After taking down the ghast, Mario could only watch helplessly as the experience orbs and ghast tears it dropped fell straight into the lava ocean below.
This was exactly why he hated fighting ghasts. The damn things were massive, and in the Nether Wastes they always spawned floating over lava seas. Kill one, and their drops would just sink into the molten rock like expensive paperweights.
Only in Soul Sand Valleys could you actually collect ghast loot without losing it to lava, and those places were crawling with other nasty shit.
Clinging to the nether brick like his life depended on it, which it did, he hopped from block to block, making his way onto the Nether Fortress platform. One look down at the lava below made him feel dizzy.
"Mamma mia... I'm basically bungee jumping without a rope here. Thank God there's no wind in the Nether, or one good gust would send me straight to hell. Wait, I'm already in hell..."
He poked his head over the edge of the platform. The long bridge stretching ahead was crawling with monsters. zombified piglins wandered around aimlessly, and among them he spotted the real threats, mobs that only spawned in Nether Fortresses.
A blaze with its long detection range had already spotted him. The floating fireball creature ignited with a loud whoosh, its entire body erupting in flames.
It launched a fireball at him. Compared to the ghast's slow-moving projectiles, this thing was like a guided missile. He hit the deck just as the fireball screamed over his head.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Since when are blaze fireballs this accurate?"
A quick scan of the bridge revealed three or four wither skeletons patrolling the area. Mario's heart sank. No way to charge through directly, but staying here meant getting picked off by ranged attacks.
"This is a problem..."
He crouched behind a block of netherrack, making himself as small a target as possible.
Then inspiration struck. He remembered his vampire hunting tactics back in Manhattan, and a grin spread across his face.
He pulled out his iron pickaxe and started rapidly digging into the nether brick platform. The sounds of movement echoed from above as he worked, replaying the scene he'd observed earlier to estimate where those wither skeletons were positioned.
Right about... here.
When he felt he was in the right spot, he began digging straight up through the nether brick ceiling.
BANG!
The block above him shattered. He immediately ducked back, half-expecting a wither skeleton to come crashing down on his head. The sound of rattling bones confirmed he'd picked the right spot.
When nothing fell through the hole, he cautiously approached and jumped up to peek through the opening.
That's when he saw it, a wither skeleton standing right at the edge, and it saw him too. The creature's stone sword came slashing down.
"Shit!"
But its swing missed completely. When Mario dropped back down into his tunnel, the monster didn't hesitate, it jumped straight down after him.
That's when the height restriction kicked in. Wither skeletons stood 2.5 meters tall, but Mario's tunnel was only 2 meters high. Since Minecraft mobs couldn't crouch, the skeleton found itself stuck with its head bent at an awkward angle.
"Time for some foot surgery, boys!"
Four wither skeletons dropped down one after another. All of them ended up getting chopped to pieces by his axe while they struggled with the low ceiling.
"A skull already?!"
Mario picked up the coal and bones scattered around, but his eyes went wide when he spotted the rare drop, a black wither skeleton skull, grinning up at him with empty sockets.
Four kills and he'd already gotten one skull. At this rate, he'd only need eight more kills to collect the full set of three skulls needed to summon the wither.
But that was just wishful thinking.
Wither skulls had the most fucked-up drop pattern in the game. The first skull came easy enough, the second felt like the drop rate got cut in half, and the third was pure lottery ticket territory. Plus, with his current iron gear, trying to fight the Nether's boss without exploiting glitches would be suicide.
He peeked out of his tunnel again. The area was clear of wither skeletons, but he could see two more blazes floating in the distance.
"Alright, time to get up there and kick some ass!"
He leaped up from the tunnel, grabbed the edge of the platform, and hauled himself up without needing to place any blocks. A measly two or three meters was nothing, one of the perks of having a real human body instead of being limited to Steve's blocky movements.
The moment he surfaced, a blaze greeted him with a triple-shot of fireballs. Mario raised his prepared shield, the projectiles exploding against it in rapid succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Using the brief pause in the blaze's attack pattern, he sprinted toward it while pulling out his crossbow. A targeting reticle appeared in his vision as he squeezed the trigger. The bolt punched into the blaze's fiery body.
Seeing the damage number, -4, float up, he grimaced.
"Fuck me. Hunter weapons are garbage against normal mobs. I really need to craft a proper monster-hunting loadout."
Another volley of fireballs came his way. He raised his shield again. At the same time, he realized how different these blazes were from their game counterparts.
In regular Minecraft, blazes fired three fireballs per attack, but their accuracy was basically random. Here, each attack was a single fireball, but with pinpoint accuracy, like they were using aimbot software.
His crossbow finished reloading. Mario fired again while advancing. The damage was pathetic, but every point counted.
After two rounds of ranged combat, he'd closed the distance to the weakest blaze. Switching to his iron axe, he leaped up and brought it down in an overhead strike.
Critical-hit particles burst from the blaze as its health bar emptied instantly. He grabbed the dropped blaze rod, only to get smacked by another fireball immediately afterward.
Two and a half hearts vanished in an instant, and the hit also applied a burning effect that drained another point of health per second. With only 20 HP total, he had lost nearly half his health in one shot.
He raised his crossbow and put a bolt into the hovering blaze, then quickly built himself a protective shelter with cobblestone blocks.
