Chapter 122. Talks at the table

"So Trader, tell me about your journey."

After we sat down and ate in silence for a few moments, the Chiefman asked me about my journey.

"I'm pretty early in my journey so I haven't had the chance to visit a lot of places, but I did have the luck to see some interesting sights. Do you know about the legends of the Overworld?"

"How could I not? It was the story told to every Brute as a child."

"I heard some rumors that a few decades ago someone opened a portal to that dimension and now people from there captured the fortress where the portal was. So on my first journey, I decided to visit that place, and to my surprise it was true."

The man seems to freeze at the new information, before slowly continued to eat his meal.

"And how were they?"

"They looked very funny, with big noses and from time to time puting 'humm' in their sentences. They were also very proud of who they were and I could bearly make a trade with them."

"You made a trade with them, and they didn't attack you?"

The man seems surprised by this, and I as well since I expect the Brutes to attack first and ask questions later.

But then again the experience in this Bastian wasn't that bad overall, they attempted to rob me just once, so maybe they're not that bad.

"Yeah, they were proud and weren't willing to trade with me, but after some intense convincing they sold me a few stacks of cobblestone blocks."

The man raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"I didn't know those rumors were true."

I just sat in silence and ate some of the soup that had an interesting taste, I could tell that it was made with pork meat and had a little aftertaste like medicine, and since the soup was red I tend to believe they used nether warts because they didn't have a lot of variety.

Now it's time for me to ask some questions.

"If you don't mind me asking sir, what's with the big wall at the entrance?"

"You're referring to the big wall that separates the rich and the poor?"

"Not that directly but yes."

"It's simple you see, this place used to be a lot bigger and a lot more open, but when my grandfather was ruling this place, an uprising happened from the common people. We gave them knowledge, we gave them food and items, and all we asked was to serve us, they were hired as servants and paid well, but then they attacked us killing a majority of the families that lived around here. In the end, we managed to defend ourselves and even kill them all, but a lot of people died on our end. Then my grandfather decided to build a wall and do a better job at hiring new servants so the history won't repeat."

That was an interesting history lesson, which blames the common people as the reason the nobles don't send any more support.

Of course, it's the exact opposite of what I heard from the others, but I don't know if either of them is telling the truth.

Maybe it's somewhere between the middle, where the nobles send more help at the beginning but stopped at a certain point, but they kept growing, and because the others saw them but couldn't reach them, they decided to do what Brutes are best known for doing, attacking and stealing.

But since they were underequipped, they lost the battle and paid the price for that.

"That's a sad story indeed, but how come you didn't expand more, with all the manpower here I'm sure it's more than feasible to accomplish it."

The Chief seems frustrated at this, but not at me instead of something else entirely that I didn't know about.

"Indeed we could, but we are not greedy so we are satisfied with what we have right here."

A Brute not being greedy is like telling someone that a witch doesn't like to brew potions.

I think it's possible but it's very rare to see someone like that surviving in the world, so this must be a poor excuse to cover up the truth.

We stayed in silence after this and finished the meal.

"I hope the meal was to your liking Trader, I'm going to finish some business of mine, but you can get some rest in your room."

With that said, he got up, walked out of the dining room and a servant came to me as my guide.

With my belly full, and a few questions answered I was satisfied enough to get some rest, so I followed the servent along the tall hallways until we stopped at a certain red wooden door.

With a single motion it was opened, and I could see the interior of it.

It wasn't too big nor too small, the walls were made with wood from the Overworld, soul lanterns were hanging on the ceiling which gave some chilling vibes and there was a crafting table together with some chests.

Once I was left alone I took off my armor that I've worn for what I could assume was hours, and soon I felt the effects.

But since I didn't have the armor on me anymore and its cooling effect, I felt a wave of heat washing over me, it wasn't as unbearable as I thought.

I looked at the ceiling and realized that it was the effect of the soul lanterns.

Not only did it look creepy with its pale light and souls disappearing into the ceiling, but it also had the side effect of cooling down the room I was in.

I'm not a fan of the design but I can see its usefulness, so I won't complain.

In the room, there was a white bed well made and I comfortably sat down to get some rest.

Time passed, and while I could feel my body resting my mind couldn't go unconscious.

This wasn't because I was paranoid even though that was a port it, the real reason was because of the stupid soul lamp!

Yes, I felt comfortable with the improvised air conditioner, but I also think it had a mental effect since I couldn't take it out of my mind.

"Ok, that's it, I'm going to have a breath of fresh air."

