Cleaning up had been a pain. Necessary, but a pain nonetheless. I wasn't sure if the corpses of the piglins would rise as undead, and as such stowed them away in my inventory. Same with the enderman corpse, though that last one was for more scientific purposes. I'd be less annoyed if I got any experience for the whole encounter. But, unfortunately, this place seems to have a strange relationship with my system. Experience just doesn't work here.

Still, as soon as I was done cleaning the area to a minimum, I was able to enter the bastion and finally take a look inside. And from what I've found so far, well these piglins were definitely living small. There were two bunk rooms, each filled with shitty beds and the occasional chest. The chests didn't have much, just some string and crappy gold gear. Makes you wonder why these piglins still use gold for weapons. They must've realized that it was a horrible material for weapons by now. Or maybe they're just stupid.

Regardless, I was still able to Deconstruct the gear to its base components. Waste not want not after all. Plus, the gold might the useful too. Never know when I might need it.

There hadn't been much else besides that unfortunately. For a bastion, this place was fucking small. There were a few other miscellaneous rooms, sure, but other than gold equipment and literal scraps of random materials, this place was barren. At least, almost.

During my search, I happened to come across something spectacular at the bottom of the structure. I immediately put it on hold to search the rest of the bastion, but now that I was done with that nonsense, I could finally dig into this spot. This treasure room.

From what I remember about treasure rooms, they're filled with two dangers. Lava, for one. Probably this realm's special Nether lava too. But that could be take care of relatively easily. It was the second threat that made me pause. The magma cubes.

Now, slimes are technically a trash tier mob. Magma cubes are just spicy slimes, so what's the problem? Well, it's the fact that magma cubes probably behave radically differently here than they do in game. They'll likely be more gelatinous, and less structured. Like actual slime. This also means that they might not bounce as much, instead preferring to glide across the ground or maybe even swing around like Spider-Man. Or the monster from Carrion.

This brings me to a second concern, can I damage them with conventional weaponry? When planning for this trip, I had immediately decided that I probably would not be able to. After all, how do you hurt slime? They might have a core, but that's a huge maybe. And I wasn't going to risk anything on a maybe as flimsy as that one.

I also disregarded elemental effects as well. While electricity might destabilize their form, and ice might the strong against fire, it probably won't kill them on their own. At least, not efficiently anyway. It'd take a decent amount of both in order to make sure the magma cube wouldn't reform, and since there are spawned inside these treasure rooms, I might not be able to focus on the one.

That wasn't to say that I wouldn't be able to, but there were better ways to do it. Ways such as violating the Geneva Convention. Trust me, it sounds way worse than it is. See, while ice might not work too effectively since, well, lava is hotter than ice and magma cubes were effectively magma, electricity was a different story.

The idea behind using electricity was to destabilize the magma cube's form. This could lead to it simply being unable to pull itself together and then dying. Unfortunately, I'd need a continuous stream of uninterrupted electrical energy in order to pull that off. But it was the idea behind that strategy that had gotten me thinking.

What if, instead of using electricity, I took advantage of the magma cube's nature? Slimes absorb liquid in order to keep their bodies so, well, slimy. The same could probably be said about magma cubes, only they probably absorbed Nether lava.

So, using this liquid absorption trait, what if I created a substance that was designed to be absorbed into the slime? Then, once inside, the substance would begin to break down the magma cube's inner cohesion. Because this solvent would be inside the magma cube's body, it would be spread throughout it and thus keep dissolving the creature. Kind of like acetone and nail polish, but way stronger and used as a weapon.

The actual plan was actually rather simple. All I needed to do was throw in an electricity grenade inside the treasure room, wait for it to go off, and then shoot the slimes with my crossbow. Or more specifically, my semi automatic chemical bolt shooter. But yeah, crossbow worked just as well.

And that all brings me to know, where I'm currently hiding behind the corner of the treasure room archway. There were quite a few slimes in there, most of them mincing into each other in a way that made it hard to actually count how many were in there.

