Hercule of Trinsic was always a nice, but secretive fellow. The most
experienced blacksmiths preferred him to anyone else, earning him the
respect of young miners and the jealousy of his guildmates, and for a
reason: whenever it came to mining, Hercule was always a way ahead of
everyone. Where another would bring two hundred stones of ore, he
would bring four. Where one could only hope to find a vein of the
desired valorite, Hercule would always bring a plenty. Rumor had it
he turned his soul to Shadowlords, but what success doesn't attract
such gossips? Once, the glorious lord of distant village, whose name
has been lost, visited Trinsic, for he needed armor for a crusade, and
needed it quick, however, his blacksmiths ran out of ore. Having
visited an old friend of his, a rich and respectable smith, he heard
of Hercule's deeds, and decided to hire him. Wasting no more time, the
lord ran to the Miners Guild, hoping to contract the famous miner
immediately, only to find three times nine persons auctioning for the
next contract of Hercule. Even though it was a great luck for the
lord that the most of rich smiths weren't in town to take part in the
auction, village's treasury has got four times more empty this day.
But the contract was his by the right, and no one could deny it. The
same evening, contract's conditions were agreed upon: Hercule was to
mine ore one million worth of ingots, a hundred thousands of which was
required to be valorite ore, for lord's private guardsmen's armor,
over the course of just one week. The work was to start at the next
day morning. Upon learning about the contract, the miners were shocked
by the amount; many made bets for whether he will succeed or not, and
just for you to know - the most bets were in Hercule's favor. Before
the sunset, everyone in town knew about the amazing deal. At the
morning, the great miner headed off for the mountains - or so the
people of Trinsic thought. When Hercule got sure no one was around,
he took a book from his pack and opened it. But this was no ordinary
book. It was a runebook - a tool used by mighty mages to carve the
magic constants of the exact location in an ancient runic language -
to allow themselves, when channeling energy through the writing, to
transport to that place in a blink of an eye. Yes, Hercule was a
mage, but not the kind of a crummy wizard who spends nights in his
libraries and laboratories - he used his sorcery for succeeding at the
profession he admired since the childhood -the mining. He chanted
loudly: "Kal Ort Por!" - and made a weird pass. The runes started to
glow - and this instant, he was in a hidden cave, lost somewhere in
the land of Sosaria. It was pitch black in there, but Hercule marched
forward bravely. He approached a cave wall and reached for it with a
hand, searching for something in the darkness. A *clank* then could be
heard, indicating that he has finally found what he was looking for -
a hidden switch. Suddenly, a terrible, low-pitched roar shaked the
cave. Two scary, glowing blue lights emerged from an opened passage.
But Hercule moved right in their direction with his arms wide open.
"In Lor!" - he proclaimed, and embraced the enormous, giant dark-blue
monster like an old man would embrace his beloved dog. And the beetle
had returned this weird hug in kind. "Jackie!" - said Hercule. -
"Come 'ere, boy! Miss'd ye much all these two days, ol' friend!". He
searched his bag and pulled out two large hams, then fed them to the
happy Jackie. The beetle chewed the meat down in seconds, and stared
at its owner with relief and joy. The miner then replied to this
silent question: "Now, we don't have time to rot in tis stinky cave,
do we? Let's head out!". With these words, he mounted Jackie and
opened his book again. The fading "...Ort Por...t Por...or..." was
then going around the cave, but with no one to hear it anymore. And
somewhere else, in another secluded cave, Hercule was already looking
for the signs of the ore. The process required extreme attention and
precise tools; the beetle could also find the vein by its smell, but
to a lesser extent than its distant metallic relative. The Night Sight
spell allowed the miner to see everything as if in broad daylight.
Finally, he's found what he looked for, and started mining. The
process was long and tiring, but Hercule lived up to his name; also,
while being naturally strong and well trained, he used the spell to
make himself stronger, and even the toughest stone was giving up under
the hits of his pickaxe. In a few hours, he searched all the veins in
the cave and squeezed them dry. Hercule then decided to move on,
however, no matter how strong he was, all the unrefined ore he dug up
was too much for him to lift. Now, that's where Jackie comes to the
rescue, having been made tame a fifty years before for this exact
purpose by Hercule's friend, the fabled sir Hastings, the man who
lived with dragons - don't be impatient, I'll tell you a tale of his
adventures next night. So, the beetle helped Hercule to lift and
transport the ore. "How could Jackie lift the ore if it had no
hands?", you say? You would have known, Jimmy, that every blue beetle
has a large natural sack under its wings, and is capable of lifting
weights of more than hundred times its own mass, if you studied the
animal lore better instead of burning ants with a spying glass at your
naturalist classes with Legolas. Back then no one knew about blue
beetles' use - except Hercule, after whom all the miners started to
employ them as pack animals.
