Silverdawn
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Unclassed - 9
🕑 Added 2025-10-26 20:22:36 +0000 UTC“Tell me about the underground.”
The three of us left two minutes ago, and only now was I choosing to break the silence. If I needed an excuse to back out, now was the time.
“I was wondering if you were gonna ask,” Toar mused from up front. He glanced back at me as he spoke.
“About fifty feet down from here, the caverns start to become more abundant. Way less has been stripped from them, so there’s a lot up for grabs.”
“Well, why don’t more people mine down there if it’s so lucrative?” I asked, eyes trained on him.
Marcois walked beside me, but he hadn’t said a word since we’d left. He looked nervous. Pale, even.
“Three reasons,” Toar explained. “One, probably most obvious, is monsters. This place is filled with ‘em. Most groups like to keep their risk tolerance low, especially if they don’t know what creatures they might end up dealing with…”
“And you don’t agree with that?”
Toar shook his head. “I do. I just happen to have a way around the problem.”
“And that is?”
“Man, the questions…” Toar sighed, sounding somewhat exasperated. “I’m a [Hunter]. I specialise in tracking. I’ve scouted past the tunnel we’re using ahead of time. I know what’s down there, and I know how to avoid the stuff that we can’t easily handle.”
I looked to Marcois to try to detect the lie. Beside his general unease, he didn’t seem to flinch or react at Toar’s declaration.
As far as Marcois was concerned, Toar was a [Hunter].
“And in the case of the area we’re visiting, what’s down there?”
“Best you don’t worry about that,” Toar said. “You’ll only freak yourself out. Chances are we won’t even see anything.”
“Why do we have to go to the underground for you to see my skills? I could swing a pickaxe or a hammer anywhere.”
“In case your little tour didn’t get it through to you already, this place ain’t just rest and labour,” Toar explained, his voice solemn. “It’s rough here. People lose limbs. People get crushed beneath rocks. They suffocate. They get eaten by monsters. They kill each other.”
“I know that already.”
Okay, maybe not the last part. But I’d almost assumed as much.
“Then you should know that if you’re gonna work with us, you need to be able to operate under pressure. Do what I tell you. Listen and respond. The underground is dangerous, even on the outskirts, but it’s one of the few places we’ve got free reign to mine. You need to get used to it.”
He smiled again, grinning wide. “Relax. I’m here to look after you. So’s Marc. Aren’t you, Marc?”
Marcois quickly nodded. He didn’t look entirely sure what he was nodding to.
“See? You’re in good hands. Stop worrying, will ya?” Toar pointed forwards, towards a tunnel in the distance that seemed to quickly turn dark. “We’ll be there before you know it.”
My eyes shifted between the two of them. I’d been looking for reasons to back out, and I was only getting harsh reality in turn.
That didn’t mean I was convinced.
“So what are reasons two and three?”
“Huh?”
I kept focussed on the tunnel ahead as it drew closer. “You said there were three reasons that people didn’t like to go down here. You only told me one.”
“I also told you to stop worrying,” Toar said, his voice echoing a little as we began to step into the dark cavern, the air immediately growing thicker, more humid.
To the right of me, I heard two taps as Marcois activated a light crystal. I reached into my tool belt and fished mine out, doing the same.
“Well?” I repeated the question as the crystal shot to life. Lightly humming in my hand, it illuminated a space about twenty feet ahead of me before the light began to fade.
Toar didn’t spark his own crystal. I wondered if a feline beastkin even needed one.
“Reason two’s the mist, which is why I brought these for you.”
As he spoke, he fished out a few thick strips of cloth. He passed one to me and another to Marcois.
“Tie it around your face. Mist’s thicker down here. You don’t wanna breathe it in. We also don’t wanna be down here too long. These won’t protect you fully, so don’t breathe too heavy.”
I did as Toar said and fastened the cloth around my face. It made breathing a little easier, but it also quickly made my face hot. I adjusted the cloth multiple times as we walked.
“Reason three’s the most dangerous one,” Toar explained, the three of us coming across a fork in the tunnel no more than thirty seconds after entering. Both led downwards, one at a much sharper decline than the other.
