Chapter 8: First Day Of Summer Camp Pt. 2

Jordan’s heart rate skyrocketed as he watched Trevor get dragged backwards into one of the dark holes.

Looking past him, Jordan could barely make out what was pulling him down. A set of eight dark red eyes peered ominously at him, and the white rope attached to the older boy led to somewhere beneath the set of eyes.

“Holy crap, Trevor! Look out!”

To Jordan’s surprise, the screaming boy looked back, and timing it correctly, managed to execute a back handspring from the floor onto the creature’s head, mounting it.

The monster screeched, rearing up as it tore the white webbing from its vicious set of jaws.

Yes, Jordan could tell it was webbing, not rope. He had rushed forward to get a closer look and maybe help Trevor, but he stopped dead in his tracks.

In front of him was a giant black and blue spider, about the size of a rhino. Its mandibles quivered as it swiped its freakishly long legs around. Oily black hairs shone under Jordan’s helmet light, and the frightened boy began to shake as he took in its emerging aura of hate and malice.

‘Aw, hell nah.’

Trevor gripped the hairs on its head for dear life, wrapping his legs around its neck while it tried to shake him off. He pulled a stone shank out from under his shirt and tried to stab it, but the rock shattered against the spider’s exoskeleton.

“God- FUCK!” Trevor shouted as he threw away what was left of the knife. He began pounding it with a hammerfist, each hit blowing dust through the air, and letting out a hard thudding impact sound. The spider only seemed confused as it eyed Jordan curiously.

“Jordan! My! Hits! Ain’t! Doing! Shit!” he yelled, each word pronounced with a smack. “Punch it in the eye or something!”

“Aw, hell nah!” Jordan replied, running back to get the guard.

The guard was actually already behind Jordan. He was the one who lit up the room, and revealed the huge spider. He smiled, and before Jordan could run too far past him, the sadistic man stopped him by grabbing the boy by the neck, and yeeting him at the spider.

‘Oh, come ooooOOOOOAAAHH-’ Jordan thought.

“AAAAAAAAAHH!” Jordan screamed.

Jordan’s disappointment at not being able to run away quickly turned into heart-attack inducing panic as he rapidly approached the spider.

The spider saw Jordan coming, but just before it was about to catch him with its mouth, Trevor grunted as his back and arm muscles bulged and veins on his neck and forehead popped up. He yanked the spider’s head up with all his might. Because of his herculean effort, Jordan’s flailing body slammed into the underside, and landed in a puddle beneath the spider.

Clearly tired of having the weird squishy food not being inside its stomach, the spider sensed an opportunity and jumped for it.

It brought all eight of its legs inwards, grabbing Jordan and pressing him to its body just as he got on his knees. It vigorously started rolling and tumbling as it banged the slaves against the stone. Trevor slammed into the ground, but he managed to maintain his grip on its head, hugging it tightly.

The spider kept rolling, breaking stone and causing chaos, as it tried to bring Jordan up to its maw. Jordan stopped himself from being eaten by reaching up and holding its arm-sized fangs at arm’s length.

He struggled to keep his arms locked as it kept trying to bite his head off, but somehow, despite the growing dizziness of being tossed and turned, the spider’s lack of fingers to hold him down, the slipperiness of being wet, and Jordan’s own adrenaline-enhanced strength, he managed to barely avoid dying.

Jordan could sense the spider’s growing frustrations through its aura. Despite executing its finishing move, the Death Roll, its food still didn’t want to be food. It got back on its legs, and flung Jordan into the ceiling, his grip finally slipping off its teeth.

The spider put its head down and used its front four legs to try and pry Trevor off, but the slave was determined to hand on, even as the prying attempts soon turned into full on blows.

Jordan almost got impaled on a stalactite as he hit the ceiling, the sharp stone breaking as he fell, almost being impaled again by its stalagmite.

With cracked lenses, tears in his dripping clothing, blood coming out of his various scratches and bruises, Jordan decided to just lay there for a second.

‘I hate this.’

‘I hate fighting this stupid fucking spider.’

He heard Trevor’s pained grunts as he weathered the storm the blows the spider sent.

‘God… Damn it.’

Jordan got up, despite the world spinning. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears through his labored breathing. He watched Trevor still clinging onto the spider’s head as it beat on his back, his expression; a visage of bravery. The world seemed slower, as his fight-or-flight instincts enhanced his perception.

