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.

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.