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// First Day of Work 
// Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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When morning arrived Pinkie opened her eyes and found that they were still in the world that she had, accidentally, brought herself and Octavia to, though there was nothing she could do about that now and climbed off the bed, finding that she had fallen asleep with the book on her chest. It was interesting, given everything they had seen so far, and when she looked out at the small smithy she knew that, with some time and effort, it could be modified and changed to make room for what she had seen in the tome, something that would make even better weapons, tools, and armor than she had seen so far. With that thought in mind she opened the door and headed outside, where she found that some of the Villagers were going about their mornings without a care in the world, no doubt thinking that the floating guards and those iron golems would protect them from danger. This was one of those moments where she felt that Twilight's knowledge would be more suited for what was going on around them, as she could make a barrier or something to help protect the Elder and the others that lived in this place, but she knew that with Steve and Alex assisting them she and Octavia could help them in some manner.

As she studied the village, and thought about what they were going to do first, she found that Octavia came out of a vacant house, one that had been shown to them, though it was a single story and had to be larger than the one she had picked out, before she found that her companion was carrying a small journal in her arms, close to her chest.

"Hey Octavia, did you get a good night's sleep?" Pinkie asked, where she found that they were heading to the same place, the house that the Elder gave to Steve and Alex, so both of them wanted to speak with their new friends and see what sort of information could be gained from them.

"I'm not sure. I know I slept well, but I had the strangest dream." Octavia replied, where she pulled out one of the crystals she had recovered on their way to the village, allowing her to stare at it for a few more seconds, before finding that Pinkie had raised her eyebrow for a moment, curious as to what she was talking about, "I was standing over one of those tables we saw in Steve and Alex's cave... I think they called it a 'Crafting Table'... where I used a bowl with some black material, a shard I think, with some sort of red dust and three different crystals of this nature. I think I ground them up in some way, producing this weird glowing substance that I then sprinkled over a bookshelf, but before I could see what happened the dream faded and I woke up, finding this journal nearby to jot everything down in."

"Yeah, that's pretty strange. Maybe our new friends will know what to do?" Pinkie remarked, as that was the best thing she could think of, because while Steve and Alex might be from another version of this world, a more simpler one compared to the world they were now in, it was possible that they might know something.

Octavia said nothing to that as they made their way to the house their friends had taken as their home, where it looked like Steve and Alex were on the ground floor, sitting at a table of some sort as they ate some bread, and by that they found that it was them simply raising the food to their mouths and devouring it, like it had no substance.  Alex explained that this was part of the nature of this world, as she guessed the Builders liked to move fast and didn't want to slow down for what was considered a proper meal, so that influenced their decision to make eating food in this manner, meaning if they were hungry out in the field it could be done quickly, without having to slow down. Steve remarked that, while the house was one of the nicer ones, he would have preferred to have a furnace, as that seemed to be the only thing missing and when the pair glanced at the area near the doors they walked through it was clear that there had been room for such a thing, a spot that was vacant. He and Alex also took stock of their supplies and found out that they were short a few pieces to even craft a furnace, as they had six pieces of stone and not the eight pieces that were needed, to which Pinkie looked at her own Inventory and found that, due to her random collecting, she had several different items, not counting the book she had found.

In that moment she walked over to the Crafting Table and found that to make a furnace she had to arrange eight stone, or cobblestone as it turned out, into a circular pattern on the outer edge of the nine slots, to which she placed some string in two slots, an apple in another, some seeds and ash in four of the remaining five spaces, and her only stone in the last one, allowing her to produce a furnace.

"How... did you do that?!" Steve exclaimed, because that wasn't the recipe to create a furnace, he knew it since he and Alex had made several of them in their world when they first started out, after making stone tools anyway, and yet that wasn't the only odd thing happening, all of the materials Pinkie had used were still on the table, which she collected, and when she placed the furnace in the space it was still in her hand, "What in the...?"

