Darren walked towards the mine. He glanced at "Sore eye" and couldn't contain himself, is his other eye in a perpetual state of soreness? Does he rub shit in them to achieve this? He walked over to Sore Eye who was standing near the entrance reading a book and ignoring the clamor and noise of the dwarves counting units of iron and the other people complaining about how they were being shorted.

Darren cleared his throat " good day Mr. Sore eye"

Sore eye took his gaze away from the book he was reading and looked at the slim, brown figure before him. He let a long sigh. Not this shit again, one of these days I am gonna give that pox ridden Haff a piece of my mind. He looked towards the inquiring man with an impossible mix of boredom and annoyance.

" No, my eyes are not sore.Yes, I get enough sleep. My real name is Lesther and if you annoy me again, I will turn you inside out. Understood?"

"uhmmm, yes? Have a good day" Darren mumbled as he walked quickly inside the mine maybe he doesn't have a sore eye, but his ass sure is he thought to himself with a hidden smile. After pausing a bit to get his bearings inside the bustling counting are, he walked towards the huge gru- gohrobs Darren corrected himself. They had craggy gray skin that resembled cracked rock and had harnesses arttached to their centre, head the size of a small melon with blue eyes on the side. On their foreheads sat small green gems.

He looked around till he saw their shepherd, or was he their gohrobherd? Darren didn't know and he didn't want to get shit on for asking mundane useless questions again. His eyes finally found a muscled man with long messy brown hair,draped in furs of random animals, like he just went to a thrift shop with twenty dollars in his pocket. Useless thoughts Darren, useless thoughts he mentally self-reprimanded himself. He waited till the man was done pouring a huge bucket of what looked like wet gravel into a feeding through. Damn that must weigh a good ten million pounds, better not fuck with him he resolved. Darren cleared his throat

"uhmmm. .. goodmorning Haff said I can get a crystal thing here?"

The man looked at Darren indignantly.

"They are not crystal 'crystal things' runt. They are bond stones." The man's expression softened "please take good care of the gohrob you bond with, I don't want to control them like this, but I have to earn a living and the company pays me a good bit for taking care of these guys" He handed Darren a leather arm band with a green crystal set into it.

"Close your eyes and feel the creature's consciousness in our mind, then command it. Only simple commands these guys are not scholars."

Darren put on the arm band and followed the man's instructions. He closed his mind and searched. he felt a small presence, the presence was scared, it did not want to be controlled ,he felt a weird claustrophobia-like feeling inside his head. It just wanted to eat, sleep and grow up. Hehe I want that too buddy, but we can't always have what we want can we? The presence relaxed for a bit Darren took that chance and focused himself, threw away all his uneccesary thoughts and steeled himself. He gave the gohrob one command through their shaky mental link. Follow

Darren opened his eyes, he was sweating hard and the man was staring at him.

"Oh, you were a bit faster than usual. maybe you have the same goals" he joked "oh dont forget to attach a mine cart to his harness"

Darren gave an awkward laugh Shit better not let anyone know I was basically a NEET in the previous world. He walked toward a minecart the gohrob following him with the pace of a crawling baby damn getting to the are is going to take forever I guess. He attached the chains of the minecart by latching them on to the metal loops in the gohrobs harness.

"Well I'll be going now...." he said looking at the man in furs

"Faolen" thriftshop guy grunted with a smile

"thanks again" Darren said akwardly as he walked slowly deeper into the mine

As Darren passed the other workers he asked what iron ore looked like. Most of them either told him to fuck off or just straight up ignored him. Darren figured he would be grumpy all the time too if he worked this shit job for more than a couple of days, which he would. shit.

Darren stopped in his tracks before him was the scariest looking human, if you could even call it that, he ever saw. He was a huge muscle bound figure, he had tan skin and a big head that looked normal until he saw the huge tusks protruding from his lower jaw, that and he was carrying a bigger pickaxe than Darren almost made him piss himself. Would that be racist If I did? Darren walked slowly towards, what he guessed to be, the orc hybrid.

"uhhhmm, e-excuse me? what does iron ore look like?"

The half-orc looked at him in a puzzled expression, then gave him a toothy smile. He walked to the back of his gohrob cart and took out a rock the size of half of Darren's body and held it as casually as one would hold a basketball.

"Iron look like this, black rock, have small orange things" he said gruffly and then farted

Darren was disgusted but he tried his best to hide it in front of the giant orc guy,besides the scariest looking guys was the one who helped him Never judge a book by its cover he thought. on the thought of books he decided to hide the tome he was carrying, it looked suspicious for him to be carrying a book inside a mine and he was having a hard time carrying in his armpit while carrying a heavy pickaxe and a torch.

Darren rationalized that the deeper he went in the more ore he would find but, like in the games he played at home, the more risk there was of a random enemy popping up. He decided to mine near the next miner he found, He walked for another, what he assumed to be, 30 minutes then he saw a miner.

"Morning" Darren called

"Grmmm" he grunted an continued swinging his pickaxe

Darren walked a bit deeper than where the miner was picking then he parked his gohrob cart, hid his book behind some rocks and brought his torch up to the wall. After searching a few meters he finally saw the "orange bits" then started swinging his pick again, and again, and again till his shoulders burned then a melon sized peice of rock fell out he was thinking of melons a lot lately, damn he would love a good melon right now. Darren looked at the piece of ore. He wasn't a blacksmith nor a good enough miner to estimate how many units the piece was so he just sat there for a while, the area was illuminated by his torch and his gohrob looked at him with its tiny blue eyes.

