The trial of perseverance

"What happens when you can't go forward but you are dead if you go backwards. When your only option is to stay where you are, even if it means suffering. What would you choose? A painful and maybe slow death, with a slight hint of hope. Or a fast death, knowing you gave up on living."

Location: Mine district 5, Quadrant H

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

Somewhere deep in the canyons of the Mine District 5, Quadrant H, it was currently night time. At night there was no activity in the upper mines but for the underground mines, the slaves there were not so lucky.

In one of the designated spots for where the slaves slept, Phillip was currently sleeping, peacefully, while snoring like a bear.

"Greeeh...Greeeeh...."

The sound of Phillip's continuous bear like-sounding snores were so loud, that even the canyon shook slightly. But oddly enough the people sleeping not so far away from Phillip weren't disturbed by this.

No, rather than being disturbed, it seemed like the people not so far away from Phillip did not even seem to notice Phillip's loud snoring noises. As it seemed that nothing would change for the night, Phillip was suddenly woken up by someone call out his name.

"Hey! Phillip…"

"Hey! Phillip…"

This continued for a while until Phillip slowly opened up his eyes and answered.

"What! I'm sleeping! You know this is the only real-time I get to relax... so it better be worth it." said Phillip with an irritated expression.

"You won't believe this but I heard that something happened over at the Underground Mining Area 50-G, something like a big earthquake. I even heard that as a result one of the overseers was killed, while the others were heavily wounded," whispered the man next to Phillip.

"Wait! Are you serious?" asked Phillip with widened eyes, as raised his upper body and stared at the man right in front of him.

"Yeah... my sources told me they were there when it happened!" said the man nodding his head.

"This... this is great... with this... we can maybe finally break out of this hell-hole! Don't tell anyone about this yet, for now, gather the leaders! We need to talk about our next actions." said Phillip with a serious expression.

"As you wish..." said the man while disappearing into the darkness of the night.

"Haha! Finally, finally we can break out of this prison! You bastards just wait! I'll have my revenge! And let you all experience the pain we have felt for the last ten years!" avenged Phillip while madly laughing into the night.

Location: River of Greed, Faction Harbour

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Snap! Snap!"

"Aaaagh!!"

The sound of something being cut could be heard continuously, with the occasional screams of pain following accompanying these cut sounding noises.

These noises came from a dark and deep underground dungeon. In this dungeon, there was a person chained to a wall. And in front of this person stood a fat, round looking, man.

This fat round looking man held very rusty and blunt looking large scissors, which were covered with blood in his hands.

"Hehe! Now little beast! Answer me or you will not be just missing your wolf-like ears, but also your nice and fluffy tail!" threatened the fat, round-looking man with a despicable smile.

"You wish you, bastard! I'll never surrender! I would rather die than submit to an evil being like you!" grunted Flaven while gritting his teeth, as he was currently in a lot of pain, having had both of his wolf-like ears cut off by the fat round man.

"Hmmm... is that so! Well then let's continue! We have more than enough time to enjoy ourselves!!" shrieked the fat man with a furious expression as he looked at Flaven.

"Forgive me! Grandmother!" thought Flaven, slowly falling unconscious from the pain.

"Stupid little beast! I'm doing this for my own survival. In this world, only the strong survive, while the weak...they are nothing but toys for the strong. And now with everything that has happened, if I don't offer something to the hall master, she will torture me in ways that would make what I am doing right now, seem like child's play! So know this... If I have to choose between saving myself or sacrificing you weak beings, I would choose the latter. I would always choose the latter!" professed the fat, round-looking man with a solemn gaze, as he threw the scissors to the floor and walked away.

"Little beast... you and I still have a long time ahead of us. So be prepared to suffer!"

Location: River of Greed, Main Deck of Slave Capturing Ship

Time Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Captain... where are we headed to?" asked Colin, with a tired expression, as he was still affected by the previous handing over of slaves to the mining area. Especially after he had established somewhat of a connection with Steven, he found it hard not to feel guilty for what he had done.

"Colin, we have to return to the harbour! There was an incident which caused major damage to the facilities and because of that, they are summoning all of the sent out ships and members back to investigate what happened to cause this. We most probably will also have to help with the repairs, otherwise we might be thrown into the lower mines!" groaned the captain with a solemn expression.

As Colin heard this, he could only be silent, as he absolutely dreaded that horrific place. Now that they had to go back there, as well as stay there for a longer period of time, worried Colin and he did not know what to think.

"Colin, inform the crew. We're heading back to the harbour," commanded the captain looking into the distance.

"Yes captain," answered Colin with a deadpan expression, as he walked over to the other crew members.

