Malphegor
patreon
LOTR: TMCP Ch. 38
🕑 Added 2025-07-12 01:23:45 +0000 UTCNether warts were essential for potion brewing, while blazes provided both consumable materials and components for brewing stand.
Clang!
A sword struck a blaze, but the sound it made was that of metal clashing against metal.
No one truly understood what material these creatures were composed of, only that they were remarkably resilient.
Boom boom boom...
Several blazes launched blazing projectiles, surrounding and attacking him. But they proved ineffective. He simply raised his shield, and they couldn't even penetrate his defenses.
[Achievement Unlocked: "Dancing with Fire"]
Blaze rod, acquired.
Creak.
A few skeletons circled around from behind, attempting a surprise attack. But they couldn't even get close. With precise distance control, he eliminated all of them in just three strikes.
His sweeping blade, terrifying indeed
He slashed again. Not only was the primary target severely wounded, but the added impact force shattered nearby skeletons as well. The performance here far exceeded anything from his previous experiences.
After harvesting materials from the blaze spawner for a while, there wasn't much left to gather. He decided to temporarily leave the fortress, collecting some soul sand and glowstone.
On the return journey, he also dispatched a magma cube and collected some magma cream, excellent for treating burns and fire damage.
He entered the portal.
---
"Whew..."
Back in Middle-earth, he exhaled with relief.
To be honest, the Nether was simply too hot. And the sulfurous stench in the air was unbearable. The fresh air of home was incomparably better.
Beneath his farm, he carved out a new chamber to plant nether wart.
[Achievement Unlocked: "Local Brewery"]
With blaze rods in hand, the first priority was crafting a brewing stand and creating potions.
Now the enchanting table, brewing stand, and Nether portal were all arranged together by him. He even constructed a hall around them, giving the area proper architectural structure.
It was beginning to resemble a genuine wizard's sanctum.
No need for explanations anymore, the proof was right there.
"Maybe I should just build a proper wizard tower," he mused, withdrawing a freshly brewed Potion of Swiftness, enhancing it with glowstone dust, then converting it into a splash potion with gunpowder.
Then he departed, straight to the stables.
Smash!
The potion bottle shattered. He quickly produced two golden carrots and fed them to his two swiftest horses.
Soon, an exceptionally fast foal was born.
He repeated the process twice more.
Finally, a supreme mount, the pinnacle of breeding, was born.
Speed: 20 m/s.
He constructed a separate stable exclusively for the finest horse. Then he returned to the brewing stand and created all the potions he could manage.
Strength, Swiftness, Night Vision, Water Breathing, Fire Resistance...
Unfortunately, the ghast tears from earlier had fallen into a lava pool, otherwise he could have brewed Potions of Regeneration as well.
He lifted the Potion of Fire Resistance from the stand and his thoughts drifted to Khazad-dûm.
You didn't see this coming, did you, Balrog? Your flame attacks no longer affect me!
Still, aside from its fire-based assaults, that creature's sheer physical power was formidable. Even without flames, just its charge would be sufficient to demolish entire structures. Not just the Balrog, even Smaug, Garrett still lacked complete confidence against him.
Insufficient.
Still insufficient.
He examined his elven steel armor.
He was still too weak.
Stronger, he needed to become significantly stronger!
He looked at the twelve diamonds in his inventory... then at the Nether portal.
The Nether... still contained bastion remnant. Those might contain netherite and random diamond equipment. Worth investigating.
He carefully reviewed the items in his inventory, preparing Potions of Fire Resistance, golden apples, lembas bread, and other healing and sustenance supplies, then stepped once again into the Nether.
"This way should be good."
The bastion remnant weren't easy to locate, especially when everything appeared realistic rather than stylized.
He selected a direction and resolutely set out to explore. Along the way, he battled skeletons, laid cobblestone paths, passed through eerie fungal forests, ate some grilled hoglins, and crossed lava lakes with the aid of his potions.
Finally, after several days of exploration, he couldn't determine whether it was day or night in this realm, he spotted a massive dark structure.
Pig-faced humanoid creatures wandered within. Some carried crossbows, others golden swords or axes, and several wore armor.
Unlike the zombified piglins he had encountered along the road, these piglins seemed more intelligent, their eyes gleamed with awareness and cunning.
He retrieved a pair of pre-prepared golden boots and donned them.
Then he cautiously approached the dark fortress.
[Achievement Unlocked: "Glorious Days"]
Several warriors holding crossbows passed by, glanced curiously at this unfamiliar visitor, sniffed the air, and eventually chose to ignore him.
He released a sigh of relief.
He retained some wariness of these creatures, the first time he'd encountered them, he'd had no idea what they were and been overwhelmed instantly.
Moreover, these beings struck hard, some carried axes that could bypass shields entirely. A single mistake could prove fatal.
So avoiding combat was preferable for now.
Still, while temporarily safe, he knew that if he wanted the fortress's treasures, he'd eventually need to confront them.
The moment he opened any chest within the bastion, all nearby piglins would instantly become hostile, so he required a method to neutralize them before they turned aggressive.
He produced cobblestone and began methodically building his way toward the bastion.
Golden armor wasn't a complete solution, it could deceive regular warriors, but the brutish guards didn't care about gold. They would attack regardless.
Along the way, he carefully avoided these savage enemies with their 50 health points.
If they possessed just slightly more HP, they could match trolls in combat. Still, no matter how powerful these brutes were, they were no match for the cunning of a tactical builder.
A piglin brute was patrolling its territory with a golden axe in hand. Just as it turned to head back from a dead end, it heard several faint clack clack sounds behind it.
Then it discovered that, in just the time it took to turn around, a solid stone wall had suddenly appeared, completely sealing the passage.
There was no escape.
The brute was utterly bewildered and could only grunt helplessly from behind the barrier.
Similar incidents occurred throughout the bastion. Not just brutes, even the regular piglins couldn't escape being walled off.
A moment of distraction, and they'd mysteriously find themselves trapped.
A few of the more intelligent piglins, witnessing this strange method, suddenly recalled a legend, the tales of the Ancient Builders. But regardless, it was already too late.
He effortlessly looted the bastion from top to bottom.
Fortune favored him, he discovered a pair of diamond pants, a diamond pickaxe, one netherite ingot, and a netherite upgrade.
Additionally, he uncovered dozens of gold blocks hidden throughout the structure, and from various chests collected golden carrots, crossbows, weeping obsidian, and all manner of other valuable loot. His inventory was so full he had to selectively choose only the most precious items.
The first bastion, a fruitful haul.
He used the weeping obsidian he'd gathered to craft a special item: a Respawn Anchor.
This object could only be placed in the Nether, and allowed its bound user to resurrect up to four times, but only in the Nether.
With this, he could now revive in the Nether without worrying about sudden death.
He placed the Respawn Anchor near the portal, charged it with glowstone, and without pausing, or returning home, chose to continue deeper into the Nether, following paths from the previous bastion.
One netherite ingot was far from sufficient.
And so he continued trekking through the Nether... for an entire month.
One day, he arrived at another bastion. He repeated his strategy, walling off all the piglins before opening the chests.
Inside one chest lay a single netherite scrap.
"Finally... I have them all."
He produced a crafting table and placed four gold ingots and four netherite scraps.
He forged his fourth netherite ingot.
