Between the mindless undead horde, I hoped it would be mindless, because a sentient undead horde was even more frightening, and the blue trolls I already proved I could kill and blind, the choice was easy. Plus, even they feared the undead so the sensible choice was to flee along with them. Yup, that's what got me here. I was back in the leaching tunnel that was formed when water from the mine seeped into the mineral veins, dissolving them slowly over the centuries and sending the salts and oxides down into wherever water goes from here.

I heard the undead feeding on the three blue troll corpses left behind and moved a sensible distance from the mostly closed-off tunnel. I didn't seal it shut because it would be stupid to close myself in an air bubble.

Air bubbles... Wait a second. The mine tunnel didn't seem like it would flood very often. While it was obviously exposed to moisture given the poor state of the timbers, I didn't see rivers flowing down that tunnel. That would create a water line and there was none. No. This leaching tunnel was created from the bottom up. I remembered what Tullius told me. The water table level varies wildly with the seasons. The water level would rise all the way to the tunnel. Over the course of the centuries, the water rising and falling here washed away this tunnel open until it met the mine since both followed the mineral veins in the ground.

This meant that the water below was connected to a series of tunnels and passages. That might include the warrens of the blue trolls. I didn't check but I think they are amphibious. Either through the skin of through their gills, they can breathe water. When I fell, I must have plunged into the water and washed up here. It might mean the water level was where I stood before it dropped to where it is now.

If that was true, the drought on the surface must've worsened. And I didn't finish the storage. I hope everyone is alright.

There was another problem. If I was partly underwater when I washed, that meant the blood I found was only the last period. The estimate that I was here for weeks but less than a month was false.

That scared me even more than the ghouls in the mine would.

I had to get out of here. And that meant going up. If this water pool was connected to the water table, I had little fear of finding a pocket of water that would flood me because the water table would just absorb the water like a sponge. And once I went above the level of the mine, I could even hit a river and the water would have a place to go. I'd bet the water table rarely rose above the first set of timbers.

Decompose time.

But before I worked, I needed to remake my helmet and replenish my energy levels. I shaped the titanium back the way I wanted, making the helmet even thicker now. It was heavier but still useable. I stored the lantern and took the crank flashlight. I spent quite a while cranking it to recharge its batteries. The undead was scraping and gnawing the bones of the blue trolls and while I was hungry, there was no way for me to eat right now.

After the flashlight was properly charged, I shifted, widened, and squared a room. Decompose the silicon dioxide, release the oxygen because I needed to breathe, mold it back and obtain the other materials. I knew I could go through a few tons of material per hour at my current skill level with my power. The undead was bashing on the passage to get to me but so far my silicon was holding.

I had a room I could stand up on and move around without fear of brushing against any jagged bits of rock. The floor had a slope to let any water seep back into the pool. It would be easier if I could just pop cubes of stone. I had a mending iron pick but it wouldn't work for that.

I was brimming with energy, courtesy of the excess oxygen. Part of it would seep into the mine and part would dissolve in the water but being heavier than nitrogen, it would do so slowly. I wasn't at risk of intoxication, I guessed, because it wasn't fully closed. Time to go further up.

I sensed Dime and Penny's location and chose a side that would take me closer to them. Then I lowered the floor into a basin below where I'd dig, to catch anything that fell down.

To avoid any ambushes, I also shaped some aluminum-covered spikes pointing toward the pool. I used the Dremel to sharpen the aluminum tip. Now the blue trolls would have to hurt themselves to get through. It wasn't a perfect trap but would deter them.

I moved the silicon of the wall away and started to dig with my power. This was bedrock, almost devoid of any interesting minerals. I shaped a staircase with a lower chute running on the left to catch anything that fell down and take it to the pool. It was tiresome and bothersome work. First I had to make room on the sides for the silicon that would come from ahead, Decomposing the rock. Then decompose ahead, moving the silicon to the sides. I would still get a few aluminum and iron particles. Some alkaline earth oxides too. These, I dumped down the chute.