“Figuring out how to traverse this place is difficult—
“—And not always intuitive,” he continued, picking the much steeper path. He pulled a length of rope from his belt and tied the end of it to a jagged rock formation, then threw the rope down the tunnel.
He placed a hand on the wall as he walked, quickly walking his way down the steep slope, almost as if he were descending a flight of stairs.
“Careful,” his voice echoed from below, his outline faint in the darkness beyond. “If you trip it’s gonna hurt.”
Despite how perturbed he’d looked until now, Marcois was the first between us to descend after Toar.
Toar had made it look easy, but even Marcois, despite his size, was pretty graceful when it came to stepping and sliding his way down.
Sure, he did it at about two-thirds the speed of the beastkin, but it was still impressive. Marcois could clearly move well.
Now it was just me. Faced with this tight space and a sudden drop if I misstepped.
I angled and re-angled the light crystal in my hands, attaching it first to my side and then the strap near my chest to see which one would give off better light.
“Come on!” Toar yell-whispered from below. “Just slide down on your ass if it’s too difficult for you!”
I’d been feeling hesitant, but that hit me in the pride. Within seconds, I was on the slope, a hand clutching against the wall as I shimmied my way down.
I took about two minutes to clear a space that had taken the others half the time, but I came out of it with only a single tumble and a scrape on my knee.
“An eight in climbing, eh?” Toar taunted as I picked myself up, brushing off dust.
“A seven,” I corrected through clenched teeth.
Still a lie. My [Climbing] sat at a nice solid five. Like hell was I admitting that.
“I don’t think you did that badly,” Marcois said.
“Come on, you pair of girls. We’re wasting daylight here.”
Maxwell said the same thing when he showed us around. Did everyone here tell that joke?
Marcois snickered, and the pair of us took off after Toar.
I hadn’t considered until now just how long it might be until I’d see the sun again. Months, at least. Longer if I couldn’t earn enough.
Maybe I shouldn’t complain that Toar was taking me somewhere filled with loot. Considering the size of my debt and the terms of my contract, I could use to make as much as humanly possible here.
My breathing was slow as I worked my way through the narrow tunnel, the decline less steep now. I was always at the rear of the pack, which I hardly minded.
If anything nefarious did show up, not only did I not want to be the one having to face off against it, but, out of the three of us, Toar was likely by far the most prepared to deal with it. He was group leader for a reason, I imagined, and I doubted those claws or teeth were for show.
That did leave me to wonder how I might fare down here alone, or if I were to fall out with him like I had with Jackal…
I was probably being paranoid, but that paranoia might be warranted, so I was exercising caution. I’d try to do as I was told and not cause problems for as long as we were all down here.
Well, until complying felt more dangerous than refusing.
Light was beginning to filter in from the distance, seeming to emanate from some point below. It was only a sliver, but it was noticeable against the otherwise black recesses, and it made me think that we might be getting somewhere.
We had to navigate another turning point on our way towards the light source, during which Toar tied another rope and let it drape down.
I realised that these lengths of rope were more markers than they were climbing instruments. I assumed they were a means to prevent getting lost on the way back.
“Watch me,” Toar said, before taking the left path with a slight run up and leaping straight ahead.
I could barely see him on the other side, and hadn’t even realised there was a chasm in the tunnel until I’d seen him clear it.
Again, Marcois was the second one to make the jump, though he needed a bit more of a run-up. He shot across the wide gap like a green cannonball, landing on both feet and stumbling a step forwards.
“Alright, now you,” Toar called back to me. “Try not to dawdle.”
I stepped forward in the low light, holding my crystal, trying to determine the exact size of the jump I needed to make. I was sure Toar could see in low light from the fact he didn’t even use a crystal, and I wasn’t sure about Marcois but I imagined orc biology might be doing some heavy lifting for him on the vision front.
Meanwhile… even with my light crystal, it was difficult to make out exactly when I was expected to jump. I didn’t wanna miss the take-off point and fall short, or worse, run straight over the edge.
I shone my light over the edge, staring and then walking back five paces. I made long strides as I walked to resemble a run-up.
I could hear something skittering behind me. It was faint, maybe only an insect, but it felt distracting. I started retracing my steps.
