Nether Fortress Part 3

He continued to look through the chests in the abandoned room, just in case he had missed anything important. He totaled that which was of use to him and set them all inside one unbroken chest in the corner of the room. Inside it now rested 24 unprocessed golden ores, 9 fist-sized diamonds, and finally the armor design drawings. He didn't have a method to carry these back with him in a single trip, but when he came back this way, he would grab them.

Finally, he fed one of the diamonds to his key, which unlocked him a new form.

[New form discovered: [Diamond Key]]

{

Key Form: [Diamond Key]

Equip Bonus: Skill [Jewel Shaping] - {An auxiliary skill useful to mold jewels like clay, without losing any of their beauty. }

Special Equip Effect: artistry 2

}

He was surprised once again to get a skill in a new key form. Both the [Blazing Key] and the [Diamond Key] were not much bigger than a regular house key, however, their skills could be accessed without switching to them if he spent enough time with them equipped to master them. The [Diamond Key] was the most interesting to him. He had picked up [Jewelcraft] over time as a hobby and because nearly anything made of gold was of value to the Piglin. 

But with this new skill, could he craft diamond armor by molding and combining the rest of the diamonds? He guessed it would take a combination of a blacksmithing skill and the Jewelcraft skill to make an armor like that. And now, this skill would make it much easier.

Roman rested for a short while and recovered his mana, before getting up, stretching his arms, and leaving the storage room. He switched back to his [Rack Key] and touched it to a burning section of the Netherrack tunnel to light it up again. And then, he continued his exploration forward in the tunnels.

He continued forward for hours, occasionally running into a wandering monster that was easy to handle until he finally entered a different section of the Nether Fortress. 

He entered a tall dark room with a large Nether Brick ceiling. This part of the fortress was completely intact, and he could see the foot of a set of stairs leading downwards. The stairs led into pitch-black darkness. He descended the stairs with his body tense and his mind focused.

*Clatter* *Clatter* *Clatter*

Roman knew that sound, it was the sound of skeleton monsters. He took two small rocks of Netherrack, lit them on fire with his [Rack Key], and quickly tossed them to the corners of the room. The small fire rocks illuminated the room, which caused Roman's eyes to widen in shock. The entire room was filled with skeleton monsters, there must be more than a hundred of them, crammed into this single room.

His quick scan of the room immediately focused on some specific monsters that stuck out. There was a skeleton with an abnormally large rib cage, which was composed of bones of multiple skeletons. There were also a few skulls that floated at eye level without anything supporting them. 

Roman immediately switched to [Sand of Soul Key] and attempted to retreat, but it seemed that he had already gotten half the room's attention from throwing the rocks. As he noticed he couldn't sneak away, he switched to [Obsidian Key] and attacked the nearest one with [Black Chains], rooting more than 12 in place nearby. 

He ran up the stairs looking back only to see the rest of the skeletons in the room were now focused on him.

"Now I've got the high ground," He muttered as he switched to [Obsidian Key].

Skeletons were one of the weakest monsters he had fought here, but the sheer number of them was a bit much.

*Clatter* *Clatter* *Clatter*

The Skeletons stumbled over each other as the ones that were chained to the ground obstructed the others. Roman struck the ones that got nearest to him with his [Obsidian Key].

[Defeated Skeleton and gained 5 experience.]

[Defeated Skeleton and gained 6 experience.]

[Defeated Skeleton and gained 5 experience.]

...

He did the best he could for the time that the [Black Chains] lasted. But now that time was over and the stranger skeleton variants were upon him as well. He slowly retreated through the hall he came from while trying to kill as many skeletons as he could. But the damage was slowly overwhelming him.

[You have taken damage, health - 5.]

[You have taken damage, health - 8.]

[You have taken damage, health - 11.]

...

The floating skeleton head roared and exploded in a plume of black flames. Knocking most of the skeletons back, but Roman took the full force of the explosion. The explosion was a strange force that caused a sensation similar to a flashbang and a concussion grenade. It left Roman's ears ringing and his head spinning in disoriented confusion along with rupturing several blood vessels internally.

[You have taken damage, health - 213.]

"Guhk," he vomited and staggered to his feet in nausea. 

That skeleton head was definitely not in Minecraft, he would have remembered it. With a blurry focus, he kept moving backward. 

"[Black Chains]," He muttered as he activated the skill for a second time.

Chains rooted the majority of them in place, which allowed him to get even more distance during his retreat. He didn't continue to attack the skeletons, now that he had less than 1 fourth of his health left, his body was sluggish and not in any condition to fight. He got as far as he could from the skeletons, switched [Sands of Soul Key], and began to sneak back to his home in the [Warped Forest]. 

For safety reasons, his exploration would come to an end for now. But he would be back as soon as his body healed. He got far enough away from the skeleton horde to the point and thought over his gains. He gained a few new key forms, gold ore for trade, 8 giant fist-sized diamonds, and a total of 210 experience.

He would be back, and maybe, with an armor upgrade.