Chapter 138 Camp 2

Brutus was called the overseer of a training camp. Sadly, it couldn't be called a training camp any longer, now it was just an exploitation camp. A place where less fortunate children gather to work in the mines. If they grow up strong they get send somewhere else. If they stay weak they keep working in the mines.

Walking around in his gray robe he exited his mansion. His stature was larger than most, both in height and width.

"Hey boss, sleep well?", a rough looking man winked. Ever since he was transferred to this camp his life had both blossomed and worsened. In his tone was a subtle hint that Brutus didn't miss.

"Hahaha, of course, she was lovely, you can use her tonight."

"Oh, thanks boss, you're the best.", he rubbed his hands together, looking forward to the end of the day. He just had to survive today, that was all.

"So what's yesterday's haul?"

"Ah, you'll be pleased, we've gotten around 75 low level magic crystals, but one of the kids has become severely ill. What should we do?"

"Hmm? You can't kill them, so just let them rest for today. Give them some food, I guess."

"But, sir, do we really need to spare food out of our mouths for those little wrecks?"

Brutus stretched his neck until it cracked before looking the man in the eyes. The air got heavy, and the sun seemed to hide itself from the world. The servant could only see the fierce eyes of his boss.

"Listen to me, you little shit, none of the children die! Got that stuck between your ears?!", with the palm of his hand he slapped the man's face, leaving a mark.

"YEs, boss, I got it. Not a single brat will perish on my watch!", he was serious. He had only gotten this position after a lot of work. He knew about the only rule, but any food they spared meant more for themselves.

"Good. 75, huh? Isn't that less than last week?"

The man was already scared, but he had enough guts to hold out. "Yes, sir, the mine is starting to go empty, we need to go deeper and deeper to find crystals, and the children had some trouble."

"Hmm, I'll go take a look myself.", and with that Brutus left the man, just on time before he would notice that his servant had started to shake. The servant was the strongest next to Brutus, and he had enough guts to face death in the eye, but after being constantly threatened by Brutus, he started to slowly break down.

"Hey man, you good?", another servant came out in the open after their boss left. "You're the advisor, so man up."

"You're not the one whose life is constantly on the line, if he's pissed off for some stupid reason I might not see the end of the day. I don't wanna end up like Smith."

"Yeah, poor man that one, but he just didn't understand the boss's wishes. As long as you can keep up, you're good. Oh well, keep up the good work, my man.", a pat on the back, and he left, leaving the advisor alone once more.

He was glad he got his current position since it came with a lot of benefits. He could order anyone except Brutus around like they were his own personal butlers. Sadly, the job also brought him closer to Brutus. He calmed down for a second before rushing after Brutus, if he got angry again, he didn't want to imagine the consequences. The aftermath from the last time took them weeks to repair everything.

While making his way to the mines, he saw the other servants lying around doing sweet nothing. They used to instruct and teach the children, the mines were a form of training, and nothing more. But here, things have been negatively warped to fit Brutus's style.

Arriving at the mines. He could see Brutus wear a frown, making him panic a little bit. The children had to be kept alive, but every other servant was free play. His own life could be ended within a mere second if Brutus wished so.

"Advisor, there are fewer people working here, where have they gone?", Brutus scratched his protruding belly for a second, before focussing his attention back on the almost shaking man. Brutus wasn't great when it came to control over his own power, if he got angry or emotional, parts of his pressure was sent out, making it hard to stand for most around him.

He didn't have direct control over his own willpower, so it didn't reach very far, but for the few that had to stay close, it was horrible.

"You're completely correct boss, sadly, we can't do anything about it. The messenger came not too long ago and took every adult or child with enough strength with them."

"What? How is that possible, the test is way too difficult for them to succeed.", Brutus wasn't the smartest, but he knew the limits of humans very well. There was no way for any of their slaves to succeed in a single physical test. Yet now, so many left.

"The messenger decided everything by himself, I tried to dissuade him, but he was very adamant on taking as many as he could."

"Then you should've tried harder! They took all the grown up ones as well?!"

The advisor needed a second to think extremely hard, if he worded it in the wrong way he would be the cause for the problems again.

"Not all of them! The messenger threatened to disband the camp if we didn't follow his every order boss. If I fought against him, the organization would shut this place down, I didn't have a choice!"

Brutus still wasn't satisfied, but enough to not break his body in two. A low guttural growl and balling up his fists was the only action Brutus took. He might've been the absolute ruler here, but the moment the organization came into question, he was nothing but a pawn.

"Fine, then find new recruits!"

"We'll get started right away boss!", and with that, they separated. The advisor had to gather the lazy servants and seek out new slaves to work in the mines. This order was against the purpose of the camp, as the messenger was supposed to bring new recruits.

Going against the messenger wasn't a smart idea, but they could make up some excuses. There hadn't been a new batch in quite some time, making the dwindling group of workers even smaller.

