Of all the stupid, backwards thought processes. Lizzie could not believe how weird this town could be. She had tried to go to the blacksmith to replace a few tools. She didn't have much money yet, but at least going over there would give her an idea of how much she needed to save. The tools she was using now made the job much harder. Replacing them though, was much harder than she expected. She found out that Col Forster did not sell tools. No, he only sold upgrades. To upgrade her tools, she would need to provide both the materials and fees for labor. She asked about buying the material, but no, Col Forster also would not sell material. Apparently, she had to mine it herself. Then, she would have to process the ore in a furnace. Each tool could be upgraded several times but had to hit each stage of upgrade before he would do the next one. Lizzie asked how other people had upgraded their tools since the mine had been closed and Col Forster told her that no one had come in for an upgrade in over five years. Once in a while, they would bring a geode over for processing, but this was rare. Col Forster would also give demonstrations to tourists sometimes, but they were becoming fewer and farer between as well. It was all a little more than Lizzie could understand. However, she knew she would need the tools eventually, so she might as well start now.
This was how Lizzie found herself standing in front of the entrance to the old, abandoned mine that Sir Lucas had told her about. She had brought the old pickaxe that she used to break apart large rocks on her property. Col Forster had shown her what to look for in a book. She could only hope it was somewhat easy to find.
Lizzie walked through the wood-framed entry and into a dark cavern. The large space was lit by several lanterns hanging from the walls. An old mine cart rested on some tracks through a tunnel to her left. In front of her, she could see what looked like an elevator on the back wall, and a hole in the middle of the room with a ladder sticking up out of it. A man stood behind the hole smoking a pile. He was obviously older, with white hair and beard. His right eye was covered with an eye patch and he wore a brown cape over his right shoulder. In his hands he held a chipped and rusted sword.
"Hey there," his rusty voice called out. "Who are you?"
"I'm Lizzie. Col Forster told me to come her to mine for ore. To upgrade my tools…"
The man held his silence for a beat too long. Lizzie wondered whether she should try to explain more or just go into the mine. Finally, the man spoke again.
"Mine's dangerous. Beasties and creepy crawlies taken over every floor."
"Sir?"
"Name's William Goulding. Call me Willie. I run the guild. Wanna join?"
"The guild? What guild?"
"Adventurers Guild. For explorers and miners. Those brave enough to fight the evil spawn living in the mine."
"I'm not sure. I've never fought anything before. I'm interested, but how do I fight them?"
"Here. Take the sword. Just hack away at them. The first few floors are easy. You'll learn fast."
Lizzie took the sword from Willy. He also handed her a belt and scabbard to put the sword in.
"What kind of beasts will I see?" she asked.
"Bats and slimes at first. Come to the guild when you've killed 10 slimes. Then you'll be an adventurer."
"Okay, thank you." Lizzie didn't know what else to say. Willy didn't say anything, just wandered off into a tunnel to her right that Lizzie hadn't noticed before. In fact, the tunnel was covered by a large rock and Lizzie wasn't too sure how Willy had got past it. She took a deep breath and climbed down the ladder to the first floor.
Reaching the ground, Lizzie immediately saw one of the so-called 'slimes' Willy had mentioned. This creature looked like a small green blob with eyes. As soon as it saw Lizzie, it tried to dart at her. How it would hurt her without teeth or claws, she didn't know and didn't want to find out. Luckily, it seemed blocked by a large rock in the floor. Lizzie pulled out her sword and jabbed down at the slime several times. It worked. The slime died and left behind a clear, malleable bit of goo. Lizzie thought a moment, then put the goo in a jar in her bag. She remembered some of the DIY instructions calling for slime and hoped this was what it was talking about. After killing the creature, she looked around. This floor was also lit by several lanterns. Rocks scattered across the floor. Lizzie tried to break a few of them open, but none were the needed copper ore. She continued exploring the rest of the floor, breaking apart rocks and killing two more slimes before finding another ladder buried under more rock. She went deeper.
On the second floor, she was attacked by her first bat. This was a little harder to kill, and it actually sliced her arm. It wasn't bleeding much, so she wrapped the cut and continued on. She found two pieces of copper ore on this floor. She also found a geode and put it in her bag for the blacksmith. After killing another slime and breaking apart as many rocks as she could, Lizzie found her bag full. She decided to leave and come back another day. It wasn't as if she could smelt the ore yet anyway.
Upon arriving home, Lizzie found a surprise on her front porch. It was a furnace according to the note attached. It seemed that Col Forster felt a little bad about not helping her more and had delivered an old furnace he no longer used. Lizzie moved the furnace to the side of her house and started it up with some coal she found lying around and a piece of the ore. She went on to water her plants while she waited. When she came back, she found a perfectly rectangular bar of copper. She stuck it in her chest and started the second piece. A few more trips to the mine, and she should be able to get her watering can and axe updated. Or maybe her pickaxe if she had to do a lot of mining.
That night, Lizzie fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. It seemed this farm was constantly finding new ways to make her very sore.