Chapter 443 - Kyanite

As they slowly but surely made their way down the long staircase through this underground structure, their expectations were forced to be shunned really.

It's not that they have nowhere else to go, but although they've spent the last half an hour walking and sliding down this Staircase, they've only counted two more passages, one of which is barricaded by time.

Feels like a small reward considering they've just overcome a 300 foot long staircase! Why would the Ignites build a staircase this big and build nothing else near it?

It is tricky to learn this place's history, almost impossible in some aspects but such acts occur only when something goes wrong. As if they were forced to abandon this specific work mid construction.

At the last few stairs there is more dirt, overwhelming this ancient architecture and at the very end of the Staircase there is no Stone wall, just dirt. 

So this either means that this piece of the Castle has been discontinued or perhaps a large collapse has forced a Barricade to initiate.

Regardless of this fact, as I mentioned there is a passage Kazer and Dilli can take. At the bottom right side of the Staircase, there is a little hole of a Tunnel with its destination unknown. But this one is only 4 foot wide and tall so it inevitably means that they both will  need to crawl this one through.

Letting out a loud 10 second sigh, Kazer complained. "I have to crawl again?"

Walking near the Tunnel, bursting more Fire from her palm to hopefully see if the other side is a few feet away. Disappointed, she expressed. "Well it doesn't look like I'm any luckier."

Recalling a previous safety mistake, she added. "I will crawl in front of you, at least I can see any Demon coming."

"Good idea." Kazer assured, not wanting to kiss another Demon. That was probably the worst experience of his life, and he saw his own people die. Which really says something.

Crawling about 30 meters into the Tunnel, both Kazer and Dilli noticed something about the architectural values of this Tunnel. There is no Value.

It's just mostly dirt, with rock spreading around here and there which is really giving their knees a lesson. Well Dilli barely paid attention to how this Tunnel is shaped, but Kazer could notice everything.

50 meters into the Tunnel, Kazer decided to say something about this. "I don't think this Tunnel is a man made structure, it's just so clumsily dug. Maybe Demons clawed this Tunnel open, they can chip rock after all."

More worried about her knees, Dilli doesn't really care of who made this Tunnel but of course she has kind ways of expressing her thoughts too. "It's no big deal, if it leads us to the Demons then it doesn't have to be fancy."

Scarce conversations helped pass time yes, but they are now 100 meters into this Tunnel and they haven't yet found the end of it. Of course they have no way of measuring how many meters they crawled, to them this is just becoming harder to tackle by the passing minute.

200 meters into the Tunnel, Dilli finally gives in but of course doesn't give up. "We need to pause, I'm sure my knees are bleeding right now."

His knees hurting, but not as much as Dilli's due to natural stronger endurance his race shares. Kazer stopped close to her and encouraged. "Take as much time as you need. This task is taking longer than we wanted it to anyway."

Taking her fur leggings off, but still having leather pants on don't worry. She pulled her leather pants up, partially resting her back on the Tunnel's wall. "Yes they are bleeding."

Taking his big fur coat off, and then his Leather Jerkin too. He ripped a piece of leather with his bare hands and handed it to her. "This should be enough to patch your knees up."

Ripping a bit of his fur coat too, he gave this one to her as well. "Use this to protect your knees, It's Brown Bear Fur."

A thanks is in order yes, but instead she found it best to complain. "How come your knees aren't bleeding?"

Confused, especially since he has pants and leggings on, Kazer asked. "How do you know they aren't bleeding?"

"Oh please, I've smelled blood a thousand times. At the moment I can only smell mine." Uncomfortable piece of information, but she did prove a point... or complaint.

Patching up, they continued to go through this punishing Tunnel and just after going over 100 more meters they've actually found the light at the end of the Tunnel.

A 300 meter long Tunnel they had to crawl through, well this certainly won't be something they will soon forget. While almost reaching the end, Kazer thought. "This is worse than kissing a Demon."

That aside, where they ended up to actually has a bit of light. No natural reasons no, but a Demonic carcass is dimly burning right near the entrance, with it's back resting on a Gem encrusted wall.

"Who could have burned these Demons? Did you bring Eric with you too?" This is wildly puzzling, because Fire is the Source of this Demon's death.

There is a huge hole on the left side of its chest, and its left arm is completely blown off. This is no natural cause. 

Paying little attention to the Demon and more curious of the stonework here, Dilly just casually blasted a 1 foot wide Fireball, exploding the Demon's head and asked. "What kind of wall is this? I've never seen a blue wall before."

Enrooting attempts to not get his own noggin blown off, Kazer decided to share his wisdom. "It's Kyanite. Technically a stone but can be formed in to a shiny gem."

"How could you possibly know that? I've never seen a gem like this before, this is literally a wall!" She has it hard to put two and two together here, although she knows a bit about gems.

"We discovered a few hundred Kilos 300 or so years ago deep in the mines of the old Lan Zhe. The elders of that time held a Ignite man Hostage, and sent his friend to check the Market price for this Gem." Not the best work coming from a Peaceful Race, but it's for the means of curiosity.

"That's low... but at least you figured something out I guess." Dilli answered, toying with the Fire on her palm, giving it more Stamina and blunting the odds of light versus darkness. "How much do they sell for."

Well informed, Kazer explained something that does sound very stupid. "At that time they could be sold for 400 Gold Coins per kilo, but with no person of the outside world trustable enough to not scam us. We just threw everything in the Lava!"

"What!" Dilli shouted as the Fire on her palm arose 4 foot high, torching the Kyanite ceiling on top of her head! "Your Town could have made a fortune!"

As they've started walking through the straight, 8 foot wide hallway this structure has to offer. Kazer expressed, "Trust me I wasn't on the same side with that decision, but at least now they are worth a lot more. Over 1,000 per kilo maybe."

With the thought of debt running through his mind due to mentioning gold over and over, he stated. "We will mine this place after we get out, ask King Michael to send a few Wagons. His Kingdom is struggling thanks to helping everyone, this should give him a huge head start!"

Although she likes King Michael as a person, towards this idea all she can say is. "You're mad! These walls are cut and smoothed. Who knows how heavy they are, you can make millions!"

Denoting at what mostly looks like a Skeleton, carrying weld due to the little meat on its bones. Kazer stated, "A skeleton, It's in shackles too! I think this was a Dungeon."

Juggling decisions between touching this smelly thing or moving on, they took a sharp right turn as that one path met an end. 

This tunnel like structure continues to be 8 foot wide and maybe even 8 foot tall but fast enough they've actually found another passage to go to and a little room featuring book shelves made out of Kyanite stone.

Well it's just Carved Kyanite, carved into the wall so it can hold 30 or so books but it's still fancy and such although likely a few hundred years old if not Thousands.

The Kyanite doorway leading to the room, is parallel with the passage they will be taking. To make it clear, the passage is on the left side of this hallway and the room is on the right side. While in front they see that this hallway continues and takes another right turn.

Although just 3 books intact, Kazer opened one book and saw how the wordplay is forged to reticulate. Rhymes sort of bit, pointing towards Poetry but seems a bit more advanced than that. He stated. "Yes, this is too written in Calidum Lutum."

Dilli tried to read through another book, but absolutely nothing makes sense to her which is a bit funny because she has lived a few months in the Old Lan Zhe.

It would be a bit of a misdeal to stop here and read the books cover to cover considering that they haven't found the portal yet. So she took her back pack off and said, "Put the books in here, you can read them later."