‘This sucks so much.’

‘I hate spiders.’

Jordan stood there, getting angrier and angrier. He clenched his fists as mana built up inside of him. The connection between his soul and his beating heart grew stronger.

‘I’m going… to KILL THIS THING!’

Jordan hoisted up the broken stalactite, and charged at the spider, propelling himself at speeds he’s never before reached, despite holding a giant rock twice as heavy as he was.

The spider stopped hitting Trevor and brought its legs back down. It was going to catch its food, this time. He was running straight at it, so there’s no way it could mess up this time, it thought.

Trevor had other plans.

Finally catching a break from that relentless assault, the older slave sat up straight on the spiders head. His ripped up shirt fell off, revealing a steel physique forged from years in slavery. He wrapped his shirt around his wrists like makeshift handcuffs, and brought both of his mana-charged hands up.

“Take this, you bitch ass bug.”

Trevor’s fists caught fire and came down like a meteor, and unlike the other dull impacts, this one made a sharp cracking noise as it blasted the air away. The spider’s head slammed back into the ground, cracking the floor and recoiling a bit.

Blood dripped from his hands as the older boy fell to the side of the spider, passing out. The spider lay there, stunned and confused, with a large crack in its armored head.

Jordan sped up, running even faster. Mana coursed through his body like never before, and his legs moved like the wind. He focused it on his legs, shattering the ground as he jumped up towards the ceiling.

Jordan cracked the roof of the cave as he sprung downwards, his form blurring as he lunged at the spider like a thunderbolt.

He aimed at the spider’s wound, and his hyper focused state of mind blocked everything unnecessary out. He drove the sharp stone in, nailing the spider into the floor as its body recoiled upwards, its legs flailing, before it finally crashed into the ground.

The spider writhed in agony, screaming, but its disjointed attempts to free itself slowly ceased as its death approached.

Jordan lay there, on top of its blood splattered head, sliding down as he slowly let go of his grip on the sharp stone.

As his heartbeat slowed, his first thoughts were questions on if he was still alive. After confirming that he was, his next thoughts were feelings of supremacy, and superiority. He had defeated a giant scary spider after all. They were quickly halted when he realized how disgusting laying on spider brains was. He soaked in his victory, literally.

The front of his body was soaked in blue blood and spider guts, which felt really uncomfortable. It was like being bathed in hot slime with bits of sticky chunks in it.

Jordan thought about how he could clean himself, eventually thinking about just asking Trevor to help him out. Then he realized that Trevor passed out from all the effort he put in.

The boy hurriedly checked over the slave who had become his comrade, sighing in relief when he found he was still breathing. His back was full of bruises and scratches, but Jordan found it incredibly reliable.

By now, the guard had walked up in front of them, and was staring at the two slaves.

“Good work. You fight well, for a newbie,” he said. “I’ll heal you now, then it's time to get back to work.”

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“Thanks.” Jordan said.

“Yeah.”

The guard knelt down and took Trevor’s hand. He offered his hand to Jordan as well.

Jordan felt a wave of mana wash over him as he held the guard’s hand. Light flashed out from behind the guard’s gas mask, as their hands started to glow.

He felt the same warm embrace of the sun from this morning, and a refreshing sense of wellness and calm. Unfortunately, that also stopped Jordan’s adrenaline from blocking his pain receptors.

The boy felt pain all over his body, but since he couldn’t do anything about it at that moment, he decided to just deal with it. He slipped his torn up mask off, gagged at the smell, and pulled out the canteen from his belt.

‘Oh god, yes. Why does water taste so good?’

Trevor slowly opened his eyes as he woke up, wincing when he tried to get up.

“Just stay there for a second,” the guard said.

Soon, the light faded from the guard’s hands, but the energy flowing within the slaves remained.

“Right. Transfer all the ores into one cart, and load the spider into the other. We’ll bring it up on the way to the cleaning station.”

The guard clapped his hands twice and got up. The slaves reluctantly got up and started working. Jordan went up the side tunnel back to where the minecarts were and started transferring the rocks. Trevor stretched his hands out before grabbing the spider’s fangs and dragging it up towards the carts.

