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

Following Pinkie's creation of a dragon's eye, a bauble that actually altered her eyes, the first thing she did after checking it out was head back into the mine, where Octavia and the others followed after her without delay, as they wanted to see her and her bauble in action. They knew that she didn't need the bauble all that much, given that she had the power to use any item as much as she wanted, but Pinkie claimed that it was more about the Experience dropped when one mined, since she had boosted all of her skills and gained a few interesting affects. That wasn't counting what she gleamed from the new tome, the one about Vault Hunters, as there were additional skills she could use and abilities that needed to be unlocked after she checked out the area the tome was linked to, but for now her focus was on the bauble. After a few moments she paused and pulled out her pickaxe, where she dug into the wall to her right for a couple of seconds, causing the others to watch her for a time as they wondered what in the world she was doing.

In the end she located a vein of gold, seven pieces to be exact, that she extracted without delay and added to what she had gathered so far, along with the Experience that would make her even stronger, before Octavia found some strange light in her eyes, making her wonder if there was more to the dragon's eye than what they thought.

"So the eye works. Now what?" Steve asked, as while the dragon's eye looked like it might be useful for mining, which he and the others knew Pinkie didn't need to do thanks to her abilities, he wasn't sure how this was helpful to them, even if Pinkie was missing just a few materials to complete her list.

"With this we should be able to find Netherite, or rather the Ancient Debris that is made into the material, the last piece of the puzzle." Pinkie replied, as with the abilities she had gleamed from the new tome, and what she had figured out from all of the skills that were available to everyone, part of her suspected that she might be able to locate a few samples of the last material during a short expedition to the Nether, "After that we can focus on locating enchantments, so we can power ourselves up for whatever the future decides to throw at us."

Another reason behind heading back to the Nether was so she could try to locate the material needed to craft the lanterns that would make the portal to the Lost Cities Dimension, Cincinnasite to be exact, where she determined that it had to be in the gravel in a specific location, since she didn't obtain any the last time they were there. Steve and Alex exchanged a quick glance, since they weren't expecting to return to the Nether in such a short time since their last visit, but if Pinkie felt she might be able to find the items she needed they weren't about to argue with her. Another part of the reason was that if she found the components to make Netherite, one of the best materials in the world, she could combine it with some of the dragon materials and the Manyullyn to make something special, weapons of incredible power and extraordinary gear to keep them safe. In addition to that Octavia had a feeling that there was something else Pinkie was interested in, so she could make the portal to another dimension, but she decided to say nothing as they agreed with the idea to head back to the Nether, at least for a short time since the bauble might make things easier for them.

With that decision made they quickly returned to the surface and headed for the Nether portal, where they were able to slip through it without anything stopping them and found that nothing seemed different from the last time they were in this dimension, it was burning hot and there was an army of monsters patrolling nearby. Pinkie glanced around for a few seconds, finding instances of the two materials to make Manyullyn in the floor and walls, before noticing a dark substance in the ceiling and launched herself at it, like she dashed through the air or something to reach her target. Such a thing did mean that Steve, Alex, and Octavia had to carve out a path leading to where she was located, but she went to town on the netherrack in front of her, digging out chunks of the material and pocketing them for later as she followed her new sight towards her true target. With the ability to see materials Pinkie was able to locate what she was looking for, a light brown rocky material that, when she cleared off what was above it, looked like a tree log with the square rings in the middle of it, and when she cleared out the surrounding area she found that there were three pieces together.

She smiled for a moment as she swung her pickaxe and collected the Ancient Debris without delay, adding three pieces to her inventory and granting her an unlimited amount for the future, to which she turned towards the others and headed back to where the portal rested. As they neared the portal, however, Pinkie headed back down to where she located the gravel to make her newest smithy piece, and spent a few moments digging into the material, something that allowed her to find a golden material that just made her smile widen. She made sure to collect a few more pieces of the material, as it had to be what she was looking for to make the portal to the Lost Cities Dimension, before leaving once four of them were in her possession, returning to where Octavia and their friends were waiting for her. Once she was done with the Nether, for the time being anyway since they still had to track down a fortress to find Blazes for their rods, the group quickly used the portal and returned to the Overworld for a time, allowing them to head back to the village so Pinkie could spend some time working on the new material.

