A Day at the Mines

At first, the monkeys tried to surround them, but Melinda and Cody spread out, picked their targets and engaged them in duels. This left Laila completely free to strike at any target she chose… so long as she could keep her footing.

In the most basic use of the Uta Form, battle was a duel, and one's concern was mainly for a single line; there's the target, and there's one's self. There were only two directions; forward, for attacks, and back, for defense. The rest was just a matter of reach, speed and timing.

Cody lunged forward, aiming a stab at the injured monkey's face again; this time, it scrambled aside, so that he scored only a glancing nick on its shoulder.

It leapt at him, clawing at his face in revenge; Cody jumped back, flicking his practice sword up in a hasty parry, which failed to divert the incoming monkey, but at least scared it into backing away, hissing and snarling all the while.

Laila pounced. She stabbed at first one monkey, then the next, driving them back. Cody and Melinda spread out farther, so that each monkey now had threats closing in on two different sides. First one step, then another, the monkeys retreated.

"HAA!" Melinda yelled a warcry and charged, waving her sword fiercely. "SHOO!"

"SHOO!" Laila also made fierce, threatening poses.

Cody didn't say anything, but he raised his sword high, copying Riki's Ironheart sword pose.

That did it. The monkeys turned and outright ran away.

"We won!" Melinda cheered, sounding a bit surprised as the monkeys fled.

"Is it weird that I'm feeling a bit proud?" Cody asked.

"No. Why would it be weird? We won." Laila laughed softly.

"Because it was really nothing to be proud of." Melinda grimaced, despite the gleam of triumph on her face. "In the end, superior numbers decided the fight."

"Still. We won." Laila had a big smile on her face. "Winning is winning!"

"Yeah." Melinda finally barked a laugh. "Take that, monkeys!"

"Great. Now let's go before they come back with more of their friends." Cody hopped back on his bike, but this time, he kept his practice sword in hand.

They rushed toward the mines. Looking at them scrambling, one might be forgiven for thinking that these were the guys who recently lost a fight, not won it.

***

The mines, incidentally, were much safer. There were frequent attacks by moles, but the moles on the ground level were barely a foot large, and all they needed was one person on guard playing whack-a-mole while the others concentrated on mining.

Laila had the most trouble with that. Heaving a pickaxe or a shovel about on dry land proved tricky for her; she fell over a few times, but kept at it bravely. The deal, at first, was that they each took turns guarding and mining.

Guarding also proved difficult for her; the bamboo pole didn't help very much. The moles tunneled underground; one could visibly see the upturned earth as they tunneled up to attack. The best way to stop them was a good whack with a heavy weapon like the pickaxe or the shovel. Both of these, however, were too heavy for Laila to comfortably handle.

At last, Laila gave up. "You guys can handle the moles and the mines. All I can do is help with the scanner."

"The scanner?" Cody shook his head. "Is there even any use for that thing? Half the time, I don't even how to get it to work."

"I can get it to work." Melinda assured him. "I just need some time and research to figure out what the readings mean."

"Those?" Laila pointed. "Those indicate iron. That fluctuation there is a gem. These areas below it… I think there's a lot of copper, but it's spread out thinly. There's a thicker concentration over there."

"You can read it?" Cody perked up. He exchanged glances with Melinda.

Melinda grinned and nodded. "Cody and I will take turns to mine and guard. The scanner is all yours."

***

It was mid-afternoon by the time their two carts were full. Altogether, it took seven hours, including a lunch break, six shorter breaks, and a few quick jaunts exploring curious scanner readings. Mostly, they picked up gems and items that someone else in the past had left behind. There was a hammer, two coils of hi-tensile rope, a safety helmet, and a shoe.

"Maybe we should just leave the shoe behind?" Cody wondered.

"Don't! If you don't want it, I'll take it." Melinda said immediately.

"Uh… okay…?" Cody didn't understand at the time. But he soon would.

***

It happened about a minute after they arrived back at Initial Village.

"Bye, Cody! Thanks for helping us out!" Laila waved as they separated at the Personal Space entrance.

"Let's work together again sometime." Melinda shook his hand.

Cody bade them goodbye, then went to the warehouse to turn in his mission items.

1 kg of copper ore, 5 kg of iron ore, and a piece of topaz worth 25 credits. Altogether, turning in the items for three missions netted Cody 39 credits in a single go, and he still had most of a cart's worth of ores and valuable stones for future use.

This included a 100g bar of industrial grade copper. Cody brought the ores to Specs to process; she told him to collect it tomorrow.

Even without it, though, the 39 credits he earned was enough for him to break through the 300 credits barrier. Cody officially reached level 6 at last.

The level 6 missions were as follows;

- Plan new route for Farmer's Inefficient Robots. 33 credits award. [Details]

- Find Miner Calvin's lost shoe. 33 credits award. [Details]

- Repair water filter. 33 credits award. [Details]

- Bake Westhill Chocolate Cake. 33 credits award. [Details]

- Help Easthill son build his treehouse. Credits awarded according to contribution, 1=1. [Details]

- Advancement: Help Organize Village Festival. Credits awarded according to contribution, 1=1. [Details]

Seeing it, Cody suddenly had an inkling as to why Melinda wanted that shoe. "That was very likely Miner Calvin's lost shoe. It was worth 33 credits all by itself!"

Oh well. It was well-earned. It came down to a matter of knowledge; back then, Melinda knew its value, and Cody hadn't. That was the importance of knowledge.

More importantly, the advancement mission for level 6 was to help organize a village festival. Cody didn't even know where to begin.

"Orb? How exactly do I do the advancement mission for level 6?" He asked.

"For complicated inquiries, you may wish to consult your local village Elder." Orb replied helpfully.

In other words, ask Elder T.

"But where do I find Elder T? I mean… her house got blown up." Cody said.

"Elder T's house has been rebuilt." Orb supplied.

"You mean, somebody did a zone reset and magically made the house reappear?" Cody queried.

"No such ability exists in Academy VR. The rebuilding of Elder T's house was a priority job for the village construction team, along with a Level 9 mission with Double Credits on offer for student assists."

"Bonus credits mission? Wow. Riki destroying stuff really helps the village economy, doesn't it?"

"Payments for repairs and the bonus offered were all directly billed to the person responsible." Orb informed Cody.

"What? Riki paid for all that? How much credits does he have?" Cody gasped. "Or rather… how deeply in debt has he gotten himself?"

"That information is private."