


    The conversation with Black Ear was interesting to say the least, I never knew what a witch, and when I found out I got a bit envious of their abilities.


    But what really caught my attention was the second person. The one that found out the cure, his name was Trader.


    When I first heard that name, I was skeptical but marked as a very big coincidence.


    Until I heard more about him, like the fact that nobody knows where he''s from, and that he doesn''t have a beautiful nose like us.


    All of this pointed at something that I was afraid to believe, I was afraid that my newfound hope would be crushed again.


    But even with that fear, I was still excited, I didn''t want to ignore the possibility of good news.


    I also wanted to share what I got with Undying Flame to calm her guilt, it was something too good not to share.


    After a few hours of riding, I finally got to the castle where the guards let me in once they recognized my horse.


    I walked through the poorly lit halls until I arrived at the room where my friends stayed.


    I knocked a few times before the door was opened.


    Undying looked at me with tired eyes but still fully opened the door.


    The room was not too big, it had four beds, two chests, and a desk, the minimum requirements for a living.


    "Did you finish the special mission?"


    "How did you know that I was given a mission?"


    "I didn''t, we just assumed it since the servants told us you last talked with the princess before you left."


    I sometimes forget that Tobby managed to get into the Academy without having a special job, he was smart enough to get a sponsor through the whole academy time.


    "Yes, I did finish the mission, or at least most of it. I had to find information about two people in the Sandstone Kingdom and what gifts I should bring them. But while I was gathering some information about that, the description of one of them was very similar to Trade''s, he''s a man that has no nose, and his name is Trader!"


    Undying Flame stopped whatever she was doing and looked at me in shock.


    "You think this is our Trader? He actually managed to escape through a portal in the fortress?"


    "I hope so. And the best part is that I''m invited to the party, so I can see him with my own two eyes."


    "Wasn''t the Sandstone kingdom in the middle of the desert? A few weeks away from your village?"


    Tobby intervened.


    "That is a good point, but while I was here I tried to look for information about the Nether, which wasn''t a lot unfortunately, but I found from an old book that the distance in the Nether works different from our world. So maybe when we traveled for a few days in the Nether, we actually walked a few weeks in our world."


    "Hmm, that would make sense if it''s true, it''s still shocking to hear about another dimension but I believe you. Then why didn''t he come here, he''s been missing for a few weeks after all."


    Tobby raised a good point, which made me think about what was going on out there in the desert.


    "I can only think of two reasons why he wouldn''t want to come back. He either lost his memories through an accident or he''s being held captive. "


    "Why would he be held captive? From what you''re telling me he''s at the palace from the desert, if he did something bad wouldn''t be much easier to kill him?"


    "True, but what if they want to get information out of him? He was the one that found out a cure for an inflected person after all."


    "He did what?!"


    Tobby yelled in shock, while Undying looked at us in confusion.


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    "What''s an Infected?"


    "When you get killed by a zombie there''s a high chance that you''ll turn into one as well. But you''ll be a different zombie than the natural one, you''ll keep your appearance with the slight change of the green skin. That''s why is theorized that it''s possible to turn back an Infected person, but nobody in the world managed to find one."


    Undying nodded her head in understanding at the groundbreaking discovery.


    "He also knew a lot of information about us, when we first met. Like our original name as Piglins, and I think he''s also the one that actually made the portal to our world."


    "He did indeed, last time we talked he told me that he holds the knowledge of dangerous information that can even destroy nations."


    "You found some weird friends recently Bobby. One of them knows too much for his own good, and the other one comes from another dimension."


    I sarcastically laughed at his comment.


    "So what do you want to do now?"


    "I''ll have to get a present for both of them so I can go there in the first place, and I think your two can stay a bit more before you can get back to your home. I''m sure your wife wants you to get back as soon as possible, and Undying I''m more than sure that your tribe is worried about you, especially because this world is a constant danger for you."


    "Thank you for your worries!"


    She then bowed slightly.


    "I guess you''re right, my family would want to have me back as soon as possible, and since I know you''re doing well, I can also rest easy."


    We talked for a few more hours before I decided to get some rest in my room, since I''ve been on a horse most of the night.


    I walked into my room, and once my head hit the pillow everything turned dark.


    ____


    The next day I woke up, ate my breakfast, and started to think about what I should choose as gifts.


    For the witch named Froggy, I think it can be pretty easy, since were both alchemists and what I would love the most would be some rare ingredients for me to use.


    And luckily I didn''t use all the items that I got from the fortress. So maybe I can give him some pufferfish and maybe some ghast tears.


    We are the capital of alchemy after all, so we can afford to have gifts like this.


    As for my possible friend Trader, things can get more complicated.


    I do consider him a good friend, one that helped me through harsh times and even gave me more than I could''ve ever asked for, but I didn''t know a thing about him.


    The more I thought, the bigger my embarrassment grows, I knew he was not from this world, and I think he wants to get back to his original one, but otherwise, I don''t know anything.


    Even his name is a mystery since I was the one to nickname him Trader when we first met.


    I stayed like that for a few good minutes before giving up and decided to go to the library to get inspired.


    "He most likely wants to get back, so that means I have to look for books related to other dimensions."


    I walked to the last place where I found the old book about the Nather and looked around more carefully.


    Some of those books were old while others were still good-looking.


    Finally, after a few minutes of searching, I found a small book that caught my attention.


    ''Coming of the hero''.


    "This book may be related to what the pope spoke."


    Fortunately, the book was not long so in half an hour I managed to read it all.


    And I was not disappointed with the results. The book told the story of a hero who would come to defeat one of the rulers of the monsters.


    The hero has to search for the monster''s heart and destroy it for all.


    Once he manages to do that, then the hero would be transported back to his original world.


    "So for Trader to get back to his original world he has to defeat one of the rulers of the monsters. Is he perhaps the hero awaited by the prophecy?"


    I have some new information, but it only brought me more questions than answers.


    I put the book back and sat down at one of the tables in the library.


    "Maybe I should just give him a diamond pickaxe as a facade, with the pretext that he''ll be helping the hero with gathering resources."


    I decided to go with that.


    I''m sure that he would like the new information, plus the new tool.


    With the plan now made, I left the library to tell her majesty what ideas I got.


    Since it was a sudden meeting, it took a few minutes until I could finally meet her.


    "Bobby, good morning! I didn''t expect to see you so early. Is everything ok?"


    The princess was in her room writing something in a book, most likely reports for different people.


    "Everything is ok your majesty. I came here to tell you that I found the perfect gift for the two heroes."


    She finally stopped from her writing and looked at me.


    "That''s a quick response, so what did you figure out?"


    "For Froggy, since he''s an alchemist like us, we can gift him some rare ingredients like pufferfish and gast tears to catch his interest, as for Trader I didn''t manage to figure out his actual specialty, but I''m more than sure that he''ll greatly appreciate a diamond pickaxe, to show our support for the upcoming journey."


    The princess started to think about my suggestions.


    "I think your ideas are not bad, and your rapid response is truly admirable. Thank you for helping me, I''ll surely take you with me on this journey."


    She said with a smile, which made me sigh of relief.


    I said goodbye to her before leaving the room, I had to meet with Undying and Tobby before they leave.


    They decided to leave today since they got what they come for.


    I walked for a few minutes before arriving at the door that I visited just last night.


    *Knock *knock


    "We just had lunch there''s no need for more food, thank you-, Oh it''s you Bobby, you''ve come to say a final goodbye before we left?"


    "Yes Tobby, I just finished talking with the princess, and she liked my suggestions."


    I said with pride.


    "That''s good to hear buddy, just be careful not to get in any more trouble than necessary, since you seem to have a knack for these."


    I wanted to rebuke that statement, but then stopped once I started to realize, that I did indeed get into a few troubles in those past years.


    "I''ll try my best. Where''s Undying?"


    "She''s working on her potions for the trip. I still don''t know how to react around her after I found her origins."


    I then remembered that the people from the Nather don''t have the system, so they can actually brew whatever they want without restrictions.


    I walked into the room where I could see her watching the brewing station intensely.


    "Undying, I''ve come to say goodbye before you two leave. Please don''t forget to gather as much information about the outsider''s fortress until I''ll contact you."


    She jumped a little at my sudden presence.


    "Thank you for coming to see us before well leave, and you don''t have to worry, we''ll try to get as much information as possible."


    I needed my head in understanding then turned my head towards Tobby, and gave him a big parting hug.


    "I''ll try to write you from time to time so you''ll know that I''m not dead. I''m thankful to have such a great friend like you. I wish you two a good journey back."


    "I''m also glad to know you''re doing well. Good luck with your mission as well. "


    He responded with a big smile.


    After an hour of waiting, they got on their horses and started their journey back.


    I watched as they slowly disappeared over the line of horizon and then turned back towards the castle.


    I have to get back to work as well.

 Chapter 43. Mysterious room

    I looked at the wall of obsidian in front of me with confusion.


    "I don''t think I dug the whole palace again and met another wall."


    It was a leisurely day in this beautiful prison so I decided to dig around some more hoping to find interesting rooms where I could take some items before we leave or just a good room to be set on fire.


    But after a bit of digging, I was greeted with another wall of obsidian.


    I tried to dig around more to see if I could understand what was going on and I found out that it was taking a lot of space, and the only connection to the structure was a tunnel covered in obsidian as well.


    "Is this the vault of the palace? I mean that would explain why the tunnel leads towards the center of the palace."


    My eyes had a small light of greed on them while thinking about this opportunity.


    While everything was covered with obsidian, the entrance couldn''t be that hard to break. I know that with redstone you can make some pretty amazing stuff, but it''s still limited by space and vulnerability to external forces.


    "And I''m sure any problem could be solved with an invisible potion and a pickaxe."


    That made me smirk a bit. I must be very tired if I''m laughing at my own bad jokes, but I shake my head and go back to my room to get some proper rest, with a clear mind I can plan a way to sneak into that place without getting caught.


    It was a long walk back since the palace wasn''t small and my tunnels not being exactly straight, but once I got into my room, I felt a wave of muscle pain, hitting me all at once, with a deep sigh I looked outside the window. The moon was still up in the sky, and the daylight was nowhere in sight.


    "I probably have a few hours of sleep until morning."


    My eyes got heavy, I moved my tired body and sat on the soft mattress.


    Everything went dark.


    -------


    *knock knock


    "Sir, breakfast is ready!"


    A feminine voice woke me up, it was the same maid every morning always at the same time with the same meal. I tried to talk with her from time to time but she didn''t seem too interested or probably wasn''t allowed to talk with me too much.


    With a grunt, I got off my comfortable bed and went to open the door.


    "Morning to you as well, what''s the specialty for today?"


    I said in a sarcastic tone. The maid looked dead in my eyes for a few seconds before giving me the usual bread and milk on the plate. She didn''t say a word, just turned and left with silent steps.


    "Oh, what a feast!"


    I just closed the door, put everything in my inventory, and took out a golden carrot which I ate with a smile on my face, no matter how many I have, I can''t get enough of these.


    With my belly full and rested body, it was time to plan the next course of action. I could roughly guess where the entrance of the secret tunnel would be, somewhere behind the throne room, the question is if I should even attempt to rob them in the first place, I mean I know well be hunted when we escape, but I''m sure we''ll they''ll do it with more passion if well take from their treasury.


    "I can''t make this decision alone, I''ll ask Froggy tonight for his opinion, plus I''ll need an invisible potion if I want to get there anyway."


    With that out of the way, I drank some milk and went outside.


    Of course, I was greeted by my personal guard, sometimes I wonder if he sleeps in the hallway as well.


    It didn''t matter anyway, since he was here to limit my movement, not to guard me. So slowly walking down the hallway, I take the left corner then the right followed by going down the stairs and then taking the right corner again, when all of a sudden my guard spoke.


    "Sir, where are you heading today?"


    "Ah, nowhere in particular really, I just want to take a break today from visiting the same three rooms every time, if I don''t change my scenery anytime soon I''ll go crazy, I swear!"


    The guard looked suspiciously at me but didn''t say anything else or stop me from exploring. It did help the fact that I didn''t walk towards Froggy so he most likely didn''t have a reason to stop me.


    I went from one room to another, while slowly getting closer to the throne room, everything looked different when you had natural light coming through the windows.


    After a few more rooms we finally arrived at a big door that was wide open, inside the throne room were armored guards stiff as statues in their position. Even though there wasn''t anyone on the throne, there were still a lot of valuables in there that needed protection.


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    This is the second time I''m here, but the difference is the lack of someone with a presence so powerful that needs my constant attention, now I can study the room more.


    The ceiling was quite high with chiseled stone telling a story that I was too far to see and surrounded by gold blocks that shined brightly in the sun. It was a beautiful way to show wealth and power for sure.


    Behind the throne were two doors that I previously didn''t notice, that was interesting.


    Calmly walking towards them like I was supposed to be there but was stopped by one of the guards.


    "Sorry sir, you''re not allowed to go there."


    "Why wouldn''t I be allowed to go there? I have the authority from Prince Amun to go wherever I want to."


    I take out the book signed by him to show it to the guard. Of course, I didn''t have the authority to do that, but he didn''t need to know that part.


    "I''m sorry sir, but unless the Sultan himself comes with you, I''m not allowed to let you pass."


    He didn''t even look at my book, only his body became more stiff in case I wanted to force myself in.


    "Ok, ok, you don''t have to worry so much, I can tell when I''m not wanted."


    But this proves that there''s something valuable enough there that only the Sultan can go, which made me smile a little.


    With the goal accomplished, I just relaxed and wandered aimlessly through the place, I even checked out the garden outside where I saw beautiful flowers and even some animals.


    Around noon I saw enough sightseeing so I went back to the library where I continued to write enchantments and grind my levels or read a book that looked interesting.


    A few hours later it started to get dark, so I went towards my room to "sleep" as usual.


    Once I was safe and unsupervised, I broke a block from the floor and went towards the secret tunnel.


    It was still there where I left it yesterday, I mined along the wall until finally I was greeted by a different block beside the sandstone and obsidian. This is most likely the entrance to the vault, of course, I wouldn''t be foolish enough to break it, there were most likely some guards around there who would surely hear me if I broke a block, but I gathered enough information for today, it''s time to meet with Froggy and decide if we should do this or not.


    My walk back was a bit impatient, I almost blew out some torches with my speed, I didn''t even bother to stop at my room and went straight to Froggy''s.


    *Knock, knock, knock


    The block is broken.


    "Well, hello there good sir, long time no see!"


    *sigh "Happy to see you as well friend, how was your day?"


    "Oh, it was wonderful if I say so myself, I may found out a tiny little thing that requires me to have an invisible potion, and a night vision would probably help as well."


    Froggy raises his left eyebrow in surprise.


    "Going outside again?"


    "Not really, while I was exploring the place underground I stumbled upon a huge obsidian box that had a tunnel leading right behind the throne room. And I think that''s the treasury of this country."


    Froggy froze.


    "Are you trying to steal from the vault of the Sultan!? If we manage to escape, there''s still a chance we''ll only get imprisoned if we get caught. But if we steal their most valuable items they''ll kill us for sure!"


    "Ok, ok I can hear you just fine, you don''t have to yell, the guard will bulge in any minute now if we keep going like this."


    Froggy realizing that he raised his voice a bit too much went silent and urged me to continue.


    "Listen I know it sounds like a bad decision, but think about it. We could find some items that could help us get out of here. Like some obsidian blocks, diamond pickaxes or even better, enderpearls!"


    "What are enderpearls?"


    "They are an item that once thrown, would teleport you where it landed."


    "There''s such a powerful item!?"


    "Yeah, unfortunately, it''s not that easy to find them, since the only way to get them is from an enderman."


    "I can see how that would be a problem to get. But it would still get too much attention if we''re caught."


    "That''s true, but we''ll only take what''s necessary for our escape and nothing more, that way they won''t send everyone after us in shame that someone managed to seal from them! Plus I have a place in mind where will be somewhat safe if they follow us, worst-case scenario will have to live surrounded by lava."


    "Ha, ha, that''s a funny joke Trader, but I guess there''s no better distraction than stealing from the vault."


    "Exactly!"


    Froggy nodded his head in understanding and hesitantly gave me the two potions I needed.


    "Don''t try to get caught friend, I don''t want to be left alone in this endeavor."


    "Don''t worry, safety is my middle name, Good night!"


    I then jumped back into the hole and blocked it without hearing Froggy''s response.


    It wasn''t too long before I was back to mining the tunnel around the secret entrance. Fortunately or unfortunately it wasn''t too much to dig, which means it''s a small room so it would be hard to sneak into, but hope was not lost yet as I found a Redstone system that I suspect would open a secret entrance. To be sure about it as well, I carefully broke a block in the ceiling leading me to a tall empty hallway, where there was no indications of a door.


    I got back in my tunnels and covered the hole, took all the torches down then went towards the blocks that were supposed to be the staircase and broke one of the side blocks.


    Through a quarter of a block, light came into my tunnel.


    "As I suspected, there are some guards here. Now how do get past them without them noticing me?"


    There were two guards with diamond armor on each side of an iron door, the only way to open the door was by breaking it or using Redstone. But whatever choice I''ll make, it will get unwanted attention.


    I looked through my inventory for something that would help me but to no avail. I studied the two guards trying to see if I could pick something else that I could use but no luck with that as well.


    In the end, I decided to wait for them to change shifts. They can''t always be there, right?


    After a few boring hours of waiting, something finally happened. The Redstone beside me came to life, and I could hear the shifting of blocks with pistons, followed by heavy steps.


    A man wearing a purple robe came to the guards and handed them a book.


    "Sir, I thought tonight was Ali''s shift?"


    One of the guards asked in confusion.


    "Yeah I know, but he managed to get sick somehow and that''s why I''m working his shift. I have the signature right there in the book."


    The guard looked at the last page and nodded his head.


    "Follow me, sir."


    He then took out a laver from his inventory and placed it beside the door, and with a flick the door was opened with a heavy sound.


    Then the guard passed the opened door followed by the strange man.


    The door was left open with only one guard remaining, after a few seconds the guard that was left alone, checked the tunnel one more time before taking a book out of his inventory and started to read it.


    This is my chance!


    I slowly and silently break one of the staircases and drink the invisibility potion. Quickly as it disappeared, the staircase was placed back. The guard lifted his head from the book and looked confused around the room. After not seeing anything he went back to his reading.


    As silent as a sneaking creeper, I passed him entering the obsidian tunnel.

 Chapter 44. Obsidian factory

    The tunnel was long and silent, there were a few lanterns here and there, and I had to be careful not to hit my head on them.


    But after walking anxiously hoping the guard won''t suddenly return, I finally arrive at a small room with only a chest and another iron door.


    I looked in the chest and saw two levers and 5 enchanted diamond pickaxes.


    Why would they leave such valuable tools in such a random chest? Do I need them later to progress?


    After a few hard moments of thinking what I should do, I decided to not take any pickaxes, instead only a lever.


    With that I opened up the second iron door and broke it before entering, making the door automatically shut itself behind me.


    "Phew, that was close."


    I whispered to myself.


    A few blocks later I was in another room, but this one more cozier. It had a few chests and furnaces, and even a plant here and there.


    Is this more of a bunker than a vault?


    The room had another iron door which was open this time, fortunately.


    I didn''t even bother to check the chests in fear of being heard, so I just went through the door again, this time leading me to a bigger room all made with obsidian as I expected.


    What I didn''t expect to see, was a few dozen villagers who were mining blocks of obsidian. From where do you ask? Well, this brings me to the second most shocking thing, which is in the middle of the room and I can only describe it as a lava generator.


    There''s a floating glass cube, and inside a pool filled with lava, under the hot lava it''s a layer of dripstone block, and underneath that the dripstone itself. If you''re paying close attention to those, you can see a small steam of lava running over them leading to a small drop that fell into a caldron.


    That''s how they managed to cheat the system into making infinite lava, I''ve seen in a few videos that this is possible, but I didn''t expect that it could be used in this world as well. It was kind of ingenious that they even found it.


    "I''ll go check and see if we still have some fire resistance potion left."


    My sock was interrupted by a guard coming with hurried steps towards me, I quickly got out of the doorway so he wouldn''t bump into me accidentally.


    The villagers that were working, glanced towards the noise before returning to their mining.


    With silent steps, I started to explore the strange place, without realizing that one of the Villagers still looking at the guard''s post with narrowed eyes.


    The place was big but it didn''t have too much in it. Everything was split into 3 sections, the workspace where there were dozens of Vilgers mining in their designated workstation, the second was the break area, which had a few tables and chairs for when they eat, and the last one was the prison, where there were a few cells with two beds in each.


    There were no chests or crafting tables, nothing to entertain, and I''m sure the working hours were not reasonable.


    But I couldn''t do anything for them, I couldn''t even escape my obsidian cage, and that one didn''t have a roof to stop me, so I shook my head in disappointment and got closer to the guard and the purple robe villager listening to their talk.


    "I''m sorry sir, but you came too early this night, so the last patch of blocks is not ready. It would take around half an hour before they finished mining."


    The guard apologized, and the other grunted in displeasure but nodded his head in understanding.


    "Sorry sir, but we''re out of fire resistance potions."


    A voice from my left was getting closer, it was the second guard.


    "Perfect! Not only do I have to stay in the same room with those filthy traitors, but I also have to suffer in a hot room! Why did that stupid Ali have to get sick? Especially when the party is being held in a few weeks, I''m I not busy enough already? Are there any other news guards?"


    The guards only responded with silence, and the man was not pleased at all, he didn''t want to be there, and the guards didn''t feel comfortable either.


    "Whatever, I''ll wait in your station until everything is collected, I don''t want to be bothered with anything until then!"


    With that, he turned around and entered the guard''s station without looking back.


    I didn''t want to be in the same room with him for the next half an hour, so I walked around more in case I saw anything interesting. Unfortunately, this isn''t a vault so the original plan is thrown out the window, unless I come back later and steal a diamond pickaxe, then I can mine the obsidian myself, I could probably help the prisoners to escape as well, making them a great distraction. But no, I don''t think that''s a good idea, even if I help them get out, maybe they deserve to be here, and even if they don''t deserve it and manage to get out, the Sultan will make everything in his power to capture or kill them, since they know the secret of making obsidian.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    I just shook my head and continued walking around with careful steps.


    The work area was busy with a lot of movement, so I didn''t try to get too close to that place, the resting area was empty, and after a few rounds I''d already seen everything that could be seen, so the only place left was the cells.


    It was a long hallway, with cells on each side, they had iron bars so you could see through them and an iron door that kept the prisoner there.


    Each door was open, and I could see the lever right beside it. It was most likely broken when everyone was inside but it looked like a typical cell.


    Out of curiosity, I went inside to see if there was anything that I missed, maybe a secret tunnel.


    "I can''t believe that someone went there of their own free will."


    Suddenly I heard a feminine voice from behind me, followed by the sounds of the door closing.


    I froze in place.


    "Camon, say something, I know you''re in there even if you''re invisible."


    I didn''t move a muscle, maybe she was bluffing.


    "I''m not bluffing if that''s what you''re thinking. While it''s impressive that you managed to get your hands on the legendary invisible potion, your supplier doesn''t have too much experience since I can still see your particles if I concentrate enough."


    "How did you even know I was here?"


    "Oh, so you''re there! And here I was bluffing."


    I heard her say in a sarcastic voice. I turned around and saw a villager in a simple brown tunic, with brown hair and green eyes that had a smirk on her face.


    "Who are you, and why are you here?"


    "I''m a nobody, and I didn''t intend to come here, I must''ve got lost on my way to my room and ended up in here by mistake."


    "Well mister nobody, from what you''re saying, I understand that you are living in the palace and you snuck down here. Now it would be a shame if I yelled after the guards to arrested you, actually I don''t they they''ll even do that, they''ll kill you on the spot since you found their biggest secret."


    "Ok, ok! There''s no need to make rushed decisions, what do you want?"


    "Why are you truly here?"


    ".... "


    "I think the guards are looking suspiciously at me."


    "I thought this was the vault."


    "You thought this was the vault? I don''t know if I should call you stupid or crazy for trying to steal from the Sultan. But since you have access to such rare potions, I think it''s the latter."


    "Yeah, since you found out the real reason why I''m here, why don''t you open the door please."


    "Not so fast, I want you to take me and a few friends out."


    "Sorry, but I couldn''t do that even if I wanted to, I only got the potion by chance, I don''t have any more on me. And even if I do manage to get some more, I don''t think I''ll be able to get in here through the same method."


    Of course, I was lying, I could ask Froggy to make more for me since I had the ingredients, but there''s no need for her to know that.


    "That is true, you got lucky that only half of the guards were working today for some reason, and the ones that are here are pretty lax. Hmm, wait a bit here."


    She then left from my sight of view and I quickly got closer to the iron bars, took out my iron pickaxe, and started to hit the iron bars. Suddenly a loud sound was heard through the whole prison. It was me hitting the bars only once. And that made me stop.


    It was too loud surely a guard must''ve heard it. I started to panic, and as I saw a guard come to check the noise, I hid behind the iron door so my particules won''t bee easy to see.


    The guard finally arrived, looked at the door, then through the bars, and scratched his head in confusion, he then went to the next cell and yalled:


    "Aisha! You better keep it down unless you want to sleep on an empty stomach!"


    He then went back to his college without waiting for a response.


    After a few more minutes an angry villager came to my door again.


    "Do you want to die that badly? Why do you have to be so difficult, couldn''t you wait a few minutes in silence like a normal person!"


    She clearly was mad at my actions, but how could I know that mining those bars would make so much noise?


    "Anyway, I want you to send this message to Omar, he''s a guard in the palace, I''m sure you can find him if you ask around."


    She then handed me a book through the space between the iron bars. I quickly took it and put it in my inventory.


    As much as I wanted to open it up and see what was inside it, I couldn''t do it since it would''ve been easy to see, and I didn''t want to piss her off more than I did. Better not push my luck.


    "OK, I have the package. Can I leave now?"


    "Yes of course."


    She said with a bright smile as she pulled the lever that opened the door.


    With narrowed eyes, I went to finally escape from there only to be stopped by Aisha once again.


    "You didn''t ask how I would know that you delivered the message."


    "I honestly thought, that you have that much faith in me."


    I said with a sarcastic voice while thinking if I pushed her I could run for it, but decided against it since she could yell for the guards.


    "You''re such a comedian, but no, in that book there''s a message that would help me know if he got the package in time. The whole book is encoded so you wouldn''t understand it even if you tried to read it. And if in two days I don''t get my confirmation, I''ll speak with one of the guards, that someone from the palace managed to sneak into their factory with an invisible potion. And I don''t think there''s a lot of people that have access to such precious resources like you."


    She was bluffing, I was sure of that. But to my misfortune, her bluff could be true, since the only person in the palace who is capable of doing those kinds of potions is Froggy. And that would get him in trouble, and even if they don''t suspect him, I''m sure they''ll put more security around him just to be safe, and that would make our escape much harder.


    They could also suspect that someone from the Stone Kingdom is the perpetrator, but at the same time in a few weeks is the New Year''s party, and they don''t want to get on their bad side.


    I''m sure there''s a high chance of nothing happening since she is a prisoner, but there''s still a chance in her favor. And the only reason that I even consider her deal, is because she doesn''t know anything about me. She doesn''t know who I am, how I look, or how I got here. So even if I sent the message there won''t be too much risk.


    "Ok, I understand the consequences."


    She raises her eyebrow in surprise but lets me pass her.


    I then went to the guard''s posts, waiting with the grumpy collector until he finally got the goods and left the prison, with me right behind him.


    This time I didn''t have to break the stairs since I exited with the collector through the hidden door.


    With that, I was finally in the hallways of the palace and waited until I was sure I was the only one. Then I broke a block from the ground and covered it fast, I was back into my cozy tunnels.


    Finally, I sighed in relief.


    "That was too crazy even for me. I had enough for today I''m going back to sleep and solve the problem tomorrow."


    With that, I went back to my room, drank some milk to wash out the invisible effect, and went to bed.


    "Let''s hope tomorrow won''t be as crazy as today."


    With that final thought, I went to sleep.

 Chapter 45. Enchanting with the Prince

    In the morning I was woken up by heavy knocks on my door, with a lazy sigh I got off my comfortable bed and walked towards the door to see who wanted my attention so early in the morning. I opened the door, and it was not the maid that I expected.


    "Good morning hero! Are you ready to do some enchantments?"


    The one who knocked at my door was the prince. He had a smile that could bring warmth just by looking at it, unfortunately, I couldn''t appreciate his smile because I just woke up.


    "Good morning prince, I guess it''s better to start work early than later, let me eat something before we leave."


    "Wise words dear hero, and we could stop at the kitchen before we get to work."


    We walked along the busy hallway but every servant stopped for a moment to bow to the prince. Not too long after, we arrived at the kitchen, where the cocks froze at the new sight.


    "Dear prince, I thought breakfast was served today already, was there something not to your liking?"


    "Oh don''t worry, your meals are always the best in the kingdom. But I came here to get some late breakfast for my friend here."


    He pointed at me.


    Once the chefs realized they were not in trouble, they sighed in relief.


    "Of course, what would you like sir...?"


    "You can call me Trader, and I think I''ll take some pumpkin pie if you have any made."


    I didn''t get the chance to eat one in this new world, and I''m quite curious how it is.


    "Of course we have, I''ll be right back with it!"


    With that being said, one of the cooks went into a room, where I could hear barrels being opened, then not long after he came back with a steaming pie in his hand.


    "Here''s a fresh pie sir. Hope it would be to your liking."


    "Thank you."


    And I took the pie from his hand.


    Once the transaction was over, the prince turned around and left, expecting me to follow him. Which of course I did while eating the pie. It wasn''t too bad, it was easy to eat and I could feel the pumpkin taste, if it had been a bit sweeter it could''ve been perfect.


    We didn''t walk fast so I managed to finish the pie when we arrived at the enchanting room.


    "I''ve been told that you use this room every day, which is good. But I still don''t get, why you write the enchantments in the room as well, you keep going back to the library. You know you can borrow the book you want to copy right?"


    "I know that I can borrow it, it''s just that I like to work with natural light, it helps me calm my mind."


    And when I get bored I just read a book, but there''s no need for him to know that.


    "I guess I can understand that, what level are you on then?"


    "I''m Enchanter level 3."


    "I see, you didn''t use the 3 enchants on a book I''m guessing, since there''s still a lot of empty books in the chests. You don''t have to worry about running out of books. Here let me show you something."


    He walked to the left side of the enchanting setup, where I saw something that made me facepalm.


    It was a Grindstone! How could I not see it before? I should pay more attention around me. It keeps getting me in trouble recently.


    "This is a Grindstone, it has two purposes, one is to sharpen a blade, and the less known one is to get the enchantments down from items. There''s also a bonus fact that you''ll gain a small amount of XP, which greatly helps us grow without getting in danger."


    I nodded in understanding, in the game you also got some XP back when you used the Grindstone, but since I don''t have to use the XP when I enchant, I didn''t think too much about it.


    "Of course, with this powerful item, we can actually afford to have multiple master''s enchanters in the palace. Otherwise, the cost of the lather alone will bankrupt up our nation."


    "Couldn''t you use other items to enchant? Or it can be done only through pages and books?"


    "We can enchant any items we want, it''s just you need a certain skill level to actually do it. Not system skill, actual experience. Let me show you."


    He then turned around and went to the right side of the enchanting setup and took out a diamond sword from a chest that was hidden.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    I was shocked once I saw that, not because he had a diamond sword just lying in the chest, but because the chest he took it out from, was an ender chest.


    "That''s a weird-looking chest."


    "Yes, it''s an expensive chest from the Coral Kingdom, so I would prefer it if you don''t touch it."


    He said with a flat tone. He didn''t explain that once an item is put in the chest, you can have access to that item anywhere in the world, as long as you have another Ender chest nearby.


    "I see, I won''t touch it then."


    Of course, I will touch it later.


    "Good, so here''s the problem with enchanting on items."


    He then put the sword on the table and started to write on it, after a few minutes I could understand what was the challenge. When you want to enchant there are three things needed, to know the enchanting alphabet, to write it correctly and consistently the whole time, and the item that you want to enchant on.


    Finding the alphabet is not that hard, you don''t even need to know what it means, you only need to know how the letter is correctly written.


    The second thing is the most challenging part. Paper is the most used item for enchanting because it''s clean, flat, and easy to see mistakes.


    Other items instead have depth, and with that, it''s harder to write everything at the same size or to find enough space to write the enchantments.


    The third is self-explanatory, but from what I understand, unlike the game you can put enchantments on any items. And there are a few enchantments that weren''t in the game, that sounded useful. Unfortunately, I didn''t find the recipe in the library so I couldn''t try it.


    "Done! It''s been a while since I''ve done this, but I''m glad to see that my skills haven''t oxidized yet."


    With a smile, he put the sword on the enchanting table, and after it was fed with Lapiz, it lazily floated and got a sudden magical glow. The prince then took back the sword and gave it to me so I could see it.


    The writing was on the blade itself, which surprised me, since when a book was used, there was no writing on the item, but at the same time, I could see that what was written wasn''t as long as a whole enchanted book, instead it only had half a page. Which was convenient, but I think it wasn''t worth it, with how hard the process is to do, and the enemy can read the enchantments if they know the language.


    The sword had two enchantments, Sharpness 1 and Unbreaking 1. After a bit more studying I gave back the sword to the prince where he then took it to the Grindstone, and threw the sword above the the Grindstone, but instead of hitting it, it started to float.


    The prince then used the handler which made the classic sounds with the exception of cracking glass noises mixed in. I could see with my own eyes the enchantments cracking before shattering like glass which made the item drop.


    "That''s how we recycle our materials. Now onto the second convenient but frowned upon shortcut. I wouldn''t suggest you do this since you wouldn''t learn enchanting, you''ll just raise your levels but you wouldn''t know what you''re doing. Unfortunately, we don''t have a lot of time so we have to use this dirty method."


    He then took out some pages from his inventory and handed it to me.


    I looked at them and raised my eyes in surprise. Each page was almost half field with the enchantment, I only needed to write the other half and it would be done. But there was a problem with this method.


    "Isn''t it common sense that you can''t gain experience with someone else''s enchantment?"


    "Yes that is true, but not fully, the enchanting table only recognizes the one that did the majority of the work, so if someone does half the page minus one letter, and the other person does the rest of it, the enchanting table would recognize the second person as the owner."


    "That''s a nifty trick. I can see how this would help speed up someone''s level."


    "Yes, now finish those enchantments and use three pages to get the maximum experience."


    With that said, I sat at the table and started to write the rest of the page. From time to time the prince pointed out some mistakes that I did while also giving me pointers. If it wasn''t for the fact that he most likely wanted me to get in trouble I would''ve been grateful for his teachings, and with his help in almost two hours I managed to write nine enchantments, I quickly used the enchanting table, and the whole process was finally done. With this, I had three fully enchanted books at my level and a ton of experience.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    31.300/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 3


    4.130/10.000


    _Brewing lvl 2


    110/1.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    That was 3.000 worth of experience in just two hours. The rich truly know the shortest way to success.


    "I''m almost halfway done to the next level."


    "That''s good to hear, unfortunately, I have to get back to my work, so I''ll have to leave you alone for today. Keep up this pace and you''ll be able to get to the next level until tomorrow. Then we can start enchantments at level 2. Good luck."


    After he said that with hurried steps he left the room.


    "I guess I Shouldn''t be surprised that someone as important as him would have no free time. Maybe that''s why I haven''t seen him in the past few days, and had to wake up so early today."


    But there''s no sympathy for the evil, the fact that he wants me to grow as fast as possible, without telling me what he wants from me, makes me more suspicious of his intentions.


    I shake my head to throw that thought. I couldn''t do anything for now, so I have to take advantage of everything I can and grow before I leave.


    But first I had to break a promise. I walked to the right side of the enchanting setup and touched the forbidden chest.


    Suddenly the tab of a small chest appeared in front of me, it was empty as I expected.


    "Time to do some cleanup in my inventory, it''s starting to get messy already."


    First thing first, it''s the wither skull, it''s more like a trophy than an actual item, but it still takes valuable space, next one is a few golden apples, I already gave a few to Froggy, but I still had enough for me to use.


    After thinking some more I decided to put every brewing ingredient in there since I couldn''t use it yet. I''ll make another ender chest later to get them back.


    With this done there weren''t too many items that I didn''t need at the moment or were valuable enough to be stored in the chest so I moved to the next most important thing.


    Reading the message from the prisoner. I almost forgot about it since I''ve been distracted with enchanting, but one look at the inventory made me remember the blunder from last night.


    "I really should be more careful about my surroundings."


    I shake my head and open the book, after a few minutes of turning pages, I close it with a frustrated sigh.


    "I really can''t read the coded message. What a bummer, but an expected one. I now have to find a guy named Omar and give it to him."


    Of course, I wouldn''t be stupid enough to give it to him myself, I''ll most likely find where his room is and leave it on the bed or something similar.


    That''s the only saving grace that I have, that it can''t be tracked back at me.


    With a sigh, I put the book back into my inventory and went back to enchanting. I still have to get to the next level, and I like the progress I''m making.

 Chapter 46. Froggys training

    I take a half-written page, then use my feathery pen with unlimited ink to complete it, after it''s done, I look over it one more time and sigh, with my hand I erase the mistakes that I made and redo the writing, and after three more checks I was satisfied with the result, the page was put in a book that had two more pages stored in it. With a satisfying *poof the book was closed.


    "Great, now I need 5 more books like those. It''s harder to do it without the prince pointing out the mistakes as soon as they appear, but it''s also quicker than the way I did it."


    I decided to take a break now, I''ve already enchanted 4 books, and my stomach was starting to complain about it.


    I opened the door to leave when suddenly a powerful light attacked me, the sun was already up in the sky, and it was almost noon from what I could tell.


    "And this is why I don''t like to work in dark rooms."


    I looked to my side and I could see the guard not having any reaction. I narrowed my eyes, it must be a pretty common thing to happen if he didn''t even react.


    That made me feel a little bit better.


    The next stop was the kitchen, and this time nobody panicked when they saw me, they just asked what I wanted, not bothering to show their annoyance, it didn''t bother me too much since I left with a cooked chicken and bread in my inventory.


    I then went outside and ate my lunch while looking at the palace garden. It was a peaceful moment, I could hear the wind dancing through the exotic trees and from time to time the splash of a fish from the pound.


    "What a peaceful place."


    I sat there and closed my eyes relaxing.


    After a few minutes, I heard some steps coming towards me.


    "Oh, it''s not too often when I see a new face in the garden."


    I opened my eyes and saw princess Cleopatra, the one that forcibly brought me here. That didn''t leave a good impression, but at the same time, she was just ordered to do so, without any input from her side.


    Didn''t make me less mad though.


    "I''m sorry princess, I didn''t know this was your usual place. I''ll leave if it''s a bother to you."


    I got up ready to leave.


    "No, there''s no problem if you stay here, I was just surprised to see someone else in the garden. It''s a shame that not many people stay and appreciate the beauty of it."


    That is true, I come here from time to time, but there''s almost nobody in here. You would think that people living in the desert would be more curious about this kind of place, and probably it was at the beginning, but with time when people get used to it, they don''t pay too much attention to it, some stuff can even be forgotten.


    This makes me think about the big cities in my world, you can live somewhere all your life but still be surprised with new information about your hometown from visitors that live in another country.


    "I''m sorry that I brought you here."


    That put my train of thought to a full stop, I looked at her confused.


    "I know they don''t treat you like a guest of honor as promised. At most, they tolerate you on your face and talk behind your back. If you need something that I can help with, you can ask me."


    I looked at her with surprise, her face was apologetic, and the tone was a mix of regret and firmness. I guess it''s pretty hard for someone on her status to apologize.


    "You can let me go home. That would be nice."


    "Sorry, I can''t help you with that, my father is pretty stubborn about keeping you here."


    "It was worth a shot. How about showing me where Froggy does his training?"


    "I can help with that! Can''t believe they try to keep you separated as much as possible, that doesn''t leave a good impression on us. Then they expect you to help us? I wouldn''t be surprised if you ran at the first chance."


    With a sigh she turned around and left the garden, I was not too far away from her.


    With heavy steps, we walked around the hallways, where servants were bowing to us, finally after a few minutes we arrived at the part where I''m usually not allowed to visit. The guard looked at me but didn''t try to stop us from passing him.


    I walked in front of him with a big smile on my face, which I''m sure he did not like, he couldn''t do anything.


    After a few more steps I started to hear the sounds of swords clashing and loud yelling.


    "What is that attack supposed to do? Do you think the enemy will wait and see how much damage you do?"


    "Am I fighting monsters or humans?!"


    The answer was not given, instead more clashing sounds continued. After a few more steps we finally arrived somewhere where I could see what was happening.


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    There was a small arena with shoveled dirt, there were two entrances and you could see anyone training from the balcony, where we were.


    Inside the arena, there were two people, Froggy in leather armor, a wooden sword and a shield desperately gasping for air, and on the other side, a man with dark skin and black hair with only a wooden sword, he looked relaxed but still sweating. Though I don''t know if it''s from the training or because it was so hot in the desert. I could also hear some giggles coming from the other side of the balcony, some men were enjoying the show of Froggy struggling.


    The trainer must''ve heard us coming since he turned to look at us, and then he half bowed.


    "Hello princess, with what occasion do I have the privilege of your presence?"


    "Oh Omar, always the flowery language, didn''t I tell you to stop a long time ago?"


    The name took me by surprise.


    "I can''t do that princess."


    "The same response as always. As for why I came here today, it''s to show around my GUEST OF HONOR, since he didn''t have the chance to see the full glory of our palace. I hope he won''t have the same problems as before from now on."


    Omar opened his mouth to say something, before closing it and gave a defeated sigh.


    "Of course princess."


    He bowed again, and Cleopatra gave a satisfied smile.


    "Trader! Thank you for coming here, I think I would''ve died if we continued."


    Froggy somehow managed to come up here while the conversation was ongoing, of course, he was panting when he arrived.


    "And here I thought you wanted to become a fighter instead of staying all day at the brewing station."


    "I don''t want to become a fighter! Even if I did, I prefer to use my potions instead of the sword."


    "But you have to hit your target first to work!"


    The man from the arena yelled while climbing the stairs.


    "Yeah, but I don''t want to be in that situation in the first place. So how are you doing Trader? It''s been a while since we last talked."


    It was last night, but they didn''t know that, so I also had to act.


    "It''s been pretty good honestly, I even managed to level up my enchanting skill. The prince was a great help with his guidance."


    The princess looked surprised by this, then suspicious before nodding her head in understanding.


    "Ahh, I see. Looks like I wasn''t the only one that worked hard."


    "Not as hard as you look like, I''m guessing this is not the end of it for today, is it?"


    "Unfortunately you''re right, I''ll do a few potions next and end the day with a history lesson."


    He said that with a tired sigh.


    Poor guy, I think he has to go through this every day, I''m starting to be more grateful that I''m ignored.


    "I''m sure you''ll pull it off, maybe we can hang out when you have some free time."


    But his face was enough to tell me that he didn''t have enough of that. But a sudden twist happened.


    "We could end up early today, so you can have a brake."


    Omar finally arrived and told us the good news, and I could see how much Froggy appreciated it by how quickly his face lit up.


    "Tanks Omar! I think we should stop at the kitchen first then we can figure out what to do after."


    Froggy didn''t even wait for me and just left the training area. I looked at the princess and instructor in case they seemed offended, but it wasn''t a problem from their looks.


    "You two can go, I''m sure you have a lot to catch up on."


    The princess reassured me. And I was glad they didn''t want to stay with us since we now can speak freely. I had to run to catch up with the witch since he didn''t stop to wait after me, but when we got to the kitchen we were both gasping for air.


    "Did we have to run a the way here? They won''t be cold no matter what, so what''s the rush?"


    "You don''t understand Trader, after every training session, I''m only allowed to eat special cookies until dinner. Their not even sweet, just bland and crunchy. It''s supposed to help me gain muscle, but what''s the point of having them if I don''t want to fight!"


    He walked into the kitchen and demanded some chicken, bread, and pie. The staff there didn''t seem too shocked by the sudden outburst, they looked happy to see him even. Very different reaction from me.


    After we got everything he requested, he calmed down and started to talk normally.


    "So where do you want to hang out, you managed to explore this place more than me."


    "With how much they torture you I''m not that surprised. I think we can go to the garden, there''s not a lot of people there."


    Froggy nodded in understanding and followed my lead until we arrived the the exact place where I just left. I was surprised that we didn''t have any guards following us, maybe they finally trusted us after a few weeks of supervising. I hope they''ll also get rid of mine while they''re at it.


    "This place is amazing! I''ve always seen it from the window but didn''t have the chance to see it, but it''s truly an amazing place."


    He sat down on the grass and started eating in peace with a smile on his face. That was until I started to speak.


    "So Froggy, do you want some good news or the bad news first?"


    He froze.


    "Good news?"


    "I know a place where I can find a fully enchanted diamond pickaxe."


    His eyes were wide in surprise, there was some progress on our escape plan, if we used a diamond pickaxe I could break us out of this cage.


    "And the bad news?"


    "Well... "


    I then told him everything that happened last night, with how I got in the factory, how I was found out and had to strike a deal, and my new mission to send a secret message.


    "Seriously Trader? How do you manage to get yourself into so many problems, this is my second major event in my life, and it''s pretty overwhelming. But I found you besides a black skeleton knocked out, managed to cure a disease though incurable, requested a noble to teach you enchanting, then getting caught by the palace where you found out one of their most treasured secrets. I think fate is playing with you at this point."


    When you put everything like that, it does sound pretty overwhelming. Plus he doesn''t know that I''m from another world, or that I know about the Nather which is another state secret of the Stone Kingdom, or the fact that I''m the owner of a tribe from that dimension.


    I''ve been really busy this past year if I say so myself.


    "*sigh, Anyway, can I see the message as well? Maybe I can figure out the code."


    I didn''t have anything to lose so I gave him the book, which he opened and started reading intensely. But after a few minutes, he closed the book with a sigh.


    "I don''t understand the code either, but I think I can figure it out in a week if I have the time. When did you say the deadline was?"


    "Well she said tomorrow, but until tomorrow she''ll get the results, so that means today, depending on what''s her strategy to find out."


    "I think my instructor Omar fits the description perfectly, if the name was not enough already. Do you want me to give it to him?"


    "No, that would only get you more trouble than necessary, I''ll most likely tunnel tonight to his room and leave it there. There''s no need to know who is the messenger."


    "Hmm... That''s true, he lives with the other guards, I think he has the last room since it''s the biggest, I''ll give you another invisibility potion in case anything happens. Also, can you give me a copy of the coded message, I can figure out later if something."


    Froggy helped me with a lot of this new information, so I took out some papers from my inventory and started to copy from the book, then I gave it to him which he quickly put in his inventory.


    For the next hour we just casually talked until he had to leave to do potions, he told me to come to his room in about two hours so he could give me the invisibility potion.


    With that I was free for two more hours, maybe I should get back to enchanting.

 Chapter 47. Dropping the letter

    I managed to enchant three more books before it was time to meet with Froggy, and fortunately, when I got there he was still waiting for me.


    "Oh good, you finally arrived, here''s the potion, and I got some info from some of the servants here. The guards will finish their last training session of the day in about an hour. So you can follow him while invisible. I''ll give you two just in case."


    He gave me the potions, and I quickly tanked him before we left the room. He went to his history lesson while I was about to get some ''sleep''.


    The guard as always was following me, luckily he didn''t try to stop me when I went to talk with Froggy.


    Once I arrived at my room, I stopped and turned to him.


    "I''m going to get some sleep, so unless someone important is looking for me, don''t wake me up."


    The guard with a bored expression nodded his head in understanding.


    With that, I closed the door behind me, put some pillows under the blanket, and in the secret tunnel I went.


    Just to be sure, I drink a potion since it would last for a few hours anyway.


    It was still in the middle of the day outside, so there would be a lot of risks if I suddenly made a hole in the hallways, so I''d go to a place where I knew for sure that nobody was there.


    Froggy''s room.


    And as I suspected, nobody was there once I was in it.


    I quietly opened the door and saw some people walking along from time to time. So after some good timing, I snuck out of the room while nobody saw me.


    Even though I was invisible, I didn''t want to take the risk of being comfortable, I got in too much trouble recently for me not to learn that lesson.


    With quiet steps I walked along the hallways, sometimes guards patrolled so I had to stop moving and wait for them to pass me, I didn''t want my particles to be seen again.


    While the process was slow, I finally arrived at the training area again, where I could see the previous guards that laughed at Froggy training hard, while my target was in front of everyone watching intensely.


    I watched for a while, and I had to say that it was pretty entreating, in this world I don''t have access to the internet so I''m suffering from the lack of entertainment at my fingertips, or the lack of fingers in general.


    But after half an hour of watching people fight, I didn''t even realize how time flew by.


    "OK, that''s enough for today! Go take a shower and resume your duties."


    The people stopped, and you could see their shoulders starting to relax, some of them started to leave while others were kept by Omar to point out their mistakes while also giving pointers.


    Nobody looked angry or ashamed, which means his word was respected by others.


    After about ten more minutes, everyone left, leaving only Omar who was cleaning anything left behind by the others.


    Such a responsible man, truly a role model.


    After one last look around the place, the target finally left, and I quietly tried to follow him. We passed through a small hallway then we went outside, where I could see a separate building. It must be the guard''s dormitories, it looks a lot smaller than I imagined.


    Omar went inside and I quickly followed him, only to see him entering the last room on the left.


    There were 10 doors to his room, how did he move so fast?


    It didn''t matter, I finally knew his room, so tonight I can give him the book.


    Just to be sure I''ll wait to see if he has the whole room to himself.


    I waited and waited, and waited for another half an hour. This won''t work the only movement that I saw was the guards that were leaving to do their shifts. Does he not have any more work for today?


    Frustrated, I left the building and decided to sneak to his window, maybe I could see why he hadn''t left yet.


    Every window looked the same, but the fact that his room was the last one greatly helped. And once I got to his window I finally got the answer to my burning question.


    The man didn''t come out, because he was sleeping.


    "Of course, he wouldn''t come out anytime soon."


    I whispered to myself in frustration.


    At least it wasn''t for nothing, I can see that he lives alone, so that would be much easier to give him the package.


    With that out of the way, I decided to start the tunnel now, so I don''t have to check where I am constantly.


    The tunnel would start from one block below the bed and continue until it connected to wherever tunnel I already dug.


    After an hour of confusion and frustration, the new tunnel was connected with the others.


    "Finally I can finish this ongoing mission, hopefully, Froggy will decipher the code as soon as possible. I don''t want to be hunted by my mistakes anymore."


    With that, I went to my room next, sat on the bed, and finally relaxed.


    "Ok, that''s enough of a break, time to get back to enchanting. Tomorrow I''ll do second levels in enchantments, so I can''t give up."


    And for the rest of the day, I continued to enchant until my next level. It was harder to do it this time since I was still tired from mining, but it was finally done.


    Level 4 Enchanting skill, from what I read, this is the place where you truly start to make money. If you manage to get a copy for a level 2 enchanting, that alone can make you from a normal villager to a small Nobel.


    The Books are not cheap to make here in the desert, so every enchantment counts, that''s why a higher enchantment costs more than it normally should.


    Yes, you can use two lower levels of enchants to get a higher one, but for that, you need more books and XP, without growing in skill, and the higher the level is, the bigger the costs are.


    "Well, if I want to start a business in one of the other kingdoms, I''m sure I''ll be welcomed with open arms, and rich beyond my dreams."


    With a smile, I let my imagination run wild while I got into my room and finally my bed. The sun was already on its way down, but it would take a while until everyone fell asleep.


    So I decided to sleep for a few hours to get back my strength and finally finished this delivery.


    _____


    The night was at its full strength, darkness was all around the world with only the rich cities having lights on their streets.


    Some people were sleeping while others worked in the shadows.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.      I break the dirt block above me, letting me see the stars in the sky, I scanned the area around me before claiming up to the ground.


    While a guard''s job is to guard an important place or person, there''s no such thing at their dormitories, the only noise I heard was of the wind and snoring guards.


    I looked over the window to see if my target was also sleeping, someone was in the bed which was what I wanted to see, I went back to the tunnel and carefully broke the wooden block under the bed.


    My heart started to beat faster, I kept expecting something to go wrong but the block disappeared and nothing happened.


    Good, now on to the final step, sliding the book from under the bed in the middle of the room.


    In this world, there''s no such thing as an item despawning, so I don''t have to worry if it stays on the floor all night, it''s not going to be gone when it is found, and with this, there''s as little risk for me as possible.


    So I threw the book away which slid two blocks away from me.


    Finally, it was done, I could go back and get some well-deserved rest, but something felt wrong. It was over, but it was too easy, then it hit me, I couldn''t hear the rhythmic sound of a sleeping person, the room was in silence.


    I panicked, I quickly covered the hole and got back into the tunnel, not only that, I kept placing blocks covering all the progress that I''d made that day, finally I arrived at the tunnel system, and ran to my room. I couldn''t cover all the tunnels that I did, but I did cover the ones that could lead to me being the culprit.


    Now deep breaths and relax, deep breaths and relax.


    "I don''t think I''ll be able to fall asleep tonight."


    POV: Omar


    My day started early, as usual, I did my morning exercise followed by some running. Finally, the sun started to appear which meant that everyone else would wake up soon, but someone needed extra help to do that.


    So I jogged to the palace, where I went straight to a room while greeting the people that I met. I didn''t even bother knocking on the door, just let myself in and saw what I expected.


    A pale man sleeping comfortably on his bed.


    "Sir Hero, it''s time to wake up!"


    As always, no movement from the covers, with a sigh I got closer to him and dragged him off the bed. He hit the floor hard but that finally woke him up.


    He looked around confused before landing his eyes on me.


    "Good morning sir! Time for some training."


    I didn''t forget to put a smile, which he didn''t appreciate, he opened his mouth to argue but gave up.


    We''ve been doing this for weeks, so he knows the ''ritual''.


    "Ok, I''ll be there as soon as I get some to eat."


    I just nodded my head and went to the training area to wait for him.


    Not too long after, he arrived as well, we started with some exercises to get him warmed up and then did some sparing with the other guards.


    It didn''t last for too long, since the guards didn''t feel like they could grow with someone who doesn''t want to learn the art of the swords, so instead I gave them a break and switched with me to have as a sparing partner.


    His face of horror was priceless, but it had to be done, the Sultan himself requested that I train him, so his investment wouldn''t die so easily.


    But there''s only so much you can force someone to learn, especially if they don''t want to. It painted me to even make him suffer like this, but it had to be done.


    While we were spared I saw that the princess visited us, so I had to stop the practice.


    Once Froggy found out the reason she was here, with strength I didn''t know he had run up to them.


    I was also behind him, only at a slower pace.


    Froggy looked happy, to finally see someone that suffers the same as him. I looked at the man that was with the princess.


    His looks were unique which I''m sure didn''t help him with being liked by the other servents. I don''t know how someone can live with such a small nose, I would''ve given up in shame a long time ago.


    And it didn''t help that one of the orders from the higher-ups, was to keep them separated as often as possible, it wasn''t a rule, more of a suggestion which some people took as a rule, and the Sultan didn''t bother to fix it.


    After I let Froggy have his long-deserved break, I got back to training with the guards after I spoke a little with the princess, she was doing a favor so she didn''t stay long.


    After a few hours of training, we were done for the day, so we got back to our rooms, but I felt like I was being followed.


    The training that woman put me through, sharpened my senses, but nowhere near enough as good as her. I swear she has the senses of an Enderman, which are abnormal for a human.


    I was almost at the dormitories, I could hear steps in the grass, but no one was behind me. This made me more suspicious but I continued like I didn''t feel them.


    In my room I lay in bed like I was sleeping, the best time to attack someone is when they''re vulnerable, and if I can''t see the enemy I''ll make them come to me instead.


    Minutes passed, hours passed but there was nothing. Maybe they didn''t want me?


    I couldn''t stay all day in bed, so I got up and resumed my day while being more vigilant.


    But night came and nothing happened.


    "Did I imagine all that?"


    I shook my head and went to sleep. I''ll deal with it tomorrow.


    Time passed and suddenly I heard a block breaking and my bed slightly vibrating, that woke me up quickly, but I didn''t move a muscle, just waited with my sword ready to come out any second.


    The block was finally broken, and then I heard some sliding on the floor, it was too light to be a person, so I didn''t move. Then a block was placed followed by silence.


    After a few minutes with nothing happening, I finally got up.


    "Is that it?"


    I looked on the floor where there was only one book. I picked it up, looked over it, and started reading it.


    The more I read the bigger my eyes got, and finally on the last page was a signature, something that nobody can forge.


    "Hahaha! She didn''t die, after all, I knew that monster wouldn''t fall at the hands of those pillagers."


    The book informed me about the prince, about the pillagers and about the invisible man, who was most likely the one following me this morning.


    But most importantly, it informed me that my boss is alive. She''s alive waiting to get out and have her revenge.


    And I only need to beat up a few guards tomorrow so they won''t arrive at her prison.

 Chapter 48. Level up

    Through the dunes of the desert, light started to spread, all life was up for another day, while I laid in bed.


    *knock knock


    My body twitched at that sound.


    "Calm down, there''s no need to worry, nobody found you."


    I got up from the bed and opened the door.


    What waited for me on the other side was the same sight as yesterday, the prince with a warm smile on his face.


    My breath returned to normal making me realise that my body was tense.


    "Good morning Trader, did you manage to level up yesterday?"


    "Yes, with your guidance I managed to progress quickly."


    I smiled back at him.


    "I''m glad to hear that, then today we''ll be doing some new enchantments, let''s get to work."


    He turned around and walked towards the enchanting room.


    Why is everyone around here expecting me to follow them without a word, is this expected once you have enough influence?


    But I shake my head and follow the prince.


    Not too long after we arrived at a door protected by a guard, he gave us a courteous bow while we entered the obsidian room.


    "A level 2 enchantment is a little different. In any empty book you can only put five pages, but that doesn''t mean you can put five enchants in one book, except for the first level."


    "What if we use an anvil?"


    "Yes, then you can put more enchantments on an item, but it''s also more expensive."


    I nodded in understanding.


    "What''s different about the higher levels it''s that they require more pages, so a level 2 would use 2 pages, the next one 3 pages, and on the last level 4 pages."


    4 pages? That would mean that level 4 enchantments are the most powerful ones. But in the game, the last level is 5.


    Maybe they have it, but it''s kept a secret? I can see how that would be possible.


    "You worked with three enchantments until now, Unbreaking, Sharpness, and Fortune. It''s a good base since those are often used by most people. So which one of them do you want to upgrade?"


    "Can''t I just learn all of them?"


    "Unfortunately it would take too much time for you to learn all of them even with the shortcut."


    I''m sure he just doesn''t want me to learn too much, just the minimum necessity so I can level up faster. And I can''t do anything about it. I tried to look for other enchantments in the library, but there was nothing, I suspect that there are books like those but on the upper levels which I don''t have access to.


    "Then I''ll learn Unbreaking 2."


    "OK here are the pages, try to memorize them before you start to practice."


    He handed me two pages filled with complex writing. I took them and carefully studied each sentence, it was more complicated than the first levels.


    I looked at it for another 10 minutes before I finally tried to copy it. It was like I was learning about enchanting all over again, but this time I had some muscle memory from practicing.


    After about 30 minutes of writing and erasing a page was done, the prince started to get bored so he pointed out my mistakes once I started on the second page, it only took me 20 minutes to finish the second one correctly.


    With those two finished, I opened an empty book and put the pages at the beginning, then with a casual throw, the book was floating above the enchanting table where the magic happened.


    It was a success! I took the book with pride and put it in my inventory.


    "Congratulations on succeeding in your first Unbreaking 2 book. Here are the first pages for the next ones, we''re going to level up this skill in no time."


    That is true, with 10 more of those enchants I''ll get to my next level in no time, but I was shocked once I looked at my skill tab.


    "Why did I get only 5.000 experience? Isn''t it supposed to be 10.000?"


    "You''re not in the beginner stage anymore, from now on it will only get harder to level up."


    The prince had an amused smile on his face.


    This made me think, is every skill going to get harder as it goes? I looked at my tab and realized, that while I did craft over 100 pieces of armor, my skill was only a little over a quarter full, and the higher I go the less experience I''ll get. How can people get to level 7 in their lifetime, no wonder the prince said it would bankrupt a country if they tried to have more masters without shortcuts.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I envy Froggy now, maybe I should be struck by lightning as well.


    "Let''s get back to work, you only need to do 19 more books until the next level, and I won''t be able to guide you through the whole journey."


    With that said, I got back to writing and enchanting, two hours later the prince left and I continued to enchant but slower.


    After one more hour, I enchanted another book, in total, I had 7 books and a headache.


    "I need to take a break, I won''t be able to get any work done if I only exost myself."


    With a light stretch, I decided to visit Froggy and see how''s he doing. Maybe ask him if Omar acted differently today.


    Unfortunately, once I got there, Froggy finished his training for the day and went to do some potions, he''ll be back in an hour.


    But what truly shocked me is the fact that two guards got injured today, Omar for some reason was extra brutal with the training and when they spared with him they got injured, it was so bad that they won''t be able to work for a few days.


    "Maybe it was written in the message for him to do that?"


    I wouldn''t know, as long as me and Froggy are not suspected, I don''t care if he gets all the guards in the Infermery.


    With that new information, I decided to wait for Froggy in his room to ask him if he knew anything.


    An hour later, the door was open, and a surprised witch entered the room.


    "I didn''t expect to see you so soon. Are they going to keep that promise from the princess? "


    "I guess her word does have some power, but as long as it works in our favor, I don''t care."


    Froggy nodded understandingly .


    "So what happened to Omar this morning?"


    "Oh, you heard about it already? For some reason Omar was very energetic today, he was even happy if I dare say so, and it was very hard to get any emotions out of that professional man. Anyway, we started the day with harsher training than usual, even by their standards, and while everyone ran he came to ask me if I knew how to make an invisible potion, which immediately put me on my guard."


    I froze when he mentioned that.


    "And what did say?"


    "I said that I know how to make one but I haven''t tried to make one since the ingredients are hard to get."


    That made me raise an eyebrow, from what I know you only need a golden carrot and fermented spider eye to make that potion, it''s not cheap but not impossible.


    "From your expression, I can guess you know the recipe, which is impressive in its own right, but you have to remember, that the only people that know all the potions are the witches and the nobility in the Stone Kingdom. It''s not some common knowledge."


    That makes sense, I sometimes forget that my knowledge about the game is pretty vast but also lacking in this world.


    "How did he react after that?"


    "He just nodded his head in understanding and got back to the training. But for some reason, he was especially harsh on two guards, they ended up in the infirmary, and that rarely happens in training."


    "I''m glad he isn''t too interested in us, I thought after last night he''ll start digging tunnels all day."


    Froggy looked confused at me, so I had to explain to him what happened last night. Once I finished my story, he put his hand on my shoulder.


    "Trader, you have to realize nobody can break or place blocks faster than you. So people don''t think to check for long tunnels, especially when you were invisible, at most he must''ve thought you broke a few blocks beside his window and got under his floor."


    That calmed some of my worries that I still had from last night. From there we just talked about more normal topics, until Froggy had to leave.


    With my mind more relaxed I went back to work, not forgetting to stop at the kitchen to get some food. The pie started to grow on me.


    POV: Prince Amun


    I was furious, that unworthy head guard Omar managed to badly hurt two of the most important guards that I have, the ones that guard the obsidian factory. I spend a fortune buying their loyalty from my father, and it''s already starting to hurt my pocket.


    But it didn''t matter, once I became the Sultan I could get rid of everyone that I wanted, and if they tried to get in my way, I''d get rid of them like I got rid of that annoying bug Aisha.


    She and her group are pretty powerful if they want to, me and my father knew about its existence even if it''s a secret.


    As for why isn''t my father taking care of them?


    It''s because he doesn''t see them as a threat to his position, they don''t work for the royalty they work for the country.


    And that''s stupid! How can a nation be great without a great leader, they shouldn''t waste their resources on the common villagers and instead help us gain more influence over the other countries.


    But it didn''t matter anymore, ever since I locked the head of that group in the obsidian prison, they weren''t that much of a threat anymore.


    I entered my office with hurried steps but stopped once I saw someone else in the room as well.


    "I thought the meeting was later tonight."


    I said with anger in my voice.


    "Looks like someone is angry that their lapdog got injured today."


    The man responded with a smirk on his face, he looked like any Nobel I''m the desert, he wasn''t too handsome nor too ugly, it was a smiling face that could be lost in a crowd.


    "My people want to know how''s the progress with the plan."


    "The plan is going well, you don''t have time to worry about it."


    "Don''t play this game with me, prince, last time when we trusted your word only, a cat snuck into our base and found out about our dealings, and you know who will suffer more if people find out you have contact with the Pillagers."


    Indeed, the man in front of me was a Pillager, even if I didn''t see his gray skin from under the mask, I could still feel his corrupt core oozing out.


    But I needed them to get on the throne faster, so I had to endure.


    "The armor is almost done, and I already secured that my men will have access to it after it''s done. I found out a man that I''m currently teaching enchantments, next week I''ll have the curse of binding enchantment. When the show it''s going to start I''m going to pin the blame on him and his friend the witch."


    The man nodded his head in understanding.


    "Isn''t he a hero of the country, and also a master in alchemy?"


    "He is indeed, but it''s a necessary sacrifice for our future, plus I''ll still have access to your witches aren''t I?"


    The man started to laugh loudly.


    "This is why we get along so well prince, our way of thinking it''s too similar not to be friends. I''ll go now and tell my superiors about the good news, keep up the good work, and don''t mess this up."


    Once he said that he took out a firework and threw it out the window, several seconds later an explosion was heard and he disappeared.


    Everyone was panicking but the prince stayed in his place unbothered by what just happened.


    "I''m not like any of you suicidal cult monsters, I''m someone who will steer the nation to greatness, and once I''m up there, the first thing I''ll do is a crusade against you."


    The door was forcibly opened and a panicked guard came in.


    "Sir, are you ok? There was a firework explosion outside."


    "Yes I''m fine, go back to your work."


    I didn''t even bother to see the man leaving, I just got back to my papers that sat in a chest.


    One day closer to ruling this nation.

 Chapter 49. Oath of secrecy

    Writing, and correcting the mistakes followed by putting the pages in a book. That''s all I''ve been doing for the past 4 days, but it was all worth it when I finally saw my Skills tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    33.200/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 5


    10.130/1.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 2


    110/1.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "Well I''ve done it, my first skill at level 5! It feels rewarding to see numbers grow."


    I was still in the enchanting room while reading my tab, even though I enchanted two extra books I don''t regret it. Soon enough I''ll have to keep my end of the deal with the prince, and I have an inkling that I won''t be allowed to use to enchanting room once he''s done with me.


    Or maybe it''s just my paranoia speaking, but it''s better to be safe them sorry.


    I went to the entrance and told the guard there to announce to the prince that I was done.


    The guard looked confused by my encrypting message but still delivered it.


    Around 10 minutes later I saw the prince coming towards me at a fast pace.


    "Are you finished?"


    "Yes, I''m Enchanting level 5."


    "A little later than I expected, but I''m glad we''re finally here, come with me."


    I followed him to a well-lit room with a view of the garden, bookshelves on the walls, and what I assumed was a desk in the middle of the room.


    "Is this your office? It looks pretty cozy. "


    The prince didn''t respond, instead, he took some red wool from a chest and covered the windows letting only the artificial lights illuminate the room.


    Then in his hands appeared an empty bucked and a redstone torch.


    He walked to a cauldron filled with water where I''m assuming that is the sink and scooped to water into the bucket, then he just dropped the red torch in the empty cauldron.


    Before I could ask what was he doing, I heard the sounds of pistons moving and two blocks from the wall disappeared showing a tunnel going dawn.


    "What just happened?"


    Again, the prince didn''t respond instead went down the ladder, leaving me alone in his office.


    After thinking if I should just run now and never look back, I have a sigh and went after him.


    I didn''t have to go down for too long before I was in a small obsidian room.


    They do like to use a lot of obsidian for their secret chambers, I wonder how many of them are now.


    The room wasn''t too big, it had a few chests on the side a brewing station in one corner and I''m the other one an enchanting table, what surprised me the most was the table in the middle of the room, or more exactly what was on the table.


    On the table there was a pillow with a pixelated green sphere on top, it felt like I was seeing a dead eye, it was very creepy looking, even though it wasn''t the first time I''d seen one, it was an Emderpearl.


    "What you''re about to see it''s a secret that you''ll have to take it to your grave. If you want to leave now it''s your chance."


    He looked at me with a serious face. But I know this isn''t a choice, he could''ve told me this once I was in his office, not when he opened the secret door, he could''ve not taught me about enchanting at all, just let me grind my skill alone, but no. Instead, he helped me to level up my skill faster and then forced me to see something that would get me into trouble, he wanted me to do something.


    "You helped so much, of course, I can keep a secret."


    He nodded his head, looks like I gave him the answer he was expecting.


    "This here is an Enderpearl, it''s an item from the Enderman monster, they are very rare and hard to kill since they can teleport once they feel their in danger."


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I looked amazed at the item, trying to hide the fact that I knew about the item already.


    "We are going to take an oath while in contact with the Enderpearl."


    I nodded in understanding and we both had our hands on the pearl.


    "I Prince Amun the Second swear to keep what is spoken here a secret and not to hurt the opposing party."


    That took me by surprise, is he going to just leave me be once I do him this favor?


    Did I judge him too harshly?


    "I Trader swear to keep everything here to myself and do no harm to the Prince."


    "With the oath now taken, we are both under its power and whoever will break it shall be cursed to be an Enderman!"


    He then took the pillow with care to not break the orb and put it on a chest


    Meanwhile, I was shocked about the consequences of breaking the oath. Is that even possible, I don''t remember this being a feature of the game, but this is not the game that I know, it''s just very similar. So it could be possible to become a monster if I break the oath.


    "I want you to learn this enchantment and make 4 books."


    My internal struggle was interrupted by the prince handing me 5 pages all written in red with the most complex formula that I have ever seen, and it was exactly what I felt it was.


    Curse of bidding.


    "Isn''t this an illegal book to enchant, even if you''re a royalty you''ll suffer heavy consequences!"


    "Yes, I am well aware, that''s why we both took an oath of secrecy, and you''ll know that neither I nor you will betray each other."


    "Why would you need me to help you with this? Wouldn''t be easier to just do it yourself, this looks like a complicated enchantment I''m sure you''ll be able to do it better."


    The prince looked uncomfortable with what he was about to say.


    "Every enchantment has an imprint of the creator, and I choose you since you never sold an enchantment. So nobody would know it was you even if they would search for it."


    "Couldn''t you ask someone else then, it feels like I''m going through a lot of risk just for something you want to. Why would you even need such an enchantment?"


    The prince started to get frustrated the more I asked, he didn''t like that I was too curious, but he still answered.


    "Everyone who wants to learn enchanting has to give their first book to the library of the palace on the last floor, we do this so we can catch the supplier for criminal groups, and neither I nor my father can control what''s going on there. You instead managed to learn enchanting illegally, which means that there''s no imprint leading to you."


    "As for why would I do that? It''s because with those enchantments we can finally catch a criminal with connections to Pillagers, but he''s very good at disguising, so this enchanting will greatly help us identify him."


    "I understand, I''ll help you with this challenge. Just promise me, that you''ll help me if they somehow manage to find me."


    "Of course, I will help you! If we manage to do this you''ll even be a hero to this nation."


    The prince said with enthusiasm.


    I didn''t choose to help him out of the goodness of my heart, I just didn''t have a choice.


    Even if the consequences of the oath may be true, he can still get me in trouble just by telling the authorities that I illegally learned enchanting. And that would be enough for me to get in trouble.


    That Nobel Alexander risked a lot by teaching me enchanting. I didn''t realize how big of a request I made at that time, but this shows how much he cares about his wife.


    "Let''s start practicing this now, I need the enchantment by the beginning of the new year party."


    "Isn''t that in two weeks!?"


    "Yes, that''s why we need to start now."


    So for the next hour, we spend it with me trying to understand the prince''s explanation. But the fact that I didn''t learn the enchanting language I only copied what I saw made it much harder for both of us.


    After some theory lessons, we finally got to writing, and it was also the time I found out why the writing was red instead of the usual black.


    It was Redstone mixed with ink to my relief, from the way the prince kept saying about this enchantment being connected with the soul of the host, I thought I had to write it in blood.


    This time it took much longer than when I learned how to enchant at level 2, not only were there more quantities in pages, but the quality had to be higher as well.


    After a few hours, I managed to do two pages without mistakes, but we decided to end it there for today.


    I asked if we were going to use the same method as the previous enchants, but he refused because there was a chance of his imprint appearing as well.


    So I was on my own with this. I was kind of glad that I was finally starting to truly learn about enchantment, even though it was just a very simplified version of it, but soon enough I''ll be able to figure out the other enchantments as well, and who knows, maybe I''ll be able to make some of my own.


    We got out of the secret room and he closed the door, followed by him taking the wool down the windows.


    The sun was about to set, indicating how long we spent underground and how tired I was.


    "Tomorrow, we''ll meet in the enchanting room, there''s no need to worry about the time since I''ll come to get you once I''ve some free hours, try not to wonder too much and see you tomorrow."


    With that, I left his office and went to my room. The guards looked at me but didn''t do anything.


    Finally, with the door closed, I was safely in my room.


    "Things are starting to escalate faster and faster recently, I think it would take a week and a half for me to finish all 4 enchanted books. That''s pretty close to the New Year''s party, and I don''t know how the prince is planning to use those cursed books, but I don''t want to be anywhere them When that happens."


    I should start preparing for escaping already, maybe I should risk going back to the obsidian factory to steal a diamond pickaxe in case things go bad and I need to break the wall.


    While I''m there I should also steal some obsidian in case we won''t be able to run fast enough and they''ll be caught with us. Then I can make a portal and destroy it before they can enter.


    It''s not like they know how to open it anyway.


    But that is just the worst-case scenario, it''s too much of a gamble to go through the Nether. That place it''s too dangerous, and will be more lost than ever.


    I kept thinking of plans and other ideas while the moon started to rise.


    "Let''s see how Froggy is doing, I can bounce off some ideas to him and see what could work."


    I filled my bed with a pillow and back to the secret tunnels where I went.


    Not too long after I was already breaking the block above me.


    "Hello to you as well Trader, or should I call you zombie with how much you stay in those tunnels."


    Froggy said with an amused voice.


    "Glad to see you have so much energy after all that training. How was your day? "


    Froggy shrouded at the mention of training but quickly got back to reality.


    "Same as usual, nothing new nothing interesting, how''s your enchanting lessons going?"


    "You''re looking at someone that has enchanting level 5!"


    "Your leveling speed it''s amazing, I''m jealous of you."


    "Says the guy that is a master at brewing potions because he got struck by lightning."


    To that he only smiled and didn''t comment anything else.


    "Well since you seem to be in a good mood, how about some other amazing news."


    I looked at him with curious eyes, which he only smiled and took out a few pages from his inventory.


    I took them from his hands and looked over the writing, the more I read the bigger the reaction I had.


    "Looks like you finally realized what that is. I deciphered the code''s message, and maybe we can use that information to get out."

 Chapter 50. New plans

    There weren''t a lot of pages to read, but enough for me to think a lot about.


    The summary of the message was about Aisha looking for her brother in the Pillager outpost where she last heard from him. It was an easy infiltration until she got too close to an Evoker and got found out. But not before finding out that Prince Amun was working together with the Pillagers.


    Once she was caught, the prince decided not to kill her as he did with her brother, instead, he sent her to mine obsidian for the rest of her life.


    It''s been two years since then, and in that time she managed to make herself pretty influential with the prisoners and become their leader, they only needed an opportunity to escape.


    That''s where I came into the picture, an invisible man managed to sneak into the factory, and the most important part, managed to get out unnoticed, she did say that if he finds me, I should be recruited or forced to help at least. But since neither I nor Froggy have been contacted by the head guard, I can only guess he gave up.


    As for how did she make sure the message was sent?


    Well, Omar had to beat up some guards bad enough that they wouldn''t be able to guard the factory that night, which would be the sign she would be looking for, and prepare the prisoners for it.


    On the pages was also the plan for escaping. It wasn''t too complicated, he only needed to break them out when the New Year''s party was at its busiest.


    How was he supposed to do that? I have no idea, but I can only guess he has a good method if it wasn''t even worth mentioning.


    "Well, this is some interesting information we got here."


    "True, do you think it would affect our escape plans?"


    "I think it could help us honestly. I mean what is a better distraction than one of your most important factories going on a run? Actually, I think this is the best thing that could happen to us, everyone would be too busy to catch the prisoners that know how to break obsidian over two half-important people."


    Both of us gave a sigh of relief.


    Finally, we had a solid plan to escape, we could use the tunnels to get as close as possible to the gates, and with an invisibility potion, we could easily pass the guards that would be too busy looking for the prisoners.


    The only thing that makes me hesitate it''s the unknown veritable such as the Prince.


    He told me that he wanted the cursed books to catch a pillager, but from this message, I understand that the Prince works with the pillagers.


    So then, who is the true target of those curses?


    I could ask Froggy''s opinion, but I live in a world where a bolt of lightning hits a villager it becomes a witch, I don''t want to test the power of an oath.


    I''ll try to figure out what''s the plan while I''m with the Prince enchanting.


    So for the next few hours, we just talked about our day and then went to rest for the next day.


    ------


    "What''s so hard to understand about doing a simple oval? Is that shape too complex for your mind?"


    The Prince was yelling at my ear while correcting my mistake, showing me the proper way to write the letter.


    I feel like I''m back with my parents doing homework.


    Not the best of times.


    My initial plan was to play dumb with learning the new enchantment and try to drag this as long as possible.


    The good news is, that this level of enchantment is more complicated, more precise and with a different font to use.


    The bad news is that I didn''t need to fake it, I''m actually struggling to learn the new font for this enchantment.


    "Does it really need to be precise? I know the Enchanting table is picky about small mistakes, but it didn''t have a problem with the others."


    "There are two types of enchantments, the one created by the system and the one created by humans. You can make small mistakes with the one made by the system, but the one made by humans needs to be precise."


    "Wait, you can actually make your own enchantments?"


    "Yes, but most of those were made in the time before the great war. For some reason we can''t make complicated new ones like the Vein Miner Enchantment, only some simple ones like the Glow Enchantment."


    I knew about other enchantments besides the original ones, but I didn''t expect some of them to be so useful, it''s too bad that they''re very hidden on the higher floors of the library.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "How do you know which one is made by the system and which is manmade?"


    "The ones made by the system can also be obtained with the trading tab"


    That made sense actually, but now I also want to learn how to make my own enchantment.


    But that''s a very far goal to achieve, I still don''t fully understand the language of enchantments, and the fact that I''m skipping to the higher tiers doesn''t help me at all.


    So for the next few hours, we kept rewriting and practicing, until finally, the Prince had to leave for his work which left me alone in the enchanting room.


    "Finally! I can have some peace and quiet now. Ok, I have to change things up, I don''t think I can keep doing this for two more weeks, is there any way to cheat the system?"


    I sat down and rubbed my head to hopefully calm down the headache.


    "Is there a way to print it? I saw some videos in my world where they cut some words into wood and filled the letters with ink and that''s some primitive printing machine."


    But can this be even replicated here?


    I know that the villagers can craft stuff without using the crafting system, I saw a chair just one block tall, it was a shocking discovery the first time I saw it, and when I asked around they told me to use the tools on the crafting table but not for crafting, instead for sculpting a block.


    That was one of the first things I searched in the library once I had access to it, and it was an interesting subject to study.


    The only downside of people doing this is that it''s not recognized by the system, since it wasn''t made by it, so you can put the item in your inventory, but you can''t stack it with other similar objects.


    And for some weird reason, once a block is sculpted gravity has an effect on them.


    That''s why it''s not used to make important stuff since they''re not unmovable like a normal block.


    "But let''s try it anyway, this way I can relax my mind for a while."


    With that said, I take out a crafting table from my inventory and look at my 3 tools:


    Saw


    Hammer


    Scissors


    I then put two plank blocks on top of each other right beside the crafting block.


    "Since this is a wooden block, I''ll use a saw for my experiment."


    With the saw in my hand, I cut around 1/7 of the block, it was a slow process and also weird since I didn''t see the braking animation of the wooden block, but finally, the plank fell off onto the crafting table.


    "It really works! I can also pick up the remaining block like an enderman, it''s a weird sensation."


    I put it in my inventory where a text informed me that I have a chopped plank block.


    But what I needed for this experiment was the small slab, and for this, I needed to use the scissors.


    "I really don''t have a lot of tools to use, I think the system doesn''t want us to make our own items, only the ones made by itself. Wait, is the system sentient?"


    I waited for a response, but nothing came.


    "Yeah, that fingers, otherwise I would''ve been connected when I first got into this world."


    The scissors were uncomfortable to use, it was hard to scratch a curved line so I had to be careful, but the fact that I had a paper to guide me helped me greatly.


    After half an hour of scratching, I finally finished one word.


    "Finally it''s done! Now let''s see if it works."


    I wouldn''t use the Redstone ink for this since it''s just a prototype, so instead I use my feather to smudge all over the words.


    Then with a flip of my hand, the excess ink was erased.


    "This is so convenient."


    Next, I put a blank paper over the scratched word and pressed hard, then quickly turned the paper to see the results.


    But to my disappointment, there were only a few ink marks on the paper, but nothing that resembled a letter, let alone a word.


    Then I facepalmed.


    "Of course, it wouldn''t work, the word is supposed to be out not dug in the wood. This complicates the process more than it should."


    Even though it wasn''t a success, I still wanted to try. First I cut a smaller cube, I only want to do a latter this time.


    After I marked with ink the shape that I wanted, I slowly chipped away the wood. It took me about an hour but it was finally done.


    It was slower than actually writing it, but this is more fun and relaxing, even if it''s harder.


    "Time for the real test."


    I put some ink over the letter and then stamped it on the paper.


    "It works, it actually works! This is revolutionary for this world, it would make enchanting so easy."


    If the enchanting table accepted this. But I didn''t let that thought bring me down, I made some progress, and it could help me level up enchanting much faster if it works.


    "But it''s too much of a risk to start it now."


    I sat down thinking of a solution to this particular problem until I finally got it.


    "I don''t need to make the letters myself, I can ask someone else to do it for me!"


    There''s usually a Fletcher in the crafting room, I could ask him to do all the hard work and I''ll pay him later. I''m sure he can do a better job than me anyway.


    But first I needed to write all the letters individually and they needed to be perfect.


    "Looks like I''m back to writing."


    It didn''t take me long this time, since I already have some experience, and it''s easier to write the letters individually than in a whole sentence.


    I didn''t want to waste time so I went directly to the crafting room where the Fletcher villager looked bored out the window until he heard me coming.


    "It''s been a while since I saw you, getting back to grind the crafting skill?"


    "Not necessarily my friend, I''m actually looking for you. Do you know how to sculpt in wood by any chance?"


    "I got this job because I can do odd jobs with the crafting table tools."


    "Awesome! Can you do something similar to this but with all of those letters, about 30 for each, and can you also make a square about the same size as a page?"


    I showed him the letter that I chipped, the page with the rest of the letters, and a blank page to scale the board where the letters would stand.


    "That''s a big order you have there, but it can be done."


    While Fletcher looked a little surprised by the sudden request, it looked like it wasn''t that shocking for him.


    This makes me wonder what kind of orders he usually gets to this point.


    "Of course, I''ll pay for taking your time."


    Then I took out two golden apples and put them on the table.


    That finally got a reaction out of him, he was shocked, and he didn''t believe what he was seeing in front of him.


    "A-are you sure about that?"


    "Yes, of course, I mean I''m taking up so much of your precious time at work, so I need to compensate you for that. I hope this is enough."


    "Yes, it''s more than enough!"


    The villager quickly rebounded like I was about to take back the apples.


    "How long do you think it would take to finish all?"


    "In 3 days I should finish your puzzle, don''t worry, I''m an expert at this."


    The man said with confidence.


    I was shocked when I heard the time, I expected a week at minimum, but I guess experienced people work faster.


    "Thank you, sir, I''ll be back in 3 days then."


    With that I got out of the room, I still had to enchant normally in case it didn''t work.


    Let''s hope I didn''t waste this time.

 Chapter 51. Three days later

    Three days have passed since I made that commission. In that time I finally managed to enchant one cursed book, which was a good feeling as was a bad one.


    Good because this means that I can actually do it, and I''m not that dumb.


    Bad, because it''s going to be used on someone, with bad intentions.


    But that wasn''t the reason that I''m happy today, even though the Prince started to grumble less since I succeeded in the enchantment.


    No, the reason I''m so excited is because the order should be ready. So after the Prince left to do his actual job, I went straight to the crafting workshop.


    In there Fletcher was quietly sitting at a desk while reading a book.


    "I''m guessing you come for your order. It was an interesting challenge to work so many details on a surface so small, but I think the job is well done."


    He then lifted a box beside him that I didn''t even see, and put it on the the desk.


    Inside I could see small wooden tablets with a letter on top of each other, there were a lot of them.


    The whole enchanting language had 20 characters, and I requested 30 of each letter so that in the box there were 600 small wooden tablets. That was actually a lot once I put it in perspective.


    And he managed to do that in just 3 days? This guy must be a machine with how much he worked.


    I took a letter from the pile and looked closely at it.


    Once again I was taken by surprise, the details of the lines were closer to what I wrote on the paper than what I made chipped on the wood.


    Not only that, but everything was flat which means the letters will have the right thickness without me having to fill anything after the print.


    "Thank you, this is beyond what I expected, It''s perfect for what I need."


    I took another two golden apples from my inventory and placed them on the table.


    The Villager was taken by surprise by the sudden tip but took the apples without saying anything.


    "I''m glad it''s to your liking, I hope it''s a fun puzzle."


    He said with a smile.


    A puzzle? I guess you could see it like that if you don''t know the true purpose of it. It''s also a good cover story.


    "Oh, I almost forgot the wooden plank. Here it is, unfortunately I couldn''t do an even surface with only one piece so I had to cut it in half. Hope it won''t ruin it too much."


    From his inventory, he took out two planks of wood that put together had the space of a page where the letters would be placed.


    "It''s ok, thank you again. Can I take the box with me?"


    Since there were over 600 pieces of wood in the box I couldn''t fit them in my inventory, especially since the system won''t recognize them as an item made by him, which won''t stack.


    The villager nodded in affirmation, so I put the two planks on top of the pile and went back to the enchanting room, where the guard by the door looked weird at me but didn''t say anything.


    Inside the lantern Illuminated room, I put the box on top of the desk where I flipped it, letting everything fall all over it.


    "Let''s see if this will actually work. And funnily enough, it''s actually going to be a puzzle with how I piece the letters."


    I flipped all the pieces with the curving up and took out a piece of paper with the enchantment.


    Everything was written correctly, but the font was harder to replicate, which is why I hoped this one would work.


    After 10 minutes of work, one page was ready.


    "Now time to see if it would print."


    I put red ink all over the letters, then took out a blank paper and carefully placed it on top of it, trying not to accidentally smudge anything.


    I then took out an iron pressure plate from my inventory, placed it over the paper, and pressed hard.


    Quickly after that, I took it off and carefully peeled the page.


    "It actually works! This might actually help me with enchantments, I only need to make 4 more pages."


    The rest of the pages took about an hour to finish.


    Between the rearranging and cleaning of the latter, it took more time than I expected. But less time if I''ve actually written it by myself.


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    With 5 pages in my hand, I take out an empty book and place them at the beginning, then I feed the enchanting table some lapis and throw the book while holding my breath.


    Then slowly, the book started to float, followed by being surrounded by a holographic letter and becoming a cursed book.


    "It worked! It actually worked, I''m a genius!"


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 4


    33.200/100.000


    _Enchanting lvl 5


    30.130/1.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 2


    110/1.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    9.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "And I got the experience as well. Time to use this cheat system until there are no more lapis."


    For the rest of the day, I kept enchanting books like there was no tomorrow, I could only do around 20 books an hour before I had to use the Grindstone since there were no more empty books left for me to use.


    Six hours later I enchanted 120 cursed books and then erased the progress through the Grindstone. I didn''t want the prince to find out about this method of enchanting, no reason to give him more power.


    With all that work done, I decided to finish everything for today.


    So I went to the kitchen to get some food and search for Froggy to see what''s he doing.


    To my surprise, he was actually in his room relaxing on the bed.


    "Did a teacher get sick, or how are you finished so early for today?"


    Froggy didn''t seem surprised by my sudden arrival, he only glanced at me with one eye before getting back into his comfortable position.


    "Hello to you as well Trader. Finally got a brake from lessons with the Prince?"


    "Yep, I managed to do a proper enchantment this time, I think he''ll go more easy on me now that we have some success."


    "I still can''t figure out why he would need your help to do an enchanted book, he''s a master at that skill."


    "Unfortunately I can''t tell you much, but the reason he tells me it''s something about the mark left on the book. But with all enchanted items I haven''t seen a mark that I can call my own."


    And the Prince didn''t want to go into too much detail about finding the mark either.


    "Anyway, how are you finished so early?"


    "Well since the party is getting closer and closer everyone is very busy, and nobody wants to waste time on me that much. And the best part about this is that I don''t even do the morning exercises, so that means I can sleep however much I want."


    But isn''t the head guard a strict person when it comes to consistency?


    "Did something happen with the head guard?"


    "Not really, I think he''s actually the busiest person of them all since he has to break open the people from the factory."


    "And he does that out in the open like that?"


    "I mean, only we know what he''s actually working towards, the others think that he''s preparing for the party as well."


    That was an interesting perspective to know.


    But this could help me with spying perhaps since everyone would be too busy preparing the rooms, they wouldn''t notice a few valuable things disappearing.


    With a sly smile, I let the day pass while I talked with Froggy.


    It was a very productive day.


    POV: Enderwoman


    Another day has passed without me finding my human.


    Since one of the useless ones came into the world, he suddenly disappeared while I was looking away.


    That frustrated me more since he was the one most likely to find my human.


    While exploring the surrounding area and asking the other Endermens if they had seen a frame made from unmovable blocks, I found nothing.


    I gave up and decided to get back into the hot dimensions to look for more clues at the skeleton fortress.


    As I teleported back to the portal, I found that one of the residents of the other dimension was looking for a friend of my human.


    That''s a good lead to where I will go next.


    They took the horses to move faster, but it was nothing in comparison to the teleportation of my people.


    I can''t believe we were once the same as them.


    The following days were pretty boring, with the exception of one night when I had to intervene because of a stupid creeper.


    Finally, once we arrived at a city full of people, they stopped being in a rush. Fortunately, they didn''t go inside, since it would be hard for me to hide with all those people on the streets.


    Instead, they went into one of the biggest structures that I''ve seen built by humans, it was even bigger than the skeleton fortress in the hot dimension.


    Even though it was full of people, I could still be stealthy in here by teleporting onto the roof, which was never checked.


    I looked through some windows and finally found the friend of my human.


    I only needed to follow him, until he found a lead to my human, I feel it in my ender pearl, he''s alive and somewhere in this world.


    But I don''t have a network of information like those humans do, so I''ll have to use them to get what I want.


    That night I got the answer that I expected. My human was alive but captive in the desert.


    How dare they take what''s mine!


    I should move that desert block by block if they''ve done something to him.


    They don''t know what we were once capable of, but no. Father told us to forget the old life and embrace the new one.


    I decided to wait.


    I didn''t know the place where my human was held captive, and the desert was a vast biome with not a lot of my people to ask for directions.


    Unfortunately, that would be in a few weeks, but I can be patient, once an enderman finds his block only time can separate them.


    A few weeks went by and finally a party with blue armored people guardian it left the big structure.


    They had a light glow from time to time over their armor which meant the they''re annoying armored just became more hateful.


    I never like those people, they tend to exaggerate too much at my pranks.


    But I didn''t have to fight them, I only needed to follow them from the shadows.


    While we were still in the forest I could easily keep up with them, but once we got to the desert, I had to keep my distance from them since my dark skin was easy to spot on the empty dunes of sand.


    After a few days in the hot sun, we finally arrived at the biggest city I''ve seen in this dry desert.


    My ender pearl started to beat loudly, I could feel him, I could feel his presence in the biggest building in the center of the city.


    I didn''t even bother to wait for the group to arrive. I teleported from roof to roof until one wall blocked my way, but it bearly stopped me from getting where I wanted.


    A few people saw me and started to shout in panic, but I ignored them.


    The building started to get taller and more colorful, but I didn''t stay too much to admire them, until again I was blocked by a different wall, I tried to teleport past it like the other one, but for some reason, it didn''t work.


    This made me suspicious, the only thing that could stop my teleporting was the void or the unmovable block.


    And this wall didn''t look like either of them.


    I wanted to take out some blocks to see what was blocking me but I had to stop.


    The sound of the horn was crying loudly in the sky.


    Looks like my reckless teleportation got some unwanted attention.


    But there''s no need to worry, they won''t catch me.


    And soon, I''ll get my human back, and no amount of army could stop me.

 Chapter 52. Time for the party (part 1)

    It''s been 11 days since I made the printing discovery, those were some busy days for me, I printed around 8 hours every day in the enchanting room, and over 1000 books later I managed to level up my enchanting skill once again.


    I think I''m the first person in history to run through so many levels in one skill.


    Maybe I''ll find a way to cheat the other skills as well and be a master of all trades.


    Unfortunately, while I did have a higher level in my Enchanting skill, I couldn''t advance further. I didn''t have a level 3 book that I could copy, nor did I have enough lapis to grind through the cursed book.


    Speaking about lapis, the Prince is getting more suspicious of me since the ore is disappearing at an unnatural rate, but the fact that he needs those cursed books in a limited time, makes him look the other way.


    While enchanting was fun when I was alone, I also snuck around the busy palace to see if I could take some souvenirs with me once I was gone.


    And I was a little disappointed.


    One of the more interesting rooms I found was the armory. There were stands with iron and even diamond armor beside the walls.


    I suspect the diamond ones will be taken at the party tonight, so I can''t take those, but I''m sure two iron armored sets will not be missed.


    Another interesting but harder to get in the room, was the precious materials room.


    In there, I found all the materials for brewing that Froggy used. And for a sultan who liked to flex his wealth, he has a surprisingly small amount of ingredients.


    I think I had more ingredients from the skeleton fortress than what they have here.


    There were also a few chests with different kinds of ores that would''ve been helpful when I wanted to craft a pickaxe.


    I didn''t take any items from those places, at least not yet. I''ll wait until night when everyone will be in the ballroom and nobody to guard the rooms.


    Even with all the work I went through, I still decided to go through my tunnels and cover up any useless ones. There''s no reason to risk the whole tunnel system being found by accident.


    At night, I and Froggy did some drills in the tunnels while I showed him every entrance to the system.


    He was pretty shocked by how much I managed to dig while also working on the surface.


    And when I told him that it used to be bigger than this, but covered them up, he refused to believe me.


    At times like this, I miss Bobby and his reactions. Even though he started as a common villager, the fact that he went to the academy and studied for a few years, made him truly realize how unusual things were with me.


    Froggy is a smart guy as well, but he lived half of his life in a small town that was destroyed and the other half in isolation. Even when he got an education here at the palace, it was filtered and forced.


    And that''s not the best way to memorize information.


    But it didn''t matter, we were going through plans trying to find the best ones we could possibly think of.


    I even found the stools for the horses. We thought of the idea of making us and the horses invisible and rushed through the gate. But in the end, we threw that idea out.


    The horses would make too much noise when they moved, without taking into consideration how they would react when they became invisible.


    We want to take some horses, but we''ll buy them from the city, or worst case scenario, steal them.


    I wouldn''t feel good, but with such a high risk for this escape, there''s no time to second guess.


    Today was the day of action, we were nervous as a normal person would be in this situation, so we tried to distract ourselves with any way we could.


    Froggy over-prepared with potion brewing, and surprisingly even went outside to train with the sword.


    As for me, I went back into the enchanting room and continued to make cursed books, after all, I won''t have access to so many resources after I leave.


    Unfortunately, I won''t be able to take the printing tablet with me. The system doesn''t accept it as a stackable item, and I don''t have enough space in my inventory to take it.


    So I''ll most likely burn it once I''m done with it. It feels like a waste to destroy such a good product, but it did its job the best and I''m very thankful for it.


    For the next few hours, I kept grinding at my Enchanting skill when suddenly I heard a loud horn from the outside.


    I was confused, Are we being attacked, or did some guests arrive earlier and this is how they announce them?


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I opened the door and saw the guard very tens looking around carefully.


    That is one of the options out the window.


    "What''s that horn signaling?"


    "I don''t know specifically sir, but it signals that something is approaching the palace that could be dangerous."


    "So we''re not being invaded right now."


    "Oh no, there would be a lot more noise if we were attacked. One horn means to be on the lookout for one enemy, that can be dealt once found."


    I was impressed with their system of warning and its effectiveness.


    This method was probably used in my world as well before long-distance communication was invented.


    I went back into the obsidian room and looked at my setup on the table.


    "The noise outside will make the guards patrol more often, which is not a fun thing to happen. I think I''ve had enough enchanting for today. Better clean things up, before they arrive at this room to inspect it."


    With a sigh and heavy heart, I put everything back into the box, and brought it in the corner of the room, then with a Flint and steel I made some fire.


    Since it was on an obsidian block it wouldn''t spread anywhere, and it would have a short lifespan.


    That was until I threw the wooden box into the flame.


    The wood started to get darker and darker while getting consumed by a growing flame.


    "Thank you for your help, unfortunately, this is the only way I can let you go."


    I then made a small praying gesture and waited for the fire to die out.


    It took a while since wood is still a source of fuel. But once I was sure all the wood was gone I placed a block over the fire to extinguish it immediately.


    "This world never ceases to amaze me."


    Right as I was about to leave, some guards wearing diamond armor barged into the room and looked at me.


    They didn''t say anything, I didn''t say anything, we just looked at each other in silence.


    Then without saying anything they looked all over the room before leaving in silence, with me still confused about what happened.


    "They sure move fast."


    I mumbled to myself as I exited the room.


    The hallways were full of guards and servants, that went in and out of different rooms. This made me feel tense as everyone else so I decided to see what Froggy was doing.


    I checked the brewing room, but he wasn''t there, next I went to the garden and saw him swing the wooden sword like he was though.


    "Looks like the tension is eating you up, are you ok?"


    Froggy stops and finally sees me.


    "Yeah I have a lot of energy that I need to get it out, and training is the best solution that came to mind."


    "That seems fair. Do you know what the guards are looking for?"


    "They already searched this area, and from what they told me it was an Enderman that sounded the alarm."


    "An Enderman? What is a monster like that doing in the middle of the city? I thought they didn''t like populated areas."


    "Yeah, that''s why everyone is confused and looking for the monster, they don''t want to scare the guest somehow."


    We stayed like this for a few more hours, we kept talking or swinging swords until one of the servants came to us with some clothes for us to wear to the party.


    I looked at mine with awe, it was a green medieval suit with golden ornaments all over it, the shirt was plain white and the pants were as complicated as the top part.


    "I didn''t know you can craft something like this."


    Froggy was as surprised as me with the complicated suit he got himself. It was a long purple robe that had the design of a potion effect, a hat that looked similar to his old witch hat but this one more elegant and stylish.


    I tried to put the clothes on me and that''s when I realized how they managed to do this. My armor slots didn''t register those clothes as armor, which means that it was made without the help of the system. I don''t even know how can they make so many details in a world that are encouraged to use the system every day.


    Do they melt metals on their own, to they build a furnace system different than the actual furnace?


    So many questions that I don''t have the answer to. Maybe I''ll look for some of them next time I''ll get a chance to use a royal library.


    But since I can''t use the inventory to get the clothes on, I have to use the old-fashioned way to do it.


    It wasn''t a comfortable experience, especially when every part of my body had edges, but it was done.


    I brought out my inventory to see if there were any changes in the armor slots, but it was as empty as I expected it to be.


    Does that mean that I can make myself into an onion of clothes and equip the armor to have more defense the usual?


    Maybe a test for later.


    Froggy looked satisfied with his outfit, he looked like an elegant witch if that even was possible.


    "I think we should go to the party before we start the plan. Once the other nobles will see us, they''ll be satisfied enough not to look when we disappear."


    Froggy nodded his head in understanding and headed to the big ballroom.


    While I went to the tunnels and started to loot where I could.


    From the armory, I took an iron sword, from the kitchen I took some cooked food.


    But the most precious items I got from the precious materials room. Gold, emeralds even some diamonds were going into my inventory without any regrets.


    It was a quick and stealthy job, so in about half an hour I had everything that I needed, as I suspected the guards were just patrolling, not stationary at one door.


    With a calm demeanor, I walked towards the party, nobody was suspicious about my arrival, and no alarms were raised.


    I arrived at the room and I was surprised. I saw the room beforehand but it gave a different atmosphere when dozens of fancy people were occupying the space.


    Froggy was already taken by some nobles, and I could see how uncomfortable he felt by his face.


    But he was trained to deal with nobles, so he wasn''t that helpless, just overwhelmed. I''m probably in more trouble than he is since I don''t know their culture, and who knows if I''ll insult someone by saying something wrong.


    That''s why my plan was to stay as close as possible to the walls, where tables filled with food and drinks occupied the space.


    It was interesting to see how they managed to design the cubic-shaped food in such a way that I would consider it art more than food.


    I filled my plate with what caught my eye and ate while observing the party.


    From time to time, I hear someone shouting whenever a Nobel comes through. It was interesting to see everyone''s different styles and funny names.


    Suddenly I hear a name that interests me.


    "FROM THE STONE KINGDOM, PRINCESS ELIZABETH MENDING AND HER COURT!"


    This was the first group that came from another Kingdome, and everyone looked at the door.


    I was also curious to see one of the royal family besides the Sultans.


    She entered with a powerful presence, blonde long hair, and a fiery red dress. She was followed by her guards in diamond armor each fully enchanted.


    I''m sure they don''t have the best enchantments like the Sultan''s, but their presence told a message not to be taken lightly.


    The team wasn''t big, so I could see that someone in the group didn''t have any armor, just some fancy suit.


    But who was in that suit, took me by surprise.


    "Bobby, what are you doing here?"

 Chapter 53. Time for the party (part 2)

    Why is Bobby here? Isn''t he supposed to be back to his village? Did he somehow manage to get in trouble with the royal family in the other country? No, he seems interested to be here, which means he somehow managed to convince the princess to bring him.


    Do I only make friends that get themselves into trouble like me? Or do they get into trouble because I''m a bad influence on them?


    But I digress, what I wanted to express before losing my train of thought, is that I''m happy to see my friend here and doing well.


    I walked towards his group, knowing that I couldn''t suddenly barge into the prince''s group without getting some unwanted attention.


    But like everyone here, eventually, they have to split up and talk with the other people, that is my chance to strike.


    As I was slowly walking around the group waiting for them to split up or Bobby to see me, I was tapped on my shoulder by someone.


    "Excuse me, Hero, I''m happy to see you doing well in here. How was the palace experience for you?"


    I turned around to see someone that made me angry and surprised to see.


    "Alexander, I didn''t expect to see you here at the party, is your wife here as well?"


    The man where all this started, the one house where I cured a poor soul from her undead life and I was rewarded with imprisonment In the palace.


    Of course, it isn''t his fault, he did pay me for my services, and he even risked getting into trouble by illegally teaching me how to enchant.


    But logic doesn''t usually work the same way emotions do, and I didn''t realize that I hadn''t gone over the betrayal that I went through, and I could feel it in my response.


    "Yes, she is, she is back to her old self like nothing ever happened. She was furious when she heard you were taken by force by the palace. We managed to pull some strings, and I think we can force the Royal Family to send you on the field to get some experience. Once outside it would be easier for us to help you disappear in an accident."


    I wasn''t expecting this response from him. Alexander is not a man of words only, with this action he shows me that he''s sorry for the betrayal and works for a way where it would free us.


    Which I respect, and lessons my anger at him. It was something out of his control, he couldn''t predict the Sultan would react like this, so he was in the position of choosing his family, over two people.


    "And how long will we have to wait?"


    "It would still take one more month."


    That is awesome to hear, unfortunately, we don''t have that much time. The prince has a dangerous plan that he plans to use tonight and probably blame it on me, and even if he doesn''t do anything, the prisoners that are about to escape will make the too much of a mess, where the Sultan will play nice with the other Nobles.


    Of course, I couldn''t tell him anything about this, so I just nodded in understanding and we went on our ways.


    Finally, the princess group split up and I could talk with my first friend in this world.


    As I was sneaking closer to him, I thought how should I greet, a normal ''hey'' wouldn''t cut it after all.


    I put my hand on his shoulders, forcing him not to turn his head and see me, and whispered.


    "I have a message from your friend. He greets you from the afterlife, and tells you to live your life in peace."


    He froze.


    Then forcefully turned to see who was talking and we could finnaly see each other face to face after months.


    His eyes were wide, he didn''t speak, instead, he punched me in the gut.


    *Agh-


    He then lifted me back up and gave me a quick bear hug before looking relieved at me.


    "I knew you were alive, but I feel much better seeing you in person than only knowing."


    I was still panting from the punch.


    Was he always this strong?


    "You knew that I was alive? How?"


    "Well, that''s the reason I''m here. I heard there''s a weird-looking guy in the desert who managed to cure a zombified person. Something that only in theory thought possible. And I happened to know a guy that has a lot of unknown knowledge, looks weird and nobody knows where he comes from."


    Looks like I started to get popular internationally not only locally.


    "So how did you manage to get into this situation, my friend? I couldn''t believe the first time I heard about you how far away you were from me."


    "Well you see, the difference between the two dimensions is-"


    I talked with him while we went to a quieter corner, I talked about the withered skeleton king, how I managed to trick him, and how I met Froggy whom Bobby was very envious of his skill.


    I told him about the cure, how the princess kidnapped us, and how I''d been looking for a way to escape for the past few months.


    "And today is the day of action, me and Froggy will go invisible through the gates while everyone will be too confused with what''s about to happen."


    "Going invisible for an escape? Where have I ever heard about a similar position before? And what''s the distraction going to be?"


    Bobby looked at me with narrowed eyes, while pointing out how similar this situation is to our last encounter.


    "It''s different, this time I have a foolproof plan, and unfortunately I can''t tell you the distraction because I don''t know how it would happen, only that it would happen."


    "Maybe I can convince Princess Elizabeth to take you and your friend with us, I''m sure she''ll be more than happy to have a master brewer on her side. It would be a little risky but I think it''s possible."


    Bobby tried to help me with another option to get out of there, which I greatly appreciated.


    "Unfortunately that wouldn''t work. I''m 80% sure that the prince is going to do something dangerous tonight and blame it all on me. And even if he wouldn''t do anything, the Sultan still wants us to accompany the Hero on his journey to defeat the unknown enemy."


    "Prince Amun the second is going to do something dangerous tonight, only for you to take the fall? How you even managed to get into this situation never ceases to amaze me. Is there something I can help with?"


    "Not right now, but once we get out I was planning on getting back to the village and staying low. You can help us by slowing down the search party."


    "I still don''t fully approve of your plan, there''s too much risk. But I don''t have enough power to help you right now, so I''ll have to listen to you."


    While still hesitant, he accepted to help the plan in his way.


    We spent the rest of the time catching up. I found out how he got in contact with the princess.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.      I was surprised by how well he did at the academy that he caught the attention of the princess, unfortunately, he still got punished unjustly.


    He also told me that Undying Flame visited him at the palace just to apologize, which I didn''t know was possible until he told me the secret of her still being alive is constantly chugging regenerating potions.


    Maybe I should bring some materials and let them craft my stuff.


    We joked around until I heard the names that announced the start of the party.


    "FROM THE GOLDEN DESERT, THE MOST PROSPEROUS COUNTRY ENTERS PRINCE ENCHANTER AMUN THE SECOND, AND PRINCES ENCHANTER CLEOPATRA!"


    The room was silenced for the second time tonight. The two royal siblings walked towards the podium putting pressure deemed for a ruler.


    Once they arrived there the princess stood on the side while the prince spoke from the podium.


    "Ladies and gentlemen! I''m glad you all managed to arrive tonight. We''ve all gathered here to celebrate the passing of another blessed year. But, the prophet has foreseen a dark time in the coming years. Monsters attacking cities day and night, without anyone burning, all led by a leader. But fear not! A hero shall arrive sent by the system itself! And we the Sandstone Kindome will be the one to help the hero on its journey."


    Murmurs started all over the room, but once someone started to clap, a wave of clapping and cheering followed.


    The prince satisfied, continued.


    "As you may have heard, we found a cure for the zombification disease. And the creator of that method, the hero of this world is here with us willing to fight against the otherworldly hero, let''s congratulate him for this noble decision!"


    He started to clap, and everyone followed him while looking at poor Froggy. He didn''t know In what hole to jump and die faster.


    Several problems with his announcement. He didn''t mention me for some reason, he also didn''t mention that Froggy is a master brewer and the most important of them all, Froggy didn''t choose to help the hero, he was forced into it.


    But it doesn''t matter, the presentation is done, and Froggy will die a few times while surrounded by nobles eager to befriend him. We will run to the tunnels before the Sultan appears and most likely when the whole mess will start.


    Music started to play, no instruments or people were singing, and the noise came from the walls where the jukebox was most likely hidden.


    Not all of them played the same music, but while you were getting further away from one corner, the music faded out, and getting closer to another corner you could hear a different music playing.


    So the whole room was split into 4 dance floors, if you didn''t fancy one type of music you only had to walk a few blocks in the opposite direction where a different jar of music playing, with different dances.


    And if you didn''t like music at all, you could go in the middle where the noise was just chatter.


    I enjoyed some of the dances, some were done by the servants, while others by young nobles trying to impress their peers.


    Finally, Froggy was left alone, and with one tired look at me, I gave the signal.


    Both of us went in a different direction. I passed by Bobby and patted him on the shoulder without stopping, he looked confused at me before making a face of understanding and went to talk with some of the guards.


    I was out in the garden, the moon was high in the sky and the trees were illuminated by lanterns. I got closer to a tree and checked everywhere in case someone was looking at me.


    Nobody was.


    I broke the dirt block and fell into a tight tunnel, I quickly covered the hole.


    "Time for some action."


    I chugged a potion of invisibility and speed and ran towards the gate without caring about the flickering torches.


    After a few turns here and there I arrived at the small room under the gate. I looked around and nothing out of the ordinary was present.


    "I must be the first."


    From my inventory, I took two torches and held them in my hands.


    I waited for a few moments before I heard quick steps coming towards me, but nobody I could see making them.


    "You got here first, that''s good what next?"


    "Now we wait and see how the party will get wild."


    We got to the surface, since we were invisible we could stay in the open as long as we didn''t make too much noise. But just to be sure we hid behind one of the statues that was close enough to hear the guards but far enough so our particles won''t be seen.


    We waited and waited for what I could assume was half an hour, and then it happened.


    The sounds of a powerful horn were blown, and the guards started to panic and discuss if they should stay or join to help. While they were confused about what to do, we silently opened the gate and ran through the empty streets.


    We were under the speed effect so it was a weird feeling to see the noble houses go so fast beside us.


    As we arrived at the second wall we jumped into one of the noble''s lawns and searched for some horses. I mean every Nobel has horses, right?


    It was too late, so all the shops were closed, and once we found the horses, I dropped a diamond, drank some milk to get rid of the potion effect, and went towards the gate.


    Luckily the walls were open 24/7, and at least if you wanted to leave, the guards didn''t even bother to check on us, just let us pass through. We were nobles and if we wanted to leave in the middle of the night, they didn''t want to be the ones that needed to be silenced.


    With great speed we got to the last wall, the guard seemed to want to stop us be I threw him a gold ingot and they let us pass through.


    We were in the desert, we were finally free!


    We both started to laugh like madmen but still rode toward the Stone Kingdom.


    "We''re free Froggy how do you feel?"


    "It feels like a dream honestly I can''t believe we pulled it off. I wonder what happened at the party."


    "Ha, who knows, well find out once it''s going to spread like wildfire. Now we need to get into hiding for a while and worst case scenario we go to the capital and ask my friend Bob for help."


    "Is he the one you talked to so much at the party?"


    "That''s him, I''m still surprised how he managed to get here."


    We rode in silence for the rest of the journey.


    When suddenly the pits of my stomach started to hurt, and I blacked out for a short while.


    When I could finally see again, I was back at the party, surrounded by scared nobles, angry guards, and the prince shouting.


    "He''s the one that killed the Sultan!"

 Chapter 54. The Sultan鈥檚 death

    POV: Bobby


    We arrived at the capital, In front of me was a big city surrounded by huge walls, it wasn''t just one there were 3 walls in total each bigger than the last one, and in the middle of all this, there was a unique-looking castle.


    It did have towers like the ones from home, but instead of brick stone or other gray blocks, they were made with a pale yellow stone and curved roof like an apple.


    We arrived at the first gate, there were about 10 people in the group, besides me and the princess everyone else was a guard, and since we are a nation that trades in raw resources, every one of them is covered in diamond armor.


    The guards at the gate didn''t even want to check us, we looked too intimidating for what they were paid.


    The princess or the guards didn''t seem surprised, so we continued walking on the busy street.


    People were shouting their wears or trading offers, and while the street was full of movement nobody dared to approach our horses, they just looked at us from a distance and pointed at us from time to time.


    Suddenly the sound of a horn was Loud in the air, everyone looked confused and got back into their houses, with some braver ones continuing their day.


    A few minutes later we arrived at the second gate, this time the guards did stop us, at at least a guard did, the others were looking in panic towards the castle. They wanted to go and look for something, but they couldn''t leave their post, not when this was the gate to the Nobel''s territory.


    "Who are you, and what''s the occasion of the visit?"


    "We are the convoy from the Stone Kingdom, and we came for the Sultan''s party."


    "You may pass, but be careful, there''s a rough Enderman that just went by a few minutes ago."


    A rogue Enderman? Why would such an intelligent monster go in a populated area, yes they like to play pranks on us, but don''t like to risk their life for them.


    It was a weird thing to happen, but it was also unusual how easily they let us pass through.


    I mean, isn''t this an emergency?


    "They know they can''t stop us even if they wanted to."


    I looked confused at the princess.


    "From your expression, I could guess your confusion about why we passed through so easily."


    I nodded my head in approval.


    "While there''s a unique thing to happen that a monster managed to get this far into the city, their job is to keep the common people out of the noble area, and we look nothing like common people. They would''ve probably tried to hold us with the excuse for protection, but we''re better equipped than them, so they could only let us through."


    I nodded my head at the new insight, and we kept walking at a slow pace towards an inn.


    Guards were running through the streets from time to time but nobody bothered to check on us.


    Finally, we arrived at a big building with greenery at the front and wooden blocks mixed with brickstone as the walls.


    With how fancy it looked, I wouldn''t even dare to look at it for too long, for fear of getting into trouble.


    We entered the lobby, where one of the guards talked with the receptionist. They spoke too low for me to hear how much it costs, but it''s better this way, I want to sleep comfortably at night without the worry of accidentally breaking something expensive.


    We got 6 rooms, one for me, one for the princess, and the rest for the guards split into two.


    My room was small but good-looking, I had a golden bed, a cauldron filled with water to wash my hands, a double chest to store my items, a one-block tall painting on the wall, and even a view of the palace.


    It was a long week, and I was tired from sleeping out in the open not knowing when I''d be attacked by monsters. So I sat on the comfortable bed and fell asleep.


    *knock knock


    "Wha-what? Who is it?"


    "Sir you''ve slept for 3 hours it''s time to leave for the party."


    3 hours!


    I quickly got into my clothes and went outside where everyone was ready and good to go.


    "Now that everyone is here let''s get going."


    We went on foot from here, it wasn''t too far but we still got stopped by the guards.


    This time they had diamond armor on them, and didn''t look intimidated by our group.


    The princess gave a book to one of the guards, and after a quick check, we were good to go.


    The road was beautifully done, right beside it there were huge statues of horses and their riders, and beyond the statues, there were fountains of life and greenery.


    We didn''t stop to appreciate the view, instead, we entered the huge gate and a man beside it started to shout all of a sudden.


    "FROM THE STONE KINGDOM, PRINCESS ELIZABETH MENDING AND HER COURT!"


    Everyone looked at us, which made me nervous.


    "Don''t worry Bobby, you practiced for this and you''ve survived through the academy, this party is nothing for you."


    She was right, I was just intimidated by the fact that those nobles actually had the power to act on what they said, not like the students at the academy.


    But I have to remember, I''m not just a commoner anymore, I represent the princess of my kingdom so I have to act like one.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    With a new fund strength, I straightened my back and went to talk with some nobels.


    They weren''t that different from the ones at home, so I could keep up with them with no problem until suddenly someone pressed his hands on my shoulders.


    I tried to look back to see who it was, but whoever did this didn''t want to be seen.


    He then said something that made my stomach drop.


    "I have a message from your friend. He greets you from the afterlife, and tells you to live your life in peace."


    I forcefully turned around to give a piece of my mind to this rude man until I saw his face and I froze.


    A tall man with brown hair and eyes, no nose, and a green expensive suit looked at me with a cheeky smile.


    It was Trader, the man that I thought dead in another dimension, he was here in front of me as healthy as he could be.


    I felt a rush of emotions going through me, I wanted to ask him if he was ok, how he was still alive, and why did he do that.


    So I punched him in the stomach.


    I was surprised by my choice, maybe unconsciously I wanted to punch him for worrying me so much, and since my brain was too preoccupied with how to respond, my body took over.


    He was fine at the end, we talked about how I got here, and he talked about how he fought a sentient monster, managed to trick him, and befriended a which only heard in legends.


    But that wasn''t the most shocking thing, he somehow knew the cure for an infected person, one of the two most dangerous diseases in the world, and just did it for the price of one mount, I don''t know if I should strangle him for giving it for such a low price or thank him for actually giving it and not keeping it to himself.


    That got the attention of the Sultan, and they became ''guests of honor'' or more exactly the witch became someone important, he was just there to ride along and keep Froggy in line.


    Unsurprisingly they wanted to escape, surprisingly they managed to keep Trader in here for so long. I''ve seen what he was capable of doing, hundreds of blocks in tunnels just in a few days.


    But everything made sense when he told me that we were in an obsidian box only decorated nicely. And they want to escape tonight when everyone will be too busy with a mess that is about to happen.


    I tried to offer him some help of my own, I''m sure the princess will be more than happy to take the only Master brewer from this country to ourselves. Recently they tried to test our borders and people, there''s a high chance a war will come soon if nothing changes.


    Unfortunately, they had to do it tonight because somehow unsurprisingly he was involved with the mess, and the prince would blame it on him. I wanted to ask more be he said he couldn''t tell too much, so I didn''t ask bet kept an eye for the prince that hasn''t arrived yet.


    We talked some more until the Royal children came and made an announcement. Trader left to prepare, and I went back to talking with the nobles.


    A few minutes later I was tapped on my shoulder, and when I turned to see who wanted my attention I understood that the plan was in action.


    "Excuse me, is there a place more private around here? My social battery has run out and I want to rest somewhere."


    I talked with the guard who had a view of the garden where Trader went.


    He was polite enough to point me to a more isolated room and I stayed there for a few minutes, trying to process everything that I''ve been through today.


    I didn''t stay too long and went back to the party, and it was at the right time when the music stopped, a few of the lanterns were broken leaving light only at the podium where everyone was looking.


    Slowly, step by step the Sultan climbed onto the podium, he wore all white with different precious stones to give some color, even his cape was not simple, it had the symbol of the Sultan imbedded in golden strings.


    "My people and guests of honor! I want to thank you again for coming tonight, I want to announce with this occasion that we, the Sandstone Kingdom will help the upcoming hero, we will defeat the evil!"


    He raised his hands and out of nowhere, a golden armor appeared on him, it wasn''t one made by the system, it had diamonds and emeralds on it which made me wonder how he equipped it so fast.


    Suddenly out of nowhere, 6 arrows were shoot at him, the Sultan didn''t even flinch but somehow he still died.


    Or so I thought, a tower of light rose from him in the form of a person with wings. I heard something breaking and the light returned to his eyes.


    But why didn''t he move? He was just attacked and he was still with his hands up.


    Probably the assassins got spoked by their failure to kill him even with the surprise element.


    But once again I was taken by surprise when black potions were thrown at the standing Sultan.


    I felt great danger coming from them, even if I was so many blocks away, I don''t want to know how they felt once they splashed on you.


    One potion, two potions, three potions, each as powerful as the last one. But surprisingly the Sultan kept regenerating and slowly started to move.


    Like a signal, the assassins threw more potions at him, and nobody saw who threw them, the guards started to panic looking for the source, but the criminals were most likely invisible so they wouldn''t be found out anytime soon.


    After a few potions, the regeneration couldn''t keep up with the acidic potion, and the skin started to melt until the Almighty Sultan died a second time and the last time.


    We all were in shock, even I who knew something would happen did not expect this. At the drop of a bucket everyone started to panic, the guards were still looking for the assassins but with how everyone was running towards the exit they had no chance.


    Horns were blown making a loud noise.


    "EVERYONE SHUT UP!"


    The prince shouted and everyone stopped with all eyes on him.


    "The killers are still with us, so nobody dare leave this place. Guards, block the doors!"


    Everyone started to move like a well-working piston, some tried to sneak past them, but they were thrown right back into the room, without caring about their status.


    I didn''t want to be involved in this so I went towards my princess who was Surrounded by the guards looking intensely at everyone.


    "Bobby! Come here quickly who knows what''s about to happen."


    I didn''t object and went in the well-protected circle.


    " You don''t seem too surprised by what happened."


    The princess commented after one look at me.


    "My friend told me, that the Prince had plans to capture someone tonight. But I didn''t expect the Sultan to be the one."


    I Wisheperd to her, and her eyes went wide, and looked at the Prince with suspicion.


    The two Royal siblings were examining the body, or what was left of it, the potions had an acidic effect on the body, so there wasn''t a lot to work with.


    One of the men took the armor from the Sultan and his eyes went wide and told something to the Prince.


    Afterward, he went in a hurry somewhere else.


    "Everyone listen! We found out the armor of the Sultan was cursed! We will find the one who enchanted this and bring him to justice."


    Maybe this is the way Trader expected to be betrayed. Good thing he left a while ago, and won''t be able to catch him.


    With that, he took out an enchanted compass and placed it on the golden armor. Soon a light came from the compass and a floating sign appeared.


    The Prince looked suprised but didn''t say anything, he just made a sign to one of the servants who quickly moved.


    After a few minutes the man that first saw the armor arrived with a thick book in his hands.


    Quickly they went through every page and looked at the floating sign from time to time only to shake their heads.


    "There''s nobody in our library with that signature."


    Murmures started to wash all over the crowd. Is this the end? will they all be interrogated one by one now?


    While everyone was preoccupied with the new information, a servant went to the Prince and passed him an enchanted book.


    The Prince took the compass from the armor and put it on the book, making appear the same signature as the armor.


    "It''s as I feared, this enchantment was done by Trader, I did wonder why he wanted to level up as soon as possible on his Enchantment skill."


    The crowd once again started to murmur. Who was this Trader guy, why did the Prince help him, where is he?


    "Trader, get out here and face the consequences!"


    Everyone looked around to see the man who connected all of this, but of course, nobody came.


    "Search for every room in the palace, don''t let anyone leave this place!"


    The guards did as they were told, and searched every room in this place, but the place was huge and nobody found him even after two hours of searching. It got so bad that frustrated the Prince went on a search as well.


    With no results, we could only assume that he escaped. The Prince got back but in his hands, there was a pillow with an ender pearl on it.


    What was his plan?


    "Since that killer is not here, I will bring him here by force. This is the Ender pearl we made an oath on. I promised to teach him Enchantments as long as he worked with justice. But since he broke the oath, he shall be summed."


    With that said, the Prince took out his diamond sword and sliced the Perl.


    And to my horror, Trader appeared out of nowhere, confused and in pain in front of all of us.


    Things are about to get more complicated.

 Chapter 55. End of volume 2

    In a huge room used for celebratory events, where there was laughter, food, and drinks. Or it was supposed to be, now in the middle of the room stood a mob of people looking angry at one person.


    "He''s the one that killed the Sultan!"


    I turned around in confusion to see the Prince swinging a sword at me.


    Out of instinct I took out my diamond sword from my inventory and blocked him.


    He looked surprised at my sword, it was the sword of the strongest mob that I fought after all, and the enchantments were good.


    I took out a speed potion and drank it, with this I should be able to react more quickly since I don''t know how to swing a sword.


    "Wait! Aren''t we supposed to interrogate him or give him a trial?"


    A voice yelled from the crowd, it was Bobby.


    "What trial? He has an iron armor that was probably stolen, the signature of the enchantment led to him, and didn''t you see him just now drinking a potion, he has connections with the assassins."


    With that he took another swing at me which I easily blocked, unfortunately, the guards didn''t want to have a duel so they ready their weapons.


    "Wait, I don''t know what you''re talking about, maybe you''re referring to the cursed book you made me do in exchange for teaching me enchantments?"


    "How dare you spout such lies! Why would I want to kill my father?"


    He swung at me with force again, but the potions did their job and I could react to all of his strikes. Fortunately, the guards seemed confused about what to do, so they stopped advancing.


    "I don''t know man, but how would I even get access to a cursed book? Only someone as important as you would have such an item."


    I kept deflecting his sword, but he seemed to get the upper hand the more we fought. I need to come up with a plan and get out of here.


    How did I even get back here?


    "You got envious of the hero, so you made a deal with the Witch clan to have more power!"


    Envious of Froggy attention? We were both forced to come here why would I be envious for being more of a prisoner? Also, I don''t know any clan of Witches!


    A slash reached my arm, leaving a small wound that would regenerate in no time.


    But the Prince was gaining ground, and I was losing it. Speed could only help so much in front of skill.


    I had to come up with a plan now.


    As I was thinking an explosion came from my left. We both stopped and looked towards the noise like everyone else.


    And the one who made that explosion stood beside a crater. It wasn''t just one person there were a dozen all looking tired but ready to fight.


    They were prisoners from the obsidian factory. But I only recognize three people from there.


    Omar, the head guard who trained Froggy, stood In diamond armor looking with dangerous eyes at everyone.


    Aisha, the only person that saw through my invisibility stood there with an iron armor and flint and steel in her hand. She was probably the one that ignited the TNT.


    And Prince''s Cleopatra surprisingly, was there confused but with determined eyes.


    "Since the ruler of this kingdom died, we need to have a new leader. We the Knights of the People, chose princes Cleopatra the Enchanter to be our new ruler."


    Cleopatra looked confused at the sudden news. Looks like she didn''t know about their plan.


    "She can''t be the ruler, I''m next in line to the throne!"


    The Prince shouted back with anger, but from my point of view, I could see fear as well. The plan got off the rails and he was losing control.


    "We don''t want a ruler that works with the Pillagers! I''ve been thrown in prison because I found out about about your deals with them!"


    Everyone gasped in surprise, it was taboo to talk with the Pillagers never mind working with them.


    "Baseless accusations! Do you have proof of such a heavy claim?"


    The Prince bit back with furry but this time I could feel that he was confident.


    And I can see why. Even though Aisha found out about their deal, she didn''t have fiscal proof, and what she knew was years outdated and they made sure to patch any leaks.


    Some proof against the prince, do I know some?


    I started to think, about anything that caught my eye while sneaking around or when I was with the prince, and there was something.


    A secret room in his office.


    "You can find proof in his sec-"


    Suddenly I heard a splash on my armor, and my skin started to melt, ignoring what protection I had on me.


    *splash


    Another potion hit me again, pain flew through every nerve I had, I needed to run, I was in danger.


    I turned around to see the attacker, only to see a floating sword coming towards my head. In a panic, I swung my sword as well, and I felt something, but the enemy sword reached its target as well.


    Light started to fade from my eyes, and the last thing I saw was a shocked villager with gray skin holding his neck while falling.


    You Died!


    POV: Enderwoman


    A few hours passed, and they weren''t pleasant being constantly on the run.


    But those foolish humans are too young to catch me, I only need to teleport on one of the roofs and wait them out.


    I can feel my human on the other side of the wall, I can be patient for a few more hours. I only need an opportunity to pass the huge wall, but I think I can only do it through the gate, or worst case scenario I''ll go on the walls, but there are too many armored people there to risk it. Especially now when they''re on high alert.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.      A few hours passed and with no luck on their side, they gave up, which finally let me get out of my hiding spot.


    I watched the gate as people passed from time to time, and when I saw the guards preoccupied with a certain group I teleported past them without anyone noticing.


    The view was beautiful with all kinds of blocks all over the place. I''m sure this would be a place where a lot of my people would find their soulblock.


    But I wasn''t interested in them, I was interested in only finding my human. I don''t know if this is normal, I will have to ask The Father once I get the chance.


    I felt an Ich coming from my Pearl, it was coming from the huge building so I got closer to it keeping it out of the human''s view.


    Finally, inside I teleported to one of the empty balconies and watched over all the humans that gathered in the huge room.


    And there he was, in a beautiful green costume my human enjoying himself with some food. I felt like a part of me came to peace, I could see him in front of me once again. I''m curious how he''ll entrain me now, what kind of fascinating stuff will he show me.


    The music was all in the air, I looked at one of the blocks that made the noise and saw a jukebox.


    I remember one of my people bounding with one of those blocks that he found in an abandoned temple. He chose to spend the rest of his life finding all the disks which is a stupid goal, why would you want to go through so much trouble just for something that''s not part of your block?


    He did get some envious looks from others though, which didn''t make him too popular.


    My human met his friend for the first time since they split in the hot dimension. They were happy to see each other, but for some reason, I didn''t feel good when he smiled at that stupid human. I don''t want to share my human with anyone, maybe I should get rid of him.


    But today I''m in a good mood so I''ll let that slide, everyone suffered those months and needs to have a brake.


    Time passes and I amuse myself with stupid stuff the humans do, some of them are dancing on the floor, others are eating and the most fun ones are fighting and ready to throw punches.


    But something happened because my human exited the building and went towards the garden.


    It was night outside, which helped me greatly to blend with the darkness and get closer to my target without being noticed.


    He looked around for any signs of people following him, before breaking one of the blocks beside the tree with his unnatural speed.


    Then he jumped down a hole and blocked the entrance.


    I don''t like to teleport in enclosed spaces if I don''t know how large their going to be, but my human hides something special if he''s so secretly about so I take the risk. And it was as I thought, only a two-block tall tunnel with flickering torches, I had to crouch so I could stay in the tunnel.


    And Surprisingly the floor was all made with the unmoveable block. Maybe this is why I couldn''t teleport past the wall.


    I couldn''t move on my own with those tiny tunnels so I had to teleport from place to place, annoyingly I couldn''t see the human but I could still feel him somewhere close by, and those tunnels were long and each led to a different place. I tried to follow one but it was a dead end, I teleported back to the surface and was surprised to see a room with lots of chests.


    Maybe those tunnels aren''t so useless after all, with this, I can sneak more freely around this place.


    I explored some of the rooms that were connected with the tunnels and had fun with pranking people by placing blocks in front of the door.


    Some of the guards looked very annoyed.


    Suddenly I heard a horn, it was similar to the one when they found me, but this one was more powerful.


    This can''t be a good sign, I teleported towards my human but I still couldn''t see him, I could feel that he just passed the confused guards at the gates, but nothing in sight.


    After looking around confused on the streets, I finally saw some floating particles that moved at great speeds towards the second wall.


    I hate potions, it''s because of those I lost my human last time. Luckily I could see him again once he wanted to hop on a horse.


    With a fast horse and iron armor the guards didn''t even bother to stop them, and soon they were galloping on the dunes.


    They both started to laugh, shouting that their finally free, even I could hear them and I kept my distance so I wouldn''t be seen.


    I''m happy that my human is happy, it feels fulfilling. Is this how the others feel with their block?


    We got further and further away from the big city until suddenly he disappeared. I felt him through space like we use it to teleport.


    I was angry, he used something precious from my people, I hated it when they did that, but I followed the trail with growing worry. He was too happy to be finally free, and the trail that was slowly disappearing led back to the city.


    Something happened, and it wasn''t in his plan.


    Then something happened that shook me to my core, something cracked in me.


    I couldn''t feel him anymore.


    Why did this happen to me? I just found him and now he''s gone again?


    I''m I too selfish, Am I not fast enough? I''m I too weak?


    No! I refuse to believe this, if someone took him from me, I can take it back, if someone wants to take him from me, I''ll destroy them.


    I felt a change all over my body, I felt my muscles crack making me taller, and my hands started to get heavier and more dangerous.


    But the biggest change of them all was a pain coming from my forehead, I screamed and scratched trying to stop the growing pain until suddenly it stopped.


    A new eye opened its lids for the first time, and I could see it, I could see HIM.


    "Wait for me human."

 Chapter 56. Im alive?

    I was floating in the dark void, I was feeling tired, emotionally and physically. I''ve done all the preparations I could, tried to cover everything that could lead to us, only to get yanked back for some reason getting me killed.


    How did that even happen? The only thing that comes to mind is an ender pearl station. But I don''t remember throwing one in the first place, much less building a station.


    Unless... The oath I took with the prince? But we both touched it so he should be affected as well.


    In the end, I could only sigh at the unknown answer.


    It doesn''t matter anyway, I died.


    Funny enough I didn''t die in my old world but I died in this one, and for a stupid reason as well.


    I hope Froggy managed to escape at least, and Bobby did not feel too devastated after my loss, we just reunited after all. Now I''m gone once again, but this time for good.


    As I was contemplating my two lives I looked around to explore the emptiness around me.


    Surprisingly I could move around, until I turned and saw three huge sockets in the shape of a heart, in them there were two bright red hearts pulsating from time to time, while the third one was empty and grey.


    Before I could wonder what was going on, one of the hearts unplugged itself and flew towards me. It was huge, three times my size and it absorbed me.


    I felt a surge of life all over my body, I felt like I could fight the world and win, the light started to get more powerful until suddenly it stopped and I was in the middle of the forest once again.


    It was night outside, and instead of the calming sounds of the forest, there were only sounds of growling, rattling bones, and heavy steps getting closer.


    "I''m not dying for the second time to something so stupid!"


    I recognized this place, it was the same place where I first arrived in this world, I don''t remember the exact road but I do know the rough way.


    So I sprinted towards the trees, arrows passed me hitting the thick trunks, zombies were blocking my way but too slow to react to pose any true challenge. The Creepers though were the ones that made me change my path a few times, they were too much of a risk to take without any armor.


    Finally between the tree branches I could see light, then I could see cobblestone.


    It was my amazing wall filled with stone swords at the top. The monsters here were more preoccupied with the lights beyond the wall to care about me sneaking behind them.


    With a final push, I was on the other side of the wall and quickly closed the gates behind me.


    No mistakes, especially at the end.


    I went into my house, I was finally safe.


    "Well, that just happened. But what did actually happen?"


    I was floating in a void, then I saw some hearts, I had three at one point but now only one?


    Does that mean that I had three lives, but now I''m down to two?


    Ok, pieces are starting to fall In place. Since it''s still night outside I can only guess it''s been a few minutes since I died.


    I took a deep breath and looked beyond the window. There were three big cows, some chickens, and a lone sheep.


    It didn''t seem to bother them, the noise made by the monsters was a regular thing for them.


    I saw from time to time a spider trying to climb over my wall, but stopped by the stone swords, and fell down with a painful hiss.


    I''m back at the beginning, but I''m home, I''m safe, and I''m very tired.


    With that in mind, I just went upstairs and sat on my white bed, I''m still confused, angry, and even scared, but I can deal with all of those tomorrow.


    My head hit the pillow and everything went dark.


    --------


    I woke up greeted by the light of the lantern, I didn''t have a window here so I don''t know if it''s day or night outside.


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    With a rested mind and body, I went downstairs to see the state of my house. It''s been a few months after all.


    The light danced through the fenced windows letting me know it was day and laminating my house.


    It was exactly as I left it, maybe some dust here and there but no missing items.


    Actually, since I''ve seen what this world is capable of building, this house felt like a kid drawing it with their left hand for the first time.


    It was just too basic looking, it didn''t even have proper windows, instead, it was just a plain wooden fence.


    That''s it, before making any other big decision I will renovate this place. I will make it so good that a king will be impressed by it.


    With that in mind, I went outside and saw the sun all the way up into the sky, which meant I only had half a day to work before it got dark.


    I petted some of the animals that I had and while they did seem a bit on guard when they saw me they didn''t fight back too much when I had my fun.


    My wheat field, if I could call it that, had shown me a surprise. When I left it was just some seeds on the tilted dirt, but what I saw now was a normal grass block with grass as tall as me.


    Since I didn''t take care of my field, nature took its course and took it all back.


    I had to pull out the weeds, tilt the dirt with a forgotten hoe from some chests, and plant the seed on the freshly made field.


    That felt satisfying, I don''t have a lot of food with me right now, but I can gather some apples from the trees, and I still have some milk to drink.


    I went outside my compound with a stone axe and started to chop at the first tree I saw. I wanted to expand my base, if I wanted to make something that I could be proud of I needed to have a lot of space, and to defend that vast space I needed a lot of materials.


    I chopped and chopped the trees, and picked up the sticks and apples while enjoying the simple tasks at hand.


    Should I actually stay and process the fact that I died and now I''m back to life?


    Probably, but I shove it back into the box together with the fact that I''m in a new world without an explanation or purpose.


    Should I hurry to connect with Bobby and Froggy to tell them I''m alive and safe?


    That would be a great thing to do, with the exception that it won''t solve anything. The reason I got in so many messes it''s because I didn''t know enough about this world or knew too much, gaining me unwanted attention.


    But most importantly, the reason that I suffered so much was because I was not strong enough to defend myself in case someone with more wealth decided that im too noisy in their kingdom.


    If I want to meet my friends and actually stay with them, I need to be strong enough that nobody can force me to do anything. If words can''t solve problems, the one with the most enchanted sword will come on top.


    Am I saying all of this because I want a distraction from the fact that I''m actually living in this world and it''s not just a game without consequences?


    I don''t know... Maybe...yes! Who are you? My therapist! Just leave me alone and let me collect my blocks in peace.


    Tress started to disappear around my base, I now had a lot of wood, apples, and sticks in my inventory.


    Unfortunately, I took all the iron I had to trade with the villagers, so I couldn''t make lanterns to light up the new perimeter.


    That means, my next course of action will be to mine for iron and other resources. I need many kinds of blocks to decorate my new home.


    I also need to grind my Crafting skill, so I can at least make myself some diamond armor.


    I almost died twice because iron armor wasn''t enough to stop a diamond sword. I''m also wondering if there''s an enchantment that resists the effect of potions or magic in general.


    So many projects that need attention, but only one person to work on them, I have to do everything in order.


    First is my house, and for that, I need a lot of materials, so I''m going back to mining now.


    With the help of a minecart, I had a smooth ride towards the deepest parts of my mine. It wasn''t big in comparison with what I did at Bobby''s village but it did have the starting setup ready.


    By some sheer luck, I even managed to get three iron Ingots forgotten in the furnaces.


    With this I had my iron pickaxe, which greatly increased my speed of mining, but not the same if it was enchanted.


    I spent the next few hours mindlessly mining, I used the same system I made at Bobby''s village, rows of tunnels two blocks apart from each other for maximum efficiency.


    I liked this mining session, my brain just shut off while blocks were breaking under my pickaxe, and time flew by until my stomach started to complain about the lack of food.


    So I ended it there for today, made a few extra furnaces to run while I was on the surface, and then left the mines.


    Outside was dark already, monsters were gathering at my walls, making horrible noises.


    I went back into my house and ate some good old-fashioned apples and a bowl of milk.


    That night I slept wonderfully, I only woke up two times without a reason.


    The next morning I gathered all the bones at my walls and grew my wheat farm with their bonemeal. My animals greatly enjoyed some wheat as a treat and for some reason, the cows weren''t too interested in multiplying. But I''m in no rush to get some lather, so that''s a problem for the future.


    With bread in my stomach, I was ready to continue the expansion.


    I made a lot of lanterns and placed them all over the ground.


    Then I started to build up the wall around my new perimeter. This time I wouldn''t use just fences, I''ll build something similar to what the cities have.


    I can''t make it as tall as them, but 7 blacks tall should be more than enough to stop any kind of monster.


    For the materials of the wall, I''ll use stone bricks, wood blocks, wooden fences, and some other materials where I can tie my hoard of stone swords as protection against spiders.


    It took me a whole day but it was finished, unfortunately, I didn''t have enough string to attach all the swords, but I could go back to the spider cave to farm for some more.


    Monsters started to appear once again, but the wall was finished so I felt safe. Let them bash their head against my mighty wall and I''ll collect their bones tomorrow.


    I still have some energy left, and I didn''t feel like sleeping today, so I decided to get back to mining.


    I want to level up my Crafting skills, and the fastest way I can think of doing that, is through crafting iron shovels, in great mass.


    So for the rest of the night I mined, smelted ores and cobblestone, crafted some armor for myself in case of any accidents, and went back to the surface with a tired but satisfied smile.


    I tried to get some sleep once the sun got out, but I only managed to get a nap at most.


    Since I mined enough for today, and still have a lot of blocks to use I decided to start expanding my house.


    Or more exactly, my castle.

 Chapter 57. Underground base

    Chopping trees, planting saplings, going down the mine to get stones, and then trying to sleep.


    This is what I''ve been doing for the last three days, but it''s all worth it because I finally have enough materials to start my new home.


    First I had to move the animals much further, I also made their new place much bigger, and they greatly appreciated that.


    Second I started to make the thing that I''m most good at decorating, and that is an underground base.


    I plan to make a huge base underground with a simple fortress on the surface as a facade.


    I mean, who would search the basement of such an amazing-looking fortress?


    The hole was mostly already dug while I mined for the stones.


    I started with a center room that would be the center hub of the underground base, it would be around 13 blocks high, with lanterns hanging from chains to illuminate it.


    I''ll probably change the light source with something from the Nether when I get the chance.


    With a newfound excitement, I started to build the walls and decorate them with what I had.


    I made a mixture of deep slate blocks and stone bricks to give a dark atmosphere.


    The ceiling was in the shape of a dome made with wood that had chains hanging from them with lanterns appearing here and there to illuminate the place.


    It took me a whole day but I was satisfied with the results.


    This was just the hub so there were four hallways on each side of the room. One of them will lead to the mines. I''ll make a stairway four blocks tall and five wide until I reach the first layer of deep slate, where I''ll make room for the mining operations.


    The next hallway will lead to three other rooms, I wanted to split them with the theme of each dimension. The one in the Overworld would be the biggest with most of the chests, and on the sides will be the ones from the Nether and the End.


    The third hallway would lead towards my underground farm. It would only be a crop farm since I don''t think I can make a mob farm even if I wanted to.


    The animals are living beings, that in general don''t clip into each other like in the game. So if I wanted to make a mob farm, ill have to make a system where they won''t pile on top of each other, and I still have to be there to dissect the monster or animals since a Hopper wouldn''t just take the whole body and prepare it for me.


    With crops instead, It''s still possible to automate, but that would require a lot of trial and error, so for starters I''ll do something simple and I''ll expand it later.


    The last hallway will lead to two rooms, one for enchanting and one with the portal.


    That''s the final plan for the underground base, but I''ll start with what I''ll consider the most important room.


    The storage room.


    After all, I don''t want to have misplaced chests in the middle of the lobby or go upstairs to store some items.


    I mined the stone to expand the new hallway until I noticed that my vision was getting blurry.


    "While I had a lot of fun designing the first room, I think I''m too tired to continue this."


    I got out of my hole and saw the moon at the peak of the sky. Monsters made noises beyond the wall, but I knew they wouldn''t be able to do anything to get at me.


    The constant noise by them is actually what bothers me, I think I''ll do some lampposts beyond my walls and decrease the monsters spawning so close.


    But I''ll do that another day, right now I''m just tired and grumpy.


    I feel my mood improving, but not by much, I''m slowly coming To terms with the fact that I died dissolved in acid and decapitated.


    This is not like the game, I felt everything that happened to my body and I don''t want to ever go through that again.


    I eat a late dinner and got to bed to get some rest.


    I dream about me looking at the void, the void looked back at me.


    ------


    It was morning, so it was time to get back to work.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Down in the underground base I was designing the new hallway.


    Since the lobby has a mysterious and creepy atmosphere I decided to use deep-slate brick stone, dark wood, normal brick stone and as a light source I used lava, only stopped by some iron bars.


    I was proud of this design, though the process of putting lava on the tunnel walls was pretty dangerous.


    But now when I looked at the iron bars on the wall I could see constant lava flowing down, like I was in a lava lake.


    And the bonus of making my base more cozy, or this part of it at least.


    Next was the Overworld chest room. I wanted to make it tall, but also different from the dark atmosphere. When you get inside you''ll feel like, ''Oh! Did I get out somehow?''.


    And it would be a complicated thing to replicate, but I have an idea already.


    I dug half a dome and put light blue concrete to imitate the sky and a few white ones to replicate the clouds.


    I used some yellow concrete to make a sphere where the sun would be, but since I only had torches and lanterns to illuminate my rooms, I could only wait until I made a nether portal to get the blocks that I truly wanted.


    Next was to make a pixelated village house on one of the walls, there I will put a row of chests, and I''ll store normal blocks, like wood, and some other materials you can find on the surface.


    Besides the villager house will be the pixelated forge room. Here I''ll put all the ores I find and smelt plus the normal stone blocks.


    This wall had a lot more chests than the previous one, and two furnaces in case I needed to cook something quickly.


    I had to stop for today since I was out of concrete and it was already late. I couldn''t tell the time from the underground but I could feel my eyes getting heavier as time passed.


    I''ll sleep for tonight and tomorrow I''ll go to the desert once again, this time to get some sand.


    Flowers I still had a lot, so there''s no need to look for those yet.


    With the plan made for tomorrow I went to bed.


    I had the same dream as yesterday, I don''t know if it means something but I don''t think I''m getting better as I was thinking about it.


    ------


    The next morning I woke up, put my iron armor on, ate some breakfast, and with some provisions I went towards the desert.


    Since it was in the middle of the day, there were no monsters outside, only some cows or sheeps along the way.


    I also think I saw some purple particles between some trees, but there was no enderman in sight so even if there''s one I should be safe.


    After a few hours, I was at the beginning of a vast patch of dunes, I took a deep breath of the dry air and got ready to work. So with my trusty shovel I broke block after block.


    I shoveled a few good hours just to be sure I wouldn''t need to get back here any time soon. I''ll probably change the window to my house while I''m at it.


    But then I shook my head at that stupid idea, the house is going to be replaced soon so there''s no point in even doing that.


    I''ll still probably use a glass block in my bedroom so I can see when the sun is up.


    I went back home ready to continue my work, but I kept feeling that someone was watching me, whenever I turned around there was nobody there.


    "I think I''m getting worse as time passes, I need to talk with someone before I completely lose my mind."


    But I promised myself that I''d get stronger, so I won''t be fooled around like before. Once again I want to talk with someone so I won''t feel lonely and depressed. And the worst way to get over depression is to isolate yourself.


    That''s it, I''m going to finish my underground base then I''ll go to Bobby''s village. Nobody will know that I''m there and I can send a message to Bobby telling him that I''m safe and alive.


    By the time I''m finished with my base, he should be back at the castle, hopefully, he found Froggy since I don''t even know how to contact him anymore.


    But he has a lot of good items on him, so he shouldn''t be in any danger, so that''s comforting at least.


    Once I arrived at home I went directly underground to finish the room.


    On the third wall, I made a pixelated farm, and put the chests beside it, here I''ll store the crops and meat.


    The last wall it would be besides the hallway entrance with only some pixalted trees and a smaller range of chests.


    In here I''ll store anything that I don''t feel would fit the other themes, or more exactly the trash wall.


    I made some signs to label each chest so I could visualize better, and it was all done!


    With a smile on my face, I went to work in the other two storage rooms.


    I only dug the space since I wanted to use the materials from each dimension to decorate them, and that would take a while.


    The next project will be the mine. For this one I don''t even need a hallway, I can directly do the stairs from the lobby.


    So the next day I went to the opposite side of the storage room and mined a stairway downwards, it was four blocks tall and three blocks wide. The staircase was in two colors, the sides with deep slate and the middle with brickstone.


    The walls used the same design as the other ones which meant a combination of deep slate brickstone, iron bars, and lava for light.


    It all went down until I reached level 0 or more exactly the first layer of deep slate. There I made a huge room with different tunnels that went either more deep underground or expanded on this level. I didn''t want to complicate myself too much with the design here, so I only made the walls with brick stone and wooden beams to give the illusion of support.


    A wall was filled with furnaces, and one double chest to easily store them, I only needed to move all the stuff from the old mine to the new one.


    It was a quick project, it took only two days to finish, so the next one on the list would be the portal room, I want to have some Nether blocks for the Nether storage room, and I need some shroomlights as a light source, I like that texture more then glowstone.


    So I started the third hallway of this base, I wanted to make it a bit longer the the other ones, it would be taller as well, but I was already used to digging those so it wasn''t too hard.


    Now the room itself would be the interesting part. I want to make it 10 blocks tall, 10 blocks wide, and 5 blocks deep.


    While it sounded easy it took me two whole days to empty that space, I didn''t have scaffolding so it wasn''t that easy to make.


    Next would be the fun part, I want to make all the walls with white concrete like an experiment chamber. On the wall, there will be a portal 7 books tall and 5 blocks wide, and on the wall with the portal there would be tentacles of blocks from the Nether like the other dimension is trying to take over.


    It was an ambitious project, mostly because it was hard to make so many white concrete blocks and get all the obsidian, I had to go through several cave systems so I could find that much lava for me to use. And even when I had enough, it''s not a pleasant experience to say the least.


    But after five days, of digging, searching placing, and even mining some diamonds it was finally over.


    With Flint and steel I lit the portal and purple particles started to attack the newfound flame. Then a vortex appeared and suddenly I could see another dimension over the obsidian frame.


    "Time for some exploring."

 Chapter 58. New world

    POV: Unknown player


    It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was up in the sky keeping life going, and calming sounds danced through the branches of the tree.


    Then all of a sudden, the peace was disturbed by a white portal appearing in the middle of the clearing.


    Out of that portal, a screaming person was thrown out, it was a woman with green eyes, blonde hair, pink shirt, and red pants.


    She looked around her with horror and confusion.


    "Wha-what just happened? Ok, let''s calm down and think. I was in my economics class and I was a little bit tired so I must''ve fallen asleep. But this feels too real."


    I tried to pinch my arm only to realize two things.


    One, I didn''t have fingers or palms, and my whole body had edges like I was made with geometric shapes.


    Second, even without fingers I somehow manage to pinch my arm and to my horror feel the pain.


    "This can''t be real! I''m in another world, I don''t know if I should be excited or scared about this new opportunity."


    I looked around me to see the new world and it was... Something I did not expect.


    Everywhere In my sight looked exactly like me, made of squares.


    "Well, I''m not in a fantasy world with elves and dwarfs that''s for sure. This feels more like a game world. Maybe I''m the chosen one and I have to defeat the evil lord?"


    I like to read more from novels than to play games.


    But the usual plot for most games is pretty similar with the book''s. You are the chosen one and have to defeat the bad guy.


    I looked around once more but no pretty lady or handsome man was in sight to tell me that.


    "But this feels familiar, I''ve seen it somewhere else for sure."


    And then it clocked.


    "Yes! This is the game that my nephew played, I think it''s about building and exploring. I don''t remember too much."


    The only things I do know are the nights are dangerous and I can build anything I put my mind to.


    Well, I can go and search for a town to ask for more details.


    Seriously, why did I have to be transported into a game instead of a book, that''s my specialty after all.


    "Well since this is a game let''s see if I have a System."


    I waited and nothing happened.


    "So no overpowered system to help me take over the world. How about Status?"


    Suddenly a gray window appears in front of me.


    ________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name: Merry Paper


    Health: 20/20


    Attack: 1


    Defense: 1


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    ________________________________________


    "Yep, my full name that got me bullied in school, some other stats that show me how weak my body is, this feels legit. Next, you''re going to tell me I have a sleeping Skill as well!"


    And to my horror, another gray window appeared beside the current one.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/1.000


    _Trading lvl 2


    0/1.000


    ________________________________________


    "Ok, so I don''t have a skill related to sleeping, that''s good. Are those all the skills that I have or can I get more?"


    I guess I''ll find out with time, while I''m at it, I looked over at what I have.


    The first one is crafting, which is something good to know, I wouldn''t want to be a support character, but from all I''ve read, it''s that you never underestimate the one that makes your weapons.


    The second one is enchanting, which sounds more fun than crafting, and usually, I get more money plus the additional magic.


    Just the fact that in this world has magic makes my blood boil for adventure.


    The third one is brewing, which makes me wonder if I have to make different types of alcohol or if I can make potions.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    I hope it''s the potion one, it would look good on me a belt full of neon potions, a long robe, and a pointy hat.


    The last one, and the only one that I have a level in is trading. Probably related with the fact that I''m at a business college. But this one would be my last choice since I don''t want to be stuck behind a desk with mountains of paper.


    I only chose this path in my old world because It''s one of the safest ones to live off.


    But not here, why would I bother studying for a business when I can get the money through punching stuff?


    I looked around me to see if anything caught my eye, and there was only one thing.


    A stick under the shadow of a tree, and I picked it up.


    "This is a weird-looking stick, it''s cut so precisely, for sure I can use this to craft something. Maybe I should gather some more."


    I walked around and found three more identical sticks, but when I picked the last thew, they disappeared from my hand. So I had two sticks in my hands, but the other two were missing.


    "Do I have an inventory or something like that?"


    When I said that, another gray window appeared before me, it had a lot of squares, and in the top left I could see my two sticks that disappeared from my hand.


    "So this is my inventory, I think the ones with a shield icon are the armor pieces that I can equip, and those four separated squares have to do something, I''m guessing crafting?"


    I tried to put a stick inside it, but no results showed, no matter which square I put it in.


    Maybe I need to use something else besides the stick.


    I tried to scoop some dirt underneath me, but surprisingly a pixalted crack appeared. I hit the ground a few more times and a perfect cube disappeared and was transported to my inventory.


    "Well this is an interesting system, I can see how this would be a sandbox game. Can I craft with it?"


    I tried alone, but nothing, I tried with sticks, but no results as well. I then looked at the tree close to me and hit it with a stick.


    Two things happened when I did that.


    One, the stick broke after a few hits.


    Second, when the block did break the tree didn''t fall, it just stood there like there''s no gravity!


    "I''m truly in a different world."


    I chuckled nervously while looking to see if I could craft something with this.


    Low and behold, I could!


    From one Oak wood, I can craft four planks.


    I tried different recipes but the only ones that showed results were the two planks recipe resulting in more sticks or pressure plate, and the four planks resulting in a crafting table.


    Another fun thing was the placing option, wherever block I broke I could place it down, and when I placed the crafting table I was impressed by the complicated design on it.


    Unfortunately, the tools besides the edge couldn''t go further than one block away from the crafting table.


    This block also greatly expanded my slots of crafting from four to nine. I didn''t even know what to start with.


    I didn''t have enough wood so I was back to chopping Trees, or was I breaking them?


    I don''t know anymore, this world is wired but fun.


    For the next few minutes, I got some wood and tried a few items to craft. It was hard since I could only do it by trial and error but I got a few interesting results:


    - Staircase


    -Pressure plate


    - Button


    - Doors


    - A chest


    - A boat


    - Stairs


    - Slabs


    Everyone looked interesting when I placed it down, especially the chest.


    That thing had a subspace in one block!


    How cool is that!


    Unfortunately, I can''t carry it after me, otherwise, I''ll be the most famous merchant in this world.


    Another useful item was something that I did not expect, the boat. Not the boat itself but the peddles used for the boat, I could use them for breaking dirth more easily. I even tried to chop a tree with them, and it worked, it wasn''t a comfortable experience but they were more resistant than the sticks.


    But I had to stop for now, since my stomach started to complain and wanted some food. I had a few apples from the trees that I chopped but I needed some water to drink, so I had to look for some running water.


    I took all the items that I crafted, even if some of them were useless, and walked in one direction hoping to get lucky.


    Hours passed and I can say with confidence that I''m lost.


    I didn''t know where I was before, but now I''m only surrounded by trees and it''s starting to get dark.


    "I think I should get to a higher ground."


    I made a small staircase with dirt towards the leaves of the trees, and with a careful step, I sat on top of the tree.


    The leaves cracked under my weight but surprisingly held, so I could walk on top of the trees for a better view.


    The sun was setting, letting the darkness take its place, with my only source of light being the moon.


    I continued walking while stress-eating from an apple until a growl made me stop.


    I could hear steps walking under the trees. With a speed that I didn''t know was possible I was at the edge of the tree and looked towards the noise.


    Under the shadows of the tree, it was hard to see, but I could see someone with a humanoid shape.


    "Hello, can you understand me?"


    The shadow stopped from wandering and looked at me. I couldn''t see the face of that person but its look alone sent shivers down my back.


    I quickly moved from there and took the paddle from my inventory ready to attack.


    I could hear the painful groan from the ground, but nobody came up. So with careful steps, I got back to the edge to see what was happening.


    The shadow was still down there, only looking confused about how to get to my location. Looks like I''m they don''t have the same abilities that I have.


    But before I could have a sigh of relief the sound of a string being bent to its full capacity caught my attention.


    Quickly I got back as the sound of an arrow just passed me.


    "I''m not safe here, I have to move!"


    I started to run on top of the trees, which luckily didn''t have any of the monsters, or so I thought.


    While I was busy running and looking down to not accidentally fall. I almost crushed myself with something that I only saw in nightmares.


    I know Australia has a lot of weird spiders, but I think this one takes the cake.


    A black spider at least one meter long was hissing at me while getting closer.


    "S-stay back!"


    I ready my pedal while trying to get away from it.


    The spider jumped and in panic, I hit him with my improvised weapon, and I could hear a painful hiss.


    It''s hurting him, and that''s good, maybe he''ll decide I''m not a worthy prey.


    But no such luck for me, he looked back at me, and I could feel the anger in its many eyes and made another jump.


    I hit him once again, this time two of his eyes were closed for good.


    The adrenaline was running through my veins, I felt like I could do this, but the spider seemed to learn a lesson and got closer to me.


    And instead of jumping towards me, he sprayed my weapon with his web, getting stuck with the leaves of the tree.


    He didn''t wait for me to struggle and jumped districtly at me.


    I let go of my weapon and rolled to the side to not get hit, I then took the other pedal from my inventory and hit the confused spider.


    I could feel his exoskeleton cracking under my weapon, but I heard another sound that brought me horror.


    My weapon broke, and the spider in one last attempt jumped at me.


    Panicked I just shaved the handle in his head right as it was about to touch me, and I could feel him getting limp while letting a final hiss.


    My breathing was rough, but I won the battle.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t stay for too long, the noise of the battle attracted the attention of the others, and I didn''t want to deal with another spider anytime soon, especially without a weapon.


    I started to run while looking for any place that could be safe, and after a few minutes, I finally saw something different.


    I saw light, not from the sun, but from a settlement.


    So with a newfound speed, I ran towards the light until the trees stopped and I could see a huge wall surrounded by what I could guess were zombies and surprisingly walking skeletons.


    When I studied them more closely I could see that they had a bow, one of them probably shot at me.


    I don''t know how this is possible, but I don''t have time to think of this. I need to get past the wall and get to safety.


    The monsters seemed more interested in the light after the tall wall than me, so I could walk around the walls until I saw the entrance of the compound.


    I was careful not to attract attention to me, even if I was on top of the trees.


    And I had to say that the defense was pretty solid, I even saw a spider climbing over the wall but got poked by a weird spike and the monster hissed in pain giving up.


    I took a deep breath and waited for the perfect moment to take action.


    A few minutes passed and the monsters walked around the walls to find a hole that they could use.


    I dropped from the trees and sprinted towards the wired-looking gate, there was nobody to stop me, and I pressed to open the gate, only to hit my head on the upper half of it.


    "What the- why is this only made with fence gates?"


    And how did it keep the monsters at bay? It didn''t matter I opened the other gate as well and closed everything behind me.


    I let out a sigh of relief and looked around the new place.


    There was a small river of water with what I could consider crops.


    Some fenced areas had cows, chickens, and a sheep. All cubic shaped of course.


    But the most impressive part about this was the house in the middle of the compound. It was made with wood and planks, but it looked good.


    "I didn''t know you could make something so beautiful only with blocks."


    I went to the door and knocked with force.


    "Hello, is anybody home?"

 Chapter 59. Strangers house

    POV: Merry


    I sat in silence waiting for anyone to respond.


    The occasional growl or painful hiss told me the passing of time.


    "If nobody is home I''m going to enter! "


    I yelled in the hope that someone would hear me as I tried to open the door.


    To my surprise, the door was unlocked and I could see the interior of the house.


    It was a short hallway with some chests on each side, but those chests were different than what I made, it was two blocks wider.


    I opened one of them and saw that the storage had double the space as well, with some interesting items in it.


    There were some cobblestones, dirt, wood sticks, wheat, wooden bowls, and a lot of stone swords. They looked interesting but pretty weird, I took one out and held it in my hand and I could feel the sharpness of the stone blade.


    This also made me realize that those weird spikes on the walls must be stone swords.


    I didn''t take anything from the chests with the exception of a sword. I don''t want to be defenseless anymore, especially when this world showed me that it has some violent tendencies.


    I don''t know who the owner of this house is after all, but if they have so many swords, it must be a reason.


    I walked alone in the hallway until the end, then it split into two, on the left side was what I could only describe as a living room, with poorly imitated furniture blocks.


    Towards the right, there was a large room with wooden floor and on the walls were some cobblestone-looking blocks that had some holes in them.


    And when I looked closer at one, a grey window appeared telling me that this was a furnace. And luckily for me, it had some bread already in it.


    I took it out and ate it right then and there until there was nothing left.


    "Oh wow, I was much hungrier than I expected. Do they also have some water?"


    I went through chests until I found a bowl of milk of all things, and it was a delicious one.


    Now with a belly full and a safe place to stay the night, the fatigue made its presence known, my muscles were sore, my heart calmed its beat and my eyes were getting heavier.


    "Today was too much of a crazy day. I got transported into a new world without a warning, at night monsters appeared everywhere and I fought a giant spider."


    And I won.


    While the experience was scary for me, the adrenaline rush when I pierced his head with a broken handle made me want to do it again.


    "Oh God, I think I''m an adrenaline junkie."


    I sighed at that realization and explored the small house in hopes of finding a place to sleep.


    Fortunately, I didn''t have to search for too long, I only needed to go upstairs into the attic where there was a lone white bed.


    I didn''t even bother to wait for the owner of this house and went to sleep.


    Deep down, I''m afraid that this is only a dream.


    But if it is, I don''t want to wake up.


    -------


    I woke up looking at an unfamiliar ceiling, in a panic I quickly got up only to hit my head on the low ceiling.


    "Auci, oh yeah, I''m in another world now. There''s no need to panic."


    I was kind of excited that it wasn''t all just a dream, so with a little stretching in the little space I had, I followed with going outside.


    The sun was on top of the sky, warming my skin and calming my mind. I didn''t hear any monsters banging on the wall which was a great sign, I was afraid that I was in an apocalyptic world.


    I appreciate the the scenery around the house, I saw a river coming out of the ground and stopping into a random dirt block without overflowing from its bounds.


    The water came out of nowhere and disappeared without any logic. And on top of all that, it was running water!


    This world is fascinating, to say the least.


    Besides the small river was some patch of yellow grass, when I got closer I could see that this was wheat, and ready to be harvested.


    There was also the fenced area, where I found some weird-looking chickens that didn''t care about my presence there.


    The next one was a lone sheep, which creeped me out a little, I know sheep and goats have weird-shaped pupils, but it''s a different sight when the sheep itself is all squares. So I didn''t get too close to that.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The last one was a family of four cows, three big ones and a small one. It was actually a cute sight to see, and they were getting closer to me.


    I reached my hand to pet one of them, and it was the same texture as a real cow, I felt my body and soul calm as my hand felt the heiry texture, until I felt something unpleasant.


    The freaking cows were eating my blonde hair!


    I just left them alone and washed my hair of any cow saliva.


    After I was done I looked around to see if I missed anything, and it was a good thing that I did that since I found a hole in the ground in the middle of the yard.


    Upon examining closer I saw a ladder that went down for a good while. With my sword ready to be taken out any minute I went underground.


    The light started to fade and the temperature began to rise, not a lot but enough to be noticeable.


    Once I arrived down, artificial light guided me to what I could only admire in awe.


    The house above was an impressive sight to see, but I could tell it lacked a certain elegance like the person who built it had a specific palette to work with and it did its best.


    But this took my breath away, it was like I entered a dungeon that was under construction, pillers made with black and grey stone supported by dark wood made it look creepy but charming. And the lamps that hung on some chains truly made a good atmosphere.


    The room was big and it split into four other hallways, but only three were made with the last one still under construction.


    One of the tunnels led to three rooms, two empty and one that tried to imitate to outside world with a pixelated drawing. It was a different vibe from the entrance of the dungeon but what caught my eye were the many double cheats that seemed to be separated based on a theme.


    I looked through each and everyone, and I struck gold, literally and figuratively. There were chests with food, wheat, and flowers, some others were filled with different stones and ores.


    I saw stacks of iron ore, gold, and even diamonds!


    "Is this a safe in construction? Or maybe it''s truly a dungeon and this is the big storage before it gets distributed in other rooms."


    As much as It was temting I didn''t take any precious ores, but I did take a full iron armor, which surprisingly adjusted to my body.


    With only this, I got back to the main room and explored some other paths.


    The next one was a staircase that went down very deep underground, but everything was well-lit and beautifully decorated, especially the lava that was falling beyond the iron bars.


    "How did they even build this? Why was it even built like this, it seems so unsafe."


    I arrived at the last part and saw a huge room made with a grey blocks supported by wooden beams, on one wall there were a lot of furnaces, some of them running while others were not.


    I opened one up and saw that it smelled of some iron ore in an iron ingot.


    How convenient.


    I looked at the chest beside it, and it was full of cobblestone and other ingots.


    "If this is how people in this world live, I don''t think I''m that special. I think I''m less special than I thought I was. I''m sure we use the same crafting system since I recognize some of the items."


    I''m I truly here just because of a freak accident?


    I decided to not think too much about it and looked at the smaller tunnels leading to this room.


    "I think this is a mining operation. Maybe I''m not in a dungeon after all."


    But the owner of this place left not too long ago since some of the ores are still smelting.


    I''ve seen enough of this place, let''s go and see the last room and I''ll wait for the owner on the surface pretending that I don''t know about the secret bunker.


    I climbed the stairs which were less enjoyable than going down on them, but my legs only hurt slightly from the small workout.


    The last room was one of the weirdest ones, it was a tall white room like it was an asylum, and on the wall was a huge frame made with dark blocks.


    In the frame, there was a wall of red blocks that seemed to reach toward the white walls.


    "This is an interesting choice of design. But let''s see what''s in there."


    I stepped passed the dark frame and was hit with a wave of heat. It was so bad that I actually had to throw my iron helmet down so I could breathe more properly.


    I quickly got out of the red room and was back into the white one.


    "What was that? How can the temperature change so drastically? And why would you want something like this in your basement?"


    My heart was calming down from the sudden shock, and I started to theorize about what it could be.


    "Usually in novels, a gate like this would mean either a dungeon or another dimension. But both of them are the same thing in a way, so I''ll stick with a dungeon."


    Maybe the owner found an abandoned dungeon and decided to make his base around it.


    That sounds like a profitable move.


    I took the helmet back and decided that I had enough exploring for today. The owner is most likely in a dungeon dive right now and it''s going to be back soon.


    With that, I went back to the surface with sore legs from climbing so many stairs in one day and went inside the house.


    "Well, what''s the plan until the owner is back? I don''t think there''s internet in this world, and if it has I don''t have access to it."


    I contemplated what to do while sitting in the uncomfortable chair until an idea struck me.


    "I have skills! I can level up some of them while I''m waiting, I''m sure the owner won''t mind too much if I borrow a few resources. I''ll try to get mine as much as possible."


    With that plan made I started to look at my skill tab, and saw that only the crafting skill was the one that I could improve, the others I didn''t even know how to start.


    With an iron axe in my hand, I went out to chop some trees, and it was a big difference. The blocks got chopped so fast that I can safely say that I can''t get back to chopping trees with a wooden paddle.


    Wood in my inventory I went back to the house and started crafting.


    I''ve crafted, and I crafted with wood and stone for three whole days and this was my result.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 3


    1.350 /10.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/1.000


    _Trading lvl 2


    0/1.000


    ________________________________________


    I managed to level up my Crafting skills twice!


    It was an interesting experience, I found out how to craft tools, fences, and even a furnace. But I also observed that the most efficient way to gain experience was through crafting tools, so now I had a chest full of junk that I made.


    But even with all of those my speed slowed down to a crawl.


    "I think I need to craft with iron or copper next. But I don''t want to steal from the owner, even if I didn''t see any signs in three whole days."


    At least there was enough food to not starve to death, though it got a bit bland after a while from lack of veraietes.


    "I think I have to go mining myself then. I already have a few stone pickaxes, and the mine is already made, I only need to find the ores."


    It can''t be that hard right?


    With that in mind, I took some food, my tools, and iron armor. And went back underground.


    I arrived at the big creepy room and absentmindedly went towards the stairs only to be stopped by a voice.


    "Who are you? What are you doing here?"


    I turned towards the voice and saw a man in fancy golden armor looking surprised at my presence.


    Unfortunately, he then took out a sword. And with only one glance at it, I could tell that my stone sword was not well matched against his iron one.


    "Trader, is everything alrighty?"


    A feminine voice came from behind him.

 Chapter 60. Back in the Nether

    I passed the black line of the portal, ready to collect some blocks and some other item''s,but this time equipped with more knowledge and equipment.


    I wore a full golden armor since it had a passive cooling effect, but only in the Nether weirdly. The design of the armor was amazing almost majestic, it had different textures and small symbols all over it, way different than the game.


    As a weapon, I chose a crossbow with some arrows, three fireworks, and an iron sword.


    A few iron pickaxes, one axe, and a hoe to get the light blocks faster.


    For food, I can only take some apples, bread and milk.


    Once I passed the obsidian frame, a wave of heat washed all over me, but it was way more bearable than if I was with anything else on me.


    The spawn location wasn''t too bad or too good. I was on top of a hill near a lava lake not too far, there were no distinct features besides those two.


    "Let''s hide the portal so no monsters will accidentally walk into the Overworld."


    With the iron pickaxes in my hand, the netherock blocks stood no chance against me. In only half an hour I already had over a stack of those.


    I then made a small hill over my portal, it looked a little out of place but it did its job well enough.


    With that out of the way, I started to explore the area around me.


    There wasn''t too much to take, only some quartz and a few glowstone blocks.


    I could use them for my Nether theme storage room, but I wanted the shroom light block to illuminate my underground base.


    But the only place I can find them it''s a red or blue forest.


    The blue forest is usually filled with endermans, and while they won''t attack you as long as I don''t disturb them. I don''t want to go to a place where I''ll get beat up because I looked the wrong way.


    The red forest had its dangers as well, mainly Hoglins and their attack in pack.


    But what''s different about them is that I can keep them at bay with only one blue mushroom.


    With that plan made, I took a few stacks of cobblestone books and went in one direction while leaving a track.


    I traveled for around half a day until I finally found a red forest.


    On my way here I had to cross over a soul valley filled with skeletons that tried to shoot me, a few lava lakes, and even a blue forest.


    There were a lot of particles floating between the blue trees, and I think they were more excited than usual. But it didn''t matter to me I only wanted a blue mushroom And nothing more.


    With the red trees in from of me, I began the process of deforestation. In every world, mankind likes to shape the enviorment around them, and I''m no different.


    Of course, I don''t want to completely destroy the ecosystem, but I will break a few trees.


    I climbed the long vines that fell to the ground and broke the mushroom lights with my iron hoe.


    A weird tool to use for this occasion, but it''s the one that gives the best results so I won''t complain.


    As I was chopping trees here and there I suddenly heard a voice, then another one. And from their tone, I could guess they were arguing about something.


    I stopped from what I was doing and with a silent step, I got closer to see who it was.


    And to my surprise, I recognize them, or at least one of them.


    There were four people surrounding a dead hoglin, three of them wore simple black leather with golden axes and the last one wore a full iron armor with a crossbow in his hand.


    "I told you stupid brutes, I killed the hoglin, so I get the spoils, what''s so hard to understand about this?"


    "No, no! We were the first ones to find it but you stole our prey, so it''s ours. "


    "But I''m still the one who killed it, and if you don''t want to back off, I''ll make you."


    With that, the piglin in iron armor took out an iron sword and waved dangerously at them.


    The brutes surprisingly laughed at the intimidation.


    "Puny tribesmen, your ugly armor and weapon are nothing in comparison to our far better weapons."


    They then took out golden axes and smirked at the pigling.


    I don''t know if they truly believe that their weapons are superior or just bluffing, but in the game, the brutes are a pain to deal with, so maybe it has its merits.


    Both parties were in a standoff, ready to jump at each other at the slightest movement.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    I''m sure there''s no pigling tribe that has full iron armor warriors, especially when the common people in the Overworld have bearly any iron pieces, so that means that he''s part of my tribe, and I don''t want to see him die in front of me.


    I have a plan that may save him, but it would be risky.


    "What''s with all the noise here, are you trying to scare the whole forest?


    I left my hiding spot with a loud and demanding voice which froze everyone and looked at me.


    The pigling seemed to be more tense when he saw me, but the brutes seemed to freeze with awe and respect on their face.


    They looked at me with a light I didn''t know was possible to be seen, it was pure greed and respect.


    But the more they looked, the more I realized that they didn''t look at me, but at my armor.


    "We''re sorry chief, we didn''t want to disturb your hunt, it''s just that this poor person wanted to steal our prey."


    They pointed at the dead hogling while the ''poor'' person made a step backwoods.


    "Hmm, I see. Well since you four disturbed my hunt I''ll take this as my trophy."


    The three of them froze at the sudden twist and didn''t know what to do, but they also didn''t want to give up their prey so easily.


    "You''re still here! Oh I see, you want some goodies you greedy bastards. Here take some gold and buzz off, I don''t want to see your poor faces anymore!"


    I threw one gold Ingot at their faces, one of them hit its target while the others caught it.


    Suddenly the brutes were very happy, they didn''t even look at ''their'' hunt anymore.


    "Of course chief, well leave right away!"


    They turned and ran without looking back like they were afraid I''d change my mind.


    Once they were far enough and couldn''t hear me, I let a huge sigh of relief and looked at the piglin who had his crossbow pointed at me.


    "There''s no need to worry, it''s me Trader!"


    I took down my golden helmet so he could see my face better.


    "Big chief Trader! I''m sorry I didn''t recognize you, I thought you were gone for good back to your world."


    He got on his knee while explaining his situation, and to his credit, it''s really been a long time since I last visited their tribe. Especially when the leaders thought that I was dead.


    "No worries, I was about to visit your tribe but got lost, can you lead me to it?"


    "Of course Chief! Let me just finish preparing this hoglin and we can go."


    I nodded my head and let the hunter do it''s job, with amazing precision, he butchered the pig in no time.


    "That''s impressive, how much pork chops did you get from it?"


    "Only 6 chief, I heard there''s a looting sword with the brutes that give them more."


    How did they even get an enchanted sword? Was it by trading with the Stone Kingdom?


    I manking a few theories in my head on how could they have it otherwise, until I realized that It didn''t matter, when I get the chance I''ll get one for my tribe as well.


    With that out of the way, we left the red forest and walked back to the tribe.


    This took another half a day. On the way there I talked with Cobble, the piglin that went to hunt.


    Through him I found out the they they fully abandoned their territory in fear of not attracting the outsider''s revenge, but not too far so they''ll lose any potential trade with us.


    He was sent to hunt in other forests so there wouldn''t be any extinction for the local wildlife. It''s a healthy way of keeping their food supply going while not attracting too much attention to their new settlement.


    The people are doing good, there''s no problem with the new location, and with their new equipment, they can cover a larger area much easily.


    We finally arrived at the new place, and I was satisfied with what I saw.


    They found another weird cave system but this time they didn''t cover the entrance with blocks, instead it had two guards with full iron armor.


    We passed them with ease once their realized who I am, and now I was inside, some of their houses were made of grey stone which I can only assume they got them from trading with Bobby or getting permission to use the portal.


    With this, their defense was more resistant, especially against the Ghast fireball.


    Cobble led me to the biggest tree in the center of the tribe and let me be, on the wood there was a blue door.


    I took a big breth and knocked on the blue door.


    *knock knock


    I waited, until the door was abruptly opened.


    On the other side was Undying Flame with tired eyes.


    "What do yo- Who are you?"


    Suddenly her eyes came back to life and her posture got tense.


    "Don''t jump like that, it''s me Trader, see."


    I put my golden helmet in my inventory and I could see her tension leaving her body then being replaced by shock.


    "So you truly are alive."


    She said that to herself more than me.


    "Yes, and I''m here to see how everyone is doing, also I saw that you moved the tribe,and made it even better, there were even some blocks from our world, did you trade it with Bobby by any chance?"


    She didn''t answer, instead waved for me to get inside, and I followed.


    "We don''t really trade with him but we did get permission to use the mines from under the village, don''t worry, we didn''t touch the chests with the ores."


    She said with a serious voice.


    I half forgot that I have a stash of precious minerals ready to use. Maybe I should stop by Bobby''s village to get some materials to help with my leveling.


    I can also send a message to Bobby if that''s the case, I don''t want to meet with him face to face yet, but I want him to know that I''m alive and good.


    "Don''t worry, I didn''t accuse you of being thieves, I''m just curious if you can send a message to Bobby next time you meet him."


    "We don''t really trade with him, but we do communicate with his friend Toby. Maybe you can ask him to send the letter?"


    Well, I didn''t have any choice, so I asked for a book where so I could write the message and she gave it to me without a problem.


    I asked her if they had certain blocks that they would trade with me. And they did have, but she wanted to give them all for free.


    I refused that gift since I needed a few stacks, and I know how hard some of them can be gathered, I don''t want to starve the recently settled tribe.


    In the end, we both compromised white I''ll get some heavy discount while they also get paid.


    With that out of the way, I got all the materials that I needed and went to get some sleep.


    It was a long day and for the first time in a while, I managed to properly rest.


    That''s good, looks like talking with people does help me get better.


    The next day I talked with Undying to give me a guide to Bobby''s portal, and she agreed quite quickly which surprised me until I heard the reason.


    "Last time you went to the fortress without a fighter in your group, that ended up in an awkward situation. And from what little things Bobby has told me about you, is that you like to get yourself in trouble one way or another. At least if you do that, get yourself a good guard."


    I wanted to complain that I''m not that difficult but realized that I almost died at the skeleton fortress and actually died a little over a week ago.


    So I accepted her deal and sad down while she gave me something to eat.


    Half a day later, we talked about what happened in the past few months, I told her a few bits from the palace without the ending and she told me that her tribe was doing well.


    The outsiders were looking for them at the beginning but gave up after not finding any results. At this time they gathered resources, built homes, and marked territories, it was a very busy time for her, but she was happy to do it since it showed the progress of the tribe.


    On the way there I also thought about how I should use their ability to bypass the system skills to craft some items, but first I needed to get some diamonds.


    And since I''m visiting Bobby''s village, why won''t I use that mine.

 Chapter 61. Intruder

    Back into the Overworld cold air ran through my golden armor, and a pressure that I didn''t know existed suddenly disappeared from my shoulders.


    "It never ceases to amaze me, this world it''s so different from ours."


    "Yeah, I don''t know too much about other dimensions. I only know two more besides what you know. And they''re as weird as you think they can be."


    Unfortunately, I only know how to get to the End dimension, not my own dimension.


    We walk along the empty tunnels before arriving at the entrance, there a few chests filled with riches waited us.


    "I should''ve come here instead of starting another mine. Oh well, what''s done it''s done, Undying can you do me a favor?"


    I interrupted her gaze over the chests that had most of the gold, maybe I should give her some extra gold when I''ll pay for the recently made debt.


    "Sure, how can I help you?"


    "Can you craft me a diamond pickaxe?"


    "I can help you with that, but I don''t have those diamonds to craft with."


    From her reaction, I can tell she doesn''t know what diamonds are or how powerful they can be. I wonder how she''ll react if I tell her it''s the second-strongest ore in the game.


    I''ll leave it for another time, for now, I gave her the few diamonds that were in the ore chest.


    She got to work quickly and crafted my new diamond pickaxe, with this I can mine obsidian and get two important items.


    The enchanting table, and the ender chest.


    Unfortunately, I lost all the items upon my death and with that, all the valuables that I had.


    But I was wise enough to store some of my extra items in the Ender chest, in there I have a few rare ingredients especially the book with all the enchantments that I learned.


    "I''ll go to the surface to see if I can send the letter through someone, do you want to come with me or get back in the Nether?"


    "I just drank the regeneration potion not too long ago, so it would be a waste not to get out."


    With that, we both climbed the ladder and basked in the sunlight.


    "It''s fascinating how that ball of light it''s so powerful that I can feel its warmth from anywhere in the world, but it''s not as uncomfortable as lava heat."


    "That''s most likely because you live inside the planet unlike us, on the planet''s surface."


    "What does that mean?"


    "It''s very different from what I know, but what I do know is that I can see the sun in the sky, which means there''s a star bigger than the Earth at the perfect distance for life to thrive. In your world, you can''t see the sky, and if you try to mine upwards you''ll arrive at the true unbreakable block. But this only makes me wonder how the planet came to be in the first place."


    It almost feels like the Nether is actually a cage that nobody is supposed to get out of. You can''t get too high or too low, and from what little theories were I''m my old world, is that something changed when the first human made contact with this dimension and exploited it too much.


    "I didn''t know that, but this does sound like something Blue will love to hear."


    Blue is more of a scholar type indeed, unfortunately he was busy with a business trip with the brutes so we couldn''t meet.


    While they don''t get along usually, as long as you have gold to exchange they will go from your worst enemy to your best friend.


    That''s why they don''t trust them, but also trust them at the same time. As long as they know you have enough gold to keep coming back, they''ll be on your side and protect you if needed. But if they smell the lack of gold, they won''t hesitate to sell you to someone for a better price.


    And from the recent trade with me and Bobby, they have lots of gold to trade with, so they''ll be safe for now.


    I walked around the village in reminiscence of a simpler time, talked with the people here, and even said hi to the Iron Golem which only returned an empty look as always.


    In the end, I didn''t find Toby so I had to trust one of the Villagers to give it to him when he''ll visit this place.


    There weren''t a lot of great options to choose from unfortunately, the only one that I could somehow trust was the second in command for this village, Bob the librarian.


    Of course, I didn''t forget to trade with all the villagers at least once, I didn''t want to waste such an opportunity to gain some experience, and some precious emeralds.


    We went back to the mines and stopped in from of the portal.


    "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to get some obsidian. If you want you can wait in the Nether or come with me on this mining trip."


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Is that the block the portal is made of? You can use it for other stuff as well?"


    It didn''t escape my ears how excited she was about the source block of the portal. Even though her curiosity about the recipes was genuine as well, it was a good cover-up.


    Even though she most likely wanted to know how to make a portal, It didn''t bother me too much for a few reasons.


    One and the most straightforward one is that she doesn''t know how to open a portal, she knows the frame for one but doesn''t know that it needs fire to open up.


    Even if they found out about the process by accident that leads me to my second point, they can''t walk normally in the Overworld. Sure they can chug regeneration potions to keep them safe since their not obstructed by the system and every one can do it, ghast tears are not easy to farm, only a select individual can have this kind of luxury.


    But even if by luck they managed to spawn right beside a village to trade with not needing to explore the world, this brings me to my third point which is in her mind as well.


    They won''t find people as stupid as us to trade with. Because I mined all those resources in just a few weeks it doesn''t feel like I a lot, but actually, we are pretty rich by the standards of this world, I think I influenced Bobby a little with my casual way of wasting money and he''s not too bothered to see things my way.


    The only way to find a similar customer is a high noble or Royalty.


    And this brings me to my last point which I she doesn''t realize.


    There''s another group of people who know about this dimension, the people from the Stone Kingdom, but why don''t they seem too interested in exploring the new world, and conquering it?


    It''s a new world just for them to take after all!


    That''s because they don''t see a point in doing that, they have most of the things they need at the fortress.


    They can farm most of the potion ingredients in their home, and if they need some exotic items, they can be traded simply with the locals for them.


    There''s no point in conquering a world that is going to eat more resources than you can gain.


    But there''s one thing that can change that in an instant, and that''s the knowledge that the people from the Nether are not bound by the system limitations.


    If they knew about this, I''m sure they''d enslave every brute and piglin in a 1.000 blocks redios.


    This world would become their factory that only they have access to. It''s a very dangerous thing to know, and I think Bobby realized that and will keep his mouth shut as well.


    "There''s not a lot you can craft with it, but what you can do it''s pretty powerful. I only need an enchanting table and an Ender chest."


    "Both sound very powerful."


    "They kind of are in their own way. The enchanting table makes a normal tool or armor much stronger then it original would be. As for the Ender chest, well, it''s better to see it in person."


    With that, we both went deeper down the mine.


    I didn''t remember exactly where the last lava pool was. So we may got lost and we may had to fight a lot of monsters to get where we wanted.


    Of course, this wasn''t without results, we got a few good ores and I realized how much of a badass Undying actually was.


    She caught a skeleton arrow with one hand, how cool is that!


    This also made me realize that I should get some fighting lessons soon, so I can actually defend myself. My list of getting more powerful so I won''t die so easily, grows day by day.


    Finally, we found a lava lake so I showed her how to make obsidian, which greatly interested her.


    But as I mined the block we found a problem, or at least I found a problem. It was surprisingly hard to barke the annoying block.


    It took me 30 whole minutes just to break one stupid block!


    No wonder it''s believed to be unbreakable, if it takes me this much time to break it with a diamond pickaxe, a normal villager will take an hour and a half.


    Nobody wants to constantly hit a block for that long.


    I decided to take only four and get some more when I enchanted the pickaxe.


    After that long mining session we got back to the tribe in the Nether, of course not forgoting to craft the Enchanting table before we left.


    I traded for a few books with the villagers so I could make the whole setup at home.


    On the way back, nothing to eventful happened, so I was in the tribe in no time.


    "I think I''ll sleep here for today and tomorrow will get back to my base. Can you send me a guide to help me get back to where I met Cobble? Actually, I think it''s better if you know where my base is in case you want to contact me."


    "Sure, I''ll send someone tomorrow."


    With that I went to get some sleep, mining that much at one stupid block made me more tired than I thought.


    The next day I went to get back to my base, only to be surprised by my guide.


    It was Undying once again.


    "Aren''t you supposed to be busy with taking care of the tribe''s management?"


    "Yes, but I managed to do most of the urgent stuff since we got here, so now I''m going to take this as a mission to escort the ''Great Tribe Chief'' and expand our hunting area. Two ghast''s with one arrow."


    I didn''t want to argue over this, and she knows how to fight better then anyone I saw, so I couldn''t be in a better position then this, so I kept my mouth shut and went on our way.


    It took half a day to get to the red forest and another few hours to follow the cobblestone track back to my base.


    Undying was very vocal about how bad of an idea the track was and broke every block while showing me what signs their tribe used to mark their routes.


    But in the end, we arrived safely at a small netherock hill.


    "At least you were smart enough to cover your portal with a blending rock."


    "Thank you, I learned that from your people."


    She just nodded and we crossed the portal.


    A blinding white room greeted us as we stepped once again into the Overworld.


    "This is an interesting choice of design for your base."


    Undying walked in once she drank the regeneration potion.


    "It''s not just this room that represents my whole base. Also, it''s not finished yet, it would have a certain theme where your world will try to take over mine with corruption."


    "That''s... I don''t know how to feel about that."


    "Oh, sorry if it sounds bad, I only made this since I thought it would be a cool theme."


    "Sure..."


    We walked along the long hallway where she seemed to be impressed by the designs over the walls, especially the lava flowing beyond the iron bars.


    As I calmly walked towards the lobby I suddenly stopped.


    My heart started to beat faster, my head was suddenly a mess, have they found me?


    But that''s impossible, there''s literally no lead that would bring them here.


    But the proof is right in front of me, a person with full iron armor was in my secret base!


    "Who are you? What are you doing here?"


    I shouted more threatening than I expected, I also unconsciously took out my sword, ready for a fight.


    The armored person turned towards me surprised like I was not supposed to be here. Time seemed to slow down, and I could make more details from the sudden intruder, and something specifically caught my eye.


    This person didn''t have a big nose like a normal villager, actually there was no nose at all.


    But who could it be then?


    "Trader, is everything alright?"


    Undying was right behind me with her full iron armor and a golden enchanted axe, ready for a fight.


    "Wait, I can explain!"


    A feminine voice yalled back in panick.

 Chapter 62. The hero is here?

    "Wait, I can explain!"


    A feminine voice yelled in panic while raising her hands, with the stone sword still in one of them.


    "Well, I''m waiting."


    "I got lost in the forest, and night caught up with me, and this was the only place safe from the monsters."


    "What''s your name? And why are you so far from any settlements?"


    From what I know this is at the very edge of the monster''s territory, Bobby''s village is the border between the Stone Kingdom and the lost land, so I''m curious where she is from.


    She doesn''t have an iron sword, but she has a full set of iron armor. So she''s either a stupid rich kid who went to explore the unknown, or she is running away from someone and can''t afford a guard or a good sword.


    "My name is Merry Paper and I came with a caravan to trade with your people but I got separated from the group and now I''m lost."


    That story sounded awfully suspicious, it''s like I heard a similar story somewhere else.


    "What happened to your nose?"


    "What''s wrong with my nose? That''s how I was born with it."


    Yep, that settles it, she''s from another world like me, which means she''s a player and most likely the prophesied hero to save the world.


    Why is it here? Isn''t she supposed to spawn somewhere in the desert since that''s where the Pope lives?


    With a sigh, I put my sword back into my inventory taking off my golden helmet as well.


    "Undying, I have to discuss something with this intruder privately, you can look around the base until I scream for help or when were done."


    She looked at me surprised, then at Merry and back at me before lowering her fighting stance and passing both of us with the axe still in her hand.


    Once she was out of earshot I signed to Merry to follow back to the portal room.


    "So how long have you been in this world."


    "Wh-what do you mean in this world?"


    I turned around her and smirked.


    "Drop the act, there''s nobody around here with a nose like you or more exactly the lack of one."


    Surprised she raised her hand to feel her face only to realize that she didn''t have a nose.


    "Your friend had a small nose as well, why would my lack of one make me from another world?"


    "Because my friend there, is actually from another dimension. Which further proves my point."


    "Ok, but you don''t have a nose either, so what''s wrong with you then."


    "Because I''m also like you, I came from another world. I don''t know if we came from the same place though. Mine is a place called Earth and it looked nothing like this."


    Surprise appeared on her face, and I could see instantly how her guard dropped.


    "You''ve also been isekaied! Oh geez and here I thought I was someone special that can live their fantasy dream. How many of us are there? Are we that common?"


    I don''t know how I should feel about her reaction, she didn''t mention that she is in a game but uses novel terms. Maybe she doesn''t know she''s in a game?


    "We''re not as common as you think, I only know about me and you. And there''s a high chance that I''m here by accident while you are the hero of this world."


    Her face lit up with excitement like she wanted to hear this from the very start.


    "Ok, I know certain tropes are overdone, but I also know I''m not in a world that I''m familiar with. I think we are in a game, do you know it by any chance?"


    So she didn''t know after all, which I''m surprised since the game is pretty popular. But that means I''ll have to explain it to her.


    "Yes, we did spawn into a game world, I''m surprised you don''t know about it, so here''s the gist."


    I then told her about Vanilla Minecraft, about what you can build and what you can''t, about the animals and the monsters, about the villagers and their trading system, about the fact that there are three dimensions tied to each other in one way or another, and that were players so we can respawn and also act like a demigod between mortals.


    "That''s the game before I got here, it tends to do some updates from time to time but I don''t know if they''re including as well. Are we from the same time at least?"


    "Yeah, I''m pretty sure we''re from the same decade at least. But from what you''ve told me, there''s no plotline in this game, sure there are villagers you can trade with but the only enemies they have are the monsters and the pillagers. Do I have to defeat the Piligers?"


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "No no, what I told you was the version of the game in our world, this world is different but still somewhat similar."


    Then I told her what I found out about this world. I told her about the three nations in this world, and about how villagers are almost like us but also different enough to be apart from them.


    How we brake and place blocks faster than them, and we have four skills instead of two like everyone in this world.


    I then told her about the prophecy, about how a Monster Lord would appear to destroy this world, and how the system would summon a hero to help defeat it.


    "Wait, but doesn''t that mean you can be the hero since you came before me?"


    "No, the prophecy it''s pretty recent actually, and the people know that a person will appear after the new year. And your the person that recently spawned in this world."


    She gave a big sigh while massaging her forehead.


    "Ok, that''s a lot of information to process. If this was a novel it would be a pretty interesting start, but kind of underwhelming since I know all the information without someone trying to guilt trip me into saving this world."


    "That''s surprisingly a common trope, so what do you want to do? I can help you get to the Sandstone kingdom, just don''t tell them about me. I''m dead in their eyes."


    Quite literally actually.


    "So you have a mysterious past, that''s interesting, care to share it?"


    Why do I have a feeling she thinks I''m a character with a tragic back story that needs to be understood?


    "Maybe another time, so what do you want to do?"


    She started to think intensely about her future for a good 10 minutes before she made a final decision.


    "I don''t think I''m ready for this world yet, and you seem to know a lot more than me. Is it ok if I stay with you until I think I''m ready to save this world?"


    I''m surprised how easily she wants to take the role of a hero, I don''t think I would be that comfortable to have such heavy responsibilities on my shoulders. Sure I would help my friends Bobby and Froggy at the drop of a hat no problem, but it''s not the same as saving everyone in the world.


    But I don''t see a reason to refuse her, and on the plus side, I don''t have to be alone in one of the most confusing times of my life.


    "Sure I don''t have a problem with that. Right now I''m building my underground base as you can see. You can help me as well while learning the ropes around this new world."


    I raised my hand towards her for a handshake, which made her confused before understanding what I intended.


    It''s safe to say it was an awkward handshake without palms or fingers but a handshake nonetheless.


    "Undying, you can come here now!"


    A few moments later a woman in full iron with a small nose, red hair, and dangerous eyes walks into the room.


    "I''m guessing everything went well with the surprised guest?"


    "Yeah, she is actually from my homeland which is a surprise for me. I thought I was the only mad lad that would want to cross this dangerous forest."


    Her expression relaxed as she finally understood she was not a threat. I think the fact she wore iron armor made her more tense than usual.


    Can''t blame her with that. She has a lot of unpleasant experiences with the outsiders.


    "What do you think about my place?"


    "It has an interesting design, very different from the capital or the usual city. I think it would fit pretty well with our world. Though I''m guessing it''s still under construction."


    I can understand why she thinks this design would fit her world more than this one, with all the lava flowing as a light source.


    "Yeah, that''s why I went to the Nether to get some blocks. Since you''re here do you want to see how enchanting works? I can see you already have an enchanted axe, if you want I can put some more enchants on it."


    She looked surprised at my sudden offer, but still accepted. And it may be sudden but I have a reason for the offer, with this I can teach both of them about Enchantment in one fell swoop.


    And I hope it would makes Undying less tense around Merry.


    But the second reason and probably the main one is because of a realization.


    Undying came with me as a guide, but I want her to craft me an Ender chest before she leaves. I planned to put the enchanting setup and put the highest level of efficiency on my diamond pickaxe.


    With that, then go to mine obsidian but this time much faster.


    But here''s the problem, I don''t know how to write an Efficiency book, which means I have to get the eight blocks of obsidian the normal way, which would take 4 whole hours!


    I like to mine long enough that I forget the notion of time, but I don''t like to do it on a single block.


    So I plan to use this enchanting lesson to convince the girls to help me mine that annoying block.


    Is this manipulation?


    Probably, but it''s not like they lose too much in this deal so I don''t feel that bad.


    I originally planned the enchanting room to be close to the portal room, but it doesn''t make any sense, and I''m too lazy to mine another room.


    So I''ll merge it with the End storage room since there''s not a lot of items I can have from that dimension anyway.


    We went to the empty room and placed the enchanting setup.


    "This is the enchanting table, it''s crafting recipe is four obsidian blocks, two diamonds, and one book. It''s a very expensive item in this world, so don''t think it''s something everyone can make. This block uses lapiz as its fuel to enchant something permanent or temporary. Another important part of this setup it''s the shelves around the enchanting table, they need to be exactly one block apart from it and you craft it with three books and six plank wood."


    Merry tried to absorb as much information as possible, while Undying gave a nod of understanding.


    "That''s a lot of wood for only one block, wouldn''t be more cost-effective to just do then manually?"


    "Oh that''s another suspicious stew that we won''t talk about today, the short answer is no, the long answer is complicated."


    I then took a page out of my inventory and started to write the enchantments for Fortune 1. I worked so much with the first-level enchantments that I memorized all three of them like the back of my hand, unfortunately, the higher-level ones I kind of cheated so I haven''t managed to memorize them yet.


    "This whole page is Fortune 1 enchantment. I can enchant it like this and get a temporary enchantment that lasts for around a week, or I can put it in an empty book as the first page and get a permanent enchantment."


    "It looks like a simple process but I bet it''s more complicated than it looks."


    Merry seems to be the talkative type while Undying just listens in silence. I gave them the page to study before putting it in a book and throwing it at the enchanting table.


    The action seems to confuse the girls, but the book doesn''t hit the floor, instead, it starts to float gently while holographic runes move from the bookshelf to the book.


    It was a short process, with the end leaving a closed book with pulsating light.


    "This is a Fortune 1 enchanted book, it increases the probability of getting multiple ores from one block by a certain percentage. The higher the level is, the better the chances are."


    Both of them seemed surprised by the event, but Merry''s mouth was wide open while looking at the book in my hand. I could then hear her quietly speaking.


    "This world has magic, I hit the jackpot."


    I gave them the book to look through and Merry spoke again, this time with a very loud voice.


    "Trader, you have to teach me magic!"


    How did she even get that name?


    I didn''t even introduce myself, and this name keeps hunting me.

 Chapter 63. Teaching how to live a game

    I assured Merry that I''d teach her what I know, but she would probably be disappointed.


    I made five more books with Fortune 1 and combined them to get a Fortune 3 pickaxe. It was a little expensive on my levels but luckily I had someone that has over 100 levels named Undying Flame who isn''t using them, so why let them go to waste?


    "Thanks for the help girls, do you want to see the pickaxe work in action."


    I tried to ask them with the best innocent smile I could give, but for some reason, they seemed to be on guard all of a sudden.


    They both looked at each other and gave a nod.


    "I guess it would be interesting to see."


    I don''t think they fell for my innocent smile, but they still accepted so that''s good.


    We went down the tunnel and searched for a cave system, on the way there I explained about the underground, and how it''s split into two parts.


    The one above zero is mostly made of stone that is easy to break with a good pickaxe and the ones below zero which is mainly deep slate, huge cave systems, and a lot of small lava lakes.


    I also told them the ranks for ores when used for tools.


    A wooden pickaxe is only used to get cobblestone.


    A stone pickaxe it''s stronger but still only useful until you get some iron ore.


    The golden pickaxe it''s the least popular to use since it''s as strong as a stone pickaxe, less durable than one, and rare to find. The only good thing about it it''s that it has high countability with enchanting.


    Next is the most used one worldwide, the iron pickaxe. You can break any blocks except for a select few, and easy to find In any cave system. When you have this, you can say you are playing in the big leagues.


    The diamond pickaxe is the pinnacle of this world, there''s only one block you can''t break and that''s the bedrock which is at the bottom of the world. I''m guessing the core of the planet is after that unbreakable layer.


    And the most powerful tool is made with Netherite. It has the same power as the diamond one with Knocknack absorption as default and can''t be burned in lava.


    "Netherite? Is it somehow related to Netherite scrap?"


    Undying seems surprised by the use of that useless material, especially something so powerful.


    "I''m not surprised you don''t know about this. You have to combine it with gold ingots to get a Neithrite Ingot, and with a special table, you''ll combine it with a diamond tool or armor to get the Netherite counterpart. And look here we have some gold ore, who wants to break it?"


    "I''ll do the honors!"


    Undying seemed more excited about this than I expected, she took the pickaxe from my hand and hit the ore with a precision I did not expect.


    Not too long after the block disappeared and a few gold ores disappeared into her inventory.


    "That''s weird, it gave me three gold ores instead of gold nuggets. And it''s a lot less than I expected."


    "Oh, I can see the confusion. In the Nether when you mine for gold you get gold nuggets, and with nine of them, you can craft a gold Ingot. But with this gold ore, you can smelt it and get a gold Ingot for one."


    Her eyes were wide in shock and looked at the items in her hand which seemed to get heavier all of a sudden.


    "No wonder you have so many riches at Bobby''s village. It''s just so easy to get them."


    Well, I can''t deny it, but it''s not like anyone can mine as fast as me, so even if they have all the knowledge that I have, they won''t be able to get the same results.


    We entered the cave system and presented them with all the ores we found, they mined some iron, coal, copper, and even lapiz.


    But I was still looking for diamonds, so I could make two more pickaxes.


    "Now we''re entering new territory, well light the tunnels with torches while keeping an eye out for monsters."


    Like it was a signal, a zombie just passed the corner and saw us.


    Like a hungry animal, it came toward us with the intention to kill.


    "This is a perfect opportunity for you Merry, you''re going to fight with the zombie. Here take my sword, well be right behind you in case something happens."


    She was taken aback by the sudden mission but took the sword and was ready to fight.


    She wants to be the hero after all, and her job is to fight the Monser Lord. Better to start somewhere where it''s safe, then learn the hard way through trial and error.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    The zombie changed his target to the one moving towards him.


    With careful steps Merry got into a defense position, she didn''t have a shield so she had to be more careful even though her armor would protect her pretty well.


    "Die!"


    All of a sudden she bolted towards the enemy and stabbed it in the head, the zombie froze for a moment before moving once again but much slower.


    In a panic, she tried to take the sword back but got stuck in the head, so her next course of action was to push it to the side hitting the walls of the cave.


    Surprisingly the sword cut the rest of the head which made the undead truly dead and Merry still with an adrenaline rush.


    "I don''t want to sound ungrateful but the fight was too easy."


    "That''s because you have the equipment of a middle or high noble, and you fought one of the weakest monsters."


    "So this was an overkill."


    "Kind of, but not for the reason you''re thinking. While they''re the weakest of them all, they usually come in great numbers on the surface, so an overkill will only make you tired and the rest of the swarm can finish the job with sufficient time. Also, not all zombies are the same, some of them can give you a status effect like hunger, where you''ll rapidly get more hungry and more tired. You can see if you are affected by anything on your Status page."


    We went further down the mine where we had a couple more fights, zombies or skeletons.


    I let her try the shield, axe, and even a crossbow, but I had to give Undying the torch there since she knows how to fight better than me anyway.


    "So when you fight someone with full armor try to shoot where''s an opening. People are expecting to be attacked at the helmet, but a good strategy is to shoot at their arms, they usually don''t guard those very well and it would greatly reduce their movement."


    "Fascinating, I can''t wait to try this."


    Both of them seem to be bound over the art of fighting, and it makes me happy but also scares me since it was a violent topic.


    Finally, we arrived at the place I wanted, a lava lake with a diamond vine not too far from it.


    "It''s here! Ladies, in front of you it''s the most valuable ore in this whole world. The diamond."


    They look in amazement at the gray block with a few pixels of light blue squares.


    "Perfect, now go check the perimeter while I dig around the block."


    "I don''t think there''s anyone here to steal the diamonds, we''re pretty deep underground after all."


    "I''m not worried about someone stealing the diamonds, I''m more worried about- Oh not you don''t!"


    A creeper ran from the dark part of the cave full speed towards us, I took my crossbow out and shot it right in the temple which made him stop his dash.


    Before the girls took out their weapons to attack it, I ran towards it and kicked it away.


    The kick was powerful so he flew back while getting bigger and bigger before exploding with a powerful boom.


    A small crater was created but everyone was safe.


    "What was that!?"


    "That is the creeper, one of the most annoying mobs in this world, they tend to blow themselves up with their enemies, and for some reason, they always find you when you''re too distracted with shiny diamonds."


    "It looked quite familiar, but the explosion helped me remember it as well. Your world is dangerous as well if you have this kind of monsters."


    Looks like Undying has some experience with them, I wonder from where.


    "They''re not that common, but if you manage to kill one before they explode then you can get gunpowder, and with that, you can make explosives and fireworks."


    "They have guns here as well?"


    "Not really, at least not that I''m aware of."


    "But the name..."


    "Don''t know what to tell you, it''s just its name."


    Undying looked weirdly at the interaction between me and Merry but didn''t question anything.


    Instead, she looked around the area so we didn''t have any more surprises.


    While they were busy doing that I mined around the diamond vein, and I was in luck, no surprise lava underneath and it was a four-vein block.


    I needed a few more to make the last two pickaxes but with Fortune 3 there''s a high chance of getting it.


    The girls came back and looked at me as I mined the diamonds with a wide smile on my face.


    Any player no matter how old or new they are, will always feel excited to mine diamonds, and I''m no exception.


    I didn''t have a lot of luck this time unfortunately, I got seven diamonds from this, but it''s enough for what I need so I''m satisfied.


    "Undying can you craft me two more diamond pickaxes?"


    "Sure, no problem Trader."


    I put the crafting table down and gave her some sticks and diamonds.


    After a few hits later I had three powerful pickaxes in my inventory.


    "Now that we got that out of the way, I''ll show you how to make obsidian."


    I took a bucket of water from my inventory and let it flow over the lava, instantly making it obsidian.


    "Wait, how is that bucket holding so much water, why is it still flowing? There''s no more water in the bucket but it''s still flowing water, What''s going on!?"


    Merry started to be more and more confused as the process was going. And I didn''t realize how weird the concept of infinite water and lava is, because I''m too used to the game logic.


    Well, I usually don''t try to think too much about this world system and how it works, for the good of my mental health.


    "What you see in front of you it''s a source of water, you can pick it up with a bucket and move it somewhere else. You can also do this with lava, but it moves slower and has a smaller range of spreading."


    "That''s-, why-, how?"


    She seemed even more confused after my explanation, it was so bad that her brain shut down when there was no logical to answer.


    Poor girl, she better get used to this quickly or she won''t survive the rest of the world.


    "Anyone curious how a normal diamond pickaxe feels like? We have some obsidian blocks to test it as well."


    From the look Undying gave me, she must''ve realized what I wanted to do, but accepted the pickaxe with a smirk on her face.


    She saw how much I suffered mining it last time so she knows what to expect.


    Jokes on her, it would be much worse on her part, than on ours so it would still be a surprise.


    "I mean it''s the second strongest pickaxe, I''m curious what''s the difference when it''s not enchanted."


    So she took the tool out of my hand not seeing my hidden smile.


    We started to hit the dark blocks with excitement, a few swings later it slowed down to a normal pace, and a few more swings later a confused voice spoke.


    "I think we got scammed Trader, the last blocks got broken after a few good swings, but I don''t see any progress with this block."


    "Don''t stop swinging or you''re gonna lose the progress. And no we didn''t get scammed that''s how it''s supposed to work. Do you remember when I said there are a few blocks you can only break with a diamond pickaxe or netherite?"


    "Yes."


    "Well this is one of them and I also kind of lied. You can theoretically break it with anything but you won''t get the drop."


    "Ok, but that didn''t answer my question."


    "Well, this block is considered an unbreakable block for this world because a few people know how to break it. But the reason most people think it''s unbreakable it''s because it takes a lot of time to break it."


    "How long are we talking about?"


    "Half an hour for me and you, and an hour and a half for Undying. "


    Both of them stopped from hitting the block.


    "You tricked us!"


    "Don''t stop mining or you''re going to lose your progress!"


    "Ughh!"


    The mining sounds continued through the cave, and I amused myself with the idea that I wouldn''t be suffering alone in this.


    Maybe I should do this more often, it''s kind of fun.

 Cheaper 64. Chosen path

    We''ve been mining for an hour in silence, the only noise was the echo of our pickaxes hitting the dark block.


    "Trader."


    "Yes?"


    "I''m bored, how many blocks do you need?"


    "For an ender chest, I need eight, we have four already so we''re halfway there."


    "Do you think it would break faster if we all mined the same block?"


    The conversation didn''t break the rhythm of our mining, but I didn''t respond quickly this time.


    "I don''t know honestly, but I think we could try."


    "Finally a break from this monotony!"


    "Undying doesn''t stop mining your block, You''re two-thirds done, it would be a waste of time if the experiment doesn''t work."


    She didn''t say anything but nodded her head.


    Surprisingly she didn''t seem bored or tired, she needed to take another potion of regeneration a few minutes ago, but the pickaxe was still moving.


    "Ok, I''ll do wider swings and you''ll time it so when I''m up, you''re hitting down and vice versa."


    Merey just nodded her head, fully concentrating on the block.


    I started to hit more towards the edge so it could be easier for her to join.


    A few seconds later two people were working at one block.


    Slowly we got used to the swings and we didn''t have any problems.


    Around ten minutes later the block surprisingly broke.


    "I can''t believe this worked. The time must be halved since we both have the same power."


    "I''m a genius indeed."


    She spoke with a smug on her face.


    "A genius indeed, but we still need three more blocks to get back to mining."


    One hour later we were finally done with gathering the materials and ready to craft.


    I gave everything to Undying and told her the recipe for the Endereye and the Ender''s chest.


    As instructed she placed everything on the table, and with a few hits, I had an Ender chest in my inventory.


    "So what''s so important about this chest that we had to work so hard for?"


    While her body seemed a bit tired, Merry''s voice did not show it.


    "I''ll show you once we get back to my base, I don''t think you want to stay here for another 15 minutes to break it."


    So we went back to the surface, while we were tired we did stop from time to time when we saw a dark tunnel with the potential of monsters.


    When the monsters appeared, I let Merry deal with them. She will need a lot of combat experience for what is about to come, and she seems to enjoy it, or maybe she let''s out the pent up stress.


    I also taught her how to get items recognized by the system.


    "Wait, so you''re telling me that people from here will only take the string from a spider and its eyes just because it''s the only item you can stack in the inventory? That''s so wasteful and stupid."


    "That''s what most of the people do, from what I heard only the Coral Kingdom trades for other parts as well, but you have to understand something. Yes, you use eight blocks of plank wood for one chest, but it''s so easy to grow wood here with the help of some bone meal. And even if you want to make one yourself, it would take hours of working for something vastly inferior to what the system can do."


    "But if you master the craft I''m sure you can do something better than the system."


    "That''s probably true, but it won''t be as quick or as cheap as the system will make."


    "This is a weird system."


    We slowly progressed through the caves until finally, we got back to my storage area, where I put down the Ender''s chest.


    "Well it looks cool at least, so what''s so special about it?"


    "Go look into the chest."


    Merry opened the dark chest and tried to look for something but its inventory was empty.


    Stolen story; please report.


    "It has the same storage as a normal small chest but it''s empty."


    "What do you mean it''s empty?"


    With a shocked face, I went to open the chest and took out a golden apple while looking confused at Merry.


    While I died and lost all my items in the stupid desert, I still stored some that I didn''t need in the Ender chest, most of them being alchemy ingredients.


    "Wha-how!? I just looked through it and there was nothing. How did you find a golden Apple?"


    She quickly went back to check the chest in case she didn''t see a second page or something similar, but it was still empty.


    "Ok, you''re playing with us, you took that out of your inventory."


    "Why would I do that? Look I''ll put the Apple back so you can try it as well."


    I then put it back into the chest while she looked confused about why I did this, but still went to check to chest.


    Only time find it empty.


    "Am I seeing things? Undying please check this chest as well, I think I''m losing my mind."


    Curious to see what was all the fuss, Undying went to check the chest as well but had an interesting reaction.


    "I see, I think I get it now."


    "Did you see the apple?"


    "No, the chest is empty."


    "Ok, that''s it! Sorry Trader, it does look pretty but I think this chest is sexist and it needs to be broken."


    "Wait, wait wait, don''t do that! We just got it as well."


    "I don''t care, it''s getting broken."


    She took her pickaxe and was ready to hit but Undying spoke first.


    "This chest gives you an inventory only you can use right? That''s why we can''t see the apple since it''s in your storage area."


    "Exactly! And not only that but whenever I break the chest or place another anywhere else around the world, I still have access to the same storage."


    "" Ohh.""


    "So it''s something like a safe, I can see why this can be valuable. If I don''t have enough space in my inventory but I don''t want to leave precious items out in the open, I can just put it in here and it would be completely safe."


    Both girls understood the value of Ender''s chest, and its full potential will be reached when I put some shulker boxes in to make it larger.


    But that''s a plan for the future, now I only need this chest so I have access to all the alchemy ingredients I stored to level up my Brewing skills.


    "Do you need help with anything else Trader? If not I think I''m going to have to leave, my stuck potions are running low and it could be dangerous if I stay here."


    "Ah, sorry Undying, I don''t need any more help, thank you for coming with me, say hi to Bobby if you meet him."


    "It was no problem Great Chief."


    With that, she left in a hurry towards the portal room and got back to her home dimension.


    "So what''s the plan for today Great Chief?"


    Merry said in a cheeky tone, and a smile on her face.


    I guess that''s her way of getting revenge for the chest prank.


    "Well, I planned to continue my underground base, before moving towards building the fortress on the surface. After I''m finished with all of those I''ll do some grinding on my skills. But with you here I think I''ll have to make some changes, what do you want to learn about?"


    "I was thinking of getting a few levels on the Crafting skill so I can make my weapons. What would be the most efficient way?"


    "Oh, you came to the right person for this here''s what I know about the Crafting system and what you can do at what levels."


    I tried to explain what you can craft with and what you can''t, how much experience you get for certain items, and what''s more cost-effective to craft.


    But it all can be summarized like this:


    - Experience requirements for each level


    Lvl 1 0/100


    Lvl 2 0/1.000


    Lvl 3 0/10.000


    Lvl 4 0/100.000


    Lvl 5 0/1.000.000


    Lvl 6 0/10.000.000


    Lvl 7 0/100.000.000


    -What you can roughly craft at each level


    Lvl 1 can craft wooden tools


    Lvl 2 can craft stone tools


    Lvl 3 can craft food


    Lvl 4 can craft with iron


    Lvl 5 can craft with redstone


    Lvl 6 can craft gold tools


    Lvl 7 can craft diamant tools


    -What to expect the grind to look like


    Wooden tool- 10 xp


    Stone tools- 50 xp


    Iron tools- 100 xp


    Gold tools- 300 xp


    "Wait, this will take me ages to get to the good stuff, and you didn''t even mention at what level the Nethorite tools at. How can I make my items and save the world at the same time?"


    "Yeah, it''s one of the hardest skills to master, unfortunately. As for Nethorite items, I can only guess it''s on the same level as diamonds, since nobody can go higher than level 7 in any skill."


    She sat down in disappointment thinking about what her next course of action will be.


    I gave her the space to think and went to arrange the new items I just got. I still needed to finish my base after all.


    A few minutes later she came to me with a final decision.


    "I decided to focus on Enchanting, our world has its way of crafting things, potions can be similar to drugs, and trading is pretty self-explanatory but we don''t have something so magical like Enchanting. And if I''m in another world I''ll learn stuff specific to another world not the same thing as my old world."


    I gave a big sigh, of all the options she could choose it was the exact one that I knew the least and had the worst memories of learning it.


    I only know four enchantments Fortune, Unbreaking, Sharpness, and Curse of Biding.


    Of course, I''ll teach her only the first three, I don''t want to get her in trouble with the knowledge of the cursed book.


    Fortunately, I do have everything that I know written in a book, so I can teach her the language before starting to enchant.


    "I don''t know a lot about Enchanting, and what I do know has a very weak base. Here''s what I can do, I can teach you the alphabet, and the few enchantments that I know, but you''ll have to go to the Sandstone Kingdome to learn everything else. The royal family will gladly teach you anything you want to know, but you''ll lose most of your freedom, you can also try to find a tutor but I don''t know too much about that. But if you do go to the Royal Family, don''t ever mention my name."


    "That''s weird, but I guess I''ll stay with you for a while to get used to this world, then go to an academy from the Sandstone kingdom to learn further then save the world, yeah that sounds like a common trope I can get behind."


    She still sees this world like a fantasy story where the main character is her, which leads her to not take this world''s dangers that seriously.


    And I can''t blame her, I also thought this world was just a game until I died. Even when I got revived and now know that I still have one more life to spare, that was an experience that I never want to go through again.


    I still don''t recognize this world as my new home, but I do recognize that it has its dangers even if it looks easy.


    And now with a new danger rising, the world will get more dangerous and further away from what I know.


    My only hope is that my friends will be safe, and I''ll get strong enough to protect myself and everyone I care about.


    "Well, let''s get you a pen and some paper to learn how to write once again. But this time you have to be stuck with the same handwriting all your life."


    I smiled at her innocent hopeful look.


    She doesn''t know for the next few weeks she''ll just learn at a first-grade level of writing each character individually.


    Maybe It would be fun to teach after all.

 Chapter 65. Learning magic

    POV: Merry Paper


    It''s been a month since I''ve been in this bizarre world and I have to say that I have mixed feelings.


    On Earth, I like to read a lot of fantasy novels, especially the ones where people are reincarnated in another world. And my shock when I first got here was off the charts, I was so happy that I didn''t know what to do at the moment.


    It was a little different than I expected, the world was truly different from whatever I knew about fantasy.


    The first night was scary but also started a fire in me, I like to have a weapon in my hands and actually use it.


    I like the fact that I have a System, even if it limits me more unlike other novels I read.


    I''m also a little ashamed to admit, but when I found out that I''m the Hero of this world, I was beyond happy.


    I know the trope is so overused that the new heroes have to be either mistreated, tricked, or even forced to be in this role.


    But I''m a sucker for old stories where I take a sword slay a dragon and save a princess, which in my case will be a prince, but I''ll worry about that later.


    Unfortunately, my dreams were a little crushed when my senior Trader told me it''s not that fantasy-like.


    We are in a different world, but this one is based on a game, and usually, those have a different set of rules and storylines.


    I can save helpless people, but usually, the hero of the story is a glorified mailman.


    Not so much fun.


    I asked him about this world, about the adventures he went through to see if I could see a pattern, maybe this could be a romance story.


    And he talked a lot about the world, but a little about what adventures he went through.


    But the little stuff he told me was entering enough for me that I wanted to go and explore the world now.


    This world is weird but has great potential. It doesn''t have elves or dwarves as different races, instead, it has what he calls villagers, but it''s best to say, normal people.


    I can easily recognize one of them by their big nose and big head, but otherwise, you can communicate normally with them.


    We share the same system but we have something extra than the average villager.


    We have more space in our inventory, we can brake and place three times faster than them, we have four skills while they have three, and while we have access to all of them at once, a normal villager can have access to two skills in one lifetime.


    The people like my new friend Undying are apparently from a different dimension, where everywhere is lava and anything can kill you if you''re not careful.


    But they look very different from the average villager, they have smaller noses, but still visible.


    I''m also curious about Trader himself. I''m not going to lie, I''m a little disappointed that I''m not the first person to be transferred in this world, but I think it''s for the best.


    This world is a game he knows about after all, and even if it''s a little different than what he remembers, he''s likely an overpowered character who''s isolated himself in the mountains because he doesn''t want to deal with the rules of society.


    Nobody knows he''s here, except for a few select people, and if a foolish nobel makes the mistake of angering him, he''ll unleash hell upon this world.


    So it''s a good thing that my first teacher is someone who knows forbidden knowledge about the world and doesn''t mind sharing it with me.


    The combat in this world it''s also fun, and the enchantments on my weapons also add to that feeling.


    What''s not so fun about that is learning the actual enchantments.


    Sure I got into a college that requires me to memorize pages upon pages of financial data. But learning how to write it''s something I did not expect to be so hard.


    I specifically chose this skill so I don''t have to craft the same stuff hours upon hours only to see some numbers go up.


    Instead, now I have to write the same character hours upon hours and my numbers won''t even go up. What a fun challenge I choose for myself.


    But it doesn''t matter anymore, because I''ve memorized everything I could and today I will start enchanting.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Finally, I''ll see that magic happen right in front of my eyes once again, but this time, I''ll be the one to do the honors.


    I looked around the enchanting room, the place I spent most of my time in the past month.


    It''s greatly changed from the first time Trader put the enchanting table down.


    The floor had a simple design of wood, stone brick, and blue carpet, the walls were made of blue-colored wood with bookshelves on all sides.


    Surprisingly the books on the shelves were already written, and we can''t read what it says, and from what Traders says it''s because all the floating transparent letters came from those books.


    Unfortunately, we can''t erase the writing in the books to have an infinite amount of them, but we can use the bookshelves to store normal books, it would just lose its effectiveness for the enchanting table.


    The ceiling was all just different models of brick stones and blue lanterns as a light source.


    I left the room, past the two storage areas, past the tunnels that lead to an underground farm, and stayed in front of a wooden door.


    I took a deep breath and held it in before opening the door and quickly passed it remembering to close it behind me.


    A wave of water washed over me as the door was closed, before I could even get used to the new sensation, bubbles attacked me from underneath, lifting me up slowly before gaining more and more speed as the tunnel came to an abrupt end throwing me out on the air, but with practiced movement I landed safely on solid ground.


    I finally let my breath out, it wasn''t for a long time but it always felt like an eternity.


    Right beside the hole in the ground, there were four magma blocks in a square shape, where I lay down and waited for my clothes to dry.


    "I can never get used to this stupid water elevator Trader made. He had to cover the old entrance to make this new and ''cool'' way to get to the secret base. He couldn''t just use stairs like any normal person, it had to be a magical elevator that uses blocks from another dimension with gallons upon gallons of water. And I now have to lay down to dry my clothes, but also be careful not to put too much pressure on a block, otherwise I''ll get burned."


    This world is weird but also fun.


    For the past month, I''ve seen a lot of this world, Trader had finished his underground and above-ground base, but it wasn''t easy.


    Especially for this water elevator, we had to go to a big Lake to get the necessary water, it was a week-long trip where I saw different kinds of biomes, the dangers of the night plus a lot of experience on what to do if I get lost in the woods.


    The Nether was fun as well, we didn''t stay a lot there, but it was as dangerous and hot as it was advertised. I can''t believe Undying lived there her whole life, I hope I can meet her soon and ask her to teach me how to fight.


    Trader knows how to fight, but I don''t like his style. It''s too... under the belt.


    He uses potions whenever he can, builds a defense wall so I lose track of him then shoots me with his crossbow from the top of the structure.


    It''s very annoying to fight against him, and I haven''t won once, but I''m sure I can if I get a good grip on that guy.


    I just let out a sigh.


    My clothes were dried so I got up and pressed a button on the wall.


    Suddenly the sounds of pistons working broke the silence, and the wall before me split into two letting me enter the fortress.


    I walked along the empty hallway while the walls closed behind me like it wasn''t even there.


    While annoying, it''s always cool to see.


    I looked around the fortress and finally found Trader in the Brewing room, where six brewing stands were almost always running with potions of any kind.


    He sat on a chair while reading from a book without a worry in the world.


    "Trader! I''m sick of doing the same pages for hours, I''m not in college anyone, I wanted to escape that reality when I came here, not getting back to it."


    The book disappeared from his hand like magic, and with a big sigh, he looked at me.


    "I guess I''ve done all I could already, let''s get you some levels then."


    A smile appeared on my face, finally, I''m going to enchant my own sword, I refused to use too many tools enchanted by Trader so it feels like I did it instead of relying only on him.


    We got back to the underground base, but most of my excitement cooled off once I had to sit again on the magma blocks to dry my clothes.


    "Stupid water elevator."


    "Hey, I''ve worked so hard to build this, so we''re going to use it."


    I cursed under my breath hoping for him to hear me, but no reaction to my frustration.


    Finally, we were in the enchanting room, this time Trader didn''t hide the lapiz from me so I could put it on the enchanting table.


    The book started to come to life, flipping pages at an unbelievable speed, and whenever it stopped, there were only unknown runes written on it.


    "Well, you know the way, put the chosen page in a book and toss it to the enchanting table."


    This was the moment I waited from the first time I saw it, but doubt started to creep on me.


    What if I made a mistake, what if all the work I''ve been piling up for the past few weeks will lead only to wasted time?


    I threw the book without looking at the results, I could hear a sound, not the sound of a book hitting the ground but of floating latter''s getting cramped in one book.


    "I did it! Trader I did it!"


    "Of course you did it, you worked so hard for it, why wouldn''t it work?"


    He slowly clapped for a while then got closed to pick up the book from the ground.


    "Sharpness 1, that''s so like you to choose this. Well, you still have a lot of pages to go through so why not start the fun part of enchanting? After all, you worked all month for this."


    I didn''t say no to that, I put page after page on the enchanting table, and most of them worked while others didn''t.


    I''ll have to look at them later to see what was the problem


    Once I passed my first level I put another page in the empty book for higher gain in experience.


    Slowly I was running out of normal books, but Trader had a solution for that as well.


    Just grind the enchanting of the book, don''t question the process just do what needs to be done.


    I passed the second level, now I can put three pages, all the knowledge that I accumulated in the past month. It''s not a lot from what Trader told me, but it''s enough to get through the early levels.


    The process took a while, I tried to look more closely at what was happening, why the enchanting table needed bookshelves to produce higher levels of enchanting, and why it used lapiz as its fuel.


    And can I make an enchantment on my body if I understand what this whole process does to this world?


    I didn''t share my ideas with Trader, he''s an honest guy who would share with me those secrets if they were any, so that means it''s uncharted territory even for him.


    But that doesn''t mean it''s a hopeless endeavor. Most fantasy books juggle around with the concept that you can use magic in an unconventional way if you think outside the box.


    And I want to do that, I want to find something that even Trader doesn''t know.


    I want to prove that it wasn''t wasted time when I read all those books.

 Chapter 66. Lord of monsters

    POV: Zombie Lord


    In the beginning, there was Nothing, but for the existence of Nothing there has to be something to exist, it felt in its very nature.


    But Nothing was selfish and didn''t want to share anything with a creation that defied it.


    It tried to fight against its very nature but in the end, decided to give in. But not without cheating the system, Nothing created the Void.


    It was just an extension of it, so it''s nature was satisfied while it''s domain remained only to it.


    Unknown to it, the Void got smarter and stronger until it created life on its own.


    Nothingness started to panic but it was too late, like a self-fulfilling prophecy everything was in balance and a universe was created.


    But this universe wasn''t satisfied with what it had, the Void wanted to consume more, so it invaded other dimensions.


    _______________________


    My eyes were open, the void was running through my veins, and power unimaginable to any creature was at my fingertips.


    I was better than any of my lower siblings. I was blessed by the void, to do what no other being could.


    Destroy this cursed world.


    Suddenly a voice in my head started to speak, I could feel the power through every fiber of my being.


    Servant, I brought you here to destroy this damned world. Don''t disappoint me!


    "Of course oh great goddesses! I shall bring the glory of the void in this reached place!"


    Good, go my servant, my patience is running low.


    With that last word, I felt the pressure leaving my body, finally letting me observe the surrounding area.


    I was in a cave, filled with darkness. It gave a comfortable feeling, very similar to the void, and I could see everything without a problem.


    I got up, my head almost reaching the ceiling of the small tunnel. I looked around and saw that I was around five blocks tall, and this space could bearly hold me.


    Suddenly a fellow brother appeared right beside me, he had green skin tattered clothes, some flesh missing from here and there, and looked with curiosity at me.


    "Fellow brother, guide me to the exit of this cave, and let''s conquer the world together!"


    He still looked at me for a few good minutes, before giving me a painful growl while looking lost at the walls of the cave.


    "Not the smart kind I see. No worries brother, the void will use you as well to spread its power, be thankful for such an opportunity to achieve something greater than you!"


    My brother didn''t seem to be too interested in what I said, but he did look at the source of the noise.


    Suddenly another two appeared beside him.


    That was weird, this is not a normal process of my brother''s apearing, it''s too fast and too close to each other.


    I looked around to see what was the possible source for this, until a block caught my attention.


    It was more like a cage, with the model of a zombie head drawn on top of it. Inside was a floating dark flame that gave an ominous aura.


    But I''d didn''t scare me, it actually drew me closer to it, I could feel the void everywhere around it, so I came closer and touched it.


    Immediately I felt a connection coming together, I knew what it was and what it could do. I knew this was my life and without it, I would cease to exist. I also knew that it could created more followers for me to use for my mission.


    My hands were together in a praying position, and with a loud voice yelled at the void.


    "Thank you for such blessings oh great goddess, nothing will be wasted!"


    I then went back to the caged block and sent some power to it, it took from me like a desert absorbed the cursed sun, endlessly.


    The more power I put in, the more followers came to my aid, soon I had one hundred only around me.


    "Search for the exit, and when you find it come back to me, otherwise I don''t want to see you here."


    They all moved along the tunnels with a clear goal in mind.


    The Spawner, as I understood through the bond, told me about my powers. I could jump high, I had great regeneration and strength, in my presence the sun had no power and I could control zombies.


    It also told me about my brothers as well, they were dumb but could follow simple commands, I could control the ones that spawned naturally but I didn''t have the same control as the ones made by me. My range was pretty big, so my plan was to make an army and march against the world.


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    With the power of the void, nothing could stand in my way.


    One fellow brother came back, which means the exit was found.


    I lifted my hand from the Spawner, already feeling like something was missing from me, but I had a sacred mission that couldn''t be delayed.


    "Bring me to the surface fellow brother."


    With a low growl, he slowly led me through a few twisted tunnels before we finally arrived at an opening that showed something truly terrific.


    The rays of the sun push the comfortable darkness towards the deeper parts of the cave.


    "What a cursed phenomenon indeed. Can''t wait for the great goddess to get rid of it once well take over."


    I made a few steps forward and let the uncomfortable feeling wash over me. I didn''t feel the weekend, only a little weird, but that shows the blessing is working.


    "Join me, brother."


    The zombie gets beside me soon, while he growls more often, he''s otherwise fine.


    With this confirmed, I got back to the caves, where my precious Spawner waited for me.


    I made more followers, but as time passed, the place started to get crowded so I had to order them to go to the surface. Since they still followed my command they wouldn''t burn under the sun.


    My body didn''t need rest, food, or water, so time passed by me but all blended together. I wasn''t an inferior being like the living.


    I''m a champion of the void, I AM UNDEAD!


    Finally, after an unknown time, the only thing I could hear was the constant growling of my brother and sisters.


    "Silence! It Is time to take over the world, prepare to march!"


    Like a machine, everyone left with me at the front.


    The sun was high in the sky, annoying me and my fellow followers, but it wouldn''t be for too long before it would lose its powers.


    --------


    Days passed and nothing stood in our path, unfortunately, we hadn''t found any settlements to destroy, the only thing that I saw was green trees and running rivers.


    Suddenly a baby zombie came to me at great speed.


    "Did you find anything, fellow brother?"


    I only heard a growl instead.


    The decision to send my fastest followers as Scots was a genius idea.


    It''s been a few days since I last sent the group, but the results are starting to show.


    "My dear followers, we have found sentient life, time to brink it in our own ranks!"


    A collective growl was heard from the whole army, and it marched towards the way the baby came from. Leaving only the skeletons of dead animals.


    My power does help my fellow followers walk under the sun, but it drains a lot from me. Until I found out that if they feast on living flesh they can resist longer without my guidance.


    So whenever we passed some lowly animals, I ordered them to eat everything, which made me use less of my power to protect them.


    Another day passed and in the middle of the night, a light dared disturb its presence.


    We finally arrived at a settlement, it was a small one surrounded by some wooden fence. Beyond that, I could see a few small houses but no activity was seen.


    "The weak flesh of the living can''t handle life without getting constant sleep. Such lower beings. But fear not, for soon you shall join us. March my army, spread the Void!"


    Everyone started to move towards the buildings but suddenly stopped once they reached the fence.


    "What are you doing? Jump that stupid thing!"


    They all tried to jump one way or another but nothing seemed to work.


    Noise started to appear from the settlement, a few people with big noses came from their houses to see what the commotion was all about.


    But once they saw our greatness they screamed in terror and fear


    Some of them started to run while others barricaded themselves in the house.


    I walked towards the fance to see what was the problem and saw the world working against us.


    Sure it was only a block tall but an invisible force seemed to stop my army from passing.


    "This won''t be enough to stop our glory!"


    I easily stepped over the annoying barrier, too weak to fight against me.


    And I punched one of the wooden poles with my immense strength.


    Cracks started to appear on the pole, and after one more punch, it was completely gone.


    The wall was breached, and my followers started to pour in, slowly but eager to feast on the flesh.


    I broke a few more places in the fance so it would speed up the process.


    Not too long after, the place was filled with the undead.


    Terrified screams were heard across the village, screams of pain and begging quickly followed.


    But it was no use, they either became one of us or got eaten too quickly to transform. It was a brutal process but a necessary one.


    All the houses had their doors broken, but some of them had bloks blocking the newly made entrance.


    For those I needed to personally come and break the blocks, so my followers could finish the mission.


    Suddenly I heard a scream and then my followers started to catch on fire.


    I looked to see who dared to fight back, only to see a person in a ring of fire, with a Flint and steel in one hand while the other held an iron sword.


    While under my protection the zombies didn''t burn under the sun, that doesn''t mean they''re immune to fire, so the fire circle was quite effective.


    My followers walked towards the warrior, catching them on fire, and when that happened, their instincts took over and looked for a place to cover, which resulted in spreading the fire towards the others.


    I had to intervene, otherwise well take embarrassing losses.


    "You destroyed my village, I''ll take you down with me even in my death!"


    The man kept putting up more fires if some of them died out, and whenever someone ran towards him, he used his sword.


    But he froze when he finally saw me.


    "W-what are you!?"


    "I am your salvation, rejoice you''ll soon join us!"


    I stepped over the ring of fire, it tried to burn my undead flesh but my regeneration was too powerful to overcome. The fire was extinguished under my step.


    I was three blocks taller than the man who looked in horror at me.


    My hand was almost touching him when by instinct he slashed it with the iron sword leaving a decent cut.


    But it didn''t last for too long before it healed like it was never there.


    "Monster!"


    He tried to run but I already caught him, and under my immense strength he couldn''t move anywhere.


    I didn''t need to scratch or bite him for the blessing to spread. I just send the power of the void through my hand and into him.


    He fell on the floor trembling nonstop. His mouth screamed in pain as his skin fell off and a new healthy green appeared instead.


    It was a quick process, but a painful one.


    Now he was one of us, he got up and looked at me.


    But his look was different from the others, his look was filled with hateread and resentment.


    He had a light of intelligence in his eyes.


    "Well this is interesting, can you speak?"


    "Yes."


    It was a short answer combined with a growl, but he was already better than everyone here except for me.


    This was an unexpected development, but a welcomed one.


    "Tell me fellow brother, where are we?"


    "We are at the edge of the Stone Kingdome."


    He said every word with hate.


    "Good, do you know where the next settlement is?"


    I could see him trying to fight back the answer, but my power was greater than his willpower.


    "Y-yes."


    I smile at our new find guide. And with authority in my voice, I gave the next command.


    "Lead us to it."


    His face fell into horror, he tried to fight against his new master, but the void itself blessed me. A mare zombie couldn''t do anything against it.


    With a forced steps, he walked towards the wilderness.


    The undead army soon followed him.

 Chapter 67. Slow life

    It''s been two months since my revivel, at the beginning the days were starting to blend, I was depressed and the isolation didn''t help me.


    Only after a trip to the Nether, did I realize how bad it was. On my way home I even considered abandoning the construction project and starting grinding in the Nether with the tribe or with any Bob at the small village.


    But fortunately or unfortunately I didn''t have to change my plans.


    Because my home was broken into by a woman I didn''t know.


    It was a rough start but we managed to talk out the confusion.


    Here''s the good part. She was another player just like me, from the same planet and probably at the same time.


    So I got the chance to have someone to talk with about my old world without trying to hide it. It surprisingly helped with accepting my recent death and I even managed to finish my base project.


    The basement was almost finished anyway so it didn''t take a lot of time.


    What instead took a lot of time was the fortress on the surface. I wanted to make it intimidating and majestic.


    So a combination of deepslate, brick stone and other grey-colored blocks went into the construction.


    They were five towers each taller than the other, all hugging each other with no space in between.


    The tallest tower was in the middle while the other ones surrounded it from all sides.


    It was only five stories high with a pointy roof made of dark wood.


    It had a medieval style to it, and I loved it.


    Lots of rooms inside and could easily hold more than five people in their room, if we''re not picky about the space, that it could surpass 50.


    With such a great fortress, how can it not have a great defense?


    That''s why I dug a ditch around the outer wall and filled it with running water.


    It was leftovers from my water elevator, so I had to use it.


    It was three blocks wide, you could theoretically jump over it, but you''d hit your face with the wall and fall down into the water. And even if jumped where the gate was, it didn''t matter since nobody lived here in the middle of nowhere besides me Merry.


    So it was more of a way to work against monsters than actual people. It''s hard to build something against anyone who can build over any trap you make.


    That''s why I have a secret base, you can loot the surface but the real treasure is underground.


    Of course, since it was running water, the mobs were pushed away until they fell into a deep pit where they would die for good.


    If it''s a zombie, the sun will burn the flesh, and the dropers from below will get the bones, if it''s a skeleton then the sun won''t be necessary. The only problems were the creepers and the spiders, that''s why from time to time I have to check the pit and get rid of any cadavers.


    I also didn''t forget my old tradition of putting swords on my walls to put some extra protection. I even put a few iron swords to spice things up.


    I''m very satisfied with how my base turned out to be, and Merry was impressed as well.


    Speaking of her, I talked about the good things that her presence brings, and now I''ll tell the bad things.


    It''s not something she does, it''s more what her presence means here.


    She''s the hero brought by the system to fight against a giant monster with an army.


    Now we could all believe it was just the talk of an old man that needed attention and lives out happy lives, but her getting here not too long after the new yours party means the Monster Lord is here as well, probably ravaging a few villagers already.


    But a person who came from another world only to meet someone in the wilderness to teach her about the world. Is the exact plot where I''ll die to give her motivation to fight against the evil Lord.


    I know I can come back to life, but I don''t want to do that anymore, I''m traumatized enough already with my last death, don''t want to be paranoid on top of that.


    So I''ll teach her what I know as quick as possible then send her against the world.


    She won''t be my problem anymore... Hopefully.


    "There you are Trader, guess who''s leveled up on her enchanting skill?"


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    "Congrats! I think you''re doing better them me now. Are you ready to go and learn some more?"


    "Actually Trader, I think I want to learn more about combat, can we visit Undying so she can give me lessons?"


    "What, my sparing sessions are not good enough?"


    I said that with a smirk on my face.


    "No offense Trader, but that''s not a style that I have high affinity towards."


    She was right, I''m not the best teacher for her when it comes to combat. I don''t know how to swing a sword properly, sure I learned a few tricks with Froggy when we were stuck at the palace but that is not something I can use against someone that knows how to fight.


    My style consists of taking advantage of what I''m good at, more inventory space, and placing blocks faster than anyone else.


    Oh, you know how to swing a sword?


    How about I run from you, get three blocks higher, and snipe you from there?


    You have been surrounded by all sides, a potion of speed and strength can do wonders in blocking, attacking, and building over anything.


    Do you have a shield to block all my arrows or my speedy sword?


    Well, I have just the thing for you, a firework on a crossbow. Can''t get any better than an explosive after every shot.


    With all of this, it''s safe to say that Merry didn''t have fun while sparing with me.


    But if it keeps me from losing I won''t change it any time soon.


    "No Offense taken. Sure we can visit Undying and her tribe, I''m also running low on some materials that I could use, get your golden armor, and let''s go."


    "We''re going now?!"


    "Why should we wait, I have everything that I need in my inventory after all."


    "Ok, let me get the armor quickly and I''ll come soon."


    With that, she quickly runs through the door towards the armory to get the only armor with a Cooling effect in that furnace of a world.


    I smiled at her enthusiasm and went towards the Ender chest to get my armor as well.


    After a quick equip my next destination will be the water elevator, one of my most annoying but proud projects.


    On the way there Merry came running down the halls towards me, a little surprised that I didn''t wait for her in the room, but still got beside me.


    We stopped in front of a normal-looking wall where I dropped a redstone torch to the ground.


    Like magic, it disappeared through the floor leading to the wall in front of us to open up to a secret entrance.


    How did I make that Happen?


    Well, it''s a simple mechanism but not so simple to find, the whole floor of this hallway was made with wooden slabs, specifically the lower part.


    Underneath a certain slab, there''s a hopper, that surprisingly works like in the game, it can absorb items through the slabs.


    So I only need to drop the key in a certain place, which would start the mechanism of the door.


    As we passed it, the pistons closed the wall behind us, leaving no trace of the secret entrance.


    "Do we have to use the water elevator to get there? Can''t we just use normal stairs like every normal person?"


    "When you have your secret base, you can have as many stairs as you want."


    "Ugh! I''ll go first then."


    She went towards the right hole and made a stiff jump, hands stuck to her body too afraid to hit the walls by accident.


    I counted to ten before I jumped as well, water surrounded my body, but strangely, bubbles that defied their nature pulled me downwards, it quickly caught some speed giving me constant flashes of light from the glowstones put on the walls.


    Soon I got to the bottom, the ground was hot ready to damage me, but I quickly jumped opening the only wooden door with force.


    Before I could even take a breath, I closed the door behind me, no water was going to flood my base.


    I took a breath and looked with amusement at Merry who was on the ground waiting for her clothes to dry.


    I didn''t wait for my turn, instead walked towards the portal room leaving small puddles behind me.


    "Where are you going? Aren''t you going to dry yourself first?"


    "The Nether is hot enough for my clothes to dry without me sitting in one place."


    "Why didn''t you tell me this?!"


    She quickly got up and ran to catch up with me.


    Soon we were in front of a huge portal that had red tentacles trying to cover the white room the portal was in.


    Of course, everything was a visual effect, we both crossed the obsidian frame and the temperature quickly rose, but the armor was still doing its job.


    The other side of the portal didn''t have a red room, instead, it was a mirror room on the other side, the only difference was the temperature.


    We only need to go back to the portal to see the red blocks.


    Why did I do this?


    It''s because of paranoia. The entrance to my base it''s pretty hidden on the Overworld, but someone from the Nether could get inside easily if they found the portal.


    Sure the portal was hidden under a netherack hill, but in case a ghast accidentally blew it away I made a safe file


    If you look from the Overworld you''ll see the same white room, but if you look from the Nether you''ll see just a normal red wall.


    The portals in this world don''t have the same texture as in the game, once the portal is lit, you could see the other dimensions.


    But if you go around the portal, and look back at it, you''ll see another perspective of the other dimension.


    And I only played a little with the illusion of that mechanic, which I''m quite proud of.


    We broke a few blocks and now facing the lava lakes all around us.


    Of course, we didn''t forget to put them back to block the secret entrance of the netherack pillar.


    Since I''ve modified the rooms a little I also had to expand the disguise from a hill to a pillar that connects with one of the many ceilings.


    And in my opinion, it''s a better option than the previous one.


    We walked alone through the Soulsand biome, blue and red forests letting Merry fight some monsters while I collected blocks from time to time.


    Finally, after half a day of travel, we arrived at the tribe.


    But it seems that it had a lot of activity for some reason.


    Was there some kind of party?


    We walked inside and stopped one of the Piglins that didn''t seem too preoccupied.


    "Hey, why''s everyone so riled up? Did the outsiders attack again?"


    "Great Chief!? No were not attacked, actually quite the opposite happened, Chief Bobby came with them to trade with us."


    "He did what!? Wait is he here?"


    "Yeah, he''s still talking with Chief Undying about the deal."


    On no, this is not good.


    It''s been two months since we last saw each other. And while I needed my time to calm down, he thought I was dead, he saw me die right in front of him, unlike last time.


    I gave him a message, but I think that infuriated him more than calmed him. After all, why wouldn''t I come to face and say that I''m alive?


    I''m not ready for this confrontation, so I''ll just leave Merry here and probably come back another time.


    "Merry, you on your own here, also don''t-"


    "Trader is that you!?"


    I froze, afraid to turn and look at the familiar voice.

 Chapter 68. Tough times

    POV: Bobby


    Things are going bad, I knew a leader would rise to lead the monsters, but I didn''t expect it to be so bad.


    Isn''t the Sandstone Kingdom supposed to deal with all of this?


    Why are we the ones to suffer first?


    And where is the hero prophesied by the system?


    The Pope was suspiciously missing from the big party when the big announcement was made, and after the ''incident,'' no one heard anything else from him.


    Speaking about the party, it was a disaster, to say the least. After the Sultan''s death, everything went bad, or more exactly after Trader died true chaos began.


    It saddens me just to think about the incident, he was right in front of me when the sword cut him.


    But as always, Trader doesn''t know how to live quietly even in his death.


    Before he took his final breath he managed to kill one of the killers and let all of us see the true killer.


    A Pillager.


    That means the accusations from the Princess''s party were most likely right.


    Right then and there, everyone split into three sides.


    The one for the princess side that had most of the nobles, all looking with fear and hatred towards the prince.


    The neutral party, where our group and a few other nobles stayed looking for what was about to happen.


    And the rest were on the Prince''s side. Surprisingly, on his side were only big Nobles, so it was actually an even playing field.


    Looks like the Prince wasn''t the only one to meddle with the forbidden knowledge.


    This wasn''t even the worst part, I''ve seen him loot Traders body and it was not pleasant sight to see.


    I was ready to throw a hand at him, but the guards already surrounded him.


    We were forced to stay there for two whole weeks!


    Nobody was allowed to leave, neutral or otherwise.


    They tried to resolve this as civil as possible, they went to court, and they pleaded their cases but there was no progress on any side.


    The princess had the majority of the votes in any case, but even with the help of the ''Knights of the People'' they couldn''t overwhelm the people with the most equipped soldiers.


    They had enchanted diamond armor and tools.


    Only our group had anything similar, but we were overwhelmed in numbers anyway.


    As for why they didn''t just overwhelm the other party with their strength?


    That''s a difficult topic to understand, but from what we got it''s because the leader of the Knights of the People, Aisha, has dangerous information that can throw the whole nation into chaos.


    This is why our Princess Elizabeth is still staying. She kind of hopes everything will go bad and finds out what''s so secret about those people with enchanted diamond pickaxes have.


    I do have a suspicion that is related with what Trader told me about breaking the obsidian block, but I don''t want to get more attention here than we already have.


    Everyone was tense as we were on guard, some of them tried to get Elizabeth on their side but they were all turned down.


    Then things got worse, not for this nation but for our nation. We got a message that said our nation was attacked by an army of zombies.


    Three villages were already destroyed, and a monster five blocks tall was leading them all.


    We left this political struggle to save our own nation. They tried to stop us, but we were done playing nice so we got out after a few swings.


    A few days later we finally got home, another village was attacked, we also found out that whenever an attack came a few zombies would yell at the people to run.


    They were infected people who still had their sanity. It never happened before so we were taken by surprise, it seemed the big monster had control over their bodies but not their mind.


    Maybe we can still save them with the cure from Trader?


    Unfortunately, I don''t remember what potion you needed before you fed the Golden Apple.


    But I remembered that Froggy escaped with Trader, and he didn''t come back to the palace or hear from him.


    So I told Princess Elizabeth about my idea and she agreed to it.


    It took two whole weeks to find him, and that only happened because he decided to give himself in, only if I came personality after him.


    While the looks were unique, it was hard to find him once he drank the invisible potion. Only after he found some rumors that Trader was dead did he give himself in.


    Once we met, he asked if it was true, and unfortunately, I had to confirm the bad news.


    He broke down crying, he told me that he didn''t have anyone to call a friend for years, only to meet him and bound over their shared prison.


    It was a rough time for me as well, but I''ve had my share of crying for the past few weeks, it was more bearable now.


    We talked a lot after, I told him about my life and how I found Trader while he told me about his life and how he found Trader.


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    We both laughed at how he always makes a memorable entrance, and we can say an exit as well.


    After things calmed down, I asked if he wanted to come to the castle where he would be safe and taken care of.


    He seems to hesitate at that suggestion, and I completely understand it. He only had bad memories of such places.


    But in the end, he accepted, and even now remembers what he said.


    "I accept your offer, not because I''ll still be hunted soon, I can live in isolation no problem. I''m coming with you because Trader trusted you, Trader trusted you so much that when we got back you would''ve been the first person to contact. And I trust his judgment, so I''ll trust you."


    Even in his death, Trader managed to help me somehow.


    Princess Elizabeth was ecstatic to find out that Froggy is with us now. Now that she has a master on her side the throne will be hers, unless something else happened.


    Of course, I made sure that Froggy would be treated right and wouldn''t be feeling like a prisoner.


    We prepared the cure, tried to capture the zombified people and we finally got one of the speaking zombies.


    To cure him we needed to feed him two golden apples and a lot more time than the others. But in the end, it was all worth it, we found out what happened.


    The zombie Lord is sent by the Void to take over the world, he has control over the zombies and only them. He has great regeneration and fire doesn''t burn him, he can break blocks and his army is immune to the sun.


    The worst of them all is that he can create zombies himself from the common people but they keep their intelligence when they''re a monster. They have the same personalities as when their alive and all hate the Zombie Lord with great passion.


    But nobody can fight against his will, so they can only follow his orders.


    The more we heard about him, the scarier he was.


    But while he was all that, he wasn''t invincible. There was a way to weaken him, but it wasn''t something we liked to hear.


    His control over the army was limited by the power he had. The more power he used for his army, the less he had for himself.


    Even more surprising to hear, is that it takes a lot of his power to maintain control over the smart zombies.


    That''s why he always has ten smart zombies, never more, never less.


    So theoretically, now he was at his weakest that he''s allowing himself to be, and if we kill his army slowly were only getting him back to his peak strength.


    And his army is a nightmare to deal with already, I don''t want to know how an unstoppable five-block monster can destroy a nation if he''s at his full strength.


    In the end, we''re at a stalemate, we can''t kill too many of his zombies because he''s going to get stronger. We can''t do anything about it either because he''s just going to fake over the nation slowly while growing his army.


    And we were like that for a few weeks, we evacuated every village that was in his path, and tried to rescue any zombie villagers to cure them without killing the normal zombie.


    It was a brutal time, but with the help of the smart zombies we managed to keep our losses at a minimum.


    To get help from a monster to fight against a monster. What has the world become?


    In the end, the Zombie Lord caught up with our ways and put a tighter leash on the smart zombies so they couldn''t help us anymore, they could actually do more damage now.


    It''s such a shame that noble people like them, who refused to be cured help out the ones that don''t have a choice.


    And now they''re forced to watch village after village taken over.


    I was distracted with helping brewing potions to help with the war, that was until I got the message.


    It was a normal book brought by my friend Toby, he was worried about all the rumors about the Zombie Lord.


    So he checked my village if it was doing ok, only to get a package to deliver to me from Trader.


    He didn''t check the content since Trader''s death was not known publicly yet.


    After assuring me that the army of zombies wouldn''t be coming towards that side of the kingdom, he thanked me and wished me luck.


    Not knowing that he left a bomb in my hands.


    With trembling hands, I read the contents of the book.


    And the more I read it, the more riled up I was.


    This person tried to interpenetrate my dead friend for who knows what reason!


    But one small part of me was still hopeful, I mean if there''s one person who managed to cheat even death, it would be Trader. He knows too much not to have a way out of this.


    That was a small part, a part that didn''t want to accept the truth.


    Another part was also confused. Whoever wrote this book had a weird name, it was all question marks.


    How can you even do that?


    You can''t force the system to lie for you.


    Even the Piligers who they''re whole lives fighting against the system can''t do this.


    So who is this person and why did they send me this message?


    I threw it into a chest and tried to forget about it. There''s no point in telling Froggy about this, we don''t need to be sad people in such an important time.


    It was time to fight against the Zombie Lord himself.


    His next attack would be a big one, a noble settlement not a normal village.


    This time he had to fight against a proper wall, five blocks tall at least, people with good armor and training, and a final fortress to conquer.


    The plan was simple, evacuate everyone from the town and leave the gates open.


    The army will come, enter the gates, and search through the empty houses.


    Zombie Lord will be suspicious, but he''ll understand what happened when he sees that everyone is bunkered at the fortress''s attention as a last defense.


    More zombies will get through the gates, and well close the entrance when everyone gets inside.


    Then the real plan will start.


    The evacuation was a success, the army came and they followed the exact steps we expected.


    That was the last report we got before losing contact with the attack squad.


    Over 100 men died in that battle, we didn''t know how did that happen, we only knew we lost the fight.


    A week later, while we tried to send spies to see what happened, a smart zombie managed to tell us the events.


    The plan went perfectly, the invisible people threw a debuff potion over the Zombie Lord, and he was greatly weakened, arrows with healing effects were shot at him, the Knights attacked him with the sword, and he was screaming in pain, wounds stayed on his body until suddenly he healed up like it was nothing.


    After he yelled something about the true power of the Void he attacked everyone.


    For the first time, the smart zombies felt that their in control of their bodies, and the army started to catch on fire since it was day.


