A cacophony of striking pickaxes and the rumble of crumbling rocks echoes through the darkest depths of the mining cave.
"Old man, here's some jerky. It's a bit moldy, but it can't be helped."
The ringing of hammering stops and a face of blackened soot greets Joab, the new recruit.
"Joab, what happened to this jerky? Did the tunnels flood again?"
The old man grabs the jerky without hesitation. Moldy jerky can be fatal, but he is willing to risk it. With a body no different to a skeleton wrapped in human skin, even poison would be a delicacy.
"What else, old man. That idiot Abod did it again. He tore through a water vein and flooded the storage room."
A big hand tapped Joab's shoulder. Its palms still covered in soot, but then no one will really notice the palmprint on his dirty sack of a shirt.
"Tell Abod to rest."
Having said that, the old man walks away carrying a pickaxe on his back with his right hand and a glowing crystal lantern on his left.
Joab stared at the old man's back as if in a daze. With a wry smile, an image of a thin Abod pops up in his mind. Telling Abod to rest is no different from telling him to starve.
All miners rely on the coal mine for survival. Any extra income from the mined coal will be pocketed by the managers leaving the miners only enough money for a day's worth of black bread.
You would expect that no one would be motivated enough to mine beyond their official quotas as all surplus are profited by the managers, but that is not the case.
With the managers' pockets tied to the surplus from the quota, they levied another unofficial quota for the miners to fill. If someone slacks off, 10 lashes per cart of missing coal will be their punishment.
Joab is about to leave the cave, but then he notices a glint beneath the ores. Driven by curiousity, Joab picked up his pickaxe and tried to pry open a bigger hole around it to see better what is inside.
Clank! The pickaxe encountered something metallic. Suddenly, the ore crumbles and out comes rolling a perfect 3 by 3 cube about the size of his fist.
"What is this? It looks like iron but much smoother. Agh!"
A thin line of red blood flows from his finger. This cube's edges are extremely sharp and as time passes, the red blood from his finger coats the cube like mold on a Petri dish.
"Wha-what's happening?"
The cube now fully coated in blood suddenly glows like a demonic object. It began to rotate faster and faster as if it is solving the cube, whatever that may mean.
As it rotates, it floats higher and higher midair— completely disrespecting gravity. Then suddenly, bam, the cube shatters into 27 little cubes.
----------------------------------------
[Teleportation Manual]
Join two cubes to entangle them. Entangled cubes when separated creates a portal.
To create more cubes, a soul must be sacrificed.
> Warning: If all cubes are destroyed, the user's soul will also be destroyed.
Please pass the cube to the next user before your death.
----------------------------------------
"What??? Is this a demonic artifact? Wha-what do I do? I can't even destroy it."
The 27 demonic little cubes lost its luster becoming mundane as if it is just another ordinary piece of coal.
"Joab!!! Look, look, I found a rat! We can roast this tonight! Hmmm??? Why are you playing with those coals? Wait, it's a perfect cube! That's a cool coal!"
Joab was startled as he looked behind him. There comes Ying, a scholar turned prisoner miner. It isn't hard to know why with his luck of knowing things he shouldn't and being in places he shouldn't.
"Yi-ying, why are you here? I-I am just playing with coals here, nothing special haha."
"What do you mean? I got us dinner! Look, this rat is still a little chubby. Hehe, it has a bit more meat than the cockroach yesterday. What are you waiting for, let's roast this bad boy!"
"I will just finish collecting these, um, coal."
"Hmm, I didn't know you have a knack for sculpting coals into perfect cubes. You can totally work as a craftsman back in the village."
"Yeah, yeah, a craftsman."
Joab looked at Ying in a moment, but immediately focused himself into collecting these 27 little charcoal cubes. He can't risk any of them to be destroyed otherwise his soul will also be destroyed.
"Are you finished? Let's go quickly, I can't wait to roast this."
Ying, clearly excited, dragged Joab outside the cave upon seeing that he finished collecting the charcoal cubes. Joab, without a bag, just tied all of it in in the bottom of his shirt like candies during Haloween.
