Chapter 186. Owners of the tunnels

How to open a portal to the Overworld?

He surely asks the tough questions from the start.

"Why do you even want to know that information?"

"So I can go and explore it, and who knows maybe conquer it."

Should I tell him?

If I tell him, he's most likely going to end up dead and zombified in the Overworld.

No, what if the information spreads and then the people from the Stone Kingdom will find out the secret?

"I'll advise you against it since creatures of the Nether are not meant to live outside of it."

He thought about it, which I didn't expect.

"I felt like I was getting sick when I passed the portal frame. Are you saying that if I stayed there I would've died?"

"You and everything else In this world. You're not meant to be in the Overworld."

"Is there no way to pass on the other side without taking damage?"

"Not that I know of."

Unless you want to use the same method as Undying by chugging regeneration potions constantly or wait until Alexa takes over the Nether and rewrites whatever is inside that kills you.

But I'm not going to tell him that, I want to get out of here as soon as possible after all.

"I see, then tell me about the life on the other side of the portal. I read historical books about how the two worlds were one long ago, which makes us brothers. It's such a shame we can't visit you like you're doing with us."

Was he fishing for my reaction?

Not a lot of people know about the Nether in the first place, much less about its history.

So I decided to show a shocked expression, only to realize too late that he couldn't see it because of my armor.

"You don't seem too surprised by this information. The guards we took as prisoners from your precious fort were enraged that we would speak such nonsense. So tell me, what other things do you know?"

His lips moved into a smile that gave me chills.

How much should I tell?

Maybe I should try my luck with escaping this place. I'm pretty confident with destroying the roof of this house and tower up to the ceiling.

With my Netherite pickaxe, I should be able to break blocks faster than they can run.

"Let me ask you a question first. Is your nation the oldest one in the Nether?"

The man smiled with pride.

"The only thriving one from ancient times."

"Does that mean you were the ones to mine those tunnels underground."

The Mad Prince looked at me with surprise, clearly not expecting the conversation to lead that way.

"You know a lot more about our dimensions than expected, but to answer your question, no, we didn't mine them, the people from your world did. But we are the ones controlling them after they left, so either way, it belongs to us now."

"What are the chances of you giving me a map of those tunnels?"

He smiled so hard that his eyes were narrow.

"None."

"At least I tried, Alexa get behind me! Violet get out and we'll meet up later!"

Then I placed an obsidian block between us and an End Crystal on top of it.

The Mad Prince was already equipped with his enchanted diamond armor and had an axe in his hand ready to fight.

But getting closer was his biggest mistake, as I raised my shield and slashed the Crystal.

*BOOM!

The Crystal exploded throwing him on his back while I took a few hurts of damage.

This was the most damage I've taken in this armor.

I heard yelling outside the house, and the Mad Price was already getting up just a little dazed.

They moved quicker than expected.

"Follow me, Alexa!"

Then with the blocks I had, I towered up towards the ceiling, broke it, leaving me out in the open.

"He's towering up, shoot him!"

The Brutes quickly saw me and started to shoot at me with their arrows.

Most of the arrows were repelled by the armor, but some of them found their way to my arms where they were less protected.

"Ugh, I'll have to build some defense."

I started to build walls when I started to hear the Brutes yelling that someone was attacking them.

Out of curiosity I looked past my defense and saw how some Brutes were thrown around from all over the camp, making the whole group shoot arrows at itself trying to hit the invisible enemy.

Looks like Violet decided to help me instead of running away to meet later.

I have to get more powerful, I can't rely on her all the time when I'm in danger.

But thanks to her help, I managed to tower up towards the ceiling of the Nether.

It was a few hundred blocks tall so it took a while to get there, but after a certain distance, the arrows couldn't reach me anymore.

And with my quick mining, I should be able to run pretty far before they reach me.

But just when I arrived at the roof and was safe, I realized something.

"Shoot, I wanted to build a portal here and run away but Violet it's still down. Not only that, she can't sense me because of the armor!"

<I would advise you to get a safe place before taking off your armor, otherwise the heat tire out making mining process much harder.>

Alexa was right, let's get to a safe place first then take off my armor.

Violet told me she could feel me after thousands of blocks, so I should be safe either way.

With the plan finished, I started to make a long tunnel but did not forget to cover it behind me so it couldn't be traced.

Just to be sure the tail was loose, I left fake tunnels and changed my direction several times before I broke the roof to get back on the ground.

The place that I landed on was a red forest, it had plenty of cover, light, and food.

