Vol. 8 - Intrigue - Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Thomas looked over the quest notice and nodded to himself. At least this time the experience reward was worthwhile. He needed so much experience to increase his attributes now that small amounts didn't even phase him anymore. He knew his rush earlier and showing off his materials and skills before Fokgrag could even issue the quests had robbed him of a bit of experience but he didn't care. He wanted this over and done with since he only had a few more days before Fokgrag needed to be in court for his accident. He didn't know dwarven law or what Fokgrag's punishment would be. It was possible that he only had these few days to get the plans for the U.L.T.R.A. and no more.

The party of three walked to the outskirts of the city where things became a lot less pristine and the craggy interior of the mountain could be seen. Even out this far the strange lights that the dwarves used provided light to see by. Thomas glanced at one before asking Fokgrag, "How do the lights in this city work?"

Fokgrag just shrugged his shoulders, "It's not too complicated. Ya just mix up a certain alchemical recipe, drop in a fully charged mana crystal and ya get light. The mana in the mana crystal is slowly leeched out by the alchemical mixture which causes a reaction that produces light and a small amount of heat. They last about a month before needin' ta be refilled."

Thomas nodded in understanding. The lights were basically like chemical glowsticks only they lasted far longer and produced more light. He liked them, but he had a different idea in mind for his lighting needs in the future. He stopped paying attention to the lights and continued to follow after Fokgrag with Snowlily at his side. Eventually, they came to an area with a massive camping hole that led deeper into the interior of the mountain range that the dwarves occupied. The entrance to the mine was at least ten stories high and nearly as wide. It was impressive, to say the least.

As they approached, Fokgrag led them to the left side of the mine where a small stone hut stood with a rather bored-looking male dwarf sitting inside of it. As they approached, the dwarf looked up and immediately frowned when he saw Fokgrag, "Fokgrag, ya bastard! I thought ya were locked up fer good this time!"

Fokgrag smirked, "Fanar, ya young shit, ya should know I ain't one ta stay locked up!"

As Fokgrag got closer, Fanar hopped to his feet and glared at Fokgrag, "I dunno what the council is thinkin' lettin' ya out so soon! Ya got a wrap sheet longer'n yur beard!"

As Fokgrag got right in front of Fanar's face they glared eye-to-eye through the wide opening in the front of the hut, which seemed to serve as a counter. Thomas watched the scene while Snowlily seemed a bit uncomfortable. Suddenly, the two dwarves threw their arms open and wrapped each other in a manly hug while smacking each other on the back, hard. Once they separated Fokgrag laughed, "Fanar, what'd ya do ta get the 'pleasure' of workin' the mine entrance?"

Fanar just shrugged his shoulders, "I was between projects and wanted a nice relaxin' job that I could sit around and drink at! What're ya doin' here?"

Fokgrag thumbed over his shoulder at Thomas, "The kid needs ta go into the mine and dig up somethin'."

Fanar finally took a look at Thomas and raised an eyebrow with a questioning look on his face, "A human? Been... what? Fifty years or so since one of yur kind came here. Ya ever work in a mine, kid?"

Thomas nodded. He'd mined back on the pirate's island and in previous games. He knew the standards he needed to maintain. Things like making sure the area he was digging in was supported, making sure the air wasn't stagnant, and watching out for things like pockets or empty space, deadly gasses, or worse. He gestured toward the mine, "Not my first rodeo."

Fanar looked confused and asked Fokgrag, "The hell is a rodeo?"

Fokgrag shrugged his shoulders, "Probably some stupid human activity."

Thomas chuckled, Fokgrag wasn't entirely wrong. Fanar nodded in agreement with Fokgrag while stroking his beard like some wise sage. Was that attitude something inherent to all dwarves? Fanar finished his posturing and looked at Thomas, "If ya wanna head into the mine ya gotta pay an entry fee of two-hundred and fifty gold."

Thomas nodded and started pulling the money out of his inventory. Honestly, that much money was a pittance compared to what Mithril sold for. Still, that required actually fining raw ores and gems and extracting them. Depending on an individual's luck, they might get nothing for their money. Of course, that didn't apply to him. Between his eyes and ore detection ability, it shouldn't be too hard for him to find enough material to make his trip into the mine worthwhile.

Once all the money was turned over to Fanar, he pulled out a wooden plaque with a dwarven rune on it that Thomas actually couldn't read. He held the plaque out toward Thomas, "This is yur pass. It's good fer today only. When ya leave ya need ta return it ta me, or whoever is workin' here then."

Thomas accepted the plaque and stuck it inside of his inventory. He planned to only be in the mine long enough to find at least one Mercury Emerald, then get the hell out and return to Fokgrag's place. With the pass secured he turned to look at Fokgrag, "Don't get into any trouble while I'm not around or you're going to be stuck in jail until your trial. I can't afford to bail you out again."

Fokgrag looked offended, "Don't ya be talkin' ta me like that kid!"

Thomas just grinned back at Fokgrag before heading into the mine with Snowlily curiously following along next to him. As they approached the massive entrance of the mine, they could see the chemical lamps lining the interior and providing light, at least near the ground level. Looking up the light only went so far before fading making it impossible to see the top of the mine. He looked back down and nodded to himself. The use of the chemical lamps within the mine was an excellent way to prevent explosions on the off chance that a miner cracked open a pocket of flammable gas or something similar.

