Huston's face looked rough, dirty, and wet with sweat as he wielded his pickaxe, hitting the huge rock in front of him.
He wasn't the only one there. Several others were doing the same work as him, struggling with all their strength as they struck the massive rocks before them again and again.
Despite being tired, they dared not stop working, because stopping for even a second meant severe punishment for them.
The overseers watching over them weren't humans but of different races, dark elves and goblins.
They walked around, beating any human they felt wasn't doing their work properly.
"Hehehe! You low-life don't want to work, right?! Then die!" a goblin shouted with excitement, a smile filled with cruelty and mockery stretching across its face.
"N… no, please, I… I'm doing my work well," a man said with a terrified yet pleading expression as he bent down on his knees.
"No! No! You need punishment! Hehehe!" The goblin refused to listen as it raised its blade claws like whip and swung them down heavily on the pleading man.
SLASHHHH!!
HAAAAA!!!
The four blades of the whip mercilessly tore apart the man's chest as blood sprayed across the stones around him.
The goblin jumped backward as if trying to run away from something disgusting.
"Tch! That low-life wants to stain me with his stinky blood," the goblin said with disgust.
The other humans working as miners didn't dare look at what was going on, as that man's fate could easily become theirs as well.
"Work! Work! Work!" the overseers shouted while whipping the humans, but none dared to make a sound.
One human was mining, but he was using that style to secretly get close to Huston.
"Pncch! Pncch!" the man silently hissed to Huston, who turned his head slightly to look at him without stopping his pickaxe.
"Cain, what is it?" Huston silently hissed back vigilantly, hoping the overseers wouldn't notice them.
The man called Cain turned his head slightly too, also hoping no one saw him, and said to Huston,
"This morning, I overheard that the General Overseer was going to do an inspection in your area."
"What?!" Huston silently exclaimed, restraining his reaction.
"Hush! Hush!!" Cain hissed to quiet him. "You're going to expose us!"
CLANK! CLANK!!
They continued to break rocks with their pickaxes, but Huston's mind was no longer on the work. It was on the General Overseer who had gone to inspect his area, and he silently hoped his family was doing alright.
"Cain," Huston whispered.
"Hmmm…"
"Can you cover for me?" Huston asked with a pleading tone while still pretending to focus on his work.
"What? I can't do that!" Cain said quickly, rejecting it.
He had already risked his life just to warn Huston about the matter as a friend, but not beyond that, because it was certain he might die.
Huston kept quiet, knowing Cain had done more than enough for him. But this was his family, and he couldn't allow the General Overseer to go near them.
Especially if they found out that he already had children!!
Huston racked his brain for something to do in order to get out of that place, but no matter what he thought of, none of it seemed like it would work.
'Damn! What can I do?! What can I do?!!' Huston thought desperately as he continued to mine with trembling hands.
It was then he remembered something his son did three years ago, something that made him and his wife terrified.
His son had eaten something that gave him a heavy stomach ache, and all they could do was watch, unable to provide money for medicine or even get a doctor for treatment.
His son had put his small hand into his mouth, so deep that he choked, to the extent that his entire body turned red from suffocation.
When he and his wife wanted to stop him, it was already too late, because the moment his son pulled his hand out, he vomited everything inside his belly.
Although his son became a little ill after, it was better than when he was suffering that intense stomach ache.
Remembering that, Huston looked left and right, making sure no one was watching him.
Immediately, he stopped working and shoved his huge hand inside his mouth, deep into his throat.
He choked but didn't give up and pushed his hand in further.
Cain, working by his side, heard the choking sounds and turned his head. He was stunned at what Huston was doing.
"Are you mad?!" Cain whispered in shock, his eyes wide opened.
It seemed he had mastered the art of whispering even at a time when he was supposed to scream.
But Huston didn't listen. He continued until finally he felt his belly twist violently.
The suffocation built up inside him. Huston quickly pulled his hand out of his mouth.
He felt something rise to his throat, his body spasming slightly before he bent to the side and vomited.
The sound was loud enough that everyone turned their heads toward him.
'Crazy! This guy is crazy! I shouldn't have told him!' Cain lamented in his mind, already imagining Huston getting killed.
A male dark elf walked toward Huston and shouted angrily,
"How dare a mongrel like you stain this place with your impurities?!"
He raised his blade claws like a whip to strike Huston, who was still disoriented from his actions.
Just as the whip was about to hit him, another dark elf caught it and said,
"Don't. That's Huston, one of our valuable workers. We can't hurt him like we do the others."
The dark elf who was about to whip Huston lowered his weapon, but…
HUEK!!!
Huston grunted in pain as his already aching stomach twisted again.
The dark elf had gutted him in the belly instead, since he couldn't whip him.
"You are lucky to be valuable. If not, I would show you pepper," the dark elf said, his stern voice thick with malice, before turning to leave.
The other dark elf looked down at Huston and said coldly,
"Now, take your useless body, go treat yourself, and come back for more work before nightfall." Then he left as well.
Huston dragged himself up with difficulty and turned his head to look at Cain, giving him a slight smile of gratitude.
Cain was stunned because he knew exactly why Huston did what he did.
Without hesitation, Huston walked out slowly, holding his stomach in pain. The moment he was out of their sight, he picked up speed.
'Please be safe! Please!' Huston pleaded desperately in his mind as he ran along the road path lined with bushes and towering trees on both sides.
His breath came out rough and uneven, his chest tightening against his wildly beating heart.
It took a while before he arrived at his house.
His steps slowed, rhe air around his home felt heavy and the door was broken.
His home was damaged, blood splattered everywhere, and the dead bodies of… the General Overseer entourage lay on the ground.
And at the center stood his son.
Brewing with immense rage.
His small body was shaking, not from fear, but from something else entirely.