Chapter Text
Being able to fly is so incredibly convenient.
After making my way back to the bottom of the central shaft, passing by several miners too heavily engrossed in their digging to even notice me, I couldn’t help but be intimidated by the height of it.
Apparently I had fallen pretty deep into the mine, and then the clinic I was carried to was even further down. I’m basically at the bottom of a mountain and have a straight vertical climb to the top ahead of me.
Looking up the shaft, I can’t even see the top from here, the dust from the crystals obscuring the higher levels of the shaft with a pink haze. I can make out the wooden support beams going up the sides for a couple of stories, but after a certain point there’s nothing more to see.
And so the climb began, though it’s less of a climb and more of a flight training exercise.
Rather than trying to climb up the sides of the walls, using the support beams like ladders, I instead used them as resting points. I would fly up as far as I can, then right before my wings give out, grab onto the nearest plank and just hold tight until I felt good enough to start heading up again.
Without a crystal orb weighing me down, it was actually a lot easier than I expected. Certainly much faster than having to climb by hand, and it’s good practice for later if I end up running into anything dangerous before I can get my hands on a proper weapon again.
Unlike a bird, my wings aren’t limbs sticking out to the side that just kinda go up and down. No, they’re more like large round flags stuck to me that I can flap in any direction I want. It allows for full three-dimensional movement, almost like I’m swimming through the air using my wings to paddle upwards.
Of course, being inexperienced in using them in this manner caused some complications.
For one, in trying to transition from going up to grabbing a support beam, I would often accidentally fling myself forward into the wall. More than once, I managed to bash a kneecap in or smack face-first into a beam, having to quickly scramble to grab back on.
And then there were the critters crawling through the shaft. Shardmites, small grey mites that would extend the crystal spikes in their back whenever I approached. I have no way of damaging them, so instead it becomes a game of having to mid-air dash myself into the opposite wall until they pass.
Lucky for me, I would often have an audience to watch and laugh at my struggles.
The opening that I tumbled down wasn’t the only way into here. This shaft was planned to eventually have an elevator running through it similar to the one in the crossroads leading into the city. Because of this, several entrances into the sides of the shaft were present, some openings with minecart rails leading up to the edge and some barred with metal gates, but all had a clear view of me struggling my way up one short flight at a time.
It seems every single miner below the hole I first came from knew exactly who I was and what I did. They would watch me climb from the sides of the shaft, some cheering me on as I climbed and others laughing as I barely dodged a shardmite that I almost didn’t see.
At least one of them must’ve really hated me as they saw me grab onto the ledge and immediately slammed the metal gate down so that I couldn’t climb up and catch my breath. I think that might’ve been the guy that I almost landed on, so I can’t say I blame him.
Even that asshole crystal hunter from before came out to take another shot at me, though it didn’t seem to care enough to pursue me further up after I scrambled away.
I’m not sure how long I spent climbing. Maybe it was just the exhaustion, or maybe it was just so high up that I lost track of time. I alternated between clinging to support beams and hoping my wings would recover before my arms gave out, and flying up as far as I could while hoping my arms would recover before my wings give out.
I cherished the few real breaks I was given on the way up, the occasional openings in the side of the shaft where I could sit and rest for a few minutes becoming scarce as I ascended. The sound of metal on stone became a distant echo before fading completely, the only sounds remaining being my own.
Once I made it past the tunnel leading back to Dirtmouth, the side caves became much more shallow, single rooms rather than long tunnels. I guess for those who can’t fly, going up this high wasn’t an easy task, so these higher parts aren’t used as much. Though an occasional miner could be seen hacking away at a large crystal or two, they were far less common and paid me no mind.
The more dangerous siderooms were those that hadn't been touched yet. They were raw, natural, and full of crystal crawlers, their pink shells sending bright beams of pure heat across the room.
I didn’t stop for long at those ones. I’ve had enough lasers for one day.
Eventually, I could finally see a ceiling to the shaft, a roof of jagged stalactites to mark my destination. Below, the pink haze had moved from obscuring the top to the bottom, leaving the true depth impossible to judge. Even without being able to see it, I’m still fairly certain that a fall from this height would be enough to kill me.
Wings, arms, and legs all burning, I kept going, pushing to finish the final leg of the climb lest I go hurdling back down the shaft for a second time. My arms no longer able to even hold onto the sides, I relied entirely on my wings for the last few feet. Closer and closer, every muscle on fire, my rapid heavy breathing echoing down the tunnel.
Barely, just barely, I managed to reach the top, getting just over the edge before collapsing to the ground. Sweet, sweet flat ground, oh how I missed you so.
I stayed like that for a while, sitting on the ground trying to catch my breath. There were two tunnels at the top, one to the east and one west. Once I felt I could get moving again, I picked myself up and headed down the western tunnel, not wanting to head further up just yet.
