Chapter 19. Cheating the system

We climbed to the surface in the compounds of the village, where I could finally see the blue sky and the light of the sun. The wind danced through my clothes and made me appreciate that I'd come to this world instead of the Nether where I would've suffered constantly from a heat stroke.

This expedition was not in vain though. we got what we wanted and more. But also we have more work to do than ever before.

I didn't intent to actually mine non-stop to get all the iron. I don't know how much It would actually take, but there are a few ways to make it easier and faster.

"Hey Bobby, do you think you can get me an enchanted book with fortune?"

"A fortune book? They're not that easy to get, and I'm sure it would be pretty expensive as well."

If they are that precious, then I don't think you could buy them with emeralds, and I'm sure I don't have enough of them either, so I had to give something else in exchange. I looked back at the mine and got an idea.

"If I have something valuable enough to exchange, do you think you can get one?"

He shifted his head and started to think.

"I can't promise anything, but if it's valuable enough you can get a book at level 1."

"Perfect! I'll be back soon then."

Then I went back into the mine with my trusted pickaxe. I remember that in my strip mining session, I stumbled upon a cave system that I didn't fully explore since I didn't want to deal with the mobs at that time.

But now I'm back here with the intention of going deeper.

I started to think about what options I have. Emeralds are too common and easy to get, even though they're the currency of this world, I most likely don't have enough neither did I want to use them. I then thought about obsidian, it's an unbreakable block for them, so it would be even more valuable to them. The only problem with that plan is that it's an unbreakable block for me as well.

So that made me come up with the idea of getting diamonds. The people in this world are advanced enough to build a kingdom, but I'm sure that they lack the information on where to find diamonds exactly, the only way they could find diamonds would be to find them in a cave, which I'm sure that all of them have been explored and kept secret for the higher class.

With that plan in mind I entered the cave system.

After a few hours of fighting and searching I finally found the block loved by everyone, the diamond.

I quickly broke them and retraced my steps back to the surface. I then looked for Bobby, which was not too hard to find since he was playing with his new materials and brewing some potions. And from what I could see, he doesn't do it for XP anymore but for the numbers of portions to give to the piglins.

"What's my good witch doing!"

He was startled by my sudden presence.

"I was brewing some speed potions to travel faster. Witch, what does that mean?"

"You don't know? In this world, it should be when a villager is struck by lightning, and then it would go through a transformation where they'll keep throwing debuff potions at everyone that doesn't like them. I don't know how true that is, since it waw mostly a legend when I read it."

And I also don't know if it can be considered an enemy in this world since villagers are smart here, so there's a chance that they also can be reason with.

"Hmm, interesting. I haven't heard about that legend, but if it would be true, then a witch is a grandmaster level at brewing, only for being lucky or unlucky to be struck by lightning."

"Grandmaster level? What level would that be? "

"You don't know? That would be at level 7 the last level. Every skill is mastered at level 7, but it's very rare for someone to reach that level in 60 years, especially if you're not rich."

Now that was a lot of information in one go. I finally found out what the last level of this system is, I also found out that a villager has a lifespan of 60 years, which makes me wonder what mine is. Is it 60 like them, or am I immortal like the game character?

So much new information, but I had to get a hold of myself since I've come here with a reason.

"I found something that maybe you can exchange for the fortune book."

I then took out a diamond from my inventory.

His reaction made me smile for a moment.

"Is-Is that a diamond!"

He reached for the diamond with trembling hands only for me to drop it on the ground.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

He then quickly picked it up and looked frantically for any cracks.

Meanwhile, I laughed on the ground while trying not to die from the lack of air.

"Haha, it's so funny that I almost had a heart attack."

He said with a sarcastic voice.

He had to wait a few minutes for me to calm down and be able to talk with him again, after one final gasp, I managed to calm myself down.

"Ok, sorry for that. Do you think you can get the book with that diamond?"

He still looked suspicious at me but chose to respond anyway.

"I don't really know that. The diamond is a very rare gem that only Royalty and high nobles can actually use. You can get a few stacks of emeralds for this if you manage to sell it, and that's a big if!"

Well that sucks, I knew that the diamond would be rare, but not that rare. I guess I have to try some other ores.

