Alter groaned unhappily as he picked up yet another rock. He was pretty done with rocks by now, but unfortunately for him, the colony's miners had asked him to stick around for a little longer, claiming to now need silver from under the seabed. Alter hadn't been happy in the slightest, but had reluctantly agreed to stick around for just a little longer while the colony mined what they needed. Apparently the tin was a nice start, but they could do with another upgrade to their pickaxes. Alter was confused, but honestly wasn't interested enough to really ask more questions. "Finnnnn are we gonna go home yet? I'm bored." Finn rolled her eyes "We're not even close to going home yet, Alter. We only just got here. You have to be more patient." Crown and Wait chuckled from where they had been mining into the wall, small stones dropping at their feet to be sorted by Alter. Alter had long since given up on mining anything himself, his muscles sore and aching after only a little while, and sorting trough the rocks meant the group would have less work- and less useless rocks- when they got back to the colony's

headquarters. With another groan, Alter kept sorting the little rocks- making sure to keep the shimmering silver ore, and tossing anything that seemed little more than a rock. "Why are you guys even so interested in any of this?" Alter huffed, sifting trough more rocks. Crown frowned- "I mean, I kinda just- liked digging holes as a kid. I think one day someone brought me to a mine, and it was just amazing. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and uh- I like feeling like I can help out, y'know." Finn seemed to think it over for a bit. "I mean, I guess it's mostly the same for me. Originally, I just wanted to make sure the colony was safe and taken care of. But honestly this job is lovely- I get to be underground most of the time, which means I don't have to deal with socializing." the last part was said mostly jokingly, and the group softly chuckled amongst each other. Wait shrugged. "I just didn't care what job I'd end up getting. Miners needed help, so here I am. It's not always that deep, really." Alter groaned again. "Can't believe you guys just willingly spend all day looking

at rocks Are we done yet?" The group let out a collective groan. "No, Alter. We won't be for a while." Finn said. The group was all very fond of the reef belemoid, but most of them were getting a little annoyed at his constant complaining by now. "Can you *please* be a little more patient, Alter?" Crown asked gently, urged by a nudge from Wait. "I'm sure Finn'll tell us when we're ready to go home, but until then the rest of us would like to focus on our work, alright?" Alter rolled his eyes. "Well, alright then. But can we at least use the explosives when we go out again?"