Aimless Ascension

I whistled a familiar tune as I mined the fire crystal in the heat. My whole body was soaking in sweat, but I was far from distressed.

I still have the energy to put in ten times the effort even though I almost reached my quota for the day and still have hours left of the deadline.

"Well, you seem to be in a good mood," Cameron said. He was barely halfway point of meeting his quota.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I said, meeting his gaze. "Or right, we're just slaves."

Well, at least not the lowliest of the low among the slave, which I was a month ago.

"Did something good happen?" Cameron asked again. He was suspicious about my newfound strength, although he hadn't asked anything about it yet.

"Good like?"

"Something related to women?" Cameron asked, shooting a knowing look.

I halted, giving him an odd look. "Women? Where are they?" I asked, scoffing. "I ain't seeing any woman, and you're using the plural form of it."

Cameron clicked his tongue. "Then what's the secret behind your happiness?" he asked. "You used to be all gloomy during working hours, although with your usual jokes, but the gloom never disappears from your face like this."

"Well," I said, hesitating, "look at my trolley. I'm doing pretty fine with my slaving work."

"That I can see." Cameron narrowed his eyes. "I guess all your exercise came to fruition. I'm just too old for anything after I clear this out."

I was pretty sure Cameron was already onto me. Although his behaviour seemed fair, he was one intelligent guy. He was at his wit's end after every day's work most days, but it wouldn't take a genius to figure out something wrong with someone who grew twice or more powerful in a matter of a month.

Well, I hadn't shown all of my power at work, but it didn't take for someone to grow suspicious.

Well, I had my argument, like the healing potions helping me to adapt quickly while most people would take half a year or more.

Anyway, since the topic was going where I wasn't ready to talk about, I excused myself, lying to the former accountant. I felt bad about lying, but there was no other choice for me at that moment.

I really wanted to tell me, but that wasn't just my decision to take, since it wasn't just me in this. I promised Saarya, and she had put all her trust in me. Both of our lives were interlinked through this cooperation. Although she acted all mysterious and probably not under any of the guard's overview, Saarya feared them considerably.

She had no power to struggle on her own. I'm her only hope. Of course, she never said anything along those lines, but it didn't take a genius to figure that out, either.

Telling him some white lie that I had to meet Elea, I moved deeper into the mine. I could sense, Cameron's eyes on me, but I simply departed, letting out a breath.

I rested my trolley, going somewhere quieter and fierier, and picked up the pickaxe again.

Now it was time to make some money.

I started to pick the fire crystals, mining them from the relatively hotter region. After getting a handful of them, I poured them all into the alternative dimension of my left wrist.

I did not intend to use those to earn a few coins as a slave. I was planning to use them once for something more bombastic. Yes, I was barely a copper ranker, but a plan had been growing in my head since the day I advanced.

Saarya helped in curving out most of the plan, but that's exactly what teamwork was about.

The only problem was that I still couldn't manage to pull anything out of the pocket dimension, even after Saarya taught me the trick which could help me. It was simply not possible to learn the 'Qi Sense' spirit art she imparted to me.

According to her, this art was particularly hard for low-rankers to learn. I needed a high grasp over your Qi to let them emit as threads in the surroundings to pick up any disturbance.

Saarya told me that anyone with higher proficiency in this art could literally see and hear anything under the scope of their Qi Sense.

I guessed that's how she knew all those things about me, even though I never saw her spying on me. She was probably doing it from a respectful distance away.

I stole about an hour of my work, putting in most of my effort. That was already one-third of the trolley. It tired me out greatly, but it was still far from filling the space.

I started cycling Qi as a soothing feeling surged through me. That's one benefit of Qi. It could relieve your exhaustion quickly.

After I recovered, I pushed the trolley back to Cameron. The former accountant was still putting in his effort into completing his quota.

I decided I should help him a little. Although I couldn't tell him all the truth, I could spend a part of my energy on him after everything he did for me.

However, I wasn't finished with anything when someone came to disturb our honest work.

Joseph, the only among the earthlings that managed to elevate his position from a lowly slave to a lowly guard, glowered at me the moment he found us.

He was in his guard costume, a thick black robe with purple straps on his person, a sword hanging low on his hips. I was a foot taller than the fella, but his muscles were well-built after he went through the iron transformation.

According to Saarya, most guards were iron ranks, while there were twelve captains and handfuls of other workers who were silver rankers. Above them were those men I met during my summoning.

Joseph came over and halted to stand before us. He turned his head towards me, as if wandering whether he found the right person or not.

"You," he said.

"Me?" I arched my eyebrow.

"You're number 309?" he asked, his voice cool and inquisitive.

"No, I'm just Gale," I answered before I could think of anything.

Joseph narrowed his eyes at me, eyes boring at me in malevolence. I kind of had the urge to meet his gaze. I really wanted to shove something into this arrogant piece of work's face, but it wasn't the time yet.

So I lowered my head, which seemed to satisfy Joseph somewhat. But not completely.

He came forward and caught me by the hair that had been growing for some weeks now.

Joseph pulled it upwards, leading me to groan in pain. I gritted my teeth as the guard drew his eyes to the collar on my neck.

Saarya already made the collar faulty, but he didn't know anything about it. I suppressed my anger, keeping that in mind.

Joseph was simply looking for the number latched onto the collar. Satisfied with finding number 309, he released me, albeit jerking one last time.

"Come with me," he told me in his ever-commanding tone.

"Where?" I asked. "I still haven't completed my quota for the day."

Joseph lifted his head to look at me again, displeasure growing in his eyes. He simply rammed his foot into my chest.

I saw it coming and could've dodged it if I tried, but for obvious reasons, I endured.

His kick landed on my chest as he pinned me to the ground, still sticking his foot onto me, putting pressure, causing me to groan loudly.

"I didn't hear it clearly, Bard," Joseph said in his chilling voice. "Did you just question me?"

I groaned, blood coming out of my mouth.

"Sir, he didn't mean to." Cameron came to my rescue, kneeling in front of the guard. "He just fears the lashing. It's already over 270 times. He could barely endure that number of lashing."

Cameron's words put Joseph into contemplation as he stared at the sorry figure under his foot.

"When I ask you to do something, you follow," Joseph told me, eyes boring at me, "is that clear?"

No answer. I just stared at him.

"Is that clear?"

Cameron nudged me on the back, reminding me that I was making a mistake. At last, I relented, remembering I had a bigger purpose than shoving a foot into some prick's face.

"Yes," I croaked, answering.

"Good," Joseph said. "No follow me."

He released me as I breathed in and out excessively, as if to show how much distress he had caused me. I found no remorse in his eyes, knowing that he was harming an innocent individual.

What am I looking for in him, anyway? I questioned myself. Imani had already mentioned not to do anything with this fella. There was some history between them that most people weren't aware of.

I stood back up and followed the cloaked figure without questioning him again, even though my heart was crying, demanding to know where he was taking me.

What did this fellow want from me, anyway? I was a hopeless slave to outsiders. That's a bona fide fact.

Joseph brought me to the collection place, but that wasn't the destination, either. I left my trolley with Cameron as I would have to go back after this to complete my quota. Well, unless this guy had some other intention in mind.

He led towards the guard's chambers some distance away from there. We went further from there until we reached a relatively quiet place. I had a bad feeling about this.

We finally stopped before another long row of chambers, mostly empty ones, this time around.

"Why are we here again?" I couldn't help but question. A glare from him led me to shut my mouth again as I uttered a word of apology. "Sorry."

"Someone wants to meet you inside. Go on."

_________

This is the last flashback chapter sequence of volume one.