[Alright Invidia, you can spit her out now.]
With a wet splat the hatchling is deposited onto the tunnel floor in front of me still dripping with demon saliva. With a shiver she begins to shake her legs and abdomen in an attempt to cleanse herself of the goo. She has a little success before furiously cleaning her antennae, dragging them through the elbow joints of her front legs over and over again to clean the delicate hairs that line the appendage.
"I really thought we were getting past that whole thing," I point out to her. "You're getting your answers aren't you? Just be patient."
She keeps cleaning but gives me a look that I can only interpret as "Patience? What even is that?".
"Well, keep trying if you want," I shrug my antennae, "it just means more time with your second instructor and lets me rest. Now, are you ready to see this next part of the nest?"
Finally finished getting the worst of the mess off, the hatchling immediately looks around excitedly, only to be disappointed to find we are in a plain tunnel without anything remarkable about it.
"It doesn't seem that exciting," she says dejectedly.
WHACK! I bring my antenna down on her head with a sharp crack.
"This is just a tunnel! Obviously we haven't entered it yet!" I take a breath. "Where we are headed is the industrial heartland of the Colony. This is where all the raw resources that we collect are gathered to be processed. The ores, the wood, the gems and other precious materials that we might find in the Dungeon. Smelting, carving, crafting, enchanting, smithing. All of it goes on here. Hundreds of tons of raw ore is shipped here every day by a vast network of workers and tools. Look, here comes one now."
We can hear the rattling long before anything appears out of the darkness of the tunnel, but when it does it makes a suitably impressive sight. Metal wheels grind along the tracks embedded neatly into the tunnel floor, filling the air with that metal on metal discordant whine that only grows louder as it draws closer. It resembles a mining cart, except far larger, the box made from solid wooden planks reinforced with metal banding welded together by the finest of fire mages. The base of the cart glows with flowing light that is emitted from runes that run the entire base of the cart forming an intricate pattern that loses my focus the harder I look as my eyes are drawn down into ever finer details.
At the front of the cart, a mighty soldier is strapped in with a harness, pulling the immense weight of the cart behind her in a display of incredible strength. When she draws closer we shift to the side in order to make way and the soldier gives a nod of gratitude as she focuses on her work of hauling. Only when she starts to go past do I realise that there is more than one cart. Three in total make up the train, attached together by a locking mechanism. At the rear of the third another soldier is found, pushing with all her might as the train continues.
What the heck?! This is uphill?! Are these super ants?! Each of those carts is packed to the brim with ore, I can see it from here! Maybe ten cubic metres worth in each. That has to be multiple tons of material being hauled here!
The hatchling watches them go past respectfully, her eyes immediately drawn to the glowing runes around the base of the cart which causes me to look more closely also. Which leads me to another discovery. As the wheels shift forward the track lights up just before they touch, matched by a glow from the wheel itself. The moment the track has passed under the wheel, that segment grows dim. It appears as if the track is enchanted to react with the wheels in some way? Or the wheels are enchanted to react to the track?
Holy moly, I had no idea how much development had gone on up here… If I had to guess, the carts themselves are enchanted to lighten themselves and their load and the tracks are somehow enchanted to reduce friction as the wheels pass over, perhaps with some variant of water or ice magic? I've no idea. Whatever the case, it's incredible work since it allows such a huge amount of rock to be hauled by just two soldiers.
"So this is where the raw ore is brought in to be processed," I tell the still staring hatchling, "let's move in a little deeper and take a gander at the next stage."
She nods mutely and we follow along behind the cart as it continues its journey into the heart of the antdustrial empire. Two things become readily apparent as we walk, the temperature is gradually rising and the noise is continually building. The ringing of metal, the crack and crash of hard stone and the continual waft of warm air blowing against our antennae are all signs we are drawing near.
When we come upon the site, it still almost comes as a shock. One moment we are in a tunnel, the next the ground drops away beneath us and we all freeze in surprise. What the heck have these ants been doing whilst I've been busy!? Someone needs to get these girls a hobby or something! Unperturbed by the sight of it, the soldiers continue hauling their carts, unaware that we've fallen behind.
The tunnel floor is gone, replaced with a girded steel railing that puts me in mind of train tracks having replaced it, the two guiding lines for the cart wheels still prominent. Through the gaps in the struts and falling away to my left side, I can see we are standing close to the top of a vast cone which falls away perhaps as much as a kilometre beneath us. Wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, the cone is lined with tracks just one for almost the entirety of its height. Before I can even begin to wonder what on earth is going on, a rumble starts above me and I jerk at the unexpected sound.
Overhead and to my right, hugging the wall as it widens, another train of carts has gone still and the soldiers have triggered some sort of mechanism. Through the gaps in the struts I can see the steel bottom of the carts drop away, the ore within dropping through the gaps with a low roar. With a sharp crack and hiss the rock hits the side of the cone and begins to slide down, tumbling and falling end over end. After a few seconds it reaches our level, tumbling through the gap between our track and the edge of the cone as it continues on its way. As I watch, the two soldiers we were following prepare to do the same thing. The two of them grip a lever at the two ends of the train with their mandibles and pull simultaneously. Just as before, the bottom of the cart drops away and the ore rumbles out, joining the previous rockslide as it rolls its way down to the bottom of the cone and dropping out of sight through the narrow opening at the bottom.
All around me this scene is repeated as carts appear out of tunnels and onto the rail bridges, whereupon they dump their ore and then continue on their way, vanishing out of sight as their bridge turns back out of sight. With their carts empty, the two soldiers in front of us pull on the levers once more and the bottom of the carts rises and locks into place before they resume their journey, one pushing, one pulling as they return to where they came to load up another train full of ore.
I hesitate to follow, drinking in the scene that I had heard of but never before witnessed. It never seems to end. As carts unload and then vanish, another takes their place, up and down the cone. The rumble of stone being unloaded is a constant roar and my mind boggles at the amount of material being processed. This is just the ore drop off point… It must be at least two hundred and fifty metres across at this point! It's freakin' huge! Exactly how much mining is the Colony doing around here?!