Already Dice had found that Ornatro Cavern was an impressive landmark. As soon as he entered, he noticed gems all around. Tiny little gems glowing in the rocky walls of the cavern. His eyes were having a field day as they bolted from one shiny object to another, his mind immediately wondering how much all of these gems would even sell for. Did they seriously not mine this stuff now? That's stupid, you could make a fortune off of these! And people wonder why there's a lower class...

"Wow, this looks pretty." Sashy hopped towards the wall and ran his spiked hand on one of the gems that was sticking out. It looked to be the size of an apple, from what was sticking out of the wall. Sashy seemed rather mesmerized by the shiny stone. "You think we can actually take these?"

Dice shrugged. "Even if we can, I don't think we have anything to cut them out with. My claws definitely can't cut through that." As he said this, though, his claws shined as the material changed to metal. He tried slicing at one of the gems that poked out of the wall, but the only thing he got as a result was little chunks falling off the gem, though they were so tiny that it wasn't even worth picking them up.

"Oh, okay." The Maractus frowned slightly before turning around and moving back to Dice. Though, he didn't stop when he reached his partner, and instead moved further into the cave. "Come on! We have a kid to find."

"Yeah, what was it again?" Dice opened the bag that was slung around his shoulder and grabbed the paper with the job information on it. "Okay, Drifloon. A girl, too. Shouldn't be difficult finding a balloon in a cave."

"How far can we even go in this cave? Noctal said that it had poison gas in it, right? Wouldn't we die if we go too far in?"

"Well, we'll just make sure we don't go too far in," Dice shrugged once more. "Honestly, I don't think it's that big of a deal. If one of us starts to get dizzy, we tell the other and then we're out of here."

"Uh...okay. If you think that will work." Sashy shook his head and continued along the path, which was currently lit by torches, thankfully. The mining operation that at the very least used to work here was nice enough to leave a few torches lying around. Dice could see in the dark, so it wasn't a problem for him, but his partner most certainly couldn't.

"You think it's going to get dark in here after a while?" Sashy asked as they turned the corner. "I mean, the torches are going to run out eventually, aren't they?"

"To be honest, I'm surprise there are even lit torches here." Dice shook his head. "They definitely won't last, though. After we get far enough, I'm sure they'll run out."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sashy ran his hand along the rocky wall as we moved. "I don't like the dark, though. You don't know what's going to be in the dark…"

"Well, I mean, i do, but why don't you take a torch with you, kid? That should help out."

"And be so close to fire?" Sashy shivered and shook his head. "My mom and dad always told me to stay away from fire, and I don't even want to get close to it anyways."

"Alright. That's your decision, then." Dice chuckled and put his hands behind his head as he continued walking. Sure, he was an ice type too, and he had that same weakness to fire, but he would still grab a torch if he had to. He just wasn't going to because he could already see in the dark, or at least that's what he told himself.

After passing by many dead ends on their path, which they spent some time going down before ignoring the rest of the paths, as they probably all lead to dead ends, they started to approach an opening in the cave system. Though, before they made it into the bigger room which the path opened up to, Dice stopped and his ears perked up just slightly.

"Hey," he grabbed the Maractus as gently as he could and pulled him over to him. Sashy gave him a quizzical look, but he put a finger to his lips and looked to the opening. "Let me go first, alright?"

He looked back to Sashy and saw him nodding. He mirrored the action before taking a slow step towards the room. He was trying not to make any noise. He could swear there was something in this room, and he wasn't taking any chances. It sounded like...some shifting around and some fluttering of wings. Right. He had a solution to this.

Slowly, Dice moved out from the passageway and into the mined out room. He glanced up to the ceiling. His hunch was correct, just like he suspected. There were dozens upon dozens of Zubat hanging from the ceiling cave, adjusting themselves and flapping their wings around in a restless sleep. He knew that if they were to wake up on their own, they would become hostile. That's why he needed to scare them away…

Dice's claws shined brightly as the material changed from keratin to metal. He slammed both of his claws into the ground with enough force to cause the whole room to shake. Little bits of rock fell from the ceiling and the entire room trembled slightly thanks to the sheer force Dice put behind his attacks, and it was more than enough to awaken the Zubats.

