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OP: AMP Ch. 32
🕑 Added 2025-08-19 01:07:54 +0000 UTCOnce Marcus confirmed his earlier suspicion, he chatted with Merry for a few more minutes about various things before the butler excused him
Once Marcus confirmed his earlier suspicion, he chatted with Merry for a few more minutes about various things before the butler excused himself to attend to his duties.
As expected, Merry was going to prepare the ship, though clearly it must have been a vessel that was already built long ago. Marcus had heard rumors that Kaya's family had commissioned a ship years before her parents passed away.
Should he go modify it right now? Make some improvements with his abilities?
But after thinking about it, he decided against the idea. They hadn't even been offered the ship yet, why was he in such a hurry? It would make him look like he was desperately trying to repay a favor or something.
Just then, Kaya walked over, leading an iron golem behind her.
The green moss and vines that had once clung to it were completely gone after a thorough cleaning, and the spots that had looked rusty had been polished until they gleamed. The golem now looked spotless.
"Doesn't it look much better like this?" she asked, examining the golem from top to bottom.
Then, as if struck by sudden inspiration, she ran back into the house.
Before long, she had gathered all the women in the household and disappeared inside. The men looked at each other in confusion, wondering what was going on.
A while later, Kaya emerged carrying clothes and pants that had been hastily sewn together from black fabric. The iron golem seemed more than happy to be dressed up, standing perfectly still and serving as a cooperative mannequin.
A few minutes later, the golem emerged wearing what looked like a black suit.
And honestly, it really did look like a professional bodyguard now, the kind you'd see standing outside fancy establishments.
Well, if you ignored the blocky iron head.
"So cool!" Luffy blurted out, his eyes sparkling.
Usopp was equally impressed, nodding enthusiastically.
Marcus, on the other hand, actually preferred the golem's original appearance.
In response to all the praise, the iron golem gifted everyone a poppy flower. Being complimented even made it bashfully scratch its head with one straight, iron hand, looking unexpectedly adorable
What was strange, though, was that despite weighing over thirty tons, the iron golem could walk across the ground without causing any tremors, and the earth didn't sink or crack under its weight.
But its actual mass really was about what Marcus had calculated.
He wasn't sure if this was some special property of the golem itself, or just how physics worked in the One Piece world.
If it was a special property, then he wouldn't have to worry about it sinking their ship. He could just have the golem guard their vessel in the future.
While they were all having fun examining the dressed-up golem, Luffy sidled up to Marcus.
"I want one too! I want it to join my crew!"
Marcus sighed helplessly. "Zoro can't even lift this thing, and you think our ship won't sink to the bottom of the ocean if we bring it aboard?"
Luffy froze for a moment, then his face fell into a disappointed frown. The ship really was one of their biggest current problems.
"Can you make it lighter?"
"Sorry, but that's not how it works."
Luffy scowled, clearly unhappy but trying to be mature about the situation. His feelings were written plainly across his face.
"Tell you what. If we get a bigger ship in the future that can handle the weight, I'll build one just for you. This one can stay here and protect Kaya."
"Really?!" Luffy's mood immediately brightened.
"Really."
"Alright!"
With that settled, Marcus turned his attention to other matters. He was considering whether he should do some more mining, not for iron or gold this time.
He wanted to dig further down, maybe find lapis lazuli or even diamonds if he was lucky.
Honestly, wearing a full set of iron armor didn't make him feel completely secure. In the relatively peaceful East Blue, he could get by just fine, but once they entered the Grand Line, there was no guarantee his iron equipment wouldn't become useless junk against the kind of opponents they'd face there.
Looking down at the ground beneath his feet, he had another idea.
"Maybe I should dig out a proper basement too? As a shelter?"
He brought up the suggestion to Kaya, who immediately agreed to the plan. After all, if real danger ever came to the village, having an underground refuge could save lives.
Marcus made his way to the first-floor storage room, a location they'd chosen specifically because if danger really did arrive, there would be no time to run outside to a separate shelter.
Then he did what any self-respecting Minecraft player would do, he started digging straight down from where he stood again.
