Mario poured the lava into the crucible of his hunter's weapon table, watching the molten rock bubble and hiss. He pulled out the materials he'd been collecting and got to work crafting two vampire-hunter exclusive weapons: a crossbow and a battle axe.
After that, he made a shitload of bolts. The only good news was that crossbow bolts didn't need feathers, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to make ammunition at all.
He picked up the newly crafted battle axe and gave it a few test swings. The weight felt good in his hands, though the base damage was pretty low. Still, it could deal an extra 10% damage to vampires and came with Knockback II, which would be useful for crowd control.
"First things first, let's build that Nether portal and see if I can actually get there. If it works, diamonds and obsidian will be a piece of cake."
The loot chests in Nether fortresses contained plenty of valuable items from the Overworld. More importantly, he could get blaze rods there. Once he crafted a brewing stand, he could finally start brewing potions.
He grabbed a bucket of water and some lava, then headed to the corner of his underground base. He sealed off the area completely with cobblestone, leaving only a narrow passage for access.
He placed water at the top of the portal frame, then pulled out an iron bucket filled with lava from his inventory. Using the game mechanic where lava source blocks turn into obsidian when they touch water, he spent some time constructing a 2×3 Nether portal frame.
Looking at the dark purple obsidian structure, he said a silent prayer.
"Notch, if you're listening, please let this fucking thing work."
He pulled out the flint and steel he'd crafted earlier, aimed it at the obsidian frame, and struck. With a sharp click, a flash of flame appeared and vanished. The once-empty frame now shimmered with a purple, swirling vortex.
Weird whispers and unsettling noises drifted from within, accompanied by floating purple particles that looked like digital snow. It felt like something invisible was leaking out of the portal.
He stared at the purple gateway, his face breaking into an excited grin.
"I'm about to get rich as hell! Diamonds, netherite, ender pearls... Here we go!"
Without hesitation, Mario stepped straight into the Nether portal. As he stood inside, everything around him took on a purple filter, and the whispers in his ears became clearer and more disturbing.
Then he felt reality twist and distort around him. A few seconds later, his vision changed. Through the purple haze, he found himself in a forest dominated by dark blue and cyan colors.
"A warped forest? Shit."
He immediately lowered his head. He had no choice, this biome spawned one of the most dangerous mobs in the game: Endermen.
Endermen had insane health and attack power, plus teleportation abilities. Once you pissed them off, they'd instantly appear behind you. With his current iron armor setup, he might as well have been wearing tissue paper.
He quickly pulled out cobblestone from his inventory and built a 3×3 shelter overhead. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and take a proper look at his surroundings.
The warped forest floor was mostly made of warped nylium, with occasional patches of netherrack and warped wart blocks scattered around. Strange vegetation like warped fungi, twisting vines, and nether sprouts grew everywhere, creating an alien landscape that hurt to look at.
Tall, dark figures moved through the trees like living shadows.
Mario's eyes instinctively tracked one of the moving shadows, and locked directly onto a pair of glowing purple eyes.
The Enderman, feeling provoked, immediately opened its mouth. Its body started trembling violently as it let out a piercing screech that echoed through the vast Nether, sending chills down Mario's spine.
"Fuck me sideways. How the hell am I supposed to deal with this? In the game, as long as you don't aim your crosshair at their head, they won't get mad. But in reality? Who doesn't instinctively look at a shadow moving past them?"
Another shriek rang out. He wanted to slap himself, he'd managed to provoke yet another Enderman just by glancing around.
No choice but to fight. He pulled an iron axe from his inventory, readying himself for the inevitable teleportation attack.
Bwoop!
The tall, long-legged Enderman suddenly vanished, leaving behind only a flurry of purple particles.
He immediately spun around, and sure enough, the Enderman had teleported right behind him, screeching.
He swung his iron axe hard into its torso. The Enderman's form briefly flashed red as it took damage and got knocked back, but it quickly charged forward again. Luckily, he had positioned himself under a space only two blocks high, too short for the three-block-tall Enderman to reach him effectively.