It should be safe for me to make a portal here and wait for Violet to come.

"Alexa, I'll make a room underground, you can go and explore this place just talk with me when you get close."

<Affirmative. >

With that, Alexa flew away protected by the invisibility potion while I dug a room underground big enough for Violet to teleport in.

A few minutes later, everything was done and I took off my armor.

Suddenly a wave of heat washed over me, making me lose focus for a few seconds.

I sat down with my back on the wall taking small breaths to get used to the heat.

10 minutes passed, then 20 then an hour and I was starting to get worried that something happened to Violet.

A few minutes later Alexa came as well but after 30 more minutes, I decided to look for Violet.

"But how can I backtrack my way after I made sure to cover everything?"

<I've already recorded a map in my database so we should follow that.>

"That's genius Alexa, show me the shortest way to the camp."

<Oreder received, please follow me.>

I took the obsidian blocks back and followed Alexa throughout the Nether.

Fortunately nothing dangerous happened on the way there, with the most nerve-wracking part being the bridge over the lava lake.

Once we arrived at the camp I saw that it was more silent than expected, and with careful steps we got closer, relying on the stealth of the armor not to get noticed.

But with the first step I made into the camp, I realized that it was empty.

"Where is everyone?"

I checked every house and chest but not item was left behind.

<Sir, I've found something that is addressed to you.>

I quickly followed Alexa's directions, and I arrived at a sign close to the walls of the camp.

The sign said:

--If you want your Enderman friend back, follow the tunnel then take a right--

How did they manage to capture her, was she hurt, was she ok?!

Behind the sign was a hole, clearly leading to an underground tunnel or a trap.

Unfortunately, I had to follow their instructions since I didn't plan on abandoning Violet.

After taking a deep breath I ordered Alexa to go down and report what it sees there.

Luckily Alexa was a machine that knew no fear besides the System itself and fulfilled my command.

A few minutes later, it came back and told me that it was leading to a long tunnel but no trap in sight.

Just to be sure, I took off my helmet and equipped the Monocle of Truth.

This was the first time I equipped it in the Nether so what I saw was different than expected.

Instead of the usual gray, I saw an intense red all over the place, and when I looked at Alexa, I saw a being made of light with a golden string attached to it that was leading somewhere far in the Nether.

Probably to the main body.

This was pretty useful to know since I could use the string to dig a tunnel all the way to the main body.

But that was a project for later.

I went down the stairs and followed the long tunnel.

After half an hour where I didn't see any traps or change in scenery, I arrived at one of the bigger 'tunnels' that was under the Mad Prince's control.

As instructed I took a turn to the right and continued walking.

The design of the highway was the same as the last time I saw it, so I quickly got bored and turned off my brain while my legs were moving.

We walked like this for a while until I saw a sign in the middle of the road that got my attention, but 4 blocks away from the sign was a string that would activate a trap.

If I wasn't wearing the Monocle of Truth, I would've just gotten closer to read the sign, only to activate the trap without realizing it.

Good thing that the string is seen as gray in a sea of intense red.

With a big step, I crossed over the string, allowing me to see what was on the sign.

---If you're reading this, please wait for us to pick you up :)---

They even put a smiling face at the end!

The audacity.

So this trap is supposed to either capture me or alert them that I was here.

I don't think they had the time or the materials to make a trap, so that means it's an alarm system, meaning their close.

I looked around for an exit that I didn't see, but the tunnel didn't have one, probably being blocked to not attract suspicions.

"Looks like I'll have to fallow the trap."

I broke the blocks besides tripwire, and saw a redstone line that was going upwards, but I couldn't see the exit, so I signaled Alexa to scout ahead since there's a chance they would see me if they have guards.

The ball of light went ahead and came back a few minutes later with some bad news.

<At the end of staircase there two Brutes as guards, you can't see them from inside so they would've caught soon stepped out. The leads to middle a camp, filled with more Brutes.>

Good thing I sent Alexa first, otherwise I would've been caught.

Now that I knew what to expect, I climbed the staircase halfway through before making my own staircase going directly upwards.

Once I broke through the surface, I looked over the camp where Violet was held prisoner.

It was similar in design with the previous one, which made me think that there's multiple camps like those all over the Nether connected to the underground highway.

Unfortunately, while I had the high ground, I couldn't see Violet, which meant that she was in one of those houses.

And since I don't think I'll be able to sneak In, I sent Alexa once again to search for Violet.

I know both of us had multiple lives, but I wasn't willing to give up mine so easily.