In the end, Evan relented and leaned against the wall of the cavern for a minute while massaging his temples. That had hurt.

Most of his anger at Theo ebbed away as he slowly started to feel better, and Theo allowed for some precious silence so as not to make things worse.

One minute had turned into ten before he felt better, though the headache hadn’t faded entirely. Wisely, Theo remained silent as he once more laid his hand on the band and forged the connections anew.

This time, he controlled his perception and kept it more concentrated while making an active effort to let most of the information remain at the edges of his awareness. He already did this while imbuing, as otherwise he would get too many details he didn’t need for his work.

It was a skill that required practice, but by now he had plenty.

With his self-imposed limits on his will, along with keeping all the information just out of mind, he experienced no worsening of his headache, though it did seem to throb more painfully.

Slowly, he started exploring the formations inside. As he began to cast his perception further and further from his physical body, he noticed a sort of… difficulty and delay.

It was like he was walking up a hill with a steadily increasing incline, with each step taking more effort than the last. He had never experienced this before, having never needed to cast his perception of an object so far from himself.

The delay was even stranger – he could sense a small disconnect between himself and the area he was observing, like it was taking a moment for his perception to relay back information.

He quickly decided that the sensation wasn’t pleasant, and he wondered how much worse it must be for Theo and Rory with their lacking talent.

From there, he began to analyze the formation in truth.

As Theo had already said, this metal band contained the formations that regulated the air – both ensuring it was good to breathe and not too cold – so deep underground, it could get quite chilly very quickly.

Part of him had expected something altogether more fantastical than what it was, considering how powerful the formations on the surface were.

Unfortunately, there were no great secrets or ingenious methods – but he still took his time, spending more than two hours filled with slight breaks and chitchat as he inspected the entire thing.

The further from his physical body he was viewing, the worse the delay got and the more difficult it was to do anything – he could imagine how bothersome it would be to work on it, rather than the simple inspection he was doing.

By the end, he was impressed by the sheer scale of the various formations that ensured life on the level was tolerable, if not completely comfortable – the few times he wasn’t using his thermostat, he found the air to be somewhat chilly.

As they left, he tried to pay attention and could notice the very slight change in temperature and gentle movement of the air – it was definitely there if a person paid attention to it.

From there, he spent another few hours touring the cavern with Theo, allowing him to show him some of the other areas around the cavern that assisted in maintaining the conditions of the cavern.

Interestingly, they were all connected by thin bands of metal that ran along the edges of buildings – he supposed that if a powerful enough crafter was working on them, this would allow them access to everything from any central station – though it would require a lot of power.

These auxiliary formations were like the ones near the entrance, but much smaller and only built given the sheer size of the cavern – only having everything managed from one place wasn’t very efficient or even reliable.

He never did get around to exploring the processing formations, as while he was very excited to see them, they were actually a good ways into the mine and Theo had begun to brush him off when he mentioned it.

“That should do it, Evan. You pretty much know where everything is now, so I’m gonna head back to the workshop.” By now, Theo was sounding more than a little bored and tired, which was something Evan could understand – watching someone else work could often be more draining than doing it yourself.

It probably didn’t help that when Theo did his rounds, they no doubt took nowhere near as long – he already knew what he was looking for, and no doubt had a ‘system’ to the fastest way of doing things. He himself was just looking things over, taking more time just looking over everything.

While they were all very similar, he wanted to look at everything so he could put his mind to rest – ever since he arrived, a not-so-small part of him had been anxious that the roof would collapse, he would suffocate from bad air, or wake up one morning with his thermostat failing him as he froze to death.

Of course, none of those were very likely to happen, but not knowing the state of things had been bothering him – it helped to be able to look things over himself, to ensure that everything was working smoothly.

“Thanks for showing me around and being so patient, Theo. I know it was boring just watching me, and that you took some time out of your day to do this for me. I appreciate it.” Evan wasn’t ungrateful – he understood the favor Theo had done him.

