8

Chapter 8 Expansion

In the following months I was very busy. I continued my slow spiraling conquest of the Nether but still haven't found a Nether fortress. I started building with Nether brick just to save time and discovered a curious thing. Nether brick actually encourages things to spawn in it.

Yep, it was one of the reason for my slow expansion. I periodically swept through all my outposts in order to clear them out. Light didn't affect when they spawned although they never spawned too close to me. I didn't really mind it. I was mostly just killing time until the dragon bones arrived.

That and collecting loot. Since all the enemies spawn I had taken to building long straight corridors. I placed intersecting corridors periodically so that from above my base was laid out like a spider web. I turned each intersection in to it's own room and placed a modified Arrow Storm turret that only had six launchers in the center.

I just patrolled and when I spotted something ran to the nearest turret. I was not about to try fighting anything especially Wither skeletons. I had no idea which difficulty I was on and had no intention of dying from a lucky strike.

Sadly, they're common enough I needed the turrets. I've also built me a very nice stack of skulls. It's a rare drop, but I've killed a lot of them recently. Still deciding on what to do with them. Not really willing to fight a Wither without a lot of health potions available.

In contrast to that I particularly loved the magma cubes. Being able to form magma blocks and slabs was even better than netherrack for me. They sped up how fast my metal fount and furnaces worked tremendously.

Magma Cream had other uses for me too. Since I had so much of it I had taken to experimenting with it. I was pretty proud when I found out how to extract one of it's components. Stick it in the furnace and it dries out into blaze powder. Combine it with a bucket of water and you get a slime ball.

I don't really have a use for either of those items, but options are always nice. Well, I don't have any practical uses. I can think of all kinds of hilarious traps involving sticky pistons. Which actually might be exactly what I need.

I race back to my base to bring my idea to life. In no time at all I am the proud owner of my own bone farm. I placed all eight of my skeleton spawners into a central pillar and dug a pit underneath. The pit was only ten feet deep and filled with an assortment of sticky pistons arranged to crush everything that dropped down.

Unlike in the game the sound of two blocks of stone slamming together was loud. I ended up moving my bone farm away so I didn't end up deaf. A series of hoppers and chests collected everything.

I really wanted to do the same with the hags, but couldn't figure out what was spawning them. Altering the room didn't affect the area they appeared within. Something to work on later I guess.

Truthfully I'm strongly tempted to attempt to travel to the End. I'm pretty sure the End Cities contain Brewing Stands. It's been weeks! I've explored miles in every direction! Where are the Nether fortresses?

It's not like it's be that hard either. Endermen weren't too common, but they roamed in packs. They also teleported to you even if you looked at them through a spyglass. It was easy enough to lure them into a killzone.

Best of all after picking up my first ender pearl I received a set of new recipes. Besides the eye of ender I got one for endportal frame blocks along with rules on how to construct one. I guess Strongholds aren't a thing in this reality.

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When I received the raven from Matilda I smiled. While I visited at least once a week I still wanted a way to get news faster. I had no desire to ever run into an ambush again.

Towards that end I had actually gotten around to building the Barnes family a second story. It housed their ravenry which pretty much was only to send messages to me. An expensive indulgence unless you have unlimited resources like I did.

She would only be sending me a letter if something important had happened. While ink and paper were just as easy for me to create as all the rest of my resources I hadn't told her that. Even if it's free, it still takes time.

It seems a small fleet had pulled into port. My skull was finally here!

I set sail immediately.

As I pull into the port in my boat something felt off. It was too quiet. People were about, but everyone was tense like they were scared of being attacked. It was with a sense of dismay that I saw the fires that were consuming my storage shed.

Son of a bitch! I had just added that ravenry too! I had to make a trip to Braavos to set it up. They are so dead.

I turn around. Aand ambush confirmed. Several men stand up on the galley and start shooting at me with bows. I ignore them other than to put on my armor. Not my brightest move.

I forgot how fragile my boats are. Half a dozen arrows strike it and it shatters. I don't even have time to curse before my armor drags me down.

I notice the planks that drop are floating at the surface instead of sinking like me. Oh yeah, real world physics. I store my armor and search my inventory.

Stone, stone, netherrack, netherbrick. Come on! I keep searching as I see my oxygen bar depleting. There!

Helm of Respiration. It buys me some time, but isn't a solution. There's no way to swim far enough to get out of sight. Unless...

I'd like to flesh out my idea into a real plan, but I'm running out of time. I start swimming back towards the ship. Luckily I was fairly close since I was dumb enough to sail in all fat and happy.

I ran out of air, but between the helmet and food I barely lost a quarter of my health before I was ready. I punched a hole in a docked fishing boat to get some air. I propped it up with a stone pillar. No sense giving them warning.

