Raize ran back into the mine to finish his assigned time. He started his descent. As he was going down, he scanned around, trying to see if anything had changed while he had been gone.
In his mining tunnel, it was really empty. There was a ladder that went down about 60 meters. Surrounding the ladder was a 2 meter empty space and around that was rock. When he hit the bottom, there was a pickaxe, miners helmet, a jacket, and a little bit of food. The tunnel that was 60 meters underground was pretty small. It was about 1.5 meters tall, and 2 meters wide. Raize was only about 1 meter tall, so he fit fine in the tunnel, but most older kids couldn’t fit in the tunnel.
Raize liked it down in the tunnel. It was a lot better than in the orphanage. In the orphanage, all the children were expected to do something to help sustain it. Cleaning up the orphanage, Doing the laundry, washing the dishes, and fixing the walls were just a few of the jobs.
Before Raize became a miner, his job was to do the dishes. All the children had hated him then too. Everyone, except for Eliza. All the children had tried to push their duties onto Raize’s shoulders, and he got blamed by the headmistress if he didn’t get the jobs done.
So when Raize was sent to the mine, he was ecstatic. Miners did not have to work in the orphanage, and they had a special room right outside of their tunnels to sleep and eat in. The headmistress had thought that Raize would start begging to be allowed back into the orphanage, but after two weeks of silence, found out that he was enjoying it.
She would have made Raize come back to the orphanage, if she had had the power to, but once an orphan becomes a miner, it was their only job until they got adopted, or they turned 13.
13 is the age of adulthood in the nation that Raize lives in. When an orphan turns 13, they either become a miner for the nation, and get sent to the Northern Wushack Mines for 9 years, or they get sent to the army to be a soldier for 6 years. After the time period is up, they are free to do whatever they want, but generally, they tend to stick to being a miner or soldier, because thats all they know how to do.
Raize didn’t want to be stuck as a miner or soldier for the rest of his life, so he was trying his hardest to get his time finished in the mine so that he could go to adoption day in the city.
Raize picked up his jacket, put it on along with the helmet, grabbed the pickaxe, and journeyed down the tunnel. Inside the tunnel, it was pitch black. A normal person couldn’t see anything, and torches cost money or hours to buy. Miners could work more hours for the ability to get better equipment. But Raize didn’t need a torch. Ever since Raize could remember, he could see in the darkness. He could also see miles away, and he was exceedingly good at pickpocketing.
Pickpocketing had become a necessity for Raize. He was required to purchase his own food, equipment, and everything else that was needed. That was why he had to finish up the 14 hours of mining. He only had 14 hours left of mining before he was able to start collecting money from mining. With mining, it was a different type of industry. If he found anything of value, he was able to get 30% of the price of the item/ mineral found. If he found coal, he was allowed to keep it to use as he desired. All miners were given 5 coppers per hour as their wage.
Money was separated into 4 different groupings. There were the coppers, which were small copper coins that were small currency. After the coppers were the silver squares. The silver squares were shaped into a small square, and was the standard pocket change of the rich. After the silver squares were the golden nuggets. The golden nuggets were small round spheres of gold used as big currency. The final type of currency was an exotic type. They were cores.
Cores are spheres that hold an animal’s, beast’s, or demon’s cultivation progress. The higher the level, the more expensive they were. Cores were really hard to find, because the cores only appeared in beasts and demons that were level 8 Awakening Cultivator or higher, and a level 1 Dajran Cultivator. The cores were really hard to get, but sometimes you could find cores in the mines because of a dead beasts, animals, or demons corpse.
When Raize was 3 and a half years old, he was sent to the mines. That was when he learned to pickpocket. At first, he only was good for about a fourth of the time, now he could pickpocket almost anyone, and they basically never noticed they were robbed. He had some strange skills, but he could use them really well.
Raize looked for the spot that he was working on when Eliza had called him up.
“There it is. Oh Eliza, we both know that you hate me now, why do you pretend to like me?”
Raize said to himself, moving to the area that he was working on last.
Eliza was always saying nice things to him and about him when he was around, so Raize was very grateful to her. He had even thought that she was his only friend. Then he heard the real Eliza. She didn’t know that Raize was right around the corner, and she was talking about how much she loathed being around him. She hated him, and wished that he didn’t exist. Raize finally understood that while she didn’t like him, she still tried to be nice to him, but his heart had become frozen to all the people at the orphanage from that day onwards.
Raize started mining. As he repeatedly hit the rock, he started listening to the rhythm.
Clack. Clack. Clack
The sound continued.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Raize started to think about what it would be like to be adopted by someone, and what it would be like to get a home. He really wanted to be adopted at this adoption day, because adoption day only happened once every two years, and people loved talented kids and really young kids.
