I looked at the items in my inventory and sighed. I couldn't beat the Slime King. I'd been stuck at this stage for a whole month. And apparently, the kid I had saved earlier had betrayed me too.
Just last week, a group of villagers carrying torches raided the area where I lived. I didn't know why, but they didn't seem very friendly. I could sense from the aura they gave off that each of them was far stronger than the humans in my old world.
They dug several holes next to my treehouse, clearly trying to find my underground shelter. A while later, the young wolf appeared, but the villagers attacked it the moment they saw him.
Smart as ever, my wolf dove straight toward the hidden entrance of my shelter, but he didn't escape unscathed. Seeing him injured made my heart ache, so I gave him a healing potion. I had already named him Cotton—because that's exactly what he looked like.
As Cotton recovered, the villagers began digging faster. Seeing the wolf suddenly dive into the ground must have excited them.
I wasn't too worried, though. Unless I allowed it, no one could perceive anything I owned. They could dig all the way to the planet's core for all I cared. As long as they didn't touch me or my dear companion, I had no complaints.
Actually, scratch that. As much as I didn't want to admit it, there was a serious problem—I was weak. But I had a plan to fix that.
I looked at the amethyst shard in my inventory and smiled. The gem seemed to shine in support.
I went to the room with my chests and gathered a few items I thought would be essential for my plan. My goal was to create something ridiculous yet logical—something only possible in this world.
A few days ago, I had crafted an enchantment table. After enchanting a few items, I made two important discoveries. First, enchantments had evolved—there was no limit to how many enchantments could be applied to an object. Second, enchantments affected my entire body. For example, if I wore a ring with Sharpness I, it would add to my sword's sharpness enchantment level. The only issue was that the item containing the enchantment would degrade over time. The Unbreaking enchantment slowed this process.
So, my plan was to exploit this loophole to create a personal system—my own private cheat engine. It was surprisingly easy to build, requiring only a few modifications.
I needed to combine a few specific items:
An experience bottle I looted from a minecart chest in a mineshaft. This would serve as excess experience storage.
An enchantment table. It was the core of the system, as everything revolved around enchantments.
An anvil. Necessary to improve or combine enchantments.
A book and quill. It didn't serve much of a function—just decoration. Plus, I could write in it if I got bored.
A bunch of lapis lazuli. I needed an absurd amount of this gemstone—about 9,999 pieces. But once I had them, I wouldn't have to worry anymore.
And lastly, the core of the system—a single piece of amethyst. It would act as the container, the object that would eventually wear out.
I didn't have enough lapis yet, so I decided to build a weakened prototype using what I had.
The final and most important component was the crafting altar. This part was critical because it directly influenced the nature of the item. For instance, if I used a Crimson Altar to create it, the result wouldn't become a boss, but it would gain a form of consciousness—like a basic AI that obeys my commands.
Crimson Altar it is, then. Intelligent systems were far stronger than mindless ones.
"Cotton, I'm heading to the Crimson biome. Wanna come?"
He looked at me for a moment before shaking his head. I had taken him there before, and he hadn't liked it one bit.
"Alright then. I'll leave some meat near the cave entrance for you. Eat as much as you want, but be careful. I don't want to see you hurt again."
His tail wagged with joy. I passed by the digging villagers, grabbed some food from the storage, and left it in a safe corner. Cotton immediately dove into his meal, and with a smile, I began my journey to the Crimson biome.
Luckily, there was a natural cave system connecting my shelter to the biome, so I didn't have to travel across the surface.
A conveniently formed minecart rail made the trip even easier, requiring almost no effort to reach the Crimson zone. I couldn't use a pickaxe to access the Crimson Altars—those rocks were too hard—but a few bombs would do the trick.
"Boom!"
"Boooom!"
"BOOOOM!"
Three bombs. That was all it took.
I entered the biome with ease. A few giant, low-intelligence spiders attacked, but I kept them at bay with my spear and took them out efficiently. Once the area was relatively secure, I laid out the necessary materials at the altar.
"Abra kadabra!"
Okay, that joke was unnecessary. But hey, the materials fused together into a book with golden patterns and an amethyst embedded in the cover. I'd added a touch of gold for decoration.
I picked up the book and examined it. It was exactly what I had imagined—a beautiful prototype of my personal enchantment system. I planned to refine it further in time.
"Not bad at all."
Afterwards, I sealed the tunnel connecting the Crimson biome to the cave to keep monsters from wandering into my shelter. Then, I headed back.
Cotton had finished eating and was waiting for me. The villagers were still digging and slowly wrecking the terrain above my secret base.
Let them dig.
They had no idea what was coming.