The cavekin are really serious about fighting off those turtles, that’s for sure.
Occasionally we passed ballistae that were pointed upwards, which I assumed were for handling flame dragons and dragonflies. As we continued on, I noticed more fortifications and higher walls.
I guess higher walls are fine when you’re intercepting enemies on their way in?
All the same, I had to wonder when the cavekin had put all of this together. I mean, sure the raw materials were right here where they were building, but their speed plain baffled me, not to mention how sturdy everything was. Those cavekin sure were mighty impressive.
There were also signs up around this part of the road that read Mining ahead! Danger! Do not enter! Past those signs were big stone huts with chimneys. Smoke was pouring out of them and I could hear clanging coming from inside—I figured they were doing some smelting and whatnot. Then I noticed strange paths leading from the huts that were made with long steel bars on blocks of wood. I must have hit the main part of the mine, and so I let out a relieved sigh and started looking around for the cavekin that Narvant had put in charge.
“Lord Dias!” cried a voice. “You’re here!”
The voice came from a hole in the mountain, and out of that hole came a strange box with wheels, riding on one of the steel and wood paths I’d just passed. The wheels were made to fit the steel bars exactly, and the cavekin inside was using a lever of some sort to control the speed of the box.
“What do ya think of the minecart?” the cavekin boomed with a laugh. “Looks like an honest-to-goodness mine here, wouldn’t you say? Nothing says cavekin like a mine, nope! You can almost hear the mining songs just looking at the place! We built everything here out of stone, yes we did! The floors! The walls! The ceilings! The furnaces and workplaces too! The little stone huts you see around the place are cavekin homes!”
The cavekin moved the wooden lever in his hand to stop the cart, then kicked open one of the side doors. A bunch of cavekin flooded out and headed all about while the driver trudged on over to me.
“If I remember correctly, you’re Barnite, right?” I said. “I’m shocked. You’ve built a whole mine in record time. And did you call that thing a...minecart? Whatever they’re called, them boxes with wheels sure look helpful.”
Barnite was a cavekin with bright red hair and a leather apron over his usual clothes, and his beard swayed left and right as he boomed with laughter.
“The mine and the minecarts aren’t picture-perfect just yet, so best be ready for more surprises! So far we’ve got a rest area, our kitchen, our smelting area, and our furnaces, but we’ve still got a lot of clearing to do and then we’ll have a real mine on our hands. Huh? Oh, I know what you’re thinking—it’s just a mountain; what’s there to clear? Well, the inside of the mountain of course! We’ll clear it, make a firm floor, and keep on building. The ground you’re standing on was angled before we straightened it, and that’s how we can construct buildings on it. Still, we want to make this space a bit bigger.”
So saying, Barnite put his hands on his hips and pushed out his chest with pride. He was so happy to show me their work he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, and his beard just kept swaying like it was an expression of his mood.
Narvant had told me that Barnite was one of the younger cavekin, but to be honest, I couldn’t guess their ages if I tried. That said, Barnite didn’t quite have the bushy beard that Narvant did, so I wondered if that had something to do with it. Barnite didn’t have enough hair to cover his entire mouth and jaw, but his beard was still impressive enough that it had two braids.
In any case, Barnite boasted experience well beyond his age, and more than anything else he was passionate. Narvant said he was one to keep an eye on, and that’s why he’d let Barnite oversee the mine.
“Oh right!” Barnite shouted. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you. We’ve set monster traps around the mine, so don’t go wandering off the road, yeah? You’ll be safe in the main areas, but stray too far and you might walk into a trap set for an earth dragon. Be careful, okay?”
He was smiling as he spoke, and I hopped off Balers to reply. A cavekin ran out of the rest area to take the reins from me and look after the horse.
“I don’t really have much reason to come to the mine, and I don’t imagine I’ll have much of a reason to stray from the road when I do,” I said. “But are wild animals safe from those traps you set? I know that wolves live in packs around these parts—aren’t they in danger of setting off those traps too?”
“Nah, they’ll be all right! We put up fences around the traps and sprayed them with scents that the animals around here steer clear of. Huh? Oh, lemme guess: What’s the point of a trap with a fence around it, right? Well, when monsters set their eyes on you it’s full speed ahead, fences be damned! They’ll plow right through most traps, even if they’re right out in the open! But even if they do avoid our traps, there’s only so many directions they can go, and all of them lead to a ballista or ten!”
Barnite’s laughter echoed loudly all over again, and he started showing me around and explaining everything. He always seemed to know what I wanted to ask and answered my questions before I could ask them. I figured it was just one of the guy’s unique characteristics.
“Huh?” he said at one point. “I know, I know—why have magical stone ballistae, right? Well, there are so many monsters around here that we can’t go through ’em fast enough. So our furnaces, our ballistae, and soon enough our sewer system will all be magically powered!”
Barnite seemed to think they’d build up a surplus pretty quick, but he warned that I should stay away unless I had business here. He said it was because of the miasma.
“Even a little miasma won’t be good for you or your steed,” explained Barnite. “We cavekin have our beards, and everybody else has some magical energy so they’ll be okay. You and Sir Ben just need to be a little more careful than the others.”
Barnite paused for a second, taking in my expression.
“Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “Magic can fend off miasma? Well, the answer is mostly yes—when there’s only trace amounts of miasma in the air, anybody with magic flowing through their body changes it into magical energy. Oh? Yeah, don’t ask, I know—magic and miasma are two sides of the same coin. When people run out of magic, they replenish it by absorbing miasma and converting it.”