It's been one week since Eric has become a slave. He has only eaten twice this week as the amount of the glowing rock his team found was small. The other slaves call it magicite, and Distantsteel sell the rocks to magic users. Magic users use the glowing rocks to enhance their own power by extracting the essence inside.
After talking with some slaves in the camp, Eric learned he was in a low level world and magic essence what a magus needed to advance was rare. So they sent people to other worlds where magic didn't exist and kidnapped people then sell them as slaves to a mining company on a low level world. There are various levels of different worlds. Low level, medium level and high level worlds, there are also god level worlds, but the slaves thought of them as only myth.
Eric was in the mine. It was a sweltering day again, with the sun giving out its daily torture. Inside the mine was worse for him. The putrid smells that slavers left behind were stirring under the heat and it was like a tornado of rotting eggs, and raw sewage swirling around making his eyes water.
Reaching the end of the mine, Eric mined the rock trying to find some magicite he so desperately needed to feed himself that day. After a few hours into the mining he saw it, that familiar red glow of stone. Eric expression changed to one of joy in an instant this was it he thought im finally going to eat after spending 2 days hungry.
"HORTON!!!..... HORTON!!!..." Eric screamed in joy.
Horton arrived next to Eric. He could see the elation in his face and the joy in his eyes. Looking towards the rock where Eric was pointing Horton said, "Finally we can eat again, thank the gods" he mumbled at the end.
"There are no gods, no gods would allow us to be like this," Eric said with determination in his belief.
"I think the gods shined on us today, son" replied Horton. Eric could see the hope in his eyes so he ignored him. It was good to have hope, but Eric knew that it would get him killed. Only strength and certainty would survive this hell.
"OK!!!...." Horton shouted to his team that was just a little away "Lets move this magicite out of here!" he ordered.
Eric picked the magicite up. A feeling of emptiness began like all that was wasn't and all that is isn't. It was hard for him to comprehend, but he knew the dark empty void he felt when holding the rock was peaceful. He wished he could stay there forever.
"Don't hold it too long or you will lose your mind" groaned Horton as he picked a rock and threw into the sack.
Eric woke from his blissful journey through the void and dropped the rock. "What happened to me??" Eric questioned Horton.
"I dont know... But I know that someone who holds the rocks for too long become empty with no emotions," Horton replied. "Now put it in the sack over there, lets get the rest so we can eat tonight".
Eric mined out the rest of the magicite and Horton put it in the sack, ready to pull out. "Im going to take this up to secure our food, keep looking maybe we can get some bonus tonight" Horton said.
Eric was alone in the mine. The rest of his team was carrying 2 sacks of magicite out. That would be enough food for them all tonight. Looking around for magicite, he walked to the other end of the mine that had just opened up. He was moving the rubble away, looking for a red glow behind. Instead of red, he saw a multi-coloured glow that shone like a rainbow. When he looked towards it his eyes hurt. It was like a million stars, all with different colours. There was red, blue, brown, green and black. The black stars looked frightening, as if they could swallow all that's known. The red stars looked so hot they could burn his eyes just by looking at them. The blue stars looked cold and calm, almost inviting. The brown and green gave a similar feeling of wildness. He wanted to run and be free when he stared at those stars.
With his vision coming back, he walked towards the rock. He thought this must be worth a bonus as he had never seen one like it and the slaves described nothing like it before. Reaching his hand outwards to the multi-coloured, glowing rock, he picked it up. *vvrrrrmmm* His brain felt like it was vibrating, his vision returned to the sea of stars he saw before. This differed from when he touched the magicite, he felt chaos now. There was no calm void, it was loud and vibrant, his body shook, he became hot then cold in the next instant; he felt alive and free after, then become full of rage and anger. This process repeated itself until all the stars disappeared and his eyes opened, seeing nothing but a dark, disgusting mine. He looked around for only a second but a wave of dizziness come and he fell to the ground, blacking out.
Waking up Eric recognized he was back in the dorm "urrghhh, what happened??" Eric cried out loud.
"You passed from lack of food, I found lying in the additional part of the mine," Said Horton. His voice coming from the bed next to Eric.
"AHHH!!! Did you get the rainbow glowing rock. We can get better food with that," exclaimed Eric.
"What are you talking about?" asked Horton, bewildered "Did you hit your head so hard you have gone crazy? There were no rocks near you. Anyway, I saved you some food," passing over to Eric some porridge looking stuff.
Eric took the food and scoffed it down so fast he nearly vomited it all back up. While eating, Eric realized he really must have just hungry and hallucinated the whole thing. But a feeling deep down told it wasn't as it seemed, he buried that feeling tho. It would do nothing for him to get his hopes up.