Chapter 142. Enchanted compass

A few weeks have passed since I came here to the Stone Castle, and some things had happened.

As predicted the Piligers attacked the small villages at the border of the nation, but we were prepared for that, as we sent a few guards with two iron golemn in each village at the border.

It was a huge investment since there were a lot of villages that needed protection and bearly enough iron.

And it actually, worked for a while. The golems have a similar strength to their ravagers, and unlike the ravagers, it doesn't take a lot of time to produce them.

But the Piligers were not dumb, and realized that the Sandstone kingdom didn't have the same defenses, so it got attacked a lot more often, with various degrees of success.

Of course, the Stone Kindome suffered as well, once they changed their strategy to just turn themselves invisible and kidnap the people directly so no bloodshed was needed.

In those weeks a group of witches came to the castle to help with the growing threat and get their revenge, through them I heard that Froggy was an Elder now which took me by surprise, but it was a deserved role with how hard he worked for the Clan.

We tried to send some spies to their outpost, but the security there was quickly increased, resulting in some of them not being able to infiltrate, or outright captured.

After those losses, they were ordered to look from afar and warn us of any upcoming raids.

On my side of the story, I saw a few books that had some interesting Redstone machines, most of them being for farming purposes which Bobby told me were in use, I also read some of the theorized ideas for mob farming which I noted down.

But today was a special day as I was leaving the comfort of the castle to do some moving in another dimension.

"Are you sure you want to leave today Trader? You can always stay and read some more."

"I know, and I appreciate you letting me do that, but I feel like I'm staying too much in one place and not making enough progress."

"You told me you wanted to get max Crafting, we can help you with that!"

"I know Bobby, but right now your nation needs those resources more than me, and I told you I have my stashes. I'm just getting to them faster through the Nether."

He seems hesitant to let me go for some reason, which was not like him.

"What's the problem Bobby, you are not this tense usually."

"The truth is, I'm afraid of what kind of trouble you'll find yourself in next."

"What do you mean? I only plan on moving some of my storage, nothing else."

"They all start simply Trader, you go on a short visit at the witch's Clan, and next thing you know, you are in the middle of a Piliger outpost burning their houses, we go to explore the forgotten fortresses in the Nether, only for you to end up getting killed in the Sandstone Palace."

That was true...

"Don't worry I'm much better prepared now, I have a few powerful items on me that would help me in a pinch."

I have a few God apples, an undying totem, an enchanted diamond armor, and a potion that would make me invincible for a few seconds, I think I'm very prepared for any kind of situation.

I could still see him nervous for a few moments before giving up and letting out a sigh.

"That's true Trader, I guess I've been more nervous recently because of all the reports I read about the upcoming war."

We said our goodbyes and went past the portal frame.

This time I was fully equipped with my diamond armor since I planned on being safe instead of stealthy.

Of course, I wouldn't go through the Nether by shouting my presence, I would drink a speed potion and run through all the dangers that it has, fully trusting the fire protection on my armor.

Just as I planned, I drank the potion and started running, feeling a rush of emotions all over me as I made dangerous jumps, dodged arrows, and took a break from time to time.

After what I could assume was a day, I arrived at my portal. Or at least the huge pillar that hid my portal.

I took out my diamond pickaxe and broke a few blocks before arriving where I wanted.

A huge room, that was half white and half red, with a huge portal in between.

After I covered the hole I just made, I passed the portal frame once again, but this time, I was home.

"Home sweet home, isn't that right Violet?"

She appeared out of nowhere and shrugged her shoulders, then with her special aye she looked to see if we had uninvited guests.

I, instead went through some of the chests to remind myself where everything was placed and where I would move my new treasure.

Half an hour later I was done and tired for the day.

"Ok, I'm too tired to start working now, so we will do this tomorrow instead, get some rest since you will be teleporting a lot tomorrow."

Violet nodded her head and I went to get some rest in my fortress at the surface.

------

The next day, early in the morning I woke up fully energized and did a little stretching.

I've been moving so much recently that I started to see some growth in my muscles, even if it looks weird since it was made off small cubes.

I've visited my animals and they grew in numbers since last time I was here, good thing that I made such a large space for them to enjoy.

I also gave up on growing any kind of garden, since I came home so rarely, any kind of crop that would grow in my underground base would rot and join the soil.

Unless the items are placed in a chest or inventory, they will slowly start to rot or rust.

The animals are used to taking care of themselves, they don't need constant supervision like in my original world, and they were wild from the beginning.

The only difference they see is that they're more safe in my base than outside.

With my maintenance done, I went back to my real base, only to find Violet sitting bored out of her mind.