The keel of a boat is like the archstone for a building. It's the strongest piece and the most important. It's also the largest point of weakness. There were a lot of things I expected, for the galley to practically disintegrate when I chopped apart it's keel was not one of them.

I barely had time to get out of the way as the wreckage sank. The debris left a giant layer of wood spread across the water too. I didn't even feel the slight burns I got when I used a magma slab to set everything on fire.

I waited until the fire had spread across a good portion of the docks before making my move. There really wasn't any point hiding my powers anymore. Building myself a tower of stone I rose out of the sea.

I stopped when I was a hundred meters in the air. From there I was clearly visible to everyone and I could see across the whole town.

I placed a mini arrow storm turret and just started shooting. At this point I didn't care about any of them. I shot everyone I could see.

From my point of view these people were quickly proving themselves liabilities. Every single time I tried something it went wrong. And when they weren't ignoring my troubles they were helping. I wouldn't have even minded that much if they had at least brought the damn skull.

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It was too bad they built so heavily with stone. I would have liked to level the town completely instead of just terrorizing it. It was surprisingly soothing trying to kill everyone in the town.

Granted I didn't kill everyone. For one, the people weren't complete morons. They soon realized to say inside was safer. I also couldn't shoot far enough. I could shoot around a quarter mile. The problem was Lorath was big. Between all the compounds and paranoia the city stretched miles.

Still I could cover the docks. No one was going to be leaving anytime soon. The fire I started spread pretty fast. It also wasn't stopped, probably because I shot anyone who tried. Every ship there burned. The few that tried to run I shot a magma block at.

It wasn't even hard. Just sit and spray some arrows any time I see movement. I spent all day at it. I also kept expanding and improving my tower. By the time I decided I had done enough I was relaxing inside a full blown hut. A tiny hut, but still recognizable as one.

Other than the beginning, this might be the easiest fight I've had yet.

I didn't stop just because I was bored. Nope I stopped because the merchants finally realized what I was doing. They pooled there guards and slaughtered every member from the fleet. They then piled the bodies and apologized. A lot.

I was still pissed, but held off shooting them. If I was ever going to train them properly I needed to make sure I only punished bad behavior. I should probably reward good behavior too. So annoying.

I eventually accepted their apology after making them sweat a bit. I tore down my tower and stored it. Then I went to check on my last employee.

As I walked I easily ignored the numerous glares. I kept myself ready in case anyone attacked. While I was sure the city had learned its lesson I'm also fairly certain that many of the merchants are ruined. The fires had destroyed every ship at the docks along with consuming several of the ship building and repair facilities. No doubt some of them would want revenge.

I was actually pretty surprised I didn't get attacked. Instead everyone avoided me. It was only after I reached the blacksmith that I realized why. It was burned down. Inside I could see the twisted half-melted remains of the Windlance. I doubt Locke had survived.

I was pissed. I needed a blacksmith. To believe I had actually been thinking about selling this miserable town logs to help. Fuck Planetos. As I leave I wonder if Lorath will even survive or if another town will conquer it.

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After loading up with supplies I set sail for Braavos. I needed to find out what happened with my deal. We had a contract! If they screwed me over I was going to kill them all.

I stopped by the peninsula I had noted earlier. Exploring it showed it was just as uninviting as ever. It was also only a little over two hours from Braavos.

I pulled in along the cliffs until I found a spot that wasn't visible to any passing ships. I rapidly tunneled deep into the cliffs and started setting up my new outpost. I was paranoid. The first staircase turned and let upwards into a completely false lair.

My false lair was an enormous deathtrap using fixed mini arrow storm turrets, moving pistons and trapdoors altered to serve as collapsing floors.

To get to my actual base you had to mine through the wall at the first turn and keep going. A second similar entrance was located right after the first set of trap. It wasn't as good as the spiders, but as long as it doesn't draw serious attention it should be plenty.

I built a full base. Multiple farms. Storage. Crafting stations. And the main reason for the base. A Nether portal. I don't just build one either. The peninsula is more than wide enough for my base to span several miles. I place a Nether portal at each end.

I know the portals have to be a certain distance apart to create a new portal in the nether. Hopefully a few miles should be enough. It should also make it easier to find my portal in Lorassyon since I tried to angle the two portals in that direction.

When I entered the Nether I was actually pretty disappointed. Just like before I was inside a small clearing of netherrack. I quickly replicated my efforts to set up a base. Even the other end wasn't that bad.

Sure I showed up in the air above a sea of lava, but pallets and walls let me build much faster than in the game. I barely had time to be in danger before I was secure behind six feet of stone.

