Bam-bam...

"Night, wake up," an annoying voice came from the door. "Everyone is about to leave for the festival."

Bam-bam...

"Tsk, how dare he tell me what to do!" I muttered, opening my eyes.

I rose from the lotus position and opened the door that was about to be broken by the aggressive knocks.

At the entrance, a young brat, barely fifty, stood there. He had short mortal hair, a thin mortal body, and a very annoying mortal personality.

His name was Garrick, but I called him Leech.

"What do you want, Leech?"

"You finally woke up," Garrick sighed. "Aren't you going to the festival?"

"Why do you care?"

"Oy Night, don't tell me you're thinking of skipping the festival. You can't do this!" Garrick nagged. "Don't you know it's necessary for all slaves to attend the festival?"

"Should I just kill him?" I thought inwardly. "Sigh... forget it, Her Majesty will be disappointed if I kill a mortal."

"Get lost, Leech. I will come when I wish to come."

I banged the door in his face and just as I turned—

Bam-bam...

"Ughh..." Veins bulged on my forehead as I tried to suppress my anger.

"A hunter must remain calm in any condition."

Taking a deep breath, I unlocked the door again, but before I could tell Garrick to get lost, he suddenly bolted at me.

I instantly moved sideways, letting him hit the floor with a thud.

"Ouch, how the hell did you dodge me when you're only at the Foundation Realm?" Garrick groaned, pushing himself to his feet.

"Why do you keep irritating me?" I asked, glaring at him.

"I-I just don't want you to get punished on a festival day."

"Tsk, annoying insect," I murmured and left the house as he followed behind me.

The houses and village structure of the Grade 2 mines were similar to those of Grade 3. The mining task was also the same—800 kilograms for men and 500 kilograms for women. The only difference here was that the grade of Soul Stones was higher, so it took more energy to mine them.

At the village's end, all the other mortals were already gathered before a magical gate. The older slaves, who already had the marking engraved, were passing through the door, while the new ones like me had to engrave the slave mark first.

After I was done with the branding, I entered through the gate and reached a tunnel, while Garrick still followed me from behind with a wide smile.

"Do you want to know the reason for my happiness?" he asked.

"No, I don't."

"Hehe, I will still tell you," he responded with a smirk as he continued, "I'm happy because I don't have to mine today. It's been a whole year since I last got a day off. I used to—"

"Can't you shut your mouth? I'm not interested in the background story of a mortal."

"Tsk, you are so rude. No wonder everyone avoids you."

"I wish you would avoid me too," I stated, taking fast steps and reaching the tunnel's end.

After passing through the cave, I found myself on the second floor of a gigantic underground ring-shaped structure. Its hollow interior offered an unobstructed view of the stage on the ground floor, which was covered by a box-shaped iron cage.

There was one floor above me where slaves from Grade 1 mines gathered, while the one below was filled with Grade 3 mine slaves.

Each floor had more than a hundred guards keeping the slaves in check.

"Don't forget to offer your prayers when the master kills the sacrifice inside that cage," Garrick stated, standing beside me.

"No god asks for an innocent sacrifice to fulfill the prayers of mortals," I replied plainly, walking toward the edge of the floor to look below.

"That's the irony of this festival," Garrick whispered in a low voice. "Despite committing unspeakable crimes themselves, they sacrifice the Awakener who has committed a felony deserving a punishment worse than death.

I heard rumors that the sacrifice they captured this time was addicted to the blood of children. He killed and devoured more than a hundred children in the mainland, and to avoid punishment, he came here to the Abandoned Land.

Yet he got caught again — and that too by people even more evil than himself. It must be the will of the god to punish him."

While Garrick was yapping, I spotted Jambavan on the floor above me, standing at the front.

Ignoring the fact that he was above me, which was already irritating me, I needed to have a conversation with him.

Before anyone could notice, I vanished into the shadow and reappeared in front of Jambavan.

"So yer finally here, Vyaghra," Jambavan said the moment I stepped out.

"How many slaves did you manage to persuade to revolt?"

"The slaves here are too traumatized to do anythin'. After tryin' mah best, Ay only managed to convince a dozen of 'em."

"A dozen out of a hundred Awakeners?" I scoffed. "I expected better from you."

"Yer not mah superior, nor are ya the leader o' this plan, so Ay don't give a damn whether yer disappointed or not," Jambavan scoffed, folding his arms. "And since we're on the topic, why don't ya give me an update about the reason behind the increased Death Energy here?"

"I'm not obliged to inform you of anything. I'm only telling you this because you are part of the team in this mission.

"When a slave can no longer work, the guards take them to the abandoned mines and hunt them down like animals. They call those mines Hell's Paradise.

"I investigated one of those mines and found skeletons and decaying bodies of mortals who had grown old, lost a limb, or even women who had miscarriages."

"These bastards!" Jambavan muttered, clenching his fists as anger raged inside him.

"By the way, have you seen that brat?" Jambavan asked, pulling himself together.

"No, I haven't heard from him in the past two weeks after he gave us those strange orders."

I took a deep breath and murmured with a sigh, "Where are you, Raj?"

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