Theo shrugged his shoulders as if to brush off his comment. “It’s not a big deal man, I didn’t have much to do anyway today, and part of me feels a little guilty for dropping all the buildings on you like that. Some of them almost make my head spin, I can’t imagine how much effort it takes keep them repaired every day.” At the mention of the buildings, he let some humor slip into his voice.

It was a good joke, but Evan could tell some of the guilt was real.

“Really, it’s not so bad. I actually prefer working on buildings than the smaller stuff, and I’ve got enough practice that it doesn’t take me so long.” He gestured back towards the entrance, where the massive metal band was. “I can’t believe you guys have to work through that band every day. It was a real struggle to even analyze the furthest parts of the band, so I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to actually maintain them.”

Something he said must have been surprising, as he saw a flicker of it pass through Theo’s expression before he let out a long sigh.

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“Well, we manage. I’ll catch you later if I see you.” Theo started walking away, but after a moment, Evan decided to do a little something to repay some of the gratitude he felt – technically, it was against orders to give your access badge to anyone, even other formation masters who worked with you, and so everything they had done today was just a little risky.

Neither of them had mentioned it, so he wasn’t sure if Theo thought things were different considering his military status, but he still wanted to do something for the man.

“Wait a minute, Theo. What I was getting too, was if you’d like head with me to level 26 to get something to eat, my treat. It’s the least I can do.”

“Well,” the man scratched the back of his neck, “I guess, if you’d be so kind. Isn’t that kinda pricey though? You don’t have to do that.”

“It’ll be fine. I make a little more since I’m part of the military.” He didn’t, but it worked well enough to assuage the man enough to agree. He still wasn’t comfortable with sharing his actual income.

Theo seemed to take the answer at face value, and finally accepted.

Together, they made their way down to level 26 and had a somewhat early dinner together. Evan spoke of some of his training – most of it was fairly ordinary – and Theo regaled him with some of his own stories.

Growing up in the shaft was very different from what he had experienced in Starspire. Theo came from a legacy of miners who had been working here for generations. His father was impressive at the fourth Collapse, and so lived and worked far, far deeper down into the shaft.

Down there, the communities were actually much larger and far more impressive. There was so much Substance found inside even the rock that virtually every building was equipped with compositions, and the average quality of life left him so bewildered he almost didn’t believe it.

It sounded almost like a paradise, and he couldn’t believe that Theo had given that life up.

“Why’d you leave? I mean, this place is far and away from what your describing, and I can’t imagine how strange it would be to go from so many conveniences to almost none.”

“It was hard at first…” he seemed almost ashamed, “but I got used to it. I just didn’t want to be another miner, you know? Growing up, there were cave-ins all the time, and it wasn’t unusual for people even stronger than my father to suddenly die one day. I’d always be so scared when I heard the news that he or my mother wouldn’t come back.

“When I got older, my parents stopped making sure one of them was with me, and they would both head into the mines. It only got worse. I don’t want that to be me – or my kids. I wanted to do something that didn’t put my life in constant danger, even if it meant striking out on my own.”

“What do you mean striking out? Is that your own only at the first Collapse?” It was a little insensitive to just ask, but Evan was enraptured by his story. The way he described it… he yearned for it. To have grown up with parents, to have been born into a legacy – to have direction.

“Ah, well my family has picked up some tricks over the years, you know?” A sly grin spread across his face, proud of his legacy. “You just… pick stuff up from your parents about their work. Were your parents’ crafters? I’d reckon that they were, with how skilled you are. It’s like that.”

Evan did not, in fact, know what that was like – he hadn’t told Theo about his childhood, that he was an orphan. The comment on his skill and the surety he had help to get where he was fanned his pride, and so he smiled regardless as the man continued.

“And my parents offered to help me get my cultivation up – it was hard to refuse them, but I wanted to take things slow. I didn’t want to do an apprenticeship with some old stodgy master, either. My talent’s not great, and if my cultivation was too high, I’d be expected to meet a different standard of quality and skill than I can do.”

Theo didn’t ask if he was the same. Evan found it strange, though, that he done things that way. If he was planning on taking the same development path as himself, that of enhancing his mind to keep up with his will, he could have easily dedicated his first Collapse to purely mental Substance and used that to enhance his learning.

