Chapter 46
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With a shake, the platform stopped descending as it came into contact with the ground. Without even a door to usher them through, the group of four were greeted by a simple 'opening' in the chute they came down. It looked more like a piece of the wall had fallen out, rather than an intentionally made entrance or exit.
Pulling them out, Rob and Chance only just got the twins, who were still in a stupor while looking around, off of the platform before the unseen chains rattled, followed by the wooden plate ascending once again.
"How do we get back up?" Loki asked while looking at the vertical tunnel they just came down. He had expected it to look like a tube suspended in space, or a column shooting into the air but he was slightly disappointed. There was no better description of the route than to call it a chimney.
The chimney was partially submerged in the wall, looking as though it was a bulge in the throat of a giant. Stretching up for around fourty metres, the ceiling of the massive cave they were in was anything but small, yet was still not overly massive.
The only reason they were able to make out the ceiling so quickly was because of their close proximity to the walls of the cave. This made it that they were able to see where the ceiling and the wall connected. If not for that, it would be easy to mistake the ceiling for the night sky.
Similar to the tunnels that ran through the sewers, the walls and ceiling of the cavern were embedded with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of the grey stones alongside the odd sun stone mixed in irregularly.
"You said you have to charge sun stones. How do they charge them from up there?" Rykar asked on top of Loki's initial question.
"There are only entrances and exits to the underground. If you come down one of the chutes or staircases, you can't go up the same way. The only exception is the castle in the centre." He pointed to the hulking pillar in the centre of the cave.
Just the distance from their location to the pillar was over three kilometres. With the pillar being around half a kilometre in diameter, it gave the cavern a total diameter of 4.5km, centred around the pillar.
"That pillar is actually the foundation of the castle in the middle of the city. The entire city and this dome underneath it is supported using the pillar as the foundation. It's the perfect example of nothing being outside of the control of the Royals.
The sunstones do need to be charged but the glow stones don't. By mixing them in with each other, it lets the sunstones feed off the glow stones and help illuminate the space which the glow stones alone aren't strong enough to. It's like a cycle."
Beginning their journey as Rob and Chance used the walk as an opportunity to expand their horizons, filling them in on many things, they quickly made their way towards the auction house, which happened to be an amphitheatre styled structure that was connected to the south side of the Castles pillar.
The entire underground area seemed to radiate a feeling of desolation and ruin. All the walls seemed to be crumbled. Entrances weren't planned out with roofs and arches, rather just holes in walls. There were no roofs on many of the buildings. Rubble could be seen all over the ground, along with mess and bloodstains.
As an area that was under the control of the royals, why not have it more regulated? It couldn't possibly be that difficult to implement a few of the laws from the area above considering the proximity. Hell, this was literally their basement!
Asking the question to Chance, even he wasn't able to come up with a solid answer. After contemplating it himself for a while, he simply passed it off as 'that's the way it was' calling it a forgotten area.
Entering the lobby of the auction house, the space finally lost its aura of desolation. Although still lacking in many of the niceties seen above, the room was crisp and clean. The wooden flooring was swept and polished while the white walls provided a stark contrast with the grey, red and brown pallet seen outside.
"Dear guests, how may I help you today?" A middle aged clerk came over wearing an all-black suit complete with a white tie.
"We're here to list items to the auction." Replied chance while handing over four black slips. After looking at each slips individually before comparing the numbers written on the bade of each of the boxes, the man snapped each slip in half. Passing one half back to Chance, he pocketed the others before continuing.
"Appraisals will be completed within the next three hours. Would you like me to prepare you a space to wait?" He asked with a smile.
The clerks interest in the conversation was only matched by his own bland looks. Having gone through the procedure god knows how many times, he was obviously well versed in saying the bare minimum without being taken offensively.
Despite this going through his head, beneath their masks, Chance and Rob were actually surprised. As far as they knew, once you entered the building, whether people were around or not, just to see the appraiser would require the clerks to open the boxes to see if the contents were worth their time.
Attributing the change in attitude to the masks, they left the auction silently with the twins non-the wiser.
