CH1: In The Depths There Are Shadows

Sweat poured off his face, sizzling on the floor where his Hydra leather boots melted. Charred bones littered the slow-shifting obsidian floor balanced over magma veins. Legends had died around him; the collars they wore in life weighed their souls down in death. Metal collars heated to glow remained firm when cultivator flesh melted and their bones charred. Not even the heat from the depths of the mine was enough to free them. Only the pickaxes, collars, and veins of spirit stone stood under the onslaught of heat from the depths.

He moved slowly, picking up the heads and removing the collars before placing them back. Zack stacked them in his inventory for the talisman maker to tinker with back in town.  

The floor shifted, rising higher than usual, and he felt like a flea on a dog, witnessing it take a breath. His eyes dried to raisins widened, and he felt the inevitability of death creeping in. Something primal washed over Zack Sin, and he had to get away.

Zack pulled at his collar, thinking that if he could get it off, he could leave through a gate to his demi-plane, but it wouldn’t budge. Only his pickaxe maintained its obsidian coloring. A hunk of spirit stone was before him through the haze of heat. The glowing blue chunks of crystal were why he was enslaved instead of executed when he landed.

He turned his head and saw his brother in the depths of a mine in a world with different universal laws, as Jason looked when they were younger. They were standing in his brother’s kitchen at midnight. Zack recognized the tan cabinets and pizza boxes on the blue countertops.  “You aren’t going to give all that loot to the slavers, are you?” Jason said.  

Snort!

“No,” It was such a Jason thing to ask him.

Zack felt his eyes sting. He turned his back on the memory. They were worlds apart; his brother was far away. Still, he answered and cursed his mind for dreaming up this image because he answered. “What choice do I have? If I bring them more spirit stones, I can buy Su Lin and Su Jun’s freedom with contribution points. I know the foreman won’t let me leave, but two nobodies who don’t contribute. The foreman will call it a bargain.”

A crack opened in the floor, and hot steam erupted. Zack pushed his brother out of the way and screamed as the super-heated steam hit him.

“Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know. I hate you. You did this to me, but you are all I have left.”

Zack pulled at his collar and screamed as it shocked him. He was hot and so hungry for freedom. He stared at his hand as old, blackened skin sloughed off and new skin took place. Why did he take Heat Resistance and Regeneration?

“You have people relying on you in the town. Don’t sit on your ass feeling sorry for yourself, get moving.”

“It's good to hear your voice, brother, even if it's an illusion,” Zack said.

The answer was simple: He wanted to live not just for himself but also for those who couldn’t do the work.

He wanted revenge on the bastards that imprisoned him. Who was he kidding? Those people who flew on swords might as well be gods compared to him. Zack looked through his pop-ups but didn’t find the skill Shock Resistance. It might exist, but the collar slowed his system’s analysis capabilities. He would need to be shocked for much longer to get the skill and give this place the bird.

Zack checked his status on reflex.

Zack Sin

Rank: G

Life G: 300/9999

Regen G: 390/999

Body G: 200/999

Strength G: 120/999

Reflex G: 100/999

Senses G: 50/99

Mana G 500/9999

Resist G: 55/99

Skills

Demeter’s Touch F: 90/999

Heat Resistance G: 90/99

Demi-Plane G: 900/99999

Gate G: 100/999

Regeneration G: 98/99

Monster Tamer G: 90/99

Exotic Grilling F: 90/99

The only way to reach an F grade was for all his skills and 3 of his attributes to be an F grade—not that any of that mattered. Demi-Plane, the skill he relied upon most, was impossibly hard to rank up. That only meant that once it did, the F rank would be unbelievably powerful.

Zack formed a gate in front of him and watched the green forest filled with monsters taken from the mines adapted to their new environment. Then he closed it before he was tempted to try and escape to his death.

While he wore the collar, escape was impossible. It could not pass through wormholes, even those made with the Gate skill.

“Don’t forget the nail that stands out gets hammered down.” Zack pushed himself up to shaky legs. The collar didn’t block mana. If he could figure out how to use the most government-regulated knowledge from his home world, maybe he could protect himself from the shocks and break the collar.

Zack patted the big blue gemstone nearly as big as he was. It was a shame he couldn’t bring it with him and turn it in. He could free them and become a clan of the White Flash Sect with the merit points from such a large spirit stone. People would get suspicious if he returned with a bright blue spirit stone weighing hundreds of pounds.

