A few days later, Shuku found himself in a horse-drawn wagon in a completely unfamiliar location. He didn't know where he was, but he could see that the place was crowded with others like him—people who had metal collars around their necks and people who didn't even have proper clothes, other than tattered pants to cover their genitals.
He was sure that this was the dungeon the King had mentioned, and it looked like he would be joining the slaves who worked there.
The first day he arrived, he stood outside a large tunnel beneath rocky mountains. the tunnel served as the entrance to the underground dungeon. The following day, they moved him inside.
Only when he entered and began to see the caves, the darkness, and the unsettling atmosphere it created, Shuku could truly feel the true nature of a real dungeon.
For the past two days since he arrived, he hasn't had any rest except for sleep, and it's the same for the others. They're forced to constantly work nonstop without breaks and get whipped by the ones running the place, their superiors.
And these things happen everywhere; the moment he entered, descending rocky stairs and beginning to see lights from distant torches, he could see many other slaves, perhaps a hundred of them, carrying wood, and rocks, mining with pickaxes, and being whipped when their superiors feel like they aren't working "hard enough" or are bored.
The form of mistreatment is so awful that many slaves have died, not from the grueling labor itself, but from the injuries caused by continuously being whipped.
"No matter where I go, there is always injustice and mistreatment. The rich and powerful think they can treat the lower class however they want."
Shuku became extremely furious, his anger grew stronger by the second. With each heavy stuff they tossed on his back, with each cursing and whipping from the superiors, his hatred deepened.
"They are the real devils. They are the ones who should be locked up and beaten. They are the ones who should be dead!"
Despite being treated in the same way as other slaves, he does not feel sorry for himself; instead, he feels empathy for others and extreme anger toward those who are mistreating them in a similar way to how he was treated in the old world.
And as his mind slowly became clearer, his hatred evolved into the fuel for his determination.
'I've made my decision. I'm not going to endure it like in my old world. I'm not going to stay down and let those bastards do whatever they want! I will kill the ones who bullied me. I will make them suffer until the end of time and turn their lives into a living hell.
I swear I'm going to kill them and make them pay for what they've done! I'M GOING TO KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!'
He has made the decision that even if he has to die, even if there are consequences to what he wants to do, he will kill Jiro, Kubo, and anybody else who treats him and the good people terribly. He will drag them to their deaths.
"You're new here, right? I've never seen you before."
"Huh?"
When Shuku stopped working, he stood still, immersed in his thoughts and staring into the distance. A man working nearby noticed this and walked over to him.
Yet, Shuku was taken aback by the man's unusual appearance, unlike anything he'd seen before. The man had silver hair down to his chin, a handsome and sharp face, and...
"Those ears... you an elf?"
What caught his eye were the man's long ears, pointed sharply outward.
Until now, he had almost forgotten that there were other humanoid races in this world, such as Elves, Beastmen, and many others, and he had seen quite a few of them since arriving here.
Actually, non-human races make up more than half of the slaves who work in this dungeon, and they are everywhere around him. Although he can see their tails and ears, he is too preoccupied with his thoughts to even notice them.
"Huh... you are the first one to have that kind of reaction seeing an elf, most people would have stayed away from me when they saw my ears."
"Why?"
"Wait, you don't know?"
"Know what? That there are also other humanoid species like elves, beastmen, etc., that exist?"
"Yeah, but they are discriminated."
"???"
As their talk continues, Shuku finally remembers his mission and returns to work.
"I thought that every human knew this, but..." The elf man adjusts his tone.
"This continent has many humanoid species, like elves, beastmen, and probably some rarer ones, but humans are the dominant species, and they consider any other humanoid species as inferior to them.
That's why you don't see many elves or beastmen; they are all enslaved. That's why people stay away from me when they first see my ears, and that's why I'm here."
"Oh... I didn't know that. What's your name?"
"Name's Sylvar, You?"
"I'm..." Shuku felt unsure about whether it was a good idea to reveal his real name to Sylvar. He doesn't know if doing so would lead to any future consequences.
"Shu. My name is Shu." So, he came up with a fake name.
"About the inferior species thing, if it's true, then why are there also human slaves here?"
"You? Why are you a slave?" Sylvar asked back.
"I was set up... betrayed."