Trevor and Jordan struggled to put the huge spider in the cart, but they made it work.

“Right. You pull from the front, and I’ll push from the back.”

“Got it.”

Jordan went to the front of the cart and wrapped the chain attached to it like a backpack strap. He gave it a tug, and quickly realized he would have to use his mana to empower himself again, just to pull it forward.

“Ready?” Trevor called out from behind the cart.

“Yup!”

“Then… Hrnng!”

The walk back up to the surface was arguably harder than the spider fight itself. Trevor said that he could’ve pushed it up himself if he hadn’t exhausted himself fighting the spider. Jordan simply ignored him.

By the time they were all the way up, both of them were even dirtier and tired than before. And it was only 9:30 AM.

Trevor led Jordan to the on-site showers, where they cleaned off their gear and took a cold shower. After that, they headed to a small tent with the medical sign on top. There, they refilled their water, given medicine, and bandaged up. They were even allowed to rest for ten minutes before heading back down.

“What a day,” Jordan said, lying on a mat.

“Yep. Unlucky.”

“You mean that doesn’t usually happen?”

“I mean… not everyday.”

The two lay there comfortably as they rested. Jordan chuckled to himself.

Trevor eyed him suspiciously. “What?”

“Pff… You said we didn’t need any tools.”

Trevor looked away. “Yeah, well. Usually the miners fight the monsters, not us.”

“… I can’t believe you told me to punch it in the eye. A giant spider with eight eyes!” Jordan said, laughing.

“Pssh, you didn’t have to run away like that though. Good thing the guard just chucked you at it like a dog treat.”

Jordan stared at the ceiling. He began to smile as he recalled the fight.

“...Heheheh.”

Trevor chose to ignore him that time, instead enjoying his short break.

“…Take this, you bitch ass bug. Bwap.”

Jordan mimicked putting his hands together and striking.

Trevor cracked up. “Stop,” he said, suppressing a smile.

Jordan laughed, before facing him. “You were cool though.”

“Yeah, well. You killed it, not me.”

“I would’ve died like three times, if you weren’t there.”

“Same.”

The two boys lay there, feeling connected in a way that Jordan didn’t think was possible in a slave camp. The younger boy grinned. He had made a friend.

1:00 PM

After hauling ores up and down the tunnels for about four more hours, Jordan was finally able to rest again when lunch time came. Surprisingly, the slaves didn’t eat right away. As soon as the guards announced “LUNCH TIME,” they immediately began stretching. Jordan joined in, and asked one of the miners why they were stretching instead of eating.

“Well, it’s ‘cause we actually get a thirty minute break for lunch. If you finish your food fast, what’cha gonna do with all that spare time? We still got work after this, so it’s better to stretch and recover the ol’ muscles before that.”

“Oh…And we don’t eat because it’ll be bad for our stomachs if we stretch, right?”

“Mmm, yeah, sure. That too. But it’s mostly ‘cause the guards don’t want to be eating at the same time as us. Even if we get the same lunch break.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I dunno. Why don’t you go and ask them?”

“Haha. No.”

When the guards finished eating, they handed out really thick biscuits that actually didn’t taste as bad as it looked. It was crunchy and dry, but had a hint of orange flavoring. Once he chewed it a bit, the mulch was really satisfying to swallow. He actually couldn’t finish it, and gave the rest to the biggest miner in their group, earning him a big thumbs up and a thank you.

Jordan chatted with Trevor and the other miners in their little team about himself, like who he was and how he got here. Eventually, they talked about how Jordan and Trevor were ambushed by the spider.

“That’s not too surprising that we missed a cave spider,” one of the miners said. “They’re one of the weakest down here, and they know it. Probably sensed us all coming and holed up down in that tunnel.”

“Wait, one of the weakest?” Jordan spoke up.

“Oh yeah. How do you think you two hurriers were able to beat it, unarmed at that?”

“Wait, but we couldn’t even damage it until I stabbed it with one of those giant spiky rocks!” Jordan said, gesturing how big the rock was with his hands.

“I hurt it though, with that last hit,” Trevor added.

“Yeah, see? Their armor ain’t even that tough, but it’s good enough to block some weak hits. Can’t stop a pickaxe though!” the slave laughed.

