Writing, and correcting the mistakes followed by putting the pages in a book. That's all I've been doing for the past 4 days, but it was all worth it when I finally saw my Skills tab.

________________________________________

SKILLS

_Crafting lvl 4

33.200/100.000

_Enchanting lvl 5

10.130/1.000.000

_Brewing lvl 2

110/1.000

_Trading lvl 4

9.500/100.000

________________________________________

"Well I've done it, my first skill at level 5! It feels rewarding to see numbers grow."

I was still in the enchanting room while reading my tab, even though I enchanted two extra books I don't regret it. Soon enough I'll have to keep my end of the deal with the prince, and I have an inkling that I won't be allowed to use to enchanting room once he's done with me.

Or maybe it's just my paranoia speaking, but it's better to be safe them sorry.

I went to the entrance and told the guard there to announce to the prince that I was done.

The guard looked confused by my encrypting message but still delivered it.

Around 10 minutes later I saw the prince coming towards me at a fast pace.

"Are you finished?"

"Yes, I'm Enchanting level 5."

"A little later than I expected, but I'm glad we're finally here, come with me."

I followed him to a well-lit room with a view of the garden, bookshelves on the walls, and what I assumed was a desk in the middle of the room.

"Is this your office? It looks pretty cozy. "

The prince didn't respond, instead, he took some red wool from a chest and covered the windows letting only the artificial lights illuminate the room.

Then in his hands appeared an empty bucked and a redstone torch.

He walked to a cauldron filled with water where I'm assuming that is the sink and scooped to water into the bucket, then he just dropped the red torch in the empty cauldron.

Before I could ask what was he doing, I heard the sounds of pistons moving and two blocks from the wall disappeared showing a tunnel going dawn.

"What just happened?"

Again, the prince didn't respond instead went down the ladder, leaving me alone in his office.

After thinking if I should just run now and never look back, I have a sigh and went after him.

I didn't have to go down for too long before I was in a small obsidian room.

They do like to use a lot of obsidian for their secret chambers, I wonder how many of them are now.

The room wasn't too big, it had a few chests on the side a brewing station in one corner and I'm the other one an enchanting table, what surprised me the most was the table in the middle of the room, or more exactly what was on the table.

On the table there was a pillow with a pixelated green sphere on top, it felt like I was seeing a dead eye, it was very creepy looking, even though it wasn't the first time I'd seen one, it was an Emderpearl.

"What you're about to see it's a secret that you'll have to take it to your grave. If you want to leave now it's your chance."

He looked at me with a serious face. But I know this isn't a choice, he could've told me this once I was in his office, not when he opened the secret door, he could've not taught me about enchanting at all, just let me grind my skill alone, but no. Instead, he helped me to level up my skill faster and then forced me to see something that would get me into trouble, he wanted me to do something.

"You helped so much, of course, I can keep a secret."

He nodded his head, looks like I gave him the answer he was expecting.

"This here is an Enderpearl, it's an item from the Enderman monster, they are very rare and hard to kill since they can teleport once they feel their in danger."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I looked amazed at the item, trying to hide the fact that I knew about the item already.

"We are going to take an oath while in contact with the Enderpearl."

I nodded in understanding and we both had our hands on the pearl.

"I Prince Amun the Second swear to keep what is spoken here a secret and not to hurt the opposing party."

That took me by surprise, is he going to just leave me be once I do him this favor?

Did I judge him too harshly?

"I Trader swear to keep everything here to myself and do no harm to the Prince."

"With the oath now taken, we are both under its power and whoever will break it shall be cursed to be an Enderman!"

He then took the pillow with care to not break the orb and put it on a chest

Meanwhile, I was shocked about the consequences of breaking the oath. Is that even possible, I don't remember this being a feature of the game, but this is not the game that I know, it's just very similar. So it could be possible to become a monster if I break the oath.

"I want you to learn this enchantment and make 4 books."

My internal struggle was interrupted by the prince handing me 5 pages all written in red with the most complex formula that I have ever seen, and it was exactly what I felt it was.

Curse of bidding.

"Isn't this an illegal book to enchant, even if you're a royalty you'll suffer heavy consequences!"

"Yes, I am well aware, that's why we both took an oath of secrecy, and you'll know that neither I nor you will betray each other."

"Why would you need me to help you with this? Wouldn't be easier to just do it yourself, this looks like a complicated enchantment I'm sure you'll be able to do it better."

The prince looked uncomfortable with what he was about to say.

"Every enchantment has an imprint of the creator, and I choose you since you never sold an enchantment. So nobody would know it was you even if they would search for it."