As they walked, Thomas started talking to Snowlily, "While we're in the mine I want you to remain close to me. Mines can be very dangerous and it's possible to instantly die in an accident."

Snowlily looked up at Thomas in concern, "It's not safe?"

Thomas shrugged his shoulders, "It's safe enough if you follow the rules and are careful. But nothing is ever one-hundred percent safe. We'll be fine as long as we're careful and pay attention. That's what I want you to help me with." Seeing the eager look on Snowlily's adorable little face made Thomas smile as he continued, "Your job is to keep your nose and ears working. If the air smells funny or you hear odd sounds, let me know right away. Weird smells could be gas that could poison us or burn us. Odd sounds could be running water or something else moving through the ground. There could even be monsters or something similar. So anytime you hear or smell something, let me know right away, okay?"

Snowlily nodded her head eagerly, "I will!"

Thomas grinned and walked further into the mine. The main branch they were walking through was massive in both height and width. Every now and then they could see perfectly squared passageways leading off to either side and going into the mountain. There was no comparing a dwarven mine to a human mine. While a mineshaft or tunnel currently being dug would be a bit of a mess, dwarves always seemed to come back and straighten everything out afterward to make it look nice and neat. A racial OCD perhaps? Thomas couldn't help letting out a chuckle when thinking of the entire dwarven race as a bunch of drunken OCD sages.

The pair walked for nearly half an hour and still, Thomas couldn't see the end of the path they were walking down. During that time he'd constantly been using his Ore Detection skill in order to sniff out any ore that might have been missed. He'd found nothing so far, as could be expected of Dwarves, they'd cleaned the place out so far. After getting bored of it taking so long, Thomas scooped up Snowlily in his arms and took off at a much faster pace. He moved at half of his maximum speed to allow his stamina to last longer while simultaneously activating his 'All Seeing Eyes'. With them active, he could see much better in the dim light as well as seeing the mana particles floating in the air.

The air was filled with brown earth mana particles, though not enough to hinder his sight. With brown being the dominant color, finding other colors wouldn't be too hard. He continued to run for a few minutes before Snowlily pat him on the chest, "I smell dwarves, lots of them."

Thomas nodded, "That must mean we're closer to the more active mining areas. Let me know when you spot a tunnel without any dwarves in it. I don't want to have to argue or fight over whatever we find."

Snowlily nodded and kept sniffing at the air. It wasn't until a few minutes later that she tapped his chest again before pointing at one of the entrances to his left, "That one is empty."

Thomas quickly slowed down as he got close to the tunnel Snowlily had pointed out. When he arrived at the entrance he could see that the smooth well-squared style of the entrance only went for a few meters before turning into a roughly dug out mine tunnel. As he examined the rough-hewn rock, he could see specs of silver glittering on the walls as well as matching silver mana particles. It looked like this tunnel was pretty rich.

Thomas hadn't bought or brought a mining pickaxe but he'd never needed one before. He simply held his right hand out and conjured up a pickaxe made of solid Mithril to use. The higher the skill grew in level and the more he understood a metal, the easier it became for him to summon and use with his magic. With his Metal Magic over rank one-hundred, summoning Mithril didn't present any problems. He looked through the tunnel to find the spot with the most densely concentrated specs of metal mana and started digging.

The sharp tip of the Mithril pickaxe easily pierced through the rock while his profound strength just as easily broke the stone apart. He needed to find a Mercury Emerald. His only clue was the mana signature he'd managed to see when Fokgrag showed the gem to him. Unfortunately, earth and metal mana were abundant within the mine making it impossible to tell if they were together in one item or separate entities. His only option was to dig and hope that his Ore Detection could give him some clues. Right now his Ore Detection was telling him about four separate nodes within range.

He quickly and efficiently mined out the entire node from the wall leaving it as pieces of raw ore on the ground. This was one of the game aspects he was most thankful for. If this was more like real-life mining it would be a complete pain in the ass. Just to get a bit of iron, big mining companies would strip mine and area and extract every tiny scrap of iron they could find out of every single rock. At least in the game, he only needed to smack a node a few times and be done with it.

He turned to look at Snowlily, "I'm going to show you how to tell the difference between rocks and pieces of ore. It's really not all that difficult but you can help me by sorting them out while I mine so they're easier to collect." After seeing Snowlily nod her head excitedly, Thomas smiled and explained, "Rocks are just that, rocks." He picked one up and let her examine it before tossing it away, "Ore, on the other hand, is a mixture of ore and rock. You need to look for the specs of the ore inside of the rock."

As he explained to her, he pointed to spots on the rock where bits of metal ore could be seen. After explaining, he handed the piece of ore to her so she could get a better look at it while he stored the other pieces of ore inside of his inventory. Once she felt like she had a good enough understanding of what to look for, Snowlily passed the ore back to Thomas so he could store it away. He summoned a new pickaxe and walked over to the next node, "Alright. While I mine, you sort out the ore and the stone."

Seeing Snowlily smile brightly, he lifted the pickaxe and got to work on the next node. It was going to take a bit of time to mine them all out while looking for the stupid gem he needed.