“Ugh…”
Before I knew it, Toar had jumped back over the chasm and grabbed me by the arm.
“Come on. Before whatever that is finds us.”
The skittering sound was drawing closer. Also louder.
Toar took my light crystal and slotted it to his belt. “Copy me. Jump when I do.”
With that, he pulled me ahead and the two of us jogged up towards the edge in lockstep. I tried my best to mirror his motions, which was much easier when I could see exactly how he was moving.
I jumped as he did, which was a good thing, because he didn’t let go of my arm until we were both in the air. Depending on what was down that hole, things might’ve ended disastrously if my legs had locked up there.
“There,” Toar said, no pant to his voice, seeming entirely nonplussed. “Nothing to it.”
While he’d landed on his feet, I’d ended up on my side. I definitely felt the force of being pulled had helped me to clear that gap—that would’ve been a big jump for me to make on my own, even in full light.
“Alright. On your feet, rat.”
I pulled myself up, choosing to ignore the nickname.
“I appreciate the help,” I mumbled as we began walking again. Truthfully, the idea of clearing that chasm had been freaking me out. I wasn’t just saying it.
“First time’s free,” Toar snickered. “Next time, it’ll cost you.”
I laughed at that.
Well, more of a dry chuckle, but it was the most amusement I’d felt since I’d last seen Summer.
Somehow, being down here was less scary than I’d anticipated. I could still hear the patter of legs against stone somewhere behind us, and the darkness was foreboding, but I felt like I could get through it all just fine.
Plus, just ahead, there appeared to be some source of natural light, something none of us had encountered in the last fifteen minutes.
It emanated from yet another hole in the ground, this one easier for me to walk to the edge of. I couldn’t see much of the contents of the cavern below from this angle, but what I could spy were a lot of crystals. Massive red crusts of gemstone cast a luminescent glow which was bifurcated by stabs of pink, yellow, purple and blue.
The glow of the prism dimmed over time, but at first, it’d been blinding. That room was absolutely filled with treasure.
“How do we haul it?” I asked, watching as Toar looked for somewhere to fasten a new rope.
“We’ll have to carry each piece back up,” Toar said. He kicked a large, jagged slab of stone as he spoke. When it held, he began tying the rope around it.
“Pull on that, Marcois,” he said, passing him the rope. “As hard as you can.”
Marcois did just that, turning around and hauling against the rock like he was playing tug-of-war with the cave itself. When the slab didn’t budge, the pair of them smiled.
“Alright, that should be good enough.”
Toar threw the length of rope down, grabbed it in both hands, and jumped.
He half-slid, half-climbed his way down the rope and then eventually came to a stop. Both of us were looking over the edge, but neither could see him below.
“It’s not that bad!” Toar said, his voice echoing. “There’s a big platform about twenty feet down!”
Marcois looked between me and the rope, and I decided to take point for once.
I’d been doing everything last since we got here. I wanted to show some initiative.
I’d climbed plenty of ropes in my life, so doing this wasn’t too challenging, but once I got a view of the wider cave and realised the sheer size of this cavern, it was a bit spooky.
It was worse once I was doing it. I became acutely aware of the big drop waiting for me if I screwed up, plus the mask around my face threatening to slip away as I sucked in short breaths, wary of the mist, my arms starting to burn as I lowered myself down.
Once I was low enough to let myself simply drop a few feet, I did so, landing on my back and splaying out, my arms and shoulders both feeling tired.
I’d only been swinging a pickaxe hours ago. Rope-climbing was strenuous.
“How’s it going, Marc?” Toar shouted to the top, which I was now realising was one of multiple holes in this cavern’s ceiling.
“Y-yeah. I’m coming…”
“Is he okay?” I asked, looking over at Toar, who was picking at his incisors with a claw. We’d been waiting a solid minute.
“Yeah, just a bit scared of heights.”
Toar pointed up to where Marcois was finally beginning to put his hands over the rope, his body swaying as he moved to wrap his legs around.
“See? There he comes.”
I watched as Marcois finally began to shimmy his way down the rope.
“You might wanna move.”
I watched as Marcois quickly gained momentum.
Shit.
He was sliding down the rope more as if it were a pole, and I just barely gathered the wherewithal in my tired state to roll out of the way before he came crashing down.
