After getting a free meal from Fury, Mario got a ride back to the factory in one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s unmarked vehicles.
He immediately started unloading various pieces of equipment from his inventory. Unfortunately, the main J.A.R.V.I.S. server hadn't been located in Tony's mansion. That would've been the real prize.
Still, he had managed to grab Tony's original clumsy robotic arm from when the guy was a kid. The thing had personality, even if it did make messes.
"After a longday, it's about time to get some rest."
He had left a massive quantity of items stored in boxes back in Los Angeles, but right now all he wanted was to relax with some fishing and maybe explore the Twilight Forest dimension. The rest of those things could wait until he had time to make another trip or unlocked a better storage mod.
He traveled through the Nether portal network back to Central Park and settled into his usual spot on the bench near the lake. He cast his fishing line into the water.
A quick glance at his mini-map showed something puzzling.
"Only two waves of Hydra scouts and they've already stopped sending people? That's weak. They should be probing at least ten times before giving up."
Time slipped by as his thoughts wandered. He pulled up item after item from the water, most of it junk that went straight into the lava. But occasionally something useful appeared.
"Three Protection IV books. Not bad for an evening's work."
As night fell, Mario packed up his fishing rod and headed home. The moment he stepped inside, Pearl came flapping over.
"We heading out to work tonight?"
Looking at the vampire who always perked up after sunset, Mario chuckled. "You can make your own rounds tonight. I've got some personal business to handle."
Pearl's excitement dimmed slightly, but then he thought about all those arrogant vampires from his past groveling at his feet, and his mood recovered.
"Alright. Just give me more bottles. I'll range farther out this time. There are way too few vampires around here now."
"Yeah, that's a problem. When I was in Los Angeles, I noticed their population is just as bad as New York's was, maybe worse. We'll hit other cities soon enough."
"Really? I definitely want to see other cities someday!"
Flapping his small wings, Pearl departed into the night while Mario walked alone toward the portal leading to the Twilight Forest.
Stepping once more into that realm, he gazed at the towering Lich Tower. Since defeating the Naga last time, the magical barrier covering the entire structure had vanished, opening it up for exploration.
As he approached the tower, he thought, The scepters dropped by Twilight Liches are seriously good loot. Need to kill several of them, at least enough to collect all four types of scepters.
When he reached the tower entrance, he found every doorway sealed with stone blocks. Rather than waste time searching for a hidden entrance, he pulled out his pickaxe and simply dug through the wall.
Inside, the tower was pitch black. His first welcome came in the form of several sheets of paper that smacked him in the face.
Slap. Slap.
"Sneak attacks? Really?"
Mario focused his eyes and spotted several Death Tomes, hostile mobs that only spawned inside Lich Towers. They looked exactly like their in-game counterparts: open books with sheets of paper floating around them in lazy orbits.
Drawing his diamond sword, he charged toward the floating books, only to realize he'd been hit with a Slowness II debuff.
"Like a damn mosquito. Doesn't hurt much, just annoying as hell."
The Death Tomes only dealt 6 damage per hit, practically nothing against his fully enchanted netherite armor. But the debuff was irritating. Rather than waste milk to clear it, he simply pulled out a bow enchanted with Flame and started shooting. The books took double damage from fire.
Compared to the Hollow Hills, the Lich Tower had far fewer regular mobs. He cleared them out floor by floor, watching them dissolve into loot drops.
Looking up toward the top floor of the tower, he could clearly see a cage inside one of the rooms, the Twilight Lich's mob spawner. The moment he reached the top floor, the boss would immediately spawn.
"Lower floors are pitch black, but the Twilight Lich's chamber is lit up like a Christmas tree. How thoughtful."
With his current strength, defeating a Twilight Lich was trivial. He quickly made his way to the top floor, where a lich wearing a golden crown materialized, surrounded by five golden, transparent shields.
