"Uwah?!"

Imarui's eyes widened when she saw the beastfolk girl suddenly hurl herself into the darkness of the pit, quickly vanishing from sight. For a moment, her heart sunk, and she feared she had just watched someone say goodbye... but then she realized something fairly obvious: These were all foreign artifact hunters, right? They had all kinds of magic, and some of them probably had artifacts themselves! She wouldn't have done that if she didn't have a way to survive, right?

When she realized this, the young girl let out a little sigh of relief and placed one small hand to her chest. The fact that none of the adults seemed concerned, too...

It did a lot to make her relax.

"... Ah, um, how long?" Imarui cocked her head to one side, "Two years! Everyone starts when they're eight."

She smiled brightly, "All my friends do it too, they're just not on duty today. I'm really lucky, I'm the first to get to explore the new tunnel!"

Beaming with pride, the little girl placed her hands on her hips.

"It's really exciting!"

With a clank, the elevators began to descend into the darkness...

[@AzureKnight][@Rune_Alchemist]

[hr]

The bottom of the tunnel was dark, to say the least. Very little showed any signs of human interference, save for the immediate area around the elevators. It was clear that the tunnel continued off to the right and forwards, meaning that the cave-in had lead to an elbow-shaped area of the underground space. Additionally, it was also possible to see a pile of rubble, what remained of the building that had fallen into the new pit.

To the right, there was a faint glow, which meant there was likely some sort of lunmiscent growth there. Glowing plants were hardly unheard of, after all.

Or it could have been something more sinister...

[@Raineh Daze][@ERode]