The agertraws come to a stop. The doors flung open. This was where Dalokol had separated from his friends. He now had to travel to a different station, with an agertraws that traveled horizontally. The city itself was designed on a grid basis and had a total of 8 floors with every building in the city acting as giant strong pillars holding it all together. Dakolol's destination lied on floor 8; the deepest part of the city and where the mines lay.
He went up the stairs and walked around the busy street of the city. He saw a small rental shop next to it, where dwarves like him came in and out with their elluics, which looked like a smaller version of a Dutch bicycle. They all biked on to the bike lanes, kept separated from pedestrians. The bike lanes were paved with polished granite bricks. Separated by a brick line of polished diorite. He did not need a bike today, as it was only a 15 minute walk.
The buildings that surrounded him and the citizens were made of high quality polished stone bricks reinforced with steel framed to keep them high and mighty. Many do not have glass windows or paint. Instead as a substitute, they used wooden windows with bars, and a thin layer of different colored bricks to give color. There were some buildings painted, but those were more likely to be owned by someone wealthy like a noble, as a way to stand out from the crowd.
He arrived at the other station. He looked at the time table, and saw he had to wait a bit longer for the agertraw to come back up. He went to find a bench, but found the ones for workers of royalty were being occupied by some lazy homeless hobos. His eyes lit up with fumes, as he grabbed the men and threw him across the hall. Nobody dared intervene. The men, in their old torn cloths, fled in fear. Dalokol took out a napkin and wiped off the bench off before sitting on it.
After a few minutes, the agertraws finally arrived. He entered through the middle, and climbed his way up to the 4th compartment, where he will be alone, not that he cared. The mechanical beast started descending down, deeper and deeper. He took out a little black book about the size of the palm of his hand, with yellow text etched on the cover out to read. A way for him to pass time. It detailed of many old poems, teaching traditional dwarven values like respect, discipline and obedience. The book wasn't thick, with only being 200 pages long, put was densely packed, with 1 poem on each page.
The 8th floor was more baron and lifeless than the upper floors. There were lots of small houses dumped over, all made of cheap old wood extracted from the surface. The whole thing was all held together with soulless pillars made of gray stone bricks with reinforced steel, with a few cracks, held together the entire city up and about. The place wasn't fit with the mirror mechanism, so their only light source was the kerosene lamps.
He traversed across the smelly floor, to come up to a red building with glass windows. He entered, and found the place to be well lit. There was a receptionist on the front desk. Dalokol walked up to him and gave him his identification card, made of a coffee brown paper, held together by wood thick as toothpicks. It had a little drawing of him, though it is a decade younger.
"Ah, Sir Delokol. Welcome. Please sit down and wait until Lord Emkum. I will call for him." Dalokol took back his card, while the assistant went towards the door guarded by the soldiers with steamersteffs; a musket, but instead of using black powder and a flintlock, they used pressurized steam to fire a pointy projectile at a ludicrous speed. Though they can only fire 1 at a time, it was powerful enough to tear through thick anything: potential invaders, the demons that lurked in the shadows, or the worst of all, disrespectful and rebelling workers.
The guards knocked the door, then the door was opened. The assistant enters the room, and comes out with a man following, holding stacks of coffee brown papers. He more a purple cloak covering the dozens of golden rings and necklaces he wore. On his left eye was a monocle, with it's frame made of silver, with a thin gold plating to match with the rest of his outfit. Dakolol stood up, and greeted the man.
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"Sir Dalokol. It is a pleasure to meet you. I assume this is for the new line right?"
"It is a pleasure to meet you too Lord Emkum, and yes, it is."
"Well then, please follow me."
Dakolol complied. They both walked towards a doo, made of metal bars that looked like it fit in a jail cell. He opened it with his strangely shaped key made of steel, and went further into the mine. It was a bit of a long walk, but they came up to the beginning of the real mine covered in darkness.
"We will be taking the agerbelle." Emkum said, pointing to the large automobile. It looked closed to an old Volkswagen van, painted in a mettalic black color, with tires made out of rubber and metal. The large exhaust, instead of hanging out at the back, was on the top left of the vehicle, which was powered by a steam engine. In terms of lighting, Emkum had to manually light up the Kerosene headlights and backlights.
After the lead lamps shredded the darkness, Emkum opened the left door, and hopped on to the drivers seat. From the inside, he unlocked the right door and pointed at the door to Dakolol. Dakolol, who never actually rode in a vehicle before, hopped on. After turning the key, the steam engine and the auto boilers started firing up, and they were moving in a few minutes.
"How is the family Sir Dalokol?"
"They are doing well." he said with a smile.
"Good.. Good... I heard your son had an interest in herbals? Wanted to serve the dirty commoners. Did you manage to..."
"Well, I am working on it."
"You should, would not love to fall out favor out of the royal family now?"
"..."
"Alright then, now to business..." he gives Dakolol the papers.
"Now, the line dives deep into the Salovine mines, where all the goods are. I want this line so that they can efficiently deliver mined mana crystals back, where it would be carried off to be sold to my... customers."
"Well Sir Emkum. It would mean that this mine would have to... generate enough revenue for the palace... to maintain such things. Does the mine have anything of value to be considered useful? Are there any mana crystals?" he asked while full-well the answer. All with a smile.
"Why yes. There are said to be a few violet mana crystals, along with blues and greens. There is even a nice small purple mana ores coming up over this turn." He points his finger.
"Well, there is... already a surplus of green mana crystals. There certainly isn't a need for more cheap commoner gems. Just will flood the market. How many uh.. blues are there?"
"Well, the portion is a significant amount. About 8 to 12% more than any other mines. The purple mines are already rare as it is. I would have to drive deeper in the agerbelle though, which is not recommended."
"Are there any other safety concerns. Has it been checked?"
"Yes, the palace brought in an inspector. It was all perfectly fine."
"I see. Which institution did your lordship have used? I hope for a reliable and credible source."
"The source I used, came directly picked from the royal highness himself. Besides Sir Dakolol would only have to worry what is and what isn't part of his job, am I not correct in that assessment?"
"It is always good to double check." He starts skimming through the papers given to him, completely filled with data that would make anyone's head spin. He continued to stare at it for a hot minute, before taking his eyes off it, once more.
"I will... uh... see what I can do. Can I have the paperwork please?"
"I do not think I am in a position to do that."
"Please my lord, it is important to inform his majesty..."
"I have already sent a letter with all the information inside just today. I don't think Sir Dalokol would have to worry much."
"Very well then. Could you please turn around? I will be on my way." he said with a smile. As soon as he got out of the mines, the plastic façade he held dropped. Dalokol's walking speed started to pick up. When he got out of the building, he started to jog, then he started to run; run as fast he could possibly go. He checked his pocket watch. If he could make it in time, he would be able to do something about the report.