When Evan arrived at his designated lift, he found himself amidst several miners and a few other craftsmen. They all seemed to be a bit older than him, easily into their twenties, while the miners varied greatly in age, but he didn’t peg any as more than thirty. All of this barred any concepts of life extension, of course.
Some of the miners were quite young – only a year or two older than himself and had the starry-eyed look he was sure he had when he first started imbuing.
His fellow craftsmen all seemed more experienced by comparison, but that could easily just the requirements their profession had before allowing them to be fully qualified in their work.
Turning his attention to the lift itself, he once more recognized the lack of any controls – it was somewhat worrying – and was unimpressed by the lack of safety measures. There were only some rails to keep them from tumbling into freefall, and while the ropes looked sturdy, there were only four of them.
None of it was very reassuring.
Suddenly – at least to him – the lift lurched to life and began lowering, jerking at first as he watched the device responsible light up a few indicators as green.
His heart almost left his chest, but nobody else really reacted – this wasn’t something he had really paid attention to while taking a look around, and it gave him a good scare.
Some of the others on the lift looked outwards into the shaft, and Evan eventually found it in himself to also take a look.
It was breathtaking, and a little easier to stomach once he was already inside. To say the shaft was wide was an understatement – it had a diameter of what he would easily guess as a thousand meters, and all around the edges were scaffolding that hung over the lip, looking much the same as what he found above.
This continued every hundred meters or so, with lifts between each level. It was so large and deep he could look out across to the other side and see several levels going progressively deeper down.
Just as he had seen before, there were longer lifts that went perhaps five hundred meters each, and he saw the occasional person or two making use of them. They were larger than the regular lifts, and most were filled with the same closed crates he had seen earlier.
It was hard to make out anything more specific, but it seemed as though the entire ring around the shaft was used for transportation and mining into deeper levels. He couldn’t see the bottom from where he was, and he wondered what the actual depth of the shaft was.
Regardless, it was a true feat of human engineering that left him floored by how impressive it was, and the sheer scale at which it operated left him humbled.
Once he came back to himself, he decided to strike up a conversation with one of the craftsmen. “Hey, I’m pretty new here. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
The man stared at him for a moment before sighing. “Alright. Just until we get to the bottom, though.”
“Perfect. How long have you been here? Are you with the military?”
Evan could tell they were crafters, if not their actual trade, by the way they carried themselves compared to the miners. All of them were at the first Collapse like himself – he could roughly tell with his soul sense – and didn’t have the same build as the miners. None of them were equipped the same way as the miners, either.
That is to say that they had no special equipment and were dressed in finer clothing than the miners. Some of them, like himself, sported devices somewhat similar to his own shield that hung at his side.
“A year. It’s a good place to build a foundation if you don’t join the military, but it takes some cultivation to be of any use.” He eventually responded, clearly referencing Evan’s own military uniform.
“What’s your trade? I’m a formations master.”
“Arrays refiner.” That surprised him, but maybe it shouldn’t have. In a place like this, he could see arrays being very useful.
Resisting the urge to ask about how arrays worked, he instead inquired about how things worked down in the shaft.
“It depends on your job and how deep you go. I’m not with the military, so I hang out just deep enough my arrays catch the best price while still being useful,” he noticed that just how deep wasn’t mentioned, “but most of the formation masters I know or see are usually fixing stuff or selling things the miners might need.”
He kept the conversation up as the lift descended. They weren’t moving very fast, but he was perfectly okay with that. Some of his next questions were about safety measures – he figured this was important to everyone, and he was mostly right.
“Well… I won’t claim to know how it all works, as its mostly formations, but generally things feel pretty safe to me. I mean, there are cave-ins…” he cut off his next words as he spared a glance to the miners next to them – the lift wasn’t very large. “But only where the mining is done. So long as you stay in the populated areas near the scaffolding, you won’t run into any problems. Any further, though, can be risky.”
Evan found it surprising they didn’t know more about the measures. It was certainly something he felt the need to know about if he was going to be staying down here, but he supposed that he might have more interest as a formations master, considering most of the measures were ensured by various formations.
