Techno Hop

One must have an iron pickaxe to mine diamond ores. That was a common Minecraft knowledge that every veteran knew. However, that same logic did not apply in Aftercraft. If anything, it was more complicated.

"I'm so happy I did not pass up on any resources while strip mining," Technoblade searched his disorganised dump chests in the corner.

Just for diamonds, Aftercraft required an equally unique pickaxe that took all sorts of resources and nearly ten hours to forge. Thankfully, it was a pickaxe that was said to have an "Unbreakable" enchantment after crafting it. The reward can be claimed from his quest and applied to the tool automatically.

"Let's see. Gold, Steel, Copper, and coal. I guess I have everything. Start working on it, crafting workshop!"

Simultaneous crafting was a good investment, and Technoblade looked at his quest book. There were a few things he had to prepare for the trip to find his diamonds. Unlike Minecraft, diamonds, red stone, lapis and obsidian can only be found beneath the y level of zero. He had no idea anything existed beneath the zero level. That would ordinarily be the void.

However, just before his death, Technoblade heard from the community that the game was adding that in the second part of the Cliffs and Caves update. The deep dark was a new biome in that negative y level and Ancient Cities spawned there.

Thankfully, Aftercraft was a little merciful about the negative mining levels. There weren't any Wardens or Ancient Cities on that level. It was similar to regular caves except for the torch mechanics.

"Torches are useless. Try bringing night vision potions instead. If you don't have them, golden carrots give a similar effect. Alternatively, you could buy permanent night vision from our shop…"

Huh. Aftercraft made the game a lot easier. Buying the permanent skill was out of the question. He did not have enough levels as it was. However, he had some gold lying around after placing a crafting order for his special pickaxe. There wasn't much use for gold at the moment. Hence, Technoblade decided to make his golden carrots for night vision effects when he mined and golden apples because they should technically give him regeneration effects.

"Might as well test the effects and their duration, so I know how many to bring," he reasoned and ate an expensive carrot. It certainly wasn't because he was curious about how gold tasted.

He wasn't Mr Beast, who constantly ate expensive things with gold flakes on pizzas. Technoblade munched his golden carrot and whooped in joy at the night vision effects. That one carrot gave him almost forty-five minutes of night vision powers. It was a winner in Technoblade's books. On the other hand, that golden apple only gave him five minutes of regeneration. It was paltry compared to the golden carrot, but it did its job.

One thing to note was the lack of a shield. Technoblade spent the majority of his day preparing for the eventual mining trip. The quest book warned him about the deadly monsters lurking in the negative treasure zones for mining, and Technoblade wanted to be absolutely prepared for it. Dying wasn't an option.

Even so, there was still half a day left. He had so many hours to countdown before his special pickaxe was ready. What better way was there to kill time other than to complete an easier side quest?

"Let's look at what we have. Uhuh! This is perfect. I'd have to do it eventually."

[Quest: Sugar High

Requirements:

0/9 Sugar Cane

0/3 Paper

0/1 Bookshelf

Reward: Enchantment Reader

Note: This reward can only be claimed once.]

Enchantment Reader was a skill from the shop. Technoblade was glad he didn't spend his precious experience levels to buy it. The skill allowed him to translate the random enchantments from the enchantment table and select the best option, not that regular Minecraft didn't do that already. However, the Enchantment Reader skill could read everything, including the shitty extra enchantments that were not always reflected in the first line of enchantments.

Hence, the search for sugar cane began.

Armed with only a bed, Technoblade reasoned that even if his special pickaxe was completed in the middle of the night, monsters should not attack him in his sleep. He could punch dirt in the evening and hollow out a small space to sleep the night off if he could not make his way back on time.

Everyone knew that sugarcane only grew near water sources. Fortunately, Technoblade only knew where the river was. The last time he explored along its banks, he ended up lost in the plains. This time, he came prepared.

Dropping cobblestones to leave a trail, Technoblade explored without reserves, dashing along the river banks and diving in whenever he saw fishes. He was running low on cooked salmon for his meals, and it was a good thing he came across a few unsuspecting schools.

The afternoon soon turned into evening, and Technoblade found a new biome following this river across the plains. It was a little exciting as Technoblade knew that sugarcanes spawned more commonly in a swamp.

Besides the humid atmosphere and gloomy colour scheme, Technoblade had his fair share of fun hopping on lily pads that supported his weight with their dainty structure. It defied all realism, making him giggle crazily as he mimicked a frog.

Ribbit!

Technoblade paused. Did he hear that correctly?

Ribbit! Ribbit!

A little brown thing landed on Technoblade's head, making him scream internally. That thing felt cold and bumpy, but there was no mistaking it.

"A toad?"

Ribbit!

The creature with warty skin hopped from Technoblade's head onto the nearest lily pad, gawking at the strange adventurer in its territory. That was the ugliest hop it'd ever seen.

