Milo took small, careful steps as he made his way to the bottom of the shaft, making sure not to let his body gather any momentum and slide all the way down without his permission. Although, it would have been a lot faster that way. As it was, It took much longer to get there than he had expected. The several seconds it had taken for the stones to complete their suicidal plunge translated into several minutes at Milo’s sedate pace.

There was nothing of particular interest on the way down, just dirt, rocks, and the supports built into the tunnel at regular intervals. Milo kept his eyes peeled for any sign of glowing gemstones or the like, but didn’t have high hopes. This place had been abandoned, after all.

In due time he made it to the bottom of the sloping shaft and discovered that the mine opened up somewhat. There were a lot of supports obstructing his vision and he couldn’t tell how far it went, which made him nervous. He suddenly realized that his crude test of chucking rocks into the abyss had hardly been rigorous enough. Something could have easily noticed the commotion and opted to simply wait here in the shadows for its noisy prey rather than come into the light and investigate.

Milo nearly turned around right then, but he stilled himself. I have a weapon, and I have a flashlight. Don’t be a wimp here, Milo. He cautiously edged forward, hammer raised and ready.

It turned out he needn’t have worried. He realized almost immediately that the excavated area was relatively small, having made a slow circuit of the entire artificial cave in under a minute. The only danger here was of a possible cave-in. He saw one wheelbarrow-sized pile of dirt near the back wall and a corresponding divot in the ceiling that made him think that had already happened once. Not very reassuring.

Still, he appeared to be in little immediate danger and so proceeded to investigate what the miners might have been digging for.

He started with the floor. The stones Milo had thrown earlier, judging by the noises they’d made, had collided with something very hard at the bottom here. Setting down his hammer and sweeping away the top layer of dust and debris at the base of the slope, Milo was unsurprised to find that the floor was made of stone. Maybe that was why the diggers had stopped? He was more than a little puzzled by the appearance and texture of the stone, however. It was pitch-black and curiously smooth.

Brushing more dirt away, he found the stone to be incredibly flat and uniform in its composition regardless of where he checked. Strange. He checked more spots around the little room, finding the same flat, black stone everywhere.

So, either they found this stuff and had to stop what they were doing, or this is what they were looking for in the first place. If that’s the case…why? And how did they know exactly where to look for it?

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Not sure what else to do, Milo took a small swing at the stuff with his hammer and examined the results. Not a scratch. He declined to try a harder swing; any risk of damaging his prized weapon was too much risk for him.

So, what did he know? Some people had gone to a lot of effort and dug down to this spot, presumably in search of something. Those people weren’t here anymore. Either they’d found what they wanted or given up. Hmmm…this line of thinking is a dead end.

He got up and wandered to the edge of the room, scraping experimentally at the walls with his hammer and uncovering…more dirt.

Congratulations! By exploring and digging underground, you have gained access to the Miner class.

Oh goodie. Milo ignored the message and traced a path along the outer rim of the subterranean room, scraping at the floor with his foot to see if he could maybe find an edge to whatever this black stone thing was. It was completely seamless until he got between the back wall and the pile of dirt he’d noticed earlier, at which point his shoe caught on something.

Kneeling down to investigate, Milo spied a crack in the rock, slightly raised as though responding to some force that had broken it from the underneath. He peered into it with his light, but the crack wasn’t terribly deep and all he saw was more blackness. It actually looked like it had torn more than broken, leading Milo to the conclusion that it was possibly some kind of metal rather than the stone he had initially assumed. The crack narrowed as it approached the wall, but towards the pile of dirt Milo thought it spread and widened a bit. Hmmm…the thick plottens. Maybe this pile of dirt is hiding something?

Feeling a tingle of excitement, Milo began shoving the dirt to the side, first with his hammer, then with his hand when he realized the hammer was far too slow, then awkwardly with his foot when his hand started to hurt. He finally reached the bottom of the pile and found…what am I looking at here?

The crack did indeed widen, but it looked like something had welled up out of the crack to seal it shut. It was dark, lumpy, and hardened, reminding him of asphalt. Some kind of lava vent? But that still doesn’t answer what the heck this black metal stuff is…

Milo was confused, but still determined to ascertain whether there was anything interesting underneath the hard black layer. He tested the substance in the crack with his hammer and found he could take a chip out of it rather easily. Examining the edge of the claw, he was happy to see it undamaged, at least to the naked eye. Even so, he tested the blunt edge of his hammer on the stuff and was pleased to see it could chip away at it almost as capably. He opted to use the hammer that way, preserving the sharper edge for battle.

He spent the next several minutes hammering away at the blockage until, on one particularly solid strike, he broke through. Startled, Milo pulled his hammer away and peered down through the small hole he’d created.

Whoa.