I peeked my head back into the treasure room. Sure enough, there was a spawner hanging from the ceiling. It was a fucking demented looking bit of magic though. The iron bars were bent and gnarly, iron skulls attached to the sides of it. It wasn't a square either, instead it looked almost like a bird cage. Only it was large enough to fit a human, like those medieval cages used to torture people. Crooked spoiled lined the sides of it, and in the center was a glowing orb of crimson energy. Every once in a while it would split off a portion of its energy and push it into the lava in the floor, birthing another small magma cube.

Good thing these magma cubes aren't all the perceptive, because I stick out like a sore thumb. Regardless, I had work to do. Taking a deep breath in, I clutched the electricity grenade in my hand. Looking into the room once again, I tossed the grenade into the room and huddled against the corner.

A few seconds after I let go of the grenade, a loud boom could be heard. Faintly, I could hear the sizzling of the lightning against the magma cubes, and their warbled cries of pain. Seeing this as my cue, I leapt out from the corner and took aim with my crossbow. I shot the first bolt into a large group of slimes, their convulsing bodies coming together in an attempt to keep themselves intact.

My next few shots were of a similar effect, shooting bolts into groups of slimes as they began to surge together. Once I was satisfied with my efforts, I stood up to my full height and simply watched. The magma cubes were beginning to fall apart, the slime dissolver doing its job and spreading throughout their bodies. Cohesion became impossible as the bonds between the slimes broke down, and eventually they simply oozed outwards, dead.

Now for the spawner.

I disengaged my grapple, sending it forward towards the spawner. The hook landed between the holes of the cage, catching onto the spawner. Yanking my arm back, I tore the spawner from its chain and caught it in my hand.

The damn thing shuddered violently, almost as if it were angry. Whatever. Not my problem. "Structural Analysis."

Information flooded my mind, and a frown grew on my face. "Deconstruct."

The spawner vanished, a ghostly wisp floating away as plain iron took its place. Vanishing the iron to my inventory, I crossed my arms and began to think. Those spawners, they're not a natural thing. They're an artificial creation. It was purposeful, and whoever made it was willing to cross several boundaries in order to do so. The spawner was made of simple iron, yes, but that wasn't it. Not by a long shot.

That ghostly wisp that escaped when I Deconstructed the spawner? That was a fucking soul. The iron is somehow mixed with a soul, giving it its magical properties and allowing it to create monsters. From there, a magical signature is placed within the cage. Now, this signature could be anything, from magma cubes to even people, and this thing would create them. The main issue is, these creations wouldn't have a soul. They'd be soulless, and any human or any other sapient creature created would be little more than animals. Good for harvesting materials or protecting something, less so for anything else.

Pushing that train of thought to the side, I focused on the second threat of the room. The lava. Taking a few steps forward, I knelt down before a patch of Nether lava. Hmm, if I alter the material to the sides of it, I could bury this lava underneath the floor. Thus, creating a safe space to walk around in. Perfect.

I placed my hand on the floor, focusing on the makeup of the stone. First, I needed to sink the lava downwards. This would be accomplished by taking the stone beneath it and simply shifting it to the sides a bit. Thus, widening and deepening the hole. From there, I needed to shift that stone upwards and begin to cover up the hole. The hole began to shrink, the stone being stretched to fill it in. Finally, both ends of the hole met in the center, and began to blend together. Soon enough, it was almost as if there was never a hole to begin with.

Crap. That took about thirty seconds to complete, for a single hole. Sure, thirty seconds isn't a lot of time, but considering the scale I'm working with, you'd assume that I'd be faster. I suppose I'm just better at altering weapons than I am other things.

My eyes gazed upon the room, noting around two dozen more holes that needed filling. Whatever, this is fine. I needed to use this room anyway. May as well put in the effort to make it work.

Woo.

…

It took a while to finish preparing the area as a temporary base. Even after I was done filling in the holes, I still needed to do a variety of things. First, preparing the treasure room as a safe atmosphere. Thankfully, I figured that the Nether would have a fairly hostile atmosphere and prepared for it. Along the walls were several different temperature regulators and air scrubbers, so that way I could work outside of my suit with no issues. That being said, it still took time for the regulators to do their thing. So I simply built a door to the treasure room, and left the room entirely.

