The mayor and head foreman arranged to meet them the next day, in the morning. Since they didn't have enough information to parse the strangeness they had found themselves in, the conversation quickly died. Everyone moved on to other topics, chatting and hanging out for a few hours before having a meal and heading to bed.

The kitchenette of their suite turned out to be well stocked, and Caeden made a beef soup for everyone. The inn had room service, and it was offered, but Caeden had already started cooking at that point. No one thought the soup was great, which Caeden thought was fair. He was no culinary genius. Plus, they were all used to the Core Seat cafeteria at this point, with its endless supply of varied, top-quality food. The Turtle Fortress had been similarly well stocked. It was passible but not up to their new standard of quality.

The next morning saw all of them waking early in accordance with their self-ordained training schedule. They immediately ran into problems. For the first time since the four had resolved to train together, they didn't have access to a purpose-built training room. They couldn't exactly go around flinging out deadly attacks in the communal area of their suite, so their normal training had to be put on hold. They still did their Invasion Pressure exercises, as those were not dangerous or damaging, but their sparring had to be skipped.

Next, they had breakfast. This time they used the inn's services, everyone having oatmeal with their own various additions. The inn didn't have the wide variety selection they were accustomed to, but it was still good food. Mostly they just needed something in them for what would likely be a busty day of monster hunting.

Then it came time to meet with the local leadership. As had become normal for them, Caeden and Lily would be in charge of dealing with people, as neither Erik nor Cat had any interest in or skill with interacting with strangers. Erik tended to do well until he got lost on some random tangent or became overly familiar with whoever he was talking to. Cat just had no filter and said whatever she wanted to without empathy or care. Not to say she didn't actually have empathy, just that she tended to talk like she didn't.

They met with the mayor and head foreman in the restaurant attached to the inn they were staying at. The Long Night and The Warm Dinner were an inn and restaurant owned by a pair of sisters that had built the businesses from the ground up to be the preeminent establishments of their kind in Mining Station 003, or so the mayor told them when he led them to a private table.

Caeden wasn't about to doubt him, they were lovely and well-appointed buildings with excellent service, in his limited opinion. They had only been here for an afternoon, but he had been impressed by everything he saw. Not that he had much experience. The mayor seemed to be treating them as more traveled individuals than any of them actually were.

The man himself was rather portly and tall, giving him a large presence. Despite his imposing size, his warm smile and laugh lines made a positive impression. The head foreman had yet to say a word. He was a hard man built of hard lines and muscle. His skin tone was much closer to Lily's pale complexion, in contrast to the mayor's coffee coloration.

He watched them cautiously but respectfully. Caeden could see the dynamic here. The mayor was meant to make the niceties while the foreman watched and gauged their overall disposition. Many shrouded probably would have discounted his presence. He wasn't wearing the fancy clothes the mayor had. Instead, he was in simple, hardy work clothes. Something Caeden would have worn before he was picked up to go to the Academy. It was of higher quality than what he had actually worn, considering the much better financial situation the town was in compared to his little village, but it was the same concept and design.

"We're so glad to receive a team once more. Especially such distinguished new members of the great Central military. What do you require from us?" Mayor Abesh smiled widely, bowing his head slightly to all of them. Caeden retained his focus on the foreman, who had yet to introduce himself or be introduced by the mayor. It was almost like they were being dared to ask about him.

"As I'm sure your people informed you, we're here on an assignment from the Academy. Part of that assignment was coordinating with the local authorities and citizens to discern what monster threats are in the area. As such, we were told nothing at all about the local situation." Lily started.

"I suppose you're looking for some insight from us, yes?'

"That would be appreciated."

The mayor nodded. "We of course keep track of any monsters that are reported anywhere near here. There are three subsidiary villages in the valley that help augment our food supply, even if we do import a large portion of our necessities. I'm sure I could have a list made up of any known manifestations. Obviously, we aren't aware of everything going on in the surrounding area, but we'll offer what we know."

"Anything closer at hand? Monsters are generally attracted to population centers, regardless of where they come into existence. I would assume that if the outlying smaller villages had sightings, your much larger numbers would have also attracted some." Lily asked. She was right. Monsters naturally migrated toward human life if they could find it.