"Hah! Taste the cheese strats, you tall bastard!"
Endermen had massive health pools, 40 points, double his maximum. But as he persistently hacked away at its legs from his safe position, the creature's health steadily dropped.
The sound of another Enderman's cry echoed behind him, but he stayed calm under his platform. These things were dangerous in open combat, but with the right tactics, they were manageable.
Ding!
"Ender Pearl!"
When the Enderman's health finally hit zero, a blue-black pearl dropped to the ground. As Mario approached, it was automatically absorbed into his inventory.
He pulled out the sphere and examined it closely. At the very center of the ender pearl, he could see a tiny black head with glowing purple eyes that shifted to follow his gaze, always staring directly back at him.
"Actually pretty cool looking."
The ender pearl was one of the few relatively round items in Minecraft. Although it still had that blocky texture when he touched it, compared to most other pixelated items, it felt almost smooth.
He stuffed the pearl into his inventory.
"Let's farm some more of these. You can never have too many teleportation tools."
With pearls, he could pull off all kinds of advanced maneuvers, essentially gaining a superpower, though one with obvious drawbacks like taking fall damage when you landed.
As Mario indulged in pleasant thoughts about his future mobility options, he was suddenly struck from behind. His body stumbled forward uncontrollably as 7 points of health vanished from his bar.
Alarmed, he spun around and discovered an Enderman standing there, holding a block of cobblestone in its hands.
He quickly pulled more cobblestone from his inventory and sealed the gap in his shelter. That had been way too close for comfort.
Gripping his axe tighter, he attacked the Enderman.
But since there was no crosshair in reality, his random glances kept provoking more Endermen. Although his killing pace was decent, the number of angry Endermen around him didn't decrease, if anything, it kept growing.
Still, that worked out fine. This way, he could collect all the ender pearls he needed in one massive farming session.
---
After what felt like hours in the warped forest, Mario had accumulated a significant pile of ender pearls.
"There are Endermen everywhere, this place is a fucking death trap!"
He grumbled as he cleared away the last few Endermen surrounding his position, then carefully avoided looking up to prevent provoking any more. With no other safe option, he switched to his pickaxe and started digging straight down.
Thunk, thunk, thunk...
After more than ten minutes of tunneling, he finally emerged from underground, having left the warped forest behind. What greeted him was a sight that made his jaw drop.
A hellish rock ceiling towered over a hundred meters high, giving the impression that the sky itself was about to collapse. In the distance stretched an endless lava ocean, because calling it a lake would be an insult to its sheer scope. He couldn't help but swallow nervously.
"This is incredible! Playing the game never gave me this kind of feeling."
"Maybe VR Minecraft would come close to this experience, but probably not even then."
Back in the warped forest, the bizarre fungi had blocked most of his view. But here in the open Nether, the scale was absolutely mind-blowing.
Oink, oink...
A chorus of pig-like grunts interrupted his sightseeing. On a platform made of netherrack, several zombified piglins were wandering around aimlessly. They were some of the most common creatures in the Nether, neutral mobs that left you alone unless you fucked with them first. Not literally, of course, that would be sick. Still, he was sure some people out there would probably try, given the chance.
Though the zombified piglins could be incredibly dangerous if provoked. Hit even one, and every single one in the area would hunt you down.
Mario noticed a small piglin family nearby: two adults and one baby, peacefully going about their business. If not for their golden swords and rotting flesh, the scene might have been almost heartwarming.
"Good. No regular piglins spawned around here."
His eyes then spotted something, a patch of netherrack in the distance that was speckled with golden flecks.
"Nether gold ore!"
He exclaimed and ran toward it with his iron pickaxe in hand. But as he moved, an inexplicable sadness welled up inside him.
I just dug for over ten minutes and didn't find a single piece of gold ore. Am I really this unlucky?
The negative thought popped into his head but was quickly dismissed. There was no way he was unlucky. Absolutely impossible.
