The next morning, Jason headed out early because the mine and quarry were on the other side of the city. Because, believe it or not, the nature churches aren’t a fan of such a “perversion of nature”. Which, to be fair, yeah, kind of is. Not many other ways you can describe practically strip-mining a small cliff and then using magic to put it all back so you can do it again.
At least, the trek across the city was an experience and a half. There was an ever-changing number of entities being worshipped in the city. Each with their own preferences for how their place of worship should look and when the entire city is wall to wall worship? Well, that can lead to some wild clashes of color and beliefs.
The first is a feast for the eyes. The second is a secondary reason to leave early. After all, kind of hard to get somewhere on time if your way is blocked. Not necessarily by fights, though that does happen, but mostly by groups both large and small arguing in the middle of the streets.
This first day, though, he makes good time with minimal use of side streets. And while Jason had not actually visited the place, he certainly knew it when he saw it.
To call the place a small cliff wasn’t far off. There was a natural hill backing it all, but besides that the place looks like someone set down a stone brick. On one side, there were numerous holes drilled into the surface, while the other side looked almost like the side of a pyramid or a staircase for giants. The people handling the quarry had started at the top edge and taken row after row of stone cubes out.
Remnants of those first stone blocks are evident along the front as it seems they didn’t bother moving them. Instead, having just pushed them off, letting them shatter below. Now, though, that isn’t an option and so this is where people like Jason come into play. Though there isn’t really a system. You just show and haul rocks.
Not that all the quarried blocks are full-size. Which from where Jason is standing, seems to be three meters to a side. There are some training their skills by splitting the full-size blocks into smaller cubes either a meter to a side or a meter and a half, depending on their skill level.
Of course, because this breaking down of larger blocks is being done by the less skilled, they aren’t always that successful and so anyone can help remove the loose stone.
Jason glances over at the mine, but isn’t interested in that as they use mine carts to carry out the stone and ore. That now out of his mind, he heads directly over to the front of the workspace and begins to scale the “steps”.
Though he isn’t the only one. A number of the haulers are here for a similar reason to Jason’s. Not to train their stats, but to work on technique and Skills. So they’re doing all kinds of crazy things on the way up and down.
Some jump up multiple steps at once. Others are walking up the sides as if it was flat ground. And going down is, if anything, more varied. Teams of people slowly lug full-sized blocks down the ramps. Some people are pushing blocks by themselves either down the ramps or simply over the sides, which makes climbing a little more dangerous than it has to be. Oh, and of course there is the occasional person grabbing a block by themselves and carrying it down.
Jason’s plan was more along the lines of that last one. In fact, he was a little surprised that more people weren’t doing that? Sure, not everyone had hundreds of points in their strength and the full-sized cubes weigh about 70 tonnes, but the smallest should weigh less than three tonnes.
Sure, irl the limits for weightlifting had stayed around a half tonne for a long while and even now tended to cap out at a single tonne even with military drugs. Well, when unassisted. Obviously if you’re going beyond base human flesh that opens up some doors.
But this is NeoRealm. Stats are literally magical. They reinforce the body in ways beyond the physical. Maybe he can’t lift the full-sized blocks, but the meter and a half blocks? Those probably weigh less than ten tonnes and so, while a slog, he should be able to carry them around.
Whatever the reason others aren’t doing it, Jason soon arrives in the area where the lower-skilled workers are cutting up the blocks. A quick look around shows there are more than a few to move and there isn’t a line or anything. So he walks up to one of the meter and a half cubes. It isn’t taller than him, but the width of the cube means it certainly doesn’t feel small.
A few people look his way before turning back to their own tasks.
A quick walk-around shows Jason where he needs to lift from. The side that had started away from him had a chunk along the bottom broken off. Which was enough to ensure the stone edge wasn’t digging into his gut when carrying the block.
Though after positioning himself to lift the block, he realizes it blocks his view. A dangerous thing at the best of times, which this certainly was not.
With a frown, Jason circled the block again before deciding on a new plan. He crouches down next to the block, facing away from it, and works to get his fingers under the block. This takes some effort, but with a little help from an energy burst under the block to bounce it up, Jason soon has the block on his back.
Not that this is particularly safe either, but at least he can now see what is coming. Which is enough for him and so Jason is soon slow-walking down the ramps to deposit the block at the bottom, out of the way.