Arcabyss World was a world that upheld the legal system of survival of the fittest.
You must have heard the phrase coined by Herbert Spencer.
In this world, people who have strength over others can do anything to those who are weaker.
The key to surviving in a world that upholds such laws was to adapt.
We need to be socially strong so as not to be oppressed by the nobles who were considered to have a higher status than the common people.
We had to be biologically strong so that we wouldn't be beaten to death by those who had more power but were evil in nature.
'Although I know I have to be socially and biologically strong, I have to get out of this hell first, isn't it?'
I was now inside the crystal cavern.
The humid air feels like it's creeping on my skin.
Drip~ Drip~
The sound of water dripping from the stalactites echoed in the air.
Torches with flames were lined up neatly along the cave walls.
I saw the existence of large crystal chunks firmly stuck in every corner of the cave wall.
That material was the magic crystal that I needed to mine.
I picked up the pickaxe.
With a big swinging motion, I targeted the outer side of the magic crystal.
Claang!
I wasn't lying.
I had put all my strength into the swing.
Even so, there was only a loud thud to be heard. My hands were shaking violently from the rebound of the impact of my hard swing.
"Move quickly! Hit harder!"
I wasn't alone in mining magic crystals.
Along the cave wall, there were many other slaves who were also mining magic crystals.
While the slaves were working, the kidnappers were just watching from the center of the cavern.
They only occasionally moved to whip the slaves who seemed to be slowing down in mining.
Apart from the new slaves who came along with me, there were also slaves who seemed to have been mining for a long time.
The difference between the new slaves and the old slaves was obvious from their physical characteristics.
The faces of those who had been trapped in this crystal cavern for a long time were very thin.
I thought that they were living skeletons at first.
Compared to those who looked so thin, the newly arrived people still looked very full... Of course, they were all still inferior to my body.
Thwack!
"Hey, fatty! If you don't work properly, you'll end up as miserable as the corpses on the floor!"
In the end, I became one of the victims of the kidnappers' lashes.
The pain in my back was excruciating.
I fell and accidentally let go of the pickaxe in my hand.
My reaction made the kidnappers even more eager to whip me.
My eyes widened from the pain I was experiencing.
I could only bite my fingers because I knew that I could have died instantly if I resisted foolishly.
Other than the surviving slaves, along the surface of this cavern were many human corpses.
'Krgh! I'll become one of them if I can't endure their torment.'
This crystal cavern was in the center of the Finsterer Forest, a forest that had never been penetrated by humans for thousands of years.
It was just that the criminals who kidnapped me all already knew how to enter the Finsterer Forest without getting lost.
'If I want to survive, I must find a material that helps the kidnappers to penetrate the Finsterer forest.'
According to the script I read, three months from the time Livia comes to this crystal cavern, there will be an opportunity to escape.
'I must be able to survive until then.'
***
'Has it already been a week?!'
Time seemed to pass very slowly.
In this one week, I became the one who received the most lashes.
Every time I left the crystal cavern, heading towards the small valley where the slaves' tents were set up, I was definitely the one who looked the most battered.
Aside from the cave that looked like a maze, where the new slaves and I arrived, on the other side of the small valley was the cavern where the slaves and I mined magic crystals.
In my hand were the few magic crystals that I had mined today.
My meager mining results were the reason why I was the one who received the most lashes.
If I or the other slaves didn't want to be flogged to death, then we had to be able to collect enough magic crystals as requested by the kidnappers.
After handing over the magic crystals I had mined to the kidnappers, I went to the tent where I could rest.
"Here, I'll help you!"
"Thank you, young woman."
Just like any other day, I was sure to see the scene where Livia, the main character, helped treat the other slaves.
Sitting in front of the tent, Livia tried to help the old slaves who were already struggling to treat the whip wounds on their bodies.
In her hand were medicinal herbs given by the kidnappers to ease the slaves' wounds.
Of course, the kidnappers did not give the slaves medicinal herbs so that the slaves could become healthy.
The slaves were given medicinal herbs randomly picked from the Finsterer forest, just so that the slaves would not die quickly.
Livia did not treat the old slaves with her own hands; she was accompanied by two young men from the same village as her.
"Tumelo, Dmitri, try to help the others too."
After receiving Livia's instructions, they moved with a sycophantic smile.
When they wanted to help me, too, I simply accepted the herbs in his hands without wanting him to help apply the herbs to my body.
Livia and I actually came from the same village, just outside the Finsterer Forest.
Livia was still an innocent village woman in the current timeline.
She was a village flower surrounded by sycophants, including Tumelo and Dmitri.
As far as my memory goes, the role of Arthur Knox that I played was that of an aloof village boy. Of course, I never interacted with Livia directly.
The two people named Tumelo and Dmitri were supporting characters.
Although they were destined to die as well, they were destined to burn Livia's spirit, taking away her innocence. I, myself, and the other slaves were only there to add to the dramatization of the events.
'That's what the script says,' I thought to myself as I sat in the tent, and smeared the wounds on my body with medicinal herbs.
As long as I've been tortured in the past week...
I wanted to scream and blame the woman who gave me the script.
I wanted to scream to demand the gods: I should return to earth.
And keep shouting like a person who doesn't want to accept reality...
However, I could only shout all my complaints in my heart.
I refused to accept fate.
'I must stay alive for Xiao Ling!'