Minecraft: A New Adventure

by Blackdrag-rose

The First Battle Tower

Following the creation of the Thaumonomicon, and the discoveries it gave her, Octavia moved her meager belongings to the tower that was on the outskirts of the village, mostly because she had a feeling that the discoveries contained within the tome might be dangerous. As such she intended on keeping everything contained away from the village, just in case things went south, though, as she discovered, Pinkie helped her out by using the finer stone she used in her house to make the bridge that connected the two patches of land together. With that done she made her way to the top of the tower and found that several changes needed to be made, as this wasn't safe at all and needed several modifications to make it a true home, but that would have to happen another day, given that the day was almost over. She was still amazed by how quick the sun and moon moved in this world, the days were far shorter than what she and Pinkie were used to, though she did join the others for dinner, more bread and meat, while drinking from some of the filtered canteens that had been given to them by the Villagers, leftover from someone else who came through the area.

She also discovered that the magical tome contained all sorts of magical information that, unfortunately, was locked away at the moment, so it could only point her in the right direction, where she assumed if she did the experiments right she could unlock new entries. Thaumaturgy was interesting, especially since Steve and Alex were eager to see what she might learn, and based on what the tome told her she was going to need something called a Thaumometer, though to craft such an item she required more Salis Mundus and an ordinary Crafting Table. Supposedly it would make something that could handle the energies she would be working with, or at least that was her basic understanding of all of this, which told her that she would have to make at some point. Of course, she still had a few bowls and multiple crystals, so she didn't have to worry about going mining for a while, but knowing Pinkie, and the discovery of the battle tower, she had a feeling that they might head over there to see what was inside it, despite the fact that none of them had armor.

When morning arrived, however, Octavia was right in her thoughts, Pinkie was already up and was eying the tower off in the distance, though both Steve and Alex seemed to be getting ready as well, sharpening their weapons and making sure they had anything that might be useful.

"So, we're actually doing this?" Octavia asked, where she joined the others and accepted a canteen for a moment, since she was a bit thirsty and deal with it, and did a quick double check of her stone tools, which might not be useful inside the tower, even though they had no idea what sort of enemies might be inside it.

"Pinkie expressed her interest in checking it out, and the Elder told us that the Builders created the Battle Towers to test people, while leaving treasure behind." Steve replied, though he understood why Octavia would say something like that, as none of them had armor and there was a good chance that something bad would happen to them while they were seeing what the structure had for them, before he considered the other thing he had learned, "Also, the Elder told me that each of the ten floors have treasure chests inside them, so we might be able to obtain new items and gear while we're there... we're only taking on the first floor, maybe the second if we're lucky, before we'll come back."

Octavia considered that information for a moment, because if there were ores inside the chests it would be worth picking them up and handing them to Pinkie, who would be able to use them as much as she wanted, and since they had no idea what else might be in the chests it was hard to say if they would be useful or not. Despite the fact that she knew most of them were under equipped for this, save for Pinkie since her chaotic powers might come to her aid in some manner, she agreed that they could see what the first floor had for them, maybe the second if they were lucky. Steve and Alex had an idea to help them out while they were doing this, they knew of a method to make shields and the Villagers had another method to share, reminding them that the rules of this world were different from their old one. What Pinkie was told was to add six wooden planks to a Crafting Table, covering the bottom left and upper right corners, before adding a stick in the slot between the two groups, giving her a wooden shield, and by adding four cobblestone on top of that she could make it a stone shield, which she made four of in a few moments.

Pinkie then had the bright idea to place four iron ingots around the stone shields and produced three iron shields, which were bulkier and stronger than the stone ones, but Octavia knew why she was stuck with stone and decided that the first thing she'd do, before or after crafting the Thaumometer, and once that task had been completed the four of them left the village once more.

The first thing they did was cross Pinkie's basic bridge, even she knew it was basic and wanted to find some supplies, no doubt better than stone, to replace and improve upon her design, and then walked by Octavia's residence before turning in the direction that the Battle Tower was in. While they walked Alex pointed out a gray Hippogryph that was flying above the forest, away from where she and the others assumed the dragon was resting, which they were thankful for since none of them wanted to fight the dragon at all. The creature in question had the body, tail, and back legs of a horse, while also having the head and wings of an eagle with eagle talons as its front limbs, though it was likely fleeing before the dragon found it, a smart move even though they could see that nothing was wrong with the area. Other than that Steve felt that it was too quiet for a forest, something Alex shared, which meant that the presence of the dragon might be a boon for the time being, forcing other monsters to back off, but sooner or later someone needed to take it down, otherwise it would no doubt burn down the village and everyone inside it.

