NOVEL NEXT Chapter 96 – Going deeper into The Mines
Chapter 96 - These cave drawings might be morel than meets the eye
🙞❤︎🙜
Before I left level 50, I looked around me one last time at the place that had been my home for almost a month.
I had put back all the items in my inventory, leaving the walls and floor bare again. The spring looked the same as ever, but the rest of the place had been transformed by my artistic endeavors.
One wall was painted over and the other three were almost totally covered by messages I had scratched on them. I laughed softly and traced the one I had carved the deepest. It read, “At night, you can hear the whispers if you listen closely.”
For the last time, I prepared all of the [Staircases] that I would need on my journey all the way down to level 90. The trip was uneventful, and I saw that most of the levels were now a lot more artificial-looking compared to the upper levels which were mostly natural tunnels and caves.
At the lower levels, the walls, floors, and ceilings were covered in tiles. The color scheme of each level changed from pale pink to blue which then faded to white. Some of the levels were quite cramped, with low ceilings, which made me feel quite glad that I was skipping the exploration part of this adventure. There were a few large caverns here and there that looked quite interesting, but I did not stop until I reached my goal.
Level 90 looked quite impressive.
I sighed when I saw a beam of light streaming in from a large sun tunnel that had been carved into the rock by the builders of the Mine. Below it was a patch of bright yellow flowers.
Carefully avoiding the flowers, I placed a large, low table directly underneath the opening. Then I laid down on the table, enjoying the feeling of the sun’s heat on my skin. A welcome warmth spread through my body, as though the sun was trying to embrace me and offer me solace in the midst of this bleak setting. I felt like a flower that had been deprived of sunlight these past few weeks and was now blooming in delight after being transplanted into a more salubrious environment.
“Vitamin D is really the best!” I said to Mr. Bear as I placed him beside me to soak up some sunlight, too.
It felt so good that I decided to take off my clothes in order to bathe my entire body in the sun’s healing rays. I don’t know how long I lay there, turning on my stomach every so often until I was satisfied. I even ate my lunch right there.
Eventually, of course, I had to get up, remove the table, and prepare my new dwelling place. Level 90 was a natural underground cathedral, with towering stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and other cave formations, including hundreds of softly glowing flower-like white crystals. Most importantly, there were two cave entrances, one each on the eastern and western sides.
I entered the eastern cave right away and clapped my hands with joy when I found myself in one of the most marvelous places in the game, the Mushroom Cave.
“Ooooh, this is so wonderful!”
More of the glowing white flower-like crystals adorned the ceiling, giving off enough light for me to see that the farthest side of the cave was populated with various types of mushrooms. There were small, transparent white mushrooms with ghostly frills, bright red mushrooms with white spots, pale blue mushrooms, green mushrooms, black mushrooms, gold needle mushrooms, soup mushrooms, and coral spirit mushrooms, along with other species that I could not identify at first. It looked quite empty and magical, like a fairy cave.
Mushrooms in Adventure Incarnate were foraged items that could be used as food ingredients or animal feed. Once upon a time, they had been Herblaw ingredients that produced special status effects like Haste, Clarity, Regeneration, Bravery, and Stone Skin. Unfortunately, their introduction to the game had made Player versus Player combat too unbalanced, so that aspect of the mushrooms’ effects had been removed. Nowadays, cooking and eating these high-level cave mushrooms simply gives a small boost to a person’s stats.
I quickly harvested as many as I could, delighting in the descriptions that claimed that they were particularly nutritious and tasty. They were basically the truffles of this world, in that they were extremely rare gourmet ingredients that made everything taste better.
For example, the [Gold Needle Mushrooms] were described as “A mushroom whose taste is so intense that it feels like it’s casting a spell on your taste buds.”
All of the other types had similar descriptions, and I was really looking forward to what the Demon Chef would make of these rare delicacies.
Once I was done harvesting, I set up a dozen mushroom-growing shelves that I filled with boxes of mushroom substrate that I watered. These would be colonized by the native mushroom species in the cave in the coming days, giving me more delicious food ingredients to take home with me.