"Yeah, this is nothing compared to what I've seen... this is just Pinkie being Pinkie." Octavia said, as she wasn't even a tiny bit surprised by Pinkie's reality breaking powers coming into play, though she had to admit that this might be more than what she was capable of in the past, or at least she assumed so since she hadn't spent a lot of time with her in the past, before she glanced at their companions, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Alex wasn't too sure about that, but she did test something out by placing what looked like a piece of meat in the furnace, which Octavia did her best to ignore, before placing some wood in the lower portion and it lit up, allowing her to cook the meat before their eyes, and it wasn't long before it was done and she extracted a single piece of food. When she did it a second time, however, she did nothing once it was finished cooking and motioned for Pinkie to take it this time, only to find that the light was still on when she extracted the meat, causing Alex to smile as she realized that Pinkie could make an unlimited amount of food if she did all the cooking. Steve stood there and Octavia could see that he was thinking about what this might mean for them, no doubt in relation to the resources that existed in this world, causing her to mention the tree she had and what sort of meaning it might have, causing their companions to glance at each other. Of course neither of them knew what she was talking about, especially since this was their first time seeing the crystals she had mentioned, but Steve was sure that, if they went mining, she might find some more of them, and it just so happened that if they went to the north, following the nearby river, they'd come to a cave to mine in.

This came with their first lesson on how to survive in this world, because now that they had a base of operations, thanks to Steve being right about the village existing, their next course of action was to gather components to make tools, as both his and Alex's tools were either broken or were close to breaking. Their first order of business was to head out and see if they could find a source of gravel, as there were pieces of flint inside them that they could use to make new tools, which caught Octavia's attention, and with the forest around them he was sure they could find some sticks to use with them to make flint knives. Such a thing would allow them to cut the grass and make grass fiber, which, if they had three of, one of them could make a hatchet to cut down trees and turn that wood into planks, an item that would allow them to make all sorts of things, like a Crafting Table for example. From there they would be able to make new tools to replace what they had lost, and with their pickaxes they would be able to mine coal, one of the basic materials of the world that went into all of the torches they had seen and would help cook their food, but the other reason behind looking for coal was because it was something that dropped Experience.

Octavia understood instantly, the more Experience they gathered the more they could pour into their Skills, allowing them to use new types of gear in the future, such as going from stone to iron, and with both Steve and Alex having already done such a thing, to a degree, this was more about boosting her and Pinkie up to their level.

With that in mind Steve had Pinkie take one of the Villagers' torches and found that, in her hands, they didn't need to even worry about torches, as she replaced it and found she still had it, to which they gathered everything he and Alex thought they might need before departing from the village. Interestingly enough the Elder and some of the Villagers wished them well, no doubt because they were the first Crafters they had seen for a long time and didn't want them to disappear, which caused their companions to wave in return, which Pinkie and Octavia replicated, before they got moving. They focused on the river that was to their right and kept an eye out for the gray gravel that would assist them in the first step of what they had to do, though for the most part it looked like all that was in the area was dirt and stone, which was fine since there were more places to check out. While they walked Pinkie found one of the odd stone outcroppings, much like the one that Octavia had found the crystals on earlier, though while it didn't have any gems for her friend to take it did have a couple bits of coal on the outside, causing Steve to nod his head, confirming that it was what they were looking for, so they made a note of where it was located before continuing deeper into the forest.

It took a few more minutes before they found what they were looking for, a lake that had several locations that had bits of gravel for them to take, to which Steve had Pinkie join him at one of them as Alex and Octavia tackled another, meaning the more hands they had the quicker they could complete their task. Fortunately they could dig gravel with their hands, instead of having to look for shovels or something to break the patches of material down, though their friends informed them that the best method was to dig the gravel that was away from the water and leave a wall so they weren't covered in water, as it would slow them down. There was also the slim chance that upon picking up some gravel they would find the flint they were looking for, so it seemed like the plan was to pick up some of the material, move to a safer location, and just break it constantly so they could get some flint. While they did that Pinkie found some whitish material that yielded four balls of the same material, clay according to Steve, something she thought about as she recalled the pages she had read the previous night, about mixing a ball of this with sand and gravel to make something called grout.

