Chapter 1- Olgase Mines

"There are many who don't wish to sleep for fear of nightmares. Sadly, there are many who don't wish to wake for the same fear."

A quote that Akio had heard before but can't quite recall its origin. Yet, for an odd reason, it tested the passing of time and stayed engraved in his head, never leaving it for a second. There was a meticulously weird charm to it that he can't quite specify. Maybe it was the message the quote wants to deliver or maybe it simply resonated with him, he didn't know and frankly, he didn't care.

But, for better or worse, that same quote was one of the few solaces he had in this world. Thinking about it made his gruesome life pass peacefully if even for a few seconds. Thinking about nightmares and fear was a form of entertainment to his tired, broken mind. He found fear and nightmares to be quite eye-catching. They were the only thing that caught his interest out of everything in this world.

People hated fear, they hated it so much in fact that they put it in the highest regard and priority. It was the fuel that made them think, move, act, and desire. Some became rich because they feared living a life of misery while others became famous because they feared a life of irrelevancy, forgotten in the endless abyss called time. Everyone desired something not only because they wanted it but because they feared what could happen if they didn't achieve it.

But, weirdly enough, Akio didn't think that way. He didn't feel that fear was making him try to achieve greater things. In fact, fear wasn't doing anything to him. Now, to make things clear, he wasn't a lifeless doll that isn't affected by the world or a mentally incapable human that can't comprehend anything. Akio did feel fear and he hated it, just like everyone else. But, for an odd reason, no matter how much he gets terrified of something, he never tries to change it or avoid it.

'What's the point of achieving something when fear will always be there, looming over my head, toying with me? I might as well cut down the pointless effort and live my life as it is.'

A negative, unmotivated, broken ideology that got nurtured by long years of constant hell, abuse, and shitty luck. His life was never beautiful, never colorful, never even called a 'life' if he had the choice of naming it.

If anything, he never knew what life is or what was the point of it.

*Hours before that moment*

*Puck* *Puck* *Puck*

Waking up from his daily yet timeless thoughts, he listened to the rhythmic sound of the pickaxe in his hand, smashing against the hard, black rocks. His hands were burning from the constant effort he was exerting, his face was filled with sweat that stuck to his skin, leaving room for more sweat to pour down his deathly pale face.

His eyes were half-blurry, half-dazed as they stared at the monotonous sight in front of him… a wall. That has been the only thing in his vision for the past nine… maybe ten hours.

"Move your asses! I ain't paying useless garbage!! Hurry the fuck up!!" A rough, unpleasant voice echoed in the dark hallway. The sound was sore, probably the result of years of heavy smoking. It was akin to the sound of nails scratching against a wooden board.

Looking beside him, Akio saw a row of people, most of them children his age barely 14 or 15, banging on the thick wall, just like him. They all had varied looks of hopelessness and apathy with some of them still keeping a childish innocence intact there, never letting it wither away.

'I'm thirsty.' He thought as he rolled his tongue inside his mouth, trying to moisturize the inside in hopes of reducing the mind-numbing thirst he was feeling. But, that gesture of his only made him feel even more thirsty.

"What the fuck are you doing?! The ores ain't gonna be mined by themselves!"

*Slap*

A rough hand came down on the back of his head, bending his whole body forward from the impact. His brain jumped left and right because of the hit, making Akio stumble a few times until he regained his posture.

But, instead of glaring at the man that did that, he started working again, as if getting hit was no big deal. Another day at work, of some sort.

No one looked at this interaction, not even for a second. After hundreds of days of working inside the Olgase Mines, they saw everything that could be possibly seen, there is nothing more that could catch their attention.

Akio shook those thoughts away and focused on his job again, he had been having trouble with his limbs for the past 2 hours as they felt extremely sluggish and unresponsive for the most part. Taking a peek at his feet, all he could see were extremely bruised, blue feet with broken toenails and blood sticking to them. Having his feet in contact with the icy cold ground beneath him wasn't the most fun experience nor was it the healthiest. The pain he felt from his sore feet and the biting cold was numbing, to say the least.

