Chapter 40: The Stronghold
A relatively straightforward method of increasing our strength was crafting better equipment.
We delved deep into the innards of the earth in search for diamonds, since to our knowledge, the highest quality tools, weapons, and armor, could be crafted with them. Rana and I had stood lucky when we found one stored in a minecart, but this time around, that probably wasn't going to happen. We had to dig further down to uncover some in ore form.
Mining enough diamonds for two complete sets of armor, two swords, and two pickaxes, took roughly a little less than two moon cycles, since we had to search for multiple cave systems on the other side of the mountain. Honestly, during the few moments where we would forget what had forced us to embark on this quest, we were actually having fun exploring these caverns, and feeling the suspense of not knowing what awaited us around the next corner.
In the meantime, enderman activity remained high, although the farther away from the mountain we went, the more it waned. Odds were that there was something about that area in particular that was attracting all the otherworldly phenomena.
Anyhow, I felt confident with our upgraded gear, but Alex didn't seem to share the same sentiment, suggesting we should apply some enchantments for additional safety and potency. It was a good idea, but…
"How are we going to go about this? The only enchanting table we have is ridiculously far away."
"Look, we have two options. We either go back to the mansion, or we assemble a new enchanting station. The biggest problem with the latter is that…it'll take ages! Harvesting all the sugar canes, getting leather, finding obsidian; it's tough work," she pointed out.
Even though I wasn't too on-board with the idea of going back to the mansion, it was definitely the best option from a rational standpoint. We could even drop off Sunbeam there, so she could at least be safe and with her friends.
As such, we set out on another trip. Upon arriving at the mansion around two days later, we reunited with our former…adversaries? Allies? Both? Whatever the case may have been, Matilda and Vincent seemed to be handling their positions well enough. Nobody was fighting one another, and the remaining allays were safe, to our delight and relief.
Dropping Sunbeam off, Alex and I marched over to the hidden enchanting room, and imbued our armor with the best enchantments we could get. 'Protection' for cover against any hazard; 'Unbreaking' for durability and longevity; 'Feather Falling' to mitigate a fall.
We enchanted some of our new tools and weapons, too, but because we had prioritized our armor, and because our levels were getting lower and lower, we had to settle for cheaper and weaker options.
Alex still had her special bow, which was enchanted with 'Infinity', giving her access to infinite arrows, 'Power' for increased damage, 'Punch' for knockback, and lastly, 'Unbreaking'. Saying she was covered on the offensive front would be an understatement.
I graced my new sword with 'Sharpness' for added damage, and my shield with 'Unbreaking', just so it would last against strong attacks. Lastly, we applied 'Efficiency' on our pickaxes for added mining speed.
There was one last thing we decided to take with us. With the use of sand, and creeper gunpowder, we had the luxury of crafting a handful of TNT blocks. Since our supply was limited, we would have to use them sparingly, but the fact that we had them at all, was more of a bonus than anything.
To summarize, although it may have taken a while, we had become completely overpowered, at least when compared to the threats the Overworld presented.
Because all those consecutive level losses left us feeling drained, we stayed in the mansion for the night to rest and work out the next step. We were lying in bed, and I was staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought.
It was clear that the next goal was getting to the Nether. I wasn't certain how we should tackle that, but Alex informed me that she, along with the illagers, had built a portal on mansion grounds in order to have easy access to the dimension's resources and high traveling speed.
That last point perplexed me, until I was reminded that the Nether had space-bending attributes, in which the distance a single block covered in the Nether, translated into a distance of eight blocks in the Overworld.
As a side note, I asked her if building a portal so close to her base was safe, to which she shrugged, adding that man-made portals appeared to be more stable than the ones that occurred naturally. It was reassuring to know that.
Back on topic, the last time I had been in the Nether with someone else, we fared well enough, in spite of our suboptimal equipment. That's why I was even more confident this time around. Alex seemed to share that outlook.
When the next day came, she led me to a seemingly inconspicuous wall on the first floor and busted it down, revealing a hidden cobblestone room. It had no windows or torches, meaning that the only source of light was the gaping portal itself.
At this point, with how absurd this mansion was, the existence of a hidden room of this nature did not come as a surprise. If anything, I was just amazed I hadn't stumbled upon it sooner.
