Part 3: The Miner Digs a Tunnel in Three Seconds

Part 3:
The Miner Digs a Tunnel
in Three Seconds

 

THE NEXT DAY, Alan and Lithisia began preparing for their journey. Alan didn’t really need anything for himself, but he wasn’t traveling alone this time. The princess had proudly volunteered to do all the packing for the tools in the cave, and spent some time in the storage shed gathering supplies.

“Sir Miner! Sir Miner! I’ve got everything packed up!” Lithisia excitedly proclaimed.

Alan looked over the contents of the bags. “Hrm…this is a little too much. You want to have at least twenty percent of the bag free.”

“Why is that?”

“When traveling, it’s extremely common to find yourself picking things up here and there. If your bags are full to begin with, you won’t have much room for other items, and it’ll only make the bag heavier for you to carry.”

“I see! You’re so wise, Sir Miner!” Not only was Lithisia an honest and innocent young lady, she was a ball of exuberant curiosity. Her eyes bounced all over the storage shed. “Wow…so miners use all of these tools? There must be hundreds here!”

“Yeah, I suppose. But I just stick with my handy shovel.”

A few hundred years ago, Alan had used all manner of pickaxes and drills. Nowadays, he could pretty much get by with just his shovel. This was fortunate, considering how difficult it was to haul all of the other equipment into the deepest depths.

“I see… So you’re saying the shovel is the most important tool of all?” Lithisia stared at one of the shovels standing against the wall, an aura of wonder emanating from her gaze. “Wow…that’s amazing! It’s so cool!”

“Lithisia, would you like to bring one with you?”

“Are…are you serious?! Oh please, may I?”

Alan began rummaging through one of his boxes. It was there that he located a red shovel about eight inches long, made for children rather than serious mining work.

“Oh wow, it’s so small and red. It’s adorable! Can I really have this?!”

Alan nodded.

Lithisia took the shovel from him, holding it in both hands like it was the most valuable treasure on the planet. “I…I’m going to make this one of the royal family’s treasures! It will be sacred to my bloodline forever!”

“Er…you’re kidding, right? That’s just a children’s shovel.”

Lithisia ignored him. “Hee hee, my own shovel! One that Sir Miner used!”

Why was she so happy? Well, whatever her reasons, Alan was nonetheless pleased that she placed so much value on her new shovel. “By the way, Lithisia. It’s about time we talked about our destination.”

“Huh? Oh, of course! My apologies!” Slightly flustered, the princess made her way toward the table. “Let me show you on the map. Our first destination is in the west: the Ancient Castle of Riften.”

They were currently located in the southwestern region of the continent, the edge of Rostir. There were no human nations further west. There used to be one about three hundred years ago, but it was annihilated in the great War of Genocide between the humans and the monsters. In the end, humanity was victorious, but at great cost. Riften had been annihilated.

According to Lithisia, the Ancient Castle of Riften was where the next Orb resided.

“In order to get there, we have to travel along the coast,” Lithisia explained in a formal, imperious tone. “The prime minister’s lackies will be after us, so it’ll be dangerous, but there are no other roads to Riften. I’m prepared to travel in spite of the danger.”

Alan cast his gaze upon the map. He thought for a moment before speaking. “If there are no other roads, why don’t we make one?” He pointed at the map. “It would be faster to travel in a straight line to Riften. The Rostir Mountain Range is in the way, but all we’d have to do is cut a road through it.”

“Er, what?” Lithisia was taken aback for a moment, but then began to laugh. “Hee hee. Oh, Sir Miner. Making a road is no easy task!”

“Really?”

“But of course! It’s incredibly difficult. It takes decades for a country to construct a single road.”

“Even harder to make than tunnels?”

“Tunnels are even more difficult to make! It costs lots of money to dig a road underground.” Lithisia proudly puffed out her chest, happy to show off her education.

“Is that so? I had no idea…”

“I’m so honored I could teach you something, Sir Miner!” She giggled, playing with her hair. Princess Lithisia had a childish side to her, now and then.

“Well, then,” Alan said. “I guess that means it’s time for me to teach you something. As long as you have a shovel, you can build a road.”

Lithisia froze in place. “Huh? Um, what do you mean?”

