Tunnel Rat

Helmets on, and weapons in hand, the two dwarven engineers were slowly backing towards the tunnel entrance where the creature couldn't follow.

"Be careful of the beasties reach. They can surprise you." The creature was vaguely humanoid, but its form was made from earth and stone, with rocky armor covering much of it. From the earth that covered other parts of its form, mushrooms grew. Its shoulders had huge growths of shrooms. Glowing green eyes looked down at them.

The creature stopped a step away from the mine tunnel. Then it slowly squatted down. It looked at one of its hands, and then down at Milo and the dwarves. It seemed puzzled.

"MI-LOW...WHY SOOOO SMALL?"

The words hurt Milo's ears they were so loud. But the deep, slow voice was familiar."

Milo tried to shout back. "WE DIDN'T GET SMALL HARRY! YOU GOT BIG! LOWER YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU DEAFEN US!"

Harry held up his hands, compared them to Milo, compared them to the mushrooms growing nearby. He shook his head as if to clear it and focus came into his eyes.

"Yes. That makes more sense. And no need to shout Milo. I'm larger, but not hard of hearing."

Milo turned to the dwarves. "Throttlecog and Two-Screws, please meet one of my first friends, Dr. Harold Earthtounge, who didn't used to be nearly so large. Harry, these are two friends from the local Engineer's guild."

The dwarves hesitated a moment, stowed their weapons, and then came forward and bowed. Harry carefully sat down. George took the opportunity to use Harry as a playground, running up and down his large form. Everyone relaxed a bit as Milo explained to the dwarves his relationship with Harry, and told Harry of some of his adventures in the past few weeks.

The explanation for Harry's growth spurt was simple: He had investigated the noise from the battle, but arrived after the snake had left to pursue Milo. With the creeper and zombies dead, Harry had explored the cavern and found the battered body of Roobazahl the Ancient and recovered his heartshroom. The huge, acorn shaped organ contained a huge amount of Earth aspected mana. Milo couldn't resist a good cheese, and in a similar way, Harry couldn't resist just having a few bites of the rich tasting heartshroom.

An hour later he had eaten the entire thing and laid down in the mushroom field feeling full and sleepy. How long he slept he didn't know, but he felt refreshed when he awoke. Any of the weakness left from his disease was gone, washed away in a huge flood of Earth aspected power. Since then, he'd been oddly content to simply stay in this cavern and study the large number of rare varieties of fungus that grew here. When he found mushrooms that he wanted to study, he simply planted them on the earthy areas of his arms where they quickly took root.

"It's very convenient this way. I always have something to study. And my understanding is much greater now. I can almost hear them talking to each other. And there are other voices. Old voices. They are calling out from the depths, using the smaller fungus as a way to amplify their voices. I hope to understand them some day."

Milo was intrigued by the thought of the voices calling out from the depths. What else lived deep in the earth? He thought again of the things he'd seen through the eyes of the great beasts. A longing to explore and see these things himself filled him. He thought of he and Harry exploring lower into the depths and chasing those voices, then realized why that wouldn't happen.

"I guess you're living in this cavern from now on? I don't see how you would fit through the tunnels to get back to your old home."

The Troll laughed, which sent sound echoing through the cavern.

"Moving earth and stone is not a problem for me, Milo. I am still a troll on the inside, and I've always had some abilities with moving earth. But now some of me is composed purely of the earth. My connection is strong and my abilities are enhanced. When I punch a rock, the rock goes away. And when I tell the earth to get out of my way, it does.

Harry reached out one arm towards the mine tunnel. The opening slowing grew, the earth and stone pushing away. Within a minute, the first fifty feet of tunnel was much larger, over fifteen feet wide and thirty feet tall. Harry lowered his hand, looking a bit tired.

Each time I do that is easier. I plan on connecting the caverns with walkways for one as large as myself. Who knows? I might even go visit the Alchemy guild in Shadowport. There is someone there that I need to have a serious talk with."

The dwarves, who had been very quiet as Milo talked with Harry, joined the conversation. The two wanted to improve the road to the top and suddenly saw the value of a gigantic earthmover. Throttlecog approached the huge troll. "Might be we could help each other out some. Our guild could give you some help planning your route and bracing the tunnels as you dig them. I've got a lot of bored engineers looking for new projects other than rebuilding."

The dwarves and Harry talked for a long time. Milo excused himself to rest. As he fell asleep in this world, he woke up in another.

No alarms were going off, and he felt much better as he got out of the pod. He had some ideas. He couldn't create the bone claws he had in the game, but he wasn't limited to his weak ones made of flesh and blood. After taking care of his daily chores, and checking in on the mechanical systems in his section, Milo got a bowl of food and settled down with a design program.

He wasn't particularly happy with his dinner. He had been reminded that his body needed things other than the cheesy treats he liked to nibble on. Before he could have a desert, (a small wheel of Camembert that had been produced in what used to be known as Normandy), he pushed himself to eat the bowl of veggie-cubes (for fiber), and protein cubes (tastes like chicken!). These gave him the basic nutrients to rebuild muscle. His pod provided additional nutrients and vitamins. Finishing the bowl, he set it aside and started on his cheese, and his new engineering project.

Almost falling into a trance as he worked, he designed, discarded, and redesigned ideas for a set of mechanical gloves that he could wear, and plug into his modified nervous system. From scans of his own hands, he built outwards.

A layer of thin graphene mesh was first. Graphene was an allotrope of carbon. A two-dimensional, hexagon lattice of carbon molecules. It was incredibly strong and flexible, and conductive of electrical pulses. Layers of graphene nano-flakes and nano-strands were woven together along with a sensor net that would pick up the movements of his hands.

Backing up the sensor net would be a direct connection to the plugs in his neck. He started another design for a full suit of graphene mesh to carry the connections to the plugs in his neck. The two systems would work with each other to control the mechanical systems that would be built into the next layers.

Before he knew it, the timer he'd set was going off. His last chore was creating a half dozen fake identities to begin investigating the companies that supplied the machines to create the graphene materials he needed. He had to be very careful. This wasn't like ordering a few pounds of cheese. Nothing in the habitat required such machines. Parts would just be ordered, not the machines to make the materials used in the parts.

The last thing he did before logging back into the game was to check on his information gathering program for what was going on in section H. The information didn't give him a complete picture yet, but it did tell him a name, Arcadia. It was a smaller corporation, based in Greenland, that seemed to mostly supply skilled workers to other corporations. They had taken out a lease on 20 floors of section H. The lease was cheap, but they were also required to completely rebuild those floors and make the majority of them available to the inhabitants of other sections. It was a start, and something he could look into further. He redefined his searches to focus on Arcadia, its stock holders, controlling officers, and financials.

Then he was back in the pod, and logging into the game. His 'nap' would be over and they'd be on their way to uptop.