Tom’s Tunnel Exploration
Considering what needed to be done, Tom was worried. Adam was hurt, and while he was sure if he pushed the man, he'd go right back down to those tunnels with him, he also knew that wasn't the best idea. Everyone needed time to heal.
He'd seen far too many people try to push themselves further than their body was capable, and that only ended with them hurting themselves in ways that altered their lives forever. That was one of the problems with construction. There were too many kids who thought they were immortal, mixed with desperate people who would do anything for some extra cash. How those two types would fit in this new world they lived in was something that had hit his idle thoughts every so often since this started.
So, with Adam needing time to heal and the others busy with everything else they needed to do, that left Tom as the only real choice to get a quick mapping of these tunnels. Somewhere in his mind, he knew that wasn't entirely true. There were others who could help him. In fact, he could probably bring along Ash. He had seen her do things with a bow that rivaled Adam with his sword during the night of the battle. But at the same time, the idea of a series of unmapped tunnels below the city was just something that called to him.
Before he was willing to descend back down there, though, he needed equipment. He filled his backpack with a few tools he thought would be most useful, a couple of his smaller picks, some chalk, and the writing supplies for a rudimentary map. For good measure, he tossed in some rope and a few sticks. They'd make quick-burning emergency torches if needed.
The biggest problem he foresaw with these homemade torches was finding the right material to wrap them. He had plenty of oil for soaking and was pretty sure his handheld staple gun would work fine for attaching the material. But that assumed he could find plenty of pure cotton clothing he was willing to use for this. Any sort of plastic material would melt and destroy the longevity of the torch.
Luckily, one of the boxes of rags we dug out of one of the partially destroyed houses seemed to burn perfectly. Grabbing a good-sized stick, he stapled one end of the rag onto it and then tightly wound the rest of the rag around the stick. He then added a couple more staples to cap it off and set it inside a bucket to soak in oil. Quickly repeating that process three more times finished up Tom's preparations.
“And just where do you think you're going?” The old Goblin asked, as Tom neared the sinkhole.
He was still debating how exactly he felt about these Goblins. The fact that Adam had apparently lived a life in another world before Earth and already knew them wasn't sitting as easy with him as it was with the others, but he was willing to look past it for now. There were just far too many more pressing concerns than the fact that someone who lived among them for so many years was an alien.
Why hadn't the comic books he'd read so often prepared him for something like this? Or maybe they had, and he just wasn't adjusting well. Once they got this tower in place, he decided it was best he took some downtime and got some reading in. Since Adam pulled him out of that dungeon, he had been working nonstop at one project or another, and a man only had so much focus before he needed leisure.
“Someone needs to get the immediate tunnels mapped out before the slugs have a chance to repopulate them. And Adam certainly isn't in any shape to do it, but it's gotta get done,” Tom replied matter-of-factly.
Grimbleflork's eyes moved across Tom, as he got the feeling the Goblin was sizing him up for something. Finally, his eyes moved to Tom's eyes, and he lifted a hand to scratch his long white beard. “Alright, guess I'm coming with you then. Kid will be pissed if I let any of his people die.”
“You sure that's a good idea? I don't really know how Goblins work, but you seem a bit old for something like this,” Tom replied, considering more or less the same thing Grimbleflork had just said to him. If he let the old goblin die down there, Adam would be pissed.
“I ain't going to pretend I was ever any kind of fighter. But I've known my way around a tunnel or two, and I can't see a world where my inexperience at fighting isn't still better than whatever you're doing. Plus, we both know my boys are gonna be helping you get the building done that needs to be done, so one of us needs to see what's going on down there,” Grimbleflork replied.
Tom had to concede that the man had a point. The Goblin was old enough that he was a mentor of Adam before he came to Earth. That meant he knew more than probably everyone here about what was going on. It looked like he wouldn't be spelunking alone today.
“Fine. You got a point. Let's get moving then,” Tom said.
“You two, watch the rope up here if we're not back by nightfall, break the news to Adam that he's got to come rescue us again. Maybe hold that news off to the morning so we can get some more rest, though. Unless you think we're really dying, tell them sooner. Probably. I don't know, you make the call,” Grimbleflork said, calling over two of his men.
Grabbing the rope he had used to climb back to the surface this morning, Tom made his way back down in the dark depths. Before leaving the light and while waiting for his companion to join him, he pulled out a flint lighter from his pocket and ignited one of the torches.
