Chapter 9

As each summer day passes, Yuto wakes up early to water his crops and checks for any ripe produce to ship. With so many crops to tend, he spends most of the day keeping the ground moist to combat the summer’s heat. Over the course of the day, Yuto goes to the hot spring to rest while Jennifer takes over the watering. As soon as Yuto gets his strength back, he steps in and continues to water until the sun sets.

After the summer day begins to cool after sun down, Yuto continues to work by collecting fruit in the trees. Summer is the perfect season to gather grapes and red delicious apples to ship. He then turns his attention to the mountains where he collects all types of edible grasses, herbs, wild fruits and nuts to ship. Jennifer stays at the farm to care for Dusty and Milo.

During rainy days, Yuto spends his time in the mines collecting all types of ore to ship. Even though the ores don’t sell for too much, he brings a basket to make sure he makes money from volume. The mines are well lit from the many villagers who has worked there over the years. He does save some ores so he can upgrade his tools to the best metal he can find.

Jennifer does other smaller tasks to help Yuto whenever she can. She keeps weeds under control, while searching for edible grasses growing in the farm for her to use. She also spends time in town doing some shopping for food and other supplies. She occasionally accompanies Yuto down the mines to keep him company and carry extra supplies such as medicine to make sure he comes home safely.

They spend any light days fishing at Mother’s Lake. If they catch anything small fish, they put them in the pond at the farm to let it grow over time. Larger fish are preserved, then placed in the shipping bin. Jennifer doesn’t like the idea to fish more than they need, but she understands that Yuto needs to do whatever he can to make the money to save Mineral Town.

Day after day, Yuto and Jennifer spends their time shipping as much stuff as they can to earn a good profit. By the time mid summer rolls around, they find themselves constantly busy harvesting corn, tomato and pineapple harvests. The pineapples do take longer to grow and produce harvests, but they are worth the hefty shipping price. But even with so much crops to harvest, they don’t make as much money as they would like to.

Working so long and hard on the farm leaves them with little time to socialize in town. Most of the residents in Mineral Town know of Yuto’s plan to save their homes by buying out the contract from Joja, but they are not interesting in helping or supporting them. The amount of money they need is too great, and they do not want to get their hopes up. All they can do is continue to live in Mineral Town in peace until the last day when they will be forced to leave their homes.

Yuto and Jennifer continue to work day after day through the summer. At the end of summer, all the crops has been harvested, and they are starting to wilt from the changing of the seasons. Yuto checks his ledger to sees how much money they made. During the season of summer, they have made hundreds of thousands in crops, ores, and fish. The numbers are impressive, but that is only a mere fraction of the amount of money they need to save everyone’s home.

Despite the impressive numbers, Yuto still feels upset that he has not even made a dent in his goal. He is working very hard every single day, but he feels that he is still way behind despite nearly collapsing from exhaustion. The task starts to appear impossible, so he thinks he should just quit and sell the farm. But in the darkest and most exhausted of days, Jennifer cheers him on and tells him to trust in the goddess. Her positive words gives him courage and keeps him focused on his goal.

With only a few days left in summer, Yuto tries to rest in preparation for the fall season. He goes to bed early to be well rested for his daily chores. One morning, Yuto hears his alarm on his cell phone wake him up at 6:00 am sharp. He grabs his phone and taps the snooze icon hoping that maybe he can sleep in a few more minutes. He looks out the window to see the early morning sunrise greeting him. He then looks over to his other side and finds himself looking into Jennifer’s violet eyes. His groggy mind doesn’t find her in his house so early unusual considering that he does work with her every day.

After he rubs the cold out of his eyes, he blinks a few times before realizing that Jennifer usually doesn’t come into his house unless she has something important to say. He yawns, then asks, “good morning Jennifer. Is anything wrong?”

“I had another vision from the goddess last night. I think I may know the location of another piece of the jewel of truth. I would have waited until you’ve woken up, but I feel that this is very important.”

Yuto quickly jumps out of bed and asks, “really? Its been a while since we’ve heard from the goddess. Where is it?”

Jennifer makes a serious looking face as she thinks about her answer. After a minute of silence, she answers, “the location of the next piece of the jewel of truth is in a deep and dark place filled with stalagmites rich in ore. I believe it is in the mines somewhere hidden.”

“Wait, what?” asked Yuto in a confused tone. “Are you sure about this? We’ve been to the mines a bunch of times, and we never seen any pieces of the jewel down there.”

“I am well aware of that. But I feel that there may be more to the mines that we know of. Areas that we have not explored yet that is hidden. If we examine the mines a bit closer, maybe we can find a cavern where that piece rests. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s what I feel when I remember my vision.”

Yuto sighs. What she is telling him doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but he promised himself to trust her. So he chins up and says, “Fine, we’ll try the mines. We don’t have a lot of work to do today, so we’ll head out in a couple of hours.”

