//------------------------------//
// The Outpost 
// Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

When morning arrived, and the group made sure to have a good night sleep while some of the Villagers kept an eye out in case more Illagers came to attack their village, Steve made sure that Pinkie repaired their armor and weapons, while Alex made sure they had all the food they might need, before they departed from the village.

"So we're going to make our way to the outpost and destroy it, after weakening our enemies last night?" Octavia asked, as she wanted to make sure she understood their plan, especially since she had been expecting to remain in the village to be sure everything was fine, given everything they had seen yesterday.

"That's right. Make sure their weakened forces are taken out so they don't come back and attack us, loot the place for any and all items they have, and then tear it down." Alex said, because they didn't want any other Illagers to know where it had been located, so the village could be safe from any potential enemies or dangers, though she also kept her weapons at the ready, since they had no idea what the forest held in store for them, "We could use the materials to help the village, make new houses or repair anything that had been damaged before our arrival, or whatever Pinkie comes up with next."

Octavia was always being surprised by Pinkie and her designs, as she was coming up with new ideas on the fly and most of them seemed to work out quite well, though she was still trying to figure out why she made herself a scythe, given what she had made for Steve and Alex.

"I have a few more ideas in mind, but they seem to be a ways off for us." Pinkie commented, where she pulled out a pad she wrote her notes on and double checked what she had put down so far, even though she didn't feel like sharing them with the rest of the group, hence why it went back into her storage area as she focused on the path, "Besides, I'm still in the middle of figuring out the whole 'going to the Nether' bit... once we have enough obsidian, and our gear is improved to a new level, we should be able to cross that off our list of things we need to do... then I'll move onto the next item on the list and, hopefully, cross it off in no time."

As the others thought about that, however, a surprise came at them in the form of the Wargs that went missing earlier, as in when the Illagers showed up to attack the village, and the four beasts attacked Steve and his companions, who shifted their stances as they realized that they were under attack. Steve defended them as he quickly raised his shield and used it to block the incoming attack, leaving two of the other Wargs open to Alex and Octavia's arrows, which slowed them down quite a bit and tipped the scales in their favor, allowing Pinkie to attack their foes. Sure enough they were surprised to find that she moved like a dancer with her new weapon, avoiding hitting herself with the edges of her blade as she slashed and cut down one of the Warg without delay, before altering her stance again. Such a thing opened a hole in the defenses of their enemies and her companions wiped out the rest of the Wargs before they could flee, including the one that had tried to come at them from behind, the fourth and final member of the group.

After salvaging what they could from their slain enemies, which consisted of a number of leather and bones, taken from the bodies of the slain Wargs, the group continued to move in the direction of the Illager outpost, though Alex told them that this was good, since they could use the leather in some manner and bones could help get some wolves. It informed Pinkie and Octavia that it was possible to befriend the creatures of this world, at least some of them anyway, meaning that once someone figured out how to tame a creature that knowledge would be passed to the others, to boost their power for whatever the future held for them. Another thing they discovered was that a number of Skeletons happened to be under a fair number of trees and each one happened to be aiming their arrows at them, to which the group sighed and separated from each other, surprising the undead for a moment. This time around Pinkie and her companions didn't waste time with arrows, as these were creatures of bone and clearly didn't have any flesh, rather they swung their weapons with the intent to take them out, scattering bony bodies all over the place in a matter of seconds.

Since they were easy to take down Pinkie was able to collect a few items, a few bows that she could reforge into tools they could use and some bundles of arrows to keep them stocked, before discovering a few of their skulls had survived the end of their bodies, to which she claimed them as well, as they seemed to be tied to the portal to the Lost Dimension, based on what she had read previously.

With that done they continued on their trek and, after some time walking, found a shocking sight, the Illager outpost was on fire and it looked like the Illagers had been taken out, as part of the outpost was charred, the wood made useless, and the area surrounding it was blackened. Steve and Alex had an idea of what happened as soon as they saw it, a dragon had either been attacked by the frustrated Illagers or it attacked first, the latter being for fun, though both of them kept their weapons at the ready, in case a roar sounded or they discovered some survivors. Octavia was surprised by what they were seeing, as it reminded her of what happened when she and Pinkie first appeared in this world and encountered Alex, the black dragon who torched the forest for some odd reason, though it seemed like the area was clear. Pinkie simply took a bit of time and explored whatever she could find in the surrounding area, since it seemed weird to see only Illagers, after all they had seen of the force before this point, so she left the others to study the outpost and see if there was anything they could use.

