The elevator was unlike anything that Cain had ever seen; a circular structure made of copper that was full of drawings on a silver relief, Cain recognized some of them as the Winterdome mountain and its surroundings.
To enter the elevator, they opened a small door of pure gold. The interior was simple, it had a lot of internal space, but there was only a copper structure with no detail unlike the outside. Cain looked at the ceiling and noticed the same liquid that he had seen before illuminating the room.
Kuhul called the boy's attention to four silver levers that were aligned vertically and explained that each led to one of the floors of the city, each floor had 1 square km, he explained to the kid. Unfortunately, they had not yet completed the studies of the second and third floor, then Cain and Heirloc could visit only the first.
The man of the Merk Clan pulled the second lever from the top down, instantly Cain heard a pop and the elevator began to descend. The boy was struck, how did that work? The entire room was moving vertically.
"Kuhul, what is this liquid? How it illuminates all the underground?" Cain asked looking at the liquid as if trying to get a clue by himself.
"This is an alchemical solution that generates light, we researchers call it liquid stars, we are still doing some tests, but we believe it is done with some mushrooms we found in this cave, water and silver powder. You will learn about it if you choose the alchemical specialization when you reach 15 years of age" answered the man.
When a person reached 15 years of age he or she was already considered an adult, what that meant for the College students who were already on the over 15 years category was that they could choose one or more specializations. The specializations they could choose were: the alchemical specialization, whose teacher was the Master of Healing, where they would learn more about advanced solutions, how to make bombs, poison, acid and more potent healing potions; the military specialization, whose teacher was the Master of strategy, where they would learn more about tactics and vision on the battlefield; the battle specialization, whose teacher was the Master of Weapons, where the students training routine would be intensified to maximize their potentials; the researcher specialization, whose teacher was the Master Geographer, who helped the students to start their research and increase their historical knowledge; and the hunter specialization, whose teacher was the Master of Special Combat, where the students learned to fight against animals, beasts and demons.
"Got it, and the elevator, how it moves?" The boy continued with his inquire.
"Your curiosity has not changed at all, always full of questions" the man then grinned. "It works through something called magnetism, you see, in the floor of the elevator and on the ceiling, there is a metal in its liquid form that is repelled by other metal that is in the ceiling and in the end of the tunnel where the structure moves. When I pull this lever, it reorganizes the liquid level in the ceiling and the elevator's floor, which makes the forces pushing up and down different and so we float to another floor. Did you understand?" The man asked expecting he would need to explain it again.
"I think so. I'm going to study about magnetism when we get to the College just to be sure." The boy answered still deep in his thoughts.
Heirloc and Kuhul looked at each other and started laughing, the boy was unbelievable. The elevator stopped, and the white-skinned man opened the door.
"Welcome to the city of Gorluk!" Kuhul exclaimed. Cain came through the door and then he saw the city, it was amazing, small houses in a cylindrical shape and a spire shaped roof featured side by side, they were all made of the same white metal that the boy had seen at the gate in the cave entrance. The ceiling of the floor was lit by liquid stars, and the ground between the houses was made of bronze, some of the houses even floated above the ground.
Walking through the city streets he could see all the houses would be structurally identical if it wasn't for their doors, there were gold doors, white gold doors, emerald doors, ruby doors, silver doors and so on. The one that stood out the most to the boy was a door that was between two of the houses, it seemed to not lead to anywhere, there was nothing behind the door, it was just a gold frame with a strange substance inside, which changed gradually with time, Cain then approached the strange material and tried to touch it, to his amazement when he reached out his hand went through. The boy cried out in shock, as he pulled back his hand, Heirloc and Kuhul who were a little distant came running in his assistance.
"What was that about Cain?" asked Heirloc with a worried look on his face.
"My hand went through that door, I was trying to touch that substance and my hand just went through" the boy responded hesitantly thinking that they would not believe him.
"Be more careful with the unknown Cain, being curious is good, but always take precautions before making contact with something you do not know. This stuff here is the only mystery that remains on this level, it is impossible to take a sample of it to study, it is impossible to see through it, but to cross it you must simply walk into it. It is made of something that is still unknown to us, we call it Etherion. The Etherion acts as a portal between dimensions, if you cross it you will find yourself inside a house like any other we found in this floor" explained Kuhul. "C'mon boy, try to go to the other side"
Cain carefully stretched his hand and stuck it in the door in front of him, the Etherion had a gelatinous aspect that held a little of Cain's movement, but not enough to not let him through. Seeing that his hand went through without much difficulty the boy began to push the rest of the arm, followed by the rest of his body. Across the door Cain found himself inside a house, it remembered a human home. The small room the boy was in looked like a living room, it had two chairs and a small table all made of granite. He continued his explorations through the house and found only two rooms, a kitchen that had two metal furnaces, which appeared to not need wood to work, and a small room with two tiny beds of granite that Cain thought to be made for children.
