Chapter 25: Crybaby
Finding ancient debris was every Minecraft player's most dreaded process of getting stacked. Sure, it was nice to feel powerful, but the long hours of doing nothing but mining and avoiding random lava threats made Technoblade wish he could do something else instead.
It was unfortunate he could not buy netherite ingots from the system shop. However, he noticed how quickly his mining levels were rising. Not to mention, he had an insane amount of quartz crystals that he used in between mining sessions to expand his farms.
Now, Technoblade could boast about his massive semi-automated farms. Yes, he expanded the farms both vertically and horizontally. He even shifted the bone meal compost centre to the bottom of that massive farm so that the melons and pumpkins were automatically fed into the bins to be converted into bone meal for his wheat.
Most importantly, scrolling through the shops whenever he was tired of mining gave Technoblade a new inspiration. He was constantly dipping his toes in lava while mining, and out of caution for flammable liquids, Technoblade's process was so slow.
Thankfully, there was a skill he could purchase from the system shop that would allow him to be immune to lava and all sorts of flammable attacks. His new [Fire Resistant] skill was similar to his [Underwater Breathing] skill. It replaced potion effects entirely, and Technoblade tested it out by jumping into the nearest pool of lava.
Thanks to [Thermoflux], he did not overheat. The lava pool merely felt like dipping into a hot tub of water. It was actually rather relaxing. It made Technoblade grin. He could have his cake and eat it too.
Hence, the bizarre practice of mining for netherite began. Technoblade would mine in the nether a specified number of rows to find his ancient debris, and regardless of the yield, he would return to the overworld and take a dip naked in his new hot tub.
…
Thankfully the forbidden room wasn't very well lit. Technoblade used soul lanterns to light it up and fashioned his hot tub out of nether bricks that he smelted using netherrack. Then, he filled the tub with steaming hot buckets of lava and even made a black stained glass window to admire the night view from his bathtub. Watching mobs fall into the moat became Technoblade's favourite pastime. He would snipe a skeleton from his tub and waste arrows for the occasional fun.
That's right. With that much gravel in the nether, including those that fell on his head while mining, Technoblade now had plenty of flints to spare. He was no longer worried about the arrow supply. If anything, he found himself hunting ghasts whenever he heard them screeching while he mined.
Eventually, Technoblade met some new friends in the nether. He was familiar with his non-hostile zombie pigman people. He would find them loitering in his mining columns every now and then. It was cool and all until he accidentally hit one. Then, it would turn into a bloodbath.
Technoblade's first netherite ingot was used to upgrade his fully enchanted diamond sword so that he could slay his enemies with better efficiency. It was a wonderful investment, but the second netherite ingot was used to upgrade his chest plate because he found out the special pickaxe could not be upgraded using netherite ingots.
Hence, he only needed eight pieces of netherite ingots instead of the nine he initially thought he needed. Yes, he wanted to upgrade his farming scythe as well. Farming wheat was hard work, and the trusty hoe deserved an upgrade too.
The process of mining in the nether was slow and painful. Yet, Technoblade persisted. He upgraded his equipment piece by piece but left the boots out. There was still something he was curious about. According to his knowledge, there should be a special enchantment trade that could not be obtained from the enchantment table or from villagers. It could only be traded for with Piglins with a very slim chance.
In just twenty days of mining mindlessly, Technoblade did the impossible and attained his first fully maxed-out skill. Although the system admin did not write it in the tutorial or messages, Technoblade knew that maxing out a skill or even levelling it would give some passive boost.
Thanks to his maxed-out mining skill, Technoblade felt like his legs weren't quite catching up to the speed he could drill out holes in the nether. To overcome this bottleneck, Technoblade took time away from mining ancient debris and fed his chickens while farming for a while. The system shop allowed him to buy levels for his skills, and Technoblade initially scoffed at that idea.
Now, it seemed like a brilliant pay-to-win strategy. Why spend hours mindlessly grinding for speed when he could mindlessly grind other less important skills to match his needs? Pay-to-win was always faster.
By now, Technoblade was an advanced farmer. His farming skills were above level thirty, with how much wheat he planted to feed all those hungry chickens and cows.
He also upgraded the animal farms and created an easy single-celled automatic breeding and slaughter chamber. It was a shame to tear down his prison-like slaughterhouse, so Technoblade left it intact.
Now that he had efficient farms, gaining levels became more simplified. Before he knew it, Technoblade also had his speed skill maxed out. He could run as fast as he could mine netherrack, which made the process much simpler.
Mrrrw!
Ok, Technoblade stopped and nocked an arrow. Creeping over to where he heard the noise, he found the white balloon monster in the distance.
Mrrw!
The ghast seemed unaware that it was presently Technoblade's target and continued purring in the lava stream. Too bad it was going to die.
Technoblade shot at the ghast with an expert's aim, and the arrow made contact with the huge ghast's head, killing it instantly. Thankfully, it wasn't too far from where Technoblade was.
"Goodbye, inferior one," he cackled and collected another ghats tear. The first time he met the ghast, it shot fireballs at him and almost cost Technoblade his life. Now, he would kill every single ghast in his way if he heard it. It was better to be safe than sorry.
After collecting the ghast tear and thanking the mob loot rates that it wasn't another gunpowder, Technoblade jumped when he heard a system notification.
Ping!
[Congratulations on completing the [Crybaby] quest. You have unlocked a new skill [Nether Biome Tracker]. Please refer to the updated quest book to learn how to activate your new skill.]
The system admin messages were becoming more informal, and Technoblade shrugged. It was probably a skill similar to the F3 function in Minecraft. In Aftercraft, he was unable to find any new biomes. It was a little unfortunate that all this mining got him nowhere. Initially, he thought there were no other biomes in the nether in Aftercraft, much like Minecraft before the nether update. However, the new skill told Technoblade otherwise.
Wouldn't it be nice to find some Piglins with which he could trade his gold? Apart from collecting ancient debris and quartz, Technoblade had been toggling his special pickaxe's abilities to collect and smelt nether gold ores.
"Should I go on a nether adventure?" he wondered now that he knew other nether biomes existed.
Technoblade thought for a while. He only needed two more netherite ingots to complete his collection. Of course, he wouldn't be able to use both ingots as he was waiting for his boots to get that unique piglin trade enchantment before adding the upgrade. However, he had no desire to come back mining for ancient debris once he had enough to make a full set of netherite tools and armour.
Putting nether explorations on hold, Technoblade decided to do himself and favour and mine for the last few pieces of ancient debris. He wanted to make himself a map so he would not be utterly lost in his nether exploration.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone