Case 23 (Gateway to Hell)

The cartographer finally finished putting the map back together. Now we know where the eastern mines are located. Timmy also introduced us to someone new. His name is Neric, and it seems that he’s also from another world like we all are. His body is enshrouded in complete darkness, which he told us is because of a magical curse. Now his darkness makes him feel like a color flipped version of Timmy. As I currently don’t know what his true intentions are, I’ll keep him at an arm's length for now. To my surprise, Timmy had already told him everything he needed to know about our current ordeal, so that saved us some time. As a little side note, Neric didn’t know what a train was, so it seems that whatever world he’s from isn’t too technologically advanced. As the map we got from the cartographer obviously pointed east Timmy, Kleckser and Iatros decided that it would be best to take the train to Elysian. Once we got there the child realized that the eastern caves were located somewhere between Polaris & Elysian, so we had to cross the mountains that separated both villages in order to find the mines. After crossing the mountains, we found the mines at the foot of the mountains. Now it seems that the mines are a lot closer to the village than I originally thought. Once we entered what seemed to be the main entrance of the mines, we were instantly attacked by multiple hostile magicians and spirits. After dealing with those we got to take a closer look at everything around us. A giant mineshaft which seems to be the main mine, was closed off. This is weird, as Wanda never said anything about the mine being closed off, but it feels logical. I mean if there’s really an eye in there that would also mean that there are phantoms. And you don’t want those to get out. While I took a closer look at the structures, Andre found a broken sword. Meanwhile the child found an elevator, descending into some kind of secondary mineshaft. Down there we fought two more sorcerers, one looking pretty similar to the one we fought in the tower. After dealing with those two, we were able to explore the area around us. The most concerning thing to me was a collapsed mineshaft called the Gateway to Hell. The mineshaft itself also had traces of the Nether all around it. A logbook gave me all the answers I needed. This was a secondary mineshaft, separate from the main one. They found a weird reed room, with a nether portal inside. One day they accidentally activated it and the nether started invading. To stop the invasion one of them blew up the mineshaft, sacrificing himself in the process. Afterwards the whole operation was abandoned. Now this feels weird as I’ve never seen the nether actively trying to attack this realm. Wherever this portal led, it spells trouble. But it piqued my curiosity enough, that I still want to take a look at it when I get the time. In the mine we also found two more items. A mana star and a star flare. Considering the last time, we gathered items like this it seems that we can make new swords to fight the Phantoms. So we brought those items to the blacksmith, so that he can forge those weapons. After that Kleckser and Timmy decided that it would be a good idea to introduce Neric to what Phantoms actually are. So Kleckser, Timmy, Neric and I traveled to the Temple of Whispers to show him. Andre and Iatros didn’t accompany us, as they had to do something else. After showing him the giants we call Phantoms, we decided to head back to my base. There I had to explain to Timmy and Kleckser how the garden had formed and how I actually got my mana, as they hadn’t visited my base for quite some time. Now to end this report, my test on the eye for Project Null have been successful. With this I can finally start the next phase... D1 to A4