Chapter 187: Moving Mines (1/2)

After nearly two hours of splitting clones and running around, Rino concluded that these mines were alive. Or, in a way, they moved. They might not actually be alive like those living caves.

It was simply an engineering masterpiece, and even gnomes would not be able to match their genius invention. The rooms in the mines had no traces of spells or mana. Everything was created with the power of science.

Rino had to admit, the dwarves managed to fool him well for a while when none of his clones returned after the first batch. As it turned out, the dwarves cleverly designed three levels of mazes that would stall intruders who did not know their way. There was only one true path to walk, and Rino took two hours to understand how it worked.

Basically, he shouldn't be following the path left or right. The right answer to finding a secret shaft going all the way down into the depth of the mines was back at the docks. It had something to do with the dwarven pods and broken tube.

Rino found it by chance, but he had to admit, boredom inspired many things. He retraced his steps to see if there was something he missed out at the docks and tripped over the tube that pulled a lever hidden in a wall. The right passageway was revealed, and Rino found himself calling off his hardworking clones as he walked down the stairs to the actual dwelling.

Nothing in the upper levels of the mines were important. Rino did not know how deep the mine was, but he started to come across more tampered grounds and walls that were clearly the work of dwarves.

This was where the true adventure began!

As the cavern expanded and the space widened at the bottom of the long flight of stairs, Rino found himself staring at a station full of tracks and minecarts. He knew that the dwarves often invented machines and tools to make their jobs easier. It was the main reason why Rino found himself curious about them even in this world. He wasn't disappointed to find such a complicated transportation system even if it screamed disorganised.

Rino learned from experience and did not hop onto any minecarts. In his previous world, he was subjected to some rather bad experience in the form of exhilarating half-built minecart tracks with half-assed reassurance from his good friend. They ended up plummeting into a ravine in the mines, and Rino barely saved them both from death using magic after they missed the usual landing spot.

Apparently, his dwarven friend forgot to consider the weight difference between a dwarf and a human when he claimed that his minecart system never failed before. Rino never trusted the dwarves' method of travelling after that and opted to fly instead. Minecart trains were out of the question, and last Rino heard, the dwarves started making plans to construct an actual steady rail path across that ravine instead of trusting the risky launch platform to get them across.

”Hopefully, they got it done and tested it before the world exploded,” Rino mused, feeling nostalgic as he summoned Mutt, who ran along the side of the minecart tracks.

They rode into a different section of the cave, and Rino noticed how the paths remained dimly lit even after it was abandoned. The dwarves were clever to use glow crystals instead of gas lamps. They must have learned how dangerous it was to use fire in a mine.

The first communal place that Rino found in this abandoned mine was a canteen or what used to be a canteen. There were a lot of wooden mugs that should be used to hold ale. The dwarves loved their ale, and Rino had a feeling that would never change no matter which world they existed in.

The barrels lined against the wall in a huge kitchen contained ale that had already turned bad. By now, it was more like vinegar and less like ale. Rino let it remain in the barrels. Even if the vinegar was good, he doubted anyone in his village wanted a taste of what decade-old vinegar tasted like.

Comparing the culinary progress between the dwarves and his empire, Rino had to admit that the dwarves were still a tad more advanced than him. They used fancy machines that controlled temperature without using fire runes for cooking food to a perfect temperature. In particular, their thinly curved metal blades used in rusted metal containers that spun at the bottom intrigued Rino. Perhaps this was a new kind of cutting method that he did not know about?

The lich picked that up and saved it in his shadow sack. He must have the earth gnomes examine it later and try to replicate whatever they could, using the dwarves as inspiration.

The canteen's interior decoration was mundane, but Rino noticed something else that piqued his interest. There were wire meshes over smaller holes in the ceiling and sometimes the floor. Rino wondered what that was for and tried to see what was inside. Unfortunately, the small tunnels were very bendy, and Rino could not tell what was inside them. He left them alone for now but promised to investigate it later when he mapped out the entire mine.