Chapter 144. Back at the outpost

I looked with confusion at my skill tab wondering how did this happen?

I've read countless books that all say the same thing.

The pinnacle of any skill was at level 7.

But since I was here and could craft with diamonds, what was beyond that? And what's the real maximum level for skills?

Unfortunately, nobody was there to answer my questions, which made me come to one conclusion.

"Whoever brought me here gave me I different System than the others, but the question is who and why?"

It also makes me wonder why the System itself doesn't strike me down or have an interview with me.

After all, it spoke with Merry and destroyed the old civilization, I don't think it would take too much from it to take me to the white realm and answer some questions.

But I was still curious what would I gain if I passed to the next level?

So I took out the newly made diamond armor that I enchanted with everything I got, making it even more powerful than what the hero had at the battle with the Zombie Lord, and brought it to my smithing table.

The smithing table had a menu like in the game, but nobody in this world knows what is used for, no ingot that was put there ever worked so people could only speculate what its true purpose was before giving up.

What was different then the game, or what I remember from it, is that it only requires the armor and the ingot, which was very convenient for me.

As I put my helmet and the netherite ingot in their specific slots, the result took me by surprise.

ERROR!

CONTACTING THE SY-ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

Insufficient level.

The table was suddenly flashing red error signs like the System had a stroke before giving me the classic red X saying that my skill level wasn't high enough.

At the same time, I suddenly felt a pressure over me like a giant was breathing over my shoulder, I felt naked in front of the invisible eyes and then something in my gut started to move.

It wasn't as powerful of a feeling as when I use the enderpearl but it was still noticeable.

The sensation returned once again, with a little more force but giving up in the end.

I felt like the System was watching me at the moment and was frustrated that it couldn't do something with me before giving up and leaving me alone.

"What was that, what just happened?!"

Suddenly Violet appeared beside me, picked me up, and teleported me away with her.

My guts were a mess when she finally stopped teleporting and I had to lie down and vomit whatever breakfast I had that day.

"What was that?"

After I managed to empty my stomach I looked at Violet who also didn't seem to be in a good condition, before looking at me with a worried, scared, and relieved expression.

"What just happened?"

And you could teleport me all this time?

"System....bad."

So that truly was the System!

Be careful what you wish for because it could be granted.

I didn't expect our first meeting to be this rough, and why did my crafting a Netharite helmet make it freak out so much?

I looked around and saw that I was in a cave system underneath my base.

Violet teleported me pretty deep since I could see some lava and bedrock blocks around us.

We sat in silence and recurred our health.

I don't know why Violet panicked so much since the System didn't seem to be able to do anything against me, even when it tried.

After some time passed I finally spoke.

"I think we should get back to the surface, we can't hide forever."

Plus I don't know if we're even that hidden.

She seemed hesitant at first but agreed with me as we traveled along the dark tunnels.

It was hard to navigate and Violet didn't seem to want to teleport us back to the surface, so my only option was to dig my way up.

Three hours later I was back on the surface, exosted from all that just happened.

I didn't feel like I was being watched anymore, and Violet's special eye didn't seem to catch anything either, which meant we could get back home safely.

That was until I arrived at the smithing table that I was working on.

"Where are my items?!"

I looked all around for the helmet or the netherite ingot but to no results, suddenly I started to have a bad feeling about this, so I quickly checked my inventory and saw that everything was fine, then I went towards the storage room and saw that a few items were missing from my storage, more specifically, the research books that I managed to gather in my adventures.

Enchanting, brewing theories and much more vanished into thin air like they didn't exist in the first place.

I started to sweat nervously and went to check on my Ender Chest, but to my relief, it seemed to be intact with all the items inside.

In this chest, I held most of my precious items and one of them was my research journal that starting to get pretty thick.

Unfortunately, most of the content in the journal was Enchanted-related, with very few brewing recipes or Redstone machines.

It was a colossal loss since it was very hard to gather this kind of information and I didn't manage to read everything I got, and now it was all gone once again.

This isn't good, it seems that the System doesn't approve of what I do, so it decided to strike me down, or at least tried to but didn't work out so it decided to rob me instead.

What now?

Sure what I had in my inventory and Enderchest were safe, but that left me with a small space to store all of my illegal items, and I wasn't too comfortable with that.

"What should I do Violet? The System robbed me."

Violet looked confused at me before shrugging her shoulders.

"Ugh, let's not cry over spilled milk and get on with the original plan."