Up ahead, a column of light shone down from a hole in the ceiling. A breach to the surface, though I know for a fact that while this is the top of the shaft, it isn’t the top of the mountain. Passing through it, I noticed a layer of crystal dust had coated itself across me, sparkling in the light. Definitely going to need another trip to the hotsprings after this, nobody will take me seriously covered in glitter.
Using the walls for support, I slowly dragged myself onward, each step sending the clacking of chitinous claws on stone through the silence. Past the opening was a large structure of glass and metal, what looked to be a cross between a storage room for crystals and an observation post peeking out of the mountainside.
I sat down on a small table near the windows, apparently they don’t believe in chairs here, and took in the view. A field of blue-grey boulders shaped like large shells stretched out into the distance. The way I’m facing, I bet I could see Dirtmouth if I could walk out far enough across the rocks.
Next to me on the table was a stack of papers. I leafed through a few of them, my curiosity getting the better of me. Though the writing was in a language that by all means should be alien to me, I could still understand what was written on them.
I’m chalking that one up to magic, along with somehow being able to speak in English to a bunch of insects that shouldn’t be able to communicate vocally to begin with, much less understand eachother given the vastly different head and mouth shapes.
It was a series of reports on the crystal yield from the mines and the sales figures. The lower area was a storage deck, the barrels of crystals kept as a backup reserve in case of any potential major financial issues.
And those crystals are damn expensive! A single barrel held several thousand geo in crystals, far more money than I’ve seen in my entire stay here. Entire barrels were used to make reinforced glass for the city, though smaller orders for making jewelry or for ‘energy storage and transportation research’ showed up now and again.
Honestly I need to invest in a backpack or something, because I would absolutely pocket a few of those crystals if this is the going rate for them. That, and I really need to start carrying geo around. Actually, I need to find a way to earn more geo in general. I don’t know if Sly’s prices were realistic, but if the crystals are anything to go by, I’m a lot poorer than I thought.
I’m also starving. Between nearly dying, discovering flight, and the climb up here, I haven’t had time to actually eat anything in a while. I could hear the faint buzzing of crystal hunters echoing from the other end of the tunnel.
In other words, my lunch was waiting on me back the other way.
Just one of them would be enough for a decent meal, but I need a way of killing, cleaning, and cooking one. I thought back to the barrels just below me, full of razor-sharp and surprisingly durable crystals. Maybe I can’t take a pocket full of them, but nobody is going to notice a single one missing.
I hopped down to the lower level and grabbed a crystal that looked sharp enough to work. Unfortunately, while it was definitely sharp enough to kill with if I stabbed something with it, it was awkward to hold, not a proper hunting knife by any means.
I’ve learned plenty of new tricks here already, what’s one more? I focused the little soul I had recovered in the short time since my injury. I pushed it into my hand, not towards healing a wound, but instead focused it to one fingertip, as dense as I could concentrate it.
Now the tricky part. Thinking back to the energy beams of the crystals, I focused on converting that soul into a very short-range beam of extreme heat. A laser scalpel of pure soul, small enough to conserve what little energy I had but dense enough pierce the hardened mineral. Where my finger made contact with the chunk of pink, the white light of soul would turn to pink sparks, cutting clean through the surface.
I slowly carved the piece of crystal, thinning out the base into a proper handle, before moving on to sharpen the top into a thin triangular blade. I finished and admired my handiwork, a simple crystalline knife, wicked sharp and definitely hard enough to puncture through chitin. Still don’t know how I’m going to cook anything, but at least I can kill and carve the things now.
Rested and ready to start moving again, I went back the way I came, going over to the other side of the shaft to continue my (thankfully no longer straight vertical) climb to the peak.
The eastern end of the tunnel opened up into a large cave, one untouched by the miners so far. Large crystals as big as I am littered the place, the walls and ceiling shining brightly. Just as I thought, a couple crystal hunters were milling around in the air, the acoustics making it sound as if the buzzing was coming from everywhere at once.
Normally I’m not the kind of guy to go out and hunt and kill, but I am starving, and fuck crystal hunters in general. Just hope that they aren’t crystal on the inside.
A lone hunter buzzed over towards me, and immediately launched a crystal bud at me. I sidestepped away from it, a jagged spikeball erupting from where it embedded into the ground. If those can penetrate solid stone, they could definitely penetrate me, gotta take this thing down now!
Seizing the moment before it could attack again, I lept up towards it and used my wings to throw myself on top of it, tackling it by its less point upper half. Together, we went careening towards the ground, landing with me practically laying on it, the crystal-coated bottom embedded in the stone.
It chirped and struggled in my grip, straining to break away in a panic, but as long as I can hold it down, there’s nothing it can do to escape. I plunged my knife into it over and over, hemolymph flying across the room with each wild strike. I’ve never gone hunting before, but I want to make sure that this thing is dead, partly so that it doesn’t have to suffer a slow death, but mostly because I really don’t want it getting back up for another round.
It finally stopped moving entirely, prompting me to roll off of it so I can start carving it. I took my wonderful little blade and began slicing into the shell, cutting through the flesh on the inside like butter. The gray hemolymph soaked into my fur, leaving stains across my arms and chest. I gathered several strips of meat, leaving the shell and organs where they were.
