Minecraft Dungeons:The Rise of the Arch-Illager/1CHP

Prologue
A person named Karl notices some hostile mobs attacking a group of Illagers outside a village. He decides to attack the hostile mobs with his iron sword, killing them off with ease. The Illagers take notice of Karl and plan to attack him, but one of them, described as "a particularly short one with a massive nose" began to speak. Although Karl couldn’t understand what the Illager was saying, as they spoke two completely different languages, he let him speak out of curiosity, soon understanding that the Illager was practically begging the others to spare Karl, seeing as he had killed the hostile mobs that had attacked them. Another Illager then smacked the begging Illager on the side of its head with its sword, ending its blabbering. Karl then killed off the rest of the Illagers with relative ease, except for the short one with the massive nose. Karl explains to this particular Illager that he’s not going to hurt him and lets him go back to his home, making sure he tells the other Illagers the name: Karl.

Chapter 1
The Illager that was described as the particularly short one with a massive nose is revealed to be named Archie, who "seethed in frustration and fury" after Karl began to head back toward a village. Archie pushed himself back to his feet, surveying the fallen Illagers. Somebody then smacks Archie on the back of his head. Turning himself around, Archie thinks that Karl decided to kill him off, but is instead shocked when that somebody is revealed to be Thord, an evoker who had bullied Archie since his childhood. Thord had somehow survived Karl’s attack and was wobbling around. He asks Archie for a sword, who finds one nearby and gives it to him. Thord then grabbed the sword by the hilt and stabbed it in the ground, using it as a crutch. Thord then surveys the battlefield, giving off a frown, and says to Archie that he’ll pay for letting the other Illagers die. Archie then says that he wasn’t responsible, but Thord says that he is responsible. Archie tries to make another argument, but thoughts from his past creep into his head, such as how Thord and the other Illagers had said to him repeatedly that he was weak and couldn’t make a difference in anything. Cringing in fear, Archie says that he’s worthless and didn’t want to be a part of the Illagers in the first place. Thord agrees, saying that Archie would’ve let Karl kill the entire tribe of Illagers. The two then begin heading back toward their woodland mansion, with Archie attempting to talk with Thord about how they should fight heroes differently. Thord responds by smacking Archie on the head with the sword, making Archie feel even more terrified.

Chapter 2
Thord and Archie eventually arrive at the woodland mansion, where they are greeted by the other Illagers. Somehow, Archie has an idea, running past Thord and greeting Walda, the leader of the Illagers. Archie then explains to Walda that the hero had stole the victory from the Illagers, putting the blame on Thord by saying that it was him that thought he could take on a hero all by himself. The other Illagers gasp in response. Archie then asks Walda if she had appointed Thord herself, in which she replies that she did. She then says that the Illagers still haven’t learned the lesson from the last time they died, saying that they still charge into battle without thinking about other dangers. Thord and Archie then have an argument about who was in charge of their particular group, specifically as to who was at fault for the death of the raiding party. Archie then punches Thord, who drops to the ground, clutching his injured leg. Archie yells at him to get up, kicking him in the thigh. Walda then says to Archie that because of his actions, he was banished from the group of Illagers, seemingly forever.

Chapter 3
Archie is seen wandering through a plains biome. Soon, nightfall hits, and he takes shelter in a hole in the ground, closing it with dirt. Soon feeling confined by the tight space, Archie gets back up to the surface and dodges a few zombies while heading toward a nearby village. Barely avoiding an iron golem, Archie knocks on the nearest door he finds, being greeted by a villager described as "a clean-faced woman with sandy skin". The villager hesitates at first, but decides to allow Archie to enter her home, or so he thought. Without hesitation, the villager goes through the door, bursting past Archie and ringing a bell nearby.

Chapter 4
As the villager screams for help, Archie tries to run away, only to be cornered by an iron golem. The iron golem had the intent to grab Archie, but the villager signaled for the golem to stop, storming up to Archie to interrogate him. The villager asks Archie about where the rest of the Illagers are, but Archie says that he is here by himself. The villager instantly feels like Archie is lying, and runs back toward the bell to ring it again. Archie tries to run off, but the iron golem snags him in his grasp. Another villager, described as wearing "a wide-brimmed hat and clothing streaked with sweat and dirt" and "brandishing a garden hoe", as well as being revealed to be named Salah, waves the garden hoe by Archie, while also telling the other villager, revealed to be named Yumi, to let the iron golem take care of Archie. Yumi then says that Archie seems smarter than the average Illagers, saying that he’ll stop squirming around in the iron golem’s grasp. Archie immediately stops moving. A group of villagers show up behind Salah, with their emotions mixed between fear and anger. The iron golem carefully sets Archie down on the ground. Yumi then kneels down beside him, realizing that he isn’t a threat. Salah then claims that Archie was going to burn down the village by pointing toward a nearby torch, but Yumi says that the torch is part of her house, and that Archie ran at the sight of her. Salah then claims that more Illagers are nearby, but Yumi says that they are hiding very far from the village.

Salah and Yumi then have a brief argument about Illagers before Yumi asks Archie a few questions about hurting the villagers, bringing other people to hurt the villagers, and what he would do if he was allowed to stand up. Archie responds to the first two questions by shaking his head "no", and softly proclaims he doesn’t know regarding the third question. Yumi allows Archie to stand, making him free to leave if he chooses. Turning around, Archie shudders as he stares into the darkness. Turning back toward the mass of villagers, he notices that everyone is gazing at him, waiting for his next move. Yumi, with a wry smile on her face, holds out the palm of her hand to Archie, who accepts it. Archie then says that he has no place to go and asks if he can stay. Salah immediately objects, but Yumi proclaims that Archie will be staying in the spare room in her home. Salah opens his mouth to protest, but Yumi shuts him down with a deep glare. Yumi then mentions to the villagers that some of them may not be happy with her decision, but she expects that the villagers treat Archie with the same level of respect as they do with Salah’s cousins. The villagers seem to be in agreement, except for Salah, who says to Yumi that it’s a question of when Archie will cause disaster to the village. Yumi and Archie then enter Yumi’s house, with Yumi placing her back against the door and sliding down it until she sat on the floor, placing her a bit below Archie’s eye level. Yumi then asks Archie as to why he got kicked out of his group of Illagers. Archie hesitates, but Yumi then says to not worry about it, and that the story can wait for another day.