“Actually, I think we should go first thing tomorrow morning,” she said nervously.

“Why?”

She thinks hard about her answer, then says, “I am not sure. But I feel that we should prepare for this trip. I don’t know why, but there is an aura of danger in the mines.”

Yuto’s eyes widen. He has never seen Jennifer this serious or nervous before. He has been down those mines many times, so he knows it’s relatively safe to explore. He also knows that if she is right about finding some new area, there is no telling what they may encounter. Just to be safe, Yuto and Jennifer decide to go to town and buy some supplies to the trip down the mines.

At the farm, Yuto spends extra time doing his daily chores so he won’t need to worry about them tomorrow. Jennifer spends her time at the lake in her tent. She comes back later that afternoon to help him finish his chores. She never told him what she was doing at the lake, but her worried expression concerns him. She is usually cheerful and very supportive, but her vision has changed her. He does ask her about what to expect, but she just tells him that she doesn’t know.

The next morning, Yuto and Jennifer wakes up early and rested. They meet up at the entrance of the Spring Mines at 7:00 am sharp. Yuto’s rucksack is half filled with food and snacks he usually packs for a normal mine run. Jennifer’s bag has plenty of medicine in case they get exhausted or injured. They take a deep breath before they go inside. They have no ides how the mines could possibly be dangerous, but they want to be safe.

The mines are well lit from the many lanterns hanging around. They are not the only ones who has been to the mines. Many residents of Mineral Town has been there looking for metal ores to bring Saibara. The mines are rich in many different minerals such as copper, silver, gold, and mithril. The deeper you go down the mines, the better metals you can find. Each floor of the mines is accessed by a hole with a ladder.

As they descend deeper into the mines, the floors get bigger and more veins of ores can be found. They reach the tenth floor where Yuto mines mithril to earn extra money when it rains at the farm. They look around, but they don’t see any traces or clues to the location of the shard of the jewel of truth. They take a sigh of relief seeing that there are no dangers so far.

“Here we are. We’re at the bottom of the mines, but still no jewel or anything strange. Are you sure we’re in the right place?” asked Yuto.

Jennifer takes a hard look around and says, “this can’t be it. What I seen in my vision is much different. The mine is dark and damp, there has to be something more to this mine.” She continues to look around finding some clues about what her vision might be trying to tell her.

Yuto decides to take a look through the dirt, in case the jewel is buried and they can’t see it. As they look around, Jennifer notices something off. Most of the mine is filled with veins of silver, gold and mithril with only a few paths to walk around in. But there is an odd clearing in the mine which is suspiciously bare. Unless you are looking for something, you would miss it easily.

In the center of the clearing, Jennifer places her hand on the hardened clay. She feels a faint yet familiar energy pulsing from underneath it. She pounds the ground, and notices that there is a hollow sound coming from underneath. She then points to the ground and calls to Yuto.

“You find anything?” asked Yuto.

“I can feel the energy of the jewel. Something seems to be right below our feet. Like a hidden room or something,” answered Jennifer.

Yuto pulls out his hoe and asks her to move out of the way. As the hoe cuts through the clay, he can feel something hard underneath. He hits the ground again, and hears a thud coming from something made out of wood. As he continues to till the clay out of the way, they find a trap door lost by time. The hinges are deeply rusted, the door must have been there for hundreds of years.

He opens the door to find a ladder leading deeper into the mines. The lower floors are dark, but the ladder shows that someone has been down there many years ago. Anything they used to light the lower floors must have burnt out a long time ago. They look at one another, then nod. They know that if the piece of the Jewel of Truth is anywhere, it will be down there. Yuto jumps down first to take a look around. He turns on the flashlight app on his phone to take a better look around. He gasps as he sees the old forgotten levels of the mines.

Jennifer jumps down to see what Yuto is shocked to see. She gasps as the lower levels of the mines are damp and dark, just like her vision. The walls are covered with moss, the stalagmites are dripping water, and the ground is littered with large metal veins different than those in the floors above.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Someone must have sealed this part of the mines long before any of us were even born. This is still part of the spring mines, but something feels different. Keep your eyes open, I think there are more floors going down. Finding this piece of the jewel of truth will be like finding a needle in a hay stack.”

After getting familiar with the floor, Yuto walks ahead while Jennifer follows. He flashes the light in all directions looking for anything unsafe like rats or bats. T doesn’t take long until they get blocked off by a group of ore nodes. Since they can’t climb over the nodes safely, Yuto pulls out his hammer and starts smashing them to clear a path. As he smashes, some strange colored metal ore they have never seen before falls out of one of the nodes.

Yuto picks up the ore and asks, “what is this? I have never seen this ore before.”

