It has been several days since he started living as a slave. Thanks to [Resilient] and Soul Shards, he has been doing better and better, night of rest allowed him to recover quickly, while Soul Shards he earned when the other slaves get killed near him used to enhance him. Of course, he saved most of them, but he still used a few to enhance himself, and the results were also quite visible. He was now the first person to finish filling the box among the trio and earn himself an extra meal sometimes.
It turns out one box equals one bread and one cup of water, which means by filling more boxes, you can eat more food, which earned him the envying glare of others, but Edward didn't care. Even the soldiers started noticing him and his working capabilities. Luckily, they were fair and didn't increase the price of the bread and water for him.
So he thought today would be the same too, but it just seemed like fate decided that was enough peace for him.
A thundering noise rang through the mine, followed by the earthquake. Big and small rocks fell from the ceiling, making the trio scream in terror and head towards the exit, but they met a dead end where there was only a wall of hard grey rocks. Seeing this and the rain of dust, they have no choice but to run towards the depth of the mine, where there is sturdy supporting pillars are built to keep the cave from falling apart because they are mining new tunnels now and then.
"Curses! What the hell is happening?"
Broady screamed as he covered his head with his hands in fear; anger was imminent in his voice as he kept running like crazy.
"The mine is collapsing that's what is happening! I knew this damn bastard don't know the first thing about mining!" Shifty directed the blame towards the soldiers who have been forcing them to work restlessly without even examining the mine properly.
But Edward was sure things weren't as simple as the mine collapsing because the endless echoes of system notification told him things weren't simple.
[You are present of [Mending] rank soul. You absorbed part of it. You earned 2 Soul Shard.]
'Mending?'
As if proving his theory, an extremely high-pitched beastly scream echoed from behind them, fueling their intent to run for their lives; for the first time in a while, Edward spits out a curse since coming here.
"Come here!" The young but energetic voice comes from their right side. When they turned around, they saw a young soldier with a few other soldiers, followed by a few more slaves standing in front of some tunnel. Soldiers guarded their heads with their shields while the slaves used their boxes. "It's more stable here. Come here!"
Trio looked in the direction where the center was located, then towards the young soldier before gritting their teeth and rushing towards him and his group.
***
"It seems like we are going to be stuck here till the rescue comes." The young soldier who introduced himself, Ron, said while sitting on a big stone they were currently in the newly built tunnel. Because it was new and still unstable, they reinforced the supporting pillars, especially more who would have thought that the most unstable and dangerous tunnel would turn into the safest one there soon enough.
"What happened? Why did the mine suddenly collapse?" One of the slaves asked in a shaky tone.
"Shut up you little crap! It doesn't matter what you are supposed to care about!" The familiar soldier said with anger on his face; it seemed like getting trapped with the slaves he used to torture wasn't exactly as pleasant as it was supposed to be.
"I think that's enough, sir. We are all trapped here; now, we are all in the same position." Ron tried to calm down the older soldier but his words made him even angrier.
"Like hell we are! Don't you dare compare us with these sons of whores! Those bastards are meant to lay in the gutter and rot the rest of their lives!" He tried to reach for his whip, but Ron was faster. He quickly snatched the whip and pulled out his sword, holding it in front of the older soldier.
"Listen, I don't care what personal belief you held sir. But right now, at this exact moment, we are trapped in a sealed mine together, surrounded by monsters. Do you know what sealed means? There is no more connection to the outside world." His eyes flashed with a cold light, and his voice became even colder, a surprising transformation from the previous gentle and noble impression he was giving. "Here we are all simply humans, not the imperial soldiers and labor slaves but humans. Do you understand sir?"
The older soldier nods his head slowly, afraid of sudden moves as his eyes land on Ron's icy cold eyes. "Good, I am happy that we managed to reach an agreement ^^" he let go of his sword with a warm smile on his face as if he wasn't threatening someone with their life a few seconds ago.
'I don't like him.'
Other soldiers are now afraid of Ron and start agreeing with him, trying to bootlick him so he won't make any rash move toward them. Slaves did the same too, but Ron only smiled at them gently before dropping the whip in front of the slaves and then cutting it into pieces using his sword. "Monsters that live inside the mountains and underground are sensitive to the sound, so using weapons like whips will only attract their attention."
"I am sorry for my rash actions, but just like all of you, a sudden turn of events also caused quite a shock to me, so perhaps I am emotionally a little unstable right now." His tone was gentle, and his expressions were one of warmth, but Edward could feel something was wrong with him. There was something wrong with him; his sight didn't carry the warmth that his face was showing. He could tell as someone who had experienced death once.
'Just now he said something about monsters?' Edward was a little confused, but he remembered hearing a strange system notification about [Mending] rank soul and gaining 2 Soul Shards from it. Perhaps that was a monster soul?
Monsters, he remember old tales told by the elderly village to the village children during their free time; he was lucky enough to eavesdrop on a few of them; most of them involved the forest and strange beasts living there. As someone who lived in the forest, he was afraid of them at the beginning, but in the end, he came to the conclusion it was just a lie to prevent the children from going to the forest alone.
After all, he had lived there for years, but the only creatures he met were simple mundane creatures. Now, hearing about their existence and not only seeing it being confirmed by Ron and many others, he couldn't help but shudder in fear. It seems like he was lucky to survive without encountering any monsters during his first life.
[You are present of [Practured] rank soul. You absorbed part of it. You earned 1 Soul Shard.]
For some reason, the notification didn't die down, making him even more worried. 'I have a feeling that this isn't as simple as monsters.'