“Watch.” Alan pointed the tip of his shovel at a point on the wall. The wall was made of solid stone, but as far as the miner was concerned, that stone was as soft as the skin of a young maiden. “DIG!” he shouted.

The wall flared up in a blinding white light. “Ahh!” Lithisia cried, shielding her face. The light faded a few seconds later, and the princess slowly opened her eyes. In the place where the wall once stood was a large tunnel about six feet in diameter. Lithisia stared at it, mouth agape.

“That tunnel’s about a mile long,” Alan estimated. “If I do this ten more times, we’ll be past the mountain.”

“Um, e-excuse me, Sir Miner. What…what did you just do?”

“I dug a tunnel with my shovel.”

“Wh-what? Huh?” Lithisia could hardly believe her ears. “You...dug a tunnel? Just like that? One that big?”

“Yeah.”

“It didn’t look like you even moved!”

“Yeah. I just dug so fast that you couldn’t see it.”

Alan went on to explain that the more one practiced digging with a shovel, the faster one got. At first, it took Alan ten minutes to dig three feet. After practicing for a year, he brought that time down to five minutes. Ten years later and he had it down to three minutes. A century later, it only took him a minute. He kept getting faster. Ten seconds, then one.

The one-second mark was where he realized he wouldn’t be able to dig any faster. The physics of the world just didn’t operate like that, so Alan changed his way of thinking. He decided to just ignore physics and logic altogether.

It took him a hundred years to break past the one-second wall, but after practicing endlessly, he managed to cut the process of digging three feet down to microseconds.

“Huh?” Lithisia’s eyes widened in confusion.

“I focus my energy into the shovel and ignore the physics of our world.”

“Excuse me, but I’m not sure I follow.”

“I didn’t either, at first. But all it takes is some tinkering.”

“Tinkering?” she repeated.

“That being said, it isn’t easy. It requires lots of practice.”

“Practice? Wh-what…?” Tears began to form in Lithisia’s eyes. “That’s your shovel’s true power?” The princess clutched her red shovel tightly as she trembled. “Does that mean the beam which destroyed the mountain the other day wasn’t some kind of grand magic, but the power of your shovel?!” As soon as Alan nodded, Lithisia broke down into sobs. “I’m so sorry! I can’t believe how ignorant I am…”

“Er, it’s no big deal. Don’t cry.”

“How could I not cry?! What have I done?”

Lithisia continued to sob as Alan gently rubbed her back. A split-second later, her head jerked up and she was all smiles again, just like that.

“I’ve made my decision!” she declared. “When I take back my country, all knights will be required to wield shovels!”

“Um, what?” Alan was totally lost. What was the princess going on about? “What about their swords?”

Lithisia laughed. “Swords? Magic? What good are they compared to the mightiest weapon of all, the shovel?”

“Um…”

“How have we overlooked its powers this whole time? The shovel will revolutionize war as we know it!”

“Lithisia, hold your horses.” The young princess was so excited that she wasn’t paying attention to him. “The reason the shovel works as my weapon is because I’m a miner. Knights are supposed to use swords.”

“But Sir Miner, it’s impossible to pull off your shovel techniques with a sword.”

“Not necessarily,” Alan said. Maybe if the knights practiced focusing their energies into the sword, that might actually work. He figured if the shovel could overcome the natural laws of the world, the sword should be able to as well.

Lithisia ignored him, determined to honor the shovel. “We should write a song for the shovel!” she said. “Shovel time, shovel time~”

“Lithisia…”

“You know what? I should rename the country! Instead of Rostir, we could be Shovelir!”

“Lithisia.”

“In that case, I can change my name to Shovisia! The sky’s the shovelimit!” Lithisia giggled to herself as she rubbed her red shovel against her face, as if she were nuzzling a kitten.

Although the princess seemed to be having fun, Alan couldn’t help but sigh. “Royalty sure are strange folk,” he muttered.

 

***

 

And so Lithisia became a firm believer in the shovel. This was also the moment in which the future of all Rostir knights was set in stone. Sad, sad, stone.

“I can’t believe I did that right in front of you…ugh…”

“I was surprised, sure, but don’t worry about it.”

With Lithisia having finally regained her composure, the pair made their way down the path. She wore a rucksack on her back, with her shovel at her waist. These mining-girl accessories didn’t quite match her princessy dress, but she looked happy enough to start skipping.

