Tunnel Rat-Chapter 390: You have Gotten Better at Tunneling.

"Fire in the Hole!"

Ruby Energy seared a path fifty feet in front of Milo and entered the mine tunnel dug by two adolescent Heroes in training. It was over in a second and Milo and Clawhammer advanced on the seven-by-seven-foot shaft dug by the girls.

It had been a tremendous effort on their part, swinging their new picks at the Gneiss rock wall and slowly chipping away at it. The picks were very tough and sharp, but not quite at the level of Milo's crystal pick. Milo had seen right from the start that they needed a better method. He'd loaned his pick to Brutus and the three large Ratkin continued to advance into the stone wall slowly.

While they stubbornly chipped away at the rock, Milo, with the help of the Master Crafter and his crew, constructed a better version of the apparatus he had used to charge and test the Ruby eye. This version included a heavily armored pavise to protect the frame and the operator from flying debris, with the frame and pavise mounted on a movable carriage. A larger and more complex version of Milo's charging device was constructed that could be powered by a dozen ratkin turning a large crankshaft to spin the copper coils and produce Storm Mana. Once charged, Milo unleashed the eye's energy into the shaft. Now they eagerly moved in to see the effect.

Clawhammer whistled as he carefully took measurements of the extended hole, "That ray obliterated a borehole a foot wide, and ten feet into the rock. And I'm seeing a lot of cracking in the surrounding rock. It should be easier to tunnel through this, but that effect will diminish after a foot or two. We could blast it four more times, making an X pattern, but that's a lot of recharge time."

Milo had another idea to test. "I think I can break it up some more. Take everyone back to the charging station, and if you don't mind, please ask Gendifur to get ready."

"Oh, are you going to try something experimental and stupid? She loves putting you back together. Gets a lot of levels that way. I'll let her know." He walked away from Milo, motioning the curious to move much farther back. Milo saw Gendifur setting up a field hospital bed next to a table of syringes and shuddered.

He still didn't quite understand why people didn't trust experimental magical theories so much. Granted, they caused problems, but there was so much to learn, and you could almost fix anything you broke. And what he was doing today was just physics and engineering mixed with Ancient Runes. He didn't consider it dangerous, per se. He had lots of time and had been working on the design of this Runic Array for hours. He'd even tested it with a low amount of charge and corrected any flaws.

Sitting inside the tunnel, began constructing the array using a preset arrangement of Engineering runes that would shape the released force. He'd designed the shape to fill the hole melted by the Ruby Ray for a distance of three feet. After this test, he could modify it to the full ten feet. Inside the frame, he placed runes of Sundering and Force. All of the energy should be directed outward from the center of the array, hitting the sides of the tunnel, with minimal force blowing back or forward. Once the Array was set up, he began to carefully power it, slowly backing up as he did. This was the tricky part. The further he was from an array, the harder it was to control it. Fully half of the Engineering Runes he'd used were to help with that, holding the energy until he was safely out of the tunnel. When he was out, he raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and released the runes.

The blast was softer than he'd expected, with only a little dust and a few chips of rock coming from the tunnel. He waited a full minute before going in to look. The Gneiss around the hole was shattered and broken, with deep cracks radiating out across the rockface. The girls should be able to mine in much larger chunks now. Exiting, he gave the OK sign and yelled, "Heavy Mining Crew is up." The girls raced forward, leaving Brutus in the rear, and eagerly got to work swinging picks and clearing the heavy Gneiss rocks that fell from the end of the shaft. Brutus sat next to Milo and handed him a sandwich.

"Eat up, you're going to need it. If your plan works, we'll rotate crews on the charging, and the girls can keep going all day. Good for them and will help them sleep better at night.

They'll cuddle up to Gendy, get some bedtime stories, and be ready to work sixteen hours tomorrow. They're tearing threw the levels of mining and interestingly enough, it's helping with their DEX as well as STR. How they work the stone is as important as how hard they hit. They get a little bored now and then, but that's good for them, too. So, the weak link in the chain is going to be you and your fancy spellcasting. Keep eating whenever you can, yell if you need mana potions from the caravan, and as much work as you're putting in, a little cheese won't be bad. Parmesan is good for mana recovery."

"Parmesan? Is that the stuff Bluesnout put on the toasted bread with garlic and butter?"