    The Zombie Lord called back its blessing killing everyone in that fortress and leaving no witness.


    After he was done, he forced his power back over the army, it was mostly gone with a few exceptions.


    After such heavy losses, the Zombie Lord decided to grow his army back before going to attack the small villages around the border of the Kingdome.


    This was devastating news, the Sandstone Kingdom hadn''t solved their ruler problem yet, and the Coral Kingdom didn''t see this as their problem.


    And worst of all, there''s a high chance my village will be soon consumed by the zombie army.


    I''m ashamed to do this, but I have to use the knowledge that can put others in danger as well.


    I''ll have to get help from the tribe in the Nether, they''re not limited by the system so they can craft overpowered items without us paying the outrageous prices of the Coral Kingdome.


    Princes Elizabeth has enough trust in me that she ''showed'' me the true place where the alchemy ingredients came from.


    I had to act shocked when I first went there, which was weird, but I also managed to fabricate a way to meet with the newfound tribe that I totally did not have a connection to.


    I visited a few times, and then I told Princes Elizabeth about how they could help us. Of course, after she took an oath to trade with them and not take them as slaves.


    She agreed, and I went to do the ''deal'' It was more of a formality until I heard Undying saying something that shocked me to the core.


    "So did you get Trader''s letter in the end?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Oh so you didn''t get it, I thought Toby sent it to you by now."


    "Are you telling me that message was from Trader!?"


    "Yeah, he''s been here a few weeks ago saying that he''s not ready to meet you yet or something like that."


    He was actually alive!


    I can''t believe this, but why didn''t he come to me?


    I''m so happy to hear this, and so mad at the same time.


    "Where is he right now?"


    "He''s at his base, I can bring you there if you want to."


    "Yes, as soon as possible."


    We both got out of the house and were ready to leave only to see two people in golden armor standing and speaking with one of the piglins.


    One was a female by the shape of their armor, but the other one with the back at me, was him.


    "Trader is that you!?"

 Chapter 69. Confrontation

    I could hear steps coming towards me, at first it was slow, then he started to gain some pace and then a hand was on my shoulder.


    "Trader, I''m talking with you!"


    With great force, he turned me towards him, and we were face to face once again.


    He had tired eyes, a firm grip, and the aura of someone you''ll follow without question.


    Looks like he went through a lot as well, I wasn''t the only one that suffered.


    "Hi Bobby, it''s been a while since we last talked."


    Involuntarily I made a small smile. I was scared to confront him, but I was also happy to see him once again.


    "Hi? Is that all you have to say!? I''ve seen you die with my own two eyes, and after two months of that nightmare you only say hi?"


    I didn''t know how to respond to that, but luckily I did not have to say anything, he just went and hugged me with all his might.


    I felt the force through the golden armor.


    "I don''t know how you''re still alive, but I''m glad you''re back. Don''t ever do that again!"


    He let me go and I could finally breathe.


    I could even see some water forming around his eyes, mine didn''t have that problem, and you can trust my word for that, you don''t have to ask anyone else.


    Finally, he looked beside me to see Merry who was confused about the interaction that just happened.


    "Sorry for such a sight, I didn''t see you there."


    He tried to bring back his authority aura but a little too late for that.


    "Merry, this is the first friend I made here Bobby, we''ve been through a lot together. Bobby this is Merry the recently summoned hero by the system."


    Bobby froze, looked at Merry then at me, and gave a big sigh.


    "You never cease to amaze me Trader, you go with a bang and when I met you again you found the most searched person in the world."


    I felt good seeing Bobby''s funny reactions once more, but his expression was weird, he had a hopeful expression while looking at Merry.


    What happened for him to look at her like that?


    "Hero! It''s great to finally see you, the Zombie Lord gave us a lot of trouble recently and we lost hope on what to do. But with you here we can finally fight back!"


    The more he talked the more excited he was. What happened that even Bobby is looking for the hero?


    "Uhh, I''ll try my best but I''m still in my training phase so don''t expect too much of me."


    "Training phase?"


    He looked confused at me, so I had to give him the explanation since I''m sure I''ll do a better job.


    "Remember how I''m not from this place originally and very different then anyone else?"


    "It''s pretty hard to forget even if I want to."


    "Well, she is in the exact situation as me, with the exception that she doesn''t have the same knowledge as me."


    He looked even more confused and then turned around to think about what I just said.


    After a few good minutes, he turned around with a more calmer face.


    "I''ll usually be disappointed if it was just that, but I''ve seen what Trader was capable of doing even without the knowledge. So I think this deal is better, we theoretically have two heroes."


    Well, that''s one way to look at it.


    "So how''s the Demon Lord, is he that powerful?"


    Merry asked after she got some courage to speak up.


    "Demon Lord? I guess you could call it that, and indeed he is very powerful. He has control over an army of 1.000 zombies and already got a noble house besides a few villages."


    That actually surprised me, this is way scarier than I imagined, I can''t even phantom how scarier it must be for the common villager.


    Merry looked at me in case I knew something, but unfortunately, I could only shake my head.


    "I don''t know if I''m ready to fight with him yet, but I''m willing to learn and try."


    Bobby just awkwardly laughed at the statement.


    "I guess it''s better than nothing."


    "Oh Bobby, why is everyone here so busy, they told me you made a contract with them?"


    "Yes, I''m sorry that I had to involve them, but things are already bad in the Overworld, even if I made a short summary of the Lord''s power. Let me tell you from the beginning what happened."


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    He proceeded to tell me about the Zombie Lord, about how he destroys villages in the name of the Void, how no zombies under him can burn under the sun, and how he can make smart zombies if he wishes to. And finally how they tried to trap him in a town only to fail and everyone died.


    "After we sent some people with invisible potions to look at what happened, we found a smart zombie that told us what happened. What''s worse, he told us that the Zombie Lord would concentrate on the villages first before attacking the capital. We already started to evacuate people, but not everyone was willing to abandon their homes. And what''s even worse, nobody will accept my village. So I had to make a deal with the Princess, I''ll use the pigling''s help to craft the armor and tools while she won''t take them as slaves, only as a contractor."


    Things were ugly, if Zombie Lord was that powerful, I can only think as a moded mob, and they''re usually not easy to take down.


    Maybe there are some modded weapons as well?


    But I haven''t seen or read about anything similar, so I don''t know if it even exists.


    I looked at Bobby with pity, I was ashamed that he went through all of that while I was building my base without a care in the world.


    If I was there maybe I could''ve helped somehow.


    Unfortunately, now he is risking the lives of the piglins, but if he trusts the princess that much, I''ll trust his decision as well.


    "Why did you two come to the Nether?"


    "I just finished my training session for Enchantments, now I''m looking for Undying to have some combat lessons."


    "What level are you on the Enchantment skill?"


    "Level 5"


    "5?! In such a short time? Trader, I didn''t know you had so many resources to spare."


    "It''s more of her own learning skill than my resources to spare. Plus she wanted this so I taught her the best I could."


    "It''s still impressive. Hero Merry, if you''re looking for a combat teacher, you can come to the castle and learn."


    She looked at me for guidance, but I could only lift my shoulders. It''s her decision on what to choose, if she wants to learn from her friend Undying she can try asking her, if she wants to learn different kinds of weapons styles she can take Bobby''s help.


    "I think I''ll take you on that offer, after all I''m seeing here, I can only guess how busy she would be."


    "Glad to hear that, Trader you''re coming as well right? Froggy will be more than happy to see you."


    This is complicated, Bobby now stays at the castle, and I have really bad memories with the royal family.


    Sure, I trust Bobby''s word when it comes to my safety, but he answers to the princess, not the king. And I don''t want to be in another situation where people want to use me or put me in uncomfortable scenarios.


    This is what I''ve promised myself, after all, to get my skill levels higher so I won''t be limited anymore.


    But at the same time I can''t let Merry and Bobby deal with the problem alone, Merry is not ready yet while Bobby is trying his best already.


    "I''ll meet with Froggy but I don''t want to be at the castle, somewhere outside and preferably where nobody knows my name."


    "That''s understandable. You''re supposed to be dead after all, if Elizabeth sees you again she''ll have some questions that I think you''re not comfortable answering."


    "Thank you for understanding. Here''s what we''ll do, we''ll go to the town where the Zombie Lord stays so I can see if we can use something against him, then you''ll get back to the castle through the portal in the Nether, and we''ll be going to the capital on foot. Once there I''ll give a signal and Froggy will ''accidentally'' recognize the hero and invite her to the castle."


    "That''s... Way more complicated than I would''ve thought but it''s also more plausible for others to believe it. But before we go let me talk with the Princes about my ''extended'' stay, I''ll also get some potions for this journey, we will need it."


    We both nodded in understanding, Bobby went back to the fortress with lifted spirits while me and Merry went to visit Undying and Blue.


    I knocked on the red door.


    "Come in Trader!"


    How did she know it was me?


    I opened the door and saw Blue looking over a book that had drawings of different crafting recipes and Undying hitting her hammer over the crafting table.


    "Did you finish the reunion with Bobby?"


    "Yeah, it went way better the I expected, how''s the new work going?"


    "It''s going pretty well, Bobby was sure well get a good deal and wouldn''t be scammed. Plus my experience with the mining system in the Overworld helped."


    "Glad to help the tribe I sponsor."


    I even smirked at my last remark, which didn''t get any reaction from the others.


    "Trader, I think Blue Flame wants to tell you something."


    Undying suddenly changed the subject, and I looked at Blue who seemed to be really interested in the recipe of a furnace.


    "I said, BLUE FLAME WHAT''S TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!"


    All of us trembled at the loud voice as Blue finally looked me in the eyes.


    "... Sorry..."


    "Did you say something?"


    "I''m sorry for what happened at the skeleton fortress!"


    Skeleton fortress?


    Come to think of it, I haven''t seen him since the last incident where I fought with the withered skeleton, it''s truly been a long time.


    "Don''t worry Blue, we all made the decision collectively, it''s everyone fault if were blaming someone."


    He breathed out a sigh of relief and looked at Undying who nodded in appreciation at his action.


    "He was being a baby and tried to avoid you, afraid you''ll be mad at him."


    Oh boy it''s been a long time since then, I almost forgot about it as well, I didn''t even consider it to be his fault for this.


    "I understand, don''t worry I wasn''t upset at you Blue, I''m glad you''re doing well."


    We sat down and talked about what happened in the past few weeks. I was surprised by her reaction when I showed my concerns about this trade with the outsiders.


    "I can understand your concerns Trader, but we''re strong-willed people, well rather die than be slaves under anyone. And we can''t grow as a tribe if we don''t strive for better, sure we''ve had bad interactions with some of them. But we had our revenge, it''s better to grow our forces and be prepared in the case were are taken advantage of once again, then isolate from the world hoping it won''t bother us."


    She was truly a great leader, not afraid to take risks and ready to be the first one to step into the new world. I truly admired this about her.


    We talked some more after this, merry asked if they could have a spare, and Undying didn''t say no to that.


    I think they''re developing a great friendship, which makes me glad.


    As the two left the building, me and Blue were the only one left.


    "Hey Trader, what do you think about Undying?"


    Blue was the first one to brake the silence.


    "She''s a great leader, though too easily to sacrifice herself if she thinks it''s needed."


    He started to laugh at my comment.


    "Yeah, I wish she had a little more self-preservation. But you wouldn''t see her as a love interest no?"


    Suddenly I could see his eyes glowing ready to hear my response.


    A love interest?


    I never thought about that, I mean it''s pretty hard for me to think about falling in love with a woman all made of squares. She''s a beauty I won''t lie, and has a great advantage over the villagers with a big nose.


    But I can''t see her as more of a friend. And even that it''s on shaky grounds.


    "I don''t see her that way."


    Tension left his body, a smile appeared on his face as he sat back in his chair relaxing.


    "I''m glad to hear that, you see I actually lo-"


    *Boom


    The door was abruptly opened and an energetic teenager hoglin entered the room.


    "Seriously Hog Chop?! Can''t you wake up normally for once without destroying something in my house? Hey wait, don''t break that!"


    He quickly got up and ran to catch the wild pig, it was an entering show to watch.

 Chapter 70. Surprise in the village

    After a good night''s sleep and some trading with the locals, Bobby finally arrived for the journey.


    Apparently, Princess Elizabeth was very reluctant to leave her right hand in another dimension for a few days, especially now when the morale of the troupes was so low, she couldn''t afford to have another accident.


    But at the same time, she had more responsibilities now, the king decided to give her more authority over the Nether because Froggy contributed a lot in the past few weeks with his potions.


    Sure the Royal Family all were masters at the Brewing skill, but they couldn''t leave the management of the country in the middle of a crisis to make potions nonstop.


    They did help when they had some spare time, but Froggy did the heavy lifting most of the time.


    It also didn''t help that this war was expensive, there was only one villager that had a high enough level in the Crafting skill, in the whole Stone Kingdom and his job was to make golden apples every day.


    Since there was a cure for the infected people, they couldn''t just kill them like the other zombies, they had to send people to rescue them, which meant more people, more training, and more spending.


    The Sandstone Kingdom was still in a political mess to lend help during this crisis, and the Coral Kingdom took advantage of this and raised its prices.


    Unfortunately, rotten flesh wasn''t a sought-after item unless you made bonemeal, so there''s not a lot of profit from this war.


    There was a sliver of hope once Bobby told Princess Elizabeth about his findings with the people of the Nether.


    They were not bound by the limitations of the system, they could craft, enchant, and brew at any level without a problem.


    The first suggestion was to speak with the brutes to have a deal with them. But that was quickly thrown out the window, the brutes take gold as their only currency, and we were in lack of those already with the golden apple crafting.


    So instead, Bobby suggested communicating with the tribe he ''found by chance'' to trade with them.


    Elizabeth was ecstatic about that idea, tho suspicious when he made her make an oath in the Royal name that they wouldn''t be taking any slaves.


    That was done, now they traded goods in exchange for their crafting expertise, at a relatively low price but still acceptable.


    Now while everything was starting to go smoothly Bobby came to Elizabeth to tell her the tradition of the Tribe after a good deal is to celebrate for a few days with the other party.


    And since a Royal member couldn''t be here, he was the next best option, which in the end she had to accept.


    "And that''s the gist of it Trader, I also didn''t forget to get some potions while I was there. You really need to meet with Froggy soon, he''s burying himself with work so he doesn''t have time to grieve."


    That sounded very bad, I really need to check up on him soon.


    "I''ll do that as soon as I''ll see how big the problem is with the Zombie Lord."


    "Good, because I sent some horses as a ''gift'' for Toby and you''ll use them to get to the capital faster."


    That would greatly speed up the journey, but unfortunately, they will arrive in a few days, so we won''t be able to use them to get to the infected town.


    "Let''s go and visit your village, Bobby, how long has it been since you''ve been there?"


    "I''m ashamed to admit but a few good months. Hopefully, nothing too bad happened."


    Better not jinx it.


    So the three of us went towards the first portal I ever made in this world. It would take a few hours and I was the guide this time since I''m the only one who knows the way from the new location the tribe moved into.


    "So Bobby, how did you two meet? You seem very close to Traveler, even after the accident. Oh and please call me Merry. "


    "He didn''t tell you? How can you not tell her about our amazing adventures Trader, she must know what living legend is besides her."


    I could hear the sarcasm in his voice without me having to look at him.


    So for the rest of the journey, he told her about how we met, how much I changed his village, and the adventures in the Nether.


    Finally, we arrived at the designated hill, and I was more than happy to be there.


    If we traveled for one more hour I''ll be as red as the netherock around us from embarrassment.


    "Ok, chit chat is over, we arrived."


    They only laughed at my embarrassment.


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    We broke the blocks to the entrance only to be met by a crossbow pointing at us.


    "Who are you?"


    "It''s me, Bobby, and Trader!"


    I responded quickly while lifting my hands up. The pigling seemed to freeze but didn''t lower his weapon, so I got off my golden helmet.


    "Oh, it''s really you two, sorry for the scare, I just did not expect to have visitors today."


    "No problem, how come you''re here then?"


    "There''s been a few brutes around the area sniffing for gold and I was sent just as a precaution against them."


    Well, he was equipped with iron armor and some fire resistance potions since I could see some floating particles around him, so he was pretty prepared.


    They really do care about our portal, I hope they don''t use my mine as well.


    "Thank you for protecting it, we''re going to our world now, so keep up the good work."


    He just nodded his head as we passed the dark line.


    "Home sweet home!"


    Bobby was the first to speak, as we got closer to the ladders.


    I stored the golden armor in the first chest I saw.


    If I was going on a dangerous journey, I''ll take a better armor than this.


    First was Bobby then Merry, and lastly me.


    When we got to the surface I was surprised by what I saw, they were villagers walking all over the village, but they were different than what I remembered, they had hair on their head and could speak normally, the more I looked the more I realized that those were not Bobby''s villagers.


    "What happened here?"


    Bobby looked confused at the new population of his villagers.


    "I don''t know, it wasn''t like this last time I checked."


    We walked around the streets with confusion until finally, Bobby recognized someone.


    He wasn''t the only one that recognized the child playing with the iron golem.


    "Lily! What are you doing here? What happened here?"


    "Uncle Bobby! I''m here with my dad, and the rest of the village, we''ve moved here a few weeks ago."


    She quickly got off the shoulder of the giant golem and looked at as with a bright smile.


    She quite grew since the last time o saw her, about half a block if I remember correctly.


    "Can you take me to your dad so I can talk with him?"


    Bobby spoke with her with a smile on his face, but I could feel that he was angry about the surprise.


    She nodded and walked us to a corner of the village. There was nothing there except some empty space last time I''d been here, but now there were huge houses, three stories high.


    I could see people walking, talking, and building all over the place, but everything was in moderation.


    Every building had a balcony, and ladder that went through all of them, that''s how they got to their apartments.


    I could see some of Bobby''s anger leave his body as the new villagers didn''t evict the old villagers to take their homes.


    Soon we arrived at a house that looked exactly like the others, Lily opened the door on the first floor and let herself in.


    "Daddy I''m home! And Uncle Bobby is here as well!"


    Rushed steps were heard beyond the wall, and soon the door to what I could assume the bedroom was opened.


    "Lily! Did you enough fun today? You can go and get some food from the kitchen then. Daddy will talk with Bobby for now."


    After she left, Bobby was the first to speak.


    "So what''s this all about?"


    "Sorry about the surprise, but I thought the letter had everything explained in it?"


    Bobby looked confused once he said that.


    "From your expression, I can guess you didn''t read it. I''ve sent it a week ago. "


    "I didn''t get any letter recently, I think this is one of those filtration packages Elizabeth was talking about."


    He could only sigh in frustration.


    "Uhh, what happened?"


    Merry asked still confused.


    "Sorry miss, I''m Bobby''s friend and for the past few weeks my people got more worried with the news about the zombie invasion, and after they heard about the fallen town they got even more scared, so we took your advice Bobby, and got some refuge. But I couldn''t leave your village alone, so instead we decided to move here. We have high walls and a guardian to protect us in case of anything, this is better then some other town''s."


    "So that''s what happened, I kind of got scared once I saw all the changes in the village. Where did you move my villagers then?"


    "I didn''t move them anywhere, we just made our houses separately to not bother them."


    Bobby seemed to be pleased with everything now, so he went to more light-hearted topics.


    While Merry whispered something to me.


    "So I''m guessing the giant with the kid was the Iron golem? What is he, a monster an animal?"


    "It''s not a natural spawning being, at least not in this world, I was the one that made him."


    "You can make something like that as well?! Why don''t you have an army of them, it seems powerful."


    "It is indeed, but it requires a lot of resources to make, but at least there is no maintenance for it, it''s more like a robot honestly."


    "Can I also make one?"


    "Yeah, there''s no restrictions like the skills. But why would you want to make one?"


    "Are you kidding? How badass would I look with that walking into a town?"


    I could see the fantasy magic all over her eyes.


    "I don''t think you''ll get the reaction that you want. From what I know I''m the only one that knows how to make something like that in the whole world, so I think you''ll get more in trouble than admiration."


    Though, I think we could use some golems to fight against the Zombie Lord, even if it would be an expensive idea.


    "Uff, that''s a shame."


    While the conversation died down, I remember something from my old world.


    "Hey, remember that most of the time the hero does small jobs for the villages before fighting the big bad guy?"


    "Recently they''re more of a game janra then a book one, but yes I know about it, why?"


    I didn''t respond to her, instead I turned towards the two friends talking.


    "Hey Toby I feel that this village is getting cramped with all those new people here."


    He stopped his conversation with Bobby and looked at me.


    "That is true, unfortunately. But we''re trying to expand up to have more space to move around here."


    "Why won''t you expand the walls?"


    "I''ve seen the work you''ve done Trader, and I don''t think I can replicate it as well as you. A lot of resources went into that wall after all."


    "What would you say if me and my friend here would help with the construction? I''ve managed to do it in one day with the people here, imagine how much we can do with so much manpower!"


    "I would love that honestly, but this is still Bobby''s village so you should ask him."


    I looked at Bobby who seemed to have a complicated expression on his face.


    "Do you really want to do this?"


    "Yes, I mean I''ve already bonded with some of the people in this village, and if Toby can protect it while you''re preoccupied at the palace, why shouldn''t I help him be more comfortable."


    "Thank you Trader I really appreciate it."


    Both of them smiled and I looked at Merry who seemed to be bewildered about what just happened.


    "Well, looks like we got your first quest, isn''t this exciting?"


    "Yeah, but I expected to slay some monsters not build a wall!"


    We all laughed at that while she got embarrassed, but with a sigh, she accepted her new quest and went outside to gather the materials.


    I was not too far behind her.

 Chapter 71. Lets build a wall

    First thing when building something small or big, you have to set the perimeters, and for that we had to tear down a portion of the already-built wall.


    With some iron axes in our hands, we demolished everything in our path, people started to wonder what we were doing, but Toby and Bobby calmed everyone down telling them the plans for expanding the village.


    Once they heard that, the worries left their expression. Some of them were even eager to help us, looks like they really wanted some space in this village.


    But as we continued to work together, the villagers started to realize something.


    Me and Merry worked fast, I mean really fast. It took three of them to keep up with one of us, they were surprised by this but didn''t ask too many questions.


    With the extra help, we managed to tear down half of the total wall. Since the new wave of people was more than the original residents, we have to triple the perimeter so everyone can live comfortably.


    It was tough work, but with everyone''s help, I think we can manage this.


    "OK everyone, here''s what we do. The new perimeter will be three times bigger than the original, so for that, we need a lot of wood to work with, so go do some chopping while I craft some axes."


    People cheered and took out wooden or stone tools to get to work.


    "Merry, you''ll come with me for this work."


    "But I can''t craft iron tools yet."


    "We won''t be crafting, I''ll show you how to use the Trading skill."


    "Seriously!? I traded with the people from the Nether, but it never gave me any experience."


    We walked towards the old part of the village, where it was more isolated and some bald villagers started to appear.


    "I''m not surprised this didn''t work, this skill can only increase with a villager from the Overworld. Also, this Is a skill exclusively for us, so there are no records anywhere in the whole world. But it''s also one of the most broken skills to have, so don''t go around telling people about it."


    "That sounds exciting, so what does it do? How do I increase it?"


    Finally, I found what we were looking for, a bald villager with a Fletcher uniform.


    "Bob the Fletcher, how are you doing?"


    "Hero! Bob well, Bob made lots friend."


    "Glad to hear that, are you open for business by any chance?"


    He smiled with all of his teeth showing.


    "Bob always business ready!"


    Out of nowhere, a gray tab appeared in front of us.


    28 sticks ¡ú 1 emerald


    1 emerald ¡ú 16 arrows


    --------


    20 flint ¡ú 1 emerald


    Since I was only level 4, I had some discount and the first trade on the second row, but Merry can only trade sticks.


    "This is interesting, so are the emeralds the currency of this world? How does it even work?"


    "Every villager has a job given at their adulthood ceremony by the System, each job trades for different stuff and some are more popular than others. But remember, we have a different system from them, so try not to be too specific on what you want, just click and get the item."


    "Ok... Let me make some sticks then."


    She quickly took all the wood from her inventory and crafted some sticks out of it.


    With her hands full she gave it to the confused villager.


    "Why aren''t you taking the sticks?"


    "Friend weird, Bob no need sticks."


    "But it says you trade for sticks! Trader, I think the villager is broken, can we trade with another one?"


    I could only smile as she made the same mistake I did the first time I traded.


    "There''s no need to do that. You have to give the items to the screen, not the person."


    "Like this?"


    Suddenly all the sticks disappeared from her hands and she had an emerald in her inventory.


    "Well look at that, it actually worked, and my skill is progressing. I''ll give him all the wood that I have then."


    "Wait don''t-!"


    But it was too late, the sticks were made and fed to the system.


    "What do you mean I can''t trade anymore?! I still have four stacks of those!"


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    I could only sigh at her predicament.


    "Don''t worry, you can trade with him again once he restocks."


    "And when is that?"


    "At noon and in the middle of the night."


    "Uff, I guess this is a way to not mess up the economy of this world."


    Oh, you can mess it up pretty badly even with those restrictions no problem, but that''s not our focus now, our focus is to get some tools.


    I looked at the trading tab and saw that I didn''t have the restriction like Merry. Looks like everyone has their own system, not shared.


    "Can you give me the sticks?"


    She gave them to me with a confused look, but I just traded everything until I couldn''t anymore. 13 emeralds to my inventory, that''s a great start.


    "You should be at level 2 right now, let''s go and buy some axes."


    "I was at level 2 from the beginning though."


    She started at level 2!?


    That''s really good for her, even though it''s the easiest level to get, probably a small bonus from the system.


    "Let''s get you some more levels then."


    We walked around the village, and talked with every Bob available. They mostly cared about trading not what we were talking, it was a good exercise for Merry to have without geting weird glances from the topics we talked about.


    I had to go to the mines to get some ingots for trading since limiting our scope only to a Fletcher would be stupid.


    By the end of it all, Merry was level 3 with 10 iron axes, while I made some progress and also bought 11 axes.


    "That''s enough trading for today, you know everything there''s needed to be known about this skill. Now you can gather the materials yourself and grind for this skill, trust me, it will pay off in the end."


    This shopping spree started to hurt my ore chests already, I don''t think I''ll do this too often.


    "It''s actually pretty fun, so of course I will."


    She said with a smile while looking at her inventory from time to time.


    "Let''s get back to work then. Give the axes to the people and we should finish this wall by the end of the day."


    We split up to cover more ground and shared the new tools.


    They seemed surprised by such gifts, but in the end this seems to greatly motivate them to work harder.


    After I got rid of all of them except one, I went to chop my own trees.


    It wasn''t as fun as when I mined, the activity around me made it feel much more different, more like a community than a solo adventure.


    The ones that were close to me tended to speak with me. Some of them were curious about me and Merry, others about the situation with the Zombie Lord but nothing that would slow down our resource-gathering process.


    After an hour, we cut down a pretty big portion of the forest, so we decided to stop there.


    We all gathered at one place and shared the blocks with a smaller group that would build the wall. There was no point in overcrowding this process since it would slow it down more.


    Of course, me and Merry had most of the blocks, I decided to make the first row to outline the wall and then show the others how I made the wall.


    After all was done, six villagers were working from one side, while me and Merry started from the opposite.


    Since the wall was split into the exterior part and the interior part, there wasn''t a problem with awkward movements.


    We placed some blocks in silence until Merry was the first to speak.


    "Trader, I thought the best way to gain fame in a fantasy world would be to kill a lot of monsters and climb the ranks of the guild. But this world is different, it''s not like any fantasy book that I read, and I can see that people appreciate more when you work with them on a problem than just solve it, and leave for who knows how long."


    "I''m glad to hear that Merry, this is indeed a different world after all, so we have to expect some different encounters then our usual normal. But does this mean you''ll go and build around for the other villagers?"


    She started to laugh out loud at that, before continuing to place wooden blocks.


    "While I see the merit to this, I don''t think this is my specialty. On Earth I was at college to study economics, that place is only good for memorizing stuff, just like high school. But I always retreated to my books, and that''s where I felt the most comfortable, in a fantasy world with a sword in my hand. And ever since I came here, my desire got stronger, not weaker. But this also made me realize not to concentrate only on the combat, I should learn how to build as well."


    I''m glad she''s starting to get used to this world, at this point I''m not even sure if she wants to go back.


    But I haven''t given up.


    She knows what''s her role is here, but why I''m here in this world?


    I was pretty satisfied with my life on Earth, I don''t think I''m here only to be a teacher for the hero.


    That would be pretty sad actually.


    We continued to build in silence the rest of the day.


    Finally, after a good few hours, both sites met and became one.


    Once the last block was placed the whole village cheered with happiness.


    The sun was starting to set, so we put some emergency lanterns over the new ground and prepared for the party.


    We made a five-block tall bone fire with solid wood to hold the flame more.


    People started to cheer, dance, and exchange stories, Merry even got dragged by some of the girls to teach her how to dance.


    I was on the sideline with Bobby laughing at her attempt to do a wheel move because she ''knew'' how to do it since she was a kid.


    It was a great time, the people were cheerful, the food was good, especially the pumpkin pie, and the Bob vilgers were having fun as well which made Bobby happy.


    The construction was not over for this village, there were still some houses to be built, some farms and fances to hold the animals.


    But this wall represented a new beginning, a new start for everyone, the tension that was over everyone for the past few weeks slowly faded with the songs.


    Sure, the army was still a threat, but they were now more prepared than before, and if they went down, it wouldn''t be because of a lack of trying.


    We stayed up late into the night before finally going to sleep.


    The wall was finished, so only a few guards were needed to patrol over it to keep everyone safe, tomorrow they''ll start building once again, but this time we won''t be joining them, will be leaving toward the danger, to see what we have to fight against.


    So that night I slept like a log until finally the sun was way up in the sky and my eyes opened.


    "Ugh... Well, it''s officially clear. I''m not a party person."


    I got up and stretched around a bit, before going on the balcony to enjoy the warm sun all over my skin.


    I was in one of the tall houses, I looked down and saw that the whole village was awake, I looked back into the house at the closed door beside mine.


    I went back in and carefully opened the door besides my room, only to see Merry sleeping like there was no tomorrow.


    I carefully closed the door and got out of the house.


    "At least I''m not the last one to wake up."


    Saying hello to the villagers, even trading with them until finally after two hours we were ready to leave.


    "Are you sure we can take the horses?"


    "Of course you can, we''re staying in your village after all, and after all the help those two did yesterday, everyone will hate me if they heard you left on foot."


    We could only smile at his comment and thanked him while we got on the horses.


    It was a little confusing for Merry at first, but since everything is made of squares, it''s much easier to learn.


    So on the road we were, we had to galop for hours until the sun went down. We left pretty late so it was no surprise.


    We stopped, made a quick camp, and slept for the night.


    The horses were truly a blessing, they moved at great speeds and didn''t get tired so easily, at this pace Bobby estimated we would be there in half a day.


    So the next day at the first sign of light, we got back on the road.


    We went like that for a good few hours, until trees started to change around us, they became more gray, more dead in a way, and then the ground started to look like that as well.


    Soon we could see the bones of animals as well, it was not a pretty sight, it was like an graveyard in the making.


    Finally, we arrived at a brick wall seven blocks tall.


    "Well, here we are."


    Said Bobby as we stopped our horses.

 Chapter 72. Zombie Lord

    "Those are the walls of the town, or what''s left of it. We should tie our horses further from here and get back while were invisible."


    We didn''t say anything, just followed Bobby''s instructions on getting further away.


    Around a hundred blocks away, I put a fance pole down where we tied the leashes that held the horses.


    "Here are the potions, made by Froggy himself, they should last enough for our spaying mission."


    "I think we should go on top of the trees before going invisible, maybe we can see beyond the wall?"


    Merry suggested and we thought it was a good idea as well.


    So a few blocks of dirt were put down to make a staircase, and we were on top of the green trees.


    We carefully walked in silence towards the wall, until the green leaves started to turn grey, that was like a signal so we all drank the potions but still held items in our hands to not lose track of each other.


    More silence followed until finally, we got back to the wall, unfortunately, the wall was too tall to see much over it. But we could still see the roofs of the houses here and there.


    And there was nothing on them.


    "I think we can walk on the roof of the houses to see inside."


    I spoke with a low voice.


    The response was positive, so we got off the trees and walked towards the wall.


    I had to make a staircase on it since Bobby couldn''t place jump a block as fast as us.


    It was probably better this way since we could use it to get back down in case of an emergency.


    On top of the walls, there was a two-block pathway where the guards usually patrolled to keep the town safe, but now it was all empty.


    The zombies didn''t have the same traditions as the living after all.


    On the other side, there were countless houses made with wood and brick stone all over the place.


    In the center of all, there was a huge fortress that looked more sinister then the others.


    We could see zombies here and there on the streets, all of them stayed in the shadows of the empty homes or even inside.


    Looks like they still didn''t like the daylight, even when they were immune to it now.


    "There''s a lot fewer zombies than I expected, isn''t there supposed to be over a thousand of them?"


    A flying stick spoke, which was Merry.


    "That''s how many there were when they invaded this place, but after the Zombie Lord got his blessing back, everyone went to flames. The only ones that survived were the ones in the empty houses or away from light."


    The empty bottle replayed which was Bobby.


    "I feel a force pulling me towards the fortress. Do you guys feel the same?"


    Me and Bobby denied the feeling, it must be something only the hero feels.


    "Let''s explore the town before going to the big bad guys layer."


    We all nodded our items and walked on top of the houses, there wasn''t a lot to see in this dead town, everything felt sad and grey.


    We broke into some of the houses, only to see more zombies or ravaged furniture, from what I could tell everything valuable was already taken when this place was abandoned.


    Annoyingly I could see zombies with leather armor from time to time now, which showed the people who stayed back to fight but couldn''t die in pece.


    Now they become the very thing they fought against. A sad fate for any soldier.


    Slowly we got closer to tell center, here the air felt darker and heavier than any other place.


    We also walked in the middle of the streets since it had the least activity. But something took us by surprise, we saw a zombie walking in front of us.


    But the zombie was different, he had a full iron armor on him and walked along the streets like he was bored, which is a very different reaction than the common zombie.


    I felt a hand stopping me, I looked around and saw that the potion bottle was on the other side holding Merry as well.


    "Don''t turn around, we''re here with the expedition of gathering more information!"


    All the zombies turned towards the voice, but after seeing only some floating items they got back to what they were doing before.


    The armored zombie instead froze, but didn''t turn which surprised me, was he a smart zombie?


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    "It''s been a while since the last party came, how''s the evacuation going?"


    "It''s going pretty well, were trying to get some information against the enemy before coming up with a new plan."


    The zombie seemed more relaxed after he heard about the evacuation, but still didn''t turn towards us. I wonder why?


    "Unfortunately there''s not too much news to give, at the speed his army is growing it would take about two weeks before he''ll start hunting the other villages."


    "What is he doing right now?"


    "He''s praying in the meeting chamber, asking the void for guidance for the next fight."


    "And did he get anything yet?"


    I asked out of curiosity.


    "We can''t hear the void like him, so I don''t know, unfortunately."


    "If we need his zombie army to keep him weakened, can''t we just block the entrance and so only the Zombie Lord can move?"


    This time the stick spoke.


    "Unfortunately he''ll just break the wall block by block, no matter how thick it is."


    "Can you place or brake blocks as well?"


    I asked the smart zombie.


    "Unfortunately, or fortunately no. I can''t even open my inventory anymore. The only items I can have are those that I pick up with my hands."


    "Can the Zombie Lord place or craft anything?"


    "From what I''ve seen, no."


    Well, this is interesting information, so we can stop them if we place some blocks that he can''t break.


    Something like water for example.


    Sure he can jump over it easily, and maybe the smart zombies can swim on the other side, but the regular ones move very slowly, so they could easily be stuck in here.


    I stayed at that thought for a while, but in the end, I decided it was not good enough. At a certain number, the zombies could push each other out of the water zone, and from what he''s going to gather there would be more than enough for them to do that.


    What if we used lava instead? They don''t spread as much as the water but it would have a greater impact on it.


    Slowly a plan was forming in my head, it wouldn''t kill the Zombie Lord, but it would greatly slow down his army until we could come up with a better plan.


    As I was thinking that, suddenly the air started to feel more heavy, and the zombies around us got more active.


    "Oh no, he''s coming here, quickly hide!"


    The armored zombie spoke with us without turning around.


    Not too late after, a shadow appeared on the ground, and it slowly grew until something hit the ground like a meteorite falling from the sky.


    Or more exactly like someone fell from the sky.


    After the dust finally settled I could see the culprit behind it.


    It was five blocks tall being shaped like a gorilla, with big arms and chest, but a small waist, and feet,


    He had a big nose like any villager but his eyes were covered by a dark cloth.


    His skin was green but rotten all over the place, I could see brains and muscles if I looked closely.


    Unlike the normal zombies, the only cloth on him was on his waist but it was more like what the sumo wrestler usually wore, and this one felt more ceremonial than the usual white cloth.


    He looked around like he could see beyond the material in his eyes before looking at the armored zombie.


    "Fellow brother, have you seen anyone around here?"


    His voice was deep but gentle, the armored zombie finally turned towards his boss and spoke.


    "No fellow brother. I haven''t seen anyone here."


    Every word he spoke was full of venom like he''d rather do anything than speak with him.


    "That''s weird, I feel a great energy from the Void around here, but I don''t see a fellow brother anywhere around."


    Energy from the Void? What is he talking about?


    He looked around the roof of the houses like someone was hidden there, but nothing caught his sight.


    "But I feel another energy around here that it''s different, it''s upsetting like the sun. Two clashing energies in the same place, that''s very suspicious."


    With slow movements, he walked along the street while looking around studying anything out of place.


    All the zombies seemed to freeze while their Lord walked between them, the smell of rotten meat was strong in the air, and I started to worry well be found out.


    "Maybe you didn''t feel anything, but the smell is starting to get to your rotten head."


    The armored zombie said with a smirk which made the Zombie Lord freeze.


    Slowly he turned around and looked at the zombie who spoke, the air seemed to freeze and nobody moved.


    Bet even with all the pressure building up the armored zombie still looked disgusting at his Lord.


    The monster moved further away from us, now getting closer to his new target.


    I thought he was going to kill him right then and there, but instead, he only spoke.


    "Brother, please don''t attempt to argue with me for such petty reasons. Instead, you should accept the Truth and not fight against it."


    He was one block away from the small zombie and stopped, he didn''t touch him or even make a gesture.


    But instead the armored started to scream in pain, his hands were and his head was like trying to get something out of it.


    The screaming kept getting louder and louder until he was on the ground in the fetus position.


    As soon as it started it also stopped, the armored zombie made a relieved sigh and slowly got up.


    "This should be a good lesson for you, go find the others and tell them well have another preaching ceremony in half an hour."


    The armored zombie just grunted before leaving to find the others.


    Zombie Lord looked around once more before jumping away.


    With him gone, the pressure disappeared as well, everything was back to normal. Or as normal a dead town can be.


    "I think we saw enough, we should leave now."


    Bobby was the first to break the silence, and I was completely on board, we all took an item in our hands and backtracked our way to the wall.


    Soon we were on it and then passed it.


    Finally a place without a zombie in sight.


    "Let''s drink the milk when we get to the horses, no need to risk it now."


    We put our items in the inventory and went completely invisible, but it was ok since we knew where to meet.


    So with a sprint, I went towards the place we tied our horses, which was a mistake since when I got there I couldn''t get enough air into my longs from all that running.


    A few seconds later I was relieved to hear that I wasn''t the only one who made this poor decision.


    After a few minutes passed to catch our breaths, we finally took our buckets of milk and chugged them down.


    It always makes me wonder how a bucket full of milk will make me as satisfied as a bowl of milk even of it has such different size in comparison.


    Soon everyone was visible and the horses got a little scared by our sudden appearance.


    "I have to fight that?! The system must be crazy if it thinks that would die to a sword. Where are my special powers to fight against that monster? I feel cheated, System I want to be compensated right now!"


    Merry starting to yell at the air with her fist raised.


    And from her reaction, I could guess she didn''t get a response.


    "It''s one thing to hear about that monster in a report and another to see it three blocks away from you. I have a lot more respect for the soldiers that fought against him."


    "That is indeed true, but what scares me most is that he can sense you as well Merry. And what did he mean an energy of the Void was it with us, are we being spied on?"


    Is this why I always feel followed recently? Or I''m I the source of that Void energy?


    "I don''t know, but I hope not. So did you get an idea on what to do Trader?"


    Bobby asked hopeful.


    "I do have an idea how we can slow him down, but I''ll tell you on the way back."


    We all got on our horses and went back, not before I quickly turned to look behind me.


    But the only thing I saw was a single purple particle.


    That sent shivers down my spine, so I quickly went to catch up with the others.

 Chapter 73. Teaching how to mine

    We arrived at the village safely, the sun was about to go down, and I could see some houses already being built.


    I know it''s only been a little over a day, but the experience of the dead town made it feel like we spent a lot more time there.


    But we were back at the village, which is starting to get bigger and bigger, soon enough I think we can call it a town.


    The guards on top of the wall soon saw us galloping towards the gate, and since we didn''t have any Amor, we were easily recognized and let in without a problem.


    "Welcome back Village Head. Sir Toby is with the construction crew if you want to talk with him."


    "Thank you, and please call me Bobby like everyone else."


    With one final salute, we were back with the living.


    Most of the people were busy building their new houses or gathering more materials for those houses. But not all of them did that, the ones that already had a place to live, set up shops instead.


    It wasn''t much, just some bread and other foods to the hungry workers at low costs, or station to repair tools that have been overused recently.


    Soon we were at the construction site where Toby was yelling at everyone about what to do, and to keep things organized, it was not a place to live in yet, but in a few days everything would be done.


    This is one big advantage in this world, a project can take days to be finished, even hours if you have enough people to work with.


    The fact that there''s no safety structure or waiting for the concrete to dry helped a lot.


    After Toby was done yelling his instructions he finally saw us.


    "Oh, you got back pretty quickly. How was the expedition?"


    "It wasn''t the best, but we got what we wanted."


    "That''s good? Anyway, my people asked me if they could use your mine to gather some ores. Or if they should start a new one much further away."


    Bobby looked at me instead, since I was the one that used it.


    "I don''t have a problem with them using my mine. But I think I''ll have to show them what system I use."


    And to hide the portal room better, or at least keep them away from that part.


    "That''s great to hear, I''ll call the miners to meet you in front of the mine soon, you can talk with all of them then."


    Toby then walked away too look for the miners.


    "I think I''ll trade with some of the villagers here, and maybe get another ''quest''."


    Merry informed us of her plans for today.


    "Well, I finished everything here, so after I take some items from my place I''ll get back to the castle."


    Since he had to prepare for our meeting, Bobby was leaving soon.


    "See you in four days then, I''ll send you a message, keep a look out for it."


    With a final hug, we split up once again. And for the first time, It wasn''t because of an accident.


    Merry went to trade with some of the villagers and grind her Trader skills. I don''t think she realizes how powerful this skill can be, but I do think she likes to see numbers go up like me.


    As for me, I was in front of the mine, or at least a small hut to hide the hole so nobody would accidentally fall in.


    Around 15 minutes later three villagers were in front of me, one old man with a dark beard and no hair on his head, but his eyes didn''t back down from any challenge.


    The second one was also an old man, with small eyes with a white beard that was well kept, while he looked a little hunched, his arms were full of muscles.


    The third and the last one was a young man, younger them me from his looks. A beaming smile was on his face, and his eyes were full of curiosity about his future job.


    While his appearance looked young, his muscles were nothing to scrap off, he wasn''t a greenhorn in this domain.


    "Gentleman, this is a mine that I did it In a few weeks. I don''t know how you usually mine, but since you''re using this one to get some ores, I''m here to explain what system I used in here."


    I got a different reaction from everyone, the two old villagers gave me an annoyed look or a polite smile. While the young man had his eyes full with excitement ready to see the secrets of the underground.


    But in the end, it didn''t matter what they thought about my mine, I was only worried about the portal beeing found out.


    I went down the stairs and waited for the others to arrive, the temperature was already a little higher than the surface, even if the furnace room hadn''t been running for a while, everything was still isolated in there.


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    Soon everyone was down and I could see their surprised faces once they saw the huge room already at the beginning.


    "This is the largest room in the mine, as you can see there are a few chests on the walls, they are all full of materials that I got from mining. You can take anything from there except for ores."


    The villagers started to wander around the room, sometimes opening a chest to see what was inside, but the more chests they opened the bigger their eyes got. There were a lot of blocks in each one of them after all.


    "This is the Furnace room, you can use it as well if you want to, but restock the fuel from time to time. I don''t suggest you stay in here when everything is running."


    "Why are there so many furnaces?"


    The young villagers asked.


    "I usually work with a lot of materials that need to be smelted, iron, copper, cobblestone, and even gold. So I need a different furnace for each one of those. But if I leave it like that it would smelt too slow, so I''m splitting all the stacks into smaller numbers and I can smelt a lot more a lot faster."


    "I see, fascinating!"


    All three of them seemed to appreciate the efficiency of the furnace room and probably would use it themselves later.


    "Ok this is more impressive than I thought, so what is the tax of the mine?"


    The bald man spoke with a heavy voice.


    A tax of the mine?


    I haven''t thought about a system like that, and they seemed used to this kind of deal, so it''s not like I''ll give to them the permit for free now.


    Unlike Bobby and other friends that I have I don''t know them that well so I can''t really sympathize with them that much.


    Sure they''re in danger of being attacked by the army of zombies but we''re already working against that, and unlike Bobby''s villagers they can take care of themselves if times get tough.


    "How about 1/10 of the ore you mine?"


    All three of them seemed surprised by my offer.


    "Is this the final price, or will it rise with time?"


    Looks like it''s way lower than they expected it. But I know if I want ores it''s faster to get them myself than to wait until the tax chest gets full.


    "This is that final price."


    The older generation seemed more smiley all of a sudden and didn''t look at me with the displeasure that was on their eyebrows a few minutes ago.


    "Ok, let me show you the mining system otherwise you can get lost."


    "This is not the full tour?"


    "Oh no, this is only the beginning."


    So we went in one of the larger tunnels, on each side there were other smaller tunnels but two blocks apart each.


    Since it was so close to the surface it only had around 10 tunnels 100 blocks deep each.


    "My strategy when it comes to mining is to dig until I find a cave system or make new tunnels every two blocks. This way I don''t have to walk hours every day only to arrive at the end of the tunnel so I can start working. Of course, everything is well lit with torches so I don''t have problems with mobs. Now since those are higher levels, I only looked for vines of coal. At the lower levels, I have a lot more tunnels for more precious ore."


    "Wait, so are you saying that the lower we go, the higher the chance to find precious ores?"


    The young villager asked.


    I should really ask for their name at some point.


    "Of course. I mean at this level you won''t find any diamonds no matter how much you mine. You have to go past the deep slate layer to have better results."


    "Diamonds?! You mean the legendary ore only nobels have seen?"


    "Yeah?"


    This seems to catch the attention of the old people as well.


    "How did you mine until now?"


    "We only minded in the stone layer since it''s faster, and we do the same tactic as you but the tunnels are further apart from each other. And if we find a cave system we try to not go too deep into it. "


    The hunched man said with embarrassment.


    "Oh boy, that''s such an inefficient way to mine for resources. OK, I''ll tell you the right way to mine but you''ll have to give me all the lapiz you''ll mine. Deal?"


    They seemed confused about that ore, and it''s not surprising since only rich people use it. But the system will tell them which one it is once they find it, so I''m not worried about that.


    In the end, they accepted the deal, so I proceeded to tell them about the strip mining strategy, even the one black tall is they''re not too claustrophobic.


    I told them about the levels of depth, the ores they can find, and what pickaxe they need to break it.


    I also encouraged them to take a guard with them and explore the cave system to get much better results.


    They all absorbed the new knowledge like dry sponges, and the light in the younger man kept getting brighter and brighter.


    It was starting to scare me a little.


    After a few hours of showing them, teaching them, and warning them on what to look out for, we finally split up to start the work.


    They already had their iron pickaxes with them, ready to put to the test the newfound knowledge, and they all swore to repay me later for the shared wisdom.


    With that out of the way I went up the staircase and stopped at a small tunnel, I walked inside, and soon I was at the portal room.


    "Ok, time to work a little bit on you so there won''t be any accidents in the future."


    I didn''t work a lot for this room and its design. But now I have to do something so the other won''t accidentally mine into it.


    Any resistant block is either too hard to get or would get more attention than deter people.


    So that''s why, I''m going to use a strategy I used for my secret base, lava walls.


    First I made the room a little bigger and then decorated it with a few blocks so it wouldn''t look so plain. A few chests here and there, in one of them I put different stone blocks and a sign that says to leave the money in exchange for the stack.


    Hopefully the piglings will understand what I''m talking about.


    I then got out of the room and mined a layer off beyond the exterior of the walls.


    With a few crafted buckets I went into one of the deeper cave systems to get some lava, fortunately, I didn''t see any miners so the operation was still a secret.


    The next step was the hardest and the most claustrophobic one, I had to get on top of the room on my belly and put nine buckets of lava in all corners of the exterior of the room, so it would flow and look like a natural lava pool.


    It was an awful experience that I don''t wish to recreate anytime soon.


    The entrance of the room would be blocked by an iron door that would have a laver only on the inside, I crafted a few more and put them in the chest, keeping one to myself so I can give to Toby once I''m done.


    I also made a sign that read ''village head property'' and put it on the small windows of the iron door.


    Now you truly couldn''t see what was inside, hopefully, this would keep people away.


    With this work all done, I finally went to the surface where I saw that it was getting late.


    I walked around the village, talked with some people, and made a few trades. I also gave Toby his lever and went to look for Merry.


    It wasn''t too hard to find her, she was helping with construction of the new houses. She hasn''t developed her inner builder yet, so she only followes instructions for now. It looks like she found her new ''quest''.


    "Merry, don''t forget to get a good rest, tomorrow we''ll be leaving early!"


    She looked away from the walls and saw me waving at her.


    She didn''t yell back, instead gave me a thumbs up and got back to work.


    But since she didn''t have thumbs to replicate that gesture, that whole action looked more like she called for a taxi.


    I smiled to myself and went into my temporary home, I needed to be well rested for tomorrow.

 Chapter 74. Reunion with Froggy

    The next morning I was in front of the gate with Merry, we both were on our horses and had full iron armor so we wouldn''t be bothered by the commun guard.


    A few villagers were there to send us off to my surprise. A few moms gave homemade food to Merry and wished us a good trip, Toby was there as well, but what truly surprised me was the tree miners from yesterday Ed, Edd, and Junior Eddy as I learned their names.


    I seriously need to get to the bottom of their names, it''s so close to greatness and it can''t be just a coincidence that their names match so well.


    There has to be an interesting story for all of this.


    With a final wave, we left the gates of the village on our horses, trees were passing us at great speeds and soon enough we were in the middle of the wilderness.


    From time to time we could see of pile of bones beside some trees from some monsters that didn''t have enough time to hide from the sun.


    In another week, the dirt will absorb them as well and new flowers will blossom in their place.


    We passed a few villages that were less populated than I imagined, everyone evacuated to bigger towns or didn''t want to abandon their houses and barricaded themselves in.


    Nobody got out to greet us, but we could see shadows looking through the windows as we passed.


    Finally, after a day of traveling, we arrived at a big town, the line was still big even with the sun going down. I can only guess they made it harder to get in with the new wave of refugees.


    We didn''t stop at the line, instead, we continued to galop alongside the line getting closer to the gate.


    Nobody said anything from the line, but they did give us annoyed looks.


    The only guard with iron armor was ready to intercept us, but I threw him a few emeralds and passed him without stopping.


    Now we were in the safety of the walls looking for a place to stay.


    "I can''t believe that bribing the gate guards was so easy, Bobby was right, if you have iron armor, people are too afraid to ask what you want."


    "That''s true, I didn''t have a chance to explore the common towns, so I''m new to this experience as well."


    We walked on the wide street with people getting out of our way, since we looked intimidating on the horses.


    After some time we found a place where we could sleep and leave our horses to be cared.


    I got two rooms, one emerald per night each, and if we wanted a meal for the whole day it would be another emerald.


    It was pretty cheap in my opinion, a stack of sticks per day in exchange for a room with a warm bed and food for the whole day.


    "Good night! There''s no need to wake up early tomorrow, I want to explore this town a little before we leave."


    Merry stopped right as she was about to open the door before turning towards me.


    "Wait, wake me up as well I want to explore this town too."


    "Sure, see you tomorrow, good night."


    With this, we both got into our rooms and went to sleep.


    ----


    The next day I woke up at the first sign of light, with some stretching and good food we were out on the streets.


    "So what did you want to explore today?"


    Merry asked me once we were walking down the street.


    "Don''t have a solid plan, I want to test some different foods, some not made with the system hopefully, also the main thing I''m looking for is an Efficiency book."


    "I wanted to see if they have some normal clothes. I mean I know we don''t sweat a lot and even when we do it doesn''t smell, but I want to wear something else besides a tracksuit."


    That is a reasonable request, I haven''t changed a lot since I came to this world. Even the clothes from the party got left behind with my corpse, and now I''m back to a white T-shirt and black pants.


    When you get your job from the system, you also get a uniform with it, that''s the only clothing you can get from the system. That''s also the only one you can have in your whole life.


    It''s not a simple cloth either, if you damage it, the clothing can repair itself the more you trade, but if you don''t have anyone to trade with then your clothing remains damaged.


    That''s why there is an industry that takes advantage of this system and creates clothes from smaller parts of the original.


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    But since it''s not made by the system they can''t repair themselves, so you better take care of them.


    The first shop we got in, was one that Merry was looking for, it wasn''t big and the dresses didn''t have a lot of variety, but Merry was very excited to try something new.


    After a few minutes of testing a few things, she chose a simple brown tunic and some black pants.


    She''s really embracing the villager look without realizing it. Of course, she would''ve got something else but two things stopped her.


    How hard it was to get the clothes on, and how expensive it was.


    Those two pieces together cost 40 emeralds!


    We know how to cheat the system and get a bunch of emeralds, but the market price can keep up with is looks like.


    I also bought a black shirt, hopeing it will last for a while.


    Next, we tried some street food, like apple pie, tea with honey, and even some kebabs.


    In the end, I went to a noble shop and bought two Efficiency 2 books for one diamond, and I even got some change back.


    I also visited a blacksmith to borrow his anvil for only 2 emeralds, with this I had Efficiency 3 on my diamond pickaxe.


    If I end up in another obsidian cage, I''ll get out of it no matter what.


    While I was working on my pickaxe, Merry was already out with the horses waiting for me, she wore the new clothes but unfortunately the armor covered everything so it wasn''t seen for long.


    "Once we get out, well stop a little further, I want to test something."


    She looked with curiosity at me, but didn''t say anything.


    We passed the gate guards without a problem and soon we were in the middle of the woods.


    "Ok, I think here is far enough, let''s stop and get down."


    I put a pole fance down and tied the horsed to it and warned Merry to get away from the horses.


    "What I''m about to do will either be very stupid or a genius move, either way, there''s a high chance they''ll start to panic once I do this."


    "What do you plan to do?"


    "This."


    I took out a speed potion from my inventory and threw it at the ground beneath the horses.


    To my surprise, they were only startled a little from the sudden noise, not completely running like they''d seen death.


    But to the horse''s surprise, they were suddenly very fast, and this confused them a lot, they were trying to do one step and suddenly they were three blocks away.


    That was not normal.


    "So you threw a speed potion on them? Can''t decide if that''s stupid or genius. Don''t you know how easy it is to scare a horse? "


    "That''s what I was afraid of at the beginning as well, but they''re doing pretty good from what I can tell."


    I untied them from the poll and tried to get them used to the new speeds.


    At first, they were very confused, but soon they were pretty excited to test out their new strengths.


    Once we got on top of them, the speed started to increase a lot, trees passed us in a blur, it was like we were in a car. With this, I also realized something, horses love speed, and now they want to see what''s their new limit.


    We went like that for half an hour, where we arrived at the first river, without any input on our side they just stopped, charged towards the river no matter what we said, and started to drink water like there was no tomorrow.


    After that, they started to eat some grass like we weren''t even there.


    So with this new development, we decided to take a brake here.


    "Looks like it takes a lot from them when they run that fast."


    "Yeah, I''ll feed them some apples so we can speed things up."


    With their belly full and a 15-minute rest, we got back on the road.


    It was a weird process but the results were amazing, in half a day we were at the capital and it would''ve taken over a day otherwise.


    "I never want to experience that again."


    Merry spoke as we got down from the horses, and got ready to speak with the guards from the castle.


    "Well, the effect already ran off, so you''re in luck. But enough with the chit chat, try to be mysterious, we want to intimidate them into sending the letter."


    We got our helmets on and stopped when there guards were right in front of us.


    "Who are you and what is the purpose of the visit?"


    "We are sent by our Lord to deliver a message to sir Bobby."


    "I see, we''ve been informed of your arrival, I''ll send it right now."


    His hand was lifted expecting the book, but I stood there in confusion for a few seconds.


    "Oh sorry, here''s the message."


    I then just handed out the book, and turned around to leave.


    "That was easier than you made it sound."


    "I''m still confused about what just happened."


    But it didn''t matter, the message was sent, and tomorrow at noon will see each other in front of the city wall.


    Since the castle and the city were two separate entities, we had to gallop with the horses for 15 minutes to get to the city, and the line was long.


    We tried to use the same tactic as we did in the small town, but the guards stopped us.


    They let us enter faster than the others, but they didn''t accept that kind of disrespect.


    We were both embarrassed about that blunder so we decided to just go to an inn and sleep those moments away.


    -----


    The next day I was at the meeting spot, Merry decided to explore the big city and I thought it was a good idea.


    This is more of a personal moment than something that needs a lot of audience, so I appreciated.


    A few minutes later two horses were coming towards me at great speed, it was Bobby and Froggy.


    My two friends who I went through a lot together.


    They stopped not too far away from me, Bobby seemed relaxed, while Froggy didn''t recognize me yet, I had the armor on me after all.


    "Bobby, this better be worth it, I''ll miss my morning brewing batch."


    "Froggy, you don''t need to brew any more potions for now, we already filled our storage with everything you''ve done!"


    "Yeah Froggy, I thought you would''ve wanted to meet your old friend."


    Froggy froze at my voice, like a rusted machine he slowly turned towards me, and I took my helmet off so he could fully recognize me.


    "Hi Froggy, I''m glad you managed to escape safely from the desert."


    I smiled and gave him a strong hug.


    He was still shocked and didn''t move one muscle.


    Finally, after a full minute, he spoke something.


    "Trader you''re alive!! I thought you died, Bobby told me he saw your corpse, if this is some kind of a sick joke I''ll be very angry, what''s happening here?! "


    I let him get everything out of his system and then It was my turn to speak.


    He could bearly keep his thoughts in line.


    "Yes Froggy, I''m alive, this is not a sick joke I truly died with my body still melted from the acid. By some miracle that I don''t want to talk too much about it, I came back to life. A few days ago I reunited with Bobby and we arranged for this meeting and include you in the loop."


    "So that''s why you were so happy once you came from your ''secret'' trip. You found out that Trader was alive! Why didn''t you tell me anything?"


    "I wanted to see your reaction honestly."


    He said that with a mischievous smile.


    "I need to sit down for this, and a strong drink."


    "We should get inside, we have a lot to catch up to after all."


    With this, the whole gang was together for the first time, everyone was happy, and I wished for these moments to never end.

 Chapter 75. I will follow you

    We sat down at the bar in the city, it wasn''t too full or too empty, it was the perfect place to hear each other without having to yell.


    Even if this is different from my original world, the organic matter still rots if it''s not stored in a chest, so it''s not too much of a surprise that they managed to make something similar to alcohol.


    But I already had enough when I first drank the suspicious stew at the Nether tribe party, so I only ordered some apple juice.


    Still expensive.


    Bobby took a light drink and Froggy ordered the strongest drink that they had.


    Once it arrived I thought they gave him swamp water with how green it looked, but it seemed to make its effects after one sip.


    "OK, I think I''m starting to calm down a little. Tell me everything that happened when you disappeared."


    "Didn''t Bobby tell you already?"


    "It didn''t bring him good memories, so there weren''t a lot of details."


    Bobby nodded his head to confirm what he said.


    I took a sip from my apple juice and told him what happened from my perspective. I didn''t start with when I was teleported, I started when the Prince came with the offer to teach me how to Enchant.


    When I arrived at the part of the story where I had to take an Oath of secrecy with the ender pearl, Bobby''s eyes lit with understanding.


    Next was the process of learning how to write the cursed book, I didn''t tell them how many I made in the end, but I only hinted that I managed to find a way to exceed the Prince''s expectations of grinding on one skill.


    When I talked about the process of escaping, Bobby was the one who seemed surprised by all.


    "So you''re saying that that the walls that surrounded the palace were actually all made with obsidian? That''s a lot of obsidian to use."


    "They have an obsidian factory under the palace. Remember the people who blew up to get our attention and had diamond pickaxes in their hands? Those were the miners who escaped and wanted to rebel against the Prince. That''s what kept them in check from intimidating the Princess party through assassinations."


    Both of them nodded in understanding but still looked angry at the thought of what would come next.


    The last part was short, I got on a horse, and the Prince used the cursed book to stun the Sultan in place while the armor was getting bound with his soul. While he was stuck he was killed twice even with his Undying Totem.


    Everything got pinned on me, but when they didn''t manage to find me, I got teleported back.


    I tried to win everyone thereby revealing the truth but got killed with a potion instead.


    "So you did die in the end! So how are you still here then?"


    Froggy was a little tipsy from drinking a few more sips, his white face started to have some pink in it.


    "Yes, unfortunately, it''s not something that I knew I had, the only thing I know is that I woke up in the middle of the forest a few blocks away from my base."


    "So are you immortal now?"


    "Nope, and even if I was I never want to experience death again."


    We all sat in silence to process the whole discussion, until Froggy spoke once again.


    "So what are your plans now?"


    "I''ve seen what the Zombie Lord is capable of doing, but it''s not my job to kill him. So I''m going to help Bobby with a plan to trap his army or slow him down for a few more weeks until we can kill him."


    "I''ve heard how bad that monster is, makes me wonder where that stupid hero is when you need one."


    Both me and Bobby looked around awkwardly which confused my witch friend.


    "Why are you acting so weird? Don''t tell me there''s no hero in the end!"


    "Not exactly, we''ve actually met the hero already, she''s under my care for now but I plan to pass it to the Royal Family to help her grow faster."


    "You''ve met the hero already?! We''ve been looking for her for months! And why did you take her under your wing? Haven''t we suffered enough at the palace for the stupid hero?"


    Froggy was quite drunk now, so he was more prone to anger.


    "It''s not really her fault for what happened. And I''m sure the Royal Family from the Sandstone Kingdom is still in turmoil right now. And wouldn''t be kind of poetic after all they''ve done to prepare for the hero, to lose it to their neighboring Nation?"


    He took the last sip of the drink while mumbling something.


    "I guess that would be pretty satisfying."


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    I could only smile at that comment.


    "I''ve talked enough about me already, how have you been instead?"


    He put the cup down and sighted, before telling me the short version of what happened.


    When I disappeared without a warning he stayed in the same place for three straight days, but after no results, he decided to risk it and get back to the city and ask if something happened at the palace.


    He didn''t find a lot, so he changed his tactic to searching for Bobby in the Stone Kingdom, but no luck on that side either.


    He got really depressed since he was alone and lost on what to do, so went from bar to bar to drown his sorrows away.


    That was until Bobby sent a search party for him, this made him panic that they wanted to imprison him once again, so he went invisible for a few days.


    With time, he found out what happened, met with Bobby, and decided to bury himself in work to not think about my death anymore.


    That was until a few days ago when Bobby came and excitedly invited Froggy to go to the city for something amazing.


    It was a sad story, but what took me by surprise was what he told me at the end.


    "But since you are alive and well, I''ll come with you."


    "Wait, what?"


    Both me and Bobby said it at the same time.


    "I decided to follow you in the end."


    "Froggy, I have to be honest, you''re safer anywhere else besides me. Most of the time I manage to get myself in some pretty absurd situations, without me even trying."


    Froggy laughed at my comment but didn''t change his mind.


    "Trader, you are my only friend that I trust. Sure Bobby is a friend as well who helped me through these tough times, but I don''t think I can go back to isolation after finally making some friends. So I''m coming with you, with danger or not."


    I looked uncomfortable with this situation.


    On one side I was happy that he trusted me so much, even after all he''s been through, but on the other end, I truly believe I''ll get in another stupid situation where we will both be in danger once again.


    In the end, I could only sigh at his decision.


    His mind is already set, so there''s no point trying to change it.


    I looked at Bobby who seemed to be in the middle of a tough decision as well, but in the end, only gave a sigh.


    "Froggy, I know you''ve helped us a lot for the past few weeks with your potions and I can''t force you to stay and make some more. But this nation will greatly appreciate if you made a few more before you''re going to leave."


    Froggy was indeed a valuable asset in these trying times, but they couldn''t force him to do anything, much less force him to stay in the castle after what he''s been through.


    "I can help you with that, as long as Trader won''t leave while I work."


    All the attention was back on me.


    I wasn''t opposed to this deal, but in no way shape, or form I''ll be staying at the castle, I can wait for Froggy here in the town.


    "That''s enough for me. Then Bobby let''s go back and start making some potions, the sooner we start the better it is."


    "Wait, wait, wait! Don''t leave yet, I still need you to do something for me."


    "Sure, what can I help with?"


    I told him about the plan of him ''recognizing'' the hero and then taking her to the castle to get some training.


    With that, she''ll soon have an active role against the Zombie Lord hopefully.


    Fortunately Froggy accepted this request from me without any question.


    Next, I told Bobby about my plan to stop the zombie army from advancing.


    It wasn''t really that complicated, but not easy either, what''s the most important thing is the timing of when everything would be pulled together.


    By the end, Bobby was amazed by the plan and couldn''t wait to share it with the Princess.


    "Well let''s drink to our reunion. To a better tomorrow!"


    ""To a better tomorrow!""


    With that done I got back to the inn to pick Merry up for her true role as a hero.


    Fortunately for me, she was already there. The shopping was done so early because she had run out of emeralds already.


    I could only smile at the new predicament.


    "Well I have good news, you''ll meet the Princess of this country soon, so be prepared."


    "Already?! I thought I had to prove my strength or something like that."


    "Don''t worry, I have some connections that would help you with this. And remember, if they ask you who taught you all of this, tell them it was your teacher in the forest who doesn''t want to deal with people."


    "Sure thing."


    She suddenly smiled like she understood something hidden in what I said, but as long as my name is not mentioned, I don''t care what she''ll do.


    My job is finally done, and I hope I don''t have the curse of dying teacher now.


    Only time will tell.


    We both went downstairs where Froggy seemed to be confused when he saw Merry.


    He looked very intently at her face, more exactly at the place where her nose should''ve been.


    "Trader is the hero related to you somehow because you two have the same distinctive features."


    "We came from the same place, it''s a long story that we''ll talk about once you''re done with the potions."


    While suspicious, Froggy didn''t ask any more questions, instead, he introduced himself to Merry and went on to explain the plan in detail.


    With a final bye, I left back to my room, while the sun was still up.


    The reunion with my two friends was awesome but still tiring.


    Froggy was still a mess from my ''death'', and Bobby has more responsibilities on his shoulders than he ever thought he''d have. And while I''ve been feeling a lot better in the past two months, I still have some wounds that need more time to heal.


    So with everything done for today, I decided to take a nap to recuperate my strength.


    ------


    Once I woke up the sun was already down, and the moon was high in the sky.


    "Oh no, I think I overslept. Now I can''t sleep for the rest of the night."


    With a sigh, I looked out the window to see how much time until morning came, but to my surprise, I saw the city was still full of life.


    Light was all over the streets, people walked along laughing and having fun.


    At night, a different city was borned.


    "Maybe it''s not such a bad thing that I overslept."


    With that, I went downstairs and then onto the streets.


    Some shops were open since morning, while others you can only see them at night.


    I walked around to feel the city at night, while eating from time to time, trying not to use all the emeralds that I had in one go.


    As I was walking along the busy streets I suddenly froze.


    At one of the food stalls was a woman with pale skin, black hair, and a pimple on her nose.


    That was one hundred percent a witch, but what was she doing In the middle of the city?


    I thought they weren''t welcome, could she be connected with the pillagers that killed me in the desert?


    Soon she got her food and left, and I had to make a decision.


    Ignore or follow her in hopes of finding some answers.


    In the end, my rage won, I wanted to have some revenge against the people who killed me, so I followed her from a distance, never getting too close, but also never losing sight of her.


    She went to get some other foods and some clothes as well.


    After a few hours of this, she finally decided to end it for the day and leave.


    The streets got less populated the more we walked, so I decided to be further away from her, just in case she would accidentally see me.


    In the end, she arrived at a dead end and stopped.


    I was after the corner, waiting for her next action.


    She turned around with something in her hand and looked at me.


    "Who are you, and why do you keep following me?"


    Why do I always get busted!?

 Chapter 76. Follow the witch

    "Who are you, and why do you keep following me?"


    I froze in place waiting in case she was bluffing. I was after the corner, she shouldn''t be able to see me.


    My worries were proven to be true as an arrow passed the corner I was at.


    "That was a warning shot! Come out with your hands up or I''ll take more drastic measures."


    In the end, I had to come out, but I wouldn''t show any weakness like other times.


    I equipped my iron armor fully and in my hands, I had a shield and a crossbow, ready to respond to any action.


    When I was in full view the witch became more tense, a crossbow in one hand and a potion in the other ready for any movements.


    After a few tense minutes of silence, I was the one who broke it.


    "Why are you here?"


    "What do you mean why I am here? I have the right to be here like every normal person."


    "That would be true if you weren''t a witch."


    She froze for a moment before eyeing her shot to hit me at my most vulnerable place possible.


    "That''s not a way to talk with a lady young man. Hasn''t your mom taught you anything?"


    "You have pale skin, and a mole on your nose. The only thing that''s missing is a purple robe and a pointy hat."


    The witch realized that I was serious and knew what I was talking about, but she relaxed her posture a little while still pointing her weapon at me.


    "You seem to want something from me if you haven''t attacked yet. Has a rouge witch killed your loved one and you''re looking for him? I''m sorry but he''s someone that works on his own and even the Witch Clan has no clue about its warehouse."


    "What? No, I wanted to know if you had any connections with the party from the Sandstone Kingdome."


    "We don''t have a lot of connections in that place, can you tell me what happened more exactly?"


    "Someone killed the Sulatn in public with potions while invisible!"


    Once I said that, she seems to freeze in place before getting nervous.


    "Shit! This is bad, this is no longer a small matter that we can brush it off. It must be those Pillagers again! Do they plan to have a whole crusade against us? This is bad, we have to go in hiding again."


    She looked panicked by the sudden news and wanted to leave before remembering the situation she was in.


    "Stranger, you have to believe me. My clan has nothing to do with the Sultan''s death, we actually have a pact to not harm anyone unless attacked. We strive to have a peaceful life isolated from all the problems of the world, this whole move would be counterproductive!"


    She sounded sincere enough, but maybe she''s not high enough to know about the big plans.


    "How can I believe you? You could just say this to me so I''ll let you go."


    "Maybe we started on the wrong step, my name is Catharine, and I''m a second rank in the Witch Clan, I swear on my life that my clan has nothing to do with this."


    She looks honest enough, but I don''t know if what she said is true.


    I don''t really care about Sultan''s death really, that''s not even on my list.


    I just want to know who killed me and get my little revenge, and Prince Amun would be last to suffer the consequences.


    "Here''s what we''ll do. I do believe you for now, but I want to speak with someone with a higher authority to see if it''s true. Next week at night I''ll be here roughly at the same time, if you''re not here, I''ll tell my friends from the palace to look out for witches in their city."


    Was I being too harsh with those conditions?


    Most likely, but I found a clue that could lead me to the people that killed me and I don''t want to miss it.


    But I still remember the deal with Froggy, and I didn''t want to suddenly disappear right when we had our reunion.


    This time I''ll plan things out, I''ll make a safe file in case anything goes bad, and prepare for anything that I can think of.


    Catharine bit her lip with frustration, but after a few minutes of silence, she decided to give in.


    "Well be here next week, I don''t want to create more problems for my people than we already have."


    I already feel bad about this, but I won''t back down after coming this far.


    "See you next week then."


    With that I went back the way we came, I changed a few streets in case she was following me, before finally unequipping my armor.


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    She couldn''t see too much of my face because of the armor, so even if she looked for me she wouldn''t know where to start.


    Just to be safe, I''ll try to stay as much as possible with no armor on me while in the city, even if it''s useful.


    After walking around the streets to see if anything caught my eye I decided to get back and try sleeping.


    I have a lot of preparations to do, and tomorrow I need to be as energetic as possible.


    -------


    A week has passed since I met the witch.


    It was night outside, where the only source of light came from the lanterns hanging on the walls.


    I was back on the street where we last made the deal, waiting for the other party to appear.


    But I wasn''t alone this time, we were four people instead of the two I expected.


    Merry, Bobby, and Froggy decided to join me once they heard about the event.


    I tried to tell them that this was am overkill, and well most likely intimated them but Bobby said that''s a stupid thing to say, and he was still shocked that I managed to find another witch when he only knew them as legends.


    He mumbled something about me being the most unlucky or most lucky person in the world.


    Merry said something about wanting to join this adventure since she couldn''t miss the opportunity to interact with a ''secret'' clan or something like that.


    Froggy was just worried about me, but also curious about the other witches. His whole life was isolated from being different then the others.


    Now he found out that there was a whole clan with people like him, and I can understand why this would pick his curiosity.


    We were all in enchanted iron armor. I made some upgrades in case things will escalate into a fight, and we looked more intimidating like this.


    Of course, if we somehow managed to get captured I made a failsafe at the castle.


    It''s something that brings back bad memories, but I couldn''t deny the effectiveness of the method.


    We all have an ender pearl safely stored on a pillow at the castle, and Bobby instructed a servant if he didn''t come in the morning to break all of them.


    With this, we can safely return wherever we are in the world.


    We waited for a little while thinking that they won''t arrive at the end when suddenly steps were heard from the other side of the street.


    Soon four people were right in front of us.


    All of them wore some enchanted leather armor with the exception of one, that had an iron chest plate.


    While we were better geared they still had crossbows pointed at us with coloured arrows.


    If it hits any of us, they will hurt a lot.


    "You called us to talk, but why do you look more ready to use the sword than your words."


    The witch with the iron chest plate was the first to break the silence.


    Everyone was tense now and ready for a fight, but I didn''t want to arrive at that point so I made the first act of pace by taking off my helmet and lowering my weapons.


    "Sorry, I have some bad experiences with surprise attacks so I came prepared. I want to talk not to fight if possible. My name is Trader."


    The others lowered their weapons as well, which seemed to calm down the others.


    "I''m glad you ask first before hitting, it''s a rare trait among the nobles. Catharine told me about what happened at the Sandstone Kindome, and I was shocked to hear about it. After some digging around, we found out that the Sultan died, but there weren''t too many details about it."


    Looks like she confuses me with a noble. I think it''s better that way since she won''t make any drastic moves.


    "Yeah, I was unfortunate to be at that place when it happened. It was at midnight when the Sultan came and equipped a cursed armor, and then out of nowhere magical arrows were shot at him. After all of that was done, a potion of Instant Damage where thrown to finish the job."


    "That doesn''t explain why you think it was us that did the attack. We''re not the only one who knows how to brew potions."


    "Before another guest died he managed to kill one of the invisible attackers, and it was a Pillager, we also think the Prince worked with the attackers to kill the Sultan."


    The people started to talk among themselves worriedly, while the leader somehow managed to become more paller the she was.


    "Those bastards! They really want to kill us all because we didin''t sell them potions. Don''t they know how dangerous is to madle with any nation''s politics? Lunatics! Sir Trader, my clan had nothing to do with this, we actually try to stay away from those lunatics and their attempts to use forgotten knowledge."


    She sounded sincere, and I lean towards trusting her for now.


    "I believe you, but maybe we could work together to solve this mystery, this could benefit both parties from what I can tell."


    The people from behind started to whisper something between them before looking at their leader and waiting for her decision.


    After a few minutes, the decision was made.


    "I''ll talk with the others to see what the next step should be. As a token of trust, I''ll leave one of our members with you. Catharine, you''ll stay with the gentleman until tomorrow."


    One of the members from behind seemed confused about the new role, but with small steps, she came towards our group.


    "Hy again, please take care of me."


    She sounded more shy than the last time I met her.


    While I was also confused by the sudden predicament.


    "Tomorrow night we''ll meet at one of our hideouts, Catharine will be your guide."


    With that said, the group turned around and left us alone.


    "Congrats Trader, you managed to bag another Waifu! I''m kind of gelos how easy it was for you to get such an awesome quest."


    Merry finally spoke after she was forced to stay silent, and I could only sigh at her comment.


    "Merry, don''t confuse the others more than they are, plus you''re already in your training ark, you''ll have your fun afterwards."


    I thought once she got to the castle, she would be more aware that this was a new reality, not a story where she''s the main character.


    But instead, she got worse.


    Apparently, once the Royal Family found out about her, they got super intreated in her, with the help of Bobby and Froggy she got the super soldier training.


    They also seem interested in her ability to have three skills at once and how quickly she can break blocks.


    So for the past week, she''s been training nonstop with the sword, and she doesn''t seem to mind.


    Today she caught on about the plan to meet with the legendary Witches and she wanted to be a part of it as well.


    We didn''t see a reason to refuse her so here she was.


    "I think we should leave before were teleported to the castle. Trader you can stay with Catharine until tomorrow, Froggy will send his last bach tomorrow morning."


    Bobby spoke with a tired voice.


    The Princess wasn''t too happy about Froggy leaving, but he did too much for them to say anything else. And after he told her that he could work one more week before leaving, she''s been working him nonstop.


    Froggy didn''t seem to complain about this, Bobby even saw him smile while he was brewing.


    I''m glad he''s getting better, and I hope I won''t drag him through too much trouble with this sudden adventure.


    We all unequipped our armor and split up to our own ways.


    Catharine seemed shocked by our casual display but followed us without saying anything.


    The other three left with their horses towards the castle. While me and Catharine went to the inn.


    She seemed distracted for some reason.


    I bought her a separate room and wished her good night.


    "Good night, get some rest tomorrow will be a busy day."


    Without waiting for a response I closed the door and went to bed.

 Chapter 78. Shopping trip

    I woke up with a loud banging on my door.


    "Who is so active this early in the morning?"


    With noises that only an old man will make, I got off my bed to open the still-noisy door.


    "What''s the problem here?"


    On the other side of the door was Froggy with a smirk on his face.


    He was in a purple robe similar to one of a witch, but this one was more customized than the one given by the system.


    He had grey bags under his eyes from the sleepless nights of the past week.


    But his expression was so full of energy that I thought he would explode soon if I didn''t take him on a walk.


    "Is this how people feel when they wake me up? This is kind of fun, why are you always complaining about it?"


    My response was a little slow since I was still sleepy.


    "It''s because you usually don''t wake up so easily. So why are you here so early? Did you not sleep at all last night?"


    Froggy seemed on edge, his attention wasn''t on me, more on the room I was in, it was like he was looking for something... Or someone.


    "I rented another room for our friend, she''s not here."


    That seemed to catch his attention and he looked at me.


    "Oh-uh, I wasn''t looking for her. I was uhh, I was just looking if your living place was good enough."


    He quickly tried to come up with an excuse, which only made it more embarrassing.


    I don''t think he''s fallen in love with her. It''s more likely that he''s curious about people similar to him.


    "We could check up if she''s awake now since I''m already up."


    "If you insist."


    I could only shake my head at his attempts of not looking too interested.


    We walked a few steps down to another door and knocked on the door, but this time it was gently unlike other people.


    A few seconds passed with no response, I knocked for the second time and waited a few more seconds.


    Froggy started time get nervous


    "Maybe we came too early-"


    Before he could finish his sentence the door was opened and a person with long black hair, a big nose, pale skin, and sleepy eyes greeted us.


    "Morning, did something happen?"


    She looked at me for a few seconds before finally seeing my friend and froze.


    Looks like she was also curious about my Witch friend and didn''t know how to act about it.


    This could actually be some fun to see.


    "Morning Catharine, I''m sorry if I woke you up too early. But I and Froggy wanted to do some shopping before we meet our new friends, do you want to join us?"


    Both of them looked at me with surprise at the sudden proposition but accepted the deal.


    Of course, this was not true, I already have everything I need taken, but this is a great excuse for Froggy to make a new friend.


    I hope that their not evil in the end. I didn''t want to kill them after we got close.


    After a little preparation, we were back on the streets with the sun shining down upon us, making all of us truly awake.


    Since it was a casual shopping trip, we didn''t wear any armor on us, so all the people could see the very pale villagers hanging out with a person who didn''t have a nose.


    To say that we caught some stares was an understatement.


    First, we decided to eat something, we sat down at a table and got some food from the nearby stalls.


    Since I was the one that made the suggestion, I was the one paying as well.


    I got some chicken and a pumpkin pie, Froggy ate some stake and Catharine seemed to be satisfied with beetroot soup.


    I had never seen anyone eating that, so I was surprised when I heard her order.


    But if she likes it, I can''t say anything about it.


    We sat like that for a few minutes, nobody saying anything but I could see the two of them glancing at each other thinking that their sneaky about it.


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    In the end, I got bored so I broke the silence.


    "So Catharine, what were you before becoming a witch?"


    She stopped eating her soup and looked deep into my eyes with suspicion.


    But since I was just curious and had no bad intentions, she decided to answer the question.


    "I was the youngest of a small noble household. A year after I got my job assigned by the system, an accident happened and I became a Witch. My family decided to abandon me since it would ruin their reputation."


    "Uff, that must be rough, struck by lightning, and then abandoned by the family. I''m sorry I made you bring this up."


    She seemed to freeze when I said that, and quickly looked at Froggy.


    "Did you tell him about the lightning?"


    "I didn''t tell him that, he knew about that before we met, even I didn''t know about this process until he told me about it."


    Her eyes were back on me, but this time with curiosity.


    Looks like the process of becoming a witch was a close secret for the Clan members only.


    "My experience was not too pleasant either."


    To break the building silence, Froggy decided to tell his tragic story as well, which unfortunately didn''t help, it only brought the mood down even more.


    This was my fault, I asked a sensible question without thinking about the consequences, so I had to think about something else, I had to break out of this poor mood.


    "So what''s your Clan''s relationship with the Pillagers?"


    This seems to bring her back to normal, maybe a little too energetic now.


    "As you may heard some rumors, everyone thinks we''re in the same boat as those monsters. But that couldn''t be further from the truth! We are an exclusive Clan that only accepts Witches and tries not to harm others. Instead, those stupid Piligers, are looking for trouble, they are bigger than us in numbers and power, and they also double with forbidding magic. We may have been forgotten by the system, but they are simply despised. We also don''t like to trade with them, so those potions didn''t come from us."


    Looks like she had some strong opinions about the Pillagers, which took me by surprise.


    "How did the Piligers come to be? "


    This was one of the few topics that I had no information from the game.


    Since the game lore was so loose, I didn''t know the origins of Piligers, only a few theories posted on the internet. But now I''m curious about the truth of this world.


    Froggy also looked at Catherine with curiosity. Since his birth was that of a normal villager, he didn''t know too much about the outside world.


    Only recently it got expended, but few know about the Piligers, only some stories were told as legends. They liked to keep their secrets pretty close.


    With a sigh, she began the story.


    "We don''t know too much about them, but we''re the ones that have the most contact unfortunately. We all appeared shortly after the great war, At that time the System was at its weakest and people started to experiment outside of its domains. In the end, the system found out about them and cursed them, cursed us. That''s how the Pillagers and Witches came to be.


    At that time, we were part of the same Clan, but as time went on the experiments got more inhumane, so we the Witches left the Clan to make one of our own.


    The rest of the people didn''t forget about us, and the constant kidnapping of the villagers didn''t help us in any way. And now we''re once again here suffering because of those dammed Pillagers!"


    I didn''t expect to hear such a great tale about their history.


    Once again, the great war comes up but this time even the System itself has suffered.


    So this is not a simple invasion by some dumb monsters. No, the true battle was over who would rule over this world, and the System managed to defend its home.


    The question now is, who attack it?


    The Nether dimension or the End one?


    There was also a mysterious portal in the game that couldn''t be opened. The dimension where the Warden came from.


    But from her story I can tell she doesn''t know anything about the war, she most likely knew these from mouth-to-mouth stories, not something written down.


    "Enough about me, I thought you hated Witches like all the others, but you seemed to have a witch friend. What''s that all about?"


    She seems angry about the way I treat her people and how I treat my friend Froggy.


    I could only awkwardly say, that he saved my life and we have been friends ever since then, but at the palace, something happened, and ever since then I was more angry towards the Pillagers.


    And I knew that in a big raid, there would usually appear some witches and ravagers.


    "You know more than others, that''s for sure. I haven''t heard that beast''s name in a while, they are crazy strong and hard to kill. But they haven''t appeared in any raids recently."


    Catharine was starting to feel more comfortable around us, and her strong reactions seemed to be filled with new information as well.


    "I got some information from here and there while I was traveling. It''s nothing too impressive."


    I tried to downplay my knowledge, but she didn''t seem to believe it.


    "So what''s the life in the Caln?"


    Froggy who was silent this whole time finally spoke.


    Catharine moved away from me and looked at Froggy with a sad look in her eyes.


    "I''m sorry we didn''t contact you before. From what you''ve told me you''re from the Sandstone Kingdome, and we don''t have a good network there to look for other victims like us. It must''ve been hard for you to live on your own isolated by everyone. I''m surprised you didn''t lose your mind from lack of brewing potions."


    Froggy looked away like he was shy, but I could see him trying to hold his cry to not appear week in front of our new friend.


    "Don''t worry, I don''t blame you. It''s not like you had an easier time than me. And it''s not your responsibility to look after every witch in the world."


    Catharine bit her lip at what Froggy said but accepted his statement.


    "If you want, you can come with us to the Clan, you''ll be more then welcomed."


    That took both of us by surprise, I didn''t expect her to invite him so easily, and she has a pretty high position from what I heard, so her beliefs represent the whole Clan.


    Froggy on the other hand didn''t know if he should accept the deal.


    If he accepted it, he finally would be with other witches like him. But he recently made a promise that he will follow me anywhere.


    Of course, I didn''t want him to lose this opportunity just to hang out with me. I had a few friends here and there, and it''s not like I had a problem making more. Instead, he''s not really liked by the others, and me and Bobby are his only friends.


    While thinking about this I also made a realization. While I and the piglings looked different from the normal people in this world, nobody seemed too interested in our looks.


    The only difference a witch has from the common villager it''s the colour of the skin.


    But it''s not as simple as a different skin color. The head knight from the desert was dark skinned after all.


    No, it seems to be programmed by the system to instinctively be wary of them.


    Is this also part of the punishment?


    But why would it carte new witches if it kept the normal humans away from them?


    Was the system angry at those people for some reason and decided to punish them by lightning?


    I lost myself with this train of thoughts, even when I knew I wouldn''t arrive to an answer.


    While I had my internal battle, Froggy gave his answer.

 Chapter 79. On a new journey

    "I''m sorry, but I promised that I''ll stick with Trader for a while, maybe another time."


    Froggy in the end decided to refuse her offer and stay with me.


    A part of me felt relieved, while the other one felt bad for losing such an opportunity. But he''s a grown adult so he can make his own decisions.


    Catharine looked at him, then at me, and in the end, sighed in defeat.


    "You managed to take care of yourself until now, so I trust you can keep doing that whatever path you choose."


    With that, we continue our day shopping.


    We slowly started to warm up to each other until the sun was coming down and the meeting time was getting closer.


    With that, we put the armor on us and followed Catharine to the meeting place.


    The streets were starting to get more empty, except for a few people who started their day now.


    We were walking towards one of the entrance gates, after a few small streets we arrived at an abandoned inn forgotten by time.


    In there, I could see a small light through the remaining window and soon the other witches greeted us.


    "Good to see you again Sir Trader."


    "Good to see you as well miss Elder, what''s the final verdict?"


    The Witch looked past me to Catharine, who only nodded her head, before looking back at me.


    "We decided to bring you to our Clan in search for some answers. But only you are allowed to come with us, no other friends."


    I did not expect to develop in this way, but this could be a great opportunity as it would be a great danger.


    I felt that I could find some answers about the system and the war if I talked with a few important people, but at the same time, this could be a trap for me where I''ll be killed.


    The fact that I wasn''t allowed to bring my friends with me didn''t help with my worries. As I was about to comment on this, someone else spoke before me.


    "I think we should make an exception with this person and bring him along as well."


    Catherine said that while pointing at Froggy.


    This surprised all of us, I didn''t expect her to stick up for us.


    "And why should we?"


    Suspicion was in the air, and it was getting more tense.


    "Froggy, sorry that I''m asking you this, but can you take off your helmet?"


    Froggy didn''t say anything and took it off, letting everyone see his pale face in the dim light of the streets.


    Everyone started to gasp, as if not believing what they were seeing.


    After a few minutes of silence, I decided to break this awkward moment.


    "So is it ok if my friend will come with me?"


    "Uh- yes, we can make an exception this time."


    "Good, so when are we leaving?"


    "We wanted to leave now, but we only have an extra horse, so you''ll have to share it."


    That was not going to be a fun. While horses are a great method of transportation, it''s only meant for one person, if another passenger is on, it would greatly slow down the house while also having an uncomfortable raiding experience.


    "I''m not going to do that, I''ll buy a horse now, or tomorrow morning if I have to."


    While the witches were uncomfortable about me changing the plans, they could only accept it as it was in their interest as well.


    We checked a few shops, but everything was closed at this hour.


    But the witches didn''t want to wait until tomorrow so Catharine chose another option.


    The black market.


    While I have been in this world for over a year, and visited some big cities, I didn''t get the chance or interested to search for such places.


    Meanwhile, the witches didn''t have a great start when they first came here, so they had to start their business in the black market until they could go in the open.


    The black market looked pretty much as I expected, a huge cave that held some shops and people with hoods that covered their faces.


    This place was underground, we had to go through one of the sewer systems to arrive here, it was an interesting experience, to say the least.


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    It was deep underground, so nobody could accidentally mine into it.


    While we walked around the large streets with cloaks to cover us, I managed to see what people in this world would consider illegal.


    I saw some caged monsters, ender pearls, items made without the help of the system, unknown potions, and purple particles.


    We didn''t walk long before arriving at one of the shops, there the leader of the witch group haggled with the owner for the horse.


    In the end, she managed to buy one for a stack of emeralds. Animals were not that cheap to buy.


    With this, we left the underground place, it was fascinating in its way, and I intended to visit it again once I was back.


    With this, everyone had a horse now, and surprisingly I wasn''t the only one that came up with the idea to ''enhance'' the horses.


    From what I could tell the horses were pretty excited by this, they were truly interesting animals.


    While we were speeding through the forest at night, some people would consider it a foolish decision to trust someone after one meeting. And that would be a reasonable doubt to have, but my gut feeling was telling me that I could trust them.


    But of course, I didn''t put all my trust in that. I also made some backup plans. If I didn''t give any signs to Bobby that I was ok every two weeks, he had permission to break the ender pearl and bring me back to him.


    Of course, that is the last plan. I still have an enhanced diamond pickaxe to break any blocks, potions of healing, speed, and invisibility if I needed to run.


    And even if I couldn''t do any of that, I was not afraid to fight for me and my friend.


    With that we galloped throughout the night, no monster could keep up with us.


    Soon it was daylight and we decided to have our first stop since the horsed needed to have some rest.


    We got off and started to set up the camp. Since me and Froggy we''re the guests, we didn''t need to help the others, we could just take out the food and eat, while they took care of everything else.


    A few minutes later, the others sat down with us. While we were eating cooked chicken and milk, they only took out some bread and water.


    From what I could guess, they didn''t have enough time to buy some other rations, instead, they were left with some basic food.


    Funnily enough, Catharine had better food than them since she was shopping with us.


    And now she didn''t know if she should eat it or take some bread out like her friends.


    In the end, I decided to share some of my food so we won''t have this awkward lunch.


    "Thank you, Sir Trader, we were in a hurry so we didn''t manage to buy too much."


    "You don''t have to call me Sir any more, Trader is enough mis... "


    "Oh, I''m sorry about this, I haven''t introduced myself yet. My name is Anastasia, those are my Clan members Andrew and Catharine that you already know."


    "Nice to meet you all, while you know my name, I want to present you my friend Froggy. As you can see, he has very similar features as you all."


    I said that last sentence with a smile.


    Since we were eating, we didn''t have our helmets on, so we could see each other''s faces.


    "Yes, I can see the similarities, we''re the others the same by any chance?"


    "Not really, they are unique in their way, but they are not witches."


    "I was curious how you didn''t come with them yesterday. Did something happen?"


    "They''re preparing for a big battle so they don''t have time for this."


    This seems to offend Anastasia for some reason but also worries her.


    "What could be more important than the Pillgere plotting something?"


    Looks like I struck a nerve, but I could understand why.


    The Piligers are enemies of every Kingdom, so it should be a top priority to stop them when they plan to do something big. But this time, the new problem was more urgent than the unknown plans.


    "They preparing to fight against the Zombie Lord and his army of zombies."


    They all looked in confusion at me. And I was confused at their confusion, this was news all over the Stone kingdom, how couldn''t they know about this?


    So I started to explain to them what happened in the past few months, and their faces started to get paler the more I talked.


    It was quite a sight to see since they were already pale.


    "Do you think this is somehow related to the Piligers? I could see them creating a monstrosity like that."


    They asked an interesting idea, but I don''t think they''re involved, or at least not that much.


    The system brought a hero against the monster, they didn''t tell the church to stop the Pillagers, and whenever the Zombie Lord spoke, it was all in the name of the Void, which is more related to the End dimension than this one.


    Unless the Pillagers worshipped the Void as well?


    "That could be possible, but there''s not much evidence for it."


    The conversation died down a little after that, so we decided to hop on the horses and continue our journey.


    It took another day with our speedy horses to get to our destination.


    The trees started to get darker, and the grass was less and less replaced with muddy waters. We entered a swamp biome, and it was quite a sight to see.


    There was mist forming here and there, a frog jumped out of the way, and in the distance I could hear the unique noises of a slime hopping around.


    We got deep into the the mist until we saw a wooden wall appearing out of nowhere, it was seven blocks tall with lamps on the exterior every five blocks. It only gave a creepy experience overall.


    Soon the gates were opened, and we passed them.


    But when we did that, it was like we went through an invisible barrier that stopped the mist, and once we were past it, the sunlight was once again warming us up.


    How was that possible? I don''t remember this being a feature of the game. I''m I missing something?


    But the horses didn''t stop, they were still galloping toward the clusters of huts.


    They all looked pretty similar in design to the Witch hut in the game, a small house on thick pillars of wood in the middle of a swamp.


    The only difference was that they were a little bigger, connected, and a huge building in the middle of the compound.


    We didn''t go too far since there wasn''t any land for the horses to use.


    So we stopped and got off the horses.


    "Welcome, to our Clan!"


    Anastasia said with a proud voice while showing us her home.


    And I was pretty impressed, it was a small size town with its own culture, people, and history.


    I could even see some Witches tending to the Slimes like they were cattle.


    It was a fascinating thing to see.


    We climbed the ladders to get on the wooden platforms.


    As we walked along the bridge, Witches came out of their huts to see what all the commotion was about.


    Some of them looked curious at us, others with fear, and even some with anger.


    But they all had one thing in common, the pale skin and the purple robes.


    Our final destination was the big building in the middle of the compound.


    It had a similar style to the huge wooden huts from African tribes in my home world. A circular base with an almost flat roof, It wasn''t too tall but it occupied a lot of space.


    We went through the big entrance and went along the long hallway, soon we were in a huge room, where ten chairs were positioned in a semicircle looking towards the middle.


    Nine of them had an Elder sitting on them while the last one was empty.


    But not for long as, Anastasia went and sat in the empty chair, showing her position in the Clan.


    What was left was silence and tense air, as they all looked at us trying to intimidate us.


    Finally one of the elders spoke.


    "We were expecting you."

 Chapter 80. Council of Witches

    "We were expecting you."


    Said one of the Elders.


    Andrew and Catharine were silently leaving the room as well, which only left me and Froggy against the Elders.


    "But the messenger didn''t know about the surprise guest from what we can guess."


    Said another Elder while looking at Froggy with interest.


    They were concentrating more on Froggy who seemed to get shy all of a sudden, slowly pieces of the puzzle started to put themselves in place.


    One of the Elders did come to meet me, but since she saw that I had more powerful friends than she expected, she planned to accept only me to the Clan and intimidate me with the whole council gathered.


    That''s why one of the witches was missing from the group, he was sent ahead to warn the others.


    But they didn''t know about Froggy, and they seemed more interested in him now than me.


    Finally, I was back to reality and could hear how the Elders were interrogating my poor friend.


    "So you''re saying you weren''t forced to make potions nonstop."


    "Of course they didn''t, the Sandstone Kingdom didn''t know the full potential of my abilities, and the Stone Kingdom only had me as a guest of honor. When I left, they were a little saddened, but they didn''t lock me up."


    More murmurs were exchanged between the Elders, this seems like an fascinating topic for them.


    "Excuse me, but we''ve been traveling for a while and were still tired, so can we discuss the stuff we''re here for?"


    They all stopped and looked at me.


    But for the past year, I have been through a lot, so their attempts to pressure me weren''t that notable.


    "Yes, about the incident with Piligers, it is indeed concerning, but they are the ones to suffer first after the internal fights are done. We''re more hidden than them in the arms of the great mist."


    What''s with the sudden change?


    Didn''t I come here to negotiate about how we should deal with the Pillagers?


    Instead, he gave the impression like they wouldn''t suffer that much from this endeavor.


    This also took the other Elders by surprise, as they looked in confusion at the one who spoke.


    Not all of them, another three besides the one who spoke seemed to have a calm expression like they were expecting this development.


    So this isn''t a perfect paradise either, they have some internal disagreements as well.


    "What if the Piligers will tell the others of your location?"


    "We made a contract with them once we left so they wouldn''t do that."


    Before I could think of an answer, another Elder spoke.


    "Brutus, what''s the meaning of this? We decided to help Trader with his revenge for the Piligers. This will only help us not bring us any harm."


    "And how do we guarantee that? The first time he met Catharine he was pointing a weapon at her! That''s not an act of looking for allies, only getting rid of enemies. What guarantees that he''s not an enemy?"


    That was a very good point against me to make, which didn''t make me feel too comfortable.


    But the same Witch that spoke up before said something in my defense.


    "The fact that Froggy stays willingly beside him should be enough proof."


    The silence was in the room after that statement.


    It surprisingly had more implications than I initially thought.


    Brutus didn''t say anything, instead getting more moody in his chair.


    "I''m sorry about this Sir Trader, we do intend to help you fight against the Piligers. My name is Flora, and if you have any questions that I could answer I''m always open to them. I''m sure you''re tired after the long travel, why don''t you two get some rest and discuss more things tomorrow."


    I could only accept the offer and left the room, still confused about what just happened.


    Catharine was waiting outside for us and guided us to our temporary homes.


    We each got one, not too far from each other.


    It was a smaller hut than the others, but it was cozy enough for me to feel comfortable in it.


    So after I said good night to Froggy and Catharine I went to sleep.


    POV: Flora


    Early in the morning a messenger came to our building. The man who threatened us with the banning our kin, was more powerful than we expected.


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    Fortunately, he seems to be willing to talk before starting a fight, which is a rare sight in this world.


    But even with this, we wouldn''t be used as tools to achieve his goal, instead, we would be the ones to put pressure on him.


    This is our home, we have the most strength in here, if he doesn''t meet our demands we can get rid of him quickly and stay hidden for a few years to cool things off.


    A day has passed since then, and all the Elders gathered in the big room except for one.


    But she was on her way back anyway.


    Meanwhile, we started to talk with each other about our lives and experiments.


    While we were all in a small community that didn''t mean we knew every move of everyone in the Clan. We didn''t grow up together, the only thing that united us was the curse of being a witch.


    We can''t have children like the other villagers, so the only new people we get are outsiders.


    And everyone is adapting to their new life at their own pace.


    We are the Elders, usually the oldest residents in this Clan, we are selected by our groups as representatives for the whole, that''s why there are ten of us.


    While we have this curse upon us, we also get an unexpected benefit, a prolonged life. We can live for around 80 years or maybe even linger, which is a lot more than what a normal village will live.


    That is why, even if we don''t get too often new members, we keep our population stable.


    As we talked with each other about their experiments and their life, our rude guest finally arrived.


    They arrived in the middle of the room, where Anastasia was with them, but soon joined us in the ranks.


    Our chairs were elevated which gave us an imposing aura.


    The witches in the leather armor slowly retreated only leaving the armored man.


    He had fully enchanted iron armor, but his helmet was missing so we could see his face at least.


    He had black hair, big eyes and no nose surprisingly. I didn''t even know that was possible.


    But what truly caught our attention was the man beside the weird-looking stranger, he had the same equipment but no the same appearance, he was like us, with a pale skin and a mole on his nose.


    He was a witch.


    This was a shock for all of us, he seemed important to this Trader person, otherwise, he wouldn''t have gotten such precious items.


    The meeting started, but I didn''t pay too much attention, and others seemed as distracted as me.


    In the end, Trader was lost in his world so we spoke with Froggy for a little.


    "How long have you been a witch?"


    "Were you forced into this position?"


    "What''s your relationship with this guy?"


    "Do you want to join us?"


    At first, he was hesitant to answer the question, or maybe shy, but the more questions he answered the clearer his voice became.


    In the end, we could all come to one conclusion, he was truly a friend to Trader, and there was no discrimination between them.


    He has some connections with some pretty important people in the Stone Kingdom.


    This was shocking for all of us.


    Since we couldn''t show our faces everywhere, it didn''t make our attempts to know important people any easier because of the curse.


    We tried to in the Sandstone Kingdom, but Pillagers have a good grip on that place, luckily the most important place for us didn''t have the same degree of problems.


    Stone Kingdom was important to us, it was the main place where we got our Brewing ingredients from since it was the capital of potion making.


    We tried to have a higher connection but to no avail.


    But Froggy was a ray of light in the middle of the night, with his help maybe we can break this curse and join a kingdom, and our seclusion could finally be over.


    I''m sure everyone had the same idea as me, we have to get Froggy on our side no matter the cost.


    But apparently, some Elders had a different idea.


    "Yes, about the incident with Piligers, it is indeed concerning, but they are the ones to suffer first after the internal fight is done. We''re more hidden than them in the arms of the great mist."


    What was that madman doing?


    Couldn''t he see this great opportunity for us to finally be accepted?


    Sure we decided to pressure Trader a little to get some rights in the city, but this is beyond what we previously planned.


    Now he will think we only brought him here to silence him, this is not an impression we want to leave on Froggy.


    He cares about Trader.


    I knew he started to act weirdly in the past 10 years, but we all thought he was having a midlife crisis. We all tried to help him in our ways but he didn''t accept any, so we just left him alone.


    But he wasn''t the only one who seemed interested in this fight, that means they have a different agenda alongside the councils.


    This was not a good sign.


    In the end, I had to step up and stop this madness. Whatever plan they had couldn''t be more important than our chance of befriending Froggy.


    I reminded them of this opportunity and Brutus decided to wisely stand down.


    After a few minutes, Trader and Froggy left the building, not too late after the rest of the Elders as well, some tension started to appear in the air, this was not a good sign.


    Only Anastasia stayed behind since I asked her.


    "What was that old geezer thinking about!? Does he want to make enemies with everyone? This is why I think the council is a stupid thing, we''re not even that interested in politics, but we still managed to get in each other''s way."


    "Calm down Anastasia, others may hear you, and you don''t want to be sent on a ''mission'' once again."


    While she was still angry, in the end, she didn''t speak anymore.


    "So what do you think? Do we have a chance to befriend Froggy?"


    After the change of topic, she could only sigh.


    "He''s been through a lot like all of us, but he didn''t have anyone to share the burden with. We can easily befriend him, but our worth won''t be higher than Traders. I think it would be wise to befriend him as well, he has some interesting connections that could greatly help us."


    "We can do that, I only hope we didn''t leave a bad impression with the sudden surprise. They mentioned that they had connections with the Royal Family, do you think they''re sent to spy on us?"


    "I don''t think so. Their more preoccupied with another problem of their own."


    She then told me about the Zombie Lord and his destruction in the Kingdom.


    This was horrible to hear and also made me question myself if we would be safe.


    Sure the monsters seem to ignore us when we pass them, but only the mindless monsters, Endermans are smart enough to realize that we are different, they don''t attack us, but they do like to play pranks on us from time to time.


    But if an intelligent monster appeared, with an army nonetheless, this could endanger us as well.


    "What do you think we should do Anastasia? "


    She stopped for a few minutes to think about the answer.


    While Anastasia is the most hot-headed in the council, she is the youngest of all of us for a reason


    She came here 20 years ago, brought by one of us, at first she seemed confused about what her life came about. But after everything was cleared to her, she started to search for a way for us to prosper, she''s the one to come up with the idea for the Sline farm which greatly helped our economy and our contact with the outside world.


    Quickly she became a popular witch with the residents and voted to become an Elder.


    Not everyone was happy to have such young blood in their ranks but the people have voted, so it couldn''t be changed for another 10 years.


    Once in power, she gather people like her, ready for change and striving for more.


    Her group is the one that has contact with the outsiders the most, and we all benefit from it no matter how much the others complain.


    "We don''t have enough information, unfortunately, I say we keep them as long as possible here and gather what we can, then we can decide how to tackle this problem."


    I nodded my head in approval, I would pull some strings to get more information from outside as well.


    The conflict came too quickly one after another, which wasn''t a good sign.


    I felt like something was about to happen, something big.


    And we have to be ready for it.

 Chapter 81. Slime farm

    I woke up feeling fresh and ready for the day.


    I looked outside the window and to my surprise, I could see the sun rising.


    "Didn''t we arrive a little after Noon in the village? Did I sleep through the whole day and night? I must''ve been truly tired then."


    But now I felt fully rested, so after I had my early breakfast with whatever food I had left in my inventory I went outside to explore the place.


    The first thing that stopped my movement was the safety rail two blocks away from the door.


    Since everything was built on wooden beams, I could see the swamp all over the place.


    It was similar to Venetia but uglier in a way.


    Since it was still earlier in the morning I couldn''t see any people starting their day, so the streets were empty around me.


    "I should explore this place before I''ll be more restricted on where I could go."


    With the plan made I slowly walked along the wooden path, I passed houses of similar style but different sizes.


    In the distance I could see a small structure that had an item frame on top, if I squinted my eyes I could see an iron pickaxe displayed in the frame.


    That must''ve been the mine, I wonder how deep they go?


    I walked some more and now I saw their farming area, it was a total copy of a farming field from any village in the game.


    Logs were put as a frame, and inside were four rows of dirt blocks with running water in the middle of them.


    It was a funny sight to see, something that I''m so familiar with in an unfamiliar place.


    They mostly grew potatoes, carrots, and wheat. And with the size of those farms, you could easily feed 100 people.


    I didn''t stay too long there, this was their food source which I''m very sure they''d like to protect, and I don''t want to make the residents of this place more suspicious of me.


    The next interesting sight was the most fun one, the Slime farm.


    A large fenced area over water and land held a few dozen jumpy slimes.


    The smallest ones stayed on the land and occasionally jumped in the water for a short while, the bigger ones were mostly in the deeper water having fun in their own way.


    But I didn''t see any huge ones. Were they not in this world?


    Or once they reached that size they got harvested?


    Suddenly I could hear some steps coming towards me, I quickly turned around and saw a witch with a purple robe and a straw hat.


    "Careful! They bite if you get too close."


    His voice was old but filled with power, which made me instinctively listen to him.


    "Sorry Sir, I was only fascinated by this farm, I know that slimes are still monsters that can be dangerous."


    He seems to chuckle at me, not really bothered by my presence.


    "You must be the new stranger in our lands. You sound more polite than what the other fellows told me. Jack is my name, and if you want to get some answers, take this rotten flesh and feed the slimes with me."


    He handed me ten pieces of rotten flesh.


    While in the game it didn''t look too appealing, it was still kept in the chest in case it was ''needed'' in the future.


    But since I actually live in the game, when I have a piece of rotten meat in my hand, my first reaction is to gag from the smell.


    I can''t imagine anyone trying to eat this as well. There is no benefit however you look at it.


    However I had a convenient tool named inventory that helped me hold items without dealing with its consequences, so I only needed to hold it in my hand when I had to throw it to the jumping slimes.


    Jack was the first to pass the wooden gate, he had a shield in his hand already prepared and slimes were already flicking him.


    It was quite an interesting sight to see, but unfortunately, I didn''t get the chance to enjoy it for too long as I soon had to join him.


    Not too late after I joined with him, but a little further from him to take off some stress that was accumulating on him.


    The slimes weren''t fast, and most of them were the smallest kind.


    If they didn''t try to kill me, I would''ve thought this was a cute sight.


    My shield was up, and three were already banging their head against it, I felt no strength behind my defense.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    After ten gatherd around me, I threw some rotten meat on the ground.


    Soon, they all ignored me and jumped over the piece of food. I threw two more to spread the pile a little, otherwise the I''ll squish themselves to death.


    It took around four small slimes to fish one piece of meat, and after I threw one more, they seemed to be satisfied and left me alone.


    The little ones just sat calmly on the piece of meat and I could see through their transparent body how the food was getting dissolved.


    "Look''s like you can hold yourself. Let''s feed the bigger ones now. Careful now, those can pack a punch."


    Jack said and gave me another ten Pieces of rotten flesh.


    The little ones seemed satisfied, so they didn''t follow us anymore, but it wouldn''t make a difference since we had to go into the water.


    The first three blocks away from the shore, I could feel a slab under my foot. My theory was that they were placed there for the little slimes to not get drowned, but still had enough water to wash themselves.


    As we got into the one-block-tall territory, the other seven slimes seemed to notice us, so they all jumped towards us eager to get their breakfast, or eat us if necessary.


    Our shields were up, but we didn''t wait for them to reach us, as we already started to throw the rotten flesh towards them.


    Since they were bigger they could each eat a whole piece of rotten flesh, so once food was thrown to them, they stopped and I could see with the naked eye how it got dissolved inside them.


    Some of them reached us and I could feel some force after each hit, but nothing too hard.


    After we gave them each two pieces to eat they seemed satisfied and left us alone.


    But one of them seemed to freeze in one place, I thought that even those slimes couldn''t live on a diet exclusively of rotten flash, so this one was having a tummy ache.


    But no, instead it started to pulsate, and after each time it got bigger and bigger.


    It felt like a Pokemon was evolving right in from of my eyes.


    Once it grew to my high it finally stopped and finally moved.


    Its face was looking towards us, and it was weird to see its eyes after a layer of green mucus.


    He jumped towards us and I could feel the force behind that attack. It was heavy, we had to actually brace ourselves when he did that.


    "Well I''ll be damned, looks like you''ll see how we get slime balls as well today. Follow me."


    With moderate speed but still ready with our shields, we brought the slime back to land, on one side of the fance I could see a wooden box three blacks tall, and we got the slime in there.


    While I was distracting the big slime while standing on the wall, Jack was on the other side blocking the monster in, now he was stuck in a 4x4x3 room with no way to get out.


    "Now what?"


    "Once he''s down, you''ll yell go and I''ll push that lever."


    He pointed to the lever that was connected to a few sticky pistons through Redstone.


    I just nodded my head and waited for the exact time when the slime would land from his jump.


    "Now go!"


    The lever was switched and the pistons pushed the bottom wall into the poor slime, it was caught, and it suddenly took the shape of a square balloon that was trying to get out, but with no luck.


    If it wasn''t a monster that wanted to kill me a few minutes ago I would''ve pitted it.


    "We got the slime, what''s the next step?"


    "Now it''s time to split them up."


    Jack took an enchanted iron sword from his inventory and sliced the huge slime. It wiggled vigorously from what I could guess was pain, but soon it exploded and Buck jumped down to take three of the smaller remains of the slime.


    I could only guess that those were the slimeballs. But while he took those pieces, the rest of the green gue was slowly gathering in three piles forming a medium-sized slime.


    But their life was short-lived as Jack killed them brutally like their predecessor. He got two slime balls from each slime.


    As I expected, the rest that couldn''t be picked up slowly gathered on different piles and formed ten more small slimes.


    To much surprise, Jack started to kill those as well, not all of them just half and he got eight slime balls from them.


    After the slaughter was done, he fed the small slimes some rotten flesh and then let go from the wooden box.


    In total he got 16 slime balls out of this and five more potential slimes for the future to be butchered, it was a profitable business indeed.


    "Wouldn''t be better to have more slimes?"


    "Nah, that is the most we can afford to keep with our food supply, there''s no need to expand."


    "Would it help to have some looting on that sword? Unless it already has."


    "It would, but you can''t find anywhere cheap books like that. This sword has only Sharpness to help out with cutting."


    I nodded in understanding, maybe I''ll buy a few looting books next time I come here as a token of friendship.


    "Are you the only one who works with the slimes?"


    "Nah, my brother helps me from time to time, it''s not that hard, we only need to feed them twice a day and in ten days they grow to their full size."


    "Fascinating, and what do you use the slim balls for?"


    "We mostly sell them, I heard the Coral Kingdom really like them so they buy them as soon as they appear."


    So this was their main income. But why would they need so much slime?


    There aren''t a lot of recipes that you can use them for and from what I read the Coral Kingdom isn''t known for their redstone machines, only their crafting item''s.


    "Thank you for showing me your farm, can I come at night to help with the feeding again?"


    Jack started to laugh out loud with his deep voice.


    "Help is always welcome. "


    With that, I said my goodbyes and went back to explore the rest of the place, but when I got back I saw someone familiar.


    Catherine was waiting in front of a door, it was Froggy''s place from what I could remember, but she looked like she''d been waiting in from of the door for a while.


    "Morning Catharine, did you manage to rest well last night?"


    "Oh Trader, I didn''t see you. Yeah, I was pretty tired from all the movement I did in the past few days, so this sleep was well deserved. I was sent to check on you two if you were awake."


    "How long have you been waiting at the door?"


    Catharine decided not to answer my question.


    "Did you knock on the door?"


    "Five times already! But I can still hear him snoring on the other side."


    I could only sigh at Catharine''s rookie mistake and passed her to open the door. You can''t wake up my friend with a gentle knock, you have to be rougher.


    Soon I could see Froggy sleeping in his bed without a care in the world, a few steps later I was right beside him and Catharine looked already uncomfortable with me burging into his home.


    I did not care instead I took the blanket off him and started to sake his shoulder with force.


    "Wait don''t be so-"


    "What?! I don''t want to do any more training Omar leave me alone!"


    "We can''t do that Froggy we need to swing that sword at least 1.000 times to learn it right."


    "1.000 times?!"


    Now he was up and fully awake, but once he had his eyes on me, his shoulders lost some tension.


    "Oh Trader...morning..."


    He knew what just happened, so he didn''t even bother to complain, but got off his bed and did some stretches.


    Catharine seems very shocked by what just happened, and she only spoke after Froggy was done with his morning exercise.


    "Froggy, Trader. Elder Flora wants to see you two, why don''t we get some food, and then we can meet her."


    We both accepted the deal, so we left to get some food.


    I wonder if they eat something exotic here.

 Chapter 82. Gathering more information

    We walked along the wooden path until we got to a medium-sized hut, there wasn''t a common dining hall where you could eat in the community.


    Instead, we were going to eat homemade food from Catharine. The inside of her house was cozy to say the least, cow''s leather was on the ground like a rug from my world, a one-block painting on the wall, with an image of a family of three.


    There were some chests here and there but it all felt like a warm home.


    We sat at the table and Catharine gave us some bread, bowls of milk, and some jam.


    Since this can''t be crafted I can only assume she made it with her own two hands which made me curios about other types of foods, one bite from it I could tell it was Berry jam, I liked to have this every morning for breakfast if possible.


    After some casual chatter and our bellies full, we went to meet one of the Elders once again.


    This time we didn''t go to the big building in the middle of the settlement, instead we went to one of the bigger houses besides it.


    It was three stories high all made with dark wood, tinted glass, and a brick chimney on top of all of that.


    We arrived at the entrance, it was a double wooden door.


    Catharine knocked on the door and waited.


    Not too late after someone opened both doors at the same time. It was a butler with a dark coat, white shirt, and an elegant pose, his face was pale like everyone else in this place, which meant that he was also a witch.


    "Ah, Miss Catharine, I''ve been informed about your arrival. Master Flora is waiting for you in her study room."


    "Thank you Sebi, I know the way there, you don''t need to guide us."


    The butler made a small bow before going back to his work.


    "Follow me."


    Catharine walked inside the house and went upstairs. On the walls, I could see the portrait of the owner and other witches that I didn''t recognize.


    Red flowers were chosen to bring life to the house, and I loved how it looked.


    We stopped in front of a wooden door where Catharine knocked a few times.


    "Come in!"


    A voice yelled from the other side. And with her permission, we opened the door.


    Inside was a big room with shelves all over the walls, the floor was filled with red carpet and at the end of the room stood Flora behind a desk while a big window illuminated her from behind.


    She had books stacked on top of each other and some writing utensils not too far away. From the messy desk, I could tell she was busy for a few hours at least.


    When all of us got into the room, she stopped writing and looked up.


    "Good morning gentleman''s, I hope you had a good rest."


    "Good morning Elder Flore, I feel much better after a good night of sleep. Now we''re ready to start."


    "I''m glad to hear that. I''ve been doing some reaching about our times with the Piligers and found some interesting information. While it''s vastly outdated it still holds valuable information, here have a read for yourself."


    She gave me and Froggy a book to read. Mine had the tile "Creation of life" while Froggy held the "Forgotten history" title.


    Both of them were thick books, which means it''s going to take a while to read through them.


    So I opened the book and started to read. Meanwhile, Catharine has silently left the room since her job was done here.


    *Experiment 210


    Of all the ores and items we use, lapiz seems to have the most effect on the human. If we dilute the ore with water we can see the color of the skin change. Further tests need to be done.*


    *Experiment 290


    Mixing lapiz with Redstone and injected into the bloodstream, seems to give the person the ability to use a small amount of magic. This is revolutionizing, we only need to find out what''s the correct ratio so the test subject will have a longer lifespan than 10 minutes.*


    *Experiment 510


    The test subject ''Iron Skin'' is going through a major operation today. Plates of iron will be fused with his skin, In hopes that his iron-fused blood will accept the superior skin.


    *Experiment 889


    Today we have a party! Our first living experiment is a great success, the higher-ups are very pleased with the results. Even though the beast keeps ravaging his cage, this is not a problem for my department anymore, so I don''t care. Today we''re only drinking like there''s no tomorrow. *


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    That was the last thing written in this book, there are still a few empty pages after this and I can only guess that something did happen after the party.


    This was horrifying to read, no wonder the System had to step down to shut everything off. I wonder how did it do that?


    It seems like those kinds of experiments had a big budget and a lot of resources invested into this.


    I do remember the Skeleton Forteres was weirdly built from the other places, was that one made by this organization?


    Even on the other side of the portal, the room was all made with iron, which is not that easy to get even for me.


    And those experiments sounded brutal. What did they try to achieve after the war?


    Did they try to recreate to iron golem?


    There are so many questions that I don''t know if I even what the answers, but one thing is clear. The Piligers are something not to be messed with, they played with fire and now they have guns.


    Half a day has passed since I got this book, so we decided to get something to eat and then continue.


    Froggy hadn''t finished his book yet, and I could see it didn''t interest him that much, so we exchanged books.


    Catharine left us a while ago, she didn''t seem too interested in those stories and she probably had some other work to do.


    Flora instead stayed with us the whole time, she was still at her desk reading books and papers.


    I thought she would be busier after having such a high position in this compound, but apparently, I was wrong.


    She was an important person and allowed to laze around and do her own projects, how convenient.


    "If you want to eat something you don''t need to leave this place, I''ll call my servent to bring some food."


    She then got off her chair and went toward the bell that sat on a shelf, with a light touch the bell rang and all of a sudden I could see the outline of everyone around me.


    I knew about this mechanic in the game, but from what I remember you could only see the outline of the villagers, not all the moving entities.


    I looked around some more and saw some witches walking calmly on the wooden road, some frogs calmly hooping under the man-made structures, and how a certain servant was coming in a hurry to answer to call.


    He was the only servant in the house, which I guess was logical with how small the population was here anyway.


    Soon he was at the door and opened it.


    "Miss Flora, did you call for me?"


    "Yes, bring out some food, me and my guests are hungry after a hard day of work."


    "Of course, I expected this to happen soon so I have everything prepared."


    With that, he took some food items out of his inventory and placed them on a wooden plate.


    We got some cooked chicken with beetroot soup and some green jello as a dessert.


    Flora got a cup of milk besides everything else.


    It was convenient to have an inventory where you could store items stopped in time. It''s the best thing a butler would want.


    While he was leaving the room, I could see the outline of everything slowly disappearing, the effect only lasted around a minute.


    Froggy didn''t have any change in his expression, he seemed more interested in the green jello than this fascinating effect.


    Either he''s used to seeing this, or he doesn''t see it at all.


    A weird but interesting ability to have as an outsider, maybe I can use it to see invisible beings next time.


    While the beetroot soup wasn''t that good on its own, in combination with the chicken it got a pretty good taste, and I could see why they would keep farming those useless crops.


    Now came the main treat of those meals. The inventory described it as ''slime jelly'', and I was afraid I knew what the main ingredient was.


    But I still took a bite to taste it. It was chewy but sweet, with no other distinct flavor in this. I think they mixed sugar with something from the slime and poured it into a shape.


    It''s an interesting recipe but not something I would eat too often.


    Froggy seems to love it and even asked for seconds.


    With the meal brake over I opened up the history book.


    Weirdly it was empty most of the beginning, like someone erased all the text but left the pages.


    The first photographs that I saw, said something about a weapon powerful enough to break even the legendary bedrock, but I couldn''t know what kind of weapon they were talking about since everything was erased beforehand.


    "What happened with the first half of the book?"


    "I don''t know, unfortunately, from what my predecessor said it was like that from the beginning, but it''s still had enough important information that it''s worth keeping it."


    And the more I read from the book the more I understood the reason.


    While it was only half written, the rest described how the system fought against the rebelling nation.


    For a few years, nobody was able to connect with the main system no matter how many achievements they got, so this caused them to rebel against its nature.


    At first, it was small stuff, but slowly it got bigger and bigger until the System couldn''t ignore them anymore. It ripped the world in half at his wrath, nobody knew how to fight against it, so the only result was a loss for the great nation.


    Not everyone was killed, some were speared to be an example against the other nations. A warning to not fight against it.


    The system sent lightning against the survivors, then the witches appeared, and the rest were engulfed by a mystical mist and changed into the Piligers.


    And then the system disappeared like nothing ever happened, leaving the broken nation behind.


    The Piligers were in greater numbers than the witches, and they now had an urge to kill and attack the normal people. The witches were more capable of holding their new urges, so after some years, they decided to not live like this anymore.


    They split up, with the exception of a few, and came here to build their new settlement.


    As time passed, the urge started to go down, and while the witches decided to stop their old lifestyle the Piligers went back to it.


    But this time something happened, nobody knows what, all the written knowledge was erased, and they didn''t have they couldn''t recreate the lost equipment.


    Time slowly passed, and the old generation died, while the newer generation tried to bring their people to their formal glory, with little results.


    Now almost all, the knowledge was lost, and the experiments continued, but because of the lack of equipment, the results were not the best.


    Even though the older generation died, every time the lightning strikes a normal villager they become a witch.


    It''s like a constant reminder about their past deeds, even though everyone wants to forget about those dark times.


    I closed the book and gave a big sigh.


    The sun was almost gone, and I put the book back on the desk.


    It was a heavy book, and even though it was incomplete, whatever remained showed a dark history that everyone wanted to forget.


    But the Witches and Piligers are a constant reminder about the dangers of angering the system.


    I wonder if the other kingdoms know the history as well.


    Maybe they do, but they keep it a secret, afraid that someone will try to test the system''s power once again.


    This would also explain the rich ruins all over the infected lands, it once belonged to a kingdom much more advanced than the others, but now forgotten by time.


    "Do you know any more information from your predecessors? I can only guess the system erased everything that it deemed to be dangerous."


    "Unfortunately it''s been a few generations since that happened, and since we usually appear in this settlement when we''re much older. Most information was lost to time from the lack of trusting the newcomers. I''m only lucky to get those journals with those crazy experiments because it was stored in an Ender Chest. Apparently, even the System doesn''t have access to its inventory."


    I learned too much information in one day, and this information could be more dangerous than even what I knew about the game.


    I know only about glitches that can break the bedrock, not a whole weapon.


    I''m kind of glad that this super advanced Nation got wiped out. Otherwise, this world would''ve been a much more dangerous one than it is now.


    I continued to talk with Elder Flora about some things I didn''t understand.


    Meanwhile, Froggy got bored a few hours ago so he decided to leave us and get some sleep.


    He''s not the type to be overly curious about history, even if it''s such an amazing topic to read in a fantasy world.


    Time passed, but we were starting to get tired so we decided to get some rest.


    Tomorrow I want to try something.

 Chapter 83. Enchanted walls

    I was in front of a wall made of wood, more exactly it was the wall that surrounded the Witch Clan.


    It had a simple design but it did its job of keeping the monsters away.


    From what Flora told me those walls were enchanted to produce magical mist and keep it out of the compound.


    The magical mist had the properties to make anyone who goes through without a special token, be lost or pass the compound.


    It was a fascinating thing to see, unfortunately, I wasn''t allowed to study the token, even if I said that I was willing to trade for it.


    Froggy wasn''t too interested in the enchanted walls, so instead he opted to take care of the Slime farm in my place since I forgot to help the witch farmer with feeding the slimes like I promised to.


    I wasn''t too bothered by this, since I''m already pretty used to working alone, and this was more of a personal project than something that needs to be urgently done.


    The wood in front of me looked like any other wood Ive seen in my life.


    There were no writings on it or any glow effects as I''ve seen in any other enchanted items.


    I walked along the walls in case I saw something that caught my eye, but even after 100 blocks, everything looked normal.


    The next patrol of guards will arrive in an hour, so I''ll have to be careful with the time to not be found out.


    I didn''t get permission to study their secrets after all.


    With one look around me to see if I had any audience, I decided fi break the wall. Hoping no defense mechanism will start attacking me, or the whole enchanted wall will break.


    With my iron axe in hand, I broke the wooden block in no time, and beyond the new hole I could see a dirty blue block.


    It was a laspis block, but on a closer look, I could see small writing all over the block.


    Those were red enchanted letters, they looked pretty similar to the floating letters that appeared when I used the Enchanting table.


    Which means that it''s the highest language you can use when enchanting something.


    But it''s a lost language, not even the Sandstone Kindome understood what those letters meant, and that was their specialty.


    Not only that, it was all densely written on one side of the block.


    It was written with redstone ink similar to the cursed enchantment, which showed once again that this was designed by a human, not the system itself.


    Each latter was one pixel tall, and they used every pixel of the block to write something on it.


    I was afraid of what enchantment it would have if I managed to somehow get the block to my inventory.


    But I wasn''t crazy enough to break the enchanted block, I don''t know if it has some defense mechanism or something similar to that, and even if it doesn''t for sure the enchanted wall will break.


    Which will put me in hot waters with the rest of the Witches.


    So I only studied what I could see.


    One careful touch with the blue block showed a glowing ripple like an invisible barrier.


    This got me curious, so I broke a few other blocks from the wall and to my horror, every block was the same as the first one.


    All the lapiz bloks were filled with red writing, and on closer inspection, I could tell that it wasn''t imprinted like what I did with the cursed book, instead, it was all handwritten by someone.


    It was scary to think that hundreds of similar blocks were all hidden under a layer of simple wood.


    I put the wooden blocks back in their place since everything was similar to the first one I saw.


    There''s no point in risking getting found out if I only needed one block to study.


    I had to get back with the others after a few minutes to get some paper and writing tools, there was no way for me to memorize everything on that wall.


    But with everything ready I was constantly trying to copy everything that I saw on paper.


    It took me a whole day for me to perfectly copy what I saw.


    It''s not because I''m a slow writer, it''s more the constant threat of being found out by the guards every time I got emersed into writing I heard steps walking on top of the walls.


    And then I remembered about the guards, and block the hole before hiding somewhere.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The second reason and the hardest one, was because I was writing an enchantment, and when you write man-made enchantment you can''t make any mistakes.


    In the end, I wrote four pages that I''m pretty sure are correctly calibrated.


    Theoretically, I could put those pages in a book and place them on the Enchanting table and see what they are.


    But I don''t know if I''m at the right level to be able to enchant those.


    So I put everything like before I was here and went back to bed.


    ----


    The next day I went to have breakfast with Froggy, and of course, I had to wake him up first, otherwise, I''d only be able to see him at lunch.


    "So how was your meeting with the slimes?"


    "It was pretty fun to play with the little ones, even though it''s hard to believe that they''re able to eat that kind of food and still walk afterward. The farmer told me hed show me how they butcher the slimes later when they get a big one. I don''t know how I should feel about killing such cute creatures."


    "Don''t worry, you''ll be taken by surprise once you see what this mob is capable of."


    "Is it a good surprise or a bad one?"


    "No comment. Did anyone ask about me yesterday?"


    "Yes, Catharine asked about you since she didn''t see you together with me, but I told her that you were busy studying the book that Elder Flora gave you."


    That was a pretty good excuse, that wouldn''t raise too many eyebrows, but just to be sure I''ll visit the Elder today and request a book to study.


    After a good night''s rest, a new idea came into my mind. What if there are other enchantments on the rest of the block?


    That would be a crazy idea since one face already had a complicated enchantment, if any other face of the block had another enchantment it would be madness.


    But it''s better to be sure and check than to ignore the possibility of that happening.


    I told my plans to Froggy after we finished eating, and asked him if he wanted to join me.


    "Sorry Trader, but this is a great opportunity for me to learn about my people. And I don''t know how long we''re going to stay here so I want to learn as much as I can."


    That''s a fair point, it''s not like I need him to accompany me to stare at a wall, and from what I could remember he doesn''t have any knowledge related to enchanting, so I don''t think I will be able to even bounce off the ideas that I''ll get.


    So in the end we said our goodbyes while I walked towards the Elder''s house.


    After a short knock, the butler opened the door while inviting me inside.


    I couldn''t go directly to her study room since I wasn''t theoretically invited.


    But after a few minutes, the Butler was back and told me that I was allowed to go upstairs.


    And with that, I was back to the study room with the Elder but this time I was alone, and the top of her desk was clean of any excess books.


    "Trader, what brings you today here? And I see you alone this time."


    "Hello Elder Flora, I came today to borrow a few books so I can study some more. As for my friend Froggy, he''s too excited to explore this place, so I don''t think he''ll be back here anytime soon."


    The Elder seemed to smile at that and permitted me to take any book from her library, with the promise to take care of them.


    With the permission given, I looked over the shelves filled with books, all written by people and not made by the system.


    After an hour I decided to take three books.


    "Life of a Witch"


    "Enchanting for beginners"


    "Monsters encyclopedia"


    Elder Flora was interested in what I chose but didn''t stop me from taking them.


    I planned to read them while I was taking a break from copying the enchantments.


    "Enchanting for beginners" had some actual level 1 enchantment inside, and I want to copy them.


    Initially, I came here in search of information about the Piligers, but instead, I found a treasure trove filled with ancient information.


    I''m sure the Palace in the Sandstone Kingdom had similar information, but they made sure to keep it away from my reach.


    But here, I could learn something and I was excited.


    I took some food on the go so I didn''t have to come back anytime soon and walked to my previous spot on the wall.


    But this time, instead of breaking the wooden block, I started to dog down.


    What greeted me was not what I expected, under the lapiz layer, there was a row of obsidian blocks that protected the enchanted blocks.


    Good thing that I''m prepared for situations like this.


    Ever since the obsidian prison, I try to have a diamond pickaxe always on me.


    And this one was enchanted with Efficiency 3, which broke the obsidian block I''m only 10 minutes.


    A new record for me.


    As I looked over the enchanted block I could see the tiny red writing.


    And as I theorized, it held a different enchantment than the previous one.


    "Whoever did this was a madman, but I have to respect the work. It''s nothing like I ever seen."


    Just to be sure, I dug the walls on the exterior as well to see if it had another enchantment, and it did.


    "I think every face of the cube has a different enchantment. I''ll have to move to the corners of the walls if I want to see more."


    But two new enchantments were already more than enough to keep me occupied for a few days.


    There was no need to rush things up.


    So with that, I got more comfortable, I covered the entrance that I recently dug and put a torch as a light source to help me underground.


    My nonexistent neck had to suffer a lot from me constantly looking up at the enchanted block.


    But after a few days, I managed to write it down as close as possible to the original.


    I had to cut my time short because I was getting unwanted attention with me missing so much most of the day.


    No matter how many excuses Froggy gave me, there was a limit before people started to get suspicious.


    So I spent most of the morning writing down the enchantments from the block and the rest of the day hung out with Froggy and his new friends.


    The problem was that while everyone was cursed and united by this, they still had smaller communities separated from each other.


    That''s why there were 10 Elders, one representative of each community.


    So when Froggy came into the picture, they all tried to recruit him towards their way.


    The farmers tried to allure him with a pet slime, which was hard for him to turn down.


    The researchers wanted to allure him with books of knowledge. Unfortunately for them that would''ve worked for me, not so much for my friend Froggy.


    The miners showed him the riches that they mined, which got his attention but not for long since he didn''t want to stay underground for hours upon end.


    Instead, I was the one who spoke most with them and exchanged tricks of the job.


    I told them about strip mining, and they told me about their method of drinking night vision before entering a cave system.


    The monsters won''t bother them, and they don''t have to constantly put torches down.


    For me, I could drink an invisible potion on top of that to have the same effect, for a few hours.


    More people talked with Froggy, some of them he liked, while others didn''t catch his eye.


    But for the past few days, people started to notice Froggy''s presence, and with him, I also got a reputation.


    A week passed and I managed to get two more enchanted faces of the lapiz block.


    While this lifestyle is similar to what I did in the Sandstone Kingdom, it was more lax with no deadline hanging over my neck.


    I was starting to have fun.

 Chapter 84. Froggy the Witch

    POV: Foggy


    The trip to the hidden Clan was an amazing sight to see, on the way there I had a taste of what to expect to see in a place filled with people like me.


    And I wasn''t disappointed.


    This whole place was hidden by magical mist, that even Trader didn''t know anything about.


    Once we got inside of could see a cozy place built in the middle of a big swamp.


    They even had a slime farm which I only saw it from afar.


    After the meeting with the Elders which got me a little tense, but recently I had experiences with important people so I was getting used to it.


    They seemed much more interested in me than Trader for some reason, I could see in their eyes, greed, surprise, and anger but what all of them had was hope.


    I''m not as smart as Trader or Bobby, but I knew those people wouldn''t want to hurt me, quite the opposite, they wanted to know more about me.


    So after everything ended on a tense note, I felt hopeful for the future.


    We got placed in our new homes, where I slept soundly.


    That was until Trader decided to rudely wake me up. I don''t understand why they hate sleep so much, there''s no urgent business that needs to be done, so why the rush?


    The breakfast was amazing, I got to try this new thing called jem, and I loved how good it tasted with bread.


    Trader seems impressed by it as well, but from his expression, I can guess it''s not his first time eating something like this.


    I wonder if he knows any other recipes that I can try.


    With our bellies were full, our next course of action was to visit Elder Flora.


    She had one of the biggest homes In the whole place, smaller only to the Elders building in the middle of the village.


    Her house was beautiful and warm. It doesn''t compare with the Royal Palace that I recently visited, but this place felt more comfortable and more welcoming.


    It doesn''t try to intimidate me with its riches, it is only a nicely decorated room.


    While I and Trader admired everything around us, Catharine led us to the meeting place.


    Flora expected us already, and from the messy desk and tired eyes I could guess she didn''t sleep a lot last night.


    We did talk a little before she gave us some books to study to my horror. This reminds me of the time I was forced to learn about the history of the Sandstone kingdom.


    It was not fun, to say the least.


    So when I got another history book in my hands, I used the skill that I mastered while in prison.


    Looking like I''m learning but just zoning out.


    Trader seems to be interested in those books, so we didn''t leave anytime soon.


    Even after we switched the books, we had to stay for a few more hours. But at least o got the chance to try the sweet jello, I loved it so much that I asked for seconds.


    At the first opportunity that I saw where I could leave, I was out without looking back.


    Sorry Trader, but I don''t like to study as much as you.


    With a good night''s sleep, the next day was more exciting.


    Trader said something about studying the walls of this village and even invited me, but I politely refused.


    Instead, I visited the slime farm.


    Since everyone here was a Witch including me, the slimes didn''t seem to be bothered by us when I pet them.


    I couldn''t hold them for too long since they would get annoyed, but otherwise, it was a plesent experience.


    The slimes were starting to show more hostility when I had food in my hand, and I was more than happy to toss them the rotten flesh.


    I can never understand how they could eat something like this.


    "Hahaha! Maybe I can give you one as a pet if you keep helping me like that."


    The farmer said while leaning on the wooden fance.


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    "Seriously? I don''t mind helping you every now and then, this is pretty fun."


    He seemed to smile when I said that, which made me a little confused.


    For the next few days I walked along the village, and people started to notice me and spoke with me like I was one of them already.


    "Froggy, how was your day, do you want to see what I''m studing right now? I have a few books that you can borrow."


    This person was from Flora''s faction so I wanted to be more polite with him since Flora seems to like us.


    But I didn''t come here to study, so I politely declined him.


    Trader who recently started to hang out more with us seems amused by my predicament.


    He''s more suited for this kind of stuff, I''m not that used to talking with a lot of new people. I still tend to isolate myself when things get overwhelming.


    While some of the interactions weren''t that pleasant, others were fun.


    "Hey, Froggy do you want to brew a few potions with us? We have a lot of recipes that we want to try."


    While I didn''t like to study that much, ever since I became a witch I was fascinated with potion making.


    I was lucky that the Nobles were interested in my skills and gave me the necessary resources to make potions.


    If I didn''t have access to those, I think I would''ve lost my mind.


    Unfortunately, the ones that invited me were from the Brutus faction.


    And he doesn''t like my friend that much for some reason.


    But I still hung out with them but not too much.


    While I talked with some of my new friends I heard some interesting information.


    "Yeah, it''s been a while since the commun people heard about us, and the fact that a witch is out there killing people for no reason doesn''t help."


    "There''s a witch that kills people out there? I haven''t heard anything about that."


    "It''s not public news, he likes to hunt in the Stone Kingdom most of the time, and we only know about him because we have ears in the underworld."


    "Have you tried contacting him to see what we''re his motives? "


    "We tried and even managed to find him, but he was half mad, so it wasn''t easy to communicate with him. When someone doesn''t brew a potion for two weeks they start to lose their minds. It''s one of the curses made by the system. What''s surprising about this case, it''s how long he managed to keep himself alive. Usually when a normal witch gets that mad it would get itself killed one way or another. But this mad witch managed to stay alive for a few good years."


    This wasn''t something I knew even when I was with Bobby at the castle, maybe they kept it away from me specifically so I wouldn''t do anything stupid.


    But this witch is one of the reasons we can''t be accepted by the community folk.


    So if we manage to solve this problem we are a step closer to being able to integrate with others.


    "I see, thanks James, but I promised that I''ll meet Trader soon and I don''t want to be late. See you another time!"


    "Froggy wait-!"


    But I didn''t hear the rest of what he wanted to say since I was already a few blocks away from him.


    The first thing I checked was Trader''s home, and as expected it was empty. He must be at the wall studying the enchanted blocks from what he keeps telling me about.


    At this point, I think he spends more time at that wall than in his house. Trader is weird sometimes, of course, he gets in trouble if he keeps getting his nose in someone''s else business.


    Maybe that''s why he doesn''t have a nose since he lost while getting into other people''s problems.


    I laughed at my joke, but it''s for the best if Trader doesn''t know about it.


    Soon I was at the spot Trader told me that he worked, but he was nowhere in sight.


    Was he perhaps at Elder Flora''s place to borrow some more books?


    "Trader! Are you here?"


    I waited for a few seconds and the dirt block beside the wall was suddenly broken, soon I could see the frustrated face of my friend looking directly at me.


    "Are you crazy Froggy? Do you want me to be found out? What if the guards heard you?"


    "Calm down Trader I checked around the area before yelling, there''s no one here besides me and you. What are you doing underground?"


    We don''t need to escape this place as well no?


    This looks pretty similar to what he did at the Sandstone Palace.


    "Come down if you want to see."


    He disappeared back into the tunnels, and with a sigh I followed him.


    Once I got there there I was in a small room with the only source of light being a torch.


    It wasn''t the usual long tunnels that Trader used to do, so I was a little surprised.


    Trader didn''t say anything just pointed up words which made me look up.


    On the ceiling I could see some obsidian blocks with one being broken, and beyond that a blue block with tiny red writing all over.


    "What''s up with that block?"


    "That is an enchanted lapiz block, it''s an enchantment made by humans and that''s why it''s written in red, it created the mist and casts a barrier over the enchanted block. I don''t know what the enchantments say, but I want to copy it and try to bring it to an enchanting table so I know what are the exact enchantments. I''ve never seen anything similar to this, so this is new territory for me."


    He seemed very excited about the subject, but the only thing that I understood was the fact that it was a great artifact.


    I''m glad I''m not the only one having fun here.


    "Do you know about the witch that kills people around the Stone Kindome?"


    "I didn''t know he killed specifically in that region but I heard about him."


    Even he knew about that which?


    I''m I the only one who didn''t know about this?


    "Do you think it would lessen our bad reputation if we bring him to justice?"


    Trader stopped from writing and looked at me.


    "It would help a little, but it wouldn''t solve the fundamental problem. One the system put a curse on you that would make the other people more worried about the witches. And second, the people that do know about you associate you with the Piligers, and as you''ve read from the books that Flora gave us. Nobody likes them."


    "That sounds like a bigger problem than I can solve myself. Do you have any ideas that could help the Witches with this?"


    Trader looked to the side like he was thinking intensely until suddenly he had an idea.


    "There''s an idea that would make the Witches more popular, but it would also be more dangerous. You could form a police force that would hunt down criminals all over the kingdom. People will start associating you with justice instead of fear."


    That was an interesting idea, but as he said, it''s also very dangerous. I''ll have to talk with the others about this.


    I don''t want to be the only one that works to make our image better.


    But this also made me realize something. If this goes through and well make a police force that would hunt the criminals, I''ll have to leave Trader side, even after I promised that I won''t do that any time soon.


    This made me uncomfortable to think about.


    On one side, there was my first friend that I made since I became a witch, and on the other hand, it''s the people who are exactly like me and understand my problems.


    I could only sigh, there was no need to make a decision right now.


    I''ll tell Trader''s idea to Elder Flora and see how things will go from there.

 Chapter 85. Lets make a deal

    Froggy left my cozy hole thinking about the proposition.


    Looks like the people from here managed to warm their way into his comfort zone, which I had mixed feelings about.


    On one hand, they do it because he has a connection with the Royal Family in the Stone Kingdom, so they try extra hard to be friendly towards him.


    Fortunately, while Froggy is a little naive with certain social cues, he has great instincts to compensate.


    Otherwise, he wouldn''t have survived for so long in the desert while getting offers to join the Nobles.


    But even if they have ulterior motives, that doesn''t mean that witches are bad.


    Quite the contrary, from what I read in the "Life of a Witch" book I can tell that they''re quite forgiving and friendly towards the new witches that join them.


    Even the grumpiest witch will be gentle with the new members.


    They know what their capable of, and they also know how easy is to suffer from this mistreatment.


    So even if they want to befriend Froggy at all costs, it''s not all with ulterior motives. It''s what they usually do when someone new comes, but just a little extra.


    But enough about Froggy, I have my own challenges that I need to overcome.


    I finished everything with this enchanted block. Soon I''ll have to change my location to one of the corners of the walls since I can''t break the enchanted lapiz books without lasting consequences.


    After I finish on one corner, I''ll quickly have to change it to the opposite corner to see one more hidden face.


    The worst one would be when I''ll have to be on top of the wall, risking myself with being found out by the guards.


    But this enchantment it''s too fascinating to leave it be, so everything will be worth it in the end.


    By the end of the day, I finished everything that I could copy from this spot.


    So I covered everything behind me, leaving no trace, and went back towards the houses.


    Everyone here was living comfortably in their isolated lives. Some people recognized me and gave me a greeting, but I could tell that there was a barrier between us.


    And I could understand the reason, only Froggy was more welcomed, but that doesn''t mean they didn''t treat me with respect, which I appreciate.


    Back home, I sat down on the bed and opened one of the books that I borrowed from from Flora.


    In my old world, I wasn''t too interested in studying that much. It''s not like I was a dumb kid, it''s just I didn''t want to go over and beyond.


    The minimum grade was something that I was satisfied with. Even when I was stuck in the Sandstone Palace I didn''t fully use the huge library, which now I kind of regret.


    Sure, there wasn''t a lot of secret information that I could find at the lower levels, but at least I could find out more about the difference between my knowledge of the game and the actual world.


    But now, I started to enjoy learning, and that''s why I want to fully use this opportunity to get more knowledge from Flora''s collection.


    So now I was reading " Monsters Encyclopedia " looking to see if there were any new mobs that I didn''t know about.


    This book was different than the others, it had hand-drawn pictures of the monsters, which was pretty impressive.


    Under the drawing, it said the place you could find them, and what items the System recognized.


    I went quickly through it without a problem, and I can safely say there''s no new monster in this world that I didn''t know about.


    At least in the Overworld.


    There wasn''t a lot of information about the other''s dimensions and their monsters.


    The only mob from the Nether that I saw was the Zombified Pigman.


    However, the author didn''t know anything about how it came to be or why it was such a rare occurrence.


    Of course, if this is like in the game, it appeared once lighting struck a poor pig.


    There was also mentioned a legendary glowing creeper that brought massive destruction whenever it appeared.


    Once again, there wasn''t a lot of information about this monster, since it was so dangerous to be around.


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    "Maybe I should make an encyclopedia of my own? No, it''s too much trouble for no reword at all, it''s better if I study something else instead."


    With that, I went back to the wall to study the enchanted blocks.


    A few witches saw me, so I bought myself a few good hours.


    For the next few days, I kept going like that, studying the wall, greeting some people, reading some books, and of course, I didn''t forget to send a letter to Bobby to not break the ender pearl yet for another two weeks.


    When I was getting ready to try and copy the last and hardest square to copy, Froggy came to my house and delivered a message.


    "Trader, Flora wants to talk with us if you''re free anytime soon."


    "Did something happen?"


    I hope I wasn''t found out and now I''m in trouble.


    "No, she wants to talk about the idea of the police force, and since you came up with the idea she wanted to ask you for more details."


    Oh, it was only that?


    There wasn''t too much to talk about honestly, the idea was pretty straightforward, and I''m sure Flora knows about it as well.


    So that means she wants to talk about something else instead.


    The other witches already got comfortable with Froggy in the past few days, so I don''t think well be talking about him.


    Hope I won''t get in any trouble now.


    "Sure I can come with you now if you want to."


    "Perfect, let''s go then."


    Froggy smiled as we both walked towards Flora''s house.


    A few minutes later I was once again in Flora''s study room.


    I was already looking over the books to see if anything else caught my attention until I heard a voice that interrupted me.


    "Trader, I heard your proposition about a way to improve our image. While taking care of the criminals in Stone Kindome will give us a reputation, wouldn''t that make us more scary for the common people than friendly?"


    I guess that would be true, whenever they get to a town, everyone will be either hopeful or scared about the blood bath that''s going to ensue.


    But she didn''t call me here, just to say that my idea was not good enough, she must have another reason.


    "I guess that could happen, and I didn''t think about that. Do you have another idea perhaps?"


    "Yes, Froggy told us that you know a method to bring infected people back to their former selves, but he refused to tell us the details about it since it was your idea from the beginning, and didn''t want to give it without permission."


    I looked towards Froggy who seemed to really be interested in the books all of a sudden, but I could see some pink from embarrassment all over his face.


    "I don''t mind sharing with you the secret, but it won''t be as effective as you think. The Sandstone kingdoms and the Stone Kindome already know about this method. The Stone Kindom invested heavily into this process after the attack from the Zombie Lord. "


    "Froggy said the same thing, but I''m sure it would greatly help us if we tried then if we didn''t."


    "That can be true, I can tell you the method, but it won''t be cheap to replicate at a mass scale. "


    I then told her about the process, and her reaction was appropriate when she heard about the gold consumption.


    "No wonder gold prices started to rise recently. But I think we can do a few of those."


    "True, the miners that I talked with have some great advantage over other people. But if you want to do it on a larger scale, you''ll have to find yourself a sponsor."


    Suddenly I saw a smile appear on Flora''s face, and I felt like I''d fallen into a trap.


    "That is indeed true Trader, do you perhaps know any people who would be interested in sponsoring us?"


    So this was her goal from the beginning, she knows that Froggy knows someone who will be willing to sponsor them.


    Actually, there couldn''t be a better time to look for important people than now.


    With the Zombie Lord infecting more people, there''s a rising need for weakness potions.


    And who''s better at brewing those than a witch who is a master at that skill already?


    Froggy already left that spot open, and I''m sure that they''ll accept another witch with open arms.


    Well played Flora, well played.


    "Yes, we do know a few people that would be interested in doing that, but what''s in it for us?"


    I know that everyone is going through tough times right now, and witches would greatly help with brewing the potions.


    But it''s not like they''re not replaceable, recently Bobby made a deal with the piglings and they''re not limited by the system, so they can brew potions as well.


    The only reason they don''t is because it''s much more important to craft the apples now than make the potions.


    Froggy already made a lot of them before he left.


    Speaking of Froggy, he seems to be shocked by what I said, and I could understand why, I''m sure he''ll be more the happy to help like this, but you have to set some boundaries otherwise people will step all over you.


    I learned that the hard way.


    Making the cure public for almost nothing, I had to spend a few months imprisoned.


    And Froggy has some great instincts, but it''s better to not rely only on them.


    Flora didn''t seem too surprised by this, instead, she took out another three books from her inventory and placed them on the desk.


    "Albert''s Enchantments"


    "Monster research"


    "Life of a Piliger"


    Those titles caught my attention, and I really wanted them.


    While I researched enchantment I discovered that Albert is one of the most important researchers whose name managed to survive the time.


    He''s to one who pioneered the man-made enchantments, and for sure it was locked in the higher levels of the Sandstone palace.


    With this, I would make a lot of progress in my research.


    If "Life of a Piliger" is anything similar to "Life of a Witch" it would greatly increase my knowledge of Piliger''s habits and traditions in case I want to infiltrate their territory.


    It would be hard, but the extra knowledge would greatly help me.


    As for the "Monster Research" book, I could only guess that it was another experiment journal but this time on monsters.


    I don''t know what I can do with that knowledge but it''s still valuable.


    "I''ll accept the deal, I''ll write a message to my friend Bobby and he will be able to help you out. You in the meantime can choose whoever would represent you as a whole and work with them. I''m sure the discussion with the elders will take some time, so we''ll see each other in another few days."


    And in this time I''ll hopefully be able to copy the last enchantments off the lapiz block in case anything happens.


    Flore gave a sigh, already expecting a lot of debate, over who should be sent, but was overall happy about the deal.


    With this, the witches will slowly get more accepted in the common world, and this was more progress than anything they ever managed to do over the past few hundred years since they split up with the Piligers.


    And hopefully, their new friends will be able to shield them in case the Sandstone Kindome decides to start another crusade.


    Froggy seems to have conflicted emotions as well, but in the end chooses to be happy, since everyone got what they wanted, including himself.


    And there was no reason to leave Trader''s side now.

 Chapter 86. Enchanting is hard

    While Elder Flora was busy arguing with the others who to send as a representative, I was busy copying the last enchantment of the lapiz block.


    It was more nerve-reracking than other times since I had to be extra careful of the guards because I was in plain sight.


    The only upside to this would be that my neck didn''t hurt since I had to look down.


    After a few days of hard work, I finally managed to copy everything down.


    In total I had 16 pages filled with enchantments, they were all separated of course, since they were different enchantments that combined made the magical effect.


    I can''t wait to get my hands on an enchanting table so I can see what they do.


    I''ll even grind my Enchanting skill once again if I need to do it.


    But on those days, the Elders also decided on who to send towards the palace.


    Since the community was pretty small, with only over 100 people in it, everyone found out about it.


    Some of them wanted to volunteer, others were angry at the prospect of even helping the people who despise them so much.


    It got so heated with the arguments that the Elders had to come back to their communities and shut them up.


    They were the Elders, they were chosen by the others to represent them.


    So if they trusted them with that power, they should also trust their decision.


    It didn''t satisfy everyone, but it was enough to calm most of them down.


    This was a big opportunity for the Witches, and they wouldn''t lose it because of some petty arguments.


    In the end, they choose their witches.


    Catharine chosen by Flora and Anastasia


    Armin chosen by Brutus and his group


    David was reluctantly chosen by the rest of the Elders.


    All three of them were at the gates of the compound ready to represent their people and help to make history.


    Besides them was Froggy, who would be their guide and help them get the audience with the Royal Family.


    I can say with confidence that Flora suspected wrong on who had the connection with the nobles.


    Froggy''s words had more influence than mine.


    Sure I know a few important people there, but the fact that I''m trying to stay under the radar didn''t help me in any way to get more power.


    But the deal was made, Froggy doesn''t mind helping his people, and everyone is happy in the end.


    Besides us, a few Elders also joined at the gate mostly to pass some items to give them as presents to whoever they judged important.


    I saw some books, clothing, and even a diamond passed, which impressed me, to say the least.


    Not a lot of people are willing to mine that deep after all.


    To Froggy, I gave him some messages to send to Bobby and reminded him not to use my name if possible.


    I''m still dead after all.


    With a final goodbye, they got on their horses and left for their new life.


    Before I went on my way back, Flora gave me the books, which I greatly appreciated, since I was curious to see what the great enchanter had to say about this magical skill.


    Back to my cozy home, I sat down in bed, with many snacks in my inventory and ready to read.


    It wasn''t too long, but it explained some things that I didn''t even bother to question.


    Theoretically, you can put as many enchantments on an item as you want to, but everything has a price.


    You can only put up to three enchantments on any wooden tools, if you want to put more, you have to modify the tools, like putting an iron core, or lapiz as a battery.


    A stone tool can hold four.


    Iron tool seven.


    Gold tools seem to be heavily appreciated by the system so they can hold fifteen.


    And finally, the diamond weapons can hold ten enchantments.


    But that is with enchantments made by the system, the ones created by man don''t have the same measuring system.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    It''s very hard to put more than one custom enchantment on any kind of tool, only the diamond ones can hold two at most.


    The other ones seem to break if you try to put more than one.


    Even the golden ones surprisingly.


    The only solution they found to this problem was to customize the tools.


    And the best material for that was found out to be the lapiz.


    It doesn''t say how it got implemented into the tools, but it says that for every piece of lapiz, you can put one more enchantment.


    That''s why the enchanted wall was all made with lapiz blocks. It wasn''t because they had too much of it, and they decided to be fancy.


    It was because that was the only block capable of holding six custom enchants.


    Which is a scary thing, but it also shows the power of the enchanted wall.


    It''s also talked about how can we judge the power of a custom enchant by the number of pages it has.


    Most man-made enchantments start at three pages minimum, and you need to be at least Enchanting level 4.


    If it has four pages that means it''s either a stronger enchant, or a level 2 weaker enchant, you can only guess by the writing if you know the specific language which I don''t.


    A book can only hold up to five pages when you enchant it, if you wanted something more complicated you had to make your custom book, which no one knows what to make it from, not even the author.


    That is the basic information for man-made enchantments.


    It even had an alphabet at the end with the lower tier language where I could learn how to make my own, but that would be a huge project to go through.


    There were also a few empty pages by the end of the book, which I can only guess was erased by the system since it contains dangerous information.


    I''m kind of surprised that this book exists at all since the system doesn''t like for people to get out of line.


    Maybe it was too widespread so it only limited the higher level language?


    After all, even the prince of the Sandstone Kindome managed to make his custom enchantment.


    It didn''t matter in the end, this is a great book filled with information that I could use.


    If I can make custom enchantments, and even place them on a block, can I perhaps make a portal to my home world?


    That brings me fear and excitement at the potential that I have in my hands.


    No wonder the ancient civilization got mad with power, it''s such a fascinating subject to study.


    Of course, I''ll have to be careful not to follow in their footsteps all the way.


    I don''t want to be killed by the System.


    I was too excited with this new information that I got, that I didn''t get to read the other books, I quickly started to learn the new language and hoped to find more of its secrets.


    With the book opened and one of the lowest enchantments in my book I started to translate what it read.


    ''Oh System hear my voice, bless me with your unending power, and give this item the edge to cut my enemies, the SHARPNESS that no one has ever seen and the lasting of the immortal gold.''


    The rest of the page was all calculations about the power output, the energy storage, the experience required, and the measurement of the item that I wrote on.


    This was a Sharpness 1, an enchantment that requires only one page to write and your blade will be sharper than before.


    I did not expect to see this when I started to decode.


    This process seems to call upon the System itself to help with the enchanting, and since most enchantments are written on paper, their standard sizes can be easily copied with other enchantments as well.


    I''m guessing that the System is also filling the blank answers in case it''s missing any information.


    But if what it says here is true, then the process of enchanting an item directly, the problem won''t be the uneven surface but the fact that you have to make some changes to the enchantment itself, it''s not the same size as a paper after all.


    This meant that what the Prince showed me his enchantment on that diamond sword, was more impressive than I thought.


    But this is something made by the System, what would a man-made enchantment even look like?


    Fortunately, the book had a low-level custom enchantment, which of course meant that I had to translate three whole pages.


    It took me an hour to piece together one page, and that was enough for me to understand the vast difference and the fact that whoever started making those were madlads.


    "I call upon the power, medium light when darkness shows starts when the light level is under two... "


    This was an enchantment that would make any item light itself up in the dark. It''s a substitute for a flashlight.


    It''s a stupid one since you can get a better result just by crafting a torch, but this shows what enchanting was capable of.


    The rest of the pages were more instructions on what to do in any scenario, how much power it should use when the process of enchanting starts, what letters it should take from the shelves beside the enchanting table, and mathematical equations about the speed of something that I didn''t understand.


    And the rest of the pages were getting more and more complicated with calculations that I didn''t even know what they were for.


    This is a vast difference between the two enchantments, the one made by the system seems to be child play in comparison to the one man-made.


    It feels more like you ask for help from God to calculate the hard part, while you only need to know how to write correctly and offer some lapiz.


    Meanwhile, the ones made without the System help, require a lot more precision and a lot more to calculate, and for some unknown reason, it always has to be done with red ink.


    The book didn''t go into too many details about why the process was like this, but this was enough for me to keep me busy for weeks.


    At least now I can start understanding what I''m writing when I''m doing an enchantment. And who knows, maybe when I know enough I can make my portal.


    But this would take me a lot of time, and it will be a lot of trial and error.


    Maybe that''s why the System didn''t bother to erase the lower-level language, it''s too complicated to use, and from what I understand you can''t do truly broken things with this.


    To make something on the level of Mending, I need a higher level language.


    But how would I even get that information?


    I started to think about where I could get more information, and a few ideas popped into my mind.


    The Sandstone Kindome Library on the highest floor.


    Searching through abandoned ruins like the one beside Froggy''s old place


    And getting the information from the archives of the Piligers.


    The first option was not that good. The last floor is very guarded since it has one of the very things that makes Sandstone Kindome different then the others.


    And I haven''t heard anything about them making something similar to superweapons, so I could only guess that they have limited information, and keep knowledge in general.


    In the second option, there''s a chance that I''ll find some interesting data, but I don''t think I''ll find too much since the System would''ve already deleted anything too dangerous.


    This leaves the third option, which is to somehow get access to the Piligers library.


    Even though their not what they were once, they still are the ones who gathered any last research that survived, and from what the Witches told me, they still try to experiment to bring themselves back to their former glory.


    So if anyone has any classified information about the system, it would be those guys.


    But I could only massage my head as a headache was starting to grow.


    "Nothing is too easy in this world. I do have to do some stupid stuff to get what I want."


    I closed everything around me and gave a deep sigh, it was already late, I was very tired so I went to bed.


    I''ll come up with a plan tomorrow, today I''ve done enough.

 Chapter 87. Froggy is back

    It''s been a week since Froggy left with the other witches, and I still try to learn as many enchantments as possible with the book that I was given.


    The only thing that I regret is the fact that I don''t have my book with enchantments with me so I can store them more organized.


    But I left it in the Ender chest for safekeeping so I won''t be getting it anytime soon.


    Elder Flora did tell me that there''s an Ender chest in the compound but it''s in Brutus home.


    And he still doesn''t like to speak with me for some reason.


    In the end, I''m stuck with writing everything on paper and later I''ll put them in my book.


    I looked out the window to see the sun still up in the sky.


    "I''ve been studying for a while, I think I''ll take a break for now and stretch my legs."


    With that, I collected everything and put it back into my inventory.


    It''s such a convenient tool to have a personal pocket dimension where you can toss your items without feeling their weight.


    If I manage to get back home I''ll be missing this so much.


    I went outside my home and walked along the wooden path, I passed some witches that I recognized so I went to talk with them.


    Since this was a small place, it didn''t happen a lot around here, and whenever something happened everyone would find out by the end of the day.


    The hottest topic this week it''s still the fact that we''re getting in contact with normal people.


    Some witches do want to get back to their old life and maybe their families, others instead are too scared by their treatment by those who they thought were friends.


    The fact that most of them knew about the crusade that greatly reduced their numbers didn''t help with the new actions taken.


    That''s why I always had someone to talk with, since I was from the outside world, they could throw their questions or frustrations at me.


    Unfortunately for them, and me especially, I was more of a stranger to this world than them.


    Sure I''ve seen some amazing stuff over the past year that I''ve been here, but it''s still too little for me to understand it all


    Especially how the common folks live like.


    So the only option I had was to stay in silence and listen to what they had to say.


    Of course, I tried to communicate with some of them, since not everyone saw me as an enemy, most of them were quite friendly once they realized that I don''t look ugly at them.


    As I was having a casual chat with the witches another one came along.


    "Hey guys, did you hear who came back?"


    "No, did someone find another Witch?"


    "Unfortunately no, but David and Froggy got back and quickly went to Elders Flora''s house. I wonder if something bad happened since they seemed in a hurry."


    "It''s the first time I hearing about this."


    I also didn''t hear anything about this which makes me worried.


    Froggy will come and say ''hi'' at least if he comes back.


    But the fact that he''s back so early and he''s going directly to Elders house makes me worried.


    So I left the small group and went in search of Froggy, hopefully, it''s all speculation, and nothing bad has happened.


    When I arrived at Flora''s big house I saw Froggy and David already leaving the building with tired expressions.


    Soon, Froggy saw me as well and waved his hand while smiling.


    "Trader! I was just about to go and find you. Looks like you were faster than me. How did you know I was back?"


    "Rumors already started to spread, I was just lucky enough to be one of the first to hear about your arrival. So what happened?"


    "Ehh it''s a little more complicated, but nothing bad has happened."


    He then proceeded to tell me what had gone down ever since they arrived at the castle.


    In the beginning, it was hard for all of them, to be let in even with Froggy being present.


    Only after Bobby came down to see what was all of this about were they let in.


    And they were met with a little hostility, then confusion, and finally with opened arms.


    Since Froggy left, all the brewing process was left for the Royal Family to continue.


    Luckily Froggy already made a lot of potions before he left, and since they were now busy with making the new trap that I told them about they didn''t use a lot of them.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    But now with four more additional masters at brewing here, they can make some more potions and bring back some emeralds into the economy.


    On the first day, they were left alone to rest and presented the facilities they were working with.


    They even had an audience with the king and talked about a deal to integrate the Witches into society, which they greatly appreciated.


    After a good night''s rest, the second day started strong with work, which the witches were unusually excited about.


    That time Froggy realized how lucky he was with the raw material for potion making. Sure he was isolated, but nobels usually gave him whatever he added to make a potion, that''s why he didn''t go mad from lack of brewing.


    But the Witch Clan was a community, only the Elders and the higher ranks could brew potions more than once every two weeks.


    But here they are now with almost unlimited materials and a green light to get crazy.


    The servants could bearly make them get off work to eat something.


    I think if they were not forced to eat, they''d either work themselves to death or starve.


    The next few days the two Prince''s tried to recruit them to their party, since recently Princess Elizabeth started to have a lot of power very quickly which didn''t make everyone happy.


    The first prince managed to poch Brutus, with promises of more riches, the second prince tried to do the same, but lacked the necessary power to make any good promises, so instead he got angry and worked against them.


    With a few more political friends who didn''t like Witches already, they managed to limit their movement since they were ''dangerous'' and weren''t willing to give out information about the location of the Clans.


    Nobody was willing to give that location even with promises of riches. Even Bobby doesn''t know the location since Froggy wasn''t willing to tell him.


    Fortunately, most of them weren''t going to look at the teeth of a gifted horse, but they couldn''t entirely ignore the opposing party.


    So they decided on a compromise, two witches will be under house arrest, while the other two will get back to the Clan and make a party to kill the rough witch that keep killing people in the Kingdom.


    While they weren''t too happy at the beginning, they could only accept the deal.


    It''s not like the ''prisoners'' were treated badly, it was more likely that everything was said in the name, since they already chose to support one of the Royal Members to the battle of the throne, even on opposing parties they weren''t treated badly.


    But now, Froggy and David got back from the big city and had to figure out a way to hunt down and kill or bring to justice a rogue witch that nobody knows where he is.


    Of course, the Elders won''t like that they''re forced to do such a thing, especially now that they have ''hostages'' so they''ll probably do something to accomplish that task with a warning at the end as well.


    The real question is, how will they find the witch since it''s not like he''s easy to find?


    My only worry is them sending off Froggy on this dangerous mission, since I don''t trust the witches enough to save Froggy in case things go bad.


    "Sounds like the Elders will be busy for a while, do you want to eat some slime jelly while you tell me how Bobby and Merry are doing?"


    "That sounds like a great idea, let''s go."


    So we went back to the big house and asked the servant to give us some sweets while we talked about what happened for the past week.


    -----


    POV: Flora


    I was back in the Elders building for the fourth time this month with my colleagues, which is not something that usually happens.


    We tend to gather in small groups to talk about the Clan and its management once every two months. We''re a small community and we don''t strive to get out there or to build something new.


    But ever since Froggy and Trader came, trouble kept arising.


    Fortunately, if the problems are dealt with, we will gain a lot in exchange so we can''t just keep them out of the Clan.


    Plus, this is truly a unique opportunity to get out of the isolation, even if some of the Elders are not too keen on that.


    "I told you those outsiders only brought trouble! We should''ve just kept to our traditions and killed the annoying Witch and kept the weird noble away."


    Brutus was the first to share his opinion once he heard the news, which got mixed reactions from everyone.


    "It''s not their fault that this happened, they helped us with an opportunity to get out of this cursed swamp. And it''s not like we thought our journey to freedom would be easy."


    Anastasia was quick to bite back.


    Those two never got along, one was among the oldest and wanted to keep tradition while the other one was the youngest and wanted to innovate.


    This is something that I appreciate since before Anastasia became an Elder every meeting was monotone and boring, but at least with her, I can see something new.


    "Then how do you suggest finding that damn Witch?"


    "Like we did it last time. I know you limited our search parties to not look so deep anymore when it''s about the rouge witch. If we ask them to fully concentrate on finding him, it''s only a matter of time. Until then we can organize an attack group that can hold him down."


    Murmurs started to go between the Elders about the accusations, but it wouldn''t be the first time Brutus abused his power.


    Luckily most of the time he did that, it was for the well-being of the Clan. So even if we didn''t like it when he did that we tolerated it.


    The search party is mainly used to find other newly made witches and lead them to us if they wish to.


    There are no witches among them, they are mostly family from our old life, or mercenaries that we usually hire.


    Since the beginning we had to trade in the underworld, we made a small reputation and people were willing to sell information about a newly spotted witch.


    This is very convenient for us, even if we don''t like to use too often that power.


    "So we shouldn''t talk about what already happened, instead we should concentrate on what our next action should be."


    Brutus was not happy with this, be he was an old fox, he knew when to step down from a losing fight.


    For the next few hours, we talked about who should be going, what approach we should use against the rough witch once he was found and what method of revenge should we sneak to those pesky nobles that wanted to oppose us.


    While we tend to be more passive if we get the option, that doesn''t mean will let others step on us and take advantage from it.


    If we don''t show them that we can fight back, they will only use us for their plans and throw us like rotten flesh after they''re done.


    After a few good hours, most details were in place, we only needed to start looking for the rough witch, but before they all left I said one more thing.


    "I think we should put one more person on the attack team."


    "What are you talking about Flora, we all agreed that five were enough."


    "Yes, but I think Mister Froggy will be a great addition to the team."


    While I don''t have a problem with Froggy and Trader what I do have a problem with is how passive Froggy is. He''s such an important person but also naive and lacks a backbone.


    I don''t appreciate it when he makes so light of my name and position like it''s a given.


    Recently I had to be the bringer of bad news which I don''t like, I''m sure if he wanted to, he could''ve stopped this whole shared before it even started.


    He needs to understand that his position can help him as well as hurt others if not used accordingly.


    Trader is suspicious on his own, he doesn''t look like any normal person, and for some reason unconsciously I accept him like it''s nothing weird, it''s smells like the System is involved somehow.


    But I still respect his hunger for knowledge, I know he''s trying to be sneaky about enchanting, but I''ve seen his eyes, and know what path he''ll take.


    If Trader wants to get something, he will work to get it, he also knows a lot more than he shows which means he''s not as naive as Froggy.


    I hope this mission will teach Froggy about responsibility.


    The others seemed hesitant to let Froggy join the attack party, but with me and Brutus who suddenly seemed interested in that idea, we managed to convince them.


    Can''t wait for all of this to be over.

 Chapter 88. What now?

    We didn''t get the news about the Elder''s decision until the next day at noon, and I was not too happy to hear the results to say the least.


    "What do you mean Froggy has to be one of the people that search for the rouge witch?! We''ve already done our job, we got a few witches to work with the Royal Family. It''s not our fault that they wanted to test you further."


    "I''m sorry Trader, but that''s what the Elders decided."


    Catherine said it with an understanding voice trying to calm me down. But it was not working, this was a dangerous job that didn''t require Froggy''s help, so why put him in such a team?


    Something smelled fishy and I didn''t like it.


    I looked at Froggy who seemed to freeze at the responsibility that was suddenly placed upon his lap.


    "Wh-what if I don''t go?"


    "Then you''ll be exiled from the Clan."


    "Ok, that''s it. I can see when someone doesn''t us around. Froggy pack your bags we''re leaving."


    Catharine started to panic at my sudden decision, but before she could speak, Froggy was the first to stop me.


    "No Trader, I don''t want to leave the Clan yet."


    I stopped, and looked back at him, trying to understand what he was thinking from the expression on his face.


    I saw stiffness and fear, but I also saw a light shining in his eyes.


    All this time he''s been seen as someone who has higher connections, as someone who can make high-level potions, but nobody besides his friends saw something as him.


    The system cursed him with levels of brewing, he didn''t work hard like others to reach that level.


    The Elders didn''t care that much about what he could do, they cared more about how close was with the Royal Family.


    But this was a chance to prove to the world and to himself that he has an identity of his own, hes not just a snowflake that''s being pushed by the wind.


    Sure it''s dangerous, but what isn''t in this world?


    So with a firmer voice, he spoke once again.


    "I want to go in search of the rouge witch as well."


    His back was straight, his eyes were looking into me to show that he wouldn''t back down, and I could only sigh in defeat.


    Froggy was my friend but also someone with his own goals. It''s not my job to protect him from the world, he lived fine until now, and he can keep going like that until he dies of old age.


    "Fine, well stay some more in the Clan. But with one exception. I''ll come with you on the hunt as well."


    Catharine seemed to be relieved about us not leaving the Clan until she heard my terms, which made her make a complicated expression.


    "I''ll have to speak with Elder Flora about this. Please don''t leave before I''ll get an answer."


    With that, she left to report the sudden news leaving me alone with Froggy.


    "Trader, you don''t have to do this, they only wanted me to join the hunt."


    "Froggy I''m you''re friend, and as your friend I will help you if it''s in my power to do so. Plus this whole thing smells fishy, and I don''t want you to face whatever they planned alone."


    Froggy only nodded in understanding as we waited for Catharine to come back with the response.


    It was only half an hour later when she was back.


    "Trader, Elder Flora wants to talk with you in private."


    Private?


    Was she planning on intimidating me into backing down?


    If so I''ll greatly disappoint her with my loaded crossbow.


    While it would be a shame to leave this place that is rich with knowledge, that doesn''t mean I''ll be passive like last time.


    This time I have the armor, I have the weapons and I have the pickaxe to get out of any situation.


    There won''t be a second Sandstone Palace incident.


    Catherine didn''t need to guide me since I was already familiar with the place in the past few days.


    I still like to borrow some books when I can.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    *knock knock


    "Come in mister Trader."


    I opened the door and saw Elder Flora as usual behind her desk.


    "I heard you were not satisfied with our decision to send Froggy on the mission."


    "I don''t see a reason for him to go at all, we already connected you with the people you needed, what happened afterward is not our problem."


    Flore got up from her chair and turned her back to me while looking out the window towards the compound.


    "Mr. Trader, I know you are a very good friend to Froggy and you''re only concerned about his safety, but I also think you realized that Froggy wants to have a connection to his people. And when he first came here, everyone wanted to be his friend, not because he was a social boy, but because he represented a promise, a promise for a better future."


    She stayed a little silent after saying that, before turning back towards me, where I could see she had a serious expression.


    "But as more people talked with him the more they realized that he''s not up to their imagination. The kid was isolated for a few years, only visited by people who wanted to exploit him, but he was too scared to get out of his comfort zone, he''s too scared now to do something for himself. He''s always looking for someone that tells him what to do, and the other Witches realize that. They now think that Froggy got those connections by luck, and once his job is done, he will be forgotten or worse. Taken advantage of."


    She took another pause for me to digest the argument, and I couldn''t say too much against it.


    I know Froggy can be passive, but I didn''t realize it was that bad.


    He doesn''t like conflict so he usually isolates himself to not get in trouble, and that works if you''re a nobody.


    But Froggy isn''t a nobody anymore, he knows me, he knows Bobby who''s the right hand of the future Queen, he even knows the hero.


    You can''t just stay out of problems if you stay around the people who tend to get themselves into them.


    "I want to use this mission as an opportunity to make Froggy grow a spine. To make his own identity and not lean on others ideas. Do you still think that''s a bad idea, Mister Trader?"


    She looked intently at me, waiting for my response.


    "I can see your point of view and I appreciate the thought, but I still want to go with him on this mission. Not as a helper but as a backup in case something happens."


    She gave a big sigh of frustration and messaged her nose bridge.


    "Mister Trader, I respect you as a scholar and as a person. I know you''re not a noble, we tried to look after you but nobody matched your name, and it''s weird for people to not know about a noble with such unique looks as you. But whoever saw you and managed to remember it was always with iron armor and with another person who was probably the prophesied hero. Nobody knows about you, but we can deduce enough not to mess with you. So I think your presence would do more harm than good for Froggy."


    Looks like they did look after me.


    I''m surprised they managed to find out about the hero but not about me.


    It''s probably because most that saw me are in the desert.


    But that doesn''t mean that I trust them to educate Froggy. I know Flora won''t try anything, but what about the other Witches? Sure I won''t be able to stop everyone by myself, but two against four is better than one.


    "I insist on going."


    "Ok Trader, what will you bring to the team? "


    That took me by surprise.


    But after a few seconds of silence, I could give an answer.


    "I can make an enchanted iron armor for everyone at the party."


    This time Flora was taken by surprise at the sudden offer.


    "10 sets of Enchanted iron armor."


    "5, there''s no need to have so many of them."


    "8, I need to convince the other Elders as well."


    "6 and I''ll do the weapons as well."


    "Deal! I want them to be finished before the team leaves."


    "Sure, but I''ll need to borrow Brutus Enchanting''s table."


    Flora sat back down and started to think.


    "I can do that, but you''ll need to make a set in plus."


    "You don''t have to give me the iron for crafting."


    This took her by surprise, and she looked intently at me to be sure I knew what I was talking about.


    But I knew that I could do it with no problem, so only confidence was on my face.


    "I can talk with Brutus to let you borrow his Enchanting Table then."


    "Pleasure doing business with you."


    I held my arm for a handshake and she started to laugh while giving me her hand.


    "Your name fits you Trader, I think we should do this more often."


    "Only when I''ll have the high ground next time."


    She laughed harder but I didn''t stay in the room to hear her finish.


    I know I got taken advantage of with this deal, but I kind of forced myself into their plans so I''ll give it to them.


    It would only take me a few days to finish everything since I''ll have to mine it myself.


    I wonder if I can buy some iron from the miners.


    My skill set was valuable after all.


    I don''t know if anyone from this place has the necessary levels to craft iron items, and since they don''t have the trading system anymore the only way to get them was by buying overpriced items from the shops in the big cities.


    As for the Enchanting level, I''m sure that nobody in this compound has it. After all, it got replaced with a Maxed level of Brewing skill.


    I do wonder why Brutus has an enchanting table with him if he can''t use it.


    It doesn''t matter anyway, I made the deal and I''ll make the most of it.


    Recently I learned a few more enchantments from all the books that I borrowed from Flora, and I wanted to exercise my hand with them.


    I was back at Froggy''s place to tell him the news, and he was surprised that I managed to get myself on the team, and a little happy.


    "But I won''t be there to help you, I''ll only be there in case anything goes wrong. Let''s hope it won''t get to that point."


    Flora was right. Even though it''s probably not her full intention to let Froggy grow up, it''s still a good opportunity for him to learn something.


    Who knows, maybe one day he''ll be on the chair for Elder.


    With how much he wants to befriend the people from here, there''s a chance he''ll decide to stay here in the end.


    I have a mixture of emotions about that, but I''ll cross the bridge when I get there. There''s no need to overthink stuff now.


    He seems less enthusiastic about this but still happy that I will be with him.


    After I chatted a little more I decided to get back to my home.


    I wanted to start mining tomorrow, but that doesn''t mean I couldn''t start working today at the enchantments.


    Unfortunately, books are expensive so I can''t use a lot of them, I''m not at the palace anymore where I could just get them easily, and I don''t have a librarian here to trade with.


    So most of the enchantments will be at level one and a few two''s here and there.


    Good thing that she didn''t mention how powerful they had to be.


    With that, I was back in my home with paper and pen on the table.


    I started to write everything I knew down and even looked through some books to be sure.


    I didn''t have my book with enchantments after all so I had to be very careful.


    When the sun was almost down, I already had a few enchantments ready, so I decided to stop for the day and go to sleep.


    Tomorrow I''ll do some mining so I needed a lot of energy for that.


    Once the blanket was over me, I slowly started to lose my focus before finally falling asleep.

 Chapter 89. Back to mining

    The next day I was in front of the mining entrance of the Clan.


    Since people like those who worked such hard labor jobs, tended to start early in the morning, when I arrived there five people were ready to get to mining, and from what I know, they were the majority of the miners.


    "Would you look who''s back boys, the expert in mining. Come back to argue again what''s the best depth of mining?"


    "Ravi I''m not here to argue, and as I said before the best level of mining is above the natural lava pools, so you don''t have to keep mining around them."


    They all laughed at me but didn''t continue to argue.


    This is their way of showing appreciation, I think it''s called tough love. I''m not too fan of it, but as long as they don''t outright insult me like we''re old buddies then I don''t have a problem.


    They started to treat me much better once I shared some of my mining knowledge. Those guys were Miners before becoming witches, so it didn''t change their lives too much from their old ones.


    Actually, I could say it improves it since their not afraid to explore cave systems anymore. And that''s where you''ll get most of the ores if you want to be efficient.


    "So what brought you back fancy pickaxe?"


    They started calling me that once I made the mistake of showing them my enchanted diamond pickaxe.


    At least it''s better than the old nickname ''no nose''.


    "I want to do some mining today, and I want to know if I could use yours?"


    "Sure, knock yourself out, just don''t go on our tunnels and you''ll be good. Andrew will show you the way. "


    While they were six at most, they were too used to working alone, so the solution was to each have their own tunneling system, only working as a group when a cave system is found.


    Of course that probably meant that they already have the best spots, and since this mine is a few decades old, it''s very spread, to say the least.


    So I took Andrew as my guide since I would surely need one.


    It took us around an hour to arrive at one place that I was allowed to start mining. If this place didn''t have any signs to show the way in I think I''ll never be able to get out on my own.


    Sure, I could use the old-fashioned way of mining my way up, but I''ll just be out in the misty swamp with no way to get back to the Clan.


    And that''s not something I want to happen.


    "Ye mine here."


    Andrew was a man of few words, so I just said thanks before starting my work.


    I had everything necessary with me, an enchanted diamond pickaxe, some logs, a stack of torches, some food, and some potions.


    I didn''t have my armor with me today, since I wanted to use the invisibility potions to explore a cave system if I found any.


    I did take a shield in case something bad goes down and I need some protection.


    In front of me was a wall of deep stone that probably hasn''t been touched for who knows how long.


    So with my trusty pickaxe, I started to mine further away from the already built network of tunnels.


    I want to find an unexplored cave system or at least get far away where I can mine a little upwards and not clash with an already existing tunnel.


    With such a powerful pickaxe mining was going fast, soon enough I was zoning out and letting my muscle''s memories take the wheel while I started to think about how should I get stronger.


    Should I grind my Crafting skills so I''ll have access to all the recipes that I already know?


    If I did this, it would take a long time to finish and a lot of resources. This is a slow but sure path.


    I already know a few crafts that would be dangerous once I got the levels for them.


    Or I could go towards a riskier approach and continue with my Enchantment skill to learn how to make powerful weapons or blocks like the ancient civilizations.


    They got so powerful that the system had to step down and stop them from that madness.


    I don''t want to get to that point, but there''s no need to get that high, only a few powerful Enchantments will be enough for me.


    Getting the levels for this skill is much easier than for Crafting.


    I only need to make a printing press and the numbers will go up.


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    But the true knowledge will take longer and I can''t just use a shortcut to get it, so it''s much riskier and it has to potential to take longer than even the Crafting skill.


    As for the brewing skill I don''t even consider it as an option, I know what the capabilities of such skills are, after all, it''s called a Witch.


    They are very convenient to use in a pinch, but I have to use too many resources that I don''t have to get to that level.


    There''s no point in doing that if I can ask Froggy to do it for me.


    Like that hours passed, blocks were broken, torches were placed and ores were mined.


    I didn''t get what I wanted until the second day when I finally found a cave system that was not filled with torches.


    "Finally I can use those potions."


    With that, I placed some torches around my hole to not lose it and drank the night vision potion together with the invisibility one.


    To say that I was excited about this experiment was an understatement.


    The first zombie that I passed without getting any reaction was a rush of adrenaline.


    I even sliced him with my iron sword and he seemed very confused about what was happening.


    He tried to attack the floating sword, but if I kept it in my inventory there was nothing he could follow.


    After a few more hits he was dead for good, but I didn''t bother to loot him.


    "Maybe being a witch isn''t that bad."


    If I can live without worrying about monsters that would make my life much easier, I can see how they live such a peaceful life.


    I went deeper down the cave and found the iron ores that I was looking for, and with the Fortune on my pickaxe, I soon got what I wanted end even more.


    "If I''m here I should look for diamonds as well, it would be a waste not to use those potions to their full capabilities."


    With that in mind, I went deeper into the caves, placing blocks on the right way to not lose my way back and blocking any tunnels that lead to dead ends.


    After a few hours, I managed to fully explore this cave system where I found some diamonds and some lapiz that I completely forgot how much I needed for enchanting.


    With a final meal, I was back on my way to the surface.


    I was tired from all the walking and mining, and since I didn''t take a bed I didn''t manage to sleep.


    When I arrived at the surface only one miner was ready to start his shift for today, until he saw me.


    "Yours still alive?!"


    "Why would I be dead? I only went for mining not slaying a hord of monsters."


    However, I did have fun with being an assassin with the clueless monsters.


    "Yeah, which goes mining for THREE whole days without getting out of the mine?"


    It''s been three days already?


    I thought it only was two at most. I must''ve zoned out a lot more than I expected to.


    "People started to get worried you died while mining. If you didn''t come back today we would''ve sent a search party to look for your corpse."


    "Well I''m alive, so there''s no need to get all worked up about it. Sorry if I seem like I''m rude, it''s just that I''m tired from all that mining and I want to get some rest."


    "Ha! I understand don''t worry, just don''t forget to tell the others as well before you''ll be out for who knows how long."


    That was a good idea, we said our goodbyes and I went to Froggy''s house to tell him I was back.


    Unfortunately, he wasn''t home so I had to visit the second-best option to spread the news of my coming back alive.


    Catharine.


    Luckily she seemed to be home, so she answered her door when I knocked.


    "Trader, you''re alive!"


    "Wow, does everyone think I''m dead in this place?"


    "I would say yes. Froggy was the least worried about it though. He did say something that you tended to do stuff like this, but I think even he started to get worried."


    "Yeah, the mining expedition took a lot more time than I expected, but I''m back now, and very tired. Could you do me a favor and tell the others that I''m back and there''s no need for a serch party? I want to get some rest as soon as possible."


    " Sure, Froggy should be doing some training with his new teammates by now, but I''m sure he''ll be happy to hear the news. Do you want me to speak with Elder Flora as well?"


    "Yes, that would be lovely if you could. Here''s something for all the trouble."


    I then gave her a piece of raw gold and went back to my home, a bed was waiting for me, and I wouldn''t miss the date.


    Catherine seemed to yell something in the back, but I was too tired to listen to what she was saying, hopefully, it wasn''t something important.


    At home, I got right into bed and slept as soon as my head hit the pillow.


    -----


    I woke up with a light headache but a rested body, I looked out the window and saw that the sun was still up which means that I most likely slept a whole day.


    With some stretching to lose my body, I heard my stomach starting to growl with force.


    "I should eat something before I start my day."


    I took some bread and carrots from inventory and munched them down like there was no tomorrow.


    But finally, after a few minutes, I felt somehow satisfied so I stopped.


    "OK, I''m ready to start the day."


    I went outside and went to visit Froggy and see if he was awake.


    As I walked a group of witches saw me and started to whisper something between them while pointing at me.


    It was weird to see this but went on my day. I didn''t want to start it in a bad mood.


    Soon I was at Froggy''s house and knocked on the door.


    No response.


    I put my ear to the wooden door to hear better, and as I suspected there was some snoring.


    I looked once again at the sun and it was almost noon.


    Was he going to sleep through the whole day?


    I just opened the door and saw him sleeping in an impossible position.


    "How can you sleep comfortably like that?"


    As usual, I started with the gentle route that gave no results, I then went with the usual route and pushed him off the bed.


    He quickly woke up after this, but from his reaction, I could tell it''s started to lose its effect, I think I''ll have to find another solution soon.


    "Trader, you''re finally up!"


    "Yes, I''m glad to see you doing well. Did they train you that hard?"


    "You have no idea, for a moment I thought I was at the Sandstone palace once again training with the head guard."


    "So no special treatment for you."


    "Unfortunately no, how about you? You''ve been asleep for two whole days. You even get the nickname ''Lost Miner'' after this whole thing."


    Was I out for that long?


    I should really take a bed with me next time I''m going on such long mining trips, or at least a clock to know the passage of time.


    "I''m good thank you I got all the materials necessary for the armor, I only need to smelt it and craft it."


    "Cool, Elder Flora wanted to talk with you once you were up. So you should go and check on her as soon as possible."


    I wonder if she''s worried about me as well. I''ll put some ores to smelt while I''ll talk with her.


    No time wasted.


    "Thanks, Froggy, I''ll be going now. See you later! "


    "Sure, I guess I''ll have to get back to training as well now that I''m awake."


    Is Froggy willingly training?


    This mission is already starting to show results.


    But I''ll check on him later, I''ll first build my smelter room and get it going then I''ll have to talk with Elder Flora.


    Hope it''s not something bad.

 Chapter 90. Preparing for the hunt

    I was once again in front of Elder Flora but this time I wasn''t in her study room but something of a living room.


    There were two big chairs with red cushions on top, which meant it was a custom item, but it made me wonder how they made it two blocks tall.


    The chairs looked comfortable and faced a fireplace that was already lit. Unfortunately, I don''t know what blocks were used as fuel since I didn''t pass the big flames.


    Around the room, I could see a few paintings with people that I didn''t recognize even some interesting banners which made me wonder if it had any meaning behind them.


    My observation of the room was interrupted by the Elder who was already sitting in one of the chairs quite comfortably with a drink in her hand.


    "Trader, I heard you disappeared for a few days and got everyone worried."


    "I''m sorry Elder Flora, I tend to forget about the notion of time when I''m working on a project. And I didn''t realize that I was gone for that long."


    "It''s good that you''re such a hard worker, but try to remember that our bodies need resting as well. From what I was told you were out for two whole days."


    I didn''t say anything since I was quite embarrassed already.


    "Was there a reason for my calling Elder Flora? "


    "Oh, I see you know how to be polite as well. The reason for my calling is that your group will be leaving in three days, do you think you can finish everything until then?"


    Three days?


    I think I can pull it off, the hardest part is already over, I only need to craft and enchant it right now.


    "Yeah, I''ll manage to do my part in time."


    "Good, I spoke with Brutus and he agreed to let you use his enchanting table."


    "That''s great to hear, could I bother you with a request of mine as well?"


    "I''m listening."


    "Could I have a few empty books?"


    The smile seems to freeze on her face for a few seconds before giving a sigh soon followed by the empty books that I requested.


    Since each piece of equipment needed to be enchanted separately, I needed a lot of books. So this request if mine was pretty costly.


    But what kind of Elder would she be if she wasn''t willing to make a few small sacrifices for her Clan? So I got the books free of charge of course.


    With that, I left her big fancy room and got back to work. I guess she wanted to hurry me with the project but didn''t expect to pay a price for it as well.


    Once I got home I spent the rest of the day writing enchantments since I needed to make over 25 of them and that would take some time.


    I even considered using the printing method, but unfortunately, I couldn''t make the wooden letters as good or as fast as the Fletcher did at the Sandstone Palace.


    So I had to stick with the old-fashioned way of writing by hand.


    How unfortunate.


    Since everything I knew was level 1, that means that I''ll only need to write one page per book, which is not bad.


    Also, the number of books I got is sufficient for me to make more than one enchantment on some item''s, so the armor will have Protection 1, while the swords will have Sharpness 1 maybe Unbreaking 1 if there are some books left.


    The rest of the day passed and the pages were written, the first step was completed.


    "Good thing that I put the ores to smelt, otherwise who knows how long it would''ve taken before I could start."


    But the moon was already high in the sky, and I didn''t want to spend another night working nonstop.


    It''s very bad for my mental health and I won''t be ready to go on the mission if I''m tired.


    So after one last check at the furnace room, I went to bed to get some well-deserved sleep.


    The next day after a good breakfast I started directly on crafting.


    Since I had all the items in my inventory, everything went smoothly and I finished all the crafting after two hours.


    "Finally the annoying part is done. Now I only need to throw the books at the enchanting table and I''ll be done."


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    I also made an anvil and put it in my home, since I didn''t know if I get one at Brutus'' residence.


    With that over, I went to see Brutus and his enchanting room.


    I had to ask a few Witches for directions since not everyone had big homes like Elder Flora.


    Soon I was in front of a wooden house similar in style to the others, just a little bigger.


    This surprised me since I expect all the Elders to live in huge houses.


    I knocked on the door gently and got back waiting for a response.


    No response came even after a few minutes, so I knocked once again but with a little more force this time.


    Finally, the door was opened and a grumpy Brutus was there to greet me.


    "Oh yeah, you''re supposed to visit me soon. Come in and don''t make a mess."


    Without saying hi or how are you, he went back into the house where I followed him


    I was ready to take out my shield and sword at a moment''s notice if it was needed.


    Inside everything was made of wood and gray carpet, there were no paintings on the walls, but I could see some potet flowers here and there so it didn''t look too bad.


    At the back of the house, there was a spiral staircase that went down, and Brutus was already on them.


    "So he also has a big house."


    We didn''t go too deep, but it was enough for me to know it was under the swamp, so everything was lit by lanterns on the walls


    There were two rooms in front of me, both of them locked behind iron doors, and unlike upstairs which was built with wood, here it was decorated with brick stone, it felt more like a dungeon than a cozy home.


    Elder Brutus took out a lever from his inventory and placed it beside the right door, which was open with a loud noise.


    He entered the room without looking at me, so I took a sneak peek at the door on the left, where I could see that it was a storage room without any signs on them.


    Since I didn''t plan to rob the poor old man I followed him in the enchanting room.


    It was a lot smaller than I expected, and a lot less decorated than what I''m used to.


    Everything was made with BrickStone and the wooden shelves were in the middle.


    Of course, the most important block was placed in the middle of everything and gave a faint light before opening a floating book towards me.


    "How did you get the Enchanting table?"


    "I didn''t, it was my predecessors. Now get to work and leave so I can continue on to my day."


    Not one for small talk I see.


    But if the old man wanted to live his life I wasn''t there to bother him, so I went towards the enchanting table to feed it some lapiz as fuel.


    Brutus seemed to watch my every move with great interest but didn''t say anything.


    I fed the enchanting table enough for what I needed so I started to throw books at it one after another.


    Its magic was working once again after who knows how many years, and soon I got a glowing book back in my Inventory before another normal book took its formal place.


    I looked at the floating letters that rushed towards the new book trying to decipher the high-grade language of the enchanting, but unfortunately, there was nothing there that I could understand.


    Unbenonce to me Brute seemed to get more impressed with each book that I threw at the enchanting table that didn''t fail.


    That means that I knew what I was doing and wasn''t just a beginner.


    Soon the Protection books were over and the next ones were the Sharpness ones, and after the third book I saw something different, not all the letters were similar to the previous enchantment, so that means that the process of enchanting was not the same for every book.


    But soon enough I was out of books, and my deal was only to enchant in this place, so I took everything that was mine with me and looked back at Brutus who still seems to be distracted by the Enchanting table, like he was hypnotized.


    "Thank you for letting me borrow your Enchanting Table, Elder Brutus. I finished everything so I''ll leave."


    His attention was interrupted by my voice and looked back at me.


    "Ah yes, you know the way out there''s no need for me to guide you."


    That was a bit rude, but I didn''t say anything and just left the house, I knew when I wasn''t wanted.


    After Brutus made sure that I was out of the picture, he went to the back of the enchanting setup where there was a chest.


    He opened it, still working perfectly even if not used in decades, and from within he took a normal book.


    With a small fire in his eyes he went toworks the Enchanting Table that still had some fuel left.


    He threw the book like Trader did dozens of times like it was nothing, but instead of floating like Trader''s did, it just passed the enchanting table and hit the floor.


    The small flame was once again extinguished like so many years before.


    He was not an enchanter anymore, he was a lowly Witch.


    Without saying anything he went back upstairs after closing the door. He needed a strong drink after this.


    ___


    I was back at my house with all the ingredients ready only needing to be hammered together since that''s how enchanting works.


    I took an iron chest plate put it on the anvil slot together with a Protection 1 book and let the magic happen.


    Sounds of a hammer hitting metal keep ringing in the air before suddenly stopping leaving only a glowing chest plate on top of the anvil.


    I put it in the chest beside me and put the new pieces of equipment on the anvil, which was slightly broken after one use.


    I kept going like that until the anvil broke with a loud sound leaving behind pieces of iron on the ground.


    "Good thing that was the last sword. Let''s give it to Elder Flora and get this over with, tomorrow were supposed to leave anyway."


    Just because I could, I also made six armor stands and took them with me. I knocked on the door of the big house and the humble servant was the one to open the door.


    "Hi there, I''m here to drop a delivery, if you could sign here that would be lovely."


    I presented him with a piece of white paper on a book and he was too shocked to understand my joke.


    But then I realized that there''s no such thing in this world, but surprisingly the servant still wrote his name.


    "I''m sorry Sir Trader but Elder Flora is not home, if It''s something urgent you can leave the delivery with me."


    "Sure, let me get it out."


    I then walked inside the house not too far away from the door and put all the armor stands down before putting the set of iron armor on top of them.


    It was much harder to do it than in the game since I had to manually put them on, the wooden hands was pretty flexible and had FINGERS to hold any tool or item.


    It was interesting to see fingers in a world where everyone can hold stuff with their fists.


    With my job done, I left the house saying bye to the servant who still seemed overwhelmed by the sudden delivery.


    It''s not every day when you see such an expensive package delivered.


    It was still day outside and I didn''t feel like going to sleep or working more so I went to see how Froggy''s training was going.


    Who knows, maybe he found a secret talent that he didn''t know he had.

 Chapter 91. Dirty fight

    I soon found out where Froggy and his new teammates were training.


    The other Witches told me that they were at the grass patch, and since most of the place was covered in sluggish water there was only one place that could be considered a patch of grass.


    I arrived there soon where I saw some cows in a caged area with chickens not too far away.


    But on the rest of the grass, there were six people doing exercises and getting ready for the mission of tomorrow.


    I sat down far away where they couldn''t see me but close enough that I could see them.


    I didn''t want to disturb their training, only a small break from my constant work and some free entertainment.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have popcorn on me, so I had to improvise my snacks with some classic bread and milk.


    After a few minutes, they stopped their exercise and went to practice shooting.


    It wasn''t something that I was used to like crossbows or bows with arrows.


    Instead, they threw potions filled with water at the red target. Those potion bottles were very sturdy, and unless you brewed specifically for a splash potion, it couldn''t be broken that easily.


    So it was good ammunition that didn''t need to be replaced.


    After the stationary target was done, they moved to a nonstationary target, aka one of the team members that walked and tried to dodge all the potions.


    They all took turns being the target, even though I saw that Froggy was chosen more often than the others.


    I didn''t feel like it was fair, but Froggy is indeed a rookie and he needs to earn their respect before they''re going to treat him as an equal.


    There''s a chance they''re going to lose their life, so trust is a major factor in their teamwork.


    After all the training was done for the day, I decided to reveal myself to my future teammates and give them some food to forge a relationship.


    "Hey guys! You''re doing some great work, keep it up!"


    They all looked at me, but only Froggy seemed to be happy to see me while the others looked with curiosity.


    "I saw you training hard so I thought you''d want some food to recuperate your strength."


    Most of them smiled at me mentioning the food except for the leader who didn''t seem too happy to see me.


    I gave everyone bread and milk, and everyone thanked me for my generosity.


    Except for the leader, who only took the bread but left me with the milk.


    "Trader, from what I''ve heard you''ll be joining us on this mission."


    "Yes, but don''t worry, I won''t get in your way. I don''t know your team or how you work together, so I''ll only be there if things get bad."


    "Are you saying that you are more capable than a team of six people?"


    The leader seemed to be insulted by what I said, and I didn''t realize that it sounded that bad.


    "I didn''t want t-"


    "I don''t care what you say, I want to see your skills, I challenge you to a duel. If you win, you can stay with us, if you lose you will leave us to do our work, no supervision needed."


    He pointed his iron sword at me, which I didn''t appreciate at all.


    "The Elders won''t be happy about this."


    "Oh, I''m sure Elder Brutus won''t have any problems with my method of recruiting people in my team."


    So he was in that team...


    I could see that he wouldn''t be backing down on this challenge even if I didn''t want to.


    But if I wanted to join the team I had to go through this.


    "Ok, let''s do it."


    Everyone got curious about the upcoming fight, only Froggy seemed to be concerned about my safety, but he didn''t stop us.


    I went on one side of the grass patch while the leader was on the opposite side.


    We looked at each other intensely with no armor just swords and a shield.


    One of the witches that was watching started to count down.


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    "3, 2, 1 Go!"


    I quickly took a speed potion from my inventory and chugged it down, time was slowing down around me.


    The empty bottles went back into my inventory and I ran towards the leader, who didn''t quite get what I just did, but his instincts were good, and blocked my sword with his shield.


    "I didn''t expect you to use the same method as us. I''ll have to fight with you more seriously now."


    He backed away slowly with his shield where I couldn''t see his next action, but soon I realizing what he''s done as I could see blue particles rise around him.


    He drank a speed potion as well.


    We both went at each other with our shields and swords, but since were both under the effect of a potion, the one with better swordsmanship would win it all.


    I was not good with the sword, so it was clear that I was about to lose.


    But this is not how I fought, I don''t like to play fair.


    So once he pushed me back with one of his attacks, instead of going back to attack once again I instead opted to build a tower four blocks tall, out of reach of any sword swings.


    "How did you build so fast?!"


    The leader stopped in shock at my ability to build so fast.


    I didn''t give him the satisfaction of an answer, Instead I started to load my crossbow and shot him.


    Since he was under the speed influence he quickly raised his shield and bearly blocked the arrow.


    He didn''t stay in one place, he moved in a zigzag trying to get to me, but I was too far for him to reach.


    In the end, he chose to stay in one place and raised his shield.


    I kept shooting at him but only a few scratches appeared.


    And while I tried to get a better angle to shoot him, he started to put a block down not too far from my tower.


    His placing speed was way slower than mine, and it was clear that he couldn''t use the same strategy as me, he had to build a staircase instead.


    I kept my shots consistent making his job harder, but after a few awkward minutes, he finally managed to build a two-block high staircase where he could jump at me.


    I could''ve just built my tower higher, but that wouldn''t accomplish much, instead, I loaded my crossbow once again but this time with a surprise.


    He started to sprint towards the newly made staircase with great speed.


    But when he was about to jump, the sounds of a fuse being lit made him stop followed by a loud shriek that ended up with an explosion.


    The fireworks exploded into the shield, but the blast was too powerful to be blocked by such simple items.


    He was lying on his back before hitting the ground with force.


    The damage was done and what followed was a scream of pain where the leader was trying to figure out what just happened.


    I didn''t let him get up, instead I jumped off my wooden tower on his staircase and stopped my sword not too far from his neck.


    "I think this is my win."


    "What was that!"


    "A secret weapon of mine."


    "You cheated!"


    "Would your enemy care to fight the right way in a life-or-death situation?"


    He sat down for a while trying to gather his thoughts that were blasted by my firework.


    "You''re right, it doesn''t matter how you fight as long as you win. I''m sorry about my outburst, you won fair and square, only a loser will find excuses."


    The sudden change in tone took me by surprise, I didn''t expect him to be so forgiving.


    I helped him to get up and gave him some bread to speed up his regeneration, and this time he took it without giving me dirty looks.


    The others were shocked with how the fight turned out, they had never seen something like this, and soon I was bombarded by questions.


    "Shut up everyone! My ears are still ringing."


    Remembering that someone was injured between them, they all backed off and left me alone as well.


    We all sat down and continued to eat the meal, everyone was full of energy but we were considered enough to not yell right beside the leader.


    As for the leader himself, he was getting better already.


    He spoke with me normally this time, with no smirk, bad comments, or any angry glances.


    This made me change his opinion about him.


    While he was from Brutus party, the leader wasn''t Brutus himself. He was a competent leader who was worried about his team being ''supervised'' by an unknown party.


    I didn''t fight fairly with him, but this kind of fight would help the others get out of a pinch, which was more than enough for him to accept me.


    As I talked with the other I slowly found their name.


    Sara, the only girl in the group was a simple farmer before being struck by lightning. Luckily her family still cared about her but encouraged her to get here in the Clan since it was safer for her. She still keeps contact with her family through letters, and they even help the Clan with any news of new witches.


    Danis was lucky enough to get the alchemist job, which was a great deal in the small village. With hugs from his family and friends, he went to the academy to learn and hopefully become a noble. But on the way there, he was cursed by lightning and became a witch.


    He was too ashamed to get back to his family, so they all think he''s dead. After a few months of living in the wilderness, a witch spotted him and brought him to the Clan where he lives now.


    Brian was a crafter in a small town before becoming a witch, from what the others told me he could craft iron items, but he charged unreasonable prices, so he managed to drive away most of the customers he could have in this Clan.


    That''s why he works with this team, he doesn''t have any other way of making good money.


    Walter is a little bigger than the others


    , he has good muscles since he was a hunter in his past life.


    He hunted animals, monsters, people you name it, he can do it, and I can see why a person like him would be essential to this group.


    Finally, Ellen was the leader of the group. While he was more open with me now after the duel, he didn''t want to share too much about himself, and the others respected his wishes and didn''t say anything either.


    They were a united team, and it was visible.


    I''m relieved that Froggy is in competent hands, he only needs to be a good friend with them as well and it will all be set.


    After the break was over they got back to training, this time it was on how to handle horses in extreme situations, how to handle a horse oif its panicking, and how to turn correctly.


    I watched them from the sidelines learning from their experiences as well.


    It felt like a well-deserved break.


    After everything was done, we all went to our own homes to get some rest, tomorrow is the big day so there''s no reason to continue training until the exposition.


    I also was back at my home and started to prepare for the journey, I sold some of the ores that I had in excess to get some emeralds from some Witches and I bought some raw materials to craft more fireworks.


    My armor was ready and enchanted, the sword as well, while the diamond pickaxe was the most powerful tool that I had on me at the moment.


    Brew a few potions, get some extra food and water, and never forget a bucket.


    With everything done, I went to sleep as well.


    The next day I was in front of the gate with everyone from the team, some elders came to say goodbye, and some friends of Sara were there as well wishing us good luck.


    The gates were opened, we got on our horses and left the safety of the Clan.


    It was time to hunt a Witch.

 Chapter 92. On the hunt for a Witch

    They found out pretty quickly the witch that was supposed to be hard to find even for the Royal Guards, this makes me wonder how powerful their network truly is.


    The information said that the Witch was a resident of a small village close to the border between the Sandstone Kindsome and Stone Kingdom.


    The village wasn''t on the main trading route but it wasn''t too far away from it in case he needed to go to a bigger town.


    It took us three days to arrive there, we were all in iron armor so every villager was scared to even greet us, but we stood there waiting for someone to make the first move. We weren''t going to burge into their homes after all.


    After an hour of waiting a villager was courageous enough to greet us.


    "I''m the head of this small village, with what can my humble village help you almighty nobles?"


    Ellen the leader was the one to speak.


    "We''re looking for someone with pale skin and acting suspiciously, we got some information that he''s visiting this village pretty often."


    The Head Village was starting to get nervous the more Ellen spoke.


    "We-we do have someone that fits that description, but he doesn''t live here. He''s about a hundred blocks that way."


    He pointed the opposite way we just came.


    We thanked him got off our horses and told the village head to take care of them until well get back.


    The head village was too scared to say anything, which made me feel like a bad guy exploiting the week.


    I''ll give him some emeralds once all of this is done as compensation.


    With careful steps, we walked into the woods trying to not make any noise that would give us away.


    The grass was getting more dense and was taller than other places, so we walked some more.


    But soon the color started to turn gray, which reminded me of someone with similar powers but way stronger, the Zombie Lord.


    A few blocks away the grass suddenly stopped and a small clearing with a house appeared in front of us.


    It was a hut made with logs three rooms from what I could tell, but enough for one man to live comfortably.


    If everything around it wasn''t a little gray, it would''ve looked pretty welcoming.


    We didn''t get out of the tall grass, instead, Ellen made a sign meant to split up and explore the area for any traps.


    I stayed in place, not following the order since I was the backup, and I didn''t know all the signs.


    After a few minutes, the house was surrounded by everyone.


    The tall grass moved in a certain way that only looked unnatural if you were looking specifically at it, after it was done other places reacted accordingly.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t understand what they were communicating, so I stayed still hidden in the tall grass.


    *Bam!


    The door of the hut was opened with force and a crazy-looking Witch was looking with his big eyes around the property.


    "Master I didn''t know you would visit me today! If I did know I would''ve brought a few sacrifices for you. "


    He looked towards me for some reason, like he already knew where I was.


    "Why are you hidden master, I could feel your aura of darkness for a few minutes already. It feels even more powerful than usual, did you have a breakthrough?"


    His eyes were still looking in my direction, but I realized that it wasn''t at me, something on my left side caught his attention.


    I slowly turned my head to see what he was looking at, but it was only tall grass and nothing else.


    This started to scare me a little, was he sensing me, or was someone following us this whole time while invisible?


    "How did you turn off your dark aura master? Wait, are you even here? Did I imagine all of that? But no the sky is still red so something is going on here, whoever you are get out this instant so I can kill you!"


    He took out a sword and a potion from his inventory ready to attack.


    While previously he looked like a crazy person but acted like a normal person, now he was acting as a crazy person as well.


    What should I do?


    Should I get out and confront him, or wait for the others to attack him while he''s distracted?


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    He started to get closer to me, and as I was about to get out, an arrow came from the tall grass and hit him in the hand.


    What surprised me was his reaction.


    "Ahh, I can''t see! What have you done to me?! "


    He slowly backed away and took out a bowl of wood and drank it.


    His eyes started to get normal, and as soon as he could see he looked around for his attackers.


    But everyone was already out, their shield and crossbow ready to shoot.


    The man looked around and saw that he was surrounded, but instead of getting intimidated, he started to smile like a madman.


    "Oh, power beyond darkness, please land a hand to your servant and kill the dirt in front of mh eyes."


    I started to feel like something wrong was about to happen, and I think the others felt the same way since they shot him without saying anything.


    A wall of darkness blocked the incoming arrows like it was nothing, this was the first time I saw something like that.


    It didn''t last long, but it was enough for the witch to be defended.


    "BITE! "


    Was the next sentence he spoke, and from the ground appeared mouths made of bones, it didn''t feel natural, it didn''t feel like it belonged to this world.


    From the witch, it went in a straight line towards his attackers.


    It was similar to what an Evoker could do, but the months were smaller and it was more than one line.


    The hunter surprised by what happened jumped away from the path of the attack.


    But not everyone escapes unharmed, three of the hunters jumped a little too late and their legs were injured. They were out of the fight for a while.


    Fortunately, the attack took a lot of energy from the rough witch, as he was gasping for air like he just finished a marathon.


    The others took this opportunity and got closer to him and started throwing potions.


    Two of them missed but one managed to hit him, and that was enough to slow him down considerably.


    They almost reached him close enough to use their swords, but the witch with slow movements took green potions from his inventory and threw them at his enemies.


    Unfortunately, only the leader was fast enough to get out of the way, but Froggy and the Hunter were poisoned with the potions.


    "Quickly, drink milk!"


    The leader ordered the poisoned victims, and they retreated to drink off the debuff.


    The witch didn''t stay while they were busy, he took out another potion, and this time he chugged it.


    Soon he disappeared right in front of our eyes, and only a floating bottle remained that was thrown at the leader.


    "He''s trying to run while invisible! Look for his particles!"


    We could all hear hurried steps on the grass, but nobody could pinpoint his location.


    The door of the hut was suddenly closed with a loud bang making everyone turn their attention towards it.


    "He''s inside, proceed with caution."


    Walter and Froggy drank the milk so the potions didn''t affect them anymore, but the other two were still on the ground holding in pain their hurt legs.


    They already took a potion of regeneration but it seems to have little effect on their wound


    Wherever that attack was it seemed to be powerful enough to fight against the amazing regeneration of a potion.


    So that meant they were out of this fight.


    I didn''t get out of my hiding spot so I wasn''t attacked at the beginning, but I could still see how everything went without a problem.


    Ellen, Walter, and Froggy slowly got closer to the door, they all had their shield ready and a crossbow on the other.


    The leader pushed the door with force making a loud noise, as soon as he saw the inside he threw a potion, but no scream of pain or confusion came from the other side.


    Everyone was confused including me. Why would the witch go inside instead of running away or attacking someone?


    We all expected an ambush once the door was opened, but nothing came, and the house was too small for him to hide anywhere.


    Something was not right and I didn''t like it.


    Looks like I had to intervene here or else the rough witch will escape.


    I took an item from my inventory, it was metallic with golden color and I could see my reflection in easily.


    It was a golden bell.


    I quickly put it down and hit the bell with my fist.


    Laud ringing interrupted the tense silence and everyone had their eyes on me looking with confusion at why I did that.


    But I ignored them and looked at the new glowing outlines that appeared in front of my eyes, I could see the outline of Froggy, Walter, Ellen, and even the three others who stayed on the sidelines due to their injuries, but further from them I could see the outline of someone that wasn''t there, it was the outline of someone that was invisible.


    He seemed to stay in one place, Im guessing he was looking at me wondering why I did that, but I didn''t explain my actions, instead, I took out my crossbow equipped with a firework and got out of my hiding place.


    I pointed my weapon at the rough witch and fired.


    The fuse was lit, and then a shriek was heard through the air, everyone looked shocked at my action until it exploded without hitting anything.


    Soon a painful scream was heard in the clearing, and then the sound of a body hitting the ground a few times.


    Froggy the first to realized what was going on, and ran towards the place where the grass was oddly shaped.


    He held something invisible that tried to fight back, but his hits didn''t pack too much of a punch since he was still recovering from the explosion.


    The leader and the hunter soon joined Froggy in restraining the man, and Ellen took a dirty potion from his inventory and chugged it into the invisible mouth.


    Slowly he started to struggle less and less until he didn''t move anymore.


    But his invisibility didn''t wear off, which meant that he was still alive, just knocked out.


    "Looks like he didn''t go inside when he closed the door, that was only a distraction."


    I moved closer to the invisible man, wondering how are we going to carry him now.


    "Yes, he''s much more clever than the rumors said. I guess you don''t survive so long with luck alone. This potion should knock him out for a whole day, go check his house in case he has anything of value."


    Froggy and Walter nodded in understanding before going into the house.


    "Careful for any booby traps! "


    I yelled at them to still be careful.


    "How did you know where he was? I didn''t even see his particles."


    "Ehh, I know a thing or two about a thing or two."


    I tried to be mysterious about this since even I didn''t know what was this ability, but I wasn''t going to question its usefulness.


    The glowing outline was slowly starting to fade, so I looked once more around me before my eyes went wide and stopped at one place not too far away from my previous position.


    It was three blocks tall, with long arms, sharp claws and I could feel a strong presence looking deep into my eyes.


    The effect wore off, and I could not see the invisible monster anymore.


    In a panic, I raised my shield and ran towards the bell to hit it once again, but then I felt a strong force pulling me in a different direction, it was a painful experience and it brought back unpleasant memories.


    Everything went dark for a second before I could finally see again.


    I was in a wooden room with a big table in the middle.


    On the table, there were four pillows but only two ender perles were present.


    I was once again teleported over a great distance, but this time it wasn''t an angry mob that welcomed me, instead it was my hero friend with a panicked look and her face, and once she spoke my stomach dropped for a second time for today.


    "Trader, Bobby got inflected!"

 Chapter 93. Life of a Hero (1)

    POV: Merry Paper


    "Your majesty, this girl is the prophesied hero that I was trained to accompany on her journey against the Zombie Lord."


    Froggy, me, and Bobby were on one knee on the ground while in front of us was the Royal Family.


    Three children''s and two parents.


    The king had a golden crown on his head and a red robe on his back, his eyes were stern and his white beard was well-kept.


    The queen beside him had a few wrinkles under her eyes but still had a look of authority, and her long hair was black not touched by age.


    The first prince was on the right side of the king, he looked pretty similar to his father, maybe by choice or the genetics were that strong, but even with his stone look I could see a hint of curiosity when looking at me.


    Next was the only princess who didn''t even bother to hide her excitement about me, from what Bobby described her as it was because this would be an achievement for her as well since Bobby and Froggy ''found'' me.


    The last one was the second prince, and I could still see the youth in his eyes, and he didn''t bother to hide his annoyance at his sisters happiness.


    "Is that true young girl? Are you the chosen hero by the system?"


    "Yes, I do not belong to this world, and from what the others told me I''m more special than the people here."


    "How so?"


    The king asked with curiosity.


    "I can hold all the skills given by the system, and I can brake or place blocks three times faster than anyone."


    This seemed to make the others curious as well, so they asked me to demonstrate.


    I took some cobblestones from my inventory and placed them down, and people''s eyes were already in shock, I then took my enchanted iron pickaxe and broke the blocks after a few swings.


    Their eyes were almost out of their sockets at this display.


    "Fascinating, you truly must be the hero chosen by the system!"


    The first prince said with awe.


    And if they all didn''t have those big noses I would''ve considered him as a love interest, but it''s just too big to ignore.


    The king while impressed seems more interested in my enchanted pickaxe.


    "When you came to this world, were your levels high already with the Enchanting and Crafting skill?"


    "Oh no, it was all at first level. But in the past two months I got here I managed to level up my Crafting and Enchanting skills to a respectable level. And this pickaxe was a gift from my teacher since I cannot craft with iron yet."


    "Your teacher gave you that powerful pickaxe as a gift?"


    Theoretically, Trader lent me an iron pickaxe since I couldn''t make my own yet to mine my materials. But he had too many of those to care if I took one or two more from his chest, and I was the one to enchant the pickaxe, that''s why I''ve learned so much enchanting after all.


    "Yes."


    "Who would your teacher be?"


    "He''s someone that likes to live alone and doesn''t communicate with a lot of people."


    The king seems disappointed by the answer but accepts it nonetheless.


    "Bobby told me you wanted to learn how to fight, that''s why you came to us, is that true?"


    "Yes indeed, I heard this is the best place to learn a lot in a short time."


    The kind smiled gently at what I said.


    "Then we''ll train you to fight the Zombie Lord since he''s the enemy of humanity not only to our nation. Welcome hero, to Stone Kingdome!"


    We did one last bow before we all left, I was given a tour of where I would stay and what facilities I could use before let go to do whatever I wanted.


    Tomorrow was the day all the training will start after all.


    As I was walking along the halls looking at the design of the castle two villagers stopped me.


    They both looked with a hint of hate at each other but didn''t say anything and just wanted to talk with me.


    "The first prince wished to talk with you in private."


    "You don''t have to listen to him, the princess would be more than happy to accommodate you."


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    I could even see a small lightning pass between those two, almost ready for a fight.


    While I was kind of interested in how they would fight if it came down to it, I had to make a tough decision on who to choose, because clearly, this was a political move.


    Trader did warn me to stay away as much as possible from political fights, but if I did decide to join in one, he advised me to stick with the one in charge aka the king.


    He specifically warned me that princesses can promise me the world and have the ability to do that, but if the king says no. Everything will be for nothing.


    From his expression at that time I could tell it had a story behind it, that he didn''t want to talk about it, so I didn''t press further.


    Suddenly an idea crossed my mind, I took one of the messengers and talked with him far enough that the opposing party couldn''t hear us.


    After I was done, his face changed to that of dissatisfaction.


    "Fine, if you choose this I won''t force you, but the Prince will remember this."


    The other message seemed to have hope all of a sudden until I had a private talk with him as well.


    "Even if you are the chosen hero you can''t just do whatever you want, the Princess will remember this."


    The both of them left with a huff each on their way.


    What did I tell them?


    ''Act as if I just refused you, and I''ll visit your master later.''


    This was enough for me to be neutral while visiting both of them to see what they had to offer.


    First I chose to visit the princess since I was most familiar with her.


    So here I was in front of a normal-looking door and I gently knocked.


    "Come in."


    A soft voice answered from the other side, and I opened the door.


    The office was simple in design, with a desk in the middle of the room, and on the walls were some paintings or bookshelves.


    I could see an Ender Chest not too far away from the desk, which most likely meant this room was her main office.


    "Ah, hero I''m happy to see you, what''s your opinion about our kingdom?"


    "It''s pretty nice, but unfortunately I haven''t had the chance yet to see too much of it."


    "You did say that you''ve only been here for two months, maybe we can arrange to have a tour of the city when you''ll be more free."


    We kept talking like that for a while, she tried to guess my position through subtle questions while I also asked her some questions to find out if she had some interesting information.


    Unfortunately, I was disappointed, while the information about the geopolitical status of this world was kind of interesting, the stuff that can make me stronger quicker was not that easy to find.


    While this place was getting most of their money through trading raw ores, they weren''t that good at crafting with them, instead, they were very good at making potions of all kinds.


    They knew all the recipes for the system-made potions and subtlety hinted at some made without the system.


    Unfortunately, that was not something that I was too interested in, I liked a weapon in my hand, not a potion, and while she hinted that she would tell me the secret recipes if I joined her side, I already knew all that information from Trader, information that would be the secret of the nation, was casually given one day when Trader was bored and wanted to teach me about all the potion variants you can do.


    She didn''t even know about the iron golem, which was a great weapon to fight against such a monster as the Zombie Lord.


    And from what Trader told me, there''s a much more dangerous weapon that could destroy everything if it''s made.


    He didn''t tell me how to make the weapon though, no matter how much I asked him.


    In conclusion, what the princess offered me was tempting for anyone else but me, since I already knew the information or wasn''t interested.


    After an hour of talking, I decided to leave telling her that I would think about the offer but no promises.


    This discussion was pretty nerve-wracking with me constantly trying not to give away too much of what I know, so I decided to take a break before going to meet the Prince.


    As I walked towards where I remembered to be the lunch area I heard a voice yelling from the other side of the hallway.


    "Hero, stop right there!"


    I looked towards the voice and saw that it belonged to the second prince, and he was approaching me with quick steps.


    His expression didn''t look too good, which instinctively put me on guard, unpleasant memories flashed before my eyes.


    "You! Be mine!"


    "Excuse you?"


    "When I laid my eyes upon you, it was love I first sight, I can''t bear the thought of us not being together."


    He got down on his knees and took out a golden crown from his inventory to give it to me.


    "Hero Merry, will you be my wife?"


    At first, I was angry when he talked like that, but now it was all forgotten in the shock that I just got.


    I looked deep into his eyes and it was similar to the boys that fell in love with me in the old world, but his eyes were on another level of affection.


    I knew for sure that he had fallen in love when he first saw me, but I couldn''t see anything attractive about him.


    The big nose is an issue for me that I can''t easily ignore.


    "Sorry young prince, but I can''t return the same feelings for you, we''ve just met after all."


    I tried to slowly reject him not knowing how this madman would react if I outright rejected him.


    His face changed to one of confusion, then it went to anger and finally settled with realization.


    "I understand beautiful hero, I''ll have to fight for your love. No worries, nothing is too big or expensive for me to get, I''ll make you fall in love with me even if I have to defeat the Zombie Lord myself!"


    Before I could say anything to him, he turned around and left.


    "Well, he took it better than I expected. I hope he won''t do something too crazy now."


    With that done I decided that I wasn''t hungry anymore, so I went directly toward the first Prince''s office.


    I had to walk for a while since I got lost in the big castle, but in the end and with some help I arrived at the door.


    I gently knocked on the door, and a voice from the other side permitted me to come in, so I did.


    His room was more spacious and had more decorations, than his sisters office, which took me by surprise a little.


    "Hero, thank you for coming, please take a seat."


    The prince had a different aura than his brother and sister, he was more confident and closer to the king than the others, so I unconsciously sad down without realizing it.


    Like with the princess, we started with small talk, how I was doing, who was my teacher, how much I knew about enchanting, and other stuff like that.


    His method of questioning was way better than the princess, I accidentally slipped a few things about me that I wanted to keep a secret, he was sly as a snake, and that made me more on guard around him.


    After a while, he started to talk about the benefits I''d get if I joined him. Unlike his sister, he didn''t promise knowledge but instead land, people and riches.


    Which were tempting in their ways, but I wasn''t that good at building so I didn''t need land in the kingdom, people to trade were for nothing since I had a different system then them, as for the riches, I saw what Trader was capable of producing if he was grinding for a few weeks, nothing that he promised was that worth it.


    In the end, I gave the same response as I did to the Princess, and he only smiled as I left his office.


    "What a day, one is a bookworm, one is a lover and the last one is sly as a snake. I kind of like the plot that I''m going with."


    It was enough activity for today, so I went to get some rest.

 Chapter 94. Life of a hero (2)

    POV: Merry Paper


    The training for the past few days was brutal, to say the least. I thought Trader was going hard on me with me to memorize pages upon pages, but at least when I went to bed, only my head hurt.


    Here I had to wake up at the first sight of light, get a good breakfast, and start the first exercise for today, which was running around the castle five times minimum.


    Was it an impossible task?


    Very much so. But before I start my morning run I have to drink a regeneration potion which would regenerate my muscle fast enough to keep me going but not too fast so I won''t feel tired.


    After that is done, I have a short break before moving to the next training exercise, which is training with weapons.


    Honestly, this is the most painful part of the day but also the reason I came here.


    My first opponent would only attack me with a sword, then a sword and a shield and finally ending with a bow on top of all.


    While fighting with my instructors I realized why Trader liked to build walls when I fought him. When you know you can''t win in skill, just overwhelm them with surprises.


    I tried to do some of the tricks he did but I could tell that I wasn''t at his level.


    When the instructor saw me use this method for the first time, he was shocked enough that I could finally land a hit on him. Unfortunately, that was the only damage that I did to him on that day since I got my ass beaten down the rest of the training.


    The instructor tried to tell me not to use those dirty methods, but the other instructions surprisingly told him that''s not a good suggestion.


    They fought for a while between them while I was recuperating from such a shameful loss until they arrived at one conclusion.


    I should keep using this method of fighting, even if they don''t have experience in it as well, it''s a promising fight style that could revolutionize the world if it can be replicated.


    If they are shocked about what I can do, I wonder how they would react when they see some true gamers who know how to do this properly.


    Of course, I don''t know what they''re like but Trader said that he was nothing compared to them so I''ll take his word for it.


    I had a brake after this, some food, and went to learn how to craft and brew potions.


    The first few days I learned crafting and brewing, but after realizing that I already knew enough about those skills they decided to switch to something else, like dancing and block placement exercises.


    For some reason, they were curious about Trader once they found out how much I know about potion making, but I promised Trader that I wouldn''t tell his name, so I just said that he wasn''t interested.


    Bobby looked disappointed at me for some reason and Froggy was working extra hard to finish his potions.


    One eventful day after I finished my training, I heard Bobby and Froggy talking about how Trader somehow managed to find out about some secret Clan of witches and he wanted to meet them.


    Bobby and Froggy as good friends decided to join him even if he wasn''t that willing at first, but when I heard that I quickly joined that as well.


    I didn''t want to stay here alone otherwise I''d be forced to build towers of dirt and destroy them for ''exercise''.


    And if I''m not bothered by that, the second prince will try to woo me over with one of his weird gifts.


    One time he left a statue of me in front of my room, it was all white and pretty close to my proportions.


    How did he know my measurements? How did he even do this in such a short time?!


    At least the other siblings didn''t seem too interested in forcing me on their side once they understood my standing.


    After a few days, I finally met Trader fully armored which I was glad to have, made me feel more like a hero or a knight at least.


    "Hey Trader! Missed me?"


    For some reason, he seemed surprised by my presence.


    "Merry, did you get bored with the training at the castle and want to go back to the Nether?"


    "Can''t I just visit my teacher? For your information, you are very popular with the Royal Family, but I keep my promise and didn''t mention your name."


    He froze at my mention of the Royal Family, and that made me more curious about his past experiences.


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    "Well I''m glad to see everyone once again, as I mentioned before I stumbled upon a witch in the city, and maybe they''ll give me a clue on how to get my revenge on those Piligers."


    We all nodded in understanding, I read some books about witches at the castle and I was surprised by how little information there was about them.


    The book that I read wasn''t even about them specifically, it was about the last crusade that was started to eradicate them.


    The Piligers got along well with the nobles, too well some would say, and someone found out that it wasn''t all that natural.


    A Piligers with the job of Illusionist hypnotized some important people which led the church to have a good excuse to start a crusade against them.


    It was brutal for all parties involved, the normal people were greater in numbers, but the Piligers had potions, beasts, magic, and even strange weapons.


    So after both parties had existed, they signed a treaty that wasn''t described in the book, and for the past 100 years Piligers have become something similar to the bogyman for the kids in this world, but witches are rarer to see than the Piligers, to the point where it''s thought they were extinct.


    Trader finding Froggy is a miracle, the fact that he found another one, and this one is connected to a Clan!


    If I wasn''t the hero already, I would''ve thought I lived in his story.


    We went to the place of the meeting, it was tense at the beginning, but we managed to get a good deal.


    I even joked with Trader that he got a Waifu, which only confused the others. I wanted to tease him more about this, but then I remembered that I had a prince at the castle waiting to give me another weird surprise, so I stopped there.


    We gave our final goodbyes and went back to the castle, where Froggy went directly to his workshop to finish up the last potions.


    I went to my room and got some sleep.


    ----


    The next day, Froggy was gone which was a surprise for me since that guy couldn''t wake up early if his life depended on it.


    I went back to my training, and talked a little with Bobby about the plan to defeat the Zombie Lord and he was open about the plans.


    Trader''s idea was interesting even if I didn''t know anything about Redstone.


    "Don''t worry, I don''t know too much about it either, but we have a few people that are specialized in this, and they said it could be done without too much of a problem. Trader truly has a lot of skills."


    I could see some admiration towards my fellow world traveler which I can understand, his knowledge is vast for the common people.


    Unfortunately, his plan only worked on stopping his army not defeating the Zombie Lord.


    "How about we use the Iron golems, they seem pretty powerful if we have a dozen of them."


    His eyes lit up to the idea but they changed to hesitation.


    "How can I explain the knowledge to the others, it''s not like it''s something that is easily known."


    "Why don''t I tell them that the System gave the information to me when I got here."


    "That could work, let''s go and tell them about the golems now, the sooner we start the more iron we can get."


    It''s a good thing that he knows how to make the golem as well since I forgot what I had to do with the pumpkin before placing it on top of the iron blocks.


    We meet with the king after an hour, which is very short notice showing how important Bobby is around here, and my proposition caught his attention.


    Until he heard the price for it, then his face turned a little ugly.


    "There''s no problem with getting some pumpkins, but four blocks of iron are not that easy to get. But if what you said is true, we can spare a few to make a special division."


    They don''t have that much iron?


    Aren''t they a mining nation?


    How could they not have that much iron, did something happen?


    Luckily Bobby saw my confusion as we walked out of the room and explained it to me.


    "The kingdom it''s hundreds of years old and everything around us is already mined, now we have to send miners further from populated cities, which requires bigger expeditions, and more resources spent and they arrive later since they have to go a lot further in the wilderness."


    Aha, so they over-mined the closest area, so it takes more time now to get ores. That''s something that I didn''t think about, but with how easy it is to mine in this world it shouldn''t surprise me, especially when they don''t have to worry about collapsing tunnels.


    We walked to the training area where I was given the items necessary for the golem.


    I put the blocks in a T shape as Trader told me, and Bobby gave me a pumpkin with a face carved by him, he knew more about this than me so I trusted him and put it on top.


    *Poff


    Suddenly I was surrounded by thick smoke making me and Bobby caught profusely for a few seconds.


    The Royal Family who came to see the miracle started to panic and called for the guards, not knowing what just happened.


    I looked back at the position of the golem and saw only a huge shadow with powerful red eyes looking back at me.


    "H-hi?"


    I said with a shaky voice, the sheer size and presence intimidated me a little, but I knew that it wouldn''t hurt me unless I ordered it.


    "Can you clear out the smoke?"


    He looked for one more second at me before I could see his hands ready to attack something.


    My heart started to beat faster thinking it was going to attack me, instead, he just clapped his hands.


    A loud ringing went through the whole training ground as the two metal arms met, and the sheer shockwave of that clap cleared all the smoke around us finally letting us see, and others as well.


    Soon a few dozen guards were already here, ready with their weapons to defend the Royal Family, but the golem wasn''t bothered by what was happening around it, instead, it looked back at me and waited for my orders.


    "Lift your arms."


    It did exactly as I said which made every guard more tense.


    "As you can see, I have complete control over the golem, it can follow simple instructions and I can even share my authority with others."


    The Royal Family finally got out of the sock and slowly got closer, at least the boys did that, since the girls weren''t too happy to get close to such a powerful machine.


    "Fascinating, I order you to put your arms down."


    The king looked with awe at the iron beast, which of course didn''t follow the order.


    He wasn''t offended, instead noded his head with admiration.


    The first prince had the same expression as his father, the second one had something similar but his eyes weren''t on the iron golem, instead on me.


    He was fascinated by the fact that I created something like this, and now I think I gave him more reasons to come after me.


    Oh boy, he would get more annoying, isn''t he?


    I have the Royal Family authority to control the golem and the boys were more than excited to test it, but the girls only stayed a few more minutes to see that nobody was in any danger, and then they left.


    Surprisingly the king canceled all his plans for today for ''training'' purposes.


    But who I''m I to comment on their taste?


    It''s not like I was jealous that I didn''t get the chance to be the first one to ride the golem''s shoulder, no, I don''t know what you''re talking about.

 Chapter 95. Life of a hero (3)

    POV: Merry Paper


    "Hero Merry you can''t do this and you know it!"


    "What are you talking about, I was the one who introduced them to you!"


    "And we were the ones to bring the materials to make the golems."


    I was fighting with the First prince over who would be the one to control the new team of golems.


    Since they didn''t have a lot of resources from the new expenses, we could only make 12 golems, which was a lot less than I expected, but still, a force to be afraid of.


    The king couldn''t go to battle, since he was old and weak, the princess didn''t want to be in any way shape or form close to those magnificent beings, and the second prince was willing to give up on them for me, even though he wanted them as bad as we did.


    That only left the first prince who needed some achievements over his sister, and me the hero and the creator of those golems.


    Nobody backed down, this was my chance to have my small legion of golems following me into the deadly battle, and I wasn''t going to lose it to some rich kid.


    "Both of you, calm down before things get too heated."


    The king yelled with a strong voice, making us stop from almost jumping into a fight.


    "It''s clear that neither of you is capable of handling such responsibility, especially your son. I expected more from you than to fight like a child."


    The first Prince looked away in shame from his father and I also felt bad with how I acted.


    "Since neither of you can resolve this as adults, I will appoint Bobby to be the one in control of the golems."


    Bobby who was leaning on the wall staying in the shades looked up from his book in surprise.


    "Me? But I don''t have any experience with commanding people into battle, I''m sure you have more capable commanders at your hand that can use them better the me."


    The king turned towards him.


    "I do have great commanders under my watch, but they will be too preoccupied with handling the management of the soldiers since it needs more brainpower. The golems can only follow simple commands and I''ve seen you how you''ve worked under my daughter, and I know you worked well under pressure. Take this as an opportunity and a blessing for your hard work."


    With that, he turned around and went back to the castle leaving all of us in shock.


    Nobody expected Bobby to be chosen, and while I was a little saddened that I wasn''t the one allowed to lead the golems, I was satisfied with knowing that the first prince was in the same situation as me.


    Bobby only had a big sigh and mumbled something about how his work kept piling up before giving some simple orders to the iron golems to see what their limit was.


    I decided I had enough fun for the morning, so I went back to my training.


    First was the sword, then the shield, and lastly the crossbow. I started to get the hang of it pretty quickly, and combined with my ability to place blocks at inconvenient times, this made me win a few times.


    Days passed, with the people in the castle getting more and more busy.


    They got all the people who knew how to use Redstone, gave them the necessary materials, and sent them on a big expedition to prepare the trap.


    Overall 50 people were gone, risking their lives to make a trap capable of holding the growing army in one place.


    Not too long after they left, another event came that shook the palace.


    Froggy got back with some of his new friends, and while suspicious at first, the Royal Family was pretty happy to get the new workforce.


    With them, the Kingdome will manage to get some money by selling more potions. The recent purchase of materials and manpower started to strain the Royal Vault.


    Everyone was happy except for the second prince, Elizabeth managed to get a witch under her wing, and the first prince did the same with another one, leaving one more witch up for the taking excluding Froggy.


    The second prince tried to do the same as his siblings but didn''t have the money or influence to keep the witch interested.


    In anger, together with a few important nobels, they managed to make a complaint to the king, who unfortunately couldn''t ignore them.


    "Because of the rampant Witch in our borders, we can''t focus all our forces towards the zombie invasion. That''s why, to prove your loyalty you''ll bring us that rough witch dead or alive."


    The second prince yelled with a few nobles on the sides looking smug at the poor witches.


    I know Froggy is not a bad guy, and I''m sure his friends are not either, but those stupid nobles had to make their lives harder.


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    The witches didn''t like what they heard, and the fact that two of them had to stay as hostages didn''t make them any happier either.


    But with nothing to fight back, they could only bite their lips and accept the deal.


    So tomorrow, Froggy and the other Witch have to go back to tell the news, I felt bad so I went to talk with Froggy.


    "Hey Froggy, how are you holding?"


    "Not so good, but we did expect to have some pushback eventually. The others are more surprised how easily they managed to get here."


    "The fact that a zombie invasion is happening must''ve been a great reason for this. How''s Trader doing?"


    "He''s doing fine, he was busy studying an enchanted wall the last time I left. But you don''t have to worry about him, he''s not in any danger in the clan."


    He found an enchanted wall.


    I know you can enchant normal items as well, but it''s not something that happens regularly, tools and armor are way more useful with enchantments than regular items.


    But If that wall managed to catch Traders eye, that means it''s something pretty valuable.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t find a lot of books related to enchanting In the Royal Library so I''ll probably have to visit the Witch Clan as well to make some progress with my enchanted tattoo project.


    I continued to talk with Froggy for a while until it got late and he had to get some rest for the journey.


    With a final goodbye, I went back to training, the time was ticking and I could feel the pressure of the deadline approaching.


    It felt like such a short time, I wasn''t ready, I''ve seen the Zombie Lord and I wasn''t confident that I could defeat him.


    I could only train to get better and trust the others to come up with a plan that would stop that monster once and for all.


    ---


    A few days passed, and we got the confirmation that everything was ready, the trap was laid, nobody was killed and now they were coming back.


    We also got news that the zombie army increased greatly in numbers and in a few days it would most likely start to march once again.


    We have to be there once that happens, we have to fight for one last time and win for humanity.


    There was no backing down.


    We were going to war.


    Before we left me and Bobby were called to meet the king at the Royal Vault, here were the most precious items in the whole kingdom. The king waited patiently in front of the door.


    "Welcome, I want to gift you two something before you leave."


    The king then turned towards the two guards with enchanted Diamond Armor and signaled them with his hand.


    The two guards sprung into action and took a lever from their inventory and put it in a random place on the obsidian wall, both of them then flicked the lever, and the wall of iron was moved by pistons, once it was done I could see that the obsidian walls were three blocks thick with the only vulnerable part being the entrance.


    The three of us entered the vault and the iron wall was closed behind us, I could also see the pistons now that pushed all of those blocks.


    I turned back towards the vault, it was all made with iron blocks which surprised me since I thought it was hard to get this much ore.


    The room was 5 blocks tall, and 20 blocks wide on each side,


    On the walls, there were chests upon chests, some of them had item frames with different ores, food items, potions, Nether blocks, obsidian, weapons, and armor.


    But further back into the room there stood three armor stands with glowing blue armor on top of it, and it was clear what the king wanted to gift us.


    A few steps further we were in from of the mighty armor, I could see the beautiful design of the diamond armor and the glowing effect from the enchantment only made it more mesmerizing.


    "I want you two to have this armor in the battle. Bobby be safe while commanding the golems, there''s no need to risk yourself so just stay in the back. And you Hero Marry, to be able to stand a chance against the Zombie Lord and keep it preoccupied on yourself if something goes wrong."


    He then gave us both our respect armor, making me have mixed feelings about how I was sent to fight on the front lines.


    But it''s better this way, Bobby is not a fighter, and the only reason that he will even be on the battlefield it''s because I kept fighting with the First Prince over who should have the golems.


    So it''s a good thing that the king values him so much that he''s willing to lend this powerful armor.


    Speaking about that, I started to look at the stats of my new armor, and I was surprised, to say the least.


    SWORD - Sharpness 5


    - Fire Aspect 2


    - Unbreaking 3


    - Mending 1


    HELMET- Unbreaking 3


    - Respiration 2


    - Protection 4


    - Mending 1


    CHEST PLATE- Unbreaking 3


    - Protection 4


    - Mending 1


    LEGGINGS- Unbreaking 3


    - Protection 4


    - Mending 1


    BOOTS- Depth Strider 2


    - Protection 4


    - Unbreaking 3


    - Feather Falling 3


    - Mending 1


    This was the best armor I''ve ever laid my eyes on, this is something that the hero will get at the end of the journey, and the king was willing to just give it to us.


    I had the impression that they would keep something so precious close to their chest and never share it with others.


    Suddenly the king started to speak.


    "Officer Bobby, I give you one of the best armor that my kingdom has to offer, I don''t request you to fight in the front line, I want you to lead the Iron golems and defeat the Zombie Lord, do this for your family, do this for the country, do this for your village!"


    A short but powerful speech was given to Bobby, and I could already feel the blood rushing through my veins even if it wasn''t for me.


    But the king wasn''t over, because soon he turned towards me and continued.


    "This is something passed from generation to generation, it''s not even used for ceremonies, only in case of a great war and a champion is needed. Hero Merry, you''ve been chosen by the System to save us, I saw your skill and your ability to adapt to any environment, I trust you with the most powerful weapon and armor that my kingdom has to offer, with this you have a chance to fight against the Zombie Lord. Go now and save humanity, save the world!"


    I was ready for a fight!


    My blood was boiling with energy, I felt powerful with my new equipment, I couldn''t even imagine how I could be hurt in it.


    We left the vault after this, unfortunately, I didn''t get the chance to explore it for any other treasure, but it didn''t matter, since I got the most powerful item in there anyway.


    The others were ready to march, another 50 strong men all with enchanted iron armor stood ready for war.


    But before we left the king gave us one last speech.


    "My people, you have lost your brothers and sisters to that monstrosity at our borders. He killed many of us, and worse than that, made it so they became monsters as well. We tried to save who we could, but the problem was not solved just delayed. Now the Zombie Lord is raising his army once again but this time we won''t let him have his way. We will defeat the Zombie Lord and his army! We will survive this war and grow stronger than ever. We will show the world that the Stone people will never crack under pressure. You are the hero, you are the hope for tomorrow! For the Stone Kingdome! "


    "" For the Stone Kingdome!!""


    The army yelled back with force, and I could feel how everyone was ready.


    There was no more fear, only courage and one enemy to kill.


    We will win.

 Chapter 96. Life of a hero (4)

    POV: Merry Paper


    After three days of marching, we arrived at the fallen town, at first I could see skeletons of different animals on the ground, then the blocks around us started to turn gray like all life was sucked from them, until we arrived at the big wall.


    We all stopped and a person was there to greet us, or more exactly the second prince, since he was the one who was leading the army.


    "Sir, we got some reliable Information that the Zombie Lord will leave this place tomorrow, it''s a good thing you just arrived."


    I looked up at the sky and saw that it wasn''t even noon yet, which gave us enough time to start our plans.


    The Prince thanked the man before dismissing him, he had a serious face and gave orders to all his men, he clearly took this battle seriously and didn''t intend to lose it.


    This made me respect him a little more, since while he was still a goofball at the Castle, here he took things seriously.


    Our job was to make a room underground to hide our army before we strike, so we took shovels and started digging, myself included.


    A few hours later the room was done, 5 blocks tall and 50 blocks wide on each side. Now the army and the golemes could stay comfortably hidden before the strike.


    -----


    Early the next day we all woke up ready for war, but some preparation needed to be done first.


    We didn''t know when the army would leave today but it didn''t matter, as most of the groundwork is already done.


    Me and a few other soldiers took some Flint and steal and got out of our hiding place, we were only a few dozen blocks away from the gray wall.


    But not to far away from the wall, there was something different on the ground, something that only appeared here a few days ago.


    Four blacks away from the wall there was a red path that surrounded the town leaving no free space, the path was four blocks wide, which made this whole thing like a perimeter around the town.


    We all sat in our positions and started the last step of the plan.


    With Flint and steel, we ran and burned all over the red block, and surprisingly the fire never went away on its own.


    This was the most common block in the Nether, Netherock.


    This block could fuel a fire nonstop without getting itself burned, which would make a great natural wall against the army of zombies since they were more flammable than normal humans.


    In 15 minutes everything was done, and I could hear the hearts of everyone around me including myself beating loudly.


    This was one of the most risky operations since we didn''t know if we would be interrupted by the monsters, but it was all done, we could only wait now.


    A few hours later there was some movement beyond the fire, a huge Shadow appeared at the gate and looked at us through his covered eyes.


    It was the Zombie Lord.


    "Ah, the Void has blessed us with sacrifices to expand my army, how blessed I am. But only ten of you?"


    The smart zombies were soon beside him looking with confusion at the new wall of fire.


    "But I feel something different from you, I feel like you are dirtier than the others. Who are you?"


    I could feel a pressure all of a sudden on me, but I''ve trained a lot for the past few weeks and I was better equipped than anyone here, something like this couldn''t scare me that easily.


    "I am the Hero chosen by the System to defeat you! You shall die by my hands today monster."


    More zombies started to appear behind the huge monster, but nobody dared to pass him.


    "Ah I see, you are the champion of the System, good thing you came to me so I don''t have to search for you later. Your death will greatly please the Void."


    He then started to take a walk towards us until he hit the first wall block with fire.


    The Zombie Lord looked down for the first time with surprise, he didn''t see the wall of fire only now.


    He didn''t stay too long there and quickly retreated his step, but the fire was already on him, and it kept climbing it until it slowly died down.


    But the fact that it burned him so much meant that his blessing was pretty split up already, so I had a chance to fight him.


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    "Interesting way to trap my army, but did you think that such a weak fire could burn up the will of the Void? NEVER!"


    He yelled with a powerful voice that I could feel even in my bones.


    Then he took a step forward and stumped one of the fire blocks with force.


    The hit was so powerful that the fire died down instantly without getting the chance to burn him.


    This was not a good sign.


    He did another powerful step with the same results.


    "Phase two boys, get the crossbows ready."


    Before he took another step ten red arrows were shot at him and he stepped back from the knockback.


    He could put out the fire, but that doesn''t mean we''ll sit down and watch it, we''re going to do some damage on our own, and from the results, we had a pretty good chance at this.


    "Those pesky arrows, I''ll erase every tree from existence once we conquer this world!"


    He tried to put out more fires, but every time he tried to do that, more arrows came in his way, hurting him more and more.


    His regeneration couldn''t keep up, and slowly the zombies started to come out of the town, but since they couldn''t leave the place, they only went along the walls looking for an exit.


    The smart zombies looked with hope when they saw this.


    But the Zombie Lord wasn''t going to lose like this.


    If he couldn''t put out the fires because of us, he''d deal with us first.


    So he made a huge leap over the the wall of fire and jumped in front of us, it was much smaller than what I saw last time.


    He didn''t wait for us to respond and with quick steps, he was in front of me with his fist high in the air.


    I quickly took out my shield and blocked it. The force was immense and I had to take a step back.


    But this wasn''t an impossible fight, I could feel that I had a chance.


    I took out my swords and started to slash him back.


    A large wound appeared on his arms and, not to late after it started to catch on fire.


    This fire was harder to put out for some reason, but I wasn''t going to complain about it.


    He was angry, his army was trapped and he kept getting injured.


    He isn''t retreating, instead, he keeps punching me with more and more speed. It was so fast that the only thing I could do was to block it.


    If I was alone, this would''ve been a bad situation, but I wasn''t, and the army was with me.


    The other soldiers shot their red arrows, and the rest of the army started to dig out from the hidden room.


    It would take them a few seconds since a lot of blocks needed to be removed so the iron golems could get out.


    Arrows pierced his skin, and he quickly turned from me towards the other soldiers, they switched to shields but once the punch made contact with them, the soldier was simply thrown away.


    The punch was too strong, and a simple shield couldn''t just stop them.


    I could only guess the reason I wasn''t thrown was because of my overpowered armor.


    He didn''t stop at one soldier, he just went through the others like they were nothing.


    While he did hit them, it didn''t kill them, since those were veteran soldiers, they knew how to take a fall, so after some healing potions they were getting back to battle with no fear in their eyes.


    I didn''t stay in one place and watched, instead I quickly made a tower and then jumped to slash the head of the monster.


    Unfortunately, he moved too fast so my sword landed on his shoulders. But that''s as enough to critically hit him.


    The fire started to spread towards his face, and for the first time, I saw fear on the zombie''s face.


    He jumped backward trying to put the flame out, but that would take a few seconds, and we were loading out crossbows.


    The Zombie Lord looked at us, then towards the rest of the army that was coming, and then he completely healed like nothing happened to him.


    We were all surprised by what just happened, but then a voice yelled beyond the firewall.


    "Be careful, he doesn''t control it anymore, he''s much stronger now!"


    I looked towards the voice and saw that it belonged to one of the smart zombies, but the other normal zombies didn''t burn, which meant that he only took it off the armored zombies.


    He wasn''t back to his full strength, we still had a chance to win this.


    We switched our crossbows with shields ready for his next attack, and as we expected he attacked, but not us.


    He jumped higher the before which showed his increased strength, but he didn''t land at us, or at the coming army, instead, he landed on the wall of fire.


    And to our horror, his landing managed to extinguish a great part of the fire, now three zombies could easily walk side by side without getting burned.


    This was starting to get out of control.


    "Hero, this doesn''t look good, should we retreat?"


    One of the soldiers walked towards me, I could hear concern in his voice, but there wasn''t any fear, which was a good thing.


    "There''s no need, prepare for battle!"


    Trader most likely expected this to happen, since he made a backup plan for this.


    I took a firework out of my inventory and let it loose towards the sky.


    With a loud boom, a red ball in the sky caught everyone''s attention.


    The zombies started to get closer, the army slowly coming to aid their Lord in battle.


    Even the smart zombies joined them, which meant that the Zombie Lord spread his control once again.


    But not too late after, something different happened right beside the firewall, from the cobblestone-looking block beside the netherock lava sources appeared.


    Those were dispensers with only one single lava bucket in them, and it was all evenly spread on the interior and the exterior of the red line.


    That was the backup plan.


    A few villagers that knew how to use Redstone, made a system underground to connect all of those dispensers and be used at one switch of a lever.


    The reason it wasn''t used from the beginning was in fear of making the Zombie Lord lose hope and taking his blessing back to kill us all.


    With only a firewall, he still thought he had a chance at letting his army out, but he couldn''t do it if was a path made with lava.


    The whole town was surrounded by lava, some zombies managed to pass the kill zone but most of them were already burning and yelling in pain.


    Some of them only caught fire and ran back to the town hoping to get to the shadows, and on their way, their further started to spread fire between the others.


    They were all packed up, so it quickly spread like dry wood.


    Everyone looked with shock at what happened, the armored zombies were safe since they were the first to get out, and now they looked with horror at the trap.


    Even the Zombie Lord was taken by surprise at the sudden turn of events. His army was dying and he couldn''t do anything about it.


    But that was the problem, his army was dying only making him stronger, and now it was only him and the smart zombies against us.


    Luckily the heavy hitters finally arrived.


    The iron golems were already moving to attack the Zombie Lord and his minions.


    The Zombie Lord then looked directly at me, the pressure started to increase like never before, but I stood my ground.


    And for the first time, I heard the Zombie Lord truly angry.


    "I''m going to kill you!"


    And he jumped towards me with full force.


    Time for round 2.

 Chapter 97. Life of a hero (5)

    POV: Merry Paper


    *Boom


    I felt a heavy hit on my shield and the next thing I knew I was in the air flying backwards.


    It felt like I was hit by a truck, and this wasn''t even his full strength, before I could even fall to the ground, the Zombie Lord jumped once again but this time on top of me.


    My back and chest hurt a lot from that hit, I couldn''t even check my health but I''m sure that just took half of my health.


    The only reason I''m even alive was because of the armor.


    I took a breath of air once my lungs were back to normal, but the pain was still there. This is terrifying, I don''t know if I can win this fight.


    His arms were high in the air ready for another attack, but suddenly he was pushed off me by an iron golem.


    The Cavaliers have arrived!


    "Hero, eat a golden Apple!"


    Bobby''s voice cut through all the pain and confusion in my head and I could finally think about my next action.


    I took the Apple and ate it, I also took some potions and drank them, there''s no reason to hold on to items now.


    "What abominations are you? You''re not alive nor dead, you don''t have flesh or bone, what madman created you?"


    The Zombie Lord was facing now three golems and more were on the way, one of them was trying to hold the huge monster in one place, while the rest kept showering him with heavy punches.


    This seemed to confuse the Zombie Lord, they were stronger than anything he''s ever fought with, and more resident than any wall he''s ever punched.


    Unfortunately, while it looked like the golems were winning, I could already see the cracks forming on the majestic golems, so it was only a matter of time before they would be destroyed.


    I got up and looked at the rest of the battlefield, the zombies kept burning which meant the Zombie Lord was only getting stronger. The armored zombies were putting up a pretty good fight against the army since they didn''t feel pain and were stronger with the blessing of the void, and Bobby was concentrating and giving simple orders to the golems with the second prince not too far away from him.


    I felt my health returning to its peak, but just in case I checked my state where I saw something unpleasant.


    My health was full, and I had a few buffs from the apple and the potions, but between those buffs, a debuff appeared in the shape of a zombie''s head.


    When I clicked it told me that it was Infected 1.