"Finally, some breathing room."
He pulled out some bread and started eating to regenerate health. No rush, blazes eventually drifted back down when they lost their target. Fighting them while they floated in the air was more trouble than it was worth.
Listening to the monster sounds outside, he sat down and checked his phone. No signal, obviously, but the digital clock still worked.
"Already past 1 PM. I need to be back before nightfall, so I better speed this up."
After collecting the experience orbs and blaze rods from the second kill, he looked toward the exposed fortress area in the distance and started making his way over.
From a distance, he could see several wither skeletons standing like sentries on both sides of the lava well chamber entrance.
The lava well chamber was the heart of every Nether Fortress, the only room that connected the fortress interior with the outdoor areas. It was also where the best loot chests were usually hidden.
He quickly built a two-block-high platform and crouched underneath it. From this safe position, he pulled out his crossbow and put a bolt into one of the wither skeletons. The arrow struck its target.
Immediately, the damaged skeleton locked onto his position. Its long black legs started clattering as it charged toward him.
Standing safely beneath the platform, Mario felt completely secure. The 2.5-meter-tall wither skeletons couldn't reach him at all. They were actually easier to deal with than endermen, less health, no ability to pick up blocks, and no teleportation bullshit.
A few quick swings of his iron axe finished off the skeleton, though unfortunately this one didn't drop a skull.
He picked up the coal and kicked the dropped stone sword off the bridge into the lava lake below.
With no monsters blocking his path, he jogged toward the fortress proper. Inside the spacious lava well chamber, only a single lava well sat in the center.
He pulled out a piece of netherrack and blocked the well to prevent any accidental diving accidents.
The nether brick room immediately grew dim. He placed torches as he moved deeper into the fortress.
"Sounds like plenty of monsters inside too."
Mario prepared himself, watching the corners carefully as he advanced. Soon, a crossroads appeared before him.
He sealed one side with netherrack at the three-block height, so even if wither skeletons came from other directions, there was no need to worry about flanking.
Shield raised, he approached the intersection.
BANG!
A fireball slammed into his defense.
"Damn!"
The sudden attack made him jump. A blaze was lurking just around the corner like some kind of fiery assassin.
After finishing off the ambush blaze, he scanned the area. Apart from zombified piglins, there were no other threats.
He saw a staircase leading downward at the far end of the corridor. Without hesitation, he headed toward it.
"Jackpot!"
Descending to the lower level of the fortress, he turned a corner and immediately spotted a brownish-yellow chest tucked away in the far corner. Excited, he ran over.
Creak.
He opened the chest, revealing four different types of items inside.
"Obsidian, diamond horse armor, gold ingots, and nether wart!"
Even without raw diamonds, he felt like opening chests in the Nether was far more profitable than anything the Overworld had to offer. The horse armor alone was worth a fortune.
He stuffed everything into his inventory, then pulled out his axe and chopped up the chest. When you were living on a shoestring budget, even a wooden chest was valuable salvage.
Continuing his exploration, it wasn't long before he found another chest. Opening it, his eyes lit up at the blue shimmer of diamonds inside.
"Looks like Christmas came early again!"
The chest contained two diamonds, not a huge haul, but combined with the obsidian he'd already found, he could now craft an enchanting table.
---
Marvel Universe.
In the archives beneath the vampire bar, Blade stared at Pearl, who was slumped on the ground like a beached whale, feeling a headache coming on.
"Hey, man, how the hell did you get so fat?"
Pearl, who was greedily sucking blood from a medical bag, looked up at Blade's somewhat accusatory question.
"I used to be a sumo wrestler..."
"After I became a vampire, they just threw me down here and I kept getting fatter..."
Blade rubbed his temples. Mario had really dumped a tough problem on him. Sure, he could carry Pearl out with his enhanced strength, but the real issue was logistics, the guy couldn't fit through the main door upstairs, let alone the elevator.
Unless he blew up the wall next to them. From his investigation, the other side of that wall was the subway tunnel.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Mario's number. The call went straight to an error tone. He hung up.
"Still no signal? Where the hell did he go?"
Just then, Pearl finished draining the blood bag and suddenly spoke up, "After you guys killed Frost, a new vampire clan moved into New York. You'd better watch yourselves."
A flicker of surprise crossed Blade's usually stoic face. He hadn't expected Pearl to volunteer information.
"Don't worry. If they came here looking for trouble, we'll give them more than they bargained for."
With that, he turned toward the wall and started tapping it with the pommel of his sword, testing for weak points. Looked like explosives were going to be the only way to get Pearl out of here.
---
Back home in his Central Park base, Mario quickly began sorting through his Nether expedition loot. In total, he'd scored 5 diamonds, incredible luck for a single fortress run.
He tossed some cobblestone into his furnace to smelt stone for crafting a brewing stand later. But that would take time. He flopped down on his couch with a sigh.
"Finally getting somewhere. Later I'll hit up a bookstore for some reading material, maybe grab some sugar cane to grow. I'll need it for enchanting books eventually."
He pulled out his phone from his inventory. Immediately, it started buzzing.
A flood of missed calls and messages appeared on the screen. He scrolled through them carefully.
"Blade, Coulson... what's got these two so worked up? Something must have gone down."