Legends of Time Pasts Series: Nojus, Lord of Fire and Brimstone – Teaser

Legends of Time Pasts Series: Nojus, Lord of Fire and Brimstone – Teaser

Lina's POV, 1th of the month of Dance, year 68,996 of the Solar calendar, in the town of Bersidon, Mountainhome.

Mom and Dad leave to check on the preparations for the Dance Festival, so Fuda and I are left alone, a rare thing since there's always someone taking care of the shop.

"Want to see Dad's books?" He immediately asks the moment the door closes.

I frown at him, and he shows a naughty grin, but I don't think I can say no, so I just glare, hoping to convince him not to drag me into this.

But he insists, "See, the other day I got a glimpse of a hidden book under his bed. It's called 'Nojus, Lord of Fire and Brimstone.'"

"Wow..." I mumble.

That sounds so awesome!

Then I glare harder, and he rolls his eyes. "Stop being such a stone."

"It's hidden for a reason," I quietly reply.

He smiles from ear to ear. "Yeah, because it's an adult book, and those are fun!"

"Hmmm..." I grumble hesitantly.

He suddenly grabs my hand and drags me to their room. I could use [Spirit of Gaia] to stop him, but I just pretend to resist so that I can claim innocence if we're caught.

Nojus' worth was the same as a pile of coal.

"Wow, starting good," Fuda comments with a snort.

I groan loudly, and he continues reading after another snort.

The villagers of the Infernal Outpost of Hal didn't use coal for lava was abundant, and Fire mages were aplenty, so nobody needed this "dirty" source of heat. It was also not worthy to export as the Venerable Ones in the heart of Mountainhome had sources better than the heavy mineral that came from the incredibly deep and dangerous Infernal Underground, so coal was thrown away as trash to give room for Fire crystal mining.

Noju's worth was at the same level as trash.

And the young man watched slack-jawed as the fire he started by accident quickly spread all over the peat, disrupting the mining operation in this section of the Bosse Caverns.

The miners shouted and ran out of the dungeon as every Infernal dwarf knows that underground fires are the deadliest poison there could be. They create a completely imperceptible gas that invades the mind, accumulating there until it's almost too late to activate [Spirit of Gaia] to cleanse oneself from it, so fires caused more victims than monster attacks even in the untamed Infernal Underground.

"Not really a problem on the Surface," I mumble, and Fuda shushes me, so I flash him a glare.

Nojus had no energy to move, the weight of his mistake bearing down upon him like chains. He even felt the desire to jump into the peat fields for the loss of his life would be just as impactful as that of the peat.

But hey, at least once the Water mages controlled the fire they might reveal new Fire crystals born from the flames. You just have to ignore all of the loss in profit from the downtime in mining and the cost of the mana spent by the mages.

Maybe he had actually done something good in the end. At least the Water mages would have work to do... though his fellow miners would feel a bit the loss of income from not being able to work in this section of the Bosse Caverns... Nah, it's not like the Bosse dungeon had been depleted, so the miners of the other sections could share some space with them until the fire here was controlled.

"Yes, that's right, I didn't fuck up," Nojus concluded to himself. "But I did fuck the Boss." Then he snorted and collected his equipment, his conscience free of guilt.

Now the only question was: did someone see him?Điscover new chapters at novelhall.com

The sudden blue light that started to shine from behind him gave him a clue to that answer, and it wasn't in his favor.

Nojus sensed a very frightening flavor of mana, but before he could react, a plank hit him in the stomach, forcefully expelling all the air in his lungs as he was punted away.

His back suddenly hit something, and his mind took a few seconds to understand his body's new orientation, which was laying on the ground, dangerously close to the mound of peat that was starting to catch on fire.

"FUCKIN' BASTAR'D!" A gruff voice with a thick accent blasted in his ears, then a big, booted foot stomped onto his stomach, almost making him puke, but it kept him pinned against the floor. "I SHAW IT! I SHAW YOU D'ROP THE FI'RE G'RUB! BOSSH WILL SKIN YE AND SHELL IT TO THE SCO'RCHED!"

I hum in thought and ask, "Do we really speak like this? I don't like how silly our accent sounds in writing."

Fuda snorts and answers, "Of courshe not. The autho'r is a Vene'rable One, and you know they like to make fun of ou'r acchents."

Of Gods, I can hear it! Make it stop!

The pleasant fellow on top of Nojus looked like a ghost as his enchanted Runic skin glowed with mana, making the already muscular man stronger than two orcs together. The poor and scrawny Nojus didn't have the [Stonebody] to compete, and even if he did, his MP was already low from using [Spirit of Gaia] to mine all day.

So all Nojus could do was moan in pain and pray that the Watchman would let him go, but the person that hit him was the very same one who's responsible for keeping order in the mines, and Nojus understood that he was inside a crumbling tunnel.

So he begged, "PLEASHE! I DIDN'T... I DIDN'T MEAN-... I T'RIPPED!"

"OF COU'RSHE YOU DID, YOU FUCKEN G'RUB MEAT!" The Watchman bellowed back, then his big hand grabbed onto Nojus' filthy shirt and effortlessly pulled the smaller man up. "SHO I'LL GIVE YE SHOME ADVANCHE PUNISHMENT!"

Nojus froze in fear, then he felt the heat at his back increase, and the ice melted into fiery panic. "PLEASHE, NO! PLEASHE! PLEA-... AAAAAH!"

The miserable miner's back boiled and melted as the burning peat clung to him, the pain so great, so horrible, that he quickly passed out, and he thanked the Gods for this small mercy, but it only left the Watchman unsatisfied.

