The dinner that night was awkward, and for a multitude of reasons. Foremost, though, was how jittery everyone was. It had been several weeks since the attack, but Evan, and apparently everyone else, was still looking over their shoulder for the other shoe to drop, and the nightmare to continue.

Still, they got through it, and Illiana was even able to be happy for him. He appreciated it, and found himself wishing Arnav could have been there, too. Maybe even David.

It was the first time the friendly man had come to mind in a while, and he realized he shared the same name as the officer he had met the morning after the attack.

The next morning, he returned to the office he had went to before to figure out what was happening next, and received unfortunate news – he was being transferred.

His new posting would be at one of the largest mining sites that Starspire controlled, where truly enormous quantities of metal were extracted each and every day. Rather than a single mine, the location was predominantly known for the massive borehole that took up much of its surface. It was said to be hundreds of meters in diameter and went so deep that even with it being so wide, sunlight did not reach the bottom. And that was only the start of how deep it went.

It was situated deeper into the territory of Starspire, far from the front lines, and featured an average cultivation level higher than that of Starspire proper – it took equipment of incredible strength to dig that deep, and the miners themselves required a deep cultivation base if they wanted to work at the bottom.

At least, that was what he heard after asking around. It wasn’t a terrible place to be transferred – a great one, in fact, so long as he didn’t suffer from any fears relating to heights or depths.

Evan didn’t suffer from either, so he should have been ecstatic, but he wasn’t. Part of him was, certainly, but he hated to depart so soon after mending his relationship with Illiana and graduating from Isaac’s care.

He knew there was always the possibility of this happening, but he had expected to spend the coming months working on his own while still seeing Isaac and Illiana if not every day, then every week.

Now, he only had a couple weeks before he left, and then he might very well never see them again. He knew, deep down, that if he had a choice after he left, he would never want to be so close to the conflict ever again. The nightmares still haunted him, and the wounds were too deep on his psyche to willingly be transferred to Mountain Acropolis after the events of that night.

It tore at him, but in a way, he couldn’t help but be relieved. Mountain Acropolis was too dangerous. At least he would still live with them for these coming weeks. No point in giving someone who was leaving a change in accommodation, especially not while the outpost was still recovering.

He broke the news to them later that day, and Illiana seemed to take it harder than he had expected – only just recently had they made up, after all.

There was no crying or sobbing, but he could tell she was more shook up about it than she let on.

Isaac accepted the news stoically and revealed that he could – or even should – have expected this. In all this time, the demand for his beams had only increased, and now that his cultivation was stronger, he could make beams that could handle deeper depths or larger spaces. While his beams were nothing special, it wasn’t something everyone came up with or were interested in crafting, and it showed he held promise working in the depths.

“…Isaac, do you really think they’ll send me down below? What reason could there be to do that? They’ll have to send the beams down anyway, as well as the Substance I’ll need. I don’t want to go deep underground, either! What if I discover I have some terrible phobia to being so far underground?”

“Ha! Well, you’ll just have to get over it. There are plenty of reasons to send you underground, the most obvious being to keep you around for repairs, and you don’t have to worry. Starspire is more than aware of the risks that come with being deep underground, and there will be countermeasures to everything.

“It’s one of the reasons the borehole is so wide, you know.”

That didn’t reassure Evan much – being aware of the dangers was different from being properly prepared for them! They were also aware of the risk of Mountain Acropolis being attacked, were they not? And yet, Arnav had died, and nearly had he himself!

He didn’t say any of that out loud, though, for he knew that his old master was blind to this – he had served his entire life for them, and seemed to be quite happy at continuing. Considering how old Isaac must be, even without Substance to extend his life, this showed that the man was clearly devoted to the military.

Isaac must have noticed his hesitation, for he continued. “Goldspire Garrison is a great place to be transferred, Evan – you just don’t know it yet. Enormous amounts of wealth move through the outpost every day, and as part of the military proper now it won’t be difficult to participate in those countermeasures yourself if you so desire. It might help take the edge off of your anxiety, and would be a good learning experience.”

