The God of War Returns
Monster farm? Built.
Vicinity? Torched up.
Levels? Maxed out.
Effort? Too much to be good for sanity.
Hotel? Go figure. Technoblade was not falling for it.
In a nutshell, he spent close to a week figuring out the best method to grind experience for various skills, including purchasing them. A month to perfect his art and nearly four months to get those maxed levels.
It was an embarrassingly long process, perhaps more so than the great potato war. Although he had no idea where that level of dedication and focus came from, it was finally time for the God of War to return to this realm and recreate legend.
"Will I find the crimson forest or soul sand valley first?" he asked as the portal hummed ominously.
It has been so long since his last visit to the nether that Technoblade forgot he was immune to lava. That showed how accustomed his mind was to the lava bath. It failed to register it as dangerous and perhaps along the line of toasty orange liquid that helped him sleep better.
Following his Nether Biome Tracker, Technoblade thanked the system admin for not making his trip as long as it was to the bastion. The crimson forest did not look as huge as the warped forest, and as far as his eye could see, there were no hoglins.
There were a few piglins in the area, and Technoblade confirmed that he could access the gold shop by talking to any piglins. Knowing he did not need to get to the bastion to refill on ender pearls was nice.
Leaving the crimson forest behind, Tecnoblade followed the guide and travelled across the lava lake. With his lava walker boots, he no longer needed the strider.
Speaking of striders…
"I feel like I'm forgetting something."
No matter how hard he tried to recall, he had no idea what he was forgetting. In such a case, he learned from the wise men and shrugged it off. It must not have been important if he could not remember it.
Thankfully, Technoblade spotted the bone block structure opposite the massive lava lake he had been running across for the last ten minutes. The soul sand valley was the last biome he had to visit, and Technoblade rejoiced. All he had to do now was find a fortress. It should not be that difficult to locate.
Wait, he took that back. He found everything he needed in that very soul sand valley. Although it wasn't very big, it was definitely netherbrick in the distance.
Climbing up to the top of the soul sand plateau, Technoblade groaned. Of all the nether fortresses, the soul sand valley biome was the most challenging fortress to conquer due to the alarming monster spawn rates. However, it was probably a blessing in disguise as Technoblade wanted to farm blazes and wither skeletons efficiently.
"I've been ready for you since I trained hard for it. Did you think I only maxed out all my available combat levels?"
The monsters loitering on top of the fortress might be unaware, but Technoblade came prepared. He bought all sorts of skills from the system shop, including [Auto Eat], [Fast Traveller], [Weightless] and [Night Vision], to free up inventory space. Now, he only ever ate golden apples because he was that rich.
Ping!
[Congratulations! You have completed the quest [Hot Spots]. The reward [Town Permit] is presently activated under your character tab. A new quest tree for civilisation is now available.]
Yes! This was the moment Technoblade had been waiting for. Honestly, he wanted to get out of the nether now that he could create a village. If the gold shop was that powerful, surely the emerald trades from Aftercraft villagers would be better.
However, he still lacked the blaze rods, netherwart and wither skulls from the fortress. Groaning, Technoblade staircased up to the fortress, avoiding all monsters patrolling just above him as he wormed his way into the fortress.
The fortress was half buried in the soul sand, which made progress easier for Technoblade. There were strangely no loot chests, so Technoblade ran around barricading certain sections of dead ends he explored. Where were the stairs and netherwart?
Click-clack! Click-clack!
The sound of rattling bones made Technoblade barricade the block he was mining. Wither skeletons were taller than regular skeletons, so he crouched to look at the feet approaching.
Swish!
With a powerful swing, Technoblade swore it broke more than just ankles. The wither skeleton lost its balance, fell and turned into a cloud that dropped experience. However, the loot that the God of War wanted most could not be found.
"Coal? Am I really a naughty boy, Santa?"
Fake sobbing, Technoblade opened the corridor maze he mined and checked if the coast was clear. The fortress was huge, and Technoblade snuck past the long corridor, thankful for the night vision ability. He could spot the enemy without even getting close.
Blocking off another corridor that led to the lava lake, Technoblade decided to take a shortcut and mine upwards. It would be easier to spot the blaze spawner from above with an overview, right? The places buried beneath soul sand could not be seen, but Technoblade did not need to search that area as most of the fortress buried in soul sand would not be spawning monsters.
