Chief Byron

In a high wall of red stone that extends for several meters is the entrance to the mines, a circular hole wide enough for six people to pass side by side. Behind the walls were the mines, in a complex scheme of low mountain formations.

This is where the resources that sustain the economy of Red Valley city come from, a city whose economy is based on the extraction of rocks used in civil construction. It is now controlled by the highvale, the same gang that runs the town, but this part Ryu has known since the day before when he found the city's factory to process the stones.

In front of the mine entrance, five large simple barracks encircled by twenty wood-made small construction. With a single glance at this arrangement, Ryu saw about thirty men wearing gray robes with a red armband walking among the building, all with spears or swords in hand as they patrolled, looking intently at their surroundings.

"Is the security always like this?" Ryu asked Bucky. Bucky looked confused at Ryu as if he didn't understand, so Ryu had had to rely on his own conclusions to figure out what was happening, which was that the security had been tightened because of the attack on the city.

But the wooden barracks indicated to him that there were always a large number of people patrolling the place, even in times of peace. Looking further, Ryu understood the setup on the mines and why there was always a unity of highvale patrolling.

Under the vigilance of four highvale, and Ryu, a cart laden with stones emerged from the mines, pushed by two skeletal figures of two men in threadbare clothes. As soon as the cart left the cave, one of the scrawny men released the cart's handle to cover his eyes from the sunlight, causing the cart to stop advancing.

*Shitaah*

From a blind spot, a whip rushed to the man covering his eyes, mercilessly hitting his face. When the scrawny man fell to the ground covering his face, an obese man appeared sideways walking slowly towards him, Ryu so far hadn't noticed this man's presence, so he was surprised at how quickly he appeared.

With a long whip on his right hand, a chicken leg on his left hand with fat running down your through his arm, and an oversized gray robe, strangely wrapped around his massive body, this obese man walked to the side of the cart and proceeded to whip the man another time.

Seeing this outrageous scene, Ryu's blood began to boil in anger, and he had to control himself to not jump into the highvale camp and murder every single one of them, but he knew that he wasn't capable of doing so.

Thus, Ryu controlled himself, but his intense emotion triggered the conqueror's aura out of his body. The only one affected was Bucky, that walked away two meters scared and assumed a submissive position.

"Sorry, Bucky. I lost control for a second." Ryu said, trying to suppress his aura. Meanwhile, the whip session continued at the mine entrance, the other man slave pushing the cart, crouched on the ground, not daring to interfere, while the highvale member continued with their tasks as if all the whipping was a routine thing.

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Quest: Destroy the base of highvale at the mines and release the slaves.

Reward: 5.000 exp

Bonus quest: Kill the obese man.

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As Ryu's anger filled his heart, resolution formed in his mind, so the system reacted to his feelings triggering a quest. A quest way beyond his level, but since his resolution was formed, the system hasn't tried to force him to give up.

The whipping session continued until the fallen guy was unconscious, but the obese guy didn't look satisfied and started whipping the other slave.

As Ryu stared at the scene lost in fury, a voice erupted from the edge of the highvale encampment breaking his attention. As he turned his eyes towards the screams, Ryu noticed a young man wearing a gray robe running straight to the base.

Ryu almost had a heart attack as the man arrived from the main road, passing right by Ryu, just a few meters away. But as Ryu was focused on the obese man, he didn't notice the young man coming from his side. Luckily the man wasn't very attentive, otherwise, he certainly would have noticed Ryu and suspected the man lying on the ground spying on the base.

"I have a message for chief Byron."Ryu heard the newly arrived man shouting at the base entrance as two other highvale came to receive him. From Ryu's distance, he couldn't hear the conversation in a normal voice, but this man arrived in a hurry, yelling.

Thanks to his enhanced eyes, Ryu could see people in the distance, so he saw, perfectly well, one of the two guards signaling for the young man to follow him. Then the guard and the young man walked to the mine entrance, stopping near the spot where the obese man was still whipping the two unconscious slaves.

When the two got close enough to the obese man, he stopped the whip to look at the guard. After some conversation, Ryu couldn't hear, the obese man walked with the newly arrived man to one of the wooden buildings, leaving the two slaves on the ground.

"So, that the chief of this place." Ryu said, putting all his anger on his speech, "Byron." he spoke the man's name to remember the one he had to kill.

When Ryu was preparing to leave, the two slaves woke, raised from the ground, grabbed the cart handle, and continued to passively push it again till the bord of the camp, where they proceeded to unload the cart.

"They are tough, actually." Ryu commented with Bucky. But, not enduring to see it anymore, he turned looked at Bucky, and asked, "Is it here that you got that stone, Bucky?" returning to the subject.

Answering Ryu's question, Bucky ran ten meters ahead and looked back to Ryu as if saying to follow him. So, Ryu raised from the ground and began to follow Bucky, taking care to stay out of sight from the highvale mine base.

Though Bucky was a very intelligent ferret, he had no regard for Ryu in the path he chose, and just like in the forest where he crawled through small gaps in the trees, Bucky passed between small cracks in the rock, forcing Ryu to skirt around the rocks to follow it. But the worst part is that Bucky ignored the highvale base as he advanced, something Ryu couldn't do.

As Ryu and Bucky moved forward, there was no longer any concern about being seen by anyone, but as they went deeper into the rock formations, Ryu began to wonder if Bucky was really taking him somewhere or if it was just wandering around randomly.

However, that worry soon ended when Bucky ran to a large hole in the rocks and looked back for Ryu. As soon as Ryu reached the hole, Bucky turned and entered a small gap in the rocky wall of the hole, disappearing into the dark gap.

"What was I thinking following a ferret." Ryu, alone, said to nobody, dejected, staring at the hole he would never be able to pass.