??? POV
"Keep those arms moving, you lazy bastards!"
I swung the pickaxe with all my might against the ore lodged in the wall, and a small crack was made that kept chipping away every time I hit the wall, slowly making my way to the dusty ore. Each time I swung, I also heard the sounds of other pickaxes chipping away at different spots in the tunnel, and, turning my head, I saw the gaunt and exhausted forms of the other slaves, nearly keeling over after hours of the same motion.
"Hey, who said you could take a break!" exclaimed one of the slavers at a slave who had collapsed from being overworked.
The slaver kicked the poor guy, who was probably no more than sixteen, and began to continuously hit him until the guy was beaten to a bloody pulp, and once he was done, spat in disgust on the teen. The rest of the slaves shook in fear, and some sobs could be heard from the younger slaves and a few from the older ones, but none made a move to help the boy out of fear that they could be next.
" Hey," the slaver told a few of his underlings standing watch over the other slaves.
"This one can't get up anymore, throw it out and bring in another one"
The boy was completely covered in blood and bruises and showed no signs of life, at least from what I could see, and the underlings grabbed the limp body and began to carry him off through another section of the cave. Not half an hour later, a new slave showed up and simply picked up the boy's pickaxe and continued where he left off.
This was the nature of the world that I was dropped into and forced to survive in. A few months had passed since I woke up in this body and got somewhat used to my new life, if you could call it that. In the few months I've been here, I gathered as much information as I could from the very limited sources of information that were available to me, being one of the other slaves.
The first thing I learned was the somewhat obvious fact that we were slaves arriving from various places across the world that I had come to know as Eidocosm, and that I was something known as a demihuman. Demi-Humans were those who looked human or were humanlike but shared features with those from the animal kingdom, as well as from other kingdoms, such as insects or aquatic life.
From what I could see among the various demihumans in this cave, some had minor features such as a tail or animal ears, while others were completely covered in fur, had snouts, and mostly resembled large bipedal animals.
It was very jarring seeing things that looked as though they came straight out of a fantasy novel, but this was my reality now.
Speaking of fantasy, the second thing I learned was that in this world, magic was real and existed alongside modern technology, as in my first few days, I saw some of the slavers summon magic whips of fire to punish the slaves, and later even saw some use a device that showed a hologram to communicate with a woman who looked like a high-ranking official.
In the months following that, I saw various forms of magic, including fire, wind, water, ice, electricity, and what appeared to be light and shadow. As for technology, I saw creations that looked as though they came from the future, with high-tech communication devices, large glowing mining drills, and vehicles that seemed to hover off the ground.
Seeing all of this was shocking to me, but it paled in comparison to what I learned third. While checking my surroundings to make sure I had a chance to look, I silently thought of one word to summon the source of my shock.
'System'
At that one thought, a small translucent screen appeared in front of me, about an hour after waking up, showing me two bars and different numbers, each with its own title. I didn't have much experience with it, but the small screen reminded me of a video game I used to play with the two bars that signified my HP and Mana, with HP standing for my overall health, and Mana being what I assumed was the source of people's magic or what they used to cast it. As for the numbers, each had a different value, and each had its own title: strength (4), agility (5), intelligence (15), wisdom (10), and stamina (20).
It was strange to see my strengths and weaknesses displayed as a game in front of me, but I quickly tried to get my bearings and accepted that this was part of my new life. I wondered if this was part of what the angel gave me, and I wasn't quite sure what made her so upset at first... until I got to the next screen.
As I thought of it, the screen quickly switched and showed me my skills. It was a mix of strange and off-putting skills that were confusing at first, but I quickly understood. [Wolfheart]- Gain proficiency in stamina and can stay awake for multiple days without rest. Enhanced Senses: all senses have been enhanced to match your biological traits.
Both are rather straightforward and seemingly good abilities that don't have many drawbacks... or so it seemed. [Wolfheart] helps with continuous physical labor and staying awake, but does nothing for mental fatigue and makes it difficult to sleep, resulting in lethargy and a relatively fine body, and it takes longer than normal to fall asleep. As for Enhanced Senses, it affected me almost immediately. It was only a few moments after I woke up, but I soon began to see better than I ever could have in the dark, and nearly ripped out my new ears from the loud sounds accompanying work being done, from high-pitched drills to hammers and pickaxes hitting the walls of the cave, and the heart-wrenching screams I heard from the slaves. But even that paled in comparison to my new sense of smell that picked up dozens of different scents that made me nauseous, and I nearly passed out. It took me weeks to get used to my new body, and even then, I still struggle with these new skills from time to time.
As I continued to look at the screen in front of me, I was quickly brought back to reality after I heard the footsteps of one of the slavers quickly approaching and began to strike the wall once again.