132: Underwater Mineshaft, Journey Complete

It was a village—and not a small one either.

Pastures and farmland stretched neatly in place.

There were at least twenty houses, albeit all simple boxy builds.

But even so, among the intersecting paths of the village, they could see quite a few villagers wandering about aimlessly.

Iron golems stood guard at the edge of the forest bordering the village.

From a quick glance, many of the villagers roaming outside already had assigned professions.

Compared to the previous village, this one was larger, more organized, and clearly more developed.

Naturally, making improvements to a village of this scale would yield much better results.

"Ryen?"

Ganyu's voice came from behind, with a slight hint of displeasure in her tone.

Hu Tao was startled. Her legs were still a little wobbly, but she quickly wriggled out of Ryen's embrace.

Waving her hands rapidly, she explained:

"Ganyu, don't get the wrong idea! I almost tripped just now, and Ryen caught me!"

Ganyu nodded gently and calmly took Ryen's hand.

Seeing that, Hu Tao—though she couldn't explain why—puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

"This village looks way better than the last one," Zhongli remarked, appearing beside Ryen at some point.

Ryen turned to respond, but the moment he saw Zhongli, he almost couldn't hold back his laughter.

Despite throwing the fewest snowballs earlier, he somehow ended up in the worst shape.

His hair, face, even his clothes—all bore traces of snowball impact.

Noticing Ryen's amused expression, Zhongli gave him a slightly helpless look.

With a surge of elemental energy, the snow traces vanished instantly.

Zhongli didn't mind—after all, it had been over six thousand years since he last joined a snowball fight.

And truth be told, it was quite enjoyable.

Though, perhaps what made it truly fun… was sharing the moment with friends.

Xiao, on the other hand, hadn't hit him with a single snowball. In fact, he had silently used his own body to block quite a few for him.

That was exactly what left Zhongli feeling both grateful and conflicted.

Even during play, Xiao clung to his principle of protecting him with his life.

It was touching, sure—but Zhongli really wished Xiao could loosen up a bit.

If he'd just thrown even one snowball at him, Zhongli might've been even happier.

Not long after, the group had all gathered. They brushed off the snow from their clothes.

Keqing excitedly started counting the houses.

"This village is loaded! Looks like there are at least twenty villagers, right?"

"With that many, we can round them up for a bit while we renovate this place into a base."

"And with villagers set up, we can launch our tech upgrades immediately!"

Hearing that, Ryen chuckled.

He still remembered—just a month ago, when Keqing first came here, she wanted to trade fairly with the villagers.

Now, just thirty days later, she'd grown into an exploiter rivaling Ryen himself.

She sure adapted fast...

"There are iron golems nearby. If we act directly against the villagers, they might retaliate," Xiao said softly. He summoned his weapon and added,

"Should I take care of it?"

Ryen shook his head lightly and glanced at Ganyu.

Understanding immediately, she turned and drew her Barrett, climbing to a vantage point to aim down at the iron golem from atop the hill.

The distance was only a few hundred meters—child's play for Ganyu.

She peered through the scope and casually pulled the trigger.

A deafening boom rang out—the second time today.

In the blink of an eye, the golem collapsed, dropping iron ingots before vanishing.

Ryen gave Ganyu a light shoulder rub and said gently,

"Thanks for the help, Ganyu."

She smiled softly, unfazed by the gesture.

With a bit of Steve-like resilience in her body, the recoil of the Barrett was nothing.

Not that it mattered—by this point, there was nowhere Ryen hadn't already...

With Ganyu on his left and Nahida on his right, Ryen pointed to a nearby well and said:

"See that well? Go ring the bell above it—once it sounds, the villagers should head back into their homes. After that, we'll pick the biggest house and gather them all inside."

Everyone nodded and followed Ryen down the hill.

It was just a few hundred meters away, even with the downhill path.

A walk of a minute or two at most.

By now, they all knew this world's mechanics inside out.

As soon as they reached the ground, Xiao spun around and fired an arrow at the bell above the well.

The chime rang out.

Instantly, the villagers scattered and bolted into their homes like startled animals.

Ryen chuckled and waved his hand.

"Alright, let's split up. Xiao, Zhongli—you two build a perimeter around this place. Set up torches to keep mobs out at night."

"Keqing and Hu Tao—go door to door and scavenge all the usable resources."

"I'm going to check if there's a mineshaft beneath this well. We'll meet back here and round up the villagers afterward."

"And then..."

Before he could finish, Hu Tao looked at him with bright, eager eyes.

"Then we head up the snow mountain, right?"

Ryen blinked, then laughed and ruffled her hair.

"You can go anytime. But after that, we need to gather the lucky blocks around here and head back to base."

"We'll send someone over later to restore this village and set it up as our second resource outpost."

Hu Tao wanted to argue—after all, it was rare for them to visit the snowy mountains.

But feeling his hand atop her head, she just blushed and gave a tiny nod.

Catching Ganyu's gaze, she quickly swatted Ryen's hand away and pouted.

"Alright, alright! Stop treating me like a kid! I'm not Nahida, you know!"

"?"

Nahida tilted her head in confusion, her wide eyes blank as she looked at Hu Tao.

Wrongfully dragged into it, she wasn't pleased.