While the room itself might be safe, I still needed to fortify the bastion in general. Nothing major, just a few basic traps. Trip wire activated explosives, gas mines, and even a few proximity sensors throughout the structure. These sensors, when triggered, would send an alert to my suit specifying which sensor was tripped. It was relatively simple. The sensor used a modified scan enchantment to sense the nearby area, and it does this every half of a second. Should anything outside the norm change, it's linked to my suit's helmet and set to make the glass flicker a different color, depending on which sensor was triggered.

Very simple stuff.

I also stripped the structure of whatever I could, removing blackstone from the walls. I was careful not to touch load bearing walls, and to only take some of the stone. It was functionally the same as regular stone sadly enough, with the only difference being the color. Kind of a letdown to be honest. I thought that the Nether Energy would have given it a cool property or something. Still, you never know when you need some extra stone on hand.

And that brings me to now.

I grunted as a large forge appeared in my hands, placing it down and adjusting its position on the floor. Normally, carry such large equipment with you would be borderline impossible without some kind of U-Haul truck or whatever. But considering I have an infinite space inventory where I could put whatever I may ever need in there, well I may as well carry an entire base worth of equipment wherever I go.

Reaching up to my helmet, I disengaged the locks keeping it in place and took it off my head. The air was far cooler than it was earlier, and while it was still slightly warm, it was manageable. Way better than the fucking microwave that was the Nether.

Still, at least I can finally take this stuff off. The armor may be fucking awesome, but that doesn't mean I want to wear it all day. For one, I need to do maintenance on the armor. Sure, it may be self repairing, but I still have to make sure it repairs itself properly. Much like how the human body can screw up when healing itself, so can the armor. As such, I do have to run diagnostic checks every now and again. I also need to clean it too, since sweat is just funky.

That can be done later though. For now, I had an idea to plan.

You see, before I set down all of my heavy equipment, I had done a little bit of dissection. The enderman corpse was a source of infinite fascination, and even though I had used Structural Analysis on it already, I still wanted to see it for myself.

Endermen, as a rule of them, cannot breed. They simply lack the sexual organs necessary. And yet, there are still enough of the to form a stable population. How? Well, biology answers that. These creatures aren't born, they're made. More accurately, they're humans who have been corrupted by some unknown energy. Something which I'm going to label as simply Null Force. This Null Force is, more likely than not, the prominent energy within the Void.

Now, I'll admit, that was mostly based on guesswork. The Endermen are in the End, which is in a sort of void. So, the void must have an abundance of this corruptive energy. Despite popular theory, it wasn't actually chorus fruit. At least, not here anyway. The changes are far too… familiar. This Null Force acts very similar to magic, and by proxy Nether Energy as well. More likely than not, it was the energy itself that corrupted these people. Though I'll admit, this was all theory work. I could be wrong. It could actually be the chorus fruit. I doubt it, but it's possible.

So, the endermen are corrupted people. No big surprise there. The how isn't even that important either. I'd guess that some endermen kidnap people on occasion, thus continuing their species. Though this is a maybe.

But their origins aren't what made me interested. No, it was their powers. More specifically, their spatial manipulation abilities. If I could find a way to harness said power into a weapon, well things would get a lot easier.

So, after a quick dig around inside their organs, I found a very peculiar thing. An ender pearl. Well, there were actually multiple of them, but semantics.

Ender Pearl

Rare

A pearl found inside the heart of an enderman. These pearls are generators of Null Force, allowing the enderman access to its spatial powers. By pushing one's energy into one and throwing it, they can teleport. This uses up the pearl.

These things were very small, about twice the size of a jellybean. On their own they didn't generate much power, but all together? Well, that's more than enough power for an enderman to be as bullshit as they are.

I reached into my inventory, rummaging around it in search for one of the cooler bits of loot I had gotten.

Before I had set up the room, I had made sure to take basically anything not nailed down. The large golden statue was immediately taken, as well as the variety of gemstones and diamond metal gear. How those things got here, I don't know, but they exist.