“Will it really be that easy? Seems like the sort of thing that would be top-secret.”

“For most, it would be, but you’ve already got a year under your belt as part of the service and are an accredited Formations Master under the employ of the military of Starspire. Your new status, decoupled from my own, has opened many doors for you.”

“Huh. Well, that does make this more palatable. I still hate to leave you both, though.” Illiana hadn’t left the room, though she had stayed quiet so far. She spoke up after hearing that.

“Don’t worry about me and Master Isaac, Evan. We’ll be alright, and soon enough we might be leaving as well.”

A small weight was lifted from his shoulders at that. Considering the loss they had only just recently experienced, it felt wrong to leave them so soon. It couldn’t have been easy for Illiana to say that.

Isaac spoke once more. “Yes, the border is moving closer towards us lately, and the raid from before has even me a little worried. Since you’re leaving as well, I think I’ll put in a transfer request soon.”

Before he could get his hopes up, he continued. “But it won’t be Goldspire Garrison. It is important that you learn to depend on yourself, Evan, since the opportunity has presented itself.”

That didn’t seem very fair – he was plenty independent as it was, with Isaac only stepping in whenever something went wrong… though maybe that was his point.

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After that, they all dispersed to go about their own tasks, and Evan decided to work some more on his device for inscribing – ever since he had lost much of his work to the fire, he had lost most of his motivation for continuing, but now he was feeling a little more inspired.

As the days continued to pass uneventfully, he restarted his design from scratch. He had a new idea – instead of trying to figure out how to make everything fit in the walls of a hollow cube, he could instead take inspiration from his shield and thermostat, having a solid block that held the formations while projecting everything he might need away from it.

This idea turned out to be fruitful, for he encountered far fewer hindrances as he worked on the project. As he had gotten the idea from his spell, he decided the projection he would use as an interface should mimic the spell – he already knew it worked quite well and didn’t need to brainstorm on how to make it easier to use.

Progress was made rapidly, as he was somewhat retreading old ground, and by the time of his departure weeks later, he felt he was already more than halfway done with the project.

Isaac and Illiana saw him off, but the previous somber mood had dissipated after their previous discussion. He felt good, though he couldn’t help but hope Arnav was wishing him well in the afterlife, whatever that might be.

He remembered what he had learnt just before reaching his first Collapse. That upon death, the soul fled the body. Surely that meant was an afterlife?

Farewell, Arnav.

***

The trip to Goldspire Garrison was uneventful, and incredible boring. Once more, he traveled in the now familiar military transport jeep, though this time he was among strangers.

Despite now being a full blown formations master, he still wasn’t allowed to drive, which doused much of his previous excitement for the trip.

It took nearly a month to reach their destination, and along the way they stopped several times, with much of the convoy staying behind and others taking their place.

Along the way, he wasn’t even able to work on his designs, as he would need to frequently build prototypes and experiment to ensure things worked as he expected them too.

Dreadful. That was the only way he could describe his journey, and when they finally arrived, he almost didn’t believe it. He should have brought along some books but hadn’t thought to and wanted to travel light – a mistake he wouldn’t make again.

The security at the gate seemed lax compared to what he had experienced in Mountain Acropolis, and a part of him was worried about it despite knowing the reason – Goldspire Garrison was simple too far from the border for it face any kind of attack, and the nature of the outpost made anything of the sort difficult and costly.

Once the convoy was past the gate, they dropped him off at the nearest plaza, from which he made his way to the nearest office so he could report his arrival and be assigned his quarters, workshop, and duties. He didn’t have much on him at all, so it was a simple affair.

Finding the office was easy – as Isaac had said so long ago, the outposts were all built to make finding the official buildings of Starspire, such as the offices, easy.

There was a line, which was somewhat surprising, but soon enough he managed to get his affairs in order and received his duties and posting, which only mentioned the ‘level’ he would be staying at, and not the specifics – such as where he would live, eat, etc. All of that would have to be handled at his destination, where the local office would have a better idea of the situation.

It was just as Isaac – calling him that still felt strange – had speculated. He was put on the next trip down the shaft, as it was called here, in about an hour.

