After their tour of the mine ended, Schiller and Batman were not thrown back into that filthy, dark cell. Instead, each of them was assigned a dormitory. What surprised Batman even more was that it was a single room.
The mountain they had toured was the largest and most central mine in the entire mining complex. Beside it stood a bunker that looked very much like a medieval garrison castle.
The corridors here were narrow, but the rooms were large. The four floors aboveground housed the guards, while the six underground levels housed the miners working in the central mine.
Batman's dormitory was on the second underground level. The entire room was only two or three square meters, with room for nothing more than a straw mat. A torch fueled by magical energy burned on the wall.
Small as the room was, it was not cold. Batman suspected there might be a lava layer beneath the mine, which made the entire building warm and dry.
There was also a basin in the corner of the room. No matter how much water was used from it, it never ran dry. It not only added some moisture to the dry room, but could also be used for washing.
If the dormitory had one flaw, it was the poor soundproofing. Everyone lived in tiny cages, the walls were thin, and the rooms were packed close together. Batman had just sat down to rest when he heard muffled cursing from next door:
"Damn it, my ankle... It hurts so badly I'm going to die. That damned Magma Demon did it on purpose. He wanted me to fall into the lava while mining... Oh, it hurts, it hurts..."
"What happened? Are you all right?" Batman asked, knocking on the wall beside him. The creature on