Chapter 216. Dangers ahead

Looks like the Wither got his hands on a powerful ability.

Until now, I saw the skills as more of a burden than something you'll want to have.

Since in the game, you don't have them.

Instead, you can make everything you want. That's why I saw skills as a downside.

At least until level 8.

After that, I could say you'll want to have a skill since you have access to a wider degree of recipes that you don't have in the game.

And they're pretty cool as well.

But I kind of forgot that the System made it this annoying specifically because the humans were a pain to deal with.

Now the Wither has access to the same power, and he doesn't intend on making it hard for his subjects.

From what I could see from the Crystal, he only placed 5 levels for the Mining skills, with each level up gaining new knowledge directly to the brain.

That's how skills are supposed to be from the beginning.

And this is also the reason the Mad Prince was so concerned when he heard about the new skills.

That would mean that whoever had the combat skill would be a master once it was maxed leveled.

And an army like that could only mean trouble.

And that's only talking about the Combat skill. I'm sure he also created the Science skill or the Engineering skill to find out how to absorb the power of the Nether.

Maybe that's why he disappeared from the war, he was concentrating on getting his men to the final level.

The question is now if he also knew how to create items, or recepies.

I know how powerful the Energy Mace is, and this one was with restrictions.

I wonder what a weapon without restrictions would look like.

We left to torture room and saw the Brutes looking up and down at the bastion in case they missed anything.

Looting was a profitable business after all, and they worked with the first touch, first served rule.

I don't know where the prisoner was taken, nor do I want to know. Instead I was just happy that I managed to get such valuable information out of him without resorting to pain.

"It seems that the bomb you used last time, had other functions. Could you share one with me to speed up the process of finding the Wither?"

"You sure want a lot from someone who's not even friendly towards you. I only tolerate you at most."

The Mad Prince only smiled and followed me in silence.

I was slowly walking towards the exit of the Bastion so I could talk with Alexa, but the Mad Prince kept following me, making it impossible to speak with my blue Allay.

"If you want to, I can take off the tracking block from your monster friend."

"Is that supposed to entice me to give you one of my items?"

"Of course not! This would be a token of friendship, a new beginning you could say."

Well, that would've been useful a while back, not when she gone.

"As you can tell, she's not in the Nether. So I'll have to get her when I'll be back in the Overworld. Unless you have it as an item that I can use it myself."

"Unfortunately, it's more of a device than an item. And it needs expert hands to work with it."

So it was an empty gift in the end....unless they'd give me the compass so I could find her on my own.

"Would your trading device work in the Overworld as well?"

The Mad Prince looked to the side, thinking about the question.

"In theory, it shouldn't be a problem since the only reason it doesn't point at a portal is because of the dimensional barrier. Here, you can have it, if it makes you feel more comfortable."

Then, he took out a block of lapis that had a faint glow over it, which took me by surprise.

I expected a compass not an enchanted block.

"How does it even work?"

"It's easy, you have to turn around until you see the enchantments glow brighter, then you follow the lead until they start to dim down."

I guess it was similar to a compass, so it's still easy to use.

Just to be sure, I did a spin to see if anything changed, but unfortunately, it stayed the same.

"Thanks, this isn't enough for me to completely forgive you, but it's a start in the right direction."

"I'm glad to hear that."

With that, we parted ways, and I could finally speak with Alexa in peace.

"Alexa, you saw the data from the Crystal. Do you think you could make a compass that would lead to the Wither?"

<Negative. But I could make one that would point towards other humans with special skills.>

I guess if the Wither wanted to build his energy generator, he would need a lot of people in one place.

So this method should be safe to choose.

"Ok, please make one that would show us the way to the biggest gathering of people with special skills."

<Mission received.>

The order was done in an instant, and now it was time for the harder questions.

"Alexa, can you also make skills?"

<In theory, I know how to make them, but wouldn't suggest such a request.>

That's weird coming from Alexa.

The supercomputer is usually very eager to use any 'ethical' method to get what it wants.

So I signaled for the Allay to continue.

<It's not hard to create a skill, but it needs constant supply of energy. Something that I'm capable producing right now in high quantities. Besides that, the only place those skills can be used is my domain and Nether since System from Overworld would automatically seal them.>

So Alexa was capable of making them, but didn't want to since it was a constant drain.