He stood with a daze, yelping, then turning and rubbing at the small of his back.
“You good?” Toar asked.
“Yeah. Probably bruised myself a little…”
Damn. If I’d slid down here that fast I’m certain I’d be dealing with more than bruising. Orcs were something else.
“Let’s move, then. Marc, you’re on hammer duty. Rat, you put your pick to use.”
The cavern itself was strange. The outskirts were like a circular corridor with tunnels leading out in every direction. In the distance, there was some kind of metallic tower which rose ten feet into the air. When we reached the ground, it flashed red and emitted a strange beeping sound.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing.
“Rift tech,” Toar said, shrugging. “That one doesn’t seem to do anything besides beep, but some of the stuff down here is weird. None of us really know what any of it is. There’s more further in. Best to avoid all of it.”
I took another shallow breath and mentally noted the information. The implications of ‘rift tech’ alone seemed staggering, but it was a lot to think about right now.
Somewhere during our last descent, my [Climbing] skill had increased.
[Climbing: 5 >> 6.]
Still wasn’t as high as I’d claimed, but whatever.
“How are we splitting this?” I eventually asked, following Toar’s lead and walking towards a multi-coloured bed of crystals.
“Worried about your share, huh?” Toar laughed. “Fifty goes to me, twenty-five to each of you.”
I thought about countering, but even if it wasn’t at all precarious to do so right now, those numbers sounded surprisingly reasonable. Even if Toar wasn’t leader, he’d found and led us to this place. A third each wouldn’t be fair.
“How do we value it?” I asked, more curious than skeptical at this point. As the three of us moved further around the tunnel, smooth stone platforms became visible in the distance. They almost looked too perfect to be natural, offsetting the rest of the room’s structure.
“The Association handles all of that,” Toar said, scratching the back of his neck. “I know a couple of groups have Identify users who can gauge the quality of materials, but no one in this mine has an appraisal skill, so we kinda just have to go off the value they tell us.”
Figures. I wouldn’t be surprised if entire rifts are intentionally separated from [Appraisal] users just so the Association can undervalue things.
“Anyways, I don’t really know what’s what here, so I just want you to harvest all that you can. Marc’ll dislodge a section for you to work on, you work on it. I’ll keep an eye for monsters.”
With that said, Toar scaled his way back up the ten foot rockface, perching himself on the edge of it. He looked down over the pair of us as we began to work.
This was my first time actually mining crystals, and even having gained the first level of [Pickaxe Mastery], extracting large sections of glass and stone without actually swinging into and cracking anything in the process was difficult.
At least once, I tried to get in with a chisel and simply free up the gems without the pre-requisite swinging, but it quickly became clear that that didn’t work. The best I could do was work around the divots in the stone and lodge my pick deeper in an effort to claw away stubborn pieces of rock.
It took time for me to get my first cluster of crystal out, a large blue thing the size of both of my fists pressed together. When I did, a piece of it broke off and shattered into a bunch of smaller ones, clinking and scattering across the ground.
I picked up a shard the size of my pinkie finger.
[Would you like to store Spirit Stone, D Grade?]
Uh, hell yes.
I did just that. I desperately wanted to read what it did, but I decided not to take a break too quickly with the other two hovering around me.
I continued to mine the rock and crystals as best as I could. Every now and then, I broke off a new piece of crystal and discreetly picked it up, just to squirrel it into my [Hoard].
[Would you like to store Recovery Stone, E Grade?]
[Would you like to store Rush Stone, D Grade?]
[Would you like to store Pyre Stone, E Grade?]
[Would you like to store Power Stone, D Grade?]
[Would you like to store Control Stone, D Grade?]
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. I stored everything indiscriminately, breaking off and saving whatever chunks I could, knowing I had more than enough storage space.
I was sure neither of my comrades were any the wiser. Even to the eagle-eyed [Hunter] Toar, I doubted he could see tiny bits of the crystals I was holding disappearing from way up high. It wasn’t like I had to shift my hand or put it in my pocket or anything. The storage was subtle and instantaneous.
All the while, Marcois was passing up chunks of crystal to Toar. He threw, Toar catched. A neat little pile was forming up above.
