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

_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.