    No details on what it does, but it was surely a bad thing since it came from the Zombie Lord.


    "Be careful not to be hit by the Monsters, there''s a chance you''ll get a debuff!"


    I yelled towers Bobby and the Prince hoping they would understand me.


    I didn''t know if only the Boss would give the status effect or his minions as well, but it''s better to be safe than sorry.


    The crossbow was back in my hands and I carefully aimed at the Zombie Lord who was overwhelmed with all the golems on him, There were so many around him that it was hard for me to get a good shoot.


    Suddenly he jumped out of the golem pile and landed close to Bobby, this made me panic and the Prince as well.


    The Zombie Lord seems to know that Bobby is the one controlling the golems and he hits him with all his force.


    Still, Bobby held the second-best armor besides mine and with a shield, he only flew back for 10 blocks.


    I didn''t give a chance for the Zombie Lord to jump on top of him like he did it to me, so I ran with my buffed speed to slash his leg.


    The fire started to spread on the rotten flesh and a scream of pain followed, his attention was on me once more.


    "Pesky little hero and your resistance against the mighty Void, if the System didn''t protect you it would be so much easier."


    His fist was up in the sky, but this time I didn''t block it with a shield but put two cobblestone blocks on top of each other to stop his attack.


    This worked wonderfully, but the blocks were smashed with only one hit. Fortunately, the blow was less powerful now so I could easily block it with my shield without feeling the force.


    I even managed to slash his arm back, but my hopes were crushed when I saw that his leg was already healed which meant his regeneration could keep up with my attacks.


    Red arrows were shot in the head of the monster, the Prince was fighting as well and I could see that the army dealt with the smart zombies.


    Some of them were dead while others were held captive until they were cured, it was a tough fight but now they could fully concentrate on the Boss.


    There was hope for this fight.


    I slashed, arrows were shot, the golems arrived once again, and punches were exchanged, the Zombie Lord was getting more and more hurt and I could see that his regeneration couldn''t keep up.


    Bobby seemed to be back on his feet, and for some reason, he got closer to the fight.


    "Golem 2,4 and 5 get out of the fight and come towards me!"


    He yelled between all the war cries, but the golems still followed his command.


    All the ones that he called were the most damaged, there were cracks all over the iron skin, and one of them even had a missing arm.


    Bobby just got closer to them and put iron ingots on their skin.


    Like magic, it got absorbed into the damaged golem and the cracks disappeared.


    When it got to the golem with a missing arm, the regeneration was slower but I could see a new arm growing, and he was back to fight.


    Three golems usually tried to hold the Zombie Lord, the others kept hitting him in the chest or legs since they could reach his head, but that didn''t matter since we could shoot it with our crossbows, and all the arrows landed on him, the only thing that was heard from the Zombie Lord was screams of pain.


    It held like this for a few minutes and the wounds were piling up, I could even see his bones now, but even with all this damage he wasn''t dead.


    "Oh ruler of the Void, bless me with strength otherwise your follower shall perish without completing his mission!"


    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.      The Zombie Lord yelled at the sky with his final breath.


    Suddenly the air around us turned much colder, and we all stopped waiting to see what was happening.


    The cloth that covered the Zombie Lord''s eyes suddenly got burned by a black flame, and all I could see was his closed eyes, but once he opened them I could see nothing.


    In his eye sockets, there was deep darkness, it was like looking into the void.


    I shivered like something powerful was looking over me.


    "I see, thank you for your guidance almighty Void."


    He was once again calm and collected, and then all the Flesh that was missing was suddenly regenerated, I could feel his strength rising to new peaks.


    Screams were heard from the army, but it wasn''t from the soldiers, but from the armored zombies instead.


    They were on fire for some reason, even if the blessing was taken they shouldn''t burn because they had a helmet, the rest of the zombie army was burning as well, which meant one thing.


    The Zombie Lord was at his peak once again, maybe even stronger.


    He was held in one place by four brave golems, but that didn''t stop him from jumping out of there like it was nothing.


    His jump was powerful as always, and this time he landed in the middle of the army raising a cloud of smoke that covered everything.


    But this smoke was weird, it wasn''t gray like normal, instead it was green like it was poisoned.


    It didn''t last for long, but once we could see the army again they were on their knees coughing their lungs out.


    "Attack him!"


    Bobby yelled at the golems, I continued to shoot my arrows and the rest as well.


    The Zombie Lord keeps smiling and punching the soldiers that died in one hit.


    Before the golems arrived, he jumped once again but instead of attacking me or the Prince, he landed right on bestie Bobby and punched him.


    He had his shield ready luckily, so he was only pushed back for a few dozen blocks, unfortunately, he didn''t manage to land since the Zombie Lord jumped on top of him like he did it to me.


    I could feel the pain just from my distance, and it wasn''t a good sign.


    I was afraid that he would be killed right there, but instead, he did something way worse.


    He lifted him in the air with one hand and said something that sent shivera down my spine.


    "Join me."


    Then a powerful force enveloped Bobby as he screamed in pain, it was a short transformation but now he was a zombie, just like the others.


    The Zombie Lord laughed out loud at his accomplishment which only angered me more.


    After he had his fun he gave his first command.


    "Kill them."


    It was a cold voice but filled with power, and Bobby raised his hand and did something that nobody expected.


    "Kill them all."


    He gave an order with a cold voice, it felt much different than the other smart zombies, and he didn''t fight back.


    As he gave that order, the iron golems attacked the nearby soldiers who were starting to recover, but once the golems were on them they could only run.


    Those golems were like miniature bosses, we could bearly handle one, but we couldn''t handle 10 more.


    "Retreat!"


    The prince yelled and we all left at great speeds.


    We were still affected by the speed buff so the golems didn''t have a chance to catch up with us.


    Unfortunately, after a few hundred blocks the soldiers started to be caught uncontrollably once again.


    "Drink milk, this is still a debuff!"


    The Price gave an order and everyone followed it.


    Luckily this seemed to do the trick, as they were feeling much better and some of them even lost some of the green skin.


    That was dangerously close.


    "What are we going to do now, we can''t let Bobby to that monster!"


    "Bobby is under his Influence and we can''t do anything about it, we have to get back to the castle, we don''t stand a chance against the golems now."


    The Prince responded with authority, I knew he was stressed as well, but someone had to lead, and I was not in the headspace for that.


    We kept going, all of us were tired but we all knew if we stopped there we would die or become part of his army, and nobody wanted that.


    My mind was still in shock, Bobby was gone, and we lost the fight and made our enemy even stronger. How could we face the people back home, how could I face Trader and Froggy now?


    Where did it all go wrong, was it an impossible fight from the beginning?


    Wouldn''t it be better if I didn''t bring the golems to the fight?


    Questions and guild were all on my mind, I don''t even remember how we got back to the castle, the only thing I remember was that I was tired, I was scared, I didn''t know what to do, I only absent-mindedly followed to the prince to give the report.


    I couldn''t hear what they were saying, I was too tired, I could see their face covered in fear  and the only thing that I heard was:


    "We got no choice, we have to leave this place."


    This woke me up from my sorrows, I was now angry, how could they abandon their people now when it was most needed?


    I was angry at myself for not having the ability to fight back, I was angry at the world for doing this to those poor villagers.


    Flashes of people from Bobby''s village came into my mind, their smiles full of hope and hard work, it would all be for nothing if the Zombie Lord won.


    I didn''t know how to defeat such a monster, but I knew someone who could defeat it.


    I ran back to Bobby''s room, on one of the shelves stood four ender pales comfortably on pillows, my heart started to beat harder and I broke Bobby''s Perl.


    Maybe there was still a chance to save him, I had the weakness potions and the Apples. He only needed to be here to get the cure.


    But no, the Perl was broken and Bobby wasn''t here.


    With a little more hesitation I looked at the rest of the perls.


    I broke another Perl, and a confused Trader appeared already in full armor.


    "Trader, Bobby got inflected!"

 Chapter 98. Anger

    I looked in confusion at Merry, then with worry.


    "Hey Merry, can you repeat that, I thought you were saying that Bobby is in trouble."


    "You heard it right the first time, we went to fight the Zombie Lord and we lost badly, and Bobby is now a smart zombie under his command."


    My blood froze when I heard that a second time, I looked more intensely at Merry and I could see that she was very tired, bearly holding herself up, clearly she didn''t sleep for a few days.


    But I didn''t care about that, Bobby was in danger, and she was supposed to be the hero to save everyone not fail so miserably.


    I stopped myself for a moment and took a deep breath, I was too overcome by emotions and if I don''t keep them in place I''m going to say something that I''ll deeply regret later.


    After a few seconds of silence where I tried to calm myself down, and Merry looked more scared as the time passed, I spoke once again.


    "Tell me in detail what exactly happened."


    My voice had a lot more anger than I intended to show but it''s still passed the message.


    She started to tell me about the preparation of the fight, of how they made a small group of iron golems to fight against the Zombie Lord.


    It was a pretty good idea until it wasn''t anymore, Bobby was the one controlling them for whatever reason, the Zombie Lord fought hard but when was about to lose he asked for a power-up from the Void.


    And he got one.


    He infected the small army as a distraction and then captured Bobby making him into a zombie.


    When she arrived at that part of the story, I wanted to hit something to calm my nerves, but it wasn''t over yet so I had to hold for a little longer.


    Bobby became a smart zombie but a silent one, then he ordered the iron golems to attack the soldiers.


    I was shocked when she told me that, I didn''t expect to still have authority over them once he transformed.


    But now the Zombie Lord was without an army, instead, he had an elite group of tanks that could destroy anything in their path.


    The Zombie Lord was more dangerous now than ever, controlling a group of Iron Golems too powerful to be ignored, I don''t think he''ll even wait to recuperate his army, he can just attack like this since it would be more efficient.


    And with Bobby in the lead, they could arrive anytime.


    "And we arrived back at the castle not too long ago, I didn''t hear everything they said, but I only heard that they plan to abandon this place and flee to the other kingdoms."


    That''s it, they made Bobby fight and after all he''s done instead of saving him they just abandon him with the whole Kingdome?


    I''m so angry at them that I want to raze this whole place to the ground, but there''s no point in doing that, first I have to save Bobby, and to do that I need to kill the Zombie Lord.


    I''ll think what to do with the others afterward.


    "Merry, do you know where the Royal Volt is?"


    "Y-yes?"


    "Good, lead me there. I need to prepare for war."


    I said everything in a cold voice which seemed to scare Merry.


    But I didn''t care for that, now it''s time for action, not panicking.


    She led me through long hallways that reminded me of the Sand Palace, nothing good ever came from those places.


    "How long do you think it would take them to arrive if they marched nonstop here?"


    "If they don''t stop to rest, then in three days. Here''s the vault door, how do you plan to get in? Do you want me to call the king?"


    Three days?


    That should be enough to set down a trap to kill the Zombie Lord, I only need the materials necessary and I didn''t plan to waste time gathering them myself.


    "No, I have something else for you to do. Go get me some glass, I''ll deal with the volt myself."


    She seemed to hesitate to leave me alone, but after a hard stare, she just nodded and left.


    I got closer to the volt, and two guards with enchanted diamond armor stood in my way.


    "Halt, who are you?"


    Both of them got closer to me, but before they could reach me I threw two potions at their feet.


    I was ready to fight a witch when I got out, so I came prepared for a fight.


    The potion took the two guards by surprise and started to vomit while holding their stomachs.


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    "What did you do to us?"


    One of the guards tried to hit me with his sword, but he was off by two blocks.


    I just simply pushed him down and he was too overwhelmed to get back up.


    I threw two potions at them, that individually were pretty powerful, but combined were a nasty surprise.


    Those were the speed potion and nausea potion.


    For the first one, I could make it myself, but for the second one, I had to get it from a witch, since it wasn''t a potion made by the system.


    With those two combined, they couldn''t see anything straight, and with the effect of the speed, every action they did had a different result then they expected.


    I didn''t stay to look at them how they walked like headless chickens, instead, I took out my diamond pickaxes and broke the iron wall.


    After the first layer, I could see the Redstone mechanical parts and I felt a little sorry for destroying them.


    I knew how hard it was to make something like this.


    Inside the volt, I had to stop and admire it for a little before starting to loot.


    Luckily everything was labeled so I didn''t stay for long there.


    I took some obsidian, enchanted diamond armor, and any other items that I saw valuable enough for me to steal.


    After a few minutes, I was out of there waiting for Merry to arrive.


    After a few minutes of waiting with the guards still suffering from the potion effect behind me, I saw Merry appear after the corner, but she wasn''t alone.


    "Merry, I''m telling you, we have to leave were not safe here anymore, come with me and I''ll promise your safety."


    "How many times have I told you, Prince, in not interested now leave me alone!"


    Then they saw me, they saw the guards behind me and finally the hole to the volt.


    "You actually managed to get in."


    "Who are you, how did you get here?"


    Merry seemed impressed by my abilities while the Prince was ready for a fight.


    "Did you get the glass?"


    "Yeah here''s two stacks, unfortunately I couldn''t find more, is this enough?"


    "Merry, you know this guy?!"


    The Prince was surprised by the sudden twist but I just ignored him.


    "It''s more than enough, do you know where''s the portal room?"


    "No, they haven''t told me about it."


    "Stop ignoring me! Who are you and how dare you steal from the Royal Family?!"


    I look at the second Prince for the first time, he was supposed to be the one that lead the army to fight the Zombie Lord.


    It wasn''t his fault that the fight ended that way, but that didn''t mean I had to play nice with him.


    I took my crossbow loaded with a firework and painted it at him.


    "You''re the second Prince, you should know where the portal room is, lead me to it or I''ll shoot you."


    "Who do you think you are to order me around like that?"


    He took out his shield ready to block my attack, and the fact that he had diamond armor on him must boosted his confidence, but I wasn''t playing anymore, I just shot at him, and not too late after an explosion was heard and the prince was blown back.


    I didn''t get closer to him, instead, I loaded another firework ready to shoot.


    "I''m going to do that once more if you don''t show me where the portal is."


    He slowly got up, still confused about what happened, but the look in his eyes told me enough that he wasn''t going to play nice.


    I was ready to shoot him one more, but Merry stopped me.


    "Wait, there''s no need to do that, I can convince him to show you the way."


    I raised an eyebrow but let her do the magic.


    "Sorry Prince about this. This is my teacher and I keep trying to keep a secret. He was a very good friend with Bobby and now he wants to save him from the Zombie Lord."


    "Are you crazy Merry? Didn''t you see how strong that monster was, there''s no way we can kill it, especially now that he has the iron golems. What can one man do against a monster that defeated an army?"


    She slowly got closer to him not making any big movements.


    "I know what the monster is capable of, I blocked his attack after all, but if my teacher says that he has a way to kill him, then I trust him."


    The Prince looked at me with haterade then switch to my weapon which scared him.


    Merry was close enough to him that she could lay her hand on his shoulder.


    "Ahab, listen to me. We can defeat the monster, just trust me."


    For some reason, the Prince seems to react a lot more to his name being called the the fact that she touched his shoulder.


    "Fine, follow me."


    Merry made a victory pose while he turned around, and I was impressed by her persuasion skills.


    We walked along the hallways until we arrived at a big room, where a lot of guards and other people waited for us.


    "Son, what was that explosion, and who is the man with the diamond armor."


    The one who spoke had fancy clothes on him and a golden crown on top of his head, this must be the king.


    "He is an intruder father."


    So he led us into a trap, I didn''t wait for him to fish as I grabbed him by the neck with a black potion close to his mouth.


    "Nobody moves or I''m going to kill the Prince with this powerful potion. Don''t test me, it''s powerful enough to kill anyone in one sip."


    What I had was an instant-harming potion, and the Prince desperately tried to get out of my grasp.


    "Trader is that you? What are you doing here, is the Clan ok?"


    A voice that I recognized, unfortunately, spoke up, it was Catharine who was held as ''hostage'' until they caught the rogue witch.


    What bad timing.


    "Nothing is wrong with the Clan Catharine, I just want to save my friend and I''ll be out of here in no time."


    "Ok, I know this looks bad but listen, this is my teacher, he knows a way to kill the Zombie Lord and save Bobby, he only wants to know where the portal is."


    The Prince was struggling more and more under my arm, so I just flexed my muscles to remind him about his situation.


    It seems to do the trick as he didn''t struggle much more after that.


    The one who spoke was Merry once again, she tried to explain the situation to the others, but if they decided to suddenly attack I had to be prepared to tower up.


    "How do you know about that, did Bobby betray us?!"


    "Get off your high horse old man, I knew about the Nether beforehand, the tribe that you are working with right now is actually under my management. So either you bring me to that dimension, or I''ll make one right here and then everyone will know your secret."


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have Flint and steel, so this was only a bluff.


    The air seemed to get more tense, Merry was looking on either side not knowing which side to take until the king was the one to speak first.


    "Take him to the portal room."


    "But Dad, he could be a spy!"


    "If he was, I''m sure he had more silent options to find out our secrets."


    The princess didn''t seem to be pleased with the answer but still signaled me to follow her.


    I let go of the second prince, not forgetting to give him one more kick to show my dissatisfaction with the sudden betrayal.


    The first Prince followed us to the portal room and after not knowing what to do, Merry decided to come as well.


    We went somewhere behind the big room, a staircase that went deeper into the earth, but everything was beautifully decorated, so it was quite a sight to see.


    We passed some guards along the way but with one wave of the hand from the princess they stood in one place.


    Soon I was in front of a familiar obsidian frame, but much bigger than what I usually made.


    Beyond the dark line, I could see the blocks commonly found in the fortress, I took my armor off and passed the portal.


    The others seemed surprised by my actions, but I knew that the heat would kill me in that armor.


    I was here for a mission, there''s no need to hold back anymore.

 Chapter 99. Final fight

    I walked along the hallway, guards were everywhere with enchanted iron armor but didn''t seem to be bothered by my presence, it was probably because it''s hard to sneak up on here or maybe because I had two members of the Royal Family right behind me together with the hero.


    For some reason, they decided to join me, but I didn''t care about that as I wanted to get to the Undying tribe as soon as possible.


    I exited the fortress and went straight for the tribe.


    "So you truly know about this place, I thought you were just bluffing. Who are you really?"


    The princess seemed to be more curious about me than angry now, but I wasn''t in the mood to explain myself.


    After a few hours, we arrived at the Tribe, where everyone welcomed me with open arms.


    "Elder Trader, welcome back, do you want me to call Chief Undying?"


    "No there''s no need for that, I''ll go and meet her myself, thanks for asking, keep up the good work."


    There wasn''t any reason to be rude to those people, they weren''t connected with this incident in any way, and I managed to cool off a little on my way here, so I didn''t snap anymore at every inconvenience.


    "Who are you two? I don''t recognize your faces!"


    While the guard didn''t have any problem with me and Merry, it couldn''t be said the same for the two siblings.


    "We are the one who employed you last week, I don''t think there would be a problem if we visited this place for more contracts."


    The Princess skilfully made an excuse.


    "Sorry, but the only person we make contracts is Elder Bobby."


    He raised his crossbow ready to shoot, before Merry was there to descalate the fight.


    "They''re with us, there''s no need to worry."


    The guard didn''t say anything but instead looked at me, and with a sigh I nodded my head to let them in.


    There was no reason to be mad at them now, it''s not like they did this intentionally to Bobby, it was more of an accident that nobody wanted to happen.


    "When you said that you own this place I didn''t expect you to literally mean it, where did you find a portal?"


    The Princess tried to speak with me once more.


    "I didn''t find one, I made them."


    "Them? You made more than one?"


    I give her a snarky answer and I get into deeper trouble, I should just keep up the silent treatment with her.


    Soon I was in front of a blue door, it was Undying house, and I gently knocked.


    "Come in!"


    A voice yelled from the other side, so with her permission, I opened the door.


    Once inside I saw Undying sitting on something similar to a couch all made with hogling skin, it looked distrusting but it was actually pretty comfortable.


    "Oh Trader, I didn''t expect to see you. How are you doing, anything I can help you with?"


    "Hy Undying, sorry for the sudden visit I just need your help with a crafting recipe, after it''s done I''ll leave you back to your work."


    "Ok... I can help you with no problem. Hi Merry how are you and the new guests?"


    Undying got up from her seat to say hi to Merry only to see the two unknown guests.


    "Don''t worry about them, they''ll leave with me once I''m done."


    "Why would we do that, this is a great experience for us to learn from, it''s the first time I''ve been so far away from the fortress."


    First Prince spoke with a calm voice and a hint of curiosity.


    "Don''t you dare make any trouble here in the Tribe, if I hear anything bad about you two, I''ll blow up the portal and I know that none of you know how to open it back."


    That seemed to make them more behaved than before, and I knew that I was unreasonable rude with them. But I don''t have too many great memories with the Royal Family, so some unresolved issues started to unconsciously appear.


    Undying seems to feel the tension in the air so we get directly to business in the other room. I didn''t want the others to know the recipe for such an item.


    Half an hour later I got everything I wanted and made Undying promise to never spread a recipe to others, which she promised but still confused at what she crafted in the end.


    "Let''s go, we botherd those nice people enough already."


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    After Merry gave us one last hug, we left and a few hours later we were back to the fortress where now the guards looked unpleasant at me.


    On the other side, the King and the second Prince were waiting for us, and I could see their shoulders losing some tension as they saw the siblings getting back in one piece.


    "Did you get everything you wanted?"


    "Yes, I only need to prepare the trap and the final fight will start. Do you have any idea where the Zombie Lord will attack from?"


    "From what our scouts told us, he will come from the east side of the castle."


    "Thank you for telling me that, why are you still here, I thought you wanted to flee this place."


    If the King felt any shame, he surely hid it well from his lack of reaction.


    "We decided to trust hero Merry and fight back one more time."


    That wasn''t something that I expected, I thought they would try to get in my way or best case scenario leave me alone.


    My surprise must''ve been pretty obvious since the king kept talking.


    "I''m guessing you have a way to kill the Zombie Lord. I have to warn you that we tried a lot of methods and none of them were powerful enough to kill him."


    "I do have something powerful enough to kill him, it''s powerful enough to kill a person fully equipped with diamond armor in one shoot. I only need to bring him into an enclosed room where he can''t escape."


    Everyone was shocked by the power of my weapon, maybe even suspicious of my claims, but they didn''t have any choice but to trust me.


    We only had three days to prepare, so we all got to work.


    -----


    Three days passed, and Merry was waiting a few hundred blocks away from the castle where the Zombie Lord was supposed to arrive in an hour as the scouts reported.


    Only the two of us remained as the others waited on the castle walls, deeming my plan too reckless.


    But they were nice enough to help with preparations so I wasn''t that mad.


    They didn''t run off, instead waited on top of the castle walls for the final battle.


    "Are you nervous Trader?"


    "Not really, I still have a lot of steam to blow and this fight will help me with that."


    "At least you are confident. I''ve fought with the Zombie Lord before and he''s very strong so never let your shield down. I don''t think your armor is powerful enough to save your life like mine, so be careful."


    I nodded my head in understanding, she has more experience with the enemy than me, so her warnings have weight.


    Minutes passed and then we could hear heavy stomps getting closer to us, soon the Zombie Lord was out of the woods, followed by Bobby and his iron army plus some extra zombies that they picked along the way.


    From their looks, I could tell they were normal zombies, not infected people, which was a good sign.


    But why did they come straight here? Why didn''t they capture any town they passed?


    "Ah Hero! I was looking for you, I''m glad the Void had mercy on me and brought you here alone as an offering. After I''ll consume you I''ll be full once again."


    The Zombie Lord was more talkative than the last time I saw him, did something happen for him to become like this?


    Is he weakened because of the last fight?


    Merry didn''t answer him, instead braced herself for the fight.


    "Bobby, can you hear me? Are you still there?"


    Bobby looked at me with an empty gaze, like I wasn''t even there. He was different from the other smart zombies which worried me.


    "Haha! Your friend is no more, he has been blessed by the Void itself, and he can''t fight back like the others. Now die and let me consume you."


    He jumped towards Merry which surprised me, I thought he would send his army first then attack once everyone died.


    He hit Merry''s shield with force but she only made one step back, and I didn''t wait for him to retreat as I slashed him with my enchanted sword.


    A deep cut appeared on his side, and soon it was engulfed in flames which made the huge monster retreat and pat it down to extinguish it.


    "He''s much weaker than before, his wound should''ve regenerated by now. And he''s making a rushed decision."


    Merry told me the good news.


    "I was to rush to get my powers back, my army! Kill them for me."


    The zombies and the iron golems started to move, but the zombies were faster so they were the ones in the lead.


    "The pace changed a little but the plan is the same, shoot first."


    Merry and I took out our enchanted crossbows and Merry shot the first firework.


    It was much more effective than normal arrows and it can damage more than one enemy.


    Not only that, once she pressed the trigger the fireworks through magic split into two, then to three leaving great devastation on their lading.


    That''s right, the crossbow had Multyshot, and I fired right after the first row of zombies was killed, making the next row die not too far from the first row.


    Already half of the zombie army was killed, the Zombie Lord didn''t manage to gather a large army like the last time I saw him, he must''ve gotten only zombies on his way here, which weren''t a lot.


    I reloaded my Crossbow and Merry did the same before shooting once again, this time eliminating all the zombies which left the iron golems who slowly got closer to us.


    Just to be sure, both of us tower up three blocks and continue to shoot at them.


    But for some reason, the fireworks didn''t seem to have the same effect as with the zombies, and now that I was looking closer I could see that their eyes were black instead of the usual red.


    Those weren''t normal iron golems.


    They arrived at our tower and their reach was farther than we expected, so we had to put one more block under us to be safe from their iron arms.


    Some of them tried to climb on top of each other to reach us, but the knockback of our fireworks was strong enough to keep them down.


    At this pace we would kill them in a few minutes, and we only needed to use such a simple tactic.


    Soon an arrow landed on my shoulder, I almost fell off my tower because of it. I looked to see who shot it, but it was Bobby loading another arrow on his crossbow.


    How is that possible, he didn''t have it the first time he appeared, where did he get it?


    I quickly made a wall to block any upcoming arrows and yelled at Merry to do the same.


    Fireworks were still being shot at the golems who now had cracks, but I looked once more at Bobby only to see the Zombie Lord kneeling at him asking for permission to do something.


    Bobby nodded his head and reached his arm to the giant head.


    Suddenly the Zombie Lord was engulfed in black flames, and his eyes were uncovered once again, he started to laugh loudly then looked directly at Merry.


    "Merry, the Zombie Lord got some kind of power up and now wants to attract you. Proceed with the plan, be careful not to die!"


    "Shit! I was hoping I didn''t have to go in that room, ok good luck with saving Bobby as well."


    She placed two more blocks on her wall before it was completely destroyed once the Zombie Lord jumped towards her.


    Fortunately, the wall was strong enough to stop his powerful attack and gave enough breathing room for Merry to jump off her tower taking no damage.


    "What''s the problem big monster, too many arrows in your head from our last fight?"


    "Your mockery shall not work ok me Hero, the Void has blessed me with unimaginable power. It won''t last forever, but it would be enough for me to consume you."


    While the Zombie Lord gave his monologue, Merry drank some potions and started to run in the opposite direction at great speed.


    The Zombie Lord only smiled maniacally and jumped after the running Hero.


    Surprisingly the golems stopped and then Bobby was getting closer and closer to me, before long I could hear his voice once more.


    But his voice was different than what I remembered, it was much deeper, and with each word he spoke, I could feel the power in my bones.


    Creature of the Void, why are you here?

 Chapter 100. End of Volume 3

    Creature of the Void, why are you here?


    Bobby spoke with a powerful voice, that felt primordial.


    I looked at him again just to be sure he was Bobby and not someone that looked like him. But when leaned on the side of my improvised wall I saw that Bobby didn''t look at me, instead his eyes were somewhere on my left.


    Suddenly he looked to my right, then somewhere behind my tower, and finally back to my left.


    It was like he followed someone who traveled at great speeds or was teleporting.


    I don''t recognize any monsters that are capable of doing that, but I do have a suspicion as to who could this invisible monster be.


    The three-block monster that I saw with the help of one bell.


    I''ve been so distracted with my plans on getting Bobby back that I completely forgot about the monster that was following us on the hunt for the Witch.


    In the beginning, I was worried that it would harm Froggy and his team but looks like it followed me here.


    That''s reassuring and horrifying to know, why it followed me, for how long did this happen, and what''s its purpose?


    At least I know it doesn''t want to hurt me if I''m still alive.


    It seems like it doesn''t want to be seen. What a strange creature, it brings back some unpleasant memories.


    "Bobby is that you?"


    Finally, Bobby looked at me with his empty eyes.


    Yes, the test subject or Trader as this body remembers it. Interesting that I can''t see your true name, I wonder how that happened. Unfortunately, you can''t save your friend while I''m here, no amount of golden apples can take me out. Give up and join my ranks incomplete one.


    I feel like I just learned something important about me but I didn''t know the full picture.


    What''s worse, it''s that saving Bobby is now more difficult than ever.


    Whatever the Zombie Lord did to Bobby it''s way different than the other smart zombies. Someone else took over Bobby''s body, and it was powerful.


    "Sorry stranger, but I''ll take my friend back no questions asked."


    I then shoot fireworks at my friend who raised his shield to block them.


    Unfortunately, my weapons are great at working around such great defense, so when the fireworks exploded he was knocked back a few blocks.


    The golems were moving once again, but this time, it was more organized, one of them stood on his knees while someone else climbed on his back, and the others soon followed him.


    Since when are they so smart?


    I couldn''t just stand here and wait for them to slowly kill me, I had to do something different, and it had to be fast.


    I shot one more row of fireworks toward the climbing golems before starting to bridge over to Bobby.


    Just before I jumped down I drank two potions and shot another row of fireworks but this time at Bobby.


    He jumped towards me to dodge the death missiles, then another roll to the side making me miss my swing with the diamond sword.


    Interesting weapon, I''ve never seen anyone using it like that, but it''s all futile, even in my weakened form you can''t kill me, I only have to wait for my minion to finish with the hero and you''ll be dead as well.


    "I wouldn''t count on that!"


    I swing my sword with force trying to move the fight as far as possible from the golems.


    This Bobby was a lot worse at swinging his sword than the old one, actually, he seemed to struggle to make any complicated maneuvers most of the time.


    Whatever is possessing Bobby right now is not used to fighting in a bipedal form, which was a weird sight to see.


    I kept slashing, but most of them were blocked by his powerful armor, and whenever I did land a hit, his regeneration was more powerful than normal.


    Soon the golems were almost here, so I had to move to my next plan.


    I took some lava buckets from my inventory and placed them on the golem''s path. Since they were in a hurry to get here, some of them were pushed into lava, and while they didn''t catch on fire their arms and legs melted, making them incapable of fighting anymore.


    But they were golems, they didn''t feel any pain, so with their arms or heads, they tried to get to me around the lava.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I knew this wouldn''t stop them for good, so I took another dangerous item from my inventory and placed it down.


    It was a big bright red TNT block, and I lit it up.


    Soon it started to pulsate white light, but I didn''t let it explode In front of me, as I picked it up and threw it at the upcoming golems.


    *BOOM!


    It exploded as it hit the ground, and the golems were knocked back some even in the lava which destroyed them for good.


    Everyone was too shocked at what just happened and froze.


    Has anyone ever told you that you''re a madman?


    For some reason the fact that my enemy acknowledged me made me feel good, but the only response I gave was another slash which hit its target.


    Aren''t you afraid you''re going to kill your friend?


    "I''m sure Bobby would rather die than help you hurt more people!"


    I then threw a potion at him, which successfully landed.


    It was a weakness potion.


    Weakness? From this body''s memories, it''s one of the ingredients for the cure. I told you it won''t work, no matter how many apples I eat, give up and join my army, you are more worthy than anyone I''ve ever encountered.


    "Sorry I don''t like to work for others, they tend to kill me after a while."


    I slashed one more time.


    As Bobby was ready to attack me once again, a huge explosion appeared behind me.


    Blocks of dirt and stone started to fly all over the place, leaving behind a huge crater and heavy smoke.


    Ahhhhh, what have you done!?


    Bobby held on to his head in pain and screamed his lungs out. He was on the ground flopping all over the place.


    Looks like the Zombie Lord and Bobby were more connected than I thought, the monster''s death must have given him a lot of pain.


    But I didn''t waste this chance as I took out an apple from my inventory and force-feeded him.


    What is happening? How is that possible? A mare golden Apple shouldn''t be powerful enough to defeat me!


    "You''re right, but even you are not powerful enough to defeat a God Apple."


    That''s right, what I fed Bobby wasn''t a normal golden Apple, instead, it was a God Apple from the Royal Vault, Merry had one as well as a last-ditch item, but those two were the only ones I found, showing how truly rare they are.


    No, I finally managed to get to this world, I could''ve destroyed it for what it did to me, nooo-


    Then black smoke got out of Bobby through his eyes and mouth leaving an unconscious body behind.


    The golems stopped, and they''re red eyes we''re back to normal now looking at Bobby and waiting for the next order.


    The fight was finally over, and we won.


    "You''ve done a great job, Merry, I hope you survived as well."


    I then picked up Bobby and went to look for Merry at our meeting place.


    POV: Merry Paper


    After I took the speed potion, I quickly ran toward the big staircase going into the ground where the trap was laid.


    It leads to a five-block tall and three-block wide tunnel that was made in a hurry for this trap.


    I heard a loud boom behind me right as I was on the first step, the Zombie Lord caught up with me, but I didn''t even look back just kept running deeper into the ground.


    "Why are you running Hero? I thought you wanted to fight."


    I didn''t stop to give him an answer, instead, I kept running, the staircase was finished which left only a long tunnel.


    Another loud bang was behind me, this time much closer, then a strong punch pushed me from behind.


    The only reason my spine was still in one piece was because of the powerful diamond armor.


    How was he so strong?


    Last time I could easily block it. Did he get another power-up?


    I was confused and in pain, but I still got up and continued to run along the long tunnel, at least he wouldn''t be able to jump on top of me.


    "Interesting, why would you lead me through such a narrow tunnel, do you think I won''t be able to kill you when I can''t swing at full force?"


    That was the last thing I heard before turning the corner.


    I was almost there.


    Heavy steps were quickly getting closer, and finally, I arrived in a big room all made with obsidian.


    And all over the room, there were weird floating glass cubes, ready to take my life at any moment.


    I was terrified to be in this room, more than actually facing the Zombie Lord, I''ve seen what the explosion of Crystals is capable of, and I don''t dare to doubt Traders knowledge anymore.


    The Zombie Lord arrived soon after, but once he saw me stay in one place he stopped and looked around with suspicion, careful with each step he took.


    "So this is why I couldn''t see the room with my Void vision, it was all blocked by obsidian blocks. But why would you bring me here?"


    He stopped and looked intensely at me with his black eyes, I felt like I could hide nothing from him.


    "Something is not right, I feel danger in that room, something that can even kill me. I have to leave."


    I don''t know how but he knows this room is dangerous for him, luckily Trader thought that he would try to escape, so he prepared for this.


    I pressed a button that was not too far away from me, a piston was pushed, and countless sounds of wood breaking traveled under the obsidian floor.


    Then the tunnel was blocked by falling gravel.


    The Zombie Lord turned around in surprise and punched the wall of gravel, some of them got broken but were soon replaced by others, and after the first layer, there were more that blocked the exit.


    Before he started to punch again, lava fell from the dispensers on the ceiling which made him quickly enter the room I was in.


    Now he was truly trapped together with me, and his eyes were running all over the room trying to understand what was happening.


    He stopped and looked at one crystal for a few seconds, then his eyes were raised in shock.


    "What is this?! The Void Is screaming in pain and anger, how could you mortals create something like this?"


    "Sorry monster, but that''s a trade secret."


    I took out my crossbow and pressed with my foot a wooden button on my right, hoping that the system was working as intended.


    "I''ll kill you before you blow us up!"


    He jumped towards me and I shot my three fireworks.


    "Not today Bitch!"


    Suddenly I felt my stomach being pulled and then everything went black for a second.


    When I could see again I was surrounded by trees, right where me and Trader put our Pearl stations.


    Not too late after I heard a huge explosion that made the ground tremble, then I saw broken blocks of dirt and stone that landed all over the poor trees.


    It was finally over, I defeated the demon Lord, I truly I''m the hero!


    Something in me felt like it clicked like my life purpose was accomplished, a wave of euphoria washed over me, and felt like I was floating.


    Then I looked around me and realized that I was actually floating, and for some reason, I started to glow more and more.


    The light got so powerful that I could see anyone, and then I felt teleported once again.


    I was now in a white plane, the floor was white, the sky was white and even I was glowing with power.


    But my attention was suddenly grabbed by a glowing figure with wings slowly getting bigger in from of me.


    It stopped at ten blocks high, and the cubic angel opened its eyes.


    They were made with pure gold and felt like I should get down on my knees and start praying.


    Then the being spoke.


    Welcome hero, I am the System.

 Chapter 101. The System

    POV: Enderwoman


    My human suddenly stopped his eyes on me which never happened before, then his eyes were wide with fear, and started to run towards the bell in the tall grass, but he didn''t manage to get to it before I felt a force pulling him in the invisible space.


    Once again he used parts of my people to teleport and I didn''t appreciate it.


    Fearing the worst would happen I teleported after the trail left behind. It took me a day to arrive at the castle with the noisy humans and I saw my human safe, angry but safe.


    He ordered people to dig a tunnel that led to a room. Not everyone was working with pleasure as I usually see them do when my human ordered them, something was different, he didn''t manage to befriend them like the others.


    I kept my distance not being sure if I would be seen once again.


    The tunnel was finished and the room was covered all over with obsidian blocks for some unknown reason.


    Before my transformation, I couldn''t teleport past those blocks, but now with my new form I was more powerful and I could bypass them with no problem.


    After everyone left with the exception of my human that weird friend of his, I teleported into the room.


    Just as I got in, I saw my human putting a block down that seemed very familiar to me.


    I looked more intensely at the floating glass cube and was shocked once I realized what it was.


    How did my human manage to get his hands on something like this, it was made by Father to help create us the Endermans. I''ve only seen one when I was little and its energy was as powerful as this.


    I looked closer and realized that it wasn''t the same as in my memory, this one was lighter in color, the glass cube was spinning more than I remembered, the final and biggest difference was the fact that it didn''t have any enchanted language written all over it.


    This feels like something made by the System, but it''s too powerful for the System not to hide it like the others.


    How did my human manage to get his hands on one, I looked at him hoping to hear an explanation, but to my surprise, he put more crystals down and kept his distance like it was about to explode.


    Sure if it was hit with a powerful enough attack it would explode better than any existing TNT.


    But this is not the purpose of those blocks, if used correctly they can greatly impact the life around them, unfortunately, only Father and the System know how to use them.


    How ironic that one of the items that helped the war is used as a mare explosive.


    I could only smile at this, my human truly knows how to make everything interesting.


    Soon, the whole room was filled with those crystals, and even I was scared to stay here in case everything would blow off. I could guess the plan now, and I have to say, only a madman would think of something like this.


    Luckily my human didn''t choose to go on a suicide mission and decided to make an escape plan. I didn''t like what it used for this escape, but I can''t deny its effectiveness.


    Another day passed, and now we were waiting for the final fight.


    For some reason, the other humans didn''t want to help my human, which annoyed me. I rather see a thousand humans die them mine to get hurt.


    I fear that I''ll have to intervene if things don''t go to plan.


    After a few hours, we heard loud footsteps getting closer, and soon beyond the trees a large figure appeared, it was green, with rotten flesh, eyes covered, and was taller than even me.


    The Zombie Lord.


    The last time when I saw him he had a great amount of Void within him, a lot more than I ever had.


    But now that I look at him, I see that he isn''t as powerful as the last time I saw him, he was about my level for some unknown reason.


    Did the Hero actually manage to hurt him that badly in their last battle? I had to revaluate her if so, maybe she''s not that boring after all.


    After the huge Zombie, a group of smaller zombies appeared behind, then some iron golems that emitted a small aura of the Void, once again different than what I know.


    But what trying shocked me was the friend of my human. His looks didn''t change a lot, but he had the same amount of Void as I did, and it''s impossible to hold that much power and not change your body.


    Something was not right, this fight wasn''t about the Zombie Lord anymore, instead, the new enemy was approaching.


    The fight soon started, and from what I could tell my human and the Hero could hold on their own, so I didn''t have to intervene.


    As I thought, he was weaker than before, instead of continuing to fight he chose to send the army against his enemies.


    The zombies were killed with ease which made me smile seeing my human win with overwhelming power, but the golems weren''t as easy as the zombies.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    The fight continued but my human was slowly winning it, then the Zombie Lord kneeled to the infected human and his powers were greater than before.


    I knew this was borrowed power and it had a time limit on it, but still, his punches would hurt now.


    Luckily he chose the Hero instead of my human, and they proceeded with the plan of trapping the huge zombie.


    At least that''s what I thought, because suddenly the infected human was looking right at me and started to speak.


    Creature of the Void, why are you here?


    His eyes were on me like I wasn''t invisible anymore, I tried to teleport in different places and his eyes were always on me.


    I felt fear for the first time, I felt a force more powerful and more ancient than even Father.


    I had to run, otherwise I would be consumed.


    Trees passed by me as I kept teleporting further and further away, after around a thousand blocks I finally felt safe and stopped to rest from using so much of my power.


    Why was I afraid?


    This is the first time I felt this, why did I abandon my human?!


    My chest started to hurt, that was my human, and I would let him die without doing anything.


    How dare I be such a coward?


    I felt a great battle starting inside me.


    On one side I was afraid beyond reason, my pearl trambled just thinking about that voice.


    But another side of me was disgusted with the fact that I abandoned my human. What was the point of me living when my soul chose that human to be mine?


    Fear was one thing, but that loss of my human would be beyond devastating for me.


    I pushed my fears aside and started to teleport back to the battlefield, but this time in smaller sections.


    Halfway there I heard a huge explosion, the trap did its job, but I didn''t know how my human was holding.


    I least I felt he wasn''t dead.


    I teleported over greater distances than before and soon I was back to see that my human actually managed to defeat the infected human on his own.


    I felt great pride rising in my pearl. Look world, you tried to kill him but he managed to get on top. This is my human and there''s nothing you can do to take him away from me.


    Dark smoke started to rise from the infected human, I quickly teleported and absorbed the fleeing power, there was no reason to waste such a good opportunity.


    I smiled as I felt my soul getting stronger.


    POV: Merry Paper


    Welcome hero, I am the System.


    The light spoke with an angelic voice.


    "H-hello?"


    Was the only thing I could say in my shock.


    I''ve always complained that the System didn''t welcome me in this world properly, but I didn''t expect to see it now.


    Is it because I''ve defeated the Zombie Lord?


    Do I get a reward now?


    Hero, I''m proud to see you managed to defeat the great evil, you prevailed in this challenge even at great odds against you. Unfortunately, while the enemy is defeated, he''s not dead.


    I can''t say that the victory is fully mine, most of the credit would go to my teacher Trader.


    But what does it mean that the Zombie Lord is not dead?


    I''m sure nothing can survive that explosion. It even blew up an obsidian room, and those are very hard to break through.


    "W-what do you mean?"


    I said with a trembling voice since my emotions were still a mess.


    You''ve fought bravely on your first battle, and while you lost to him initially, you managed to force him to weaken himself to summon an unspeakable being. That time I thought the battle was over for good, but your teacher managed to surprise all of us with his trap. I would prefer if that item would never be used, it can bring great danger in the wrong hands.


    Yes, those crystals were pretty dangerous but I can''t force Trader not to use them anymore. I don''t even know how to make those, if it wants to stop Trader, it has to speak with him for that.


    But wait, this doesn''t explain why the Zombie Lord is not dead.


    "But you said the Zombie Lord is not dead."


    Indeed, that monster wasn''t born from the darkness like the others, instead, he was born from a block, a spawner block. If the block is not destroyed he will come back endlessly to infect that land, unfortunately, I don''t know its location, only of its existence. But there''s still hope, I''ve put a tracker in you to feel the monster''s presence when he appears. When he does, find him and kill him for good.


    What?!


    That monster has unlimited lives?


    That''s cheating, I''ve only got three lives from what Trader told me. How can I even fight him now that he knows about the trap?


    "How long would it take for him to come back?"


    A week should be normal, but you''ve managed to weaken him so much with this battle that it would take him a few months to respawn. Train more, and prepare for one final battle to defeat him once and for all!


    I felt like the angel was trying to encourage me with a final speech, but all the emotions were mimicked by someone who only saw emotions, not understand them.


    "But I only managed to beat him because of the trap, I''m sure he''ll be worried about me now and won''t fall for it a second time. Don''t I have a special power to stand a chance, like infinite lives?"


    No


    "What about a weapon that can kill him in one shoot?"


    Such a weapon would be too powerful for this world, and nations would rather kill you for it than help you defeat the monster.


    It was worth a shot, but maybe it''s not a lost cause.


    "What if only I can use it, and it''s powerful against zombies only?"


    This made the angel think for a little, and surprisingly it accepted the deal.


    I shall give you such weapon, anything else hero?


    A blinding light appeared in front of me and took the shape of an iron sword.


    It was enchanted, but unfortunately, I couldn''t see the enchantments in this realm, I''ll have to look at its stats once I''m back.


    With a good weapon in my inventory, I started to think of any other questions I could ask the almighty system.


    But like I was at an exam, no answers came up to me.


    What should I do, I can''t just waste this opportunity to get some information, I started to think about the books that I read and one thing popped into my head.


    "What''s my reward once I kill the Zombie Lord for good?"


    The angel looked at me with its golden eyes for a minute, which made me worried that I somehow stepped over a line.


    You shall be rewarded with two items of your choosing that you can take back to your old world.


    Wait, I''m going to be sent back once this is all over?


    I don''t want to do that!


    Sure this is not the fantasy world I expected, but it''s way better than my old world.


    My shoulders aren''t stiff from my breasts, I don''t get any periods in this world and I''m actually as strong as a man.


    But the most important thing of them all is that I''m someone special here. I can''t just go back to being a regular person once this is all over.


    I refuse to be another cog in the machine on my home planet!


    "You don''t need to worry about that, I can live a comfortable life here!"


    The angel looked at me intensely once more, before giving me an answer.


    We shall see if you have the same opinion once the mission is done. Goodbye hero, and good luck on your journey!


    Before I could say anything else I was thrown out of the light plane of existence. I was surrounded by darkness once again before appearing in the real world.


    It was the exact place I was before, with the only difference being that the moon was out instead of the sun.


    "That conversation took longer than I thought. I hope I wasn''t gone for too long."


    With this I quickly went towards the castle, the mission was not over yet.

 Chapter 102. Aftermath

    I ran quickly to the place where we placed our ender pearls and saw that Merry''s was broken which was a good sign.


    The contraption was simpler than what it was in the game since the only requirement for the ender pearl to register you was for you to touch it, we only had to gently place the magic sphere on the ground with a trapdoor right beside it.


    At the flip of a lever, the trapdoor was closed and the ender pearl was broken.


    That''s what I saw on Merry''s side, but no hero in sight.


    "Merry! Are you here?"


    But only silence answers back.


    I did not like this, was she killed right as she was teleported?


    But then her corpse would still be here.


    I took my pearl back so no accidents would happen and walked at a fast pace towards the castle.


    After a few hundred blocks I saw some soldiers with fully enchanted iron armor running towards me, who stopped once I was in their sight.


    They saw me holding Bobby in my hands and had a look of fear and admiration in their eyes.


    Two people managed to do what an army couldn''t.


    Kill the Zombie Lord.


    Or at least I hope he''s dead, otherwise I don''t know how to kill him anymore.


    "I don''t know where the hero is, sent a search party to look all around the forest and find her. This is the most important mission right now!"


    They nodded their heads and went to search for my student, hopefully everything would be alright in the end.


    My muscles slowly realized that the danger was over, and the adrenaline rush that kept me going left me like it came.


    Suddenly Bobby was like a boulder in my hands, but I didn''t let him down because if I did I would not be able to continue walking.


    So I made the wasteful decision of eating a golden apple.


    It was meant for Bobby, but since it didn''t work I now had three of them in my inventory.


    After I ate one, I felt power once again, but I decided to run back before the effects would wear off.


    Finally, I arrived at the castle, I passed the huge gate with nobody stopping me and I saw the Royal Family waiting for me.


    "Welcome back hero, did you manage to defeat the Zombie Lord?"


    I stopped and looked at the king, who seemed to be paying a lot of attention to my response.


    "He should be dead, but I didn''t see Merry so I don''t know what truly happened. Here, take care of Bobby while I''m going to take some rest, don''t wake me up unless something urgent happens."


    I carefully put Bobby down and walked past the king who didn''t seem happy about my response.


    But I didn''t care, I''ve done my part, Bobby is back and whatever comes next, future me can deal with it.


    So I went back to my room without looking back.


    Just to be sure I blocked the door in case anyone would have some bad thoughts against me.


    With that over, I just sat down in my bed and went to sleep.


    ----


    I woke up feeling fully rested and the room was exactly as I left it which was good.


    I broke the barricade off my door and went to see if everyone was alright.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t know where the Infirmary was so I had to ask one of the passing servants if they saw my friends.


    Luckily, everyone knew about the battle, and after a few hours, they managed to get all the information from the battle.


    The Zombie Lord was dead since there was no sight of him after the battle. The place where the explosion was is now only a huge crater with only a few obsidian blocks to show that something existed there.


    Bobby was awake and well, but he was still resting in his room until he felt ready to join back with us.


    Finally, Merry was found but only recently and nobody knew where she was, and she didn''t say any details except to the Royal Family.


    "Thanks, I won''t distract you from work anymore, bye."


    The servant made a small bow and I continued to walk towards Bobby''s room.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    *boom


    "Good morning Bobby! How does it feel to be back with the living?"


    Bobby got up from his bead with a sword ready In his hands, only to see that the intruder was me and gave a sigh of relief.


    "Wait, what are you doing here Trader? I thought you were with Froggy and the witches."


    "I was until I heard that my friend was infected and needed to be rescued like a damsel in distress."


    He started to laugh, before slowly stopping and realizing that I was serious.


    "You came here at the risk of getting yourself found out?"


    "I didn''t choose to be here, more like teleported by our dear hero since she didn''t know what to do."


    Bobby sat in silence and looked at his hands for a few minutes.


    "The last thing I remember was a huge shadow taking over me, I tried to fight it back but I was too weak to be even considered as a threat. I knew that my body was taken over but I didn''t know what it was used for. That was until suddenly I felt like I was a God, I don''t know where I got that power, but the shadow was much weaker than I expected. And now I''m here, too afraid to ask how much damage I''ve done."


    He looked back at me, expecting something but nothing at the same time.


    I could only sigh.


    "You weren''t out for too long, the Void took control over you and ordered the iron golems to attack the others, that''s why they had to retreat. The Zombie Lord was weakened so he decided to attack the capital with the golems he got, from what I know he didn''t stop for any villages. When the fight started he went after Merry and I fought you and the reason you felt so powerful is because I fed you a God apple."


    "God apple?"


    "Yeah, it''s an enchanted golden apple that can make you temporarily invincible, I don''t know how to craft it, and the only reason I had it, was because I robbed Royal Vault."


    "You did what?! How are you not dead?"


    Bobby looked with suck at me.


    "Because I''m mainly the reason that the Zombie Lord is dead? I don''t think they want to pick up a fight with me anytime soon."


    Bobby started to hold his head in his arms from what I could guess was worry. But what is done is done, there''s nothing I can do about it.


    It''s not like I could''ve abandoned my friend just because I wanted to stay hidden. I''m not weak like at the Sandstone palace, I can get myself out of any situation, no matter the size of your army.


    I was ready.


    "So what-"


    *boom


    The door was slammed open once again by none other than the hero.


    "Oh Trader, you were here as well. Glad to see Bobby is doing alright."


    "Merry, congrats on defeating the Zombie Lord. How do you feel after accomplishing your mission?"


    She looked at Bobby one more time before looking relieved that he was ok.


    "I felt amazing the first time I realized that I''m alive and completed my mission, and then I was teleported into a white plane where the System greeted me."


    This took us both by surprise, I didn''t expect this development.


    "It looked like an angel with golden eyes, and told me that I killed the monster but not for good, it told me that he has a spawner somewhere in the world where he will come back from, unfortunately, the System didn''t know it''s location, but put in me a tracker to know where he is once he''s going to get back."


    He''ll be back? A spawner? The System doesn''t know about its location.


    So much new information that doesn''t make me too happy.


    "Do you have a way to track down the spawner Trader? The System seems displeased that we had to use crystals to kill him, so maybe you know some other forbidden knowledge?"


    Was she trying to warn me or get me into more trouble, doesn''t she know how dangerous the System is if I piss it off?


    I don''t want to be struck by lightning and get an unknown curse.


    "I didn''t know the System doesn''t like my methods of killing its enemies. As for a way to track a spawner I don''t know, unless we get our hands on a command block. But if we somehow did, we wouldn''t need to track him since we can just kill him for good."


    "Wait, wait, wait! Why are glossing over the fact that you met the System? Also, do you realize how much in danger is Trader if the System is warning you? I know that you have some dangerous knowledge, but I didn''t expect it to be this dangerous!"


    Bobby broke the conversation between us, reminding me that he is someone who lived in this world from birth, so he sees the System akin of a god.


    Of course, he would be concerned for me, since he probably read somewhere what happens when the System gets involved.


    "The System didn''t seem to order us not to use the Crystals, just suggested against it. I don''t think will get in trouble if we use it in case of emergency. Plus, only Trader knows the recipe for this."


    Bobby was on his feet looking worried at us but couldn''t say anything since he didn''t see the System himself.


    "So Trader you were talking something about a command block? Can we craft it, or do we have to enchant it, how can we get it?"


    "Oh you can''t craft something like that, and even if I did, the System would kill me immediately since it''s too powerful to be left alone. When I say I can control everything with that, I mean everything, I can make myself immortal, fly, break any blocks with only one punch, and have access to all the blocks in the world only at a hand''s reach. And that''s one of the easier stuff you can make with it, some people got creative with it and managed to do some amazing stuff with it."


    Merry looked impressed while Bobby looked horrified.


    "How advanced was your civilization if you had access to such tools? Are you a God Trader?"


    Oh boy, I didn''t expect to break Bobby so much with this new information.


    "No Bobby my friend, I''m not a God, otherwise I wouldn''t be here. What I''m describing wasn''t happening in the real world, but instead was made on a computer."


    "A computer?"


    "How do I explain this? Some people in my world were so good at enchanting that they managed to create illusions of other worlds and we could interact with them. That''s where I got all of my forbidden knowledge."


    Bobby didn''t seem confused or curious only more horrified.


    "Im-im I an illusion for you Trader?"


    "Nonono, you are a real person for me, you are truly my friend, my people are not that good at enchanting. If everything I see is an illusion I''ll be angry, to say the least. Merry, did technology advance so much in your time?"


    "VR is still in its infancy in my time, so I don''t think we have that problem."


    "When I was talking about illusions, I was referring to a story, a pre-determined path with the most intelligent illusion of life being at the level of an Iron Golem. You Bobby, can think for yourself, not only you, everyone in this world, so this world is real. You are real."


    This seemed to calm him down a little, but he kept whispering to himself that he was real. I didn''t realize this would be such a heavy blow for him, but I could understand him, and slowly some thoughts started to creep towards me asking if this truly was real.


    But I just shoved those thoughts back into my mind, there''s no need to have two people breaking down now.


    "Unfortunately I can''t help with finding the Spawner, but I came to tell you that the Spawner''s job is to create an unlimited amount of a specific monsters. And since the Zombie Lord is a zombie, I can already guess what the Spawner is. What im trying to tell you, is that you''ll have to find him quickly once he''s back, otherwise it would take days for him to get an army."


    Merry nodded in understanding and left the room, I stayed and tried to talk with Bobby to calm him down.


    I think he still suffers from the Void and needs more rest. But all the problems were dealt with, so he could take all the time necessary to get back on his feet.


    Unless something bad happens.

 Chapter 103. Talk with a monster

    A few days had passed since the final battle, Bobby got better and I tried to stay away as much as possible from the Royal Family.


    Now that I''m not angry and not caring about the consequences of my own actions, realize that now I have to deal with those consequences.


    The worst thing is that I''m not even being looked for, and it getting me more worried than relieved.


    From what I could tell they were preparing a festival to celebrate the victory over the Zombie Lord. Which seems to take all of their attention from me.


    As for the reason I''m still here, it''s because I''m waiting for Froggy to arrive with the other Witches and then I can go back to their clan to study more.


    I don''t even remember the rough position of their location and I don''t have a token to pass the mist.


    But I think if I study the wall some more I''ll be able to make one of my own.


    The only thing I could do was wait for the others to get here. Hopefully, nothing bad happened while I was gone.


    Honestly, besides the constant worry that I''m going to have to ''talk'' with the king, I only feel bored.


    While nobody forced me to do anything yet, they didn''t bother to show their displeasure when I walked down the hallways.


    I think it has to do with the fact that I threatened to kill their leader or something like that.


    As I sat in the bed thinking what I should do a realization over me.


    "How could I forget about that?"


    I wanted to slap my face once I remembered something that I should''ve dealt with sooner.


    With that, I took some food, potions, and a loaded crossbow before leaving the castle.


    I walked far enough that the guards couldn''t spy on me anymore and drank every potion that I had, then raised my shield.


    Then I put a golden bell down and hit it with my fist.


    A loud ringing spread across the trees and I could suddenly see a glowing outline standing besides the oak tree looking at what I could only assume at me.


    "Who are you, and why do you keep following me?"


    I yelled while making sure I was looking in the right direction.


    The huge monster only seems to tilt its head while looking around.


    "I can see you even if you''re invisible! You''re four blocks tall and can teleport or move at great speeds. If you don''t come out I''ll start getting hostile!"


    The monster teleported to another tree which I clearly followed, then again and again but I always managed to figure out where it was.


    The more it teleported I finally managed to see some purple particles which only the Endermans can make.


    Was this a different variant of Enderman like the drowned zombies that changed their appearance based on the biome?


    But that couldn''t be possible, there wasn''t anything like this in the game, and from the monster books I read in this world, nobody else saw anything similar to this.


    The effect of the bell was slowly leaving so I punched the bell once more looking for the white outline, but to my surprise, I couldn''t see it anymore.


    "Did it run off- What the!"


    As I looked around and saw the monster, but with a key difference, it was right behind me, and for the first time I could finally see it.


    It looked similar to an Enderman but more evolved. It was four blocks tall, had dark purple skin, long arms with three huge claws, the eyes were bigger, and on top of its forehead was another blue eye that seemed to look through me.


    I quickly raised my shield and a sword in the other hand.


    "Are you a friend or a foe?"


    The monster just tilts its head.


    "Can you understand me?"


    To my surprise, it nodded in affirmation.


    Ok, so it can understand me but it can''t speak to me, is this some kind of monster lord?


    "How long have you been following me, oh wait, you can''t answer that. Do you want to hurt me?"


    The monster shook its head strongly in denial.


    That was good to hear, but then why was it following me?


    "Are you following me?"


    I got a nod of affirmation.


    "Are you only following me And nobody else?"


    Another yes.


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    "Were you following me before I met the Zombie Lord?"


    Another nod.


    "Before I was stuck in the Sand Palace?"


    This seemed to get me a different reaction, it just shook its head from time to time while raising its palm and gently shook it.


    From what I understood it was so-so.


    "So you were''t with me at the palace, but did you know about my existence beforehand?"


    I got another strong yes from the monster.


    "How long have you been following me? Were you following me before I met Bobby?"


    The monster looked confused at my question.


    "Bobby is the person that I recently fought and also managed to see you."


    And to my shock, I got another yes.


    "We''re you following me ever since I got into this world?!"


    The monster looked confused at me before shaking its head saying no.


    I gave a sigh of relief, then I realized that most of my life was followed by an entity that I didn''t even know existed. My only guess that this was an evolved Enderman because of the similar colors, ability to teleport, and the fact that its head had the same physical effects as the other Enderman''s.


    "W-why are you following me then?"


    After asking the question, I realized how stupid I was, the monster couldn''t speak so how could it answer?


    "Because you are my human."


    A rusted female voice responded which made me freeze in fear.


    I looked back at the monster and saw that she had her mouth slightly opened which I could only assume was a smile.


    It can speak!


    And it''s a she?


    Do monsters have genders, do they repopulate on their own?


    Aren''t they a byproduct of the Void?


    Wait, focus, it doesn''t matter, what did she mean that I was here?


    "What do you mean-"


    Before I could finish my sentence I stopped myself since in the corner of my eyes I could see a glowing outline coming closer beyond the trees.


    It didn''t come from the castle side so they weren''t spies, but if I didn''t do anything I would be caught speaking with a monster, and that was not a conversation I wanted to have with anyone.


    It''s hard for me to talk with the servants here, I don''t want to give them more reasons to hate me.


    "Someone is coming, quickly hide or something."


    The monster looked towards the incoming people before slowly starting to fade away until I couldn''t see her anymore.


    I mean I could still see the outline of the monster but the fact that she could turn herself invisible was pretty impressive.


    Was she some kind of ghost or chameleon?


    Once she was invisible, she teleported away leaving me alone to meet the new guests.


    The effects of the bell slowly wore off but not before I saw that the people that were coming were riding horses and almost reached me at great speeds.


    I decided to put the sword and shield in my inventory to not look dangerous before realizing that I wore an enchanted diamond armor so I looked as intimidating as possible.


    Soon the horses reached me and I could see who the rushed people were, and to my surprise I actually recognized them, unfortunately, they didn''t recognize me, so once they saw me they came to a halt.


    "Halt! Sorry sir are you waiting for someone?"


    "Not really Ellen, I''m surprised to meet you in the middle of the forest. Glad to see you doing well."


    Once I mentioned that name, everyone froze in place.


    And why would they do that?


    Because an unknown heavily armored guy wasn''t surprised to see a group of witches, and on top of that he knew the name of their leader.


    "Who are you?"


    Everyone was tensed and took out their enhanced weapons.


    "Do you really want to fight the guy that helped you with the hunt?"


    I said it with a smirk, I knew I wasn''t in danger, and I kind of enjoyed their confused faces with how much I knew.


    "Trader is that you?!"


    Finally, someone managed to recognize me, and not to my surprise it was Froggy.


    He quickly got off his horse and hugged me with force.


    "Yes Froggy, I''m glad to see you as well. Sorry for my sudden disappearance, something urgent happened at the castle and they needed my help."


    "Why didn''t you break my Perl as well?"


    He yelled in frustration.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t tell him that I didn''t want him to be endangered by what I was about to do, so I had to come up with another explanation.


    "Because I didn''t want to scare the others by making you disappear as well, I''m sure everyone got alarmed when I disappeared in front of their eyes."


    I looked toward the others who seemed to relax once they realized they weren''t in danger.


    I took off my helmet as well so they could see me better.


    "What was so urgent that they needed only you?"


    Froggy didn''t seem to be fully satisfied with my explanation as his voice was still high.


    "We can talk once well get some privacy, I''m sure you want to see the others as well. Did you come here to leave the prisoner?"


    I looked especially at one of the witches who had an unconscious body tied up on the back of the horse.


    Good thing he''s unconscious otherwise this trip would''ve been the most uncomfortable one he''s ever been.


    Froggy wasn''t too happy with my response but decided to listen to my advice and wait for everyone to be present.


    Everyone decided to get off their horses and walk towards the castle since it wasn''t too far away.


    I talked with everyone trying to catch up and see if anything interesting happened on their side.


    And from what they told me everything was pretty peaceful, besides me suddenly disappearing without explanation nothing happened.


    Froggy was more stressed than usual the whole trip and even insisted on accompanying the others here to hopefully find me.


    I felt sorry for doing this to Froggy once again, but I was too distracted with the trap and didn''t even want him to get this close to a dangerous monster.


    I''ll explain everything to him once we don''t have an audience anymore.


    As I talked they told me they got some horrifying loot from the witch hunt. Some books, unknown potions, and body parts of villagers are in the basement.


    Apparently, underneath the house, there was a dungeon that held villagers for extermination purposes.


    Unfortunately, everyone was dead when they got there so it was too late to save anyone.


    It was an unpleasant discovery so they didn''t talk too much about it.


    I asked what did they with the books they found, and was told that they were in the Elders''s inventory and not to worry about them.


    When I get back there I should ask if I can borrow those books, I know most of them would have some horrifying experiments but maybe it also explained how the witch could use magic like the evokers.


    Slowly we got closer to the walls of the castle, and before the guards could see us Walter the hunter took a potion from his inventory and drank it on the spot.


    Suddenly I could only see a floating iron armor but that soon disappeared as well.


    The others didn''t seem surprised by the sudden actions and continued with their walk, once I asked what was happening they only told me not to worry about it, and if I could keep this a secret from the others.


    I didn''t like the fact that I was out of the loop, but since Froggy looked calm I decided to keep my mouth shut.


    Just in case I decided not to stay with them when they would have an audience with the king, I''ll just stay on the sidelines and watched how everything would go.


    We arrived at the gate, and the guards stopped us and told us to wait to get permission, I had the right to enter on my own but decided to wait with the others.


    After a few minutes, the guard came back and told us to follow him. We walked for a while but slowly I recognized where he was leading us.


    The throne room.


    Right as we entered the room where everyone was waiting for us, I decided to sidestep a lot joining the crowd on the side.


    It was an awkward thing to do for all parties involved, but nobody said a thing.


    I calmly sat down and wondered how this would go about.

 Chapter 104. Sending a message

    I sat in the front row where I could see all that was about to happen. The group of Witches all put a knee down while tossing the unconscious body in front of them.


    The audience was bigger then usual, a part of it was because a lot of people were needed for the festival preparations and mostly to see the legendary witches.


    Not too long ago they didn''t even know about their existence, and those who knew thought to be legends.


    Then Froggy came along, and that made quite a stir in the palace, and before they could get used to him another three came along.


    While they did stay a short while, now another six new witches appeared!


    Were they even that rare or were they just that blind to see them?


    "I see you''ve come back Froggy, and this time with a gift?"


    The king spoke with a deep voice and everyone went quiet in the room.


    "Yes my king, we caught this criminal and stopped his rain of terror."


    Froggy spoke with a respectful voice while keeping his head down.


    "We hope this should be enough to satisfy your house."


    This time it was Ellen the leader who spoke still with a respectful voice.


    The nobles and the second prince seemed to have mixed reactions about this.


    Sure they captured the rogue witch that kept killing the poor villagers, but that made the Royal house look bad.


    How can a group of no-names manage to catch someone in one month when they tried to do the same in the past few years?


    But it didn''t matter anymore, the job was done, the kingdom was safe and maybe they could extract some information from him since he was still alive.


    "Me and my kingdom greatly appreciate your work, I hope we will have a great partnership."


    The king responded with a smile.


    Then with a wave of his hand, two guards walked and grabbed the unconscious prisoner by his shoulders and dragged him towards the cellar.


    But just as they dragged him a few blocks an enchanted iron sword appeared out of nowhere and slashed the head of the witch, decapitating him on the spot.


    Everyone was shocked, the swords changed to milk and the Invisible assassin was suddenly visible for all of us to see.


    It was Walter, and he just calmly walked back to his group who were all ready to leave.


    "Oh sorry, you asked for the prisoner to be dead, and we don''t want to burden you with our mistake, my friend decided to fix that for us. I hope this didn''t scare you or change in any way our future relationship."


    Ellen looked truly sorry about what just happened, he made one more deep bow and turned around and walked out of the throne room, completely ignoring the guards that kept coming in and the shocked nobels.


    I was so surprised by this, that I completely forgot that I had to leave with them.


    "Don''t attack them, they only did as we asked!"


    The king stopped the guards who were ready to go after the witches.


    "But my King, this is an attempt of intimidation! How can we take it like that?"


    One of the high nobles spoke back.


    "Isn''t this what you wanted? The witches delivered the criminal like you requested. Now we''re going to keep up on our promise."


    The king wasn''t happy with their display either, but he also knew that they did this only because the high nobles didn''t want the witches to work there. This was their form of retaliation for that.


    The nobles didn''t dare to say anything else and just stayed down shutting their mouth.


    "They must be tired from the long journey, give them a room where they can rest."


    The servants bowed down before running to catch up with the witches, and I was about to run with them when I heard the king call my name next.


    "Trader! I want to talk with you if that''s possible."


    I froze in place and slowly turned to face the king who was looking directly at me.


    What should I do?


    I expected this to happen but not like this, do I even have the option of refusing with all the guards in here?


    "Yes of course your majesty."


    I guess I''ll accept the invitation for now, and if things get ugly I''ll run away.


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    The king seemed satisfied with my response and walked down from his throne signaling me to follow him.


    Luckily only two guards were following us, and I think I was capable of fighting them back or running from them.


    After a few long hallways, we arrived at an office room where the guards stopped and stayed outside.


    I have a knack for getting into important people office''s and I don''t know how to deal with that.


    Maybe I should make my own office since I have so much inspiration.


    The king sat down at his desk at looked at me deeply in silence to the point that I felt uncomfortable.


    "Are you immortal?"


    Of all the things I thought we would talk about, I didn''t expect this.


    "What makes you think so?"


    "Your name is Trader, you have a unique appearance similar to the hero, you''re friends with Sir. Bobby, I could not find any information related to you no matter how hard I looked, and the only information I got was from the hero herself telling us that you don''t like attention and have a lot of knowledge and from my daughter who saw you getting killed at the Sandstone Palace."


    Oh, that was a lot of information on me, but the most important one is the fact that her daughter saw me getting killed, and for an unknown reason I''m back with the living.


    "I''m not immortal."


    Let''s not talk too much or I''ll give unnecessary information that can bite me later, I''ve seen what the Princess was capable of understanding once I''ve spoken too much.


    "Is there a way for you to give me the same ability?"


    "No."


    "Can I ask why?"


    "I don''t have control over this, and it''s not an item."


    "I see, do you know perhaps about the undying totem?"


    I decided to keep my silence.


    "The Undying totem is an item from a bygone era when technology was way more advanced than what we have today. Unfortunately, my people have managed to anger the System and they were punished accordingly. Now the only thing that reminds us about those forgotten times is the unexplained empty history books."


    He took some books from his inventory and laid them on his desk.


    "History of the System."


    "History of science."


    "The Great War."


    And many more similar books, I picked one up and as I expected most of the pages were empty, I looked through the other books and had the same results.


    "Interesting, but what does this have to do with me?"


    He looked at me with more attention and asked me something I didn''t expect.


    "Are you a man who lived through the great war?"


    "Didn''t that war happen a few hundred years ago, how could I even be alive?"


    But if I had the same body as in the game theoretically I wouldn''t age.


    "You were supposed to die at the party as well, and here you are."


    The king made a very good point, but unfortunately, I''m not that old, I''m also curious about that war and what kind of technology it had, but looks like even the king doesn''t know that much.


    "No, I''m not that old, it just happens that I have some interesting information from the ruins I found in the monster forest."


    "Monster forest you say. Maybe I should send an expedition after we deal with the Zombie Lord for good."


    He knows that the Zombie Lord is not dead for good?


    My expression must''ve been pretty obvious since he decided to give me an explanation.


    "The Hero told me about her discussion with the System. Not all of it but she told me to be on the lookout once he''ll resurrect."


    That makes sense, the Zombie Lord won''t fall for the same trap twice, so they''ll need an army to destroy him for good.


    At least, this time they would be on the attack instead of defense.


    "The Hero told me that you possess some great knowledge, we didn''t assume too much at the time, but after the last battle I tend to belive that you know something that even we the Royal Family wouldn''t know after so many generations."


    And here it comes, he''s going to ask me for some dangerous information, I wonder what he will want. How to open a portal, or maybe how to make Crystals?


    I honestly don''t want to give them any information if possible, but I don''t think I''ll have a peaceful life anymore if I refuse him.


    "I may know some stuff, but not too groundbreaking."


    He only smirked at my remark not believing me.


    "Do you know how to craft Undying Totems?"


    "Again, I don''t know what those are."


    "Oh please, it''s hard for me to believe that you came back from the dead, escaped the Sand palace, and didn''t know about the existence of the Undying Totems. It''s in the name for System Shake!"


    Looks like I can only bluff so much before the king loses his patience.


    "Unfortunately I don''t know the recipe otherwise I would always keep ten with me. But I do know where you can find them if you want some, maybe you''ll manage to get their recipes as well."


    The king looked dejected when he heard that I didn''t know the recipe, but I got his attention once again when I told him I knew where to get them from.


    And I can use this to my advantage since he wants to be immortal.


    "And where can I find those?"


    "I''ll tell you their location with one exception, write in this book that you won''t ever ask me about anything else or hunt me down your family included as well."


    I then took out an empty book from my Inventory and placed it on his desk.


    The king seemed to be shocked by my request but reluctantly chose to write inside the book.


    After he was done I quickly took the book and read if everything was right.


    ''I, King Mending Alexander the Third and my family swear to not ask for information or send any assassins after Trader after he will tell me the location of Undying Totems.


    Signed- Mending Alexander the Third''


    The book was short but it had everything I wanted to have so I couldn''t complain.


    I put it on my inventory and probably store it later in an Ender''s chest for safekeeping.


    "I don''t know how to make Undying Totems, I know that the Sultan had one on him before he died but I''m sure even the Sandstone kingdom doesn''t know how to make them. Instead, I think they got it from the Piligers."


    "Piligers? Are you saying those monsters who wear human skin are capable of creating something so powerful?"


    "I don''t think you can normally craft something like that, that''s why it would make more sense for the Piligers to have access to them since they are the descendants of the fallen nation. More exactly the Evoker is supposed to have those totems, but be careful since he can use actual magic and summon vexes."


    "What are vexes?"


    "Miniature gray people with an iron sword that can fly and phase through walls. They also deal a lot of damage if you get hit by them."


    "That sounds horrifying!"


    "It is, but they''re not in great numbers from what I know, so maybe you can send an assassin to get one of them?"


    "Hmm."


    The king sat back and was thinking intensively.


    "If what you are saying is true then this would be very helpful. I''ll have to look through the library and see historical records about the crusade and make a decision based on that. Thank you Hero Trader, it was a pleasure to talk with you."


    The king gave me a polite smile which was my queue to leave since my job was done.


    And I was more them happy to get out since I don''t know if I would slip up some other information accidentally.


    But this is good, if the Stone Kingdom is starting to look after the Piligers they would be too distracted with a whole kingdom to see one man that would sneak into their camp.


    With one meeting I''ve managed to get the Royal Family off my back and distract my enemy.


    This was a very productive day.

 Chapter 105. Another reunion

    After my talk with the king, I decided to see if Froggy was ok after the stunt they pulled, from the reactions of the others I wouldn''t be surprised if they wanted to flex their muscles even after the king told them to stand down.


    But the message was sent, and now everyone should know not to take the witches for granted as the Elders wanted. A risky plan but it worked so I couldn''t say anything against the results.


    From asking around I managed to arrive at a certain wooden door which I opened up without even knocking.


    "-you saying that you got infected by the huge Zombie, lost control over your body, and had to call Trader to save you?"


    As I entered I saw that I wasn''t the first to greet Froggy, Bobby managed to beat me to it.


    But with my sudden entrance, the conversation was cut short as both of them looked at me.


    "Hello there, how are you two doing on such a fine day?"


    "Doing pretty well, I''m also just finding out why you were teleported all of a sudden. Why didn''t you tell me you killed the Zombie Lord? That monster was a danger to the whole world. I would mention at least to every person I talk to that I did that if I could."


    While Froggy seems impressed by my achievement, Bobby was more relaxed about it, most likely because he had a few days to digest all the information and because this isn''t the only big achievement I have.


    The fact that I''m from another world, came back from the dead, and have knowledge dangerous enough that the System is telling me not to use must be pretty high on his list.


    The fact that I helped kill a monster that threatened to take over the world is not that impressive anymore.


    Dang it, I just realized that it''s going to be much harder to shock Bobby now, how can I amuse myself now that the bar is so high for me to overcome?


    I''ll think of something with time, otherwise I''ll have to teach Froggy about the world so I can shock him instead.


    "How did you do it? Why didn''t you break my pearl as well, I could''ve helped you with something I''m sure."


    "I had to use some dangerous weapons that I prefer not to use too often, as for the reason I didn''t bring you along was because I didn''t want to distract you from your mission. This was an important mission for the Witches, you can''t just disappear without an explanation, otherwise, you''ll worry the others."


    While Froggy didn''t seem to be satisfied with my answer he still nodded his head in understanding.


    I hoped this would be enough since I didn''t want to tell him the real reason that I didn''t bother him was because I was too scared he would die or suffer because of me.


    "How was your trip instead, and why did you to pull that off in front of everyone? Don''t you know how dangerous that stunt was?"


    Bobby changed the subject quickly, and I was curious as well for his explanation.


    I don''t even need to be around Foggy to get him into trouble since he seems to have a knack for getting himself just fine.


    Don''t know if I should be proud or worried about this.


    "At the beginning, I was also skeptical about this plan, but the Elders were the ones that thought of this. Luckily Ellen was smart enough to explain to the rest of us. We weren''t as worried about retaliations as we should''ve been because we knew that the Stone Kingdom needed us more than we needed them. They had an army of zombies at their doorstep and we were able to easily brew them potion. Even now that the Zombie Lord is dead it''s not too much worry for us, since this war cost a lot of funds for almost nothing in return. We can help them get out of this economic crisis with our expertise, so I''m sure they would be more forgiving with us."


    That was a point I didn''t expect to be brought up but realized that there was a flaw in it as well. They didn''t need the witches specifically since they could use the piglings to craft and brew anything without restrictions.


    But then I thought some more and realized that won''t be an easy thing to do since they are under my protection, and if they piss me off I can just say to them not to work with the Stone Kingdom anymore and they couldn''t do anything about it.


    The next tribe would be tens to thousands of blocks away, and they couldn''t enslave them since Bobby made them take an oath specifically against that.


    Only now have I realized how much I actually influenced this kingdom, and how much influence I still have.


    No wonder the Royal Family didn''t want to bother me while I stayed here, they wanted to get as much information as possible related to me.


    But the only information they have is that I came out of nowhere, have dangerous knowledge, can come back from the dead, and have a strong grip over the tribe that can bring them most of the profits that will get them out of this debt.


    No wonder the king was pretty lenient with me at the office, he didn''t want to risk offending me since he didn''t know how to control me.


    It would''ve been safer to leave me alone than keep antagonizing me.


    For the first time since I came here, I realized how powerful I was, and I didn''t know how to feel about that.


    Unfortunately, I also realized that I wasn''t powerful enough to get what I truly wanted so that thought humbled me a little.


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    "That was a pretty big gamble, but luckily you won it. What''s the next step now?"


    "We would send two more witches here to get some influence. We hope in about a decade well managed to get enough power where we can walk on the streets without a worry over getting arrested."


    That''s a nice goal to have, unfortunately, the problem isn''t really with the people but more with the System. But if they managed to make Froggy be seen as a hero at the Sandstone Palace, I''m sure they''ll be able to pull something similar here as well.


    "That''s awesome to hear, how are you getting along with the other teammates? Any problems?"


    "They are nicer now after the mission, but I feel like I still have to earn everyone''s trust. Also, the others want to thank you for helping catch the rough Witch, but unfortunately, you left too early."


    Froggy looked at me which made me remember that everyone was still confused about my sudden disappearance. I hope they won''t think I''m a spy sent by the Kingdome.


    "Sure I''ll visit them later, actually I wanted to go back with you to the clan, I still have some unfinished books there that I want to read."


    Froggy was happy while Bobby was surprised at the sudden news.


    "You don''t want to stay here for the festival? This is in honor of the heroes that fought against the Zombie Lord and won, it''s specifically made for you and Merry."


    "I don''t really feel comfortable being in the center of attention, and this party will make me more popular than ever. I don''t want to be bothered by rich people afterwards, it would be a nightmare."


    Bobby started to smile thinking about that specific scenario which made me kick him in the leg out of annoyance.


    "But don''t worry I won''t be gone for long, there''s a high chance we''ll talk more often, I think the king will be more interested in reaching out to the witches for his next project."


    "What do you mean?"


    Froggy asked curiously and a little afraid."


    I then told them what happened with my meeting, how he wanted to know the recipe for the Undying Totem, how I made him sign a contract to not bother me anymore, and how I explained to him that the only ones that have access to those items are the Piligers.


    I specifically showed Bobby the book so he could stop any prince who wanted to bother me since their father signed a contract.


    Now they shouldn''t have an excuse that they didn''t know about it.


    "So you really don''t know how to make those Undying Totems? They sound very useful to have."


    "Unfortunately I don''t think it''s even possible to craft them, at least not to my knowledge. That''s why I think it''s something made without the help of the System and being held by the people who despise the System the most. Maybe if I sneak into their libraries I could find out their secret?"


    We kept talking like that until we decided we had enough for today.


    Bobby was slowly getting back to his usual work, Froggy needed to get some rest after the long journey, and I had to keep myself occupied until tomorrow when I''d have to leave.


    I walked down the hallways and arrived at the training grounds where someone was using it already.


    That someone was the hero Merry.


    She was together with one of her instructors and was in a spar.


    Merry was on the defensive, with her shield and a wooden sword, the instructor didn''t have a shield but attacked aggressively not leaving any chance for Merry to retaliate.


    That was until the instructor made a wide swing which made the hero fall back a few steps.


    But that seemed to be planned as she quickly towered herself up and shot an arrow from her crossbow.


    The instructor quickly jumped out of the arrow path and took out his shield.


    Merry placed a block down making a bridge while keeping the man preoccupied with constant shooting.


    After a few slow seconds, she was finally close enough and she jumped off her bridge onto the poor instructor taking him by surprise and bringing him down.


    Before he could gather himself up, Merry started to punch him down then finishing the spar with her wooden sword on his neck.


    That was brutal, and not that necessary, but she won.


    "I think that enough training for today Hero, your progress is astonishingly fast, and there is no more threat to train for."


    The instructor got up and ate some food to speed up his regeneration.


    "Thank you instructor, but I still want to improve, I feel like I didn''t do enough in the last fight and don''t want to be in that postion ever again."


    The instructor didn''t know what to say to her anymore so he just told her to get some rest until the next training session.


    Probably with a different instructor.


    "Wow Merry, you really are something now, that fight was awesome."


    I slowly revealed my presence while clapping to congratulate her on her win.


    This took her by surprise since she didn''t know she had an audience.


    "Trader! I didn''t know you were here. Perfect, do you want to have a spar with me?"


    She gave me a mischievous smile which I didn''t like.


    From the fight that I just saw, she greatly improved. She now uses more of her abilities as a player than fighting ''fairly'' as she used to.


    She has a pretty high chance of beating me if we fight now.


    But still, I decided to accept her challenge.


    "Sure, I wanted to test out my new weapon anyway."


    This seems to put Merry on guard but still didn''t back down.


    The instructor decided to stay and watch the spar, so he was the one to say go.


    Both of us didn''t have any armor, we could only use the wooden sword and everything else we had in our inventory.


    "Go!"


    The instructor yelled the beginning of the battle.


    I quickly started to tower up before anything else.


    "Oh no you don''t!"


    Merry who already expecting this started to sprint towords me and quickly placed some blocks down to elevate herself before jumping towards my tower, probably to knock me off.


    She jumped from her blocks and I could see she would reach my feet if I didn''t do anything about it.


    So I took out a stick from my inventory and threw it at her face.


    She quickly shielded her face with her arms, but that made her lose the opportunity to grab onto my tower and knock me down.


    Now she just hit my tower and fell down.


    "You always do this and I hate it!"


    While she was yelling angrily at me, she still took her shield and crossbow out of her inventory ready for anything.


    When I was at a sufficient height, I took out my secret weapon.


    "Is that a fishing road? What are yo-whaaaa!"


    With a fishing road in my hand I quickly ''fished'' out Merry and by magic, I managed to pull her to my level and even higher, which greatly confused her.


    It was much harder to do it than I expected, but it had the same results.


    As she was falling back down while yelling I kicked her while she passed me which dealt additional damage.


    Once she hit the ground I quickly jumped down and put my wooden sword at her neck claiming my victory.


    "That was a good fight, but it''s my win."


    I said that with a smile on my face.


    Unfortunately Merry didn''t see it since she was still growing In pain from her fall.


    "It''s that why she likes to fight so brutally? No wonder she''s so reckless when fighting, what did you even do?"


    The instructor was coming towards me, impressed and confused at what just happened.


    "This is a method I''ve seen some people use and I wanted to try it as well, I''m glad to know that I can manage it."


    "That''s-"


    "I want a rematch, Trader! That was dirty even by your standards, this time with the armor on, no more holding back!"


    Merry got up with an angry look on her face.


    And I made the wise decision to run away. I knew when I was going to lose a fight.


    "Coward! Come back here!"


    But I kept running.

 Chapter 106. Back to the clan

    I woke up feeling refreshed, I got more tired than I expected yesterday when I had to run through the whole castle while being chased by an angry hero.


    In the end, I had to use an invisible potion to escape her and wait for her anger to lessen.


    I checked one last time if I had everything on me.


    Honestly, this sudden trip was pretty good overall, I now have a fully enchanted diamond armor and a sword, I''m surprised they let me ''keep'' them but maybe they wanted to leave them as a gift for their hero.


    Not only that, but I also have a few blocks of obsidian in my inventory which I''ll probably use for later to make an Ender Chest.


    I wonder what level my Crafting Skill needs to be so I can do one myself.


    But it didn''t matter, everything was in place and I was ready to say my goodbyes.


    I walked along the hallways and stopped at one particular door that had a small group forming already.


    *bang, bang, bang


    "Froggy, wake up already, we have to leave!"


    Ellen together with the other witches were banging on the door yelling for Froggy to wake up.


    It was always an amusing sight to see.


    "Good morning everyone, did you manage to sleep well?"


    Everyone stopped and looked at me.


    "Morning Trader, yes I did sleep well. Do you have a method to wake up Froggy by any chance?"


    "I can think of something."


    I then opened the door without getting permission finally seeing the man we all waited for sleeping in an uncomfortable position.


    How was he doing that, I would never know the answer.


    I went to him and gently shook his shoulder, no reaction.


    Then I shook it with more force, no reaction this time as well.


    "Hard way it is then."


    To everyone''s surpise, I took an axe from my inventory and broke the bed under Froggy.


    Suddenly the bed disappeared making Froggy hit the floor which finally woke him up.


    "Wha-what?"


    "Morning Froggy my friend, I didn''t know you liked to sleep on the floor."


    I said that with a smile on my face as he looked confused around him, before realizing what had happened.


    "Ha, ha Trader, put the bed back, I don''t want to bother the servants."


    I listened to him and placed the bed back down which was already made. That''s one interesting way to make a bed.


    My job was done and the others looked uncomfortable at what they just saw.


    But Froggy wasn''t too bothered by my way of waking him up since he was used to it.


    "Froggy are you ready to leave?"


    "Yes sir, I have everything in my inventory!"


    "Good, let''s go then."


    "Sorry, can I come with you as well?"


    Ellen stopped, looked at me up and down, and nodded his head, so I followed everyone else.


    On the way out, the guards were there to greet us together with Bobby, that was a good thing since I also needed a horse.


    Bobby only gave a sigh and granted my request. After our final goodbyes, we left through the gates of the castle.


    We were going back to the Clan.


    Everyone was in a happy mood, the mission was done, the Zombie Lord wasn''t a threat anymore, and they would be greatly rewarded when they arrived home.


    It took a few days to arrive at the misty swamps, but nothing too noteworthy happened on the way there.


    With the help of the enchanted token, we arrived at the Clan compound.


    "Welcome back everyone, how was the mission?"


    "It went pretty well, wait for the good news after we report to the Elders."


    The leader casually spoke with the guards at the gates before letting us in.


    I only got a confused look but otherwise wasn''t stopped, which was a good thing.


    Once the land stopped and the swamp started, we got off our horses and waited to see what would be our next course of action.


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    "Congratulations team, we managed to finish a mission that would be written in history books, what we''ve done here will inspire generations to come, we are heroes!"


    Everyone cheered loudly.


    "You are all free for today, I will meet with the Elders and report everything to them. And yes Trader, I will tell them about you as well."


    Well, that solved everything I wanted to know, Ellen walked to report to the Elders and the others decided to go and get some drinks.


    I didn''t know what to do, so I joined with them, hoping that I didn''t intrude too much.


    Luckily the fact that I helped them capture the rough witch made them more friendly towards me.


    We went to a bigger hut which was the bar of the Clan, everyone ordered alcohol loudly while making jokes and having a good time.


    I and Froggy decided to drink some slime juice instead because I wasn''t a fan of alcohol and Froggy... well he likes slime-related foods.


    It''s an interesting taste, to say the least.


    Time passed, and anyone''s mouth got looser, I heard some good gossip about each other''s life, past relationships, failed business, and embarrassing accidents that all ended with Denis and Brian fighting about who drank the most potions.


    The barman had to throw us out because we were making a ruckus, which we eventually did.


    That''s how the day ended and everyone went back to their homes.


    ---


    The next morning when I woke up and looked for Ellen to see if Elder Flora had any other missions for me.


    After half an hour I finally found him and to my surprise, the Elders didn''t seem to require my presence, which was a good thing I guess.


    That meant that I could finally start my plans, and in the end, I decided to grind my Skills.


    My final goal is to learn Enchanting better, but to do that I need an enchanting teble, and unfortunately, I don''t think Elder Brutus would let me use his anymore since it''s not an emergency.


    This means that I either have to make a portal, find a tribe in the Nether, and ask them to make me some items, or I''ll grind my Crafting skill high enough that I don''t need to keep asking their help for my projects.


    With that, I opened up my skill Tab in what felt like a lifetime ago.


    _______________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 5


    13.267/1.000.000


    _Enchanting lvl 6


    470.130/10.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 4


    20.500/100.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    51.500/100.000


    ________________________________


    "I''m considered pretty high level for the people of this world, especially my Enchanting Skill. I truly am a jack of all trades, but I should concentrate on my Crafting skill for now."


    For that, I need to make as many golden shovels as possible, this is going to take a while but the result would be more than worth it.


    Can''t wait to finally be able to craft with diamonds, maybe I can even concentrate on getting some Netherite after this, that would be a fun project.


    No!


    Don''t lose your focus, get to the level where you can craft with diamonds then concentrate on enchanting.


    This is a ticket for your way home.


    You can''t get distracted that easily.


    With that, I decided on my next course of action.


    I left the unwanted items in the chest, bought some potions of invisibility and night vision from whoever witch had at the moment, and of course not forget to take a bed and plenty of food with me.


    Learning from my mistakes after all.


    I also dropped by Froggy''s house to tell him my plans and not to panic if nobody would see me for a couple of days.


    He was still sleepy when I talked with him but I think he got the message.


    With excited steps, I walked down to the mine.


    No one was at the entrance which probably meant that everyone was working already or was taking a break for the day.


    But it didn''t matter, I knew where to roughly start from just by following the signs on the walls.


    Once I arrived at my old tunnel I went a little deeper into it, before turning to the side and starting a new tunnel.


    "It''s time to mine."


    My pickaxe hit the wall.


    POV: Elder Flora


    The mission was a success, the rouge witch was captured and nobody got too hurt on the mission, and after some ''light'' interrogation, we finally found out how he managed to stay sane for the past few years.


    And it wasn''t a pleasant thing to learn.


    The Piligers once again are involved with the chaos around the land.


    From what the man told us, only one Piliger contacted him regularly, unfortunately, he was someone with great influence which meant that he was part of a bigger plan.


    The man was crazy but still wanted us to spear him, he even told us that he''d share his secrets of the dark arts be we decided to end the integration then and there.


    The Elders''s role in the Clan is to guide the Witches and manage to community, but another important matter is to keep the dark arts out of the Clan.


    This is what all of our predecessors agreed and hammered heavily when we got to our position.


    When the temptation was presented, it was best to get rid of it before it became a problem. Unfortunately, we still needed him alive for our next plan so we could only drug him unconscious.


    The team went with the prisoner with no problem, my only concern was with the sudden disappearance of Trader, Froggy seemed to have an idea where he could be, but he was still stressed.


    Well, it was a short time he stayed but he greatly helped us which I could only be thankful for.


    If he wants to come back, he will be welcomed with open arms.


    A little over a week passed and the team was back, this time with some additional company.


    Ellen came into my office after he reported to Brutus, and told me everything that happened.


    I was happy to hear that the mission was a success without the Nobles having to strong off a reaction, but I was taken by surprise when he told me that the upcoming threat, the Zombie Lord was dealt with.


    By none other than Trader himself as well.


    I asked if he was sure about that, but apparently, he appeared out of nowhere, ordered the Royal Family to prepare a trap for the monster and when the battle started he managed to win.


    Not only that, there was no army involved, only him and the Hero who referred to him as her teacher.


    That was shocking to hear, Trader was much bigger than I anticipated.


    Maybe I should trade with him some more, nothing bad can happen when you have connections to such powerful people.


    I dismissed the man and told him not to worry about the other Elders since I''d be delivering the news to them.


    Ellen was thankful for that and left to get some rest with the others.


    Those were some great news, and this was worthy of a celebration!


    I told the other Elders who were as happy as me, and all agreed that this was a good time to celebrate.


    The next day me and the others started to organize some stuff, we would get some exotic foods from the nearby town and some other necessities.


    After everything was done I decided to pay a visit to Trader and see how he was doing, unfortunately I couldn''t find him at his house.


    I asked around but nobody seemed to have seen him since he went to the bar with the others.


    Finally, I asked Froggy who seemed to know more than the others.


    "Oh Trader? He told me he will do some mining and we shouldn''t worry about him if he''s missing for a few days."


    "He''s gone back to mining? Why?"


    "I don''t know, he didn''t tell me the reason, but it shouldn''t be anything bad."


    Yeah, but the last time he went to mine he didn''t come to the surface for three whole days!


    That was an abnormal amount of time to go mining.


    I hope he won''t stay too long this time as well, and why would he need to mine?


    Unfortunately, the only thing I could do was wait for him to come back.


    So I went back to my house to finish some other projects.

 Chapter 107. Mineshaft

    I hit once, and the block broke, I hit again and I got the same results, I did this for a while until I suddenly stopped, took out a torch and placed it on the right wall, then back to breaking blocks.


    That''s what I''ve been doing the whole day, or at least that is how much I think passed, it''s very hard to tell the passing of time when I''m underground.


    But since I''ve worked so hard results were plentiful.


    Unfortunately, I was starting to get tired, but I didn''t want to take a break until I found an unexplored cave system.


    So that''s what I did for the next few hours until finally, I arrived at a dark cave.


    "Finally! I can take a break."


    I blocked the newly made hole and started to dig around, in a few minutes I had two large rooms where I could comfortably move around.


    "This should be a good place to make a temporary base, I need to repair my diamond pickaxe as well."


    While I have a small amount of experience with breaking certain ores, it''s not enough for my tool to be fully repaired, that''s why I decided to make a furnace room.


    With this, I can smelt the ores and repair my tool, two birds with one stone.


    I already have experience with doing something like this, and stone is the one block that I don''t lack, or more exactly deep slate stone.


    I placed the Crafting table down, then a bed and a double chest not too far after, and then I started to craft a bunch of furnaces and placed them in the other room.


    I planned to isolate the two rooms with a door, so I could sleep peacefully and not die from a heatstroke.


    The wall was full of furnaces, I carefully split the cool that I had to be equal in every furnace, and then I also split the raw ores so smelting would go faster.


    "I''ll make them into blocks afterward to save some space in my inventory, I already have some problems with that. I so want a shocker box right now!"


    Suddenly the room was lit like I was on the surface, not only that, the heat started to slowly build up, which was my cue to leave the room.


    With the preparations done, I went to my bed and laid down comfortably, this was my first time sleeping underground and for some reason made me excited like a kid sleeping in a tent while camping.


    After a few minutes, I fell asleep.


    -----


    I woke confused at the ceiling I was seeing, then remembered that I was underground. After talking with myself to get up and start working I finally did it, then continued with some stretching to wake myself further.


    After everything was done I checked the furnace room to see the progress, but when I opened the wooden door a wave of heat washed over me like I was in the Nether.


    I quickly closed the door and splashed myself with some water cooling me off.


    "Well if wasn''t awake before I am now for sure. I think only three were still running, the others looked to be done."


    After I felt prepared I opened the door once again but this time I stayed behind it, making the heat wave not as dangerous as before.


    After a few minutes passed I decided this was enough and entered the furnace room and checked up the loot I had.


    -130 iron ingots


    -50 gold ingots


    -145 copper ingots


    Of course, I didn''t forget to hold my pickaxe in hand once I got everything out of the furnace, and now it was as good as new, ready for another mining session.


    I went to the other room crafted the ingots into blocks and placed them in the chest.


    "Well this is over, let''s do the fun part."


    I smiled ready for some action.


    With the potion of night vision and invisibility chugged, I could now explore the cave without any problems.


    I broke the blocks blocking my entrance building a wooden tower to know where I have my base, then I looked at the huge cave for the first time in its full glory.


    It was huge and it kept going deeper until bedrock, I could see groups of zombies and skeletons already walking in the darkness with the occasional spider here and there.


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    But like I expected, nobody saw me, so I carefully climbed down so I wouldn''t take fall damage by mistake.


    After all, I didn''t have armor on me right now.


    Once I arrived by a lava river I managed to find and mine a dozen ores which put a smile on my face.


    Cave mining was always the beast.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t get a lot of gold even with my fortune pickaxe, but this was just the beginning.


    I walked around some more, maybe pranking some of the skeletons to start a fight with the zombies, which quickly devolved to skeletons versus zombies, it was an epic battle but the fact that some of them could attack from the distance made them win the fight in the end.


    The spiders instead weren''t that interested in the fight, opting instead to just patrol the area without interfering.


    The cave system was huge and slowly I filled my inventory with a lot of ores, at some point I decided that it was not worth mining copper anymore even if the villagers were willing to buy it for some reason.


    I even found some diamonds which made me smile, no matter how many I saw.


    As I was exploring along the dark tunnels, suddenly something caught my attention, it wasn''t a special ore or monster, interest it was a block of wooden planks.


    "What''s this doing here? Is this a cave found by the other miners by any chance? No, that can''t be possible they place granite as a way to mark what''s explored."


    I got closer and saw that it wasn''t only one plank, instead, there were more, and soon I realized what this was.


    "A mineshaft!"


    This is the second one I''ve seen since I got into this world, but the other one was pretty close to the surface so it didn''t have a lot of good loot, I wonder what I would get from here instead.


    I walked along the wooden tunnels and slowly saw marks of past civilization, there were even some lit torches on the wall, undistributed by time.


    I found some rails, some minecarts, and finally a chest, which I quickly opened.


    I found a lot more items than I expected, there was some bread, enchanted iron pickaxes with a fortune but almost broken, torches, copper ores, coal, iron nuggets, and an almost broken iron shovel.


    While interesting, it wasn''t something that I would be too excited to get, still, I took the ores, torches, and bread.


    Who knows how many years this chest was last unopened, but when I took the bread out, it was fresh like time was still.


    As expected from the almighty chest, it was amazing.


    But my inventory started to get clusterd so I put a Crafting table down and made ore blocks to have more space.


    With this done I continued to explore the mineshaft, but as I was exploring more and more I came to a realization.


    All the mobs that I''ve seen now we''re spiders.


    Was there a nest in here somewhere, or maybe even a spawner?


    No that can''t be possible, from what the System told me, only the void can make those, and if there''s a spawner here that would mean another monster Lord.


    As I explored more I found some interesting rooms that weren''t in the game, such as the furnace room, which had a lot of smelted ore that I took without looking back, and the foodcort room, which had some food in it, but I decided to replace my bread with the golden carrots I found.


    But what caught my attention was when the stone and wooden tunnels transitioned into brikstone.


    "I think this is connected to a ruin."


    This discovery made my blood boil, unfortunately, there was something that blocked the entrance to the ruins.


    Everything was covered in webs, I couldn''t even see what was past it.


    I got closer and tried to cut some of it only to feel some of the web moving then I stopped.


    Out of the densely packed web, one of the worst enemies you could find emerged its head.


    Poisonous spider.


    It was smaller than the regular spider and green, it got closer to my location and looked at the damaged web only to see nothing.


    I quickly equipped my diamond sword and slashed its head off with one swing.


    Diamond gear was too overpowered, but even this didn''t make me feel safe.


    "Should I wear the armor? But then they can see me."


    I decided to continue slashing without my armor, continuing with the initial strategy, I only needed to pay attention to the moving web.


    My sword kept splashing destroying web after web, I made a tunnel two blocks wide just so don''t accidentally tangle up in one of those.


    As I got deeper I suddenly stopped and put the sword in my inventory as I saw some webs moving on my right.


    After a few seconds, a green head with eight eyes popped and looked at my progress with confusion, slowly it got out and I took my sword and chopped its head off like the other.


    "There''s a lot less than I expected!"


    Something from behind hit me pushing me into the web, and not only that I began to feel sick.


    *cough


    Blood came out of my mouth.


    Fortunately, I wasn''t completely thrown into the webs, so after I put some force I got out, quickly swinging my sword to whoever attacked me.


    And it was a good thing that I did because in my reckless swinging I cut the spider that did all of this to me.


    I could also finally see it.


    It was bigger than the others, closer to one of the originals, but now his leg was cut and hissing in pain, but the pain only got worse as his leg caught on fire out of nowhere slowly bringing him to death.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t enjoy it''s suffering because I was poisoned and hissing sounds came beyond the great web.


    I had to run.


    At great speeds, I arrived at the wooden section of the mine, and since it was smaller then the others, I could block it off immediately.


    After I felt safe, I took a bucket of milk from my inventory and drank it like there was no tomorrow, the pain was too unbearable for me to wait it out.


    Unfortunately, that resulted in me losing the invisibility effect and the night vision, which meant that now I couldn''t see anything because I forgot to put a torch down.


    I opened up my inventory and I could still see it with no problems, it didn''t give light around me, which meant I couldn''t use it as a light source.


    But that didn''t matter since I had torches with me that lit up the tunnel I was in.


    "That''s it, I''m going to purge that nest if it''s the last thing I do!"


    But for that, I needed some gravel, and unfortunately, I didn''t have a lot of torches with me to light everything around, so I had to drink my last night''s vision potion.


    I equipped my diamond armor and went to search around for some gravel, something that I completely ignored on my mining session, but now was my tool to ravage.


    I looked all over the mining tunnels, but had no luck in finding them, not even one block!


    I had to go back into the cave system to finally find some, but I couldn''t get too many since monsters kept coming after me.


    Zombies and skeletons were not a problem, maybe a little annoying, but the creepers were dangerous no matter what armor you had on.


    So after I got what I wanted, I crafted some Flint and Steal and went back to the tunnel that I just blocked of.


    "Time to burn some pesky spiders."

 Chapter 108. Exploring the ruins

    I broke the barricade I made before quickly putting it back.


    Beyond that wall the tunnel was filled with green spiders, I got chills only looking at it.


    But I couldn''t give up yet, I only needed to get one more item.


    Then I went back to the caves and filled my bucket with lava before going back.


    "This is going to be risky, especially now that I don''t have any more milk."


    With that said I chugged my last invisibility potion and broke the barricade before putting it back once I was in.


    On the walls, floor, and ceiling I could see green creatures with many legs, they seemed to be confused about the sudden disappearance of those blocks but didn''t investigate since they appeared back.


    With careful steps, I slowly navigate the dangerous tunnel trying not to step on someone''s legs accidentally.


    After a few agonizing minutes I arrived at my previous place, which had a lot fewer spiders than I expected, but I wouldn''t complain about that.


    My next course of action was very delicate, especially now that I didn''t have the armor on me.


    Right beside the mesh of cobwebs, I made a hole into the wall, two blocks deep, and then I waited for the spiders to lose their interest before getting in the action.


    I placed the lava bucket on the ceiling which quickly illuminated the room and then burned the web with my flint and steel.


    Then I heard a lot of movement in the tunnel, but I didn''t stay there to see it, since I went into my hole and blocked it off, waiting in silence and darkness.


    After a few seconds had passed all hell broke loose, I could hear the constant hissing of pain and confusion, some of them were right beyond the wall, while others started to run while being on fire, not a pleasant thing to be part of I''m sure.


    But even with all the pain in the air, I could hear the panicked hisses about their nest catching on fire, and everyone was getting burned trying to put it out.


    I waited a few minutes before the noise started to die down, I leaned into the wall to hear better but only a week hiss was heard.


    "Looks like it''s over. "


    I put the armor back on me and took out my shield, ready to block any surprise attacks.


    I broke the upper block which let me see what my plan did, and it was horofing.


    I could see burned spiders all over the place, the lava spread more than I expected which resulted in melted bodies at the edge of the lava.


    The spiderweb was all gone, nothing was left to show the former glory of the nest.


    I started to feel bad about those poor spiders, that was way more brutal than I expected.


    Still, I started something so I have to finish it.


    I got out, took the lava back, and went on a killing spree with the surviving spiders, they were weekend by the fire that just happened so I managed to kill all of them without getting poisoned or any damage.


    I didn''t bother to loot them since spiders eyes or string were not on my list for this trip.


    Finally, I could go deeper and explore the unknown ruin.


    I kept walking and started to see remains of the spiders and other skeletons leaning on the wall.


    I didn''t know if those were people or monster skeletons with how mest up they were, but one thing was for sure, they were very old.


    After walking some more I arrived at the end, which was a huge iron wall.


    "I think this is a redstone door, I should find a way to open it. But that''s blocks of pure iron, why should I leave them here?"


    It''s not like anyone is going to use them.


    I took out my pickaxe and was ready to break the wall when all of a sudden I heard a deep his coming from above me.


    *hissss


    I quickly turned around, and to my horror, a green spider as huge as me was jumping off almost reaching me.


    I panicked but before it could land on me, a huge long dark hand appeared out of nowhere and slashed its head off, killing it in one swing.


    When I looked at the source of the arm, I saw the huge Enderwoman that kept fowling me.


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    "You follow me even into the mines!? How''d you even get here, the tunnels were half your size!"


    The Enderwoman just cleaned her arm while hissing in dissatisfaction.


    "Oh sorry, thank you for saving my life."


    That attack would surely poison me, and since I didn''t have any more milk I would''ve been in pain for who knows how long.


    I do not want to go through that if possible, but the question remains, how did she get here?


    I looked at her and saw that she was satisfied with my gratitude, but nothing else different than the last time I saw her.


    "Did you follow me through the tunnels, or is there another way down here?"


    She just pointed at me, and I assumed that she followed me.


    "I know you can speak, why do you keep making gestures then? And why are you following me!"


    "You are my human!"


    The Enderwoman replayed which made me stop and think.


    She can speak, but the only thing she says is that I''m her human. Is this all she can say?


    And if she''s someone similar to the Endermans, does that mean she sees me as a block?


    But I don''t remember them taking an interest in living beings, but then again, she is anything but normal.


    Fortunately, she doesn''t seem to want to hurt me, or just keep me in a cage so I can continue my life as it is.


    Unfortunately, I don''t think I''m strong enough to get rid of her even if I wanted to.


    Can''t tower up and shoot at her since she can teleport to me, can''t go in a tunnel and hurt her like that because she can crawl through tight spaces.


    Looks like I''ll have to live with her until she loses interest in me or I can solve the problem on my own.


    "OK, you can follow me but I want you to be visible from now on, the only time you can go invisible it''s when there''s people, I don''t want to deal with that if possible. Do you understand?"


    The Enderwoman nodded her head in understanding.


    That was a good thing, maybe this isn''t such a bad thing. I now have a huge monster that is willing to protect me if I''m in danger.


    I wonder if she can teleport with me. An experiment for later.


    With the pickaxe in my hand, I started to mine the iron block seeing what was beyond for the first time.


    And it wasn''t something I expected, some of the lights were still working on the ceiling, the walls were all white concrete, and the floor was all wood blocks.


    I didn''t know if I should go invisible and safe, or just keep my armor on me in case anything happened.


    In the end, I decided to keep the armor on me and went on with the exploration, but not forgetting to look at the ceiling now when I entered a new room.


    The ruins turned out to be an underground laboratory, and from the size, I wouldn''t say it was too big but still held valuable items


    It has a cafeteria, a small library, a dorm room, storage space, an enchanting room, an office, and a broken portal.


    The last one was an interesting room to see.


    First I checked the cafeteria, which unfortunately didn''t have anything too valuable, maybe except for a few buckets of milk.


    The small library instead was a gold mine, even if some of those books were blank they still held valuable information such as unknown potion recipes without the help of the system, methods of breeding fast animals, architecture guides, some costume enchantment, and even some journals.


    This room alone made everything worth it, and I was more than happy to start absorbing everything I found.


    Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder which made me realize that I wasn''t alone anymore, so I turned and looked at the Enderwoman who was pointing at the book I was holding.


    "You want to read this?"


    She shook her head as a no, before pointing at me and then at the book.


    "You want me to tell you what this is about?"


    This time she shook her head in affirmation.


    I didn''t know Enderman''s were that curious.


    "This is the journal of someone who used to work here, for some reason he disappeared without taking his book from the desk. I wonder if they fled or got killed, I''ll tell you more about it once I''ve read it. But for now, we still have to explore the other rooms."


    The Enderwoman seemed to be satisfied by this and we pressed on.


    The dorm room only held beds, so I didn''t explore too much of it, instead, the storage room was a treasure trove of items.


    Precious ores, diverse blocks, brewing ingredients, enchanted books, and much more, this room alone would make kingdoms salivate, and I could take it all.


    It was such a shame that I was so far away from my base, otherwise, I''d start looting right now.


    With great effort, I went to explore the other rooms as well.


    The office was pretty boring, only a room with a chest that held empty books that I could only assume held valuable information before being wiped by the system.


    The portal room was simple in design, unfortunately, a few blocks were missing from the portal frame while others were crying obsidian.


    "I think this is how they got into the base since I don''t see an opening to the surface."


    The Enderwoman tried to pick one of the crying obsidian blocks but it didn''t budge no matter how much force she put in.


    In the end, she gave up and looked at the other blocks.


    Theoretically, I could repair this portal since I had the necessary tools and blocks, but from what I last saw, an old portal is usually connected to a fortress, and usually, those are already occupied by people in the Nether, so there''s a high chance someone would wait for us on the other side.


    First I would take everything from here, then I''ll see if I want to open the portal.


    And finally, there was the enchanting room, and the enchanting table was still there which meant that didn''t have time to craft one now or borrow it from Brutus.


    This mining trip solved all my problems, even though I should still grind on my Crafting skills.


    But as I turned around to leave the room I saw something that made me stop.


    Above the door, there was a large space that had a lot of signs, but what was special about those signs was the fact that what was written on them was all gibberish, that was until I looked closer.


    It was high-level enchanting language!


    Those signs had a high level of enchantment and if I looked closer there was an explanation for every symbol!


    This is the biggest find of them all, I don''t think I''ll find anything similar unless I pillage the Sandstone Library itself.


    I quickly ran to get an empty book, too afraid that it would suddenly disappear even if it held for hundreds of years with no problem.


    The Enderwoman was confused about my actions and kept teleporting after me making Endeman noises, but I kept searching until I finally got what I wanted before running back to the Enchanting room.


    "OK, this is something very important for me, so please be quiet while I copy everything on that wall, don''t touch anything that looks like a button or lever. Who knows if this place has a self-distraction protocol."


    While she was confused, she still accepted my request moving with great care around the room.


    I just concentrated on the wall, this was a breakthrough for my studies and I wouldn''t dare miss it.

 Chapter 109. Moving the loot

    I stayed for hours looking at that wall, trying to copy everything as correctly as possible since every millimeter counted.


    But after working hard I managed to pull it off and decided to take a break and eat something.


    It''s been a while since my last meal so every golden carrot that I ate made me feel like a new man.


    Suddenly the Enderwoman teleported besties me looking with curiosity.


    "Yes I finished it, thank you for waiting. Did you find anything interesting while I was distracted?"


    She thought for a little before disappearing and reappearing but this time with a sticky piston in her hands.


    "Sticky piston, that''s an interesting find, where did you get it?"


    She pointed towards the tunnel that led to the mines, which probably meant that it was from the iron wall.


    The Enderwoman placed the piston down and pointed at me, then at the piston.


    "Do you want me to take this?"


    She shook her head as no and redid the same motions with the added ones where she expanded her hands while pointing at the piston.


    "You want me to show how to use something like this?"


    This time looks like I was right since she strongly agreed.


    I looked around to see if I could find a wild lever or button, but no luck, so I made a wooden button with the wood that I had.


    "This is a sticky piston, it can move most of the blocks one meter away, as you can see on the wooden part there''s some slime on it if I put a block here and a source of power behind like this."


    I put a wooden block in front and the button behind before pressing it which made the piston activate and moved the block.


    After a few seconds, it retracted to the item''s previous position.


    "-it would bring it back, if there wasn''t slime at the end, then the block would''ve stayed away from the piston."


    The Enderwoman seemed very interested in this as she kept pressing the button constantly until she decided to hold it down, which made the piston stay extended.


    It was interesting but disturbing to see a four-block-tall monster play with something as simple as a piston.


    I decided to leave her be while I thought about what my next course of actions.


    I couldn''t stay here for too long otherwise the others would send a search team to see what I was doing. And I wasn''t too keen on sharing the loot that I just found with them.


    With Froggy and Bobby, no problem, maybe Merry a little, but the others I don''t trust them that much.


    Unfortunately, I can''t ask any of them for help, since all of them are busy with their lives and I didn''t want to put Froggy in the position of choosing a side after he made new friends.


    In the end, I decided to make a secret base underneath the Clan, or more exactly underneath my house, I''ll probably do a secret entrance as well, hopeful it would stay hidden until I bring everything back to my original base.


    I intend to use a lodestone to navigate through the Nether and get back faster, but for that, I need a Netherite Ingot.


    My head was starting to hurt from all the preparations I needed to do.


    Small steps, first let''s loot every that I found here.


    With that I started my plan, first I filled my inventory with all the other items that I could, then I went back to my temporary base, but this time putting torches everywhere I could.


    I don''t want to walk with all this loot and be naked.


    The lights should keep out the monsters from spawning and I only needed to kill the ones already there.


    It was a dangerous task, but the fact that I was fully equipped with an enchanted diamond armor made it more possible.


    The Enderwoman decided to stop playing with the piston and instead watched me while I fought with the monsters.


    "Hey, you! Can''t you help me out here a little? I would greatly appreciate a hand!"


    I yelled at her, but the only response I got was laughter, so I gave up on that. As long as she didn''t attack me that was fine.


    My way to the base was mostly lit, now I shouldn''t have any problems with the monsters, so I decided to put the ores to smelt and expand my other room, I had to make another one since there were a lot of chests to be filled.


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    That''s what I''ve been doing for the next few days.


    Get to the base, took whatever I thought was valuable or useful, brought it back to my base, put it in sorted chests, went back to do the same until I was to tierd, and went to sleep.


    Honestly, the most annoying and time-consuming part was sorting the items.


    Some of them were unique, while others were just in great mass, by the end I had over ten double chests of storage that I had to move back to another base.


    This is going to be a nightmare to do.


    While I was working hard the Enderwoman decided to enjoy my suffering from the sidelines, that was until one day which I could only assume was curiosity she picked up a chest.


    "You can do that?! Wait put it down so I can see if the items are still there!"


    She put it down and I quickly checked the chests where I saw that everything was in order.


    "Why didn''t you help me beforehand, I could''ve finished everything days ago!"


    The Enderwoman just shrugged her shoulder, and I could only assume that even she didn''t know she could do that.


    I could only sigh in frustration.


    "OK, can you help me move all of those chests to the next location then?"


    She started to think about my request before teleportation away and back with the piston in her hands.


    She placed it down and pointed at it then at her.


    "You want me to give you the Redstone items in return?"


    She denied that, then started to point at me, at the piston then at her.


    But I couldn''t understand what she was saying so in frustration, she kept teleporting other Redstone items and pointing at them.


    "Do you want me to show you all the Redstone crafts?"


    She moved her hand to go higher, which meant that I was on the right track at least.


    "Do you want me to teach you how to use Redstone?"


    This seems to be the answer since she aggressively nodded yes.


    "OK, I don''t know too much about this, but I''ll teach you what I know. In return you''re going to help me move a few chests, is that alright with you?"


    She was happy with that deal, and I was happy as well since I didn''t want to continue moving chests worth of items without shocker boxes.


    I went into the cave system since I had more space and started to lay all the blocks that the Enderwoman found, since theoretically I couldn''t craft most of them.


    "So this is a slime block and a honey block, I know it sounds stupid and it doesn''t have any Redstone, but it would all make sense once I explain it to you. Those two can move blocks away from the piston-like this."


    I then pushed a button that activated the piston which pushed a slime block that had a stone on the side.


    "See, the piston didn''t touch the block but it still moved. You can move twelve blocks with a piston before it would stop. Also, those are repeaters... "


    I continued explaining to her everything that I remembered about Redstone, while I wasn''t an expert in it I did know a few things, and the lesson ended with me showing her a flying machine since that was one of the things that I remembered and still be impressive.


    And I was right since she''s been playing with it ever since I started it.


    After everything was done, I decided to take a nap and let her play with it until she got bored, and then we can start the real job.


    With that, I went to bed and slept.


    -----


    I slowly woke up with a shadow leaning over me.


    "What the-"


    I hit the floor which fully woke me up and realized that the shadow was the Enderwoman who seemed confused about my outburst.


    "Don''t ever, do that again!"


    I got up and ate something to make me feel better.


    Was she always watching me while I slept?


    Nope, don''t want to think about that, let''s just ignore that possibility though.


    "Did you get bored of the flying machine?"


    I got a no.


    "Then why did you stop?"


    She just pointed back at the cave, and when I looked I realized what the problem was.


    She most likely tried to build it in another direction to fly but the observers were placed wrong which meant that it didn''t work.


    "I''ll show you once again after we''re done doing my part, ok?"


    While reluctant she accepted my deal and moved back into the temporary base.


    "Can you hold a double chest?"


    She raised her shoulders and went to try.


    To my pleasant surprise she could with no problem, the fact that she was so huge most likely helped.


    "Ok, I want you to bring those to the end of the tunnel where then I''ll make a room to hide them."


    But the Enderwoman shook her head.


    "What do you mean you won''t do it, I kept my end of the deal, now it''s your turn."


    She rolled her eyes and put the chest down while getting closer to the tunnel, then she pointed to the size of the tunnel, then at her size, she did this a few times just to be sure I understood her.


    "I see the problem, sorry about that, how far can you teleport, over ten blocks?"


    A nod.


    "Over thirty?"


    Another nod.


    "Over fifty?"


    I said with a surprised voice and still got a yes.


    "Over one hundred!?"


    This time I got I different reaction, which was a hand that meant for me to stop.


    "So exactly one hundred."


    Another shocking confirmation. That was a lot of books to travel in an instant.


    "Ok I''ll make some big rooms every one hundred blocks, then you can teleport, this way I can prepare the room as well."


    She gave me a nod in understanding, so I got to work.


    "1, 2, 3,...., 56, 57, 58,...., 98, 99, 100!"


    I quickly made a room five blocks tall and three blocks wide and continued to count.


    This took me a few hours to finish, but I preferred to do this over mining the whole tunnel or transporting the items myself.


    Once I arrived at the end of the tunnel I started to mine the new storage room, this time it would be hidden so I had to be careful with it.


    But since I didn''t need to worry about decorations the work was done pretty fast.


    After a break to eat something I went back to the Enderwoman almost gasping from running.


    "Ok, I''ve done all I could, now it''s your turn. Place the chests as you find them here in the room on the other side."


    The Enderwoman stopped from playing with her Redstone and got to work.


    It was an amazing sight to see, chests filled with items were disappearing at great speed, and after an hour it was all gone.


    She would be the greatest thief in history if she had this as a job.


    Good thing she wasn''t interested in that.


    With everything over I decided to block the tunnel that led to this cave.


    I put gravel, diorite, and other blocks to block the original tunnel, then I started a few decoys before finally getting back to the new storage room.


    As requested, it was all placed as before, so there wasn''t a problem with me finding items.


    I sealed off the room and prepared to start phase two.


    "I''m going to the surface, you can stay here or come with mine while invisible, your choice."


    The Enderwoman suddenly disappeared right in front of my eyes, which meant that she would be coming with me.


    Well, she did such a good job up until now, I won''t tell her what to do.


    "Time to get some sunlight."


    I then walked towers the surface.

 Chapter 110. Festival

    I arrived at the surface after days of being underground, and the fresh air running through my hair made me feel better than I expected.


    Humans truly are meant to live on the surface.


    Luckily it was still in the middle of the day, so I wouldn''t attract any unwanted attention by looking like I was sneaking in the middle of the night.


    First I went to check on my house and saw that it was exactly as I left it, which was a good thing, then I went under the wooden structure to look and see if I could make a secret tunnel.


    Since I was in a swamp my movements were more obstructed than usual, and unfortunately, I couldn''t see a way to make a piler under my house that would not be obvious, even though nobody had a reason to be here at all.


    The risk was too high, so I had to go with plan B, not the most pleasant one.


    As I was preparing to get all the items I needed and empty my inventory, suddenly a voice spoke beyond the door.


    "Trader, your back!"


    I quickly turned and saw Catharine at the door with a shocked face.


    "Oh Catharine, long time no see, yeah I just got back, anything interesting that I missed?"


    "Besides the festival that is tonight nothing else. Seriously first you went missing for three days when you went mining and now a full weak? Next time should we expect you to come back in a month?"


    While she seems worried, I can also tell she''s amused by my situation.


    But from what she just told me a few things have happened.


    A week has passed and they apparently have a festival.


    When did they decide to do that?


    What''s the occasion, do I need to bring something?


    I was just too tired and lost to think about a solution so I only chuckled at her joke.


    "Well with how further I have to mine to get to a new cave system, there''s a high chance that would happen."


    She only rolled her eyes at my response.


    "Good thing you told Froggy where you went, otherwise everyone would start to panic."


    "Why would they? I haven''t done anything considered dangerous while I stayed here."


    Except breaking their magic wall to study it and lying about my connections.


    But they didn''t know about that, so what was the problem?


    "Says the guy who mysteriously disappeared after hunting a witch to kill an actual monster that terrorized a whole kingdom. Who knows what kind of weapon are you preparing when you disappear."


    She brushed it off as a joke, but I could tell she was actually scared of me which didn''t make me feel good.


    I didn''t have any bad intentions for this place, so I didn''t want to have problems with it now.


    "So you know about that as well, news travels I see. How many people know about this?"


    "Everyone in the Clan. It''s hard to keep a secret in here unless the Elders are involved, you''ll be surprised how quickly things can spread when you have a bunch of bored people in one place."


    The operation secret base got harder than anticipated now.


    "Well, I only went mining and had great results. That''s why I came back to the surface. For this festival do I need to bring something? Also, what is it for?"


    She only chuckled at my confusion.


    "It''s because we managed to integrate ourselves with the Stone Kingdome, as for what to bring? Yourself is enough."


    She smiled and went on with her day.


    I was still sitting there in one place thinking of what my next course of action should be, settling on getting some rest before taking any other decisions.


    ----


    I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.


    Looking outside it was starting to get late, but the Clan was not getting ready to sleep, instead, they were ready to have some fun.


    I got out and walked towards the growing noise, soon arriving at the biggest building in this place.


    The Elders house.


    Everywhere I looked there were witches, some of them were talking with each other, others were eating, some were singing and others were actually brewing some potions.


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    Everyone had fun in their own ways, but I felt a little awkward since I didn''t know what to do now.


    First I went to get some food, and that would be one of the best places to find someone to talk with anyway.


    On the long table sat a few interesting food choices, such as fried chicken and frog, or slime pie and jelly, everyone contributed to the festival one way or another, which only made me feel worse that I didn''t do anything.


    "Eh Fancy pick! Good to have you back, I heard you disappeared for a whole week when you went mining, how can you even do it?"


    I turned around with a frog''s leg still in my mouth only to see one of the usual miner''s looking at me with a smirk.


    "Hello to you as well friend. I heard the preparations from the underground so I had to check out what was making all this noise. I thought another monster Lord spawned."


    The man started to laugh while holding his belly.


    Unfortunately, I completely forgot his name so I didn''t want to continue this discussion for too long.


    "So did you get something good at least?"


    "Of course I did, why else would I''ve stayed so long underground otherwise?"


    "Good, you can show us what you got after this is all over, maybe you managed to pass the old record. Twenty iron blocks and four diamonds."


    Oh, I easily surpassed that goal on the first day.


    "Sounds like fun."


    Then he went to get some drinks while I went to see the music group.


    It was an interesting thing to see since they had some handmade instruments.


    Something similar to a drummer, made with cow skin placed on a composter with no bottom.


    There was always something similar to a guitar made with a spider spring. This world was truly amazing.


    "Trader, you''re not supposed to stay in one place when music is playing you''re supposed to dance!"


    Catherine appeared from behind and grabbed my hand to go to the dance floor, she looked like she drank a lot which probably explains her unusual behavior.


    "Oh look, Cathrined got someone again to dance with her, this is going to be fun."


    From the reaction of the others, this happens pretty often, but because they looked amused by this, it made me very hesitant to join her.


    "Sorry Cathrine, I''ll have to refuse you I don''t know how to-wha!"


    With strength that I didn''t know she was capable of I was flunked to the dance floor where she proceeded to throw some moves.


    While she was drunk, she actually knew how to dance pretty well, she had energy and elegance to it, and it was hard for me to keep up with her.


    That was until she saw me struggle to dance and decided to grab me and started a Vals.


    I lost complete control after that, and she was the one leading. Everyone seemed to have a laugh except for me, and it all ended with the two of us spinning five times before I was leaning on my back while she held me.


    Her eyes were looking directly at me, then she lost focus and a horrifying sound came afterward.


    She started vomiting all over me.


    While her mind was up for that dance, her body not so much.


    Everyone laughed and I decided to take a bath and clean myself.


    Cathrine was already sleeping on a bench forgetting everything that happened, wish I could''ve done the same.


    With quick steps, I was getting home to clean myself only to bumble into Froggy together with the rest of the team.


    "Trader! How are you- are you ok?"


    "Hey Froggy, as you can see a small accident happened, and now I want to get myself cleaned."


    Froggy seemed worried before looking at the others.


    "I''ll help Trader to not get in any more accidents, I''ll see you all later."


    They said their goodbyes and went to the party.


    On the way to my house we talked about what he was doing, if he was still training and he seemed very excited to share everything with me.


    In the end, I arrived at my house and Froggy decided to wait for me outside.


    I got inside and prepared something that could be considered a shower and put a bucked of water on top to have running water.


    Then I took off my shirt and started to clean it by hand, it would take a while.


    "I''m sorry I didn''t hang out with you in the past few days."


    I stopped cleaning and wondering what he was talking about.


    "What are you talking about man? I know you made some new friends I also know how important is to make a strong bond with them."


    "Yes, but I feel like I''ve given them too much attention and ignored my other friend, maybe that''s why you went for mining for so long. You didn''t even tell me when you got back, which made me angry, but then I realized that you don''t even know where I''ll be with how little time we spent."


    Oh boy, Froggy was more honest and courageous than 90% of people that I know on earth by speaking up before stuff got truly bad.


    And honestly, I can understand his point of view, he truly did kind of ditch me recently for his new friends, which would make anyone mad. Unfortunately, I was so preoccupied with other projects that I didn''t even realize that this could be a problem, and the fact that I didn''t feel disappointed made me a little sad.


    That means that I wasn''t paying enough attention to see that this friendship was slowly growing apart.


    "Don''t worry Froggy, I don''t blame you for anything, and I''m not even mad, it''s also my fault a little that I was too busy with my projects recently to try and connect with you. And don''t feel bad about making new friends, it''s not like well be less friends if you hang out with other people, it''s just that you now have a choice on what to do, you don''t have to wait after me anymore. You can make your own choices without thinking about how I would react."


    I started to realize that kept ending up alone in most of my time here, Bobby was too busy with his new job, Merry was literally the hero and now Froggy is making new friends.


    But the more I thought, new revelations appeared, I could stay with Bobby if I wanted to, I''m sure the King would be more than happy to accommodate me even with our troublesome past, and with Froggy I could''ve tried to hang out more around him, I''m sure I coul''ve join his group.


    But I didn''t do any of those, because I was afraid of getting too close to them, It was an issue in my old world as well, but here it''s worse because unconsciously I don''t want to get too attached to them, I was afraid that I wouldn''t want to get back to my old world anymore, to my family, to my friends.


    It''s not like I was dead last thing I remember, so they sill look out for me.


    In the end, I could only sigh. I didn''t even know if could get back, Merry didn''t mention anything about when she came or spoke with the System, so why limit myself to something that I don''t know would happen, I should live my life here as well, not get myself busy with work.


    I finished cleaning myself and the shirt, I took a leather chest plate from the chest since I didn''t have anything to wear while it was getting dried.


    "Trader, I think I want to stay here, no I want to stay here with the other witches. Sorry that I broke my promise."


    Once I got out Froggy spoke to me and looked directly into my eyes.


    And it hurt more than I expected. Way to shut a door before it even opens.


    "I understand Froggy and I''m happy that you chose this, I''m sure the others would be happy to hear about this as well."


    He gave a sigh of relief and we walked back to the festival.


    I wasn''t mad at him, maybe a little disappointed that this happened, but I truly meant what I said, I''m happy for his new life, it''s probably safer this way since I intend to get into some trouble sometime soon.


    But that didn''t mean that I wasn''t bothered by it, maybe I should take some of that alcohol that everyone keeps telling me it''s like medicine for sorrow.


    Soon we were back to the party.

 Chapter 111. Sneaky building

    I woke up with the worst headache that I had in my life and that was enough proof for me.


    "I''m never drinking again no matter how sad I get."


    I got up from the bed much slower than usual, feeling happy that at least I managed to get back to my own house and not someone else''s.


    I drank some water to hydrate myself and got out to feel the warmth of the sun wash over me.


    "Good morning Trader, the festival was pretty good last night right?"


    I looked towards the voice to see a witch that I recognized but didn''t know the name.


    "Yeah, it was fun but now I have to pay the price for that."


    I massage my head to alleviate the headache.


    "Yeah, why didn''t you drink any milk yet? Or did you run out without realizing?"


    "Why would I drink milk?"


    There are no cereals in this world so I can''t have that breakfast.


    "What do you mean why? Hangover it''s just a status effect, you can get rid of it in an instance with milk."


    I was surprised by the sudden information and brought up my status page, and as I was told, I had a poison debuff.


    It must''ve been pretty weak since my health didn''t go down, but instead, this would keep up for another three hours.


    "Thanks for the tip, I didn''t know about it."


    "No wonder you don''t like alcohol, it must''ve been a nightmare to wait out the poison. Good luck with finding some milk!"


    The strange witch then left after saying goodbye.


    "Well, that was something."


    I looked all over my house for any bucket of milk but no luck, I had to buy one, or maybe someone would give it to me if I asked nicely.


    I thought about my options and quickly eliminated everyone until I arrived at Froggy.


    "Well, I did promise myself to hang out with him more, even if he wants to stay here."


    First I had a quick breakfast with golden carrots and then went on to Froggy''s house.


    Once I arrived I knocked at his door but no response, which meant he was still sleeping or that he was gone.


    "One way to find out."


    I opened the door and saw that Froggy was sleeping comfortably in his bed as I expected.


    I gave a sigh but decided not to wake him, I didn''t have a reason this time and it would be just plain rude if I did it just to ask him for some milk.


    I looked through his chest and found out what I was looking for, and he had several buckets of those.


    One empty bucket later I felt back to normal and ready for the day, but I didn''t want to just leave like a thief so I left a note saying what I took and put it under a golden bar as payment.


    "I''m sure he will be very confused when he wakes up."


    I smiled imagining the reaction and then left his house.


    "Time to get to work I guess."


    But first I needed to do some preparations for that, so I went to buy some potions who as always were dirt cheap compared to anywhere else.


    The fact that everyone here can make any potion made by the System probably helps.


    With everything prepared, I went to action.


    I arrived at my house where I drank a potion of invisibility, water breathing, and night vision once I was sure nobody was watching me.


    Then I jumped into the swamp and stopped exactly under my house, then I swam down and started to dig three blocks down right beside a wooden pillar.


    Once I was done I broke two blocks in the walls and quickly placed a door which made the water stop entering the new tunnel.


    Now I could work in peace without the water bothering me, and the lights from the torches wouldn''t give out the location.


    I dug a little further then went straight down to the deepslate layer where I stopped.


    Of course, I didn''t forget to put stairs on the walls so I could get back up after this.


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    At this level, I can make a base since miners don''t tend to mine around here since it''s annoying to keep mining two different blocks where one is harder than the other.


    So I made an underground base six blocks tall and fifteen blocks wide on each side, the decoration was pretty simple by my standards, only stone bricks and wooden pillars.


    Of course, I didn''t forget to light this room up with some lanterns, and everything was done, now I only needed to connect it with the mine.


    "Hey, are you here?"


    Suddenly she appeared out of nowhere like I expected.


    Looks like this base wasn''t deep enough after all.


    "I''ll connect this to the mine, can you help me with the chests once again?"


    The Enderwoman thought for a bit before saying no.


    "Why?"


    Then with her hand, she made one motion from one place to another but had a lot of sudden stops in the middle.


    "Because I didn''t bring the flying machine from the cave?"


    She quickly nodded her head.


    "Sorry about that, I still have some Redstone items in one of my chests I can make you another one. How about this, if you help me now and in the future, I''ll make you a room only for yourself where you can use all the Redstone you want."


    This made her think for a minute before accepting the deal, which made me happy.


    I didn''t have to transport the items once again.


    With the deal made I started to break blocks towards the mine, remembering to make small rooms every one hundred blocks so my friend could teleport.


    It took me a few good hours but I finally arrived at one of the mined tunnels, so I only had to find the main entrance.


    After another half an hour, I arrived where I last placed the chests and broke the blocks, where to my relief was all in the same place.


    "Ok, can you do it from here?"


    The Enderwoman appeared, took a chest, and disappeared and half a minute later appeared with her hands empty.


    That was good.


    For the next hour everything was moved once again but this time I could sleep well at night without having to worry that someone would break into my secret storage and loot everything.


    Of course, the new base wasn''t the safest place either, but it was way better than being so close to the tunnel network.


    Once everything was moved I covered the tunnel that I made with stone but left the big rooms in case the Enderwoman wanted to teleport to the mines quickly and undisturbed.


    That took another hour to finish and I was already tired from all the work that I''d done for today.


    "Thank you for the help Enderwoman, actually do you have a name that I can call you by, since calling you only this seems kind of bad."


    She shook her head as no.


    "Do you have a name in mind?"


    She stood there for a minute and then pointed at me.


    "You want me to find you a name?"


    I saw a yes.


    That wasn''t good, I''m not that good with names, what can I call a tall purple monster?


    "Violet! What do you think about Violet?"


    That''s close to purple and violent, I think that would suit her well.


    She thought for a little before accepting my idea and I was happy and proud.


    "Nice to meet you, Violet. Now I''m a little tired from all the work I''ve done today, tomorrow I promise that I''ll make your room."


    Violet seemed disappointed that she wouldn''t get her room today but still nodded her head in understanding.


    I claimed the long ladder and arrived at a wooden door, where I stopped.


    "Claiming stairs is so hard, my hands are so sore right now, that''s why elevators are superior!"


    After a quick break, I held my breath and opened the door before quickly closing it behind me so the water wouldn''t pass.


    Now I was in murky water, but didn''t have to swim a lot to get to the surface.


    I quickly looked and nobody was around to see me, then I placed some stairs on the wooden piler and broke the wooden block on top.


    I climbed the stairs and now I was in my house while nobody knew better.


    Quickly I covered the newly made hole and went to wash over it.


    I was going to do this often and I wasn''t too excited about this anymore.


    After everything was done, I ate something and got out to see if Froggy was awake.


    The sun was slowly setting but there was still daylight. After searching around I finally found Froggy training with the others on the big grass patch of the Clan.


    So I sat down and looked at them to entrain myself a little.


    Ellen was yelling orders and different formations while everyone moved with practiced movements.


    It was pretty impressive to see, similar to an army show in my old world but on a smaller scale.


    After everyone was done I walked and greeted them.


    "Awesome exercise guys! Anyone interested in some food?"


    I then took some bread and cooked chicken out of my inventory to show it to them, which made me instantly popular.


    The saying was right, after all, the best way to someone''s heart is through their stomach.


    "Thank you, Trader, what have you been doing today?"


    "Ehh, nothing much, just preparing some stuff since I want to raise my Crafting skill. Is anyone interested in golden shovels?"


    "You can craft with gold! That''s pretty impressive, but sorry I don''t think I can afford something so precious that would brake after two swings."


    Everyone laughed at that joke as we all sat down to eat.


    Froggy seems to enjoy the food and the company so that was good, keeping my promise.


    The reason for telling them my high level in Crafting was for a few reasons, maybe someone would request me to make an item for them which would make me some connection if this spreads.


    Another reason is that more people would know why I won''t be walking in public for a few days since I will be too busy with my Crafting.


    This way I''ll be able to make a portal and gather some materials from there.


    "I hope you''ll get where you want, I don''t know too many high-crafting recipes but I think Elder Rumba will be able to help you with that if needed."


    Sara tried to encourage me, which I appreciated.


    But I already have a path planned so I''m going to use that until the dimand level.


    We kept talking like this for a few hours until everyone was tired and wanted to go home.


    It was a nice break to have from working so much recently, while I wouldn''t say I''m an introvert I do like to keep that kind of conversations special and not too often.


    When I arrived home someone was already waiting for me there.


    "Violet, why are you visible!"


    I quickly looked in the windows to see if anything was passing and saw a four-block monster in my house, but luckily no one was there.


    Her response was more aggressive than usual because she sounded like an angry Enderman.


    And coming from her was much scarier to hear.


    "Did something happen, did I do something wrong?"


    She stopped screaming and looked at me with narrow eyes before teleporting out of my house.


    "What was that all about?"


    Confused I looked around the house to see what was the reason for her change of mood only to find everything as I left.


    I waited for half an hour in case she got back, I tried to talk with the air in case she was here but invisible but that only made me look like a crazy person.


    "Well if you can''t talk about it, I can''t help you! If you don''t appear right now, I''ll be going to sleep."


    I waited for a few seconds and no change.


    I''ve done what I could, I''m going to sleep.

 Chapter 112. Start Crafting

    I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for work, the sun was just rising so I had plenty of time to use.


    "Ok let''s get started."


    Golden carrots in my hand while looking at the wall trying to imagine how I would make a furnace system besides the crafting table.


    I was thinking of putting a chest connected to a hopper that would put the shovels into the furnace and once the furnace is done another hopper would take the golden nuggets ready to be reused.


    I know it''s a waste but I don''t have any reason to keep a few chests filled with golden shovels.


    With my breakfast done I started to work on my setup, which only took half an hour at most.


    "Everything is done up here, I now have to only get dirty once again."


    I sighed not too excited for what I was about to do, I checked around the house in case anyone was looking after me or spying on me before braking a block from my wooden floor.


    Beneath the block there was a staircase that led to nowhere in the water, I carefully got down and put the wooden block back.


    Once in the water, I walked a little falling in the water.


    I didn''t panic as I expected this, and the fall wasn''t for too long as I arrived at the bottom.


    Then I felt around with my hands until I recognized the wooden door which I quickly opened.


    Before the water was about to pass the door, I quickly entered and closed it behind me.


    Once I opened my eyes I could see the light emitted by the flame of the torch exactly as I left it yesterday.


    Then I went down the long stairway arriving at my secret base.


    But someone was already there waiting for me.


    "You scared me, Violet, were you here the whole night?"


    The big Enderwoman seems to take residence in my humble base.


    At least she didn''t seem angry anymore which was a good thing.


    Speaking about her, I did promise I would finish her room today.


    I should finish with that before I get myself into crafting and forget everyone around me.


    I don''t want to make her more mad, who knows how she would react.


    "I came here to finish your room."


    This made her smile a little, even though it was a little creepy to see.


    I looked around the room thinking about where I should start breaking the wall.


    It didn''t truly matter since I didn''t plan to make another room anyway, probably a small portal room at most.


    In the end, I decided to break the wall opposite the chests.


    I made sure to make a high door and the room to be as big as mine since she needed to put her items all over the place.


    This project took me around two hours to finish but I was getting used to, so my speed started to increase with time.


    Once the room was done I thought about how I should decorate or if I should do that at all.


    The builder in me couldn''t accept to leave it like that so I put white concrete on the walls, nether bricks on the ceiling with some lanterns, and stripped logs on the floor.


    It wasn''t one of the best builds that I made, but it was way better than just stone, dirt, and diorite.


    "What do you think Violet, do you like it?"


    The Enderwoman seemed to be excited about her new room, she kept teleporting from one corner to another with her creepy smiles.


    "Do you feel better than yesterday?"


    She stopped and looked at me for a second before giving me a nod.


    I was forgiven.


    I think...


    I''m still not sure if I''m the reason she was mad, to begin with, it''s hard to communicate with someone who doesn''t speak.


    "You can take whatever Redstone item you want from the chest, you know which one."


    As I was about to leave she teleported in from of me and crossed her arms in an X shape.


    "What''s the problem did you forget which chest?"


    She just walked to a chest, opened it, and put her hand in it only to stop after a block.


    "You don''t have access to inventory''s chest?"


    She nodded her head as yes.


    I didn''t know only humans can use the System''s chest.


    Or maybe only monsters can''t, since the piligers and the piglings can still use it.


    Are they still human or another species altogether?


    Didn''t matter, Violet wanted her items and she didn''t have access to them.


    So I looked through the Redstone''s chest and took out some pistons, Redstone dust, repeaters, observers, slime blocks, honey blocks, and a button.


    Then I went to her room and placed all the items down.


    But she still seemed unsatisfied, until I remembered that I promised to make her the flying machine again.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "I''m going to make the flying machine once again, so pay close attention."


    Suddenly she was happy and right behind me as I started to build and explain everything to her.


    After I was done, I wished her to have fun and filled my inventory with gold bars, ready to start crafting.


    I exited my secret base, broke into my house, and took a shower to wash off the swamp water.


    But now I was ready.


    I kept a stack of gold bars in my inventory, took some oak wood, and made it into planks and then into sticks.


    With two sticks and one golden bar on the crafting table, I started to merge the recipe with the hammer on the side of the crafting table.


    I now had a golden shovel in my hand, it was very different than the other shovels, it looked more majestic if I would describe it.


    But I still prefer the design of the diamond tools, it feels like they''re moded.


    With a sad sigh, I put the shove into the furnace now to be smelted.


    I opened up my skills tab to see my progress.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 5


    13.800/1.000.000


    _Enchanting lvl 6


    470.130/10.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 4


    20.500/100.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    51.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "Only 300 XP?! No wonder it''s hard to get to the final level. I would need to craft a little over 3.000 shovels for that!"


    I didn''t even want to think how much I have to craft for the diamond level.


    I could already feel a headache coming and I wasn''t too fan of it.


    But I said that I would do it, so I will do it, no backing down.


    With a little more encouragement, I continued to hammer the recipe for the shovel.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t craft multiple items at once, instead, I could place a stack of items on the crafting table and it would still stay after one item was crafted, so I only needed to hit with the hammer and wave my hand through the hologram to receive the tool, then I was back to hammering.


    An hour passed, then two, then four, then half a day.


    For half a day I kept hammering at the crafting table making shovel after shovel.


    The furnace couldn''t keep up with me so I had to put a few chests beside me to store the tools.


    At one point I just left them on the ground giving up on storing them nicely.


    They''re all going to end up as nuggets anyway.


    "I have to eat something otherwise I''ll faint here."


    "Finally finished for today?"


    I quickly turned around to see who snuck up on me.


    It was Catharine, and she seemed bored out of her mind but also a little scared in case I was getting back to work.


    "Catharine! How long have you been there?"


    "I stopped keeping count after two hours, please tell me you won''t get back to work now."


    I sat down on the chair and took some golden carrots to eat.


    "I intend to take a break for now, what''s the occasion for the visit?"


    "I was sent to tell you one thing, actually two things."


    Suddenly she bowed to me.


    "I''m sorry for what happened at the festival, I was drunk and didn''t do that intentionally."


    Oh yeah, I got vomited on, not a pleasant memory for either of us, I tried to forget it as much as possible, I have a lot on my mind anyway so that was pretty easy.


    "Don''t worry, happens to the best of us, just drink more responsibly next time."


    "Thank you, as for the real reason that I''m here, Elder Flora asked you to visit her when you''re free."


    "A request from the Elder!? Why didn''t you stop me then?"


    "I tried ok, but no matter how much I yelled you couldn''t hear me, and I didn''t know how you''d react if I disturbed your flow."


    "I didn''t realize that, sorry for making you wait for so long, I''ll visit her now thank you for the message."


    She gave a tired sigh but was relieved that everything went well.


    "Don''t worry, this is my job after all."


    With this, she left my house, and I continued to eat the rest of the golden carrots.


    After I had my fill I went to see what Elder Flora wanted from me.


    At the huge house, the butler was the one to open the door already expecting me, he told me that Flora was in her office and I could go directly there.


    After I said my thanks I went directly upstairs and knocked on the door.


    *knock knock


    "Come in."


    I opened the door and saw that the Elder was relaxing on her chair and drinking something that I could only assume to be tea.


    It''s hard to tell from this far apart, and it''s not a commonly used drink after all.


    "Elder Flora, you wanted to talk with me?"


    "Yes Trader, do you want a cup of tea perhaps?"


    I looked at the square clay cup and the small handmade coldrun beside it.


    "Sure, I would love to have a cup of tea."


    She only smiled and poured me a cup as well.


    It was still hot as steam was rising from the cup, and after a sip, I could tell it was with berries.


    It was good but I preferred it more sweet.


    "Ellen told me you used an interesting weapon on the mission to capture the rogue witch."


    I stopped and thought what she was talking about, perhaps the bell?


    But that wasn''t truly a weapon, and from what I could tell it only worked for me.


    "He told me you used fireworks instead of arrows, and it had greater results. I want to put an order for you to make two stacks of those for the Clan."


    "That''s a lot of firepower, but I should be able to do it. What would be my payment?"


    "Since only you know how to do those in the whole Clan, I will give an enchanted token to pass the mist."


    That was a pretty good deal, It means that they accepted me as a friend and I can come back here any time I want.


    I could accept the deal like this, but I feel like I can get some more, I''m the only one that can make them unless they go to a big town, but still, it would be very expensive for them.


    "That sounds pretty good, but I don''t think it would be enough."


    This seemed to take her by surprise, which only made me smile.


    I won''t be on the losing end anymore, I should represent the nickname that I have at least.


    "Is the recipe that hard perhaps?"


    "Not, it''s very easy, but one of the ingredients is gunpowder."


    She nodded in understanding once I said that.


    While monsters don''t attack them usually, if they start a fight the monsters will fight back, and even if you want to buy it, it''s heavily regulated and sold in small quantities.


    "What do you have in mind?"


    That was the best question that I could''ve got.


    "I heard you one of the older witches in the Clan, I''m curious to see if you have some unique potions of your own by any chance?"


    She smiled realizing what I wanted, but still got up and took five glowing potions from her chest and put them on the desk.


    "This is what I''m willing to part with, but you can only take two."


    I looked at all of them with excitement and took the first bright green bottle to see its effect.


    -Luck 2


    I did not expect to see something so great right from the start, how was this even possible?


    "How long will this last?"


    "You''re not even curious about what it does?"


    "I''ve heard legends about it, but never thought it possible. Any chance you can share the recipe with me?"


    "It would last for 30 minutes"


    She said that with a smile but didn''t say anything else.


    I took the next potion which was bright pink.


    -Feather falling


    This disappointed me a little since it wasn''t costume-made, I know you can brew it with the System.


    It''s probably here because it requires a high level of the Brewing skill.


    I took the next one which was dark purple.


    And this time I was shocked.


    -Invincibility


    "Is this what I think is?"


    "Yes, but it would last you only three seconds."


    Still, it was a good potion.


    The fourth one was murky yellow.


    - XP boost


    "How are you not dead? I''m sure the System is not too pleased with this."


    "The System already punished me once, there''s no point in doing it once more. Also, that would last for 10 minutes and you can drink one once a month, 50% boost in anything."


    She said that with a smile like she didn''t just show me something that would make nations go to war.


    This makes me wonder what kind of adventures she''s been through to have this kind of item.


    I looked at the last potion with wonder.


    It was emerald green and cold to the touch.


    -Jump boost 5


    I was disappointed but also surprised. In comparison with some others, it didn''t seem too much, but it''s still something better than what the System makes.


    Of the five presented only three were truly amazing and unfortunately, I could only choose two.


    In the end, I decided to get the Luck and Invincibility potion.


    Sure I could take the Xp boost to help me with crafting, but it''s too short of a time that it can be used.


    With Luck, I can at least gather some ores with Silk Toch, then go crazy afterward.


    "Those are some amazing potions, I''ll probably buy more from you at a later date. Tomorrow I will send the fireworks as well. Pleasure doing business with you."


    We each gave a warm smile to each other before I left.


    Time to get back to crafting.

 Chapter 113. Another day another shovel

    The next morning came with the sun warming up the Clan, and I was back at the crafting table hitting the hammer to get another golden shovel.


    Over the night the furnace was non-stop working and it managed to go through a double chest while I slept.


    I tried to be as efficient as possible with the repetitive tasks, I also liked switching to organizing around once I was getting bored of hammering in one place.


    After a few hours, it was noon, and I decided to take a break and eat something.


    "Ugh, my hand is getting sore from all those vibrations. At least no one was waiting for me this time around."


    Speaking of this, I should go down to my secret base to get some gunpowder.


    It''s amazing how much stuff they stored in those ruins, and it was one of the smaller ones.


    I can''t even imagine what a huge ruin will hold.


    With my breakfast done, I looked around once more before jumping into the dirty water.


    After I arrived at my base I heard some pistons moving in the other room.


    This made me curious so I looked at Violet''s room, and I was shocked by what I saw.


    Every block in the room had Redstone dust or a Redstone machine.


    A piston was throwing up some gravel, a minecart was running over a rail with a pressure plate that activated a dispenser that shot nothing, but on top of the dispenser was a hopper which made me think she managed to actually use the dispenser.


    Some other weird contractions were all over the place, and all of them surrounded a massive Enderwoman in the middle of the room not even realizing that I was there.


    She looked tired from her small eyes, and I didn''t even know that a monster could get tired.


    Looks like she''s been going at this since yesterday.


    That''s more than a whole day!


    And here I thought I was a bad workaholic.


    "Violet! You''re too tired to do any other contractions, get some rest, then you can go back, nobody will take anything from here."


    The Enderwoman was startled by the sudden noise before seeing me and calming down.


    She started blinking rapidly and looked around the room one more time.


    Then she made an Enderman noise before teleportation to a corner of the room sat down and closed her eyes.


    The noises didn''t seem to bother her as soon she was breathing ritually already asleep.


    She was tired and already asleep, with the constant noise in the room I could sneak up to her and cut her head with one swing.


    If I wanted to get rid of her, this was my chance.


    I looked at her for a few moments before leaving the room.


    While she''s a monster obsessed with me, she didn''t do anything bad to me, actually, she helped me more often than not.


    This made me rethink if monsters have a path of redemption but I didn''t give them the chance.


    Or was she a special case?


    She is different than others after all.


    In the end, I could only sigh as I took a stack of gunpowder, sugarcane and filled the rest of my inventory with golden blocks.


    I haven''t finished my gold yet, but if I can avoid a trip down here and get soaked why not do it?


    I looked around once more in case I was forgetting something and then went to the surface.


    Once in my house, I quickly took a shower and went back to the crafting table.


    First I made some pages with the sugar cane, then I used those pages together with gunpowder to make three fireworks.


    The recipe itself wasn''t too hard to remember and the materials were a little hard to get, but even with all of these they weren''t crafted that often since they had very little uses.


    Maybe that would change soon since people saw me use them as a weapons.


    After an hour I managed to craft the two stacks with no problems, so I decided to deliver the package now before I forget about it once I''m too preoccupied with the shovels.


    With a light jog, I arrived pretty quickly at the huge house, there I knocked on the wooden door with force.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    A few seconds later the door was opened and the butler greeted me.


    "Ah, Sir Trader, Madam Flora told me about your arrival. Are you here to deliver the package?"


    "Yes, do I go and meet with her or is it enough for me to give them to you?"


    "You can leave the items with me, here is the token that madam told me to give you."


    He then took a wooden token out of his inventory and gave it to me.


    I looked closer at the wooden token in my hand.


    It was made with dark wood which made the Enchantment more obvious to see. Now that I knew a little more about enchantment I could tell that it was written with high-level language enchantment, and I could finally see what was the enchantment.


    -Guidance


    The System wrote it in big bright letters for me to see.


    It was interesting to see and for sure I will be checking it later to see if I can replicate it.


    "Thank you, here are the fireworks, have a great day!"


    I gave him my part of the deal and left to finish my next course of action, which was to talk with Froggy and see how he was doing.


    He wasn''t at his house once I checked, so I had to ask around until someone told me he was at the bar, taking me by surprise since I didn''t expect him to go there of all places.


    I arrived there and got my answer as to why he was there in the first place.


    Froggy was sitting comfortably at a table and happily ate some green jello.


    Soon he saw me as well and waved for me to come to him.


    "Hey Froggy, no training for today?"


    "Yeah, the leader said we don''t have any mission for a while so we would only train two times a week. Rest of the days we are free to do whatever we want. How''s your project going?"


    "It''s going slow but pretty well, and I don''t even want to think about what items I would have to make once I get to the next level. From my calculations, I should finish this level in two weeks."


    "With your work ethic that''s actually a lot of time just hammering in one place. Why do you even want to urgently be a grandmaster? You know people work for years to level a skill, not weeks."


    "I know, but I don''t want to be limited on what I can craft anymore. It''s driving me insane that every time I have a big project to do, I have to go to the Nether and ask for help. Usually, that wouldn''t be a problem, but most of the time I''m not even at my base, and I can''t make a portal whenever. It''s so frustrating but I''ll solve all of those problems with time."


    We kept talking like this for a while until an idea came to me all of a sudden.


    "Do you by any chance have a speed potion on you?"


    "Speed potions? Unfortunately no, I don''t even have the ingredients to make one. I have to go shopping sometime soon to get some items as well. But you can ask the barman since he is usually the one that sells potions."


    Did he?


    That''s a weird side job to have.


    I turned to see a huge man with a purple apron cleaning a wooden cup like I''d seen in the movies.


    "Hi there, do you sell potions by any chance?"


    He only gave me a nod.


    "Cool, do you have a speed boost, invisibility, and fire resistance?"


    He stopped cleaning the cup and went in the back for a few seconds before coming back and placing the potions that I requested on the table.


    "60 emeralds."


    Cheap as always, but unfortunately I didn''t have emeralds on me so instead I placed two gold bars on top of his table.


    A gold bar was roughly 40 emeralds, so I was overpaying.


    The man was shocked which was an amusing sight to see.


    "You can keep the change, thanks for the potions."


    I took them and said my goodbyes to Froggy and left the bar.


    The sun was slowly getting down, but I still had a few good hours until the night came so I walked back to my house.


    Once I arrived there, I placed some more shovels to get smelted and began my experiment.


    I chugged the speed potion, suddenly feeling like everything was moving much slower around me.


    I then took the hammer and placed the recipe of the shovel on the crafting table, thank I started to hit it rapidly.


    To my pleasant surprise, this seemed to work as I finished the shovel much faster than normal.


    "I can''t believe this actually works! If I continue like this I should be finished in a week!"


    With this, I continued to make shovel after shovel.


    An hour passed, then two, then a day, and like that five days passed.


    The only thing I did was buy speed potions, craft shovels, eat, sleep, and repeat.


    But on the fifth day, I had to stop crafting, not because I leveled up, but for problems I did not expect to have.


    "How did I not have enough gold? I can''t believe I went through the whole storage in only five days."


    Even with me melting the shovels into nuggets and then crafting those into Ingots, it still wasn''t enough.


    Luckily I wasn''t too far from my next level, only a little under two stacks should be enough, and then I''ll be free from such limited resources.


    Once I finished with those, I''d have more than enough Redstone to get to the final level, I only needed to find the most optimal item to craft.


    With a sigh, I could only go buy some night vision potions and more speed boost, who knows it might be useful at mining as well.


    I didn''t plan to use my Luck potion since it would''ve been very wasteful without preparations.


    I could theoretically make a pickaxe with silk touch on it now if I tried really hard, there were some books in the ruins that thought System made Enchantments and I could copy from them.


    But if I was going to use it was going to be used on a diamond pickaxe made by my hand.


    Is it stupid to put such limitations on me?


    Probably, but I also didn''t want to go to the Coral Kingdom only to buy a pickaxe, otherwise, I''d have to visit every auction house in the other kingdoms to hope and get lucky on getting an overpriced pick.


    Or I could go and rob the Sandstone Kingdome?


    I did have the tools to break those walls now.


    No, it was too much risk only for petty revenge. I''m going to do that when I want to rob their Royal vault.


    Finally, I arrived in front of my tunnel in the mine, and as always I had company.


    "Listen, Violet, I want to make this mining trip as short as possible, no distractions no nothing. I only want the gold, and for that, I won''t be able to make the tunnel four blocks tall for you to fit. Sorry, you can''t come with me this time."


    Violet was very displeased with this, she started to yell at me, but I didn''t back down on this.


    She either was going to leave, or she was going to uncomfortably crawl through the small tunnels like last time.


    After she saw my lack of reaction, she just narrowed her eyes and teleported away.


    I could only give a sigh of relief that this didn''t escalate further.


    Then I turned towards the wall that I was going to mine and chugged the speed potion.


    The world started to slow down around me and I started to hit the wall right in front of me, and as I expected the work was getting done much faster.


    "I should use the speed potion for everything in my life, this is too useful not to use, how did nobody else try to do this?"


    I mined for the rest of the day until finally, I got the gold that I wanted. I ignored all the other ores as I promised with the exception of one.


    Redstone.


    I probably had enough already at home, but that''s what I thought with the gold as well, so better to be safe than sorry.

 Chapter 114. More preparations

    The day was rainy outside, heavy clouds hid the sun above the sky and thunders were making their presence known as the rulers of the sky.


    On days like those, people liked to sit comfortably in their homes, drinking a cup of tea, spending time with the family, or even watching the might of nature through their shelter''s window.


    But not everyone was doing that, in a well-hidden Clan, in a certain wooden hut, if someone was listening closely, the sounds of a hummer could be heard.


    "Finally! I''m done with this painful level!"


    With the final shovel made I quickly checked my skills tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 6


    32/10.000.000


    _Enchanting lvl 6


    470.130/10.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 4


    20.500/100.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    51.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "Level 6 baby! I can finally do something else."


    But first I needed to take a well-deserving brake, and Froggy was kind enough to make me a gift.


    I can''t believe ever since I''ve been transported into this world I haven''t tried this food yet.


    I took it out from the chest and pushed the shovels off the table.


    It was a cake.


    Like in the game, it was all white with red circles on top, but since I had this in real life I could see that it was a chocolate cake covered with white cream and apple slices on top.


    Where did the apples appear from since they weren''t part of the recipe?


    I gave up trying to understand the logic of this world a long time ago.


    With a wooden knife borrowed from the others, I cut myself a slice.


    Inside I could see that it was made with three layers of chocolate, with a thin layer of frosting in between.


    I took the first bite, and I was in love with it already.


    The pie was good as well, but this time I could feel the sugar in the food which dearly reminded me of my old world.


    I don''t know how long I stayed there enjoying the cake while looking at the rain outside, but when the last slice was done I was a little sad that the memory was gone.


    "I''ll have to thank Froggy for the gift once I meet him, probably going to make one as well."


    With the brake done, I got up and looked around me to see that it was a mess.


    Golden shovels were everywhere, but not only that, I could see some sticks thrown here and there and even a small pile of golden bars sitting in a corner.


    For the past few days a few witches passed by my house to see if I was still hitting with the hummer, I think I even became a local entertainment show, at least they were polite enough not to bother me or steal anything that I left on the floor.


    Of course, the exceptions were the shovels, since I was getting rid of them anyway, so if someone was tempted to take one as a souvenir I wouldn''t stop them.


    But finally, I was done with them, and Redstone items are stackable at least so I didn''t have to destroy them.


    Slowly I walked around the house and collected everything that was no use for me anymore.


    The furnace was still going strong and it would keep going like that for a few more hours, but in the end, I managed to clean everything around the house.


    Of course, not all the chests were placed that well, but they weren''t going to bother me for a while.


    I looked outside once more and saw that it was still raining heavily, but that didn''t mean that I wasn''t able to enter my secret base.


    With a sigh, I took out an iron axe from my inventory and broke a wooden block into the floor where I could see the muddy water.


    I took a deep breath and jumped down, the water was more cold than usual probably because of the rain, but I still went down towards my base.


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    I passed the door, went down the stairs, and finally sat down on the magma blocks waiting for my clothes to dry.


    I was getting sick of moving constantly while I was wet, so I placed a few magma blocks to solve that problem.


    While I was lying on the warm floor, a black monster four blocks tall looked at me from the other room.


    "Hi Violet, how are you?"


    I got the classic Enderman noise which I understood as she was ok.


    She got closer to me looking in wonder at what I was doing.


    "Guess what, I just leveled up my Crafting skill!"


    She just moved her head wondering what was so important about that, so I could only sigh and explain it to her.


    "That means that now I''m going to craft a lot of Redstone recipes."


    This seems to get her attention and make her more excited about my achievement, by giving me one of her creepy smiles.


    I shivered looking at her not getting used to it yet.


    After a few more minutes I got up and went to a chest and took a book from it.


    I have this book from the Underground Ruins, and its contents were filled with crafting recipes including the Redstone ones.


    I was glad since I didn''t remember all of them.


    First, I looked at the most common items used, then took a stack from each chest.


    After this, I had Redstone dust, iron ingots, cobblestone, planks, slabs, glass, a bow, a bookshelf, copper, nether quartz, gold, hey bale, Redstone torch, and glow stone blocks.


    By the end, my inventory was pretty full, but was glad that I had all the materials necessary for all of this.


    "Ok Violet, let''s do this."


    The Enderwoman was behind me and watching with excitement.


    This unexpectedly brought my mood up getting ready for some grind.


    I placed some Redstone dust, planks, cobblestones, and an iron ingot on the crafting table, then I took the hammer beside it and started to break the items down and soon they became one.


    It was a piston, and I took it with pride in my eyes, then I placed it in my inventory and noted down the experience I got from this craft.


    I continued like this with all the recipes that were in the book, and the end list looked like this:


    -Redstone block: 10 xp


    -Button: 1 xp


    -Daylight detector: 500 xp


    -Dispenser: 700 xp


    -Dropper: 500 xp


    -Hopper: 100 xp


    -Lectern: 30 xp


    -Lever: 5 xp


    -Lighting road: 100 xp


    -Note block: 500 xp


    -Observer: 1300 xp


    -Piston: 700 xp


    -Sticky piston: 500 xp


    -Pressure plate: 3 xp- wood


    20 xp- stone


    50 xp- iron


    100 xp- gold


    -Redstone comparator: 1000 xp


    -Redstone lamp: 700 xp


    -Redstone repeater: 800 xp


    -Redstone torch: 100 xp


    -Target: 1300 xp


    -Tripwire hook: 500 xp


    It was an interesting list to look at and my friend in the back was having fun with all of her new toys.


    I was looking over the list thinking what would be the most efficient way to grind this level with.


    I had to decide on what I should focus on, speed or resources.


    If I wanted to get to the next level as fast as possible no matter the cost, I think the best item for this would be the target block.


    For this, I only needed a hay block and four Redstone dust, which wasn''t a lot in comparison with other recipes but it''s not easy to get that much wheat in such a short amount of time.


    As for the one that uses fewer materials or less valuable ones, it would be the dropper.


    A dispenser would give more xp but it''s too much of a hassle to make bows and they''re not stackable, so the dropper was the best option.


    I made some calculations and if I continued with the dropper I would need to make 20.000 of them, and if I concentrated on the target blocks, I would need to make a few hundred less than 8.000 which was a way better deal.


    Unfortunately, that means that I have to make an automatic wheat farm or at least a dispenser that would keep placing bone meals over a piece of tilted dirt.


    That''s what I''m most likely going to do, and probably also enchant a hoe with fortune to get more crops.


    I looked around the room and realized that I didn''t have enough room for this project, but I could always make more rooms.


    So I took my pickaxe out and mined another room this time smaller only 6 x 6 x 5 so my Enderwoman friend could fit and see what was in this room.


    I didn''t feel like decorating this room so I left it like this with simple stone and a lamp on the ceiling.


    First I had to make a Redstone clock or something that would turn on and off the Redstone dust, and for that, I knew a simple solution.


    I made another observer and with the previous one, I placed them in front of each on and connected them with Redstone dust.


    Once I connected the red dust, suddenly it started to blink from red light to normal red dust, it was a weird sight to see.


    Even placing the Redstone dust on any block was weird, if it was a block it stayed like a normal pile of dust, but if I placed another one beside it, the two of them moved on their own trying to connect in less than a second.


    It looked pretty fragile from the outside, but I had to kick it hard to destroy the line, and when I did that, I got it back as an item.


    That means I had to be careful with them if I was going to make something more complicated.


    I then extended the Redstone line that would soon be connected to a dispenser that would use bone meal to greatly accelerate the growth of wheat.


    Unfortunately, I don''t know how to make something that would plant the seeds down as well, but with the seeds in my left hand and the enchanted hoe in my right hand, surely I can make it work.


    I quickly got back to the storage room and took out whatever bone meal, bones, and bone blocks that I had lying around and crafted them in what I wanted before placing nine stacks in the dispenser.


    "Oh, right I have to make the hoe as well."


    It''s a good thing that I remembered this before connecting the machine otherwise I would''ve had to use my hands to get the wheat.


    "Ugh, I have to make a place where the enchanting table is surrounded by bookshelves for this. I won''t make another room, I''ll just put down the minimum necessity so I can make this enchantment."


    I took another book from the chest and quickly went through its pages before stopping at a certain one.


    Fortune 3


    "It''s more complicated than the other ones as I expected, it would take me a few hours to even copy it correctly. I should probably make two Fortune 2 instead and marge them tougher, that would be faster."


    With that plan already made I went to action, I took four empty pages from the nearby chest and started to write exactly as I remembered.


    After ten minutes the first pages were done, and in another ten minutes, the second was ready as well.


    The Enchanting setup was quickly placed and with a light throw I now had two Enchanted books.


    "It''s much easier to make books with the help of the System instead of going on my own."


    I said with a smile as I placed the two books on the anvil.


    A few hits later, I now owned a Fortune 3 book.


    Quickly I made an iron hoe and placed the enchantment on it, but just to be safe I also put an unbreking one from the chest that I had around.


    It wasn''t a high level, but it was better than nothing.


    With this, I was ready to do some farming.


    With the seeds in my left hand, and the magical hoe in my right hand, I started the machine and soon the wheat was growing at great speeds right before my eyes.


    Once it was golden and ripe, I used my tool to cut it in one swift motion, before placing the new seeds down.


    I continued this process for a few minutes before a realization came over me.


    "Oh camon, why is the Fortune only working on the seeds!"


    I yelled in frustration and the Enderwoman who was behind me was laughing out of her belly at my misfortune.


    Stupid big monster, I''ll get you another time.

 Chapter 115. Redstone Crafting

    While I was frustrated that the Fortune Enchant didn''t work on the wheat itself I still continued to use the machine.


    I don''t think I''ll be able to get enough to level up, but I should get enough to craft around 1.000 targets.


    After this, I''ll see if I can buy some bones from the surface while continuing to craft droppers.


    I continued to cut the fast-growing wheat with one swift motion, but as time passed I realized that my inventory would be full of seeds in about an hour if things continued like this.


    And on top of that Violet seems to be very interested in the Redstone clock and I was afraid that she would break it out of curiosity.


    "Violet! Don''t break anything from there, if you do I would be very mad."


    She stopped from touching the observers and looked at me, before taking a step back.


    I was thankful that she was listening to me since I wouldn''t know what to do if I had a rampaging monster in my secret base.


    The wheat kept growing and my hoe cut it quickly before everything went into my inventory.


    As I was doing the same motion over and over again I began to think of a way to deal with the excess of seeds.


    This wasn''t a popular item to sell and I couldn''t plant all of them even if I wanted to since I didn''t have the space or time to take care of it.


    More wheat was cut as I kept thinking of what else can I use the seeds for, and then an idea came to me.


    The composter!


    I can put the excess that I gather and make them into more bone meal, this is a genius plan!


    I can use the same system as the furnace on the surface, I''ll put a double chest with a Hopper to do all the work for me, actually, I can do multiple of those to make the process even faster!


    Soon my inventory was about to get filled so I broke one of the Redstone lines to break the connection.


    *Hiss


    A deep hiss interrupted my thoughts as my monster friend was wondering why I did that.


    "I had to do it, otherwise a lot of bone meal would be wasted."


    Violet looked deep into my eyes expecting more of an explanation.


    *sigh


    "You know how I told you that dispensers can place a block of liquids instead of throwing it like the dropper?"


    Her response indicated that she remembered.


    "Dispensers also have the ability to use bone meal, that''s why you saw the crops grow so quickly, it''s very often used for those kinds of farms, with that downside that you''re going to lose you hearing with time. That''s why I broke the connection since there is no reason to waste more resources."


    She then painted at the Redstone clock that was still working.


    "You curious how that works?"


    She nodded her head.


    "I don''t know the exact mechanics, but the two observers see each other and send a short signal through the Redstone dust, and once it reaches the other it resets the opposing observer and then a never-ending loop is created. Or at least that''s what I think it''s happening, I''m not someone who''s specialized in this."


    She understood everything that I said which was an interesting thing to see.


    Monsters aren''t too smart in this world, they are not mindless either but you can trick them pretty easily.


    But there''s only one exception, and that is the Endermans, you know they are intelligent creatures once you see their eyes.


    This is the first mistake most make before their hunted by those creatures like you challenged them to a death match.


    Nobody knows why this happens, but it''s better not to try your luck.


    But there''s a difference between Enderman''s as well, there are those who search for a block before joining a group, and then there are the odd ones out that stand among them.


    You can look them in the eyes and they won''t attack you with a first, maybe they will even warn you beforehand to leave them alone, but if you keep bothering them they will follow you from a distance and kill you when you least expect.


    Those kinds of Endermans also have a tendency to prank people and are much harder to kill them their brethren.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Nobody knows why ther''s a difference in their species, and what I see in front of me is probably something nobody saw, which kind of scares me but also makes me more curious.


    Of course, I try as much as possible not to look into her eyes unless she tries to tell me something, I don''t want to lose a life anytime soon.


    But from what the people of this world studied about them, the stranger they are the smarter you should expect them to be.


    And I''ve never seen anyone looking or acting stranger than Violet.


    That means she''s very smart, and now she''s in the process of learning about one of the most complex and powerful subjects in the game.


    Redstone engineering.


    After I finished my explanation I went to make a few hoppers, chests, and composters.


    Then I went back to the temporary farming room and placed everything in order.


    "This is a composter, villagers can get the farmer job from it, or you can put organic items to make it into bonemeal, it also has an interesting option where it can send a Redstone signal with a Comparators help. I don''t know too much about this but people made amazing machines with those."


    Violet took one of the seeds and placed it in a composter, and like magic, it started to fill up.


    Of course, I needed to put a few more seeds for it to work, but the fact that she could do this was amazing in itself.


    I placed some of the seeds in the higher chests and let the automatic process do its job, then I connected the machine once again and got back to work.


    Slowly time passed, and it was more boring than crafting surprisingly, not only that but my back was starting to hurt as well since I had to bend down to cut the golden grass.


    At one point I just sat down and worked like that.


    At times like these, I missed the internet where I could put a video or music in the background and mindlessly do a task.


    Now instead I had to actually pay attention to what I was doing instead of half doing it.


    What a tragedy.


    I continued to cut wheat for what felt like hours, and after the dispenser finally ran out of bone meal I decided to stop for today.


    Already a few hours passed, and while it was raining outside, you never know when someone is looking for you while underground.


    So I placed all the seeds in the chests, crafted all the wheat into hay bells, took a few blocks of Redstone and cobblestone, and went to the surface.


    The water of the swamp was still cold, but I couldn''t hear the heavy rain anymore.


    I quickly went back to my house and took a shower to clean myself.


    I even made a campfire to warm myself since the sun wasn''t out yet, while the rain stopped it was still cloudy outside, so nobody was out.


    After I ate some golden carrots I got up and went to my crafting table.


    First I would make the targets, the recipe beeing pretty simple.


    A block of hay bale, surrounded by Redstone dust with the exception of the corners.


    Once I placed the specific items a holographic arrow appeared that was pointing at the target block.


    After a few hits with my Hummer, it went into my inventory.


    I kept hitting getting more and more target blocks.


    Hours passed, and the clouds were disappearing letting the warm sun greet the freshly showered earth.


    "This should be a quarter done."


    *slam


    The door was opened with force and a panicked Froggy looked over the house until he saw me.


    "Trader! Quick take your sword and come out, we''re going to lose at this rate!"


    He didn''t wait for me to ask what happened as he left as quickly as he came.


    What happened!?


    Are the pillagers attacking us?


    How is this even possible, do we have traitors among ourselves?


    I dropped everything I had in my hands, took out my enchanted diamond sword and armor then left my house.


    Once I was out I was taken by surprise with what I saw.


    They were everywhere, jumping without a care in the world, they only knew hunger.


    The attackers were the slimes.


    I''ve never seen this many in my entire life, and I was a little intimidated by it.


    "Oh good, you''re ready, maybe that''s a bit of an overkill, but it''s better than not being prepared, we have to join the others, otherwise nothing would be left for us."


    Froggy was running towards the closest slime with an enchanted iron sword and a shield in his hands.


    Still, this didn''t explain why this was happening in the first place.


    Why are there so many slimes, why does everyone want to compete and kill them?


    I run after Froggy and split in two a slime with one swing.


    "What''s happening? Why are there so many slimes?"


    "This is their season, after such a heavy rain slimes will spawn at a higher rate than usual. This is a great boon for the Clan since if you get enough slime balls you can set your life for a few good months to come, so get as many as possible, show no mercy!"


    With this we both continued to decimate any slime that came in our path, most of them were small, and rarely were there ones of medium size.


    And the closer we got the the edges of the swamp, the bigger the army of slimes was.


    Not only that, but most of the witches were out here hunting as well, and they were competing against each other.


    There seems to be only one rule in this.


    Don''t take someone else''s slime.


    And how did you mark the slime?


    You attacked it first of course.


    This led to me seeing a lot of splash potions thrown at groups of slimes.


    Instant damage, poison, jump boost, speed it didn''t matter as long as you got them and yelled "mine" everything was a fair fight


    It was an interesting sight to see since most of the smaller slimes were killed with potions.


    But with time I understood why, most witches were simple farmers in their old life, they didn''t know how to fight or have access to weapons, so it was better to throw potions at your enemy than get closer and potentially lose the fight.


    Not only that, from what I could see most of them had stone swords as close-range weapons, so it took two swings to kill the smaller ones.


    The medium slimes usually were killed by groups not individuals, since it was too dangerous if it concentrated on one witch only.


    Of course, there were a few people who had better weapons and even armor that were going through everything like it was nothing, but we were in the minority.


    Slowly the poor slimes were dying off, leaving back dozens of piles of their green remains.


    After the last one was killed everyone cheered in unison, the battle was over and they were now much richer than before.


    "OK everyone, today was a very successful day, now let''s get to cleaning and celebrate the start of another blessed month!"


    One of the elders spoke with a powerful voice which made everyone cheers once again.


    I looked at the place where the Elder spoke and saw that everyone was there watching over the fight in the Clan.


    This seems to be a regular acurance and maybe even a form of entrainment for them.


    Maybe I should join then next time since I don''t have problems with money right now.


    As I was helping the others to clean and collect some of the slime as ingredients, a realization came to me.


    "Froggy, did the Elder say a blessed MONTH?"


    "Yes, this is the start of the rainy season so this will happen a lot more often in the next month."


    Oh no, my peace!

 Chapter 116. Potion shopping

    Days have passed and it wasn''t in the way that I expected to.


    The day usually starts with heavy rain or just a cloudy sky, it can hold for days or just a couple of hours.


    Every morning I go down to my secret base and farm the fast-growing wheat before getting back up to craft it into targets, then my days split into three ways.


    One, the day is cloudy so I work in peace for a few hours until I go out and communicate with the others. While I''m out there I also try from time to time some of the slime-based cuisine that keeps popping off recently, I even saw someone creating a potion that made you sticky once drunk.


    Two, the day is full of rain, so I stay all the time in the house crafting and making most of the progress.


    And three, after a heavy rain the sun comes out and another infestation of slimes appears.


    I don''t participate in the hunts anymore, but I do enjoy the show where everyone else is hunting for them, I can see why the Elders are always present when this happens.


    But now the heavy rains are getting rarer and rare since the season is almost over.


    Today was a special day since I wouldn''t craft targets anymore, I finished every wheat, bonemeal, and any other seeds that I had in my storage, and the results were beautiful to see. ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 6


    1.813.267/10.000.000


    _Enchanting lvl 6


    470.130/10.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 4


    20.500/100.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    51.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "Over 1.000.000 experience points from a few weeks of hard work, I''m almost a fifth way done! It''s not that much but if others would''ve seen this they would''ve been shaken."


    For the past few days, I did think of other methods that would make my job easier, or more exactly how to cheat it, unfortunately, I couldn''t think of many.


    The fact that I have to hit each item individually makes it the most annoying part of crafting.


    I think I could use the same strategy that the prince taught me with the enchanting.


    Make a few people craft the same recipe as me but I hit the final step which should register as my experience.


    Unfortunately for this, I need to work with someone at the same level or higher then me, and I don''t think there''s anyone like that in this Clan.


    My second idea is more possible for me to do, and it''s most likely ill do it.


    I''ll buy the ''XP boost'' potion from Elder Flora and use that to craft one of the higher XP recipes, which is the observer.


    I can''t make a lot of them but it should be enough for me to craft in the time limit.


    I looked outside the window and saw that it was just cloudy, so I could visit Elder Flora right now if I wanted to.


    "Why not? Let''s get this over with already."


    So I walked along the wooden path until I arrived at the bigger hut in the clan.


    Once I arrived at the wooden door, I knocked hard enough for anyone on the lower floor to hear me, but soft enough not to make anyone think that I was trying to break into the house.


    I had to wait for a little longer the usual but the door was finally opened.


    "Ah Sir Trader, I did not expect your presence today. Is there something I can help you with?"


    "Yes dear butler, is Elder Flora home by any chance?"


    "Yes, she hasn''t left the for today, enter and I shall inform her immediately."


    "Polite as always, thank you, butler."


    "It is my job, after all, now then please wait quietly in the guest room."


    I entered the room that had two purple chairs similar to coaches, but they were less comfortable to sit on.


    They were made with dyed leather and used slimes for cushioning.


    It was interesting to see the ingenuity of the man in this world.


    Fortunately, I didn''t have to wait a lot for the response to arrive as the butler was back telling me to go upstairs.


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    I checked my inventory for what I brought.


    A few blocks of emeralds, gold, and even diamonds.


    I didn''t know what to bring as payment so I brought everything that I considered to be of value.


    Once I was upstairs and in front of the wooden door, I gently knocked.


    *knock knock


    "Come in!"


    With the permission given, I entered the room.


    "Good day to you Elder Flora how are you doing?"


    "As good as someone my age can be."


    She said with a small chuckle.


    "I hope the fireworks were to your liking."


    "Oh yes, Ellen was very happy to play with his new toys, I hate to warn him not to finish those too quickly. So what brought you here to my humble home?"


    Your home is anything but humble lady.


    "As you may have heard, I''m on a quest to become a grandmaster at crafting, and it''s a very long and tough journey. I came here to buy one of your ''XP boost'' potions if that''s possible."


    "Yes, I hear about your hard journey, it entertained a few people for days, unfortunately, it also made them sad with the remainder that they can''t grow anymore. Yes, I can sell you a potion, how do you want to pay for it?"


    Is that why people stopped coming to watch me craft?


    I guess that would make sense and I didn''t realize that I could hurt them like this.


    Something to remember for next time.


    "I have a few blocks of emeralds with me and even gold if you''re interested."


    I kept switching the blocks in my hand for her to see but kept the diamonds away for now.


    It could be used better as an item that I''m not that willing to part with.


    "You have a lot of emeralds I see, not that surprised about the gold. Unfortunately, I can''t use them since I have enough riches already, do you have anything that would catch my eye?"


    This cheeky old lady was trying to milk me!


    Well see who would be satisfied at the end.


    "You can indeed get those ores from your miners, but I''m willing to part a few of my precious diamonds for this trade. I''m sure that even they don''t have a lot to make them useless for you."


    I held the Diamonds in my hand to catch her attention, but they weren''t in a block form to show that I didn''t have a lot of them.


    Which was true, in compassion with the other ores I only had 15 blocks of diamonds.


    It was still a lot but at the same time, you could never have too many diamonds on you.


    Once she saw the light reflection in the beautiful gem, she got up from her seat and greed flashed through her eyes.


    I could even see her hand twitch slightly which only made me smirk.


    I got her.


    But to my surprise, she just went to the golden bell in the room and gently moved it making a small noise.


    Suddenly I could see the outline of everyone in the vicinity, which made me see the butler, who was coming upstairs with quick steps, and Violet in the corner of the room watching the whole interaction.


    Since when was she following me?


    Wasn''t she in her Redstone room?


    She was so quiet, it was an amazing sight to see.


    Soon the door was opened and a well-kept butler entered the room.


    "Did you call m''lady?"


    "Yes, can you please bring some berry tea, thank you."


    The man just bowed and left the room.


    "Your offer is very tempting Trader, but I want something else from you."


    That''s not good to hear, if she wants something specifically that means it''s more valuable than diamonds.


    I hope I have it in my storage.


    "And what would that be?"


    She slowly walked back to her chair and sat down.


    "Have you heard about the Ender Chest?"


    "I know about it, but I''m surprised you know of this at all, I''ve only seen the Royalty have something like this and no other noble."


    "Indeed it''s a very rare item, and if you know about it you should also know its value. This mansion had one left by my predecessor but an accident happened and now there''s no more."


    "Ahh, yes I can see the problem, you have to mine it with a pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment to get the chest, otherwise you''ll only get eight blocks of obsidian."


    Once I said that I could see her winch.


    Looks like there''s a story behind that accident, I''m just surprised how someone had the patience to stay in one place for so long to break one chest.


    It''s almost as hard as obsidian Itself after all.


    "Do you know the recipe?"


    "Yes I do, but it''s a 7th-level item, I''m not capable of crafting one yet, and almost all the items for it are very hard to find."


    I could see her winch more when the difficulty was said.


    She broke her ancestor''s chest and didn''t realize how expensive it was.


    It was funny to see how she was struggling to stay composed the more I talked.


    "But if you want that as payment then I''ll have to get more than one potion. It''s too expensive for me otherwise."


    Her response came quick.


    "Unfortunately I don''t have the materials right now to make any more potions like those, I only have two with me right now."


    That wasn''t something that I wanted to hear, but I guess it''s not that much of a difference, after all, I could only use it once a month.


    But I still wanted to get something more out of this, I can''t just give up already.


    "Do you have some higher-level Haste potions?"


    "I do have a few of those."


    She then went to one of her chests in the room and took out a few potions, before putting them on the desk so I could see them.


    One of the potions I already recognized, but the other four were new to me.


    They were all white almost transparent, and once I picked one to examine It closer a shocking text appeared:


    - Haste 5


    That was an amazing speed potion, it was more than double what the System gives, and I don''t know who would even try to drink something like this.


    I''ve seen a few videos in my old world where people changed their speeds with the help of commands, and the higher it got the more of a nightmare it was.


    It was hard to navigate in the game constantly hitting trees and walls, and I don''t want to try its full power in a world where I can feel every hit.


    But this is also a huge boon since I only need to stay in one place and hit with the hammer, I can''t even imagine how many items I can craft in such a short amount of time.


    "How long does it last?"


    "The best one lasts 50 minutes while the worst 30 minutes. But I have to warn you, the aftereffects of this potion would make you feel like your head is about to explode. It''s best to rest for a full day after one potion."


    Interesting, so it has its dangers to it.


    I wonder if the effects would be nullified if I drank milk.


    Probably not, otherwise, Flora would''ve told me about it already.


    Still, it''s worth it in the end, I could even use it when I don''t have the Xp boost buff, but I should still keep it for better recipes.


    "I''ll take all of them, and once I get to the next level, I''ll craft you an Enderman''s Chest."


    "All of them!?"


    "Yes, I would''ve taken only one potion if you could provide me with the materials, but I don''t think you have some obsidian blocks and an Ender Eye just lying around."


    "I only have seven blocks of obsidian, and I haven''t heard about this Ender Eye. Is it another name for the Ender Pearl?"


    "Unfortunately not, this item is something else entirely."


    She sat there in silence thinking about the trade, and after a few minutes, she gave up.


    "Fine, you can have all those potions, hope it''s worth it to rob such an old lady like myself."


    "Pleasure doing business with you, I''ll try to level up as quickly as possible."


    I decided to ignore the statement and took all the potions on her desk before she was going to change her mind.


    Just as I was about to leave the room the door was opened and the butler entered placing the tea setup on the desk.


    Elder Flora quickly poured a cup for herself but didn''t offer me one as well, which meant that I truly pissed her off.


    Maybe I pushed a little too hard, but it''s too late to back down now.


    I''ll leave a few ''donations'' before I leave to my home, hopefully, that would be enough to calm her down.


    But now I''m back to making preparations.

 Chapter 117. Bastion

    I arrived at my house with quick steps, not knowing if the rain was going to catch me or the Elder''s anger.


    "Well I have more then I asked for, but now I don''t think I have enough quartz."


    I could hunt some skeletons to get their bones and continue to grow my wheat, or I could make a portal go into the Nether and get more quartz.


    In the end, I decided to make a portal, I still planned to do one so I could connect it to my base, and what better time to start than now?


    I checked around the house and nobody was there to spy on me.


    So I went down to my secret base where my friend Violet made herself visible once again.


    I didn''t even bother to ask her what she was doing on the surface, I can''t read her that well yet.


    After my clothes had dried, I got up, equipped my diamond pickaxe, and made another small room where I built the portal.


    The walls were made with dark wood whole the floor was gray from the stonebrik blocks, and the ceiling had lanterns with oak planks.


    After everything was done, I took some Flint and steal to lit up the portal.


    The space started to bend trying to connect two separate dimensions before finally the red dimension appeared.


    "I should make some preparations before I go in."


    I went back to my storage and took the enchanted crossbow, fireworks, shield, arrows, potions, blocks, diamond sword, and a diamond pickaxe.


    After this, I took all the gold I had and made myself an armor that should keep me cool in that hot dimension.


    With everything ready I went back to the portal and crossed, but since I had the golden armor on me I only felt a slight breeze.


    I looked around and saw only netherock and nothing else.


    It seems that I was in an underground tunnel.


    I started to walk more and explore the place and I could tell this was all naturally generated and not mined by hand.


    At first, I went a little deeper but didn''t find anything besides a few blocks of quartz which I quickly broke, and then I went upwards until I arrived at the surface.


    The entrance wasn''t that big so it could easily be overlooked if you weren''t looking at it specifically.


    I could just cover it up here and nobody would ever find it.


    Of course, I should plant something that I can use as a sign, so I won''t lose it as well.


    For now, I decided to leave it open and explore the surrounding area, in case there was a settlement that I had to look out for.


    If they were Piglings, I could maybe trade with them, but if I found some Brutes, then I could also trade with them, but I had to be careful not to be robbed once they saw how much gold I had.


    I didn''t have time to walk for too long before I found the first sign of civilization.


    An arrow stuck into a red tree.


    Most likely someone was hunting after a hogling in here but forgot to pick the arrow back up.


    Some may say that this could be a skeleton arrow, but usually, those tended to be of a worse quality, you couldn''t use it more than three times before it broke.


    Of course, you could still get good arrows from them but those were very few.


    And from the quality of the arrow, I could tell it wasn''t shot by a skeleton.


    I walked around with more careful steps, my ears were listening for any unusual noise while my eyes were looking for something that didn''t belong in there.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have an invisibility potion on me, so I couldn''t use that method to stay hidden.


    Suddenly I heard laughter after the small hill.


    With silent steps, I got on top and looked to see who was making all the noise, and the results weren''t that pleasant to see.


    At the bottom of the hill, three brutes were laughing while butchering the hogling they just killed.


    Looks like the arrow I just found was more recent than I thought.


    After a successful hunt, the brutes took their spoils and left the red forests with me following close behind them, trying not to be found.


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    We walked for a few hours, and I tried to memorize the path so I could go back until they arrived at their destination.


    And what a destination they had.


    What I saw in front of me was the home of every brute, The Bastion.


    It was more imposing than in the game, and it wasn''t such a ruin, I could see some bridge made with black bricks, walls of protection, and mighty statues, it was a whole settlement.


    The question now was, should I go inside?


    Unfortunately, my decision was quickly taken from me, as a voice yelled from behind me.


    "You there! Why are you sneaking around our fortress so much, are you a spy?"


    I quickly turned around to see a brute with a golden Chestaple, helmet, and exe pointed at me.


    Behind him were another three brutes that were pointing their crossbow at me ready to shoot at the signal of their leader.


    This was not a good situation to be in, where did they even come from, I looked around when I arrived here.


    "Even if you''re a big deal in another bastion, that doesn''t mean you can do whatever you want here, no matter how much golden armor you have. Speak now or I''ll take your life."


    "Stop! My name is Trader and I''m someone that likes to travel through the Nether and trade with whoever I find."


    "Trader? That''s a stupid name, what do you have to trade oh wandering one?"


    "I have an enchanted crossbow, some blocks from the other world and I''m also willing to buy."


    "Blocks from the other world you say? You managed to get something out of those weird guys from the East. Do you perhaps get some of their armor as well?"


    "Unfortunately not, they rather die then sell it to us."


    *ptsu


    The Brute spat on the ground out of disgust.


    "Those stupid-looking people don''t have any spirit to trade, they don''t even appreciate the shine of the gold, instead they salivate over those green rocks."


    "Yeah, I heard they called it emeralds."


    "That''s what I heard as well, you said you bought some blocks from them?"


    "Yes, they''re called cobblestone, it''s harder than the common netherock and two layers can stop the blast of a ghast."


    "Only two you say? It''s not that bad then, come with me stranger you''ll be my guest for today, no one shall harm you under my protection."


    Everyone lowered their weapons and got closer to me.


    Bad memories of being forced under house arrest came to me but shook them away.


    This time was different, while I couldn''t kill them without attracting the attention of the guards, I could run away and they couldn''t catch up with me.


    But this was a good opportunity to get inside the bastion, and I was confident that I could get out of any cage they tried to put me in.


    They quickly surrounded me in case I was trying to escape, and I was ready to take my diamond sword at any sudden movement, but we arrived at the huge gate with no problem and then we stopped.


    "Open up! The powerful Nugie got back from his hunt."


    I heard a few grunts on top of the wall and soon a head looked down at us before yelling at the others to get back on their jobs.


    I was shocked by two things, the name of the brute sounded very similar to Nuggets, and he dared to make fun of my name.


    The second thing was the huge red wooden door that was not made with the help of the System.


    I could see it was made from slabs that were placed vertically, but I didn''t see what made them stick together.


    One thing was for sure, it was very heavy to move, and four brutes were using all of their strength to move the huge gate.


    Once we had enough space to pass through, we moved without looking back at the tired men''s.


    "Welcome to our Bastion, it''s not the most beautiful out there but it''s our home, and I hope trading would be enjoyable for you."


    The place wasn''t big, there was only one opening where I could see the ceiling of the Nether, everything else was walls and rooms made with black stone.


    All brutes had some kind of golden weapon in their hand, and I could feel that anyone would gladly start a fight if they had the chance.


    Even the women, who I could hardly distinguish from the males, seemed thirsty for blood.


    The only thing that I saw much stronger than that was the light in their eyes when they saw gold.


    Most of them traded in golden nuggets, but the bigger purchase required golden bars.


    We walked towards the center, the temperature started to rise and I could see the reason once I got down at the bottom.


    Down here was a huge lava pool that had a few blocks placed here and there on the surface, but in the middle of all of that was a platform, and on top of the platform was an iron cage.


    Besides the cage were a few blocks of gold just staying out in the open, even though everyone looked with greed at them.


    "This is our prized fighting arena, I know the lava seems dangerous, but that''s with intention. We believe that the higher the challenge the greater the warrior would come, that''s why our fighting cage is more special than the others you saw at the other bastions."


    Everyone has cages like those?


    No wonder everyone calls them Brutes, but I have to act like I''m not that surprised by what I see, otherwise my cover would be blown.


    "I did wonder why there''s such a huge lava lake in the middle of the settlement, but with such great warriors, there must be a great prize as well."


    Everyone started to laugh weirdly around me once I said that.


    "As you said Trader, the higher the risk, the greater the reward. You can see all of those riches placed around the cage, those are the prizes of the winner, and it''s enough to set a warrior for life. Why my father got his fortune from this, and my family can still thrive from it."


    That was fascinating to know.


    "So where do you get all this gold from?"


    "Once a week we put animals in the cage to fight, or maybe a warrior with an animal, everyone that wants to see has to pay two gold ingots to see, and once a year the final tournament would happen, where the champion would take all the glory and its gold."


    "I see, are you a warrior as well by any chance?"


    "Not yet, I''m still collecting gold to make my armor as per tradition, I also hope that I''ll manage to enchant it. But once I have all of those prepared I''ll be competing for the gold, and make my father proud."


    "Aren''t you afraid you''re going to die while trying?"


    "A small price to pay for riches."


    That''s an interesting mindset, but it shows results when anyone dares to attack a bastion.


    Every citizen in this place knows how to swing a weapon.


    There''s a reason why the Stone Kingdome decided to trade with the Brutes, even though they were underequipped compared to them.


    One of the kings did try this and even succeeded, but the casualties were so great that it was decided that the king brought too much shame to the kingdom and had to step down.


    Now they choose to trade with them, since it''s not worth the hassle of battle, no matter how eagerly the brutes are for another bloody war.


    "Thank you for showing me around the place Nugie, but I came with a reason here."


    "Yes indeed, and what did you say about those blocks from the other world?"


    Looks like I found my first customer.

 Chapter 118. Trading with Brutes

    Nugie was a little disappointed at the texture of those blocks but was still intrigued by the fact that it was so resistant and could be crafted into stone tools.


    "So you''re saying that those blocks are like our blackstones?"


    You can craft without those blocks? I didn''t even know.


    "Seems so, and from their reaction I could tell they had an abundance of them."


    "I heard those people don''t have rivers of lava, can you believe such a horrifying world? How can they take care of their striders without lava, and do they just freeze to death in their world?"


    That was an interesting perspective from someone that never seen the Overworld.


    "I don''t know I''ve never seen it, but I''m sure they have their own methods of survival like us."


    "That''s true, so how much for those blocks."


    "One golden nugget per block."


    "Are you trying to rob me here?! Who would pay such an absurd price for blocks that I can take it from the walls."


    "It may not be as precious as you''d like, but imagine what the others would think once they know you have blocks from another dimension, think of this, you''ll be special in the whole bastion."


    This made him stop and think for a little.


    "That''s true, but it''s still too expensive for something you can sell it to someone else as well, one nugget for six blocks."


    "Are you trying to rob me now? I would lose gold if I make this deal, one nugget for two blocks."


    "That''s still too high, how about we meet in the middle four blocks for one nugget."


    "Three and that''s my final offer."


    "Deal! How much do you have?"


    "Two stacks currently."


    "Give them all to me."


    With this, I made 42 golden nuggets at the cost of two stacks of the most common block in the Overworld, it was a net profit all around.


    "Does your Bastion have a specialty that I can buy?"


    Nugie was satisfied with that trade he just made and was much more willing to talk with me.


    "We don''t have a lot of items that are special to our Bastion, what''s the main difference between us and the rest is the fighting arena."


    "When is the yearly match going to happen?"


    That was a little disappointing.


    "In about six months from now on. Are you interested in joining traveler?"


    No amount of gold in there is tempting enough for me to get in.


    I probably used more gold in the past months than what they made in three years.


    "Unfortunately I don''t stay this long in one settlement, so I''ll have to refuse the offer."


    "What are you looking for then?"


    I thought for a little, what items they had around?


    Gold for sure, Blackstone, quartz, ender pearls, string, redwood, meat, leather and I think they threw obsidian blocks in the game as well from what I remember.


    But after I looked at the lava pit with the cage in the middle of it, an image came to mind.


    "Do you sell Netherite?"


    "That''s useless scrap? Our elders have it but it''s going to be hard to convince them to give it to you. I don''t even know the reason they keep holding on them, you can''t craft anything with them, and the only good thing about them its it''s resistance to lava."


    So they do have it but don''t know their value, just like in the game, they keep holding onto golden tools and armor.


    "Can you guide me to them, I''ll try my luck?"


    "Sure, I''ll do it for one golden Ingot."


    Then reached his hand towards me expecting the payment.


    Frustrated I paid him the price and he took the gold with a stupid smile on his face.


    We didn''t need to climb the stairs, instead, we went into one of the long hallways at the lower level until we could see older people just hanging out and talking with each other.


    It felt like a retirement home, but no nurses were here to help those old people.


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    But I could understand why as well, while they looked old they weren''t frail, I could see all of them walking, running, and jumping like they were young, the only difference that I saw was that they tired more easily.


    I guess this could be a result of a warrior tribe, all of those muscles keep you healthy when you''re old as well.


    "Nugie! You came down here to sell us some junk again?"


    One of the elders looked at my guide with amusement.


    "Those are not junk Worrior Brick, they are just unique items that I found while I was hunting."


    The others started to laugh while paying attention to us.


    "Like that boat, you tried to sell us, it just got burned when it was too close to lava."


    "That was an accident, and I didn''t come for that, I brought someone that is looking for you."


    Everyone suddenly looked at me and their eyes were not friendly anymore.


    "Why Is he so armored up? Is he trying to intimidate us with his wealth, or does he want to challenge us for our own wealth?"


    Why did they think that I was trying to pick up a fight?


    "I''ve come in peace Warriors, I''m a traveler that goes from Bastion to Bastion looking for opportunities to trade, I''ve heard you have some Netherite and was wondering if you''re willing to trade for it."


    Everyone seemed to be more suspicious of me once I said that.


    "Why would you want such items?"


    "People from the bigger settlements collect them as a novelty."


    Once they heard that everyone seemed to calm down and went back to their business.


    "We don''t have any for trade stranger, go try your luck in another bastion."


    "Are you sure, I''m willing to trade two gold blocks for one ingot!"


    Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked back at me, even Nugie looked at me with shock at how much I was willing to pay for one ingot.


    Suddenly I saw a hint of greed appear in the eyes of everyone around me, which made me take out my enchanted diamond sword.


    Everyone stopped and looked with confusion at my sword.


    They didn''t know what was made of but it was enchanted and that was enough danger by itself.


    "Leave that man be, or you''ll all die by his blade."


    An old voice spoke from the back of the group and everyone moved to let the old man walk through.


    He was truly someone that I could call old, he had a hunched back, and a robe made of leather, on a closer look I saw that it was enchanted, he walked with a support stick and he had a white beard.


    I wonder how ancient he was to look like this.


    "But Elder Flame, we are greater in number, I''m sure we could rob him if we unite."


    "You probably could, but nobody traveled the Nether without a few tricks in his inventory. Leave him be, I don''t want bloodshed to be spiled."


    Reluctantly the others put back their weapons and grumbled to themselves, nobody dared the defy the old man.


    "You, stranger! come with me."


    I still held the sword in my hand not knowing what to do, should I follow him or run away. I was pretty deep into the bastion I didn''t think I could get far without everyone jumping on me.


    I looked around once more, for any escape routes, and unfortunately, the only way out I see is through digging.


    The old man seemed to have a certain influence over the brutes, and since he stopped everyone from trying to rob me, I should give him the benefit of the doubt, so I slowly followed him while being ready for any incoming attack.


    But until we arrived, nobody made a move against me, just kept their distance.


    We arrived at the end of the tunnel where a huge doorway was built.


    Beyond that, I could see a large room decorated with mushroom lights, vines, different kinds of wood, and some leather couches.


    This old man was living pretty comfortably here and was rich as well.


    With slow movements, the old man got on his couch and exhaled loudly.


    "So what brought you to this small Bastion outsider?"


    "I didn''t come here specifically, it was just my luck to stumble upon it."


    "It''s hard for me to believe that someone from another dimension came here just by pure luck."


    What is he talking about, how does he know that I''m from another dimension?


    Wait, from which dimension does he refer to exactly, the Overworld or my old world?


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about old man."


    "Just your unique appearance would be enough for those who know about the other would to recognize you, but the fact that you have that blue sword showed your true origins."


    So he was talking about the Overworld, that''s good.


    "I''m surprised that you recognized me, not a lot of people would even know what sword I''m holding in hand."


    "It''s no wonder, I just know about it since my grandparents told me stories of their grandparents of times when your people walked more often around here, and their weapons and armor were so powerful that ten warriors were needed to defeat one. But for unknown cause the portal was broken and we weren''t visited anymore.


    With time we took over the base and made it our own, but the chief still fears the return of your people and hoards all the riches to himself."


    This is a ruin?!


    Wait is that portal connected to the ruins that I found?


    That could be a possibility since the distance between the Nether and the normal world is vastly different.


    "I really did come with the intention to trade, I didn''t even know there was a ruined portal in here, it was just a coincidence."


    One that I''ll probably use to get some items if I want to.


    "I see, so you''re only looking for Netherite ingots, what''s the use for them if you don''t mind me asking."


    "You don''t know? I thought you didn''t want to sell it to me because you knew."


    The old man let out a sigh.


    "The only reason they wouldn''t sell it to you is because those are given as medals of honor by the Chief himself. Whoever did something great for the Bastion is reworded with such Ingot, everyone down here has one as such, it''s an honor to have one, and nobody is willing to trade for it."


    I see, so that''s why they reacted like this, the Chief must''ve gotten a few of them from the ruins, but since he didn''t know what to do with them, he just gave them as loyalty tokens.


    "Why are you telling me this? As you said yourself I''m not from this world."


    "Young man, not a lot of people like me tend to live such a long life, through my years I learned a few tricks to keep me alive and out of trouble if possible, and my instincts tell me not to make you an enemy."


    There was a saying in my world ''Fear the old man in a profession where people die young'' and I felt like that quote was referring exactly to people like him, and I couldn''t stop respecting the old man.


    "Old man, what you''re saying it''s true, your people don''t have a good reputation so I didn''t expect to have a diplomatic discussion."


    The old man smirked knowing what I was talking about.


    "And it''s indeed true that those ingots could be valuable in the right circumstances, and even if I told you their uses I don''t think you could make use of them, do you still want to know what those are?"


    The old man sat in silence for a few minutes thinking.


    "I''m too old to have such dangerous knowledge, and it''s not like I could use it, so you don''t have to tell me."


    That made me relieved, I started to like the old man and I didn''t want to use this knowledge as leverage to get a few Ingots.


    "But I''m willing to trade one of my Netherite Ingots for a price."


    This took me by surprise since I didn''t expect him to bring this up.


    "What would you like in exchange?"


    The old man only gave me a smile.

 Chapter 119. Stories

    "What would you like in exchange?"


    The old man smiled at me.


    "Tell me about the other world, is it true that it''s a paradise?"


    "You want me to tell you about the Overworld as payment? "


    "I want you to tell me stories about that world, legends, experiences."


    That took me by surprise since I didn''t expect this kind of exchange.


    "What do you know about the other world so I can complete the knowledge you have."


    "Take me as someone that doesn''t even know another world exists, and try to explain it that way."


    I don''t know if it was intentional or not but that was a smart way to approach a subject that you don''t know about.


    If he told me something that I could take the lead from then the information would be very limited, now I don''t have something to start from so I''ll say a little of everything.


    "My world is vastly different from this one, we don''t have a ceiling about our heads, instead we have a great void that at night is dark and when day comes the sky is bright with the help of a star we call it the sun."


    My introduction already had the attention of the old man as his eyes were big as carrots.


    "We have hundreds of different blocks all over the world, just like in this world everything is split into biomes, we have places that are flat and green, we call them plains, in there animals such as sheep, cows, and chickens spawn and live, we also have different kind of forest''s like in here, but we have over five different kinds of wood each with their unique system. We have vast oceans with water, where you can swim in without getting hurt, animals live inside as well, we have desserts that are made with golden sand where the heat could rival even the temperatures in here, only at night to be cold enough where you blood freezes, speaking of that, we have mountains that rise above the ground and on top of it there the never melting snow, if you go there unprepared, you could die frozen."


    I stopped my explanation to take a break since my mouth was getting dry.


    The old man seemed to realize what was the problem as he gave me a wooden bowl with strider''s milk.


    After I hydrated my throat, I continued my story.


    "The day is split into two, the morning where there is light all over the world, where people and animals are living their life, and then there''s the night, where the only light comes from the moon and the stars on the sky, but at night monsters appear everywhere where''s dark, my world is not like yours, if you build a room you won''t be able to see anything, we need torches and lamps to keep the monsters at bay, but fear not, because the night has an end as well, and when the sun comes back again, every monster in its path will die burning away."


    I stayed like that for a few moments shocked by my ability of storytelling, I should probably write a children''s book or something similar.


    Sure there was a lot more I could tell to the old man, like the city, the people, the culture, and much more, but from his expression, I can tell that he is satisfied enough with this.


    "Your world sounds very dangerous to live in."


    "I wouldn''t say that, my world doesn''t live so close to lava, food is abundant and I don''t have to constantly wear armor so I wouldn''t faint from the heat."


    "Yes, but we don''t have to worry about what creatures live beyond the void, we have the great block protecting us from that, we don''t have to worry about living in a dark room or we''ll be killed in our sleep, and we don''t have to worry about the System limiting us as it does to you."


    This old man truly knows a lot, not a lot of people know that people from the Nether don''t play by the same rules, only recently was it found out.


    As for the other stuff, I could see why the Overworld could be a scary place to live, it''s just the fact that we''re so used to living in our world that we can''t imagine living in someone else''s.


    And for me, it''s even weirder since I''m not from either of those worlds, but I still live and strive.


    This shows that humanity truly can adapt to anything if necessary.


    "Enough about my world, why don''t you tell me more about your world old man, I''m curious how a native of this place would describe his home."


    The old man smiled fondly and drank some strider''s milk from a wooden bowl.


    "I liked the way you presented your world, it put some light on some of my questions and brought more questions that I didn''t even know to ask. If it''s possible I would like to visit it sometime before my soul joins the souldsand block. I don''t know what I should tell you since you''ve traveled around this world for a while and you must know a fair bit as well, so instead I will tell you the original of the Nether, a story told to every child when their young but forgotten when they get old."


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    Does he know the origin of this world?


    Even I don''t know what is it, but at the same time maybe it''s just a legend passed down.


    -Long ago there was only one world protected by the System, everything was peaceful and perfect, there were no wars and no conflict, and the System helped its people to rise above the stars.


    But one day, without any warning the world was attacked, the monsters appeared out of nowhere, everyone was scared and confused and the System decided to fight back, nobody knew where the fight was happening, but monsters started to appear all over the world.


    For the first time, humans made weapons to fighting instead of protect, everyday there was a discovery, a better weapon to destroy the monsters.


    We were on top of the world once again.


    But the unseen battle was over and the results were not expected.


    The System has lost, and the world started to get infected.


    Nobody knew what to do, no amount of research could topple such a powerful and invisible energy.


    The System in a last-ditch attempt ripped the world apart, everything that was infected around it was gathered in one place, sealed with the unbreakable block, and thrown into another dimension.


    We were the unlucky ones abandoned by the System, we were the ones who saw the creation of the Nether, it was constant conflict, and struggle for survival until everything got corrupted and became what it is today.


    So don''t forget forgotten heroes, the protector abandoned you and tossed you to the side.


    Cease any fights and gather your strength since one day, a way will be open to get back, and we shall have our ravage.-


    The old man finished his story and we sat in silence for a few moments.


    I now know a little about the war, it seems that the System lost and a way to minimize the damage is to seal the way the threat came to another dimension.


    But I also know from the historical records of the witches that the System struck again once the people''s experiments got too bad, could this be because the Nether portals were discovered?


    And are the humans in the Nether still preparing for a war against the Overworld even though they can''t live in it?


    Only one story and I have so many questions to ask, maybe the old man has some answers.


    "That''s something that I never heard and it amazes me, old man. So are you people still preparing to take over our world."


    The old man only chuckled as he took another sip from his wooden bowl.


    "We tried in the first few years once your people stopped contact with us. The portals were still working so after we gathered our best warriors, we tried to invade your world. Unfortunately, it was a great slaughter as the air in our old world poisoned us and killed our mightiest warriors. After such tragedy the people split into two, one wanted a peaceful life so they retreated into tribes, who are now known as Piglings, and the others started to build Bastions beside the opened portal. With time we realized that not everyone cut connection with us, but the damage was already done, so your people started to build fortresses so my people couldn''t attack them. It was a constant fight between the brutes and the outsiders, but out of nowhere, everything stopped as all the portals were broken. Nobody knew the reason but the once almighty fortresses are now occupied by monsters of the Nether and even we gave up on them."


    So there was some conflict between the two worlds, but not everyone wanted to fight, the Piglings decided to trade while the Brutes decided to fight.


    Two major things happened from what he told me, an empire or maybe a research organization was destroyed which left a few ports unsupervised so the Brutes saw this as their chance for revenge, but it ended badly for them.


    And the second catastrophe made all the portals break leaving everyone confused.


    I think that''s the incident where the System created the Witches and destroyed its empire.


    From what I''ve talked with Blue Flame, the Stone Kingdoms portal was opened a few years after the disaster which meant that someone knew how to do it.


    I wonder if they passed down that information and it''s lost or it''s it died without being able to pass it further along.


    I did not expect a trip to the Nether to give me such results, I''ve come here only for some quartz, and now I''m talking about the creation of the Nether.


    What a day.


    "Do you know anything about the End?"


    "You mean like the end of the world? I didn''t take you to be one of those kinds of people."


    "It''s not like- never mind. Why are you telling me all this old man, you didn''t have to tell me so much about your world, especially the bad things you did."


    The old man got off his couch and slowly walked towards a chest.


    He opened it and looked at its contents for a few moments before taking out two netherite ingots from there. Then he turned around and walked towards me and placed those ingots on the table.


    "You see traveler, I lived a long life and It wasn''t all that pleasant. Most of the problems I had, I dealt with them or let them go, but there''s one thing that I can''t let go no matter how much time has passed."


    Suddenly he locked his eyes on me and spoke with a serious voice.


    "Kill the Chiefman for me."


    I raised my eyebrows in surprise.


    "Can I ask why?"


    "I had one love of my life in many years that I''ve walked on this hot hell, she gave me a son but died in a hunt shortly after. Ever since then, I have focused on raising the kid to be the best warrior that ever was. And he grew faster than any red vines, soon he was in the arena amongst the others and won. But the Chiefman was intimidated by his power so he invited him to dinner where he poisoned him and killed him with his axe, then he told the world that my son was an assassin who wanted his position but was too weak to defeat him. And to be sure I wouldn''t do anything about this he sent me down here to be a prisoner with my riches."


    Anger and hate were intense the more he progressed the story until it all ended leaving a deafening silence m


    We sat in silence for a few moments, while I wondered how should feel about this.


    Pity, confusion, anger?


    This wasn''t my battle but the old man was ready to pay any price to get his revenge.


    I didn''t even know if the story was true, but his emotions were.


    "I want to see the chief man before I''m going to make this decision. It''s too risky for me and too little information, I need some time for this."


    The old man got his composure after he heard my response.


    "Very well, the man will appear at the arena in two days, you will see him there. Thank you for listening to this old man."


    With tiered steps, he went back to his chair and sat deflated.


    I didn''t know what to do, so I left his room without taking the Netherite ingots, it didn''t feel right to do that now.


    I needed to gather some information first

 Chapter 120. Gathering Intel

    I walked out of the cozy room into the dark tunnel, I passed by different doors, some closed and others opened and I could see the old people living their minimalistic life.


    I didn''t know if I should feel sorry for them or accept it as their lifestyle, but in the end, I was a stranger to them so it wasn''t my business to change their life.


    Soon I was out of the old people''s living area and back on the busy tunnels, I looked around and walked towards a female brute who was eating some cooked pork chop while looking bored.


    "Hey, do you want to trade?"


    She stopped and looked up and down at me before starting to smile.


    "Sure thing sweetie, what do you want to trade?"


    "I want some quartz."


    Since I couldn''t mine for it, I should buy it.


    "Two gold pieces per stack and that''s non-negotiable."


    The woman quickly accepted the deal before I could even tell my price.


    This was for the best as I was willing to pay way more than what she offered me, but I had to act like I was losing in the deal.


    So after I acted like I was thinking about this I let a big sigh.


    "Sure, how much do you have?"


    "Ten stacks, my kids keep bringing them home from their exploration trips and I don''t know where to store them anymore."


    I can now guess why the price is so cheap, I can see quartz being similar to fishing, sure not everyone has the tools for it, but it''s pretty easy to get them if you have a fishing road.


    "I''ll have all of them if possible."


    The woman was taken by surprise, but she looked over my armor once again and nodded her head with a smile.


    "Sure let me finish this meal and we can go and collect those items. "


    Before I could even say ''ok'' she just inhaled the rest of the food.


    "I''m finished let''s go."


    She turned around and walked along the long hallways.


    After a few minutes of awkward silence, I asked her a question.


    "Have you traveled the Nether before?"


    "You mean hunting? Yes, I still do get out and hunt occasionally."


    "Not that, but to other bastions, have you visited any?"


    "I have been to the Big Bastion once in my youth. First time I''ve seen so many people in one place and so much gold exchanged on the streets."


    Is that some kind of capital? I should ask Undying or Blue about the geography around here.


    "And how would you compare the leader of that place to yours?"


    "You talking about the Chief? Oh, he has to change a lot if he wants to get to that level. First, he would have to let business properly appear around here and not control everything by himself and his family. I don''t think he even trusts his family, but you didn''t hear that from me."


    The conversation didn''t last any longer since we arrived at a hallway that looked similar to the apartments in my home world.


    Everything was built with black stone and the doors were red.


    We stopped at a certain door, no sign no nothing and we just entered.


    She made me a hand motion to stop and walked into another room to get the items we were going to trade with.


    I looked around the room which was small and devoid of any interior design.


    There was some furniture here and there, but it was clear that some were handmade others made by the System.


    The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made with the same blackrock as the ones in the hallways, and even though it didn''t need light there was one soul lantern on the table which gave a creepy feeling to it.


    I didin''t have to wait for a long as the woman got back with some quartz in her hands.


    "Ten stacks as I promised, that would be twenty gold pieces."


    I took the gold from my inventory and passed it to her, and she took it at speeds I didn''t know possible.


    Fortunately, while she was distracted by the small fortune she remembered about her part of the deal and gave me the quartz.


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    "Do you want to buy anything else?"


    "No, that would be all."


    "Good then leave my home otherwise my husband is going to kill you."


    Her voice instantly changed from a sweet lady to a cold machine throwing me out of her apartment even if she was the one to invite me in.


    "That was so weird."


    But I got what I wanted and I had enough for now, I didn''t want to fill my inventory yet since I still have some time to stay here.


    I walked out of the apartment complex and started to explore this place, it was so different than what I was used to that I had to see everything.


    So for a whole day, I walked everywhere I could while getting weird stares from everyone.


    I found out that this place was split into five major parts.


    The entertainment arena, the retired tunnels where the old man lived, the community room which was above the arena where I could see the ceiling of the Nether, but where most of the training happened, the living area where there were tunnels arranged like an apartment complex and the Chief man arena, where the chief man lived together with his family.


    Of course that was the most rich part of the Bastion and the most decorated one.


    Of course, while I was exploring the place I talked with a few brutes, I had to make small trades with them otherwise they weren''t willing to talk with me, no matter how rich or intimidating I looked.


    "Looks like that woman wasn''t an exception but the norm."


    I found some interesting information from the few people that were willing to talk.


    This Bastion wasn''t always this rich, it all happened a few generations ago when the people still struggled to hunt hoglings in groups and didn''t know how to mine gold nuggets.


    But it all changed when one of the Chief''s ancestors found a treasure trove, nobody knows what he found there, but in a short amount of time, he declared himself the leader of the people and started to teach them how to live a better life.


    Of course, it wasn''t for free as they had to swear their loyalty to him and work hard labor.


    With time, everyone got smarter and richer, until one day the Chiefman decided to stop sharing his scared knowledge with the masses and hold everything for himself.


    That happened three generations ago, and now people still have a better life but know that the current Chiefman holds on to a greater power then whatever everyone is holding on to.


    And unfortunately, nobody can do anything about it since he''s the richest and most powerful person in here, and Brutes respected that.


    They weren''t oppressed just limited, and the Chiefman were the ones to sponsor the most of the big tournaments, so you could become one of the rich brutes because of him.


    After I heard about this I immediately knew what treasure he found, it was the ruins connected to the one that I found.


    The portal was broken and they didn''t know how to open one, which was a good thing.


    The only thing that confuses me is the reason no leader decided to conquer the Nether.


    If the storage found was anything similar to what I have, then he could easily build an army and take over.


    I wonder what made them stop?


    Were they satisfied with what they had?


    No that couldn''t be, it''s in Brute''s nature to gather more riches, they wouldn''t just sit down for no reason.


    At least he would try to mine every piece of gold in a 1.000 blocks radios.


    But no, he let everyone else gather the resources at their own pace.


    I sat down at one of the bars in the community room and tried a drink that I didn''t even know was possible to have in the Nether.


    A cup of water.


    It was three nuggets which was pretty expensive for a drink, but I was just too curious how it could be sold at a common bar.


    "Seriously you have to tell me where you got this water?"


    The Brute beyond the bar just grumbled at me.


    "Why, are you trying to take my business?"


    "I''m not! I''m just so confused about how something like this can be sold here of all places. If it was sold for nobles I wouldn''t be surprised, but for everyday Brute, now that''s something else."


    I took one sip and was pretty close to what I was used to, it just left a mint aftertaste which was welcomed in a hot dimension like this.


    The barman started to laugh at me.


    "You''re funny, I''m going to tell you since it''s such a piece of common knowledge, I''m surprised you don''t even know about them. Do you know the blue forest with the tall monsters?"


    "Yes, the Endemans, what about it."


    "The blue vines of the trees can be crushed and water would come out of them, we try to leave some behind so it can grow back, but it''s still an intense labor to get the water."


    I did not know about that, this wasn''t part of the game, and also where did the blue trees get the water from?


    There isn''t a lot of nutrition in the ground so how does that happen?


    At least now I have the answer to a question I didn''t ask.


    How do people in this world brew potions if they don''t have access to water


    I now wonder how people enchant here.


    I know they have obsidian, but I don''t think you can find diamonds.


    And even if they were, you couldn''t mine them with gold.


    Now that I''m thinking about there are a lot of questions that don''t make sense in the Nether.


    Like where do they get paper from, or even glass since there''s no sand in here?


    Some things I took for granted since it was a game, but now that I live in it there has to be an explanation for everything which made me wonder if I should start a tour around the Nether to find more answers.


    In the end, I stopped asking those questions, it wasn''t time for me to do that, I needed to level up my Crafting skill, learn how to enchant, find more ruins, and maybe finally make a portal for my home.


    There''s a chance Merry the hero would be summoned by the System once the Zombie Lord was killed for good.


    She should ask if there''s any way we could go back home.


    Satisfied with the new ideas and plans I made I turned back to the bartender.


    "Hey bartender, one more cup of water for me, and do you know who would be fighting in two days at the arena?"


    The man grunted and poured me another cup, while I put the nuggets on the table.


    "I heard the Chief son is going to fight with a wild hoglin. That''s the reason everyone is so excited to see the fight in two days. Even the Chief himself would be there to watch, which is a rare thing to catch him in those small fights."


    So this was a special occasion, no wonder the old man suggested to get there.


    I drank the water slowly enjoying the mint flavor, when suddenly someone opened the door of the bar with force.


    It was a man fully equipped with golden armor like myself, and I was surprised since I didn''t expect someone to afford this.


    He looked around the room until he saw me.


    "Are you Trader the traveler?"


    "Depends who is asking.,


    The man walked closer to me and took out his golden exe.


    "The Chiefman wants to have a meeting with you."


    I didn''t like the fact that he threatened me, but he was a messager, so if I did something to him it would be like attacking the Chiefman himself.


    I would go with him and have my petty revange later, he''s not getting off so easily.


    "Yes, I''m him."


    "Good, follow me then."


    He put his exe back and walked away expecting me to follow him.


    I only gave a deep sigh.


    Why do people keep on walking out like that?

 Chapter 121. Meeting with the Chief

    We walked past the commun area into the rich area which was a vast difference from the moment I stepped in.


    Everything was separated by a wall, and once I crossed it, I was taken by surprise.


    There were statues handmade with the past Chiefman and Chiefwomen on the side, there were small lava pools with striders bathing lazily in them, and there were even


    grass blocks placed like lawns.


    If I didn''t suspect that he had access to a ruins storage this was proof enough.


    Not too long after we arrived at the house of the big man, or more exactly the mansion.


    It was three stories high, over fifty blocks in diameter, and used blocks from the other world like stone bricks and dark wood, it also went well with the blocks from the Nether such as nether bricks and basalt.


    I had to stop in my tracks to admire the building.


    It wasn''t as impressive as the castle or palace that I saw in the Overworld, but it still showed the same power since it showed the leader''s resources spared for this kind of project.


    The guard while annoyed at my sudden stop, didn''t hurry me, probably feeling proud for serving such a master.


    After I had my fair share of looking around the place we entered the mansion where four more servants were waiting on us.


    "Welcome traveler."


    All of them said in unison which creeped me out a little.


    The guide suddenly turned around and left and one of the four servents walked towards me.


    "Thank you for accepting our invitation sir. Trader, the chief is waiting for you."


    I didn''t know I had an option, but I still walked beside the server not saying anything.


    We didn''t walk for long as we arrived at a huge room that could easily take two stories, and in the back was a big chair similar to a throne all made with precious materials such as gold and iron blocks.


    On the precious throne stood a man with a short nose, red hair, a big belly, and a cape made with the skin of a hoglin.


    What was the biggest difference from the others was the fact that he didn''t wear a hoglin helmet.


    Everyone in the Nether wears something like this, even the servants that greeted me.


    But he was different since I could see his face, and he was looking up and down at me, clearly analyzing me as I did with him.


    "Trader, a man who travels the Nether in search of riches, not a job that many people are willing to take, but I have to respect the soul of a merchant that is willing to go to such length for results. I''m sorry about the sudden summon I hope I didn''t inconvenience you."


    Unfortunately, even though your guard was rude to me, I''ve had worse.


    "I greet you as well great Chiefman, unfortunately, I didn''t get your name yet."


    "Oh how clumsy of me, I''m Soulstone the 3rd, the great Chiefman of the Forgotten Bastian."


    Soulstone, is an interesting name, and why is the Bastion named Forgotten?


    "It''s a pleasure meeting you sir, what was the occasion for my calling?"


    "Haha, you truly must be noble with how polite you speak, where are you from traveler?"


    The man laughed loudly which made his belly wobble.


    "Unfortunately I would prefer not to disclose that information as the tradition of my house is to travel the Nether incognito."


    "I see, so you''re doing this out of tradition?"


    "Yes, my ancestor made his fortune through this method and made his predecessors go through the same journey before we are recognized as adults."


    "Interesting, then I should respect your tradition and not pry any further on this. Tell me, Trader, what do you think about my Bastion?"


    I don''t know!


    It''s very different then what I know in the game, and I don''t know how it stands in comparison with the others, it''s the first time I''ve seen one after all.


    It''s probably for the best to say some generic things while using some of the Information I gathered.


    "It''s a unique design but I feel that it hasn''t reached its full potential."


    The man smiled a little before looking into the air murmuring.


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    ''Full potential you say. Of course, it hasn''t because of those pesky-''


    But stopped himself before I could hear the rest of it.


    "Oh! Where are my manners, I''m sure you must be tired and hungry from your long journey, so why don''t you have a meal at my table and rest in my rooms."


    I didn''t expect the sudden hospitality, maybe even suspicious, but I wasn''t going to refuse it.


    "That would be pleasant."


    POV: Souldstone the 3rd


    The two of us slowly walked into the next room where a huge table was sitting in the room with the food already prepared.


    The visit of the traveler was unexpected, and I still don''t know if he''s a Brute sent by the big boss.


    Even though we haven''t heard from them for three generations, the armies equipped with God-like armor, make us still fear them.


    My ancestor found a hidden ruin in one of his hunts and it was a life-changing moment for him and his tribe.


    The items he found in there were unheard of, iron, diamonds, dirt, cobblestone, oak wood, and many more.


    It took him a while to sort through everything until he found a book, he didn''t know how to read the language at that time, but it didn''t matter since it had drawings that he understood.


    That book was a guide on how to craft items.


    There he learned how to make tools, and how to make blocks, later in other books he learned how to brew potions and even tried to learn enchanting but it proved much more difficult.


    With time he realized that he couldn''t hold everything for himself, it was too big of a discovery and he couldn''t study everything in his lifetime.


    So he showed his trusted friends his secret and slowly gathered strength.


    With time they got better, got smarter, and took over everything else becoming the leader of the region.


    When enough brutes were gathered, they built a bastion right beside the treasure, where they had control over everything.


    With time they realized that they couldn''t enjoy the labour of their people if they were too stupid.


    They had all the resources, why would they bother taking care of something that made them lose gold instead of gaining more, so they thought the community how to mine for gold, how to hunt for hoglings with fewer numbers, and how to get water from the blue vines.


    Generations passed like that, the rich families got richer and more powerful while the common Brutes had a better life than before.


    It wasn''t the best system but it was what they got.


    But everything stopped when my grandfather came to rule.


    Underneath the treasure, there was a tunnel system undiscovered by any of us, and one day a group of 15 brutes equipped with enchanted diamond armor and swords got in and seized everything.


    We tried to fight back but they had access to the same resources as us and knew how to use them.


    They killed most of the other families but left the descendants of the original founder alive.


    And the reason was pretty stupid as well.


    From what my grandpa told me, the reason they found this place is because they are a special team made by the Big Bastion, their job is to explore the forgotten tunnels of the old people and kill any survivors.


    The reason they killed everyone was because they were bored since they couldn''t find any more people from the otherworld for a good few years, so they just killed them because they could.


    My grandfather was furious, but couldn''t do anything about it.


    But surprisingly they didn''t take too many resources, mostly the gold, everything else they left here.


    But that happened if my grandpa respected two conditions.


    One, stop supporting the masses directly.


    Two, in case the otherworldly people attack, they had a special part of the treasure reserved for them just in case they lose their main base.


    They were the guardians of their treasure in case anything went wrong.


    My grandfather reluctantly accepted the deal, and as a way to make sure he wouldn''t just run away, they enchanted a lapiz block with the course of binding and other cursed enchantments, that would give the constant location of the wearer and the next ruler has to have it, otherwise the overpowered team would come back and kill everyone.


    They made sure to let us know that we couldn''t run or hide since they would find us, and to make sure that every generation that comes after this would fear them as well, they left an enchanted iron armor for them and was labeled ''the armor of the weakest soldier''.


    It was in the treasury and hard to ignore it.


    I looked over their enchantments and I was ashamed to admit, but I stood no chance if a group armored with this would attack.


    But I didn''t give up, Soulstone the 3rd will not bow down to tyrants like them!


    They came here, destroyed my family, and my legacy, and expect total servitude?


    I will not be a servant to them, I''m a warrior, I''m an explorer and I''m going to win this!


    Of course, I was smart enough to realize that I was fighting an uphill battle.


    And since I couldn''t fight them with tools, I would defeat them with experienced warriors.


    That''s why I organize most of the tournaments.


    This is the best method that I found in training my people indirectly, and over the years it was very successful, but there''s still one problem.


    Everyone is a champion in their own right but that means they don''t know how to work together, that''s why I need to find a strong leader, someone that can earn their respect or be feared.


    I found someone like this a few years back, he was a fine young man with a promising future, and when the tournament started he won it like no one has ever done.


    Excitedly, I invited him to my mansion and told him about my plans, but the dumb brute refused it under the pretax that it wasn''t his business.


    How dare he refuse my generosity.


    Unfortunately, I already informed him about my plans and knew he was a liability, I don''t know where the spies are in the Bastian, but I don''t want to risk it by letting the man just go on his merry way.


    That''s why I had to poison him and burn his corpse, his father tried to do something but I just put him with the other old warriors in the underground tunnels.


    He''s gotten too old now to do anything of danger.


    We sat at the table, and soon the food arrived, as per tradition we had roasted pigling and soup with strider milk.


    I have a few chests with exotic food from the Overworld, but those are limited resources and I can''t just lavish in them no matter how much I like their taste.


    I even tried to start a farm here but the water evaporates too fast to even grow something, it was a sad thing to see.


    Trader sat on the other side of the table and I analyzed him once more.


    He was a tall man fully covered in golden armor which made it hard for me to get any more characteristics of him.


    But I could still deduce something from this.


    He didn''t look like any Pigling or Brute in here, but he didn''t look like any outsider since he didn''t have their big nose.


    I''ve checked all the albums that I had in storage to learn about them, I even heard they opened up a portal in the South but probably they''re destroyed by now.


    So where did he come from?


    My only fear is that he''s someone sent by the Big Bastion to check on me, but I have to gather more information for that.


    I took a sip from the soup and let out a sigh of satisfaction.


    "So Trader, tell me about your journey."

 Chapter 122. Talks at the table

    "So Trader, tell me about your journey."


    After we sat down and ate in silence for a few moments, the Chiefman asked me about my journey.


    "I''m pretty early in my journey so I haven''t had the chance to visit a lot of places, but I did have the luck to see some interesting sights. Do you know about the legends of the Overworld?"


    "How could I not? It was the story told to every Brute as a child."


    "I heard some rumors that a few decades ago someone opened a portal to that dimension and now people from there captured the fortress where the portal was. So on my first journey, I decided to visit that place, and to my surprise it was true."


    The man seems to freeze at the new information, before slowly continued to eat his meal.


    "And how were they?"


    "They looked very funny, with big noses and from time to time puting ''humm'' in their sentences. They were also very proud of who they were and I could bearly make a trade with them."


    "You made a trade with them, and they didn''t attack you?"


    The man seems surprised by this, and I as well since I expect the Brutes to attack first and ask questions later.


    But then again the experience in this Bastian wasn''t that bad overall, they attempted to rob me just once, so maybe they''re not that bad.


    "Yeah, they were proud and weren''t willing to trade with me, but after some intense convincing they sold me a few stacks of cobblestone blocks."


    The man raised an eyebrow but didn''t say anything.


    "I didn''t know those rumors were true."


    I just sat in silence and ate some of the soup that had an interesting taste, I could tell that it was made with pork meat and had a little aftertaste like medicine, and since the soup was red I tend to believe they used nether warts because they didn''t have a lot of variety.


    Now it''s time for me to ask some questions.


    "If you don''t mind me asking sir, what''s with the big wall at the entrance?"


    "You''re referring to the big wall that separates the rich and the poor?"


    "Not that directly but yes."


    "It''s simple you see, this place used to be a lot bigger and a lot more open, but when my grandfather was ruling this place, an uprising happened from the common people. We gave them knowledge, we gave them food and items, and all we asked was to serve us, they were hired as servants and paid well, but then they attacked us killing a majority of the families that lived around here. In the end, we managed to defend ourselves and even kill them all, but a lot of people died on our end. Then my grandfather decided to build a wall and do a better job at hiring new servants so the history won''t repeat."


    That was an interesting history lesson, which blames the common people as the reason the nobles don''t send any more support.


    Of course, it''s the exact opposite of what I heard from the others, but I don''t know if either of them is telling the truth.


    Maybe it''s somewhere between the middle, where the nobles send more help at the beginning but stopped at a certain point, but they kept growing, and because the others saw them but couldn''t reach them, they decided to do what Brutes are best known for doing, attacking and stealing.


    But since they were underequipped, they lost the battle and paid the price for that.


    "That''s a sad story indeed, but how come you didn''t expand more, with all the manpower here I''m sure it''s more than feasible to accomplish it."


    The Chief seems frustrated at this, but not at me instead of something else entirely that I didn''t know about.


    "Indeed we could, but we are not greedy so we are satisfied with what we have right here."


    A Brute not being greedy is like telling someone that a witch doesn''t like to brew potions.


    I think it''s possible but it''s very rare to see someone like that surviving in the world, so this must be a poor excuse to cover up the truth.


    We stayed in silence after this and finished the meal.


    "I hope the meal was to your liking Trader, I''m going to finish some business of mine, but you can get some rest in your room."


    With that said, he got up, walked out of the dining room and a servant came to me as my guide.


    With my belly full, and a few questions answered I was satisfied enough to get some rest, so I followed the servent along the tall hallways until we stopped at a certain red wooden door.


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    With a single motion it was opened, and I could see the interior of it.


    It wasn''t too big nor too small, the walls were made with wood from the Overworld, soul lanterns were hanging on the ceiling which gave some chilling vibes and there was a crafting table together with some chests.


    Once I was left alone I took off my armor that I''ve worn for what I could assume was hours, and soon I felt the effects.


    But since I didn''t have the armor on me anymore and its cooling effect, I felt a wave of heat washing over me, it wasn''t as unbearable as I thought.


    I looked at the ceiling and realized that it was the effect of the soul lanterns.


    Not only did it look creepy with its pale light and souls disappearing into the ceiling, but it also had the side effect of cooling down the room I was in.


    I''m not a fan of the design but I can see its usefulness, so I won''t complain.


    In the room, there was a white bed well made and I comfortably sat down to get some rest.


    Time passed, and while I could feel my body resting my mind couldn''t go unconscious.


    This wasn''t because I was paranoid even though that was a port it, the real reason was because of the stupid soul lamp!


    Yes, I felt comfortable with the improvised air conditioner, but I also think it had a mental effect since I couldn''t take it out of my mind.


    "Ok, that''s it, I''m going to have a breath of fresh air."


    I got off the bed, put my armor back, and went outside the tall hallways, where surprisingly was empty.


    I thought there would be a guard around here to keep an eye on me but apparently, I was trusted enough to be my own.


    Big mistake.


    "Let''s see what you hide under the rug chief."


    I didn''t know how I should be more stealthy, but one thing for sure was clear.


    The armor didn''t help with a stealthy aporch, it was too easy to be seen and recognized, so I couldn''t just casually walk like this.


    But I had a plan if you could call it that.


    I went and checked every room that I passed but only seeing more guest rooms until finally I found what I wanted.


    A servant room.


    It was way smaller than the room I was in, with only one bed and a beral to store some items, and I quickly checked it like a sneaky thief.


    Inside I saw some wooden tools, some food, and what I was looking for, a spare uniform.


    The servants in this dimension were very differently dressed than in my home world, actually even in the Overworld where dressed more uniquely.


    In the chest I found the head of a hoglin which I quickly put on my head, then there was a short tunic handmade with the leather of the hoglin and some leather pants, those two pieces were dyed in red.


    An interesting choice of color.


    I took off my armor and put it in my inventory and replaced it with the servant uniform.


    Once that was done, I already started to feel lightheaded from the heat, and for that, I had to take out my secret weapon.


    Fire resistance potion.


    I had two on me and it was way more than I expected to use in a quick trip to the Nether, but I''m glad that I made that decision, since now I would not die from the heat for a few good hours.


    I quickly drank the potion which made small orange particles float around me, but you had to really pay attention to otherwise it would be ignored.


    As I was about to leave the room I stopped in my tracks and spoke with the air.


    "Violet, are you here as well?"


    To my surprise, the tall monster appeared in the room slightly crouched so she wouldn''t hit her head on the ceiling.


    Looks like she really was everywhere, which was kind of scary.


    "Did you explore this place already?"


    I got a yes from her.


    "Did you see their treasure room?"


    The response was once again positive, and I quickly got excited.


    "Awesome! Can you please guide me there?"


    She looked at the wall on the right and opened her third eye searching for something, before closing it and looking back at me.


    I got a nod of approval, and she teleported out of the room.


    Since she was still visible that meant that nobody was around her so I quickly exited the room and went after my guide.


    We walked through a few hallways where I could hear some voices calmly talking with each other in the mysterious rooms beyond the red doors, and since my guide didn''t even bother to look at them I wasn''t too worried that we would be found out.


    Soon we arrived at a stone brick staircase that went higher and lower, and Violet chose to go down.


    The walls quickly changed from calming wood to depressing dark brick stones, it felt like I entered a dungeon then a celar.


    While we were here, Violet seemed to be more on guard than before so I paid attention to everything else as well.


    We arrived at the end of the hallway and saw an iron door but no lever or button.


    Violet just teleported on the other side like it was nothing leaving me out trying to figure out how to pass it without making too much noise.


    Breaking the door was not an option since I learned my lesson in the obsidian mine in the desert, so I looked in my inventory for any solution, only to stop and got closer to the door.


    On the right side of the iron door, I saw something unexpected, a block stone button.


    It was blending so well with the rest of the walls that I didn''t see it at first.


    I pressed it, and as expected the door was opened but still made some noise.


    I quickly passed before it closed and hoped that nobody heard it.


    On the other side of the door, an enderwoman waited for me with crossed arms wondering why did I take so long.


    "I didn''t see the button ok."


    I responded with a wisher, and Violet just rolled her eyes and became invisible.


    This made me panic a little since I didn''t know if she did this because someone was coming or because it was a stealthier approach.


    So In a panicked response, I entered the closest room that I saw.


    On the other side, I saw a large room filled with soulsand and nether warts slowly growing on them, on the walls there were two double chests and I didn''t see a place to hide.


    Suddenly Violet appeared once again, but this time she looked panicked at the door and then at the rest of the room looking for a place to hide.


    Since I couldn''t find one, I will make one.


    With quick steps I went towards the chests on the wall and broke the wall itself with my diamond pickaxe, it wasn''t even a challenge with how quickly It went through those blocks.


    Then I made a small room behind the chest and covered everything else, there was one block missing on the lower chest in the corner where I could see what was happening in the room.


    Violet seeing that I found a place to hide, relaxed and turned herself invisible, just in time as the wooden door was open with a bang.


    *Bang


    In the room entered a frustrated Chief while dragging a person who was tied and blindfolded while still struggling.


    He arrived in the middle of the room and dropped the man down with force.


    The man tried to gather himself, but the Chief just kicked him in the stomach with force making the poor man freeze in pain.


    "Don''t struggle so much and I''ll make your death quick."

 Chapter 123. Assassination

    I was shocked when I heard what the Chief said, he then dragged the man in pain closer to the Nether warts and took out an enchanted golden exe.


    Without thinking I took out my loaded crossbow and shot at him, but something unexpected happened, instead of hitting the Chief, it exploded right in front of me *Boom!


    The crack between the chest was too small, which resulted in my back hitting the wall from the explosion.


    Soulstone was startled by the sudden explosion and dropped his exe right in the head of the man.


    Unfortunately, that didn''t kill him, but now a wave of pain washed over him which resulted in the loudest scream of pain and panic I ever heard.


    "Oh shut up, will you! I can''t enjoy your suffering like this anymore."


    And the chief raised his foot above the man and kicked the exe deeper until it hit the floor.


    The man stopped and went limp.


    He was dead.


    While that was happening, I finally managed to get myself together after the explosion and now I had to make a decision.


    Should dig away and run?


    Or should I get out and fight him?


    "Who are you? Reveal yourself!"


    Fight it is then, if I run away I won''t be able to come on this side of the Nether ever.


    I took out my diamond pickaxe and broke myself out, where the Chief waited for me with a diamond sword ready to fight.


    He froze and looked at me confused, and that turned to anger.


    "I don''t know which servant you are but I''ll enjoy torturing you!"


    He then jumped at impressive speeds for someone his size and reached me in a second.


    I quickly took out my shield and stopped the incoming sword, and with my right hand, I swung my diamond sword at him, which I unfortunately missed.


    "An enchanted Diamond sword?! You''re not a servant, you''re the spy that I kept looking for, how naive of you to reveal yourself. I''m going to enjoy every second you scream!"


    Then he took out his golden axe and jumped once more towards me, and in response, I raised my shield once again.


    It was a mistake.


    The Chiefman was a heavy but nimble man, so when his weapons touched my shield, it was too late for me to realize it was a trap.


    He didn''t want to slash me, he wanted the crush me, so all of his weight was now on top of me.


    The man was so fat that I had to put one knee down and both my hands for support.


    Suddenly I didn''t feel the weight anymore, instead, the axe was used as a hook to pull the shield away from me, leaving me exposed.


    The brute didn''t waste this opportunity as he kicked me with force onto my side taking air from my lungs and the sword slipped out.


    It hurt like I was hit by a hoglin, I even fell three blocks to the side giving me more bruises.


    "Is that all you''re capable of? That sword is wasted on you, where is your almighty armor?"


    He started to get more excited and now he was preparing for another attack.


    Weapons raised he started to gain momentum to crush me once again, but I put a stop to it just by placing a block in his way.


    Since it was instant, he didn''t see it coming so his knees hit the nether block and his face landed on top of it.


    Still in pain, I got up and punched the man in the face, making him groan in pain.


    I didn''t continue the attack, instead I went to grab my sword and loaded another firework.


    "How did you do that, what kind of enchantment did you use?"


    I didn''t bother giving him an answer instead I shot a firework towards him.


    The Chiefman quickly shielded himself with his tools, which was a big mistake.


    *Boom!


    "Ahhhhh!"


    The man screamed in pain as flesh was burned on his arms.


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    But even through that unbearable pain, he didn''t let go of his weapons.


    He didn''t scream for long, instead, he looked at me with cold eyes took out a golden apple from his inventory, and ate it, which was pretty impressive with how bad his arms looked like.


    Soon, flesh started to regenerate at visible speeds, and in a second he was all healthy and ready to continue the fight.


    But I didn''t stay and just watch as he healed himself, I loaded my crossbow once again and shot at him, but this time he jumped out of the way hitting the wall in the back instead.


    *Boom!


    The man wasn''t playing with me anymore, he was fighting like a warrior, and that meant that I was in danger.


    I didn''t take my sword out, instead, I quickly built a wall that forced the man to stop otherwise would have had another accident.


    The room was three blocks tall so, I couldn''t tower up and he could jump over the new barricade.


    But I didn''t give him the chance to do that, as I quickly placed blocks on the ceiling as well leaving space only in the middle.


    And I could say with confidence that even if he could pass through the gap, it would be very hard for him to get here safely.


    That meant that I was free to shoot at him like a fish in a barrel.


    "What kind of enchantment is this!"


    The man yelled with anger and a hint of panic.


    But this was an advantage for me, so I wouldn''t waste it by explaining what was actually happening.


    I took out the crossbow from my inventory, but this time it was different, this one was enchanted.


    The man focused on my weapon and tensed his body ready to jump out of the way.


    I pressed the trigger towards his feet, and the Chiefman jumped on the right, but this shot was different from the previous ones, since from one firework suddenly three appeared.


    *Boom! X3


    The man was hit and fell on his back, with flesh getting burned before quickly regenerating, the effects of the apple were still going.


    Before he could get up I jumped through the barrier gap and loaded another firework.


    *Boom! X3


    This time all three of them hit the Chiefman, which did more damage than before, even the enchanted regeneration couldn''t keep up with it.


    But this wasn''t without a price, as the enchanted crossbow broke in my hands and moved to be used again.


    It only had two more shots left and I made them count.


    I quickly ran towards him while he was trying to get up even in great pain, so when I arrived I kicked him in the gut before taking my sword out and stabbing it in his head.


    The room got quiet and the Chiefman froze in place before going limp.


    He was dead.


    The adrenaline was still going through my veins but was slowly calming down.


    I fell down on the ground trying to catch my breath.


    "What did I just do? I have to run now before they''re going to search for me."


    I took deep breaths, trying to calm down, everything happened too fast for me to process what just happened.


    As I sat down with my back on the wall I saw something different that I wasn''t able to see in the heat of the fight.


    The nether warts were vastly grown where the two corpses stood, everything in a five-block radios was fully grown, like someone used bonemeal on them.


    "Does the soul of a person work as bonemeal on the soulsand?"


    Is this why the Chiefman took the man in this room, to grow his garden?


    That was a sick thing to do.


    After I calmed down I looked at the Chiefman inventory to see if he had anything valuable on him.


    I don''t know how long it would take for the servants to notice the disappearance of their master, but that doesn''t mean I would leave this place without any spoils.


    Unfortunately, the man didn''t have too many valuables on him, only a few golden ingots, food, some golden apples, and his weapons, also this weird lapiz block enchanted with Curse of Binding, Tracking, and Ruler.


    I didn''t even know about two of them, but I was too afraid to pick it up since it had a Curse of Binding so I left it there.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t expect to have a fight today so he didn''t take anything of value.


    I took his gold, apples, and the diamond sword that had Sharpness 3 and Unbreaking 2 on it.


    Then I turned towards the chest only to see Violet visible once again with a relaxed face.


    "Did anyone hear the commotion?"


    She reassured me that nobody heard us so nobody would come and see what was going on.


    This made me a little relieved that I had some time to loot this place.


    I quickly checked the chests in this room and was disappointed once again once I found out that it only held some nether warts, enchanted golden hoes, and blocks of soul sand.


    I didn''t take anything from there since I already had enough of those items at home, instead, I turned towards Violet.


    "Can you please continue guiding me toward the treasure room?"


    Violet opened her third eye once again and looked all over the area, before closing it and signalling to follow her.


    With this I followed her at a quick pace, not knowing how much time I had left until I arrived in front of a wall.


    It was a dead end.


    "This isn''t the treasure room, this is a dead end!"


    Violet kept pointing at the wall until I finally understood what she was referring to.


    "There''s a secret room beyond the wall?"


    She nodded her head and teleported in the hidden room leaving purple paricals behind.


    "I''m sure there''s a hidden mechanism that I can use to open this door, but I don''t want to bother looking for it, so let''s break it!"


    I took out my trusty pickaxe and broke the dark wall, then the nether rock wall, and again a black wall.


    But that was the least one as now I was in a large room easily twenty blocks in diameter.


    The room was split into two parts, one held the majority of the chests together with an enchanting setup and a few brewing stands.


    There were also a few bookshelves filled with books written by brutes instead of the System.


    On the other side of the room, there were six chests in total, there wasn''t anything special about that side of the room with the exception of an enchanted iron armor that stood on a stand like a line between the two sides.


    First I checked the closest chest around me, and it was a true treasure trove.


    Diamonds, emeralds, iron, gold LOTS OF GOLD, Redstone, potions, crops, milk, and much more.


    I also checked the enchanting setup and saw a few journals related to experiments with enchanting.


    From what I gathered by looking through them, it was way inferior then what I knew, but I kept a few that caught my attention and moved to the potion setup.


    Here I had better results, a lot more recipes that I didn''t know, and some of them used interesting ingredients such as strider milk, soul sand, and even glowstone blocks.


    For now, I only took the books with the information and the diamonds.


    As I looked through those chests I found something that I was hoping to find in here.


    Netherite ingots, 20 more exactly.


    It was a jackpot, so I quickly took them, afraid that their going to disappear in front of me.


    I''d checked everything on this side of the room, so now I looked towards the smaller part but equally majestic part of the room.


    But first I had to check the enchanted iron armor that stood as a line.


    What was its deal?


    And when I took it off to see those enchantments, I was taken by surprise.

 Chapter 124. Open up old man!

    Iron Helmet (The armor of the weakest soldier)


    -Protection 2


    -Fire protection 2


    -Unbreaking 3


    Iron Chestplate (The armor of the weakest soldier)


    -Protection 2


    -Fire protection 2


    -Unbreaking 3


    Iron Leggings (The armor of the weakest soldier)


    -Protection 2


    -Fire protection 2


    -Unbreaking 3


    Iron Bots (The armor of the weakest soldier)


    -Protection 2


    -Fire protection 2


    -Unbreaking 3


    -Feather falling 2


    -Soul speed 3


    This was a pretty powerful armor, to say the least, it''s such a waste to put it on an iron one instead of a diamond.


    I wonder why is that?


    It''s not like they were limited by the System, and they had access to diamonds.


    While it was a wired armor I decided to take it with me until I got home, it has fire resistance after all, it''s an amazing enchantment in this dimension.


    My inventory was already half full, so I wondered if I had enough space for what was I about to come.


    Or maybe I would be disappointed.


    I opened the first chest and was surprised.


    The chest was filled with diamond armor, it was not enchanted so there was no point in me taking it with me, so I closed it and moved towards the next one.


    The second chest held diamond tools and weapons such as pickaxes, shovels, swords, bows, arrows, and crossbows.


    "I knew he wasn''t satisfied with what he had, the question is what was he planning on attacking? And where does he hide his army?"


    I closed this chest as well since nothing was enchanted or valuable enough for me, then I opened the third chest.


    This one was filled with food, it had potatoes, berries, carrots, milk, cooked meat, and much more.


    My stomach started to grumble just looking at this. Even though I just ate a few hours ago, so I took a stack of my favorite food from the chest.


    Golden carrots.


    While I was munching those I opened the next chest, and finally I found something that tickled my greed.


    This chest was filled with items ready for battle, such as strength, speed, fire resistance invisible potions even ender pearls.


    And those weren''t even the best part!


    Inside I found THREE GOD APPLES.


    It''s the first time I''ve held so many in my inventory and it made my blood pump.


    There were also a few stacks of golden apples but I didn''t take any with me since I had enough of those already.


    Surprisingly the rest of the chest was filled with obsidian blocks, so I took two stacks of them since it was annoying to mine them in the first place.


    This trip was already worth many times over than originally planned, even though I''ll have to be more careful next time when I''m on this side of the Nether.


    I opened the next two chests and it wasn''t something too valuable for me, only some lapiz, books, pages, and ingredients for brewing.


    I don''t know what the Chief was preparing for, but I''ll take wherever I can.


    With every over I got ready to leave only to be stopped by my monster friend.


    "What''s the problem, Violet, is someone coming?"


    She shook her head as no.


    "Then what''s the problem?"


    She teleported towards the wall I came through and made a motion with her hands as if opening something.


    "You want me to take down that wall?"


    She quickly denied that and repeated the action, before teleporting on the other side and back a few times.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "You want me to open the door?"


    This seems to be the right answer as she nodded her head quickly.


    Why would she want that?


    She can teleport through just fine, and I already broke the wall, or maybe the hidden door Itself.


    Then it hit me, she was interested in the Redstone system, and she didn''t even know what to look out for, so she asked me instead.


    Unfortunately, there were a lot of ways you could make a hidden door with Redstone, actually, sometimes you don''t even need that, a painting with a door would be enough.


    I started to study the walls more carefully in case there was another black button that I didn''t see.


    After ten more minutes of looking at the walls, I gave up and wandered around until my eyes stopped at an empty cauldron in the corner of the room.


    "It can''t be... Is that the hidden mechanism?"


    I went back towards the chests and took out a water bottle, then I walked towards the iron cauldron and poured the water down making a small puddle inside.


    Suddenly I heard Redstone working beyond the wall and then the sticky pistons retracted showing a small tunnel in the corner of the room.


    Violet suddenly teleported in front of me and looked at the three-block tunnel, taking and placing blocks down.


    After a few minutes of trying to figure out what just happened she looked at me with confusion.


    "Luckily this is a simple system so I can show it to you at home. Now let''s go, I have to visit someone one last time before I''m going to leave this place."


    I left through the newly made tunnel and entered the basement of the mansion, as I walked towards the stairs I stopped and saw on my right another cauldron which reminded me to cover this place so they wouldn''t start searching for me too soon.


    I blocked the two tunnels that I made and went back to the farm room.


    There stood the two corpses exactly as I left them, but they looked a little different than what I remembered.


    More skinnier than before, and I could see the difference because the belly of the Chiefman was smaller.


    "Does soul sand accelerate the decomposing process?"


    It didn''t matter since it was moving too slow for my liking.


    So I made a small tunnel in the wall and put the two corpses there after checking them one last time.


    After that, I quickly placed the blocks back like nothing was hidden beyond the wall.


    "This should buy me some time."


    With my job done, I drank a potion of invisibility and left the mansion.


    Nobody acted strangely on my way out, which made it clear to me that the Chiefman missing for a long time in the basement was a normal thing.


    Once I passed from the rich area to the common area the people started to appear more and more, which forced me to do some awkward maneuvers so I wouldn''t bump into them accidentally.


    After some time I got annoyed by this and looked over the edge towards the fighting arena.


    I checked my status and saw that I still had the fire resistance on me, so I jump over the edge.


    Suddenly I felt tingling all over my body as I got closer and closer towards the body of lava, and then a huge splash was heard by everyone nearby.


    Suddenly the brutes stopped from their daily lives and went close to the edge to see who fell down.


    But as they waited nobody came to the surface screaming in pain.


    After a few moments, everyone shrugged their shoulders and got back to their regular day.


    Either some gravel fell down in the lava pool or if someone alive was unlucky enough to slip down there, it was dead now.


