Chapter 298 - Mine

As they tip toed their way down to the second tunnel at the right wing, the cold stone flooring beneath their feet reminded Jone of one of her foul past traumas. Cold has victimized more than one can count, but Jone is a victim who survived.

When she discovered her powers at 12 years old, she fled so her parents won't get in trouble. As mentioned before, they've accepted her the way she is. Including her step father who was an ill.u.s.tratio, but the word about her newly discovered abilities spread wide.

And the illas intervened right away, if it wasn't for the fact that her father was wealthy, they would have burned their house down along with everyone in the family. Status and power indeed works for the best, but they wanted Jone's head.

Seeing her chances, she fled the Kingdom for a different fate. The illas would eventually cause traumatizing trouble to her family, and with her abilities she felt capable enough to survive. But then, Winter struck the continent.

She camped in the forest at that time, a branch smaller compared to what Ignis has to offer. She found herself under the mercy of the blistering cold, about 30 years ago it was a bit colder at winter compared to what winters they are facing now.

She had a little shelter out of twigs and big leaves, it was enough to keep half of the rain or snow out but it nearly wasn't enough to provide enough heat for a human being to survive. Even for a Fire Controller, it was too much to handle.

At that time, she wasn't qualified as a level three Fire Controller but only stood with Level one. At that time, she couldn't even blast an entire Fireball. But could only blast enough Fire from her fingers to start a Campfire, come to think of it people of this level typically wouldn't be allowed to blast fire at that level when in schooling.

Getting to the point, thanks to that winter she had to cut three of her toes because of Frostbite. Her toes felt lifeless and ironically it felt better to cut them off than keep them. As if cold and hunger weren't enough to crush her spirit, but amputation too? It was even harder to face such a situation alone.

As for Clarry, she too has some memories with such blistering cold but thankfully didn't loose any toes. Everyone in this tribe had to camp in the winter eventually, but thankfully Clarry had a bit more luck. She was found by Mollara over 10 years ago in the forest, when this tribe wasn't even a tribe. At that time it was only Mollara, her two kids and Clarry, it is fair to say that they share a strong bond.

As they walked just a few meters deep in the second tunnel, they found out that it is rather different here compared to everything else. The floor beneath their feet isn't made of perfectly cut rock but out of dirt instead. From the looks of it this could be a mine, it became more certain when they saw a couple of Iron tailed pickaxes near each other set up straight.

Inverted enough, Iron seemed to be more common here than wood so the tails are made of Iron. The temperature up in these mountains is so cold that vegetation has it hard to grow, meaning trees have it hard to grow. However it is not impossible, Spruce trees are known to handle these low temperatures.

Good enough, these trees are usually large so it makes getting enough wood easy. Getting back to the case, this mine already started to become difficult to handle or at least more time consuming. They've met with a three way tunnel, and a fourth thing caught most of their attention.

20 meters deep where these ways split, they found an Iron cart tipped over. This cart has carried metal Iron ore, it became easy to spot since there are over 50 ores spilled near it. And since Iron ore doesn't rust, this is completely usable. Osira will surely love this.

Giving their surroundings a better glance, in the main tunnel they noticed a skeleton. Approaching closer they figured out that it is a Snow Ignite skeleton, or at least it looks human.

"Look, this one died with a Pickaxe on his hand." Jone spoke, feeling no sympathy for this man who was bested by a Demon.

"Yes." Clarry assured, and giving the skeleton a further look trying hard not to touch it. She added, "Looks like he took a hit on the chest, his Ribcage is broken."

Broken in pieces actually, it looks as if a Demon came by and pulled this man's soul out of his body with a swing. Three of the Skeleton's ribs are broken and the rest are cracked, no human would be able to withstand such a hit with hopes of survival.

At this rate they both found it great that none of their tribe was victimized by these Demons, the scene wouldn't be pretty and the victim or victims would face a strong trauma before death.

Walking nearly 30 meters deeper, taking a detailed look of the tunnel surrounding them. It was well established that there isn't any ore here. Considering how much Iron they threw out to melt, it points out that this mine could be very extensive.

But bad enough, they've met a dead end once sinking 20 more meters deep when they picked the main tunnel to explore, and what was the result? More skeletons! However, this one doesn't look Human.

"Look at the claw of this thing!" Clarry felt just a little bit amazed but at the same time feeling glad that this Demon is as good as dead.

When grabbing the claw, it easily disconnected from the rest of the Skeleton and ended up on her palm. At least now she can get a better look, it is odd how she didn't want to touch a Human skeleton but has no trouble holding a Demonic one on her hand.

Spotting a rock on the ground spanning a foot wide, she firmly held the claw and aimed her force towards the rock. This sudden impact forced for a couple of pieces from this rock to be chipped off! "It is still in tact." Clarry referred to the Demon bone and noticed that Jone is keeping her distance from it.

"Just touch it Jone it is nothing to be scared off." Clarry insisted with a bit of enthusiasm, even trying to tease her a bit just to raise the mood. She doesn't seem like she wants to be here or anywhere else for that matter.

"No thanks, I've got a good look at the other one here underneath the rumble." Jone took a couple of steps back before she pointed at the Demon a few meters close to them.

"Do you think these Demons caused a Collapse?" Clarry asked after, once coming to agreement that nothing will make Jone willingly touch Skeletons, she even carried thick rotten lumber instead of any lighter in weigh skeleton. "I don't think it is a coincidence that there are underneath the dirt and rock."

"Maybe they did." Jone gave it a little thought and swiftly pointed out. "But even if they didn't it doesn't matter, this still means that our tribe would have to dig through this rumble."

Less curious and more of a realist, that describes Jone. Or it could be that she just wants to get out of this tunnel, it tends to get scary with all the Skeletons around. Furthermore who can prove that this tunnel won't collapse once more?

The support beams who hold the tunnel up seem in tact, so Clarry's theory is that the Demons rushed to a support beam and caused this collapse. They can't dig through the tunnel themselves considering the rusty pickaxes who can cause quite an infection, and the fact that this would require more helping hands.

So they turned around and decided to explore more of this Iron mine. There are only two mining tunnels left to explore as much as they know, it would be an idea to split up and explore both sides but not a good one.

They both made their way to the left side, and like the main one this shows no ore on its walls full of little rocks and dirt. As for support beams, they are perfectly placed 10 meters away from each other.

30 meters deep, they found another dead end and this one doesn't look like it collapsed since there aren't any skeletons around. It could be a natural cause, but Clarry was paying enough attention to figure out what happened.

"This Support beam is covered with dirt almost completely!" Clarry pointed out with a lot of enthusiasm, because she felt happy of her perception.

She grabbed Jone's attention by tapping the wood on it, until she answered. "So, what does that mean?"

"It means that there is more behind this little collapse, we could be finding a lot more Iron ore."