Quantum Leap - Vol. 9 Robyn Hode Takes On The World

C017 The Initial Introduction

"This girl is so naive...she would just collect any resources without thinking of its uses at all." I thought to myself as I picked at some stone mines and collected just the flints. As for Matilda, she just picked at any mines and collected all the resources since she had a better storage bag than mine.

Actually mining these stone mines is one way to keep her mouth shut and keep her occupied. Or else she would neither make a conversation or simply continuously munching...!! I wonder if excessive snacking would turn up in places like her hips and bum. Definitely, I won't want to have a wife to be with a fat rounded bum and wider hips. Hahahaha.

I soon realised that mining also would boost one's experience level and not only based solely on the equipment that we used. Same goes to chopping trees down, for instance. Not bad...at least from an Unknown skill level, it should be increased to Basic or Intermediate soon...!

After mining the area for quite some time and discovering that there were no iron deposits to be found, we moved to another spot further away from our encampment and we discovered just 4 iron mines and choose 2 each for ourselves and waited for it to respawn after 2 minutes. Unlike stone mines, it would respawn almost immediately. We got iron nuggets and occasional coal, stones and flint alternately.

My storage bag was almost filled up with iron nuggets, coal and flints and I decided to slow down as I decide to dispose of all these items in the Realm of Mind later on. I would need to visualise some storage crates to store all these pieces together as well as Matilda's.

"Hey...how much space have you got on your storage bag? I myself have a few spaces left and don't think I would be able to continue if I don't do anything about it soon."

"I still got a long way to go. I have used up 2 slots full of stones and the rest are coal, flint and some iron nuggets which are about 25% full. Let me know if you want to stop. It seems I could use a single stroke to break the stone mines and 5 times to hit the iron ones. Earlier it was 8 times."

"Ah yeah..you seemed to have improved on your gathering resources. It means you had sort of level up. It would soon be like a single strike to gather resources from iron mines."

"Waahhh...is that even possible to level up from mining? That's pretty cool...I could go on for hours on these mines. If you want to take a break, just go ahead. Don't mind me at all. I'm enjoying every minute of it...!" she giggled happily as she continues to swing her pick at the iron mines as she gathered every piece of known resources available.

"Doesn't this girl ever gets tired at all...?" I gawked at her and discovers that she didn't even grab a break after mining the stones and began to mine the iron ones subsequently.

.....

We were sipping tea back at our encampment when we heard the merry singing of the 7 dwarf miners earlier, echoing from the depths of the mine shaft. "Damn...! That mine shaft is sure deep and dark and filled with crawly insects and bugs...Ewwww...dont expect me to be in that creepy place, Robyn...!"

I looked at her and chuckled. She would easily s***h the BOSS's throat and pierce the underside of the chin with her sword and she's afraid of hairy worms and creeping insects. Hahahahahaha... she's really unbecoming an adventurer in this way. Hahahaha...!

"Look...here's the plan..." I whispered to her of what we are going to do when the 7 dwarf miners arrive at our location, en route to where they would be heading back.

.....

The 7 dwarf miners slowed down when they reached our encampment and saw that somehow it was not present during the day when they had come passed down the path. I was missing behind a tree while Matilda was tasked to boil some more water to simmer some tea.

"Oh...hello there, strangers...would you join me for a freshly brewed cup of tea? My...you looked awfully tired and would deserve a cup to warm yourselves and quench your thirst." Matilda gestures to the dwarfs as she set a kettle aside after dumping a tablespoon of tea leaves and several heaps of sugar.

"Don't mind if we do, Missy...how long have you been here and are you mining as well?" one of the dwarfs with a pair of glasses on his nose asked as he eyed a pickaxe lying nearby.

"There's nothing but stones and some iron mines here. There are some tin and copper mines up on the mountainside about an hour's hike from here." said one of the dwarfs as he took a bronze mug from underneath his clothes and he had a dopey look on his face.

"So what are you mining here for? Any luck on discovering new mines out here?" asked another with a rather grumpy face and a fairly large nose too big for his face.

From my position, I immediately recognised these fictional characters and if I'm not wrong, they had a few brushes with the law (the Queen, I reckon) as well. These dwarfs could venture deep inside a Mineshaft with little or no light and with little oxygen too. I watched as Matilda had poured the tea for them and were settling around her at the fireplace.

I sneaked slowly and showed myself in front of them and remarked, "Well...well...well...what we do we have here? 7 dwarfs and without their princess around..."

=*=

I jumped at them and since I do not carry any weapon with me, I appeared none hostile towards the 7 dwarfs who seemed to enjoy their freshly brewed of sweetened tea as they sat around the fireplace and exchanging stories among themselves, accompanied with Matilda.

