You come outside to find that while you were talking to your friends, the alchemists have been constructing a box on a sturdy cable attached to a set of pulleys that just kind of disappear into the ground. Ammy calls it an "elevator" and tells you that it should make it a lot quicker to get down the shaft. You tell Ammy that they fucking rule. Ammy says aw shucks we just repaired it it's not like we could design an elevator. We just alchemized some replacement parts!
There wasn't an elevator there before, broken or otherwise, but whatever.