Today I planned on upgrading my armor and sneaking back into the Piliger Outpost.

But now that I've been attacked by the System I have more reason to raid those pillagers.

Those people are the descent of the nation that made even the System afraid before being struck down, and they still managed to hold on to their own experiments and some information from back then.

That means they have a way to hide from the System or hide certain chests from it, and I want to get my hands on that information.

I don't have anything against the System, but I don't like it when it's destroying my progress, so that means war!

But first I needed to get prepared for the upcoming mission.

First I need a new helmet, and that's going to take a while since I need to enchant everything back.

I also have to get some items for what is about to come, since I can't take them by surprise anymore, at least not with my old ways.

So with a big sigh and worried that the System was watching over me, I got back to work.

After some testing here and there I was finally ready and went on my way towards the Pilige, making sure that everything was safely stored at my base.

Since I didn't have a horse with me, I could only walk towards my destination.

I tried to ask Violet If she could teleport me there, even if it was a painful experience compared to the normal Enderpearl, but she was dead set on not doing that.

I think it took a big toll on her when she did it last time which probably meant it was going to be used in emergencies only.

So for the next few days, I ran with the speed and jump potion effects and built a small camp every night.

Finally, after a few days of adventuring through forests, plains, and rivers we arrived at the destination.

I took my spyglass out and looked at the wall from the distance.

"Ugh, they either 'recruited' new Piligers or they used every soldier that was left home to guard the outer walls, either way, it's going to be annoying to pass that."

While it would be annoying that didn't mean impossible.

Unfortunately, I couldn't just drink an invisible potion and break the wall, since the guards were moving too often and surely someone would hear me.

But that meant I had to dig a lot more than planned, so I took my enchanted diamond shovel and dug a tunnel straight towards the outpost, stopping from time to time to place the golden bell down and use it to see people through the dirt.

With this method I easily passed their defense and continued to dig under their noses, hoping to get to the castle this way.

But on my way there, started to notice something unusual, there were very few Piligers living on the surface.

I could only see roughly 3 people per mansion that is supposed to hold a few dozen.

Where was everyone, especially the citizens?

Are they truly all patrolling the walls?

From time to time I poped out my head to see if I was going in the right direction, since it was hard to see underground and there weren't a lot of people that I could see to guide myself.

But finally after hours of shoveling away I arrived at the castle where finally I could see some activity which meant that I now had to start the second part of the plan.

I put all the armor back into my inventory and drank a few potions.

Some of them were the classic ones, such as invisibility, night vision, speed and jump boost.

But also some that were not that well known such as, silent step and rabbit ear.

To have a maximum efficiency for this haist, I decided to start the looting at night, where there's a high chance that everyone would be asleep or too tierd to pay attention to the little details.

So with everything prepared, I got out of my hiding hole and moved at great speeds between the semi busy hallways with sleepy guards.

The room that I wanted to get in the most was Solomon's lab, since I've seen a few bookshelves in there that I suspect holds all the information I want to know.

The first floor was easy to pass, so was the second floor, but when I arrived at the third floor I had to stop, since in front of me was a hallway dirty with some substances that I don't know and the normal door was replaced with an iron one, so no matter what I did it would make a lot of noise.

"Violet, is anyone nearby?"

I whispered at the air and waited a few seconds in silence, and then a floating hand aperead moving from side to side.

That was a good thing to know, since braking the door wasn't an option I could only do the second best thing.

Brake the wood block right besides the door since it would make less noise then the iron door, even if I open it with a button.

So that's what I did, and to my relief the lab rooms were empty and mostly dark which meant that everyone was asleep and I could loot whatever I want.

I distinctively rember where Soloms lab was, and once again the door was switched to an iron one.

They really did upgrade the security here, its a shame that it's so easy to bypass it as well.

With the same solution as the last door, I got inside the lab who was In a bigger mess then last time I saw it.

Since I had night vision on, I could see all clearly like it was In broad daylight, so I picked up a few papers from the ground to see what was written on them.

But just as I was about to read it, suddenly I heard a splash potion hit the ground, making me lose my vision, before I could understand what was going on I hear a dispenser going and then my feet were wet.

Violet started to scream in pain, but for some reason she didn't teleport away, then I heard another potion getting splashed and then one last cry from Violet that was slowly dying down.

I was still confused about what was going on and slowly panicking before I hear a voice.

"You finally came! I thought you chickend out for a moment, welcome back!"

Then I heard a splash and my conciseness was lost.