Then just like I had before, started spiraling outwards. I extend rapidly from each portal, building outposts as I go. If the Nether was anything like in the game it should be much shorter than the four miles the overworld portals are separated.

It's slow tedious work. Bouts of paranoia mixed with lots and lots of boredom. My farms had started long since producing enough to provide me everything I needed. My work pays off though. I didn't even complete two full rings of outposts around each end before I was able to join the bases.

I'm don't really have a time limit so I actually start building a road back to my main base. There is another peninsula that has some ruins on it that will work for a decent waypoint. I sail there to set it up. Don't want to miss it.

The ruins loot more abandoned than destroyed. Possibly a former outpost by someone else? Either way it's easy enough to see why it was abandoned. The soil is very rocky and even the trees are stunted. There isn't any real reason to stay and nothing to give a fledgling settlement some kind of advantage. Which makes it almost perfect for me.

I spent some time digging some irrigation ditches connected to the sea before planting reeds along them. I wanted this place to be as unappealing as possible. Stony soil is hard to grow crops in. Salty soil though? Impossible.

The one spring in the area I divert underground into my own base. Since there wasn't any cliffs I dig deep and make sure to layer stone thickly above me. I don't bother building any real access points. This base is only really hear to place a Nether portal.

The Nether surprised me. I found myself inside a maze of mineshafts inhabited by zombies. They were all normal sized and normal acting too. My tactics were much more modern than before.

When I encounted a group of zombies I had one response. I dropped a fence, retreated a few feet and placed a turret. After mowing everything down in sight I advanced until I ran into another group of zombies.

Simple, efficient. It didn't take long to clear out the entire area. My everburning torches, as I've taken to calling them, made sure nothing spawned behind me. With the whole place lit it was easy enough to track down a source.

My first zombie spawner. Truthfully I'm not really sure what to do with it. I can extract bones from them, but the flesh is just going to go to waste. Besides I have no shortage of bone right now.

I suddenly recall a tidbit from the game. Anyone killed by a zombie turns into one. Hell yes! I am so saving this for now. Next time Lorath pisses me off I'm unleashing a zombie plague.

Is it a bad thing I want to cackle maniacally?

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I've been working towards connecting my two waypoints for a while now. Really hoping I haven't veered off. It was when I decided to check on my progress that things got weird.

I build a Nether portal to pop out and look around. Right after I lit it it flickered and then went out. The hell? Or should that be The Nether? Yeah, mental fatigue apparently does affect me. Especially if I get too bored.

I personally blame the fatigue for the fact I keep trying. It was almost hypnotic. The bright purple glow. The odd flicker as the very air warped and shuddered. Then the way the light shattered like glass and faded.

I actually tried two more times to light the portal when it finally stayed lit. I should probably build a hut and sleep when I check my progress.

When I go through the portal I was immediately pushed. I braced myself and realized I wasn't hurt. Instead I was.. wet?

Looking around I was ankle deep in water. A wave had just hit me. And of course I can see the peninsula only a few miles away. I was so used to the game physics in the Nether that I almost left before wondering how the portal wasn't sinking.

I feel like laughing when I finally look down. My portal was standing on a small mountain of obsidian. Obsidian from broken portals. Oops.

Of course I didn't just leave it all there. Thank god for explosives.

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I've known the overworld influenced the Nether much more here than in the game. With two examples I'm fairly confident that mining dungeons are located where previous settlements were. So current settlements...

Once I connect the two waypoints through the Nether I set sail for Lorath. Screw getting the skull, I might finally get to brew potions. Besides the skull might not even be there right now.

Once back at Lorath I land in an out of the way spot and dig straight down. If this works I'll worry about connecting it later, but right now I just want to test my theory.

I quickly build a portal and leap through it. Even before my vision clears I can feel myself taking damage. I hide behind my shield and look around. I'm being attacked by three blazes which are steady chipping away at my shield. Despite how bad the situation is I'm excited.

This is it. The netherbrick walls confirm where I am. I'm in a Nether fortress!

I retreat for now of course. No reason to stay. I jump back through already making plans. Planning that was interrupted by a fireball. I forgot mobs can use portals too.

Blazes are dangerous normally because they spawn inside the spacious fortresses or worse on platforms inside large caverns. They're attacks had a long range and they flew about incredibly fast. Inside the tiny room I had made none of that mattered.

I just charged in and started chopping away. After all of that I still was over half health. Stacking fire protection enchantments is so broken. I wonder if I could survive dragon fire?

I only got one blaze rod from their bodies. I really need to start carrying a weapon with Looting on it. Still for now the theory is confirmed. I block off the portal for now. I not taking the chance of something escaping.

I have a lot of building to reach the fortress, but for now I have brewing to do!