We passed through the portal, and made the harrowing trip to the hellish realm. After being starkly reminded of the Nether's excruciating heat, I took a moment to evaluate our surroundings. We were standing in the middle of a large square room that was made of cobblestone, Nether brick, and Nether quartz.
Judging from the fact that each wall had an iron door that led outside, I was led to believe that this was meant to be a hub of sorts. Alex naturally led the way, since she was the only one of the two of us who knew where we were supposed to go.
Stepping through one of the doors, I noticed that this hub area was built on top of a hill. A valley of soul sand stretched as far as the maroon fog let us see, meaning this trek would probably take a while.
Along the way, we stumbled upon a moderately sized shelter made of stone. Once we caught our breaths, we found the Nether fortress after some more walking, looming in the distance. It was closer to the portal than the one I had infiltrated with Rana.
We climbed to the top, braved the incoming attacks of the wither skeletons and the blazes, and soon enough, claimed our prize, the blaze rod.
"Alright, is there anything else we need?" I asked. Alex looked at me strangely.
"Uh, at least eleven more blaze rods."
It then became my turn to look at her in bewilderment.
"Why…?"
"...To activate the portal? We need twelve eyes of Ender to do that; that's what my mentor wrote."
"Seriously? The villagers technically never quantified anything, but they made it sound like we only needed one."
"Is that so? Well, I say we get as many blaze rods as we can, just to be safe. I doubt either of us would enjoy the prospect of coming here again."
"Fair enough."
We stood guard around the monster spawner that produced blazes, and were on the lookout for the next batch of them. When the blazes would eventually spawn, we'd take them out before they knew what hit them.
It was a safe and efficient method, but simultaneously a bit dull. To keep myself occupied, I decided to take a closer look at the monster spawner itself. It was certainly a bizarre block, which I had very few prior interactions with.
The first time I found one was under less than optimal conditions, so I couldn't get a good look at it. Now, I noticed one peculiar detail in its cagey design. At least one of the vertical sides had a square symbol engraved on its center. On either side of the square, were two smaller squares.
Upon further inspection, the central square almost looked like a skull. Two faint red dots were on the spots where its eye sockets would have been. This pattern… It almost reminded me of the Wither!
"So…I never really asked you, but how did you and Rana do when you visited the Nether?"
Feeling especially thankful for the reminder to get my head out of the clouds, I gave Alex a brief description of our efforts.
"You used water? But, that evaporates here…"
"We learned that the hard way. That's why we had to resort to throwing water bottles."
"And it worked!?"
"Sure did."
"Huh…that's really clever. Good thinking!"
"Thank you, but it was a team effort."
…
Having managed to collect twenty four blaze rods, we figured it was about time we called this mission a success.
…
…
When the Council first gave Rana and I a detailed explanation of the prophecy, they described the eye of Ender as a relic that could function as both a compass and as a key for finding the stronghold.
As I set off on my journey with Alex in search of the aforementioned structure, I learned that the 'compass' part of the description was used a little generously. At first, I had been expecting the pupil to swivel in place like a needle, which would point us to the direction of the stronghold.
That's not how it worked in the slightest. In reality, we had to throw an eye into the air, where it would hover in place, before floating off into a specific direction for a short while, after which it would unceremoniously drop to the ground. Sometimes, one would even shatter completely! Good thing we had crafted well over sixteen of them. With all the Ender pearls we had harvested, it would have been a waste not to.
In any case, this part of our journey felt somewhat gloomy, as opposed to the previous ones. Before, our minds were too immersed in the joy of exploration and spelunking, of fighting and becoming stronger.
Now, however, there was very little of that. The eyes of Ender were leading us northeast of the mansion, off into the unknown. We had to traverse through land, sea, and then land again without any semblance of a clue as to where our destination actually was, or how close to it we were.
It was that uncertainty that was bogging my mind down the most. Even once we would reach the stronghold, I didn't even know what sort of surprises were waiting for us. The portal that would supposedly transport us to our former home - or rather, what remained of it, wasn't guaranteed to work as far as I was concerned.
