CHAPTER 9
Silence.
Thicker than the mine dust, heavier than the rock above our heads. It was a silence woven from fear, disbelief, and a dawning, terrifying awe.
All eyes were on me, on the pile of rubble that was once an Earth Vein elemental, and on the pickaxe in my hand that still faintly smoked with residual energy. The only sound was the ragged breathing of the slave I had saved, still kneeling on the ground.
Borok was the first to break the spell. He took a cautious step forward, his club held loosely, no longer a threat but a feeble shield. "Wa Lang," he said, his voice hoarse, stripped of its usual bluster. "Report. What... what did you do?"
What had I done? I had acted on pure instinct, a symbiosis of my will to survive and the "Seed's" primal hunger. I had turned a disaster into a feast.
"I... neutralized the threat, Foreman," I replied, my own voice sounding strange to my ears—calmer, steadier, resonating with the power still coursing through me. "The creature's energy was unstable. I disrupted its core."
It was a half-truth, but the only one they could possibly comprehend.
The kneeling slave looked up at me, his eyes wide. "It... it was going to kill me. You... you saved me." There was no gratitude in his tone, only sheer terror. To him, I was just another, more unpredictable monster.
The other slaves began to murmur amongst themselves, their whispers slithering through the tunnel like poisonous snakes.
"...ate it... he ate the earth demon..."
"...Stone-Eater...they call him rightly..."
"...Overseer's pet is a devil..."
Borok's face was a mask of conflicted emotions. Fear, yes. But also a grim calculation. I was no longer just a nuisance or a curious specimen. I was a weapon. A weapon he couldn't control, but one that had just proven its use.
"Everyone back to work!" he roared, regaining some of his authority, though his eyes never left me. "You! Wa Lang! With me."
He turned and marched out of the side tunnel, not looking back to see if I followed. I did, the eyes of the other slaves burning holes in my back.
He didn't take me to Overseer Yan immediately. Instead, he led me to a secluded alcove near the guard post, a place usually used for storing broken tools.
He turned to face me, his bulky frame blocking the dim light from the main tunnel. "Listen carefully, you little freak," he growled, his voice low and dangerous. "What happened in there... that stays in there. You understand? No one needs to know the details."
I understood perfectly. If the higher-ups learned that a slave could single-handedly destroy an Earth Vein elemental, my "value" would skyrocket. I would be taken from Borok's control, and his chance for petty revenge would vanish. More importantly, it would reveal that his section of the mine had produced something unprecedented, something he had failed to report initially. He was covering his own ass.
"Overseer Yan expects a report on... energy flows," I said carefully. "The elemental was a significant flow."
Borok's jaw tightened. "Then you tell him you saw it form, and it collapsed on its own! Unstable! You got lucky. You don't mention... that." He gestured vaguely at me, encompassing the event he couldn't explain.
He was afraid. Not just of me, but of the consequences of my existence.
"I understand, Foreman," I said, nodding. It was a convenient lie for both of us. I wasn't ready to be Yan's full-time monster hunter either. I needed time to understand this new aspect of myself.
Borok studied me for a long moment, then grunted. "Good. Now get back to your cell. Yan will summon you when he wants you."
As I walked back through the tunnels, the atmosphere had irrevocably shifted. Slaves who had previously just feared me now actively shrank away, pressing themselves against the walls as I passed. The name "Stone-Eater" was whispered with a new, dreadful reverence.
When I reached my cell, Old Man was waiting. He didn't speak, but his eyes, old and deep like dried wells, held a knowing look. He had heard. Of course he had heard. The mine's gossip network was faster than any siren.
He simply pointed a bony finger at the small, hidden crevice where I kept my remaining Darkmoon Cap.
"Your rations will be reduced," he stated flatly. "They will see you don't need as much. The strong are always given less, so the weak can have more. Or so they say." His voice was laced with bitter irony.
He was right. My ability to "graze" on ambient energy and my... predatory episode meant I would be deemed to require fewer resources. My survival was becoming less dependent on their mercy, and more on my own terrifying capabilities.
I sat in my corner, feeling the "Seed" nestled warmly in my stomach. It was quiet now, sated, its hunger replaced by a deep, thrumming contentment. The energy from the elemental was different from anything I had absorbed before. It was raw, wild, and potent. It felt... ancient.
I closed my eyes and tried to meditate, to explore this new connection. The "Seed" was no longer just a passive organ or a screaming mouth. After the Soul Mist defense and the elemental consumption, it felt more integrated, more like a part of me. A dangerous, demanding part, but a part nonetheless.
I could feel its instincts bleeding into my own. The way it had identified the elemental as prey, the savage joy in the consumption... those weren't entirely my feelings. They were ours.
Overseer Yan's summon came sooner than expected. Not to his lab, but a simple command to report to the guard post.
He was there, examining a map of the mines, Borok standing stiffly beside him.
"Wa Lang," Yan said without preamble. "Borok reports you encountered an Earth Vein Tremor. It collapsed on its own. Is that correct?"
I met his gaze. His eyes were sharp, probing, trying to peel back the layers of the lie. He knew Borok was an idiot and a liar. He knew I was hiding something.
"Yes, Sir," I said, my voice even. "The formation was unstable. It erupted, then the energy dissipated, and the rock crumbled."
A half-truth. The best kind of lie.
Yan held my gaze for a moment longer, then nodded slowly. "Unfortunate. A stable elemental core can be a valuable power source." He turned back to his map. "Your observations on the energy flows. Report."
I began to describe what I had felt—the hum of the Spirit Ore, the cold whisper of the Nirnroot, the strange, subtle traces of other energies. I was careful, omitting the depth of my connection and the specifics of the "grazing" technique. I presented it as heightened sensitivity, not active consumption.
He listened intently, making occasional notes. "Good. Your sensitivity is developing. Continue. I want a detailed map of every energy confluence and void in your sector."
As I was dismissed, he added one last thing. "Your Spirit Ore ration will be adjusted. Your... metabolism seems to have stabilized."
Just as Old Man had predicted.
I returned to my cell, the game having changed once again. I was now a liar, a predator, and a prisoner of my own growing power. Borok feared me, Yan was suspicious of me, and the other slaves saw me as a demon.
But the "Seed" in my stomach was content. It had tasted true power, and it wanted more.
And I knew, with a chilling certainty, that the Earth Vein Tremor was not an isolated incident. This mine was a living, breathing entity, and I had just announced myself as a new apex predator in its dark, toxic ecosystem.
The hunt was on. And I was both the hunter and the hunted.
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