“Lithisia, if you’re that excited about the shovel, then I know I can count on you to find me a successor.”

“Eh…? Ah!” said the princess as she froze. Her cheeks immediately warmed up, turning a soft pink. It was as if she’d just gotten out of the bath. “O-of course! Um, I-I’m honored.”

“Honored? By what?”

“I…I can’t possibly say it out loud! It’s too embarrassing!”

Why was she so flustered? Alan didn’t quite understand. Nonetheless, the pair continued to trudge forward. Lithisia went quiet for a bit before finally speaking again.

“Sir Miner, I have another request.” She gripped her little red shovel in both hands, her tone growing serious. “Please, teach me how to use a shovel!”

 

***

 

“Heeyah!”

Lithisia used both hands to stick her red shovel into the dirt wall.

“Nicely done. Your form is excellent.”

“Yay! Thank you so much!” Lithisia replied excitedly. “So this is how it feels to wield a shovel! Just holding it in my hands makes me feel like the power of a hero is flowing through my veins!”

Obviously, shovels didn’t have that sort of inherent power. What Lithisia was wielding was just an ordinary old shovel. But the princess would hear nothing of the sort. In fact, she was on the verge of breaking out into a dance as she sang her shovel song.

Seriously, what is with that song? Alan wondered.

Maybe he should reconsider the whole “teaching her how to shovel” thing. Using a shovel required immense physical strength and fortitude. It wasn’t the sort of tool of a member of royalty—never mind a gentle princess—should be using. Or at least that was what Alan attempted to explain to his companion.

“What are you saying, Sir Miner?!” Lithisia said in a furious rebuttal. “Wielding a shovel is a sacred duty, the job of every person of royalty!”

“I highly doubt that.”

“No, it’s true! I’ll be including it as one of the requirements of the royal family going forward!” Alan thought the royal family was in for some rough times in the near future. “P-plus, as a mother, I need to make sure I learn how to wield a shovel properly.”

“What do you mean, ‘as a mother’?”

“Well, I am going to be making a child, after all…” Lithisia shyly hid her lips behind her shovel. “So I want to learn all about your, um…work, Sir Miner.”

“Well, I suppose I don’t mind.”

“Thank you so much! I-I’ll make sure to make a healthy child!” replied Lithisia as she bowed her head over and over.

“By the way, Lithisia,” Alan said. “You should probably stop saying you’re going to ‘make a child’.”

“Huh?”

“Depending on who’s listening in, it could give folks the wrong idea.”

Even if that was the official way royalty referred to the act, should a commoner hear a phrase like that, they’d most certainly think the princess was referring to “a couple making love.” Folks might make the mistake of thinking that a beautiful princess like her was romantically involved with a dirty miner.

Although Alan didn’t know it, this was exactly what the princess intended.

“Oh, um…so you want this to be a secret between the two of us?”

“Not quite. I just think you should adjust your wording is all.”

“O-oh, okay. So it’s like a secret lovey-dovey code between us!”

Alan decided not to comment. He had already long since decided that this princess was a bit funny in the head.

After thinking to herself for a moment, Lithisia seemed to have an epiphany. “Then from now on, instead of saying ‘I’ll make a child’...” She then held her red shovel to her chest, her cheeks and ears turning bright red. “I’ll refer to it as ‘shoveling’.”

A cold gust of wind blew through the tunnel.

“I-Is that all right? Since it’s something I’ll be doing together with you, Sir Miner, I thought ‘shoveling’ might be appropriate.”

Alan went silent. Why would looking for a successor need to be coded as “shoveling”?

But if I say no here…

Lithisia’s eyes were shimmering. She wore the expression of a young girl begging for a new toy. It was the same look she had when she’d asked for a shovel. If Alan were to say no here, she’d probably break down into tears. “I’m so so so sorry, I shouldn’t have shoveled!” she’d say. He could see it clear as day.

“Well, fine.”

“Thank you so much!” She bowed so deeply that Alan thought she might topple over. “Th-then in that case…” She pressed her shovel firmly to her chest and smiled. “I promise to ‘shovel’ together with you, Sir Miner.”

“Uh, sure.” Much to Alan’s surprise, the look the princess was giving him made his heart flutter. No, no. What am I thinking? Alan activated his self-control, trying to be strong as adamantine.

And so the misunderstanding continued.