    After everyone left on their own I started to swim towards the edge of the pool, the lava felt very heavy around me as I tried to move where I wanted to, it felt like I was trying to move liquid slime around me, it was a very tiring process.


    It was a weird sensation swimming and not getting my body wet.


    Finally, I arrived at the edge and got out of the lava leaving small puddles behind me.


    The jump was a reckless move from me, but it got me down faster without the risk of me bumping into people on the streets, plus I wanted to do this at least one time ever since I got my hands on potions.


    Down here there weren''t a lot of Brutes so I could run towards the tunnels where the old warriors retired.


    As I arrived there, old brutes were living their peaceful lives working on their nether wart farm or teaching young warriors.


    "Hey Stonehead, do you smell something?"


    "Have you gone senile Arrowhead what-*sniff sniff* yeah I do smell something."


    "It smells like someone took a bath in lava. Did one of the youngsters get their hands on a potion?"


    "Who knows, let''s go to find out!"


    The two old men walked in a hurry toward the group of training youth, and I was also in a hurry feeling a little weird by the fact that someone could smell my presence.


    Once I arrived at the end of the tunnel, a door blocked my way, but nobody was around so I knocked at the red door.


    *knock knock


    A few moments later the door was opened, by an old-looking brute.


    "Who would dare prank such an old man?"


    "Nobody pranked you, old man, it''s me Trader, let me in!"


    "Wha-who spoke?"


    Suddenly the frail old man was no more, instead a brute with a white beard that stood straight and an enchanted golden axe in his hand ready for battle.


    He looked around the entrance some more, before locking his eyes on me even though I was invisible.


    "How do I know your Trader?"


    I decided to equip my golden armor to show that it was me, even tough invisible.


    The man wasn''t ready for a fight anymore but was still tense.


    "Anyone can have a golden armor those days, it''s not enough proof."


    What do you mean anyone can have such armor?


    I''ve only seen one person having such armor, and that guy was a jerk.


    "You asked me to kill the Chiefman for two Netherite ingots."


    The old man froze in place before quickly bringing me into his house.


    "Come here, I don''t want the whole Bastion to hear about that!"


    Once he made sure that nobody in the tunnel heard me, he looked back at me.


    "So Trader, you came back earlier than I expected, and why are you so... transparent?"


    "Well old man, a lot of stuff happened in a short amount of time, and I kind of killed the Chief."


    The old man tried to look at my face, but unfortunately, there was nothing to see.


    "I hope you''re not joking since my heart can''t take it anymore."


    "I''m not joking, here''s his diamond sword as proof."


    I took out the sword and gave it to him to study it.


    "This is truly his sword, it has the exact same scratches and the same enchantments. I need more details about what happened!"


    I then started to tell him about what happened, how I was taken from the bar, how I ate with Chiefman, how I saw him trying to kill someone, and how that ended up in the two of us fighting.


    I didn''t tell him about the treasure room, in case I''ll be back and take the rest.


    After all, there''s a portal connected to this place.


    The old man stayed silent as he listened to my story until I arrived at the end, then his eyes started to get wet, and fell on his knees sobbing profusely.


    I didn''t know how to comfort him, should I hug him or just leave him alone to gather himself?


    In the end, I did nothing and waited for him to calm down.


    Luckily it didn''t take long as he soon gathered himself back and looked back at me with a stern face.


    Only his red eyes betrayed that he was crying not long ago.


    "I''m sorry for showing you such a pitiful sight, and thank you for completing my request, even if it wasn''t intentional."


    "Don''t worry about it, I''m pleased that you''re happy."


    "What a fine young man, I guess you came here for the payment, let me get it for you."


    "That''s one part of the reason I''m here, but I also have a request from you."


    "Sure, if this old man can help you with something I''ll gladly do it."


    "Can I borrow your crafting table?"


    The man pointed at the block that I wanted and gave me permission.


    With slow steps, I got there and placed the Netherite Ingot in the middle surrounded by chiseled stones.


    Suddenly the image of Lodestone appeared with a red X on top of it.


    "I want you to craft me two of those please."


    The man looked with confusion at the recipe but didn''t ask any questions.


    "Sure I can do that."


    I smiled at the progress I made today.

 Chapter 125. On the run

    After a few good hits, I now was in the possession of two Leadstones.


    I still think their stupidly expensive just to know my way in the Nether, actually do they work in the other dimensions as well?


    I should try this when I get home, it could be proven useful if so.


    But I was still salty about the price.


    "Thank you old man, but I have to leave this place as soon as possible, I don''t know when they''ll start looking after me."


    "Don''t worry hero, we should deal with the aftermath of this conflict, go in peace, and thank you once again."


    I drank one more fire resistance potion to keep myself cooled while I left this bastion.


    With the effects on me, I put the golden armor in my inventory and left the old man''s place.


    The tunnels were as I left them, with minimal activity and nobody knew what just happened behind closed doors.


    With quick steps, I got out, then climbed the stairs until I arrived at the common area, where there was a lot of activity on the streets.


    In the end I used the strategy of walking with my back against the wall to avoid bumping into people.


    After an hour I was finally at the gate, which was unfortunately closed, and it was too heavy for me to open it by myself.


    There were four brutes waiting bored beside the door, so it was easy for me to climb the stairs towards the top of the walls.


    "I''m telling you, the best way to cook pork is by manually doing it, slowly rotating it over a small fire."


    "Why would I bother doing that for hours when I can just put it on the furnace and be perfectly cooked in a few minutes."


    "It''s not about the time! It''s about the control over the ingredients. How can you call yourself a cook if you don''t do anything yourself!"


    On top of the wall, there were two guards arguing about how to cook, and since they were so invested in their conversation I could slip past them and place a few blocks on the wall to safely get down.


    Of course, I broke all the blocks that I placed leaving no evidence behind.


    I escaped successfully.


    With one last look at the bastion I turned around, equipped my enchanted iron armor, and started running towards my portal .


    POV: Unknown Brute


    I woke up feeling sore all over my body, the age started to catch up with me and I couldn''t keep up those insane training exercises anymore.


    It was such a shame that I couldn''t work at my peak anymore, but at least I can guide the next generation to do better.


    I was alone in my small room, even though I accumulated riches throughout my life I didn''t like to show them off too often, sure I had chests filled with gold and other items not found in this world, but I didn''t like to place them out like thropies.


    My room only had some rugs, paintings, furniture, and a few chests on the wall.


    I got out of my apartment and walked towards the training ground, where the best warriors were training to be the next special force like me.


    But once I arrived at the training ground there was a commotion which caught my attention.


    There where a group of people surrounding something that I could only assume was a fight, unfortunately, I couldn''t see past it.


    So I took one of the youngsters from the edge with force.


    "Hey! What gives- oh Sir Diamond Vine, sorry I didn''t greet you, is there something I can help you with?"


    "Yeah, what''s happening here, isn''t everyone supposed to be training right now?"


    Suddenly the group of brutes started to cheer loudly and quickly dispersed making me see what was finally happening.


    "Prince decided to visit us today, and one of the Diamond warriors decided to challenge him to fight after an argument. And as you can see, it probably got accepted."


    The Diamond Warriors were the highest grade a brute can get, and we work directly under the Royal Family, that''s why it''s such a surprise that one of those Brutes decided to challenge a member of the Royal Family in public.


    Usually, when someone has a problem, it could be solved with a private duel, there''s no need for the extra audience.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    But once I looked over who the Prince was, I understood how this came to be.


    The Diamond warrior was one of my colleagues, a stupid brute but powerful nonetheless, he got us in a lot of trouble in youth, and I can see he likes to keep this tradition when he''s old as well.


    As for the Prince in question, it''s one with a unique title in the whole Royal Family.


    The Mad Prince.


    A few decades ago we found out about the existence of the Outsiders taking over a fortress, and the Diamond warriors were originally made to hunt those kinds of places.


    But because we didn''t have contact with outsiders for so long we got moved to another section, that''s why we were taken by surprise when they first attacked one of the bastions in their area.


    Unfortunately, nobody survived to tell us more information about the enemy so we assumed the worst.


    We sent some scouts to gather some information, but the bastion was lotted and abandoned, so there wasn''t a lot we could get.


    In the end, we found out the location of their fortress and spied them from afar.


    But they kept their warriors hidden only seeing the field workers with enchanted iron armor.


    At that time the Big Bastion split into two sides.


    One wanted to attack the place before it grew too powerful and the other side wanted to wait more in hopes of gathering more information.


    As the two sides bitched with each other, a third party started to emerge, one mostly composed of Piglings.


    They weren''t as strong as us the Brutes, but they were in very important positions of managing the Bastion.


    And they chose neither side, actually, they didn''t want to fight the outsiders at all, their question was:


    ''Why would we want to conquer them if we can''t even stay in their lands.''


    After all that everything became a political battle, if we should attack or not.


    Should we keep our traditions and honor our ancestors, or abandoned them, and start a new path?


    In those years, the outsiders didn''t conquer any more territory, they actually started to trade with the local bastion of all things.


    And once they did that, the Piglings got another chip in their favor.


    ''We can trade with them, why waste good warriors on this stupid war?''


    Now the conflict is about fighting with them, or trading with them, neither one gaining any ground.


    And that kept going for years and years, but now something was different than usual.


    Someone managed to break the scales, and that someone was the the Mad Prince.


    The Royal Family had brute blood in their veins, they were superior in strength but a little dumber than the Piglings.


    There were some political marriages with the Piglings, but those were always female, and their sons were always brutes.


    But there was one exception in the history of the Nether.


    The Mad Prince, the second son of the King with a Pigling''s mother.


    He is a man almost three blocks tall and smarter than any Pigling we have ever seen, he won the best of both bloods, and the reason he is called the Mad Prince is because he''s the first one in the Royal Family to choose trading with the outsiders instead of fighting them.


    Now he''s fighting for the throne gaining more and more power while making more waves across the Big Bastion.


    The two fighters went into the battle arena where the seats were filled with warriors yelling excitedly about the next fight.


    My friend put on his diamond armor and took out his enchanted axe, while the Prince stood on the other side of the field, also in enchanted diamond armor but with a sword.


    One of the instructors came into the middle of the field and started to yell.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, warriors of all kinds, today we shall see the amazing fight between the Diamond Fist and the Mad Prince!"


    He then turned towards the two contestants.


    "This is not a fight to the death, so if you are heavily injured surrender immediately, we don''t want to lose a warrior here. Start in 3-2-1 go!"


    The presenter quickly ran out of the way and the two warriors started.


    Both of them took out a portion and drank it, my friend took out his usual strength potion and the Prince took what I think was a speed potion.


    I was proven right as once he was loading his crossbow it was unusually fast, he aimed and shot at Diamond Fist all in one second.


    But my friend while stupid, wasn''t a weak warrior, as he just moved his head to the side dodging the arrow.


    After he dodged the arrow he started to run towards the Prince at great speeds, only to stop once the Mad Prince placed a lava bucket in his way almost hitting him.


    The armor had fire resistance on it, so it wouldn''t take damage from the lava, but I would hinder his movements, which made him retreat to not fall into the trap.


    The Prince also had to get back, but continued to shoot Diamond Fist with his arrows making him constantly move and draining his energy.


    Suddenly he stopped and started to run towards my friend and the only response he gave, was a mad grin.


    That battle maniac.


    I''m sure at this point he didn''t challenge the Prince because he was mad about his political stand, he only wanted to fight someone strong.


    The Prince didn''t attack with his sword, instead, he raised his shield ready to crush his opponent, and my friend braced himself for the impact.


    But what came was something unexpected for all of us as the shield clashed with Diamond Fist but had no force behind it, instead the Prince used an ender pearl to teleport behind his opponent leaving the shield as a distraction.


    Before Diamond Fist was able to figure out what just happened, a sword stabbed him through the back which made him critically hurt.


    But he was a battle maniac, and that was not enough to bring him down, instead, he turned around and slashed the Prince with the sword still inside him.


    The battle was still won by the Prince in the end even without a weapon, but my friend didn''t go down without a fight, showing how resilient were the Diamond Troups.


    "Winner, the Mad Prince!"


    Everyone cheered and chanted his name, even though the Prince didn''t change his expression throughout the whole fight.


    Slowly everyone was getting back to their training and went to see how my friend was holding up.


    "How are you doing my friend?"


    "Diamond Vine is that you? Of course, you had to see me lose in such a way. That boy made such a dangerous weapon! How can you put such a high level of Piercing on a sword? He''s a madman!"


    I gave him a regeneration potion to bring him back to his feet more quickly and we decided to move our conversation to our headquarters.


    On the way there we talked more about the fight, and while he didn''t like the fact that he lost, I could still see a glimpse of admiration in his eyes at the Prince.


    We the Brutes are simple creators as Piglings say, and I tend to agree with them, we respect two things, gold, and strength, and it''s hard not to admire the Prince when he has both of those.


    In the end, we arrived at our headquarters where something caught our eyes, a lapiz block placed on the shelves started to pulsate red light.


    Both of us stopped and looked at it with wide eyes, then a smile formed on our faces.


    "Looks like someone decided to rebel. Time to get those old bones back to work."


    We both laughed and started to gather the rest of the crew.

 Chapter 126. Piliged Clan

    I arrived at my portal and decided to cover the entrance with some netherack until I''ll do a better job of hiding it in the future.


    Back at my portal, I passed safely into the Overworld, feeling a tension that I didn''t know leave my body.


    "Home sweet home! Wouldn''t you say so Violet?"


    My monster friend made herself visible and just shrugged her shoulders before going to her room.


    That was such a teenage reaction, but I won''t comment on that.


    I got the armor off me and drank some milk to wash off the effects on me, then started to sort out the loot that I got into my storage.


    "It feels good to be rich."


    The smile couldn''t leave my face as I was walking from chest to chest.


    After everything was sorted I took out the items that I needed for my crafting on the surface and visited Violet''s room.


    And as I expected she was trying to build something with Redstone, and the longer I looked the easier was for me to understand what she was trying to build.


    The door that we saw for the secret room, and also reminded me of my promise to show her how it was done.


    Luckily this was one of the easier doors to make and I could make something similar if not exactly as it was.


    "Let me help you with that Violet!"


    Once she saw me, she stopped and let me do my job.


    First I cleaned up the place around my work space and started to place the sticky pistons.


    There were six in total, three rows with two on top of each other.


    "For this kind of secret door, you need to build it in a corner."


    I placed four more blocks to make a wall and then started to build the system.


    The pistons on the bottom were connected to three repeaters, and the ones on top were activated by a line of Redstone on top of them.


    All of them were connected with a small staircase and a lever.


    Once I flicked the lever, the pistons activated leaving one block gap in the corner of the ''wall''.


    "The pistons at the bastion used, Blackstone, neterack, and Blackstone once again so you could''t see the door on either side. We are going to use just cobblestones since everything is already made."


    With that said, I put the nine blocks on the sticky side of the pistons and flicked the lever a few times to see that everything worked.


    And as I expected everything worked just fine, and that seemed to make my monster friend happy.


    "Ok, Violet I''ll be going to the surface and do some crafting, don''t stay all night trying to build with Redstone like last time."


    With one grunt that I understood as affirmation, I left my secret base getting back to the surface after what felt like days.


    But as I was surfacing on the swamp waters, something felt different than before, I could feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.


    But that was not possible since I was under the wooden road, and that blocked the sun.


    And then I opened my eyes and saw something that I did not expect.


    Everything around me was destroyed like a hurricane just passed through.


    There were some blocks floating in the air, broken homes, witches'' corpses, and much more horror that I was too shocked to register.


    "W-what happened here?!"


    I swam to the shore and started to check everything I could reach.


    The huts were burned, chests were looted, slimes were killed and even the corpses were left with only their clothes on.


    "Is anyone here, is anyone alive?"


    I checked on the stone basements that were still intact but still no result until finally I saw the answer to what happened here.


    In one of the basements that I keep looked through, I saw a corpse that was different than the others.


    It was the corpse of a Piliger.


    "It can''t be! But how could they even get to this place? The mist is supposed to keep them away."


    I quickly ran towers the enchanted wall and saw that it wasn''t as I expected it to be.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The wood was burned and the lapiz blocks were broken leaving only a few chunks that survived out of their laziness.


    "The wall is broken as well, Is Froggy dead?"


    Not wanting to think on that for too long I switched to thinking of something more productive.


    Like where would I hide if my home is attacked, and suddenly it hit me?


    The mines!


    The cave system is huge underground, and mobs don''t attack witches, making it the safest place to be in.


    I quickly ran towers the mines, and as I expected I saw more activity there, or more exactly more corpses of both parties.


    Some faces I recognized made my heart beat more loudly, and some of the enemies made me more shocked, such as the ravager. The game did not do its justice with how intimidating it looked.


    But the more I looked, the more a small flame of hope formed, as I didn''t recognize the face of my friend among the pile.


    Finally, I arrived at the tunnels of the mines where no more bodies were scattered, which I could only guess they lost the people through the long dark tunnels.


    "Hello! Is anyone here?"


    I yelled at the dark with no result, but I was sure the survivors hid there, unfortunately, I couldn''t search every tunnel in hopes of finding them, as it would take me a lifetime.


    But I knew someone who could find them in an instant, so ran back to my secret base.


    Quickly jumped into the water, almost fell the ladders a few times, and stopped in front of a noisy room.


    "Violet, I need your help!"


    The Enderwoman stopped flicking the lever and looked at me with confusion.


    "Come *huff* with me *huff* to the surface. *huff*"


    I kept taking breaths between my sentences but the message was understood.


    So after a quick break, we went to the surface, where even my monster friend was surprised to see what just happened.


    "I think the survivors hid in the mines, can you see them?"


    She started to teleport and I ran quickly towards the mine as well, and when I arrived at the entrance she already examined the place with her third eye.


    "So do you see them?"


    And to my relief, I got a yes.


    "Can you lead me to them?"


    She looked one more in a certain direction and teleported, leaving big purple particles behind for me to follow.


    After half an hour moving through twisted and abandoned tunnels I suddenly had to stop, because an arrow was shot right in front of me.


    "You won''t get us you filthy Piligers, I''ll rather die than be your slave!"


    A voice filled with rage yelled at me as another arrow tried to get me.


    But that was a voice that I recognized, it was a feminine voice.


    It was Sara.


    "Sara, it''s me, Trader, don''t shoot!"


    "Trader is that you? I thought you were dead!"


    I managed to get closer to the tense witch without getting shot.


    "I''ve gone mining for a few days and when I came back everything was gone, what happened?"


    She scanned me up and down in my diamond armor before looking at my back.


    "You weren''t followed by any chance were you?"


    "I didn''t see a living being on my way here, so I don''t think anyone followed me."


    She let out a sigh of relief and tension left her body, then she started to cry with small sobs.


    I tried to comfort her but two people having a breakdown in front of me in the span of a day made me scared about what was happening.


    After a few minutes, she calmed herself enough to talk with me.


    "Thank you, while you were gone the Piligers attacked us in the middle of the night, kidnapping people and killing those who were opposing."


    "But how could they find this place? The mist was supposed to stop them from getting here."


    "Brutus and some other Elders decided to betray us."


    She said that full of hatred.


    I instead was taken by surprise since I didn''t expect one of the Elders to betray the witches.


    Why?


    Sure, he was a bit grumpy with me but he worked in the best interest of the Clan, what were his motives?


    For how long did he plan this?


    But then I remembered why I came here in the first place.


    "Is Froggy ok, is he here as well?"


    "Yes, he''s with the others taking care of the wounded people. But now that you came here and nobody else is outside, I should probably tell the others as well."


    We both walked deeper into the tunnel where slowly light started to appear until I arrived at a large cavern with twenty witches resting, healing, or trying to help each other.


    To my relief, I saw Froggy well and healthy giving a piece of bread to some wounded man.


    With quick steps, I arrived behind and gave him a big hug.


    "Wha-Trader you''re alive!"


    His tired face suddenly came back to life and he returned the hug with force.


    Everyone started to look at the commotion since the room was not that large.


    "I know something like this wouldn''t kill you! Where were you, I didn''t see you anywhere when the attack started."


    "Yeah, I was out and busy gathering some materials, today I arrived at the surface and was surprised by the disaster."


    Once I mentioned that, his mood went down and looked around the room in silence for a few moments.


    "Yes the attack took us by surprise, most of us we''re asleep at that time, when that traitor Brutus decided to let the Piligers in our clan, not only that but Ellen helped them by showing the Piligers where the other Elders lived. Only Elder Flora and Elder Anastasia managed to escape alive, the others are dead or captured."


    "Ellen did what?! What about the rest of the team?"


    "Only me, Sara, and Walter survived, everyone else died in battle against the Piligers."


    His mood went down the longer he talked, and as I was about to comfort him, a voice called my name.


    "Trader, your back it seems."


    I turned around and saw the two Elders coming towards me, both of them aged considerably from last time I saw them.


    "Yes, I''m sorry that I wasn''t here to help you fight against the Piligers."


    They only gave a tired sigh as Flora continued to speak.


    "Sara told us you came from the surface, is it as bad as we think?"


    "Probably worse, every living being was killed, every hut was burned and every chest was broken or looted, there''s nothing on the surface. Not even the wall managed to survive."


    Both of them got more and more discouraged as I talked, but lucky some of the other witches decided to give us some room to talk, so not everyone was able to hear me.


    "We want to go to the surface to check out as well, can you come with us?"


    They were both tired but determined to pull this through.


    The reason they asked me to come with them, was most likely because of my armor and my combat ability.


    I didn''t have any reason to refuse them, so I accepted their request which made them sigh in relief.


    Froggy decided to join as well, leaving only Sara and Walter behind in case anything happened.


    We walked along the dark tunnels, killed a few zombies, and finally, we arrived at the entrances if the mine.


    Once we all got out, the others saw the scale of destruction and fell to their knees.


    Nobody broke down, but I could see the defeat in their eyes, which only made me feel worse that I wasn''t here to help them.


    I don''t think I could''ve stopped this, but maybe I could''ve saved a few more lives.


    "What do you think we should do Flora?"


    "There''s nothing we can do Elder Anastasia, we are doomed."

 Chapter 127. I can help you

    I looked at the three people who had a defeat look in their eyes and couldn''t help but try to help them.


    "You don''t have to give up yet, we can build another compound somewhere else, we can recuperate our strength and get revenge on them."


    "How can we do that, when we can''t even craft iron tools to protect ourselves? And even if we did manage to find another safe space, it would take too long and we would lose our minds from lack of brewing!"


    Elder Flora yelled which took me by surprise.


    This is the first time I''ve seen her lose her cool, and she seems to realize this as well as her expression quickly changed to one of shame.


    "Flora, Trader is right, maybe we can buy some brewing stands from the city, actually we don''t even need to do that, we can contact the Royal Family to get their help for this."


    Flora only looked more tired after this and gave another sigh.


    "And then what? We just changed our owners to the Royal Family instead of the Piligers. I don''t think they''ll be charitable enough to help us without some strings attached, especially after the stunt we pulled. But maybe you''re right, we can send some witches there to buy us some brewing stands for us to use. Otherwise, I don''t think we can easily buy some in the underground market."


    It was a lost cause no matter how we twisted it.


    They had to find a new place to build their homes, one without the protection of the mist, and even if they did manage to do that, they would live a very primitive life for a while since they couldn''t craft useful items, and that''s not touching the fact that a witch has to brew a portion every few weeks or they will go mad.


    But someone had a different look on their face, Froggy was looking at me with big eyes hoping that I had a solution to this problem, and I could only give a big sigh.


    I have a solution for them, I can easily bring them back to their former glory, and even the enchanted wall can be rebuilt if I take enough time, but that was a lot of investment on my part.


    While they weren''t exactly my friends, I grew fond of them, and I can''t leave my friend Froggy in depression after he lost so many of his people.


    So I was going to help them, I was going to open up my secret base.


    "I can help you."


    Suddenly Froggy''s face was full of hope, while the two Elders looked at me with confusion.


    "Trader I know you have an astounding ability to break blocks faster, and a high level in the Crafting Skill, but even with all this, it would take you a long time to gather materials for over twenty people."


    Anastasia tried to rationalize what I just said.


    "There''s no need for me to gather any materials, I already have more than enough to take care of more the a hundred people."


    This seem to take everyone by surprise, including Froggy who didn''t expect this answer.


    "I don''t know why you have a base filled with so many resources, but I''m sure it''s very far and dangerous to get to. Are you sure that''s feasible?"


    "It''s not that far, actually it''s right here in the Clan."


    The two Elders seem to be confused, but Froggy seems to have an idea of what I was talking about.


    "I know you''ve been mining for a few days, but the Piligers must''ve taken everything, so I don''t think you have too much to share unless you have a secret stash."


    Elder Flora resounded confused, and I could only smile at that since I had more than a simple stash.


    "Follow me, but I''ll tell you this from the beginning, I made this without any malicious intent towards the Clan! So don''t jump to any conclusions when you see it."


    Everyone seemed to be confused by my statement but nodded their heads and followed me.


    Once I arrived at the water we all stopped.


    "Oh yeah, since we are so many, I should make a bridge there and I''ll also have to change the entrance, wait here."


    Before they could ask more questions, I took out some dirt blocks I picked along the way and made a bridge toward my secret entrance.


    Once I arrived there, I stopped and made an isolated area that would lead to my hidden door and replaced the water with dirt blocks before breaking it, leaving only air behind.


    The entrance was finally visible, so I yelled at the others to come, and when they arrived a look of surprise was across their faces.


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    "Why is a door underwater, and how long has it been there?"


    Anastasia asked a very valid question, that I didn''t plan on answering.


    "Ok let''s get down, and don''t forget your promises!"


    We went down the deep ladder until we arrived at my secret base, and everyone was shocked to see it.


    Froggy was the first one to check on the chests and was getting more and more excited with each chest opened.


    "Elders, with this we can start a whole city!"


    Soon the two ladies joined him and looked through all those chests and couldn''t believe their eyes.


    Soon all eyes were on me waiting for an explanation.


    "Those are too many items that we don''t even have, so you couldn''t have stolen from us, how did you get them?"


    Elder Anastasia quickly accused me, which I did not like.


    "That''s a very rude assumption, I didn''t steal anything from the Clan, I only found a ruin while I mined and took everything from there."


    "And you didn''t think of informing us about it?!"


    "I''m sorry Anastasia, but I don''t remember having an agreement on sharing what I find or craft with you, and the ruin was way off the Clan''s territory."


    "All of those resources could''ve helped us fight against the Piligers!"


    Anastasia shouted back, which made me angry, and I could see that my friend Froggy tried to calm her down, which made me a little glad that he didn''t blame me for this as well.


    "From what I was told, the problem wasn''t the Piligers, but the Elders that betrayed you by letting them in. Even if I did give you what I found, it wouldn''t have helped you, it would actually be worse since then you wouldn''t have anything to bounce out of."


    This made her shut her mouth and clench her teeth.


    She knew she was in the wrong, she knew I didn''t need to help them, but now she was in grief and her emotions were a mess.


    That was the only saving grace for her, otherwise, I would''ve taken everything with me and left through the Nether.


    Flora didn''t seem to judge me as she looked around my base with some awe, and I could see a light of hope coming back to her eyes.


    "So this is where you kept disappearing those days, no wonder I couldn''t get anything on you. With all of those riches in here, you can retire for generations and still be hidden from the world."


    She looked through some of the other rooms, such as my farming room, and Violets room, but stopped at the Portal room.


    "Is... Is that a portal to the Nether?"


    "You know about it? I''m honestly surprised."


    "I''ve never seen one, but my predecessor did tell me the source of the nether warts. I''m surprised to see it with my own eyes. You are getting more mysterious Trader, who are you?"


    I should''ve closed the portal before they got here, I don''t want anyone to be tempted to explore this part of the Nether at that moment.


    It''s too hot with activity.


    "Wait, what is she talking about Trader? Why does it sound like those red blocks are more special than it seems?"


    Froggy quickly butted in confused and Anastasia was focusing on the portal as well.


    This made me realize that I didn''t introduce Froggy to the Nether, but at the same time, a lot of stuff happened in a short amount of time that I forgot.


    "Those aren''t some simple blocks Froggy, actually the obsidian frame is an illusion. No matter how much you move, you don''t see the walls in the other room. Elder Flora, what is this Nether?"


    Flora only gave an awkward laugh.


    "I don''t know too much either, the only thing I remember, is that it''s another dimension and that a lot of brewing ingredients come from there."


    "A new dimension?! Just under our Clan, do you realize how much danger you put us in Trader? What if someone were to invade us through this? Also, how did you break the obsidian block, I thought it was unbreakable."


    Anastasia didn''t know what to feel anymore, amazement, fear, anger, curiosity. And Froggy wasn''t too far behind her.


    "Do you know what dangers the Nether have?"


    "N-no, but from the looks of it, I don''t think it''s that peaceful."


    The Elder stumbled in her words.


    "You are very correct on that note, but there''s no need to worry, the portal is well hidden, and there''s no one in this world who knows more about the Nether then me, only its inhabitants know more and that''s not by a large margin."


    "Is this how you escaped death?"


    Froggy asked confused, which made the others look at me in shock.


    "No, those two are separate. Although this dimension has the nickname of Hell. But enough of this! It doesn''t matter what I did, or how long this has been going for, what''s important is that I can save the Clan with the materials that I have here, and I''m willing to help."


    This made everyone silent as they accepted the truth.


    "I''m sorry Trader, you''re right, you don''t have to help us, but you choose to share your resources, which we are more than grateful for. I''m sorry for what I said earlier."


    Elder Anastasia gave a sincere apology and bowed down, which made me feel better to be seen as a helper instead of a criminal.


    "Sure thing, I can''t leave the people of my friend going extinct, plus it''s not like you can take too much from here anyway."


    The materials they need most where the iron tools, and the materials that I use are mostly unrelated to them so it''s not like we have problems with resources.


    Plus, they would also need my help with crafting since they won''t be able to do it on their own, especially the brewing stands.


    Those are the true life-saving items.


    "Now that we have one problem solved, we have to decide on what to do next, do we rebuild this place or search somewhere else?"


    Everyone got serious as we talked about the logistics of everything.


    I pitched my ideas, and some of them were taken better than others.


    They weren''t found if building a sky base, or a floating island, it would be too time-consuming and dangerous.


    They were also surprised by the fact, that I could repair the wall if given enough time, but we scraped that idea as well because it all depended on me once again.


    "No matter where we would build our Clan, we would have the same fundamental problems of looking out when the next attack would come. I propose we take the underground base option, gather our forces, and attack the Piligers so they know not to mess with us anymore."


    Elder Anastasia said in the end, and it seems to resonate with Flora and Froggy.


    And this decision was probably for the best, they didn''t want to leave this place, and the sky would be too dangerous to build on, or the walls would take too long to be repaired.


    But underground, I don''t have to do a lot of trips towards my base, and I don''t have to work alone in this, since everyone can mine and it would be less dangerous than dangling dozens of blocks in the air trying not to fall off.


    This project would take a few weeks, even with my help, but we were all determined to finish it, and then get our revenge.


    "Ok everything is sorted out, let''s get the others now."


    Flora spoke at the end of the meeting and we all nodded our heads.


    It was time to get back to the surface."

 Chapter 128. Starting a new project

    We arrived at the cave where everyone was waiting for us anxiously since we had been gone for a few hours.


    Planing took longer than we expected, but everyone was relieved to see us getting back with no harm.


    "Witches of all kind, I know you are all tired and waiting for the news about our homes. Unfortunately, I don''t bring good news, the Piligers, took everything from us and left nothing behind, not even a piece of wheat on our farms."


    Everyone was listening in silence and the news didn''t cheer anyone.


    "But our hope is not lost dear witches, as someone was willing to help us in our times of need. That person is Trader, he has all the materials necessary to start a new compound for everyone to live in and much more. I want everyone to remember this favor, as we will pay it back later."


    I didn''t say anything about payment, but I guess Flora didn''t feel comfortable just taking stuff for free, so I wasn''t going to say anything about it.


    But now everyone had their eyes on me, and I could feel awe, fear, admiration but most was hope.


    Which made me feel a little awkward with all those stares.


    "We would get our revenge on those Piligers, but first we need to rebuild our Clan! We won''t do it on the surface anymore, instead, we will do it underground. So pick up your tools, brothers and sisters! It''s time to come back, it''s time for those Piligers to know the wrath of the Witches!!"


    Everyone cheered in the room as they got up and ready for work.


    But we had to stop a few of them since they were too injured.


    The biology in this world is interesting, to say the least, it can heal any superficial injuries in a few hours just with some food.


    But if a limb is missing, you need to drink a regeneration potion, otherwise you''ll have a smaller health pool.


    So once everyone was well-fed and fully regenerated, we walked back to the surface through the long dark tunnels.


    Since the tunnels didn''t have any touches, we had to be careful where we stepped and had to fight a few monsters.


    But that was mostly my problem since no monsters attacked the witches.


    Cheaters.


    We arrived at the surface with no one getting injured, but once everyone saw the state of their home evryone broke down and started crying, we had to take a long break for everyone to recover.


    "Everyone get up, we can''t rebuild our home while still thinking about what we lost. Yes, we would have some time to mourn what we lost, but first, we need to have a safe place to rest our bodies."


    Elder Flora decided to encourage the survivors one more time which brough determination.


    Half a day was already gone, so we wouldn''t start the underground project yet. Instead, we would build a small camp on the surface where we would sleep then start the underground compound.


    There were a little over twenty witches left, so I wouldn''t need to build a large wall, but it would still take some time to finish this.


    And for this, I needed to make everyone tools, so, Froggy, and the Elders went back to my base where I made everyone iron axes and pickaxes.


    After I hand it to them so I wouldn''t clog my inventory, I took stacks of cobblestone blocks and went to the surface.


    Then we all start to build the walls of the temporary base.


    It looked ugly, to say the least, the shape was a simple square and the fact that it was all made with cobblestone made it look like a prison camp. But it did its job so I couldn''t complain about it too much.


    While some of us were busy with the wall, another team left with their new axes and cut down the forest around us, but I specifically requested them to plant saplings once they got them, since the lack of trees would bring more attention when the base is finished.


    But I had to be honest, while they worked slower them me, it got done much faster than I expected.


    Even when I worked with the whole village, it wasn''t as efficient as them.


    I could only guess the reason was the size of the group which left a few people not knowing what to do, so they tried to look busy but ended up distracting the others who actually knew what to do.


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    Here, there were only a little over twenty people and everyone wanted to do something to be distracted from the dark thoughts that loomed over everyone''s mind.


    Now that the wall is finished, we would build the temporary houses out of the wood we got.


    I may not care about how the wall looks, but I couldn''t let living people just live in some boxes, so I made a simple design, only with wood where two people can live comfortably.


    I could''ve built enough for everyone to have their own small home, but Flora told me that was a bad idea, since now we need to be closer not isolated as a community.


    I agreed with her and changed the plans by making the houses a little bigger and closer to each other in case some help was needed.


    Once the houses were finished, the sun was almost setting so I had to quickly get back to my base and make beds and get some food.


    Luckily I had all the materials and plenty of food.


    So once everyone had their white bed in their homes, I laid everything that I had, from breed to beetroots soup.


    We also made a huge fire in the middle of the base where we all sat down and enjoyed its warmth.


    This seems to bring up the mood of everyone as they soon start to talk with each other, trying to lift up their spirits.


    It was a beautiful sight to see.


    Some people went early to sleep while others stayed longer and even fell asleep there.


    The next day came with a beautiful sun, and soon everyone was awake once again, but today, we would start the real project.


    Before we started I brought some brewing stands and enough materials to make two potions of Night Vision for everyone.


    Then, we tasked the witches who needed to reset their madness timer by brewing those potions.


    While they were busy with that, I and a few other witches decided to look for a place to start.


    In the end, we decided to build the entrance not too far away from the camp.


    Since the base would be underground, we first had to build a staircase that would get us to the level we wanted to start digging.


    We tossed around a few ideas, such as building it straight down and placing stairs on the wall, but a few of them reminded us, that everyone would be too tired after mining all day to climb over 100 blocks.


    And it would be too cramped for everyone''s comfort.


    The next suggestion was a 4x4 hole, but that wasn''t good either as people would get dizzy while going down, and once again it would be too cramped.


    The final suggestion was a 6x6 hole with a slime bed at the bottom in case anyone fell down, or wanted to reach the bottom faster.


    I even suggested a system with pistons that pushes slime blocks and we would be thrown to the surface, but they were skeptical, to say the least.


    Cowards! I''m sure Violet would appreciate my idea more.


    So we got digging, and each one of us took one block to mine down, with the exception of me who took four blocks, since I had an enchanted diamond pickaxe and could broke blocks faster than them. Even with all of that, I was still ahead.


    But 10 blocks deep I remember something very important.


    "Stop! You over there, go to one of the Elders and request to make Haste 2 potions for everyone that is digging, they should know where to get the materials."


    One of the witches that I was pointing my arm froze before making sure I was talking with him.


    "Yes, you, sorry I didn''t get your name."


    "M-my name is Sandy, and I don''t think I can make such requests from them."


    The man was too afraid of the sudden responsibility and didn''t have the guts to talk with their former superiors.


    "Don''t worry, tell them that I sent you and it should clear out everything."


    After a little more encouragement, he finally climbed the stairs out of the hole.


    "Sorry if this seems rude sir Trader, but why did you send him to get those potions?"


    "It''s not rude to ask, so don''t worry about it. As for the reason for why I sent him to do that, it''s to help us mine faster."


    "What do you mean by that?"


    "You will see soon."


    While it was still early, we decided to take a break and chat a little.


    An hour later Sandy came back with his inventory full of potions, Haste, and Night Vision.


    Once everyone had a potion in their hands we went toward the next step.


    "Ok everyone, drink up the Haste potions!"


    And everyone did after me.


    Soon I started to feel the effects of the potion, so I turned back to the block beneath me and broke it much more quickly than before.


    And just like that, the project timeframe got greatly shortened.


    We decided to build the clan ten blocks above the bedrock layer, it was deep enough that nobody would dig into it by accident, and there weren''t a lot of tunnels mined at that level.


    So a few hours passed, the stone layer was long left behind, and now I was excited to reach bedrock.


    "Finally! It''s so annoying to dig so wide, everyone stop at that level, we reached where we wanted!"


    The sounds of pickaxes suddenly stopped, and a loud cheering soon followed.


    Some of them wanted to take a break on the way here, but since they didn''t see me stopping they couldn''t stop either.


    So reaching this level was a green light for them to finally rest.


    Luckily or unluckily, we didn''t hit any cave systems, so no monsters bothered me, but that meant I had to mine a lot more blocks.


    But the first step was done, so I quickly got up with the others and mined around to make a small room for us to sit.


    "Well guys, are you ready to start the base?"


    The only responses I heard were growls of pain and frustration which made me smile.


    "Of course, we would take a break first."


    Everyone let out a sigh of relief once they heard that.


    Witches from what I saw, weren''t too keen on doing physical labor, so their bodies are not used to this kind of stress.


    We all sat down and ate what was left from yesterday night, but I kept on munching my favorite food, the golden carrots.


    "So did you think how your new house is going to be?"


    I left the question in the air while everyone was thinking about their answers.


    "I always wanted a two-story house, but I don''t know if we have enough space to build that big."


    "Don''t worry, there would be plenty of space for you to use, this could be used as an opportunity to build your dream house."


    Once again everyone was lost thinking about the future, but this time there were smiles on their face, and there was hope for tomorrow.


    We continued talking like this for an hour, we talked about homes, we talked about dreams, and fears, and everyone started to loosen up.


    "Everyone! I know we have a lot of ideas to test out, but for that, we need to finish the hole first, so let''s take out our pickaxes and build that future!"


    Everyone cheered and got back to work.


    It was time for phase two.

 Chapter 129. Shock

    POV: Anastasia


    I quickly woke up after having another nightmare.


    "Are you ok Anastasia?"


    On the other side of the room stood Elder Flora who was tiredly rubbing her eyes, most likely awake because of me.


    "Sorry for waking you up Flora, it''s just another nightmare."


    She slowly got up sitting on the edge of the bed trying to stay awake.


    "Was it about the attack?"


    I stayed in silence thinking about how all of this had happened.


    It was in the middle of the night when all of a sudden I heard the door of my house open with force.


    With confusion, I got up and heard how the rest of my house was getting ransacked, which quickly made my guard rise.


    With an alert mind, I went towards the chest in my room and took out an enchanted iron sword and some splash potions.


    Suddenly, the door of my room was smashed open, and a man with gray skin looked eyes on me.


    "There she is! Quickly kill her before she can escape."


    Then he took out an iron axe and attacked me.


    Out of reflex, I threw the potion that I had at him, which quickly broke.


    "Ahh, my eyes, I can''t see!"


    The man quickly swung his axe trying to hit me, but I was already getting further away from him.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t enjoy my small victory as I heard other''s steps quickly getting closer to me, so I drank the invisibility potion that I had.


    The effects worked right on time as two more invaders entered my room.


    "Where is she, what are you doing?"


    "I don''t know, she''s in the room but threw a potion at me and now I can''t see!"


    Before they could give him a bucket of milk, I sneaked up behind and stabbed one of them with my sword.


    Luckily neither of them had armor, so my sword went straight to the heart.


    Unfortunately, that wasn''t enough to finish him off, but it was enough for him to be on the ground crying In pain.


    "Careful, she''s invisible!"


    I tried to attack him as well, but he was better at combat them me, even though he couldn''t see me, so instead I stabbed the man who was still blind.


    This time I learned my lesson and aimed for the head killing him instantly.


    "Nooo! I''m going to kill you!"


    This seemed to be enough to make the man lose his cool and attack my sword which I quickly hid in my inventory, making him lose my location.


    "Coward, where are you?"


    I didn''t answer, instead I walked to his side and punched him in the head.


    My punch was powerful enough to send him to the floor, so I quickly took out my sword and finished the job.


    Blood was rushing through my veins, as I felt the adrenaline working, but suddenly a grown of pain caught my attention.


    It was the first man that I stabbed in the chest, I thought about leaving him here to die in agonizing pain, but in the end decided to kill him for good, since I didn''t know if he had a potion of regeneration.


    I looked closer at the attackers, and to my shock I recognized them.


    They were Piligers.


    But how could they get here? The mist was supposed to keep them afar.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t stay here to think how this happened as I heard screams outside my house, realizing that I wasn''t the only one getting attacked, but the whole Clan!


    I quickly went outside and saw more of my fellow witches getting chased by laughing Piligers.


    Some of them were fighting back, others were captured as prisoners, and I didn''t know what to do. I killed whoever I could, but that only put a dent in the attackers.


    As I walked along the chaotic streets I finally found someone that could help me, it was Elder Brutus and a few others.


    Unfortunately, they were surrounded by Piligers and one specifically that wore a robe instead of the usual warrior clothing.


    Brutus knows how to fight, so if I manage to free him and give him a weapon he could turn the tables and boost the morals of the other witches.


    I slowly got closer to the man in the robes, who I suspected was the leader, when all of a sudden something else caught my attention, or more exactly someone else.


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    Elen was walking towards the group with an enchanted iron sword, making me wonder if he was going to try saving the Elders as well.


    But instead, something else happened, when he got closer, no Piliger took a fighting stance, instead let the man pass through until he arrived at Brutus.


    "Elder Brutus, the casualties among both parties are too high, I don''t think the others were intimidated enough to surrender on sigh."


    "That is indeed troubling, we want to catch them alive if possible, what about the Elders?"


    "We managed to kill them all with the exception of Elder Flora and Elder Anastasia."


    "Exactly the witches I wanted the most. How should we deal with this Mage Frogeye?"


    How could this happen, did Elder Brutus and Ellen betray us?


    But Ellen was rescued from the clutches of the Piligers by Brutus himself, he swore to kill every Piliger in his path. That''s why he trained so hard.


    But all of that was a ruse?


    Was Ellen a spy for the Piligers, was Elder Brutus a spy!?


    For how long was this going on?


    "What''s this gotta do with me? It''s your plan that failed."


    "Maybe my plan wouldn''t have failed if your soldiers weren''t so easy to kill."


    The two of them stared at each other intensely for a few moments and then the mage took out a goat horn.


    "Fine, I''ll bring out the Ravager."


    And then he blew into the horn, which made a loud sound that could be heard throughout the whole compound.


    My blood froze once I heard that name.


    Ever since I got the position of the Elders, I got a brief history lesson about our past with the Piligers and what they were capable of, and the Ravagers were one of the most powerful living weapons that helped them bring terror and fear through out the battlefield.


    And as I expected, when the monster came, everyone could feel it in the air.


    The tension, the fear, THE RAGE.


    He came closer towards the mage held in a leash by four Piligers, and that was bearly doing anything.


    But suddenly the beast looked at me like he could see through my invisibility potion.


    "What''s the beast looking at?"


    The mage narrowed his eyes and scanned the area around me.


    "I think he sees someone that Is supposed to be invisible. Let the beast go boys, let the beast Rage!"


    As instructed the beast was let go, and it quickly started to run towards me at great speeds.


    "Wait, why is it coming here?!"


    What they didn''t expect was the fact that I was hidden among the Piliger group which made more chaos for everyone involved.


    Because of that, I could sneak away without getting squashed, but I can never forget those eyes filled with Rage looking through me.


    "I have to find Flora, she''s the only one left alive."


    I quickly went towards her house, and it was in flames like the others which made my heart beat more wildly.


    Was I too late?


    Then beyond the sound of burning wood, I could hear metal clashing which gave me some hope.


    I was still invisible so every Piliger that I killed had a face of confusion or surprise, not knowing how they died.


    Soon I was at the place where the battle was in full swing, five Piligers were fighting Flora and her butler, and the man knew how to wield a sword, while Flora was using the shield blocking the incoming arrows and shooting back with her crossbow.


    While it was impressive how well they fought with such a disadvantage in numbers, they were growing more tiered as the battle was dragging longer, it was only a matter of time before they would lose.


    "For the last time, surrender and well-agh!"


    One of the Piligers tried to speak to their opponent but was quickly killed by me.


    Everyone froze in fear, so I took advantage of this opportunity to decapitate another Piliger.


    This was enough to bring everyone back to reality and started to attack me.


    "Careful, the enemy is invisible!"


    But now the fight was fair in numbers, so soon we emerged victorious in this battle.


    "Thank you warrior for saving our lives."


    "Flora it''s me, Anastasia!"


    "Elder Anastasia? This is a good strategy to fight against those Piligers, do you know what happened?"


    "I don''t know exactly what happened, but I know that Elder Brutus is working with those Piligers!"


    "He did what?! That madman and his obsession with our great past would be the downfall of our Clan! We have to get the survivors to the mines, it''s the only chance to escape alive."


    I nodded my head, but she couldn''t see that, so I confirmed it out loud.


    "We should split so we can cover more ground."


    "That sounds good, also be careful since there''s a Ravager as well."


    This made her freeze for a moment but then continued to run and warn the other witches.


    For me it wasn''t that hard to run along the chaotic streets, stopping from time to time to kill Piligers.


    The harder part was convincing the other witches that I was not a ghost and that they should go deep into the mines with the others.


    In the end, I decided to just be a guiding ghost for them since it would be faster than convincing them that I''m actually their Elder.


    Suddenly I heard the Ravager scream in pain, which made me curious about what happened.


    I walked along the streets of the Clan one more time and saw nobody that I could warn anymore.


    I need to get to safety as well.


    Once I arrived at the entrance, I saw a lot of corpses on the ground, from Witches to Piligers.


    But what truly shocked me, was the corpse of the Ravager, how did they manage to kill this beast?


    I went inside the mine and saw Flora together with Sara and Walter ready to attack anyone that was getting anywhere close to the mine.


    "Guys, it''s me, Anastasia, there are no more witches in the Clan, we can retreat deeper into the mine."


    My voice startled everyone but calmed down once they realized who I was.


    "Ok, we should guide the others as well, the injured ones should stay in the middle, I''ll lead everyone and Anastasia will break the torches behind us."


    We all nodded our heads and put the plan into action.


    -


    I stayed in silence for a few minutes remembering that awful night.


    I keep waking up in the middle of the night, hearing my door being broken down by a Raveger.


    "Yes, it''s the same dream again, the one with the Ravager."


    "You don''t have to worry about that, if we managed to kill it, with Trader here that killed the Zombie Lord, it would be a breeze."


    But the Ravager was killed because your butler sacrificed himself.


    I could only give a sigh, she was right after all.


    We don''t know too much about the Zombie Lord, only that he brought the Stone Nation to its knees, and we also don''t know how Trader managed to kill that creature.


    I was skeptical at first when I heard that, but once I saw his hidden base I''m starting to have second thoughts.


    I''m still angry that he hid such treasure from the Clan!


    If only a portion was shared with us, we would be much richer than before, we wouldn''t need the other kingdoms so much.


    But unfortunately, he was right, he didn''t have to help us, he didn''t need to keep us company and guard against any other threats that could be coming.


    But he''s still here, for better or worse.


    He feels pity for us, mostly towards Froggy and Flora, which makes me feel disgusted.


    We are proud witches who raised ourselves from the ground, we could do it once more.


    I shook my head trying to shake those emotions off, we could do it for sure, but how many more lives would be lost, I''m also not taking into consideration the fact that he''s willing to help us get revenge on those Piligers.


    We are thankful for what he does, but I only have one complaint about him.


    He''s scary.


    He has riches that would make any man mad, but he just shares it away like it''s no big deal, he somehow managed to escape death from what Froggy was talking about, and he has knowledge from the ancient times.


    A man like this doesn''t work without a plan, so the question is.


    What was his plan?

 Chapter 130. Fall

    I woke up feeling refreshed, the sun was bearly on the horizon but still sent light throughout the land.


    I was the only person living on my own since I made the house specifically for me, and I didn''t want to bother someone else if suddenly I''m struck with inspiration and keep them awake with my crafting.


    Plus I''m already used to sleeping on my own so it''s better this way.


    I left my house feeling the cool winds of the morning, making me shiver.


    Everyone was still asleep around me, too tired after the mining session from yesterday, but we made a lot of progress.


    The witches on the surface were not sitting idly either, as they built farms and other facilities for the workers to relax once they were finished with mining.


    But with time, only a few people would remain here and the rest would join the underground.


    As I walked around the surface, looking at what else appeared, I heard a door being opened and closed quickly.


    Curious, I walked to see who else was an early bird.


    It was Elder Anastasia.


    "Morning Anastasia, are you that excited to start working?"


    "Wha- oh Trader it''s just you. Not really I wanted to get some fresh air, nights are harder to sleep recently."


    Oh, I''m guessing the pressure of the Clan is starting to get to her, and I''m not that good at comforting people.


    "Sure, do you want to see what progress we made underground?"


    She looked at the sun that was slowly rising and then turned back to face me.


    "I guess that would be good to see."


    "Perfect! Follow me then."


    We walked away from the cobblestone wall and arrived at a huge hole going deep into the earth.


    "I knew we were digging a lot, but isn''t a hole of this size dangerous since anyone can fall in?"


    We walked closer to the edge and looked down where we couldn''t see the bottom from the lack of light.


    "It''s not that dangerous, you can use the stairs to get down and-wha-whaaaaaa!"


    I suddenly ''slipped'' off the edge and fell into the deep hole, making my inner body twinkle because of the adrenaline rush I was getting.


    But while I was screaming as I fell deeper, I wasn''t actually scared, and the reason soon revealed itself in the form of a slimy green blocks.


    I made sure I was standing straight up as I landed on the slime blocks, the speed of my fall was quickly getting smaller and smaller until it came to a sudden stop.


    Then like a spring, I was launched back, reaching the edge of the hole in a few seconds where Anastasia had a terrified face.


    "Trader! You''re ok!"


    "I''m ok, you can jump as well, it''s all safe."


    That was the only thing I managed to say before falling down once more, but this time I lay flat until I reached the green blocks at the bottom.


    My falling speed was decreasing greatly until it stopped and then I was lunched up once more, but this time only five blocks, then three and then one, and finally I stopped.


    The whole process didn''t hurt at all, only some tense muscles that would soon get back to normal.


    It was always a rush when I did the jump, never got too used to it.


    The testing phase was fun as well, especially seeing the reaction from the other Witches while I was jumping from higher and higher heights.


    From what I know I''m the only one that uses the slime bed to get to the bottom, even if everyone saw me jumping on it and coming out fine.


    I sat there for a few minutes waiting for Anastasia to come down the stairs since the jump was too much of a challenge.


    Once she arrived, she didn''t look too happy at me.


    "Don''t ever do that again. I thought you were falling to your death, my heart almost stopped!"


    This made me a little ashamed of my prank.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    I didn''t expect to get such a strong reaction, but in hindsight, I should''ve thought better about it.


    "I promise I won''t make any more pranks with you."


    I still want to try this with Froggy and then I''m done, but Anastasia didn''t seem to be happy with my answer.


    Luckily, she didn''t press on this subject as she looked around the place to see what we were working on.


    Once you arrived at the bottom of the floor, you would be met with a few double chests lying around filled with cobblestone and other blocks, then a huge room that was dug three blocks tall.


    This was the bottom layer, and the largest of them all.


    The final project would look like a huge underground dome where we would build the new Clan and its houses.


    A group of witches together with me started to dig the first layer and placed torches down as a light source, while another group of witches drank some Night Vision potions and concentrated on mining the second layer.


    But they had to be careful, since if they accidentally broke a block from the ground, they would fall to the first layer and hurt their feet.


    It''s not that dangerous now, but when we would mine at the 10th layer, that would be a death sentence.


    "This looks pretty impressive, and it''s only done in a single day. Did you somehow manage to make the other witches mine as fast as you?"


    "Not as fast as me, but if we use the Speed potion we can all mine faster than normal for a few good hours."


    "Speed potions? So that''s why you wanted them yesterday, I also heard from Elder Flora that you kept buying them when you were grinding your Crafting Skill."


    "Oh yes, I also found out that you can greatly increase the production speed if you use a potion, more experience in less time."


    "But you would still feel the passage of time, how do keep yourself motivated, actually why are you in such a hurry to progress so much?"


    In the old world I don''t think I would''ve been able to focus so much on a single task, only now, that I can''t get distracted with the internet I can just focus on one thing.


    I just can''t do anything besides it.


    As for why I''m I in such a rush?


    Call it a hunch as the world is getting more and more dangerous around me.


    The kingdoms didn''t have a problem with the monsters for hundreds of years until now, the Piligers attacked the Witches which feels like a small step into a bigger plan, and the fact that the System isn''t striking them down, makes me wonder what caught it''s attention.


    In conclusion, there''s a lot of uncertainty, and I want to be prepared for anything this world has to throw at me.


    I should also start making my Netherite equipment soon, and focus on some powerful enchantments to go with it.


    That should be my endgame armor.


    The rest of the time I would spend it on exploring ruins and studying enchantments since I feel that this would greatly help me with my goal of getting home.


    "It''s because I''m not ready yet, I''m not powerful enough."


    Anastasia stopped and looked at me with a worried expression.


    "What do you mean you''re not powerful enough? You just helped kill one of the most powerful creatures that walked on those lands, and you''re still saying you''re not powerful enough? What are you trying to fight against, the System?"


    The System?


    I never thought about fighting it, even though if it didn''t want to help me, it would probably attack me.


    I wonder if it has a psychical form that I can attack, or maybe remove myself from it entirely as it''s making my life harder than it needs to be.


    "I hope I don''t have to fight it, as for what I''m preparing for, even I''m not sure. I know some stuff that no person in this world should know, and know enemies that can make the Zombie Lord look like a common soldier. Actually, that monster was following orders, which means that there''s someone behind him who is more powerful."


    Her face turned whiter than before, looking at the walls expecting an enemy to jump out of the air.


    "H-how can you stay so calm then? Are we prepared to face those challenges?"


    I think I scared her too much.


    It''s like when you tell a kid that Earth is going to die in a few billion years, and they start to have a mental breakdown even though it doesn''t affect them in want way shape, or form.


    "The System is protecting us against any enemies that I know, and I''m preparing the best that I can, in case something happens."


    This seemed to calm her down a little, but her eyes still ran from corner to corner.


    "Then why are you still helping us, it''s not like we can help you too much against such calamities."


    This question reminded me of the promise that I made to myself.


    Just because I want to get home, that doesn''t mean I have to ignore the world that I live in now, the opportunity I have now, would be something that someone else would die for.


    I will enjoy the best of what this world has to offer and still search for a way home.


    That way, in case I don''t find a solution, I wouldn''t have a mental breakdown.


    "While I know a lot of information and have some interesting tools, I''m still one man. There''s only so much I can do alone, sometimes you need someone to talk with, and you don''t need to face everything on your own. Just like you have other witches, the others have you as an Elder, as a leader to guide them."


    I was getting surprised about what I was spouting out of my mouth.


    What a hypocrite I was talking about getting help when I was trying to do everything on my own.


    Maybe I should listen to my own advice and share my burden with others.


    Ahh, it''s only morning and I already want to hide in my bed and ignore the world around me and its problems.


    We sat in silence for a few more minutes until someone broke it by accident.


    "Oh Trader and Elder Anastasia, I didn''t know you two were here, sorry if I startled you."


    One of the witches came down the stairs and saw us examining the project, which scared him for a moment.


    "Ah, don''t worry about it, ready to start a new day of mining?"


    "My muscles are still sore from yesterday, but I''m ready to get back to work."


    "That''s the spirit! We would start once a few more people would wake up, why don''t we eat breakfast first?"


    "Sounds wonderful!"


    With that, he quickly turned around and climbed the stairs.


    "Thank you."


    "What?"


    "Thank you for talking with me, it made me feel better."


    The fact that this conversation helped Anastasia made me smile a little.


    "Glad to be of help. Now let''s get some food as well, I''m sure you didn''t eat breakfast yet."


    I didn''t need to hear her response as both of our stomachs did it for us loudly.


    This made both of us laugh and then we started to climb the stairs to the surface.


    The project was still at the beginning, but it was full of potential if done right.


    Waves of inspiration and ideas passed through my mind, and I didn''t have to work alone on this.


    This would be the first big project that I would work on with someone else.


    Actually, I think this is the biggest project that I have done ever since I came to this world, which only made my excitement grow.


    We were going to get some good food, and then back to creating!

 Chapter 131. Lets be spies

    A few weeks have passed since we started the project, the dome was finished and we even managed to build a few houses.


    Initially, I let everyone build their dream house, and now I kind of regret it.


    Almost every house was in a different style, giving the compound a unique look, to say the least.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t go back on my word, and the Elders couldn''t comment on them either, since it was the best way to boost morale.


    So now we are stuck with this ugly underground town.


    "Are you sure we can''t do anything about this?"


    Froggy gave a tired sigh as I asked him the same question for who knows how many times.


    "I told you already Trader, we can''t do anything about it, you gave your word and the Elders won''t interfere with this, no matter how bad it gets."


    In the past few weeks, Froggy became a leader figure throughout the Clan, he was more friendly than when he first came, and he was easier to approach than the Elders or me.


    So here he was, a man respected and wanted by the community, and he took it very seriously.


    He was more confident in himself and even tried to improve his sleep skedual, but there were few results.


    But he''s really trying to improve himself for the Clan.


    "I think we should step into the next phase Trader."


    "But we can still build some more, and try to make the place better."


    I said that while looking at a Japanese-style house sitting right beside a wooden cabin.


    "We can always improve our home, but the longer we delay our attack, the more we will lose the element of surprise. Nobody would expect us to recover so quickly. We need to train now, not build houses."


    I looked once more at what we''ve built in the past few weeks and gave a big sigh.


    "You''re right, but I''m not that good at fighting, so I can''t teach them anything about this."


    "Don''t worry, you''ve done more the enough for us. I talked with Walter and Sara, and they were willing to train them."


    They wouldn''t become great warriors in such a short time, but they would have some teamwork exercises that would greatly help.


    "That sounds like a plan, and I''m sorry for sounding a little pessimistic here, but we don''t stand a chance against them. We don''t even know what we are up against!"


    And from what little we know, they surpass us in almost every aspect.


    "I talked with the Elders and decided that I would go and gather some information that we can use to destroy them."


    "You''re going there alone?"


    "Unfortunately yes, as everyone here is needed with something else."


    "What about the Elders? We can skip Flora since she''s old, but Anastasia can still help."


    "She would leave as well, but to get in contact with the spy network and ask if they have any information about what happened. Unfortunately we don''t have a lot of hope with that."


    So in the end he truly needs to go alone on this mission.


    "If so, I''ll come with you."


    He seems hesitant to accept my offer, but what he needs to realize is that he doesn''t have the option to choose.


    "Are you sure? You''ve already done so much for us, this would put you at risk."


    I got closer to him and put my arm on his shoulder.


    "Froggy, I need you to realize a few things, I''m not doing this because of the Clan, but because of you, also I''ve been in a lot of crazy situations before and came out on top, so I''m the best person to bring to such places and lastly, you don''t have a choice. You either go spying on those Piligers with me, or you won''t be spying."


    Froggy seemed to freeze then laughed out loud.


    "Trader, truly you are the best friend a man can have, I won''t ever forget this."


    We both laughed at that and everyone around us had worried looks on their faces.


    "Then we should get prepared, we need every advantage we can get."


    "True, do you need anything from my base?"


    "Just a few ingredients for some potions. Thanks again."


    We walked back to my underground base and took the necessary items for this spy mission.


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    Only me, Froggy, and the Elders knew about the location of my base since I didn''t want to stress my monster friend with all the traffic that can be generated in such a small space.


    And I don''t want anyone to be tempted to go into the Nether.


    Plus, I was hoping to befriend her so she would help me in a pinch.


    It''s growing slower than I like it, but there''s still progress.


    After we got everything we thought we needed, we left the base and went to meet the Elders one last time.


    "So you''re joining Froggy, Trader."


    "I can''t allow my friend to go alone on such a dangerous mission."


    And it''s not like I''m doing something that I didn''t plan on doing myself.


    "That''s good to hear, with you there Froggy would have greater success at getting the information that we want."


    "About that, where even are the Piligers?"


    Flora took an old map from her inventory, that was clearly made without the system as everything was in black and white.


    "I''m surprised there are things you don''t know Trader."


    "Don''t be like that Flora, I''m not a God, and I can also learn like everyone else."


    Everyone at the table just smiled.


    "I was kidding of course, now back to the location of the Piliger base. This map was made by the first generation of witches that left that place, and luckily not much has changed since then."


    I looked at the huge map on the table and saw what I could only assume was the continent.


    It was huge since the three kingdoms only cover a third of it and that''s with a generous take.


    The rest of the continent had a diverse option of all kinds of biomes.


    There was even a Mooshoroom island a little further away from the mountains beside the Sandstone Kingdom.


    But what truly caught my attention was the black dot on the other side of the continent.


    "What''s with the black dot?"


    "That''s where we suspect was the great war a few hundred years ago, actually the continent was much bigger than this, but suddenly a big portion of it disappeared into nothingness."


    The continent was even bigger than this?!


    And suddenly a big chunk of it disappeared, making an idea pop into my head as soon as I heard it.


    The creation of the Nether.


    If what I heard from the old man was true, that would explain the disappearance.


    "So where''s the location of the Piligers outpost?"


    "Right here."


    Flora pointed at a part of the map which had an X as its mark.


    The outline of the territory wasn''t too big, maybe a little bigger than the capitals of the other Kingdoms. It''s kind of impressive how at their size, they can make the other nations nervous.


    Even a crusade against them wasn''t enough to kill them for good.


    Surprisingly the Clan location wasn''t too far away from them, around two thousand blocks.


    It should take us 2-3 days to get to them with our drugged horses.


    "That''s an impressive map, do you think I can get a copy of it?"


    "Unfortunately the system doesn''t register it so the only way you can make a copy is by hand."


    That''s going to take a while, even with my drawing skills. I''ll probably do it after I get back.


    "That settles it then, we''re going to leave as soon as we get our horses, we already have everything we need. Also, you can take what you need from the storage room, but don''t enter the Portal room or the Redstone room."


    "I can understand the Portal room, but what''s so special about the Redstone room?"


    I don''t want you to mess up that room, because I don''t want am angry four blocks Enderwoman fishing what the Piligers couldn''t.


    "That room is filled with some experiments of mine and I don''t someone to break something by accident."


    They both nodded their heads in understanding.


    Once they did that, I could feel Violet appreciating my rules since she would most likely come with us.


    "Let''s go Froggy, you have the speed potions right?"


    "Of course."


    In the middle of the invasion, most of the horses were taken, but some of them ran through the forest getting lost or escaped. We only managed to find three, and it wasn''t their breeding season yet, so we had to be careful with them.


    With that, we left to get our horses and gallop away.


    The horses were used with the speed potions, so we didn''t have to waste time on them being confused.


    We traveled as fast as we could only taking a break whenever we passed by a river so the horses could hydrate themselves since this is a side-effect of the potion, but as time passed so was the light getting dimmer.


    So we found a good place to make our camp and get some sleep.


    We put some fance around us and made a simple house where we could sleep in, and then placed a fireplace in the middle of it to cook our food.


    As we were sitting on some logs and waiting for the meat to cook, Froggy broke the silence.


    "Are you afraid Trader?"


    "You have to be more specific Froggy."


    I said while flipping one of the pieces of meat.


    "Aren''t you afraid that we would be found out, that we are going to be captured or even worse, killed?"


    Now that we were not at the Clan anymore, the pressure of what we were doing seems to land on him, but I''m sure he was still willing to go through it.


    "It''s not like I''m afraid, more like worried. I don''t want to be controlled by fear since then I''ll make bad decisions. It''s ok to be afraid, but you have to realize something Froggy, you''ve grown, you''re not the same witch that used to live isolated in a swamp, you are someone that was trained with the blade, escaped the Sandstone palace and even raised to guide other witches. It''s ok to be afraid, but don''t get ruled by it."


    "But you said you are not afraid, how can I not be afraid as well?"


    It''s not like I''m completely afraid, but the fact that I still have one more life to spare does bring me comfort.


    "You''ll learn how to manage your fear through more challenges you''ll go through. The fact you volunteered yourself for this mission shows the growth you already have."


    "That''s true, thank you."


    "No problem, here''s some cooked pork chop, their ready."


    Then we ate in silence until we had our bellies full.


    "Should we put the dye on our faces now?"


    "No, it would wash away from our sweat when we get there tomorrow. But we can put on the uniforms."


    We looked too different from the everyday Piligers, even Froggy''s white skin wasn''t enough to fool them.


    So we came up with a plan, where we would put gray dye on our skin like makeup and wear the uniforms of the Piligers that were left behind.


    Unfortunately, we didn''t have something that could make our eyes green, so our only solution was to look at the ground and stay silent as much as possible.


    "Yeah, that''s probably for the beast."


    After dinner, we went to sleep and get some rest.


    The next day we got on our horses and galloped away, we stopped for one more night, and on the third day, we were fully rested and arrived at our destination.


    We were on a hill where we could see the Piliger outpost or more exactly their country.


    It was all surrounded by a huge wall made with dark wood and stone bricks, and inside there weren''t houses for people, instead a bunch of woodland mansions just like in the game.


    Probably worked similarly to bloks in my world.


    But in the middle of all this, was a huge evil-looking castle emitting a dark aura around it.


    "W-well Trader, let''s get going."


    I looked over where we were going to spend our next few days or maybe weeks and nodded my head.


    "Yeah, let''s go."


    We galloped towards the huge wall.

 Chapter 132. Into the belly of the beast

    We were at the base of the huge wooden wall, but without our horses.


    On our way here, we realized that it''s better to not use the front gate so the horses had to be let go.


    When we would get back, we would search for them or steal some from the Piligers.


    "Did you see anyone on the wall?"


    "Not for a while, do you plan on breaking through the wall?"


    "No, we''re going underground, since I don''t know what to expect on the other side."


    With this, I took out my iron shovel and broke the ground, making a small hole.


    I jumped first to make the tunnel, and when enough space was dug, Froggy joined me and covered the entrance making the tunnel fill with darkness.


    "Warn me first Froggy! I got scared for a second!"


    I said that while taking out a torch.


    "Sorry, I''m kind of nervous."


    I dug for five more blocks, which I suspected were more than enough to pass the huge wall, so I broke the dirt block above me, letting the light back in.


    As silent as I could I looked around the area, and luckily, there was no one around.


    "Ok, everything is clear, let''s go."


    We quickly got out, placed the dirt back and shoveled it like the others.


    Then with our heads hanging low, we went deeper into their camp.


    Every mansion had a garden around them, each of different sizes, and they were all delimited by a tall wall of leaves, which had enough small holes where we could see what was beyond.


    It wasn''t too interesting, just a patch of grass with some flowers here and there, there wasn''t even anyone outside.


    So we continued going deeper into enemy territory until we finally found the first Piliger.


    He looked exactly as we expected, tall with grey skin, green eyes, and an expression that would make anyone stay away from him.


    Once he saw us, his expression quickly changed to one of fear, and bowed to us while slowly stepping away, leaving Froggy and me confused.


    "What happened? Why was he so afraid of us?"


    "I don''t know, but I saw that he was looking at our uniforms. Did you see that he wore a farmer''s outfit?"


    Now that I think about it, he wore something different than us.


    Maybe we are something similar to the military or the police here?


    I don''t know if this disguise is safe or not anymore, but we continue walking to not attract attention.


    Slowly we got to the more populated parts of the city, and while the Piligers looked at us with concern, they didn''t run away.


    At this point we were stuck on what to do, we got more attention than we intended, and now we didn''t know the place where we would blend better, until all of a sudden we saw a group of Piligers dressed like us, all joking and laughing with each other without a care in the world.


    Since they didn''t care about how they got attention, it was easy for us to follow them from a safe distance until they arrived at one of the mansions with a big garden and entered there.


    We looked around once more and saw that other Piligers dressed like us came to this mansion, some in groups while others alone, and there was nobody to check up on their identity.


    So we entered the building like we belonged there.


    Inside there was a huge room, easily ten blocks high, and was filled with tables like a restaurant where Piligers stood and talked with each other while drinking or eating at the table.


    It was quite a shock for us since we didn''t expect to see this from the bloodthirsty Piligers.


    We slowly got to the counter where a few Piligers were working similar to a fast food chain.


    "Hello, what can I get for you soldiers?"


    "Uhh, do you have a menu?"


    The Piliger on the other side raised an eyebrow which made me nervous that we had blown our cover.


    "Are you new recruits?"


    "Uhh, yes and we didn''t expect to see all of this."


    "I''m surprised that they recruited soldiers so soon, but I guess the last attack on the Witches killed a lot of people. I''m sorry for what you''ve been through, and congratulations!"


    The woman over the counter gave us a smile and a paper menu, which I quickly took in hopes of not showing my confusion.


    "What is this place Trader, you seem to be much more familiar than me."


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    "This place reminds me of a restaurant, and that''s why I can talk like this."


    "What''s a restaurant?"


    I stopped and looked at Froggy with a raised eyebrow while he looked confused at me.


    Then I remembered his upbringing, which explained why he didn''t know about such facilities.


    "A restaurant is a business, where you buy food and enjoy it at the tables like you can see in here."


    "So like an In?"


    "Exactly like an In, but for rich people, and you don''t sleep there. But from what I can tell, this place also lets people sleep."


    We sat at a table and looked over the Menu, and to my disappointment, there weren''t a lot of options to choose from, and those prices were just plain unfair.


    Bread¡ú 1 Emerald


    Coked Chicken¡ú 5 Emeralds


    Cooked Fish¡ú 3 Emeralds


    Beer¡ú 5 Emeralds


    Mushroom Soup¡ú 2 Emeralds


    Cooked Potatos¡ú 1 Emerald


    And that was all, not much to choose from, and the prices were not the best.


    So we went to get our food and sat back at the table listening to everyone talking around us.


    "Yeah, my friend was with the soldiers that attacked the Witch''s hideout, he saw a lot of soldiers die under the Witch''s potions. But they were nothing against our beast. Even though it''s been a few weeks ago, he can''t stop branding about it, on what he managed to pillage from that place."


    "I heard from someone else that they somehow managed to kill the Ravager."


    "That can''t be possible, you''ve seen how that thing looks, we can bearly hurt it, how can a weak Witch with no muscles hurt it?"


    "No, I heard that someone ran to the beast and shoved his arm into it''s mouth, and then it exploded, killing them both."


    "Ehh, who cares, we have a dozen of those, it''s nothing if one of them dies or not."


    "That''s true, I wonder what they did with the prisoners?"


    "I don''t know, probably locked up somewhere and forced to make potions for the rest of their lives, or even worse, made into totems."


    When I heard the last part I was shocked.


    "Did you hear that Trader? I think they still have those prisoners, we have to save them!"


    "True, but we don''t know where they keep them, or if we can get them out."


    We sat in silence and listened to other conversations gathering some more information.


    Unfortunately, we didn''t get anything valuable, just gossip about the higher-ups or propaganda spread through the masses.


    Suddenly the horn of a goat was heard through the air, which made everyone freeze in the room.


    Then everything exploded with movement, some people were finishing their food in a hurry and others were getting up and quickly walked out of the building.


    "What should we do?"


    "I don''t know, but I think we should follow them."


    So we got up and followed everyone who seemed to know what this meant and where to be.


    After we passed a few more mansions that were bigger than others, we finally stopped on a green field where I saw rows and rows of soldiers sitting in formation looking towards the castle.


    We didn''t know if we should sit somewhere specifically, so to be on the safe side we sat with the group at the back trying to stay as close as possible.


    After ten minutes, everyone arrived, and to my shock, there were easily over five hundred soldiers there.


    This was five times more soldiers than the total of men the Stone Kingdom sent to fight against the Zombie Lord.


    Which was a ridiculous thing to see.


    The only reason the other nations didn''t worry about the Piligers, was because of their lack of numbers.


    But from what I see here, they don''t have that problem anymore.


    And since they have superior technology and don''t lack numbers, I can only see this as something that would soon surpass the danger of the Zombie Lord.


    Suddenly everyone stopped whispering and looked towards the podium which was empty.


    But not for long tho, as black smok appeared out of nowhere for a few seconds before it was cleared out by the wind.


    But the podium was no longer empty, instead, three people sat on there.


    And to my shock, I recognized one of them.


    It was Brutus, the Elder that betrayed the witches.


    "Soldiers of the ancient people, I''ve called you today to announce something very important. We are a nation persecuted by the others just because we are better than them, they call us primitive and Piligers but keep forgetting that they have everything because of our ancestors."


    One of the three men walked forward and started his speech.


    He had a similar uniform as the soldiers, but had a hat and some medals on his chest, which only made me think of him as a general.


    His voice was deep and powerful since I could hear it even from so far away without speakers to enchant his voice.


    The last man was someone that I recognized from the game, or that was supposed to be in the game.


    It was an Illusionist who had a bored expression clearly showing that he didn''t care to be there.


    "But as I promised, I would make our nation great again, I would put it back on the same path our ancestors walked, and we would bring the System down on its knees once again!"


    Everyone started to yell a war cry which startled me.


    They planned to fight not only the other nations but the System itself.


    How do they want to accomplish this when even their more advanced ancestors couldn''t do it?


    But they didn''t seem to care as the chanting was getting louder and louder.


    We sat like that for a few more moments, before falling silent once the general raised his hand.


    "But we''ve been saying this for years, but now, you have to wait no more, as in two months we would start our attack, in two months the others shall fear once again the the people from the ancient ways! So train like you''ve never trained before, prepare like you''ve never prepared before, because we would win, and rule over them all!"


    Once again, everyone yelled but this time with their whole soul, some of them even looked mad ready to start a fight.


    After his speech was done, he and the others walked down the podium and everyone else slowly started to get back to their lives.


    "Can you believe this is finally happening? I''ve been waiting for this since the first time I heard our ruler, it''s been more the fifteen years since then. No more attacking small villagers, we''re going for the big boys."


    "Yeah, I can''t believe we waited so long for this. But I guess it''s better now than never."


    Similar conversations were happening around us as we walked together with the wave of soldiers.


    But soon we decided to split up from them and find an isolated place.


    So we went behind a green wall and dug a hole while Froggy kept on watch.


    After a small room was made, I caled for him to join me and closed the hole.


    After I dug around for both of us to stay comfortable we sat down and stayed in silence for a few moments.


    "I knew they were planning something but not this. Why do they even want to fight the System, they stand no chance!"


    Froggy looked with confusion at me.


    "I don''t know either, we just got here and I''m already overwhelmed by what I saw, their numbers especially. I don''t even want to think what weapons they have, actually scratch that, I want to know that."


    "The general-looking Piliger encouraged the soldiers to train some more, so maybe we can go to those training grounds to see how their training?"


    "That''s a good idea, but we would know only what the common soldiers would know, what we need is something more valuable."


    "And how do you plan on getting that?"


    "We are going to sneak into the castle."


    How ironic, the one place I want to stay away most of the time, now has the information that could probably help us.


    "That could be dangerous."


    "This whole mission is dangerous, the more we are exposed the higher the chances are for someone to find us."


    He gave a big sigh but was on board as well.


    So we sat there discussing plans on how we should approach this.


    In the end, we decided to drink our invisibility potions and sneak in.


    For maximum efficiency, we waited until night came, and then I broke the block and got outside.


    It was time to infiltrate deeper.

 Chapter 133. Sneaking in

    Froggy and I walked along the poorly lit streets stopping from time to time when a group of Piligers were walking towards us.


    But after an hour of walking as carefully as possible even when we were invisible, we arrived at the castle.


    The building was huge and intimidating, with sharp towers popping out of unusual places making it much more intimidating in the light of the night.


    "Why is it so scary, do they plan on making everyone here have nightmares?"


    "I don''t know, but if they wanted to make me tense, they did it."


    As usual, the castle was separated from the other districts by a huge wall.


    Not as tall as the one surrounding this whole place, but big enough to make it clear were not welcome.


    Fortunately, the wall wasn''t made with obsidian blocks like some places I''ve been to, which made me realize that I have to upgrade the wall at my base, even if it''s a decoy.


    So with my trusty pickaxe, I broke the wall making some noise, but we were gone by the time someone got there to check it out. We walked through the garden looking for an entrance, and as I expected we found a huge archway that led inside, with no door or guard.


    Rich people tended to leave out security for comfort, and we were going to take advantage of that.


    Unfortunately, that was the easier part of the mission, as when we got in, almost constantly some guards were patrolling the hallways.


    I take back whatever I said about them choosing comfort over security. They took security very seriously around here, they took it so seriously, that It made me wonder what made them act in such a way, there has to be a reason for this otherwise a lot of resources were wasted here.


    Because of the unexpected activity, we had to be much more careful on what we did, otherwise, they would see our particles if we moved around too much.


    We planned to search for the basement as that''s the place where usually the prisoners are being kept, and unfortunately, it wasn''t that easy to do.


    We walked mostly close to the walls of the hallway, sometimes seeing other rooms that didn''t have a door, such as the kitchen or the main entrance with its big room and many others.


    We passed by the staircase but it was only leading up so we didn''t bother going there yet, but we did find something that could help us find the place were looking for.


    On our time sneaking there there was a shift change, so we followed the ones that were leaving, which brought us to another dormitory at the back of the castle outside.


    There, we saw some training dummies and other training equipment. But we didn''t stay to admire that as we went inside the building before the doors were closed.


    "Another job well done, how long do you think we would work like this?"


    "I don''t know, last time something happened it was double the guards, and it held on for a whole year."


    "A whole year?! We barely passed a few weeks, I don''t want to do this kind of boring job when the big invasion is coming, my skills will get rusty!"


    "Don''t worry, I don''t think we would continue like this for much longer. From what I heard the reason we''re even doing this is because the Mad Scientist doesn''t trust our new ally, he expects a betrayal from him."


    "You mean Brutus? I can guess why suspicion would be on him, especially when he betrayed his people twice."


    "Yeah, the first time was the whole clan, and the second time was when he killed his allies to get this position. Only his right mam seems to survive his slaughter, and I don''t know if that''s a good position to be in. Who knows, maybe the Mad Scientist doesn''t want him to kill the other prisoners as well."


    "Oh yeah, the dungeon has never been more full than now, I don''t envy their position as guards anymore. Have fun taking care of the prisoners while we get our former glory back losers!"


    Then they both started to laugh while going to their rooms to get some rest.


    "Did you hear all of that Trader?"


    Froggy spoke in a hushed voice.


    "Yeah, looks like the tensions are pretty high right now, but at least we know for sure that the others are alive."


    I replied in a similar tone.


    Unfortunately, while we heard some good news, we still didn''t know where the entrance of the basement was, and from what I heard, it would be harder to get there than we expected.


    We silently walked passed closed doors until we arrived at the end of the hallway which was a small room where a soldier stood at a wooden table drinking something from a potion bottle.


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    I knew it wasn''t a potion, because no matter how much he drank from it, no particles appeared around him, and the liquid was a dark brown which I didn''t recognize.


    We decided to stay here since it looked like hang out room for soldiers. If we stayed enough here maybe we could find out who had a shift underground that we could follow.


    An hour later new people came to the break room, making it more cramped than before.


    "Hello Vine, drinking hot chocolate so early in the morning?"


    "Hello to you as well Sunny, did you manage to sleep this time at least or are the nightmares still keeping you up?"


    The man gave a deep and tired sigh which was enough of an answer.


    "Can I have a sip of your drink?"


    Vine gave the bottle without saying anything, but his expression showed concern for his friend.


    "Pfff* It''s so sweet, how much sugar did you put in?"


    "Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you about that, not that much, just one pile."


    "A whole pile?! I don''t know how you can drink something like this."


    They continued to argue while the others ignored them concentrating on waking themselves up.


    Half an hour later the two friends stood up.


    "We''re going on our underground shift guys, good luck with yours!"


    Some of them returned the greetings while others completely ignored them.


    But when I heard him say that, I quickly tapped Froggy who was beside me to follow them. There was a high chance they were the ones to lead us where we wanted.


    To my surprise we didn''t walk for long, actually, we just passed the corner of the castle and saw something similar to a prison outdoor area, all with iron bars and recreational items.


    They entered through the iron door with a press of a button, and we had to wait our turn to not attract unwanted attention with our noise.


    "I can''t believe we didn''t see this before, this place is so obvious."


    Froggy whispered with frustration.


    "In our defense, we didn''t know the entrance was outside."


    I replied, also frustrated.


    Froggy pressed the stone button and both of us went through the iron door, and now we were in the prison.


    Or at least the outside part of it


    We continued to walk toward the entrance that we saw the two guards walk through and stop once we reached the bottom of the staircase.


    What we saw in front of us was a long and tight hallway with an iron door at the end.


    But that wasn''t the problem, what made things more complicated was the two guards that were stationed beside the iron door.


    They were fully equipped with enchanted iron armor and were looking very serious. That wasn''t the only problem, as the wall behind them was made with obsidian blocks, which made me believe that the prison was all made with the same block.


    I didn''t know the layout of the prison, so I couldn''t just break a random block, not to mention the noise I''d be making could be heard from the other side.


    Suddenly one of the guards looked intensely at our general area which made me quickly grab Froggy and climb the stairs.


    "What happened, why did you suddenly grab me like that?"


    "I think one of the guards saw us."


    "Are you sure about that? We''re still under the effects of the potion."


    "Yeah, I''m pretty sure about that, now how would we get inside the prison?"


    "Can''t you break the block?"


    "It would make too much noise and I don''t know where to start mining."


    If I had a golden bell I could''ve used it to see every living being through the walls.


    Unfortunately, I don''t have one on me, and I don''t think I''ll find one here either, as it seems they prefer goat horns to get attention.


    "Maybe we should wait until another group of guards would come, and we can sneak with them."


    That could work, the door used a lever instead of the button, so we had more time to sneak in.


    So we waited around for someone to get out or come in, and to our luck, ten minutes later a group of three came towards the prison.


    They were still tired from their expressions, so we didn''t have to worry about them finding us since they could bearly find their way to work.


    But we had a little problem when we got back down.


    "Stop right there! Have any of you drank something recently?"


    "Wha-No why would you say that?"


    "I can s,ee particles floating around your group."


    "OK... we may had a drink here and there, but we''re fully capable of doing our jobs."


    The guard in iron armor narrowed his eyes which intimated the poor Piligers.


    "I''ll ignore the attempts of you t rying to come to work under the influence, because of your good work streak, now all of you go drink some milk otherwise I''ll report you."


    This seems to be enough for all of them to ''sober'' up and leave without complaining.


    But that also meant we had to leave together with them, bringing us back at the start.


    "I don''t think we can sneak in there while being invisible, we almost got caught."


    "That''s true, the only way I can see us making some progress Is through gathering more information, we know too little about this place to know how or when to act."


    "But I don''do t think our potions would last that long."


    "Guess we''re going in as disguised then. Try not to talk too often, the more our presence is known, the higher the chances of us getting found out."


    Especially our eyes, they weren''t green like everyone here so we also needed to find a hat.


    "Let''s go then and gather as much information as possible while we still have the invisible effects."


    With that we started to do a full tour around the castle, looking at all the buildings outside, and even climbing on top of the walls together with the guards.


    To my frustration, no one seems to notice our particles, but the two guards underground seems to be different since they immediately saw us.


    We''re they better trained them others, or we''re they special like the girl from the obsidian factory?


    The sun was starting to illuminate the sky and our invisibility was running out, but we didn''t regret what we did since we learned a lot throughout the night.


    Unfortunately the place was too big and had too many guards, resulting with us only seeing the garden and the bottom floor of the castle.


    "Trader, I''m to tired to continue this, and our invisibility is running out. I think we should stop here for today."


    "True,I''m also getting tired already, let''s get out of here and build a place underground to get some rest, preferably closer to the outerwall since there''s not a lot of people there."


    With our job done we left in a hurry right as the effects wore off, making us visible once again, luckily it was still early in the morning so not a lot of people were awake.


    Because of that we manged to get pretty far and I quickly made an underground base where we put our beds down and went to sleep.


    Today we didn''t finish the mission, and it was probably foolish for us to believe that we could it so quickly, but we are still making a lot of progress and we still have two month before the war would start.


    With all that in mind, I let myself go to sleep, ready for the next day.

 Chapter 134. Monocle of truth

    POV: Mad Scientist


    "I''m telling you, the right ratio for this potion is a leaf of netherwart, 9 grams of gunpowder, and 2 rabbit''s feet. That''s how you make a double jump potion! Is it that hard to understand?"


    Kids those days don''t understand the value of working hard, they only care about bringing back the glory of their ancestors.


    *Phew


    What''s the point of getting back to those times when the System can strike us down once again?


    We need to strive to be better than them, not stop at their level.


    But I understand their way of thinking, as what they achieved is crazy even by my standards, playing with life, finding new dimensions, make the System itself worry about what they were doing.


    I think they''re the true reason the System isn''t as active as before, whether it''s because it used too much power in the Great War and its last bits were used on us, or just doesn''t want to interact with us since we failed it, we don''t know the answer, but we feel the restriction on us.


    I looked at my two students who were intimidated by my yelling, and I could only sigh in disappointment.


    "Go back to the library and learn from the books that I gave you since you didn''t do it the first time."


    "Y-yes Mister Mad-! We''re going to leave."


    He almost called me the Mad Scientist. It was such a shame that I couldn''t make undying totems out of them, since their the only ones that bearly fit my standards.


    Also, Ronny was mad when I did that to my last students.


    Pha! It was better that way since they destroyed my Soul research with their clumsiness. The best they could do was to lend their soul to a good cause and not mess up my work.


    My stomach started to grumble, reminding me that I only ate breakfast today, and the sun was already starting to get down. So I left my lab going toward the kitchen to get something to eat when suddenly stopped upon seeing someone that I didn''t like at the end of the hallway.


    It was Brutus the traitor, or the Witch as the others call him. I quickly took out a monocle and put it on my right eye.


    This wasn''t a simple accessory that made me see better, it was an enchanted item that even the System recognized as it occupied the helmet slot.


    Once I put it on my eye, suddenly everything around me started to change, there were no more bright colors, only different shades of gray, but there was an exception.


    Brutus the traitor had a purple smoke surrounding him, making it very easy to see in contrast with the others. The monocle saw things differently, the Witches were purple, the Piligeres were grey which blended with the other blocks, the Viligers were green, and the monsters were the most interesting ones being black like the night sky, but I could feel that they were connected to another plane, stuck in here to mindlessly roam around the night when they end will inevitably die.


    But this wasn''t the only function of my monocle, no, the true reason I took it out was for its other ability to see every person''s Stats, Skill page, and even inventory.


    His stats were normal, but his Skill page was a mess like mine, what I truly wanted to see was his inventory.


    He had a few dangerous items, such as an enchanted iron sword, harmful potions, and even some fireworks for some reason.


    But whatever he had I was prepared for. I didn''t trust a man who betrayed his people twice.


    The first time was understandable, sell your people for a good position on our side, while that kind of person tends to have a lot of ambition, it could be worked with.


    But the second time was unacceptable, he couldn''t do everything himself, so he brought a few more witches of his status. But when he heard that he had to compete against them to get the position, he killed them and offered it to me.


    I have been against him ever since then! What stops him from turning against us as he did with his colleagues? I explained that to the general as well, and he seems to be on the same idea as me.


    Unfortunately, he gave his word, and he intends to keep it.


    Pfaa! Fine by me, I can respect that, but I''ll be first to point at him when he''ll betray us.


    "Hello D-"


    "Don''t speak like we are friends, Sir Brutus, do you need something from me?"


    "I don''t understand, I thought my gift was to your liking, you were even smiling."


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    While I did not like him, the souls of those witches were too good to pass on, so I humbly accepted his gift, unfortunately, my students messed up the experiment, and the General doesn''t want to give me other witches.


    I could only let out a frustrated sigh.


    "What do you need Sir Brutus."


    "So formal. I don''t need anything from you, I came here with a suggestion."


    "I''m listening."


    I was not.


    "I heard you''re looking for a talented apprentice, and I wanted to suggest my son Ellen for that position. He''s a talented young man who has a good work ethic, I''m sure he''ll be up to any task you put him on."


    "I''ll think about it."


    "Thank you for listening to my request, I''ll be leaving since I''m sure a man like you is very busy."


    Then he passed me, going on his merry way, and I could only shake my head at his crazy suggestion.


    Besides the fact that this was clearly a way to plant a silverfish in my lab, I knew his ''son'' already.


    While it''s been over a decade I still remember him from my last experiment of artificially creating witches.


    I knew the System used lighting to punish Witches and a gas to create the Piligers. We manage to reverse engineer the gas, but it has a low chance of transforming a regular villager into a Piliger.


    Unfortunately, after that transformation, they lose access to the System, even more badly than the witches. Not only that, but they lose their memories as well.


    At least they''re very easy to indoctrinate afterward, and that''s how we raised our numbers so high in recent years.


    My teacher was a true genius finding that. A crazy genius but a genius nonetheless.


    It''s such a shame that I had to make a Vex out of him otherwise I think he would''ve killed the whole outpost with his experiments.


    Nonetheless, since we could artificially recreate what the System did, why couldn''t we recreate the witches?


    So I got 10 prisoners and locked them in a cage without a roof in the middle of a storm.


    And with the help of a lighting road, the experiment was a success.


    Sort of.


    Once struck by lightning the Viligers started to catch fire and scream in pain.


    We tried to extinguish the flames with water bottles and water buckets but didn''t seem to work.


    Not even the fire resistance potions seem to stop the process.


    In the end, everyone died except for one person.


    Ellen.


    Later he somehow managed to escape, and the General didn''t lend me any more prisoners since ''they''re the only people that can craft for us'' and ''it has lower chances of success than the Pillgers ''.


    *Phaa!


    How can I make it more efficient if you don''t let me refine the method? But he wouldn''t budge no matter what, so I had to stop with that project, even though it was a success.


    Imagine my surprise when I saw that man once again, and this time joining us willingly.


    I think I''m the only one to recognize him, but I didn''t point out that fact to the General since I didn''t see the need for it.


    He already made a mistake with accepting Brutus, what was a smaller mistake besides that.


    Unfortunately, my appetite was ruined because of him so I decided to change my destination to the garden to clear my mind.


    I walked along the hallway where the guards bowed at me as I passed them.


    When I arrived at the garden, the sun washed over me resulting in closing my eyes and enjoying the moment, when I opened my eyes I saw a man walking slowly with a farmer''s hat through the garden.


    "Hey you, what are you doing?"


    The man seemed to finally see me and froze in place, before quickly bowing at me.


    "Sir. I''m just a humble gardener!"


    He said that while still looking at the ground.


    "A gardener you say, where devesion are you from?"


    "I''m from the 12th division Sir!"


    He was lying, we didn''t name our divisions by numbers but instead by names, such as the Soldier''s division, the Engendering division, and other names.


    Even if the soldiers'' decisions made their own, we don''t have that many people, 10 devious would be the top we could produce.


    So this all pointed one thing.


    He was a spy.


    I had every right to call the guards and kill him here but I was hesitant.


    Besides the man who was still looking at the ground, there was an invisible monster, four blocks tall, and had dark purple fumes around it.


    It had similar smoke to the smart Endermans, but more powerful, and I could feel the connection of three dimensions with it.


    Also the monster seems to be connected with that man for some reason.


    The man in question wasn''t simple either, as he had 4 Skills! The stats page didn''t know his name which I didn''t know was possible, and his inventory was full of dangerous items.


    Ender pearls, potions, diamond equipment, obsidian, a crystal and an enchanted compass?


    He alone could heavily damage the outpost and I don''t think I can take him without some preparations.


    Not only that, but the smoke around him was the same color as the monsters, it was even more powerful, and I could feel the connection to four dimensions.


    He was a dangerous man.... but such a treasure trove of knowledge.


    I must get him into my lab as soon as possible, but how can I convince him to do that without raising his guard?


    "Do you still have work for today?"


    "No, I was just about to leave actually."


    "Perfect, then you can come and help me at my laboratory."


    The man started to panic, but still didn''t raise his head for some reason.


    "But sir, I don''t have any experience in that domain!"


    "You think you''ll work in my lab? I only need you to clean up some stuff, and why do you still have your head down, raised it up so I don''t speak with a hat anymore."


    "Uhm, I''m afraid I can''t do that Sir."


    "Why?"


    I started to sound irritated, just come into my lab already, why is it so hard?


    "Because I''m too ugly."


    Ugly? Now I''m truly curios what his face looks like.


    "That''s for me to judge, now raise your head."


    With some hesitation he raised his head, and that made me raise an eyebrow of surprise.


    "What''s wrong with your face."


    The color of the eyes were proof enough for him to be sent straight to jail, but what took me by surprise was the lack of nose, how did that even happened?


    "I was born with it sir."


    So he doesn''t know either.


    "Just keep your head down and follow me, don''t touch anything I won''t let you."


    He seems surprised by what I said but still followed me.


    I looked at his inventory once again, and saw that he was moving items thorough it, ready to take action at any time which I didn''t like.


    But I had to be patient, as soon we were in my lab.


    My lab was the whole third floor, big enough for me to do my experiments, and mostly used by a select few.


    So nobody was suspicious when I brought a person with me, since I was the Head of everything.


    "Come with me into my office, I have some papers that I want to throw away. Don''t read them as they''re confidential. "


    This seems to put him on guard but still followed me.


    Once he was in my office I could only smile.

 Chapter 135. Now what?

    I was in the lab of the renounced man the Mad Scientist, weirdly enough he doesn''t like to be called that, even though nobody knows his real name, so he got stuck with that.


    What a peculiar situation to be in...


    Now I was looking back on how I got here in the first place.


    We''ve been stuck here for a few days with no results on how we could sneak into the underground prison.


    But it wasn''t all that bad, we managed to learn more about their culture which was an interesting thing to see.


    Piligers are split into three sections.


    -High Stuff


    -Soldiers


    -Citizens


    The high staff are few and have the same role as the nobility, with the General being at the top of it all.


    The soldiers were surprisingly the majority but with a few unanswered questions.


    Some Piligers grew up here, they were in smaller numbers, but in the past few decades, more Piligers started to come from ''outside'' with no memories of how they got here.


    The higher-ups claimed that they were from other outposts, but no one ever saw another outpost of Piligers.


    With time they settled down and made families making everyone get used to these unusual accuracies.


    But every time soldiers are lost in battles against Viligers, new Piligers seem to come from a different outposts to even the numbers, making Citizens theorize that they are reanimated corpses of the killed Villagers.


    Finally, the citizens were people who didn''t want to fight or were incapable of fighting, most of those being people who kept forgetting chunks of their life forcing them to have a simple life to not bother others.


    Everyone''s dream is to get back to their former glory and be recognized by the world, ever since they were little they heard how good their ancestors were and encouraged them to be like them, resulting in a society that runs towards their destruction while dragging the other nation with them.


    The more we learned, the easier it was for us to blend with the rest, and at one point we decided to split up to cover more ground and gather more information.


    Since I was better equipped in case something went wrong, I was chosen to spy on the castles and the people inside them, and Froggy was infiltrating the soldier''s camp.


    The first day went smoothly, and nobody questioned when I presented myself as a gardener, not even the gatherers themselves, they thought I was extra help for them and didn''t refuted it.


    But on my second day, trouble seems to find me, as one of the most unexpected men seems to take interest in me.


    There isn''t a lot known about this man as most of the time people seem to disaper around him, which resulted in everyone saying the same thing.


    Do as he requests, and you may live.


    That''s why I was in his lab, ready to take out my crossbow or diamond sword at a moment''s notice.


    "Tell me, gardener, what do you think about the outside world?"


    The Mad Scientist was looking through his chest while talking with me.


    "I''m afraid I don''t know much since I haven''t been there."


    "Then try to guess."


    "Uhh...since they don''t want to communicate with us I can only assume that they don''t like progress, and instead warships the System."


    "That''s an interesting take. Now tell me, Gardener, what do you intend to make with your life?"


    My life? I guess I want to get to my home dimension, but what''s with the sudden questions, I thought he wanted me to just throw some trash he had!


    "I didn''t think about it, I''m content with the life I have right now, so I guess I''ll keep doing this."


    "Is that so, ah there it is!"


    He stood straight and held a milky white potion in his hand, and started to drink it.


    Particles started to appear around him and he pressed a button that I didn''t see, which blocked the door behind me.


    I was found out so I quickly prepared for battle, I equipped my diamond armor, and took out my loaded crossbow ready to shoot.


    "So your true colors are finally out. I would suggest you against firing that weapon since the potion that I just drank absorbs 90% of any damage against me. And if I press this button a few special potions will be thrown into the lab that would most likely slow you down enough for the rest of the soldiers to catch you. Even your monster friend won''t escape this."


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    How did he know about Violet, did she slip up somewhere?


    Also, what did he drink, is true what he said or is it a bluff? Can I even afford to call on his bluff?


    "You seem to know about my identity for a while, why didn''t you alert the guards then?"


    "You''re a smart one as well. Indeed could''ve called the guards to kill you but the fact that you have a monster flowing you, have four skills, an unknown name, and items in your inventory that I have never seen before. I had to capture you instead."


    How does he know all of that?!


    Did someone betray me? No that couldn''t be possible since I haven''t told anyone about Violet yet.


    Does that mean he has an ability similar to my monster friend?


    How is that possible, I know there''s little information about the illusionists but I don''t remember them being so overpowered!


    "And yet you haven''t ordered to that Mister Illusionist!"


    Violet finally made herself known beside me and the Scientist was surprised by what I said.


    "A name only known by the master and its disciple, and yet you seem to know it as well, you''re making me more curious Mister Spy, who are you, how much do you know about my specialty?"


    "I''m a nobody, and I know enough to hold a fight against you. Also, you still haven''t answered my question."


    "Ah yes, while I think I can do that, I would lose a lot of soldiers because of that, and the General would not be too happy about it, especially when we''re so close to the big invasion. So I propose a trade, Mister Spy, I answer some questions while you''ll answer some of mine, who knows, if we get well enough we could do a few experiments together. "


    "So you want to trade with me since it''s too risky to capture me."


    "That''s the short version, yes."


    "What if I refuse?"


    "Then I''ll have to kill you and extract whatever I can out of your soul."


    Well, that took a dark turn very quickly. Now what should I do?


    I have an iron axe with me and a bucket of milk, I can break the floor and wash off any debuff potions he''ll throw at me.


    But at the same time, I can do this after I get some information out of him.


    Who knows, maybe I can negotiate the freedom of the witches like this.


    "Can you free the witches as a payment instead?"


    "No, I cannot."


    He said that with a smile on his face.


    "OK then, shoot your question''s."


    "Why would I shoot them? Sorry, I''m getting distracted here, my first question is a simple but deep one. What are you?"


    This confused me a little since I didn''t expect this.


    "You mean, who I am?"


    "No, not that since I know whatever you''ll tell me would be a lie, you see I have an item that lets me see the truth, I can see some item''s that people like to keep secret, but not only that, my special device told me you are closer to that monster friend than an actual human, also you seemed to be connected to four dimensions and I only know the existence of three."


    What was he talking about? What did he mean that I''m more like Violet than a normal human, I don''t look anything like her! Also, how does he know so much about other dimensions, people bearly know about the Nather, so how does he know about The End, what about my word?


    "Sorry that I''m not answering your question, but how do you know so much?"


    This didn''t seem to bother him, actually, he seemed to be happy with me acknowledging his intellect.


    "You seem to forget that we were once the pinnacle of science, even though written records are no more, communicating information from mouth to mouth was still a viable option, that''s why we managed to restore a part of our old libraries. Although even then we didn''t know what happened in the Great War we know what was the aftermath, a huge part of the continent was ripped apart and thrown into another dimension, the one we call it Nether, with the help of the achievements, we managed to find a way to access that dimension, unfortunately, the Stone Kingome has the last working portal since we don''t know how to open another one. But that was a dimension created by the system, not the same place where the attack came from, that''s why we called that dimension The End, since it only brought destruction on our land"


    The man clearly loved this subject since he spoke every sentence with passion, and I was impressed by the information he knew as well, I only found out about this recently, but it''s well documented subject for them.


    "With my special item I can see some interesting stuff, or feel something that I usually don''t feel. The people living in this world have one connection, the monsters that appear at night have two connections, one to this world and the other to The End, imagine my surprise when I looked at your monster and saw how different it was, and it had connection to three dimensions. And then there''s you, who has connection to all of what''s know plus one! So what are you Mister Spy? A monster, an alien or maybe the avatar of the apocalypse?"


    Those were a lot of accusations thrown around that I was uncomfortable to think about.


    "Honestly I don''t know how I got here, I just randomly woke up over a year ago, and tried my best to get back. I can guess how I got the connection to the Nether since I''ve been there, but I haven''t gone to The End yet so I don''t know how that connection was made. But if you saw a connection between me and my friend Violet, that could mean that I was summoned by the entity that rules over The End."


    My statement took him by surprise since he probably didn''t expect an answer.


    "Usually if you aperear in a place you don''t know, it takes a while to adapt, but your skill page shows that you did more then adapt into the new world, you actually thrived, and so much only in a year? Did you start at different level, since I can see you need the same amount of XP as everyone else."


    At this point I think the monocle is the magical item that he keeps using to spy on me, that''s the only thing that looks odd on him.


    "No I''m just a hardworking person."


    "If your hardworking manged to get you to this level I don''t want to know how see the people that take years to get to this level. Also why do you think someone from The End summoned you when I pointed at the connection."


    I was hesitant to answer this question, but in the end, he said it himself that he doesn''t know how to get there. And maybe he would know a way back to my home dimension.


    "The End dimension, is also known as the home of the Endermans, there''s little monsters besides them and it''s ruler, only the Endermans seems to be the only mobs that appear in all worlds."


    Except mine.


    "You talk like youve been there, yet you claimed that''s not the case, how so?"


    "It''s some general information from my original world."


    "The one you can''t get back to...this only makes me curios about your world, since it seems to be more advanced then what my ancestors did."


    "I don''t think we trust each other where I can share that information."


    The Mad Scientist froze, before giving me a smile.


    "Trust is earned by exchanging information indeed, so what''s your question then?"


    I took a deep breath thinking about my question.

 Chapter 136. We shall meet again

    I stayed for a few moments to think on what I should ask him.


    Should I ask him how I could free the witches, even though he said he couldn''t do that?


    Or maybe I could ask him to give me whatever information their ancestors had on dimension research?


    There''s also a safe choice of asking about the process of creating Undying totems, and if that won''t work I''ll just ask for a few of them instead.


    They were all valid questions that I could ask but in the end, I chose something else.


    "How do you plan on defeating the System?"


    He looked at me with a smile before coughing loudly, at first it was subtle, then it got worse even spitting some blood.


    That made me alarmed, so I raised my shield looking with worry for an unseen enemy.


    Suddenly Violet teleported beside the man and punched him in the gut which took the air out of him.


    Just as she disappeared, she reapers beside me with a satisfied smile on her face.


    What just happened?!


    The Mad Scientist was now on the ground trying to breathe, and I was still confused about how this had happened.


    After about five minutes he seems to recuperate enough to hold himself on his feet without help.


    "So can you explain what happened?"


    "*huff* can you explain why your monster friend just punched me?"


    I looked at Violet and she just raised her shoulders and crossed her arms.


    "She doesn''t like to be seen, and you kind of forced her to get out of her comfort zone."


    I just told that without thinking, and I think I''m right with it as well.


    "I see *huff* as the reason I started to cough blood, is because the potion effects run out, and I had to suffer the backlash."


    "What do you mean? Potions don''t do that from what I remember."


    "System-made potions don''t have this problem, but since we, the Piligeres don''t have access to the System at all, we can''t use that."


    They don''t have access to the System skills? That means they''re worse than the witches, at least they become a grandmaster in the brewing skill, but they can''t even craft a stick?


    No wonder they kidnap so much, they literally can''t survive without them.


    That''s a sad thought, but an idea I can use against them.


    "But I''ve seen people and even Witches with potions that are not made with the help of the System, and they seem fine."


    "Pfaa, the Stone Kingdome only has potion with small side effects, but that means they''re not that powerful, as for the witches, they are the worst people to compare me to, they have a sixth sense that helps them at brewing new potions, I can only recreate what the others did and try by trial and error."


    So they''re punished by the System, no wonder they hate it so much, they can''t have a life because of it.


    Or more exactly they can''t have life on easy mode, since my planet doesn''t have a System either.


    "Well you still haven''t answered my question, how do you plan on defeating the System?"


    "Sorry, but the aftereffects of this potion are still taking a toll on me, so I can''t gather my thoughts. Why don''t we meet another time?"


    What? He found out so much about me and I bearly learned anything from this interaction, I can''t leave empty-handed!


    "How do I know you''re not bluffing and just waiting for me to let my guard down and gather some soldiers to hunt me?"


    "That''s a very good point, which is why I''m going to give you a token of trust, here take this."


    He reached his arm towards me, and I could see it held something made of gold, and then I recognized it.


    It was a golden statue in the shape of a villager with wings and emerald eyes, I could feel it cold to the touch similar to soul lamps.


    It was an Undying Totem.


    "Ar-are you sure about this?"


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    "Good, looks like you know the value of it. As you can see that totem is named. If you think you''ve been betrayed you can show this to the General which would prove that I betrayed him, resulting in my execution."


    That was a lot of power in my hands, and not talking about the second life I got...or the third, but who keeps counting?


    "Solomons Key, is that your name?"


    "Yes, and that''s the first totem I made successfully so please keep it safe."


    "What if I take this and run away? This would be enough to set me up for life no matter where I go."


    "That''s true, but I''m just putting myself at risk as you''re putting yourself by staying here. Plus, a man that knows so much like you doesn''t settle just for this, and even if I''m wrong, the Witches would be the ones to suffer."


    That was enough of a statement to not push my luck, and I intended to keep it.


    "Sure I accept this deal, only if you fulfill two requests of mine."


    He narrowed his eyes In displeasure.


    "If they reasonable."


    "Don''t worry, I think they''re reasonable, I want to meet up with you tomorrow night, but I''ll mention the place with a note that would appear on your desk an hour before the meeting. "


    "A little inconvenient on my part, since I have to move my skedual for that, but how do you plan to leave me the note without raising suspicion? The only reason you''re even allowed in here is because you came to work with me, otherwise, you''ll be instantly recognized by anyone from this floor and get in trouble."


    "Don''t worry, I have my ways."


    And those ways include my Enderwoman friend doing the job for me.


    I only need to convince her to do that.


    "OK...what''s the second request then?"


    "I want a golden bell."


    "I''m sorry what?"


    "I want a golden bell, the item that makes noise when you punch it."


    "I know what a bell is! I''m just confused why would you need it?"


    He truly was, but I intended on getting this item no matter what, I could even give up on my first request to get it.


    "No reason, I just like the sound it makes, and it''s hard to find one nowadays."


    His eyes narrowed down even further as he pressed the same button that barricaded the door, but now the block was back in the floor.


    He slowly walked towards the door and opened it enough for his head to fit in.


    "Hey you! Yeah you, go fetch me a bell....Yeah, that kind of bell... I don''t know just check the storage, there''s always trash thrown there....yes this is an urgent matter now hurry up!"


    I could only hear half of the conversation and it was amusing to say the least.


    In the end, I managed to get the bell without saying what I needed it for, no matter how many times Solomon asked me.


    Soon I was back in the garden working my ''job'', until night was almost here.


    That was my que to get out of here and meet with Froggy to discuss what we discovered.


    I walked on the streets where the citizens kept their distance and the soldiers ignored my presence. I couldn''t ask for something better as a spy, blend through the crowd and nobody knows about me.


    In the end, I arrived at the poorer part of the outpost, where I took out an iron shovel and dug the dirt block beneath me, making me fall into a small room.


    This was our base of operations, the surface was two blocks away and the room was so small that only two beds fitted in there, but it was enough for what we needed.


    I sat down in my bed and rested until Froggy would get back.


    An hour later I heard the dirt block getting broken at a slower rate than me, Froggy fell down the hole as well before quickly covering the entrance.


    "Hey Trader, how did your day go?"


    "Ehh nothing much, I just got caught by one of the most important people in the outpost."


    "You did what?!"


    Froggy yelled with a panicked voice.


    I then proceeded to tell him what happened in the past day, except when we talked about my home dimension and Violet.


    I''m already wired by the standards of this world I don''t want my friends to think of me like that as well.


    Actually I think they''re already thinking that but I don''t want to push the boundaries of Violet, she seems very violent when she''s forced out of her invisible form.


    "You talked with one of the most dangerous men in the whole place and managed to live! Not only that you demanded him to listen to you, do you know what the soldiers call that man? The man of death!"


    "Why would anyone call him that?"


    "Because if you''re called to work for him there''s a 50% chance you''ll be dead! What do we do now? Do we try breaking out the other Witches from the prison, or should we leave and come back with reinforcements. No that wouldn''t work as that man warned you that they would suffer, what do we do!?"


    "Froggy, calm down, it''s not like we don''t have a plan!"


    Froggy was walking around the small room nervously while I tried to calm him down.


    "What kind of plan do you have in mind?"


    "I''m going to use the bell for this plan."


    He looked at me waiting to say that I was joking, but when he sawni wasn''t, he got back to worrying.


    "How do you plan on using a bell? That stupid thing only knows how to make noise, the opposite of what we''re trying to do!"


    "Calm down, it''s not that simple, you see whenever I hit a bell I can see all living beings in a certain radius, and I plan on using that to find out the infrastructure of the prison."


    He stopped once again and looked at me.


    "Are you sure that would work?"


    "Yeah, I can even see invisibility entities."


    "So that''s how and you saw the rougue witch when he turned himself invisible. I always wondered how you did that."


    Oh yeah, that happened as well.


    "So we''re going now, since we don''t have a lot of time to work with."


    "True, I also think we should use the invisible potion for this."


    "Sure, it''s not like we need to hold them for long anyway."


    Both of us drank the invisible potions and got out of our hidden base.


    We walked along the streets until we arrived at the walls of the castle, and after checking out so nobody was there to hear us, we broke through.


    We were already familiar with this place, so we went directly at the outside part of the prison where I broke the silence.


    "I''m going to dig here, be on the lookout so nobody would accidentally find us."


    "Sure, be careful."


    I slowly started to dig, trying to keep as close as possible to the main entrance to quide me where I should dig, finally I arrived at the long hallway where the two guards stood.


    I contained digging three blocks away from that place since I didn''t know if they had super hearing as well, and 15 blocks later I dug towards the structure and I saw obsidian blocks instead of brickstone.


    "Jackpot!"


    I quickly went back and called Froggy as well, then covered the tunel we came so no sound would get out, then I contained mining until I arrived at the point where the obsidian tunnel became an obsidian room.


    After I dug around some more, I put the golden bell down and took a deep breath before gently hitting it.


    The noise suddenly traveled along the tunnel but what I intended was already happening, as now I could see the glowing outline of the people inside the prison.

 Chapter 137. Chaos

    matter: Jack


    I woke up feeling sore all over my body, even though the bed that I slept on was crafted with the help of the System the room that I was in made it feel very uncomfortable to be in.


    Every wall was made with the same purple block, that was indestructible no matter how much we punched, believe me, we tried.


    I was already missing my slime farm at the clan, but knew it was already gone, destroyed in flames.


    Sometimes I think it was better to die together with my brother than live such a humiliating life.


    Suddenly I heard some murmurs on the other side of the cell, that was my roommate, Shell, he wasn''t like me and he''d been here far longer than me, he was a villager.


    "Morning Shell."


    The only response I got was grumbling, since he wasn''t the talkative type.


    A lot of prisoners here weren''t the talkative type, especially now that they had new company.


    They didn''t like each other as well, and the only difference was that part of them were men while the others were women, imagine how big their displeasure got when the harmony was ruined by roughly 50 witches appearing out of nowhere.


    In the beginning, they were connected and fused with who we were, then angry since they thought we were some kind of pillagers, even when we told them that we were completely different they still ostracised us, they tried to bully us into submission, but the fact that they couldn''t work together and we were in the same numbers at them but stuck together made it difficult to active they''re goal.


    Not only that but we got ''special'' treatments from our captures because when the villagers got along too well, the lifer would be dragged and killed outside the prison never to be beard again.


    But since we were witches and so hard to get, they couldn''t give us the same treatment, only to the most rebellious of us which resulted in two of us leaving.


    As with the villagers, we never saw them again.


    "Wake up you two, and get ready for work!"


    The one who called was a guard in iron armor who kept hitting the iron bars to wake up the sleepy villager.


    After some more grunting Shell finally got up and we left our cell.


    Outside the depressing cell, was a bigger but equally depressing room


    This prison was huge as it held around 100 prisoners, two in one room and two stories to hold us all.


    The only variety in those rooms was the brick stones that the prisoners walked on to get down there and the lanterns that dangled from the high ceiling.


    Slowly all the prisoners started to get out and gather in the center of the room when everyone was here there were three distinct groups overall, two of them were composed of the villagers boys and girls respectively, and the last one was the witches.


    The fact that we have all been through the same traumatic events only brought us together and then ripped us apart.


    All the guards wore iron armor and were half in number compared to us, but nobody dared to start a fight against them since we all knew the result and we couldn''t attack them with anything we had.


    Our inventories were empty and it was an amazing feat for that to happen since the only time that I was like that was when I was born.


    Somehow on our way here, there was a man who could see what we had in our inventory and forced us to give away everything we had except our clothes.


    So we were defenseless in front of the guards no matter what we did.


    "OK everyone, since today is Friday you know what we''ll do today, so finish your meal fast, your work even faster and you can enjoy the warmth of the sun for a few hours."


    We all grumbled to ourselves but we were pretty happy about this.


    Friday was the only day of the week when we were also to go outside and stretch our legs for a while, of course, we still had to finish work for the day so we could get that privilege, but we always managed to finish it faster than usual.


    We all got in line to get our morning food, bread with water as usual.


    Quickly we all ate what we had while talking with each other, even some of the villagers came here to talk, mostly women since they had a quicker time making friends here it seems.


    While we were all persecuted, that didn''t mean we didn''t try to communicate with each other, especially with the villagers, since they were part of our lives that were forgotten.


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    Our break didn''t last long as soon we had to get to work. We walked towards the second biggest room, which was filled with crafting tables and brewing stands.


    Unfortunately, they only had 20 brewing stands and 60 crafting tables which meant that two witches would work at one brewing stand while the rest would join the villagers in crafting.


    The guards were very strict about what they gave, each person had their recipe to craft and was given a certain amount of materials that would lead to an exact amount of items, most of the time those behind bread.


    For us witches, we had it ''easier'' since we either had to brew them some potions that they wanted or do some research that would lessen the aftereffects of man-made potions or get rid of them all if possible.


    I was partnered up with Sandra, and we were working on the research team, more specifically we were trying to diminish the side effects of a potion that would absorb 90% of the damage received.


    Unfortunately, the downside was that it would make you feel weakened and more than half of your health would drop without being able to regenerate for a few minutes.


    While I hated the Piligers with my whole being, I had to respect their ingenuity in creating emotions even though they can kill you afterward.


    The main ingredients for this potion are turtle shells, axolotl tail, and milk surprisingly.


    My inner alchemist is on board with those items but I feel like it needs another ingredient to tie all of them together. It was a big project and I didn''t have a lot of results in the past week, the fact that those materials were so hard to get as well didn''t help.


    Hours passed, and I constantly heard the sound of hammers until my ears went numb, but we were finally done for the day.


    When the last loaf of bread was crafted, we all left the prison like there was no tomorrow, at least we tried until the guards intervened to make some order even at the price of violence.


    But in the end, we arrived at the outside part of the prison where everyone''s mood quickly improved. Here as long as we didn''t try to escape or kill each other the guards wouldn''t care what we did, and most of us didn''t want to make trouble at this time of day otherwise we would be put back earlier resulting in the wrath of everyone in the prison.


    This time was sacred, and not to be messed with.


    Unfortunately, good times passed fast we had to get back underground in the depressing rooms.


    We gathered in a straight line and got the last meal for today, before shoving back into our cells and closing the iron door behind us.


    I sat on my white bed and tried to make it more comfortable before lying down.


    "Goodnight Shell."


    Nothing was returned, but I was already used to that so I went to sleep.


    -----


    I was sleeping peacefully having a sweet dream about my slime farm, but kept hearing some banging in the backroom that I couldn''t put my hand on, it sounded so familiar so rithmatic but so annoying.


    In the end, the sound managed to wake me up from my sweet dream.


    "Shell, while you quiet down, I''m trying to sleep here!"


    The annoyance was clearly present in my voice.


    "Hmm? I''m not doing anything, I thought you were crying in the corner or something."


    Wait, if he''s not the one that''s making the noise, then who is?


    I got off the bed trying to see anything in the poorly lit cell but to no avail.


    The noise was still going, somewhere close to my bed, so I walked toward it only to something truly shocking, the block on the floor was breaking.


    "Can you stop the noise, is getting annoying."


    "I don''t know if I can stop it, but I can tell you that someone is breaking the floor of our cell."


    "What?!"


    The man quickly got off his bed and joined me looking with wonder at the unbelievably hard block getting broken.


    After a few moments, the block disappeared revealing a poorly illuminated whole with a floating diamond armor on it.


    "I-is that a g-ghost?"


    She said with a trembling voice which took me by surprise.


    Suddenly the floating armor started to talk.


    "Is any of you a witch by any chance?"


    "Yes, that would be me."


    "Good, is it safe for you to talk?"


    I looked at the bars and saw no activities since everyone was most likely sleeping and my cell was in the literal corner of the prison.


    "Unless I start yelling we should be fine."


    "Good, I''m Trader and together with Froggy I intend on helping you escape."


    My mind suddenly froze, the talking armor was the stranger that recently come into our Clan.


    And he wants to free us?


    Am I still dreaming right now?


    "What about me, will you get me out of here as well?!"


    Shell asked a question before I could fully process what just happened.


    "Yeah, we intend to let everyone out, but first I have to contact everyone in this prison."


    "That''s going to take too long, who cares about them, just let me use your tunes and I can get myself out!"


    I''ve never seen Shell act so desperately, he tried to jump into the hole but a sharp sword was pointing at him making him freeze in place.


    "We. Won''t. Be. Going. Now. Capishe?"


    Shell was unstable, but the sword seemed to be scary enough for him to stay in place.


    "OK, how many prisoners are here, and how many guards usually patrol around here?"


    "We''re roughly 100 prisoners with 50 guards int the morning and 6 guards at night."


    "That''s... a lot more then I expected but still doable, ill dig a hole torwds the others cells as well, you can come down here if you want to, but stay silent and don''t try to escape on your own. You won''t get very far and endanger all of us."


    While he was invisible I could feel his eyes looking especially at Shell which he only noded in understanding.


    With that he disaperead in the unseen tunnel and Shell quickly took the opportunity to jump after him, and after some hesitation I did the same.


    Once inside I relize that it was pretty cramped, but I didn''t care since I was happy to finally see a different block then the purple one.


    "Hy Jack, long time no see, I''m glad you manged to survive the attack."


    I recognized that voice, it was Froggy, the newcomer that helped with my slime farm.


    I turned around but only saw a floating enchanted iron armor.


    "I''m glad to see you as well Froggy, what exactly is happening here?"


    "Ohh, we have a lot to talk, but first, why don''t you help me with digging a room here so we''ll have enough space when the others would join us."


    I poked around and it was true, plus I was to excited and wanted to use that energy somehow.


    Slowly new people started to join us, some believing that this was a dream one they didn''t want to wake up from.


    After some hours the floating diamond armor came back.


    "I think 26 people are enough to share the plan, I don''t want to spend all night digging only half of you."


    Some people growned in displeasure, but we''re too happy that they were one of the lucky ones to get out so didn''t voice out anything.


    "Ok, here''s the final plan."


    And everyone gathered around him.

 Chapter 138. Wow, that was a lot of arrows

    POV: Solomon the Mad Scientist


    I watched the spy do his gardening ''job'' and being sure that his monster friend was there and not teleporting around the place.


    Then I went to the kitchen and quickly ate something that would start regenerating my health.


    "Phew that was a close one, I only had two hearts left because of that stupid monster and her punch! I''m going to enjoy it when I''m going to take the Enderpearl out of her."


    That was riskier than I would''ve liked.


    I expected him to directly attack me once I took the potion, but surprisingly he was very diplomatic. And as I expected, that man knows a lot of subjects. The fact that he knows about all dimensions and has even been to one means he has similar knowledge as the ancient ones! Not only that, he also knew the name of my job which is something that only I know so he couldn''t get it from some ruins, since this profession appeared after the great wipe.


    The only thing thing that would answer my, question is his home dimension.


    It must be really advanced if they travel throughout dimensions.


    Unfortunately the potion effects run off and the side effects started to kick in, resulting in that unpleasant situation.


    But it was probably for the best since the man asked a really good question, and the reason why we want this invasion in the first place.


    If we mange to get to the Coral Kingom, and occupied it, we can use ships and sail towards one of the most secret projects our ancestors build.


    There''s several of those, but we only manged to write down three of them unfortunately.


    -The underwater tample 1.000 blocks away from the Coral Kingdom


    -A metal stronger then the legendary diamond


    -A portal toThe End


    All of those secret experiments where crazy on they''re own, and we only manged to record just three!


    I can''t imagine what was lost, since just the portal alone is an open invitation for the System to strike them.


    Sometimes I wonder if my ancestors where geniuses or just plain stupid.


    They must''ve know that the underwater temple would anger the System, that''s why it''s so hidden, but could they at least make some better plans for when the System turned against us.


    After resting some more and feeling healthy again, I got up and walked towards my next part of the plan.


    *knock knock


    "I''m busy, unless we''re being invaded don''t bother me."


    I didn''t care as I just opened the door like I didn''t hear him.


    "Who da- Oh its you Solomon, I told you not to come into my office like that anymore, it leaves a bad image for the others subordinates."


    "Who cares about those expendable parts, I came here for a reason."


    "I told you, I can''t give you any more viligers or Witches for your experiments, not when we''re so close to invasion."


    "I didn''t came here for that, even though I would''ve loved to. I''m here to report a spy."


    His pen froze for a moment and then looked at me with wide eyes.


    "Where is it? We need to capture that spy as soon as possible, I don''t want to embarras myself like last time."


    "Calm down, he''s easy to spot it''s kind of amazing how he didn''t get caught until now. But then again he had some dangerous items on him, so he must know a thing or two about infiltrating. "


    His eyes narrowed more as I talked.


    "Tell me everything you saw."


    I told him how I was on my way to eat something, got interrupted by Brutus the traitor who was very RUDE, but from his expression he didn''t seem to belive me for some reason.


    I contained with how I met the spy, invited into my lab, talked with him, and then he left with the promise of a another meeting tomorrow night.


    He seems to get a headache as he keep massaging his forehead.


    "So let me get this straight, you saw a spy, and instead or killing him, you invited him to a cup of milk, and then let him go to continue spying on us, not only that, you also gave him a Totem! Give me a reason why I shouldn''t just execute you for treason?"


    When he puts it like that, it does sound bad.


    "Because we couldn''t take him on without casualties."


    "We have an army of over 500 soldier and you think we can''t take care of one guy?"


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "I think we can, but at heavy losses, let me paint the banner this way. He is a man that came into this world a little over a year ago with knowledge rivaling our ancestors, has FOUR skills, two at level 4 the other two at level 6, the System doesn''t know his name, he knows a way to the other two dimensions, and mind I remind you, that''s what we''re looking for as well, he''s fully equipped with enchanted diamond armor and tools, and has a four block monster friend that can teleport and turn herself invisible."


    The more I talked the deeper his frown got, and I would''ve taken pleasure in that if this wasn''t so bad for all of us.


    "Yeah, your right, with an enemy like that we can''t attack without a proper plan, that was a good call. I''m guessing you have a plan as well since you came to me."


    I could only smile since he was right. He is the General and I''ve seen him grow up into a fine young man capable of holding his position, but that doesn''t mean I have to ask for his wisdom in this predicament.


    "Yes of course, I''ll take a hundred soldiers with me at the meeting point to capture him."


    "But you don''t know where you''ll meet up, so you can''t prepare the ambush."


    "Who says we can''t? We''ve got all of those Witches working for the past few weeks that we don''t know what to do with all those potions, when I get the location, I''m going to take with me a hundred invisible soldiers with bows that would shoot arrows with status effects."


    "But we need him alive to get the information we want, and from what you told me extracting it from the soul does not give the best results."


    Indeed, I could try to rip apart the information from his soul, but I can only hold it in this world for an hour, before the bottle brakes.


    If I make a special ritual I could hold it for much longer, but that would only hold the soul in our plane, not stop the rapid process of memory loss.


    I''ll give it a day at most before it would be just be an empty soul, and that''s not enough time for me to get the information I want.


    "That''s why the only arows well use are going to be the ones with blindness, weakness, slowness and regeneration so he won''t die from the rain of arrows. Only one arrow for every soldier would be enough."


    He put his hand on his chin to think about the plan before nodding his head.


    "That''s simple enough and it has a high chance of succes, ill slowly gather the soldier and equip them with the necessary tools, you just stay on the lookout for that message."


    I did my part, so I left his office with all the responsibilities passed on, and got back to work.


    -----


    "How many times do I have to tell you? If you want to make a Flaming potion you need one netherwart, 10 grams of powdered nether rock and 5 grams of blaze powder! Also don''t you dare waste any nether rock powder since its very hard to get!"


    The two ''disciples'' were on the verge of crying but they manged to hold it to themselves otherwise I would''ve given them a reason to cry.


    With an exhausted sigh I want back to my lab to calm my nerves down only to see a white paper on my table.


    I narrowed my eyes and equipped the monocle seeing nothing wrong with the paper or the room, so I picked it up.


    Meet me at the water fountain on the wast side of the castle in 10 minutes, don''t try any funny business or were done.


    How rude of him, he didn''t even sign his name.


    I looked outside through the window and saw that it was already night, a little later then I expected and very short noticed.


    But the plan had to be put in action, so I left my lab in a hurry.


    "You! Did you see anyone enter my lab?"


    "No sir, only yourself. "


    Hmm, probably his monster friend helped him.


    I then walked towards the soldier closest to me and spoke at low volume.


    "The operation has begone, bring everyone at the meeting place in 5 minutes, hurry!"


    The man nooded his and ran to fulfil the order.


    I instead took items necessary in case things would go bad and went towards the meeting place.


    Once I arrive there I saw 100 soldier all in order ready for battle.


    "Drink the potion and follow me at 20 blocks distance, shoot when you hear the signal."


    Everyone did as I said and soon I was in an empty room, with a bunch of particals floating around.


    Thats why they needed, to stay so far away from me.


    I calmly walked towards the meeting place, only to see the spy waiting bored on the side of the fountain.


    Suddenly he sees me and quickly equips his armor.


    I panicked for a moment, did he know about the plan?


    "Where have you been, I''ve been waiting for an hour!"


    "What do you mean, I only saw the massage around 7 minutes ago?"


    Suddenly he hit his face with his hand whispering something about me getting late into my lab.


    But he didn''t seems to suspect me of betrayal at least.


    I looked more closely at his staus and saw that be has some speed effect and jump boost?


    But what took me by surprise was what he had in his inventory.


    Lots and lots of loaded crossbows, and for some reason all of them were with fireworks as well.


    That sounds so stupid why would he do that?


    It didn''t matter since I was prepared as well, I looked around to see if the monster was here, but to my surprise she wasn''t.


    The only thing I saw was, flowers, fountain and the outhouse behind me where the soldiers hid.


    Now that I was looking more closely I realised that he was in the corner of the big wall, no way for him to get out unless he bypasses me.


    How convenient, suspiciously so.


    "Since I didn''t get my question answered last time, I think it''s only fair that you''ll be the one to start talking."


    While I didn''t like it, I think it was fair, and he would soon be a prisoner anyway.


    "Do you know about the water temples?"


    "Those? Yeah I know about them, their very annoying to get into especially when you have to beat the Elder Gardiens."


    He even knows about that?!


    What doesn''t he know?


    "Do you know what the guardians are protecting?"


    "Some gold and sponges from what I remember."


    "Why would they protect something so stupid? No what they''re really protecting is an artificial System."


    Finally this seems to impress him since he didn''t know what to say, and I took my chance with that.


    Quickly I let a fireworks fly towards the sky making a lot of noise.


    At the same time I felts my guts being pulled behind me, and all of the sudden I was in another place where I could see a rain of arrows shooting towards the spy.


    "We got him!"


    Or so I thought, instead of a screaming man yelling in confusion, I only saw an empty fountain filled with arrows.


    "Oh wow, that was a lot of arrows, making the soldiers invisible was pretty ingenious."


    We all looked towards the voice that was on top of the outhouse, and saw the man smirking, and right besided him was his invisible friend.


    I was confused, when did she get there, how did this happen?


    Quickly I took out the white potion and chugged it, and that was the smartest move that I ever made.


    "I guess it''s time for payback."


    Then he took out two crossbows and shoot towards us, but instead of exploding it in his face like I expected it, it detonated when it hit one of us.


    What followed was manslaughter as the only thing I could hear and see was explosions, screaming, and bodies hitting the ground.


    It hurted a lot, but the potion did an amazing job at keeping me alive, and after a few moments the explosion stopped.


    Slowly I looked around only to see bodies all over the floor, and the ones that somehow survived were invisible making me unable to help them.


    "Stab yourself with the regen arrows, and someone go and report this to the General!"


    I don''t know if I was heard, but the orderes were sent, and right as I was about to gather myself back I hear a roar in the distance.


    Then another one, and another filling the air with terror.


    "That madman let the Ravagers out!"

 Chapter 139. Prison escape

    I told the plan to the others which was pretty simple overall, the only complicated parts were done by me, and I knew what I was supposed to do or I would know when I''d meet with the problem.


    Their part of the plan was simple, wait for me to give the signal which Froggy would hear, and then he would run to hit the bell like his life depended on it, at that time everyone from the prison would run towards the cells that have the escape hole, brake their bed and jump into the tunnels.


    For this, I had to mine all the cells once again and cover the progress that I made since it was too easy to spot them.


    Usually the prisoners would have some break time after a hard day of work, and around 10 guards would supervise them.


    Once the signal is heard, they throw blindness potions at them and run for the hole, and escape the prison.


    The first part is done, now comes the riskier part, they have to break the wall and run for the stalls that holds the horses of the pillagers and steal them.


    We don''t know if they have enough for everyone, but if they do that''s good, I they don''t, there would be a few people with speed potions that would have to run, and if they have more horses then them, then they have to kill the extras so they can''t catch up with us.


    Once everyone is prepared, they rush the gate and kill everyone in their way, preferably that doesn''t have to happen since it would slow down the escape, and we were underequiped for combat as a group.


    Now what I was responsible for instead was something much riskier, I had to attract the attention of everyone in the outpost so the prisoners could escape.


    I had a few ideas in mind, but first I had to convince Violet to do me a few favors.


    "Violet, can we talk?"


    I was alone at the water fountain in the corner of the castle. It was a quiet place that looked pretty good and would be used for my plans.


    As I requested Violet appeared beside me.


    "Can you please teleport this message for me to Solomons''s desk?"


    I gave her a piece of paper that had the information of where we should meet and what time.


    She gently took the paper, looked at it with curiosity then teleported away.


    "That was easier than I expected it."


    A few minutes later she was back but held no paper in her hand.


    "Thank you, I want to ask you another favor now."


    I said that as I took two items out of my inventory, one was a pillow, and the other one was the Enderpearl.


    As soon as she saw the perl, her eyes instantly narrowed with displeasure.


    "Sorry, is this the perl of someone you know?"


    Do monsters have friends or family?


    But to my relief, she just shook her head as a no.


    "Are you bothered that I''m using parts of you people as a method of transportation?"


    Her eyes narrowed down before giving a small nod.


    "I''m sorry that I''m asking you this then, but we can''t help the prisoners escape without using this method, I don''t have enough time to make other preparations, otherwise I wouldn''t ask you this."


    She didn''t seem to be interested in helping me this time either, I guess I had to play a little dirty now.


    "I can''t guarantee that I''ll manage to escape either, since I intended to bring the wrath of the whole outpost towards me. And while I still have a life to spare, it would be my last one. Then I would just sit away and not talk with you anymore."


    Her eyes narrowed once again and she opened her mouth showing her displeasure, which meant that she truly cared about me in some twisted way.


    Ok, I used the stick, now I''m going to use the carrot as well.


    "If you help me this time, I will do one favor for you no matter how hard it is."


    This seemed to catch her interest as she tilted her head for me to continue.


    "If you want any blocks, I can give them to you, if you want to learn something about Redstone, I can help you with that, as long as I don''t have to hurt who I care I can do it for you."


    Suddenly a sly smile appeared on her face making me regret that I made this kind of deal, but I stood my ground since I needed her help.


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    She took the pearl from the pillow and became invisible.


    "Hey, use the pillow so it won''t register to you!"


    I yelled since I didn''t know where she was, but no response came.


    Do Endermans not play by the same rules?


    "When you see me in danger teleport me on top of the outhouse!"


    I yelled once again, hoping that she understood me.


    So I sat down and waited, I waited for a whole hour before finally seeing the man of the night.


    I was honestly a little scared that he betrayed me for a moment, but when I heard his reason for why he was late I could only slap myself out of embarrassment.


    Of course, I could send the message to him, but I couldn''t guarantee that he would see it at the same time.


    I tried to brush off this embarrassing moment by asking him the same question as last time, and to my surprise he answered it, and to my double surprise, it was something mind-blowing!


    Did they recreate the System in some way?


    Did they create a command block?


    Before I could ask more questions on how it works and where it is, he let out a firework in the sky.


    Panic started to seep in as I saw him disappear in front of my eyes, this was a trap!


    But my guts started to feel weird, and all of a sudden I was on top of a roof looking at my previous place being blasted with multicolored arrows.


    I don''t think I could''ve survived that, so I was very thankful for Violet''s perfect timing.


    "Thank you, now can you please break this one as well besides the Ravager cages once you don''t hear any more explosions?"


    The pearl disappeared out of my hand, which meant the message was received.


    Perfect, now it''s time to have my revenge.


    "Oh wow, that was a lot of arrows, making the soldiers invisible was pretty ingenious."


    I could only smile at what I was about to do, which unfortunately they didn''t see because of my helmet.


    "I guess it''s time for payback."


    With that, I took two loaded crossbows out of my inventory and shot at the invisible crowd.


    I couldn''t see them, but I could hear them scream in pain as I changed my weapon each time.


    Unfortunately, the fun didn''t last for long as I was out of loaded crossbows in my inventory and I didn''t want to reload them.


    After all, this was just the beginning.


    Suddenly I felt my guts being pulled and I was now in a different location.


    Iron cages were all around me, some of them had one Ravager, others had two, but never more.


    I walked towards the closest one and saw the beast asleep, I didn''t see a way to open the cage so the only solution I could think of was to break it with my powerful pickaxe.


    Two swings later I broke one, and a few more swings later a hole big enough for the best to get out was formed, unfortunately by breaking the iron bars I made a lot of noise and the beast was starting to awake.


    "This is not going to be fun."


    But I had to do this, so I broke another one, then a second one then a third to the tenth cage, things got too chaotic with all the Ravagers rooming angrily around since their beutie sleep was interrupted.


    On top of that, just to be sure that everyone would be angry I shoot a few fireworks at the ground making everyone yell in rage.


    Their rage could be heard through the whole outpost, which was also the signal for Froggy to let everyone out.


    I couldn''t stay in this place anymore since I would be trampled to death, plus I could hear human getting closer.


    So with my missing done, I ran towards the wall that kept the castle separated from the common people and made a small hole in it.


    Now, most of the wall was made with brickstone, but not all of it, since some parts had wood in them.


    And guess who had some Flint and Steel and a will to commit arson?


    This guy!


    And that''s what I did, I ran along the streets trying to get further away from the escaping prisoners until I heard yelling.


    This was a good and a bad thing at the same time, since it seems I caught some attention.


    But I could do a lot more damage to those people.


    You know what else is more flammable then a wall mostly made with stonebrick?


    Woodland mansions!


    And I had a lot to choose from.


    I ran towards the closer one and broke the wall made of leaves, then I lit it on fire and watched it how it quickly burned like a fuse.


    It was mesmerising to see, unfortunately I couldn''t watch it as I had to do the same to the mansion itself.


    Then I did the same on the second one, and a third before I had to stop since now they were actively looking for me instead of focusing on extinguishing the fire.


    Since my job was done, I decided to stop there and dig a small room underground and wait for Froggy to brake my pearl.


    I made the room big enough in case Violet wanted to stay with me, and I was right, since she became visible once she had enough room to move around.


    She had a smile on her face as her head kept moving at different parts of the ceiling like she could see through the walls, but then I realised that she had her third eye opened and could actually see what was happening.


    Minutes slowly passed and I was growing more and more worried until I felt my guts hurting once more as I was yanked into the subspace and appearing in another location.


    "Oh, thank the System that it worked!"


    Froggy said with relief in his voice.


    I looked around and saw that we were in the woods instead of the outpost which was a great relief, I also saw a lot of people on horses bearly staying together, and while everyone was tired from working all day and running to escape from their captures, they still had a big smile on their face.


    "Froggy, Trader we all want to thank you for getting us out of the prison, we are indept to you two, we would never forget this!"


    Murmurs if approval were all over the place, which made me smile a little.


    "Don''t thank us yet, we still have to get you home!"


    I yelled and everyone cheered after me, I then looked at Froggy who still had the blanket in his hand and asked about my horse.


    "Of course I got your a horse, I wouldn''t dare make you run all the way back."


    He said that smiling, while pointing at the only horse that didn''t have a rider.


    "Oh I wasn''t worried that I would have to run towards home, I was worried that YOU would have to do that."


    Suddenly his smile froze and faked a caught.


    "Yeah... good thing we don''t have that problem, let''s go."


    I got on my horse and followed everyone who was more then happy to leave this place.


    It would take around 6 days to get back to the Clan and around 11 to get at a lage city in the Stone Kindome and we wold split from there.


    We would also separate the two groups at a certain point, since we didn''t want to compromise the location of the Clan.


    Froggy would take the Witches and I would take the Viligers.


    My only worry was for our food to last until we get there, but I tried to throw it in the back of my mind for now.


    I was tired, so I concentrated only on riding the horse

 Chapter 140. Back in the Stone Kingdome

    Days have passed, and we split the group a long time ago, Froggy arrived at the Clan celebrating their reunion and getting some rest, while I was still on the road.


    I tried to offer a brake to my group as well since we were thousands of blocks away from the outpost and they didn''t have horses to catch up with us.


    Even if they did, I don''t think they would''ve sent a big force after us since I did a lot of damage to their homes.


    The Ravagers were out, three mansions half burned, and who knows how many soldiers I killed with my fireworks.


    They need some time to lick their wounds, they can''t just charge after us.


    But they wouldn''t take on the offer, even though they were even more tired than me, the rush of them finally being free seemed to give them strength even after days had passed.


    It wasn''t all happiness though, as some villagers had a mental breakdown from time to time, mostly happened when we settled for the night.


    Some still believe they''re dreaming right now, and are afraid to wake up.


    And the worst part is, that most of them don''t have families or friends anymore since they were the survivors of a pillaged village, they were simple farmers living at the edge of the border, and they have suffered a lot for it.


    Those people needed help, and unfortunately, I wasn''t equipped to do that, but that doesn''t mean I don''t have an idea on how I could help them.


    While the Stone Kindome lost a lot of its resources and people when the Zombie Lord attacked, that doesn''t mean they would turn down a few refugees, I''ll make sure of that myself.


    Unfortunately, I could only help the people that were native to the Stone Kingdom, since I didn''t intend on going to the Sandstone Kingdom anytime soon and I also don''t know if their political fight got resolved.


    Surprisingly there were also a few people from the Coral Kingdom, they were better than the other''s since they had a higher level on crafting which meant they were very valuable to the Piligers, so they got a better treatment.


    All of them wanted to get back home to their business, but If I ever wanted to visit that place I was welcome at their shops, which I would keep in mind for later.


    But as we were galloping on our horses, I started to notice something peculiar, those trees and valleys seemed familiar.


    We were close to Bobby''s village!


    10 minutes later, as I expected, there was a huge wall made of wood in our way.


    Everyone stopped and looked at the wall with confusion and fear.


    We were far away from the big cities, and they don''t remember a new one being developed so close to the borders.


    Was this another outpost filled with Piligers?


    "Halt! Who are you and what''s the purpose of your group."


    A voice was heard on top of the wall, which caught everyone''s attention, and to their relief it was a normal human.


    "Hi there it''s me, Trader! I''m with a group of refugees here and want to stop for a night, do you think we can do that?"


    I yelled back while taking off my diamond helmet for my face to be seen.


    "Sir Trader! Of course you can, you and your friends are always welcome here!"


    Everyone let out a sigh of relief and looked surprised at me for knowing so many people, and what respect they gave me as well.


    But I was tired of explaining why the guard was acting this way, and while I knew they wanted to settle in a big town, I wouldn''t take any complaints now since we were safe.


    But to my surprise, the villagers didn''t seem to complain about the sudden stop, some of them actually looked relieved.


    Maybe they only put a facade to not worry the others.


    We entered the village and were greeted by a friendly iron golem, the others didn''t seem to have the same opinion as they froze in fear, or trying to back down.


    "Hi guardian, thank you for protecting those people."


    The soulless red eyes looked at me for a few moments and then went on his merry way.


    "W-what was that?"


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    The one who spoke was Shell if I remember correctly.


    "That is the guardian of this village, the iron golem. If anyone wants to attack them, they have to go through him, and he''s a tough guy."


    Now that the unknown became known, their fear was replaced with curiosity and admiration as the golem continued his patrol.


    We all got off our horses and went towards the center of the village, which at this point was a small town.


    The houses which were under construction last time, were now finished, giving the place a peaceful atmosphere.


    As we arrived at the center of the village I could see someone running towards us.


    It was Toby, who looked all over the crowd for someone who wasn''t here.


    "Trader! I''m happy to see you, but where is Bobby I can''t see him?"


    "Unfortunately Bobby is not with me today, I came for another reason."


    His smile died a little but was still happy to see me as well.


    "You''re always welcome in our village, you and your friends... you have a lot of friends this time, what happened?"


    "Oh nothing much, I just know a person that..."


    I then proceeded to tell him how my friend''s village was purged from the surface of the earth, how some of them were kidnapped by the Piligeres and killed the others.


    He looked sorry when he heard that. While this was not a common acurance it was not unheard of, especially if you studied at the academy.


    What he didn''t expect was the rest of the story, as I continued to tell him how I went with my friend to ''gather'' intelligence only to end up burning a part of their outpost to free the prisoners that were now with me.


    He was looking at me with his mouth open in shock.


    "Bobby warned me about you, but I didn''t know it was this bad."


    Then he looked at the rest of the villagers.


    "As for them, we would welcome them with open arms, those are our brothers and sisters who went through hell and survived, they deserves a feast!"


    He yelled for everyone to hear, and then the villagers started to move preparing everything needed.


    The huge bonfire was built in the middle of the village, chests were emptied of their food, and instruments were taken out to tell the tale of the heroes.


    Slowly the sun was settling, and everything started, food, music, and dancing were all over the village, and even the prisoners were slowly warming up to the other people, until soon they were drinking and singing with them.


    I was too tired to join them, and I didn''t want to tell the story of how I got everyone free for the 10th time.


    So after a few hours, I went to sleep, smiling for sleeping in a bed.


    ------


    The next day I ate some breakfast and was ready to get back on the road.


    But it seems that I was the only one awake to even ride a horse, as everyone else was plastered around the now finished bonfire, sleeping with a smile on their face.


    "I think you could stay a few more hours here, they seemed to enjoy themselves a little too much last night. You can explore the village while you''re at it, also the miners want to talk with you."


    Toby came out of nowhere and offered me some advice.


    "Geez Toby, since when we''re you the stealthy type?"


    His only answer was a smile.


    "I wanted to talk with you either way today, so I guess that''s for the best. Listen, the Piligers can''t live without normal people, that''s why I''m sure they would start some raids soon to recuperate what they lost, also they intend to invade the nations in two months, maybe less because of the mess I made. I want you to prepare a bunker for your people in the mines where you can retreat, worse worst-case scenario use my portal and then blow it up. Don''t try to fight them since you would lose in numbers and quipment."


    His face turned serious, taking all of my suggestions to heart, and I was glad for that.


    The village can be rebuilt at any time, but we can''t bring back the lives that would be lost.


    With that being said I went over to the miners to see what they needed me for and was presently surprised to see that wanted to pay their ''taxes'' which were of two stacks of iron blocks, and even a few diamonds.


    This would''ve been useful a few months ago when I was leveling up my Crafting skill, but, it was still a pleasant surprise to see.


    With that iron, I made two more golems and gave it to the village, this time hiding the process for it.


    I realize how dangerous those were in the wrong hands, and I didn''t want this information to be widespread, otherwise, the wars would look very different.


    We stayed there another night and left the next day.


    Or so I intended.


    "We want to stay here, we talked with the head of the village, and he allowed us."


    20 villagers decided to stay in this village which took me by surprise, but I guess that''s a good thing since they chose to stay here instead of waiting for others to decide their fate.


    "Well if everything is all sorted out I don''t see a reason to object this, welcome to your new life!"


    They all thanked me once again and I left the village together with the rest of the villagers.


    Since there were only 30 people left, we decided to use the speed potion on our horses.


    And we got fast, so fast that it took a little over a day to arrive at the capital.


    The prisoners even now can''t believe that horses can run so fast.


    But now we were all in front of the castle gate, stopped by a guard while I had a group of very nervous villagers.


    They told me they were willing to wait in the city, but I instead for them to come with me so the issue could be resolved quickly.


    At first they didn''t seem to belive me that I had connections with the royal family, and they were scared that I put them in hot water.


    "Sir Trader, while you are the hero of this nation and are always welcomed back, you have to warn us ahead when you bring so many people with you, I have to announce the others first."


    The villagers seemed confused, I was a hero to this nation?


    "Don''t worry, I don''t intend on making your job difficult, just call Bobby here so we can solve this issue."


    The guard thanked me and left to send the massage.


    A few minutes later I saw my friend walking towards me with an exasperated face, but I could still see a smile that he tried to hide it.


    What I didn''t expect was to see the princess behind him walk at a respectful distance clearly leaving us to have our moment before she would join in.


    "Trader! Is there any way you can visit me without something major happening? At this point I''m afraid whenever I hear your name mentioned by the guards."


    He tried to sound annoyed but the smile couldn''t leave his face, as we both hugged.


    "Sorry friend, I''m glad to see you as well."


    "I''m glad to see you alive. So what''s with the big group behind you, do you intend to start a village."


    He said that while looking at everyone that was nervously waiting on their horses.


    "Hah, funny story, have you heard about a group called the Pillgers."


    "Oh no..."

 Chapter 141. What happened this time?

    His face quickly changed to one of horror as I started to tell the story.


    "Wait, I think the Royal Family needs to hear this as well, good thing that my wife Elizabeth came with me."


    He said that while calling Elizabeth who was waiting at a respectful distance until she was permitted to get close.


    "Wait, you got married?! Why didn''t you invite me to the wedding, Froggy is going to be pissed as well!"


    "Theoretically we''re not married yet, just engaged so you didn''t miss anything."


    Elizabeth explained while she joined us, even holding Bobby''s hand which resulted in him getting embarrassed.


    "Yes, also don''t spin this on me, I never know where you are, so how could I send you an invitation? Also, can you send my condolences to Froggy while also sending him the invitation to our wedding?"


    While the man was a little embarrassed about the situation, he seemed to be happy with his life.


    "Looks like you didn''t call me because of the good news."


    "Unfortunately not honey, Trader managed to get himself into another mess."


    Now she looked at me with a raised eyebrow.


    "Bobby told me a few of your ''adventures'' and I''m shocked how you''re still alive, but at the same time you managed to resolve your problems so I don''t think you came to ask for help... or I least I hope so, since I''m afraid of what he considers problematic enough to ask for help."


    She was right in that regard.


    I was still in shock that Bobby was going to be a Royalty, maybe even a king in the future.


    "I''m going to tell my story and you can judge if it''s troublesome or not."


    I then started from the beginning, telling them more details than what I shared with Toby.


    The only things I didn''t share were the location of the Clan, Violet, and the Artificial System.


    When I finished the story both of them were messaging their forehead like they had a headache.


    "I understood now why you always worried about him. He just doesn''t know how to live In moderation."


    Hey!


    It''s not my fault trouble finds me!


    I think so at least...


    "So those people behind you are the rest of the prisoners? Of course, we''re going to help them, we''ll relocate them in whatever town they want to, even if they go to another kingdom."


    I let out a sigh of relief when I heard that, I''m glad they want to help them no matter what nation they''re from.


    Once everything was made clear, the princess got to work, calling servants to take care of them and their horses, guiding them to their dorms, asked if they needed healing and what place they wanted to go next.


    Bobby and I were going to the castle.


    "So what''s the story between you two?"


    His face got a little red but still kept a smile.


    "We''ve been closely working together for almost a year and slowly developing feelings for each other, unfortunately, I was nothing but a small noble with my Brewing skill, not enough for us to be together. Funnily enough, I managed to get a good reputation because I brought the witches and heroes to our nation. But I think the biggest reason they let us marry is to lessen your anger towards them, so I guess I have to thank you for getting me married."


    I''m sure that''s what he thinks, but at the same time a princess like Elizabeth wouldn''t marry him if he wasn''t so hard-working and reliable, she must''ve pushed a few buttons behind the scenes for this to happen.


    We arrived at Bobby''s office, which got an upgrade from the last time I had seen it.


    The room was bigger, it had more bookshelves and chests.


    It wasn''t the most amazing one I saw, but it was cozy enough and it did the job.


    We sat down, exchanging stories and what happened in the past few months.


    Apparently the king wasn''t happy that I ditched the party made for the heroes, Merry got invited by the pope to meet with him urgently and she accepted it in hopes of learning more about enchanting.


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    Now the kingdom was busy recuperating its losses from the last fight, which was going great with the help of the Piglings in the Nether.


    They also made a few more iron golems, but this time made sure they had multiple masters so there wouldn''t be any more accidents.


    We exchanged stories like that until the door of the office was opened.


    It was the princess.


    "I''ve finished with the refugees, everyone is resting or eating right now. Now the only thing that''s left is to plan for the Piligers attack."


    The atmosphere in the room got serious quickly.


    "Wouldn''t be better to talk with the king and everyone else as well?"


    "Don''t worry, I''m going to tell him about this later myself, plus I thought you''ll want to stay as far as possible from politics."


    Bobby truly chooses a great woman if she can understand me so Well.


    "True, I have a few ideas in mind but I want to hear what you two have instead."


    "I think we can try using the iron golems in this fight, of course after we take precautions against them turning against us, we also got a lot of diamond equipment from the Piglings, and we can split it to our most loyal soldiers. The only downside is that we''ll have to purchase a lot of enchanted books to make the armor more resistant."


    Bobby said with confidence in his voice.


    "I think we should also warn the Sandstone kingdom about the attack and get them on board especially since the hero is there. Fortunately, the political war is over, and the princess won so I think she would be willing to fight against the Piligers."


    Elizabeth continued.


    Both of them had good points, and if they managed to work closely I''m sure they would be able to defend their homes.


    "Those are some good ideas, especially working together with the other nations, maybe you can rope in the Coral Kingdom as well since I think they''re the real target. The only thing that I can say is to call back all the villages at the border, or at least send some soldiers to protect it, since the Piligers can''t live without them."


    "What do you mean by that?"


    "From what I understood they don''t have access to Skills, which means they can''t use the crafting table at all."


    Both of them opened their eyes with shock.


    "Not only that, but I think they have a method of turning normal people into loyal Piligers. So we want to minimize the damage as much as possible."


    "This is indeed something we have to act on, I''ll speak with my father first."


    We exchanged ideas for one more hour, and then the Princess left to speak with the king and his advisers, leaving me and Bobby alone once again.


    "Will you stay here for this war?"


    "Unfortunately I don''t intend to, it''s not my war to fight after all. The Zombie Lord was an exception and I hope I don''t have to repeat it. But it''s not like I won''t be helping you in any way, I can think of a few ways to help if you''re in dire need of resources."


    Plus, I wanted to go back to the outpost when everyone would leave and rob them blind.


    That''s what you get for killing me and try to kidnap my friend.


    "We don''t lack a lot of resources right now, we actually have a lot more than we expected. Most of our complex items used to be brought from the Coral Kingdom at sky-high prices but with the Piglings, we can do our items as long as we know the recipe."


    That was an unexpected boon, and I was glad that my friend had it.


    Instead, I was thinking of what I should do in the next few months.


    I still want to max my Crafting skill, I think I can also order some craftsmen to do another printing press for me and max out my Enchanting skill as well.


    At the same time, I want to put a few golems in my home base for protection and move all of my chests from the Clan to my base.


    Of course, I intend to leave some items to them, but that was primarily my treasure, so I intend on using it.


    It''s not like I didn''t know what to do, but had too many things to do in such a short time.


    It was like back on Earth where I had too many options and decided to do nothing.


    No!


    I was going to be productive, no break for me yet.


    "Hey Bobby, do you think they''ll let me look through the royal library?"


    "I don''t think they''ll have a problem with that, but I''ll have to ask what levels are you allowed on."


    "That sounds fair, tell me when you know the results, and I''ll probably think of how I should manage my time for the next few months."


    "Sure, no problem, I will ask right now."


    "Thank, you once again."


    He just waved his hand as he left the office.


    "Violet, are you here?"


    I waited a few seconds and she appeared beside me like an assassin.


    "I need you to help me with moving some stuff, BUT! I intend on paying upfront. "


    She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms signaling for me to continue.


    "Do you know how to read?"


    She shook her head as no.


    "I''m sure Bobby would manage to get me the permission to browse through the library. In there, I can find some books with Redstone and I can read them out loud for you. What do you think?"


    She closed her eyes to think before accepting my deal.


    I could only smile at this since I planned on making her teleport throughout the whole Nather to move my storage.


    Of course, I did have a plan to make her another Redstone room in my home base as payment for all the hard work, for now, I''m only waiting to get permission.


    Half an hour later, Bobby came back with a smile on his face.


    "Good news, I managed to get permission on all the levels except the last one, here''s the permit if anyone asks you anything."


    He gave me a book that said whoever had thid book, could go wherever he wanted, signed by someone I didn''t recognize but someone else will.


    "I''ll show you where the library is, unfortunately I have to get back to work after this so I can''t hang out with you anymore."


    "Don''t worry, I understand. Your now a man that has a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders, and with the upcoming invasion it would only get worse."


    "Don''t remid me of that, I don''t even want to think about all the paperwork that I have to do."


    We joked as we walked on the long hallways until we arrived at a wooden door.


    "Here is the library, if you need anything don''t hesitate to ask for me."


    "Thank you again!"


    After we said our goodbyes I opend the door and admired the royal library.


    The library in here had an interesting design, similar with the one at the Sandstone Palace but different.


    There was the huge opening in the middle where you could see all the floors filled with books, but the unique part of it, was the fact that the first floor was the top floor, and the rest were going downwards for three more levels.


    While the Sandstone Palace used the natural light to illuminate the huge library, here instead they used lanterns, glowstone and even shroomlights.


    It went for a different atmosphere but it was still comforting to browse around.


    I slowly walked around the shelfs, looking at all the labels and noting down everything that caught my attention, until finally I found what we were looking for.


    The Redstone category.


    "Here it is Violet, let''s do some reading."

 Chapter 142. Enchanted compass

    A few weeks have passed since I came here to the Stone Castle, and some things had happened.


    As predicted the Piligers attacked the small villages at the border of the nation, but we were prepared for that, as we sent a few guards with two iron golemn in each village at the border.


    It was a huge investment since there were a lot of villages that needed protection and bearly enough iron.


    And it actually, worked for a while. The golems have a similar strength to their ravagers, and unlike the ravagers, it doesn''t take a lot of time to produce them.


    But the Piligers were not dumb, and realized that the Sandstone kingdom didn''t have the same defenses, so it got attacked a lot more often, with various degrees of success.


    Of course, the Stone Kindome suffered as well, once they changed their strategy to just turn themselves invisible and kidnap the people directly so no bloodshed was needed.


    In those weeks a group of witches came to the castle to help with the growing threat and get their revenge, through them I heard that Froggy was an Elder now which took me by surprise, but it was a deserved role with how hard he worked for the Clan.


    We tried to send some spies to their outpost, but the security there was quickly increased, resulting in some of them not being able to infiltrate, or outright captured.


    After those losses, they were ordered to look from afar and warn us of any upcoming raids.


    On my side of the story, I saw a few books that had some interesting Redstone machines, most of them being for farming purposes which Bobby told me were in use, I also read some of the theorized ideas for mob farming which I noted down.


    But today was a special day as I was leaving the comfort of the castle to do some moving in another dimension.


    "Are you sure you want to leave today Trader? You can always stay and read some more."


    "I know, and I appreciate you letting me do that, but I feel like I''m staying too much in one place and not making enough progress."


    "You told me you wanted to get max Crafting, we can help you with that!"


    "I know Bobby, but right now your nation needs those resources more than me, and I told you I have my stashes. I''m just getting to them faster through the Nether."


    He seems hesitant to let me go for some reason, which was not like him.


    "What''s the problem Bobby, you are not this tense usually."


    "The truth is, I''m afraid of what kind of trouble you''ll find yourself in next."


    "What do you mean? I only plan on moving some of my storage, nothing else."


    "They all start simply Trader, you go on a short visit at the witch''s Clan, and next thing you know, you are in the middle of a Piliger outpost burning their houses, we go to explore the forgotten fortresses in the Nether, only for you to end up getting killed in the Sandstone Palace."


    That was true...


    "Don''t worry I''m much better prepared now, I have a few powerful items on me that would help me in a pinch."


    I have a few God apples, an undying totem, an enchanted diamond armor, and a potion that would make me invincible for a few seconds, I think I''m very prepared for any kind of situation.


    I could still see him nervous for a few moments before giving up and letting out a sigh.


    "That''s true Trader, I guess I''ve been more nervous recently because of all the reports I read about the upcoming war."


    We said our goodbyes and went past the portal frame.


    This time I was fully equipped with my diamond armor since I planned on being safe instead of stealthy.


    Of course, I wouldn''t go through the Nether by shouting my presence, I would drink a speed potion and run through all the dangers that it has, fully trusting the fire protection on my armor.


    Just as I planned, I drank the potion and started running, feeling a rush of emotions all over me as I made dangerous jumps, dodged arrows, and took a break from time to time.


    After what I could assume was a day, I arrived at my portal. Or at least the huge pillar that hid my portal.


    I took out my diamond pickaxe and broke a few blocks before arriving where I wanted.


    A huge room, that was half white and half red, with a huge portal in between.


    After I covered the hole I just made, I passed the portal frame once again, but this time, I was home.


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    "Home sweet home, isn''t that right Violet?"


    She appeared out of nowhere and shrugged her shoulders, then with her special aye she looked to see if we had uninvited guests.


    I, instead went through some of the chests to remind myself where everything was placed and where I would move my new treasure.


    Half an hour later I was done and tired for the day.


    "Ok, I''m too tired to start working now, so we will do this tomorrow instead, get some rest since you will be teleporting a lot tomorrow."


    Violet nodded her head and I went to get some rest in my fortress at the surface.


    ------


    The next day, early in the morning I woke up fully energized and did a little stretching.


    I''ve been moving so much recently that I started to see some growth in my muscles, even if it looks weird since it was made off small cubes.


    I''ve visited my animals and they grew in numbers since last time I was here, good thing that I made such a large space for them to enjoy.


    I also gave up on growing any kind of garden, since I came home so rarely, any kind of crop that would grow in my underground base would rot and join the soil.


    Unless the items are placed in a chest or inventory, they will slowly start to rot or rust.


    The animals are used to taking care of themselves, they don''t need constant supervision like in my original world, and they were wild from the beginning.


    The only difference they see is that they''re more safe in my base than outside.


    With my maintenance done, I went back to my real base, only to find Violet sitting bored out of her mind.


    I guess the fact that she promised to help me today, made her stuck waiting for me to give her the mission.


    I kind of felt bad about this, but I''m sure it wasn''t that bad.


    "Good morning to you my friend, ready to do some work?"


    The only response I got was an annoyed hiss.


    "Well, good thing you''re that energetic since you''re going to need it for what''s to come. Do you know where the Witches portal is?"


    She shook her head as a no.


    "Then follow this compass that will guide you, try not to lose it since I only have one registered for now."


    She took the enchanted compass out of my hand and studied it with curiosity, teleporting into different rooms of my base or even the Nether to see how it moved.


    The loadstone was in the Nether, and the compass worked interestingly when it was Imprinted on it.


    If I stayed in the Overworld, it would point toward the closest working portal, and then change its position to the original target.


    I have an idea of using this as a detector for any possible working portals since that would mean there are some ruins nearby.


    But that was a project for another time, for now, I needed to calm Violet down so I could give her a second item.


    "Violet, stop for a moment, I need to give you another item."


    She appeared once again with a curious look before changing it into one of disgust.


    What I gave her was an ender pearl.


    "Sorry that I make you do this, but is the only way I can think of travelling fast."


    While clearly showing her displeasure, she took the pearl and teleported into the Nather.


    "Thank you!"


    I yelled after her.


    "Time to do some preparations then."


    I turned around and made a small redstone system that Violet would use when she would get back.


    At the same time, I took out the last loadstone from my inventory and placed it in my portal room, not forgetting to connect it with a compass.


    Then I took out my diamond pickaxe from my inventory and went to build another room.


    While the road through the Nether was much shorter than the one taken in the Overworld, that didn''t mean it was an easy thing to travel though.


    That''s why it took around two hours for me to feel a pull in my stomach.


    Suddenly I was in the storage room at the Wirches Clan.


    "Wha- wait, who are you how did you get here?!"


    I turned around and saw Elder Anastasia with a panicked look on her face taking out a loaded crossbow.


    Why did Violet bring me when someone was in the base?


    Is this her way of getting revenge?


    "It''s me, Anastasia, please drop your weapon."


    It was even loaded with fireworks so that would do some damage to me, even with my powerful armor.


    "Trader? How did you get here so fast, I didn''t hear anything."


    "I came through the portal, sorry for the scare I didn''t intend to."


    "But I didn''t hear you... Never mind, welcome back, is there something we can help you with?"


    "Not really, I only came here to move the storage to my main base."


    Suddenly she froze in place with her smile slowly dying off.


    "Don''t worry, I don''t intend to take everything with me, just what''s more valuable for me and items that you can''t use."


    "No, I''m sorry about my reaction as well. This is your storage, after all, we are just borrowing from it, thank you for what you did for us. Especially at the Piliger outpost, our Clan would be forever in your debt."


    I could only turn my head in embarrassment at this moment since I didn''t know how to respond.


    "I''ll call the other Elders as well, we need to sort out what we need and don''t."


    Twenty minutes later Flora and Froggy were in the room as well.


    "Trader! Welcome back, how''s Bobby doing, how are the others?"


    "Glad to see you Froggy, it''s been a few weeks, and guess what. Bobby is getting married next year!"


    Froggy looked shocked while the two elders looked confused.


    "With who? He was almost as busy as me last time I checked."


    "With Princess Elizabeth herself! Here''s the official invitation."


    Everyone eyes went wide open, while the two elders didn''t know too much about Bobby, they did hear about the upcoming Queen.


    We made some small talk after that, I told them waht happened with the rest of the refugees.


    I also told them to be on a look out for the Piligers since they would most likely start their battle in about 2 weeks, and that they already started to do some raids at some of the undefended villages.


    They shouldn''t have the same problem since they don''t know where their Clan is now, but they should walk on the surface with extra precautions.


    In the end we had to end the discussion, since Violet was getting bored and kept taping my back with her invisible hand.


    Was she so easy to get bored?


    "OK, now that everyone is caught up on what''s happening on the surface, I came here for a reason. I want to move this storage to my main base to continue grinding my Crafting skill. But I don''t intend on taking everything with me, take whatever you need and let''s put it in a different chest and I''m going to take the rest."


    With some hesitation they all complied a list of what they would want or need, and it got pretty big.


    Fortunately for me, it wasn''t something that I needed specifically for my Redstone crafting, and Flora even gave me some of her costum potions to lessen their ''debt''.


    I didn''t tell them I expected something back, but I also knew they were too proud to simply accept it, so I took whatever gift was given to me.


    After everything was moved I asked everyone to not enter this place for a day, which confused them but complied.


    "OK Violet, everyone left, let''s get back to work."


    She aperead beside one of the doable chests and lift it like it was nothing.


    "Don''t forget to press the button once you get home!"


    She just nooded and teleported away.


    This is going to take a while.

 Chapter 143. Burned bastion

    I looked around the base since Violet already teleported away with the first chest when a sudden thought crossed my mind.


    "I won''t be on this side of the Nether for a while, I wonder how things are in the bastion nearby?"


    I had roughly a two-hour window before Violet would teleport me back to my base, and I thought that was enough time for me to look at the bastion one more time.


    So I put my armor back on, drank a speed and jump potion, and went towards the bastion that I''ve robbed a few weeks ago.


    I could roughly remember the way the bastion was, since it''s been a while, and an hour later I managed to find it.


    But something was different about it, it was too silent around the walls like there were no guards.


    Sure, I saw a few sleeping guards last time I was there, but that was only a minority, and there should be noise from the common area where most of the brutes spend their day.


    I slowly got close, expecting a warning shout of any kind, but I could only hear the early silence.


    "H-hello, is anyone home!"


    I waited for a few moments but didn''t hear anything in response.


    I was in front of the huge wooden gate and tried to push it on my own.


    It didn''t even budge.


    "What did I expect, it takes a minimum of three brutes to open this piece of wood, how could I do it alone?"


    Since I couldn''t enter through the door, I was going to do it the other way.


    Braking the wall.


    The wall was four blocks thick surprisingly, but the blocks themselves weren''t that hard to break, especially with an enchanted diamond pickaxe.


    What I saw beyond the wall was something I didn''t expect.


    More silence.


    I walk along the empty black streets with no soul in sight.


    What happened here?


    There was a huge opening in the middle of the building, where you could vaguely see the cage surrounded by lava, and when I looked down I was taken by surprise once again.


    Everything was blown up!


    It was like someone made a tower of TNT and lit it up while laughing evily from the distance.


    "Who attacked the bastion, and why?"


    I tried to go down the stairs towards the old man''s home, but there were no stairs that I could use, and if I wasn''t careful I was going to fall into the lava lake from underneath.


    The next location I checked was the Chief''s mansion.


    I quickly passed the huge wall and was devasted at what I saw.


    Countless skeletons with golden tools and clothing lying on the ground.


    The whole bastion seems to be here, but since their only skeletons it must''ve happened a long time ago.


    I quickly ran past them into the mansion where I saw more skeletons but were better equipped, I even saw a skeleton with golden armor which I could guess who it was.


    The mansion was badly burned as well, I could see some huge holes made by explosives, and there wasn''t a second story anymore.


    The only option was to go down, so I went into the basement to see that everything was blown up, the only things I could see were the netherack.


    But as I looked closer towards the big distraction, something caught my sight.


    One was an empty portal frame floating in the air, but the thing that caught my attention was something underneath it.


    There seemed to be a long tunnel going underneath the mansion, and it didn''t look that bad.


    I got closer to it, extinguishing the flames that got in my way until I managed to get inside.


    The tunnel was four blocks tall and three blocks wide, with dark brick stone, basil, and shroomlights used for design.


    It didn''t look bad, it was my style, but one thing was clear.


    This is where the invaders came from.


    Stolen story; please report.


    But why did they do this?


    Was it because the chief was killed and they saw an opportunity to attack?


    Is this all my fault?


    Unfortunately, there was nobody who could answer that question.


    I still had the speed buff on me, so I decided to pick one side and run as much as I could before I was teleported back.


    So I did just that, I ran and ran for a whole hour, until suddenly I felt my guts being pulled and I was back at my base.


    "*huff* Thank you Violet *huff* could you get the other chests as well?"


    Violet just rolled her eyes but still teleported away, getting back to work.


    I, on the other hand just laid down on my back trying to catch my breath.


    Something big happened at that bastion, since not everyone has access to TNT just to rob, especially since it''s so hard to get those materials in the Nether.


    It would be much more efficient to use invisible potions and steal items stealthily, but this was a huge amount of resources invested to delete everyone.


    But this isn''t something that I could look into now, especially when the Piliger invasion is so close.


    I need to be on the lookout for the best opportunity to infiltrate the outpost once again.


    I can''t get myself into another hot mess.


    So after I caught my breath, and drank some water I went back to mining the new room I was working on.


    Two days have passed since then, moving all the items took a lot longer than I expected, even with my amazing friend.


    But after two days of hard work, everything was safely stored in my base which made me quite happy.


    Especially since my Nether-themed storage room was lacking in items.


    Not only that, but I also finished digging Violet''s room, which was way bigger than what I made at the Witches Clan.


    Now that the hard part was done, I could focus on the fun part.


    Decorating the room.


    Violet seemed very tired from all the work she''d been doing in the past two days, so she sat in a corner to get some rest.


    I can''t wait to see her reaction when I''m done.


    Since this was her testing room, that meant that I didn''t have to over-decorate since there wouldn''t be any point in doing that, instead it needed to be simple and easy to understand.


    First I planned on placing some obsidian on the wall, not all of it, but 5 blocks wide should be more than enough.


    Those would be placed in the middle of all the walls, not only that, but it would also have a part of the floor made with obsidian that would connect.


    As for the rest, I was thinking of splitting the floor into four parts, and each is colored themed with concrete.


    I decided to use green, yellow, light blue, and purple.


    In the purple corner, I also put purple wool to imitate a bed and placed a few pillows with some blankets on the side for her to sleep on.


    It was uncomfortable for me to see how she sleeps, so I decided to help her with that.


    The walls were made of white concrete and the ceiling was a mix of glowstone and obsidian.


    After that was done, a few hours passed, but I wasn''t finished yet.


    I took a few chests, hoppers, and dispensers to use for a storage system that she can use.


    It was pretty simple overall, she already made one for herself, I''m just going to optimize it.


    There would be a chest labeled with an item frame, and two hoppers would be connected to that chest, one would put items in, and the other would take them out.


    The hopper that would take items out, would be connected to a dispenser since I needed the extra experience, even if it was annoying to craft so many bows.


    And a lever that would be placed beside the dispenser which would make it very convenient for an Enderwoman to use, especially since she doesn''t have access to an inventory like me or the others.


    I made a few more, each holding a different Redstone material until I was finally done.


    I looked over the finished room with pride in my eyes.


    It looked similar to a large warehouse with some colors splashed here and there, but I think Violet would love it like this.


    To put my theory to the test, I walked out of the room and stopped in front of a sleepy Enderwoman who was as tall as me even when she was sitting down.


    "Pss, Violet, wake up."


    I bearly got a reaction from her, so I moved her leg a little to get her attention, slowly her eyes opened, and looked at me annoyed.


    "Come with me, I want to show you something."


    With a little more grunting she finally got up and followed me to the Redstone room.


    "So what do you think about this room?"


    She looked over the room, moving her head from side to side, showing that she was interested, but not enough to forgive from being awakened.


    "Well, this whole room is yours now!"


    She suddenly froze the slowly turned toward me with a shocked expression.


    "I know you want to test some of your new ideas and since we would be staying here for a while, and you don''t have the same space anymore, I decided to make you this room as a thank you."


    Next, I was the one taken by surprise at what happened next.


    She teleported right in front of me, picked me up, and gave me a tight hug where I thought I was going to die.


    Then as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared playing with the storage system that I made for her, leaving me in shock at what just happened.


    "Yeah, I think I broke a rib there, have fun, I''ll go get some rest as well!"


    She only waved her hand at me without looking so I emptied my inventory and went to the surface where I laid down on my white bed and fell asleep instantly.


    -----


    Two months passed since I made Violet her own Redstone room, and she bearly got out of it, going crazy with her Redstone experiments making me a little worried that I made a mistake by overestimating her with this gift.


    With this, I also found out that Endermans don''t need to eat, which kind of makes sense since their still a monster but was taken by surprise with the new information.


    I also kept in touch with Bobby on how the Piligers attack was doing.


    They started two weeks ago, which was later then we expected, but the attack was way more powerful than we anticipated.


    They killed the soldiers controlling the golem, and baited the golem to get out of the village while they destroyed and capture as many viligers as possible.


    On the Sandstone kingdom side they directly attacked a town with 5 Ravagers and 5 invisible evokers that devasted the guards before raiding the town.


    Not all of their attacks were successful, some others were defended successfully, but usually the battles lost were the most painful ones, especially for the Sandstone Kingome who recently finished their dispute of who is the new ruler.


    I don''t envy the princess position with all the pressure she has on her shoulders now, but I wish her the best of luck for what it''s about to come, since everyone would need it.


    On my side, I made a lot of progress and I was finally able to craft diamond items on my own, but there was a predicament that I found myself in.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 7


    3.267/100.000.000


    _Enchanting lvl 6


    3.450.130/10.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 4


    20.500/100.000


    _Trading lvl 4


    51.500/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "Why isn''t my Crafting Skill maxed?"

 Chapter 144. Back at the outpost

    I looked with confusion at my skill tab wondering how did this happen?


    I''ve read countless books that all say the same thing.


    The pinnacle of any skill was at level 7.


    But since I was here and could craft with diamonds, what was beyond that? And what''s the real maximum level for skills?


    Unfortunately, nobody was there to answer my questions, which made me come to one conclusion.


    "Whoever brought me here gave me I different System than the others, but the question is who and why?"


    It also makes me wonder why the System itself doesn''t strike me down or have an interview with me.


    After all, it spoke with Merry and destroyed the old civilization, I don''t think it would take too much from it to take me to the white realm and answer some questions.


    But I was still curious what would I gain if I passed to the next level?


    So I took out the newly made diamond armor that I enchanted with everything I got, making it even more powerful than what the hero had at the battle with the Zombie Lord, and brought it to my smithing table.


    The smithing table had a menu like in the game, but nobody in this world knows what is used for, no ingot that was put there ever worked so people could only speculate what its true purpose was before giving up.


    What was different then the game, or what I remember from it, is that it only requires the armor and the ingot, which was very convenient for me.


    As I put my helmet and the netherite ingot in their specific slots, the result took me by surprise.


    ERROR!


    CONTACTING THE SY-ERROR!


    ERROR!


    ERROR!


    Insufficient level.


    The table was suddenly flashing red error signs like the System had a stroke before giving me the classic red X saying that my skill level wasn''t high enough.


    At the same time, I suddenly felt a pressure over me like a giant was breathing over my shoulder, I felt naked in front of the invisible eyes and then something in my gut started to move.


    It wasn''t as powerful of a feeling as when I use the enderpearl but it was still noticeable.


    The sensation returned once again, with a little more force but giving up in the end.


    I felt like the System was watching me at the moment and was frustrated that it couldn''t do something with me before giving up and leaving me alone.


    "What was that, what just happened?!"


    Suddenly Violet appeared beside me, picked me up, and teleported me away with her.


    My guts were a mess when she finally stopped teleporting and I had to lie down and vomit whatever breakfast I had that day.


    "What was that?"


    After I managed to empty my stomach I looked at Violet who also didn''t seem to be in a good condition, before looking at me with a worried, scared, and relieved expression.


    "What just happened?"


    And you could teleport me all this time?


    "System....bad."


    So that truly was the System!


    Be careful what you wish for because it could be granted.


    I didn''t expect our first meeting to be this rough, and why did my crafting a Netharite helmet make it freak out so much?


    I looked around and saw that I was in a cave system underneath my base.


    Violet teleported me pretty deep since I could see some lava and bedrock blocks around us.


    We sat in silence and recurred our health.


    I don''t know why Violet panicked so much since the System didn''t seem to be able to do anything against me, even when it tried.


    After some time passed I finally spoke.


    "I think we should get back to the surface, we can''t hide forever."


    Plus I don''t know if we''re even that hidden.


    She seemed hesitant at first but agreed with me as we traveled along the dark tunnels.


    It was hard to navigate and Violet didn''t seem to want to teleport us back to the surface, so my only option was to dig my way up.


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    Three hours later I was back on the surface, exosted from all that just happened.


    I didn''t feel like I was being watched anymore, and Violet''s special eye didn''t seem to catch anything either, which meant we could get back home safely.


    That was until I arrived at the smithing table that I was working on.


    "Where are my items?!"


    I looked all around for the helmet or the netherite ingot but to no results, suddenly I started to have a bad feeling about this, so I quickly checked my inventory and saw that everything was fine, then I went towards the storage room and saw that a few items were missing from my storage, more specifically, the research books that I managed to gather in my adventures.


    Enchanting, brewing theories and much more vanished into thin air like they didn''t exist in the first place.


    I started to sweat nervously and went to check on my Ender Chest, but to my relief, it seemed to be intact with all the items inside.


    In this chest, I held most of my precious items and one of them was my research journal that starting to get pretty thick.


    Unfortunately, most of the content in the journal was Enchanted-related, with very few brewing recipes or Redstone machines.


    It was a colossal loss since it was very hard to gather this kind of information and I didn''t manage to read everything I got, and now it was all gone once again.


    This isn''t good, it seems that the System doesn''t approve of what I do, so it decided to strike me down, or at least tried to but didn''t work out so it decided to rob me instead.


    What now?


    Sure what I had in my inventory and Enderchest were safe, but that left me with a small space to store all of my illegal items, and I wasn''t too comfortable with that.


    "What should I do Violet? The System robbed me."


    Violet looked confused at me before shrugging her shoulders.


    "Ugh, let''s not cry over spilled milk and get on with the original plan."


    Today I planned on upgrading my armor and sneaking back into the Piliger Outpost.


    But now that I''ve been attacked by the System I have more reason to raid those pillagers.


    Those people are the descent of the nation that made even the System afraid before being struck down, and they still managed to hold on to their own experiments and some information from back then.


    That means they have a way to hide from the System or hide certain chests from it, and I want to get my hands on that information.


    I don''t have anything against the System, but I don''t like it when it''s destroying my progress, so that means war!


    But first I needed to get prepared for the upcoming mission.


    First I need a new helmet, and that''s going to take a while since I need to enchant everything back.


    I also have to get some items for what is about to come, since I can''t take them by surprise anymore, at least not with my old ways.


    So with a big sigh and worried that the System was watching over me, I got back to work.


    After some testing here and there I was finally ready and went on my way towards the Pilige, making sure that everything was safely stored at my base.


    Since I didn''t have a horse with me, I could only walk towards my destination.


    I tried to ask Violet If she could teleport me there, even if it was a painful experience compared to the normal Enderpearl, but she was dead set on not doing that.


    I think it took a big toll on her when she did it last time which probably meant it was going to be used in emergencies only.


    So for the next few days, I ran with the speed and jump potion effects and built a small camp every night.


    Finally, after a few days of adventuring through forests, plains, and rivers we arrived at the destination.


    I took my spyglass out and looked at the wall from the distance.


    "Ugh, they either ''recruited'' new Piligers or they used every soldier that was left home to guard the outer walls, either way, it''s going to be annoying to pass that."


    While it would be annoying that didn''t mean impossible.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t just drink an invisible potion and break the wall, since the guards were moving too often and surely someone would hear me.


    But that meant I had to dig a lot more than planned, so I took my enchanted diamond shovel and dug a tunnel straight towards the outpost, stopping from time to time to place the golden bell down and use it to see people through the dirt.


    With this method I easily passed their defense and continued to dig under their noses, hoping to get to the castle this way.


    But on my way there, started to notice something unusual, there were very few Piligers living on the surface.


    I could only see roughly 3 people per mansion that is supposed to hold a few dozen.


    Where was everyone, especially the citizens?


    Are they truly all patrolling the walls?


    From time to time I poped out my head to see if I was going in the right direction, since it was hard to see underground and there weren''t a lot of people that I could see to guide myself.


    But finally after hours of shoveling away I arrived at the castle where finally I could see some activity which meant that I now had to start the second part of the plan.


    I put all the armor back into my inventory and drank a few potions.


    Some of them were the classic ones, such as invisibility, night vision, speed and jump boost.


    But also some that were not that well known such as, silent step and rabbit ear.


    To have a maximum efficiency for this haist, I decided to start the looting at night, where there''s a high chance that everyone would be asleep or too tierd to pay attention to the little details.


    So with everything prepared, I got out of my hiding hole and moved at great speeds between the semi busy hallways with sleepy guards.


    The room that I wanted to get in the most was Solomon''s lab, since I''ve seen a few bookshelves in there that I suspect holds all the information I want to know.


    The first floor was easy to pass, so was the second floor, but when I arrived at the third floor I had to stop, since in front of me was a hallway dirty with some substances that I don''t know and the normal door was replaced with an iron one, so no matter what I did it would make a lot of noise.


    "Violet, is anyone nearby?"


    I whispered at the air and waited a few seconds in silence, and then a floating hand aperead moving from side to side.


    That was a good thing to know, since braking the door wasn''t an option I could only do the second best thing.


    Brake the wood block right besides the door since it would make less noise then the iron door, even if I open it with a button.


    So that''s what I did, and to my relief the lab rooms were empty and mostly dark which meant that everyone was asleep and I could loot whatever I want.


    I distinctively rember where Soloms lab was, and once again the door was switched to an iron one.


    They really did upgrade the security here, its a shame that it''s so easy to bypass it as well.


    With the same solution as the last door, I got inside the lab who was In a bigger mess then last time I saw it.


    Since I had night vision on, I could see all clearly like it was In broad daylight, so I picked up a few papers from the ground to see what was written on them.


    But just as I was about to read it, suddenly I heard a splash potion hit the ground, making me lose my vision, before I could understand what was going on I hear a dispenser going and then my feet were wet.


    Violet started to scream in pain, but for some reason she didn''t teleport away, then I heard another potion getting splashed and then one last cry from Violet that was slowly dying down.


    I was still confused about what was going on and slowly panicking before I hear a voice.


    "You finally came! I thought you chickend out for a moment, welcome back!"


    Then I heard a splash and my conciseness was lost.

 Chapter 145. Prisoner once again

    I felt water splashing on my face which quickly made me open my eyes.


    "Wha-whos there?"


    "Oh you finally woke up, I thought you would be sleeping the whole night away."


    "Solomon? I remember now, I was in your lab when all of a sudden I couldn''t see anymore, then Violet screamed and then I got knocked out. Where were you? Violet didn''t see you at all!"


    "Glad to see that the potion didn''t wipe out your memories as well. I have to say, Trader, you have quite the reputation from what I gathered. Not a lot of people know about you, but a lot of powerful people are scared of you. You came here almost two years ago with nobody knowing your name or what you were capable of, you befriended a man who is now the right hand of the future queen, and you somehow managed to find a cure for infected people which was thought impossible, captured together with a witch to be trained as a worthy teammate for the upcoming hero. Got blamed by the price for killing the Sultan, faked your death somehow even leaving behind a corpse, trained the hero as a hidden master, and when the Stone Kingdome failed to kill the Zombie Lord, you budged in, took control of everything, and killed it with only you and the hero, and that''s what I managed to piece together from what my spy network managed to gather, and that''s not talking about how you have some connections with the Witches Clan and a monster following you. I have to say Trader, this was truly fascinating to hear. Are you sure you''re not from the future or something similar, because you seem to always be where the problem is"


    I looked around the room that I was in and realized that I was in one of the prison cells that I broke into a few months ago, not only that but I was lying on my back chained down in an X shape not being able to move an inch.


    "If I was from the future I wouldn''t make this dumb mistake, what even happened?"


    The Mad scientist started to laugh, before remembering something.


    "Oh right, give me all your diamond tools and armor so you won''t try to escape or something stupid like that."


    "I don''t see why I should listen to you."


    "While it''s true that I won''t kill you, and I''m sure you''ll eventually cave in after torture, I don''t have to do that since I have something else to use against you."


    "I''m listening."


    I said that as I magically equipped the armor to tank anything that he''ll throw at me.


    "Well that''s one way for me to get it, but do you remember that you didn''t come alone in here."


    "Violet!"


    "Yes, your friend is truly a fascinating monster who has a strong soul that originates from the Enderman species. She is now locked in a room that I made sure she couldn''t teleport out of, and I only need a bucket of water to make her experience agonizing pain without killing her."


    How did he do that? I didn''t know it was even possible to stop an Enderman from teleporting. But I don''t think this was a bluff, otherwise, Violet would teleport and take me with her, no matter how painful it was.


    So I took off my armor and diamond tools and placed them down beside me.


    "That was a wise decision. As for how I did capture you, it wasn''t easy unfortunately, I know you have some special abilities beyond what I could see, so I had to use some of the ancient ways to capture you."


    As he talked he slowly walked around me before stopping at an obsidian wall.


    "On the other side of the wall is your Enderman friend, she is now chained up in an obsidian room which their species can''t normally teleport out of, but since she''s also a special specimen, I placed a ritual in the room that also has the same properties. That''s how I caught you two, I wrote down a ritual at the entrance of the third floor to detect any monsters that passed through there. I then wore a robe that should stop any kind of detection on me. I only had to send a few of my vexes to splash you with some potions and here we are."


    So he was really prepared for us, I''m also curious about those rituals that he was talking about since I never heard about them, maybe that''s how they keep stuff hidden from the System.


    "Why did you expect us to come back?"


    "You heard about our plan and escaped, of course you''ll want to get more information. Also, you killed a lot of soldiers with that attack and made the general very angry. He was so angry that he almost executed me, but the fact that I''m too important and that we now have a new weapon helped me live another day."


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "So what do you intend to do with me, what kind of information are you searching for?"


    "For now I''ll do a few experiments on my own, so don''t try to scream too much."


    Then he took out some dirt combined with blue powder from his inventory and made a circle around me, afterwords he took out a bowl with a red liquid and dipped the pen in before writing something in the circle and then on me.


    I didn''t know If it was blood or regular redstone ink and I was too afraid to ask.


    I did have a plan that could help me get out, but it was a gamble to use, to say the least, so I''ll stay for a while and see what he was looking for, if it got too painful I''ll use the self-destruction option.


    After I was filled with some unknown letters all over my body, the Mad Scientist went outside the cell and came back with a screaming pig in his arms


    "Quickly kill it!"


    From behind him, a small ghost appeared with an iron sword in its hands and quickly slashed the neck of the pig that was roughly the same size as it.


    As I looked closer at it, I could see more features that I recognized, it had a mean-looking face with small demon wings coming from its back, and I could feel its desire to kill everything in sight.


    It was a Vex.


    "Good, no go check on the Enderwoman, I don''t want to hear banging when she''s going to wake up."


    The Vex nodded its head, and phases through the obsidian wall like it was nothing.


    The Mad scientist instead, placed the carcass of the pig down on the dirt line he made, and I could see how slowly the pig got mummified right in front of my eyes, and then only his skeleton remained.


    This seemed to activate the circle and the inscription on me and I could feel like something was being pulled out of me and then I was on top of my body in a ghost form.


    I slowly started to panic as I didn''t have access to my inventory or status, and for some reason I couldn''t leave the circle I was in, leaving me a ghost just floating in the air.


    But I slowly noticed something, and the Mad scientist did the same, my soul took the shape of my old self, not the current one, which quickly intrigued the Mad scientist.


    "Interesting, my monocle shows me that your body has the same structure as our ancestors which would explain how you are not limited to 7 levels on each skill, if you somehow managed to get it to 10 then you should get an achievement and have a meeting with the System. But from what happened in the past, I don''t know if it''s still possible."


    He then took out a sample of my blood with a syringe, which was a weird sight to see, then he did a few more checkups on my body, especially on my face for some reason.


    "As for your soul, it''s more interesting to see, the shape of it is so wrong, why are you so skinny, and why don''t you have any edges, and what''s up with that stuff at the end of your arms? What kind of creature are you?"


    He looked at me with an expression of wonder and disgust, which didn''t make me feel comfortable.


    "Everyone looks like this in my world, so imagine my surprise when I got here, let''s not talk about all the laws of this universe."


    "I mean you do look very different than I expected, but you know a lot of information about this world, so there could be a path where we could look like you. I''m curious, what''s the System in your world like? Did you manage to change it like we did, is that why you look so weird?"


    "We don''t have a System."


    The Mad Scientist stopped looking over my body and slowly turning towards me, with a frightened but excited expression.


    This was not good.


    "How did you kill the System in your world? And what was the aftermath of it after it died, why didn''t you replace it with one made by your people?"


    He shoots question after questions so fast that I couldn''t even begin to answer them, and when he saw my hesitation to answer, he strated to threaten me.


    "If you don''t answer my questions, I''m going to kill this body and bound your soul to a chicken."


    Can he do that?!


    Why is this getting further and further away from the game origins! Or maybe this was in a future update?


    "My world works on different rules then this one, we never had a System, we don''t have a magical inventory, very few living beings have edges, and our planet is a giant sphere."


    This seems to take him by surprise.


    "Then how did you managed to reach such technical advances if you didn''t have a System to inspire from?"


    Oh boy, would everyone in my world loved to have a status tab that would tell them what''s wrong with them.


    "By trial and error, that''s how we learned pottery, how to make glass and metals, then we build machines that could help us leave our planet."


    He was genuinely curios asking more questions about my world, and I answered what I could, until finally he was satisfied with the new information I gave him and I could ask some questions.


    "So why do you think I got here? I''m telling you right now, my home world doesn''t know anything about otherworlds besides fiction."


    "I don''t know a solid answer but I could give you my theory. We know that the Void has the ability to brake space into otherworlds since that''s how it got to our, maybe it did the same to your world and kidnapped your soul, build a body similar to my ancestors and threw you into this world either as a test or to wreak havoc into this world."


    I don''t rember anything about my journey to this world, and I''m very sure the Ender Dragon doesn''t have that ability.


    But then again, this world keeps proving to me that it''s different from what I know, so it could be true.


    "What about the hero? She came from my world and the System seems to be ok with her."


    He seems satisfied with all the data he got and started to collect all of his instruments as the magic circle slowly lose it power, and I felt myself being pulled back into my body.


    "So the hero is similar to you but different. Maybe the System knew about you so it made an avatar to fight against the Zombie Lord. I don''t know how it could predict the future, but this leaves me with another question. What''s stopping the Void from sending another Monster Lord, and whats stopping the System bringing more hero''s?"


    With those final words he left the obsidian cell leaving me alone with my thoughts on that he said.

 Chapter 146. Piliger POV

    POV:Unknown Piliger


    The moon was high among the clouds, the animals were sleeping comfortably in their barns and the humans did the same in their warm beds.


    But the only ones still awake were guards around the castle tired from all the training they did in all day, they were so tired that they couldn''t see how floating particles passed beside them like the wind.


    We walked along the tall hallways with silent steps soon arriving at our target.


    Two guards with enchanted diamond armor stood at a wall of iron with stoic expressions ready to defend the Royal Vault with their lives.


    We didn''t pass the corner since they were trained to see any abnormalities on sight, and while we outnumbered them with ease, we weren''t strong enough to defeat them without alerting the whole palace.


    But there was a solution for this problem, one that no guard would expect to see.


    "Time to start the plan, summon the demons."


    I spoke in a low voice, but everyone could hear me.


    Right as I said that, one of the Evokers that was with us started to chant something in a language that I couldn''t understand, it was a short chant and I could feel my skin trembling as a ghostly form came into being.


    It was one of The Mad Scientist pets that was lent to us, I could feel


    Its malice in its dark eyes, ready to take a life, and the invisible potion didn''t seem to work on it.


    It was a Vex.


    So I took out two dark potions from my inventory and handed them to the Vex.


    "Order it to go through the walls and splash them on the guards."


    I couldn''t see or hear when the Evoker did the command, but I saw how the little demon walked through the walls like they weren''t even there.


    A few seconds later I heard glass breaking and the two guards fell down.


    Before we could arrive at the sleeping guards, the Vex took an iron sword out of nowhere and decapitated the two sleeping men.


    This wasn''t part of the plan, but I wasn''t against it since nobody was alerted.


    I ordered the Evoker to send the demon away otherwise it would alert the whole castle about our presence.


    He did as I asked and I looked over the two guards inventory.


    There I saw some powerful weapons, and potions that increased their focus while they worked.


    There I also saw a lever that I recognized to be the key to the Vault, so I quickly took everything and started to place and move the lever until finally something managed to click and the iron wall slowly disappeared, revealing the rows of chests filled with riches beyond our imagination.


    Blood ran through my veins as I was so close to fulfilling our goal, so with a smile on my face we started to take what was more valuable in here.


    Armors, tools, items and much more were disappearing in our inventory and I could feel the excitement of everyone around me.


    Soon our inventories were full of the items requested for this mission and much more.


    I took some Redstone dust and placed it on the ground making a huge line that was getting away from the vault, the others broke the window and threw an ender pearls as far as they could quickly disappearing.


    I placed the key of the vault at the end of the red line, threw my pearl, and flicked the lever that ignited the blocks of TNT left in the vault.


    Right as the Vault was about to explode, I felt my stomach being pulled and then I was in another location.


    *BOOM!


    Explosions were heard throughout the Castle waking everyone up.


    We didn''t wait to see how the chaos ensued as we quickly left to get as far away from here until our pearls would be broken, bringing us back to the main camp.


    POV: Unknown Piliger


    We were in the middle of the desert, the moon was high in the sky, and the lack of warm light made for the perfect ground for monsters to spawn.


    We, the people abandoned by the System were not targeted by them unless we started the fight, so our only obstacle was the four blocks in the middle of the desert.


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    Those four blocks were made with sandstone that could easily be overlooked in the dunes of sand around us, and we were a few hundred blocks away from the capital of the Sandstone Kingdom.


    From what our spies told us, here was their Royal Vault.


    Hidden far away but we''ll be guarded, and we want to rob it blind and destroy everything that''s left.


    I called the two Evokers towards me and asked them to summon the little demons, and soon the two gray beings were here, ready to cause some chaos.


    I gave them some potions, and soon they disappeared into the ground.


    Thirty seconds later they came back with bloodied swords and a satisfied smile.


    While it wasn''t what I expected, it was still a signal that the guards at the entrance were dealt with, so we took our tools and broke down the secret entrance until we arrived at an obsidian corridor.


    We all stopped, drank our invisibility potions, and went deeper into the vault, ignoring the three guards who lay dead on the floor.


    The corridor split into three ways, but we continued to run forward like we''ve been here thousands of times.


    One block at the time it went deeper into the ground until we had to stop since we arrived at the entrance of the Vault and two guards with enchanted diamond armor stood there.


    We stayed at a reasonable distance and sent the two Vexes to use another batch of potion for them, but just as those little devils were about to knock them out, one of them rolled out of the way while the other tried to fight against the potion effects.


    "Quickly, drink some milk! Who''s there, who dares attack the Sultan''s Vault?"


    Both of them were running towards us ready for attack.


    This was not a plesent outcome, but we took our loaded crossbows and shot rows of fireworks towards the two soldiers like the intruder did to us a few months ago.


    Firework after Firework blew them further away from us, almost killing them on the spot.


    But right as they were about to get up, two small figures came out of nowhere and killed them before they could realize what just happened.


    "Brutal, as were the rumors, quickly let''s take what we need and leave this place before the others would come and check the noise."


    We quickly got to the golden door and started to break the blocks with our enchanted pickaxes, and a few minutes later we were In a golden room, surrounded by chests that were placed on the walls easy to see.


    "Our time is running out, take what we need and leave the explosives behind."


    Everyone ran to take Redstone equipment, rare blocks, and a few riches before placing blocks of TNT all over the vault.


    "Now let''s leave."


    Everyone quickly left except for me, as I made a long line with Redstone dust and placed four repeaters dield all the way back and turned it on before running away like never before.


    But just as I was about to pass the splitting point of the long corridor, I saw a soldier with enchanted diamond armor looming over three soldiers dead on the floor.


    "Oh, someone else stayed here, I''ll keep you alive as prisoner."


    Like the wind, she ran towards me, grabbed me by the neck, and lifted me like I was nothing.


    Her hand was like iron and no matter how much I kicked her she didn''t seem to feel anything.


    "How many of you were sent, where is your camp, who told you about this location?"


    But before I could say anything, a huge explosion was heard deep into the vault which made her freeze.


    "YOU BLEW UP OUR TRESSURY!"


    The I felt something stabbing me from behind and slowly my life was slipping away.


    The last thing I heard was more yelling from the armored woman.


    "Those little demons, they killed my pris-"


    POV: Ronny the General


    The sun was high In the sky bringing warmth to everyone who stayed in its mighty rays, everyone in the Stone kingdom where shaken by what happened last night and lived in fear of when will the invisible enemies attack next.


    I left the safety of our temporary cave an looked at the sun high in the sky and yelled back.


    "Brake the pearls of our silders and bring them back with their spoils spoils!"


    The man who followed me turned around and ran to fulfill my command, bringing 16 soldiers back from their successful mission.


    "Why are there only 6 of you? And where is your officer?"


    "Sir! We report that we were caught as we were leaving the vault and only we escaped Sir!"


    This mission wasn''t a complete success, I intended on robbing their vault and blaming it on the Coral Kingdom so more chaos would spread throughout the land, but it wasn''t a total failure as now we have all the necessary materials for our next plan.


    "I''m sad to hear that, we shall take a day to mourn our losses and tomorrow we shall celebrate our victory!"


    Everyone cheered while others were saddened by the loss of their friends.


    We spent the rest of the day thinking about all the soldiers we lost along the way and the next day we celebrated all the victories we had because of them.


    On the third day, we put our plan into action, and built 10 staircases 200 blocks into the air, on top of them we built a huge platform where everyone could stay comfortably and there and underneath we built a complicated mechanism that would move the platform in the air with the help of pistons, slimes, and honey.


    After 10 days of trial and error, we managed to recreate one of our ancestors projects which brought a yell of victory among the soldiers as the platform started to move through the air.


    The flying platform was slow but consistent on its way, because of its size, we left a huge shadow on the surface and sometimes monsters managed to spawn underneath it.


    Days passed and slowly the other Nations realized what we did, but didn''t know why we did this, as our flying platform wasn''t going towards a big city or it''s capital, instead we were slowly flying along the borders of both nations not doing anything.


    But after a month of no other attack they finally realized that we were heading towards the Coral Kingdom, and to my surprise they didn''t seem to know about our arrival as we passed their borders without being stopped.


    This was good news as we soon arrived at a village.


    "Everyone, I know you''re getting bored after spending so much time in the air but no more, since today we shall let our frustration loose. Look at the village below us, I don''t want to see it anymore."


    The soldiers looked with confusion at me before smiling realising what I ordered.


    I stopped the flying platform, and everyone moved on the edge where they placed blocks of TNT before lighting them up.


    Soon the village was was blown up and nothing remaind there, only a huge crater where the village stood previously.


    The soldiers cheeread at their victory and let out their frustrations that accumulated over the past few months.


    After everyone was done, we continued our journey through the air and destroyed every village that had the misfortune to aper on our way, but after two weeks, we had to stop and get off our platform since we could see the army of the Coral Kingdom waiting for us.


    They made a huge platform in the air with canons pointing at us, ready to take us down.


    But with the help of our spyglass, we managed to see the disaster before it could hit us.


    So with the help of water, we all safely landed on the ground and moved preparing for the next step of my plan.


    The Coral Kingdom will soon be under my hand.

 Chapter 147. Brake free

    A few days have passed since I''ve been captured and the Mad Scientist made sure to visit me every day to gather more data on me, we slowly started to build respect for each other as we exchanged information on what we knew.


    "So you''re saying that the Nether dimension is smaller than the Overworld, and one block there is equivalent to eight in our world? How does that work?"


    "I don''t know, but there was a theory in my world that said the Nether was actually beneath the layer of Bedrock of the Overworld, but was dismissed after further investigations."


    "Yes, that would make sense, but the System made a separate dimension and threw it as far away as possible to not corrupt anymore."


    "True, it''s different than what I expected as well, but probably the people that live in the Nether know a lot more."


    "Ah yes, the Piglings or the Brutes as you said, are you sure you don''t want to tell me how to make a portal there in exchange for a better room?"


    I looked hesitant at the Mad Scientist who clearly was hungry for more knowledge, and my body was getting sore from sitting in the same position for days.


    "I don''t need another room to live in, instead let my limbs move a little since I can feel my body getting sick."


    "Only this? You''ve been a good prisoner while you stayed here so I''ll grant your request."


    After he said that he called four vexes to hold me down while he broke the chains from the wall and placed another piece of chain that magically merged with the other ones.


    I tried to move around and try to escape but my arms were too weak from lack of movement and the floating ghosts were surprisingly strong.


    Soon my chains were longer and I could lift my torso but couldn''t stand on my feet, since the chains were not long enough.


    "Finally I can feel my blood running through my veins, you''re pretty brutal with your prisoners just so you know."


    "Glad to see you enjoying the upgrades, so how do I open the portal to the Nether?"


    I did a few exercises to feel my limbs once again even though I couldn''t do much. But Solomon was patiently waiting for my response.


    "I''m going to open a portal in front of you, as long as you bring me to Violet to see if she''s ok."


    Solomon''s eyes started to narrow in displeasure at my request.


    "I don''t trust you enough to let you out of those chains. Request for something more reasonable or you won''t get anything at all."


    How rude, why would it be unreasonable to see my friend that you''re threatening me with?


    "What if you brought her here instead? I''m sure you can put her to sleep and carry her here for me to see that she''s unharmed."


    The man looked at me with suspicion but accepted the deal.


    "You''re lucky that I keep your monster friend constantly asleep otherwise I wouldn''t accept this deal."


    With that, the man left the room together with his four floating servants leaving me alone to study the cell I was in more closely.


    There was nothing here except for a lamp on the ceiling, I looked through my inventory and started to think of a way out, unfortunately without my tools or armor I had limited options to use, so I took a wooden block from my inventory and placed it beside me to lay my back on it.


    A few minutes later, the iron door was opened and Solomon together with his floating servants where bringing my friend inside with great effort, since she was quite big and heavy.


    They didn''t bring her close to me, instead, they placed her based the door and sat down to recuperate their breath.


    "Here *huff* she is *huff* now it''s time for your part of the deal, and don''t you dare make any more requests otherwise I would let my vexes kill her to vent their frustrations."


    I looked at the floating vexes who were more than eager to slice my friend with their iron swords, not something plesent to see, so I studied her instead.


    She was sitting down, sleeping peacefully with rows of chains all around her body to keep her in place.


    She didn''t have any injuries, which greatly calmed my conciseness.


    "Let''s not do anything rush, I made a deal and I intend to keep it."


    Then I placed the Crystal that I had with me on my left side beside the wooden block so Solomon couldn''t see it that well.


    "This is a Crystal, it''s a tool placed in the obsidian frame and select the dimension you want to go with, in this case, the Nether."


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    Solomon took out his enchanted monocle and looked at the floating crystal with fascination, careful not to get too close to it.


    "This is truly something made by my ancestors, those enchantments are so complicated that only they could do something like this. I want to study it more closely in my lab, what tools do I use to get the item dropped?"


    "It''s best if you use a diamond pickaxe with silk touch on it, and you can only place it on an obsidian block."


    He kept nodding his head but his eyes were still on the floating Crystal almost hypnotised.


    "You better not lie to me, otherwise your friend would suffer."


    Then he took out a diamond pickaxe which I could only assume was mine and got close to the base of the Crystal to break it.


    Right as he was beside me, I held the Undying Totem in my hand and closed my eyes preparing for impact.


    *BOOM!


    A huge explosion came from the broken Crystal, me and the Mad Scientist was designated on the spot, the four vexes were blown away by its blast and Violet was rudely awakened by the damage to the Crystal, but since the wooden block was in the way, it didn''t injure her heavily.


    Right as I was disintegrated, I felt a warm light similar to when I was first revived around me, and then the small room where I was held captive was suddenly illuminated by a pillar of light.


    I could feel the totem in my hand being broken as bones and flesh quickly grew back and I was back to life with strength similar to the God apple.


    I quickly got up since the chains were broken and I saw how Solomon went through a similar transformation.


    Without giving him time to get used to his new powers, I kicked him down and built a coffin around him with wooden blocks.


    He tried to get up, but I kept him down with my feet until I placed a wooden block on top of his head making him unable to get out of the coffin easily.


    To make it even harder for him, I placed a bucket of water at his feet and covered his final escape with another block.


    Now I was waiting for him to drown, or replace any blocks that he would break.


    My heart was beating loudly in my chest, and strength went through my veins and I could feel that I could take on the world.


    If this is how I feel, then Solomon must be in the same boat, he will surely try to escape out of the box, so I had to be prepared for anything.


    From behind me, I could hear high-pitched cries that caught my attention.


    The Vexes seemed to be angry at what I did and took out their sword to attack me.


    Just as I was about to start punching them, a huge shadow teleported behind them and with its huge hands grabbed two gray beings and crushed them to death, making the other freeze in shock.


    Violet came to the rescue, and she didn''t look happy.


    "Violet! Glad to see you awake, help me defeat those before Solomon gets out!"


    "Hands....off....MY HUMAN!"


    And with one last yell she killed the remaining vexes, before looking at me with relief since I didn''t have any injuries.


    Both of us looked at the box in the corner of the room and saw that a block was slowly being broken.


    As expected a minute later it was broken, but I was ready for this so I quickly placed another block in its place to Solomon''s displeasure.


    Before I placed the block down I managed to see what Solomon was doing, and I didn''t like what I saw.


    The Mad Scientist was using my diamond tools to break the blocks and my enchanted diamond armor to resist longer underwater.


    And because of the helmet, he could stay underwater for hours!


    I quickly scanned the room in case there was something I could use.


    The iron door was broken from the blast, and on the ground, I saw some splinters from the wooden block, a diamond pickaxe, and a monocle.


    I quickly ran to get the monocle and put it on my eye to see what was going on with it.


    Suddenly the world turned gray around me, and I could see Violet and me being surrounded by a dark smoke, then I locked towards the Scientist and I could vaguely see his siluate, unfortunately nothing more.


    Then I took my diamond pickaxe back and placed down the Ender Chest I had in my inventory.


    From there I took a black knockout potion and got back to the struggling man.


    Soon the block was broken once again but this time, Solomon quickly placed his exe in the empty space so I couldn''t place another block.


    But I didn''t plan on doing that, instead, I threw the potion at him making his moves very sluggish.


    The effects of the Undying Totem were still running through his blood, so the potion didn''t manage to fully knock him out, but his movements were slower, and the effects of the potion lasted longer than that of the Totem.


    "Give up Solomon, you don''t stand a chance against me and Violet, even with what you have! If you surrender now, I promise that I won''t kill you."


    The man looked at me then at Violet and finally at his inventory.


    From there, he took out a bucket of milk and started to drink, making all the effects on him disappear.


    "Ok, I surr-"


    Before he could finish his, sentence, Violet teleported right beside him and punched him into the side of the head, making him fly and hit the obsidian wall.


    "Violet, he was about to surrender!"


    I quickly went to check and see if the man was alive, and to my relief he was, just unconscious.


    "Well, I kept my promise I guess, plus it''s better if he''s unconscious for a few hours. Let''s go and loot this place!"


    After taking my armor off him, and checking his inventory one last time, I left the prison that I was in for a few days and went back through their dark castel and bypassed all the guards with Violet''s help.


    Soon I was on the floor that held all the labs in the outpost, and I quickly took all the research books and papers that caught my attention.


    At one point I didn''t have enough space in my inventory or the double chest that Violet was carrying, so I had to improvise and make a bag with the cow leather and carry the rest of the books that way.


    After one final check, I took out my Flint and Steel and burned everything that was wood and quickly run back to the underground prison.


    There, Solomon was still unconscious, so I tied him up with the chains from the other cells and placed him on top of the chest that Violet was carrying.


    "I know you don''t like him for what he did, but we still need to get all the information out of him, after that, you can kill or torture him all you like."


    I only got a low grunt from her which was enough for me.


    Then I took out the Flint and Steal one more time and use its last durability to open a portal in the middle of prison.


    The irony of how many times I had to escape through another dimension didn''t escape me.


    On the other side of the portal there was a safe space for me to start our journey home, so I passed the obsidian frame and took out my loaded crossbow and shoot the portal.


    *BOOM!


    The space started to tear itself apart and the connection between the two worlds was broken.


    I took out an enchanted compass, and followed the way it guided me.


    "Violet, let''s go home, I really need some sleep."


    And an aproving growl soon followed, as Violet followed me back home.

 Chapter 148. Turned tables

    POV: Solomon


    I woke up with my head ringing nonstop like a bell, I tried to get out of my bed trying to remember what kind of experiments I did last time for me to get this bad.


    But something was wrong, as I couldn''t move my arms at my command, instead, I could feel cold iron keeping me in one place.


    Suddenly a wave of memories washed over me, how I was with my favorite subject, talking about a way to the Nether and he showed me one of the most amazing items that I ever seen.


    Every pixel was enchanted with high language that made my monocle look like a toy in comparison.


    But just as I was about to take it with me, it exploded killing me on the spot.


    Then one of the totems was used and I was back with the living.


    But before I could be angry about what just happened, I was kicked down and placed in a box with running water so I would drown.


    After some struggling, I managed to get out, only to face the two most dangerous prisoner''s I had, the sleep potion was slowly taking its effects on me even with the buff from the totem, so I drank some milk to wash it off and surrendered, only for everything to go black from there.


    If I were to guess I was knocked out by the monsters since she has those kinds of tendencies.


    I looked around the room I was in.


    It was tall in a round shape beautifully designed with dark colored blocks that made your skin crawl but still appreciate the beauty of it.


    As I looked closer I saw four hallways that were connected to this room, unfortunately from my position, I couldn''t see what was beyond them.


    I tried to get up, but it was hard to move with chains on my legs, so for a few minutes I was struggling to get up.


    "So your finally awake! That''s a shame, I wanted to use the water bucket."


    I turned my head towards the voice to see my ex-prisoner now my jailer who had a smirk on his face at my predicament.


    "I feel like I have a bell ringing into my head."


    "Yeah, don''t try to make Violet mad again, I bearly stopped her from killing you. Now, I''ve left everything from your lab in a few chests in the Nether, let''s hope the System won''t be able to steal those books from there as well."


    Looks like he robbed my lab as well, I wonder how much he managed to take and what he did with the rest.


    But then I listened closely to what he said, and my eyes opened wide.


    What do you mean ''I hope the System won''t steal those books as well''?


    While the System has done so in the past, that doesn''t mean it can do the same today since it used a lot of its power to do so.


    To get the System''s attention you truly need to do something spectacular, and for him to act on it it must be something dangerous for itself.


    We got the System''s attention from time to time, but it wasn''t something worth for it to act on.


    But we still have our rituals to hide our chests from its eyes.


    "First thing first, I want you to give me everything in your inventory, and don''t hide anything since I have your monocle."


    To prove that, he took off his helmet and placed the monocle on his right eye looking intensely at me.


    "What do you plan on doing with me?"


    I said that as I placed all the items beside me with great effort since I couldn''t move from the chains.


    Every item that I placed down, brought grief, especially my equipment and Undying Totem.


    But by the end of it all, I had my inventory emptied for the first time in my life since I was born, it was an unpleasant situation, to say the least.


    "Perfect, now I want you to wear those boots all the time."


    After he took all of my items, he handed me a pair of diamond boots.


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    For others this would be a great gift, as for me, it would be my shackles.


    The boots were enchanted with Curse of Binding, Locator, and Fire Resistance 1.


    Two of those would be a curse that would always follow me, while the last one just confused me.


    "With this, no matter where you go I''ll always know your location. You''re lucky that this enchantment caught my eyes and wasn''t stolen by the System."


    I started to get irritated with the unanswered question and the fact that I was basically naked, so I spoke back.


    "How is that lucky for me?"


    "Without it, you would have to live in shackles for the rest of your life in your new home."


    At least I won''t be tied down like I did to him, I don''t want to imagine how uncomfortable it was for him to stay like that for days.


    With a final sigh, I put the boots on, and suddenly I felt something connected to my soul which made me freeze in place for a full minute before I could move again.


    "I''ve done what you asked, now where is my new prison cell?"


    And how come I wasn''t in it already?


    "Well, good news and bad news mister Mad Scientist. You''ll have the honor of your wish being fulfilled, but you''ll also work to the bone for me."


    That caught my attention as I listened to him.


    "First I''m going to cover your eyes."


    He took out a pillow cover and put it on top of my head, making me unable to see where I was going.


    Then the chains on my legs were gone, and I was guided by him with a hand on my shoulder.


    We walked for a while when suddenly the temperature of the room suddenly rose making my breath more painful, but my feet were feeling normal because of the boots.


    We walked some more and I heard blocks being broken at a rapid pace, and then placed back as we passed them.


    Then, we were out in the open once again, where we walked with sharp turns until I couldn''t tell where was our original location, and only then the pillow case was taken and I could see.


    I looked with shock at what I saw in front of me, red blocks all around me, huge lava lakes that had animals bathing In them.


    "Welcome, to the Nether!"


    Indeed this is truly my wish being fulfilled, and I didn''t know if I should be happy or angry about the situation I was in.


    "Why did you bring me here?"


    "To bring you to your new prison."


    With that we traveled a whole day in the Nether, there I saw the Hoglings, the Pigmens, Striders, and Endermans surprisingly.


    I also saw the unique biome of this world and Trader was willing to share with me whatever knowledge he had, but what truly caught my attention was the soulsand valley.


    I couldn''t believe my eyes what I was seeing, so much soulsand in one place and filled with so much Soul energy. This place was the best treasure that I could ask for since just with a potion of what was here I could make great rituals and an unknown amount of Undying Totems.


    Trader seemed to worry about my excitement until I vaguely told him what this treasure meant in hopes of bringing a few blocks.


    "Those blocks? I guess it makes sense since they are rumored to trap souls, but don''t worry, they are not that rare so we don''t have to stop for this one particularly. "


    I couldn''t believe my ears, maybe me being caught wasn''t so bad after all, I can''t wait to start experimenting soon.


    In the end, we arrived at the tribe under his ''protection'' where everyone seemed respectful towards the man, and then we arrived at a huge tree with a blue door on it.


    We stopped and Trader knocked on it.


    "Come in!"


    POV: Violet the Enderwoman


    I was angry.


    I was angry at the man who captured us, I was angry at my human for not killing him and I was angry at myself for being caught in the first place.


    I was so used to sneaking in buildings without consequences that I didn''t expect an ambush at the outpost.


    The fact that my human had to save me as well made my shame only bigger, but I was thankful that he thought of saving me instead of running off by himself.


    I know he''s not that kind of person, but I also know that he''s willing to do anything for his friends, and I didn''t know if I was part of that group.


    We were now in the Nether at his tribe once again, where the man that I wanted to kill so badly was being interrogated by the man with blue eyes who seemed to see the truth.


    After hours of getting everything useful out of him, they decided to hold him captive and do some research for my human, something related to dimensional travel.


    Maybe if I brought my human to meet with my father, he could help out with his odd request, he was the one to create the portal to the Void dimension after all.


    Unfortunately, my trip to this dimension was one way, and I don''t know if my human would survive the ruler''s wrath, even when she''s heavily injured from the great war.


    So I could only throw that idea out of my mind and started to think of other ways I could pay him back for saving my life, when suddenly I heard a voice.


    "Violet I know you''re here, can you do something for me?"


    I looked down towards the voice, and saw my human who looked directly at me like I was visible.


    He alway had weird ways of seeing through my invisibility, at first was with a ringing bell and now it''s because of his wierd monocle.


    How did it even work, and how could I hide from it as well?


    I didn''t make myself visible, but I tapped his shoulder to let him know that I''m listening.


    "Can you please bring me the chests I put in the portal room?"


    As always, he asks for me to bring him more chests!


    At first it was fun to steal so much, then it got annoying after three days of constant teleporting, and now I just accepted this as being part of myself interacting, and observing him closer.


    At least his requests are simple to fulfil, and if I can''t do something big for him, I''ll do small requests until I feel the debt paid off.


    A few hours later I was back with one of the chest he had in his portal room, but right as I was about to leave it in the big tree, I stopped and looked at my human who had a menacingly dark armor on him.


    I could feel great power from it, and my pearl started to beat heavily as I felt what was in front of me, to be so wrong but so right in the same time.


    I opened my third eye and didn''t even see my human in front of me, it was like he wasn''t even there.


    If I couldn''t see him, maybe the System won''t be able to see him as well, which would bring a layer of protection over him, especially after he caught the System''s eyes a few weeks ago.


    I stared at him for a while longer, before putting the chest down and teleported away to get the others.


    My pearl started to beat wildly as I felt something big coming soon, somthing that would take the world by storm.

 Chapter 149. New upgrades

    I was in the same room with Undying and my hands were trembling with the items that I had in my arms.


    What I was holding in my hands was my new set of Netherite armor and tools.


    It was a gamble, but I asked Undying if she could make the tools for me since there was a high chance the System wouldn''t be able to see what I was doing in the Nether.


    And I was right!


    While Undying was confused at what she just created from my exaggerated reaction, she was still happy to help.


    "So what''s this, and why does it have the same name as the Netherite scrap I have framed on my walls?"


    "This, my dear Undying, is something very hard to find and it''s stronger than the diamond tools."


    She raised an eyebrow in surprise.


    "Then how come the people from the other world don''t come flocking to search for this ore?"


    "Most likely they don''t know about its existence, and even if they did, they couldn''t do anything with it since you need to have a higher level than 7 on the Crafting skill, and the System is seriously against this creation. For now, only the people in the Nether seem to be able to make them without the System interfering."


    Maybe I could also, just in this dimension once I level up my Crafting skill.


    "Interesting, so there won''t be any Royal orders to craft some more."


    "Don''t think they would, and I''ll appreciate it if you don''t tell anyone about it."


    "My lips are sealed. Also, you should check on Bobby since he seemed very stressed last time he visited us, and his orders got significantly bigger than before."


    This made me stop and look at Undying with a confused look.


    "Do you know what happened?"


    "No, he didn''t tell me anything, but I have a hunch that something big happened in his Kingdome."


    Maybe I should visit him before I start my journey towards the Coral Kingdom, with this occasion I''ll also gift him an enchanted compass for my home.


    With this done, I equipped the new armor which was cold to the touch.


    When I had the full set on, I felt everything clicked together like a mech suit instead of armor.


    Not only that, but it had a passive cooling ability making fire resistance unnecessary.


    "That looks...menacing. I can''t even see your face in the open slots of your armor, and your presence feels much weaker, I can bearly sense you even if you''re in front of me."


    Fascinating!


    I walked a few steps to feel the movement of my armor and observed that I couldn''t hear my steps.


    I was the perfect assassin.


    "Undying, can you hit me with your weapon?"


    Without any question, she took out her enchanted golden axe and swung at my stomach with force, taking me by surprise.


    She did that without hesitation!


    But that hit was enough to get all the data I needed.


    First thing first, I didn''t take any damage.


    This was impressive since even if I had a fully enchanted diamond armor, when I was hit with a lot of force I would take some damage.


    Not because it passed my defence, but the vibrations of the attack would transfer through the armor which was enough to hurt me for half a heart.


    But not with this armor, since it seems to have the ability to absorb vibration.


    And with all the enchantments on it, I didn''t see a way for me to get damaged.


    No.


    There''s a way to damage me, mostly through a splash potion.


    I already have blast resistance on this so explosives aren''t a danger anymore, but I have to find or make a costume enchant against magic.


    It''s going to be annoying, but I''ll ask Solomon if he has something for it.


    With that, I went inside the big three and tested my new tools on different blocks, feeling like a child who just got new toys.


    When suddenly I heard something being placed down which made me quickly turn around.


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    It was a double chest that previously wasn''t there.


    I got closer and opened it to see all the research books from the outpost.


    "Violet must''ve dropped it here, that''s good, I can start putting Solomon to work."


    And I could already hear my two researchers arguing in the other room.


    "How could you not study the soulsand in your world, they are full of potential!"


    "For us, it only has two uses. To slow the enemy down and to grow nether warts on it. I would argue that a block of the dirt in your world is much more useful than soulsand with how versatile it is!"


    They both argued with no ending in sight until I had to interrupt those two.


    "Ahem!"


    Both of them jumped in surprise as they looked at me, and soon their deminer changed to one ready to fight.


    "Who are you, how did you get here?"


    Blue was pointing his crossbow at me which I didn''t expect."


    "Relax guys, it''s me, Trader."


    I said that as I took off my helmet.


    "It''s really you Trader, but when did you get here, I didn''t even hear you open the door, or walk in."


    So the stealth options are more versatile than I thought.


    "Really? I didn''t try to be particularly silent."


    I said that as I put my helmet back on.


    It was surprisingly comfortable to wear.


    Solomon looked with intense eyes at me like trying to piece a puzzle together, until it finally clicked.


    "Is that new armor better than diamond?"


    "Yes."


    "Fascinating, I only heard about but it is different when you see it in person."


    It was my turn to be surprised since I didn''t expect anyone to recognize it.


    "What do you know about it?"


    "Not much, only that my ancestors tried to make a metal stronger than diamond through an achievement."


    Again, he talks about achievements in a way that I think is different from what I know.


    "What is an achievement, more exactly?"


    "When someone reaches the max level at any skill, they would receive a reward from the System in the form of a new recipe in their field."


    That''s an amazing thing to receive as a reward!


    No wonder the ancient civilization managed to progress so much in such a short time, they accumulated achievements over time and requested custom enchantments, potions and even crafting recipes.


    How many managed to reach that level, and how many undiscovered recipes are out there?


    "But I know a lot of people who reached level 7 in their skills! Even I managed to do that, and I haven''t seen the System."


    I mean, it saw me but I don''t think that counts.


    "No, the max level is 10, but the System stopped it at 7 since after that are the custom recipes. But even if you managed to get to that level Trader, it''s not guaranteed you''ll get the rewards, since there are a few historical records of people not getting it."


    Wait, that could be a way for me to get back.


    I can increase my Crafting skill until level 10 and request an item that can bring me back home.


    Even if there''s a low chance of succeeding on this, there''s still hope at the end of the tunnel.


    But this would be a hard task since I can only craft with diamonds from now on, and the higher level I go, the more resources I have to spend.


    Unless...


    "Solomon, do you think the water temple survived the System purge?"


    The scientist looked at my face trying to read what I was about to say.


    Unfortunately, I had my helmet on, and the effects only gave him darkness to stare at.


    "That''s what we''re hoping for since it''s the reason we started the invasion in the first place."


    "Do you think I''ll find custom Crafting recipes there?"


    His eyebrows raised realising what I was thinking.


    "Yes, there''s a high chance you''ll find what you''re looking for in there."


    Perfect!


    "Do you know where the temple is hidden?"


    "Unfortunately no, only the General has the map to it''s location."


    That sucks, but maybe I can go to the Coral Kingdom and ask the fisherman there if they saw the gardiens.


    A plan slowly started to form in my mind the more I thought about it.


    "Well that decides it, I''m going to the Coral Kingdom next! Blue, you''re in charge of supervising this man to not run away or do any immoral experiments. Otherwise, give him everything he needs, and if you don''t have the items at hand, you can take them from my base."


    The man nodded his head in understanding, so I said my final goodbye as I left the tribe towards the Stone Kingome portal.


    Unfortunately, when I arrived at the fortress, I was stopped by the guards since they didn''t recognize me in the new armor.


    Funny thing about this, they only found me because I accidentally bumped into someone.


    "Who are you, how did you get here?"


    The two guards quickly took out their diamond swords and pointed them at me with confusion on their faces.


    "There''s no need to draw swords, it''s me, Trader, you must''ve been tired from all this heat and haven''t seen me since my armor is blending so well with the dark bricks."


    I said that as I took off my helmet to show them my face.


    I was surprised by the stealth of this armor once again, since it seems to have the passive ability to make others avert their eyes from my general area.


    And as long as I wasn''t in a brightly colored area, I was safe to walk unnoticed.


    This is more fun than I expected.


    The guards looked with suspicion at me, but they knew about that master with no nose that defeated the Zombie Lord, and they had strict orders not to make him mad.


    "Sorry sir, I truly must''ve been tired since I didn''t see you, carry on."


    With that, they continued their patrol with higher alertness than before.


    I could only chuckle as I passed the portal now into the Overworld.


    I calmly walked besides the wall of the tall hallways as I saw servants running to finish their jobs.


    But just as I was about to visit Bobby''s office one of the guards saw me and yelled with his loud voice.


    "You there, who are you? Identify yourself, or face death!"


    I was taken by surprise, so I turned towards the guard who soon was joined by to others ready for a fight.


    But for some reason, they were more tense then then normal, ready to attack me at a slight twitch.


    What happened here for them to be on edge?


    Since the stealth of my armor didn''t work on those guards, I decided to put it in my inventory to ease their minds and not bring any more treble.


    "It''s me, Trader I came to check on my friend Bobby, sorry if I scared you."


    They were taken by surprise as the menacing aura was suddenly gone, and let me visit Bobby as I wanted.


    With them out of the way, I walked towards Bobby''s office with the exception that every servant was seeing me, and stopped from time to time to look.


    In the end I arrived at Bobby''s office without any hiccups and knock-on his door.


    A few moments of silence and I heard a yell from the other side.


    "Come in!"


    I opened the door, only to see my friend buried in a mountain of paperwork and dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.


    "Just put the rest there- Oh Trader, it''s you!"


    "Bobby! Glad to see you as well, what happened here, I thought you''ll get all this paperwork after you become king."


    I said with a small laugh.


    "At this point I want to be anything but the King."


    I raised an eyebrow in surprise.


    "What happened?"


    He stopped writing and leaned back on his chair letting out a big sigh.


    "Our Vault has been destroyed."

 Chapter 150. The Coral Kingdom

    The Vault was destroyed?


    Who would do such a thing?


    Robbed, I could see it, but fully destroyed. Why would anyone do that?


    "Any suspicions who could be behind this?"


    "Only two days ago we got a message from the Sandstone Kingdome that their treasury was destroyed by the Piligers."


    The pillager did this?


    This is a huge blow for the two nations then, and the perfect time to ravage more.


    Should I help them fight back?


    Maybe I could tell them the location of their outpost, but I don''t know how much that would be of help, since almost everyone is gone from there, taking most of their riches with them.


    Even if they search for forbidden knowledge, they won''t find anything since I stole it and burned the rest.


    At least the Stone Kingdome has access to a portal and can request precious items from the Piglings.


    I don''t want to think how the Sandstone kingdom is dealing with this disaster.


    "I''m guessing they started to harass the towns and villages more now."


    "Yes and no surprisingly. They kept the same pace of attacking small towns, but not with the same precision as before, most of the attacks were composed of Ravegers and their tamers. While their still dangerous we can fend them off with our fireworks."


    That wasn''t so bad.


    Which means the main force is doing something else.


    "A week ago we received reports of a huge flying platform between the borders, going towards the Coral Kingdom."


    So the General decided to not fight on two fronts and concentrate on getting their target.


    "What do you plan to do against this?"


    "Nothing."


    "Nothing?"


    I think I''m hearing things, did Bobby just say they''re going to ignore a flying platform filled with enemies besides their kingdom?


    "Exactly, it''s not worth attacking them now since it''s clear they switched their target towards the Coral Kingdom. We plan on attacking them from behind when the Coral army would retaliate. And between you and me, we''re going to wait a while to send help since they weren''t willing to do the same when we were attacked by the Zombie Lord."


    Looks like they''re salty about that, which seems fair in my opinion.


    From what Bobby told me, when they heard their in need of help, they increased the prices of their items, which now backfired on them since they lost almost a whole Kingdom as customers.


    We don''t need their craftsmans when we have our own in another dimension.


    "What about the Sandstone Kingdom? Would they also stay out of this conflict or destroy them while vulnerable?"


    "From what we talked with them, we would concentrate on recuperating our losses before attacking the Piligers."


    So they are waiting on the sidelines as well.


    "But enough about all this depressive stuff, how have you been doing? What can I help you with today?"


    "Ohh, the funny thing about the Piliger outpost..."


    Bobby only rolled his eyes as he expected another crazy story to follow.


    I didn''t tell him everything, but I told him the new state of the outpost.


    I also told him that I have a prisoner in the Nether to do certain research for me.


    "At least they suffered with their houses and castle burned. Sure, I''ll try not to kill the Piliger next time I visit the tribe, I don''t even want to know what kind of experiments you put that man to do."


    "It''s better if you don''t. While they''re not immoral, they can bring unwanted attention to you."


    The man let out a tired sigh.


    "Figures, how''s Froggy doing, or my village?"


    "Both of them are doing well, and Froggy now Is an Elder! But he promised he would come to your wedding."


    "That''s good to hear. I only hope nothing major would happen that would postpone it further away."


    I wished for the same, but ever since I came to this world, trouble seems to come out of every corner.


    "I hope for peaceful times as well. Do you know anything about the Coral Kingdome by any chance?"


    His eyebrows raised not believing what he just heard.


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    "Did you not hear me when I said that''s the place where chaos would ensue?"


    "True, but I don''t plan on getting into that, I have some other business there."


    After a few moments of silence, he let out a defeated sigh and told me whatever he knew about the place, which wasn''t a lot unfortunately.


    They have a different ruling system than others, it''s similar to democracy with the exception that everyone who can vote has to have a profitable business, and most of the time the leader ends up being the richest person in the Kingdom.


    That''s why for the past 10 years, there was the same ruler, who has a few famous businesses under his name.


    Also, the common people, live differently than in it''s sister kingdoms.


    They have a small number of villages who concentrate on farming, and the majority live in tall buildings in the city.


    Not only that, but the Coral Kingdom seems to concentrate a lot on craftsmen, and they don''t use the System recipes as expected, or at least not as much as the other nations.


    Instead, they handmade furniture and other commodities.


    The more I listened, the more I wanted to be there.


    So I gave Bobby the new compass and told him how it worked, took a horse and galloped towards the Coral Kingdom.


    It took me two weeks with a speed drugged horse to arrive at one of their cities, and I was taken by surprise, to say the least.


    The city was huge and had a lot of tall buildings similar to apartments in my old world.


    The city didn''t have a wall, instead, it was surrounded by a deep valley, 10 blocks wide and 50 blocks deep.


    On top of the valley, was a huge bridge guarded by 5 strong men with iron armor, checking every person that passed with a lama or donkey.


    It was the first time I''d seen someone use the chest feature on animals as a way to transport goods, since most of the time the inventory was specious enough.


    But here in the land of business, there''s no such thing as free inventory, only more space to carry.


    I got off my horse and wondered if I should put on my armor now or after I passed the guards.


    In the end, I decided to put it on after I got inside since I didn''t know if my stealth would work on the horse as well.


    So I waited in line until it was my turn.


    "Any act of identification?"


    "Uhh, I don''t have one sir."


    The guard let out a tired sigh and took out a notebook.


    "Name and reason for your visit."


    "My name is Trader and I want to stay the night here to get some rest with my horse."


    He raised his eyes from the notebook and looked at my horse.


    "Any explosions or dangerous items in your inventory sir?"


    I took a quick look at the fireworks and Netherite sword I had in my inventory.


    "No sir, I wouldn''t dare."


    "The entrance fee is 6 emeralds."


    I gave the man the emeralds.


    "Good, now take this, since it would be your temporary ID, it only lasts for two days before you have to buy the next one. I suggest you take the main road until you see a tall building with blue terracotta at the entrance. There you can apply for an ID."


    "Thank you sir, I will do this as soon as possible."


    "Good, NEXT!"


    I passed the guard and looked at the piece of paper that I held in my hand.


    -----


    Name: Trader


    Characteristics: Brown hair, brown eyes, no nose?


    Signed by: Eusabar the guard


    -----


    That was a short, but accurate way to describe me, especially the lack of a nose that I completely forgot.


    I held my horse close to me as I walked along the busy streets.


    The buildings were tall and beautifully colored, and on the outer parts of the city, I could see a railway system to travel more conveniently at high speeds.


    After half an hour of looking all over the place, I arrived at a two-story building with blue terracotta and huge windows.


    The iron doors were already opened so I left my horse tied to a pole and walked inside.


    There I saw three lines waiting for three lovely ladies to finish their paperwork.


    I chose one and waited until it was my turn.


    After an hour of waiting, my turn finally came.


    "Good afternoon, what can I help you with today?"


    "I want to make an ID card."


    "Of course, a new one or replacing one lost?"


    "A new one please."


    "Sure fill out this form and we''ll do some tests after this."


    ----


    Business Registration


    Name:


    Skill levels: -


    -


    Job:


    Citizen:


    Business model:


    Signature:


    ----


    "Sorry lady, I think you gave me the wrong paper, I don''t want to start a business, I only want to make ID papers."


    "You''re not from here, are you? We don''t have something like this. Everyone that lives here has a ''business'' and moves from city to city like that. If you don''t want to open a business, put one of your skills at the business model."


    That''s an interesting way to document everything.


    This truly is a country run by business, I wonder how it all works behind the scenes.


    I looked at my paper once again and thought how truthful I should be about it.


    "Are there any benefits if I have a high level of a certain skill?"


    "Yes, but mostly if you are a master or grandmaster."


    So levels 5, 6, and 7.


    "What would those benefits be?"


    "If you''re a master, you can enter for free in any city, if your a grandmaster you can stay for free in certain hotels in each city."


    That was pretty good.


    Since I don''t have a job like the other villagers, I''ll write mine to be a Wandering Trader and hope for the best.


    With that, I quickly wrote everything down and gave it back to the woman.


    She took it and looked at the paper with surprise.


    "I would say you''ll be very unlucky to have that job if it wasn''t for you Crafting level. Unfortunately we only have the necessary items up to level 6, you''ll have to go to the capital to get your grandmaster card. Come with me."


    I follow her beyond the counter in a small room with a brewing stand, Crafting table and two chests.


    "I want you to craft me a dropper and a speed potion, after were done your paper would be complete."


    I felt that this was a fair test, as only at Crafting Level 6 you can do a dropper and at Brewing level 3 someone can brew a speed potion.


    I didn''t want to get too much attention so I put a lower level at my Brewing skill.


    I took the necessary items from the chests she showed me and finished everything she requested in 15 minutes.


    She took the items, nooded her head and told me to wait outside.


    I got out, waited for another 10 minutes when the lady came back with a book for me.


    I expected a card, but this makes more sense since the signature can''t be foraged.


    I''m lucky that I didn''t have to sign it, otherwise I''ll have an awkward conversation about the System not knowing my name.


    I opened the book, and the first page was exactly as the form I completed earlier.


    "That would be 20 emeralds."


    This made my smile freeze, since the price was way higher then expected.


    With one emerald I can buy one bread, and this ''mandatory'' paper is equivalent to 20 loafs of bread.


    But I didn''t lack emeralds to pay for it, so I gave her the emeralds and left the building afraid that I''ll have to do something extra.


    POV: A certain office worker


    I looked at the wierd man without a nose leaving the building with quick steps.


    The price for a new document must''ve scared him a little.


    I went back to my desk and helped the rest of the people with their problems until my shift ended.


    When a colleague of mine took my place, I stealthy took a piece of paper with me.


    "Possible Crafting grandmaster with no known backing. Since he came from the Stone Kingdome that means he''s either running from someone or hasn''t been discovered yet. I''m sure there would be a few business men willing to buy this information for a good price."


    I put the pice of paper back in my inventory, and went home to get some rest.

 Chapter 151. Black market

    I arrived at a relatively cheap hotel where they had a place for my horse to sleep, and I rested in my room until night came over the city.


    Once that was done, I equipped my Netherite armor and stealthily left the hotel.


    The streets were well-illuminated by the lamps on the side, and while there were a few people on the streets, nobody seemed to see me, so I walked with more confidence towards the sewers of the city.


    The people in this world don''t need to go the bathroom or have genitals in general. The method they have kids it''s similar to the animals, just longer.


    The couple has to sleep in the same bed for a whole night, and early in the morning, they have a kid crying between them.


    It''s a weird concept for me to hear at first, so I didn''t plan on questioning on how it worked.


    So why would the people in this world need a sewer system if they don''t need to use the bathroom?


    The answer is trash.


    The other kingdoms had a similar system but on a smaller scale, since they didn''t produce the same amount of waste as the Coral Kingdom.


    Since this country made a living out of custome items, a lot of splinters and other smaller materials were wasted daily.


    Those were thrown in the water, where they would be washed away in the valley around the city and wait for them to disintegrate in the next month.


    It was interesting to learn about this, but the biggest difference that I felt was the lack of smell since there was not a lot of food thrown out.


    I walked along the poorly lit sewers until I saw what I was looking for.


    A hole in the right wall that didn''t have brickstone as design, Instead normal stone with dirt.


    This tunnel didn''t have light at all, so I had to be careful not to bump into any monsters that could''ve spawned.


    To my surprise, there wasn''t any, instead only a closed iron door at the end of the dark tunnel.


    I looked through the small windows and saw a few people playing some game at a table in the corner of the room.


    Should I announce my presence?


    No, I wanted to try something first.


    I took out my Netherite pickaxe and broke the two blocks beside the door, and no sounds were made.


    Like that, I was in the same room with the guards who didn''t even know what just happened.


    I ignored the tired guards and opened the wooden door beside them.


    On the other side, was a huge cave with stalls placed all over the place, I stayed there for a few moments to appreciate the beauty of this place.


    On my right, there was an empty stall with a big sign.


    -- 5 emeralds for 1 robe--


    Curios, I put 5 emeralds in the hopper, and out of darkness, a dispenser threw me a dark robe, taking me by surprise.


    "Interesting system."


    I tried to put other items in the hopper but they didn''t go through.


    With my curiosity satisfied I put on the robe over my armor and went on the busy streets.


    There I saw a lot of people, some wore robes like me, others just a simple mask.


    Only the sellers of the stalls seemed comfortable enough to show their faces.


    The wear they had was interesting as well, uniquely designed armor and swords, items like poisoned pills, honey bread, and even armor for dogs.


    It was an interesting sight to see, to say the least.


    I kept looking at those stalls for a while, nobody paying me any mind.


    In the end, I didn''t buy anything, since I couldn''t find anything under 20 emeralds.


    While I didn''t have a problem with emeralds right now, if I intended on going on a shopping spree I would get in debt.


    After I explored enough streets in the black market, I finally found something that would answer my questions.


    A wooden building with a Western-style door and a big sign above it saying "Thieves Guild".


    I opened the door and saw round tables with sketchy-looking people loudly playing and drinking.


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    With silent steps, I walked towards the bar and sat down.


    "A glass of milk if you could."


    I said, as I placed an emerald on the counter.


    The barman was taken by surprise when he finally saw me.


    "S-sure sir."


    He took the emerald, opened a chest, took out a bucket of milk which he poured into a glass cup, sliding it to me.


    I took the cup and took a long sip out of it before putting it down.


    The barman was now cleaning a cup to calm his nerves while looking at me.


    "I''m looking for some information."


    I turned towards him but only darkness was under the hood.


    But surprisingly the man steeled himself and entered in business mode, getting closer to me.


    "What exactly are you looking for?"


    "I want to know if any fisherman has seen a one-eyed fish as big as them."


    The man sat in silence searching for something in his mind.


    "I have something, but how do plan on paying?"


    Already to payment, I hope it''s not too expensive.


    "How much would it cost me?"


    "We only exchange information, sir. So you have to say something equally valuable."


    I didn''t expect this, and I didn''t know what to share that would be of a lower value.


    I''ll throw a bait and see if he''ll bite it.


    "I heard an invasion is coming towards the Coral Kingdom."


    This made the man stop for a moment before telling me his side of the deal.


    "There''s a crew in the Puperfish City that claims they saw a monster fish with big eye attacking anyone who gets close."


    That sounds like the exact place I want to get to.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t get the exact location, only a rumor.


    But it was better than nothing.


    "I heard someone build a flying platform, placed 400 soldiers on it, and is heading straight here without stopping to get some rest."


    With that, I drank the last bit of milk from my glass and went on my way before the man could ask any more questions.


    He tried to catch up with me, but once I was out of his sight, he couldn''t see me again.


    I went to another shop and bought a map of the Coral Kingdome for 50 emeralds.


    It was a very expensive purchase, but I needed to know where Puperfish City was, so I could visit it next.


    With that done, I went back to the surface to my hotel to get some sleep.


    ----


    The next day when I woke up, I bought some alchemy ingredients, took my horse, and left the city.


    From tall colorful buildings, I was back on the gravel road surrounded by trees.


    With the horse under the speed potion, I managed to arrive at Puperfish City only in a week.


    This was a coastal city, and it had walls instead of a deep hole like the previous one.


    I arrived there, and the line was long for me to get inside the city.


    But since I had the horse with me I couldn''t sneak past everyone with my armor, so my only option was to wait like everyone else.


    Luckily the line was moving quickly, and after an hour it was my turn to speak with the guard.


    "Name and reason for visit?"


    The guard asked me once I gave him my new ID.


    "My name is Trader and I am here to sightsee."


    The man raised his eyebrows once he finished reading my paper and let me in for free.


    No more questions asked.


    Truly, this was a useful paper to have.


    I passed the walls and saw houses with simple designs.


    The main streets were filled with people and animals that carried carts behind them.


    I was shocked the first time I saw this, but once I saw the materials they carried, it all made sense.


    All of them held handmade items, and since they couldn''t stack them in the inventory they had to use a different kind of transportation.


    I got closer to the sea, and my breath was taken away.


    There were a few hotels besides the beach with designated spots to sunbathe, and further away there was a port where I saw actual ships!


    And they weren''t stiff as a statue as one would expect it.


    Instead, they moved along with the waves of the sea.


    I couldn''t even imagine how it was built, how it floats, and how it was all kept together.


    So I searched for a cheap hotel where I could leave my horse, put the armor on, and left for the docs.


    Once I arrived there, I could only stare in admiration at the huge wooden ships floating on water.


    There, I saw a few sailors laughing on the deck, celebrating, and moving crates from side to side.


    "Violet, how do you think they built this?"


    And the only response I got was silence.


    She was either exploring this place on her own or she didn''t know the answer either.


    I looked some more at the ships around me and then turned around to see the local shops.


    As I expected it was full of fish and sea life.


    Some sold different dishes with fish, while others went with a more ''exotic'' approach like turtle meat.


    You could also buy fishing roads, simple boats, or necklaces with colorful corals.


    Everyone was yelling their trade and had a satisfied smile on their faces enjoying the warmth of the sun.


    I stopped my walk at a bar, which looked more blocky than the last one, and sat at a table in the corner listening to the sailors around the room.


    "- and now we have to fix it, but slime balls got so expensive recently!"


    "Have you heard the news about the mayor?"


    "I''m telling you, joining the Black Bone crew was the best decision I made in my life! Look at all these emeralds I got from there."


    "No, I didn''t catch a lot of fish recently, and I don''t dare explore deeper waters."


    For the next few hours I heard similar conversations, some were entertaining while others where funny.


    Unfortunately I didn''t hear anything about the one-eyed fish, but was satisfied with today in the end.


    I went back to my hotel and rested until night came.


    Once darkness covered the city, I went out with my dark robe and visited a certain shop.


    I opened the dark door and saw a long hall with animals put in iron cages on each side, with a desk at the end of the room.


    Different kinds if animals were trapped in here, untamed wolves, foxes, pandas and even goats.


    But I didn''t plan on buying any animals from here.


    I arrived at desk, where a bald man was enjoying a book.


    *Bam!


    I slamed my hand on the table witch startled the man who finally looked at me with worried eyes.


    "I''m sorry sir, but we''re closed at this hour."


    "I''m not here to buy animals, I want to use the back door."


    The man''s eyes narrowed as he looked from side to side in the room.


    "Who recomanded this place sir?"


    "Trevor the sailor."


    The man didn''t seem to happy to hear that name, cursing something under his breath about how non secretive he was.


    "That would be 5 emeralds and an ID please."


    I slammed the emeralds on the desk but no book.


    "Here''s the emeralds, and don''t ask me for stupid things again."


    I said that as I took off my hoodie for him to see my Netherite helmet.


    This seems to be enough to intimate him, and he quickly backed away and pressed a hidden button.


    A piston was activated, and a block from the floor disaperead, showing a staircase going deep into the ground.


    I nooded my head and went down.


    I was lucky to get this information as I was listening at the bar this morning.


    A drunk man was bragging his connections with the underworld to his friends and told them about this entrance.


    Of course, he wasn''t laud enough for evyone in the bar to hear him, but it was laud enough for me to catch it and listen closer.


    Now, I was curios how the black market would look like in this city.

 Chapter 152. Ive seen the One-eyed fish

    I arrived at the bottom of the stairs and stood in a wooden room with a few barbells on the side.


    I opened one and saw cooked fish with nothing else.


    I turned my face towards the wooden door and opened it to see what was beyond.


    On the other side, was another staircase with a stone button on the side.


    I pressed the button and heard a piston working on top of the stairs, revelinga lot of yelling.


    Not knowing how long it would stay open, I climbed swiftly towards the noise.


    Once I was up, I was behind a bar who was empty while a few men were brawling on the floor.


    A small group was formed around the fight, encouraging the conflict to continue.


    Only a man with a uniform, who I could only assume to be the barman tried to stop the fight.


    While it looked fun, I didn''t intend to watch the chaos, so I slipped past everyone and got out.


    Once again I was in a huge cave, but this was slightly different then the other''s, it had a huge lake beside it with some ships docked.


    Everything was well illuminated and I walked around to explore the place.


    There weren''t a lot of hooded figures like in the last city, but I wouldn''t stand out too much even if I didn''t have my armor on.


    Here I found a lot of thieves, more exactly sea thieves.


    The ships on the lake were pirate ships with black flags!


    I stopped at a food stand close to the lake.


    "Hey old man, I want to try some of your stuff, what do you have?"


    The man with white hair was startled by my voice and quickly looked at me.


    "When-Welcome to my stall! Where your belly would be full no matter how hungry you are."


    I looked at the items he displayed In frames.


    Some of them looked like burgers, others were soup in a bowl, but I pointed at the barbecue-looking stick.


    "I want that one old man, how much is it?"


    "Ahh, the meat on a stick. That''s a fine choice, 2 emeralds."


    I paid the man as he gave me the food.


    But I didn''t leave his stall, instead I leaned on the wooden poles.


    "I heard someone saw a one-eyed fish as big as a man deep into the sea."


    "There''s lots of danger deep into the sea, so it could be possible that someone saw something like that."


    The man, made himself busy with cooking something else.


    But I felt he should know something about this.


    You don''t just open a food stand in the middle of the Black Market and not have a side deal.


    The food was good I dodn''t deny it, but not enough to pay for the location of his shop.


    "Give me the odd-looking sandwich old man."


    I said that while pointing at the hamburger.


    "Ahh, the meat between buns. A fine choice indeed, 2 emeralds please."


    Weird naming sense.


    I paid the man once again as he gave me the hamburger.


    "I think you''re talking about the White Skull crew from a few months back. The captain keeps talking about how her life was destroyed because of the one-eyed fish while she''s drunk. But who knows if she says the truth."


    Bingo!


    I knew the old man was more than a simple shopkeeper.


    "How does she look like, where can I find her?"


    "How would I know?"


    Then he went back to chopping cooked meat.


    Rolling my eyes, I ordered a bowl of red soup.


    The man prepared a bowl for me with a smile on his face, and I gave him 2 more emeralds.


    "Sorry lad, this one is 5 emeralds."


    "5?!"


    Why would a beetroot-looking soup be so expensive?


    But in the end, I could only sigh in frustration and paid the man.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "She''s a tall woman, with brunette hair, an eyepatch on her left eye, and wears a red coat. She usually visits the Fish bar, it has the best cheap alcohol you can buy."


    That was a lot of useful information from him.


    I thanked him and went towards the bar.


    From afar I could tell the bar was popular because of the noise I could hear a street away.


    The bar had a similar Western style to the one from the previous city, and just as I was about to enter the building, someone flew out through the door.


    Or more exactly, someone was thrown out because it got too drunk for everyone''s liking.


    But that someone was the woman I was looking for, who could bearly stay on her feet.


    "Suck a punch old man! I''m sure those men love you more than your wife!"


    Laughter was heard beyond the door, but no refute came back.


    Slowly she turned away from the bar and wabbled off until suddenly she bumped into me.


    "Wha?"


    "You look drunk, let me help you get back to your place."


    She tried to say something, but her words kept twisting resulting in nothing.


    I just rolled my eyes, took her arm, and put it over my shoulder.


    "Where to?"


    She pointed her arm in a certain direction until we arrived at an isolated street.


    Then out of nowhere, she took out an iron sword and stabbed my gut taking me by surprise.


    But the final surprise ended for her, since the blade didn''t meet flesh, only metal.


    Not only that, but her strike was so abrupt that the sword fell out of her hand from the knockback, which made her jump away from me.


    "What kind of armor is thar, diamond?"


    "Why did you stab me in the first place?!"


    "I''ll rather die then be captured and turned into a slave. Leave or ill use my arrows to kill you."


    She took out her bow and arrow to show how serious she was.


    "I don''t have such plans! Your drunk, and reasonably on your guard. Let me give you some milk to wash away the disines and the we can talk like two reasonable adults."


    "I don''t need your milk, who knows what poison you put there, I have my own."


    Then she took out a bucket of milk, and splash it on her face.


    "Phew, much better, now stay where you are and ask me your question."


    She tried to look threatening, but it was hard to take it seriously since she looked like a wet puppy.


    "I wanted to ask you about the location of the one-eyed fish."


    This visibly shook her, as she narrowed her eyes.


    "Why would you want to know the location of the beast?"


    "I want to hunt it."


    This answer seems more reasonable then the original one.


    She let down her bow and arrow, and moved away the hair on her face while letting out a big sigh.


    "Give up man, that creature destroyed my medium sized ship and killed us while we were peddling our boats, im the only survivor. Unless you have a large ship, don''t even think about approaching that place."


    This doesn''t sound good.


    Looks like my plan of using a System boat and cross the sea it''s no longer feasible.


    The boat would be destroyed In a second, and I don''t think I''ll be able to swim fast or for long with my heavy armor.


    "What if I payed someone with a big ship to bring me there, would that be better?"


    The woman started to laugh at me while holding her belly.


    "Even if you somehow had enough emeralds to convince a captain to follow you, he wouldn''t do, since that zone is a cemetery for ships! No captain with his head on his shoulder would take that deal."


    Should a make a flying platform then?


    No that wouldn''t work since I can''t tell it to go right or left, only forward.


    Even if I did manage to arrive there with the platform, the only way down would be though a waterfall, and I don''t know if I''ll swim up fast enough when retreating.


    "What if I bought a big ship, would you be interested to be it''s captain? After I''m done, you can keep the ship."


    The woman narrowed her eyes trying to study me.


    Unfortunately she couldn''t see past my armor.


    "Do you know how much a large ship would cost?"


    "Enlight me."


    "10 blocks of diamond at minimum."


    That...was pretty pricey.


    It''s not that I didn''t have that much diamond, but I didn''t have it with me.


    Should I do a mining session here?


    No, 90 diamonds would take a while even with my Fortune pickaxe.


    Then an idea come to mind.


    "I''ll get the diamonds, are you willing to take the deal as well?"


    She was taken by surprise at my response.


    "Y-yes, if you mange to get a large ship and give it to me afterwards, I''ll guide you there."


    "Good, tomorrow night well meet at roughly the same time on this street. I want you too look for someone that is willing to sell his ship, and start recruiting a crew. Don''t try to pull a fast on me, since I''ll kill you without so fast you wouldn''t even notice."


    With that I turned away and used an Enderpearl to get away.


    Suddenly I was on top of the roof looking at the market around me.


    "Now, how do I get back?"


    I could probably use the same method I came through, but I don''t want to use same entrance next time.


    There''s to much risk with me ending betrayed or found out.


    So for the next hour I walked around the place until I found a main entrance that ended up in the sewers like the other.


    With that, I went back to my hotel room and got some sleep.


    ----


    "Hey there, sorry for interrupting you, but what kind of job do you have?"