For safety, he enclosed himself with netherrack blocks first, making sure no wandering mobs could ambush him. Then he targeted the gold ore and swung his pickaxe. Cracks spread across the surface, and with a satisfying crack, the block shattered.
Three teardrop-shaped gold nuggets dropped to the ground, along with several colorful experience orbs that were instantly absorbed into his body.
Nether gold ore typically dropped 2-6 nuggets when mined. Using a Fortune-enchanted pickaxe would increase the yield, though he didn't have access to enchantments yet.
This patch contained only five blocks total, but he still couldn't suppress the grin spreading across his face.
"When I get back, I'll ask Coulson or Blade if they know anyone who buys gold. Money problems solved forever!"
In the modern world, as long as you had cash, you could solve ninety-nine percent of your problems.
He'd gathered a total of 15 gold nuggets, not even enough to craft two full ingots. He peeked out from his hiding spot and scanned the surrounding area. Soon he spotted several more patches of exposed gold ore scattered across the landscape.
Timing his movement carefully, he made a dash toward another cluster. But his actions caught the attention of a nearby piglin.
Whoosh!
A crossbow bolt whistled past his head, close enough that he could feel the wind from it. His heart nearly stopped as he quickly dodged behind a zombified piglin for cover.
The regular piglin, not being the brightest creature, immediately took aim and fired another bolt directly at his position.
Time seemed to slow down as Mario watched the crossbow bolt trace a perfect arc through the air, only to strike the zombified piglin he was hiding behind.
A flash of red light indicated damage.
Oink! OINK!
The nearby zombified piglins erupted into a frenzy, charging in unison at the piglin who had fired the shot. The poor creature was instantly swarmed and torn apart by the horde, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Ha! I knew it, they might look related, but it's all surface-level bullshit. Once friendly fire happens, it's a massacre!"
Smiling at the chaos he'd inadvertently caused, he walked over to the gold ore and began mining. He collected the dropped nuggets, set up his crafting table, and forged four gold ingots. With those, he crafted a pair of golden boots and equipped them immediately.
"Now I don't have to worry about piglins attacking me!"
Piglins had an almost obsessive love for gold. As long as a player wore at least one piece of golden armor, ordinary piglins wouldn't attack unprovoked. It was like wearing a gang color that marked you as neutral territory.
With his new protection in place, he began systematically collecting gold while searching for his ultimate goal: a Nether Fortress. After more than an hour of exploration across the hellish landscape, a massive dark red structure finally appeared on the horizon.
"Mamma Mia..."
He'd thought the Nether itself was impressive, but the fortress was on another level. Towering pillars rose directly out of the lava ocean, reaching fifty to sixty meters high, taller than most skyscrapers back in the real world.
He pulled out netherrack blocks and began building a bridge across the lava lake toward the fortress. The molten sea bubbled and hissed beneath him, radiating heat that made sweat pour down his face.
He prayed silently, Please no ghasts. Please no ghasts. I'm not ready for flying enemies yet.
But of course, reality always delivered exactly what you feared most. A piercing, mournful wail suddenly echoed close enough to make his hair stand on end.
"Shit! Speak of the devil!"
"And wasn't Minecraft supposed to be a peaceful building game? This ghast scream would fit right into a horror movie, it's fucking terrifying!"
He scanned his surroundings and immediately spotted the threat: a massive white floating creature that looked like a jellyfish from hell, and the fireball already streaking toward his position.
The ghast was essentially a giant floating head with tentacles, drifting aimlessly through the Nether's skies. Setting aside its screams and the gaping maw it revealed when attacking, it was almost... cute.
The fireball was closing fast. Though it wasn't particularly speedy, he had just enough time to adjust his stance, grip his iron sword, and swing hard.
"Eat shit and die!"
The fireball shot straight back at the ghast. With a pained wail, the creature exploded on impact, instantly killed by its own reflected attack.
When a player deflected a ghast's fireball back at it, the attack dealt 1000 damage, enough to kill any ghast in one hit.