Volume 1: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 18 Miners
The Silver Stream Mine is the largest mine in Thorn City. About 40% of the source silver ore is produced here every year. For this reason, the largest source silver refinery in Thorn City was also built nearby .
Naturally, this mine and refinery are part of the huge industry of the city lord, Duke Simon.
William checked the bounty order for Cass Durant issued by Duke Simon. Half of the people who died at his hands were miners from the Silver Stream Mine, and the rest were more or less related to the source silver industry of this mine.
According to his experience in the game, when you see a Soul-Eating Spider in a place, it is estimated that the place has been infiltrated like a sieve.
But he didn't quite understand why it was a mine.
Each Void King corresponds to an idea or phenomenon. For example, Lady Hungry and Corrupted symbolizes the morbid cycle of life and death, the distorted food chain, and the irreversible self-consumption of an entirety. Therefore, Lady Hungry and Corrupted's followers are often associated with concepts such as corruption, rot, infection, and undead. At the same time, they only like to appear in places where those elements are present.
The Whisper Queen symbolizes conspiracy, betrayal, trickery and murder. As a member of the Whisper Queen's family, the Soul-Eating Spider's favorite places should be places full of conspiracy and calculation, such as a palace with complex forces or the inner world of aristocrats with fierce power struggles.
In any case, there should be no connection with the miners.
William felt it necessary to find out why they were parasitizing so many miners.
…………
"Brut Cole."
"exist!"
"Sigmons Carter"
"exist!"
The supervisor with an iron whip on his waist held the roster and called out the names of the people one by one. A row of miners wearing shabby work clothes and with dusty faces stood in a neat line on the flat ground in front of the mine, with ropes, mattocks and mining lamps at their feet.
When their names were called by the supervisor, they answered loudly as much as they could, then stood as straight as possible without making eye contact with the person.
"Kolter Brand."
“…”
The silence made everyone turn their attention to the end of the line. A child who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old was standing there with sleepy eyes and head lowered, looking like he was about to fall asleep while standing. He was wearing work clothes that were too big for his body.
The supervisor walked slowly to the child as if he was very interested, picked up the iron whip hanging around his waist, and gently lifted the child's chin with the handle of the whip.
The cold touch woke the child up with a start. He looked blankly at the smiling supervisor in front of him, and then seemed to suddenly realize something.
"Ah, here we are!"
He immediately straightened his body and answered loudly, not daring to even breathe after he finished speaking.
The supervisor took back the iron whip in his hand and asked softly.
"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous. I remember you seemed to be a miner who just reported in the day before yesterday, right?"
"Yes, sir! I'm here to take over my father's Hilton Brand position!"
the child answered loudly.
The supervisor nodded and said with a smile on his face.
"Oh, Hilton...your father is an excellent team leader here. Every time the team he leads goes down to the mine, the average efficiency is more than 20% higher than other teams. When he is around, I save a lot of effort here."
When the child heard the supervisor's words, he also wanted to smile, but the supervisor's second half of the sentence made his smile freeze before it could form.
"But your father never told you what the punishment would be ?"
The next second, an iron whip hit his left thigh, directly cutting his work uniform and leaving a two-foot-long, half-finger- deep blood mark on his leg.
"If you doze off at work, you will be whipped three times. If you scream while being whipped, you will be whipped two more times."
The supervisor's previous warm smile completely disappeared, and he now spoke with a cold face.
The child clenched his teeth and said nothing, staring at the supervisor.
"Do you feel very unconvinced?"
"No, sir!"
He said through gritted teeth.
"If you feel dissatisfied, you can go back now and act like a spoiled child to your lame and blind father. Then when you can't pay the city maintenance tax, you will be driven out of Thorn City and become a serf. If you still want to stay here, turn around immediately and take two more whips."
The young man named Colter turned around silently. At this time, a middle-aged man with a thick beard standing next to him spoke.
"Sir, Colter has only been here for two days. He is still not used to the working rhythm of the Silver Stream Mine. He will be used to it in two days. If you whip him twice more today, I am afraid it will be difficult for him to even go down to the mine."
The supervisor glanced at him and said.
"You want to be a good , then how about you take these two beatings for him?"
Upon hearing this, the man immediately lowered his head and stopped talking.
The supervisor sneered and weighed the iron whip in his hand. Just as he was about to swing it and hit the opponent on the back, a tall man standing in the middle of the team spoke.
"This kid can't take two hits. I'll take it for him."
The overseer paused.
"Good old Sigmund, what's the matter? Do you want to stand up for others again this time?"
"It's just that his father has done us a favor. Not only me, but everyone here has done us a favor. If it weren't for his father holding up the support with all his might, we would have all died in the last collapse of Tunnel No. 7."
The tall man named Sigmund said in a calm tone.
"Yeah, if it wasn't for his father we would all be buried there."
"His father's leg was broken in the same way."
"Sir, I will take the whipping for this child."
After hearing his words, the other miners also started talking, and even a few brave ones stood up and said they would accept the punishment for the child.
"Shut up!"
As the discussions in the team grew louder, the supervisor, who was about to lose control of the situation, yelled, drowning out everyone else's voices.
There was a faint sound of thunder in his roar, and the air around him flashed with a few tiny flashes of lightning.
The miners suddenly fell silent.
This overseer is actually a magic caster.
He looked at Sigmunds with a grim face, and after a while he turned around and spoke to the child.
"Kolter, in order not to affect today's progress, you will go down the mine with the mining team today, but you will continue to be punished when you come back in the evening. Sigmons, you come with us. If you do something like this that incites the miners to question the Duke's authority again, you will just get out."
After saying this, he hung the iron whip back around his waist, then shook out the roster and continued to call out the remaining names.
"Um?"
When the supervisor finished calling the names of all the people on the list, he found that there was one extra person at the end of the line.
He walked up to the man.
Although the man was wearing the same work clothes as the surrounding miners, his temperament was completely different from those of the people next to him. Maybe it was because his physique was not so rough, or it could be that he did not look as dirty.
It could also be because his gray hair and silver eyes don't fit in with the people around him.
“Why aren’t you on the list?”
"I was just transferred here yesterday."
The supervisor reminded with an unhappy look on his face.
"I was transferred here only yesterday, 'sir.'
"You don't have to call me sir."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone held their breath.