"Oh, you're right, it does go good on toasted bread. Makes a tasty snack. I could use a little pick-me-up myself. I've been practicing some of the new Guard abilities I can buy with these Enhancement points we keep earning. I'll get someone to start cooking up a batch." Brutus walked away as the girls exited from the mineshaft.

"All clear! It was easy until it got hard again."

"Where's Dad off to? His tail is doing the twitchy thing it does when dinner is ready."

"He's going to make some toasty cheesy bread for the people working hard." They looked at each other, giggled, and raced after Brutus. The big guard found himself flanked by his daughters and then left behind as they raced to find Gendifur. For Milo, it was the easiest way to make sure they stayed away from the hole. The girls were endlessly curious and convinced of their own invulnerability. Examining their work, he found no flaws. They had extended the full seven-by-seven tunnel another three feet. All of the loose rubble had been removed, and it was time for him to build another Runic Array. Building the array and making adjustments to the length took almost an hour. The Engineering runes came first, building a stable structure that took barely any effort to keep up. This much he had learned from examining the eyes. It opened up new possibilities of what he could accomplish with enough time and planning. Powering the multiple Force and Sundering runes took time and mana. He was definitely going to enjoy a break with some cheesy bread.

Moving to the front of the tunnel, he could just keep control, but not if the distance was going to increase. He'd need to ask the girls to make a short side tunnel a few feet deep every ten feet, to give him a place to hide and trigger his Arrays. Making sure no one was nearby, he triggered the much larger Array to a much larger effect. The noise echoed out of the hole, and the dust plume was more impressive. But his calculations were correct, and nearly all the force was channeled to the side.

It was going to be slow going until they cleared the Gneiss layer, making a ten-foot advance each time. He was very curious about how the drilling teams were doing.

Two-Screws took a break from riding herd on what he considered 'too many Engineers on one damned project'. While he hadn't meant to take over, he'd made a few suggestions as he watched, and everyone now considered him to be the Project Manager. (Except when he disagreed with their latest 'breakthrough.') Grabbing a mug of beer, he sat next to Sledgemonkey, hoping to vent a little frustration. But the Chief was too quick and experienced.

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"Don't even start. You know better than anyone what happens when a calm voice cuts through the chaos. You can either watch from the side or lead from the front. What's the problem now? Just curious."

"Same as before. The Gneiss is a tougher rock than we have a lot of experience with, and this is a solid upthrust from lower down. It's not broken up, and the drills have a tough time grabbing hold. What we're doing now is a two-part process. We use a diamond-tipped auger to drill a four-inch hole that runs six feet deep, lined up with the tip of the heavy drill. With the center drilled, the auger can bite more easily and expand the hole, but we've run into a back complication."

"What's worse than rock you can't drill through?"

"Gold. We hit a vein of gold running perpendicular to our tunnel, nearly four inches thick. Half the idiots can't concentrate with the shiny stuff sitting there, so they're mining out what they can reach. I expect a vote on stopping here to start gold mining. It will be voted down, but some of the brothers have a gold streak a mile deep."

"Oh, and don't I know it? Takes a long time for some of us to leave it behind. I still have a mining bag or two of raw nuggets in my storage, taking up space. Panned them in my youth, and put them in my dowry."

Voices were being raised at the front of the drill hole. Sledgemonkey leaned back as if to take a nap. Two-Screws heaved himself up. "I think Milo was damned smart to start this fiasco and run off to visit his family." He trudged back to where an argument had started over how long of a break they had to 'Prospect a little bit of shiny stuff.'

"I wonder if the ratkin get even half as crazy about gold and gems?"

On the second day of Gneiss tunneling, Buttercup was looking at a rock they'd dragged from the tunnel. "What is this pretty, sparkly stuff?"

Milo was surprised to be looking at a seam of gold and quartz rock almost ten inches wide. "That's what we call a seam of ore. Quartz is a hard rock that forms in layers and can have either silver or gold along with it. Your seam is about half quartz and half gold. So some valuable metal, and some common." The girls began to find all the broken Gneiss that had a layer of quartz in it. They used their claws to dig it all out, making a pile of yellow metal and another of white. sparkly rocks.

"It's so pretty!"

"Can we show Momma what we found?"

Milo nodded, "You dug it out, take whatever you like."

