oh god there's over 40 of you now

12

In the Chasm Museum, the seemingly large mass of students break off in two again, being led by different tour guides to different parts of the building and agreeing to meet up at the shop near the exit. The museum housed the story behind the old mine site and the many rare ores one could find in the site before its shutdown. There was also an area in the museum that does demonstrations on how to dig out the ores from chunks of rock, analyze its safety, appraise it, and create different items from the safer stones.

It was said that the Chasm was once a flourishing mine site; those who were unemployed worked here and made enough to cover their everyday necessities. This was the case until a meteor had struck the site, contaminating the area so badly no human was able to work there anymore, causing unemployment to skyrocket again and ore businesses going bankrupt after relying on the Chasm for so long. It was like this until someone managed to invent a device that combated the contamination in the site and people could go work there again. However, over time, people had found other areas to extract ore from and hadn't needed the Chasm's ore to provide a consistent lifestyle, leaving the site in a constant limbo state.

Because the Chasm laid right between the borders of Liyue and Sumeru, there was information on the regions as well. The two nations had agreed upon the use of the site through a contract, which the people of Liyue and its ruler were meticulous about, and what their accepted deity's ideals surrounded. As a result, both Liyuens and Sumerians had access to the ore the Chasm offered and both sides profited as a result, all until its destruction.

This was something returning students in the Liyue homeroom learned about and understood what had happened for the most part, although mostly unnecessary for their everyday lives. While most had been taught, there were some underlying facts that had not. Only Zhongli paid close attention while the others meandered around the room they were currently led to. With the Mondstadt group, however, Albedo and Sucrose showed the most interest in the ore demonstrations while Rosaria was in the back contemplating the point of their visit.

There was one point where they almost got kicked out, though. Having found a statue depicting the Statue of the Seven in the Chasm, some of the Mondstadt group tried to reenact it, paying no heed to their guide. Someone accidentally slipped which toppled everyone under and causing a ruckus, making all the sane ones sigh in disbelief and the guide barely keeping control of them.

(When Zhongli caught wind of this, he almost went to have a little..."talk" with Venti later.)

"How come the Sumeru Statue isn't here?" Albedo wondered out loud, taking a picture of the statue with his phone anyway.

"Wasn't their god like ours? Absent from the daily lives of the people but watching over us from afar?" Sucrose answered, looking at the guide for answers.

"Well, yes, but also no. While Mondstadt's god allegedly left his people to fend for themselves once he found them capable of independence—according to historical texts—it is unknown whether Sumeru was directly ruled by their god or not. After all, Lesser Lord Kusanali was more frequently present in religiously written books and is currently the deity the people worship." The guide clarified. "The knowledge of whether two gods ruled side by side was lost to time."

"I have so many questions I should ask later..."

Aside from that, the Chasm museum had a simulator showing how people mined the ore in the area back then, as well as the aforementioned gift shop, which sold many jewelry using the stones from the mine, as well as miscellaneous items like cups, plushes, trinkets, and souvenirs. The Liyue group had gotten there first, and the first thing Zhongli tried to do was buy one of everything in the store. Xiao and Ganyu had to personally stop him while Ningguang scolded him for using money so carelessly, with Keqing being exasperated with everything, Beidou laughing to the side, and Hu Tao sneaking by to buy a trinket in a rhombus shape with metal around it made to make it look more square-like. There was a bit of glass protruding out the center as well. Xingqiu found a similar trinket and is pressuring Chongyun to buy one as well. Hu Tao overhears and joins in, with Xinyan and Yanfei whisper-shouting "peer pressure" again and again until Chongyun caved under their sheer power and bought one for himself, clipping it on his belt when he saw Xingqiu do the same.