"How about gold?"

"Hmm, it's less valuable than a diamond but still more valuable than the emerald. I'll have to go to the city to actually sell them though. And as I mentioned before, I'm exiled."

"What if you wore the full iron armor, would anyone recognize you?"

He wanted to deny that idea, but then he stopped and started to think more.

"If I borrow the horse from my friend in the next village, and start acting arrogantly like a noble, I think I can actually pull it off. The guards usually don't want to deal with the nobles anyway, so if they can recognize one they'll let him pass without checking them up. But it would still take a few days for me to get back. "

"That's no problem! I'll just mine until I find iron, but I won't break it until I can put the enchantment on a pickaxe."

"That's a great idea! And sorry that I have to ask, but can I borrow some iron to give to my friend in exchange for the horse?"

"Sure that's not a problem. While your down there, you can also pick up the gold."

He then thanked me and went to the mines.

"First phase is in motion, time to start the next phase."

Mining that much iron will take a long time even with fortune on the pickaxe. The real reason I thought I could take on such a big request was that I would use something that every player would say it's a broken mechanic in the game. But first I needed to gather some resources for this to work.

So for the next few hours, I gathered materials and sold them to villagers until I thought I had enough emeralds. Then I stopped in front of the most important villager for this mission.

The armorer villager.

"Hey there Bob, how are you?"

"Good, hero."

"I'm glad to hear that, do you want to trade?"

The villager smiled and opened up his trading tab.

3 emeralds → iron boots

4 emeralds → iron helmet

"Indeed the villagers are the most broken in the game."

I smiled and bought all the stock that he had. I now had 12 helmets and 12 pairs of boots. And the best part was that it resets at noon.

"The only thing that is actually hard to do, is to get enough emeralds to afford these."

But it was way better and faster than actually mining the iron. Unfortunately, I can only get the boots and the helmet, so I still have to mine for the chest plate, pants, and weapons.

For the rest of the day, I kept collecting materials to trade for emeralds and then trade it back for more armor, I then went back to the mines and stored everything that I got in the chest.

"Well trading is done for today, let's go do some actual mining now. "

For the next five days, I kept trading and mining. I had to stop trading on the third day since I got all the equipment that I needed already, I had never seen a villager happier than Bob.

The fifth day was special because Bobby finally arrived with the fortune book.

I was casually mining in a random tunnel when I heard a sudden shouting from the main room.

"Trader! I'm back with the enchanted book and much more!"

I stopped hitting the stone block in front of me and started running toward the voice. Once I arrived there, Bobby held a light glowing book with pride.

"Look what I got here my friend."

He then headed me to the book to look at it.

"It's fortune 3 enchantment! I didn't expect you to get such a high-level one."

"It wasn't really cheap, I had to pay 34 gold ingots, but I figured you'll want the best if you had the option."

He wasn't wrong about that, there's a big difference between a fortune 1 book and a fortune 3.

"I did get the book, but I hope you know how to put the enchantment on the tool since I don't."

"You didn't ask the seller?"

I said that in a panicked voice.

"If I asked that, it would've broken my character of a prideful noble."

He looked away in shame.

I started to smile and decided not to make fun of him this time.

"Yes, I know how to transfer the enchantment, follow me."

I then went to the anvil and opened it's tab, I put a fresh pickaxe in the first slot and the enchanted book in the second one, then out of nowhere a new text appeared under the final slot.

Level 42 / Level 4

I could finally see my levels, I thought they didn't exist in this world. And it looks like I'm level 42, and it would take 4 levels for this enchantment.

I took the hammer beside the anvil and started to hit the final slot to merge them together like I do with the crafting table. And after a few hits the magical pickaxe was finished.

I took it out to see it better. It was like a normal iron pickaxe, with the exception that the metal had a faint purple glow pulsing from time to time.

"This is the first time I've seen an enchanted item, It looks... amazing."

Finally, with this pickaxe, I can finish the iron request. I then prepared to go and test the enchantment on an iron vein only to be distracted by a scream coming from the surface.

It was a high-pitched scream, it was a scream of a child.

Bobby and I looked at each other and run to the surface to see what happened.