"Good morning, and welcome!" Olga turned with a smile the moment we entered her classroom. "Come, come!" She waved us away from the forges and butchers tables to gather us around the dais on which she stood. "I won't bore you with any lectures today. I'll only explain the rules and let you explore the mines to your heart's content.
"First, I must ensure that each of you understands the claim system." She paused to look at each of us in turn. "It essentially amounts to finders-keepers. Rights to a deposit are given to whoever finds it, though such rights will reset upon the end of each day.
"Furthermore, you are free to trade with each other and use the materials you've found as you see fit." She gave another pause to motion at the forges. Then brought our attention to the back of the room with a wave of her hand. "You will find both a shop and your standard mining equipment next to the entrance.
"Now, if there are no questions, I ask that the students in the natural tier pair themselves into two-person groups and make their way down the shaft," Olga said with a smile. Much to the dismay of the students.
Nevertheless, they scattered from the platform to relocate at the far end of the room. Where they donned heavy rucks and retrieved their weapons and peruse the few shopping crystals installed throughout the place before making their way down.
"As for the rest of you." She turned about on her heels to scan the sparse crowd. "You are free and encouraged to explore the mines solo. I want to remind you all that I have the means of retrieving you if the need arises. No matter how deep into the mines you go, your safety is paramount. So feel free to delve down as far as you like."
With another one of Olga's waves, the rest of the party scattered to shamble around the equipment racks.
Deciding to wait for the crowd to die down, I perused the store to find a plethora of potions and enchanted tools meant to serve those stuck with their natural power. Some brews enhanced strength or stamina, dimensional rucks, and pickaxes with explosive tips. Or explosives themselves.
Interesting, but nothing I actually needed.
Much was the same for the rucks Olga dispensed on us. While nearly empty on the inside, there was a pickax, a length of rope, torches and tinderboxes, some rations, and a map fastened around the surface a medium-sized canvas bag.
As for the sole object in its interior, it was large in the palm of my hand but small in the sea of the bag's interior. Like a large acorn or walnut that'd been sanded down to have a flat surface and then painted to resemble a compass rose.
"Where are we going?" Zakira bounced to my side, her gear rattling noisily across her back.
"Uh…" I quickly unfurled the map to give it a quick scan. Finding a five-leveled complex that stretched beneath the root complex and courtyards on the surface.
Through centuries of the academy's history, the first level was said to have been picked clean near the center. Leaving any sizable deposits scarce and scattered to the far edges of the level, and the second level was much the same. Though home to many small creatures that loved to attack from the shadows. As such, the third or fourth levels were the most lucrative bet for students. Nice deposits close to the lift and monsters that were just enough of a challenge for the average student meant success for anyone who delved that deep.
The fifth level, however, was a dark pit filled with poisonous or stone beasts and insects that seemed to guard large deposits of precious metals like dragons to a hoard.
"Level five!" I grabbed Zakira by the wrist and turned about. "I need as much iron and copper as I can get. Finding gold or silver or anything else will be great as well. But it's not my priority right now."
"Okay!" Zakira over-enthusiastically droned as she walked off towards the elevator.
And, shaking my head, I trailed off behind her.
The lift itself was unremarkable. Just a platform of stone powered by simple pulleys and chains. Making for a frustratingly slow ride that Zakira seemed to relish in. Especially considering it was just the two of us.
But while she was leaning against my shoulder thinking about… something. My mind was turning. Brimming off the lingering high of a successful experiment. In effect, spawning within me a burning desire to create.
I wanted to make things. Enchanted and runic things eventually, but I was content with cursed things for now. More so, I was feening to make more cursed weapons. I imaged a cursed rug, a cursed umbrella, a cursed keg, whip, chain sickle, and more.
But eventually, I ran out of ideas. Leaving me with one other option before we arrive at the bottom floor. I turned to Zakira, and she immediately lifted her head to look at me with those bulbous crimson eyes.
"Have you ever painted before? Or drawn?"
"Oh!" Zakira shoved me away with a deep gasp and wide smile. "I used to draw dicks on stuff, like, all the time."
"Oh?" I laughed. "Was it fun? Like a hobby of yours?"
"Yeah, and I was really good at it too!" She stepped forward. "I can show you sometime."
"Maybe." I turned away with a coy shrug. "I was thinking of making you something, but I didn't know what. Until now."
"Ooh!" She latched on my arm and began jumping up and down like a kid. "What is it? What is it? What is it?"
"It's a cursed pen and notebook." I smiled at her, then fought back my laughter once her eyes widened beyond belief. "Or, it will be." I shrugged. "I don't know what powers I'll give it yet, but I'll make it special. I promise."
Smiling, I patted her on the head. Prompting her to wrap me in her embrace until we arrived on the lower floor- a dank cavernous room with dozens of tunnels branching off in every direction.
Wasting no time, I released the Menagerie to have them scout the tunnels ahead. Then turned down an ambiguous path for a leisurely walk with Zakira.
Though we weren't even a quarter of the way to the Darkworld, there was a stark resemblance to the environment that made it feel somewhat welcoming to me. Patches of bioluminescent fungus or moss provided the only light in the place. Scarce though that light was, it was enough to leave small pockets of blue or violet light like distant stars on the horizon. Overshadowed occasionally by the grayed rocky bodies moving in and out of view as we moved.
The fauna was akin to the Darkworld as well. Filled with a chain of poisonous or venomous creatures that attempted to strike at us from their perceived hiding places. Only to wind up smashed, drained of their fluids, or spasming on the ground after biting one more toxic than they.
It hurt- their bites and stings, but it wasn't anything to panic or grimace about. On the contrary, it served as a means to add new recipes to my Poison Mimicry spell.
