The Valar knew how many bastion remnants Garrett had to raid just to acquire these four netherite ingots.
Although he could mine for scraps himself, not only was the chance of finding them extrely low, but even doing it personally wasn't faster than locating a bastion. More importantly, even if he mined them, he didn't have enough diamonds to craft armor anyway, he still needed to find additional sources for those precious gems.
That's where the bastion remnants proved invaluable.
In the central chest of each bastion, he could always discover one or two pieces of diamond equipnt.
Sotis armor, sotis weapons or tools.
To carry all the valuable loot, he had to discard unnecessary items like food and potions, even abandoning a whole stack of iron blocks.
After all, he had an entire iron vein he could excavate, far more than he could ever utilize.
All his efforts hadn't been in vain.
With that accomplished, his expedition to the Nether had reached a temporary conclusion, and he retraced his path howard.
The road to exploration was always arduous, crossing treacherous terrain, building bridges over lava lakes, and staying vigilant for monsters that spawned randomly. But returning proved much easier, he simply had to sprint along the path he'd already established.
It took only a few days for him to reach the portal.
Along the way, he even found ti to casually eliminate a few ghasts, and while passing through a warped forest, he took down several endern as well.
Weighing the cool, smooth ender pearls in his hand, he thought, These will definitely sell for a decent price. But if soone accidentally throw one, they'll surely get a shock.
"Ti to go ho."
He was beginning to miss the sunlight and air of Middle-earth.
---
Whoosh.
The sunlight stung his eyes, making it difficult to keep them open.
Having grown accustod to the crimson gloom of the Nether, suddenly witnessing the brilliant light of the real world and the autumn-tinged yellow of the grass created quite a contrast.
"Looks like autumn's here."
Feeling the cool breeze, he couldn't help but observe.
In the blink of an eye, he'd already been in this world for over half a year. It felt as though he was either adventuring, or traveling toward an adventure.
He took a deep breath, expelling the lingering sulfur from his lungs, and stretched thoroughly, savoring the peace of the real world. Then he went to the storage chamber, organized his inventory sowhat, and walked directly to the enchanting table.
Fortunately, or at least not unfortunately, he had managed to gather a complete set of diamond equipnt from the nurous bastion remnants, so even bearing decent enchantnts already.
After so much combat in the Nether, he had reached level 42.
He used all that experience to enchant books, repeatedly cycling through enchantnts to obtain the ones he desired.
When he depleted his experience, he went fishing; once he'd accumulated enough, he returned to enchanting.
This routine continued for another week. The chests filled with various items, assorted enchanted books, bows, and fishing rods, so valuable, so worthless.
Thanks to Luck of the Sea III, he combined so of the enchanted equipnt using an anvil and even produced a fully enchanted bow with the Infinity trait.
Power V, Infinity, Unbreaking III, Punch II, Fla.
Although this bow's base statistics weren't as impressive as the orcish bow, the enchantnts more than compensated. Until he had sufficient experience to enchant the orcish bow, this one would serve admirably.
He also maximized the properties on his fishing rod, using enchanted books he'd obtained to add missing traits like Lure III and nding.
Of course, these were all secondary benefits.
The most crucial achievent was, his diamond set was now fully enchanted.
That day, Garrett stood before the smithing table and retrieved his diamond armor and netherite ingots.
[Achievent Unlocked: "Cloaked in Debris"]
A set of exquisite, jet-black armor emitting a faint luminescence appeared upon his body. It appeared solid and formidable, with an aura of substantial weight. And just like the armor he'd worn previously, it didn't impede his mobility whatsoever.
The mont he donned it, he experienced the sensation that nothing in the world could move him against his will.
The four pieces of netherite armor provided a total of 4 points of knockback resistance.
This was a complete set of Protection IV netherite armor.
Now, he finally felt confident enough to challenge so genuinely serious threats. But before that, there remained one more task.
He withdrew the ancient elven sword and completed its enchantnts.
Sharpness V, Unbreaking III, Sweeping Edge III, Looting III, nding, Fire Aspect II.
After consideration, he chose not to add Knockback to the sword.
Sending enemies flying with one strike only to have to pursue them to deliver the finishing blow would prove too irritating, not ideal for efficient combat.
With all his equipnt prepared, he didn't cease his developnt. He continued mining, harvesting crops, tending animals, brewing potions, and slting ores, steadily accumulating resources.
"It's a pity that neither in Middle-earth nor in the Nether have I found anything like redstone."
Without redstone, automation remained impossible. Many technologies couldn't be tested or implented.
He didn't know how long this period of resource-gathering lasted. He worked tirelessly, accomplishing things only he could achieve.
Within the stronghold, resources accumulated at an extraordinary pace.
"Huh?"
One bright, breezy morning, he was leaning against the stronghold wall admiring the landscape when he suddenly noticed, there was soone standing at the gate.
It was an elderly man in grey robes and a pointed hat, holding a wooden staff.
At that mont, the travel-worn old man stood silently on a patch of grass before the stronghold entrance, smoking so Longbottom Leaf, quietly studying the enormous fortress, as if he'd never seen it before. His brows were furrowed with deep concern.
He appeared thoroughly perplexed.
"Either I've lost my mory... or the world has gone quite mad," the old man muttered to himself.
Seeing a visitor, Garrett operated a lever, clang, and the two iron doors swung open, startling the elderly gentleman.
"Oh my, stranger, greetings to you."
Though clearly surprised, the old man still offered a courteous greeting.
"Hello, is there sothing I can help you with?" Garrett inquired, while carefully observing his visitor.
The mont he glimpsed the old man's face, he was almost certain of the man's identity.
That weathered yet kindly visage, the intelligent gleam in those dark eyes beneath thick, snowy brows, it left an imdiate and profound impression.
There was no mistaking it.
Gandalf the Grey.
"Good day, young man. I'm simply... bewildered. I don't recall ever seeing such a vast fortress out here on these plains. I may be ancient, but I still trust my mory quite well."
As he spoke, Gandalf took another draw from his pipe. It helped him maintain composure.
"It hasn't even been a year since I last traveled this way. At that ti, this flatland contained nothing, absolutely nothing at all. This is... exceedingly peculiar."
"Yes, your mory is correct," Garrett replied. "There really was nothing here a year past. But I ca by not long ago and thought this was a decent spot, so I constructed a fortress here."
"You an... all of this? You accomplished it? Alone? In less than a year?"
Garrett nodded, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Gandalf's already furrowed brows creased even deeper.
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