Chapter 159: Kregol

A young girl grunted as she swung a pickaxe into the dried earth again for the umpteenth time, the sound of metal hitting rock incessant. She wiped the sweat off her face with her already stained sleeve, smudging soil and soot against her forehead while the hot Raktor daylight dominated the sky.

She was not the only one in the sloped mine on the hill – dozens of other kids like her worked tirelessly, swinging their pickaxes nonstop into the sides of the mine as the hill’s surface was relentlessly dug out by hand, extracting useful metals in the form of ore.

As the young girl swung the pickaxe again, she finally found purchase, the sound different. A sliver ore was cracked open beneath the soil, fragmented into chunks the size of his hand. The find immediately put a smile on her face as she immediately reached out to grab it, inspecting the colourful brilliance in the myriad of features within the ore itself.

There was a weird blue pulsating force within that the young girl didn’t quite understand, but it seemed to have slight tendrils lapping out towards her wrist the longer she held it.

Instead of tossing it like the rest of the metal ores she had found into her basket, she decided to keep the ore, hiding it in her pocket as she continued mining, picking up the remaining fragments and stowing them away as well.

“Hey, Mari! Time for lunch!” Another boy called out to her as a group of them walked past, smiling at her.

“No thanks, Gideon! I’m skipping today’s one.” Mari waved back. A wave of feigned shock appeared in the group of miners.

“Mari?! The infamous glutton wants to skip lunch? What is the world coming to?” Gideon joked, invoking laughter among their friends. “Suit yourself, we’ll see you later!”

Mari nodded, before returning to focus on her mining. For some unknown reason, she felt like her entire body was brimming with energy, as though she had rested for twelve hours straight with a full belly – something she had not experienced for months.

She swung her pickaxe with force again, hoping to find more of the mysterious blue fragments. The strength of her pickaxe became even stronger with each successive blow, Mari not aware of the blue energy slowly coursing through her muscles. All she knew was that she was on cloud nine, feeling great.

She was far from the only one mining – others who wanted to earn more, or did not want to increase their debt to the owner for lunches continued working hard, slamming against the rock incessantly.

Mari soon found another arcite ore, this one even larger than the one before. Instead of taking it, she covered it up with the excess loose soil, masking it and moving to another spot. Weird. My luck today is amazing! What even is this ore?

Mining at another random spot as she moved around, she found arcite ore once again for the third time, shocking even herself. Is this entire hill made out of arcia? Did I just get lucky?

Pondering to herself, she began to run a series of test on her own instincts, moving over to where Gideon and her friends were already mining. As she approached the area, she could somehow feel that Gideon was mining the wrong spot.

“Hey, you mind me mining that area?” Mari asked Gideon, who was already sweating buckets.

“Eh? I already checked that area – doesn’t seem to be anything good.”

“Maybe you just haven’t dug deep enough.”

“Sure, I ain’t going to put in that much effort to dig that deep. Better to just comb the surface first.”

Mari got to work, digging even deeper than where Gordon had tried. Like clockwork, her pickaxe struck arcite ore again, this time the sound ringing clear. Her friends immediately noticed the weird sound, rushing over to check what Mari had found.

“Wow, it’s beautiful!”

“Hey, isn’t that arcite ore?” Another kid pointed out.

“Oh shit, its what they use to power the grinder and the wagons! But I don’t recall ‘arcite ore’ being on the payment list.”

“Bah, then its useless. Can’t even pay off our debts.”

“I’ve seen this being sold before!” Gideon piqued up. “In the town nearby, at the market place. They were selling it by the wagon. If the owner isn’t buying arcite ore, then we can sell it at the market! If I recall correctly, it was worth close to ten thousand rakels per kilogram now.”

“SERIOUSLY?!” Mari blurted out in astonishment. Her mind raced as she did a few simple calculations. If I can gather five kilograms of arcite ore, I can pay off my debts! A small grin appeared on her head as she created a plan.

“Gideon, you helped with transportation of food right?”

“Uh yea? Every other day. One wagon.”

“Alright, here’s the plan...”

