Chapter 460: Da Mine Rules Part 2
"There are a few more things" said Stone, recovering from their response now, "that are mostly just common sense. Sadly, I know a few miners that are lacking in it so more rules are coming.
"Do NOT start bashing away at the walls. I don't mind if you punt a rat or twenty into the walls. Their bodies should take most of the shock, but do NOT start throwing your full weight into the walls. The caves are tough, and so are the supports, but the supports aren't perfect. If they have to deal with all the weight of the mountain AND you punching it, then it might just give out. That causes problems for you, and the rest of the mine, so be careful there.
"Understood Stone" said Kamiko and Kat somewhat sedately, giving Stone a chance to recover from their antics a little.
"Next RULE. Light! If you need it, you will pick up one of the specially designed lanterns at the entrance. You push demonic energy in, light comes out. YES they are specially designed for mines, NO you can't take them home. The best place to put them is to hook them onto a belt if you have one. If not, you'll have to hold it.
"They are sturdy little things, but not ideal. Now. There is lighting down the tunnels but you will go beyond that. Still, it should be enough for you to find your way back to if something does happen to your light. So, now I got two questions, HOW good is your night vision, and Do you UNDERSTAND?"
"UNDERSTOOD STONE!" shouted the pair. Kat then gestured for Kamiko to go first. To comment on her eyes.
"Um, well Mr Stone, I have much better then average night vision but I still require some light. I can however get that light by shooting low powered lasers out of my eyes if necessary. It doesn't last too long but it would let me see if desperately needed." Explained Kamiko.
Stone nodded, and then gestured to Kat. "Well, as far as I can tell, I might actually have perfect night vision. I've yet to find a place so dark that I cannot see despite a number of times that I think there's been no light around. Possibly a consequence of truesight."
Stone nodded. "Well, I don't know about truesight, but I'll have you with a lantern each still because pinky here needs them at least a little. If you could both see in the dark completely guaranteed I might still have had you take one anyway so this is more of a precaution. Still, you both will do well in that department.
"NEXT. Getting LOST. If you find yourself lost. You need to STOP in place. Now, because you don't have pickaxes you might have to use something else if possible, but if you can, dig out and obvious CIRCLE around you to mark where you have realised your lost. Then place the largest fallen rock in the centre of it.
"Once that is done, start carving a line back the way you think you have been. Do NOT go further then you are sure of. If you end up not realising where you need to go at any point STOP again in place, and draw another circle and SIT in it. If you have your lanterns, place ONE on top of the original rock, and keep a second with you. This will make it the easiest to find you both.
"If you have not shown up at the end of the day, that is what the team sent to find you will be looking for. In your case they will be following the rat corpses to get an idea of where you've been. So, if you could, do try and keep your rat piles in sight of each other if it's not too hard. Understood?"
"YES STONE!" said the pair.
"Good. Now, NEXT RULE. If a cave in happens, and you get stuck, DO NOT summon up D.E.M.O.N.S to get you out. The reason for this is several fold. Firstly, shifting the collapsed rocks could cause more damage to the tunnels, potentially leading to another collapse just from your removal. This might be the case even if you aren't being crushed as the teleportation can get a little funny in areas like the mines. YOU will be fine, but OTHERS might not be so don't jump to it.
"Second, if things don't collapse, the influx of demonic energy needed to actually START the teleportation process might seep into some of those explosive ores. If they happen to be ON you, the instant before the teleportation gets you away… well… you might just die anyway. It is NOT safe to use teleportation if you can't be sure you're away from that part of the mine.
"Third. Don't bother shouting out. Save that precious air. The equipment we use to find you DOES NOT use sound. We'll be tracking various other things, mostly demonic energy concentrations. Fourth. Don't try to dig yourself out unless you can very clearly see un-collapsed tunnel nearby, COMPLETELY. I don't care if it's one single chip out of the ceiling, that's already TOO MUCH.
"In general, staying put really is best. Shifting the rocks is just asking for trouble, and while it might get boring, it's really best you don't work on shifting things. Now, try to remain calm. If that means you have to chat with each other, go for it. Nothing uses air up faster then panicking, but really, if you protected your mask, like you should, then air WILL NOT be a problem. UNDERSTOOD?"
"YES STONE!"
"NEXT RULE. This one is a bit of a strange one that not many get the first time, but I've got high hopes for you both. NO SCREAMING. Whisper if you want, normal voice levels are also fine, but if you got good ears USE THEM. We've done our best not to make the mines an echo chamber but there is only so much we can do. You'll get a pass if a cave in is happening, but only because there's already so much noise. Simple, but is it UNDERSTOOD?"
"OF COURSE STONE!" said the pair, really getting into the vibe. Stone was also pretending not to grin at the two enthusiastic demons. He wouldn't admit it, but he found their innocent joy at listening to him harp on about the rules was very warming to his heart.
"Now. That's all the rules I have for YOU but do either of you have any questions for me?" asked Stone, voice drastically quieter then before.
Hmm… I don't think so? It's all pretty cut and dry. Most things are… well maybe not quite common sense, but having heard it all, they each make a lot of sense. Even the no screaming rule is important… though I bet we'll have a lot of screeching rats… hmm… that might be worth asking. "What about the rats Stone? They will problem be screeching a bunch" said Kat.
Stone ground his lips together slightly hearing this question. "That is actually a good point I hadn't considered. I may need to provide you with some ear muffs with communicators in them… hmm. Just one rat wouldn't be a problem but we already know they're SWARM rats so… hmm, give me a bit to think on that one. Any other questions?"
"What makes them swarm rats anyway?" asked Kamiko, and Kat was a little glad she wasn't the only one that didn't know.
"Ah, so… Swarm Rats are monsters that can duplicate themselves. They don't breed like normal rats. Well… they CAN but normally they don't. A colony of somewhere between five and twenty five will find a nice place to whole up and then start eating basically whatever they can and converting it to demonic energy, before cloning themselves" explained Stone
"Wait… I thought only Demons could use demonic energy?" asked Kat before she could stop herself.
Stone nodded. "Yes, that's true sort of. Many things can use demonic energy, but what makes us DEMONS is that we can use it with no side effects. The most common side effect is when the energy itself destroys the brains ability to reason and sort of just… takes over. Some people think the Demonic Energy itself takes over, and others think it just destroys the ability for higher thought turning the creature into nothing more than a monster.
"In the Swarm Rats case. They look basically like normal rats but they have a big crystal sticking out of their head made of harden blood and demonic energy. Very fragile and basically useless, but it's where they store the energy before they clone themselves. That's the real problem. We don't know how long they've been in the area. You could be looking at a few hundred to a few hundred thousand rats. They aren't much of a risk, especially if you're paying attention but killing them all and making sure they ARE dead is a hassle."
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