Although he had some guesses, seeing this line of text still made Levi's heart pound with anticipation and dread.
Actually, from the moment he entered this world and saw that the health display showed normal red hearts rather than hardcore mode hearts, he had been wondering if he only had one life.
He just never had a chance to verify it, since he couldn't risk actually dying once.
But soon, his mood calmed down.
["Bed" block only effective within territory]
Territory... that was his domain.
He could only respawn within his territory.
Well, no wonder sleeping in other places never gave any prompts... it was waiting for this.
Not expanding his territory to cover the entire world would be doing himself a disservice.
Levi began to feel his territory was suspiciously small.
However.
"No matter what, if I can avoid dying, I should try not to die."
He shook his head, ending his thoughts on this matter.
After all, this world was quite deep... who knew what accidents might happen after death...
And honestly, death was quite unsettling.
No one knew if the self after resurrection would still be the same self.
As he said before... avoid death if possible.
Still, Levi placed several chests beside the bed and stored several sets of backup equipment and weapons.
That night, for once, he slept.
At sunrise, Levi opened his eyes, feeling refreshed, just like usual.
No special feeling... if anything, he felt psychologically satisfied.
This sleep felt like actual sleep.
Today was another day full of hope.
Must cast a few lines first thing in the morning!
He continued fishing, keeping at it until evening.
A day passed.
Splash.
An enchanted book was caught.
"Mending."
Levi immediately applied it to his ancient elven sword.
Although this sword didn't really need it... its durability was already terrifyingly high, and it barely lost any. He couldn't even imagine how much cutting it would take to break it...
Truly worthy of being crafted by top artisans of the First Age.
Perhaps only Sauron at full power could pose a threat to it.
After sitting all day, his hunger hadn't dropped much. Casually eating something, Levi stared at the water surface, feeling like he'd forgotten something.
The dwarven smelting mod was set up, forging equipment was complete, the enchanting table was ready... what was still missing?
Right.
The Nether portal.
He slowly put away his fishing rod and went to the underground workshop to smelt lava.
As bucket after bucket of lava turned into obsidian, Levi felt his palms sweating.
That was another world... if it really connected, that one would definitely notice.
He couldn't fathom the attitude of an existence he didn't understand.
However, things had come this far. With all conditions met, he wouldn't be satisfied without trying.
Ten obsidian blocks were quickly collected.
Levi returned to the surface, chose a location, surrounded it with fencing, then pulled out obsidian and began building the Nether portal.
Click.
The final block was successfully placed.
He pulled out flint and steel.
Strike.
In this instant, his consciousness seemed to freeze.
The river continued flowing with its rushing sound.
A breeze passed, bringing the rustle of leaves rubbing together. Horses neighed in the pasture, cattle and sheep called back and forth, grass swayed gently on the ground, stars twinkled in the sky... everything seemed so peaceful.
However, to Levi, the tranquil starry sky above seemed to collapse like it was all pressing down on him.
A vast will descended upon Roadside Fort, extending from him as the focal point to the newly built Nether portal.
No one knew how much pressure he endured, though that existence seemed to have no malice... in fact, it was even quite gentle.
His so-called pressure was just instinct from encountering something magnificent.
Before long, deep notes emanated from the Nether, reminding him of the ambient music that came with the Nether in the game.
Along with it came what sounded like... a sigh?
In the blink of an eye.
Everything returned to normal. Levi stood frozen in place, took a deep breath, and felt like he'd been released.
At the same time, he understood some information.
Creatures from the Nether could not cross the portal, and likewise, creatures from Middle-earth could not enter the portal. This was a passage opened exclusively for Levi.
Also, Nether portals could not be built outside his territory.
This last rule didn't seem to be that one's doing but an existing rule.
But thinking about it, that made sense... if the Nether could expand without limits, just building a few high-efficiency pigman farms would soon have pigmen filling all of Middle-earth. Then forget the Great Music... the whole world could listen to pigmen grunting together.
However, at least he could finally go to the Nether.
Levi put on his armor, brought supplies, and crossed through the Nether portal.
Whoosh...
[Achievement Unlocked: We Need to Go Deeper]
A feeling of weightlessness came over him. He opened his eyes to find crimson filling his vision, followed by waves of scorching heat.
"I'm here, Nether."
Stepping onto the somewhat soft netherrack, he felt familiar for the first time.
Woo woo...
A crying sound came from the distant horizon, followed by a large fireball blazing through the air.
Levi immediately became alert. Rich combat experience let him instantly determine the direction of the sound. He directly drew his long sword and slashed at the incoming fireball with practiced precision. The fireball was hit by the sword but didn't explode... instead, it flew straight back along its original path like a deadly boomerang.
Before long, a notification popped up:
[Achievement Unlocked: Return to Sender]
Along with it came an additional 50 experience points.
A ghast.
Having experienced various battles large and small in Middle-earth and gotten used to archer ambushes, looking at this slow fireball was like watching bubbles floating in the sky... he didn't even need to concentrate; he could casually hit it back.
However, to prevent further ambushes, Levi still surrounded the Nether portal with cobblestone as protection.
It wouldn't be good if he accidentally let the portal get destroyed.
Whoosh...
Just after finishing the portal's protective measures, an arrow came from behind. The instant he heard the sound, Levi almost instinctively raised his sword and blocked it.
Looking again, the attacker was a skeleton archer spawned on soul sand terrain.
Slow, too slow... this skeleton's archery was even worse than his own.
He again used his long sword to block an arrow.
He felt somewhat bored.
Compared to Middle-earth's combat intensity, fighting these monsters was like children playing... straightforward with clear objectives.
After killing the skeleton with two strikes, Levi looked around, surveying this world.
The Nether's overall style was still blocky, though the monsters were more realistic... real-world style, but that was about it.
Aside from looking scary, they posed almost no threat to him.
The lackluster combat made him feel somewhat slack.
However, he soon perked up. Near the soul sand canyon where the skeleton archer had spawned stood a dark brown brick fortress rising above a lava pool.
A Nether fortress!
Good luck.
Levi grabbed cobblestone and began building a path, soon stepping onto solid nether brick.
[Achievement Unlocked: A Terrible Fortress]
A looting spree quickly began.
Where Minecraft players passed, nothing was left behind.
After thoroughly ransacking all chests in the fortress, his backpack contained nine diamonds, 23 gold ingots, some iron, various gold equipment, flint and steel, iron horse armor, and diamond horse armor.
"Not bad luck."
Of course, besides looting chests, Levi didn't forget the Nether fortress's most important things.
Nether wart, and the blaze spawner.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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