"You must be Doc, Happy, Bashful, Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy and Sneezy...Welcome to our little sanctuary, 'FlintStones'. We named this stop as 'FlintStones' because that's what we had gained from our mining today. Yabadaba Doo...!"

The 7 dwarfs were looking either surprised or shocked since they were addressed by their names and no one else knew about them. They were looking at each other and Doc, the one with the glasses finally spoke up.

"Young man, how do you come about our names? Are you one of the Sherrif of Plottingham's men?"

"Sheriff of Plottingham? That's the first I've ever heard... it's supposed to be Nottingham am I right? No...im not one of the Sheriff of Plottingham's men. I'm one of the adventurers here, just like this fine missy here. Do you have a run-in with the law or something?"

"It's Plottingham to us dwarfs and Nottingham to you humans. Just like this place called Featherstone and was renamed as FlintStone by you, young man. You haven't answered our question yet."

"Oh...I beg your pardon, Doc. Grumpy...please don't look too grumpy... it is not that good for you. Oh yes...how I get to know your names...*Ahem* the trees and the birds told me so...! Do you believe that...? And you are mining for diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires and you don't even know what you are supposed to do with that except to give it to the Queen. Furthermore, the trees and the birds told me that you would eventually trade those pieces of gems with me. Can you believe it...?"

"I believe you since Nature has spoken to you through the trees and birds. Only someone who is close and kind-hearted would be able to understand what the trees are creaking in the wind or the birds chirping up in the trees and branches."

"No one else knew about our existence and named except you and the evil Queen that wants us to and over these gems without getting anything in return and we were scripted to perform this infinitely."

"Hmm...I'm not that black-hearted kind of a person. Do you keep your stash at your home or you had surrendered every single piece to the evil Queen? What would you like to trade with?"

"We don't need resources as we could gather them ourselves. The mine shaft that we are currently mining has no light and no ventilated air and it burrows deep for some miles underneath the earth's surface. No human would survive the stifling heat as we ventured deeper and any human would pass out since there's not much air to breathe in."

"Then...we would like to offer our kind services to you in an offer for the rubies, emeralds and sapphires that you could find after your mining expedition. We don't have a need for diamonds yet, you may keep it or give away to the evil Queen as you wished."

"In return for rubies, emeralds and sapphires that you had stashed away or had retrieved, you may freely dine here for your daily breakfast or lunch and tea before the mining expedition and head back here for your dinner or supper once you return from your execution."

"No one cooks at home for any of you and you needn't toil in the kitchen anymore for your meals at all. Would it be a great convenience for you? We won't mind sharing our food with you since we would be in a win-win situation. What do you say, my fine gentlemen?"

"These diamond, rubies, emeralds and sapphires are all shard pieces...not a single piece is a complete piece. Its totally worthless to you, young man. Do you really wished to acquire them as your possessions if you accommodate our daily meals here until we have exhausted the mine?"

"Yes...my fine Disney's friends...these shard pieces would do just fine. I'm hoping to turn it to something better with these shards. These shards would be a great enhancement for our weapons and armour and it would certainly aid us in our adventures to come. Here, take a look at a completed Emerald piece. This is a poor quality gem. You can see this for yourselves."

Doc held the piece in his hands and after a close examination, he found that the Emerald was truely of Poor quality and required 5 of these Poor ones to make a Fair piece. It takes another 5 Fair pieces to make a Good one and 5 more Good ones to make a Perfect piece.

"We have a stash of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires with us right now. Each of us managed to get about 7 pieces of each type every day means we have 49 pieces of each type of shards daily. The stash at home would be best left undisturbed as the Director may have other plans for them."

"Come...take these 49 shards of each gem with you first. We trust your sincerity and what's for dinner?"

Hahahahaha...everyone seemed to chase after our home-cooked meals after all...!

"We are having tea and you could break up these dumplings among yourself first. I would be guiding Missy on how to cook rice, gruel as well as plain grilled bread or with cheese, smoked chicken or mashed eggs in them for our meals." I replied as I extended my hands to retrieve 4 small pouches containing 4 different types of shards, as I handed Doc our dumplings to be shared among the 7 members of their mining expedition team.

I passed the pouches to Matilda and she quickly stored it inside her main storage bag.

"Young man, you knew about our names and characters, we have yet to be acquainted with your even if you have your name above your head right now."

"Oh...I'm sorry to be of my neglectfulness. My name is Robyn, and I am a Firestarter as described by my partner here, and a Humble Master at your service, while this is Milady Matilda, my wife to be and also an adventurer in my party."