"Spider," Misery said in amazement.

"Yes. I once read that some of the beasts in The Other have intelligence...so I guess if they can have intelligence, then they can dream," David said drawing a conclusion from the information.

"Can I eat it?," Misery asked with a gorgeous pleading face.

"Sure, have at it. You can also go around and check the other three to see if you can eat them too," David said as he gave the woman permission to feast at the buffet.

She immediately started darting around to devour the orbs. After a few minutes, she came back. David looked around and saw two orbs remaining.

"Why did you pass on those two? Saving some for me?," David joked as Misery came back to his side.

"Night, I can not eat those for some reason.....they are weird," Misery said in a pout. She seemed really upset about not being able to eat the orbs. David couldn't help but think to himself, 'Was this woman always like this? See seemed pretty reserved when I met her for the first time.'

David floated over to the nearest of the two orbs to take a look. As David approached the orbs, he could immediately tell that they were different. These orbs had a small concentration of soul energy but did not contain a soul. David touched the orb and felt that he could absorb the little bit of energy within if he wanted to...but he didn't.

"Alright, Misery. I am going back to the physical world. I will keep in contact with you while you are in my soul. I want you to tell me if anything changes with those orbs," David said before disappearing from his soul space.

David's control returned to his body sitting at the side of the tunnel. Before he stood up, he focused on both the physical world and soul world with his perception at the same time...the two worlds started to overlap. In the distance, he could see two glowing orbs. Moving quickly, he arrived in their location in no time at all. At a place that perfectly matched the glowing orb location in the soul space, a fist size stone was sticking out partially from the wall. David reached up and grabbed the stone and pulled it out of the rock wall with a tug.

After the stone came free, David ran his hand over the smooth surface of the rock. The stone made his fingertips tingle. David quickly shoved the stone into his bag and headed down the tunnel to the next stone. He removed that stone as well and put it into his bag. These two stones would be David's tool to get in the good graces of the Head Guard and Master Harver.

After finding the two stones, David began journeying more throughout the tunnels. Eventually, he found his first ore deposit and marked the location with a beacon.

After a full day in the tunnels, David had started to develop a method for exploring. He would travel a few hundred yards, then focus in on his soul world. He would let Misery kill any resting creatures she could find and he would note the locations of the abnormal orbs. Eventually, he found enough stones that he decided to sit down and absorb a few. Touching a stone, David felt a stream of soul energy enter his body and support his soul. In his soul space, it felt as if more energy was abundant. It was a really good feeling.

"Oh, this is nice," Misery said as she sat in the dark world basking in the new energy it contained.

"Night.....do you think that we can add something to your soul space so that it doesn't seem as empty. I spend a lot of time in here and it isn't that homey," Misery said with a pleading look on her face.

"I guess I could try," David said as he focused on creating a small piece of land in his soul space. He was using the same method he used to modify dreams...but directly in his own soul space. He had assumed that the two would function similarly.

The previously existing dense soul energy in his soul space began to concentrate into a small wooded piece of land. If compared to real world sizes, the land in his soul space would be no more than an acre. But it was actually coming into existence as David was willing it. He was doing the same thing he would do if he was creating something in his dreams. It worked.

David was excited that it was actually working, but instantly he started to feel strained in his soul. The soul energy was getting very thin. With a quick thought, he stopped the land from expanding and exited the soul space. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out one of the remain four stones and began absorbing the energy to replace what he had lost. He immediately started to feel relief as energy rushed back into his soul. Eventually, the energy from the stone was completely absorbed and the stone crumbled to dust in David's hand.

Flinging the dust away, David smiled at the realization that this was going to be an effective way to strengthen himself. His main power was related to his soul...the stronger his soul became.....the stronger he would become.

"Master, the woods are great. Now I can chop down some trees and build a home, so I'm am not just floating in the dark," Misery said from within David's soul space.

"Sure, Misery. Do what makes you happy," David said before continuing on his way in the tunnels.

David and Misery continued this effort for several more days before determining that it was time to go back to the main cavern. Over the course of these days, David found several more 'soul stones' and even found a few more interesting metallic ore looking areas that he placed beacons near.

Misery had killed numerous spiders and even a really large centipede. David was very thankful that these beasts were killed by consuming their dream orbs at a distance.....because he wasn't 100 percent certain that he could take them in a fight. He finally had some luck.

With that in mind, he had fashioned two 'daggers' out of spider fangs on his way back for protection. David thought that these could really come in handy in the future.

David continued to head back toward the main cavern and after two days of travel, he finally arrived in an area with torches. After reaching the torches, he felt some sense of relief. If he were to get lost in these tunnels, there might be the possibility that he would never get out of this labyrinth of darkness.

