-The Mines [2]

-Drip -Drip -Drip

The sound of her blood falling against the floor was unmistakable to Lia, who clutched her face, all battered and broken.

Cain had easily healed the injuries on her legs and arms, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to walk, but her face proved to be more difficult than she thought.

'Why is it taking so long? It hurts..'

'Well, if someone wasn't so adamant about using their own body as a punching bag, then we wouldn't be here now would we?'

Of course, Cain being Cain, he didn't forget to leave out the patronizing remarks he threw at her. Though Lia couldn't blame him, after all, she was nearly beaten to the point of passing out.

But she never once took Cain for someone who cared about her wellbeing.

'I heard that. Now shut up and let me work.'

Ignoring his remarks, Lia focused on the issue at hand.

Currently, she, Lukali, Rian, and a number of his other mining buddies were speeding down the railway, going deeper into the mines.

After their unfortunate meeting, Rian had firmly apologized, claiming he was worried she was someone who was attempting to pounce on the opportunity of stealing from the mines.

Though the reasoning seemed a little far fetched to her, she honestly could have cared less about the whole ordeal. All she needed was information on the spider's den, and she got it. True it had cost her a good few minutes of immeasurable pain, but in some way she was excited.

'Masochist.'

'Shut up Mr. 'I want to see the world burn'. I got the information I needed, so that's all that matters. Plus, I'm excited for the hunt. It's the first time I've ever done things like this.'

Even when she was still a princess, Lia had never once known the outside world for what it really was.

These 'Hunts' as the Hunters called them, were foreign to her just as much as going to a tavern was. But she never outright admitted it, because doing so would give away too much information that she didn't want floating around.

This might be the first time in her whole life, since she was a child, that she would actually live.

'Your family probably thinks you're dead right about now. You have all the freedom that you want.'

Thinking over what Cain said, Lia was left dumbfounded. Not over the fact that information about her death had already made it around the homes of many high ranking officials, but also the people.

What really shocked her, was the fact that she hadn't even questioned it.

The other night she was dealing with the conflicted feelings of letting go of her family, but never once had the idea of actually being free from their grasp ever affected her.

She supposed that all this would end one day, and right back to her family she would go.

How naive she must have been.

A sharp turn on the speeding railway snapped Lia out of her thoughts, forcing her to grab onto the side rails, leaving her face exposed for anyone to see.

Rian, who had a full view of her face, turned his head in what looked to be a moment of shame, before he reached into his back pocket, and drew out a small glass bottle.

"Here. Drink this."

He said, passing her the bottle.

Hesitantly taking it, Lia peered through the glass and into the murky water, colored dark green with some herbal substance she could see floating around.

"Don't worry, it ain't poisoned."

Seeing her hesitance, Rian assured her that it was safe, quelling her worries.

"It's a potion. They make them in the merchant section of the city. I thought you would have known that."

Lia shook her head, still momentarily mesmerized by the liquid.

"I know what potions are, but I've never seen one before."

They had potions back in the palace, but she had never been allowed to see them, or even hold them. From what she gathered, potions were incredibly valuable resources, so they were often held within the palace treasury. A place she was never allowed to go into.

'Perhaps it was because they only had high class potions.'

Among all the potions in the world, there were only a handful of classed potions that could be named in rank. Regular, Modern, Historic, and Ancient.

Normally, the longer a potion exists, the higher the effects could be, as it took mana to create potions, leaving them to follow the law of mana.

The longer the mana in the potions had to settle, the more powerful the effects the mana would give off to the herbs and other ingredients mixed in. Therefore, it would be understandable if she wasn't allowed into the treasury, a place that must have held dozens of Ancient potions, which were considered to be incredibly rare and valuable.

"That's strange. You being a Hunter and all, I would have thought you used portions more often."

"Oh, uh..my summons happens to have some minor healing magic, so really I've never needed them."

Catching herself from letting anything else slip, Lia realized how close she came to almost losing the trust Rian had given her, though it was small.

Any Hunter would have understood the importance of potions, and for that matter would have definitely used them often in his or her lifetime. But for Lia, who openly admitted that she had never seen a potion before, could have been detrimental to her story.

"Your summons?"

For a moment, Rian seemed surprised that he was speaking to a summoner, but quickly changed topics.

"Khuem. Well, you'll be dealing with some troubles in the mines, so be on your guard."

"Troubles?"

Hearing Rian's worries, Lia turned to glance at Lukali, who was busy sorting through the weapons they had brought. A common issue with weapons when using them on hunts was that they had to be perfect in order for enough damage to be dealt in the right way.

If any chips or tints were etched into the blade, then it would be harder to cut through the skin of the spider, leaving them to use more effort to just kill one. And fatigue was a Hunter's fight against time.

