"So, I take it that we can finally go home?" Arin asked as he walked away from the lotus he had spent the past several weeks protecting. He had grown rather tired of standing guard beside the lake, especially since there was only so much one could do while watching a plant grow. Although the lotus was important to the family, and he understood why they had assigned people to protect it, he was more than ready to return to his usual responsibilities. Unfortunately, judging by the expression on Ria's face, he was about to be disappointed.
"Well, no. You are needed to help with the management of the forest and oversee the road leading up to the mine, so that nothing goes wrong," Ria replied, still looking out across the lake. She did not even turn around when she delivered the news, as though she had already anticipated his reaction and did not consider it particularly important. Arin stopped walking for a moment, his shoulders gradually sinking as he realized that his duties were not going to end anytime soon. He had apparently exchanged one assignment for another, and there was very little he could do about it.
"Seriously? More work? Fine," Arin muttered, his shoulders slumped in defeat as he reluctantly continued walking away from the lake. A small camp was being established nearby so that the family could maintain a permanent guard over the lake and its precious lotus. The camp would provide the guards with somewhere to rest and store their equipment, making it easier to maintain a continuous presence without having to send people back and forth every day. Arin glanced at the preparations as he passed, feeling rather relieved that he would no longer be expected to spend all his time sitting beside the water.
Even though none of the guards appeared to be complaining, Arin suspected that they were far from happy about having their cultivation time interrupted. After all, every hour spent guarding the lake was another hour they could not spend improving their strength, practising their skills, or advancing their cultivation. The lotus was valuable enough to justify the assignment, but that did not mean the people responsible for protecting it had to enjoy the experience. Fortunately, their duty would only last for another two months before they were relieved and allowed to return to their regular responsibilities. That was probably the only reason they were accepting the arrangement without making a fuss.
"Right, how has the mine been holding up over the last two weeks?" Arin asked as he approached Tom, Bill, and Bertho. He had spotted the three of them hiding among the trees near the entrance to the mine, or more precisely, beside the path that led up towards the ridge. Their position gave them a reasonable view of the road and the surrounding area, allowing them to observe the traffic without standing directly in the way. They appeared to be occupied with watching the wagons travelling along the route, although Arin suspected that they were also using the opportunity to take a short break.
"Ah! Arin, you snuck up on me!" Tom exclaimed, startled by the sudden appearance of someone behind him. He had apparently been paying so much attention to the road that he had failed to notice Arin approaching through the trees. Tom quickly recovered from his surprise, but the reaction was enough to make the others look over as well. Arin could not help finding the response amusing, especially since he had not made any particular effort to conceal his presence.
"Hello, Arin. As for the mine, things have been going rather well," Bertho explained, taking over the conversation. "The mining speed has increased considerably over the last two weeks, especially after the Ravelino delegation arrived, inspected the mines, and began managing the operations properly." He sounded quite pleased with the results, and there was little doubt that the improvements had exceeded what they had initially expected. The arrival of people with actual mining experience had made a noticeable difference to the way the operation was being run.
One of the most important improvements had been the increase in safety throughout the mine. The Ravelino delegation had examined the existing tunnels, identified several problems, and introduced better procedures to reduce the risks faced by the workers. However, the improvements to safety were only part of what they had accomplished, since their influence on mining efficiency had been even more significant. The people working in the mine were not professional miners, and the government had not been able to recruit experienced workers from elsewhere to fill those positions. Consequently, the miners lacked the specialized knowledge required to identify the best places to dig and determine how the underground veins extended through the mountain.
Understanding the direction and structure of a vein was particularly important when extracting mana stones. A tunnel that followed the wrong direction could waste considerable time and manpower, while a properly planned tunnel could expose much larger sections of the deposit. The Ravelino delegation understood these principles far better than the government's existing workforce, and they had used that knowledge to redesign the mining operation. After inspecting the deposits, they had planned five new mining tunnels that would allow the workers to reach the mana stone veins more effectively. Bertho was confident that these changes would considerably increase the amount of mana stones they could extract from the mountain.
In fact, the improvements had worked almost too well, since the biggest problem they were facing now was no longer the mining itself. Instead, the operation had run into a logistical bottleneck that prevented them from transporting the extracted mana stones away quickly enough. The workers were producing more resources than the road could comfortably handle, and the wagons were struggling to keep up with the growing output. As a result, mana stones were accumulating faster than they could be moved, forcing the family to find ways to increase the transportation capacity of the entire operation.
"So, we are constantly being asked for more manpower, and they have already given the order for additional wagons to be built," Bill explained, looking towards the road. Several wagons were making their way down the route, each one filled to the brim with mana stones. They were being pulled by people who had to make the journey repeatedly, day after day, as the mine continued producing more resources than the current transport arrangements could handle. It was an impressive sight, but it also demonstrated just how much pressure the mining operation was placing on the family's logistics.
"Okay, that is great. What estimates are they putting forward now?" Arin asked with interest. He had expected the arrival of the Ravelino delegation to improve the operation, but the situation sounded considerably better than he had anticipated. If the mine could maintain its current output, it would become an extremely important source of income and resources for the family. However, the amount of mana stones being extracted was only one part of the equation, since the family also needed to know how much they could realistically transport and store.
