Crown frowned, wiping the sweat off of her forehead as she worked. It hadn't been a particularly hot day in Rekes, but the work wasn't exactly easy. She glanced over to Wait and Alter, who had begrudgingly come along with her and Finn. The two honestly were faring quite well. Alter met her eyes with a heavy sigh "How much longer are we going to be here?" **he gestured to the almost full minecart behind them.**" Uh well-" Crown started, frowning. She was sure that the belemoid would not be happy to hear that she had planned on filling two more, at the very least. "We brought three carts, Alter." Wait said, an eyebrow raised to the other belemoid. "I assume we're going to be here until all three are filled, which will go a lot faster without your yapping." Alter rolled his eyes "I'm just saying- maybe one of us should bring this cart back-" He was quickly cut off by Finn. "Nice try, but no. Once we fill all three of the carts we can head back up, it'd be inefficient to have one person go back and forth twice while the others mine." Alter sighed "I mean,

I wasn't trying to be selfish- but what do we even need all this tin for?" Crown pipped up excitedly "We're having new pickaxes made! Uh, I can't remember who right now, but a fellow colonist has been learning how to make bronze pickaxes, and they'll hopefully be a lot less clumsy to use!" Alter raised an eyebrow "So we are mining to be able to do more mining." Crown nodded sheepishly. "The pickaxes uh- will really make it easier on me and Finn." Wait chuckled. "Seems a bit excessive, all this mining to do more mining, doesn't it?" Finn shrugged. "We'll be able to make lots of other stuff with the ores we dig up. Once we get more metals coming into the colony, we can get more upgrades for everyone without having to spend ludicrous amount of Xen buying them from markets." **Alter sighed dramatically as he swung his pickaxe again, getting more of the blueish gray rocks from the walls, and dropping them into the cart besides him.** "I mean, it all makes sense. We do use a lot of metal after all. I'd just rather it not be my problem, really." Finn chuckled. "It's not easy

work for sure, but I find it very rewarding." while the others worked on getting the tin, she had carefully been examining one of the crystal spires in Rekes. They hadn't needed any more of the material, but it always managed to spike her curiosity. "Plus, the underground is beautiful. I don't mind spending my time here." They worked for a few more hours, ore filling the carts up until Alter, exasperated, threw the last chunk in. "There! Can we go home now?" Wait and Crown turned to look- and indeed, all three carts were full to the brim. Crown smiled "Good work, team!"