After an uneventful, yet nerve wracking, trek the group arrived at the edge of the Battle Tower, finding that the tales were true, there were ten floors and nine of them had openings that could be windows, so if they needed to jump out of a floor they could do so and land on top of the nearby trees. Despite the fact that it was clearly old, as it must have been here for a long time, the stone didn't look all that aged and the floor level had two entrances as well, meaning if they wanted to the four of them could split up and tackle the enemies from two sides, a plan for the future. Pinkie and Octavia noticed a few things right off the bat, there were holes in the ceiling that needed to be patched, there was a raised section, a block high by two wide, that had a wide chest on it, and on either side of the chest, with a block of separation, were two iron barred items that had what looked like monsters bouncing around inside their centers. The only other thing of importance was a staircase on the other side of the room, from where they were standing, which was partly hidden by the wall on their right, but to their eyes neither Equestria could see anything out of the ordinary, no guardians for them to fight.

Of course neither of them were stupid enough to actually enter the tower just yet, as Steve and Alex informed them that the iron barred boxes were what they called 'Spawners', devices capable of creating either a specific amount of enemies or an endless horde over time. Since their companions were more experienced they let Steve enter the tower first, which was when the Spawners activated and some green skinned figures appeared out of thin air, who looked similar to Steve and Alex, Zombies as the pair called them. As Steve hacked and slashed into them, Alex told Pinkie and Octavia that most of their undead enemies were unarmed and pretty harmless to an experienced adventurer, though there were instances of some wielding weapons and even wearing really great armor. She also informed the pair that the best course of action was to find an opening, be it leading the enemies around or just killing them all, and using one's pickaxe to break apart the Spawner before it could summon more foes, though they were good fonts of Experience, which was music to their ears, as it should give Octavia what she needed for iron and then some.

While Steve focused on their enemies, and both Alex and Octavia joined him, Pinkie did something they approved of, she used her stone blocks and sealed the holes in the ceiling, because if each floor was the same, and had Spawners for them to take care of, she didn't want enemies raining down on them while they were busy. With that done she joined the others and raised her shield to block an incoming attack, just like Steve and Alex did, allowing her and Octavia to cut into both of their targets and take them down, cutting down on the number of enemies that were on the first floor. Steven opened the way for Octavia to use her pickaxe on one of the Spawners, where she quickly discovered that it was hard to do with her current level of equipment, though he did yank any new enemies out of the way so she could complete her task in peace, leading to her breaking the item in question. Sure enough she got a fair bit of Experience from that, in fact when it broke Steve and Alex stepped away as Pinkie cornered her foe and dealt with it, allowing her to catch up with her companions, to a degree anyway, before Alex stepped up and broke the next one.

Once both Spawners were dealt with, and the enemies were wiped out, they opened the chest and found that there was nothing really special inside it, save for a few bottles of Experience, but Steve found some leather armor and wheat seeds, so he collected them and considered what to do next, all while Pinkie moved the pair of chests outside, to put their loot in before heading back to the village.

"I do hope there is more worthwhile treasure inside these towers, otherwise they aren't worth it." Octavia commented, as while the Experience from the Spawners was nice, and allowed her to catch up with her companions, the first chest didn't fill her with hope, rather it made her want to leave so she could get back to her new studies.

"Three bottles of Experience isn't nothing, especially with Pinkie's power." Steve remarked, though he did share her view on the tower, with four people it didn't seem like it would be all that difficult if they followed the pattern they had used on the first floor and the enemies guarding it, before he glanced at the ceiling for a moment, "However, I have a feeling that, if we tackled another floor or two, we might find something more useful for our mission... maybe some gear that will help us fight off a dragon or some other dreadful enemies."

Octavia wasn't too sure of that, since this place was just made of stone, but she and the others agreed to tackle several of the other floors to see what in the world they had in terms of treasure and enemies, to which Pinkie took down the stone she had set up on the staircase entrance, just in case foes spawned above and walked down the stairs. A few moments later the group discovered a number of spiders, like those found in the mine, hanging out on the second floor, to which all of them repeated what they had done before, three of them distracting their enemies as Pinkie sealed the holes. Once she was done with that she joined her companions and they carefully blocked attacks before lashing out at each of their foes, this time allowing Steve and Pinkie to break the Spawners when an opening showed itself, showing Octavia that there was a rotation to who got the Experience. The moment the last foe fell the group took stock of what was inside the chest, since that was part of the reason behind why they were here, finding a pile of stone weaponry, causing the more experienced pair to sigh as Pinkie carried the chests outside, though on her way up she lit the floors with her torches, just to prevent more foes from appearing from the darkness.