Instead of turning on him, like the Zubats would have done naturally, they were instead startled by the rumbling and took off into the air. The Zubats swarmed and flew around the room in a flurry of screeches and wings, causing Dice's ears to cry out in pain as the bats ran around chaotically.

Eventually they'd all direct themselves towards the doorway, where Dice had just came from. They charged right towards that passageway, and flew right into it. There was a loud scream, undoubtedly from Sashy, as the cactus pokemon would come running out of the passageway soon afterwards, his hands over his head and his eyes closed.

"Get 'em off me, get 'em off me!" The younger pokemon fell to the ground and covered his head with his two little arms, his ears brought down to the point where they were touching the floor, and his whole body was shaking. It was a sorry sight to see.

"Hey, kid, calm down. They're just Zubat's. They all flew away anyways. Trust me, I can hear them flying away right now." Dice walked over to the kid and stared down at him, not exactly comfortable with having the kid freak out so much. He offered a hand to help the kid up.

"They...they did?" Sashy shook his head and looked towards the path he had just came down. Seeing no Zubats coming his way, and not hearing anything, he slowly nodded and looked back at Dice, taking his hand and using it to pull himself up. "Okay, I guess they did."

Dice nodded and patted his partner on the head. "Now, let's get moving again, huh?"

"Yeah, okay. That sounds good." Sashy nodded once more and hopped away from his partner before taking a quick look around the room. He frowned, noticing there were two paths they could take. One lead straight ahead, and the other lead to the left. "Which way should we go?"

Dice blinked and looked between the two paths, trying to figure out which one to that. "Well, give me a moment," he said before moving towards the path that lead straight forward. He stared down it for a moment before shaking his head. No, this probably wasn't it. He then turned to the path that lead to the left and stood just in front of the path.

This path seemed to slant down just slightly. It was hard to notice, but Dice was pretty sure it was. He also looked down the path and saw that, eventually, the torches stopped. That was probably a good sign. The kid probably went pretty deep into the cave, so the deeper they go, the better chance they have of finding the kid.

"It's down here," he said before walking down the path. "Also, if you really don't want to be in the dark, grab a torch now. They won't be there for much longer."

"Oh, uh...okay." Sashy nodded and followed Dice down the path, looking at the torches that lined the wall and wondering if he should actually grab one of them. After a few moments of thought, he shook his head. No, fire was too dangerous…

"Who do you think dug this place out, anyways?"

"Probably Rhydons and Rhypheriors." Dice shrugged as he continued moving. "Not many other pokemon can work on this, now can they?"

"Well, Excadrills can, and so can Dugtrios if they try hard enough, but I heard that Innovan is making a new invention that will make mining a lot easier. Some sort of drill powered by electricity."

Dice chuckled. "Are you kidding me? This guy's really trying to make people lose their jobs, isn't he?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it, instead of hiring a bunch of Rhyhorns and Excadrills, which you have to feed, pay for, and make sure you have living conditions, you can just buy a bunch of drills and only a few electric pokemon to power them up. You don't have need for those miners then. They lose their job."

"Yeah, but...you don't know if people who own mines would do that, right?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course they'd do that." Dice shook his head before eventually deciding to grab a torch off of the wall. Yeah, okay, he could see in the dark, but he wasn't going to guide Sashy around everywhere by grabbing his hand or something. "They're in it for the money anyways. Less people you need to pay is more money for them to stuff their bags with. They'd be swimming in cash if that keeps happening."

"I don't know about that…"

"I do." Dice chuckled as he looked around the path. By now the torches that were lighting the walls suddenly stopped. Instead just the base of torches were attached to the wall, but they weren't lit. Good thing he decided to grab a torch, then.

Sashy had apparently chose not to respond to that, as there was a few minutes of silence as they continued to walk through the cave. Though, during those few minutes, Dice realized that he was having a harder time thinking. His thoughts were starting to get a bit murky, and it was getting difficult to think straight. Right, he was definitely going to the right place.

"You feeling alright?" Dice asked as he turned around. He saw that Sashy was looking down at the ground. "I mean, you're not scared or anything, right?"

