Chapter 25

"I found this stone slab up there as well."

"Inspect it." Eliyah said.

Max opened the Inventory menu with a mental command.

[Enchanted Stone]

[A stone infused with an ancient Elevated human's aura. It has protective and anti-decay properties. This aura has an incredibly long life span. It will dissipate in twenty thousand Mirlia years.]

"It protected the paper. Doesnt't seem too special. Maybe I can sell it in Virtonis."

"Take it to a good mage. They'll definitely believe you after inspecting it." Eliyah added.

Manuel stood up.

"It's pointing in the direction of the mines still."

"I guessed so." Max replied.

"So how shall we ambush them?"

***

"I'm about to have a son." One of the knights guarding the mines entrance said.

"Really? Congratulations." The other replied.

"Have the kids young and as many as possible, rookie. My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner."

"I wanna travel the world and meet all kinds of ladies first."

"Hah, I had the same ideas..."

The knights discussed their dreams and happy moments in life.

But sadly, not all fires burn equally long.

Max and Manuel descended rapidly from the skies right on the two poor guards.

They slammed them into the grass brutally and pierced the lying knights in the back of the neck.

[You have killed a mundane human!]

[You have received 500 EXP!]

Barely any noise was made.

The knights couldn't even scream.

Eliyah and Thomas approached the scene quickly from the bushes.

The squad stood in front of the entrance.

Inside was illuminated with glowing stones stuck on the two opposite walls.

The tunnel kept lightly descending down and down.

No human presence visible yet.

"Stay behind me and Manuel." Max whispered.

Max and Manuel led the raid into the ominous tunnels.

They walked slowly and carefully.

Stealth was unlikely. But they clung to it.

They descended down and down.

***

"AGH!"

A young boy was whipped powerfully by a guard behind him.

"Don't slack new kid. I don't want to hurt you."

"You could've given a warning. AAAGH!"

A second strike came.

The teenage boy went back to work.

The slaves couldn't resist. Their aura was sapped every hour to the minimum required for an honest day's work.

Knights clad in full orange colored armor and wearing various types of capable weapons sapped their aggression too, by simply standing around nearby.

The slaves were hopelessly trapped here as punishment for whatever crime they commited.

No one ever escaped this place.

"Cheer up. Later you'll be having meat!" The man who whipped the poor kid yelled.

No responses came. And for good reason.

Though the work the slaves performed seemed to have become a tiny bit more energetic.

"I wanted to slack more during work so I came here. But the boredom is seriously eating me."

"Same, I'll resign soon and just become an adventurer. This life is miserable for me."

Two knights' discussion echoed in the giant cavern expanse. They discussed their misery amidst the slaves who slaved away for the society they wronged.

A siege ram-like construct was at the end of the artificial tunnel. Slaves were performing maintenance work on it. Others were mining ores around the machine.

This machine is powered with aura from the slaves. It channels the aura into an extremely powerful, directed burst of energy that pulverizes rock and expands the artificial tunnel.

The slaves here are mostly the worst criminals and the most dangerous. Meaning quite a good number of them have a high aura stat.

"Want me to join you? I don't got much to lose."

"Sur..."

Suddenly, a barrage of shredding metal fell upon the two knights.

"KUGH!" One of them called out.

They shielded themselves with their plated arms and sustained damage.

All three of the wing bearers unleashed their ability.

Max stepped in, sword and body fully reinforced with aura.

Nearby, Manuel was doing the same. He was supported by Thomas' arrows and Eliyah's aura reinforcement.

The knights, dazed and stunned, as well as heavily damaged from the metal projectiles, fell victim to Max's powerful ambush and perished quickly.

[You have killed a mundane...]

[You...]

Hell broke loose. The slaves were mostly killed as well from the wings.

No one could escape this place.

A swordsman rushed at Max like a cornered mouse.

He sent an aura slash at Max, which Max easily deflected, and leapt in right after.

Max parried the strike.

