The Western Jottenhiem Mine, which once upon a time had an official name, had recently been nicknamed 'The Vanquished Queen's Mine' after the fight with the giant Cave Spider Queen. After nearly a year in disuse, the place had been ransacked and everything of value, and just about everything else had been dragged out.
The mine, at this point, was little more than a barren hole in the ground. Several large mine-shafts open into a half-circle area that once held the mine cart tracks, sorting machines, and grinding machine. Iron ore and coal used to be brought up in large quantities for smelting and other economic uses.
Now though, the place was surrounded by a tent camp for the volunteer miners and a larger encampment for the convict labor and the patrollers stationed there to both safeguard the mine and keep the prisoners in order.
That had been a problem the first couple of days, until Edwin decided on an appropriate punishment. Hauling duty. Without proper tracks and carts, the absolutely vast amount of rubble that was mined out of the walls of the mine had to be hauled out by hand; usually in a large wicker-basket strapped to a persons back.
It proved to be extremely effective in deterring would-be escapists and other criminal activities; even amongst the regular miners. And given that three full meals a day were provided for what was basically free, even the prisoners have it better than the refugees out of Lotash and the shanty-town portions of Lower Jottenhiem.
So many people showed up for work, in fact, that Edwin had to spend two days dealing with administrative issues before he could even get in to learn the work himself. Not that Deloria seemed to mind. She went in with the earliest shift and didn't come out of the mine until the last people were leaving for the night. Apparently she'd atrophied a bit while caught in her own tunnel almost a year before, but still had the skills and strength to beat any of the other miners in quota by nearly two or three times, at least.
Not only that, but after two days of regular meals and rest, the Iron Pixie was also looking different. When she'd first came out of the tunnels, her skin was pale with only a slight silvery sheen to it and her hair had been long, ragged, and unkempt, if still still shiny like brushed metal wire. Now though her skin was almost a pearlesque silver, casting a soft glow.
Her hair had been cut down to just below her shoulder blades, and brushed in such a way to fit a miners helmet. Every time he sees it, Edwin always things she has a head of very fine copper wire instead of hair.
With her wings, Deloria is almost dangerously cute and exotic at the same time.
When Edwin finally asked Lucien about Deloria's rather weird constitution, Lucien actually laughed and explained that like the other highly magical races, Iron Pixie's have an extremely high affinity with the earth. Its possible to use raw magical power (aka: mana) to keep yourself alive for a time, so long as you consume it slower than you generate it. According to him, Deloria probably could have survived two or three years total.
That was a bit surprising, but easy enough to understand.
On the morning of the third day Edwin finally gets the chance to go to work himself in the mine, and after getting his own helmet and pickaxe, sets out with Deloria, who was in high spirits. She was quite literally flying a couple of inches off the ground.
“I haven't seen this place so busy in decades! With all these people and the miners it feels like life has come back!” Of course, she was back to screaming out her every word; but so long as she wasn't directly screaming at him, Edwin decides to ignore it.
“I'm glad you like the atmosphere, but how's the mine doing actually? Rebuilding the infrastructure is going to be a large undertaking all by itself, and everything we are pulling out of the mine right now is going into that.” Edwin replies, his tone only slightly wry as he makes his way toward the nearest mineshaft with Deloria.
“Eck. Yeah, that's something of a problem! With proper tracks and carts and all the machines, all this manpower could probably have tripled the quota of what we used to pull out of the ground when I ran the mine! But we're barely pulling out a third of that now.”
Deloria's report was rather spot on, and even Edwin cannot help but flinch at it. Simply getting even the most basic of infrastructure into place for the mine is already a major headache. There simply weren't enough smiths, furnaces, or metalworkers available to do the work. Thousands of feet of track by itself is expected to take weeks to produce, much less lay down. The multi-hinged carts are going to take even longer.
Simply getting enough pickaxes, shovels, and helmets and mine-safe light sources was already a big hassle. And the repair rate for what they already have was atrocious. For the most part he'd simply dropped the whole bag of worms on Deloria. At least it was something she had handled before. But starting a business and going big is a totally different ball game from starting what is basically an Imperial Project from the ground up.
It was arguably an even harder endeavor than building the Great Pyramids back on Earth had been.
But there wasn't anything Edwin could do about it right this moment. Instead he decides to devote himself to doing his own work and learning all that he can.
Walking toward the mine entrance, Edwin gets a good view of everything that is going on. Miners coming and going, new tents being set up or old ones being pulled down; there's already several wood-framed buildings being constructed, using stone from the quarry on the other side of the city and from what is being brought out from the mine.
Most of all there's long lines of men carrying heavily laden wicker baskets on their backs, hauling out the rubble in one line and ore or coal on the other. There's only a handful of mules or pack horses carrying even larger loads; all of them heading toward either the waste pit or the small, quickly built ore crusher.
Near the entrance to the mine several simple furnaces had already been set up, and almost all the coal and the ore is being used there. Given the lack of equipment, what's being pulled out of the furnaces is low in quality; but its a lot easier to store in ingots than it is in raw ore form. And it can later be re-smelted into higher quality materials.
