The Factorio employed professionals.
People who wanted to support the city’s economy, masters for whom the horrific working conditions and high risk of becoming crippled were no obstacle.
They were the reason the entire city could sustain itself on natural resources extracted from the vast underground spaces beneath the mountains.
All this was explained to me by the bureaucrat, who had already recruited a few more benders on the way down to the city’s lowest level.
Just a couple of them, from different forges.
Down there, the trembling man handed the papers to a stern soldier.
Under his escort, we boarded an elevator powered by Earthbending.
Several men took hold of the stones beneath the platform and pushed all of us downward.
For a very long time.
An excessively long time.
If it had been powered by a simple cable, I would never have gotten on.
I never ride elevators.
“Your special uniforms are here.” Meanwhile, the man who had assembled the group of benders walked to the wall of the elevator and grabbed some comfortable suits with protective masks.
“These are respirators.
They’ll protect you from dust.
I hope there are no idiots here who need to be told that any cloud of dust will instantly clog the filters.
It protects against the smallest particles.”
We all put the clothes on over our own gear.
A simple vest, sturdy pants, and goggles.
“You’ll be living down here.
Plenty of space in the caves, so each of you gets a spacious room.
If you want to decorate it, the elevator goes up twice a week and takes anyone who wants to go.
And I should ask in advance.
Is there anyone here who’s afraid of tight tunnels or being without sunlight?”
The man scanned the group and saw hesitation.
Some even raised their hands, admitting their weak, or rather unprepared, nature.
Others thought about how long they’d have to endure without sunlight.
Its absence could heavily impact both health and mental state.
In the end, only I stood with the calmest expression, shaking my head in response.
I could spend a week or months down here.
I was ready to bet it wasn’t as dangerous as the mountain in the desert.
The only difference was that I’d have to develop more than just sand magic.
Maybe that’s why it was so easy to predict Anubis’s next words.
“Choose:”
1: Develop Earthbending (Cave life is hard, and being a miner is harder.
Investing time in this branch will make it easier to control large volumes of material.
Breaking large, tough rocks will become automatic.
Higher pay, improved combat potential).
2: Unlock Crystalbending (This new branch requires serious effort.
Your open chakra will make it easier, but mastery can only be achieved with total focus on this direction.
Your combat potential will increase many times over).
3: Mud bending (Even in the caves, there’s underground water.
Mud mixed with water forms a suspension that most Earthbenders can’t control.
You’ll learn to handle more difficult, stubborn materials.
You’ll be able to greatly improve Waterbender techniques).
I couldn’t hide my surprise.
Anubis had presented two new, deep, demanding directions.
Even mud I’d already said in the swamp that I couldn’t control it.
It was hard to handle such a mixed element.
But there I was learning something else entirely.
Now, apparently because I’d come to hone my bending, a specific path had appeared.
The decision was difficult.
I already understood the basics of interacting with Chi.
Would I be able to fully replicate the healing magic that only Waterbenders possessed?
Anubis remained silent, as if deliberately making me drool over all these different directions, teasing my expectations.
This was the hardest decision I’d made in a long time.
I thought silently, tapping my foot on the floor, until the walls of the elevator began to glow with light.
Frowning in confusion, I turned around with the other surprised people.
Then we all froze in shock at the beauty.
Through the grated walls of the elevator, we saw a giant cavern covered in countless crystals growing from the walls, ceiling, and floor.
Giant stalactites seemed to merge with the crystals.
Light from some unknown source reflected off the multicolored lenses, casting almost rainbows across the stone.
On the large levels of this cavern, groups of Earthbenders worked, extracting countless useful minerals.
In some areas, mud rivers flowed, carrying away waste deeper into the earth, probably beyond the cave entirely.
In other places, massive dust clouds hung.
People ran from those areas, shouting something about cave-ins.
“You’ll have your own schedule,” the soldier spoke, looking at his papers.
“This week, we need to dig a new tunnel to the jennamite mine and set it up for King Bumi.”
As we descended, they explained our work, how we’d be paid, and what safety protocols to follow.
The dust from a collapsed area was given as an example by the soldier, who said one of the forges had been buried there.
This was a full-scale factory producing strategically important components.
The efficiency of the Earthbenders was so high that they could both dig and forge at the same time, though they usually tried not to overload the same benders with so many tasks.
