> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.empiresbattle.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.empiresbattle.com/empires-battle-lore/the-legend-of-quark-or-the-strange-metal/part-one-the-strange-metal.md).

# Part One (The Strange Metal)

“Damn restless creatures! Where did so many of them come from at this depth?” Brommi cursed, spitting blood.

“That centipede slammed me into the rock pretty hard! If it weren’t for you, the damn thing would’ve eaten me for sure.”

“Let me see the wound,” Lucy replied.

She was still a little unsteady herself after the fight with the monsters, and her side, bitten through by one of the Flur spiders, hurt unbearably.

“Oh, come on,” Brommi the mole waved her off. “I’m fine, just a light cut. You’d better patch yourself up. Look at you, you can barely stand.”

The partners stood in the middle of a wide cave littered with the corpses of countless underground monsters. There were giant centipedes whose stingers could easily pierce almost any protection, small but no less dangerous Flur spiders whose speed made them deadly, stone-eating worms, and plenty of other vile creatures that inhabited old mines and caves rich in Flur veins.

But even Brommi, after a lifetime filled with adventures underground, had never seen so many monsters gathered in one place. He kicked aside the body of a spider that had been pierced straight through and picked up the remains of one of his mechanical minions from the ground.

“Yeah...” he drawled thoughtfully. “Looks like Rhino is beyond repair. I’ll have to build a new one.”

Lucy, pressing the bud of a magical lotus against the wound in her side, glanced at the mangled piece of metal in Brommi’s hand.

“I think we have bigger problems than you mourning your broken pieces of scrap,” she said with mild irritation. “That many creatures feeding on Flur wouldn’t be living this deep for no reason. Something attracted them, and we both know what it is! On the one hand, that’s great — a rich and powerful Flur vein. On the other, we won’t be able to stay here for long. In a few hours, the radiation will either attract more creatures or start slowly killing us.”

“I agree,” the mole nodded. “Once you’re done with that wound, get out your Digger set and change into it. It’s no cure-all and it won’t protect us completely from the radiation, but it should buy us two or three days.”

“Buy us time, he says...” Lucy snorted. “Unless we get eaten while wearing your overalls.”

“Listen, Brommi, we’ve been walking for more than two hours and there isn’t even a hint of Flur around here,” Lucy almost whined. “Maybe we should forget this cave? We’ve already spent three days wandering through these side passages...”

“Quiet!” the mole hissed at her. “It’s too early to turn back. I can feel something... Somewhere beneath us, deeper down. It feels like the power of Flur, but there’s something strange about it.”

“What do you mean, strange?” Lucy asked in surprise.

“I don’t know. I can’t describe it,” Brommi scratched the back of his head right through his gas mask. “Like there’s something mixed into it.”

A few minutes later, the narrow passage ended and the friends emerged into the spacious chamber of an enormous cave. Its high vaults were covered with pale, glowing Flur crystals. A faint haze of microscopic crystal dust hung in the air.

“Wow\...” the mouse breathed. “I’ve seen plenty of caves and worked in plenty of mines, but I’ve never seen this much Flur and Dust before.”

“That really is quite a haul,” Brommi said. “There’s no way the two of us can handle all this. We’d burn up from the radiation before collecting even a hundredth of these cryst—”

He stopped mid-sentence and slowly walked toward one of the enormous boulders lying in the middle of the stone chamber.

“Hey, Brommi, what is it?” Lucy called out anxiously. “What’s there?”

Brommi approached the boulder, pulled off his gas mask, and sniffed the air. Then he crouched down and placed his hand against the stone floor.

“What did you find there?” the mouse grumbled, no longer hiding her concern.

“There’s something down there,” the mole replied. “Underground. Even deeper. I can feel it. It resembles Flur, but at the same time it’s different. We need to try digging deeper here. We have to find out what it is.”

The mole unfolded the portable drills attached to his back by long mechanical arms. He had invented the complex mechanism himself and named it the “Crab.”

The Crab consisted of two small manipulator arms with gripping claws attached to the upper part of his back, and two lower arms fitted with small drill bits. The claws helped him move heavy objects and chunks of rock, while the drills, though not as powerful as standard drilling rigs, were extremely useful for breaking through rock in narrow adits and side passages.

In battle, the Crab had also proven to be a formidable weapon, tearing through and perforating enemies with incredible ease.

Both drill bits struck the stone floor beneath Brommi’s feet at the same time. Sparks and fragments of rock flew in every direction. But several minutes later, the drills hit something extremely hard.

The sparks intensified, but now they were no longer coming from the stone. They were flying from the drills themselves, which rapidly became red-hot and began breaking apart.

Brommi shut down the Crab and peered into the freshly drilled hole gaping in the cave floor.

“What is that?” Lucy asked, leaning over from the other side.

“No idea,” the mole replied. “Looks like some kind of piece of metal.”

“But what kind of metal could withstand a drill bit, especially one with a Dust coating?” the mouse exclaimed.

“I don’t know\...” Brommi replied thoughtfully.

“But the piece doesn’t look too big. I’ll try to pull it out...”

Two gripping claws locked onto the chunk of metal and pulled with a grinding sound, tearing it free from the surrounding rock.

“Strange metal,” Brommi said, turning the hefty chunk over in his hands. “And the strangest thing is how light it is. By the look of it, this should weigh at least twenty kilograms, but in reality it can’t be more than five.”

“I think it’s time we headed back to the surface,” Lucy said. “We don’t have much time. I can already feel the pressure from the crystal radiation... Let’s leave one of your mechanical minions here and head back to Baobab Village. Maybe someone there has already come across something like this.”

“Agreed,” Brommi nodded. “I think I know exactly who we need to show this find to...”