He needed only enough to make his quota and those of Su Lin and her daughter, Su Jun.

Zack picked at the crystal, shattering pieces until he freed the vein. He couldn’t leave himself, but that didn’t mean he was without options.

A portal to his demi-plan plane appeared. He wanted to escape, but the collar would shock him to death. He didn’t have the sheer amount of body attribute points needed to survive. This was only petty revenge.

Zack picked up the massive glowing blue crystal and threw it through the portal. Given its size, it must have weighed closer to 2000 pounds, but he threw it like tossing a branch in a bonfire. The pickaxes weighed close to 50 lbs.; maybe mining was making him stronger.

He felt better as if a scratch had been itched. “Jason, are you there?” Zack asked.

There was no one in the tunnel with him. He grinned and gathered the pieces of spirit stone to exchange for merit points. It wasn’t his true source of merit points, but the depths helped him.

He felt small spines from an old monster attack when he stepped walked. They were lodged deep in his hip. It made every step through the tunnel a pain. He was lucky so far he hadn’t hit any magma veins. With the pain in his hip, he wouldn’t escape them in time.

Zack kept a portal open in his mouth to breathe fresh air at all times. He could open two at once and blow air into places. When a cave was dark, he shined light through his portal, lighting it up.

He followed his mental map back toward the surface until he found his bag of holding. Then he put on his work clothes and stored his spirit stones inside.

Killing a fellow slave was forbidden, and their bags couldn’t be opened except by the owner or the Forman. This kept most of the bullying down, but there were always gangs to worry about.

There were three gangs in their camp, and they controlled the black market. Cultivation resources, training manuals, and weapons for the monsters in the mine flowed through them. Some people said a successful miner could live better than even the peasants in the capital. No man was free. They were just limited to the mountain. It was wishful thinking.

Legend had it that Raxos Peak had been the site of a battle between an ancient hero and a dragon. The spirit stones mined from the depths were the dragon’s chi leeching from its corpse over the millennia since its death. The magma veins were its blood vessels fusing with the mountain range as its body became the land. No one knew if Raxos was the name of the dragon or the hero.

Zack thought it was more likely to be some active volcano that dug veins of spirit stones up from the planet’s depths with its natural magma flows. He liked the legend better. Maybe they were digging around the corpse of some ancient dragon, and the shifting ground was the dragon’s breath instead of gases shooting up to the surface.

He went through the gas-filled tunnels, where no sane miner would go; they were the shortest paths to the surface. The safe and unsafe lamps provided enough light for him to see instead of forming a second portal. He kept a portal in his mouth open to taste fresh air and poured water down his parched throat when he needed it. His portals to his demi-plane were his greatest tool. Even if he couldn’t leave, seeing his world, where he had spent countless years, gave him hope in the deepest darkness.

He heard a chirping sound in the middle of one of the grand tunnels and froze. Then, he formed a portal, and sunlight poured through, lighting up the tunnel. Raptors were giant lizards with red scales that irradiated heat like the inside of a furnace. Their bites delivered a poisonous flame that burned men from the inside out.

Zack had never encountered so many, and he thought they were rare. However, in the light of his portal, there were over 50 surrounding him. The sudden light stunned them, but that would only last for moments. He needed to scare them into running away.

He stood tall, his pickaxe raised and snarled. One jumped, its taloned feet extended, and his portal appeared in front of it and stole the monster. These creatures were G-grade. If they qualified for F grade, his Gate skill would devour his mana to take them.

The power levels in this world and his own didn’t balance well, and the collar did something that messed up his system’s analysis capabilities. Suppose they were no F grades, then. A smile spread across his face, and his lips cracked. He swiped his pickaxe and caught one in the side of the head. One bit his calf and jerked with its teeth.

He felt the teeth sink into his skin, and he screamed as the smell of his burning blood surfaced old memories. Pain not of the flesh but emotional had been too much. He was a loser even with the system, a nobody, the brother of a hero. His name was changed after the new government was established so that Zack couldn’t use his brother’s name. They no longer looked alike. He had fallen further and further behind.

Zack had grown a fruit in his demi-plane. In his orchard were the Bael trees, demonic trees that grew a fruit of wrath. One bite would extend someone’s life and magic potential by 50% but drown their minds in red-hot rage.

