An Immortal Legend: The Tale of the Sightless Wanderer

Chapter 15: Expedition Miners

[HAUNTING INDIGO]

Loading the indigo among the two blue-hued capsules, the pool of death-dyed Mana emitted from the horizons becomes glaring to them. Counting, there are a total of nine with emissions that are abnormally high in which they’d settled to start with the closest one with a location closest to a major settlement.

It was a bust. There’s no trace of her or anything of value on their first stop and so is in the next and then the third. They’re just godforsaken places and nothing more.

That’s why now, two weeks later, just as the realm’s star was setting down in the north, riding a carriage dragged by a Lisser, a giant scorpion magical beast, they are about to enter their fourth stop, the mining and trading town of Loner Graz.

According to what they’d gathered during the priors, Loner Graz used to be a trading town exclusively until two years ago when an Sperian ore vein was discovered parallel to it. From then, mining was also established by the scrap traders and their bosses. Unfortunately, their rule was short-lived as just six months later, the Junkers, a gang spawned from the western settlement of Hermit Pez, crossed the wasteland and took control of the town alongside its trades. Now, it’s either they work for them or they don’t work at all.

“Good sir, what can I do for you?” A trader Wanda approached upon entering the town greeted him.

“I just arrived from outworld.” ‘Outworld’, the term used when referring to an outside realm. “And I’m looking for a job.”

The trader looked at him and deliberated right away. The clusters of the east Outer Branches, after all, is the typical go to place for those that are running or hiding from something or someone and hence, such inquiry was very common. He’d probably received and replied to it for an innumerable number of times already.

“What kind of job are you willing to do?”

“Whatever that pays better,” he replied.

“That’ll be the mines. It pays at least five times compared to scavenging.”

“Are they looking for people?” Wanda inquired next though they already have an estimate of the situation.

“They are always looking for people,” he pointed out. “The pay might be better but the mortality rate is also high.”

That’s not surprising. Though it is still to be confirmed if there’s really a grave within the mines, it is still a fact that it is thick with death-dyed Mana, something that’s fatal with prolonged exposure.

The trader then shook his head. “So aside from the slaves, very few would actually grab onto working the mines.”

“Unfortunately for me, I’m new so I need a bigger capital. I’ll take my chance on the mines,” he said. “Where should I enlist?”

◆◆◆◆◆◆

Three days later…

*Pank! Pank! Pank!

‘This is really daunting,’ Wanda inwardly sighed as he strikes his pickaxe against his part of the mine’s wall.

Aside from them, the rest are blind to the fact that they’re thickly surrounded by death-dyed Mana and that a fatal dose is gradually building up within their system each time they take a breath. To a non-cultivator, this pace will cripple them in a month and kill them in two. Quite fortunately, most of the miners, slaves and not, had at least a basic background in cultivation. They are with some protective gears too like a facemask so that expectancy is quite extended, minimally from a half to a year.

Still…Wanda could only sigh. ‘Hey Magnum, update,’ he telepathically requested.

Even though his remaining senses are enhanced and couple it with his Mana Sense, making his blindness nigh-irrelevant for his functions, he is still ultimately a blind person who can’t see details. For that, he needed Magnum’s sight to fill it in. On top of that, the moment he activated the Haunting Indigo, the sensing of the Death Mana had been permanently incorporated to his Mana Sense, currently blurring the perception as a whole as consequence of the said addition.

Perception adaption and mastery will resolve it but that’s not the case right now.

‘I think they’re starting to pay attention to you,’ he replied. ‘He keeps glancing this way.’

The mining operation of Loner Graz has two operations. The standard mining and the expedition mining. The standard mining is to where they are now, unearthing smaller to acceptable chunks of Sperian and is located just adjacent to the surface. Meanwhile, the expedition mining is the venture deeper into the mine where larger and purer chunks of ores could be reaped and thus, the pay is much larger. However, the latter operation has an equal degree of risks. The majority might be oblivious to the fact but the higher ups are not. They can’t just send any miner down there where the lethal Mana is much denser.

It needs to be a cultivator that had at least completed the Body Forging phase and must also be among the enlisted since slaves aren’t exactly their best manpower and neither are they the dedicated type.

Unfortunately, given the fact that most inhabitants of Authon are escapees from something complicated outworlds, it’s also complicated to pluck them from the rest. They have to identify them themselves and then give them assurance to avail their strength.

Wanda aims to venture the deeper regions of the mine but because the death-dyed Mana are disrupting his Mana Sense, he needed to be guided by people familiar with its outline and joining the expedition miners will provide that. On the other hand, volunteering will raise suspicion so he needed the management’s side to trigger the invite. Thus, he’d been doing his best to hint the fact that he’d reached Body Forging by ‘unconsciously’ standing out in his work these past three days.

*HWISSSS!!!

Suddenly, the overseer blows the whistle, implying that it’s already midday and the shift of the enlisted is over. “All the enlisted!” The overseer shouted. “Shift is over! The rest, keep working!”

Wanda exited the mine and along the rest of the enlisted miners, they lined up to the pillbox where they will return their gears and then surrender their finds to receive their dividend.

“No. 582, right?” The teller asked after he handed to him his pay.

It is his enlistment number. Wanda confirmed.

“The manager wants to see you,” he told him.

“What for?” He then gave the expected response.

“He didn’t say.”

Wanda nodded and made his way back to town, heading immediately to the Junker base to meet the manager.

Ushered by a guard, he was sent to his office right away. “I’m 582, you want to see me sir?”

“Yes, yes.” The manager, whose name is Unkul Ploor, dismissed the guard then ordered him to seat to the chair across his desk. “Your name is Wands, right?” He said after checking into his logbook.

“Yes sir,” he replied, ‘fidgeting’ a little in which Unkul noticed.

“Relax, you’re not in trouble or anything.”

“I’m not?”

“We’ve been observing you since you started. You’re a cultivator and your level seems to be more advance than most.”

“You must be mistaking sir, I’m…”

“Please,” he stopped him. “Spare me of those theatrics. I’m not interested on who you and what you’ve done outworld. All I care about is what you’re about to do for me.”

“Uhm okay.” Wanda feigned confusion. “What is it exactly?”

An explanation and an offer later, he was officially enlisted into the expedition miners and the next day, he joined them towards the deeper regions of the mine.