The celebration aboard the Going Merry was in full swing as the sky gradually darkened over Drum Island. Laughter and music filled the ship as the crew welcomed their newest member, but as night fell, Marcus quietly slipped away.
He made his way to the small storage room where he'd constructed the Nether Portal.
But he wasn't alone.
Nami was already there, standing in front of the portal with her arms crossed and a worried expression on her face.
"What's up? Did you drink too much at the party?" Marcus asked with a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
Nami waved him off dismissively. "That stuff was basically sugar water. Not a drop of real alcohol in it."
She glanced at Marcus, then fixed her gaze on the ominous portal. "I know this thing was created by your abilities, but I really think you shouldn't go in there, at least not tonight. Wait until tomorrow so the others can come with you."
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "You've been inside?"
"Yeah... sort of." Nami's expression darkened as she recalled the experience. "When you collapsed earlier and everyone crowded around to help, I accidentally got pushed through the portal. And what I found in there..." She shuddered involuntarily. "There were wailing spirits! Cries from hell itself. If you're planning to explore that place, you need Luffy and the others with you."
Marcus tilted his head, confused by her reaction.
Hell? Dangerous?
In his experience, the Nether was actually much safer than the Overworld, as long as you followed basic safety protocols. The main rule was simple: don't attack zombified piglins unless you want to deal with an entire horde of angry undead.
As for the wailing spirits she'd mentioned, those were probably just ghast sounds echoing through the caverns.
"Don't worry about it," Marcus said, pulling a length of rope from his inventory. "Remember, I created this portal. I know exactly how it works and what's in there. You've been through it yourself, so you know the way back is just stepping through the gateway again, right?"
He held up the rope. "Here, take this. If you notice anything dangerous, and I mean anything, just yank on this rope and pull me back through immediately. No questions asked."
Nami hesitated, clearly wanting to refuse outright. But when she saw the fire in Marcus' eyes, her resolve wavered. After a long moment, she sighed in defeat.
"If I pull on that rope, you can't resist. Promise me."
Marcus gave her an OK gesture and started tying the rope around his waist. "Deal. But trust me, this is going to be a lot less dangerous than you think."
Without further delay, he stepped into the swirling purple vortex of the Nether Portal.
The transition hit him immediately, a disorienting sensation that affected his vision whether his eyes were open or closed. Reality seemed to twist and warp around him as the portal transported him between dimensions.
A moment later, he emerged in the Nether.
The familiar landscape of red stone and flowing lava brought back memories of countless gaming sessions. He stepped out of the portal frame onto a surface of soul sand, noting the slightly sticky texture under his feet and the noticeable increase in temperature.
"Damn, I was hoping to spawn closer to a nether fortress," Marcus muttered, looking around for landmarks.
He scanned the area curiously but saw no ghasts floating in the distance, no zombified piglins wandering around. Which made sense, the ground around the portal was clearly soul sand, and everyone knew mobs didn't spawn on that particular block.
Soul sand's only real uses were growing nether wart and providing one of the key components for summoning the Wither. Beyond that, it was mostly just an obstacle that slowed movement.
A few seconds later, Nami materialized through the portal behind him, looking significantly worse for wear. Her face was twisted in pain, and she was clearly struggling with the disorientation of interdimensional travel.
But despite her discomfort, she forced her eyes open and stared at Marcus, who was standing calmly on ground that filled her with dread.
"How... how are you so calm?" she gasped, still fighting off waves of nausea.
"Calm about what?"
Nami pointed shakily at the ground beneath their feet.
Marcus looked down at the soul sand and shrugged. "What about it?"
Seeing his reaction, Nami swallowed nervously. Very carefully, she extended one long leg and placed her foot on the sand surface.
The moment her skin made contact with the block, an explosion of anguished wails erupted from the ground, at least from her perspective.
Marcus heard nothing, but he immediately noticed several alarming changes. Nami's foot sank into the soul sand instantly, disappearing up to her ankle as if the ground had turned to quicksand. At the same time, her skin began taking on a grayish tint where it touched the block, as if the soul sand was somehow draining color and life from her.
