Mining was a hundred tis harder than it looks. It barely took a few minutes to figure that out.
My day started at the new ho quite early as the morning horn blared strongly, unresting my fatigued body easily. To compare the intensity of the horn, I think it had the capacity to even wake the dead from their graves.
Half an hour later another horn blared, a little lighter asking us to collect our breakfast.
I went to get my breakfast along with the others. Since it was my first day, I decided to eat outside along with the other slaves instead of taking the food ho.
But alas! None but the forr accountant Caron joined or even asked for anything. There were about a couple of hundred people easily, not every one of them from the earth, obviously, but at least so of them should be. None ca to greet the newcors. They were busy with their food and lacked ti for greetings.
Moreover, the guards on standby made sure we filled our stomachs in ti, as everyone did so, keeping our mouths shut. Well, Caron and I tried to talk in whispers, but a few glares from the cold-eyed guards stopped the forr accountant after a brief exchange.
Oh, right, I forgot to ntion the food. Well, it wasn't awful, but nothing that desirable either. It was sothing like a dumpling made of wheat and other stuff I didn't know. Other than tasting a bit sweet, I found no redeeming flavour.
Honesty, the als I got through my beating days were way better than this. Then again, those were probably leftovers from the big boys, while this was a bona fide slave al.
Anyway, I barely finished my fourth dumpling and still left with two when the horn blared. Every one of the slaves stood up. I blinked to find Caron standing up again. I groaned and stood up as well, considering this was another mont where I could get beaten up just for being a little defiant.
I hid the dumplings in my clothes as a group of guards showed us the path to the mining zone. Every one of us marched behind them to the mining work silently. The march took a quarter of an hour, as the mining ground was much deeper underground. It was hotter too, easily over fifty degree Celsius.
I was handed a pickaxe and a trolley much like the others I saw yesterday and told to fill the trolley or else I would get beaten up. Anything less than a half-filled trolley would earn ten lashings, and the number would accumulate if I fail regularly.
That didn't seem hard, to be honest, at least not compared to the ball-crushing ritual.
However, I was thoroughly mistaken about this entire business. Not about the lashing part, but about how hard mining was for most normal people.
So I went to mine with the intention of filling the whole trolley to gain so allowances, unaware of how tough the stones could be.
It wasn't until I ramd the pickaxe a dozen tis with no result that I figured out how much I was lacking in the matter of physicality. Not to ntion, one of my hands was in no shape to do anything. That was my preferred hand, too.
With just the right hand, I barely managed to create so marks on the stone. Better than dents, but still of no use.
Worse, the glittering stones weren't in the open either. Most of the ones that were in the open were already mined, leaving and my two companions in misery.
Caron was in no better condition to work either, although he could use both of his hands. He was pushing himself hard against the stone, beating his pickaxe on the sa spot again and again.
The insane man was in the best state among us, though he wasn't as largely built as , or had a trained physique like Caron. He was doing well.
However, the first result ca from Caron, after relentlessly picking on the sa spot for about five minutes. It was a fist size stone, resembling the appearance of sunstones, although it was a totally different thing.
Caron held it up, inspecting hard. "This is more fragile than it looks," he said finally. "At least compared to the stones."
I ca forward to check on the glittering gem as well. Caron let take a look, passing it to . I appreciated that, though fully aware I have to give it back to him.
Anyway, the sunstone-like gem had a crystallised form, but it was much more fragile like iodine, instead of an actual sunstone. Whatever it was, I don't think we have it on our periodic table. Well, it was a compound matter, most probably, too foreign for to detect anything.
"How much do you think this thing costs?" I asked the forr accountant. Apparently, Caron used to deal in millions, so he should have a better perspective about this than .
"I lack information to determine that," Caron replied as I winced. "This doesn't appear like fossil fuel to , though I think their use is similar, considering all the lights and other equipnt I saw seed to take these stones as fuel. I guess the value would depend on how much a stone like this would last on those light devices."
"They don't seem that enduring to ," I said. "Still should be more valuable than petroleum and other stuff."
"That's a given," Caron said. "Since those powerful n that could literally wield magic went out of their way to enslave us for this, these should be pretty valuable."
Sothing valuable to even those that could wield magic. I mused.
"What can that an? What could these stones be, then?" I muttered. "Manifestation of magic?"
Both of us laughed at that as I tossed back the stone. We weren't aware at that ti, but our guess was quite close to the truth.
However, in no way in our right mind would we think they would leave us to sothing that could have literal use to practitioners like them so easily.
_________
We have a volu title now.
The Left Hand of Calamity
This is final, and the first volu will take. I don't know . . . another 50K words to end, probably.
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