I gave my legs a slap, exhaled deeply, and stood up. Surveying what was now called the Doughnut Cavern, I set my sights on the blocked tunnel. Sizing it up I estimated that it was a few feet wide and at least double that tall. Yup close enough. I removed my pack and unclipped my larger flashlight and placed them both next to the rope that led up to the smaller cave. I walked over to the tunnel still strewn with all sizes of rocks in all manners of oranges and browns.

With a sweeping motion of my foot, my boot cleared several of the smaller stones and once I removed my boot, other stones immediately filled its place. I let out a deep sigh and began to move fist-sized rocks from higher up. I hoped to reduce the number of rocks falling to replace the ones I cleared. I tossed them lazily toward the left of the blocked passage and in no time a small pile started to form.

I worked at this until another set of text appeared before me, right while I was moving a larger chunk of the orange stone. The words were a muted matte-gold text seeming to materialize from the space around them.

[Congratulations you have learned the skill: Physical Labor 1]

[Physical Labor 1: Through laborious and menial labor you are a little better at simple repetitive tasks. Even you can move a mountain, just one stone at a time! +1 Strength, -5% weight of materials]

I felt my body ripple slightly with the notification and the new skill. The rock in my hands did feel slightly lighter, or perhaps I was just a little stronger, well, both according to the skill. I chucked the rock onto the pile with a satisfying crunch of smaller stones. I went back to the blocked passage, a few inches already cleared, and noticed a new type of rock, it was a darker gray and had what looked like blue striations through it. I decided to move these rocks to the right side of the blocked passage.

After moving rocks for a few more hours my stomach started to growl and I walked the short distance to my backpack and the rope that led upwards. Removing another package of food I tore the pouch open, the label this time containing banana chips, they were pretty good, I thought as I chewed the crunchy chips. I grabbed out the canteen and walked over to the small pond and filled the canteen taking several swigs. This was far more effective than trying to drink directly out of the pond itself.

I wasn't feeling tired so I decided to get back to work clearing the blocked tunnel. It was a repetitive cycle of walking to the pile, grabbing a rock, move said rock to the correct pile, dropping the rock, then repeating. It was mindless repetitive motions, it really wasn't that bad, I even managed to level Physical Labor 1 to level 2! I had made it almost a foot through when I realized there was a particularly large rock blocking the passage that I would have to move. I remember that I had seen a metal tool in my backpack, I walked back over to it and retrieved a small one-handed tool. At least I thought it was one-handed as it was pretty small, one side of the head was flat and the other slimmed down into a pick.

“A pick,” I said out loud to no one, except maybe the pick. “Yeah I think this is what you are," I said to the small metal tool. I walked back over to the large boulder and gave the rock a nice good hit with the pick. The reverberations from the pick made my right hand go slightly numb. Leaning in to look at where the pick had struck the boulder, I saw the smallest mark, really a scratch. I took a step back and took a minute to think about a way to move the boulder, it blocked at least half the passage. Looking around the rock, the only other stones were above the boulder. I could try to clear over it, maybe even try to get around it to push it out, I thought. Looking at the rocks above it they were wedged in pretty tightly. I would need to be careful when I started to remove them.

Choosing a particularly blueish rock at random in the packed mass of rocks above the bolder I gave it a good hit and heard the rocks shift. Examining the pile of rocks I tried to select my next strike, I wound up my next hit but paused before striking the rocks, and yet another bunch of text appeared before me.

[Congratulations! You have gained the skill of Mining 1]

[Mining 1: You have learned how to remove rocks from the ground. You are on a roll! +1 Strength while mining, +5% damage to rocks and minerals while mining]

Looking through the prompt the area I was about to hit began glowing a very dim red. Slightly above it was a yellow glow and even further above that near the surface of the tunnel was a dull green glow. I recalled that green means good, at least vaguely, and struck where the green glow looked the brightest. Upon striking the glowing green portion I was rewarded with only a few head-sized rocks falling to the ground, as well as a notification that I had already gained a level in Mining 1! I put the pick through a belt loop and began to move the rocks to their piles, red and brown to the left pile, and the darker gray and blue rocks to the right pile. After clearing the rocks I decided to take a break.

I took a long gulp of water from the canteen and sat next to the small pond once again. Taking several deep breaths, I felt my eyelids get heavy before I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Waking up I found myself sitting in the dark. Reaching up to my headlamp I pressed the soft rubber button again. Nothing. I clicked it again. Nothing. I exhaled trying to stay calm. Thinking about the layout of the cavern and where I had set my backpack a small map expanded showing my position and where I had left my backpack. Walking over to it proved to be a simple task. I reached down and felt around for the larger blue flashlight and when I touched it I grabbed it and flicked it on using the switch on top of it.