Now that he had a water bucket in his inventory, he felt much more confident about deep mining. Even if he encountered an underground lava pool or a massive cavern, he could ensure his own safety.
In what felt like no time at all, he had dug down nearly a thousand blocks.
The only reason he stopped going deeper was because his inventory was completely full, and his feet were surrounded by coal blocks. He didn't have enough regular blocks left to build his way back up to the surface.
It was starting to give him a headache.
"Why is it all coal down here?"
From around six hundred blocks down to nearly a thousand, it had been nothing but coal deposits. Above that depth, the vast majority had been stone with only small amounts of iron ore scattered throughout.
"Guess this is where I stop for now?"
Ultimately, it was his inventory's storage limitations that determined how deep he could mine in a single expedition.
"Man, I wish my inventory could stack up to a thousand of each item... wait a second. Could it be that all my future mod unlocks are going to be quality-of-life improvements like this?"
His expression turned thoughtful. The first mod he'd unlocked was Vein Mining, which let him harvest entire ore deposits at once. The second had been a minimap that showed his location and surroundings. If the third turned out to be an auto-sort function for his inventory, he honestly wouldn't be surprised.
After all, when he'd played Minecraft back in his old world, those were exactly the kinds of mods he'd relied on most heavily, especially auto-sort and increased stack sizes.
Those two had been essential parts of his standard mod loadout.
But now that he was actually living in this world rather than just playing a game, the idea felt somewhat strange to him. Especially the auto-sort function, which seemed almost too convenient.
As for stacking items up to a thousand instead of the usual sixty-four, that would definitely be useful. If he unlocked something like that, he wouldn't complain.
"Still, I'm hoping for something different, preferably something like a Transmutation Tablet."
Talking to himself, he decided it was time to head back up. If he kept going deeper, he might not be able to make it back to the surface before running out of building materials.
When he reached a point about five meters below Kaya's house, he began excavating a proper basement. He quickly carved out a 20×20×3 meter space, creating a big underground room that could serve as both storage and emergency shelter.
He dumped all the coal he'd collected into one corner of the space. In Minecraft, dropped items would eventually despawn to prevent lag, but in the real world, they just stayed where you put them, piling up in neat stacks rather than floating in midair.
Should he bring some back to the ship? Nah, there was no need. They already had several large chests full of coal blocks aboard their vessel, more than enough fuel to last them forever.
Then he placed a furnace nearby. Others could use it as well. But they wouldn't be able to open the furnace's GUI, they could still put coal in the bottom slot and whatever they wanted to smelt on top. The fuel didn't have to be coal either, ordinary firewood would work too, though it burned about as long as wooden sticks and didn't last nearly as long as coal blocks.
After finishing the basement setup, Marcus climbed back up to the surface, installing a trapdoor to conceal the entrance. As soon as he emerged into the storage room, he found Alvida waiting for him.
When she saw him, her eyes lit up.
He waved her off before she could ask. "It's all coal down there, no gold deposits at all."
"I see..." Alvida's expression fell slightly.
"But that's actually normal when you think about it," Marcus explained. "Orange Town and the surrounding area have sparse vegetation, which suggests the geology isn't well-suited for plant growth. Naturally, that means less organic material underground to form coal deposits. Look at Syrup Village, though, lush vegetation everywhere, and the locals make their living through rice farming. The soil composition is completely different."
He had already suspected this might be the case when he'd dug a thousand blocks and found nothing but coal deposits.
In the game, ore distribution was uniform and predictable. In the real world, geology was much more complex and varied.
If certain types of terrain were rich in specific minerals, then other areas would naturally be lacking in those same resources. Otherwise, some countries wouldn't be dependent on selling iron ore just to maintain their economic partnerships with larger nations.
Still, if you dug deep enough in any location, you'd eventually find different types of ore. The problem was that his inventory definitely wouldn't be able to hold everything he'd find on such an expedition.
And if too many item drops accumulated in one place, he'd have nowhere to stand while mining.
"Still, getting three or four stacks of iron ore isn't a total loss," he said with a shrug.
Alvida nodded, then changed the subject. "Merry says he has a surprise for us. Luffy and the others want to wait until you're there."
"Alright, let's go take a look."
