When Octavia got back to the village she decided to just return to the tower and get some sleep, like Steve and Alex had done after celebrating their success over the Ender Dragon, as she knew Pinkie was likely still in her workshop, putting the finishing touches on her armor.
"I'll tell the others the news later, after I get some sleep." Octavia commented, speaking to herself for a moment as she reached the edge of the village and stared up at her tower, where she used her new power to teleport up to the entrance, or rather what she used as a door to exit the place, allowing her to head inside.
The first thing she did was take a moment to check up on her furnaces, finding that they were working as intended, so she didn't have to worry about breaking them down to figure out what might be wrong with them, allowing her to breath a sigh of relief as she returned to her tower. She did a double check on her materials, making sure she had enough of what she used in her studies and research, since running out was always a bad thing and she didn't want to bother Pinkie too much, only to find that everything was in order, much to her delight. As she did that Octavia found that everything was silent, as in the Voice remained quiet, no doubt trying to understand how, despite it's efforts, she could keep her cool and burn the rest of the parasites with her new powers, or maybe it was interested in how she gained these powers. She had their Admin ally to thank for these skills, otherwise she would have likely fallen behind Pinkie at some point, but now, after confirming her magical power, she knew that their team was ready for anything, or at least she hoped so.
With her brief chores done, and she found that everything was in order, Octavia turned in for the night and got some well deserved sleep, though she found that the night passed by quickly, even though her body was fully rested, and emerged from her tower ready to face whatever she and the others might do next.
"Octavia, boy am I glad you're safe." Pinkie said, speaking when Octavia joined her, Steve, and Alex in their usual meeting area in the village, though at the same time it was easy for her to tell that their friends were surprised by her words, which meant neither of them had any idea what she had done last night.
"Pinkie's only worried because I went into the Lost Dimension." Octavia stated, informing her friends as to what she had done after returning to the village, even though everyone should have gotten some rest, all while noticing that Pinkie's tail did have some armor over it, matching her current set, before she raised her left hand and flames danced over the palm, surprising the others for a moment, "I think that our Admin ally, after seeing us beat the Ender Dragon, decided to grant me some powers as well, and when I decided to head to the dimension that killed me it was to test my powers while also getting some revenge on those foul monsters... so yeah, I can use magic now."
"Well, that's certainly interesting." Steve said, as he wasn't too sure how to take that piece of information, though he was pleased to see that Octavia was fine and that she hadn't been corrupted by the parasites again, especially after what had happened the last time they were in that dimension.
"Indeed, though it begs the question: what are we going to do next?" Alex inquired, as she was sure that they were still in the middle of preparing for their big battle with the massive golem in the desert, since Pinkie wasn't running off to stop it from reaching the jungle, why she had no idea, and she was interested in what their ally had planned next.
"We're heading back into the mines!" Pinkie replied, where she faced the north as the others glanced in the direction as well, as they had only explored a fraction of the depths before getting involved with everything that was going on with the golem and the jungle, "I'm interested in seeing what else might be down there, even if we don't really need anything, just in case we find any additional material down there to reinforce our walls."
"Did our ally mention anything?" Octavia asked, though at the same time they started to leave the village, with several of the Villagers waving goodbye as they went about their own duties, allowing everyone to start making their way to the entrance of the mine.
"No, but I suspect that we'll find something while we're down there." Pinkie said, which interested Octavia, since it meant that this was more for fun while they waited for some developments with the golem and the wall, though she was fine with that, since something less intense than everything they had been through lately would make sure they didn't get stressed out.
For a time no one said anything as they made their way to the north, tracking down the mine entrance they used several times in the past, though once Octavia noticed it she had the feeling that there was something new somewhere inside the mines, something waiting to be discovered. She also knew Pinkie had to be searching for a couple of new items, since that would help her with the workshop and even the rest of the village, there was no telling when she considered what might be down in the depths, so she resolved to be patient. At the same time she held her hand out and summoned a couple of glowing orbs that provided some additional light, where Octavia assigned one to each of them, just in the off chance that they got separated for some reason, before they entered the mine and got ready for whatever might be waiting for them this time. Despite it being a while since any of them had been to this mine, as the start of their quest turned things around on them, Octavia found that the torches Pinkie had placed previously were still lit and burning, though her friend kept one of her arms at the ready in case monsters showed up.
Sure enough they found some Zombies and Skeletons in the deeper part of the mine, in a direction they hadn't been in yet, as evidenced by the lack of torches, though this time around Pinkie held back as Steve and Alex dealt with their foes, while Octavia swung her arm and sent out a burst of wind that cut down a Skeleton to their left.