I guess the fact that she promised to help me today, made her stuck waiting for me to give her the mission.

I kind of felt bad about this, but I'm sure it wasn't that bad.

"Good morning to you my friend, ready to do some work?"

The only response I got was an annoyed hiss.

"Well, good thing you're that energetic since you're going to need it for what's to come. Do you know where the Witches portal is?"

She shook her head as a no.

"Then follow this compass that will guide you, try not to lose it since I only have one registered for now."

She took the enchanted compass out of my hand and studied it with curiosity, teleporting into different rooms of my base or even the Nether to see how it moved.

The loadstone was in the Nether, and the compass worked interestingly when it was Imprinted on it.

If I stayed in the Overworld, it would point toward the closest working portal, and then change its position to the original target.

I have an idea of using this as a detector for any possible working portals since that would mean there are some ruins nearby.

But that was a project for another time, for now, I needed to calm Violet down so I could give her a second item.

"Violet, stop for a moment, I need to give you another item."

She appeared once again with a curious look before changing it into one of disgust.

What I gave her was an ender pearl.

"Sorry that I make you do this, but is the only way I can think of travelling fast."

While clearly showing her displeasure, she took the pearl and teleported into the Nather.

"Thank you!"

I yelled after her.

"Time to do some preparations then."

I turned around and made a small redstone system that Violet would use when she would get back.

At the same time, I took out the last loadstone from my inventory and placed it in my portal room, not forgetting to connect it with a compass.

Then I took out my diamond pickaxe from my inventory and went to build another room.

While the road through the Nether was much shorter than the one taken in the Overworld, that didn't mean it was an easy thing to travel though.

That's why it took around two hours for me to feel a pull in my stomach.

Suddenly I was in the storage room at the Wirches Clan.

"Wha- wait, who are you how did you get here?!"

I turned around and saw Elder Anastasia with a panicked look on her face taking out a loaded crossbow.

Why did Violet bring me when someone was in the base?

Is this her way of getting revenge?

"It's me, Anastasia, please drop your weapon."

It was even loaded with fireworks so that would do some damage to me, even with my powerful armor.

"Trader? How did you get here so fast, I didn't hear anything."

"I came through the portal, sorry for the scare I didn't intend to."

"But I didn't hear you... Never mind, welcome back, is there something we can help you with?"

"Not really, I only came here to move the storage to my main base."

Suddenly she froze in place with her smile slowly dying off.

"Don't worry, I don't intend to take everything with me, just what's more valuable for me and items that you can't use."

"No, I'm sorry about my reaction as well. This is your storage, after all, we are just borrowing from it, thank you for what you did for us. Especially at the Piliger outpost, our Clan would be forever in your debt."

I could only turn my head in embarrassment at this moment since I didn't know how to respond.

"I'll call the other Elders as well, we need to sort out what we need and don't."

Twenty minutes later Flora and Froggy were in the room as well.

"Trader! Welcome back, how's Bobby doing, how are the others?"

"Glad to see you Froggy, it's been a few weeks, and guess what. Bobby is getting married next year!"

Froggy looked shocked while the two elders looked confused.

"With who? He was almost as busy as me last time I checked."

"With Princess Elizabeth herself! Here's the official invitation."

Everyone eyes went wide open, while the two elders didn't know too much about Bobby, they did hear about the upcoming Queen.

We made some small talk after that, I told them waht happened with the rest of the refugees.

I also told them to be on a look out for the Piligers since they would most likely start their battle in about 2 weeks, and that they already started to do some raids at some of the undefended villages.

They shouldn't have the same problem since they don't know where their Clan is now, but they should walk on the surface with extra precautions.

In the end we had to end the discussion, since Violet was getting bored and kept taping my back with her invisible hand.

Was she so easy to get bored?

"OK, now that everyone is caught up on what's happening on the surface, I came here for a reason. I want to move this storage to my main base to continue grinding my Crafting skill. But I don't intend on taking everything with me, take whatever you need and let's put it in a different chest and I'm going to take the rest."

With some hesitation they all complied a list of what they would want or need, and it got pretty big.

Fortunately for me, it wasn't something that I needed specifically for my Redstone crafting, and Flora even gave me some of her costum potions to lessen their 'debt'.

I didn't tell them I expected something back, but I also knew they were too proud to simply accept it, so I took whatever gift was given to me.

After everything was moved I asked everyone to not enter this place for a day, which confused them but complied.

"OK Violet, everyone left, let's get back to work."

She aperead beside one of the doable chests and lift it like it was nothing.

"Don't forget to press the button once you get home!"

She just nooded and teleported away.

This is going to take a while.