When he was in his darkest moments, the promise of power in exchange for losing all the real hatred was too tempting. He took a bite and awoke to a chaotic realm that took weeks to repair. The effects were almost as powerful the second time he ate a fruit. Then, the power of the fruit started wearing off. The Bael fruit betrayed its promise, leaving him in the darkness without the lifeline of that fiery rage.

The bite filled his veins with red-hot magma, and the lizards moved away from him and stared. He smiled because he was the kind of wacko who smiled when they were in pain. It hurt so nostalgically.

He snapped open portals beneath the lizard’s feet as his Heat Resistance and Regeneration ticked one level up at a time, thanks to the venom coursing through his veins. Monsters in the new world were smart. When one with odd coloration figured out he wasn’t dying, it charged, and the others joined it.

Zack took them, tossing them in the hot lands of his demi-plane, where they would adjust to or die in their new habitats.

He swung his pickaxe and took one lizard in the eye before it latched on to his leg. Another bit his arm holding his pickaxe, while the third bit his thigh. White hot pain shot through him. He felt teeth scrape against his bone, and his insides sizzle and pop.

“You’ve gotten slow. When will you learn movement skills and get with the times? Uncle Sin, you are strong; why don’t you try more?” Zackaria Hadrian said.

He grabbed the neck of a lizard and felt something. It was large and electrifying. A force poured into his grip, and he squeezed through tough scales, heat-resistant hide, and super-dense bone.

Snap!

“The last thing I need is advice from my nephew, the hero's son,” Zack said.  He pulled the monster off him, leaving behind teeth in his wound. A swift punch caved in another monster’s head before he dropped his pickaxe and raised both hands. A hammer strike splattered the skull of the last lizard that bit him.

An orange glue-like substance leaked from his wounds and caught fire in the open air. Flames quickly burned his pants and shirt as he struggled to pat them out. He stared at parts of his body glowing a deep yellow before turning bright green in his veins.

“Either my regeneration and heat resistance will take care of it, or they won’t.” Zack clenched his fist. Could he use the power he felt when he hit those monsters again? He raised his pickaxe and swung it, but the power didn’t come to him.

What was the difference? Was it mana? How to directly use mana was highly regulated information. Zackeria must have been a hint that he needed a new skill.

He hesitated. Each new skill meant he was farther from reaching F rank and possibly ripping off his collar. Zack took a painful step forward and slowly moved the lizards into his spacial bag.

As he plucked the teeth from his wound, he turned them over and admired their serrated edges. His regeneration was his problem. He couldn’t cut into himself fast enough to get at the quills in his hip. Tears take a little longer to heal than fine cuts. Well, they did. For all he knew, his dose of raptor venom would force his regeneration to grow stronger.

Maybe if he took it to the alchemist Li Gao, the man owed him for free food. Zack made sure to grill meat for a meal that increased the life potential and attribute.

If he injected concentrated venom, maybe he could tear through his flesh and pull the quills out of his bone.

More glowing green veins surrounded the orange wounds, and the pain faded. Most people died when the green reached their hearts. Zack wasn’t worried. The burning sensation felt nostalgic and almost pleasant compared to the constant agony from walking on his bum hip.

He took another trip through a marked carbon monoxide-filled tunnel and approached the first hurdle for anyone leaving the mine. Before the check-in station, there was the gang tax, where a portion of all mined materials were turned in.

Six hours deep was considered dangerous. Zack had been 12 in and talking with ghosts. Three gangs changed out every four hours, and he last spoke with Li Chun of the Red Vipers. Zack checked his time. He had been gone for 28 hours. That meant.

A man in brown robes with a bat emblazoned on his chest smirked when their eyes met. “Look what the dog dragged from the ditch. If it isn’t everyone’s favorite Uncle Sin Zack, are you ready to pay your tax to the Shadow Bat? Truly, it had been too long, and you owe us a lot. I think little Su Jun will go hungry tonight. Maybe she’ll come begging me for sausage.”

He heard complaints from his customers about Chang Bo. Everyone knew he took a little off the top because his uncle was Chang Fu. They washed out of the White Flash sect, owing massive debt to the sect for their training. When their clans refused to buy them out of the debt, they were sent to the mines. Chang Fu quickly became a leader in the Shadow Bats, and Zack invested in them.

Zack limped forward, praying to whatever god would listen that he wouldn’t have to kill Chang Fu’s dumbass nephew. “Alright, I will sit here and wait for your replacement.”

