Rise Of The Godking

He could feel, rather than see the enforcer fuming beside him. He expected that he might have to deal with a few more whippings, but as soon as he raised the nail to the nearest crystal and began to hammer away, he heard the sound of footsteps receding.

During the altercation, it seemed that the rest of the slaves had stopped what they were doing to watch. Now, they all returned to their task, and the cave was once again awash with the sounds of metal nails striking the rocks.

Seeing him, n.o.body would have been able to tell that he was so exhilarated that his heart was beating out of his chest, unable to slow down due to what he had just experienced. Like an addict getting back to his habit, he was tempted to repeat what he had just done with the crystal in front of him… but he caught the thought with a vice-like grip and controlled it.

"I don"t have a death wis.h.!.+ That was… incredible, but it doesn"t take a genius to know that it should be kept secret. I… absorbed power! That"s definitely what I did! And it was all because of the system! d.a.m.n… maybe its claims about world domination aren"t so unfounded, after all!"

Feeling giddy with excitement and newfound trust for this inscrutable existence that he had found in his head, he continued what he was doing, determined to end the day with no more incidents. The ounce of power he had breathed in had already started to leave him, bringing to the fore all the pain and exhaustion it had kept it bay. He almost sagged onto the wall as they washed over him, but he bit his tongue and retained his grip on the nail.

It took a few minutes during which he had to act as if he was working hard to recover. When he did, he still found himself craving for that feeling of power that had been like no other he had experienced all his life, but he distracted the thought by studying the other slaves around him.

He slowly realized that he didn"t know exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He knew that they were mining the blue crystals that held power from the walls, but how was one supposed to ensure that they didn"t crack? They looked brittle, and from the way that the one he had absorbed from had crumbled, he expected them to fracture and become useless if one was even the least bit careless.

Yet… when he stared at a woman nearest to him whose s.h.a.ggy hair almost reached her knees, he saw, with surprise, that he was wrong. Her eyes wandered, as if she was lost in a world far away from the one he was in, and she absentmindedly used the nail, hammering occasionally on the crystal.

Not a scratch appeared on it, making it look indestructible.

Turning his head, he studied a different slave who seemed much more hard-working. Stroking his long beard now and then, he worked with ease, striking the hammer here, there, and then dislodging a crystal easily before dumping it into the basket beside him. The rocks he placed onto a pile on his other side, and after searching around, he reached his next target and began anew.

This target happened to be near Daneel, so he decided that he would confirm his suspicion.

"Don"t we need to be worried about breaking the crystals?" He whispered, his eyes still on the wall in front of him, finally managing to ignore the phenomenon that had cost him a few whippings before.

The man didn"t answer, at first, so Daneel had to put the question to him again in a slightly louder voice.

When he understood that he was the one being spoken to, his eyes darted around furtively to see if there was anyone looking at them, and then, he answered, "Don"t you dare speak to me, sc.u.m! I"ve heard everything you did! You raped my cousin"s daughter! You beat his cousin half to death! If not for the master"s promise… we would have killed you the moment you stepped in here! Pray that we still don"t decide to move forward with the plan!"

He spoke with such disdain that Daneel could only stare, astonished, as he said his piece and walked away to a different vein that was as far away from him as possible.

When the familiar sound of the whip being slammed into a palm reached his ears, he went back to work, and decided to experiment by himself.

He still felt the faint… unease that had sprung into being after seeing himself hated so much, but he understood that he might need to live with it. After all, many of his body"s original occupant"s atrocities had involved the slaves, so it was to be expected that they would hold a grudge for a long, long time.

In a way, he realized that he might even need to thank his father for ensuring that he would live.

Putting the tip of the nail on the juncture between the rock and a crystal, he let it slip down, as if by mistake. The hammer was already coming down by then, so there was no chance to prevent the crystal from being damaged.

Only, instead of cleaving the crystal in two, the nail was flung aside leaving its target with nary a scratch, while he had to deal with the force that traveled up his arms, making them shake.

"Weird. So absorbing them makes them disappear, but they won"t even scratch due to blunt force? It"s definitely interesting…"

He finally began working in earnest after that. The task was simple enough that he needed only half of his mind to do it… so the rest was used exclusively to continue his study on the mesmerizing patterns of the particles that he could now see in the air.

A bell was rung a few hours later, and he found himself walking back in the direction of his cavern.

On the way, he kept thinking about those dots of light that he already missed.

Already, he could tell that this was a study that might span his entire life. There was so much intricacy to each and every aspect of their existence that he was convinced that he might need years of disciplined research to even begin to figure out what they meant.

"But I don"t have years… is it possible the system might be able to help?"

He got this thought when he was near the place he had woken up in. It had been easy to remember the path, as he had only had to recall one thing: the number written on top of the corridor that led to it. All of the corridors exited into the same large tunnel, which led to the magical opening that he had stepped through before.

After draping the muslin over the entrance to his cavern again, he sat down on the stone bed and spoke in his mind.

"System… can you help me to understand these particles, or whatever they"re called?"

[Responding to host. System is capable of magic a.n.a.lysis, but the capability is locked behind numerous hidden conditions. It is recommended for host to carry out missions given to unlock all capabilities, one by one.]

He frowned, but he had been expecting such an answer.

He considered his options, then, and wondered what he was supposed to do. Should he just lounge around idly, like he had seen the other slaves he had pa.s.sed so far do?

Definitely not.

He had a goal. He wanted to find his past, and why that word had meant so much to him. And for that, he needed to leave this place.

"But to leave it… shouldn"t I understand what it is, in the first place?"

The question made him pause, before finding the pathway to the answer.

With a deep breath, he delved back into the memories that he had only skimmed through before.

He returned from them an entire half-hour later, and when he did, his eyes were wide open with barely suppressed shock.

He needed a few seconds to gather his thoughts, and when he did, he went through what he had unearthed, with his chin resting on his hand as he stared into the darkness.

"So… the objective of this entire town is to make a single product? Really? Instead of being two-dimensional, the map of this place is a 3d figure! It has four layers; one above the ground, three below. The pit is the bottommost level, where the crystals are mined. It is sent up, where hundreds of people live to shape it into various shapes, and then… it is sent up, again, where hundreds more survive by refining the crystals further. The town on the surface sells them, and enjoys the fruit of hard work of all the rest! Incredible! I"ve got to commend whoever came up with the idea to make something like this…but I also feel like punching them in the stomach, as the model wouldn"t work without slaves! So, this…is where I am. This…is my home! The Town of Graiton, famous for its export of processed energy crystals!"