I spent what was left of yesterday, and half of today deep within the underground passages. From the tunnel that was connected into our Territory, I followed it deeper into another that is much larger in size; generally between 8 - 15 meters in diameter. There is no rhyme or reason to these tunnels, they branch out randomly in all directions but never connect to each other and always end in a narrow pointy dead end. Kinda reminds me of plant roots, if the roots are humongous and grows horizontal-sideways. Along the way, I have had to combat two waves of Quagxytes.
To my Mana sense, the Mark on my arm still glows with power, proving the Spell is active and I am still within its range of 1000 kilometers. There are infinite amounts of corridor and ignoring them does not sit right with me—yes, I am the type of gamer who would meticulously explore the game map—so with irritated patience, I entered every single tunnel! Micro Flight. Empty, empty, there had been hundreds of rewardless-ly empty tunnels that span for hundreds of meters before one; not a tunnel I had explored as it is slightly ahead and with a sharp up-forwards incline, feels different to my Mana Sense. The walls within its depths have concentrated spots of mana, does not take a genius to guess what those are. Currently not in all that much of a hurry, I proceed to explore every tunnel before that specific one, finally managing to confirm that the spots of mana are indeed Mana Cores.
The few I can see contain no more than 100 mana and while Mana Sense tells me a few spots that may be found deeper within feel larger, the difference is not all that significant. I decided against mining any; but was reminded about making more of mine own, which I had forgotten due to that stupid duel... Vaulting a newly made Core-150 and leaving about 8500 mana for emergencies—while always making more when my whole pool regenerated every 11-ish minutes. I continue with the exploration; now only entering the longer side tunnels that goes beyond the range of my Mana Sense.
The date display on my VICOS indicates a new day has come, now does not feel like a good time to fabricate a large Mana Core. I've been in here for 2 days now and had encountered another group of Quagxytes. Conclusion; these caves are boring! Nothing but dead ends and minor deposits of Mana Cores that I purposely left untouched for the other miners after me to find… Returning onto the main passage after checking another extra long side tunnel, I hear faint sounds of combat from further ahead. Still unhurried, I casually continue forth towards the conflict.
By the time I got closer, it was becoming easier to identify two distinct sounds that reminded me of something familiar; the easiest to identify are loud rough yells in dwarvish, I'll bet anyone they're creatively cursing their enemies… Curse as in swear words. While the second distinct sound being dull rapid thumps of something heavy impacting the ground—more akin to the sound of heavy footsteps. So Dwarves versus something heavy? Still a possibility that they're fighting Quagxytes…
To go or not to go?
Curiosity won out and I decided to go closer, at least till I get visuals through Mana Sense; Dwarves and Elves, versus a strong golem! A Gnomelem Commander? I recognize Minedora and 2 of her team together with Erssoan the elven trainee ranger engaging the thing. Three crossbows and a bow shooting at a moving stone creature, is not very effective!
As I get closer, I notice two of the Dwarves are injured along with a similar number of elves, also injured. Blink…
"Hello, it's not often I see Dwarves and Elves adventuring together." I say while stepping out of Blink's spatial tunnel right between their injured and the enemy. I had noticed a high amount of rocks strewn about, which turned out to be the destroyed remains of several Gnomelems. "Need some help?"
But of course they could not understand me, I am also sure Dora does not have the time to chat and make use of our VICOS to translate… Will go out and buy some kinda translation Skill or Spell by the end of today and I'll allow nothing to get in my way! Dora and Ers—still shooting at the Commander—briefly conversed in Dwarven before the Elf glanced at me and said, in english mind you! "No help fight. Heal please."
… "Hello, heal please." He repeats about two seconds later, as I had been struck dumb by the language savvy elf; he knows at least elvish, dwarvish and english. I point a finger at the injured in turn, casting Lesser Heal on each person. Then I repeat the gesture to heal the people still in combat. Soon the newly healed party members rejoined the combat and I was left to wait.
Slain Quagxyte lv 1 x 1,325
1,325 syscred and 183 exp awarded
3 groups and that was all the rewards they provided, such lame enemies… I triggered my updates during the wait—eventually the mixed racial team managed to slowly chip the Commander's left thigh, causing it to break under pressure. From then, they switched to chip at its neck and finally won the encounter. Ers and Dora soon approached me, the elf opening his mouth to say, "Dwarf and Elf fight together often. Where you see not often?"
Don't they usually dislike each other? "Nevermind that, what are you guys doing here? How are you speaking english?"
"I purchase Linguatized, it make new language easier learned." Ers explained in broken English, and I feel now is not the right time and place to correct him. "And we here for mining, also exploring!"
Dora said something to him, prompting a return question. This one in proper English, did he just learn it from me? "What are you doing here?"
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Just exploring around, what is this place anyways?" I replied. They too, have no idea, besides the fact that these tunnels are suspiciously organic in the way it heals any broken walls; like a healing spell is cast on a flesh wound, or a creature with enhanced regeneration. Unlike us, the Dwarves had been exploring these tunnels for months now, and they were not against telling me a few things; first of all, there is an even larger almost vertical tunnel slightly up ahead" a 5-way intersection. Which, besides leading deeper in, also branches out-off to the sides into four medium sized tunnels that slopes upwards. Among these 4, one leads to the Dwarven Fortress, another to the Gnomelems.
