He Didn't Die? Inconceivable! (2/3)

Most of the prisoners are panting and sweating rivers. Some are even passed out from heat stroke. All the same, they're all deliriously confused when that one escaped prisoner actually comes back…

Confusion aside, they're all overjoyed when the little mage rips the binding ropes off the boulder's pinning them down, then uses titanic strength tear the boulders off their backs.

With each freed prisoner, Haalfrin looks at them blankly and says, "Follow me. In order to escape, we have to stick together."

If any of the prisoners tries to question him, Haalfrin just replies, "I'll tell you what the situation once everyone's together."

He spends a half hour walking between the cells, which are seemingly pointlessly spread out across huge, sprawling halls, and he frees each of the prisoners in turn.

Once all the prisoners are gathered in the central room, Haalfrin knows he has to first get all these men and women on his side before he can get them to do what he wants. In order to do that, they have to have hope of escape, and that escape has to depend on him.

The first thing Haalfrin does is point up at the ceiling. "They have a spatial sealing barrier around this floor, and the only way off the floor is through a disabled teleportation circle. We're deep in the earth, and there's nowhere to go."

Before the crowd before him gets too agitated, Haalfrin quickly says, "Before we can think of a way of escaping, we have to figure out how to survive."

Haalfrin points his finger in the air and draws out a line of 3 enchantment sigils with glowing white energy as he explains. "We can go a few days without food, so that's our last priority. What'll kill us sooner is heatstroke and suffocation."

A lot of heads nod at this. They really do feel like they're about to burn to death on the inside.

Haalfrin then says, "I need you all to get into 4 groups. Those of you who are most confident in their enchantment analysis skills, get over here. Those who have great alchemy skills, over here. Those who have powerful body-strengthening spells, I need you here. If there's any left over… Just stay in the center. We'll be needing some extra mana to keep us all alive, so we could all use you."

A few moments pass, and all the prisoners who are conscious and alert shuffle to their new positions.

Some of these people used to be some of the most obstinate, stubborn, and power hungry people in the world. However, centuries spent in the dark Pit has eroded their sharp personalities, and they all obey without rebellion.

Haalfrin points to the first sigil he drew in the air. "The most important enchantment is the heat absorption enchantments that our captors used to use to keep the inside cool; it also converted heat into mana, which they used to power the other enchantments."

The boy sighs and looks over the host of prisoners in front of him. "These enchantments are coded, so I don't know how to make them work again. You people who volunteered your enchanting skills… I'll show you to the heat absorption spells around the floor."

Haalfrin marches off with them to show them the way. Once they get going on their work, Haalfrin goes back to the others, and he explains the next stage of the plan.

"There's disabled insulation enchantments on all the tiles lining the outside layer of our floor. The prison Warden must have disabled them all remotely. Even still, once the others I just led off give us a stable source of mana, we can power the insulating spells… Until then, I'll need some of you to contribute your mana to keep the inside cool and keep the heat out."

A few heads nod, while a few others stand up to follow Haalfrin. Once they're shown to the outside of the walls, they put their hands on them and start pouring mana into the insulating spells on the outside.

Once he gets them going, Haalfrin goes back and collects the final group – the ones who claimed to be good at alchemy. He shows them the air management tiles scattered around the ceiling, and he tells them use these things as a medium to make sure the air doesn't get too stale here.

"Just don't push yourself," Haalfrin warns them. "Only put mana into these tiles when it's getting too hard to breathe."

One of the girls looks down wearily. "Got it." Everybody's too tired and desperate to live to waste time trying to argue. Plus, everybody saw the way this boy effortlessly ripped apart the giant boulders; in their mind, this seemingly young mage might be a dragon or an all-powerful mage with 6 or 7 gates open or something. Either way, he seems like he knows what he's doing.

…Plus, looking at the carnage lining the halls, this single boy wiped out the guards on the entire floor with little resistance. Nobody's thinking about rebelling against him when he has this kind of strength.