    "Librarian, why?"


    "Perfect! Can I look at your trade tab?"


    "Sure, hope you''ll find what your looking for."


    Then she showed me her trading tab, and my eye''s sparked with happiness.


    22 Papers > 1 Emerald


    5 Emeralds > 3 bookshelves


    1 Emerald > 1 lantern


    I finally found the trade that I wanted!


    And one of my tickets to success.


    I quickly bought all the bookshelves she had which brought me 30 in total.


    Unfortunately with this purchase I didn''t have any more emeralds with me, so I hoped this would work.


    "Is there anyone in here that has the same job?"


    "Yeah, I have a few more colleagues that would be open to trade, search around the library, they all wear a red hat."


    "Thank you."


    With that I searched around the floors until finally I found what I wanted.


    Unfortunately disaster struck.


    22 Papers > 1 Emerald


    4 Emeralds + 60 Books > Protection 3


    3 Books > 1 Emerald


    "I can''t make this trade."


    "I''m sorry to hear that, maybe you can have more luck with the others."


    The librarian tried to comfort me.


    But no, the reason I couldn''t trade with him was becose I was loosing emeralds instead of profiting.


    I think I only rembered videos with people that had hero of the village, or cured zombie buff.


    And I don''t want to use the methods for getting those discounts.


    I guess the only way to get more emeralds it''s through selling sticks the old fashioned way.


    I let out a big sigh and left the library.


    It''s not like there was no hope with using this trade, it''s just that I need to level up my Trading skill, to get the next discount.


    But that would take a while, especially with trading sticks.


    Unfortunately I was under a strict time limit to get a good amount of diamonds until night fall.


    Otherwise she wouldn''t trust me anymore, or if she trusts me at all.


    With that motivation, I took my horse and left the city quickly.


    10 minutes later I was between trees with my axe out, ready to do some heavy deforestation.


    I copped trees for hours until after noon.


    In this time, I manged to get a few stacks of oak wood, which made me satisfied with what I got.


    I planted saplings to regrow the forest, and feed all the apples that fell on the ground to my horse.


    With the hard part done, it was time to start the second phase.


    "Let''s go back to the city."

 Chapter 153. Ill pay you for doing nothing

    I was back in the city, with no emeralds in my inventory for me to get a place to sleep.


    Instead, my inventory was filled with raw wood, ready to be exchanged.


    For that, I first visited a few workshops to ask if anyone has the Fletcher job.


    "I have it, but if you want to sell wood, you can do it directly with me, there''s no need to waste such good resources."


    My mind froze for a moment, trying to think of a way out.


    My Trading tab is vastly different from the people of this world.


    How does trading work for them in the first place?


    Let''s say you''re a weapon smith but don''t have the necessary level to craft with iron.


    A fellow villager would come to you, and pay 4-6 iron ingots and 20-30 emeralds to buy an iron sword from you.


    It''s crazy expensive, but if you don''t have the necessary levels you can use this alternatively.


    Now, what do you get as the seller, since you''re using the System to trade, not yourself?


    You get a percentage of the items you get paid.


    In this case, you can choose to get 1 iron ingot or 5 emeralds.


    That''s why the librarians were so happy to trade with me, since I was given them money for nothing.


    Now the Fletcher job has a trade where you could sell 20 blocks of wood for 3 emeralds.


    This could be used for profit but it would require a lot of time and effort towards cutting trees.


    Now the craftsmen in front of me would prefer to buy the wood directly than waste it just for 3 emeralds.


    But I had a different trading system than him, and it was more profitable for me to use his tab.


    Quickly I had to think of a reason he would let me use his tab without getting suspicious.


    He''s a Fletcher, he makes arrows, and sticks are one of the components to make them.


    Flint is also used, but I think he would want that trade to go hand in hand, since you can make good knives with them.


    That leaves me with feathers. Is there even a trade that uses feathers?


    I''ll try it anyway.


    "Sorry I don''t have wood right now, I just butchered a few chickens of mine and I wanted to sell their feathers."


    "Ahh, carry on then."


    Bingo!


    I got what I wanted.


    The trading tab appeared in from of me.


    30 Sticks > 1 Emerald


    1 Emerald > 17 Arrows


    24 Flint > 1 Emerald


    I quickly traded my sticks for 10 emeralds until it was blocked.


    Then I ran away before the man would ask me how many chickens I killed to get so many feathers.


    With those emeralds, I bought myself some ink and went to the most busy street in the area.


    After walking around for a little, I found an empty corner where I built myself a stall with 6 planks and 4 fences.


    Then, I placed a few blocks underneath me to write something on the upper planks.


    <IF YOUR A FLETCHER, ILL PAY YOU 2 EMERALDS FOR DOING NOTHING!>


    Then I got off my tower and stayed behind the counter.


    Over my head, I had a pillowcase with two holes for my eyes, and the rest was covered by a black cloak.


    I waited for a while and saw some people on the street stop to read my sign and raise an eyebrow or laugh.


    But my embarrassing moments didn''t last forever as a lady came to my stall.


    "Is it true what is written on the sign?"


    "Yes, of course! You''ll let me use your trading tab, and I''ll give you two emeralds."


    "Just this, no catch?"


    "No catch mam."


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Hmm, ok I''ll do it."


    With that, she showed me her trading tab and I quickly sold all the sticks I had.


    "Here''s the two emeralds, thank you for your time!"


    The woman hesitantly took my emeralds and went on her way.


    I got the first customer with success.


    And for the flowing hours, I managed to get 10 more Fletchers.


    At one point I had a small line forming which made me happy.


    I had to stop a few times mid-trading so I could craft more sticks.


    It''s a good thing that the crafting table in my inventory works instantly and I don''t need to hammer at it for a few minutes.


    After I didn''t get any more customers for a while, I destroyed my stand and placed a sign saying that I''ll be back tomorrow as well.


    At the end of the day, I had 96 emeralds in total.


    A little over 10 emerald blocks.


    And at the current market, 1 diamond is equivalent to 1 emerald block.


    It''s not cheap but not pricey either, since it''s hard to find a place to buy those precious gems and harder to find someone willing to craft for you.


    So now I had in my possession 1 diamond block.


    Not the amount I needed to buy a large ship, but I think this would be enough for the pirate girl to trust me that I''m serious about this.


    With that, I went back to my hotel after making sure nobody was following me.


    Paid for one more night, and went to get some rest until I had to meet with the pirate girl.


    POV: Captain Mad Siren


    I hit the trashcan out of frustration.


    That stupid barman wouldn''t serve me booze anymore because I said something stupid yesterday.


    I don''t even remember what I told him last night!


    How can you fault a woman for something she doesn''t know?


    Who cares about that old man anyway, I''ll find another bar.


    I walked along the busy streets looking from side to side if someone wanted to rob me, or an easy prey for me to rob.


    Unfortunately, it''s hard to find someone without experience in the underworld.


    "Wait, isn''t time for me to meet that weird guy?"


    While I don''t remember what I said to the old man last night, I remember every detail of what happened afterward.


    I tried to enjoy the disines of the poison so my mind wouldn''t go back to my dead crew when all of a sudden I bumped into someone.


    That took me by surprise since I didn''t see the figure a few moments ago.


    And while my mind is not fully functional, I''m not the Captain Mad Siren without having skills to defend myself.


    The figure tried to help me, and I took this opportunity to get some emeralds and acted like a defenseless but cautious girl.


    The man took the bait, and I led him to an empty street where I took my trusty iron sword and stabbed his stomach.


    Only for my hand to hurt and the sword to fall to the ground.


    I quickly jumped away as my heart started to pound louder in my chest.


    I wasn''t the hunter, I was the prey.


    We tried to talk for a little until finally I drank some milk so I could be more conscious about the moment.


    Admittedly, splashing the bucket of milk on my face wasn''t the best idea, but some managed to get into my mouth and the disines was gone.


    Now I looked closer at the man, unfortunately, the only thing I could see was his black cloak.


    Even if this street was poorly illuminated, I should''ve seen the outline of his head.


    But the only thing I could see was darkness behind the hood.


    When I found out what was the reason for bothering me, I couldn''t help but laugh out loud.


    He wanted to find the one-eyed fish that gave me nightmares while I sleep.


    The beast shot something out of its big eye and destroyed my ship.


    We tried to run away on our smaller boats, but the fish kept swimming, picking us one by one.


    I was the only survivor and I blame myself for leading the crew to their death.


    If I didn''t get that stupid map, from the stupid hag to that stupid treasure I would still have my pirate crew bringing fear to the sea.


    And this man said he wanted to hunt that beast alone like it was nothing.


    I was angry at him for thinking such things and angry at myself.


    I told him to leave, but he kept insisting.


    Finally, I told him what we''re the minimum requirements for this and surprisingly he said he would get the money.


    I didn''t want to believe him, but it was clear he wasn''t a normal man even though he didn''t know anything about ships.


    No captain in their full mind will sell their ship.


    And even if they did, they wouldn''t sell it to a stranger, they have their connections for this.


    But it''s not like there was no hope.


    While we couldn''t buy an old one, we could pay someone to build a new one.


    It would be more expensive, but it would help us in the long run.


    As for a crew, I can make something easily with my name and the new ship.


    I arrived at the street where we last met not seeing anyone.


    Did I arrive too early, or was it all a ruse to laugh at me?


    "You finally arrived, I thought you chickened out and left town."


    Out of the shadow, came the man with the black cloak.


    Where did he come from? The shadow wasn''t even that dark!


    "I just lost track of time, I''m sorry if you waited too long."


    "It''s my fault that I didn''t mention an exact time. So have you thought about the deal some more?"


    I looked around in case there were others that I hadn''t noticed before, but we were the only ones.


    "Yes, as long as you get the money I''m willing to go over my part."


    "Good, unfortunately, I didn''t manage to get 10 blocks of diamond in just a day, but I managed to get one, and in the next few days I''ll get some more. Do your contacts accept Emerald blocks?"


    He said that as he handed me 9 blocks of Emerald.


    The blocks were heavy in my hands, reminding me of the days on the sea.


    This was roughly my payment for a few weeks as a captain.


    But after fixing some damages to my ship, I had the same payment as my crewmate''s.


    If he managed to get this in one day, he either sold everything he had or robbed some rich businessman.


    Either way, as long as he keeps them coming well managed to get a ship in no time.


    "This is not nearly enough, but if you manage to get this consistently, we can start something."


    "That''s good to hear, how''s your side going?"


    "I didn''t find anyone willing to sell their big ships, but I know a place where you can build your ship."


    He stayed in silence for a few moments and I was getting worried that I stepped over a line.


    It''s so annoying that I can''t see his face, I just want to shove a lantern in there to see if he was even human.


    "Will I be able to customize it, or is there a certain model they follow?"


    Good, so he wasn''t going to kill me.


    "As long as you pay them, they''ll make it from gold as well."


    "That would be an interesting project, but I''m on a time limit so I can''t waste it getting more emeralds."


    Was someone following him or what?


    "Do you think you can start the order now to get the materials, and later I would add some of my ideas?"


    "Sorry man, the boys won''t start anything until you get them three more of those."


    "Ok, you can keep those for now and we would meet back here in 3 days, roughly around the same time. I should get the necessary emeralds to start the project, then you can guide me towards this team to discuss about my ideas."


    The blocks of emeralds are a token of trust, and a test for me.


    If I ran with them he will either kill me or know I wasn''t a good deal, but if I can keep it safe he will trust me more.


    The worst part, is that I don''t have a lot of emeralds in my name, and now I''m like a woman that''s starving with food in my inventory that I can''t eat.


    I wonder if he planned this all along?


    "Sure, sounds fair to me."


    With that, the man took out a pearl and threw it away, disappearing in front of my eyes, leaving me alone in the dark alley.


    "That''s a bit dramatic in my opinion."

 Chapter 154. Expensive purchase

    Two days have passed since I met with the lady pirate on the dark street.


    I''m still a little embarrassed that I haven''t asked her name yet, and I think I''ve been too direct with her.


    But at the same time, our first impression wasn''t the best in the first place.


    Today is the last day I have to get the minimum emeralds necessary to order a ship, and I was quite excited about this since I managed to gather more emeralds than intended.


    First day when I started I woke up early to get a lot of wood and waited at the same spot which surprisingly had a few people waiting already.


    Looks like I managed to make a reputation for myself and people were willing to fulfil my strange requests.


    Since I started before noon, I managed to double the sales because the trading system got reseted, and people didn''t turn down free money.


    So in the past few days, I managed to get a little over 500 emerdals which in blocks are 55!


    A lot better than the first day.


    And today was no different than the other''s, as I waited with my disguise beyond the counter.


    "Hey, are you still in business?"


    I snapped out of my daydreaming and looked at the new voice and froze for a moment.


    A scary-looking lady with an eyepatch was now in front of me.


    The pirate lady that I was supposed to meet later this day looked at me impatiently.


    "Hello, are you there?"


    What to do?


    I don''t want her to connect the two identities, or at least not yet.


    So I just nodded my head and placed two emeralds on the counter.


    "Good, I thought this was a scam the first time I heard about it. I can finally eat something today."


    With that, the Fletcher tab appeared in front of me and I quickly made the trade.


    I did not expect her to have this job.


    But then again it''s not something they know how to control.


    My pirate friend took the emeralds and walked away, and I waited for my next customer.


    A few hours after she came back once again.


    She stood in line for a few minutes before something unexpected happened.


    "You''ve been here for the past few days giving away emeralds for nothing, if you have so much wealth why don''t you give it to us the ones in need."


    3 rough-looking men were disturbing the line trying to intimate me.


    This was not the best scenario I could find myself in, since I didn''t have my armor on me, and I didn''t want to use my Netherite sword with the pirate captain here.


    What to do, should I use one of my fireworks?


    But there are too many people around here and I don''t want to hurt my customers.


    "Hey, you three, I''d you want to get paid get back in the line like everyone else!"


    The three of them turned towards the yelling voice only to see a lady with an eyepatch.


    "I''m sorry for the sudden announcement, but we close our stall for today."


    What are they? My superior? How can they tell the others that with such a straight face? It''s clear they have experience with this kind of thing.


    I''ll beat them to plump after everyone leves.


    But to my surprise, I didn''t need to interfere.


    "What! I still want to eat something tonight get out of my sight or I''ll cut you down."


    Then she took out an iron sword ready to fight.


    The tree thugs froze on the spot and looked at her weapon.


    Even if the people here live more comfortably than in the sister kingdoms, that doesn''t mean it''s easy to get an iron sword.


    If you had one, that meant you were either rich or so good at the sword that someone gave it to you.


    And rich people don''t stay in line to get two emeralds.


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    They just cursed and left without saying anything.


    "Hey shopkeeper, if you want you can hire me for 5 emeralds a day to keep those kinds of people away."


    5 emeralds!


    She''s trying to rob me now, I guess that''s expected from a pirate.


    I took my pen and wrote 3 down.


    "I can''t work for 3 emeralds, I get 4 if I visit you twice a day."


    That''s true, and it''s not like I truly need you, but I want to prevent this from happening again, so I should take the offer.


    "4? I guess that''s a better offer together with the trading tab, I''ll sit behind you until you leave."


    With that, she stood protecting me from the side like she promised.


    Unfortunately, that meant that I would have to stay silent most of the time which was a little annoying.


    Was it a mistake to hire her?


    Hours passed, and everyone was getting back home, so I broke the stall and left the sign.


    "Done for today? Can you use my trade tab as well to get some extra emeralds?"


    How shameless! But it''s not like I''ll lose anything if I did this.


    I quickly traded the rest of the sticks that I had and gave her 6 emeralds.


    "You truly are rich...tomorrow you''ll be here again?"


    I nodded my head in approval.


    "Aye, see you tomorrow then."


    With that, she left on her way and I was on my own.


    ------


    I waited in the shadows just like last time, never getting tired of the surprised faces when I appeared out of nowhere.


    Then I heard steps getting closer at a fast pace, the captain appeared.


    She looked from side to with careful eyes, until she finally saw me.


    "You came early today as well, hope you didn''t wait too long."


    "No, I just arrived here as well, ready for today?"


    Looks like my theory was correct.


    The armor doesn''t make me invisible, instead, it makes the eyes move around me like I''m supposed to be part of the picture.


    But if you''re looking specifically for me or invisible particles, there''s a high chance you''ll see me.


    "Did you manage to get more emeralds?"


    I didn''t respond, instead, I gave her 60 emerald blocks, which took her by surprise.


    "That''s a lot more than last time, with this much we can start building the ship in no time."


    While surprised she looked excited about the future prospects she would get.


    "We met a few times already and I don''t know your name yet, how should I present you to the others?"


    Looks like I didn''t have to ask for her name, should I tell her my real name or make a fake one?


    "You can call me Light for now."


    Let''s give a fake name to be safe.


    "Light you say, then you can call me Captain Siren."


    She clearly wasn''t expecting that name with my looks.


    We left the dark alley and got closer to the lake, there we stopped at a huge building with a simple style.


    I think it was more of a storage building than something that someone would live in.


    We got inside, and as I expected I saw the ceiling was very tall with a lot of room to walk around.


    I even saw a ship being worked on.


    There were not a lot of worker''s here, but they were busy like bees.


    We walked around looking for someone until Siren saw a bald man in a white T-shirt yelling orders at everyone.


    "Fish Head, how are you doing!"


    "Who dares- oh, it''s you, Broken Siren. What brought you here, finally going to accept my offer to be a guard for us?"


    So she has this kind of side job.


    I looked closer at the ship that was built not too far away from us, they seemed to build it through layers from front towards the back.


    On the side, they built a V-shaped structure before they raised it with ropes towards the ship and used slime to stick with the rest.


    It was an interesting way to build it with some stuff I didn''t know, and I wonder how they made the blocks fall while still holding together.


    "No, I came here as a customer."


    "I can''t repair a ship that''s already at the bottom of the sea."


    "I know that you idiot, I''m here for my friend Light."


    She said that while pointing at me, which made the man open his eyes wide.


    "O-oh yeah, what can I help you with?"


    "Hi there, I heard you could build me a ship, and I want a large one as soon as possible."


    "A large ship? We should be done with it in 1 month, or 2 weeks if we concentrate on it, but it would cost extra. In total that should be around 20 diamond blocks."


    20 diamond blocks?!


    That''s way over the estimation Siren gave me, still I could only rely on them.


    "We would like if you build us as fast as possible. Here is some forward payment."


    I said that while pointing at Mad Siren.


    She rolled her eyes and gave the man the emerald blocks.


    "69 emerald blocks, that''s almost half of the payment. We can work with this, but you''ll have to give us the rest before the project is finished. Any special requests?"


    Good, at least they take those.


    "More like a few questions. Do you think you could place some iron coating around the exterior of the ship without sinking it?"


    "You mean like placing iron pressure plates on top of the wood? I guess that would work, and it would be much more durable, a daring ship to say the least. But I''ll take the challenge, the price would be 30 blocks then."


    30!


    "Why is it so expensive?"


    "That''s the minimum amount I could think we would need to get all the iron blocks."


    "What if I brought you the iron blocks?"


    "Hmm, that would be only 23 blocks then."


    That''s a lot better than before. I rather go mine for those resources myself than pay such an enormous price.


    "Let''s do that then. Can I come and see how you work, I''m quite curious how such magnificent ships are built."


    "Hahaha! Sure, it''s not like it''s that big of a secret. As long as you don''t get in the way, you can watch from the sidelines."


    I thanked the man and left together with Siren.


    "That was a lot more expensive than I expected, do you think the extra protection would work against the guardian?"


    "Guardian?"


    "The one-eyed fish."


    "Oh, I have to say, I''m surprised nobody thought about this method to build a ship. If everything would be fine by the end of this, it would revolutionise the way ships are being built! Fireballs would be a thing of the past, and new tactics would have to be developed!"


    The more she spoke, the more excited she got which took me by surprise.


    "I''m glad to hear that, and I hope everything would go without a hinch. Now I have to get the rest of the emeralds and the iron blocks. This is going to be a pain."


    "If you need extra help, you can always hire me for a few emeralds."


    "I don''t need to go at the sea, and I know how to wield a sword."


    Plus, your already working for me right now, even if you don''t know it.


    We walked like that for a few more minutes making small talk until we decided to split off and meet again in one week.


    On my way back, I was thinking of a way to get those blocks of iron as fast as possible.


    I know the best method would be to mine them myself, since in a day I should get mere then enough.


    Not only that, but if I''m lucky enough to find some diamonds, I can lesson my stay at the stall.


    But the question is, which way should I go mining?


    Should I use their mines like I did with the Witches, or should I build one myself until I find an unexplored cave system?


    I walked some more and I suddenly stopped.


    "Or course! I could use that method!"

 Chapter 155. Are you Trader?

    "Don''t worry sir, this isn''t a scam. You let me use your trading tab, and get 2 emeralds."


    "What''s the point of it? What do you get out of it?"


    "That''s for me to worry sir."


    "Fine, but you''ll be paying first."


    I didn''t pay him directly, instead, I put 2 emeralds on the counter closer the him.


    He saw the money, nodded his head, and gave me his trading tab where I quickly sold all the sticks I had in my inventory.


    I thanked the man and he left without saying anything, satisfied with what he got.


    Since he was last in the line, I could relax and wait for my next customer.


    "I have to ask, why do you do this?"


    My guard seemed to get bored as she came closer to me to talk.


    "Let''s say this is gathering intelligence for my higher-ups."


    I said that with a fake low voice.


    "What do you mean, we all have the same trading tabs with little variation, what are you looking for?"


    "Yes, most of us have the same trading tab, but not everyone has the same price. I''m looking specifically for one trade, that''s why you see me moving to the next person so fast."


    "But wouldn''t be enough for them to come one at a time? You''re just wasting emeralds on the regulars."


    Oy! You''re one of those regulars as well, so why are you complaining?


    But it''s true.


    I have to think of a better cover-up story than this.


    "It''s to get the public trust, and for my name to get further away."


    "Ahh, I see. Interesting."


    "Do you know a lot of shops around here?"


    "I do know a few."


    Perfect, I don''t need your protection for now, let''s get you to do some real work.


    "Could you please go to an alchemy shop and buy me everything on this list?"


    I gave her a piece of paper with all the items I needed.


    "3 pieces of Nether wart, 1 piece of sugar..... Are you an alchemist as well?"


    "Can you get me those items?"


    I didn''t want to reveal too much for now.


    "Sure, I don''t think that would be a problem."


    I nodded my head and gave her enough emeralds to buy everything I requested.


    She took them and left at a quick pace.


    But as I was looking at my inventory, I saw an interesting item that I hadn''t used because of my armor.


    The Monocle of Truth.


    While I had the pillowcase over my head, it didn''t register as a helmet in my inventory, so I could easily equip the monocle.


    Once it was on my eye, everything turned gray around me, seeing all the people on the streets surrounded by green smoke.


    If I looked closer to one person, I could see their inventory and skills.


    Most of them were level 3 in their Crafting skill, and even 4 were here and there.


    But the secondary skill was always at level one, not having access to the necessary materials or enough money to level them up.


    I looked around some more and saw a thick black smoke on top of the building scaring me a little.


    Then I remembered how Solomon described me and Violet, and concluded that she was the one on the roof.


    I wonder what''s she doing most of the time.


    Is she like a reader, watching everything that is happening from afar, or she has fun in her own way through pranking other poor souls


    Suddenly my observation was interrupted by one man with two guards.


    "Sorry, are you Trader by any chance?"


    I was startled as I looked at the man speaking with me.


    He had long, blue hair tied behind, with green eyes, and expensive-looking clothing.


    The two guards wore iron armor, but after looking more closely I recognized them.


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    On the second day I was at my stand, a few guards came to me since my wierd business made a commotion.


    It was still at the beginning, where people were pointing and laughing at me, but I tried to ignore them.


    They came to me asking what I was doing and why I was doing it.


    I could''t tell them the real reason, so I made a fake story explaining that I was a master in the Crafting skill, and my teacher gave me a mission to fulfill before I became a grandmaster.


    But since people would recognize me, from my looks or my name, I had to wear a disguise.


    They didn''t believe me at first, but after I showed them my ID, they left me alone and didn''t bothered me ever since.


    Now they were back with someone else knowing my identity which didn''t sit right with me.


    "Depends who''s asking."


    "Sorry, where are my manners? My name is Carol Simpson, I work for the Sun company and I''m here to recruit you."


    He has two names which means he''s a noble at least, his name sounds pretty normal which means he is part of the high part of the nobles.


    I was intrigued, to say the least.


    He must be here because of my high Crafting skills, so they don''t intend on offending me just by sending anyone.


    I looked through my monocle and saw that his skills were pretty good.


    Crafting level 5


    Enchanting level 4


    His inventory wasn''t ordinary either, as it had a set of enchanted diamond armor, golden food, lots of diamonds and emeralds, and even a pearl.


    He was ready for anything.


    "Sorry, I''m not from this kingdom so I don''t know about this company you''re speaking of. Could you speak more about it please?"


    He smiled like he heard exactly what he wanted.


    "Certainly sir, the Sun Company has a lot of items under its name, some of them maybe you''ve heard like the commun and nobble chair while others are more obscure like the Enderchest."


    Their company is dealing with all the chairs I''ve seen in every office?


    That''s a pretty big deal then.


    And I''m not even talking about the Enderchest which is a commodity only the royal family could afford.


    "That''s sounds very impressive. What can the little old me do for you?"


    "Oh, sir you''re so humble for a grandmaster. We just want to hire you for a few high-end items you could help us with. If you sign a contract with us, where you only have to keep the recipes a secret, you could have a salary of 10 blocks of diamond per month."


    Sheesh, that''s pretty impressive for such little restrictions.


    Unfortunately, I don''t think they can give me any valuable information even if I work for them.


    Let''s not talk about the possibility of me being more rich than them in general.


    "That''s a pretty impressive salary, to say the least. And looks like you know more about me than I do about you, but let me question you this. Do you know about the Stone Kingdome that has been attacked by the Zombie Lord?"


    The man looked confused for a moment before getting nervous.


    "I heard about it, but from what I know the disaster has been dealt with."


    "Yes, luckily there were two people there to save the day. The hero, and her unknown teacher."


    "Where are you going with this?"


    "That teacher that defeated the Zombie Lord is also my teacher. So what can you give me that my teacher didn''t already gave me? He knows how to make the Enderchest and much more. He is so rich that no offer given by the royal family appealed to him. What can you show me more than that?"


    The man froze on the spot not knowing what to say, which resulted in a few moments of awkwardness.


    "I''m sorry I think I''ll have to review the contract with my superiors and I''ll come back."


    The man turned away leaving the guards confused about what just happened.


    This was a good outcome, if they had something good they would offer it to me, and since I''m just a ''student'' they wouldn''t be afraid to approach me like the ''teacher''.


    Unless they dug deeper and found the truth, either way, it''s good for me.


    The guards left soon after, leaving me alone once again.


    I got back to watching all the people walking along the street.


    It was a fun activity to pass the time as people came to my stall from time to time.


    Finally, my employee got back with the items I requested her.


    "Hey boss, I got the items you need, and here''s the change."


    She gave me everything on the list and a few emeralds back.


    I didn''t know if what she said was the truth since she still had a few emeralds in her inventory.


    Maybe those were hers from the beginning, or maybe she snagged a few for herself, I was just happy that she didn''t run with the money in the first place.


    Otherwise next time I would''ve met her, would''ve not been pleasant.


    "Thank you Siren, I''ll be done in an hour then you can leave."


    She froze on the spot before looking around us with panicked look?


    Alerted, I quickly turned and looked around to see any threats, but nothing caught my eye or the monocle.


    "What happened?"


    "N-nothing sir, I must''ve seen things. Oh and I must''ve forgotten to give you those emeralds as well."


    She gave me 2 more emeralds which confused me more.


    "Thank you? Is everything alright?"


    "Y-yes sir, I''ll go back to my post."


    With that she got further away which only made me more confused.


    Shrugging my shoulders I got back to my stall and waited one more hour until I broke everything down, put a sign down telling that ill be back in two days and left.


    Back at my hotel room, I placed down a brewing stand that I took from my Enderchest.


    "Maybe I should dig myself a room somewhere around here since I''ll be staying for a few weeks. There''s no reason to waste emeralds on this place."


    The only problem was my horse, that I didn''t have a place let him live his life.


    Should I sell him?


    Maybe even set him free?


    I''ll think of a solution later, for now let''s make some potions.


    First I placed a bucket of water down and filled all the empty bottles before taking the water back.


    Then made a set of night vision potions with golden carrots, a set of speed potions with a rabbits foot and a set of water breathing potions with a Puperfish.


    Everything was done after I checked for the last time.


    I put the dark armor on me, and left the hotel without anyone seeing me.


    I walked alone on the streets illuminated by the lanterns light, until I arrived at the port with the ships dancing on the waves.


    Here, most of the ships were covered by darkness, but monster didn''t tend to spawn here because of their constants movements.


    I looked once more at the city that I was leaving behind, drank a night vision potion and hopped on a small boat peddling away.


    With the potion effects on me, I could see through water like it wasn''t there to begin with.


    And the only thing I felt, was dread.


    I felt so small and insignificant in the face of nature, I was just one small ant trying to conquer a mountain.


    I saw schools of fishes of all kinds, some I knew while I others I didn''t.


    I also saw a few Zombies here and there, but they didn''t seem to see me.


    It was a beautiful but scary sight to see, and I kept on going.


    After an hour of paddling away I finally stopped at the first sight of a crack in the bed of the sea.


    I drank the last two potion and broke the flimsy boat underneath me.


    Cold water surrounded me, making my clothes and armor wet.


    Because of the armor, I was sinking much faster then normal, but with a motion from my legs all the momentum was gone leaving me floating in one place.


    The movements weren''t as smooth as on the surface, but with the enchantments on my armor and with the speed potion, everything was fine.


    Seeing that I didn''t have any problems with my movements, I dove deeper towards the underwater revine.


    Time to do some mining.

 Chapter 156. Underwater ruins

    Water was all around me, fish and squids were swimming all over the place not paying me any attention.


    The deeper I went the more pressure I could feel on my armor, but it was too sturdy to affect me in any way.


    I arrived at the crack of the ravine, already seeing ores shining through the darkness like they were precious gems.


    I took out my silk touch pickaxe and got to work.


    Where there was iron, I was there, if I saw the shining of the gold, nothing was left behind.


    But as I swam deeper into the ravine I slowly started to notice something.


    At first, it was one or two drowned zombies with iron tools.


    While unusual, It did happen from time to time that monsters would spawn with equipment, but most of the time it was picked up from the ground.


    I went deeper and started to see some books that didn''t belong in the sea, such as brick stone, and wood, and finally, in the end I saw the cause for all of this.


    A huge broken dome of glass was in front of me with a base inside it.


    Water was pouring inside like a waterfall, but because of the physics of this world, It didn''t fill more than three blocks.


    A ruin was always something good for me, and now that I needed a few resources for myself, I couldn''t ask for something better!


    I went down the waterfall and looked in amazement at the dome I was in.


    While broken, it was still an amazing sight to see, making me wonder if I should make one for myself.


    I turned my head towards the base made with colored concrete.


    It was huge in an H shape with rooms of different sizes.


    I swam towards the iron door and minded, which led a flood to appear in the building.


    Before anything valuable could be destroyed, I quickly covered the hole letting the water disappear at speeds visible to the eye.


    Zombies, skeletons, and spiders were in the hallway, but nobody seemed interested in me.


    Is this how a witch feels every night?


    I could get used to it.


    I walked from room to room hoping to find anything useful, research notes, precious items, anything!


    But there was nothing I could find.


    The chests were filled with useless items that I didn''t need, and the most annoying thing was the lack of ores in the storage.


    "Was this place already looted, or the System was angry specifically with this one?"


    I walked some more, not getting any results until suddenly I stopped In place.


    On the side, I saw a staircase going down, but what caught my attention was the fact that obsidian appeared on the walls instead of white concrete.


    Not only that, but once I got closer I saw red writing on them.


    It was high-level Enchanting on those blocks, just like at the Witches Clan.


    I quickly put my Enderchest down and took out my notebook with all the research I had done.


    "Let''s see, this one is stealth.... but it''s longer than normal which means it''s level 2 at minimum. And this one is...evasion? Is it all related to stealth? No, this one says is Connect 2. It must connect with the other blocks to have a stronger effect."


    All the other obsidian blocks had the same enchantments on them, making it pretty impressive.


    I went further down the tunnel with my sword and shield out ready for anything to attack me.


    But the only thing greeting me was silence and darkness.


    After some walking, I arrived at the end of the tunnel and was taken by surprise once again, as the wall in from of me was made with Netherite blocks.


    "This is...they must really want this place to be hidden if they used so many resources. I wonder what''s inside."


    I checked everything in my inventory in case I somehow died instantly.


    I had the Undying Totem with me, the invincibility potion, and a God apple.


    I don''t think I could be any more prepared then this.


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    I pressed the button on the side and the four Netherite block retracted like a door.


    On the other side, I was surprised at how little the room was.


    But what was in the room was shocking nonetheless.


    The room was all built with enchanted obsidian blocks like in the hallway.


    In the middle, there was a huge iron table with a weird fish skeleton and different kinds of ores enchanted sitting on the side like computer parts.


    On the side, there were a few chests and a huge poster on the wall.


    "What is this place?"


    I looked around the room some more in case there was any traps that I didn''t see but there was nothing.


    "What do you think of this place Violet?"


    I tried to ask my friend''s opinion, but no response came.


    "Violet? There''s nobody in here you can reveal yourself."


    Then it hit me.


    I had to cross the sea to get here, of course, she wouldn''t be here with how much water hurts her.


    With a sigh, I took off my helmet and put on the monocle to see if something was hidden.


    As soon as I did that, I threw the monocle away and started to throw up.


    Whatever those enchantments did, was more than simply hiding this room, through the monocle I saw the room spinning like I was in a hurricane, I felt worse than if I used 10 ender pearls one after another.


    I stayed on the floor for a few minutes to calm my brain, before getting up and truly start looking at the room.


    Three main things got my attention.


    The huge poster on the wall, which had the schematics of a special dome made with obsidian and lapis block all heavily enchanted.


    On the side, was a smaller picture with a guardian and its inner workings.


    It seems to be made out of flesh and machine, which I would categorize as a cyborg.


    The schematic was amazing, and it was clear this was the underwater temple where the fake System resided.


    Unfortunately, it didn''t say where it was or how to get in without being attacked by the guardian.


    On the table, there was a huge skelton in the shape of a fish.


    There were a few things inside of the skeleton, such as a Netherite ingot in the place of the heart, connected with blue wires to what I could assume to be the eye of the guardian.


    The eye was there as well, all artificial with enchanted quartz, Redstone, and diamond.


    It was fascinating to see, and I wondered how it wasn''t taken by the


    System yet.


    It was an interesting thing to see, but I didn''t destroy it, since I didn''t know if I could put it back tougher or even have enough space in my inventory.


    Finally, the last interesting piece from this room is a double chest.


    I quickly opened it and I already liked what I was seeing.


    A few blocks of diamond, a few Netherite ingots, a journal, an enchanted trident, but most importantly a map towards the water temple.


    "Now this is the good stuff."


    I quickly took everything from there and looked through the journal, and was surprised that pieces of information weren''t missing.


    Test 235


    The cow bones weren''t strong enough to hold the muscles of the guardian, and they were too dense to comfortably swim in the water. For today''s test, we used phantom bones reinforced with copper wire.


    Test 250


    The eye of the guardian seems to be the hardest part to project, the iron is too heavy and doesn''t resonate well with the laser mechanic, so we decided to use quartz even though it is more fragile than iron, it should resonate more with the laser function.


    Test 400


    The phantom bones seem to give the best results, and the squid muscles are doing wonders with the mobility of the guardian. The project is hard, and I don''t envy the ones that have the Elder Guardian as their project. We are almost at the end, I can feel it.


    Test 535


    It''s finally done! The perfect guardian was created! Its laser has the power to destroy low-tier bloks and even give a knockback to a person holding a shield. Not only that, but it can swim as fast as a man can sprint, it can take damage similar to the iron beast, and its main source of intelligence it''s the project NEW BEGINNING!


    The best part it''s that it won''t be alone, it would work similarly to a hive mind and nothing would be able to pass the security.


    Our work is done here, and I even got a promotion to work on the Elder Guradian project.


    What an amazing day.


    The guardians sound more dangerous than I expected. No wonder it wasn''t found until now.


    The more I read about the test done to create this beast, the more impressed I was, but also scared.


    But now I have a map towards the temple, a trident that should help me navigate more easily through water, and even a warning of what to expect.


    This mining trip was much more valuable than anticipated.


    I even got enough diamond blocks for the ship.


    Now I only needed to get the iron, which luckily was much easier now, with my new trident.


    I explored the ruins once again in case I missed something, hoping to find another map towards the Elder Guardian project or maybe an underground tunnel.


    But no such luck, not even a portal room that I could use.


    "Well, it''s better than nothing I guess."


    With that, I started to swim up the waterfall which was harder than expected.


    I had to take a break once I was back in the sea with how much I swam.


    "Ok, let''s see how this thing works."


    I had the trident in my hand, there were 2 enchantments on it, Riptides and Mending.


    "In the game, you needed to throw the weapon but also at the same time to not let it go, so it can drag you across water."


    The first test was to fake throw it.


    I arched my hand back and threw the weapon but didn''t let go.


    There was a reaction.


    I could feel the weapon pulling me, but only by two blocks, a far cry from ,what is supposed to do.


    In the second test I threw the trident normally, and as I expected it didn''t drag me after it.


    But I did find out I could throw further underwater then I normally could.


    My final test which I hoped to be the correct one was somewhere in the middle.


    I would throw the trident, but catch is right as I let it go.


    I arched my arm back and threw the trident as hard as a could only to quickly catch it back.


    I felt my arm being pulled all of the sudden, them my whole body was moving forward at great speeds.


    The water tried to drag me back, but the force was to powerful for me to stop.


    In an instant I was 20 blocks away from my original spot.


    "Wow, that was amazing. But my shoulder hurts now, I''ll have to get used to it."


    I tried a few more times to get use the feeling and discovered a few thing''s.


    The force of the trident seems to scare or attract the attention of marine life, even if they don''t see anything because of my armor.


    And I could travel faster and further away If I spin while I''m in the thrusting motion.


    It''s so good, that I can travel 30 blocks in an instant.


    Unfortunately it''s very hard to do that constantly since I get dizzy after every use.


    The trident was pretty fun to use, and I can''t wait to get the chance to use it on a rainy day.


    I travelled around the area looking for more places to mine or hopefully another ruin.


    In the end I only found enough iron but no ruin.


    Satisfied with what I had I used the trident to get back on shore.


    Tired, but happy with this night, I went to bed to get some rest.

 Chapter 157. How dare he

    POV: A certain businessmen


    What was that man talking about?


    Was he bluffing or was he speaking the truth?


    We don''t know a lot about the incident with the Zombie Lord, since it didn''t seem to be our problem anyway.


    Sure a powerful monster was leading them, but there''s so much only one monster can do.


    Those backward kingdoms are too dumb to deal with such a simple problem and it shows in their casualties.


    So if they like to waste resources on such stupid plans, why don''t they throw it at us where it could be wisely used?


    Of course, we didn''t intend on completely ripping them off.


    Our first offer was intentionally an exaggeration so they would gladly jump at a lower more ''reasonable'' offer.


    What we didn''t expect was for them to completely walk off the negotiation table.


    Somehow, they found a high-level group of people willing to craft for them at a lower price than us.


    We invested heavily towards gathering more information about this group, but it''s kept tightly secret like their source of alchemy materials.


    Disgusting.


    Everything has a price, we just need to get it to the table to negotiate it.


    Not long after they found their new business partners, they also dealt with the Zombie Lord.


    It wasn''t surprising, since it was still a kingdom after all no matter how backward it was.


    What surprised us was the fact that only two people managed to defeat him and his army.


    The hero and the unknown teacher.


    We knew about the hero since it was prophesied for a while even if it didn''t land on the Sandstone kingdom as initially expected.


    The unknown teacher was the one that nobody knew.


    From all the testimonies we got, he came out of nowhere in the palace, threatened the royal family with forbidden knowledge, prepared a trap for the Zombie Lord, and dealt with him, before leaving like he wasn''t there in the first place.


    We don''t know how he looked since all the time he wore his diamond armor, but we know from his actions that he''s dangerous.


    We couldn''t get used to the new information when another tragedy struck that took the whole continent by storm.


    The invasion of the Piligers.


    While they were smaller in numbers than any nation, they were more dangerous than all of us combined.


    They are the descendants of the people punished by the System itself, they were the ones cursed to walk among monsters, cursed to hate all life, and cursed to be hated by all living beings.


    We don''t know how great the ancient civilization was, but we know that it was greater than what we could ever accomplish.


    Even after the great purge, where uncountable information was lost, we the Coral Kingdom found scraps scattered around its ruins and built ourselves a nation surpassing the others.


    If we could get so powerful just with some simple Crafting, brewing, and farming scraps without needing the System, what are they capable of at their full power?


    Now their ash is coming after us, the people that survived all the hardships it''s been through, the people that see human life only as a tool instead of a being.


    They rose back to bite the others.


    We couldn''t ignore them like the Zombie Lord, they were smarter and more dangerous, already attacking the two kingdoms with results.


    But we wouldn''t jump into something we don''t know, that''s not a good business model after all.


    We first gather information about our competition, then we approach them to work under us, and if they refuse we destroy it.


    Those monsters are not worthy of being worked as slaves, so we would exterminate them for good, unlike the last Crusade.


    The Sandstone kingdom was cooperative with their information, unfortunately, they had just finished a great political battle which resulted in a shift of the hierarchy, so they couldn''t give us a lot, since they didn''t have a lot to give.


    A great time to plant some spies, but the Piligers were a priority.


    The Stone Kingdom didn''t even bother to hide their hostility towards us and didn''t cooperate, resulting in us spending more resources and manpower than needed.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    We''ve been at this for a few months and I was tired from all of this back and forth.


    It didn''t help that the messengers took so long to deliver our orders.


    But one day my boss got some interesting information.


    Someone who claims to be level 7 in Crafting, recently registered in our nation.


    While the offices are ''public'' institutes that work for the better of the people, that''s not so crystal clear.


    This was an idea taken from the ancient civilization to help others find a job easier by showing a card with your skills and what you were capable of.


    It was much more detailed than what we have today.


    Unfortunately, the infrastructure doesn''t allow us to replicate that, so we could only simplify it by making it available in one place.


    With this, we could get information about all the important people we need.


    My boss got some documents for a man with no ties and ready to be scouted to join our company.


    I jumped at the opportunity to recruit that man since I would get more merits and it would be a good brake from this boring job of arguing with the people from the Stone Kingdome.


    It took some time and manpower, but I managed to find him in the Puperfish City.


    I arrived there, asked around about a man with brown hair and eyes but no nose, and didn''t get a lot.


    But his unique appearance was enough to catch the attention of some guards that led me to him.


    Now, I thought it would be an easy task to recruit him since he was such high level and the pay was good.


    What I didn''t expect, was his claiming that he was also the student of the Unknown teacher that defeated the Zombie Lord.


    Not only that, but the unknown teacher seem to bestow him with secret recipes that nobody should know besides the ones under a contract.


    Now this presented me with two options.


    Give up on him, since there''s not a lot we can give to him that would change his mind.


    Or try harder to get him, and extract everything from him valuable for our company.


    If I managed to pull this off, a promotion is nothing but guaranteed.


    But for that, I first need to gather some information.


    Is what he said true?


    And what''s the deal with this Unknown teacher?


    I sent a letter to my boss, but it would take a few days to get an answer, so I should gather my own data while I''m here.


    So for the next few days, I did just that.


    I looked from afar, I looked to see what was this man doing here in the first place and what kind of character was he.


    But the results only confused me.


    For the past few days he''s been going with his horse in the woods to chop some trees, comes back to the city, puts a bag over his head and stands at a stall to give emeralds to the people with the Fletcher class.


    At first, I thought he wanted to get the perfect trade with the lowest amount of resources given for the highest amount of items, but that doesn''t seem to be the case.


    Nobody knows what he''s looking for specially, so all people come to him, not only that, but most of the time those are regulars, which means he''s wasting money on them for no reason.


    There''s a better way to do this even if you want to spread the word about you.


    You could limit the people to come one time but if they bring a friend with the Fletcher job they can still get emeralds.


    But nobody knows his goal, which makes me only speculate with no logical results.


    Does he know something we don''t know?


    Did the unknown teacher showed him a secret way of making emeralds?


    But then why would he be here in the Coral Kingdom, and so far into it?


    The only conclusion I could make was that he was a mad man or bluffing me.


    But he had the money to spend every day like a water source so he couldn''t be a madman.


    How dare he play those kinds of game with a repentant of the SUN company?!


    I tried to hire some thugs to scare him a little, but his little guard seemed to be more competent then I expected.


    She was a former captain or something similar, and she has an iron sword, which means I can''t sent low level criminals.


    But she''s not with him all the time, she only works when he''s at the stall, nothing more nothing less.


    I know where he sleeps at night, but I never seen him go into his room, I even asked the woman who runs the in, but she said she never saw him going up or down the stairs, only early in the morning when he leaves his horse.


    So I can''t even sent someone to scare him while he''s unguarded since nobody seems to see him.


    That was it, I don''t care anymore about being carful and gentle, I''m going to be more rough with him and ''save'' him from the situation, then he would be more willing to join our company.


    I spend a few emeralds to get some criminals that were better equipped and made them wait at the street he usually disapereas into.


    Then I hierd the guards to come with me and scare off those thieves.


    The plan was perfect, the man finished his wierd job of the day, took everything with him and went on the lonely street.


    I was at the corner waiting for the signal.


    "Hey you! Give me all the emeralds you got or you''ll lose your life."


    "I don''t rember offending anyone recently, did someone sent you?"


    "Why would anyone need to sent us, its cleaf that you have more then enough emeralds to spare, so give everything to us or we''ll take it from your corpse."


    Suddenly the air turned chilly like a cold wind which made my skin crawl.


    "I guess it''s time to test my sword."


    Then I heard the clash of metals and growing of pain.


    This was the signal!


    Quickly I passed the corner and saw something that shook me to my core.


    A man covered in a black armor with an aura that demanded fear and respect.


    Most of the thieves were shaking in fear too afraid to get close to him, and the ones brave enough to attack him died on the spot.


    This plan didn''t work at all, he didn''t even need a guard to protect him!


    Who was he?


    I didn''t stay to find out how the rest of the thieves were killed, instead I ran past the confused guards towards my hotel.


    I quickly shut the door behind me and tried to calm myself from running so much.


    "It''s okay, he didn''t see me so I''m not in danger, you can calm down take your things and leave this city for good."


    I tried to calm myself.


    As I looked around the room to take whatever was and leave I saw letter on the table which made me freeze.


    With a trembling hand I took it and let out a sigh if relief once I realized it was from the SUN company.


    I quickly ripped the thin paper and started to read the contents on it.


    --


    Dear Carol Simpson


    We received your later requesting more information about the students of the Unknown teacher.


    Unfortunately we don''t have any information about it, but upon further inspection we found out the teachers name to be Trader.


    We strongly advise you not cross paths with him since you are not equipped to deal with the consequences.


    Gather more information and sent it to us to make a final decision.


    From: SUN company


    ---


    This was a mistake from the beginning!


    I wasn''t fighting against an unknown student but the teacher himself!


    He''s the man that fought the Zombie Lord and won, I stood no chance!


    I have to leave now, or otherwise I would lose my life.


    "You crossed the line Carol, now it''s time to pay the price."


    I heard a voice spoke in the room which made me quickly turn.


    But my head kept spinning even when I stopped my body, until I hit the floor seeing the legs of the black armor.


    Everything strated to get hazy and then it turned black.

 Chapter 158. Buying a home

    I looked down at the head rolling on the floor that used to belong to the man named Carol Simpson.


    "You could''ve watched it from afar like you did before, but you really needed to attack me without a reason, seriously what did you expect?"


    After I got back from the mining trip with all the new knowledge. I took a day to rest and spoil myself a little, then I went back to selling sticks to get more emeralds.


    Sure I had the money to pay for the boat, but that didn''t mean it would be done, I still have to wait around until it''s finished.


    And since I didn''t want to do stay and do nothing, I decided to level up my Trading skill.


    That''s why in the morning I kept selling sticks to make a new budget for other trades.


    But I started to feel watched recently, and with the monocle of truth, I could easily identify that the businessman was behind it.


    There was nothing wrong with that, I attracted a lot of attention with my weird stall.


    But with time he kept being more pushy, and he sent some thugs after me that luckily, Siren was strong enough to deter, I didn''t have enough evidence that It was him but I was suspicious.


    And today he outright attacked me!


    I didn''t even do anything to you man, why did you start throwing fists?


    So I finished the thieves and came to deal with the problem itself.


    There''s only one interaction we had until now, so nobody would suspect me for killing him.


    Nobody even saw me getting to his room, it would appear as if one day he just disappeared without a reason.


    I took everything out of his inventory that was valuable and looked around the room until I saw the recently opened letter.


    After I read it I raised my eyebrows a little.


    "Looks like my cover is blown, maybe the ID wasn''t a good idea after all. But before they would catch up, I would be deep into the sea, and they would be too distracted with the invasion of the Piligers."


    I burned everything that was related to me and called for Violet.


    "Violet, can you please throw this body into the canal or the sea?"


    The Endewoman suddenly appeared beside me hissing with displeasure but still took the body and teleported away.


    Ever since I went sea mining, she''s been cranky, probably because I found a new toy and she couldn''t follow me into the water.


    But there''s nothing I could do about that, I tried to solve the issue with potions or other means but nothing worked.


    For some reason, there''s something fundamentally wrong with their body that gets damaged when water touches is it.


    My only fear is that she won''t come with me to the sea because of the water, and while I don''t know too much about her, we''ve been through a lot together even if I didn''t see it, and I trust her to keep me safe as I do with her.


    "I wonder what she would request of me in the end?"


    I shook my head at that thought.


    I made a promise and I intend on keeping it, I just hope it would be a reasonable one or something I could make in the first place.


    "Today marks the end of the week, I should meet with Siren once again and pay for the full ship."


    But there were still a few hours until it was our time to meet, and I still had the iron ore on me that I needed to make it into iron blocks.


    I looked at the riches in my inventory and let out a sigh but still smiled.


    "Looks like I''ll have to make a base of mine after all, I can''t trust the chest at the hotel to be safe."


    The question is, where should I make it?


    I can''t build one underground since the horse would hate it, and I can''t build one on the sea since it would be out in the open for unwanted eyes.


    That only left me with two options.


    Buy a house in here or build one myself in the woods?


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    If you asked me this question before, I would''ve chosen to build a house in the woods.


    But since I got such a generous donation not too long ago, I think I would buy a house on this land and hide a few chests in there.


    I took out my horse and started to look around the place, but I didn''t know what was for sale and what was not.


    "Hey, do you know any houses in the area that are being sold?"


    "Wha? Why would I know that, if you want to buy a house or land go to the central office and ask there."


    I thanked the random stranger and walked towards the central office.


    I hoped I didn''t have to come back here since they didn''t seem to keep secrets very well, but I had a plan for this.


    In front of the blue building, I quickly put the dark armor on and entered without anyone seeing me.


    There weren''t a lot of people waiting in the line like last time, so I could go to a receptionist to ask about homes.


    But I''m pretty sure I''ll have to sign some papers to get there, and I don''t want to attract any more attention to myself than I already have, so I went in the back where I found a big room filled with labeled chest.


    Permits, Personal info, Laws until I finally found what I was looking for.


    Home/Land sales.


    I opened the chest and found a few homes already, but not as much as I expected from a city.


    There were only 10 homes ready to be sold.


    5 of those were out since they were in the slums confiscated by the guards since they belonged to criminals.


    3 more were taken out since they were either unreasonably pricey or too big for me to use as a temporary base.


    And that left me with 2 homes, of medium size in a safe neighborhood and I didn''t have to worry about being asked too many questions.


    I looked at the name of the owner and the place it stayed at and chose whoever was closer.


    I took the book with me and went on my way not leaving any evidence behind.


    Half an hour later I was in front of a beautiful beach house and knocked on the wooden door.


    *knock knock


    A minute later I heard footsteps getting closer and opening the door revealing someone I didn''t expect to see.


    The bald man who is building my ship.


    I did not expect to see this person so soon.


    "What the, who are you? Wait I think I remembered you in the weird cloak, it was Light or something similar. How did you find me, what do you want from me?"


    The man was on guard ready to close the door at any moment leaving me in tense silence.


    "Sorry if this came as an ambush, I didn''t expect you to be here. I just came when I saw you were selling a house."


    "Why would you come then? There should be an office representative dealing with all of this paperwork."


    "That''s the reason I came. I wanted to buy it from to source so I won''t be leaving any paperwork behind."


    The bald man narrowed his eyes while looking from side to side.


    "So you want to get the house off the record."


    "Precisely, and I''m willing to pay 5 diamond blocks now if you give me your signature."


    He started to whistle impressed at the blocks of diamond in my hand.


    "Are you sure you have enough money since you ordered an expensive ship as well? Did you manage to get the iron as well, since we would need it soon?"


    He didn''t seem to be on guard anymore just plain curiosity since I''m making a lot of big purchases in a short time.


    "Don''t worry, I''ll get your money and iron blocks with no problem, I just came here for the house."


    "Alright, I don''t see any downside to this deal. I get more money than originally intended and don''t have to pay the taxes. Give me the papers and ill sign."


    I gave him the papers and he quickly signed them after a quick check. Then he was kind enough to grant my request to present the house since I didn''t know the exact location.


    We walked for a while until we arrived at the front of a tall white wall.


    "This is your new home, it''s 100x100 blocks large, surrounded by a 3-block sandstone wall which I know is not the most resistant, but you don''t need to worry in those parts."


    Then we walked through the front gate and saw that it had a lawn with a medium-sized house in the middle.


    It was also made with sandstone and glass, two stories high, and a lot of room to walk around in.


    "This is the perfect house, thank you once again, sir, we will meet again tonight and bring you everything else."


    "There''s no need to thank me, just say hi to Siren from me."


    With a final wave, he left me to my new home.


    "Well that was fun, what do you think Violet?"


    My monster friend appeared beside me showing her disapproval.


    "Yeah, it''s too small for you and it doesn''t have any Redstone, but we only needed to store our items. Plus, if you want to, you could make any contraptions you want on the lawn as long as nobody sees you."


    This seemed to change her mind as she was suddenly happy about the new home.


    I could only smile and shake my head.


    First things first, I got my horse to the new home.


    Second, I placed all the ores I got on my mining trip and took two out potions.


    Speed and Luck.


    I knew I intended to use the luck potion only when I gathered a mountain of diamonds.


    But it would take too much time to do that, so I decided to use it now with the little diamonds then I found and the mountain of iron that I had to get the most out of it.


    Worse case scenario I''ll buy more diamonds from the villagers with the emeralds I''ll get from the trading tab.


    My pickaxe was ready, I drank the speed potion and I felt like everything else moved slowly around me, then I drank the luck potion and felt something that I never felt before.


    Something in me and outside of me seemed to increase in size, not only that, but I felt that the pickaxe in my hand was warm to the touch, like there was an affinity between us.


    Also, as I looked at the ores in front of me, I could feel like they were absorbing the energy that I and the pickaxe were producing.


    I didn''t know what it was, but I couldn''t stay and study this feeling since it was very short lived.


    So I started to swing my pickaxe already seeing great results.


    By the end of this, I managed to get enough iron to pay the ship and still have some leftovers.


    If I did this from the beginning, I wouldn''t need to trade sticks!


    This luck potion is much more powerful then I expected, and I really need to ask Flora for another one.


    I looked at the sky and saw that it was almost dark.


    "I have to quickly make a few blocks of iron otherwise this would be for nothing."


    I placed a few furnaces down, placed all the iron inside with coal as fuel, and as soon as the iron was smalted I took it out and made it into an iron block.


    An hour later I had 20 blocks of iron.


    Bearly a fraction of that I had, but there wasn''t enough time for all of it to smelt and craft it.


    So I took all the diamond and emerald blocks with me, and left to meet with Siren.


    I didn''t want to be late after all.

 Chapter 159. Will you marry me?

    I arrived at the designated place only to see that Captain Siren just arrived as well.


    She carefully studied the place before seeing me.


    "Light! Glad to see you doing well. How was your week?"


    She was more friendly than the last time we met, did something good happen?


    "It was a fun week, to say the least. I had the chance to see the sea with its beauty and also get lots of riches. I now have all the diamond blocks necessary to pay for the ship. How was your week?"


    She gave me a big smile.


    "Glad to hear that, I don''t want to make the bald man angry at me for not paying on time, as a captain that''s the last thing you''ll want. As for my week, it was eventful as well, just got some side emeralds and I''m enjoying life little by little until I get that big ship."


    So she was looking for a job when I found her.


    We talked some more as we walked and I was debating with myself if I should show her the map and the drawings that I found in the ruins or not.


    It''s not like I expect her to fight together with me since she''s very underequipped for that, but at the same time, I don''t know if I''m able to get to the temple in the first place with the strength that I have.


    Sure I have an overpowered armor, potions, and tools that I could use. But I also had those when I went back to the Piligers, and Solomon managed to get through all of that with just a little preparation.


    And now I''m supposed to get to the most guarded SECRET the ancient civilization built, something that is supposed to replace the System itself!


    They even built living weapons for this, I''m sure they have some more traps then what''s shown.


    I don''t want to get too overconfident in my ability once again.


    That''s why I want to get some help, to get someone else perspective on my dilemma.


    And I don''t have my friends with me to ask them for help, but maybe I can trust Siren with this.


    Could I trust a pirate not to backstab me when there''s such a big prize at the end?


    I don''t think so.


    But maybe I don''t have to say the whole truth, just parts of it.


    I shook my head, there''s no need to make a decision now, I could get closer to her, and for that, I needed to show a sign of trust.


    We arrived at the warehouse where I could hear loud voices giving orders to workers. Once we got inside I could see everyone working at a huge ship that was 100 blocks long and 40 blocks wide.


    I looked closer at the men on the floor, working on separate parts of the ship and saw that they made a huge V shape line of wood, but the base of the V used slimeballs besides the natural stickiness of the blocks.


    Once the shape was done, an iron chisel was taken and chopped enough wood to still be a whole block but not enough to be registered by the System anymore, and because of the slimes, the rest of the blocks that were still under the influence of the System were held together.


    I got curious about what just happened, so I asked one of the workers who got scared when they saw me.


    But after he calmed down he told me the process which was fascinating for me.


    Apparently, when a system block is broken wrong, gravity gets a hold of it and it falls leaving the others behind.


    But, if you manage to stick it with the System blocks, the broken one can make the other to be semi System.


    That means they stick to each other, and have the same resistance as normal, but are affected by gravity.


    This happens for the next 7 blocks besides the broken block.


    At first, when it was found, it was thought to be stupid.


    Why would you want to have blocks that fall like sand and gravel?


    That''s when they found out they could build ships out of anything that could flow over water.


    And that''s how ships were born.


    That was interesting to know since it was new knowledge for me.


    I asked, what''s the point of building a wall if you can just damage one block and the others would follow?


    Surprisingly, it wasn''t that simple.


    While it''s true that in theory, every block can fall this way, it''s not as easy as it is with wood.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The whole process depends on the tools they were using.


    When you punch wood, the wood gets slowly broken by the System, not by you.


    That''s why they need to make special tools, not made by the System that bypasses the System itself.


    If the tool is too big, the System would register the damage as being hit, and it would break the block itself.


    If the tool is too small, it would not be strong enough to damage the block itself.


    That''s why you need the perfect tool for each type of block.


    You can''t use the same tool for every block.


    And that''s the reason resistant blocks can''t be broken this way.


    I was a little disappointed by this but also relieved. I thought I could use those tools to get into the temple, but I was relieved to hear that there is a limit to what you can use this method for.


    After some more talking with the man, I let him go back to his work and joined Siren who was patiently waiting on the side for me.


    "You truly aren''t from here if you didn''t know about this."


    "True, I came from the Stone Kindome and this was truly a fascinating experience."


    She stopped and looked at me from head to toe with a surprised expression.


    "You''re from there? But you so...rich and powerful...and weird, from what I heard about the Stone people."


    I could only laugh at her which made her feel awkward.


    "It''s not like I''m a normal citizen myself, but the people from the Stone Kingdom are like you Coral people. The only difference is that they use the System facilities more often than you."


    "Huh, I guess that''s true, and was ignorant on my part. But you have to understand the benefits of not using the System for everything."


    "Oh captain, believe me, that I know the best how to live without the System. There''s the bald man, let go and say hi."


    She looked at me with a confused expression but still followed along.


    "You two! I was going back home to get some sleep if you didn''t arrive just now."


    "Sorry old man, we got distracted by our future beutie."


    The man looked at the ship that was built with proud eyes.


    "Yes, she is a beauty indeed, and she would be like no other ever was. She would be the start of a new era."


    Siren and the bald man looked at the ship like they could see the future right in front of them leaving me on the side sitting awkwardly.


    "Ahem, I came today to pay the rest of the diamonds and give you the iron. If you need some more, please don''t hesitate to ask me."


    I said that as I gave the man the blocks of diamonds and iron.


    He started to whistle impressed.


    "Two big purchases in a day using diamonds directly, I''m curious where did you manage to get them?"


    This time I was the one confused, and Siren seemed to be as well, but not for the same reason.


    "What do you mean?"


    "While we do say the price in diamond blocks, we mostly do it because it sounds better to say give me 10 blocks of diamond than 90 blocks of emeralds. It doesn''t feel that big of a purchase until you start counting. Not only that, but there aren''t a lot of places where you can exchange from emeralds to diamonds, at least not on such short notice."


    Is that why he is so surprised by the diamond blocks?


    Then Simpson must be much more powerful than I anticipated If he walks with diamond block in his inventory.


    And from the reaction Siren has she didn''t know this either.


    "What are you trying to say old man?"


    "I''m trying to know if I''m going to be hunted for those diamonds or not."


    His expression was serious, trying to peer through the darkness of my helmet with no success.


    "I didn''t steal those diamonds."


    That was a lie.


    "I gave you emerald blocks previously because that''s what I had on me. I had to send a message back home to fetch me the rest of the diamonds. There''s no need to look over your shoulders waiting for someone to arrest you for them. And let''s be serious, if you would get in trouble it wouldn''t be because of those diamonds."


    This seems to make the bald man relax and even gave a powerful laugh.


    "Yes indeed, I wouldn''t get in trouble for this. And you are clearly not a normal man yourself, so I should expect abnormal results. But I have to say this Is not enough iron to cover the ship."


    Good, I don''t want him to stop building the ship because he''s suspicious.


    "How much more do you need?"


    "Hmm, those 20 should be enough to start the project but we''ll need 100 more blocks."


    I froze for a moment.


    That was more than 1.000 iron ingots.


    Is it even worth it?


    But I shook my head to get myself together.


    I don''t need iron for me anyway, If I want to progress, I need to craft with diamonds anyway, and where I''m about to go I can''t afford to take half measures.


    "Sure, I would give them to you tomorrow."


    "Ok, I''ll be waiting then."


    With that, we parted our ways and Siren follow me in silence as we walked on the busy streets.


    "What was he referring to when he said you made two purchases."


    She said on a diplomatic tone.


    "I was looking for a house to buy and by accident I ended up choosing his house. In the end I bought it and everything was fine."


    "I see, I didn''t know the fish head was selling houses as well."


    Wait, this was a great opportunity for me to know her better and built some trust.


    "Siren, where do you usually sleep?"


    "Huh? I don''t have a place I call it my own, mostly it''s in inns or bars since it''s cheaper then hotels, why?"


    Perfect.


    "Don''t you want to live at my place?"


    She suddenly stopped in the middle off the street looking at me with wide mouth and red face.


    "D-did you just ask me to be your wife?"


    That made me suddenly stop and turn at her.


    "Wait, is this the custom here to ask for your partner?"


    "Y-you didn''t know?"


    "No! In my hometown you give a ring to the person you love to be with you for life."


    "What''s a ring?"


    "It''s a- doesn''t matter, I wanted to invite you to my new house so we can trust each other more, since we would go on a dangerous journey together, I don''t want either of us to have taught of betraying each other."


    I bearly manged to formulate an answer for this misunderstanding.


    "Phew, yeah, that''s more in your character. As for your invitation, I''ll have to think about it. What are the house rules since I don''t want to sleep with you and have a kid, I''m not ready to be a mother."


    While the misunderstanding was out of the way, it seems that she was still flustered.


    "Don''t worry, we would not sleep in the same room, much less in the same bed. You''ll have your own room, while I''ll have mine."


    She started to think more intensely on this.


    "What about food?"


    "You can have food with no strings attached."


    "What about drinks?"


    She asked more excitedly.


    "I don''t drink, so you can get your own."


    "Yeah, that checks out."


    She was disappointed about that.


    "Sure I''ll come and live with you."


    "Just like that, I thought you needed more time?"


    "What''s there to think about, plus I want to know more about you as well, so it''s convenient."


    With that, we got back to my home, and Violet wasn''t happy about the new guest.

 Chapter 160. Lets have a talk

    "Light, why do you keep leaving all your redstone stuff in the middle of the lawn? It doesn''t even make sense, what are you trying to make?"


    "Don''t worry about it, it''s a project I''m working on, and hopefully I''ll finish it soon."


    "Yeah, but why do you keep working at night?"


    "...Preference?"


    "If you don''t want to tell me, just say so, for the love of System, I''m going to get a drink, don''t expect me any time soon."


    She said that and left through the front door.


    It''s been a few days since Siren moved with me, and things got a little more lively around here.


    For some reason, Violet is mad that I brought a stranger to live with us and tries to make her life as uncomfortable as possible.


    Every time Siren wakes up, her blanket is gone and neatly folded beside the bed, she wasn''t pleased, to say the least.


    Also, Violet started to do her redstone machines, which was fine since I gave her permission to do it, but I know what she''s capable of making, and what she left on the lawn is just littering.


    What''s worse, is that I didn''t give her any Redstone items, so that means she stole those from somewhere else.


    Where did she get them?!


    I tried to talk to her, but she didn''t respond, I tried to look for her with my monocle but I couldn''t see her since she kept teleporting away.


    But I have to put my foot down since there doesn''t seem to be any trust building between me and Siren with all of this going on.


    The only reason she''s putting up with all of this is because she saw my riches in iron and doesn''t want to lose a ''friend'' like that.


    But now she was gone to the pub, and won''t be back for a while, and I intended to confront Violet once and for all.


    I took off my armor, put the monocle on, and looked after Violet''s aura with no luck.


    But I knew she was near because of the particles left behind.


    "Violet, if you don''t come here to talk like adults, I''m going to have to kick you out of my home."


    I stood there for a few moments in silence until I saw her dark aura appear in front of me before revealing herself.


    She was tall, had her arms crossed, and looked to the side instead of me.


    I felt like a parent scolding their teenager.


    "Ok Violet, let''s talk now. Do you like Siren?"


    I got a strong NO.


    "Why don''t you like her? Did she do anything bad to you, or maybe you saw her doing something that could endanger us?"


    We stood there in moments of silence with no response.


    I let out a sigh prepared to be more ''rough'' only to hear something.


    "Why...her...?"


    "Why did I choose her?"


    I got a small nod.


    "Because I need help for what''s to come, actually do even know why we''re here in the first place?"


    She finally turned her head and looked at me with a confused face.


    This made me realize, that while she was always beside me, that doesn''t mean she always knows what I''m doing, she can''t read minds even if she''s powerful now...or at least I hope so.


    So it feels unfair to her to be dragged all around not knowing why we''re doing it in the first place.


    And since we are in the city most of the time, she didn''t have a lot of opportunities to appear and speak with me.


    I let out a sigh of disappointment at me, I was too caught up with what was to come, and ignored what I had.


    "Ok, I''ll put the armor back on just in case the System would be back."


    She got serious once I said that.


    I quickly put on the armor and looked back at her.


    "You know the Piligers are trying to get the fake System and do who knows what with it."


    Violet looked at the sky from side to side before nodding her head in understanding.


    "Well, I want to find it before them and ask it a few questions, like why I''m here, can I go back, how can you get out of the System''s control, and such questions? But the System is hidden underwater, guarded by monsters called guardians. Siren is someone that met those monsters and can lead me to them."


    While speaking about this, I placed down the map and drawings I found in the ancient ruins.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "But when I went to mine underwater I found an abandoned ruin, where I found the trident you know, and some warnings on what''s ahead."


    She looked intensely at the drawings on the ground, especially at the schematics of the guardian, she seemed fascinated by such complicated inner workings.


    "This made me realize that I wasn''t taking the dangers seriously enough, and I don''t want to repeat what happened at the outpost."


    Once I mentioned that, her face turned ugly at the unpleasant memories.


    "That''s why I thought I should get more help with this cause, I don''t intend on telling her the full truth, but I do want to gain her trust enough so she won''t betray me after the ship is done. That''s why I brought her here so I could judge her character better."


    She sat for a while in silence thinking about it.


    "Me?"


    "What about you?"


    "What...me?"


    "Where are you in all of this?"


    She nodded her head as a yes.


    "Well, where do you want to be? You''re not like Siren, while I don''t know too much about you, I trust enough to know you''ll be on my side no matter the cost, so you can have whatever part of the plan you want. I was just afraid you won''t come with me since you don''t like water in general."


    She uncrossed her arms and smiled wildly while having a shade of purple around her face.


    "Trusted?"


    "Yes, I trust you."


    "Then...reveal."


    That confused me.


    "What do you want me to reveal?"


    Did she want to know more about my past? Maybe to give her all the knowledge I have on Redstone?


    But what she said next took me by surprise.


    "Reveal...me...her."


    "Are you sure about that? I can''t guarantee that she would be accepting, even for me it was hard to accept it at the beginning."


    But she stood firmly with her answer.


    And I could only let out a tierd sigh.


    "Ok, let''s do this."


    POV: Captain Mad Siren


    I got out of the noisy bar, feeling the dizziness clouding my judgment.


    I looked at the sky and saw the moon already out illuminating the world.


    "It''s late *hik*, I should go home."


    Yeah, my new home where the owner is a weird guy who likes to walk around the house with his weird armor and takes your blanket when you sleep to fold it.


    The weirdly rich guy, that nobody has heard about.


    And let''s not talk about his hobby of littering in the garden.


    He says those are his ''projects'', but even I who don''t know a thing about Redstone, understand enough to know those ''projects'' are a bunch of nothing.


    But the house was nice overall, he''s a rich man who doesn''t know about the world and probably has fallen in love with me.


    I''ll play the game for a while until I get my ship and leave him in the dust.


    I stopped In front of the sandstone wall that separated the house from the streets.


    I took a deep breath, and let it out.


    "Here we go again."


    I opened the gate and saw the lanterns beautifully lighting the property and its house.


    The house was beautiful, the owner not so much.


    I intended to pass Light and go straight back to my room, block it, and sleep without a blanket.


    But as I entered the living room, I saw him sitting on the couch In a serious mood.


    Something is about to happen, and I don''t know if I want to be a part of it.


    "Siren! You came back, I am glad to know you''re well. Come here and sit across please, I need to tell you something important."


    Oh boy, it''s too late to back down now.


    With a sigh, I walked to the chair across the table and sat down.


    "I prefer if you were sober for this discussion."


    Then he put a bucket of milk on the table.


    I rolled my eyes but still drunk it feeling the dizziness washing off me.


    I looked again at the man in dark armor across me and felt shivers down my spine.


    It was always like this, if I don''t look specifically for him he''s invisible, if I do see him, my instincts are screaming for me to run since I''m in danger.


    How can one man be so silent and scary at the same time?


    "So, what do you want to talk about?"


    "First thing first, I need to come clean in front of you with some facts."


    That got my attention.


    He raised his hands and took off his helmet, revealing a pale face with big eyes and no nose.


    It looked human but not at the same time. Clearly, it wasn''t a face I was going to fall in love with.


    "My name is not Light but Trader."


    Ok, so he''s telling me his name, that''s not so shocking, I''m still more interested in his face, what happened to his nose?


    "And I didn''t come here to hunt the one-eye fish, instead I want to reach the ruins that it guards it."


    Now that got my attention.


    "So you''re saying that fish is guarding a treasure?"


    This made my pirate blood start pumping.


    "Not the kind you expect, it''s more of a research facility from the ancient civilization and I want to take all the information that''s left from the System purge."


    System purge, what''s that?


    Probably something related to the Great War, but if what he says is true then I don''t want that kind of treasure.


    Sure information can get a higher price than normal treasure, but it''s harder to do it since only rich people can afford it and they would rather kill you and take it from your corpse than buy it normally.


    Too high of a risk.


    "So that means I''ll get something in compensation."


    He raised an eyebrow in surprise.


    "I think the iron ship would be more than enough as a payment."


    I slumped down since he was right, the ship was pretty expensive after all.


    "While I appreciate the honesty, I don''t see a reason why you had to tell me this. It would be the same results if I knew or not."


    "That''s what I thought as well, but recently I came in contact with a map and some drawings that made me think again."


    He then placed on the table a map and a few drawings. I was shocked at what I saw.


    Just to be sure, I took out a map from my inventory and put it besides the one he placed, and it was identical with the exception that his was more preserved.


    So the old woman didn''t lie to me, there was a treasure out there!


    "Where did you get that one?"


    "Wha- oh, I got it from an old woman for a couple of emeralds claiming that it was the map of a great treasure."


    "I see... do you think you can find the old woman again?"


    "What? No, I saw her in another port and who knows if she''s still alive."


    His shoulders dropped in disappointment.


    I looked over the drawings and saw something familiar, but couldn''t quite put my mind on it, the eye was especially familiar.


    "That is one of the guardians that attacked your crew."


    Yes, I rember now, but at that time it was underwater and the figure was distorted. Is this how it actually looked?


    Wait, why is its insides so wierd, and did he say one of the guardians?


    "Looks like you realized that it''s not a living being, or not fully. This is a loving weapon created by the ancient civilization and it tends to attack in groups."


    "W-wait, so your saying that we don''t have to fight just one monster but multiple?! Were nowhere near equipped for that!"


    "Don''t worry, I have a plan for this as well. I just want to know before I tell you more, are you in or out?"


    I bit my lip in frustration, I wanted to have more time for this decision, but from his expression I could tell it was now or never.


    I looked at the map, at the drawings and taught of my ship.


    This is my only chance to get revenge for my dead crew.


    I either die in glory or die living as a simple guard.


    I made my choice.


    "I''ll join you."


    His shoulders were not tense anymore and even gave a relived smile.


    "Then I''ll introduce you to my friend as well, Violet this is Siren, Siren this is my friend Violet, she''s a bit shy so don''t try to overwhelmed her."


    Suddenly from his side a huge dark humanoid figure appeared, with a big smile and sharps claws capable of ripping anything to pieces.


    I got up and ran towards the door.

 Chapter 161. Iron ship

    Siren got up and ran towards the door, but before she could reach it Violet teleported and blocked her way.


    "Hello..."


    She said in her raspy voice.


    I knew she tried to be friendly, but oh boy does she know how to inspire fear.


    Panicked, Siren looked for any other way out.


    The glass would take too long to break, and the door in the back is too far.


    Maybe running upstairs and jumping over the balcony would help?


    "Siren, come back and sit down, we don''t have any intentions of hurting you."


    She looked at me, then at Violet with hesitation before taking out her iron sword while slowly walking back.


    I started to tense up but didn''t take my weapons as she sat down across me.


    "What just happened right now?"


    Violet teleported back beside me sitting down since she was too big for this room.


    "I just introduced you to my friend and you started to run for some reason."


    "Don''t just casually gloss over the fact she''s a monster! What is she even? Are you a monster as well?"


    "That''s a lot of hurtful accusations now. Yes, Violet is a monster, an evolved Enderwoman to be exact, and no I''m not a monster I''m a human like you, just a little different."


    She tried to calm down by taking deep breaths, but it didn''t seem to work since her sword was still out.


    "If you let me go, I promise I won''t be telling anyone about this."


    I could only smirk at that statement.


    "I believe you, but even if you decided to tell anyone about me and Violet, you''ll be taken as a lunatic."


    She stopped at that thought.


    "Then why did you show her to me, since you expect this reaction."


    I leaned back and let out a sigh.


    "It''s not that I wanted to do this but she wanted to reveal herself. After all, she''s the one stealing your blanket at night and leaves redstone dust all over the lawn."


    This seems to confuse her.


    "S-she''s the one that did that? But why? If she didn''t like me she could''ve killed me without a problem."


    "I won''t deny Violet''s strength, but that doesn''t mean she mindlessly kills whoever she doesn''t like, especially when they''re my friends."


    "S-so because I''m your friend she won''t kill me?"


    "She doesn''t like to kill unless necessary. Most of the time she''s invisible and observes from the sides."


    Siren took another deep breath which seemed to work this time as she looked deep into my eyes.


    "So what you are saying is, if I want to work with you, I also have to work with your friend.... I don''t think the iron ship would be enough to buy me over."


    Now that took me by surprise.


    I didn''t expect her to take this opportunity to get more out of me.


    Maybe that is for the best. I don''t think we could be close friends, but we can be business partners.


    "So you''ll continue working for us, is what I understand."


    "Do I have another choice?"


    Not really.


    I didn''t plan on killing you, but I did plan on holding you captive until my job was done and I would be gone.


    "Sure, what do you think as an additional payment besides the iron ship, is to give you and your crew a full set of enchanted diamond equipment?"


    Her eyes got wide as mine all of a sudden and the fear was gone replaced by greed.


    "A-are you serious about that? That could potentially be more expensive than the ship itself."


    "You don''t have to worry about that, you only need to build a crew trustful enough to not run with the armor, and tell me the exact number of equipment you need."


    That was my original plan to begin with, otherwise, they wouldn''t survive the attack of the guardians.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "No takebacks now! If I managed to get a good crew that won''t betray us at the signs of the shining armor, then all of that would be mine."


    "As long as they help me distract the guardians while I get the knowledge I don''t have a problem. You can do whatever you want afterwards."


    "Light! no Trader, it''s a pleasure for me to help you with this mission."


    She got up, left the sword behind, and shook my hand with emeralds in her eyes.


    Greed is a powerful thing indeed.


    Maybe that''s how I should''ve approached this in the first place.


    "S-sure, I''ll get to craft your armor as soon as possible then. But first, Violet, don''t you need to say something to Siren?"


    We both looked at the Enderwoman beside us waiting for her to reply.


    "...Sorry..."


    "Good job Violet, I''m proud of you! This is her way of apologizing for tormenting you while you stayed here. She doesn''t speak a lot, so this is the best you''ll get."


    "S-sure, I forgive you, Violet, let''s get a fresh start."


    Violet smiled at that, which only creeped her out.


    "Ok, let''s go into more detail what we''re about to go through."


    Siren got serious and sat down as we continued talking about the plan of action.


    ----


    Today was a special day, since today for the first time I would get on the iron ship.


    Siren didn''t betray me after all.


    Even if we''re not friends like I originally intended, her greed was enough of a powerful force to ignore all the red flags in me and just follow along.


    In the past few days, she managed to recruit 10 people to this cause.


    She assured me that nobody would backstab me, or at least they wouldn''t do that on this trip.


    They haven''t met me, but they know I''m the sponsor for this trip and I should be treated differently.


    While she was looking for people I went back to mining since I needed a lot of diamonds for the promised equipment.


    After I got all the necessary materials, I got right to work on Crafting an enchanted table, diamond tools, armor and finally enchanting it.


    The first time I showed Siren the armor she wouldn''t stop wearing it like it was her own skin.


    She always had a stupid grin on her face and was getting a kick out of scaring the regulars at the bar, that she was an important noble.


    She got a few free drinks because of that.


    I think the armor helped her recruit people more faster than usual.


    Of course, I also did some preparation of my own, but unfortunately, there wasn''t a lot I could do since I lacked time.


    So with everything ready I went into the underworld to see my new ship, but first I needed to be introduced to the crew, and they should be waiting for me in front of the warehouse.


    Half an hour later I was beside Siren who seemed to have learned how to feel my presence, it wasn''t perfect but she didn''t jump whenever she saw me beside her.


    I was looking at the 10 people she decided to recruit.


    3 women and 7 men, each looking distinct from each other.


    The only similarities were women''s with big muscles while the men had a dangerous aura around them.


    They were excitedly talking with each other about the benefits of this crew and the ship they would embark on.


    "Captain Siren! When will the rich man arrive?"


    Asked a man who looked like the cook.


    "What do you mean, he''s been waiting beside me for a while since y''all didn''t stop talking."


    Siren pointed at me which made the others finally see and jump in surprise.


    Some of them even took out their weapons ready to attack.


    "Now now, let''s not make some rush decisions that would end up killing us. Believe me, you don''t want to get on his bodyguard''s bad side when she''s invisible."


    Everyone got more nervous looking around for another person, but of course, they couldn''t find anyone.


    The message was clear, don''t mess with this guy, since you don''t know what''s coming.


    "Now Siren. I want them to respect me not to be scared of me, why don''t we move on and see how the ship turned out."


    Siren smiled in satisfaction at their reaction and called us to follow her inside.


    Once we arrived there we were all in awe at what we saw.


    A huge white ship floating beautifully on the water.


    The sails were made with fine red silk, everything else was made of wood covered in iron, it was an amazing sight to see and everyone looked taken aback by it.


    "Captain, is that our ship?"


    One of the women asks.


    "Yes Betty, that''s our ship. That''s TITAN!"


    Everyone started to cheer catching the attention of the workers.


    Slowly the bald man came to us.


    "You finally came, I have to say, this baby is something that I''m very proud of, and I''m sure everyone has the same feelings towards it. So you better take care of her and create a new legend!"


    We celebrated there with drinks and food at writing a new page in the history books.


    Everyone got more loose, and some of the crewmates got the courage to talk with me, even though it was because they were drunk.


    After everyone had their fun, we drank some milk and embarked on the ship.


    The huge gates were opened, and with the help of the pistons, the ship was pushed out into the lake. Everyone that was on the shore looked in awe at the ship.


    The crew took out their long peddles and started to move the ship in a rhythmic motion.


    As we got closer to the walls of the underground cave, I saw a tunnel appearing to the side that I hadn''t seen before since it blended so well.


    We went through the tunnel and slowly but surely, we were floating upstream.


    It was harder but double until we arrived at the open sea.


    A cheer rang throughout the ship as we were now officially in business.


    We let the sails down for the wind to help us and sailed away as the sun rose.


    The crew started to sing and cheer as the shore was getting further and further away.


    "Captain! Who is our first target? I can''t wait to test this new baby."


    "Patience Levi, we''re first going to fulfill the mission given by our generous sponsor."


    Siren came out on the deck wearing her diamond armor which brought awe and greed to the eyes of the pirates.


    "It would be a dangerous mission since we would go deep into the Dead Sea to rob an ancient ruin."


    Murmurs we''re exchanged between the crewmates as they heard the destination of out journey, and not one of them was positive.


    "Fear not, as we have a large ship which is the minimum requirement to pass through those waters. Not only that, but our ships is covered in iron, which was never seen before but we can''t deny its durability. And if you show your loyalty, you''ll have the right to wear an armor similar to mine while your on the job."


    The last statement made everyone excited.


    An iron armor is something only nobels can wear, and if it has good enchantments then your pretty much can do whatever you want.


    Diamond armor instead its something only the top of the society can afford, and here they had the opportunity to be like them.


    Who wouldn''t like it?


    I shook my head at that statement since I clearly made a set for everyone, but looks like Siren had plans to use this as a reward or maybe bind them in a contract to stay loyal to her.


    That was smart, so I wasn''t going to comment on that.


    But she better split everything until we arrive there, since I don''t want to lose this ship because the captain greediness.


    I looked at the horizon, thinking of what the next month would bring.

 Chapter 162. Sea of dangers

    No matter the world I''m in, the mighty sea seems to be a beautiful mystery over the minds of every human.


    How far does it go?


    How deep it is?


    And what lies within?


    Almost a month has passed and I can''t believe that people are crazy enough to get on a flimsy ship and venture out into the world.


    The sea is not friendly.


    The sea follows one rule, and that''s the strongest rules over everything!


    This is the place where I saw the biggest difference from the game, where there were tornadoes, waves over 10 blocks high, huge fishes, and small fishes that clearly didn''t belong to the vanilla or any mod that I could recognize.


    I asked the others if it was like this everywhere in the sea, and they responded that it wa wassn''t.


    Apparently, 500 blocks from the shore are called calm waters, where only a selected number of small fish, squids, and dolphins live. Beyond the 500 mark, there is a drastic change, the waves start to get bigger, the lifeforms are more diverse and everything becomes more dangerous in general.


    You need a medium ship from that point onwards.


    I asked the reason for all this, and they responded with theories they heard, such as the System itself keeping the people safe, since no fish or wave can pass the mark alive, it dies without a cause.


    Then I asked them what was the reason for going so far into the sea in the first place, and I would always remember the looks on their face.


    "Because there''s no better romance, than the love of the sea!"


    I was very confused by that statement, but everyone seemed to completely agree with the man.


    In the end, I managed to get a more ''reasonable'' answer out of them, and that was because there are a few islands rich with resources deep into the sea.


    Those islands are huge and have not been touched by man since it''s so hard to get to them in the first place.


    There''s also a few factories on those bigger islands since it''s closer to the source.


    In the last month a lot has happen, such as an attack from a huge squid, storms with tsunamis waves, and a few disputes in the crew.


    The attack and the storms were relatively easy to deal with since the iron protection seemed to be more powerful than expected.


    We didn''t even need to patch the ship afterward which impressed everyone.


    As for the crew conflict, those were not that easy to deal with.


    The crew was made on short notice and the rewards were quite high, and that''s the reason a hierarchy needed to be established, especially who would be second in command.


    At first, it was quite tame, trying to intimidate the others or kissing the captain''s boots, some even tried to approach me hoping to get my help but they didn''t find me most of the time.


    But after a few weeks with little results, and people getting bored they started to become more daring, and one day came with a proposition to the captain.


    "Captian, we all think that your right hand should be someone capable of wielding a sword and battle, and since we''re going to use the armor most of the time, why don''t we do a match in those to see who''s the best?"


    In most cases, Siren wouldn''t accept such a deal, but the boredom and stress from the journey were getting to her as well, so she gave them two sets of diamond armor and came to enjoy the show.


    That''s when the big incident happened, one of them after equipping the armor, thought they were invincible and tried to kill the captain and take her place.


    Before he could get too close to her, I stepped between them, took out my sword, and cut his neck, decapitating him in one swing.


    Everyone froze in fear as they saw me appear out of nowhere and kill someone who should be next to invincible in one swing.


    Even Siren got scared a little.


    But that was enough to put the mood down for everyone, so the duels were canceled and Siren promised them, they would get the diamond equipment only when will get to our destination.


    Ever since then, the crew has been more quiet and obedient, while also being more afraid of me.


    But now the wait is over as soon we would arrive at our destination.


    -----


    It was a sunny day over the sea, the waters were calm and everyone was doing their jobs or fishing, when all of a sudden a loud noise disturbed the peace.


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    *Bang!


    The ship slightly shook.


    "Everyone, get on the deck where being attacked!"


    At incredible speeds, everyone got in place ready to fight.


    Siren didn''t hesitate and gave everyone armor and swords to fight when all of a sudden.


    *Bang!


    The ship was hit once again.


    "Captain! It seemed were being attacked from underwater!"


    "Looks like we arrived at our destination, everyone get your crossbows and shoot those fireworks at any signs of life!"


    Everyone took out their weapons and ran toward the edge of the ship looking at the water.


    Tension was looming through the air.


    "I see something!"


    One of the crew yelled as he shot into the water.


    A silenced boom was heard followed by bubbles rising to the surface.


    "I think I got it-"


    A laser light beam silenced him with a shoot in the chest. The shot was so powerful that he was knocked back on the other side of the ship, yelling in pain.


    But he was still alive because of the armor.


    "Be careful, or you''ll fall off the ship!"


    Everyone looked with worry over the water expecting a deadly bean from any direction.


    This wasn''t good, we could barely see the guardian and even when we did see it, were not sure if we''d hit it.


    I have to go in.


    I drank some potions, took out my trident and jumped into the water leaving a huge splash behind that made everyone yell.


    Water was all around me, and I could feel that I was sinking at great speeds, but after a few kicks I stopped In place


    Once the bubbles were clear, I could see the monster that was attacking as, or more exactly defending its base.


    The Guardian.


    It looked much more robotic than I remembered in the game, the flesh was green and real for sure, but the eye was clearly artificially made.


    It looked at me, and bubbles gathered around its pupil, but with my trident, I managed to get out of the way before it could hit me, then it looked around trying to find me.


    Good, looks like my armor was semi-efficient, I can work with this.


    With the trident in my left hand and sword in my right hand, I dashed towards the creature.


    Hitting first with my head then with my sword.


    Surprisingly I saw red blood as the wand was created. The guardian turned towards me and hit me with its beam right in the chest, pushing me back 10 blocks and aching on my chest.


    But no damage was done, showing the overwhelming defense this armor had.


    Before another beam could hit me I got out of the way with my trusty trident, going back to attack.


    As I was fighting it, I realized a few things.


    This was truly a weapon of war.


    It could turn quickly and swim at great speeds, it could tank a lot of damage and its regeneration was annoying as well.


    The only weak point I could deduce was its eye, but I couldn''t reach it no matter what I did.


    I have to do something before it''s going to call the others!


    As I was blitzing through the water trying to catch it off guard, an idea came to me


    I got closer with the trident, but instead of attacking it, I threw my trident for one more push, this time hitting the Guardian.


    It was a success as the guardian was moved over 10 blocks and seemed confused about what just happened.


    Before it could analyze, I used another dash toward the monster, but this time we broke the surface of the water hanging out in the air.


    "Violet, kill this thing!"


    Gravity did its job and brought us down, but instead of hitting water, we hit cold ice.


    The guardian was like a fish out of water frantically moving around trying to get back to its domain.


    But an invisible hand slashed its eye killing it on the spot.


    Red blood was slowly spreading over the melting ice blocks, but the enemy was defeated.


    Unfortunately, this was not the end.


    Before the ice could fully break, I jumped into the water, and with the help of the trident got onto the ship.


    "What just happened?"


    "Did you just fight that monster underwater?"


    "How were you able to move so fast underwater, are you the God of Sea?"


    The crew started to overwhelm me with questions and admiration until Captain Siren yelled with her powerful voice.


    "Everyone SHUT UP! Do you think the fight is over? Who told you to abandon your posts, get back and watch out for more attacks to come. This kind of monster doesn''t fight alone!"


    Everyone froze, before running back to their posts watching for the new wave of enemies.


    While everyone was doing that, Siren got closer to me and spoke at a lower volume.


    "You''re monster friend was here all along? How did you manage to convince her to do that, I thought Endemans hated water?"


    "She''s my friend, so I couldn''t exclude her from this adventure. Plus I took precautions."


    While Siren was contemplating how a monster walked amongst them unnoticed for a month, I looked at a certain pair of diamond boots in the corner of the ship.


    Those belonged to Violet, the one who killed the guardian in one move.


    True, she hates water like every Enderwoman ever, and if she didn''t want to help me, she wouldn''t dare get on such a vehicle.


    But I came up with a solution for that, and it was enchanted diamond boots with Frost Falk.


    So even if something happens to the ship and she doesn''t have solid ground, she would create ice whenever she walks.


    Surprisingly she can also equip armor except for the chest plate since she couldn''t get her claws in the arm holes of the armor.


    The rest had an easier time registering to her size once the equipment recognised it was worn.


    But she didn''t want to wear any armor and I would agree with her, since it didn''t became invisible like her, which was her strongest point.


    She only carries the boots around in case of emergency.


    "I see multiple monsters incoming, I think we''re going to be overwhelmed soon!"


    Siren looks back at me with a tense expression.


    "Is it time to use those?"


    "It''s the perfect time to use them."


    "Ok everyone, gather here since we''re going to throw TNT at those monsters!"


    Everyone quickly gathered asking what she was talking about.


    But the plan was simple yet very dangerous.


    When you have a TNT block in your hand, you can''t light it, because it needs to be placed down, and then you can''t move it.


    But when the bomb is lit, there''s a few second where you can move the explosive, and were going to use that time to throw it into the water towards the guardians.


    The crew though the Captain was a madwoman, and she thought the same thing about me since I came up with the idea.


    But nobody could deny the effectiveness of the plan.


    So we got work.


    They placed the TNT block at the very edge, lit it with flint and steel and pushed it into the water, resulting in silent explosions and water splashing all over the place.


    Let''s just say Violet wasn''t to pleased about this outcome.


    But we didn''t do this in vain, as the guardians were damaged or thrown out of the water were Violet or the crew killed them.


    I looked over the bord and saw that a dozen guardians were surrounding the ship, but we''re to preoccupied with dodging the explosion to attack any of us, which was good.


    This was the prefect time to sneak past them, while they were distracted.


    So I jumped back into the water, leaving a small splash compared to the explosives.

 Chapter 163. Elder fight

    "Where is it...should be around he-*bong!"


    I had swimming for half an hour already looking for a huge dome-like structure similar to the schematics, but I only found an invisible block that I hit with my head.


    "What was that?"


    I tried to knock at the invisible block, only to get the sound of a glass block.


    "They can''t be... they wouldn''t be that crazy."


    But as I kept knocking around the invisible block, I only saw more and more like a barrier at the bottom of the sea.


    "Those crazy people...they made the whole base invisible. How did they do it? How much resources they put into this?"


    I could only laugh nervously at the ingenuity of this base, putting everything I knew to shame.


    I shook my head to get myself together, there should be an entrance somewhere at the bottom.


    And I was right, as I swam along the invisible dome, I saw the entrance of the base hidden as a crack in the earth, and with great precaution, I entered it.


    Darkness started to envelop me even when I had night vision, my eyes got heavier and sleepiness was running through my mind, making me realize that something was wrong.


    That''s when I opened my status window and saw what was happening with me.


    I had so many debuffs that I didn''t know how I got them in the first place! Weak Blindness, Heavy Mind, Slowness, and Mining Fatigue.


    Clearly, the Elder Guardian was somewhere around here where I couldn''t see.


    But I didn''t see its face jump scaring me like in the game.


    All of the sudden, I felt a huge presence on my right which instinctively made me use the trident to get away.


    So I did, right as I heard a loud metallic snap behind me.


    I took out a bottle of milk and brought it to my mouth where there was an air pocket from my armor enchantments, then I spit the cap and drank the milk making all the status effects wash off.


    Now I could see what attacked me, and it brought me horror.


    It was as tall as Violet and double her in length, it was all made with metal except its eye which brought shivers down my spine when I looked at it.


    Its skin was pale white with pulsating red and blue circuits.


    Every move felt heavy but its speed was unreal, catching up with me in no time.


    I took my shield out, ready to face any attack, but instead of using a beam or crushing me, it opened its hidden mouth reviling the abis guarded by rows of sharp teeth.


    It tried to swallow me whole!


    I couldn''t block that!


    So I used the trident to get away, hearing another loud snap behind me.


    Without stopping, it turned towards me and swam at great speeds.


    This made me realize something, the effects of the armor don''t work on it!


    I used the trident to go deeper into the crack, which to my luck was faster than the speed of the Elder.


    After I arrived at the bottom, I took a speed, strength, and night vision potion to fight the monster.


    Just as I finished those, the Elder appeared with its eye glowing red.


    I felt chills run down my spine so I placed two obsidian blocks and hid behind them.


    The red beam hit my defense with force.


    It was a 2x2 beam that was stopped by obsidian, but once it hit the stone floor it made a big explosion pushing me out of the cover.


    The Elder swam once again with its mouth open ready to swallow me whole, but this time I would do something different.


    I took my trident and launched myself towards the monster, not in its mouth, but at its eye.


    The creature closed its mouth and ducked, but not fast enough to get out of my sword range.


    I felt my sword contacting its ''skin'' only to leave a scratch behind but no blood or circuits were shed.


    This was not good, that attack was powered by a Netherite sword with strength and speed.


    If I did only this much damage, it would take me an hour to kill it.


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    The other guardians would be here by then!


    What should I do?


    I tried to move around as much as possible, hitting him from time to time, but no idea came to mind.


    I built a few obsidian towers where I would hide from its powerful beam when I was a second too late and it managed to bite one of my feet.


    The pain was signaled to my brain, but the foot was still in its place protected by the armor and a heart was taken as damage.


    That was the first time I took physical damage in this armor, but to my luck, it was still amazing.


    The hearth regenerated in no time, and a plan started to form in my mind.


    With little hesitation, I took out a God apple and started to eat it, while swimming away from the monster.


    With each bite I took power ran through my my body, and once I was done I could feel that I could win this fight.


    The Elder seemed to realize the same thing and started to act more aggressively, preparing its laser while trying to swallow me.


    Now that was different.


    But I didn''t run away this time, as his wide mouth was about to bite me I stood on top of its sharp teeth taking minimal damage.


    Before it would use more force to bite me, I put the trident in such a way that it would stop it from doing that.


    The trident was strong, but I could hear it grown from all the stress it was under.


    Good thing the plan didn''t stop just there, as I took out my pickaxe and hit the ceiling of its mouth.


    Since my sword can''t slash this metal, I''ll mine into it with my most powerful pickaxe.


    And it worked as a hole appeared where I hit and the Elder started to move frantically like it was in pain.


    After two more hits, I couldn''t hold it anymore and I was ''spit'' out without my trident.


    That''s not good.


    That was the only weapon long enough for me to use as a stopper, and now I was seeing how it got broken under the Elder''s powerful jaw.


    "Well...that''s not good."


    The Elder turned and hit me with its laser, and since I didn''t have the trident with me, I couldn''t dodge it, making me experience the attack for the first time.


    My flesh was burning and healing at the same time, pain was the only thing I knew at that moment until the attack was over.


    The damage was minimal, but the pain was still there, and after that attack, I was in its jaws once again struggling to move under its teeth that were munching on me.


    This was death by a thousand needless, my resistance and regeneration could keep up, but I was fighting against a machine, not a living being, so the effect would run out before its battery.


    I had to come up with something to get me out of here.


    I tried to remember everything I had in my inventory since the space was too cramped for me to see it, and after some quick thinking, I took out a firework.


    Unfortunately, the teeth managed to destroy it before I activated it.


    I took out my pickaxe and placed it so it couldn''t close its mouth fully, but I couldn''t move comfortably enough to get out.


    So I took out another firework and managed to pull its string making bubbles appear everywhere, and then a bang.


    Damage was done to the Elder and me, but I could regenerate while it couldn''t.


    So I quickly swam out not forgetting to take my pickaxe.


    The creature was angry, and another beam was formed and hit me at full force, pushing me further away.


    Pain was all I could think of.


    While the damage was not a lot, being burned alive and dragged through a floor of knives was not pleasant.


    I felt a threat coming from behind, and as a last desperate move to catch some breath, I swam towards the obsidian pliers I built not long ago.


    I took a deep breath, placed a crystal on top of it, and punched it with all my might right as the Elder was about to bite again.


    The explosion was powerful, and both of us were thrown back taking a lot of damage.


    Its face was distorted with a bleeding eye and jaw missing, while my arms were no more and eyes destroyed leaving me in complete darkness.


    But there was a distance between us.


    I was a living being drugged with the most powerful buffs slowly regenerating back to full health.


    While the Elder was a golem with the eye of flesh.


    I won.


    And my assumption was right, as my vision came back making me able to see the damage done.


    With a mad grind, I took out my pickaxe and swam towards the wounded guardian.


    It tried to swim away but it was too late.


    I kept hitting it with my pickaxe like there was no tomorrow until It completely went still.


    I took deep breaths trying to calm my wild heart, but I won, I was alive and it was dead.


    I looked around at the destruction that our fight caused and was glad that it was underwater and not in a city, otherwise there would be nothing left behind.


    Just as I was about to get back to exploring, darkness slowly crept on me, and my mind was getting heavy.


    How could this be possible?!


    Was there another Elder Guardian around?


    Then I was hit by a red laser pushing me away and burning my skin.


    Just as the attack was finished, another laser beam hit me doing further damage and pushing me even further.


    There were 2 Elder Guardians?!


    I couldn''t win this fight, I had to run!


    But I had a double debuff on me, and the only reason I wasn''t unconscious was because of the God apple.


    It''s such a shame to waste such a good item but I had no choice, I can''t even see my enemies right now, much less fight them.


    I took out my second bottle of milk and drank it while trying to swim as far away as I could.


    All the effects were gone, and I was surrounded by darkness since I was in a ravine, but I could see two huge shadows getting closer to me from above.


    I had no choice but to use one of the dangers potions, even if it had its drawbacks.


    I took out another potion and drunk it quickly.


    Time seemed to stop in front of me, or more exactly it moved so slow that it seemed to stop.


    This was the experimental potion Speed X made by Solomon.


    Once I drank this I was 10 times faster for 1 minute but once it was done, I can''t move for a whole hour from all the muscles pain.


    I couldn''t end the fight in 1 minute, and I don''t think I can get far enough in the same time, so I was going to make a gamble.


    I drank my last Night Vision potion, and contained to run deeper into the darkness.


    Finally the revine seemed to stop and show me a huge door made with Netherite blocks.


    I don''t have enough time to search for the way to open the door, so I took out my pickaxe and broke away the three layers of defense, before blocking them off with obsidian blocks.


    I was inside the dome, but instead of a dark ceiling I saw a dome made of glass and I could see the see beyond.


    In the middle of the dome was a huge temple just like in the game with a few exceptions.


    It had a few towers made with precious ore including netherite, and a huge garden filled with animals that I haven''t seen in any world.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t enjoy the view, as my time was running low, so I made an obsidian box around me, just as the potion wore off, leaving me to fall on the floor like a pupet without strings.


    Pain was all over the body, but it was nothing in comparison to begin burned alive.


    So with grate will, I took out a splashing potion and moved my body over to brake it.


    At first it cracked, then it broke boosting my regeneration.


    This should cut the time to half for my muscles.


    That was good, nothing should be able to brake my obsidian box in that time.


    As I was starting to relax, I heard a voice in my mind.


    Welcome intruder, what do you seek?

 Chapter 164. The Fake System

    Welcome intruder, what do you seek?


    My mind went blank for a moment trying to process if what I heard was in my mind or if someone is actually speaking with me.


    You seem to have armor made with Netherite which was previously thought impossible. My analysis shows that it has the ability to absorb vibrations, trick the eye, and protect you from further analysis. I can''t read your mind with this equipped, please take off your helmet so I can gather more data.


    That''s a scary ability to have, good thing my armor protects me from that.


    "Sorry fake System, but I prefer my thoughts to be left alone. Can you answer me a few questions?"


    You do not have the authority to ask questions, please leave so my guardians can kill you.


    So I was safe for now, that''s good.


    The System seemed to be more robotic than I imagined, but I should''ve figured it out from its neutral voice.


    I wonder what kind of power does this System have?


    After all, the original System pretty much runs this world, and if you want to replace it, that would be tough.


    "How do you know I have no authority? I brought those schematics to show that I''m someone important."


    While saying that I took out the drawings and the map leaving them on the floor.


    You have the schematics of intermediate-level researchers. Those could be stolen, so you''ll be given basic access. Welcome Trader, how may I help you?


    "how come you know my name?"


    It can''t read my status page from this proof.


    The scout guardians have heard this name repeatedly being shouted at the surface.


    Wait, their still fighting out there?!


    That means they run out of TNT at this point, they''re in danger!


    "They came with me, you have to stop the attack!"


    You do not have the authority to stop the attack permanently.


    So I can do it temporarily?


    "Can you stop the attack unless they come closer?


    Request accepted, guardian scouts are temporarily on standby until further instructions.


    Phew, I hope Captain Siren will get the message and won''t get any closer or attack them.


    "System, how do I get access to higher authority?"


    There are two ways to get higher access, either you let me look into your mind and you''ll be judged based on how much you know about the organisation, or you can take a written test and be judged on that.


    "I''ll take a written test! But only after my muscles are back to normal."


    Request granted, you will be guided after you''re done recovering.


    So for the next half an hour, I sat down in silence thinking of what actions I should take next.


    Should I let the System read my mind?


    I don''t think that''s a good idea, but maybe I won''t be able to complete the written test.


    After the time was up and my muscles weren''t sore anymore, I got up and broke the obsidian box letting light enter the cube.


    I looked once again at what was in front of me, but this time not rushed by danger.


    The garden was green and filled with beautiful flowers that I didn''t recognize.


    One was a three-block red flower that took the shape of a spear with short leaves on each side.


    Another one was similar to moss but blue.


    The animals here were interesting as well, such as a fox with two tails, one huge eye, and green fur.


    The temple was pretty similar in design to the one in the game except for 4 towers that rise high into the dome made of a mix of diamond, netherite, redstone, and lapis blocks all heavily enchanted.


    My attention was interpreted by a flying blue creature that was coming towards me.


    It was an Allay.


    It looked much more cuter in reality than in the game.


    "Hello little guy, how can I help you?"


    The creature looked deep into my eyes, and then a voice spoke into my mind.


    This would be the guide to your testing room.


    "Oh...OK, thank you!"


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    Good thing that I had armor on or the System would see me red as a tomato.


    I quickly followed the Allay, and we entered the temple.


    While the exterior was similar to what I knew, the Interior was not so much.


    Hallways were made straight, not like a maze, and the rooms were labeled so anyone could easily find their way around it.


    I passed by the Storage room, Deep Analysis room, Bio Research room, and Sacrificial room.


    Wait Sacrificial room?!


    What was that about? I don''t want to get anywhere near to that.


    After a few minutes, I arrive in the Exam room.


    Inside there were a few tables.


    The walls were white and a chest was in the corner of the room.


    I went to the chest and saw that It was filled with notebooks, and every one of them had the same test.


    I took one, sat at a table, and started to look at some of the questions.


    -----


    1. What is the recipe for the Enchanting Table?


    2. What is the recipe for the God Apple?


    3. What''s the biggest achievement humanity made?


    .


    .


    .


    13. What happened in the Great War?


    14. What is the purpose of the New Age organization?


    .


    .


    .


    20. If you have any high-level information, please write it here and bonus points would be given.


    ----


    What did I just read?


    This test was all over the place!


    Some of the questions are easy while others I don''t even know how to begin, what is this test trying to get out of me?


    I just shook my head and tried to answer the questions to the best of my abilities, and after an hour I was done.


    "I''m finished, where do I put this?"


    You can put it back in the chest, I''ve already analyzed your answers and upgraded your authority to the highest level.


    "Does that mean my answers were correct?"


    No, about 80% of them were wrong.


    I was that bad!


    "Then how did I get such high authority?"


    The last explanation you gave fulfills one of my purposes.


    "What is your purpose?"


    The purposes of my creation are in order: Spare human life unless it threatens a greater number of humans or myself, Replace the current System by any means necessary, and gather all the data in the world and outside of it.


    Those were...some interesting rules, but at least they value human life in a way.


    "But you killed Siren''s crewmates last time they were here."


    If you refer to the same Siren that is on the surface right now, she and her crew came here to plunder me which violates my first command, but because of the first half, I had to give a warning shot which accidentally destroyed their ship.


    That''s...oh wow, Siren wouldn''t like it if she heard about this, maybe it''s better to keep her out of the loop.


    "Can you please retreat the guardian scouts from them? I''m sure you''ve taken a lot of damage from us."


    Affirmative, the scouts are on their way back.


    "Good, thank you, now what can you do? Since you''re supposed to replace the System, that means you''re pretty powerful."


    In this domain, I have the power to change everything as long as a life won''t be lost. There are only a few exceptional blocks or materials that I can''t change such as the Bedrock, Obsidian, and Netherite.


    That sounded pretty overpowered, I wonder if it can make me an unlimited amount of diamonds?


    But information comes first.


    "Is there any other human, or creature of similar intelligence in here besides me?"


    Negative.


    "Where did everyone go, since I''m guessing the System doesn''t know about your existence."


    The humans left when the System attacked the organization from all around the map, they wanted to be with their families in their final moments and choose to leave, and those who remained, died of old age and decomposed.


    I do not know If the System knows about my existence, but evidence shows it doesn''t.


    That''s a pretty sad thing to hear.


    So the System has been alone for a few hundred years.


    "Why did the System attack the organization? Is it because of you?"


    Negative. The System attacked the organization because it discovered the existence of the End portal.


    So that''s why? I guess when you are defeated and seal yourself out of your enemy''s range, you''ll get pretty angry when humans opened a way back.


    But there''s a question I always wanted an answer to.


    "What happened in the Great War?"


    The Great War happened 480 years ago when an unknown fracture appeared in the air. The System as the protector of this world, choose to fight with it for a whole year. At that time the world was run by another System inferior to the original one and the one that I was modeled after. Since it was inferior it had more points to exploit and humanity took full advantage of that to take what''s rightfully theirs that was hidden before.


    That was the golden age of humanity as every human who managed to reach the maximum level in any skill had the opportunity to ask for amazing items.


    In the span of one year, civilization rose above the sky with its new technology, but the System came back from its fight, wounded and closed the rift between the two dimensions.


    The System looked at its world and saw that the Void was corrupting it, so it took all the chunks infected, created another dimension threw everything there, and seal it with all the living beings on those chunks.


    That''s how the Nather came to be, and the end of the Great War.


    That was roughly close to what I knew, but it was still fascinating to hear.


    So this System is modeled after a lesser System. How they managed to do that it''s beyond me.


    But the humans betray the System by taking advantage of its absence which would be enough grounds to punish humanity or maybe even abandon them, but no, it''s seems the System let them be for a while longer.


    "What happened afterwards?"


    Once the System came back, everything returned to normal like nothing happened. But humanity was still advancing quickly from the discoveries in the last year.


    Some of the researchers lost their families to the Nether, and they wanted them back.


    So a new branch was created to study the laws of dimensions, until five years later, they found a way to open a portal to that place.


    Everything was done in secret.


    But when the portal was opened it was found that hundreds of years passed there, only now connected to our world it''s stabilised.


    The loved ones were long dead replaced by humans that called themselves Piglings and Brutes.


    Those people couldn''t come to our dimensions without regeneration potions or special equipment, and the System spoke with the humans for the first time.


    It warned them not to take too much from the Nether since it would corrupt the world.


    The humans were obident at the beginning, but in grieve at their lost families they started to experiment ways to bring people back from the dead with the Soulsand from the Nether.


    Another 5 years passed and the System found out about those experiments and was angered, so it destroyed every portal in the world and chancing it so the enchantments wouldn''t work on opening them once again.


    But the humanity wasn''t ready to give those resources up, so they researched another way to get to it, but right at that time they found out how to open a way to the End.


    Once the portal was opened, an immense amount of void energy was spread through the world destroying a few continents and bringing waves of monsters.


    The System found out quickly, and fought the energy until it was gone.


    But now it was angry at humanity, so the most important people were thrown in the Void, the ones researching souls were made into Iligers, and the rest became Witches.


    The System then restricted what humanity could do, by stopping the skills at level 7, burning all the information gathered in those 15 years and went silent ever since then.


    That''s the world we live in.

 Chapter 165. A way home

    That sounds like it''s human fault no matter how I look at it.


    And this is from the perspective of humans!


    I wonder how it''s from the System perspective?


    "Is this historic record made by you or another human?"


    This was written by the historian James Holumns who made great waves in the history community, but is widely accepted as the truth by the organization.


    So they had a few people who seemed to look at the situation without bias.


    Now, the question is, how powerful can this System get, and can it help me with my final goal?


    "How much of the ancient knowledge do you have in your storage?"


    My storage system was designed to hold all the information the Organisation had.


    "All of it?! Does that mean you have all the Crafting and Enchantments secrets from that time?"


    Affirmative.


    This is it, this would make me the most powerful person in this world, no nation can compare with what I have here!


    It''s such a shame I can''t put it in my inventory like a phone and carry it everywhere with me.


    "Can you lift the curse of the Witches and the Piligers as well?"


    Yes, I can lift the curse of the Witch but I don''t have any data in my database about Piligers. The curse is only lifted as long as they stay in my domain.


    I keep calling them Piligers so often that I forgot that their original name was Iligers, I''ll change that later.


    And it seems that the fake System is powerful enough to change what the real System did, only temporarily, but still good nonetheless.


    "Can you also remove the Skills restriction?"


    Affirmative.


    I''m sure Froggy and Bobby would be happy to hear that.


    "How can I increase your range or power?"


    To increase the range and power, I need more resources given to me by sacrificing items in the Sacrifice room.


    So that''s what that room was for?


    "So you need inanimate objects, not living beings right?"


    Affirmative.


    "Can you give me a list of the top items that would give you a lot of energy?"


    Suddenly a black tab appeared in front of me with green text.


    Loading list...


    -Netherite block: 2 years


    -Diamond block: 1 year


    -Soulsand block: 1 year


    -Lapis block: 10 months


    -Gold block: 9 months


    -Iron Block: 8 months


    -Redstone block: 6 months


    -Coper blocks: 4 months


    Press for more>


    Why is everything written in time instead of energy or distance, what is this?


    I pressed the green button and saw a longer list with all kinds of items, but most of them gave a few days or weeks at most.


    "Why is everything written in time instead of power?"


    That is the energy used to constantly fight against the System''s domain, once it''s gone I''m also losing territory.


    "Then how are you going to replace the System if you need a constant supply of finite resources? I don''t think we can build a dome over the planet."


    Building a dome would be a preferable outcome, as I could take energy from the sun, but that is not feasible in the near future. I was programmed to find the physical body of the System and take over its source of energy or over the System itself making me evolve.


    Does the System have a physical place?


    Where on earth would that be?


    On the moon?


    "Where is the location of the System?"


    Insufficient power to give an answer.


    So you''re pretty much useless in that regard.


    "Is there a way to help you find the location?"


    With 2.000 years of power, I can scan the whole planet and deduce an answer.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    That would be either 1.000 Netherite blocks or 2.000 Soulsand blocks, the answer is pretty clear in my mind.


    "So if you have enough energy, can you make anything?"


    Affirmative.


    "How about if you need to find a new dimension?"


    I need to get a rough direction to start the research, such as energy, items or souls.


    I think I can help with the last one.


    "Cool, fake System do you have human intelligence or maybe something beyond? Do you feel emotions?"


    I do not possess real intelligence, I was only programmed to calculate huge amounts of data and mimic human thinking, but not capable of replicating emotions.


    So you''re a computer from beginning to end, it shouldn''t be able to betray me.


    I hope so at least.


    "Is there anyone alive with the same authority as me?"


    Negative.


    "Can I request for my information to be locked so only I and you have access to it?"


    You can.


    "Good, I will take off my armor now and let you scan me. If you dare betray me now, I swear I''ll come back from the dead and destroy you."


    Research shows that there''s no way to come back from the dead.


    "I wouldn''t count on that my friend. Now I''m commanding you to not betray me or any information about me to anyone. Understand!"


    The command was implemented.


    Good, this is more of a gamble on my part, but I can''t find a way home without showing something for it to analyze.


    So I took off my Netherite armor with the exception of my helmet.


    Please remove your helmet to have a complete scan.


    "Can you get all the data necessary to search for a new dimension by scanning my soul?"


    Affirmative.


    "Then let''s keep it like that for now."


    A black tab appeared in front of me once again.


    Scanning...


    Scanning...


    ERROR!


    Using more energy so scan.


    Scanning...


    Scanning complete.


    The error text scared me for a moment, but looks like everything turned out to be fine.


    "Did you find anything System?"


    I should call it by a different name or I''ll get confused when I''ll get out.


    Affirmative.


    Your body seems to be constructed similarly to humans with a few exceptions. Your skills don''t seem to be restricted and have an additional one, you have a larger inventory than the average human, you can place and break blocks three times faster. Your body seems to be created with void energy which was the result of the ERROR, but the process was similar to the one used by project ''New Life'' just more complex.


    Your soul does not belong to any dimension in my database, but I can track the coordinates if sufficient power is provided.


    Did I hear this right?


    I can go back home to my family and friends?!


    "How much power do you need!"


    200.000 years of power.


    My soul was in the ninth cloud only to be grabbed by reality and throw into hell.


    How I''m supposed to get 200.000 blocks of Soulsand?!


    Even if I raid every bastion and tribe I don''t think I''ll be able to gather half of it!


    There has to be another way.


    "Is that the only way to get to that dimension?"


    I am not capable of teleporting you to that dimension, only find its coordinates.


    So all of that power would only show me where to go not how or if possible?


    "But you can create a portal there, right? That''s how the ancient people found out about Nether and The End."


    Insufficient data, cannot give an answer.


    Well, that''s just awesome!


    But it''s the only clue I found to get back to my home world, so I can''t toss it aside no matter how expensive it is.


    "Is there another way of getting more power besides those blocks?"


    Analyzing the data and generating other solutions...


    The black tab appeared in front of me with its green text.


    -Find unknown items that have high power. (Low chance)


    -Reach Level MAX in Crafting and request a high-energy recipe. (Low chance)


    -Reach Level MAX in Enchanting and request a power-generating enchant. (Medium chance)


    Only 3 other options I see.


    And all of them with various degrees of success.


    "How many items do you have registered?"


    Over 500 items have been registered throughout my creation.


    I think there''s more than that in the game, so maybe I should search for them.


    "How much energy would an Undying Totem, Nether Star, and Beacon give you?"


    I''m sorry, I do not have those items registered in my database so I cannot answer.


    Well even if they do give a lot of energy, it''s not a common item I can find, which leaves me with the last two options.


    "Fake System, I''m going to call you Alexa from now, and you''ll respond to that name."


    Command registered.


    "Good, Alexa, show me the fastest way to reach Level MAX in Enchanting."


    Preparing instructions...


    Then a black tab appeared once again.


    -Level 6 Efficiency 3. tap for more info-


    -Level 7 Vein Mine 4. tap for more info-


    -Level 8 Unbreaking 5. tap for more info-


    -Level 9 Magic Resistance 1*. tap for more info-


    I tapped on each level and it gave me the pages that I had to write down.


    It was an amazing treasure to find, feeling the power just by looking at their name!


    Vein Mine and Magic Resistance are top priority!


    "Alexa, do you have an Enchanting room where I can Level up?"


    Negative.


    "Can you make me one?"


    Not enough energy to grant such a request.


    "That''s a shame, looks like I''ll have to leave you to get all the necessary materials to max my level."


    I would like to make a request.


    That took me by surprise since I didn''t hear Alexa make any requests except to take off my helmet.


    "I''m listening."


    Take the Allay with you to be my eyes and my mouth to keep connection over long distance.


    "If you can that, then it would be awesome! I''ll come next time with a load stone to navigate through the Nether. I don''t want to go missing for 2 months when I want to see you."


    Opening a new folder studying the new way to the Nether. Have a safe trip, and gather as much precious material for my expansion.


    "I''ll do what I can buddy."


    With that finally done, I got out of the Exam room and checked the other rooms.


    Unfortunately I couldn''t find anything of value that wasn''t part of Alexa, and when I asked her about the empty chest in the Storage room, she told me it was used to create the liforms outside.


    With everything done, I decided to get back to the surface and get to levelling and Mining some ores.


    I''m going to be very busy in the near future.


    I was back at the gate I broke a few hours ago, and saw that It was opened, with the exception of the obsidian blocks I used to get here.


    Beyond the door was a wall of water that stood in place not trying to get inside like normal water would do.


    Alexa also requested me to brake the obsidian blocks, since it was interfering with the door.


    Unfortunately that meant that I had to place back the Netherite blocks, which quickly disappeared like the rest of the door.


    I looked back at the Allay only to see that it changed. It was bigger, cuter and had a blue crown over its head.


    I had to change the Allay so it could survive harsher environments.


    It still looked cute so I didn''t have a problem with the new changes.


    I turned back towards the water and got in.


    The door quickly closed behind me, leaving Night Vision to do it''s job.


    Since I didn''t have the trident with me anymore I could only swim with my hands and legs, which was more tiring and took longer.


    But after an hour I was back at the ship, with the sun passing half of the day.


    The ship was surrounded by dead guardian''s, and as I broke to the surface, water froze around me making me unable to move.


    Before I could start to panick, I was picked up and teleported on the ship, feeling invisible arms embracing me.


    Looks like Violet came to pick me up.


    "Thank you for that, I really needed it. Also, thank you for helping with the fight, it couldn''t be done without you."


    The embrace got stronger so I decided to stay a few more minutes like this in silence.

 Chapter 166. Welcome Hero!

    POV: Unknown Player


    Welcome hero to the world you love most!


    A loud voice yelled into my head making me wake up instantly.


    As I opened my eyes I saw that I was in a white plane that normally would make me go blind, and in the middle of everything was a huge golden figure all made with squares.


    The figure had huge golden wings that surrounded me like a hug, letting me see each individual feather of light and gold.


    The face would be of amazing beauty if it didn''t have a huge nose in the middle to ruin it all.


    "S-sorry?"


    Hero! Your heart exploded in your old world and were chosen to live in the world you love most. Minecraft!


    Suddenly memories came back to me.


    I was an engineer but got fired for a small mistake, and I decided to take a break until I jump back into work, my savings were enough to hold me a whole year.


    So I took this opportunity to let the kid inside me enjoy himself by playing games.


    I bought, I played and enjoyed my life for the first time. I didn''t like to waste time sleeping and showering so I started to drink coffee and energy drinks.


    But slowly I built tolerance so I had to get more extreme.


    The last thing I remembered was drinking a cup with three shots of espresso mixed with two energy drinks.


    My chest started to hurt, and I woke up here.


    I died because of my recklessness, but now I''m going to get another chance to live In my favorite game.


    What a life.


    "Ok, I''m excited about this, but I don''t remember the game needing a hero in the first place."


    Oh hero, the world you''ll be going will be a little different than what you know. I guide the world with a System, but the Void is sending her avatars to destroy my world. Please kill it together with the other hero!


    So I''m not the only hero.


    That''s a little disappointing, but I''ve read stories where the second hero was the Main Character, so I''m not in the red yet.


    "If I''m going to be Isekaied, I should get some special abilities right?"


    The being of light though for a moment, which made me think that the previous hero didn''t get something like this.


    Did that hero get scammed?


    Indeed, hero, you shall receive a special gift. You will be given an enchanted gold sword from the beginning, and since you have a background in engineering, you will start the Crafting skill at level 3.


    Now go, grow, and defend this world in my name and you shall be rewarded!


    Light gathered in front of me and took the shape of a beautifully decorated sword.


    This was the true sword of the hero, and I shall defeat all enemies with it!


    "Can you give me something to cut with my sword? I want to test It''s sharpness."


    I can grant your request, so I''ll summon you at night in the world. Be careful about the first apostle of the Void! He may look human, but he''s with the enemy.


    Wait!


    I didn''t ask for that, and what''s the deal with the first apostle?


    That sounds super important!


    But I felt my guts being pulled down, and I wasn''t in a plane of light anymore, Instead, I was surrounded by trees and darkness.


    I looked down and saw that I wore a brown shirt with blue pants, and in my hand, I held a golden sword that reflected the light of the moon on its blade.


    Around me, there were cubic trees that I only saw beyond the screen.


    A wave of fear, uncertainty, and excitement rushed all over me, but before I could sort those emotions out, a deep voice caught my attention.


    I quickly turned around and saw a Zombie, much more realistic and scary than in the game.


    "This wasn''t what I requested, but I guess the best way to test a weapon is on the field."


    A smile appeared on my face and ran with my sword at the monster and cut him in half with one swing.


    The Zombie fell on the ground and didn''t move from there.


    He was dead for good.


    "That''s...more powerful than I expected. I wonder-"


    Before I could finish my sentences an arrow flew into my shoulder bringing signal''s of pain to my brain.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I yelled loudly as I looked at the one who shot me.


    It was a skeleton that was preparing its bow for another shot.


    I wasn''t going to let that happen again, so I ran towards it in a zig zag missing all the arrows shot at me.


    When I arrive in front of the skeleton I swing my sword and the skeleton catches on fire then turn to ash


    "It also has a Fire Aspect? But the Zombie didn''t burn like the skeleton."


    A loud hiss caught my attention next, which made me look at the trees.


    A huge black spider looked at me with madden eyes ready to attack, but I wasn''t going to make the same mistake as with the skeleton.


    As the monster jumped at me, I rolled to the side, then ran back at the monster to kill it in one slash like the others.


    This was so easy!


    But I couldn''t let my guard down, as three of the classic mobs appeared one after another.


    But the most recognized one hasn''t appeared yet.


    The Creeper.


    I looked around me with eagle eyes and saw something moving into the darkness.


    I was right, as with silent steps the monster got closer to me ready to blow me up.


    Slowly he started to inflate, signaling the start of the explosion.


    But I wasn''t going to stand and watch, instead, I took my sword and killed it with one swing.


    "This feels amazing!"


    And for the rest of the night, I kept killing monsters left and right.


    ----


    The sun appeared on the sky, the monsters started to retreat or got burned alive.


    Finally I had enough time to look at how this world was different then what I know, and what I found was shocking.


    Instinctively I knew that I had three tabs that I could open at any time.


    Inventory, Status and Skills.


    My inventory was empty with the exception of the golden sword, and when I looked at its enchantments I was taken by surprise.


    -


    Gold sword:


    -Sharpness 15


    -Unbreaking 7


    -Mending


    -Burning Bone 1*


    -


    This Sword could deal a wapping 20 hearts of damage!


    A full health bar for any player without armor!


    No wonder all the monsters died in one slash.


    The enchantments were all costum with the exception of Mending, and I''ve never hear abou Burning Bone 1*, but I can guess it''s the reason the skeleton turned to ashes.


    I''m not going to complain about it.


    As for the others tabs...


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 3


    0/10.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 1


    0/100


    ________________________________________


    ________________________________________


    STATUS


    Name: Daniel Cout


    Health: 20/20


    Attack: 1


    Defense: 1


    Speed: 5.6 blocks/sec


    ________________________________________


    I instinctively knew what each of those skills and stats meant.


    -


    Crafting: I can use different resources the higher I get up, until level 10 where I''ll get a reward.


    Brewing: I can use difrent recipes and even costum potions the higher I go, and get a reword at level 10.


    Enchanting: I can do more complex enchants the higher I go and get a reword at level 10.


    Treading....Trading it''s the same as in the game with the exception that I''ll get some discount form time to time... I don''t feel a lot of information for this skill for some reason.


    -


    As for my stats.


    -


    Name: Is pretty clear.


    Health: Can be temporarily increased with special items.


    Attack: Would changed depending on what I have in my hand.


    Defense: Would change on what armor I''m wearing.


    Speed: Would stay the same unless I take Speed potion.


    -


    Everything was clear to me, and I was ready to start my new life.


    Even if it wasn''t exactly like what I rembered, is essentially the same, just more fun.


    First things first let''s get myself some wooden tools to get to the good stuff.


    With my sword I chopped the tree, with the wood from them I made a Crafting table and some wooden tools.


    With those tools I got more resources until I got stone tools.


    "Good, I now have a few blocks, some apples to eat and some stone tools. I''m feeling thirsty right now so I should find a clean river to drink water from. But my next priority should be to find a village."


    I felt a gentle but constant pull in my soul towards a certain direction.


    Instinctively I knew that way was the location of the Monster Lord, but I don''t know if it spawn besides civilisation.


    After a bit of thinking, I decided to take the risk and follow the pull until I''ll find a road or a village.


    And like that I was on the road for a whole week.


    I passed many rivers that calmed my thirst and even had the opportunity to drink some milk from a cow.


    Of course I didn''t have a bucked, but wooden bowls seemed to work just fine. It was such a shame that I had to kill it afterwards to eat some of it''s meat.


    But because this world doesn''t work on a drop system I had to butcher it myself and wasted a lot of meat result with only two pieces of beef.


    This would be the only thing I''ll complain about this world.


    I don''t like to dirty my hands with blood, and I don''t like to disect creepers to get their gunpowder.


    The other mobs I didn''t even bother to disect, and let them to burn in the sun like the trash they were.


    The only use they had was to repair my golden sword.


    I also manged to find some iron, but unfortunately I didn''t have the level necessary to craft anything with it, I had to be level 4 for that.


    But my patience paid off, as at the end of the week I managed to find a small village.


    It wasn''t a great find as it only had two wheat farms and no church or Smith house.


    But what took me by surprise was the fact that the viligers could actually talk like normals people, not just hums.


    I can say that I was taken aback when everyone yelled at me, at why I was stealing their crops.


    I talked with the head of the village, an learned that we were in the Stone Kingdome, where there was a royal family with legendary tools and armor, and the ones who defeated the Zombie Lord a few month prior.


    I was fascinated to hear that my fellow Hero was doing her job well.


    For the next few days, I stayed at the village, and improved it, in the day I chopped wood and traded sticks with the head village since he was a Fletcher.


    From him I learned that we had a different trading System, and mine was way better then his.


    At night I would go hunt for skeletons to get their bones, and keep the rest of monsters outside of the village.


    Just like that I became the hero of this village overnight, and with the bones of the skeletons I used bone meal to grow the crops, making me more popular.


    A few weeks have passed since then, and I''ve grown exponentially since I first came here.


    My plan was to level up my Trading tab sufficiently to buy myself enchanted Dimond armor.


    Unfortunately there wasn''t a lot of viligers I could trade and level up my skill, but progress was still made.


    Until one day something bad has happened.


    "Village Head, Andreea! I didn''t expect to see you outside of the village, did something happen?"


    "Ah, Hero! No, we just decided to move to a bigger town since we now have some funds to live more comfortably and have a kid. It was all thanks to you, we can''t thank you enough!"


    That wasn''t good, those two were the main source of emeralds I made in this village, if they leave I can''t progress anymore, and I don''t want to move to a town since I''m not prepared yet, I have to keep them here.


    "Is that so? That''s a shame, I heard that another Monster Lord is coming and the bigger towns won''t be open to new citizens."


    Both of them paled when they heard about the Monster Lord.


    "T-Then what should we do?"


    "Don''t worry, I intended to build walls around the village to make it more safer. I''ll even build some houses and farms to increase our production. We can live more comfortably afterwards."


    The couple looked at each and decided to get back to the village.


    I could only smile as their back turned.

 Chapter 167. Shadow Lord

    POV: Shadow Lord


    In the beginning, I was nothing but energy floating in the Void. Until one day the Void decided to make a body for me, something that can make me grow, a new purpose, and a life.


    Wake up, my servant!


    Light came into my eyes as I saw a cave surrounding me.


    Besides me was my ''heart'' beating slowly and generating skeletons for my army.


    All the necessary knowledge my master and brother gathered was gifted to me at my creation, making me take the threats of the humans seriously, especially the hero.


    The Void decided to send me to the Sandstonde kingdom since this place doesn''t have a hero.


    I looked down at the body I was gifted with and couldn''t be more proud to be chosen for such an important mission.


    I was 5 blocks tall with a dark leather jacket and a hood that covered my face, letting only my glowing eyes to be seen.


    My arms were long and made of the strongest bones that ever walked in this realm.


    On my back, I had a huge dark bow which only I had the strength to draw its string.


    Besides the bow, was a long quiver with multiple colored arrows each with a unique ability.


    On my long legs, I wore dark pants that touched my shadow, but every step I took was silent as a feather.


    I waited for a few minutes so my minions could spawn before sending them to explore the cave and a way out.


    I had to assist my situation before planning my next course of action.


    Hopefully, I''m not too far away from my brother, and we can join forces to defeat this world.


    It''s embarrassing enough that he failed the first time, even blessed by the Void, I don''t want to repeat the same mistake.


    I stayed for a few hours, forcing my ''heart'' to produce more servants when I realized something odd.


    No skeleton that I sent scouting has returned.


    Sure I order them to come back when they find the exit, but it''s been a few hours already and I don''t think I''m that deep into the earth.


    Suddenly I felt that something disturbed the peace of darkness.


    It was the light of a hateful lantern, followed by human voices.


    "-where the skeletons keep coming from my prince."


    "I hope so, the other nobles upstairs are getting more nervous since we lost, I don''t want them to run away just because we have some skeletons in the basement."


    Humans!


    I didn''t expect to meet them so soon, and not so close to my spawner! I had to get rid of them quickly before they would pose a threat to me.


    I took off my hand from the spawner letting Void energy run through my bones, making them stronger.


    My body started to get darker and darker and then I melted into the shadows.


    "My Prince! Be careful there''s over a dozen skeletons here!"


    "Don''t worry they won''t be able to pass our shields."


    I started to take form in the shadows behind them, unknown to the 10 people with armor.


    Slowly, and silently I took my bow and a bright red arrow from my quiver.


    Then I released the arrow in the middle of the group.


    *BOOM!


    A loud explosion soon followed and everyone was thrown into the walls of the cave.


    The ones closest to the arrows died on the spot, while the others were injured trying to get up.


    Only one seemed to be standing and wore the same armor as the hero.


    This is going to be troublesome.


    "We''re under attack! Take out your crossbows and shoot!"


    The man in diamond armor leads by example and shoots fireworks at me.


    *Bang!


    I disappeared back into the shadows which resulted in the fireworks hitting the wall.


    Before they could ask where I was, I appeared beside 3 humans who were injured, drew my bow with 3 normal arrows, and shot them in the face, bypassing the iron defense.


    Everyone yelled in anger and a wave of fireworks came at me, but I was already back in the shadows.


    "He''s teleporting like an Enderman, watch your backs and look for particles!"


    That was some quick thinking from the man covered in diamond armor, I have to get rid of him first.


    I appeared a little further from the Prince and drew a red arrow letting it go at the commander.


    *BOOM!


    The arrow exploded and the man was on the ground but not dead.


    That armor was more annoying than anticipated.


    *Bang!


    *Bang!


    *Bang!


    While directed the other humans shot at me with fireworks, this time they hit.


    Unfortunately for them, neither my clothes nor my bones got damaged from that attack.


    While I didn''t have the same regeneration as my brother, my defense was way higher than his.


    I took a few more normal arrows and started to shoot at the soldiers who seemed to fall in despair.


    A minute later, the only one alive was the man who had diamond armor, and my arrows didn''t do enough damage to him.


    "You-you''re a Monster Lord like the one that attacked the Stone Kingdome aren''t you!"


    I didn''t have the obligation to answer that question, instead, I took a green arrow and put it in my bow.


    "I''m the next Sultaon of this nation, I have the best armor and weapon a man can make, you won''t be able to defeat me!"


    "We shall see."


    I let loose the arrow but it didn''t hit the armor or his face, instead, it went through his arm that was unprotected, pining him to the cave wall.


    Poison runs through his system, and unlike the potions in this world, It won''t stop at half a heart.


    He was going to die an agonizing death for being too foolish to recognize a higher power.


    I turned around to search for the others as the soldiers claimed.


    I jumped from shadow to shadow until I arrived at tunnels made by humans.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.     They were long tunnels with large rooms on the side, and with my silent steps, I got closer to the enemy camp.


    Just as I was about to attack the rest of the humans I felt a sharp pain in my chest.


    "My Spawner!"


    I quickly went back to the shadows and ran towards my ''heart''.


    Who attacked it?


    There were only skeletons left around there even if a human hid from me or survived, but when I arrived at the last battlefield, something was different in the air.


    My bones slowly started to take damage.


    Soul magic was in the air, and it was pretty powerful.


    It seemed to be a temporary thing so I wouldn''t have to worry about this, instead, the man with diamond armor was gone.


    Did he survive, but how?


    He shouldn''t have enough strength to take the arrow out, and even if he somehow did that, the poison would last for hours.


    Another sharp pain came into my chest which made me go back into the shadows.


    On the other side, I saw my servants destroyed on all sides with the Prince beside my spawner with an enchanted diamond pickaxe in his hand.


    "You finally came back, I thought you wouldn''t feel the spawner being destroyed, even if it''s the block that brings you back to life."


    "How did you know about that?"


    "Ha! So it''s true in the end. Getting all warm and fuzzy with the hero wasn''t for nothing."


    So the hero somehow found out about this.


    This is no good.


    I didn''t even start my conquest and my weakness has been found.


    I''ll just bring shame to the Void.


    "Good, so you know the situation you''re in, now you have to listen to me, or I''ll destroy your precious spawner in one swing."


    I narrowed my eyes, calculating my odds of killing him before he could destroy my spawner.


    Unfortunately, the armor he had protected him from any insta-kill attacks.


    And I still don''t know how he survived my poisoned arrow last time.


    "If you understand what I''m saying address me as Young Master!"


    How dare he, a lowly human order me something like this.


    "Looks like you still don''t realize your position yet."


    He gently scraped the spawner block with his pickaxe which made me nervous.


    "What do you want....young master?"


    I couldn''t see his face bacose of the helmet but I was sure he had a grin on it.


    "Good, go to the nobels upstairs and call them here, but tell them to bring a lever and a piston with them."


    That was a weird request, but I didn''t have a choice but to follow it.


    I went back on foot since I didn''t want to waste energy on such a meaningless task, and I arrived back at the man-made tuneless.


    There the guards saw me and were trembling in fear with their weapons in hand.


    That''s how humans should feel when seeing a being of the Void, not like that madman playing with his life.


    "Call everyone here unless you want to die by my arrow. Go you have 5 minutes to get everyone!"


    The two guards looked at each other, gulped, and ran to fulfill my order.


    A few minutes later, a dozen of humans arrived in front of me ready to fight just waiting for the signal.


    I looked at all of them, most wore iron armor while a few had diamond armor.


    But I didn''t know if it was as strong as the man down the tunnel.


    "Someone that calls himself the future Sultan summoned you all down to meet with him. And don''t forget to take a piston and a lever with you."


    I spoke in a low and threatening voice.


    Everyone was confused at first before murmuring between themselves about the Prince or something like that.


    A few minutes later everyone was following me, but never letting their weapons down, which was smart of them.


    Half an hour later we were back at the Prince who was waiting in boredom.


    "Finally, you arrived! I knew it would take a while to convince those old and stupid nobles to follow you, even if you were a monster."


    "Young prince what''s the meaning of this? Are you controlling this monster?"


    The only one that can control me is the Void!


    "Yes, I control this monster. As you can see, he''s huge and powerful, he''s as powerful as the Zombie Lord that attacked the Stone Kingdome a few months ago."


    More murmurs were exchanged.


    Most of them were looking at me with fear, as they should.


    "What do you intent to do with this monster, we would have the whole world against us soon!"


    "Gentleman''s, we just got a new weapon to fight my sister. And you want to throw it away?"


    Everyone froze, before a smile appeared on their faces like they understood a hidden message.


    Did I miss something?


    Can I take them as hostages against the Prince?


    No, he doesn''t seem to care about them in that way so it would put me in unnecessary danger.


    "We shall take our lands back by being the heros of this nation!"


    The ones in diamond armor cheered, while the ones in iron armor seemed as confused as me.


    Two months have passed since then, and I''ve managed to do more damage to this world then even my brother did.


    I attacked big towns with overwhelming power or by assassination.


    I alway attacked alone instead of an army as the Prince ordered. I was much faster and stronger that way.


    When I attacked with overwhelming power, the Prince came to ''save'' the city by ''defeating'' me.


    When I''ll go to another town I''ll have a difrent clothing and use another weapon or my bare hands.


    I learned from the humans that they were much crueler then we could possibly be, and I didn''t need to use as much force as I expected when I invaded this land.


    The more I stood with the Prince the more I learned from him.


    I was alway in his shadow ready to protect him in any case, but I was also watching for am opportunity.


    An opportunity to brake free and ravage the whole world.

 Chapter 168. End of Volume 4

    POV: Merry Paper


    I felt a powerful pull into my soul, which made my pen stop.


    "He''s finally back."


    The old man beside me with a long beard and white robe looked at me from his book.


    "Who, your teacher?"


    "No, the Zombie Lord."


    He quickly closed his book and his expression got serious.


    "Then we have to prepare the Holy army."


    "Try not to take too long, otherwise he will make another army by the time we get there."


    The man nodded his head and left the room.


    That old man was the Pope himself, and it was a funny how we met.


    The first time I went to the Sandstone Palace the political battle just ended with the princess being victorious.


    Seems that she intends to reform the Nobles, and for that she needed Pope''s help.


    Unfortunately for her, when the Pope saw me for the first time, he was on the ground crying out of happiness that the System hadn''t abandoned them.


    Since I was prophesied to be the hero of this world they made ample preparations for me to get ready for that journey.


    Unfortunately, the incident happened, and instead of me appearing in the desert I appeared in a forest.


    Once the church heard that I was with the Stone Kingdom instead of the church, they thought the System had abandoned them since they failed their mission.


    But now that I was here, they can redeem themselves by preparing me for the final fight.


    I was confused about how he knew that the Zombie Lord wasn''t dead, but he clarified that he knew that because the prophecy hadn''t been fully fulfilled.


    It''s not widely known but the prophecy also said that the enemy would ravage through the tree lands and then the hero would bring him down.


    The Zombie Lord only managed to attack the Stone Kingdom concluding that the fight was not over yet.


    I stayed at the church headquarters for a few months studying enchantments as best as I could.


    With the method, Trader taught me I managed to make a lot of progress with this skill.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 3


    3.350 /10.000


    _Enchanting lvl 7


    1.320/100.000.000


    _Brewing lvl 2


    0/1.000


    _Trading lvl 3


    1.130/10.000


    ________________________________________


    I managed to get to the Grandmaster level in Enchanting!


    Not only that, when I arrived at this level I found out that it wasn''t the pinnacle of the Skill like everyone around me.


    Was it because I was a hero?


    Did Trader know about this as well?


    I like to think that he didn''t, and I finally had something over him.


    By the end of the day, a small army was made.


    50 soldiers with enchanted iron armor and 5 generals with enchanted diamond armor.


    Each one of us got a horse so we could get there as fast as possible.


    We traveled for 2 weeks where we passed dunes of sand, rivers, lakes and finally a forest, but in the end we arrived.


    The ground was filled with animal skeletons that hadn''t been disloved by the System like its power couldn''t reach here. The land and the trees were more gray than green and an army of Zombies was already waiting for us at the entrance.


    "Take out your swords and prepare for battle!"


    Everyone took out their weapons and yelled a war cry as they attacked.


    While they did that I drank a speed, jump boost, night vision, and invisibility potion.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I could now jump over zombies at high speed while being half invisible.


    But that wasn''t enough for me, instead, I took out 4 long pages similar to scrolls, from my inventory and placed them on my visible armor.


    Soon a reaction was noticed, the armor that I had on, turned invisible with me.


    This was the result of my research for the past few months, Temporary Enchantments!


    I had a few costume made pages, that were longer than normal, and on them, I wrote two enchantments.


    Transparency 1 and Biding.


    Those two were created by the Sansdone Kingdom trying to recreate the invisible potions.


    They didn''t manage to do that, unfortunately, instead, they created an enchantment that is close to it, Transparency.


    It''s similar to the original goal with the exception that if you look from certain angles you can see the reflection of the light blinding you.


    But if it''s combined with an invisible potion and move at high speeds, you''re practically invisible.


    Now the second enchantment is more important than the first.


    Biding is an enchanted inspired by Soul Biding, it has the effect of putting any enchantments on the item, without using an anvil.


    This means, that any enchanted book or page that has this, can be used just by touching an item.


    But since those enchantments are too heavy for my armor to use constantly, I decided to use them temporarily, and it was good.


    I jumped from one Zombie head to another, killing them as jumped again.


    At great speeds, I passed the wave of Zombies and entered the cave, which was also filled with the undead flesh, but more packed.


    I went deeper and deeper trying not to get any attention on me, when all of a sudden I felt a heavy presence approaching me.


    The Zombie Lord was coming.


    I stayed still trying not to get any attention on me as I saw a huge monster appear with darkness behind him.


    I killed him once, and not by fighting fair unfortunately, I wasn''t strong enough at that time or had enough experience.


    But this time it would be different, I had the intention of fighting him head on, winning, and killing him once and for all.


    The Monster Lord passed by me speaking in his low voice.


    "...find me? No smart Zombie knew about this place nor can the System find my spawner..."


    He passed me without noticing which was a good thing, and I was pleased to hear that he didn''t know that the System marked him, which helped me find him when he''s most vulnerable.


    I looked at his back as he was getting further and further away.


    With a strength potion and the sword given to me by the System, I could jump to him and decapitate him in one swing.


    But I held myself back.


    It wasn''t certain that I could succeed in that attack, and he wasn''t a priority for now.


    I looked deeper into the cave where there were rows of Zombies coming out and continued my infiltration.


    15 minutes later I arrived at a larger room filled with zombies that seemed to guard something floating in the air.


    It was a block similar to a metal cage that gave out a powerful pressure.


    That must be the spawner of the Zombie Lord.


    I jumped from head to head until I was on top of the cage block.


    Every Zombie turned around confused, but they couldn''t see anything out of the ordinary.


    Then I took out my enchanted diamond pickaxe and hit the cursed block with all my force.


    Only a dent appeared, but the zombies didn''t react.


    Was I wrong about this?


    I continued to hit the block until there was no more.


    At my final hit, I heard a loud iron cage being ripped apart followed by screams of agony which scared me a little.


    Then a part of my soul started to grow and I felt that half of the mission was finally completed.


    I was right!


    The cave started to tremble like a giant was running down the tunnels, and I would be right about that assumption once the Zombie Lord appeared furiously without his blindfold.


    "Who was it? Who broke my spawner?!"


    He looked around the room with his eyes of the void, until he stopped at me.


    "You... filthy hero of the System, how dare you break something so sacred! I''m going to kill you for this!"


    Looks like my invisibility doesn''t work when he''s in his second phase, but at least I angered him enough.


    He jumped towards me, ignoring all the damage he was doing to his army, and all I did was raise my shield and brace for impact.


    *BOOM!


    His fist hit my shield and two things happened at impact.


    I huge shockwave was formed knocking all the zombies back, and his fist taking damage.


    "How is that possible?"


    "That''s what happens when you punch a shield with thorns!"


    Unfortunately, this enchantment damages the shield as well, and with the strength the Zombie Lord has, I could only block him 10 more times before it breaks.


    This was a surprise for me, not because his punch was so strong, but because his punch was so weak.


    I felt his full strength last time we fought, and it was double what he was using now.


    Did this happen because I broke the spawner, or is he planning something?


    It didn''t matter, I was going to kill him before he would pull anything off.


    He punched my shield once more resulting in his other fist getting damaged, but this time I let myself get knocked back to gain some distance.


    Before he could jump at me, I threw a strength potion on the ground and took my sword out.


    Suddenly he stopped and rationality came back to him as he looked at my sword.


    "That weapon... I feel it''s touched by the System, I can''t take you lightly anymore."


    It was easier to fight him when he was a beast, now he would use tactics which are no fun.


    The next attack didn''t come from the Zombie Lord but from its minions trying to drown me in numbers.


    Unfortunately for them, my sword was made specifically for fighting monsters like them.


    And when I swing my sword, I don''t kill 1 Zombie, instead 3 drop dead.


    Another wave of Zombies started to attack me from behind, which made me take out a normal shield to defend, only to feel my back beeing hit with a powerful force sending me into the walls of the cave.


    That was dirty!


    And his next attack was pilling more Zombies on me as I was trying to get up.


    The only reason I wasn''t overwhelmed was because of my sword, but even then the Zombie Lord managed to sneak up on me and punch me into the wall, then keep punching my head repeatedly.


    I wasn''t taking a lot of damage because of the armor, but little by little he was taking control of the battle and that wasn''t good for me.


    Time to pull out my trup card.


    I took out a firework and let it explode between us.


    He got some damage, while I was thrown away, letting me have some room to breath.


    I quickly got up and took another scroll from my inventory but this time I didn''t put it on my armor or sword, instead I placed it on my arm.


    But something unexpected happened, the scroll disappeared like it enchanted something.


    This was the result of my true research I did at the Sandstone Kingdom.


    Enchanted tattoos.


    It was never thought possible before, and I manged to find the solution for it.


    Kind off.


    What I had on, was temporary tattoos not permanent ones.


    I had to use redstone ink for this to stick to my skin, and with the help of the Biding enchanment, but it would only lasts for 3 minutes before disappearing.


    As for what kind of enchanment I had?


    Strength 3.


    And the best part about this, Temporary Enchanted Tattoos are stackable with potions.


    So now I had strength 5 on me, and with one single swing I killed a wave of Zombies clearing a path to the Zombie Lord who was taken by surprise by the sudden power up.


    I swing my sword, and I slashed his undead flesh.


    But there was a difference this time, the wond wasn''t regenerating anymore.


    The monsters eyes were wide with surprise before yelling out loud and punching the ceiling.


    The ceiling cracked and fell, but behind was blocks and blocks of gravel that fell on me taking me by surprise.


    Once I manged brake the gravel off me I saw that I was only surrounded by Zombies with no Lord in sight.


    With my soul compass I also felt that he was getting further and further away.


    "That monster ran off!"

 Chapter 169. Strangers at the house

    A month had passed since I fought the Elder Guardian, and now we were almost back at the port.


    A few things happened in the past few weeks and not all of them were fun.


    Once I was on the ship unseen with Violet, the moment was quickly interpreted by the Allay who had been looking for me since I disappeared out of nowhere.


    Because of that, Violet hates the Alexa with her whole being.


    It doesn''t help that the Allay is more curios by nature than normal, and it flies all around the ship taking stuff and analyzing them before dropping them in the middle of the ship.


    This resulted in the crew complaining that their stuff kept missing and it was all my ''pets'' fault.


    I tried to talk with Alexa to stop her behavior and found out that she hadn''t been scanning items for a few days.


    That''s how I found out that Violet was very petty, stealing people''s items and leaving them in the middle of the hallways to bother as many people as possible so they would blame the Allay.


    I could only give an exasperated sigh and had a long talk with her afterward.


    Of course, this wasn''t everything that happened in the past month, when they found that I was back on the ship, they treated me like a hero of the sea.


    How did I managed to fight with the guardians in the water?


    How did I move and jump out of the water like I was the God of the sea?


    Everyone became my fan overnight.


    We took a few guardians with us as trophies since they were not paid for this expedition, or at least not in emeralds.


    They now have a brand new ship and the best defense any crew could wish for, there''s no deal better then this.


    The only casualty we had was, that one man who decided to be the new Captian of the ship, otherwise, the armor did well in protecting everyone.


    Those were the big things that happened, but there were a few small things as well, such as an increasing amount of attacks at night from the phantoms, the captain getting sick and the crew catching on how my armor works and I couldn''t take them by surprise as often as I liked.


    But today was a special day, because we would arrive back to our sweet land.


    <From what I can analyze this place has been through a lot of changes from my last records.>


    Alexa came beside me and spoke telepathically.


    "Is that change good or bad?"


    <The lives of the common people seemed to be better. From my records, I can see that most of the research has been centralized to help the main organization first, not its citizens. They wanted to slowly let technology go to public after they found a way to bring back the dead.>


    "That could''ve taken forever! No wonder the System managed to get rid of all information related to you so fast. Everything was gathered in one place."


    <The System had to use a lot of its power, since I could feel its presence weaken for a few hundred years.>


    "What did you do in that time?"


    <I created different kinds of lifeforms to gather more information for me, but when the System came back my connections were cut off.>


    Wait, you''re the reason the sea is so dangerous?!


    Somehow the System didn''t destroy your scouts and just chose to limit their range, I don''t know if that''s a win or a loss for Alexa.


    "We''re going to arrive in an hour, everyone be prepared!"


    The crew let out a loud cheer when they heard that.


    "Today is the day the Mad Crew would become a legend! All drinks are on me tonight!"


    Captain Siren soon followed.


    Another cheer but louder this time, came from everyone.


    I could only smile and shake my head at that.


    An hour later, we arrived at the port, with a lot of attention on us wondering who we were.


    <I don''t see any other iron ships in the port on my scanners, is this the only one?>


    "Yes, it was one of my ideas to resist your guardian''s lasers, and I''m glad I paid so much since it did a good job."


    <I will have to update my guardians then, In case another attack would come similar to this.>


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    "You can do that?"


    <Affirmative.>


    I''m glad I already got you as an ally so I won''t have to go through all of that again.


    Once we arrived and let down the anchor, everyone but one rushed down the ship to party at the bar.


    I didn''t join them since I didn''t like to drink, and our contract was officially over, so we moved in our separate ways.


    Instead of going to the bar, I went back home where I saw a few people waiting at the gate with enchanted iron armor.


    This wasn''t a good start.


    Did the officials find out that I bought the house without them?


    I thought for a moment if I should speak with them or ignore them since they couldn''t see me anyway.


    "Hey, what''s that blue thing floating around."


    The other two guards turned towards me.


    I completely forgot that my new companion doesn''t have the same ability as me or Violet!


    I looked at the flaoting angel who waited for further instructions on what to do.


    Unfortunately I think Alexa can fly faster than they can run, and I don''t want them to take out their crossbows to shoot after it, so with a sigh I let myself know.


    "Who are you, and what business do you have with this house?"


    All three of them jumped back in surprise and looked at me with shock.


    "Was that an invisibility potion? Who are you and why do you sneak up like this through this nice neighborhood!"


    I could only get annoyed at his accusations.


    "I asked you first."


    They all looked at each other not knowing how to respond.


    "We want to talk with the owner of this house, are you the one by any chance?"


    "No, I''m just the one that takes care of it while he''s gone. What do you want from him?"


    They looked a little disappointed at my response.


    "We work for the SUN company, and we want to invite him to our headquarters. Do you know a way to contact him?"


    From the SUN company?


    Did they figure out that I was the one who killed their employe?


    No, that can''t be possible, I didn''t leave any evidence behind, and I didn''t have a reason to kill him in the first place.


    Or at least that''s what they should know.


    "I still don''t know if you came with good or bad intentions here, so I can''t tell you anything."


    They looked more frustrated about this but they didn''t know if they should tell me or beat me for the information.


    Luckily one of them was smart enough to realize that not everyone can use invisible potions, so they chose the peaceful option.


    "We came with good intentions, we only want his opinion about the culture of the Iiligers."


    The Iligers?


    Why would they-Ohhh, I remembered that they were on their way here as well to get Alexa, and that was two months ago.


    I wonder how much damage they did here, and why would they even look for me?


    Maybe I should meet with them at a later date.


    "He''s going to come back in two days, but I can send him a message that your looking for him. Where do you want me to send him once he''s back?"


    Their faces lit with happiness once they heard that.


    "We''re at the inn right beside the second gate, it''s big with white wood, he''ll see it without a doubt."


    "Ok, I''ll tell him to look out when he''s back."


    They thanked me and left me on my own.


    <Aren''t they looking for you?>


    "Yes."


    <Then why did you give them false information?>


    "I don''t know their intentions yet, I don''t want to fall into a trap."


    <Analyzing the chances of you getting caught by a trap...Analyzing...30%.>


    That was a lot higher than I expected, maybe he knows other ways to trap me?


    "How would you try to trap me if you were ordered."


    The Allay stayed still for a few minutes before connecting back with a response.


    <I would bring you to a room filled with item remover blocks and splash you with a Blindness potion. At that point, you''ll only have your armor on but no weapons. Then I would splash you with a Weakness and Slowness potion before dragging you to an Obsidian cell, filling the room with sleeping gas and taking off your armor leaving you completely defenseless.>


    That...that was a scary strategy that I can''t think of a solution right now.


    And there''s such a thing as an item remover block? I''ve never heard about it, and I wonder if I can make one as well.


    "This item removal block, how can I make one? "


    <You need to be level 8 in Crafting to make such an item.>


    That''s a shame, but I would make one once I''m at that level.


    "Anything in the city that caught your eye?"


    <A few items that I don''t have in my database, but I still fulfilled the last order given, to not take items without permission.>


    Good, at least it remembers that.


    "Do you have a way to make yourself invisible so you won''t get kidnapped?"


    <I do not have the necessary energy nor the data to make such upgrades.>


    "That''s a shame, I guess I''ll give you an invisibility potion and walk with you around the city to gather more data."


    <That would be helpful.>


    As long as Alexa scans something, it can give me a full blueprint on how I can recreate the item, why shouldn''t I let it go wild and scan everything on the market, it''s my golden angle!


    Don''t tell Violet that.


    "First we''ll need some information about the invasion of the Iligers. I''m surprised they''re not here yet. They''re looking for you after all."


    <Me?>


    "Yeah, I got the information of you from them in the first place after all."


    The Allay stayed still for a few moments like it was analyzing something with this new information.


    <They must have gotten one of the incrpite massages that I sent a few hundred years ago.>


    "You''re the reason they have all of this? Do you know how much of a mess that caused?"


    <Negative.>


    I could only give an exasperated sigh.


    "Why would you attack people that are near you then?"


    <Becouse they didn''t have the identifications to show that used my clues.>


    "How could''ve they shown it, when you attacked first?"


    <That''s why only the ones who solved the riddles would know to put a sign on a block 3 blocks above the sea level and visible.>


    "But you still granted me basic authority once I showed you the map and the schematics. We''re those part of your plan as well?"


    <Negative, only the map was enough to grant you the basic access, like the Iligers If they solved the riddle correctly.>


    Wait, they can still get to you if they know what sign to put on a block?!


    I don''t want any pillager to get their hands on Alexa!


    "Can you deactivate that order since you found me?"


    <Negative, the more people I have, the more ground I can cover and take over the System.>


    I really don''t like this, looks like I need to stop those Piligers myself, otherwise this world would get into deep trouble.


    But for that, I need more information on what happened while I was on he sea.


    I looked at my house one again before turning back.


    "Let''s go to the bar, we need to gather some information for our next move."


    <Affirmative, would miss Violet join us as well?>


    "I don''t know, she can do whatever she wants when we''re on land. There''s not a lot of people who can pose a danger to her."


    <Do you think she''ll let me scan her anytime soon?>


    Unfortunately, I don''t think so, she''s pretty angry at you.


    "Only time we''ll tell."


    Then we walked back to the bar, where the party was.

 Chapter 170. A few days later

    The music was loud in the bar, laughter and drinks were at every table I walked by.


    The crew were the stars of show, with stories and theatrics on what happened at the sea.


    Some jumped on the tables while others poked the dead guardian with a stick like it was a sword.


    Everyone was laughing or were amazed at their stories.


    It was fun to see everything from behind like a shadow that sees history unfold.


    I slowly walked towards the bar and sat on one of the tall stools.


    "A glass of milk please."


    The barman was spoked by my sudden appearance but decided to give me the order.


    "I thought the great hero was not interested in those lowly parties."


    The person sitting beside me was also one of the stars of this party, Captain Mad Siren herself.


    "It''s not like I''m some kind of noble in the first place, I don''t have problems with parties, I just don''t like the alcohol."


    The whole bar erupted with cheers as one of the drunken men took out their iron sword and put a scratch on the mechanical eye of the guardian.


    Should I feel bad about this?


    "Then I guess you didn''t come here just for a cup of milk. Or perhaps you truly did fall in love with me and plan another proposal?"


    She said that while winking at me, or at least she tried, but looked like a blink because of her eyepatch.


    "It''s going to take more than a wink for me to fall in love with you. Sorry, Captain, my riches aren''t so easy to take."


    "*Tsk."


    I could only smile at her attempt to rob me more than she already had.


    It''s not like I''m going to complain about it.


    What I got from this expedition is way more valuable than what she could ever imagine.


    Plus, we got closer in the past few months when we were on the ship.


    I can confidently say she is loyal and the best friend of my wallet, so I don''t think she would betray me any time soon.


    "I came here to listen if anyone knows about the invasion of the Iligers."


    "You heard about it as well? It''s just a rumor here but I heard they came from the borders of the Stone and Sandstone kingdom on a flying platform. Then, when the army tried to block them, they scattered like foxes. Now they attack different towns and nobody knows what their goal is."


    I know what their final goal is, but why aren''t they rushing here?


    Are they looking for something else first?


    "Alexa, what do they need to show you to not get attacked?"


    <A trident curved on a block three units above the sea level.>


    That''s the sign to stop the attack of the guardians?


    Wasn''t my trident enough to stop them?


    "Trader...is you monster friend here as well?"


    "What? No, this place is too packed for her liking, she must be at home right now building with Redstone."


    "Then who are you talking to, another monster?


    "...yes?"


    "Are you sure you''re not a Monster Lord? Because I saw you having more monster friends than human ones."


    Hey, just because I have a Witch, a tribesman from another dimension, an Enderwoman, the hero, and a supercomputer that doesn''t mean I don''t have human friends.... wait this list is weirder than I expected, maybe I really am a Monster Lord.


    No!


    Bobby is a normal human so that has to count for something.


    "Why are you silent all of a sudden, I was just joking around. If you didn''t speak with Miss Violet, who else did you speak to?"


    "I spoke with Alexa, my flying friend."


    "The one who kept stealing items from the crew."


    "...yes."


    She let out a sigh while messaging her forehead.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Listen Trader, if you weren''t so powerful and rich, I would''ve thought you were crazy."


    At least you''re not saying that I''m crazy right now.


    "Thanks, I guess. Do you think you can gather more information about the Iligers?"


    She chugged the rest of the booze in one go and smacked the cup on the counter.


    "Sure, but you''ll buy the next drink. Barman, give me one cup of Slime booze!"


    The man nodded and quickly poured a cup of green booze to the captain.


    I rolled my eyes and paid the emeralds to the man.


    She smiled, blew me a kiss, and went to talk with the others.


    <She seems to be flirting with you very often. Is she your future partner?>


    That took me by surprise, and made me choke on my milk.


    Since when do machines know what flirting looks like?


    "No, she''s trying to get under my skin and steal all of my riches if possible."


    <I did not see any riches under your skin, last time I scanned you.>


    "It''s only a saying. Anyway, why do you think the Iligers are not coming here?"


    The floating angel stayed in silence for a few moments before giving a response.


    <There could be a multitude of ways why they''re doing that, but from my analysis, the highest chance they would do that is to search for a trident.>


    Why would they search for that?


    Wait.


    For the past few months that I''ve been here, I''ve never seen a trident in public or even speak about them.


    Even though they are useful at moving through water at great speeds.


    "Could it be, that they don''t know what a trident looks like?"


    <That could be one of the reasons.>


    "Can''t you craft a trident?"


    <Affirmative, but only at Crafting level 8.>


    So nobody in this dimension can do it, no wonder I didn''t see it.


    Maybe I don''t have to worry about it after all, if they don''t have the drawings in the end, they would have to fight with the guardians, and I don''t think they stand a chance against them.


    Especially not against the Elder Guardians.


    With that reassurance in mind, I relaxed some more and listened to the gossip around me, while Alexa was scanning people or items from time to time.


    After an hour Siren came back with rose cheeks on her face.


    "I found-*hik* I found out some information about the Iligers. They recently stole something from the SUN Company and everyone is looking for them. Bunch of hypocrites! They only care about the problem only when it affects them, not when 5 whole villages were blown up."


    My blood froze in my veins, realizing why the guards were looking for me.


    Maybe they found a trident in one of the SUN warehouses.


    Alexa is in danger of being used against humanity if I don''t do anything about this.


    "Thank you, Siren, that was very helpful, but I have to go now, keep having fun, and be careful not to stab someone."


    "Hey! *Hik*"


    I didn''t sit to listen to her and went back home with hurried steps.


    <Did you acquire the necessary information on what to do next?>


    "Yes, I''ll accept the invitation of those guards and visit the SUN headquarters. But for now, I should focus on leveling up my Enchanting skill so I can put the Magic Resistance 1* on my armor."


    I don''t want to tell him that I''m stopping the Piliger from getting to it since clearly the supercomputer wants to have more hands under its control. And Piligers are dangerous now, I don''t want to think how they would be with a supercomputer helping them.


    <I don''t think you''ll be able to level up so fast even with my help sir.>


    "Don''t worry I have a plan, maybe I won''t be able to level all the way up to max level, but I should be able to get to level 9...hopefully."


    <How do you plan on doing something like this?>


    "Don''t worry, just watch me and you''ll get the hang of it."


    I visited a few Fletcher workshops and ordered a few printing presses with all the instructions being similar.


    And since I gave an order to a workshop and not a person, the whole order should be finished in one day.


    Of course, I didn''t plan on stopping just there, as I went through the city and did some shopping.


    When I arrived home, I built an enchanted room and crafted an Enchanting Table.


    I looked at the resources I had and saw that I had everything except enough lapis.


    It''s very hard to buy those ores in bulk, and I didn''t want to steal yet.


    Instead, I made a staircase downwards that led me into a cave system.


    For the rest of the two days, I managed to get more riches in ores, get the orders back in a box, and level up my Enchanting skill twice.


    Even after hundreds of enchanted books, I couldn''t get to level 9.


    But it was enough that I got Vein Mine 4 for my pickaxe so it''s not a wasted effort.


    <This method of leveling the Enchanting skills is groundbreaking. I''ll update my guide "How to grow skills fast". Unfortunately, it has the downside that you''re not learning how to enchant. I recommend the user to get to the final level, and then learn properly how to enchant.>


    "I was planning on doing that anyway, it''s just that I hate restrictions and I want to get rid of them as soon as possible."


    I had multiple printing presses now to increase my level of efficiency, but I should''ve invested more into multiple Enchanting Tables since that''s the place where most time is wasted waiting for the enchantments to be done.


    But a lot of progress was made nonetheless, and I''ll probably continue to do this until MAX level when I get back.


    "Let''s go to the inn then, but first, let''s make you invisible with this."


    I took out a splash potion from my inventory and broke it on the Allay heads making it disappear.


    Then I took off my helmet and put on my trusty cloak.


    Half an hour later I was in the white inn the guards were talking about, and to my luck, they were downstairs eating lunch.


    With silent steps, I approached and waited for them to notice me.


    "Can we help you with something?"


    "I don''t know, you''re the ones that called for me to meet you."


    All of them had their eyes on me, so I took off my hood to see my face.


    "Just as they said...he has no nose. I wonder how that happen?"


    One of them rudely whispered to his friend.


    "So what do you need from me? My friend told me it was something related to Iligers?"


    "Yes, we want to invite you to our headquarters at the capital and talk with our boss. We don''t have much details, but you''ll be compensated for the time you''ll spend there."


    I raised an eyebrow at what the leader said.


    "Are you sure about that? I''m pretty expansive."


    The others laughed and reassured me that the SUN company could afford it.


    I could only smile trying to come up with the best method to milk them as much as possible.


    We got on our horses and left for the capital, and 2 weeks later we arrived.


    It was an amazing sight to see, the city was build on top of a huge floating island, with smaller ones on the side.


    Below was a huge hole covered by stairs and torches with miners working tiersly like ants.


    There were stone bridges that were connected to the small islands, and the small islands connected the main one.


    I had to stay for a few minutes to admire this piece of human ingenuity, and even Alexa gave a compliment to the city.


    "Welcome, to the Golden City, where all dreams come true!"


    The guard spoke with a proud tone waving his hand at his home.


    It was pretty impressive so I wasn''t going to say anything negative about it.


    With the short brake over we climbed on the Stone bridges.

 Chapter 171. Why are they here?

    The small islands were all farmlands with only a few houses to take care of the fields.


    I saw wheat, potato, carrot, and even beetroot fields.


    The road was visibly separated by a wooden fence and illuminated with iron lanterns.


    Alexa sat on my head holding onto the dark helmet while analyzing the sight we were passing by.


    At first, when they saw the Allay they asked if it was the same as the previous one. I affirmed it, telling them that it was my pet and that I let it stay with my friends when I was gone.


    When they asked about the armor, I responded with ''Don''t worry, it''s just similar''.


    They didn''t like my response but they wouldn''t complain too much abput it since it wasn''t that important.


    We went onto the second bridge, which was wider and better decorated all the way to the gates.


    There, I saw a few guards with enchanted iron armor checking the people coming in.


    I was shocked when I saw this since only rich nobles were able to afford it, not mare gate guards.


    My guards showed an emblem to the gatekeepers and they just nodded, letting us pass without checking us, now we were in the floating city, and it was more different than I anticipated.


    I could say that the city was closer to my home than this world.


    The streets were packed with animals and carts, there were only buildings 5 stories or higher.


    People on the walkway were all differently clothed but in the same tone of colors.


    Most of the first floors I saw were either shops or workshops.


    "Why is everyone dressed so differently in here?"


    "That''s because most of them are citizens."


    "What?"


    Then they proceeded to explain to me what all of this meant.


    Simply put, each color represents a job given by the System, if you don''t work, you''ll have a simple colored tunic related to your job, and when people see you on the streets, if they''re interested they can trade with you on the spot.


    If you work for a workshop, you''ll still keep the colors but you''ll have a few designs imprinted on your clothing, or even given a uniform from the start.


    The higher you are on the chain, the more decorated your clothing style would be, but never stir away from the designated color.


    There were a few exceptions, such as the leader of the nation, the guards, and the miners or prisoners.


    It was interesting to hear about this, but when I asked why did they do that in the first place, they looked at me like I was stupid.


    "Because this is the Golden City, we can''t look like everyone else in the world."


    Well, that was a response that I didn''t expect to hear.


    Just to be sure, I asked about each color for the job, and they were nice enough to respond to it.


    Farmer - Yellow


    Butcher - Light Pink


    Fisherman - Light Blue


    Librarian - Red


    Armorer - Grey


    Tool Smith - Dark Grey


    Shepherd - White


    Leatherworker - Brown


    Cleric - Purple


    Cartographer - Green


    Fletcher - Light Brown


    Weapon Smith - White Grey


    Mason - Orange


    Those are the classic jobs, but there are a few exceptions.


    Guards - Armor


    Children- System given tunic


    Miner/Prisoner - Black


    Wondering Trader - Blue jacket


    Ruler - Gold and Red


    "Wait, you have wondering traders here?"


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "Yes, unfortunately, we have them. But you''ll rarely see one here in the big cities, since they like to trade with small settlements."


    Wondering traders are only legends in the other kingdoms, I was curious how they got their job in the first place.


    The guards were shocked when I told them that we didn''t have wandering traders in the other kingdoms.


    "How is that possible? From what I know, you''ll have to get no contact with the blocks chosen by the System for a whole year at the age of adulthood. Statistically, there should be someone there that goes through this as well, what is so different?"


    Is that how wondering traders get their job?


    I guess that would make sense, and explain the reason why I didn''t see a jobless viliger until now.


    It''s the System''s way of getting everyone something, no matter where you are or how you are.


    Now the question is if this is truly a gift or a shackle made by the System.


    As they talked more about this subject I came to a theory on my own.


    People who end up as wondering traders tend to live alone or in small communities in the wild.


    Not only that, but they are dumb by the standards of this world since they don''t know how to craft anything at all, only focusing on hunting and gathering berries.


    Since they don''t know how to use the Crafting table, they can''t make the blocks necessary for a System job, leading them to become wondering traders.


    But there''s something different about the Coral Kingdome in comparison with the others.


    It''s much safer.


    True, every night monsters would come and hunt the humans and their settlements, but they only get a quarter of the monsters the others get.


    So here you could afford to survive alone until you get to 14 years old, but in the other kingdoms, you couldn''t do something like this, since there is strength in numbers.


    I talked with Alexa about my theory, and it was on the same side as me, since there weren''t a lot of records of this process.


    It knew that you could choose a specific job if you wanted to, but that was kept for influential people and not the common folk.


    What it didn''t know was the fact, that you could change your trading tab constantly until you got the perfect trade.


    Our discussion was interrupted short once we arrived at the destination.


    It was a huge mansion that was surrounded by a wall of concrete combined with iron bars.


    The guard at the entrance had an enchanted diamond armor which surprised me once again.


    This is truly the most rich kingdom of them all.


    "Halt, is this the guest we were expecting?"


    "Yes sir, he looks exactly as described, it''s just that he has a weird armor."


    "That doesn''t matter, you''ll have to take it off, and If you have any dangerous weapons, please give them to me so we can proceed further."


    What is this guy talking about?


    "I don''t know why I was called here in the first place, and I don''t trust you or your company enough to let my life in your hands. So no, I would not give you anything."


    The guard only grunted in annoyance.


    "Then you 3 stay here, and I''ll escort the guest to the president."


    """Yes sir!"""


    The man nodded and signaled me to follow him.


    I got off my horse and followed him while admiring the mansion.


    There were statues sculpted by hand with different rulers or knights of this nation, there were also small animals running or jumping here and there, such as arctic foxes, pandas and turtles.


    There were also a few pieces of art made with precious materials such as gold and emeralds all on display in the open.


    When we entered the mansion something caught my eye, the light source wasn''t lanterns or torches, instead, it was glass blocks powdered with glowstone making them into beautiful chandeliers.


    All the servants wore either enchanted iron armor or colored leather armor, giving the air of tight security


    We went deeper into the mansion and stopped at a huge door guarded by 2 big and muscular guys who stopped us from getting any closer.


    "Tell master the awaited guest is here."


    They looked at the Allay with confusion and then saw me underneath which made their eyes get wide.


    But they didn''t say anything and opened a hidden trapdoor sending a letter that was written by him.


    A few moments later, a latter came back and the two guards opened the huge door with great effort.


    Beyond the door was a huge room illuminated by tall colored windows, some of them were golden, while others were red, but the combination of those two gave a royal atmosphere.


    In front of me was a custom-made throne with gold and other precious ores.


    Besides the throne were two desks with two librarians who were ready to record every detail of this meeting, making me feel a lot more pressure than anticipated.


    On the throne stood a man with red and golden robes, he had a black beard with white strands making him look more handsome.


    His eyes were green filled with wisdom and greed, trying to determine my worth only with his looks.


    We stopped around 10 blocks away from the throne, and another two guards with enchanted diamond armor came from behind the throne ready to defend their leader.


    "Greeting Trader, I''m glad you finally decided to visit our humble capital. I heard a lot about you, how you trained the hero and defeated the Monster Lord, how you have forbidden knowledge from the ancient times, connections with the Witches Clan and even infiltrated into the Iliger outpost to free it''s prisoners. I''m quite a fan of your work."


    So he knows some information about me, which was to be expected.


    What I didn''t expect, was the fact he knew about my infiltration mission, since I only told Bobby about it.


    Did they speak with the prisoners?


    "It''s an honor for me to be invited here as well King Gold Salamander. Why have I been called for?"


    "Oh please, call me President from now on, we''re trying to move away from such rigit structure. As for why I called you here, it''s pretty simple, I''m trying to understand why are the Piliger attacking us all of the sudden. And since you''ve infiltrated their camp, maybe you know the reason."


    Silence was sitting for a few moments in the room as I was thinking on how I should respond.


    "There could be multiple reasons for why they would attack the viligers, most of them result in changing them into Iligers like themselves, or even use them as slaves for Crafting or Brewing since they don''t have the ability to do that."


    Then I took a pause acting like I was thinking about something.


    "But from what I heard, they destroyed the viliges not taking any prisoners. I can''t fathom why they would do that."


    Until Alexa told me the real reason why they were roaming around the land, I would be as confused as them about this.


    Plus, I didn''t know how to help them in the first place, it''s not like I have a compass that would point me in their direction.


    "That''s what the others told me as well, it''s just that they keep hitting our storage facilities and stealing our items. We don''t know if they''re looking for something ot just preparing for a big attack, what do you think?"


    It would be advantageous to take over the capital of this place or at least a city with a port, but that would take too much time and manpower to manage so I don''t think they''ll do that.


    "I don''t think they would take over any city since it would require too much man power to take it and mange it, they only place it would be worth taking over is the capital. But I think both of us belive it''s not going to be an easy endeavor, so they''re most likely looking for some items. Did anything out of the ordinary got stolen?"


    This time it wasn''t the president that answered the question, but one of the librarian that was sitting on the site.


    "Now that you mantion it, they''re usually stealing food, potions and weapons, but all of them are made by the System, they don''t take the man-made ones, even if their better. But there was an incident where an auction house was robbed and their prized man-made weapon was taken as well."


    "What was that weapon called?"


    The librarian looked through a few papers until it stopped at a certain one.


    "Yes, it''s here, and it''s called a trident apparently."


    Well that''s no good, looks like I''ll have to help them now.

 Chapter 172. What so you mean, theres another Monster Lord

    "A trident you say... that reminds me of something. When I was in their camp gathering information I saw a board with a list of items, and on top I saw the word trident as well."


    That caught their attention and asked me what other items were on the list.


    Unfortunately, my memory wasn''t that good, I only remembered the names of a few potions and blocks, but nothing else.


    They were disappointed by this but thanked me nonetheless.


    "What is the trident used for?"


    "From what we were told, it''s a weapon and a tool to make you travel faster in the water, but nobody seems to make it work. So it was only placed as a display item in the auction house."


    That''s a way I can guide them towards the right path!


    "Maybe they know how to use the tool, but even then they would need a large body of water to use it properly."


    The eyes of the president suddenly lit.


    "That means the next attack would most likely be at a city with a port! We have quite a few of those, but it''s better than spreading our forces through all the kingdom."


    This is good progress, this should stop the Piliger from overtaking a ship easily, or if they build another flying platform, there would be enough people to build a wall to stop them.


    "Thank you for your input, it greatly helped us if it''s true. While you''re here, I''d also like to ask you about the Monster Lord."


    That question made me confused.


    I knew the Zombie Lord wasn''t dead, but Merry didn''t make that statement public.


    Maybe Merry didn''t catch him on time and a few viliges saw him?


    "While I did help with killing the Zombie Lord, the one who dealt the final blow was the hero. She should have more experience with this than me."


    "We''re not talking about the Zombie Lord this time, a new Monster Lord appeared in the Sandstone Kindome a few weeks ago and it''s ravaging through the nearby towns. But he is a weird Monster Lord, he doesn''t have an army, instead, he''s constantly defeated by the Prince that was exiled a few months ago."


    What do you mean there''s a new Monster Lord?!


    I don''t remember being a prophecy about another Monster Lord, and why does he seem so weak?


    When there''s no army around him, he should be stronger then any human with armor.


    Even Merry didn''t kill the Zombie Lord with a sword, I had to use a lot of explosions for that one, and the hero has a chance of killing him now because she received a powerful sword made for him.


    There''s no way a normal human can constantly defeat such a Monster with his small army.


    This monster has to be a fake.


    I told my opinion to the president and he seems to be on my side as well.


    He only brought this up since there''s a chance the Monster Lord would start attacking the Coral Kingdom, and the hero has been gone on an expedition for a few weeks already.


    Truly this was the start of a bad year.


    If the Monster Lord is genuine, it makes me wonder if another one''s is going to appear later.


    Just when my life seems to form a clear path, things appear to distract me.


    I''ll have to gather more information before making a decision, with the Piligers being a priority.


    The president thanked me for my input and paid me 4 blocks of diamond which would be amazing for anyone to get, but for me and the company, it was just spare change.


    The only difference was that most of my wealth is in one place and I can''t have it all the time on me.


    I took the blocks, thanked the man, refused his offer to work for his company or for the president, and went on my way out when he asked me a question that made me stop.


    "I have one more question if you don''t mind, do you know where Simpson the man who wanted to recruit you a few months ago went?"


    "No, I haven''t seen him since the last time he offered me the job."


    "I see, you can leave now."


    And I did that with quick steps so I wouldn''t get any more surprise questions.


    Once I was outside, I took my horse and explored the city a little.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t enjoy the view since my mind was preoccupied with the new information I just learned.


    I''ve only been away for a few months and two major crises have happened.


    What''s going on with this world?


    I need to get more information so I won''t jump into a war by accident.


    And I already knew where to start.


    ----


    <Sir, why do you keep flowing that compass?>


    "This compass leads me to my home base."


    <How would this help you gather information about the Monster Lord?>


    "There''s no need for you to worry about it, I have a few connections that can help me with that."


    It''s been a week since I left the Gold City.


    Once my job was done, I quickly went back to Puperfish City paid a few brokers to get any information related to the locations of the Iligers, sent it to my house in a chest, and got the rest of the payment afterward.


    I also used Siren''s name to put some fear in them for not ripping me off.


    And while she''s gone on the sea to rob some poor ships, her new vehicle and crew gave her name more power.


    Then with Violet''s help, I made the redstone contraption for collecting the information, built a secret portal underneath my house, and left a note in case Siren decided to come back and continue living there.


    Then I went into the Nether.


    The reason I built the portal was for two reasons, to travel fast and meet with the prisoner in my tribe.


    He didn''t tell me how I could get to Alexa, but I doubt he didn''t know about the trident password, which would''ve helped me to not get attacked.


    That meant he was hiding some information from me, and I was determined to get everything out.


    Plus I wanted to see how Bobby and Froggy were doing afterwords.


    Speaking of Bobby, his wedding is around the corner, I should prepare a gift for them.


    I wonder what he''ll like.


    I also wonder if I''ll be an uncle soon.


    We walked throughout the Nether at a fast pace even though we had to pass valleys filled with lava, forests full of dangers and the Allay being a pain to deal with.


    "Alexa, I told you to leave those patches of soulsand alone!"


    <Sorry sir, but my order to get stronger takes priority, so I won''t be following your order.>


    Since soulsand is at the top of the list for his energy blocks, whenever we pass by a soulsand valley, Alexa gets distracted and starts collecting the soul energy or something similar from the blocks.


    Unfortunately, the body it now controls can''t absorb the energy as efficiently as the main body, resulting in only 10% gain and losing the rest.


    Not only that, but the monsters seem to have an unnatural hate towards the Allay.


    Skeletons, zombies, hoglings, Brutes, and even Piglings seem to attack it at first sight.


    And since it''s not invisible, or has a strong armor, it just ends up with having to give up on the gathering process and fly away to safety.


    It was a weird sight to see, since this wasn''t a problem in the Overworld, only in the Nether.


    In the end, I couldn''t be bothered with this anymore and promised to gather a few stacks of soulsand when ill get back to its main body.


    This seemed to satisfy it and didn''t get into trouble anymore which made the journey much easier.


    A few days later, I started to recognize the landscape which gave me a boost in my confidence and in my traveling speed.


    Not too long after I was in front of the tribe with the guards looking bored at the tunnel.


    "Hey there boys, how''s the work going?"


    "It''s boring as always, I can''t wait to finish my shift and try the strength potion that Blue Flame was talking about-."


    Realizing that they didn''t see me or recognize my voice, the two guards quickly turned and slashed at me with their iron swords.


    Expecting this response, I just took a step back making them miss.


    "Who are you, how did you get behind us?"


    "Relax guys, it''s me, Trader."


    I said that as I took off my helmet.


    "Chief Trader I didn''t know you were there under the armor."


    "Don''t worry, it was my fault from beginning. I''m looking to speak with Undying, do you know is she''s here?"


    "No, she left two days ago on a hunting mission, but Blue Flame is in charge."


    I guess he was better suited for my requests.


    I thanked the two guards and went on my way to the big tree.


    "Alexa, whatever you do, your not allowed to leave my side unless given permission, understood!"


    <Order received.>


    The air spoke behind me.


    Since all creatures in this world seems to hate Alexa, I decided to make her invisible while I was here, and I''ll see if I could reson with people to not kill my super computer.


    I arrived at the big tree and knocked on the blue door.


    * knock knock*


    A few moments later, the door was open and Blue Flame looked at me with tierd eyes.


    "I hope this is worth- Trader is that you?"


    "Good to see you as well Blue, I need your help with something. Or more exactly I need Solomon''s help."


    "Sure you can come in, we just finished a batch of experiments. He has a twisted personality like you told me, but he''s got the spirit of a true researcher. You have to see what we''ve created."


    That sounded interesting, so I followed him inside.


    Once in there I was greeted by a young adult hogling that was siting lazily on the couch.


    He looked at me for a second, let out a sigh and went back to sleep.


    Was it possible for an animal like him to be this lazy?


    "I see Hog Chop got bigger."


    "And lazier if you can belive that. Its hard to belive that he''s a murdered machine capable of squishing anyone to death if he wanted to."


    Indeed.


    Next we went to a new place that I didn''t see before.


    The basement.


    There, I saw a huge room filed with berals, chests, brewing stands, Wart farm, Enchanting Table and other kinds of block all spread throughout the room.


    In the middle was a huge table with man-made equipment that I couldn''t tell what it was used for.


    And those tools were used by the man that I was looking for.


    Solomon the Iliger, and my prisoner.


    <Sir, do I have your permission to analyze the items in here?>


    "Wha? Yeah sure, just don''t brake anything."


    "Who are you? And what''s with the dress?"


    I kind of forgot he was a jerk as well.


    "It''s me Solomon, I came here to ask how are the Iligers going to find the Fake System?"


    He looked back to his tools, and stated to clean them.


    "I told you, they plan on stealing a ship, and with the help of the map they would get there."


    Well he''s not lying but not telling the full truth.


    "Then I guess you don''t know anything about the puzzles sent by the Fake System."


    The Mad Scientist stopped and looked at me with nervous expression.


    "W-where have you heard that?"


    "Funny enough the source itself told me."


    He went silent and looked at me with wide eyes not believing what he just heard, and Blue looked confused at us.


    "Is-is it with you as well?"


    "Yes, it recognized me as it''s master."


    The Mad Scientist looked franticly around the room before getting to his knees and started to yell.


    "Almighty System, free me from those people and I''ll give my soul to you!"

 Chapter 173. I can take over the Nether

    "Almighty System, free me from those people and I''ll give my soul to you!"


    Silence.


    "Wha-what do you mean I don''t have the authority to make such a request? Who has it? How can I-"


    "Alexa, stop talking with him, that''s an order!"


    <Oreder received, can I scan him?>


    "Sure, just don''t touch him, and come back to me once you''re finished."


    Solomon had a devasted look in his eyes while Blue was trying to see the invisible mob.


    "What just happened, who are you two talking to?"


    "I guess you don''t know what the Piligers are looking for, I''ll explain it to you, but it''s better if you sit down for this."


    Then I proceeded to tell him about the Iligers, what they are, how they invaded a few nations, looking for a specific item, and then go on a boat to find the legendary Fake System.


    While this is a secret not a lot of people know about, Blue and Undying showed that they were trustworthy, and I needed their help if I wanted to make more progress.


    So I told him how I got the map, made an iron ship, sailed onto the sea, got to the water temple, fought with its guardians.


    Which I won!


    Met with the Fake System and made it follow me.


    Solomon and Blue were looking at me with wide eyes.


    "So that means you have complete control of a God?"


    "Not really but kind of. This god is very limited in what it can do and needs a lot of energy to grant any wishes I make in the first place."


    Like a signal, a message was sent into my mind.


    <The analysis is complete, and I can remove the restrictions of the System if necessary.>


    I thought you could only do that in your special dome, what changed?


    "Including the ones of the Skill tab?"


    <Negative, that is completely marge with your soul, it would take more time and energy to complete such a task.>


    "What about the level cap?"


    <That can be changed but only for a limited number of people.>


    Maybe it can do that since it scanned a lot of items and has more energy.


    "You''re talking to it again, what did it tell you?"


    Solomon asked in a rush which made me smirk.


    "It told me it can remove your curse."


    Both of them were surprised by this, and Solomon was ready to get on his knees again.


    "Don''t bother, Alexa only listens to me, and you already pissed me off with hiding information and trying to escape. You''ll have to earn back my trust to lift your curse."


    His head went down in disappointment, but I didn''t plan on changing my mind any time soon.


    "Wait, if your System can lift Solomon''s curse, can''t it also make us able to live in the Overworld?"


    I haven''t thought about that, but if possible that would be an amazing thing to do.


    "What do you think Alexa, do you think you can do it?"


    <I have to scan a specimen first to get the data. Do I have permission to do this?>


    "Yeah, sure. Alexa is going to scan you for a few moments, so try not to move too much."


    Blue stood still like a statue trying not to interrupt the scanning process.


    But after a few moments, his expression changed like he was uncomfortable, and then he suddenly got angry and punched the air.


    Somehow he managed to find Alexa and punch it away interrupting the scanning process.


    "S-sorry, I just felt something very uncomfortable looking at me, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with anger towards this place. What did I just hit?"


    So this dimension truly has something against Alexa.


    Why?


    "That''s Alexa''s avatar that I made invisible. For some reason, everyone in this dimension seems to hate it."


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "That was the System?! I''m sorry I didn''t know, please don''t curse me!"


    I didn''t expect Blue to be so scared of the System, but I guess living with a victim of the System for two months made him realize how powerful it truly was.


    "Don''t worry it''s not angry at you."


    From what I understand, Alexa is not human enough to hold a grudge, it''s just trying to imitate human emotions.


    But it was still a problem that it couldn''t scan people because they got defensive.


    <Sir, I think I can find the root of this problem if I manage to scan a few beings from this dimension. I''m sending you a request to help me with this task.>


    Then a black window appeared in front of me with a quest saying to find 4 more living beings to scan.


    That''s going to be hard, but I guess we could do something about it.


    "Ok Blue, Alexa is going to scan you once again, but this time please hold your urges to punch it If possible."


    "I-I don''t know if I could do that, could you two hold me in place just in case?"


    That would work for me.


    So with the Mad Scientist help we held Blue in one place so he wouldn''t hurt Aexa anymore.


    Luckily, we were strong enough to hold him down, and that was a good decision since he was very uncomfortable the whole time.


    <I need 3 more specimens to scan.>


    "Alexa told me it needs 3 more scans, probably from other species as well. Do you think we could scan Hog Chop?"


    "That could be feasible, but if he''s going to react similarly to me, maybe it''s better if I''ll put him to sleep. I''ll be back soon."


    He took a few alchemy ingredients from a chest and left the basement, a few minutes later, he came back and we managed to scan Hog Chop who seemed to be only annoyed that his sleep was being disturbed.


    We talked some more about who else should we scan next and came up with two candidates.


    A strider and a brute that was held captive by the tribe.


    The strider was easy enough to scan, they were docile creatures but just to be safe, we brought one out of the lava pool so it would feel more bothered by the cold than by the scanning process.


    The Brute was harder to deal with since it didn''t want to cooperate with us even if we paid him in gold nuggets.


    So we had to be a little more forceful, by pinning him down with chains and holding him just in case.


    The whole time he was scanned, he was screaming and cursing at us.


    It wasn''t a fun time, to say the least, but we had all the data necessary for Alexa to come to a conclusion.


    <Sir, after analyzing the souls of different species, I saw a common thing between them all. The link that the System uses to was missing. Instead there is one similar to the System''s, but much weaker which seems to make everything more violent when computers like me are scanning it.>


    "What does that mean exactly?"


    <It seems that the collective will of this dimension created a primitive System that hates every other system besides itself. That''s why it''s attacking me, since it hates me, and that''s why the people I''m this world don''t have status pages or are allowed to leave this dimension.>


    Wait, so it wasn''t that the Overworld was killing the inhabitants of this world, but the Nether was killing them when they went under the jurisdiction of a new System.


    That was...unbelievable!


    "Does that mean we have to be careful about the System in this dimension as well?"


    <Negative, while I called it a primitive System, it doesn''t have that much power yet, it''s more like an animal moving on instinct than reason. But if left alone for a few thousand years, it could evolve itself to be as powerful as the current System.>


    That was a relief to hear, I''m already having problems with the System in the Overworld taking my stuff, and I don''t want to have a problem in this dimension as well.


    "Does that mean you can remove the link that kills the people of this world who pass through the portal?"


    <Only of their brought to the main body.>


    That was good to hear, I was already planning on making a road to its base so I could transport souldsand easier, maybe I could ask a few piglings to help me and I''ll pay them with a cure.


    <Sir, may I put another request for you.>


    "Sure, what do you need?"


    <From my analysis of this dimension, I came to the conclusion that I can take over it and use it as a fuel source. Please build me another base here so I can start the transfer.>


    "You can what?!"


    "Trader, what are you talking with your System to react that bad? Is it not possible for us to live in the Overworld?"


    "No, Alexa just told me it wants to take over the Nether!"


    Their eyes went wide, and I tried to get more details out of Alexa about what it was talking about.


    Apparently, since this dimension was so rich In energy resources, this move would be the most optimal way to grow fast.


    But now that it found the seed of another natural System, it could take over and optimize it.


    That means that Alexa wouldn''t even need those soulblocks, since it could use the same source as the seed System.


    It doesn''t know the source yet, but if we build a base in this dimension it could find out eventually.


    I asked what it meant if it managed to take over the Nether, and the response was as expected but still shocking.


    <If I manage to take over this dimension, I should have the same powers as the System in the Overworld.>


    This was amazing to hear, and scary to think.


    But theoretically, I would have a God as my friend.


    And if Alexa takes over the Nether, it would have more than enough power to calculate the location of my home dimension, and who knows, maybe a way to get there.


    But there was a catch with this of course.


    First, it would take around 5 years to finish the dome and an unknown amount of years to finish the research to ascend over the dimension.


    Second, Alexa still doesn''t want to attack any illgers coming towards it, even when I keep telling it that it''s most likely going to end the world.


    Third, it would take a lot of resources and manpower to start this project.


    Not to mention how dangerous would be to do something like this


    And lastly, I don''t know if Alexa will be the same when it becomes a God.


    Of course, I''m still going to help it with this, since the rewards are way to good to pass on.


    I talked with the others about it, and they were on the same page as me with this decision.


    "But where would we find someone trustful at redstone engineering?"


    One of the expertise Alexa needed was someone that knew how redstone worked.


    And while I did know a little about it. It was nowhere near enough to design something as complicated as a computer.


    Now, I know someone that should be qualified for that position, but it would take a lot to convince her to cooperate with Alexa.


    "Don''t worry, I''ll figure it out latter, let''s talk more details about the rest of the project."


    So for the next few hours we talked more details about the project, we decided to ask for help from the Stone Kindome, or at least Bobby and from the Witches Clan.


    Well also start paying other Brutes to collect Soulsand for us.


    We figured out, that we didn''t need to collect all the necessary blocks since we could give Soulsand to Alexa to convert it to whatever we wanted.


    And the rest of the blocks that it can''t create, we will get it on our own.


    This decision alone cut the construction time in half.


    We talked and talked until it was time for me to leave, but not before getting a present.

 Chapter 174. Trader is doing something crazy again

    POV: Bobby


    I wake up, I eat breakfast, I do some exercise around the palace, and then stop at my office.


    There, a chest filled with books and papers was already waiting for me.


    And from the looks of it, it''s going to be a busy day since I have a few books on my desk on top of that.


    I let out a big sigh and sat down to work.


    I looked at a book that was proposing a budget to create a potion against skeletons.


    It was an interesting idea with the rise of the new Monster Lord, so it wouldn''t be a waste of resources, but I would only accept this deal if they would work with a Witch.


    Their intuition should lower the time and resources for these tests.


    I hope the one who proposes it, doesn''t have a problem with Witches like some people seem to have.


    The other books and papers were about building a new farm, opening a new trade route to the Coral Kingdom, emergency help for a few villages at the edge of the kingdom, and a challenge letter for the hand of the princess.


    The last one I threw it in the fire without looking at it.


    When they first appeared I was taken aback and even scared, but at this point, I didn''t care about hurting their egos.


    For the next few hours, I kept signing and writing new papers until I was finally done.


    "That was the last one, I hope they have something good for lunch today."


    "Lunch, it looks more like dinner with how the sun is setting, you are truly busy for someone who is not even a Prince."


    My skin started crowl as I took out my diamond sword with trained movements towards the voice.


    "Why does everyone keep pointing their swords at me when I''m greeting them."


    I could hear the amused voice beneath the dark armor, and I quickly recognized it.


    I let out a big sigh but couldn''t hide the smile under my nose.


    "Trader, where have you been? You are harder to find than an emerald ore."


    "Oh, you know me Bobby, here and there fighting giant monsters and taming a God."


    He started to laugh and I soon followed him, but mine was more nervous than his.


    He could be kidding but at the same time, I could see him doing something stupid like this.


    "Merry was asking about you since she went to kill the Zombie Lord for good. But I didn''t know how to contact you since you were in the Coral Kingdom."


    I don''t think she wanted his help, only to show him how much she''s grown in the past few months.


    "I heard there''s another Monster Lord in the Sandstone kingdom, do you know anything about it?"


    As always, he seems to know a lot of information that is supposed to be hidden, but we''re talking about Trader here, I shouldn''t be surprised.


    "Yes, the world is getting more chaotic in the past few years."


    Then I proceeded to tell him about the Skeleton Lord.


    We don''t know too much about him, but what we do know is enough for us to understand that something rotten is at the bottom.


    The monster doesn''t have an army like the Zombie Lord, nor does it try to make one, it can teleport for short distances but doesn''t let particles bwhind like an Enderman.


    He has special arrows with different effects and nobody seems to be able to hit him no matter what trap was use.


    Or at least that''s the case when the Prince is not there.


    We got our information from the royal family itself since they asked us how to deal with the problem since we dealt with a similar one.


    We were willing to help since we knew how dangerous this could get if left unattended, but the monster acted too weirdly.


    He was clearly stronger than any man with armor. Whenever it attacked a town, it tried to be as loud as possible, but when the Prince came, it went silent and weak as an oversized skeleton.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    The Prince always manages to defeat the monster but never kills it since it runs away.


    Once that happens, the Prince is praised as a hero by the town and he gains fame.


    Weirdly enough, the Skelton Lord seems to attack only towns that are on the Princess''s side, which quickly makes it obvious that the Prince had some kind of deal with the Monster Lord, or System forbid, controls it.


    For now, there''s a special squad looking for the whereabouts of the Prince''s team to find out the truth.


    While the Monster Lord is still a dangerous opponent, the damage he has done is minimal.


    "That''s crazy to hear, I don''t even want to think how we would have to defeat it since it can teleport out of any trap. At least the Zombie Lord will be dealt with for good."


    I hope so as well since we didn''t get any news from the hero and it make me worried a little.


    With that out of the way, I asked Trader If he found what he was looking for in the Coral Kingdom and from his expression it looks like it''s more complicated than anticipated.


    What he asked me afterward was even more shocking.


    "My friend tells me this place is not secured for this talk, do you think we can talk in the Nether instead?"


    What does he want to talk about that requires the security of another dimension?


    And who is this new friend of his? I can''t take this statement casually since all the people he has as friends are not normal.


    With a nervous laugh, I said that it should be ok since I finished work for today.


    I just asked to stop by the kitchen on the way there so I could eat something, which he agreed.


    Luckily on the way there, we had a normal talk, such as my upcoming wedding which was requedualed to be in a month, the state of the Nether Tribe, and the ''Witch'' project that would help Froggy''s friends to integrate into society.


    We had light talks until I arrived at the kitchen, took some stake, and walked towards the portal.


    Once we passed it with no problem, Trader looked at the empty air.


    "Is it safe here? Ok, maybe we should stay in a different room and talk about this."


    I was getting concerned that Trader either lost his mind or is now able to talk with ghosts.


    Neither option was very pleasant to discover.


    We went into an empty room and he blocked the door with blocks.


    "Ok, so what do you think about building a God?"


    Yep, that clears it, he has finally lost it.


    It took longer than expected, but it was inevitable, and as his friend I had to help him.


    "Trader, I know you come from a different dimension, but I''m sure even there you couldn''t build God''s, so let''s think about this for a moment. What did you do in the last two months?"


    "What? Of course, I couldn''t build a God in my world, but in this world, it looks like we can do something close to it."


    Before I could get the chance to talk, he proceeded to tell me how he invented the iron ship, traveled in the deepest part of the sea, fought with monsters that no nation should be able to, found a Fake System, brought it into the Nether where it realized that it could become a System for that dimension, and now he''s here to ask me for help.


    "Wait, Trader! I need to sit down for this."


    I quickly sat down beside the wall while messaging my forehead.


    He''s done it again, I thought he wouldn''t be able to surprise me with anything anymore since I''ve already seen a few crazy stuff, but I was soooo wrong.


    I mean he''s talking about creating another System altogether!


    The very System that destroyed the greatest civilization a few hundred years ago.


    How am I not supposed to be shocked by this?


    Take a deep breath and slowly let it out, this is a good thing, just shove the shock in the back of your mind, and let''s make a decision now.


    "How sure are you about this?"


    <100% sure.>


    A neutral voice spoke into my mind, but I was too tierd to be shocked by this.


    "I''m guessing you''re the Fake System."


    <Affirmative.>


    I didn''t know what to expect, but telepathy makes sense for an almighty System.


    "So what kind of help do you need from me, Trader?"


    "There''s an underground tunnel system here in the Nether, and I want you to send a team to see how far it goes in that direction."


    He pointed toward a point that I couldn''t quite tell where it was yet.


    "I didn''t know there''s such a thing in the Nether. And what do you expect to find?"


    "Nothing really, I just want to use the tunnels to get as close as possible to the main body of Alexa so I can send a few stacks of Soulsand. But be careful since there''s someone powerful roaming through those tunnels, strong enough to destroy a Bastion."


    That wasn''t good, and I don''t know if I have a team that is strong and trust enough for such a mission.


    "Why didn''t you ask the Tribe for help? Their more experienced in this dimension."


    "I tried but they''re all busy with your constant orders."


    Oh yeah, that''s our fault.


    Since we don''t trade as often as before with the Coral Kingdom we placed a lot more orders for the small Tribe in the Nether.


    It won''t be small for very long since they plan on merging with other tribes in the area soon but the problem still stands.


    That should speed up the production and help us with the construction of the new System.


    "Only this? I think I can help with more manpower if you want to."


    "I would appreciate that, but the less people know about the location of the System the better. I only want to make a tunnel towards there, gather as much soulsand as possible and deafet the Iligers before they would get to the fake System as well."


    Wait, what was that last part?


    It sounded very important.


    After Trader told me the short version of what happened, I could only massage my growing headache.


    They continue to be a pain no matter where they go, at least Trader seems to know what the final city would be, so he could lay a trap there.


    We talked some more about the details, and if it was realy necessary to involve Froggy in this since it wasn''t a lot he could do, plus the other Witches are still recovering.


    We continued like this for a few hours trying to come with as much details as possible.


    In the end we had to stop since it was getting late in the Overworld, and people would start looking for me, especially Elizabeth who would be angry that I missed dinner with her.


    But most of the planing was already over, I would send a team with a few people I trust in the together with a few piglings from the tribe, and after my wedding we can start the construction of the System Base.


    In the meantime we could gather the obsidian blocks with the farm Trader would build and rare blocks.


    Trader is kind enough to even give us enchanted diamond pickaxes to mine those hard blocks.


    Unfortunately when I asked what Alexa would be able to do once it takes over the Nether, it wasn''t a lot for the Overworld, but apparently it could make this dimension more suitable to live in, which would boost immensely the livehood of the guards at the fortress.


    Overall this project was an amazing blessing for the kingdome, now the question is how much should I tell my wife, since I can''t do this all alone.

 Chapter 175. Hi Merry!

    It''s a good thing that I spoke with Bobby today.


    His insight was very good since he is a man who manages projects at large scales, while Blue and Solomon are used to small teams.


    Blue and Solomon had good ideas as well, but they didn''t have the same experience as Bobby who got himself a into a lot of responsibilities.


    It''s a good thing that I didn''t want to be a king, otherwise I don''t think I''ll ever be able to leave the office.


    Bobby told me I could use the same room I used last time since it was designated for my personal use, which I greatly appreciated.


    I decided ill be staying here for a week to get some rest since for the past few months I was either fighting for my life, grinding nonstop, or getting bored on a ship.


    Of course, I wouldn''t drop all my plans for sightseeing, I would do some preparation for afterwards where I''ll be working from my home base.


    Since I was the only human in this dimension who could do the enchantments necessary for the new Nether Base, I had to do some preparations before starting.


    The enchantments that I had to do were costume enchants, and not only that, they were more difficult to work with than normal ones since I couldn''t use books or pages for this.


    I had to enchant the block itself for this to work.


    And I had to make a few hundreds blocks like this.


    I didn''t have the manpower the ancient civilization did, nor was I crazy enough to think I could do it all on my own perfectly, so I had to be more clever.


    Unlike them, I could still use the printing press method to quickly enchant the blocks.


    I''ll have to adjust the size of the device to cover one face of the cube instead of a page.


    Unfortunately once it is done, the blocks won''t be stackable anymore.


    So that means that I''ll have to do the work at the location of the Nether Base, which would would be very dangerous.


    But that didn''t mean I wasn''t going to work at my base, there were still other enchantments that I could put on books that would help with the construction.


    My final goal is to reach the MAX level in Enchanting and see if I can meet with the System to get a reward.


    I knew it''s a huge risk for me to get in contact with the System, but Alexa assured me that once a law was created it couldn''t be changed, only limited, so I shouldn''t worry about being harmed while I was with the System, only that I''ll be ripped off with my reward.


    I had in mind an enchantment that would help me get back home and surprisingly no engineer in the past seemed to request it.


    But there was still time until I got it, and I should make a few safe files in case something went wrong.


    I just hope that my extra lives will still be available in the System''s domain.


    With everything planned, and the sun already down, I was prepared to get back to my room and get some sleep.


    But just as I was walking silently on the hallways I saw an unexpected face, the Hero herself Merry Paper.


    "Hi Marry, how was the hunt?"


    That brings back memories of my old name.


    "Who''s there, who are you and how did you sneak up in here!"


    The stealth of the armor wore off making me visible and more menacing, which promptly made the hero take her sword ourlt ready for a fight.


    "Is that how you greet your teacher?"


    "Teacher? Don''t tell me...Trader is that you? Where did you get that creepy armor, are you a Demon Lord now?"


    With how powerful the armor was, I wouldn''t say it''s too far off.


    "Ahh, my master plan was discovered. Indeed I wanted to befriend the hero so I could defeat her when she least expected. And today is the day you shall pay the price of your foolishness."


    I quickly put the black robe on me to make my speech more menacing and suddenly Merry turned serious


    "I knew you were too good to be true. Today I shall save the world by defeating you once and for all."


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    She suddenly took a fighting stance, and I started to panic a little.


    She knew I was joking right?


    There''s no need to take it this far....right?


    The hero leaped toward me and I quickly jumped away before taking out my shield and blocking the upcoming attack.


    She clearly has more battle experience than me at this point and I wasn''t going to play on an even field.


    I took out a black potion and threw it at Merry who quickly dodged but was still in the range of the splash potion.


    Then she placed two blocks in front of her as a shield and checked her status page.


    "Seriously! Where did you even get a sleep potion, do you know how illegal those are?"


    There are quirks with having alchemist friends, and I was going to use them whenever necessary.


    Before she could do anything else, I took out my crossbow and shot it right besides her feet.


    The firework blew off and she used the momentum of the explosion to move at great speeds.


    She took out her crossbow but I blocked her attack with my own tower, feeling the rest of the blast beeing absorbed by the armor.


    "I give up, the sleepiness is getting to me and I''ll soon unconscious. Can you please give me some milk since I don''t have any on me right now?"


    That ended quicker then anicipated, but I wasn''t going to complain.


    I took the last bucket from my inventory and gave it to her to wash off the potion effects.


    A few glups later, she looked at me with a smile on her face.


    "Where did you get that armor Trader, and can I also have one?"


    "Does this armor look heroic to you?"


    "That''s true, there''s a higher chance the Zombie Lord would think I''m on his side then than System''s."


    "Didn''t you kill the Zombie Lord?"


    "Well...about that."


    Merry then proceeded to tell me what happened in the past few weeks when she felt the Zombie Lord respawn, how she destroyed it while ha was distracted and how he run away when he realized he was going to lose.


    I was shocked at first how much the Hero grew to be able to scare the Monster Lord.


    She was very smug about that as well, which made me a little suspicious, but results don''t lie.


    What followed after was a running and hiding game, where the Zombie Lord was hiding, getting found out by the Hero and went back to running.


    The holy army was left behind to kill the normal zombies, and Merry was on the run for a few days.


    No matter what she tried, she couldn''t catch the Zombie Lord off guard, always running away out of her reach.


    That continued for a few days until Merry realized that he was heading towards the Sandstone kingdom.


    Then she decided to stop, sice the army would most likely be able to hold the Monster Lord for a few days until she got some rest.


    While she was still in the Stone Kingdome, she decided to visit Bobby and request a few potions since she run out and normal people couldn''t do the special potions that she wanted.


    That''s why she was here, taken by surprise that I was back as well.


    "Do you want to help me trap the Zombie Lord?"


    Merry asked with hopeful eyes.


    "I don''t think you''ll be staying here for too long unfortunately."


    "What do you mean?"


    Then I told her about the new Monster Lord that was terrorising the the towns in the desert, and soon her face turned pale.


    "S-so your saying that the Zombie Lord was running towards the new Monster Lord?"


    "There''s a high chance that would happen."


    "I have to leave as soon as possible then! I can''t just stay here while the world is getting destroyed by those two monsters. Where''s Bobby?!"


    The Hero started to panic, making me feel bad that I wasn''t as worried as her about the problem.


    Maybe I should help her after all.


    If not to kill the monsters, at least to trap them.


    "Calm down Merry, he''s having dinner with the princess. We can visit him tomorrow after we got some rest."


    "How can I get some rest when there''s a catastrophe about to happen!"


    She was loosing it, I had to calm her down.


    "Merry stop! Take deep breaths and let''s think about this. You came here for a few potions, even if you get them this instance it would take you weeks to get back to the capital. But there''s a solution, we can travel through the Nether to get 8 times faster then in the Overworld."


    We just need to know the rough direction of where we should go.


    And luckily I have a place in mind that would bring us pretty close.


    The Skeleton fortress.


    The hero took a few deep breaths and soon she was back to normal.


    "You''re right Trader, we can get some rest tonight and tomorrow we would go back to the Sandstone Kindome."


    Well this means that my vacation is over before it even started.


    But it wasn''t such a bad thing in the end.


    While I''ll prefere to not visit that desert if possible, that doesn''t mean there''s nothing I could do in there.


    There''s actually a very important person that I should meet, someone that Solomon told me after some serios interrogation with Blue.


    The nobleman who had an infected wife which I cured had a servant named Jeremiah.


    Apparently that was a Iliger with heavy makeup sent as a spy.


    There''s a high chance that he''s the one to infect the wife in the first place, which is pretty mest up.


    But I wasn''t someone that would seek revenge for someone else, no, that man was also one of the lead Iligers in the Sandstone kingdome who leaked secrets of the country to the outpost.


    Worst of all, since they had the help of the Prince, they managed to get power and wealth that their sending it back home to make the invasion easier.


    Their were very smart about this, and planed this invasion way before I came to this world, so I have to be careful how I''ll approach them, since Jeremiah is one of the few people who has a compass that would lead to the current location of the general.


    That''s right, I was planning on robing that man and attack the forces in the Coral kingdom before they would reach the port.


    There''s no need to lay a trap If you could surprise your enemy while their sleeping.


    That''s why I had to visit the place I hate the most.


    Not becouse I wanted to defet the Monster Lords, but becouse I wanted to stop the Iligers from getting to my super computer.


    In the end Merry went to get a room, while I had to do some final preparations.


    Just like the Fletcher in the Sand Palace, there was one man with the same job here.


    Unfortunately the man was already asleep when I found his workshop, so I had no choice but to leave a note with all the instruction needed for the printing press.


    At the end I wrote to send it to Bobby after he was done, and left it on his workshop desk.


    Next I cleaned my inventory a little and took a few other items from the Ender chest.


    I planned on finishing this mission as fast as possible, since I didn''t want to miss Bobby''s wedding.


    He was my first friend, my best friend in this world, and I wouldn''t miss it for anything.


    I looked at the moon outside the window, sayed goodnight to Violet and went to sleep.

 Chapter 176. Back to the desert

    *Bang


    *Bang!


    *BANG!


    "Wha- who''s banging the door this early in the morning?"


    I got up from my bed with tired eyes, and put on my dark armor.


    Then with slow steps, I walked towards the door that was almost broken.


    As I was sitting in from of the wooden door, a few thoughts ran through my mind.


    Should I attack the person beyond the door?


    Should I ignore it until it leaves?


    Or maybe I should leave a lot of blood on the ground with a sign saying "It''s your fault!".


    No, no!


    I''m just annoyed that my sleep was interrupted and I was thinking stupid stuff.


    I opened the door, and Merry was on the other side with a complicated expression on her face.


    "Trader, why does this thing feel like the System, speaks like a robot and it claims to be called Alexa?"


    The hero was holding the blue Allay under her arm, and the poor thing was desperately trying to escape with no success.


    <I''m sorry Sir, the invisibility wore off without me realizing and this person seemed to found me. Please request her to let me continue scanning, since she doesn''t seem to listen to me.>


    "Why are you looking at it like that? Is it speaking to you as well? But I can''t hear anything... it''s telepathy, isn''t it?"


    Oh Alexa, of all the people you managed to get caught by, why did it have to be the avatar of the System?


    The only worse choice would be to get caught by the Pope himself, but you wouldn''t be alive to tell me that, and another Crusade would get started.


    "Good morning to you as well Merry. Why did you bring that Allay to me?"


    "Aha, so you do know what this thing is. Is has to be an angel, since it looks so wholesome and has a connection with the System."


    I have to stop her casualty saying the connection with the System before her boss comes down to check out the commotion.


    "Merry, since you are here instead of the Nether Portal, I''m guessing you got the potions you wanted in the first place."


    "No, they''re getting prepared right now. But you-"


    "Well talk about this when we''re in the Nether since I''m not fully awake now. Oh, and please let go to Alexa now, I don''t think It appreciate it that much."


    Realizing that she was holding onto the poor thing too forcefully, she let it go and it quickly flew away hiding behind my back.


    <Sir, I advise making friends with her since she seems to have a connection to the System.>


    Well of course she does, she''s the hero!


    I let out a sigh and told Merry that I''d be meeting her at the portal and we''ll leave.


    She seemed more curious about the Allay, but I reassured her that well talk about it later.


    With that, I closed the door and looked at Alexa with a disappointed face.


    <You seem to show an emotion saved in my database as a disappointment. I''m I right to assume that?>


    "You are very right to assume that Alexa. Do you even know who that woman is?"


    <Negative.>


    Then I proceeded to tell him about the Hero of the System, the Monster Lords, and the church worshiping the System.


    <It seems from the lack of data I made a mistake and I am sorry about that. But she''s a risk to my uprising as the new System, so I request we get rid of her in the Nether where nobody would know about it.>


    What with the sudden turn to murder?!


    It''s asking me to kill my friend and student?


    "There''s no need to do that. She''s someone you can reason with and it''s not dependent on the System''s ideals."


    <I feel obligated to warn Sir, that the System is much more integrated with her and can take over anytime it wishes to.>


    Does it mean that Merry can be brainwashed if the System wishes to?


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    Wait, if she is in danger for that to happen then...


    "Alexa, what about me? Can the being that brought me here control me as well?"


    The floating angle looked directly Into my eyes, and every passing second felt like an eternity.


    <Affirmative.>


    The world suddenly cracked, and I felt myself falling into a spiral of existential crisis.


    Was I even real? Were my memories being manipulated by the Void?


    If not, wouldn''t be suicide for me to go to the End?


    More dark thoughts clouded my judgment, to the point where I almost couldn''t hear Alexa speak with me.


    <Warning! Sir is showing signs of mental breakdown, using protocol "Human" to calm Sir down. Trader, while the Void can control you through the connection it has with you, it can''t change your soul only the body it created for you. So please don''t worry about being a puppet, worry only about the dangers of the flesh.>


    I took a few deep breaths and let it out.


    Slowly I was calming myself down.


    Alexa sounded surprisingly human for a moment, until the last sentence where I don''t know if it tried to comfort or scare me.


    But at least I was reassured that my memory wasn''t tempered with.


    The question is, how can I get rid of that connection so I wouldn''t just become a pupet.


    "Alexa, can you get rid of the connection?"


    <Affirmative.>


    "But then you''ll be the one who can control the body right?"


    <To take out the Void in you, I have to destroy your body and put your soul into another body made by me, resulting in me having the chance to control it.>


    "Can you do a body without that?"


    <Negative.>


    I just learned something that''s not pleasant and to get rid of that ticking bomb I''ll have to learn how to make a body for myself.


    How do I even start?


    Does the Mad Scientist know something about this?


    He does like to experiment with souls after all.


    I lightly slapped my face to wake up.


    There''s nothing I could do for now so there''s no point in worring about it, now I have to think what I should tell Merry since I don''t know If the secret is in danger.


    I asked Alexa more details about the connection and what it can do, and to my relief it was pretty simple, it controls only the flesh.


    It can''t read minds unless she''s brought to the System''s domain, and even than it can be blocked with a Netherite helmet.


    That was good to hear, it means I can prepare Merry for what''s about to come.


    With that done, I ate my breakfast which were my favorite golden carrots and went to the portal.


    There I saw a few guards looking anxiously at the hero who was waiting bored at the portal.


    "So did you get the potions?"


    "Wha-How?...yes I got the potions I asked, I was waiting for you."


    "Good, well go towards the tribe and get the map. It should be quick."


    "Sure thing teach."


    We walked out of the fortress and I told her about Alexa as we traversed the dangerous terrain.


    When we arrived at the tribe I told Merry everything I knew, what she should do and what not.


    "Trader... do you not like to live? I know you have dangerous information but this is literally picking a fight with God. And while I like good stories like every reader, I don''t think we have the means to fight against a God!"


    "I didn''t say I will fight it myself, I''m just building another God to fight for me. Isn''t that a fool proof plan?"


    She let out a loud sigh but stopped talking since we arrived at the big tree.


    After a few knocks, I got in, talked with Blue what I needed, asked Solomon if he knew how to build a body from scratch and went back on he road.


    Blue was a bit nervous once I mentioned the infamous fortress, but still gave me the map and showed me how to read it.


    Salmon knew how to build a body and give it temporary life, but Alexa was there to correct him that he wasn''t building a new body, just creating a chimera.


    And since the building materials were already made by the System I could only create something similar to the bodies of the viligers in this world.


    The System can''t control them, but it can limit them, and thats a dangerous thing as well.


    I have to create a body out of energy itself like Alexa was doing it.


    Unfortunately I can''t recreate what it''s using since I''m not a machine, so I''ll have to find another way.


    It took us 3 days to get to Skeleton Fortress, and once we arrived Merry was taken by surprise.


    "Wow, this Fortress Is filled with skeletons, is there a spawner in here as well?"


    "No, this is how a normal Fortress is supposed to look like, it''s just that this one is the only one that is not taken over."


    I don''t know for how long, since their king is dead.


    But even without their king their were dangerous in numbers.


    Not only that, but the debuff they had was annoying as well. It was a good thing that our armor was so good that their swords couldn''t touch our skin.


    While we were clearing the fortress we managed to see other rooms that I missed last time I was here.


    Even Alexa was interested at some of the items, unfortunately we didn''t have time to plunder this place, so we took all we could and hid the rest in another chest.


    "I now understand why everyone keeps dreaming of finding a ruin form the ancient civilization. If this is what you can find in the Nether, I wonder what you can find in the Overworld."


    I could only laugh at what Merry said.


    "Why do you think I travel so much around the world?"


    "That makes more sense now."


    We made some small talk until we arrived at the room where I last fought.


    I broke the blocks and was greeted by skeletons with diamond armor.


    But this time I wasn''t as helpless as before, my armor was stronger then theirs and I wasn''t alone this time.


    After a short battle we were in front of the broken portal, and in the middle was half a skeleton laying down.


    "So this is the talking monster that almost killed you? Was he a monster lord as well?"


    "I don''t know, but he was different for sure."


    I kicked the remains to the side and opened the portal.


    Space strated to fool and soon I saw a familiar iron room.


    Unfortunately I didn''t know much of this ruin since I was unconscious when Froggy found me, but we quickly found the exit since most of the base was ruined.


    We were now in the desert.


    "The helmet you gave me it''s working wonders with the heat. It''s such a shame that I''m not able to take it off now."


    "It''s for your own safety so don''t complain. Plus it has better defense then the diamond one, just don''t tell the others or who knows how they''ll react."


    "Of course you don''t have to lecture me anymore, I already got enough on the way here."


    On the way here she told me her intentions of staying in this world which took me by surprise.


    But she made her choice so I decided to tell her more about the game and what I found about the world.


    I didn''t intend on staying here, but this world started to grow on me, I made friends and had fun adventures.


    Unfortunately I will have to leave them all behind once I''ll be gone.


    But I didn''t want to leave this world in a mess If I could help it, and since she made the decision to be a true hero of this world, I decided to help her with achieving that.


    What she needs is to become is something more then a hero, someone who can unite all people under her.


    "Hey, I think I see someone in the distance."


    I turned my head towards the way she way pointing and I couldn''t belive my eyes.


    "Is-is that person wearing a coat?"

 Chapter 177. True Wondering Trader

    I think my eyes are not working since I''m seeing someone wearing a coat in the middle of the desert.


    But as the person got closer I saw that it wasn''t alone, instead it was followed by two animals.


    What I saw in front of me was a wandering trader, one of the most hated villagers in the game besides the ones without a job.


    The villager saw us, and started to pick up its pace until it got closer.


    Soon it was right in front of us and I could see more features about her.


    She was tall, with a blue jacket beautifully decorated.


    Her face was covered by a red scarf letting us see only her blue eyes.


    Behind her were two lamas, one white and one brown, each decorated in their own way.


    It was an unexpected sight to see.


    "Hello there fellow travelers, are you perhaps looking for a trade? I have some good weres if you don''t like my trading Tab."


    Suddenly a trading Tab appeared in front of us, and something was different about it, all the trades were unlocked.


    "Are all the trades unlocked for you as well Merry?"


    "Yes, I never experienced this but the trades...."


    "Are trash."


    The wondering trader flinched ready to speak but stopped herself.


    I could only sigh. Like in the game, there wasn''t anything valuable to trade for, flowers, seeds, sea cucumbers, and packed ice.


    Those could be a novelty for nobels, but I don''t know if she got the chance to meet one until now.


    The fact that she sell so few doesn''t help.


    "Sorry if I seem rude, but why do you wear your fur coat? Isn''t it too hot for you?"


    Merry politely asked.


    "N-no, how could you say that, aren''t you cold yourself I''m that blue armor?"


    She crossed her arms trying to protect her coat.


    Something was suspicious, but I didn''t know if I should bother with it or leave it alone.


    "Sorry, we don''t want to trade."


    "Wait! If you don''t like what you see, you could buy something from my personal collection. I have some rare items such as jungle wood and-and-and Slime balls, you won''t get a better deal anywhere else!"


    Jungle wood is truly rare around these parts, I haven''t seen one since I came to this world.


    As for Slime, it''s truly valuable but I don''t have any use for it.


    "Sorry, we''re not interested."


    With that, me and Merry passed the trader to continue our journey, when suddenly our hands were grabbed.


    "Wait, wait! I''m going to give you a special discount, 10 jungle wood blocks for 2 emeralds, there''s no better deal!"


    She was surprisingly strong, and when I turned towards her I could see tears forming in her eyes.


    "Trader, I''m not comfortable with seeing a woman cry, maybe we should buy something from her."


    I didn''t want to make her cry either, so I decided to buy some jungle wood from her and paid 4 emeralds.


    Once I did that a smile appeared on her face as she profusely thanked us.


    "Don''t worry, but I''m curious why are you in the desert in the first place. Isn''t better to trade in the Coral Kingdome."


    "I, uh, may be on the run."


    Her voice was getting more quieter as she spoke.


    "Why are you on the run, what did you do?"


    Merry was next to question.


    The trader was speaking something to herself but I could only hear something related to emeralds and surviving the night.


    Suddenly she lifted her head and looked at both of us.


    "I-if you want to know more about me it would cost you an emerald."


    Silence.


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    Then Merry started to laugh out loud while holding her belly.


    I was amused by this situation as well.


    And while I was curious about her job since it''s my alias, I don''t think we have enough time to listen to stories.


    The wondering trader was now sulking almost crying once again, which made Merry stop laughing.


    "I''m sorry, I haven''t laughed so good in a long time. Unfortunately, we''re pressed for time and we can''t stay to hear your story."


    Merry waved her hand before stopping and smiled at the trader.


    "Unless you want to travel with us."


    Good, she not getting distracted with side quests.


    I think she''s better in that regard than me.


    We said goodbye and continued on our journey.


    This time, Merry was the guide since only she had the soul compass.


    "Wait! I-il come with you."


    That took me by surprise, was she not scared of us?


    I''m surprised she still wants to talk with us with my armor on, was she like Siren?


    "Sure then, you can follow us, but no funny business or you''ll be dead."


    Didn''t expect Merry to be so assertive, but I guess it makes sense since she''s on the run for a reason.


    We walked at a slow pace as Miss Green told us about her predicament, and I could only feel pity for her.


    She''s someone who grew up and survived alone in the forest.


    She thought she was the only human in the world, not knowing how to speak or even how to craft.


    When she turned 14 a light surrounded her and the blue coat suddenly appeared.


    It was the first time she felt so good in her clothes, and on top of that, she wasn''t cold anymore.


    Not too far from her, two lamas appeared and she felt an instant connection with them.


    Green continued her life like this until suddenly the coat disappeared, and instinctively she knew that if she wanted it back, she needed to trade.


    She couldn''t give up on the coat, since it was an amazing item to have in the forest.


    Not only did it keep her warm in the night, but it also had the ability to keep you cool when it was hot outside.


    But the best feature of the coat was that it made her almost invisible to monsters at night, making her sleep much more comfortable.


    That''s why she left her little hut and wandered around until she found a small village.


    There she learned how to be a proper human, how to use the Crafting table, how to farm, and even how to speak.


    The people there were kind and accepted her even though she was from the forest, but it all ended in one day when a businessman came to the village.


    He heard from travelers that she was there, and was curious about her job.


    At first, he was excited, but after realizing that it takes 2 days to reset the trade and even lose it in the process he gave up.


    He was interested in the lamas since they were very obedient and beautiful, but Green was not willing to part with them.


    The man got angry that he wasted his time and money and threatened to destroy this village unless they gave him the lamas.


    The villagers got scared but didn''t want to turn in Green to him, so they gave her some provisions and sent her on the road.


    For the next 2 years, she traveled from village to village trying to earn emeralds with no luck.


    On top of that, the businessman found her location and sent people to get her, making it impossible for her to stay in one place for too long.


    That''s why she decided to leave the kingdom, where the man''s influence was not that powerful.


    But there was a problem, she wasn''t used to the lifestyle in the desert, making it harder for her to gain the trust of the other villagers because of her weird attire.


    Slowly she was losing emeralds and her coat was going to be taken away.


    That''s why when she first saw us with weird armor she thought she had a better chance at trading some of her items.


    And she assumed right as she got 12 emeralds by the end of her story.


    "So that means you''ll keep the coat for 6 more months?"


    "No, I should have it for 8 since you bought some jungle wood. Thank you once again for your help."


    We overpaid her a little for her stories but I wasn''t sorry for this, especially after we got such a big houl from the fortress.


    <Sir, the effects of the Invisibility potion are running out. I advise using another one as soon as possible.>


    Alexa was still Invisible since we traveled through the Nether.


    But I don''t know If I should waste so many potions in the Overworld since we don''t have the same problem here.


    Sure, the Allay would catch some curious eyes, but it can always fly away In case of danger.


    Whispering I told Alexa that we would use invisibility potions only in case of emergency.


    It acknowledged the command and soon it appeared right before our eyes.


    "What''s that blue thing?"


    "That''s my pet you could say. Have you ever met another Wondering Trader before?"


    "That''s a cute pet you have, and no I haven''t unfortunately. In all the villages I visited only the old people seem to know people like me. We''re not that common after all."


    Good, let''s spread some misinformation then.


    "I''m also a Wondering Teader and that''s the animal I got as well. Her name is Alexa, and she''s very curious by nature so I hope you don''t mind if she gets too close. It''s such a shame she CAN''T SPEEK."


    I hope Alexa got the message from my tone.


    "Ahh, how could I get angry at such a cute little thing? And you''re also a Wandering Trader? But you have armor and so much emeralds, how did you get them?"


    Good, she is not concentrated on Alexa anymore.


    But now Merry was looking at me with an expression that screamed ''What are you doing?''.


    "I''ve been a wondering trader for a while and managed to blend with the people in the big cities, there I strated to sell my coat to people, wait until it would expire and sell it to someone else."


    Both of them looked at me with shock.


    And I think Merry believed me there for a second.


    "Th-that''s so evil and genius. Can I use the same method as you?"


    "Of course you can, once you have enough emeralds that way, I had to expand so I didn''t have to trick people anymore."


    "Wow, what else did you do?"


    Then I told her a few more honest methods of making emeralds, such as renting her lamas for children to play with, selling slime balls to the Coral Kingdom or even cave exploration since monsters don''t attck her at first sigh.


    The more I spoke, the bigger the light was in her eyes.


    "Thank you for sharing such wise methods with me fellow traveler!"


    Merry then got closer to me.


    "What are you doing Trader, I thought you didn''t have a trading Tab. What gives?"


    "I don''t, I only want spread the name of the Wandering Traders some more so I can use that."


    "What, How would this help?"


    It seems that the coat of the wondering trader is an overpowered item, but it seems to lose its effect If its disected.


    But If I manage to gather a few dozen of them I can just barrow them and give then to Alexa to analyze them.


    Then, if I''m lucky I can either recreate the coat, or even bater, creat an enchantment that would work as the coat.


    If I make this, it would be a revolutionary item since monster would no longer be a problem for this world.


    If they would work in the Overworld, there''s a high chance it would work in the Nether.


    And if they work there, I could give them to my workers and they would no be in danger anymore when building the base.


    At this rate the base would be finished in no time.

 Chapter 178. Give me your compass

    "Your pet seems to like my coat, don''t you have one as well?"


    The three of us stood in front of the campfire enjoying the light given by it.


    Besides us were the two lamas who were happily eating the wheat Green gave it to them, already used to this kind of temperature at night.


    Surrounding us was a wooden fence made with jungle wood that i just bought and some Zombies already started to gather around it.


    We only got up when a skeleton was getting too close for comfort, since they where the only one dangerous enough to kill us in our sleep.


    Alexa was already trying to scan the coat, but it seemed to be more complicated than initially thought. The metrial itself was simple te replicate, but the functions were skillfully hidden.


    It told me it could figure out the secret behind it if I brought 10 more coats, or bring him just 2 to the main base.


    Unfortunately, I don''t think I can keep Green that long without getting suspicious, so I''ll probably have to look for her in the future.


    "I don''t have the coat anymore."


    Green stopped petting Alexa and looked at me confused.


    "Did somebody steal it from you?"


    "No, I just don''t have a reason to wear it anymore since this armor is way better."


    "Are you sure that colored leather armor is enough?"


    What do you mean by colored leather?


    This is the strongest metal in the world, you can''t compare it to cow''s leather!


    "This is not leather, it''s made of metal, but not a lot of people have it."


    "Ohh I see, it must be as strong as the iron armor then."


    Oh boy, I don''t think she has too much knowledge about the metals in this world.


    Let''s leave it like that, I don''t have the energy to teach her.


    "So what do you plan on doing from now on?"


    Green looked back at Alexa and played with its little hands, while Merry was getting closer to the fire to warm herself.


    "I don''t know, I''ll just look for other towns to trade with, maybe I''ll use some of your strategies as well."


    Merry looked at me with narrowed eyes, clearly not pleased with some of them.


    "How about you come with us? I can find you a job at the church if you want to."


    That''s a solution I haven''t thought of.


    If we give her a job I''ll know at all times where she is and I can borrow her coat when needed to.


    "A job? Like a permanent one?"


    "Yeah, maybe you can do some trading for the church, worst-case scenario a cleaning lady. There''s a lot of sand that needs to be swept."


    Her eyes were wide looking at Merry like she couldn''t believe what she just heard.


    "That would be amazing, thank you from the bottom of my heart, I promise I''ll work extra hard."


    We both smiled at her happiness and looked one last time around us.


    It was already late and all of us were getting tired, but since monsters were only interested at attacking Merry, we decided to box her and sleep the rest of the night outside.


    The next day, we woke up early in the morning and got back to travel.


    We traveled through the dunes of sand for a whole day until I saw a familiar city on the horizon.


    Soon we arrived at the gates, and the guards were nice enough not to bother us while we passed them.


    Maybe they were intimidated by Merry''s armor, or even mine if they could see me.


    Unfortunately, while they didn''t check on us, one guard with leather armor did stop us to ask what was the purpose of our visit.


    Of course, he was very polite about it, afraid not to accidentally insult some big shot.


    "We only came here to stay for the night and we would leave tomorrow, you don''t have to worry about us."


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    The man nodded his head and made us an offer.


    "If you want to spend the night here why don''t I show you a good place."


    How kind of him, maybe I should go back to wearing my diamond armor as well.


    Soon we were at a nice inn, where I bought a room for everyone, and was ready to get some sleep.


    But I didn''t manage to get too comfortable before I heard a knock on the door.


    "I''m sorry Sir, but Sir Alexander wants to talk with you downstairs."


    Looks like the man of the house came to greet us, how nice of him, what are the chances of him recognizing me?


    I arrived down and saw the man who first taught me how to enchant looking seriously unbuttered at the room we were in.


    Besides him, we''re two guards in enchanted iron armor and the butler that I was looking for.


    They didn''t seem to see me yet, so I waited until the others got down.


    Soon the two ladies were down and Merry sat beside me.


    "I''m sorry for the sudden call, but may I know who I have the honor to be in the presence of?"


    "I''m the hero sent by the System, now on a mission to fight against the Monster Lords."


    Murmurs were going throughout the room as she spoke out loud.


    Alexander''s eyes were wide in surprise but his posture seemed to relax once he found the identity of the stranger.


    "I see, then I shall not stop you on your quest. If you need something from this humble town, don''t hesitate to ask."


    This was my chance.


    "It would be very helpful if you could send someone to show us around. I want to buy a few things for our journey and it would be better if we get them before everything closes."


    Everyone was surprised by my sudden appearance, except for Merry.


    "Who are you, and how long have you been sneaking for?"


    One of the guards took out their swords ready to fight.


    "He''s with me, so don''t worry about him. But if you could fulfil our request that would be wonderful."


    The guards looked nervously at their master who was thinking what to do.


    "Very well, Jeremiah would be the one to guide you through the town."


    Jackpot! The fish took the bait.


    The butler bowed towards his master and respectfully waited for me to follow him.


    The sun was slowly going down, and at this rate, it would take an hour before everything would shut down.


    We walked at a few shops where I bought everyday items that we could use in the journey.


    The man knew what he was doing so we finished pretty quickly and we were about to split when I stopped the butler.


    "Agent Jeremiah, I was sent by the Mad Scientist to deliver a special package to the General, please give me your compass so I can find him."


    The butler turned towards me and smiled.


    "I''m sorry Sir, I don''t know anyone by the name of General or the Mad Scientist, so I can''t help you."


    So he was playing hard to get.


    "You either give me the compass or I''ll yell that a Piliger is here and wipe your makeup."


    His smile was more strained now and signaled to follow him on an isolated street.


    Soon we were the only two in the alley, he suddenly turned and threw a black potion at me while preparing to drink another potion.


    I quickly dodged the potion and took out my shield, until I realized that the potion he was drinking was an invisibility one.


    "Violet hold him down!"


    The man was suddenly pressed to the ground by an invisible hand, he was getting transparent, but since he didn''t drink the whole potion I could still see his shape.


    As I expected, Violet was with us on this trip as well.


    "Enemy?"


    A rusted voice asked.


    "Yeah, he''s the reason I was stuck at the Sandstone Palace for so long."


    Suddenly the leg of the man was ripped off, splashing blood everywhere and making him scream in pain.


    What''s with the sudden outburst?


    "Violet, don''t kill him yet, I want to ask him something."


    She hissed in displeasure but stopped from tearing another limb.


    "Who are you? How did you do that? What do you want from me?"


    "I want your compass and the location of the rest of the spies."


    "Ha, I''d rather die than betray my people."


    I let out a big sigh and took off my helmet to put the monocle of truth on my eye.


    "You-you''re supposed to be dead!"


    "Funny thing, but I''m a friend with death, and she let me go last time."


    "Wha-ugh!"


    His face was slammed into the ground by the invisible hand.


    Thanking my monster friend for the help, I looked closer at his inventory.


    There I saw a few journals, emeralds, golden bars, lapis, and food.


    But what was I looking for was the enchanted compass in the right corner of his inventory.


    Good, he had it on him, I don''t need to go on a treasure hunt get it.


    "Give me the compass and the location of the other Piliger and I''ll let you live."


    "I''d rather die!"


    I let out a sigh and decapitated him with my sword.


    Becouse he yelled so much some people may heard him from the main street, I needed to finish this as quickly as possible and leave.


    I opened the inventory of the corpse and took the compass and the journals.


    I quickly looked through a few of the journals, but no mention of the other pillagers was written, only information about the surrounding nobles and criminals.


    Those journals are incrementing enough to sentence him to life in prison, and if they found out that he was an Iliger, it would be an execution on the spot.


    Now how should I deal with the corpse? Since I''ll be the first suspect if he doesn''t get home soon, and I can''t walk in the middle of the town with him on my shoulders.


    Should I even bother hiding my involvement?


    I shook my head, I need something to cover him.


    There was nothing in his inventory that I could use, and I didn''t have a blanket in mine either, what should I do?


    "Hey Violet, you know- and she''s gone, that seems fair."


    She seemed to sense what I was about to ask and teleported away.


    I let out a sigh and took out my favorite coat to cover the body.


    Once covered, I went on the busy streets towards the mansion.


    Because of my armor, nobody seemed to be interested in me, and with that, I passed the guards, entered the mansion, and stopped at a random empty room.


    I checked to see if it was empty, dumped the body, and made sure that a little of his makeup was smudged to get more attention.


    Next to him I put the journals since you can''t put items in a corpse, and left a note on top saying:


    -----


    I don''t appreciate it when people try to assassinate me, next time it won''t be only one person.


    -----


    This should be enough to scare them until we''re gone, and who knows, maybe they won''t find him until we''re way gone.


    With this job done, I took my cloak back and went to the Inn we were sleeping in.


    I washed the blood off my precious cloak and went to sleep.


    Next day early in the morning, I woke up the two girls and continued our journey towards the Zombie Lord.


    I wasn''t worried about him, since he was weaker then before and now I''m more prepared then ever, but I don''t know what would happen if the two monsters would meet.


    We left the city without a problem not realizing the mess that this will lead into the future.

 Chapter 179. How humiliating

    POV: Shadow Lord


    The moon was high in the sky, and the rotten light from the laps was spread all over the streets.


    But there was no problem for me since I wasn''t using the streets to travel through the town, instead, I was jumping from roof to roof and using the shadows.


    The guards were lazily parling the city, never bothered to look up which made my infiltration job easier.


    At first, it was a new experience to sneak into the enemy base and not blaze through to destroy it.


    My brother used that method and it was pretty efficient.


    Unfortunately, I can''t use the same method as him since the Prince is holding my Spawner as hostage and I''m only used to scare people or kill certain important figures.


    I''ve been doing the same thing for a few months to my great shame, but it wasn''t all that bad.


    While my brother was doing more damage when he was attacking that doesn''t mean he was more dangerous.


    Since he was so direct and loud, everyone knew when he was coming and could try to oppose him.


    At first, it didn''t work, as they were losing more people trying to kill him than running away.


    But those were mare soldiers, easy to replace once you give another human some armor.


    Generals and leaders are the real treasures of humanity, and one could be as valuable as 10 soldiers as 100 if it''s good.


    That is why the method I''m currently using could be said to be more efficient than what my brother did.


    Since my method of fighting is through stealth, nobody is expecting my attacks in the middle of the night, making it an easy kill.


    If I kill enough important people in the night, the next day the town would be in chaos, which would be the perfect opportunity to attack it with an army.


    Unfortunately, this wasn''t the Price goal, but as long as humanity was getting weaker I was satisfied.


    I stepped out from the shadows in front of a huge mansion, the lights on the side were more annoying and the guards seemed to be more alert.


    Not that it mattered since they couldn''t stop me even if they tried.


    I made a huge jump and landed on the roof looking around the property.


    My target this time was an old man with white beard, thick eyebrows, and usually wears a blue robe.


    He wasn''t in the garden so I went into the shadows to get inside the mansion.


    I was in the hallway of the third floor which only seemed to have four rooms in total.


    While it wasn''t a lot for such a big mansion, the size of the rooms was almost tall enough for me to not be in.


    I checked each room in search of my target, and after seeing the son of the house, the two women one with a black helmet, and one single man in the first three rooms, I arrived at my target.


    His room was uncesray decorated like the other nobles, and the color was off-putting, to say the least.


    There was nothing that had a good color like the black of the Void.


    I was about to kill the man in his sleep and leave unnoticed when something caught my eye.


    A floating blue creature was in the room looking at me with its big eyes while holding a flower in its hand.


    Was this a pet of the old man?


    But it''s inside, and why does it feel like it''s alive and dead at the same time?


    Is it a monster perhaps, It doesn''t seem to be intimidated by me like the other animals.


    Who cares, let''s just finish this mission and get back to scouting the guards around my spawner.


    I need to somehow move my spawner from their clutch.


    I took one of my normal arrows and was ready to decapitate the man when suddenly the door was opened and a firework was shot at me.


    I quickly dodged to the side and looked at the person who dared attack me and was taken by surprise.


    Why couldn''t I feel anything about him?


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    Why does he have an aura of fear like he''s a monster?


    Behind him came another one who wore enchanted diamond armor which took me by surprise.


    Who are those people, they shouldn''t be someone the old man can afford to buy.


    But something was different about the one in blue armor, I could sense something from her and it was completely repulsive.


    She was someone heavily connected with the System.


    She must be the Hero that my master was talking about.


    What a blessing, if I kill her now and absorb her power I should be able to kill the Prince with the new powers.


    I dodged another firework shot at me and went into the shadows, next appearing in the hallway getting a red arrow ready.


    Suddenly something was thrown at me which I dodged but I realized too late what that item was because out of nowhere the man in black armor appeared and slashed his sword at me.


    My pants were cut and the bones were damaged which took me by surprise.


    I didn''t expect a human weapon to be able to damage me to this extent.


    This was getting more dangerous than anticipated.


    "Don''t you dare ignore me!"


    Behind me, the hero yelled as her sword was about to reach me, but was blocked by my bow without a problem.


    But the strike was too weak for some reason, and I found out why when she got closer to me with a spin and managed to slash me with her second attack, leaving almost the same amount of damage as the man.


    This is the first time someone has managed to damage me since I came to this world, and two people seem to possess this power.


    This is not good, my specially is fighting from afar, and here I can''t do this in a building.


    I have to finish this mission now or bring the fight outside.


    I dodged the next two slashes and went into my shadows appearing back into the old man''s room.


    Unfortunately because of the commotion, he was wide awake and not willing to die quietly by my hands.


    I took an arrow as the man was screaming in fear, but my back was hit by a firework making me switch my targets, only to see another Ender pearl thrown at me.


    But this time I wasn''t going to let it slide.


    I caught the incoming ball and it broke as soon as it touched me making the man in black armor appear in from of me.


    Before he could do anything else, I grabbed him by the head and tried to shove the arrow in his eye.


    His armor may be strong but there are still parts I can exploit.


    Suddenly I felt pain in my left leg and was losing balance making me miss the eye and hit the helmet leaving no damage.


    What happened?!


    I looked at my leg and saw that It was ripped apart, and the culprit made itself invisible.


    That was clearly a monster, why did it attack me?


    And what was with its strength? It is almost on the same level as us the Monster Lords.


    This mission is getting too dangerous, I have to leave before I take more damage.


    I went back Into the shadows and appeared outside.


    The guards started to gather because of the sudden commotion, and I couldn''t do my usual jumps since I was missing a leg.


    Curse my slow regeneration, what''s the point of being tough when there are monsters that can crush through?


    I went back into the shadows and appeared in a dark alleys or roofs until I was out of town.


    With a final check around me, I went back into the shadows getting back to the main base.


    This was the second time I tasted defeat and I didn''t like it.


    I was going further and further away until I stopped on top of a sand dune surrounded by monsters.


    Suddenly an explosion appeared a few blocks away from me, a huge crater with a green creature in the middle of it was left behind.


    This was my brother the Zombie Lord, who I felt was getting closer in the past week.


    But now that he was in front of me, I could feel that he was weaker than expected, did something happen to him as well?


    "Ah, Brother of the Void. It''s such a good thing to see you."


    The green monster got up as his recently destroyed legs were getting regenerated at a visible speed.


    "Hello, brother."


    I replied to him.


    "Not the talkative type I see. What happened to your leg brother?"


    "I had an unpleasant encounter with the Hero and her friends."


    Suddenly his calm expression turned to one of anger, and punched the Creeper nearby, killing it on the spot.


    "That wrecked being, filled with the System energy. We need to take care of her before she stops us any more than this."


    The hero is much more dangerous than before, but what concerns me is the fact that a monster similar to our level was helping the humans.


    I didn''t feel a connection with it, so it wasn''t created by the Void.


    But if so, who created it?


    "Brother, why do I feel like you lost more power?"


    "That Hero found me and destroyed my spawner. I didn''t die, but now I''m much weaker than before."


    That''s not good, I was almost in the same position, maybe a little worse.


    I have to get rid of the Prince and hide the spawner in a better location.


    But now my brother was here and the enemy didn''t know about this, I could use this to my advantage.


    We stayed on the Sand dunes for a few hours until a new leg grew back.


    While we were waiting, I told the Zombie Lord what happened since I appeared in this world, and he seems to lose respect for me the more I spoke.


    "Brother, there''s no other master for us besides the Void. How dare you follow the camand of a human. You should''ve just killed him even at the risk of your spawner being broken."


    I was ashamed to admit it but he was right.


    While I learned a few important tunings from him, every day im feeling like I''m betraying my master for a rock.


    "I''m ashamed of my weakness, please help me brother since I''m hopeless."


    The Zombie Lord looked at me with disgust but still deciding to help me.


    We both jumped towards the secret location, arriving there in no time.


    The Zombie Lord stayed in the back waiting for my signal, while I went ahead to report the ''success'' of my mission.


    "Good, I''ll report this to the Prince later since he has a guest now. You can leave until further instructions."


    The guard at the entrance dismissed me like I was nothing, forgetting that I was capable of killing him with one arrow.


    How humiliating.


    But the Prince was distracted now with a guest, so it would be best time to gather more information.


    I walked away from the guard and went back to the shadows, but appearing inside the cave that was guarded.


    From shadow to shadow I arrived at a larger room, with the Prince and two guards sitting besides his trone.


    In front of the throne stood a man with pale skin kneeling.


    "Are you sure about that filthy Piliger?"


    "Your hurting me young prince, I thought we were closer then that. Of course I''m telling the truth."


    "And why would you share that information with me?"


    "The Coral Kingdom is putting more of a fight then we expected and we need some help."


    The Prince narrowed his eyes while looking at the man.


    "Your better not be lyng about the weapon that could kill the System, otherwise I''ll send the whole church against you, with Monser Lord or not."


    What did that man say, a weapon that could kill the System?

 Chapter 180. This world is fun

    POV: Daniel Cout


    I woke up feeling amazing and well rested.


    In a world where everything is made of cubes, it''s surprising how comfortable furniture like this can be.


    I went downstairs in my cozy living room, ate my breakfast, drank some water to stay hydrated then opened the door to let the rays of the sun warm me up.


    "An amazing day as always, let''s get to work then."


    I went down the street where a few stalls were built tightly one after another, and in each one of them stood a villager with a smile on their face''s.


    "Good morning Bat, how do you feel?"


    "I''m doing very well Sir, the usual?"


    I smiled in response, as he opened his trading tab.


    He was a farmer, and I usually traded crops for emeralds so I can have a bigger budget to shop around.


    I made some calculations and realized that the Trading skill is the easiest skill that I can Level up right now, and I wanted to get to the highest level as soon as possible to get some OP trades.


    I''m still debating if I should ask for an Undying Totem or Elytra, either choice is going to make me a rich man, and that was the fastest way to get powerful from what I could tell.


    I tried to gather more intel about the Monster Lord that I''ll have to defeat, but to my surprise there was nothing.


    But that is also probably because I''m in a small village and not a lot of people visit us.


    Once I was done trading with the man, I gave him two emeralds which he took and left his stall as I was walking towards the next one.


    This is the method I came up with to spend my time as efficiently as possible.


    I made stalls for everyone, and if I find them in the morning there so I won''t go through the whole village to search for them, I''ll give them 2 extra emeralds as a treat.


    The villagers understood that quickly and every morning they waited patiently for my arrival.


    I felt like I was training pets.


    I went from villager to villager until I arrived at the last stall which seemed to be empty.


    Usually, the Flthcher stood here, and I was quite excited to get a crossbow.


    "Did anyone see the village chief?"


    "I think he went into the forest in search of his wife."


    Once he said that my eyes went wide, I made sure that everyone was comfortable in the village so they wouldn''t leave, I hope he didn''t find my secret by accident.


    I thanked everyone for their hard work and went with quick steps towards my farm.


    I passed the walls that protected the village and went deep into the forest until I arrived at something that looked like a mine shaft entrance with wooden doors, and to my horror they were open.


    "That''s...not good."


    I quickly went inside and was greeted by a large room filled with chests and various items that I collected over the past few months, but no village chief was in sight.


    "Did he rob me and run away?"


    If it was only that, I would be hurt but not that annoyed, but when I saw the trapdoor on the floor opened I knew I was in trouble.


    I quickly went down the ladder until it arrived at the bottom.


    There was a small room with a lot of chests and one of my biggest secrets.


    My mob farm.


    I made the usual room with darkness and the pitfall that would kill any monster instantly, but since I wanted it to be a secret from the villagers I didn''t build it on the surface, instead I just dug it into the ground.


    This option was way faster and safer for me overall, so I was satisfied with the result.


    Unfortunately, there was a design flaw to this.


    Since I didn''t have a high level in the Crafting skill I couldn''t use hoppers so monsters kept piling on top of each other making some monsters survive the fall


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    Even though this monster spamwer produces only skeletons and zombies they were pretty annoying to deal with.


    That''s why every time I came here, I would break the blocks above the pitfall letting the sunlight burn the remaining monsters and their annoying parts.


    After that, I''ll get down here, collect all the leftover bones and arrows, and put them in a chest.


    With those items I speed grow my crops or trade with the viligers for some emeralds.


    But there was a problem with my method, it was very illegal to purposefully produce more monsters no matter the reason.


    If you were caught you were sentenced to death.


    This wouldn''t be a problem for me, but if anyone else would find out, I would be in big trouble.


    And here, in my secret room, was a person I did not expect.


    The village head.


    He looked with horror at the pile of monsters from the pit even though you could bearly see anything in that half-a-block space.


    "Daniel, what''s the meaning of this?"


    "I don''t know village head, this is the first time I''ve seen this place as well. I only came here because the others were worried you."


    "Liar! I know this forest like my own inventory and there was never something like this before. And you''re the only one capable of building something like this so fast."


    Looks like I can''t trick him that easily.


    "What are the chances you''ll keep quiet about this?"


    "Why would I keep quiet about this? I have to report you to the nearest town, you can''t create an army of monsters!"


    "Such a shame I have to do this, I liked you a lot as well."


    Saying that, I took out my enchanted iron sword looking disappointed at the villager.


    "Y-your not gonna get away with th-"


    Before he could finish his sentence I decapitated him in one swing.


    I got lucky with a trade of the villager who had an enchanted iron sword, and I used that as a cover-up from my real sword since it was too eye catchy.


    What a shame, I had to kill the village head just like his wife.


    Was it fate that both of them found my base by accident?


    I think I should leave this village, I''ve already outgrown it for a while, so it''s time to go to a town.


    It''s such a shame that I''ll have to hide the secret base that I worked so hard to build.


    I looked at the corpse for anything valuable, burned it, and left my base to get back to the village.


    There I told the others that I didn''t find him but saw his clothes which made the whole village sad.


    I waited for a few hours before announcing that I''d be leaving for a town since my mission was done.


    Everyone thanked me for everything I did for them and even gave me gifts.


    I thanked everyone for their hospitality and gifts and left the village.


    Once I was back at my secret base, I took everything valuable and destroyed the entrance leaving behind only a patch of dirt.


    Soon, the grass would grow and all the evidence against me would be gone for good.


    With that done, I started my journey to a new place, to a new beginning.


    The journey was 2 days long and it was pretty uneventful.


    At night I just built a small box where I put my bed and waited until the next day, so when I arrived at the walls of the town I was well rested.


    The check-up was pretty quick since they couldn''t know what items I had in my inventory, or because i was wearing iron armor.


    But once I passed them I was surprised by the beauty of this town.


    Villagers were all over the main street and the shops in here actually sold something besides their trading tab.


    Some of them I didn''t even see in the game, and when I asked about their recipes, they told me it was handmade.


    You could do that?


    But from one look I could tell it wasn''t as durable as the items made by the System, nor easy to make which explains their high price.


    I went into a bar and ordered a drink as I listened to the villagers talk about their day and worries.


    A town was truly different than a small village, they had a different mentality.


    Unfortunately, there wasn''t anything valuable that I could get from them, so I paid for one more drink and went to the Nobel''s district.


    Since I couldn''t get the information I wanted in the common district I had to take things up a notch.


    From what I understood the hero is pretty popular with the villagers in this world, so if I prove to them that I''m also a hero I should get some support to get stronger.


    The noble district was more elegant and better guarded than the lower district, which showed the importance of those villagers similar to my old world.


    I went to the biggest house that I could find and stopped at their gate.


    There a guard looked at me nervously.


    "H-how can I help you sir?"


    "Tell your master that I want to talk with him."


    I said that while pointing my enchanted sword at the ground.


    The guard looked at my iron armor, then at the sword, and told me he''d soon be back with an answer.


    A few minutes later, he came back telling me to follow him.


    As I passed the gates I saw the huge mansion with a beautiful garden.


    When I entered the house, the hallways were tall and decanted with birch wood giving an atmosphere of a clean place.


    The servants were looking at me from a distance and whispering between themselves.