As she considered her options on the matter, since it looked like she had found a component to make the starting pieces of that smithy, Octavia found some flint and tossed it over to her, where she caught it and, with Steve's instructions, just smashed it on the side of some stone. Such a thing resulted in two shards being made, along with her keeping the flint like Octavia had suspected she would, where Steve pulled out the sticks he had gathered so far and used the shards to make the flint knives he and Alex had mentioned earlier, while making sure to pass one to his companion. With that done they spotted some grass nearby and used their new knives to cut some strands down, dropping green pieces of string that had to be the fiber they were looking for, and when Steve had three of them he combined them into plant string which, when combined with flint and a stick, made the hatchet he wanted. Pinkie and Octavia watched as he then chopped down one of the nearby oak trees, which fell away from him and turned into a pile of wood that he then placed and turned into a set of planks, or a stack as he called it, and four planks were merged into a Crafting Table.

Instead of placing it immediately he continued along the river and sought out the cave the Elder had told them about, an area that wasn't too far from where the small lake was located, though as he set it down outside the cave Steve had Pinkie place some torches on the walls, to light up the area. She did so without delay and found that there was a lot of stone for them to dig through, which meant it had to be a common material in this world, though at the same time she found that there were patches of coal, dull silver material that had to be iron, and a few bits of gold around her. As Pinkie quickly put down the torches Octavia watched as Steve weaved together some planks and some sticks into a wooden pickaxe, which he only used to extract twelve pieces of stone, allowing him to make four stone pickaxes that he passed around to her and the others. Once the pickaxes were made he started gathering more stone to make the other tools they needed, an axe for cutting down trees and defending one's self, and a sword to fight off monsters, though as Steve did that Alex directed Pinkie and Octavia to the coal veins that were around them, allowing them to gather their first bits of Experience at last, so they could build their reserve and boost their Skills when they were ready to do so.

Alex oversaw their efforts while they gathered the coal that was around them, as she was pleased to find that Pinkie and Octavia, while clearly doing this for the first time, were quick to adapt to everything they were telling them, before seeing that Pinkie found another vein of coal and quickly mined it out as well, which would give them more for later.

"Now that you guys have some Experience, represented by a green number in your Inventory, you can open the Skills tab and use those orbs to boost your abilities," Alex said, something that called Pinkie and Octavia over to the entrance of the cave, where thanks to Pinkie placing those torches down it looked like the cave was vacant, or at least this part was, while she found that Octavia found a few red and green crystals during her mining, "you'll be able to boost your farming, agility, defense, building, attack, gathering, magic, and mining skills, which will allow you to use new materials and do other things that'll boost your chances of surviving... we're still discovering new things as well, so we don't have all the answers."

Pinkie chuckled for a moment as she boosted everything and anything she was able to boost, because she discovered that her Experience Meter didn't go down when she first boosted her building up, since she was planning on making that odd smithy later on, and soon everything was at the same level that it was at. Alex and Steve, seeing that she had done that in an instant, recalled what Octavia had said earlier and just rolled with it, as it was better than trying to understanding what she had done or how she was doing it, as they had a feeling that they'd go made trying to do so. Instead of worrying about that Steve handed out some additional items for them to use, stone swords, axes, and shovels, as he had been swinging at the stone and this was what he had done while Alex was watching over their companions, meaning they could mine as a group and not have to worry about anyone falling behind. With that done Steve then collected the iron and found that it only contained five pieces, though he realized it wasn't a problem when he had Pinkie carry them, though such a thing put a smile on her face as she headed back for the village, something that caused the others to follow after her.

