“Oh well of course there would be a catch.” I said under my breath. The entrance to the mine was covered by a large gate frame crafted by roughly hewn log planks. The problem was, the gate for the mine was sitting wide open, doors banging against rock and wood whenever they were caught by the wind. Walking over the gate, I could see that it was supposed to be closed by a simple wood latch, which was laying against one of the gate doors, splintered and broken.

“Is this recent?” I asked, trying to shout over the blaring wind.

“No,” Tak shouted in response. “They locked up all the mines when they shut them down. I broke it the first time I came up here after the mine closed,” Tak said as he walked inside the entrance of the mine. As soon as he crossed the threshold, a quest window appeared in my vision.

Chain Quest: Lost Child

Quest #2: Storm Shelter

Status: Complete

Quest Rewards

Improved reputation with Tak by 250* Access to Quest #3

Reputation with Tak has changed from -900 (Unfriendly). To -650 (Unfriendly)

Quest #3: Secure the Mine

Status: In Progress

Quest Details: Tak has informed you that the mine has been left unsecured for weeks. You must secure the entrance and clear the mine of any potential dangers.

Quest Objectives: Finish Objectives within 24 hours.

Secure the entrance to the mine. Clear the mine of any hostile creatures

Quest Rewards

+10% XP for all hostile creatures killed inside the mine 200 XP if mine is completely secured Unlock Common Athletics Skill (Mining) Unlock 1 Uncommon or lower Special Attack Skill Unlock Quest #4

Quest Failure Condition: Tak Dies

Lose reputation with the citizens of Jadestone if failure is discovered

Quest Failure Condition: Fail to Secure Mine within 24 Hours

Unlock Quest #4

Well, that's more than a little foreboding. I had been hoping to use the time held up in the mine to look over some of the crafting recipes or practice other skills, but the game had other plans. While the prompt didn’t explicitly state that there were hostile creatures inside the cave, a part of me doubted that I would be offered something like an uncommon attack skill if there wasn’t something dangerous inside. The reward by itself was more than good enough to push me towards confirming that the mine was clear, otherwise, I could have persuaded myself to simply focus on keeping Tak safe and move onto the next questline.

Closing out of the quest window and coming back to my senses, I hurried inside to get out of the biting wind, leaving the wolf corpses just inside the entrance. The immediate interior of mine was one long tunnel, about five feet wide and eight feet tall. The tunnel floor angled downwards for a few dozen feet until it came to an intersection with an even plane. Both entryways to the left and right were blocked by wooden doors on more roughly hewn log frames. Tak pushed open one of the doors and walked in.

“The room,” Tak said motioning to the door on the left “is a storage room. After I broke in the first time, Vondal had it locked up. I guess he didn’t want me screwing around with the tools they had stored in there or something.”

Tak then moved towards the other door, opening it up and walking through. “This is the bunkroom, it's where the workers sleep,” Tak said, voice distant as I looked around the room.

“They had to stay here overnight?” I asked.

Tak blinked a few times as if he hadn’t heard what I said before finally responding. “The miners all worked weeklong shifts. I wouldn’t see my Pa for a week at a time, but then we would get him for the whole week when he came home…” Tak trailed off, walking over to a bunk and sitting down, his back facing me. It couldn’t be easy for him to share this space with someone like me. Not wanting to push him to talk about anything he didn’t feel comfortable talking about, I scanned around the room to get my bearings

The bunkroom was a simple rectangular space, with 6 bunks located towards the backend of the room, each with its own small storage trunk. Next to the door in one corner of the room was a stone-covered fire pit, complete with spit and a roughly made wood counter with cabinets. On the counter was an assortment of pans and pots that had been left behind by the miners when they had been evacuated. The only other furniture in the room was a long table with a bench sitting against the wall opposite of the fire pit. The ceiling towards the front of the room looked to be angled to the opening just above the door frame, ensuring that any smoke from the fire would rise and exit the room, and travel up through the front doors of the mine itself.

Next to the room's entrance was a small stack of dry wood, enough to get a fire going and keep it burning for at least a day. Picking up several split logs, I laid them next to the fire pit and worked on getting a fire started, using my tinderbox. The tinderbox contained a piece of flint and steel, some sort of cloth material, and a candle. Striking the flint against the steel, I showered sparks down on the cloth, eventually getting it to catch fire, which I then used to light the candle. With the candle lit, I quickly got a small fire going.

Taking a few moments to warm my body and feed the fire, I tried to think about what my next steps should be. I still had the wolves sitting at the opening of the mine that needed to be skinned, but more importantly, I had to secure the entrance and scout out the mine to make sure it was safe. While I didn’t know how large the mine was, I assumed it would likely take me hours to walk through each and every single tunnel, which I wouldn’t have time to do tonight.

Knowing there was no way to completely scout the mine within the next few hours, I decided to see what I could do to secure the front gate, that way I wouldn’t have to worry about any potentially dangerous creatures getting in between now and tomorrow morning. Satisfied that the fire didn’t need any more immediate attention, I walked back out in the tunnel and tried to get into the opposite room. Unfortunately, the room hadn’t been locked with a wooden latch like the front gate. A fresh looking iron latch and padlock had been installed on the door.