*Puck* *Puck* *Puck* *CRACK*

"Hm?" Moaning a little bit in clear confusion, Akio looked closely at the place where he was hitting his pickaxe. There, he could see, as clear as day, a small carving into the wall the size of his fist. It had appeared after he cracked the last piece of rock and somehow took an oddly perfect and precise shape that no pickaxe could ever create.

So, without any high hopes, he bent down and started digging with his hands instead to reveal what was inside.

'My hands are sticky with blood, I can't lift the rocks.' He thought apathetically.

But, after some resistance and so much effort, he was able to dig out whatever was inside this small carving.

When he pulled it out and looked at it, Akio could only blink a few times as if he couldn't quite register what he is witnessing. A white, slightly translucent rock the size of his whole hand was sitting quietly on his palm, shining faintly with white light.

It was an Olgase, a type of ore mined inside these caves and was one of the most demanded materials in the world. The Olgase ore is known for its sturdiness and flexibility when melted and reformed into armor, weapons, and ammunition. Not to mention its abundance in nature that made it the perfect material for smithing around the whole world.

The Olgase mines were one of the biggest producers of that ore. Many huge corporations seized huge parts of these mines for their own benefit to extract the Oglase and sell it in massive bulks or even make it into weapons and armor themselves. They then hired the children that fill the slums to work for a cheap change as a payment daily.

Anyway, Akio examined the piece of rock with a slightly interested look on his face. It was an extremely lucky thing to find one Olgase that size.

'I can buy some food.' He thought to himself as he quickly put the ore inside his bag beside him. That Olgase rock had guaranteed him at least 6 copper coins which meant stale bread and a simple soup were guaranteed for his dinner.

The idea of tasty food entering his mouth made his stomach grumble in happiness, begging him to throw something inside of it. However, on the outside, Akio's expression didn't change at all even with all the horrible emptiness he was feeling inside his body and the reason is simple. That money of his wasn't guaranteed at all, not the full of it, at least.

Time passed quietly as Akio continued working hard. There was a faint hope sparked in his heart that maybe, just maybe, there could be another Olgase that size somewhere near the location where he found the first one. But, alas, his luck seemed to have been fully used to finding that bigger Olgase.

Then, from somewhere, the sound of a bell rang loudly inside the cave hallways and tunnels, making everyone halt basically at the same exact time. Then, they threw all the pickaxes on the ground and basically dropped down, breathing like fishes out of water. Calling their state 'exhausted' was an understatement. Considering the fact that they were mere children that had no muscle strength at all made this gruesome 10 hours of constant work more than a hell on earth.

The sound of the bell for these children was now akin to the sound of salvation befalling them. It was the sound of the end of torture and the time for them to leave this dark shithole.

Akio was the only one that didn't do the same thing as he dragged his ragged-up body with the shredded dirty clothes on it and carried his bag with him. The bag was not that heavy, barely exceeding 1 kilogram in weight so he didn't find difficulty carrying it.

Walking past tens of children sprawled on the ground like dead corpses, empty from any life. His eyes kept looking ahead, not bothering anyone. He didn't care about those that died today, they were more than a handful or those that got injured today, and most of them were.

He became numb to all of that a long time ago.

As he was walking, his eyes caught something thrown on the ground in the corner. Walking towards it, Akio picked it up and then pocketed it before he continued his journey in the tunnel.

His feet finally carried him to a more lit-up area of the cave that was near the exit where he found a group of men, just sitting on chairs around a broken wooden table. Their raspy giggles echoed throughout the whole cave as they threw pieces of paper on the table and smoked cheap cigarettes… They were playing cards.

"Hahahahhaha! And you know what, that bitch was delicious, I ain't lyin'"

"You fucking scum, why break her bones then?! I would've tried her too!"