Several of the blacksmiths operating the furnaces are also building a number more. Almost the entire output of the mine is being channeled through them now. All told, there are almost three thousand people of all shapes and sizes running around. Most of them are carrying the tools needed for mining and are wearing treated leather hard-hats, almost like the old football helmets from back in his own world. Given the heavy amount of coal in the mine, each miner is also carrying either a glowing crystal or a magic lantern. Although not all of them have access to such.
The expenses are almost mind boggling with all the equipment needed to run the mine safely.
But even Edwin was wearing his own helmet; fitted around his large horn. It actually had a surprisingly good amount of defense when he checked it earlier. He also has a decent pick and shovel in his Void Space, ready to use.
Wearing boots and tight fitted clothing, he looks like a muscular giant next to the flying Iron Pixie. But he isn't the most muscular or even the largest guy around. The day before three half-Rock Giant brothers had shown up, eager to work. They'd come up here from a town even further south than Lotash, having heard about the projects going on.
Deloria had taken a liking to them almost instantly, and put them in control of the noon and afternoon shifts as well as working themselves during the morning. Given their great strength and endurance, they got into it without an issue, and were leaving most of the regular miners in the dust. Only Deloria herself could out-mine them.
“Here we go! I hope you aren't afraid of getting dirty! Hahaha!” Deloria yells at him as they finally pass into the mine with the next group of miners; most of them who are actively staring at Edwin. He simply smiles and walks along with them.
The mine itself is a complex system of shafts, graded holes, tunnels and pits. The air is heavy and filled with dust, and proper light sources are few and far between, mounted on the walls. Part of the mine is obviously set up to get at the back seams of coal; while the other part are after the chunks of iron-bound rock. There are also a scattering of other minerals and metals; but not enough to be anything more than a bonus here.
That's quite alright though. At the moment iron is what is needed the most.
“We're going to start out working with coal. The iron is a lot harder, and isn't a good starting material for learning mining. Tin or copper would have been better.” Inside the mine Deloria takes on a quieter tone, and even to Edwin it seems that she's a lot calmer, less flighty or flustered.
It was an interesting transformation.
Another thing he noted is that her silvery skin also gives off a glow bright enough to be seen in the darkness. As he follows her deeper in, she also seems to get brighter and brighter, as well. She was like a natural light source down here.
Soon enough they'd left the most active part of this mineshaft, and finally stop at what seems to be a dead end in a tunnel that hadn't been finished. The ceiling is almost too low for Edwin to stand straight in, much less heft his pick. His horn actually scrapes the ceiling in places.
“Here, that entire wall is one large vein of coal. The starting principle of mining is having enough space to do the work. Having a circular area around you that you can swing your pickaxe freely in any direction is key. Without that, you might as well hack at the stone with a knife.” Deloria starts explaining, having landed on her feet as the ceiling dropped lower. But she pulls out her own pick and shows Edwin that there's just enough room for her to swing it around without hitting anything.
With him being so much bigger, he couldn't do the same. But at the same time he could reach more material than she could, too. So he pulls out his own pickaxe and backs up to where he can reach the pick over his head.
“Good, now swing it like this.” The woman starts to instruct him, and he follows as precisely as he can; swinging the pickaxe over his head and gouging into the coal-laced rock of the ceiling, shattering it fairly easily with every swing. Because he was so much larger than Deloria, it takes him longer to open up the shaft to his size; but because it was a rich vein, there wasn't much waste rock.
Just like with the farm work, it was hard work physically, and soon enough his shirt was damp and sticking to his bulging muscles as he sweats. The coal dust was also forming running streaks down his red skinned face and neck as well.
But he does what he has to do in order to open up the area large enough for him to work him, and quite a pile of coal is building up at his feet. Unlike the modern practice of using explosives and large scoops to extract large amounts of material at once; this is backbreaking, slow work of the most physical kind.
But it still felt good to him. Physical work was rewarding all on its own.
It isn't until he'd already finished opening up his area and the first loaders had come and shoveled up his mined coal and he'd already started working into the wall where the rich vein was that he got the notification he was waiting for.
**DING**
Mining Skill has been learned!The mining skill increases the speed and the quality of mined resources.
It decreases the time required to mine.
It decreases the strength required to mine.
It decreases the stamina usage for each mining action.
It provides a bonus to the quality of mined resources.
It may expose rare or unique resources that can be mined at higher levels.
Mining sub-skills also enhance the effect of Mining.
You have gained bonus Stats!+ 5 Strength
+5 Constitution
+2 IntelligenceFor learning an Earth-based skill, you have gained more Earth AffinityEarth Affinity +10A new effect of Earth's Blessing has been unlocked!All mining actions require less time and effort. Bonus resources may be acquired during mining.
The Earth has blessed the endeavors of the user, and higher Earth Affinity will increase this bonus.
+30% Mining Speed.
+30% Resource Quantity.
+30% Higher Resource Quality.
-30% Strength and Stamina Required.