Despite the fact that the gnomes were very good at building, all of their products and technical inventions consisted mainly of soft rocks of stone similar to our limestone or travertine. The composition could be the same or very similar, the main thing is that the whole stone was relatively soft, even wooden briquettes were stronger.
"Briks" - was so called factory assistant robots, who did the hard work, replacing the loaders. They were of different purposes and sizes, very obedient and quiet. Wooden friends were not interchangeable in the gnome industry, they worked on the air, they didn't really want to - wonderful robots, you say, it is - these guys helped a lot in the work. So, returning to minerals and so on, in this world the gnomes didn't see anything stronger than Briks, Jill, like a true son of a kind, too.
Until this moment...
Stepping behind the wall, the traveler felt like he was dipped into the water or he plunged himself, but in his head the wall was no longer a wall, but more like a stretched water surface, which he inadvertently decided to step into. The thought that one had to learn to swim earlier, painfully slipped into the brain of a bearded daredevil. And on this his fears ended, because a moment later he was already standing on solid ground, with his beloved hoe, or a pickax in his hands, rubbing his forehead. "Wow, it's gone ..."
"It was close... - Jill thought. "There is no water - it's already good. So ... the earth, legs, I stand on the ground ... Hu-hoo-hoo ... Mm ... And where is I?"
Small green eyes slid down: "... It's far to fall, you can even have time to light a pipe ... it is very possible ... a real mountain ..."
A beautiful green meadow and a gentle slope leading to it opened before his gaze. Before it was 200 meters, but Jill, who had never seen real mountains or even plateaus, decided that it was the highest mountain. And given that after the 3rd era in the gnome state there were not so much mountains, but practically no hills, then guided by simple logic, the dwarf calculated his location. "I found a forgotten passage to an ancient mountain! .."
"Ha ha ha, now they'll call me the discoverer of the mountains! I'll even buy myself a home briquette for the income from the discovery. A bunch of ether stones ... I'll even build my bakery ... Wow, fresh sweet buns with berries. Hehehe .. . "- walking along its new open territory, a bearded gnome whistled carefreely. "We need to study what is nearby and where I am after all, probably, it's a hundred miles from home."
"Some kind of special way of transforming the direct path into a short one, by deforming the space. Or maybe some special unit is installed here that transforms dense matter into soft layers compressed from different points .... hmm .... like a book , if we assume that the pages are different places in space, then I kind of went through the whole book right away and came out at the end ... but where is the device itself? It should be nearby, so that the inertia comes directly and there is less loss ... So if 8 parts of etherium will increase the mass and then we will divide it by the tangent of the angle 45... "
Thinking and comparing formulas familiar to him since childhood, Jill tried to draw up an approximate equation of the paradox in which he found himself, while not forgetting to turn his head, trying not to miss as many useful details as possible.
Without wasting time, the bearded man actively threw most of these same details into his backpack. Treated with essential oil, he had the ability to expand, so that he could accommodate quite a lot of junk, or, as the owner of the backpack called it, "useful materials". Stones, clay, ordinary black soil, grass, some branches, acorns and other stuff disappeared without a trace, plunging into the endless darkness of this magic bag.
"Ti-ti toom, close the room ... I am there and nowhere ..." - the gnome hummed.
Having walked a little along the rocky terrain and descended into several ravines, a small spring opened to the view of the land explorer. He gurgled softly and gleamed a little with sunbeams. The water was clean and cool. "A little brackish ...", relishing the water, Jill remarked: "... but the taste is excellent. An excellent spring," he concluded. Having collected enough water in his dimensionless flask, he decided to go back.
I think it's not worth going further today, as long as I restrict myself to this route. I need to know more ... need more information. Returning to the portal, which was very similar to the wall and was, there was a barely noticeable ripple, which can often be seen on the water during a light breeze.
Another step and the good old blue light of the ether was already gleaming on his manly face.
Having successfully got out of the underground tunnel, Jill strode straight to his hill. The summer attic overlooked the forest with an earthen window and you could see the trees and a wooden arch decorated with patterns, serving as a door to the passage under the forest.
Glancing occasionally at a forest and a lake in the distance, Jane continued to work in her summer laboratory and brew some kind of potion that resembled an old toad in color and smell ... Well, very experienced... When she saw her husband leaving the arch, she was surprised at first, and then she got worried and decided to meet him. That, in principle, was not at all surprising, because he never came home for dinner, and he did not like to leave before, except on special occasions.
- Hi handsome! - Winkingly, Jane screamed, not even waiting until her husband came closer.
Seeing his wife, Jill waved her hand and soon with the words: "Look what I brought ..." - his marching dimensionless aggregate thumped to the ground.
"Mm ... I already saw him" - Jane muttered, clapping with her blonde eyelashes. "Again, your sparkling humor? Aaaaaaa ... -Jill moaned - you don't understand a woman! Look!"
And he proudly took out a piece of hardened clay as if holding a diamond in his hand, looking at it with eyes full of love and hope, as you would look at a packet of matches on a desert island. Although the wife of our adventurer was not a fool at all, she did not know how to recognize new material without chemical analysis by eye, as her honorable husband knew how to do. Therefore, she only multitasked with a giggle: "Aha," and continued to look at the gnome, then at his grimy hand, holding some piece of something that was not understood.
"AAAA with whom I lived for 40 years!" the dwarf said half-jokingly and began to explain: "Look, you see what color? Now, smell it!"
"Are you really crazy? Ah? Did you breathe in the air in the tunnel? I won't sniff a piece of land!"
"Yes, smell, look, he is special!" - did not give up the dwarf.
"Hmmm ... raving, probably, he again went into the Three Shovels tavern with this scoundrel of Ormano ... You, like, have you quit drinking power lines for a couple of years now?" Jane studied her upset husband with her eyes.
"Well, that's it? Take it and bring it to you, do a chemical analysis and then we'll talk. I'll give you a couple more things from the trip," and with these words he handed her a couple of stones and a fir branch.
"That's it. I went," - proudly, but a little sad, he said. And he briskly strode towards the underground source, which served its purpose in the bathroom.
"Well, at least it doesn't smell like a power line ... Maybe it's just overheated" - Jane thought, carrying the stones at her laboratory in the summer attic at first glance.