Finally finding what I was looking for, I yoinked it out of my inventory and gently placed it on the table in front of me. While most of the loot I had gotten was only mildly interesting, there was one specific item that had really captured my attention. Something that changed revolutionized the game.

Diamond Gemstone

Uncommon

Generally thought to be useless, it can actually be used to create hard light constructs out of magic. This is an undiscovered ability. Grows along Diamond metal, almost like flowers.

Honestly, it raised quite a few questions. Why did it exist? Why did it grow on diamond metal? How does something like this form?

However, these were all questions that I was willing to set aside. Besides, it did answer the question of why diamond metal was even called diamond metal. I just thought that people were really anal about the name. Nope, apparently it's because there are two types of diamonds. Traditional gemstone ones, and the Minecraft metallic ones. Very cool.

And apparently, no one actually knew how to use these things. I can't imagine why. I mean, it's not too hard. All you need to do is simply push your magic into it and formulate an exact mental image of what you want.

Actually, I think I just answered my own question. Most people don't have magic, and as such can't really connect with the gemstone. Makes sense… I guess.

Getting back to the point, there was a reason that I wanted this specific material with the pearls. And it was a very simple reason. I wanted to combine the two in the form of a sword in order to make my own version of the coolest katana in gaming.

The Yamato.

Of course, it'll be far weaker than the actual Yamato. After all, I'm not using the power of a demon strong enough to sever realms. I probably won't even call it Yamato, since I'm not a fan of copying the names of things. I'm going to build it myself, and I may as well name it myself.

The only question behind this little exercise of mine, is how. And to be honest, it's an easy question to solve. I've been working with magical materials for so long that I'm practically an expert on it. Maybe even the leading expert too. Hell, I have a perk literally called Artificer, and my last name is Artifice. Coming up with bullshit is my specialty.

I held one of the large diamonds up to my eye, turning it in my hand as I stared into it deeply. The gem was almost perfectly clear, so at least I wouldn't have to worry about quality. Though considering what I'm about to do to it, I suppose it doesn't actually matter.

Diamonds, as a gemstone anyway, are definitely a very hard material. I mean, that's just common knowledge to be honest. The earth is round, anime is fucking weird, and diamonds are hard. The one thing a lot of people forget when it comes to diamonds, is that they aren't very tough. An ordinary hammer could shatter a diamond with no issues. The same could be said about a magically Reinforced hand.

My knuckle brushed against the diamond, stopping as I found the spot I was looking for. Bringing my hand back, I slammed my knuckle against the diamond, and watched as it shattered onto the table. Carefully brushing the shards together, I grabbed the second and last fist sized diamond and repeated the process.

Now that all the shards were together, I could finally begin working. I had managed to scavenge seven ender pearls from the enderman's corpse, as the majority of the others had been damaged with my attack. Those damaged ones will be useful later, but for now I needed to work with the others.

Taking one of the small pearls, I carefully pushed it into the pile of diamond shards. From there, I altered the shards, making them bend and twist around the pearl. Soon, a somewhat thin layer of diamond gemstone surrounded the pearl. It was an airtight connection, almost as if the diamond had formed around the pearl naturally. A light blue glow emanated from the diamond, and I could see a slight hint of purple within the center. Perfect, the ender pearl was beginning to push power into the diamond coating. Already I could see a small aura of light surround it, the energy hardening and forming a solid shield.

Good, this was good. That means that the diamond gemstones still retained its magical properties, even when broken up like this. I mean, I figured that would be the case, but it's still nice to have it be confirmed.

Quickly repeating the process with the other six pearls, I quickly aligned them. The rest of the diamond shards were brushed to the side, and I summoned some wood from my inventory. The fun part about my powers, is that so long as I have the model of an item as a blueprint, I can use whatever materials I want when Crafting it. So, if I made a wooden prototype with my hands, I'd be able to simply Craft that prototype, but with the proper materials.

