His current predicament utterly dumbfounded Eric. He had died, got imprisoned in an eternal abyss and then suddenly, he woke up in the body of a 15-year-old slave kid!
'What the fuck?! What am I supposed to do now?!', Eric cried internally.
As his mind raced with torrents of thoughts and self-made conclusions, a loud bang interrupted him.
*BANG BANG*
"OPEN THE DOOR YOU FUCKWAD!"
A cruel voice penetrated the weathered door of the hut and commanded Eric to open the door.
"Y-Yeah.", Eric replied and quickly put the two books he had found in the box and hid it behind the clay bed.
After doing that, he ran to the door, opening it as soon as possible.
*WHAM!*
"OW!", Eric yelled in response to the assault on his head.
"Fuckin' slave... Have you conveniently overlooked the fact that it's time for labor? Move it! Now!" barked the imposing figure, clad in armor with a bow and a quiver of arrows menacingly slung across his back.
Eric, seeing the weapons on him, had no choice but to obey the man.
As he walked with the man, he saw many other people with rough figures walking towards the same direction he was walking to.
'Why is there only men...? Where did the women go...?', Eric couldn't help but wonder.
As they walked, they made their way to the station and boarded a minecart.
The minecart was dirty and had more people in it than its capacity.
Regardless, Eric had no choice but to follow orders.
After a quiet ride of 10 minutes, they stopped at another station. This one, significantly smaller than the previous one, did not lead to a city centre. It lead straight to a ravine.
The sight that greeted Eric confirmed his suspicions.
In front of him, on the walls of the ravine, were... crystals...
Crystals glowing with an ethereal blue colour, indicating that those crystals, whatever they were, weren't from Earth.
Eric and the other men were commanded to go to their posts after picking up a pickaxe from the station.
Eric had no idea where his 'post' was, so he cluelessly stood in the station with a pickaxe in hand.
As he helplessly stood there, a voice suddenly called out to him.
"Harry! What are you doing?! Come here!", said a young man in his mid-twenties with grey hair and blue irises. He looked to be just as good-looking as Harrison, if not slightly better. If not for all the dirt and tattered clothes he was wearing, he would have looked fabulous.
'What the... Grey hair? But he looks so young...', Eric thought.
"Stop spacing out and come here!", the young man shouted.
"Y-yeah!", Eric complied and ran towards the man.
"Why were you just standing there? Let's get going.", the young man said, signalling Eric to follow.
Eric got the impression that the previous owner, Harrison Wyatt knew this man personally. But the current owner, Eric Wyatt, didn't even know his name!
They quietly walked to their station, pickaxes in hand.
"... You're unusually quiet today, Harry... Did something happen?", the young man asked.
"N-No, nothing special happened...", Eric, not knowing what to say, just dismissed the question.
"Your escape plan didn't work out, right?", the young man suddenly spoke up.
"Hmm..."
"I told you it wouldn't work... We're some 15 thousand feet underground... you think you can just climb your way up?"
"15 THOUSAND?!", Eric jumped at the word.
The young man looked over to Eric in a confused manner and tilted his head.
"I already told you this, right? Did you forget?"
"Y-yeah... I forgot a few things here and there... You know... after the 'punishment' and all...", Eric tried to justify his forgetfulness to try and get more information out of the young man.
"*Sigh... Of course... You DO still remember my name, at least, right?"
Eric looked at him with a complicated expression, indicating that he had no clue.
"Wow... I guess you really did forget a lot of things... I'm Arthur. Arthur Len.", Arthur informed Eric.
"Arthur Len...", Eric repeated.
'Damn... I read about this guy in the diary... Harrison seemed to be quite fond of this guy... referred to him as his 'friend'...', Eric recalled.
"Yeah, that's right. Oh, look, we're at the post. Better get to work if you want to eat tonight...", Arthur smiled bitterly and went ahead to a cluster of blue crystals.
Grasping the pickaxe behind him, he executed a majestic swing, channelling tremendous force. The impact upon the azure crystal was nothing short of awe-inspiring, as its resilient form succumbed to a force so mighty that the very air resonated with the breathtaking power unleashed.
*WHAM!* *clutter* *clutter*
'Damn... Dude's got some serious strength...', Eric concluded.
After the swing, Arthur looked back at Eric in a confused manner and said, "What's wrong? Start working if you don't want to starve!"
"Yeah!", Eric picked up his pickaxe, walked over to a similar cluster and started swinging.
Eric's swing was so much weaker than Arthur's that it was almost laughable.
After an hour of constant swinging, Eric was completely exhausted.
Arthur was much taller than Eric, some 6'5 or 6'4. Eric, on the other hand, was hardly 5'6. He was so short that if he wore a wig with long hair, it would look like he was a girl.
It also didn't help that hunger and thirst were building up inside Harrison's body.
It seemed that he was getting less food than what was necessary for a growing adolescent boy.