I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Arthur and Leon climbed back to the ridge as the last daylight faded across the valley. Below them, the broken barrier left the lower quarry entrance completely exposed.

”We aren’t going in blind,” Leon decided, turning away from the ridge. ”We wait until morning.”

”Agreed,” Arthur said. ”Rusk’s map is useless if we can’t see the layout to verify it.”

They retreated to the abandoned foreman’s house sitting on the elevated slope above the surface yard. Emily dropped her travel bag onto the dusty floorboards, clearly unhappy that they had reached their destination only to sleep outside of it.

”We spent three days preparing and traveling just to sit in an empty cabin,” Emily muttered.

Felix set his own pack down on a sturdy wooden table. ”Dying in a collapsed tunnel before we can examine the records would severely reduce the contract’s profitability. Patience is a financial virtue.”

The team swept the house to ensure it was secure. The structure contained old, sturdy furniture, an intact cast-iron stove, and a pantry filled with long-spoiled food stores. Arthur checked the back rooms and found dust disturbed near a rear window by small animal paws, but there was no sign of recent human footprints. No one had lived here in years.

Chloe checked everyone’s breathing and eyes for signs of exposure from the stream. No one showed any symptoms.

Arthur and Leon took the first watch together, sitting in the dark near the front window overlooking the yard. Their conversation was quiet and strictly practical, keeping their voices low in the silent house.

”The road fight proved the split command works,” Leon admitted, resting his forearms on his knees.

Arthur nodded, keeping his eyes on the shadowed quarry below. ”We didn’t step on each other. We keep the exact same structure tomorrow.”

The next morning, the team began by sweeping the surface buildings.

The surface yard showed signs of a rushed abandonment. Carts remained on the rusted tracks beside unfinished loads of ordinary stone, while pickaxes and drills still hung inside the equipment shed.

Carts sat idle on rusted tracks beside unfinished loads of ordinary stone. Pickaxes and heavy drills still hung in neat rows inside an equipment shed. In the main administrative building, account papers were left scattered across tables. Some of the storage doors had been secured with thick iron padlocks, while others swung open in the morning breeze.

Near the path leading down to the lower entrance, Chloe discovered a row of dry washing troughs.

She walked down the line, inspecting the drains and a nearby pile of discarded, stiffened fabric.

”These were positioned specifically to intercept workers coming up from the lower tunnels,” Chloe noted. She picked up one of the old cloth coverings. It was hardened with thick, black dust. ”They were expected to clean themselves before returning to the surface buildings. The danger of the dust was already known before the quarry closed.”

Felix moved past the troughs and entered the foreman’s office. He began searching the scattered papers, eventually stopping in front of a locked desk built into the wall.

”The drawers are secured,” Felix announced, checking the brass lock.

Emily stepped up beside him, cracking her knuckles. ”Stand back. I can break the front panel.”

Felix immediately stepped directly between Emily and the desk, holding up both hands. ”Absolutely not. Smashing a historical record container before opening it properly would make me physically ill. The paperwork inside could be fragile.”

Alicia walked past both of them, drawing a pair of thin metal picks from a pocket inside her coat. ”Let me.”

She slid the picks into the mechanism. Three seconds later, the lock clicked, and she pulled the drawer open without a single scratch to the wood.

Felix carefully extracted the contents and spread them across the nearest clean table. Inside were wage records, stacks of worker complaints, shipment dates, freight payments, a thin foreman’s notebook, and several folded road permits.

Chloe immediately pulled the worker complaints toward her. She read through the faded handwriting, comparing the descriptions against the old miner notes Beatrice had given her.

”Coughing, sudden muscle weakness, severe headaches, and mana becoming difficult to control after long shifts in the lower quarry,” Chloe read aloud. She looked up at Arthur.

”The symptoms are similar to Beatrice’s notes,” Chloe said. ”That does not prove they came from the same cause, but we are looking at the same general pattern.”

Across the table, Felix unfolded one of the old road permits.

A red wax seal sat at the bottom of the page.

Emily leaned over his shoulder and recognized the crest instantly.

”That is the Thorne road-authority seal,” Emily said.

She didn’t sound defensive, only factual. She pointed to the lettering bordering the crest. ”It means this specific wagon passed through a regional road maintained and taxed by the Thorne estate. It does not mean my family owned the ore or ordered the shipment.”

Felix didn’t argue. He checked the date written beside the seal, then cross-referenced it with the official closure order from the academy archives.

”This permit was issued for a load leaving Grayroot weeks after the lower quarry had officially been sealed,” Felix confirmed. He traced his finger to the payment column. ”And it was sent through the exact same reseller network connected to Tolan’s contaminated guild shipment.”

The permit gave them a reason to examine the Thorne road records. Those records might identify the wagon owner, the driver, and whoever paid to move the shipment.

Arthur looked across the desk at Emily.

”Does the estate keep copies of old road permits?” Arthur asked.

”Probably,” Emily answered. ”But getting access to the family archive will not be simple.”

Arthur nodded and returned his attention to the remaining papers.

The team gathered outside the broken lower entrance, securing their cloth masks over their noses and mouths.

Arthur followed the map while Leon and Alicia moved several steps ahead of the group. As soon as they entered the dark, sloping tunnel, Arthur realized the official map was severely outdated. Several marked passages had completely collapsed, forcing him to divert the group through narrower, secondary shafts.

As they moved deeper, the beam of Arthur’s light crystal caught the tunnel walls.

Broad, jagged grooves were carved deep into the stone. Arthur stepped closer, running his gloved fingers near the edge. The marks did not resemble pickaxes, mining drills, or the scrape of iron carts. The stone looked as though it had been violently chewed away.

Leon crouched near the base of the wall, pointing to the floor. Fresh pieces of crushed stone lay scattered beneath several of the grooves.

”Whatever made these passed through recently,” Leon said quietly.

Felix pulled a piece of chalk from his coat and marked their retreat path with broad arrows as they moved deeper.

”Are you playing architect?” Emily whispered, mocking the careful marks.

Felix didn’t stop drawing. ”Rescue contracts are incredibly expensive, Emily. I prefer not to pay them.”

They navigated a steep decline and stepped into a massive, cavernous loading chamber. Arthur signaled a halt, raising his light crystal higher.

Thick veins of dark crystal were exposed in the walls, glittering sharply between the ordinary gray stone. The surrounding rock hadn’t been mined; it had been scraped and hollowed out entirely to expose the crystal.

A deep, violent impact shook the tunnel.

Dust rained from the ceiling. Before anyone could draw a weapon, a massive section of the far wall broke inward. A huge, crystal-armored burrower forced its way into the chamber, its segmented legs tearing the remaining stone to powder.

Before Leon could call a formation, smaller, frantic scratching noises answered from beneath the floor.

The tremor from the main wall collapse hit the tunnel behind them. With a grinding roar, the main retreat passage Felix had just marked partially collapsed, sending a wall of debris crashing down and blocking their immediate exit.

Arthur looked down. Cracks were rapidly spreading through the stone floor directly beneath Felix and Chloe.

The quarry did not contain one altered creature.

It contained a nest.