"Oh, Gods!" I exclaim in horror, and even Fuda makes a disgusted face.

A bucket of cold water was poured onto Nojus' face, and he immediately woke up after an agonizing second of drowning, but the first thing he did was scream in agony from the pain of his burned back.

He screamed until his throat hurt, the pain making every second last an eternity, so he didn't notice the group of people gathered around him, or how the fattest and wealthiest among them quickly grew annoyed by the screeching hurting his ears.

"Just give him the potion already, you bog-breath," a snooty man ordered with a sneer.

A blue ghost appeared on Nojus' vision, scaring him so badly he pissed himself, the memory of the Watchman burning him obviously fresh in his mind, and now the evil man was back to torment him further.

But then a thick, greasy hand grabbed his filthy face and shoved down a warm, tasty, glowing red liquid down his throat, and the pleasant sensation calmed him enough to begin understanding what was going on.

His vision suddenly turned dark as he was forcefully spun, then the Watchman splashed the HP potion on his back, and Nojus moaned in delight as the burning pain immediately cooled a great amount.

"Now he's pissed himself... ugh. Next time, keep the punishments for after I'm gone. I pay you to do this distasteful work for me, understood?" The increasingly repulsed snooty man chastised.

"Sho'rry, Boss," the Watchman grunted, and Nojus realized the rock was about to fall on his face. The fear of his Fate was so great, he immediately forgot all about the pleasure from the HP potion working to heal his burns.

And so he was forcefully spun again, now giving him a view of The Boss, a fat man with a big beard to hide the folds of his neck, but his robe was awkwardly wide and his very chubby fingers revealed the extent of his laziness. The only thing worse than a fat human was a fat dwarf as they surely had trouble moving, some even requiring the undignified use of crutches just to live.

"Wow. Have you ever seen a fat dwarf?" Fuda asks in wonder.

"Why would they come to the Surface? The book just said how hard it is for them to even walk."

"You're right..." He hums and nods.

"Hmph..."

Of course, I am.

The Runes on the Watchman's skin stopped glowing, allowing Nojus to see his scarred, rugged, tattooed... and considerably ugly face. Definitely not a man with a good inheritance. Nojus wasn't pretty, and he definitely didn't have a good inheritance to keep his face young and cute as he aged, but at least he wasn't like the Watchman, though Nojus found it quite sad that this was something that comforted him.

Nojus wouldn't accept this resolution.

He slowly regained the strength in his body as something new and powerful was lit within him, and the Priest frowned as he sensed the thin slave tense up.

Nojus wouldn't accept that the Watchman was simply misguided. He wouldn't accept that the pain he suffered was going to be pushed to the side and thrown away like soot. The trauma in his mind was so fresh he even felt his back burn as that Fateful day flashed in his eyes once again, and how was that not Torture?!

And once Nojus' mouth opened, he couldn't stop himself as his grievances poured out like a flood, "How is it not To'rtu're to always be the're, following me day afte'r day, watching ove'r my back in the da'rkness like a stalking monste'r, waiting fo'r the exact moment that I fail sho that he can launch anothe'r whip at my back, caushe me mishe'ry and pain, and then enjoy it?!

"They give me the wo'rst jobs, the ones that pay the least and numb my soul the most just to d'rive me fu'rthe'r insane! My 'Shanity' is at sheven! SHEVEN! How am I shupposhed to wo'rk my debt off if they neve'r give me the oppo'rtunity to rest and g'row st'ronger or recove'r my MP sho that I can ushe [Spi'rit of Gaia]. HOW IS THAT NOT TO'RTU'RE?!"

The rant left him short of breath, yet he wanted to say so much more, but his mind just couldn't find the words to express his mounting rage, so the two just stared at each other, Nojus' heavy breathing sounding deafeningly loud in the quiet of the night.

The Priest saw the truth in Nojus' words, he knew that this wouldn't end here, but the Infernal Underground wasn't named like that just due to the ever presence of lava. The holy man felt shame at his own impotence, but he needed to make the grim situation clear to the distraught slave, so he steeled himself and prepared his speech.

"My kin, I have to ask you to be strong. I'm the only priest here, and I'm just a healer, so I don't know [Detect Evil]. I can call for a Templar, but it'll take time for one to come. I can shelter you until then, but if your Master came to reclaim you, I wouldn't be able to stop them, and they'd likely even punish you further, so it might be best if you returned to your job and continued to work as if nothing happened until the Templar came."

Nojus suddenly felt cold, not depressed, just cold. His "Piety" was a mere 10, but that was simply the standard, and not enough for him to be considered ostracized by the Gods.

He had simply been abandoned... by everyone.

Without even saying another word, he turned around and ran.

He ran from the Priest, from the commoners making merry, the workers returning from home, his fellow slaves enjoying recreation time, his evil tormentor, his absent Master, his deserting family, and from the Gods that forsook him...

He ran out of the outpost and into the wild, dangerous Infernal Underground. The gates were open to keep the air circulating, and the guards didn't even move to stop him, they just watched as a crazy slave ran to their death.

Tomorrow, the Watchman would notice his absence, and the relentless sadist would then learn that Nojus was spotted running away the previous night, but he wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at it. No slave was worth delving into the Underground.

"Oh, Gods. This is horrible. This story is horrible. Why are we reading this?!" I exclaim, horrified.

"How do you think a slave became a Lord? This is just the beginning!" Fuda replies excitedly.

I really want to stop, but I can't for some reason, and it's not Fuda's encouragement. I hate this story... but I also love it.

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