Without knowing how to pick a lock, or having the right tools to break it, there wasn't any way for me to get through the door, short of trying to bust through it with my hatchet. Not wanting to spend the next hour chopping through a door just to look at some tools, I decided to leave it as it was, deciding instead to just focus on getting the front gate locked and secured.

The storm was just about in full swing now, making it impossible for me to see farther than ten to fifteen feet beyond the entrance. Looking at both gates, I quickly tried to think of what I could do to secure the doors. The original lock had been a sliding wooden bolt that you could open on either side of the door. I assume they had locked it up with a chain when they first shut the mine down. Ideally, I could just replace the interior bolt with a piece of wood or metal. Unfortunately, there was no metal piece that I’ve seen so far that would fit and it would take me time to whittle down a piece of wood to fit the slot in the door. What I could do though, was remove what was left of the interior wooden bolt and simply tie the door closed with some rope.

This is what I ultimately decided to do, cutting a piece of rope from the length I used to pull the wolves through the snow. While it was a quick and dirty solution, the rope was strong and would be able to hold against anything but a large creature determined on getting in, though it was loose enough to allow the wind to push the gates inwards, leaving a slight cap where wind and snow could blow in.

Once I was sure the rope would hold, I grabbed the wolves and drug them down to the bunkroom. They had just started to freeze and their fur was covered in snow from our trek through the forest. I knew that attempting to skin them at the moment would do more harm than good, so I laid them next to the fire to give them time to thaw back out and dry. With all my immediate tasks handled, I wanted to get a jump start on scouting the most immediate area of the mine to ensure there wasn’t anything close by that might try to get into the bunkroom.

“Tak,” I said, walking over to the boy as he sat quietly on his bunk, “When you’ve come here in the past, did you ever see or hear any other creatures in other parts of the mine?”

Tak looked up at me, pausing for a moment before shaking his head. “No. Most of the time when I come here I just stayed in the bunkroom and spent the day hiking around the northern edge of the valley.” Tak said.

“Do you think there could be any creatures in here with us, like other wolves?” I asked.

“There could be, but I doubt it. The wolf packs have their own dens, and wolves come and go from their dens a lot, even during the winter. I would have noticed if there had been wolves here in the mine. If anything, there might be a few animals hibernating in some of the back tunnels, like hedgehogs and squirrels. I’d bet you a copper I could find at least one snake hiding somewhere in this room. They love to stay in small dry places when it's cold out,” A small smile crept up on Tak’s face as he jumped off the bunk, going over to one of the trunks and giving it a peek inside. Frowning, he shut the trunk before moving over to another.

“If there is any kind of animal in the mine that might be dangerous, it would be a bear. There are a few Brown Bears in the valley. I guess one could have decided to hibernate in one of the larger mined out crevices, but I doubt it.” For a moment Tak looked like he was debating with himself whether or not to say something, before ultimately continuing on. “My Pa used to tell me that the mine opened up into some natural caverns and that they would have some weird cave creatures show up in the lower sections sometimes. Ma always said he was a bit of a bullshitter.” Tak said with a sad smile.

I chuckled a bit. “Well, something tells me that there might be at least a bit of truth to what he told you, but it’s good to hear that these creatures are in the lower sections of the mine. I’m gonna go and walk through some of the closest tunnels on the first level, just to make sure there isn’t anything nearby. You wanna come with me?” I asked.

Tak’s eyes brightened for a moment, but he quickly subdued himself. “No, I'd rather stay here. I’m pretty tired.” He said, going back to looking through some of the empty trunks.

“Alright, then you stay here and rest up,” I said, sighing. I took a moment to finally unsling my packs, dropping my large leather travel bag into one of the empty trunks Tak had already gone through. Taking my extra water skin from the pack, I took it and by knapsack over to the table. “There's more jerky and dry rations in the bag if you get hungry. Water here in the skin too, but go easy on it. We’ll boil some snow tomorrow morning when we get up. Oh, and make sure you keep the fire going until I get back.” Tak continued searching through everything, only giving me a slight nod to show that he had been listening.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my spear and walked out the door, closing it shut behind me. I didn’t mind too much if Tak stayed behind, after talking with him I felt confident that there wasn’t anything dangerous in the mine, at least not in the immediate area. This was also Tak’s place, and he had grown used to being here on his own. If anything, I was intruding on him. If he wanted to be by himself, I wasn’t going to push him.

Leaving the bunkroom, I made my way deeper into the mine. The main shaft only went on for about another fifty feet or so before it opened up into a slightly wider corridor with narrow passages spread out every 10 feet or so on each side. It was hard to tell how long the corridor was. My darkvision allowed me to see everything in front of me, but without at least ambient light, my vision was limited to about a fifty or sixty foot radius around me. I decided to start walking down the first shaft to my left, figuring I’d go as far as the shaft would take me, and see what I could find.

