The Delve

Chapter 4 of Book 1: Exploring the Stars...

This area was fairly flat, at least for the most part. There was a sudden drop off in the direction that I was heading. I have no idea how deep the drop is, however my waypoint is telling me to go in this direction... plus I'm REAAAAAALLY curious about it.

SAIL was serious when he said a short distance by the way. It was a lot more accurate than I had anticipated. Once I had crested the drop off it became entirely clear. I've been walking ABOVE the mineshaft the entire flippin' time.

The drop was minimal. Maybe about 15-20 feet, so I just jumped down. Cat like reflexes and such, I fall high and it feels shorter.

There were a few tents that were setup around the immediate area. Tents and crates alike. There was also a campfire as well. I walked up to the campfire to take a closer look.

“It's abandoned”, I blurted out suddenly as the realization kicked in. The lack of touching up was a simple enough clue. Plus the fire looked like it burned out aeons ago...

“It's difficult to date, but it looks like it was very recent.”, he chimed in.

A thought had popped into my head at this moment.

We stand in an empty camp, outside an abandoned mineshaft littered to the rim with an awesome assortment of crates and other containers... most likely filled with things. Things that NO ONE will ever claim.

I took immediate initiative to ransack the place. If it wasn't nailed to the floor, I was breaking it down with my little space tool that I love so much.

The funny thing about this little guy is that you can break down more than just dirt and trees with it. You can break down various furnishings as well, like these tents and camping chairs. Best thing about it is I can place them back down anywhere with absolute precision, provided I have space.

Ah the future, filled with innovation. So much beautiful, lazy innovation!

I had broken down everything at the site by this point. The contents of every container were looted beforehand, which contained primarily ores and some weird golden flat square-like things.

Suddenly SAIL came online.

“Those are pixels. I would recommend keeping those around for trading currency.”

My eyes were sparkling.

“These things are actual money!?!?”

“That would be an acceptable colloquial term, yes. It is an intergalactic standard of currency used universally, and doubles as an object for 3d printing. These objects can be loaded into your digital inventory as well.”

“My wha..?”

I was very lost at that last part. I get confused easily. When that happens it becomes very difficult for me to get.. UN-confused.

“You have a large amount of saplings, wooden materials, dirt, as well as your tents and crates you just broke down in this digital inventory I have mentioned.”

Lucky for SAIL, everything clicked with that statement. So I then proceeded to scan these “pixels” into my doodad.

Now it's time for the part I've been waiting for the most... the mine!!! I can't hold my excitement any longer! I decided to keep to my usual careless and adventurous attitude on entering. The shaft started out with there being plenty of space at the get go, but this quickly changed. There was a deep pit, with spiraling wooden platforms leading down. The hole was a square, by the way. So... square spiral stairs.

Luckily I brought some light because this place would have been a nightmare without it. I only had some torches on me that I created from some coal I mined up a while back, but it sufficed.

Thinking about it, this would be an excellent time to leave behind a few torches every now and again to remind myself where I've been. Getting lost above ground, I can do. Underground? No way. The thought makes me SUPER uncomfortable, too.

The deeper I went, the more I exhausted my torches. As that happened I remembered that I was in a MINE. I probably had walked by a couple of coal veins on my way down this pit.

Like the planet itself had heard its name being called, I bumped into a vein of coal. The amount I obtained breaking it down would be sufficient for quite a long time.

Finally after what seemed like a good 20-30 minutes of descending stairs, I hit the bottom. I actually couldn't even see the ceiling at the start anymore. I could only see my bread crumb path of torches leading down the gigantic pit of doom that stood above my head. A reminder of how much of the planet was only just above my head.

I started to see more crates and other furnishing once I had hit the bottom. The elation I felt from seeing containers to loot was immediately interrupted by what could best be described as 1 single step beneath cardiac arrest.

“This crate shows signs of a core fragment, as well as various other crates down here.”, SAIL said, suddenly.

The combination of realizing that I was this deep beneath the planet, paired with how easily I could actually die from a cave-in or collapse from the degraded mineshaft I'm exploring, as well as SAIL's sudden and unexpected tip... LITERALLY made me feel like I had turned pale from the ensuing heart palpitations.

I couldn't even be sassy, I was too busy gaining my composure. I decided to muscle on and search the crates in the meantime. As I did this, I noticed a very faint noise in the distance of the mine that was quite.. nice. The sounds were like a faint humming, which was... weirdly familiar for some reason.

This humming continued for some time, gradually becoming more and more prominent as I continued. I had a specific method of following the tune while stealing everything in my path. It truly was down to a science at this point.

I had collected quite a few core fragments by this point, which had led me to a closed door actually. The path leading to it was fairly uneventful, which just had a few straight passages that would occasionally have a pit like the one that brought us down here, but just MUCH smaller.

Back to the door however, this thing was actually barred and locked from my side. It was made of pure wood, with some metal as well. Nothing about it was particularly interesting other than the obvious effort put into keeping SOMETHING locked on the other side. That translates into a mystery, mysteries translate to curiosity, and curiosity killed the little cat so you know what this means!

Purely on impulse, I had removed the bar and nearly kicked the door open. It's good that I didn't do that by the way, the door opens inward towards me. I would have easily broke my shin or something.

The humming grew very prominent, because this room was its source.

The room in front of me was not a continuation of the narrow passage, but rather a large open room. The ceiling wasn't visible from the few standing torches on the floor beneath me. There was also about a 10 foot drop to reach the floor, by the way. No stairs of any kind went up to my position, which leads to the question of why such a design choice was made in the first place.

The interesting part beyond anything else here, was the occupants of this room a little ways out...

Standing in front of me, about 30 feet away were 3 creatures I had never seen before. 1 of them was significantly larger than the other 2, and significantly angrier looking as well. They were the Poptops that SAIL had mentioned earlier.

The best way I can describe it is that it is similar to a small child, but no arms. It had a pretty large head, which had a clear seam in the middle that was most likely it's mouth. 2 eyes were actually UNDERNEATH the mouth and where it's ears would be were instead, 2 long arms with 3 claws at the end of each. The arms almost looked like 2 long, thick ponytails. At waist level, there was what looked like a small skirt on the creature as well. It was 2 tone as well, being a shade of white, while everything above the mouth was either a very dark blue or a shade of black. The color wasn't very discernible, but it was very dark and unsaturated

The larger of the 3 was much huskier, rather than cute. It was roughly 6 times the size of the adorable ones. It also didn't appear to be humming, either. Speaking of the humming, by the way... it stopped. They noticed that they were not alone anymore, and turned towards me.

There was a brief silence, which was then interrupted by a roar from the large one.

I drew my knife and prepared for the worst...

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