The girls excitedly grabbed up armfuls of large quartz crystals to show Gendifu, leaving the gold and silver behind, while Milo went to examine the vein. It was almost perfectly placed. They could dig out one side and create another of the hidey holes that kept him safe from any possibility of getting hit by debris. He worked for a half hour mining gold and quartz, then took out the debris and stacked it up out of the way for later.

Clawhammer was smoking a pipe and looking at the nuggets, "Nice stuff. Arlothe has wanted gold wire for some experiments, but too many races set store by the stuff. I'll get a bunch made for him. Are you ready for the 'eye of doom'? We have it all charged up."

"Ready when you are. How are people holding up?"

"A little tired, but just fine. This is a grand adventure for the whelps. And doesn't hurt that Brutus has a lot of tasty vittles in his wagons."

Each time they needed the eye, they rolled it into the now lengthy tunnel, released the energy, and then moved it back out, taking no chances. The team was becoming more efficient after mining this way for two days, everyone knowing what to do. Clawhammer's team sometimes found themselves with extra energy. When that happened, he put them to work tearing up the old, rusted rails and stacking rails, plates, and spikes to the side, ready to be smelted and reforged.

Milo examined the eye again, but it showed no stress and no change. It was a remarkable piece of Engineering, and he wondered who had made it, where it had come from, and what it had originally been part of. It seemed that for every mystery he solved, two more popped up to keep him busy. With confidence, he triggered the eye. The sound was different this time, quieter? And the heat from the flashback was very small. He cautiously crept ahead and looked into the melted hole and into a cavern on the other side. Another layer of Gneiss was thirty feet across from him, with only a layer of two feet of Gneiss blocking the way. The beam had easily melted through, and the heat released quickly, making a narrower hole that limited his view. But he could see a glowing hole in the far wall.

He called for the team to retrieve the eye and pondered. The Gneiss here was more fractured and would mine more easily. They could break into the cavern and be done for the day. Maybe he could explore a new area. After all, that was what good Scout Masters did. Quickly calculating the needed changes to create a two-foot blast, he hid in the gold seam and released his Array, cracking and shattering the Gneiss. Most of it was loose rubble, barely held in place. Stepping back, he let loose with a powerful Rune of Sundering that instantly cleared the tunnel far better than he had expected.

This wasn't a cavern, it was a crevasse, thirty feet wide. It extended up and down, side to side, and past where he could see. It was like a giant axe had split the Gneiss layer in half like a piece of firewood. Far below, he heard splashes as the debris hit water. And was that an annoyed roar? So hard to tell. All he knew for sure was that they were done for today. He'd have to start thinking about bridges, something the Deep Rock Engineers could do easily, and far more safely than he could. But maybe there was another way to solve this problem.

"Begging your pardon, Mr. Project Manager Two-Screws, but we need your opinion on something!"

Grumbling, the irate Senior Engineer moved to the front of the borehole where his crew had encountered something new. "We were at the end of the last guide hole when the auger bit into something and started working smoothly again. Curious, we paused and found this."

'This' turned out to be a melted tube of Gneiss heading in the direction they needed to go. "Yeah, that's a little strange. But unless anyone has an idea, we might as well keep going. If it turns out to be some sort of creature that can melt Gneis, don't piss it off. Maybe can tame or hire it."

The crew shrugged and got back to work. Two Screws stayed to watch, and Sledgemonkey came down too, sensing something was up. He knew they were nearing the halfway mark. With only another quarter-mile of drilling to go, the teams would relax, having won the race. With the power of the new machine, once they were past the Gneiss layer they could quickly make it to Limburger Hollower, or to wherever Milos moles had managed to get to.

Shouts came as the drill began to spin quicker. "SHUT IT DOWN! We hit a cave." The drill moved in reverse, clearing the tunnel, and the Engineers moved up to look into the new underground area. Loud and inventive cursing and cries of despair brought the two Senior Engineers running. The Junior Engineers were shaking their heads, pacing back and forth, or drawing diagrams on the walls and arguing about bridge designs.

Sledgemonkey stuck his head through the large hole and whistled as he saw the size of the crevasse. Then saw what had so upset the Junior brothers. Across the dark gulf was a square tunnel leading in the direction they needed to go. At the edge of the drop-off was a pony keg of whiskey and a pile of raw gold nuggets three feet high, sparkling in the darkness. "Damn, that boy really knows how to motivate." Turning to the Junior Engineers, he yelled, "Looks like we moved a little slower than other people, and the loser gets to build a bridge. Let's see who can come up with the best design."