After I killed the kid I had no idea how I ended up here

here being a dumpy dark moss-filled foul-smelling cave

I just remember an unknown sweet lady had come and taken all of the children including me out of that cave

I had just unconsciously without any sense of my surrounding like a zombie followed the lady

the weight of my action weighed heavily on my mind

I mean I had just killed a human being a kid to boot

I just wasn't able to accept that fact

the most ridiculous thing that bothered me the most was how easy it was to end a life

just one punch that was all it took to end the existence of a sentient life

I felt disgusted with myself and with what I did I did out of anger not out of any sense of justice or vengeance for the little girl

I did not sleep that day I just kept on thinking about the little girl and the little boy

it made me angry how easy it all went down

it made me think there might be some sort of trick in this situation maybe some sort of evil plan but I can't see why else would someone take children away and leave them there

was it to teach me something about the cruelty of the world

I don't know but whatever it was it didn't help my depression at all

maybe that's part of why I ended up dead

that and the fact that I hadn't eaten since the day before

and the guilt that filled my heart for both deaths made me feel something I never had felt

I didn't want this fucking feeling

I just wanted everything gone

I guess what bothered me was how easily it was done and how I did not stop for even a second to stop

I would have kept myself in the dark cave for the rest of my life if I could

but I had no such luxury next a man came to my cave with equipment

the man looked as if he had seen better days much much better days

he was a tall man just like Pollux

that is where the similarities end Pollux was a healthy man but this man was Skelton of a figure

his skin was torn with an almost burnt taint

his eyes were looked cold as ice

his hair was a long bundle that reached his waist it looked as if he hadn't washed them in years now

the had become joint together and there were bits of pieces of sand rock pebble rope and what looked like snot sticking to them

this man wore a targeted robe which was too large for him but fit his body well enough

there were also several knives attached to his belt on either side

he just barged inside the cave and threw the pack at me as he entered

he then turned around and faced me

he gave me a sad smile and said to me

"hey, you must be so scared and confused."

He told me

"you probably don't even know who I am yet right?

It doesn't matter.

That doesn't matter now, does it?

You see that there?"

he pointed at the pack now

"those are your tools your life jeep them close because you won't be receiving any replacement

I may not know who you are or where you're from but those don't matter this be your new home."

"Welcome to the mines"

He continued

Now that we become a miner in the miner's city of an emerald gold mine

your job in the future is to mine.

you will begin tomorrow

You will have to hand in a certain amount of ore, sand or mud every month, otherwise, you will be flogged."

After speaking, he stared at with a sneer.

I stared back at him.

I think I somehow made him unbeatable after an awkward pause he cleared his. throat

He then spoke to me again

"I expect you to start mining first thing tomorrow after you've rested up, got your bearings straight and sorted yourself out be ready at first light"

"I am blind," I said before he could go on pointing toward my empty eye sockets

that gave the man pause

he then snorted and huffed

" that doesn't matter where half the people here are disabled somehow

some are legless some don't have hands or only one of their limbs is missing if they are lucky

some are even blind it doesn't matter if you don't complete your quota you will be flogged

and child believe me you don't want to be flogged"

he gave a shudder when he finished

It took a moment for me to register all that

this place was brutal

but I had still had. problem

"I don't imply that I can't work I just won't be able to tell when is the first light "

that part was the truth I couldn't tell the difference between night and day

everything was red to me

the man tilled his head as if he began thinking

" I will come to collect you for the time being then I will assign someone to this cave who will tell you the time"

He then left me alone in the cave.

I stood motionless staring at the entrance of the cave

Then I walked towards the pack.

I opened it up and found a pile of tools that didn't look exactly new

They were different sizes and variety of tools, there was also a knife, fork, and A dozen bottles of pills

I just sat beside the pack and waited for the man to come to get me

.........................................

the next I got up and sat in a daze I had no idea when I had fallen asleep

the last thing I remember was sitting in front of the cave entrance eating for the man

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I had tried sleeping but every time I closed my eyes the dead face of the girl would appear

I got and went to the and took one of the pills from the dozen bottles

pretty soon I felt my hunger go away and I felt a little energy crop in me

I began to dress myself in a sackcloth that I had found in the pack

the pack must be somehow magical there was a lot more stuff in it than it could possibly hold

there were 4 types of hammers that I found a bamboo basket leather gloves a wooden mask and a wooden helmet, a metal gourd and more things

so began dressing myself in all the cloth ware I could find in the pack

after putting these clothes on me and covering my bare face and my head with the sackcloth and mask it felt a little easier for me

then I picked up the knife it was a foot-long with a soft leather strap covering it from tip to handle

