John blinked. "So you are going to hell?"

Steve looked confused. "No? It's called the Nether."

He held up some fingers. "Is it a land of eternal fire?"

The miner nodded. "Yeah, water instantly despawns and stuff. And Netherrack tends to just… Burn forever when it catches. Plus, you know, the lava."

Uh huh. "Is it a land of endless torment?"

Steve hesitated. "I mean, uh… Are we talking about the ghost like Ghasts that always freak me out and do that screeching and screaming thing, or the Soul Sand?"

John blinked. "What is Soul Sand?"

The miner shrugged. "Not sure, but it tries to claw you in place when moving over it and I see all these screaming faces in it."

This was SO hell. "Why do you want to go to hell?"

The guy let the name thing go. "Aside from some construction materials like Nether Quartz and Glowstone and stuff, there is this REALLY valuable ore there that is super rare and nearly impossible to collect. I want you to scan it so we can make lots of it here where it is safe and no screaming ghost monsters are attempting to explode me and burn the remains."

…Alright, that was fair enough. "How valuable are we talking about?"

Steve shrugged. "I'd sacrifice this entire base just to get a stack or two of that stuff. Most wandering traders won't have it, nor will villagers or random chests that spawn in strongholds or Nether fortresses or bastion remnants… Hell, it is so rare most people didn't even know it EXISTED in the Nether until some idiot got lucky."

Huh. That DID sound interesting. "Mind if I come with?"

The man blinked. "Wait, what? Why!?"

John shrugged. "I have been scanning this place pretty far over the last few hours while looking through your stuff, and I will probably find more new things to look at in a different area. A short trip to hell sounds fascinating."

Though he wouldn't tell Jessica about it. This was probably the sort of thing she wouldn't approve of, most likely.

How WAS her decontamination rate?

Damn it, still stuck at 39.33%.

He focused back toward his new concerned friend. "Plus, I've already scanned lava source blocks earlier this week and it might be ANNOYING for my body to burn up but it's not exactly debilitating or anything."

Steve snorted. "Just because we can respawn doesn't mean that dying feels GOOD you know. Plus, unless you pay for some HEAVY mods of your body you are going to drop your whole inventory when you die and it is annoying beyond belief to be frantically running back to your death scene to attempt to pick it all back up before it despawns."

Hang on, WHAT!? "Bullshit." Right System? That was bullshit, right!?"

[[Local species is indeed unable to retain materialized equipment and collected Inventory during respawning process due to low level of their available equivalence of a Storage System. However: HOST is not restricted with similar consequences. Pocket will be unaffected by the recovery, regeneration, transfer, modification, or appropriation of new HOST Body.]]

Oh thank you, everything was good and right in the world again. "Yeah, not an issue for me. Not sure how you get things done in life either, with such a huge risk like that."

Steve shrugged. "Meh, at least I'm not like those machismo morons always searching for the next thrill. They came up with something called 'Hardcore Mode' and basically made a sort of pact with their friends… If they die for any reason, they abandon that instance forever entirely along with all the stuff mined and built there."

Wait. "What, they just leave ALL their stuff behind!?" ALL of it!?

He nodded. "Yep."

John couldn't even imagine it. "Those monsters."

That made Steve pause for some reason. "Anyway, if you are sure you will be alright… I would certainly love to not be stuck in that place by myself. Sometimes I can hear things moving inside the Netherrack and it just messes with my head."

Oh, right, because it is hell. "Great! When are we heading off?"

The man winced. "Well, I uh… First I have to rebuild my Nether Portal. After getting what I needed from there I sort of destroyed the gate… And the area around it, and replaced it all with solid obsidian and then set up an infinite water source on top and tried to bless the entire thing in Notch's name to cleanse it of said unholy taint."

The guy refused to look at John. "It won't take long. Although first I plan to use some of those diamonds you made and get some gear, enchant it with some Fire Protection IV, and make some spare tools and… Well, it shouldn't take TOO long."

Ooh! "Enchanting, huh? Can I come see?"

Now that the topic was no longer centered around hell Steve seemed MUCH less apprehensive and stricken by post traumatic stress disorder. "Sure! I got a great setup with enough bookcases to ensure the maximum possible enchanting levels for a world like this one. Come on, I'll show you the enchanting table and everything."