A magical fireball shot straight toward him, looking like a clump of magma cream from vanilla Minecraft. He immediately pulled out his peacock feather fan and gave it a light wave.
BOOM!
The fireball exploded mid-air, but unfortunately it was too far from the Twilight Lich to damage any of its shields.
Mario pulled a splash potion of instant healing from his inventory and lobbed it at the undead spellcaster. Red healing particles burst outward, and one of the Twilight Lich's shields instantly shattered.
After a barrage of healing potions, the lich's magical shields broke completely, leaving only the simple melee phase.
He then pulled out a wooden boat he'd prepared in advance. Timing it perfectly, he placed it at the lich's feet. The boss immediately sat down in the boat like a cooperative NPC, completely unable to attack or move.
From there, it was just a matter of slowly whittling down its health bar.
In less than a minute, the Twilight Lich collapsed at Mario's feet, dissolving into loot.
Opening the treasure chest that appeared, he examined the drops. A Scepter of Twilight lay inside, crafted from bones and a deep blue ender pearl.
"Damn. I was hoping for the Scepter of Life Draining. Oh well, need to collect them all anyway."
He picked up the scepter and tested it, aiming at a wall. A magical pearl shot out and struck the stone.
"Bit slow on the projectile speed."
He gave it a few swings. "Actually handles more like a mace than a wand. Decent weight distribution. Too bad it doesn't do melee damage."
He shook his head ruefully.
Storing the loot in his inventory, he dug a hole through the tower wall. Looking down at the dizzying height, he pulled out his peacock feather fan and leaped off the top of the structure.
As he neared the ground, he gave the fan a gentle wave. A gust of wind slowed his descent until he landed softly on the forest floor.
"That never gets old."
He almost wanted to climb back up and do it again, but reason prevailed. There would be plenty of chances later. He looked around at the tall twilight oaks nearby.
Perfect opportunity to search for hollow tree trunks. If I remember right, the chests inside them can contain rare saplings. Let's see if I can find Tree of Time or Tree of Transformation saplings. Plant one back home and see what happens.
He gazed at a towering twilight oak tree. He pulled flint and steel from his inventory and struck it with a sharp click, sending flames dancing to life.
The fire grew as wind fanned it, and the massive oak was slowly consumed by the blaze. For some reason, a thought from his childhood popped into his mind, his grandmother warning him about forest fires.
Nonno would kill me if he saw this.
Fortunately, the trees in the Twilight Forest stood far apart from each other, so there was no risk of one fire setting the entire dimension ablaze.
Soon, excitement flickered across his face. As the oak's leaves burned away, a chest and a monster spawner were revealed within the hollow trunk.
---
Carrying the items he'd obtained from the Twilight Forest, Mario returned home through the portal.
After sorting through the messy collection of loot, he stared at the rare saplings before him, pondering where best to plant them.
"These Trees of Transformation and Trees of Time should probably go at home base. I'll expand the underground farm later."
Both types of saplings required enormous space to grow. Once matured, they would reach heights of twenty to thirty meters, much like the mutant oaks that occasionally spawned in the Overworld.
The sound of flapping wings came from behind. He turned to see Pearl returning from his vampire hunt.
"Time flies when you're having fun, huh? How was tonight's harvest?" Mario asked.
"Terrible! I don't know where those bastards are hiding. I only found three the whole night! We really can't keep killing them at this rate, we need to let the population recover!"
Mario chuckled. He and Blade had been going out every night like clockwork to hunt vampires. Anyone with half a brain cell had fled to other cities by now.
"Don't worry about it. Once I have time, we'll expand operations to other cities."
He patted Pearl's head. Though his true form was rather grotesque, as a bat he looked plump and adorable.
"When we do, I'll let you feast to your heart's content."
Just as he was preparing to expand the underground tree farm, his phone rang.
"The factory's under attack!"
The moment Mario answered, Woody's voice came through the receiver.