"Scared? Me?" Sashy chuckled and shook his head. He looked up at Dice and forced himself to smile, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm not scared! Come on, let's keep going!"

"That's good, because I think we might run into some angry pokemon down here," Dice commented as he looked around still. "I'm sure a lot of feral pokemon live in here, and they probably don't like people walking around their home."

"Yeah, I think you're right about that." The cactus shook his head as the path opened up to a decent sized room. It was about as big as the quest room back at the guild. Dice could just barely see past the light of his torch; his eyes refusing to adjust to the darkness around him. Just as he was about to take a step further into the room, he heard a loud thump next to him.

Dice quickly turned around to see that there was a Geodude right next to him the light of his torch just barely illuminating the rock pokemon. The Geodude had balled his hand into a fist and he was about to punch Dice. All the Sneasel could do was try to defend himself from the pokemon, but the attack had never came.

Instead, the spikes on Sashy's hands glew a dark green color and he smacked the Geodude on the forehead with his arm. The Geodude flew backwards and a loud thump confirmed he had hit the wall. Before Dice could turn to his partner and thank him, the room was suddenly flooded by a bright white light, causing Dice to squint his eyes.

In the brief moment that Dice could see the whole room, even with the light temporarily blinding him, he saw that Ferroseeds were dropping from the ceiling with a thud. He could also see, out of the corner of his eye, the way out of the room. It was past all of the Ferroseeds. Of course it was. That's just his luck.

"What's happening, Dice?" Sashy asked, his arm covering his eyes from the bright light. Dice grabbed his hand, being careful not to prick himself, and then ran towards the exit.

"Ferroseeds, and a lot of them." He said as he ran across the room, his torchlight illuminating some of the Ferroseeds that had dropped from the ceiling, It was useful for trying to dodge them. "We gotta get out of here before they get us."

"Uh, okay, yeah. Let's go!" Sashy didn't question where they were running to, and it was most likely because he wanted to just get out of the room. As Dice ran towards the exit, he saw pins that were as long as his claws shooting past his vision. They were shooting pin missiles at them!

The pins, thankfully, didn't seem to hit any of them, as the Ferroseeds were bad shots, but they had hit the torch that Dice was carrying. A lot of them had hit the torch, actually. One pin had hit with so much force that it was shot out of his hand and flew towards the wall. With their light source gone, Dice continued running until he left the room, guiding Sashy by the hand.

"Wait, our torch!"

"We can't go back for it now!" Dice continued to run, but as he did, he was beginning to stumble. He was starting to lose his balance and he was really finding it difficult to think now. The gas was getting stronger the farther he went, and he was finding it far too difficult to move.

After running for a few minutes, he stopped and leaned against the wall, panting like a dog as he tried to catch his breath, but it only made it even harder to think as the gas got to him further.

"You...you feeling okay, Sashy?" He turned to his partner and stared at him. He saw the frown on his face, as his eyes had adjusted to the dark now, and saw that he did not look happy. His ears were even drooping down.

"I'm...starting to feel sick." He shook his head. "I think the gas is getting to me. Can't we go back up now?"

"And risk getting pinned to death by those Ferroseed? I don't think so." He shook his head and looked further down the path. "We can only go down farther."

"Oh...I don't want to, though…"

"Oh, come on, you can handle it," Dice said as he looked to Sashy with a smile. "You're a tough kid. Can't you get through this?"

"Uh, maybe. Just give me a moment, please." The kid then closed his eyes and looked down at the ground. Dice followed his gaze and saw roots digging into the ground, somehow penetrating the rocks at his feet. The boy then sat still, probably attempting to absorb any nutrients he could find in the ground to help himself.

"The soil here tastes awful," Sashy commented, his eyes still closed as his back hunched slightly. "Like the air. It tastes...almost polluted. I don't know if I like it."

Dice remained silent and only shook his head before opening the bag around his shoulder and digging through it. He pulled out an apple and took a big bite of it, savoring the taste and taking his time chewing. He wasn't much of a fruit kind of guy. He was mostly a carnivore, but he'd make an exception for now. Right now, this was definitely making him feel better. Sure, he was still disoriented, but he was feeling more energized.

