The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 36 – 05/02/22 – 304 Days, 23 Hours, 2 Minutes and 35 Seconds to go…

*** Looking to catch up with the adventure? ***

After seemingly two weeks of non-stop annoyance and failed ideas, we had finally overcome both the mushrooms and the darkness, and could continue to explore the upper kingdom. Just how far would we reach? There was only one way to find out…

It had been more than a minute since I felt quite so enthused to check in on Monty and continue the adventure. The sense of ‘new’ and unexplored had slowly waned over these past few days, as I repeatedly bashed my head against a wall trying to overcome two (as it turned out) simple obstacles. But I did it, and now it’s time to reap the rewards.

Monty was there waiting for me; standing in the shadows and ready to explore the tunnels beyond the darkness. Together we walked eastward for what seemed like forever – it was so hard to judge distance with absolutely no landmarks to guide us. Every now and again I could hear the sound of the floor changing beneath Monty’s feet – changing from the louder slap-slap-slap of a hard stone floor, to the softer scuffling of feet on dirt or gravel. I’ll have to try and bring a mushroom up here now that darkness beasty is gone – who knows what we might find in this tunnel… Wait – is that light?

After what seemed like an eternity, it was indeed light up ahead! The tunnel opened up to a larger, roughly hewn dirt tunnel with staircases crisscrossing upwards. As Monty slowly shuffled his way up a tonne of stairs something popped up in the corner of the screen…

“Collect Wood”

On-screen prompt

WOOD! I FOUND THE GODDAMN WOOD! As ridiculous as it might sound – I was absolutely overjoyed. After zooming from one piece of timber to nine in just a day or so, it had seemingly taken an age to finally get my hands on that final piece that we needed to be able to make a bed. And now we had it. You’re gonna have the best sleep you’ve had in your entirely life soon, buddy! (I, in fact, found a second piece not a few moments later… I wonder why I need another one?)

I noticed that the colour of the dirt growing paler as Monty headed upwards, and despite his previous trepidation, Monty seemed to be revelling in the exploration of the upper kingdom.

Slowly the stairs gave way to flat platforms and then a ladder came into view.. I know this place! The dreams! We’re so close! We had made it to just below the surface! And what’s that over there?

Before heading even higher, I wanted to check out an item that seemed to be partially obscured behind a wooden beam – it looked like… another mattock! This was great news – I could potentially give the [treasure room] ago without risking my only chance at anymore digging. The wall at the end of the platform looked a little suspect and as Monty approached the mattock, he confirmed my suspicions that there was a hidden passageway behind the wall.

Creeping through the hidden passageway, Monty appeared on the other side with a small puddle at his feet and a shaft of light beaming down on his head. The well! Monty recognised it too, and mused on the idea of whether anyone from the outside world still used it and, if so, whether they would be frightened of him. I think we need to listen to the [Face in the Wall] on this one pal – blind old guys only!

Having found the well, it was time to head to higher ground. As I asked Monty to scale the ladder and climb the few remaining stairs, suddenly and without warning, a blast of colour began to fill the screen… Light! From above ground! 🤩 After a month of living in the depths of the mountain, surrounded by nothing but bleak browns, blacks and greys, the introduction of so many bright colours bordered on emotional. The sound of bird song rang out from above too – it was the first thing we had heard that wasn’t the drip of stagnant water or the crunch of falling coal in a month. It was surreal.

It truly was a whole other world up there.

As Monty approached the tunnel entrance he found what I already knew, that it was blocked up. Monty had hoped to dig his way out but at the discovery that the stones were made from granite, he realised that even the mattock wouldn’t help him. Clearly unable to do anything to affect an exit, I asked Monty to head back to the well for a few minutes until I decided to end the session for the day.

I left my Switch beside me and after a little while, half playing on my phone and half watching Monty, I noticed a text dialogue pop up on the screen. I grabbed the console and was shocked to see a bucket descending into the well! There was a prompt allowing Monty to jump into the bucket, but between fumbling for my Joy Con and grabbing a screenshot I missed my chance and the bucket ascended to the upper world again without us!

But that’s alright – I know that with patience and a little time, there would be another bucket – I already had a view to our next path, even if we couldn’t walk it just yet. Feeling buoyant from this latest lucky discovery, and feeling frivilous, I decided to ask Monty to set off home… There’s an Ikea Mossa bed with my name on it…

Continue reading: Day 37