I took it out and ran my finger along the edge of the knife

it was razor-sharp

I strapped it on my left arm I could use it as a short sword at least

even though I did not understand what use was a knife in the mines

is it dangerous to mine

are there monsters out there

or maybe the other miners will attack me to fill the quota. by feeling

I didn't know anything and I need to prepare for the worse situation

" good you are up and ready" a sweet nice voice called out

I turned around standing near the entrance was a beautiful mature woman wearing a long dark robe

she belonged to Asian ethnicity

she has long black hair

black hair with braids

she is very beautiful

she was also apparently pregnant if the bulging tummy was any indication

she gave me a sweet smile gesturing me to follow

I stayed still fully competing to the role of a blind man and shouted

"Who are you?"

her eyes looked at me for a while

"follow me" she commanded

I slowly stood up walking towards the cave entrance.

she also turned around and walked out

As I was walking through the doorway I stumbled over a rock and fell down onto a heap on the ground I groaned from the pain in my stomach

and my vision went dark

the woman shouted

"are you alright?"

She asked me

I just groaned in response

"what's wrong?"

She asked once again

I could hear her getting closer to me and I began to panic

she bent down over me

she started looking for what was wrong with me

her touch was soft

she did not have the rough skin of a miner that I was expecting

after checking me all over to. my discomfort she said

" you look alright to me come on we can't be late if we were to be late you and I will be flogged"

I nodded and got up activation the appoints to validate the pain as I felt the energy forming inside me

"Good, now let's go and be careful from now on"

this time she took my hands and led me on

I was unable to gain enough time to concentrate and activate my vision

so I decide to stay blind as the women-led me on

sometime later we suddenly came to a halt as she let go of my hand

I noticed the noise of shuffling of feet insist the sand ground

and the heavy breathing of the people all around we were in a crowd

I began to concentrate and activate my third eye

soon my vision came back to me

I saw we had come to a square,

I also saw that many people were already standing here as if waiting for something

, and some people were still coming out of the lanes behind us

they were all dressed the same just like with ragtag tattered clothes a slack cloth on the head and the face

some we're carrying a jackhammer along with bamboo baskets on their backs.

some we're wearing the pack itself

I knew from a glance that these people were all miners who were originally already here

as I scanned the crowd as more and more people arrived I noticed that there were a lot more women than men

at least there were 4 women for every man and that was all I could tell by the breasts of the women if there were many more fast chested ones then the ratio gap could have been larger

I also noticed that compared to the rest of the crowd the woman who had brought was much cleaner

I mean she did have a single speck of dirt on her clothes that I could see and it seemed like she had taken care of herself

she looked healthy

maybe because of the pregnancy

I thought

"What do you see?" someone suddenly snapped in my ear

I jumped and spun around

there was another woman

she was also dressed like

her face was covered by the mask and her body was hidden in clothes that were a size to large fit her

she laughed softly

"Sorry I couldn't resist I rain I will be teaching about mining"

she said and extended her hand to me

I let it hang there if was to convince

everyone I was blind I needed to act like it

to my relief the woman brought me here came to my rescue

"behave yourself rain he is a blind child didn't mock him"

the woman shoulders sagged

"I am sorry I just got excited to meet someone new"

" uncle old bu told me he could see"

she just bent down and took my hands into hers and shook them forceful

then she let and moved to stand right beside me

I was startled and confused these people know I can see

I looked at the woman who had brought me here

she smiled at me and patted my head

" don't worry David we are on your side"

mother fucker

well could I possibly do for now I was going to keep quiet and do nothing

I had no idea what the situation was and what type of response it warranted

I looked back at the newcomers

what was her name again

right Rain

she was at least a head taller than me

she stood tall and strong with broad shoulders

she had athletes body

as

I could tell

but her body was slender and graceful without being girly

Her muscles were well defined but she wasn't fat she had a firm but delicate appearance

I had never seen anyone so fit in all my life before

she also had a lovely voice too

On the other side of the square, there was a high red tent.