Caeden noticed it. He wouldn't if he hadn't been so closely watching the foreman, but his eyes tightened, and his lips thinned. He was worried about something.

"A-ah. That is…" The mayor stumbled over himself.

"You can relax a bit." Caeden decided to jump in. "I'm a continental, and so is this one." He pointed to Erik sitting next to him. "We're not going to bite your head off. AS far as all of us are concerned, we're here to help."

Mayor Abesh sized him up, looking Caeden over as if trying to see through his head and discern his intentions. Whatever he saw must have agreed with him because his posture relaxed minutely, though the tension in him wasn't entirely gone. Despite his jovial smile, the mayor was desperately scared of them.

"I hope you'll forgive my candor then, but our experience has shown continental shrouded to sometimes be the worst to deal with, and they are the ones to visit us most often." The mayor cringed slightly after his statement, smile turned into a grimace. The foreman next to him became entirely rigid, every muscle tense.

"Oh really, got any ideas on why?" Erik jumped in, curiosity making him forget Caeden and Lily's instructions to let them do the talking.

The mayor's eyes flickered between Caeden, Lily, and Erik, before finally settling on the tallest of them. "If I had to guess, I believe monster hunting is considered something of a punishment detail, often shunted to the continentals in the military. They are all rather resentful. We've had…problems in the past. I've not been the mayor for long."

"No need to worry about that from us," Caeden reassured. "What's the problem?"

"The tunnels." The foreman spoke for the first time. "They're infested."

Caeden shifted focus immediately, nodding for the man to continue.

"Black Reach is shot through with dozens of tunnels and mineshafts. Some haven't seen humans long enough for the monsters to start showing up. They came flooding out of the old depths. Shafts and tunnels we haven't used in centuries. We had to leave off entire sections of usable, good mining space just to avoid them." The foreman scowled.

"That's certainly a problem, but I fail to see why that's something you would want to hide." Caeden let the implied question hang.

The mayor sighed heavily, his corpulent body deflating. "Production deficits and loss of life, that's why. Forgive me, but most shrouded tend to not be very careful with their shrouds, and the tunnels are not built to withstand a monster fight. If you are not careful, you may cause a catastrophic collapse. I'd rather take the loss of a few tunnels than the loss of my constituents. We didn't want to send unreliable and testy shrouded into a delicate environment and ask them to fight quietly, pretty please. That most likely wouldn't have gone over well."

"I'd have to agree." Caeden nodded. "You've had it rough."

A real, genuine smile rose on Mayor Abesh's face. "Thank you for your concern; it has been a trying time."

"So the real question here is whether or not we can deal with these monsters without causing collateral damage." Lily jumped back in. "Do you have any reliable information on what we'd be dealing with? We can constrain ourselves, but if the monsters are inherently destructive, this all becomes a moot point. We can't exactly guarantee their actions."

"That's fair, of course." Mayor Abesh nodded solemnly, his mirth receding once more. He seemed to feel his mayoral responsibilities deeply, "And we wouldn't ask you to unduly risk your lives to spare ours. That would be reprehensible. Unfortunately, we have very little to offer you in the way of information. We only have confirmation on one type of monster, but we also know there are several others. Only one type has been identified with any accuracy, but we keep getting reports that are incongruent with our known monster."

"We'll work with that." It's not like they could do anything else. "What's the one you know?"

For this, the mayor pulled out a small egg-shaped piece of bronze. Much the same as Caeden's map, these small devices were primarily used to store any piece of visual information. Twisting the imager and then pressing the separated sections together, an image appeared in the air over their table. It was a blurry, dark image of a massive creature halfway buried in rock. The mayor twisted the imager, and another image appeared, this time a crystal clear depiction of a monster that clearly resembled the one seen in the last image, devoid of any background.

"We were able to identify this one because of the image you just saw, captured by a brave and stupid young man that decided to approach one while it slept. He used one of the surveying tools we have to discern the quality of ether veins, which is why the image quality was so poor, but the results are still eminently recognizable. We keep detailed records of all known monsters in the area as a precautionary measure. A luxury most continental towns cannot afford. We're certain it was a Crystal Mole."