I got off the bed, put my armor back, and went outside the tall hallways, where surprisingly was empty.

I thought there would be a guard around here to keep an eye on me but apparently, I was trusted enough to be my own.

Big mistake.

"Let's see what you hide under the rug chief."

I didn't know how I should be more stealthy, but one thing for sure was clear.

The armor didn't help with a stealthy aporch, it was too easy to be seen and recognized, so I couldn't just casually walk like this.

But I had a plan if you could call it that.

I went and checked every room that I passed but only seeing more guest rooms until finally I found what I wanted.

A servant room.

It was way smaller than the room I was in, with only one bed and a beral to store some items, and I quickly checked it like a sneaky thief.

Inside I saw some wooden tools, some food, and what I was looking for, a spare uniform.

The servants in this dimension were very differently dressed than in my home world, actually even in the Overworld where dressed more uniquely.

In the chest I found the head of a hoglin which I quickly put on my head, then there was a short tunic handmade with the leather of the hoglin and some leather pants, those two pieces were dyed in red.

An interesting choice of color.

I took off my armor and put it in my inventory and replaced it with the servant uniform.

Once that was done, I already started to feel lightheaded from the heat, and for that, I had to take out my secret weapon.

Fire resistance potion.

I had two on me and it was way more than I expected to use in a quick trip to the Nether, but I'm glad that I made that decision, since now I would not die from the heat for a few good hours.

I quickly drank the potion which made small orange particles float around me, but you had to really pay attention to otherwise it would be ignored.

As I was about to leave the room I stopped in my tracks and spoke with the air.

"Violet, are you here as well?"

To my surprise, the tall monster appeared in the room slightly crouched so she wouldn't hit her head on the ceiling.

Looks like she really was everywhere, which was kind of scary.

"Did you explore this place already?"

I got a yes from her.

"Did you see their treasure room?"

The response was once again positive, and I quickly got excited.

"Awesome! Can you please guide me there?"

She looked at the wall on the right and opened her third eye searching for something, before closing it and looking back at me.

I got a nod of approval, and she teleported out of the room.

Since she was still visible that meant that nobody was around her so I quickly exited the room and went after my guide.

We walked through a few hallways where I could hear some voices calmly talking with each other in the mysterious rooms beyond the red doors, and since my guide didn't even bother to look at them I wasn't too worried that we would be found out.

Soon we arrived at a stone brick staircase that went higher and lower, and Violet chose to go down.

The walls quickly changed from calming wood to depressing dark brick stones, it felt like I entered a dungeon then a celar.

While we were here, Violet seemed to be more on guard than before so I paid attention to everything else as well.

We arrived at the end of the hallway and saw an iron door but no lever or button.

Violet just teleported on the other side like it was nothing leaving me out trying to figure out how to pass it without making too much noise.

Breaking the door was not an option since I learned my lesson in the obsidian mine in the desert, so I looked in my inventory for any solution, only to stop and got closer to the door.

On the right side of the iron door, I saw something unexpected, a block stone button.

It was blending so well with the rest of the walls that I didn't see it at first.

I pressed it, and as expected the door was opened but still made some noise.

I quickly passed before it closed and hoped that nobody heard it.

On the other side of the door, an enderwoman waited for me with crossed arms wondering why did I take so long.

"I didn't see the button ok."

I responded with a wisher, and Violet just rolled her eyes and became invisible.

This made me panic a little since I didn't know if she did this because someone was coming or because it was a stealthier approach.

So In a panicked response, I entered the closest room that I saw.

On the other side, I saw a large room filled with soulsand and nether warts slowly growing on them, on the walls there were two double chests and I didn't see a place to hide.

Suddenly Violet appeared once again, but this time she looked panicked at the door and then at the rest of the room looking for a place to hide.

Since I couldn't find one, I will make one.

With quick steps I went towards the chests on the wall and broke the wall itself with my diamond pickaxe, it wasn't even a challenge with how quickly It went through those blocks.

Then I made a small room behind the chest and covered everything else, there was one block missing on the lower chest in the corner where I could see what was happening in the room.

Violet seeing that I found a place to hide, relaxed and turned herself invisible, just in time as the wooden door was open with a bang.

*Bang

In the room entered a frustrated Chief while dragging a person who was tied and blindfolded while still struggling.

He arrived in the middle of the room and dropped the man down with force.

The man tried to gather himself, but the Chief just kicked him in the stomach with force making the poor man freeze in pain.

"Don't struggle so much and I'll make your death quick."