It turned out Borsdown had a lot of books on digging. Though most of it was on surface digging as they needed it for the quarry, there were a few books on building proper tunnels for mining.

There were a few things to look out for, some of them I had not even considered. The obvious one was stabilization. A tunnel needed some sort of support or it was at risk of collapsing. I would also need to find a place to dispose of the stone but I already had an idea for that. The biggest problem might end up being water. Apparently, being underground also meant there was a lot of water. In this world that may be different with nodes and magic messing up the weather cycles but I already knew about the underground river. There was even enough water for a small forest to grow down there. I should at least consider a way to protect the village from turning into a lake. Maybe I could dig a connection to said river?

Sadly, the one thing I was looking for had no easy solution. One would not target a tunnel to reach a specific cave. They either widened a natural shaft or found it on accident. I would need to figure out some proper measurements. Or maybe just dig from the goblins’ side. That was a real wing preener. I could think about it once I had a method for digging. Sadly, there was no easy tool to help someone without hands to dig into stone. The dwarves relied on their trusty picks and Skills to get the rock and ore out of the earth. Unless the goblins could take that role, it would be a problem for me.

Artefacts was another option but when I skimmed through the available books, I found nothing particularly useful to me. They had their vis engines to propel minecarts, elevators and pulley systems but that was it. At least I found the schematics for the pavement. It was apparently called warding stone and had several variations mentioned, though most of them were reliant on the specific crystals available. It could create barriers to keep out specific aspects as long as the essence had somewhere to go. That was what the pillars were for. The crystals had to be replaced on a regular basis. The full ones went to the artificers or to power community artefacts like the wall. Yes, apparently, the wall was an artefact. The one at the ork border. I could have figured that out.

By that time, it was getting late and I had to leave the library. I spent a few more hours in Vivi’s workshop reading the Thaumonomicon. I hoped to find a magical tool to bore through the stone. When I entered the room, I spotted a cluttered workbench with a large wooden figurine sitting on top. It looked very much like me. The wood was a light brown, maybe oak or something similar, and clearly shaped in the form of an owl. Though one without feathers. Instead, there were a ton of holes and a few sticks on the body. They were about where my bones would be when I spread my wings. I could see the pile of steel and crystal feathers cleanly sorted on the neighbouring workbench. Was she making a figure of me? How cute. The workmanship was decent but it looked far from done and so I focused on my own plans.

The Thaumonomicon quickly came up with a hit. There was a wand focus that supposedly created a beam of energy capable of breaking materials. It worked best on dirt, stone, sand and similar things. Organic matter resisted, as long as it was alive. There was some sort of interference that was linked to how the focus worked but the exact details were of no interest to whoever had written this entry. I was expecting there to be some deeper knowledge hidden away but I would have to make this focus first. It seemed quite simple. I just had to take an emerald and surround it in a quartz construct with a few inlaid terra vis crystals. This would create a somewhat unstable focus. It had the right aspects if I infused it with earth and destruction during the process but it was not based on a blank focus. There was a second method utilizing that but it required an infusion altar. I would also have to weave in some gold as well if I used it. That would replace the essence of greed gemstones normally held which allowed for digging up stone and ores.

I still had the wand from the thaumaturge. It was decent and would allow me to power the focus. Though I wondered if I could simply supply the vis directly from my soul. That would mean I could avoid refilling at a node.

I decided to test it with the unstable focus first and see how it worked. Anything else could be considered later. I would have to buy an emerald and some quartz from Serrington.

The next morning came and I took off to the goblin village once more. It was a mostly uneventful flight. A snowstorm made me seek cover for a few hours during the second day but I still arrived shortly after nightfall. The village entrance was not very easy to find in the dark but I managed after about half an hour of careful searching. I wanted to avoid disturbing the snow so I tried to half-land on the slope above. With how steep it was, I could barely stand there for a few seconds but that was enough to extend my shadows through the topmost layer of snow.

During that time I kept listening for anything else moving around but only made out some rodent crawling beneath the snow. It was probably a mouse or something similar.

The goblins were just finishing their breakfast when I reached them. I caught Chef and Roguk talking next to the large pot and joined them. After a short discussion, I learned they had been able to hunt enough to keep going for another three days with what I brought last time. That meant the current delivery might well last them two or three weeks. I had paid a total of two gold coins for the food which was much less than the crystals I took would sell for.

