//------------------------------//
// Into the Dungeon 
// Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

It didn't take them long to return to the village, where they informed the Villagers of the good news, the Illagers were taken care of and, more importantly, they wouldn't be coming back to terrorize this place, something that caused them to cheer as the group got to work. Pinkie returned to her building and carefully stored all of the new dragon material in a chest, where she made a sign to indicate what was inside it, that way she wouldn't forget where to find the materials she had taken from the fallen beast. One thing she knew for sure was that, at this very moment, none of them were ready to use anything that was made of dragon bone or even dragon scale, especially since Steve and Alex were far away from being able to use the next level of gear, that being diamond. She was sure that she could make some sort of diamond armor for them, given the forge she had created and everything else she had learned so far, but for now it would be useless since neither of them had the Experience level in defense to wear the armor in question.

All she could do, while Octavia focused on assisting Steve and Alex with distributing the goods from the outpost, was boost the defenses of their armor and ensure their weapons were sharp, while crafting more kits to repair their gear in case she or one of the others needed one.

Once she was done Pinkie and the others regrouped, munched on some food and drank some water, before departing for the dungeon they had spotted, since there had to be something down there that caused the Illagers to seal the entrance and build an outpost on the ground above it. This time around they found that no more enemies came out to fight them, which meant they were able to conserve their strength for the dungeon they had discovered earlier that day, though at the same time Pinkie kept her eyes and ears open for any additional dragons. Her worry was that one or more of the others might know of the black one's death, even if it wasn't the same one that attacked them in the forest some time ago, and come seeking whoever was responsible for it's demise, though she was hoping they wouldn't care enough and leave the area alone for a time. Thankfully she found that nothing seemed to be flying through the air, meaning most creatures had to be feeling the same thing that had crossed her mind earlier, and it meant they were able to traverse the area with nothing coming to kill them, giving them time to think about what they'd do in the village later on.

When they reached where the Illager outpost had been resting, however, Steve stopped and made sure they were ready to head down into the depths, where Alex and Octavia readied their bows as Pinkie leaned on her scythe for a moment, to which he nodded and headed down the stairs.

"I wonder what we'll find down here, given that we have no idea how long the Illagers were stationed here." Octavia said, as while it was easy to tell where the wood and stone had come from, given everything in the surrounding area, she was interested in what they might find in the depths of this place.

"Hopefully more gear and items to improve our village," Steve remarked, because there was no telling what might happen in the future and he knew that having more items available to them, and within Pinkie's grasp, would help them out with all of their future plans, before he held a hand up to make sure everyone was silent.

Sure enough, in the depths of the darkened dungeon, they could hear the sound of Skeletons moving, Zombies moaning, Spiders skittering about, and something else none of them recognized, causing them to carefully descend as Pinkie lit up the sides of the passage. It would announce their presence to the monsters that were down here, but they needed to see what was in front of them, making it a risk they needed to take to move forward, before they reached what appeared to be the area that was as far as they had gone previously. As soon as Pinkie lit up the intersection, and they found that there were no enemies in the surrounding area, Steve picked the passage that rested to the north of the stairs and opened it with a few swings of his pickaxe, allowing Pinkie to collect all of the iron bars as the others surveyed the passage. What all of them could see was that it was made of polished stone and supported by wooden beams or pillars, depending on the area each piece rested in, but so far no enemies were nearby, worrying them a little as they moved forward.

At the end of the passage, which wasn't very long as they discovered, Octavia spotted a Spawner and rushed forward the instant she noticed it, swinging her pickaxe at it for a few moments and shattered it before anything could emerge, which allowed her to collect a few materials before regrouping with her companions. She then found a door she had passed by in her haste to deal with the Spawner, though when she opened it she found a large imposing black creature with rather sharp looking claws, sporting a humanoid stance, hanging out in the chamber that the door lead to. Of course she and the others had no idea what the creature was, this was their first time seeing it, though Pinkie hung back and made a note of what it looked like as Steve gathered it's attention so Alex and Octavia could hit it in the back. Together the three of them were more than enough to bring the creature down, allowing them to gather whatever it dropped and hand it off to Pinkie for the time being, before worrying about the rest of the dungeon.