Back at the camp, multiple tents populated the surface. Joab breathes the fresh air and the twinkling night sky—relishing the rare moments of complete freedom from the dark and cramped tunnels of the mine.
"Joab, come on! Stop dozing off. Help me get some stones."
"Coming... I will also pick some ironwood on the way."
"Thanks, that's a great help."
Joab and Ying worked together building a cylinder of flat stones. The Coal Plateau is very windy all year round, so they need to fence the fire so it doesn't spread.
Ying then dug a hole inside the cylinder and a little hole outside. He makes sure that the little hole faces the wind. He then connects the two holes.
This is done to create a smokeless fire pit. The wind enters the little hole to provide oxygen and with more oxygen the fire intensifies burning the smoke.
While Ying is preparing the fire pit, Joab is cleaning the rat's innards using some water and a purification talisman.
A handful of coal is dropped inside the cylinder of rocks and the ironwood skewering the rat is put on top.
Joab then turns the ironwood from time to time—waiting for the rat to be fully roasted.
"Joab, what is your dream?"
"That came out of nowhere. Why are you asking?"
Ying adopts a relaxed sitted posture with his two arms supporting his back—his eyes reflecting the starlight above.
"You can totally be a craftsman you know. Those cubes are perfect. It will take some time, but you will be successful. Then you can finally marry that gal Lisa you always talk about."
"I-it isn't always though! You are lying!"
Joab blushes and Ying seeing that laughs loudly. Joab also laughs with his friend. After some time, the laughing stops. Both smile at each other and looks up at the night sky twinkling with stars.
"How about you Ying?"
"About me? Ah, my dream? After I serve my time, I would travel all around the world. I will join a pirate ship and become a pirate. Then I would raid all the continents and rob all their exotic fruits and magic crystals. After that, when I have travelled all around the world, I would go to the moon."
"What? Are you insane?!! Why the moon? It's impossible to go to the moon."
"Impossible? We have Void Mages for that. They will eventually figure it out."
"Even so, it is ridicu-"
"Hmm? Why did you stop? Did you finally realize how great I am?"
Joab realized that he indeed have something that is as ridiculous. That damned demonic cube, but he can't possibly tell Ying about it.
"Ying, if, just if, you find a cursed object, um, in your pirate raids, what will you do about it. This cursed object might contain some unknown power and the method to increase this power is to sacrifice souls. Also, it can't be destroyed as your soul will also be destroyed. What will you do?"
"Why is this question so specific?"
"It's nothing really, just answer the question."
"Hmm, if I have that cursed object, I would probably seal it away in a safe place. I can't just throw it away as there is a risk of it being destroyed."
"Exactly, right? I will seal it away!"
"Well, maybe you can still use it. From what you said, the cursed object does not require a sacrifice when using it, only when you want to increase its power."
"But won't I be tempted to use it in the future?"
"Hmm, yeah. Power corrupts even the best of man."
The two basked in silence while enjoying the breeze from the plateau. After some time, the aroma of roasted rat tempted their senses.
"Woahh, the roasted rat is ready. Joab, let's divide this now. Old rules, I pick odd you pick even."
"Hehe, I will win this time."
Joab and Ying grabbed some number of stones secretly from each other.
""Odd Even Go!""
Joab opens his right hand showing 4 stones. Ying opens his hand showing 3 stones.
"It's 7, I win!", Joab happily said to Ying.
"Alright, I will cut this up."
Ying breaks the rat into two pieces and skewered them into two new ironwood sticks and showed it to Joab.
"Joab, pick which part you want."
"I want the bottom part with the tail. You get the head."
"No problem. As agreed."
"As agreed."
Joab and Ying happily eats the roasted rat. The fleshy and oily meat of the rat is sweet and savory—just perfectly roasted. It's taste is a bit bitter due to the environment in the coal mine, but it is still fat and savory enough to qualify as meat.
Even while eating, the stories and laughter doesn't cease and becomes even more alive in the sleeping plateau. They happily relished this moment and feasts wantonly until the crackling fire fades into ashes.