Considering the fact that I was making a shittier Yamato, it was only fair that I made it a katana. Plus, it would make using its powers way easier as well. Carving the wood was easy enough, especially considering how experienced I was with making swords. The blade was done in less than five minutes, and I quickly set it off to the side.

The handle was next, and I'll be damned if that wasn't annoy as fuck. Katanas are very complicated once you get to this point. You have the multitude of smaller pieces that work together in a way that's different enough from western swords that it makes creating them annoying. There was the habaki, which is like a collar for the blade. The tsuba, which is the katana's guard and what I would be placing the majority of the pearls on. The menuki, there mostly for grip purposes but can be decorative too. Oh, and then there is also the mekugi, which keeps the blade with the handle by going through the blades nakago, the tang of the sword.

Yeah, even the blade is a complicated mess. Just less so than the handle.

Still, I finished the model in record time. I was very simple with designs, mostly because I just don't really have an eye for ornamental design philosophy. Everything was planned out properly, however. Five of the pearls would be placed in the hilt, which I refuse to use the Japanese term for now, while the other two would go on the blades "collar" as it were.

The extra diamond shards would be used to connect the pearls in a sense. They'll also strengthen the hard light abilities of the diamond gemstones, which should make things much easier. Though that'll mean that the hilt will need to be a bit thicker in order to keep the diamond gemstones from shattering.

Simple enough.

Now all I needed to do was Craft the blade and-

My helmet began to glow a bright yellow. That was the main floor back entrance alarm. I turned back to my work, frowning as I was interrupted. There was only one main staircase in this place, which went through all four floors. I was at the bottom floor, and the main floor was two stories up. I could intercept them, though I'd have to be careful. Don't know what I'm dealing with as of yet.

I equipped my armor, the familiar boost in power accompanying the action. Taking the helmet off the table, I disabled the alarm and locked it into place around my head. Despite the urgency of the situation, I couldn't help but feel exasperated. This was probably the only place where I'll be relatively safe here, and as soon as I was rested, I was going to have to leave. So taking care of whatever these intruders are is just running down an already ticking clock.

Leaving the treasure room, I sealed up the door behind me and quickly made my way through the bastion. My guns probably won't be as effective here, since the staircase is at the end of a short hallway. Guns, while useful, do have limits in the fact that getting too close to an enemy with one could be disastrous. Especially if it's a wild beast, since it won't show the same level of caution as a sapient creature.

Voices began to echo throughout the hallway, and I quickly ducked into the nearest room.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Sis? I don't think a shitty old bastion like this is going to stop the fucking Ashen Rider."

"It'll be fine, you worry wart. Even if he found us, he'd have to cross the warped forest in front of the place. Cold as fuck in there, plus I heard there was going to be another storm. All we need to do is stay low, and find out what managed to get through."

That… that answered a lot of questions, and opened up thrice as many more. What the hell did they mean by get through? Did they mean me? And not only that, there was sapient life here. Going by that logic, then there was probably also some form of civilization here as well. A civilization composed of the damned. That's gotta be unstable as all fuck. Still, that does mean that I could probably try and talk these two down. But at the same time, there's a good chance that my work will be for naught.

I summoned one of my homemade stun grenades, a relatively simple thing to make, and held it in my hand. There was no way they'd understand what this thing is, so I should be able to hold it without them knowing what it actually was.

Stepping out of the room, I stopped a few feet in front of the two. Their appearances were… surprising. To the point where I almost stumbled as my eyes landed on them. Their bodies were shriveled up and emaciated, to the point where it was actually rather difficult to tell which one of them were female, and which one was male. Not only that, but there were bits of some strange metal pushed into their bodies. Almost as if it had been fused to them.

They still wore armor though, which looked to be made of the same material. The male wore light armor, a few plates here and there with the majority of it being some kind of leather. The female on the other hand… well it would make an MMO proud. Skimpy was too weak of a word. Slutty was the best way to put it, but when you add the raisin skin and bony looking body, it looks like something out of Nightmare on Elm Street.

The guy drew a sword from his sheath, holding it in front of him and shielding what was apparently his sister. The woman on the other hand, simply watched with a raised eyebrow. How to approach this? Jokes are good. That should push the idea that I'm not here to cause any harm. "is your vagina as shriveled up as the rest of you, or does it still work?"