Together the four of them explored the floor that they happened to be on, just in case this place had multiple floors, and found that they had been correct, a number of Skeletons, Zombies, Spiders, and other common monsters were down in the depths of this place, explaining why the Illagers kept it locked up with iron bars. During their trek Pinkie found a couple of recipes that seemed to be about gear that they might be able to use, one being the combination of a bone, a gold ingot, and an ender pearl, which, according to Steve, was an orb the size of two apples on top of each other and allowed one to warp between two points when thrown, even if it used the pearl. In addition to that the pearls were the key ingredient for them to find the Stronghold, so they could find an End Portal that the Builders left behind, though to do that they would have to travel to the Nether and kill some Blazes for their blaze rods, to make some powder that, when combined with the pearls, would make Eyes of Ender.

Octavia also found that the pearls came from Endermen, beings of the End that were capable of traveling between both dimensions who could drop them upon death, though the dimensional part explained everything to her, but she was a tad bit interested in what sort of tool Pinkie had been talking about.

There was one thing they did that was identical to their time in the Battle Tower, they took turns breaking the Spawners to ensure everyone got some Experience and, when an area was cleared, they would take a short break and see if there were any new skills or levels they could unlock to improve themselves. Pinkie, of course, continued to gather Experience from all of the monsters she brought down and the Spawners that she broke open, allowing her to spend without fear of losing a single point, something that made Alex jealous when she considered how unfair it was that Pinkie could just blow right through all of the barriers she and the others had to deal with. Octavia was fine with it and saw it as a way to improve their skills, both new and old, while earning more points to improve themselves later, a cycle when she thought about it, though she was also pleased with all the diamonds, redstone, emeralds, gold, and other useful items they were finding, especially when Steve found a diamond sword in a chest, much to her amazement. Alex also ended up finding a bow that was even stronger than the one Pinkie had forged, which Pinkie was fine with since she was still learning the art, and used it to bring down some of their foes as they cleared out a library, allowing their odd pink companion to collect the bookshelves to add them to her enchanting area in her new residence.

While they did that, however, Pinkie found a purple tome that she could actually store her Experience in, before she found a loophole in the system, her Experience didn't actually go down, rather it remained the same and still filled the tome to the limit, allowing her to add it all back to her total, causing her to smile as she realized she could cheat the system more than more.

After a while the group confirmed that there was another floor to the dungeon, as they found an identical downward set of stairs leading even deeper into the ground, leading to a second floor that was identical in design to the first floor they had cleared out. Alex called for a break, allowing them to rest up real quick while Pinkie checked their gear, mending the pieces with her kits so they could keep fighting if they wanted to do so, and once she was done they smashed through the bars to the south and continued to explore the dungeon. Such a thing allowed them to discover that the design and rooms of the first floor were replicated on the second one, just arranged in a different manner, meaning that this was supposed to be more of a challenge, even though it might have been designed for one Crafter and not four of them. Despite that fact Pinkie continued to salvage the rooms that they passed through, collecting new bits to add to the village and their houses, while joining the others in breaking down all of the Spawners and dealing with the enemies that were done here, finding all sorts of new items that were dropped from some of their enemies.

Of course the group also found that there were far more chests than they could deal with the loot of, so Pinkie hauled all of them back up to the surface, including the locked ones for that matter, and crafted a holding area for them so no one saw a pile of chests and decided to steal from them.