"So, three hours. Any plans for the meantime?" Rob looked around while wondering.
"We could go get food?" Suggested Rykar, already excited by the thought of investigating more food stalls.
"This place really isn't known for its food, we can save that for when were back up top. This is the perfect place to get some shopping done though. Whatever we need will be here and as of now, money isn't an issue." Leaving the courtyard, Chance strode into the masses of people, followed by the other three, just as they had done so many times in the past two days.
Two hours quickly passes as the four went from shop to shop, only taking breaks to find a secluded space where Rykar would store the purchases while the other three kept watch.
Clothes, cooking equipment, bedding, medication, hunting supplies, survival gear. Almost anything considered useful while in a new environment, they bought. The time that they stopped during each break began to take slightly longer as Rykar's mental fatigue began to build up over time. The initial excitement from shopping had faded, causing the dull routine of buying essentials to cause him to grow bored. This only caused him to run out of steam even sooner.
It was when there was just over half an hour left that Rykar truly just wanted this trip to be over. Nothing was on his mind besides going back to the auction house and being done with it all. It was also at this time that Chance dangled the carrot on the stick, perking Him up immediately.
"Ok, there's only one more stop for supplies before we head to the last place. You two don't really have anything to defend yourselves with, there's a friend of mine that sells weapons on the other side. You two can pick out some things before we go to the auction house." The first half of Chance's words almost sent Rykar to the ground in a tantrum but the second half had the complete opposite effect.
The last supply stop and storage break was completed in record time. It wasn't even ten minutes since Chance brought up the topic of the weapons before they were in front of yet another run-down store with swords, shields and knives in the store front.
The entire journey there, Rykar and Loki had both pestered him with non stop questions. Colours, materials, what they looked like, what the shop was called, you name it. Pointless question after pointless question was fired his way as his patience began to fade into nothingness. Completely ignoring them, they made the last stretch of the journey.
As with the other stores, Chance simply strode in before looking at the wares on display. Following behind him like a trail of ducks, the twins also looked at the weapons in front of them with glittering eyes as they scrutinized the dull blades and blood stained pieces of armour.
"Don't touch this crap, you'll probably get a disease from this before you manage to swing it at anyone." He snorted before throwing a dusty helmet behind the counter.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
The sound of metal hitting a hard surface never came. Instead, an angry cough came from the other side, followed by a series of swears, as a scrawny man wearing leather clothes pulled himself up while rubbing his side.
The armour was tight fitting with metal studs and buckles placed seemingly randomly throughout. With a full shaved head and skinny build, he looked like a lizard when paired with the texture of the armour.
"Go F*ck youself, you dumb son of a b*tch." Grogginess still in his eyes, he pulled two daggers from the underside of the counter, snarling as he advanced. "You think money and fancy masks get you anything in here? You just fucked up."
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With a shake, the platform stopped descending as it came into contact with the ground. Without even a door to usher them through, the group of four were greeted by a simple 'opening' in the chute they came down. It looked more like a piece of the wall had fallen out, rather than an intentionally made entrance or exit.
Pulling them out, Rob and Chance only just got the twins, who were still in a stupor while looking around, off of the platform before the unseen chains rattled, followed by the wooden plate ascending once again.
"How do we get back up?" Loki asked while looking at the vertical tunnel they just came down. He had expected it to look like a tube suspended in space, or a column shooting into the air but he was slightly disappointed. There was no better description of the route than to call it a chimney.
The chimney was partially submerged in the wall, looking as though it was a bulge in the throat of a giant. Stretching up for around fourty metres, the ceiling of the massive cave they were in was anything but small, yet was still not overly massive.
The only reason they were able to make out the ceiling so quickly was because of their close proximity to the walls of the cave. This made it that they were able to see where the ceiling and the wall connected. If not for that, it would be easy to mistake the ceiling for the night sky.
Similar to the tunnels that ran through the sewers, the walls and ceiling of the cavern were embedded with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of the grey stones alongside the odd sun stone mixed in irregularly.
"You said you have to charge sun stones. How do they charge them from up there?" Rykar asked on top of Loki's initial question.
