"Where am I?" A young man opened his eyes at the unknown ceiling, though he saw it somewhere before not too long ago.
"This is your second time, it's my clinic." A voice answered his question all of a sudden.
"Ha?"
"Did you became stupid!?" A dwarf who was wearing clothes, full of blood stains that has dried, looked at the half-dwarf lying on the bed. He was awoken from his daily siesta(nap) when a group of damn half-dwarfs carrying two miners, considering how they dressed, bruised all over their body especially the face. 'That crazy mayor at it again?'
"Hey are you awake? Get up already, I had already applied medicine on your body. The other guy is still unconscious, more injured than you, got a slight concussion on his head but he will probably wake up later." The dwarf talked a lot without looking at them, still pissed at his delayed siesta. "Here! Apply these medicines once everyday. You better pay the fee, those medicines were not cheap!"
"Thank you." Though a little dizzy, he still thank the doctor for the medicine. The doctor, though he is always grumpy but he is one of the few who don't have eyes full of contempt towards the half-lings. He had been taken to the clinic a month ago due to carelessness from mining. Thankfully the injury was just minor and he came back to work the next day.
With a little push from his hands, he barely stood up and walked towards his partner that was still unconscious lying on the make shift bed.
'Life is really hard! Sigh, nothing can do. This is the only well paying job we could find near our village. Their village is right at the northern most tip of the southern continent. Their village has a full view of the center ocean, and yes, my village is a fishing village. Then why don't we live entirely on fishing? It's impossible, the center ocean is the most dangerous place of the world, no little sea creatures live and that's why most of the catch are big and man-eating creatures. Who knows how many fishermen died, even just near the coast is not safe.
What worst is that the dwarves don't like seafood that much, even if they want to sell, hardly no one would buy it, even if they could sell, they could only sell it cheap! So not many people continued on fishing and continue finding work outside to support their families.
The three of them are from the same village, they were childhood friends, obviously. 'Was it a good idea for us three to wor-." Just as he was reminiscing about the past, he suddenly remembered something. "T-three?" Cold-sweat run down on his back, and went to the doctor who was preparing to continue on his siesta. "Doctor!"
"What now!?" With blue veins running down his forehead, he looked at him like his mortal enemy! 'I should switch jobs!'
"Doctor, where is the other guy? We were three when we were beat-. NO! He wasn't beaten yet till I was knocked out." Remembering that before he went blank, he saw one of his friend trembling at the back.
"WHAT THREE!? You two were the only ones brought here. Ahh! Poor guy, he may still be with the mayor." The doctor shook his head, feeling sympathy towards the unknown martyr.
"NO! THE MINE!" He suddenly remembered what that mad mayor ordered them to do in the first place. He then tried, albeit weakly, walked towards the door, deciding to rescue his other friend, not even want to know what would happen next.
"It is just your ill-fated to meet the mayor, Sigh, no it is the town who is unlucky to have that mayor." Seeing the departing back of the young man, helpless since there is nothing he can help.
…..
"If the other two would just move immediately rather than yapping their useless mouths first, then we could all have lived happily!" A fat dwarf was talking to a young man who was desperately hitting the rock wall with a pike. He was sitting comfortably at the back wiping his sweat due to heat. He also didn't forget to berate the other two, who he had just beaten black and blue, with a satisfied smile. " What a bunch of idiots! Well, you're quite different from the two! A coward that doesn't help his friends but at least an obedient coward I suppose. HAHAHA!"
Gritting his teeth and clenching his hand on the pickaxe, he endure and concentrated on his job to finish this torture. Mining 20 kilograms worth of copper ore till night is impossible even for a veteran, god knows how many time he had swung and how many hours have passed since he has started.
The three of them only started mining for less than three months. They were also told to follow instructions and most importantly to never associate with the mayor. Still they can't escape his palms.
After another hour of intense mining, the young man swung his last and suddenly heard an clang that sounded like metal hitting another metal.
"CLANG!"
"What?" Although the collision hurt his hands, curiosity won and couldn't help stopped his movements. He then looked at the unknown ore that was still buried right on the rock wall.
"Continue digging that!" The fat dwarf yelled at him to continue digging.
"YES!" With a cold sweat, the young man immediately moved and almost forgot that their was a demon watching him at the back.
After a few swing, as debris was almost cleared, the mysterious object can now be completely seen clearly.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" The fat dwarf suddenly shoved aside the young man and quickly came near the mysterious object. He then pulled it easily, an oval shaped with a metallic color, surrounded by red vein-like strings like blood vessels. When he looked at closely he can clearly see the red strings were slowly moving and like a pulsating heart it was beating slowly as if it was alive.
"It really is here! They were right and this is the last material for the thing that they want me to do." The dwarf mumbled and looked at the object, like he has seen for the first time his newborn child, though he is still single.
With unease and anger, the young man looked at the mayor. Thinking that this was all planned all along since how did he knew that thing could be mined in this exact spot and is that the object that he wanted from the start and causing his two friends to be beaten?
"Was that your purpose from the start, sir?" With an angry tone, the young man asked as he remembered what his two friends looked like as they were lying on the ground, god knows if they were still breathing. "Since the thing that you want was not the copper ore and it already has been found then could I know leave?"
"HAHA, You're right boy!" Though the mayor noticed the tone that the young man used, he didn't care though, he was still holding the object.
"Do you know what this is? HAHAHA! Though you are stupid only a few people know what this things is. Let me enlightened you. The most precious ore on this world and can only be found on the lands near the center of the world. Behold! The HEART OF THE PLANET!" He then showed it to the young man as if he wants to engrave it to his mind.
"Also, why leave? The fun has yet to start!"