Chapter 184 - A new possible income.

About three Hours later with around 15 more Torches burned, the Guards managed to make a rough estimation of the Cave's size.

They figured out that the bottom part of the Cave, is around 40 meters across from one point to the other. The triangular form which starts on the bottom right side, stretches about 30 meters before it makes another sharp turn towards the exact opposite direction. However, that sharp turn is followed by a Wall that is a lot shorter before it meets the top Wall of the Cave. It might sound wildly confusing, but it really isn't if you read it a couple more times and try to think of a visual representation of it in your mind.

If the Cave's length was measured exactly from the sharp turn, it would range about 50 Meters across. Imagine the Torches they need to illuminate all of that space! Luckily the Town doesn't need to Mine out 10 tons of Coal a day! However, getting back to measurements. Although the Cave is quite long when measured horizontally, it's a bit different when measured Vertically. By that, I don't mean the Cave's height. I mean it as from the Rope to whatever width is in front.

When they tried to measure from where they first dropped the Rope, it only seemed to be around 30 meters wide when they reached the other side of the Cave. More specifically, when they reached the Cave wall in front of them.

30 Meters however, wasn't the final estimation when they discovered some other portions of the front wall. Some portions sunk forward making portions of the Cave a bit smaller in Vertical Width. But most though expanded forward, which only made the Cave bigger. So the best way to describe the Cave's width vertically from one edge to the other, is 30 to 40 meters.

The width no doubt interesting, but they got shocked by a new discovery standing about 20 meters in front of the Rope. They discovered a wide hole, ranging around 8 meters horizontally and 3-6 meters vertically. As for how deep down it is, the Torch's illumination radius couldn't reach the end of this hole so it indeed became only more promising.

One Guard even threw a Chunk of Coal down there but couldn't figure out a proper estimation. Once he yelled that it is 15 meters deep, the second time he stated that he couldn't hear the Chunk of Coal reach the Cave Ground, as if it didn't have an impact at all. And on the third attempt he felt quite sure that it is around 20 meters deep. They didn't really find a good way to measure it yet, but it isn't a problem to worry about now with all this Coal around!

Infact, a lot of the holes they found were too deep for the Torch's light to reach as well. But they were less wide, most of which ranged around 1 meters. These little holes can be connected to the big one, or lead to another bigger or smaller portions. We can't really be sure without exploring them. We need to take it into consideration that they could be resourceless dead ends as well. Here it isn't predictable, one has to see with his or her eyes in order to be absolutely sure.

The entire team felt glad to finally make a better estimation of the Second Section's size though, and as much as they wanted to explore that large hole, they had to call it a day! Dusk is close and they are all tired. It's not the wisest idea to walk around a Cave with several deep holes, tired. This can turn for the worse in a blink of an eye. One minute you explore the Cave, the other minute it becomes a rescue situation. They can't take chances.

These Guards have done their part, but they left the Rope there, no need to remove it. They will need it for countless more times, or at least other teams bringing different crafts down here will use it too! With no proper Staircase, everyone needs to use the Rope instead. Luckily though, no Rope malfunction struck them mid climb, they all made it out safe and in one piece. 

Now their next step shall be to bring as much Construction Workers down here as possible. Because without a firm set of stairs to their aid, they can't carry the small Crates of Coal out of the Cave. Without these Cheaply built but yet essential Stairs, their productivity rate will be small no matter how many individuals the Mining team has. But if one Miner for example, fills a small Crate with 50 Kilograms of Coal and gets it out of the Cave himself, it would be a lot more profitable in many different aspects. The Miner would be independable, since the Town doesn't have enough people to afford Teamwork it would greatly work to their advantage.

The next morning, it was up to Gustav to establish a bigger team who can build that Staircase. He has full authority to do so, this will be difficult to do though. Because the Construction Workers already have a lot of Houses to improve, that should be set as a priority because they can't risk for people to freeze, they can't depend on March or on the Weather either.

Apart from the houses, they need to work on the General Storage room (Or best described, Building.) For a few more days in order to increase its size and overall quality, they want to make it look nice. Technically they are spending more time on it than they are supposed too, but there are more items than the Building can fit so it is worth the time. It is the definition of productivity.

To make it more overwhelming, they are working on another Building too! A new one they are building from scratch. The Business that was close to making a big impact before the Coal Cave was discovered, specifically the Tailoring Business. This building needs a bit more time since its supposed to give enough work space for 20 Women, plus it requires a Storage Room connected to it.

The entire Construction team is quite stretched. To make it worse, Gustav wants to put them on two new projects. One is the Staircase of course, and the second is mass Crate production. They will need a way to transport all of this Coal, the Wagons will aid of course but they can't just throw the Coal on it randomly. They need Cubic Crates, appropriately sized as well so they can fit it in a Wagon properly. The Crates can't be too heavy either, they don't need to carry half a Ton of Coal in one of them.

So his plan is for Crates who are 1 meter Tall and Wide to be constructed. When they are filled with Coal all the way up, it will weigh around 200 Kilograms depending how they fit in the Coal. It is a nice plan and it doesn't require an insane amount of Planks either, just enough people to make them.

It will be easy to load the Crates here near the Cave, they can simply put an empty Crate on a Wagon and fill it with the aid of smaller Crates (That can carry 50 Kilograms of Coal for example.), as for when they unload them on the port, they would require 4-6 people to unload one of Crates. A Wagon can fit 3 of these 1 meter tall Crates, the Horse won't have a problem to pull them though as long as the Road isn't too disastrous.

As for setting up new teams, he will need to put all of the unemployed people to work temporarily with a promised small reward at the end of each task. He can't grant all of them a permanent job as Construction Workers, they will only be needed now when there is a lot too doo! With only 250 permanent residents living here, there won't be much to do after all of these bundles of tasks.

But to build Crates for example, an official team is required. Not too though large, 5 individuals should do it. Since the town is generally low on free hands, Gustav found it very reasonable to put women to this task. Anyone can do this job with a bit of experience after we put the gender stereotypes aside, it isn't physically tiring either.

These Women know the townsfolk so it wouldn't cause any unnecessary drama when we consider the fact that they will have to cooperate with the Lumberjacks(Who are Male.) in order to get wooden Planks appropriate for their job. They will be considered as heroes if they make 10 Crates a day, that can literally carry a ton of Coal Chunks. The lack of Wagons will prove as a problem though, every Revolutionary Domain here suffers the lack of Wagons.

Since these Ladies have no experience whatsoever, a Construction Worker from Pameres Kingdom has to teach them until they get the basics down. It wouldn't take too long to teach them how to make Crates, it is rather basic. However since making Crates is time consuming and requires an official team of Constructors and costs a bit of lumber too, Gustav found it best to charge for the Crates per delivery. Since they can't take them back and will always need to make new ones per every order of 200 Kilograms!