The man had been pleasant to talk too at least, so he decided to offer his name – connections were important, even if he hated to pursue them for that sake alone.
“I’m Evan. Thanks for all the info. I’ll catch you around?”
They huffed. “Caleb. You’re welcome. Maybe give me a discount?”
“Ha! Tell you what, you come to me first, and we’ll see about that discount.” By then the lift had reached the bottom and he found himself amongst a scene almost exactly the same as above, only with more lifts – some going back up, and others down.
The scaffolding extended some ways along the wall of the shaft, but it wasn’t continuous – the lifts had only been built where there was interest in mining or for simply continuing to head deeper, and he could make out other platforms in the distance at the same elevation as them.
Whoever organized things around here did a wonderful job, as he was given a comprehensive list of all the lifts he would be taking, and he noticed that the traffic moving between levels was well managed, with coordinators occasionally requesting that people wait or change lifts to ensure the smooth transfer of people and cargo.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Managing the logistics of such a place must be hell, so he was glad things were in order. He told Caleb what level he’d be ending up on before heading to his next lift while Caleb did the same.
Caleb reciprocated, and he found that the man was on level 19 – four deeper than himself. He guessed the man had changed his mind.
At first, everything seemed rather peaceful and relaxing. Since everything was so vertical while traversing the levels, there wasn’t much actual moving around to do, and the numbers painted everywhere made finding his destination easy and not nearly as stressful as he had expected it to be.
Soon enough, though, he grew bored. Each descent only took five or so minutes, but he had to wait a few minutes on each before they got going. It made him realize why nobody was very alarmed at the lifts moving the way they did – they had long been bored to tears with it and learned to come to terms with it.
Thankfully, he wasn’t headed that deep – relatively – and was able to stop on the fifteenth level at 1500 meters underground. By now, when looking out into the shaft, it was beginning to get quite dark without the light placed about.
While the shaft was large enough that the sun could shine down upon much of it, and at some point during the day even illuminate the entirety of it, most of the time it was at an angle and thus only reached so far down.
At 1500 meters, the lanterns and formations provided the majority of the light available and made things just that much spookier. They cast a dull glow on their surroundings, enough to see by but not enough to feel truly safe from the dark.
The shadows cast by the lights made the boards of the floor look less secure, and vastness of the shaft more oppressive. Back towards the wall of the shaft he could see tunnels that headed deeper into what could be called the underground proper – it was much better lit that way, and he could hear people moving about.
It was strange, being surrounded by such darkness when he knew the sun was still out. He could no longer see the sky, and the bottom was still obscured. How deep did it go? Ten thousand meters? More?
He had no time to ponder, as he had a schedule to keep, even after he had stepped off the lifts for good. At least for the trip down, anyway, so he started heading towards the tunnel deeper into the rock.
If that’s the trip I have to make every day to go back up or down, I can see why most just stay where they are. There’s not much to do on the surface, either – it would mostly just be to get some sunlight and see the sky.
Already, he missed the sky. He often spent much of the day indoors, and rarely looked up at the sky – who did? – but just knowing he couldn’t see it without a lot of hassle made it seem more precious.
Entering the tunnel, he realized there weren’t that many people around. There was a constant stream of people moving up and down the lifts, but he only saw a couple start heading towards the tunnel like himself.
As he moved out of sight of the lifts, he studied the beams that held up the walls. They were simpler than his own and seemed to be focused on efficiency rather than anything else.
The only addition was a small light midway up the beam that was emitting a dim green light – an indicator, he guessed, of how in need of maintenance the beam was. It was something he wanted to add to his beams as well but had ended up shelving the idea to make room for everything else.
In all this time, he had never updated his old design, though he always made them to the best of his abilities. Now that his cultivation had grown, and he was deep underground, it might be time to have a look at it, as well as figuring out some other products he could sell down here.
He was on his own down here, and as he thought about it, the decentralized and enormous nature of Goldspire might work to his advantage – he could finally start experimenting with his Myth and try to figure out what it did once he increased it from nothing.