She was already frustrated enough that her childlike build meant Ryen always treated her like a kid.

Now Hu Tao had gone and stabbed her right in the pride.

If Nahida weren't so gentle-natured, she'd have leapt up and smacked Hu Tao on the knee right about now.

Ryen just chuckled and said nothing.

He waved his hand and walked toward the well in the distance.

In truth, many village wells had abandoned mineshafts underneath.

"Abandoned" was a stretch—those kinds of areas usually had way more resources than standard caves.

After all, regular caves didn't come with rails, minecarts...

Or bookshelves, for that matter.

In truth, this place even had monster spawners.

Rather than calling it an abandoned mineshaft, it would be more fitting to call it a dungeon.

Ganyu, Nahida, and Ningguang followed behind Ryen, watching as he changed out of his Frost Walker boots.

Ningguang asked in a soft voice,

"Are you confident?"

"Is it safe?"

Ryen smiled and pointed to his full diamond armor, joking:

"I'm fully geared in diamond. It's pretty hard to get one-shot now."

Ningguang's eyes curved slightly in amusement.

"I meant the mineshaft beneath the well."

Hearing that, Ryen shrugged.

"Can't say for sure. Not every village well leads to an abandoned mineshaft."

"In any case, let's dig down and see. I've just enchanted Aqua Affinity, after all."

With that, he waved his hand and jumped down into the well.

To be honest, this was his first time diving into water.

Most lakes they'd passed before had drowned mobs, and Ryen wasn't exactly eager to swim with them.

The moment he hit the water, he glanced at his player HUD.

Just like in the game, bubbles showed his remaining breath.

He had brought a door with him—though Aqua Affinity sped up underwater mining, it was best to be cautious.

While thinking this through, he quickly sank to the bottom.

Digging beneath a well to find mineshafts took some technique.

Usually, one had to dig from the top-right corner—but Ryen wasn't sure which way was the top-right anymore.

Still, that wasn't much of a problem.

He pulled out his diamond pickaxe and activated vein mining.

Ryen began mining rapidly. In no time, he'd carved out a large area.

Water pressure pushed him sideways.

But he soon found his footing.

Unfortunately, there was no mineshaft this time.

Judging by the depth and distance, just one more dig would confirm it.

Not wasting a second, Ryen struck with his pick again.

This time, as the stone crumbled, the water current suddenly surged.

A glowing gap appeared.

Ryen's eyes widened slightly, a flicker of joy flashing through them.

He hadn't expected it—but this village did have an abandoned mineshaft.

Faint spider sounds echoed from within.

Clearly, the spawner inside was a cave spider spawner.

Ryen had no intention of exploring it himself right now.

He casually tossed some stone blocks beneath his feet to lift himself out of the water current.

Glancing up, he saw that Ningguang and the others had already broken open the wooden planks sealing the well.

Without hesitation, Ryen pulled out an Ender Pearl, took aim, and threw it.

In the next second, he reappeared above ground.

A faint ache rippled through his body—he'd lost half a heart.

That was with Feather Falling, too.

But it was nothing serious—he'd regenerate soon enough.

And if food didn't cut it, he could always use the Lifesteal Staff to take a bite out of a nearby cow.

"Did you find anything, Ryen?"

Nahida stepped forward and gently pressed her hand to his chest. Elemental energy surged, instantly evaporating the water clinging to him.

Ryen smiled and ruffled her hair, speaking softly:

"Found it. There is an abandoned mineshaft down there—though honestly, calling it a dungeon is more accurate."

"Looks like a cave spider spawner. We'll have the Millelith and miners handle it once things are stable here. Shouldn't be too difficult."

Ningguang nodded and mentally took note.

Right now, they had plenty of iron—many Millelith in this Minecraft world were already equipped with full iron armor.

Ten or so Millelith would be enough to sweep through the place.

If anyone got seriously hurt in there, well… that'd be on their lack of skill.

Just then, Zhongli and the others returned.

Keqing sighed slightly in disappointment:

"I just went to check. Since we've never traded with these villagers before, their trades are limited and expensive."

"That's not a problem—we've got Lucky Blocks."

Ryen shook his head lightly.

"I also found an underground mineshaft. Let's herd the villagers into a house for now, and we'll head back to call in a work crew."

This time, Ryen didn't plan to handle the village reconstruction himself.

Ningguang and the others had already mastered plenty of unique tech, and the Millelith and miners were familiar with how this world worked.

Building up a village base was a small task for them now.

From here on, it would be up to them to explore the nearby mineshafts and collect resources.

The snow mountain bordering the desert was bound to be rich in materials—there was nothing to worry about there.

All in all, this trip had been quite fruitful.

The only regret was that they didn't find a Woodland Mansion or a Pillager Outpost.

But even that wasn't a big deal—like Ryen said,

They had Lucky Blocks.

From now on, aside from specific redstone builds and rare structures, all regular resource gathering and construction in the Minecraft world would be left to the Millelith and the miners.

Ningguang and the others had no intention of wasting their time gathering materials anymore.

This trip had broadened everyone's horizons.

Deep down, what they truly wanted—was to keep exploring the wonders of this world with Ryen.

Two days of travel, and the journey was complete.

Once the village was repaired, everyone finally teleported back to the manor villa.