A heavy knock resounded on the wooden door. The voice of a young man soon followed, filling the small hut like house.
“Hey Isaac, get up. It’s time for work”
Isaac sat up on his bed as he rubbed his eyes. His body was giving off a deep scent of sweat and booze, making him seem like a typical hooligan, who didn’t have his life in order. Isaac quickly grabbed sitting on the small desk beside his bed before drinking its remaining contents in a single go. The unknown liquid seemed to give him the boost he needed, as he slowly lifted off his bed and tossed on his old, ragged, work coat.
He opened the door to his small house and was greeted with the sight of a large man, about the same size as him. This fellow was named George, one of his colleagues who worked in the mines with him. The man pulled a packet of cigarettes from his coat before offering one to Issac.
“For you to be offering me a cigarette, either you’ve suddenly gotten rich or you’ve found the love of your life”
Working in the mines was naturally not a profitable business, each of them earned only a few copper coins a day, hence a relatively expensive carton of cigarettes was treated like a treasure. George shook his head before letting out a grin.
“You haven’t heard?.”
“What happened?”
“You remember that abandoned mine shaft that was closed down a few years ago? Turns out they think their might be some precious metals left in there, but because the mine hadn't been touched in so long the safety standards have hit rock bottom. The manager decided to let a few goons go in and check out the situation for extra pay!”
“George I always knew you were an idiot, but you can’t be this stupid. What’s some extra money worth if you aren’t alive to enjoy it?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“They’re paying everyone who goes down 10 silver coins”
“George I take back everything I’ve said, you truly are a genius ahead of your time. Let's not waste any time talking, I wanna sign up before the others snatch this chance away from us.”
The miners would earn 10 coppers in a regular day, one had to take into account that 100 coppers would equal a single silver, hence 10 silvers would equate to 100 days of work. No matter how high the chances of death were, for men like them who could collapse at any moment either from the toxic fumes they inhaled in the mines everyday, or from the accident prone caves, it was a risk worth taking.
Isaac and George wasted no more time talking as they rushed towards the abandoned mineshaft. One could see that a line had already started to form, but fortunately the two of them made it in time. The mine manager was a small rotund man with a balding head, however his eyes were quite sharp, showing that he clearly wasn’t someone you could mess around with.
“Hmm, Isaac and George. You two are quite lucky, you’ve got the last spots, but before you head in you have to sign this form. It just states the regular stuff, like if you lose your life it's not our fault yadda yadda yadda. I don’t want to bore you with all the information so let's not waste any more time and get you two suited up.”
The fat little manager shot off 100 words a second, making it impossible for Isaac and George to have any idea what he was talking about, but they didn’t bother and just signed the form regardless. The quickly put on their uniforms and helmets before lighting their torches and heading into the mines.
As they headed in deeper, the mines started to split off into different directions, looking down they saw a mark left on the floor, showing someone had already headed down this direction to search, so they ignored it before heading off deeper into the mine. Eventually they found a shaft that was unoccupied. George decided to head down there to search and so the two split off as Isaac headed deeper and deeper into the mine. He shifted along slowly through the caves, the mine stopped splitting off at this point, and only headed forward for what seemed like forever. Isaac used what little of the light he had to guide himself forward, but for some odd reason it felt like the cave was getting darker and darker, as if all the light was being absorbed by something. Suddenly the torch was snuffed out completely, what little light that was left before had vanished, leaving Isaac alone in the darkness.
However he wasn’t worried, as someone who worked in caves regularly, it wasn’t anything to rare for the lights to suddenly go out. Fortunately for him, the cave had already stopped at this point, which meant he didn’t have to worry about getting lost any deeper. He slowly inched towards the end of the cave before planting his hands on the cave wall so that he could feel his way out.
However the wall that should have been sturdy as steel, suddenly gave out under Isaac’s weight. Before he could react, he found himself stumbling forwards into a long narrow hole, his body was pulled down by gravity and soon enough he slammed into the ground, luckily his work uniform had minimized the damage, he shook off the pain before getting up and looking around. The tiny hole he found himself in was completely empty, except for a small seed that was located across from him. The seed was pure white and gave off a mesmerizing glow, with 10 golden stripes layered across its body. Isaac had no idea what it was, but he was attracted to it instantly.