Pinkie kept studying the surrounding area as they dealt with the enemies, using her dragon eyes to track down the metals and gems that were in the walls, before she found something interesting that caused the others to join her, a bridge, made out of wood, which stretched out into a massive cavern. What they found was that the ceiling had a number of stalactites hanging from it, along with normal stone and materials, before she moved her hand towards the ground, causing them to turn their attention downwards for a moment as they discovered something new. The floor was made out of some type of dark gray material, likely a type of stone that was harder than stone was, though it was hard to tell if that was true or not, at least from where they were standing, though Pinkie was interested in heading down there and Octavia followed her as their friends kept their guard up in case some monsters showed up. For right now it looked like the area was clear of enemies, as there were no monsters lurking in the shadows, but that only worried Octavia a little, because of what happened in the past, as she kept her guard up while Pinkie reached the end of the bridge and headed down a path that was carved into part of the stone wall.
"Looks like someone else beat us to this area... the Builders, perhaps?" Steve commented, as that was the only thing that made sense, that the makers of this world had weaved together the area that was around them before disappearing, and it was reinforced by the fact that he and his friends were the only Crafters in the world.
"Most likely, meaning we might find another underground structure at some point." Octavia replied, as the Builders placed the Stronghold down in the depths and, unless she was mistaken, there had to be something else down located below the ground, based on what she knew after taking in everything that they had seen so far, and she was eager to see what that something might be.
It didn't take them long to reach the bottom of the stairs, allowing them to see that Pinkie was investigating the new type of stone, which she told them was called Deepslate, meaning their ally definitely knew about it, before allowing the others to spread out for a time, to explore, as she pulled out her pickaxe. Octavia watched for a few moments, observing Pinkie as she smashed through the new stone with some amount of ease, though her friend admitted that it wasn't as easy as it looked, the Deepslate was tougher than she thought it was, but after a few moments it allowed her to figure out a way to break through the material. What was interesting about all of this was that there were no enemies waiting for them, as in no monsters were wandering around, which worried her a little since it meant they might be in trouble, though Pinkie did locate something new, all of the ores they were used to collecting were trapped in the Deepslate. By that Octavia quickly found that there were pieces of coal, iron, gold, copper, redstone, lapis, emerald, and even diamonds contained in some of the new material, though Pinkie was able to extract them with ease and, when she mined one of the ores, she found that it produced far more than a normal ore did.
Such a thing meant they were far richer than they originally assumed, though as Pinkie collected the ore she found a new passage leading even deeper than before, where she gathered the others and had Octavia provide some lights while she placed some torches to light the way. As they walked, however, Octavia, Steve, and Alex discovered a new item, some sort of dark substance that was starting to grow on the walls, like some sort of webbing or something, though this time all four of them kept their guard up as they descended into the depths. Eventually the path turned into a staircase that brought Pinkie, Octavia, and their friends to an immense underground cavern that put the one they were used in to shame, which was further validated due to the massive ancient city that was in front of them, with what looked like a massive frame for a portal in the direct center. Of course the ground was covered by the odd dark substance, in fact it looked like it was in the middle of corrupting the ground itself, not to mention the surrounding area, giving Octavia an idea on what to do to the Lost Dimension, all while Pinkie carefully extracted a few of the new items that were in front of them.
As they stepped down into the new area, however, Octavia had a feeling that their doom was coming, especially when she saw that the sounds of them walking were heard and redirected to some other item they couldn't see right now, since all of them heard a shriek of some kind, before the ground some distance in front of them broke open as something taller than an iron golem emerged from it.
"What in the world is that?!" Steve asked, as this was his first time seeing the creature in question, because it contained the same dark material that went into the surrounding area, he was sure that they could see some of it's bones, and the beast looked like it could pack a punch.
In the following moment the beast, as if sensing Steve's voice, turned and zeroed in on him, rushing through the distance between them in a matter of seconds, though before it could knock him out of the way Pinkie appeared in between the pair and blocked the attack with her scythe, finding that it pushed her back a bit. It gave Steve and the others enough time to get out of the way before she found herself being knocked backwards, sending her flying into one of the stone walls as she coughed up some blood, but while Octavia was worried she noticed something, Pinkie was having fun. The two shared a glance for a few seconds, allowing them to share an unspoken agreement on the situation, before she rushed into battle once more, swinging her scythe as she flashed from point to point, causing the beast to turn it's head as it followed her, a fact that confirmed that it was listening to the sounds she made. While she did that Octavia gathered Steve and Alex, due to the fact that this beast seemed far too much for them to take at the moment, before they carefully retreated to the set of stairs they used to reach the ancient city, using the sounds of Pinkie clashing with the beast as cover so it didn't hear their retreat.
As they did that Octavia noticed that Pinkie, despite her power, was being pushed back by the beast, or at least she felt that her friend was holding back to ensure they escaped, and once they were a fair distance away from the city Pinkie just flared her wings and escaped, allowing them to return to the surface, but she knew that delving into the depths wasn't a smart idea and that they would have to do something else.