But while Raize was thinking about getting adopted into a family, he thought about the other possibility. There were other types of people looking to adopt. Rich families that were looking for young servants, slave merchants that wanted to have slaves to sell to the next town, and the army that was looking for children that could receive special training to become a special part of the army. Raize was questioning whether or not he would be chosen by one of the groups that he did not want to be a part of. But all he could do was hope.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Raize was getting tired. He had been mining for quite a few hours, and had even found quite a few ores. In this mine, all of the mine belonged to the mayor of the city that hosted adoption day. The city was called Naupal. All the ore was given to a guard that appeared by the mines in the morning, and he paid the miners.
Clack. Clack. Ting. Ting.
Raize suddenly startled out of his sleepy state and looked to see what the pickaxe was hitting against. He saw glowing, rounded metal. He picked back up the pickaxe and started mining gently around it. As he mined it out, he saw more and more of it. When he had gotten it completely uncovered, he found out it was a small gauntlet, about the size of a child’s hand.
Raize pulled out the glove and examined it. On the glove, there were 4 jewels slotted into the gauntlet. The gauntlet was strange, with the jewels being 4 different colors: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. It was also fingerless. Raize slipped it on to see how it fit, and it fit him like it was created for him. The gauntlet was striped all the way down, and the 4 jewels started at the top of the back of the hand, and went down to the middle of the arm. The gauntlet was for the right hand.
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Raize started mining around the area where he found the gauntlet, but he couldn’t find anymore armor that seemed to go with it. The strangest thing was, though, was that he found extremely expensive ore all around where he found the gauntlet.
After Raize finished looking for more armor pieces, investigating and probing the glove, and mining, he tried to take off the gauntlet, but it wouldn’t come off. It was stuck on him, attached to him. He couldn’t figure out how to take it off, so he decided to leave it on for the moment. Raize gathered all the ore into a single area, and then packed it up, and set off for his special room.
“Today, I worked 10 hours.”
Raize praised himself. He was so glad that he was more than halfway done, and that there was only 4 hours left that was needed to work. And on top of that, he had gotten all of the precious ores that were almost never found. Raize felt extremely lucky. Lucky, except for one thing.
“Why can’t i get this stupid gauntlet off?”
Raize started grumbling to himself. He didn’t want the gauntlet on, because he knew that he could sell it for, most likely, more than the precious ores. If the gauntlet could come off, he would be striking it rich, and could purchase himself.
In the orphanage, There was adoption day, and there was the your 13th birthday, and those were normally the only days that you could get out of the orphanage. But there was another, not as well known option. To purchase a count title. A count title would give you the right to a servant to take care of you, and it would give you a few km of land. It would make it so that you would not need to worry about the army or mining. The only problem with purchasing a count title, is that it costs 45 Silver Squares.
Copper Coins are the common amount that is earned by common people. So to get Silver Squares is extremely difficult. The distribution is separated evenly. 1000 Coppers = 100 Silver = 1 Gold. 10 Copper Coins is equal to 1 Silver Square. In order to get a count title, you would need 450 Coppers, which would take 90 years for a regular miner wage. So, it is normally impossible to purchase a count title.
Raize was really hoping that he had enough to purchase a count title. But even if he didn’t, he would still be able to go to adoption day. Raize got to his room, and dropped off the ores into the bucket to give to the guard that would come by. After he did that, he got out of his mining suit, and then laid onto his cot of hay and went to sleep.
. . .
The sun set slowly in a large city. Men and women were running to get inside their homes, to avoid the curfew. After all the people disappeared, a man, dressed in all black, came out onto the road. He started to walk down the road, and started humming to himself. But, as soon as a guard appeared, the man jumped into the dark alleys, and waited for the guard to pass by.
After getting about 300 meters away from where he started down the road, the man jumped into an extremely dark alley. In the alley, there were many people who were homeless. The man passed by them all. The people were starved, thin, and were all diseased in some way, but the man paid no attention to them, and just went on, not even glancing at them.
After walking about 10 meters, he stopped, and turned right. In front of him was a wall. He walked up to the wall and knocked in a set sequence.
Knock. Knock Knock Knock. Knock Knock. Knock.
The man took a step back from the wall. After waiting for a bit, the wall suddenly opened to reveal a tall man.
“Password?” The tall man asked.
“Regent Archer” The man in black answered.
“They have been waiting for you, Ra’thar.”
“I know, Zedachi.”
Raize awoke suddenly. As he got up from his cot, he questioned what he had just seen.
“Who are Ra’thar and Zedachi?” He asked himself, but he couldn’t get any ideas about who they were. He started to get up as he thought about it. “Probably just a strange dream. Its not like it matters or anything.” As he got up, he looked down at his right hand. The gauntlet was still there, and nothing had changed about it.
Raize was really worried about what everyone would think about it when they saw it.