"There are only entrances and exits to the underground. If you come down one of the chutes or staircases, you can't go up the same way. The only exception is the castle in the centre." He pointed to the hulking pillar in the centre of the cave.
Just the distance from their location to the pillar was over three kilometres. With the pillar being around half a kilometre in diameter, it gave the cavern a total diameter of 4.5km, centred around the pillar.
"That pillar is actually the foundation of the castle in the middle of the city. The entire city and this dome underneath it is supported using the pillar as the foundation. It's the perfect example of nothing being outside of the control of the Royals.
The sunstones do need to be charged but the glow stones don't. By mixing them in with each other, it lets the sunstones feed off the glow stones and help illuminate the space which the glow stones alone aren't strong enough to. It's like a cycle."
Beginning their journey as Rob and Chance used the walk as an opportunity to expand their horizons, filling them in on many things, they quickly made their way towards the auction house, which happened to be an amphitheatre styled structure that was connected to the south side of the Castles pillar.
The entire underground area seemed to radiate a feeling of desolation and ruin. All the walls seemed to be crumbled. Entrances weren't planned out with roofs and arches, rather just holes in walls. There were no roofs on many of the buildings. Rubble could be seen all over the ground, along with mess and bloodstains.
As an area that was under the control of the royals, why not have it more regulated? It couldn't possibly be that difficult to implement a few of the laws from the area above considering the proximity. Hell, this was literally their basement!
Asking the question to Chance, even he wasn't able to come up with a solid answer. After contemplating it himself for a while, he simply passed it off as 'that's the way it was' calling it a forgotten area.
Entering the lobby of the auction house, the space finally lost its aura of desolation. Although still lacking in many of the niceties seen above, the room was crisp and clean. The wooden flooring was swept and polished while the white walls provided a stark contrast with the grey, red and brown pallet seen outside.
"Dear guests, how may I help you today?" A middle aged clerk came over wearing an all-black suit complete with a white tie.
"We're here to list items to the auction." Replied chance while handing over four black slips. After looking at each slips individually before comparing the numbers written on the bade of each of the boxes, the man snapped each slip in half. Passing one half back to Chance, he pocketed the others before continuing.
"Appraisals will be completed within the next three hours. Would you like me to prepare you a space to wait?" He asked with a smile.
The clerks interest in the conversation was only matched by his own bland looks. Having gone through the procedure god knows how many times, he was obviously well versed in saying the bare minimum without being taken offensively.
Despite this going through his head, beneath their masks, Chance and Rob were actually surprised. As far as they knew, once you entered the building, whether people were around or not, just to see the appraiser would require the clerks to open the boxes to see if the contents were worth their time.
Attributing the change in attitude to the masks, they left the auction silently with the twins non-the wiser.
"So, three hours. Any plans for the meantime?" Rob looked around while wondering.
"We could go get food?" Suggested Rykar, already excited by the thought of investigating more food stalls.
"This place really isn't known for its food, we can save that for when were back up top. This is the perfect place to get some shopping done though. Whatever we need will be here and as of now, money isn't an issue." Leaving the courtyard, Chance strode into the masses of people, followed by the other three, just as they had done so many times in the past two days.
Two hours quickly passes as the four went from shop to shop, only taking breaks to find a secluded space where Rykar would store the purchases while the other three kept watch.
Clothes, cooking equipment, bedding, medication, hunting supplies, survival gear. Almost anything considered useful while in a new environment, they bought. The time that they stopped during each break began to take slightly longer as Rykar's mental fatigue began to build up over time. The initial excitement from shopping had faded, causing the dull routine of buying essentials to cause him to grow bored. This only caused him to run out of steam even sooner.
It was when there was just over half an hour left that Rykar truly just wanted this trip to be over. Nothing was on his mind besides going back to the auction house and being done with it all. It was also at this time that Chance dangled the carrot on the stick, perking Him up immediately.
"Ok, there's only one more stop for supplies before we head to the last place. You two don't really have anything to defend yourselves with, there's a friend of mine that sells weapons on the other side. You two can pick out some things before we go to the auction house." The first half of Chance's words almost sent Rykar to the ground in a tantrum but the second half had the complete opposite effect.
