1 Backstory

3500 Kilos of crystals. That's how much the slaves were expected to handle everyday.

Hardship is all 2032 knows. Hardship is all the human race knows.

He heard that his mother died of blood loss after giving birth to him.

His father is nowhere to be seen, maybe he left? Maybe he was taken away? The point is that his father isn't there anymore.

He was taken care of by a kind elderly couple referred to as 1804 and 1786. They raised him to the tender age of nine, that is the age where he could carry a pickaxe.

Due to evolution and adaptation, the human race became 30% stronger at childbirth. Humans were expected to carry tools at the even more tender age of seven but 2032 is undoubtedly weak.

Even when he could pick up the pickaxe to start the mining, he didn't have the accuracy nor the skill to mine. The only other work he could do to help was handle the refining.

The refining job is straightforward enough, it was to fuel the array which refined the ore and maintain the arrays through the manual given.

A luxury job? Yes. However, it is reserved for 1 adult and children. Why are they not vying for the position? and the reason is because if they don't meet the quota, then the entire company will be punished.

Last time, approximately a year ago, they failed to meet the quota. Snake men came in and took 10 people indiscriminately through a raffle of sorts.

The slaves came up and then entered a locked room with the snake men. When the door opened again, the only ones to leave were the snake men.

No one knew what happened, but they could all guess. These times are often used as a lesson for us.

But for the snakes this was a form of entertainment, a way to lighten up their years.

Currently, 2032 is 12 years old. He's been in the refining room for 3 years. After all these years stuck behind the table, he has mastered the basic refining array given to him and learned the works behind the arrays.

The basic refining array given to him has seven basic commands: [activate], [gather], [insert], [release], [cleanse], [compress], and [deactivate] in those steps.

The more energy given to the array before [activate] means the stronger the command(s) of the array. For example, in the case of the refining array you would need to put more power into [compress] compared to the energy inside the crystal, and depending on the ratio it could affect the efficiency of the command.

For reference, it takes 1 refined crystal or 3 unrefined crystals to refine 3 crystals.

2032, along with the other children, study the array and try to figure out how to improve the array with the adults, allowing for increased efficiency.

2032 found that if you pull from the inside, which already contains manipulatable energy, it would save more energy than pushing from the outside, discovering the command [contract].

This experiment greatly increased the efficiency though decreasing the quality by a miniscule amount.

Throughout several years, 2032 would discover many new creative commands such as [store], [contain], and many more.

The snake men had announced for him to be the "Head Refiner"

However a more decorated dog would still be a dog. But they were treated better at least. There was a saying that "fairer months of livelihood are better than a few days of luxury."

They were often used as a boast for the snake men, as if they were rare collectibles.

But for 2032, that will change soon, real soon.