“You’ve been gone for over a day. I know what this place does to men desperate enough to dive too deep. I bet you’ve heard all kinds of voices. Did you see any images of the men you killed reaching for you from your own shadow? Pay me all the contents in your bag, and I’ll let you go if you kowtow three times.”

Zack leaned against a wall. The little shit thought he had him by the balls.

“We have a deal with the others. You must pay two tolls if you try to wait for another gang.”

“But both will be fair, and the shadow bats will make fewer merit points. Some of your members will have to stay in these caves longer, and you already said what that does to a man. Best of all, it will be all your fault while I’m being reasonable.”

The boy’s eyes shifted, blinking horizontally. Zack shook his head. Maybe it was his imagination.

“I’ll beat you until you give up everything you’ve mined.”

Zack smirked and pulled a fig out of his inventory. Bael fruit was surprisingly small and sweet. It hardly looked dangerous at all. The purple and orange color and sweet scent attracted many to their doom. Most burned them wherever they found them growing after the change. Zack had saved a few different breeds for his demi-plane.

Zack decided to try and be amiable. “Rumor has it Chang Fu wants us to revolt against the guards and escape. A good guy that Chang Fu.” Zack made a show of pulling more fruit out of his pockets as a portal dropped them fresh from his trees. “Would you like a piece of fruit?” Zack asked and tossed one in his mouth.

It was so sweet, with only a hint of the old poison that quickened his pulse and made his mind boil in rage. That pleasant, hot rage was nothing compared to the black rage he felt.

“It's poisoned.” Zack tossed the one he was about to offer in his mouth.

“Sure, that’s why I’m eating them? They look the same and feel the same. If I poisoned one, I would misplace it and poison myself. That would be dumb in the mines.” He spun one on his finger to get the boy’s attention. “I’m being friendly, and I’m with the cause. Do your job, but remember the real enemy.  It isn’t the guy giving away fruit.”

Zack tossed a fig, and the man caught it. “This smells like it's full of chi. How did you get these?”

“Down in the depths, there are bounties. Finding them isn’t hard. Leaving with them is. So, do we have a deal?” Zack asked.

A smile spread across the boy’s face, and it seemed like he had finally become reasonable. “With this, my cultivation can continue a little further.” The man put the fruit in his mouth and chewed. “Give me everything you have; maybe I’ll be more lenient next time. That Su Jun sure looked pretty in that blue dress this morning. I wouldn’t mind tasting her.”

Zack had no idea about the Chi in the fruit but tossed a few massive spirit stone clusters around the Bael orchards in his demi-plane. Maybe those hungry fig trees added chi to their fruit. Could they cultivate?

The man opened his mouth, and his eyes went bloodshot. Then, his face dribbled like hot wax. “You poisoned me.” Zack tossed another in his mouth. “Give me the antidote.”

“Sweet and spicy isn’t everyone’s favorite combination.” The fool roared and charged. Zack sidestepped and tripped the man. “I was worried about any techniques you might have learned in the White Flash Sect.” A telegraphed haymaker shot toward his head, and he caught the arm and moved behind the man’s back. With Chang Bo’s hand safely behind his back, Zack snapped the arm out of its socket and stepped away.

The arm hung limply as the madman charged again. Zack opened a portal beside the man as a raptor shot out in a lung at the man, biting him repeatedly in the face. It would also be better if a monster were the one to kill the Shadow Bat captain’s nephew. A mere chef like himself couldn’t have the ability to do the deed. Flesh spilled from the corpse-like dough, and some of the pieces almost looked like blades before falling into a puddle. He assumed it was from the more potent Bael Fruit.

It was how Zack preferred to operate. In the early days, when the Red Vipers were the strongest, Zack took out the members he didn’t like and weakened them. He also helped the other two gangs rise to keep any revolts from happening.

He stayed and watched long enough for Chang Bo's snarling to fade. It wasn’t unheard of for raptors to travel close to the check-in station. This shouldn’t blowback and bite him in the ass.

Zack left the Raptor behind. It didn’t attack him; it had been in his demi-plane long enough for his other skills to affect it.

Chang Bo had been right; he wanted to escape the mine. Zack also wanted off this miserable world but would remain patient. The Shadow Bats had gained a lot of members recently, and the other two gangs didn’t want to step on any toes. So, Zack would support the Red Vipers and Blue Ravens with discounted food from his restaurant and take out a Shadow Bat grunt when he could. There were endless dangers in the mines, after all.

It was only when the gangs were at each other's throats that they left him alone.