Fuck.

The male blinked for a moment, before snorting in amusement. His companion was less amused, easing an eyebrow and frowning slightly. Alright then, looks like we're in business.

He relaxed his stance, not quite sheathing his sword, but no longer openly threatening me. A soft smile graced his features, and he introduced himself. "That's a question only my sister can answer I'm afraid. My name is Gilbert, and my sister over here is Mil. You mind giving us the same courtesy?"

Well, it's not like anyone here actually knows me. May as well. "Darius. My name is Darius Artifice. So, what brings you to my humble abode?"

Before Gilbert could answer, his sister stepped forward. There was a gleam in her eye that I didn't like. Greed possibly. "We were just looking for a very peculiar… something. A few hours ago, something managed to pierce the realm and enter it. Something alive. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

What she was insinuating was plain to see, and her brother looked back at me in confusion. "You sure this is the guy sis? He looks normal to me. Hell, he looks like he's doing just fine here. You'd think the mana from here would've fucked him up by now."

This interaction has already passed the point of a peaceful resolution. There's no way in hell I'm going to hand over the orb Ainzool gave me, and I doubt they'll take no for an answer. No, the best I can do is wring as much information from them as I could. "What he said. Now, I would appreciate it if you explained why you're here. I'd much rather not fight if I don't have to."

Mil rolled her eyes, cocking her hips as she smirked at me. "Oh? We just told you why. We are looking for you, or more specifically, the way you used to get here."

Not the answer I was looking for. "And you're also trying to avoid this Ashen Rider fellow. Can't forget about that, can you?"

Gilbert flinched, his grip on his sword tightening. Mil held her poker face however, a single twitch of the eye being the only reaction. "An eavesdropper now, are we? Well since you already know, yes. We managed to piss off a few of local lords, and they sent him after us. We were going to camp here for a while, maybe lose him in the Outer Caverns, but with you here, we may have a way out."

Bingo. There was a hierarchy here, probably one based on power. This Ashen Hunter is a bounty hunter, which means he's getting paid in some form or another. So that means, there is an economy. Or at the very least, a form of bartering system. Either that, or the Hunter guy is a slave. Though I doubt it. I'll be able to extract more once I study their corpses.

I raised my hands up, pretending to surrender. The stun grenade in my hand caught their attention, and I made sure to present it slightly. "Fine, you win. No way I'd be able to deal with you two on my own. This is what I used to get here. Just pull the pin, and keep your eyes on it. Otherwise, it won't drag you along. Now please, leave me be."

Despite their attitudes, they weren't masters at manipulation. They had easy tells, and gave away far too much information. They were arrogant, probably believing that their strength would eclipse a mere human's. They'd be right, in any other circumstance.

Tossing them the stun grenade, I quickly darkened the glass of my helmet. Mil, believing she had finally gotten what she wanted, immediately pulled the pin and stared directly into the grenade. Her brother wasn't much better, standing a foot away from her and keeping an eye on both it and me. The grenade went off, blinding them as they screamed.

Time to act fast.

I'd like to say that the world showed down as I began to formulate a proper plan for engagement, but I'd be lying. Truthfully, it took less than a second to figure out what I needed to do. It wasn't a very complicated plan either. All I needed to do was force them outside. Fighting in here would limit me, and risk the structural integrity of the bastion. Not only that, but the several traps I had laid out would also be a hazard. I hadn't planned for more than a few of them to go off, but if the fight escalates, I'd risk destroying half the bastion because of them.

We were on the outskirts of the bastion, the wall to our left being the only thing separating us from the outside. It would be exactly where I fought the piglins too, so I knew the battlefield well enough. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of ways to get there. Well, except for one.

Surging forward, I grasped Gilbert's face in my hand. My body twisted as I turned, tensing my arm and slamming him through the wall. He flew into the large field, rolling as his hands groped his face.

