Earlier in the year Bruce signed up for a geology course partially to fill up a blank spot in his schedule but also because he thought it might help him figure out how to deal with Ground and Rock types, who are notoriously resilient. By the time summer break came, he had enough of an interest in the subject that when he heard of a cave exploration trip being organized, he thought it'd be fun to check it out and see some of the stuff he'd read about up close. And after finding a few evo stones and other things down there, most of which were good enough quality to fetch a nice amount of cash after the fact, he certainly didn't mind all that extra homework he had to deal with a few months ago.

He even found a friend down there too! Since exploring a cave by one's lonesome can be very dangerous, at the start of the trip he was partnered with Kacey, who lives in Neon Town and is studying archaeology. Despite being a bit shy at first, she really hit it off with him as time went on, and the two ended up being quite close. When the trip was over, they split a Leaf Stone she had found and each kept a piece to remember the fun they had together.