They were a total of 10 horse-drawn carriages carrying goods of different variety. The first carriage were owned by the mercenary who accepted a mission as an escort guards for the caravan.
Their travel route were surrounded by small hills that have a sign of being excavated. There is also a small amount of vegetation in the area they were traveling into.
The horse-drawn carriages were not as stable as modern car back on Earth before the virus took over. The carraiges would bump due to the rocky roads and undeveloped road.
The slaves were inside of carraige located at the middle of all ten horse-drawn carriages. They were 2 mercenary guards guarding the carraige by their sides.
...
An unknown hours later...
The caravan arrived at the foot of a mountain where camps could be seen almost anywhere in the area. They were people who are carrying pickaxes and a big bag with them. Furthermore, If you look closely to them you will notice that at their foot they were chains with a giant iron ball at the end of the chain. Additionally, those people were actually the slaves that either got caught or sold to work on this mine.
One by one the new bought out slaves were lined up in front of wooden cabin near the cavity of the mines.
Each slaves have soot coated sack on their head and iron cuffs on their hand along with a similar iron chained balls on their foot. Additionally, a slave mark on their body that bound them to their owner so that they cannot disobey orders until they die or the mark has been lifted.
All the slaves were unbounded to their iron hand cuffs and soot coated sacks that covered their head and vision. Once the cover was lifted, you can see no life in their eyes as if they have long gave up on their lives and just accepted their fates as a slave.
"Where am I now?" ask Raven on Earth's language as he look around and saw the people beside him with blank expression and dead fish eye.
A flash of memories ran through his mind and he remembered all the events that happened before he was at his current place. He came to an conclusion that after those events happened he was brought in this place.
"Slaves! Stand!" shouted by a man with a wip on his hand.
Then, all the slaves stand up except for Raven as the slave mark has no effect on him.
"!!!" Raven was alarmed as he saw the people who are kneeling before just stand up all of a sudden. He too stand up a little bit too late after seeing all the others stand up. He was afraid he would get the attention of those people in charge because as of now he was still weak cause by system update that resulted for his level to reset.
"Slaves! Follow me!" shouted again by the man in charge holding his wip.
Then a similar scene happened, all the slaves started walking before the man as if they were controlled machines.
After a while, they arrive at the actual mine where almost a thousand people were mining minerals like machine. Rotten corpses could be seen anymore in the cave and even skeletons of human remains could be seen. It's as if the human slaves were disposable tools.
"Slaves! Pick up the pickaxes and follow what the others before you has been doing!" shouted again by the man in charge.
All the slaves picked up the pickaxe and also started mining. Raven saw all of this and felt a little anger and happiness as he read the new system update inside his mind.
Ding!
[ God-King System notification.
God-King System wants to sync up with Arcane.
Would you like sync up the God-King System with Arcane?
Y/N]
Of course, Raven choose to agree because it may bring him numerous benefits to himself by syncing up the system and the arcane.
Ding!
[God-King System syncing up with Arcane in progress...
1%...
8%...
19%...
89%...
99%...
100% God-King System has been successful sync up with Arcane.]
[A new function has been unlocked.
Arcane has gain the ability to weapon transform.
Arcane few functions has been lock and can be unlocked as the host grows stronger by grade.]
'Weapon Transform?' Raven pondered and click the skill description.
[Weapon Transform - allows arcane to transform into any weapon its completely scanned.]
'What? That's it?' Raven asked himself in disappointment. He was expecting for more a granduer skills, but what he got was a skill with a simple description.
Swooooooosh~
Before he was finish from his disappointment a whip hit his back and made a cut. "Move!" shouted by the guard that act like a sheep dog.
Raven furrowed his eyebrows as he felt the pain raging on his back. He endured it as if it was nothing because he also saw the other older slaves before them not reacting to the whips hitting their body as if they don't feel any pain at all.
[Arcane scanning the pickaxe.
Scanning in progress...
1%...
8%...
19%...
69%...
99%...
100% Arcane has successfully scanned the pickaxe.
Would you like for Arcane to Transform into a pickaxe?
Y/N]
Raven raised his eyebrows as he read the new notification. He then decided to click yes.
The non existence Arcane manifested itself before Raven's eyes. An Diamond shape with glowing blue color like the deep oceans manifested itself. After short moment, Ocean Blue Diamond thing was hovering itself at the side of Raven's head. A small line of green fire was circling at the middle of Arcane.
Then the diamond shape Arcane turned into dust and formed again in a shape of an pickaxe. The magnificent sight has left Raven in awe.
[Arcane
Weapon Transform (Pickaxe) - are tools used to break up rocks and earth but like most handheld objects can easily be appropriated as a weapon.]
The magnificent looks of the Arcane were nowhere to be found and got replace by the exact look of an old iron pickaxe.
He lifted the pickaxe and was surprisingly the same heaviness as the original it scanned.
Swoooooosh~
Another whip hit Raven's back causing it to bleed again.
"You! Start working now!" shouted by a guard holding his wip getting ready to strike again if Raven didn't obey again.
Although he cannot understand what he was saying, but he can understand the meaning behind it through his actions. Raven started mining using the Arcane who turns itself into a tool for mining.
When the guards who are patrolling went away. Raven tried to experiment again and trying to find out the other functions of the Arcane.
He tried thinking to store the Arcane into the system inventory and it worked. Then, the arcane turn into ashes and entered his body.
The cool animation of the Arcane entering the system inventory left Raven in awe, but when he tried getting the Arcane out of the inventory it didn't have a cool effect like turning into ashes.
Instead there's a crack in space that formed infront of him and the point handle of the transformed Arcane was pointing out of the sub space. Raven went to grab the handle that were sticking out and pulled over the tool. Just like that he successfully knows the functions of system inventory and the arcane functions.
All of those events happened in a short moment. Fortunately, no one saw him doing such things, if someone saw him especially if that someone is an officer of this mine there is a high chance for him to become a guinea pigs for them to experiment with. He yet can defend himself from the inhabitants of this world, especially humans that are much dangerous than any monsters he had known even back on Earth. He knows that the nemesis of humans are human itself.
He saw a guard coming on his way towards him and Raven started working again.
...
An unknown amount of time has passed by...
Ding!
[You have gained an skill.
Miner.]
[Miner - gives bonus ores and mine faster.
Type: Passive]
Raven read the new system notification and felt thankful as mining these ores are very hard. With this skill he can mine much more faster than before.
Thanks to the mine, he mined a large amount of gold ingots enough to fully filled 3 slots of inventory. If he can get out of his slavery state, he can instantly be rich.
Unfortunately, he didn't mine any valuable materials enough and only mined gold ingots and stones. But with his newly acquired skill he might mine more gold and other unknown materials.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
A sound bells echoed inside the mining cave and the officers ordered all the slaves to stop working and line up to get their food.
In that moment Raven saw the slave mark glow for 1 second after the order was made. He came to conclusion that mark is the one who made control over others possible.
Raven started to think for a plan for his escape and if possible to create chaos within the mine.