The last supply stop and storage break was completed in record time. It wasn't even ten minutes since Chance brought up the topic of the weapons before they were in front of yet another run-down store with swords, shields and knives in the store front.
The entire journey there, Rykar and Loki had both pestered him with non stop questions. Colours, materials, what they looked like, what the shop was called, you name it. Pointless question after pointless question was fired his way as his patience began to fade into nothingness. Completely ignoring them, they made the last stretch of the journey.
As with the other stores, Chance simply strode in before looking at the wares on display. Following behind him like a trail of ducks, the twins also looked at the weapons in front of them with glittering eyes as they scrutinized the dull blades and blood stained pieces of armour.
"Don't touch this crap, you'll probably get a disease from this before you manage to swing it at anyone." He snorted before throwing a dusty helmet behind the counter.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
The sound of metal hitting a hard surface never came. Instead, an angry cough came from the other side, followed by a series of swears, as a scrawny man wearing leather clothes pulled himself up while rubbing his side.
The armour was tight fitting with metal studs and buckles placed seemingly randomly throughout. With a full shaved head and skinny build, he looked like a lizard when paired with the texture of the armour.
"Go F*ck youself, you dumb son of a b*tch." Grogginess still in his eyes, he pulled two daggers from the underside of the counter, snarling as he advanced. "You think money and fancy masks get you anything in here? You just fucked up."
With a shake, the platform stopped descending as it came into contact with the ground. Without even a door to usher them through, the group of four were greeted by a simple 'opening' in the chute they came down. It looked more like a piece of the wall had fallen out, rather than an intentionally made entrance or exit.Pulling them out, Rob and Chance only just got the twins, who were still in a stupor while looking around, off of the platform before the unseen chains rattled, followed by the wooden plate ascending once again."How do we get back up?" Loki asked while looking at the vertical tunnel they just came down. He had expected it to look like a tube suspended in space, or a column shooting into the air but he was slightly disappointed. There was no better description of the route than to call it a chimney.The chimney was partially submerged in the wall, looking as though it was a bulge in the throat of a giant. Stretching up for around fourty metres, the ceiling of the massive cave they were in was anything but small, yet was still not overly massive.The only reason they were able to make out the ceiling so quickly was because of their close proximity to the walls of the cave. This made it that they were able to see where the ceiling and the wall connected. If not for that, it would be easy to mistake the ceiling for the night sky.Similar to the tunnels that ran through the sewers, the walls and ceiling of the cavern were embedded with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of the grey stones alongside the odd sun stone mixed in irregularly."You said you have to charge sun stones. How do they charge them from up there?" Rykar asked on top of Loki's initial question."There are only entrances and exits to the underground. If you come down one of the chutes or staircases, you can't go up the same way. The only exception is the castle in the centre." He pointed to the hulking pillar in the centre of the cave.Just the distance from their location to the pillar was over three kilometres. With the pillar being around half a kilometre in diameter, it gave the cavern a total diameter of 4.5km, centred around the pillar."That pillar is actually the foundation of the castle in the middle of the city. The entire city and this dome underneath it is supported using the pillar as the foundation. It's the perfect example of nothing being outside of the control of the Royals.The sunstones do need to be charged but the glow stones don't. By mixing them in with each other, it lets the sunstones feed off the glow stones and help illuminate the space which the glow stones alone aren't strong enough to. It's like a cycle."Beginning their journey as Rob and Chance used the walk as an opportunity to expand their horizons, filling them in on many things, they quickly made their way towards the auction house, which happened to be an amphitheatre styled structure that was connected to the south side of the Castles pillar.The entire underground area seemed to radiate a feeling of desolation and ruin. All the walls seemed to be crumbled. Entrances weren't planned out with roofs and arches, rather just holes in walls. There were no roofs on many of the buildings. Rubble could be seen all over the ground, along with mess and bloodstains.As an area that was under the control of the royals, why not have it more regulated? It couldn't possibly be that difficult to implement a few of the laws from the area above considering the proximity. Hell, this was literally their basement!Asking the question to Chance, even he wasn't able