The fully armored knight used the momentum to perform a spinning attack at Max, but the player smartly leapt away and overwhelmed the knight with two aura slashes that sent him off the ground.

"Ugh!"

As the knight recovered, with damaged armor and disrupted focus, Max was upon him, he kicked the knight in the abdomen, which sent the poor man into a rock wall and left him dazed him on the floor.

As another guard approached Max, the player leapt into the air right after the kick and landed on the lying knight's head with his enhanced legs, giving a fatal concussive blow to the poor man.

[You have killed a mundane...]

Nearby, Manuel pierced a knight through the neck, penetrating the armor with his aura infused weapon. The knights had no time to charge themselves with aura.

'An Awakened?! Here?!' A knight who was approaching Max thought to himself.

'There's not enough of us in the mines...'

Manuel sustained a mace strike to his shield and sniped the attacker's head with his spear in an attempt to break his focus, which the guard dodged.

Then, Eliyah sent an aura blast which disturbed the guard's rhythm and Manuel followed through with a powerful shield strike to the head which sent the knight to the ground.

Manuel stomped on his head and moved on.

Thomas swept a knight off the floor with a swing of his wings.

'Ugh, I aimed for the neck.'

He used the wings as a weapon to defend himself and the arrows for supporting Manuel occasionally.

The wings were, Max realized, able to be used in combat in a different way. The barrage and the flight wasn't the only utility they had.

He had discovered this fact while hunting monsters to get the money needed for Manuel's equipment.

Two knights went at Max, and the player kept them at bay with the brutally strong wings. His control wasn't great, but even simple slashes with the large wings were dangerous.

A knight got hit by them, which caused his armor damage. But it endured, his feet left the ground and he was sent away a few meters.

Max kept multiple attackers at bay with the wings.

Until the cooldown for the barrage ended.

'These wings are a goddamn blessing.'

Thomas also killed the slaves with his arrows.

The fight raged on for a while longer, all the way until the cooldown was over.

When it was, the battle was too.

Another barrage from all three players shredded their defenses and completely overwhelmed them, enabling Manuel and Max to finish off everyone.

A guard ran for his life, but Max easily caught up him.

"DAMN IT!!!" He screamed while turning around to strike at Max.

The player parried the sword strike easily and quickly dispatched the knight with a stab in

the exposed chest caused by the barrage.

The knight fell down from Max's superior strength.

"WHO ARE..."

Max stomped his head in.

One stomp from an Awakened was enough to pulverize the poor man.

"That's all of 'em?" Eliyah asked.

"Looks like it." Manuel responded.

"Let's take a look around this place." Max said.

"Guys?" Thomas called out.

"What?"

"What do we do with him?"

Behind a rock, was a young teenage boy. A slave.

"Fuck all of you. If only I was stronger...If only my life was luckier..."

The boy sobbed on his knees.

"A kid." Manuel said with a frown.

"So?" Max answered.

"That's somebody's baby." Thomas added.

This sentence made Max pause.

"My parents are dead. No one will miss me. Fuck this world, end me already."

Silence ensued.

"Let's take him with us. We can't let him go on his own." Max said.

The other squad members were silent.

"Why?! Why not kill me? I'm done, I'm sick of EVERYTHING!"

"We'll help you escape, kid. Take you to a new kingdom." The Awakened said with a firm voice.

"And then what?! Same misery all over again?"

"There are orphanages." Max answered.

"I don't want to! I hate-"

The young slave was pierced in the skull.

Max's eyes widened and he turned toward the man who did it.

The black haired, handsome knight was cold.

There was no expression on his chiseled face.

"...Why?" Max asked, weakly. His voice was one of resignation.

"That kid was uncontrollable. His kind wants to see the world burn."

"Damn it. You're worrying me Manuel."

"Can you trust me on this one, Max? The kid was demented.This was the right decision."

"...Fine." Max said as he drank an aura potion.

Silence dominated the team for a while.

They proceeded to explore the gigantic cave expanse.