Green-Robed Villagers

"A San Yi, go in and check out the Nether."

Entering the Nether was nothing out of the ordinary when playing Minecraft, but in reality, he had no idea what it would be like. And while Steve was unaffected by the Nether's environment, the same might not hold true for him.

A San Yi looked at the portal ahead and swallowed. Though they were servants loyal to the Creator God, they still had emotions of their own.

Bracing himself for certain death, he stepped into the portal. On the other side lay a world of red, with scorching lava everywhere.

Even more terrifying was the extreme heat. In less than two seconds, he was already becoming dehydrated and could only hurry back out.

Seeing the Villager return less than ten seconds after entering, his skin dry and cracked all over, he asked, "What was it like inside? Did you encounter anything?"

"My god, the Nether is full of lava. The temperature is at least seventy or eighty degrees. Your servant was forced to retreat after just over a second."

Hearing his answer, Li Chen realized that he had clearly watched him disappear for nearly ten seconds, yet A San Yi said he had only stayed for just over one. It seemed time flowed differently in the Nether than in the Overworld.

It looked like there was still plenty to prepare before exploring the Nether, so he could only check out the End instead.

Once he arranged the frames and inserted the Eyes of Ender, the portal activated instantly. Unlike the Nether, the End would not generate a corresponding portal.

Normally, a return portal would only appear after defeating the Ender Dragon. Sending a Villager inside would be no different from giving the Ender Dragon an extra meal.

Wait, could I build another portal in the End using End Portal Frames? He had never tried anything like that before, whether in Survival or Creative Mode.

But it should work in theory. Then I choose you, A San Yi.

Li Chen set aside twelve portal frames and twelve Eyes of Ender. After another moment's hesitation, he added an Enchanted Golden Apple and instructed him:

"Once you teleport to the End, build the portal first. I'll have someone wait outside for you for a day. If you haven't returned by then, we'll presume you've died."

He allowed a full day because time in the End might flow differently from the Overworld, just as it did in the Nether.

Watching A San Yi jump into the portal, Li Chen arranged for Brown Robe and an Iron Golem to wait there for the outcome. Of the two dimensions, the Nether would be difficult to develop anytime soon, while the End would have to wait for A San Yi's results.

Early the next morning, Li Chen had just gotten up when he stepped out of his room and saw a panicked Brown Robe.

"My god, something terrible has happened! The portals have broken!"

"What happened? When?" All his sleepiness vanished at those words, and he pressed for answers.

"Last night, the portals' light began to dim, then suddenly disappeared around midnight. You were already asleep by then, my god, so your servant didn't dare disturb you."

When he reached the site where the portals had been built, the Nether Portal had reverted to an Obsidian doorway. The End Portal was the same: its frames and Eyes of Ender were still intact, but the portal itself had vanished.

Every Obsidian block was covered in cracks, though. Since Monster Spawners needed energy, perhaps portals did too.

Though he had a few guesses, he still hurriedly used his second Soul Skill to inspect them.

[Name]: Nether Portal Frame

[Type]: Other block

[Function]: Constructs a portal frame leading to the Nether dimension; the Nether dimension is extremely dangerous. Bringing sufficient fire resistance potions is recommended before departure.

[Consumption]:

1 Amethyst Shard sustains it for 1.5 hours

1 Block of Redstone sustains it for 6 hours

1 Echo Shard sustains it for 1 day

1 Blaze Rod sustains it for 4 days

1 Nether Star sustains it for 16 days

Other forms of energy can only activate the portal temporarily

[Current status]: Unpowered

--

After reading it, Li Chen found that it was much as he had guessed. Monster Spawners needed energy, so it was perfectly normal for portals to need energy too.

Next, he inspected the End Portal. This portal could only replenish its energy through Eyes of Ender and End Crystals.

An Eye of Ender would only keep it active for one day at a time, while an End Crystal could keep it active for sixteen days.

The consumption actually wasn't all that high. A Nether Star or an End Crystal could each sustain a portal for sixteen days, meaning a stack could sustain one for 1,024 days-almost three years.

Having confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the portals, he asked Brown Robe, "By the way, has A San Yi returned?"

"My god, A San Yi has not returned yet."

"All right. If he hasn't returned by noon, consider him dead. We'll put exploration of the End on hold for now."

With that, Li Chen activated Creative Mode to collect his daily items. For today's five selections, he planned to take redstone-related materials.

First, he took one stack of Miniaturization Tables, then two stacks of Blocks of Redstone, followed by one stack each of Redstone Comparators and Redstone Repeaters.

He packed them all into a Shulker Box and duplicated it. He was growing ever more convinced that learning duplication had been a good choice.

He put all the Bottles o' Enchanting and Enchanted Golden Apples into the same Shulker Box to await tomorrow's duplication, then took out two stacks each of Blocks of Redstone, Redstone Comparators, and Redstone Repeaters.

He placed thirty-two Blocks of Redstone into each of the two Monster Spawners, finally getting them running. The moment they started operating, they spawned four Villagers and one Iron Golem.

However, all the Villagers spawned were Green-Robed Villagers-the so-called nitwit villagers. When they looked at Li Chen, they only grunted in Villager speech, unable to speak human language.

"Can you understand what I'm saying? Nod if you can."

All four Green-Robed Villagers nodded. Since they could understand him, he continued:

"Then do you have Martial Souls? If you do, nod and summon them. If not, shake your heads."

Amazingly, all these Green-Robed Villagers nodded, then summoned their emerald martial souls.

"???" Li Chen's head was full of question marks. Does this really make sense? Nitwit villagers can't trade, yet their Martial Souls are emeralds.

Looking at it another way, emeralds were the currency of Villager civilization, and nitwit villagers' inability to trade was essentially because they had no profession, just like unemployed villagers.

The only difference was that unemployed villagers could take up a profession through job-site blocks, while nitwit villagers could not.

"Can you have a second Martial Soul? Nod if you can, shake your heads if you can't."

This time, all four Green-Robed Villagers shook their heads. It seemed nitwit villagers still had a much lower ceiling than ordinary Villagers.

Looking at the four Villagers, he found their inability to communicate directly rather troublesome. He called Brown Robe over and asked, "Can you understand what they're saying?"

"My god, yes. They're speaking the Villager language."

Since Brown Robe could understand these Green-Robed Villagers, things would be easier to handle. Still, communicating with them in the future would require a Villager to translate.

Li Chen pointed at the leftmost Green-Robed Villager. "From now on, your name is Green Robe. You'll primarily be responsible for leading the other Green-Robed Villagers and coordinating with Brown Robe. As for the rest of you, your names will be Lü Da, Lü Er, and Lü San, in that order."