We touch down a few seconds after jumping in. The late afternoon sun still illuminate our deep surrounding, but it won't last. We look at the walls and find our entrance into the depths. The cave change from an abrupt hole to a slightly angled hallway of stone on one side, we will be able to walk down easily from here. I turn to the closest coal marks on the stone and get my pickaxe out. Mewtwo turns toward the green/orange copper marks and tries to find a way to extract the ores.

I strike the wall in a slight off angle, letting the tip of my pickaxe crunch against the stone. The wall shows a slight crack, and I keep going. Soon, I have dislodged a piece of coal off the wall. More coal is revealed behind and I redouble my efforts. The moment I dislodge a piece, it instantly vanishes into my inventory. That surprises me at first, but then I remember the auto-gather functionality I unlockede. After a good ten minutes or so of hammering at the wall, I am done, no more traces of coal are visible on the wall, and I have excavate a nice little alcove from the wall. I have also gathered quite a bit of stone.

I turn to Mewtwo and just stare in awe. It seems he has found a way to extract the copper vein alright. Raw copper ore orbit in the now familiar back halo spot, but it is the entire cubes of ore vein that have me stare. "How did you do that?"

He turns to me, a smirk on his face. The Terra path seemed handmade for the task. I first tried with psychic powers, but the Terra path streamlined everything.

"Yeah I can see that. Let's see if I can store these." I reply as I approach. He gently floats the blocks and ores to me. I easily store them. "Well that completed the copper part of the material quest. As well as the coal line."

Good, let us continue then. I nod and we turn toward the descending path. The light barely reaches a few meters in.

"This is going to be a problem..." I start to look for recipes or something for light.

I could light the way... Mewtwo offers.

"Alright, but I'll keep looking for something."

Mewtwo's left hand light up with a purple glow and slowly, we enter the cave proper.

Not much happens at first, we look at the walls for any signs of more veins, and stop when we find some. We quickly gather iron, more copper as well as a bit of aluminum. We gather all, and keep looking around some more. The tunnel is wide and mostly empty. At one point a distant screech gets us on edge, but nothing comes out rushing at us. Another time, we stumble on a half dug iron vein, the more we look at it, the more it looks like something ate part of it. We finish excavating it and then keep pushing deeper.

However, after the chewed vein find, we have a harder time finding any more ore veins. The walls around us all bear gashes of chewed stones, but nor more ores to be found. The tunnel, still mostly one singular road, twists and turns until it finally delivers us into a large opened room. Mewtwo's aura does not even light it in its entirety. We stop and look at the vast arrays of stalactites and stalagmites. The ground itself has changed, from the gray stone we had been walking on to a softer, beige colored rock. The sound of water dripping echoes all around the cave, giving the impression of slow rain. It is relaxing. The ground continues to slope down from there. We squint around as we wander in and can discern more tunnels deeper, some seem to even be quite far above ground. Maybe more accesses from the surface? If so we were lucky to find one that got us on ground level.

We will need a way to mark our way. Mewtwo declares and I agree. With so many branching tunnels, if we have to run out of herein a hurry, we need a way to know which tunnel gets us out quickly. I have kept looking at the new recipes that have been partially or fully unlocked and finally found something.

"Agreed, let's try with this." I take a coal, I take a stick, put them coal on top of stick in my crafting grid, and obtain... FOUR TORCHES. "AHAH!" AhAh... Ahah... ah... ah... My exclamation echoes around the cave and I immediately clasp my hand on my mouth. Shit! That was stupid.

At first nothing happens. Then there is a distant fluttering, some screeches. We try to find the source, but the echoes of the cave makes the sound bounce everywhere. Then the fluttering grows louder. And we can finally pinpoint its origin. We look up, and the both of us audibly gulp. Above us, between the stalactites, barely lit up by Mewtwo's purple aura, are dozens upon dozens of tiny blue bodies. They are oval heads mostly made of mouth, the body extending behind the mouth, with large triangular ears on top. They screech some more, and one peels off the ceiling, revealing a set of two leathery purple wings along with two thin tails. After the first comes another, and another, until the entire swarm peels off the ceiling. A swarm of dozens of zubats. They screech angrily at our disturbance, no, my disturbance.

Each screeches, I know, is made to feel their surroundings on top of expressing their anger at being awaken. Zubats have no eyes, and as such they rely on echolocation. My sudden exclamation must have been deafening to them. "Shit." I swear, but as quietly as I can. "We need to move. I don't think they're happy."

You think? Mewtwo, your sarcasm is noted and completely unnecessary. Oh no, I believe it is quite necessary. He answers my silent thoughts, his eyes sending metaphorical lightning my way. Fucking mind reader. As if this very capacity has not saved us multiple times already. I remain silent and let my thought do the same. I know, but now is not the time.

I summon a torch for my inventory and immediately store it back. We almost went blind. Why the FUCK are those lit up? Okay, it could help, but not right now. We need our sight.

