"What shall we do with him, oink?" a Piglin brute asked. Another one pondered for a moment.

"Let's take him to the king, oink! He shall know what to do, oink!"

"Jesus christ! I can hear you, you know!" John yelled from inside the room.

As John tried to find his way back, he found a bastion, and was quickly trapped in a room by guards in an obsidian cage. Unfortunately, even if he mined his way out, they had several more obsidian blocks they could repair the cage with. And while he had a cool counter, it would be useless if he was grabbed and piled on by an entire army of Piglins.

I do like how these guys can talk though. I get to find out more lore this way.

"Quiet intruder, oink! We will find a way to deal with you on our own, oink!"

"Yeah yeah yeah. Can you hurry it up though? I got like 20 things to do," John grumbled, looking at his shield.

"QUIET, OINK!" the Piglin screamed, hitting a gold axe against the side of the prison. John heard a loud breaking noise and sighed.

"Aw, oink. It was my favorite axe, oink," the Piglin said with sadness in his voice.

"Well, that's what you get for not having a mending enchant!"

"What's a mending enchant, oink?" the Piglin asked. John was about to open his mouth, but an idea came to mind.

Wait, this is the nether. This means there is only gold, but you can't use a golden pickaxe on gold, meaning… hahahaha, this could be a great business opportunity.

"Nevermind. I'll tell it to your king," John said, looking at the pickaxe in his hand.

"Is this the intruder who dares come to our lands, oink?" the Piglin that John assumed was the king, was sitting atop a large golden throne, with a few pieces missing and replaced by blackstone.

"Greetings, your majesty," John exclaimed, waving his hand from the cage. He looked around and saw that the whole royal palace was in pretty poor condition. Battered and broken, walls cracked. However, to his surprise, he saw several activated beacons next to the throne.

Oooh. If I play my cards right, I can totally get some goodies out of this.

"Human, oink. What are you doing in our lands, oink? Depending on your answer, you may not be able to leave alive, oink," the king said, glaring at John.

"See, I am cursed with this thing called 'no sense of direction'. I could get lost in a 10 block room to be honest," he replied, shugging.

"Do you think this is a joke, oink! Do you have any idea what kind of situation you are in, oink?!" the king yelled, standing up from his throne. His advisor tried to calm him down, but to no avail.

"Nope, I have no idea," John replied honestly.

"You dare come on here with such a nonchalant attitude after what your race has done, oink?! Every time you come here, we get nothing but destruction and tragedy in return, oink!"

"Ah, I see. So it's a race war thing right? I'm not from these lands, or even this world, so I wouldn't know," John replied, quickly trying to explain his situation. The king looked in confusion, and then at the shield on John's arm.

"Then who are you, oink?" he asked, tapping his chin and walking closer.

"I'm just a random guy from another world. I think they called me a hero when I was summoned with a shield? I dunno. I wasn't really paying attention to the explanation," John replied, raising hsi shield and transforming it to a few other forms, before returning it to the Nether Star shield.

"So you really are the shield hero, oink. Why have you come to our lands, hero, oink?"

Honestly, I just got lost.

"I have come to make a trade offering," John said, raising the pickaxe. The king laughed, before putting on a stoic expression onto his face.

"A diamond pickaxe? That would last us a thousand, maybe even 3 thousand with an enchant. But of what use would it be to us after, oink?"

"Ah, so you really do not know of the mending enchant," John smiled. "If maintained properly, this pickaxe could last you forever!"

The people in the throne room gasped, but the king kept his stoic expression.

"You must take us for fools then, oink."

"First I gotta make sure you know how it works. What happens when you guys kill a hoglin, or anything for that matter?"

"It drops some XP that can be used for enchants. However, in all our years of working, we have never once heard of this mending enchant, oink," the king answered.

"True, because it is not an enchant that can be obtained via enchanting table. However, the human race has long found out how to get this enchant and utilize it. When a tool has this enchantment, it absorbs the XP dropped by living creatures and repairs itself," John explained.

"You would have to show some proof of that statement, oink," the king said, looking at one of the people who brought him in. They awkwardly looked around and bowed to the king.

"We don't have a way to mine him out, oink," the Piglin said.

"It's fine, I got this," John replied, drilling through the cage with ease.

