Once Pagan had finished healing everyone, the group began moving. Although the platform was rather large -large enough to fit the enigmatic creature known as the Morrentor- it was also uneven, having been made with obviously crude methods.
It also descended at quite a steep rate, so the heavier members of the group -Ursa- were finding it quite difficult to make it down at any considerable rate. Thus Lucius was forced to move slower than he would've otherwise wanted.
Still though, it gave him time to get a good grasp of the sort of environment they were going to be working in.
The rocks here were considerably different from those outside. Whereas the outside landscape was mainly comprised of blue rocks, here the rocks seemed to be made from multiple minerals, as they hosted a plethora of rainbow-like colours.
In addition to that, there seemed to be a lot more crystalline rocks -that grew out of the ground much like pillars- creating obstacles that the group had to manoeuvre around. Whether they had been included in the initial construction of this platform, or grown later on was a mystery.
"Are you guys familiar with these?" Lucius asked after a long silence had descended on the group. He was starting to notice that more and more of these crystals were emerging as they went down.
"Cerphin, the living rock," one of the furtong replied. It was the eldest of them, the same one who had mentioned having an uncle trapped within one of the mines.
"Living rock?" Lucius asked, staring at one of the crystals they were passing by with sudden interest.
"They are like the vegetation of this area. They grow and grow, most of these probably originate from deep within the earth. I've even heard rumours that certain creatures can eat them... my uncle told me that some furtong resort to this when they can't meet their quota for food. It grows in the body... doesn't end well for them," the furtong replied.
Lucius made a special note of how the elder furtong seemed to have a story for every answer. It wasn't a bad thing, though it added an interesting dimension to a creature that was otherwise a stranger to him.
As they descended lower and lower, Lucius was beginning to realize that the inside of this structure went deeper than he had initially thought. It seemed that a good section of the ground here had been mined out as he was certain that they had already covered the length of the volcano.
Soon, the light from the outside was beginning to grow faint, and the first of many light runes appeared - embedded within the sides of the wall.
The deeper they went, the more light runes they found, and the more 'living rocks' grew from the ground.
Here they had begun to take on the same sort of orangish-yellow being emitted by the light runes. Lucius was sure that this wasn't a mere reflection, as the Cerphin themselves were emitting a light of their own.
~Hmm, these look interesting. They almost remind me of the flower I stole from Eikthyrnir's den,~ Lucius thought to himself, realizing that the flower was just a multicoloured variant... albeit being a lot more complex than these crude pillars.
~I'll take a sample, we could grow these in our new den... maybe they might even work well as material for better tools,~ he realized, before pulling out one of the tools he had packed from the sack tied around his waist.
He swung at one of the several crystal pillars around him, creating a small crack. However, with that single swing, his tool shattered -apparently these crystals were a lot harder than they looked.
~These will definitely make good materials,~ he thought to himself with a sort of excited smile, before turning to one of the furtong.
"Can you guys mould these using your... abilities?" he asked.
The furtong looked at the crystal pillar hesitantly, before stretching out its hands. After closing its eyes, and making strained gestures for a little while, it gave up.
"F-forgive me, it's too heavy," it replied, a dejected expression on its face.
"Even though the Lighted One has only asked you this much, you can't deliver? Yet you expect him to-" Pagan was about to go off, before Lucius gestured for him to stop.
"Can you guys work together? Maybe with all of you pulling, you may be able to break off a small piece. That's all I need," Lucius asked again.
The furtong stared at each other for a moment, before they collectively closed their eyes, and stretched out their hands.
After a few minutes and great strain, they managed to break off a small piece, around the size of an egg. The group fell to their knees in exhaustion, apparently this small prize had taken everything out of them.
~And this material we're looking for is supposed to be harder than this?~ Lucius thought to himself as he pocketed the crystal.
*
By the time they had made it to the base level, their surroundings were almost completely covered in crystal pillars. They had begun to take on very odd shapes, sometimes looking like leafless trees and other times like the works of some sort of extra-terrestrial sculptor.
Regardless, there were several pathways past the bushy mess of crystal art, that led to openings within the ground.
It seemed this was the true entrance to the mines.
Each opening had a series of light runes all around it - and though very slight- Lucius could tell that they were different shades of yellow.
~I wonder what it means,~ he thought to himself, divided on which path to take.
"Should we split up?" Ghost asked, realising the dilemma they now faced.
"No, there's no point in finding the material quickly when it'll just put us in danger. We'll move as a single unit and overwhelm whatever we find blocking our path," Lucius replied, before closing his eyes.
He spread his earth sense down each hole, trying to find out which path was the least dangerous.
"Fuck," he whispered under his breath as he scanned one of the openings, falling to his arse with a sort of dejected expression.
"What's wrong?" Ghost asked, walking towards Lucius, before sending out her earth-sense as well.
A moment later her eyes went wide as she slowly turned her head to look at Lucius.
"S-should we still continue?" she asked, her body shivering slightly.