Mario immediately stood and headed toward the Nether portal. "Have you identified who they are?"
"There's a lot of them. But they don't seem to be trying to breach the factory. They're just attacking from the perimeter!"
Woody hesitated before continuing. "Looks like they're trying to draw you out!"
Mario's expression darkened. Only one group came to mind, Hydra.
No Hydra activity for days, and I thought they'd given up. Looks like they've been planning something big.
"Alright, I'll be there soon. You guys hide and stay alive. Remember, as long as you survive, everything else can be fixed."
He hung up and dove straight into the portal.
---
At the factory, a large force of Hydra operatives had assembled. Because the location was remote, they'd brought even heavier firepower than they'd used at Central Park. Armed troops, heavy weapons, and two aircraft hovering overhead.
Ivan, wearing Cable, was hiding inside the factory building. Without flight capability, he'd tried rushing out earlier but had been forced back after barely making it ten meters. The armor was already heavily damaged.
"These bastards want to capture us alive."
The armor's faceplate opened, revealing his grim expression. The enemy's firepower was more than enough to crush them outright, yet they weren't storming in. They were advancing slowly.
"What did Mario say?"
He turned his gaze toward Woody, who replied, "He said he's on his way right now."
Then, looking worried, he added, "But..."
Woody didn't finish the sentence, but Ivan understood. Mario had special abilities, but against this many enemies with heavy weapons, there might not be much he could do.
"Relax. As long as he arrives, we'll at least be safe."
Woody couldn't help worrying. Mario had tricks up his sleeve, but against overwhelming military force, tricks might not be enough.
"Don't worry. Now that I'm here, you've got nothing to fear."
Mario's voice rang out behind them. A quick check of his mini-map showed at least a hundred hostiles outside the factory.
"What about casualties?"
Every person in the company had been handpicked, and losing even one was a painful blow.
Woody immediately answered. "Eight dead."
"Fuck!"
Mario's eyes turned blood-red. His entire security team had only 24 people total. To lose a third of them in one engagement was unbearable.
"Four critically wounded as well."
He took a breath and pulled healing potions from his inventory, tossing them to Woody. As long as they weren't dead, injuries were acceptable.
"You know how to use these. Get them stabilized first."
Woody nodded and rushed off toward where the wounded were being treated.
"Ivan, what about our researchers? Any casualties among them?"
Ivan shook his head. "They're fine. One got knocked around during the initial chaos, but nothing serious."
Mario finally exhaled. The researchers he'd recruited were irreplaceable talent, not quite on the level of Ivan and Anton, but still precious.
"Take all staff to my office. I've already opened the passage to the underground base. Hide everyone there first. Leave this place to me."
Ivan looked at him steadily. "I want to stay. I need real combat data for this armor."
Mario wanted to send him back to safety, but seeing the fire in Ivan's eyes, he nodded.
"Fine. Get the people settled first. Then we'll raise hell together."
With a hiss of hydraulics, Ivan climbed out of the damaged armor, nodded to Mario, and ran toward where the staff were sheltering.
The enemy was already very close to the workshop. Mario pulled his favorite sniper rifle from his inventory, and sighted toward the factory entrance.
BOOM!
An explosion tore through the wall behind him, blasting a hole in the structure. Though his health bar barely dropped, the sheer force hurled him across the floor.
They can track my position. Has to be some kind of Marvel tech.
RAT-TAT-TAT!
A hail of bullets streamed through the new breach. He reacted instantly, pulling obsidian blocks from his inventory and creating a shield. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly, obsidian couldn't be scratched by conventional weapons.
He pulled out an invisibility potion and drank it without hesitation.
But pinned down by suppressing fire, he had no angle to move. He glanced at the floor, pulled out his pickaxe, and dug a quick tunnel, emerging from a different position several meters away.
He set up his rifle, centered the crosshairs on a target's center mass, and squeezed the trigger.
Through the scope, a cloud of blood erupted.