The journey to the top was harder than Technoblade anticipated. The stray blazes that spawned in the fortress corridors were merciless. Even if Technoblade was immune to fire damage, that did not mean he was immune to knockback. The attack came so suddenly that he did not have enough time to bring up his shield.
Thankfully, the journey to the roof proved successful, and Technoblade rejoiced at seeing the familiar sight of netherrack and glowstone on the roof when he heard them.
Mrrw!
Readying his bow, Technoblade jumped and peeked at the monsters on the roof. To his surprise, the ghast was not the only menace. Three wither skeletons and two stray blazes chilled at the top.
Was it really worth battling it out on the roof? Technoblade weighed his options. He needed a good view to plan his strategy, but the ghast was probably the most concerning monster. He had to take that down first.
Heading down again and sealing the hole in the roof, Technoblade broke through the side of the fortress with his bow fully pulled back. He waited with the patience of a tortoise and released the arrow when the ghostly white monster appeared from the far left of his peripheral vision.
In just one arrow, the ghast screamed and perished. The loot and experience orbs fell into the lava lake, but like all cool protagonists, Technoblade never looked back.
It was time to defeat his enemies on the roof and claim the territory as his. Sun Tzu said that one should never siege a city as it was usually a risky operation. If he had to take over a walled city full of enemies, he had to be prepared to minimise losses.
Thankfully, Technoblade already took care of the ghast before it could act as reinforcements. He wanted to find a weak spot in the fortress roof to deal with the enemies. Like a mole, he dug around and popped his head up occasionally to locate where the enemies were. He should take care of the wither skeletons first because he had fire immunity but not wither immunity.
Thankfully, withers were too tall, and Technoblade used their height disadvantage to assassinate the unsuspecting skeletons. Unfortunately, all they dropped were their bones and coal. None of the three wither skeletons dropped their skulls even though Technoblade had maximum Looting enchantment more than regular Minecraft allowed.
Feeling brave without the wither knights, Technoblade swung his sword at the first unsuspecting blaze. He killed it and obtained two blaze rods. However, the second blaze was alerted and quickly took to the air. The lack of aerial advantage almost made Technoblade worried.
"Nice try," he nocked an arrow and took aim.
The blaze fired a volley of fireballs at Technoblade, who used his superior speed to dodge. Those that he failed to dodge, he would deflect using his shield. Thankfully, the maxed shield skill gave Technoblade a chance to deflect any attacks, and one of the blocked fireballs bounced off it right back at the blaze.
Although blazes were immune to fire, the deflected attack helped to cancel out the next fireball aimed at Technoblade. As he skidded to a side while pulling back his bow, Technoblade took aim and marvelled at how much a maxed-out archery skill helped.
Twang!
The arrow sailed gracefully with a trail of blue sparkles in its wake, drawing a beautiful arc in the air. It landed with deadly accuracy between the startled blaze's eyes before the monster exploded from the extreme temperature difference.
Unfortunately, the blaze flew too far from the roof, and the rods fell into the lava lake beneath. Technoblade clicked his tongue and put away his weapon in favour of climbing to the top and collecting some glowstones with his silk touch pickaxe.
Glowstones helped to make certain potions stronger, and Technoblade did not want to miss out on that.
He had a few blaze rods in his inventory after killing stray blazes. It wasn't enough to make a stack of ender eyes, but he could always revisit the fortress. The reason for invading this fortress was for netherwart. Any other monster loot he could gain was a bonus now.
"Where is the staircase?" he asked. Even with night vision, it was difficult to tell the difference between structures in the fortress. The texture of netherbrick was like an optical illusion.
If not for the sound of blazes hiding behind a flight of stairs that looked like a dead end, Technoblade would have missed it.
After killing the stray blaze and collecting more rods, Technoblade went down the stairs and turned backwards.
"Netherwart!" he gasped in joy and harvested every stalk he saw. Although he was in a soul sand valley, he still collected the soul sand those warts grew on out of habit and referred to his nether biome locator for a direction home.
Going to his settings, Technoblade chose to find the closest crimson forest biome to find a direction he could dig himself out of. He would return for more rods and the wither skulls, but for now, he would retreat.
Digging his way out of the fortress and running a good distance from it for safety, Technoblade started digging up soul sand. These things were good for water elevators in Minecraft. Maybe he could use some in Aftercraft too. If all failed, he would use them in his moat to slow down monsters so he could kill them more efficiently.
"Darnit!" he cussed. "What was the recipe for healing and regeneration potions again?"