Since he had decided to make an incursion into the Nether, Carl began to prepare,
first checking the equipment available.
He crafted a full set of iron armor, a sword, a shield and two pickaxes, as well as a bow with several stacks of arrows to deal with ghasts without having to get close.
He also stored stone blocks, torches and enough food for several days, since his first priority would be securing the portal before beginning to explore.
Finally, he added a piece of gold armor to avoid unnecessary problems with the greedy piglins.
Then he called one of his clones and ordered him to gather obsidian, while two others would hunt spiders, gather sugar and brown mushrooms to craft fermented spider eyes.
The three clones returned shortly afterward, one with enough obsidian for several portals and the others with spiders, sugar and brown mushrooms.
Carl crafted the fermented spider eyes and stored them in a separate chest, since he still needed blaze rods to build brewing stands and complete the rest of the process.
Afterward, he chose a rocky area away from the crops, placed ten obsidian blocks in a rectangle and lit the inside with flint and steel.
A purple surface covered the opening with a deep hum, while small particles floated around it and disappeared before touching the ground.
Carl opened his inventory and put on a pair of gold boots that contrasted ridiculously with the rest of his iron armor.
The clones had already prepared their own armor and weapons, but Carl made sure each of them was also wearing a piece of gold before allowing them to approach the portal.
"If those things attack one of you, we'll all have to fight," Carl said while adjusting the straps of his shield.
Carl stepped through the purple surface first and the three clones entered behind him with their weapons ready.
The world distorted around him with a deep hum; the cool air outside was replaced by a dry heat that scraped his throat.
Carl appeared inside a netherrack cavern, a few blocks away from an opening overlooking an enormous lava lake.
The clones emerged behind him one after another, moving away from the portal just before the next clone could push them into the lava.
Orange light rose from the depths revealing irregular columns, lavafalls and several islands suspended over the void.
A distant growl reminded them that admiring the scenery was a good way to end up burning.
Carl ordered two clones to place stone blocks around the portal, while the third watched the opening with his bow drawn.
The four of them closed off the ceiling and sides first, protecting the structure from any stray fireball.
They built a narrow entrance with an angled turn and added an iron door.
Carl marked the position on the minimap and one of the clones raised a stone pillar beside the entrance, tall enough to be seen from several points in the cavern.
When they finished, they heard footsteps on the other side of a netherrack formation and all four raised their shields.
Three piglins appeared with gold swords, grunting as they approached until they noticed the golden pieces among their iron armor.
The first one dropped his weapon and stared greedily at Carl's boots for several seconds.
"Get yours, my friend." Carl said with a smile, the piglin grunted resentfully.
Carl took out a gold ingot and threw it in front of the group to see if bartering worked the same way as in the game.
The nearest piglin picked up the ingot, examined it carefully and finally threw a pile of gravel at his feet.
Carl looked at the gravel and then at the piglin, while the clones kept their hands close to their weapons.
"You just robbed me," Carl grumbled disconsolated.
The piglin clutched the ingot against its chest and stepped back behind its companions.
"Coward!" said Carl, pouting, for a moment he could have sworn he saw the creature smile.
Then he tried several more ingots and received leather, string, iron nuggets and a bottle containing a fire resistance potion, the bottle at least made up for the gravel, Carl stored the potion in his hotbar and began making his way around the lava lake with the clones behind him.
One placed torches at every intersection, another marked the route with stone blocks and the third watched the upper platforms with his bow.
The minimap showed the nearby terrain, but the overlapping cavities turned some routes into patches that were difficult to interpret.
Carl collected Nether quartz along the way and avoided a vein located above a precipice, since no amount of experience justified digging while lava waited below.
A high-pitched shriek tore through the cavern before a fireball struck the wall to his right.
The explosion tore away several blocks of netherrack and pushed Carl toward the edge, where one of his boots ended up suspended over the lake.
The clone walking behind him grabbed the back of his armor, while the other two searched for the attacker with their bows.
Carl drove the tip of his sword into the ground and managed to push himself away from the precipice, while burning fragments fell into the lava many meters below.
The ghast floated on the other side of the cavern with its mouth open, preparing to fire again.
"Shoot it when it opens its mouth," Carl ordered while taking cover behind a column.
The second fireball struck one of the stone markers they had placed a few minutes earlier, proving that securing the route had not been a waste of time.
The three clones leaned out from different sides of the column and released their bowstrings almost simultaneously.
Two arrows narrowly missed, but the third sank into the ghast's body and made it recoil in the air.
Carl fired when the creature opened its mouth again and another arrow struck its face before it could launch the next fireball.
The enormous creature tilted, began to fall and died directly above the lava.
Carl watched as the possible loot disappeared among the flames.
"Of course, it would be too much to ask for you to fall on this side."
After making sure there wasn't another ghast nearby, they continued along a ledge until dark lines appeared at the edge of the minimap.
The structure turned out to be a Nether fortress partially buried inside the netherrack, with several corridors exposed above the lava lake.
Carl opened a tunnel toward one of the walls, while the clones protected the rear and replaced the blocks behind the group.
They entered through a small opening and closed it behind them so they wouldn't announce their arrival.
