A few days had passed, and the mine had already opened.

  It was one of the things I wanted to check out the most, since most of the good loot came from them. Besides, fighting slimes and bats? That sounded pretty damn cool, as long as I don't go overboard. I didn't want to test what would happen if my health got to zero.

  And so, I stood in front of the door to the mine, holding my trusty pickaxe in hand.

  I also bought some salads from Gus, a cool guy, after making some money from fishing.

  When I stepped in, to my surprise, Abigail stood in front of the ladder leading downwards. She was a young woman with purple hair and a strange fondness for minerals... very strange fondness. She had a miner's hat, a bag tied to her waist, and a pickaxe on her back. She turned around when she heard me.

  "Oh, hey John. Do you want to check out the mine?" She smiled.

  "Well, yes. I'm surprised you're here, actually."

  She raised her eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I? I love rocks. I was actually waiting for the mine to open."

  That's interesting. This is the first time one of the characters did something they absolutely wouldn't in the game. Besides, I'm pretty sure that Marlon should be here to give me a sword... something's changed.

  "Why don't we go in together?" I asked.

  "Sure!" she said. "Lead the way. You brought torches, right?"

  "Plenty."

  We walked down the ladder and were greeted by a large, earthy cave with some torches spread out across. It was much bigger than in the game.

  Abigail hummed as she looked around. I did the same.

  The good stuff in the mines didn't appear until later caves – this was just an introduction. It was only a few minutes until a lone, green slime jumped out of the corner.

  It looked exactly how a slime would look – a green blob of jello.

  "A slime!" Abigail shouted, mostly with joy.

  Good time to test how fighting worked. I rushed at the slime, which moved in little jumps, and slashed at it with my pickaxe. It looked hurt and jumped off, and I followed after it. Slash, after slash.

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  One time, the slime evaded my attack and jumped up at my stomach. It hurt pretty badly. It was like a punch from a very wide fist, but nothing I couldn't handle.

  Soon after, the slime was dead, and it dissolved into... well, slime.

  "Hey, that was pretty cool," Abigail complimented. "Did you ever fight with a pickaxe before?"

  What kind of question was that? "No. It's my first time in the mines."

  "Huh... maybe it's from doing farm work? Well, who cares? Let's just go look around for some delicious rocks."

  There was a hole in the ground with yet another ladder, and we walked in there.

  I found some copper and coal ores, but nothing else. More slimes attacked, and even mud crabs, but it was nothing that we couldn't handle.

  "Hyaaah!" Abigail slashed the slime in front of her with a wide movement, killing it.

  I collected all of the slime and anything that could be of help. I couldn't take everything as I liked, though – there was a limit to how many unique items I could fit into my pockets. How strange.

  It was then that we found an Earth Crystal on the ground, and Abigail picked it up with starry eyes. When she thought I wasn't looking, she quite literally fucking bit into it and started chewing. I pretended not to see, for the sake of my own sanity.

  Another floor, and more of the same stuff. I had bought a small watch to check the time, and we still had plenty of time before the night befell us.

  "Hey, we make a pretty good team," Abigail said.

  "Yeah," I replied. "Are you sure you don't want to take some of the ores we find?"

  "I'm just happy with the minerals." Abigail hummed as she walked around.

  It was a huge cave, and it was pretty easy to get lost. We had torches and all, but even then, I didn't want to walk in too deeply. Only to level five, because then the elevator would start working. Or at least that's what I hoped.

  Floor four. I thought it would be just another easy challenge, but we were proven wrong. Awfully wrong.

  Abigail closed her nose. "Ugh, what is this smell?"

  I breathed in and grimaced. It smelled like a congregation of rotten insects all combined, and sat there in this mine for weeks on end. The smell appeared out of nowhere, and soon after, another issue arose. A green mist spread out in the cave, bringing with it more of the horrible smell.

  Then, I heard buzzing in the far distance.

  Fuck.

  What followed was a gruesome fight, one that made me question why I was even here in the first place. Abigail and I fended off the cave flies for several minutes until Marlon appeared and got rid of the rest. Turns out, the reason he wasn’t at the top of the mines was that he was exploring them himself. But Marlon… it would be hard for me to believe that he was actually old with how he moved back there.

  Marlon turned to look at us and laughed. “That wasn’t too bad. There will be adventurers of you.”

  With a slight smile, I thanked him for his help. Then, we found the fifth floor of the mines, and with the help of an elevator, which I didn’t know how it worked, we made our way back to the surface.

  It was night already, and Marlon bid us farewell after tending to our wounds. Harvey’s clinic was closed today, so we would have to go tomorrow. It wasn’t anything too dangerous, though. Yet.

  "Thanks for the help. It would be tough without you," I said to Abigail.

  "Same to you. I got some nice rocks from all that. Say, do you want to help me out beat Journey of The Prairie King tomorrow? It can't be that much harder than whatever happened today." She smiled.

  "Sure, tomorrow, then."

  We said goodbye, and I got back to my farm and immediately drifted off to sleep.

  The next day, I helped her beat the first level.

  Turns out it was much harder.