Ness cleared his throat. “Now this, is Brute Cavern…”
He tapped the mirror with his cane, causing a ripple to slowly spread from the connecting point. The walls around them suddenly released intense light.
They saw countless caves, passages, and fantastic-looking, cabled structures on the walls as well as a lot of people working on them. They went in and out of the caves while collecting strange plants on the walls. Some of them were looking at the talents curiously.
“This place is close to Darkivil Empire. There were several hundreds of cities and towns centered around Brute Cavern. The people on the walls are the residents,” explained Ness. He paused a bit before adding, “Oh right, the Darkivil Empire is also called the Earthen Core. Humans live here, but most of them have been doing so underground and don’t need to go to the surface much. This is one of the many specificities of Darkivil Empire. You will learn about this place later.”
Next, Ness pointed at the world beneath the mirror.
“The headquarter of Brute Cavern lies below the mirror. Most of you lot will be living there,” said Ness. He tossed ten round-shaped bone cards into the air which then circled around and flew toward their respective owner.
“The bone card is your access token to go below. If you lose it, you’ll never enter the mirror world again. The card carries your identification and comment, so you should always keep it with you while staying at Brute Cavern. Remember. Once you’re in there, take the card to Tree Spirit Yule as soon as possible to register your information.”
Ness did not explain what kind of information exactly. The old man knocked at the mirror three times. A white, misty human figure emerged from it.
“Who dares interrupt my sleep?” The mist formed up into the shape of a woman but the details on her were still not clear. She added, “Don’t you see I’m having my beauty sleep? Explain yourselves or I’ll eat you all alive!”
The mist woman screamed at the top of her lungs until Ness let out an embarrassing “ahem!”, which finally caught her attention.
“Ho, it’s you, shortie. Didn’t you go out to find talents for us this time?” said the mist woman. She then turned and “looked at” the talents, “Only ten people? Oh right, Sunders was the one that went recruiting. Ten… not bad.”
She paused her words and moved around her “head”, seemingly observing something.
“He only found ten, and all weirdos too… The blond boy doesn’t look bad, as for the others… ouch.”
Angor was the only one with blond hair here. What the mist woman meant was obvious enough.
Being praised for his good look, Angor should have felt content. However, he was unsure whether he should feel that way when all the “weirdos” were directing all kinds of angry gazes at him.
Ness realized the mist woman was about to keep up her sarcasm, so he quickly interrupted her.
“Lady Mirror, they need to attend their specialized tests soon, so I’ll take them away. Would you please open up the passage for them?”
Entering the mirror world did not require the presence of Lady Mirror. However, these talents who had not yet have their bone card registered must go through such a process. Otherwise, Ness would not have summoned Lady Mirror like this. She was only interested in pretty faces.
Lady Mirror “spat” something out and released several lumps of white mist from her fingers, which then flew into the bone cards held by the talents.
“Okay now, I’ll go back to sleep. You miserable ogres, stay away from me,” said Lady Mirror.
Then she considered something and spoke again, “Hey you, blond boy, you’re still okay. We don’t get many good faces around these parts. Find a time and come have some tea with me.”
With that, Lady Mirror became a mist cloud again and disappeared into the mirror.