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Worried that the floor will overheat even if the other enchantments gets fixed with that breach in the ceiling and the damage to the walls from his rampage, Haalfrin picks up the rubble he's knocked around the outer walls with alchemy. Then, he enchants the fixed tiles with the broken insulating enchantments..

Once this is done, the young mage goes back over to the 4 people who had gotten started on the heat absorption crystal meshes.

He runs along the outer edge, and he sees the first 2 people deliriously examining the mesh – just as clueless as he was.

Still, knowing their job is the most important one, he reaches into the small spatial bag Freyya left him, which was full of some snacks. "Here," he says as he hands the first man a slice of bread. "You need some energy."

He does the same for the next one – a middle aged lady… and seeing the hopeless look on their faces, Haalfrin's starting to feel pessimistic about their survival.

However, everything changes when he comes across the 3rd enchanter.

Haalfrin approaches the old, frail man kneeling on the ground and carefully using his magic to drill little holes in the outer wall.

Alarmed, Haalfrin runs up and yells, "What are you doing?! We're trying to seal off the outside, not open it up again."

The old man turns around, and Haalfrin sneezes when his long white beard, which is hanging absurdly low, swings out and brushes past Haalfrin's nose.

"Little boy," he croaks, "these crystal mesh mediums won't be able to power all the enchantments on this floor. About half of the manna needed came from up above through some advanced spells that can exchange mana remotely through spirit threads.

He points at the hole he's making and explains, "The outside rock is a bit over 100⁰C (a bit over 125⁰F), which is a lot hotter than we're planning on keeping it on this floor. If we stick the heat absorption meshes in the bedrock outside instead of inside, we'll be able to collect more heat."

"Oh," Haalfrin wonders aloud, "You seem to know a lot."

"Of course I do," the old man croaks back, "I was one of the enchanters who helped build this place. The Vanteri Family – the nobles who own this place – have a habit of imprisoning all outsiders who've worked on this place. The Pit's their treasure, you see, and they don't like anyone who knows their secrets running around free. They didn't kill me because my knowledge is highly specialized, and they might need me again."

"Does that mean you can crack the enchantment and get it working again?" Haalfrin asks hopefully.

"Obviously. Well, the coding is designed to scramble randomly when they're turned off, and the moment the enchantment runes scramble, it automatically creates a key in the Warden's tower, so whoever it is can reactivate it whenever they want… However, I know the gist of how it works, so I should be able to get it after a while."

"Good!" Haalfrin laughs aloud and tries patting him on the shoulder… Unfortunately, Haalfrin got too many Names at once; he's gained too much youth back, so he's far too short now to reach up high enough.

Before Haalfrin leaves the old man to his work, he pauses. "Can I get your name?"

"Orland."

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Just to be sure, Haalfrin does check on the 4th enchanter, but like the first 2, he's completely lost.

Still, with Enchanter Orland on the job, Haalfrin's mind is set at ease.

Sure enough, it only takes another half hour for the first heat absorption spell to become active again. Just to be sure, Orland cuts off the mana supply between the crystal meshes and the warden's tower, just in case their captor wants to try messing with their energy supplies.

With all the other jobs being relatively simple, everything else mostly goes according to plan, with one small hiccup.

The mages who were supposed to temporarily keep the air flowing ran out of mana, so Haalfrin had to run over and support them until the rest of the floor was back up and running again. He was about to run out of mana too, so he had to use his Fel (Change) Name to convert some of his Death Aura into mana. The loss wasn't very big, but it still hurts his heart thinking about it.

In the end, they follow Orland's idea to keep 8 of the heat absorbers outside the Floor walls. With 8 crystal meshes no longer within the halls, a single crystal mesh can't keep the entire floor cool anymore.

This is why they keep the 9th heat absorber in one of the cells with an intact door. That way, they can shut the door and enjoy the cool air.