I would be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting a more concerted effort to get me tonight, and I’d also be lying if I said part of me wasn’t eager to bring some pain this time. As long as I wasn’t smashed in the head with a heavy rock, I reckoned I could do some damage among the dark huts.
I maintained my pace until a Grunir stepped out in front of me, blocking my way. I turned, putting my back to the nearest wall to make sure that I couldn’t be snuck up on, then faced the leader. “You really don’t need to do this.”
“Oh, we do. Thought you could ignore our warning and there wouldn’t be consequences. This time, it’s going to take the mage the best part of a day to heal you up.”
“Yeah,” one of the others added lamely. He had a rock in his hand and while I still didn’t fancy getting hit by it, at least I wasn’t getting blind-sided with it.
“Look, we’re expected to clear a certain amount of trucks a day, yeah? I don’t know how many the Overseer wants, but I figure you can all just take it easy while I graft a little harder.”
The leader stepped forward, a low growl in his voice as he spoke. “It’s not about the work no more, it’s about your attitude.”
I looked down at the stew with brief remorse, then sloshed it in his face. It wasn’t hot enough to scald, which was a shame, but it stopped him in his tracks, and left him vulnerable to a stone bowl smashed into the center of his face.
He went down easier than I expected, screaming in pain and holding his face. As the others recoiled—that second of time where they forget they were in a group and it was everyman for himself—I reacted. Surging forward, I stepped onto his falling body, and used it to spring high and double-foot kick the thinnest of the orc types standing just behind him.
He went down hard, and despite my best efforts to land on my feet, I stumbled and fell too. I rolled quickly, grabbing a handful of gravel as I did, with the intention of hurling it in the rock wielder’s face. But the rock was already coming down where I’d landed a moment ago. It completely missed me, but smashed into the gut of his friend.
Luck was with me, and I acknowledged that this was the first time I’d fought someone properly since being ascended and having multiple increases in Toughness. True, most of those were in durability, but I still felt an overall difference as I regained my feet.
The rock thrower tried to catch me with a wild haymaker, and I stepped away, leaving him to swing wide and overbalance. I threw a gravel-filled right hook to his temple, followed by a left hook to the liver. Then I danced away, leaving him staggering and spluttering.
The bloody-faced leader was back up from my opening attack, and he was coming in fast with the other two workers on either side of him.
Not good odds. With an underarm throw, I lashed out my right hand as hard as I could. It was never intended to meaningfully damage, just to distract, and it did its job perfectly. All three flinched, and the leader howled as the gravel hit his broken nose.
I followed up with a straight jab into the crushed nose to get him backpedaling, and then sent a right hook to the orc on his left. I was smashed into the waist by the Grunir on his right. I staggered back and tripped over the wheezing orc with the rock on his stomach.
I fought like hell to stay on my feet, but the other Grunir added his weight to the attack, before another of their number caught me with a clean punch to the eye. I went down like a felled tree, two Grunir on top of me and two orc types kicking into me.
All I could do at that point was to cover up. Four against one, with me pinned on the ground, was not a fight I could win.
When the beating finished, I was dragged to a dark back-alley and dumped.
The leader leaned in, his breath smelling of rotten meat. “You don’t slow down at tomorrow, the camp mage won’t do you no good, ‘cause we’ll kill you next time. You understand?” He prodded a thick, spike-nailed finger into my chest. “You’re lucky you’re getting away still breathing tonight.”
I tried to reply, but just ended up coughing up blood as they limped away. Once they’d gone, I allowed myself a small smile as the tingle of another stat tingled in through my body and made me feel a little better:
Level: 15
Class: —
Stats:
- Toughness: 19
- Mental Acuity: 13
- Harmony: 14
- Total: 46
Another point in toughness. I couldn’t understand why I’d get another so soon, and I wasn’t even going to try to until I’d been healed. So I curled up in a ball, focused on my breathing and drifted off into a deep, miserable combination of sleep and unconsciousness.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
When I came back to the land of the living, I did so via a hand shaking my shoulder.
“The sooner you get moved on, the better!”
I felt surprisingly good. I opened bleary eyes to find the mage standing over me furious. “Morning,” I said, yawning and stretching on the cold, hard floor.
She turned without a word and stalked off.
I jumped up to my feet and followed after her. “Hey, wait. Thanks for the healing. How did you know where I was?”
She spun, her face flushed a darker shade of purple. “Because I just spent half the morning healing your work mates! Pray no one else need healing today because my mana is gone! Gone, I tell you. Because all you’ve done since arriving is cause trouble.”
It was hard to suppress my laugh. “Hardly. All I’ve done is what has been asked of me.”
“I don’t want to hear it. Just stay out of trouble and out of my way. I swear, next time our paths meet, I’ll heal the breaks but nothing else.”
“You could just tell me how to heal myself.”
“I think we covered that magic isn’t so simple. Unlike some people not so far away from where I’m standing. But if it will shut you up, then fine.” She spun to face me fully, black cloak and gray hair flaring wide as she did.
“Focus on what you want to heal. Imagine what it should feel like when it is healthy. Then take hold of that feeling and shove your mana into it until it becomes real.”
I smiled, hoping to soften her up a little toward me. “I thought you said it wasn’t simple?”