The cacophony of screeches and flapping grows in strength as more and more of the small blue bats detach themselves from the ceiling. Soon enough an entire cloud of them hoovers above us. Some seem to notice us and swipe down to smack us. Get a torch out again, but behind your back. Mewtwo orders. I will take it and try to put it in the wall of our entrance. Then we rush that side passage. He points at a not so distant tunnel that seems to go down deeper. I nod and prepare to run toward it. I put my left hand behind me and summon a torch. Its light instantly extends shadows before us, and the torch quickly lifts off my hand. Go!

I start running, Mewtwo floats alongside me. We quickly reach the inside of the tunnel and both duck against the walls. The swarm continue to angrily screech at the now empty room. I glance at our entrance tunnel and can see Mewtwo managed to plant the torch right in front of it. I point at deeper into the tunnel and Mewtwo nods. Together we keep going deeper. Mewtwo lights his hand back up, but I wave him off. I take out a torch and truly light up the area.

So we have torches now. How did you light it up? Mewtwo asks, covering his eyes for a minutes.

I also cover mine and wait for my sight to adapt. "Your guess is as good as mine here. They come lit up." I answer as I finally can study the torch.

Mewtwo does as well and we both look at it for a couple of minutes. We look straight at the flame. Or more exactly the lack of actual flame. What I have made is a stick with a light source on top. It does emit some red and yellow flame, but they seem purely cosmetic as no heat emanates from them. It also does not appear to consume itself. We just look at it, confused and awed.

"I am putting that under Trio shenanigans." I declare.

Agreed.

With that, Mewtwo and I resume our descent. This time, with the light we spot more variations on the walls, ceiling and even the floor. The beige rock is identified as 'limestone (dripstone variant)' and most of the gray stone as only 'Stone'. I find a long streak of andesite at some point, the rock almost indistinguishable from the stone around it if not for a more visual granularity compared to the stone. We also finally find new ore veins. Some tin, more iron, this time without the chewing marks, a bit more copper. Our strangest find is twofold. A blue ore that, when I mine gives us gems of lapis-lazuli and a red ore that light up a bit when we try mine it. And I say try as my pickaxe simply rebound against the strange stone and red mineral mix. The system identify the ore as 'Redstone ore'... How original...

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mewtwo also tries to mine it with his powers, but the entire thing crumbles into unusable rock dust the moment he tries to pry it out as a cube. The best he manages is to break a part of it with a psychic pickaxe-shaped blade. It ends up not being much but we do end up with a small pile of red dust called simply 'Redstone', which I can store in my inventory as is, weird.

Before we can marvel too much on it however, a growl far too close for comfort catches our attention. We turn around and, rounding the corner, are met by three rotting and shambling corpses. Zombies. Mewtwo immediately summons little stars around him, but I hold him off. "Wait, this is the perfect situation. I want to try my sword."

Please do not run out of power again.

"Hey, these guys are not on the same level as the- Wow!" I dodge back as the zombies have closed the distance rather quickly. One even managed to swipe at me. They really are deceptively slow. No, hold on. I avoid another strike and realize something is wrong. I get my sword out and slash. I hit, and leave one of the three with a shallow wound across its chest. Putrid ichor slowly oozes out of the wound, but still it lunges at me. I avoid it again, and then avoid the second zombie swipe coming from the side.

"Okay, maybe a little help here."

I can see one of Mewtwo eyebrow go up in mock questioning and then a single star strikes. One the zombie's head instantly vanishes in a mist of flesh and ichor. Here, have fun with the rest. He offers with a little wave. He then turns back to another ore vein we have not touched yet.

I restrain myself from insulting him and return my attention to the fight at hand. There is something really wrong with those zombies. The ones I fought on the first night were truly sluggish compared to these. These ones move too swiftly. Is it the cave? Does being underground give them an advantage? Another swipe has me refocus.

Strike now, question later. I lunge at the already hurt one and pierce it through my previous swipe. I slip beneath its retaliatory swipe and push my sword up, carving along the wound. Its left shoulder falls down along with a large slab of his torso. Soon after the zombie collapses, unmoving. I then doge another swipe from the second zombie and aim for its head. My sword connects, but I fail to go all the way through. I kick the zombie back and reposition myself.

The remaining zombie's head flop around a bit, only half of its neck remaining to hold it. No less than that, my kick seems to have worsened the the cut. It does not stops the zombie from charging at me once more. This time I aim for one of the shoulders. I slash down and the sword stops half-way through. Another kick to the chest and I free the sword. Neck flopping, right shoulder sagging, the zombie mindlessly charges me once more. And his head is parts from his body with one final strike.

I huff a bit, that actually cost me coolant. Not much, but a bit, as well as a some power. I have finally lost the entire line under my squares, as well as about half a square of power.

Good fight. Mewtwo approves. Your sword works well. Mewtwo congratulates me.

"Yeah, but it still stuck on some strikes." I am happy that the sword is working as... well as a sword. But I can already see some chips and nicks along the blade. As I store it, a little green bar is now visible under the sword icon. Figures. Durability. The same is true for my pickaxe, although the bar under it is half yellow and half black. So already half used? I didn't mine that much with it though. Then again, they are stone tools.