"So do they. Most of the human slaves I know are poor people who couldn't afford a job, had no family, were homeless, or couldn't pay off their debts. They get tricked by rich slave owners or are sold to slave owners."
After a while, they finished their first morning working session and were given a break for breakfast. They sat down at a wooden table and chairs, continuing their conversation while sipping on a bowl of soup made from just water and potatoes.
"How about you? How did you end up here? Do you have a family?" Shuku asks Sylvar.
"I do... I have a daughter, her name is Sunea, she's 20 years old, a cute little girl."
"Wait, 20 years old? Cute and little?"
"Oh, I almost forgot that human age is different from elves. Yeah, she's 20 years old in human age, but she's like 10 in elven age."
"Oh... Ok. How old are you by the way?"
"They say I looked young, like 20 or something, but I'm actually 50."
"Wow..." Shuku couldn't help but be amazed by things he had never seen or heard of before in his life. However, his amazement quickly gave way to a terrifying realization.
"How about your daughter, where is she? Don't tell me..."
"I don't know either, we got separated. A few weeks ago, when the King's Knights Team raided our village in the forest and took every Elf there as slaves, I tried to distract them to give my daughter and some others a chance to run away."
'Those motherfuckers.' Shuku's thoughts after confirming that his impression of the King wasn't based on a personal judgment.
"Ohhh... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."
"It's okay, I wanted to talk about it, it's been so long since I have someone to chat with that they don't cancel me for my ears."
"Don't you worry about her?"
"Yes, I do, but what can I do? If I try to run, and the superiors find out, the collar will trigger and it will move the blades inside it and cut my head off."
Hearing this, Shuku suddenly thought about the pile of corpses in a corner of the dungeon. Both of them could see the stack of lifeless bodies from their dining table.
All the corpses were identical, with their heads al cut off by something incredibly sharp and terrifyingly accurate.
"So that's why."
"Yeah, unlucky morons."
It turns out that the bodies are of those who attempted to escape, and the blades hidden in their metal collars immediately sliced off their heads. Unlucky morons, as Sylvar put it.
"How will you gonna find her?"
"In this circumstance, I don't want to find her," Sylvar said without hesitation.
"Wait, what-"
"Don't get me wrong. It's true that I would love to reunite with my daughter, but then what? These things..." He pointed to the metal collar on his neck.
"They won't get off us unless we are dead. It means that everywhere you go with this collar on, everyone will know that you are a slave. And runaway slaves will be executed, in the worst way possible.
And if I do get away, where can we go? We can't run from humans forever when they kept expanding their territory, nor can we run to the Western area of the continent which is full of monsters."
Sylvar relaxed his body and continued to slurp his soup.
"All I can do now is hope that... even if she gets caught, she should be caught by a good human, someone like you. So that she won't... you know, male slaves will be used as a labor force, and female slaves will be..."
"OK. I get it."
"Or she could just cut her ears, to blend in. Whatever she does, I just hope that she'll survive, and won't meet someone... like him."
Shuku glanced in the direction Sylvar had pointed. There, he spotted a man in proper clothing using a whip to "discipline the lazy slaves".
The slaves were being whipped so relentlessly that a few of them had fainted and begun to foam at the mouth. Nevertheless, the man continued in his punishing. Now, Shuku understands what Sylvar has been trying to convey.
"Lunch Over! Go back to work!!"
Both of them were startled by a loud male voice, and when they all turned around, they noticed a tall, large, muscular man standing in front of them.
Both of them quickly get out of their chairs after hearing what their "big" superior has to say and begin to go in the direction of where they are working.
Other slaves seated at the same table followed suit. However, one slave defied the command and stayed at the table, slurping the watery soup voraciously as if there were no tomorrow.
"I SAID GO BACK TO WORK!"
Even when facing a threat from the superior, the slave continued eating the soup, paying little to no attention to anything else. This annoyed him so the muscular superior kicked the slave with the bowl of soup off the table and onto the ground.
Nevertheless, even after being kicked to the ground and with the soup spilled, the slave hurriedly made his way to the soup bowl and licked the spilled water from the ground while picking up the potato chunks full of dirt and putting them into his mouth.
"Dirty Pig."