That means that the Wither either found a source of constant energy or that the Nether Star was much more powerful than expected.

If so, it's no wonder that Alexa wanted to summon a new Wither so badly.

Alexa also wanted a piece of pie from that energy generator.

You could also say that Alexa was the weakest of the 3 gods in those 2 dimensions, even though it was the second one to come into being.

But if the Wither is considered to have a huge energy generator, then what kind of generator does the System have?

After all, it made 3 skills for all the people in the Overworld, and that must be over tens of thousands of energy sinkholes.

If the energy works similarly to my Mace, that would mean that the more energy an attack has, the more powerful it is.

And with that logic, the System is way more dangerous than anticipated.

"If you make a skill, do you think you can also make it to be at the max level from the start?"

<I do not have the necessary data to answer that question.>

That's a shame, but it was to be expected.

Maybe I should convince Alexa to give me a skill... I wonder if it would be willing since I'm the only one who would have access to it, so I don't think it would be too expensive to maintain.

But I think that would be possible, only if I'm going into Alexas domain.

That would mean that this would be a project for a later date.

With all the information given to me, I went back to the Bastion, where everything was looted to the bones.

It made me wonder where they put all of this stuff.

Soon, the sound of a horn was heard, and everyone stopped and gathered at the center of the Bastion in an orderly fashion.

"Today's battle was a success! But our thirst for blood is not yet quenched. We shall attack the Wither next!"

Everyone gave a loud cheer with weapons in the air.

The one who spoke was, of course, the Mad Prince.

On the podium was also the Second in command with the prisoner who looked very tired.

With everything done in here, we went back underground and began mining.

This time it took a lot longer, since the prisoner couldn't recognize the landscape from underground.

Not only that, but we kept bumping into lava lakes, which forced us to either go deep or onto the surface to pass that obstacle.

From what we were told, it would take a few days on foot to get there, and at the pace we were walking, it would take over a week to arrive, even with an army of superhumans.

At least the prisoner was leading us in the roughly correct direction which was a good sign.

So for the next few days, we mined ahead, took breaks, watched how some of the Brutes decided to fight out of boredom, and finally get some rest.

Even the prisoner seemed to loosen up a bit and wasn't jumpy every time a Brute passed by him.

But it was always funny to see his reaction when he would accidentally see me, and he couldn't explain to himself how I got there in the first place.

The others were doing a little better at finding me, but it was almost impossible to take the Mad Prince by surprise.

At this point, I was wondering if he had an item similar to the Monocle of Truth on him.

But from what the other told me, the Mad Prince was an oddity by the standards of the Brutes as well.

He is the child of a Brute and a Piglin.

Usually, only one trait would transfer to the child no matter who the parents are, but he hit the jackpot with the strength of a Brute and the intelligence of a Piglin.

The Brutes don't care about his origin that much, since they respect his strength.

Only the Piglings seem to have something against him since he's mixed blood, but they are too afraid to do anything to him since he can't be fooled like the other Brutes.

It's not like the Brutes are dumb.

There are some clear examples of Brutes being smart, like the current King and the Second in command.

It's just that, to a casual Brute, it takes more effort to think that a Pigling, like how a Pigling can still fight but would put more effort into gaining muscle.

Both parties can do each other's job, but why bother picking the apple from your neighbor's tree when you have your own?

But this is also why the Mad Prince is so dangerous since he seems to always move with a plan in mind.

Which means that he also has a plan with me.

I don't think he's only interested in my Energy Mace.

Otherwise he would've tried to take it from me while I was sleeping.

Sure, Alexa could wake me up while they tried to brake inside. But with the diamonds pickaxe, they would've got to me in an instant.

And I didn't even see him try to use potions like he did with Violet.

Maybe that's why he didn't attack me, he was too afraid of the retaliation from my Ender friend.

And he was right to be afraid.

A smart Endeman was already annoying to deal with, you don't want to piss of a 4 block monster that can teleport and turn invisible at will.

She would literally hunt you across dimensions if you get on her wrong side.

But that means the Mad Prince wanted something else from me.

Perhaps knowledge?

There could also be a chance of him just wanting to be friends.

All of those thoughts ran in my mind until finally we arrived at out destination.

And I have to say, this truly deserves to be called the hideout of a final boss.