The hallway was empty, although the sound of bones against stone came from a nearby corner.
Carl placed two blocks at the height of his head before advancing, creating a barrier they could pass beneath, but a wither skeleton couldn't.
The creature rounded the corner with a stone sword raised and charged toward them without hesitation.
All four retreated beneath the barrier, waited for the skeleton to collide with the blocks and attacked its legs from the other side.
The wither skeleton tried to reach them several times before falling, leaving coal and bones on the dark bricks.
"Not much of a reward, but at least you didn't throw gravel," Carl commented while collecting the items.
They explored two dead-end corridors before finding a staircase with Nether wart growing on soul sand.
Two clones watched the entrances, while Carl and the third gathered the mature warts and several blocks of sand.
Carl left the smaller sprouts untouched in case they needed to return.
A sound similar to the crackling of a bonfire came from the upper floor, followed by a yellow glow moving behind an opening.
Carl took out the fire resistance potion, but stopped before drinking it when he remembered that a single bottle wouldn't be enough to protect all four of them.
"You stay behind the corner and shoot from here," Carl ordered while handing stone blocks to one of the clones.
The clones raised cover with small openings for their bows, while Carl drank the potion and advanced with his shield raised.
Two blazes floated beside a spawner, surrounded by rotating rods and black smoke.
The first launched a burst of fire as soon as Carl appeared, covering the corridor in flames that engulfed his armor without burning him.
Even with the potion, the impact knocked him back against the wall and allowed the second blaze to begin firing.
The clones' arrows passed through the openings in the cover and struck the second blaze before it could complete its attack.
Carl raised his shield, advanced through the flames and struck the nearest one with his sword until it dissolved into a cloud of smoke.
A blaze rod fell to the floor, but the second enemy floated over the railing and moved beyond the sword's reach.
Carl stepped back to clear the corridor and the three clones fired from behind the cover.
Two arrows struck the blaze and sent it falling onto the lower corridor.
The spawner began producing more smoke and a new silhouette appeared inside the cage.
Carl placed torches around it out of habit, although he knew they wouldn't be enough to stop it completely, and helped expand the stone shelter from which they could attack without being exposed from every direction.
During the next few minutes they eliminated several blazes, rotating positions so none of them took too many hits and retreating to eat whenever their energy began to decrease.
Carl collected the rods only when the corridor was clear, while two clones covered the spawner and the third watched the stairs.
They retreated when Carl counted nine rods, since staying for a tenth would only serve to tempt the lava, the skeletons or his own bad luck.
The return trip was faster thanks to the stone markers, although they maintained the same formation to prevent an attack from knocking them off a ledge.
A magma cube jumped from an upper platform and landed in front of the entrance to the portal shelter.
Carl struck it with his sword and the cube split into smaller creatures that began bouncing between the four of them.
The clones formed a semicircle in front of the door and struck the creatures whenever they tried to approach.
One of them collided with Carl's gold boots and was sent flying into the lava.
"Finally these things are good for something," Carl said while finishing off the last small cube.
He stored the magma cream they obtained and waited for the clones to enter the shelter before closing the iron door.
The portal remained active and the emergency chest was still intact.
Carl stepped through first, followed by the three clones, and the heat of the Nether was replaced by the cool air of the Overworld.
One of the clones immediately removed his piece of gold and looked at Carl's boots, covered in soot and deformed from the impacts.
"They worked perfectly," Carl declared before leaving the boots on a table.
The clones unloaded the quartz, soul sand, Nether wart and the rest of the materials into separate chests, while Carl stored the nine blaze rods.
With some of them he crafted enough powder for several processes and built the first brewing stands, where he placed the Nether wart alongside bottles of water.
The fermented spider eyes were no longer just stored ingredients, but he would still have to prepare gunpowder and golden apples.
Carl stored one blaze rod separately, ordered the clones to inspect the damaged equipment and headed to a bed to fully recover the energy spent during the incursion.
He slept until the exhaustion completely disappeared and woke up with his repaired armor on a stand beside the bed.
On top of the nearest chest rested his pistol, still with the same magazine he had carried into the Nether.
One of the clones pointed at the weapon and then at the dents in the iron chestplate, without needing to ask the question.
"I wanted to see if I could do it using only Minecraft equipment." Carl replied while checking the magazine.
In any case, he had trusted that he could overcome the incursion with only the help of three clones, because if he couldn't even do it like that... well, then he was fucked.
Although nearly dying made him reconsider his decision, it was a mistake he didn't intend to make again.
"Next time I'll use it without hesitation," he added while placing the pistol in his inventory.
Carl checked the chests one last time, left instructions to produce the potions as soon as possible.
He also left instructions for them to build new farms to automate the production of food, bone meal and gunpowder, as well as expand the storage areas, pens and defenses of the shelter.
Fortunately, the Shadow Clone Jutsu granted by the system was a modified version, so the clones wouldn't disappear unless they took damage, the disadvantage was that they needed food to produce their own energy.
Of course, in Minecraft that posed no problem, once he had finished giving his instructions, he summoned the portal and returned to reality.
Author's Note: Don't forget to leave your thoughts, it's what motivates me to keep writing.