Also, my [Pickaxe Mastery] increased.
[Pickaxe Mastery: 1 >> 2.]
The work was going easy. Smoothly. Yes, my arms burned from the exertion, and I knew I’d crash for hours once we emerged from here, but even in spite of the heat and the stifling mask around my face, the cohesion of our teamwork, plus the exhilaration of discovery, of profit? Those things drove me to peaks of determination that I was almost surprised I possessed.
I was in the midst of breaking apart another big rock, satisfied with my progress, when I heard a snarl somewhere to the left of me. I flinched, dropping the crystal in the process.
Right as I turned, Marcois sprinted in front of me.
He caught the maw of a translucent, shark-looking creature as it bit him right in the forearm.
He snarled as he attempted to pull the beast away. It was about half my size, stood on four legs, and had a jaw that resembled a serrated bear trap more than it did a mouth.
Even in spite of Marcois’ robust frame, he was bleeding from his arm. I panickedly called Toar’s name, waving him to come down here and help, but he shrugged his shoulders.
“You’ll be fine. Deal with it yourself.”
Great. A vote of confidence.
I clutched the pick as the creature dove at me instead, attempting to swing it at the little monster’s head.
Its grey patterns seemed to meld with the rock below, and it was difficult for me to even keep an eye on it, let alone hit it.
The only way I really locked onto its location was feeling one of its clawed arms swipe across the back of my leg, raking the skin around my calf and tearing the fabric of my new uniform.
“Argh!”
It stung, but it wasn’t enough to drop me from standing. I crouched as I watched the creature running back and forth, seemingly indecisive about who to attack next.
Eventually, it picked Marcois, leaping up and biting at him in much the same way it had previously, latching to his arm.
“Punch it!” I yelled at Marcois as he waved his arm once more, attempting to dislodge the creature but doing little else. He had a fearful expression on his face, his eyes wide, and despite the fact that the monster to him was of the same ratio between me and a small dog, he made little attempt to do anything that would stop it from getting back up again.
“Don’t… want… to kill it…”
Fucking really?
Sighing, I stepped over to Marcois and grabbed his flailing arm as hard as I could. I almost got flung from the momentum he was moving at, but with every ounce of strength I had, I just barely managed to slow him enough to line up my target.
With that done, I took the chisel from the back of my belt and drove it straight into the monster’s skull.
It squealed, its arms flailing wildly, scratching at Marcois’ face as it did so, but after a surprisingly animated death rattle, it finally grew still.
It unceremoniously plopped off of Marcois’ arm and onto the floor, dead, as he openly panted and shook.
His face was bleeding. His mask was tattered.
I knew I should probably take it easy and calm down after a situation like that, stuck in a place like this.
In spite of that…
“What do you mean you didn’t want to kill it?” I asked, pointing a finger at Marcois. “In what world does that make any sense?”
“I’m sorry,” Marcois said, still panting. He began pacing back and forth, shaking off his pained arm.
“Oh! You’re sorry. That makes it better.”
Marcois said nothing. I silently seethed for a little longer, wishing I could pull one of those healing potions out of my [Hoard] without giving myself away—that slash stung.
“And you,” I eventually continued, finding a new target for my frustrations, “Why didn’t you do anything about it?”
“I told you already,” Toar mused, seeming to be in the midst of hand-weighing two crystals. “I brought you down here to see what you could do.”
“You also said you’d keep lookout for us,” I pointed out. “How is that scouting?”
“I said I’d keep an eye out for monsters,” Toar shrugged. “Didn’t say I’d tell you if I saw one.”
“Well thanks for fucking nothing!”
“You done, rat?” Toar sneered, looking down on me like I was dirt. “I told you already, this is a test. Stop whining and do your job or I’ll leave you here. Don’t expect me to save you again, either. Not for free, anyway.”
Well, that was it. Mood was completely shot. Instincts were wrong, Toar was a fucking asshole. Marcois was apparently a pacifist, and while he’d jumped in the way to take the first bite and I probably shouldn’t have bitched him out as I did, it was hard to feel bad about it after the exchange I’d just had.
I redoubled my efforts, ignored the pain in my leg, and got back to mining. Clearly, that was the only way out of this.