"you're bored too aren't ya? oh I didn't give you a name hmmm lets see" Darren thought for a while "how about Gimli?" he finally said chuckling at the thought that they were in a mine

a soft clicking and gurgling sound was the gohrobs response.

Darren didn't know if that was an agreement or not so he just assumed it was, life was easier that way. "oh I forgot to scan you" he held up his hand and the book came flying form behind the rock. Darren brought his torch closer to read.

Species: Gohrob

LVL: 5 Type: Insect

Health: 60/60 Mana: 5/5 Stamina: 200/200

STR:120

CON:9

INT:1

WIS:1

AGI:1

END:25

CHR:0

skills: ~

Resistances: -80% physical damage -50% earth

Gohrobs are the offspring of burrowing Petras beetles, they are valued for their strength and endurance, though they lack the stats necessary to battle, they are highly sought for dragging minecarts in the various mines of Lacraea

"Damn Gimli you've been lifting huh" Darren said with surprise. He was met be a few squelches and a blank stare from the gohrob.

As he smiled contentedly to himself Darren paused and facepalmed idiot such an idiot. looking around to see if anybody was watching, he didn't want anyone to know that he was carrying around the medieval equivalent of Wikipedia. He focused on the ore, and his hunch was confirmed when the text shifted.

Ore

Extractable Units:

Granite:8

Iron: 1

one unit? His arms were starting to get sore for one measly unit? Darren groaned. He kept on swinging though, maybe he was going to have the same muscles as the other men, the thought brought a smile to his sweaty face.

After what seemed like an eternity, Darren had finally met his qouta, he loaded all of the ore into the cart "c'mere Gimli" he called, as he began the slow journey to the entrance. He heard some scurrying and chirping behind him. " C'mon Gimli!" he called again speeding up his pace but Gimly just maintained the same slow pace,not a care in the world. Well he's basically a moving boulder so he should be fine

When he finally reached the entrace he walked towards where the dwarves were counting and stood before a bald dwarf with a balck beard.

"Uhhh... Im done"

"Well, lets take a gander"

The dwarf barked some orders to a couple of men behind in the corner and they quickly offloaded all the ore off the cart and set in a line.

"Aye" the dwarf

"uhmm, can I get my wage for today?" to emphasize his point his stomach gave a loud growl.

the dwarf chuckled and handed Darren 5 coppers

Darren walked out of the mine, when he got to the entrance Sore Ey- Lesther he corrected himself lifted his eye strap and revealed a glowing eye with the same color as the ocean under a summer sky "clear" he shouted Ohhh soo thats why hes called Sore Eye Darren hid a smile forming on his lips.

The sun was setting, this world's version of fireflies floated lazily. upon closer inspection Darren noticed they looked like fat leeches with a two pair of wings and their whole body was glowing. Darren passed the frogs, some were in the lake and some were hopping around trying to gobble up the "fireleeches". A tiny idea planted itself in Darren's mind he couldn't do it now the he needed some time and money.

Darren managed to reach the gates unmolested. He made his way to the well then turned towards the soup kitchen he saw when he first got here. An old lady was tending to the three huge black pots. while five homely women served the waiting costumers. Darren took a seat and wated to be attended to. He noticed that people here mostly like him, threadbare clothes and dirty faces, boding well that this place was cheap. Just how I like it. When he was back home Darren always preferred foodtrucks and roadside carts over the Michellin starred restaurants his business partners insisted on wehn eating with him, that was a secret pleasure of his though so he couldn't blame them. his thought were interupted by a woman wearing a headcloth and bronw apron.

"S'cuse me, what will ya be havin?"

"Whats your cheapest dish?"

"That'd be Soup #5, for 2 coppers"

Darren was reminded of a dish of the same name he used to eat in his mom's hometown which was made from bull testicles.

"I'll have that, whats in it?"

"That I cant tell ya" she winked "Would you like to have some bread with that? It'll only cost ya an extra copper"

"sure"

she walked over to the back of the kitchen, when she returned she was holding a wooden bowl of hot soup. She took a dark colored loaf of bread from other the counter and broke it in half, she gave one half and the soup to Darren.

Darren saw herbs and random bits of meat and bone floating in the soup. He broke the hard bread into cubes and started eating. The soup had a nice herby flavor that went well with the broth Darren couldn't identify, all those flavors were covering a slight rotten aftertaste though. Darren suspected this was all the leftovers from the other soups days before. He didn't mind though, he was so hungry he couldve been eating horse shit and he still wouldve finished the bowl with lightning speed.Contented he stood up and thanked the "chefs", he started walking towards Oz's house.

"Goodevening Oz"

The only reply was the crackle of embers under an empty pot. Oz lay snoring in his bedroll. Darren set his book beside his bedroll "I should really make some straps for this" he mumbled before laying his aching body down. Darren felt the remaining two coppers in his pouch. A whole days work for five coppers gods he wished there was a worker's union.

Darren fell into a deep sleep.