Chapter 12: In the Humid Darkness

“So, it’s like that...”

A few days later Sailair returned, determined to share the details of his enterprise with Zechariah and a few others that the latter brought with him. Zax, although outwardly withdrawn, also was present. Zechariah and the rest perhaps did not know how to properly make him communicate, but they still were not willing to exploit him.

“I want to excavate a new numbered tunnel that only I, and a selected few, will be able to monopolize”.

“A numbered tunnel?” A short, red haired woman named “Kristian” queried.

Middle Sector No .131 has seventy four numbered tunnels. From what the group learned in the past several months, apart from the first, all of those tunnels were dug eons ago by prisoners who took the initiative and their success was handsomely rewarded by the Rakmon Penitentiary.

Well, obviously it was not as simple as it sounded...

Rakmon Penitentiary stated a list of conditions for prisoners who want to dig new numbered tunnels. After all, as sturdy as the crevasse was, aimlessly poking holes in it will just result in their free labor wasting time instead of collecting Ever Pure Solid.

The first condition, meant to deter the irresolute, warned that a tunnel below the proper standards will be deemed impractical and the prisoners who worked on it would have to compensate the penitentiary with ten times the amount of Ever Pure Solid they original should have handed.

The second condition was the standards for a numbered tunnel, certain parameters for initial size and Ever Pure Solid’s output.

Third were the qualifications of the prisoners permitted to apply for the project. Only Elite or A ranked prisoners, as successfully opening a new numbered tunnel was also, among other options, an opportunity for a rank up, though “Elite” was the limit.

There were some additional minor conditions on the list, but those enchanted by the allure of the benefits, like Sailair, all shrugged them off.

In essence, the reward system offered, from the smallest to the best:

A thousandth of all the earnings from the numbered cave would go to the applied prisoner\ prisoners, a ranked up that will provide access to high hand commodities of all kind, a chance to be received as a Guard and most thrilling ... Freedom.

“Everything depends on the output of Ever Pure Solid”.

“Including the penalties!” Kristian reminded.

“Well”, Sailair leaned back, arms crossed. “There is no such thing in the world as a free meal, let alone here. I’m willing to be flexible if you are interested in making an agreement, but your requests will have to correspond to the level of work and responsibility we\ you\ I take. Since Zax is the main force in the excavation, for him alone I’m willing to provide enough dark attribute’s essence for the entire endeavor and the excess he can keep. Apart from this, I’ll also pay him six hundred grams of Ever Pure Solid”.

“That’s acceptable”. Commander Dan signaled for Zechariah to approve.

“Delightful!” Sailair clapped. “As for the rest of you, if you are to concede now compensation, at the case of the penitentiary dismissing the new tunnel, then I can magnanimously split with this entire group twenty five percent of the thousandth I’ll get”.

“Forty!” Linor retorted. “We will supply the entire workforce!”

“Impossible!” Sailair rejected immediately. “Twenty five percent ... Just submitting the application cost me a kilo of Ever Pure Solid. The penitentiary allocates up to a year for the tunnel to meet the standards and half a kilo for every monthly extension afterward. You recently arrived to the penitentiary, put together you still lack the financial stability to contribute and come the day of the excavation whatever you will earn through your work would have to go to Guard Chou Ferk’s pocket for the supposed ‘extra trouble’ on his sector’s supervision”.

“Okay, fine, twenty five”, Zechariah compromised. “but you will have to guarantee us your confidence in the excavation place”.

“That I can do”. Sailair smirked. “But I won’t convince you together ... I’ll have to take you there and too many inmates will draw unwanted attention. Choose four”.

“Reasonable”. Yimin thought aloud. “I want to go. Vimov can go as Zax’s proxy, not that he seems to care, who else?”

To an outsider, the mannerism of a second realm cultivator like Yimin in a group of similarity C ranked prisoners with some in the third realm would have appeared daring. To those who knew him, on the other hand, his conduct was more than justified.

Although a second realm cultivator, he trained both in mist energy and bodily refinement and the main cause of him lingering in the second realm was his aim to comprehend as many if not all bottlenecks of insight. Sadly, today his objective had to be put on hold, due to the cultivation difficulties in the Rakmon Penitentiary Star.

“There is no reason to make a fuss about who will go”. The formerly eccentric cultivator, Lurd stated. “We are each other last kin, ‘all for one and one for all’, that sort of thing, right? Trusting just one or two’s judgment is fine and Yimin’s is as reliable as the best of us”.