In the back of his mind, there had been a part of him wondering if this whole thing was somehow more than just a hallucination, wondering if he was actually going to be stranded here for the rest of his life, and that part had been growing steadily louder and louder as the hours ticked on by.

But this was a manmade structure. If he was stranded here, he at least wouldn't be stranded alone.

"Hello?" he calls out, and louder, if needed, "HELLO?"

No response.

But he does seem to attract a little attention.

The thing shooting arrows at him can't be like the others; it's clearly intelligent enough to build structures - or were the other monsters sentient, and he had just been killing people before - no, don't be ridiculous, this is a dream -

"I come in peace! I come in peace! Don't shoot; I surrender - here - " he switches from his sword to his steak in what is hopefully an offer of friendship.

Continued arrow fire, several of which hit him. It doesn't seem to react to anything he's saying.

Just because it doesn't speak English doesn't mean it's not a person. But it's clearly hostile. He draws his bow and arrow to shoot back, but he's running away from it and trying to circle to the building, in case there's really a human inside and this is just a monster attacking its house.

There are several more of the angry creatures with crossbows in the vicinity.

Then it is time to run away.

He'll run through a jungle filled with all sorts of interesting new flora, but the gray creatures are persistent enough that he won't be able to stop and smell the, uh, plants.

But once he gets to the end and turns back, he can at least mine the unusually tall trees, which drop yet another kind of wood.

He's not stopping for long, even once it seems like he's shaken them off. If they're intelligent, then they might be tracking him - so he's going to travel some distance, loop around, and hope to hell that he remembers where his house is.

Take a look at all the cool stuff he'll find!

These all look like worryingly manmade structures! If he approaches them, is he attacked by more of the grey people?

The first one looks like some kind of a... capsized ship? It's empty except for two chests, which contain feathers, a map, empty books, paper, wheat, and moldy potatoes.

So these are absolutely intelligent creatures. And as for why they're attacking him... hell, they might just think he's a monster in his own right, like the zombies. (Those certainly don't seem to be intelligent, although he's not quite sure.)

What about the other structures?

There's one structure made of black rocks and stone similar to the one he saw before, although it's arranged differently. The chest here contains black rocks, bits of iron, an orange and black orb, and shimmering golden tools and pants.

There's also a rather intense thunderstorm going on by now.

The final structure is made of sand, and doesn't seem to have a chest at first - unless he mines a few blocks to find it.

This chest contains wheat, coal, rotten flesh, and what seems to be a shimmering fishing pole.

That'll be useful someday if he makes it through the night which he is not sure he will. He will keep going until he makes it back home.

He miraculously evades being struck by lightning, despite being the tallest object in the middle of the ocean. After a great deal of backtracking and increasingly desperate searching, he will eventually happen upon his house, by which time the storm will have cleared up.

So. What have we learned today?

To never go on any sort of adventure?

We have learned that there is an alien species here and that it is actively hostile where by hostile he means "attacks outsiders with crossbows"! We have learned that they are intelligent enough to build houses, giant boats, and bizarre black rectangles with chunks taken out of them! More importantly, they have learned that Eric is here!

And he's pretty sure he remembers the first structure that was made out of that black stone being in a different direction of his house! Meaning that they have previously travelled near his house and can easily do so again! It will not take long for them to find him!

So... what does he do about it?

Hell if he knows.

He's going to take a few minutes to regroup, and take a look at all of his new supplies.

Most of it is pretty straightforward. The new types of flowers make new types of dye, the new types of wood make new types of planks, etc.

What about the sparkly golden pants? Do they also feel magical?