Chapter 61. Intruder

Back into the Overworld cold air ran through my golden armor, and a pressure that I didn't know existed suddenly disappeared from my shoulders.

"It never ceases to amaze me, this world it's so different from ours."

"Yeah, I don't know too much about other dimensions. I only know two more besides what you know. And they're as weird as you think they can be."

Unfortunately, I only know how to get to the End dimension, not my own dimension.

We walk along the empty tunnels before arriving at the entrance, there a few chests filled with riches waited us.

"I should've come here instead of starting another mine. Oh well, what's done it's done, Undying can you do me a favor?"

I interrupted her gaze over the chests that had most of the gold, maybe I should give her some extra gold when I'll pay for the recently made debt.

"Sure, how can I help you?"

"Can you craft me a diamond pickaxe?"

"I can help you with that, but I don't have those diamonds to craft with."

From her reaction, I can tell she doesn't know what diamonds are or how powerful they can be. I wonder how she'll react if I tell her it's the second-strongest ore in the game.

I'll leave it for another time, for now, I gave her the few diamonds that were in the ore chest.

She got to work quickly and crafted my new diamond pickaxe, with this I can mine obsidian and get two important items.

The enchanting table, and the ender chest.

Unfortunately, I lost all the items upon my death and with that, all the valuables that I had.

But I was wise enough to store some of my extra items in the Ender chest, in there I have a few rare ingredients especially the book with all the enchantments that I learned.

"I'll go to the surface to see if I can send the letter through someone, do you want to come with me or get back in the Nether?"

"I just drank the regeneration potion not too long ago, so it would be a waste not to get out."

With that, we both climbed the ladder and basked in the sunlight.

"It's fascinating how that ball of light it's so powerful that I can feel its warmth from anywhere in the world, but it's not as uncomfortable as lava heat."

"That's most likely because you live inside the planet unlike us, on the planet's surface."

"What does that mean?"

"It's very different from what I know, but what I do know is that I can see the sun in the sky, which means there's a star bigger than the Earth at the perfect distance for life to thrive. In your world, you can't see the sky, and if you try to mine upwards you'll arrive at the true unbreakable block. But this only makes me wonder how the planet came to be in the first place."

It almost feels like the Nether is actually a cage that nobody is supposed to get out of. You can't get too high or too low, and from what little theories were I'm my old world, is that something changed when the first human made contact with this dimension and exploited it too much.

"I didn't know that, but this does sound like something Blue will love to hear."

Blue is more of a scholar type indeed, unfortunately he was busy with a business trip with the brutes so we couldn't meet.

While they don't get along usually, as long as you have gold to exchange they will go from your worst enemy to your best friend.

That's why they don't trust them, but also trust them at the same time. As long as they know you have enough gold to keep coming back, they'll be on your side and protect you if needed. But if they smell the lack of gold, they won't hesitate to sell you to someone for a better price.

And from the recent trade with me and Bobby, they have lots of gold to trade with, so they'll be safe for now.

I walked around the village in reminiscence of a simpler time, talked with the people here, and even said hi to the Iron Golem which only returned an empty look as always.

In the end, I didn't find Toby so I had to trust one of the Villagers to give it to him when he'll visit this place.

There weren't a lot of great options to choose from unfortunately, the only one that I could somehow trust was the second in command for this village, Bob the librarian.

Of course, I didn't forget to trade with all the villagers at least once, I didn't want to waste such an opportunity to gain some experience, and some precious emeralds.

We went back to the mines and stopped in from of the portal.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to get some obsidian. If you want you can wait in the Nether or come with me on this mining trip."

"Is that the block the portal is made of? You can use it for other stuff as well?"

It didn't escape my ears how excited she was about the source block of the portal. Even though her curiosity about the recipes was genuine as well, it was a good cover-up.

Even though she most likely wanted to know how to make a portal, It didn't bother me too much for a few reasons.

One and the most straightforward one is that she doesn't know how to open a portal, she knows the frame for one but doesn't know that it needs fire to open up.

Even if they found out about the process by accident that leads me to my second point, they can't walk normally in the Overworld. Sure they can chug regeneration potions to keep them safe since their not obstructed by the system and every one can do it, ghast tears are not easy to farm, only a select individual can have this kind of luxury.

But even if by luck they managed to spawn right beside a village to trade with not needing to explore the world, this brings me to my third point which is in her mind as well.

They won't find people as stupid as us to trade with. Because I mined all those resources in just a few weeks it doesn't feel like I a lot, but actually, we are pretty rich by the standards of this world, I think I influenced Bobby a little with my casual way of wasting money and he's not too bothered to see things my way.

The only way to find a similar customer is a high noble or Royalty.

And this brings me to my last point which I she doesn't realize.

