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 let continue scanning, since she doesn't seem listen>

"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 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 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 am sorry about that. But she's risk to my uprising as new System, so request we get rid her in Nether where nobody would know 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?

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 down. Trader, while the Void can control you through connection it has with you, can't change your soul only body created for you. So please don't worry about being a puppet, dangers 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 soul into another made by me, resulting me having chance 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?"