I broke the barricade I made before quickly putting it back.
Beyond that wall the tunnel was filled with green spiders, I got chills only looking at it.
But I couldn't give up yet, I only needed to get one more item.
Then I went back to the caves and filled my bucket with lava before going back.
"This is going to be risky, especially now that I don't have any more milk."
With that said I chugged my last invisibility potion and broke the barricade before putting it back once I was in.
On the walls, floor, and ceiling I could see green creatures with many legs, they seemed to be confused about the sudden disappearance of those blocks but didn't investigate since they appeared back.
With careful steps, I slowly navigate the dangerous tunnel trying not to step on someone's legs accidentally.
After a few agonizing minutes I arrived at my previous place, which had a lot fewer spiders than I expected, but I wouldn't complain about that.
My next course of action was very delicate, especially now that I didn't have the armor on me.
Right beside the mesh of cobwebs, I made a hole into the wall, two blocks deep, and then I waited for the spiders to lose their interest before getting in the action.
I placed the lava bucket on the ceiling which quickly illuminated the room and then burned the web with my flint and steel.
Then I heard a lot of movement in the tunnel, but I didn't stay there to see it, since I went into my hole and blocked it off, waiting in silence and darkness.
After a few seconds had passed all hell broke loose, I could hear the constant hissing of pain and confusion, some of them were right beyond the wall, while others started to run while being on fire, not a pleasant thing to be part of I'm sure.
But even with all the pain in the air, I could hear the panicked hisses about their nest catching on fire, and everyone was getting burned trying to put it out.
I waited a few minutes before the noise started to die down, I leaned into the wall to hear better but only a week hiss was heard.
"Looks like it's over. "
I put the armor back on me and took out my shield, ready to block any surprise attacks.
I broke the upper block which let me see what my plan did, and it was horofing.
I could see burned spiders all over the place, the lava spread more than I expected which resulted in melted bodies at the edge of the lava.
The spiderweb was all gone, nothing was left to show the former glory of the nest.
I started to feel bad about those poor spiders, that was way more brutal than I expected.
Still, I started something so I have to finish it.
I got out, took the lava back, and went on a killing spree with the surviving spiders, they were weekend by the fire that just happened so I managed to kill all of them without getting poisoned or any damage.
I didn't bother to loot them since spiders eyes or string were not on my list for this trip.
Finally, I could go deeper and explore the unknown ruin.
I kept walking and started to see remains of the spiders and other skeletons leaning on the wall.
I didn't know if those were people or monster skeletons with how mest up they were, but one thing was for sure, they were very old.
After walking some more I arrived at the end, which was a huge iron wall.
"I think this is a redstone door, I should find a way to open it. But that's blocks of pure iron, why should I leave them here?"
It's not like anyone is going to use them.
I took out my pickaxe and was ready to break the wall when all of a sudden I heard a deep his coming from above me.
*hissss
I quickly turned around, and to my horror, a green spider as huge as me was jumping off almost reaching me.
I panicked but before it could land on me, a huge long dark hand appeared out of nowhere and slashed its head off, killing it in one swing.
When I looked at the source of the arm, I saw the huge Enderwoman that kept fowling me.
"You follow me even into the mines!? How'd you even get here, the tunnels were half your size!"
The Enderwoman just cleaned her arm while hissing in dissatisfaction.
"Oh sorry, thank you for saving my life."
That attack would surely poison me, and since I didn't have any more milk I would've been in pain for who knows how long.
I do not want to go through that if possible, but the question remains, how did she get here?
I looked at her and saw that she was satisfied with my gratitude, but nothing else different than the last time I saw her.
"Did you follow me through the tunnels, or is there another way down here?"
She just pointed at me, and I assumed that she followed me.
"I know you can speak, why do you keep making gestures then? And why are you following me!"
"You are my human!"
The Enderwoman replayed which made me stop and think.
She can speak, but the only thing she says is that I'm her human. Is this all she can say?
And if she's someone similar to the Endermans, does that mean she sees me as a block?
But I don't remember them taking an interest in living beings, but then again, she is anything but normal.
Fortunately, she doesn't seem to want to hurt me, or just keep me in a cage so I can continue my life as it is.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'm strong enough to get rid of her even if I wanted to.
Can't tower up and shoot at her since she can teleport to me, can't go in a tunnel and hurt her like that because she can crawl through tight spaces.
