2 [Chapter 2 – Towards the mines]

Hurrying through the alley, a heavy humidity is permeating the air increasing the already hot and nauseating environment of the slum district.

The crystal clear sky made a strong contrast with all the huts piled one over another that could be considered as the walls of the passageway.

All the of the poor and rejected that habited in the capital were living in simile conditions. One could have a metallic shack for himself or his family, how big and sturdy depended on the type of labour he was entitled with.

These "boxes" built over each other seemingly formed high metallic agglomerates. Between the various aggregates could be present alleys, such as the one I was walking in.

These masses one could dare to call apartments were mostly composed of Pristine panels, pipes dipping with polychromatic fluids and various random windowpanes reflecting the thick green sludge covering the alley's floor.

As you can imagine Pristine is a metal easily mined and fairly common too. It is pretty durable in itself, but if I had to create a blade I wouldn't chose it.

The thing is that there are a lot of other materials with better qualities that can be mined from Mt. Elkos, which mines have also become my everyday destination for quite a bit.

At the end of the alley awaits me a circular square with a diameter of, roughly, 150 meters. This location has been selected as the reunion point of the mining group [P-125], and was gradually getting more crowded as more miners were walking out from alleys like the one I came from.

Humanoids with olive coloured skin, slightly pointed ears and short pitch black hair, were walking towards the centre of the square.

Here was standing yet another celidre, but he was apparently different then all the miners. Being thirty centimetres taller than the average, with a bulky physique and a clean white suite.

The seemingly annoyed expression on his face and the pale blue aura that was exuding from his body were clearly testifying his current occupation, the [Inspector].

pp

"Brother Xeno! Brother Xeno!"

Turning around I notice a figure rushing to my position, and I quickly recognise the celidre who's been my best friend since the first years at the orphanage.

Waving my hand to Inea I greet him "Good morning".

"Ready for another trip in the mines?" asked him in an apparent ironic tone.

"ahhh..." letting out a long sigh I continued, stating the obvious, "Do I look like someone enthusiastic about starting another twelve hours deep underground ?".

Inea, looking at my tired face answered "Don't be so pessimistic brother, haven't you reached adulthood today?"

"And what about that?" I rebuked.

"Then… What about I offer you a drink tonight, on me, I swear" said Inea, with a smile on his face.

"Sounds good to me...-"suddenly a powerful voice interrupted the various speeches of the miners, resounding along all the square and gradually even through the thin walls of the slum's huts.

"Mining group [P-125]! We'll depart towards the north gate of the outer wall of the city in about 5 minutes, form a straight line to embark on the passenger shuttle".

[Narrator's POV]

Having stated his part, the [Inspector] raised his chin looking down on the startled crowd of celidres on the square.

A sense of superiority, dominance and authority at this moment was felt all over his body. Still, Dacid Almar, was suppressing all his emotions, trying to preserve the imagine of an impartial being who's sole role and purpose was that of accomplish its duty.

At least he was trying to, until his gaze stopped over two figures he couldn't forget, even after the span of a year.

Soon after, a small grin appeared on the young celidre's face.

[Back to Xeno's POV]

Whoosh! Whoosh! Crackle! Whizzz!

A big shadow was looming over my head, looking up I could recognize the shuttle approaching the square. That was the vehicle responsible for the transport of the team from the square to the north gate.

The blue flames of nano-energy coming out of the engines of the shuttle were slowly diminishing and the big rectangular object started to descend from the sky.

From the queue of miners me and Inea were part of, we were observing the landing of the shuttle.

Blue sparkles could be seen under the dark grey metallic frame of the machine, which was chiselled with light blue lines all over its surface.

Once the shuttle landed the row of more than two hundred miners started moving forward.

Arrived at the entrance, as the [Inspector] said "Next!" I hurriedly placed my ID card over the glowing device on the palm of the celidre.

A little black box with blue lines and patterns over its surface. Upon making contact with my ID card its lines colour turned green for a moment.

"Clean! Next!" hearing those words I took back the card and hopped inside the vehicle.

Waiting for Inea I proceeded to my usual waiting place. Locking my right hand around one of the vertical poles, I looked at my reflection on the translucent interior of the shuttle.

Light brown eyes, an average height of 1.60 m, a confident but tired expression typical of a young elkitryan miner. Who's spirit and hope has not yet become dull over the hardships of life.

I must say that the [coin]s I invested for buying non-synthetized food, such as monster meat or

nano-cultivated plants, were well placed.

Indeed that smuggler has done his job, still I'm not trusting him completely, I'll test the waters some more. Now that uncle's surname is not protecting me anymore I must be careful to whom I give my trust to.

Anyway, as a matter of fact my body has kept its vitality.

As much as I wanted not to, I clearly have lost some weight from the start of my new occupation.

Mining itself is tiring for the body, the deeper in the underground we work the less oxygen there is and even the environment is terrible.

Carcasses of larger monsters were usually taken away from the [inspector]s once killed, but smaller creatures that are only of nuisance and won't profit are left there to freely rot.

After a year of work it has become almost the norm, the tunnels, with the exception of the main ones, are permeated with the putrid stench of the dead.

This is mostly due to the riekrats, a specie of rodents that made the Elkitryc mines its new home. They are currently the miners nightmare, with a very high reproductive rate

these little fuckers literally can eat anything. From ores to little rocks, animal (miners included) faeces, carcasses and they even resort to cannibalism.

It's exactly when I'm down there that I miss the years spent at the gymnasium the most.

At that time I was still under the care of uncle Luse.

Lost in my thoughts I didn't notice Inea that had already arrived near me. "Xeno, are you here?" asked him in a mocking tone, moving up and down his hand in front of my face.

"I was thinking about our life from back then, at uncle's mansion" I answered him with a hint of sadness and nostalgia.

"I too dearly miss the delicious food, hot baths and happy times with the others… I'm not sure about you tho" continued Inea with a worried and sympathetic expression.

"you...-" Interrupting me was once again the [Inspector],

"The shuttle will depart in less than 2 minutes!" hearing the announcement everyone made sure to have a good grip on the poles and their legs well planted on the floor.

Being taken by surprise during the ascension of the shuttle was very risky, the initial acceleration of the vehicle was no joke even more with old models like this one.

The nano-stabilizers responsible for creating a static frame of reference inside the shuttle have lost a lot of nano-energy during the years of service. The consequence is the strong shaking at the moment of the departure. I can't even imagine how terrible it would be if the stabilizers were to be turned off.