to come up with a solid answer. After contemplating it himself for a while, he simply passed it off as 'that's the way it was' calling it a forgotten area.Entering the lobby of the auction house, the space finally lost its aura of desolation. Although still lacking in many of the niceties seen above, the room was crisp and clean. The wooden flooring was swept and polished while the white walls provided a stark contrast with the grey, red and brown pallet seen outside."Dear guests, how may I help you today?" A middle aged clerk came over wearing an all-black suit complete with a white tie."We're here to list items to the auction." Replied chance while handing over four black slips. After looking at each slips individually before comparing the numbers written on the bade of each of the boxes, the man snapped each slip in half. Passing one half back to Chance, he pocketed the others before continuing."Appraisals will be completed within the next three hours. Would you like me to prepare you a space to wait?" He asked with a smile.The clerks interest in the conversation was only matched by his own bland looks. Having gone through the procedure god knows how many times, he was obviously well versed in saying the bare minimum without being taken offensively.Despite this going through his head, beneath their masks, Chance and Rob were actually surprised. As far as they knew, once you entered the building, whether people were around or not, just to see the appraiser would require the clerks to open the boxes to see if the contents were worth their time.Attributing the change in attitude to the masks, they left the auction silently with the twins non-the wiser."So, three hours. Any plans for the meantime?" Rob looked around while wondering."We could go get food?" Suggested Rykar, already excited by the thought of investigating more food stalls."This place really isn't known for its food, we can save that for when were back up top. This is the perfect place to get some shopping done though. Whatever we need will be here and as of now, money isn't an issue." Leaving the courtyard, Chance strode into the masses of people, followed by the other three, just as they had done so many times in the past two days.Two hours quickly passes as the four went from shop to shop, only taking breaks to find a secluded space where Rykar would store the purchases while the other three kept watch.Clothes, cooking equipment, bedding, medication, hunting supplies, survival gear. Almost anything considered useful while in a new environment, they bought. The time that they stopped during each break began to take slightly longer as Rykar's mental fatigue began to build up over time. The initial excitement from shopping had faded, causing the dull routine of buying essentials to cause him to grow bored. This only caused him to run out of steam even sooner.It was when there was just over half an hour left that Rykar truly just wanted this trip to be over. Nothing was on his mind besides going back to the auction house and being done with it all. It was also at this time that Chance dangled the carrot on the stick, perking Him up immediately."Ok, there's only one more stop for supplies before we head to the last place. You two don't really have anything to defend yourselves with, there's a friend of mine that sells weapons on the other side. You two can pick out some things before we go to the auction house." The first half of Chance's words almost sent Rykar to the ground in a tantrum but the second half had the complete opposite effect.The last supply stop and storage break was completed in record time. It wasn't even ten minutes since Chance brought up the topic of the weapons before they were in front of yet another run-down store with swords, shields and knives in the store front.The entire journey there, Rykar and Loki had both pestered him with non stop questions. Colours, materials, what they looked like, what the shop was called, you name it. Pointless question after pointless question was fired his way as his patience began to fade into nothingness. Completely ignoring them, they made the last stretch of the journey.As with the other stores, Chance simply strode in before looking at the wares on display. Following behind him like a trail of ducks, the twins also looked at the weapons in front of them with glittering eyes as they scrutinized the dull blades and blood stained pieces of armour."Don't touch this crap, you'll probably get a disease from this before you manage to swing it at anyone." He snorted before throwing a dusty helmet behind the counter.Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click for visiting. The sound of metal hitting a hard surface never came. Instead, an angry cough came from the other side, followed by a series of swears, as a scrawny man wearing leather clothes pulled himself up while rubbing his side.The armour was tight fitting with metal studs and buckles placed seemingly randomly throughout. With a full shaved head and skinny build, he looked like a lizard when paired with the texture of the armour."Go F*ck youself, you dumb son of a b*tch." Grogginess still in his eyes, he pulled two daggers from the underside of the counter, snarling as he advanced. "You think money and fancy masks get you anything in here? You just fucked up."