"It is what it is. I ain't gonna pay a whore 1 copper coin and end up just shoving it into her. I like to 'spice' it up if you know what I mean. Hahahahaha!"

"Cold bastard!"

"But, her screams as I broke her bones were amazing. The bitch will have a sore throat the next day!"

"Hahahahah!"

Their laughs as they talked about a certain, twisted topic were unbothered by anything. Akio also didn't care at all about what they did last night or what woman they bedridden as it wasn't the first nor last time he would listen to their nightlife stories unrestrained.

Approaching the guards, Akio took his bag and started emptying it out in front of them before throwing the bag on the ground too. Noticing him, the three guards frowned and gave him a scornful look of disgust.

"You fucking reek of Olgaste, bleurgh! Fuck!" The one that broke the woman's bones said as he caught his nose in his fingers.

The Olgase was also known for its extremely foul smell that was worse than sewage so anyone who mined it for hours would be smelling like rotten meat dumped into dirty water.

Akio didn't answer and merely gazed at his gains for the day. He had mined 10 very small, 20-gram, one medium-sized Olgaste, around 200 grams, and the huge Olgase which was around 600 grams.

The guards noticed the huge Olgase and their eyes widened.

"Ohoh? What do we have here?"

"A fist-sized Olgaste? This brat had struck gold! Hahahaha!"

One replied, while the other just stood up, walked to the pile of Olgaste, picked up the huge one, and then shoved it into his pocket.

"Ok, let me weigh these and give you the pay."

Akio saw the blatant stealing happening in front of his eyes. The man had simply taken away the huge Olgase for himself and acted as if nothing happened. Akio didn't despair over the matter as he knew that there was no way for him to take it back or get any money from it. Even good luck would turn shitty for him, somehow.

Naively thinking he would have bread and soup for the day was just a huge blunder on his side. These worthless scum would never allow him to enjoy that. Well, that's what appears on the surface at least.

"Hmm? Why are you looking at me? You have something to say?!"

*Swish*

The guard then grabbed Akio by the neck and lifted him up in the air, strangling him viciously. His huge, rough hands were squeezing tightly on Akio's thin neck, threatening to crush it with an extra force.

The latter didn't make any voice as he clenched his teeth, trying to bear the pain. He felt his lungs screaming for air as his eyes grew hazy. He was going to die if this continued.

The guard's face looked so terrifyingly cold as he kept glaring at Akio straight in the eye. Akio was sure that if he did anything that would anger him, he was as good as dead.

"Let the worthless trash go. We lack workers these days. Those weak bastards are dying like ants." One of them said as he picked up the Olgase ores thrown on the ground before putting them on the table and pulling out a rusty, old electronic scale.

"Tsk…It's your lucky day, little shit."

Clicking his tongue, the man threw Akio on the ground violently. The latter groaned a little bit when he fell before he picked up himself silently as if nothing happened.

After weighing the Olgastes, the guard then put them to the side and then pulled out a small rucksack. The sound of metal objects hitting each other inside the rucksack was an indication that it contained coins.

"400 grams of Olgase… 4 copper coins."

Then, he threw 4 small coins toward Akio who caught two of them and had to collect the other two from the ground. After that, he turned around and walked away.

"Hehehehe! Stealing from these idiots is like a walk in the park."

"It's not stealing when no one complains, hahahaha!!"

They all laughed loudly. As he was laughing, the man put his hand inside his pocket to pull out the Olgase rock. But…

When he looked at the object in his hand, there was a black, muddy rock that had clear shit stains on it that belonged to some kind of animal, most likely a rat. The Olgase rock wasn't there.

The guard's red eyes widened as he threw the shitty rock to the ground. Then, he quickly checked his other pockets.

"Where are my coins?!" Checking everywhere, all of his coins were gone. He had been robbed.

"That fucking bastard!!!"