Just as he finished about half of the apple, he noticed that the roots were slowly starting to go back into Sashy's feet. He looked up at the boy's face just in time to see his eyes open. A smile slowly grew on the cactus's face.

"Okay, I think I'm ready," he said before hopping down the path. "You know, I think you're right. I can get through this if I just really try. I'm not going to be scared anymore! I'm going to go through the rest of this mission. I'm brave! I can do it!"

"That's the spirit. I figured you could do it" Dice said with a chuckle as he took another bite of his apple. He then wiped off whatever might have fallen onto his face and walked away from the wall. "Let's get moving, then. I doubt that we have much farther to go."

"Right. I don't think so either." The Maractus smiled a bit wider before putting his hands together. "Actually, let me try something."

Sashy then cupped his hands over his mouth and took a deep breath. "Hey, kid? Are you here?" His yelling was loud enough to make Dice cover his ears, but besides the yelling, and the echoes that would follow soon afterwards, he heard something else. It was faint, but it sounded like someone was responding. It was a very high pitched voice, too. A smile slowly grew on his face.

"That's it!" he said as he started to move down the path once more. "The kid's down here. Now let's get him out of here and leave this place for good."

"Yeah!" Sashy jumped into the air and followed the Sneasel down the path, his jumping causing maraca sounds to emit from his body and echo softly against the cavern walls.

As they ran, Dice had started to notice the gems that were in the cave walls once more. This time, though, it wasn't because they were shiny, but it was because they were literally glowing. They were glowing green and illuminating the path just slightly. It was actually rather helpful with seeing further down the path. As they continued to run, though, the gemstones became more frequent, filling the walls of the cave and illuminating the area around them green.

After a while more of running, when Dice noticed he was starting to become numb due to the fumes, he saw that the path was starting to open up and become wider. After a while longer, the path opened up once again into a gigantic room, looking as big as the training room back at the guild.

When entering the room, he noticed that the cave still went even deeper into the earth. Of course, he wouldn't dare go any deeper. Any deeper into the cavern and he'd probably faint from the exposure to the fumes. Though, in the middle of the room, there was a single, purple, balloon-like pokemon.

"Y-You came!" The Drifloon exclaimed in surprise. Dice noticed that there were tears in the pokemon's eyes. The poor kid must be terrified. "Please...please get me out of here. They're going to come back!"

"They?" Dice frowned and looked to Sashy, who seemed as confused as he was. He shook his head and looked back to the Drifloon. Thankfully the green light allowed Sashy to see as well, otherwise he might be freaking out like he was earlier with the Zubats. "Who's they?"

"Why don't you look up and you'll find out?" A deep, somewhat feminine voice boomed through the room, and Dice's ears perked up and twitched as he stared up only to see two dark red eyes peering down at him from the ceiling.

The eyes then suddenly fell down, and along with them came a body. The pokemon landed and the ground shook due to its weight. It landed right in front of the Drifloon child and Dice was able to get a good look as to what it was. It was a Gigalith, and a big one at that.

"Woah!" Sashy yelped and jumped backwards, his ears shooting straight up just to show his surprise. "Who are you?"

The Gigalith chuckled. "Who I am is not important, but if you must know, my name is Colbalt. Though, it doesn't matter much. You're going to be dead in a few minutes."

"Wait...we're going to die?!" Sashy shook his head. "This...this was a trap?"

"Of course it was!" Dice wasn't sure if Gigalith's had mouths, but the lady would probably be grinning if she did. "We found this kid and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to trick a few rescue teams into coming in. Turns out I was right, like usual."

"And? You think you can take us down?" Dice crossed his arms and looked the Gigalith up and down. "You're just one pokemon. Sure, you're big, but I doubt you can take the both of us."

"Oh, but I'm not alone. You just haven't seen my partners yet."

Suddenly, the ground next to Dice was shifting just slightly, and a small mound was forming. A few moments later, a Durant hopped out of the hole, causing Dice to jump back. Okay, bug types. Great…

"Tita the Terrible has arrived!" She shouted. "And we want all of your stuff. Everything! This is a stick up!"

"And after that," the Gigalith chuckled, "since we can't have you running around and telling you about us, we're going to make sure you never leave this cave."