“Cave spiders are solitary hunters too,” another slave chimed in. “They go after small groups of weaker looking targets, aiming for easy food. That’s why we don’t usually worry about them.”

“Damn. Wait, how strong are you guys anyway?” Jordan asked, just because he was curious.

The four miners looked at each other, and chuckled a bit.

“Jordan, don’t tell the masters, but we’re pretty sure every miner on the team can take a guard barehanded. Marcel can probably beat Lamar, 9 out of 10 times.”

“Wait, what? And you all don’t think of escaping?” Trevor asked.

Jordan bit his lip. He didn’t like where this conversation was going. It gave him a minor headache.

One of the slaves noticed Jordan’s growing discomfort. He elbowed the slave about to respond to Trevor.

“… No. Even if we could riot, we would just get murdered by Warden Yang. If not him, then a paladin of Sol.”

They sat in silence for a moment, before a guard conveniently yelled out “LUNCH IS OVER, BACK TO WORK, SLAVES!”

“And there it is. Welp, you know how it is,” the slave said, getting up and slinging his pickaxe over his shoulder.

Jordan and Trevor glanced at each other, and soon began picking up ores.

7:30 PM

Jordan had just finished his last trip back up, along with the other slaves and masters, who had already prepared to come up.

He was on top of the large minecart, scooping out the remaining rocks of his little minecart into it. They had a nifty little device that cranked up the little minecart into the air so it could load into the big one, but unfortunately, it didn’t tilt all the way. So Jordan had to jump up onto the lip of the large minecart and use his hands to push the leftover rocks out.

A guard called out, “TIME FOR CLOSING, WRAP IT UP!”

Jordan quickly emptied the minecart and cranked it back down, before parking it back where he found it. He was supposed to do maintenance on it, but he was too tired to make his last delivery on time.

He saw the other slaves lined up in front of the cleaning stations, stretching and chatting with each other. He saw Trevor, but before he could go to him, Marcel and a few older slaves called out to him.

“Hey, Jordan, come here for a sec!”

Jordan was a little wary of Marcel, because he heard he was actually super strong. Still, he didn’t want to upset him, so he headed towards them anyway.

“Hi Marcel, what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing special. What’s up with you though? Enjoy your first day? Saw you come up covered in cave spider guts this morning.”

“It was actually cave spider brains. And no. I did not enjoy my first day,” Jordan said, chuckling.

“Ha! It only gets worse from here, buddy.”

“Haha, yeah…” Jordan said, his exhaustion leaking out.

“Hey, sorry that I didn’t get a chance to tell you more about our work. Bunch of weird stuff happened last night, you’re a pretty unorthodox budding, y’know.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s fine, I guess. At least you can tell me now?”

“That’s what I like to hear. Sure! I’ll tell you all about what our work’s like. So then. As you know, we’ve all got our own roles in the team. Miners and hurriers. You, Trevor, Julianne and Christian are our hurriers. The rest of us are miners.”

“Yep, I knew that.”

“Okay, but did you know that…”

Marcel talked all about the daily lives of the mining team. Work started at 8 AM, there was a lunch break at 1 PM for thirty minutes, and work ended at 8 PM. He told him about the sort of monsters they would usually fight down there, like undead nagas and the occasional earth elemental. He’d describe their weaknesses and how to fight them. He also gave him a few tips on how to move the minecart more efficiently.

“Wait, that’s all you do down here? Fight monsters?”

“Nah, but that’s the most important part. The rest of the info I’ve got for you is on rocks. You don’t need to know that until you’re a miner.”

“Oh. And how do I become a miner?”

“Well, we do have an open spot. Usually it’s 4 miners to every 1 hurrier, but since you came, we’re looking to promote one of you, after you get settled in, and used to the job. It’s between Trevor and Julianne now. We were betting it’d be Julianne, but that fight with the cave spider might've given Trevor a chance.”

“Huh. How would I actually become a miner, though?”

“It’s simple, really. You just have to be strong.”

“Aren’t I already strong?”

“Not strong enough, kid,” Marcel patted him on the back.

Jordan finished cleaning himself and his equipment, then deposited them in the storage tent. A guard observed Jordan coming out of the tent, checked his watch, and ordered the slaves to line up.

Jordan filed in with the rest of the slaves as one of the guards did a headcount. Seeing everything was alright, they set off for the cafeteria.