Below the tent, there were several tables and stools

mostly occupied by people who were very small to pollux

I used pollux was human an abnormally tell one but still a human

but now I think he is another species or something

I saw a bunch of the people who dressed like me go to the tent and take something

and then they would leave for the long winding road behind the tent

"they are the high-class workers" rain spoke up

"high class? what are high-class workers?" I asked

"Practitioners," she said with envy

oh, so these guys were practitioners which was essentially another way sting these guys were cultivators just theirs methods were unorthodox

then a different group of miners started to come up to the tent and they would pass on garnish colour rocks to the people sitting in the tent

the titans would smile and take rocks and then the miners would come back to their original position

"these are the bribes they are bribing the foremen so that they could have preferential treatment in the mines" rain clarified as I continued to watch the group of men and women bribing the foremen

what kind of preferential treatment could they possibly get I mean did get a reduced quota

that seemed improbable as the Irish rock which I suppose was the ore of emerald gold must go to the sect

and the sect would not tolerate less productivity

Soon, it was the turn of a pale miner to pay the ore. The tall men who were collecting the ore glanced at the ore in the bamboo basket, and their faces suddenly became gloomy.

　　Seeing the face of titan men the miner suddenly became full of fear and knelt down and began banging his head on the ground while repeatedly begging for them to share him this once

　　But soon, two titan men rushed out from behind the tent and Without a word,

they caught hold of the miner

the miner did not fight back instead he kept begging for mercy

but the miner was dragged away toward a stone platform in front of the tent

and his hands were tied to two wooden stakes.

One of the giant men picked

n object from the side and came running back to the stake

it was a leather whip

it was as thick as my thumb

the titan raised it above his head

, with a sneer on his face, he brought it down

　　The miner's face was facing me and the others standing in the square and Seeing the desperate expression on the miner's face was deeply disturbing at least for me it was

"Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ."

although the whip was long at least 10 meters long

the titan wielded it with such mystery that there was virtual no delay between each hit

I could hear the man's blood-curdling screams echoing throughout the square

as his face was completely mangled up

with pain, if the strikes

his hands were tied to the stake by ropes that we're binding his hands together

each time the whip fell the man jerked hard enough for the ropes to edge into his skin

the man screamed in agony as the leather whip kept going

"pa"

"mercy" the man cried

"Pa"

I began to feel tears in my eyes

"pa."

he began to cry with tears streaming down his face

"pa".

the man began calling out for help

"pa".

again and again.

His voice broke as the whip never stopped

I even clearly saw the blood surging up on the whip as it danced in the air

I could feel myself shaking my head to deny that what I was seeing was actually real

I could start to see the bones on the back

of the man's neck protruding

even as he was screaming

I could hear the bone-cracking and

breaking as he begged for mercy

and again and again, the whip was swung

across his back

"pa",

I could feel it hitting the flesh of the man as if it was hitting my own

After twelve whips, the miner fainted with black lips, but the titan did not have the slightest pity.

He still flicked the whip and continued to beat the poor man

" don't read too much into the situation," rain said

"what," I said without turning towards her

" bribers are thieves the get the access ore by looting and killing other miners, and this man was the worse he had just killed an old woman last week"

oh okay

I got, to be honest, that information elevated my heavy heart by a lot

suddenly a felt a pat on my head

I turned to see the woman who had brought me here give me some type of greenish ore that the Bieber's we're giving the titans to me

it was the size of my fist as I took it into my hands I nearly dropped it

I quickly realised my appoints and the weight in my hands disappeared

the sine must weigh close to a 100 keg it was very heavy

"this emerald gold ore if you take the gold ore assignment you have to at least 50kgs worth of ore but since they are very hard to mine usually people are only able to gather these types of ores"

she then handed another ore the size of a small pebble in my hands

"because of the difficulty, most people choose to gather the mud at the foot of the mountain that is much easier to gather but the quantity is rather large for a single person to collect you need to submit 200 kilograms of mud every month that is why that particular assignment is majorly controlled by gangs"

she said as took back the ores and replaced them with warm good substance

" then there is the sand assignment the hardest and the most dangerous assignment present on this mine no mortal who has worked on the sand dunes have survived for more than 8 months"

" why?" I asked

" you don't want the sand collection assignment trust me"

I just nodded

" and if you don't cover your quota for the month you will be flogged like the man just now" rain added as the unconscious bleeding miner was being removed from the stage

" The punishment for not filling your quota is 25 lashes " she went of cheerily

" and the record is 20 lashes," she said

"20 lashes for what I asked, " I asked feeling nervous

" The record is for how man lashes a person can survive for"

I shuddered as I remembered the titan continuing even after the man had fainted

what in the world had I steeped into