When we arrived and stepped out of the elevator onto a path of crystal bushes, we looked around the new place like tourists.
Everything was filled with stone fortresses.
Benders hauled heavy carts of resources toward the forges, from which came the loud sound of stone striking metal.
Smoke from the furnaces rose high through stone chimneys.
From more distant parts of the cavern, the same delivery systems as in the city arrived.
The soldier led us to a large stone board with current assignments.
Light from some unknown source illuminated the various tasks.
“The week just started, so everyone’s only just getting to work.
You can decide for yourselves what to take on, unless there’s a direct order to send forces to a specific task, like now.
The easiest missions, like simple stone washing, are usually already taken.
You newcomers are out of luck.”
The tasks included helping in the forge, digging new tunnels, and washing mud, which was already taken.
Just then, a man arrived and posted a job for clearing a collapsed forge.
The other newcomers immediately gathered around it.
I stayed where I was, thinking.
My choice of which direction to develop my magic would determine what I’d be doing here.
Unfortunately, without details, it was hard to understand what each branch was capable of.
There were no books on any of the paths that had opened to me.
“Hm, why is there a bonus for the jennamite job?” the guys at the board asked at the same time.
“You didn’t hear me?
The King ordered that place to be carefully prepared.
Plus, you’ll encounter growing quartz along the way, so you’ll have to make abrasives on the spot.
Double benefit, understand?
If so, get to work.”
I frowned immediately.
“Can I ask something?” The answer could completely decide which bending I’d study.
“What do you want?” The soldier turned to me.
“What’s ‘growing quartz’?”
“…Rock candy,” he answered with a smirk and turned away.
I finally remembered.
A sweet mineral that could grow incredibly fast and even trap a person in a cage.
I wondered where to mine crystals if I learned this new branch.
Clearly, they were rarer than sand or plain earth.
Even if this bending was dangerous, what was the point if most of the time I could only carry a couple of crystals?
But if they could reproduce, that changed everything.
I just had to figure out if they were useful for combat.
I quickly found out which direction to search.
After a couple of kilometers, I stood before a dug tunnel with a few miners.
In this place, colorful crystals grew everywhere.
People broke them off and demonstrated how they began growing along the arm.
It looked fragile.
But when I touched a purple sprout growing from the neighboring wall, I couldn’t break it off, even with all my strength.
And it calmly began enveloping my arm, climbing higher.
“I see.” Understanding began to dawn.
I could feel it with my bending, how the crystal lattice divided.
It was hard to say exactly how it grew, but it involved dense contact with the body.
Separating it wasn’t so easy.
I tried to pour bending into it to break it off, but due to the unfamiliar composition, it only worked on the third try.
And only because of my developed control.
“Heh, we usually have to save newcomers from that,” someone chuckled from the side.
I looked up and saw an old man with just one eye.
“Jennamite is hard to control.
And if you eat it, well, undeveloped benders usually end their lives that way.”
“That serious?” I tensed.
It sounded like I was in a cave filled with bear traps.
Deadly traps at every step.
And if you breathed the dust?
Terrifying.
But the old man broke off a piece, put it in his mouth, and calmly crunched it.
“It takes experience.
It’s not only tougher than any rock, it’s fundamentally different.
If you’re afraid of being trapped in crystal, stay close to other people.”
“Ah!
Help!” someone screamed from the side.
I recognized the person quickly.
One of the newcomers who’d come with me.
His arm was already covered in crystal up to the elbow.
He fell to the floor, writhing.
Other workers ran over and, with a few strikes to the crystal, removed the dangerous mineral.
Then they ground it into dust and collected it in a small container.
Real crushed quartz sand.
“Heh, controlling crystal requires a special character.
Newcomers’ spines are too weak for it.” The old miner’s words were caught by my ears.
I focused on him.
My legs immediately sat down in a lotus position before him.
“Teach me.
I want to understand the principles of benders who work with crystals.” I brought my hands together and bowed respectfully.
“…Get lost, you mole.
What did you dig up here?” Startled by my quickness, he turned his head from my intense, frightening stare, frowned, and quickly shuffled away.
I’d been brushed off.
But still, Anubis, I choose Crystalbending.
I can study mud and the others later.