Only a few days passed before he heard a shout of one of the servants.

"Advisor! We got one!", a man with a scar-filled-face called the advisor over. 'So quick?! There shouldn't be anyone around here, especially with the visibility barrier. Did they go to the town?'

The advisor was probably the smartest man in the entire camp, immediately noticing something strange. The camp was surrounded by a barrier that should display plants and forest, letting any traveler know that there was nothing here.

Arriving at the scene he found a few of his colleagues with a young adult. The boy looked dirty, and clearly didn't take care of his hygiene. Dirt clumped inside the boy's strangely yellow hair. 'One from up north? A coincidence?'

"Please sir, I..I didn't do anything, I was just passing by! Please, don't hurt me, I'll do anything!!"

The boy was clearly in distress, tears forming in his eyes and struggling as hard as he could to try and escape the servant's grasp. The advisor didn't try to look at the boy's core. He simply didn't have the capability. There were spells in the camp provided to learn such a thing, but this camp wasn't that exemplary.

All they had to deal with were children and young adults that needed to awaken their core, and bring them to Rank 1, so they didn't have a need for it. If any child dared to rebel, they would be punished. Not by death, since that was the one thing prohibited, but there were plenty of practices worse than death.

"Good catch, gentlemen, I'll put in a good word with the boss. Bring him to the mines and explain to him what his duties are.", before leaving them behind, he addressed the boy directly. Looking at his face filled with fear, the advisor noticed the beautiful yellow irises.

"Listen boy, from now on you're our property. If you work hard enough for us, we'll let you go. If you don't, well... you don't wanna found out.", the boy could only meekly nod, before being dragged away.

Of course, there was no escape, only the messenger took people out of the camp, nobody else was allowed to. The boy had been given false hope, but it was better than nothing in the advisors eyes.

Some of the young adults had grown into adults during their time here, but most of them had been taken away by the messenger, so new recruits no matter their age were a welcome surprise. Now he had something to calm Brutus down with.

The boy was dragged all the way to the mine's entrance. One of the servants explained what awaited him. All he had to do was mine for crystals, if he gathered enough he would be provided food and a bed to sleep on. That was all they had to say before handing him a pickaxe and pushing him into the mine.

"Don't forget kid, we've got eyes everywhere, don't try and steal anything, or you'll get it!"

Entering the mine the boy noticed how wet the walls were. The air felt cool and clean, sporadically there was a torch lodged in the side of the cavern. At first, he didn't find anyone, only by going deeper did he come across his fellow recruits.

They were about his age or younger, only very few looked older, but that might've just been the environment at play.

"Hey, I'm new here.", the miners looked at the boy with sad and tired eyes, but kept working. One of them started to speak, even if all his attention was on the mining.

"If you're new, you better hurry if you don't want to starve. You need to bring at least 3 to 5 crystals if you want food or a bed. It's already pretty late, good luck."

The advice was nice to have, and it said a lot about the group as a whole. The boy inspected every recruit individually and gained a bit of insight on how the group functioned. They all kept quiet and didn't speak a word unless asked and when they spoke it was with a raspy one.

They all looked hungry and some were mere skin on bones. What surprised him the most was that the girls had more trouble finding crystals and took occasional breaks, unlike the men that just kept going.

If they were still being trained, they would both perform similarly since magic could remove the gap of physical strength. Yet not a single slave used magic.

"I'm Conrad.", he said while extending his hand. Handshakes weren't really necessary with this group, but he stayed still until the man noticed it and interrupted his work. His empty hand became so awkward for the man he couldn't help but quickly shake it.

Grasping Conrad's hand he inspected the amount of calluses and how dirty his hand was.

"Look, we're all working together here, so if you start your work we can all sleep well tonight.", the man immediately went back to his work and after a few swings needed to stretch his hand a bit, as if it got tired somehow.

"I get it, I'll start right away.", and left the miner to his devices. Conrad wasn't actually going to start working, he just kept going deeper into the mine to see how many slaves were being kept here.

'So, what have you gathered so far?'

'Hmm, they're all useless, not a single one of them has used magic before. Their cores might've awakened, or at least that's what Magic Vision shows. They don't even notice when magic is inserted right into their body!'

'And they can't use it?'

'Urgh, this sucks, we need to save a bunch of idiots from a Rank 2 monster and a bunch of morons? Eleven did us dirty.'

'C'mon on, we both know there are options available, if all else fails, we can simply run and take as many of these people with us.'

'If we want to escape we need to kill the guards, and with the fact that muscle strengthening can't be taught in a few days, things are going to get tough. I mean, they're using torches for fuck's sake.'

'Yes, they're weak, does it matter?'

'...No, but it annoys me that we'll have to sacrifice that.'

'We brought it for a reason, didn't we? This is the perfect chance for a great experiment.'

'Fine, let's start with the basics, how many idiots are there?'