With the new light, I reached up to my chin and unclipped the strap. Removing it I examined the helmet, trying to figure out how to fix the headlamp that was attached to it. I fiddled with a bracket on the helmet until it popped off. I set down the helmet and began to examine the headlamp. Turning it around in my hands I saw a small latch that I managed to pop open. Inside were two small tubes, wait no, these were batteries. I nodded my head, the knowledge returning to me, or at least enough bits and pieces for me to realize that the batteries must have died while I was asleep. Pulling over the backpack I began to look for replacements, sorting through the various smaller pouches inside I eventually found a small orange pouch containing a dozen of the small batteries that I needed and six much larger batteries. I pulled two out and popped them into the dead headlamp. With a quick click, it turned on, the white light splashing onto the ceiling.

I attached the headlamp back to the helmet and switched the larger flashlight off to save battery life. That would be important to remember. I went back over to the blocked passage. Removing the pick from my belt loop I started to examine the rocks that were still lodged on top of the boulder. After a few seconds, several dim colors began to appear. Striking the brightest green, a few more rocks tumbled to the ground. I moved those to their pile, this time all of them were the bluish rock. Looking back at the blocked passage I noticed yet another new type of rock! With a dull ting, I freed a smaller rock, this one a mixture of white and black specs. Rolling it in my fingers it felt familiar, all of these rocks felt familiar. Looking back at it a word popped up over the rock.

[Raw Cassiterite Ore - Poor]

[Congratulations you have learned a skill! Prospecting 1]

[Prospecting 1: The ability to identify rocks and minerals. The amount of information provided about identified rocks and materials is dependent on the level. At higher levels, you will have a chance to determine the location of specific rocks and minerals. You can now identify lesser stratum rocks and minerals.]

Rolling the rock, the Cassiterite, between my fingers I walked over to the orange pile of rocks. I selected a particularly orange rock and looked at it very hard rolling it in my fingers. To my satisfaction, another prompt appeared in front of the rock.

[Raw Hematite Ore - Poor]

With a grin, I set the Hematite back on its pile. I walked over to the other pile and grabbed one of the bluish rocks. Holding it back up and looking at it I examined the rock until this too was identified for me.

[Raw Azurite Ore - Poor]

A tiney ding sounded notifying me that I had gained a skill level. With a grin, I looked at my skills and saw that I indeed have gained a level in Prospecting 1. This sure was a neat skill, I thought to myself. I set the Azurite rock back in its pile and decided to start a new pile for the Cassiterite.

Looking back at the passage I let out a long sigh. This was going to take a while for sure. Moving back to the passage I chipped away at the pile for what seemed like a full day. The most exciting thing that happened while clearing the passage was the occasional ding that indicated I had gained a level in a particular skill. Taking a break from the menial task for water and another quick snack from my backpack I opened my skills to check my progress.

[SKILLS]

[Falling 2 - Level 1]

[Hard Headed 1 - Level 1]

[Mining 1 - Level 3]

[Physical Labor 1 - Level 4]

[Prospecting 1 - Level 2]

[Spelunking 2 - Level 1]

With a grin I closed the Skills screen, I liked seeing the growth by leveling these skills. The bonuses so far were minor, especially mining, I let out a cheap snicker at the bad joke. I don’t know if it's the concussion or something else but I think I am having fun. I knew I needed to get out though, if nothing else my food supplies were already running low, and only a handful of food packages remained. I also apparently had a limit on the amount of light I had, if I went through all the batteries I would have a slim or no chance to get out of here.

With that cheery thought, I laid down next to my backpack, I had worked for quite a while at clearing the blocked tunnel and I was starting to feel the fatigue get to me. I remembered to turn off my headlamp before drifting to sleep once again.

This time a dream greeted me, I was climbing a rock wall in a cave I think. There were other people as well. I reached up to grab a handhold before my other hand slipped on a rock that turned out to be wet. With a yell, I plummeted backward. Jolting awake I sat up, I was breathing fast, trying my best not to hyperventilate. I turned my headlamp on and with a slow staccato of breathe-in and breathe-outs, I was able to gain control of my breathing. Well, that’s not fun, I thought to myself grabbing one of the few remaining food packets from my backpack. There were still a few left but I would need to find more food in two or three days or I was going to get very hungry.

This one turned out to be a bag of delicious jerky, I savored the taste with every bite. Taking sips of water between bites I moved over to the passage surveying it once more. Finishing the Jerky I began to work on clearing the passage once more. It felt like another day went by, the cave sporadically lit by my headlamp as I moved rocks.

After losing myself for an unknown amount of time I was several feet past the boulder when I struck the rocks and to my surprise, two things happened. The first was the fact that the rocks fell away from me, and the second was another set of floating words.

[Quest updated!]

[Between rocks… and more rocks]