Surrounding them was a giant cavern area with a bunch of bridges and tunnels leading to different areas. The hustle and bustle of other workers and the sounds of explosions echoed into the distance. ‘Are they using dynamite? What’s with all the explosions?’
A man rushed passed with him a trailer, this man instantly made his skin crawl, ‘Damn, what’s with all the ferocious auras around here?’
As a world renowned martial arts practitioner he was incredibly sensitive to peoples fighting prowess. With just a glance he could tell whether they were masters or beginners. But everywhere he looked he could feel those powerful auras rushing about. ‘My senses must be playing up since I was reincarnated.’
“Kid, what are you doing spacing out? This is our mine shaft work station. Our job here is to mine iron ore from the ore deposits. We have over 650 workers here and this is where we all will be working for the next few weeks. After that we will move onto blue zone 2-42.” Buck led the way down a long passage, at the entrance of the passage it had a wood that was crudely carved stapled at the top of it. On it, it read “Buckaroo Arlo.”
The passage itself was about 8 meters high and 8 meters wide. On the sides of the wall were a bunch of tall wooden beams.
“We put these wooden beams in as support to stop the mine from collapsing. When we are finished with the mine we knock them out and let the mine collapse in on itself.” Buck rattled on about the mine and Lucif paid attention and tried his best to remember everything he said.
He didn’t know much about the old western mining style, in the 2000’s they used giant machinery and explosives. But in this world, it was like they had moved backward in time not forward.
It took 20 minutes until they came to a dead end. Around the dead end lay a giant trailer and a shovel. The shovel looked normal but the trailer was shaped more like a dump truck. If you filled it with water you could probably swim in it, it was that large. At the front were a set of iron chains with leather straps. Buck moved towards the dead-end and pointed towards a spot on the wall.
“This is where we will be working for the next 3 weeks. You see this spot? Try feeling it.”
Lucif reached out and touched the spot. The spot of rock was a bit softer than the surrounding wall rocks. “This spot looks exactly the same as the others, how did you know it was the weak point of the wall?”
“Hoh, hoh, don’t worry kid. Once you get a feel for this place you will be able to see it too.” The old man’s eyes seemed to glow with a strange light as he surveyed the wall.
“It’s best to hit the soft spots in the rock, that way you won’t damage your pickaxe. The technique is simple. You grab your pickaxe and swing like this.” His arm reached back, the pickaxe was primed and ready to strike.
His muscles exploded with strength and Lucif swore he saw the dust in the air get pushed back by his tensing muscles. But how could that be possible? It must have been his eyes playing tricks on him. As the pickaxe moved it formed a beautiful arch in the air as it pummeled towards the wall.
Boom, rumble, rumble, boom, crash, boom.
The entire wall shook and pieces of rock came falling down from the roof and wall, ‘What kind of crazy strength is that? Is this guy even a human?’
In a single strike he brought down a solid rock wall, Lucif’s jaw almost dropped to the ground.
Lucif had met many powerful meatheads that could crush bricks with their bare hands and lift cars but not once in his life had he ever seen someone with such fearsome ability. He calculated that a person with this kind of strength could probably lift an elephant, or maybe even a mammoth.
If he didn’t see it with his own eyes he wouldn’t have believed it. ‘How is this possible? His muscles are big and toned but they aren’t at the level of heavy steroid users.’
The rumbling continued as more and more dust flew towards them like a dust storm. Clumps of rock and dirt fell to the ground. It was like someone had lit up a stick of dynamite, it was truly a sight to behold.
‘Those explosions I heard earlier were probably other guys smashing open walls like this. That’s why I felt so many fearsome auras. Why are they all so powerful? Someone wake me up. I must be dreaming.’ This was the first time Lucif felt like he was truly in a different world.
“Okay kid, the next part is dragging all this dirt and rock to the drop off. Grab the shovel and start shoveling. We will get you your own trailer and cave once you master the basics.”
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Lucif grabbed the shovel and started working. Sweat balls poured off his forehead but he continued to work tirelessly. One shovel, two shovel, three. With each shovel his muscles grew wary but instead of slowing down he sped up and formed a rhythm. In fact, this was a great way to train his endurance.