I worked fifty steps up when I grew too tired to continue. That put me above the mine tunnel where the undead lurked. Ten meters in height? How far was I from the surface? I bet it was a lot. The air was thick with oxygen. I went downstairs to check on the room below, Decomposing up the ceiling up so I wouldn't bump my head. Once I got downstairs, I felt almost drunk. Yes, this was bad. too much oxygen.

If only there was something flammable to consume some of this oxygen, like dry corpses. I needed something to kickstart the process. I took the dress I was wearing when I was dumped in the hole and ripped a good portion of it. Now I needed fuel. For that, I used a blue troll corpse. Decompose could get me the compounds from it if there was anything that had that compound as a portion of its structure. I could extract water from alcohol because it had both hydrogen and a hydroxyl to give. I could extract glucose from plant fiber because it was made of it.

It meant I could extract gasoline from fat or organic tissues. So long it had a chain of eight carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen, it would work. Or that was the theory. I had to try.

I shaped a rod of aluminum and wrapped the cloth around the head. Then I Decomposed the corpse of the blue troll to extract gasoline. It took some time but I managed to get the fuel. Once I had a sample, it was much easier to lock on the signature of the compound. I extracted a quarter of a liter of fuel from the corpse and soaked the rags. Some bodily fluids and leftovers from the fat Decomposition seeped down past the spikes and into the water pool.

I went up the tunnel and saw the undead still scraping at the silicon. I could see bonemeal falling down the sides as the skeletons and zombies were not harder than the silicon. They were grinding themselves against the material I left behind. Oh, no. Even worse than that as the oxide layer over the silicon was quartz that was even harder than the pure silicon I left behind.

I used Decompose to open up a spot where I could stand up. Then a hole to look at the undead on the other side. They were shuffling around, pressing the bodies against the silicon to get to me. Time to burn. The hole was slanted down and outward. I poured the excess gasoline down the hole and prepared to light up my torch.

I needed fire. It was easy for me. I just needed some sodium or potassium from the salts around me smeared on the silicon. Then I touched the torch next to it and spat on the metal. Whoosh.

I shoved the torch through the hole. A zombie or ghoul, I wasn't able to identify them apart, yanked the torch from me. I let them and crawled back to my staircase. It was... terrifying. The undead did no sound but the rattle of bones. But in the high oxygen atmosphere, they burned like a pyre.

I could smell the ashes and burnt flesh along with the burning mold. I went up the stairs but had to lean on the chute and throw up acid and bile. I had nothing else in my stomach.

On the top step of the stairs, I waited. I took my water bottle and refilled my canteen. Then I took a swig from the canteen, washed my mouth and spat on the chute.

That was the foulest stench ever. The undead was rotting for who knows how many thousand years. Their funk was unbearable, especially when burnt.

The rattling noise died down. Just faint whiffs of smoke rose up to meet my nostrils. After I calmed myself, I dug up a sideways tunnel that led into a room for me to sleep in. I then carved a groove along the sides of the tunnel and filled it with a wall of iron. There were gaps on the top and bottom for gas exchange but otherwise, it was a solid slab of metal.

I drank my fill of water and then noticed there was a little problem. I had to go. And the nearest toilet that matched my standards was a reality away. I could use the chute but it would also ruin everything collected down there. Then I remembered I already ruined it and I went to carve another room on the other side of the room downstairs.

The smell of smoke was there, clogging the whole tunnel. Without wind, the smoke went down and settled here. Well, If it's carbon, I can deal with it. I just collected the floating soot and dust, leaving the carbon dioxide. I was going to make a ton of oxygen. I needed other gases around.

After doing it I had no choice but to Decompose after myself. Well, I already was leaving more than footprints, I already took more than pictures, and I already killed more than time. At least something I needed to do. I also took care of my stomach discharge fluids, if that mattered. At least to me, it did.

Dignity saved, I went back to my "room". I reformed the iron wall, ate half of my remaining Earth food and set my bedroll on the ground. I wrote a bit on my laptop before I went to sleep.