He had borrowed the igniter from Adam's camping gear the day they lit the bonfires and had been holding on to it since. It was something he had never had reason to keep in his tool kit, but now, given the near end of the world, he really wished he'd taken the time to make an emergency kit for survival situations. But that regret was well past time to do anything about.
“So I already know where that way goes, and considering it's back out under the woods anyway, let's call that explored enough for now,” Tom said as he passed the torch to the goblin and pulled out his writing supplies. That was a benefit to having someone else with him. He didn't have to try to hold the torch and draw at the same time.
“Yeah, I agree. We'll build the foundations of the tower down to here, reinforce it pretty strongly, and just set an outward door going towards that tunnel. We'll have to explore whatever the hell that jungle is down there, I heard about eventually, but we can probably put that off for a while now,” Grimbleflork agreed, holding the torch out in front of him.
Taking the tunnel that led directly back into the neighborhood, Tom continued mapping as they moved. He was glad for the lack of small talk as it let him focus on the smallest cracks. He didn't want to miss any potential infiltration points. How they'd seal those cracks up, he wasn't sure yet, but he still wanted it noted down for once they began.
“You hear that?” Grimbleflork asked, stopping suddenly.
Tom didn't. But he wasn't surprised. The goblin likely had a far greater perception than he did. “No.”
“There's flowing water somewhere ahead, I think. Can't be sure, but it's what it sounds like.”
Tom looked down at the map and looked further down the tunnel. “We aren't that far off where the river would be above ground, and it goes incredibly deep, as far as I can tell. There might be an opening to it down here. There would have to be a strange chamber not to flood the tunnel complex.”
There were several ways he could envision it happening. He'd seen enough plumbing setups to know you can make water flow very strangely if you tried hard enough. Toss magic into the equation, and who knew what was happening.
“There's something about that river I don't like. I'm guessing the kids told you something similar as well. Let's be careful getting any closer.”
Tom nodded at the warning but continued on down the tunnel undeterred. Had the warning included anything about monsters, he had considered turning back, but for the moment, he was willing to press on. The more of this they could do today, the easier the future would be.
Nearing the end of their current tunnel, they spotted a faint light in the distance. There was a dull illumination at the very end of the passage they were in. Grimbleflork looked at Tom and shrugged, so they continued on. Had they found another entrance to that strange jungle?
The light had an odd blue hue to it that became much more apparent once they reached the next chamber and saw just what the source of it was. This new area was the largest open chamber he had seen in these tunnels so far. And at its center was an odd circular waterfall that was flowing from cracks above straight down through cracks in the floor below. In the center of it was a large glowing blue crystal.
“What the hell is that?” he asked, turning to Grimbleflork.
“Something that shouldn't be here. But it's almost certainly what those acid slugs have been after. That is natural, unrefined, crystallized mana. You only see that in really old integrated worlds. And that's a lot of it. That right there is enough to make all of us rich beyond our wildest dreams,” he answered.
“So what do we do with it?” This was the first thing down here that actually made Tom truly nervous. Finding something akin to the gold rush was always a dangerous prospect. You didn't know what people were capable of when the possibility of extreme wealth suddenly came into the picture.
“We do nothing. We tell Adam about it, and then we secure this area up as much as we can. For one thing, I ain't got the right tools to mine anything like that without killing us all, but for another, leaving it down here to grow could be pretty beneficial. If we can tap into any of the energy it's letting off, it's gonna make building this little faction of Adam's a whole hell of a lot easier.”
Tom raised an eyebrow. If this was as powerful as the Goblin claimed, why was it here under their neighborhood? “How did this even end up here?”
“I ain't got the slightest idea. Shouldn't be here, I'm sure of that. Usually, the worlds that are pulled in during an integration don't have much of a mana flow at all. They certainly don't have anything strong enough to produce something like this. But all I can figure is that, for whatever reason, the System itself put it here. Monsters are already being drawn to it, so maybe it was some attempt to balance against Adam and his damn sword.”
“Should we keep mapping this out or head back?” Tom asked, hoping Grimbleflork would agree with his unvoiced desire. He wanted to get out of here. If this crystal was attracting monsters, they needed to get to work sealing this place off immediately.
“I think you already know the answer to that. We got to get the boys and get to work on separating these tunnels out now. We can't risk any monster getting near this thing.”
Tom nodded, knowing there was going to be a long night and a lot of work ahead of him. He was going to be tired tomorrow, but some things had to be done when they had to be done.