The third floor had Skeletons defending it, much more difficult than the enemies they had fought so far since arrows were more painful and fatal, so they carefully used their shields to defend against the incoming attacks before breaking down the Spawners, only to find some chain armor and some red bricks inside the chest. From there they found that every floor beyond that seemed to just have Skeletons defending them, so Pinkie had to make sure their shields were good after each fight and, if one was about to break, utilize her materials to make a new iron one, even though she did hand over Octavia's set of iron tools once she reached the level to use them. There were some green slime balls, a set of chain armor, and a suit of armor that looked like it was made of silver in the fourth floor chest, some backpacks and a compass inside the fifth floor's container, and a set of enchanted iron armor resting in the sixth floor's chest, plus some gold ingots and a suit of diamond horse armor. The chests on the seventh, eighth, and ninth floors were far more interesting, containing pieces of blue diamond gear, as one had a sword and another had a chest piece, though they also found some old atlases, a couple of bookshelves, blocks of lapis, and several enchanted baubles, which they had no idea what to do with them.

Once they finished clearing the ninth floor, however, Octavia noticed that the ceiling had no holes in it and meant that it had to be made of some tougher material than they were used to, or at least it looked that way from a glance, though she and the others made sure to spend their Experience wisely as Pinkie just broke the system.

"Okay, do we continue, or do we call it a day and go home?" Octavia asked, because while she knew they had been lucky, due to Steve and Alex sharing their knowledge with them to make sure they survived whatever the tower had to throw at them, she wondered if it was time to quit before something happened.

"Come on, after everything we've faced so far, the top of the tower should be easy." Pinkie said, where she opened the way to the tenth and final floor and quickly walked up the stairs, though as the others followed her they found that what was waiting for them was a giant made of chiseled stone brick and had a single blue eye, which turned towards them the instant they entered the arena it was guarding.

In the following moment Pinkie felt one of her Pinkie Sense attacks come on and instantly called for everyone to descend, something Octavia instantly followed as Steve and Alex hesitated before doing the same, though as they retreated to the ninth floor the Golem smashed through the ceiling, avoiding the chest up there, and glared at them. Pinkie, thinking fast, did the only reasonable thing that they could do at the moment, she jumped out of the opening and dropped down into the forest, finding that the leaves cushioned her fall and everyone else was grateful to discover that fact. As they did that, however, the Golem smashed through the floors like they were nothing, rapidly reaching the ground floor before trying to step out into the world, only for them to discover that it was tied to the tower and couldn't leave the area it had been told to guard with it's life. Even with that information in hand the group carefully slashed at the Golem, as it was capable of yet another surprise, firing balls of explosive fire, though Steve recognized them and sent it flying back with a well placed hit, all while he told them that he and Alex had fought some Ghasts that did the same thing.

Even with their caution and this discovery it took them a while to actually bring down the Golem, as it appeared that iron, while better than stone, had a hard time beating his clearly enchanted body, though they were able to do so in the end, breaking the Golem into pieces, which included some diamonds, redstone, and a few bits of clay.

"Next time... we're coming better prepared." Steve huffed, as he wasn't expecting the guardian of the Battle Tower to be a walk in the park, rather he was expecting it to kick their rears and force them to come back later on, but he guessed that having four people might have made things easier on them, before he noticed something, "Um, where did Pinkie..."

In the following moment the top of the tower exploded and the structure fell apart before their eyes, raining stone down on everything that was around it, forcing them to move for a moment before discovering that Pinkie had disappeared and grabbed onto the chest at the peak, allowing her to save the treasure, and she landed in the tree before touching down and setting the container down.

"You know, I'm not even going to begin to question what you just did." Alex said, because she had no idea how Pinkie had been able to get back to the peak so quickly, nor did she understand how she had known to dodge the incoming attack from the Golem, the first one after it woke up and noticed them, before taking a moment to glance at the chest, "So, what was he guarding?"