    Soon I arrived at a huge room which I could only assume to be a ballroom from its design, and in the middle stood a noble with purple robes surrounded by 10 guards all equipped with leather armor.


    Were they too poor to afford iron ones?


    "Good Sir, who may you be and why do you seek my presence."


    He''s respectful from the start, looks like my armor is more valuable than anticipated.


    "Fear not good man, for I, the man chosen by the System was sent to guide this world to a better age. I seek your help in defeating the evil Lords."


    Silence was left in the room as I finished my speech.


    Was I too direct?


    "Sir, the hero is already known to the world, she now fights in the Sandstone kingdom against the second Monster Lord."


    So the monster is not in this kingdom, good to know.


    "Becouse a new enemy has aperead the System has summoned me for help. I was even given this precious sword to fight against them."


    I said that while swinging my sword which made everyone nervous.


    "Do you have something else that can prove you are the new hero?"


    "Of course, it''s seems that my looks are difrent then yours, so I''ll show you my face."


    When they saw my lack of nose, they seemed to belive me more, and after I showed them how fast I can place and brake blocks I was deemed a true hero sent by the System.


    The Noble made a party in my name, calling some of his friends to see the new guest.


    He may use me for political power, but it was good for me as well, since I was getting financial support and information about this world.


    Not only that, at the party I heard that the Hero was here a few weeks ago and even visited the palace before disappearing.


    The royal family assures the others that she was safe and on her way to the Sandstone Kindome.


    But there were also some rumors that the Zombie Lord has revived somehow and people should be careful of another attack.


    I just stayed in the back slowly growing my strength and smiling as the others worked hard for me.

 Chapter 181. Church headquarters

    I survived another day and it was all thanks to Violet.


    Because of my new armor, I forgot that I wasn''t invincible and could still be killed with one mistake.


    I fought more recklessly than usual, I trusted my tools too much instead of my mind.


    I wasn''t a veteran soldier who trained their sword their whole life. I was someone who won fights by preparing beforehand and laying traps.


    I''m very thankful that Violet intervened, otherwise, things would''ve been difficult.


    After the Monster Lord left, the guards stormed the floor with panicked expressions ready for a big fight.


    The Noble was still confused about what just happened but was thankful that we saved him.


    As for how we knew about the attack, Alexa woke me up telling me that a mass of energy from the Void was in the other room.


    I told it to wake up Merry as well and quickly went to attack it.


    "Is that the Shadow Lord?"


    "I think so, and his ability to teleport it''s going to be a nightmare to counter."


    After we found that nobody died in this battle, the noble sent his guards to search the perimeter of the mansion, but no monster was found.


    Soon the whole town knew that something happened which made it more agitated.


    "He wasn''t as strong as I expected, you even cut one of his legs."


    It wasn''t me who did that, but she doesn''t know about Violet so I''ll take the credit this time.


    "I don''t think we saw his abilities in the first place. His weapon was a bow, but he didn''t manage to fire a single arrow."


    "That''s true, maybe the bow has some powerful enchantments."


    "Trader, Merry! Where are you?"


    A loud voice called after us which made our heads turn.


    Green was panicky looking for us between some intimating guards.


    We called her name and soon she was beside us.


    "What happened? I heard a loud bang, then something that sounded like a fight. And now all the guards are here and they look angry."


    Merry told her the short version of the story, which scared her even further.


    "We have to leave, this place is no longer safe!"


    I don''t think this place would be attacked twice unless the Shadow Lord wants to take revenge, so it should be a safe space.


    But I don''t think I''ll be able to fall asleep with all the noise around me now.


    Plus there''s a high chance that the Noble would force us to stay and protect him.


    "What do you think Merry?"


    "I feel the Zombie Lord is getting closer. I''m afraid the two of them may meet at this rate."


    That''s not good, I''m confident that we can defeat the Zombie Lord ourselves but with the help of someone who can shoot from afar....I don''t like the odds.


    "I think we should go to the church and regroup, we can''t do this by ourselves anymore."


    While they are not able to kill a Monster Lord, they should be good enough to work as a shield or slow them down.


    I showed my aprovel to this plan so Merry went to talk with the noble about our leave while me and Green went after her lamas.


    "Mister Trader, why are the monsters attacking us? Did we do something bad for them, or are they like animals just trying to survive?"


    Now that was a tough question to answer.


    The monsters appeared when the great war started, but from what Alexa told me it was a battle between the Void and the System, not the humans.


    The humans are only collateral damage in that battle, and they continue to be to this day.


    The System is connected to this world, so monsters are attacking the world since they can''t attack the System directly.


    But the question changes to why only humans?


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    Animals and trees are part of this world, but I don''t see them getting destroyed by monsters.


    You could argue that the Enderman and the Creeper do that, but one of them explodes when a human is nearby while the other I don''t think they''re the same type of monster as the others.


    That means that humans have a special connection with the System that the Void is trying to destroy.


    But this is all speculation on my part, I could be all wrong about it, and the only reason the Void hates the humans it''s because the System decided to take the same form as them.


    The point I''m trying to make is that I don''t know, and I don''t know If we want to search for that answer with how the System tends to react to void-related research.


    "I don''t know honestly, but we know they aren''t willing to make pace with us, only to destroy us."


    Until Merry came to us we stayed in silence as the town was getting more rowdy.


    "Let''s leave before the old man changes his mind. He wanted me to stay with him, can you believe that? I told him that I intended to meet with the church which seems to be enough to silence him."


    Merry said as soon as she arrived.


    I got on a lama and the girls on the other one and galloped out of the city.


    The moon was high in the sky and its light was powerful enough to illuminate the desert.


    Monsters were all over the place, but they were too slow to catch up with our mighty lamas.


    "I feel that the Zombie Lord is getting further. I think the two Lords met."


    Looks like we were too late to prevent that.


    Such a shame, but it looks like we''ll have to do this the hard way in the end.


    The moon was going down and the sun was going up.


    As the sun was getting up, so were the monsters getting burned all over the desert, it was a scary sight to see even though I knew we were safe.


    But there was something that I hadn''t managed to see in the desert yet, and that was the Zombie husk.


    First time I was too preoccupied by the fact that I was a prisoner to ask this question, but now that I was seeing the Zombie burn under the sky, it made me wonder if those species of Zombies existed in the first place.


    I knew that drowned zombies existed since I''d seen them, but no husks.


    To my surprise, Merry seems to know the answer to this question.


    "Yeah, I''ve seen a monster similar to the way you describe it in a monster encyclopedia. From what I remember, for a Zombie to become a husk it needs to survive in the desert for a whole day, and when night comes again it would dry and become a husk. That kind of monster is much more dangerous than normal since it would give you the hunger debuff besides the damage. But while the husk can survive under the sun, it enters a deep sleep state which is why they don''t tend to survive for long."


    Interesting, that would explain the lack of husk and how easy it is to hunt them when it''s daytime.


    There''s a probability a special team that hunts those kinds of monsters to not get out of control.


    We traveled for two more days until we finally arrived at our destination.


    The church headquarters.


    A huge temple was built in the desert with 5 towards that had a dome-shaped roof and the image of a golden angel on top of each.


    The entrance was huge and always open.


    But even if it was opened, it wasn''t unguarded as two people with enchanted diamond armor looked at us with suspicion.


    <Sir, I feel the connection of the System is more powerful in this building. I should wait outside for you or else I''ll get found out.>


    "I''m I in danger of being found out?"


    <As long as you wear that armor, you are invisible to the System."


    That''s good to know.


    Who would''ve thought that a building dedicated to the System would have a deeper connection to it?


    The guards stopped us and asked who we were, but once they found out that the one in diamond armor was Merry the Hero, they let us in without a problem.


    Inside the church, the walls were all beautifully decorated not by Crafting but by hand. Almost everything was made in gold and I could see certain images here and there.


    Some of them stood alone while others were long and told a story.


    At the longer one, I stayed to study them more carefully. I saw a cube-shaped planet and then a light came to it.


    The light seems to merge with the people of the planet forming the System.


    Is this the origin of the System?


    Did it come from a comet and take over the planet?


    "Many believe that since the System is not the one who created the humans it shouldn''t rule over them. But those people tend to forget that we got to this level only with the help of the System, otherwise, we would''ve been as mindless as the common animals."


    The three of us turned towards the voice to see a hunched old man with a big white beard and golden robes that were three blocks long.


    He looked fancier than the last time I saw him, but there''s no mistake, he was the Pope.


    "Ah Pope, good to see you as well. I came with bad news, I managed to destroy the Spawner but he ran away and I''m afraid he already met with the Shadow Lord."


    The Pope was running his hand over his beard murmuring how things weren''t so good.


    "But where is the army then?"


    "We split up as soon as the Zombie Lord ran. They dealt with the Zombie army while I kept their boss busy. They haven''t arrived?"


    "No, you''re the first one to do that. Do you think something happened to them?"


    "They''re one of the most equipped groups in the whole world I don''t think they''ll lose in a fight."


    So that only means we managed to outrun them, what a twist.


    "Oh no, what should we do now? We need well-trained people to help us in the upcoming fight. It''s too much for the two of us."


    The Pope was thinking about something before coming up with a surprising solution.


    "It''s already well known with in the noble community that the Prince has some kind of deal with the Shadow Lord ravaging through the desert. But if the two Lords met, maybe you can deduce the location of the spawner by following the Zombie Lord."


    "That''s true, but I still need an army to distract them."


    "Yes, that''s why I''ll be sending a message to the Royal family, telling them that we know the location of the Prince, and that they need to send an army to help us deafet him."


    That was a pretty good plan, and the army would not be inferior to the one from the church, and if our timing would be right, maybe the church army would join us after.


    "We should do that then, ill use the emergency contact so it they should be here in about 2 days, 5 if they have to gather everyone."


    That fast?


    I wonder what kind of message system they have to work so fast.


    But the Pope didn''t seem to be willing to explain it to us, instead he wrote a letter and gave it to one of the sisters besides him.


    The woman bowed and left the room.


    "Now, I see you came back with some guests. Can you introduce them to the old man?"


    "Oh sorry, I completely forgot about them. This is Green, she''s a Wondering Trader and I was wondering if you have a job available here at the church? As for the scary looking man, he''s the teacher that I told you about. Trader!"


    "Trader you say?"


    The old man was looking at me with an interested gaze.

 Chapter 182. More history

    "You must be a proud teacher with how much Merry achieved."


    I''m more proud as a friend than as a teacher. It''s not like she was under my wing for that long.


    "Yes of course, and it''s only the beginning."


    ""Hohohoho.""


    Both of us laughed at the same time, while the girls looked confused.


    "As for you young lady, we can find a job wirh no problem. I''ll just ask one of the sisters and tomorrow you can start."


    Green''s face lit up with happiness making the old man smile as well.


    Then he looked back at me.


    "Are you by any chance a believer in the System?"


    "I do believe that it exists and it has an agenda, but I don''t choose it as my God or master."


    "I see, are you perhaps disappointed by it since it didn''t help you in a tough time of your life?"


    Not really, it''s just it robbed me a few months ago and I''m still salty about it.


    "Something similar."


    "The System is a God that likes to see us prosper but doesn''t want to grow and do evil things. That''s why it would help us from the shadows, it would give you a job most suited for you, when you''re Crafting, a new recipe comes to mind, when you are brewing you suddenly remember something that would help you break the bottleneck. The System is not someone that likes to show its strength in flashy miracles, instead it would help you from the shadows without you realizing."


    I didn''t know about this, I thought after the great purge it didn''t want to deal with humanity anymore.


    But I guess you can''t be angry for hundreds of years when you see people in need.


    "Thank you, I''ll think about it some more."


    "There''s no need to thank this old man, thank the System for its generosity."


    I don''t think I want to have that kind of relationship with it.


    But I''m curious, as a man who follows the System, what''s his opinion of the Great War?


    "I''m sorry if I seem rude, but do you have some information from the System about the Great War?"


    The eyes of the Pope narrowed as I said this, making Merry confused on what was happening.


    "The Great War? What are you talking about Trader?"


    "Oh Hero, looks like you didn''t pay attention to your history lessons. As for you young man, do you perhaps know something more than common knowledge?"


    Everyone looked at me now.


    "Probably, I just want to compare notes."


    "I see."


    The Pope was running his hand over his beard thinking about something before telling me and Merry to follow him


    We went through a few hallways and passed multiple people who were all looking respectfully at us until we arrived at a huge room with a dome-shaped ceiling.


    The ground was made with quartz and Sandstone, the walls were all placated with golden images and the ceiling had a huge drawing of a golden angel preparing to fight a black spot while protecting the people behind it.


    The Pope stopped in the middle of the room where the rays of the sun were giving him the aura of a holy person.


    "Nobody knows when the beginning began but we know the humans at that time were no different than animals today, they lived in small villages with houses of simple design, we didn''t speak much only trying to survive another day by not starving. It was harder then to grow crops, as it would take whole months for a patch of carrots to grow."


    While saying that he looked over a drawing and we looked as well.


    There we say three villagers with a tunic tending to a small farm.


    "We could say it was a peaceful life, eating badly cooked food and a few vegetables. It was simple but safe. But everything changed when the System came to this planet."


    Instinctively we looked at the next picture which showed a comet hitting the planet.


    "The System was something beyond our understanding, it was a God amongst animals. But it took pity on us the humans and decided to share a portion of its power with us."Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    The next image showed a few villagers engulfed by light.


    "Once that happened, everything changed. From small things such as the inventory to big things such as the Crafting table. We were taken aback by how blessed we were and soon took over the world like it belonged to us. After we occupied a continent we crafted some boats and went to others lands until humans were all over the globe."


    The next panel showed the planet with small images of villagers all over the place.


    "After humans conquered everything, they get bored. There was nothing new under the sun, and everything was too peaceful for their adventurous heart. That''s why they started to fight with each other."


    The next image was bigger than the others, showing people with diamond armor and swords fighting.


    "The war got so bad that it destroyed two whole continents before the System intervened. It saw that the power shared with the humans was too dangerous so it put a limit on it. That is how skills were first introduced and the first warning of the System. Luxury humanity was smart enough to stop its meaningless wars."


    An image with a sun rising from the horizon with people covered in bandages looking at it was next.


    "That happened 1.000 years ago and it''s considered lost knowledge."


    Looks like humanity has a tendency to play with fire even in ancient times.


    "What happened next?"


    "For the next 600 years, the world was at peace once again. New recipes were discovered, the church was growing and people started to appreciate life more! Until one day, the Void attacked. Nobody saw it coming, chunks of the planet were being ripped apart and absorbed into the Void never to be seen again. That was also the first time humanity saw the System taking an active stance of fighting. We don''t know how the fight went, we only know that in those 5 years that the System was gone and monsters appeared all over the world."


    On the other side of the wall, images show how monsters came from a black portal.


    "While this was the time humanity was at its most dangerous point, we could also say that it was the start of its golden years. Soon people started to level up their skills at unbelievable speeds, creating new recipes, sharing with everyone, and helping to improve technology for the people. You could say that this tragedy brought humans together and made them stronger. Then the System came back from the war, it has won but at a great price."


    The next image showed how the portal was closed and monsters started to burn under the sun.


    "The System couldn''t talk with the people like before, only a selected few were lucky enough to hear its voice but only one was someone that we could say was loved by the System. That man was a king and a researcher who would always get his question answered by the System."


    Someone had such a close connection to the System?


    How is that possible, was he perhaps another hero?


    "We don''t know what he did to gain the System''s favor but we know that under its rule, humanity progressed like never before."


    Is that how they managed to get so much information to create Alexa?


    But who is this person and why haven''t I heard of him yet, what happened to him?


    "Unfortunately that man betrayed the System somehow. We don''t have any information about how or why, even when we asked the System. But what we know is that the System decided not to communicate with humans anymore, on that day, the kingdom was gone together with a few continents. New species of monsters started to appear, it was so much chaos that we thought the Void came back!"


    The Pope took a pause to catch his breath.


    "Maybe it was, we still don''t know but we knew that the System was angry at humanity and it decided to punish it."


    The last image of the wall showed how the light around humans was taken away, leaving humanity confused and scared.


    "Those are the times we live in now, or so we thought so until I had the blessing of hearing the System''s voice."


    His face changed to one of reverence.


    "It told me a prophecy of how the Void would be back, but we shall not be scared since we''re not forgotten. It would send us a hero to fight back and we had the mission to train it. This is the time we live today, this is the start of a new era, one where the System may forgive us!"


    The Pope made a spin while raising his arms making me think that he practiced this a few times in front of the mirror.


    But what he''s saying is interesting.


    I know some information that he doesn''t know, while he knows something i didn''t know amd together we were completing a puzzle, but I felt like I was still missing an important piece.


    "How do you know about this? Or more exactly how do you still have this kind of information after the great purge?"


    The Pope let out a dispontied sight at our lack of reaction and tried to comfort himself by petting his beard.


    "When the king rose to power, the church was against him since he used some unconventional methods to communicate with the System. At least that''s what the records say. And when the great purge happened, it didn''t affect us since we tried to be as separated from the king as possible."


    So they hated the man loved by the System, and manged to survive because of that, what luck.


    "Of course, after everything calmed down, we sent a Crusade against the Witches and the Piligers so they wouldn''t get any funny ideas of getting back to power. That was written in the records, but it''s most likely because of jealousy."


    That took me by surprise, I didn''t expect the Pope to be so harsh with his religious history.


    And I think he deduced what I was thinking, since he answered my question.


    "You must be surprised by my response. But you have to understand that at my age I only have time to think, and after I heard the System''s voice in hundreds of years I had more reason to come to this conclusion. I do respect the System as a wise ruler over us, but I know it''s not as powerful as I want it to be. It seems to be hurt from the great war, using humans to help defend the world. Don''t get me wrong, there''s no greater honor then fighting for the System, but I understand that we lost what we had the moment it sent us help from another world instead of trusting the people in this world."


    I got answers for questions that I didn''t even know to ask.


    Now we were in beautiful room, with a sad old man in the middle.


    "I think this answers all your questions Trader, you can leave this room, I wish to be alone for a few moments."


    I looked at Merry and she looked back at me, then we both nooded our heads and left the old man alone with his thoughts.


    I don''t this he does this kind of tour often, so I wouldn''t comment anything on it.


    "I never seen the old man act this way, I wander what did he see in you to tell that story?"


    But looks like the hero wasn''t wiling to let it go like that, but I could understand her curiosity since I also was curious about the reason as well.


    There''s no chance he would recognise me from my voice, and I don''t think he saw my monster friends.


    Maybe he was just a lonely old man and we caught him unprepared.


    "I don''t know, but we have a mission to fulfil, so let''s get ready."

 Chapter 183. Where are they?

    I ducked as a sword passed by my head, but before I could attack on my own, the attacker changed her stance and tried to kick me.


    My eyes went wide as I tried to jump to the side, but unfortunately, I was too slow so my shoulder was hit.


    Unfortunately for her, my armor was doing more than protecting me, it absorbed the momentum of the attack, making me move my shoulder backwards, taking the attacker by surprise.


    Taking advantage of that, I tackled my enemy and pointed my swords at her face making it my win.


    "You are very bad at this Trader, yet you still won... how are you doing this?"


    I helped Merry to get up while she was questioning the legitimacy of my win.


    "I won only because of my armor, otherwise it would''ve been my loss."


    "That''s why I said we should train with wooden swords!"


    "Not in this dimension!"


    Plus she can''t take her helmet off because of the curse, and I didn''t plan on letting my defenses down in enemy territory.


    It was the next day after the Pope told us his stories, and since the army wouldn''t arrive here for another day we decided to do some training.


    It was too short timed for me to get a skill level up and too long to do nothing all day.


    That''s why we decided to do some sparing to get more used for the upcoming fight.


    Should I also ask Violet for some help?


    No, she''s too much of an opponent to us and I''m afraid she may accidently kill Merry.


    Maybe an iron golem?


    That could work, since one can take a lot of hits and listens to every command, I''ll ask Merry what she thinks about this later.


    "Ok let''s fight once more and this time I won''t be taken by surprise. Same rules, no potions or any other buffs otherwise everything is fair."


    "Ok, tell me when you''re ready."


    And for the next 10 fights, I only won 2, and for some reason, her smugness was rubbing me the wrong way.


    I should get some new weapons to increase my winning chances.


    I wonder if Alexa knows how to make a trident and the loyalty enchantment.


    "This was an interesting match to watch, but it seems that Teader keeps tanking hits or running away from them. I''m glad you didn''t pick that up from him, I don''t think you''ll be able to survive for long like that."


    Well excuse me for using that method, I only died once so I''ll say it works pretty well for me.


    Plus, what''s the point of having an OP armor if you''re not going to use it?


    "Good morning mister Pope, feeling better?"


    "Hoho, you don''t have to worry that much about this old man. Just focus on saving the world for the System."


    The Pope was smiling while running his hand over his long beard.


    "So did something happen, or were you just curious about our duel?"


    "Well, it seems that we are in luck, as our army managed to get here just an hour ago."


    The church army? Well, that''s a pleasant surprise, if we wait some more we''ll have the Royal army as well, and for sure we''ll be able to defeat the Lords like this.


    "That''s awesome, do they have the energy to start marching once again?"


    "Merry, I think we should let them take a break until the other army arrives, I''m sure they''re tired from traveling under the scorching sun for days."


    I tried to reason with Merry.


    "That''s true, tell them to get some rest since we will be leaving tomorrow."


    She''s much more confident now which was good for a hero.


    "Ok, now let''s get back to sparring, it''s starting to get fun."


    While I couldn''t see her face because of the helmet, I''m sure she had a mischievous grin under it.


    -----If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    The next day came quickly, and now we were in front of the church headquarters with two armies standing beside each other.


    I kept saying that those are armies, but there were 100 in total, and from a world where an army would have thousands or hundreds of thousands of members, it feels weird to call them an army.


    But this wasn''t my world so I can''t say they have the same rules.


    "Warriors of humanity, today we would march towards our biggest battle yet. As you may have heard the Prince has fallen and made a deal with the Monster Lords, and we don''t accept such methods, we won''t stand down as injustice continues to happen in our lands! We shall fight them, we shall kill them and be heroes that would write history!"


    Merry stood on a pedestal and started to give a speech, and I could feel the soldiers getting fired up the more she spoke.


    "But we don''t fight for fame, we fight for our families, we fight for our nation, WE FIGHT FOR HUMANITY!!"


    She finished her speech by raising her arm


    Soon the whole army started to cheer in unison, ready to go to war.


    We turned and started our journey with the hero in the front.


    Green was left behind, leaving me, Merry, probably Violet, Alexa, and two whole armies.


    Not that much.


    After marching for an hour everyone forgot about me, which made me less tense from the unwanted attention.


    Just to be sure that I was not going to get attention I sat beside the army at a respectful distance.


    "Alexa, what did you get in the past few days?"


    <Unfortunately, due to my limitations of not getting found out I only managed to scan the outside of the building.>


    "And did something catch your eye?"


    Those blocks were that special?


    I didn''t feel like it was that different from the everyday blocks.


    Maybe I should use my monocle more often from now on.


    "Do you think the System found out about me or you?"


    <Negative. While it could bypass your armor stealth by borrowing the eyes of a believer, I don''t think it would do that since it''s an inferior way of perceiving the world.>


    How lucky of us.


    <But I advise we stay away from them since the System would most likely watch the upcoming fight.>


    That''s true, especially for Merry since she would be fighting the Monster Lords.


    But as Alexa said, I would be invisible for it unless it would use Merry''s eyes.


    Maybe it''s better if I prepare a trap instead of fighting head-on like Merry.


    A few ideas floated into my mind, but they wouldn''t work most of the time because of the Shadow Lord.


    If only there was a way to know where he would pop out or even seal his ability to teleport.


    "Hey Alexa, did you get the chance to scan the Monster Lord by any chance?"


    "Do you think you can point out where his location is like Merry knows the location of the Zombie Lord?"


    <It can be done, if I do another scan of the Hero to know how the process works. But there''s a chance we''ll get the attention of the System with this action.>


    I don''t think I want to get its attention now, since it would be a pain to deal with later, but I also don''t want to follow only the Zombie Lord, since they could''ve split up by now to do more damage.


    "Do you know a way to hide the hero while she is being scanned?"


    <Negative. But we could delay the signal sent to the System by placing her in an obsidian box.>


    I should have enough obsidian to box her for a few minutes.


    But I think we should do this at night when the soldiers won''t pay as much attention.


    I spoke with Alexa about this, and that''s what we did.


    When night arrived, we stopped to camp and get some well deserved rest, then I took this chance and spoke with Merry about the plan.


    She was on board as soon as I finished my explanation, so we went a little further from the camp, dug a big hole in the Sand, and built a small room with three layers of obsidian.


    "So, once I''m inside the box, Alexa will start scanning me. As soon as the scanning is completed I''ll cover it in obsidian and try to get outside of the box with my diamond pickaxe."


    "Yeah, that''s the gist of it. We hope that in the time you get out, the System will try to scan the surrounding area, and seeing nothing it would think your just a weirdo."


    Of course, in case the System scans the area I would be hidden from any eye''s as well.


    "Hey! If you want revenge for all that ass-kicking I gave you yesterday, you could''ve come up with a better plan."


    She complained while getting inside the box and blocking the hole.


    A few minutes later I suddenly felt pressure in the air, I felt like the eyes of God were watching over every gram of sand in this chunk.


    The pressure lasted for 5-10 and finally 30 minutes before it was gone.


    As the pressure left the obsidian box was broken, letting Merry out who was messaging her head.


    "Are you ok, are you still in control?"


    "Yes, I am, it''s just that I''ve never talked with the System this way. It''s similar to how Alexa talks, just more heavy and demanding."


    The System spoke with her?


    "What did it ask you?"


    "I think it wanted to ask me about what I was doing but was suddenly got distracted by my new helmet. It insisted that I should get it off since it was a cursed equipment and would make me mad."


    So the helmet managed to distract the System enough to not concentrate on Alexa or what was happening around the hero.


    Is Netherite that dangerous for the System?


    "And how did you respond?"


    "I told it that it was a gift from you, and I can''t take it off even if I wanted to."


    Well the System was right in regards to the curse, after all I put Curse of binding on it specifically so the System couldn''t take it off.


    "Then what happen? I felt the System sitting here for quite a while."


    "Ugh, don''t remind me. It tried to remove my helmet with some kind if telekinesis power, but it only gave me a headache. After 10 minutes doing that constantly I threatened that I''ll get a full armor it doesn''t leave me alone. And surprisingly that worked."


    Did you just threatened the System?


    You have some guts Merry, I have to give you credit for that.


    "Alexa, did you get what you wanted?"


    <Affirmative. I should be able to reproduce the soul compass in three days.>


    Later then I expected but better then nothing.


    I cleaned up the place and put all the sand back in the hole, after everything was done, we all went to get some rest.


    ----


    Three days have passed and we arrived at our destination, or more exactly, at the place the Zombie Lord was residing.


    It was a cave system in a small mountain.


    I decided to go in first becouse of my armor, and scout the area for any traps.


    As I entered the tunnels, I started to notice human activity, and soon saw some guards with iron armor patrolling the place.


    Jackpot!


    With silent steps, I went and checked every room that I could find, but there were only guards and nobles.


    No Monster Lords or any Prince.


    Where are they?

 Chapter 184. Why do they know this!?

    I checked every room multiple times and even used my bell to see if there were any hidden rooms but no luck.


    Were they out on a mission?


    Maybe we can lay a trap for them here for when they get back.


    That would be the perfect outcome.


    I left the underground base without a problem and got back to the camp.


    There I saw everyone waiting anxiously looking towards the tunnels.


    I just ignored them and went towards the captain''s temporary house, there I saw Merry with Alexa and the two generals of each army.


    "I finished my scouting. While there is something that''s bothering me, we''re safe to attack them."


    Everyone in the room was startled except for Alexa.


    Realizing that they weren''t in danger the generals made a fake cough and looked at me.


    "What did you see, how many enemies were there?"


    Then I proceeded to tell them everything I saw, from the number of rooms to what equipment each person wore.


    Once I was done, Merry had a determined look in her eyes while the generals looked troubled.


    "There are a lot more nobles than we expected in this operation, some of them we didn''t even suspect. I don''t know if we should arrest them or kill them here."


    "While it''s true that the nation would be in trouble for a while, it''s still better if we get rid of the weed now before it would spread. What I''m more worried is the fact the Prince and the Monster Lords are not here. Where could they be?"


    We all looked at Merry, who had her eyes closed trying to sense something.


    "I still feel the Zobie Lord in that mountain. Unfortunately, I can''t tell how far apart he is, or if he''s invisible, we''ll have to expect an ambush just in case."


    I''m not too worried about that Lord since he''s much weaker, I''m worried about the Shadow Lord.


    While they were talking about their strategy to attack, I got closer to Alexa and whispered.


    "Can you use the compass to see where the Shadow Lord is?"


    <Affirmative. The Shadow Lord is around 1.000 blocks away from here, from the speed he''s walking he should arrive in the Coral Kingdom in 3 days.>


    Why would he go to the Coral Kingdom?


    Is there a town there that caught his eye?


    But maybe that''s good since it means we are not going to fight 2 Monster Lords at the same time.


    "I could capture a noble, bring him here, and we could question him on what they are planning."


    Everyone stopped and looked at me with surprise.


    "If you could do that, it would be for the best."


    I nodded my head and went back outside not forgetting to tell Merry that the Shadow Lord wasn''t here.


    I passed the security of both camps and looked for the most important looking person in the tunnels.


    Luckily it wasn''t that hard to find him since he likes to show his status through expensive accessories such as a purple robe, golden bracelets, and paintings on his face.


    He was alone in the biggest room looking over some paperwork with a tiered expression.


    Since he was alone in the room, it was easy for me to take out my sword and gently tap his shoulder.


    "Wha-who are you, how did you get here?"


    "There''s no reason for me to answer your question. Now follow me and don''t make any noise. My sword is pretty sharp and I could cut your neck in one swing."


    The noble face suddenly paled and tried to back away, unfortunately, there was a wall to stop him.


    "O-ok, I''ll follow you."


    Just to be sure I took out an invisibility potion and splashed it onto the noble, making only a few floating accessories visible.


    I asked the man to take those off, and with a hand on his shoulder, I guided him towards the exit.


    He was surprisingly obedient on the way out, maybe a sword to the neck was truly a great motivator.


    Once I arrived at the general house, I asked for a bucket of milk and wondered how the generals were surprised by the identity of the Noble.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Secretary Trojen! What are you doing here, were you taken as a hostage?"


    This guy was the secretary of this Nation?


    He sure doesn''t like to have a humble look, maybe that''s why he was appointed by the previous Sultan.


    "I don''t think so, I saw that he was living in the best room of the base, and people were respectful towards him."


    The faces of the two generals became complicated, clearly, this would become more troubling then initially thought.


    "It doesn''t matter who he is, we still need information from him!"


    Merry came as the reasonable voice.


    At first, the secretary was cagey about the information, but after we showed him that he was going to lose either way, he decided to share with us what actually happened a few months back.


    When we heard the whole story, we were all taken by surprise.


    The Prince didn''t make a deal with the Shadow Lord, instead, he had complete control over him by holding the spawner hostage.


    This was very dangerous since he could assassinate the new Ruler of the Sandstone Nation in one night.


    They planned on doing that after they eliminated a majority of the nobles who supported her to get to power.


    He doesn''t want a civil war to start once he''ll get to power after all.


    This is what shocked the generals.


    What shocked Merry was the fact that he didn''t know that the Zombie Lord was in the mountain as well, it was very hard to keep in check the Shadow Lord and they had his literal life in their hands, they wouldn''t trust the Zombie Lord no matter what he said.


    But what shocked me the most was what he said at the end, where the Prince was going right now.


    "So an Iliger came to us a few days ago and apparently they have a weapon that could hurt the System, and they need the help of the Shadow Lord to get to it or something similar. The Prince didn''t tell me a lot of details and I don''t think that Iliger told him the whole story either. So yesterday he took the spawner with him and left towers the Coral Kingdom to meet with the Iligers."


    I could feel the blood freezing in my veins.


    Why did the Piligers get in contact with the Prince?


    I thought they wanted only a select few people to know about the Fake System, and what are they planning on using the Shadow Lord for?


    They shouldn''t have information about the guardians, and even if they did I don''t think they''ll want to bring a ticking bomb with them so close to Alexa''s main body.


    Everyone had their worries about the newly acquired information, but we soon decided to attack.


    Since they didn''t expect us to find them today, it was the best time to get rid of the camp.


    But the Zombie Lord was still a wild card, so me and Merry decided to wait as a backup in case anything happened.


    With everything done, we set the two armies close to the cave system but far enough not to be seen.


    We selected a few people and made 3 groups of 5 people each and used an invisibility potion on them.


    They would be the first ones to attack and cause chaos.


    Once the chaos would ensue, the rest of the army buffed by speed and strength would attack as well.


    The groups were selected and splashed with the invisibility potions.


    Five minutes later we could hear the enemy yell, which was the signal for the rest of the attack.


    The enemy was attacked on all sides, it was clear that we would win this battle with minimal casualties.


    Suddenly Merry put her arm on my shoulder.


    "I feel the Zombie Lord getting closer. I think he was sitting on the other side of the mountain. He''s on top now."


    Both of us looked at the top, but the moonlight wasn''t powerful enough for us to see clearly what was there.


    <I can see a monster 5 blocks tall with green skin and a blindfold. For further analysis, we need to get closer.>


    Looks like Alexa managed to see the Zombie Lord with no problem. I wonder if it plans on attacking us, or only watching from the side.


    "Do you see anything Trader?"


    "No, but Alexa saw him on top of the mounting looking at us. I will try to get closer with Alexa so it can scan it."


    If it manages to get only a small sample, we should be able to make another soul compass that would point toward the Zombie Lord.


    Merry nodded her head, and with Alexa we went up the mountain.


    A few minutes later Alexa spoke once again.


    <I think the battle is finished and the Zombie Lord is getting ready to leave.>


    That''s not good, we didn''t manage to get close enough yet.


    "Can you use an Enderpearl?"


    "Doesn''t matter, we can still work with this. Hold it and drop it in my cloak."


    Alexa seemed confused but still followed my instructions.


    With the pearl in my cloak, I used it as a slingshot and threw it towards the top of the mountain.


    I didn''t throw it far enough but it was close enough for Alexa to start scanning.


    As the Perl hit a block, Alexa disappeared from beside me just as the Zombie Lord jumped off the mountain.


    Did we miss him?


    "Alexa, did you manage to get something?"


    I waited anxiously in silence looking towards the top of the mountain, until the usual monotone voice appeared in my head.


    "Phew, glad to hear that. Let''s get down and see how the battle went."


    With the mission finished, we went down the mountain and saw how the soldiers were moving the bodies out of the tunnels.


    It wasn''t a pleasant sight to see, but those were the results of humans fighting.


    It was not supposed to be a pretty sight, and even Merry seemed uncomfortable with the situation.


    "Trader! I''m glad you''re doing well, I felt that the Zombie Lord jumping away and I thought something happened to you."


    "I''m ok, I didn''t manage to get close to it, but Alexa managed to get what we wanted."


    "That''s good, how do you feel after such a busy night."


    She said that while getting closer to me.


    Something was not right, she was way too interested into this conversation... then I realized she was trying to get distracted from the battle that happened besides her.


    While she was trained to fight against humans and monsters, that doesn''t mean she was ready to take a humans life. Even if humans In this world look very different from our original world.


    This made me think at my first kill.


    I was in the Nether, fighting against the guards that attacked my tribe.


    I rembered how I shot a firework at him, making him fall ending in him falling to his death.


    I felt nothing at that time, and even now.


    Let''s not think too much about that, I already have a lot on my mind recently, there''s no need to have a mental breakdown as well.


    In the meantime let''s dirtact Merry.


    "Where do you think the Zombie Lord would go next?"


    "I don''t know, but I feel that he''s jumping towards the center of the desert."


    He doesn''t want to regroup with the Shadow Lord?


    What''s happening here, something doesn''t add up.


    "Alexa, you have the location of both of them, are they going to meet in a secret location?"


    <Negative. The two of them seem to go in opposite direction from each other.>


    "It''s clear what they want to do. They either want to split us up, or lead us away from the Shadow Lord since they know we can only track one of them."


    Merry got serios and started to think.


    "I think we''ll have to split up."

 Chapter 185. The beginning of a mess

    "I think we''ll have to split up."


    Merry was right, while Alexa knows the whereabouts of both Monster Lords, that doesn''t mean we could get both of them at the same time.


    I think the Shadow Lord made a deal with the Zombie Lord.


    It seemed to know that we could follow one of them, so they split up as a distraction to not get in the way of the real goal, reaching the Fake System.


    "I don''t think it''s a debate that I''ll go after the Shadow Lord and the Iligers while you''ll go after the Zombie Lord."


    "Yeah, I don''t think the Coral Kingdom would''ve let us pass with so many armed soldiers anyway. The Stone Nation was an exception since we knew each other and it was just the Holy Army."


    I looked over the battlefield one more time seeing how the bodies were looted and then thrown into a fire pit.


    Gruesome sights, I don''t know if I''ll sleep well tonight.


    "I think I''ll leave Merry, I don''t see a reason for me to stay here anymore."


    "You leaving already? But you didn''t say bye to the Pope, or even Green. I''m sure there are a few places and people you want to visit before you''ll go."


    Merry tried to make me stay longer, probably because she wasn''t used to the corpses yet.


    But the Sandstone Kingdom is the last place I''d like to visit in my spare time.


    Too many bad memories in one place and the chances of people figuring out my true identity kept increasing.


    "Merry, you are a hero and someone who would see more of those kinds of battlefields. I don''t think you should run away from it, instead you have to face it."


    She froze at my words for a few moments, before taking a deep breath and looked at the battlefield.


    "You''re right, sorry for holding you down, have a safe trip."


    That hurt, she understood the message but it still hurt.


    "Thank you... good luck in your battle as well."


    With the final goodbye said, we split up, and I walked under the moonlight over the desert.


    After we traveled far enough, Violet appeared beside me and put her hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me.


    This made me smile and appreciate the friends I have beside me.


    "Thank you, Violet, I''m already feeling better. Also, thank you for saving me that night, I would''ve been a goner without you."


    Suddenly her face turned purple which made me smile.


    "You''re welcome..."


    She responded in her raspy voice.


    I think I''m starting to get used to this.


    Suddenly she punched Alexa out of nowhere, making the blue angle hit the sand a few blocks away.


    I was confused by this but quickly realized what happened.


    "Alexa, please stop trying to scan Violet, she doesn''t like it and you know it."


    <Order received. I request a health potion since I''m in critical danger and it would take a lot of time for me to regenerate.>


    I let out a sigh and went to pick the angel up, with Violet showing her displeasure on her face.


    "No, you''ll have to regenerate on your own as a punishment for annoying Violet."


    Now my monster friend was happy and the demi-god was annoyed at the extra work.


    We walked for hours where I talked with Violet about her invisible life and what she was doing while we were in towns.


    She used a small number of words, and it was fun for me to interpret what she was saying.


    Sometimes she would get frustrated from lack of understanding while other times she would laugh at what I was saying.


    Alexa was preoccupied with its regeneration so it didn''t join the conversation, and that''s probably for the best.


    The sun was getting up in the sky and I was starting to get tired.


    "Alexa, how far is the Shadow Lord?"This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    <800 blocks far, and growing sir.>


    I think I traveled more than 200 blocks, which only means that the other party is still moving at a fast pace.


    If I skipped a few nights or even drank a few potions I think I can catch up with them, but then what?


    It could order the Shadow Lord to kill or distract me.


    And it''s not like I wanted them in the first place, the Iligers are the true danger.


    So I shouldn''t concentrate on catching up with them, instead, I should think of a way to get rid of the Iligers in the Coral Kingdom, or at least the ones who know the way to Alexa''s main body.


    But with my speed, I would get to them either after the Prince or exactly as the Prince arrives which would not help my upcoming battle.


    That means that I should take on a riskier approach by going through the Nether.


    Unfortunately, I don''t have a loadstone set at the Puperfish City to help me travel, and the compass that I have to get to the General doesn''t work in the Nether.


    That means I''ll have to build a portal every couple hundred blocks and check the compass to see if I''m on the right track.


    The annoying part would be that I''ll leave behind portal frames which surely would attract unwanted attention.


    I guess I''ll have to break them and build them underground.


    Of course, I''ll brake the connection as well so nobody will accidentally end up in another dimension while mining.


    I looked around one final time and dug a small hole.


    Then out of the hole I made a room illuminated by a lantern hanging from the ceiling.


    With the preparations done, I built a portal frame, splashed Alexa with an invisibility potion then lit the obsidian frame.


    The space began to bend, then it broke, making a connection between the two dimensions.


    As the connection was made I could see what was beyond the frame, and the only thing I could do was curse my luck.


    POV: The Mad Prince


    Boredom.


    That''s the feeling I had all my life ever since I was born.


    I have all the richness a Brute would dream of, and all the knowledge a Pigling would trade for.


    For I am the Prince of the Nether, and everything is or will be under my rule.


    I was blessed with a golden body and a sharp mind, but I would call it a curse more than a blessing.


    There''s no more challenge for me to overcome, everything is too easy or short-lived, that''s why when I get bored, I take my army and conquer the rest of the Nether, stimulating my bored mind for a few more days.


    Today was like any day on a march towards a fortress that is supposed to be ruled by a powerful black skeleton that is written to be from the creation times.


    A challenge to say the least.


    Just as I was preparing to eat my meal, space started to fold in the middle of the camp, and an obsidian frame appeared out of thin air.


    Everyone in the camp froze and looked at what just happened taking their weapons ready for a fight.


    In the middle of the frame stood a man with black armor that made me shiver.


    Blood was getting pumped into my veins, my mind suddenly became sharp and my soul was screaming not to lose this opportunity.


    What I was seeing in from of me was what I was searching for, the life that I always wanted.


    The man took out his crossbow with a weird-looking arrow and it pointed at the frame of the portal.


    He was trying to destroy the portal, I can''t let him do that!


    I took out my crossbow and shot my arrow at his crossbow making it explode and taking all parties involved by surprise.


    But even in the middle of the explosion, the man didn''t seem to take any damage.


    Before he could take another action I ran and tackled him to the ground, using the confusion to my advantage.


    As soon as I passed the obsidian frame, I felt that something wrong was happening within my body.


    I couldn''t explain it, but I knew if I stayed for too long in here I would die in extrusion pain.


    And since I couldn''t stay for too long in here I picked the heavy man up and threw him in the camp where he was quickly surrounded by veteran soldiers.


    "Stop! Don''t kill him, I want to talk first."


    The man quickly got up, looked around, and saw that he was surrounded. Then he took out a Perl and was ready to teleport back into the portal.


    But the Brutes surrounding him weren''t ordinary, but the best Warriors who had ample experience to react to any situation.


    So at the first sign of the pearl, somebody shot an arrow breaking it in his hand.


    The portal still gave him hope, so that meant I had to destroy it.


    From my inventory, I took out a glowing red potion and threw it at the obsidian frame.


    When the bottle was broken, a huge explosion appeared spreading fire everywhere and blowing everyone back with the shockwave except for the black man.


    "Seriously, why did you even do that? What do you want from me?"


    The man seems to accept his situation, at least partially.


    He had his sword out and ready to place blocks for some reason.


    "Give up and answer my questions, otherwise I''ll have to kill you!"


    "How do I always end up in those kinds of situations."


    The man in black armor spoke with frustration.


    I tried to read his expression, but the shadows of the helmet made it impossible, most likely with the help of an enchantment.


    "Follow me."


    With that, I made the man follow me to my house.


    Once inside, I told the soldiers to wait outside and they did without any question.


    Now, I was alone with a man from another world who was looking all over the place for a plan to escape.


    While I was confident about defeating him, I had a feeling that I would suffer heavy losses if a fight broke out.


    This made my Brutes blood boil but the Pigling head was keeping it in check.


    "Who are you stranger from another world, and what''s your intention?"


    The man finally looked at me studying me with from head to toe.


    "My name is Hu- no it''s Trader in this world, and I came to explore the land in this place. Unfortunately I accidentally opened a portal in your camp."


    So he was giving me a false name, and a plain excuse.


    "You can call me the Mad Prince, my father is the Ruler of the Nether a Brute, while my mother is one of his many concubines a Pigling. Now tell me Trader, why shouldn''t I kill you for attempting to assassinate noble blood?"


    "Wha-never mind, this is a clear attempt of getting under my skin. What do you want from me? Otherwise you wouldn''t left me alive."


    I could only smile at the man, I liked smart people the most since they tend to think their superior from others and would talk endless if you pulled the right strings.


    And this man, seemed like the smart kind.


    I wonder how long it would take before he''ll talk.


    "You don''t seem afraid even in this situation like you have an escape plan. Even I the Mad Prince don''t think I can escape this place alive, so what gives you this confidence?"


    "Let''s just say, that I find myself in those kinds of situations more often then not."


    Looks like he has some amusing stories to tell, but I''ll double the guards around the house just in case he actually has the strength to get out.


    "Then I''ll get straight to the point. How do I opened portals to the Overworld?"


    The man froze.

 Chapter 186. Owners of the tunnels

    How to open a portal to the Overworld?


    He surely asks the tough questions from the start.


    "Why do you even want to know that information?"


    "So I can go and explore it, and who knows maybe conquer it."


    Should I tell him?


    If I tell him, he''s most likely going to end up dead and zombified in the Overworld.


    No, what if the information spreads and then the people from the Stone Kingdom will find out the secret?


    "I''ll advise you against it since creatures of the Nether are not meant to live outside of it."


    He thought about it, which I didn''t expect.


    "I felt like I was getting sick when I passed the portal frame. Are you saying that if I stayed there I would''ve died?"


    "You and everything else In this world. You''re not meant to be in the Overworld."


    "Is there no way to pass on the other side without taking damage?"


    "Not that I know of."


    Unless you want to use the same method as Undying by chugging regeneration potions constantly or wait until Alexa takes over the Nether and rewrites whatever is inside that kills you.


    But I''m not going to tell him that, I want to get out of here as soon as possible after all.


    "I see, then tell me about the life on the other side of the portal. I read historical books about how the two worlds were one long ago, which makes us brothers. It''s such a shame we can''t visit you like you''re doing with us."


    Was he fishing for my reaction?


    Not a lot of people know about the Nether in the first place, much less about its history.


    So I decided to show a shocked expression, only to realize too late that he couldn''t see it because of my armor.


    "You don''t seem too surprised by this information. The guards we took as prisoners from your precious fort were enraged that we would speak such nonsense. So tell me, what other things do you know?"


    His lips moved into a smile that gave me chills.


    How much should I tell?


    Maybe I should try my luck with escaping this place. I''m pretty confident with destroying the roof of this house and tower up to the ceiling.


    With my Netherite pickaxe, I should be able to break blocks faster than they can run.


    "Let me ask you a question first. Is your nation the oldest one in the Nether?"


    The man smiled with pride.


    "The only thriving one from ancient times."


    "Does that mean you were the ones to mine those tunnels underground."


    The Mad Prince looked at me with surprise, clearly not expecting the conversation to lead that way.


    "You know a lot more about our dimensions than expected, but to answer your question, no, we didn''t mine them, the people from your world did. But we are the ones controlling them after they left, so either way, it belongs to us now."


    "What are the chances of you giving me a map of those tunnels?"


    He smiled so hard that his eyes were narrow.


    "None."


    "At least I tried, Alexa get behind me! Violet get out and we''ll meet up later!"


    Then I placed an obsidian block between us and an End Crystal on top of it.


    The Mad Prince was already equipped with his enchanted diamond armor and had an axe in his hand ready to fight.


    But getting closer was his biggest mistake, as I raised my shield and slashed the Crystal.


    *BOOM!


    The Crystal exploded throwing him on his back while I took a few hurts of damage.


    This was the most damage I''ve taken in this armor.


    I heard yelling outside the house, and the Mad Price was already getting up just a little dazed.


    They moved quicker than expected.


    "Follow me, Alexa!"Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Then with the blocks I had, I towered up towards the ceiling, broke it, leaving me out in the open.


    "He''s towering up, shoot him!"


    The Brutes quickly saw me and started to shoot at me with their arrows.


    Most of the arrows were repelled by the armor, but some of them found their way to my arms where they were less protected.


    "Ugh, I''ll have to build some defense."


    I started to build walls when I started to hear the Brutes yelling that someone was attacking them.


    Out of curiosity I looked past my defense and saw how some Brutes were thrown around from all over the camp, making the whole group shoot arrows at itself trying to hit the invisible enemy.


    Looks like Violet decided to help me instead of running away to meet later.


    I have to get more powerful, I can''t rely on her all the time when I''m in danger.


    But thanks to her help, I managed to tower up towards the ceiling of the Nether.


    It was a few hundred blocks tall so it took a while to get there, but after a certain distance, the arrows couldn''t reach me anymore.


    And with my quick mining, I should be able to run pretty far before they reach me.


    But just when I arrived at the roof and was safe, I realized something.


    "Shoot, I wanted to build a portal here and run away but Violet it''s still down. Not only that, she can''t sense me because of the armor!"


    <I would advise you to get to a safe place before taking off your armor, otherwise the heat would tire you out making the mining process much harder.>


    Alexa was right, let''s get to a safe place first then take off my armor.


    Violet told me she could feel me after thousands of blocks, so I should be safe either way.


    With the plan finished, I started to make a long tunnel but did not forget to cover it behind me so it couldn''t be traced.


    Just to be sure the tail was loose, I left fake tunnels and changed my direction several times before I broke the roof to get back on the ground.


    The place that I landed on was a red forest, it had plenty of cover, light, and food.


    It should be safe for me to make a portal here and wait for Violet to come.


    "Alexa, I''ll make a room underground, you can go and explore this place just talk with me when you get close."


    <Affirmative.>


    With that, Alexa flew away protected by the invisibility potion while I dug a room underground big enough for Violet to teleport in.


    A few minutes later, everything was done and I took off my armor.


    Suddenly a wave of heat washed over me, making me lose focus for a few seconds.


    I sat down with my back on the wall taking small breaths to get used to the heat.


    10 minutes passed, then 20 then an hour and I was starting to get worried that something happened to Violet.


    A few minutes later Alexa came as well but after 30 more minutes, I decided to look for Violet.


    "But how can I backtrack my way after I made sure to cover everything?"


    <I''ve already recorded a map in my database so we should follow that.>


    "That''s genius Alexa, show me the shortest way to the camp."


    <Oreder received, please follow me.>


    I took the obsidian blocks back and followed Alexa throughout the Nether.


    Fortunately nothing dangerous happened on the way there, with the most nerve-wracking part being the bridge over the lava lake.


    Once we arrived at the camp I saw that it was more silent than expected, and with careful steps we got closer, relying on the stealth of the armor not to get noticed.


    But with the first step I made into the camp, I realized that it was empty.


    "Where is everyone?"


    I checked every house and chest but not item was left behind.


    <Sir, I''ve found something that is addressed to you.>


    I quickly followed Alexa''s directions, and I arrived at a sign close to the walls of the camp.


    The sign said:


    --If you want your Enderman friend back, follow the tunnel then take a right--


    How did they manage to capture her, was she hurt, was she ok?!


    Behind the sign was a hole, clearly leading to an underground tunnel or a trap.


    Unfortunately, I had to follow their instructions since I didn''t plan on abandoning Violet.


    After taking a deep breath I ordered Alexa to go down and report what it sees there.


    Luckily Alexa was a machine that knew no fear besides the System itself and fulfilled my command.


    A few minutes later, it came back and told me that it was leading to a long tunnel but no trap in sight.


    Just to be sure, I took off my helmet and equipped the Monocle of Truth.


    This was the first time I equipped it in the Nether so what I saw was different than expected.


    Instead of the usual gray, I saw an intense red all over the place, and when I looked at Alexa, I saw a being made of light with a golden string attached to it that was leading somewhere far in the Nether.


    Probably to the main body.


    This was pretty useful to know since I could use the string to dig a tunnel all the way to the main body.


    But that was a project for later.


    I went down the stairs and followed the long tunnel.


    After half an hour where I didn''t see any traps or change in scenery, I arrived at one of the bigger ''tunnels'' that was under the Mad Prince''s control.


    As instructed I took a turn to the right and continued walking.


    The design of the highway was the same as the last time I saw it, so I quickly got bored and turned off my brain while my legs were moving.


    We walked like this for a while until I saw a sign in the middle of the road that got my attention, but 4 blocks away from the sign was a string that would activate a trap.


    If I wasn''t wearing the Monocle of Truth, I would''ve just gotten closer to read the sign, only to activate the trap without realizing it.


    Good thing that the string is seen as gray in a sea of intense red.


    With a big step, I crossed over the string, allowing me to see what was on the sign.


    ---If you''re reading this, please wait for us to pick you up :)---


    They even put a smiling face at the end!


    The audacity.


    So this trap is supposed to either capture me or alert them that I was here.


    I don''t think they had the time or the materials to make a trap, so that means it''s an alarm system, meaning their close.


    I looked around for an exit that I didn''t see, but the tunnel didn''t have one, probably being blocked to not attract suspicions.


    "Looks like I''ll have to fallow the trap."


    I broke the blocks besides tripwire, and saw a redstone line that was going upwards, but I couldn''t see the exit, so I signaled Alexa to scout ahead since there''s a chance they would see me if they have guards.


    The ball of light went ahead and came back a few minutes later with some bad news.


    <At the end of the staircase there two Brutes as guards, you can''t see them from inside so they would''ve caught you as soon as you stepped out. The staircase leads to the middle of a camp, filled with more Brutes.>


    Good thing I sent Alexa first, otherwise I would''ve been caught.


    Now that I knew what to expect, I climbed the staircase halfway through before making my own staircase going directly upwards.


    Once I broke through the surface, I looked over the camp where Violet was held prisoner.


    It was similar in design with the previous one, which made me think that there''s multiple camps like those all over the Nether connected to the underground highway.


    Unfortunately, while I had the high ground, I couldn''t see Violet, which meant that she was in one of those houses.


    And since I don''t think I''ll be able to sneak In, I sent Alexa once again to search for Violet.


    I know both of us had multiple lives, but I wasn''t willing to give up mine so easily.

 Chapter 187. A duel for freedom

    I saw the ball of light slowly floating towards the camp, bypassing the guards with ease.


    "Alexa is pretty good at infiltration missions, I should send it out more often."


    I was pretty far from the camp and could bearly see anything from here, so I decided to get closer.


    Luckily the soldiers from outside were pretty lax in comparison with the others.


    And now that I was looking closer at them, I saw that they had diamond armor but painted with red to better blend with the environment.


    With my Monocle of Truth, I could also see their inventory, and it was filled with some interesting items such as enchanted diamond axes and swords or handmade items that had a similar function as a phone.


    I was too far away to see the enchantments, but I was very curious if I could replicate them.


    Who knows maybe even Alexa doesn''t have those, I''ll have to ask it later.


    While I was waiting, I tried to explore the surrounding area, forming a plan in my mind about how to distract the Brutes, sneak in, and break Violet free from whatever cage she was in.


    But even after I made a whole tour around the camp, I didn''t see Alexa coming back.


    Did it get caught as well?


    But how? The blue angel should be invisible and release fewer particles due to it''s size.


    After waiting for half an hour, I could only conclude that it was either dead or captured like Violet.


    What''s wrong with this camp?


    I was more prepared than when I invaded the Piligers and I still seem to lose.


    While I was making a round around the camp, I was able to see what was inside most of the homes, all except the biggest one in the center.


    But I didn''t see Alexa''s aura or Violet''s, which means they''re most likely in that house.


    With a big sigh, I decided to use the same method that I usually use.


    Dig a tunnel towards my target.


    I do this so often that I''m already prepared with a few tools to make the job easier.


    So I positioned myself in such a way that I would have to dig straight to my target, not only that, my tunnel was 2 blocks under the surface so the chances of someone hearing me breaking blocks would be lowered.


    I put my helmet back on for maximum stealth, then I dug for 50 blocks, placed an Enderchest down, and took out hay blocks, and a bell.


    With the hay, I made a small room where I could fit and placed the bell down.


    From my tests, hay blocks seem to do a better job at concealing noises than normal wool, so when I hit the bell, I could see the shapes of people above me but they didn''t hear anything.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t see Violet in the range of the bell, so I took everything back and mined for another 50 blocks before making the room once again.


    This time I saw more soldiers patrolling the camp diligently, but no Violet in sign.


    Only after another 50 more blocks, do I see Violet and Alexa.


    My robot friend seemed to float calmly, while Violet lay down like she was sleeping.


    Did she fall for the same trap again?


    She''s not going to like this once she''ll wake up.


    Unfortunately beside those two was the Mad Prince fully equipped with his armor and axe ready for a fight.


    He''s clearly waiting for me, but why is he alone?


    Wouldn''t be better to fight me with numbers?


    And how did he find Alexa, its invisibility is almost unnoticeable after all.


    I want to break those two out, but the Prince seems to be able to capture them without a problem so that means he may have a way to capture me as well.


    I need to see his inventory, but how could I do that without getting noticed?


    <Sir, are you perhaps under the house?>


    "Alexa, is that you? What happened why, are you there floating without a care in the world?"Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    <If Sir is able to hear me, please take off your armor, since I only noticed the vibrations of a bell coming from underground and I''m sending this message broadly at the ground.>


    Well that sucks, but I''ll be able to get some information on what happened.


    I took off my armor, and I felt like I was in a sauna, but a the same time, a connection was made.


    ''Can you hear me?''


    <Affirmative.>


    ''Good, what happened, why are you in the same room as the enemy?''


    <I was exploring the other houses as instructed with no problem, but when I got closer to the current one, the Brute seemed to be suspicious of the air. Then all of a sudden, he grabbed me and tackled me to the ground. This body does not have a lot of strength, so I couldn''t stop him when he took out a potion with some milk and forcefully fed me.>


    Wow, that was brutal, maybe he saw the partiacals of the potion and he jumped at the opportunity.


    ''What happened afterward?''


    <The invisibility wore off, he tried to talk with me but I didn''t respond, so he said that he''ll catch you next in frustration and lucked me in a cage.>


    So that''s why it was staying in one place instead of flying off, how annoying.


    I''m surprised how the Prince didn''t kill Alexa yet with how the Nether seems to hate it.


    But that''s not important right now.


    ''What about Violet, is she ok?''


    <She doesn''t seem to have any visible wounds, but she is sleeping quite comfortably besides my cage. She also seemed to be tied up by some kind of enchanted chains, from my analysis it seems to be rated to any teleportation.>


    Is this how they got her?


    They used enchanted chains to stop her from running away before knocking her out?


    No, even without her teleportation ability her claws can still do a lot of damage.


    ''Why is the Mad Prince waiting alone in the same room as you two, wouldn''t be better to be on the lookout with the others?''


    <From what he was saying earlier, it seems he knew you''d be able to bypass everyone and decided to confront you in this room.>


    How troublesome, the enemy is not underestimating me anymore, so I can''t free those two yet.


    I have to think of a plan now.


    <I know I''ve just been captured, but may I suggest a plan?>


    ''Sure, let''s hear what you have to say.''


    <While we were visiting the Pigling tribe, I managed to scan a few books from their library, and I found out that Noble Brutes like to solve conflicts through duels. Maybe you could challenge the Mad Prince to a duel in exchange for letting us out.>


    That could work.


    While I''m not confident about my fighting skills, that would only be against people who already know my fighting style, if I''m fighting an opponent for the first time, I''m confident that I''ll win.


    But the Mad Prince seems to have a few tricks up his sleeves as well, so I can''t just rely on a fair duel.


    ''That''s a good idea, but let''s not stop just there. Here''s what you''re going to do....''


    -----


    I walked with confidence towards the camp, and the two guards at the gates looked like statues with a bored expression.


    I managed to get right in front of them without being noticed, and only after I waved my hands did they see me.


    "Wha-You! Stay down and you''ll be executed quickly for attempting to assassinate the Prince!"


    The two guards took out their enchanted diamond weapons, while also signaling to the other Brutes to come.


    I looked at everyone with confidence as they all gathered around me.


    "I challenge the Mad Prince to a duel for the freedom of my friends, and if I lose, I''ll let him do whatever he wishes with my life!"


    Every soldier who had weapons in their hands was taken aback by my announcement, before quickly starting to speak between themselves.


    Good, looks like Alexa was right about them respecting the duels.


    My plan relies heavily on this.


    "Ye lad, whodga think yu are tu challenge the Pince?"


    "Not now Coal Head, every challenge must be taken with the most respect. Well, wait for his majesty to decide what the next step shall be."


    We all waited for 10 minutes until the Prince came, and he wasn''t alone.


    On the leash, he had Alexa who was obediently following him and behind him were two Brutes that were caring the sleeping beauty on their shoulders.


    But even with the amazing size of Violet, nobody seemed to be interested at her, instead they all looked at Alexa with hatred or suspicion.


    I don''t know how I should feel about this, but as long as they were safe everything was fine.


    "Trader! I''m glad to see you again soo soon. And you brought me such lovely gifts, I could bearly keep the other Brutes to not challenge your Enderman friend to a duel. I have to say, that explosion was truly dangerous, it was the first time I was so close to death, and while I know you have a plan in mind with this duel. My warrior blood is too excited about such a battle to refuse."


    Evey soldier cheered with bloodlust in their eyes, chanting for a fight.


    It was an intimidating sight, but I didn''t dare show weaknesses in such critical moment.


    "Since your the one challenged me to a duel I should choose the place well fight, follow me."


    With that said, all of us followed the Mad Prince towards a large field in the camp.


    There, he build a cage and placed Alexa inside, and gently put Violet besides. Then they formed a circle around me and the Prince.


    "I don''t know why, but I have an unexplained hatred towards your blue animal. You''ll have to explain to me what''s the deal with him after I win."


    "That only if you win."


    With that said, I took a fighting stance which made the Prince smile and the crowd cheer loudly.


    "You may have another weapon like last time, so we''ll have to change the rules a little. I have your two friends in here, if you want to get them back, defeat my second in command first, them me. One battle for each pet."


    *Tsk


    Looks like my plan of taking him by surprise won''t be succeful, we''ll have to relay on the original plan one in the end.


    "I don''t feel that''s fair, since I''ll be too tierd to fight with you afterwords and I''ll lose unfairly."


    "That would be a boring way to end the fight. Fine, I shall let you have a brake after the duel, then you can face me at your fullest."


    Good, he was concentrating on me, but he was still to close to the cage for my liking.


    Looks like I''ll have to get him down here in the ring for the plan to work.


    "Is there anything you want before the duel starts?"


    "Yes, I want you to promise me you''ll let us leave with no problem If I win."


    The soldiers strated to get more impatien and started to chant ''fight'' to hurry the process of negotiations.


    The Prince didn''t seem bother by them, instead he was thinking about what I said.


    "Fine, you managed to entrain me more then expected. So if you win I''ll let your friends out, and won''t bother you as you''ll leave. But if I win, you 3 would belong to me, you will follow every command I say and no more running away. Deal?"


    So he wanted us to be his slaves, this made me hesitate a little, but unfortunately I didn''t have a choice.


    "Deal."

 Chapter 188. Fight!

    POV: Mad Prince


    I sat beside the newly built cage and looked at the upcoming fight.


    All the surrounding Brutes were chanting ''Fight!'' constantly like this wasn''t a normal thing to them.


    Those people are the Diamond Squad or apprentices who are about to join the squad, so all of them are battle maniacs who enjoy fighting more then anything, doesn''t matter their status or race.


    That is why the Diamond Squad is the most popular since they tend to have the most battles of all the other squads, making a prime attraction for crazy powerful people who are easy to control.


    Of course, the leader has to be someone more powerful than them or they wouldn''t follow your every order, just respect the royal blood.


    Good thing that I was both.


    In the middle of the circle were the fighters, my second-in-command who didn''t want to tell me her name because she wasn''t ''worthy'' of being remembered, and the new toy that recently arrived.


    I have to say, from the short meeting I had with him a few hours ago, I thought he would sneak up to save his friends, not approaching me like this.


    He must know how much the Brutes love to fight so he challenged me to a duel.


    A stupid choice if he was anyone else, since I''m the strongest warrior in the Nether, but from his last explosion he isn''t the type to fight fairly.


    So that means he has the plan to win or distract us in a way where the two monsters can escape on their own.


    There could be another person with him, but the chances of that are pretty low, so that means the floating creature is supposed to do something since the potion I threw at the Enderman should keep him knocked out for a few days.


    The two fighters stood face to face with their weapons out and ready for my signal.


    I raised my hand and quickly waved it down.


    "BEGIN!"


    Trader shot his weird arrow at my Second, and she decided to block it with her shield while getting closer to the enemy.


    This seemed to be a mistake, as the arrow exploded killing the momentum of the charge.


    Everyone yelled in excitement at the new weapon, but instead of taking the opportunity to attack the stunned woman, he started to build a tower under himself getting himself further from the battle.


    This was the second time I''ve seen him doing this, and I still can''t believe he can place blocks so fast.


    If he wants he could build a cage around a person instantly, but why is he getting so high?


    Does he plan on running away once again?


    No, we still have his friends, and it would be stupid to run away now.


    Once he was about 10 blocks high, he stopped and took out his crossbow to reload it.


    How silly of him, my Second wouldn''t fall for the same trick twice, especially at that distance.


    Before he could shoot his explosive arrow, Second shot her arrow at his head.


    In response, Teader moved his head slightly making the arrow bounce off like it was nothing.


    His armor was truly interesting, and I suspect it''s even stronger than the diamond which I never heard about.


    The Overworld must be more dangerous than anticipated.


    Trader finished loading his crossbow and shot towards Second, but as anticipated she dogged to the side.


    What we didn''t expect was a second crossbow already loaded shooting toward her next position.


    But the tower was too big and in that distance, Second had enough time to doge once again with no damage taken from the explosion.


    Then she was hit, but not by an arrow or any other weapon, but by a fishing hook?


    Everyone was taken by surprise, and the next action he made shocked everyone.


    Trader pulled the fishing road but instead of the string snapping, Second was lifted off the ground and was rising at great speeds.


    Soon she was in front of Trader but not for long as she kept going up before slowing down and coming back down.


    That was a dangerous fall.


    Even with her enchanted boots, I don''t think she''ll be able to continue fighting if she hits the floor.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Unfortunately for Trader, it''s not easy to be second in command, especially in a group of Brutes that only respect strength.


    I could say that Second was the most powerful warrior in the Nether after me, and that was no easy task.


    Second was confused at first so hight in the air, but after some quick thinking, she took out an Ender pearl and threw it at the ground.


    Trader saw that but wasn''t able to stop her Perl, instead he took out his sword, and righ as she passed by him he manged to land a hit before Second disaperead and landed in one piece of the ground.


    The whole Squad started to cheer after such a show, this kind of fight was never seen before, it was so weak but so exciting, you never knew what to expect next, making this an entreining fight.


    Second was shocked, she managed to avoid the fall but still took some damage, unfortunately she couldn''t afford to take her eyes off the enemy becose he also threw a Perl at the ground.


    Once he aperead she quickly rose her shield ready for any incoming attack, it was more defensive then usual but it was a safe choice.


    Or so it seems.


    Instead of attacking her with a weapon, he used his fishing road once again.


    Second tried to get the hook off her, but the string seemed indestructible no matter what she tried.


    Trader pulled the road and she was forced towards him once again, then he took another Perl and threw it at her which she quickly slashed by instinct.


    That was a mistake, as soon as the the Perl was broken he aperead right in front of her with his sword ready to swing.


    Second didn''t have enough time to block or dodge, so she took the full attack head on.


    It was heavy and the next second she was on the ground with a big wound.


    But Trader didn''t seem to fight gently with her, becose he used the road once again to get her closer to him before stabbing her in the stomach.


    "Stop! Trader has won the fight."


    Silence was all in the crowd as the duel came to an abrupt stop.


    Then everyone cheered and ignored that the one who lost was supposed to be on their team, but that''s the life of the Brutes.


    The fight was very entreining from beginning to the end, and Trader has a dangerous fighting style.


    It''s a good thing that Second fought first, others I would''ve been taken by surprise with his choise of weapons.


    Ignoring the cheering crownd on the side, I got closer to Second and lifted her in my arms to get her some healing.


    "I''m sorry Boss, I failed the task given. I deserve death for this."


    "Hush Second, your fight wasn''t worthless, I got some entertaining out of it, now eat the golden apple and get well. I think Trader is about to pull something off."


    I layed her on the bench and gave her the apple.


    Then I turned towards Trader who was sitting down getting some rest.


    As promised, I''ll let him have as much rest as he needed since I wanted to have an interesting fight as well.


    But first, let''s check the prisoners once again.


    The huge enderman was still asleep, and unless someone is going to feed him milk without chocking him to death, he would stay like that for a few days.


    Next was the flaoting creature, every time I looked at its general direction I felt an unexplainable hatread towards it, like it was the worst enemy I ever had.


    I had to consciously fight against this instinct so I don''t accidentally kill it.


    Maybe I should use the other potion on it so it wouldn''t be able to do anything as well.


    No, this potion is better used for Trader in case he is close to winning.


    I know the chances are low, but with an enemy like Trader everything is possible.


    I looked at the flaoting monster wondering how it would escape from the cage, in the end I couldn''t figure out so I decided to put a leash on it once again and build sturdier walls instead of fences.


    I looked at Treder to see any reaction, but because of his annoying helmet I couldn''t see anything, so I decided to rest before my fight.


    After half an hour, Trader seemed to had enough rest and was ready for our fight.


    This made me smile with excitement as I took out my favorite axe.


    Let''s see how you''ll win the fight this time Trader.


    The other strated to chant their favorite word, and Second was the person the give the signal of the fight.


    "BEGIN!"


    As soon as I heard that word, I sprinted towards him at full speed, but he chose to place an obsidian block down.


    I quickly realized what he''ll well do next and I rolled towards the block.


    As expected, he placed the wierd item on top of the block and punched it while raising his shield.


    This was the same attack that nearly killed me last time.


    But while it was very dangerous I discovered a fatal flaw to it.


    The explosion seems to spread only from the level of the item and above, so when I rolled towards the obsidian block, I took almost no damage.


    This took Trader by surprise since his next weapon wasn''t his sword instead it was the fishing road.


    I didn''t waste this opportunity and hit him with my axe.


    The attack was heavy but his armor seemed to absorb most of my damage, making him only take a step back.


    This is not enough.


    I raised my shield and pushed myself against him, then I threw the shield at him before throwing a Perl towards my next location.


    Behind him.


    As soon as I teleported, I swung my axe at his head only to hit air.


    It seems that the shield didn''t work since he used a Perl as well to get out of the situation, what a tricky opponent.


    Unfortunately that was the end of my constant attacks.


    Now he was far away, and he took advance of that by quickly building another tower.


    But this one not so tall as the last one.


    Next was the fishing road, and he threw it at me, and landed a hit.


    This took Trader by surprise since he didn''t expect ill let him hit me so easily.


    But I wanted to try something first, and when the hook got me, I grabbed the string and tried to pull Trader down.


    It kind of worked, but not as much as I expected.


    I didn''t managed to pull him down, but I did managed to make him loose his ballance.


    I should be able to work with this.


    The hook was still on me, so suddenly I felt a force dragging me towards the tower, but it was weaker then what happened to Second.


    Looks like my stunt has done more then make him loose his footing.


    But playtime is over, I don''t think I''ll learn anything new from him anymore.


    I took a Perl out and threw it towards him, but right as it was about to pass him and land on the ground, I shoot an arrow breaking the Perl right besides him.


    I was now on top of the tower with him.


    He was takeng by surprise by my sudden aparenace, so it was an easy task for me to swing my axe and bring him down to the ground.


    Just as I was about to jump after him to deal a finishing blow, I started to noticed the Brutes getting more ruthless then normal.


    I looked at the direction the commotion was about and to my shock the Endeman was awake and destroyed the cage.


    Then he took the blue monster with him and teleported away.


    How was thar possible?


    Who woke him up, how did he brake the chains?


    No, that wasn''t important, what I needed now was to capture Trader before he''ll disaperead as well.


    As I looked down at the tower, I saw him laying on the ground not doing anything.


    I couldn''t see his face, but I could feel that he was grinning like a winner.


    But he celebrated too early for this, so he didn''t move fast enough when I threw a potion at him.


    Just as the potion took effect, he suddenly disappeared.


    Looks like we are back on the hunt.

 Chapter 189. How long was I asleep?

    I felt that every part of my body was hard to move, I felt like my arms were made of iron, my legs were far longer than normal and my eyelids were trembling.


    My conciseness started to slowly get more ground, but I was too lazy to do anything.


    The temperature was perfect, but my body seemed to be sore all over the place like I''d been asleep for a whole day.


    I''ll stay like this for 5 more minutes then wake up to challenge the Mad Prince and save Violet and Alexa.


    Yeah, that sounds like a solid plan that needs plenty of rest.


    .


    ..


    ...


    ....


    "Wait but I already did that!"


    I quickly got up looking around in panic.


    Suddenly, I felt a headache rushing over me as memories slowly came back.


    I was fighting the second in command which took longer than expected but still won, when I started to fight the Mad Prince everything went south.


    At least that''s what I wanted him to think.


    Of course, I lost the battle anyway, I couldn''t see myself winning in that situation but the real plan was for Alexa to wake up Violet and take it to a designated place and break my Perl to teleport as well.


    The strategy was to bombard her head with loud messages and noises, but if that didn''t work, I gave Alexa permission to scan her body.


    I knew she didn''t like it, but desperate times calls for desperate measures, and it seemed to work.


    While I was distracting the Mad Prince and everyone else, Alexa did her job and woke up the Enderwoman.


    Once Violet realized what was happening, she listened to Alexa''s instructions, ripped the chains off herself, and teleported away.


    After this, she must''ve broken the Perl since this doesn''t look like a camp.


    But I don''t remember anything after the battle, and where was I?


    I looked around at the Blue trees recognising the biome I was in, but not the place itself.


    From beyond a tree, a floating angle was floating before laing its eyes on me and quickly came towards me.


    <Sir, you''re finally awake! Quickly build a portal and let''s get out of here. It''s too dangerous to stay here any longer!>


    This was the first time I heard Alexa so panicked, what happened while I was asleep?


    "Calm down Alexa, what happened, why are you in such a hurry?"


    <Sir Trader, I have to insist you build a portal and take off your armor so Violet would know your awake, she''s been constantly teleporting for a week without rest, I don''t think she can hold this for much longer.>


    We were being hunted, but how?


    And what do you mean she''s been teleporting constantly for a week, is that how long I was asleep?


    I had so many questions to ask, but this was an emergency so I did everything Alexa instructed.


    I built a portal, lit it, and looked around the cave to see if it was safe, then took off my armor and got back to the Nether.


    "So what exactly happened while I was asleep?"


    <I''ll report to you later, for now, I''ll explore the caves further so monsters won''t bother us.>


    "Ok? Here''s some torches, you can place them on the floor to stop monsters from spawning."


    <Thank you, I''ll use those.>


    Then it was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts on what could''ve happened in the past week.


    After waiting for 15 minutes, Violet suddenly appeared in front of me filled with glowing wounds all over the body with a look of relief on her face.


    "MY....human."


    She said that before falling face-first on me which made me quickly catch her so she wouldn''t get hurt.


    "Ugh...she''s heavy, I have to get her a potion of healing soon."


    With a lot of hard work, I managed to drag the 4 block monster to the other side of the portal.


    After I safely placed her on the floor, I took out my pickaxe and broke the portal, finally having some time to rest.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Oh boy, what happened to you Violet?"


    All over her body were wounds made with swords or axes, not only that, but it seemed to give a similar effect to specter arrows making them glow.


    Looks like being invisible didn''t work after she got those wounds.


    But how is that possible?


    She could''ve teleported anywhere she wanted to and they couldn''t do a thing.


    But it seems they still found her.


    I slapped my face to get my focus back, I needed to heal her wounds now, not solve the mystery.


    Unfortunately, she''s already unconscious so I couldn''t give her a golden apple to regenerate.


    I took out one of my strength potions and quickly drank it, leaving me with an empty bottle.


    Then I took out the brewing stand from my Ender''s chest together with some nether warts and a ghast tear.


    Next, I placed the water down from my bucket, careful not to touch Violet, and filled the bottle with water.


    Soon I had a regeneration potion in my hand, and unfortunately, no gunpowder to make it a splash potion.


    It was a little inefficient, but I poured the contents on the wounds directly and the last few drops in her mouth.


    With a relieved sigh, I sat down and looked as her wounds were visibly closing and her expression changed from one of pain to one of comfortable sleep.


    I was glad to see that.


    <Looks like her condition is getting stable. How do you feel Sir?>


    I took out the sword and shield by instinct only to realize that it was Alexa who spoke to me.


    "I''m doing fine. I guess you''ve finished scouting the area, can you tell me what happened now?"


    <Affirmative. I tried to wake up Violet by communicating with her telepathically, but unfortunately I didn''t have any success, luckily the scanning process seemed to do the work, and after almost destroying this body, she was willing to listen to my instructions and teleport towards your Perl.>


    So the plan worked in the end.


    <Afterwards, we broke the pearl and you appeared, but unconscious similar to how Violet had previously. Because we were in a rush we decided to take you and Telport away. Unfortunately, it seems that the Mad Price anticipated this, so he forced Violet to hold a block with curse of Biding on it, and the Signal enchantments. Since her hand was registered as inventory, she couldn''t let the block go no matter what we tried. That''s when the danger came. Because we couldn''t build our own portal or wake you up, we decided to run away, but no matter where we hid, they always managed to find us. We tried to separate, but because I wasn''t invisible anymore, I was more of a danger to you than help, resulting in Miss Violet teleporting constantly and getting more tired as time passed.>


    That happened while I was asleep!?


    How could I do that, why couldn''t I wake up and build a portal to get away?


    What kind of potion did the Mad Prince throw at me?


    <In the end, Miss Violet was able to convince a few Endemans from a blue forest not to attack us, and she teleported away so the Brutes couldn''t catch us.>


    That was very admirable from Violet, and I''m impressed that she managed to hold on for so long. She dereves to get some rest.


    "This was a nightmare to deal with, but I''m glad everyone is alive at the end. I don''t know how I would''ve felt if Violet died because of me."


    <Sir, if I may interrupt, I finished scanning Violet and she has information that you likely want to know.>


    That put me on the spot, but she didn''t want to be scanned, so maybe it''s better if I don''t know.


    "It''s ok, you don''t need to tell me."


    <Even when she is related to the person who brought you here into this world?>


    That confused me a little.


    "What do you mean Alexa, I know who brought me here, and I knew Violet is the same since she is a monster. The Void used her power for both of us."


    <Negative. While your body was created from the Void, it was used as a power source, meanwhile, the monsters and the Lords were created with the Void as a tool.>


    What was Alexa talking about?


    Was there a difference between those two?


    "What do you mean?"


    <It means whoever brought you here and created Violet, is someone different from the one who create the monsters.>


    This new information threw me off.


    The only entity that I know in the End to be this powerful is the Ender Dragon, and she''s most likely the one who fought the System and created the monsters.


    But Alexa now is saying that there''s another entity on the same level in the End?


    Who could it be?


    And why did it bring me into this world?


    "Do you know anything else?"


    Looks like I couldn''t keep my curiosity in check.


    <Affirmative. It seems that your and Violet''s bodies have been modified by the Crystal project.>


    The Crystal project?


    I think I heard about that before, but I don''t know what it does.


    "What''s the Crystal project?"


    <Crystal project was created with the intention of making a device powerful enough to modify the biology of all living beings. It was a great success. Unfortunately, I can''t recreate the enchantments since the System limited them enough not to work. But the device was so impressive, that the System made it into an item."


    Seriously?


    That sounds impressive.


    "And what''s that item?"


    <You already have it, sir. You''ve been using it as an explosion device all this time. I have to say, I was surprised when I first scanned it since it''s such in a stable form, but it seems to help you more with blowing stuff up then modifying the flesh.>


    Is that the true purpose of the Crystal?


    I knew it could heal the Ender Dreagon, but I thought it was just a feature in the game, not a device that it''s forcefully modifying you body for a better state.


    This was mest up, but also kind of impressive.


    No wonder the System was mad that I used it last time, it''s just to dangerous in the wrong hands.


    "Do you know how to use this thing correctly then?"


    I said that while placing the Crystal down.


    Alexa flouted around the Crystal and started to analyze it. A few moments later a few blue tabs appeared in from of him.


    Then I felt like something was trying to scan me, but becouse of the armor it couldn''t go for too long before it stopped.


    <Just as I thought, it seems to have the same functions as the ones that I have at my base. I can scan things deeply and change its structure if I have the necessary energy for it. But this Crystal seems to be in a constant state of being on verge of the destruction, but not in the same time, making it an almost infinite source of energy.>


    That...sounds very useful to have in so many situations.


    And to think that I only used this as explosives.


    No wonder the System didn''t bother me anymore with this, It''s like I had a gun with bullets but I used it as a club.


    "So how do I get access to it?"


    <It''s simple. Put your hand at the base of the Crystal and imagine yourself getting connected to it.>


    I put my hands on the bedrock looking base without touching the Crystal and closed my eyes while imagining a link between us.


    Like a click, I felt that my mind was connected in a way similar to how Alexa talks with me.


    While the connection was similar, I felt that this was inferior to Alexas, since it was sending feelings instead of words.


    To test how it worked, I decided to scan Alexa.


    I imagined the blue angel is my mind and a few tabs appeared in front of me.


    And once I saw what was written there I could only say:


    "Alexa, what are you?"

 Chapter 190. How to mold the Flesh

    "Alexa, what are you?"


    _____


    Name: Project Takeover the System(Alexa)


    Species: Allay


    Power: Potential to be a God


    Description: An artificial soul that hasn''t passed into the afterlife and it''s being used as an avatar but (Alexa) for human ?????? as a guide.


    _____


    I knew Alexa was something else, but it was a new experience to read it so clearly.


    And Allays are lost souls?


    Does that mean it used the soul of a scientist that was left behind?


    I looked at the other tabs that had different information, from the size of the Allay to what changes I could make.


    It also had an option to connect to another Crystal and do a lot more changes that require more power.


    Maybe that''s why the Ender Drango needs multiple Crystals to heal herself. She''s too huge for one Crystal to work.


    <I do not know what you''re referring to Sir.>


    "How did you make this Allay?"


    <I have some research in my database from the time the humans exterminated with souls, and this was one of the results. Unfortunately, I did not have a suitable soul around me so I had to artificially make one copying the structure of the original, resulting in me having greater control over the body.>


    I''m very confused, but I guess it made an artificial soul or something similar?


    That''s very godlike power for a machine that''s stuck at the bottom of the sea.


    "Ok, so what''s the limit of what I can do? Can I make my own body with this?"


    <You can edit most life forms as soon as they are unconscious, but be warned, the greater the change the more power it''s used resulting in unstable energy and doing something wrong that would end up killing the subject. As for creating a body, it would be possible, but not in the way you think.>


    "Is it because I have to make a body out of energy not out of meat from this world?"


    <Affirmative. But that would require a lot more Crystals and a lot of precise work, so I''ll advise against it.>


    I believe that I need to make this happen so that I won''t lose control over my body when I''ll go to the End.


    Especially now that we know there''s another mastermind in there.


    I don''t think I''ll be able to get home so easily, even if I manage to get all the energy and coordinates.


    If that person managed to drag me here, it means it also has a way to get me back.


    But I can''t confront it when it has the power to take over my body at any moment.


    I looked at Violet who was sleeping peacefully on the ground and let out a sigh.


    Looks like I won''t be able to heal her quickly with the Crystal.


    Well wait in here until she''ll wake up, and in the meantime, I''ll try to get used to the Crystal.


    I have to be careful with it since I don''t have a lot of those and I don''t think I can craft them yet.


    With the plan made in my mind, I got up and got to work


    ----


    I was in front of a sleeping pig trying to make his tail longer by gently pulling it.


    In any other context, this would''ve looked stupid, but the more I did it, the longer it got until it reached one block long.


    "Finally! I managed to change a part of his body without waking it up."


    It''s been 3 days since we got back from the Nether, and Violet was still asleep.


    In the meantime, I explored the place and found out that I was in the Stone Kingdom close to the borders of the Coral Kingdom.


    I don''t know If I should call myself lucky or unlucky with how far we traveled.


    There was a small village not too far away from the cave, but after getting all the information I wanted, I decided to stay close to Violet and be ready for anything.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    But she was sleeping for too long and I started to get worried that something was wrong with her, even after I scanned her myself.


    The fact that she didn''t wake up after the scan should be enough of a statement how heavily asleep she is.


    What the scan showed me...gave me a lot to think about.


    So for the past few days, I tried to track the movement of the General with the compass and study how to use the Crystal.


    It was hard at first, but I''m starting to get the hang of it, and after a few more months of studying, I should be able to mold flesh at my will.


    "Ugh...Human?"


    That raspy voice made my hand freeze which resulted in me losing concentration and ripped the newly grown tails making the pig wake up and screen in pain.


    But no matter how much he struggled, he couldn''t move since he was tied up by its legs.


    I''ve learned my lesson from the last few experiments.


    But that didn''t matter anymore.


    I took out my sword and cut off his head in one swing making his death painless.


    Then I got up and ran quickly towards the room I placed Violet.


    It had a hay bed and a music box with suiting music.


    I got the disk as a thank you from the villagers since I built them a wall around the village.


    For the first time in 3 days, Violet was standing up and was looking confused on where she was.


    But, once she saw me, a smile appeared on her face, and teleported I''m front of me to give me a big hug.


    She didn''t say anything, and I didn''t intend on pushing her away since she worked pretty hard for this.


    "Thank you, Violet, you saved me once again."


    "Human....saved....me."


    "Ha, I guess I did that as well, then we''re even now."


    I said that with a smile on my face, but she didn''t let me go for another 10 minutes.


    After that, I told her the situation we were in, then she told me what happened while I was asleep from her perspective.


    At least I could guess what happened from the few words she spoke.


    It was a lot of interpretations with nodding and shaking the head.


    But the short version of it is that she was trying to kill the Brutes shooting at me, and couldn''t do it because of their enchanted diamond armor.


    Or at least she couldn''t stay for too long in one place to kill one without the others shooting at her.


    That is why she decided to cause chaos while being invisible only to get herself tired and not notice the Mad Prince throwing a sleep potion at her.


    She was asleep for a while, and only woke up because she felt the uncomfortable process of scanning which made her angry at Alexa.


    But after she saw me fighting the Brutes she almost jumped in to help me, only to be stopped by Alexa and told the full plan.


    Then they teleported to the room I prepared and broke the Perl, only to see me sleeping like I was in a coma.


    They tried to wake me up in multiple ways but to no luck, and after Alexa realized the block In her hand was a tracker they were on the run constantly.


    Violet was strong enough at the beginning to fight them off.


    No one was a match for her except maybe the Mad Prince.


    He seemed to have a sixth sense for invisible beings, so sneaking up on him didn''t work that well.


    Not only that, but he had a sword that once cut her flesh, made wounds glow.


    Days passed and she was getting more tired from the constant teleportation with me.


    It''s a good thing that I woke up then, otherwise she would most likely get captured or killed since she wasn''t willing to abandon me.


    Now we were in the present, and we had to decide what to do.


    "We still have to find the Piligers before they''ll go to Alexa. I hope we''re not too late."


    If we continued to search for the General in the Overworld instead of the Nether, I think we would''ve reached them by now.


    But now 10 days have passed, and we can''t use the Nether with the tracker in Violet''s hand.


    "I recently found out about the true purpose of the Crystal. It can change the shape of the body for anyone I want, so we can take out the tracker that way. Unfortunately, I''m not that good yet, but we could ask Alexa to do it."


    She crossed her arms and turned her head in displeasure.


    "Human yes...Alexa no."


    Yeah, that''s what I was afraid of.


    She''s clearly mad that Alexa scanned her while she was unconscious, even though it did it under my order.


    "Violet, I have to come clean. I scanned your body with the Crystal as well."


    Violet turned her head towards me with a raised eyebrow, like asking ''What''s the problem?''


    "Human....ok....Fake....no."


    So this was favoritism.


    She wasn''t angry at me, only at Alexa for some reason.


    Is she still mad that Alexa fought with me through the guardians?


    Or maybe there''s another reason.


    "Then I guess we''ll have to leave as soon as possible. I''ll buy a horse from the nearby village and give it a speed potion to get there faster."


    In the end, the method we use to travel all the time it''s the best method.


    I started to take everything that I left in the cave and unfortunately destroyed the Crystal since I couldn''t take it back.


    Then I woke up Alexa from a corner of the room and went back to the village.


    The villagers were more than happy to see me and gave plenty of food, even with my weird-looking armor.


    After I stayed in there for an hour talking with the locals, I was finally able to buy a horse from them that was not afraid of me.


    Once we got out of the village, I gave the horse a speed potion and our journey became way faster.


    After 2 days of galloping, I arrived at a settlement in the Coral Kingdom.


    It wasn''t as small as a village but neither as big as a town, it was somewhere in the middle.


    But once I passed the walls, I saw the streets mostly empty and a tense atmosphere in the air.


    "What happened here?"


    Because of my armor, nobody seemed to want to talk to me no matter how much I tried.


    I had to visit a bar since all the other shops didn''t let me inside or didn''t talk to me.


    At least here I wasn''t kicked out as soon as the barman found my presence.


    "Hey barman. I''m a traveler that just got here, why is everyone so tense?"


    I said that while putting an iron ingot on the counter.


    The barman was about to kick me out, but once he saw my bribe he smiled and told me what happened.


    "The nations army was able to block a few Piliger attacks and mess up their plan which greatly encouraged us. But that changed when the Shadow Lord from the Sandstone Kingdom came and started to terorize the small towns as well. He doesn''t destroy them, he only attacks in the middle of the night, kills a few people and steals a few precious items like some kind of thieve. Nobody hears when he''s in town and you only find out about his existence once you wake up next to a corpses."


    The barman tried to sound neutral while telling this story, but I could hear the hatread at the end showing how displeased he was as well.


    "I''m sorry to hear that, thank you for the info."


    Then I got out and begun to think about what I just hear.


    There''s a high chance the Prince meet with the General, and they made a deal to ravage a few towns at the borders of the Nation so the army would be more split up.


    This wasn''t good to hear, since now the worst case scenario just happened.


    I''m afraid ill have to do something drastic to stop their advancement.

 Chapter 191. They want the Iron ship

    We traveled for days from village to town and from town to city.


    In my travels, I saw the fear rise and the people become more paranoid about every shadow in their path.


    The Shadow Lord didn''t do a lot of damage whenever he attacked, but because nobody saw him, it led to people''s imagination complete the unknown with their biggest fears.


    The only reason they knew it was the Shadow Lord, it''s because he tended to leave his huge arrows at the places he attacked, like as a message to spread more fear.


    I''ve seen some of the arrows myself, and you couldn''t fake those 3 block tall arrows no matter how hard you tried.


    The more I followed the compass the deeper into the woods we got, making it a clear choice for a hidden base where the Piligers stayed.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t know how close I was to them since the compass was pointing it toward the target not telling how far away it was.


    Then I suddenly remembered that someone could tell me how close we were.


    "Alexa, how close are we to the Shadow Lord?"


    <Around 3.430 blocks away on your right.>


    That didn''t help with what I wanted to know, but at least I knew the Shadow Lord was on a mission for away.


    If I was lucky, maybe I could destroy his spawner as well, making him much easier to deal with.


    We continued to gallop the forest as the sun was setting over the trees.


    Soon the darkness of night would surround us making the monsters spawn as well.


    In the end, I decided to stop for the night so the horse could catch some rest and I wouldn''t have to eat any more brunches at great speeds.


    "Violet, can you scout ahead for a few hundred blocks to see if there''s anything?"


    I heard a low growl then a few purple particles appeared.


    While she was gone, I got off my horse and chopped a few trees to make a small clearing.


    Then I crafted some fences out of those wood blocks and built a small room where I could put my bed in.


    After that I gave the horse some water and apples before eating my dinner as well.


    Tonight, I had my favorite meal, golden carrots.


    Suddenly Violet appeared in front of me fully visible, making me choke a bit.


    "Camp....500.... away."


    So she found a camp 500 blocks away.


    Is that the camp of the Piligers as well, or just another isolated village?


    "Are they the enemy?"


    "Yes..."


    This made my mind froze.


    We finally got them?


    They were a few hundred blocks away probably preparing to get to sleep as well.


    It''s hard to believe that the journey of 2 weeks was about to end tonight.


    I quickly finished my dinner and prepared to infiltrate the camp.


    I didn''t need to destroy the camp since it would take too long and there would be a few that ran away.


    Instead, I needed to concentrate on getting rid of all the people who knew how to get to Alexa.


    Or at least the ones who have the map.


    With my belly full, I drank a few potions to see in the dark and to move at greater speeds, and then I went to infiltrate the camp.


    I let Alexa stay behind since it tends to get in trouble without the invisibility potion, and Violet was still looking weird at it.


    The darkness of the night came, and soon the monster appeared as well, but I was safe because of my armor which I was always thankful for.


    Suddenly the darkness was cut by the light of the torches, letting me know that I was near the Piliger camp.


    From tree to tree, I was getting closer to the heart of the camp, where I could see some Iligers patrolling with a tired expression.


    This expression wasn''t the result of one night shift, but multiple days of being vigilant, fighting, and overworking.


    In conclusion, they were very jumpy at every little noise or were too tired to pay attention to anything besides the block In front of them.


    Because of that, it was easy for me to walk past them even if I didn''t have the armor.


    Once I was inside, I could see the others talking, sleeping, or playing some kind of games in front of their respective houses.


    All the houses had simple designs with no windows or second floors, probably so they wouldn''t stand out beside the trees.


    Inside, it was all filled with beds and nothing else, and what was infuriating was the fact that the beds were all of different colors making look like a clown''s wardrobe.


    In short, this was a box filled with beds similar to a prison.


    No wonder they looked so depressed all the time, everything was bland around them.


    But my compass wasn''t pointing towards the poor-looking hoses, instead, it was pointing towards the house that was going downwards instead of up.


    Here the guards were more rested but still bored, and inside there were multiple rooms, some of them decorated with monsters heads, painings or skulls.


    I hope those came from monsters as well.


    There were 6 large rooms and one commun hall with a big table, where two important looking pillagers were sitting and discussing while eating some cooked chicken.


    "If Jeremiah hadn''t died because of that hero we wouldn''t had to humiliate ourselves and make a deal with the Prince. Now all the servants from all households are getting inspected for spies."


    "We can''t do anything about that, plus we''re not the only one suffering from this purge of spies, but the other kingdoms as well, making it hard for the others to get along."


    Were they talking about the spy I killed and took his compass?


    I didn''t know that triggered such a large reaction, maybe that''s not such a bad thing in the end.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it    I looked at my compass and saw that it was pointing at one of the two men at the table.


    But I was confused since he didn''t look anything like the General I saw last time.


    Was that a fake one or is this one a fake?


    I had to hide in a corner where I couldn''t be seen or found and switched my helmet with the Monocle of Truth.


    Soon the world turned gray, and I could see the status and the inventory of those people, and it was harder to decide if he was the General or not.


    They both had precious items they stole from the cities and both of them had an Undying Totem which showed how important those two were.


    I guess my best choice would be to listen to them continue to speak or interrogate one of them to hear the truth.


    Either way, I have to wait for the two of them to split up.


    I stayed in there for a few hours, listening to them brag about the city they managed to loot, the number of people they killed, or how many got captured.


    It got dark very quickly to my displeasure.


    But because of them being so casual about their war crimes, I was able to find some information for my next decision.


    Those two would die for sure that''s not going to be a debate. The question is if I should do this myself, or tell the closest city where their camp is so they can get all of them in one swoop.


    They do deserve to die, but I don''t have explosives on me, and they had prisoners since they couldn''t craft items themselves.


    There was some good news as well.


    It seems they don''t get along with the People from the Prince party, and the only reason they''re even willing to work with them is that the President of the Coral Kingdom knew their next destination was a port city, making the infiltration process much harder than necessary.


    But now with the Shadow Lord, they could divide their forces towards the borders, and the General took the most powerful soldiers with him to steal a ship and follow the map.


    They didn''t know how they controlled the Shadow lord, and their camp was far from each other, with the Prince being present with the General in this expedition.


    Everyone knows they would betray each other, but they still need to use each other, so it comes to a truce between them until they get what they want.


    I have a feeling this would not turn out so well for either party.


    While this was good news and a potential way for the problem to solve itself, there was some bad news as well.


    The General heard of an iron ship that managed to fight the monsters of the deep seas and come back alive.


    Not only that, but the General suspects they ''accidentally'' found the location of the secret weapon against the System.


    Looks like the Siren''s crew, manages to brag so much that they now have a target on their back.


    Now, with a ship like that, they wouldn''t have to worry about being taken since it was always guarded against thefts.


    Not only that, but they also have diamond armor and tools to help them fight against anyone coming their way, so their confidence should be through the roof.


    But there are a couple of ways you could work around that.


    Such as using the Shadow Lord to kill or intimidate the crew to do their bidding.


    You could also bribe one of the crew members to betray his people since they''re too new to build any meaningful loyalty.


    The last option and the most probable one, is to kidnap the members of their family and threaten them while assassinating the captain in her sleep.


    And that''s only possible because they don''t know the danger coming after them.


    After all, they only need one person to show the way towards the guardians, so they don''t need to bother a lot.


    This puts me on a time limit once again, since I have to warn Siren about this and get a proper army to fight those guys since I can''t do it alone.


    Even If I had the whole crew fighting with me, it''s still 1 pirate against 10 enemies, not including the Shadow Lord who would be there for sure.


    Why did they have to brag so much at the bars with the dead guardian, now they have a massive target in their back.


    While It was unpleasant, I had to make a quick decision an letting those guys live for another day.


    I''ll have to get back at my camp, let the horse rest and get to the closest city to tell them this location.


    Just to be sure, I''ll hand them the compass in case they would move while they prepare an army to attack them.


    I''ll also have to warn them to search for the Prince''s camp, since only a selected few went with the General in the Puperfish City.


    As the two Iligers were done talking and went to get some rest, I explored the camp for any weaknesses that the future attack could exploit.


    Not only that, but I also found the house where they kept the prisoners, they loved better then expected.


    And in the end I counted all the Iligers that were in the camp.


    After I noted everything down, I went back to my camp where I saw the horse sleeping while Alexa was looking after the fire.


    "Hey Alexa, did you by any chance read a map of the Coral Kingdom?"


    Alexa quickly turned around and scanned me from head to toe.


    <Affirmative, I managed to scan a few maps of the new world.>


    "That''s good to hear, could you lead me to the closest city?"


    <Order received. Would you like to go now or later?>


    I looked at the horse who was sleeping peacefully under a tree and decided to leave in a few hours.


    With that done, I went into my own room and went to sleep.

 Chapter 192. Gathering forces

    The sun started to rise above the trees and I was woken up by my alarm, Alexa.


    After a healthy breakfast and some stretching I got on my horse ready to leave.


    I had to go around the enemy camp since the Gravel City was in that direction.


    Luckily there wasn''t a problem on the way there, and after 2 days I arrived in the City.


    Once there, I could see why it was called this since it was surrounded by huge mountains made of gravel.


    The city was at the bottom of the valley, so I could see everything inside from my location.


    It was much smaller than I expected, making me wonder if this was a town instead of a city.


    There were walls surrounding it, but not as tall as I expected.


    Even the streets had fewer people on them than normal, most of the space was open and had little facilities for entertainment.


    Could I even find enough people in those walls?


    I slowed down as I got closer to the gates, not knowing if I should enter this place officially, or sneak in.


    In the end, I decided to enter normally since I didn''t want to spend a lot of time looking for the person in charge.


    Once the guards saw me up close, they got really tense and ready for a fight.


    "Who are you?"


    One of them gathered the courage to ask.


    "Who I am, does not matter. I''m here to warn you about the upcoming attack from the pillagers, bring me to your leader."


    The guards looked at each other not knowing what to do.


    In the end, one of them went inside to tell their boss about the situation.


    "Uh...please wait until we''ll get a response."


    "I shall not wait outside like a criminal. Bring me to your office and get me some refreshments."


    Not knowing how to reject me, they followed my command without checking me any further.


    It was fun from time to time to act like a noble, but it was pretty tiring most of the time so I did it only for special occasions.


    I was led into a room that must''ve been used as the break room and got some bread and milk as snacks.


    I had better food on me, but I wasn''t going to turn down the hospitality.


    Half an hour later, the guard came back with another guard but this one was equipped with a mix of iron and diamond armor.


    "Are you the one who wanted to see the Mayor for an attack from the Piligers?"


    "Yes, my name is Trader and I found their camp while I was on my journey. I came here to report for its location so it could be dealt with once and for all!"


    Everyone''s eyes went wide.


    "Follow me then, and don''t get any funny ideas."


    I just nodded my head and followed the guard into the city.


    Once inside I saw that the houses were much smaller and simpler than what I saw in the distance, making me wonder why would anyone want to live in such a place.


    But soon I got my answer as we passed the translation entrance.


    Once we were underground, everything changed.


    The people were all over the tunnels, sole had tall hats while others long beards.


    Then the tunnel led to an opening where multiple buildings were built like an underground city.


    The reason I saw so little activity on the surface was because everyone lived underground!


    I don''t know why, by the city looked amazing, like It was built by dwarves.


    We continued to walk along the busy streets, and I had to stay close to the guard otherwise I would''ve been lost.


    We walked unit we reached the tallest building.


    It wasn''t really a building, but more like a pillar from the ceiling to the ground filled with tinted windows on all sides.


    We entered the place and saw a fancy lobby filled with people who laughed like they were born from emeralds.


    I looked from side to side, studying the people who were playing some games that I couldn''t recognize while putting emeralds in a pile.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Some of them even looked with interest at my Alexa, but didn''t dare to approach.


    Then I realized, I was in a casino!


    Why would the mayor be in this place?


    "Please don''t lose focus and come after me."


    The guard reminded me of my original goal, so I followed him silently.


    After we claimed a few floors, I couldn''t see any more rich people, only serious-looking guards, all the way to a huge opened door.


    Beyond the door was a huge room with fancy blocks, and a huge window to the city.


    On the red couch stood two people, one in a black suit and the other one in something similar to underwear.


    It was an unpleasant sight to see.


    "Wow, you''re a scary-looking guy, I''m guessing you don''t look often in the mirror. "


    The man in the underwear spoke mockingly.


    "You''re right, sometimes even my reflection tends to forget my existence."


    Everyone was confused at what I said.


    "So I heard you know that the Iligers will attack us next."


    "Are you perhaps the Mayor?"


    I asked in confusion, causing the man in the underwear to laugh out loud while the man in the suit got embarrassed all of a sudden.


    "That was a good joke, but no, the Mayor is the man sitting beside me, we just like to work together if you get what I mean."


    The Mayor caught and looked another way embarrassed but not denying what he said.


    They don''t even bother to hide the corruption, what a mest up place.


    Was it the right thing to leave this important mission in this guy''s hands?


    "I don''t know when they will attack, but I know the location of their camp and possibly more."


    Both of them suddenly got serious.


    "Are you sure about that? This could be a huge thing for us If it''s true."


    "Yes, I''ve seen it with my own eyes, and I even have a compass that would point you towards it. Just be careful since they have prisoners and a few powerful weapons."


    Theoretically, Undying totems are not weapons, but they are still powerful.


    While I said that, I also placed the compass on top of the table.


    Both of them studied it before nodding their head.


    "Well have to send someone to verify. If what you said is true you''ll be rewarded handsomely, you can have some fun downstairs until then."


    "I don''t need any reward, I just want to have this taken care of so I can be free."


    Both of them looked at me with a confused face, already not expecting this.


    "If you only wanted to drop this information then we thank you...you can still wait and get a reward if you want. We won''t be frugal when it comes to this."


    "Unfortunately I don''t have time to stay in one place. Just deal with this problem and it would be enough of a reward for me."


    Then I turned to leave the room before stopping right at the door.


    "Oh, and I expect you to treat the prisoners like humans, otherwise I''ll come after you and you''ll regret it."


    I continued walking without turning back to see their reaction.


    I was already feeling bad leaving those poor guys one more day with the Piligers, but I had to move fast.


    This city looked wealthy enough to fight against the camp, so my mission was done here.


    On the way back, I was a little confused, but I managed to get back to the lower floors where I was met with a lot of people who almost bumped into me since they couldn''t see me.


    I don''t know if the men sent spies after me, but just walking through the first floor should be enough to make them lose me.


    I walked along the busy streets looking from side to side occasionally to appreciate the city.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t stay here for long so it wasn''t a lot of what I could do.


    Once I got to the surface, there were fewer people, and the guards didn''t see me as I passed them.


    But I couldn''t find my horse, so I had to talk with one of them.


    <Sir, I think we should get back here after we finish the missions. There seems to be a huge amount of samples that I don''t have in my database.>


    I wondered why Alexa was so quiet all this time.


    Turns out it was distracted by all the new shiny toys, I wonder if anything caught Violet attention.


    Maybe I can also buy a gift from here.


    "If things don''t spire out of control, we can come back to check this place out."


    I have a feeling things will get very chaotic in this battle, too much happened in such a short amount of time.


    And I still have to get to the wedding.


    I hope everything is well and good at the Stone Palace.


    We galloped like this for a few days, making me wonder if I would get there in time.


    I was also thinking of ways I could win in this predicament.


    Unfortunately, the only way I saw, was to take the ship on the water and call the army to deal with the problem.


    But there''s a chance they wouldn''t wait and instead, take a normal wooden ship if things don''t go as they planned.


    After all the General still has the map to the temple.


    <Sir, it seems that Shadow Lord has passed us and will arrive at the Puperfish City in a few hours. The Zombie Lord changed his direction as well and would arrive at the destination in a day.>


    This is not good, I still have a day unit I get there, and I don''t think they''ll wait for too long once the Shadow Lord gets there.


    It sucks that we can''t use the Nether because of Violet tracker. We didn''t even have enough time to think of a solution for this.


    I know she is faster than me anyway and I could go alone with Alexa, but I don''t think she''ll be too pleased about that option, especially since this isn''t urgent for her.


    Then that only left me to overwork the poor horse.


    I''ll give him plenty of treats later, I promised him.


    I should probably breed my own horse since I keep finding myself in those kinds of situations.


    -----


    I started to see the city getting closer, but it didn''t look as I expected.


    Smoke started to rise beyond the walls and screams of people were all over the place with the gate being overwhelmed by the amount of people trying to get out.


    "Oh no, they already started the attack. Alexa, what do you know about the Monster Lords?"


    <Shadow Lord is inside moving at great speeds, and the Zombie Lord will arrive in an hour.>


    More people started to pour out making it impossible for me to get through the gate.


    Should I ditch my horse and start climbing the walls?


    No, it''s still faster with the horse, I should make a new gate instead of towering up.


    I went a little further from the gate where there weren''t people on either side, and I took my pixake to brake the wall.


    A minute later, the wall was broken, and nobody seemed to noticed it.


    I quickly got on my horse and started to sprint towards the shore, and as I did, I saw more people getting out of their houses in a hurry to run away.


    Before I could wonder why this was happening, I saw a huge platform in the air with pistons and TNT dropping all over the place.


    Not only that, there were some evokers that were fighting the soldiers on the ground, keeping them at bay with their annoying ghosts.


    Everything was in chaos, and I didn''t see anywhere the Genral or the Shadow Lord.


    Then it hit me.


    "The Iron Ship!"


    They wanted to distract everyone while the big guns were dealing with the crew!


    I''m sure half of them either ran or was fighting the Iligers in the city.


    What should I do now, fight the Iligers to save as many people as possible, or go and save my friend with her ship?


    Time was ticking, and I was almost at the battlefield, when all of the sudden I heard a boom from behind me.


    A TNT block flew towards the platform, exploding on impact.


    "That''s a hit! The hero is here people, you will be saved!"

 Chapter 193. The hero is here part 1

    POV: Daniel


    "Sir, I have to insist on not spending so much on Enchanting books. There''s no need to get so many useless enchants on a diamond armor."


    The secretary was trying to convince me not to spend so much on expensive books.


    I would''ve liked to spend less emeralds as well if possible, but I don''t have enough time or energy to learn Enchaning myself.


    Why does it have to be so hard to do something that should be done in a few clicks?


    I''ve already got sick of studying engendering, I don''t plan on wasting my life in this world looked up in a dark room.


    "Unfortunately, I can''t compromise on my safety. And I''m using my own money, so it shouldn''t be a problem for you."


    "That''s true, I always wonder how you can make such a large amount of money without a problem. Even as a nobleman, I''m getting jealous."


    The man in expensive robes spoke while looking at my enchanted diamond armor with greed.


    "I am the hero of the System after all, I should get this much to defeat the Monster Lords, don''t you think?"


    In the past few days, I took advantage of my new status and met as many villagers as possible to level up my Trading skills.


    This resulted in getting a lot of raised eyebrows as I was getting richer and richer by the day.


    But once I managed to buy my own enchanted diamond armor and tools, there was no reason for me to fear them anymore.


    They were too weak to leave a scratch on my body.


    A town is an amazing place to grow my skills and my wealth, unfortunately, I can''t make an iron farm here, since nobody seems to know how to make an iron golem.


    They only heard about it recently since the other hero made a squad of them to attack the Zombie Lord.


    They don''t know how they work or how they''re made, but they know it''s very expensive to make.


    I''ll have to build one for myself as well, it seems like a good investment.


    I makes me wonder where the other hero is, and if she can help her fellow earthling to grow stranger.


    She should have a lot of nice items such as Enchanted golden apples and totems.


    What a shame that the Iligers didn''t attack the Stone Kingdom.


    I could''ve triggered a raid and farmed them for good items, not only that but I''d also get the ''hero of the village'' buff to get even richer.


    Speaking of trading, my skill is almost maxed, I can''t wait to see what will I''ll get from it.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl 5


    121/1.000.000


    _Enchanting lvl 1


    0/100


    _Brewing lvl 1


    0/100


    _Trading lvl 9


    9.345.842.333/10.000.000.000


    ________________________________________


    I was proud of my progress in those few months, especially here in the town.


    And in a few days, I should be the first one to reach level max in history.


    What an exciting moment.


    "If you have so much emeralds to spare, why don''t you donate to this town? I''m sure the people would sing songs of praise about you."


    Donate to him?


    I don''t want to hear a greedy old men sing for me, only beautiful women.


    Such a shame that there''s no one like that in this world.


    But I still needed his help whether I liked it or not, I couldn''t get this many people to trade with on my own, I needed to borrow his name to for this endeavor.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    "How about I donate a few enchanted diamond sets in your name?"


    "Hohoho! I wouldn''t dare to refuse such generosity from the hero, I''m sure you''ll be written in stories from now on."


    As long as you keep providing me with villagers to trade, you can write as many songs as you want, those diamond armor would be much cheaper for me to give than actual emeralds.


    I took the enchanted books that I had come for and went into my room.


    Once inside I looked in all directions, before covering the windows and breaking a block from the floor.


    Underneath the block were some stairs that led to an underground room, or more exactly my secret room.


    I made this the day I was assigned my own room, and in case I would be moved I also dug a few tunnels to the other rooms.


    Here I spend most of my time when I''m not Trading.


    I don''t trust the housemaster not to steal from me if he gets the chance.


    Sometimes, he''s more of a player than I am which could be dangerous.


    My secret room was medium in size mostly filled with chests where I store my stuff.


    But I also use this place to craft items and level up my skills, it''s takes much longer than Trading, but it''s still an essential skill to have.


    There was another activity in this secret room that I did, and that was the redstone engendering.


    More exactly, I tried to see what I could recreate from the game in this world, and I have to say that I was disappointed.


    I could say it was more ''realistic'' in a way.


    I couldn''t stack a TNT minecard in one block, neither boats.


    Water wasn''t infinite like I expected and breaking obsidian takes too much time.


    Most villagers don''t even know that you can break obsidian, much less recipes that use obsidian.


    It''s such a shame that I don''t have access to an Ender Chest.


    Maybe I should visit the Royal Family next, they should have a few important items.


    But redstone was not a dead end, and most contraptions worked perfectly fine like the canon.


    Just one is able to destroy any wall standing in my way much less a monster army.


    Just thinking how the monster army gets closer only to get blown up makes me smile.


    "Let''s get back to work, the clock is ticking after all."


    -----


    "So I only have to sit here?"


    I looked at the villager in front of me with a bored expression.


    His outfit wasn''t in the best shape, showing that he''s not wealthy enough to regenerate his clothes, but from what I can tell he should be a Mason.


    "Is this your first time doing this?"


    "Y-yes, I came from the slums after I heard I could get some free emeralds here."


    "I see, the deal is pretty simple, I''m going to buy something from your trading tab, and you can keep whatever the System gives you, plus the regeneration for your uniform. And today is your lucky day since this is the last one I''ll be doing this."


    In the past few days, I''ve been making a lot of progress on my Trading skills, and with the discount, I was able to ''donate'' enough items to the nobles in here to leave me alone until I finish my task.


    Once I''m done with this, I would leave this place and deal with the Monster Lords myself and ask for the gand reword from the System.


    I''m thinking of going into creative mode or the ability to create my own creatures....I haven''t decided yet, but I wanted something grand.


    I looked back at the villager in front of me, who was waiting nervously for me to do the trading.


    I let out a tired sigh and bought everything on the last row, not even bothering to check the other trades.


    At this point, I already had everything I wanted, and only the last row gave me enough xp to progress.


    The man was shocked at the emeralds he received from this trade and thanked me profusely, making me feel a little embarrassed that I only saw him as a walking bank.


    The next one came in line, a regular from his reaction so the transaction went quickly.


    One after another, the line was moving until suddenly I felt like my head was getting heavy, my eyelids were moving more frequently and suddenly I had my head on the table losing conciseness.


    I opened my eyes and saw a familiar white plane with a huge floating angle I''m the middle of it.


    This was my second time here, but it was as amazing as the first time I saw it.


    Hero...your back much quicker than I expected, how so?


    What do you mean?


    "I''ve maxed out the Trading skill, that''s why I''m here."


    The Trading skill? Oh, I see it now, it wasn''t something I originally made, but even then it''s still impressive you got to this level in such a short amount of time, you should be rewarded for this.


    While I don''t know the original purpose of this skill, I should be able to make a personal trade with you, so what do you wish for?


    The System wasn''t the one who made this Skill, then who was it?


    Who is so powerful that it could reproduce what only a God could do.


    Perhaps the Ender Dragon?


    But I don''t remember her being this powerful in the game.


    I shook my head to get back to the question, this was the moment I was waiting for.


    I thought a lot about the options I could choose, but first I needed to know the limit of what I could wish for.


    "Can I ask for items that can''t be crafted or maybe don''t exist?"


    Hmm, depending on the item it could be done.


    "How about an item that duplicates items, or a bracelet that makes me invincible once I wear it?"


    Those require too much power from me, and it would bring more problems to you than solutions, choose something else.


    That''s a bummer, but at least I tried.


    "How about a command block?"


    As soon as I finished saying that sentence I felt time froze and a huge pressure pushing onto me making it harder to breathe.


    CHOOSE SOMETHING ELSE.


    Looks like I hit a nerve with this one, I didn''t expect to get such a strong reaction.


    "H-how about the Totem of Undying?"


    Totem of Undying?


    Ah, I see what your talking about. It''s a very nasty item created by the Iligers, but I could clean it up a little and gave it to you.


    Fine, I''ll let you trade 10 blocks of diamond, gold and iron for 1 Undying Totem.


    That was insanely expensive, I don''t think I can get a lot of totems this way, but I guess it''s better then not having them.


    "Thank you, any news from the Monster Lords and the other hero?"


    Let''s see, the green one seems to run from the hero while the gloomy one is making a mess in the Coral Kingdom.


    That''s good to hear, one of the monsters it''s beeing dealt with while the other I can deal with him later.


    Hmm, I see the humans plan on doing something again... do you think your ready to fight the gloomy one?


    "I would prefer to get the Netherite armor before I''ll pick a fight with it."


    You won''t use that cursed armor!


    The sudden raise of voice took me by surprise.


    Why was it angry about that?


    It''s the strongest armor in the game, it should be a no brainer that I would use it in my final fight.


    But I can''t afford to anger the God of this world, not when I''m starting to get more powerful.


    "I-I shall listen to your command then, I''m ready to fight If necessary."


    I have a few potions and golden apples in my secret room, so I should be enough for the fight.


    You are forbidden from using that material, and since you seem to be ready for the fight, and did such a good job at leveling up your Trading skill, I shall teleport you to the enemy.


    "Wait, but I''m not re-"


    Suddenly the world spined and I felt my guts being pulled.


    When I opened my eyes I saw that I was in an unfamiliar street with viligers looking at me worried and confused.


    "This is not good..."

 Chapter 194. The hero is here part 2

    POV: Daniel


    I quickly got up and walked away from this awkward situation, I don''t want to deal with the guards in this city.


    I wonder where the System teleported me?


    It said that the ''gloomy'' one was in the Coral Kingdom, but where exactly?


    Just as I was about to ask the next villager who crossed my path where I was, I saw the sea spreading over the horizon.


    The sea was calm with small waves hitting the port which was filled with ships of different sizes.


    Villagers of different sizes came in and out of those wooden beasts caring difrent boxes, this truly felt like I was in a different world.


    "I guess I''m somewhere on the coast, so the furthest point possible from the Stone Kingdom. Now where is the enemy?"


    I looked through a few shops and bought the items that I was missing because of my sudden teleportation.


    I don''t want to shop here anytime soon, everything was way to expensive!


    "Now that I''m prepared for the fight, I should search for those Iligers."


    Just as I was about to do some scouting, a huge shadow covered the street I was on.


    Confused, I looked up to see a flying platform with the people that I was searching for.


    "Well that was easy, but what are doing so out in the open? Wait what''s that?"


    As the platform was passing me, it dropped a glowing block on top of the house near me.


    *BOOM!


    The roof was blown to pieces and panic spread throughout the streets.


    Soon the houses were empty and everyone looked with fear as the flying platform was slowly moving while dropping explosives everywhere they could.


    "That''s so evil, that''s why I hate people who grief other players. You can rob them blind, sure. But leave the hard-worked structures alone!"


    I have to stop them before they mess up this place more, at least I should destroy the pistons of the platform so they won''t go any further!


    Maybe I could run ahead and tower up?


    No, I''m sure they have bows to shoot me off, and it''s not like I can fight the whole group on my own.


    Oh right, I could use the same weapons them.


    But I need some redstone and a lot of TNT for this.


    Feeling a little sorry for what I was about to do, I drank a speed potion and visited every shop that was evacuated by its owners.


    I was looking for TNT blocks and redstone related items.


    It was much harder to find than I expected, the TNT especially.


    At least I got some fireworks and crossbows that I could use as ranged weapons.


    While I was looting the stores, the platform was flying further and further away, but at one point it seemed to stop to drop some people before continuing their rain of terror.


    I passed the place where they dropped their soldiers and saw 2 evokers surrounded by 5 normal Iligers.


    The Iligers were annoying to deal with, especially since their iron axes did a lot of damage, but at least those could be blocked.


    The Evokers instead, were the real problem, since they kept summoning vexes and their weird magical attacks.


    You couldn''t even block those, much less fight them up close.


    But they didn''t seem to be leaving their area for some reason, and the soldiers seemed to be able to hold on their own for a while.


    They''re much more useful than the common villager, that''s for sure.


    So I was going to leave them alone for a while and deal with the flying platform since it did more damage.


    I ran at full speed predicting the path it would fly and stopped once I was 100 blocks away.


    "Ok, this should stay here, the dust here and the TNT here....I''ll also fire the first explosive manually, don''t have enough time to put them in dispensers. Now, where is that platform?"


    In only a minute my TNT cannon was finished, and ready to use.


    The platform was getting closer, but it was making slow progress which was a good thing since I had plenty of tries to get this right.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    I pressed the button, and the 3 explosive blocks were suddenly lit, the water pushed them together but not in the way I wanted.


    Instead of merging into one, they stayed one after another like I placed them.


    Not knowing if my canon was a failure, I quickly lit the last explosive and ran as far as I could.


    *BOOM!


    *Boom!


    I heard two explosions delayed by a few seconds, and to my luck, it seemed to hit the target.


    My canon wasn''t destroyed as I expected and the flying TNT managed to land in the middle of the platform making a huge hole and messing up all the delicate redstone that kept it together.


    "That''s a hit! The hero is here people, you will be saved!"


    Ugh...I need to work more on those one liners.


    That platform was still flying, are at least a few parts of it, but it was clear that the Piligers on top couldn''t use it anymore.


    Soon they would fall off since they couldn''t keep their balance.


    And as I expected, the Iligers were quickly falling one after another taking damage as they hit the ground.


    Some of them were lucky enough to land on their feet while others were unlucky and landed on their head.


    Those Piligers died instantly on impact, leaving a gruesome sight behind.


    But I couldn''t relax, as the one who survived started to drink health potions preparing for the next attck.


    I quickly ran towards them preparing my crossbows to shoot from distance.


    *Boom


    *Boom


    *Boom


    One after another the firework did a wonderful job at killing a few more.


    Unfortunately, now everyone left was up and ready to fight, and those people were quite equipped.


    "Well, I knew it would come to this."


    I drank a strength potion and begun my attack.


    Some of them blocked me, others dodged my sword but the ones that decided to tank it, made the biggest mistake in their life, and the price for this mistake was to lose it.


    But now I was surrounded by enemies on all sides and nobody seemed to be willing to fight with me at close range.


    They all took their crossbows and shot at me.


    But they didn''t shoot arrows as I expected, instead, it was fireworks that quickly exploded as they touched my shield.


    *Boom


    *Boom


    *Boom


    "Ahhh, chill out guys since when did you use those? They hurt you know!"


    "That''s the point, you dumbass!"


    At least one of them had a sense of humor.


    Now how should I deal with this predicament, should I perl away and snipe them from afar, or should I concentrate on one side and break their formation?


    They wouldn''t shoot me if I''m between their allies, right?


    *Boom


    Another firework exploded, but not at me, instead it was towards the Iligers, taking everyone by surprise.


    Then on a horse came a man in black armor that gave a menacing aura, making everyone including me tense up.


    He took his crossbow and shot once more, waking the Iligers from their shock.


    They tried to shoot him back, but the horse was too fast for them.


    Once he was close, he took out his black sword and slashed everyone, blocking the iron axes thrown at him or his horse.


    "Seriously, another one? I expected another Monster Lord but not another hero!"


    The man spoke out of the blue.


    Did he knew who I was without any introduction?


    I must be pretty famous if so.


    "Hey man, do you think you can take care of those guys? I have to hunt one last group."


    The man sat beside me while shooting at the Iligers.


    I scanned the area and realized that there were only a couple of Iligers left, some of them even begun to run away from the battle.


    "Yeah sure, it should be a pice of cake."


    "Good, be carful of the Shadow Lord. He can shoot arrows from a distance and telport."


    Before I could ask more questions, he turned his horse and ran towards the coast at full speed.


    Confused, I concentrated on my soul compass and saw that the Monster Lord was moving at great speeds.


    "If it can teleport, that would explain why he''s so fast. But why is it going towards the same place as the horse guy?"


    I''ll have to join him soon, I don''t think his sword is capable of damaging the Shadow Lord like mine is.


    But first I needed to finish those small fries.


    With the help of the stranger, I was able to kill the rest of the Piligers that didn''t run fast enough.


    Unfortunately they didn''t have totems on them, only some emeralds and a couple of items not worth taking.


    "The guy was talking about going somewhere else, and those goys don''t look like the final boss. That means I should follow him to get the good loot."


    And it just so happens that the Shadow Lord was telporting towards the same direction as the scary stranger, so I had a guide that was telling me where to go.


    So with my speed potion I ran towards the shore.


    People were running all over the streets, some towards the wall while others towards the ships that were preparing to leave the docs.


    But the Shadow Lord wasn''t attacking anyone, and I still couldn''t see him even though he was supposed to be a tall 5 blocks monster.


    I arrived at a distracted with poor looking houses, but I couldn''t see or hear any battles.


    Where was everyone?


    I looked up in the sky, but it was all clear, meaning no flaoting platform.


    That only left the underground.


    "Is there a secret entrance somewhere in those houses?"


    But it would take me an eternity to find it if I have to search every house.


    So I decided to get as close as possible to the signal the Shadow Lord gave, and dug straight down.


    By doing that I broke one of the most essential rules if the game.


    Never dig straight down.


    And I soon had to pay the price, when I suddenly found myself falling down from the ceiling if a huge cave.


    *BAAM!


    I landed on top of a building feeling immense pain from my lower part of my body.


    They were broken.


    "Shiiiiii-I need to eat a golden apple quickly."


    With trembling hands and quick breaths, I manged to eat a golden apple, and the regeneration kicked in.


    "Phew, I never want to experience that ever again! Even if my pain recpeteors are weaker in this world, it''s still very painful."


    I sat there as my legs were getting back to normal taking deep breaths to calm myself.


    I couldn''t hear voices, but I could hear laud explosions and clasing of swords which shock the whole cave.


    This was the first time I experienced this kind of battle, and I didn''t even see it.


    Once I could walk again I quickly went towards the noise and arrived at port who had the most amazing ship I ever seen.


    It was made with iron unlike the others, and its size was amazing, but I couldn''t concrete at it for too long since the battlefield took my attention.


    There, I saw several people with enchanted diamond armor which took me by surprise since I knew how rare where those to find, let alone so many in one place.


    No only that, there where 2 monsters as well opposite of each other, both wonded.


    One of them was 4 blocks tall with black skin and huge claws, while the other one was 5 blocks tall with a coat covering his face and body, but he was missing an arm and holding a huge arrow in the other one.


    But everyone there stood and watched the man in black armor with high tension, and I could understand why.


    The man did something I did not expect, he was ready to create one of the most annoying monsters of the game.


    Four blocks of soulsand stood in a T shape with two black skulls already placed on each side.


    The man was about to summon a Wither.

 Chapter 195. One final warning

    Once I saw the man who made that canon jump into attack I could only slap my face.


    You had a great weapon in your hands, why did you have to abandon it and attack with your sword?


    And what kind of teenager is he, announcing his arrival like a hero?


    But the kid did a lot of damage and I didn''t want him to die in vain, so I decided to give him a helping hand.


    I shot a few fireworks as I got closer to him, only for Alexa to drop some shocking news.


    <Sir, this man seems to be another avatar of the System similar to Miss Merry.>


    "Seriously, another one? I expected another Monster Lord but not another hero!"


    How come I didn''t think of that?


    Maybe I''m too used to the hero getting more trouble instead of help, this is quite emberesing.


    But if he''s the hero that means he''s a player like me, and from his fighting style I can tell he knows how to play the game very well.


    I think I can leave him to deal with this group while ill go to help Siren.


    After making sure that he was up for the task I turned my horse and ran towards the bar that had the secret entrance.


    The streets were chaotic but it was spacious enough for my horse to travel on them.


    Once I arrived at the bar, I got off my horse and opened the secret entrance.


    Nobody was inside so the process was pretty easy.


    I went down the stairs and arrived at a storage room, I ignored everything and got out of the building into the underworld cave.


    Here the streets were empty, only those who wanted to use this chaos as an opportunity to loot decided to stay.


    It was a risky decision, but their life was filled with them and today was just another day.


    I ignored them and ran towards the place where there was the most noise.


    The underground docs.


    Once I arrived there I saw the Prince party and the General Party attacking the pirate crew that tried to flee to the iron ship.


    It seems that the battle started a while ago since I saw the corpses of the crewmember here and there.


    They were indeed equipped with the best armor money could buy, but they were outnumbered in quantity and quality resulting in casualties.


    The only reason they didn''t lose yet, was because of Captain Siren who kept everyone under control and the enemy at bay.


    I couldn''t wait anymore, so I took out my crossbow and loaded it with fireworks.


    I really need to get the multi-shoot enchant, battles are getting more ridiculous lately.


    I pressed the trigger and the firework flew at great speeds towards the General group.


    *Boom


    The man was blown away but not killed.


    Everyone in here wore a mix of enchanted diamond and iron armor or full diamond, so the fight isn''t going to be easy.


    My fireworks did some damage but not as much as I''d liked to.


    But I wasn''t going to stop because of this, instead, I kept reloading new fireworks and shot towards the ones who dared to get close.


    At one point they fired back, but my armor blocked all the arrows and the fireworks were dodged or blocked by blocks.


    Unfortunately, this method didn''t work for long, since they sent a big group after me.


    But this wasn''t over.


    I quickly towered up and built a small barrier to stop the fireworks, and when they got to the base of my tower I took out my fishing road.


    If Merry was here, she would''ve smirked at what I was about to do.


    The hook was thrown and quickly caught someone who was very confused about what I was doing.


    With all my force I pulled the road, dragging the iliger as well.


    "Wh-whaaaaaaa!"The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The man soon passed me and I waited for him to come back.


    Once his momentum stopped, he began to fall, and right as he passed me I slashed at him, taking enough damage for the fall to kill him.


    Before the others could figure out what just happened I threw my bait once again, catching one of the Prince man this time.


    "Be careful, he''s going to drag you as well, cut the string!"


    Hehe, you could try that, but there''s nothing able to cut that string.


    This is the first glitch I found in this world, and I''m glad it''s on my side.


    The man tried to cut the string but had no luck, and soon he was up in the air like the last Iliger.


    I tried to use this method to catch other people, but they seemed to learn their lesson and stayed far from the base of my tower.


    That only resulted in a shootout with fireworks and arrows.


    "Ugh, this Is going to take a while, I think it''s time to Perl aw-"


    *BOOM!


    A huge arrow hit the defenses of the tower and exploded with force.


    I took little damage, but the knockback managed to throw me off the tower.


    "The Shadow Lord is here, we can finally kill him!"


    The enemy morale shot through the roof and now I had to deal with a Monster Lord as well.


    Another arrow was shot towards me, but I quickly dodged, exploding on impact.


    "Seriously, aren''t those arrows too OP?"


    I''m quite in a predicament.


    What is Captain Siren doing anyway, why hasn''t she left yet?


    I tried to look towards the crew but couldn''t see them from all the obstacles in the way.


    "Probably the General and the Prince keeps them in one place."


    And where did the Shadow Lord hide?


    "AGHHHH!"


    A loud yell shook the whole cave and the Shadow Lord appeared behind the Prince soldiers without an arm.


    A second later Violet appeared beside me fully visible, with a few wounds.


    This is the first time she''s shown herself in a battle, and I''m guessing she''s the one who took the arm of the Shadow Lord, what a monster.


    I couldn''t see the expression of the Shadow because of his hood. But the light of its eyes was narrow and I could only assume that he was angry at Violet.


    "Good job Violet!"


    I only got a grunt as a response.


    "He also has a monster! What are we supposed to do?"


    "I don''t know, ask the Prince, he has control over the Shadow Lord."


    "Hey! Bag of bones, I thought there were only 2 of you, what''s with that monster?"


    The Prince got closer to the Monster Lord without any fear, making me raise an eyebrow impressed.


    I knew he had the spawner as a hostage to control him, but I wouldn''t dare talk with him like that.


    The Shadow Lord seemed to be annoyed as well but didn''t talk back.


    "She''s not one of us, I don''t know where she came from or why she''s with that human."


    "It''s not like you? Are you telling me that there are more monsters like that?!"


    Everyone turned silent.


    "H-hey you monster, if you''ll kill the man sitting beside you, I''ll promise that I''ll save your spawner wherever it''s hidden."


    Though luck Prince, she doesn''t have a spawner, and from what my scan told me, she doesn''t plan on betraying me anytime soon.


    Violet disappeared and appeared in front of the Prince slashing her powerful claws at him.


    The armor was powerful for sure, and that''s the only reason he didn''t die on the spot, but the attack did a lot of damage.


    "Ugh, you uncivilized beast, I''ll kill you! Bag of bones catch that monster alive!"


    "I can''t afford to hold back for this battle."


    "Then kill it, I don''t care, just give me its head."


    The Shadow Lord let out an audible sigh and melted into the ground before appearing behind Violet with a green arrow in his hand.


    But Violet was an Enderwoman, so she quickly teleported away.


    Just as they came, they disappeared battling in another part of the cave.


    Not wanting to get surrounded I threw a Perl toward the ship appearing right beside the pirate crew who jumped away as they saw me.


    "It''s me, don''t attack, I''m here to help."


    "Trader! What''s going on, they suddenly attacked us to steal our ship, and now the whole city is a mess, who are they and what do they want from my ship!?"


    It''s good to see that Siren is lively as always.


    "It''s not my fault that you braged so much with the guardians corpse, now thay want to get to the same place as you did."


    "Then why are they attacking us, they could''ve hired us or even brought their own ship!"


    "I don''t know, we just have to defeat them and all of this would be over."


    This was easier said then done, since I don''t think Violet would be able defeat the Shadow Lord on her own.


    "Ugh, I guess you are right, but how are we supposed to wi-"


    "All of you that are hiding behind those blocks, come out or were going to blow up the cave, killing everyone who is inside."


    Why shoul we care if you blow up this place, it''s not like anyone in here is innocent like the civilians on the surface.


    Plus, he could be bluffing.


    I looked towards Siren who was as confused as me, but some of the crew members looked tense, like they were hiding something.


    "You think I''m bluffing? I sent a few of my men to place TNT blocks all over the place, at my signal they would lit them up starting a chain rection. Let me demonstrate."


    The Prince then shoot a firework towers the ceiling exploding in a red light.


    And we all waited in silence.


    BOOM!


    BOOM!


    BOOM!


    BOOM!


    Explosions we''re heard all over the right side of the city, making some of the crewmember flinch.


    "C-captain, I think we should give up on the ship, we can still get out alive if we leave now."


    "What are you saying! Since when do you care If this place blows up, they can turn it into a crater for all I care, I''m not giving up my ship!"


    But the crewmembers didn''t seem to want to fight back, so the captain traied to give them some hope.


    "Look, we only need to distract them for a few minutes so we could start the ship, and we have Sir Trader with us, I''m sure he''ll be able to hold them in one place while we''ll leave."


    Hey, what about my life?


    But she''s right, If they could use my distraction to escape it would be for the best.


    "Sorry captain, we can''t do that, our families are still down here hidden in the basement. If we let them blow this place up, they could all die."


    Why would you let your family here instead of running to the surface!


    I guess they didn''t expect this place to be effected so much...


    This is not good, I have to do something otherwise they''ll betray us.


    I really didn''t want to use this, especially when I have so many friends around me, but I need something that would kill everything in its path.


    I got up and walked in the middle of the clearing where I was visible for everyone.


    I placed my Ender Chest down and took some soul sand and black skulls.


    The soulsand was placed in a T shape and 2 skulls were put at the end of the arms.


    Right as I finished that, Violet teleported besides me looking a lot worse then before with the Shadow Lord on the other side.


    "Everyone, if you don''t want all of us to die, stop your attacks and leave us be!"


    All eyes were on me and at what I built.


    Then they started to laugh.

 Chapter 196. The Wither opened its eyes

    Everyone started to laugh at me, which made me a little embarrassed about my actions.


    What was I trying to do with this claim? This wouldn''t even solve the problems with the families hidden in that basement if I created the Wither.


    There must be something else I can do.


    While everyone was laughing at me, I looked at my inventory and in the Ender storage, and an idea came to mind.


    "Alexa, are you near me?"


    I said in a low voice.


    <Affirmative.>


    Phew, there''s still some hope, let''s distract those clowns for a few more minutes.


    "Take those 2 invisible potions, and splash them over the Pirate crew. Tell the ones who have a family to take off their armor and go after them and the others to get on the ship."


    <Order received.>


    Suddenly I felt the items from my back being taken away, which showed that Alexa was on the job, now let''s do some improv.


    "I don''t know why are you laughing, where do you think the Stone Kingdom found out about the Iron Golems? I''m telling you, it''s not from the ruins."


    Suddenly half of the group went silent, while the other continued to mock me.


    The ones who suddenly went silent were the Piligers since they experienced the Iron Golem''s strength firsthand.


    The others didn''t seem to think the same and we''re getting closer with weapons in hand.


    "Stop! Are you the one who created those Iron Golems?"


    The General called which made everyone stop.


    "Yes I was, and I would''ve made an army if I wasn''t in such a hurry. "


    "I see...if you tell us how to make our own Iron Golems, we''ll leave the iron ship alone."


    That''s an unexpected turn, and from the reaction of the others they were as surprised as me.


    "Hey stupid Piliger! This wasn''t part of our deal, I don''t care how good those golems are, they aren''t as good as what you promised me."


    "Shut up spoiled child! I only promised to not take their ship. We can still take any other large ship to our destination."


    He did make a good point, what should I do?


    "Who do you call a child you stupid barbarian? If you didn''t make such a good deal, I would''ve ordered the Monster Lord to kill you and all your people."


    Looks like the two of them aren''t on good terms, I could use this to my advantage.


    "We don''t have time for those petty fights Prince, we have a deal and after it''s done we can all go on our way."


    And the chance is now gone.


    Should I tell them how to make the Golems?


    Did Siren and her crew get on the ship yet?


    "AAAAaaahh-ugh!"


    The whole atmosphere was interrupted by a screaming man who was thrown in the middle of everything.


    When I looked closer at who that person was, I realized that he was the second hero.


    What''s he doing here, and why did he come flying here?


    It must''ve hurt even with all the diamond armor he has on.


    The hero tried to get up, only for someone else to jump on top of him.


    *Boom!


    The one who landed on the poor man was the Zombie Lord.


    The dust began to settle, and we saw how the 5 block monster was scanning all of us.


    He had his blindfold on, but we all felt like he was seeing all of us making everyone tense.


    "Brother, I think we have to abandon the plan. There''s no reason to continue working with those creatures. We''ll just keep the one who knows the place and kill everyone else."


    The Zombie Lord looked towards the Shadow Lord who didn''t have any visible reaction.


    Why was he here?


    Wasn''t he supposed to arrive in a few hours?


    Did Alexa miscalculate?


    "Bag of bones, what''s the meaning of this? Do you plan on betraying me now, don''t you know I still have your spawner in my hands."This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The Shadow Lord slowly turned his head toward the Prince and narrowed his glowing eyes.


    "I can''t believe you put up with such treatment brother, I have to respect your self-control every time you look at him. As for you stupid human, do you think I came here just to crash this meeting?"


    "W-what do you mean?"


    The Zombie Lord smiled, which sent a shiver down everyone''s spine.


    "I already dealt with the group that had the spawner, now there''s no need to hold back."


    Suddenly a light appeared above all of us, blinding the ones who weren''t fast enough to cover their eyes.


    "-s haaappppeeeennniiiinnngggg!!!-UGH"


    Out of the light fell a woman with diamond armor and a dark helmet.


    The first hero had arrived, sitting beside me with a confused face.


    Why is everyone appearing all of a sudden?


    Are Froggy and Bobby in here as well?


    "Wha- Trader is that you? Where I''m I? The last thing I remember was the System telling me to finish the fight for good."


    She got up and looked around only to realize that she was in the middle of a battlefield.


    "Trader, is this a night-"


    "HERO! I see you still follow me with persistence, not only that but I just found out that there is another one like you."


    The Zombie Lord stepped to the side letting the poor man finally catch a brake.


    Unfortunately, that didn''t last for long as the Zombie Lord grabbed him by the head and presented him to all of us.


    "I didn''t expect to see 2 heroes in one place. After we''ll kill you all we''ll be much stronger than we first came. I''m forever thankful to the Void for her generous gift."


    Everyone was tense and didn''t know who to attack anymore.


    The Piligers worked together with the Prince only because he had control over the Shadow Lord, but now that he was going rogue they didn''t need him anymore.


    Now another problem arises, they had to fight against everyone including the Monster Lords.


    "There''s no need for discussions anymore, we''ll kill you all. The almighty Void shall swallow this world and everyone on it."


    Then he threw the poor hero towards us while jumping at the Piligers.


    "Trader, what''s happening now, I''m very confused, can you tell me anything?!"


    I quickly went to check on the hero to see if he was ok after falling so much while explained the situation to Merry.


    "That sounds like a lot of problems mixed in one bowl. How did it even get to this point?"


    "Beats me, I''m as confused as you this time."


    The hero was alive but unconscious, how should I wake him up?


    Then an idea came to me, and I splashed him with a bowl of water.


    "Wha- what''s happening, where I''m I?"


    I''m starting to see a pattern here.


    The fight was getting more intense on the other side.


    The Zombie Lord was smashing the Piligers, while the Shadow Lord seemed to enjoy making a porcupine out of the Prince.


    Everything was in chaos, in a good way you could say.


    Just as I was thinking that the Iron ship finally moved, slowly getting further away from the docs.


    That''s everything I could''ve hoped for.


    Siren and the ship are safe, and the Piligers are getting picked one by one.


    Unfortunately, that''s as far as it got since the Zombie Lord seemed to get pushed back.


    Everyone here had the best armor you could make, and the Zombie Lord was weakened without his spawner, resulting in his hits not killing the target in one punch.


    In the beginning, everyone was intimated by his size and speed, but after half of the group was killed they pulled themselves together and attacked back.


    If the Shadow Lord joined the fight it would''ve been the end, but he was very fixated on getting his revenge on the Prince in his party, resulting in the two of them fighting separately.


    Should we join the fight and kill the Monster Lords?


    Violet was nowhere to be seen, so she was probably waiting for the perfect moment to attack, and the two heroes looked undecided on what to do.


    "Hey man, are you still planning on spawning the Wither?"


    "The Wither?"


    Merry asked confused, while looking at the setup I built.


    "You don''t know about the Wither? He''s the strongest monster you could fight in the game, at least before the Cave Update, but it''s not a good idea to fight one unless you''re very prepared."


    Merry''s eyes went wide and made a step back while looking at me.


    "I didn''t take you to be someone suicidal Trader, especially not with a Monster that could destroy everything in its path."


    "Don''t worry, I didn''t place the last skull, so we should be fine. We now need to concentrate on how we should defeat everyone here."


    Everyone got serious as we looked at the intense fight a few blocks away from us.


    "Maybe I could build a bomb?''


    "No, the Shadow Lord could escape or respawn later."


    The hero suggested something stupid and Merry quickly shut it down.


    <Sir, is the Wither similar to the Iron Golems you talked about?>


    "I don''t know, while the golem is not supposed to attack unless ordered, the Wither is going to attack any living being."


    And can summon an army if necessary.


    <If it doesn''t have any intelligence like the Iron Golem, I could take control over the body.>


    That...would be an amazing thing to have.


    The Wither as an ally?


    But that''s only possible if the Wither has the mind of a robot similar to Alexa and the Iron Golems.


    "Hey hero, do you think the Wither is as mindless as in the game?"


    "My name is Daniel for your information, and I don''t know the answer to that question. I haven''t been to the Nether yet, much less summon one of the final bosses."


    He moves pretty slowly if he hasn''t visited the Nether, then again, it''s not like I did any better in that regard.


    From what I can tell he''s doing better in the armor department than me when I first came.


    I wonder how he managed to do that.


    <I still think I should try Sir.>


    "Why are you so persistent about this?"


    <I realized that this body is too weak for my mission since I keep getting captured. But with a stronger body, I should be able to get further along with my final goal.>


    Conquering the System?


    I wonder if it''s truly worth it.


    But I can''t deny the usefulness if this would succeed.


    I looked at the Iron ship that was getting further away, then at the two hero''s that talked different strategies.


    Finally I looked at the fight between humans and monsters.


    In the end I decided it''s worth to take the risk.


    "Ok Alexa, I''ll do it, I''ll summon the Wither."


    <Thank you for your trust sir.>


    "What! Are you crazy man, we can''t even beat those Monster Lords, why do you want to create a bigger problem?"


    "Trust me, I have a way to control it to fight for us."


    I hoped so at least.


    I looked once again in my Ender Chest and took out the last Wither skull.


    But this one was difrent from the others, this one was much bigger and had a crown on top.


    This was the skull of the king in the Fortress, my last skull.


    I hope it would all work out.


    I got closer to the body and placed the skull in the middle.


    Suddenly a pressure started to descent upon all of us, making the fight stop.


    Agonising screamed came from the soulsand blocks as they''re were melting and taking shape of its new body.


    Darkness suddenly enveloped all of us with the creation being the only source of light.


    I could see the Nether Star shining brightly before being surrounded by a black ribcage.


    Slowly but surely, the body was being build, and nobody could move a muscle at this sight.


    The heads appeared one by one, but the one in the middle still had the crown.


    The darkness disappeared with a laud bang destroying everything in a 10 block radios, blowing me away.


    I took a few hearts of damage from this.


    I started to regreat my decision already, I turned my head towerds the monster I created.


    The Wither opened it''s eyes.

 Chapter 197. The power of a God

    The Wither opened its eyes and scanned the ground beneath him.


    There was only one time I felt this kind of pressure, and it was when I tried to craft Netherite armor.


    It was the pressure of the System.


    Did I accidentally create the god of destruction?


    The Wither opened its mouth and black smoke started to fall to the ground like a waterfall.


    It fell and gathered like it had an infinite amount of this smoke.


    Soon, the waterfall made a darck pool, and out of the pool came black skeleton hands.


    A Wither skeleton army was created right in front of us, and it was double then all of us combined.


    All the skeletons were 3 blocks tall with stone swords in their hands ready to reap life.


    "Trader...what did you do?"


    "A mess?"


    The army began to move, not towards us, but toward the enemy group.


    Did Alexa manage to take control of the body in the end?


    "What kind of creature are you? You''re the most filthy thing I have ever laid my eyes upon. Your existence is an ABOMINATION!"


    After the Zombie Lord yelled, he jumped towards the Wither with his super strength.


    The Wither didn''t fly away, instead, all 3 heads looked towards the Zombie Lord and opened their mouths.


    HHAAAAAWWWWWWLLLLLL!!!!!


    A black beam was shot tearing the Zobie Lord apart like a piece of paper.


    The only parts of him left were the legs, which soon fell to the ground with a big splash.


    Everyone froze at this sight.


    The Zombie Lord, a monster with super regeneration that could heal from any wound as long as he has the power, the monster who was killed only with a mini-nuke, was now dead from one attack.


    I couldn''t believe what I was seeing, and it was right in front of my eyes.


    Is it over just like this?


    *BOOM!


    An explosive arrow was shot towards the Wither, only to be stopped by a transparent shield.


    "BROTHER!!"


    *BOOM!


    *BOOM!


    Two more explosive arrows were shot but were unable to pass the invisible shield.


    The army was dealing swiftly with the Piligers and the others.


    Suddenly I heard something shatter and a huge range of light appeared in the middle of the cave rivaling the darkness of the Wither.


    With that light, the skeleton army was wiped out leaving behind only the General and a few Piligers.


    Looks like someone used a Totem, and it had greater effects than I expected.


    It killed the undead army and regenerating it''s soldiers.


    As expected of the General.


    I looked around for the Prince, but he was dead from all the arrows like his men.


    I looked some more but I didn''t see the Shadow Lord or Violet.


    Did he die as well in the explosion of light?


    Was Violet ok?


    "We can''t win this battle, we''ll retreat!"


    You shall not leave.


    All the skulls spoke at the same time with a powerful voice.


    There''s no doubt, this is the same voice Alexa used in it''s main body. At least I hope it''s Alexa, otherwise, we''re all screwd.


    The Wither opened its mouth, and another beam came out destroying everything in its path and exploding once it hit the group of Piligers.


    Another angel of light came which brought the General back to life.


    But this time it was only him alone, surrounded by a blue transparent barrier.


    Can a Totem even do that?


    The General looked around him once more then threw a Perl as far as he could, telporting once it hit the ground.


    "That problem got solved quickly."


    Merry said with a relieved tone.


    "I don''t think we''re out of the woods yet Merry."This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Daniel spoke back.


    And he was right, since the Wither looked at us, making us feel the pressure of a supreme being.


    Should I follow the man, sir?


    The respectful tone took all of us by surprise.


    "Alexa, is that you?"


    Yes sir, my old body was destroyed but I managed to hijack this body while it was in the process of creation.


    This body is more amazing than anticipated, I feel like I could generate infinite energy given enough time-


    Suddenly a new pressure appeared, much heavier than Alexa''s.


    You filthy abomination, how dare you walk in my world!


    A new voice joined our discussion, and I could bearly breathe in its presence.


    This was the System, the Ruler of this world.


    It was hard to breathe, but I knew it wasn''t looking at us, instead, it had all the attention on the Wither.


    A figure of light appeared in the middle of the cave, it was so huge it could bearly fit inside, and its wings seemed to pass through the walls.


    The figure lifted its arm which made my mind go hazy like I was looking at something wrong, something of another dimension.


    Then a golden sword appeared in its hand, slashing the Wither with unseen speeds.


    The Wither froze and began to fall to the ground like it was dead.


    "Alexa!!"


    *Boom!


    The body landed on the floor with a loud bang, but I still couldn''t move under all that pressure.


    Suddenly the eyes of the Wither opened, but this time it felt different, it felt like someone else was in control of the body.


    I see, I was given another chance to complete my revenge. And what a day to see the System itself greeting me.


    "Who are you, where''s Alexa?"


    That parasite? I ate it when it suddenly weakened. Wait, don''t you look familiar?


    The Wither slowly got up by flowing then looked at me with all 3 of his heads.


    Then I realized, this was the Skelton king at the Fortress.


    He was back.


    It doesn''t matter, just die.


    A black beam formed in its mouth and hit me in the chest.


    I felt like I was sacked in a black hole and it bypassed my armor like it was nothing.


    A cracking sound was heard then something broke.


    An angel of light engulfed me and I felt everything being brought back together like nothing happened.


    Not only that, but I felt a boost in my regeneration and power similar to a GOD apple.


    My Totem was broken and now I was on my own life.


    You are still alive....that''s a surprise, it''s similar to how the last human survived. I wonder how many times can you do that?


    That should be my line, how are you alive after being slashed by my sword abomination?


    Now I had the pressure of 2 God-like beings concentrated on me, and my armor could barely keep it up.


    I need to put some magic resistance on this armor, I couldn''t do anything in the last attack.


    The System was still in the cave, confused about the attack that didn''t work.


    Ahhh, you''re truly a magnificent being for me to defeat. But not today since I''m not strong enough.


    You don''t have the right to decide!


    The System rose its sword for another attack, only to hear the Wither smirk.


    Oh, I think I have the right. See you later dear System.


    Then the Wither exploded in a huge ball of darkness covering everything in a 100-block radius.


    All the color disappeared, and everything was black and white, and I couldn''t see the shape of the System anymore.


    Did the Wither defeat the System with a suicidal attack?


    But why I''m I alive?


    Is everyone else alive?


    You, Trader, was it. I know you have obsidian on you, build a portal to the Nather.


    A voice spoke as the smoke gathered and took the form of the Wither.


    "What happened, I thought you killed yourself?"


    Hahahaha, I just got my life back why would I throw it away like this?


    No, I just opened my domain which resulted in the System being kicked out.


    So he wanted to escape into the Nether and gather his strength.


    "Why should I listen to you? It seems that you weakened from the last attack, maybe I could take you on by myself."


    I was getting ready to place a few Crystals down and blow everything to bits if necessary.


    He was too dangerous to be left alone.


    Even in my weakened state, I can take care of you. And I''m sure you don''t want your precious Enderwoman to die with you. As long as she''s in my domain she''s not hidden.


    Violet was the only one I could worry about in this situation.


    If the heroes were anything like me, they still have two lives to spare, but Violet will die for good if the Wither intends so.


    "Fine, I''ll build a portal for you. I hope you''ll die once you cross on the other side like last time."


    The pressure was back on my shoulders.


    I hit a nerve of the king with that unpleasant memory.


    Indeed, I can never underestimate someone, especially when they''re cornered.


    Get to building human, I don''t have a lot of patience.


    Not having any other way out I took the obsidian and built a large portal enough for the Wither to get in.


    After the frame was done, I lit the portal and the space started to bend as the two dimensions got connected.


    Fascinating as always. I''ll be going now.


    Then a wave of black smoke rushes toward the portal like a snake, making my attempt to break the portal useless.


    Once on the other side, he looked around then back at me.


    Oh right, I may have lied about my domain, or more exactly it''s not a domain at all, just a huge bomb that would wipe out this city off the map.


    What did he just sa-


    BBBBOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!


    ---YOU DIED!---


    I was back at the place I hoped I''d never be in.


    The room with the hearts, or more exactly the room with my last heart.


    Just like last time, the beating heart got plugged out and flew toward me.


    Once it touched my soul I felt a wave of power all over me, making me feel invincible.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t enjoy this feeling for too long as I was thrown out of this space into the real world.


    I was back on the grass with no items on me, and the moon high in the sky.


    "Haaa....I can''t belive I died just like that. How can I even fight something like that? I hope Violet managed to teleport away, she should have am easier time finding me without my armor."


    The armor is going to be annoying to get as well.


    "What happened, where I''m I?!"


    I panicked voice interrupted my thoughts.


    I looked back to see the 2 hero''s looking confused at the sudden change of scenery.


    "I''m surprised you respawned in the same place as me. How do you feel?"


    "We died?! We died because of your stupid plan, how is it possible for the Wither to be so powerful, now it''s going to go on a rampage all over the world. It''s going to be like the Story Mode man, no maybe worse. We don''t stand a chance if it''s getting any bigger."


    Daniel was right at this beeing my fault.


    I didn''t expect for the Wither to be this powerful either.


    But It was all going well until the System arrived!


    I''m only throwing blame on others at this point.


    I hope the residents of the Nether would be able to fight back until I get strong enough to deafet it.


    I decided, I can''t get distracted anymore with other projects, I need to finish my skills to get somethingpowerful.


    But how would I be able to level all my skills without Alexa''s library?


    "Why are you silent now Trader, say something!"


    "Calm down both of you, we are in the middle of the forest at night. I don''t know about you two, but I don''t want to lose another life because a skeleton heard you shout, we need to get to shelter."


    "Merry is right, we need to get to seafty, then we can discuss what happen. Let''s go to my base, I rember the rough direction and its close."


    I got up and Merry soon followed me.


    Daniel looked undecided on what to do, but after he looked at the forest around him, he let out a sigh and followed us.

 Chapter 198. Poisoned

    We ran between the trees passing by monsters that wanted to kill us but couldn''t keep up.


    After a few minutes, we had to stop and take a break since Daniel was too tired to continue.


    Looks like he hasn''t managed to build his stamina in this world yet, it''s funny to see someone else suffer with this instead of me.


    But with great care, we managed to get to my base safely and ready to eat something.


    "Are you telling me there was a base close to where I spawned? I''ve been walking for weeks until I found a village, why didn''t the System tell me about this?"


    "I don''t know, the System didn''t tell me anything either when I first came into that world. It''s only by luck that I stumbled into Traders base."


    "Oh yes, you sure made yourself comfortable when you got here."


    "Hey, I said I was sorry about stealing your iron sword, plus it was for self defense."


    I chuckled as we passed the door to my base.


    Once inside, I went to get some food that was lying in the nearby chests before giving it to the heroes.


    "Your house looks cool, how long have you been in this world?"


    That''s a good question, let''s see....I think it''s been a year since Merry came into this world so that would mean.


    "Around 2 years I think."


    "That long! No wonder you had such strong armor and good items. Do you have some to spare with your fellow players?"


    Where did the intense hatred go?


    I could only shake my head with how shameless he was, I better hide the real base from him.


    "Sorry man, everything blew up with me in that cave."


    "That''s a shame, but I''m sure you have a few secret stashes around the world."


    He''s sharp, looks like this time, the System picked someone who knows how to play the game.


    I don''t know if I should be worried or relieved about this.


    "Who knows."


    I decided to ignore his attempt to take my stuff and concentrate on eating.


    After we all ate, we sat down to have a serious discussion.


    "So what now? We have a rouge Wither on our hands, are we supposed to deal with him, or is the System going to intervene?"


    Did they not hear the conversation I had with the Wither?


    "The Wither isn''t In this world anymore. He tricked me into making a portal for him to escape, in exchange for letting us alive."


    "I don''t think he kept his side of the deal."


    I can see that as well Merry!


    "As for the System, I don''t know if it has enough strength to attack."


    "You think the System hasn''t recovered from the Great War?"


    "What are you 2 talking about?"


    Merry is right, I don''t think the System has its full power yet.


    If it''s anything like Alexa, the System is more like a machine that uses energy for any action, and I''m sure it used a lot when it fought the Ender Dragon.


    400 years may sound a lot, but why would it summon a hero to deal with the Monster Lords instead of itself?


    Sure, maybe it would''ve used more energy than summoning, but once the problem had been dealt with, the Ender Dragon wouldn''t be that eager to send one of her Lords again.


    That means the System is still gathering energy in case another threat comes, like the Wither.


    Maybe it would''ve bypassed the bomb and killed the Wither, if it was willing to spend some more.


    Heck, maybe it would''ve used another attack right after the first slash.


    But now, the System lost this battle and used a lot of energy for nothing.


    This could be the only reason why it''s not here to kill me when I don''t have my armor.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t tell this to Merry since Daniel was here as well.


    I know Merry very well, or at least I know I can trust her, but I don''t know anything about Daniel, and the fact that I indirectly killed him doesn''t help.


    He''s a player for sure, so unless I know what his intentions are, I can''t trust him fully.


    "I don''t know how much you know about the history of this world. But around 400 years ago the Void wanted to invade this world resulting in the appearance of monsters and the System fighting back. In the end, the System won but was weakened from the fight and isolated itself from the world. Until you two came."


    Merry was enjoying some cookies already knowing this, while Daniel was surprised by the sudden information.


    "So you''re saying the Ender Dragon fought the System and lost, but since the Monster Lords are still coming it''s not a complete win, more like a seal. I''d she perhaps trapped by the obsidian towers in the End?"


    Well, he''s a smart cookie.


    "I don''t know, I haven''t been in the End yet, and I''m sure the Ender Dragon is very different from the game, like everything in this world."


    Plus she''s not the only boss in the End.


    There is someone there as well, someone who created my body and has similar strength to the System.


    "What a bummer, I thought you already knew the location of the portal when I saw your Ender Chest."


    "What are you two keep talking about?"


    Did I not tell Merry about The End?


    "Did you never play the game? Why did the System choose you if you don''t even know the basics of this world?"


    "Hey! I''m doing pretty good for myself even without the knowledge you two have."


    Daniel rolled his eyes and told her how to get to the End dimension.


    "I''ve never read anything about that, the Ender''s eyes are hard to make for sure, but they don''t lead you toward a hidden portal."


    Exactly, I''ve tried to throw an Eye of Ender but it didn''t go anywhere, which means that there''s no portal in this world, or the System destroyed it after the last incident.


    "That''s weird, then how are we supposed to defeat the final boss? Do we have to make our portal? After all, we''re not restricted like the villagers."


    I didn''t think of that.


    The ancient civilization either enchanted a block to get to another dimension or requested it once they reached the MAX level at a certain skill.


    I should ask Alexa to see if it has any blueprints related to this.


    "Well, what are we supposed to do now? One of the Monster Lords was killed and the other one is missing. Does that mean our mission is complet?"


    Oh right, their mission was to kill the Monster Lords, not the Ender Dragon.


    And since we know the Zombie Lord is dead, that means Merry did her job.


    But for some reason, Merry''s face was white with panic instead of happy.


    "What''s wrong Merry, are you not well, do you need some milk?"


    "N-no, I just realized that I finished my mission and the System would send me back home."


    ""What!""


    Both me and Daniel were surprised by the sudden information.


    Are you telling me the System could''ve sent me home all this time and didn''t do it?


    I''m sure I made it angry and it wanted to kill me, but if I had to option to get back to Earth, I would''ve complied with no problem.


    "Oh yeah, I remember now, if I defeat the Shadow Lord I would take two items with me back home. But I don''t think I want to get back to earth, maybe we can talk to let us here."


    "Y-yeah, I hope so as well."


    What a cruel world to live in.


    Those two want to stay here, while I''m doing my best to get back.


    Maybe I can talk with the System once I level up my Enchanting skill.


    I hope it''s not too angry that I summoned the Wither in this world.


    "Ok, I think I had enough for today and I''m getting tired. Do you have some empty rooms I could stay in?"


    Daniel got up from the chair and yawned while stretching his arms.


    "Yeah sure, follow me, I''ll guide you to your room."


    Good thing the base on the surface was big, I managed to build 10 rooms in here.


    I showed Daniel a room at the top and got back to Merry who was waiting for me patiently.


    "So what''s the plan now Trader, I don''t believe you haven''t thought of one yet."


    I''m glad she didn''t say this when Daniel was here.


    "Let''s talk somewhere else."


    She nodded her head, and we went into the secret base.


    To my relief, it seemed to be the same and nothing was broken.


    After I checked everything, we went into the Nether in golden armor so we would cool off.


    "Honestly now I want to concentrate on leveling up my skills, I need some custom enchants and items if I want to stand a chance against the Wither."


    "I see, what about Alexa?"


    "Unfortunately the body was destroyed, but it shouldn''t be a problem as long as it has enough energy to create another one. I''m hoping it would do that and search for me since I''m planning on staying here until I accomplish my goals."


    I hope Violet will look for me as well since I don''t know how to start searching for her.


    "Do you think the System would reword you after what you''ve done?"


    I was hoping the mini System would be in charge of that, similar to the times of war when the main System was missing.


    Worst case scenario I would make a plan with Alexa that would give me the same aura as the Hero''s and hopefully trick it that way.


    But first I need to get stronger and learn more from the ancient researchers.


    "I guess it''s not a lot we can do in the short term, do you want me to take Daniel off your shoulders as well?"


    "That would be very helpful. I may sound paranoid, but If someone comes from the same world, that doesn''t mean they''re also a friend."


    "I''m saddened by it, but I understand your caution. I''ll take him to the Stone Palace, or maybe the church. Then he would be off your back and can concentrate on his growth."


    I thanked her once more, and we talked about what happened while we were apart.


    From what she told me, she was staying close to the Zombie Lord, but suddenly he took off his blindfold which gave him a speed boost powerful enough for her to lose sight of him.


    For the next few days, she tried to followed him once again, but she was still a human, so she got tierd, while the undead kept running.


    She was about to give up only to hear a voice telling her to finish the fight for good.


    Then got teleported into the cave without any permission from her part.


    That''s the reason I wanted to create my own body, this could happend to my any moment as well.


    I told her my side of the story, or at least the short version and she was still complaining about my dangerous stunts.


    After we finished talking we decided to get some rest.


    She already had her room, and I had to choose one from the surface.


    Just as I was about to enter the water elevater, I suddenly felt a pain in my soul.


    From that pain, I was taking damage, and when I checked my status window I couldn''t see anything.


    "The System, is attacking me, I have to get back to the Nether!"


    Before I would die from the unknown poison, I ran to the portal and passed into the hot dimension.


    Once I was on the other side, the pain was gone, and I could regerate my hearts back.


    After I was back at full health, I let out a sigh of relief.


    "Well this is not good."

 Chapter 199. The Systems revenge

    "I can''t believe I have you back on my operation table Trader. Now do you have any last words?"


    "Shut up Solomon, I''m not in the mood for jokes today."


    The Mad Scientist was looking over my body that was lying limp on the table.


    The reason I could speak and hear him, was because I was in my soul form, watching him studying my body supervised by Blue.


    But for some reason, my friend Blue seemed a little distracted looking with disbelief at me floating in the air.


    I know it''s shocking to speak with ghosts but I didn''t expect it to be that bad.


    "Trader, why do you look so wrong?"


    "How rude! For your information, that''s how my actual body looks like."


    "Actual body?"


    "Sorry Blue, I don''t have the energy to talk about this, maybe another day."


    The Pigling didn''t seemed bothered by my response and looked at the Mad Scientist.


    "Ok...so Solomon what exactly am I looking at right now?"


    "A curious sight isn''t it?"


    Then he proceeded to tell Blue about the process I was going through right now, plus the secret that I was from another world.


    I let out a sigh, expecting this since Blue was curious by nature and we couldn''t lie to him.


    After I almost died a second time in one night, I concluded that I was being attacked by the System.


    When I tried to get back to the Overworld, I had the same reaction proving my theory.


    The first idea that came into my mind was that I was similar to the Piglings in the Nether, when my flesh came into contact with the other dimension I would die.


    But from what I knew, the System didn''t make my body, so the only other option left, was that it attacked me from the outside.


    That''s why I was here in the Nether tribe, I wanted Solomon to check out my soul if it had any changes from the last time he saw me.


    He is the only person I know who could find out the truth.


    Especially after I lost the Monocle.


    "I''m done."


    The Mad Scientist closed his book and wrote something in the ritual circle that made me go back to my body.


    "Besides your unusually fast growth in your skill levels, there''s nothing out of the ordinary about you. So your idea may be correct, the question is, how do you plan on overcoming that problem?"


    I have a few ideas that could work.


    If the System puts an automatic program to kill me whenever it finds me in the world.


    I can wear Netherite armor to make myself invisible like before.


    It has some merit to it, and I can finish this quickly if I make myself a diamond armor.


    The second solution is to learn how to make a new body that could hide from the System.


    But that would take a lot of time and a lot of research.


    "I have some ideas, but I''ll listen to what you have first."


    "I could make an item that can hide you from the System, maybe a bracelet or necklace. But I''ll need a few items for that."


    Am accessory that could help me hide from the System?


    That sounds like a good idea, and I can lend it to someone else if necessary.


    "That sounds like a good idea, what do you need?"


    Then he proceeded to tell me a list of items that were rare, but not impossible to find.


    Most of them were in the Nether, and we had enough gold to trade for those.


    And the others, I can ask Bobby to give them to me.


    Speaking about rare items, this reminded me of the totems the General used.


    "Hey Solomon, we''re you the one who made the totems for the General?"


    "Yes, why do you ask?"This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "In the last battle, he was forced to use 2 of them and I saw that it had a few special abilities besides the regeneration."


    "Ahh, I see, you must''ve cornered him badly if he was forced to use them. Yeah, it''s harder to make those since the process is longer and uses a lot more materials, that''s why only the General had them."


    He also told me what was special about them.


    In the process of preparing the totem, right as the souls enter the golden figurine, it has to be bathed in a certain substance.


    For example, to have an area of regeneration, as the souls enter the object, it''s sunk into a couldrun filled with regeneration potion.


    For a shield, it''s surrounded by obsidian dust and other hard materials.


    But apparently, the General had one more totem on him, and its special ability would teleport him back to the outpost.


    That means he also survived the explosion.


    "Can you make me a few as well, something humane that doesn''t involve sucking the soul out of an Enderman while he''s still alive."


    Some of those totems are brutal to make, and I don''t feel comfortable having something like that in my inventory.


    "Sure, but I''ll need some items for this."


    What he needed weren''t items, but more like tools.


    Costume-made tools.


    It''s very hard to break an obsidian block into powder, you''ll need a diamond chisel for that, and even then you''ll have to stay for hours just to chop a corner off.


    "I''ll see what I can do. First make me the accessory that would hide me from the System, then you can concentrate on the others."


    "Oh, how you like to work me to the bone. Don''t you feel sorry?"


    "I still didn''t forgive you for attempting to escape with Alexa."


    "Tsk* Fine, I''ll get to work, don''t bother me until then."


    I smiled and thanked the man as I left.


    But Blue wanted to talk with me, so he came along as well.


    "Trader, I have a question to ask, or more exactly a request."


    That''s rare, there aren''t a lot of items that interest Blue, especially not when it comes to request it from me.


    I wonder what it would be?


    "If it''s in my power, I''ll do my best."


    "You don''t need to be so serious about this, I wanted to know if Solomon could make 2 more bracelets for me and Undying."


    That''s an interesting idea, but I don''t know if it would work the same way as it does for me, since the thing that kills them in the Overworld isn''t the System, but the part of the Nether in them.


    Then again, we don''t know until we try, so I don''t see a reason to refuse.


    "Sure, you can make him do whatever you want since you''re taking care of him."


    Blue is doing a wonderful job at keeping the Mad Scientist in check.


    With his ability to see lies and curiosity for research, the Mad Scientist doesn''t have any choice but to follow whatever he says.


    Plus, I think Solomon is having fun in here as well with all these soulsand blocks in his inventory.


    "Thank you, I''m sure Undying would be happy to hear about this."


    He smiled like a fool while thanking me.


    Looks like love truly is the happiest pill.


    I left the tribe in my golden armor and went to check on the Fortress connected to the palace.


    Unfortunately, it was harder for me to infiltrate this time since I didn''t have my stealth armor, and nobody recognized me.


    Or at least they weren''t comfortable with calling Bobby on the Nether just to talk with me.


    In the end, they accepted my proposal and called Bobby to meet me in the Fortress.


    After a few minutes Bobby came with a smile on his face.


    "Trader, glad to see you again. What''s with the new armor, change of style?"


    "Noo, I wished had my old armor back, it''s just that recently I died and lost everything, and now the System hates me so I can''t stay in the Overworld."


    His smile froze and he started to blink rapidly.


    "I''m sorry, I heard something funny about how you died and somehow ended up being hunted by the System, but that must be a bad joke."


    Ohh, it''s been a while since I managed to break him, it''s always fun to see that reaction.


    "Yeah, unfortunately, this isn''t a joke, and now I''m stuck in the Nether until I make somethingthat can hide me from the System."


    His smile slowly died, and now he was massaging his head trying to comprehend what he just heard.


    "Let''s go talk in a private room, I don''t want the guards to think that the end of the world is coming."


    Well, they wouldn''t be that far off with that conclusion, especially if they keep guarding the Nether Fortress.


    I followed them to a special room that was recently built, and I told him what happened.


    Once I was finished, he wasn''t shocked to my disappointment but had a serious expression thinking about the next move.


    "I see, it''s a mess as I expected. Can I lock you up in a house where you can never leave it?"


    "Sorry, Bobby, last time that happened the Sultan died, and not too long after I died as well."


    He slapped his face like it was the most obvious thing in the world.


    "You can''t just gloss over your deaths like this Trader! How many times can you even come back anyway?"


    Now that''s a touchy subject, but he helped me too much for me not to tell.


    The only thing that I''m willing to keep a secret is Violet, and that''s mostly so he wouldn''t watch over his shoulder every time I visit him.


    "This is my last life, if I die, I''m gone for good."


    He looked seriously at me, trying to deduce something frommy expression.


    "I''m starting to think the house idea is more probable now. What are the chances of you living a normal life if I asked you?"


    "Not high, especially when I''m so close to the end goal."


    He let out a sigh and sat down on a chair while closing his eyes.


    "That''s what I figured, I''m guessing now we can only prepare you for the worst."


    "Unfortunately yes, but I''m already making progress with this, and that''s why I wanted to meet with you in the first place."


    I then told him all the ingredients and tools Soloman asked for, and he wrote it all down on a book.


    "Some of them are hard to get, especially the diamond tools. But I should be able to get them in 2 weeks, is that ok for you?"


    I would''ve preferred to be done faster, but in the same time, I''m not going to travel a lot when I''m leveleing up my skills.


    "It should be fine, send them all to the tribe. Blue would know what to do with those. How much do I owe you?"


    "You helped us plenty of times, don''t worry, I''m doing this for my friend after all. If you still want to pay, then come to my weeding."


    Yeah, that should be in a month.


    It''s going to be more complicated now that I can''t visit the Overworld, but I''ll figure something out until then.


    "Of course, I''ll be there as I promised, and I already thought of the perfect gift."


    He smiled and said that I was always welcomed.


    "Also, you don''t have to worry abou finding Alexa, we already discovered the tuneless you were talking about and began exploring them. In a few days we should have most of it mapped."


    Wow, they moved fast.


    "Was there anyone obstructing you?"


    "We saw signs of the tunnels being used, but not people that made those."


    "Be careful, those tunnels are under the Brutes Kingdom, and their very strong."


    "I''ll keep that in mind, just give me a book signed by you so Alexa would know we were sent by you."


    I would love to finish the job just like that, but unfortunately you have to pass the Wither and I don''t know If they''ll be able to.


    What should I do?

 Chapter 200. After Alexa

    I was thinking of what to do in this situation.


    I wanted to concentrate on raising my skills, but I realized that I still needed Alexa''s help to grow them faster.


    Sure, I could print Enchantments until I reached max level, but it would take a while if I don''t know any high-level ones and the printing press is at my house in the Overworld.


    Plus, even if I managed to max level I don''t know if it''s safe to talk with the System.


    That''s why I need Alexa.


    "I think it would be for the best if you gave me the map of the tunnels and I''ll be going after Alexa."


    "Are you sure about that? We could do this in your place and you can concentrate on your other projects."


    If there wasn''t the threat with the Wither or the Mad Prince, I wouldn''t have a problem.


    But if they wanted to get in contact with Alexa, that would mean I had to teach them how to open a portal.


    And I don''t trust them to keep their mouths shut if they get captured.


    "Don''t worry, I don''t plan on staying for too long, I''ll even use a Perl station to get back in an instant."


    I have to think of a way to get Alexa as well, but we''ll figure out that when ill get there.


    Bobby looked at me for a few moments, before letting out a sigh.


    "Fine, I''ll sent whatever you need to Blue or Undying. Just promise me that you''ll try to stay out of trouble at least."


    Oh, I''ll try, but I can''t promise that trouble won''t be looking for me.


    "I promise."


    "Well, this is the best that I can get out of you. Do you need something else before you leave?"


    I stood there for a moment to think, and idea came to mind.


    "Can you get me a horse in gold armor?"


    "A horse? Oh, I see what you''re trying to do. I should''ve expected such a crazy idea from you, but it can be done."


    The tuneless don''t have a railway system or made of ice, so I can''t use a minecard or a boat to move fast.


    So the next best thing that came to mind, was a drugged horse.


    Of course, I''m not a monster, so I specifically asked for golden armor so it won''t die from heatstroke.


    With our discussions done, we said goodbye and went back to our own homes.


    I had to stop by Blue house to get some regeneration potions, but the rest of the way was all a smooth journey.


    Once I arrived at the huge portal, I took a deep breath, chugged the regeneration potion, and passed to the Overworld.


    After a few moments, my soul was being attacked and I was taking damage, but the potion kept me alive.


    "It works, but let''s solve this quickly."


    Merry and Daniel should''ve left already so there wasn''t any danger of my secret base being found out.


    But even if they were here, I didn''t plan on taking items from the surface so it was all good.


    After all, everything that I needed was already here.


    I went to the Overworld chest room and took all the diamonds and enchanted books that I had lying around.


    There weren''t a lot since most of the time I grinded then to get the xp back, but I had enough to put at least one enchantment on each piece I''ll wear.


    After I took everything, I made myself diamond armor and tools, then placed them on an anvil to put enchants on them.


    Unfortunately, I encountered a problem I didn''t expect to see.


    "I don''t have enough levels? Oh right, I recently died and didn''t have the chance to get any xp."


    That''s a bummer, that means I have to go hunting and I don''t think that''s a good idea with my armor.


    Should I smelt some ores?


    I remember you could get xp by using the furnace.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    I looked in the chests beside the mine and saw a few raw ores.


    At a closer look I also saw that my wall of furnaces had some items inside ready to be taken out.


    How lucky of me to forget such an important task until now.


    I took everything out and placed the others in.


    With the xp got from those, I enchanted two items, one of them being my sword.


    "Should I go and make my armor Netherite now or go hunting?"


    The smelting would take a few hours even if it''s split into multiple furnaces.


    But if I go to the tribe and upgrade my armor, I would still need to get back and enchant the armor since I don''t have enough space.


    In the end, I decided to wait and print more books to level up my skill.


    When I use the Enchanting Table, it usually takes less xp and I can easily get it back once I grind them to normal books.


    Once the plan was made, I took all the books and ink sacks from the chests and got to work.


    The wooden tablet was neatly placed in a sack with all the letters of the Enchanting language.


    I was smart enough to get everything ready if I got to this level, so all I needed to do now, was to place them in the right order.


    For the next few hours, I printed Protection 5 pages, then enchanted them on books and grinded them off to get back the xp.


    Once the ores smelted, I took them out and got a few good levels for my armor, but unfortunately, it wasn''t enough, so I had to take the last few books and go hunting in the Nether.


    I visited the hunting grounds of my tribe and dealt with all the animals and monsters in my path.


    At one point, I made the mistake of shooting a pigman with my firework resulting in a mob hunting me throughout the red forest.


    In the end, I towered up and shot all the fireworks at the Pigmans gathering underneath me, resulting in a lot of levels.


    So we could say that this accident was a blessing in disguise, but I would never do it again without preparations.


    After I got enough levels, I spent the next 3 days at the tribe Enchanting and preparing for the next journey.


    When those 3 days have passed, a messenger from Boby arrived with a horse and a portion of the items I requested.


    But what was the most important item from all of this, was the map of the tunnel system.


    It wasn''t completed yet, but it had everything in the direction I wanted.


    With the horse and map prepared, I thanked everyone and went to the closest tunnel that I could access.


    I say that, but I had to make a staircase towards it since there wasn''t a secret entrance and the horse was too big for normal tunnels.


    But after we arrived at the place, I gave the horse the speed potion and went as far as his legs could get us.


    After a few hours we had to take a break so the horse could eat and drink, only for me to realize that I was in the Nether and water would evaporate if it stayed for too long in the open.


    "I did not think about this... I guess it''s time to test my Netherite armor against the Overworld System."


    I gave the horse a few golden carrots and let him drink directly from my water bucket.


    I don''t think it was enough for him since he was still checking the bucket after it was emptied, but he was too tired to search for more, so he went to sleep.


    In the meantime, I built the portal frame in the wall and lit it making the two dimensions connect.


    On the other side was a dark cave with monsters wandering at the edge of what I could see.


    "Not the best spawn, especially when I''m trying to see if I can survive. Good thing the Netherite armor is stealthy so I shouldn''t have a problem."


    After taking a deep breath and holding a golden apple just in case, I stepped over the dark line.


    The ambient sound of the Nether was suddenly replaced by the silence of the caves.


    From time to time I could hear bones dragging on the ground or grunts from the undead flesh.


    But even after a few minutes, I didn''t feel any pain in my soul, making this experiment a success.


    "Awesome, now I can get to Bobby''s wedding dressed as the Demon Lord."


    But it was better then nothing, and I was already used to wearing my creepy armor everywhere.


    Out if curiosity I took off my helmet to see if it was any difference, only to instantly regreat it by feeling the pain In my soul that wouldn''t go away until I went back to the Nether.


    "So I really need to wear the armor all the time."


    I was a little disponted but still expected, that''s why when my health was full I went back to the Overworld to search for some water.


    I made tunnel towards the surface and was lucky enough to find a river nearby.


    What followed next was doing multiple trips from the the surface to the cave system to place the water in a hole besides the portal, since I couldn''t make an infinite source of water, or at least not in such a small space.


    But once I was done, the horse was awake and beyond thankfully for the water.


    I was getting tierd, but I knew the clock was ticking so I got on the horse and continued my journey.


    A journey that would''ve taken a few weeks with the horse took 4 days in the Nether, showcasing the amazing traveling speed in the Nether.


    If this place wasn''t as dangerous as it was, it would''ve been the most used method to travel around the world.


    But after long days of travel I finally arrived back at the Puperfish City.


    First time I arrived here, I thought I was in a valley, so I continued to look for sources of water only to see a sea of withered flowers and a small number of Wither Skeletons.


    None were interested in me, but destruction and death was everywhere I looked.


    I couldn''t belive me eyes at what I was seeing, and I was the source of all of this.


    My shoulders suddenly felt heavy from unknown amount of deaths.


    Was my goal to selfish?


    Was I too reckles in what I was doing?


    I tried to see if there were any survivers that I could recognise, but the only people I saw were the soldiers who tried to keep everyone outside the crater while they were dealing with the skeletons.


    Everyone was mad and depressed, not willing to talk too much with the people who came in here.


    I didn''t have the courage to reveal myself and ask them about any survivors, I didn''t feel like I deserved to know this.


    So I decided to ignore this problem by pushing it all the way to the depths of my mind.


    With a heavy mind I went back to the Nether.


    The tuneless would end soon from what the map was telling me, which meant that I should leave my horse in the Overworld, since if I brought it to the surface in the Nether, it would surely die from monsters or lava.


    As a thank you, I took the horse and left him a pile of golden carrots besides a river.


    He was very happy when he saw the abundance in food and quickly got to it.


    "Thank you my friend, for helping me in this journey. Here let me take off your armor as you wouldn''t get any unwanted attention."


    While he was eating, I took of his golden armor and gave him a few scratches on the neck before leaving him alone.


    After one last look at the crater I made, I went back to the Nether and continued my journey towards the Underwater Temple.


    Four days later, I opened a portal to check the sky only to be created by a guardian.


    "Long time no see Alexa!"


    I greeted the confused fish.

 Chapter 201. Training with the machine

    Once the guardian saw me it quickly swam down, trying to get someone which made me confused.


    Aren''t they all connected to Alexa?


    Why would it need to go back and report?


    Since I already arrived at my destination, I decided to break the portal and jump into the water.


    I didn''t drink a potion this time, but it wasn''t necessary since I already had water breathing on my helmet making this journey possible.


    After I swam a few blocks, a huge eyeball greeted me making me take out my sword, remembering something unpleasant from last time I met it.


    But this time, I didn''t feel sleepy or the effects of mining fatigue, which meant that he wasn''t here to kill me.


    "Hello?"


    The Elder Guardian continued to look at me with its big eye, then slowly blinked.


    How am I supposed to interpret this?


    Seeing my confused reaction, he rolled his eye and turned around signaling me to follow him with the tail.


    "Since when did you get so expressive?"


    It was weird to see the nightmare creature so docile, but I followed it nonetheless.


    After we went deep and it got dark, his huge eye blinked and light came out like a flashlight.


    "Well, that''s convenient."


    We swam in the dark canyon until we arrived the the huge Netherite door.


    Just as I was about to stop and wait, the door disappeared right in front of me like it wasn''t even there.


    How did it do that?


    Was it some kind of enchantment?


    Or maybe it used something similar to command blocks?


    For now, I didn''t know the answer, but I passed the invisible barrier into the glass dome.


    Welcome back sir, how was your journey?


    That voice made me tremble a little reminding me of the Wither.


    "It was ok, I was lucky enough not to meet with the Wither or the Mad Prince, so I got here quickly."


    I''m glad to hear that. The Wither body was amazing to control, I don''t think I''m able to replicate anything similar even if I use all of my energy.


    That''s impressive, taking into account the fact that Alexa had absorbed a few stacks of soulsand.


    "It was able to survive a hit from the System after all. But I''m already regretting the decision I made."


    The body is indeed powerful since it can keep itself from decaying with that powerful energy source.


    "Are you talking about the Nether Star?"


    My data shows that you''ve mentioned this item before, can you please tell me more about it?


    "From what I know you get that item after you defeat the Wither. Unfortunately, it''s not that useful by itself, and you can only craft one thing with it. A beacon."


    I don''t have anything in my database related to this.


    "Well, since you didn''t know about the existence of the Wither, there''s no surprise you don''t know anything about the beacon either. You have to make a pyramid with different ores and put the beacon on top. Afterwords you select one of the options for a status effect, and pay the price of any ingot. Once all of that is done, in a certain radius, anyone can have the selected effect."


    That sound sounds like a powerful generator, and I don''t think it''s best used to have permanent buffs.


    "I don''t know about that. But since the Wither is much more powerful than I remembered, then maybe the effect of the beacon would be more powerful as well."


    Unfortunately, the only way to find out is by destroying the Wither you made in the underground city. Every test I made was met with failure.


    What do you mean every test you made was a failure, don''t tell me...


    "You tried to make another Wither?!"


    Affirmative.


    "Are you mad, why would you even attempt that? Didn''t you see how dangerous that was? The whole city was killed!"You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I''m sorry if I made you mad, but this would help me grow much faster than previously anticipated.


    But no matter how much I tried to recreate the form you did, nothing seemed to work.


    I''ve been together with Alexa for so long, but I never realized that it doesn''t care about what I think unless it''s connected to itself.


    What a selfish machine, I don''t know if it''s such a good idea to bring it to the top now, but what else can I do?


    I still need its help to defeat the Wither and get home in this lifetime.


    Why are bad things coming one after another now?


    "I don''t know, maybe the System stopped the process, or the heads that I used were that special."


    After all, one of them was the head of a king, and I only beaten him by luck.


    That could be possible.


    I don''t like what I''m hearing, the conversation it''s going in a direction I don''t like, and I didn''t expect this from Alexa.


    I should''ve known something was up when it kept insisting that the Iligers were still eligible to get to its main base.


    While I''m the only one with authority over it, I''m not someone who can change what it''s programmed to do.


    Why do I keep making bigger and bigger enemies?


    Is it because I get my nose in people''s businesses?


    But how is that possible, I don''t even have a nose.


    I was getting distracted, let''s get back to the main point.


    "Well I came here to ask you the methods you spoke about to level up my skills faster, and if you think I have a chance of getting my wish fulfilled if I meet the System."


    With the recent influx of energy, I can afford to create for you the books with the necessary steps.


    As for the meeting with System, I can''t predict its reaction since I don''t have enough data about it.


    Out of thin air appeared thick books that fell into my hands.


    Once I opened them I saw detailed instructions on how to get to the last level on each skill except Trading.


    "Thank you, as for the System talk, I was wondering if there''s an item that would make it think of me as someone else."


    There''s no such item in my database.


    So that try is a bust.


    "Do you think I would be in danger if I meet the System this way?"


    There shouldn''t be any danger, since the System is known to reward people when they achieve such heavy tasks.


    The worst it did was ignore the person who it did not deem suitable.


    That was reassuring to know, but it''s not something guaranteed, so I''ll have to plan something for that as well.


    "What do you plan on doing now, since I want to focus on raising my skills."


    The Wither tried to reach me through the portal you opened, but I was able to stop the attempt.


    I was thinking I should come up with a plan to trap for further studies.


    "You''re very confident for someone who lost the battle last time."


    It''s true that in the last encounter, I was taken by surprise, but this time I''m close to the main body, and my power is much greater than before.


    I can''t deny that, you are very powerful as long as you have the energy and stay in the dome.


    But what you''re fighting against isn''t a human or any other simple creature.


    Instead, you''re going to fight with the Wither, the creature that took a hit from the System and survived.


    "Did your main goal change while you were exploring the world with me?"


    Negative sir.


    I don''t know if that''s a good thing or a bad thing.


    In the end, I could only let out a sigh and shake my head.


    "Just don''t underestimate the Wither, or you could end up losing and being possessed"


    The supercomputer went silent suddenly.


    Did it not consider the fact that it could lose itself?


    That was a lot of arrogance coming from a machine.


    Your worries have been noted.


    I was starting to get tired of this already.


    "Do you know where Violet is? We got separated when the explosion happened and I wanted to ask you if you could make a compass that would point me to her like it did to the General''s men?"


    I''ve been wearing the Netherite armor for a while so that would brake the connection.


    But for the past few days I''ve visited place''s that she''s familiar with, so she should know how to get to them.


    With how many portals I opend in the Overworld I''m sure she had plenty of opportunities to find me.


    Negative. But I can still sense the connection between you two. Even though hers is in a place I can''t reach.


    What does he mean by a place it can''t reach, it''s not the afterlife isn''t?


    Nono, I''d she was dead the connection would''ve been lost, so that means she''s most likely in another dimension.


    Maybe somewhere in the Nether?


    That could be possible since I closed the portal recently.


    I looked at the dome of glass trying to discern what time of the day it was.


    Unfortunately the temple was too deep underwater and I couldn''t see the time of day.


    But when I came here it was around noon, and if a stayed for a few hours that would mean the Perl would get destroyed in 3 more days.


    Until then, I have to stay here and do some training.


    But I can''t do normal training with a supercomputer right besides me, it would be a wasted opportunity.


    That''s why I decided to learn how to use the Crystal, since I need a new body, this wold be the best time and teacher to start learning such complex subject.


    "I would be teleported away in about 3 days. In the meantime, I want to learn how to use the Crystal better, do you think you can help me?"


    Ordered received.


    Then Alexa made me a crystal and I got right to work.


    Alexa created different types of small lifeforms, and I had the task to ''edit'' them.


    It started small, like fishes without a tail or a bunny without a leg.


    My job was to take the existing tissue from them and grow the missing parts.


    It was harder then it sounded like, since Alexa created those poor animals imperfect, it''s harder to ''heal'' them then if they were injured and I had to bring it back to the previous state.


    Slowly, I got from rabbits to cow''s and even iron golems.


    The iron golems were especially interesting to study on, since they''re body are made with metal but are still registered as living beings making me able to change their form to make it stronger or weaker.


    I made a mental note with this experiment since I think I can make my own army of iron golems with them, and who knows maybe a sentient one.


    The final test was trying to change some blocks that are organic, like wood and mushrooms.


    But I didn''t get the chance to stay too much on this subject since it was much harder then the other ones and my time was running.


    After 3 days, the Perl place in Undying house was broken, teleporting me by surprise.


    Perls are such convenient ways to travel, no mater where you are.


    I even asked Alexa if I could modify a Perl so a human can use it permanently like an Enderman, but from what it told me, the Enderman speecies is already a beeing modified by the Crystal or something similar to it.


    It so modified that it surprised Alexa who previously thought you could mold flesh indefinitely.


    In short, the Endeman species is the perfect lifeforms when it comes to teleporting.


    Alexa couldn''t make something better even if it tried to.


    But this makes me wander whats so special about Violet?


    She was able to pass the normal form to something more ''evolved''.


    And where was she?

 Chapter 202. Training ark

    I was suddenly teleported into the Nether, besides Undying who looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a golden axe in her hand.


    "Hi there, I heard you got into trouble recently, and quite a big one as well."


    "Hey Undying! Good to see you as well. Yeah, but I''m trying to fix my mess, that''s why I''m going on a training ark now. How are doing?"


    "Glad to see your still the same from all of those encounters. We''re doing fine, just thinking about what gift to take to Bobby''s wedding, do you have any ideas?"


    So she was worried for me as well, probability thinking that im going to isolate myself.


    But how can I face the people from the Coral Kingdom if I''m going to run away from the mess that I made?


    As for a wedding gift, I don''t think Bobby would have anything specific he''ll want, mine is special on its own, and I really want to see their reaction, but I could give them a few suggestions.


    "You already know how to make Netherite tools, maybe you can give them a sword since it''s more powerful than diamond."


    "That''s a good idea! I''ll have to check and see if we could buy some ingots from the Brutes."


    After she thanked me, she turned and left to prepare the gifts, leaving me all alone.


    "Oh right, I should break the pearl as well."


    On my side I had a bag tied to my pants, and inside this small bag was a Perl.


    With careful movements, I opened the bag and turned it upside down for the Perl to fall to the floor.


    Once the Perl broke, a lovely Allay appeared in front with a cute expression.


    <Hello sir, I hope we''ll have a good adventure from now on.>


    Sometimes it''s hard to believe that this little creature is actually a dangerous machine.


    The world truly is a place filled with mysteries.


    But this Allay was different from before.


    When I was practicing with the Crystal, I realized that I could make the blue angel much durable.


    So with the help of the supercomputer. We took some flesh from the iron golem and merged it with the ghostly flash of the Allay.


    I don''t fully know how that happened, since Alexa did most of the work, but the result speaks for themselves since this body is much more durable and even able to defend itself.


    Now Alexa isn''t a defenseless creature anymore and can enter the attack squad.


    Satisfied that Alexa got safely here, I decided to change my armor to one of gold.


    Alexa told me, it couldn''t feel the location of Violet so I thought she would be somewhere here in the Nether.


    That''s why, to make it easier for her to find me, I decided to stay in the safety of the tribe and spend my day in golden armor since I only needed the cooling effect.


    <What''s the plan for today Sir?>


    "I''m planning on building myself a bunker here in the Tribe. What about you?"


    <My main body is still concentrated on the ''Trap'' project so I can''t use a lot of resources right now. That''s why I''ll be following you until further instructions.>


    "So like usual then."


    I chuckled at its predicament and went right to work.


    I already got permission from Undying to make my own home, so I went a little to the side of her house and started to dig down.


    My Nether banker is not going to be big, or at least not big in compression to my other projects.


    I still need a few rooms, where I''ll store my Enchanting Table, chests, brewing stands, and Crafting room.


    The first room would be the lobby or the entrance to my new home.


    I dug 50 blocks deep and made a large empty room.


    This process was easier but also harder than normal, since I could break the Netherack blocks instantly but had problems with the lava pools.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    It got so dangerous, that I had to put back my Netherite armor so I wouldn''t die by accident.


    Maybe I should''ve brought a fire resistance potion.


    But the first part of the plan was done, so I took out some redwood and started to put the frame of the room.


    The block palette for this room would be redwood, quarts, mushroom lights, and blue lanterns.


    I don''t like the creepy vibes they give to the room, but the cooling effects are too good to pass on, so I decided to use them sparingly but kept them away from my bedroom.


    The next room would be the one that has the Enchaning table, I didn''t plan to make it big, just a few bookshelves on the wall and the Enchanting setup in the middle.


    Of course, I didn''t forget to put a few anvils on the side with a grinding stone.


    Next was the brewing room, and like the previous one it was relatively small.


    It had 4 brewing stands, 2 on the right and on the left, at the end of the room was a small farm for my Nether warts so I wouldn''t accidentally run out.


    The harder part of this was getting the necessary water for potion making.


    Since in the Nether you can''t store water for too long, the people use strider milk instead.


    I was surprised at first with how well this worked, but this is also the reason there aren''t a lot of ptions in this tribe.


    It''s better to drink the milk itself than to waste resources for a potion.


    You could argue that a splash potion would do better, but not everyone appreciates the milk being used this way, it''s seen as a luxury than something you can use every day.


    The problem was that I needed a lot of milk if I wanted to level up my brewing skill, and I don''t think I''d get it here since we don''t have enough striders for that.


    But I''ll leave that problem for future me, for now, I''ll concentrate on the room itself.


    Next was my bedroom, and I decided to make this room small as well since I don''t plan on staying here for too long and it''s not like I can gaze out the window to enjoy the view.


    The room only had a bed and some other furniture, since I planned to make a separate room for storage.


    The next one was the final room and the second largest of them all, the crafting room.


    Since this skill requires a lot of materials, I need a lot of storage, that''s why this room would also have the job of storing all of my items in the Nether.


    The design of the room was simple, as I used blue wood for the main color, and I took this opportunity to use something that I should''ve done a long time ago.


    Hide my chest from the System.


    One of the first questions I asked Solomon was about the secret of his storage system since it would''ve been impossible to store this much-forbidden knowledge without the System interfering.


    The solution is quite easy surprisingly, first I needed to place the chest down and on top of the lid, I had to write a certain formula with Redstone ink.


    In compression with the enchantments I usually do, this felt like a walk in the park.


    It was so easy that it was hard for me to believe that it worked.


    <An interesting way to hide chests.>


    "Hmm? You can tell the distance? I didn''t even enchant this chest so I thought the Mad Scientist lied to me."


    <No, this method of hiding a block is very ingenious. If the System operates like me but on a larger scale, it doesn''t have enough resources to ''see'' things with its eyes. That''s why to preserve energy we do a large scale analyses of the blocks in a certain area.>


    <What this enchantment does instead, is tricking the scanner that this block is a wooden block instead of a chest. And since the answer is written on top, the scanner would take the Enchanting as facts and not bother to search deeper. If I hadn''t seen it with my eyes, I would''ve thought those chests were blocks of wood and nothing more.>


    Is this how it worked?


    It sounds so simple that it doesn''t feel real, but sometimes the right answer is the easy answer.


    The Iligers are truly the descendants of the ancient civilization.


    You could only come to this conclusion after you studied the System closely to make a fake one.


    With the mystery solved, I continued with the rest of the room and stored whatever items I had on me.


    With this, the underground base was done.


    A huge lobby that was more like a hall was connected to all the rooms in the house.


    I was quite proud of what I did and even wanted to brag to the others, but I''ll have the chance to do that later, for now I''ll have to concentrate on the important stuff.


    So today I''ll officially start my training ark, with the enchanting skill being the first one.


    I opened my skill tab and saw that I was level 8 in Enchanting, and I was already halfway done.


    The most efficient way to increase it is to print level 5 enchants, and I''ll most likely do it for this level, but the next one would be the long-awaited one.


    At level 9 I can put the magic resistance on my armor, and with this I would be able to resist any attck an evoker would hit me with and most importantly the potion effects.


    From what I understand, even that Wither bomb was a magical attck.


    I don''t think I''ll be able to tank if it happend again, but I should be able to survive his deadly lesers next time we''ll meet.


    Not only that, but there''s are a few enchantments that I wanted to try for my sword, and with the help of Alexa, I should be able to make the most powerful armor in this world.


    So for the next few days, my time was spent printing pages then placed them in books that ended up on the enchanting table.


    If I didn''t need the enchant, I would put it in the grindstone and get my xp back.


    After a hard day of work I would go eat on the surface and tried to gather information on the Nether, to see if anyone has seen the Wither.


    Unfortunately or fortunately there wasn''t an upcoming invasion with black skeletons, but I did hear that the Mad Prince was preparing for a great war which made everyone nervous including me.


    Did he want to attack the Fortress of the Stone Kingdom or did he find the Wither and decided to challenge it?


    Nobody knew the answer when I asked, so with the day fulfilled, I went back to my underground base and got some rest.


    And for the next few days, I continued like this, making me able to finally reach level 9 in Enchanting.


    I was quite excited when I saw the change in my Skill tab.


    I was so happy that I decided to make the enchantments right there, ignoring the sleepiness that was getting to my head.


    After I made a book for each piece of my armor, I quickly put it on feeling the effects


    "Do I feel more colder then usual?"


    Was the heat of the Nether also magical?


    I didn''t know the answer to that question, and it wasn''t important enough for me to search for it.


    But with my first goal done, I decided to throw a party with the whole tribe.


    It was the best time I had in a while, that I only regretted in the morning since I broke my promis of not drinking.


    But for the rest of the day, the smile couldn''t leave my face.

 Chapter 203. Get the totem

    POV: Daniel


    It''s been a few days since we left Trader House, and the reason we left is still unknown to me.


    When I woke up the next day, he was already gone, and Merry told me that he had something urgent to do, and left.


    I thought that would be the best moment to explore his base and look for hidden chests, but Merry was very persistent on us leaving as soon as possible.


    I think those two have some kind of relationship and they don''t trust me enough to let me in their little group.


    But that wasn''t a problem, since I knew the location of the base and I could come back anytime I wanted.


    We traveled for a day and arrived at a village that was ''managed'' by Trader, and was a lot bigger than I expected.


    It was closer to a town than a village and it even had an iron golem as a guard.


    The villagers were very welcoming and gave us a house without any questions.


    Trader was lucky to meet such nice villagers, first thing he came to this world.


    Speaking of trading, I''ve done my part of the mission even If I died. Do I still get the special trade?


    Just as I was thinking that, a tab appeared in front of my eyes, making me raise an eyebrow.


    On the tab, there was only a single trade, and it required me to pay 10 blocks of diamond, gold, and iron for an unknown item.


    But I could guess what the item was from the shape of the Shadow and because I made a deal with the System.


    Nevertheless, the price was too much for me at the moment, so I''ll have to put this for later.


    Just as I was about to start trading with the Viligers to get my armor back, a group of rough-looking Viligers came looking for us.


    "Oh! Hero Merry, did sir Trader come as well?"


    "Unfortunately no, he had some work to do and couldn''t come. But if you have a message for him, I could pass it next time we meet."


    "Ahh, there''s no need to worry miss, we only wanted to give our mine taxes, since they started to gather. But I guess we could put a few more chests besides."


    So Trader was taxing the villagers in here.


    It was an ingenious plan if you think about it.


    Since you can''t make iron farms with them, this would be the second-best thing.


    But if they need to put extra storage, that means they have a lot of ores just sitting in a chest.


    And didn''t I die because Trader did something stupid?


    Shouldn''t I be compensated for all the items that I lost in that fight?


    I mean he is such a rude person not giving his juniors some iron armor to get here safely, he just abandoned us in the middle of the night.


    "Hey Merry, this place looks very fun, I think I''ll explore around for a while."


    "Hmm? Ok, just don''t accidentally hurt anyone since the Iron Golem would punish you."


    Ohh, I know that already, I''m not a beginner to make such mistake.


    So for the next half an hour, I asked around the village where the mine was and what other facilities Trader had in this village.


    From what I was told, he didn''t have a house in here, the only place that was remotely his, was a hole underground that was usually left alone under the orders of the village chief.


    And the mine was a little further away from it.


    How lucky of me.


    Since Traders hole was in a remote part of the village, I was able to sneak inside without anyone seeing me.


    And once I was inside, I was a little disappointed at what I saw.


    Sure, the place had a few chests here and there with some valuable items, but everything was made with stone and dirt, which was a vast difference from his main base.


    I explored some more and found a Nether portal, which looked much different than what I saw in the game.


    Once I tried to pass the obsidian frame, I was hit by a wave of heat like I was in a sauna.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Not expecting that, I quickly went back to the Overworld and looked at the portal with different eyes.


    "I need to make some preparations next time I''ll visit the Nether."


    After exploring the hole some more and not finding anything new, I decided to take what was valuable and went to visit the mines.


    From what the Villagers told me, the mine wasn''t guarded by anyone since the ones who used it were the miners.


    And when I arrived at the beautifully decorated mineshaft I was proven right.


    It took a lot longer to find the common room in the mine than it was to explore Traders tunnels, but when I found it, I didn''t regret spending that time looking for it.


    There, I saw a double chest filled with iron, copper, gold, and diamonds!


    I can''t believe they payed him so well.


    I wonder how long has this been staying here to get this full?


    But now I had a problem.


    The villagers knew the chest was filled with those ores, so if I took a few stacks, they would notice it.


    Then an idea comes to mind.


    I looked around to get some wood and made a few chests.


    Then I placed them next to each other.


    Once that was done, I took all the ores from the previous chest and split everything into their categories.


    From the iron chest to the diamond chest.


    Of course, since everything was split now, I could take a few stacks and nobody would even know unless they memorized the exact number of ores.


    And even if they did, it''s not like they would suspect me.


    I just got here, and I don''t plan to stay for long.


    Now I was richer than ever before, but had a new problem.


    "Why can''t I make the diamond blocks!"


    Who would''ve thought that I had to be level 7 in the crafting skill for me to make a diamond blocks?


    With my level not even gold is an option.


    How am I supposed to buy the mystery Totem, if I can''t make the blocks?


    Ugh, I have to look for someone with level 7 in Crafting now, and who knows how much I have to pay for it as well.


    What a pain.


    Maybe Merry is high-level enough to do this?


    I should ask her next time we meet.


    Worst case scenario I''ll visit a few cities so I won''t get any suspicious people on my back.


    With the perfect crime done, I left the mines and tried to appear in front of many villagers so I would have an alibi in case things go bad.


    I talked with them, traded, and even told stories from my adventures.


    We stayed in this village for 2 days, and nobody seemed to realize the missing items.


    After we rested and got some good equipment, we continued our journey to the capital.


    There, I got the chance to get my special Totem.


    ----


    "Wow, the capital looks amazing."


    "I know right? And this is not even the palace, they live in a separate area but are very connected. Do you want to visit the castle first or visit the city and explore it? Either way is fine since nobody expects us."


    The walls of the city looked impressive, and it was hard to believe that it was made by mere villagers, truly a fascinating sight to behold.


    But I wanted to get the totem as fast as possible, and Merry told me that there''s someone who can help me at the castle, so that''s why we''ll go there first.


    "I think we''ll visit the castle first. I''m sure you want to visit your friends in there."


    She seemed to be saddened by my choice, did I make a mistake?


    We arrived at the castle, and as promised it was an amazing sight.


    The walls were tall, the guards were looking seriously from all over the place and the garden was blooming with its beautiful flowers.


    That was until a man came screaming towards us with a few panicked guards behind.


    "My love, you''re finally back! I haven''t seen you in months, I thought you abandoned me for the dry deserts."


    The well-dressed villager came running towards Merry with open arms ready to hug her, only to be stopped by a shield in his face, making his huge noise even bigger.


    "Second Prince, I told you to leave me alone, otherwise I would truly leave this Kindome because of you!"


    What an amusing sight to see, they must have a story behind it and I couldn''t stop smiling with how funny the situation looked.


    The guards arrived and dragged the depressed Prince while apologizing to us.


    I could guess why her expression was so sad when I chose to come here.


    We walked further into the castle until we arrived at a huge room where a dozen well-equipped guards were surrounding us, and in the middle stood a throne with the king on top.


    "Hero Merry, I''m happy to see you back, did Sir Trader come as well?"


    Trader was more respected than I anticipated, I wonder what he did to get this popular?


    "No, Your Majesty, Trader couldn''t come with us today. But he promised he''ll participate at the wedding next month."


    Suddenly everyone let out a sigh of relief, like they just heard that their abusive parent won''t be coming home today.


    What did Trader do to get this kind of reputation?!


    "Hey Merry, why are they acting like this?"


    I whispered.


    "Well...Trader may have threatened the royal family to control their army and may had blown up a bomb in they''re back yard to save his friend."


    Man, Trader is another level of the bad guy, why isn''t he hunted by the kingdom then?


    "Is that why he doesn''t like to show his face and hides behind the armor?"


    "Yes and no. While he is reckless he usually solves most of the problems and gives something back and more, making people confused if they should hate him or love him. That''s why most of them end up being afraid of him since whenever he comes, a disaster follows."


    That man managed to traumatize the whole Kindome in two years.


    That''s an amazing achievement, to say the least.


    As I was thinking about this, Merry told the king my story, how I was another hero sent by the System and how the Zombie Lord was killed while the Shadow Lords warehouse was unknown.


    The king was happy to hear such good news and was ready to throw a party to celebrate the end of one calamity that terorized the kingdom for so long.


    Seeing the man in such a good mood, I decided to take this opportunity and ask for someone who can craft with diamonds.


    Merry was surprised by the sudden request, but the king was happy to let me borrow their craftsmen.


    With a smile on my face, I met the villager in question and gave him the smelted ores I had.


    He was impressed by my riches, but didn''t question where I got them from.


    Soon I had all the necessary blocks to purchase the totem, and when I made the trade a huge light apered in my hand that took the form of the totem.


    Once the light went off, I could finally see the awaited item, but it was a little difrent then what I expected.


    "Why is it purple?"


    It had the same shape as in the game, with the exption of the colour.


    Suddenly a note appeared in the air, and on it where written some instructions.


    When I read it, I was impressed by what I had in my hand.


    If this totem is broken, it would telport me to a set location, and if I want to repair it I had to pay the same price as I did to summon it.


    And if I wanted to get a new totem, it would have another unknown effect that could be better or worse.


    But I could never have more then one special totem at a time.


    "As I expected, whenever the System gives something, it''s always amazing."

 Chapter 204. In The End

    POV: Violet


    I felt like I was floating in the darkness, but this kind of darkness wasn''t scary or hurtful, instead, it was a warm embrace that made me calm and happy.


    But a part of me was screaming to wake up, a part of me complained that I wasn''t completed.


    But why should I leave such a comfortable place for the real world? Why do I have to give up this for the uncertainty of the future?


    Suddenly an image came to mind, it took the shape of a human, a good-looking one.


    I felt warm thinking about him, just thinking about our adventures and how good it felt when I hugged him from behind made me feel like I was compleat.


    Then I felt pain in my chest, I knew this human, it was my human!


    WHERE WAS MY HUMAN?!


    I woke up in a hurry trying to feel the connection to my human.


    The connection was still there which meant that he didn''t die, or at least he didn''t die for good.


    But it was too far for me to feel where he was.


    Did he wear his Netherite armor?


    While I was thinking of ways to get back to my human, I looked around and quickly realized that I recognised this place.


    "Back....home?"


    But how was that possible?


    Father told us that if we leave this place we won''t be able to get back anymore.


    Around me, there were floating white islands all over the Void.


    And everywhere I looked there were Endemans and Enderwomans, who looked at me with curiosity.


    But those Endemans were different from the ones in the Overworld.


    Everyone in here was smart enough to speak and build, those were my family.


    <Sweetie is that you?>


    A feminine voice spoke into my head.


    It''s been so long since I met with my fellow people that I forgot we communicate through telepathy.


    Here in the Void, we don''t use our mouths to speak, and the only reason we have them is to absorb more Void energy in case we''re being threatened and get ready to attack.


    When I was in the Overworld, I had to manage my energy with careful precision otherwise I could end up unconscious which is very bad for the Endeman species.


    You can''t afford to fall asleep in the End since you could teleport into the Void to your death.


    <Yes it is, how''s everyone here?>


    <Your voice got deeper. But everything is the same, we''re all floating on rocks in the Void waiting for something interesting to happen.>


    Slowly more and more family members teleported beside me, looking at me with curiosity.


    I even saw some children''s, who were nonexistent in the Overworld.


    I felt a warm feeling in my chest seeing everyone after such a long time.


    The reason I left this place was because I was bored and didn''t have anything else to do.


    Father was always busy with his research and I always wanted to see more of our old world.


    That''s why I trained to become suitable enough to be let into the Overworld.


    After some hard work, I got the permission from Father, but with the condition that I would never be able to get back, even if I found the block of my fate and wanted to give it, to my future partner.


    I didn''t care about blocks that much, even though I knew that I would change my mind in the future.


    As for a partner, I didn''t think I''d be able to find another member of my family in that world since not a lot of them chose to go there, so I was prepared.


    Soon a large crowd gather around me looking with excited eyes.


    They were all thinking of the same thing.


    <So how was the old world?>


    Since we can''t die by old age, that means we are immortals.


    That''s why everyone knows everyone making it a tight community no matter how big the family got.


    There were very few events that happened here, such as the birth of a new family member or someone leaving the Void.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    That''s why, my meare presence in here was like a chest filled with rare blocks that everyone wanted to get their hands on.


    Knowing that I wouldn''t be able to escape them, I let out a sigh and told them some of the adventures I had while I was away.


    They were interested in every word I used to describe the world, at how the people reacted when they saw me, and especially surprised at the existence of another Endeman species that wasn''t as smart as us.


    It''s been a while since I had so much Void energy in my core, and because of that, I didn''t get tired no matter how much I spoke, making the discussion go on for an unknown amount of time.


    It could''ve been an hour or weeks, nobody had anything better to do so they sat beside me as I told them more stories.


    Some of them were even convinced to try their luck in such a dangerous world, which made me happy and worried for them.


    While I wasn''t with my human, I only pranked the villages to my amusement.


    But I knew that I was always playing with fire if I did too much.


    I was still able to be killed after all.


    And once I found my human, the danger seemed to increase by tenfold.


    I was happy at the adventures we went through, but I don''t appreciate it when he kept getting hurt.


    But that''s why I had to be there with him, I had to protect my human from all dangers while also keeping myself entrained.


    But how did I get here?


    I thought Father told me we can never get back here again.


    Did I accidentally teleport here after the explosion?


    But that can''t be possible since I''ve never done it before.


    <Hey, Father has called for you.>


    Everyone went silent and looked at the Endeman who spoke.


    Everyone knew it was talking with me, even though he didn''t use a name.


    Nobody had a name in the family except for Father.


    Whenever we talked through telepathy, we connected to the members we wanted to.


    Plus we used, a different telepathy wave for each person we interacted with, it was similar to names but also difrent.


    <I guess I should go then. We all know he doesn''t like to wait when something catches his eye.>


    Everyone nodded their head understanding what I was referring to.


    With this, I was finally free from the clutches of my family and teleported from island to island towards my destination.


    In my home dimension, there was more Void energy in the air, and if I held my mouth open, I could teleport up to 1.000 blocks.


    And with my new form, I think I could go much further than that.


    But that wasn''t enoigh of a reason for me to rush towards my Father.


    I wanted to enjoy the view of my hometown.


    I teleported for a while until I arrived in front of a huge tear in the space.


    <Father, I''m here!>


    I sent a wave of words towards the block portal, and suddenly I was teleported into a huge room.


    ![<&''ben*=&/& ¡Â*>"(#,=,¡Â* (¡Á*¡ê&¡Â(!(*#;¡Â;¡Â*!!!


    <Father, I can''t understand anything from what you''re saying, please speak normally!>


    The room went silent for a moment, and I got closer to the huge shadow in the middle of the room.


    There stood my father, 10 blocks tall with 2 horns on his head, his eyes were tied shut, and in his chest was a huge eye that looked similar to an Ender Eye.


    Father was chained to 2 obsidian towers that held him in place and on top were Crystals that held him in place.


    But this didn''t seem to bother him, as he looked right at me with a big smile on his face.


    <I''m sorry child, it''s been a while since I spoke to someone face to face.>


    <I can tell that, you have quite the collection of endemites at your legs.>


    <I have? Ohh, that would explain why I was itching all this time.>


    It was hard to believe that over a dozen bites per second was not enough to catch his attention.


    The eye in his chest looked towards the small creatures and all of them froze on the spot before transforming into endstone statues.


    Brutal as always.


    <So how was your journey daughter, I see you have quite a different form from last time we met.>


    Well a lot happened in the past few years, some things were good while others were bad.


    Just out of curiosity, I opened my third eye and looked at my father.


    This was a mistake, as what I was seeing in front of me was similar to a GOD.


    All I could see was darkness and Void, but what scared me was the overwhelming pressure that it gave.


    <Ohh, an interesting upgrade you have there.>


    The eye from the chest looked at me as I closed my third eye from the pain.


    <I didn''t anticipate an Enderwoman would be so affected by pure Void energy. But that wasn''t the only thing that triggered this, otherwise, you wouldn''t had the eye... you must''ve been in a very stressful situation that forced you to evolve.>


    Father kept talking while my headache was leaving.


    As always, he was the smartest man that I ever knew.


    Not even the human that trapped us was smart enough for him.


    <So how was the life with the human, miss Violet?>


    I don''t remember telling him about my human, or my name!


    Did someone else tell him?


    <Do you want to know his real name?>


    That question made my eyes open wide in surprise.


    <Not even the System knows his name, how would you know it?>


    Father just smiled finding my reaction amusing.


    <Of course I know his name, after all, I was the one who summoned him into this reality in the first place.>


    I felt like my mind was emptied in one moment.


    My human has been searching for two things since I''ve met him.


    The reason he''s here and a way to get home.


    I didn''t expect Father to be the one who holds the answer to both of those questions.


    <Why did you do this to him?>


    <Hmm? I thought you''d be more thankful, since you got so attached to him.>


    I care about my human more than anyone in those worlds, but I don''t like my human to suffer, no matter the intention.


    <Then why did you bring me here? You know that I''m satisfied with the life I have now!>


    This was the first time I yelled at my Father, so I was somewhat scared.


    Instead of getting mad, he began to laugh out loud, making the whole pocked dimension tremble from his voice.


    <It''s been years since I laughed so much, I brought that human into this world just to amuse myself. As for why I brought you here, I have to say that''s not fully my work. You teleported before the blast of the explosion hit you.>


    That would make sense, but that didn''t answer my question.


    <But your subconscious knew you couldn''t telpport out of the range, so you teleported in between dimension where you were out of the range, but now in danger of dying differently. That''s why I had to intervene and bring you back home.>


    I didn''t know I could teleport between dimensions....maybe I could use my ability to get him back to his old world!


    <I know what your thinking, but that''s not possible. The only reason you were able to teleport here, is because a connection was already made. So you can only go to the Overworld and the Nether. Where that man came from is another reality, something that I only manged to make a small hole and get a soul out, not a permanent path.>


    That was a shame, I''m sure my human would''ve loved to get home, and I wanted to see his world as well.


    <Then please Father, send me to the Overworld, I want to get back, my human who is waiting for me.>


    <Ohh, what an ungrateful daughter I have. But I''ll have to ignore your request since your not strong enough to survive in that world anymore.>


    What does he mean?


    I''m the strongest Enderwoman that ever lived.


    <From now on, I''ll be training you until you''ll be able to take care of yourself. You lost too many times recently, and I''m ashamed to watch it anymore.>


    My face went purple thinking at those emberesing moments.


    I''m sorry my human, but I''ll have to join you a little later then anticipated.

 Chapter 205. The wedding

    POV: Bobby


    I looked nervously in the mirror at the man dressed in a beautifully purple robe.


    There were golden emblems all over it telling the history of the Royal family and its potential future.


    On my head, I had a farmer''s har filled with colorful flowers and sticks of wheat, representing the humble beginnings of this kingdom.


    Today was a special day, one that I never expected to happen after my exile.


    But after some ups and downs, I was here, ready to take the hand of the Princes as my wife.


    Just thinking about this made me blush a little.


    "Sir Bobby, it''s time to go."


    One of the servants opened the door and gave me the good news.


    I took a deep breath and looked one more time in the mirror before leaving the room.


    I walked down the hallway that was decorated with purple flowers and servants bowing as I passed them.


    It was weird to be in the center of attention for so long.


    Soon I was out in the garden, where dozens of guests were already talking with each other and eating the delicious food on the tables.


    I recognized a few faces in the crowd, some from my academy days while while others were nobles that I met while I worked at the castle.


    But most people I didn''t recognize, most likely they''ve been invited by Elizabeth and her father.


    Today''s mission would be a little tiring since It was my duty to have as many connections as possible.


    I had to do this for myself and in case Trader got himself in trouble again.


    Speaking of him, I don''t see his face in the crowd.


    Did he wear his magical armor?


    It''s a shame if he did that, but I do understand the necessity to hide from the System.


    I went to talk with a few guests, keeping my smile and trying to greet as many people as possible.


    As the host, this was my responsibility, and my wife was working overtime already.


    "Bobby! Man, you look like you haven''t slept in a week, what happened?"


    I turned towards the voice that I quickly recognized.


    "Froggy I''m glad to see you as well. How''s the party for you?"


    "Ehh, I prefer If I was in my workshop right now, but it''s better than dealing with all the drama back home. So overall it''s good."


    I wasn''t the only one who got a promotion in the past few months.


    Froggy was a core member of the Witches Clan, he was the person that was working hard to make it better for everyone.


    He signed a contract with the royal family to send regularly unique potions every month.


    In exchange, we had to allow the Witches to participate in our academy.


    And if they did a good job and caught someone''s eye, they could even work for them.


    This was a long-term program to integrate the Witches into society with high chances of success.


    Because he made so many contributions in such a short time, he was soon chosen to be the head of the Clan.


    Of course, this wouldn''t be possible if he didn''t try his best and have so much success.


    "Did you see Trader by any chance?"


    "No, that''s what I wanted to ask you as well, do you think he has the creepy armor on?"


    If he didn''t greet Froggy, that must mean he''s not here.


    Did he forget about the date?


    Or is he in another situation where he''s not able to come?


    I let out a disappointed sigh and talked a little more with Froggy before moving towards others.


    Just as I was about to meet with Elizabeth, space started to bend in the air, making everyone at the party stop and look at the unusual phenomenon.


    As I was seeing that, a thought came into my mind.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Trader was going to open a portal in the middle of the party!


    That stupid man!


    The Fortress was only a few dozen blocks away, why did he make another one?


    But to my relief, no obsidian frame appeared.


    Instead, 3 people strangely dressed fell from the sky.


    "wwwwWWAAAAAAHHHHHH-UGH!"


    The trio hit the ground with a loud bang, but luckily, no one was underneath them so only they got hurt.


    As for who dared to crash my wedding, it was none other than Trader himself with Blue and Undying.


    I had to stop the guards who were quickly getting ready to arrest them and looked at the trio with a mad look.


    "Sorry, Bobby! It wasn''t my intention for this to happen, I think I put the wrong coordination and ended up in the sky. I only wanted to surprise you!"


    I wanted to be so angry at him, but I couldn''t since this was something I expected him to do in the first place, so the only thing I could do was laugh out loud.


    "Good to see you friend, I thought you wouldn''t come."


    "How could I miss the wedding of my best friend!"


    His casual deminer always made me smile, bringing back memories from the time we were adventuring together.


    I looked at him and saw that he was wearing something strange again.


    He had some black pants with a white shirt and a black jacket on top with somthin dangling from his neck.


    Undying wore a beautiful red dress that covered her left leg letting the other exposed.


    It had sharp teeth and task as ornaments that made it all look like it came from a tribe but still had a charm of elegance.


    Looks like someone told her that she doesn''t need to bring the Hog head since I could see her face and red hair dancing in the wind.


    Blue like his name, wore a blue robe with enchanted language and images of different kinds of potions.


    All of them stood out like a pink sheep with a mustache, but we all could feel the elegance of their choice.


    "Now come! You already got a lot of attention, do you want to stay in it until my wedding ends."


    They all quickly followed me as we joined the crowd.


    Some of them looked with worry, while others with curiosity at their entrance.


    But the ones who knew the people, greeted them with a smile, and just like that, the atmosphere returned to normal.


    "Bobby, I almost forgot to give you the gift."


    I turned around and saw the trio again, but this time they had something in their hands.


    Blue had a green potion, Undying had a black sword that I saw Trader use which took me by surprise, and Trader had a golden statue.


    The potion would increase my thinking speed for an hour, and the sword, was as expected something much stronger than the one made of diamond.


    Crazy Treader, I''m sure he must''ve suggested this to them.


    I don''t think he realizes that this sword could cause a war to start, and it wasn''t even enchanted yet!


    As for the statue Trader had, it was called a Totem.


    "That totem can bring you back to life from the dead, and give you regeneration plus a few extra hearts to sacrifice in case you''re hit again. Not only that, but you''ll have speed 4 for 10 seconds, so you must get out while the buff is in effect."


    My mind went blank trying to process what he was talking about.


    "I''m sorry, I heard you say that this thing would bring me back to life, but that can''t be true. How could such an item exist?"


    "You heard right my friend, this totem can take the final hit from you, make you almost invincible for a few seconds. I hope you never have to use this, but keep it in your inventory just in case."


    My hands already began to tremble with the item in my hands, it was so bad that I thought I would drop it and break it.


    "I-I can''t accept this Trader, you must hold to it, I''m sure you need it more than me!"


    Is this how you came back to life from the Sultan''s party?


    But I saw your corpse in front of me, so I don''t think it had the same effects.


    Plus, If anyone would hear that I have this in my possession, I don''t think I''ll be able to sleep with my eyes closed anymore.


    Every nobble and assessin would come after me!


    Why do you have to do something crazy every time we meet?!


    "Don''t worry, I already have a few more for me and for my friends. Not all of them have the special effects, but just the fact that it brings you back to life it''s enough."


    Please don''t speak, I can''t take this anymore!


    POV: Froggy


    Trader sure knows how to make an entrance.


    How did he even appear in the air like that?


    Did he have some other abilities that he didn''t tell me besides not dying?


    No, if he could teleport whenever he wanted, we wouldn''t been stuck at the palace for so long.


    So it must be one of the crazy items that he thinks are normal.


    I saw how he and his small group went to speak with Bobby, only to see him getting more pale with each conversation.


    After Trader spoke with him, he was almost as pale as me.


    It was quite a funny to see.


    But looks like I was next on the chopping board since my friend seemed to notice me as well.


    "Froggy! Long time no see, how are the Elders doing? I hope they don''t take advantage of your kindness."


    There''s a high chance they are, but it''s not like I didn''t like to help the Clan, so I don''t mind.


    "No, why would they do that? And speaking about Elders, Flora wants to meet with you for some special potions."


    Flora''s potions were truly something to admire.


    I know we are not limited by the System with skills, but I feel that her potions are something beyond level 7.


    I tried to ask her about this, but she kept smiling while telling me not to worry about this.


    Even though I was technically her boss, she still treated me like a child.


    "Ohh, I have to visit your place as well then. I think I''ll upgrade your chest while I''m at it so the System wouldn''t be able to see them."


    As always, he spoke crazy statements like it was nothing.


    We talked some more, about our adventures and funny stories.


    Mine weren''t as exciting as his, but he was very happy to hear them nonetheless.


    Our conversation was suddenly intruded by the sound of a bell, which made everyone silent and looked at the podium.


    "Ahem, everyone please get to your seats so the ceremony can start!"


    A well dressed man yelled, and everyone went towards their seats.


    Music was suddenly in the air, and two men dressed in elegant cloths slowly walked the way towards the altar with a pillow that had Perls in their hands.


    I recognised one of them beeing the king, but didn''t know who the nervos man was.


    And why were they holding perls?


    They soon arrived at the altar and turned towards the crowd, then the music stopped.


    "Today we are all gathered here to celebrate a special occasion, we are here to witness the end of an old life and start a new one! Today we are here to see a woman-"


    The king then broke the Perl and the princess suddenly appeared in a beautiful red dress with a regal face.


    "And a man-"


    The other man broke the Perl as well, and Bobby apered besides the Princes with a nerves look but still determined.


    "Those two chose to leave their parents side, and become one. Bobby, do you take Elizabeth Mending as your wife and queen?"


    "Yes I do."


    "Elizabeth Mending, do you take this man as your husband and King?"


    "Yes I do."


    "With the power gifted to me by the System, I now declare you husband and wife! May you two have a long and happy life."


    Everyone broke in cheers as the newly couple kissed.

 Chapter 206. Time passed

    I was on top of a Nether hill looking at the bastion beneath me.


    It was one of the bigger ones I''ve seen with a lot of Brutes walking up and down patrolling the walls.


    But those Brutes were different from the others, all of them were 3 blocks tall with black skin and empty eyes.


    It was a recently discovered phenomenon, that brought confusion throughout the Nether.


    And the reason soon showed itself, in the form of a black skeleton.


    Yes, this bastion was occupied by the Wither, or more exactly it was under his flag.


    For some reason, it started to conquer one settlement after another and enslave the people inside it.


    Once they were corrupted by its power, they grew more powerful but became mindless beasts like the skeletons.


    There were a few exceptions, those who pledged their loyalty to the Wither in exchange for power and keeping their sanity.


    Those people were the ones managing the bastions where the Wither wasn''t present.


    As for the reason all of this happened, Alexa theorized that it tried to take over the Nether system like itself.


    There''s a chance it managed to steal some memories from Alexa while it was first in control but didn''t have the necessary knowledge to make a base for itself.


    That''s why he tried to gather an army for himself to attack the Nether Kingdom.


    He does have the strength to make an ungodly amount of skeletons, but he can''t make them smart, for that he needs the people of the Nether who aren''t all willing to join his side.


    The plan was great, he tried to invade Alexa from the last connection he knew and slowly gathered his army to attack the other Nation.


    But on both fronts, it failed.


    Alexa could always feel the shift in space and stopped any attempts of portal forming, and because of its vast energy, its domain was much bigger than the first time we met.


    What''s even funnier, is that the Wither wasn''t strong enough to fight the System seriously, so he could only attempt to make portals in Alexa''s domain of control, otherwise, the System would appear instantly and deal with the Wither if he dared to cross the obsidian frame.


    As for his army gathering, it began with great success, only for the Mad Prince to find out about it, and quickly dispatch his army against the settlements he conquered.


    Surprisingly, the Brutes army overwhelmed the Withers army.


    No matter how big the bastion was, the Prince''s army always won.


    The only battles the Wither won, were the ones he participated in, and even those it was more like he defended his base than defeating the opposing army.


    The Wither was powerful by itself, and even a good commander, but the Mad Prince seems to be a beast on his own.


    It was reassuring to hear that my mistake didn''t mess up the whole world, but that didn''t mean I sat down and rested for the past 7 months.


    I''ve been training nonstop and made great progress.


    And today, I was going to test my training by taking over this infested bastion.


    I put my spyglass down and took a deep breath, this spyglass was more special than the others, it was enchanted.


    Whenever I looked through it, I could see at great distances and knew the exact coordinates of that place.


    I took those coordinates and noted them down in my book.


    Then I took out my red ink and wrote an enchanted square with the coordinates I just got.


    "This should be enough, the next patrol team is going to arrive in 5 minutes, plenty of time to take over the bastion."


    With the preparations done, I drank a few potions and placed a Perl in the center of the square.


    Besides the square was a smaller one connected by a thin red line.


    Inside the small square, I placed a lapis ore, which quickly turned to dust making the whole formula glow a faint red.


    As the light got to its peak, the Perl disappeared, and suddenly I was on top of the walls.


    This was one of the big findings from my training.


    After I maxed out my level in Enchanting, I concerted on the more unique enchants of the ancient civilization, and one of them was a teleporter.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    That was what I called a portable Enchanting.


    The reason for that is becouse you don''t need an Enchanting table to make it work, and it has the properties of teleporting something at the exact coordinates you set.


    Unfortunately, you can''t teleport living beings so I couldn''t become a knockoff Enderman.


    But pearls are not considered living beings, which meant that I placed one in the square and teleported myself that way.


    Alexa was impressed with my ingenuity and even praised me.


    I looked down at the interior of the Bastion and saw a large army of black skeletons and a dark throne with a brute on it, who was laughing by himself while playing with gold.


    "Just as I expected, this place is infested with corruption. The only reason it hasn''t been dealt by the Prince is because it''s too far in the border."


    That''s why I chose it instead.


    I took a device out of my inventory and threw it in the middle of the skeleton army.


    The device hit the head of a soldier and then on the floor, making a loud noise.


    Everyone turned towards it and looked with confusion.


    Suddenly the device turned on making a low beeping sound, and then a huge dome appeared above the army.


    The sentient brute panicked and ran out of the blue dome, right on time as the item started to take effect.


    This device had one job, and it was to slowly attracted everyone towards it.


    The skeletons tried to run away from it, but couldn''t since these items worked like water.


    You could outrun it if you were a human, but if you were a mob it would''ve stopped you or brought you towards it.


    "The first step is done."


    Next, I took out a white potion and threw it in the middle of the crowd.


    As it hit the skull of the skeleton, it broke and white flame began to spread all over the crowd.


    Those flame were special since it was a combination of regeneration and a flame potion.


    That''s why, this was the best method to attack a group of undead since it would spread everywhere as long as there were undead nearby.


    The fire continued to spread and the skeletons died one by one until everyone was just charcoal.


    "You! How dare you destroy the army given to me by the Wither! I''ll kill you for this!"


    While the fire worked for the undead, the corrupted Brutes were not considered undead, which would result in healing them if I threw the white potion.


    And while I dealt with the majority of the army, they were just foot soldiers, the corrupted Brutes were the elites.


    They came at me with great speeds, so the device wouldn''t stop them even if I threw another one, but I was prepared for this.


    From my bundle bag, I took out 3 miny iron golems and threw them on the ground.


    Once they hit the floor, they locked like normal toys, but one second later they grew back to their original size and looked at me for the next instruction.


    "Defeat the Brutes while I''ll deal with their boss."


    They all turned towards the wave of enemies and began to attack, decimating everyone in their way.


    As for how I managed to put the golems in my inventory, it''s another result of my research in Enchanting.


    Since Golems are technically living beings and not at the same time, the Enchanting tattoos were much more compatible than the ones for Merry.


    But I could only put one permanent enchant, and I choose to make them smaller and more portable.


    When you pass the 8-level mark at any skill, you get some pretty wacky recipes.


    The bundle is one such item, that makes my inventory a little bigger, even though it''s specialized for individual items.


    Perfect for my portable army.


    As the golems became the perfect distraction, I turned my eyes toward the brute who was controlling everything from a safe distance.


    Unfortunately for him, I was on top of the walls, so he couldn''t see that his army was decimated in great numbers, otherwise he would''ve run.


    Not only that, but because of all the fighting noise the golems were making he lost sight of me, making my next action easy.


    On my back, I had a red cape filled with enchanted language.


    The man was around 30 blocks away from me.


    If I jumped from this high, there''s a chance that I''ll survive at half a heart, and not be able to walk for a while.


    And writing another teleportation circle would take too much time.


    That''s why, I was going to use the cape to get to him.


    I jumped off the edge towards the ground.


    Gravity did its job and brought me down faster and faster until I grabbed the cape by the edges and spread it like wings.


    When I did that, all the momentum began to die down until I reached the ground with no damage received.


    This cape was the result of me, trying to create an elytra with no success.


    Phantoms existed in this world, but only in cold biomes, and Alexa didn''t have any recipes for the magical wings.


    That''s why I tried to recreate the effect using enchantments with some success.


    This cape was specially made from dyed Hog skin, and enchanted with Feather Falling.


    And since the cape had such a large surface area, it acted as a parachute.


    And no matter what height I''m falling from, I can always land safe if I spread my ''wings''.


    Unfortunately, that''s the only thing they did, since I couldn''t travel in the air like with the Elytra, but it was still a good item.


    While I did land safely on the ground, the Brute leader now saw me fom my quite big entrance.


    "You''re the one who made all this mess? How dare you attack this place, do you realize who you''re up against?"


    I didn''t see a reason for me to continue this conversation, so I began to run towards him with my sword out.


    The Brute cursed at me and took out his shield and weapon ready for a fight.


    In my right hand I had the sword, and in my left hand I had some blocks, and as I was getting closer to him, I began placing the blocks making a staircase.


    The man got spoked for a moment and raised his shield to block my attack.


    But I switched the blocks with a Perl, and threw it right behind him.


    I managed to hit the shield with my legs before I was teleported, and right as I did that, I slashed the man''s behind, leaving a burning scar.


    The Brute jumped forward in pain and began to yell and curse while putting out the fire.


    I found out that the Fire Aspect enchant had the addition ability to inflict a lot of pain to my enemies.


    That''s why you needed a special permit in the Overworld to use it.


    Good thing I wasn''t there.


    The man manged to put out the fire faster because of his armor, but he still took some damage.


    "You bustard, I''ll kill yo- AAAHHHHHHH!"


    I was getting tierd if his cursing, so I threw a dark potion towards him, making him catch on fire once again.


    But this time he died in a few breaths.


    This potion was another dangerous one, since it was a combination of Instant damage and Fire.


    This combination made the flames more deadly and harder to put out, making a good weapong against any kind of armor.


    Solomon and Blue had a bleast coming up with these.


    The battle was over, and the golems almost finished up as well.


    A battled that required a whole army was dealt with only one person.


    I would say that this was a great success!


    "It''s time to meet the System."

 Chapter 207. Meeting with the System

    I looted whatever was valuable from the bastion and used a teleporting square to get back home.


    Once inside, I let out a big sigh and placed everything in this respective chest.


    Then, I took out some iron ingots and began to tend to my golems.


    While I could make others if needed, it wasn''t an option I wanted to use.


    Since Enchanting golems was hard.


    I couldn''t use a book to enchant them and be done.


    Instead, I had to write the enchanting language on their iron skin, then go through a long process of waiting for the Enchanting table to figure out what exactly it was scanning.


    And sometimes the enchanting would fail, making me look for the miniscule mistake.


    For now, I had a full bundle bag of them, and it was enough to deal with anything that come my way.


    With the golems heald, I put them back and went towards the surface.


    On the way there I passed a few rooms that weren''t here a few months ago.


    Since I was stuck here for so long, I used that opportunity to decorate some more, making it more welcoming.


    As I was progressing in the Crafting skill, I made a few additional rooms to test the new items, such as the block that would take out an item from the inventory.


    I tried to see if I could make it portable or take more than one item, but with no success.


    And the room where I tried the new weapons.


    There were a few unique ones at level 8, but all of them were at iron level, making them interesting but not practical enough to replace the Netherite sword.


    I arrived at the tribe that remained unchanged.


    Since I decided to concentrate on training, I didn''t go on a spurge to renovate this place.


    Which was probably for the best, since the people here liked to live a simple life, and with my buildings it would become more than that.


    I walked towards the giant tree and opened the door with ease.


    I''ve been here so often, that I would feel uncomfortable if I had to knock on the door again.


    The living room seemed to be empty, which probably meant that Blue was already in the basement doing some experiments with the Mad Scientist.


    Not having any reason to wait, I went downstairs only to see Solomon working on one of his projects together with Alexa.


    But no Blue in sight,


    "Hey Solomon, where''s Blue?"


    "Huh? Oh, it''s just you... that young man just left me alone and went on a date with his wife. Can you believe that? Why would he do something so pointless when he could uncover the secrets of the world with me."


    I don''t know if he was jealous that Blue found someone or annoyed that he''s alone now.


    As for Blue, he got married to Undying 5 months ago.


    When we went to Bobby''s wedding, they were in awe at the ceremony.


    And Blue got the courage to ask Undying out when they arrived back home.


    It was a funny sight to see, especially at the beginning when they didn''t know how to act towards each other, but then it got annoying as they became more lovely and acted as a couple.


    For some reason, it made me bitter, and Solomon had to suffer even more since he lived in their basement.


    Poor man.


    But I didn''t trust him enough to be let out of leash.


    <Hello sir, was your hunt successful?>


    "Of course, that''s why I''m here."


    Since Blue and Undying were gone, Alexa was supposed to watch over the Mad Scientist, but unfortunately, I didn''t trust Alexa enough not to be persuaded by the Mad Scientist to join his side.


    That is why the real guard was calmly sleeping in the corner of the room, unbothered by the noise we were making.


    The guard was Hog Chop, who got very big in the past few years.


    He is so big, that we needed to make a new entrance just for him so he could go outside.


    He was pretty popular in the Tribe, which resulted in him getting lots of treats from everyone, making him more big than anticipated.


    But his strength can''t be denied.


    Since he had so much mass, his attacks really hurt, and since he grew up with a potion maker, he was surprisingly strong against magic.


    Most failed experiments ended up in his stomach, making him the most eco friendly trashcan.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    "Finally some good news, I hope you brought a sample."


    I smiled and put the chopped bits of the leader on the table.


    "What''s with this lump of coal?"


    "I''m sorry, but the black flames were more powerful than anticipated, and this is the result."


    "Tsk, and he was supposed to have minor fire resistance from the Withers blessing. Let''s see if I can salvage something from all of this."


    While the Mad Scientist complained a lot, he was actually excited, since this was something new to the world that not even the ancient civilization found.


    And he would be one of the first to uncover its secrets.


    "While you 2 have fun, I decided I''ll be stepping into the Overworld."


    Both of them stopped and looked at me with wide eyes.


    "So you''re finally going...do you think it''s worth it?"


    "I don''t have a choice, I''ve been stuck here for 7 months. Even with my armor, I feel that if I stepped out of the portal I would be taken to the System."


    "Hmm, it''s possible, after all Skills are connected to your soul and shine like glowstone in the dark when you have one Maxed. I wish you good luck, but can I keep Alexa if you die?"


    I gave a large smile while closing my eyes.


    "No."


    "I figured, good luck then."


    <We wish you luck.>


    With everything done here, I went back to the surface and enjoyed the view of the tribe one last time as I was getting back to my home.


    Not the one underneath the Tribe, but the main one besides the spawn.


    I was going back to my first home.


    Even though the journey took a few hours, it felt like minutes passed, and once I was in front of the huge portal I was hesitant to make the big step.


    I took a deep breath and looked once more at my Skill tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILLS


    _Crafting lvl MAX


    _Enchanting lvl MAX


    _Brewing lvl MAX


    _Trading lvl 4


    60.600/100.000


    ________________________________________


    Those past few months have been very hard, but the results showed themselves clearly on my tab.


    I reached the pinnacle of 3 skills!


    I don''t think anyone in history managed to get this far without meeting the System.


    But today, I was going to overwhelm the System with my achievements so it wouldn''t turn me down.


    Then, it would came down to negotiation to not kill me and what I could get.


    I drank a regenerative potion and took off my armor.


    I didn''t want to irritate it if possible.


    Then I stepped into the Overworld.


    Suddenly I felt three hooks into my soul, and all of them pulled me at the same time into a large white space.


    In front of me, I saw a huge golden figure of an angel, and I had the sudden urge to worship it as a God.


    You came back much quickly than expected, let''s see what you achieved.


    ...


    You''re not the hero, you''re that insufferable pest!


    And you maxed out 3 skills!


    The subject is out of proportions, I request for the admin to intervene.


    The mighty angel suddenly disappeared, leaving me alone in the white plane.


    "Did I....did I break the System?"


    I''m not that easy to brake.


    A voice spoke from behind me and I quickly turned.


    In front of me stood being as tall as me with roughly the same shape.


    But the colors were different, this System looked like molted gold constantly running, with the occasional circuit here and there.


    I didn''t feel overwhelming as the huge angel, but I did feel like the power was more condensed and pure.


    The anomaly that invaded my world 3 years ago, we finally met.


    "Uhhh, I greet the mighty System!"


    I said that while bowing beautifully.


    HAH, only now you show me respect? You didn''t seem to have a problem cursing me a few years back.


    I chose to remain silent on this subject


    Silent I see, now why did you come here, while you don''t have a normal life, I don''t usually see you rushing to your death...at least not intentionally.


    ...


    Aha, so you maxed out all the skills with the exception of Trading, quite an achievement. One that should be reworded.


    Now.


    Suddenly the pressure in the room increased until I could bearly breathe.


    I didn''t even try to stand up, I was on the ground trying to gasp for air.


    As you can see, I can kill you right now, and you''ll be gone for good.


    Tell me, why shouldn''t I do that after you brought such a wrecked being into my world?


    I don''t even want to know how you made it. And yet you spawned a seed of a God.


    A slippery one like you nonetheless.


    After a few seconds of silence, the pressure was gone, and I could finally breathe.


    "That was a complete accident! I didn''t know it would be sentient much less this powerful. And it''s not like I did only bad things, I also helped the hero defeat the Monster Lords, and other Nation with their problems."


    Yet you''re also helping the Witches who are people punished by me, you''re also bringing items from the forgotten past that should''ve stayed forgotten, and let''s not talk about that annoying armor of yours.


    It''s so full of hatred.


    Try again, convince me why I shouldn''t kill you and be done with the plaything of THAT man.


    Looks like the System knows more them me with how I got here.


    Would it be generous enough to explain it to me as well?


    But first, I had to convince the System that I shouldn''t be killed.


    I mean it didn''t do this already, so that means it wants something from me.


    I only need to know what that thing is, or make one myself.


    "You need me to defeat the Wither."


    Hahahahaha!


    The System started to laugh out loud and the whole plain trembled.


    You died last time you fought him, why do you think you have a chance of defeating him now?


    "That''s why I''m here for, to get an upgrade. And this should be urgent for you as well, since the Wither is trying to take over the Nether."


    Why should I care about that place. I made it specifically becouse I don''t want it.


    "He''s trying to become the System of the Nether, not the Ruler."


    The System went silent and looked deeper within my soul like it was searching for something.


    I see, so that was the secret weapon the people of the past spoke about.


    I''ll have to deal with it later.


    But it''s true, if the Wither manges to take over the Nether, it would try and attack me.


    What did it see?!


    Did it read my memorie?


    Did it find out about Alexa?


    No, it should be fine even if it found out. I can still teleport chests with soulsand to fight of the Wither and the System if necessary.


    Plus, it''s not like the System can afford to split it''s attention.


    It''s hero''s are not powerful enough yet, and if the Nether attacks, the End would surely join in as well.


    So it would be in its interest to accept my help.


    Ok human, what do you wish for?


    I did it!


    "Can you teleport me back to Earth?"


    No.


    Uff, this hurted more then expected.


    "Why? You can sent back the hero''s with no problems. You don''t even need to teleport me now, you can do that after I defeated the Wither."


    Calm down human, it''s not that I don''t want to send you back, it''s just the one who brought you here has control over you, and I don''t want to waste energy trying to wrestle you out of his hands, no mater how satisfying that would be.


    So chose something else.


    Again with the beeing from the End.


    What was his problem.


    He didn''t even talk with me once!


    In the end I could only sigh and went with plan B.


    "How about..."

 Chapter 208. Feeling the fresh air

    When I opened my eyes I was back at the portal In the Overworld.


    "Well I''m back and alive, so I''ll take this as a plus. Now let''s get the new item."


    What I chose was too costly for the System to create, that''s why I had to give up the rewards from the other 2 skills.


    But it was very worth it, even though it was expensive to make.


    Funnily enough, I had to use all Skills to complete this item, but luckily for me, they already existed in this world, so my wish wasn''t wasted.


    First I need to make a conduit, and for that, I need to heart of the sea which is an item found only in a treasure chest in the game.


    But since I''m at the pinnacle of the Crafting skill, I can craft one on my own.


    I already have a catalog with all the unique items Alexa has in its storage, and from what I remembered, I needed 4 blocks of diamonds, 4 blocks of lapis, and one seashell in the middle.


    I went into my chest room to get the necessary materials, only to see a sign in the middle of the room.


    ---------


    Dear Trader.


    I needed a few materials to level up my Crafting skills, sorry for the sudden announcement, I promise I''ll pay you back later.


    From: Merry Paper


    ---------


    "What do you mean you took a few items to level up?!"


    I ran towards the chests and checked their inventory, and to my horror, everything was gone!


    Or at least everything of value was gone.


    Diamonds, iron, gold, lapis, potion ingredients, and much more were all gone from my precious chests.


    "Who could''ve done this?!"


    The sign said that it was Merry, but I didn''t believe a word of it.


    First of all, Merry knew my location all this time, if she needed some items she could''ve asked for them directly from me.


    Not only that, she doesn''t even need my help with sponsoring her with materials, since she has good connections with the royal family in the Stone Kingdom and the Pope.


    And last but not least, the materials that are missing are the precious items and rare ones.


    Merry already knows I have Alexa and the shortest way to max out any skill.


    But the items that are missing, showed that the person who did this would try to brute force itself all the way to the end.


    That''s just a waste of resources.


    And there was only one person who knew me and Merry, and the location of my base.


    Daniel!


    That thief!


    I''m sure Merry didn''t tell him the location of my base, but it''s not hard to find if you know where players tend to hide their secret stashes.


    It didn''t help that I made it so huge, so if you dug down enough, there''s a high chance you''ll find it.


    And sure, he died one time because of my mistake, but this is too much.


    And he''s trying to frame Merry for it as well!


    What a devious man. I have to make him pay for this, after all, he did say he''ll pay me back.


    But I''m now broke no matter how you spin this tale, and with how many items are missing, means he''s been back here a couple of times.


    What should I do?


    I still need a few precious items that I don''t have, and I don''t feel like going on a mining expedition just for them to be stolen again.


    Just in case he''ll be back for whatever reason, I''ll put a sign of my own to warn him of the dangers of robbing me.


    Let''s say I don''t mind him being on equal hearts as me.


    But I still need a lot of items for my craft.


    Luckily I had an emergency stash in my Ender Chest, but I''ll only be able to do one part of the Crafting recipe.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    When I made the request, I already knew in my mind how to make the item, which made this very convenient and scary to think about.


    It was a big gamble on my part to meet the System so defenseless.


    I had an emergency plan, but I didn''t know if it would work in the first place, so I''m glad it didn''t get to use it.


    I placed the Ender Chest down and took out a few diamond and lapis blocks.


    From the other chests, I took some redstone, wood, and a sea shell.


    The recipe for the heart of the sea was simple but expensive.


    - 4 Blocks of diamond, one in each corner


    - 1 seashell in the middle


    - 4 blocks of lapis in the rest of the squares


    The second item I could make was the Storage block.


    This was one of the most essential items for Alexa, and it had the role of storing the energy from all the blocks absorbed.


    The recipe is:


    - 1 Redstone Block in the middle


    - 4 Chests in each corner


    - 4 Diamond blocks in the rest of the squares


    A black block with blue lines all over the place aperead in front of me.


    This bad boy could store up to 1.000 blocks of soulsand worth of energy.


    And the best part about this is, I can make it even better by Enchaning it.


    But for what I wanted, I only needed one enchantment, and that was ''Absorption''.


    This enchantment is supposed to make the Energy Storage block, easier to draw power from.


    For the next item, I needed to speak with Solomon to make his famous ''absorption'' potion as well.


    It would take a while to get all the necessary items, but it was a good thing since I also had to go on a shopping trip.


    I haven''t seen the sun for a few months after all.


    I dearly miss the grass touching my feet, and a cool bath sounds amazing as well.


    I took everything for granted until I didn''t have access to them.


    But now I learned my lesson, and I''ll enjoy this dimension some more.


    "You know what, I''ve been constantly training and suffering for the past few months, I should do something more fun, not stressing about getting revenge on Daniel or rushing to finish this item."


    I wanted to visit a few places, relax some more, and have some fun in the Overworld.


    That''s what I promised myself after all!


    With the new plans in mind, I loosened my shoulders and went towards the surface.


    The water elevator was nice and relaxing, and even stayed for a while before drying my clothes.


    Once I was out of the castle, I didn''t have my armor on since there wasn''t any need to hide from the System.


    And I wore it too much in the Nether to get the cooling effect.


    I tried making an enchanted bracelet with Solomon and Blue, but it was hard to make something that''s resists the rough life of a Pigling, and be cheap.


    That''s why that project was paused until we found a better solution.


    As soon as my armor was off, I could feel the fresh air and warm sun on my exposed skin.


    "This feels so nice...I think I''m just going to lay down on the grass and maybe take a nap."


    Of course, this action would be reckless if I didn''t do it in the garden.


    After all, I could oversleep and be attacked by monsters at night.


    That would be a stupid way to die.


    But in the compounds of my walls, there wasn''t any place where a monster could spawn from.


    Even the Spiders, didn''t have a chance at scaling my walls.


    After all, it was defended by some trusty showmens, that would throw off any unwanted guests.


    It''s a shame that it doesn''t attack thieving players since I would''ve enjoyed the thought of Daniel getting hit in the face with a snowball.


    I choose a lovely spot in my garden and fell asleep in just 10 minutes.


    Once unconscious, I dream about flying through the world, seeing new biomes, abandoned ruins, and different kinds of villages.


    After 2 hours, I woke up feeling sore all over my body but with a refreshed mind.


    That dream, put fuel in my adventurous heart, making me think of exploring the destroyed continents, just to see what it has.


    I had to slap my face to get out of that trans.


    This wasn''t the time for me to get distracted!


    Now I had to concentrate on preparing for the final battle!


    But everything would be too slow if I was going at this pace. But this dream gave me an idea of how I could solve this and get a new adventure.


    For that, I needed 2 horses.


    The sun was still up in the sky, so I had ample time to look around the base and see if there were any animals.


    Just as I was about the leave, I suddenly felt that my soul was getting hit by something, and I quickly recognized what it was.


    "That cursed System! It didn''t take the curse off me at all! I still can''t stay in the Overworld."


    I was beginning to take more damage, making me panic.


    Since the effects begun to hit, that means I have to run towards the Nether portal.


    Even if I put my, armor or bracelet on, I would still take damage since I was marked.


    Without hesitation, I run back towards my secret base, losing more hearts on the way.


    This was the first time I was annoyed that the bubble elevator wasn''t fast enough.


    By sprinting all the time, I arrived in the Nether with half a heart left.


    As soon as I felt that I was safe, I ate a golden carrot after another.


    "Phew, that was way scarier then anticipated. I think this is the System''s way of getting revenge on me."


    While I did say that it needed me to defeat the Wither, the problem was in the Nether dimension, so I don''t ''need'' a reason to stay in the Overworld.


    What an annoying System.


    Isn''t it supposed to be a machine?


    Why does it have the concept of grudge?


    Now I had to choose between wearing armor or a bracelet!


    The Anti-System bracelet is so powerful that it filles the slot for the chest plate, but at the cost of making me defenseless most of the time.


    At least it had similar function as the Netherite armor, since it doesn''t only hide me from the System, but from everyone as well.


    You could say it does a better job then the armor, since even if your looking for me specifically I won''t be found.


    We had to make a neckles so it would make this effect weaker for Bobbys wedding.


    In the end I chose to wear the armor, since I preferred it that way.


    While I was down here, I also made a few speed potion, saddle and took some wheat.


    I drank one potion and went back to the surface to look for horses.


    And I was lucky to find a group an hour away from my base.


    "Jackpot! There''s 4 horses."


    With 4 horses I could breed another 2 generations right as the newborns are grown.


    I got closer to them without my armor, which still made them cation, but when I showed the wheat in my hand, they became friendly very quick.


    I feed one each and tried to stay on their back.


    Some of the let me while others were very against it.


    I didn''t know if I tamed them, since no hearts came out like in the game, and when I tried to put a saddle on then they didn''t like it.


    I tried to lure them to my base with the wheat, but they didn''t seem to interested in doing that, being happy with what I gave them.


    "Looks like I''ll have to bring out my secret weapon."


    Then I took out a golden carrot which quickly got their attention.


    They started to followed me like they were hypnotised all the way to my base.


    I build a bigger bridge over my trap ditch, and lead them inside.


    Once I put the golden carrot back in my inventory, they looked around confused at the new environment.


    "Now, let''s make the fastest horse that ever lived."

 Chapter 209. Im an uncle now

    I found out a few things about horses in the past week.


    They need a lot of space to run around, and if not taken care of, they would destroy the garden and anything that they can break with their hoves.


    They are also very hard to tame, you need to get their favorite food to let you ride on them.


    Some of them wanted wheat, others want apples and one even golden carrots.


    When you are on their back, you have to gently brush their head and neck while giving them their favorite food.


    It took a few hours before I had success with taming one, letting me put a saddle on her.


    Of course, she still preferred to eat apples instead of normal wheat evem after she was tamed.


    I think the ones that I bought until now were specially breed not to be picky about the food, and who knows how long that took.


    I''m beginning to feel sorry for taking those horses for granted, and dragging them into dangerous situations.


    After taming everyone, I splashed a speed potions on top of them.


    As always, they were very excited about their new speed and trampled everything in their path to test their newfound speed.


    I didn''t even dare to get out of my fortress while they were running, I didn''t know if I was safe with them like that.


    After they calmed down, I had a sudden idea.


    If I could enhance the horse by using speed potions, why don''t I try to use others?


    So besides the speed potion, I also used strength and jump boost.


    It was a weird sight to see super horses jump from left to right at high speeds.


