"Many centuries ago, nobody outside the local dwarves was ever allowed entry to the underground sections of the Kingdom Down Under. Even treaties and diplomatic meetings were held on the surface, with the underground as a forbidden space to outsiders.

When the new queen changed their policies and opened the underground to outsiders two centuries ago, it was met with plentiful opposition and outrage from older dwarves. Yet the siren song of coins quickly won over even them.

Who would have thought that the secretive underground realm of the dwarves proved to be a massive tourist attraction to others?" - Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology student at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning.

Cal stayed for two days in the entrance town, before she brought the party further on their trip. It took some effort to pry Fyodor loose from his obsession with the local smiths and enchanters, but the idea of seeing even better ones later got him moving.

Their planned itinerary was to head towards the south of the region, near the southern coast of the continent. The dwarves never gave specific names for parts of their underground nation, as they just considered it all part of Göttmøræghthœthangmär, the dwarven name for what was called the Kingdom Down Under in common.

The old name itself roughly meant "The Grand Halls of the Mighty Kingdom Under the Mountains", which was somewhat outdated now that the kingdom was mostly below plains and deserts, with only their northern and western outposts under the mountains.

For transportation over long distances, the dwarves had an intricate system of tunnels and railways under the ground. It was exactly this railway that Cal planned to take towards the southern regions of the area.

A large crowd awaited them at the carriage station, as the long-distance carriages were apparently a common transportation option in the underground kingdom. Multiple carriages left the city to every corner of the kingdom every hour, regardless of the time of day.

The carriages themselves took the shape of undecorated metal rectangles, with four rows of metal wheels each at its top and bottom, which sat on rails embedded into the ground below and the ceiling above.

Supposedly the dwarves had at first tried to use only the rails below, but found that the carriage became unstable with the slightest damage to the rails. The second set of rails were there to give additional stability and redundancy, and the carriages were supposedly able to proceed to their destination with as little as three sets of wheels functioning.

At the ends of the line of carriages - Cal counted around ten carriages in between - were longer ones, with an odd contraption set in the further ends. The contraption looked like a large hand pump she had seen in some villages above, but with handles on both sides, long enough for four dwarves to hold each one.

Cal had asked one of the dwarves who worked by the front carriages about them, and the dwarf happily explained the method behind the contraption. They were hand-powered, with teams of eight dwarves in shifts, and each time the handle was cranked, it turned the wheels above and below the carriages. The direction they turned were adjustable, and when fully loaded, carriages like these would be powered from both ends at the same time.

The carriages in between were simple ones. The walls were made of metal, with only ventilation ports to the side and lighting at the top. The seats were folding, collapsible ones, and could be folded against the walls if the carriage was to be used for cargo instead of passengers.

It was most definitely a design which focused on practicality rather than comfort, but Cal couldn't really disparage them for it. If they were loaded with passengers, each carriage could easily accommodate as many as sixty people, eighty if none of them were of the larger sort of races.

When the times drew close to the departure time of their carriage, Cal led her group to the carriage in question. There they easily found their seats - which were labeled with numbers and letters - at the front of the foremost carriage, just behind the one where the drivers worked.

She couldn't say that the seats were comfortable. They were solid iron with minimal padding on them. Then again, that was probably the main reason why such carriages always took their trips in segments.

From the eastern suburbs, it would take Cal's group four stops in other towns along the way, where they stopped and rested for a couple days before they continued their trip. Each carriage ride itself only took six to ten hours at the most.

In such a way, ten days later they finally arrived at the southern part of the Kingdom Down Under. There, while the architecture was similar, the city was built even deeper, and decorations from shells and corals were commonplace.

The lowest tiers of the city were submerged underwater, with an underground river that connected to the oceans further away. A community of aquatic therians and merfolk lived there, and traded heavily with the dwarves who lived in the upper tiers of the city.

Some of the sight had slightly bothered the less-traveled people like Ashani and Giselle, particularly when they saw how a therian whose features strongly resembled a cephalopod roasted small, whole octopi over a charcoal brazier and sold them by the skewer, snacking on one from time to time.

Willa and Fheeri had laughed at that. Most therians had no qualms whatsoever at consuming animals that just happened to resemble them, though clearly Ashani's people rarely partook in such things. Then again, her tribe resembled cats, and Cal doubted many people eat those at all.

Perhaps because they were close to the sea - the southern side of town was built right on the seaside cliffs, with many open balconies that allowed natural light and the sea breeze in - the air in the southern region felt even fresher, with the characteristic briny scent of coastal settlements.

Cal had chosen the area for a destination partly for relaxation, but partly also for training her students. Much like in Knallzog, fighting arenas and coliseums were legal in the Kingdom Down Under, and this region was renowned for their aquatic fights.