"Couldn't you ask someone else then, it feels like I'm going through a lot of risk just for something you want to. Why would you even need such an enchantment?"

The prince started to get frustrated the more I asked, he didn't like that I was too curious, but he still answered.

"Everyone who wants to learn enchanting has to give their first book to the library of the palace on the last floor, we do this so we can catch the supplier for criminal groups, and neither I nor my father can control what's going on there. You instead managed to learn enchanting illegally, which means that there's no imprint leading to you."

"As for why would I do that? It's because with those enchantments we can finally catch a criminal with connections to Pillagers, but he's very good at disguising, so this enchanting will greatly help us identify him."

"I understand, I'll help you with this challenge. Just promise me, that you'll help me if they somehow manage to find me."

"Of course, I will help you! If we manage to do this you'll even be a hero to this nation."

The prince said with enthusiasm.

I didn't choose to help him out of the goodness of my heart, I just didn't have a choice.

Even if the consequences of the oath may be true, he can still get me in trouble just by telling the authorities that I illegally learned enchanting. And that would be enough for me to get in trouble.

That Nobel Alexander risked a lot by teaching me enchanting. I didn't realize how big of a request I made at that time, but this shows how much he cares about his wife.

"Let's start practicing this now, I need the enchantment by the beginning of the new year party."

"Isn't that in two weeks!?"

"Yes, that's why we need to start now."

So for the next hour, we spend it with me trying to understand the prince's explanation. But the fact that I didn't learn the enchanting language I only copied what I saw made it much harder for both of us.

After some theory lessons, we finally got to writing, and it was also the time I found out why the writing was red instead of the usual black.

It was Redstone mixed with ink to my relief, from the way the prince kept saying about this enchantment being connected with the soul of the host, I thought I had to write it in blood.

This time it took much longer than when I learned how to enchant at level 2, not only were there more quantities in pages, but the quality had to be higher as well.

After a few hours, I managed to do two pages without mistakes, but we decided to end it there for today.

I asked if we were going to use the same method as the previous enchants, but he refused because there was a chance of his imprint appearing as well.

So I was on my own with this. I was kind of glad that I was finally starting to truly learn about enchantment, even though it was just a very simplified version of it, but soon enough I'll be able to figure out the other enchantments as well, and who knows, maybe I'll be able to make some of my own.

We got out of the secret room and he closed the door, followed by him taking the wool down the windows.

The sun was about to set, indicating how long we spent underground and how tired I was.

"Tomorrow, we'll meet in the enchanting room, there's no need to worry about the time since I'll come to get you once I've some free hours, try not to wonder too much and see you tomorrow."

With that, I left his office and went to my room. The guards looked at me but didn't do anything.

Finally, with the door closed, I was safely in my room.

"Things are starting to escalate faster and faster recently, I think it would take a week and a half for me to finish all 4 enchanted books. That's pretty close to the New Year's party, and I don't know how the prince is planning to use those cursed books, but I don't want to be anywhere them When that happens."

I should start preparing for escaping already, maybe I should risk going back to the obsidian factory to steal a diamond pickaxe in case things go bad and I need to break the wall.

While I'm there I should also steal some obsidian in case we won't be able to run fast enough and they'll be caught with us. Then I can make a portal and destroy it before they can enter.

It's not like they know how to open it anyway.

But that is just the worst-case scenario, it's too much of a gamble to go through the Nether. That place it's too dangerous, and will be more lost than ever.

I kept thinking of plans and other ideas while the moon started to rise.

"Let's see how Froggy is doing, I can bounce off some ideas to him and see what could work."

I filled my bed with a pillow and back to the secret tunnels where I went.

Not too long after I was already breaking the block above me.

"Hello to you as well Trader, or should I call you zombie with how much you stay in those tunnels."

Froggy said with an amused voice.

"Glad to see you have so much energy after all that training. How was your day? "

Froggy shrouded at the mention of training but quickly got back to reality.

"Same as usual, nothing new nothing interesting, how's your enchanting lessons going?"

"You're looking at someone that has enchanting level 5!"

"Your leveling speed it's amazing, I'm jealous of you."

"Says the guy that is a master at brewing potions because he got struck by lightning."

To that he only smiled and didn't comment anything else.

"Well since you seem to be in a good mood, how about some other amazing news."

I looked at him with curious eyes, which he only smiled and took out a few pages from his inventory.

I took them from his hands and looked over the writing, the more I read the bigger the reaction I had.

"Looks like you finally realized what that is. I deciphered the code's message, and maybe we can use that information to get out."