The muscular superior then continues to kick the slave as if he were enjoying it.
Not wanting to witness this disturbing scene any longer, Shuku and Sylvar made the decision to leave and return to their workplace.
"What are we doing here, anyway? I've heard that we're supposed to be going on some dungeon expedition, but all we're doing is spending time building things here." Shuku asked Sylvar as they returned to work.
"From what I know, or heard. We slaves are in charge of building a base at this level, for long-term, to provide food and shelter for the ones who will go down there to fight the monsters."
"Okay, I understand. But when you say 'the ones who will go down there,' you mean us, right? Why would they risk their lives if they can just let the slaves fight for them?"
"Yeah, maybe they could, maybe they won't, who knows. Of course, they can use slaves like us, but is it more efficient and time-saving to use an actual armed force with combat experience? By the way, fighting monsters and clearing dungeons brings them joy and glory, so why would they waste it?"
"Yeah let's hope so. Oh, and one thing I forgot to ask."
"Hm?"
"What is the thing that they are trying to get anyway? I mean what is at the end, the bottom of this dungeon that they spend so much resource and time in it?"
Upon hearing this, Sylvar's face immediately displayed clear concern. He glanced around to check if anyone was watching or listening, and then he pulled Shuku closer to him.
"Listen, I would only tell this to you. OK? The superiors won't let their slaves know about it, and I'm sure that almost no slaves in this place know what we are trying to get at the end of the dungeon." He whispers.
"OK..."
"Back when I was in my village, I read a book, an ancient book written by an old Elf, he was about 200 years old and died when the raid happened. The book was about the Demon Lord War 150 years ago, and it said that the dungeon we are at here is the place where the Cursed Blood Blade is kept!"
"?" Sylvar emphasizes 'Cursed Blood Blade' and leaves Shuku confused.
"Yeah, of course, you don't know!" He continues. "The Seven Cursed Blades is a legend that is kept secret from the public, even the nobles don't even know about it. Only a few, super powerful ones, like the King or the Pope, know about it.
After the Demon Lord died, he still want to haunt this world with his dark powers, therefore he created seven weapons, or seven blades, with each one have a unique powers of their own, and they will use it to controls its users to continue to wreak havoc on the world.
I couldn't read the whole book, so I can only tell you the general abilities of them, basically these weapons will drain something from their user, it could be blood, lifespan, sanity,... in return for overwhelming power, the power to win against an army and even immortality."
Upon hearing this, Shuku's eyes widened as if he had finally found the solution to all of his problems.
'That means, if I could somehow get one of the Cursed Blades, I can, not just escape from slavery, but I could also, revenge!'
"How about the Blood Blade, the one we are going to get?" He asked.
"About this one, you don't want it."
"Why?"
"Because this is one of the worst ones, it will drain your blood or force you to kill others to take blood, but in return, it will give you immortality, and the ability to become unstoppable."
"Awesome."
"You think so? I guess you are fine with it then, but even if it's available and it can help us with our situation, we can't even approach it, not to say about using it.
We don't know how deep this dungeon is, and we are just slaves, working our asses off to get a soup that doesn't even fill our stomachs for a day, not to say about the monsters under there and the people who will get there before us.
It could be that even before we see the Blade for real, we are already dead, so for now, the Blade is just an unreachable dream."
"Is that so..."
'Dang it! I thought this was easy, but I almost forgot where I'm at, I need to somehow get that Blade, I don't care about the Curse of draining blood, as long as there's power for me, I will get it, but how...? How am I gonna get the things that even normal people can't? How-'
"RUN!! THERE'S A MONSTER!!!"
All of a sudden, a slave yelled out to everyone around while standing on a cliff. He told everyone to escape, and then he also began running away from the cliff.
"What the hell is he talking abou-"
Shuku and Sylvar are still puzzled. They don't know what the slave is talking about or why he's so scared that he's fleeing away.
Then, slowly emerging from the cliffs, a huge hand with razor-sharp claws grasped the edge of the cliff. From just one hand, they gradually develop into a second hand, a long head, and a reddish-forked tongue sticking out.
Finally rising from the cliff, the "monster" then showed off its full naked body.
"Is that a..."
And everyone is horrified by the unnatural size of the creature.
"A Fucking Giant Lizard."