Then he came back and went through the door again on the other side were Heirloc and Kuhul in a cheerful conversation. The two noted the presence of the boy and the Master Initiator turned to him.
"So? Tell me what you think about what you saw there" the man of the Finit Clan said.
"I do not know what to think, while it resembles human houses, it was very little on the inside. What I think is the living room had only one table and two chairs, in the kitchen there was only two furnaces, I do not know how they work since they do not have any space to put the wood, and the bedroom has two beds for children" the confusion was clear in the boy's eyes.
"Oh, so you have not learned about the culture and physiognomy of Elders? I think you should see it in classes for 12 to 14 years of age. The Elders did not have many possessions, they worshiped the mind and did not care about material goods, so that their houses have almost nothing in there, the furnaces you saw work alone, they do not use anything as a fuel, it is an unbelievable technology we are having small success trying to reproduce it. And the beds are not made for children; the Elders usually were only a meter tall" Kuhul said.
The day followed, and the boy walked across the floor, Kuhul told him that this floor was the residential floor, below them was the arsenal and the last one the research center of the Elders. The buildings he saw were fantastic, the houses that floated in the air had stairs made of floating platforms that led to their doors, all made of the same white metal.
"What is this stuff? Since the entrance almost all I see is made of it, which metal is this?" Cain finally asked the question.
"We call it Mithril, it is extracted on the third floor, in the research center there are large amounts of it" Kuhul said.
The boy continued his explorations through the city, they walked a little by the bronze streets until they reached a square that was at the center of the city, it had a large water fountain made of silver, the struggle between winged creatures of frightening appearance and some beings that resembled the humans, but in miniature format, was carved in it. Kuhul drank some water and advised Heirloc and Cain to do the same, it had been a long walk.
Heirloc then turned to the boy and said it was time to go, it would be dangerous to wait for the night to return to the College. The boy asked him how he knew the time being inside that cave and he pointed to one of the houses. Cain noticed the gate it was filled with small stones and in it there was a glass circle within the circle a metal pointer moved over time as a sundial. The time it assigned was 4 pm.
On the way back Heirloc went ahead and Kuhul stayed back to ask Cain about how where the things at the College, and Cain told him about everything, when the boy mentioned Gunthar the man seemed not to be impressed.
"You know, I'm sure this boy is amazing, but there is no way he would match up to your dad. He was already a genius back when we were students and soon after we left the College he became one of the Kings of Battle of the kingdom" Said Kuhul as if looking at the past.
The Kings of Battle was a group made out of the eight most fearsome warriors of the kingdom, there was not a tournament to elect them, but a person would receive one of the titles if he won against one of the Kings and claimed their spot at the ranking or if there was a vacancy and the person fulfilled some special condition. Cain seemed amazed at this information and looked at Heirloc with proud eyes.
"I would expect nothing less from him" the boy said.
They went back to the elevator and went up to the entrance, after saying their goodbyes to Kuhul they left back to the College. During their travel Cain turned to Heirloc.
"You have known Kuhul for a long time, right?" Asked the boy while looking at the road ahead of them. "How have you guys become friends?"
"I think it was only natural, he was always the smartest student in our class, he was exceptional in all matters except in battle. I've always been the second in rank thanks to the prodigy of our class that entered the College at the same year as us and never lost a battle. To be honest, all my losses were for him. One day when we were 12 years of age Kuhul asked me for help in weapons training and combat, and I accepted it as long as he helped me in the other classes. After several days studying together we became good friends, there was also the Annual Strategy Championship for the best students in the military specialization, in all the years since we were 15 he would choose me as a teammate along with some other students and we always ended victorious" answered Heirloc with his face full of nostalgia.
Cain knew the Annual Strategy Championship very well, each year the best students of each of the military specialization classes formed teams and faced each other in an all-out battle simulation, in the end the team that was left standing was declared the champion.
"I always knew you were a great warrior Heirloc, even the Master of Weapons which is considered a genius has no chance against you. Kuhul even told me you were one of the Kings of Battle of the Continent" the boy spoke these last words with a touch of pride.
"Oh, he told you that? I swear his mouth is too big for his head, that idiot" said the man laughing a little bit.
"So, who could be so strong that he was able to be number one in all the years that you were in school?" the boy asked doubting a person like that could exist.
"My twin brother, Makin. I could not hold a candle to him when it came to fights" said Heirloc looking into the distance.
In he's 12 years of life Cain had never heard of the existence of Heirloc's brother, he had always thought that the Master Initiator was an only child, the boy then realized that the black man never talked about his family.
"You have a brother? How come you never told me this before?" asked the boy.
Cain realized the man instinctively raised his hand to the scar at his face that started at the top of his left eye and went all the way to the corner of his left lip, he quickly lowered it again. The black-skinned man then replied in a sad tone.
"Had"
The Master Initiator then went silent and didn't say another word that day.