After moving only a couple of hundred meters, I sensed a familiar humming emanating from the rock that I recognized as an iron deposit. And with the help of Zakira and my Doppelganger, it was mined out the old-fashioned way so as to not send too much of the material into the void.
That said, I still used a domain of gravity magic to amass the ore into a small moon. Which only got exponentially larger as an undead with super strength and a tireless shadow continued to hack away without pause.
Once a large enough mass was produced, I pulled the lighter rocks and dust away from the ore with a relatively weak Artificial Well and compacted the waste against the far wall. Then stuffed the recovered ore into my shadow, minus Zakira's share.
With more than enough time to spare, we moved on to a copper deposit located by Skoll and fell into much the same rhythm for an hour and a half.
Come lunchtime I had what I assumed was a literal metric ton of both copper and iron; and in my lust for more, I took a short break to eat a few strips of meat that I hastily cooked with fire manipulation and scout through Re: Armed to see what I needed to procure.
By far, I needed more iron than any other ore. As cast iron and high carbon steel had invaluable uses in all facets of life. In the context of Re: Armed, I needed iron to make the majority of weapons I designed. Including a proper set of fans for Peter and some ball bearings for me.
Next in line from that was copper. Which would obviously be used to make wires and cables, but would also be used to make large quantities of brass and bronze. Not for the sake of weapons, but for the sake of art. I wanted to make saxophones, trumpets, and trombones.
I also wanted a handbell.
Besides that, my plans necessitated an insurmountable need for gold, silver, and a variety of other precious metals. And it seemed I was in just the place to find them.
Or rather, it seemed the academy was aware of this too and sought to give us the means to get them.
That, combined with my power, implied that I could walk from here with a veritable hoard. But that first required me to make use of the other kind of hoard stashed away in my Pocket.
[Peek Pocket Access: Folder - Corpses. Subfolder - Humanoids.]
The folder opened in a burst of digital light. Revealing upon its dispersal, 180 virtual corpses in varying stages of decay. Some had their intestines strewn about or had their limbs bent in unnatural ways. Others were but husks, mere shells of their former selves.
[Corvus Tower Harvest: (Soulless Corpses) - 107. Status: Gentle Repose. (Soul-Linked Corpses) - 49. Status: On Standby.]
[Hill Base Harvest: (Soulless Corpses) - 7. Status: Gentle Repose. (Soul-Linked Corpses) - 17. Status: On Standby.]
I was certain that Grandpa Lich expected me to raise the newly executed at Corvus Tower rather than store them in my Umbral dimension. That and my reluctance to raise any of them until I found the proper candidate serve to increase his frustrations as time went on, and Corvus' for that matter.
Back then, I had no qualms with waiting as long as I needed to. Although now, I was beginning to feel the same type of frustrations they were. Even if I were to split my undead into three, I'd still be left with sixty to mine and sixty to hunt while the last sixty stayed with me for safekeeping.
I needed them. And come either this outing or the next, I would have them. Leaving me with my current task of surveying the many deposits found by the Menagerie.
Since our arrival, hours ago. Many of them had made it to the perimeter of the compound and had started to either double back or circle around counter-clockwise. Even the ones that managed to travel half as far, however, reported some sort of invisible border that kept the more dangerous creatures at bay.
Naturally, it was there that large veins of gold, silver and even electrum were found. Kilometers and kilometers away- a distance traveled in an instant with a bit of sorcery.
We wound up spending the rest of class mining out the five deposits we found. With Zakira mining gold, my Doppelganger took to mine silver while I tended to the electrum deposit and occasionally dart between the three to move mass.
The copper and iron on the other hand were handled by the Troops. Strengthened by the shadows, Stewie would bore around and through the deposit at strategic points- sending everything that fell through his gullet into my Shadow Pocket. Once done, Jake would crawl in and rapidly expand, sending faults through the vein that subsequently broke the wall apart into a cloud of dust, boulders, and chunks.
From there, the ore was dealt with in a number of ways. Gero simply swallowed the stones whole. As did Chako, Orpheus, and Jima. Hatchi and Humphrey dealt with the quarry by shrouding the mass with a spray of umbral water or ink. If not that, then Chako, Orpheus, and Jima would just swallow it whole breaking it apart for me to sift through with my gravity magic.
And to assist the others, Blante the crab remained on standby. Eager to snip any nearby boulder into a stone small enough to be eaten by the smaller critters.
With around twenty minutes left, we gathered everything in my Pocket and took a quick flight to take a long ride up the lift.
As I somewhat expected, the lift stopped at each floor going up. Making way for more and more students to drag their swelling bags onto the platform and sometimes throw us envious looks.
Upon our return to the surface, Olga congratulated us on our quarries and dismissed us with nothing more than a 'see you next class.'
In light of that, I told anyone who cared that there'd be no training for the day. Then decided to join them in the cafeteria and gorge myself.
One, because I was too worn out to cook my own food. Two, because cause I felt like I deserved it. And three, because I anticipated some sort of fuckery to arise during tomorrow's outing.
Whatever it was- even if it were nothing, I needed as much energy as possible. So I ordered a large steak. As well as a leg of lamb with potatoes, asparagus, and macaroni and cheese paired with a salad and bowl of fruit. And I ate voraciously. Half paying attention to my party. even after they inquired of my behavior.
Many of them seemed to adopt the mindset after I told them the truth. Ordering plate after plate for themselves. Only to offer their scraps to another once they had their fill. Causing jeers and cheers to fill the air once they took or denied the offer.
Before long, the awkward atmosphere had turned into a jovial feast filled will laughter and smiles.
Except in one place.
Except for the face behind me. The doll-like one that sat to my left. Cradled in ink-black bangs that swayed gracefully as the head on which they were attached swung from side to side. Accentuating the bulbous- almost bug-like eyes that gave longing stares at her peers gorging themselves.