The monster hovering over their table had pink, shiny skin with a crystal sheen. Small eyes and a giant nose were set on a long snout with large teeth protruding over the lower lip. The teeth looked as much like white crystals as its skin looked like pink ones. It had long claws built for digging, very similar in structure to the Rockadillos claws. With six legs, an extra pair sat on its ribs in between the two normal sets; it had a much more threatening presence.

"How big is it?" Caeden asked. "The picture made it seem enormous."

Mayor Abesh looked at the foreman. "... They're huge. Real big. Bout twenty feet at the shoulder and over eighty feet long. They dig giant tunnels all through the mountain, destroying our own that are in their way. Whatever else is down there hasn't done nearly as much damage to our work as these bastards."

"Well, that gives us something to start with. We'd like any information you have on them. I'm sure we'll end up running into whatever else is hiding down there in the process of dealing with these. Could you show us where to start?" Lily asked politely.

The foreman nodded. "I can point you in the direction of where we think they're nesting."

They headed out with the well wishes of the mayor. The foreman, who still had not introduced himself, took them across town to one of the elevator platforms. There were different types of elevators from what Caeden had seen. Some were cargo carriers that spanned dozens of feet across. The one they stepped on was for people, large enough to hold three standing shoulder to shoulder, and possibly another three deep.

The town ran thousands of feet up the side of the mountain, and the elevator stopped at every level. They were short stops, not even really stops at all. The elevator never quite stopped moving, just slowing down for a few seconds so people could quickly hop on. Since there were as many platforms on the elevator as there were floors, no one ever had to worry about missing the chance to get on. Another platform would be along in only a few seconds.

Along the way, they learned everything the foreman knew about the Crystal Moles, from behavioral habits to vulnerabilities. It was nothing Caeden hadn't expected just from looking at the image. It was big, durable, and hit like a mountain coming down on you. Considering it was only a 5,000 IP creature, the limited nature of its abilities was unsurprising. Most monsters at this level had only minor special properties like the Plague Rat's ability to engender disease in the unshrouded or the Rockadillos' ability to curl up and enhance their downward momentum.

The truly powerful effects would only start appearing in monsters over 10,000. Although not a hard line, 10,000 IP acted as a threshold for monsters, the first of several. Before that point, they were basically wild animals that hated humans and had a special trick. After that point they became real, magical threats. There were other thresholds where monsters became even more extreme, one at 100,000 and another at 1,000,000. They wouldn't be seeing anything like that on this trip, though.

The Crystal Mole's unique trick was its skin. The crystalline appearance wasn't just for looks. If it was injured, the monster could eat mundane or even magical gemstones to repair its injured body, temporarily gaining additional properties if the gems consumed had magic of their own. These effects were invariably weak and extremely temporary, not even lasting a day. The entire ability was predicated on them being able to flee a fight they were losing, which they were apparently rather fond of doing. Preventing their escape was likely to be the hardest part of the hunt, considering they were skilled diggers.

"We're here." The foreman stepped lightly off the platform, the team hurrying to follow. The elevator swept away from them, bringing the next platform of people along. They were on a small stone ledge leading into a public square carved out of the side of the mountain. There were only a few people moving about, mostly coming from the few homes lining the square. They appeared to be in a residential area. "Follow me."

The foreman led them to a stone door set to lead deeper into the mountain that seemed to be the destination of everyone else. Going through took them into a new world.

Caeden was once again stunned and awed at this unique town. At this point, he could only qualify it as a city. They were on a street lit by ether lights. More homes lined the street, with many more people moving about. The soft light of the ether crystals made everything feel warm and cozy, despite the black stone all around them. The road stretched on into the distance, leading ever further into the depths of the mountain.

The town you could see from the air was only a part of the actual community. So many more lived inside the mountain they mined. He had already thought the town was rather large for being so far inland, but this blew that idea out of the water. If all the other levels they had passed were anything like this one, the population of Mining Station 003 was more than the port city they had arrived at by at least double, possibly more.

"Welcome to the real city, Under Reach." The foreman smiled softly.