My absorption blade was summoned to my hand, and I spun on my heel. The sword swung through the air, whistling sharply as it hit Mil. Her flesh gave into blade, and I managed to bisect her diagonally. Right, now to get rid of the other one.

Sheathing the blade on my back, I leapt out of the hole I made. My armored boots met the netherrack floor with a heavy thud, and I rolled with the momentum. I was quick to get back to my feet though, just in time to catch Gilbert getting back to his feet and readying his blade.

"Ah! You fucking dick! This shit just got personal!"

Master and Pupil were in my hands immediately, standing off with Gilbert. I didn't have to wait long for him to attack, as he lunged forward with a surprising amount of speed. Not that it mattered, as a single flick of my arm forced our blades to clash.

He was strong, very strong. If this had been my normal base state, or even my normal Reinforced state, I wouldn't easily been overpowered. However, this armor's base state was comparable to my strength during the end of the tournament. As in, me while wearing my Mark I Quartermaster Armor, and combined with destruction enhanced magical reinforcement.

Very strong stuff.

I pushed forward, parrying the attack and slashing at his open form. My blade met far more resistance this time, and I was forced to pull it back before I could get too deep. Regardless, he was left with a long bloody cut across his chest.

We both jumped back from one another, tensing our legs. Sprinting forward, we once again met in a clash. Only this time, it held for a bit.

"What are you?! No normal human should be able to stand up against my attacks!"

Oh? Guess he's the talkative type. Not that I mind, since it's nice to be able to have a conversation while fighting. Makes it less awkward. "Well, I guess you can say I was built fucking different."

Twisting my arms, I forced his sword to the ground. From there, I quickly reversed my grip on Pupil and stabbed it into his stomach. He gargled, glaring at me as I forced the blade upwards.

Finally, after meeting a decent amount of resistance, I yanked my sword out and let him fall to the ground. Huh, that was pleasantly easy. Not that I'm complaining of course. If anything, I'd prefer it if the rest of my mission here was just as easy. Right, time to collect the corpse and-

Something hard hit the side of my helmet, sending me stumbling as I tried to find what it was that hit me. Not that it took me long, as I soon saw the weapon that hit me. It looked almost like a bee's stinger, only connected to the end of a long chain. Despite the whole "chain" part of it, the swayed and moved almost like a snake.

The chain snake thrust forward again, though this time I side stepped it. The stinger buried itself into the ground, and I couldn't help but frown confused by it. What the hell was it even-

A pair of feet slammed into my helmet, sending me tumbling backwards. Acting swiftly, my clawed gauntlet dug into the netherrack and I stabilized myself on all four. I growled openly, glaring forward as the attacker made herself known to me.

"You missed my core dumbass."

Mil stood before me, grinning cockily as her chain tail swayed behind her. Fucking what?! I cut her in half! You don't just "get better" from shit like that! How the hell was she alive right now?! And why?!

I paused, my eyes widening as her words registered in my brain. She said I missed her core. Considering what I've seen with the Reborn Ones, maybe this core was a sort of soul rock? If that was the case, then any sort of mortal wound would be nothing more than an annoyance for them. Meaning, I'd have to attack their core directly.

Fuck. Well, at least she was dumb enough to reveal that to me.

Vanishing my blades and reaching to my back, I grabbed my rifle and immediately shifted it to its automatic form. Mil had already given Gilbert a hand, helping him up as his wound began to visibly heal. I pulled the trigger, spraying them with bullets. They recoiled, but otherwise didn't seem that effected by it. The bullets bounced off of their bodies, only a few of them leaving scratches on their skin.

Gilbert rushed me again, holding his sword to his side as he readied a slash. I was quick to stow away my rifle, and deployed my right arm's parry daggers. His sword got caught on the daggers, and I twisted it out of his grip. My other hand reared back, and I thrust it towards his chest.

Only for the chain tail to wrap around it.

The chain tightened, and I was thrown across the cavern and into the wall. Fucking hell, that was a tumble. Groaning, I pulled myself off the wall and gave a quick Observe to my two opponents.