"What?! So fast!" piglins exclaimed.

Oh yeah, I did use the mastered effects of the pickaxe shields. I should be able to drill 25% faster, on top of having efficiency five on this pickaxe. So I can break obsidian in under 2 seconds now.

Several guards pointed their swords at him, but John didn't make a move.

"Shall I show you how this enchantment works?" he asked, looking at the king.

"Blee," a Hoglin let out one final scream before dying from an arrow. Exp dropped from its body and began to move towards the Piglin with the pickaxe.

"You better be right about this, oink," he said. The servant raised his pickaxe and watched as it absorbed the exp orbs with ease. To everyone's amazement, the small bits of cracks disappeared from the tool, as if they were never there to begin with.

"Well? Anyone else have any doubts left?" John asked, grabbing the tool back.

"You have indeed shown us something amazing. With such a tool we could potentially rebuild our castle, no, our entire civilization, oink!" the king exclaimed with happiness in his voice.

"Yeah yeah, that's all great and all. The question remains, what would you offer me in return for this?" John asked. He looked at the king and noticed that everyone was looking at him or the pickaxe in his hand. Stars, or gold in their eyes, it almost looked like they would devour him.

"Anything! Ask us whatever you require!" the king said, shaking John's hand violently.

Welp, time to get some cash!

"I want beacons and some ores if possible," John tried to say, still being violently shaken by the king.

"Get the man some beacons, oink!" the king ordered with glee. "Is there anything else you need from us, oink? Just name it, oink!"

John paused for a second and sighed.

"Can I get a map?" he asked, but the king shook his head.

"We do not have water to grow sugar cane, oink. So no paper can be produced, oink. Any we get from the surface gets caught on fire and turns to ash, oink."

Makes sense. Well, I guess I'll need the next best thing.

"Can I get a guide then? Just to get to the nearest portal. I wasn't kidding about being lost," John grumbled.

"Of course, oink. We will get you as close to the nearest portal as we can, oink. And here are the beacons, oink!"

Three Piglins walked in, each carrying a single beacon block in their hands. They dropped it off in front of John and he smiled.

Oh, this is gonna be amazing.

John handed the king the enchanted pickaxe and grabbed the 3 beacons, shoving them into his inventory as fast as he could. One of them was sacrificed to the shield and he smiled as a new icon popped up.

"Well then, pleasure doing business with you," John said, shaking the king's hand.

"Likewise, oink. Let me get a guide for you before you go, oink," the king replied, walking back to the bastion.

"We are almost there, oink," a Piglin brute said, gesturing to John to follow him. As John was led to the portal, he decided to check the new shield he got.

I have been waiting for this. Since the star gave 600 defense, this one should do the same. Maybe even more? It also contains 3 obsidian so it should be pretty good.

[Beacon Shield]

Abilities Unmastered: [Terrain Reform]

Special Effect: [Ally Empowerment 1], [Unbreakable Shield]

[O]

Defense: 12

….

BRU WTF?! THE STATS OF THIS SHIELD ARE SP SH*T! IF I KNEW THEY WOULD BE BAD I'D ASK FOR NETHERITE OR SOMETHING!

He punched a nearby block out of frustration, breaking the netherrack.

"Are you alright, oink?"

"Sorry, I just remembered something extremely disappointing," John grumbled.

"Sorry to hear that, oink. The portal is right up ahead, oink," the brute said, pointing forward. John saw an unguarded portal a few dozen blocks away, only separated from him by a river of lava.

"Thanks. I'll go alone from here," John said, stepping into the lava.

Alright, cmon. There is no way that the shield made from a star and 3 blocks of obsidian is complete trash, right? I mean, it has 3 skills. At least one of them has to be good!

John walked through the portal and saw that he was back in the town teleported into the nether from.

"Hey," he said, waiving lazily to the guard on duty. The guy looked a bit surprised, even if he was barely awake. John looked around and saw that it was the middle of the night.

He stumbled out of town and leaned onto one of the trees.

"Let's see. I guess I'll try the special effects first. Ally Empowerment!"

A menu popped up in front of him.

