Though the mine tunnels were deep and dark, Mulan and the others were hardly ordinary men. Even without lamps, they could see to some extent. They had also brought the kerosene lamps from the carriage, so the passages were fairly clear to their eyes.
As the passage wound steadily downward, the underground space actually opened up in many places. It was larger than they had imagined, with broad chambers linked by stretch after stretch of relatively narrow tunnel. Most had probably started out as ore deposits.
Only a few minutes after entering, they began encountering branching passages. They were merely following the central route; the tunnels surely connected at various points underground. None of this three-dimensional layout could be gleaned from the old, flat map they had seen earlier.
Mulan paid attention to the wooden pillars they occasionally passed. Some of those supporting higher ceilings were not single pieces of timber but showed signs of joins, likely massive wooden supports assembled with something like mortise-and-tenon joints.
Everyone, Mulan included, frowned more deeply as they descended. The air was foul, and the smell kept getting worse.
The mine had long since shut down, and its steam-powered ventilation system had been out of commission for decades. Underground airflow depended entirely on natural circulation. Spacious though the tunnels were, at this depth, with filthy werewolves everywhere, the stench was nauseating.
"Raaawooo!"
"Awooo!"
The werewolves' cries grew more frequent and agitated. After passing through another connecting tunnel, the space before them suddenly opened into an enormous chamber covering well over several hundred square meters, with an astonishingly high ceiling more than ten meters overhead.
This was not a space excavated by miners, but a natural cavity in the rock over a hundred meters underground. The old mining operation had used it as an underground