"They are projecting around five hundred thousand mana stones per month at the moment," Bill answered. He paused briefly, allowing the figure to sink in before continuing with the rest of the explanation. "They also have plenty of ideas about how to improve the speed and efficiency of the operation, but most of those plans require us to expand the road." That was where the situation became considerably more complicated, since the existing route had not been designed with such a large mining operation in mind.
The road had already been discussed extensively, and there were certainly sections where it could be widened without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, those sections were relatively small compared to the entire route, and the family repeatedly encountered geographical limitations whenever they tried to plan larger improvements. Rivers, ridges, and other natural obstacles restricted the available space, making it difficult to expand the road without undertaking considerable engineering work. The Ravelino delegation had therefore begun searching for an alternative entrance to the mine that would make transportation easier and reduce the pressure on the existing route.
The platform they had essentially cut into the side of the mountain was not particularly suitable for the scale of operations they were now considering. Although it had been sufficient when the mine was smaller, the increased production had exposed its limitations. There was only so much traffic the area could accommodate, and simply adding more wagons would not solve the problem if they could not move around efficiently. Finding a better entrance would potentially solve several problems at once, which was why the delegation was now examining the surrounding terrain for alternatives.
"Okay, I hope they find a better route, because what you are describing sounds like the limit of what they can achieve in terms of efficiency," Arin said with a small laugh. He understood the frustration involved, since the family had already spent considerable time discussing the limitations of the road. The most direct route they would have preferred to use would require an enormous amount of engineering work, and even then, there was no guarantee that it would be practical. It would involve cutting through kilometres of forest and overcoming several difficult geographical obstacles, making the entire project far more complicated than it initially appeared.
The existing road might have been long and winding, but it had been designed to avoid the most dangerous terrain and minimize unnecessary interference with the surrounding environment. That was particularly important because the family could no longer assume that the wildlife would simply stay out of humanity's way. The expansion had changed the natural world considerably, and many creatures had become powerful enough to pose a serious threat to people travelling through their territory. Some animals had also lost much of their former wariness towards humans, meaning that they were no longer guaranteed to flee when they encountered people. Humanity was no longer the single dominant species on the planet, and the family had to take that reality into account whenever it planned new infrastructure.
"Yes, I know what you mean, but don't forget that a large number of people are still stuck in the idea that humanity is capable of undertaking enormous engineering projects within the same time frames as before," Bertho replied with a sneer. "The reality is that we simply aren't capable of doing that anymore, not with the machines having disappeared." His expression made it clear that he had little patience for people who refused to acknowledge how much the world had changed. Many still seemed to believe that humanity could overcome any obstacle through sheer determination and enough manpower, without understanding that the tools and infrastructure that had once made such projects possible were no longer available.
"No, I understand that, Bertho, but those people are really difficult to convince," Arin answered. He knew that explaining the new limitations of the world was one thing, but getting people to accept them was another matter entirely. Many had spent their entire lives surrounded by modern technology and had grown accustomed to seeing enormous construction projects completed through the combined efforts of machines, factories, and highly specialized industries. They had never needed to consider how much equipment and infrastructure stood behind those achievements. Now that much of it had disappeared, people were struggling to understand just how difficult it would be to reproduce those results.
"Yes, you are right, but do you know what would really show them the new reality we live in?" Bertho asked, his expression becoming rather pointed. "Letting a flock of Passenger Pigeons fly over their heads would probably help them get rid of their subconscious belief that we are still capable of the same feats." He clearly considered the example an effective way to remind people that humanity was no longer in control of the natural world. The return of creatures that had once been considered extinct was perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations of how dramatically the balance of power had shifted.
"No, that is true. It is certainly not something you could easily forget," Arin replied, remembering the month he had spent in the United States. During that visit, he had witnessed a flock of Passenger Pigeons flying overhead, and the experience had left a lasting impression on him. For a species that had been extinct for nearly two hundred years, their recovery had been remarkably quick. Even so, the flock he had seen had only darkened the sky for approximately an hour, which was considerably less impressive than the historical accounts describing their former numbers.
According to those reports, enormous flocks of Passenger Pigeons could once darken the sky for an entire day as they passed overhead. Compared with that, the flock Arin had witnessed was relatively small, even though it had still been large enough to make an impression on everyone who saw it. The difference between those historical accounts and what he had personally experienced was a reminder that the species had not yet returned to its former population. Nevertheless, its recovery was progressing quickly enough to make people reconsider what the natural world might eventually become.
However, the experience had also left Arin with a rather troubling thought. What would happen if those birds ever decided to attack the United States? He was not sure that the country would have any reliable way to defend itself against a sufficiently large flock, especially if the birds approached in numbers comparable to those described in historical records. There might simply be too many of them to fight off without suffering catastrophic losses, regardless of how many soldiers the country could mobilize. The idea was unsettling precisely because it was not an enemy that could be dealt with through the methods humanity had once relied upon.
Those were the kinds of scenarios that truly demonstrated how much humanity had lost its former dominant position. It was no longer enough to possess advanced weapons, large armies, or the ability to construct enormous infrastructure projects, because the natural world had become a much more dangerous opponent. Arin could think of very few ways the United States could respond if it ever faced a threat of that magnitude. The same problem applied to humanity as a whole, since many of the creatures now inhabiting the planet could challenge the authority people had once taken for granted. And as Arin watched the wagons carrying mana stones down the winding road, he could not help wondering how many other things humanity would eventually have to learn to live with.