Heaving a deep breath Aiden started to sweat and wiped the sweat from his forehead as he mopped his brow as he went further down the hole. There was dust everywhere and there was only enough light coming in from the lamps placed at a distance from one another on the walls of the narrow corridor. This sound of the pickaxes hitting the stone reverberated in the darkness and was the only thing that constantly reminded him of sheer toil which was his life. It was just another day and one as tough as all the other days that he might have been forced to work from the time he was young.
The mine was that kind of a place that you dare not dare oppose or challenge in any way or form. The tunnel simply branched and branched and with every branch, the level of danger increased. A collapse was not a rarity, and as it is known, several miners perished under the weight of several tons of rocks. But Aiden had no other option – he had to engage in this way otherwise he would be unable to support his mother and his sister.
With the force of an experienced miner, a bang of metal on the stone wall, Aiden's mind went to his loved ones. His mother's feeble attempts at smiling when he went off in the morning, Lily's enthusiasm as she discussed her classes. They were his whole life, the only thing that drove him to continue waking up in the morning. He could not afford to let them down, whether or not his degrees of fatigue were high.
Suddenly, there was a tremor that jolted Aiden out of his musings, it was a small one but still very clear. He stopped, tensing, waiting for a chance to hear if the stones above were easing down in their configuration. It was over but a kind of unease settled in through his abdomen. He could not afford to dismiss the portents that he saw—the mine was original in structure, and the pillars of the same were deteriorating. As would be expected, something had to give in sooner or later.
Aiden looked at the other miners who also had stopped for a moment to figure out what they could do. Their eyes were glassy features bleak with fear, their attention focused on detecting any signal of threats in the tunnel. Still, everyone went back to his business; people had to 'feed' themselves, no matter the danger, and it didn't take long for them to overcome their fright.
He got back to creation but the discomfort he felt did not dissipate. And when he took up his pick in order to swing it, there was a dim stir, an electric thrill, as it were, in the brain. It was a thing that was so slight that it could barely be discerned, but still it was there. By the time Aiden managed to make a frowning face, in an attempt to superimpose the loathing feeling, it became stronger instead.
Suddenly he saw that a part of the wall crumbled, and there glowed a pale sickle; the rock opened. Aiden retreated, fear swimming in his features when the light clearly intensified. The other miners observed the glowing and approached keeping their faces a surprised grimace.
That was what some of the miners said in their thick Australian accents as they averted their eyes from whatever was inside the carrier.
"Sounded like glass," another remarked, moving nearer.
Both of them looked up to the light but the concentrated gaze was more from Aiden. But it was not a just crystal – there was an element of something which attracted him. The noise he heard in his head becomes louder, and suddenly his hand stretch out towards the light, he hardly can control it.
Aiden, don't—' someone shouted but they never got to finish the sentence, or whatever they were warning him against.
The moment his fingers came in contact with the glowing surface of the piece he held his breath and an electric current went through his bones. In that room, the light of the flame was intensified and Cambridge lost sight of everything around him – it was as if everything was collapsing and turning into nothingness. For a second, there was pitch-black and the feel of his own blood throbbing in his temples.
Then, mentally, there was a voice speaking: 'I will take your heart and give you all my coldness.'
**[System Initialization Complete. ]**
**[User Identified: Aiden Blackwood.
**[Welcome, Host. ]**
Aiden however let out a gasp and tripped backward as the light went off. The tunnel structure materialized around him at once, but everything looked somehow brighter and more defined. He felt an adrenaline rush go through his body and, glancing at his hand, he expected to be scarred or bleeding, but he was not. The light went off, significantly what once was a wall turned out to be a mere faced carved out of rocky structure.
The other miners just gazed at him, their glasses completely pale.
But the sharp stab in his chest, the light film of perspiration on his brow – all these were a veritable experience. It wasn't dream what was happening to him.
"Aiden, come to your goddamn senses!" One of the miners roughly jerked on his arm.
Aiden looked away then blinked, the head-up display vanishing as he got his awareness back. He turned round to look at the other miners who were still staring at him with a combination of anxiety and apprehension on their faces.
"I—I am okay," he spoke clarishly though the words that he said lacked enthusiasm. "Just. .. just got a little lightheaded. "
The miner who had shaken him, a heavily built man with a beard, looked offended at the question. "Are you okay? You looked ready to keel over any minute. "
"Sure sure," agreed Aiden, still as far from confidence as he was from being a doctor, and yet attempting to calm them — and himself. 'I'll be just a minute. '
The miners looked at one another and seemed hesitant, but they agreed, and got back to mining. Aiden allowed himself to draw in a few breaths and he backed up slightly, leaning against the wall. His mind was still spinning from the words that he heard from the system.
He had read about cases of people activating abilities in peculiar manners, but this. .. this was something else. A system, quests, ascension – it was as if I had appeared in a surrounding of a fantastic novel. And yet, it was happening to him.
standing there he watched in puzzlement as the notification came back once again and reminded him of the quest.
**[Quest: Physical Conditioning. To increase the strength and stamina, you have to finish daily exercises. Rewards: Experience Points, Increased Strength, and Stamina.
Aiden looked at the words with eyes wide opened, a feeling of both dread and joy ran through his body. This was real. It was really happening.
He was now twenty seven years old and he was just about to start a journey in his life that he never in his wildest dreams could even imagine. There was much that lay ahead that Gregar couldn't see in the dark; the only thing that was clear to him was that Aiden Blackwood was no longer a miner.
He was something more. Slightly less ambitious than something that could alter the world was the notion that there must be something that could transform the world.
And it all began from what one could call a search.