Last Scion Of The Sun

Steelheart's swordsmanship

After the end of the day, everybody went to their respective tents. Almost every single person quickly fell asleep as soon as they hit the bed. They were too tired to stay awake.
Sol and his buddies too fell asleep as soon as they hit the bed.
Early in the morning, they woke up to the cacophonous sounds of the bells.
Irritated by the sound of bells, Fred and Alfred covered their ears with the pillow and kept on sleeping.
Just then Sol shook them up and urged them to wake up.
"Guy's wake up! Wake up! You know that how those three were taken away yesterday, right? If you continue to sleep you might get punished."
Sol violently shook them while trying to wake them up.
Fred and Alfred, afraid of the punishment got up as soon as they heard the word punishment.
Lance was already awake and patiently waiting for them infront of the door.
Upon seeing Sol and Lance dressed up, they quickly put on their shoes and folded their bedsheets. After that all four of them headed towards the bell tower.
Just like them many peoples were gathered in the bell tower, but not all of them. Some people still lazed around and slept in.
"Those of you who've arrived, I'll lead you towards the mine. And those sleeping pigs will get punished for their act of disobedience."
One of the guard who was holding a spear in his hand spoke.
"See, I told you. If you hadn't listened to me back then, then you'd have been among the ones getting punished."
Sol whispered while letting out a playful smile.
The guard then led them towards the mine. Just like them, many batches of slaves were being escorted towards the mine.
The mine was about 3000 steps farther from the bell tower. Thus, it took them quite some time to get there.
Along the way, they passed through several checkpoints. There were altogether 3 main-checkpoints, each and every one of them being guarded by about 100 armed guards.
Despite getting inspected in the previous checkpoint, they were repeatedly inspected as they passed through the other checkpoints.
Finally after getting inspected three times on their way towards the mine, they reached the mine. The mine was within a humongous rocky mountain.
The guard which was leading them abruptly halted.
"The checkpoints are a precautionary measure for preventing the embezzlement of the magic stones. Thus, you may have already understood that it's impossible for one to sneak outside the magic stones. But somehow, if somebody is caught with a magic stone during inspection, then don't expect to make it out alive from here."
The guard warned as he strolled around them.
"Aren't you having difficulty in breathing?"
Alfred looked towards Sol and questioned.
Sol took few deep breaths but couldn't feel anything different.
"No, I can breathe perfectly fine."
"Strange then is it only me, who's having difficulty in breathing?"
Alfred puzzling exclaimed.
"No, you're not wrong Alfred. I'm having difficulty in breathing as well. It feels as if the air around us got thinner as we walked in here."
Fred intervened.
"As some of you might be already experiencing breathlessness. It's because of the presence of the magic stone. Due to it's dense aura, the atmosphere around the magic stone gets thinner. But you'll get used to it."
"Just remember to come outside the mine every once in a while, otherwise you might get mana corruption and may lose your life."
The guard nonchalantly explained.
"What are the symptoms of the mana corruption? And what exactly is a mana corruption?"
Sol bewilderingly interrupted.
The guard contorted his face and showed a faint gesture of irritation, upon being questioned by Sol.
"Mana corruption is caused by the over exposure of the external mana. Normal amount of mana don't harm humans whatsoever, but magic stones which contains a dense amount of mana are lethal for humans if the are overexposed to it."
"The symptoms of mana corruption includes; premature aging, loss of body mass, loss of eyesight, weakening of the bones and ultimately it leads to death."
The shocking truth regarding the magic stone shocked them and terrified them.
"Then isn't it dangerous for us to go near it?"
An anonymous voice from the crowd reverberated.
"Just like I've mentioned if you come out time and again, then you can prevent yourself from mana corruption and also the artifacts we provided you are capable of preventing you  from mana corruption for a while too."
"Thus, even after I informed you about safety protocols, if you still get contaminated by mana corruption then you can just die. We can always replace you pigs anyways."
The guard spoke as if their lives didn't amount to anything at all and they were merely machines which could be replaced anytime.
After that everybody were handed a slip explaining their daily quota for the mana stone. And as mentioned earlier those with lower number's quota was far less than those of the higher numbers.
Sol and Lance got merely 3 carts to fill. With each cart taking about 2 hours to fill, they could wrap up their work and rest early, if they worked for merely 6 hours without stopping.
While Fred and Alfred had to fill about 6 carts before they could leave the work.
And as such all of the slaves started to mine the magic stones to complete their quota.
=====÷=====÷======÷=========÷=======÷
After few months, the numbers of the slaves started to deteriorate. Nobody knew what happened to the slaves who couldn't perform well.
Those who were deemed unfit to work were forcefully taken by the guards and after that they were nowhere to be seen.
There were many rumours floating around the slave encampment about the people who were taken by the guards.
In those rumours, the method by which they died were different but every rumour pointed to one conclusion and that's their imminent death.
By that time Sol had gathered considerable amounts of tickets. Just 20 thousand more and he'd have his freedom back.
Surprisingly all three of his friends were doing well as well. May be it's because of their perseverance or may be it's because of the way they viewed their lives, they somehow withstood all those torturous days.
There was striking difference between the people who disappeared and the people who survived. The people who were taken by the guards, all had one thing common and that being them giving up on their lives. While the ones who remained at the camp were still holding onto their lives in hopes of attaining freedom or in hopes of seeing their loved ones.
All the remaining people had one thing in common and that was hope. They hadn't lost their hope and kept pushing forward.
There were even people who were hopeful in the beginning but as they went through hellish torturous days, days in and days out, they lost their hope and became hopeless.
While many people did fall victim to mana corruption as well. And almost all of them ended up dead.
At the early stages of the mana corruption, the guards in the camp provided treatment for the ones being afflicted by mana corruption but once the situation got out of their hands, they simply withdrew their hands and gave up.
In pretence of better treatment, they were taken by the guards. But who knows what happened to them, since nobody returned back alive after they were taken.
Even Fred and Alfred were showing symptoms of mana corruption.
"Why does your complexion look so pale?"
Whilst staring at Fred's face, Sol questioned.
"Uhh... Huh? What are you saying? It's the same as when we first met?"
Fred awkwardly laughed and replied.
"I'm sure it wasn't like that before. Nevermind, may be it's just my imagination."
While they were talking, Lance entered the room. Lance then grabbed a wooden sword from his inventory and looked at Sol.
"Sol aren't you training with me today?"
"I'm coming, wait for me."
Sol replied as he staggeringly put his shoes and ran towards Lance.
Sol took out a wooden sword from his inventory as well. And both of them started to swing the sword as they trained.
Inside the camp, real weapons were forbidden to use. And it was not sold to the slaves to prevent any kinds of uprisings.
But practice weapons which possessed no threat to the guards were sold to improve the moral of the slaves. And that wasn't an act of kindness rather a selfish act to maximize the productivity of the magic stones.
Lance having learnt swordsmanship from his early days was skilled in ways of sword.
Upon seeing Lance train his swordsmanship everyday, Sol couldn't refrain himself from asking Lance to teach him swordsmanship.
But Lance was hesitant of teaching the swordsmanship technique of his family to Sol who wasn't a part of his family.
Thus, he outrightly rejected him, the moment he asked him to teach swordsmanship.
Sol being a persistent kid, day after day pestered Lance to the point he nearly went crazy. Thus, after countless begging, Lance gave in and started to teach him basic swordsmanship.