An enchanting table!? He had scanned something like that earlier but hadn't been exactly clear on how it operated or how it was used. The Essence for that thing was too odd. "Awesome! Let's go!"

Now to see how magic worked in this place! This was going to be awesome!

~~~Pocket System~~~

John blinked. "Wait, that's it?"

Steve paused, holding a glowing book. "I'm sorry?"

He waved at the setup. "You just use lapis lazuli as a catalyst and infuse unattributed Essence into an object? That's all that you need?"

The man glanced at the newly enchanted book and then back at the boy. "No? Maybe? I mean, sure you need lapis lazuli to get stuff going but I mostly have to spend Experience to actually get the spells to stick." He sighed. "Let me try to cover this again in a minute, maybe I'm not explaining this right."

Steve paused, then held up the book. "Slight side note, by the way, so I don't forget to mention this later: Enchanting a book like this might seem like a silly middle step in the whole process, but it makes the entire setup much more reliable. You can combine two 'Sharpness I' enchantments on an anvil to evolve it up to a 'Sharpness II' quality, for example. Or make a custom book with just the stuff you need for a badass sword and save it away somewhere. Plus, since you only need to spend your experience when initially enchanting stuff like a sword or a book, you aren't risking LOSING all that valuable XP due to an accidental death."

He tossed the book to the side. "So enchanting books when you've built up some Experience is just good standard practice, really. Like putting a torch down on your roof: Just do it."

John frowned. "But XP and Experience just seem to be collected unattributed Essence. That's what I am trying to tell you! From what I can Scan, it is why you gain it when mining certain materials or cooking stuff or killing something or whatever, because the excess energy clumps up after being freed from the source."

Steve paused. "Huh?" He considered the situation. "Oh. Well in that case, yes: Enchanting is only that. You just shove XP into something while it is being destabilized by the Enchanting table, the process is affected by the raw potential of the books on the nearby bookshelves, and all that power is guided by the lapis lazuli into the target to keep it all contained until the entire mess settles."

Dang. "I was hoping for something more… Magical. For the magic enchanting I mean."

The older man chuckled. "Well, at least it looks awesome?" He waved at the arcane symbols that drifted from the collected bookshelves toward the enchanting table. "I mean, that seems pretty magical? Right?"

He slumped. "Ambient Essence resonating with unstable points of confluence isn't magic, it's just physics. And boring." Maybe the next Realm would have something cooler. "Still, thanks for answering all my questions and stuff. Are we nearly ready to go?"

Steve winced at the mention of the upcoming trip to hell. "Yeah, I just need to enchant my boots and we can get ready. I've got a spot fairly far off where we can set up the portal, then we are off."

Huh? "Far off?"

A nod. "Thousands of blocks away. Under an ocean. Submerged in water. I just need a few hours to build an iron chamber, coat the outside with obsidian, and then drain the insides to establish a dry area to set up the portal." He paused. "Might build an underwater church of Notch on top of it. Just in case."

Oh. Well, alright then! "So we got a plan?"

Steve nodded as he moved to the nearby anvil and began merging the two glowing books together. "We got a plan."

Plans were awesome! Things were sure to go good when they followed the plan!

~~~Pocket System~~~

John felt the heat like a brick to the face. "Welp: Hell is hot. Go figure."

Steve was frantically building a cobblestone wall in all directions to make a shelter. "No ghost babies, no ghost babies, no ghost babies…"

Like, it was good his body wasn't made out of water like it used to be, because he would probably evaporate or explode or something around now. "Is that Soul Sand?"

It seemed to be weeping. Or screaming? Maybe moaning? "Yeah, that's probably Soul Sand."

Steve had already sealed up the room, plunging the place into darkness… And was now frantically putting torches EVERYWHERE. "NOPE! Let's keep the lights on, yes? Also: No ghost babies, thank you. Notch damned Ghasts didn't get me THIS time! YOU HEAR THAT YOU SCREAMING BABIES!? CAN'T EXPLODE ME NOW, CAN YA!?"

John winced at the volume. "Uh… Steve? You doing alright?"