Well, it is a stone blade, better materials will make for greater tools I am sure. Mewtwo echoes my thoughts. Stating the obvious here though, I tease in my head. Hey! I teased in my head on PURPOSE, AH!

Mewtwo pouts at my mocking thoughts. Another sound, this one a hissing sound, distracts us from our banter. It refocuses us even more as it came from behind us. From the part of the tunnel we came from. We turn around and there is nothing. I squint into the darkness, but see nothing. A couple tip-taping sounds echoes into the tunnel, with another hiss. I take a step back. I did not sign up for invisible enemies.

"You feel anything?" I ask Mewtwo, psychic sensing would be clutch here.

No, I cannot sense these creatures. I did not know there were three zombies until they rounded the corner, they have no mind to feel, nothing.

Shit. That is not good. Another hiss, another couple of tapping sounds. Not good at all. Mewtwo is frantically looking around, as I am, torch in hand. Where is the sound coming from? Another hiss. We both catch it this time. In perfect synchronicity, we look up. And what meet our eyes almost make us scream.

I do not know if Aster was arachnophobic. But the horror show on the ceiling could make me develop that phobia. What is almost above us is a nightmare of black chitin, its glossy finish reflecting the light of my torch. My system only labels it as 'Spider'. I would beg to differ dear WAYLA, spiders are at best the size of my fist, NOT A METER LONG BY TWO LARGE!!!

The eight gleaming red eyes lock on me and the spider jumps. Its mandibles spread wide as it is ready to strike us. Mewtwo react first. He catches the spider with his powers. A purple aura surround the horror and it is sent back down the stone corridor we are in. It skitters on the stone floor, its sharp pointed legs leaving little trenches on the material as it stops itself. Note to self, the bite might be the least damaging part of this eight legged nightmare.

Before we can do more, the spider skitters on the floor and charges me again. "Hold it down! I'll try to strike it!" I exclaim, I do not care if that attracts any pokemons attention, pokemons we could try to reason with. This? This has only eyes for me. It barely seems to even acknowledge Mewtwo's presence or action. Case and point, right now.

Mewtwo extends his powers once more and the spider falls flat on the ground. Its legs try to find purchase, but Mewtwo is making sure they only skitter around uselessly. I slash down on the spider's head, and my blade only bounces back, leaving barely a dent on the arachnid's chitin. Uh? Oh shit!

My attack seems to have disrupted Mewtwo's hold. The spider jumps at me with all its might and I barely have the reflex to fall down to avoid it. One leg grazes my right shoulder, another bounces on my left. And then the spider lands. It is between the both of us, but immediately turns away from Mewtwo and locks on me. It rushes me.

Mewtwo rips a chunk or stone off the wall and slams it on the arachnid's legs. That stops it charge, but I can see the spider is struggling and is ready to rip its two stuck legs to get to me. I cautiously approach, as cautiously as one can approach a bunch of pointed legs flailing around. Slashing directly on the carapace did not work. I look at the creature and finally spot a possible target. Its two stuck legs clue me on what to do. The joints! I need to aim for the joints.

I rush into the storm of sharp legs and get on top of the spider. I can see some of the strikes were stopped by Mewtwo. Once I step on its back, It can no longer reach me. A quick look down at its stuck legs tell me I am almost out of time. I angle my sword and strike down. My blade easily penetrates the joint between it head and torso. With a twist, the head pops free and the spider stops moving. Okay, that... That was scary. Fuck.

I exhale and step off the spider. I then sit down next to it. Yeah that little altercation took a good third of my power away. The need for speed, then the strength to make the head pop? Not that much of a surprise here. Still, that was not too bad compared to the first night. I look at the corpse next to me and a little pop-up appears before me.

LOOT MONSTER

Uh? UH?? I look toward the three zombies corpses and the same little pop-up is hoovering above them. UH?! "Mewtwo, we got loot."

We got what? Oh. He approaches one of the closest zombie corpses and touch the little pop-up. The moment he does so, I get a new little window.

Zombie looted:

x1 Rotten flesh

Said rotten flesh appears in my inventory. Ew? Mewtwo clicks another one and two more rotten flesh join the first. The last corpse is the one I beheaded. I obtain said head, along with another rotten flesh. Okay... What is the use of those even? I look for dependents and find... A few things... The flesh I can both eat and use in craft. I am NOT looking forward to tasting zombie flesh. I can use it to craft a lot of things of which I am missing a lot of parts. But the zombie head is the one that gives me a glimpse of something I did not expect. It seems it can be used for magical rituals, but also to create mechanical contraptions. Which... Hold on here technology? I can create technologically advanced contraptions?? Okay, as I look myself over, it would make sense, but still. This opens so much possibilities. Some absolutely insane possibilities.

I then loot the spider and also obtain its head, along with two pieces of string. Does the way I killed it matters? Both beheaded monsters dropped me their head. this will need further study.

This fight however, has finally revealed the extant to one thing: my inventory. I had hoped for more space, but clearly not. And right now I am on my last row. Between all the templates, the wood and its derivatives, the stone and the many ores, gems and dust, I am almost full. I can only store five more different items.

Just another problem to add to the list.