His heavy eyes began to lift, body stiff, his arms and legs reach out to their limits. It was too dark to see anything around him. He called forth his illumination magic again to shed light on his surroundings. He found himself propped up in the corner of the room he had just crashed in. Looking around droplets of water could be heard echoes in the distance. The stone floor and walls were cool to the touch. Alex could feel the wet dampness of them as he pressed his hand against the ground to rise back his feet. Looking himself over not seeing any scratches of damage done to his body.

“How did I make it out of this one?” He thought aloud.

Alex thought hard for a moment. The last thing he remembered was being thrown from the minecart and crashing into the wall. But he didn’t crash anywhere near here. He looked about the room some more. His cart had come from long down the tunnel. He stood high on a landing. Behind him a wooden door was shut. Had he been able to stop the cart he would’ve used the stairs located on both sides of the room that climbed up to this landing he found himself on. A pair of lanterns were set on the walls opposite of one another, but, they had long since been lit. He turned and looked back at the door. There wasn’t much point in staying here any longer and he had no desire to be here should those imps decide to crawl their way through that shaft.

He checked his things and made sure they were all in order, after doing so he grabbed the handle of the door and gave a tug. His hand pulled hard on the cold metal that resisted his grasp. Giving a second pull. The metal hinges let out a loud and piercing screech as he slowly heaved the door open just enough to slide through. Once through he tried to pull the door shut but it the gave such resistance to being closed it was as if the door had decided it had ben closed long enough and no amount of effort exerted by Alex could shut it. Choosing to leave it be, he turned and walked down the hallway. This place was different from the Goblin’s Lar. Instead of the entire space being made of stone this was more like what he’d expect a mine to look like. Wooden beams were pressed against the dirt walls to hold up the ceiling. Every 10 feet or so he’d walk through a thick wooden frame that stretched up from the floor to the ceiling. The floors in this area were all made of wood as well, not stone nor dirt. From the ceiling rope hung down with a metal frame basket holding what appeared to be a weathered torch or maybe a heavily used candle. His illumination spell shining light off the frames bounced light across the passage as he continued.

Wow! People must’ve built and used this place at some point in time. So, there must be a way out. I just need to keep walking. Alex thought to himself as he took in the sites around him. There weren’t many but he still found it interesting, nonetheless.

He finally stepped out into a large sized room. Though this looked more cavernous to him. Using his light magic he could see spikey spires hanging down from the ceiling. Looking around the room he could multiple stone like walls that reached from floor to ceiling which created strange natural shapes in between one another. Across the floor was another manmade walkway. Here the ground had returned to rock and stones. Every few feet or so a wooden plank was pressed into the ground to symbolize the direction one should walk. While Alex was partially excited to be exploring such an interesting place, he was also a bit frightened. While the temperature was cool sweat was present on Alex’s face. His heart beating fast and hard he made a hard swallow. It was so quiet he felt the entire room could hear his breathing. The realization that he was alone and underground began to slowly wear on his confidence and his comfortability of being down here was starting to fade, especially as he came into such an open area. Feeling the openness of the room the hair on the back of his neck rose up and he started to quietly hum to himself. Alex waved his illumination spell in front of him as he tried to see the details of this space. But there was nothing. Aside from the manmade markers in the ground this entire cave was just a cave.

Following the path his steps echoed throughout. From the hard clap of stone to the wooden thuds of the guide markers on the floor. The sound of dripping water could be heard echoing off the walls as well, but it wasn’t often and not consistent. As he came into the middle of the space, he realized that this cave was much larger than he had thought. Using his magic, he tried looking high above him. Unfortunately, his magic was limited, and he continued to look up into black nothingness. But the massive ceiling began to descend as he walked forward. As he continued to follow the wooden markers the ceiling and wall became visible as it made a passageway for him to walk through.

How could something this size exist underground? He thought to himself as he entered the passageway.

