"It's so cold..." Haliton shivered.

He had taken the first step out of the nest and into the caverns.

Was it really that cold? I couldn't feel it. But then again, I didn't have any heat sensors.

He was wearing a really furry coat too, like the other dwarf that followed.

Whoa... that's huge?

I looked outside and was shocked by how massive the cavern was. It stretched so high that you could probably build apartment buildings here! How was it not just collapsed down?

There were some slime-covered blue crystals on the ceiling which glowed, lighting up the place dimly, showing all kinds of weird... tube things growing all over the ground? With how tightly packed they were and how they swayed in the wind, it was almost like an uglier version of tall grass. There were also many paths and streetlight things that helped to light up the place more as ants scurried around.

Weird... wait, is that slime one of those 'slime' things that chased me when I had the crystal tablet gave me? As I looked closer I realised, it was definitely moving. These stupid pests... do they eat mana crystals or something? How big are they if I can see them from here?

I really hope they don't fall down from the ceiling onto me...

Just as I was trying to take it in, I felt someone press buttons in me.

"Dammit! Why is your heater so slow?" Hali shivered as he set my air conditioner as high as possible.

Tsk... be more grateful!

An ant with a device mounted on it crawled to me.

"Just follow the road over there and you should reach the city," it said, heading back into the nest right after.

----------------------------------------

The road led to a rather large tunnel in one of the walls in the cavern which led to a huge set of gates around 10 metres high. Why did they even have to tunnel into a wall to make their city if there was so much space outside?

There was no one to man it either.

Regardless, I drove as close as possible to it.

"Hello! Is anyone there?" Radio shouted.

Suddenly, light came from the door, a human face had appeared on it. It was almost like how an image would appear on a monitor.

"Hello there! I am the Overseer!" it said. "Is Iyash your prefered language?"

Stolen novel; please report.

I realised that despite a voice coming out, the face remained static. It was fairly weird, to be honest.

"Uh... yes?"

Oh yeah, the language was called Iyash.

"I see. Do keep in mind that most of the dwarves here do not speak that. You might want to purchase a translator." it said. "That said, may I have your ticket?"

Wait, what? What ticket?

"Ticket?"

"Huh? What else? The one you used for the elevator service! Please don't tell me you threw it away after coming here. This isn't the first time something like this has happened..."

Panicking, I turned to Hali, who only now, I realised was asleep. Uell was asleep too. It had to be in the bags, right? I quickly scanned through the luggage... Aha! A blue card with the word ticket on it! 

I unzipped the bag and floated the card out and into a slot on the gate.

"Hmm. So you're the unidentified machine they found on the surface. They've sent a message down, but I have not actually received any reports of any vehicle like you going missing."

"So... we are fine?"

Please be.

"I'll send a lost notice around, but you shouldn't be from around here. I'm fairly sure someone losing something like you would be making quite a fuss."

"Wait... if they sent a message down, why didn't you send one back saying we weren't from here?"

Yeah, what the hell?

Suddenly, a body appeared under the face, in a shrugging position. It disappeared moments later.

"I couldn't be bothered. Besides, messages take a while to go up anyway."

"How long?"

"Weeks. Or even a month or two if things go wrong."

"What? But it took us less than an hour to get here!"

"You think it's possible to just build an elevator that goes all the way up? It won't be as easy going up, naturally."

...

I guess we should be pretty deep down considering the falling speed and how long it took.

"Anyway, you need to register since you're an unknown golem vehicle. Please allow me to access your core."

What? I don't even have a core. Wait, are they going to realise I am some sort of 'advanced tech' or something and try to take me apart?

"Wh-who are you anyway? You're just a gatekeeper!" Radio squeaked.

I mean... that's probably his job to, so...

A laugh came from the machine.

"A gatekeeper! I've never been called that before. Well, I suppose in this very instance, I am. You don't know anything about this place, huh?"

"Haliton?" Radio whispered.

"Huh... why did you wake me up..." he mumbled groggily.

Good idea! He probably knows what's up.

As he took the situation in, he suddenly shook awake.

"AH! Is that... is that the Overseer?"

"Uh, yes? I guess he called himself that."

"Whoa! Ueller, wake up!"

He grabbed his friend and started shaking him.

"Urgh..." the gardener groaned.

I heard a sigh from the Overseer.

"Do all of you surface dwarves have to act like that? Just... move on in. I'll register your core later."

Oh, thank goodness. 

The gates opened, the face disappearing.

"What's the Overseer?" Radio whispered.

"Aww... you missed it, Ueller." 

"I don't care that much," Uell grumbled, lying back down on Minnie's lap to sleep.

"Wait, so are you not from here? How do you not know of the Overseer? Did your owner hide so much from you?"

"No... I'm not from here."

"What! Who made you then?"

"I uh, don't know?"

That's technically true, actually. I have no idea what factory made me.

Hali sighed.

"Maybe you got memory wiped while escaping?"

"Don't say something so ominous..."

"Anyway, the Overseer is very famous! It's basically this super intelligent collection of golem cores that runs most of the stuff in the cities down here!"

Huh, that sounds kind of sci-fi, actually. I didn't really think I'd hear of anything like that in this world.

Wait, so a sci-fi artificial intelligence overseer thing got scared off by some random person 'fangirling'?