"Look! Look what's happening!" She yanked her foot back. Her face was pale, and her whole body shook. The chorus of tortured voices still echoed in her ears, as if she'd briefly made contact with the spirits of the damned.
"You're not wearing the diamond boots I gave you, are you?" Marcus asked suddenly.
The abrupt change of topic left Nami completely confused. "No, I didn't wear them. Those things feel weird and clunky."
"Go put on the full diamond armor set and come back."
Nami looked puzzled but didn't argue. She stepped back through the portal, and Marcus could hear her rummaging around in the storage room. When she returned a few minutes later, she was wearing the complete diamond armor set.
The second trip through the portal seemed to affect her less severely, apparently the disorientation could be gradually adapted to.
"Now try stepping on the soul sand," Marcus instructed.
Nami hesitated for a moment, then cautiously placed her foot on the cursed ground.
This time, nothing happened.
"What the hell?!" she exclaimed, staring at her foot.
"Thought so," Marcus nodded. Soul sand might seem harmless to Minecraft players, but if you looked closely at the block's texture, it was actually composed of countless distorted faces locked in eternal torment.
Plus, soul sand was a required component for creating the Wither, a boss monster that existed solely to destroy all living things. It made sense that the material would have some kind of harmful effect on unprotected organic life.
He had originally planned to gather nether wart and set up a brewing stand for Kureha back on Drum Island. But now it seemed like nether materials were more dangerous than he'd realized, at least for people without proper protection.
"This is incredible! Why don't I feel anything now?" Nami asked in wonder, walking freely across the soul sand surface.
"The diamond armor provides protection against more than just physical damage. It acts as a barrier against supernatural effects too."
"Alright, since there's no danger, you should head back to the ship," Marcus continued. "The places I'm planning to explore next might pose real risks, even with armor."
Nami looked torn between curiosity and concern.
"Once I'm sure it's safe and I've mapped out the basic layout, I'll come get everyone," Marcus assured her. "This place is definitely something the whole crew needs to know about, but I want to scout ahead first."
"I'll wait for you here then," Nami said, settling down near the portal in a spot that felt relatively secure.
Marcus waved and headed east across the soul sand valley. With his map system active, there was no risk of getting lost, even in this alien landscape.
The Soul Sand Valley turned out to be much larger than he'd expected. He had to travel over ten thousand blocks before finally seeing different terrain types in the distance.
As he moved beyond the soul sand region, he began encountering the Nether's native inhabitants. Zombified piglins wandered aimlessly through the red stone caverns. When they noticed Marcus, they didn't attack, just continued their endless, purposeless patrol patterns.
He carefully approached one of the undead creatures until he was standing face-to-face with it. The zombified piglin showed no signs of aggression, confirming that the dimension followed standard Minecraft rules: don't start trouble, and they won't either.
"Good to know the mechanics work the same way here," he muttered, pulling out his pickaxe and shovel.
He quickly gathered samples of soul sand and netherrack, the Nether's equivalent of cobblestone. The netherrack was practically worthless at only 1 EMC per block, while soul sand was slightly more valuable at 62 EMC each.
Considering that soul sand could apparently affect living beings in supernatural ways, that price seemed surprisingly low. But then again, the transmutation tablet might not account for metaphysical properties.
After converting his samples to EMC, he continued deeper into the Nether.
Before long, he spotted what he'd been looking for: piglins.
"Found them!"
These weren't the mindless zombified piglins, but their living cousins. They were intelligent, aggressive, and obsessed with gold. He quickly equipped his golden helmet. Even though it wasn't visibly displayed like in the game, the piglins seemed to sense it and showed no hostility toward him.
He approached the group of piglins and began implementing his plan. He dug a small pit next to them, then pushed each piglin into the hole one by one.
The pushing action didn't register as an attack, so none of them became aggressive. Soon he had half a dozen piglins trapped in the pit, unable to climb out but perfectly healthy and unharmed.
"Now for the real test."
He pulled out a stack of 64 gold ingots from his inventory.
The moment the gold appeared, every piglin in the pit turned to stare at him with intense focus, their eyes locked onto the precious metal with greed.
Marcus tossed the gold ingots into the pit and stepped back to wait.
Now came the interesting part, seeing what these traders would offer in exchange for his gold.