Pinkie found a hill they hadn't spotted before, not too far from the outpost, and decided to climb it to see if there was any items on the other side, before stopping as she found a dragon's corpse resting on the other side of it, a black dragon to be exact, meaning it either attacked the outpost or it had been enraged by the wounded Illagers.

"Hey guys, you aren't going to believe what I found." Pinkie said, because she knew that it was resting nearby and that no enemies were in the area, so she could afford to leave it behind and show the others what she had found in no time, all while she found that there seemed to be nothing in the outpost, even though Steve and Alex found crossbows, "Also, do we have any glass bottles on hand?"

"Well, hopefully whatever you found was worth coming here... looks like most of the good stuff was burned," Alex replied, though as she said that she pulled out a couple of glass bottles, which had been cleaned and prepared in case they found any liquid worth collecting, and tossed them over to Pinkie, who caught them with ease, "So, what did you find? I hope its far better than an empty outpost."

Pinkie beckoned for them to follow and the group did so without delay, only for their jaws to drop when they laid eyes on the fallen dragon she had found, where she drew an iron short sword she had forged earlier, just in case she found a body like this, and carefully cut into a safe location, allowing her to drain the blood while holding onto the body. Octavia found that her companion's ability came in really handy once more, as she was able to drain every drop of blood that was inside the beast's body, giving her at least twenty bottles to do whatever Pinkie might be planning next, before she moved onto what seemed to be the next important part. That being the salvaging of the body, where she went to work removing every scale that the dragon had on it's body, creating a pile of scales that would likely be transformed into armor at some point in time, as it had to be incredibly tough and made her wonder if there was another one, since she doubted that Illagers, all wounded no less, could have brought down such a beast. Once she finished removing the scales, and set them off to the side, Pinkie was left with a skeleton that she went to work on, collecting the bones, skull, and even the dead heart, though at this point Octavia wasn't bothering to ask questions as she watched Pinkie work, even though she would be hauling the largest and most important load back to the village.

With her work done, and she left nothing behind for someone else to claim and use against them, the group headed back to the outpost and Steve let her get to work, watching her reach the peak of the structure before starting to tear it down, collecting all of the material, charred and pristine, before Octavia found a stone structure that seemed to head deep into the ground, given a box shaped hole with stairs heading down.

"What in the world is this?" Steve inquired, as he found it at the same time that Octavia did and she shrugged as he asked the question, to which he pulled out his sword for a moment and beckoned for her to follow, leaving Alex and Pinkie to the tear down of the outpost, before they headed down the stairs.

They discovered that it headed down for a few moments, stopping at a crossroads between four polished stone tunnels, passages that Steve seemed to recognize, as they reminded him of the Stronghold he and Alex had visited once in their old world, before finding iron bars on the openings and enemies, Zombies and Skeletons at least, hanging out, though due to the sheer number they returned to the surface.

"Okay, we discovered a dungeon... explains why the Illagers spent so much iron to keep themselves safe." Octavia said, as it seemed like the Illagers either built their base here and the Admins created the dungeon to have some fun, given what she and the others had seen so far, or the Illagers had built this to make sure nothing escaped from the depths, and based on the odd floating structure they had seen previously she had a feeling something powerful might be waiting for them in the deepest depths.

"We'll come back for it later, once we've had a chance to get outfitted for real... iron's nice, but diamond, or whatever this world's variant is, would make me feel much safer." Alex remarked, though while it was nice to find something new, even if it was an unknown dungeon that was full of unknown dangers, she wanted to make sure they were prepared before even heading down into it's depths.

Pinkie smiled as they headed back home, as she made more materials to work with and Octavia was sure that she would, in due time, make weapons and armor out of the dragon materials she had recovered, which would drastically improve their chances of survival in this world, though they were interested in seeing whatever the future held for them and their friends after this surprising discovery.