After what seemed like ages Alex finally made it to the end of passage. There wasn’t much of anything to see in this place beside rock and dirt though he could see another door was built into the wall before him. As he clutched the wooden handle a voice rang out behind him.

“Stop right their gooman! This is my door!” A creature demanded.

Alex froze for a moment before letting out a loud scream. He leaped, while turning around, and pressed his back up against the door.

“Muhaha poor gooman’s all alone!” The creature laughed.

Alex reached to his side hoping to find his sword, but it was no longer with him. He was in trouble. With nowhere to run and nothing to protect himself wit he was sure to be a goner. Alex clenched his eyes shut as his mind started to wander. He remembered a conversation with his father from when he was just a little bit younger.

“Remember Alex. Trouble can find you any time and anywhere. You must keep your wits about you. If you don’t have a weapon you need to use your resources.” Darcy said as he looked down as his son bouncing his wooden sword on his shoulder. He had cornered Alex in the barn during their practice session and unfortunately for Alex he had been disarmed as well.

“Daddy I don’t have any resources!” The small boy called out.

“You knocked my sword away remember?”

“I remember but look where you are son.” Darcy replied.

A young Alex looked around the barn.

“Tell me what you see in here.” Darcy said.

“Well there are buckets, bags of wheat, some farming tools, and rope.” Alex stated.

“Excellent.” Darcy smiled.

“Excellent? What do you mean excellent? All this stuff is for farming not fighting!” Alex growled at his dad.

“Maybe. But to me I see a lot of opportunity made available in here.” Darcy lectured.

“Well sure….” Alex started when he suddenly noticed a bucket of water was flying in his direct. As he side stepped out of the way he found his foot had become stuck in another bucket which caused him to lose his balance and slip forward face first into the wooden barn wall.

Darcy let out a small chuckle as Alex soon found himself resting on the floor.

“Never underestimate your surroundings my son. It could be the end of you if you do.”

Alex’s attention returned to the present as he saw a ball like creature lunging towards his face. Just before the creature could connect with him, he dropped to the ground landing on his rump. Effectively allowing the creature to crash into the door behind him. As the creature did this Alex rolled to the side.

“You won’t get me!’ He yelled.

This wasn’t a barn though and as Alex remembered there wasn’t anything in this passageway that could be used as a weapon. He grasped his backpack in his hand that wasn’t holding his spell. As he did so his eyes went from anger to widening with surprise. He had an idea.

As the creature slowly fell to the ground Alex took off his shoes and threw them into his bag. He then closed it tightly and clenched the straps in his hand.

“Ow kid, what’d you do that for?” The creature said as it reformed itself on the ground. The creature shook its body to regain it’s senses. As it turned around it was greeted with the image of Alex rushing towards itself with a large bag being swung down towards itself. With a loud thud the bag rang true against the creature. Alex pulled back on the bag as he jumped backwards away from it the ball of light sliding alongside him.

“Take that monster!” Alex cried out in victory.

“Who are you callin’ a monster you flippin’ two-legged moron!” The voice called back.

“Huh?” Alex replied as he looked at the monster in confusion.

Alex had left a rather large indent in the creature effectively reshaping it. Its body had morphed around the shape of the backpack and that’s where the creature found its own body now. it morphed its body back into a round sphere like appearance and as it did its eyes appeared furrowed.

“You idiot!” The creature yelled at Alex.

The bag fell from Alex’s hands and let out a low thud as it met the ground. His feet clapping quickly against the stone as he ran towards the creature. He fell to his knees scooping it up in his arms and began to cradle and hug it.

“Slime!” He exclaimed. His nose began to run a little and his sniffling filled the passageway. Tears began to fill his eyes and he began to cry.

“Oi let me go! This is gross!” Slime called out in distress as he tried to free himself from Alex’s tight hold.

“Slime you’re okay!” His tears rolled down his cheeks falling down to the stone floor below them..