At least that was what Cain told her.

"Yes, trouble. The miners will stay out of your way for as long as they can, but the higher ups don't understand the dangers of mining with those spiders in the tunnels."

"So they won't be too happy with me down there?"

"Oh no."

Rian shook his head, finding some amusement in the idea.

"They face even more troubles than we do. If we make a mistake in the mines, it's our lives. But if they have to deal with the mistake of slow shipments because of the spiders, they have to live with that mistake for the rest of their lives."

Whatever humor he found in his words, LIa could not place. Instead, she continued pressing for more information.

"How will we be able to get them all if they're all over the tunnels?"

"Haha. Don't worry, since the mines are underground these spiders can't tell day from night."

"What do you mean by that?"

Another sharp turn forced Lia to clutched the edges of the railing, catching a glimpse at the wide open cave that expanded out along her side.

"These spiders aren't cave spiders. Meaning they're more likely to appear on the surface of the ground than under it. Because of that, these spiders, which are nocturnal, aren't able to tell if it's night or day down here."

"So what does that mean for us?"

"If you find the den while they're still asleep, then you can strike before they've even woken up."

"But to do that we would have to assume the time they would be asleep at. Even then, we can't be sure about that."

Chuckling to himself, Rian reached into his back pocket and pulled out what looked to be a pipe and a tinder box.

Opening the tinder box, he lit the pipe and took in a big whiff of smoke before breathing out a deep sigh.

"For someone who's never seen a potion before, you certainly sound like a Hunter. A good one at that."

Shugging, Lia scratched the back of her head, looking for some form of an excuse. However, she didn't need to as Lukali answered for her.

"Her brother taught her how to be a Hunter, but even I haven't seen many potions in my life."

Hearing his reasoning, Rian nodded his head in agreement.

"True, true. Potions are hard to come by. But here in Neverdark we've got at least over a dozen apothecaries."

The idea of over a dozen summoners within the city did put Lia on edge, but then again, she had to take into account that Neverdark was a hub for merchant trade.

The idea wasn't too far-fetched.

"Are you a summoner?"

Snapping her back to reality, Rian's question made her freeze, but only for a moment, before she quickly tried regaining her composure, and hid her surprise.

"Well…yes."

She glanced back at Rian, looking for any changes in his appearance.

"Is that alright?"

"Alight? To me, it's preferred. I would rather have someone down there with a summons fighting, rather than a few nobodies who don't know what they're getting into."

Thankfully, Rian wasn't upset about the information, but rather seemed relieved. To Lia, she was already shocked to find some people within Kokono didn't like summoners. Much less going through the effort to avoid them.

However, it now appeared to her that these actions were only present in Kokono so far, and only seems to be in regard to competition between Hunters. This helped to ease Lia's concern.

"One more thing."

She asked as a sudden thought struck her.

"We will need to meet with the person who assigned this order. Just so they know we're going down there."

Chuckling, Rian looked back at his group of miners, before turning his attention back to Lia.

"After what I've just told you, do you really think that the higher ups will waste money trying to hire someone to deal with this threat?"

Confused, Lia thought back to their conversation from before. Knowing what Rian had said was true, she could only assume that the higher ups didn't see any problem with sending miners off to their deaths.

Which could only mean…

"Your saying…"

She drifted off as her eyes landed on Rian's smile.

"That's right. The higher ups and the people in charge have no problem sending us in there to die, then there's no reason for them to hire someone to deal with the issue. So we took matters into our own hands."

Rian, the man these miners looked to as a leader, was in fact also their savior. Hiring someone from the outside must have been no easy task, especially when he needed to do it in secret from the people in charge, otherwise they would force him to stop.

Letting the information that their mines were compromised, it might chase away potential or already outstanding investors and buyers. Something they probably wanted to ignore.

'He must have had a lot of trouble putting out that notice.'

"Hey Lia."

Interrupting her thoughts, Lia turned to Lukali, who had his hand outstretched to her.

"Would you mind letting me see that notice?"

"Oh, sure."

Reaching into one of her pockets, Lia withdrew a folded piece of small yellow paper.

Passing it to Lukali, he turned over the paper and silently read through its contents, unknowingly, causing the rest of the people present to remain silent, and wait for his jurisdiction.

After a while, satisfied, Lukali handed the notice back to Lia, who pocketed it once again, and waited for him to speak.

"The way most guilds work is when you want to put up a notice, you have to go to that specific guild and request access to the notice board. But just because it's posted in one guild, doesn't mean it will be in others. It's how the guilds compete against each other by taking in stronger people, in hopes that their reputation will bring more notices in."

