The underground mine’s official na was the Chitinous Caverns. There were other places where players could level up their Mining skill, but this was the first one they encountered, hence when players said “the Mine,” they ant the Chitinous Caverns.
Its location was right smack in the middle of the demon-infested Southerlands, which made it a pri spot for leveling up one’s combat skills.
At least once a week I used my house portal to teleport to a safe floor in the Mines to harvest various kinds of mushrooms from the [Mushroom Cave] and [Strawberries] from the [Mini Hydroponic Farm]. I was able to pluck the fruits as usual, but when I got to the cave, I saw a very strange sight.
The entrance was blocked by a thick wooden door.
“No way!” I tried to open it, but it was too large and wouldn’t budge. “Not my precious mushrooms!”
This was a disaster!
Mushrooms in Adventure Incarnate were found through Foraging, and this cave was the only place where I could reliably find them every ti. When they had been introduced into the ga a long ti ago, they were an Herblaw ingredient that gave special effects like Stone Skin, Haste, Regeneration, etc., but this aspect of their use was removed since it greatly unbalanced player-vs-player combat. However, they still boost stats by a tiny amount.
Plus, they tasted great.
“Cutie, this sucks. You know, people will cry if my supply of [Naughty Mushrooms] is cut off!”
[Naughty Mushroom:
When dried and ground into a powder, this can be mixed into hot water and drunk to increase n’s stamina during XXX. Slightly increases fertility.]
The sli strand on top of my pet’s head ford into the shape of a question mark. “Chu?”
There was a small gap under the door, so I crouched down to try to peer inside the cave. All I could see were glowing mushrooms.
“Chu!” Cutie was a very smart pet, and when she saw what I was doing, she squeezed herself into the gap and went inside.
“Yes! Cutie, please open the door from the inside,” I yelled from under the door.
Alas, Cutie rely spent a few minutes inside and then squeezed herself back outside. Either my pet didn’t understand , or she simply couldn’t budge the door either.
“It’s cool,” I muttered to myself. “Should I use an [Axe] to destroy the door?”
I got up and paced back and forth while thinking about where this door had co from and whether it was a good idea to reduce it to kindling.
Just as I was about to hit it with my axe, I heard a ton of “boing boing” sounds coming from behind .
“What the?!” My mouth fell open when I saw dozens of slis bouncing towards us. They were every color and ranged from baby ones two inches tall to adult slis a foot tall. “They’re the ones who took over my [Mushroom Cave]?”
Half of them were carrying building materials and tools of so sort. As I watched in incredulous dismay, one of them added wood to the bottom of the door, closing the gap between it and the earthen floor. The wood was pasted on with so sort of glue-like substance.
This was only possible because last year, Cutie had demonstrated to them how to extrude tentacles and use them to manipulate tools.
Though I was irritated that I lost my mushroom source, I couldn’t help but be impressed by their newfound dexterity. They were smart, too.
The lead sli, a large red one, used a tentacle to press on a certain spot on the door, which then glowed yellow and swung open.
“Cutie, let’s follow them.”
The cave was unchanged.
Dark, damp, and full of fungi of every size and shape, it was half-full of mushroom-growing shelves. I quickly harvested as many of these rare gourt ingredients as I could and got quite a bit of easy Foraging experience.
There was one new item today, a small, eerily glowing puffball.
[Sunflare Mushroom:
A golden-orange mushroom with a velvety texture, radiating a gentle warmth. When cooked, it releases a sweet, citrusy aroma and imparts a flavor reminiscent of sun-ripened apricots and honey. It's said that consuming these mushrooms can bring a sense of joy and optimism.]
I stored it in my inventory for later. The Demon Chef would surely be interested in it.
Then ran to follow behind the group of slis. To my surprise, the leader bounced up to the southern wall of the cave. The spot that he bounced against glowed yellow and a portion of the wall slid open.
“You guys are amazing! I love hidden doors,” I said to Cutie.
Cutie left my side and talked to the others. The sound of the slis’ “Chu! Chu? Chu” conversation echoed.
I was expecting sothing exciting, but the secret tunnel we walked into was very plain. The walls and floors were made of the usual stone and earth. Glowing moss provided a small amount of light, and it was wide enough for three people to walk side-by-side. The ceiling above us was lost in darkness, but it felt like it was pretty high.
I would normally wonder who had dug these tunnels, however, I knew the answer from the in-ga lore. These Mines were the ho of a benevolent god who kept a golden sli as his pet. These underground structures were created by the god a long ti ago before he disappeared with all the other deities.
We walked for an hour and a half.
Or, rather, I walked and the slis bounced.
The tunnels sloped up, and I wondered where we were headed.
At the end of our journey was another wooden door. This ti, I was no longer taken aback when the sli once again pressed on a certain spot to open it.
When had they learned how to do all of this?
We erged into an open space. My eyes watered from the brightness of the sunlight, but the slis seed unaffected.
“No way, we didn’t walk nearly long enough to reach the surface!”
Had we passed through a portal I hadn’t noticed?
Cutie’s sli strand ford the shape of a heart. “Chu!”
She bounced behind the other slis, and I followed them.
I thought it was incredible that the slis had built a door, but that was nothing compared to what I saw when we reached the slis’ goal.
In the midst of the jungle was a brand-new Sli Village.
Three small wooden huts five feet tall with thatched roofs had already been built, while seven others were in various stages of completion. The mystery of where they had found wood was solved when I saw slis cutting down trees with tiny saws. Now the question was where they had found the saws and other tools.
On the western side was an open workshop where they were turning raw lumber into usable planks. It was a fascinating process, involving hand-sawing logs into rough planks, then smoothing them with hand planes and axes, and finally cutting them to size.
What I found most interesting about the village was the large clearing in the middle that was half full of densely packed wildflowers. Slis were pulling up weeds and planting seeds on the other half. It was clearly a flower farm, sothing they needed to feed their populace if they were planning to move out of the underground mine and into this village.
“Sli builders and sli farrs?” I said to my pet. “What will they think of next?”
Saying that out loud must have raised a flag of so sort, and I imdiately regretted it when I heard a thunderous “Chu!” followed by the sound of a soft, muffled thud as a large body bounced off the earth.
In the distance, I saw a truly frightening sight. It was the sli boss! I quickly used the System to view its information and my heart sank when I saw its Battle Ranking or BR.
[Winged Golden Sli Queen:
Type: Magic
Elent: None
BR: ?????]
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