Standing atop the newly constructed wall, the group gazed into the distance, watching as the first wave of the assault approached.
Perhaps because this was merely the initial wave, there weren't many powerful enemies present.
All in all, there were eight pillagers accompanied by a single ravager.
To be honest, it wasn't difficult at all. Even if Ryen and the others didn't intervene, the Millelith soldiers could handle the situation effortlessly.
But this was only the first wave—a mere introductory skirmish.
Besides, in a typical Minecraft world, when villagers faced pillager raids, they would simply hide in their homes.
Now, however, this base housed hundreds of people, all of whom could fight. Ryen couldn't guarantee that, after recognizing this difference, the future waves wouldn't become exponentially harder.
Everyone looked at the approaching pillagers and found the whole thing somewhat comical. They had all prepared extensively, expecting that an attack would mean an overwhelming horde of dozens or even hundreds of enemies.
But now…
There was no need for any complicated strategy. The Millelith archers stationed in the watchtowers fired arrows at them, and the pillagers couldn't even get within fifty meters of the base.
After a brief silence, Ningguang waved her hand dismissively.
"Regardless, weak enemies are a good thing. But we shouldn't always count on them staying this weak."
"Prepare to attack!"
Upon hearing the order, the Millelith immediately straightened their stances, arrows nocked and ready.
At that moment, Ryen suddenly spoke in a soft voice.
"Focus your arrows on the pillagers. As for the ravager, leave it alone. Let the iron golem handle it."
"Don't attack recklessly—if you accidentally hit the golem, things could get messy."
Everyone nodded seriously, though they couldn't help but find his warning a little odd.
The real threat wasn't the enemies, but their own iron golem?
That sounded absurd!
But they couldn't doubt it either. After all, they had seen with their own eyes the raw power of that golem's punches.
It was basically a one-punch golem.
"Also, assign a squad to keep a close watch on the skies. If anything flies overhead—friend or foe—shoot it down immediately."
With that, Ryen said no more, and the Millelith immediately split into their designated positions—some on guard, others ready to attack.
Hu Tao curiously poked Ryen in the waist, lowering her voice as she asked,
"Ryen, did you spot an evoker hiding in the shadows? Did it summon vexes?"
The moment she spoke, everyone tensed up, their eyes sweeping across the dim forest.
Unlike pillagers, who dropped only minor loot when defeated, evokers carried Totems of Undying.
No matter how powerful an evoker was, no one here would hesitate to hunt one down.
The rewards were absolutely worth the effort.
Ryen chuckled, shaking his head.
"What are you thinking? There's no evoker—at least, not yet. There's no way one would appear in the first wave."
"I'm more concerned about phantoms. Those things are annoying."
Ryen hadn't forgotten—by his estimate, they had spent at least two days in the Nether.
Now that they were back, today marked the third day.
Which meant that both he and Ningguang—along with the others—had fulfilled the conditions for phantom spawning.
Those creatures could attack from above at any moment.
And right now, it was dusk. At this rate, if the battle dragged into the night, phantoms were practically guaranteed to appear.
If they weren't prepared, they could end up getting overwhelmed—raiders attacking from the ground, vexes and phantoms swarming from the sky.
It would be an absolute nightmare.
With this in mind, Ryen softly explained,
"Phantoms are a type of hostile aerial mob."
"If we go three days without sleeping, they spawn in the Overworld at night and launch aerial attacks."
"They're not exactly the strongest enemies, but they're a pain to deal with."
"If we keep avoiding sleep, they'll just keep spawning endlessly. And considering we're already dealing with a raid, this is far from ideal."
"Think about it—how long has it been since any of us last slept?"
Ganyu froze for a moment before suddenly realizing,
"Today marks the third day!"
Ryen shrugged.
"Each of us could spawn between one and six phantoms. There are five of us who haven't slept. If we're unlucky, we could be looking at thirty phantoms in one go."
That realization made everyone's expressions turn stiff.
Under normal circumstances, thirty phantoms wouldn't be a major problem.
But with a raid already underway, they couldn't afford to split their forces too much.
Yet, asking Ganyu and the others to go sleep right now was completely absurd.
They were in the middle of a battle, after all.
Seeing everyone's conflicted expressions, Ryen waved his hand casually, smiling.
"Relax, just keep an eye out. At the end of the day, we have the numbers on our side."
"Besides, phantom membranes are valuable loot."
"Not only can they be used to repair elytras, but they're also key ingredients for making slow-falling potions. With those potions, even without gliders, you can jump from great heights without a problem."
"I was planning to farm some anyway, so this actually works out. Now we don't even have to go looking for cats."
The others exchanged puzzled looks.
He had been talking about phantoms, so why did he suddenly mention cats?
But by now, they were used to Ryen's train of thought.
"So we should take advantage of tonight and farm as many phantom membranes as possible?"
Ningguang glanced at the Millelith, who had already begun their attack, and spoke thoughtfully.
Ryen had no objections.
"Best case scenario, we use weapons with Looting enchantments to maximize phantom membrane drops."
"But that's not urgent for now."
After a moment's thought, Ryen scanned the base, eventually selecting an open area.
"Once I finish building the redstone cannon and confirm it's working properly, we can focus on hunting phantoms."
"We'll set up a glass trap, and if all goes well, we'll use Looting-enchanted weapons to farm as many membranes as we need tonight."
Seeing how confident Ryen was, everyone chose not to press further.
