Zeke pulled out his Netherite Pickaxe. "Archmagos Cawl, do you need to study this?"
He asked for Cawl's confirmation. If not, he was going to start mining.
Archmagos Cawl extended a mechanical arm. "This piece of Blackstone is too small. I am searching for the Blackstone array."
Cawl placed an augmented hand onto the black surface of the stone.
Zeke expected the dull clank of metal on rock, but instead, the Blackstone vibrated with a hum. It seemed Cawl had applied a specific force and frequency.
From beneath Zeke's feet came a heavy, resonant echo, one wave after another.
Cawl continued to tap with his augmented hand. "Qvo, record the location of the sound source."
Beside him, Qvo faithfully executed Cawl's command.
"This is merely a spire tip," Archmagos Cawl explained to Zeke.
"A spire tip?" Zeke looked at the Blackstone before him.
"Correct." Archmagos Cawl nodded. "Just the tip of the iceberg." He pointed downward. "Our destination lies below it."
Zeke used his pickaxe to clear the area around the Blackstone. As Cawl had said, the deeper he dug, the thicker the main body of the exposed Blackstone became.
The initial spire tip expanded into a massive pillar.
"This Blackstone spire runs extremely deep. Qvo has determined its lowest point."
Archmagos Cawl looked at the pickaxe in Zeke's hand; he had already witnessed Zeke's ability to clear a path. "We may need you to lead the way."
Cawl felt incredibly fortunate to have brought Zeke along. Otherwise, this research trip might have taken much longer.
Leading the way is what I do best. But before that, Zeke began to hammer at the Blackstone with his pickaxe. He needed to mine some for himself first.
The Blackstone spire tip before him was so massive it seemed endless.
He mined several dozen blocks. Each block dropped 3-5 Blackstone Shards. The dropped shards could be used as Tinkers' Construct materials, or nine could be crafted into a single Blackstone block.
Blackstone was an excellent building material. It was extremely hard—harder than Obsidian—and resistant to explosions and corrosion.
Zeke mined an extra dozen stacks or so to use as blocks.
Then, following the coordinates provided by Cawl, he began to dig downward in a staircase pattern.
He spiraled down along the top of the Blackstone spire, digging deeper and deeper.
After digging for three hours, the mining speed of his pickaxe slowed down. The surrounding stone was changing rapidly, becoming harder and harder.
When the block beneath Zeke's feet disappeared, it revealed a darkness below as thick as ink.
Archmagos Cawl activated several searchlights. However, the beams failed to illuminate the space below; the light was swallowed whole by the darkness, causing not even a ripple.
"Use this." Zeke pulled out several bottles of Night Vision Potion and downed one, finally seeing the space below clearly.
It was a subterranean world. Countless Blackstone spires burst from the ground below, piercing toward the cavern ceiling above.
Some spires remained perfectly vertical, but more were tilted at various angles.
Zeke placed platforms in a spiral around a Blackstone spire, and they descended step by step.
Looking back along the route they had taken, the spiral path of blocks clinging to the outer wall of the Blackstone spire seemed as tiny as an ant trail on a skyscraper.
And the spire beside him was merely an ordinary member of this endless forest of towers.
When Zeke's hand touched the Blackstone spire, text popped up in his chat box.
[Unlocked Blackstone Amplifier. New Dimension Unlocked.]
Blackstone could manipulate the Warp. People of the Imperium only knew it could suppress it, but in reality, if arranged in a special way, it could also amplify the Warp.
This Blackstone Amplifier was used for directional amplification and induction of Warp energy, thereby allowing Zeke to travel to a new dimension—the Warp.
This time, it was the real Warp. Unlike the Nether, which, while located within the Warp, was insulated from most of its effects.
As for how to travel there, Zeke saw four new dimensions listed in the JEI (Just Enough Items) description, representing the domains of the four Chaos Gods.
First, the Palace of Slaanesh in the Circle of Avidity, the Paradise of the Dark Prince.
On the Blackstone Amplifier platform, build a portal frame using Glowstone, then pour a bucket of water...
Glowstone frame plus water? Zeke raised an eyebrow slightly. He was all too familiar with this combination; he had tried it plenty of times back when he first started playing Minecraft.
"Careful!" Archmagos Cawl's voice rang out. Zeke immediately closed the interface and looked around.
Through the Night Vision Potion, he saw that apart from themselves, there were other visitors in this space.
It was Chaos forces, and they weren't stragglers.
Abaddon's Black Legion. Three Chaos Space Marines in deep black armor adorned with blasphemous symbols. The leader was particularly massive; his name was Zufal.
Behind them were five or six Ogryn slaves, standing over four meters tall.
These giants, possessing low intelligence but terrifying strength, were assisting a Dark Mechanicum priest in mining the Blackstone spire under the direction of the Chaos Space Marines.
At the same moment Zeke and Cawl spotted them, the enemy completed their identification as well.
Zufal was one of the first Space Marines to pledge loyalty to Abaddon and join the Black Legion. He had been studying Blackstone pylons for ten millennia.
The function of these Blackstone spires far exceeded imagination. Under Abaddon's orders, he intended to bring a Cadian Blackstone pylon back to his warship for study.
It seemed they had encountered enemies with the same idea.
"Kill them," Zufal ordered.
The Ogryns behind him, holding crude heavy bolters in one hand and massive cleavers in the other, rushed toward Zeke like thick, moving walls.
Zeke immediately switched to combat mode, aiming at an Ogryn charging straight for him.
The Bestiary happens to include this creature. Let's see what good stuff you drop.
Beside him, Cawl moved as well. An armor plate slid open, and a multi-jointed mechanical arm extended, firmly gripping a master-crafted Power Axe of the Omnissiah.
He swung at an Ogryn, cleaving the four-meter-tall giant directly into mincemeat.
The real threat didn't come from these Ogryn slaves.
Using the Ogryns' charge as cover, the two Black Legionnaires beside Zufal raised their meltaguns.
They didn't care at all about friendly fire hitting the Ogryn slaves in front. They fired multiple shots, sending streams of superheated melta energy surging toward Cawl and Zeke.
Facing the melta beams, Cawl stood there calmly, looking back to warn Zeke and Qvo to get closer to him.
Then, he activated his portable Void Shield.
Void Shields were typically installed on massive war engines; portable versions were extremely rare and expensive. It could only be said that Cawl was inhumanly wealthy.
Zeke scooted closer to Cawl, stepping inside the Void Shield just before it sealed shut.