Oof. There should be a door leading you to the mine... Which version of the game did you play on?
Thanks for seeing it through. I'm glad you enjoyed the game I agree that it's a shame that the dialogue about Ao's motivation could've been completely skipped.
Perhaps having it where this information would creep up on you in other NPC dialogues if you haven't heard it from Ao directly would be nice. I wanted to be quite subtle / non-forcing when it comes to dialogue.