Though they were still curious about the Phantoms, in the grand scheme of things, they didn't see them as a major threat.
Sure, Phantom Membranes were useful, but compared to what was coming?
The next waves of attacks would bring Evokers—carrying Totems of Undying.
And to any flesh-and-blood human, what could be more valuable than a second chance at life?
"You know… I just realized something." Ningguang mused. "The monsters in this world seem to drop incredibly useful materials."
"Endermen drop Ender Pearls, allowing teleportation. Skeletons drop bones, which can be turned into Bone Meal for fast farming. Evokers drop Totems of Undying…"
Her golden eyes glimmered with a calculating light. "With all that in mind, maybe we shouldn't be avoiding monsters at all. We should be actively hunting them to collect their resources."
Ryen grinned. "Exactly. That's why I keep saying that in this world, monsters are just another form of valuable resource."
"Otherwise, why do you think I went through the trouble of building a mob farm and a Slime farm?"
He stretched lazily. "Once this raid is over, we'll take a short break, and then we're heading back to the Nether—" he suddenly caught Hu Tao's teasing gaze and corrected himself. "Ahem, I mean, the 'Underworld'."
Ignoring her stifled laughter, Ryen continued: "I'll sort out the Blaze Spawner, make it safe, and set up a system where we can regularly farm Blaze Rods without too much risk."
Ningguang's sharp mind quickly followed his train of thought. "I can draft a few Millelith soldiers—ones with excellent reflexes—train them to efficiently farm Ghast Tears."
"Magma Cubes also drop Magma Cream, which is useful. And we can't forget about the Piglins and their gold trades…"
Just like that, she was already planning their operations for the next half-month.
Ryen chuckled and shook his head. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Nether is huge, and we've only found the Fortress so far. There's still one more key location we need to find."
His eyes gleamed with excitement. "At some point, I need to locate Ancient Debris. Netherite is even stronger than diamonds."
"One step at a time."
He stretched again, this time reaching out to rub Nahida's soft ears, eliciting a confused blink from the little archon. With his other arm, he casually pulled Ganyu closer.
Enjoying the best of both worlds, he sighed contentedly before saying:
"For now, let's focus on surviving this raid, farming some Phantom Membranes, and getting our Nether Wart farm up and running tomorrow. That way, we can start mass-producing alchemical potions."
"After that, once we upgrade some Redstone contraptions, we can move on to planning out our Nether operations properly."
"There's still a lot to do, and the next mod pack will be unlocked soon. We won't be getting much rest."
The thought of a new mod had Ryen feeling excited.
At this point, he had accumulated ninety-three diamonds.
Their recent expeditions into mineshafts and caves had been fruitful, but even so, his actual diamond count should have been much lower.
The real reason he had progressed so quickly—
Was thanks to trading with Piglins for enchanted diamond gear and looting diamond horse armor from the Nether Fortress.
It was an unexpected loophole, but since diamond items counted toward his progress, he wasn't about to complain.
Otherwise, if he had relied solely on mining, he'd barely have a dozen diamonds at this point.
Ningguang chuckled and shot him a knowing look. "So, the last mod you unlocked—the Chain Miner mod—its biggest impact so far has been… helping Cloud Retainer demolish mountains?"
"Hah?"
Cloud Retainer huffed, her wings twitching in mild irritation. "Well, excuse me for using it effectively. And besides, wasn't it you all who decided that strip mining with Chain Mining was too dangerous?"
"Meanwhile, that little mining prodigy over there keeps it active all the time."
She gestured toward a certain petite figure.
Ningguang didn't argue—because she couldn't deny it.
Now that most of the Pillagers were dead, only a single Ravager remained.
Unfortunately for the beast, it had already been cornered by two Iron Golems and was seconds away from meeting its end.
Seeing that there was nothing left to do, Ryen turned away and hopped off the battlements.
"Let's go. Time to collect our loot and build some Redstone cannons."
"Also, someone fetch some iron ingots—we need to repair the Iron Golems."
Everyone followed him down from the walls.
As soon as they reached the ground, a squad of Millelith soldiers rushed out, excitedly gathering arrows and scavenging the battlefield.
Any intact arrows were retrieved for future use.
Though arrows were technically free, they were still valuable war resources.
Of course, the most important loot—
Was the Emeralds.
Ryen didn't concern himself with the collection process. Instead, he stood at the gate, surveying their surroundings.
Ningguang and the others gathered around him, observing the terrain.
After a brief moment, Ryen pointed to the area on either side of the main gate.
"Remove the stone walls here and replace them with wooden fences. That way, people inside can safely operate the cannons without being exposed to enemy attacks."
No sooner had he spoken than a group of workers immediately moved in, efficiently dismantling the cobblestone barriers.
Within minutes, wooden fences were erected in their place.
Now, there were two defensive areas on either side of the gate—plus an additional Redstone cannon placed directly in front of the iron doors.
The entire setup followed a simple principle:
Defenders inside the walls could fire from relative safety.
The cannon in front of the gate was operated manually—if the defenders couldn't hold, they could quickly retreat inside and seal the doors.
A strategic balance between offense and defense.
Satisfied, Ryen placed down a Crafting Table and pulled out his Redstone supplies.
As he prepared to craft, he suddenly paused and looked up.
"What do you guys think? Should we go for a rapid-fire bombing system… or a single-shot mortar?"
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