They went down a bit more.
The first thing he felt was the fact that the sparse lights gradually disappeared. As a result, the surroundings gradually grew darker. The sun was probably still high in the sky, but the inside of the mine was completely surrounded by black fog which completely blocked any kind of external light.
Because of this, Lukas couldn’t help but compare this place to the depths of the ocean.
This was because the deeper they went, the more the light faded.
…Clang-… clang-…
The helpless image of living beings mining for minerals also reminded him of fish swimming in the black sea.
Lukas couldn’t help but wonder if he could still refer to them as humans.
‘Mutated beings.’
They looked like a mixture between humans and monsters.
Their limbs were swollen as if there were tumours attached to them, and even if they didn’t have them, the sounds they made while moving with an incomprehensible, bizarre gait were terrifying, as if they had huge mental abnormalities.
The deeper they went, the more their appearance seemed to lean towards monsters rather than humans. And at some point, he could no longer see any beings among the workers who had figures resembling humans.
This also made his initial thought, about this place feeling like the depths of the sea, even stronger.
They were like deep sea fish, who had more and more bizarre appearances the deeper you went.
“They don’t look tasty.”
Pale whispered in a soft voice.
The fact that it could elicit such a sentiment from someone like her, who could even eat rebar without any difficulty, was clear proof of how repulsive the mutated humans were.
Instead of responding or looking at the mutated humans any further, Lukas turned instead to the monster standing in the middle who seemed to be playing the role of supervisor.
This one didn’t have an appearance as bizarre as ‘Bullseye’ that he’d seen above.
On the contrary, it had an appearance that was close to that of a human.
It had two arms, two legs, one face, and a height of less than two metres.
Looking at it again, it was truly a bizarre sight.
Humans had the forms of monsters, and monsters had the forms of humans.
But the way the workspace was run didn’t change at all from the workspace above, as both sides still kept the same roles.
Lukas looked at the small monster once more.
It was strong.
Almost to the same extent as Dok Go-yun.
In other words, it meant that this monster, who was only playing the role of supervisor, was a formidable being that had reached the peak of what a human could accomplish.
‘…without a doubt.’
At the very least, there were a few monsters like this who played the role of supervisor in this workspace. And it was clear that most humans couldn’t even dream of escaping.
“Wait here for a minute.”
“Yes.”
“…”
Lukas couldn’t help but stare at Pale for a moment when she answered in that strangely obedient manner. But she just smiled at him with a nonchalant expression. She seemed to be asking ‘What is it?’ with her expression. After thinking that to himself, Lukas shook his head.
Maybe it was just him.
And in the next moment, Lukas’ body suddenly appeared in front of the monster.
“Uht?”
The monster let out a dumb sound as it flinched, but it was able to grasp the situation in the blink of an eye. In an instant, its bright yellow eyes narrowed. It judged Lukas as an enemy, a target to be killed.
Crack, both of its hands took on vicious shapes like hooks. At the tips of its fingers, something similar to poison seemed to form.
But from Lukas’ perspective, it was slow.
It was slow enough to make him yawn. By that point, Lukas could have already taken the monster’s life 20 times without even using the power of void.
Clang!
The monster’s body flew backward as if it had been struck by something and slammed into the wall. Soon after, the wall wriggled as if it was alive, and firmly restrained its entire body.
“Kiuk…!”
Subsequently, the monster spat out a mouthful of blood. Seemingly realising that its movements were being restrained, it began to struggle and twist its entire body, but its resistance was futile. Looking around, Lukas walked over to its body.
The mutated humans seemed to have no interest in the series of commotions. Like machines, they devoted themselves to mining.
“Your name?”
“Wh-, who the hell are you?”
Lukas didn’t like answering questions like that. He drew a line with his finger. He did it slowly so that the monster would see it clearly.
Shuk. With a chilling sound, the monster’s right arm fell to the ground.
“Uhh…”
The monster let out a blank sound for a moment before letting out a heartrending scream. Dark blue blood flowed like candle wax from the cross section of the cut.
It seemed quite painful, but it wasn’t enough.
Lukas put his hand on the monster’s head.
“Kuh, ahhh… what are you going to do?”
The monster looked up at Lukas with a difficult to understand expression. Its expression seemed to be a mixture of anger, hatred, and murderous intent.
“From now on, I’m going to pour mana directly into your head. It will be like an electric current. Of course, the pain you’ll feel will be incomparable to electric torture. But don’t worry. I can roughly guess the level of your mental strength.”
“What do you mean…”
“I mean. I can control it.”
The monster wasn’t able to say any more than that. This was because those words were followed by a wave of pain, unlike anything it had ever experienced.
Its eyeballs popped out and a scream so desperate it sounded like its uvula would tear, resounded.
Lukas stared at it blankly for a moment before pausing the mana injection.
“How was it? Was that the longest 5 seconds of your life?”
“Huff! Huff…! You motherfucker…! Even if you do this…”
The poison in the monster’s eyes hadn’t faded in the slightest.
It would be difficult to get what he wanted if that continued to be the case.
Lukas put his hand on the monster’s head again, then he raised the index finger of his other hand.