“There’s a lot more nuance to it, but that is what it boils down to. Now leave me alone, and if I must heal you again, then ask me no more questions.”
She left with a flurry of huffs and puffs, and disappeared around the corner of the huts. I waited to give her time to get some distance, and then I walked the same route back to work. The alarm sounded as I walked, meaning thankfully I wasn’t going to be late, but I decided to pop in the Chargehand’s office all the same.
He looked up and grimaced. “You again. I’m getting bad reports about you Henshaw.”
“You are? Why? I work hard.”
“The other lads say you’re causing trouble, and they’re having to work harder to make up for you.”
“Is that so,” I said, unable to fight the grin on my face.
“Something funny?”
“Yeah! You realize the reason they keep attacking me is that I’m working too hard. At least that’s the reason according to them. Why don’t you do your job and actually watch what happens during the day?”
He slammed both fists down on the desk. “Don’t start your shit with me, boy. I told you not to rattle the cage, and here you are, rattling the damned cage. The pit healer is at her wits end with you.”
I shook my head in despair. “What is wrong with you people? Bad enough I’m stuck here, but you’re all cracked in the head. I feel like I’m in some alternate universe where yes means no and black is white.”
Eest frowned at me for too long without speaking. It was uncomfortable, but finally, a big, yellow-toothed grin split his mouth. “It’s because you don’t know the truth, lad.” He looked around furtively, as if to look out for people listening in our conversation, then he beckoned me closer, speaking quietly. “You need to know something.”
Intrigued and hopeful, I walked back over to the desk and leaned closer. “Do tell.”
He moved far faster than I was expecting and cracked me with a meaty fist in the eye. “Do what your told and keep your big head down! Now get out of my office and go do your job.”
As my head rocked back, I reckoned I deserved to lose a point in Mental Acuity for being so fucking stupid. Instead, I had a swelling eye, complete with a cut across the brow from where his rings bit in.
My fists clenched, ready to swing, but I swallowed the anger. What would it achieve but more trouble. I was leveling at what seemed to be a good rate, and I didn’t need to jeopardize my hopes of getting home with a bout of rage, no matter how justified.
I stepped back, fighting against the torrent of anger in my chest, turned, then stormed from the hut, hoping I’d get the opportunity to pay him, my fellow workers, and the Overseer who had started this mining ordeal by giving me a broken jaw, some serious payback.
I marched to the loading area and received the usual scowls form my buddies. I glowered back until I took my position. Then I ignored them. The first cart came, and I went crazy, throwing the rocks on the lorry faster than ever before. Once the cart was empty, I glared at the others.
“Same time tonight, fuckers? I’ll be ready for you all. And I promise you,” I said, pointing at their leader. “Just like you promised me. There’ll be murder tonight, but it won’t be mine.”
They all seemed surprised by the outburst, and a few of them paled, looking nervously to each other. None of them mustered an answer until the next cart rolled in, and the leader snapped back, “You think we’re scared of you?”
I gave him one last look. “You should be.” Then I pulled down the side of the next cart and got to work.
This time after I cleared the area closest to me in record time, panting from the exertion, I stood back and watched the others work. There was no doubt that they were uncomfortable under my glare. Which was as it should be. I’d had enough of their shit.
I wiped some sweat from my brow and winced a little at the pain in my eye. “Stupid fucking chargehand.” I’d probably need healing again after tonight, so it could be fixed then.
Unless… could I do it myself? I had the stone cold words written in my mind that that the mage path was open to me, and my Harmony was strong. Recounting what the mage had told me, I focused on my eye. I imagined what it should feel like. It was hard as my mind kept turning to the itching feeling of the cut part, and the tenderness of the swollen area.
Another cart came before I could get a grip of the feelings I should be nailing down. I shelved the attempt and got back to work. Once again, I emptied the area closest to me, but rather than offer death threats, I stood back and focused on my eye again.
On the fourth cart, I repeated the pattern, when a voice interrupted me.
“What the hell are you doing, lad? So much for you grafting. No wonder these fine fellows are furious with you.”
There was a chorus of aye’s from the rest of the team as I glowered at him with all the contempt I had in me, then pointed to the cart. “Are you blind?”
His face bloomed red. “What did you say to me?”
“Blind,” I repeated. “There are six of us. That means the carts are divisible by six. I have already cleared my sixth and more. I won’t do more when no one appreciates my efforts.” I pointed to my eye.
He threw his hands up in the air. “Are you mad? That is not how a mining camp works, fool. You work till the cart is empty!”
“You’ll have to show me the mining camp rules, because how I heard it, the six of us need to clear twelve carts a day. Two for each of us. So, assuming we meet that quota, there’s no problem.”
He fish-mouthed and finally stammered an enraged. “What?!”
I pointed over at him and spoke slowly. “You are holding up the work. Distracting the lads with your complaining so we might be short today. Whaddya say, lads? Will we be short?”
It seemed no one knew quite what to do with the all-new Adam. Funny how people thought they could push and push and not expect anything to break.
It took a short while, but the red-faced Chargehand finally retorted. “You’re going to pay for this.”
Then he marched off like his feet were on fire. Not the response I was expecting.