As the others got something to eat, so they could rest and tend to the walls, in case monsters came to bother them, Pinkie got to work as she slipped one Ancient Debris into each of the furnaces she had, confirming that the ability worked on it as well, and let the flames dance around the material. She found that it produced some sort of scrap, possessing the same color as the base material, though when she combined four of them with four gold ingots she produced something that was incredible, a black ingot that was unlike anything she had seen before this point. In that moment she pulled out her scythe and set it on the workstation with the Netherite Ingot, for that was what this had to be, before retrieving one of the Manyullyn Ingots and a bone of a powerful dragon, the three items she had gathered for this instant. The bone went into the handle, making it far stronger than it had been before and could now withstand some of the more powerful blows she could use with her skills, while the ingots went into the headpiece, creating an ebony black scythe head with a purple edge that was razor sharp and incredibly tough, and the two colors moved down the handle to create a unified look.

With the weapon complete she headed outside and placed a dummy made of diamond down, three blocks tall, before she paused for a few seconds, allowing the others to gather nearby so she had an audience, which was followed by her loosing a few swings that cut through the diamond blocks like they were butter.

"Looks like Netherite reinforced by Manyullyn and dragon bone is the correct path... or whatever you would call it," Alex said, as that was all she could say on the matter, because the new scythe was far stronger than what Pinkie had used up to this point, enough to cut through diamonds with total ease, though Pinkie gathered the pieces and but them together in a trio of blocks, which she returned to her stash as if nothing had happened to them.

"And just think, that's it's base power without enchantments." Octavia remarked, as that was what the test was about, just so Pinkie could test the unenchanted power of the weapon out, before they found enchantments to add to it and the rest of their gear, which might make all of them overpowered, even if she and the others might not be on Pinkie's level, since they didn't have access to all the skills she was quickly unlocking.

Pinkie smiled as she got to work on some armor, just to see what she could do with dragon scales and the two ingots she recovered from the Nether, causing the others to retire for the night, as they would see what she created when morning arrived, even though they suspected that she would spend a great deal of time in her workshop. While they did that, so all of them could be ready for the morning, Pinkie got to work on adding the last couple of stations she needed, which would allow her to improve the quality of the weapons, gear, and even baubles, allowing her to make them far deadlier in just a matter of moments. Her scythe, for example, was at one of the weakest qualities, even though she was pretty good at her craft, and by sharpening it at one of the stations she was able to push it to the highest possible, legendary quality, and she repeated the same thing for the armor she ended up creating for herself, just to test it out before making a set for Octavia and the others. Her thought process was that if something went wrong with the armor she would be the only one of them who would be hurt, so depending on how it worked she'd make more whenever she and the others got back tomorrow, or the day after depending on however long they spent away from the village.

When morning arrived Octavia, Steve, and Alex found that Pinkie really went to work on her armor, as it was crafted out of dragon scales and was improved by both Netherite and Manyullyn, the black and purple melding together in harmony, all due to her skill no doubt, yet she almost looked like a dragon in humanoid form, minus the tail and wings.

"Seems like you did well with your work." Steve commented, in fact he was taken aback by the sheer amount of work that went into the armor Pinkie was wearing right now, as every scale looked like they were individually crafted before being linked together to make the imposing form they were seeing right now, and with the power of the dragon's eye bauble it sure looked like they were talking to a humanoid dragon.

"Indeed, and this will be it's first test drive... if it works, I'll make you guys a set when we get back, if it fails, well, only I will be hurt," Pinkie said, though in that moment she pulled out her atlas and gestured in the direction of the ocean they had been told about when they first took over the village, calling it home while protecting it from all of the dangers that this world could throw in their way, "I'm thinking we explore that direction this time."