As they engaged in a staring battle, the sun retired from the sky. Technoblade was forced to retreat for the night but he left with a warning.

"It's not over, tadpole parent!" Technoblade hurriedly dug down and covered dirt blocks over his head. "I demand a rematch tomorrow!"

The toad watched as Technoblade disappeared to make the darkest and most claustrophobic base to sleep off the night. It was worse than a one-star haunted motel, and the Potato Lord swore he would never do it again.

The night passed peacefully without an event, and Technoblade ate cooked salmon for breakfast. To his delight, the special pickaxe was ready and occupied one inventory space.

"I should get the sugarcanes and return," he told himself after tidying the mess he made in haste last night.

As promised, the ugly toad remained where it was from the previous night. Technoblade stared at it after realising his actions were monitored.

Ribbit!

The ugly frog was definitely taunting him. Technoblade narrowed his eyes. Since when were these creatures added in Minecraft? Oh, wait. He was presently in Aftercraft. It made sense that there might be a few new animals.

As they stared at each other, Technoblade gave a stealthy order to his idle crafting workshop for a stone sword. He heard that barbecued frogs tasted like chicken. If he ignored the texture of this toad's skin, maybe he could eat it.

Sensing the bloodlust from Technoblade, the brown toad hopped away quickly. It leapt so high that Technoblade wondered if they were the new ingredients for jump boost potions instead of rabbits.

"Wait up!" he brandished his newly crafted stone sword and took off in a sprint. "Why are you running away?"

As Technoblade chased the new creature deeper into the swamps, he became distracted by all the goods he found along the way. Although it was a gloomy biome that was slightly difficult to navigate, there were several local products unique to this biome.

For starters, Technoblade wanted these vines. Unfortunately, he did not bring any iron, and the shears were back in his home base. He'd either go mining later for shears to take some of these back with him or return for a second trip. The lily pads also made convenient bridges if he needed one, so Technoblade collected some.

More importantly, Technoblade discovered a patch of pumpkins. Not too far behind that patch, there were some sugarcanes.

Having fulfilled his initial objective, Technoblade wondered if he should explore more of this swamp of return. By now, he was so distracted that he had lost both the ugly frog and his sense of direction.

Walking around in circles, Technoblade stepped on a few snails that died under his feet, giving him slime balls. It was a new thing that Technoblade wasn't expecting, but this made a little more sense.

Crafting a boat, the Potato Lord opted for exploring as he was already lost. The swamp was huge, and he knew that the mountains in the distance weren't where he found the swamp from. He might have to travel the perimeter of the swamp to find where his trail ended. The damned toad was to be blamed for this.

There was sand and clay in the water, but the greenish hue of the swamp water made Technoblade hesitate to swim in it. He didn't need clay yet, so he would come back another day if needed.

Ribbit! Ribbit!

There were many frogs in the swamp, and Technoblade did his best to murder one. However, these creatures were fast when they wanted to be. It wasn't easy landing a hit on them, and even if he did, they swam away quickly enough. Technoblade wasn't desperate enough to give chase in murky waters.

Picking up some brown mushrooms he saw in the swamp, Techonlade tried to recall if there was a use for them. Back in Minecraft, he often brewed potions, and an important ingredient for crafting was the Fermented Spider's Eye. However, he did not see any spiders even after living in Aftercraft for a while. Were brown mushrooms still useful in this world?

"Being better prepared is not a waste of time," he reasoned and kept it. If he ran out of inventory space, he could easily toss them out later.

After making rounds in the swamp both on a boat and on foot, Technoblade collected over thirty pieces of sugarcane. There was probably enough sugarcane in his inventory to give him basic enchantments. However, he was still lost.

The sun started to set again, and this time, Technobalde decided to climb up a short tree using some low-hanging vines he could access from the water. The murky greenish water smelled and tasted horrible, so Technoblade tried not to touch it, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Climbing to the top of the tree, Technoblade slapped his bed down and looked at the stars just as the moon started to rise. He could hear crickets in the background with frogs croaking as they lulled him to sleep.

After Technoblade woke up the following day, he decided to explore a cave not too far from the tree he slept in. He could tell it was a rather small and shallow cave thanks to the morning sun. However, there were some resources inside, like coal and iron deposits, that he wanted.

Bravely, the Potato Lord plundered all the cave's resources and left without looking back. His workshops smelted the iron ores into steel using the coal he collected, and Technoblade was waving a new pair of shears in no time.

"If this pair of shears doesn't break, I'm not going to find my way out of here."

He wanted a lot of vines to grow a lot more vines so that he could eventually change that stone brick dungeon design and give it a mouldy touch.

Funnily enough, with the help of frogs for distractions on his shearing quest, Technoblade spotted an out-of-place cobblestone not too far in the distance.

"Is that?" he wondered and hopped over eagerly to confirm his suspicions.

Sure enough, one cobblestone led to another cobblestone in the distance, and Technoblade rejoiced.

He could finally head home now. Screw those toads!