Conflict between the two forces mainly happens within this larger five-ways intersection tunnel—most often any encounters between Dwarves and Gnomelems result in a shootout, as not many are capable of fighting in midair or of infiltrating into the enemy's territories while thoroughly exposed. This is probably why they are marksmen. Lastly, while the Gnomelems are programmed to harvest as much stone and Mana Cores as possible. The Dwarves, lately joined by the Elves, aim to explore the area as well as discover large deposits of Mana Cores.
Today, from me, they have just figured out that besides the two medium side tunnels that lead towards the Gnomelems and the Dwarven Fort, another leads to Quadpeak; the Humans settlement. Doesn't take a genius to know that the last tunnel leads to the Elven camp, as everyone of us knows perfectly well that the island itself is divided into four identical-smaller islands by a cross-shaped river.
If someone asks me if that vertical tunnel piques my interest and I said no, I'd be lying. I cannot help but have Erssoan ask Dora, "so you've never gone down the larger tunnel?"
Not her personally, but several different teams of Dwarves had, reports are there is nothing but mere tunnels for the next hundred kilometers. And after getting that far; due to a combination of boredom, lack of supplies and zero worthwhile results, they decided to return home. So now the Dwarves are more focused in exploring the surroundings in greater detail and mining for Mana Core; the latter object seemingly inexhaustible within these caves as more may always be found.
I said goodbye and ventured forth, no longer checking out every nook and cranny now that I've been informed about there being nothing but stone and Mana Cores for kilometers to come. In the blink of an eye, I find myself before the aforementioned pit. Well, no time like right now! I cast Meteran and took a leap of faith—and prepared Micro Flight—at the same time. This time, the distance measuring spell is locked on to me, it would therefore keep note of the distance I have traveled regardless of direction.
After about 30 minutes of partial free fall—I had to kick off a few walls—the indicator on Meteran states that approximately 80 km has been traversed. A horde of Quagxyte had made themselves present about 12 minutes ago, but I ignored them and continued falling and they didn't seem to chase me. After Vaulting the 97th Core-150 counting as of yesterday noon. I break my current free fall by releasing Micro Flight; my Mark of Returning is still active and. Well, besides witnessing the infinite amounts of branching tunnels, I don't exactly have any reason to stop… thus, the flight Spell is dismissed and my free fall continues.
I was pulled out of my daydreaming when, after another 100 kilometers drop—give or take an extra 40 minutes or so of free falling—the tunnel started curving more randomly. Even more intriguing is the moment my Mana Sense detects a different concentration of mana slightly ahead and approximately 350 meters into the walls. It feels like a smoother variant of stone, like the difference between rock and granite.
Needless to say, the idea of digging through solid packed earth that always regenerates all removed mass is daunting. Thankfully, the faintly glowing Mark on my forehand helps to ease the fear; my current location is far from reaching its limit of more than 1000 kilometers. Besides, I can always Shape Stone my way through any enclosed grounds! … ah, I can feel a slight pressure within my subconscious mind eased up, an old human part of me that was claustrophobic of collapsed caves and being buried under tons of loose earth is no more. Micro Flight.
I approach the wall and begin creating a tunnel with Shape Stone, maintaining a 5 meters long and 2 meters wide mana infused tunnel wall around me while moving forward towards the anomaly. Simply releasing control past the point 2.5 meters behind me allows the tunnel to close up naturally. Within a few minutes, a lighter colored piece of stone is revealed. It glints like smoothened metal, the object itself does not register as pure stone to my Shape Stone Spell and refuses to be Shaped by use of said Spell. Bend Metal provides the exact same result; nothing.
So what is this? 'Inspect, thank you.'
** DING **
Torterrene Tailbone
Oh, everything that is holy! It cannot be…
'Inspect!' This time, I target the walls.
** DING **
Rock
I spent another 5 hours circling the Tailbone and determined that it is roughly 100 kilometers wide, though it has an irregular shape which means it is not that exact measurement all around. I also made sure to Inspect stuff every once in a while; the smoother rock is always a Torterrene Tailbone and the walls are always Rock. Either way, finding a tailbone means I'm currently within a creature's tail, and I cannot begin to imagine how large its whole body is. That knowledge alone is enough reason for me to return for a report. Oh my gosh I am excited!
Taking a few breath to calm myself, I decided against being hasty and spent a few more hours trying to find the next bone in line… I managed to find it. After a slight gap—slight being relative to its size—I found another larger Tailbone. I cannot get a good mental image of its shape due to how large it is, but I believe that when Inspect tells me its a Tailbone, the information is trustworthy enough. Vaulting the 135th Core-150. I trigger my Mark of Returning while randomly thinking; gotta remember to fabricate a large Mana Core tomorrow morning!
Wednesday, 18 May 2044. 3.18 pm. I Blink into Henry's still occupied office, "hi!"
"Back so soon?" He asks me with a glance, very focused on his paperwork.
"Call the others, you'll never believe what I found down there!" Of course, busy as he is. I ended up being the one to text the important peoples and informing them to come over. For now, just us humans.