A man pushing a cart suddenly emerge behind a small building, heading straight towards us.Huh?And in that moment, a scent began to waft toward me, growing more potent with every passing second as the cart drew closer to our position.I glanced at Little Fish beside me, and from the expression on his face, it was evident that he'd felt it too. Our eyes met and I could see the growing grin on his face, he muttered something under his breath before licking his lips.Murmurs grew around me, it seems the entire group had already noticed it by the looks of excitement and relief in their faces.There's no mistaking it... that cart, it contains food.A growing sensation of moisture filled my mouth, accompanied by the rumbling of my stomach as the creaking of the approaching cart filled my ears. I could barely keep myself from launching towards the incoming cart.Each seconds seems like an hour as we impatiently waited for the arrival of the cart, if it weren't for the guards surrounding our

Well.. the mining area is more complex than I had initially thought.These men had seemingly crafted an entire town out from scratch! My gaze swept over the makeshift structures that seemed to stake claim to every available patch of ground as we navigated through them. Some of these structures reached high, boasting three stories despite their rough beginnings. Mere sticks and discarded planks had been ingeniously assembled to form the foundations of these crudely built buildings, not to mention the clotheslines strung everywhere, their lines extending in every direction we moved. This web of drying garments wove together the buildings, linking one to the next, and creating a network that enveloped the entire expanse in a pattern reminiscent of a spider web.However, it wasn't just wooden structures that existed in these 'town', for every wooden buildings that stood, there were also two or three tents interspersed among them, some even a mix of both, as if the town itself couldn't dec

Clutching my new pickaxe tightly with my only available hand, I endeavored to steady my panting breath, while exhaustion slowly crept over me. The reverberating symphony of Artanian chatter and the ceaseless percussion of metal meeting stone enveloped me from all sides.It's barely even a minute after Gulfram led me here to finally start my job mining and now I can barely keep myself from collapsing.Admiring the small cracks I inflicted on the massive boulder in front of me, I rested my tool on the boulder before wiping the sweat from my forehead. Curious, I turn my head to my right.As I gazed ahead, the scene of Little Fish and a procession of miners diligently extracting a portion from the stretching cliff-wall promptly captured my attention.Merely a few meters from where I stood, Little Fish ceased his mining activity and briefly pivoted in my direction, as though attuned to my scrutiny. Despite the dirt smudging his body, his appearance seemed surprisingly vibrant. Were it not

The sky is already dark and our shift for the second day is now over, my body is drenched with sweat while my hands shakily gripped the handle of the pickaxe that was resting on my shoulder, I could hear my labored breaths as I endured the pain and aches across my entire body.Currently, me and the rest of the group are descending down the hill, by the looks of everyone, they are all exhausted just like me, even Little Fish seems to be panting, but he's slightly in better shape compared to the rest of us.I suddenly felt my stomach grumble as we traverse down the narrow and complex pathways of the hill, I then gritted my teeth as I try to ignore my stomach's protest.I've never felt so hungry and exhausted before.If only we were given more food during breakfast then perhaps we wouldn't be in this condition right now.Fuckers..It felt like an eternity before we finally managed to return to our shed. After resting their own pickaxes against the wall, at least a third of my group went

Just as the cloak's axe was poised to descend upon the injured miner on the ground, a sudden shout echoed from behind the cloak. In swift succession, the figure of a familiar miner emerged, bursting onto the scene from the rear.Wait.. is that?I could feel a small weight lift off from my chest as I watch Gulfram try to wrestle the axe from the cloak's hand, while also shouting something at the same time. By this point, the wounded miner had already been dragged away to safety by his fellow miners.I noticed several cloaks halting their advance, casting bewildered and confused glances at Gulfram. This pause granted certain miners the opportunity to scatter and flee. Nevertheless, the count of miners that fled was so small that it failed to impact our collective strength significantly.I shifted my gaze uneasily in the direction of Arde, who appeared equally taken aback, grappling with a mixture of shock and fear, his efforts to arrive at a decisive course of action evident. Little Fis