Location: Underground Mining Area 50-G

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Wait so you're telling me we are going somehow have to survive in this mine for a minimum of five years? Why five years? For what damn good reason do we have to be in this creepy place for five years!" shouted Steven in frustration, as he couldn't comprehend why so many things were happening to him, one after the other.

"Well it's not like I can't understand your frustrations Steven, don't get me wrong, you think I want to be in this place. And if you had come with me immediately when I called you, we would have at least been somewhere way better than this place!" comment Xiang with a bitter smile.

"Ugh! Don't remind me! I did what I did because I wouldn't be able to live with my decision if I ran away. So, even if I don't like it where I am right now, at least I didn't sacrifice others, just so that I could survive!" justified Steven while pointing to Violet, John and the other two unconscious people.

"You don't get to point fingers or blame anyone! Do you think we like sacrificing others for our survival!? Do you think we don't have every single waking moment, feelings of regret and guilt! But unlike you, who is for some reason so naive and stupid, we don't have the luxury of wanting to go and save others! It's been eleven years since the "Awakening"! Eleven years! Do you know how much we had to do to survive in a world like this! How much pain and suffering we had to go through!? Where you can't go backwards nor forwards! You could only stay where you were, hoping just hoping for the slightest chance of survival!? Do you know... Do you!!?" shouted Celine with tears running down her face, as she was clearly emotionally very broken. The toll of shutting off one's emotions and doing everything and anything to survive had finally shown itself.

Strangely enough, though, no one went to stop Celine from her shouting. Everyone who was conscious had a sorrowful expression as if to agree with what Celine had said. For she was right.

Eleven years is a long time, especially in the world that had changed so drastically. There was no room for kindness, no room for failure. You had to do whatever you could to survive and keep your loved ones alive.

In this world, hesitation would cost you your life.

"Uh! I'm sorry! I... that wasn't right of me! You're right. I don't have the right to point fingers at you, especially after you came to save us. You could have abandoned us and run away. But you didn't and I honour that about you. Thank you! Thank you for choosing to save and sacrifice, even if it was against your interest. What I did was nothing but a fool running towards death. But you two? You were courageous enough to step and save us all. Thank you, Xiang and Celine. I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart!" apologised Steven with a warm smile as he looked at Xiang and Celine.

What he didn't expect though was that after he stopped speaking everyone stared at Steven curiously. They couldn't understand why Steven would apologise and even thank them for what they had done. It was not normal to do that.

Yet this person in front of them constantly did things that were not comprehensive. He foolishly tried to save people, even if he would die. He didn't seem to have any malicious thoughts behind any of his actions and he even apologised and thanked them for what they had done.

"Uh...did I say something wrong again?" asked Steven with a confused smile while scratching his head.

"You are one strange person, Steven. But I think I like that, and I don't think it's just me," said Xiang smiling at Steven and the other conscious people.

"Hmph!" said Celine while huffing as she turned her face away from Xiang.

"John, I think I like Steven," whispered Violet while blushing into John's ears. His eyes widened. He then stared at his sister for a while and then Steven. Thinking of what he should do to get his sister to stop thinking about Steven. He thought of an idea and looked at the unconscious people.

"Not to bother, but I think we should wake up those people before we do anything else. Because it doesn't seem like we are going to abandon them, since it looks like we have formed a group," suggested John walking towards the unconscious people.

"Yeah. That would be for the best." nodded Xiang.

As Steven heard this he took a clearer look at the unconscious people, lying on the ground. One man was very short, although he had a bulky and strong build to make up for his short stature.

When Steven looked at him he thought that this guy was a dwarf, but he dared not say it, thinking it would cause unnecessary problems. The two women, on the other hand, were twins.

They had green hair and if their hair was not so dirty, they would have sparkled with radiance. Both of the girls were of small stature, although they were still taller than the dwarf next to them.

Additionally, the girls had very pale skins, which added another sense of beauty to their features. As Steven observed these things, he suddenly remembered his friends.

Steven dearly missed them, but he knew he didn't have the time for such thoughts so he put them at the back of his mind.

As John stood before the unconscious lying people, he squatted down and touched their heads. Following this, the three people slowly woke up.

"Oye! Who are ya bastards!" said the dwarf looking man while glaring at Steven and the other people around him. At the same time, the twin sisters also woke up and stared at Steven and the others with wary and frightened expressions.

As they had been kidnapped and enslaved, they didn't know where they were, as well as they didn't know who they could trust.

"Oh my... it seems like we are going to have a hard time ahead of us!" sighed Xiang while shaking his head.

It was on this day that the trial of perseverance had started for Steven and the people around him. And this trial would be the first of many trials in the future.