Looks like I'll have to live with her until she loses interest in me or I can solve the problem on my own.
"OK, you can follow me but I want you to be visible from now on, the only time you can go invisible it's when there's people, I don't want to deal with that if possible. Do you understand?"
The Enderwoman nodded her head in understanding.
That was a good thing, maybe this isn't such a bad thing. I now have a huge monster that is willing to protect me if I'm in danger.
I wonder if she can teleport with me. An experiment for later.
With the pickaxe in my hand, I started to mine the iron block seeing what was beyond for the first time.
And it wasn't something I expected, some of the lights were still working on the ceiling, the walls were all white concrete, and the floor was all wood blocks.
I didn't know if I should go invisible and safe, or just keep my armor on me in case anything happened.
In the end, I decided to keep the armor on me and went on with the exploration, but not forgetting to look at the ceiling now when I entered a new room.
The ruins turned out to be an underground laboratory, and from the size, I wouldn't say it was too big but still held valuable items
It has a cafeteria, a small library, a dorm room, storage space, an enchanting room, an office, and a broken portal.
The last one was an interesting room to see.
First I checked the cafeteria, which unfortunately didn't have anything too valuable, maybe except for a few buckets of milk.
The small library instead was a gold mine, even if some of those books were blank they still held valuable information such as unknown potion recipes without the help of the system, methods of breeding fast animals, architecture guides, some costume enchantment, and even some journals.
This room alone made everything worth it, and I was more than happy to start absorbing everything I found.
Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder which made me realize that I wasn't alone anymore, so I turned and looked at the Enderwoman who was pointing at the book I was holding.
"You want to read this?"
She shook her head as a no, before pointing at me and then at the book.
"You want me to tell you what this is about?"
This time she shook her head in affirmation.
I didn't know Enderman's were that curious.
"This is the journal of someone who used to work here, for some reason he disappeared without taking his book from the desk. I wonder if they fled or got killed, I'll tell you more about it once I've read it. But for now, we still have to explore the other rooms."
The Enderwoman seemed to be satisfied by this and we pressed on.
The dorm room only held beds, so I didn't explore too much of it, instead, the storage room was a treasure trove of items.
Precious ores, diverse blocks, brewing ingredients, enchanted books, and much more, this room alone would make kingdoms salivate, and I could take it all.
It was such a shame that I was so far away from my base, otherwise, I'd start looting right now.
With great effort, I went to explore the other rooms as well.
The office was pretty boring, only a room with a chest that held empty books that I could only assume held valuable information before being wiped by the system.
The portal room was simple in design, unfortunately, a few blocks were missing from the portal frame while others were crying obsidian.
"I think this is how they got into the base since I don't see an opening to the surface."
The Enderwoman tried to pick one of the crying obsidian blocks but it didn't budge no matter how much force she put in.
In the end, she gave up and looked at the other blocks.
Theoretically, I could repair this portal since I had the necessary tools and blocks, but from what I last saw, an old portal is usually connected to a fortress, and usually, those are already occupied by people in the Nether, so there's a high chance someone would wait for us on the other side.
First I would take everything from here, then I'll see if I want to open the portal.
And finally, there was the enchanting room, and the enchanting table was still there which meant that didn't have time to craft one now or borrow it from Brutus.
This mining trip solved all my problems, even though I should still grind on my Crafting skills.
But as I turned around to leave the room I saw something that made me stop.
Above the door, there was a large space that had a lot of signs, but what was special about those signs was the fact that what was written on them was all gibberish, that was until I looked closer.
It was high-level enchanting language!
Those signs had a high level of enchantment and if I looked closer there was an explanation for every symbol!
This is the biggest find of them all, I don't think I'll find anything similar unless I pillage the Sandstone Library itself.
I quickly ran to get an empty book, too afraid that it would suddenly disappear even if it held for hundreds of years with no problem.
The Enderwoman was confused about my actions and kept teleporting after me making Endeman noises, but I kept searching until I finally got what I wanted before running back to the Enchanting room.
"OK, this is something very important for me, so please be quiet while I copy everything on that wall, don't touch anything that looks like a button or lever. Who knows if this place has a self-distraction protocol."
While she was confused, she still accepted my request moving with great care around the room.
I just concentrated on the wall, this was a breakthrough for my studies and I wouldn't dare miss it.