The group agreed with her, as they were running out of areas to check in the surrounding area and, even with her armor and weapon, most of them felt that an assault on the college area was a bad idea, so for now they were focused on simply exploring the world and figuring things out, and finding the last pieces of their massive puzzle. As they departed Steve had news to share with the others, according to the two Elders there was a special land where they could find a special type of beast with a golden shell, a cross between a crocodile and a turtle, which supposedly, when made into a new enchanting table, could take the enchantment off of an item and store it inside a book. Octavia understood what he was saying, they could acquire some of the golden shells, give them to Pinkie so she could make the table, and then get to work collecting all of the enchantments they might need from all of the Battle Towers and other similar strongholds. It was more effective than hunting for libraries and other structures that might hold the tomes they were after, since they seemed to be in the middle of striking out no matter where they looked, and if it worked they would be one step closer to their goal, which was toppling that massive monster.

Once more they found that none of the monsters in the nearby area wanted anything to do with them, which they were fine with since it meant everyone could focus on the task at hand, though Alex did make sure they had some boats given the fact that they were planning on traversing the ocean and needed some mode of transportation. Octavia had to wonder if there was a way for them to get mounts, flying or ground when she thought about it, and she was sure there was a tome they had to find to confirm or deny what she was thinking right now, since it would make exploration easier. Her thought was due to the fact that they continued to find tomes about the various things in the world and figured that it would continue to be the case as she and her friends continued their exploration for new items that would improve their chances of surviving all the dangers they were discovering. Still, she agreed with the others and felt this venture would be the key to getting the last piece of the puzzle, which would allow them to focus on all of the other structures and gather more Experience, but first they had to track down the land the Elders had mentioned.

It took a while for them to reach the coast, where everyone stared at the vast water for a moment before Alex pulled out the boats they would be using, two to be exact since the wooden vehicles could carry two people at a time, so she and Steve had one while Octavia and Pinkie had the other.

For a while they saw next to nothing that might be the land that the Elders told Steve about, though Pinkie did stop every now and then to make a note of something interesting they could return for once they had the scales they needed, such as a floating castle, a Battle Fortress, and an island that had another collage on it. Their luck changed as Steve spotted an island that was a fair distance from where their village was located, one that was dark purple colored and seemed to be in the middle of spreading, as the coloration was heading deep underwater, which meant it had to be their target. What they found was that there were pink Slimes bouncing around the place, twisted trees and vines growing all over the place, and bright red-orange flowers, which exploded when someone touched them, which they figured out thanks to a nearby Slime that brushed up against one and was torn apart in the explosion. As everyone carefully explored the area, looking for the creature they needed to take out, Pinkie found some new materials in the ground, which she carefully made her way to in no time thanks to her new eyes and claimed them without delay, before Alex spotted a creature that matched what the Elders told Steve earlier.

"They're the creature we're looking for, but the wrong color." Alex commented, as the creatures were close to the ground, like a turtle, and had a shell with some crocodile features, but the group of three were purple colored and seemed passive to them, which just meant that they had to locate what they were looking for the hard way, unless breeding was a thing for these creatures.

"Then we'll keep looking... they have to be here somewhere." Octavia remarked, because there was no reason for there to be only purple ones when both of the Elders told Steve that there were golden ones, meaning they had to be natural and not forged by some sequence of events, even though they were still learning about this world.

Steve and Alex nodded as Pinkie walked out to see what else was around them, finding nothing but the darkness that was infesting the ground, or whatever it was, before spotting an altar of some kind off in the distance, maybe tied to a beast that was sealed away, so she focused on their target for now. Fortunately luck was on their side once more, as not too far away from where they stopped Octavia and Pinkie spotted a trio of golden ones wandering around, without a care in the world, though in the following moment their friends caught up and cut the critters down. Sure enough they found a few golden shells to collect, meaning the Elders had been correct in what they told Steve earlier, where he handed them over to Pinkie, both for safekeeping and the fact that they had come here for her unlimited power, before they headed back to their boats. With the shells in hand, and a few enchanted items resting back in their houses, it was only a matter of time until they had the enchantment table they were after and would have the start of a collection of enchantments that would improve their ability to survive in this world.

Octavia was looking forward to whatever the future held for them, especially since she was sure that Pinkie might test out her armor soon and make the portal to the other dimension she was interested in exploring, but for now they had to get back to the village before focusing on one of their other tasks.