While I walked, I worked on trying to unlock a couple of my stealth skills, specifically ‘Muffled’ and ‘Controlled Breathing’. I slowed my pace, focusing on walking as quietly as possible while I made sure to control my breathing. While walking in stealth forced me to walk at a much slower pace, it also slowly ate away at my stamina. While the stamina drain wasn’t drastic, it was well over what my regeneration rate could handle at my current level. To ensure that I didn’t bottom out my stamina, I had to move in and out of stealth every five minutes or so to allow my stamina pool to fill back up.

As I traveled down the first tunnel, I also took a moment to finally review my list of skills that leveled up during my hike through the forest.

Intimidation: Frighten, Common LVL 2

Mobility: Balance, Unranked LVL 2

Mobility: Agility, Unranked LVL 2

Mobility: Snow/Ice, Common LVL 2

Nature: Weather Prediction, Common LVL 2

Perception: General Perception, Unranked LVL 2

Survival: Tracking, Unranked LVL 2

Survival: Hunting, Common LVL 2

It was a nice big list of leveled up skills, which helped make me feel like my day trekking through the snow had been more than worth it, though I still would have preferred to have the chance to be in Jadestone learning about different crafting skills or practicing a different fighting style. Since I used most of my mobility skills by default, and I had been using my survival skills and Frighten skill the most throughout the day, I hadn’t been shocked to see that they had all leveled up so quickly.

The only level up that came as a bit of a surprise to me was my unranked skill General Perception, though I suppose it made sense. I hadn’t managed to unlock any of the perception skills that Pat had looked up for me. Each advanced skill focused on a different sense, specifically sight, hearing, and scent. General Perception, while only giving me half as much of a boost per level than any of the three advanced skills, gained experience when I used perception, regardless of when sense I used. Even though I hadn’t done enough to unlock an advanced skill, I had done enough in all areas of perception to at least level up in my unranked skill.

With my perception skills in mind, I refocused myself. As I walked through the cave, I made it a point to try and pinpoint any creatures I came across through scent or sound. As I scouted out the tunnels on the first level, I occasionally came across larger open sections where it appeared the miners had come across a vein of ore. These sections would sometimes span three or four tunnels. In these areas would be some small cut outs in the floor or walls where the last bits of ore were removed, and in these spots, I would occasionally come across a nest of small animals, mostly squires, but also a few hedgehogs and opossums.

While these animals were far from a threat, I quickly learned to pick up on their faint musky scent and soft rhythmic breathing. Before long, I knew I was coming up on the larger mined out areas before I could even see them, just by the lingering smell the animals gave off. After about thirty minutes of scouting out the first dozen or so tunnels, I had unlocked two advanced perception and two advanced stealth skills.

Advanced Skill Learned - Perception: Auditory, Common LVL 1

Improve your ability to detect the sounds of objects and creatures.

+1% to your base range of detection with sound per skill level +1% chance to detect the sound given off by a creature or object per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Perception: Smell, Common LVL 1

Improve your ability to detect the smell of a creature or object.

+1% to your base range of detection with smell per skill level +1% chance to detect the smell given off by a creature or object per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Stealth: Muffled, Common LVL 1

Reduce the sound of your footsteps when sneaking.

-1% to sound of footsteps at all times per skill level. +1% to stealth ability while sneaking per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Stealth: Controlled Breathing, Common LVL 1

Learn to control your breathing, reducing sound and body movement.

-1% to sound and movement of labored breathing when suffering low stamina. -1% to sound and movement of breathing when sneaking or hiding per skill level.

As I moved tunnel to tunnel, going in and out of stealth and focusing ahead of me with my perception skills, I started to find myself zoning out. My actions began to become repetitive and natural, allowing my thoughts to start wandering. It was hard to think that I had only been logged in for… eight hours? Nine? It felt like I had been playing for a couple of days.

It wasn’t because so much had happened, but rather that everything that had happened had felt so real that my internal clock was so off. My day had so far been full of uncertainty, disappointment, frustration, and even pain. The fact that I had slipped into a pain-fueled flashback also wasn’t lost on me, and I honestly didn’t know how to feel about playing in a game that was so real that it could trigger something like that.

On the other hand, I couldn’t honestly say that I wasn’t enjoying myself. I wouldn’t say I was having fun, at least not in the way I typically would when playing a game. Rewarded? Excited? Absolutely. Take away the setting, take away the fighting, it wasn’t important. I was running, jumping, pushing myself to my limits to compete against other creatures, and succeeding. Yes, I was getting by with some narrow margins, but I was winning against long odds. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was living.

Having said that, I didn’t know if a game like this would attract the general public. I’ve grown accustomed to pain in my day to day life, and the pain I experienced in battle so far didn’t have much effect on me. However, I could see someone who wasn’t accustomed to pain being quickly turned away by it. Nothing in the Hazelsong was easy either, and nothing was just handed to you. Not loot, not skills, especially not power. You had to work for everything, sacrificing not just your effort, but also your time. As I reflected on the day and my experiences so far, I almost missed the sound of the wooden gates slamming open back at the front of the mine.