Even if it would, the End was a looming mystery in of itself. Our survival - let alone our success, was uncertain. All these thoughts combined sapped away my mental reserves. At least Sunbeam was still in the mansion with her friends, safe and sound… We had shared our goodbyes, which I could only hope were going to be temporary.
I could tell that Alex was in a similar enough mental state. We hardly spoke to each other, for we had no reason to. We'd mostly communicate through eye contact, or body language, which is how I could tell we were having similar thoughts.
That isn't to say we didn't try our best to ensure the other was doing well. In fact, we provided comfort to one another through various means, such as looks of encouragement, or holding hands.
One night, in a cramped sanctuary we had built, we made eye contact. We couldn't stop staring at each other. Then, one thing led to the other and we had sex again. It felt different than usual, though. Previously, we would do it because we wanted to, with love as our motivator. This time, however, there was an underlying feeling of desperation, which was fueled by fear. It was almost tangible.
It was evident in the way we clung onto each other, gripped each other, dug our nails into the other's skin. There really was nothing else we could do, other than give the other a shoulder to lean on. Regardless, our morale was boosted afterwards, even if it was only for a short while.
Point is, none of those methods revolved around talking, so we rarely did. The first time we exchanged a word was when one of the eyes dug into the terrain, instead of floating upwards, which presumably meant we had arrived above our destination.
This was the sixth day of travel, and we were treading through a savannah biome, which was littered with tall, golden grass, and exotic acacia trees. Had the circumstances been any different, I might have sat there to admire the view. Now, it was time to get digging.
Cautiously, we dug away the dirt, and subsequently the stone that was beneath us. After a fairly lengthy time frame, during which we were descending deeper and deeper under the surface, our pickaxes collided against a man-made block; stone bricks.
We broke through what turned out to be the ceiling of a hallway. We carefully dropped down, and let our torches illuminate our surroundings. This hallway was made entirely out of stone bricks in various conditions.
Certain parts on the floor and the walls had cracks running across them, while moss was growing on others, a true testament to the stronghold's age. The hallway itself was dingy, and what sort of rooms it connected was anyone's guess. We picked a random direction, hoping we'd find what we were looking for.
After fighting a few stray monsters along the way, I spoke up.
"You wouldn't happen to know what the End portal looks like, would you?" I quired. Reverb was very prevalent.
"No…I imagine we'll recognize it when we see it."
"Yeah…a portal can't be hard to miss now that I'm thinking about it."
We kept walking in relative silence, which was only restrained by our footsteps. I found the lack of zombie growls, skeleton clacks, and spider slurps peculiar. One would expect a place this dim would be overrun by hostile mobs. That said, there was a strange clicking noise coming from above, but it was so subtle, it could have easily been my imagination.
On another note, these halls were similar to those in the Nether fortress in terms of proportions, which led me to wonder if both were constructed by the same people. From what I had gathered, this stronghold was built - at least, to some extent, by the first generation of humans after the fall of the Sky dimension, but the Nether fortress was less clear on that end.
My theorizing was cut short, as the hallway took a left turn. An iron door was barricading the way forward. Right as Alex was about to push the button that would open the door, a scuttling insect crawled out of a crevice on the wall.
I didn't manage to get a very good look at it, but I did make out a few details, namely its small size, light gray color, and fuzzy texture. For some inexplicable reason, the insect's top priority after emerging, was to rush at us.
It crawled over to Alex, who stomped on it in alarm.
"What was that thing!?"
"I have no clue," I admitted.
We didn't dwell on it for much longer. We opened the door, and were met with what appeared to be a foyer, or a hub of sorts. In the center was a descending staircase that had a torch brightening it. Past it, was a sketchy ascending staircase. Similarly sketchy were the hallways on the sides of the room. My instinct led me to believe that down was the way to go, so that's where we went.
A skeleton stepped out of the shadows. We were both so engrossed while taking it out, we didn't hear the creeper that had snuck up behind us, until it was too late. The explosion probably rang throughout the entire site.
I was so happy that we had taken the time to enchant our armor, for we surely would have been dead otherwise. Instead, my health indicator had been depleted by just a third.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"So long as I don't go deaf, sure."