I was already in great spirits when I exited the eastern cave, and I felt even happier when I entered the western cave.
“Amazing…”
While the eastern cave was a riot of colors, this one was the exact opposite. Here, all the surfaces were covered with pure white tiles, and large glowing pearls had been placed on marble pedestals around the perimeter. According to the game lore, this was a place of healing that was enchanted so that no “impurities” or “unhealthy vapors” could enter. I was pretty sure that it was a magical clean room, a sterile environment that was enchanted against bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.
Due to its special properties, this was the only place in the game where one could build a mini hydroponic farm. When players were higher-level, they could grow [Spirit Herbs] here, but since I was still a newbie, I could only grow regular crops.
The [Hydroponic Kit] consisted of a large plastic rectangular box with a grow light, twelve pods, twelve grow sponges, and a bottle of [Plant Food]. The room could only fit twenty-eight of them. I put the little sponges inside the pods, filled the boxes with water, added three drops of [Plant Food], then put three seeds inside each pod. I picked colorful plants that would look and smell nice in this gloomy place: strawberries, tomatoes, chili peppers, mint, rosemary, and carnation. Finally, I turned on the grow light.
This would give me farming exp, which was nice, and I rather missed being in the presence of green plants.
I was feeling quite euphoric when I went back to the central cavern. This was a lot better than level 50!
Near the sunbeam was a large open space that was paved with white marble tiles. There was a large golden altar at one end of the open space, which indicated that this was probably where the ancient clans had held their religious gatherings.
The entire Mine was a natural cave system that had been turned into a mine because of the valuable ores that were found inside it. Later on, when people discovered that a god was living on the lowest level, they had built places of worship inside. Of course, nowadays there was no longer any deity here, but it was said that the god had left its pet behind.
In other words, there was a Boss that I would have to defeat on level 99 before I could activate the portal that would, hopefully, bring me home or at least nearer home. Level 50 combat was recommended for that, and a player needed at least one good ranged skill, either Archery or Magic, as well as a decent melee level.
Adventure Incarnate was the type of game where the players never died. Whenever they were defeated, the screen would just go black, and they would wake up somewhere safe with a friendly NPC admonishing them to be careful next time.
But right now…
I found it difficult to believe that someone would just pop up to rescue me just in time when I was about to die.
This was now real life, and I had no intention of confronting the Boss until I was sure that I would win.
Therefore, I could be here for quite some time. With this in mind, I placed a Ranch House in the open space along with a Hot Spring facility and spent a bit of time decorating the cave walls with fairy lights. I was whistling to myself and wondering what else I should put on the cave walls when, suddenly, I remembered how I had carved and painted on the walls on level 50.
In my mind, I pictured how I had left the place covered in artificial claw marks, disturbing messages, and creepy paintings. What on earth had possessed me to scrawl weird stuff on the walls like a crazy person?
“I think I might have had a nervous breakdown, Mr. Bear.”
Well, the Mines were rather stressful. I couldn’t be blamed if I became somewhat eccentric during my stay. I resolved to train a bit less and relax a bit more. After all, it wouldn’t do anyone any good if I managed to escape from this place but lost my mind in the process.
Ugh. Had I really scratched out a message saying “You've always been here” on the ceiling?
It’s a good thing that no one would ever see the evidence of my meltdown.
- I always wanted her to have her own special mushroom cave. There's one in Stardew Valley, too, but Violet's is more... crazy.
- Seeing the sun after being underground for such a long time would be euphoric, IMO.
- I hope this arc is okay. When I started writing it, I didn't know it would be this many chapters.
- Advanced chapters on my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/linmeili
- Thank you very much for reading.
- Did you spot an error? Please leave a comment so I can fix it!
What Violet looks like when fighting in the Mines.
What the artist's painting of Violet in the Mines looks like.
The painting that people will be secretly copying many years later. No, she doesn't wear a bra top to fight.