“Do you need anything else within the next week or two?”, I asked.

“Nnn… Well, we could use a lot of things but you’re doing so much for us already”, Roguk said.

“You guys are pretty rich by dwarven standards with all those vis crystals, you know? I can easily go buy stuff for you. As long as the dwarves make it, you can get it.”

He put a hand to his chin.

“We’ll have to think about it. What’s a priority and what can wait.”

“The best thing ‘d be getting outta here and findin’ a better place”, Chef butted in.

“Right. But that’s a long term plan. I don’t think we should try to leave before Stormbringer passes by again.”

“Hmpf. We just need a tunnel to some’ere else but orks.”

“I’m working on something that might help with that. Though I don’t really have a place for you that’s easily reached. It’s a two-day flight for me to the Dwarven Hills but I’m really fast. It might take you guys a month or even longer, depending on the terrain.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea anyways, Fio. The dwarves aren’t all that welcoming to orks and goblins, I heard.”

“Generally that’s right but I talked to some important people. You can find yourself a place near the border and they won’t mind. That would be mostly forest so you should have most of what you need. If you bring a bunch of crystals you might even be able to pay the dwarves to build you a small town.”

The goblins frowned.

“Dunno if I trust that. We’ve got an alright life here. New threat ‘s kinda scary.”

“We wouldn’t move without everyone agreeing to it, anyway.”

Why would they not just accept my help? I was a little annoyed. They had trouble with food in the winter and risked the ork’s wrath if they ever got detected. And their only exit not into ork territory was sealed off by a node.

“We’ll talk about it with everybody. What we need and what we want to do. It’ll be some time before we can come to a decision.”

“Fine.”

I was not happy but it was not my place to force them out of their home. At least developing the place by bringing tools and digging a tunnel to the ravine would not be pointless.

I nodded to the goblins and said goodbye for now. I wanted to try to measure the cave.

That turned out to be a mostly useless activity once I delved into the tunnel. The winding slopes made it near impossible for me to get a clear vision of the cave’s position inside the mountain. I would need some more practical measurement tools and dig through the node’s stone at least once. It would be a difficult task.

Towards the end of the night, I was sitting on a stalagmite close to the village and getting another look at everything. The goblins were practically living in some weird spot between cavemen and proto-civilization. The wooden huts with mushroom-shaped thatch roofs looked rather out of place in the cave. Their tools were wood, stone, clay and bone. I could see them rapidly increasing their productivity and quality of life with some simple metal tools. Maybe I could read up on smithing and forging and teach them? Mining would have to be part of it as well but I already knew the basics of that.

As I was chucking ideas back and forth in my mind, a familiar face approached. It was Luk, one of the hunters. He greeted me with a nod. His bow hung on his back, string loose. The goblin turned around and leaned on another stalagmite next to mine.

For a minute we just shared the space, not talking about anything. Then he spoke up.

“You know… This is kind of a small place. It’s simple and life can be rough but… it’s home.”

I glanced at him. The goblin’s eyes were slowly panning over the huts.

“We don’t need much. We have each other. We have the whitewood and the critters running around. It’s…”

He looked at me.

“...boring.”

I scoffed.

“Yeah. I kinda want more from life. But I don’t want to leave anyone behind. So I’m just gonna tell you this. Don’t patronise us. I don’t mind if you help out but let us do our thing. You’re not one of us. You can just fly away and do your thing. And that’s great. But our village doesn’t have wings.”

During his words, my head had lowered itself without me really noticing. My wings were slightly spread as well. When I realized, I quickly returned to posture. Then I sighed. He was right, even if I did not like it. I offered my help and now they had to decide if they wanted it. I would bring another delivery of food in a week or two. Until then, I decided to make a list of what I thought could help them and how difficult it would be for me to make it happen. That would be a good baseline for cooperation. Now, I just wanted to leave and get some fresh air.

I nodded a goodbye at Luk and made my way outside. The fresh dawn greeted me. The sky was a clear blue and the sun made the western peaks glow golden. I took a few slow circles around the goblin mountain. There was not much of notice. The ravine seemed to be a little bit north, past another peak. A tunnelling operation would be very interesting. I hoped the goblins would accept my help. It would give me something to do until Stormbringer’s return. The next time, I would keep up a little longer. Hopefully, the swamp west of the Dwarven Hills was not as crowded with monsters as the forest east of the orks.