It had been with him since, presumably, before he became a cultivator, and while it did seem to try and escape, it had never harmed him since – and so he was curious enough to risk experimenting with it. He had read plenty of, well, myths about various immortals and their legendary – and secret – treasures.
The idea that his Myth might be one such treasure was too tempting to not give it a shot, and if he felt something was wrong, he would stop right away.
He had plenty of ideas about how to increase it as well – he had known of the… treasure… for more than a year now, after all. It was hard enough not to try them out while under the watch of his old master, Isaac.
Soon enough the tunnels gave way to a large cavern occupied by several buildings alongside a couple blocks of stacked buildings that were connected and that looked residential in nature. Apartments? The lone buildings were offices, evident by the signs outside them. He entered one to once more register his arrival, and he was welcomed quite warmly by a female clerk who seemed to staff the office all by herself.
“Welcome to level 15, Formations Master Isaac. We are so glad to have you – oh, where are my manners. My name is Alison. You must follow me – er, if you would. Sorry but with you, there’s only three formation masters on the level and it’s not enough.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, they’ll be ecstatic! Let’s go meet them right away.” Alison spoke quickly, and moved around as she spoke, and he was unable to say a word edgewise before she was already walking back out the door.
He sighed, realizing things might need to be put a little more on the backburner if what she said was true. Refusing to jog and ruin his dignity, he hurried after her.
Not long later, after she had slowed down after seeing his pace, he decided to ask around about how things worked on the level, and most importantly, why there were only three formation masters around if that clearly wasn’t enough.
“What is so urgent?” Was there something important that was actively failing? He couldn’t understand why the two already stationed couldn’t handle it if that was the case. There was no way they wouldn’t fix something if it was actually urgent, no matter how overworked they were – their lives could hang in the balance!
“What’s your name?”
“What? It’s Evan, is that not part of my paperwork?”
“It is, but it’s rude to not let someone introduce themselves. And there’s nothing that urgent, I’m just sure they’ll be glad to see you. They can explain better – I don’t know all the specifics, only that they are constantly sending requests for more help.”
Wouldn’t she, though? He didn’t see any other clerks, and from the look of things, the place had a history of being understaffed. Would she not be the one to help put in all the requests? For more Substance, parts, and so on?
Strange woman. Hopefully the other formation masters aren’t as well.
Evan didn’t say anything to voice his doubts, and they continued on their way at a quick pace. He didn’t even know where he would be staying yet, or where he could eat. Usually, he would just stop at any stall that caught his attention or go to a restaurant, but he didn’t see any of that around here.
“Where will I be staying while I’m here? On the level, right?”
“Of course! There would be too much traveling otherwise, even as close to the surface as we are.” Alison pointed towards the large, connected buildings he had noticed before. “Those are the residential housing blocks, where almost everyone stays. That’s where you’ll be staying. I don’t remember the exact unit that was assigned to you, but it’s back at the office.”
It looked rather drab, and only stood out thanks to being made out of wood in the otherwise gray stone walls of the cavern. He didn’t see anyone coming or going, but if that’s where the miners lived, he supposed they would be out mining at the moment.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about the housing, either. Typically, the place where he stayed was nicer looking and a little more upper class, even if they weren’t usually anything exciting to look at. This… just looked like the most convenient way to house people in a large cavern like this.
Part of him was surprised there weren’t just caves dug out into the sides and rented out – they could even claim they were safer, as they were protected by the Substance-laden stone.
Still, he would try it before making any complaints. He would be spending most of his time in his workshop, anyway.
“What about food? I don’t see any places to get some around here.”
“Oh, well most people just order what they need and have the raw ingredients taken from the storage here or brought down from the surface so they can make their food themselves. Not enough of a population down here to warrant a store or restaurant, and most of the miners are trying to save their money regardless.”
Ah, well that he had some complaints about. He really disliked cooking – always had. It was just one of those things he’d rather not do.
He also wasn’t the greatest cook, so it just made sense for him to eat out instead – he considered it one of the benefits of his profession.
They hadn’t even reached what he imagined would be the true source of his troubles, and he was already starting to reconsider if he wanted to stay down here. Were the deeper levels better?