There's another group of people who know about this dimension, the people from the Stone Kingdom, but why don't they seem too interested in exploring the new world, and conquering it?

It's a new world just for them to take after all!

That's because they don't see a point in doing that, they have most of the things they need at the fortress.

They can farm most of the potion ingredients in their home, and if they need some exotic items, they can be traded simply with the locals for them.

There's no point in conquering a world that is going to eat more resources than you can gain.

But there's one thing that can change that in an instant, and that's the knowledge that the people from the Nether are not bound by the system limitations.

If they knew about this, I'm sure they'd enslave every brute and piglin in a 1.000 blocks redios.

This world would become their factory that only they have access to. It's a very dangerous thing to know, and I think Bobby realized that and will keep his mouth shut as well.

"There's not a lot you can craft with it, but what you can do it's pretty powerful. I only need an enchanting table and an Ender chest."

"Both sound very powerful."

"They kind of are in their own way. The enchanting table makes a normal tool or armor much stronger then it original would be. As for the Ender chest, well, it's better to see it in person."

With that, we both went deeper down the mine.

I didn't remember exactly where the last lava pool was. So we may got lost and we may had to fight a lot of monsters to get where we wanted.

Of course, this wasn't without results, we got a few good ores and I realized how much of a badass Undying actually was.

She caught a skeleton arrow with one hand, how cool is that!

This also made me realize that I should get some fighting lessons soon, so I can actually defend myself. My list of getting more powerful so I won't die so easily, grows day by day.

Finally, we found a lava lake so I showed her how to make obsidian, which greatly interested her.

But as I mined the block we found a problem, or at least I found a problem. It was surprisingly hard to barke the annoying block.

It took me 30 whole minutes just to break one stupid block!

No wonder it's believed to be unbreakable, if it takes me this much time to break it with a diamond pickaxe, a normal villager will take an hour and a half.

Nobody wants to constantly hit a block for that long.

I decided to take only four and get some more when I enchanted the pickaxe.

After that long mining session we got back to the tribe in the Nether, of course not forgoting to craft the Enchanting table before we left.

I traded for a few books with the villagers so I could make the whole setup at home.

On the way back, nothing to eventful happened, so I was in the tribe in no time.

"I think I'll sleep here for today and tomorrow will get back to my base. Can you send me a guide to help me get back to where I met Cobble? Actually, I think it's better if you know where my base is in case you want to contact me."

"Sure, I'll send someone tomorrow."

With that I went to get some sleep, mining that much at one stupid block made me more tired than I thought.

The next day I went to get back to my base, only to be surprised by my guide.

It was Undying once again.

"Aren't you supposed to be busy with taking care of the tribe's management?"

"Yes, but I managed to do most of the urgent stuff since we got here, so now I'm going to take this as a mission to escort the 'Great Tribe Chief' and expand our hunting area. Two ghast's with one arrow."

I didn't want to argue over this, and she knows how to fight better then anyone I saw, so I couldn't be in a better position then this, so I kept my mouth shut and went on our way.

It took half a day to get to the red forest and another few hours to follow the cobblestone track back to my base.

Undying was very vocal about how bad of an idea the track was and broke every block while showing me what signs their tribe used to mark their routes.

But in the end, we arrived safely at a small netherock hill.

"At least you were smart enough to cover your portal with a blending rock."

"Thank you, I learned that from your people."

She just nodded and we crossed the portal.

A blinding white room greeted us as we stepped once again into the Overworld.

"This is an interesting choice of design for your base."

Undying walked in once she drank the regeneration potion.

"It's not just this room that represents my whole base. Also, it's not finished yet, it would have a certain theme where your world will try to take over mine with corruption."

"That's... I don't know how to feel about that."

"Oh, sorry if it sounds bad, I only made this since I thought it would be a cool theme."

"Sure..."

We walked along the long hallway where she seemed to be impressed by the designs over the walls, especially the lava flowing beyond the iron bars.

As I calmly walked towards the lobby I suddenly stopped.

My heart started to beat faster, my head was suddenly a mess, have they found me?

But that's impossible, there's literally no lead that would bring them here.

But the proof is right in front of me, a person with full iron armor was in my secret base!

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

I shouted more threatening than I expected, I also unconsciously took out my sword, ready for a fight.

The armored person turned towards me surprised like I was not supposed to be here. Time seemed to slow down, and I could make more details from the sudden intruder, and something specifically caught my eye.

This person didn't have a big nose like a normal villager, actually there was no nose at all.

But who could it be then?

"Trader, is everything alright?"

Undying was right behind me with her full iron armor and a golden enchanted axe, ready for a fight.

"Wait, I can explain!"

A feminine voice yalled back in panick.