“1 second. I’ll continue to increase the duration by just 1 second, no more, no less. I don’t have much time to waste, but I’m not in a hurry. Naturally, I have no intention of rushing you. So when you feel like answering my questions, just tell me. I’ll be waiting.”
There was no need to wait for an answer.
Once more, Lukas violently pumped mana into its head.
And once again, screams resounded in every direction.
* * *
The monster’s name turned out to be ‘Twohands’.
It was the name that it had screamingly uttered as soon as the duration of the torture reached exactly 11 seconds.
Things went smoothly after that.
“What was the reason for creating this circus? It doesn’t seem to be for mining minerals.”
“U-, uhh, e-, emotion…”
Twohands mind was almost broken. He slurred out indistinct words with dazed eyes and a drooling expression.
“Emotion?”
“Ne-, need negative emotions…”
“Where is it needed?”
“Don’t know…”
“…”
Negative emotion.
Certainly, if that was the goal, then he could fully understand why they were being made to use pickaxes so meaninglessly, but it was absurd.
“So collecting them is the purpose of the ‘Demon of the Mine’?”
“Yeess…”
It was not an insignificant identity.
Lukas curiosity disappeared, and it was instead replaced with rage.
In that case.
Did that mean that the reason they were kidnapping humans, setting up mines, and making them carry out meaningless labour was simply to collect negative feelings?
‘So trivial.’
And more than that, it was disgusting and cruel.
The worst thing that one could do in the world was force another person to feel unwanted emotions.
And this facility was specifically built for that purpose. It was, essentially, the largest torture chamber in the world.
Twohands’ head exploded.
Its brain matter splattered all over the place. The colour of its blood was dark blue, but the colour of its brain matter was no different from that of a human.
Even though the monster who had been playing the role of supervisor died, the humans in that place didn’t act like they’d just been liberated. Instead, they continued to mine minerals with erratic movements.
After reaching this point, it was already over.
Their mental structures had already deteriorated to the point that they were no different from insects.
“What will we do now?”
“If I kill the Demon of the Mine, they won’t be victims anymore. But they won’t be able to regain their original bodies.”
Lukas sighed impatiently.
“That’s all we can do.”
Even if it was Lukas, he couldn’t return living beings that had already changed to such an extent to their original forms. The Humans whose bodies had mutated had already become completely different creatures.
…The Demon of the Mine.
Now that he knew its goal, there was no need to waste any more time.
Lukas rested his hands on the ground and closed his eyes for a moment. In his mind, the figure of the entire mine unfolded like a blueprint.
Their current location was about halfway through the mine. They’d been going down for a while, but they were still in the middle. That was when he realised that the mine was very unstable.
The area had not been expanded gradually, and the underground facilities hadn’t been constructed carefully. Instead, it was as if they had simply dug large holes.
To put it simply, the mine wasn’t strong enough to withstand either internal or external shocks. It wouldn’t be strange if this heap of earth were to collapse at any moment due to a sudden jolt*. (*: In this sense, shock and jolt are the same word)
The monsters in this place, and the ‘Demon of the Mine’, couldn’t be unaware of this fact either.
They probably wouldn’t die even if the mine was to collapse. It was highly likely that they had already secured a means to escape. In other words, they didn’t really have anything they could do about the life and death of the humans working in this place.
‘…I figured it out.’
Interpreting the coordinate values.
Long distance teleportation was still impossible, but it was possible for him to travel to the lowest floor of the mine. This was because he’d managed to make some sense of this ridiculously twisted universe.
Without delay, the figures of Pale and Lukas disappeared.
* * *
The deepest underground space.
The abode of the Demon of the Mine was not dark. Instead, it was brighter than any other place in the mine that he’d seen.
The surroundings were only illuminated by soft light, but despite the illuminated surroundings having a clear momentum, there were no signs of danger.(TL:…I made it as ‘not’ weird as I could)
There were no signs of life in this place, and the sounds of pickaxes that seemed to follow them everywhere couldn’t be heard. In fact, it was strangely quiet.
Of course, that wasn’t the reason for Lukas’ firm expression.
“…this place.”
It didn’t look like a place where a demon stayed.
The surroundings were filled with all manners of reagents, research tools, and parts of unknown living organisms like skin tissues or cell fragments. Among them, something large enough to be called a complete corpse was stored in a glass tube with what appeared to be culture fluid*. (*:the fluid used as a medium for growing microorganisms.)
Lukas realised that the appearance of the living being in the glass tube was similar to that of the mutated humans or the humans* who performed the roles of supervisors. (*: Assuming this should be monsters, or even ‘human-like monsters’)
The wall on the other side was filled with countless books. After approaching it, he picked out a book and opened it.
[…therefore, it can be derived that the basis of magicology stems from the mind. There are many types who can only accept mana into their bodies but release it over time.
However, we are the only ones capable of reinterpreting it and controlling it as we—]
“…”
He closed the book without finishing.
Then he had a thought.
This place seemed more like a Wizard’s workshop than a demon’s lair.
“—never thought you’d show up so easily.”
A calm voice resounded in his ear. He wasn’t surprised by this fact. He’d noticed that someone was secretly observing him from the shadows from the moment they’d arrived.
But Lukas’ expression couldn’t help but harden when he visually confirmed the ‘Demon of the Mine’s face.
It was a familiar face.
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