Eventually they found the passage down to the third floor of the dungeon and noticed that the theme changed, it turned into a mossy area, given all of the material on some of the walls and ceilings, though for the most part it looked like their enemies were the same, meaning they didn't have to worry about new monsters. The only real difference was that most of the Skeletons carried new impressive armor, going from nothing to iron, gold, and even diamond in some places, to which Steve and Alex made sure to collect everything they could before passing the pieces to Pinkie, allowing her to restore them to a pristine nature before either storing them away or handing them out. Sure enough Octavia found that their far more experienced companions focused on the Defensive tree with their newly claimed Experience, allowing them to move up to diamond armor, because staying alive meant they could, in time, focus on the Offensive tree and get new weapons, which was a good plan. She, on the other hand, kept gathering Experience and pumped most of it into her Magic tree, figuring that taking on a new role in their group was the best course of action, though she needed more items to make use of it so she could aid her companions.

They did discover a small black colored spider creature that tried to hug their faces, though when Steve cut it down they found a few ender pearls that Pinkie collected, though with the items she had access to Octavia got her to make the staff she saw in the notes, a golden weapon with a green crystal at the peak. Supposedly it was a summoning staff, meaning it would allow her to call forth minions to fight on her behalf, but, as she soon discovered, she had to study the monsters of this world before even being allowed to call them, meaning it was just a walking stick for the time being. As such she used her lens for a time and studied the monsters that were in front of them, allowing her to gather more information on them and boost her understanding of Vis at the same time, given that she could also study the surrounding area and add more notes to the ever growing pile. One other thing she discovered was that there was something down in the depths of this dungeon, something powerful that they were getting closer to with every floor they cleared, though while she knew that it was unlikely that they would have found one of the creatures serving the Admins, monsters that had to be destroyed, she knew that whatever it was was dangerous, meaning they might not want to fight it right now.

Upon discovering the fourth floor the group found that it was more of a crypt, filled with undead that were stronger than most of the monsters on the upper three floors, to which they fell back on the method they used to bring down the Battle Tower, shielding themselves so the others could take the monsters down. This time around they took things slower, just to make sure they weren't overwhelmed by the dangers of the lower levels, given that there seemed to be far more locations for the Spawners to reside in and Pinkie spent her time locating them so they could break each one. Octavia discovered that some of the monsters down here had amazing loot, enchanted diamond gear, including enchanted items made out of other materials, where Pinkie gathered the items they weren't using and stored them away for later, likely having come up with an idea of some kind that she'd share with them at some point. There were no other rooms in the crypt, save for the tombs of the dead and the Spawners they had discovered, but the group cleared the chambers out while taking breaks to ensure they weren't totally overwhelmed.

Eventually Steve found another passage down to the fifth floor, one themed after the Nether he and Alex discovered, due to the bright red colored stone, netherrack it was called, special Nether bricks, soul sand, and other items that Pinkie just had to collect, to add to her growing collection, before the ground shuddered and most of the passages sealed themselves before their eyes, leaving one that lead to a massive chamber.

"We're here... the dungeon's dark core." Octavia commented, though she had a feeling that an Admin had been watching them decimate this place and decided to punish them, as that room hadn't been there a few moments ago, though she and the others frozen when they realized what was inside the chamber, "Oh no..."

There were several pools of lava inside the chamber, likely heating it, though what caught their attention was the massive crimson red scaled dragon that was resting inside it right now, with a golden yellow underbelly, though there were black chains around it's neck and limbs, keeping it contained in this place. Even from far away they could see the hatred in the beast's eyes, for whoever chained it down and made sure it was unable to leave, though it started to growl when it found all four of them staring at it, showing that it might not like them either. Sure enough Octavia could see something building in the dragon's throat, causing her eyes to widen as she realized that it was going to attack them, to which she, Pinkie, and their companions threw themselves back into the staircase passage as it opened fire on their position. They were able to get up a flight or two of stairs as the intense fire breath tore through the final floor and scorched everything around it, as in everything was destroyed in an instant, save for the obsidian blocks, but it informed them that they needed to be even more prepared than they were now to deal with such a beast.

In that moment the group decided to head to the surface and seal the passages behind them, hopefully to make sure no one else found the dragon, though Octavia was sure that an Admin had cheated them out of whatever loot was at the end of the dungeon, but she focused on survival and resolved to worry about this once they got back to the village, where they could rest, recover, and plan whatever they were going to do next.