Wide eyes turned towards the boy. "HUH!? OH. Oh. Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Plus, this place is now made out of cobblestone so a Ghast's fireball wouldn't blow it up anyway, so we are fine. This is fine."

He breathed heavily as John watched him… Then slumped to sit on a cobblestone block. "I'm just going to try and calm down a bit. Thankfully we only need to build a cobblestone tunnel to the nearest Netherrack wall and start digging into it… We won't be exposed to the lava caverns or whatever."

John blinked. "Uh… Good?"

Steve gave a nod. "Yeah, in the walls we only have to worry about lava, since it flows as fast as water in this place instead of nice and slow like normal. Or stumbling on a cavern or cave or tunnel. Plus, I'm still a bit worried about whatever the hell was moving inside the walls that one time… Sometimes you find mobs in an instance like this that seem straight out of the mod labs or a nightmare, so being a bit cautious is good." He shivered.

Alright then. "So I should just set up a cobblestone path then?"

A flicker of thought Scanned the outside… Then a thrust of intent [[Scanned]] a tube of fire, lava pockets and pools, Netherrack, Soul Sand, Nether Quartz, and so forth directly into drops and then into his Pocket.

The sudden absence of material was replaced by a tube of cobblestone with a three by three space to walk around in even as he began placing Torches along the walls. It was a bit tricky extending his reach like this using the adjusted method of 'placing' that the System scanned from his new body, if for no other reason than him having to keep track of his orientation with each item placed.

Steve flinched at the sudden odd sound, but failed to notice the change in the room. "Notch above this place freaks me out… Yeah, we can start making a path or something in a bit, just let me calm down a bit first. We'll be safe here."

Oh.

John glanced at the long tube, not entirely sure how far he had smashed it into existence, but… Well it would still be there after a small break. "Alright then." Plus there was lots of stuff to passively scan here now anyway.

He tried to relax next to Steve despite the man's strained form.

Although he was starting to feel a bit peckish, honestly. "Hey, do you still have any of that pumpkin pie from earlier?"

Steve shook his head, still holding it in his hands. "I rarely bring ANYTHING here because it is so easy to lose it all. Just some tools and fire resistant armor like this, when I can afford it. Plus I tend to stick to pork chops or steak, cooked meat handles this place better than milk or cake or pie or whatever." He held out a… Frankly, a DELICIOUS smelling pork chop. Hot damn. "Here you go."

John accepted the amazing smelling food and… It was beyond restaurant quality. The Essence of pork chop was too refined and pure, it COULDN'T be burned or over cooked or spoiled or… All it knew how to DO was be the most perfectly cooked pork chop he had ever seen!

He glanced at his Pocket and the massive amount of collected pork chops within with FAR more interest and satisfaction than before.

Establishing a never ending source of Minecraft food for future adventures was now a NECESSITY. Period.

The cobblestone generators should ensure there was Essence to work with, the Scans of Experience Orbs made it easy enough to convert that stuff more efficiently into unattributed power for future matter transmutations, he just needed to verify he got samples of everything before he left.

System, a list?

[[Local materials marked as consumable include the following: apple, carrot, potato, melon, bread, cake, cookies, golden apple, golden carrot, baked potato, pumpkin pie, mushroom stew, rabbit stew, steak, cooked porkchop, cooked mutton, cooked chicken, cooked rabbit, cooked fish, milk in a bucket and water in a bucket.]]

Wait, cooked fish? Is there only one type of fish here?

[[Scans indicate only Cod, Salmon, Puffer Fish, and varieties of Tropical Fish exist within the overworld location. Living versions of said fish can be conveyed via bucket of water. Cod and Salmon can be cooked and consumed, Puffer Fish is Essentially Poisonous, Tropical Fish can not be cooked, only consumed raw.]]

That… Huh. Strange. Anyway, remind me to Scan anything we are missing from the list before I move on from this place.

[[Confirmed.]]

John didn't even notice when the last of the pork chop was consumed and a new one was crafted from the Scan made earlier for him to nom on. So. Damned. Good! "Oh, I made a tunnel by the way." Seriously, this thing doesn't even need sauce! Awesome.