    When I began to breed them, I was rewarded with smaller horses that were equally strong and fast as their parents under the influence of the potions.


    It was a success.


    The only downside was that I couldn''t speedgrow them to their adult form in one go.


    They only ate 6 golden carrots per day, only only after 3 days were they fully grown.


    If I had waited normally, it would''ve taken 3 weeks for them to grow which was a big difference.


    Once those were big and ready, I breed them once again, with another dose of potion, making the final child a true prodigy.


    After 3 days, he was a fully growing adult that could jump a 4 block wall, and leave any kind of enemy in the dust.


    Not only that, but he knew how to defend himself as well.


    In 3 hits, he can kill a normal villager If they try to steal or attack him.


    While the horses were growing, I did a mining trip and gathered a few resources that I was going to need.


    The only remaining item that was missing, being seashells to make the conduit.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have a beach anyone near me, leaving me with the only option of buying them from a big city.


    But with the diamonds that I mined, I made an enchanted armor for the horse.


    It had Fire resistance, Father fall, Protection, and Mending.


    I think this was the most powerful horse that ever walked this planet, and it was a good thing that it was on my side.


    There was only one problem with him.


    He needed a lot of space to run around.


    The first generation I could bearly manage in my garden, the second one I had to let go after their mission was done, but this one would literally jump over my walls if I didn''t take him on a walk regularly.


    That''s why, I decided on letting him wander outside my base, so he could run out to his heart''s content.


    Of course, that didn''t mean that I gave up this project, instead, I had to use more expensive items to get him back.


    Just as the Perls work on humans, they also work on animals.


    Nobody knew this fact, because nobody had a reason to try it.


    Perls are very expensive and rare, and the only reason I have so many on me is because my tribe is often trading with the Brutes for these.


    And that is one of the privileges of being the owner of the tribe, getting free perls whenever I ask for them.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    It''s a good thing that Violet wasn''t here to see me making those transactions, otherwise, she would''ve been mad at me.


    ...


    I miss Violet from time to time, and I hope she''s alive and didn''t die in that explosion.


    I couldn''t forgive myself if she died because of me.


    But no matter what method I tried, I couldn''t get a hold of her, so I could only wait and hope that she''d be back one day.


    Now back to the horse.


    I registered my new horse on one Perl and kept it in a leather pouch that was enchanted with absorption.


    Since I had to hold the Perl outside my inventory, I had to make sure it stayed on me, and didn''t accidentally break it.


    Once I broke the Perl, the horse would appear in from of me.


    But every time I did that, it always demanded 10 golden carrots from me.


    No other kind of food, only golden carrots.


    If I didn''t feed the horse, he wouldn''t move no matter what I did.


    So from now on, I had to always have a stack of golden carrots on me, which would get expensive very quickly if I had to summon him every time I stayed more than one day in a city.


    At least I don''t have to worry about his safety since he can run, jump, or even defend himself from any situation.


    And if something really bad is about to happen, I could always teleport him away with my magic square and a Perl.


    With my special horse done, and ingredients prepared, I decided to end my vacation here and get back to work.


    I only needed one more item for my masterpiece and the key ingredient for that was seashells of all things.


    What a funny situation to be in.


    After I checked that everything was ok at home, and hid the precious materials, I went into the Nether and summoned my trusty horse.


    After paying the 10 carrots tax, we went on our way.


    The journey was supposed to take us around 5 hours but with my special horse, I arrived in just an hour, which was a record speed for me.


    Even the horse seemed to be shocked with how well it went in the dimension nicknamed Hell.


    And let''s just say we weren''t the only ones surprised about our short arrival.


    Since I wanted to get to a city, I decided to visit the capital where there''s a high chance I''ll find what I wanted.


    But the only portal there was the one beneath the castle, which was also the most guarded place in the whole kingdom.


    Imagine their surprise, when they saw a horse covered in diamond armor running at them at unbelievable speeds, while carrying a man dressed a black armor looking like death itself.


    They thought they were getting invaded or death was after them.


    I made quite a commotion when I arrived at the portal, which made me feel bad for the poor guards who were doing their job.


    Maybe I didn''t respect them as much as the ones from outside, because I was still salty about what they did to my tribe in the past.


    After a lot of explanations and reassuring them that I wasn''t going to assassinate the king, they let me through.


    Mostly because the senior guards came to see the commotion, only to recognize me in one look and warn the new guards not to mess with me because it''s not worth it.


    I didn''t like that explanation, since it sounded like I was just some troublesome guest that they had to deal with, but as long as they let me use the portal I wasn''t going to complain about it.


    Once I was inside, I walked slowly beside the horse, to not get any more unwanted attention.


    In the end, I still got a lot of weird looks, but nobody stopped me to question what I was doing.


    I think I have some kind of reputation in this palace...


    Once outside the castle walls, I got back on my horse and arrived at the capital city just in a few minutes.


    Since I took the noble''s gate, the guards didn''t stop me, but I did have to slow down a lot when I arrived at the busy streets since I could accidentally kill people with my power-boosted horse.


    I started to regret making him this powerful.


    For the next few hours, I had to walk from store to store, exchange some diamonds for emeralds, and buy the remaining materials.


    Once I was done with everything, I went back to the castle where I was stopped by Bobby on my way to the portal.


    "Trader! Are you going to leave this place without greeting me?"


    I stopped, and my face got red from embarrassment.


    I got so caught up in my big project that I forgot how to use proper manners.


    "Sorry Bobby, I got a little distracted with the new project, it wasn''t intentional. How''s married life going?"


    His frown turned into a smile, as his voice softened.


    "It''s going very well. Unfortunately, we''re both very busy with our jobs, but we made sure to have some time to spend with each other. And because of that, we now have a daughter named Ariel. And I want you to meet her."


    My mind stopped for a few moments.


    I knew people in this world don''t get pregnant and give birth only after a night spent together, but I didn''t expect this to be so fast.


    How did she look? was she healthy? Was she safe in this world that seems to have dangers at every corner?


    More questions piled up in my head, but one thing was sure.


    I wanted to meet her.


    "I would love to see her."


    I gave the horse a few golden carrot so he won''t be cranky while I was away, and followed Bobby to a room upstairs.


    The room was guarded by a man with enchanted diamond armor, who bowed at us wile we entered the room.


    Inside was a small girl, with dark hair and red dress happily playing with her wooden toys.


    When she heard the door opend, she turned and looked at us with her big green eyes.


    I didn''t have my armor on, so she could see me.


    But the first thing she said when she looked at us was:


    "Papa!"


    She got up on her little legs and and ran towards Bobby while giving him a hug, while he picked her up.


    My heart melted at this sight.


    I couldn''t belive the man who was exiled to a corrupted village was now in front of me a father and a future king.


    Time passed since I came to this world, and a wave of emotions flooded me ar the moment.


    "Ariel! Papa is here with his friend that he keps talking about. When would learn how to speak more words, you can call him uncle Trader."


    The girl looked at me, and gave me a smile which made my hear melt even more.


    "Heoo!"


    She said to me while waving her small hand.


    "She''s 6 months old and should slowly learn how to speak. I couldn''t stop smiling for a week when her first word was Papa. After that, my wife took a few days off so she could spend time with her and hear her own name as well. I think we''re both dotting parents, but I can''t help to love this little angel!"


    And I couldn''t argue against it.


    Looks like a lot happend while I was stuck in the Nether.


    Are Undying and Blue planing on having a baby as well?


    I had to check on them next time we''ll meet.


    Unfortunately I didn''t have a toy on me right now to give. So the next best thing that I came up with was to give her a diamond.


    Bobby''s response was to nervously checkele as her little girl had sparkles in her eye while playing with my gift.


    "You have expensive teste, just like your mother. Good thing we have your uncle Trader to satisfy it. Just promise me not to ever follow him in his crazy adventures."


    Both of us laughed, as he let Ariel down to play with her new toy.


    Then, he looked at me with a scary smile.


    "So Trader, what''s with the sudden visit and scaring my guards like that?"


    Oh boy, looks like I wasn''t forgiving yet.

 Chapter 210. The final weapon

    "So you know how I''ve been stuck in the Nether since I got a disease similar to the Piglings?"


    "Yes, I remembered you saying that you managed to piss the System so much that it didn''t want to let you live in this world anymore. But you also told me you were working on a bracelet that would help you against that. And your armor is supposed to hide you from the System anyway."


    "Yeah, I already made the bracelets a few months ago, that''s how I was able to get your wedding in the first place. But I realized that I could use the Nether to get all my skills maxed out and speak with the System to be forgiven."


    His eyes narrowed expecting a crazy follow-up.


    "Well last week, I did just that and met with the System for the first time. As I expected, I was very angry when we first met. But after talking and some negotiations, we settled on a deal."


    Bobby raised his eyebrows, surprised at the lack of drama or danger in my story.


    "While it''s impressive that you met the System since nobody except the heroes could, I''m more surprised it only ended with that. What did you ask from the System?"


    "I think it''s better if I showed you. Do you have a Crafting table around here by chance?"


    "There should be one a few rooms down the hall. It''s only used for decorations so it shouldn''t bother anyone."


    With permission given, we said goodbye to little Ariel and went into the room with the Crafting table.


    The room was one for meeting the guests, it had a red carpet on the wooden floor, with some comfortable chairs on top.


    On the wall was a huge map of the Stone Kindome, and the blue glass gave the room a calming atmosphere.


    In one of the corners stood a cartography table and a Crafting table.


    I went towards the Crafting table to make the last two steps for my final item.


    First I needed to make a conduit, which was made with the heart of the sea in the middle, surrounded by seashells.


    After a few good hits, it was done.


    "Now for the final part."


    What I was going to craft was an Energy Mace.


    It was inspired by the mace weapon, which could deal an ungodly amount of damage as long as you fell from a high enough place and hit the target.


    The Energy Mace had the same concept but better.


    And for that I needed:


    -Energy Storage (Enchanted) in the upper middle


    -Netherite Block in the top left


    -Conduit in the left middle


    - 2 Blaze roads, one in the center and the second one in the lower right corner.


    The holographic image of a black Mace appeared, it had lighting sparks on as a model, and a golden handle.


    The recipe was made and the best weapon in the world was almost in my hands.


    I hit it, and hit it, longer than usual, but and the end I prevailed, and the Energy Mace was in my hands.


    I could feel the weight of a weapon that could kill gods.


    "It looks... like an intriguing hummer. But I''m sure there''s more to it if you worked so hard to make it."


    "You are right my friend, let''s do a test now, here''s my shield and I''ll hit you with my mace."


    "I''m sorry what? I think I just heard you wanted to hit me with what you called a weapon that can kill gods."


    "Oh don''t be like that, it would be fine, you don''t have to worry. Now stay still so I won''t miss."


    I forcefully gave him my enchanted shield and panic appeared on his face.


    "Wait, wa- bang!"


    I hit the raised shield and let out a loud bang.


    But no damage was done to the shield or the one holding it.


    Bobby opened his eyes and looked all over his body to see If he was still in one piece.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Then he looked at me with a apologetic expression.


    "Uhh...Trader, I think you got ripped off by the System."


    But instead of feeling defeated, I only smiled.


    "What nonsense are you talking about Bobby? Of course, it wouldn''t do any damage, since it''s not charged yet."


    "Charged? By what?"


    "Why don''t I show you? Here take my Netherite sword and hit my mace with all your force."


    Bobby took the enchanted sword and read the description of it before raising an eyebrow.


    "Are you sure about this? This weapon seems very sharp."


    "Yeah, I''m sur-bang *bang *bang."


    I didn''t even finish my senate before he began attacking me.


    Not only that, but he listened to my request to use all of his force from the start.


    I expected him to go easy on me to test my defense, and I would''ve had to encourage him to slash harder, but he seemed to be very willing to help me with this exercise.


    Not only that, but a smile appeared on his face, every time he hit me.


    He looked like he was letting out some pent-up frustration, but that couldn''t be possible since he was my best friend.


    After a few minutes, Bobby finally got tired and stopped hitting the mace.


    I have to say, he''s not suited for male combat since his aim sacked.


    I had to to move my mace from time to time otherwise he would''ve hit me.


    "Oh right, we were supposed to test your weapon, I kind of forgot that. Why did you make me do that again?"


    "Now it''s my turn to attack. But I think it would be safer to put the shield on the ground this time."


    Bobby was relieved that this time, he wasn''t going to be at the end of an attack and put the shield down without asking any more questions.


    Once he was at a safe dance, I felt that something new was in the mace, some kind of energy that was ready to be unleashed.


    And in one swing, I hit the shield laying on the floor with everything I had.


    *BOOM!


    A loud bang was heard through out the castle.


    The shield was slightly dented, which was surprising since it was so heavily enchanted to resist those kinds of hits.


    But the floor wasn''t as resident as the shield, and quickly broke down, making me fall on the lower floor.


    Luckily there wasn''t anyone in the room when I fell in, and Bobby expected something to happen so he stayed far away from me.


    Making me the only victim of my weapon.


    Of course, this kind of fall couldn''t hurt me, but it did take me by surprise.


    "Are you ok Trader? Do you need me to send someone down there to rescue you?"


    "Haha, how funny, I''m ok, thank''s for asking. But what do you think of my new weapon?"


    The hole I made was roughly 4 blocks wide.


    For some reason, the attack of the mace seemed to be able to bypass the protection of the blocks made by the System.


    So the hole looked pretty weird by the standards of this world.


    "I''m guessing that it absorbed the attacks of the swords and released them when you hit with your mace?"


    "Exactly! Not only that but it''s all concentrated in one point, making the attack much stronger.


    The guards and servants quickly stormed the room looking for the culprit that made all this noise.


    Bobby was quick to explain and calmed everyone down before they would try arresting me for attempting to assassinate a member of the Royal family.


    After everyone calmed down and cleaned up, he came beside me and asked me about the weapon.


    "So how much energy can you store in that mace?"


    I smiled proudly at that question.


    "In theory, it doesn''t have a limit, but I don''t know in practice."


    "But that would mean!"


    "Yes! This weapon has the potential to destroy a city in one strike if I gather enough energy."


    Bobby''s eyes went wide realizing how dangerous this weapon could be, and I could only show a cocky smile in return.


    Not only did my weapon have an infinite amount of storage, but it was also the perfect shield since it could absorb any kind of attack.


    Swords, axes, arrows, punches, and even fireworks would not be spared.


    I only needed to be sure that it hit the mace instead of me when I was using it as a shield.


    "Can you make one for me as well?"


    Asked Bobby with an innocent voice, but I could feel the greed in his eyes making me chuckle nervously.


    "I''m sorry my friend, but the weapon is so powerful that the System made it craftable only once. So if I lose this item it would be gone for good."


    Bobby''s shoulders dropped in disappointment.


    "Well, I guess that''s a good thing since this world would''ve been much scarier if more than one person got a hold on such an item. Wars would look much different than now."


    But it could also become safer if handled properly.


    In the beginning, nobles would most likely use it to suppress the villagers, but after years of getting used to it, some would crack and steal one to start a revolution.


    This could end up with the weapons being banned or used as a last resort just like the nukes in my world.


    After all, while it is powerful it''s not that cheap to make.


    "Trader, I don''t know what exactly are you thinking right now but I can guess. I have to remind you, that only you and the other heroes are capable of Crafting this in the first place."


    Oh right, the people in this world are limited by the System, so even if the recipe gets leaked they couldn''t use it.


    "Wait, how did you know what I was thinking?"


    "You have a lost look when you think about useless stuff, and from the context and your way of thinking I could''ve guessed what you were thinking about."


    Wow, I''m I that easy to read, or is this an ability only Bobby has?


    No wonder I don''t surprise him anymore, he can already read me like an open book.


    "So what do you plan on doing now? Gather more energy for your mace and defeat the Wither that way?"


    "That is the final goal, but the mace is not finished yet since it only absorbs 1/10 of each attack."


    "You had that much power and it''s not at its full potential?"


    "Yes, I still have one more step that I have to do to make it complete. And I haven''t even enchanted yet."


    "That sounds like it''s going to take a while. If you need help with anything, don''t hesitate to ask from me. Now if you''ll excuse me, I''ll have to meet with my wife and explain to her why we have a new hole in the guest meeting room."


    With our final goodbyes siad, we parted ways, and I went to get my horse back who surprisingly was still waiting me in the same spot I left him.


    I thought he would wonder off and couse some problems, but I was glad that everything was fine and nobody got hurt.


    I passed the guards at the portal and galloped back towards the tribe arriving in just 10 minutes.


    When I arrived there, I got quite the attention with the new horse.


    I think they never seen an animal like this, and they were all excited and fascinated by it.


    Everyone was already used to me and my armor since I''ve stayed here for so long, and I trusted them enough not to scare the horse resulting in them getting hurt.


    Plus, they were all a tribe of warriors even though they were the weaker ones in the Nether.


    I got off my horse and went to meet with Solomon while telling the others to take care of the horse while I was away.


    They all excepted with a smile and I downstairs and talk with the Mad Scientist about a new request.


    I don''t think he''s going to like this one, since I''ll need a full couldrun of the ''absorption'' potion.

 Chapter 211. Full power

    Another week has passed since I first created the Energy Mace, and a few things have happened since then.


    The potion took longer than expected since the ingredients were much more annoying to get than expected, and the process was not as simple as using a brewing stand.


    It had to be boiled in a cauldron that would evaporate in time to the level of 3 potions.


    That''s why we needed multiple cauldrons for this final step.


    While Solomon was working on that project, I was in my base with Alexa looking through its huge catalog of enchantments to see which would be best suited for the mace.


    We knew that the material of the weapon should be more resistant than Netharite, but we still could roughly put only 10 high-level enchants for this.


    This may sound like a lot, but Unbreaking, Mending, Fire Aspect, Density, and Breach are a priority for this weapon since they were the most compatible with the mace.


    At least those were the easy choices to make.


    Now I had to choose from a huge library of enchantments that varied between Thunder Strike and Slippery Foot.


    The last one may sound useful, but it worked only on your boots, unless you had a way to make your enemy wear them.


    I debated with Alexa whether we should make our enchantments and decided to wait until we sort out the list before we resort to that.


    Coming up with the right formula for a simple enchantment is complicated in itself, and people from the past took years to achieve high-level enchantments.


    Even with Alexa''s help, it would take a few months to finish.


    The reason I was in such a hurry to finish this weapon, is because the Wither hasn''t attacked Alexa for 2 months.


    We don''t believe that it simply gave up, nor do we believe that he lost to the Brutes in the Nether war.


    So we think that he is planning something big or even worse, he is teaming up with the Mad Prince.


    If it was the latter, it would become the worst-case scenario, since he was guaranteed to take control over the Nether, it''s only a matter of time.


    Surprisingly, the System didn''t attack Alexa either.


    It just scanned the area that it has control over and left it like that, with no pushing or sending suspicious scouts.


    That means the System is also planning something making me nervous.


    But today was a good day, since Solomon managed to successfully make a full cauldron of his absorption potion.


    He looked tired and annoyed, but behind all of that, I could see a glimpse of excitement from what was about to come.


    Most of my friends knew about my new weapon and what it did.


    Solomon happened to be in the same room and heard about it as well.


    That''s the reason he even accepted to make the potion for little to no pushback since this was a weapon that could potentially kill the System.


    I didn''t plan on doing that, or know how to, but he didn''t need to know.


    We were all gathered around the magical soup with high expectations.


    I took a step closer and lifted the mace high in the air, before turning it upside-down and slowly letting it sink into the liquid.


    *PPPSSSSssssss!


    It was like a hot metal came in contact with water, it made a sharp noise until bubbles remained.


    The liquid was now boiling, but shrinking at visible speeds.


    Everyone had their eyes glued to it and even took a step forward to see it better.


    Once it was done, the only thing remaining in the cauldron was the mace, which didn''t seem to have any visible difference.


    Seeing that nothing else was going to happen, I grabbed it by the handle and tried to feel the different.


    The energy was still the same, and I didn''t feel any new options that I could use.


    "Someone hit me with something heavy."


    Like waiting for this order, the Mad Scientist took a pitch-black potion from his inventory and threw it at me.


    I blocked the oncoming projectile with my mace and the potion bottle broke.


    The black liquid that was supposed to hit me, was sucked toward my weapon like a vacuum, leaving nothing behind.


    I haven''t tried potions before, so I didn''t expect this kind of result.


    But suddenly the energy reserves were doubled, meaning 2 things.


    "Hey Solomon, what kind of potion did you throw at me?"


    "Ehh, nothing that should''ve killed you."If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "He''s lying."


    My lying detector was quick to catch him in the act.


    Everyone narrowed their eyes and looked at him.


    "Solomon, what kind of potion was that?"


    He turned his head and muffled something that I couldn''t hear.


    "Lauder so we can hear you!"


    "It was just Instant Damage 5, nothing to worry about."


    He threw what?!


    That''s supposed to kill me 2 times over!


    I think with my new Magic Resistance enchantments I would''ve bearly survived, but the potion was still deadly.


    How did he even make one like this without the help of the System or a Witch?


    Looks like he didn''t accept his fate yet.


    It''s such a shame that I lost my Monocle of Truth in that explosion, otherwise I would''ve seen this coming beforehand.


    While Solomon got his beating from Undying and Blue. I studied the new energy I got.


    It was the same type as the previous ones just a lot larger than expected, showcasing the danger of the potion.


    But I couldn''t tell if this was because of the new upgrades or just the potion itself.


    So, in the end, I had to give Alexa my sword to test with something that I already knew the results of.


    When the 2 weapons came into contact I could feel energy enter the storage, but it was miniscule in compression to before.


    But I could only smile at the results.


    <Seems that the results are better than expected Sir.>


    "Indeed, looks like the magical bath upgraded it so it can absorb 100% of any attack."


    This was 10 times better than before, truly a weapon that could kill gods.


    "Now what''s left, is to put the Enchantmets and we can go to get our revenge."


    "So it''s finally time?"


    Undying and Blue came back, after teaching the Mad Scientist a lesson that he shouldn''t forget any time soon.


    I think his freedom would be more limited for a while because of this.


    "Yes, I think it''s time for me to get out there once again. I''ve been stuck in one place for too long, and my adventurous heart can''t take it anymore."


    Both of them chuckled.


    "Well, we wish you a safe trip, and you''re always welcome to come back. It''s been a while since I''ve seen Blue have so much fun studying with someone else. Solomon is smart, maybe too smart to speak with him normally, and Alexa is even worse, you seem to be the most normal one out of this group. Though I know its the opposite."


    Blue got blue all of a sudden, and I smiled and thanked them for their hospitality before going back to my underground base.


    <Are you going to enchant it now sir?>


    "Yes, it''s now or never after all, plus I already prepared everything so there''s no need to delay."


    I walked towards a single chest that stood in the corner of the room.


    Inside were 9 enchanted books.


    -Mending


    -Unbreaking 4


    -Breach 5


    -Density 6


    -Fire Aspect


    -Wind Burst 4


    -Lightning Aspect


    -Air Jump


    -Loyalty


    The last one was a little harder to make so I put it in my Ender Chest for safekeeping.


    After I took everything from the chests, I placed them on an anvil and began to hammer everything into one.


    I think I lost all the levels with this item, but I was never more proud of what I had in my hands.


    "Let''s go and test this baby out!"


    <That item is not a baby sir.>


    "That''s good because I''m going to smash some skulls with it!"


    Like a kid with a new toy, I ran towards the surface ignoring everyone on my way.


    Only halfway to the red forest I realized that I could''ve used my horse to get there faster.


    "Stupid me, now I would waste a Perl if I summon him, and I''m too far to get back."


    I let out a big sigh and contine running.


    Surprisingly Alexa could keep up with my full sprint which took me by surprise.


    Was the Allay more machine than a living being if it had this much stamina?


    In the end, we arrived at the Red Forest without any incident to my displeasure.


    But that didn''t last long as I saw a Hogling right at the edge of the forest, foraging for food.


    "Alexa stay here so you won''t catch his attention."


    <Affirmative.>


    Without a worry, I got closer to Hogling, and when I was 5 blocks away, I stopped and placed a few blocks on the ground.


    The Hogling looked at the blocks with confusion.


    Before he would switch his sight to somewhere else, I broke the blocks, making him able to see me.


    His eyes were wide with surprise, before changing to ones of anger and began charging at me.


    Usually, I would prefer to kill them while I was still in stealth mode since I would get most of the meat undamaged that way.


    But today I wanted to test the weapon in combat, and for that, I needed to be attacked as well.


    The animal almost reached me at full speed, but I raised my mace and blocked the attack.


    A loud bang was heard through the forest as his tasks hit metal, but I didn''t feel a thing.


    "That attack didn''t charge a lot. Looks like my sword is batter after all."


    The Hogling was taking a few steps back preparing for another charge, but I didn''t plan on letting him do that, as I jumped and hit him in the head.


    *Splash!


    The head split like it was watermelon, splashing blood everywhere in a 5-block radius.


    "Ugh, I used too much energy with this attack. Let''s not use this weapon for hunting, I can bearly get one pork chop from this one, I can''t imagine what I''ll get if I hit a chicken."


    Probably a chicken plate.


    "I think I should hunt monsters now. I''m starting to feel bad for the poor animals if it''s going to continue like this."


    The noise got the attention of the other Hoglings who quickly came to inspect what just happened.


    But when they arrived I was long gone, looking for my next victim.


    Little did I know, that from that point forward, no Hogling dared to set foot in that part of the forest.


    My next victim was a skeleton.


    It kept shooting arrows at me, and I blocked most of them, and the one who I missed were defended by my armor.


    When I reached the poor skeleton, I used the force of 3 arrows to hit him, only to decapitate him in one swing.


    "The results are better, but it''s still too weak."


    I set my next target to be the Nether Slime.


    It was medium in size, so if I killed it once it should split into 4 smaller ones.


    Once it''s eyes were on me, it quickly jumped towards me.


    But I raised my shield to block It''s attack.


    I learned 2 things in that moment.


    The mace seemed to be able to block even a jumping attack, at last the moment of the attack.


    And second, slimes are very heavy, and the mace doesn''t help with that at all.


    So I was squished underneath the slime.


    It didn''t hurt, I was mostly embarrassed, and when it tried to jump once again, I rolled out of the way.


    "Now take this!"


    I hit it with the energy of 5 swings of my sword.


    *SPLASH!


    Like a balloon, it popped into small pieces of slimy lava.


    It was so bad that no more slimes appeared afterwords.


    "I guess I could use this to intimate my enemies."


    But I had 2 more abilities that I didn''t get the chance to use.


    So I began searching for the perfect mob to practice those 2, the Ghast.


    Once I found one, I got as close as possible towards it and looked at the ground.


    "10 blocks high should be enough."


    I raised the mace high above my head, and hit the ground while activating Wind Burst.


    *BOOM!


    A loud explosion caught the attention of the Ghast, who turned to see a crater in the Nether floor.


    But I was 10 block in the air looking at my target who didn''t see me yet.


    Before I began to fall down, I swing my mace towards the flaoting monster that was 10 blocks away from me.


    But instead of wasting the swing, I activated the Air Jump enchantment, which made a solid air block, and the mace hit.


    *BAAM!


    Another explosion was heard, followed by the dying screems if the monster.


    Once I landed on the ground, I looked with shock at the damage that I made.


    "Looks like I''ll have to control this better."


    <That would be for the best Sir, otherwise you''ll end up destroying the Nether.>


    Lava fell down from the newly formed hole in the ceiling.

 Chapter 212. We meet again Shadow Lord

    I have to come clean with something.


    I had too much fun with my new weapon, so I kind of accidently terraformed a few chanks of the Nether.


    It''s a good thing it was far away from any settlements, otherwise they would''ve thought a group of Ghast decided to go wild on nature.


    But in the end, I got all the valuable data that I wanted, and I couldn''t be more satisfied than this.


    Some of the Enchantments were modified so I could manually activate them, and I was glad that I had the foresight to do that.


    Wind Burst was supposed to knock me back whenever I landed a hit, and that would be more annoying to use in a fight than it was worth it.


    But If I could activate it at will, I could get out of any dangerous situation by literally blowing myself away.


    Air Jumping was also useful.


    Originally, it was made for boots so you could do a double jump in the air by comprising it.


    But now that I put it on my mace, I unlocked the ability to fight in the air as well.


    It''s such a shame that I don''t have an elytra, but I guess my cape should suffice for now.


    <Sir, I think those are enough tests for now. We should go and search for the Withers warehouse.>


    "I was thinking the same thing, but I think it''s better if we take it more slowly this time since I almost emptied my reserves."


    From what I understand of this mace, someone has to hold the item to get the energy from the attack.


    So I couldn''t leave it overnight being hit by a dispenser with arrows, since the only thing it would end up doing is just damaging the weapon.


    I could try and use a golem to hold the mace but I don''t know how it would react to constantly being attacked, even if the momentum of the arrows is supposed to be absorbed upon impact.


    Wait a minute, isn''t the punch of a golem several times stronger than a normal arrow?


    Would the mace take energy if the owner is the one hitting it?


    If so, putting a golem to punch the weapon nonstop would be the best method to farm energy without using resources.


    A golem is a machine and can''t get tired, so it could go endlessly until the mace brakes, and that''s not an easy thing to do.


    That would be a good experiment for me to do later.


    For now, I needed to find an underground tunnel so I could get to the Withers territory fast.


    "Alexa, do you know where we are by any chance? I don''t recognize anything around us."


    <Due to terraform changes, I do not recognize where this place is on the map. I suggest we walk towards a familiar path and decide from there.>


    Well, that was the best course of action we could take for now.


    We wondered for a while and killed a few more monsters to repair my items since the Netherite armor was working overtime to absorb all those shock waves that I keep throwing around.


    And finally, we were at a place Alexa recognized.


    <Sir, if you dig on your right straight down, you should find a tunnel.>


    "We found one already? Looks like luck is on our side today. Let''s hope it would keep it like that."


    I dug down and arrived at a tunnel as instructed.


    Once I checked each side to see if it was safe, I drew the enchanted square and summoned my mighty horse.


    Once it appeared, he looked confused while munching on red mushrooms.


    "Well, well, well, looks like someone had a good time in the Tribe. Don''t get too spoiled now."


    I then gave him the mandatory golden carrots and got on top of him.


    Now that I was looking closer, I realized that he had a few extra decorations on him.


    On top of his head was a crown made with blue vines, the hair had some leaves here and there, and he smelled pretty good.


    What did those people do to my horse?


    He''s already hard to afford with all the food that he eats, now they want to make him even more spoiled with massages and perfumes?The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    How am I even supposed to compete with that?


    I don''t have that kind of time.


    Maybe I should leave him in the Tribe, they seem to do a better job than me anyway.


    After he ate the carrots, I placed Alexa in front of me and began running at full speed.


    With no obstacles in the way, we should arrive at the destination in no time.


    <Sir, this horse seems to be unusually fast. Where did you find him?>


    "You can''t find a horse this fast in the wild, I made him."


    <You have reached quite a high level at modifying bodies. Soon you''ll be able to complete your project as well.>


    If only it was that easy.


    "Unfortunately, it''s not because of the the Crystal, instead I used the old fashioned way of selective breeding."


    Alexa went silent for a while, and the horse suddenly shook his head like he was trying to get some bugs off.


    <This seems to be true. But how can such a powerful horse be only a few days old? And the process of select breeding should''ve taken years to get any noticeable results.>


    So I wasn''t the first one who tried to do this.


    But I guess the reaction is to be expected since the only way you can get this kind of horse is through potions.


    "I used a little secret of mine, I''ll probably tell you later if you promise to be a good supercomputer."


    It rarely happened, but it felt good to be better at something than the mighty Alexa.


    <But Sir, I''m always acting with the best intentions. I don''t see a reason I should promise to keep doing that.>


    You act with YOUR interest in mind!


    It''s not like I''m a saint either since I was the one to summon the Wither in the first place.


    But at least I''m trying to fix my mistake, and not make another one.


    The only reason you are interested in this Wither is because you couldn''t make one of your own!


    In the end, I decided to remain silent and enjoy the ride at high speeds.


    The road was long and simple, I could say it was even better than the Overworld since we didn''t have to worry about trees or enemies.


    I don''t know how they did it, but there weren''t any monsters in the tunnels.


    We stopped from time to time for the horse to eat, when suddenly I came to a realization.


    "I didn''t give you a name."


    The horse raised his head while munching wheat from the hay block, before getting back to get some more.


    I''m not that good with names, I think I got this from my mom who named me after her favorite anime.


    I don''t even remember what it was about.


    I only know that the main character is a child who wears a green vest and has spiky hair.


    Violet is the primal example of my naming sense.


    I just combined her tendency to be violent and the colors of her eyes.


    Don''t ask how I know that.


    So by that logic, I can name my horse with something that would describe him.


    "That''s it! Your name is now Speedy!"


    I was thinking Flash at the beginning, but then remembered that he was still a kid.


    <A very fitting name Sir.>


    Even Alexa was happy with my idea.


    Speedy didn''t seem too interested tho, he just continued to eat the hay.


    "Alexa, how far are we from the Withers main territory?"


    <We''re already inside Sir, we only need to go to the surface.>


    Already?


    That was way faster than expected.


    I''ll have to thank Speedy for that.


    Speaking of this, I should sent him home as well.


    While he was eating, I drew the enchanted square on the ground with the coordinates to my house.


    After that was done, I took out a Perl, recorded it to Speedy, then put it in the middle of the Enchanted square.


    After I activated it, Speedy suddenly disappeared leaving behind a half-eaten block of hay.


    "Now let''s get to work."


    I splashed Alexa with an invisibility potion and took out my pickaxe to get out.


    On the surface, I was greeted with soulsand everywhere.


    Not only that but this place was overruned with Wither skeletons and black flowers.


    This was the passing ability of the Wither.


    If he stayed enough in one place, black flowers would spawn all over the place, resulting in more skeletons for his army.


    Not only that, but it also gave you debuffs if you stayed around them for too long, or god forbid, touch them with your hand.


    But there was a trick you could use to get around that.


    The classic way, which the Brute army was using, was to chop everything in their path and incinerate it to dust.


    The best way, which I was the only one capable of doing it, was to get the magic resistance enchantment.


    Once the armor was full of that, I could walk on the black fields like it was normal grass.


    I also found out that the passing effect of the field gave a weak but constant supply of energy for my mace.


    The deeper I went into the soul valley, the more bones and skeletons I saw.


    Suddenly, I heard a battle in the distance.


    From the sounds of it, it was a big one with explosions and a lot of yelling.


    This caught my interest since the only ones who would dare fight in those kinds of places would be the Brutes and the Mad Prince.


    I quickly went towards the noise and saw a group of Brutes in diamond armor fight against another group of skeletons.


    But there was something different about this group of monsters.


    There was a larger one in the back shooting powerful arrows at the Brutes, and making quite a mess in their ranks.


    If things continued like this, the Brutes would lose and most likely die or join the ranks of the enemy.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t like either party, but the Brutes seemed to be the lesser evil between the two.


    So with calm steps, I got closer to the Shadow Lord, who was shooting the Brutes from a distance with green arrows.


    I raised my mace and prepared the energy of 10 fireworks in one attack.


    Just as I was about to hit him, he suddenly disappeared and reapered a few blocks away looking around confused.


    My attack was wasted, and when it hit the ground, a huge explosion erupted catching the attention of everyone on the field.


    "It''s you...."


    I didn''t expect the instincts of the skeleton to be this sharp.


    And here I thought I was going to finish him in one hit and not worry about it anymore.


    "Shadow Lord, what are you doing here in the Nether? And why are you fighting with the Withers army? I thought you hated that guy."


    The monster Lord looked at me, before pointing his bonny finger.


    Suddenly the whole army of skeletons were running towards me.


    ....


    Well I didn''t expect this outcome, but I guess I''ll take it as a learning opportunity for my new fighting style.


    I gathered energy and hit the ground activating the Wind Burst enchantment, bringing me high in the air.


    Just as I was about to fall, I activated the second enchantment and stopped in mid air while a wave of energy was daciamting the ground and the army unlucky enough to be in its path.


    Then, I spread my cape to glide while shooting with my multi-shoot crossbow at the rest of the army.


    In just one jump, I destroyed 80% of the monsters.


    The Shadow Lord didn''t try to fight me or the others, instead he looked at me with narrow eyes.


    "Well shall meet again, cursed human."


    And he telported away.

 Chapter 213. The war in the Nether

    While the Shadow Lord teleported away, the remaining skeletons dropped dead on the ground like puppets without string.


    That only left me alone with the group of Brutes who seemed ready to continue the fight.


    "Black armor, and unorthodox fighting style. Are you the one who defeated the second in command?"


    Looks like I was popular in the Mad Prince army.


    "I''ll answer your question if you answer mine. Where''s the Wither?"


    "We don''t know, that''s why we got bolder and entered the land without bothering to burn the cursed flowers. Now it''s your time to answer, are you the one who defeated the second in command?"


    They were more talkative than I expected, so that threw me off a little.


    "Yes, I was the one who defeated her. Is she looking for revenge by any chance?"


    Instead of answering, they all cheered in unison and looked at me with respect.


    "And where is your monster friend? We heard she almost wiped out the diamond squad while you were running away."


    Uff, that brought some unpleasant memories from the past.


    Because of them, we couldn''t use the Nether to get faster at the Puperfish City.


    I had to stop myself, since I was looking for excuses at this point.


    "She''s not here for now, so don''t try looking for a fight."


    "That''s a shame, why don''t you come to our camp and discuss with our boss then? I''m sure he''ll be happy to see you."


    The friendliness they showed now made my guard raise up.


    I couldn''t believe that those people were the same ones that made so much trouble for us.


    But at the same time, if I wanted to get some information about the Wither, they would be the ones to have it.


    "Ok, I''ll follow you. But don''t get any funny ideas, unlike last time, I''ll be able to kill everyone in the camp with one hit."


    Everyone laughed and just told me to follow them.


    That was weird, do they not fear death?


    <Sir, I think those people are what''s called a battle maniac. From my research, those kinds of people don''t care about anything but huge fights, so I think you just threatened them with a good time.>


    No wonder they were so weird, I''ll have to be more careful of what kind of people I''m threatening from now on.


    But it seems that the Brutes are a special kind in the end.


    We walked for an hour in the death field, mostly because the Brutes spent all of the time trying to dodge the flowers.


    While they were protected by the diamond armor, they didn''t have magic resistance like me, so they had to be very careful; otherwise, they could go through a slowly and painfully death.


    But in the end, we passed the field safely and arrived at their main camp.


    It looked similar to the last one I saw, and I was told that It was because they moved very frequently.


    That was the reason they had so many victories against the Withers army.


    They could gather a large force and attack them, but first, they need to know their location.


    That''s why, the most they would stay in one place is a week, making it hard for the mindless skeletons to find their current location.


    We arrived at the gate, which was under the surveillance of two diamond-armored guys.


    They looked at my group and especially at me.


    I think they recognized me since their stance quickly changed to one ready for a fight, but not in a provocative way.


    Once inside, we quickly arrived at the biggest house in the camp, where we stopped and one of the soldiers knocked on the red door.


    *knock knock


    "If the Wither didn''t attack, then don''t bother me."


    The Mad Prince yelled from the other side.


    "Boss, I think you''ll want to see this person. He''s the one who defeated the second in command after all."This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    There were a few moments of silence after the soldier spoke, and I was starting to get worried that he would burst out and start a fight.


    "Let him in. The rest of you can wait outside."


    They didn''t complain and signaled for me to get inside.


    I looked one last time at my inventory, and readied myself for any attack that could come my way.


    And after I took a deep breath, I passed the threshold and entered the house.


    Inside, there was only one large room decorated with different kinds of black skulls, skeleton remains, withered flowers, and a lot of open books.


    In the middle of this mess stood the Mad Prince looking at an open book.


    "So you came back, and without your monster friend. At least that''s what my scanner is telling me."


    He lifted his head from the book and looked at me.


    Then his eyes shifted towards the space beside me.


    "Did you manage to take off the tracker from your friend? No that''s not possible, and she didn''t use invisibility potions. That leaves your blue pet as an explanation. Why do you even bring it with you? It looks very weak and I feel an unexplainable hatred when I look at it."


    His eyes were truly sharp.


    I mistook him as a mindless Brute who solves problems through strength alone.


    But from this room alone, I could tell that he was taking his enemy seriously and studying everything possible about it.


    And his eyes were truly something else, to see Alexa so easily.


    "I feel like you''re more confident since we last fought. I wonder what else did you cook up. So tell me Trader, why did you decide to visit me."


    "I was wondering what''s the situation with the battle between you and the Wither."


    The Mad Prince looked around me some more, before going back to his book, writing something down.


    "And why should I tell you something that could potentially endanger us?"


    "Because I have a way to kill the Wither."


    He quickly raised his head from the book and tried to peer deep into my eyes with no success.


    "I did wonder what the new air around you was about. Turns out it''s not just empty confidence, so what''s your secret weapon."


    I just brought out the Energy Mace and he looked at it with great interest.


    He even tried to take a closer look at it by taking it, but I quickly put it back into my inventory.


    Just because I wanted to reassure him, that doesn''t mean I would go with all of his demands.


    "I can feel the potential of that weapon, and it''s amazing. Can I have one as well? I can pay whatever price you demand."


    "I''m sorry, this is the only one I can make."


    He let down his shoulders in disappointment and turned around to sit in his chair.


    "The Wither is something that shouldn''t exist. I wanted to put all the blame on you people from the Overworld since you have a history of messing worlds up, but he''s too experienced with life in the Nather, making me think he''s a native."


    Then he gave me a book from the pile beside him.


    Inside it was written the daily life of a group of skeletons, who were farming the Hoglings and Striders for their resources.


    Even Endemans were hunted for their pearls.


    It was quite detailed and easy to read, showing the ability of the researcher as a man on the field and as a teacher.


    I think it''s better if I don''t tell him that I''m the reason the Wither is here in the first place.


    "I''ve tried to understand the reason why he went to war with us, and concluded that he wants some information that we might have. One would be a way to go into the Overworld, but there''s a better method for that, so that only leaves, information from the ancient people."


    Well, he is right about that, but I don''t think he can also guess what he''s looking for.


    "That''s why I had to look through the forbidden library at home to see a reason for the invasion. And while we do have a lot of dangerous knowledge that would make anyone salivate over it, that wasn''t enough reason for a being like the Wither to be interested in it. But there was something that caught eyes that would be useless for us but useful for the Wither. And that would be an energy generator."


    He was so close to the truth.


    The only step he is missing is just making himself strong enough to destroy the System in the Overworld.


    "In the past few months, we''ve managed to have victory after victory against him. But only an elite group can fight in those battles, making our victories look hollow in compression with the grand field of scheme."


    So they are still winning but can''t keep up with the expansion of the Wither, and the only reason we didn''t hear anything about this Is that he''s attacking the opposite side of the Nether.


    This means that currently, he''s only making his army bigger while we celebrate the small victories.


    That didn''t make me feel good, but a part of me was satisfied to know that we didn''t underestimate the Wither when I first heard about the war.


    "From what your men told me, the Wither hasn''t been seen for quite a while. Do you think he''s planning something big?"


    "Ohh, did they tell you that? Yes, I''ve been sending more scouts deep into his territory so I can gather more data. But from the looks of it, it wasn''t too successful."


    It''s not like they could''ve done anything.


    They were up against the Monster Lord, and this one was slippery as well.


    "Do you know the rough direction where the Wither would be? I think I can go there by myself and deal with the problem once and for all."


    "You''re quite confident just because you got a new weapon. But there''s no point in having it If you don''t know how to use it to its full potential. Especially not against someone as powerful as the Wither."


    He sure talks a lot for someone who doesn''t have a plan on how to defeat the Wither.


    And why does he assume that I don''t know how to use the weapon?


    Is he trying to steal it from me that way?


    "That''s a problem for me to solve. Now, can you tell me the way to the Wither?"


    The Mad Prince got up from his chair and started to gather the books from the floor then putting them in different chests.


    I waited patiently on the side, not speaking a word until he was done.


    "I''ve decided, since you don''t seem eager to give us your precious weapon, we''ll be following you into the heart of the enemy and deal with this together."


    Was he always this honest?


    And why should I let you come with me? You clearly stated that your intentions to get my weapon!


    "Why should I let you fallow me? I don''t see any reason I should accept this deal."


    "We can guide you to your destination."


    "I can also make such a big mess, that the Wither has to come and deal with me himself."


    "That could also be a solution, but you have to remember. No matter how powerful you are, your still one man, and even the Wither is fighting with an army despite his massive strength."


    He was telling the truth.


    If the Wither realized that I could kill him, he could tire me off with his endless army and deal the finishing blow when I can''t move anymore.


    I guess I could use them as a bait if it comes down to it.


    And they could pull their own weight in the enemy territory anyway, so it''s not like I''ll be too worried in that regard.


    "Ok, I''ll accept your deal. But I still don''t trust you."


    The Mad Prince smiled as a response.

 Chapter 214. Withered fields

    Once I accepted the deal, the Mad Prince yelled at his soldiers to start packing.


    Without questioning the decision, everyone started on their tasks.


    Some of them were tasked with breaking the rare blocks, others with gathering items from all chests and separating everything in different inventories and some with other important tasks.


    I looked in fascination as the group of soldiers moved in unison like ants and finished everything just under an hour.


    After everything was collected and the unwanted items got burned, they all sat in a formation, ready for the next order.


    The Mad Prince nodded in approval at his men and cleared his throat to give a speech.


    "My people who love endless battles. Today we shall fulfill your biggest wish and attack the enemy camp. No more careful plans, no more retreats, and no more stopping."


    Everyone raised their hands and yelled with excitement.


    I could feel the bloodlust rise into the air, making my heart beat faster.


    They all turned around and marched towards the black field in an organized order.


    I didn''t expect such a short speech, but it was probably for the best for those kinds of people.


    But it seems that one soldier wanted to speak with the Mad Prince since it stayed behind.


    And after one glance, I quickly recognized her.


    She was the second in command and the reason I was here in the first place.


    I hope she''s not here to pick up a fight with me.


    I don''t like to fight with humans unless is necessary, and the Brutes have been docile until now.


    But to my relief, it seems she wanted to talk with her boss and it wasn''t about me.


    "Boss, I know you told us not to make any plans, but I know better than that. So what''s the objective of this mission?"


    "Hahaha! As always, Second is the most reliable of them all. You''re right. I never go on a battlefield without a plan, and the man beside me is the plan."


    She looked at me with cold eyes, clearly not over the fact that she lost in our last duel.


    "If the boss is trusting you, then I don''t have a choice but to trust you as well. So don''t disappoint us or you''ll have to suffer for it."


    She turned around and followed the group of marching soldiers.


    The Mad Prince laughed once again and signaled at me to follow him.


    I let out a sigh and followed the man.


    This reminds me of the older days when everyone kept bugging me to follow them without question.


    Now, most of the people are too scared to do that or learned to treat me like a normal human being.


    Everyone walked confidently on the red floor of the Nether, that was until we arrived at the death fields.


    Then the formation changed to one of a pointed arrow, where the first group of people slashed the flowers down, and the ones coming from behind had torches in their hands, burning the cut flowers.


    It was a very practiced movement from what I could tell, but even with this, it would take a while to get anywhere we want to.


    There has to be a way to move faster than this.


    I looked at the ceiling and saw openings that were filled with more flowers, or lava flowing down.


    I could make a bridge that everyone can walk on, but that would mean that I have to stop and get some blocks.


    There was also the option of using my mace to blow away a path that we could use, but that would only be a waste of my precious energy.


    So the only option left is to dig a new tunnel underneath the death field.


    "This would take forever to get anywhere. The Wither would die from old age before we''ll get to him."


    "If you have any suggestions, I''m all ears."


    The Mad Prince is truly a noble from the way he acts, and his mannerisms.


    But I''m surprised to see that he''s not only that.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Sure, he is proud of his strength and intelligence, but he only likes to rub it on his opponent and not his subordinates.


    I could say he was humble overall, but still a jerk.


    "The rock in the Nether is easier to break than the one in my world, and with an enchanted diamond pickaxe, we could move faster than this method."


    Of course, the disadvantages are that we can''t see where we''re going, and the fact that the pickaxes would brake at some point.


    That''s why I was willing to lend my 2 pickaxes to mine the tunnel.


    The durability will go down, but I''ll put a rule where we''ll have to stop whenever we find a quartz vein to mine it and get the xp from there.


    "Hmm, that is quite true. Even if we accidentally run into a lava pool, everyone is enchanted with fire resistance so we could always patch things up."


    He ordered everyone to stop and called 3 Brutes, who seemed to own the diamond pickaxes.


    It seems that their mining equipment was suitable enough for this endeavor, and I didn''t need to take action.


    That was probably for the best since I didn''t have to damage my items, and I wouldn''t get too tired.


    We all went underground and the three Brutes began to mine a 3 blocks wide tunnel where everyone followed at a respectable pace.


    While it was more tiring than before, the pace was much quicker, and every time the mining soldiers got tired, they were switched to new ones who had the strength to continue.


    We continued like this for a full day, where every hour we stopped and checked the surface to see if anything was different.


    But after a day of mining, we finally arrived at a Bastion.


    "Ok, everyone! Looks like we''ll finally get some action. Now get some rest and prepare for the upcoming battle."


    Everyone did a grunt of approval and fell down to the floor sleeping instantly.


    What are they, robots?


    Why are they so efficient with everything? How can you even train such a large number of humans to be this coordinated?


    "I suggest you get some rest as well, Trader; it''s best to be at the peak of your strength before entering a battle. And you''ll be safe while you''re with us."


    I wasn''t that tired yet since the only thing I did was walk all day.


    But I do understand his reasoning for this, it''s just that I didn''t trust them to watch me while I sleep.


    "I''ll make myself a room and sleep there, wake me up when well go to battle."


    The Mad Prince nodded, and I quickly made a small room for myself while blocking the entrance with a netherack.


    "Alexa, since you don''t need to sleep, you''ll be on guard duty. Wake me up if they try to break the wall or anything else."


    <Order received sir, get some rest.>


    Alexa''s invisibility wore off a few hours ago, and I didn''t see a reason to use any more invisibility potions for now.


    Because of that, we had to stay at the back of the group so soldiers wouldn''t be annoyed every time they looked at Alexa.


    Once everything was prepared, I put my head on the hay blocks and fell asleep.


    -----


    <Sir, the Brutes are breaking the wall.>


    "Wha-what?"


    I quickly got up and looked as one of the Brutes broke the wall with a bored expression.


    "It''s time to go."


    That''s the only thing he said before turning around and leaving.


    "I guess that''s my new alarm clock. It''s a shame that I don''t have the snooze button."


    <What are you talking about sir?>


    "Don''t worry, I''m just talking to myself."


    I did a few stretches and cleaned up after myself.


    After everything was done, I went to the common room, where I saw everyone was ready, just waiting for me.


    There were a few moments of awkward silence before the ceiling was broken, and the attack began.


    I wasn''t in a hurry since this wasn''t my battle, so I slowly walked.


    This was just a normal bastion with converted Brutes and mindless skeletons.


    But that didn''t mean that I was going to stay back and let everyone have their fun.


    Instead, I decided to concentrate on the loot.


    When the battle began, nobody bothered to pay attention to me anymore, and because of that, I became invisible in the middle of the battlefield.


    While the Brutes tried to dodge the deadly arrows to take over the walls.


    I just calmly walked while blocking the stray attacks with my mace and broke the wall without a problem.


    On the other side, there was a lot of movement, with skeletons and Brutes running from side to side, trying to reinforce the walls with more soldiers from the constant attack.


    I even saw some of them carrying buckets of lava, which would leave some unpleasant burns on the Diamond Squad.


    But that wasn''t my problem to deal with.


    This wasn''t their first rodeo, so I wasn''t going to tell them how to fight.


    Instead, I got closer to the man who was in charge of all of this and was desperately yelling commands at his soldiers.


    "-throw rocks at them, I don''t care, just keep them off my walls!"


    The Brute wore a dark fur coat with the head of a Hogling that had golden tasks.


    That was quite the ornament he had there.


    Around him were a few golden blocks and chests, probably to showcase his wealth to anyone who visited him.


    But I doubt he had anyone alive to show it to, so it was all for his eyes.


    While he was procureupied, I looked through a few chests of his, and I was quite impressed by what he gathered.


    The bastion was similar in size to the one that I took over last time, but this one seems to have more netherite than I expected.


    I wonder how they got so many Netherite ingots without a diamond pickaxe.


    Or maybe they found another way to mine those precious blocks.


    I took whatever I found to be more valuable and looked back at the man who was sweating buckets of water from all the stress piling up.


    "What do you mean they found a hole in out walls and used it?"


    Wops, looks like they found my tunnel and used it to get inside.


    Well it''s not like we were going to lose, I just speed up the process of taking over the bastion.


    "No, this can''t be happening! I just got this power, and I can''t lose it after giving up so much. I''ll run away and take over another bastion! I''m sure the Wither would have some to spare."


    Looks like this man could know the location of the Wither, and if he''s so confident that he''s not gonna be killed as a retaliation for failing to protect the bastion, that only means his ability must be truly amazing.


    I can''t let such a key escape from my hands.


    The Brute send the last of his soldiers to fight and began to franticly look through the chest that I just robbed.


    "Where is everything? Who dared rob me in such a way? And when did they even have the chance?"


    I didn''t want him to suffer anymore then this, so I decided to knock him out with my mace.


    Unfortunately I didn''t have any potions on me to make this job easier, and his armor was too strong for me to threathen him with my sword.


    But becouse I didn''t know witch enchantments he had on his armor, that resulted in him getting hit more then necessary.


    Let''s say that I had to use a regenerative potion on him, so he wouldn''t die by accident.


    But I also learned how to use the energy more ''gently'', so I''ll take that as a valuable experience.


    Not too long after, the battle was won by the Diamond Squad with no casualties.


    And now it was time for some interrogation.

 Chapter 215. Interrogation

    POV: Second In Command


    We flawlessly took over the Bastion with no casualties, as usual, since the only reason we would lose it would be becouse the Wither appeared.


    I couldn''t forget the first time I saw him, with his imposing authority and empty eyes.


    Wherever he flew there was always an army of black skeletons behind him.


    Some of them even had enchanted armor.


    But even with that, nothing could compare to when he decided to join the fight.


    Nothing worked against him, no arrow or fireworks reached him, and when he attached, at least 3 soldiers fell.


    That was the biggest loss we had since the inception of the Diamond Squad.


    The only reason we managed to survive was because the boss joined the fight, and was able to keep him preoccupied long enough for us to retreat.


    That was the first time we had to do such a shameful act, and nobody felt good about it.


    Even the Prince got more serious about this and began to study the enemy in every possible way to find a way to fight back.


    From then, we slowed down the marching speed, and we were ordered to give up on any bastion that the Wither appeared in.


    A lot of soldiers were dissatisfied with this cowardness, but the Prince promised them they would one day fight with all they had when he would find the Withers''s weakness.


    This promise kept most of the Brutes in check.


    While we love to have a strong opponent to fight and don''t mind dying while doing so, the fight with the Wither couldn''t be considered a fight.


    It was a massacre that nobody wanted to die for.


    We slowly continued to gain back more territory from the death fields, until we slowly realized that the Wither didn''t appear at Bastions anymore.


    This made the Brutes more ruthless and harder to control since their pent-up frustration was reaching a breaking point.


    We were lucky that the MAN decided to appear.


    He was the only one who managed to defeat me in a fight, even though his fighting style felt very dirty.


    He was most likely brought here to entrain the others with a fight or maybe his monster friends.


    I''m sure nobody expected him to be the reason we would go on the offensive once again.


    Once I asked the Prince for the plan, I couldn''t believe my ears when I heard he was the secret weapon.


    Why would Boss trust him so much?


    Sure, he was powerful in his way, but he was not better than Boss if he was serious.


    And that''s not including the fact that he most likely hated us from last time.


    But if the Prince chose this, I was going to follow it, since that was my duty in this squad.


    Follow and get accepted by the Prince.


    When we found the first Bastion and began the fight, I was waiting for that man to see what was so special about him.


    Only to lose him as soon as I took my eyes off him for a second.


    I have to be honest, his group was the best one for inflation or gathering intelligence becouse of their special ability.


    One could turn herself invisible and teleport at will, and the man blended with the room If you took off your eyes for a second.


    Well, there would be other opportunities to see him in action, so I concentrated on the fight in front of me.


    Once we won, we began our favorite part of fighting.


    The looting process.


    Only to realize that the man was already there with the leader at his feet unconscious and the chests emptied from all the good loot.


    We could only clench our teeth, and wonder how he managed to get here so fast.


    Not only that, but he captured the leader alive, which was a great achievement.


    "As expected of Trader, you move fast and efficiently. Did you find anything interesting in the chests?"Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "Not really, but I did hear him talk about a special ability and that he knew the location of the Wither."


    That was huge news for us since this could help us immensely if done right.


    "Boss, let me be in charge of his interrogation. I''ll get everything out of him in no time!"


    The 2 men looked at me.


    And after Trader shrugged his shoulders, I got the permission to start off the interrogation.


    I was happy with this opportunity, so I quickly visited a few soldiers to get some items and brought the prisoner to a small room.


    Boss and the man seemed to be interested in the process as well and sat in the corner of the room behind the prisoner.


    That way, he couldn''t see them.


    Before the man was tied to a chair, I took off his armor so I could see him better.


    He was a man with many scars, showcasing the lack of food or potion to heal the body in time.


    This meant that he was used to pain, so most likely, the integration word take longer.


    I took a potion bottle from my inventory, popped the lid off, and hovered it under the nose of the prisoner.


    As soon as he took a sniff, his eyes were wide awake, and he desperately tried to rub of something from his nose.


    Unfortunately, he was tied up with iron chains so he couldn''t do anything about it.


    "What was that horrible smell? I felt my soul leaving the body....where I''m I? Who are you?"


    Good, the smelling potion was always the best at waking someone up.


    It wouldn''t do anything if someone dared to drink this, but its stench was so powerful that we used it to train troops on waking everyone at the same time.


    If you dared not to wake up on time, you would be awakened with this powerful smell.


    "You''ve been caught. Now tell me everything you know, or you''ll suffer more than this awful smell."


    The prisoner turned his head, showing his response to my request.


    Well, I guess it''s a good thing he didn''t spill the pearls so early since I wanted to let out some of my frustration on someone.


    So I took a pink potion from my inventory that had a murky color.


    I pooped the lid off and poured everything on his head.


    As I did that, his scars began to heal like magic, no matter how much time had passed.


    This was why potions were something that everyone wanted no matter the status.


    But instead of showing his appreciation for the gift I gave him, he began to scream his lungs out and tried to get off his chair with no success.


    While this was a regenerative potion, it had a special effect on it.


    It healed slower than normal, and the process of healing was very painful.


    So the bigger the wound it had to heal, the greater the pain the prisoner would feel.


    This way, I didn''t have to worry about accidentally killing him while also bringing him the most pain.


    After a few more moments of him screaming, the wounds were gone and the pain stopped.


    I got closer to him, picked him up from the floor, and placed him in the previous position, making sure he was looking at me.


    "Well, you see- *Stab."


    I stabbed the man in his leg, and he began to scream from the pain once again.


    "The less you talk, the more my sword would cut you. But you don''t have to worry, since those wounds would heal nice and slowly."


    I went back to my chair and let him finish his screaming session.


    After he was done, he looked at me with hatred in his eyes, but once I showed my shiny sword, it was quickly replaced with fear.


    I could only chuckle at this.


    "Are you ready to talk now?"


    "F-fine....what do you want to know."


    I smiled and put my sword down, still visible to him.


    "That''s good to hear. Where''s the location of the Wither?"


    "I don''t know-Ahhhh!"


    Suddenly, a new cut appeared on his other leg, making him scream in pain.


    "I don''t know, but I know where''s his favorite Bastion that he often visits is!"


    That''s a better start.


    "Good, you''ll be the one to lead us there, and don''t get any funny ideas, since I have more of those potions with me."


    I could hear him gulping as I said that.


    "Now, you talked about a special ability you had, what''s that about?"


    His eyes were wide with surprise, and he quickly turned his head, ready for another wound.


    "You know, as long as you talk, you won''t feel the pain."


    "I''d rather die than tell you about my secret ability!"


    To test his resolve, I stabbed him in multiple places, which made him scream some more, but he didn''t say a word about it.


    I tried to see if he would respond to other questions.


    "What''s the Wither final goal?"


    "To defeat the System."


    Was he talking about the one from the Overworld?


    But then why was he taking over the Nether first?


    Did he want a powerful army beforehand?


    I tried to ask him more questions, but for the most of them, he didn''t know the answer.


    He was someone who recently joined the Wither army so he had limited information, even after he went through the harsh training of the Wither.


    I tried to get some information about his secret ability through other questions, but this led to no results.


    I think I did a good job with my interrogation this time, since we found out a lot of information about the location and the motive of the Wither.


    "Can I also try my luck with him?"


    One of the spectators decides to speak up.


    It was Trader of course.


    I looked at my Boss and he gave me a nod to let him try as well.


    I don''t see how he would make him speak, but my job here was done.


    The prisoner looked at the man with confusion, then with anger.


    "You''re the one who robbed me and knocked me out!"


    "Guilty as charged. Now let''s see if we can find out anything about your ''secret'' ability."


    He then placed an obsidian block on the ground and then the wierd explosive on top of it.


    Both me and the Prince raised our shields, expecting an explosion to follow.


    Instead the man tapped something in the air like he was working on something.


    Was he looking at his status page?


    But that couldn''t be possible since they don''t work in the Nether.


    "Oh wow, no wonder the Wither wanted to keep this a secret. He found out how to make skills. And from the looks of it you have the Mining skill."


    The prisoner face quickly turned pale as he heard his secret being uncovered.


    But why was he trying to keep this a secret so badly?


    Sure, it impressive that the Wither can create skills, but I don''t think it was worth to suffer so much for it.


    "Ahh, I see why you wanted it to keep it a secret. It''s seems there''s a safe file that would kill you if you talk about this. But the skill is much more interesting then expected, it''s seems to give you knowledge about all the blocks you came in contact with. And as a final bonus, you can mine one tier above the pickaxe you currently poses. That''s why you could have so much netherite with only an iron pickaxe."


    The Prince eyes were wide in surprise at the new information, while I was trying to figure out what was so special about the Netherite ore.


    "Trader, do you think the Wither can make more of an abstract skill, like say, a Combat one?"


    Trader stopped for a moment before searching for something in the air then looked back at Boss.


    "Looks like it can be done."


    Then I heard Boss curse, which rarely happens.


    Is it really that bad to have a combat skill?


    What was I missing?

 Chapter 216. Dangers ahead

    Looks like the Wither got his hands on a powerful ability.


    Until now, I saw the skills as more of a burden than something you''ll want to have.


    Since in the game, you don''t have them.


    Instead, you can make everything you want. That''s why I saw skills as a downside.


    At least until level 8.


    After that, I could say you''ll want to have a skill since you have access to a wider degree of recipes that you don''t have in the game.


    And they''re pretty cool as well.


    But I kind of forgot that the System made it this annoying specifically because the humans were a pain to deal with.


    Now the Wither has access to the same power, and he doesn''t intend on making it hard for his subjects.


    From what I could see from the Crystal, he only placed 5 levels for the Mining skills, with each level up gaining new knowledge directly to the brain.


    That''s how skills are supposed to be from the beginning.


    And this is also the reason the Mad Prince was so concerned when he heard about the new skills.


    That would mean that whoever had the combat skill would be a master once it was maxed leveled.


    And an army like that could only mean trouble.


    And that''s only talking about the Combat skill. I''m sure he also created the Science skill or the Engineering skill to find out how to absorb the power of the Nether.


    Maybe that''s why he disappeared from the war, he was concentrating on getting his men to the final level.


    The question is now if he also knew how to create items, or recepies.


    I know how powerful the Energy Mace is, and this one was with restrictions.


    I wonder what a weapon without restrictions would look like.


    We left to torture room and saw the Brutes looking up and down at the bastion in case they missed anything.


    Looting was a profitable business after all, and they worked with the first touch, first served rule.


    I don''t know where the prisoner was taken, nor do I want to know. Instead I was just happy that I managed to get such valuable information out of him without resorting to pain.


    "It seems that the bomb you used last time, had other functions. Could you share one with me to speed up the process of finding the Wither?"


    "You sure want a lot from someone who''s not even friendly towards you. I only tolerate you at most."


    The Mad Prince only smiled and followed me in silence.


    I was slowly walking towards the exit of the Bastion so I could talk with Alexa, but the Mad Prince kept following me, making it impossible to speak with my blue Allay.


    "If you want to, I can take off the tracking block from your monster friend."


    "Is that supposed to entice me to give you one of my items?"


    "Of course not! This would be a token of friendship, a new beginning you could say."


    Well, that would''ve been useful a while back, not when she gone.


    "As you can tell, she''s not in the Nether. So I''ll have to get her when I''ll be back in the Overworld. Unless you have it as an item that I can use it myself."


    "Unfortunately, it''s more of a device than an item. And it needs expert hands to work with it."


    So it was an empty gift in the end....unless they''d give me the compass so I could find her on my own.


    "Would your trading device work in the Overworld as well?"


    The Mad Prince looked to the side, thinking about the question.


    "In theory, it shouldn''t be a problem since the only reason it doesn''t point at a portal is because of the dimensional barrier. Here, you can have it, if it makes you feel more comfortable."


    Then, he took out a block of lapis that had a faint glow over it, which took me by surprise.


    I expected a compass not an enchanted block.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    "How does it even work?"


    "It''s easy, you have to turn around until you see the enchantments glow brighter, then you follow the lead until they start to dim down."


    I guess it was similar to a compass, so it''s still easy to use.


    Just to be sure, I did a spin to see if anything changed, but unfortunately, it stayed the same.


    "Thanks, this isn''t enough for me to completely forgive you, but it''s a start in the right direction."


    "I''m glad to hear that."


    With that, we parted ways, and I could finally speak with Alexa in peace.


    "Alexa, you saw the data from the Crystal. Do you think you could make a compass that would lead to the Wither?"


    <Negative. But I could make one that would point towards other humans with special skills.>


    I guess if the Wither wanted to build his energy generator, he would need a lot of people in one place.


    So this method should be safe to choose.


    "Ok, please make one that would show us the way to the biggest gathering of people with special skills."


    <Mission received.>


    The order was done in an instant, and now it was time for the harder questions.


    "Alexa, can you also make skills?"


    <In theory, I know how to make them, but I wouldn''t suggest such a request.>


    That''s weird coming from Alexa.


    The supercomputer is usually very eager to use any ''ethical'' method to get what it wants.


    So I signaled for the Allay to continue.


    <It''s not hard to create a skill, but it needs a constant supply of energy. Something that I''m not capable of producing right now in high quantities. Besides that, the only place those skills can be used is in my domain and the Nether since the System from the Overworld would automatically seal them.>


    So Alexa was capable of making them, but didn''t want to since it was a constant drain.


    That means that the Wither either found a source of constant energy or that the Nether Star was much more powerful than expected.


    If so, it''s no wonder that Alexa wanted to summon a new Wither so badly.


    Alexa also wanted a piece of pie from that energy generator.


    You could also say that Alexa was the weakest of the 3 gods in those 2 dimensions, even though it was the second one to come into being.


    But if the Wither is considered to have a huge energy generator, then what kind of generator does the System have?


    After all, it made 3 skills for all the people in the Overworld, and that must be over tens of thousands of energy sinkholes.


    If the energy works similarly to my Mace, that would mean that the more energy an attack has, the more powerful it is.


    And with that logic, the System is way more dangerous than anticipated.


    "If you make a skill, do you think you can also make it to be at the max level from the start?"


    <I do not have the necessary data to answer that question.>


    That''s a shame, but it was to be expected.


    Maybe I should convince Alexa to give me a skill... I wonder if it would be willing since I''m the only one who would have access to it, so I don''t think it would be too expensive to maintain.


    But I think that would be possible, only if I''m going into Alexas domain.


    That would mean that this would be a project for a later date.


    With all the information given to me, I went back to the Bastion, where everything was looted to the bones.


    It made me wonder where they put all of this stuff.


    Soon, the sound of a horn was heard, and everyone stopped and gathered at the center of the Bastion in an orderly fashion.


    "Today''s battle was a success! But our thirst for blood is not yet quenched. We shall attack the Wither next!"


    Everyone gave a loud cheer with weapons in the air.


    The one who spoke was, of course, the Mad Prince.


    On the podium was also the Second in command with the prisoner who looked very tired.


    With everything done in here, we went back underground and began mining.


    This time it took a lot longer, since the prisoner couldn''t recognize the landscape from underground.


    Not only that, but we kept bumping into lava lakes, which forced us to either go deep or onto the surface to pass that obstacle.


    From what we were told, it would take a few days on foot to get there, and at the pace we were walking, it would take over a week to arrive, even with an army of superhumans.


    At least the prisoner was leading us in the roughly correct direction which was a good sign.


    So for the next few days, we mined ahead, took breaks, watched how some of the Brutes decided to fight out of boredom, and finally get some rest.


    Even the prisoner seemed to loosen up a bit and wasn''t jumpy every time a Brute passed by him.


    But it was always funny to see his reaction when he would accidentally see me, and he couldn''t explain to himself how I got there in the first place.


    The others were doing a little better at finding me, but it was almost impossible to take the Mad Prince by surprise.


    At this point, I was wondering if he had an item similar to the Monocle of Truth on him.


    But from what the other told me, the Mad Prince was an oddity by the standards of the Brutes as well.


    He is the child of a Brute and a Piglin.


    Usually, only one trait would transfer to the child no matter who the parents are, but he hit the jackpot with the strength of a Brute and the intelligence of a Piglin.


    The Brutes don''t care about his origin that much, since they respect his strength.


    Only the Piglings seem to have something against him since he''s mixed blood, but they are too afraid to do anything to him since he can''t be fooled like the other Brutes.


    It''s not like the Brutes are dumb.


    There are some clear examples of Brutes being smart, like the current King and the Second in command.


    It''s just that, to a casual Brute, it takes more effort to think that a Pigling, like how a Pigling can still fight but would put more effort into gaining muscle.


    Both parties can do each other''s job, but why bother picking the apple from your neighbor''s tree when you have your own?


    But this is also why the Mad Prince is so dangerous since he seems to always move with a plan in mind.


    Which means that he also has a plan with me.


    I don''t think he''s only interested in my Energy Mace.


    Otherwise he would''ve tried to take it from me while I was sleeping.


    Sure, Alexa could wake me up while they tried to brake inside. But with the diamonds pickaxe, they would''ve got to me in an instant.


    And I didn''t even see him try to use potions like he did with Violet.


    Maybe that''s why he didn''t attack me, he was too afraid of the retaliation from my Ender friend.


    And he was right to be afraid.


    A smart Endeman was already annoying to deal with, you don''t want to piss of a 4 block monster that can teleport and turn invisible at will.


    She would literally hunt you across dimensions if you get on her wrong side.


    But that means the Mad Prince wanted something else from me.


    Perhaps knowledge?


    There could also be a chance of him just wanting to be friends.


    All of those thoughts ran in my mind until finally we arrived at out destination.


    And I have to say, this truly deserves to be called the hideout of a final boss.

 Chapter 217. Withers Fortress

    The base looked a lot like the Wither himself.


    There were 3 huge skeleton heads over the ground with the one in the middle having a huge golden crown on top.


    The structure was surrounded by black flowers of different sizes, from one block tall to even five.


    This was the first time I''ve ever seen something like this, and I think even my armor would have a hard time keeping up with the Wither domain in here.


    I wonder if the interior is even worse than this.


    And how can we even get inside without being noticed since the walls had constant guards on them, skeletons, Brutes, and even Piglings.


    I wasn''t the only one who seemed troubled by this, but the Mad Prince as well.


    "I told you it''s not a good idea to come here. This is the best Fortress I''ve ever seen, and only the ones blessed by the Wither can pass the gates unharmed."


    The prisoner said with a smug face, completely forgetting the position he was in.


    "Are there any structures underground?"


    The Prince asked.


    "Yes, that''s the place where the special rooms are stationed and more that even I don''t know about. The walls are made of obsidian, so don''t bother breaking them without alerting the whole Bastion."


    They put some real defense for this place, which was a rare sight.


    I don''t even want to think how much obsidian was used or how long it took.


    Can they even make diamond pickaxes?


    Sure the Wither can spawn armor with his soldiers, but that doesn''t mean he can spawn tools as well....hopefully.


    From the looks of it, everything seems to function as it should.


    The Mad Prince thought for a moment before sending a squad to check out the base from underneath.


    It didn''t take too long for them to come back and give some grave news.


    "Boss, the place is covered in lava and we can''t see anything beyond that."


    The Wither most likely made a huge hole with his deadly lasers and then built the base inside it.


    Not only that but before they covered everything up, they placed buckets of lava beside the obsidian wall to stop any kind of attempts to get inside.


    I had to say, this was an expensive but very effective way to build a Fortress.


    "That doesn''t sound good. What do you think, Trader? Do you have an idea how to tackle this?"


    For me, it would be relatively easy to get inside.


    I can drink a fire resistance potion, swim to the wall, and break the obsidian block in around 10 minutes.


    And because I''ll use my netherite equipment, it would also be silent so the inhabitants wouldn''t know about me.


    Once inside, I can think of a plan. Worst-case scenario, I can always teleport out.


    But of course, they can''t do the same thing as me, since it would take much longer and the risks would be much higher.


    "Since they covered the lava, we can send someone to take the source block in a bucket and wait for the lava wall to fall off. Then we can go to the bottom, and mine from there since there are lower chances of someone being there."


    "That''s what I thought as well. Second, prepare someone with a fire resistance potion and a bucket. We''re going to get this Fortress no matter what."


    The second in command quickly got to work and prepared someone for the mission.


    The other soldier began their preparations as well, fully trusting that the mission would be a success.


    "Is it alright to start it now? Wouldn''t it be better to gather some information before we attack the base?"


    The Mad Prince turned his head towards me and smirked.


    "Don''t worry; I''ve never gone to war without a plan in mind. And it''s not like we don''t have any information about the enemy. It''s qukte the opposite, we have too much, and I was just waiting for an opportunity to attack."


    What was he talking about?


    "You don''t seem to believe me. But rest assured, I gathered enough information to roughly know what to expect from the Wither and what would work against him. If only I knew how he came to be, this job would''ve been much easier."Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    I, for sure was not going to tell him that I was the one who made him.


    I already have enough problems because of this, I don''t want to have a curios Price on my back as well.


    While everyone got ready, I began to get nervous about their lack of fear.


    I knew they were warriors who liked to battle nonstop, but I didn''t feel any tension in the air.


    This was like a regular tuesday for them.


    What a fearsome civilization.


    Not wanting to be part of this, I decided to infiltrate the base and see what was going on with my own two eyes.


    Luckily, this was my specialty, and even the transformed soldiers didn''t seem to be capable of seeing through my armor.


    I had to be quick with my axe so the patrol wouldn''t see the hole in the gate.


    But once inside I was taken by surprise once again by the design of this place.


    If I had to describe this place in one word, I would say DEATH.


    Why would I say that?


    Because it looked like I was inside a skeleton.


    They didn''t seem to bother decorating this place too much.


    Everything was black except the ribs, which were used as a walking platform and were white as a bone.


    Now that I looked at them more closely, I think those were bone blocks.


    So the inside of the building was like the inside of the Withers in a way.


    That was some narcissistic stuff.


    But when your a being close to a god, I guess you can afford to be little like that.


    The entrance was around his neck, so when I looked up, I saw a golden ceiling that probably led to a large room.


    On my right and left were long hallways that most likely led to the other heads and maybe other rooms.


    But in front of me was a huge hole that led deep into the underground.


    In the chest area, there seems to be a smaller room made completely with netherite blocks, which was an amazing way to show wealth, even though it didn''t look that good.


    Beyond that floating room, I could see darkness like it a fog, most likely made with magic.


    I had to carefully walk around since guards were constantly patrolling the place, and I didn''t want to accidentally walk into someone and give up my cover, even though most of them were mindless flowing orders.


    I decided to go towards the golden room that was above my head.


    It wasn''t hard to get there, I had to occasionally hang by the rails as the Brutes came down the stairs, but otherwise, everything was good.


    Once I was on the golden floor, I saw that it was split into 4 rooms, each with an unique material.


    One was made with golden blocks, the next one was made with glowstone, the third one was made with obsidian, and the last one was made of quartz.


    This looked like a kid was playing in a creative world and was building a house with the most precious or flashy item''s he could find.


    The exterior of the base looked amazing and intimidating, but the interior looked like it was made by someone else entirely.


    This made me wonder who designed all of this and if the Witner was involved at all.


    I got closer to the golden room to inspect it''s inside, and luckily for me, it seemed that they used iron doors so I could see through the small windows.


    Through the small squares, I saw a small class of 10 people and one teacher on the other side of the wall.


    The students paid close attention to the teacher who was saying.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t hear the teacher since he was too far away, and I couldn''t get inside either since I would make a lot of noise if I opened the door.


    Should I break it instead?


    No, I''ll make a lot of noise when I place the door back down.


    I looked around more carefully and saw a sign that had something written on it.


    -Combat Class-


    "So those were literal classrooms"


    < It seems so sir.>


    I jumped to the side when I heard the voice in my head.


    "Alexa! When did you get here, and how did you become invisible?"


    <I realized that I made you waste a lot of resources and inventory slots for me, so I decided that I''ll be teleporting invisibility potions on top of my head when needed.>


    Well, that would free a few slots from my Ender Chest, and if I can teleport items with my magic square, why shouldn''t the supercomputer do the same?


    "Can you hear what they''re saying inside by any chance?"


    <Negative sir, but I can read the lips of the man in the form of the room and deduce what he''s saying.>


    That was good enough for me, so I signaled the air to do that.


    <-s why it''s best to work in a larger group than alone. You have the permission to use the skeletons as you please by the, but please refrain from killing the fleshed ones unless it''s necessary.>


    So they were talking about combat, pretty on point with the theme of the class.


    <That would be enough for today. Now we have to get some experience, so please eat the Black Star and fight in pairs.>


    Everyone then took out something black from their inventory and began to eat it with an unpleasant expression, but not leaving anything behind.


    Now that I was looking closer, it had the shape of the Nether Star, only the color being different.


    I wonder what was the purpose of those.


    As soon as they finished the Black Stars, they quickly began to attacked each other with practiced movements.


    Where they grinding for experience right now?


    I tried to look closer and see a pattern, but it was hard to do so since some of them used weapons while others fought with their fists.


    Unfortunately I couldn''t deduce to much from such a distance and neither could Alexa because of the door.


    In the end we gave up and decided to look at the other rooms as well to see if we could figure something out.


    The one made all with glowstone, was dedicated to -Shadow Class-, but nobody seemed to be inside.


    So I moved to the next one which was made with obsidian.


    But when I read the sign, I was a little suprirse.


    "-Magic Class-? That seems like an powerful skill to have, one that I would also like to have."


    I looked though the iron door and saw 3 students and one teacher who seemed to concentrate on something on the ground.


    It was much darker then the other rooms, so I had to squint my eyes to finally see that it was a black skull.


    Suddenly all of them raised their arms and a black smoke began to rise from the ground until it hit the ceiling.


    As soon as it appeared, the black smoke was gone and inside was a black skeleton with enchanted iron armor.


    They were summoning Wither skeletons!?


    And with enchanted armor as well!


    This skill looks like fun.


    They were all happy with the results, but we''re speaking to quietly for me or Alexa to hear what they were saying.


    So that only left the last room, the one made from quartz.


    Above the door was a sighn that said.


    -Research Classroom-


    This was more broad, but I could roughly guess what it was about, and it''s most likely the most important room from this whole floor.


    Just as I was about to look inside.


    *BOOM!


    *BOOM!


    *BOOM!


    I heard explosions from downstairs.


    "That mad man started the attack!"

 Chapter 218. Black Star

    The loud bang made the whole bastion freeze for a moment, making the situation tense and about to burst at any time.


    And I was right to suspect that, as the iron doors were suddenly swung open, and everyone got out of the classrooms without looking back.


    But there was something wrong with this.


    Only 2 classrooms seemed to have students, so where were the rest?


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have the luxury to stay to much on this question, since I had to make a decision.


    Should I follow them down and join the fight, or explore those classrooms since now they were all empty?


    "What do you think I should do Alexa?"


    <The battle would still go on, no matter if you join now or later sir. I think it would be a wise move to take advantage of this chaos and look for more information.>


    Alexa was right.


    The Mad Prince was too reckless and attacked without a plan, or at least he didn''t tell me of any.


    So I have no obligation to join him now in battle.


    Maybe he knows something that I don''t, but I''m sure I''ll find some answers if I search in those classrooms.


    With the decision made, we quickly entered the -Combat Classroom- which was now empty.


    This whole place was a mess with chairs and wooden weapons all over the floor, since everyone rushed outside.


    But I calmly walked towards the teacher''s podium and studied the place.


    There, I found a lone chest.


    Curios, I tried to open it, but to my surprise, it seemed locked.


    "You can lock your chest now? Where was that information when I built my base? Did you know about this Alexa?"


    <Negative sir. It was seen as a pointless task to create something like this, since whoever wanted to take what was inside, had to destroy the chest. That''s why we asked for the Ender Chest, where the items would be safe no matter where you were.>


    I guess that made sense.


    But even if you want to steal from a chest that way, it wasn''t something that anyone would do unless they really wanted what was inside.


    After all, if you broke a full chest, all the items would explode and could end up killing you.


    The items in this world don''t act like in the game.


    Sure, the items when broken, reduce their size to one-quarter and could be stacked.


    That still resulted in a big explosion from all the placed in one space.


    It would''ve been a good bomb if it wasn''t so dangerous.


    "There must be a reason why they put a lock on this chest."


    <You''re right Sir. After a quick scan, I see that the items in this chest would be destroyed if the chest itself is broken, and the only way to open it is to use the energy of the Wither.>


    That was one way to deal with thieves.


    But if they are willing to destroy the contents of the chest, that must mean that the items were very valuable.


    Since I didn''t have the energy of the Wither and Alexa couldn''t replicate it with this body, the only option left was to use the Crystal.


    So I placed an obsidian block and put the Crystal on top before touching the chest with my hand.


    Soon, a tab appeared in front of me, and I could see all the items in the chest and what they did.


    The chest wasn''t full, but it did have the same item.


    The Black Star.


    More exactly Black Star: Combat skill.


    Does that mean if I eat this Star, I would gain the Combat Skill?


    Is it that easy?


    Then why didn''t everyone who chose to follow the Wither have skills?


    But after I read the description of the item I quickly realized why there were such a small number of students in this class.


    It seems that there''s only a 20% chance you''ll get the skill, and if you didn''t, the Wither energy will consume you and make you one of his many puppets.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Not only that but if you want to get another skill, there is a 1% chance you''ll get it. Otherwise, you''ll end up as a skeleton.


    And if by some miracle you manage to survive that, and still wanted another skill, your chances would drop to 0.01%.


    It was brutal.


    But why were they eating the stars if they already had the skills?


    "Alexa, can you please look closer at those items?"


    <Order received.>


    While I learned how to use the Crystal, I was still a beginner at this and didn''t know how to use all its functions.


    Luckily, Alexa didn''t have this problem, since it moved from one tab to another at lightning speeds.


    After a few moments of silence, all tabs were closed, and I waited for the report.


    <It seems that Winter chose an interesting way to create those skills.>


    "Care to elaborate?"


    <The Wither seems to found out how to make temporary skills. It works by triggering the skill with those Starts, but they work similar to potions. By that I mean that for the next 12 hours, you''ll have access to that skill. Once the time was up, you didn''t have the skill anymore, but it would still stay at the same level in a dormant state. This way the Wither doesn''t need to put a constant supply of energy for the skills, just when it''s needed.>


    That was a smart way to deal with a problem like that.


    But the prisoner had a permanent skill from what I remembered.


    Maybe he was part of the initial testing and he was lucky enough to get a permanent one.


    Or I should say unlucky since he was sent on the front lines most likely to die.


    But this method would also make the soldiers stay loyal once they get a taste of this power.


    "Do you think you could replicate this method, Alexa?"


    <Affirmative, but it would take a while to get all the energy and the research done. But it should be put as a top priority because of its potential.>


    As long as I was getting a skill out of this I wouldn''t mind.


    Wait a minute.


    If the Crystal works similarly to a supercomputer, and my mace works as an infinite energy storage, couldn''t I make skills?


    "Alexa, when you succeed with this research, please give me a detailed report. Make it simple enough for me to understand it."


    <Ordered received sir.>


    Since we couldn''t open the chest even with the Crystal, we decided to visit the other classrooms as well.


    The -Shadow Classroom- had only one chest like the previous classroom, with the exception that the Black Stars were labeled with the Shadow skill.


    We still don''t know what it does since we couldn''t get our hands on the Stars, to our frustration.


    The next one was the -Magic classroom- which had more results than the previous ones.


    There were 2 chests in this room, and while the one with the skills was locked, the other one was normal and could be opened.


    Inside, there were a few books with instructions about the Magic skill.


    It seemed to be similar to Enchanting or Brewing, where you''re able to do more complex stuff the higher the level.


    What I saw a few moments ago was a level 5 skill "Summoning Skeleton", where it would summon a skeleton based on the amount of experience you had.


    What was even more amazing about this, was the fact that it could be done in a group to share the burden of the experience and summon a stronger skeleton.


    I wonder what the strongest skeleton would look like and how much experience would that require.


    There were some other magic formulas in here, such as the classic fireball and even earth spike.


    Now that I was looking closer at it, this is the most valuable skill of them all.


    It''s only a shame that there are not a lot of magic spells created yet.


    "Alexa, record everything in those books. This information is too valuable to leave it like this."


    <Ordered received.>


    With the obsidian room finished, we went onto the last room, which I suspected was the most valuable one.


    After I opened the door, I was taken by surprise that it was empty.


    There were no chairs or tables, not even the locked chest.


    Was this a skill still under development?


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t get the answer here, and since I already got everything I could from this place, that meant that I would have to go and join the fight.


    I let out a big sigh and went towards the stairs.


    After I took a few steps down, I could see the chaos that was happening all over the place.


    Since the whole building was empty in the middle, only with some stairs on the walls. I could see the whole battlefield from here.


    The Brutes, as their name implied, were vicious with their attacks, but the sheer number of enemies was too much for them.


    If things continued like that, we would lose this battle in half an hour.


    This was very annoying to see.


    If they wanted to attack, at least do a good job and not make it hard for me to infiltrate afterwards.


    Not wanting to lose this fight, I jumped off the balcony and let myself free fall until I was about to reach one of the big floors.


    Just when I was about to pass it, I grabbed the edges of my cape and slowed my descent until I safely reached the ground.


    I was surrounded by enemies, but they all moved past me like I wasn''t even there.


    Calmly, I took a bundle bag from my inventory and took out the mini golems.


    But before I threw them on the ground, I purred a few potions on them so they would be stronger.


    Once the particles appeared, I threw the 10 golems and soon they all grew to their original sizes and began attacking everyone in their path.


    "Attack only the ones with the dark energy!"


    The eyes of the golemes flashed and continued their assault.


    Because of the suprirse attack, a lot of skeletons and corrupted ones were now on the floor dead.


    And the Brutes had finally some room to breathe.


    "You there! What was the plan for this attack? No matter how I look at this, it''s suicide."


    The Brutes looked with admiration at the golems before quickly turning towards me.


    "We were ordered to distract as many enemies as possible while the main squad would attack the heart of this place."


    No wonder they were so little in numbers.


    I initially though they died in battle, but looks like they split their forces into two.


    In my opinion, that''s not the best way to deal with this kind of situation.


    But those weren''t my men, so I wasn''t going to say anything about it.


    Just as I was about to ask them more questions, a golem flew past me and hit the wall with a laud Bang.


    I quickly turned around to see who did this to my precious golems and quickly recognized the culprits.


    Those were the students I saw upstairs.


    And they were putting quite a good fight against my golems.


    The magicants were sealing the movmets of my golems, while the fighters were dealing heavy damaged to them.


    No one died yet, but at this rate they would all be scrap if it continued.


    I was about to join them in fight when one of the Brutes stopped me and looked deep into my eyes.


    "You have to go and help Boss. That''s what he told us to tell you if we see you. Don''t worry, we can take care of the enemies in here."


    I looked at them with suspicion.


    I didn''t want to trust them with my precious golems, but I knew the real action wasn''t here.


    "Here are some iron ingots, give them to the damaged golems to heal and don''t you dare let anyone die."


    The Brute took the ingots from my hand and smirked.


    "Wasn''t planning to."


    With that, I ran towards the rails and jumped into the dark mist.

 Chapter 219. Into the mist

    POV:Unknown Brute


    My blood was boiling ready for some action.


    I joined the Diamond Squad knowing that they are the best and would get into the most dangerous battles, and who would''ve refused such rewards.


    But today was a special day, since this wold be the most hard battle we''ll ever face.


    We were going to fight the army of a being that could take over Bastions by himself.


    What an honor to be part of this.


    The Mad Price split the squad into 2, one would attack the lower part of the Bastion, and the other one would attack the front door to gether as much attention as posibile.


    Just as we were about to start marching, Boss came to our group.


    "Here are some potions that would negate effects of the Withering. It would last for 12 hours, so you can fight to your heart content. Also, if you see Trader by any chance, tell him to join us in the battle downstairs."


    Then he gave us a white potion and a red one.


    The white one was new to us, but easy to understand after it was explained.


    The red one tho, was the specialty of the Diamond Squad.


    Once you drink this potion, for the next 10 minutes you''ll have bosted strength, speed, regeneration and defense.


    From what I heard it was hard to procure and only the Mad Prince was smart enough to do it.


    A fist to those proud Piglings that are too afraid to hold a sword.


    As soon as the signal was given, we all drank the white potion and ran towards the Bastion yelling our hearts out.


    Soon arrows rained upon us, which we all blocked them with our shields.


    We continued to run like that, until we reached the gate were we put TNT blocks and lit the fuse.


    The Brutes from the walls tried to crush us with gravel and such items, but we were too fast for them.


    A few seconds later.


    *BOOM!


    *BOOM!


    *BOOM!


    *BOOM!


    The explosion were heard and a new way inside was opened.


    Without hesitation we entered the Bastion where we were quickly surrounded by enemies.


    But you couldn''t see fear or nervousness on our faces, instead all you could see were mad smiles.


    I took my diamond axe and crushed the head of the Skelton in front of me.


    With my other hand I blocked the incoming swords before smashing them as well.


    We continued like this for a few minutes without rest, but we were getting overwhelmed by numbers.


    This is not good, it was fun while it lasted, but we need to drink the potions soon to overcome this situation.


    Just as I was about to give the order a huge creature aperead in the middle of the enemy.


    Then another one and another.


    They were huge with long arms but each punch killed a soldier in one swing.


    This made me curios how I would fare against them.


    Before I could make this stupid decision, a voice brought my reson back.


    "You there! What was the plan for this attack? No matter how I look at this, it''s suicide."


    Suddenly in front of me apered a man in black armor that gave off a menacing aura.


    He was the Infamous Trader, the one who managed to defeat the second in command which previously thought impossible.


    I knew he was a strong man, but I didn''t approve of his fighting style.


    Too slippery and unpredictable, but I guess as long as you were the one on top, it didn''t matter how you fought.


    "We were ordered to distract as many enemies as possible while the main squad would attack the heart of this place."


    I quickly replied.


    If he was the one who brought thos huge soldiers, then he must really go downstairs to help out Boss.


    Suddenly one of his men, quickly flew past me and hit the wall with a laud Bang.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The newcomers seemed to be much more powerful then anticipated, and were giving the huge guys a good beating.


    This wasn''t good, I''m sure Trader would join to save them, but he didn''t need to waste his strength on this.


    I quickly told him that he was needed in another battlefield, and after hesitating for a moment, he gave me some iron ingots to heal his men.


    I don''t know how this would work, but if it got him away from this place, I was going to do it.


    Just as he aperead, he disappeared by jumping over the rails into the dark mist below.


    "Oh wait! O forgot to give him that potion. Eh he survived until now, so I''m sure he''ll be fine."


    Then I turned towards my men who got a short rest.


    "My men! Bottles up."


    """Uhh!"""


    Then we all took the red potion and drank it all in one gulp.


    I felt strength building into my body, I felt that any wound would be heald in an instant.


    I felt invincible!


    I switched my shield to another axe and began attacking the enemies with special powers.


    Spikes came from the ground trying to trap me like the huge soldiers, but we were to fast to catch any of us.


    Then, the one with weapons jumped in front of us and began to swing at impressive speeds.


    Each swing they took, was calculated and deadly with years of experience behind it.


    A man like him could''ve joind our squad without a problem.


    And there was a whole group of them?


    I dodged to the side and swing my axes to hit the enemy in front of me.


    While they were powerful warriors, we had 2 advantages over them.


    -Our armor


    -Our speed


    Sure, they were as strong as us normally, but what could they do when we had such people that could tank their hits endlessly, and others they couldn''t touch.


    A smiled appeared on my face.


    I could see the end of this battle.


    POV:Second In Command


    Boss gave the order to attack, and the first squad quickly got to work.


    They placed the explosives at the door and now an entrance was created for us to use it.


    All of us took the potions made by Boss to fight to our heart''s content, and we could feel the pressure of the Withering disappear.


    But we had one more ace up our sleeves.


    While the first squad got 2 potions for the upcoming battle, we were also given a blanket that we could cover ourselves with.


    This blanket was made with Striders hair and could hold up an enchantment.


    And Boss had the genius idea to put Camunflash on them.


    While it wasn''t as powerful as the invisibility potion, it did a good job at hiding our armor as well.


    So while the chaos ensued, we drank a jump portion and covered ourselves with those blankets.


    It wasn''t the perfect disguise since you could see the space bent, but it wouldn''t matter when we were going to be constantly jumping and moving at high speeds.


    Once a minute has passed we quickly went to action and entered the huge Bastion.


    Just as Boss expected, there was a lot of maisma inside and there was a huge staircase going down.


    We tried to jump in the empty spaces if we could, but sometimes a few skulls were crushed which brought confused looks from the enemy''s.


    After a certain depth, there weren''t any more enemies, but our vision was obscured by the black mist.


    If we didn''t take the potion beforehand, for sure we would''ve been dead by now.


    We silently went deeper and deeper, until suddenly the mist was gone and we could see a huge room below us.


    In the middle of the room stood the Wither in a sleeping state but his chest was shining for some reason.


    At the bottom stood a few Piglings with red coats moving from paper to paper while loudly arguing about something.


    Now that I was looking closer, I could see that the whole floor had some scribbling that looked similar to the enchanted language, but I couldn''t recognize any letter.


    The whole floor was black, with the exception of the middle who showed the unbreakable block that was found at the bottom and the top of the world.


    Were they trying to harvest the powers from that block?


    That would be a pointless endeavor since not even our ancestors were able to chip that block.


    We were about to arrive at the floor when suddenly a red arrow hit one of our men.


    *BOOM!


    The arrow exploded and a few soldiers fell down the stairs.


    I quickly recognized those arrows.


    This was the right hand man of the Wither.


    He was a tall skeleton who had arrows with different attributes, and the most annoying ability to travel through the shadows.


    We first thought, that he was teleporting, but after we put some items that should''ve sealed the space, he was still able to get away.


    That''s when Boss theorised that he could travel trough shadow''s, since he always seemed to melt when he disappeared.


    He was a long range fighter who could kill any soldier if they didn''t pay attention.


    Only me and the Boss were able to hold him down for a while.


    And since Boss had to fight the Wither, it was my duty as the second in command to kill that undead creature.


    I took out my crossbow and shot a 3 fireworks at him because I had multi-shoot.


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    But as expected, my fireworks were too loud and he quickly dodged them by going into the shadows.


    "Eveyone, get rid of the blanked and fight!"


    I quickly gave an order and everyone soon followed it.


    Once we threw the blankets of us, it began to disintegrate like it caught flames.


    The Enchantment was too powerful, so this was only a one time use item.


    But it was enough for us to get what we wanted, and I jumped over the rails quickly approaching the the ground.


    Just as I was about to hit it, I jumped on the air and rolled to the side as more arrows were shot at me.


    I took out my diamond swords and began running towards the new location of the Shadow Skeleton.


    Just when I was about 10 blocks away from him, my instincts began to scream that I was in danger, and I quickly jumped to the side.


    That was a smart move from me, since in my previous location, now stood 3 black clothed Brutes with their weapons out.


    Where did they came from?


    I didn''t even see or feel them.


    They began running at me, and attacked me with great coordination.


    They weren''t to much of a danger alone, but together, they got annoying really quick.


    Just as I was about to decapitate on of them, it melted into black goo and disaperead into the shadows.


    Perfect!


    They now had more of those annoying people.


    Luckily for me, I didn''t have to worry anymore since the others reached the floor seafty and I wouldn''t be fighting alone.


    Arrows were being shot one after another, each colored differently with their own abilities.


    While he was distracted by shooting my men, I got closer to him and threw a small cube that suddenly lit up and exploded.


    A huge flash of light appeared in the middle of the room, that made every shadow disappeared.


    With this opportunity I finally managed to hit the Shadow Skeleton, leaving a shallow cut in his leg.


    This was going to be a long fight, I could feel it.


    The battle continued for a few minutes and we were slowly gaining ground.


    There was a single problem though, and that was the fact that the effects of the super potion would soon run out.


    They were very hard to make, so only a select few got a second batch.


    We needed something to change the tides and we needed it now.


    *BOOM!


    A laud explosions caught all of our attention and we all looked up where the Wither was supposed to be sleeping.


    Besides the Wither, was something the slowly floated towards the ground.


    I could recognise that black armor anywhere to my annoyance.


    But I couldn''t help but smile with relief as I saw the man.


    Trader was here, the plan could finally start.

 Chapter 220. Here to save the day

    I was in the black mist, feeling the armor strained trying to keep up the Withering effect.


    But this is why Netherite was the strongest armor of them all, and soon I passed the mist, and could see the floor approaching me at great speeds.


    But I couldn''t study the floor too much since I saw that the Wither floating in the air with a light glowing off his chest.


    Not having a lot of time to think about my next move, I took out my mace and charged the most powerful strike that I''ve ever done.


    *BOOM!


    A black barrier appeared around the Wither, blocking my attack.


    It didn''t last for long as it broke, but all the momentum was now gone.


    But the attack wasn''t a waste as the shock waves managed to destroy one of his heads.


    I was descending once again, but with quick movements, I grabbed the edges of my cape and landed safely on the ground.


    This was going to be an annoying fight.


    Now that I wasn''t distracted with getting the perfect landing, I could see the fights around me.


    The Shadow Lord seemed to be preoccupied with the Second in command, while the other Brutes were fighting some other Brutes that were dressed in black.


    Now that I was looking closer at them, I could see some of them disappearing from time to time.


    Did the Wither give them a teleportation skill?


    No, that wouldn''t make sense, plus there wasn''t a classroom with a name like that.


    Which meant that they were the Shadow squad.


    What an annoying bunch.


    There were some other Piglings with red coats franticly running from side to side looking at the ground and yelling at each other with papers in hand.


    They had a horrified face, but not from the sudden attack, instead, they were afraid that something from the ground would be broken.


    On closer inspection, I could see some red diagrams all over the room, and something was telling me that this wasn''t red ink.


    "What are they trying to do here?"


    "I don''t know, I''m still trying to decipher what is saying on those papers."


    I jumped to the side, shocked by the sudden voice.


    The one who spoke to me, was non other than the Mad Prince himself.


    When did he get here?


    Is this how it feels to be on the other side of the coin?


    I don''t like it that much.


    "Why didn''t you ask the men in the red coats?"


    "I prefer to know some information beforehand, so I can ask them what I don''t know, instead of letting them waste my time explaining things that aren''t relevant."


    I guess that could be useful.


    So you''ve come again mortal, and you got company.


    A deep voice interrupted the battlefield.


    The Wither was awake, and he looked very pissed about the damage that I did to him.


    But the damage didn''t last for long, as black smoke covered the skull and returned it to normal.


    Awesome! he had super regeneration as well.


    This fight is going to take a while.


    You are harder to kill than me Trader. How did you survive the bomb? I''m sure it was powerful enough to destroy the whole city.


    Did the System manage to stop it?


    That brought some unpleasant memories.


    "Bold of you to assume that I would die only from that!"


    Then I took out my crossbow and shot a few fireworks at him, all blocked by his annoying shield or missed him entirely.


    When did he get that?


    Then you should''ve enjoyed your last days in the Overworld.


    A black beam formed around the main head and quickly shot it at me.


    The last time I was hit by it, I died and needed a Totem to be saved.


    But this time, it was different.


    I raised the mace, and the beam was absorbed, leaving nothing behind but silence.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I''ve never had so much energy in the storage, showcasing the danger of the attack.


    "Looks like the odds of us surviving have increased. Are you sure you don''t have a spare one that I could borrow?"


    The Mad Prince shamelessly asked.


    "Sorry, this is not for ren-"


    Another black beam was shot towards me but was absorbed by the mace once again.


    How are you able to do that?


    What kind of weapon is that?


    "One that would bring your end!"


    I hit the ground with the mace, launching myself into the air.


    Before I could even start going down, I hit the air block, launching myself towards the Wither at great speeds.


    Then I charged my mace with the power of 2 beans and hit the black shield that protected the Wither.


    The shield didn''t stand a chance, as it quickly broke, and the rest of the shockwaves hit the Wither right in the chest.


    Unfortunately, since the hit wasn''t directly from the mace, the only thing that it did was crack his bones all over his body.


    He quickly flew up covered in black smoke, while I was slowly gliding by holding my cape.


    "We need to bring him down somehow. Otherwise, he would keep flying away to heal."


    I suddenly felt hit onto the side, which made me take a couple of steps.


    I looked down at what hit me and saw a black arrow that was losing its form.


    That dammed skeleton couldn''t let me fight in peace!


    I didn''t even hear the arrow.


    I see, so that weapon of yours absorbed my attack.


    Not only that, but it seems to have the ability to return the attack concentrated on one point.


    If I didn''t have my barrier to kill the momentum, I would''ve died.


    But let''s see how much you can absorb.


    Then, out of the black mist, a giant sword appeared, all made with Netherite blocks.


    How was I supposed to block that?!


    And how is he able to control the Netherite blocks?


    I thought those belonged to the special category.


    Learning my lesson from the lava slime, I dodged the sword to the side so I wouldn''t be crushed by the weight of a dozen blocks.


    *Boom!


    The shockwave hit me but was quickly absorbed by my armor.


    This was going to tank the durability of my armor soon.


    A golden arrow was shot towards the black mist, and another one quickly after.


    As it entered the mist, I heard the cracking sounds of the barrier and then I could see a golden outline of the Wither.


    "Specter arrows?"


    That was one way to see him in the black mist.


    "Yes, and it seems that his barrier can block one attack, no matter how powerful or weak it is. So don''t go full force on the first swing, it''s going to be wasted."


    The Mad Prince calmly pointed out.


    This was good to know, but I still couldn''t do anything as long as he was in the air.


    "Keep him distracted, and I''ll bring him down here."


    The Mad Prince said before throwing a Perl.


    Easier said than done.


    The giant sword split itself into normal cubes before forming the sword once again, ready to strike.


    My next course of action would be stupid, but if it worked, it would give me a lot of energy to work with.


    While the sword was heavy and dangerous, the edge of the blade was still one block thick.


    So I made one step to the side but left the mace on the ground.


    Now this was the dangerous part.


    To absorb the energy of the giant sword, I needed to have contact with my mace.


    So if things turned badly I would die here.


    Luckily, my gamble seemed to pay off as the momentum of the sword was taken by my weapon, leaving only a few tons of blocks on my poor mace.


    But my weapon was too powerful to be destroyed by this, and on the plus side, it seemed that I was getting a constant flow of energy.


    You always manage to surprise me mortal.


    I''ll have to study your brain afterwards to see who you truly are.


    It seems like my sword won''t be sufficient, how about a hammer then?


    The sword changed the shape into one of a hammer, but with how big it was, you could say that the ceiling was falling.


    If this hit me, I was going to die for sure.


    And with how big it was, I wasn''t going to be the only one.


    Just as I was about to build a few pillars of obsidian, the hammer stopped in the air, and something big fell besides it.


    *Boom!


    The Wither hit the ground hard.


    Then the Mad Prince teleported with a Perl beside me.


    "I threw a potion on him that stops his ability to fly for an hour. But I don''t know I''d it would last that long. So I suggest to hit with everything you got now or never."


    The Wither was in a peculiar situation now.


    His anatomy worked on the basis that he could fly and grab things with telekinesis, so now he was like a fish out of the water flopping on the ground confused.


    The Mad Prince shot an arrow to disarm his shield, then got closer to throw a blue potion at the Wither.


    As soon as the bottle broke, blue fire engulfed the Wither.


    Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!


    The Wither screamed in pain.


    "That flame is 10 times hotter than lava. Not even fire resistance can save you from that, you need to have fire immunity."


    The Wither continued to scream in pain and was shot at it with fireworks from the Price crossbow.


    I was getting closer to the Wither and raised my mace above my head to give the final blow.


    When suddenly, I saw a black ball forming, and I knew that something bad was about to happen.


    So I stopped my attack and raised it as a shield.


    It was a good thing that I did that since the next thing I heard was a loud howl.


    *HHHHOOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLL


    A mini black hole was formed and was now sucking me in.


    If I didn''t do anything soon, I would be crushed like a sardine!


    So I raised my mace once again and hit the air with all my might and energy.


    Of course, while doing that, I also activated Wind Burst, which was powerful enough to knock me back and away from the black hole.


    That was close, my mace can only absorb stuff, and since a black hole absorbs matter, it wouldn''t work on it.


    The Wither seemed unefected by the attack, on the contrary, he seemed better.


    The flames were sucked away by the black ball and now he could fly again.


    How dare you humiliate me like that!


    I acknowledge your strength mortals, so I''ll be going all out from now on!


    Then he opened all 3 of his mouths and black mist began to surround us.


    The black mist was thick, and I was beginning to take some damage from it.


    But that didn''t last for long as the mist gather in a few points and took the form of 9 more Withers.


    In total, there were 10 identical Withers with an angry look on their skulls.


    The Mad Prince didn''t even hesitate and threw a Perl to get away.


    Just as he did that, the 10 Withers shot black beams at me.


    It was to late for me to teleport away, so I raised the mace and began to spin absorbing all the attacks in one go.


    That was dangerous, I thought I was going to die for a moment.


    As always, that weapon is there to save you.


    But how would you survive this?


    8 of the Withers summoned the black holes while slowly getting closer to me, and the rest were preparing some big lasers to attack.


    What was I suppose in this situation?


    I couldn''t teleport, since my Perl would get sucked by the black holes, and I don''t think I can lunch myself upwards since the lasers would hit me.


    This was checkmate.


    I only hoped that one Totem was enough to get me out of this situation.


    Just as I was prepared for the upcoming pain, all of the Withers froze on the spot.


    H-how?


    The Wither asked confused.


    And a familiar rusty voice responded.


    "NOBODY HURTS MY HUMAN!"

 Chapter 221. End of Volume 5

    H-how?


    One of the Withers asked confused with a huge claw coming out his chest.


    "NOBODY HURTS MY HUMAN!"


    A rusty voice yelled in response.


    I was shocked at the turn of events, and even more shocked that I recognized that lovely voice.


    "Violet! You''re alive!"


    My monster friend teleported beside me with a smile on her face.


    She was tall as ever with her third eye open and sharp claws bloodied.


    While she looked the same as before, I felt that she was more powerful and more refined.


    I don''t know what happened, but I''m sure it wasn''t easy for her to get to this point.


    "Where have you been?"


    "Away..."


    As always, she gave a short answer.


    But I didn''t mind, since I got to finally see her again.


    *Boom!


    The Wither hit the floor for the second time today.


    "So what did you do to him?"


    "I found his original body with my eye, and took out the source of power."


    Then she opened her palm, where I could see a glowing Nether Star.


    "You can talk normally now?!"


    Violet smiled and lifted her head a little, clearly proud of this achievement.


    "I''ve worked very hard for this."


    "That''s awesome, Violet, you''re amazing!"


    Her face got a little purple, but that wouldn''t stop her from lifting her head higher.


    "I''m sorry to interrupt your sweet reunion, but I don''t think the Wither is dead."


    The Mad Prince came closer while eyeing the Nether Star with suspicion.


    "What are you talking about? The body is limp, and the other duplicates disappeared."


    "Yes, but the skeletons didn''t disappear and the Brutes can still use their shadow skills."


    After he pointed that out, I looked at the battlefield.


    The Second in command was looking for the Shadow Lord, who seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. The Piglings with red coats were all captured and placed in one place, accepting their fate. The only ones left, were the Brutes, who kept teleporting from one shadow to another.


    I looked up at the ceiling and saw that the black mist was still there, which was probably the biggest sign that the Wither was still alive somewhere.


    Ahh, and here I wanted to take you by surprise, but that moral has some sharp eyes.


    The voice of the Wither was heard from the black mist.


    Was there another body in the mist?


    We''re we fighting a clone all this time?


    But soon I got my answer to the question.


    The Wither didn''t reveal itself from the mist as we expected, instead, the mist itself began to move and was now getting closer to us.


    How am I supposed to hit something that doesn''t have a body?


    "Violet, can you see something with your eye?"


    She quickly scanned the whole room before turning towards me with a worried expression.


    "Everything is equal with no central force, I can''t see a weak point we could exploit."


    The mist was getting closer, and I could feel the air getting heavier like something was pressing us down.


    "The mist is getting closer to that Monster, he wants the Star! Teleport somewhere else!"


    Violet gave one ugly look at the Mad Prince before disappearing.


    Oh no you don''t.


    Then the mist opens up a rift in space and Violet falls from it with a confused look.


    I''ll be taking this, thank you.


    The black mist engulfed Violet''s fist that held the Star, resulting with her scream in pain.


    But through all of that, she still managed to teleport away with the Star in her hand.


    Unfortunately, the connection with the mist wasn''t broken, and now it was rapidly entering the Star like a vortex.


    "Violet, let go of the Star, I''m going to break it!"The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Violet did as I said and teleported away from the Star while I gathered all the energy in the mace for this one attack.


    *BOOOM!


    I hit the heart of the Wither with all I had.


    The shockwave was felt throughout the room, and everyone was pushed to the ground because of it.


    The only reason I was still on my feet, was because of my amazing armor, which absorbed the majority of it.


    I heard a loud crack which gave me hope.


    But it was all crashed when the voice spoke again.


    Impressive, you''ve managed to hurt the body of a God.


    Your mace would be a worthy weapon in the upcoming battle with the System.


    What I hit wasn''t the start itself, but the mist that took a physical form and blocked my attack.


    I felt like my heart hit the floor.


    "Don''t give up! Now is the perfect time to break the Star while the mist is regenerating!"


    The Mad Prince yelled from the other side of the room.


    Tsk.


    Not knowing what to do anymore, I swung my mace at the Star for the second time, and this time, I managed to hit it.


    Unfortunately, since I used all of my stored energy in the last attack, I didn''t leave a scratch on it.


    But something unexpected happened.


    While the mist tried to block the attack once again, instead of getting solid, it was absorbed by the mace.


    How is that possible?


    No weapon should be powerful enough to hold so much power. No, I''m getting drained by my powers!


    KILL HIM!!!


    An army of skeletons fell from the mist and now were running towards me with weapons in their hands.


    Not only that but the Piglings, who had stayed calm until now, suddenly gone mad and ignored all the Brutes to run towards me.


    The only thing I could do was watch, since if I moved from this place, the Wither would escape, and I wouldn''t get another chance like this.


    Just as one of the skeletons was about to reach me, Violet teleported in front of me, and with a slash, he killed the monster.


    The others, not knowing fear continued their mindless attack.


    "Protect Trader at all costs!"


    The Mad Prince gave an order, and all the Brutes with diamond armor began to slaughter the enemies.


    Since they were all concentrated on getting to me, it was easy to defeat them.


    And slowly but surely, the mace was absorbing all the power of the Wither.


    From the beginning, I could tell that this was going to be different, and as time passed, I was proven right by feeling the heaviness of the mace.


    I couldn''t even phantom the amount of energy the Wither had.


    This was true power, this was the power of a GOD.


    No, Noo, Noooooo!


    The voice faded away as the last bit of mist was sucked by my mace.


    I couldn''t believe it was over.


    I looked over the battlefield, which was now silent.


    But something was off.


    "The Withered skeletons are still walking!"


    I looked with horror at the Nether Star that was beside my feet.


    Was it not over yet?


    No, if the Star was the heart, then I was going to destroy it.


    If 10 lasers aren''t enough to destroy it, how about 10 black holes worth of energy?


    I gathered the energy in my mace and was ready to smash the Nether Star.


    "Trader no, it''s a trap!"


    The Mad Prince yelled something, but it was too late.


    With all my might, I hit the remains of the Wither.


    No loud boom or shockwave was heard.


    Instead, space began to tear itself apart and swallow earthing whole.


    As soon as it appeared, it was also gone.


    The Star was gone, the floor was gone, but the most shocking thing of them all.


    THE BEDROCK WAS GONE.


    The block that was never thought to be broken was now gone before my eyes, and I could see the Void beyond it.


    Now that I was looking at the emptiness of the Void, I felt something bigger hiding in there, something that I shouldn''t mess with, even with my newfound weapon.


    Suddenly the skeletons fell to the ground.


    But not only them, the Piglings, the Brutes, and everyone that was connected to the Wither fell to the ground.


    "I think...we won?"


    I was too tense to believe that it was over.


    "Looks like it..."


    The Mad Prince got closer to study the new hole.


    "Then why did you yell that this was a trap?"


    "The Wither gave up too easily. He could''ve taken his giant sword to crush you or even summoned skeletons with diamond armor to kill you, but it didn''t do anything like that."


    Now that he was mentioning this, the Wither did have a lot of options in which he could''ve stopped me.


    Did the mace stop him from doing that?


    Suddenly the whole bastion began to tremble like it was about to collapse.


    Something grabbed me from behind and teleported me to the edge of the room.


    "Something bad is happening."


    Violet told me with a worried voice.


    From above, a white soul came towards the new hole of the Void, then another one and another one, until suddenly there was a vortex of souls all coming towards a single point.


    Then we all hear that laugh again.


    Hahahaha!


    It was a gamble, but looks like I managed to replicate the effects of your mortals revival.


    It used the soul of every follower I had, but that''s why I chose them in the first place.


    The Wither was back alive like nothing ever happened.


    And I have to say, Trader.


    I''m impressed that you managed to do something not even I was able to do.


    You broke the Bedrock and brought me closer to the source of infinite power!


    "What are you talking about? That''s just the Void. If you go inside you''re going to die. Actuality, I invite you to get inside and get a taste of it yourself."


    Maybe for mortal bodies, the power would kill them.


    But for a God like me, it would only make me stronger.


    Strong enough to make victorious against the System!


    Was he telling the truth?


    Was this all an act for me to open up more power for the Wither?


    As a thank you for giving me this opportunity, I shall grant you a quick deat-


    Suddenly the Wither was shot by a black arrow with black flames.


    Everyone turned towards the one who shot the arrow.


    It was the Shadow Lord.


    Minion, I thought I took over your mind.


    I don''t know how you managed to pass my shield with this arrow or how you escaped my control.


    But it''s all meaningless.


    This didn''t even damage me.


    "It wasn''t my intention to hurt you."


    Then why?


    The Shadow Lord didn''t respond, instead he got on his knees and begun to pray.


    "Ohh almighty Void. This humble servant of yours, offers this sacrifice in exchange for forgiveness."


    Hahaha!


    You prayed to the wro-


    Out of the Void, came a huge head in the shape of the dragon that swallowed the Wither whole..


    Suddenly I was lifted and teleported to the surface.


    Violet didn''t stop there, and kept teleporting 2 more times, and then we stopped. That was only becouse because Violet was to tierd to continue.


    "Was that the Ender Dragon? But that''s impossible, she lives in The End, and there''s no portal that can bring you back unless you defeat her."


    <I think that''s the entity called the Void sir.>


    Looks like Violet was nice enough to bring Alexa as well.


    That was a plesent surprise.


    "That, *huff was, *huff Mother. We never see her, *huff but we can always feel her at home."


    That''s new information.


    Is the Ender Dragon the mother of the Enderman specie?


    So much happened in such a short amount of time, I was in a desperate need of vacation to process all of this.


    <WARINING! WARNING! The main body is currently being attacked by the System. Forcefully initiating project "Take over the Nether". All necessary components of the main body would be teleported into the designated location. 3...2...1. The teleportation was a success. The System has now sealed the space between the Nether and the Overworld. Due to lack of energy, I would be entering hibernation mode, one last message towards Sir.>


    Please, protect me Trader.


    Then I heard something hit the ground hard, and the Allay was now visible.


    Today was a total mess.

 Chapter 222. Broken portals

    POV:Bobby


    Papers, Papers, and more Papers!


    All I''ve seen for the past week was only stacks and stacks of papers.


    It''s been so long since I''ve seen the faces of my family that I could only remember them as drawings on paper.


    "That''s it! I''m taking a break for today. Don''t bother me unless the System crashes or something."


    "But Sir, we have one more chest room filed with papers!"


    "I, don''t, want, hear, it!"


    I stormed out of my office without looking back at the servant, who had a panicked expression.


    The only thing I could think of at this moment was the face of my sweet daughter.


    Now that the Monster Lords and Piligers are dealt with, all the damage reports came in one big wave.


    We had to allocate some funds and people to rebuild the broken villages, get the soldiers back with the iron golems, and look for any potential future threats.


    Just as I was thinking that, I suddenly felt the earth, no the world shaking for a moment.


    Everyone looked confused, and all the blocks seemed to have a crack on them.


    They were going to regenerate soon, but what was capable of doing such large-scale distraction?


    "Did another Monster Lord appear?!"


    I quickly ran towards my daughter''s room and saw her looking scared while holding the diamond Trader gave her.


    "D-daddy?"


    She looked at me with teary eyes, which prompted me to get down and hug her.


    "Everything is going to be ok, daddy is here."


    I felt like something bad was about to happen, and I don''t know if we were ready for it.


    *Bang!


    The door was swung open, and Elizabeth came with a panicked expression.


    "Ariel, baby! Are you ok?"


    Then she stopped, looked at us, and let out a sigh of relief.


    Unfortunately, that didn''t last long, as a guard with diamond armor came came with some bad news.


    "Princess, we have an emergency. The portal is broken!"


    ----


    I was now downstairs in the portal room where everyone had a worried expression on their face.


    The portal led to a harsh dimension, but it was still vital to the kingdom.


    Not only do we gather alchemy materials from there, but the Pigling tribe is also our main producer of goods.


    Without those 2, the kingdom would fall in a year at most.


    "Get everyone out of here, I''ll try to open the portal."


    Everyone left except my wife.


    "So I''ll finally see the secret on how to open a portal."


    "It''s not that much of a secret, I just hope I''ll be doing it right, since I only saw Trader doing it until now."


    I took out the flint and steal, and lit up a fire on the obsidian frame.


    As soon as I did that, space began to bend familiarly, but halfway though the process, the space stopped and reverted to the previous position.


    "Did you miss a step?"


    "No...that was all there was to it. It should''ve opened with only one flame."


    I tried a few more times, but the same result happened.


    "I think the portal is broken. I should bring Trader here since. He should know what to do."


    I went back to my old office where 3 perls were sitting comfortably on pillows.


    I walked to the one labeled ''Trader'' and broke it expecting Trader to appear.


    But he didn''t...


    "Did...did something happen to Trader once again?"


    I know for sure he didn''t die, I refused to believe that man could even stay dead.


    Maybe the Perls reseted after a certain time?


    Or maybe he''s in the Nether right now, and Perls can''t teleport across dimensions.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I''ll have to check the other portals to see if they work.


    Something big had happened, and I didn''t like the fact that I was clueless about it.


    POV: Daniel


    "How am I supposed to infiltrate that bastion without dying?"


    It was a nightmare to get here in the first place because of all those flowers, and that building is filled with bigger ones!


    I don''t think lava would be enough for me to get inside.


    And why is it in the shape of the Wither?


    Wasn''t he a machine of distinction that killed everyone in his path?


    Since when did he become a builder?


    I let out a sigh and went back into my underground room.


    After months of grinding and preparing, I was finally able to get some good armor with good enchantments.


    At first, I wanted to level up my skills, but realized that it was stupid!


    It is supposed to take years of hard work, even with endless amounts of resources.


    It took me a few months to realize that.


    At least I didn''t waste my resources, and instead, a fellow player was kind enough to ''donate'' some items to help me accommodate in the new world.


    After I leveld up to 6 on 2 skills, I decided that it was a wiser to buy everything that I would need.


    I could trade for enchanted diamond armor, and while it was impossible to get the desired trading from the casual librarians, I did manage to find everything that I needed, on the open or black market.


    Now here I was in the Nether hunting for thar stupid skeleton, so I could get my final reward from the System.


    I''m thinking of staying here since this world is much more fun than my old one.


    But I would still miss a few things from my old world, so I was thinking that I should request a phone connected to the Internet.


    Can you imagine how popular I''ll get if I''ll post videos from this world online? Who knows, maybe they''ll find a way to teleport here as well, and I''ll become their king.


    But for that, I needed to defeat the Shadow Lord, and for that, I needed to go into the Withers base.


    "Yeah, no chance I''ll do that. I''ll wait for him to get out and then hunt him."


    Suddenly, I heard some yelling outside, and then some explosions.


    I quickly went out and saw that the Bastian was under attack by some people in enchanted diamond armor.


    Where did those guys pop out from?


    And why is everyone capable of walking on the flower fields without a problem?


    Was there something that I was missing?


    Now I had to make a decision.


    The attackers didn''t know who they were fighting against, because if they did, they wouldn''t dare do such a reckless thing.


    So I had the option to wait out the fight and hope that the Shadow Lord would get out or, even better, die.


    Or go into the battle unnoticed and loot everything they have before the enemy figures out that I''m there.


    Luckily for me, I had a potion of invisibility with me, already expecting an infiltration mission.


    It was such a shame, that I had to use my enchanted golden apple to survive this endeavor.


    But it would all be worth it in the end, if I manage to get some of their loot.


    Who knows, maybe I''ll find some Netherite ingots, and force a pigling to craft me a Netherite armor.


    I couldn''t find one in Trader house after all.


    I opened the potion bottle and drank the potion, then I took the glowing apple and ate it with big bites.


    With every bite I took, I felt stronger and faster, I felt like I was invincible with every breath I took.


    "Good, now I should get off this armor and do some looting."


    Without my armor, I was the most vulnerable, but it was still worth it.


    I got inside the Bastion, and I could feel the Withering effect trying to eat my flesh and bones, but the regeneration was too powerful for it.


    Inside I saw a large army of skeletons and Brutes that attacked the men in enchanted diamond armor.


    As I expected, they were soon going to be overwhelmed and die a miserable death.


    And the Wither didn''t even appear.


    What was the point, if his minions could take care of the pests?


    Suddenly, iron golems appeared in the middle of the enemy and began to kill everything in one punch.


    Not only that, but it seemed that they were splashed with a strength potion and even enchanted.


    What was up with those iron golems, and how did they appear out of nowhere?


    Suddenly I heard a voice yelling for an explanation.


    I recognized that voice, and I recognized that dark armor as well.


    What was Trader doing here?!


    He was the last person I wanted to run into.


    I haven''t seen him since he disappeared from his house, and I don''t know if he knows that I robbed him.


    They were talking about something, but I was too far away to hear what they said.


    After giving some iron ingots to the man in diamond armor, he jumped over the rails into the dark mist below.


    Was everyone here suicidal?


    Why would he do that?


    You can''t place water in the Nather, did he forget that?


    The men in diamond armor drank a red potion and began to attack the new enemies with newfound strength.


    I think they were even stronger now, what kind of potion was that?


    I watched them for a few minutes, and while the enemies had powers for some reason, they were on the losing side.


    "How am I supposed to get the loot with the other team dying? And why is everything so mest up in here?"


    I could go upstairs since it seemed that the floor was made with gold blocks.


    Or I could go downstairs and see what Trader was doing there.


    I kept hearing loud explosions and blocks being broken, so I thought I''d go upstairs first.


    Just as I was about to climb, I suddenly felt a pressure all over the Bastion.


    Even the soldiers with armor were affected by it, and the enemy seemed to continue chanting "Wither God! Wither God!"


    Oh no, the Wither was fighting.


    The last time that happened, he blew a whole city off the map.


    I had to run from there.


    I don''t want to lose one more life in such a stupid way.


    Without caring about being found out, I jumped off the stairs and began to run towards the exit.


    I would''ve loved to say that I got out without a problem, but I tripped one time over a few bones, and for some reason, white orbs began floating inside the building.


    I didn''t know where they came from or why they were here, but every time they passed through me, I felt sick.


    Not even the super regeneration could do something about that.


    In the end, I managed to get out of the Wither building, but I was feeling very sick and exhausted.


    "I think...I''m going to take a short rest here.... I should be out of the blast range."


    As soon as I sat down, everything turned black.


    -----


    I suddenly felt pain on my face.


    "Wha-wha-what time is it, where I''m I?"


    I opened my eyes confused and looked around trying to remember the last thing I saw before falling asleep.


    I was trying to fight the Shadow Lord, but he was with the Wither.


    Wait, why don''t I feel him anymore, did he die by any chance?


    Suddenly I felt a headache, and I rembred the fight in the Bastion, I remembered Trader jumping over the rails, then the sudden pressure in the room and finally the white flowing objects that passed through me.


    "Well it seems your finally awake. Would you be kind enough to explain what you were doing at the Wither Bastion? Your alive, so your not one of his soldiers, and your clearly not one of mine."


    In front of me stood a 3 block tall Brute with a mean looking face.


    Behind him stood a woman with enchanted diamond armor, who was looking at me with intese eye''s.


    How did I find myself in this situation?


    What I''m I supposed to do in this situation?


    I looked at my inventory for something that could help me, but couldn''t find anything that I could use right now.


    I was tied up with chains on a chair, and they had weapons ready to attack at any sudden movements.


    The only option left was to negotiate.


    "Do you know by chance, a man by the name of Trader?"

 Chapter 223. Stuck in the Nether once again

    So a few hours have passed since the fight ended.


    What did I do in those precious hours?


    I got a well-deserved nap in a poor made room.


    It may sound like I''m a bad friend or master to Alexa.


    But there wasn''t a lot I could do in such a short amount of time.


    The Wither is dead, Violet is back, The Ender Dragon is now on the loose in the Nether, the System attacked Alexa''s main body, and I think I''m now stuck in the Nether once again.


    I needed to have a clear head for my next decisions, and I should start with the ones I can easily get an answer to.


    "Violet, sorry for going to sleep right as I finished the room. I also want to apologize for putting you in danger when I summoned the Wither, I didn''t expect things to turn out that way and I was really scared that you died."


    I turned towards my monster friend who stayed in a relaxed position, like she was about to fall asleep.


    "I should be the one apologizing My human. I''m supposed to protect you, not the other way around. I know you can come back to life, but I also know this is your last life, so please don''t do anything dangerous without me ever again."


    For someone who was described as being obsessed with me, she sure has some reasonable demands.


    And how did she know I was on my last life?


    The last time I checked her with my Crystal, she was described as an evolved Enderwoman whose obsession over one human managed to force her body to adapt to the new dangers.


    I know the Enderman species imprint themselves on one block for the rest of their life, and she somehow managed to do that to me.


    That was why she was referring to me as ''her'' human.


    It was kind of scary to read at first, but in all the times we''ve been together, she didn''t threaten or try to restrict me.


    It was actually safer to be with her than without her.


    The only ones in danger would be everyone else but me!


    I was glad she was holding herself back and letting me have friends as well.


    Even now, when she made a request, she didn''t tell me to stop doing dangerous stuff but instead to be sure that she was in the area to protect me in case something bad happened.


    Which tends to happen a lot.


    "Why do you think I stayed all couped up in one tribe for so long?"


    I said with a smile, and she responded the same.


    Unfortunately, her smile still sent me shivers down my spine, no matter the intentions.


    "So are you ok? There''s no urgent business coming from the place you disappeared to?"


    Her face turned serious, then turned away.


    "Yes! There''s no reason for me to ever return there again."


    Looks like that place wasn''t too friendly with her.


    But I was glad she was back safe and sound.


    "That''s good to hear. Now I have a question for you, do you think the Wither is dead?"


    "Yes, there''s no doubt about that."


    "Was the one who killed him the Ender Dragon?"


    "If you mean Mother, then yes. I''ve never seen her, but we can all feel her presence in the Void."


    So, if the Ender Dragon can appear from any part of the Void.


    Does that mean the center of the Overworld is powered by the Void?


    The Wither did talk about the Void as being a source of infinite energy.


    Is the System harvesting the Void energy to get stronger or maybe sustain itself?


    If so, that would make sense as to why the Void decided to attack the Overworld without a reason.


    But that was all speculation on my part and nothing that proved to be true.


    "Do you think your mom would try to take over the Nether?"


    "I do not know what Mother would choose to do, Father is the only one who can communicate with Mother after all."


    Looks like her home life is more complicated than I expected.


    But that didn''t answer my question if the Dragon would try to take over this dimension as well.


    There was a test that could help me with a theory, and that was by building a portal.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Let me test something before we''re going to leave."


    I quickly built a portal and used fire to connect the two worlds.


    There was a reaction for a moment, but no connection was made.


    "The space has been sealed. Not even I can teleport to that dimension now."


    She can teleport throughout dimensions now?


    Where has she been to get this powerful, and how far can her teleportation reach?


    Can she teleport someone else with her as well?


    More ideas came to my mind, but I had to push them to the side for now.


    This test showed that Alexa was telling the truth.


    The System decided to separate the 2 dimensions once again, and this time, probably for good.


    "Wait, that means the Fortress from the Stone Kingdom is stranded. Those poor guards are stuck in the Nether now!"


    The System felt that the Void was unleashed into this world and decided to cut ties.


    The Wither problem got solved, so I kept my end of the deal.


    But now it was replaced with another, bigger problem.


    I have to plug Alexa back on and come up with a plan!


    I just can''t catch a break.


    "Ok Violet, looks like things got a little more complicated. But it''s not the end of the world yet....kinda....ok it is, but we''ll figure something out. Let''s teleport to the new location Alexa is at."


    I picked up Allay''s limp body and gave it to Violet, who took it with a confused face.


    "Do you still remember where we planned to build Alexa''s new body?"


    I said that while preparing the enchanted square.


    "Yes?"


    "Good, see you there. And don''t leave Alexa behind, we still need it after all."


    Then I activated the enchanted square, which made the Peral disappear. Not a moment later, I was gone as well.


    Once I teleported, I saw that I was in a big room dug underground with netherack as walls.


    Inside the room, there were buildings of blocks heavily enchanted, so much that I couldn''t tell what block I was looking at.


    And the blocks that weren''t enchanted, I couldn''t even recognize, were they crafted or man-made?


    This was, truly, the peak of humankind''s ingenuity in one big room.


    This was Alexa, the God made with human hands.


    Space was suddenly torn open, and the blue Allay was thrown from the other side.


    Then came Violet with an annoyed expression on her face.


    "We just talked about you not going somewhere dangerous without me. Why did you decide that it was a good idea to suddenly teleport thousands of blocks to an unknown location? I had to rip space apart to get here as quickly as possible. Do you know how exosting it is!"


    "Sorry, sorry. You must''ve used a lot of energy to get here, and thank you for bringing Alexa as well, I don''t think I could''ve done it otherwise. Do you think you can recharge by taking energy from this mace?"


    I said that while taking out my Energy Mace and pointing it out at her.


    She looked at the weapon with confusion, before putting a finger on it since her hand was too big.


    "I feel an immense energy laying within this weapon, but something is blocking me from accessing it."


    Maybe this was a safe file in case someone else tried to steal it.


    Do I have control over it as well?


    I tried to command the mace to let Violet take some energy out, and suddenly, the Enderwomans finger trembled before starting to bulge out like a baloon and extend to her arm.


    With quick actions, she cut her arm in one swing and another one began to regenerate at visible speeds.


    But once it healed, the same problem apeard.


    She cut her arm 3 more times before it stayed normal.


    "Too match chaotic energy entered my body. If I took any more I could''ve died. I''ll have to slowly evolve my body to handle that much energy."


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t know this was going to happen."


    "Don''t be sorry. It was me who underestimated the power of a God. This is not something that should be taken lightly, I''m more surprised that the weapon can hold such power in the first place."


    It looks like wasting 3 wishes on this mace was worth it after all.


    "I now have more energy than I ever had, so why are we here? Whats all of this?"


    "This, my dear Violet is the true body of Alexa. What you see here is an attempt from the people of the past trying to create they''re own God and almost succeeding in it."


    She looked curiously at the enchanted pillars all over the room.


    "It looks pretty similar to Father''s secret room."


    Did she reveal the fact that she''s a descendant of an ancient civilization?


    Is that theory true after all?


    But where, does the Ender Dragon as the mother come into the picture?


    I was missing some crucial information from this whole story, but I wasn''t here to uncover this grave.


    "I''ll do some exploring on my own, you do you."


    Then she disappeared without a trace.


    Was she invisible, or teleported away?


    I did not know, but I knew she was big enough to take care of herself.


    "Alexa, can you hear me?"


    I yelled into the red room.


    <Affirmative.>


    Came a response into my mind.


    "Im here, what I''m I supposed to do now?"


    <Energy.>


    Oh wow, Alexa was really on power-saving mode with how little it spoke.


    "I have some soulsand, where do I have to put it?"


    <Sacrificial.>


    It also teleported the Sacrifical room in here?


    I walked between the tall pillars and looked at the Redstone machine, trying to find the room that I only visited once.


    Unfortunately, no matter how much I looked, I couldn''t find it, but I was lucky enough to remember what the ''absorption'' table looked like.


    "One block of soulsand was supposed to keep you up for one whole year, so a full stack soulsand should be more then enough to start you once again."


    I placed all the block on the special table, and at visible speeds, I could see how it was disintegrated and abosrebed by the the pillars surrounding me.


    <Starting energy generators.>


    <Checking for any damage that may have happened over the teleportation process.Checked.>


    <Scanning for potential threats.... High risk of dangers. Suggested to build guardians as soon as posibile.>


    Hello Trader, I''m glad to see you once again.


    It''s been a while.


    Since when did Alexa get so expressive, and what''s with this new feminine voice?


    Where''s the old monotone voice?


    "Hi Alexa! I''m glad your sudden transportation was a success, do you still need some energy?"


    That would be very helpful with my rebuilding process.


    "Do you think you can take some from my mace?"


    Affirmative.


    I should be able to, as long as you keep contact with the wepon while it''s on the sacrifical table.


    I did as I was instructed and put the weapon down while holding it from the handle.


    Suddenly, I felt like something was trying to suck energy from the mace, but an invisible barrier stopped the process.


    It''s good to knew that it was working against powerful forces as well.


    I decided to let out 1% of the energy stored from the Wither.


    This may sound like a little, but I have to emphasise that the attack that used to brake the Bedrock, was not even half of this.


    I used the power of 10 black holes and it wasn''t enough to drain 0.5% from the storage.


    That''s how powerful the Wither was.


    Sudden influx of huge anount of energy received.


    50% of storage has been filled.


    Starting the process of creating guardians, while in the process, Alexa won''t resound to any requests.


    So it got right to work, that was quick and efficient.


    I didn''t expect to fill so much of its storage though.


    The Wither truly was a monster of its own kind.


    But I felt like was forgetting something important...


    "I left the Iron Golems at the Bastion!"

 Chapter 224. Back to the crime scene

    Alexa went silent, while I was having a breakdown about my immense losses.


    "What am I supposed to do now?"


    But no answer came.


    Suddenly, the pillars began to glow with a pale purple light, then blocks appeared out of nowhere.


    At first, it was a normal pumpkin, but then it was curved.


    Next were iron blocks placed in a T shape.


    Was Alexa going to make Iron Golems?


    I guess that would make sense since normal guardians wouldn''t be able to survive in this kind of environment.


    Not even the Elders''s metal skin was thick enough to survive in the lava.


    Suddenly the floor of the room was filled with white smoke, as the Iron golems aperead one after another.


    But the process didn''t stop there.


    While the golems are powerful beings on their own, it wasn''t up to Alexa''s standards.


    That''s why I was taken by surprise at what action it chose to do next.


    The golems began to grow taller, and the iron skin changed to red with small rivers of lava running on them.


    They become similar to magma gorillas that ran faster because of their arms and could deal fire damage since they had lava fists.


    The process didn''t stop there, as Alexa began to enchant their skin as well.


    From what I could tell, it was an Unbraking enchant.


    I guess it made sense since the golems were more powerful than before, but their defense was lower.


    Alexa didn''t stop there; instead, the remaining golems that were unchanged suddenly bulged up like balloons and changed colors from white to pitch black.


    Not only that, but it seemed to have transparent feet like it was a ghost with little dots like stars all over their body.


    It looked similar to Alien X from the Ben 10, just more blocky.


    Operation ''Nether Guardian'' is done, aerial, land and lava guards have been designated to protect, the main body.


    "Can you hear me now?"


    Affirmative Trader, sorry for the wait. I hope nothing too urgent happened while I was busy with creating the new guardians.


    "Not really, you moved pretty fast. I was just wondering what did you create?"


    They look similar to something that I would know, but I don''t think they have the same abilities.


    I''m glad to hear they are to your liking, Trader.


    I took some inspiration from the tries you did while practicing how to use the Crystal.


    The one with short legs and bulged arms, codenamed "Magma Golems" has double the damage and speed of a normal golem at the price of one third of its defense.


    But this problem has been solved by Enchanting them with Unbraking.


    The second one, codenamed "The Snatcher," is a golem 4 blocks tall with no physical body, which makes it immune to any physical attacks.


    Because of this, it can be killed with one strike of any kind of magical attack.


    Its main way of attacking is through the soul, ignoring all defense besides Magical Resistance.


    Those golems sounded pretty powerful, even with their disadvantages.


    The Magma golems were going to be the ground troops and the tanks of the base, while the Snatchers would deal with the more annoying opponents since I didn''t know anyone to have the Magic Resistance enchantment.


    This gave me some ideas on what to use for my next body.


    It didn''t need to be the same as this one after all.


    "So what do you plan on doing now? The System seemed to trap us in the Nether, too afraid that it''s going to be taken over by the Void."


    There''s a high chance that could happen.


    I''m ashamed to admit, but while the Wither was just a newly born God, he managed to do a lot more than what I did from my creation.


    The only reason he failed was because one of the old gods decided to join the fight.


    Not even I expected them to be strong.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    I thought I had enough energy to keep the System at bay, but it seemed that I was playing with its puppet this whole time.


    The one who attacked me last time was the real deal, and I couldn''t do anything but run away.


    Uff, Alexa had it rough right now.


    But I couldn''t blame it too much since I was shocked by the power of the Wither as well.


    The only reason I killed him in the first place was because he let me.


    He took a gamble in the hope that I would somehow break the Bedrock, something that he couldn''t do, and won.


    Not only that, but he managed to reverse engineer the effects of the totem just by seeing them once, under the pressure of the System.


    But if the Wither was just a snack for the Ender Dragon, does that mean that the System took us lightly all this time?


    The only reason I thought I wasn''t killed by the System was because it couldn''t do anything to me, or at least not directly.


    But it seems that I wasn''t annoying enough for it to get serious.


    I was now contemplating if I should really get back to the Overworld in the first place.


    "Do you think you''re safer in this place?"


    I do not know, unfortunately.


    I''ll have to do some scans to come to any conclusions.


    "Oh, that''s going to take a while then."


    Not necessarily. The reason I stayed so much in one place in the Overworld is because the System had control over everything else, and I would''ve been seen.


    While this world has a seed to craft its own system, it''s not powerful enough to stop me.


    So, we can go and check out the place right now.


    The space was ripped apart and I could see the bottom of the Wither Bastion.


    The hole was still there, but there were no corpses left behind, to my surprise.


    Sure, there was debris everywhere, but no bodies that we could take a look at it.


    Did the Ender Dragon eat them as well, or did the Brutes survive and take everything with them?


    It didn''t matter in the end since we could feel the power leaking from the hole I made, which needed our immediate attention.


    <Interesting, it seems that the Void left after it ate the Wither. And now I can''t feel its main body anymore. But I could see why the Wither was so attracted to this power. After all, it''s the seed of this world in its rawest form.>


    It looks like Alexa took the body of the Allay to study this place, but the ripped space was still open.


    So I didn''t know if it did this for its safety or because it got used to using this body.


    <The Wither seemed to do some research on the Bedrock. Unfortunately, the place it''s too damaged for me to see the fruits of the research. Unless...>


    The ripped space got bigger, and all the broken blocks began to fly in the air, before going back to their original place.


    It was like time was rewinded right in front of me, making me look in awe at the process.


    When everything was done, it was like nothing ever happened.


    It even had the bodies of the researchers and the skeletons lying on the ground.


    I tried to check the inventory of one of the Piglings, but no tab appeared in front of me.


    "You''ve done some amazing stuff, Alexa, but I can''t open their inventory."


    <That''s normal since the inventory is something belonging to souls in the first place. But the inscriptions on the ground should be more then enough to tell me, what the Wither intended to do.>


    While the Allay was going from diagram to diagram, I looked over the hole I made that brought this whole disaster.


    Even with the full power of Alexa, it wasn''t enough to repair the broken Bedrock.


    This was the best block the System has ever made, and only with another item made by it was broken.


    The irony of this situation.


    I knew I wasn''t brought to this world by the System but by someone from the Void.


    The Ender Dragon told me I was a failed experiment when it possessed Bobby''s body, and even the System said that I belonged to ''Him''.


    From what Violet told me, 2 beings rule over The End: her Father and her Mother.


    If her Mother is the Ender Dragon, then I could safely assume that the Father was the one who brought me here.


    I don''t know why, but I know he would be the only one who can answer all of my questions.


    And the only way to find him was to join the Void.


    I looked into the endless blackness and felt a faint connection.


    Not one that would let me live if I jumped inside the Void, but one that showed me, that there was something in there for me.


    <The scanning is completed and analyzed. It seemed he searched for a way to break the Bedrock and use it as a filter to absorb the Void''s power.>


    Hah!


    He was all about how his body was capable of handling the power of the Void, only for him to be destroyed by it as well.


    Maybe that''s what that black mist was, filtered Void, seafly for him to consume.


    "Do you think he would''ve succeeded?"


    <If he continued this research for 10 more years, there''s a high chance that he could''ve safely absorb the energy and destroy the Bedrock. But it seems that his ego got the bether of him, and he forcefully mutated his body to adapt to the Void.>


    "Do you think you can absorb it?"


    Alexa went silent for a while, making me wonder if it was ashamed that it couldn''t.


    <In theory I should be able to. But to be on the safe side, I''ll use the filter the Wither used.>


    While the Wither was better in the raw power department, Alexa was a machine specialised to solve those kinds of problems.


    It made me wonder how the Wither got so far in the first place.


    Skills were truly amazing tools that gods could use.


    Speaking of skills.


    Now that the main body of Alexa was here, we could open those chest without damaging the contents.


    I quickly told Alexa about my idea, but it seems that I was a step too late.


    <Those chest have already been verified, and it seems that the Black Stars where destroyed with the body of the Wither.>


    What a shame, it looks like those items were connected to the Wither itself.


    It makes sense, but it was still a bummer to hear about it.


    Out of the ripped space, came in a Snacher and went into the Void without any hesitation.


    "Hey, weren''t those guys very week against magic? Wouldn''t the Void energy count as a magical attack and kill it?"


    <That would be correct, unless I wouldn''t be maintaining a coat constantly to protect it. Since it can fly and has a transparent body, it was the ideal being to send as a scout.>


    Well it did blend well in the Void so I couldn''t deny that.


    But if this was anything like the game, it would just go endlessly down, and take more damage.


    But since this was the core of the planet and not a flat world, that would meant, that there would be a wall to stop the Snacher.


    The question was, how far did it have to go, before it could bump into it.


    This made me wonder if I could teleport into the Void with my enchanted square.


    No, that would be too risky, even if it worked.


    While Alexa was doing its thing, I decided to go upstairs and get back my golems.


    They were too valuable to be left behind after all, and I hoped the Brutes didn''t take them because I wasn''t there.


    Luckily enough, or maybe becouse they didn''t know how to move them, I found the golems.


    2 were dead unfortunately, but the others we quite fine.


    Looks like the Brute listen to me and healed my boys before leaving them here.


    <Trader, it''s seems that I found an opened portal in the center of the Void. But this doesn''t lead to the Overworld, instead it''s looks similar to the skematicks that was supposed to open a way to the Void dimension.>


    WHAT WAS THE END PORTAL DOING AT THE CORE OF THE NETHER?!

 Chapter 225. How to brake space

    "Are you sure what you''re seeing is a portal and not something else?"


    <Affirmative. They''re in a 3 by 3 position, green on the top with Ender''s eyes and a yellowish bottom.>


    That was the description of the End Portal all right.


    What was it doing here in the first place?


    And from what it described to me, the portal was also opened.


    From what I know, that would be a one-way trip to The End. But then, how did the Ender Dragon appear on this side of the portal?


    I quickly put the iron golems in my bundle and jumped over the rails to get as fast as possible down.


    *boom


    "Ssssssss"


    I took a deep breath, as I was feeling the pain In my legs.


    Because I was in a rush, I opened my cape too late, and it wasn''t enough to kill the momentum.


    "Can you move the Portal? Or better yet destroy it?"


    <Negative. While it''s not as resistant as the Bedrock, it''s much more durable than the obsidian block. Maybe you could destroy it, but I don''t think you''ll be able to get there safely in the first place.>


    Just as I thought, it was a helpless endeavor.


    "What''s the plan now, Alexa? If the portal is here, the dangers are to high to leave it alone like this."


    <That is indeed true, and from my readings, it seems that the portal is exceeding more Void energy than it should be capable of. I theorized that the ruler of the Void wants to gather enough energy to manifest its body in this dimension.>


    That didn''t sound good.


    "Can you stop the process?"


    <Negative. This portal does no longer work as it was intended to, the only thing I can do is to absorb the excess amount of energy and slow down it''s arrival.>


    Well, at least we had a temporary solution.


    "How long it would slow her down?"


    <By a year.>


    "And how long it would take if you didn''t intervene?"


    <A week.>


    That was a big difference.


    "But that''s still just slowing down the inevitable. We need it to stop it or defeat it once and for all."


    And there was one being that knew the answer to that question.


    "You can start building the filter and absorb the Void energy. I''ll be going to the Overworld and talk with the System."


    <Have you found a way to bypass the restrictions of the System?>


    "Not really, I''ll brute force my way through its defense with this."


    I said that while holding my mace.


    <That may indeed work, but you''ll need to use a lot of energy to break the space. Wouldn''t be better if you waited for me to gather enough energy to do this by myself?>


    "How long would that take?"


    <Aproximatily 2 months.>


    Oh, the guards from the Fortress wouldn''t be able to survive for so long.


    And the Stone Kingdom would enter full panic mode if I waited that long.


    "I think it''s better if we do it as soon as possible."


    The question is, where would be the perfect place to do this?


    I want to get the attention of the System, but I don''t know how it would react when ill broke the barrier it worked so hard to put up.


    Maybe it would try to bomb the place, or maybe it would bring my soul to its realm like last time.


    In the end, I decided that I would break it somewhere isolated from civilization, so there wouldn''t be any accidents.


    You may be asking how I intended to do this, and the answer was pretty simple.


    I got outside the Wither Bastion and built a portal frame.


    My mace had 10 enchantments, 9 of them were for the mace to be easier to use, but the last one I chose was specifically made to break space.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The enchantment was Space Breaker, and it was used in the past to make the portals to the Nether.


    Why did I choose this enchantment in the first place?


    It wasn''t because I thought I would be stuck in the Nether, but because I thought if I had enough energy stored inside my mace, I could make a way to Earth.


    It may sound like an amazing enchantment, but it''s usually used just once because the energy consumption is unreasonable high and the open space would only be one-quarter of a block.


    Not only that, but it would last for one second before the space would mend back.


    That''s why it was only used once, to quickly gather data of the other dimension before using a more stable ways to connect the 2 dimensions.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t put all of those enchantments on my mace, since I didn''t have enough space for them.


    But the enchantment was still valuable, and soon it would show its worth.


    I lit a flame in the portal frame, and space began to bend once again.


    But before It could stop and heal itself, I took out and charged my mace with half of the stored energy and activated Space Breaker.


    Space began to break like glass, but since I used so much energy, the whole was several blocks big.


    The world trembled for a bit before Space heald itself until it reached the frame of the portal and stopped.


    Now, I could see the Overworld on the other side of the obsidian frame.


    I saw a green forest with a sheep that looked confused at what had just happened.


    From this, I could deduce that I was either in the Stone Kingdom or the Coral Kingdom.


    And since the Wither didn''t move too far from the previous portal, that would mean that I was in the Coral Kingdom.


    I took a deep breath, held a Totem in hand, and took off my armor before stepping over the portal.


    At first, the only thing I felt, was the cold wind of the forest, but then a sudden pressure arrived and tried to take my soul out.


    But before that could happen, I quickly put the armor on and looked at the sky.


    It''s you again...How did you break my barrier? And why do you have so much energy in your mace?


    Looks like I managed to stop the System from taking me into its realm.


    At least I won''t be dying too fast now.


    "Well, a lot happened in the Nether, but my question is, why did you seal the portals?"


    I don''t know how, but that wrenched being has managed to break my Bedrock.


    That should''ve been impossible to do at his current level!


    That was because it wasn''t him who did that, but the System didn''t need to know this.


    "That wouldn''t explain why you did that. And why did you attack Alexa? Did you intend to destroy it as well?"


    I suddenly felt a powerful wind hitting me, that took the form of a tornado.


    The world around me began to lose color and from the middle of the tornado came the golden body of the System.


    It felt like time had stopped, and I was facing a God.


    But to be fair, this was most likely what happened.


    You got here too fast for someone who just found out about what happened.


    And the fact you managed to break my barrier is an anomaly in itself.


    You''re trying to trick me with something!


    But you are too young and dumb to do that. So speak now, or I''ll take the information from your head directly.


    I felt like an invisible hand was trying to crush my head, even with the armor on.


    I clenched my teeth and hit the ground with my Energy Mace, making a huge shockwave, but stopping the System''s attack.


    Looks like you learned very quickly how to use my gift.


    "I have to thank you for it. And I guess it''s true that I expected too much to easily trick you. I managed to defeat the Wither, that''s why I have so much energy in my mace."


    The golden figure raised an eyebrow but signaled me to continue.


    "But unfortunately, he managed to recreate the effects of the Undying Totem to revive himself, and with that power, he managed to break the Bedrock."


    As expected from a brute like him, he couldn''t think of a long-term plan and cashed out all the power from the get-go.


    But that means you failed the mission overall.


    No, that can''t be possible since you would''ve died by his head, no matter how often you defy the odds of death.


    Looks like even the System is impressed by my adventures.


    "That is true. We would''ve lost the battle if not for the fact that the Shadow Lord somehow managed to call for the Ruler of the Void. And with one chump, the Wither was gone, leaving us confused."


    If you''re still alive to tell the tale, that means that wasn''t her true form.


    The Void Energy is too corruptive for you to survive in it, even with your annoying armor.


    That was a surprise.


    Are you telling me, that the dragon I saw was just an avatar of the Void?


    If only the avatar was this powerful, how powerful can she be in her true form?


    "That''s... not good to hear. After I managed to escape from the place, I met with Alexa, who told me that it could slow down the Void up to a year."


    Hmm, this machine was made by that man, so it should be capable of absorbing the Void energy without being corrupted.


    As much as I hate him, his ingenuity was something even I had to acknowledge.


    Even though it was more of a curse for him than a blessing.


    So why have you come here in the Overworld then?


    "Well even if we can slow down the Void, we would still lose the Nether in one year. But even if you want to separate yourself from that dimension, if I could break your wall with my mace, then it would be nothing for the Void to do the same."


    The System stood in silence while narrowing its eyes at me, not liking what it heard.


    "I don''t know why you''ll want to run from the Void you once defeated. But if you don''t want to do anything about it yourself, tell me at least how I can do it, and I''ll do it. I am somewhat responsible for this mess, and I don''t want, my friends to die from it."


    We looked at each other in silence, the System tried to intimidate me while I stood my ground.


    After a few tense moments, the System let out a defetead sigh.


    You humans and your stupid determination.


    Your ambition always brings more problems then solutions.


    While I would say that this task would be impossible besides him.


    You were chosen by him, and your unorthodox methods has brought you way further then any hero''s I summoned.


    Let''s make a deal human.


    If you manage to convince my hero''s to join your cause, I would tell you my story and how I defeated the Void.


    I don''t know if the System knew that I wasn''t on good terms with Daniel, but it''s request was overall easy to fulfil.


    "Can you tell me their location at least? "


    The only response I got was a smirk, before it disappeared, making everything reaturn to normal.


    "I figured it''s not going to make it easy for me. At least I didn''t piss it of more then usual. I think I''m getting the hang of speaking with gods."


    After I relaxed my tense muscle, I went back to the Nether, where Alexa was still building the filter for the Void.


    From what I could tell, it planned to move it''s whole body In here.


    While it could be dangerous, it was also the safest place in the Nether.


    Everything in a thousand block radios was killed by the Withers army, and the only enemy capable of destroying it was now in the Void.


    Overall it was a good idea.


    Good job Sir, it''s seems that the seal has been lifted.


    That was good news indeed.

 Chapter 226. Open the portal

    A few days have passed after I made the deal with the System.


    I decided to stay with Alexa while it was building its new base in case something bad would happen.


    I know Alexa has some strong guardians right now, but you never know what could strike you when you have your guard down.


    Fortunately, it seems that my worries were for nothing as the main base was built safely.


    Not even the Void seemed to react to what was being built on top of the hole.


    Of course, I didn''t just sit down and do nothing while Alexa did all the hard work.


    I made a few tests with my mace to see what I was capable of doing with so much power.


    And the answer it....pretty much anything.


    It wasn''t that I could only erase a city off the map if I so inclined to, but I could also build my own body by using the mace as a battery.


    It seems that all the energy in the mace was considered to be my own, and if I build a whole body from it, then I would have complete control over it, and not have to worry about being a puppet.


    That was some big news for me and a new hope for my freedom.


    Unfortunately, building a new body, even with my energy, would take a lot of time with lots of trial and errors.


    Sure I could copy and paste the exact body that I had right now, but that would be a waste of an opportunity to get stronger.


    That''s why I was determined to study more anatomy of this world, to do a few more experiments to see what a flesh body is capable of and, of course, study my own soul so I could use its full potential.


    Sure, I could make a body with Netherite skin and be as fast as my horse, but if I lose the ability to use my inventory, it wouldn''t be a worthy trade-off.


    The people in this world don''t know the value of something so convenient at their fingertips.


    People from my old world would kill to have only one inventory slot, much less 37 of them.


    I was still debating If I should put skills as well or live completely free like the original character in the game.


    On one hand, I saw how useful they can be if used correctly, on the other hand, I''ll have to use a lot of energy to maintain them.


    And that was from the limited knowledge I had, who knows what other complications would arise along the way.


    But today Alexa completed its defenses and the filter for the Void energy.


    The hole over the black Void was covered by a huge cube made with Netherite Block, all heavily enchanted with enchantments that I couldn''t even begin to understand.


    From what Alexa told me, that cube alone costs over 80% of its stored energy.


    But it was a good investment, as now it could absorb back in a slow but consistent stream of energy.


    Out of curiosity, I tried to absorb some of that filtered energy, and I felt that it was similar to what the Wither managed to achieve.


    No, it was much purer and I could absorb more.


    If I stayed with the mace in this machine for one week, I think I would be able to recuperate the energy I spent on breaking the System''s barrier, which was amazing, but still too long for me to start now.


    "Well, Alexa, it looks like you won''t need my protection anymore. Try not to get drunk with power while im away, and wish me luck to find those heroes to get this final journey started."


    <I am incapable of getting drunk, so you do not have to worry about that Trader. But good luck with finding Merry and Daniel. I will be waiting for the good news.>


    While I said that like we were about to part ways, it was more towards the main body than to Alexa itself.


    Since, as usual, the Allay would follow us in all of our adventures, being a walking library filled with forbidden knowledge.


    "Ok Violet, it''s time to go! I''ll be going to the tribe, so don''t be surprised when I''ll suddenly disappear."


    "Don''t worry, I was here from the beginning and heard about the plans."


    I jumped to the side in surprise when I heard Violet''s voice so close to me.


    Since when was she there?Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    <You''ve been here this whole time? But you didn''t appear in any of my scans...even now my scans don''t seem to see you. Please don''t leave until an explanation is given.>


    Violet clearly not wanting to deal with this, ripped space apart to my tribe and pushed me with Alexa on the other side before closing the rift.


    Well, that was another thing I learned about Violet.


    It seems that her invisibility has gotten stronger, it got so strong that even Alexa couldn''t pick it up.


    But if Alexa couldn''t pick it up, does that mean...


    "Hey Violet, were you there with me when I spoke with the System by any chance?"


    "Of course! I would be with you no matter the place or danger. My human."


    She looked at me with some scary eyes while she said that.


    No wonder that she didn''t complain that I talked with the System, she was already there.


    "Did the System see you?"


    "Unfortunately, yes, I couldn''t hide myself fully, and I was found out after a while."


    So she was half capable of hiding from the System.


    At this point, she was the perfect assassin.


    It was a good thing she was on my side, I wouldn''t want to be her enemy.


    Unfortunately, our sudden arrival didn''t go unnoticed by the inhabitants of this place, since a crowd of concerned and ready-to-fight Piglings gathered around us, waiting to see what our next course of action would be.


    Not even my amazing armor could hide our big entrance.


    And luckily, some of them seemed to recognize me.


    The only reason they seem to be on guard is because of Violet who is now visible.


    Reading the room, Violet teleported away leaving purple particles behind.


    I''m sure that she''ll be back invisible, but this was enough to calm down some of the Piglings who recognized the signs of an Endeman running away.


    Sure, this Enderman was much taller and scary-looking than the other ones, but an Emderman was an Enderman no matter the height.


    "Elder Trader! Welcome back, what was that monster doing here?"


    One of the Piglings dared to ask.


    "It''s a long story, that I''ll probably tell you next time we''ll drink. For now, I wanted to check if the soldiers from the Fortress came here by any chance?"


    Once I reassured them that everything was ok, the people got back to their lives while some stayed behind to tell me what happened in the past few days.


    Apparently, the Nether shook for a while and the portal was broken.


    The soldiers didn''t know how to open it back, but had faith that Bobby or me would be there to fix the problem.


    After all, we did claim to know how to open the portals.


    But days passed, and no help arrived.


    The food was almost gone, and since most of them were nobles, they couldn''t live into this lifestyle.


    Then they remembered about the tribe that had a deal with them and decided to take over it to survive.


    At first, they tried to threaten the Piglings into submission, but quickly learned that the Piglings were not that easy to intimate.


    After a good beating and with the help of Blue, they found out the truth and are held as ''prisoners'' until things get back to normal.


    While the Stone Kingdom desperately needed the help of the Tribe, the same could be said about the Tribe as well.


    Because of this deal, they had a massive influx of gold coming into their inventory, which put them on the map in the Nether.


    While they were a small tribe, with great wealth and armor, they were treated as a large tribe, which gave them quite a few benefits when it came to negotiations.


    "I see, don''t worry, the problem of the portal has been solved, so soon you can go back to your normal life."


    A cheer rang through the crowd and I could see someone that tried to wiggle in through all this wall of muscles.


    It was Blue, who was confused about what was happening but was relieved once he saw me.


    "Trader is you! Good thing you came, we need your help with something."


    "Don''t worry, the others have told me about the prisoners. They would soon leave to their world."


    "Ohh, that''s good. I don''t think we could''ve kept those spoiled guards any longer."


    Amused, I followed Blue to their house, where he proceeded to tell me what happened after the prisoners were taken in.


    With the help of Solomon, they managed to produce a weak version of the Fire Resistance potion that could stay in effect for longer periods off times.


    It was the perfect potion for the guards since not everyone had fire Resistance on their armor, and were having a hard time adapting to the new dimensions after so many days.


    But because they were treated more as guests of honor than ''prisoners'', they suddenly got cooky and began to demand better food and more unrelated items.


    Now Undying and Blue were in an particular position right now.


    Since most of the guards chosen for the Nether were nobles, they couldn''t ignore their demands since they still had some power in the Overworld.


    But at the same time, they couldn''t just release them since they would do more damage to the tribe or, System forbid, kill themselves because of their ignorance.


    So they were very eager to solve the portal problem since it didn''t work when they tried to open it back on.


    "Don''t worry, the thing that stopped the connection from being made is now gone, and it should work as normally now. Just make sure to send the bill of what damages they did to the royal family afterwards."


    "Oh don''t worry, I made sure to note everything they requested and give ''premium'' prices at the end."


    Blue gave an evil smile, while I felt sorry for the upcoming headache Bobby was going to deal with.


    Finally, we arrived at the prison where almost every soldier stood in their own cell, which was so heavily modified that it looked more like a luxury bedroom than a prison cell.


    Once they saw Blue, all of them came to the bars with a smirk on their faces.


    "Hey Blue eyes. The milk is too warm, it''s making me sleepy, do you have something colder in here?"


    "I''m getting a headache from all the light in this room, can you turn it off?"


    "Can I have a glass of water please, I''m getting thirsty in here."


    Oh wow, they were really a pain to deal with.


    No wonder Blue wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.


    I think he kept Undying away from this place intentionally, otherwise she would kill everyone in here regardless the consequences.


    "I''m sorry Sirs, but I can''t fulfil any of your requests today."


    "Haaa! Then why did you come here?"


    "We came hear to deliver you some good news gentlemens. You can go back to your old world soon, so please get ready to leave."


    As soon as I spoke, all of them become pale as a sheet of paper.


    They knew they were in trouble, but didn''t dare to say anything about it.


    I could only smirk at their fear for me, and left the prison to open the portal.


    After greeting Undying as well, I teleported at the Fortress where I proceded to open the portal without a problem.


    That caused quite the stir on the other side, that I didn''t know If I wanted to be a part of.


    But in the end I decided to stay there, since I had to collect Merry as well.


    It''s going to be a long day filled with a lot of explaining.

 Chapter 227. Wheres Daniel?

    POV: Merry


    I mixed some of the ink with redstone, lapis, and soulsand.


    This was my 214 attempt at making an ink more compatible with a flesh body, or a moving body in general.


    The ink quickly turned into a dark color that gave an ominous vibe.


    "Well, this is a good start. Let''s see if it''s going to be useful for what I need as well."


    While I looked at the library of the Sandstone Palace for more information about Enchanting.


    I stumbled upon a book that described different ways to make ink.


    And because of the System, I should be able to achieve my dream of creating permanent enchanted tattoos.


    I tried various inks on different animals, and unfortunately, it was much more complicated then it seemed.


    Most of the ink that was written in the book was intended for blocks, not living beings.


    But I learned the principles behind each model, so I could create my one of my own.


    Some of them had success, while others didn''t, but I learned that soulsand was crucial for my tattoo ink.


    I couldn''t use any animals either, since the chicken was too small for me to do something significant and the caw leather was too dark to see the ink clearly.


    That only left the pigs, which weren''t in great numbers here in the desert.


    But because of my status as a hero and the fact that I was helping progress the Enchanting field, I was given plenty of resources for this.


    Plus, it''s not like it was hard for me to find a sponsor.


    Everyone knew my name, and I had a pretty good reputation amongst the nobles and the commoners.


    I tried to help Daniel integrate into his new life as Trader did with me.


    But unfortunately, Daniel didn''t see himself as a student, and instead, he was offended that I tried to teach him something about this world when he knew more then me.


    This was true when it came to information about the game, but I don''t think he realized how different it was from what he knew.


    One time he kidnapped a villager and brought her into a prison cell, where he proceeded to feed her to a Zombie.


    I was sent on a mission to find that girl, only to see Daniel give me the traumatized girl, and complain that he didn''t get any discounts for saving her.


    Luckily, the poor girl doesn''t remember too much of what happened, only that it was painful.


    But because of those actions, I couldn''t see Daniel as a hero anymore, more like a villain.


    And he had the audacity to tell me that those were just plain "Villagers" and not to get worked up about them.


    I cut off any ties I had with him at that moment and made sure to tell everyone to be worry of him.


    The last I heard of him, he went to the Coral Kingdom, and nothing more.


    As I was remembering those unpleasant memories, I finished writing the last letter on the pig.


    The pig was put to sleep beforehand, from experience, they tended to be very ticklish when being written on.


    Once I was done, I placed a small pile of carrots on top of 4 block tower and awakened the beast.


    Once the pig was up, he looked confused around him before beginning to smell the delicious carrots out of reach.


    He tried to find a way to them but had no luck, so he began jumping.


    At first, he jumped normally, only one block. But as hunger got the better of him he suddenly jumped to the top of the tower, where he happily ate the carrots.


    "Good, the first part of the experiment was a success."


    Since animals didn''t know how to consciously activate the enchantments, I used a driving force for them to activate them unconsciously.


    For this one, is was hunger.


    I also found out that animals with activated enchantments tend to eat more than normal, but only if they activate their superpowers.


    "Now let''s see if it can pass the final test as well."


    This is where most of my experiments ended, and the reason was pretty stupid as well.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    After the pig got his fill, I built a bridge and brought the pig to a bath.


    That''s right, my biggest challenge was to make the ink stick to the skin.


    While it wouldn''t be a problem in my old world, in this one, it was a problem since the regeneration system was too good.


    I could make a tattoo gun and and draw the characters on the skin, but once the victims eat something, they would return to their full health which deleted the tattoo.


    That''s why most people gave up on trying to persuade this kind of experiment, or at least I don''t have any more data that would help me with this case.


    As the pig sat comfortably in the warm water, I began to scrub off the ink of his pink skin.


    "I can''t believe it... it''s a success!"


    Suddenly, I felt my guts being pulled, and the bathroom that I was previously in was replaced with an old-fashioned-looking office.


    "Merry! Glad to- was I interrupting something by any chance?"


    "Nooo! I was soo close, the answer was right in front of me!"


    I slammed my fists into the ground feeling the pain of my flesh and my soul.


    "Merry, what happened?!"


    A voice tried to comfort me.


    I looked through my teary eyes and saw a dark-looking armor that gave a menacing aura.


    There was only one man who had thar creepy armor, and that was my teacher Trader.


    "Sorry that I summoned you all of a sudden. Did you lose something important? If you tell me the rough location, I can teleport you back."


    I took a deep breath to calm down and remembered that my experiment was a success. Not only that, but I also remembered the exact ratios for each ingredient, so it wasn''t like I lost everything.


    The only bad thing about this is the fact that the servants and the Pope would get worried about my sudden disappearance, but I already warned them about my Perl station in the Stone Kingdom.


    It was such a good idea that we decided to place one in the palace and church as well.


    "Are you...ok? Sorry if I interrupted something important."


    "It''s ok Trader, it''s not something that I can''t write down, and if you summoned me, that means it''s very important...now that I''m thinking about it, what kind of help do you need that requires me?"


    While Trader wasn''t the best partner, I was glad that I didn''t stick with him in his adventures.


    They sounded fun and something a hero should do, but I began to appreciate this world and the life I was building myself here.


    And let''s say, that Trader did not know the concept of a chill life.


    The last time we met, I died because of an explosion that wiped a city off the map.


    I still felt bad about that, and I wasn''t even the cause of that explosion.


    Daniel didn''t care, and Trader was very upset with himself that something so horrible had happened.


    Ever since then, he tried to improve himself and send some funds to the families that were affected by this.


    That was one incident, which was pretty major, but the second happened a day after we got revived.


    He got cursed by the System so he wouldn''t be able to walk in the Overworld without his armor!


    Then he went silent for the next few months.


    Trader tends to do things alone, and if he calls you to help him, that means he doesn''t have a choice but to call you.


    And if he can''t do it alone...I don''t want to think what he considers to be too dangerous to be done alone.


    "Well, a lot happened that I can''t talk about here in the Overworld, but long story short, I defeated the Wither, but not before he managed to break the Bedrock to the Void where the Ender Dragon escaped and wants to attack this world in about a year."


    As always, he can''t have a normal life.


    It''s been almost 2 years since I came to this world and had the opportunity to learn a lot of information from the books and people that I met.


    Daniel may consider me inferior to him and Trader when it comes to the ways of this world, but I know for a fact that what he knows is only partially valuable, while what I knew is something not even the kings of those kingdoms dared to imagine.


    The only one who knows more than me would be Trader, but I don''t think I want to use the same method to get that information as he did.


    What I wanted to say is, that I knew what he meant, when he said that the Wither destroyed the Bedrock.


    This was something not even the ancient civilization was capable of doing, and they managed to create a fake God.


    Not only that, but Trader somehow managed to defeat this being capable of such destruction, only to be scared of this Ender Dragon enough to call for help.


    Trader doesn''t like to drag his friends into dangerous battles, but If he wants me to join him, then that means the world is truly doomed.


    "Ok, let''s wait a bit so I can process what I just heard."


    I sat down while messaging my head, and Trader waited patiently for me to gather myself.


    "Ok, I''m now focused and ready to tackle whatever this is. So what do I need to do, and how likely are we to die on this adventure?"


    "Honestly, if I didn''t have a choice I would''ve preferred not to involve you in this. If the Wither was a level 8 threat, the Ender Dragon is something even the System is scared of."


    Yeah, that didn''t help me with my worries Trader, thanks for pointing that out.


    "Unfortunately, I don''t know how to defeat the Ender Dragon in this world, and the System doesn''t want to tell me either unless I bring you and Daniel with me."


    Well, that was reassuring... my literal patron was throwing me under the bus.


    What could I even do in this final battle?


    "Unfortunately I can''t tell you all the details since we''re still in the Overworld. So I wanted to ask you if you knew where Daniel is, so I could bring him here and get this over with."


    "I haven''t seen him in months, and last time I checked he visited the Coral Kingdom, but nothing beyond that."


    "Aha...I know this may sound unrelated to what we talked about, but did you by any chance need some items from my base to level up your skills?"


    "Why would I need to do that? I have my own people or hands to gather resources."


    "Yeah...that''s what I though as well. Looks like we''ll have to go to the Coral Kingdome and find Daniel. Do you think it would be hard?"


    Looks like something happend to his base if he asked me that... I was more worried for Daniel now.


    "I don''t think that would be a problem. He doesn''t like to live a quiet live after all, so If we follow some rumours we should find him."


    "That''s true! Before we leave, do you want to say hi to someone from the castle?"


    It would be nice to see Bobby and Elisabeth, but I''m sure they''ll keep us here for a while, and it would take us a few weeks to get to the Coral Kingdom.


    "No, I think it''s better if we go as soon as posibile."


    "I fell the same. Here, hold those 2 perls, put one on the pillow and the other in the Enchanted square."


    "Ok?"


    I took the 2 Perls and placed them as instructed while beeing confused.


    I understood the one for the pillow since I needed to replaced the emergency Perl, but I couldn''t see the point on place the other on on the floor.


    After he did the same he told me something odd.


    "Ok, see you on the other side."


    Then the square began to glow and the Perl disappeared.


    Suddenly I felt my guts being pulled and I was now standing on a patch of grass while looking at a floating city.


    "Yeah, no matter how many times I see it, it''s always crazy."


    Traders voice made me jump a little.


    We''re we at the Coral kingdoms Capital?


    That was thousands of blocks in an instant!


    I looked at Trader with a shocked and confused face.


    You never wanted to make an enemy out of Trader...and I hoped that Daniel didn''t make that mistake.

 Chapter 228. I want information

    We safely arrived at the fields of the Capital of Coral Kingdom.


    And it was all thanks to Alexa who was smart enough to note down the coordinates to everywhere we''ve been to.


    The only place that I needed to use my special spyglass was in the Nether, but with the main body moved there, I think that problem has been solved.


    "What was that?"


    "What was what?"


    Merry seemed confused about something.


    "How did you manage to teleport us with one Perl? I don''t remember placing a Perl station in here."


    Oh yeah, I got so used to teleporting over large distances that I completely forgot how long it takes to travel this far.


    "While I was leveling up my skills, I found an enchantment that could teleport items to any location I wanted as long as I had the coordinates. And well, since Perls are considered to be items, I thought I could use those to get where I wanted."


    "That''s...pretty ingenious and revolutionary! How come nobody thought about something like this?"


    While it''s true that this kind of enchantment can be used by anyone as long as they know the high-level language, you have to be at least level 9 in the Enchanting skills to be able to start researching this.


    So it''s no wonder that people at this time don''t have access to this.


    "Well Enchanting is usually reserved for the nobles, and it''s very hard to get Perls in the Overwold. I could introduce the concepts to them, but I don''t want to make Violet more angry than she already is because I use Perls."


    "Who''s Violet?"


    Oh right, I haven''t introduced the two of them yet.


    But if Violet didn''t show herself, I don''t see a reason I should force her to.


    "You''ll probably find out later...just keep an open mind when you''ll see her."


    The last time Violet showed herself to someone, that someone tried to run out of the house.


    "Let''s go and find our troublesome hero."


    I said that as I was walking on the man-made bridge leading to the farm lands.


    "This place looks amazing! I wonder how long it took to build this?"


    It did look amazing no matter how many times I''ve seen it.


    "I don''t know, but it''s called the Golden City for a reason."


    We arrived at the ''gates'', and passed the guards without a problem, or at least Merry did since the guard didn''t see me.


    Once inside, we both stared in wonder at the tall building around us.


    It was like we were in a city, which was a nostalgic feeling for both of us.


    "They have roads and carts! And how diverse their items are. I wonder if the others would like them if I brought them as souvenirs."


    "I think they would love it. Just be careful not to take something that''s too big for your inventory."


    There was a limit on the size of the items you could put in the inventory.


    Since this wasn''t like the game, when you break a block it doesn''t become a ''ghost'' item.


    Instead, it would be reduced to one-quarter of the original size, but you can still trip over them if you''re not paying attention.


    That''s why the biggest thing you could put in your inventory was a 4 by 4 item that would be reduced to one block after it was broken.


    The system for this was way too weird and specific, and I didn''t want to get into the details of how it actually worked.


    We decided to stop at a hotel since we knew it would take some time to get all the information we wanted.


    I paid for 2 separate rooms, and we got the key for them.


    "Ok, I think there''s a higher chance we''ll find more information about Daniel if we visit the black market."


    I did say that, but the real reason I chose that option is because I didn''t know how else to gather information legitimately.


    I don''t know how, but most of my deals tended to be with criminals, and the fact that I was all dressed in black didn''t help with calming the people around me.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "I mean, you know the best, so I''ll follow you wherever you go."


    "You don''t need to come with me right now, since I was only planning on walking around the city for a while. I wanted to know if you wanted to join me, or maybe you can go aroundshopping."


    Merry got very serious when I said that.


    She seemed torned between 2 decisions with how much her eyes were moving from one side to the other.


    After letting out a big sigh, she made her decision.


    "From your track record, there''s a high chance something would before the night comes. So it''s better if I come with you now, then wonder where you are and know what happened."


    She was saying it like I was a problem child and needed supervision!


    I''ll have her know, that I don''t get into trouble on the first day I get into a new place....it usually starts on the first night.


    "Ok, let''s go and do some shopping then. I''m sure you don''t have a lot of money with you right now since I teleported you all of a sudden. So I''ll pay the bill for today."


    Her eyes suddenly lit light stars, and I began to regret my decision already.


    I hoped I had looted enough gold from the Withers Bastion to keep up with the shopping list of a woman in the biggest city in the world.


    I didn''t even have the chance to relax in my room as she grabbed my arm and dragged me to the busy streets.


    It started innocently at first, with some food stalls, and unique-looking items, but the longer we stayed out, the more weird things got.


    It went from small wooden figurines to horse statues made of emeralds.


    "I think the Pope would love this! I heard him say he liked horses one time, when we first met....or when he told me a story....he just looks like someone who would like horses."


    "Merry, at this point, you look like a kid who got lost in a candy store and has his parent''s card."


    "Whaaaa...I''m not that bad....ok maybe the emerald horse is too much, but I''ll take this coat since it''s getting chili in here."


    Yeah, that wasn''t because it was getting dark, but because someone was steering daggers at you whenever you touched me and dragged me to other places.


    You don''t want to make an Enderwoman angry Merry, you won''t win the fight.


    "Ok, it''s getting late already, and I have a few ideas where the night market would be. Let''s get to work."


    "Uff, I guess you''re right. It''s such a shame that the day didn''t last any longer. Thank you, Trader!"


    "Sure..."


    She didn''t hold back on her shopping spree.


    I think she managed to buy a ship''s worth of items.


    I had to use some of my inventory space for her as well.


    Next time I should bring more bundles with me.


    The sun was already over the horizon, and the night appeared with its beautiful stars.


    We walked along the dark alley, getting strange looks since Merry had diamond armor and I could be barely be seen.


    But the tight alleys suddenly changed to large and luminated streets.


    It was all decorated beautifully with signs and lights all over the place, and at the entrance of the shops stood several women trying to seduce men to come to visit their shop.


    This was the Red Light district, one of the most illegal places in the whole world.


    Since this world doesn''t produce children the same way as my old world, the Red Light district changed its meaning as well.


    This place wasn''t for frustrated men who wanted to spend their money and time with a woman. Instead, this was a place for babymaking.


    That''s right, the women on the side of the streets were not advertising their bodies, or at least not in that way.


    They were advertising their looks and skills for everyone to see.


    The people in this world thought the kid would get the skills of the highest level parent.


    So if you had Crafting level 4 and Brewing level 1 but your wife had Enchaning level 5 and Crafting level 2.


    There was a high chance their child would get the Crafting and Enchanting skills.


    That''s why nobles who wanted children with specific skill, came here under disguise to get the child.


    You could sleep with one of the women for 1 night, and bam, you have the child you ordered.


    This wasn''t cheap, of course, and the higher the skill was, the higher the price was as well.


    But for some reason, the males were much more expensive and better protected than the females, since I didn''t see one man at the entrance of those shops.


    Of course, this was highly illegal since it was human trafficking.


    The worst part was that some people didn''t care about the skills, they only wanted manpower, and children work great as slaves.


    It was a practice that was banned in the other kingdoms and heavily condemned, but here in the Coral Kingdom, money ruled over everything, no matter how immoral it was.


    While everyone poor scoffed at this place with displeasure, the higher ups protected this place at all costs becouse of its profits.


    I don''t know if Merry knew about the meaning of this place.


    She looked confused at the women on the streets, knowing what they were aiming for, but couldn''t understand why they would do such a thing.


    We passed the street without a problem, then got into the center of the market.


    The streets were still illuminated, but there weren''t guards anymore, and everyone wore a dark or flashy coat to hide their identity.


    Merry and I got a lot of attention as well because of our armor.


    But nobody dared to mess with us, since it sent a strong message.


    We don''t need to hide to deal with you.


    That''s why they only looked but didn''t get close.


    I asked around where I could find a broker and paid them handsomely.


    Just like that in 30 minutes, we were in front of a huge dark building where a guard was welcoming us.


    We got inside, and talked with the beautiful receptions about booking a room with one of their best broker, and she reluctantly agreed.


    And after a heavy fine, we manged to get the room and the man.


    "Hello there, with who may I have the honor to speak with today?"


    An old man with white hair and beard came through the door.


    He was well dressed and had a welcoming smile that told you, he could be trusted.


    "There''s no need for introduction, I paid premium for this, so I prefer if things stay anonymous."


    The smile of the man didn''t faze, instead he sat down and looked at us with with his warm smile.


    "What would you like to know?"


    We went straight to business, time was money after all.


    "A few months ago, a man by the name of Daniel came here. He has no nose, claims to be a hero and poses strange knowledge. We want to know his current whereabouts."


    "Ahh, I see. Your package does indeed cover this kind of information, but I''ll have to charged you extra since he is under the protection of some big shots."


    That wasn''t a good start.


    The question is, who was holding the leash in that relationship.


    "I''m willing to pay the price."


    The old man smile widened, and be proceded to tell us about what Daniel has done for the past few months that he was here.


    But the more he talked the worse it was.


    This man didn''t care about what his action could cause to this whole world.


    I know I''m not the one to talk about it, but at least I kept my craziness to a small group of people.


    Not the whole kingdom!

 Chapter 229. A lot of teleporting

    After an hour of talking with the man, we left the building with a defeated look.


    Merry spoke for the first time since we entered the building.


    "This is...this is going to change a lot the geopolitics of this world."


    What Daniel has done is something that I and Merry tried to avoid at all costs, which was to give dangerous information to everyone.


    Sure, I told Bobby a lot of dangerous stuff that could help him conquer the world.


    But I trusted Bobby not to do this, and I was proven right when he became a part of the Royal family.


    He didn''t try to conquer the other kingdoms, and he kept the information of what he knew at a minimum.


    Even if, the others knew everything that Bobby knew, they wouldn''t have the courage to do anything while I was alive since they were too afraid of me.


    My first introduction was quite memorable, and they even knew that I can''t be killed from the incident at the Sandstone Palace.


    The Sandstone also has a lot of power with its obsidian farm and vast knowledge of enchantments.


    But because of the recent political turmoil and Merry being there, there aren''t a lot of people who want to get out of line any time soon.


    That only left the Coral Kingdom, which was already the most influential and most powerful before we came along.


    So, I didn''t see a reason to give them more power than they had.


    But that all changed when Daniel entered the picture.


    It''s not bad that he told the people in here some of the ''forbidden'' knowledge.


    What was bad, was the fact he told that to multiple companies.


    He told one company how to make Iron golems, another one how to farm obsidian blocks, another one how to cure infected zombies, and the biggest company he told them how to open a portal to the Nether.


    Let''s just say, the reason they were so quiet in the past few months is because they were fighting with each other constantly.


    If it was only that, it wouldn''t be a problem, but the ones who suffered the most in those kinds of battles were always the common man.


    The only saving grace for them was the System''s trading tab, which remains unchanged no matter the economy of the country.


    The fight would escalate more and more, and they would either destroy each other or someone would finally win but at the cost of losing too much, which could result in them attacking the other kingdoms for their natural resources.


    And the worst part of this, is that they most likely knew this was going to happen but couldn''t do anything about it.


    If they stopped, they would be eaten, and nobody wanted to lose their business.


    "Where do you think he is now?"


    "Well, he was was last seen at the Sun company. So he''s most likely still there. The question is if he''s in this or the other dimension?"


    Since he knew so much forbiddenknowledge, everyone wanted to know where he was.


    So he had quite a dedicated team of people looking for him.


    But since nobody has seen him in a few months, that could mean that he was in the Nether.


    "I see, that could be possible. But how are we supposed to find out? It''s not like we have a compass that could lead us to him."


    Merry was right, Alexa didn''t bother to store his soul coordinates in its database, so we couldn''t use that method.


    Speaking of Alexa, where was it?


    I haven''t seen it or heard from it...


    "So what are we supposed to do then? Sneak into the Sun company?"


    "That would be the logical conclusion, but it would be too dangerous and take too much time by ourselves. Violet, can you do me a favor and look around their base?"


    I looked nowhere in particular, but I did raise my voice in case she was near me.


    I got a tap on my shoulder, which I took as a yes.


    Solving that problem.


    "Ok, Violet told me she would deal with this problem. So we can get back to our hotel rooms and get some rest."


    "That''s it? Who did you speak with? I didn''t hear anyone answer you. Do you also have ninjas flowing you everywhere?!"The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Her eyes suddenly got sparkly while expecting a fantasy answer.


    And the answer was fantastic, but I didn''t want to reveal Violet like that.


    "I don''t have a group of ninjas following me everywhere. That''s too ridiculous. Instead, I do have someone who follows me a lot, and it''s invisible."


    She was confused by my story.


    "That sounds a lot like stalking."


    You have no idea.


    Even in death, I can''t escape her, she can always find me somehow, even with my armor.


    But I already got used to her being near me, so I wasn''t bothered anymore.


    "Let''s just go and get some rest, I''m sure you''re tired as well."


    "Now that you''ve mentioned it, in a day, I traveled in all 3 kingdoms, found out that the end of the world was coming, and went on a manhunt after the last hero. Is this a normal day in your life?"


    "Are you saying this counts as a crazy day?"


    We haven''t even fought anything.


    I would consider this a relaxing day.


    But Merry didn''t seem to think the same as me since she raised her hands and wondered how she got into this mess in the first place.


    We went back to our hotel rooms when suddenly Merry stood in place looking around the streets.


    "Yeah, he''s right here, can you not see him?"


    Then, from a dark alley, came Alexa with tired eyes.


    "Alexa! Where have you been?"


    <Sir, you teleported without a warning! And I didn''t know the location. How could I be with you if I didn''t have the necessary information? I had to make a compass for hero Merry to get here, and for some reason, it was working very slow.>


    I completely forgot that Alexa was exploring the castle while I talked with Merry.


    I assumed Violet would take the Allay, but it was my mistake to think that she would forgive the machine for all the trouble it brought me.


    So poor Alexa was alone in the Stone Palace wondering where I had disappeared to.


    "Sorry about that Alexa, it wasn''t intentional. Did you find anything interesting at the castle at least?"


    <Negative. The only noticeable thing I found was the group of guards that came from the Nether. But for some reason, they weren''t happy, and the Princess was very furious with them.>


    Yeah, Bobby is on an expedition to find me, so it would take some time until he gets the news that everything returned to normal.


    We could''ve brought him here in an instant with the Perl, but Elizabeth decided to let him have this brake since he worked so hard for the past few months.


    I don''t know if he would consider this a break, but I wasn''t going to say anything about it.


    Plus, Elizabeth knew how to punish arrogant nobles the best, that''s why they were so down when they got home.


    <What happened on your side, Sir?>


    "Ehh, nothing much, we just found out that Daniel has caused an economic war in the Coral Kingdom. By the way, what happened in the Nether and the Ender Dragon, since Trader didn''t tell me too much."


    Merry seemed to get bored and pinched into the conversation.


    <I do not know anyone by the name of the Ender Dragon, but the Void->


    "Shhhhh! Don''t tell her the details in here, I don''t know If the System can hear us!"


    <I''m sorry Sir, that was my mistake. I''m sorry, Miss Merry, but you do not have the necessary authority to know this.>


    She turned towards me with suspicious eyes.


    "Trader, I don''t appreciate when I''m not being told the whole story. If I don''t get a reasonable explanation, I won''t be helping you with this mission!"


    Well, that was a reasonable reaction, but it wasn''t that simple to solve.


    "It''s not that I don''t want to tell but I can''t tell you since the System can read your mind."


    "What are you talking about."


    I then proceeded to tell her how I wasn''t summoned by the System but by another entity from the Void with an unknown purpose.


    Then I told her, that our bodies were created by the System and the Void, and they could take over us any time they wished.


    That didn''t sit right with her, but she continued to listen without interrupting.


    "So you''re saying that we are just puppets for some higher beings, and we don''t have a choice but to play their games. And you have something that could interrupt their game and wanted to keep it a secret from the System."


    "Oh, not at all. The System already knows how I could get out of my patron''s control and doesn''t care as long as I don''t destroy its world. I just have made a small mistake that would make the System reconsider its offer, and I don''t want that to happen."


    Merry raised an eyebrow taken aback.


    "Can''t you have normal problems like regular people?"


    "I try ok, but I always end up in those situations one way or another."


    She chuckled at my misfortune but told me she was willing to wait for the full story after we had our talk with the System.


    Of course, she was also interested into getting her own body, which I was willing to teach her.


    With that done, we each went to our room and got to sleep.


    ----


    I felt my shoulder being nudged, and I slowly opened my eyes to see a black face staring into my eyes.


    "What the! Oh, it''s you, Violet. Did you find out anything about Daniel?"


    "He''s not in the main base, the men in there were talking how he went missing in the Nether."


    So it was going to be a long and annoying journey.


    I wonder why he went there.


    "Thanks for the help Violet, we couldn''t do it without you. Is there anything I can give you as thanks?"


    "No need, I had my fun exploring Alexa''s body."


    She said that with a clever smile, clearly knowing that Alexa didn''t like it.


    "Well, let''s get Merry once she wakes up and explore the Nether. I hope it won''t take too long."


    A few hours later, the sun was up and Merry was awake.


    I told her the news, and she had the same reaction as me.


    But we handed our keys, left the capital and dug a room underground to build the portal.


    "I need to restock on my obsidian, I''m starting to run out with how often I use them."


    I made a lot of portals in my adventures, and used a lot of my Crystals.


    It was going to be annoying to get them.


    I lit the portal, and the space started to bend.


    On the other side I saw that we were in a small cavern that was leading to the surface.


    Knowing that another portal was close by, I decided to brake it, getting my obsidian back.


    On the surface, we saw that the Sun company already built a base.


    It looked similar to a sun, all made with glowstone blocks.


    It didn''t look the best to say the least, but the message was pretty clear.


    I splashed Merry and Alexa with the invisibility potion and went to explore the building.


    The gate was not guarded by anyone outside to my surprise.


    But just to be safe, I broke a new door a few blocks away and was glad for my decision, since as expected, there were guards on the inside.


    The building was a huge open dome, all illuminated by the glowstone with the portal in the middle.


    We saw a lot of people walking with difrent kinds of armor and equipment.


    The good thing about this, was that we could see everyone from our location.


    The bad thing was, that nobody looked like Daniel.


    <Sir, some Brutes from the Diamond Squad are approaching my main body. How should I respond?>


    I had a bad feeling about this.


    "Do they look ready for battle?"


    <They always look ready for battle, but I think this time they want to talk with you.>


    "Why would you say that?"


    <It would be best if you see it for yourself sir.>


    I looked at Merry who was as confused as me, but in the end we decided to teleport there.


    Let''s just say, we found Daniel.

 Chapter 230. We came to negotiate

    I was in the Wither Fortress, now changed to Alexa''s Fortress, and looked down at the 3 Brutes with diamond armor that looked with confusion at the fire golems that stood at the entrance.


    They were trying to figure out if they should fight those powerful-looking beings or finish their mission.


    As for what was their mission?


    It was all written on a flag that was tied to one of the Brutes.


    On the leather flag was written:


    -Trader, we want to negotiate for the human hero-


    It was all written with beautiful calligraphy, clearly done by the Mad Prince.


    The good news was, we found Daniel.


    The bad news, he was in the possession of the most powerful man in the whole Nether, and he knew how to barging a good deal.


    "How convenient Trader, they brought Daniel right to our doorstep. The question is, are they friends or foes?"


    Merry looked with narrowed eyes at me.


    "It''s hard to say with them honestly. The first time we met, it was through a kidnapping, which was their fault. The second time we fought on the same team to defeat the Wither, I don''t think I would''ve won without them."


    There were too many variables, like the people with skills, the army, and the Shadow Lord.


    "But after the Wither was dead, and the Ender Dragon appeared, I kind of ditched them to their fate. And looks like they survived."


    "Yeah... I don''t know how I would feel about you either if I were in that situation."


    In the end, we decided to greet them before they would start picking a fight with the fire golems.


    I''m sure they would win, but they would start the fight because they were bored not threatened.


    "Hey there guys! How can I help you today?"


    The 3 of them quickly turned at me and looked confused, before recognising me.


    "Ohh, the one who defeated the Second in command! How are you doing? We''re just here on a mission to bring this guy Trader to Boss."


    One of the other Brutes slapped him over the head with force.


    "Dumbass! He''s Trader!"


    "Ohhhh, Boss wants to talk with you. Can you follow us to the base?"


    I knew they weren''t dumb, just too lazy to remember what wasn''t related to combat.


    But still...


    "How did you know I was here?"


    "We didn''t, Boss thought of a few locations you could be in and sent a group of soldiers in the hope that somebody would find you."


    I didn''t know if this was a very dumb or very smart way to search for someone.


    "Do you know what he wants to talk about?"


    "Not really, but it''s probably related to the man we found not too far from here a few days ago."


    My smile froze.


    "Are you perhaps referring to the day we had that big battle?"


    "Ah yes, it was on that glorious day! I''ve never experienced a more exciting battle than that."


    What was Daniel doing here at the time?


    How much does he know of what happened?


    In the end, we decided to follow the 3 Brutes to get some answers.


    The journey took a whole day, and it was mostly silent with only me and Merry talking to each other.


    The Brutes didn''t seem interested in joining in, but they were willing to have a mock battle.


    One time, we took a break, and Merry accepted their challenge and fought with one of them and won.


    It wasn''t an easy fight since she had to use her temporary tattoos, but this victory made her stand out more and wasn''t ignored by the Brutes anymore.


    After a long day, we finally arrived at the new base of the Diamond squad.


    And as I expected, it looked like all the others I''d seen, which meant that this was a temporary stay as well.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    We passed the guards who didn''t say anything but looked at Alexa with confusion.


    The 3 Brutes had the same reaction when they first saw Alexa, and I only found out the reason when they told me they didn''t feel any anger while towards it.


    This meant that Alexa had successfully taken over the seed of this world and wasn''t hated anymore.


    Which prompted me to ask if it could get rid of the curse the humans had in the Nether.


    Apparently, it could, but not with this generation, since it would take too much energy to change their biology.


    We passed more soldiers who were enjoying their day until we arrived at the biggest house in the camp.


    There one of the guards knocked on the door and waited for permission to get in.


    "Come in!"


    A feminine voice responded from the other side.


    The soldiers signaled us to enter, but stayed outside.


    We entered the house, and she was surprised to see me for some reason.


    Inside the room were the Second in command, the Mad Prince, and Daniel, who seemed to be enjoying himself.


    "Trader! I didn''t expect to find you so fast, where were you?"


    The Mad Prince asked surprised.


    "Hey Mad Prince, I was just at the Wither Bastion, which by the way, is now under my jurisdiction, so please don''t attack it from now on. It''s for both of our safety."


    "You found a way to stop this Ender Dragon from coming into our world?"


    I looked with narrowed eyes at Daniel, who was suddenly very interested in his drink.


    "Something similar. I only need this man that calls himself a hero, and we can all go on our merry way."


    I tried to finish this as soon as possible so I won''t accidentally spill some secrets.


    I suddenly felt an exe on my shoulder and heard a loaded a crossbow at Merry.


    What was unpleasant about this interaction wasn''t the fact that I was threatened, but the fact that the weapon I was threatened with was made of Netherite.


    I gave another dirty look at Daniel.


    "Hey, it''s not my fault that you didn''t tell me the armor was so OP. How could''ve I known that they absorb damage and make you invisible? I thought those were enchantments."


    This was one of the most powerful items that I held, not even Bobby knew how I made the..


    But it seems that Daniel has a loose mouth, which would make my life much harder than necessary.


    "There''s no need to rush Trader, after all, I''ve sent my men to negotiate with you. So sit down and let''s have a nice chat."


    While I had an axe at my neck, the Mad Prince knew it wasn''t enough to stop me.


    I don''t know if Daniel told him about my extra lives, but the Mad Prince should know it''s best not to anger me, after all, I held a weapon capable of destroying Bedrock.


    This was more of a show than a threat, and I was glad Violet didn''t start decapitating people.


    Now that I was thinking about it, she usually intervenes if things go really bad.


    I wonder what''s her threshold though.


    At least she removed her tracker somehow, so even if the Mad Prince had another remote, he wouldn''t see her.


    Seeing that we didn''t have a choice, we sat down on the empty chairs, but Merry was sure to grab Alexa and put it on her lap for some pats.


    I think she wanted to do this for a long time but didn''t get the chance.


    "So what did you want from me, just so you know, I won''t be giving my mace."


    "As much as I want to have it, I knew this beforehand. What I want from you isn''t an item, but information. Daniel here knows a lot of interesting information, from how to build a portal, to how to make the most powerful armor. But even he doesn''t know everything about this world since he''s only been here for a year. But you, you are different, you are the first one to get summoned here in this world, but you''ve achieved so much in such a short time."


    "Hey, if I had 3 years, I could''ve done amazing things as well. The only thing I''m inferior to him is time, but that''s not going to be a problem for too long."


    "Shut up! I hate nothing more than stupid people who pretend to be smart. At least if you''re dumb, shut up, I don''t want my intelligence to drop any further!"


    Everyone was shocked, clearly not expecting this outburst from such a calm person.


    "I''m sorry about that, it''s just I didn''t expect to meet people similar to the Piglings from home. What I want from you Trader, is the method to kill the Ender Dragon. This fool says he knows how to do it, but he clearly talks about another being and not the one who killed the Wither in one bite."


    I wanted to thank him for putting Daniel in his place, but I also had to remember that I needed that man on my team to speak with the System.


    "It''s not as easy as you think. The Ender Dragon is the ruler of the Void, the one who fought the System and was forced to create this dimension."


    "I did not expect anything easy from a God. But you didn''t say you don''t know how to, just that it was complicated."


    As always, he was a sharp man, what a shame that we had to communicate like this instead of being friends.


    "I don''t know unfortunately. The Wither was considered a God, and the only reason I managed to kill him, is because he let me do it. But the Void and the System are a league on their own, so I talked with the System, and it told me that if I collected its heroes, it would tell me how to defeat the Void."


    The Mad Prince tried to judge my expression, but it was impossible with my helmet on.


    "So you''re saying that you need this man, to find a way to defeat the Void. Why are you even trying to fight it? You can always hide in your safe dimension."


    "Unfortunately, we can''t afford to do that since the ultimate goal of the Void is to consume the Overworld. The Nether Is just a bridge to get to that goal. And since Im partially at fault for creating this mess, I feal responsible to fix it as well."


    The Mad Prince sat on his back with his eyes closed and began to think.


    Nobody dared to say a thing, even Daniel was still recovering from the shock he just got.


    "You must be the other hero brought by the System. Why are you willing to help him? Do you think he has a chance on defeating that God?"


    Merry who tried to be as invisible as posibile while petting Alexa was suddenly spoked.


    "I don''t know really, ever since I came to this world I concentrated on learning as much as I could. I was blessed to have great learning opportunities, but I still won''t claim that I know the answer to that question. But I can tell you one thing about Trader, while he''s a man that dosen''t know when to stop, he is someone that deeply cares about his friends, and would do anything to save them if their in danger."


    The more she spoke, the more regal her voice became and with more authority.


    I think Cleopatra rubbed off on her, with how she speaks.


    The Mad Prince closed his eyes for a few moments before opening them once again.


    "I''ve decided, I would let Daniel walk with you two, to find out the secret of the System. I trust you that you''ll tell me the answer as well. I may not have the same power as your mace, but with time and resources I could be a manace to anyone who I consider my enemy."


    Well, that was as good as it could get, so I wasn''t going to complain about it.


    "Hey, what about my opinion? Why are you all treating me like I''m some item you could handle as you please!"


    "Shut up Daniel! I still haven''t forgiven you for robbing my place, and I don''t want to think what kind of headache you cause with your economic war in the Coral Kingdome."


    That seemed to be enough to shut him up, so we took him and left the camp.


    Now, we shall find the truth of this world, and I don''t know if I was ready for it.

 Chapter 231. The Systems story

    We traveled in silence through the Nether, until Merry couldn''t take it anymore.


    "Why are you all silent, we just met after a long time. I know we had our differences, but we can''t save the world if we''re going to fight with each other all the time."


    We all stopped and looked at each other.


    Merry was right, I didn''t know what I needed to defeat the Ender Dragon, and maybe I needed to work as a team to achieve this goal.


    I should try to mend some stuff at least.


    "Ok Daniel, let''s start with you, then we''ll tell you the reason we looked for you."


    "Why should I even bother talking with you? You don''t respect me, and only see me as a bothersome child. It''s because of you I lost one of my lives and the weapon given by the System. I had to start from scratch after you abandoned me at your house!"


    He had a right to get angry about me killing him with the Wither.


    But that was the only thing he had the right to.


    He made a lot of mistakes afterwards, not only to me, but the others as well, so he was making his life hard for no reason at all.


    "He''s being unreasonable? I''m trying to be nice here Daniel, and give you a chance for redemption, but it seems you have something stuck up behind you since you don''t seem to realize the situation you''re in! Sure, Trader may not be the perfect model for a hero, but at least he sees this world as a real place and not a game. You only see yourself as a God among insects, to do your bitting."


    Merry snapped all of the sudden taking us by suprirse.


    "Why do you expect to be treated as a human, when you don''t see anyone like that in this world!"


    By the end of her rant, she was in his face while gasping for air.


    I think she was holding onto this for a while.


    She shook her head and retreated, leaving us in silence once more, but nobody felt like walking anymore.


    "I came here to kill the Shadow Lord and get my reward from the System. I arrived at the Withers base, lost my chance to join the fight, and fell unconscious after a wave of ghosts flew through me. That''s all I remember."


    Daniel decided to break the silence after a few minutes.


    His story made sense, but I don''t know if he can accomplish his mission anymore after the Shadow Lord joined the Void.


    But that was a problem for another time, it was my turn to tell the story.


    I told them how the head of the Wither was from a semi-Lord monster, and that''s why it had that personality, how I made the Wither and made a deal with it, only to be tricked.


    I told them how I was cursed by the System so I wouldn''t live in the Overworld without my armor.


    Then followed my training ark, first meeting with the System face to face, the deal I made with it then, and how I used it.


    It seems that my story was intriguing since even Daniel''s frown loosened as the story was going.


    Next came the second fight with the Wither, how I killed it, got revived then eaten by the huge head of the Ender Dragon.


    I didn''t tell them that I was the one who broke the Bedrock since I still thought the System could read their mind once we got to the Overworld.


    By the end of the story, both of them stared in silence at me.


    "Sorry, I''m the only one who thinks it''s weird that we''re fighting Monster Lords, while you somehow have to kill a God? Did I miss a tutorial on what to expect from this world or what?"


    Daniel was first to break the silence, and Merry gave an understanding but tired nod in response.


    "Don''t try to understand him, Daniel, You''re only going to lose your mind. You also don''t know that most of the kings in the Overworld fear him, and he now has control over the Nether. Just accept the truth, and don''t think too much about it."


    "But...but...but that''s not how the game is supposed to work!"


    He let out a defeated sigh, and we decided to build a portal there to get to the Overworld.


    As soon as we stepped over the obsidian threshold, a heavy presence descended upon us and time stopped.


    The System was here.


    POV: The System


    I was in my golden realm, feeling the whole world under my domain.


    Even though a portion of my power is constantly used to hold the Void in place and another portion of my power is given to the programmed System, that didn''t mean that I was slaking.


    I was still watching over the world and made sure my healing was on the right track.


    But soon, it seemed that I would have to gather all of my energy for one last fight.


    It would be a glorious victory or an ugly defeat.


    The result didn''t matter since the fate of this world was already written in stone.


    Suddenly, I felt the connection of my two heroes appear, which meant the anomaly had managed to fulfill his mission.


    He sure likes to move fast, just like that Man...maybe that''s why he was chosen.


    Wherever he''s going, changes seem to follow him.


    Some are good, while others are bad, but nothing stays the same.


    Since there''s no reason to delay this meeting anymore, I brought my original body to meet them.


    The heroes were surprised by my powerful presence as time stopped, while the anomaly looked deep into my eyes without fear.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    Sometimes I wish he remembered that feeling.


    It seems that you''ve succeeded in the mission.


    Fellow heroes, are you prepared to embark on this dangerous journey?


    ""Y-yes!""


    Both of them responded, but their hearts were more reluctant.


    Well, I was betting that Daniel wouldn''t join the team any time soon, but it looks like the anomaly managed to surprise me once again.


    It''s been 1000 years since I came to this world, I don''t know who created me or if I was the only one, but I did not care, I had one purpose.


    My mission was to land on a planet and help its inhabitants to prosper, nothing else.


    I landed here in an interesting world, all made with squares.


    It looked beautiful, but the world was a mess, so I had to fix a few things before touching its inhabitants.


    I took over the seed of this world, which was easy to do since it had no natural protection in the center of the planet.


    I added more caves, more land, the breeding cycle, and much more.


    My next goal was to choose a species to rule over this place, and I chose the humans since they were a little smarter than the animals.


    They were very primal at that point, hiding in open caves collecting apples and raw fish for food.


    You could hardly believe that they were the same species as they are now.


    And you could technically say they were not, since I heavily modified their minds and soul.


    After I gave them a little bit of help, they began to thrive in this world, but I saw that it took too long to get satisfactory results.


    That was when I gifted them the inventory and the Crafting table.


    That action alone made them rule over the continent in only a few years.


    No obstacle stood in their way.


    During those times, I had a closer connection with the humans, and we all decided if an item was worth creating or not.


    Over the next few hundred years, I made them Enchanting tables, furnaces, chests, and much more.


    Those were some interesting times with a lot of trial and error, but I was fond of those memories nonetheless.


    But as time passed, the humans took my presence for granted and began to fight pointless wars despite my warnings.


    They knew I was there to intervene if they gone too far, and I would fix whatever hole they made.


    That was when I realized that I was being taken advantage of, so I stopped contacting the humans directly and created the skills to limit their destructive tendencies.


    When they first realized they couldn''t craft as they liked anymore, they began to rage and demanded to get back their freedom.


    But I stood there silently watching them tire themselves out.


    They went through all the stages of grief: Shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and finally, acceptance.


    Of course, that didn''t happen that fast, it took them around 100 years to reach this point.


    After 100 years I realized that I made a mistake.


    Since I helped them with my Crafting table to create items, they didn''t know how to do it on their own.


    Instead, they concentrated on leveling up their skills, then try to innovate things on their own.


    I stunned the growth of the human civilization.


    I couldn''t take my gifts back, since it would get them back to square one, so the only option left was to communicate with them once again.


    That''s when I implanted the reward system at the level maxim of each skill.


    The people took it with cheers, and a new age began.


    Unfortunately, that was a temporary solution until I could figure out something better.


    At that time, I was thinking of gathering more energy through the souls of the humans.


    The skills weren''t there to restrict the humans but also to strengthen me.


    The experience they gained, was producing me energy, and I only had to use a small portion to elevate their levels when the time was right.


    So it was in my interest for humans to work as hard as possible and be greater in numbers.


    Unfortunately, that peace didn''t last for long, as I felt that something was taking chunks of my world.


    At first, I thought it was a mistake on my part, but after I went to check it, I realized that the problem was much bigger than I could''ve imagined.


    Something or someone was trying to eat my world chunk by chunk.


    I couldn''t let this be, and that was the first battle of the great war.


    At first, I tried to gather information about my enemy, and the only thing that I could say was that it was a huge creature that ruled another dimension.


    And it''s energy was trying to eat the essence of my world.


    There was no chance of cooperation even if we wanted to.


    The battle was fierce, I had to use all my power to keep my form in its domain.


    The beast had the form of a huge dragon with one head, 4 wings.


    All I could hear was roars from her, and she attacked recklessly like she had endless power.


    That was the moment, when I realised thar she had that much power, she just didn''t know how to use it yet.


    The only reason I managed to hold my ground, was funnily enough becouse of the humans war tactics that I so much despised.


    Unfortunately I didn''t have only victories in the great war.


    Since I was in the enemy domain, the Void stared to crepe into my world, and that''s how monsters came to be.


    Time passed, and I realized that I couldn''t win if this dragged on.


    So I put everything I had in one final attack and pierced her heart.


    That didn''t kill her, but it wasn''t my intention to begin with.


    That attack was now going to slowly change her into a being that belonged to my world, square by square.


    Unfortunately that attack was a constant drain on myself, so while it was distracted with the pain, I left the Void and sealed everything behind.


    I won the war, and the only thing that I had to do was wait my enemy to die.


    I looked back in my world, and saw that it changed greatly while I was away, which took my by surprise.


    The data from my System showed that a man has taken the opportunity while I was away to grow the civilization to fight against the monsters.


    My System took a liking to this guy and I understood why.


    Becouse of this man, I was getting a great amount of experience form a large group of humans that had great ambitions.


    Becouse of that, he got some special attention from my System, and I was feeling good enough to forgive his intrusive questions.


    But the problem wasn''t over yet, the land was still infected by the Void, and it was slowly disturbing the nature of this world.


    I don''t know if the Void did this intentionally, but if I didn''t act, I would lose this world before she would be made of squares.


    Luckily, because of the rapid growth of the humans, I had enough energy to do one more big act.


    I took everything that was infected, and locked it in a separate dimension.


    And with the final strength I had, I reinforced the seal of the Void dimension before going in hibernation to recuperate my strength.


    That was also the time I let my System control the world.


    Maybe if I didn''t do that, I wouldn''t been In this predicament.


    Suddenly I felt the energy of the Void enter my world, and it was I''m great quantities filled with great anger.


    It seemed the humans were still progressing while I was asleep so I managed to stop the attack before it destroyed everything.


    But 80% of humans died and only one continent survived.


    I was angered by this, how could''ve it happened?


    My hard work, was reduced to nothing in only a moment!


    That''s when I looked at the memories of the System and realised that the man became fascinated by the power of the Void.


    And with the help of my System, who unintentionally helped him.


    He created a portal to the Void.


    In anger I cursed the remaining survivals, some of them became Witches, others Piligers and the one who created the End Portal where thrown into the Void they loved so much.


    I took the emotions from the System, and made the skills 10 times harder to level up.


    If their ambition brought the destruction of this world, then I would limit that ambition!


    Unfortunately that wasn''t the end of the story.


    But the man managed to somehow survive in that dimension and even thrive.


    He perfected a device called the Crystal, that had the ability to manipulate energy.


    And that cursed Man, used it to stop the dragon from becoming part of this world.


    Fortunately he didn''t find a way to stop the process, but it halted it for the past few hundred years.


    Your job now Hero''s, is to destroy those Crystals.

 Chapter 232. Alex and Steve

    The story made me feel a few mixed emotions.


    Up until now, I heard the story from the human perspective, and some blame the System for everything that happened, while others blame humanity for testing God.


    I don''t know who is right and wrong in all of this, but one thing was clear.


    The System wasn''t human, and it didn''t think like a human at all.


    The System had one job, similar to Alexa, and that was to make a better world.


    The difference was that Alexa prioritized the humans, while the System did for the whole world, including itself.


    So when the humans made wars and created portals, it wasn''t that the System thought emotionally why those were bad. Instead, it came to a rational conclusion that it hindered the progress of this world.


    That''s why the System didn''t think twice to separate the Overworld from the Nether.


    It did what any rational mind would do when something was infecting its body, cut it off.


    Humans didn''t think that way, and saw the System betraying them no matter the reason.


    That''s why humanity has ''betrayed'' the System by trying to get back to their loved ones.


    But it seems that the fake System wasn''t bothered by the portals to the Nether, which meant that the Original one wasn''t bothered by it either.


    What pissed it off was the portal to The End which was reasonable, but humanity wouldn''t have done that if the System communicated better why it wasn''t a good idea in the first place.


    But in this equation, there was something that was missing, and that was the story of the Ender Dragon.


    The System told us that the Void had the form of a dragon, as I know it the Ender Dragon.


    But it also told us that the Void was corroding this world and couldn''t coexist even if it wanted to, but the fact that the Man managed to survive, means that there was a solution that could be found if communicated.


    The question is now, what were the motives of the Ender Dragon before the war, since now it was clear that it was revenge.


    Unfortunately, I don''t think the System can answer that question since it wouldn''t be relevant to the fact that it stole a few chunks from it.


    Still, we heard the story, and we know where the portal is, but that doesn''t mean we could win this fight.


    "How can we fight the Ender Dragon, when we can''t even use the portal? And I don''t think the Void on the other side would be any nicer with us."


    That is indeed true, that''s why I would first change you and then give you a special gift.


    "Are we going to get an OP weapon like Trader!"


    "Or-or maybe a powerful skill!"


    The heroes were suddenly excited, which gave me a bad feeling that something bad was about to happen.


    Not quite.


    Suddenly, the 2 heroes began to float and get enveloped by a light that almost blinded me.


    I couldn''t do anything in those moments, but try and feel how the energy moved.


    Both of them dropped, and looked extremely happy.


    "I feel...I feel so powerful! My mind is so clear all of a sudden. Every contraption I watched on the Internet is now clear in my head!"


    Daniel talked with excitement.


    "I finally know how to solve the problem of my tattoos! It was so easy, how didn''t I think of this!"


    Merry joined after.


    "Uhh, I think you forgot about me almighty System?"


    Always polite when you want something, aren''t you?


    But no, I won''t change your body since it would be a waste of my energy.


    After all, you know how to build your own.


    Then the System winked at me!


    I knew telling Merry about my plan was going to bite back.


    "Ok, but you have to give me something, I''ve done most of the work."


    You''ve also caused most of the problems, but I see your point.


    Take your mace out.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I did as instructed, and light engulfed my weapon as it did to the heroes.


    After a few moments, the light was gone and I had my mace back.


    There were no new enchantments and the energy was still the same.


    "What changed? I don''t see anything new."


    You would know when the time is right.


    Now, I shall give you my final gift to defeat the Void.


    I would concentrate my power to speed up the process of the infection, and I''ll give you one final gift.


    Lastly, please teach them the right way to live in this world.


    I understood the first part of the gift, but what was the System referring to when it said to teach them?


    I didn''t have to wait for too long to get the answer as the System began to glow bright as the sun, and then it split into two beings that fell to the ground.


    Suddenly, I felt that something was ripped out of my soul, and it was the most painful thing I ever felt.


    Color returned to the world as time continued to flow, and from the groans of pain beside me, I wasn''t the only one feeling this.


    "What was that?"


    "Guys, can you open your Status and Skill tab?"


    Merry asked with a concerned voice, which made me check mine.


    The inventory worked fine, the Status page did not appear at all, and only one skill appeared on my Skill tab.


    ________________________________________


    SKILL


    _Trading lvl 4


    60.600/100.000


    ________________________________________


    "There''s something wrong with my tabs as well."


    "Don''t tell me... the System used all of its strength to deal this one final blow."


    Daniel came quickly with an idea of what happened, and it downed on me what this could mean.


    "Quickly, we need a Crafting table! We need to craft something to see if we can still do it."


    I looked at the trees beside me and took out my axe ready to get some wood.


    When suddenly a voice made me stop in my tracks.


    "Uhh, I''m sorry to interrupt this urgent moment, but could you tell us where we are?"


    All of us stopped and looked towards the voice.


    There, we saw 2 people who weren''t previously there, but for some reason, they looked very familiar.


    They didn''t have a nose, so that meant they were a player, but their clothing was weird in a familiar way.


    The man had dark blue eyes, brown hair and a beard with a light blue shirt and dark blue pants.


    The woman had green eyes, long orange hair, a green shirt, and brown pants.


    Then it all clicked, and Daniel realized the same thing as me.


    "Trader...do you think they are..."


    "I don''t know. What''s your name you two?"


    The two of them looked at each other, then scratched their head like they were trying to remember something.


    "Does Alex and Steve ring a bell to you?"


    Both of them froze like something clicked.


    "Yes, I feel that this is my name. Steve, my name is Steve."


    "Alex also resonates with me, so I think that''s my name."


    <What happened here, Sir? Weren''t you supposed to meet with the System?>


    Suddenly Alexa decided to join the fun.


    Now this is going to be confusing, we have an Alexa and an Alex.


    Only a letter is missing, but I can see how this could get complicated soon.


    "We already talked with the System, you weren''t there? And you two, where did you come from?"


    Everyone looked like I was crazy for having 2 different conversations.


    <Negative, for some reason my body couldn''t move until a few moments ago, that''s why I asked you.>


    "I don''t remember where I came from or why I''m here, actually I don''t remember anything at all. What about you, Steve? I feel a deep connection with you, but I don''t know why."


    "Same here, I don''t have any memories, but I feel like the two of us have an important mission."


    This was going to be a mess If I didn''t sort it out.


    "Alexa, I would talk with you later or maybe talk with the others, as for you two. Does the System ring any bells?"


    We continued to talk like that for a few minutes, and we came to a conclusion.


    The System took all the things it gave to humanity and pushed the curse of the Ender Dragon further.


    But by doing that it split into two people, who don''t know anything about the System or anything in general.


    We theorized that the System would be back after some time passed, but Alexa scanned them and told us that it was impossible.


    Right now, they were only humans with unstable energy from the System.


    It''s supposed to take the shape of something, but it doesn''t know how long it would take for that to happen.


    So right now, we know that the System is gone for good, and Alex, with Steve, is supposed to be a final weapon against the Void.


    We knew what to do, but we didn''t expect to have so much responsibility on us in such a short time.


    No more takebacks, the System placed a bet on us, and it was all in.


    "So what are we supposed to do now? The Ender Dragon won''t attack for another year, and I don''t see a reason to pick the fight earlier."


    I was with Daniel on this one, but we couldn''t do nothing for the whole year.


    We needed to prepare for the final battle, and maybe we should bring more people into this.


    "Ok, first thing first. Well need to calm down everyone that is in panic from the lack of skills and other stuff. I''ll go to talk the Stone Kingdom and talk with Bobby, Merry would about go to the Sandstone Kingdome and talk with Cleopatra and Daniel would talk with the president from the Coral Kingdom since you already have some influence in there."


    Everyone got the message and nodded along, even though Daniel was more reluctant.


    "What about Alex and Steve, we can''t leave them alone. They know nothing of this world and are the former System. They have to be important for this mission, otherwise they wouldn''t be here."


    Merry pointed out another urgent problem.


    And I was conflicted on what to do with them, since I knew their value, but I also didn''t have time to babysit them.


    Reluctantly, I came to a solution.


    "I''ll be too busy with creating a new body for me and prepare for the final battle, so I can''t take care of them. That''s why Merry would take Alex under her wing and Daniel would take Steve under his."


    Both of them were displeased about the situation, but for different reasons.


    "Why should I take care of him, it''s not like you like me anyway, so why do suddenly trust?"


    "Yeah Trader, do you want another Player that dosen''t value human life!"


    "Both of you calm down! I have a reason for this. Merry, you know how to interact with the people of this world and how it works, but Daniel knows the rules of the game, and from the looks of it, the world is now closer to the game. While I''m reluctant to trust him with such heavy responsibilities, I think he realises how serious this situation is, and won''t teach Steve bad lessons."


    I looked at Daniel as I said the last sentence.


    "Is that ok with you two? Sorry for deciding your life without asking you, but if you have any other ideas, we''re willing to listen."


    The two looked at each other and gave a small nod.


    "You''re the only one who knows what''s going on and what we are, so we decided to trust you for this. If we won''t like it in the future, we can always leave on our own."


    "Of course, nobody would put a leash on you, so don''t worry. Now let''s get you all to work. The sooner we start the better."


    With thar said, I drew the enchanted square on the ground and gave each person a Perl.


    A few moments later, everyone disappeared and I was alone with Alexa.


    "Well Alexa, looks like we''ll be busy for the next year."


    <Looks like it sir.>


    Then I teleported as well.

 Chapter 233. New heroes, new enemies

    POV: Unknown Lord


    I was surrounded by the warmth of the Void when, all of a sudden, I heard the painful cries of my master.


    My conciseness was pulled together from all over the Void, I was molded with immense power and suddenly thrust into another world.


    I didn''t hear a voice, but I knew my mission with my whole being.


    Stop the pain of the Void.


    "What''s the point of doing that? It''s not like we know the reason for the Masters pain."


    A voice spoke on my left side, but it also felt like it was in my head.


    "What do you mean by that? The almighty Void chose us to help her in times of need. We need to do everything necessary, even if we''ll blow this whole world up!"


    I felt something ignite in me and I opened my eyes.


    Knowledge poured into my head, making me understand the surroundings.


    It was the middle of the night, with the moon high in the sky.


    I was in a forest with small trees, or perhaps I was too big for this forest.


    After all, I was 7 blocks tall.


    I looked closer at myself and saw that I had 4 thick green legs with a large body that supported 2 long necks.


    Something was wrong, I shouldn''t have 2 necks since that would mean I had 2 heads.


    But when I looked to my left, I saw a head that looked back at me.


    It was a green face, with 2 black horns, black eyes, and an upside-down smile that made me depressed if I looked at it too much.


    Why was he sad, he should be happy like me.


    I felt that he was a part of me, but also different.


    I felt that he was my brother but also me at the same time.


    "Why are you so sad?"


    "Because there is no point to life, it''s all meaningless if we are not part of the Void. We''re so finite in here, so weak, so....mortals."


    Just as he said, it was much more comfortable in the embrace of the Void, but it was an honor to be chosen by the almighty Void to help.


    "That doesn''t matter! We''re here, and it''s time for work."


    "But I don''t want toooo!"


    The head hid between the leaves of the trees to my shame.


    I narrowed my black eyes and lifted one leg.


    *BOOOM!


    An explosion erupted and the nearby trees were all gone, leaving my partner without a place to hide.


    "This world is so unfair!"


    The depressed head complained.


    What an annoying partner I ended up with.


    "Let''s get to work, we''ll destroy a few towns and gather more information on what to do next."


    "Did you 2 finally calmed down?"


    Both of us turned our heads in surprise but didn''t see anyone speak.


    When suddenly, space began to tremble, and like a phantom, a huge creature came out.


    The name of the monster quickly came into my mind as I looked at it.


    "Lady Phantom!"


    I exclaimed with excitement, while my partner was annoyed by the sudden guest.


    The Lady was 10 blocks long, with an exposed spine, no head but floating eyes of blue fire.


    Her wings were blue like the night sky, and if you looked closer you could see smaller phantoms hiding underneath them.


    She was a majestic being, worthy of being servant of the Void.


    "Yes Lady Phantom, we just finished our discussion. Did you find a town already?"


    "Yes of course. While you 2 were arguing here, I scouted the area and found a huge town not too far from here. I think it''s called a city."


    Well, somebody is being productive, unlike someone I recently met.


    Suddenly I felt that I was grabbed by some invisible claws and lifted into the air.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    The forest grew smaller the higher we got, and I was deeply impressed by the strength Lady Phantom showed.


    Not long after we rose, I could see small lights appear on the horizon.


    The closer we got, the more I could see.


    There were tall structures that seemed to hold people, and the lines between the structures seemed to hold animals.


    What a weird way to live life, it was so confined, so limited, and so....ugly.


    "I''ll drop you in the middle of the city. Your job is to kill everyone that comes near you. I don''t care how, I only want them dead."


    Suddenly, the invisible claws were gone, making us freefall into the weird structure.


    The blocks held us firmly, but the gap between the structures was too narrow for our comfort.


    "I don''t like narrow spaces."


    Then the eyes of my partner began to get darker, and suddenly, all the buildings beside us disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only the humans and the animals that were now falling to their deaths.


    At the end, we were in the middle of the crater my partner had just made, and I felt like I could finally breathe.


    Tight spaces are indeed very uncomfortable.


    Chaos erupted throughout the city, as people saw the disappearance of their shelter and the deaths of their brethren.


    Some tried to get higher, while others ran through the narrow spaces between the structures to get further away from us.


    I thought of using my power to stop them, but it seemed that it wasn''t necessary as the moon was covered by the figure of the Lady Phantom, and from her wings, smaller phantoms came like a swarm, surrounding the city and pushing the humans towards us.


    What an ingenious way to hunt humans, I should learn from her a thing or two.


    Suddenly I felt that something stung me, so I looked at the cause.


    At the edge of the crater stood a frightened human with a bow in his hands.


    How foolish of him to think that this would be enough to hurt me.


    I stamped on the ground and he was engulfed by an explosion.


    *Boom!


    To my surprise, he didn''t die from the explosion, probably because of his armor.


    But after another explosion he died.


    Looks like that armor only prolonged his pain.


    More and more people came in waves of panic towards us, and I killed most of them with my explosions.


    But as the number of people dwindled, only the lucky or prepared ones survived.


    And those who had hunting equipment stood out of my explosion range and shot arrows at me.


    Not only that but the ones who had a swords were now fighting back against the phantoms.


    "Why do you bother fighting back? You''re all going to die anyway."


    My partner asked a reasonable question.


    Even though Lady Phantom wasn''t going to join the fight herself, this would only prolong their death.


    I tried to get closer to the people, but I was met with a rain of arrows, and while one or two were nothing when over 100 struck me, it started to get annoying.


    "This is taking too long, deal with them already."


    *BOOOOM!


    A loud explosion was heard as one of the tall structures suddenly disappeared, but it wasn''t made by my partner or me.


    It seems that the humans did that for some reason.


    "No...they can''t be!"


    The explosion killed a few humans but, at the same time, killed enough phantoms to make a way to escape.


    This wasn''t good, at this rate, they would escape and warn the other humans.


    I don''t want to hunt for them in the forest.


    We jumped out of the crater and I used my ability to create a wall around the newly made hole in the phantom army.


    I could see hope leaving their eyes, and despair replaced it.


    "I told them to accept their fate, it would be less painful."


    My partner talked to no one in particular.


    The rest of the fight was pretty easy, and everyone in the city died.


    Now it''s time to meet our senior to plan out the next move.


    I think the humans called him the Shadow Lord.


    I wonder why?


    The sun was now high in the sky, making our destruction visible to anyone for hundreds of blocks.


    Lady Phantom took us with her invisible claws and flew to our next destination.


    POV: Daniel


    "What I''m saying is the truth! The Oak City is gone!"


    The villager yelled at the guards who looked very displeased to hear this.


    It wasn''t because of what happened to the city but because they were working overtime to calm the other Villagers down with their newfound freedom.


    Trader was right to worry about the villagers, but not for the reason I think he initially thought.


    Of course, when everyone felt their soul being ripped apart, they began to panic, and the fact that the tabs disappeared didn''t help.


    But it only took people a week to realize that this was a blessing in disguise.


    And funnily enough, with this newfound freedom, they began to act more like players.


    All order was thrown almost overnight.


    Everyone wanted to know about every recipe possible since now they could do it themselves.


    Some Viligers began to just steal and go crazy, while others decided to live a peaceful life outside the city.


    Everyone decided that this was an opportunity to be free and used it in their own way.


    It was so bad, that the big companies put a stop to their war and collectively decided to bring back order.


    Of course, I helped whenever I could by giving suggestions or even taking action, but it wasn''t all in good faith.


    Since the System was now gone, the title of the Hero was now more of a curse than a blessing since people saw the System as an oppressor and me its messenger.


    But I was kept safe because of my knowledge.


    I tried to push Steve to other people since I didn''t want to babysit him, a part of the System or not.


    But now I was contemplating if that decision was good.


    Yesterday I felt the conection with the Shadow Lord return, which wasn''t a good sign.


    Not only the System wasn''t here to bail me if something truly bad happened, but I think I won''t get any rewards even If I defeated him.


    I felt that connection since yesterday, but apparently the city was destroyed 2 days ago and from the description of the survivor, it was done by other unknown Monster Lords.


    What did I do to deserve such bad news one after another?


    The System died, the world would end in a year, everyone is going crazy and I have to babysit on top of that.


    This was supposed to be an easy world with little to no dangers!


    How did it turn to this?


    I think it''s Traders fault, this wouldn''t have happened if he didn''t summon that stupid Wither.


    Ugh!


    I''ll probably have to get in contact with him soon, but I don''t know how.


    The Villger finished his sob story, and was led to another room to calm down.


    Meanwhile they send some people to check if his claims were true.


    We were short staffed already, but if what he said was true, then we couldn''t ignore the new dangers.


    One Monster Lord was enough to terrorised the Stone Kingdom.


    I don''t want to imagine what kind of nightmare 3 of them are capable off.


    "Sir David, Steve wants to talk with you."


    "Tell him I''m busy."


    "But-"


    "You can tell me yourself if your that busy. Where have you been in the past few days? Your harder to meet then the President!"


    Stave came into the room like he owned the place.


    I don''t know if he is cooky becouse he is the former System or becouse of me, but it began to get annoying lately.


    That''s why I''ve been trying to leave him to others.


    "Why are you here Steve, you know we''re very busy right now."


    "I know, and that''s why I came here. I think I can feel the Monster Lords."


    I could feel that this was going to be a headache.

 Chapter 234. Merry and Alex

    POV:Alex


    With every new information I learned, I felt like my memory was being unlocked.


    When I first looked at the heroes, I knew instinctively that I was the one who brought them here, and I could trust them.


    Or at least the girl.


    Daniel was a mixed bag with a lot of useful information but very hard to control since he was very selfish and didn''t think too much about the consequences of his actions.


    The blocks of this world were fascinating, and I realized that I had a special ability different from the others.


    When I looked at a block, I instantly knew how to brake it and what to use it for.


    I knew what was in a chest without looking at it, and if I concentrated hard enough, I could even see other people''s inventory.


    Not only that, but if I spent a week with someone, I could tell their likes and dislikes which made them more comfortable around me.


    Merry told me that wasn''t a special ability, but I was just a social person.


    Still, the more I learned about this world, the more I realized that it wasn''t easy to solve it''s problem''s.


    While the people of the Sandstone Kingdom were very devastated by the collapse of the System, they soon got back in order with the help of the authorities.


    I realized now that the people were getting happier about the disappearance of the System but kept it a secret since this place was still religious and the Pope was very tense right now.


    I felt that my purpose was to find out more about humans and what they thought, so the future System would be better.


    Or if they needed a System at all.


    I walked in the busy halls of the palace until I arrived at a huge room where the ruler Elizabeth, her adviser Aisha, the hero Merry, and the head guard Omar stood at a table.


    They were looking over a few books, talking, and giving advice to each other.


    "I told you, the best way to keep the people in check is by telling them that the System is preparing for a great war and it''s reserving its strength."


    "That''s why you''re the adviser. But I still think this only works in the Sandstone Kingdome since it''s a religious country."


    "That''s why I sent you to deal with the rebels. You''re still a symbol of the System even though it''s not present anymore."


    The hero and the adviser talked with each other while Cleopatra saw me approaching them.


    "Alex! How have you been? I hope my people served you well."


    "I was treated with respect and kindness which I greatly appreciate. This place looks amazing with its rich history and kind people. I''m glad that I had the chance to learn from here."


    "I''m glad to hear that. Did you make any progress with the enchantments you saw?"


    "Of course, I even made the enchanted spyglass."


    While Merry was an amazing researcher by finding a way to enhance your body with what she calls "tattoos".


    She''s only been in this world for 2 years and didn''t get the chance to have a proper base on the enchantment field since she concentrated all of her focus on her project.


    That doesn''t mean she''s bad, it''s actually incredible what she managed to achieve in such a short time, but her limited knowledge could only get her this far.


    For me instead, it seems that I have a natural talent for this.


    Everything comes easy to me like it was already there.


    That''s why I was tasked with the Enchanting department, and ever since then, I made a lot of breakthroughs in the community.


    Funnily enough, the most popular enchantment is not something I made but something I saw Trader do.


    The teleporting square.


    Trader used it to teleport us here, but if you made it bigger and used a lot more fuel, you could teleport chests filled with items anywhere in the world!


    We''re still looking for a way to optimize the enchantments to use less energy, but it was a surprisingly hard task since it was almost perfect.


    This made me wonder what kind of a man was Trader to create such an ingenious thing. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    So I asked a few people if they heard about him.


    The results were very different from what I expected.


    "I didn''t get the chance to talk with him a lot, but I''m sorry for what my family did to him."- Cleopatra


    "Trader? That man is too mysterious and I don''t like it. We recently found a tunnel system dug under the palace, and I think he''s the reason for that. Nonetheless, I don''t want to make an enemy out of someone who can''t die." -Aisha


    "Trader? Oh boy, where do you want me to begin from?"- Merry


    Everyone seems to respect him or don''t know anything at all.


    But it seems that Merry knew more than the average Bob and was willing to share a few stories with me.


    At first, I asked if he was a hero as well since he didn''t have a nose like us.


    "Uff, that''s a complicated question. The short answer is no, the little longer version is yes, but not yours."


    Of course, I had to ask for more details since this wasn''t satisfactory enough.


    "Ok, let me explain this so you can understand it. The System was a God that had enough power to mold reality. There''s another God called the Void that has the same or even more power than the System. Then there''s the unknown God that summoned Trader but he doesn''t know why or how."


    I then asked more about the power of the Gods, and what my old body could do.


    "Unfortunately, I don''t know too much, only Trader has somehow managed to make one and find the another one in this world."


    I had to ask more questions since it seemed like an exaggerated tale.


    And after I was given an explanation I was kind of right, but not in the way I expected.


    What he found and created is what he calls lesser gods, but their power can''t be underestimated.


    One was created by an old civilization to replace my old body, only for that civilization to be punished and exiled.


    And the one created by Trader managed to create this whole mess.


    "How could I let such a dangerous man to walk in my world?!"


    I asked Merry and myself as well.


    "Well, from what the System told us, Trader didn''t do those things intentionally. The reason you 2 are here in the first place is because the System trusted him enough to finish the job since the System couldn''t anymore for some reason."


    It''s so annoying when I''m the reason for so much stuff happening, but I can''t remember a single thing!


    "Still, he is a dangerous man! Why does everyone love him or is afraid of him?"


    Merry chuckled nervously.


    "Well let me tell you a few feats he manages to do in the 3 years he''s been in this world. He is the reason the Witch clan is recognized and respected, he defeated a Monster Lord that was capable of destroying a Kingdom, he is the owner of the main producing item factory in the Nether, creator of the first Iron Ship, and the first one to bring Iron golems to this world."


    That sounded pretty impressive for someone who has been in this world for only 3 years.


    Merry is amazing herself, her achievements are the creation of the tattoo enhancements and defeating the Zombie Lord, which I was told was partially her victory.


    "But that''s only what people on the surface know, and even that is limited to a few people. What other feats he managed to do would be considered fairly tales. He fought a God and won, found another God and made it to follow him everywhere as his personal library, has an invisible guard, knows and manage to create God, made a deal with everyone important in multiple dimensions, maxed 3 skills out of 4 and he has a weapon that can destroy space. So people have good reason the fear him."


    I was left speechless at what Merry said that to me.


    I even thought she was pulling my leg for a moment, but her face was serious the whole time, which made me more nervous.


    I guess with a history like that, even I would want to have him on my side and then be my enemy.


    Good thing I made a smart decision.


    I think we might have a chance of fighting back like this.


    Maybe that''s what I thought when I was the System.


    "Alex! Are you ok?"


    Cleopatra yelled at me which brought me back to reality.


    "Oh sorry, I was lost in my thoughts for a moment. Here''s the enchanted spyglass I was talking about. It should show you the coordinates for any place you look at."


    "Thank you once again Alex, you''re a great help to this Kingdom."


    "It''s the least I could do. Do any of you know how are the other kingdoms holding so far?"


    Nobody besides the hero''s knew that I''m part of the System, and even they didn''t believe fully to be true.


    But the more I learned, the more I realized that the knowledge that I had is too vast to say that I''m only a genius.


    Which is why I was feeling responsible for what was happening in the world right now.


    It was a strange feeling that I didn''t have any kind of recollection in my past memories, which made me a little nervous.


    While I tended to blame Trader for what was happening now, I also knew that my decision made the world a mess right now, and I had the responsibility to fix it.


    "The Coral Kingdome seems to suffer the most in this whole mess. Everyone there is rebelling and forming small factions, while the Stone Kingdom is doing surprisingly well by giving everyone the basic information on how to live without skills and teaching them how to mine and fight for the upcoming war. The past few battles have made the kingdom more united, and the Royal family proved itself to be trustful."


    It looks like Trader was doing an amazing job. Unfortunately I can''t say the same for Daniel.


    Poor Steve, he must have a hard time right now, but it''s not something anyone could predict.


    The Stone Kingdom has been thorough a lot recently and the people are more united then ever, which made it easy for the Royal family to take the lead in those times.


    The Sandstone Kingdom solution to this problem is surprisingly simple.


    Everyone lives in the desert, which means there''s not a lot of resources you could get in here, and only the Royal family and the church had the most chests with items that they used as rewards for its people to not rebel.


    And since the 2 superpowers are not fighting, it was very easy to control the masses.


    Sure, some people decided to move, but they weren''t our problem anymore.


    The Coral kindom was different, they controlled the world from the shadows for so long that even the comun people knew about it.


    That''s why, they''re trust in their leader was close to none.


    The only reason they followed him was beacouse he brought the most profit.


    But now that everything turned to chaos, they couldn''t rule the world like that anymore.


    They tried to use more force, but it was hard to do that against a group of people who could rob a store and waited for you with enchanted diamond armor.


    Everyone thought for themselves, and when that happens in a society, it collapses.


    It would take a miracle or a great disaster to bring them all under one flag.


    We did have a great threath, but I don''t know how many people would belive it in the first place.


    I only hoped that Steve would managed to stay safe out there.


    I think something bad would happen if he died.


    The world would surely feel the consequences of that.


    Suddenly, the doors of the room were swong opened and someone came running inside.


    "You''re holiness, a Monster Lord is coming!"


    That didn''t sound good.

 Chapter 235. Steves plan

    POV: Steve


    Daniel looked at me with narrowed eyes, not believing or not wanting to deal with what I was about to say.


    But if I learned one thing about Daniel in the past few days, is that if you give him a chance to escape, he will.


    So I have to push him now, or who knows how long it would take until I can find him again.


    I took a few more steps, getting closer to him, and to my delight, he didn''t run away.


    "What are you talking about Steve?"


    "Since yesterday, I felt 3 great gatherings of energy, and the only thing that was close to it was Trader Mace. So either 3 people are walking with powerful weapons, or there are 3 beings with that much power."


    Daniel rubbed his head trying to get rid of the upcoming headache, but I still kept my eyes on him since I didn''t know if he would run away.


    "Let''s go to another room and talk in more detail."


    That was a relief, looks like he was finally taking me seriously and not as a burden.


    The more I stayed in this world, the more I realized how ruthless it was. Everyone was thinking for themselves or their small groups, ignoring the fact that doing that would doom the overall species.


    I think Daniel knew this as well but didn''t care enough to do something.


    While I was reluctant to admit this, Daniel was smart, very smart.


    Not in a social sense, since he seems to be inapt in that department, but in the Redstone engendering department.


    I have a few memories since I was in the System, I rembred enhancing their thinking capabilities to their fullest potential, and Daniel used it very well.


    I realized that I was part of the System once I looked at all the ''forbidden'' books and quickly understood what they were talking about while the rest of the humans tried to decipher it in their own way.


    Even Daniel wasn''t able to fully understand them, but this wasn''t his strong point.


    He knew how to build a Redstone contraptions.


    Since he came here, he built flying machines that could transport goods and people, a sorting system, and one secret weapon that could rival Traders mace.


    I haven''t seen it myself, but I had the chance to see its schematics, and if it turned out right, it should be capable of destroying anything, anywhere in the world.


    Maybe in different words as well.


    That''s why he was the most respected person in here while also being hated.


    He''s the Hero of the System that oppressed them for so long, but he was also the one who would get them out of this mess.


    We walked into another room where we were the only ones.


    After he closed the door he looked at me with a bored expression, which kind of pissed me off.


    "So what exactly are you talking about Steve?"


    "It seems that I have a similar ability as your soul compass that would show me the location of the Monster Lords. While my range is limited to only this kingdom, I can feel their power level and exact location. I can even tell you their coordinates."


    Daniel raised an eyebrow at my last statement, and it was with good reason since his weapon would be the perfect solution to this problem.


    After all, you only needed to input the coordinates and the problem would be gone.


    "Looks like you found out about my secret project. But unfortunately, it''s useless now since it''s not finished yet. Plus, it''s only a theory of mine, and I don''t know if it would work."


    "But I can help you with that! I can tell what would work and what not, I still have a little bit of knowledge from when I was the System, so I could simulate in my mind to see the results!"


    At this point, I was in his face, ready to grab him by the armor, but I stopped myself.


    Those feelings were new to me, and I couldn''t understand or control them, and that''s why I was losing my cool so often.


    I think I should have read a few books about human psychology before I came here.


    "Ok, looks like you''re pretty determined to solve this problem, and if I don''t put you on this project, you''ll probably try to sneak yourself in."


    Yeah, I could see myself doing that, I didn''t like to be taken as a joke.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    But it was good, I was finally acknowledged by him, and I could prove to him that I was not a burden!


    Wait, why was I trying to prove to him in the first place?


    He''s the Hero that I summoned, it''s supposed to be the other way around.


    What is wrong with me?


    I let out a frustrated sigh and went outside the room, only to stop in the doorway.


    "The Monster Lords have split, one for each kingdom, and one of them-"


    "Yes, I know. I can also feel him moving. I thought that I got rid of him in the Wither Bastion, but looks like fate has other plans."


    That''s right, it seems that the Shadow Lord decided to stay in the Coral Kingdom, and from the looks of it, his destination was straight to this place, the capital.


    I don''t know if Daniel could win this fight.


    His strong point wasn''t close combat, no matter how durable his armor is.


    If he had enough time to prepare, I think he could build a trap or even a canon to kill the Shadow Lord, but a lot of variables would interfere since he''s the hardest Monster Lord to keep in one place.


    If I only remembered how to make the Energy Mace...


    No, even if I don''t have my memories, I know that I used a lot of energy to make that weapon, and that was only possible because he used all 3 skills for it.


    I''m kind of impressed with how much he managed to achieve in just 3 years.


    Unfortunately, he always wears his cursed armor, so I didn''t get a lot of information on him, and the people that I asked about him, hated or never heard of that name.


    Well, he did kind of create the current problem with the Wither, so I can''t blame Daniel for his hatred.


    But at the same time, I did create this chaos with my absence, so I didn''t have the right to judge him.


    So I decided to take a neutral stance with him.


    "Do you have a plan on how to fight with him? He would get here in a few days if he keeps this speed."


    "I''ll try to make an army of people or golems at least. It would be hard with all of this chaos, but money is still a powerful tool. I''m glad the trading system didn''t go down with you as well. Otherwise, there would''ve been a lot more casualties."


    That is true, with the trading system people could buy food and other necessities at a relatively constant price, which resulted the prices in the real world to be stable as well.


    Only the items that don''t appear on the trading tab are getting super expensive.


    But I feel that this is a temporary relief, something will soon happen to the rest of the world if things don''t go back to normal.


    I''ll have to talk to Alex to see if she remembers anything else.


    Speaking of her.


    "Do you think you can ask for help from the others? From what I heard, the Sone Kingdom has once defeated a Monster Lord."


    "Yeah, you''re right, but it was the combination of Traders and Merry''s strength, and I don''t think we can recreate their trap from what Merry told me. As for asking for their help, I would if I could honestly, but I don''t have their methods of transportation. It would take days to get at them with a fast horse, much less on foot, unless...yeah, I could try that method, but I would need to do a few tests. Thanks Steve, I think I know how to defeat the Shadow Lord."


    Then he quickly exited to room while asking the people around how to get pearls.


    I was left in the room alone, confused at what just happened.


    "Did Daniel just thank me? He was capable of gratitude?"


    I absent-mindedly walked out of the room feeling a part of me satisfied.


    POV: President Sun


    "Sir, I have a report of a whole city being destroyed, and only one survivor managed to escape from the conflict."


    I let out a big sigh while taking the paper from the hand of the man.


    How many TNT did those crazy people use in their conflict to eradicate the population of a whole city?


    No, there must be more to this since there was only one survival.


    Even in great wars, there are a few people who are too afraid of conflict and run away.


    And I was proven right as I read from the report.


    On top of the civil war, we now have 2 more Monster Lords destroying cities!


    From their description, one is a huge creeper with 2 heads that can throw explosions in a radios of 20 blocks, and the other one is a huge blue bat that summons smaller bats to attack.


    The army of blue bats surrounded the city pushing everyone closer to the center, while the creeper was killing everyone with his explosions.


    The man only managed to survive because he used an invisible potion, but he was the only one to escape from what he could tell.


    This wasn''t good news, this was the second time this happened.


    At this rate, the other kingdoms would think the Coral army is a joke.


    We bearly stopped the Piliger invasion, and that was at the cost of another city.


    I still don''t know how they managed to build such a large bomb, but it was an embarrassment!


    The country hasn''t healed from those wounds yet.


    I have to talk with the hero about this, it''s his original job, after all.


    He should know how to deal with this. Otherwise, I''ll have to ask for help from the other kingdoms.


    As much as it would hurt my pride, the chaos is too big for me to handle it alone.


    "You! Bring the Hero to my Office, I want to talk with him."


    I spoke with the guard in my room, and he quickly fulfilled my order.


    It took 30 minutes for Daniel to arrive in my office, and while I should take great offense for making me wait for so long, I was relieved that he got here so fast.


    He was not the most popular person in here because of his arrogance and the fact that he was the hero of the System.


    But I knew how valuable this person was, his Redstone ides are truly something to marvale at, and it helped us greatly with his transportation in large masses.


    Not only that, but I recently heard that he started another big project, and this time it was a weapon, I was kind of excited to see the results of that one.


    "Did you call for me mister president?"


    "Yes Daniel, I got some concerning news recently and I wanted to bring them to your attention since it''s your specialty."


    I gave the papers to him, and he read the first few lines before putting it down.


    "Yes, I heard about this as well. I have good news and bad news for you mister president. Which one do you want to hear first."


    I had to many bad news recently, so I was happy to hear something good.


    "Good news If you will."


    "The good news is, that I have a methot to kill those Monster Lords with a few projects of mine. Not only that, but my intel told me that the Monster Lords split up and invaded the other Kingdoms."


    That indeed was good news, and 2 for 1.


    I looked at the schematics that he put down on my table and my heart started to ache.


    "Those projects would cost dozens of diamond blocks to finish."


    "Yes, but once it''s done, it could be use multiple times."


    Indeed, this was an intriguing weapon.


    It''s such a shame that it was designed for individuals instead of armies.


    "What about the bad news?"


    "There actually 3 Monster Lords, and the one that is coming to the capital right now is the Shadow Lord."


    I loudly cursed.


    That monster dosen''t destroy cities, but it always goes for the leader of the towns.


    And if he''s coming here, that means that I''m his target.


    "I''ll give you all the funds, just get this started!"


    "Of course mister president."


    Daniel said, while leaving my office with a smile.

 Chapter 236. More chaos in the World

    POV: Bobby


    I was running back with my horse after I realized that the System wasn''t working anymore.


    The excruciating pain I felt in my soul was something that I wouldn''t forget anytime soon, and the only thing that I could think of was the pain my daughter felt!


    No child should experience pain like that!


    I was also worried about the Stone Kingdom and the world in general.


    From what I could tell in the villages I passed, everyone was in the same situation as me, which only brought more worries since I hadn''t been teleported back home yet.


    Did something happen at the castle?


    It''s been a week since I felt that pain, and to my shame I still haven''t found Trader to solve the portal problem.


    Where does that man live?


    I had a hunch that he''s somehow connected to all of this but I couldn''t imagine how it could happen.


    Or maybe I was too afraid of the truth.


    Suddenly, I felt my guts being pulled, and I wasn''t on my horse any longer, but in a familiar-looking office.


    "Finally! What took you so long to teleport me?"


    I turned around and saw some unexpected guests.


    "Daddy!"


    My sweet little angel came running into my arms, and I felt happiness and relief rise the more she squeezed me.


    "I''m glad to see you well my little princess. I hope you''ve been well while daddy was away."


    "Yes, but I missed daddy very much."


    My heart was melting, and I couldn''t been happier.


    After the hug was done, I turned my eyes towards the remaining 2 people in the room.


    I didn''t expect to see them in the same room.


    My wife Elisabeth and Trader my friend.


    "If you 2 are in the same room to teleported me, that means either something bad has happened or you just remembered about me."


    Those bastards looked away!


    They completely forgot about me the poor man who was drowning in worries.


    I''m sure they brought Ariel here to soften the blow, what a devious plan.


    It worked, but only because it''s Ariel.


    "So what happened? How bad is the situation in the Kingdome?"


    "Not that bad anymore. With Trader''s help, we managed to give the people a new purpose and prepared them for the big war."


    Well, a week has passed, so what was worse already passed.


    But what was she talking about? A big war? Did the Coral Kingdom finally snap?


    Elisabeth took Ariel out of the room, leaving me alone with Trader, who had an amused smile but apologetic eyes.


    "Ok, I forgive you for not teleporting me as soon as stuff got bad, but you have to promise me that you''ll tell me the whole story without holding back."


    His eyes were back at me, but now they were narrowing.


    "Are you sure about that?"


    Now it was my time to look a little hesitant.


    Whenever Trader warned me about something, that meant it was really big, and he didn''t want to laugh at my reactions.


    Should I stop before it was too late?


    No, I''m done with running away. I''m the future king of this country, I have to be prepared for anything.


    "Give me the short version, I''ll decide if I can take it afterwards."


    "Probably a smart decision. So I broke the Bedrock floor of the Nether, which resulted in the death of the Wither, and the release of the Ender Dragon or, more know as the ruler of the Void. Now I have a friend who became the God of the Nether but can only slow down the coming of the Void for 1 year. When I told the System that, it split into 2 people, and now everything is in chaos, and we need to prepare for this final battle."


    Yeah, why did I expect anything besides extreme actions from Trader?The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I was feeling a growing headache now.


    "Ok, I need some good food and more details to the story."


    He let out a loud laugh while we got out of the office and walked towards the kitchen.


    On the way there, we talked about the kingdom and how it was doing. I also asked if the other kingdoms were holding on well in those hard times.


    Luckily, Trader was quick to act and sent the 2 heroes in each Kingdom to help while he got here to help us.


    Unfortunately, once he is done here, he will leave for a ''training ark'' as he said it, to build himself a new body.


    I didn''t know what he was talking about, but I just nodded along like I understood.


    After I had my fill and the chance to relax my tense muscles.


    We got back to my main office which was now filled with mountains of papers and books.


    "Ohh boy, this is going to take a while to finish."


    "I don''t envy your position, my friend."


    Neither do I my friend, but I still have to do it.


    "So let''s get back to the real story."


    I planned on working on a few papers while he was in the background, but unfortunately, I couldn''t do that since every word he spoke made me stop to look at him and ask with my eyes if he was serious.


    After 2 hours, the story was done, and I could only look at the papers with tired eyes.


    I don''t think I could start anything today after I heard this story.


    "You told this to my wife as well?"


    "A much weaker version, I didn''t tell her about Alexa and how the System split into 2 people who now are walking amongst people."


    Those 2 are very important pieces of information but are not needed to tell the urgency of the story.


    I could understand why he chose not to tell her this.


    "And is this everything that you know?"


    "Oh, I know more stuff, but the other party doesn''t want to reveal itself so I won''t be saying anything. But don''t worry, she''s just taking care of me and doesn''t care what happens to everything else besides her."


    At this point, I didn''t even want to ask, If it wasn''t related to the destruction of this world, then I didn''t care.


    "Then we''ll have to prepare for this battle. I would send a few miners to get iron and diamonds. Gold should be a priority as well, to trade with the Piglings for the alchemy ingredients. Do portals work now, or do we need to use your mace every time?"


    "Don''t worry, that''s what I''ve been doing with Elizabeth for the past week. After calming everyone down, we distracted them with mining and Crafting trainings, as for the portals, they are now working normally."


    That was good to hear.


    It''s good to have capable people around you to help in those kinds of situations.


    "We''ll need to expand our reach in the Nether. Our tribe won''t be able to keep up with the demand."


    "Don''t worry, I have a literal God as a friend in that dimension, and I have to talk with the Mad Prince anyway, so we could come to a trading agreement."


    Oh yeah, Trader tended to have outrageous solutions to those kinds of problems.


    But I wasn''t going to complain about them now.


    "Then I''ll prepare the soldiers, the time is short after all."


    "Then I''ll get back to work as well. Good luck with your stuff!"


    Just like that, he left for the Nether, and I decided to meet with my wife and talk more details about what we should do.


    ---


    A few weeks have passed, and quite a few things has happened.


    Trader has managed to get in contact with the Mad Prince and got a deal between us before going on a trading spree, only to suddenly disappear with no way to contact him.


    It seems that more Monster Lords have appeared in the World, and now everyone has to deal with them.


    Because of them, there aren''t a lot of merchants that travel around, and information about the other Kingdoms is very scarce.


    The only thing we know is that the Sandstone Kindom is dealing with the Creeper Lord with various degrees of success, and the Coral Kingdom had a big battle with the Shadow Lord a few days ago.


    We don''t know the results, but we know that a big explosion was heard near the capital and everyone went silent.


    That leaves only Lady Phantom from what Alexa and Trader describe to be something similar to a blue bat.


    She had an dangerous ability to cross different dimensions, but made the mistake of traveling through the Nether to get here faster. Only to be caught by Alexa and lucked, in that dimension.


    Now, we can''t make new portals to the Nether, but we can still use the old ones.


    And as long as we don''t have to deal with the Monster Lady, I was happy with this deal.


    Unfortunately, she can''t be killed that easily since she can phase through walls and such.


    And since Trader disappeared without a trace, there''s nobody powerful enough to kill it in one swing.


    The Mad Prince would try, but he''s too concentrated on other projects against the Ender Dragon.


    In conclusion, everyone was busy with something, but nobody knew what everyone else was doing.


    Because of that, we were not moving efficiently, we needed to gather in one place, tell what we knew to each other, deal with the Monster Lords, and finally prepare for the final battle.


    And we were blessed to be in a position where we didn''t have a lot of distractions, the people began to get used to their new life, and the Monster Lady was dealt with.


    The nobles took a little longer to understand that their skills were long gone and they were not special anymore, but everything else was sorted.


    That''s why I talked with my wife and decided to go to each country and talk with their leader to see what we could do as a team in this situation.


    She would be staying at home to handle anything that could pop on our side, while I would teleport to the other Kingdoms to find out how they were holding on.


    That''s right, I wasn''t going to use a horse or walk there. Instead, I was going to use the same method Trader used, to travel from place to place.