Now I just need to cook it, there’s no way in hell I’m about to eat a bug raw.
I left what remained of the carcass and headed back towards the eastern tunnel. Back at the top of the shaft, I pried off a small board and broke it in half, the brittle shellwood easily cracking in my hands. I took it back to the tunnel and set it down next to my meat.
I focused my soul into heat from my hand producing a single white flame, as if my finger were a candle. Maybe I don’t know how to fling spells to decimate my enemies or anything, but simple things like this come pretty easily. The dry wood caught fire quickly, giving me a small flame to cook with. I broke off the end of a nearby stalagmite and skewered the meat, holding it over the fire.
Soon enough, the meat began to sizzle and pop, the sweet juices beginning to come out. In no time at all, I had hunted and cooked a meal all on my own. Not particularly glamorous by any means, but at the very least I know I won’t starve if I’m out of town for a while.
At long last, I bit into my prize, savoring the flavor of the hunter with every morsel. It tasted similar to chicken but had the texture of shrimp. I needed this so badly. I finished off the last of it, using my clawed fingers to pick little bits out from between my teeth.
With no danger of the fire spreading in a stone cavern, I put the remainder of the corpse into the fire so that it wouldn’t leave a pile of rotting flesh in the cave. I stood up and brushed myself off. With a warm meal in my belly, I was ready to finally reach the peak.
I turned around and, oh. I have company.
Standing ahead of me, staring in a mix of confusion and horror, was a certain floor-hating moth. They were wearing a horned red helmet that hid their antennae, and necklace of pearly white beads centered in his neck fluff which took up half of his torso. Bright red wings surrounded his grey body, though they appeared more like a tattered cloak than actual wings.
Wonderful, I found and immediately traumatized Markoth.
Having no idea how long they’d been there, I raised a hand in greeting, not wanting to be rude.
“Hel–“
Immediately, he flinched back into a defensive pose and an ornate shield and several glowing, golden blades appeared around him.
“Stay back, you...you…abomination! I don’t know what you are, but you can’t come any closer!”
I put up my hands defensively and took a step back.
“Woah, calm down man! And where do you get off calling me an ‘abomination’? I’m a moth like you, I’m just trying to find more of my kind up here!”
“No, you can’t fool me! You must be one of those Nosk creatures from Deepnest! I see right through you, no moth can devour flesh like you have, you mean to come to the village and slaughter us all and feast on our still-warm carcasses!”
“That’s insane! I’m not a damn cannibal!”
As we argued, another voice came from above us.
“What’s with all the commotion?”
Another moth landed next to Markoth, this one a deep blue rather than red, with the lack of a helmet leaving their long, feathery antennae exposed and perked up like rabbit ears. Though they frowned for a moment in concern at my less-than-stellar hemolymph-stained appearance, their cheery demeanor came back just as fast as it had left.
“Oh hey, you’re new! Are you looking for the village? It’s just up above us, I can show you straight to it if you want!”
Markoth balked at the idea of letting such a blatant and obvious threat into his home.
“Absolutely not! You didn’t see what I did, this false moth just devoured the flesh of another bug! It uses soul magic to make fire! It’s clearly armed and dangerous, it means to kill us all!”
The blue moth thought for a moment, then turned back to me.
“Are you going to eat us?”
“No.”
They turned back to Markoth and grinned.
“See? You worry too much, it’ll be fine! Besides, you’re the great warrior of our tribe. I’m confident you can stop them if they try anything!
He looked back at me, then at the blue moth, and sighed.
“Damn you and your flattery. Fine. He can come. But he’s your responsibility!”
“Great! Like I said, just follow me and I’ll show you the way up!”
The blue moth took off straight upwards, going through an opening near the roof of the cave. As I made to follow her, Markoth put an arm out to stop me.
“You may have him fooled, but not me. You make one wrong move, you give me any reason to think you’re a threat, I will kill you and throw your corpse from the mountain. Am I clear?”
I gulped. “Crystal.”
He froze for a second, then rolled his eyes and took off towards the opening as well, with me following close behind.
The opening had a short tunnel culminating in an opening to the surface, pale light shining through from above. I passed through just after Markoth stepping into a small village not too different from Dirtmouth. Perched at the edge of the village overlooking the lands below was a large, winged statue.
The Radiance, her likeness chiseled into stone.
Before I could dwell on it, the blue moth began calling out, causing moths of all colors and sizes began stepping out of their homes.
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a crowd, whispers of ‘who is that’ and ‘is he alright’ coming from all around me.
A decidedly feminine voice rang out from behind the crowd.
“Make way, let a lady through. Let me see this newcomer Orchid found.”
A small, purple moth made its way through the crowd. Though half the size of everyone else, she carried a distinct aura of authority. The Seer was much younger than I expected, clearly still an adult but not the shaky old lady she would later become.
She looked me up and down before speaking once again.
“Oh, you made it. Took you long enough.”