The arctech lantern illuminated the gravel streets in the night, but the town was far from empty. Instead, it was a hotbed of activity, with traders from Raktor buying and selling goods by the wagons.

“... Five!”

“Three. You don’t have the upper hand in the negotiations here dear. Take it or leave it. I’m running a risk too for buying from an unlicensed seller.”

Mari was about to retort when Gideon quickly patted her on the arm, pointing towards two town guards who were leisurely walking over.

“Fine! Deal!” Mari tossed the backpack onto the scale. The weighing scale rocked slightly as the scales tipped. The seller quickly tossed a few balance weights marked with the insignia of the Yual dominion onto it, levelling it out and taking the relative weight.

“That’s five kilograms.” The seller whistled as he reached out to take the backpack, but Mari snatched it back quickly.

“Let’s see the rakels first.”

“Feisty are we?” The seller smiled as he took out three bag of coins, tossing it to Gideon who nearly fumbled it.

Gideon quickly opened the pouch, nodding to Mari. The two immediately dropped the backpack off and hurried into the alleyways once again, just as the town guards crossed the stall without incident.

Despite the obvious low-ball in terms of pricing, Mari couldn’t stop grinning, as did Gideon. “We’re rich! We’re going to be rich! If we keep up the pace, we can pay off our debt in just a month!”

The thought of being free dominated her mind as they snuck back to the wagon, where the mine workers were still loading up the food. No one barely noticed their temporary disappearance, too busy focusing on their work. They were soon prepared to head back to the mine, eager to start the next day’s work like never before.

Back at the stall, the seller was grinning to himself as he inspected the ores in the backpacks. “Those dumb kids, this isn’t even normal arcite ore – it’s an arcia crystal! Though it’s not a good quality, the price would be way higher than ten thousand. Hah! What a steal.”

The seller did not attempt to fleece the kids too much, as he knew the kids must have had a source for these low quality arcia crystal. Now that he had paid the kids in an ‘honorable’ deal, the kids would be more likely to come back to him to sell him even more, at the same price or so. Even if they went to another arcia stall, he could just keep a look out for them.

Just as he began to salivate over the potential profits, an armoured hand slammed the counter top, shocking him out of his daydream. “Wha-“ He quickly stopped himself, immediately glancing with wary eyes at the group of armoured mercenaries that stood in front of his stalls, frightening the nearby customers.

“I heard rumours you got your hands on a few special arcia ores... we would like to buy them.” The leader of the mercenaries spoke clearly.

“Of course, of course. I’m selling for eleven thousand per kilograms.”

“Don’t make this hard for me. I know you just bought it off them. I’m offering five thousand for them.” The leader smirked with clear derision. “You bought it for three, didn’t you?”

The seller cursed under his breath. “Fucking pushy, huh? Well I’m not obligated to sell to you just because you want it. Why would I want to sell it to you guys at such a low price?”

“Hey, if you don’t want to sell it, you don’t have to.” The leader raised his hands in mock surrender. “It’s a free society, do what you want.”

“And I will not be selling it to you.”

“That’s fine, not an issue. But hey, you heard about that weapons shop, Granger Metals?”

“Huh? Yea, what about them?”

“Think the boss never made it back after his business trip to Raktor. Had a bad run in with some people in the South Sector.... Made some bad business decisions... if you know what I mean.” The leader’s voice trailed off as he eyed the town guards, who were still unaware of what was happening.

The seller immediately read between the lines, a bead of sweat trickling down his neck. “...F-fine, five thousand then.”

“Perfect, great doing business with you.” The leader motioned for one of his group members to grab the backpack, before tossing a single bag of rakels over.

“Hey, this isn’t what we agreed on.”

“I said five thousand, not five thousand per kilogram.”

The seller wanted to retort, but already knew that this group of mercenaries were under the Ardent Cretins. Fucking gangs, spreading their tendrils into Kregol!

As the leader walked away, he inspected the backpack, marvelling at the arcia crystals with his members. “Boss, this is legitimate. If we get control of this mine...”

The leader grin only grew wider. “First things first – let’s find those kids.”