The Versal Conqueror: From The Remnant (Discontinued)

Chapter 2: Rude, Cold, And Damp Awakening

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William's P.O.V

Just what the hell is going on!? How could I have gone from sleeping soundly in my bed to waking up in a freezing metal floor!? I looked around me in a panic, trying to control the intense shivering of my body from being in what I could only guess was... a government mine inside the Antarctic? Still, didn't know what those weird glowing rocks where but I did not have the luxury to care.

It was starting to get warmer back where I was presumably kidnapped from, not outright summer but still enough to sleep with light clothing. I never did adopt the habit of sleeping naked, a very small blessing at the current moment has it meant that I still had SOMETHING to protect me from this... surprisingly not so blistering cold. I guess the sharp chill that I felt when waking up was because my back was in direct contact with the freezing metal floor.

Don't get me wrong it wasn't warm by any chance, but it most certainly didn't have the temperature of an underground mine somewhere in the North or South Poles , well, except for my feet which where forced to stand on freezing ground, my socks doing nothing but make the dampness feel worse.

I estimated that in my current state I would last no more than 5 minutes, my hands, scalp and face being unfortunately exposed. I curled up in a ball trying to keep has much warmth has possible and shakily moved my head around trying to look for some kind of exit. And I did! Or at least think I did, from one of the cave passages I could see what was probably a reflected ray of sunlight coming from the outside, I doubt that an abandoned mine had a working lighting system.

How did I know it was abandoned? Well after somewhat getting my bearings I realized that 1st, all the lights set up where turned off, 2nd, there where no employees around or the sound of employees out of sight, 3rd, almost every surface was coated with... well to be honest, an exaggerated amount of frosting, and finally 4th, they didn't even bother taking back the glowing crack cocai-

"Hol' up."

I directed my gaze at the mine cart just 4 meters away from my shivering form, more specifically at the red rocks inside of it. Squinting my eyes, I could see that the layer of frost that covered it was comparatively less than the surrounding environment, as well has the small puddle of water that had recently been made, considering it hadn't frozen yet. All of this led me to the conclusion that those rocks where probably a source of heat, i.e a way for me not to become a frozen corpse.

And so with shaking legs I made my way to the mine cart through those agonizingly long 4 meters, the closer I got the less and less cold it became, confirming my suspicion of this being a source of heat, until after just 50 centimeters from the cart the harsh coldness of the freezing cavern barely got to me.

Taking a closer look, I could see that these rocks looked more like crystals or gemstones than anything else, meaning that they were probably very valuable. Even more so considering that, at least these ones, where able to produce heat without any external stimulus and presumably for prolonged periods of time, they could serve has potentially revolutionary sources of energy.

I also discerned that while they did give off heat, they couldn't give THAT much heat, considering that they couldn't even melt a coating of ice completely, so it was probably safe to touch them bear handed. And I was right, as the warmth I felt when touching some of those red crystals was heavenly in my current situation, the feeling of the gentle warmth traveling through my arm almost made me fall to my knees in pleasure and relief.

Hastily, I gathered the little amount of strength I could and jumped into the mine cart full of precious, precious warmth. The nice feeling of a warm shower covering my entire body as I turned around in the red crystals, the jagged edges thankfully having been eroded by the unknown amount of time of exposure to the environment. My messy movements threw some of the red crystals to the metal floor and had the sound of the impact reverberate all around the cave, the already loud sound amplified by the enclosed nature of the area.