The old man held a solemn expression as he watched Lucif working. “Not bad kid, not bad for a normal.”
‘Not bad for a normal, what did he mean by that?’ Lucif raised his eyebrow in response to the old man’s words. “Are you saying you’re not normal?”
“Heh, didn’t you know? This mine is full of abnormal super humans.”
“S…super humans?” Lucif felt like the universe had aligned and everything made sense now. ‘Damn, technology has come far. I was ignorant.’
Once you got Buck talking he wouldn’t stop for hours and Lucif’s constant questioning had ignited Bucks talkative behavior. “After we lost the war we had no choice but to bow our heads and put our strength to use someplace else. This mine in particular consists mainly of super humans but there are a few normals like you working here too. This isn’t the only mine on the planet either. There are many super human mines all around, but this is the most famous.”
“It’s the most famous? Why?”
“Because this mine is full of Majors, Colonels, Brigadiers and Generals. They threw us all in here so they could monitor us easier. Right now, above our head there is a giant spaceship, if we ever try to rebel it will instantly obliterate us all.”
Lucifer: “…gulp…”
“Our boss here is known as the Eagle of Skyfire, during the war he was the one of only four incredibly powerful superhuman Generals, me being another one, but who’s bragging? Not me…” The old man coughed and cleared his throat before he grabbed the shovel off Lucif and started to shovel dirt into the trailer.
He was so fast it sounded like a machine gun. It would take 5 or more seconds for Lucif to do a single shovel but this decrepit old man was easily doing 2 or 3 shovels per second. He could probably do twice that if he was really trying.
The old man filled up the giant trailer and cleared out all the fallen debris in no more than 35 minutes. Lucif calculated that it would have taken him his entire 12 hour shift to fill the trailer once but this old man did it practically no time at all.
“Okay kid, since I did all the hard work you can drag the trailer to the drop off.”
“You want me to drag this giant trailer? You’re crazy old man; I’m not a super human like you.”
“If you can’t pull a trailer how are you going to work here?”
Lucif reached down and grabbed the chains; at the end of the chains were some shoulder leather straps, similar to the ones of a parachute. He pulled them over his shoulders and started to lean his weight on the front but the trailer wouldn’t budge. He pushed all his weight onto it but it didn’t even move a single inch.
“Not working huh? You don’t eat enough good food. Oh well, try this.”
Buck wiped the dust from the corner of the mineshaft and pulled out a rope hidden under the dust. It straightened and seemed to extend right down the passage way they just came from. He handed the rope to Lucif. “This is a safety rope. We work in a mine so it’s not uncommon for there to be cave-ins. If there is a collapse and we are trapped we can hold onto this rope while someone pulls us through the rock and debris. But it also has another function. It can be used as a training rope for newbies.”
Lucif took hold and firmly grabbed the rope before starting to pull.
Creak
The wheel turned and the giant trailer started moving. “What, how is this possible!”
The load probably weighed a ton so how could he possibly pull something so incredibly heavy.
“It’s working because you are using all the muscles in your body. Once your body grows stronger you won’t need this training rope anymore, but for now pull like your life depends on it.”
He pulled on the rope and tugged the trailer behind him bit by bit, it wasn’t as heavy as before but it was still difficult. He felt all the muscles inside working together as they pumped blood through his body. His muscles filled with energy as they helped him pull the trailer faster and faster.
Like before he found himself in a rhythm, the tunnel was around 1.5 kilometers long. He felt his bones creaking the further he went, after 5 minutes he felt his muscles shake, after another 10 his lungs were fighting for air and barely able to handle the strain he was putting on his body. 30 minutes passed and his entire body was now drenched in sweat. He felt like collapsing and his muscles were screaming in pain but he didn’t give up.
He was incredibly parched, he tried to yell as he pulled but nothing came out. He had lost his voice in his exhaustion. His body roared and screamed as he desperately thirsted for water. After an hour of strenuous pulling, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
“Good job kid, you didn’t disappoint me.”
As Lucif heard the old man’s praises he passed into unconsciousness and fell to the ground.