It might not directly make him learn faster, but any kind of mental enhancement would help – a better memory, a larger mind, sped-up thoughts… all would help.

If he did that, he could probably learn fast enough that gaining cultivation too fast – what an idea! – wouldn’t be an issue. That’s what he would have done – why struggle so weakly if your parents could bring you to a height of power some people never saw in their lives?

As it was, with how lacking – suddenly, it occurred to him why Theo might have done things the way he had. If he was unsure about dedicating himself to crafting, likely thanks to his lacking talent, doing things the slow way would leave him a way out without compromising his future strength as a miner, or whatever else he decided to do.

It could also just be that he wanted to follow the same path as his old master, enhancing his intent while discarding mental enhancements – with his limited talent, he could have much more cultivation before it became a bottleneck to his crafting.

He didn’t ask, though, as that would be overstepping. If there was only one thing he had truly learned about polite society, it was that everyone tried to be polite and stay out of others business – with higher cultivation levels and easy access to life extending Substance, it was easy to accidentally offend someone who might hold that grudge for countless decades or even centuries, depending on how far they went in life.

Evan didn’t want to poke at any sensitive matters, so he backpedaled and went back to asking about the many differences between level fifteen and however deep he grew up was.

“Oh, there are too many to count! For one, every building had its own air conditioning – it was basically a requirement down there.” He couldn’t imagine. “Storage bags were common, and some even had rings for smaller items. I myself have a bag, but I don’t keep it on me.”

“We had a Lifeweaver on standby, funded by the level as a whole, and you only cooked if you enjoyed it. Our clothes came with formations for comfort and protection, and instead of the standard lifts we had force platforms that worked off Substance alone.

“Some people had vehicles, mostly miners, but they weren’t much use down there but for transportation or storage – my father had one with a special formation imbued, so it could hold even more between each trip.

“There were…” Theo continued to regale him with grand tales of the sheer luxury the lower levels experienced, and it left Evan feeling disgruntled. From the way he told it, the lower levels might as well be private paradises.

Even the orphans were well-cared for – as Theo had already mentioned, deaths were not altogether uncommon, and so there was a concentrated effort to make the families of those who died more comfortable.

Healthcare was freely available to any of the residents, by a Lifeweaver no less! He didn’t know much about them other than that they were mages who specialized in healing magics, but he did know that magical healing of any kind was incredibly expensive – it was why, when one had healed him, he was worried about the price.

Even as well off as he was now, he wasn’t sure he could afford any real healing from a Lifeweaver – the requirements to become one were even stricter than those of a crafter, something he had personally experienced when he was trying to learn one of the most basic healing spells – one that could stem bleeding.

Genuine restoration of the body was far beyond that in complexity, and he hadn’t managed even the bleeding spell; after struggling with it for such a long time, he’d given up on it. This was on top of having the magical talent required to successfully cast the spells to any effect, not to even mention doing so multiple times.

While he was blown away by the quality of healing they received, he was also amazed by how the cavern must look down there – so filled with magic, formations, and comfort, he figured it must look completely different from the dirty slums he grew up in.

To hear about it was one thing, but what would it be like to see it for himself?

Despite this, it didn’t sound altogether too far away from the luxuries he could obtain himself. He was disgruntled to be reminded once more of the unfairness of the world, and while the entire community was easily able to enjoy that luxury, none of it seemed too far from what he could bring himself through his crafting as he was now.

Personal attention from a lifeweaver was beyond him, but air conditioning? He had his thermostat. Substance-powered appliances and transportation? A vehicle might be beyond him, but he had already upgraded his stove to be run on Substance, as well as a cold box not dissimilar from the ‘freezers’ Theo mentioned.

If he was still the same orphan who had just left the slums after being conned into joining the military – because that’s what it was – he would have held disbelief that anyone who wasn’t some incredible powerhouse could enjoy such luxuries.

Now? They seemed… achievable, and his journey had only just started.