But let's return to the story. After Jackie was loaded with ore,
Hercule has opened his runebook again, and teleported back to the
cave with a hidden switch. There he unloaded and hid the ore, so that
his beetle won't tire. After taking a little meal, they then used the
runebook to transport to another unknown cave to continue the work.
Hercule and Jackie were then constantly jumping between their mining
sites, looking for veins, marking and mining them, and each time the
beetle's sack had gotten full, they emptied it at their hideout.
On the seventh day, Hercule was working in the cave by the Cove. The
order he had from the lord was almost completed - the last filling of
the beetle, and he could start moving the entire amount to Trinsic. He
mined more than two hundred thousand worth of ingots valorite ore -
something believed to be impossible among miners - his employer would
be more than pleased. But this was not destined to happen.
A stranger was riding by the cave. But that was no ordinary man - it
was a dread robber and murderer known for his extremely violent nature
- even his crewmates were afraid of him plucking their eyes out or
ripping their mouths wide. He had a bounty on his head in every town,
even at Buccaneers' Den, a city of outlaws and criminal scum. No one
knew his true name - everybody was calling him "Docent", for a reason
or deed unknown.
When he approached the cave entrance, Docent has heard the sounds of
the pickaxe. With the curiosity overwhelming him, he entered the dark
passage. Moving in the direction of the repeating sound, he reached a
room with our miner and the beetle. Docent did not know the Night
Sight spell, but he had enchanted glasses that allowed him to see the
pile of gems, which are sometimes found by miners in addition to the
ore. The greed overwhelmed him, and Docent started to approach the
miner with his eviscerator ready.
Now, you say: "Hercule must have heard Docent, and he was a mage! He
could have grabbed Jackie and teleport away!". While this would be
right for any other mage, it was not so for Hercule, Mary. And no,
Jimmy, he couldn't blast the Docent with fire or summon a purple llama
to kill him either... Where did you even hear about such nonsense?
I'll talk to your magery basics tutor about that.
So, Hercule could not fight or run away. But not because he could not
notice Docent - who has been moving loud enough, and was even attacked
by the beetle. You see, Hercule loved mining, ever since his
childhood, and loved it so much that, when mining, he couldn't think
of something else. He didn't hear or see anything except
his pickaxe, the rock and the ore. That's why he always chose hidden,
unknown and secluded caves for mining. But this day, his choice has
failed him for the first and the last time.
Docent broke the beetle's legs and approached Hercule. Meeting no
resistance, he eviscerated the glorious miner. Even with his guts
lying out on the dirty cave floor, Hercule held the pickaxe tight and
continued to try to hit the rock with it until he bled out. Docent
then ripped off his hands to free them of jewelry and masterpiece
chainmail gloves, collected the gems scattered on the floor and exited
the cave, having no need of unrefined ore. He did not finish the
beetle off, having pleasure of leaving the helpless animal to suffer
death from starvation. Rumor has it that an unknown adventurer has
found and healed Jackie, and, once the pet of the greatest miner, this
bug was passed to the children of its new owner, and from them to
their children and so on, having lived to the day present.
The lord, who has not recieved the ore next day, was first enraged,
but then calmed down and sent his men to search for Hercule. All of
the town smiths and even the mayor have helped him, not wishing to
lose one of the most honored citizens of Trinsic.
The contract, of course, was refunded fully.
After two months, the remains of Hercule were found. His diary was on
the body, along with the list of the ore and gems he dug out before
his death. The rumors about a hidden cave with giant piles of valorite
ore and gems spread quickly and attracted a lot of treasure hunters
eager to search for it and claim the riches, but no one of them has suceeded.
Who knows, maybe you will find it someday, but you will need to learn a
lot about mining and caves, so listen carefully to the old sir Japp at
the mineral studies tomorrow. He was rewarded with a large piece of
land for his discoveries in geology and mining, and his
great-grandfather worked with the mighty Hercule himself.
Oh, it's so late already, time to sleep! If you don't sleep now, then
I won't tell you a story of the fabled sir Hastings, the man who lived
with dragons, tomorrow.
Good night, children!