Jennifer pulls out a book she borrowed from the Mineral Town library and flips through a few pages. When she finds a matching color, she reads and answers, “I think this metal is called adamantite. It’s a rare metal that is commonly used to make machines.” She then closes the book and continues, “this is probably why these floors has been sealed off. Mineral Town must have been a mining town generations ago, and they dug up this metal to build machines. It’s possible that they sealed this part of the mines off, and made Mineral Town into a farming village instead.”

“I see. We should keep this in the back of our heads in case we may need to use it. For now, we should keep looking for that piece of the Jewel of Truth if we want a shot at saving this town.” He then places the adamantite ore in his rucksack and moves on.

At the end of the cavern, they find another ladder going deeper into the mines. They climb down and find more nodes and ladders going even deeper into the mines. Floor after floor, they descend deeper into the mines looking long and hard for the missing piece of the Jewel of Truth. Yuto uses his tools to clear out any boulders or nodes that block their path, or find more hidden ladders going down into the mines.

Hour after hour, Yuto starts to get exhausted constantly smashing stones and tilling the ground looking for the next hole going deeper into the mines. He takes hourly breaks to eat and recover his stamina, but the trip down the mines is longer than they expected. As Yuto gets more tired, he begins to drink bodigizer to keep his stamina up. But as he continues to work, he is building up fatigue at an alarming rate.

They lose count of how many floors they climb down. They keep finding new and valuable ore they can ship for money, but Yuto runs out of room in his rucksack. As they go deeper into the mines, Yuto collapses from exhaustion. He checks his phone to learn that he has been digging and mining his way down through the mines for about twelve hours. He wants to give up and go back to the surface, but he feels that Jennifer and the goddess is relying on him to find the piece of the Jewel of Truth. Instead, he drinks more medicine, and continues exploring the mines.

As they get deeper into the mines, Jennifer notices that the trip is starting to take it’s toll on Yuto. She is also getting tired from the long trip down, but he is doing the hard work with his hammer and hoe. The trip is starting to become very unsafe, she starts to worry that Yuto could fall ill if he keeps working this hard. She then realizes why she had such a bad feeling going down the mines. They were looking for something dangerous, but the long trip down the mines was what made it so unsafe.

Jennifer tries to tell Yuto to stop working and leave the mines. They can try again when they are better prepared. But he refuses to give up, they climbed down too many floors to just simply pack up and leave. He climbs down another hole, but she collapses as soon as he reaches the floor. He is dizzy, and he has no idea if he can go down another floor. He wants to get up and keep moving, but his legs are numb and he can’t get the strength to stand up.

Jennifer climbs down and finds Yuto on his knees trying desperately to catch his breath. His skin is pale, his breath is wheezy, and his eyes are puffy and sleepy. She rushes to his side and asks, “Are you okay? Are you sure you don’t want to turn around?” Yuto doesn’t answer at first, so she feels his forehead. She pulls back as soon as his head feels cold, and his pulse is weak.

Yuto shakes his head vigorously and finally answers, “I’m fine. We just need to find that shard. I don’t want this trip to be a waste.” He then picks up his phone, and sees that his battery is almost out of power. He takes a deep breath, worried that if he continues, they could be in real trouble. The mines are dark, and if the battery runs out, they could be stuck. His battery does have just enough power to get them out, but he doesn’t like the idea to simply give up.

He stands up, and shines the light around the mine to see if there is anymore levels to go. As he looks around, he notices a glint in the dirt. Curious to see what it is, he rushes over and finds something poking out of the dirt. He pats the dirt away, then gasps realizing that it is the piece of the jewel of truth they have been looking for. Jennifer rushes over to see him pull the shard out of the dirt. They try to cheer and celebrate, but Yuto begins to cough and wheeze.

“Yuto! Are you okay?”

He takes a few deep breaths, then answers, “I’m good. We just need to get out and get some rest.” They then start their journey up out of the mines. The path is clear, so they can just simply walk out. He does trip and stumble several times on their way up, Yuto’s fatigue is dangerously high. Jennifer does what she can to help him out of the mines, but the trip was too much for him.

The pale moon greets them as soon as they exit the mines. It is now 11:00 pm, way later then they expected to be down there. They just need to get back home and rest to allow him to recover his stamina and fatigue. They are both exhausted, he drags his feet slowly while Jennifer supports him. They take about an hour to get to the house where Yuto lays on the bed and falls asleep quickly. She then returns to her tent where she can lay down and go to sleep herself.

As she lays in her sleeping bag, she worries about Yuto’s health. His body is cold, but he will be fine as long as he rests and takes some time off work. She is glad that they are both fine, but she begins to worry that he may be working way to hard to save the farm and Mineral Town. She admires his dedication to the farm, but she also feels that he could get hurt if he doesn’t take it easy. She only hopes that she can help him a bit more with the farm work.