“I wish it looked like an extremely worn out leather glove. Then people wouldn’t worry about it as much.” As Raize said that, he stared at the gauntlet. As he continued to examine it, he got dressed and prepared to start mining again for the day.
After he finished getting dressed, he grabbed the big bag of ores, and took them to where the guard was. The guard’s name was Erthan, and he was the only one that actually was truly kind to Raize. Erthan had been in an orphanage growing up, and he was the one that everyone hated, so Erthan tried to help Raize, and to take care of him.
Erthan was already at his post when Raize got there. Erthan was sitting, right next to a table, devoid of anything except a book, a pile of scrolls, a quill, and ink. Raize dropped off the bag onto the table, and then sat on the bench across from Erthan.
“I see you’ve brought even more ores today, Raize. You have been doing really well in the mine.”
Erthan complemented Raize heartily. He loved to complement everybody for doing good work. As Erthan was grinning, he looked down and saw the gauntlet on Raize’s arm.
“Um, Raize, you know that you have to give everything that you find to the owners of the mine, and that you can’t keep anything? If you do, and it is found out, you can be executed, and I don’t want that to happen.” Erthan tried to coax Raize into giving him the gauntlet.
Raize responded grumbling, “If you want the gauntlet, take it off. I would, but i got it stuck on my arm yesterday, and it hasn’t come off since.” Raize lifted up his hand and put it across the table, in front of Erthan. Erthan lightly grabbed Raize’s arm with one hand, and the gauntlet with the other. Erthan started pulling. He started gently at first, but seeing that the gauntlet wasn’t coming off, he started pulling harder and harder, until Raize couldn’t stand the pain of his arm getting pulled any more.
“STOP! IT HURTS, IT HURTS!” Raize yelled out, crying helplessly. Erthan, upon seeing Raize in tears, immediately stopped.
“Damn, sorry kid, I didn’t mean to hurt you. But you are right, the gauntlet seems to have become attached to you. I wonder, could it be ….. No, there’s no way it could be that.”
“What Erthan? What couldn’t it be?” Raize was extremely curious about what Erthan was talking to himself about.
“Well Raize, out in the outside world, there are a type of armors called Cursed armor pieces. They immediately bond on contact with any human, animal, or beast. They tend to be harmful to the owner of the armor, leeching out blood, spiritual energy, or other things out of your body. They are parasitic beings that feed off of our kind. I’m really starting to believe that the gauntlet you are wearing is a cursed gauntlet, but I would need to take you to a magician for that.”
Magicians were fairly hard to find. They were followers of a different path of Spiritual Arts. They were the Magical Arts. They led to the same place as the normal spiritual artists, but they tended to have special abilities, and specialized in far ranged fights. Magicians also could inspect items that had special abilities too. If you had an item that you wanted identified, they would identify it, and then send you off with a scroll of the abilities of the item, and what type of item it was, like a common spoon, or a magical spoon of the half-elves.
Raize shook his head, sadly exclaiming, “I don’t have any money to pay for a magician, plus I have to worry about saving money for the trip that the orphanage is having to get to adoption day.”
Raize was extremely saddened that he had a cursed gauntlet, but what he was most sad about was how expensive magicians were. Usually it was 3 gold per identification, and that was considered cheap.
“It’s completely understandable, Raize. Now, let’s see what types of ores you have here.” Erthan pulled the bag closer to him. “Hmm, well , I see that you found more iron. I also see some silver, gold, and……. WHAT THE ****, How did you find Moonlight Tigerstone? And you also found Vermilion Sunstone, Phoenix Fire Ruby, and the Turquoise Turtlestone? All these together, you are one rich man. The Tigerstone alone is 14 gold pieces for you, combined with all the others, you have 76 gold, 60 Silver and 3 Coppers. You are rich now, Raize.”
Raize was dumbfounded. He thought that he would probably get, if he was lucky, a few gold nuggets, but he never expected 76 of them. As he accepted the money, he started counting. After he counted, he found that he only had 43 gold, 52 Silvers, and 7 Coppers.
“You had a deduction from the total because of the count title, price for the mining equipment, and for the trip to the city. You are a Count now kid, the only child from an orphanage to become a count. I’m proud of you, kid.”
Raize was ecstatic. He was finally free from all of the hassles of living in the orphanage, and having to work in the mines. He was completely free. Erthan handed him a scroll that told him what it meant to be a count. Raize speed read it all and then signed his name at the bottom. Raize and all the children at the orphanage had learned to read and write, so it was fairly simple for Raize to read and sign the document.
After Raize signed the document, he was given a surname, and a seal ring. The seal ring was a ring that had the family seal that belonged to his new family. His surname was a simple one.
Diviano.
In the language of the Southern Region, Diviano was the meaning of another word.
“Catalyst”.