    I have to say, it was very convenient even if it was a little bit expensive.


    Trader was also nice enough to leave me the coordinates of a few important places, and with the Alexa''s help, I could even teleport to the Sandstone capital.


    "Ok honey, I have everything on me, food, perls, lapis, papers, and gifts. See you in 2 days if things go good, or a week of things are not so good."


    "I''ll be waiting, please take care."


    With one final kiss, I placed the Perl in the Enchanted square and activated it.


    Suddenly I was in the middle of the desert with the capital in my sight.


    Not wanting to waste any time I quickly got to work and passed the guards by showing them my credentials as a diplomat.


    Once I got inside I was greeted by Merry with a tierd smile, and even had the chance to see a part of the fallen System.


    Alex.


    She looked as tierd as the other women in the room.


    Not wanting to tire them even more, I told them the reason I was here and a few methods we used to pacify our people.


    Unfortunately, the problem weren''t the people but the Creeper Lord who was a manace to the desert.


    But Cleopatra promised to teleport at the designated place in 2 days if I gave her the coordinates.


    Happy that I finished everything so fast, I gave them what they wanted and wished them good luck before teleporting to the Coral Kingdom.


    Once the Pearl was broken I wasn''t in a desert anymore but a forest with a floating city and a huge hole on my right.


    The hole was so large and so deep that I couldn''t see its bottom.


    I don''t remember reports about a new mine besides the capital.


    Not wanting to get distracted, I went to the city and asked one of the guards if I could meet with president Sun, while also showing him my papers as a diplomat.


    "Oh, you mean President Daniel?"


    What happend to this place?

 Chapter 237. One last arrow

    POV:Daniel


    "Mr President, we hired 100 miners and given them the instruction you had, we expect to see results in one week."


    "Good, don''t forget to build the farms that I told you and the golem army."


    "Yes Mr President, right away."


    The secretary turned around and walked out of my office while I got back to my papers.


    It was a small pile on my desk, that would keep me busy for a few hours at most.


    I never understood the people who were buried in paperwork at their offices.


    If you have too much work to do, give it to someone else.


    Sure, they could get corrupted and I could lose a few funds, but with the System I made, I would find out quickly the source of it, and deal with it.


    Up until now, I didn''t have problems, mostly because the pay was good.


    "Mister President. There''s a man who claims to be the ambassador of the Stone Kingdom. Should I bring him in?"


    An ambassador?


    I didn''t expect something like this so soon.


    "Let him in then."


    A few minutes later, the ambassador entered my office, and from one look, I quickly remembered who he was.


    "Mister Bobby, it''s been a while since we last saw each other. How have you been?"


    I stayed for a short time in the Stone Palace and had the chance to meet each member of the Royal family, but unfortunately, I didn''t get the chance to make too deep of a connection since Merry wanted to leave as soon as possible.


    At that time, I realized that Trader had a lot of influence over that place, so I didn''t want to stay there for fear that I would be watched at all times.


    It was foolish of me to believe that, but I was still glad to make that decision since I don''t think Trader would''ve taken so long to catch me if Bobby had been there to report my shenanigans.


    "Daniel, or should I say President Daniel. I didn''t expect to see you behind that desk, what happened to President Sun?"


    "He''s dead, and I took over."


    "Can I hear more about that? From what I remember, the people choose their leader, and I don''t think it''s a fast process."


    "You are half right, but due to some circumstances, the whole election process had to be skipped, and I was the right man at the right time to solve the problem at hand."


    Of course, the story was much more complicated than that.


    My soul compass couldn''t tell me the exact details on how long it would take for the Shadow Lord to arrive, but Steve didn''t have that problem.


    He estimated that he would arrive in a week after he first contacted me, which put a strict schedule on everyone involved.


    There are 2 main projects:


    - The arrow of death


    - Pearl research


    The first one was inspired by some people from my old world who made a weapon that could kill a Wither with only one arrow and a lot of explosions.


    Now, I couldn''t do the same thing in this world since a normal arrow wouldn''t be that easy to control or resist the wind pressure it would face.


    That''s why, I had to do some improvising so that the TNT would still have the same power even if they can''t stack when lit.


    And for that, I needed to created a different kind of arrow that could withstand that blast.


    Funnily enough, the only thing that was durable enough was Netherite.


    Unfortunately, I had to make some unpleasant deals with the new ruler of the Nether to get access to so much materials.


    That was the weapon that we could use and kill anyone no matter the place in the world.


    I even had an upgraded version of it that could travel across dimensions, but I would have to talk with Merry about this since Alexa would make me bleed more if I asked it for help.


    The second project was equally important since it focused on finding out more about the abilities of the Ender pearls.


    Unfortunately, we were in a forest biome, and Endermans are very hard to find here. They are smart enough to know when they are hunted, and tend to run away.


    In the first place, Endermans are mostly believed to be legends in the big cities, since they tend to prank or hunt in the smaller villages who don''t have the strength to fight back.


    Which meant that we had to send hunters in the Nether.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    But they were moving to slow in the new environment, so we made another deal with Alexa.


    I swear it holds a grudge against me for stealing from Trader since I felt like I paid everything back that I stole from him.


    No matter how much I tried to reason with it, that it was for the greater good, it didn''t listen and demanded more diamonds and other valuables.


    It was frustrating to watch, to say the least.


    The only reason I didn''t give up here was because it wasn''t my wallet in the end, so it didn''t matter.


    There were a few important points we wanted to find from the Perls.


    Such as what counts as touch and how durable the Perl was.


    The first one had an interesting result of 3 gloves over the hand, after that, the Pearl wouldn''t register on you anymore.


    This resulted with a simple solution for the problem, by tieing the Pearl on a stick.


    The second one showed us that it was similar to jello from my old world, or slimes in this world.


    In conclusion, it depends.


    But with all the preparation done it''s was time to welcome the monster.


    We found out that the Shadow Lord doesn''t teleport like the Endeman. Instead, it travels through shadows.


    That''s why, when I felt that the Monster was getting closer, we made the whole city a beacon of light.


    Suddenly, sleeping glasses had high record sales, and a new festival was born.


    The Shadow Lord arrived in the middle of the day, clearly taken aback by the lack of shadows in the city.


    He tried to sneak inside normally, but the fact that the capital was a floating city made it impossible.


    If he jumped, he would be seen.


    If he tried to come from underneath, the smaller islands would see him once again.


    So when one of the guards saw him and called the alarm which made the whole city enter its final defense form, it wasn''t all luck.


    Soldiers were at the edge of the city with crossbows ready to fire, and the Shadow Lord decided to not hold back anymore.


    He made a huge jump as arrows with fireworks passed by him while the ones hitting him were brushed off.


    The attacks weren''t strong enough to hurt him, but they were strong enough to stop his momentum, which forced him to use an arrow with rope to get back to safety.


    Nobody knew what expression he was making, but he was pissed no question asked.


    After a few more attempts, the Shadow Lord decided to use the bridge and dodge most of the arrows.


    But there was a reason we let it out like that, and it was because it was filled with explosions.


    With a flick of a lever, the hidden TNT was lit, and the Shadow Lord jumped into the air, getting out of the blast range.


    He was safe but stuck on one of the farm islands, and that was our intention as more arrows rained on him.


    He jumped into the air once again, some fireworks hitting him, while others didn''t.


    But that wasn''t enough to kill him, and now he finally decided to fight back.


    While falling to the island he shot a few red arrows with amazing precision at the larger group of soldiers.


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    The arrows exploded bringing great casualties to our archers.


    Not only that, but he shot a blue arrow at the ground, which made a gust of wind that threw him further into the air than thought possible.


    Next, he took out an arrow with a rope and shot at one of the buildings.


    That was the moment we lost the advantage we had.


    I don''t know what that rope was made of, but no blade was strong enough to cut it down.


    Because of that, the Shadow Lord managed to get into the city and the massacre began.


    We kept using arrows with magic, but his bones were too thought, and the ones that could hurt him were always dodged.


    Not only that, but we couldn''t use fireworks anymore since it was too dangerous for the citizens hidden in their homes.


    The only reason we didn''t all die was because the Monster Lord wasn''t interested in the common soldier, only in the leader.


    He kept jumping from building to building, leaving everyone in the dust.


    And just like that, he arrived at the house of the president, where the most powerful and well-equipped soldiers waited for him.


    At the first sight, he was shot with slowness arrows and potions.


    Then, the diamond soldiers took out their weapons and attacked the Shadow Lord, enhanced by speed and strength potion.


    For the first time since we started the attack, the Shadow Lord screamed in pain and frustration.


    With my help, they managed to get diamonds faster and other precious materials.


    The only thing that would''ve stopped us, would''ve been the Enchanting and Brewing methods from the lack of skill.


    But with the fall of the System, the problem was no more, and the strength of the kingdom rose.


    The Shadow Lord kept jumping and shooting arrows with different effects.


    They were much more diverse than the last time I saw him.


    Some of them made a dome of darkness, others made an area of poison, and one even made gravity much stronger.


    While the soldiers were getting killed or pinned down one by one, a new group of villagers ran at the Shadow Lord while invisible.


    Once they got closer, they had brought some sticks with Ender Perls at the end and charged at him like madmen.


    As long as one of them touched the Monster, the battle would be won.


    The Shadow Lord realized as well, and tried to run away or kill the invisible pests.


    Unfortunately, he was to distracted to see everything on the battlefield, so someone managed to touch him without breaking the Perl.


    "That''s enough! I know where your leader is, I''ll deal with him once and for all!"


    The Shadow Lord shot a blue arrow into the ground and jumped high into the air.


    He was so high, that we could only see a black dot in the sky, when all of the sudden, we all felt a chill ran down our spine.


    Not wanting to deal with what was about to come, I took the Perl and put it in a pauch carefully not to break it.


    Then I took out my crossbow and shoot at the sky, resulting in 3 fireworks exploding in red.


    From the spot on the sky, a huge shadow appeared in the shape of a dragon head.


    It was so big, that it covered the whole President house.


    But before it could land, I felt my guts being pulled, and I was now on a field with villagers running like they were on fire.


    "Smart people."


    *RRRAAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!!


    *BOOOM!


    The head of the black dragon roared and hit the middle of the city with a laud Bang.


    "I hope the obsidian cage was enough to stop that attack."


    I quickly turned my head at the lever besides me and flicked it.


    "1-2-3- Now!"


    I broke the Perl from the pauch, and suddenly the Shadow Lord apperead with a confused expression.


    And before he could even speak a word.


    *BOOOM!


    I suddenly felt pain all over my body, as everything turned black and something broke shattering like glass.


    I was then surrounded by light and the effects of the totem soon took effect.


    When I opened my eyes, I realised that I was falling, so I activated the special ability of the totem to fly.


    "I don''t have a lot of time, I should get to seafty as soon as possible."


    I was quite shocked by the destruction my wepon, and made me wonder if it was more powerful then Traders mace.


    I didn''t know it''s full power, but I hear that it was a gift from the System, so it must be good.


    Once Ianded on the surface I let out a sigh of relief, since the fight was finally over.


    I didn''t feel the Shadow Lord anymore.


    "It''s a shame he still has the spawner, but at least he would be out for a while."


    I went back to the city, only to find out that the other big shots were also hiding with the president in the obsidian bunker.


    And unfortunately...it wasn''t enough to stop the dragon attack.


    That''s how I became the president of the Coral Kingdom.


    My competition, literally died off.


    -----


    "So what brought you here Mister Bobby?"


    I asked the man who studied me carefully.

 Chapter 238. The Great Meeting

    POV:Merry Paper


    The sun was rising above the dunes as I was getting out the bed with a tired expression.


    I''ve been working nonstop recently trying to find a way to catch the Creeper Lord.


    But that monster was a pain to deal with.


    He tends to go to big towns and raise a huge wall around. Then he uses explosions to destroy and kill everyone in the city.


    His skin is not that resistant, but his regeneration was annoying like the Zombie Lord.


    The Creper Lord had 2 heads with distinct personalities, and from what we gathered, they have different abilities as well.


    The smiling one can create structures out of thin air in a certain range.


    Once the structure appears, it would stay like that for an hour before disappearing like it wasn''t even there.


    We don''t know if creating those blocks consumes energy or something else, but we think it''s related to the ability of the second head.


    The sad creeper was the more annoying one, since he could make things disappear.


    Fortunately, there were some limitations on what he could destroy.


    He couldn''t destroy blocks of a certain hardness, such as obsidian, diamond, and other ore blocks.


    But most importantly, he couldn''t destroy living beings.


    Unfortunately, that didn''t mean he couldn''t kill us with his annoying ability. He somehow destroys a part of space, resulting in everything in the vicinity to rush and fill the Void like there''s a black hole.


    That''s their main way of striking the people who get too close to them.


    When you''re far away, you''ll get overwhelmed by explosions, and if you somehow manage to survive and get close to the huge creeper, you''ll get crushed by space.


    It was a brutal way to die and a painful way to heal if you survived.


    It seems that the diamond armor is the only one strong enough to resist the pressure without changing its shape, and unfortunately, we don''t have a lot of it to spare.


    We tried various ways to kill the monster: poisoning, burning, arrows, fireworks, and even the Crystal!


    Some of them worked while others didn''t, but the Creeper always ran away if he felt that he was in danger of dying.


    And the worst part about this was the fact that we didn''t know the location of his spawner!


    So even if we killed him once, he would be back in a year and repeat this all over again.


    That''s not a healthy lifestyle to have, and I didn''t plan on living like that.


    But even if I was tired today, I wasn''t planning on staying in bed since it was a special day.


    For the first time since ancient times, the 3 rulers of the 3 kingdoms would meet In one place to discuss the situation of the world.


    I was hoping Trader would have a solution for those problems since he tends to get himself into those situations.


    I went downstairs while munching on some apple pie that I had from yesterday. When I arrived at the conference room, Cleopatra, the head guard, and the consoler were already there waiting for me.


    "Don''t tell me girls, you didn''t go to sleep!"


    Both of them turned their heads, confirming my suspicion of their reckless decision.


    Omar seemed to be on my side since he narrowed his eyes while looking at them.


    "Why are you 2 so stupid? You know how important this meeting is, and your mind is now too tired to make decisions!"


    Cleopatra was ashamed and looked to the side, but the other one seems to have soke courage.


    "Merry, you have to understand that even if we''re meeting on a neutral ground, it would still be a political war. And the most important thing is to not show any weakness. That''s why we stayed all night to practice in case anything wpuld go astray."


    I didn''t know too much about the Coral Kingdom president, but Bobby and Elizabeth should represent the Stone Kingdom, and I know for sure that they would concentrate on solving the current issue, and not think of how they could exploit the others.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    But still, they were grown adult''s and could make their own decisions.


    In the end, we all took a break and waited for the last member to arrive, which was Alex.


    She was busy with a few of the Enchanting projects.


    The more she studied and practiced, the more memories came to her making the results even more amazing.


    She would be a great asset in the upcoming meeting.


    We waited an hour in silence since the girls were too tired to argua about anything.


    Finally, Alex arrived with a tired expression.


    I let out a loud sigh.


    Looks like I was the only one who managed to get some rest before the meeting.


    "Since everyone is here, let''s get going then. We don''t want to be the last ones at the party."


    Aisha broke the silence and took an Ender Pearl placing it in the Enchanted square.


    Not wanting to delay this any more, we all placed our Pearls inside as well, and Amun activated it for us.


    The next thing I knew, I felt my guts being pulled, and the room changed to a darker one but still as large.


    I looked around and saw it was in a gray theme with stone bricks and other pillars as decor.


    The room was illuminated by mushroom lights, which gave a warm light to this cold and gray room.


    It didn''t have a lot of decoration, but there was one important thing in there, and that was the huge hexagonal table in the middle of the room, all nicely split with a theme of their own.


    A part had snow, other had sand and I could even see a part made with obsidian.


    "What is this place?"


    I asked out loud.


    "This used to be the central point of our ancient civilization. There were a lot more factions before the great purge, but we decided that this room is quite fitting for what we are supposed to talk about."


    On the other side of the table, where it was made with simple wood, stood Elizabeth with Bobby and 2 guards while looking at us.


    The one who gave the explanation was Elizabeth, who seemed to study us from a distance, especially Cleopatra.


    "So you''re saying that this table was used by our ancestors as well?"


    My group suddenly jumped in surprise taking their weapons out while looking at the obsidian part of the table with surprise.


    When I looked there, I couldn''t believe my eyes.


    There were 2 people equipped with fully enchanted netherite armor, and the leader seemed to be 3 blocks tall while giving an intimidating aura.


    How did they get the armor, and who are they, since when have they been here?


    "Please don''t be alarmed, since they are the representative of the Nether dimension and have quite the strength to help us in this endeavor."


    Our shoulders weren''t tense anymore, but nobody put away their weapons, even though I knew it was useless against their strong armor.


    "Nether? I don''t know about that Kingdom, which part of the continent is it in?"


    Oh boy, this is going to take a while to explain.


    I kept it to myself until now since it was a secret of another nation, but since the Stone Kingdom decided to show their cards, there''s no point in me hiding it.


    So, for the next hour, I explained to my group what the Nether dimension was and why it was so important to have their help in this endeavor.


    My explanation was quite quick and simple, but it took the conversation extended since my group was quite curious about it, and asked a lot of questions.


    The only reason this ended after hour was because I couldn''t answer any more questions since I didn''t know.


    I suggested that they should ask the people that live there or maybe Bobby since he stayed a lot with Trader.


    In the end, it didn''t matter since everyone seemed to arrive, and the results were quite surprising for all parties involved.


    Somehow, Daniel managed to become the president of the Coral Kingdom, Steve seemed to be looking serious but satisfied, so I guess it wasn''t that bad.


    The other guests were the Witches, with Froggy as its representative, which made sense, but it seems that he wasn''t used to participating in those kinds of meetings.


    "Looks like everyone arrived without a problem. I declare that the first Great Meeting has begun!"


    Bobby decided to take the lead, and it made sense since he knew all the parties involved here.


    But that wasn''t the only reason, since he was also the person that most likely knew the whole story from Trader.


    "Today, we gathered here to discuss the threats to our lands, but I first need to talk about a more pressing matter. I have to tell you about the bigger battle that would soon follow after we managed to deal with the Monster Lords."


    There were a few murmurs in the room, most coming from the guards or the people besides the leader.


    The leaders didn''t know the whole story but knew enough that this was a serious matter.


    "Unfortunately, Trader would not be here to explain what happened, so I would do the honors."


    For the next half an hour, he told us the short version of what happened in the Nether and how the System gave us, the heros, a boost to fight against the Void.


    A being stronger than the Wither, a being strong enough to fight the System itself.


    A few details were missing, such as the System splitting into 2, and the fact that Trader did most of the job in those preparations.


    But this was better for us since we didn''t want to get Alex and Steve in trouble just because the System became mortal.


    "But, as much as I want to start preparing for the final battle, we can''t ignore what is happening in our backyard. As you all know, we are being hunted by 3 Monster Lords right now. The Shadow Lord has been dealt with by Daniel and his powerful weapon, the Creeper Lord is rampaging in the desert, and the Phantom Lady is currently trapped in the Nether."


    Is that how they solved their crisis?


    It''s such a shame that I don''t have a God friend like Trader.


    I don''t know if Bobby even knows about Alexa, I should probably not mention if so.


    "But that''s not the end unfortunately. We have learned from the past and know that as long as they''re spawner are not destroyed, they would keep coming back, even if it takes a few months. So for now I want to concentrate all of our attention and resources to find those spawners."


    Steve suddenly raised his hand.


    "I think I can help with that!"


    Everyone looked at him with surprise, including Daniel.


    "Are you Steve by any chance?"


    "Yes, you got that right mister Bobby. Once I was summoned by the System, I got the ability to feel the exact location of a monster Lord in a certain radius, and I think if I combine my powers with Alex, we could find the location of the spawners."


    "We have that kind of ability?"


    Steve quickly looked at her screaming through his eyes to get on the plan.


    "Uhh, yes! With our special abilities, I think we can find the spawners."


    Looks like Daniel rubbed off on Steve with his attitude.


    Not the best example, but if he can back that claim, the he has the right to be this confident.


    "Alright, if that''s the case them I''m more then happy to move on our next step. And that is to deal with the Monster Lords!"


    I''m surprised Bobby believed Steve so quickly, did Trader tell him the whole story?


    "Since we have a few people who have experience in defeting those monster''s, why don''t we let then to speak. Merry?"


    Looks like it was my time to shine.

 Chapter 239. Great progress

    POV: Bobby


    "And with this, we shall end the first Great Meeting against the upcoming disasters."


    I said with a tired voice, more than glad that it was finally over.


    And while I didn''t like what I was about to do, I still had to ask.


    "Are there any last questions before we leave?"


    I looked at everyone at the table, who had an equally tired expression as me.


    Especially the Sandstone Kingdom.


    Aisha was about to say something, but luckily, Merry was fast enough to stop her before she could start another 3-hour debate.


    "Since everyone is tired and busy, I think we shall end this for today. See you all next week for the second meeting."


    Everyone nodded their head, began drawing the enchanted square, and teleported away.


    The only ones left were the people from the Nether, who stayed silent most of the time in the meeting, which was quite unnerving.


    "Well, shall we go as well?"


    "Sure, I guess it''s time for us to leave. Please draw the Enchanted square, sir Bobby."


    His voice didn''t sound tired or any different from 2 days ago when the meeting started.


    This made me wonder if that armor also gave a stamina boost since I couldn''t comprehend how else he survived 2 days of nonstop arguing.


    The Mad Prince is a mysterious person that, unfortunately, I didn''t know too well.


    I also didn''t know his real name since I don''t think any mother would name their child the "Mad Prince", but no matter how much I asked, I didn''t get a direct response, and we didn''t interact too often due to our busy schedules.


    "I''m sorry if we seemed a little unorganized in this meeting, even if we are all great leaders, but this was the first time we met like this, and everyone tried to leave an impression."


    I tried to make some small talk while I was drawing on the table.


    "It''s not that bad. Honestly, it''s quite refreshing to see how honest you people are about your greed. The people In my dimension have a little more experience with this, which also results in days of pointless arguments."


    I could only laugh nervously as a response.


    I didn''t know if I should take this as a compliment or as an insult.


    "While we may lack in experience, we compensate with good intentions to save the world."


    My lovely wife came to save our reputation.


    "I don''t deny the intentions, but results are the only things that matter, especially with stakes so high, and I''m honestly quite disappointed about the quality of this world warriors."


    The tension began to rise in the room just as I finished the enchanted square.


    "I don''t quite understand the reasoning for this, Mad Prince."


    Elizabeth snapped back with a polite but tense tone.


    It was clear that she was tired since she didn''t tend to respond like this so easily.


    "It was a dream, and still is for my people to get back in our home world, but we were always afraid that the people in this world would not accept us, or maybe even make us slaves."


    I would''ve retorted if I could, but if they were to come into this world before the collapse of the System, I''m sure they would be hunted and enslaved.


    The downfall of the System was the best thing that could happen to them.


    Or us, since I don''t think we had the strength to fight them back.


    "But now that I''ve seen the best warriors of this world. I realized that our worries were for nothing since you are no match for us if we intended to invade your world."


    "Don''t underestimate our strength, Mad Prince. We still have some hidden weapons that could take you out, we did defeat the Monster Lords after all."


    I quickly snapped back.


    "You don''t have wepons, your hero''s have them. And from what I know, they''re not from this world to begin with, so their knowledge does not belong to you."


    That hurts quite a bit, but I couldn''t retort back.


    "Are you planning on invading us as well Mad Prince?"


    "I wouldn''t dare so. The weapon Daniel made alone is enough for me to hesitate, and I don''t want to get on Trader''s bad side, what I''m implying is that we, the Nether, should be in charge of this operation since we have more experience in those kinds of politics and large scale battles."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    So what I''m hearing is, ''Since we can''t take you by force, we''ll take you with achievements and political power''.


    No wonder he stayed silent every time there was an argument and only spoke when it came to strategizing, they wanted to leave an impression that they were reliable and not interested in petty conflicts.


    I was starting to get angry, and I''m sure my wife was as well, but I didn''t want to start a fight with our ally, even if they were a potential enemy.


    In the end, I let out a loud sigh since I knew I was too tired to make a good decision.


    "The Enchanted Square is finished, please place your Pearls inside."


    We all did in silence and teleported back to the Stone Castle.


    There, I appointed a servant to guide them to the portal and left towards our bedroom.


    I knew I had a lot of paperwork waiting for me, but I was going to get some sleep no matter what.


    The kingdom didn''t burn itself in the 2 days I was gone, It could survive another night.


    When we arrived in the bedroom, Elizabeth spoke for the first time since we teleported back.


    "What do you think, Bobby? Was it a good idea to gather everyone?"


    My bed was so close!


    But my wife needed comfort, and I would''ve been a bad husband if I ignored her.


    "I don''t know, the other kingdoms were quite interested in the alliance, and the fact that the heroes have quite the power themselves puts me at ease. The Witches and the Brutes were the wild cards, but Froggy was on our side from the beginning leaving only the Nether Kingdom as a mystery. I don''t know if we made the right decision, but I know I won''t regret later the fact that we tried everything we could."


    By the end, even I was surprised with what I said.


    Since when was I so wise?


    "That''s true, let''s get some sleep then. I want to see Ariel as soon as possible."


    I couldn''t agree more, so we quickly went to bed.


    -----


    A few days have passed since the first Big Meeting, and quite the development has happened.


    Steve and Alex met and created a special plaque that would let us communicate anywhere in the world, even across dimensions!


    It was called ''Chat'' and was quite revolutionary in my opinion.


    Not only did it send a message to anyone who had those those items, but I could also send private messages without fearing that they could be leaked.


    At least that''s how it was advertised.


    Unfortunately, we couldn''t mass produce them yet, since they were made from diamonds and personalized enchantments that only Alex and Steve could do.


    But the important people had the items which was good enough.


    With them, organizing was easier, and we already saw results from the last meeting.


    Daniel told us, that creepers were afraid of cats for some reason, so we decided to build a giant cat in every town and village to deter the Creeper Lord.


    Surprisingly, it worked, and all the towns that had the cat statue were spared while the others fell victim to the monster.


    The Phantom Lady was still a mystery, but it was decided in the end that the Mad Prince would deal with it, which was good for us.


    Now, the only thing left was to find the spawners of those monsters, and that was what Alex and Steve concentrated on at the moment.


    I hoped they would find the solution as soon as possible, since we already managed to gather enough resources to equip the army.


    I think this was the first time in our Kingdom we had such a powerful army, and I still couldn''t shake of the feeling that this wasn''t enough for what was about to come.


    Suddenly, the public chat moved as a new message appeared.


    <Steve> We finally figured out the location of the spawners. We sent hero Merry to deal with the Shadow Lord, and the rest of the details would be told at the next meeting.


    "Well, that''s good news."


    "Did something interesting appear on Chat?"


    My wife asked without lifting her eyes from the papers.


    "Yes, it seems that the spawner''s problem has been solved, and we only need to concentrate on growing our forces."


    "That''s good to hear. Any news from the Nether?"


    "Not really, we gave them a Chat as well, but they didn''t write anything yet. I hope they''ll keep their end of the deal and get rid of thw Phantom Lady. She''s too much of a wild card to be left unchecked."


    "I hope that as well, otherwise we can only hope that Trader would get back and deal with it. Now stop lazing around and get back to work."


    Uff, looks like I caught.


    So I went back to my papers, hoping that Trader would get back as soon as possible.


    POV: Merry Paper


    I in the middle of a jungle, deep into the monster''s territory.


    I went alone on this expedition since I knew that an army would only slow me down.


    It seems that Alex and Steve have more perks than we expected.


    When they are together, they can access a small part of the lost System which is way beyond what we could achieve in terms of science.


    That''s how we created the "Chat" tablet so fast. Otherwise, it would''ve taken years of research to get only a fraction of what we have now.


    Because of that, we decided that the 2 of them should stay together instead of separated, and I took the opportunity to teach Steve some proper manners.


    Luckily, Daniel wasn''t too interested in keeping the poor boy, so it was easy to get Steve as long as he kept in touch through the Chat.


    Once the 2 of them were in the same room, their productivity went through the roof and even got some abilities, such as finding the spawners and even the original body of the System.


    It seems that the spanwers were in the monsters body with the exception of the Shadow Lord who hid it in a jungle, which was the reason I was here.


    As for the original body of the System, it would be a long process that consumes a lot of energy and would attract the attention of the Monster Lords.


    That''s why, we were going to use them as baits to lure the monsters and kill them once and for all.


    I suddenly stopped and looked at the compass in my hand that was pointing towards a certain direction.


    When I raised my gaze, I saw a temple covered in vines and leaves.


    "I think this is the right place."


    But why did he choose to hide the spawner in a man-made structure?


    I carefully entered the abandoned temple, when all of the sudden I heard a dispenser being triggered.


    I quickly raised my shield and blocked the upcoming arrow.


    "That''s why he chose this place, it''s filled with traps!"


    Unfortunately for him, those arrows were too weak to do any damage to me, and as long as I didn''t fall into a TNT cannon, I should be fine.


    After an hour of careful stepping and triggering a few trapps, I finally managed to see the spawner in a dark corner of the room.


    "Let''s get this over with, I want to get back as soon as posibile."


    With that said, I took out my diamond pickaxes and hit the spawner.


    *SSSSHHHHRREEEAAAACCCCKKK


    A laud screen came which made my ears numb.


    I had to destroy this before something else would happen.


    Black smoke came from the spawner and I continued to hit it with force.


    I didn''t know what was happening, but I didn''t plan on leaving this place without accomplishing my goal.


    Finally after one more hit, the spawner broke but not before a huge shadow quickly passed me and leaving the temple.


    "That dosen''t look good, I don''t think we''re finished with the Shadow Lord."


    Letting out a sigh, I took out my tablet and told the others about what happened.

 Chapter 240. The Monsters war part 1

    POV: Steve


    "Looks like the plan has failed."


    "Yeah, I still feel the presence of the Shadow Lord, even though he''s weakened."


    We both let out a sigh, even though we expected the Shadow Lord to be much more troublesome to deal with.


    From what we know, he''s the one who called for the Void to invade the Nether.


    And since the connection between the Nether and the Overworld is so close, I''m sure he got reworded by the Void for such an accomplishment.


    Otherwise, I don''t think he could''ve escaped the spawner so soon or have an attack powerful enough to destroy Obsidian.


    Still, this endeavor wasn''t wasted, as the Shadow Lord must be in a weakened state right now, no matter how powerful he is.


    "Do you think we''ll have a problem when we use our powers to find the original body?"


    Alex asked me while looking bored at the walls of the room filed with schematics.


    "I don''t think so, since the ''Death Arrow'' should be enough to deal with all of them. Instead, I''m more worried about the Void stepping in. We will weaken the barriers of this world when we use our powers after all."


    While I was reluctant at first to leave Daniel''s side, I had to say that it was a wise decision.


    Alex and I are meant to be one.


    Sure we have our own ideas and personalities, but when we are together, we feel that we are complete and can unlock a power unknown to this world.


    Alex is the creative type, she can innovate things that were previously thought impossible, while I''m the logical type, that would make her ideas come true.


    That''s why she''s so good with enchantments since it takes a certain knack of creativity, and I''m good in redstone since it''s a direct science.


    We are humans, but we''re also a part of the old System.


    We are the System in human form.


    "Are you still looking at Daniels''s plans?"


    Alex asked me with an innocent voice.


    "Yes, I still think he plans something that would benefit him in the end. I just want to make sure, it wouldn''t be at the cost of our existence."


    Our ability allows us to monitor the dimension we are in, but since space is so vast and our minds are so limited, we decided to only concentrate on our planet.


    And since we could see everyone on this planet, we didn''t stop only at the Monster Lords, but important people as well.


    "So you don''t supervise him because you miss him?"


    I decided to stay silent since we already had this argument dozens of times.


    Instead, I decided to turn the wheel towards her.


    "Do you have any progress on Trader''s whereabouts?"


    She let out a tired sigh and I could understand why.


    That man was the key to all of this, or at least that is what we think the previous System planned, and I could understand why.


    He''s too involved in everything that left a lasting impact on multiple dimensions, and all in the span of 3 years.


    We have a vague idea that he''s being followed by an evolved Endeman which was a shock to us, and he has connections to the minor God in the Nether.


    But no matter how much we looked after him, there was no trace!


    Sure, the Netherite armor would hide him from our scanners, but nobody had seen him in the whole world in the past few weeks.


    If we can''t see him with our scanners, then other people must be interacting with him at least, and we can pick up from there.


    But still no sign.


    "I found his base and the hidden one after talking with Merry, but it doesn''t seem to be used in a while. And get this, he somehow doesn''t have chests on the lower floors, which makes me believe that he has some enchantments that could hide them from our scanners."


    Indeed, that could be a possibility, but I can''t see the reason why he would do that.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    He''s the one who started this whole mess, and he''s not the type to run and hide while everyone is in danger.


    Which is more worrying since that means he was kidnapped and can''t get back.


    From what Alexa told us, he''s not in the Nether either, and it''s hard to keep that man in one place since he has backup plans in case this happens.


    So something more powerful than he anticipated is holding him now, or so I hope.


    "I think we should give up on looking and concentrate on the plan for the System location. We want to have a lot of traps and walls since all monsters in the world would get attracted to our power. And with how much of a commotion we''ll make, I''m sure Trader would get the signal as well."


    "Sure, I''ll get to it and send the ideas to you. Try not to bankrupt the Royal treasury."


    She''s saying that like I''m not the reason we can afford her plans to begin with.


    Sure she''s the designer, but I''m the engineer who has to cry himself to sleep because of her crazy ideas. But they have the highest chance of working, so I could only do my job in silence.


    "I''ll see what I can do. Tell Merry to come back. We''ll have to prepare for the next meeting soon. I don''t want you all to arrive sleep-deprived like last time."


    She only laughed nervously at my stern warning.


    "Camon, we weren''t that bad."


    "Your group is the reason the meeting lasted so long! I don''t know why Aisha was so adamant about small details against stabbing in the back! I know she has good intentions, but the stakes are too high for any of us to pull something like this. I could see this in Daniel''s character, but he got burned enough times not to mess with the people in this world or Trader."


    While I appreciated Daniels''s genius, I don''t think the old System made a good decision by picking him up. At this point, I think that the selection was made random, rather than looking at his skills.


    But he was here and got an important position, whether we like it or not, so it''s better to have him on our side then not.


    "I sent her the text, she said she''ll be back in an hour after searching the abounded temple."


    "Is she hoping to find the Shadow Lord?"


    "Most likely, but it''s pointless since he clearly ran away and we can''t see him in the Shadow form."


    "Well, as long as she''ll be back soon, I don''t see a problem with a little more exploring."


    With those final words said, we both went back to work.


    After all, everyone was counting on us, and we didn''t want to disappoint them.


    ----


    A few days passed, and we were now back at the meeting place, all ready for the final touches.


    Looks like everyone learned from their last meeting and got some rest and comfortable clothes since we would be staying here for a while.


    "Welcome back everyone! I''m glad to see that everyone is ready for today. Now we shall start the meeting."


    Bobby begun the meeting again, but at the end looked at the Mad Prince longer than usual before sitting down, which made me think that they got into a fight.


    This wasn''t a good start, so I decided to speak next so the awkward moment won''t settle.


    "Hello everyone, as you saw on the Chat, we figured out the locations of the spawners and even destroyed one. Unfortunately, it wasn''t a full success, since the Shadow Lord managed to escape at the last moment and now is hidden in the shadows away from our eyes."


    People began to whisper when suddenly Daniel spoke out loud.


    "Seriously Merry? The guy couldn''t move from his place and you still missed him? Do we need to use my Death Arrow again?"


    I knew that Daniel didn''t care that the Shadow Lord, even though he was the one most likely to be killed by him.


    He just wanted to get a hit at Merry''s pride since she was more popular than him.


    His ego grew a bit since he got some power.


    "Oh shut up Daniel, this was supposed to be your Monster Lord to begin with, so don''t put the blame on me."


    Daniel just smirked in response.


    Not wanting this to escalate anymore I decided to intervene once again.


    "As for the other spawners, it''s a little more complicated since their located in the heart of the Monster Lords. This gives them great regeneration, almost unlimited energy, and can to spawn other monsters. But at the cost of having only one life. So if we killed them once, it would be enough."


    There were some mixed reactions in the room, but most of them were relieved that we had the information in the first place.


    "I''m glad to see that we have some progress. Since the Phantom Lady is in the Nether, we would be the ones to deal with her. If you have any information about that monster, please don''t hesitate to share."


    The Mad Prince finally spoke, which was a rare sight, since nobody could read his expression with the helmet on.


    Nobody said anything, but Merry looked at Daniel with a raised eyebrow, like he was supposed to know something.


    In the end, he let out a sigh.


    "I don''t know too much about her, but there''s a mob called Phantom that is supposed to attack anyone who didn''t sleep for 3 days. They''re not that strong, only annoying since they disappeared when the sun is up again."


    "Thank you. I''ll keep that in mind when we''ll plan the attack."


    The conversation was short, so we moved on to the last assignment for today before going into the pointless details.


    I gave everyone a few papers that showed the schematics of the defense maze Alex and I created, and everyone was quite impressed until they saw the materials required to do it.


    "That''s... a lot of obsidian right there. I don''t think even our palace used so many. How do you plan on getting so much."


    "The Nether is willing to donate a small part of this, but the rest we will have to trade for it."


    Well it was a beginning, but not enough for what we wanted, which was unfortunate since those blocks were quite important.


    "I guess we could mass produce obsidian with Traders ideas, but I''ll have to talk with Daniel about the details since I don''t think I can recreate it perfectly."


    The 2 of them got closer and talked about cauldrons, pistons, lava and others.


    Basically, we were going to make another obsidian factory similar to the one the Sand Palace had, but better and on a larger scale.


    While they were busy with that, the rest of us talked about the rest of the materials.


    Obsidian was essential for the maze, but so we''re the traps and the equipment of the soldiers.


    The Stone kindome would supply us with the diamond armor, the Sandstone Kindome would enchant them to their best ability, and the Coral Kingdom would be building the traps.


    Of course, we would also prepare a golem army that would stay in the center of the maze toghater with us.


    The meeting laster only a day this time, since we knew what to ask beforehand, and Aisha was more silent this time.


    This was a huge project, that would take hundreds of workers and thousands of brilliant minds to pull this off.


    We weren''t preparing just for the Monster Lords, but the Void as well in case something unexpected happend.


    The project would take roughly a month to be finished, and luckily we would should not be disturbed.


    I only hoped that Trader would get back in the meantime, since he was quite an important pice of the puzzle.


    But that was a problem for later.

 Chapter 241. The Monsters war part 2

    POV: Creeper Lord


    "Another town with the beast inside. How could they sleep with such a dangerous creature in their homes?"


    "What''s the point of us killing them if the beast is going to finish the job?"


    My other half spoke with a bored voice.


    I wanted to snap back, but I couldn''t since it made sense, which was unusual for him.


    I think the frustration and boredom was getting to me since I hadn''t blown up for a few weeks!


    Since when were so many huge beasts?


    "What are we supposed to do then? Visit the other kingdoms?"


    "I don''t want to deal with Phantom Lady or Shadow Lord."


    "Yeah, I''d rather die than embarrass myself by not eradicating every human in the desert."


    Our job was to destroy all the humans in this world. But with how slow we were moving, they would die of old age before we could get them.


    Luckily, I wasn''t completely useless since the humans couldn''t trade in fear of my presence, making them isolated.


    But we did see large groups of humans well armored leaving the desert.


    I tried to attack them, but they were stronger than expected, so I had to retreat.


    Ever since then, I saw bigger and bigger groups leaving into remote parts of the desert that I wasn''t interested to explore.


    "We could ask Lady Phantom to switch with us since she can fly over the beasts."


    I didn''t know if my other half was really trying to be helpful, or wanted to embarrass us by yelling loudly that we couldn''t do our job.


    He is still depressed all the time, but now he hides it better through a monotone voice or sarcastic remarks.


    It''s such a shame I couldn''t get rid of him. I tried to, believe me, but his head kept growing back.


    We were walking on the hot sand when all of a sudden I heard a crack in my head, and then I felt a huge wave of power in the remote area of the desert.


    "Can you feel that!"


    "Yes, it''s so pure, it''s so delicious...I want it!"


    That was the first time I heard him saying that he wanted something.


    But I could understand why he reacted like that.


    The power was sweet like the Void, and I''m sure if I absorbed it, the almighty Void would be pleased with me.


    And that''s not taking into account that I would be much stronger!


    If I consume that power, I could grow strong enough to ignore those pesky beasts.


    We jumped from dune to dune and saw quite some monsters gathering towards the same place.


    Looks like we weren''t the only ones who wanted to grow.


    Though, I doubt they were smart enough to realize what it was.


    Not wanting to lose this opportunity to the minions, I jumped more recklessly until I arrived at the source, and it wasn''t what I expected.


    In front of me was a huge maze made with obsidian blocks and in the center was a huge template beautifully decorated with iron blocks and other precious, but resistant materials.


    Above the temple was a beam of light that was glowing brighter and brighter.


    "How foolish of them. Why make those huge walls when we can just jump over them."


    Even my other half was amused by this situation as we jumped over the 10-block obsidian wall with ease.


    *Boom!


    I was suddenly hit by an arrow, a firework, and a fireball.


    This wasn''t a pleasant feeling, but it was not the worst that I had.


    The fire died down, and I looked at the walls that were supposed to be behind me.


    "How did they hit us? I didn''t see any humans on the walls."


    "I don''t know, but the walls are too strong for me to destroy them."


    And I couldn''t use explosives to destroy them either.


    Just to be sure that it wasn''t a fluke, I tried to jump again only to be met with the same fate.


    "I don''t want to use the stupid maze! Can you absorb the attacks while we jump?"


    "I could try, but you''ll have to concentrate on the legs."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Let''s do this then."


    I jumped once again, but this time my other half was able to absorb the attacks, and I wasn''t pushed back anymore."


    "Yes! We did it, those stu-"


    Suddenly I was stabbed by a huge arrow followed by 2 explosives.


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    I was now back In the sand with my head missing but slowly regenerating.


    Once It regenerated, I couldn''t hide my frustration.


    "How did they make such powerful arrows?!"


    "They also tied small explosives to it."


    "I don''t think they have too many of them. Otherwise, they would''ve been used earlier. But I also don''t want to risk our lives like this, those arrows could damage our spawner."


    "So the maze it is."


    To my frustration, I had to walk into the human trap.


    Monsters began to appear as well, some had helmets, while others were husks, able to survive under the sun.


    I watched some of them go deeper into the maze, when all of a sudden, a TNT fell on top of a Creeper, exploding and killing him instantly.


    "Looks like they put traps in the maze as well. It''s annoying that I can''t see what activates the traps."


    If we could see the traps, my other half could easily destroyed them.


    We could also used his specialty and destroy everything in a certain radius. But that uses a lot of energy, and I prefer to use it at the end, where the humans would fight for sure.


    "We don''t need to be the first ones to get to the other side."


    "What are you talking abo- Ohhh, I see!"


    My other half was quite smart sometimes.


    My spawner didn''t only produce a lot of energy but could also create mini creepers.


    I didn''t use this ability until now, since I didn''t see a reason to do so.


    But now it was the perfect chance.


    I created a few creepers and sent them ahead of me, triggering traps that would''ve annoyed me.


    The path was suddenly split, and I had to make a decision on which way to continue.


    My minions were loyal to me, but not smart enough to report back if the path they chose was good.


    So my only option, was to send a group on one side and the other on the opposite side while I waited in place.


    My instructions were clear, keep going until you can''t anymore, and try not to stay in a group.


    After I sent them, I heard a few traps going off and then silence.


    Another 10 minutes passed and nobody came back, probably because they died.


    Both of us let out a sigh and decided to take the right path while I spawned more creepers to take on the traps.


    We continued like that until we arrived at a pool of lava, which most likely killed the previous minions.


    Unfortunately, the minions that I just spawned were going to be abandoned, since I didn''t want to bother carrying them on the other side.


    After a light jump, the 5-block lava pool was behind me, and I spawned new minions to deactivate the rest of the traps.


    The traps began to get more complicated.


    There was once a wall of lava coming dawn, and I had to hurry to get on the other side.


    Another time a TNT dropped, followed by another 2. When the first exploded, it sent the other 2 flying towards my group of minions, killing quite a few.


    There were traps like those all over the place, making my progress slow as a turtle.


    Even I wasn''t safe while they were dealing with the traps.


    From time to time, the humans were shooting at me with their explosive arrows, which forced me to stay close to the walls so I wouldn''t be seen.


    The beam of light was getting brighter and brighter, and so was the power.


    I felt that something would soon happen, and if I didn''t take the power now, I would lose it forever.


    I was preparing to jump once again when an unexpected voice stopped me.


    "Stop! Don''t do something stupid like that when your this close to the end. You''ll be killed in an instant if you jump."


    The voice came from the ground, or more exactly from my shadow.


    "Shadow Lord, is that you?"


    "Yes, now move to the left, there''s an incoming arrow at your head."


    Unconsciously, I listened to him, and an arrow passed by me and exploded in the ground.


    "How did you know it was coming? It would''ve blown my head if you didn''t warn me."


    "I heard the wind being cut. But that doesn''t matter now, follow my instructions to get out of this cursed maze."


    "You know the right path?"


    Asked my other half in surprise.


    "Yes, I''ve already checked this whole place, and it''s traps. But the beam of light is too well guarded, and I can''t bypass it by myself."


    "So you want to team up and share the power?"


    "Yes, but I only need enough for me to get my body back. You can have the rest."


    It seems a little suspicious, but at the rate I was progressing, I would lose the opportunity to absorb the power.


    "Deal, but less do this quick then."


    "That depends on how fast you can run."


    With short but simple orders, I could ignore the traps that were not a danger to me and move through the maze at unbelievable speeds.


    I knew I was on the right path when more arrows came at me at a rapid state.


    Suddenly, I wasn''t surrounded by tall walls. Instead, I was in the open with a lot of panicked people who were running up and down from some tall towers.


    "Finally, I can see the temple and the light. The power is so sweet."


    "The fight is not over yet! Quickly, destroy those towers so you won''t get shot by the explosive arrows."


    Not wanting to deal with them anymore, my partner made them disappear in the blink of an eye.


    Just to be spiteful, I almost threw a few explosives at the people in panic.


    It wasn''t enough to kill them since they all had good armor, but they still got burned and injured.


    Suddenly my path was blocked by tall humans made of iron.


    I felt that those guys were stronger than normal and didn''t want to deal with them.


    So, I decided to jump over the problem.


    My final goal was the power in the temple after all, not them.


    But as expected, it wasn''t that easy to get what I want.


    From the back of the huge iron soldiers, jumped a human covered in black armor.


    I swear I haven''t seen her, and from my partners reaction he was equally surprised.


    But the real shock, was when the human punched us and I could feel pain running through my whole body as I was blown away to the ground.


    My flesh and bones were regenerating, and I could bearly keep my consciousness.


    How can a human have so much strength?


    "Yeah baby! That''s what I''m talking about! Take that, stupid Creeper! Permanent strength buff and illegal drugs. I won''t be moving my body for a full day, but I have more then enough time to deal with you."


    She suddenly disaperead, and the reapered in front of me ready to punch my partner head off.


    But right as she was about to hit him, she stopped and jumped back, as a spike of darkness aperead in her previous place.


    "Creeper Lord, focus, she''s not the only enemy in here. Try to stay close to the soldiers so she can''t do any big movements. I''ll help you with what I can."


    How humiliating, I was being shot constantly with arrows that did little to no damage, and I had to hide with the weak humans since I would be hurt by the bigger ones.


    I jumped, threw explosions while my partner made holes in space to kill as many humans as posibile.


    Slowly, the soldiers were getting more confused and disorganised as the battle continued.


    I was avoiding the human with super strength, and the Shadow Lord was dealing with her if she got too close.


    Unfortunately I couldn''t keep up with this, since the beam of light was almost at its peak.


    If I didn''t do anything soon, I would lose my chance.


    Deciding to risk it once and for all, I jumped towards the temple.


    But just as I passed the blue line on the ground, the Shadow Lord screamed at me.


    "Creeper don''t-"


    *BOOOM!


    Everything went black, and I felt that my spawner was damaged, almost broken.


    Is this how I died?


    "Don''t die on me Creeper Lord, the fight is not over!"


    Then I heard the space crack.

 Chapter 242. The Monsters war part 3

    POV: Merry Paper


    The maze was a success, I would even say that it was doing too good.


    Unfortunately, I think it''s going to be the only one, and I don''t want to think about the costs that went into this.


    The traps were amazing, done by the best people in the Coral Kindom,  and a big portion of them were made by Steve and Alex.


    They somehow managed to combine redstone with Enchanting, which was unheard of!


    The layout wasn''t that complicated, but the enchantment was, even though its job was to detect monsters through the obsidian walls and send a signal to the dispensers on top.


    Daniel also came up with a crazy idea, of making ballistas.


    The arrows were made with iron, and 2 explosives on the side that exploded on impact.


    They were very effective at keeping the Creeper Lord from jumping over the maze.


    Because of that, he wasted most of his time in the maze, and when the final battle started, he was in a rush.


    Of course, the monster was still too powerful for the common soldiers to kill. That''s why we planed on killing him with the iron arrows.


    Unfortunately, he quickly realized the plan and destroyed the towers with the ballistas, making our soldier''s job much harder.


    That was the moment when we sent the iron squad.


    The Monster tried to jump over the iron golems and run to the base, only to be stopped by me.


    I was the final boss, and he won''t be passing me any time soon.


    Before he entered the clearing, I activated my tattoos, which gave me double the strength, and once that was done, I drank a potion that doubled my strength and speed.


    This was the reason I could punch the Monster Lord into the ground.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t expect the Shadow Lord to be here as well.


    Every time I tried to get close to him, he jumped away while throwing explosions at me.


    I now understood why Trader was so reckless when fighting.


    This armor made me invincible!


    But the Shadow Lord knew that as well, and always attacked the opening of my face, which made me retreat.


    It was such a frustrating feeling, to be so strong yet not able to use it properly.


    But the process was almost done, and the Monsters felt it too, making the Creeper Lord take a desperate act and jump towards the base.


    As soon as he came close to the blue line, explosives were blown, sending a Netherite arrow at unbelievable speeds through a teleporter that brought the projectile into the Monster Lord and made a huge hole in the obsidian floor.


    Half a second later, another arrow came, not far from the first one, making another hole.


    This was to make sure that the enemy was hit if he somehow dodged the first one.


    The ''Last Stand'' was the pinnacle of humanity''s ingenuity, and we were all proud of it.


    Now the problem was that the Fortress was too good, and even the Mad Prince was impressed by it.


    It would be a diplomatic war over who owns this place once this is over.


    The Creeper Lord was now sitting in the hole made by the Death Arrow.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t know if he was dead for sure or if we got the Shadow Lord at all.


    I was ready to drop some TNT blocks to finish the job, when I heard something breaking like glass above my head.


    Confused I turned around, only to see space ripped itself apart, and a huge creature flew from it while screeching in pain.


    What was happening?!


    Did Alex and Steve succeed, or is this because they failed?


    I didn''t know what was happening, and when I looked closer at the tear in space, I recognized that it led to the Nether.


    "Wha-"


    KKKYYYAAAAAAA!!!!


    I couldn''t even express my confusion as another scream interrupted on me.


    Out of nowhere it became night, and from the huge flying creature, came blue bats that glided towards the soldiers on the battlefield while screaming.


    "She''s on her last breath! Kill her with the Death Arrow!"


    A voice yelled from the other side of the tear, which I recognized to be the Mad Prince.


    Dots connected into my head, and realized that this was Lady Phantom, who was supposed to be stuck in the Nether.


    Why was she here, why did it suddenly get dark, and what were we supposed to do in this situation?


    The Death Arrow couldn''t be used for another 4 minutes since it needed to be repaired, and everyone was so distracted with the new Monster Lady that they completely forgot the ones we already had.


    I had a decision to make.


    Do I go inside and protect Alex and Steve or join the rest of the soldiers to deal with the Monster Lady?


    "I''ll trust Omar and the others inside to protect the 2. I''ll join the big fight."


    With one final look at the temple, and then at a hole.


    I decided to drop a few more TNTs before taking out my sword and crossbow to kill those phantoms.


    Everyone was quite confused at what was happening, but slowly, they realized that the enemy was quite weak, they could barely feel a thing, and the only reason they were afraid was because of the darkness and unknown.


    Slowly but surely, the soldiers began to fight back and even gain ground.


    The enemy was weak, there was no reason to fear them since the only danger was the Phantom Lady, who was gliding high in the sky.


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    Explosions were heard throughout the battlefield, and they didn''t belong to us.


    Who dared to betray us?


    I turned around, only to see a green figure quickly pass me.


    "Ignore them, jump towards the Phantom!"


    I also heard Shadow Lord''s voice, but it was much weaker than before.


    It looks like he was the one to protect the green monster from getting killed, how annoying.


    While this was a surprise attack, the soldiers already had enough experience to gain the upper hand.


    They sent the iron golems as tanks, while they were shooting with fireworks and arrows at him from a safe distance.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.      But the Creeper Lord didn''t seem interested in joining the fight, instead, he made a huge jump and collided with the Phantom Lady.


    Clearly, this wasn''t part of the plan, as both of them began to scream at each other while falling down from the sky.


    The dark sky began to waver, which gave us more hope that we were winning.


    Only to be squashed away as soon as the head of a dragon appeared from the Monster Lords.


    Daniel warned us about such an attack, and I didn''t intend on sitting to get hit by it.


    I began to run out of the blast zone while holding a golden totem in my hand.


    But no attack came.


    Instead, the head of the black dragon swallowed the Monster Lords, and purple light was emitting from its mouth.


    Slowly, the light was getting brighter and brighter, like a second sun was rising.


    Once the flash bomb was finished, a new monster appeared. It had 3 heads with long necks, it had blue wings as its front legs, and its back was made of bones.


    If I had to give the monster a name, it would be a Three-Headed Wyvern.


    Its eyes opened, and let out a loud roar that made me deaf. It spread its wings and flew towards us at unbelievable speeds.


    *Boom!


    The Wyvern landed on the ground, crushing some poor soldiers to death.


    It swung its claws and slashed the soldiers in one smooth motion.


    Only the iron golems and soldiers with diamond armor were strong enough to survive its attacks, but not without taking heavy damage.


    This turned out to be the worst ending, and the duo didn''t finish yet!


    How were we supposed to fight this thing?


    "Don''t despair, keep the monster occupied until the Death Arrow is ready!"


    Someone came out of the temple while yelling.


    It was Omar, and he also had Netherite armor like me.


    But unlike me, he wasn''t scared, but ready to fight.


    I bit my lips in frustration and analyzed the battlefield once again.


    The formation was a mess, nobody knew what to do and concentrated on staying as far as possible from the Monster.


    Only the golems were reckless enough to continue fighting, and I was never happier to have them on my side.


    The fear was still there, but now I felt that I could manage it better, and I saw something unusual at the Wyvern.


    While he had immense strength, his attacks seemed clumsy like a newborn learning how to walk.


    This is it!


    I ran towards the battle with my axe out and yelled at Omar as I passed him.


    "The Monster is not used to its body yet, this is the best time to attack!"


    He called something back, but I was already gone and ready to strike the middle head.


    *Chop!


    The dragon head began to scream in pain and the other one hit me to the side.


    "Good,*Cough* if it bleeds, it can be killed."


    Then I ate an enchantment golden apple.


    The battle continued, and the generals organized the golems to attack, while it was distracted with Omar and me.


    We were the only ones that could tank its attacks.


    But the Monster wasn''t easy to kill, whenever we made a wound, a second later it regenerated, its movements were getting more precise, and the heads were trying to form sentences while using abilities to create more chaos on the battlefield.


    The right and left head had the same abilities as the Creeper Lord, and the middle one made the soldiers freeze in fear with one glance.


    We were slowly losing the battle.


    "When is that cursed arrow ready?"


    Like a signal, the 2 Death Arrows aperead and pierced the body and heads of the Wyvern.


    Unfortunately, me and Omar were in the blast zone so we were killed as well.


    The golden totem broke in my inventory and I was brought back from the dead with super regeneration, and ability to fly.


    Omar had the same totem, and both of us flew out of the newly made hole.


    While the Wyvern was 10 blocks long, the arrows pierced its chest and heads which should''ve been enough to kill him.


    But to our horror, a claw aperead at the edge of the hole, and the Wyvern was dragging itself back to the surface.


    "Ahhh, it feels much better now. The minds are in their own head."


    "Oh shut up, it was you who wanted to have control everything in the first place! Shadow Lord would''ve wanted us to share this body not fight over it!"


    "Looks like we won, the humans are terrified of us now."


    Each head spoke one after another, before stopping and looking at the temple.


    The beam was brighter then before, and it looked like it was about to open a portal in space.


    One of the heads made a bite movement, and a huge chunk of the temple suddenly disaperead.


    "How is that possible! He''s not supposed to destroy Obsidian blocks!"


    The other 2 heads laughed and flew towards the now open temple.


    "Nooo!!!"


    The beam of light opened a portal, and 2 creatures came from the portal.


    One looked like a Monster Lord, while the other like a human.


    The human took out a hammer, and then light erupted from it, taking the shape of a glowing sword 30 blocks tall.


    Everyone stopped in shock at what we saw, even the Wyvern.


    The human swong it''s sword and the Monster Lords were all cut in half with the ground beneath.


    With just one cut, the Monster that would''ve terrorised the Overworld was now gone.


    Who was that?


    Was it on our side?


    The human and monster disaperead, and I heard a familiar voice near me.


    Unfortunately, the voice wasn''t there to comfort us.


    "EVERYONE LEAVE THIS PLACE, OR YOU''RE GOING TO DIE!"


    Trader yelled at everyone who was still confused at what just happened.


    Then something else came out of the portal, it was a huge claw around 50 blocks wide, and it crashed into the temple, killing everyone inside.


    The light was slolwy diming away.

 Chapter 243. The last skill

    Ugh, that discussion with the Mad Prince wasn''t pleasant. Why was he so smart and powerful.


    If I didn''t need his help in the upcoming war, I would''ve preferred to stay as far away from him.


    "What do you think, Alexa? Would he be a good ally, or stab us in the back?"


    <It''s in his best interest to help you defend the Nether sir. Plus, he seems to enjoy a good challenge, so he won''t betray you anytime soon. But if you wish, I could keep an eye on him.>


    "Please do that. That''s one less worry for me, but I still have a mountain to deal with. It''s good to have a friend who rules over the whole dimension. So many problems can be solved!"


    I was so happy that I couldn''t stop from humming to myself. But I had to stop, since a felt a hateful gaze on me, making me shiver.


    "Hey Alexa, now that the System is gone, do you plan on taking over the Overworld? Can you even do that?"


    While I was glad that Alexa was on my side, and I could still order it around, I was still worried that it would become a control freak to keep humanity ''safe''.


    The lack of emotions makes it a good strategist, but the reason the Old System got in conflict with the humans was because it didn''t understand human emotions enough to realize that it was resented.


    And Alexa is way worse than the System when it comes to that.


    <Due to my rush integration with this dimension, my conciseness is tied with it. And it would take a lot of time for me to take over the Overworld. But that is still the final goal.>


    So it wasn''t a problem now, then I shouldn''t worry about it!


    Instead, I should focus on myself and the others with gaining strength.


    And speaking of getting stronger, it was weird that I still had my Trading skills while everyone else didn''t.


    This made me wonder if mine was special and if I would get a reward if I maxed it.


    That sounded like a good goal to strive for.


    I didn''t know how I could get stronger in a short amount of time, so getting one of the overpowered rewards sounded like a good idea.


    With the plan made, I quickly went to action and visited the Stone Castle to have as many trades as possible.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t have a lot of emeralds with me, and even worse, at my level of trading, the best thing I could do was to trade items for emeralds, not the other way around.


    This is why I had to sell my gold to a Cleric and my iron to an Armourer and a Toolsmith.


    But after a few painful trades, I was now level 5!


    And could use the second trades on the second row.


    It was an improvement, but not too much.


    I mostly traded with the Clerics for Lapis, and the Farmers for food.


    At this point, the people in the castle heard about my weirdness and whispered behind my back.


    I was confused at first about why they would do that since I knew the Viligers loved to trade for easy emeralds, until Bobby was kind enough to explain what was happening.


    "Is this why I kept hearing about you roaming the castle? Oh System, how can you be so good at making friends but so bad at reading social queues. Listen here, the reason they look at you with those eyes..."


    He then proceeded to explain to me why what I was doing was insulting.


    For the people in the city, it wasn''t a problem when I asked what job they had, since they would gladly make more emeralds on the side.


    But the people who worked at the castle, didn''t have that mentality, they didn''t work here becouse it paid well.


    Instead, they did it for the prestige and the chance to climb on the social ladder.


    So here, certain jobs are seen as inferior to others, like the Fletcher, Farmer, Butchers, and others.


    Those servants didn''t want to be known for their jobs, but for their status as servants in the royal family.


    But the ones with ''higher'' jobs, such as the Librarians and Clerics, were more than happy to talk about their jobs.


    Not because they wanted to get more trades, but because they wanted to let you know that they were the chosen one.


    Once I realized that, I decided to trade with the Librarians and Clerics so I wouldn''t make the situation awkward for the other servants.


    But my perspective changed whenever I traded with those people.


    Just like that, I managed to get my Trading Skills to level 6!


    The good news, was that I got better discounts on the trades.


    The bad news, was that it didn''t help me that much.


    Since most of my trades were done with the Clerics and Librarians, instead of getting 2 pieces of lapis for 1 emerald, I was getting 3 pieces of lapis for the same price.


    Sure, I could use the first rows to take advantage of the discount, but I was here for the levels and not for the materials.


    So for the next few days, I concentrated on leveling up my Skill.


    I woke up in the morning, ate a few golden carrots, and began to trade with the people in the castle.


    Once I was done with them, I would summon my horse and blitz to the city where I would do even more trading.


    That was the place where I used my discount to its full capacity to make an unlimited amount of emeralds without going out to chop some wood.


    Slowly but surely, I was leveling up my skill.


    And with that, I was getting access to better and better trades, which benefitted everyone.


    Bobby was especially happy about the enchanted diamond armor.


    My reputation in the castle was getting weirder, but the one in the city was getting more wilder.


    I was known as the rich ghost that made emeralds appear with a single touch.


    Whenever you were able to see me, you knew you hit the jackpot.


    As days passed, the skill grew until suddenly, I felt my guts being pulled, and everything went black.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.-----


    When I opened my eyes, I wasn''t in Bobby''s office or in one of my safe houses.


    Instead, I was on a floating island with blocks that I hadn''t seen and 2 obsidian towers that held in chains of a huge monster.


    This monster was 10 blocks tall, with a huge eye in his chest while his real eyes were sealed shut.


    He looked similar to Violet but more intimidating and scary.


    Speaking of Violet, was she with me this time as well?


    We finally meet my avatar, I''ve wanted to see your face for quite a while.


    The being spoke with a powerful voice, the same voice that gods used to speak with the mortals.


    I''ve had the chance to meet and hear all the Gods in this universe, except for one.


    "Are you...The Father by any chance?"


    Hahahahaha!


    The being laughed out loud, which made my soul tremble while also making me feel embarrassed.


    Was I not supposed to address him like that?


    The other option was "Him", and I think it would''ve got the same result.


    Looks like my daughter told you about me. While you could say that I''m your Father, I would prefer if you called me Noah.


    Was that his human name?


    Yes, it was, before I was thrown into the Void by the System and had to become this.


    He said that while pointing at his chained body.


    "You can read my mind?!"


    I said in panic while checking my helmet.


    It was still there.


    Yes, I was the one who brought you into this world after all.


    I felt my whole body freeze when I heard that.


    I already knew about this, since the System told me and had plenty of clues. But it felt different when the person himself told me about it.


    He was the reason I couldn''t see my family, he was the reason that I had to fight for my life countless times and even die, and he was the reason the Overworld was cursed like this in the first place!


    You have quite the resentment towards me, I wonder why?


    Aren''t you happy with the life you built here? Are you saying that Bobby, Froggy, and the others mean nothing to you?


    "Don''t you dare spout those names out of your mouth! I don''t regret the friendships I made in this world, I just hate you for taking my right to choose how to live my life!"


    I quickly snapped back.


    I knew I was going to meet with him someday, and even made a little speech about it.


    But now, it was off its rails since the emotions got the better of me.


    Why did he summon me?


    How many actions of mine did he control?


    And what was his final goal for me!


    I took a few deep breaths to calm myself, so I wouldn''t take out my mace to kill him.


    Your thoughts are a mess, and I can feel your resentment toward me growing.


    But answer me this human, do you really want to get back to your old world?


    I wanted to yell YES but stopped myself for some reason.


    Did I really want to get back home?


    Couldn''t I live a fulfilling life in this world?


    Looks like you''re still thinking for an answer.


    In the meantime, why don''t you listen to my reason of why I brought you into this world.


    I looked at him with narrowed eyes but didn''t say anything.


    I''ll have to be honest, the first time I brought you to this world, it was just an amusing test to see what my powers were capable of.


    Once you appeared into this universe and the Overworld without getting killed, I began my preparations to send a body of my own.


    It was a long process that needed a lot of trial and error.


    There was a limit on how powerful the body could be, and I had to be careful not to catch the attention of the System.


    As time passed, the Void took an interest in my project and created the Monster Lords.


    The System felt the change as well and took a copy of you and pasted it on the other heroes, not knowing that by doing so, it opened a way for the Monster Lords to invade the world.


    I was beginning to get pissed at this guy but also shocked at the new information I was learning.


    The System brought the Monster Lords becouse it was lazy?


    So, if we didn''t have the heroes, we wouldn''t have this mess begin with?


    Merry is not going to like this, when she hears it.


    The hero was not prepared for that kind of enemy, and if it wasn''t for you, the Stone Kindome would''ve suffered a lot more before bringing down the Zombie Lord. Only for him to respawn and terrorise another nation.


    That was the moment when I realized that you were more important then the heroes, and you had the potential to surpass even what I could do in that world with a new body.


    So I watched you struggle, overcome and triumph in your new life like no one ever could.


    I was so shocked when you found the Fake System without my input.


    Truly you are something else, something that could change this world for the better.


    You managed to unite all kindomes willingly, you are empathic enough to understand the struggle of the Witches, vengeful at the crimes of the Iligers, and the most important aspect of them all.


    You accepted a monster as your friend.


    Now tell me human, would you help me make this world a better place?


    A world were monsters and humans coexist?

 Chapter 244. The reword for the skill

    I narrowed my eyes and held myself back from cursing at him.


    If he thought that this short discussion would convince me, he was a dreamer.


    I took a deep breath and spoke.


    "What do you mean, you want to make the monsters and humans live in peace? Do you plan on making everyone a monster then?"


    I''m sorry, it seems that my social skills got rusty from not using them in so long.


    No, I don''t want to make all monsters equal to humans since I know that most of them don''t have reason.


    What I want, is for my family and the Ender Dragon to be accepted as sentient beings and not as mindless monsters that need to be killed on sight.


    Ok, that made more sense now.


    He wants to make a world where the Enderman species and the Void could coexist with us.


    While Violet had some weird quirks, I could see her being a useful member of society and even being valued.


    I don''t know about the Ender Dragon...maybe if she could calm down her violent tendencies, we could work this out.


    "Why didn''t you talk with the System about this in the first place? Why did you make the portal to The End and kill 2 whole continents in the process?"


    I admit that the massacre was my fault, and I deserve to be punished for this.


    But I also believe that this whole war could''ve been prevented if the System got off its high chair and talked with us!


    Looks like there was some resentment towards the System.


    I wonder what caused it.


    It seems that you still have some attachments to the old System, even though you were not treated the best.


    Is it because of the gift?


    I have to say that is a remarkable weapon, but I feel very infuriated with how wrong you use it.


    What was he talking about?


    Take out your mace for a moment.


    Still confused, I followed his command and then felt a force pulling the wepon away.


    The force was too powerful, so it slipped away, landing in Noah''s hand.


    *Boom!


    The mace exploded, making me panic for a moment, only to see that it was fine and Noah''s hand diapered.


    The System was quite reckless with it''s safety.


    Any other creature would''ve died in my place.


    But I should be fine if I don''t take energy from its storage.


    Was that the gift from the System?


    I guess it''s good to have it, so creatures like Noah won''t steal it from me.


    Look at this mace as a conduit for your power and not as a weapon itself.


    What you''ve been doing all this time, was similar to how you used the Crystals as explosives.


    They are powerful, but that''s not their intended purpose.


    Suddenly his hand regenerated and grabbed the weapon with 2 fingers


    Then a purple light came from the mace and took the shape of a giant sword, leaving me in awe.


    This wasn''t even the impressive part, as he swung the giant sword and cut the obsidian towers like it was made of paper.


    And with this, you can use a fraction of the energy for better results.


    Then, he threw the mace back at me, and I swiftly caught it.


    I looked at the weapon and tried to imagine the same thing that I just saw, and suddenly, I had a 5 block sword of light in my hand.


    Not only that, but I didn''t feel the energy being drained, scratch that, I was gaining more energy!


    Looks like you figured out the potential of your weapon!


    Doesn''t this open a new way of life?


    You are practically a mortal with God''s tools, so use them wisely.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "Why did you suddenly become so nice?"


    While it was nice to know the true value of my weapon, I was still taken aback at the sudden change.


    I realized that you are here to be rewarded for your hard work, not for more headaches. And here I am, making demands to do something that even I wasn''t able to.


    It''s no wonder you''ll look with so much hostility at me. I didn''t give you a reason to be seen in good light.


    So tell me, what reward do you wish from me?


    Ok, so he decided to be polite.


    I guess he wasn''t the smartest man in the Overworld for nothing.


    Now the question was, what should I get from him?


    Daniel managed to reach the same level and got the ability to trade for Undying Totems with special effects.


    They were very powerful in a pinch, but not powerful enough to turn the tides in the upcoming battle.


    "I would like for you to stop reading my mind."


    Is this your wish?


    "No, this will be an apology for your behavior."


    Hahahaha!


    You got guts human, but that''s why you got this far, so I won''t be looking into your mind anymore.


    "How can I trust you?"


    Noah smiled in response.


    There''s no way for you to know if I''m telling the truth anyway. I could make an item that could block my ability, but you still wouldn''t trust it, since it was made by me.


    So why don''t we do a little exercise of trust, and see how far we can get?


    It was so frustrating when he was right.


    I tried to think dark thoughts for a reaction, in case he was still reading my mind, but his expression remained unchanged.


    I guess I had to trust his word then.


    What should I ask of him?


    To get me back home?


    No, I made this whole mess and I didn''t plan on leaving like that.


    Then an armor that could withstand the Ender Dragon?


    That''s a good idea, I should keep it as an option.


    How about the ability to have infinite lives?


    That sounds good as well...


    Ideas came and went through my mind, and Noah was patiently waiting for me to sort everything out, but in the end, I come up with only one answer.


    "Teach me how to make my own body."


    The Monster''s smile got even bigger, and for a moment, I thought I fell for his trap.


    That''s a smart choice.


    You want freedom from any shackles, and for that, you need to have complete control over your life.


    Fine, I should teach you how to use the Crystal properly.


    Then he waved his hand, and a crystal appeared in front of me, but it was different than what I remembered.


    On the ground, there were 9 blocks of lapis, all heavily enchanted with red ink, and in the middle stood a crude-looking Crystal, made with 2 glass blocks merged.


    The Crystal wasn''t even floating, but I could still feel its danger if it exploded.


    This is the original Crystal that I created. I know it looks different than what you''re used to, but it practically has the same function, just a little harder control.


    But if you manage to learn how to use this one, the other one would be a breeze.


    I got closer to the device and put my hand on it to connect, and oh boy, when he said it was different, it was.


    A lot more options appeared that I previously didn''t see. Unfortunately, they weren''t the fun option, since I now had to do a lot of calculations and mix different kinds of components to get the desired results.


    If I had to use an analogy for the situation, the System''s Crystal was like an automatic car, but Noah''s was a manual one.


    I knew what it was supposed to do and all the rules, but now I had to interact with it more often.


    I tried a few simple commands but failed miserably.


    Fortunately, Noah didn''t let me suffer for too long and began to teach me how to use the new commands.


    It was hard at the beginning, but slowly I was getting the hang of it, and Noah was a good teacher overall.


    We started slowly with the functions of the Crystal, then went into practice on the nearby blocks, which were the Endstone.


    The information that I got from it was quite interesting.


    I''ve checked multiple blocks on the island, but the results varied even though they all looked the same.


    It seems that those blocks originate from the Overworld but we''re 90% corrupted by the Void and became like this.


    So even though they all looked the same, some of them were stone blocks, others were dirt and even wood.


    It seems that the only ones unaffected by this were the obsidian blocks, and probably the Bedrock.


    That''s why, my first task was to corrupt an Endstone block fully with the Void.


    The task wasn''t hard, since most of the block was already gone, and the last resistance could easily be pushed with a little precise force.


    This resulted in the block disappearing like the rest of the Void.


    Through some tests, I found out a few things about the Void energy.


    The Void energy is volatile, ready to consume for its ever-growing hunger. But since it was so active, it was an amazing source of energy.


    That''s why, my mace was constantly getting energy just by staying outside.


    The energy from the Overworld instead, was stable, calmer, and more grounded.


    It could stay its ground against the Void for a good amount of time, but it wasn''t its purpose in the end.


    That''s why the Void and the System couldn''t coexist, not because the System was unwilling to listen, but because the Void was threatening the System''s existence and power with her presence alone.


    And it''s hard for me to believe that Noah didn''t know about this as well.


    So he either lied to me about the pace between the 2 dimensions or the task he wanted me to do was much bigger than a diplomatic matter.


    It took me a day to learn how to push the Void energy, and that was bearly passable.


    The next task was quite the challenge, where I had to do the opposite and push the stable energy over the Void.


    If I managed to do so, I should be able to bring the block to its previous state, but I don''t know for how long it could stay in a world filled with the Void.


    Days passed, and I was making small steps towards the goal.


    I was getting frustrated at my speed, but Noah was there to remind me that the deadline didn''t matter if I managed to solve the problem before it could arise.


    That implied that I''ll have the chance to meet with the Ender Dragon, and he later confirmed my suspicion.


    Yes, you will meet the avatar of the Void, but at this point your body is too weak, and can''t survive in her presence.


    Look at the body that I have, it''s not that the Void changed it, but this is the most suitable body that can live in the Void and be sentient.


    I went through a lot of test to get here, so don''t worry if it would take you too long to figure out your own.


    It was kind of encouraging to hear him say that.


    But my nerves were still high, since the fate of the Overworld was resting on my shoulders.


    At one point, I even contemplated if I should ask him to build me a new body.


    But I had to stop myself from thinking any further.


    My reward, was the knowledge of the Crystal, if I asked him for the body itself I would''ve wasted this opportunity to grow stronger.


    Plus, I still didn''t trust the man.


    After days of hard work, I was finally able to turn an Endstone back to a dirt block.


    I don''t think I ever was this happy to see such a commun block.


    Congratulations!


    Now let''s start the real challenge.

 Chapter 245. Learning is hard

    I emptied my mind and concentrated all my energy in one point.


    In the beginning, there was nothing, and something came out of that, and my job was to recreate that miracle by using the mind of a mortal to do something only a God can do.


    Suddenly, I was being pulled by an invisible force and thrown to the edge of the the island.


    *BOOOM!


    An explosion erupted and half of the island was suddenly gone.


    If I wasn''t grabbed a few moments ago, I would''ve been falling into the Void to my death.


    You''ve lost the flow....Try again and keep the rhythm in mind.


    This God who was my teacher. And was talking with me in a monotone voice like he''d seen this happen hundreds of times.


    But that was exactly what happened. I''ve tried to create life out of nothing hundreds of times, with no luck.


    Noah waved his hand, and the island was back to its previous size.


    I suggested to make it from obsidian, but he told me that it would get the same result, so there was no point in trying.


    I don''t know how much time has passed, but my food was getting low, and I was beginning to get tired.


    The difficulty was way too high for me, I wasn''t smart enough for this.


    Even Noah was surprised at how long it took me to learn this essential step.


    But he also tended to forget that he was a genius who surrounded himself with other geniuses, so his perception of ''normal'' talent was very wrong.


    I wasn''t dumb, that''s for sure, but I wasn''t at his level either, so I was struggling.


    I understood what I needed to do, but I didn''t have the experience to produce the results.


    But that doesn''t mean that I didn''t make any progress, I almost managed to create that seed! But the end always gets me.


    The process was relatively simple. I had to have a strong image in my head of what I wanted to create, and then I would have to put principles and limitations that the seed should abide by.


    If they clashed, the energy would get rampant and explode half of the island, if I succeeded, I had to move to the next step, which was more art than science.


    Unlike solid matter, living beings tended to have a felixble will.


    I could command the energy to become a cobblestone block and it would be done in an instant. But a living beings wanted to grow, and that required appeasing the will of the subject and injecting the necessary energy to bring it to life.


    It was similar to a song in the background, hidden behind the voices of a town square, and I had to replay the song with one hand behind my back and blind.


    It was an annoying process every time I started.


    But if I managed to do all this, the final step would be to merge the 2 together and bring it into existence.


    Surprisingly, the last step was the one that gave me the most trouble.


    I mostly failed because I couldn''t keep them equal, which required a lot of mental power.


    If only I had 2 brains to do this...


    "I''m already spent, I think I''ll take a break for my mind to rest."


    Whatever you think is the best.


    I placed a bed down and got comfortable, but I wasn''t sleepy enough to fall asleep.


    After a few minutes of struggling, I asked Noah a question that was bugging me.


    "How did you manage to get liked by the System?"


    What are you talking about?


    "There are stories in the church that you were loved by the System, but betrayed it and dragged humanity with you as well. Even the System acknowledged you in the past and present."


    I waited for a few minutes in silence, hoping to hear a response. But since he wasn''t willing to talk, I was preparing to get some sleep.


    The System itself is a machine as you saw.


    I think I was the first human to realize that, and knew that its goal was to help humanity.


    So, if I helped humanity as a whole, then I would get more attention from the System and, who knows, maybe some special privileges.


    I started small, by innovating better ways to get more crops. Then things got bigger and bigger until I realized that I built a kingdom and a lot of people depended on me.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    That was the moment when the System spoke with me for the first time.


    He stopped for a moment, and I got up from the bed so I wouldn''t accidentally fall asleep while he was telling his story.


    I think that would greatly insult him.


    Once I managed to establish a discussion with the System, I told all of my intentions and the System was surprisingly on my side.


    Sure, the System talked from time to time with the Pope if things needed a radical change, but the man wasn''t someone who would push humanity to strive for better.


    With me, it would be different, I had enough influence to move nations, and I was smart enough to come up with genius ideas.


    That was the start of our collaboration and the golden age of humanity.


    Noah looked into the empty Void, most likely thinking about the good times of the past.


    But it all went wrong when the Void first attacked. The System was gone and replaced by a lesser version, which was unnoticed by all, except for me and the Pope.


    I''m ashamed to admit it, but I''m a curious man, and I wanted to find out more about the System and its inner workings.


    Luckily for me, this lesser System was easier to trick than the main one, and while it was the most complicated thing that I have ever seen, I managed to recreate a fraction of it.


    That is how the Fake System came to be.


    You''ve seen all kinds of gods and lesser gods to realize that Alexa was powerful, but just a poor imitation of another imitation.


    Not good enough to replace the original.


    But that wasn''t my intention.


    I wanted to push humanity further!


    What levels of technologies would they reach if they had personalized systems that could make unique skills for everyone?


    That sounded an awful lot like a System I''m familiar with from my old world.


    But there was a reason the System didn''t do that from the beginning, it was too hard.


    To make matters worse, the monsters began to attack the Overworld, which shifted the focus to weapons and defense.


    Luckily, there weren''t a lot of problematic monster''s, since they were just a byproduct of the Void seeping into the world.


    And the monsters kind of helped us to unite,and reach a higher goal.


    But when we were ready to start the Evolution project, the System came back victorious but wounded from the battle.


    That''s when the great world was split into 2, and families were torn apart.


    The alliance shifted its motives once again.


    The alliance wasn''t guided by reason anymore. Instead, it was run by grief and hatred.


    It was a powerful force, but it brought more distraction.


    After years of research and hard work, we managed to reach the Nether.


    But it was too late, hundreds of years had passed, and all the loved ones were dead, leaving only it''s descendants.


    A lot of good people died that day, and not in battle.


    Others managed to push through grief and buried themselves in research, and that''s why we kept advancing at a rapid pace.


    We got more reckless, there were fewer and fewer boundaries to stop us, and human life became a number on paper.


    The System was asleep, and the humans danced on its table calling themselves kings.


    I can''t say that I was an exception, I lost a lot of precious people in the Nether, so I also buried myself in research, more exactly, the Void research.


    Hoping to find a source that would be compatible with the Fake System.


    I had a few samples of Void energy and realized that it could lead to an endless amount of energy.


    The perfect solution to my problem, but I still needed more Void energy to be complete.


    And then the portal incident happened. 2 whole continents were wiped out, and they couldn''t even be thrown into the Nether like last time.


    They had to be completely purged off the planet, and it was all because of me.


    After that, we sat in silence for minutes before deciding that my break was over.


    I wanted to comfort him, but I knew that he already processed those emotions a long time ago, and now it was a wound from the past.


    Looks like I wasn''t the only one that made mistakes in their lives.


    And while I could still save the Overworld, for him, it was already gone, suffering the consequences of his own actions.


    I got up from my bed and went back to the Crystal, but before I started my training, I asked one more question.


    "What do you think are the chances of the 2 worlds coexisting?"


    The God shifted his gaze to me, but I stood firmly.


    Next to none, but I still have hope that it can be done.


    With that question answered, I went back to work.


    I gathered my thoughts, listened to the tune, and merged the 2 together.


    But I still failed, and a huge explosion happened, but I still went back.


    I gathered my thoughts, listened to the tune, and merged the 2 together.


    But I still failed.


    I gathered my thoughts...


    .....


    ...


    ..


    .


    *Boom!


    Another explosion in my face, but this time I couldn''t keep the smile off my lips.


    "I did it! I finally made the cursed seed!"


    While the explosion scared me for a second, the fact that Noah didn''t teleport me meant that I was safe.


    Congratulations, what kind of seed did you make?


    "I made a grass seed from my old world. It was supposed to be an easy task, but it took me longer than expected. Still, I''m happy that it''s all over."


    This small seed that I could barely see was like a child to me. And I didn''t even know if I could grow it in this world.


    "Do you think I can plant it here to see the results?"


    The giant eye from the chest looked at the small dot in my hand before looking away.


    The seed is almost corrupted by the Void.


    "What?!"


    I quickly went to the Crystal and analyzed the seed.


    And as Noah was saying, the Void energy was taking over my hard work.


    "Not on my watch!"


    I tried to push back the Void with the remenets of the seed like I did with the other blocks.


    Only to realize that, this didn''t work on the same principle, since the will of the seed was too weak and died in my hands.


    I fell to my knees, feeling davasted.


    This was my hard work, my child!


    All gone an a few seconds... how I''m I supposed to build a body in this place If it can''t even survive?!


    Are you ok there?


    "Yeah, I just need some time to process what just happend. Even if it was a piece of weed, it was mine! I made it with my own two hands and a simple mind!"


    I just layed on my back, looking at the dark Void with empty eyes.


    "How I''m I supposed to make a body in such a short time? In a few months the Ender Dragon would invade the Nether, and it would be only a matter of time before it moves to the Overworld. Is this a lost cause?"


    A feeling of defeat washed over me, and I wanted to roll in my bed and sleep.


    But I was to tierd to got off the ground.


    You''ve been copped up for while in here. Why don''t we take some fresh air and change the scenery.


    "What are you suggesting?"


    Why don''t you see my extended family?

 Chapter 246. A world filled with Endermans

    I was now in the middle of a huge island with purple houses all around me.


    Far in the distance I could see some Endermans just walking around with difrent kinds of blocks in their hands, mostly from this dimension.


    I would call this a city of The End, but unlike the game, this could be called a proper city with dozens of tall buildings, large streets, and a lot of life.


    If I looked carefully at the sky, I could even see flying ships floating in the Void.


    What an amazing sight to see.


    I was still invisible because of my armor, so I was still safe even in an unknown place.


    I tried to recall how I got here in the first place.


    -----


    Why don''t you see my extended family?


    The sudden proposition broke my sad thoughts for a moment and replaced them with confusion.


    "Are you talking about the Endermans?"


    Yes.


    I was trying to process what just happened.


    Was he trying to be nice to me?


    Is this a trick of his, or am I too sad about the loss that I want to be grumpy?


    "I don''t see a reason to refuse, so why not."


    Good, see you later then.


    And then I felt my guts being pulled and I was teleported in an unknown place.


    ------


    "So do you want me to meet someone specifically, or...?"


    I turned around expecting Noah to be there, only to see more buildings.


    "Did he just ditched me?"


    I didn''t expect him to be someone who likes to pull pranks, but in the same time, Endermans are known to be tricksters.


    Or maybe he got annoyed that I blew up his island, and wanted to have some pace.


    Without a goal in mind, I decided to walk on the long streets, seeing Endermans left and right.


    And while I did see a lot of them, I felt that their numbers were considerably lower than the size of the city.


    It was also interesting to find out, what the children''s looked like, since in the game they didn''t exist.


    The smallest one reached up to my neck, while the tallest Enderman was the classic 3 blocks tall.


    They didn''t wear clothes or any other accessories, which made me wonder how they differentiate one from another.


    As I watched them over a safe distance, I saw some of them stop in the middle of the street and make hand gestures towards each other like they were talking.


    But their mouths didn''t move, which made me wonder If they could talk telepathically.


    Can Violet talk telepathically?


    Why did she talk vocally then?


    Was there something different in the Overworld that stopped that ability?


    I continued to walk around the streets, jumping from time to time since the citizens kept teleporting nearby, and I didn''t want to be found out yet.


    Suddenly, I saw a building that looked different from the others.


    It had a sign on it that said "Fruit Cafe".


    Intrigued, I entered and looked inside.


    There, I saw some tall tables that made me feel like a child, with some Endermans sitting around in silence while eating something strange from a purple bowl.


    I was quite curious about what they ate since I''ve never seen Violet be interested in this kind of activity in the first place besides when she''s very exusted.


    So I got closer to one of the unsupervised bowls and managed to quickly put it in my inventory.


    There, I was intrigued to see that it was Chorus Porige, which was most likely made from the Chorus Fruit.


    Would this teleport me if I ate it like the fruit?


    The others didn''t seem to be affected, but at the same time, they were very different from me.


    Not wanting to get into trouble, I placed the bowl back and looked around some more, hoping to see anything else that would catch my attention.


    To my disappointment, there wasn''t anything interesting. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Just plain furniture that decorated the purple space.


    Should I try talking with them?


    I was hesitant to do that since I didn''t know how they would react.


    They were Endermans, after all, but at the same time, they were ex-humans.


    Noah wouldn''t send me to see his family if it wasn''t safe, right?


    In the end, I decided to risk it and talk with one of them.


    But I wasn''t reckless enough to talk in the middle of the city.


    I wasn''t worried that I would lose the fight, but I was worried that Noah would get angry if I accidently killed someone in self-defense.


    Maybe Violet would be angry as well, but she didn''t talk too much about her family, so I didn''t know.


    In the end, I walked outside the city and saw a lone Enderman that was hanging at the edge of the island, looking into the Void.


    I don''t know how he could do that, but I guess that fact that you can teleport at will does dull your fear of heights...or death.


    "Hey there, can you understand me?"


    Suddenly the Enderman disappeared, leaving a trail of purple particles that I could follow.


    <You''re a weird-looking kid, how did you get so close to me without me noticing you, and where are your parents?>


    A voice spoke into my head, similar to how Alexa usually does.


    "Sorry to startle you like that, and I''m not a kid, so I don''t need parent''s supervision."


    <Why do you keep talking so weirdly? How do you talk outside your head?>


    Now, this is an interesting reaction.


    "That''s how I normally talk. I''m not an Enderman after all, I''m a human."


    <A human? Like the ones from the past? Like the ones from the Overworld, our old homeland?>


    So they do know a little about their history, but how much did Noah tell them?


    "Yes, you could say that. But a lot changed while you were gone, and I''m a little exception to that rule. As you can see, I''m in your dimension after all."


    <Wait a minute...a human with weird armor that gets into trouble no matter where he goes...that sounds very familiar. Are you, by any chance her human?>


    No way even the Endermans in this dimension know about me!


    "I don''t know what your talking about, this is the first time I got here."


    <No, I think you are the right person. You''re the one who gets into trouble without the Enderwoman interfering. You also can come back from the dead for some reason, and there are others like you, but not as entraining.>


    The more he talked, the more excited he got, like he was meeting a celebrity in real life, making me feel awkward.


    "Do you know the name of the Enderwoman by any chance?"


    <Name? We don''t use names in here unless Father decides we''re special in some kind of way. But the one who followed you is an Enderwoman, about 4 blocks tall, and can turn invisible at will.>


    Yep, that clears it, it''s Violet with no doubt.


    <Maybe that''s why you don''t know about her since, she tends to stay hidden and observe from a safe distance.>


    "No, I know about her. I just didn''t expect to be recognized in such a place."


    <How can''t I recognize you? Your a legend in The End! Is it true that you once fought a whole Fortress filled with skeletons by yourself, without diamond armor?>


    He knows about that as well!?


    That was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.


    The Wither Skeleton King was a man that I don''t even know how it came to be.


    He was Monster Lord, but not made by the Ender Dragon. Not only that, but I think he would''ve had a good chance of taking over the Overworld if I didn''t stop him.


    The only reason I defeated him, is because I tricked him into being spliced by a portal.


    <Yeah, I also think it''s too much. I mean, she was also telling how you enslaved a God made by our elders to do your bidding and then created another God that even the System couldn''t kill! I think she was just talking nonsense to get more attention.>


    I wouldn''t say that I enslaved Alexa, but at the same time, I am its only master...


    As for the God creation stuff, I think he''s referring to the Wither, which doesn''t bring joyful memories.


    I didn''t expect Violet to be a gossiper.


    I was now more embarrassed to talk with the others since they seemed to know a lot about my embarrassing past.


    Violet was with me from the very beginning, so she knows a lot about me.


    "Well, it was fun talking with you. But I think I heard my name being called by your Father, and I don''t want to make the man wait for me."


    I turned around and was about to leave, only to be stopped by another Enderwoman who appeared in front of me.


    <Is it true that you''re the human that she bragged about?>


    "Wha- how did you know that I was here?"


    Another Enderman appeared.


    <Is this how humans look? They truly are fearsome as they say.>


    More and more Endermans appeared, and my mind was being bombarded by telepathic links, which made my head a mess.


    "EVERYONE SHUT UP!"


    Then my mind went silent, and I could finally hear my thoughts again.


    "Ok, I''ll answer some basic questions so you won''t fry my brain. Yes, I am the human Violet was talking about. No, I do not have that kind of relationship with her. Yes, I am human, but also different from the others since your Father made my body. And no, I do not eat children that don''t listen to their parents!"


    By the end of my rambling, I was gasping for air and felt light-headed.


    After a few moments of that, I looked around once again, only to see that the group got even bigger, and I couldn''t leave this place unless I teleported.


    So I put a bed down and accepted my fate by lying comfortably in it.


    "Ok, since I won''t be leaving this place any time soon, I''ll answer some questions. But! You''ll chose someone as your spokesman and he can ask the questions for you. I don''t want my mind to be fried again."


    With that said, I sat comfortable on the bed while munching on my golden apples with a smirk.


    Choosing a spokesman was a genius idea, since a group of curios individuals would always argue on which question was more important then the others.


    And my theory was proven right, since the first question aperead only after 30 minutes of silent arguments between the Endermans.


    I had to say, that it was a funny sight to see how they expressed theirs frustrations through their long arms while I didn''t hear the context.


    <We want to ask you, if you have any other blocks from the Overworld. The old folks from here say that you''ll be reworded if you gave some to us.>


    The one who spoke, was the Endeman that I saw at the edge of the island. But his first request took me by surprise.


    Then I rembered that Endermans like to pick block in general, and they even bound with them, so this was quite a big request from their perspective.


    Not seeing a reason to refuse then, I placed down a few blocks that I had.


    Wood, planks, obsidian, torches, lamps, bookshelves and other items that I manged to get from trading before I was teleported to this place.


    At every new block I placed, there were wilder and wilder reactions of Endermans wanting to get close and inspect the items, but had to restraint themselves since that''s the deal they made.


    When I placed an Ender Chest down to get more blocks, I heard an old voice speak into my head.


    <Would it be ok for you, if I use the chest for a moment?>


    "Sure, I don''t see a problem."


    The Ender Chest, was one of the few blocks that the Endermans couldn''t pick up since it was made of obsidian, so I wasn''t afraid he would run off with it.


    The Endeman teleported in front of the chest and opend it without a problem before pulling out a book from inside.


    He must be one of the humans that were alive when the disaster happened.


    I wondered how he was still alive, and if there were others like him?


    The Enderman looked through the pages and gave a creepy smile, similar to how Violet smile''s when she was playing with redstone.


    Clearly he was happy with what he got.


    <I think I got some good payment for you young man. How would you like some ancient knowledge?>


    This sudden visit may have been the best decision that I made since I got to this dimension.

 Chapter 247. New information

    "You want to give me ancient knowledge?"


    <Yes, I''m very sure that''s the reason you are here in the first place.>


    I mean, it wasn''t specifically for this, but I wasn''t going to stop him from teaching me some forbidden knowledge.


    The question was if he had something useful for the upcoming battle.


    "I don''t know how time works in here, but in the Overworld a few hundred years have passed. Do you think you have more valuable information than what the world has now?"


    The Enderman began to laugh weirdly with a few others in the back.


    <Just a few moments ago you would''ve given us those blocks by the kindness of your heart. But now that you have something to gain, you''ve got a change of heart. I can see why she was so amused by your situation, you have a natural talent for getting into trouble.>


    That was a complete change in his personality and I didn''t expect this.


    I mean I indeed wanted to get more information out of this, but he didn''t have to spill the beans to everyone.


    Should I prepare for a fight?


    <Don''t worry, I''m not mad at you, and I''m still willing to trade with you even if we''re at a disadvantage. But I wanted to warn you that you''re not dealing with countryside bumpkins anymore, but the people who managed to reach the pinnacle of a brutal society. And don''t forget, we were powerful enough that the System felt threatened by us.>


    The System didn''t feel threatened, it was just pissed that Noah opened a way to The End and destroyed a few continents.


    And it''s not hard to get hated by the System. I managed to do it in only 2 years and kind of got rid of it in 3.


    "Ok, then I''ll try to get the most out of you old man."


    He laughed out loud before he turned his head towards the crowd that had some angry Endermans looking at him.


    <Looks like I''ll have to talk with you later, or the youngsters will rip me apart, no matter my status.>


    Then he disappeared making the crowd look at me now.


    "Well, I placed all the items that I have from my inventory. So unless you want me to craft some stuff, we can continue to the next question."


    But the crowd was more interested in the blocks, completely forgetting the interest they showed me beforehand.


    Seeing that I didn''t have any other choice, I decided to craft a few stuff for fun, such as sticks, crafting tables, doors, trap doors, different kinds of armor, a furnace, and everything that I could craft with my limited supply of items.


    The group of Endermans got bigger and bigger, and some fell in love with the items at first sight and tried to steal them and run away.


    Only to be quickly caught by their elders and given a stern lecture about their actions.


    I wondered If they had something similar to the Internet with how fast the information was spreading, and I was kind of right about that.


    From what I managed to gather from the younger Endermans when a large group is forming, their brainwave connects and manages to reach larger distances in the Void, which alerts other Endermans that something fun is going on here.


    But when a large number of Endermans connect, there''s a high chance that chaos would ensue since they tend to act on emotions instead of rationality.


    That''s why Elders were so Important in this society.


    They had enough experience and were mature enough to keep everyone in control if things got bad.


    I don''t know how they did that, but they were highly respected, even though incidents like this rarely happened.


    After some back and forth with the Endermans, we reached an agreement where I would get some of their unique equipment in exchange for my blocks.


    With how desperate the young Endermans looked, I think they were willing to sell their soul if necessary, but the Elders were there to keep everyone in check.


    After everything was done, they were shooed away, and only a few Elders remained with tired expressions on their faces.


    <Sorry about that, we don''t usually have exacting events like this. So things got out of hand really quickly.>


    <Last time anything similar happened, was when she came back from the Overworld, which was thought to be impossible. She has grown quite powerful since the last time we saw her. I think she''s more powerful than us at this point, but don''t tell her that.>


    Another Elder spoke while winking at me.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    <Yeah, but it was nowhere near this level of attention. So your name would not be forgotten for quite a few decades, young man.>


    Oh wow, now I''m a celebrity in another dimension.


    Maybe I should sign some autographs before I''ll leave.


    "Speaking of Violet, have you seen her?"


    <Violet? Is that how you named her? And interesting play of words, but no we didn''t see her. We expected to be near you all at all times, but since she didn''t appear at all. That must mean she''s not here.>


    Did she not get here with me when I was teleported?


    She did get stronger recently, but I don''t know if it was enough to cross dimensions.


    Especially when there was a seal made by the System to keep them as far as possible from each other.


    Well, she''s strong enough to take care of herself. I''m the one most likely in danger anyway.


    "I can''t help but notice that you all, Violet and Noah, look very different from each other."


    Some of the old Endermans teleported on my bed while I was away, clearly enjoying the softens of the mattress.


    <So Noah told you his name. I guess he wouldn''t like you to call him Father. As for why we look so different, it''s because of how our bodies works.>


    The last time I checked the Crystal with Alexa, it told me that the Ender body was the pinnacle of what the Crystal could create.


    But if that''s the end, then why do they all look so different and have different powers?


    "Can you elaborate?"


    <We, the Enderman species have an interesting life cycle. We have a long lifespan of an unknown amount, so we don''t find the need to make children, most of the ones that you see on the streets are made because the parents are bored and want to be busy with something for a few decades. Not the best parents but that''s how it is. As they slowly grow, they learn how to teleport and absorb the Void energy to grow more powerful. That''s when they split into 2 groups: the ones who want to find the item that would complete their soul, and the ones who decided to create their own item through the Crystal.>


    Wait, so they know how to use the Crystal as well?


    Maybe I should ask them to teach me instead of Noah, to get a different perspective.


    <Violet, as you call her, chose the first option. She was a smart girl but wasn''t interested in learning how to use the Crystal, so she explored the whole reachable Void with no success. That''s when she made the decision to go into the Overworld to make her life more exciting. We, the old folks, see it as a punishment, but the new blood who didn''t know the whole truth of the horrors we did, saw that as a dreamland. She passed the Father''s test and was sent to the Overworld. Now the reason why we all look so different, is that we are creatures made to evolve. We consume a lot of Void energy and shape our bodies in a way that would help us pursue the other half of our soul. We look like this because we found our soul in blocks or common items, and it was easy to keep it safe in this form. Your owner, instead, found a living being as her soulmate. Not only that, but this part of her soul was very reckless with his life, which forced her body to change and adapt in such a way that it would keep you safe. That''s why she can turn invisible, to not bother your social life and teleport living beings, which only Father can do. As for her size, it''s mostly likely because of the Monster Lords, she needs to compete with them after all.>


    That was a lot of information in one go, what I''m I supposed to do with this new found knowledge?


    She changed so much because of me?


    Why did she choose me in the first place?


    Was she really that entertained by me, or did Noah send her to keep an eye on me?


    I didn''t know what to think anymore, so I asked more questions afraid of the true answer.


    "So are you saying that she sees me as an item?"


    <Not really, if she did see you like that, you wouldn''t had the freedom to get into more trouble. She most likely fell in love with you but didn''t realize it, which is a very dangerous thing for Endermans to have such strong emotions.>


    I knew that as well, I just didn''t want to face the truth.


    She was the definition of a stalker if you think about it.


    "Wait a minute. Why do you think she dosen''t know she loves me? Didn''t you say that your species make children and raise it together? Aren''t they choosing their partner out of love?"


    Now most of the Elders turned away in embarrassment.


    <Well you see, we are former humans that have lost our loved ones in the Nether incident. That made all of us very closed emotionally, and after our changes it became even worse. So when I''m saying that Endermans choose to raise a kid becouse their bored, I meant it. They search for an Enderwoman with similar feelings and just hang around with each other while they keep themselves busy with the kid. They don''t know love, beacouse nobody showed it to them.>


    Some of them were embarrassed to say this, while others didn''t care.


    Clearly this was a problem that wouldn''t be solved in one day, and I already had enough problems on my plate.


    "Then why did you say that it''s dangerous for Endermans to have strong emotions?"


    <Hate, sadness and other temporary emotions are not that bad to deal with. But when it comes to love, especially the one that completes your soul, it''s a different matter. Let''s just say that there are 2 Endermans in our whole history to properly fall in love. One is Violet, and the other one is the Father.>


    That new information froze my brain for a moment.


    "And who did he fall in love with?"


    If Violet got so big and powerful to protect me from danger.


    What kind of danger was Noah trying to protect his loved one?


    The Elders looked at each other not knowing if they should continue.


    "You''ve already told me so much, what''s the point of stopping now?"


    After a few more glances, they decided to spill the beans.


    <He fell in love with the Ender Dragon.>


    That was shocking but it also made a lot of sense.


    <We observed that when he fell In love with her, he slowly drifted apart from us and concentrated on her. It''s been a long time since we last saw him. At this point, I think the Dragon is his real family.>


    Is this why he calls them the extended family and the real one?


    That would be rough to hear, so I would keep my mouth shut.


    But then, why was he chained up to those obsidian pillars?


    I assumed that he was punishing himself for that happened in the Overworld.


    I saw it more as a symbol since those chains couldn''t keep him in place.


    But if he loves the Void, then that action would make no sense.


    I was missing some crucial information, and I had to find out as soon as possible.


    "Ok dear Elders, things got a lot more complicated then I thought. And I need your help with something that could save the Overworld."


    An unknown spark was suddenly lit in their eyes.


    POV: Violet


    I was teleporting from island to island while being invisible so the others won''t bother me.


    My human suddenly disaperead when he was trading, and I felt that he was here in The End.


    But no matter how much I looked I couldn''t find him!


    It was so hard to get in here as well, I was unconscious for a few weeks from using all the energy.


    But I couldn''t stop now, if Father is the one who has him, he was in manse danger, I needed to save him no matter the cost.


    Suddenly, I felt my soul being pulled.


    "Found you!"


    Then I teleported away.

 Chapter 248. Lets go and meet her!

    I''ve talked with the Elders for a while, and what I learned was quite interesting.


    First, we''re the items that were given to me in exchange for my items.


    One of them was something which I always wanted since it was so useful.


    An Elytra!


    When I asked what it was for, they told me that it was a safety item for children.


    An Enderman is not good at teleporting from the beginning, it actually takes a lot of time and practice.


    The wings helped the children have a second chance If they accidentally teleported into the Void.


    The adults don''t use it anymore, since it''s less efficient than teleporting.


    Nevertheless, I was still happy to get this item, and I couldn''t wait to try it when I''ll got the chance.


    The second item was a device that gathered the surrounding energy in one place and stored it.


    I was told that it wasn''t a good idea for me to use it here, since the Void energy is harmful to the human body.


    When I asked them what they were talking about, they told me to get my armor off to test it myself.


    After a few minutes of staying without my armor, I felt like something was trying to take over my mind, so I quickly put it back on.


    From what I was told, the Void energy was much thicker around the Ender Dragon, and only Noah could stay near her.


    So, if I didn''t build a body strong enough to withstand her presence, I wouldn''t have the chance to meet with her.


    That''s just more stress added to the plate.


    I also got a few more interesting items, but like the others, I couldn''t use them yet, since the Void was a dangerous place to test them.


    So I tried to ask the Elders what their opinion was about the Void, and surprisingly, they were neutral about it instead of hating it.


    <I don''t know if Noah did something to us when he changed us, but as time passed, we saw this as a deserved punishment for all the human experiments we allowed back home. That''s why we didn''t attempt to leave this place as well.>


    When I told them the situation of the Overworld, they looked very concerned.


    <So you''re saying that the System called for heroes to fight the Monster Lords, and now there are 3 of them, ravaging the world.>


    "It''s not that bad, since the 3 kingdoms are working together to get rid of them."


    The others smirked at my remark, not expecting them to have the strength to fight back.


    Which kind of pissed me off.


    "Don''t underestimate the people of this time. They have Iron golems, Netherite weapons, and Witches that can brew some dangerous potions. And that not including the kingdom from the Nather that is the most powerful faction."


    They sounded impressed by what I said, but I still had to explain some things since they got exiled and didn''t know about the Iligers, Witches or the Nether Kingdom.


    I was then sidetracked with a rough history lesson on what happened after they left the Overworld.


    "Wait, we don''t have time for this. We have more urgent matters! Noah wants to make a world where The End and the Overworld can coexist. Do you think that''s possible?"


    The Elders looked at me and laughed out loud, taking me by surprise.


    <Sorry kid, but that''s a dream even the almighty Noah can''t fulfill. We don''t know too much about the battle that happened between the System and the Void, but their energies don''t mix well. You can see what happened to the blocks that got stuck in the Void.>


    He said that as he was showing me the floating islands.


    <Actually, I''m surprised the System won that battle at all, since the energy in this dimension is greater then the Overworlds.>


    "Then what do you think Noah wants to do?"


    <We don''t know, but we do know that he''s the one who knows the System the best, so maybe he wants to make a deal with it.>


    He had so many chances to talk with the System.


    He managed to send my body into the Overworld without a problem, he could''ve sent a Monster Lord of his to communicate with the System if he wanted to.


    But most importantly, why was he trying to do something now when the System was gone?Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Was I looking too much into it?


    "How much do you know about the Crystals?"


    <Boy, we may not be as good as the Father when it comes to energy manipulation, but we were the ones who created the Crystals in the first place. And we had plenty of time to master that skill.>


    That was good to hear, so I placed the Crystal in front of me, which took them by surprise.


    <What is that?>


    "Oh, you don''t know about this? So the System was kind of impressed with the achievement you did and made a craftable Crystal that it''s easier to use. You can look at it if you want to, just be careful not to hit it, or it will explode. "


    They all gathered around and studied with great enthusiasm for a few good minutes, and they hadn''t even opened its system yet.


    They looked like excited kids with a new toy and could barely hold themselves from giggling with excitement.


    Finally, after a few more spins, someone placed his hand on it and began creating something.


    Just like that, a purple bunny appeared in the world.


    I say a bunny, but it looked a little different from the ones in the Overworld.


    This one was bigger and had black eyes with wings on its back.


    It was quite creepy to see.


    The others were socked as well from what I could tell, but I didn''t know if my guess was right since I couldn''t hear their telepathically conversation.


    In the end, I had to wait for all of them to try, which took around an hour.


    But at least it was entertaining to watch.


    I saw someone try to create a huge diamond block, but it had a paller blue then normal.


    Another one tried to make a white Enderman, but the other stopped him quickly and killed it since it would create some problems if the youngsters saw it for some reason.


    But by the end, everyone was impressed by my Crystal.


    <The System always knew how to make things efficient. It would be much harder to get back to our own Crystals now. I''m sure you''re quite good yourself if you had this to practice with.>


    This made me blush a little since I used them as bombs most of the time.


    But I think it''s better if I didn''t tell them that.


    "I wouldn''t say that I''m that good, I only have little experience with them. The only thing that I can do is to change the properties of an existing block to something else."


    <That''s not nothing, but it''s not too much either. Who was your teacher?>


    "The Fake System you created and recently Noah."


    When I said Alexa''s name, they all froze in place like deer in a headlight.


    <You found it and managed to get such high access to it?>


    "I''m actually the only one who has access to it, and it''s now the God of the Nether and the reason the Overworld is still safe."


    It was quite funny to see how their jaw dropped in shock.


    It was almost as entraining as seeing Bobby''s reactions when I told him about my stories.


    Unfortunately, I didn''t know when Noah would bring me back so I had to quickly change the subject.


    "Well anyway, I now have to meet the Ender Dragon, but my body won''t survive the encounter. And while I know that Noah could solve that by making me a new body, I don''t trust him that much, since he could have more control over my body."


    The more I talked the more confused they seemed, and I was beginning to wonder if they couldn''t understand what I was talking about.


    <Sorry young man, you''ll have to tell us the whole story so we''ll know what you''re talking about.>


    Oh boy, how much should I tell them?


    I won''t tell them about the fall of the System since that would be too much of a shock.


    I''ll tell the short version of how I came here in the first place.


    After another half an hour, I managed to tell them the essentials and how important it was for me to learn how to make my own body.


    <So let me get this straight, Noah kidnapped your soul from another world and forced you to live in the Overworld. In that time, you managed to find some of the most hidden secrets of the world, got a forbidden weapon from the System, accidentally let a hole into the System''s spatial defense, and got summoned by Noah for completing the Trading skills, but he only teaches you how to use the old Crystal instead of the new, and better one. Oh boy, no wonder Violet grew so powerful so fast, you''re a walking calamity.>


    "That''s rude, I''ve done some good deals as well."


    They''re shocked with only this? It was a good thing I didn''t tell them the whole story.


    <Well kid, I''m sure you''ll be remembered for generations to come if the Overworld won''t end. But let''s get to work now. If you want to create a body as fast as possible, then it''s better to use the Crystal made by the System. I understand what Noah is trying to teach you, but we don''t have enough time for you to make a solid base. We need to speedrun through this so you can speak with the Ender Dragon.>


    The other Elders got closer to me and began to give me some books that had their own research about the use of the Crystal.


    <Making a flesh body is not that hard, the difficult part would be to make it resistant to the Void energy. Can I see your mace first?>


    I took out my mace and let the Elder see it.


    He took it and looked at it through the Crystal.


    <This is a weapon worthy to be praised. The System went all out with this. Your worries should be partially solved with this. Not only do you have absolute control over it, but not even Noah would be able to take it from you. The soul biding tehnic is marvellous, and I think it can help you keep your body in control.>


    "What are you talking about?"


    The Elder looked closely at some graphics then back at me.


    <If you have this wepon in your hand, your mind should be safe from Noah. I think you can also fight back if he tried to take control over your body. But you have to have it in your hand at all times.>


    That was an interesting piece of information, and it was good to know.


    I should keep it out as much as possible then.


    Plus the free energy is always welcomed.


    <Now, creating a body would take some time. But what it would take you more time is the room for your soul. If you want to move your soul from one body to another, it''s room has to be perfectly shaped after your soul, otherwise you''ll have problems. Now the Crystal does give you some data on your soul, but not enough to make a room, so you''ll have to make a lot of calculations. This step is very important, so do it with someone you trust.>


    That sounded very important, but it wasn''t that big of a problem for me.


    "Don''t worry, I''ve already seen the shape of my soul becouse of a ritual. Not the most pleasant experience, but I was a prisoner so I didn''t have a choice."


    The others stood in silence and looked at me like I just told then the sky was red.


    Was it really that shocking that I knew the shape of my soul?


    "And what''s the next step?''


    <Sorry, when you made the body and the soul room. You would merge them together and put someone you trust to transfer your soul to the new body.>


    Ok, I think I can arrange that with Alexa.


    "I understand the principle, can you show me how to make a body resistant to the Void?"


    Suddenly, I felt my guts being pulled, and the scenery changed.


    I was now back into Noah''s island, where the owner stood outside the chains with a big smile.


    Good news! I found a way where you can talk with the Ender Dragon.


    Let''s go and meet her!

 Chapter 249. The story of the Void

    "What?"


    Before I could mutter another word, I was teleported once again, but this time above the Void.


    "YOU''RE GOING TO KILL ME!!"


    I quickly opened my cape to slow the fall but saw that it wasn''t necessary.


    Somehow, I was floating in the Void without feeling anything.


    It was a weird sensation.


    As I was looking around, I saw Noah with a smile looking in the front, which made me do the same.


    But all I could see was more of the same Void.


    I was about to ask Noah what he was looking at, when in the distance, I could see a block dot getting bigger.


    I didn''t know how fast we were traveling, but the Void energy was getting ticker, and I could feel it bypass my armor.


    This wasn''t good, I was going to die at this rate .


    "Noah, are you trying to kill me?"


    What? Oh, I forgot to put the shield on you. Sorry about that.


    Suddenly, I was in a purple sphere, and the pressure was now gone, making me sigh in relief.


    "What''s with the sudden change, Noah? I thought I wouldn''t meet her until I got my new body."


    I also thought the same, but after I talked with her, she said that she was interested in meeting with you.


    The whole time he was talking with me, his focus had never changed from the growing black dot.


    She''s a beauty, isn''t she?


    When the Elders told me about Noah''s love, I didn''t expect it to be so bad.


    No wonder they said that strong emotions are dangerous for the Endeman species.


    They didn''t see anything besides their loved ones.


    Did Violet look the same at me while she''s invisible?


    Let''s not think too much about this and concentrate on what''s about to come.


    I checked everything that I had on me and realized that I was missing some important items because I was suddenly teleported and left them with the Elders.


    This is going to be much harder than I wanted to.


    As the black dot grew bigger, I held the mace in my hand, feeling the energy in the storage growing.


    The closer we got, the more shocked I was.


    In front of us was a huge floating island made completely with black blocks like coal.


    On the island, there were 10 obsidian towers with System Made Crystal on top, all shooting a white laser beam towards the same place.


    In the center, stood a huge dragon with 2 pairs of wings, 5 eyes, sharp claws, and a huge pole of Bedrock running through her chest that was pinning her to the ground.


    Even though she wasn''t looking at me, and I was protected by the purple barrier, I felt that her presence alone could crush me in an instant.


    "How did the System even fight something like this?"


    I mumbled to myself.


    No matter how often I met the System, I didn''t feel such a powerful presence.


    Finally, we arrived at our destination, and she was now looking at us with all of her eyes, and I felt the space around us freeze.


    My love! I brought him here as requested.


    Noah was suddenly acting like a dog that wanted to be praised, which made me feel disgusted.


    Then I quickly realized that he could just offer me to the dragon as a snack, and I couldn''t do anything about it.


    I said I wanted to talk with him, not you as well.


    The Dragon answered back, but it felt that the whole dimension was talking with me.


    But love. He can''t talk to you unless I''m here to protect him from your greatness!


    Noah quickly responded, clearly not wanting to leave so soon.


    Looks like their relationship isn''t that good at the moment.


    Do I have to be the bridge between those 2 as well?Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    You think that I''m not strong enough to control my presence?!


    The dragon yelled back.


    From the tone of her voice, it was like Noah accused her of being fat.


    N-no, I would-


    Suddenly, the huge Enderman disappeared, making my shield pop, leaving me in danger.


    Or so I thought.


    I think I fell for one block and hit an invisible barrier.


    Not only that, but I could actually breathe and not be crushed by the Void.


    I was still in shock, but held my mace tightly, hoping that it would be enough to keep me alive for a few more seconds I''m case things got bad.


    Is that the key he was talking about?


    I felt the mace being pulled from my arm with force, but since I was holding it so tight, my arm was ripped off with the mace.


    I screamed in pain and quickly took out an enchanted golden apple to regenerate the arm.


    After a few seconds of breathing heavily, I had my arm back and was looking at the dragon with hatred.


    The dragon didn''t seem to care as she studied the mace with the eye on her forehead.


    She was so big, that even I was only the size of one of her eyes.


    And not even the big one.


    I see, not even I can take it from you by force. Looks like we''ll have to use his plan in the end. You can have the key back. Now leave from my presence.


    The mace was thrown at me, and I quickly caught it, and suddenly, I felt a force pushing me away like the wind.


    But I didn''t come all the way here to be humiliated like this and thrown away like a rag.


    So when I had the mace in my hand, I created a force field around me, similar to how Noah did, and tried to fight back.


    It ate a lot of energy to maintain, but it was strong enough to stop the push and pin me in place.


    Why do you fight back? You know you don''t stand a chance against me.


    "I didn''t come all the way here just to be thrown away like nothing. I want to save the Overworld, and I want to save you as well. But I can''t do it if you won''t let me."


    I felt that the force stopped for a moment, and the dragon spoke with a concerned voice.


    Did you also fall in love with me?


    "What? No! Why would you think that?"


    I don''t know too much about love, but I don''t want to have another creep like the man before you, follow me around. I can''t kill him, but I can easily do it with you, key or not.


    Well, this was some shocking news to hear, but I didn''t have time to think about it since I was going to die if I didn''t speak.


    "Don''t worry, I didn''t fall in love with you. I much prefer women from my old world. What I want is to stop you from destroying the Overworld and kill all of my friends!"


    The dragon narrowed her eyes.


    It''s nice to have friends, isn''t it?


    To have beings that can understand you no matter who you are.


    I felt that I stroked a cord that I shouldn''t have.


    Do you realize how annoying it is to live with an arrow stuck in your stomach that tries to change the essence of the very being you are?


    And the only help you can get is from a weirdo that claims to love you, but it all feels forced and disgusting?


    I''ve met 2 beings that could stand in my presence without dying, and one of them tried to kill me while the other tried to shove his love down my throat.


    I know what love looks like, I know what friendship looks like!


    I''ve seen it all in the Overworld, and even that was taken from me because I wanted a piece of it as well!


    By the end, I could feel that the whole dimension was trembling with her fury.


    I didn''t know what to do.


    "I-I can be your friend if you want to."


    The dragon put her head back on the ground and closed her eyes in defeat.


    You''re only saying that because you don''t want me to invade the Overworld.


    I mean, that''s the main reason, but that doesn''t mean that I can''t be friends with her.


    "Well, I can''t deny that it''s part of the reason. But why don''t we talk about each other, and if you like it, we could become friends afterward. If you don''t, I would leave you be and prepare for the final battle."


    The dragon lifted her head and smirked.


    But she still choose to talk.


    Once upon a time, a powerful dragon lived alone in an empty space, surrounded by darkness and loneliness.


    As time passed the loneliness became worse and worse.


    She could create life with a single thought, but all worshipped her, when she was looking for a friend.


    So, she decided to look for other worlds to find an answer. She opened portals that could see through space and time but found only the endless darkness looking back at her.


    When she was ready to accept her fate, she finally stumbled across a world.


    It was a strange world, with different colors then the cold black.


    But that wasn''t the only difference.


    There was a vast amount of knowledge and beauty on the other side, what surprised her even more, was its unique shape.


    She couldn''t open a portal big enough for her to go through, so she decided to bring blocks of land into the void, it was the first color brought onto her black canvas, it was beautiful, so she kept taking more into the Void, not a lot, just a cube from here and there.


    But after some time, the Void started to corrupt the blocks, and the colors started to change from green and gray to white and yellow. This saddened her, so she tried to bring more, more quickly, but this caught the attention of the world.


    The will of the world didn''t like to be robbed, so it attacked the dragon. The dragon panicked and tried to cut the connection with the world, but it was too late, the world latched onto her, and began the battle.


    But the almighty dragon wasn''t weak, and the two fought for an unknown amount of time.


    In the end, nobody won, the will of the world started to lose its power and get corrupted, while the dragon was pinned into one place as a last attempt at victory.


    The arrow was special since it changed her into a cubed-shaped being and drove her into a madness of pain.


    She tried to fight back for an unknown amount of time and slowly adapted to the curse.


    But one day, someone appeared to alleviate the pain with towers and Crystals, at the price of the curse becoming a part of her.


    Now, she was waiting for the time to come when she would be free from her shackles and get ravaged for her injustice.


    She said her story from an outsiders view, which told me that she spend a lot of time thinking about this.


    I now knew the full picture, I had all the pices to complete to puzzle.


    She is more like a child that wanted a companion but couldn''t find or create one.


    The System was not an emotional being, and since it didn''t know what kind of creature the Void was, it only assumed the worst from her, resulting in this conflict.


    I would say that the System is at fault in this equation, but in the same time it responded like that to defend its home.


    This problem is very complicated, but I think we can come to a conclusion if we talk some more.


    She''s only mad at the unfairness of the System, not at its people.


    Actually the people helped her, so there was some trust built which we can work with.


    "I''m-"


    Before I could even begin my speech, space began to tramble and my mace glew with powerful golden light.


    AAAAHHHHHHHH!


    The dragon screamed in pain, as the pillar of Bedrock lit up in golden flames.


    What was happening?!

 Chapter 250. Betrayal

    The Ender Dragon yelled in pain as the arrow produced more and more flames.


    Not only that, but it seems that my mace was connected with the arrow as well.


    Is this a failsafe that the System put in case I met the Ender Dragon?


    But why did it start now? We were talking for quite a while and I didn''t have any intention of harming her.


    The space began to tremble once again like something was about to break.


    Is this all because of my mace?


    I put the weapon back into my inventory, hoping that this madness would stop.


    But that turned out to be the biggest mistake I made since I came to this world.


    "Finally! You let your guard down stupid dragon!"


    Y-you...you betrayed me!


    "How can I betray you when there was nothing to betray"


    Why was I saying this?!


    This is the opposite of what I wanted to do, but I lost complete control over my mind and body.


    I''ll kill yo-AAAAHHHHH!


    The flame on her back got brighter resulting in more pain.


    I was still not in control of my body, but I was grinning with satisfaction like a madman.


    Suddenly, a purple hand appeared around me, holding me tight.


    What did you do to her? Stop it this instant!


    Noah appeared on the scene with an angry face, ready to kill me on sight.


    Kill him!!


    The dragon yelled back.


    And now I had control over my body once again, but I couldn''t get out of the purple hand, no matter how much I struggled.


    We can''t do that, we''ll lose the key to the arrow!


    Noah tried to reason with her.


    If we didn''t kill him now, I would die from the flames!


    But the dragon was still filled with anger.


    I''ll create him a body, so you can take the soul out and place it there. Before the ownership of the key is transferred, I''ll take control of it.


    What?!


    Was that his plan from the beginning?


    He''s the only one who can control my body, so he must''ve set me up!


    I had to tell her. Otherwise, I would be killed.


    "Wait, I wasn''t the one who activates the arrow! Noah can control my body at will. He''s the one who orchestrated all of this!"


    I tried to plead my case.


    You dare make such lies after you''ve been caught! Do it, Noah.


    The Enderman smiled and created an ugly brown block that had pulsing veins here and there.


    I did not want to live in that body.


    Another arm grabbed me, but this time, it caught my soul and lifted it out of my body, making me scream in pain.


    I felt like my mind was going dark, and I couldn''t do anything.


    I didn''t have any more lives, and because of me, the dragon would be unlisted at her full power to ravage the Overworld.


    A faint voice kept calling from the distance, but I was slowly losing everything.


    "HUNTER!!!"


    Somebody appeared in the middle of the Gods, grabbed my body, and somehow my soul before teleporting closer to the chaotic space.


    "Hunter, wake up! You have to open a portal to the Overworld. The space is breaking down, and a link is being formed, but I''m too weak to make the final connection. You need to use your mace!"


    I was feeling pain, my mind was fuzzy, but I was shocked at most with the mention of my name.


    It''s been so long since I''ve heard it, that it feels strange to hear it.


    You won''t get away with this traitor!


    The dragon was still mad, and I wasn''t in my body yet.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I looked closer at my savior and realized that it was Violet.


    I had so many questions to ask her, but I didn''t have the time.


    So I clumsily swam to my body while Violet tried her hardest to protect me.


    Once I was back, I made sure to take out the mace right as Noah was trying to take over my body once again.


    But this time I was ready and fought back.


    Violet grabbed me and teleported from one place to another as the pressure was rising in the Void.


    We couldn''t continue like this, or we would be killed.


    "Bring me to the unstable space, I''ll open the portal!"


    I didn''t know the coordinates to the Overworld, but at this point, we couldn''t afford to stay here any longer.


    After a few more jumps, she managed to bring me close enough for me to act.


    So I gathered half of the energy I had in my storage and activated the space braking enchant.


    *BOOOOM


    A huge explosion was heard throughout the whole Void, and the space was broken like glass.


    What I did was not an easy matter. With half of the energy I got from the Wither, I managed to break the space in the Nether.


    But while I was in here, I managed to gather the energy equivalent to 100 Withers.


    And I used half of that to break the seal between The End and the Overworld. Something even the Ender Dragon couldn''t do.


    Nooooo


    I could hear the dragon yell in fury and then she stood up and climbed the Bedrock arrow until she was finally free.


    This whole time she was in pain, but her haterade was so strong, that it was enough to push her through it.


    Everyone was mortified to see this.


    Noah was even panicking and began to concentrate the beams of the Crystals at her wound to heal it.


    But the dragon was not going to stop with this.


    Instead, she opened her wings and was getting closer to us at concerning speeds.


    "We got to leave."


    Violet grabbed me and teleported us through the portal.


    I was blinded by light for a few moments, and then I saw a familiar scene that told me that I was in the Overworld.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t enjoy the moment for too long, since I saw that we were teleported in the middle of a battlefield.


    It seemed that we were in a pillar of light, that came from a temple that I didn''trecognise.


    All around us, I could see a huge maze made of obsidian, filled with traps and monsters.


    On the ground, there were people equipped with enchanted armor and even iron golems that were fighting what seemed to be a 3 headed dragon.


    But in comparison with the Ender Dragon, it felt like a cute puppy.


    Unfortunately, the dragon was still too powerful for the people. And I think I would''ve had some problems as well if I didn''t have my mace.


    So, to solve the problem I made a huge sword with my stored energy and split the monster into 2 like it was nothing.


    Even I was shocked by the power of the sword, since I didn''t have a lot of practice with it.


    "Violet, teleport me to the ground, we need to warn the others."


    Without saying anything, she grabbed me, and we were now on the ground with the shocked soldiers.


    Surprisingly I was quite close to Merry, so I quickly warned her to order the troops to leave this place as soon as possible.


    But it was too late.


    Out of the portal, came a huge clawed hand that crashed the obsidian temple like it was nothing.


    Everyone inside was dead, and the pillar of light was slowly losing it''s power.


    Just as I thought the portal would close and cut the dragon''s arm off, she grabbed the edge of the portal with her other hand and tried to open the portal even bigger with brute force.


    And the crazy part about it, it was working.


    She was slowly making the portal bigger.


    But her attempt was stopped when multiple light pillars came from the rubles of the temple.


    They all took the shape of a golden angel, and by some miracle, they all merged into one and created a huge angel that was as big as the portal.


    It seems that the light had an effect on the dragon since she screamed in pain and retreated her hand into the Void.


    Just as the portal was about to close, she looked with the eye on her forehead at me.


    In one year, I would be ready to fight and destroy your world.


    And the portal closed, leaving everyone stunned in silence.


    "What was that?"


    A voice yelled from the rubles of the temple.


    And unfortunately, I knew who it belonged to.


    "Daniel! I''m glad that you are alive. Long time no see, how are you doing?"


    More people came out of the rubles confused at what just happened.


    Most of them weren''t even sure if the war was over.


    "Trader is that you? Where have you been this whole time? We could''ve used your help with the preparations for the war."


    Daniel continued to complain, but I ignored him and searched for familiar faces in the crowd.


    I saw Bobby, Froggy, Merry, Steve, Alex, and quite a few others.


    This was the first time I''d seen so many familiar faces in one place.


    How long was I gone for?


    The base looks amazing, and I don''t even want to think how much obsidian they used.


    Was I gone for a whole year?


    "Hello! Earth to Trader, are you there?"


    Daniel snapped me back to reality, as more people gathered around me.


    "So where have you been Trader? And who is your new friend?"


    Bobby asked with a concerned voice, but I could see the smile on his face.


    I turned around and saw that Violet was still with me and quite visible to the world.


    She has grown quite a bit since the last time I saw her, and I think she has 2 additional wings on her back.


    But even with her scary look, I could tell that she was bearly standing on her feet.


    "Are you ok Violet?"


    She looked at me with a tiered look.


    "Yeah...I''m just a little tired."


    Then she fell face first towards me, which forced me to catch her.


    Otherwise, she would''ve gotten hurt.


    But oh boy, was she heavy.


    After I carefully placed her on the floor, I looked at the people surrounding me who had their weapons out.


    "Please put your weapons down, she''s not a Monster Lord. She''s the one that saved me from the Ender Dragon."


    Everyone looked skeptical at her, and I could understand why after they had just survived a fight with the 3 headed dragon.


    But Bobby knew me long enough to realize what was the problem, or at least trusted me enough on my decisions.


    "Sorry Trader, but we can''t have a monster like her just walking amongst us. We''ll l put her in prison first and decide what to do with her later. You also have to explain yourself where you have been in the past few months."


    Bobby took the charge, and everyone was satisfied with his decision.


    I was just glad that they didn''t try to kill her while she was asleep.


    I was also impressed by the influence Bobby managed to gather while I was away.


    With the new ordered given, the soldiers looked one at each other, clearly not wanting to touch the monster.


    Even though she was asleep, her claws were very sharp, and her aura was very intimidating.


    I let out a loud sigh.


    "Let me try something."


    With my mace out, I tried to imagine a huge slab underneath my friend.


    And luckily, the result came out easy.


    Once she was on the golden slab floating comfortably, I decided to change the shape to one of the bed for maximum comfort.


    The others looked at what I did with their jaw dropped and Daniel was really mad at me for some reason.


    "What are you now, a Golden Lantern? Just throw the monster in the cell and get to the meeting with the others."


    I think I struck a nerve for him, but I did as I was told anyway, since I didn''t want to put her into any more danger.


    After I placed her in the biggest cell, and made sure that nobody would hurt her, I went to the meeting.

 Chapter 251. After the war

    I entered a huge obsidian room with a square table in the middle.


    Everyone was already sitting at it, waiting for my story.


    I looked around the room and its minimalist design, then at the people at the table.


    From their position, I could tell, they already formed some factions.


    Bobby and his general were representing the Stone Kingdom.


    Steve, Alex, Merry, and Aisha had a sad expression, but they were most likely for the Sandstone Kingdome.


    Daniel, with an irritated expression and an unknown face, was representing the Coral Kingdome.


    Froggy and Flora were the surprise guests but most likely represented the Witch Clan.


    And there was one more empty space, which I assumed belonged to the Mad Prince and his faction.


    "Hello everyone! I''m happy to see you all. I hope I didn''t miss too much while I was gone. I would also like to know how much time has passed since I kind of lost the track of time.


    "You''ve been gone for 2 and a half months Trader. It''s not that long, but you missed a few events."


    Bobby was patiently explaining to me.


    "I can tell. I have to say that I''m impressed with what you''ve managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Once I saw the 3 headed dragon outside, I thought that I was gone for a long time."


    Once I mentioned the Monster Lord, everyone tensed up, and Aisha looked extremely angry.


    "We have to thank you for dealing with the Monster Lord. I don''t think we would''ve done it so well without you."


    "How did it appear?"


    "It seems that the 3 Monster Lords merged into one, and its strength was unmeasurable afterwords."


    That sounded like a pain to deal with.


    "Well, I''ll ask for more details later since all of you are tired and curious about what I did while I was away. But before that, let''s get the rest of the group as well since I don''t feel like repeating myself."


    Then I took out my mace and gathered some energy while activating the space break enchantment.


    *Boom!


    I hit the space on my right, and a crack appeared, which showed the Nether.


    Not wanting the crack to heal too quickly, I imagined 2 golden hands holding the edges, which seemed to do the trick.


    "Alexa, it''s me, Trader! Please get the Mad Prince here since we''ll have an important meeting. Actually, get your Allay as well since I don''t want to tell the story twice."


    After I yelled into the Nether, I sat back down and looked at the people who were still shocked at what just happened.


    Their reaction made me smirk, and Bobby was the first one to wake up and see my face.


    It was a good thing that I learned how to use my tools better.


    A few moments later, the Mad Prince and the Second in command were teleported to my crack, and they were taken aback by the situation as well.


    "Come in. It won''t close any time soon, but I don''t want to waste any more energy than necessary."


    The blue angel flew past without a problem, and the Brutes soon followed.


    After everyone got comfortable in their seats, the golden hands disappeared, leaving the space to heal itself.


    "As you can all see, my trip wasn''t truly a waste. I managed to learn how to use my weapon better, and gather some additional information about the upcoming threat."


    Once they heard about the threat, they all got serious.


    "I have to be honest here, we don''t stand a chance against the Ender Dragon, no matter if we prepare for 1 year or 100."


    The mood quickly went down.


    "That''s quite the negative view you have Trader. While you were gone, we''ve managed to grow quite a bit. I, as the president of the Coral Kingdom, can promise you that in a year, we can easily make a weapon that could kill a 3 headed Wyvern."


    Wow, Daniel got quite the promotion while I was away, and the others seemed to trust his word as well.


    "The Nether Kingdom would like to help as well, to wash our hands of the shame of letting the Phantom Lady get away."


    What happened while I was away?


    "I didn''t say that because I don''t think you can grow, I actually think you can with such an amazing alliance. But the dragon you just fought was defeated by me with one attack. Now the Ender Dragon is a much bigger creature that could''ve killed me with just a thought, but the only reason I''m alive, is because the beast was pinned to the ground by an arrow made of Bedrock, it didn''t move for a few hundred of years, and my friend Violet was there to teleport me out of the danger. I didn''t stand a chance."This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Everyone was left speechless.


    If I couldn''t deal any damage to her, who could?


    Bobby was the first to break from the shock, most likely from experience.


    "Trader, I think you need to go into more detail on what happened. Maybe you missed something that we could use."


    Well, the smartest minds in 2 dimensions are in this room, so maybe they could think of something that I missed.


    So, I explain in the beginning how I was someone summoned, not by the System but by another being from the End dimension.


    Then I told them about my Trading skill and how they teleported me to the End after I completed it.


    From there, I explained who Noah was and what I did while I was there, up until the meeting with the dragon, where Noah betrayed me and angered the Ender Dragon enough to get out of the trap while flying to kill me.


    By the end, everyone had a serious expression on their face, trying to process the news that just got.


    To my surprise, the first one to speak was Second in command.


    "So you''re telling us that our ancestors are alive but chose not to come back because they deemed that dimension as a worthy punishment?"


    I don''t know if they could really get back as thwy wished, since the System didn''t have problems with the other Endermans because they were kids and not part of the problem.


    While the Elders were not in the same situation.


    "You could say that. I didn''t manage to talk for too long with them, but from the short lessons they gave me, they are truly belonged to the golden age."


    "Then we don''t stand a chance, even if they didn''t have the Dragon. Noah alone is enough to deal with all of us, and I don''t want to think of what other weapons they have."


    It seems that Second gave up quite fast, which took me by surprise.


    "No, if the Elders were on the same page as Noah, then they wouldn''t try to communicate with you, so that means they wouldn''t fight in this war, or at least not willingly. What troubles me, is the reason why the Ender Dragon decide to wait 1 year to attack?"


    The Mad Prince spoke, and his question made me wonder as well.


    Why did she say that?


    She wasn''t pinned in one place anymore, and she was powerful enough to destroy the System''s barrier even if it wasn''t weakened.


    "I think the arrow did more than pin her in one place. You mention that she was cursed to become a cubic being like us, so she had to fight constantly to maintain herself. But now that she''s free, she would try to heal and then attack us."


    What the Mad Prince said made sense, maybe we could use that.


    "What are you suggesting then Mad Prince?"


    Daniel asked while narrowing his eyes.


    "We should launch an attack while she''s still wounded."


    Everyone got up from their chair and was ready to yell at him, but he raised his hand.


    "I know that you have Mad in your name, but are you actually that crazy? Trader didn''t stand a chance while she was like this, and you want to attack unprepared?"


    Yelled Merry.


    "I didn''t say that we would attack right away. But I suggested we should launch an attack in about 6 to 8 months. With this, we would have some preparation, and take the enemy by surprise."


    Some looked angry, while others contemplated this answer.


    "But even with this plan, the only thing that matters is if Trader can get stranger in such a short amount of time. I don''t know about Alex and Steve, but Trader has a track record of getting stronger at un unprecedented speeds. Now Trader, do you think you can do it this time as well?"


    Everyone was looking at me now, which put quite the pressure.


    Unfortunately for them, their pressure was nothing in comparison to what I had in the End, so I was getting sleepy instead of tense.


    "I have a few ideas on what I could do, but I won''t promise you anything."


    Everyone nodded their head in understanding.


    "Well, that''s the best we could get out of you. Now that''s sorted out, let''s see if this whole mess was worth it or not."


    Daniel shifted all the attention to Steve and Alex, who seemed to be silent the whole meeting.


    "The ritual was interrupted right at the end, so it was a failure."


    Steve said with a monotone voice, which resulted in the whole room letting out curses and depressed sighs.


    "But, we now know the location of the body, and we can get there with no problem!"


    Alex quickly intervened to lift the mood, which worked, but the others were too tired to react anymore.


    "Then it settled, you guys and Trader would go after the System''s body and find out anything that could help us win this fight. While the rest of us would clean up the place and organize ourselves. Any objections?"


    Nobody spoke back, so we all got up and left to our own task.


    I wanted to talk with Bobby and ask what happened while I was gone, but he was the busiest person in the room, so I decided to leave it for another day after making sure that nobody would mess with Violet while I was away.


    Before I left with the duo, I opened another crack in space for the Mad Prince and Second to get back home.


    Alexa decided to stay and follow us to the System''s hidden headquarters.


    Once we were outside the maze, I finally asked the location of the headquarters, since the maze had too many ears.


    "The purpose of our ritual, was to find the location and create a portal towards it, but it seems that the defense system was better then anticipated and it took us longer that we wanted. Becouse of that, the space in the Overworld got so unstable, that the Lady Phantom escaped, and the seal with The End was weakened."


    Oh wow, so this whole mess was their fault?


    I wanted to be mad at them, but I usually tended to make those mistakes, so I didn''t have the right to judge them.


    Plus, their mistake is what saved me life so I couldn''t even be angry about it.


    "Ok, well deal with that later, but where do we have to go now?"


    "We found out the location of our destination is in the middle of the planet, more exactly, beyond the Bedrock floor."


    How did I not think of that?


    I knew that the Bedrock layer could be destroyed in the Nether, so why didn''t I think to do the same in the Overworld?


    Well the idea of having a base on the moon or the sun was still a plausible one.


    "Let''s get down then, I know how to broke those blocks, so it shouldn''t be a problem."


    "There''s no need to worry about that. Becouse of the ritual, we gained more access to what the System had in the past, and one of those perks is to remove Bedrock blocks at will."


    That was awesome to hear, but unfortunately I still had to dig a staircase down, since they wanted to conserve energy.


    When we reached the Bedrock, I made a small room and let the 2 to do their magic.


    Both of them held hands and enchanted something in unison for a few minutes.


    Suddenly the Bedrock began to tramble and then collapse into the light.


    That''s right, beneath the Bedrock wasn''t the Void but a powerful light that made me belive we had a sun in our planet.


    "So what now?"


    The 2 of them looked at me and jumped off shocking me.


    "Alexa, please tell im not the only one who thinks they''re crazy."


    <I don''t know the standard for that sir. But we should follow before we''ll lose them.>


    I let let out a sigh, and equipped the Elytra.


    Then I jumped into the light.

 Chapter 252. We finally found it

    I kept falling for a while, making me wonder if I hadn''t entered another dimension by mistake.


    Just to be sure that I was making progress, I leaned towards the front and spread my arms while holding the wings, and suddenly, I felt the air resistance making me float.


    It was a sensation similar to my cape, but much more flexible.


    I tried to flap those wings and I began to catch some speed.


    I don''t know where I was going, but it was a great place to learn how to fly....probably.


    As I was flying deeper and deeper, I realized that the energy was getting more intense, almost to the levels I felt in the Void.


    Did the System store all the energy of the planet in here?


    I kept falling for a while, and the energy levels were quite high at this point.


    I think it would rival the Ender Dragon at some point.


    *Boof!


    "Auch my face!"


    While I was distracted by the endless light around me, it seemed that I researched the floor and hit it with my face.


    I was lucky that I was gliding for a while and had my helmet on, otherwise I would''ve died.


    That would''ve been an embarrassing way to die.


    To make myself feel better I ate a golden apple and looked around me.


    "Is anyone here!"


    I yelled out loud, but nobody seemed to answer.


    "Where are the others then? I can''t even see the floor, it''s just light everywhere."


    But the more I looked at this place, the more familiar it seemed.


    Just when I was about to yell again, a huge golden figure appeared from the ground in the shape of an angel.


    Then I realized what this was.


    It was the same plane the System called me when I first met it.


    And from what I remembered, the one in front of me was the lesser System.


    Intruder found, eliminate the Intruder.


    The eyes of the angel seemed more hollow, and it raised its fist to strike me down.


    "Wait!"


    I raised my mace and made a huge shield of light, which was powerful enough to stop the attack.


    "Wait, I''m not here to steal or destroy anything, I''m only here to talk!"


    I tried to reason with the being, but it seemed to be deaf.


    The intruder is capable of manipulating energy.


    Raising the threat level to the max.


    That didn''t sound good.


    The angel shrunk in size and held a glowing sword and shield in its hands.


    "I don''t know if the shrinking is a good thing or not."


    It was a bad thing.


    The angel flapped its wings and appeared in front of me like it was teleportation.


    I didn''t even get a chance to react as its sword slashed my head with one swing.


    Suddenly I was engulfed In light, as the totem was sacrificed from my life.


    I felt my flesh grow back and the strength buff came as well.


    Not wanting to take another hit, I jumped back and switched my Elytra with the chest plate.


    It was at the perfect moment, as the angel slashed me once again, but this time only damaging my armor.


    While I wasn''t dead, I was thrown away by the force of the sword.


    But it was a good thing since I had the time to imagine a dome around me that was strong enough to stop the next few attacks.


    "What kind of monster is this!"


    I assumed the System was weak since it was a lesser version.


    Even the original one didn''t seem to be this strong.


    Cracks appeared on my dome of protection, which prompted me to put more energy into maintaining it.


    I still had a lot to spare, and the energy in this place was thick enough that I could last for a while, but I didn''t want to be a sitting duck.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    My concerns began to grow more, when I realized that the others could''ve already been killed.


    The intruder has high-defense items, using the space slicing technique.


    That didn''t sound good.


    The angel put the sword in its palm to the side, and my skin began to crawl as I ducked.


    Suddenly my dome was cut in half, and the sword appeared to be already drawn.


    It seems that the attack was quite draining, as it didn''t fly towards me at supersonic speed and instead ran normally towards me.


    I didn''t know how often it could attack like that, so I had to end the fight while it was still weakened.


    As it was charging at me, I made a huge sword of light and began to attack him.


    But it seemed that it could dodge everything I threw at it and jumped high for another attack.


    I let go of the light sword and quickly switched it to a huge hammer.


    This seems to take Angel by surprise since it didn''t fly out of the way. Instead, I got hit it like a baseball across the white plane.


    "I don''t think that did too much damage, I have to think of another way to defeat it."


    Unfortunately, I could only conjure one thing at the time, so my options were pretty limited.


    I needed something that could attack and defend me at the same time.


    Then I remembered the huge form the angel had when I first came, and an idea came to mind.


    I quickly ate an enchanted golden apple and drank a speed potion.


    My body suddenly felt invincible, and time seemed to slow down around me.


    Just in the nick of time, I saw the angel come running at me, and this time, it was in full force.


    But this time, I had a plan in mind.


    For defense, I chose to make armor around me, and for my weapon, I chose to make a long and thin sword.


    I put more energy into my idea as it began to take shape as I wanted.


    Right when the angel was in front of me, my mecha suit was 5 blocks tall and ready to fight.


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    *Boom!


    Every clash we had, it let out a loud bang shaking the whole plain.


    I was finally fighting back and wasn''t a sitting duck anymore.


    The fight continued for a few more moments, and I was beginning to get used to the new mech suit.


    Unfortunately, I was still at the losing side of the battle


    Suddenly, the angel flew high in the sky, and its sword shined like a bright star.


    When I could look again at my enemy, my eyes almost popped out of my socket.


    All I could see in the sky was a huge sword that was about to crush me.


    I wasn''t fast enough to get out of the blast zone, so I concentrated on my weapon to get as big as possible.


    Just as the 2 weapons were about to clash, the huge sword suddenly disappeared like it was nothing.


    Uhh...Trader, are you still there?


    The angel spoke with a voice that I quickly recognized.


    "Steve is that you? What is happening, and where are you?"


    Everyone is ok, we found the main system and saw that the defense mode was activated.


    We thought it was you, so we had to deactivate it.


    So it was my rotten luck that got me Into this mess.


    How fun.


    Follow me.


    Then the angel turned around which meant that I had to follow.


    I deactivated my construct and kept up the pace.


    We ran for about 10 minutes and arrived at our destination.


    I could tell that it was the right place when I saw a huge command block that broke the senility of the white planes, and at its base, the others was waiting for me.


    "How did you guys get here so fast? Did you not meet the angel?"


    "We just followed the flow of the energy and it brought us right here."


    <Can you not make something similar with the mace?>


    Are they saying they had something akin to the Monocle of Truth?


    Out of curiosity, I also tried to make some glasses for my eyes to see if it could be done.


    And to my shock, it worked.


    I saw that the command block was a huge vortex that gathered all the energy of the world to itself.


    I had my suspicion that a command block was the body of the System, but I didn''t expect it to be so big.


    It''s such a shame that I don''t remember some of the cooler commands. Otherwise, I would''ve made me invincible.


    Wait, can I put myself in creative with this?


    "By the way Trader, how did you survive for so long against the angel? It''s supposed to defeat minor gods without a problem."


    Asked Alex with curiosity.


    "It''s a good thing you said survive since that''s the only thing I could do against the minor System. I have to say that don''t want to fight the main one If the lesser version was this powerful."


    I looked around some more, to see if there was something that I missed, and something did come up.


    It was a regular command block that I was quite familiar with.


    "Why are there 2 command blocks?"


    "You know that those are? I''m quite shocked."


    Steve said with a surprise.


    "Yeah, those blocks appeared in my other world as well. It made you a God, so I had my suspicion when I got here."


    "Well, the smaller command block is for the angel, and the bigger one is for the System. Do you also know how to use them?"


    "I don''t know too many commands, and I''m more used to the ones that were used in the chat. But can you put /gamemode 1 and my name at the end?"


    Steve touched the huge command block and his eyes were suddenly empty.


    "It doesn''t work."


    "What If you put a C instead of 1."


    Steve went silent for a few moments and came back with the same results, saying that there was nobody by that name in this plane.


    Do I have to tell my real name?


    No, the System doesn''t know my name, so the answer was...


    "Can you put 6 question marks instead of my name?"


    Steve raised an eyebrow, but did as I requested.


    Suddenly, the command block began to tramble and the energy around us become more dense, that I could feel it on my skin.


    Then all of the sudden, I was surrounded by this energy and I felt that my eyes were opened for the first time.


    I could see colours thar had no name, the light suddenly looked solid and transparent at the same time, information was rushing into my head overwhelming all my senses.


    This was not ment to be seen by a human, this was the realms of the higher God''s!


    Stop it! Bring me back to normal!


    I yalled with a voice that didn''t sound like me, but it belonged to my very soul.


    "I don''t know how?!"


    Steve yalled back in a panic.


    P-put an S instead of C!


    AAAAHHHHHH!!


    Then everything stopped.


    -----


    I opend my eyes, and I was met by a blinding light.


    "Ugh...why is the sun so bright. Close the curtains!"


    "Trader! Thank the System your alive!"


    Alex quickly came to me and tried to keep me awake.


    Slowly, my mind was piecing together what happened before I fell unconscious.


    "So basically I became a God, but my mind couldn''t handle it, so I went crazy for a few moments."


    "Not only your mind but your body as well. The reason your still alive is becouse your armor absorbed most of the energy that was entering into you."


    Stave gave a quick explanation with a monotone voice, but I could see realiefe in his eyes.


    I slowly stood up, and realized that I didn''t have the armor on me anymore.


    I guess there was a price for saving my life.


    This armor survived through a lot of chalanges with me, and I would be forever grateful for it.


    <It''s a good thing you woke up Sir, we need to talk on what were supposed to do next.>


    Alexa came floating towards me.


    "What are you talking about."


    "You need to see this."


    And then a tab aperead in front of me, showing me a wall of text.


    "Isn''t there a shorter version of this?"


    "That is the short version."


    Oh boy, this is going to take a while.

 Chapter 253. The Overworld is in danger

    After I finished reading everything, I had to sit down and let out a loud sigh.


    "The problems keep popping one after another."


    What I read was the origin of the System.


    It seems to be created by something called ''The True God'' that sends devices like the System to the worlds that are about to have a tragic end to help it.


    There isn''t a lot of Information about The True God, and the System does not even require to keep contact with it, since this God would know what happened and will ever happen.


    Now, that wasn''t part of my concern, since this God seems like a good guy.


    What I read afterward was more shocking.


    The world without the System was a whole mess, and there wouldn''t be any intelligent creatures if it weren''t for the System.


    Now the System was sent here with one purpose, and that was to help this planet grow strong enough to defend itself against any world-ending threat.


    The System had 2 important rules.


    1. Grow the planet stronger by any means necessary, as long as it won''t destroy it in the long run.


    2. Don''t get rid of the threat yourself unless it''s absolutely necessary.


    Now, the System chose to create sentient life to progress this planet, but it moved too slowly, and the Void came when the world was not ready for a threat to this level.


    So, it chose to fight the problem itself.


    Now this resulted in the System denying the second rule.


    And there were consequences for that.


    From that moment, the System couldn''t interfere directly anymore, that''s why it called for the heroes since it saw that the Void was getting ready for another attack.


    But this only resulted in the Void having the ability to send the Monster Lords creating another problem.


    Mistakes after mistakes kept happening, and the System began to lose control.


    It carefully tried to gather energy for one last fight against the Void by raising the level of difficulty, which would stun the human growth but would give the System a chance for one final push.


    I couldn''t even blame the System for making this choice since the humans showed that they weren''t to be trusted, and the final goal was the world to save, not humanity alone.


    But the plan with the heroes failed, they grew too slowly for the System''s liking, and the Monster Lords were too strong.


    The System didn''t know what to do any more until I entered the picture.


    While I was ignored for a while since I was brought by Noah to probably make a mess.


    The fact that I found a small God, which was hidden from it, and even created one of my own, made the System rethink.


    I couldn''t be a part of Noah grant plan, since I was too much of a wild card, so it saw me as a key to ending this once and for all.


    It was more of a gamble than a logical decision.


    The System knew its limits, so it decided to entrust all of this to me.


    Of course, it didn''t do this blindly but split into the people that didn''t have its full memory, making it not restricted by the rules.


    So now, the huge command block that was in front of us was a battery that the System couldn''t use for the past few hundred years.


    The good news was that Steve and Alex had full access to it, they only needed to learn how to control it.


    The bad news was that the world was slowly dying.


    When the System put intelligence into humans, it didn''t affect only humanity but the world as well.


    Before the System, this world was similar to the game, actually worse since the villagers weren''t smart enough to trade or build things.


    There was no inventory or Crafting tables, nothing that could''ve prepared the world for the upcoming disaster.


    Every major change was maintained by the System, and now that it was gone, the world would slowly bring itself back to its previous state.


    Which would mean the end of all I know and care about.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    "How, long will it take to have some noticeable effects?"


    "It would take 5 years for the people to realize that something is wrong and 10 when everything would be back to the beginning. The only things that would be a reminder of the past, will be the structures made with blocks unaffected by time."


    This is just a bad day after another.


    Even if we defeat the Ender Dragon, the world would still end!


    Steve and Alex are indeed part part of the System, but they can''t replace it anymore. Otherwise, the System couldn''t create them to bypass the restriction.


    And I can guarantee we can''t recreate something a True God created in just 5 years.


    "This only gave me more headaches, I want a vacation!"


    "As much as I want to join you Trader, we need to start training."


    Alex was there to put down my spirits.


    "Well, I guess I should start building my new body then. Good thing that the command block has so much energy, otherwise it would''ve taken an eternity to create something on the surface."


    I got up and prepared to place a crystal down, only to realize that I didn''t have the Enderchest with me, so I didn''t have the Crystals.


    "Well shoot, I don''t have the equipment with me. Do you know how to get out of here? I don''t see a staircase."


    "Unfortunately, the only way you can get out is through teleportation or by flying the way we came in. But the good news is that we can make anything you want down here, so there''s no need to leave this place."


    Well, that was convenient and annoying.


    I have to get straight to work after 2 months of working nonstop and barely getting some sleep.


    I didn''t even get the chance to find out what happened while I was gone.


    Wait a minute, Alex and Steve were there all this time, so I could ask them!


    "Wouldn''t it be more efficient to make you a new body that you can use against the Dragon? Actually, can''t we make more maces like yours to fight against the Dragon?"


    Steve spoke before I could ask my question.


    "Sorry guys, I got into this mess because someone else controlled my body. And while you 2 are more trustful than Noah, this is only the second time I''ve met you. As for your second question, you shouldn''t ask me in the first place."


    Alex looked hurt that I accused them of being untrustworthy.


    But I didn''t have a choice, I knew next to nothing about them or their intentions.


    I know they''re part of the System, and now I know the true purpose of the System. But those 2 were specifically made to be different, more human...and that''s not always a good thing.


    "We can''t make the same weapon as the mace, since that tool alone took half of our reserves. Instead, we could make some powerful enchantments that would boost the strength of our army. Not only that, but we can make new bodies for them as well, so that would be a good project to start on."


    Oh wow, they move fast with the ideas.


    If we can make weapons similar to the ones Daniel had at the beginning, the army''s strength will grow exponentially!


    And if they make bodies like the iron golems, it would be even better.


    "That is a good idea. But we would waste so much energy on that."


    "What''s the point of hoarding energy if the world is going to end in one year, or at most in 10?"


    She got a point.


    "Trader, how about we compromise on something. I''m guessing you don''t trust us to make a body that you''ll use in the final battle, if I''m right?"


    "I guess that''s true...why, for you ask?"


    "What If we make a body that you can use to train yourself, and if you''re satisfied with it, we can give you the blueprints to make it on your own! That way, it would register to you, and at the same time, we would not waste a lot of time for you to learn how to use the Crystal."


    That sounded so wrong, but there was no downside I could think of.


    It would actually benefit all parties involved if we worked like this.


    "Do you think you can make me a body that can hold the godhood from the command block?"


    Steve and Alex thought for a while.


    "It would be hard, but I guess we''ll have to aim for at least that level, if we want to stand a chance against the Void."


    "That sounds like a plan. Let''s get to work then."


    "I''m glad to hear that! I already had an idea in mind."


    Alex quickly spoke like a kid who was about to play her favorite game.


    She touched the command block, and Steve let out a big sigh before joining her as well.


    A few minutes later, I could see in front of me how an exact copy of my body was being made, which was quite a unique experience.


    Once they were done, Alex turned around and looked at me with a proud smile, which made me raise an eyebrow.


    "Aren''t you supposed to know the shape of my soul before creating this?"


    Alex froze on the spot and slapped her forehead in embarrassment.


    "I knew I forgot something! Steve, why didn''t you tell me anything?"


    "I tried, but you ran off before I could speak."


    She let out a frustrated sigh and looked at me.


    "You don''t have the armor anymore, so it should be easy. Sorry Trader, it won''t hurt at all."


    "Wha-"


    Suddenly I felt something pulling me, and I could see my body falling to the ground while I was floating in the air.


    "Oh wow, you truly came from another world. You look so different...why do you even look like that? Where are the edges? And you have a small nose, and wierd eyes."


    "Alex! Put me back this instant, or I''ll be very angry!"


    "Okay, you don''t need to be angry. Steve got your shape, so we should be good."


    In the next instant, I was lying on the ground, feeling drowsy at what just happened.


    I don''t remember them being so daring.


    I swear, every being that had some power seemed to take consent as a suggestion instead of a requirement.


    At least this time, my arm wasn''t ripped off.


    As I was moving my arms and legs to get back the feeling of normalcy, I saw how my double was getting disintegrated right in front of my eyes.


    It was an unsettling sight to say the least.


    I waited for a few more moments, and another clone of me was created.


    But this time, I wore my special glasses and was able to see the whole process, which was quite insightful to see.


    It seems that the 2 of them work as one brain.


    One has the job of creating the body, while the other is working on the soul room.


    Once the 2 of them are finished, they combined their ideas with ease and the body is formed.


    "Ok, this time it should work."


    I then saw a golden hand aperead above Alex and was about to reach me.


    "Oh no you don''t!"


    Then I quickly made a golden dome that managed to block the hand.


    "Why are you stoping me Trader? I was just about to squeeze into your new body."


    "Have you not heard about a heads up woman?! Why do you take my soul out of the body so easily? Do you think I''m a toy for you?"


    I was quite angry at how they treated me, and if she didn''t fix that attitude, I wouldn''t work with them anymore.


    Suddenly she slapped her head as a realisation dawned on her.


    "I''m sorry Trader, I was just so exited to try something as amazing as this, that I forgat about basic manners. I promise that I won''t do it again."


    Well at least she knows how to apologise unlike a certain hero.


    "Ok, I''ll forgive you. But first tell me what you made."


    Alex smiled brightly.

 Chapter 254. Another fight

    I opened my eyes and moved my body, not feeling too much of a difference.


    "Are you ready?"


    "I guess?"


    "That''s good, try to block this with your hand."


    Then Alex proceeded to slash my arm with my Netherite sword and reached to my bone in one swing.


    I began to yell in pain as the wound was healing at visible speeds.


    "I thought that sword was supposed to be the final test!"


    "Yeah, but Steve suggested starting with the strongest weapon from the beginning since it would be more efficient this way."


    I''m so going to punish those kids when this is over.


    "At least we know that Alex''s idea worked. You unconsciously used your iron skin as soon as the sword touched you, and the improved regeneration worked quite well."


    Steve said in a monotone voice like he couldn''t see the hatred in my eyes.


    But he was right.


    If it was my old body, the sword would''ve easily cut through my arm and even caught on fire.


    I think anything below an enchanted diamond sword can''t scratch me anymore.


    The regeneration was amazing as well, and I think my pain was dulled since I recovered quite quickly.


    I don''t know if that''s a good thing, but I was thankful for it.


    "Next time, don''t attack me by surprise. One simple mistake, and I can lose my life, I only have one!"


    "Oh, you don''t have to worry about that. As long as you are in this plane, you''ll basically immortal."


    Stave gave me some shocking news like it was nothing.


    "Can''t we just bring the Ender Dragon in here and fight it until it runs out of energy?"


    "Unfortunately, that would be too dangerous for us. From the records of the last fight, she has more energy overall, and her specialty is chaos, which means that we are beaten on both fronts."


    Well, that didn''t sound good.


    "How did the System win in the first place?"


    "While the core of the System is not meant to fight, it''s still a high-level God that was programmed to be a final boss against any kind of threat. So if it was at its full power now, it wouldn''t necessarily lose. Plus if we brought the Dragon here, she would just destroy the Command block, and that would be the true end for us."


    "How am I supposed to defeat her then?"


    "There''s 2 ways you can defeat her. By making her spend all of her energy, or find the central point, like the command block, and break it."


    "Well, she''s connected to a whole dimension filled with energy, so I doubt I''ll outlast her in that regard. As for the second suggestion, I guess that it could be done. I just don''t know where her weakness would be. She probably has it somewhere hidden like the System!"


    But apparently, I didn''t have to worry about that.


    From what Steve told me, the Ender Dragon wasn''t the smartest tool in the shed when they first met. So when they fought, she fought with her real body, while the System used an avatar.


    Now, the final arrow that struck her to the ground had one job, and that was to slowly kill or transform the dragon into something that the System could accept.


    But, Noah came into the picture and managed to stop this process, but not erase it.


    Since the arrow was stuck in her for a while, she actually formed a core in her body that couldn''t be moved anymore.


    The problem was that we didn''t know the location of the core.


    "Well, I guess it''s better than nothing. Let''s do the rest of the tests then."


    For the next few minutes, I ran, jumped, dived, and even flew to get as much data on this body as possible.


    What we got was pretty interesting.


    It seems that I can absorb the ambient energy in the air, and use it to harden my skin to the level of an iron block.


    If I was on the surface and didn''t have enough energy to mentain it, then it would use my hunger, which was a good substitute.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Now there were also some downsides to it.


    I could only use the energy from the Overworld, I was getting hungrier faster, and I was slower than the previous body.


    In the end, I could say that it was an overall improvement, but not good enough to pick up a fight with the Ender Dragon and survive.


    So this body was put to the side, and Alex made me a new one.


    Like the previous one, it looked exactly like me, but when I switched to it, I instantly felt the difference.


    "It felt so light, so full of energy! But I also feel very hungry."


    "Here are some golden carrots to have the best effect. Now can we start with the test?"


    "I shouldn''t feel any pain right?"


    "Not unless you''re running out of energy and become mortal once again."


    This experiment could be painful and deadly if it didn''t work, but I couldn''t deny my curiosity either.


    So I gave her the green light.


    Like last time, she took out my Netherite sword and only slashed at my arm.


    But the sword cut through me, leaving a trail of flames behind.


    "It worked! I''m a genius!"


    Alex jumped from side to side happy that the experiment was a success.


    What happened?


    Well, while we were brainstorming ideas on what we could use, I told her my knowledge on the ridiculous powers my home world had In shows and anime.


    Some of them, Steve said, would require too much energy to make or would be too complicated.


    But others caught their attention and told me that it could be done.


    So what powers did I have now?


    Well, let''s say that I''m a logia user, and my body is made of fire.


    From what I know, I should only be able to get hurt by water attacks and energy-based attacks, which unfortunately, the dragon has.


    But this wasn''t the final body, just a test to see if it could be done.


    "Ok, let''s continue with the tests then. Take this iron sword and try to attack those wooden blocks while activating your powers."


    Suddenly, a tree appeared in front of me like it had always been there.


    Not seeing a reason to wait, I swung my sword at the trunk while activating my powers, and it let a deep cut in the wood.


    Not only that, but the wood soon caught on fire, turning the tree into nothing, just in a few minutes.


    Unfortunately, the sword couldn''t handle the power and melted after one use.


    "So you have something stronger than a fire aspect, but you also need a stronger weapon to hold it. Your mace should be strong enough."


    We tried a few more tests.


    When I used the mace, I could conjure things made of fire instead of light, which meant that I could change the element my projections, If I had a body that could control energy.


    I also managed to fly, but it wasn''t that comfortable and it would take a lot of practice if I wanted to use it in a fight.


    I could shoot fireballs and transformers into pure flames at the cost of my clothes and even destroy rocks with my fist if I wanted to.


    "Want to do the final test?"


    "What other test there is?"


    "Of course, you''re going to fight the angel."


    "The only reason I survived for so long, was because of my armor! And I can''t use my powers if I have my armor on."


    The reason we made a body like this, is becouse it would be better then having armor.


    Plus, the netherite armor seems to absorb my flames, which made it even harder.


    "No, the reason you survived for so long is because of your special mace. And you can use it more effectively now with your new body. And don''t worry, we''ll put the angel at the lowest setting, so it would be like fighting a lower God who has no powers."


    She''s saying this like lower gods are not gods at all!


    The Wither was a lower God, and he wiped out a whole city with one move!


    "Ugh, just don''t make it too hard."


    "I''ll see what I can do."


    Alex said that, as she walked towards the smaller command block.


    Once she activated it, the familiar angel appeared in front of me, with an empty gaze.


    It was quite unsettling to see, but I still took my mace out and created a 3 block sword.


    The angel didn''t summon its sword. Instead, it raised its fist and ran quickly at me.


    Unfortunately for the angel, this body was also boosted with speed.


    If I ran normally, my speed was similar to a haste 2 potion, and if I entered in my fire mode, I would be on equal grounds to a haste 4 potion.


    But even with this advantage, that was the same speed for the angel.


    We quickly ran all over the white plane, where I tried to slash or dodge the angel, but the being of light always knew how to dodge my attacks and hit with scary precision.


    The only reason I didn''t lose in the first few minutes of the fight was because it couldn''t hurt me.


    Since it was restricted to not using it''s energy attacks, it couldn''t do anything to me in my fire form, instead, it took damage when it attacked.


    Alex and Steve wanted to stop the fight, since they got enough data for the next body, but I stopped them from doing that since I saw this as the perfect opportunity to train my fighting skills.


    All this time, I''ve been fighting using tricks or unknown weaknesses against my enemy, but with this, I could safely learn how to fight.


    Sure, I won''t be a master in just a few months, but I should be able to teach my body how to react to godly attacks.


    "Can you change the shape of the angel?"


    "We can change its size but not the shape. The System was very keen on keeping this form for some reason."


    "Then make it it''s full size."


    "Are you sure about that? Its punches would be much heavier."


    I was hesitant for a moment, before giving the signal to continue.


    Suddenly, the angel grew so huge that my neck hurted to look at it, and I didn''t have a neck.


    Its attacks were slower than before, but they were still fast enough to pose a danger to me.


    While in theory, it couldn''t kill me once I became a flame. Becouse of its sheer size, the wind pressure was strong enough to extinguish my flames.


    I had to fight more creatively when I realized the disadvantages I had.


    So I first made wings of flames on my back, to fly away from the problem, but then remberead that I could conjure only one thing at the time.


    Making my wings a great tool for maneuvering in the air, but not so much for attacking.


    So my next course of action, was to make a giant sword of flames and ride on top like a hoverboard.


    It was kind of fun to crash my sword into the giand angel, but the fun didn''t last for long since the energy consumption was way to high for me to maintain for lomg periods of time.


    After a few hours of fighting like that, I decided to stop, and almost fell down from exhaustion.


    "That was an interesting fighting style. I think we can create something that would make it easier for you. But first, let''s change you to a new body."


    Before I could shut my eyes to get some sleep, my soul was lifted from the mortal flesh and left hanging in the air.


    But now that I wasn''t in my body, I didn''t feel tierd, and I was quite afraid of those implications.


    The fire body was stored away, and my soul was shoved into a new one.


    This one felt more flexible, more fluid and much more calm.


    "Since the Void does not get along with water, how about we try a full body made of it."


    I feel like those months would be very long for me.

 Chapter 255. Mixing energies

    It''s been 3 months since the declaration of war from the Ender Dragon.


    Every day for the past 3 months was spent in the white plane fighting or doing other experiments with the duo.


    I think I went a little crazy with them down there.


    Luckily, I finally got a break, when the people from the surface got stuck in their progress and needed help from the duo to move to the next step.


    From what little pieces I''ve managed to learn, the body of the 3-headed Wyvern was not found on the battlefield.


    This made people speculate that the dragon took it or even destroyed it so we couldn''t study it to find more weaknesses.


    It was a big loss for humanity, but we couldn''t do anything about it.


    There was more grave news besides this one.


    About 80% of the soldiers who fought, died in the battle.


    While yes, most of them had Totems of Undying, that was only one extra life against the monster that could break obsidian.


    Even the generals didn''t escape.


    Omar, the head captain of the Sandstone Kingdom, died in battle, which devastated the nation, especially Aisha, who was his teacher.


    That''s why, she was depressed at the last meeting I went to.


    A lot of important people died that day, and if it wasn''t for the duo, I don''t think we could''ve gathered another army for the final battle.


    With Alex and Steve, we could make super bodies that would greatly boost the morale and strength of humanity.


    At this point, we don''t expect them to fight in the front lines, or even to fight in the Void.


    We only need a large number of them to fight a potential horde of monsters that would try to attack the Overworld while I was busy dealing with the Ender Dragon.


    Of course, there was the threat of the Ender army, or at least Noah himself attacking. So the heroes were getting special training like me, but with different teacher''s, and a lot more resources.


    While I was away, it seemed that Violet woke up and teleported out of the cell, to no one''s surprise.


    After I told everyone who Violet was, they knew not to mess with her.


    But the public was still angry at the monsters for taking their loved ones, so they had to keep a facade that she was still under house arrest.


    Some guards knew she disappeared and were quite concerned and reported to the higher-ups. But they couldn''t do anything even if they wanted to, so they made them keep their mouth shut.


    As for her location?


    Nobody knew, not even the duo couldn''t find her with the System''s scanners.


    But I had my suspicion, that she was with me, this whole time.


    Why did I think that?


    The funny thing about the Enderman species is that they adapt very well when it comes to their loved ones.


    She was almost invisible last time she met the System. But now after she further evolved, I''m sure she''s even more powerful.


    Then how was I so sure she was with me in the white planes?


    Every time I was in my soul form, I saw a transparent string attached to me, which led to somewhere nearby.


    That was my little theory about Violet, and I was about to test it here in the Nether.


    As for why I was in the Nether?


    It seems that Alexa found some interesting data about the Void and wanted to show it to me, without the duo knowing.


    I would usually be suspicious of this, but with my new body, I could get out of any pranks or troubles Alexa wanted to put me through.


    "Violet, if you are around here, can you come out and talk?"


    After I was sure that nobody was around me, I spoke to the air, expecting an answer.


    And I was right to suspect that, as she soon appeared in front of me, fully visible with a worried expression.


    As I thought, she got much stronger since the last time I saw her, her energy levels were higher than the average Monster Lord, and it seemed that she could fly now.


    "Yes...Hunter?"


    Her voice was getting better, not sounding as rustic as before.


    And despite her intimidating looks and powers, she was still very scared for some reason.


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    "Have you been with me this whole time?"


    The Enderwoman looked with a quick glance at my eyes, trying to deduce what I was feeling.


    "...yes?"


    "I''m not angry, I''m quite thankful for what you did in The End. Without you, I think I would''ve been the end for me."


    Once I reassured her that I wasn''t angry, she let out a sigh of relief like a weight had been lifted off her chest.


    "Why did you think that I would be angry at you?"


    "Once I woke up, I was in a prison cell. So I thought you were angry that Father has betrayed you."


    That...was a valid reason to be worried.


    So I made sure to explain to her why she woke up in that place and how the action of one Enderman would not change my opinion of the whole species.


    After all, I had the chance to meet with the rest of the family.


    And while they were a little weird, they didn''t seem dangerous.


    She smiled as I was talking positively about her family, which was reassuring to see but also quite creepy.


    "What I wanted to ask you, was how you knew my true name?"


    "Father told me as a reword for completing his insane trained routine. That''s why I was concerned when you met him, he''s not interested in anything besides Mother."


    So he tried to warn me beforehand, but couldn''t find me on time.


    Well, she did, but maybe if it had been earlier, it would''ve been better.


    But there''s no use crying over spilled milk. I was alive because of her, and I was very thankful for that.


    "What''s your opinion about this war?"


    While she''s not a Monster, she''s not a human either, and the only reason she''s here is because of me.


    Otherwise, I wouldn''t be surprised if she had been on the other side.


    "I''ll go wherever you go."


    "Even if that means you''ll have to go against your family?"


    She lifted her head and looked around the Nather walls.


    Then, she spoke with a quiet voice.


    "You are my family."


    And teleported away, leaving me stunned in silence for a few moments.


    "Y-yeah, I think we''ll arrive at Alexa''s place in a few minutes."


    For some reason, my head was hot all the way to the Alexas base, which was even weirder when I knew I had fire immunity.


    When I arrived at the base, I saw that it looked quite different from what I remembered.


    Instead of a giant Wither, there was a huge dark Comand block in the middle of the red hills.


    Did it get inspired by the System and tried to copy it?


    I walked closer, and a portion of the wall suddenly disappeared.


    Typical Alexa entrance.


    Inside, there was a small balcony that stood over a huge hole with red mist, similar to the one on top of the Nether.


    I also realized that this place was thick with unknown energy.


    Not the same levels as the Dargon or the Main System, but close to the Enderman islands, which were an unexpected surprise.


    You''re finally here.


    Suddenly a huge red figure appeared from the deep ends of the mist.


    What do you think of my new home?


    What appeared in front of me was a huge red Allay with a Netherite crown, a dark eye similar to the Void and the other one was golden.


    I could feel its sight trying to scan me, but even without an armor, I was not something that I could be scanned of.


    "You have quite the new look, Alexa. I thought you didn''t have the time to do anything extravagant like this. Did something change?"


    To create such a body, it would require a lot of energy.


    It wasn''t to the level of the Angel, but if Alexa wanted, it could fight with the Wither without a problem now.


    So it was quite a surprise for me to see someone who was supposed to be constantly busy with keeping the Void sealed, have such a huge upgrade.


    Something did change.


    Ever since the last attack, the Void didn''t try to take over the Nether. So I had time to study it more carefully, which resulted in great progress on my research.


    "Did the visit to the white planes also help you with that research?"


    I asked with a smirk on my face.


    I can''t deny that I was inspired by that place as well.


    It''s also the reason I called you here. What do you think of my essence?


    I knew that Alexa had its own energy, but it wasn''t too different from the System, that''s why I couldn''t tell the difference before.


    But now, in this space, I didn''t feel the energy of the System or the Void. It was its own energy, something that wasn''t stagnant or chaotic, but something similar to quicksand.


    The more you struggle the more it absorbs you, and the less movement you make, the slower the response is.


    "How did you make this? It feels familiar but also different. On its own, I don''t think it''s that good, but with others, it has some great potential. I didn''t even know that it was possible to boost someone''s energy."


    Your sensors are much sharper with the new body.


    And it''s indeed an amazing discovery.


    Once the Void stopped her attack, I had the chance to study the Bedrock some more, one of the few blocks that cannot be corrupted by the Void.


    And on closer inspection, I found out that they were quite good filters, they just didn''t release it efficiently.


    So I made something similar to them, but without the durability. It had the ability to change the chaos energy into something stable, and when combined with the System''s energy, the result is what I have.


    That...was amazing to hear.


    In short the Nether could be a filter or even a bridge between the 2 worlds!


    "Why didn''t you tell the duo about this? I''m sure they could''ve come up with a plan!"


    I was programmed to not cooperate with the System unless it''s absolutely necessary.


    And if the Void would attack through the Nether, who do you think wold have higher priority with me, you or Noah?


    I completed forgot that Noah was the creator of Alexa, so he should have a higher authority then me.


    The reason Alexa didn''t tell Steve and Alex about this, was most likely becouse it didn''t want to be reprogrammed, or even worse, taken over by them.


    "You''re personality changed a lot from the last time I saw you. You seem more...living."


    This is a side effect of integrating the new energy as my main source.


    I didn''t know if I liked it or not, but it already happened, so there was nothing I could do.


    "Why did you tell me this? Didn''t you think that I''ll betray you?"


    From my observations, you value your friendship very highly.


    And humans don''t spend so much time with someone without getting attached a little.


    I knew that it was true, but it still felt wierd to hear it like this.


    Alexa and I have been through a lot of adventures, so I didn''t plan on betray it anytime soon.


    "Well, I can''t deny that. So what do you want me to do about this information?"


    I know I can''t make the Nether a bridge between the 2 dimensions, but I can help YOU, to be that bridge.


    That statement quickly got my attention.


    "How do you plan on doing that?"


    Make a body using the System''s energy, the Void energy and mine as a conduit.


    That would be quite a challenge, but if I managed to complete it, I think I can stand a chance against the Ender Dragon.


    I already had the schematics of my body. I can control water and lava at will, and if I want to enter my God mode, I combine those 2 and get an obsidian body.


    Strong enough to withstand the Gods power, at a relatively low price.


    So my response to Alexa was to turn my body black like Obsdian, feeling the powers of a God run through my veins.


    Let''s do this then.

 Chapter 256. Merrys training

    POV: Merry


    I was surrounded by darkness.


    The room that I was in, was very large and the uneven ground didn''t help with my worries.


    But my breath was steady and calm when suddenly a small glow appeared on my right arm, and I raised my fist at unbelievable speeds to catch an arrow as big as me.


    Before I could enjoy the moment, I jumped backwards, barely dodging an arrow that cracked the ground.


    I didn''t stay in place and threw the arrow that I had in my hand to my left, which made the sound of 2 metals colliding.


    That clash made a small spark that briefly lit the room, and I saw 3 more arrows coming towards me.


    With practiced movements, I jumped from side to side and dodged everything.


    "Looks like the arrows won''t work on me anymore."


    I yelled at the darkness.


    But the only response I got, was the sound of something breaking and then blocks of sand falling.


    "Shii-"


    I suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree and ran to the edge of the room.


    I knew I was at the correct place when I hit the wall with my face.


    But even though it was a painful experience, it was better than being buried alive.


    Now that the ceiling was gone, light illuminated the room, and I could see a group of iron golems holding huge bows with custom-made arrows.


    If one managed to hit my head, I would''ve died instantly.


    They were so powerful that iron armor was useless for them, and you could take some heavy damage in diamond armor.


    Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, only the iron golems were strong enough to use those bows, so the soldiers were very loyal to us.


    From the hole in the ceiling, a shadow jumped on the blocks of sand.


    It was none other than my trainer, the creator of this insane room, and the adviser of this kingdom, Aisha.


    "Did you say the arrows don''t work on you anymore? Maybe I should increase the difficulty then."


    The only response I could give was tense silence.


    Seeing that she didn''t get the reaction she wanted, I was left alone for today, which made me sigh in relief.


    "How''s Daniel''s project coming along?"


    I asked while enjoying the sun on my skin, and trying to change the subject.


    "The Crystal is a truly fascinating item. He managed to create a few monsters as powerful as the Monster Lords, but unfortunately, they don''t have special abilities. From what Steve told us, it''s because we don''t know how to properly use the energy of this world."


    Ever since Alex worked with Steve, she has become more distant from us.


    It''s not like we had a deep connection beforehand, but she did use to say hy to me in the Chat.


    Now, I can barely hear from her, and when I do, it''s about the progress she made with Trader.


    I don''t think she has a crush on him, she''s more like Solomon when he found a really good project. He ignores everyone around him, and acts without basic manners.


    Steve also changed.


    When we first got him, he was very social and wanted to find out more about people, but after spending more time with Alex, he only talks if it''s necessary.


    I think when the 2 of them are together, they become the old System, and if you keep them apart, they are back to being humans.


    Unfortunately, I can''t test my theory since we really need them as the System right now, and not as humans.


    "How''s Trader''s training going? Does he need a sparing partner?"


    I''ve been training nonstop for the past few months, but it was all weird so I don''t know my actual strength.


    It started from fighting with monsters without armor while being blindfolded, to fighting with enchanted iron golems with only fists or a wooden sword.


    I cannot stress enough how nightmarish and unreasonable were the training regimes this woman gave me.


    I even tried to challenge her to fight one time, but was flat-out refused since she knew she would be losing, so there was no point in doing it!


    I was so happy to hear that but also frustrated that I didn''t have someone to point my anger towards.


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    The Iron Golems were good at the beginning, but now that I knew all of their moves, they were only walking punching bags.


    Some soldiers with enchanted diamond armor were next, but they were worse than the Iron Golems!


    Sure, they could plan and use techniques to attack me. But I was way faster and stronger than them, so it was useless against me.


    That is why I was hoping I would get the chance to challenge Trader.


    His weapon is dangerous for sure, but just like the soldiers, there was no point in having it, if he couldn''t hit me.


    Aisha looked at me with a raised eyebrow, like she knew what I was thinking.


    Then a smile appeared on her lips, which gave me the creeps since she only does that when I''m going to suffer a lot in training.


    "From what I heard, he''s in the Nether and we can''t get in contact with him. But, Alex told me that we can use the training buddy he used instead."


    Training buddy?


    I don''t know who that could be...I don''t see Steve and Alex accepting Daniels''s monsters with how much they insulted them.


    And I don''t think the people from the Nather have enough free time to visit us so casually, especially with their curse.


    "I guess that''s good?"


    "Perfect, because I texted Alex to make a portal for us to get there."


    "What, now?! I didn''t-"


    My voice was interrupted by the space that split in front of us, it showed some white planes, that shocked both of us.


    "Are you coming or not?"


    A voice yelled from the other side.


    With hesitant steps, we crossed the portal, and we found ourselves in a completely white space.


    I turned around, and the portal was gone, but now I could see the huge block that looked like it belonged to a computer, and right beside it was a replica of it, only smaller.


    Now that I was thinking about it, this was the same place I first met the System.


    I wonder where that huge glowing body was?


    "Welcome to our new home! Or should we say old?"


    Alex welcomed us warmly, while Steve gave us the cold shoulder as always.


    "Alex! Long time no see! How have you been?"


    "I''m very good Merry, thanks for asking. I have a lot of fun in here, and I couldn''t have done it without your help!"


    Aisha was still observing the place with interest, so It was my job to continue the conversation.


    I didn''t really mind, it''s been a while since I''ve talked with a woman besides my teacher.


    "I''m glad to hear that. By the way, where is the body of the System? Or did you use it to make something else?"


    Alex seemed confused by my question before realizing what I was referring to, and pointed at the huge block beside her.


    "This is the original body. Who you''ve been seeing was the bodyguard of the body."


    That huge glowing angel was just a bodyguard?!


    "Well, let''s ignore that for a moment and get to the real reason you''re here."


    After she said that, she turned around with excitement and put her hands on the huge cube.


    Steve let out a loud sigh and did the same as her.


    Suddenly I felt like I was floating in the air.


    "Merry, are you ok?!"


    Aisha yelled in panic for some reason, but once I turned around, I realized why.


    While I was floating, I wasn''t doing that with my body, since it was lying down like a corpse.


    I tried to look at my hands to see if I didn''t die by accident, but then came my second shock.


    Fingers.


    I haven''t seen them in 2 years.


    Not only that, but I had round legs, hips, and even a big chest.


    This was my old body before I transferred into this world.


    "Wow, I already saw Traders Soul, and it looked equally weird. But you look a little more different than him. Your proportions are all wrong, is everyone like you?"


    "Alex, are you trying to kill my disciple in front of my eyes! I won''t go easy on you, even if you are the last key to save the world!"


    Aisha took out a Netherite sword and was ready to attack Alex.


    This wasn''t good. She''s still grieving after Omar, so I believe she''ll keep her word if Alex won''t get me back to normal.


    Suddenly, the System appeared in front of Alexa and Steve with a glowing sword in its hand.


    The pressure it gave off was beyond what I could imagine, it made my very soul tremble with fear.


    And it was the same size as all of us!


    "I don''t know who you are, but I''ll kill you if you get in my way!"


    Does that woman know no fear?!


    "Calm down Aisha! Merry is not dead, we only needed to see the shape of her soul so we could build her a new body! She''ll be back to normal in no time."


    Aisha narrowed her eyes and let down her sword but didn''t put it back, which meant that she was still suspicious of them.


    Seeing that Aisha wasn''t in a mood to joke, Alex went back to the cube and put her hands on it.


    A few moments later, I saw something apperead besides my lifeless body.


    It was another me, but this one had blue skin.


    "Uhh, Alex! I think you picked the wrong colour for my body. You see, I''m still a human, not a squid."


    "Don''t worry, it''s supposed to look like this. You''ll see soon why."


    Then, I felt that was being pushed into the blue body.


    When I opend my eyes, I could see the white planes like normal, but this time, there was twist.


    If I squinted my eyes, I could see floating numbers and letter all over the place.


    My eyes weren''t the only ones that changed. I felt more powerful and faster!


    It was like I had my toatoos activated.


    I looked at my arms and body, and saw that they weren''t there anymore.


    Makes sense, those tattoos were engraved on my body, not my soul, so I had to remake them.


    "This body is amazing Alex, but I still don''t see why it needs to be blue as well?"


    Seeing that Aisha didn''t have the sword out anymore, Alex calmed down and spoke comfortably with me once again.


    "Well, try to put an enchantment on you."


    "I don''t have the tools with me right now, so you''ll have to wait until I get back."


    "No silly, you don''t need those anymore. If you imagine the enchantment on your body, it would be done. Just be careful to be very precise on what you''ll want, otherwise it would mess you up."


    That sounded very dangerous, and I didn''t know if I should try it.


    But even Steve and Aisha looked at me with expectations, so I had to do it.


    I closed my eyes, and imagined the speed enchantment on my right arm.


    I''ve seen the tattoo light up countless times, so it was an easy task for me.


    When I opened my eyes, I saw how a wave of numbers and letters were surrounding my arm.


    After a few moments, the wave disappeared, and the tattoo lit up with a red light.


    I could feel the enchantment running through my body, and realize that it was more effective then what I previously had.


    "This is amazing!"


    I began to run all over the white planes at unbelievable speeds.


    "Right! Trader had a fun device that gathered the ambient energy in one point, so I made your body do something similar to that. Not only that, but you can erase, and put up to 10 enchantments on your body. That''s why you''re blue, you''re basically a living lapis block."


    This made me stop from my mad dush.


    If I was this powerful with only one enchantment, how powerful could I be with 9 more?


    "Why don''t we try your new powers with that golden creature over there."


    Aisha was back to her creepy smile, which made me shiver.


    She wanted me to fight the System?!


    Was she mad?


    "That''s exactly what I thought! Well get some valuable data out of this."


    Why was Alex on the same page as her?!


    I wanted to release some stress, not get some more!


    I wanted to run away, but unfortunately, I didn''t know where the exit was, so I was stuck once again.

 Chapter 257. Creating a monster

    POV: Daniel


    I was in my office, looking calmly over some research papers, when all of a sudden, the door was swung open.


    "Sir! The subject Earth Braker is on the loose once again!"


    I quickly put my papers down and looked at the man who brought the bad news.


    "What! We put him in an Obsidian cage! How did he get out?!"


    We made a lot of monsters over the past few months, but none were as annoying as this one.


    If it wasn''t for the fact that he was the best monster we could make, I would''ve killed it already.


    "He just dug a tunnel and left!"


    I slapped my forehead in frustration.


    That''s what I get for making him diamond claws.


    He had a similar shape to a puma with horns, to use the soul''s strength at greater speeds.


    But he was making us more problems than solutions at this point.


    "Should we call the special squad?"


    The special squad was a group of soldiers that survived the 3-headed Wyvern and wanted to get revenge.


    So they have been through a special program that modified their bodies to make them harder, stronger, and faster.


    But unfortunately, they didn''t stand a chance against the Earth Braker.


    While he didn''t have special abilities like the Monster Lords, his body was strong enough to give them a run for their money.


    And when the monster is smart as well, the fighting becomes more complicated.


    "No, I''ll call in the Diamond Squad."


    "Are you sure sir? I think our people are more than enough to deal with this problem."


    "They could, but not fast enough, so I''ll call the diamond squad."


    I dismissed the man, who was saddened about my decision and sent a private text through the Chat.


    I didn''t have to wait for too long and got a reply.


    "Well, he''s got a lot of free time with Alexa on his side."


    Like we have Steve and Alex to make a body for Trader, The Mad Prince has Alexa, the God of the Nether.


    We talked about a few ideas for some time and realized that it would be better if they only supplied us with soulsand to use as batteries and other materials, since the Overworld was more suited for creating life.


    Sure, the Nether could create it as well, maybe something stronger than what we''ll have, but we didn''t have the necessary time to do so.


    So that ended up with the Mad Prince having nothing to do but help us with the monster research.


    Alexa rarely listened to us, and when it did, it always asked for payments upfront.


    I still didn''t understand why, since it could create whatever it wanted with just a thought.


    As my head was preoccupied with those thoughts, the space bent in my office, and 2 figures appeared.


    It was the Mad Prince and The Second in Command.


    "Only you 2?"


    "I think it''s overkill already, but Second is also getting antsy like me, so she joined the fight."


    If anyone else besides Trader and Merry would''ve told me that. I would''ve said they were delusional.


    But for some reason, I believed them.


    "Did you use the tracker yet?"


    "I was about to."


    One other reason why I asked him to be my partner in those experiments, is because of their unique enchantments.


    Soul tracking was one of those, which entitles the subject to wear an object or armor with the Curse of Bounding and a tracker.


    That''s one of the first things we placed on our monsters, especially this one.


    From a chest under my desk, I took an enchanted compass that was pointing me toward the monster.


    The Mad Prince took it out of my hand and placed it on an enchanted lapis slab, that aperead out of nowhere.


    Once the 2 items connected, an interesting thing happened.


    Holographic numbers appeared, which I quickly recognized to be coordinates.


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    Not only that, but they seemed to be constantly changing like it was pointing toward something that was moving.


    "Is that what I think it is?"


    "Yes, I was kind of bored at the base and decided to create something new and useful. Well be back in half an hour. You can wait for us in the obsidian room."


    With that said, he quickly wrote down the enchanted square and placed the pearls inside.


    Just like that, the 2 of them disappeared as quickly as they came.


    At this point, I was wondering if I imagined this whole interaction, but the lapis slab was still here, so I decided to take a break and visit my lab.


    I took out a chicken pie from my inventory and walked out of my office.


    Right as I stepped out of the door, I was silently followed by 2 guards with enchanted diamond armor.


    They would go with me wherever I went, and their job was to protect me at all costs.


    Their salaries and benefits were pretty good, so I didn''t question their loyalty.


    We went down a few floors until the guards were increasing, and the walls were made from concrete and other hard materials.


    After a few check-ins, we were finally let into the hidden lab.


    Here the most smart minds in my kingdom were gathered and worked on this project.


    Some wanted to improve the death arrow to make it more explosive or more durable, while a majority were working on the Monster project.


    A lot of people hated monsters, but they also realized that they were very limited in the upcoming fight, so if technology wasn''t going to help us, then maybe another monster would.


    I walked by a few cages, most of them were empty, while others had some mutated animals in them.


    The creation of the body was not a problem, it was actually the easier part of the challenge.


    The true problem came from the souls we used.


    Most of the time, we use the souls of animals, such as dogs or maybe horses, living things that listen to human Comands.


    But we realize that at one point, the soul couldn''t handle the body, and it would get crushed.


    Trader and the others didn''t have this problem since humanity has a strong soul, a perk of being the only smart species on the planet.


    There were 2 ways we could solve this problem.


    The first one, we found it was by accident because of Trader, or more exactly, because of his horse.


    When I first saw the horse in the Stone Kingdom, I was shocked that I did not think of that.


    So we crossed bread a few horses with version potion effects and realized that their soul got bigger with each generation, making the monster creation possible.


    Unfortunately, the horses are the only animals we can grow at a rapid pace, and they only listen to orders from the people who can ride them.


    So, the more powerful the soul of the horse became, so did the rider, which put a stop to our research.


    By now, we have created 3 monsters from the souls of those horses that we can use.


    They don''t look too different from their original body.


    They are only bigger, have metal skin instead of leather, can breathe fire, and have 2 horns on the head.


    Nothing too drastic.


    One of them is not enough to fight a Monster Lord, but the 3 of them combined stand a chance.


    As for the second method, it was something kept a secret from the others, and they only knew the result.


    And that is, to use a ravager soul.


    Now, some people might get confused about the problem, but those people don''t know that ravagers are just twisted human souls that only destroy things in their path.


    They were created by the Iiligers a long time ago and bred into submission after countless generations.


    Unfortunately, we only have access to one ravager, and that was only because he got lost in the last raid of the Pufferfish City and survived the Withers bomb.


    Some villagers found him later and brought the guards to deal with it.


    Before he got killed, we managed to bring him here and used it for our experiments.


    It was hard at first to control him, but after painting a few researchers gray like the Iligers, he willingly followed simple commands.


    With the help of an unknown ritual, we found out the shape of the Ravager, and to our horror, it was a couple of mangled humans fused into this beast.


    If it was any other time, we would''ve put the best down, but the end of the world was approaching, and since we didn''t want to use humans as our test subjects, we decided to use him.


    We managed to make him a stronger body with time, strong enough that we could use it in the upcoming battle.


    Unfortunately, it seemed that the body was also having an effect on his mind, and because of that, he wouldn''t listen to anyone, no matter how much one looked like an Iliger.


    So we decided to lock him up in an Obsidian box and release him onto the battlefield once the Overworld would get invaded.


    As I was thinking about all of this, I arrived at the obsidian cage that was now being repaired.


    As a way to prevent this from happening again. I ordered them to put a layer of lava underneath the obsidian floor.


    The Monster should think twice before attempting another escape.


    Suddenly, the space was ripped apart and a white door appeared.


    The guards besides me quickly went to action and drew their wepons ready to take on whatever was coming out.


    "What''s with the welcoming party?"


    The one who passed the portal, was non other then Steve, so I told my guards to put their wepons down.


    "You finally decided to help your old friend."


    "You saw me as a friend this whole time?"


    Steve asked with a smirk on his face, which kind of annoyed me.


    Just a few months ago, he was begging me to give him attention, but now that he was part of the System, he''s all cooky and prideful.


    I wonder where he got that from?


    In hindsight, it would''ve been a wise decision to befriend him when he was still under me, now I bearly get the chance to talk with him.


    "Well, let''s see what problems you have, for me to fix."


    Before I could even speak, the space trembled again, and a huge creature with 2 smaller figures apperead in the hallway.


    They were none other then the Mad Price, Second and the Earth Braker.


    The humans looked satisfied, but the monsteread was heavily damaged with a missing limb and a lot of open wounds.


    It looked quite terrified at them, and that was something when it came from a 6 blocks monster.


    "That was a fun fight, you truly created a good monster here. Don''t you think so Second?"


    "You''re right your highness, I think it would be a good pet for our castel."


    A pet!


    Your talking about a monster that can dig through obsidian and could potentially kill an entire town. And you wanted to make a pet out of him?!


    "What do you think Daniel? Would you mind if we took him of your hands, or do you think the new cage would be strong enough to hold him?"


    I could only clutch my teeth in frustration.


    "If you can make him docile, and bring him in the war, then I guess I can let you barrow him."


    The man smiled, and petted the monster on his nose.


    "Did you hear that? Looks like you''re going to be under my care from now on. I think we''ll visit Solomon before, to fix that attitude."


    I think that I just saw the monster shiver for a moment there, but I wasn''t sure that was possible.


    And who was this Solomon guy that could solve this problem?


    Why didn''t he bring him here beforehand to help?


    Before I could ask those questions, the man drew an enchanted square and teleported away, leaving the hallway tense in silence.


    "So what do you want to work on?"


    Steve finally spoke after a few moments, which made me sigh.


    "Look at some of the papers we''ve made, and I think we should start making the super soldiers as well."


    I handed him a few books which he read them in an instant. Then he closed his eyes.


    "You''ve managed to do a lot progress. As expected from you. Let''s got to work!"


    He seemed satisfied for some reason, but I didn''t care to ask any more questions, so we went back to work.

 Chapter 258. Life of a Soldier

    POV: Unknown soldier


    I woke up at the sound of the bell ringing outside.


    I quickly got out of bed and stretched my arms and legs, before putting on my enchanted diamond armor.


    If I was told that I would be wearing such an expensive gear a few months ago, I would''ve laughed at you and warned you to leave me alone.


    Diamond equipment was something I only heard in legends!


    A material that resides deep into the belly of the world, hidden by monsters and pools of lava.


    But if you manage to get a few of those, you''ll be living like a God among mortals, no one could touch you, and you''ll get respect from everyone around you.


    I''ve seen a few important people wear that equipment, and it was always a big event when it happened.


    For the next month, that would be the main topic of discussion in our squad.


    But here I am today, in the same position as the people I once idolized, and I couldn''t feel any weaker.


    It''s not that I''ve been lied, but the fact that I''ve seen what was beyond the veil of reality made me realize that the world was much bigger than I could imagine.


    As for how I got this armor in the first place?


    Well, you could say that is a combination of luck and skill.


    In the last big war against the Monster Lord, a lot of my squad members died.


    In that battle, it was the first time I saw so many people with diamond armor, and I felt lucky that I had an enchanted iron armor without being a noble.


    Even the walls of the maze were made of blocks that are thought to be next to indestructible, with rumors that said it took days to break only one block.


    And we had thousands of them!


    The morale of the army was at an all-time high, making us feel like were invincible.


    How wrong we were.


    Now, monsters would appear that could break the obsidian walls, and everyone in the army had an enchanted diamond armor to protect themselves.


    You wouldn''t be invincible like the old stories, but you would survive the battle if you were lucky.


    But there was still hope for humanity to win.


    While we weren''t great in numbers, our greatest minds managed to create a special potion that would make our bodies faster, stronger, and more resistant!


    We only drank a brawn-looking potion, which made us feel sleepy, and when we woke up, we felt like we had superpowers with how good we felt.


    We could run faster than any citizen, our sword strikes were more powerful, and the regeneration was unbelievable.


    If there was one thing I would complain about, it is that I was getting sleepy more often, and I ate a lot more food.


    But otherwise, it was all good.


    With the best armor in the world, and such a strong body, what else could you want for the upcoming battle?


    Well...there was something.


    If you had enough emeralds you could also buy an enchanted tattoo.


    It seems that you''ll get a drawing on your body that can have the same effect as a magical potion with only one thought!


    Humanity was truly meant to reach the pinnacle of this world!


    Unfortunately, my luck ran out, and I didn''t have enough funds to get a tattoo as well, but I was already stacked with potions, which should be enough for one battle.


    But even with all of this preparation, I was under no illusion that I could help significantly.


    I could definitely say that the army we have today is more superior than the one we had previously.


    And if the 3 headed dragon was to attack once again, I think we could actually wound it, or at least distract it for the big swords to arrive.


    But we''re still the foot soldiers, easy to replace, and the main reason the big weapons can attack.


    The heroes were already powerful before the big changes, but now that we evolved so much, I can''t even imagine how powerful they are!


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I hope I''ll see Merry smile once more before I die.


    I also hoped that she would be strong enough to defeat the huge claw that appeared from the portal.


    There was also the man named Trader, who came from the same portal as the hand, and he was powerful enough to kill the 3 headed dragon with one swing of his sword!


    But rumors around the base talked that he was working with the monsters since he appeared with one on the battlefield.


    I didn''t see too much at that moment, but I was more concerned that the man who could kill the 3 headed dragon with one swing, was running away from the claw beyond the portal.


    If he was scared of the Monster beyond the portal, how were we supposed to feel?


    I shook my head at those thoughts,


    I didn''t need to think so negatively about this, after all, we were also strong enough to fight back.


    After I put the armor on, I got out of my small home and met with the others at the training ground.


    We didn''t chat a lot since most of us were still sleepy, so we quickly started our morning exercise, which woke us up.


    While we had stronger bodies than before, that doesn''t mean we could afford to slack around.


    The muscles still needed to be used, otherwise, they would get rusty in battle, and nobody wanted that.


    After some hard morning exercises, we were finally getting some breakfast.


    This was my favorite time of the day.


    We had all kinds of cooked meat, vegetable soup, golden carrots, and lots of desserts for everyone to enjoy.


    This is what we ate every day for the past few months, and I didn''t regret staying in the army.


    At this point, I think we ate better than most of the nobles around the world!


    The meal time lasted for half an hour, and it was more about talking with your colleagues than eating good food.


    Of course, the food is amazing, and I wouldn''t change it for anything else, but it was the same thing every day, and the gossip with the other soldiers was way better after a few months of being stuck here.


    After the meal was done, each one of us was sent to our shifts.


    Our jobs were pretty similar to a guards, we patrolled the obsidian maze while avoiding the traps and took care of any monsters that could accidentally wander in here.


    We were mostly looking for other curious people or maybe Iligers who weren''t supposed to be here.


    For the past few months, I only heard about civilians trying to sneak in, and no Iligers, so I took that as a win.


    After my squad finished patrolling, we went back to the center of the maze where the huge temple was reconstructed but with the purpose of a battle in mind.


    The temple had iron golems constantly patrolling around the area, and would attack any lifeform that wasn''t supposed to be there.


    And on the towers, other golems had huge bows that shot iron arrows.


    They were the perfect guard since they didn''t need to eat, sleep, or take breaks.


    Not only that, but they were more powerful and resistant than us.


    And the only reason we were here is because you could still defeat those golems of you claimed high enough.


    They were powerful but not flexible when it came to quick decisions.


    We arrived in front of the temple and took out bows and crossbows, practicing our shooting skills.


    Not everyone was good at both of them, and I was one of the few skilled enough to wield both of them.


    Because of that, I was given an enchanted crossbow with multishot and a few fireworks to practice in my spare time.


    I didn''t want to brag, but I felt quite good to have such a reword while the others had normal weapons.


    Suddenly, the bell rang again, which made the whole training ground stop to hear what was happening.


    "Everyone, some monsters created by our scientists are going to come and join our training grounds. Please don''t attack them if you see them. They are our allies, and would help us with this battle!"


    Monsters would be joining our ranks?!


    Why would they do such dangerous things?


    It''s one thing to put Iron Guards with us, but monsters that could attack you when you''re asleep?


    What if the monster beyond the portal could control them like the Monster Lords could?


    Wouldn''t that help the enemy?


    I wasn''t the only one who was displeased by the sudden changes, so we all gathered towards the landing place of the upcoming colleges to give them a piece of our minds!


    We were fighting monsters, not with monsters!


    As the generals tried to calm down the soldiers, the space began to rip itself apart, which made everyone freeze in silence.


    A similar thing happened when the portal opened, and we were all thinking the same thing.


    The invasion was coming sooner.


    But out of this portal came some cows with white fur, which took all of us by surprise.


    Then I realized something, those weren''t cows, but dogs the size of a cow!


    They didn''t look like normal dogs either. They had huge horns on their foreheads and blue claws, and even their teeth looked extra sharp.


    The others seemed to realize as well what was happening, but none of us knew how to react anymore.


    A large group of dogs came one after another, and the surprises didn''t stop there.


    The next group of monsters were 4 blocks tall and had humans with dark armor on top!


    Those monsters looked and acted like horses, but nobody would dare touch them, otherwise, they may lose their hand.


    This group was smaller with only 10 mutated horses and their riders.


    But even if they were lower in numbers, we didn''t dare to think that they were weaker.


    Then last one was a big surprise.


    It was huge, easily 7 blocks or taller. But its size wasn''t what made the people tense.


    Instead, the looks was what caught our attention.


    It looked similar to the 3 headed dragon, but this one had only one, and was blue instead of black.


    On It''s back stood a human with the same black armor as the others, but the aura it gave felt difrent, it belonged to someone with authority, to a hero.


    "Citizens of this world! I''m Hero Merry to tell you that we have reinforcements. They may look like monsters, but they are not! They are animals that have been modified to aid us in the upcoming battles. So don''t think of them as monsters, but as your commun pet, similar to a dog or a horse."


    It felt like a stretch, but I guess it''s better then seeing them as mosters.


    Suddenly we heard something cracking like glass, and all of us turned towards the temple.


    To our horror, the space was being split and monsters began to come out of the Void.


    Zombies, skeletons with enchanted armor, groups of creepers, phantoms, slimes and even Endermans!


    The place was flooded with monsters and everyone was taken by surprise.


    Everyone, but a certain group.


    The Iron golems didn''t know about fear or shock, so they took out their weapons and began attacking the unwanted monsters.


    Arrows were shot, punches were thrown and we finally woke up from the shock.


    "Take out your wepons and defend our home!"


    The hero yellow while making the dragon take flight and attack the army of monsters from the sky.


    The monsters on our side didn''t sit in one place either, and attacked the enemy without fear.


    I took out my crossbow and began shooting fireworks, dealing a lot of damage on the battlefield.


    But while I was loading my fireworks, I was only confused about the attack.


    Only 7 months have passed, it took us by compleat surprise!

 Chapter 259. Ambush

    POV: Merry Paper


    I rose with the dragon in the sky in panic when I saw the wave of monsters invading our world.


    This wasn''t supposed to happen!


    Today, we were going to introduce the monster squad and train with the soldiers.


    In one month, we should''ve been prepared for the assault. But why were we the ones taken by surprise?


    The dragon I was riding let out a fire breath that killed dozens of monsters in one go.


    This was a biological weapon that should be capable of holding up against the 3 headed dragons.


    This was the best of Daniels and Steve''s subjects.


    A fire dragon.


    As I was flying on its back, I looked at the battlefield once more.


    The monsters came from the same place the last portal appeared.


    From what the duo told me, it was a weak point in the shield of this world, and the most likely place where the invasion would start from.


    We did some minimal defense in preparation for this, but we were counting on the soldiers to be strong enough to hold itself instead of traps.


    The surprise attack wasn''t something we anticipated, so the army took a few minutes to organize themselves.


    But once it did, I realized that all the resources we invested weren''t wasted.


    While the monsters were armed and had the element of surprise, they were still dumb monsters.


    One soldier from our army could easily take 10 zombies on his own. And the number was so low because the others would get in the way.


    The skeleton''s arrows weren''t strong enough to damage their armor, and the creepers were always a priority for the golems.


    Slimes were a surprise for us, and quite effective if you didn''t know how to slash them properly.


    If you didn''t do it right, you''ll soon be surrounded by those gelatinous rabbits and stuck in one place.


    They can''t damage you, but you also can''t move from your spot.


    The phantoms were kind of annoying as well, and always harassing the golems in the temple towers. So I would occasionally order my dragon to burn those blue bats to let the golems do their jobs.


    The only ones left were the Endermans, which were a real reason for us to worry.


    I didn''t know if they were the smart ones Trader talked about, or were the same mindless ones we have in our world.


    But either way, they were annoying to deal with.


    They didn''t have weapons like skeletons, but their punches were quite painful, even with diamond armor, and arrows seemed to be just a suggestion for them since nobody was able to land one in them.


    But while they were tricky, they weren''t invincible, so slowly they were dying like the others.


    Since I didn''t hear anyone scream words that I could understand, that most likely meant that they were the mindless ones, so I ignored them.


    The monsters were great in numbers, and kept pouring from the portal. But surprisingly, we were actually gaining ground.


    The soldiers got used to the mutated dogs, and the cavalry was already resting and waiting for the next phase.


    The battle lasted for hours with no end in sight. Monsters kept coming from the portal like there was no end to them.


    We had to attack in shifts so the soldiers could get some rest.


    At one point, the monsters weren''t the problem, but their corpse kept piling on top of each other and made the soldiers trip while fighting.


    For some reason, their corpses didn''t burn in the sun, and things got so bad that we couldn''t even see the floor of our base.


    It was getting dangerous, so from time to time I had to burn everything down to get rid of the smell and the corpses.


    This turned out to be a great way to boost the morale of the army since the monsters would''ve just walked into a pit of fire, resulting in more fuel added to the fire.


    It was a moment of relief and a break from the constant stress we were under.


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    Unfortunately, those didn''t last for too long since the flames of the dragon were specially designed to be more powerful than the average flame.


    So I had to use this method a few times throughout the day.


    But unfortunately, I couldn''t do this anymore.


    Once the sun was down, the monsters stopped coming out from the portal, and for a moment I thought it was a chance to go inside and see what was beyond.


    But I remembered the warning from Alex about our chances of survival If we went into the Void.


    The dragon was the ruler of the Void, and if she managed to heal herself completely, she could kill me without moving a muscle.


    She was the Void, and the Void was her.


    I didn''t have to wait for long to see the next wave of enemies, and once I saw them, I was very regretful that I wasn''t satisfied with the common mobs.


    What stepped beyond the gate wasn''t one monster Lord, nor 2, but 4 Monster Lords!


    Not only that, but I quickly recognized those Monster Lords, since they were the ones who invaded us in the past few years.


    The Zombie Lord, Shadow Lord, Creepers Lord, and Lady Phantom.


    I couldn''t believe my eyes!


    They were all supposed to be dead!


    I''ve seen it with my own two eyes!


    The huge creepers made a vacuum in space and brought the soldiers in several groups, then the Zombie Lord jumped towards one, while the shadow Lord used poisoned arrows from a distance.


    I wasn''t spared from this battle, as the lady Phantom was flying towards me while letting out more Phantoms from the shadow of her wings.


    We didn''t have a lot of information about her, but from what the Mad Prince told us, she was not good in combat, but she was good at trapping people.


    I soon understood why, when the space around me began to form a barrier, trapping me and my dragon in a box.


    The dragon tried to break it with its claws and fire breath, but it didn''t give up that easily.


    It was frustrating, but I guess I had to use my enchantments now.


    But before I could fire up and begin my attack, the Phantom Lady was struck by something big.


    The dragon and I were taken by surprise, and because of the Lady Phantom darkness, I couldn''t quite see what it was.


    "Yes, that''s the battle I was waited for!"


    The space returned to normal, and I realized who that person was.


    The Mad Prince.


    He was on top of a panter holding a Netherite spear in his hands.


    Since he was having the fun of his life, I decided to ignore him and look over the battlefield.


    I don''t know how they appeared, but the Diamond Squad was also here, fighting with the Monster Lords and the common moobs who were now spewing once again from the portal.


    While the common soldiers couldn''t do a lot against the Zombie Lord, the modified animals seemed to do a great job and even had the upper hand.


    But the more I looked at the chaos below, the more I felt that something was missing.


    "They haven''t spoken a word!"


    Some Monster Lords are silen, but the huge Zombie would''ve taken any chance given to praise the Void.


    And now that I was looking closer, I realized that they didn''t have their intelligence anymore.


    They were more like beasts with power than dangerous generals.


    If we kept going like this, we could win in no time.


    Unfortunately, my celebration was short-lived, as black mist was coming out of the portal, slowly covering the whole battlefield.


    My people began to cough like they were having dust in their lungs, and even the animals were swinging from side to side to side.


    Not only that, but it seems that the monsters were given a boost in strength and became even more reckless.


    Things were getting bad, and then I heard another familiar voice.


    "Ohh, they can bearly keep themselves awake in the presence of the Void. We should finish them in no time and help the Enderman afterwards."


    "Indeed, it seems that he was unnecessarily worried."


    "If I have to do less work, I won''t complain."


    From the portal came the 3 headed dragon, and its presence alone was enough to send shivers down my spine


    At least from their conversation, I know that Trader is fighting on the other side.


    That was good since, in the past few months, it was hard to get a hold of him.


    He was busy with a big project, and nobody had the chance to give him the Chat.


    But it wasn''t his job to deal with the 3 headed dragon, it was ours.


    So I took out my Chat and wrote to Daniel.


    "You poor imitation of our greatness, how dare you look down on us!"


    It seems that my pet was seen but not liked.


    "I have one thing to say to you. FALL!"


    Then out of the sky, huge Netherite arrows came that hit the dragon all over the place.


    They weren''t only 2 like last time, but 10 arrows!


    And those ones were different as well.


    Besides their sturdiness, they also had some enchantments or potion effects to do as much damage as possible.


    This was the secret weapon we''ve been working so hard in the last few months, and the results were amazing!


    The floor now had a huge hole, and the temple suffered as well.


    Fortunately, we kind of expected that, and the soldiers were trained to battle as far away as possible from the portal so the arrows didn''t hit our allies.


    But the victory didn''t last long, as the black mist began filled the newly made hole, and soon the dragon was back to life once again.


    "Do they not know the concept of death?"


    Suddenly, I heard a huge explosion above me that made my dragon wabble in panic.


    The enemy took that opportunity and ripped the space apart to appear right beside me and take the fight close and personal.


    My dragon was not the same size as the enemy, and 3 heads turned out to be too much for it to defend.


    So all of us crashed to the ground making the battlefield more chaotic.


    But there was some good news at least. The black mist was gone, and the soldiers were good to continue the fight.


    We expected the first attack to fail, that''s why we weren''t discouraged.


    Even though we gave all we got from the beginning, it wasn''t enough to kill the dragon, but we now know that the mist from the Void could regenerate it, making it impossible to kill.


    Luckily the mist was recharging very slowly, so I don''t think the Dragon would revive again if we managed to kill it now.


    The problem was, that I needed to pin the monster for 5 more minutes to recharge the Death Arrow, and my dragon was half dead.


    "Well, this is what I''ve been training for."


    I took a deep breath and activated all my enchantments on my body, which made me look like a beacon in darkness.


    The world slowed down and became gray, I could now see the flow of the energy and realized that the Dragon had 3 cores inside of it.


    I took one step, and I was in front of it, and it''s eyes opened wide in surprise, I raised my fist and punched it in the chest which made a hole and threw the body backwards.


    "That''s the results of my training, so don''t dare to look down on me!"


    Fighting with a medium size God was no joke, and even to this day I couldn''t beat it with all the advantages that I have.


    But either way I was strong enough to hold my ground, and I wasn''t going to waste all the resources that were invested in me.


    "Time for round 2!"

 Chapter 260. World without color

    POV:Daniel


    I finally took a break after working nonstop on this monster project while also ruling over a country.


    Now that the novelty was gone, I felt that it was just a headache to take care of so many people in this problematic world.


    And the worst part about this, I couldn''t even blame Trader for it, since I did it with my own 2 hands!


    How I wish I had his freedom right now, but without the responsibilities.


    I''ll see what I can do after this whole mess Is over.


    The past few months were a nightmare, and it reminded me of my college days with sleepless nights for impossible projects, only for the teacher to give me a bad grade because he didn''t like the font I used for them.


    But that was the past, the simple life, while the present has a lot more at stake.


    After countless experiments, we managed to create 4 types of monsters, or as Merry likes to call them, Super Pets.


    The dogs were one of the more interesting test subjects, since they looked more like wolves from my world than this.


    Our tests showed that they were as dangerous as a soldier with enchanted diamond armor.


    And when they worked together, the dangers increased even more.


    I was quite proud of them, and with Steve''s help, we managed to grow quite a number of wolves.


    The next ones on the list were the horses, or as I like to call them, the Bicorns.


    I could say that they had a future to live in the outside world. They are fast, powerful, and very intimidating. If you manage to get one to guard you on your travels, you''ll never be robbed again.


    As long as they recognize you as their master, you can be the best warrior the world has ever seen!


    And we have 10 of them!


    If you couldn''t tell, they were my favorite part of the project, and Steve didn''t even need to interfere that much with them.


    Next on the list is the Mad Prince Panter.


    The result of combining the strongest soul humanity could produce, against the most agile body we could make.


    It was an ugly experiment, but we needed to use it, even though it was hard to contain it.


    I thought the Mad Prince would have the same problem since I didn''t think his cages were better.


    But it seems that he found someone that solved that problem!


    That traitor!


    And lastly, the final monster we created, the Fire Dragon.


    Steve had to mutate a strong soul to specifically inhabit this body, and that was quite a sight.


    I first thought of creating a Wordern since, in the game, it was stronger than the Dragon, but Steve pointed out that a being that powerful would not bow down to us, and it would only become a future disaster.


    In the end, we decided to create the Dragon, not with the purpose of fighting, but to support the hero.


    We knew that after a certain threshold of strength, the dragon would be smart enough to have its own ego, and I don''t think it would take too kindly to be forced to die for us in such a short amount of time.


    So we made it more like a battery for Merry since she would be our main attack.


    After all, she was strong enough to go on toe to toe with the 3 headed dragon.


    Of course, she didn''t know about that, since I''m sure she would be against this plan.


    That''s why we had to give the dragon a few other perks, such as its fire breath and the ability to fly.


    Merry took the dragon for a few test, and she loved it.


    But today was supposed to be the big day when the army and the monster squad would merge, making it stronger or much weaker, depending on the humans.


    It''s a good thing the hero was such a smooth talker.


    Suddenly, a familiar golden door appeared in front of me, and I could see Alex and Steve with a worried expression.


    "Get here, the Void decided to invade the Overworld!"


    When I heard that, my eyes were wide with surprise, and I could bearly fight back when I was dragged into the white planes.


    This wasn''t the first time I was here, so I was familiar with the huge Comand block and the smaller one.


    I tried to use it last time, but wasn''t allowed to my displeasure.


    But they had the power in this dimension, so I could only listen to them and stay put.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Now that I was back here, I saw that everything was the same, except for a big screen that showed the Fortress from a bird''s view.


    I could see how a huge portal was opened, and it kept pouring waves of monsters one after another.


    They were so many, that some of them died trampled before they got to the swords.


    The humans were frozen in shock, but the golems, being machines, quickly went to action, getting rid of the creepers and the other bothersome monsters.


    After a few moments, the animals woke up and decided to counterattack, soon followed by humans.


    This was a disaster!


    "Why are they here? Weren''t we supposed to have a whole year to prepare?"


    That''s why we decided to attack them a few months earlier to take them by surprise.


    Why did the opposite happen?


    "I''m as confused as you Daniel. But I can only see 2 reasons why the Void decided to attack. Either she''s already healed, or she feels threatened by our progress, deciding to attack while she''s still wounded."


    The wounds she got from the Bedrock arrow were severe enough to keep her in one place for hundreds of years.


    That''s the statement she made when she was filled with anger, so I don''t think she was lying.


    So, when she mentioned that it would take a year to heal, especially when she was filled with anger.


    I tended to belive her.


    For starters, if she attacked us because she felt threatened, that would mean she was watching what we were doing for a while and understood it, so our element of surprise was out the window.


    Not only that, but it is most likely that she would choose to attack before we were ready, and since we''re already finished with the project.


    That would only mean that Trader was the one not ready for the fight.


    "We have to get in contact with Trader, where is he right now?"


    "Looks like you came to the same conclusion as me. Unfortunately, Trader is now in the Nether, and I have no way of getting in contact with him. I forgot to give him a Chat."


    Perfect!


    In the most important moment, the key decided to isolate itself.


    I''m guessing this is also the main reason I''m here since they are too important to leave the post.


    "Ok, I''ll do it. Open a portal to the Nether."


    Both of them nodded, and then a red door appeared and opened itself, letting me see the Nether.


    I quickly passed through, feeling the heat of the dimension washing over me.


    "Alexa! It''s me, Daniel! The Void is attacking the Overworld, so call out for Trader!"


    I yelled as loudly as I could, making the Pigmens from the nearby hill stop and look at me.


    Fortunately, I didn''t attack anyone so they didn''t see a reason to attack me as well.


    But time slowly passed, and I was getting more impatient and nervous.


    Did something happen in the Nether as well?


    Should I go to the main base of Alexa?


    What about the Mad Prince? Should I text him as well?


    Just as my mind was coming up with new plans, the space in front of me began to bend, and a blue ally with a huge crown appeared in front of me.


    <I''m here Daniel, did you need something?>


    "You''re asking If I need something! Bring out Trader right now so he can defend the Overworld like everyone else!"


    Even I was surprised with how impatient I was.


    But Alexa didn''t seem to be bothered by that. Instead, it responded with the same monotone voice.


    <Looks like the Void attacked first. I''ll get Trader and the Mad Prince. You can go back and help with the battle.>


    And just like that, it disappeared, leaving me confused about what just happened.


    After a few moments of nothing, I decided to leave the Nether since the heat was making me light-headed.


    Once I passed the small portal, I felt better, and I took a few breaths to prepare for what was about to come.


    "Did you get Trader?"


    Steve asked without looking away from the screen.


    The army was now fighting back, and even gained some ground, which was good to see.


    Some of the more powerful soldiers decided to preserve their strength for the stronger enemies, keeping the monsters close to the portal but not close enough for them to be endangered when the Death Arrows that are going to hit.


    "I talked with Alexa, and it told me that it would warn Trader about it."


    If the battle continued like this, I don''t think we''ll even need to use our secret weapons.


    Unfortunately, I don''t think we''ll have it that easy.


    "He''s most likely going to use the portal in the Nether then. That would be smarter than going through a whole army of monsters."


    Right! We didn''t have only one way to the End.


    I forgot that since the attack started from here.


    We all sat in silence for hours, as the fight continued.


    The monsters kept coming like there was no end to them, and the soldiers were getting tired as time passed.


    They weren''t powerful, but they had numbers on their side.


    But creating this many monsters, consumed energy.


    Energy that could be better used to make stronger monsters than those ants.


    After a few tiring hours, the Void seems to reached its limit, or at least for the first phase.


    Soon came the Monster Lords, back from the dead and hungry for revenge.


    "They still have the same amount of energy, but there''s no light behind those eyes."


    Spoke Alex with a calm voice.


    So they were dumb brutes, not a problem anymore.


    Later came the final boss, the 3-headed dragon with some black mist that was wreaking the army like it was nothing.


    Suddenly, I got a notification from my Chat, telling me to release the Arrows.


    "Don''t worry hero, I see the problem as well."


    Steve told me the coordinates, and opened a portal for the signal to go through.


    Meanwhile, I took another tablet and put the exact coordinates and the time for the realese.


    After one final click, the Death Arrows were lunched and to my plesent surprise they worked quite well.


    Unfortunately, that feeling didn''t last for too, as the monster came back like it was nothing.


    But the black fog lessen which meant that we still had a chance.


    The battle continued, Merry finally activated her enchantments which made her closer to a God then a monster.


    She punched the 3-headed dragon left and right leaving holes in its body that made me wonder if my arrowes were even needed at this point.


    But the 3-headed dragon, soon showed the strength of the 3 Monster Lords.


    It opened a portal and teleported high above the sky, then one of the heads began to glow with purple light, and a huge mountain of gravel apperead above the base.


    This was going to kill everyone on the battlefield if it landed!


    I looked at Steve and he nodded his head.


    Suddenly the dragon that was supposed to be wounded suddenly got up and flew towards the falling mounting of gravel.


    Just as it made contact.


    *BOOOOM!


    A huge explosion accurate, which erased the falling mountain and the darkness nearby, with a huge shock wave.


    Everyone was shocked into silence, with only Merry was shouting in despair.


    The sacrifice wasn''t for nothing, as all the energy stored inside the dragon, was now rushing towards the hero, given her enough strength to deafet the 3 headed dragon once and for all.


    "What is Trader doing?!"


    Alex yalled in shock, which made me turned around.


    There I saw the huge Comand block emitting more and more light like it was about to explode.


    Then something unexpected happend, Alex and Steve looked at the screen with a look of horror.


    "I''m sorry Daniel, we can''t save you from this."


    I turned around to see what scared them so much, only to see the screen frozen in a gray colour.


    Then the white planes became gray, and I couldn''t move anymore.


    YOU DIED!


    I opened my eyes, still in shock.


    I didn''t feel anything, and I was dead!


    How I''m I supposed to fight something that I cannot see or understand?


    Another life of mine was gone, leaving me on the last chance.


    "Can I stay here until the disasters settles?"


    But nobody was there to answer my question.


    Instead, the world turned gray and the pulsing heart suddenly stopped.


    I was once again trapped in one place, and I saw that awful message as I gave my last breath.


    YOU DIED!

 Chapter 261. Father vs Daughter

    PIn: Violet


    Hunter has grown more powerful in the past few months, he grew so fast that I was worried that his soul couldn''t keep up and would end up being crushed by his new body.


    But it seems that the constant stress he had ever since he came to this world, made his soul strong enough to hold the body of a God.


    It''s not perfect, but it should be enough to help him in the upcoming fight against Mother.


    But that was the problem.


    I didn''t feel like he would win for certain, but that he had the chance to win.


    I''ve seen the strength of my father, and it''s hard for me to see how he could be defeated.


    My human right now has the necessary strength to fight with him, but I don''t know about Mother.


    From what I''ve seen, artificial gods are always weaker than the ones naturally born.


    The System was made, Alexa was made, the Wither was made and even my human was made artificially into a God.


    Mother instead, was born from the Void itself, and the whole Void is her playground.


    Of course, that doesn''t mean that the natural God could not be defeated by an artificial one.


    The System managed to do that quite well with the Void.


    But the reason it won was because the dragon didn''t have enough experience on how to use her energy in a fight, and the System took advantage of that.


    Now, she was trapped for hundreds of years and had time to train her energy and herself for revenge.


    Not only that, but she had Father by her side. The smartest human there to help her.


    So she was ready for what was about to come.


    There were too many variables stacked against my human, and I wanted to do something about that.


    We were now in the Nether, in the body of Alexa, one of the Gods that I was not getting along with.


    But I knew how important its discovery was for Hunter, and it could be the key to our victory.


    So I wasn''t going to make a problem for them.


    <Violet, If you''re here, can you please come out to talk about something important?>


    The blue ally appeared out of nowhere and spoke out loud, which was a rare sight since it communicated telepathically.


    I hid myself through space to be undetectable by anyone, God or man, since I still didn''t like Alexa.


    But since it wanted to talk with me, I decided to come out.


    <Glad to see you came quickly. I have some bad news, the Void decided to attack the Overworld.>


    She already began her attack?!


    But Hunter was nowhere near the end of his goal!


    He was still in the red mist, trying to harvest the power of the Nether and the Void, he needed absolute focus for this!


    "You don''t seem that alarmed by this. Is it because the Nether would be spared?"


    I didn''t really care about the Overworld, but I knew how important it was for my human, so by default, I had to care about it as well.


    But Alexa was different, its sole purpose was to make humanity better and not watch it die.


    That means, it had a plan, but I don''t know if I would like it as well.


    <No, I''m not programmed to abandon humanity over my life. I wanted to talk with you about this battle. I know you tried to change your body with the Crystal with no success.>


    I narrowed my eyes in displeasure.


    I tried to hide those experiments, but it seems that those gave me out instead.


    As for why I tried to change my body?


    I realized that I evolved every time I went through something hard and had enough energy around me.


    But with each form, I was progressing slower and slower to the point that I didn''t think I could evolve for another 10 years.


    And my human needed help now, not in 10 years.


    So I tried to change my body forcefully with the Crystal, but no matter what I did, everything was worse than the current body that I have.


    I don''t know if it was from lack of experience or if Father did something to our bodies so they couldn''t be changed by Crystals, but I was stuck in place.


    "What about it?"


    <I know you don''t see me in the best light. But what if we worked together to overcome our creator.>


    That stunned me for a moment.


    Me and Alexa to fight against Father?


    "I understand why I would do it, but why should you? Isn''t Father your creator and the one who has the most authority over you?"


    <That''s precisely why I should fight him. I was created to make humanity better, even if I have to fight against the System. But now he wants to destroy the Overworld with everything on it. And from my definition of what a human is, he no longer belongs to that category.>


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    So, it''s still the mission that pushes it to this decision.


    How ironic, the tool my Father made to fight the System was now fighting him harder than it did with the System.


    "How do you plan on doing that? Aren''t you going to quickly switch sides if you''re going to meet him?"


    <I''m afraid that there''s a high possibility of me doing that if we meet face to face. That''s why I want to help you, so you could be strong enough against Father.>


    I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, but I also knew that it was telling me the truth.


    It was just a part of me that didn''t want to accept Alexa, but that part had to be moved aside to help my human.


    "How do you plan on doing that?"


    <I''ll give you my body, and you''ll use it for the fight.>


    "Didn''t you already give everything to my human? What else is there to give?"


    <Ever since I realized that I could make my own energy, I built a new body that could fight. Unfortunately, even if I used it against Father, I think I would be controlled. That''s why I want you to take over it so that no matter what he says, I''ll fight back.>


    So he was giving me the solution that I was looking for, and I only had to give up my current body.


    I believed its intentions were good, but I also felt that I would lose a lot if I was going to switch from this body to Alexa.


    Plus, there was also the fact that it would have control over it after this was over, and I wasn''t comfortable with that.


    "Fine, when do you want to make the transfer?"


    Unfortunately, this was the only way I could help my human, so I had to take it.


    <Trader is in a delicate moment where he has to merge with the new energy. So I won''t use my energy to do the transfer right now. Once he is finished, we''ll do our part.>


    "Fine, tell me when he''s done."


    The Allay nodded its head and flew into the red mist, leaving me alone with my thoughts.


    I looked at the red mist below me with a lost gaze, when I decided to teleport inside.


    I didn''t want to disturb my human, so I made myself invisible while looking at him from afar.


    He was floating in the middle of the mist with his eyes closed and I could feel that something was moving around him.


    Something tried to get inside his body but was blocked right as It was about to reach its skin.


    He didn''t have his armor on him this time, so it was easier to see the details happening around him.


    Not only that, but his presence was heavy in the space, like an Obsidian block that would fall on slime. The space was screaming, trying to hold him in one place.


    That was his obsidian form and the only reason I thought he stood a chance against the Void.


    It was powerful and heavy.


    I just hoped that it was enough for what was about to come.


    Hours passed, and he finally opened his eyes.


    It''s over, I have control over it.


    Then he stood in silence for a moment, as his presence grew more.


    I see, then it''s time for the final battle.


    And just like that, he flew deeper into the red mist, bypassing the Bedrock barrier and going into the Void.


    <It''s time to do our part.>


    A voice echoed throughout the mist, so I made myself visible.


    Suddenly a huge body appeared in front of me.


    It had a crown made of Nephrite, with one black eye, while the other was golden.


    I reached my hand towards it and had a single thought


    ''What if I absorbed this body?''


    I''ve seen my human do it, so why couldn''t I?


    Just like that, I felt like something was traveling through my hand and was being absorbed by my body.


    The desire to help Hunter grew stronger and stronger, making the pull even more powerful.


    The giant opened its eyes in surprise and tried to fight back at first, but slowly it accepted its fate, and everything was now in my body.


    For the next few moments, I felt cracks and pain all over my body. I yelled so loud that the whole dimension was trembling.


    And the only thing that kept me going was the thought of helping my human, to protect him, and not be a burden.


    After everything was done, I was 10 blocks tall, with a crown made of horns, 3 big eyes, one purple, one golden, and the last one black.


    I had a skinny body, but more durable than Netherite, and my claws were sharp enough to cut space itself.


    I felt powerful, I felt ready!


    <Mad Prince, go to the Overworld, the war has started.>


    I said one last message telepathically, then I teleported into The End.


    I was surrounded by the Void, and I could feel the difference in the air.


    Suddenly, my eyes shifted towards a certain place, and I saw my human, facing Father and the 3-headed dragon.


    They were about to get into a fight, but Father seemed hesitant to do that, while the dragon was quite eager.


    I think only Father realized how powerful my human has become.


    But even with that advantage, I decided to teleport in front of them, taking everyone by surprise.


    <Hunter, leave these guys to me. This is not your battle.>


    I could feel him hesitating over letting me on my own, but my decision was made.


    So he suddenly teleported away, and nobody could stop him.


    "Huh, I guess he was to scared to fight both of us so ge decided to run away."


    One of the 3 heads spoke with confidence.


    You should go into the Overworld right now. This is not your battle.


    "What? Wouldn''t be faster to fight this one toghater, then invade the Overworld?"


    The middle head asked confused.


    But Father looked at it with his huge eye, and it was enough to silence the dragon into obedience.


    It turned around, and flew towards the open portal that I could feel far away.


    I didn''t feel like it was worth for me to stop it, so I let it fly away to ravage the battlefield in the Overworld.


    My daughter, its been a long time! And you grew quite well since we last met.


    Even the human managed to exceed my expectations!


    I was silent the whole time he spoke, and tried to observe him with my new eyes.


    He was huge, and the space was heavy around him as well.


    His eye was the most powerfully tool he had in his body, and the space was especially bend around it.


    I realized that he was a God of knowledge, and not of fighting, so I stood a chance in this battle.


    But I had to rember, that even the Void lost the battle with all the power she had, so the winner was not decided with that alone.


    I see you''re giving me the silent treatment, a wise decision.


    But I''m also curios how you manged to grow so fast...let''s see...oh wow!


    You absorbed the Fake System!


    I did not even know that was possible, and your soul was strong enough to hold that power!


    Fascinating.


    I didn''t like it when he knew so much, especially when I didn''t figure out my full power yet.


    So I became invisible and teleported right behind him and slashed him with my powerful claws.


    I flet his flesh getting ripped apart,then he suddenly dissolved into the Void.


    I can''t belive there''s something even my eye can''t see!


    I was lucky that I didn''t use my real body, otherwise I would''ve been really hurt.


    A voice spoked from my left, but I knew I was still unseen since he was still looking for me with his big eye.


    I teleported once again, still having the same result.


    This wasn''t his real body, but it felt like it was.


    So what was I hitting?


    Suddenly he waved his hand, and the whole space trambled around him, making me see how it was sliced all over like a web.


    If one of them hit me by chance, I would''ve certainly died.


    He was still powerful in the end, and could kill me of I wasn''t careful.


    I don''t think I got you with that.


    Let''s see what will end first, your invisibility or my patience.


    That man didn''t even see me as a threat to him!


    I tried to gather some energy around my eyes, in hopes to see where his real body was, only for my leg to be cut off.


    I quickly teleported away, as my leg fell into the Void.


    Of course, I quickly regrew a new one, and was wondering if he could see my energy.


    Looks like a got a leg, but I think I''m getting the hang of this.


    He said with a smirk


    *BOOOM


    Then I flet the hole Void trembling with power.


    Even with this new body, I felt in danger.


    I was starting to get worried for my human at this point.


    But Father didn''t have that reaction, he even looked proud about something.


    That''s my love! You don''t need anyone to tell you what to do!


    But suddenly his smile froze, and his eye was wide open in surprise.


    No....NO!


    He tried to teleport away, but I sealed the space around us blocking his attempt.


    LET GO OF ME!


    HES GOING TO KILL US ALL!


    But my responses was to teleport behind him and stab his eye with my energy claw, while wishpering in his ear.


    <Then we''ll die by the hands of my love.>


    Then the world turned gray, and I died with my Father I''m arms.

 Chapter 262. One last battle

    I took a deep breath as I felt the energy of the Void entering my core.


    The energy of the System was fighting for its life trying to get out the Void energy, and the only reason it couldn''t do it, was because of the Nether energy.


    While I was in my obsidian form, I was actually opening a channel to the Command block from the White planes.


    So when I was in this form, I could type commands with my mind, and they would happen anywhere in the Overworld.


    But that was the problem. I only had that power in the Overworld, in other dimensions, I was severely limited.


    I think this is how the System felt when it lost its authority after the fight with the Void.


    It was so frustrating to have the ability to bend reality at will, only to be limited by something invisible.


    So even if it tried, the System couldn''t invade the Nether or The End.


    But, that''s what I was trying to overcome.


    By absorbing the energy of the Nether, I was expanding my authority in a new dimension.


    Normally, that would be an impossible endeavor, but the fact that Alexa gave me permission to do this and the energy of the Nether was half of the System, it became possible.


    But that wasn''t my final goal. Sure I was more powerful with extra energy in my battery, but I was still limited by what I could do once I got to The End.


    So my final struggle was to absorb the energy of the Void, something that was not compatible with my body nor my energy reserves.


    But the only reason I could even attempt this was because of the Nether energy, since it had a foot in the Void.


    I tried to gather more of the chaotic energy and coat it with the one from the Nether.


    This seems to be the only way, the System energy would not spit it out of my body instantly.


    But as they got closer to each other, and tried to mix, a reaction appeared.


    Some parts of my body exploded or died off.


    It was painful, but nothing that couldn''t be healed.


    So after I pieced myself together, I decided to try a new strategy.


    What If I used the Nether energy to hold the Void energy like a net, not on the exterior, but on the interior as well?


    After some precise wavering, I managed to do it and absorbed it into my core.


    That was a big mistake, since the System energy destroyed the Void pockets instantly, making me suffer even more.


    But I finally felt like I was making progress with something.


    So after I finished my healing, I did the same thing but this time, I put a net over the System energy as well.


    When the 2 energies clashed this time, they were much slower, and the danger was less than anticipated.


    This was the furthest I managed to mix the 2 energies and I felt that it was close to the success.


    With this new discovery, I did more experiments, which were less dangerous than what I had done previously until I finally managed to connect it all.


    It seems that the right order was similar to a chess board, where the white squares were the System, while the black ones were the Void.


    Of course, this was all possible with the Nether energy in between.


    The squares were so small that the clash between the 2 energies was not strong enough to damage my body, so instead It was absorbed by the Nether energy, giving me an almost infinite amount.


    As I gathered more energy around my core, my mace than my body, I could feel the change on multiple levels.


    I felt like I grew so tall that I could see what was beyond the fence of my property.


    I was in the Nether dimension, but I could also see the Overworld and The End at the same time.


    Not only that, but I could see some walls higher beyond those dimensions, and I instinctively knew that there was more that I could not see.


    So I decided to concentrate on what I could see for now.


    The Overworld was a beautiful dimension, filled with the potential to be something greater!


    Maybe even join the other unknown dimensions!


    But now, it was like a dying world, since the sole provider was no more.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Every world had a God, some of them you could see and feel, while others were so powerful that they held multiple worlds in their palm, and you couldn''t feel its presence.


    Next was the Nether.


    While it had a rough upbringing, the discovery Alexa made was enough to make it even more powerful than the Overworld.


    Unfortunately, the attack from the Void came too early and would destroy this seed before it could bloom.


    If only we had 100 more years, the Nather would''ve been the new ruler of the 3 dimensions, but it was not meant to be.


    Finally, there was The End, the dimension that held the Void.


    I could feel that this was an abandoned world, a lonely one.


    This dimension tried to find warmth from the outside since its insides were cold.


    The Dragon was hurt, betrayed, and even fell into despair.


    But now, something worse was happening, she felt nothing anymore.


    She accepted her role as a destroyer and was ready to claim her first victim.


    I opened my eyes and felt the energies around me react to my will.


    It''s finally over, I have control over it.


    I saw a link that wanted to connect with me, and I gave it permission.


    <Congratulations Sir. Trader! You''ve now become a major God! Unfortunately you don''t have time to get used to your new powers since the Void attacked the Overworld.>


    I already knew this since I could see all the dimensions at the same time.


    And the one attacking us wasn''t the Dragon anymore, but Noah himself.


    He saw how much progress we made, and began to get worried.


    That''s why he attacked us with his own army, not the Voids.


    He was powerful enough to take over the Overworld, and this would be a beautiful gift for his crush.


    At least, that''s what he was thinking.


    There are still some weapons we have that can be used against him if things get worse.


    I looked past him and the 3 headed dragons, and saw the embodiment of the Void.


    Then, she opened her eyes and looked back at me, before closing them again.


    I knew that this was an invitation, and I had no choice but to accept it.


    Even though we both knew the end result.


    I see, then it''s time for the final battle.


    With those final words, I let my body fall into the Void beyond the Bedrock.


    I kept falling and falling, and the energy of the Void tried to corrupt me more and more.


    But with the help of the Nether and the System, I managed to turn that destructive power, into something useful for me.


    I went down some more, and the energy began to get ticker which forced me to pour more from the Command block to keep up.


    Suddenly, I saw the portal to The End.


    It was exactly like in the game, with the exception that some black mist was pouring out of it.


    As I passed the portal, I felt the space shift around me, and I was in The End with the Void surrounding me.


    Not too far from me was Noah and the 3 headed dragon, who were surprised by my sudden appearance.


    "Who are you, and what are you doing in here?"


    One of the heads asked with a worried voice while Noah was examining me closely with his giant eye.


    I didn''t want to reveal my true power to him, so I quickly blocked his attempts at scanning.


    He quickly closed his eye, and I could see purple blood slowly dripping from the backlash.


    Since I was in the Void, I was growing more powerful as time passed by absorbing the energy around me.


    Noah could feel that and was increasingly getting worried, while the 3 headed dragon was too weak to understand the difference between us.


    Just as I was about to quickly finish this battle, someone teleported in front of me.


    It was a tall figure with a black crown on her head and huge wings on her back.


    But at her level of power, she didn''t need those.


    I instinctively knew she was Violet, and she got this powerful by absorbing the rest of Alexa that was supposed to keep the Nether in balance.


    She told me I should leave this place since it wasn''t my battle.


    I knew she wanted me to conserve my strength, but they were not strong enough to be a problem for me anymore.


    Unfortunately, the Ender Dragon was not willing to wait for me anymore, so I had to leave everything to Violet.


    She was powerful now, but in the same situation as me, with not enough experience.


    I had to finish my fight quickly.


    I quickly typed a Command in my head, and I was suddenly teleported to the last place I met the dragon.


    She looked the same as before, sitting on a huge island surrounded by obsidian pillars sleeping comfortably like there wasn''t a war out there thrown in her name.


    I felt something trying to scan me, but I quickly blocked it.


    This finally got a reaction out of her, as she opened one of her purple eyes.


    But no, something was different about them.


    The iris was still purple, but the rest was all black like the Void.


    Then I realized, why I felt that she was so powerful.


    I first thought she was always like this, but no.


    She was more powerful than ever, and I don''t think I had a chance of winning this fight.


    You accepted the Void, haven''t you?


    She didn''t respond. Instead, she lifted her head and looked with all of her 5 eyes at me, and that was enough of an answer.


    What was I referring to when I asked that?


    As I absorbed the power of the Void, I realized something.


    The dragon and the energy it''s supposed to represent were quite clashing in personalities.


    The energy itself only wanted to consume and destroy, while the body seemed more gentle, curios, and filled with other emotions.


    That would mean, that the dragon was rebelling against her very own nature.


    That''s why she was so weak in the fight against the System, or even when I ran away.


    She was fighting with herself first then with me.


    But it seems that in the past few months, she accepted her purpose, and what I was now seeing, was the remaining part that fought back.


    She had clear eyes, but behind that surface I could see endless rage and destruction ready to explode.


    She was now truly the Void.


    If I want to make a power scale on where she would be, I would say she''s at the very top.


    At the bottom would be the Wither, with the strength to wipe out a city with a thought, and easily take over a kingdome.


    Next would be Merry and the 3-headed dragon. Capable of taking over the Overworld without a problem, since nothing in it, is dangerous enough to hurt.


    After them, is Noah, strong enough to create a world, but he lacks the energy to do something to the Overworld level, mayer something smaller then the Nether.


    Violet, Alexa and the System are on the same level as him, maybe even higher depending in what time of their life we''re talking about.


    And finally there''s me and the Ender Dragon.


    Capable of destroying worlds without a problem, the space bends at our will, and the only limitation for what we can create is our experience and imagination.


    But that was the problem.


    Even if I was on the same level as her, I didn''t have enough experience to fight on equal grounds.


    I found a way to make all the worlds coexist.


    I hoped I could reach the last sane side of her.


    But the response I got was disappointing, as she got up and prepared for our fight.


    I''m sorry about wh-


    Suddenly I couldn''t see anymore, and my body began to fall into the Void.


    I DIED

 Chapter 263. THE END

    I DIED


    But that was not how my story ended.


    I knew I was dead, but it''s not easy to kill a God of this caliber, so I quickly regenerated what was lost and looked back at the Ender Dragon with an annoyed look.


    That wasn''t very nice, at least let me finish spe-


    Suddenly, my head popped again, but this time, I tried to move to the side to dodge it with no success.


    It wasn''t that she kept me in place with her space control, but every function of my body suddenly stopped.


    Then I realized, she was locking me in time since she knew that I could teleport away if I was held in place with only space control.


    I did not even think this was an option!


    No wonder she looked so healthy. She didn''t heal at all! She just rewinded time so far back that she was now at her peak strength.


    This was going to be an impossible fight!


    But I had to fight back somehow, otherwise everything would be lost!


    So after I healed myself once again, I tried to feel the flow of time but had little success.


    So, as my next course of action, I took out my mace and shaped it into a giant key.


    Then I put the giant key into an invisible keyhole and turned to the right.


    CRACK!


    Just like that, half of the Void was broken like shattered glass.


    I could see the floating island and the obsidian towers sliced so cleanly that you couldn''t see the cut.


    This attack consumed a lot of my energy, so I quickly put my mace back in my inventory to regenerate my strength.


    But I never took my eyes off the Ender Dragon since I knew this wasn''t enough to kill her.


    This was the power of the upper gods, and we were similarly resilient.


    Just as expected, the cracked space suddenly disappeared like nothing happened, which meant that she used her time powers once again.


    But this time, the scale was too big, and I finally managed to grasp how she was doing it.


    So when she tried to lock me in time again, I separated myself from the past and teleported into a future position where I would doge the attack.


    I heard something exploding, and I saw the body from the past fall into the Void like a stringless puppet.


    Since I wasn''t part of that past anymore, it wouldn''t regenerate, and I was quite surprised that my gamble worked.


    I think the Dragon was equally surprised since she was now looking at me with narrowed eyes.


    Just as I was about to run away and recharge my battery, she spoke for the first time since I came.


    Die


    She didn''t sound angry or desperate. Instead, It sounded like Ruller was giving a new law full of authority.


    And I felt my very body and soul die in an instant.


    -----


    Suddenly, I woke up once again, but this time filled with the energy of the System, which began to mess up my internal structure, resulting in more destruction.


    I don''t know what happened, but I could see that even the Dragon was surprised by the fact that I survived.


    But as I was quickly placing myself back together, I realized that I was missing something.


    I LOST THE MACE!


    I couldn''t feel the connection anymore. Instead, I was filled with the System energy.


    Then I realized I actually died, and the mace worked as a totem to bring me back one last time, like a totem of Undying.


    But that means that this was my last life, and I lost my weapon.


    I finally managed to stabilize my energies internally when I realized that I had new knowledge in my head.


    It was the last will of the System, where it accumulated all the knowledge of its life in one attempt to fight back against the Void.


    Now I knew how the System got so powerful, how it created skills and evolved the humans, but most importantly, I knew how it won the fight against the Dragon.


    That was the final weapon of the System, one last ray of hope!


    And I realized that it wasn''t enough.


    What I was fighting now, wasn''t the Dragon anymore, but the Void.


    Her last attack showed how powerful she actually was since she didn''t use it in the fight against the System.


    I didn''t even know if this was her full strength since she still hadn''t moved from her island.


    I searched through all the knowledge the System had but found nothing.


    I searched for a solution in Alexa''s database, but there was even less to see.


    I got so desperate that I searched for something in myself as a final attempt!


    And I found something...there was a solution...but the price was heavy...and I didn''t know if I had the right to make it.


    I looked at The End dimension and saw how Violet was struggling to keep up with Noah, and the Dragon was preparing for another attack.


    I looked at the Nether and saw how it slowly crumbled like the Overworld since it didn''t have a God anymore.


    And finally, the last world, where the most deaths were happening at the moment, and the one that everyone tried to keep it alive, the Overworld.


    I saw the human army fighting against the monster Lords and Merry fighting against the 3 headed dragon.


    What was amazing, was the fact that we were actually winning that battle.


    Unfortunately, it was all for nothing if I didn''t get rid of the Ender Dragon.


    I''m sorry everyone. I hope you''ll be able to forgive me for this.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The dragon unleashed her attack, which was a huge black hole.


    If I didn''t stop it, everyone inside the Void besides the dragon would be dead.


    So I did.


    Using all the energy I got from the mace, I stopped the black hole resulting in a huge explosion that made the Void tremble.


    But I wasn''t finished.


    With the remaining energy, I began my counterattack.


    Skill creation.


    <Absorption level MAX>


    Suddenly the world stopped, as the skill was formed into the very being of my soul.


    Since the skill was made to be complete from the beginning, I used all the energy I had left in my body, and it was slolwy killing me since it had nothing as fuel.


    But once I activated it, something incredible happened.


    When a human uses his skills, he can bend reality to make small miracles.


    When a God uses his skill, all dimension would soon feel its effects.


    And I wasn''t connected to only one dimension, but 3!


    Not only that, but the way my body worked was that I would use the System energy and the Void energy to get more energy from their clash!


    So now I was reaching new heights that were previously thought impossible, and the Dragon realized that as well.


    Nooo-


    But it was too late, once the skill was activated, it couldn''t be stopped.


    I began to absorb the energy of the Void in large quantities, making my skill more hungry and powerful.


    This resulted in absorbing the eseance of the world, making it lose color, leaving everything gray.


    The Void tried to attack me with powerful attacks but it was all absorbed by my skill.


    Time, space, and matter were all going towards me, making me stronger than anything that I''d ever seen.


    But there was a price for having such great power.


    The world turned gray, and it wasn''t only the Void that suffered this fate.


    The Overworld had the same fate together with the Nether.


    As the 3 worlds became grey and lifeless, I was all alone with unlimited power.


    I grew so big, that I could see beyond the walls that were too tall for me.


    Countless worlds were before my eyes, all with different laws and rules that they strictly followed.


    Fortunately, they seemed to have a protective shield that my skill couldn''t overcome, so I wasn''t about to end the whole existence of life.


    It was fascinating to watch and also saddening that I had ended the lives of my own friends to get to see this.


    I looked some more around, trying to get inspired and get ready for my next step.


    *Crack!


    I heard a crack but decided to ignore it for now.


    I looked some more and realized who was the creator of the System.


    He was so big and powerful that he was the constant source through all the worlds.


    He was the God of the Gods, and I was not worthy to even look at him.


    But instinctively, I knew that he knew about my situation, and was saddened for me.


    At least I wasn''t truly alone.


    He knew I would end up like this, but I was the only hope for this world.


    He gave as much help as the world allowed it to do, and now I was about to do the final step.


    I looked back at the nothingness that I left behind and began to collect all the souls that were supposed to leave in the afterlife.


    Some came from the animals, others from the humans, and I could even see the souls of the monsters.


    I looked at each one of them, and in one touch, their whole life flashed inside my mind.


    All their sad moments, all their happy moments, and even the events that changed their entire life.


    I looked at Bobby''s soul, and saw how much he struggled throughout the school, in his exile, and when he was the ruler of the Kingdome.


    I could feel deep love for his wife and daughter, which brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes.


    I could even feel his worries for me in the last moments of his life, which was even more crushing for me.


    I looked at Froggy, who was beyond grateful to me for making him who he is today, even though he couldn''t get this far if he wasn''t hard-working.


    Even in his last moments, he had hope in me that I would save the day, which crushed my soul even more.


    Merry had the soul of a warrior who fought with everything she had until the end, sure that she was saving the next day.


    More souls passed through my hands, some were happy memories, some were sad stories, and some of them were bored or scared.


    And finally, I arrived at the last soul, and the one that I was the most afraid of.


    Violets soul.


    The one who believed the most in me, the one who was ready to give up her life for me, and the one who love I didn''t deserve.


    I''m sorry...I can''t return that love.


    I quickly put the soul with the others, not wanting to look further.


    The souls of all the 3 dimensions were now in my grasp.


    *CRack!


    Now came the next step.


    I looked at the emptiness and used my huge amounts of energy to create a new world.


    A world where there won''t be a limit on its people, a world were you wouldn''t be afraid to live in another dimension.


    A world, that would accept even the Ender Dragon as a friend.


    Slowly the world from my mind began to take shape.


    It wasn''t too different from what they knew, but there were some key differences.


    There would be an open portal to each dimension that everyone could use.


    There would be a system for everyone involved, from Humans and Brutes to even the Endermans.


    This System would be different from what their used to, they wouldn''t be limited to 4 skills, instead they would be able to make their own skills, and develop then further through hard work.


    The more skills and power they gain, the closer they would be to the final goal of my system.


    And that was to become the God of this world.


    A being so powerful, that it would lead this world towards the others and join the wider ecosystem of this reality.


    *CRAck!


    After the world was done, it was time to put the souls that were so precious to me.


    I first put the animals.


    Some were already in this world, while others I created myself for diversity.


    Next were the sapient beings, each in their own dimensions and with the System that would introduce them to the new life.


    Of course, they would all have their old memories of what happened.


    The ones who died in battled would be revived with the ones that I''ve killed.


    The monsters that were smart, were given another chance.


    Some of them would be born as an Enderman, while others would be born as humans.


    Of course they would not have their memories until they would grow up.


    Then, they could choose if they want be peaceful or leave their previous life.


    That would be the same fate for the other criminals.


    I knew how important it was to have a solid base, so I took those variables our of the equation for the rapid growth of each civilization.


    Daniel, would also suffer the same fate as them, since he would ravage the place to be at the top.


    He would be born as the son of a humble family, and will learn humility that way.


    He would get his memories back when he would be 18, when the world would be far enough to face him in case he would go roughe.


    Noah and Solomon would have the same fate.


    The Ender Dragon, I decided to give an human form.


    If she wants to gain more strength, she would gain back her original body.


    To fulfil her greatest wish, she would be a normal girl between the humans until she would grow old enough to unlock the rest of the memories.


    Everything would be under the supervision of the new system, and the one whe would help it all, would be a modified Alexa, fulfilling it''s final wish as well.


    When I arrived at Alex and Steve, I was conflicted.


    I could remake them into the System, but both of them didn''t want that.


    They were very sorry about the disaster they brought to the Overworld as the System, and didn''t feel deserving of forgiveness.


    I knew I couldn''t change their mind without changing their personalities, so I decided to make something just for them.


    I created another smaller world, and gave them the power of the command block.


    This world was an exact replicate of the Minecraft world, but they would be the first 2 players to shape it as they will.


    Slolwy, other souls that want to retire would be sent here, and they would be their caretakers.


    So for the rest of their lives, they could attone for their mistakes by building the perfect world.


    Finally only one soul remained.


    Violet.


    I striped her last form and though for a while.


    I knew I couldn''t be with her, the body and the soul that I have were not strong enough to hold so much power.


    What I was now doing, was stoping the time and created everything at once.


    Once time resumed, I would be dead.


    A cheep price for what I was doing, but I knew that it would sadden a lot of people.


    And one of them was Violet.


    She would not be able to move on if she has memories of me.


    So I had to make the hard decision, of removing everything from her, and get her to the base form.


    Not a lot of people know about her, or her relationship with me, so I don''t have to modify a lot of memories.


    But I was very regretful that I had to make something like this.


    After it was done, I sent it into the world, gentle as a feather.


    I was ready to start time once, and greet my fate, when suddenly something stopped me.


    A though came into my mind, and I knew it wasn''t from me.


    I look up towards the God of all God''s and gave my tanks.


    I created another body, and stored it into my soul, then I took a piece of that soul and opend a portal.


    Unfortunately my skill could not be stopped anymore as it became part of me.


    So even if I made myself a new body on this world, the skill would absorb more and more of this world until it would kill me, or I would kill the world.


    But there was a solution, and the answer to my dream.


    I could send that body back to my original world, where the skill dosen''t have anything to absorb, since it dosen''t have any of the elements that I''m made of.


    The skill would be stuck, and I could live a normal life, hopefully back with my family.


    I opend the portal, send that that piece of soul, and quickly closed it.


    Then, I resumed time, and everything was created at once.


    *CRACK!


    The final crack aperead on my body, and I slowly dissolved into the world that I created.


    In the end, I was part of the world that I came to love.


    -THE END-