After about two hour's worth of travel, David arrived back in the main cavern. From what David could see across the cavern, Head Guard Helio seemed like he had not stopped doing what he was doing when David left.....he was beating a slave.

David walked over to the head guard and waited at the side until his presence was acknowledged. It was always a bad idea to interrupt someone like Head Guard Helio. After a minutes time, the man saw David standing closely by him.

"Oh.....so you made it back alive. You better have located some hazards or treasures.....or you are going to be hurting just like this one here," Head Guard Helio said as he kicked the slave on the ground.

"Yes, Master Helio. I found both treasures and hazards. I have marked some of the treasures with beacons and I destroyed one of the hazards. I apologize for the lack of progress, but the hazard gave me a hard time without a weapon. I have also found two interesting stones," David said in a nonchalant manner.

"What? You found stones? Don't speak too loud and keep everything in your bag. We need to go see Mr. Harver," the Head Guard whispered before grabbing David by the arm.

"I see you haven't found anything useful, you trash scout. Let's go talk to Mr. Harver to see what he wants to do with you," Head Guard Helio yelled as he tugged David toward the exit by his arm. The two men quickly ascended the stair case and were stuck waiting outside of Mr. Harver's office for a few minutes since he had company.

After waiting about 10 minutes, a woman slave exited the room in disarray. 'Seems like Mr. Harver likes to get a little pleasure at work', David thought to himself as Head Guard Helio brought David into the room and locked the door.

Seeing that the guard locked the door, Mr. Harver became very alert and walked to close the windows of his office. He also opened the draw of his desk and pulled out a strange green sphere and set it up on his desk.

"What is this all about?," the previously calm man said as he started to lose his composure.

"This new slave of yours said he found some stones," Head Guard Helio said with a large grin on his face.

"Oh really...slave...you better hope what you found is good.....come here...drop out what you have in the bag on this table," Mr. Harver said with a growing smile.

Listening to his directions, David walked over to the table and upended his bag. An empty water bottle, two stones, four flecks of some various shiny material, two fangs and a small pebble clattered as they hit the table.

The guard and the mine manager walked over to the table to inspect the goods. They were immediately left speechless by what they saw on the table. After a second of gazing, they both turned to David.

"Explain yourself," Mr. Harver said.

"Yes, Master Harver. One of the stones, I found by accident. I was sitting down to rest and touched the wall with my hand. I felt a tingling sensation and new that something was special with the stone. The second stone I found a day later by recognizing the similar smooth surface sticking out of the wall and broke it free with a nearby rock. The two slightly gold and one blueish shiny flakes were found when exploring the tunnels. I set a beacon for those locations. The last red flake was found approximate 400 yards down from the third beacon and should be easy to locate again," David said as he quickly explained himself.

Hearing David's speech, both men were excited. This slave had found two soul stones and located four ore deposits. This is more than they expect in two months time. It was absolutely outstanding.

".....and the fangs and small pebble?," Head Guard Helio questioned.

" The fangs were from a large spider that I killed. It appeared to be resting so I was able to throw a stone and cause significant damage by hitting its head. It was pure luck.....If it had been awake when I detected it, I would have died. I crafted to daggers from its fangs for protection in case I ran into anymore....and the pebble...I thought it looked about the size of my eye and was plan on smoothing it out for a fake eye....this patch gets in the way and people look at me oddly when I don't wear it," David finished up.

Mr. Harver walked over to the table. First, he touched the two fist sized stones and immediately pulled his fingers back upon contact. Then, he fiddled with the fangs and pebble before picking them up and putting them back into David's bag with the water bottle.

"You have done well, scout," Mr. Harver said with a serious look on his face. "I once told you that if you act right, then I will treat you nicely. Do you think that this is repeatable if you go back into the mines?"

"Of course, Master Harver. Finding the ore deposits was relatively easy. The stones were luck, but.....," David said as he paused.....he had a plan he wanted to test.

"But....what, slave?," Master Guard Helio said.

"Master, Helio. I can see like it is a well lit day in the dark due to my skills. However, I do not know what I am looking at most of the time because I am uneducated. The only reason I brought those stones back is because they tingled my fingers.....if not, I would have left them in the tunnel as a smooth oddity. If I can be bold and make a request....I would like to see a book about ores and stones.....so that I may better serve the two of you in the future," David said in a subservient voice.

Both men busted out laughing.

"Sure, scout. We can get you a book if it helps you improve in finding stones and ores. Helio, why don't we send our new friend to the rewards room for well behaved slaves? It seems like this man would be good to keep around in the tunnels," Mr. Harver said as he started fiddling with the items on the table again.

"Lucky you, scout," Head Guard Helio said in a condescending manner, "You get to go visit the one place most slaves work years to get...and you have only been here a week."