Guess I knew where I stood with Toar. I wouldn’t sit around and hope he’d become friendlier after I’d proven myself, either. The guy was a piece of shit.
Marcois was panting as he worked his hammer. I saw him occasionally trying to push the scraps of his ruined mask back in front of his face.
“Did you hear that?” I heard him ask at least once.
Which… was concerning, as I didn’t hear anything. I wasn’t sure if there were more monsters on the prowl, and my hearing wasn’t good enough, or if he was just being paranoid.
He also started flinching whenever I moved too quickly. And… muttering to himself?
That couldn’t be good.
“How much longer do we have to do this?” I asked Toar as I drove my way through yet another large stone, freeing up a large mound of white crystals.
“Keep going,” Toar responded. “I can still fit more in my pack.”
“We’re both tired,” I protested, lifting my pick with heavy arms and dropping it into the stone. “Also, Marcois seems upset. Shouldn’t we stop for now and have another try later?”
“What did you say about my mother?”
I blinked at the strange accusation.
I flinched, then threw myself back a mile as I saw a massive orc fist collide with the wall right beside me.
I scrambled back on the floor, looking up at Marcois. He was staring down at me, his pupils dilated. He was still panting heavily. His mask was in two distinct halves on either side of his face.
“Wh-what do you mean, I didn’t—”
“What did you say about her?!” Marcois roared.
“Wh-what, what is he—”
“Hah! The mist finally got to him!” Toar laughed.
“I’ll kill you!”
Marcois marched towards me as I scrambled to climb up the rockface and get above him, only for him to grab me by the leg and pull me down. I narrowly dodged his grasping hands as he garbled and seethed his way towards me.
“Marcois. Calm down Marcois…”
“Why?! So you can make another shitty joke, huh? Let’s all make fun of Marc. He doesn’t care. He never does anything. Let’s make another joke! Hahahaha!”
Marcois picked up a piece of dislodged crystal and hurled it at me. It whistled past my head and smashed against the wall behind me, a hundred splinters firing off like shrapnel, some pelting my back.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that. I’m sorry…”
Marcois immediately began crying. He rubbed his eyes with his hands as he wept.
I picked up a sliver of the crystal and pelted it back in Marc’s general direction. He spun around to see what the noise was, shouting at it.
He soon marched off in that direction, searching for the culprit.
“Toar… Toar, do something!” I whispered.
“You want me to help you out of this?” His voice came from above, light and whimsical, his teeth glinting in the glowing light.
“Yes!”
“Okay…” Toar grabbed a length of rope. He lowered it down, but not quite enough for me to grab it.
“I want something from you, first…”
“What? You want my stupid fucking share? Take it!”
“No,” Toar said, shaking his head. “I want your signing bonus.”
“You…”
Anger bubbled in my chest as recognition began to dawn. Too many things slotted into place all at once. My mind threatened to fragment from the weight of my stress.
“That’s right. The gold. The supplies. The healing pots. Especially the healing pots. You can keep the nuts. I’m not big on nuts.
“Promise to take me to your stash right now and I’ll let you out of here.
“Sound like a deal?
“He’ll get worse. The mist will only make him more violent. He might kill you if you don’t take this.
“Come on, rat.”
This bastard…
“There you are!”
Shit. Marc found me.
And I only had seconds to choose.
Give up the advantages I’d risked my life for?
Or risk my life again?
I could see a tunnel in the distance. It was shrouded by darkness.
Uncertainty.
I hugged the light crystal to my chest.
I ignored Toar’s offer.
I ran in the direction of the tunnel.
I tore off a section of my sleeve.
I pulled a C-Grade Resonance Crystal from my core as I came up to the entrance.
I let the crystal warm in my hand, then wrapped it in the cloth to preserve that heat.
It glowed as I planted it by the door.
Then exploded five seconds later.
Caving in the entrance and cutting me off from both my assailant and my only known way out of here.
My body was heavy. I felt faint.
The mist was even thicker here.
In the distance, I heard another strange beep.
Then a metallic whirring sound.
I hugged my light crystal close, watching the tunnel before me morph into something with sculpted walls and a paved floor.
…what was this place?
