Age: 912

The sun was setting over Mineral Town as the miners at Central Quarry pushed themselves to finish the remaining work for the day. The Corps representatives gave an incentive to break their previous quota record that if they manage to exceed the daily kilo expectation of metals harvested for five days straight, their group would receive a paid day off. Which none of them had for quite some time, so everyone was super eager to push themselves.

A few of the miners looked deeper into the tunnel as they continued using their harvesting machines and mining equipment. The grunts of one particular worker echoed across the way as he continued to strike at a deposit with only a pickaxe. It still baffled them that for such a young man using a simple tool, he was able to outperform nearly everyone for individual workloads. And he was just a human compared to some of the other species intermingled within the ranks.

As the clock wound down, a whistle blew and a finely dressed red furred catwoman named Ms. Kalco wearing a hard hat picked up a megaphone. “Shift’s over!” She said over the megaphone. “Gather your remaining ore and deposit it in the robot’s cart! The results will be announced after dinner.”

The miners gathered their gear and ore as one large man called to the end of the tunnel. “Hey kid!” The man shouted. “Quitting time. Grab your ore!”

Clay had been so focused on digging he had spaced out on the whistle. He quickly gathered his ore, which was so massive he had to carry it with two hands while he carried his pickaxe threaded through his arms over the back of his shoulder, and followed the others out of the tunnel. He squinted seeing the remaining sunlight poke through the opening of the tunnel as he saw dozens of miners and an assortment of Capsule Corps. Officials going about their business and winding down the work day. A few of them double taked seeing the humongous ore chunk Clay was easily lifting over his head. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a struggle for him, but he endured the heavy weight with a smile as he walked over and dumped it into the robot’s cart, causing it to bend one of the wheels underneath and a red light to flash on the robot’s face..

“Oops,” Clay said fumbling his pickaxe and rubbing the back of his head bashfully. “Sorry, I guess I should have loaded it more gently. You ok?”

The robot chirped a bit warped.

“Well, I’m sure we can fix that wheel easily,” he said as he walked over to the cart and gripped under it, before being stopped by a worker.

“Why don’t you let us do it?” The miner said, nervous Clay might mess something up again.

“You sure?” Clay asked with a raised brow. “I could just lift the—“

“No no no!” The miner said anxiously, with others also concerned. “You uh, worked so hard getting that. Just go to the mess hall. We’ll deal with that.”

“Well, ok,” Clay said standing back up and giving a light pat on the miner’s back. “Thanks!” He strolled away from the tunnel entrance, oblivious to the miners gossiping about him, as he went to find his friends.

Meru-La was hurrying through town to the mine. Carrying her backpack of lunchboxes and a tray on each arm and one on her head yet somehow maintaining her balance thanks to Grandma's training she saw Clay up ahead. "Heads up!" She called out to him and dropped to her knees skidding so his lunch was at grabbing level while not losing velocity.

“Whoa!” Clay said grabbing the lunch with a smile. “Thanks, Meru-La. What’s today’s menu?”

"Roasted potatoes, Dragon Curry, Dino Steak, Godfish Sushi, and Flan." She said as she was already back on her feet running again to deliver the rest.