The deafening bangs of drums caused villagers to cover their ears. Gale was already out of bed and Todd quickly rolled off his top bunk to follow him. He did not want to be left behind. People desperately scrambled to their jobs while guards screamed at the poor people who weren’t quick enough. It was absolute chaos.

Herds of people made their way into the depths of the mine. The natural light quickly faded, replaced with the dim artificial glow of the mana torches that hung from the walls. 

“We’re going to need to get you some gear. Follow me,” Gale beckoned.

They weaved through a series of tunnels, stopping when they came to an opening with piles of gear lining the floor. Dirty pickaxes, helmets, and gloves of all sizes made the majority of the equipment on the floor.

A tidy lone desk stood out among the scattered gear. A frail old man sat behind the desk.

“Gale, I didn’t realize you’d be back so soon. Just last week you spent your precious rations on a new pick.”

“I made a friend. He doesn’t have a pick so I was wondering if you could get him a basic one.”

“That’s why they keep me around,” said the man behind the desk. Reaching behind piles of junk he removed an old bent iron pick and handed it to Todd.

“Uh. Thanks,” said Todd.

“You can sell extra iron you saved from mining to me for equipment if you don’t starve first,” the old man replied nonchalantly.

Todd just nodded. Gale led Todd through the mines to the spot where he was previously excavating.

“We’re supposed to bring in at least one iron a day. If you’re lucky, you might hit a big vein and be able to buy your way out of the village. Not many people have saved up the 500 pounds of iron needed to be set free, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” said a depressed Gale.

“We should switch off with my new steel pick and let each other take over when other gets tired. Whoever doesn’t have the steel pick can conserve their energy and use your bent pick. I don’t know how effective it’ll be though,” stated Gale.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Todd responded.

Gale and Todd fell into a rhythmic routine of taking chunks out of the hard rock in front of them, switching picks as they went. Small glints of iron made Gale smile, he liked having rations to eat, to survive. Hours passed and gradually both men were fatigued. A bell rang suggesting the day was over and all ore needed to be dropped off.

They piled up what they had gathered in a sack and went to weigh their ore. Todd was confident they had mined a substantial amount ore, but when the inspector put their findings on the table it only read 2.4 pounds. It was enough to survive but the hours of back breaking work didn’t give them a whole lot more than they needed.

The inspector handed each of them a waiver for 0.2 pounds of ore. Gale suggested that Todd should save his since you never knew when you were going to have a dry spell. Miners who couldn’t produce where killed through starvation. If you missed the quota you didn’t get to eat.

Clearly this wasn’t going to work. If Todd and Gale spent all day mining ore for Vlad, Todd wouldn’t have time to look for Gnar and Gubba. As the miners shuffled to their designated tents, Todd thought about the various ways he could speed up the process or at least fool the inspectors.

Boom. Boom. Boom. The cacophonic melody of the drums woke Todd up for a second time. He groaned and covered his ears. Gale had to pull Todd out of his bunk so he wouldn’t get reprimanded. They dragged themselves to the tunnel where they had been mining.

As the day passed, Todd grew accustomed to the mining. The chemistry between both Gale and Todd had drastically increased during their second day at work. Eventually they filled their bag with ore and were ready to have it scaled. It read 2.8 pounds. Todd and Gale split their work profiting 0.4 pounds worth of waiver each.

The monotonous routine took over. Days became weeks and weeks turned into months. Todd had gained a sizable amount of muscle swinging his metal pick at hard stone. He was nowhere near a body builder, but that extra muscle had allowed him to increase his return by a 0.4 pounds a day. He had accrued 3.4 pounds worth of iron credit. He would’ve had more but costly injuries prevented him from working some days.

Tomorrow he would take the day off and try to figure out a more efficient method to tackle the mines so that he would could search them at his leisure. He was tired of swinging at rock.