Chapter 5
The next morning, Archie and Yumi discussed about how Archie had been banished from his tribe of Illagers. Later that day, Yumi decides to introduce Archie to everyone in the village. Most of the villagers seemed happy to see Archie after last night’s incident, with Salah being the lone exception, saying that for every minute that Archie stays here, it puts the entire villager in danger. Yumi says to Archie to not worry about him, and that he’ll come around eventually. Over the next several weeks, Archie seemed to feel more comfortable with being in the village, making sure he complied when Yumi asked him to do something. The rest of the villagers seemed willing to make room for him as long as he could prove that he was worthy of staying. Archie began to learn more about the other villagers, such as their names, occupation, and the things and people they had cared about. Even Salah asked Archie questions about Illager life and why they attack villages. As such, the villagers began to care about Archie as a person rather than a threat. Likewise, Archie began to care about the villagers as people who could trust and care for him rather than constantly begging them for shelter and protection.

Every evening, Archie would return to Yumi’s house, where Yumi would feed him some dinner and allow him to sleep in a bed. The two would also chat about their experiences in the Overworld, and because of that, Archie had begun to care about the village and the villagers, especially Yumi, who had showered him with a high level of kindness. One afternoon, Yumi had introduced Archie to an iron golem, who gave Archie a flower in return. One night, Archie had also apologized to Yumi for the Illager raids, saying that he only participated in ones that he was forced to do so, and though he hurt others, he said that he was awful at doing so. He says to Yumi that he’s trying hard to get better at being a good person, and Yumi says that he’ll get the hang of it eventually. However, it was not meant to be. One evening, Archie noticed a commotion at the edge of the village. As it turns out, the villagers were greeting some heroes. Yumi and Archie begin heading toward their house, but are blocked by Salah, insisting that they meet with the heroes. Archie slowly turns around, being greeted by five heroes. He tries to run off to safety, but one of them grabs Archie by the chin, forcing him to look into the eyes of the hero. It was then that Archie had recognized him as Karl, the hero that had destroyed his raiding party.

Chapter 6
Archie’s knees gave out, and Karl had released Archie from his grasp, watching him collapse on the ground. Archie tried to stand up, but his legs constantly wobbled beneath him. Yumi tried to rouse Archie by telling him that he doesn’t need to be afraid, but Archie knew that Karl would probably end up killing him right then and there. To his surprise, however, the heroes seemed to be concerned about Archie. One of them had pulled out a potion of healing and offered it to him. Archie reaches out for it, but Karl stops this from happening. Archie, in his mind, then decides to give Karl the nickname of Smacker, seeing as he was the one who had "smacked" him into unconsciousness when they fought. The heroes then have a brief argument about Archie, while Salah and Yumi also get into an argument about Archie as well. Smacker appears to laugh at the two villagers for arguing, which only makes Salah enraged. Just as he opens his mouth, Archie punches him in the crotch, groaning in pain as he fell to his knees. Archie then kicks Salah again, making everyone gasp in horror. While Archie knows that he had defended Yumi from an attack by Salah, it didn’t seem so for anyone else. Smacker then backhands Archie across his cheek, sprawling him into some grass.

Smacker then draws his sword in an attempt to kill Archie. Just as he is about to stab Archie, Yumi charges in-between them, causing her and Smacker to fall to the ground. Smacker springs to his feet. Yumi tries to stand up, but Smacker kicks her feet out from underneath, making the other heroes feel stunned by his actions. Salah then tells Smacker to leave Yumi alone, but he is also thrown back by Smacker’s sword, crumpling next to Archie and falling unconscious. The other heroes begin protesting Smacker’s actions. Archie, feeling fearful that he might attack Yumi, makes his move. He punches Smacker in the stomach, which causes his arms to rise, revealing a thin strip of flesh underneath his armor shirt. Without hesitation, Archie then punches Smacker in the gut.

Chapter 7
Smacker immediately yelps in pain, dropping his sword and clutching his hands by his stomach. He then tries to attack Archie, but two of his fellow heroes stop him from doing so. Yumi then drags Archie by his hand, saying that they are leaving the village for someplace safe. The two make it toward the edge of the village before Yumi realizes that they can’t run from the heroes, and soon the two are back in the village. Heading towards Yumi’s house, Archie spots Salah and the heroes attempting to attack him. He leaps toward Yumi’s house, entering it with the door closing behind him. Archie turns around and notices that Yumi is on the other side of the door, trying to protect him. Salah asks Yumi to hand Archie over to him, but she refuses. Smacker then tries to attack Yumi, but the other heroes intervene and pull him away from Yumi. Although they try to reason with Smacker, he refuses to listen to them. Eventually, each of the other heroes grab Smacker by a limb and carry him out of the village. Archie couldn’t help but pump his fist and cheer, but soon notices the other villagers with torches and pitchforks. Salah explains to Yumi that because of Archie’s actions, he will need to leave the village. Yumi attempts to make her case that Archie had defended her, but Salah stands his ground. Archie, seeing that he has no choice, decides to leave the village.