"Let's see... some glowing ingots, some odd silt, a few pieces of emerald jewelry, a rod that looks like it's on fire, a couple of diamonds... awesome!" Pinkie replied, where the others paused for a moment as she said that, as she pulled out a tome that seemed to be the armor tome she had been looking for, causing Octavia to chuckle, as now her friend would be able to make the gear she was interested in, boosting their power even more, "Other than that, not much else... save for a lone piece of paper that has a list of seven rings on it, including a 'Ring of Dragons'... I'll have to look into that later, once we're all armored up and ready for a brand new adventure."

Once more Octavia wasn't sure what Pinkie was talking about, save for wanting to explore this world, but decided that it was best if they fill up their new backpacks, put them on, and head back to the village so they could disperse the treasure accordingly, all while looking forward to seeing what happened when she got started on Thaumturgy, even though Pinkie did glance at the sky for a moment before joining them.

---

As the group headed back to the village, however, three figures stood in a chamber made of darkened material, a relic of an age long past, through it had been some time since they had last been in the same area for any length of time, a fact all three of them were grateful for, with a flat surface nearby that showed any dimension they were interested in. They were ancient beings, charged by the Builders to watch over their creations, and they had grown bored of that, so now each of them had their fun by ruling, in a sense, over the various dimensions that had been left behind, as no one really knew that each of them existed, only that the Builders had existed. Every now and then one of them would modify their dimension in some manner, adding or removing something for a bit of fun, and then drag an inhabitant from one of the other versions of the main dimension into this dimension, just to see if they could survive the challenges of this world. Sometimes they were amused by some of the Crafters that were summoned, either by their actions or how well they did, other times one or more found laughter in watching one constantly fail, and some were just plain hopeless that death was a blessing, and each one occasionally messed with someone that was trying to prove that they existed.

A new session had started and the Crafters had been called in, hence why the three of them had gathered again, to watch and observe the events that transpired in the world, though one usually ignored the first day or two, figuring that nothing interesting would happen in such a short period of time.

"Steve and Alex have made their base in a forest village, a worthy starting base... save for the black dragon that torched part of the forest," one of them, a being whose body was made out of pure darkness, remarked, where the window near them showed the location he was talking about, causing a ghostly white being with red eyes and a figure with glowing eyes to focus on it, before the image changed, "However, we have two newcomers that weren't part of the plan... Pinkie Pie and Octavia they are called... and they just finished a Battle Tower."

"Already?! Most are unable to withstand the dangers of such a place, especially in the first week." the ghostly figure asked, as it was strange, because there was a very small percent of Crafters that were able to bring down a Battle Tower Golem in such a short period of time, before he and the shadowy figure glanced at the third one, while the only way to tell that the shadow had gone so was because of the wisps around the eye area, "What do you make of this, brother?"

"I am intrigued. It has been a while since we've seen this happen," the glowing eyed figure replied, where he raised his left hand for a moment and zeroed in on the strange girls that had appeared in this world, finding that one seemed to be in the earliest stages of Thaumaturgy and the other seemed to rewrite reality, to some degree anyway, before he let out a light chuckle as he glanced at a list of events they used to test newcomers, "This should be interesting."

The other two chuckled a little as well before they got to talking about their plans for the group, what sort of challenges they could force upon them or events to inflict terror upon them, though each of them knew that this session should be one of the more interesting ones they had witnessed so far and were eager to see how the group reacted next.

Comments

[Cyrus Colter]

the end of this chapter, in the least spoiler way i can think of, makes me think of Left 4 Dead 2 style gameplay, with the A.I. Director and all that, only with modded Minecraft and more than 1 director all agreeing on what needs to be put in.

[Booster Spice]

Looks like The Bored dont realise Pinkie has noticed them already.

Where there are pistons and slime, there are machines, gliders and processors, which would be terrifying but I cant remember the mod that allows you to pick up a whole group of blocks as a single object, as if Pinkie got that, she could Chessboard or Grey Goo the entire realm within seconds.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11243102 I've never played Left 4 Dead 2, nor have I watched anyone play it, so that's a happy coincidence.

11243122 One can assume the Board, as you called them, thought she was looking at something else, like a dragon or flying creature... but you would be right in your comment. As for the mod, I think you might be referring to the Create mod.

[Hexan Tronic]

I can't wait for Pinkie to wave or talk to The Bored Ones. Should be fun!

[Blackdrag-rose]

11243885 Will definitely shock and surprise them when it happens.