"Your point?"

"My point is, the guild we found this notice in wasn't your average guild. In fact, Rot Walkers is meant to be an underground guild for those who don't want public appearance. So the fact that you chose an underground guild to harbor this notice, coupled with the way Rot Walker's kill count works, just seems a little far fetched."

Looking from Lukali to Rian, Lia could easily see the tension between them, as it bore a pressure in the air she didn't want to feel.

Lukali was obviously suspicious of Rian, but it seems that the feeling was mutual.

Lukali had told Lia that he needed reputation with the guilds, which was why they both agreed to the contracted deal, but now Lia couldn't help but think that there might be another reason.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because, for one we would be getting paid based on the amount of kills we take back, items we get, or any monster cores we obtain. The problem is, we are also getting paid the bounty of the notice. Because see, that's how guilds work. Bring them a monster body, and they'll buy it right off of you, but take on a noticed quest, and that money doubles."

"Your point?"

"My point is, why in the world would a miner like you, who probably makes a good amount of money, but clearly not enough for this, be placing up a 1,000 gold notice. That's enough money for the lot of you to retire on."

Catching the meaning of his words, Lia couldn't help but question Rian and his group as well.

Clearly she only paid attention to the fact that each body was worth three gold, a good sized amount for her, who had little to none. But if what Lukali was saying was the truth, then it meant that Rian, a man who probably didn't make any more than a dozen or so gold a year, wouldn't have nearly enough money to match 1,000.

Lukali was right. It all seemed just a little too far-fetched.

However, despite the seriousness of the situation, Rian simply chuckled, before bursting out in laughter.

"Pfft…Hahaha. You're right."

Instantly Lia froze, her mind moving to the darkest of thoughts, seeing this fit of laughter as his ploy to make a move.

'Calm down. There isn't anything to fear.'

However, thanks to Cain observing the situation, her fears went unchecked and died down as quickly as they came. Though, with a quick glance at Lukli, she could tell that not everyone was in the same boat as her.

With eyes wide, and Rian's voice booming out into the quiet atmosphere, she could see his fear plastered over his face, as he glanced at her with questions in his eyes.

'Did I take it too far?' his eyes asked .

Shaking her head, Lia looked back to the group of miners, who were currently steering the large minecart down the rail way.

'If something had happened they would have moved first.'

Just as she thought, Rian soon held back his booming laughter and calmed the rest down from fear.

"You have no need to worry. The price of the notice is just measured by how desperate we are to get this done. In fact , the entire mining group that gets sent down there pitched in. Any coin they could spare, they put into this Hunt. So you have no reason to be suspicious."

Chuckling, Rian did his best not to laugh out loud again, which caused Lukali to feel awkward given the current situation.

Lia just silently shook her head, without saying a word, thinking back to how her own fears were quelled by the sound of Cain's voice.

Though he wasn' physically here, she knew that soon she would be relying on his power for this mission, and his mental strength.

Where she was weak in both combat and the mind, Cain easily soothed her troubled worries and thoughts, and even gave her power and strength where she needed it.

He was becoming someone to rely on, someone she could care for.

A friend.

The sound of breaks against the metal railway brought her from her thoughts back into reality. Jolting her forward, she reached out and clutched the side of the mine cart for stability.

"Where here."

She saw the scene in front of her before she ever heard Rian.

The large canopy of the cave that stretched out hundreds of feet into the air mesmerized both Lia and Lukali, who could see the lush forests of plants and water across the ground.

Large pillars of stone reached up to the roof, twisting and turning, stone steps chiseled into the sides. Moss and vines were everywhere, and the feeling of a damp atmosphere was coiled with the sound of running water down the rocks and crevices from the cracks in the walls.

People, as she could see them, were moving about on ledges, wooden bridges, and pushing minecarts. The faint light that made its way to the cave, casted through large stone cracks across the roof, painting a beautiful image of the lush cave, with flowers growing off the side of the pillars, grass under the foot, and the beautiful glimmer off the water.

The scene was anything short of beautiful, and the view was rooted within Lia's mind.

"Beautiful right?"

Rian appeared beside her, looking out over the mines, and the people working hard, going about their days like there wasn't any danger within those tunnels.

The knowledge of this caused a look of disdain to appear on his face, disappearing as soon as it appeared.

"Come, I'll show you what tunnel you should take. But be warned, the higher ups cannot know you're here, otherwise they will do anything to keep you quiet."

Before he turned to lead them away, he drew his face in close in a whisper, exercising extreme caution in his words.

"And their methods aren't always the best."

Nodding her head, she jolted Lukali out of his trance, and they both followed Rian down the wooden bridge, and to the silver mines.

The Hunt had begun.