The sound of dripping water hitting a damp floor filled the air as magical lamps flickered dimly from where they hung from the walls, illuminating two figures progressing through a suffocatingly narrow passageway.
“Wait, Zenos, are you seriously gonna go meet the boss?” Aston asked as he trailed behind the healer.
“Yeah,” Zenos replied without turning around. Whether to improve labor conditions or find a way out, he needed to contact whoever was in charge of this place.
“Well, don’t,” Aston said, unconvinced. “They won’t let you near him anyway. And even if they do, you’re just gonna end up dead.”
“Are you worried about me?”
“O-Of course not, idiot! I just don’t wanna end up on the shit list along with you, that’s all!”
“Huh...”
“Wh-What?”
Zenos came to a stop and turned to face his former party member. “This place is full of people who committed crimes against the nobility, right? So...people who went against the class hierarchy. That means they’re not necessarily bad people.”
“Ha! You naive dumbass. Listen, all right?” Aston pointed a finger sharply at Zenos. “The boss down here used to be a top executive of the Black Guild! Yeah, that Black Guild!”
“Oh.”
“What? At least act scared, dammit!”
“I mean, I know a top executive. He’s a good guy too.”
“You know a damned top executive of the Black Guild?! Wait, didn’t you say you’re here because you were hiding a royal? At least come up with better lies, damn you!”
“I’m not lying.”
“Ugh, this is making my head hurt...”
They wound their way through the tunnels and finally emerged into an area with a high ceiling, from which countless massive stalactites hung like icicles. It seemed to be a gathering spot for the boss’s faction, and as soon as the pair stepped into the space, a group of rough-looking men surrounded them.
“Hey. You can’t just waltz in here,” one of them said.
“No?” Zenos asked casually. “Aren’t we all prisoners here?”
“Huh? Hey, who the hell are you?” the man asked menacingly. “Haven’t seen you before. You new?”
“Yeah, I just arrived today. I want to talk to the guy in charge. Mind letting me through?”
After a brief silence, the men exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
“Aha ha ha ha! You hear this dude?”
“Oh man, he has no clue, does he?”
“Newbie here thinks he can meet with the boss. Cute.”
The man at the front leaned in close to Zenos’s face. “Listen here, bud. You got two choices. One, join us and bust ass mining in the danger zones. Two, don’t, and starve. Or become undead breakfast. Or both.”
The first option meant working for the group, handing manastones over to them, and getting scraps of food in return. The second meant going solo, with no intel about the ore veins and no easy access to the pulley systems for exchanging manastones for food; though there were several exchange points, all the safe ones were under the faction’s control. Thus, the only available pulleys would be in dangerous undead-infested areas.
Zenos scratched his head lightly. “Look, I just want to talk to your boss. I think he’d want to hear what I have to say.”
“Being slow on the uptake means dying young down here, you know.”
The number of men surrounding them had seemingly tripled out of nowhere.
“Hey, Zenos,” Aston said, grabbing his shoulder from behind. “I told you, you can’t just ‘talk’ to their boss.”
One of the men, noticing Aston, said, “Wait, you’re the dumbass who refused to join us two months ago. Still kickin’, are ya?”
“Yep. Doing fantastic over here. Just peachy,” Aston said, yanking Zenos roughly as he tried to drag the healer away. “We’re leaving now.”
Zenos looked over at his former party leader. “Why did you refuse to join them?”
“I’m not built to follow orders.”
“Huh. Yeah, sounds like you, all right. But... I mean, are you sure about this?”
“Wh-What?”
“Hey!” called out one of the men. “Running away, are you? Loser.”
The insult struck Aston like a brick, and he stopped walking. “What did you say to me?”
“One of the guys here recognized your face. Said you used to be the leader of some fancy Gold Class party. Bah ha ha ha! How far the mighty have fallen, eh?”
Laughter erupted around them.
“Hey, I got a great idea,” said another man, grinning. “How about this: If you guys can take a hundred punches, I’ll take ya to meet the boss. You’re not losers, right? You can handle it.”
It was a blatant taunt, and the laughter grew louder—but Zenos turned around with a cheerful expression.
“Really? Just a hundred punches, and we can see him? You promise?”
“What?”
The men had clearly expected the pair to back down. Their expressions changed instantly.
“Now this is interesting.”
“They tell us not to kill the newbies ’cuz they just turn into those shambling things, but hey, since you’re asking...”
“Gotta teach ’em some respect for how the pecking order goes down here.”
The men cracked their knuckles wickedly, and their leader raised his right arm high for a swing.
Time for a spell, then.
In an instant, Zenos activated a perfect barrier, but before the punch landed, a rough hand reached in from the side and caught the leader’s fist.
“Aston?” Zenos asked.
Frowning, Aston crushed the attacker’s fist in his grip. “You think I’m about to let the guy who decked me get punched by these losers? No chance in hell.”
“Ugh, that kind of feels gross...”
“Hey, don’t call it gross!”
“Asshole!” another man cursed. “Think you’re hot shit?!”
The man lunged at Aston, but the former swordsman dodged and drove his fist into the guy’s stomach instead. With a dull thud, the man dropped to his knees.
“You know, I just remembered I hate being looked down on.”
“You bastard!”
“Get his ass!”
Three more came at Aston at once, but he swung his arms wildly, fending them off. No matter how far he’d fallen, he was still a former Gold Class swordsman. Prisoners barely surviving in an underground mine were no match for him.
“Ha ha! I got an even better idea! I just need to beat the crap out of all you idiots and become the boss myself! No one’s ever gonna order me around again!”