Day 2 starts where day 1 left off: Basket and fluentchaos are underground in their stone room, with the furnace going. The open chat shows the server line that changes the match: "The world border is now shrinking to 50x50 by day 9."
The border starts to move
Not everyone reads it the same way. Recabilly answers "WHAT", then asks: "shrinking down 50 blocks or shrinking down TO 50 blocks". Scoti_Garbidis replies, "50 blocks over 9 days buddy." Basket, who built the command blocks for this map, sets it straight in chat: the border is shrinking to 50x50. Recabilly says thanks.
Meanwhile the furnace turns raw iron into ingots, and Basket earns Acquire Hardware. With the iron, Basket crafts an iron chestplate.
A portal from a lava pool
There is a pool of lava down in the cave, and the team decides the next step is the Nether. They bring water buckets and use the old trick: water and buckets of lava make the obsidian right where the frame goes, so no diamond pickaxe is needed. Then they light it.
fluentchaos goes through first, and Basket follows.
On the other side, the portal sits on a small nub of netherrack with lava not far off. The team blocks off the sides with cobblestone, and Basket takes a screenshot so they can find the spot again. The plan for this trip, as the team says it, is a blaze rod and potions.
Quartz, glowstone and pigmen
Basket mines quartz along the way for the experience. Further on, a narrow cobblestone path crosses a lava lake. Anyone who finds it will know which way they went.
Past the lake there is glowstone hanging from the ceiling and zombie pigmen walking around the fires.
Chat stays busy. Twinkles earns DIAMONDS!, Ballentine17 gets Monster Hunter, and Recabilly asks "where are you", then "coords?" and "friends?"
Digging both ways
No fortress is in sight, so the team decides to dig. They set down a crafting table and make a few stone pickaxes to save the iron ones. A zombie pigman wanders right up next to fluentchaos at the table.
From there they split up and tunnel in opposite directions, marking the start with a torch. Basket's tunnel runs into pockets of lava. Lapis_Lauri earns DIAMONDS! and later Monster Hunter while the team is still digging. The tunnels turn up open caverns and more lava, but no fortress.
End of day 2
The server posts "End of Day 2. Players remaining:" and lists all ten names again, BasketMC and fluentchaos included. Nobody is out. The episode ends with Basket alive in a netherrack tunnel with fluentchaos, still looking for a fortress.