The red sun had just peeked out from the edge of the canyon, and before most of the darkness in the canyon had completely receded, the quiet canyon woke up to the rough shouts of the orcs.
Amid the scoldings of the orcs, human slaves in ragged clothes and skinny bodies walked out of the simple wooden houses one after another.
Each slave had heavy shackles on his hands, and they lined up in a row with numb expressions, walking slowly towards a steaming shed.
No one spoke, no one raised their head, they just walked forward mechanically. If it weren't for the rolling eyes from time to time, people would even mistake it for a group of walking corpses.
On the short stretch of road from the wooden house to the work shed, there were dozens of orcs holding sticks and long whips, staring ferociously at these zombie-like slaves.
There was a large basket of wooden bowls placed at the entrance of the work shed. When each slave walked by, he would bend down and pick up a bowl. Only then would there be a hint of life in their eyes.
Beside them were two huge steaming iron pots. There was something dark and sticky in the pot. I don't know what it was.
There are two human men standing next to the iron pot. Although they are also slaves of the orcs, these two men are not shackled, and the clothes on their bodies and the expressions on their faces are obviously much better than the others.
Each of them held a wooden spoon in his hand, and each of the slaves held a wooden bowl in his hand. He took a spoonful of dark food from the pot.
The human slaves kept walking, holding wooden bowls in their hands, and began to slurp the food inside.
The distance from the work shed to the mine under the cliff was more than 100 meters. Not only did these slaves eat everything, they even licked the wooden bowls clean.
There were also two human men standing at the entrance of the mine. They stepped forward to take back the wooden bowls in each slave's hands and put them into a large basket next to them. Then he used the key to unlock their shackles and handed them a pickaxe and a backpack. The slaves took the things and walked into the pit.
From being woken up in the morning to entering the mine to start the day's work, the entire process does not take more than ten minutes. These human slaves are squeezed like livestock.
Is it cruel?
On the other hand, the human race also uses the same method to treat the orc slaves!
In the shadow under the cliff on the other side, a pair of eyes secretly watched everything in front of them.
Despite the objections of Jose, Monkey and others, Arthur still chose to take the risk and slide down the canyon to find out.
As human slaves entered the mine one after another, the orcs responsible for guarding and supervising gradually relaxed. Except for the seven or eight who were responsible for keeping an eye on the cave entrance, the other orcs gathered under several sheds and started eating.
What the orcs eat is real food, large pieces of dried meat, minced meat porridge mixed with vegetables and meat, and even a few dishes of seasoned wild vegetables.
The human men were still responsible for serving. They moved the seats, cleaned the table, served the porridge and served the dishes. The whole process was done with nodding and humility, and all they got in the end was some leftover food left in the orc bowl.
The once strong warriors now have to live in a servile way.
While grieving for these people, Arthur also understood them. Arthur, who walked out of the orc camp, had experienced everything they were experiencing now. In order to survive, people will do anything to please orcs and betray their own people. All this just to survive, even to live slightly better than other fellow slaves.
But in the end, they will eventually find that no matter what they do, the final result is still death, but they just live a little longer than others. Only one person like Arthur could escape from the orc camp by chance.
After serving the orcs' meals, these men inspected the wooden houses of the human slaves. Two corpses were lifted out of the wooden house and thrown into a large pit a little further away. A few shovels of soil mixed with gravel were thrown into it, and they were buried.
Even Arthur, who was hiding in the dark, couldn't help but sigh. He could see clearly that one of the two "corpses" was still struggling slightly while being carried.
But in the eyes of these men, he is already dead. Losing the ability to work means losing the value of living to the orcs. Death is the final outcome.
After cleaning up the bodies, the men returned to the work shed and continued preparing food. Although you don't have to go down to the pit to dig, you still have no time to spare.
As it approached noon, human slaves came out of the mine one after another. The slaves came to the work shed and carefully took out the ore from their backpacks. Each person's harvest was not much, just three to five fist-sized pieces of silver ore.
Orcs will distribute food and water to slaves based on the amount of ore they hand over. Basically, one piece of ore is exchanged for a grain dumpling of almost the same size.
The hungry slaves swallowed the fist-sized grain dumplings in two mouthfuls, and their morning harvest was barely enough to satisfy their hunger.
Slaves who have been given food continue to return to the mines, and they have to work for the next meal, day by day, over and over again, without end.
The orcs did not need to go down to the mines to manage them. They only needed food to firmly control these human slaves and mine for them honestly.
When the amount of ore handed over was enough for a small cart, a stove in the center of the canyon was suddenly lit, and a stocky, stout dwarf walked out of the low wooden house next to the stove.
This dwarf is about as tall as Arthur's chest. He has high cheekbones, thick eyebrows, a red nose, and a long gray beard that is still knotted. He looks quite old.
The dwarf stretched and shouted at the top of his voice: "Where is my meat and wine?"
A human man ran over quickly holding a tray with a pot of wine and a large piece of meat on it.
The dwarf first picked up the jug and filled it, drank the wine completely, wiped his mouth before picking up the meat on the tray, but at the same time he was still complaining, "The orc wine tastes really bad!"
"There are actually dwarves here!" This completely shocked Arthur, who was hiding in the dark. He had not paid attention to the stove in the middle of the canyon before.
The territory of the dwarves is in the northernmost part of the Ireland continent, and is partially bordered by the Rocky Mountains of the Azure Eagle Tribe and the Romantic Highlands of the Hero Kingdom in the northernmost part of the human race.
Although the territory of the dwarves is not completely forbidden to other intelligent races like the elves, it is still relatively closed and independent. Traces of dwarves are rarely seen in the territories of other races.
This sunken canyon is full of weirdness. Not only are there, so many human slaves imprisoned, but extremely rare dwarves also appear in the canyon. In addition, the food and equipment responsible for guarding the orcs are far better than the ordinary soldiers in the orc army, and are almost equivalent to the equipment and treatment of the core guard soldiers of the leader of the large tribe.
Is this just an ordinary mine?
Arthur seems to have accidentally uncovered a secret...