Mil

Race: Undead

Health: 36/40

Nether Energy: 37/50

Gilbert

Race: Undead

Health: 47/50

Nether Energy: 32/40

I'm not exactly sure how these two are undead when they're, you know, souls of the damned. Still, their physical stats are insane for what I assume are jobber level grunts within this place. The way I could have better stats would be if I Reinforced myself, possibly with magic. That being said, they likely aren't very skilled. Possibly picking up what they know from self-learning. They likely will rely on one another, and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to take advantage of that.

The chain rushed me once again, but this time I was prepared. Jumping to the side, I summoned Master and Pupil and threw them towards the two. While they focused on dodging the blades, I dashed forward and reached for my absorption blade. The sword was held tightly within my grip, and I thrust it into Gilbert's chest.

Mil saw what was going on, and sent the chain flying towards my head. I kicked Gilbert back and turned towards the chain. Rather than running from it, I stood my ground and tilted my head. The end of the tail chain missed its mark, and I gripped the chain with my hand. Wrapping the chain around my arm, I pulled her towards me watched as she was unable to stop herself from flying towards me.

I caught her by the throat, locking my grip around it and turning around to face Gilbert. He was still on the ground, trying to pull the sword out of his gut. His eyes landed on his sister, and widened once he realized that she was at my mercy. I reared my arm back, ready to pierce her chest with my hand, when her brother began to beg.

"Please, wait! Don't destroy her core! We've already died too many times too quickly, anymore and she might go feral! Please, don't do it!"

Oh? So they can reform if their cores are destroyed. However, it seems as if it takes away their humanity if they die too often too quickly. Interesting. I made a fist, slamming it into Mil's head and caving in her skull. There, that should keep her out for a while.

I walked over to where Gilbert was, grabbing my super shotgun and holding it against his head. He stared up at me, both fear and relief in his eyes, even as I pulled the trigger.

A large hole appeared in his skull, the shotgun strong enough to even wreck these guys. It wasn't anywhere close to the vaporization of the piglins, but it was still useful.

Speaking of useful, what the hell am I going to do with them? My immediate reaction was to simply tie them up and leave them here. But at the same time, something else tugged at me. These people… they had tried to kill me. and I was rather curious about their biology. Besides, I've never dissected a live specimen before. It's far more efficient to have them killed, since the surgery would kill them in the process. But considering the fact that mortal wounds were a suggestion to these two, I may as well see how they work when they're alive.

Who knows? I might get something useful out of it.

…

So at this point, he's been in The Nether for about 8 hours or so. He'll probably leave by the ten hour mark, since there's proof that people felt his entry into the realm. I say that cause I know I'm going to get one asshole complaining that he's taking too little time to get a move on. Oh yeah, venture out into hell without getting a lay of the land or using what little time you do have in order to make use of the materials you've gotten. Good idea.

Speaking of making use of resources, I realize that the majority of this chapter is him monologuing about materials and their uses. I try to do it subtly whenever I can, but it's really obvious in this one that I'm kind of just providing explanations for certain things. Oh sure, I could just be like "Diamonds are bullshit hard light and Ender pearls have space magic" and call it a day, but that wouldn't be all that detailed and there would be a lot of questions. One thing I prefer doing is explaining how specific things in the world work, so that way everyone has a semi decent understanding of the rules. This ain't no Harry Potter, where magic is never really explained and is mostly made irrelevant because the two spells that are used the most are the instant death one and the shield one.

Besides, Darius as a MC was basically tailor made for this world. I specifically built his character so that he would be curious about how the world works, and eager to experiment. That way, it would be in character for him to monologue about his discoveries and his fights. He's very much the type to plan things out, even in the heat of the moment. That's why a lot of his fights have a very heavy element of planning and tactical analysis. Just a fun fact.

Now onto our review of the chapter, the segment which is basically just filler but we like it anyway:

"Chapter 39: I'm not naming the chapter Highway to Hell

Chapter 40: Highway to Hell"

Come on now, you think too low of me. I would never stoop so low as to make the chapter a weaksauce reference to a really good song. Probably. Depends on future me.

This has been A Decent Hoonter, and holy shit we've reached the big 4 0. Woo.