While they walked back to the village she found the location of the sand and clay she had seen earlier, to which she used the shovel that had been given to her and went to work, gathering a few of each material as the others watched her, since Steve and Alex were eager to see her handiwork as Octavia realized what she was doing. Once she was sure she had more than enough of each material, according to the tome that was floating near her, again Octavia said it was just Pinkie being her usual self, as she wasn't shocked that she had gained some sort of magic after boosting her skills, she headed back to the village. Pinkie also stopped by the rock cropping she had spotted earlier, which her companion also pointed out, just in case she forgot about it, and smashed her way through some of the stone with her pickaxe, even some polished stone she liked, before continuing on her way once more. Upon their arrival she walked over to Steve and Alex's residence before slipping three pieces of iron into the furnace she had made earlier that morning, along with a bit of coal, where she stood there for a few moments and let the pieces cook, something that allowed her to produce three iron bars that, once Pinkie pulled them out, she crafted into a bucket, which left her with three iron bars and the new bucket.

As Steve and Alex processed that, as it was a successful repeat of what she had done earlier, Pinkie headed over to the small smithy and went to work, her first action being the collection of the small pool of lava that served as the heat source, and once that was gone she stashed it away before getting to work, for real this time. Her first order of business was just a demolition job, as she cut down the walls with her new axe, removed the cobblestone floor with her pickaxe, and quickly emptied the area that the smithy was resting in, all while her companions watched from across the road as the Villagers came to see what she was doing. Once that was done she thought about the design she was going with and made an area with her polished stone, confirming that all she needed was one piece to have unlimited usage of it, that was three smithy houses connected together, heading towards the edge of the village, and she quickly made a few openings in the front of it and on the left side. Steve and Alex realized that she was making a new smithy, the front third being turned into what had to be where she would take orders from everyone in the village, and with the wood and other materials she made the other two thirds into where her living quarters would be, along with two sections on top that served as a second story, to match most of the houses around here.

Once the first portion was done Pinkie slipped some gravel, clay, and sand into her Crafting Table, making some light gray material that she mass produced and threw into her eternal furnaces, as the old house had two and she added them to her own, leaving six on the ground to make more of the material she was currently after. After the main structure of her new smithy was complete, and her bed was placed, Pinkie dug out an area to the left of her place and started to construct a large area that seemed to be where she'd do all of her work, before retreating to the furnaces for a moment. In the next moment Octavia could see that she was producing a number of black bricks, though she also accessed her Crafting Table with some wood and sticks, crafting what looked like a pattern, which she checked with the tome for a second, something that she then used to make several new items. When combined with a wooden plank it created an interesting table, with some wood that was untouched she made another new table, before adding it to a chest and then to a chest with some wood and a pair of sticks, giving her two interesting storage chests, and then made a new Crafting Table that she added a pattern to, a fact that made a new table that had to be linked to what she was doing.

In that moment, once the flooring was placed, Pinkie pulled a piece of the grout, as she called it, out and added it to the book she was looking at, leaving her with an untouched version and a new volume entirely, before drawing upon the mass of seared brick and started to craft blocks of bricks. She then formed an eight by eight base of the blocks in the center of her work area before building upward, giving herself a seven by seven core for her smithy, which was five more blocks tall, before she glanced at the tome and started to alter the recipe of the seared bricks. Such a thing allowed her to make more pieces of the smithy, making Octavia wonder how much was written in the tomes she checked every now and then, but, in the end, she remained silent, as Pinkie worked her magic, following the recipes that were inside the book as she crafted a control block, a fuel tank, drains, faucets, basins, and tables. Based on what she could see Pinkie could smelt down metals and pour them into either blocks of pure metal, what the golems had to be made out of, or designs she created, hence the reason behind those workbenches she made, where she had the basins on the left side and the tables for the designs on the right, leaving the controls and fuel tank facing the stairs that lead to her house.

A few seconds later she slipped in the iron they had gathered, an unlimited amount no less, before pouring in multiple buckets of lava to power the smithy, causing her to smile as she glanced back at the others and wiped the sweat from her brow, causing Octavia to chuckle as Steve and Alex look dumbfounded by what they had just seen, though she was eager to see what Pinkie did in the future.