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.

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.