Chapter 117: Not So Smooth-Sailing Journey

Central Mountain. Inside an abandoned mineshaft.

Jack put away his iron pickaxe and started collecting the shiny diamond rocks from the rubble.

“Whew Lucky, lucky We actually ran into some diamonds today!”

“Eih! Xiao Ling’er still prefers gold bars more! And apples! Ehe~”

The little miss archer on lookout duty stared at the precious two golden apples sitting in her inventory and felt more motivated than ever to find more!

Her dream is to eat a golden apple a day to keep the doctor away!

“Aight, little missy, you can have your apples when we get back.” Jack dusted off his new leather armor then grabbed his torch and axe. “Let’s go. We’ll explore a bit deeper before calling it a day.”

“Aye, aye, Captain Jack!”

“Like I said, my name isn’t Jack…”

Their bantering voices echoed down the tunnel as they followed the minecart tracks deeper into the heart of the unexplored mineshaft…

Every day, they make new progress step by step.

And today, the pair of explorers finally reached the end of the road: a cave mouth opening out into darkness.

“Eih! Uncle, lookie look! There’s a cliff ahead!”

“Yeah, yeah. I can see that...”

The change in scenery made Xiao Shuling bounce in excitement, but Jack was more wary. Change meant opportunity, but also danger.

After weighing the risks in his mind, Jack decided to go take a look.

“Aight, Little missy, watch our six here. Let me go check the ground stability first. Don’t want both of us falling off a cliff for an adventure.”

Xiao Shuling gave the Uncle Protagonist-wannabe an eye-roll. “Uncle, quit setting red flags for yourself!”

“Bahahaha! I’ll be fine! And, isn’t there still you and the grape vines you somehow keep finding?”

“Eih! My vines aren’t for making wine!” Xiao Shuling pouted but still took out the vine rope she weaved and went to loop it around Jack’s waist.

Once the knot and rope was secured to a stalagmite, Jack confidently went forward to scout the cave mouth shrouded in darkness…

The torch light followed the rail tracks until they eventually broke off at the edge of the cliff, leading down to the abyss of darkness below.

Jack inched forward on the cliff side, checking the ground stability while scouting out the surroundings...

The torch light’s reach wasn’t far, but it allowed him to barely make out the vastness of the terrain: a cavern that led out to nothing but darkness up, down, left, and right.

“Guessing this should be a... underground ravine?”

He wasn’t sure though because his eyes could only see so far.

“Eih Uncle! What do you see? Can little Ling’er come and take a lookie, too”

A head poked out to take a peek, which almost gave Jack a heart attack. “Little missy! Watch your step! You ain’t even strapped up!”

Xiao Shuling blinked innocently. “Eih! No worries, uncle! Little Ling’er has a featherfall boot! Ehe~”

“Ehe your head! Having those boots doesn’t mean you’re safe!” Jack complained and shooed the curious baby back inside. “Now back you go, little missy!”

“Eih! This miss isn’t a child!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“Eih! Then stop treating this miss like one! Little Ling’er wants to stay and see! Humph!”

The kid has entered the rebellious phase! Jack felt helpless inside. “Fine, fine. Sheesh. Kids these day, one braver than the other.”

“Ehehe~” Xiao Shuling is proud of being brave.jpg! “Eh? Wait! This miss isn’t a kid!”

“Aight, aight, if you say so.” Jack was too lazy to argue with a kid about facts and turned his focus back to the exploration.

“Little missy, mind getting the flint and steel packed in the chest? Oh, and a small rag as well.”

“Aye, aye, captain!”

Since there was nothing to see, Xiao Shuling skipped back inside to dig through her chest casket. “Eih! Found it! Here you go, uncle!”

The curious baby then curiously watched Jack bundle up a small cobblestone along with coal dust in the rag. “What’s uncle going to do?”

Jack went over to the cliffside and got ready to light the fabric with the flint. “Giving us some light so we can see what’s down there.”

A breath later, the fabric was on fire and the flaming bundle got kicked off the cliff.

Two heads then cautiously poked out over the cliff edge to watch the makeshift fireball light up the world below…

The darkness receded in the face of falling light until the fireball plopped into water and got snuffed out.

The ending happened quite quick, but that short glimpse was enough for Jack to make out what’s down there. “As expected, that should be… a natural cave spring?”

“Wowie~ So much water!” Xiao Shuling’s eyes sparkled like stars. “Eih! Uncle, let’s go fill our buckets and bottles!”

“What a brilliant idea, little missy…” Jack rolled his eyes over. “And how do ya wager we should be getting down there?”

“Eih!” The little goblin did a little hop in excitement. “We jump and fwy—iteh! Uncle, why are you knocking my head again?!”

Jack simply wanted to knock some sense into the reckless girl.

“Wrong answer, little genius. Let’s not even talk about if the water below is safe or not. I’ll ask you: how we getting back up?”

Xiao Shuling pouted and rubbed her little head. “Ehe~ Little Ling’er doesn’t know anymore. Uncle’s hit made me dummy.”

Jack rolled his eyes and went back to looking around for a serious way down.

Such an abundant water source… its value was obvious in this desert! Tell them to ignore it? How is that possible!

However, getting to it was a big problem.

In the game, the water’s there to give players a soft landing to ignore fall damage.

But this was reality. Even with featherfall-enchanted boots, ain’t nobody normal making that jump unless they’re thinking about suicide! Besides, they only have one pair of magical boots!

As for other ways…

Digging was the obvious option. But… it’s a long way down! Even if they break all their pickaxes, they might not make it to the bottom…

The same applies for coming up.

As for using ropes? How long and thick does the rope have to be to support their trip down? It’s impossible to produce something like that in a day or two.

Finding and collecting enough resources to create something like that was another issue!

“Sheesh, seems we’ll have to go the old school way. Looks like this will have to be a multi-day, perhaps even multi-week project…”

Anyways, their water will still last. Jack decided it was best to take things slow and plan things out first.

“Aight, little missy, let’s head back for the night and discuss things with Steve. See if he has a good solution.”

“Eih... uncle, that’s a great idea! But…”

Xiao Shuling pointed back at the cave they came from.

There, for as far as their torch light could reach, creepy-crawlies—from small to big—covered all surfaces, slowly skittering closer and closer…

Jack felt his heart sink to the bottom. “Bahaha… looks like our friendly neighborhood spideys want us to stay for dinner...”

Monsters covered their only way back. Behind them was a cliff. Where else could they even go?