Evan wanted to chat with someone, so he could find out more about how things worked around here, but first he decided to go see this lift for himself – he didn’t want to miss it just because he couldn’t find it.

The trip to the shaft itself was quite short, as much of the actual outpost was far deeper underground and decentralized – that much he already knew.

It was strange, how sparsely populated the outpost appeared to be from the surface, as he knew the outpost was home to a huge quantity of people – it took a lot more than just the miners to keep the place running smoothly.

Along the way, he noticed that when people saw him, they gave him strange looks, and that he saw very few people dressed in their uniforms.

That was another thing that had changed – after he became a certified formations master, he was able to change out his gray, unadorned uniform for one a little more colorful.

His new uniform was olive green and had a small insignia that denoted his ‘rank’ in the military as a formations master, with the lowest certification level. As he obtained more certifications, he would gain additional insignia to represent them on his uniform. The one he had was colored bronze.

The change meant he stood out a little more, but it wasn’t enough to warrant this degree of attention. Was wearing their uniforms not typical around here?

It was something he kept In mind as he made his way to where the lifts were located. As he approached, he saw the hustle and bustle increase considerably, and as the shaft itself came into view, he was amazed.

Some people around him seemed to notice his sudden awe, and they smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up.

Evan shook himself out of his obvious amazement, smiled back politely, and continued forward. Soon enough, he reached the lip of the shaft and hesitantly continued onto the wooden structures that had been attached to the wall.

He couldn’t see underneath himself, but just knowing the vast emptiness beneath him – discounting any other structures below – made him nervous.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of heights, or rather falls, but that a part of his instincts warned him that sticking around such a place was a bad idea.

As he took in his surroundings, he found himself amidst a seemingly endless series of lifts that worked using several ropes and pulleys, along with imbued devices that seemed to provide the force required for moving the lifts up and down. Close by were countless men and women who were hauling crates onto and off carts and lifts.

Using his soul, nobody he could sense was a mortal, and many were stronger than he was. It was strange to see civilians who engaged in hard menial labor with stronger cultivation bases than many of the soldiers he’d seen – a sort of disconnect to how he had previously viewed reality.

He also couldn’t help but notice the incredibly powerful formations under his feet – they were so strong, he had no estimate of how powerful the creator was – it was that far beyond his abilities.

To think, the strongest imbuement he had ever seen was used as an overhang from the shaft.

It made sense, though, for if those crates were from near the bottom of the shaft, they had to be tremendously heavy, even if the crates were spatial items that reduced the weight of their contents.

He knew that was where much of the money was at here – at the bottom of the shaft, where the Substance inside even the rock was astronomical. It was why even now Starspire dug the shaft deeper, though one day they would reach a point where no one on the planet was capable of digging any deeper.

Not wanting to make his purpose obvious, he studied the lifts and the people moving off and on them while moving about, not staying in any one place for long. He very purposefully did not look past the overhang and into the shaft – just a single glance gave him a little bit of vertigo.

From what he could see, the lifts didn’t take very long to move back and forth, which implied they didn’t go that far down. That made sense, as there were plenty of miners who made their living mining at the sides of shaft as far down as they could reasonably manage – the outpost was known as a haven for miners for a reason.

There were also more private lifts, ones that didn’t seem to be frequently used, alongside lifts that took far longer to go back and forth – ones that went deeper. He guessed they were used for more convenient travel between deeper sections of the shaft. They were also, just as the regular ones, not equipped with any sort of control that the occupants could make use of.

Instead, most of the lifts seemed to work on a schedule, where they would automatically begin moving after a set period of time, no matter what. This sounded quite dangerous, but in truth the lifts were so busy it didn’t matter – they were always full, and everyone seemed to have a good idea of when the lift would start moving.

He noticed that the private, rarely used ones, had panels inside. Classic Starspire.

By the time Evan had made these observations, he figured close to an hour had passed and that he should head toward the lift he was assigned too.

Everything was nicely organized, and each lift had numbers painted on the floor to their sides, so he was easily able to find the one he was assigned to.

It was time to head into the depths.