*Ding~! Ding~! Ding~! Ding~!*

The dark tunnel was filled with the clanging of metal and stone. A short boy, barely a teenager, was alone in the darkness. He wore a dark-gray steel hard hat, with a big, bright flashlight on the front. His mouth and nose were covered by a simple gas mask, while his green eyes were protected by dusty goggles.

Under the thick gray material of his long-sleeved shirt, the boy’s muscles bulged as he swung the pick-ax in his hands. He was wearing black suspenders to hold up his slightly baggy gray pants. Finally, he wore thick steel-toed boots on his feet that looked a little too big for his small size.

“Hmmm~! Hmmmm~! Hmmm~!”

As he hummed an ancient mining folk-song, his voice echoed throughout the deep tunnels, along with the constantly clanging noises. Occasionally, it was possible to hear other voices in the distance, both men and women. These tunnels have been mined for centuries and run all throughout Greenstone Mountain. Verde Village alone has three different tunnel entrances nearby.

“Oliver… Be careful.”

The boy stopped for a moment and looked around. He quickly backed away from the cracked wall and picked up a thick sack off the ground. After slowly moving away for a few meters, the ground shook violently and the ceiling collapsed! A bunch of huge rocks completely blocked off the tunnel in front of him…

“Thanks, Mom.”

Oliver giggled and didn’t seem phased at all. He looked over and saw two spectral figures in similar mining gear, smiling at him before disappearing. Then he looked back at the collapsed rocks, “Sweet! Hahaha~!”

There were dozens of small greenish crystals attached to brown stones that seemed to glow in the darkness. Of course, when he faced them with his shiny flashlight, they looked more yellowish, but still very beautiful. The boy put away his pick and pulled out a hammer, along with a chisel.

As he chiseled away at the stones below the yellowish-green crystals, lots of dust was knocked up into the air. Making it a little hard to breathe, even with his gas mask. Oliver coughed violently from time to time, but never stopped working. Soon, every single crystal had only a very small piece of brown rock attached. There were also quite a few broken pieces just laying around on the ground that were knocked off when the ceiling collapsed. So he quickly picked them up and put everything in a sturdy black backpack.

Along with the bag full of other minerals, crystals and ore, Oliver had to carry nearly a hundred kilos with his small body. No matter how strong he was, it was still pretty difficult to bear. Fortunately he wasn’t in a rush to leave or escape. Due to his height of only 140 cm, the 150 cm tall ceiling of the tunnel was high enough that he could walk around freely. Unlike the adults who usually had to crouch or hunch over all the time.

“Aaaah~!”

“Hell~!”

“On~!”

As he walked through the dark tunnels he made a few turns and could hear screaming, crying and yelling in the distance. Clearly the cave-in didn’t only affect him… But there really wasn’t much he could do to help anyone. There have been plenty of young, inexperienced miners that were lured into traps in the past. Fortunately he was guided by his parents when he first started out. Even now… They still guided him along the somewhat unfamiliar path, appearing as glowing green phantoms in the distance from time to time.

“Help me… Please! Don’t leave me!”

Oliver looked over at a pile of rocks nearby and sighed, “I’m sorry. I know it’s scary to be alone, but I’m only a Miner…”

“Please! No! Don’t leave me! Damn you! Come back! Come back here you heartless bastard! Dig me out! Save me!”

“I can’t save your Soul. You gotta do that yourself.” 

The little boy shook his head and kept walking without looking back. There wasn’t even a skeleton or a single bone fragment visible. Not even a glowing green ghost, just a disembodied voice of an angry spirit… Or perhaps it was just a hallucination.

“Hmmmm~! Hmmm~ hmmm~! Hmmmmummm~! Hmmmm hmm~!”

Oliver started humming again as he saw some light shining in from a small hole in the distance. It was a tight squeeze, even for a child, but he first pushed out his backpack, tools and finally his big sack of heavy rocks. Then he crawled outside and into a lush forest.

*Grumble*

Looking up at the sky, it was actually mid-day… He entered the mine around midnight. His stomach started groaning again as he took off his mask, revealing his cute and childish face. The deathly pale skin contrasted against the thick gray dust on the sides of his face. He took off his worn out gloves and then removed his hard-hat, turning off the bright light on the front. Oliver’s short hair still had a little bit of black and gray, but it was already going white!

“By Mom and Dad~! I’ll see you again soon~!”

He waved at the glowing figures in the distant darkness and smiled at them, revealing his white teeth. After he put away his hat, mask, goggles and gloves into a satchel with the rest of his tools, he picked up a bag in each hand, with a pack on his back, then started trudging through the woods. Even though he was a few kilometers from Verde Village, he was still able to find his way pretty easily by following a familiar stream. There were also markings on large stones to give the locals directions.

“Uh… I think I went the wrong way?”

Half an hour later, Oliver was standing in the middle of a ‘village’. At least it was probably a village at some point in the distant past. Some old stone buildings were overgrown by vines and covered in green moss. There were also a lot of brick roads to flat rocky areas that might have been foundations of different small houses.

“Oh, nice! Hehehe~!”

Over the years, other people likely found this place and took away everything of value on the surface, but for Oliver there were actually quite a few interesting ‘treasures’ left behind. He put down his bags, took out a small shovel and started digging near the center of the village. Pretty soon he found a shiny gold coin.

“Is this real gold? Wow! Hahaha~! I wonder how old it is? Hmmm, would it be worth more as a collectible or in raw materials? I’ll ask Grandpa later.”

In order to avoid damaging the surface and devaluing the coin, he put it in a special pocket on the side of his backpack. Digging around for a while and searching inside the ruined buildings, he managed to find a few more gold and silver coins, though the silver was really tarnished. There were also some green copper coins that were extremely corroded. Some of the buildings also had old copper pipes inside. There were also some underground. But he didn’t think they’d be worth much, or worth the trouble of harvesting.

“This might be worth something too? Kinda heavy though…”

Finally he found a green stone statue. He wiped off the moss and the actual material was more like white marble. Although the woman seemed pretty good-looking, the expression on her face was a little scary. As if she was glaring at Oliver with hatred and disgust, her mouth was open as if she was saying something.