Points available: 4

Strength: 0

Resistance: 0
Speed: 0

Jump Boost: 0

Haste: 0

Regeneration: 0

"Huh. Let's dump it all into strength I guess," John mumbled, pointing the shield to himself. "Ally Empowerment!"

[Target not found]

…

"Wow, what a great skill to use on my allies IF I HAD ANY! AND WHY CAN'T I BUFF MYSELF?! Alright, bust for now. Next skill. Unbreakable Shield!"

An icon popped up on his shield and his eyes widened as the defense raised from 12 to infinity.

"HOLY- SWEET!" he yelled, but then he heard a clang as an arrow shot him. The defense dropped back to 12 and a long cooldown appeared. Several monsters were actually walking up to him, but he summoned a barrier to keep them at bay and continued to look at the shield.

"Alright, it's a long cooldown. But that's op as hell! I can block any attack no matter the damage every 24 hours?! Alright, I take it back, this shield is great so far. Now let's see about this masterable skill. Terrain Reform!"

In front of him a mini map appeared, displaying everything around him.

"Ok… what is this?" he mumbled. A screen appeared that displayed several things. The things he could build, the cost, and his current… BP?

Build Points - points used to automatically build structures and skip the building process. Can be obtained via sacrificing materials.

"Alright, let's see how it works," he mumbled, looking at the options at the top of his screen.

[Move/Create/Place/Destroy/Combine]

He tried to press the place button, but the list was empty. Going into [create] however showed a super long list ranging from walls and houses, to tnt cannons and redstone doors. There were also some suspiciously specific things in there too, like a tower of cake and giant blocks.

Eyo, hol up?! I remember building most, if not all of these by hand in the game! Is everything I ever built in here?

Scrolling down the list he found the different automatic farms he made, and mob grinders.

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I DON'T HAVE TO SPEND EONS REBUILDING THIS SHIZ! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

He looked at what was available to him right now, but the only option was a simple fence. He had the wood for it, but not the points. An inventory section suddenly popped up next to the weapon icon with all the different materials he absorbed, including a stupid amount of slimeballs.

So this is what Motoyasu meant when he said he had a weapon inventory. I guess he already has a terrain skill then. I wonder what the offensive version of it is like.

John sacrificed all of the slimeballs to get build points and pressed on the wall option. A clicking noise erupted from the shield and 1 fence post popped up in the [Place] menu.

He pressed on the fence and then poked the location on the minimap just a few blocks away from himself, and watched in awe as a green glow appeared in front of him. When the glow faded, a wood fence stood before him.

OH MY GOD THIS SKILL IS LIT! If the waves are like raids, then I should get a bunch of cobblestone and other building blocks and just drop walls all around the village.

"Ho ho. This is gonna be fun!"

Motoyasu walked out of the portal and leaned against the obsidian frame. It didn't take long for them to find their way back, but it still felt like an exhausting grueling walk back.

"Heroes! What happened?! Are you alright?!" the knights on duty asked them.

"Yes, but the other knights…" Motoyasu started, but more knights piled into the portal.

"Check for survivors and gather their belongings to send to their families," a commander said, gesturing to the knights. "And get healers and potions for the heroes!"

While they were being healed, Ren and Itsuki looked at Motoyasu as he stared at the ground.

"Hey, don't worry man. We were just a bit underprepared this time," Itsuki said, putting his hand on Motoyasu's shoulder.

"A bit? A BIT?! How many innocent knights died because we were 'a bit' underprepared?!"

"Calm down," Ren tried to say, but Motoyasu glared at him.

"How can I calm down?! How many families did we just leave without a father or a son? How many Ren?!"

Ren didn't say anything, he simply looked away.

Itsuki tried to calm Motoyasu down. "Look, we did everything we could. We didn't know what we were getting into, but we still managed to get out alive."

Motoyasu shook his head. "That's not good enough. We have to be better prepared for the wave unless we want this to repeat. We need to do better."

Ren finally spoke up. "He's right. We need to learn from this experience and be better prepared next time."

The three heroes stood in silence, contemplating their next move. They knew they couldn't change what had already happened, but they could make sure it never happened again.

Motoyasu broke the silence. "We'll make sure to honor the memory of those who died today by being better prepared for the next battle."

Ren and Itsuki nodded in agreement. They had a lot of work to do, but they were determined to do better.