I looked behind us in order to see the condition the stairs were left in. That was when that clicking noise I had been hearing intensified exponentially. An entire swarm of those accursed insects wriggled rapidly toward us, from every direction, including the walls. Some were even dropping from the ceiling. The explosion must have disturbed their infestation, causing them to go after the closest suspect.
Ordinarily, with our armor, a single bite from these pests would be negligible. Considering how we had already been weakened by that creeper, and the sheer numbers we were dealing with, I couldn't deny the panic that was taking hold of me, as my entire body was getting nipped.
It was as if the entire forsaken colony had come after us. I tried to fend off the ones that were crawling on top of me, but for every hairy, nasty insect we'd toss away, two more seemed to take its place.
Alex roughly pulled me close, before pouring a water bucket between our feet, letting the current push most of the bugs back. We dispatched the ones that were still clinging on top of us, before massacring every last one that remained. The aftermath of that carnage left us feeling drained, beaten, and weary. Once we physically recovered by eating some of our supplies, we turned our attention to our mental state.
"How are…you?" Alex asked dejectedly.
"Terrible," was what I would have answered had I been honest. Even after all our preparations, a bunch of measly bugs would have killed us had things gone just a little differently. What chance did we have to take down a dragon?
But I couldn't say that. I needed to be strong. Alex needed me to be strong. If I were to wear down her already fragile morale, we could have just as well accepted our fates. That's why I instead responded with, "...I'm fine. You?"
"I've…had worse."
I appreciated her attempt at doing the same. We stayed locked in an embrace for a little longer, before resuming our exploration.
While on our way to the portal room, we came across a lone chest placed by a wall. We looked at each other in uncertainty, before I shrugged my shoulders and went to open it. What was the worst that could have happened? Have it explode on me? My luck with chests left behind by ancient civilizations had never been great, but simply opening one wasn't going to result in my death. Probably. Hopefully, anyway.
The contents of the chest led me to the conclusion that whoever had stored them, wasn't as sadistic as the one responsible for the desert temple and the dungeon. In other words, while they were lacking in quantity, these items absolutely made up for that in quality. I held up the two Ender pearls for Aex to see.
"Oh, those are gonna come in handy. Though, I hope we won't have to use them…"
"Better safe than sorry."
During our travels, we discovered that Ender pearls were useful in and of themselves, even without crafting them into eyes of Ender. If one throws an Ender pearl, the holder will teleport to wherever the pearl lands. That can make a massive difference in a life-or-death scenario…which made me berate myself for not thinking to use one of our spares when the insects surmounted us.
'At least now I know…'
We each took one, and pushed forward.
We had made it to the portal room at last. We passed through the gateway and my eyes landed on a monster spawner that was sitting on the top of a short staircase. With a puff of smoke, three of those insects popped into existence. Alex took care of them, while I destroyed the spawner.
Interestingly enough, even with a diamond pickaxe, I couldn't actually harvest the spawner. Instead of yielding itself like any other block, it merely left some experience orbs behind. I didn't really care, though; I was merely pleased it was gone.
We looked around the room for the first time. A row of iron bars lined up the middle of the walls. Had this complex been built above ground, those bars would have served as windows to the outside.
The staircase supported a platform, on top of which rested the portal to the End. Unlike a Nether portal - which stood upright, this one was horizontal, parallel to the floor. It was made up of twelve identical blocks which I had never seen before (to my knowledge). The recipe book contained nothing similar to them, and I couldn't say for certain if it was the early humans who had built this, or us.
They bore a resemblance to End stone, except they each had a small green indent on the top side. One of the twelve indents had an eye of Ender inserted within, which cleared up what we were supposed to do.
With a nod of assurance, we climbed the staircase. I nearly had a heart attack once I looked through the frame. The entire portal was being suspended over a pit of lava!
'Whoever thought this was a wise idea was a complete…I'd rather not finish that thought.'
With bated breaths, we inserted the last eyes of Ender, and the portal activated with a roar. A membrane formed inside the frame, only instead of having a pattern like the swirls of the Nether portal, it was more like a window to…space? The starry sky? It was tough to discern which of the two it was.
I took a deep breath.
"This is it. Are you ready?"
"...As I'll ever be."
"Whatever we come up against, we'll face together, right?"
"That's right. We can do this!"
Our hands interlocked, we took a leap of faith.
