When David woke up, the woman sex slave was still laying in the same exact position on the bed. The food ration was still on the table untouched. But the woman did have a slight smile on her face that made David feel like he was a little successful last night.

"I hope you had a peaceful night's sleep. I enjoyed the night....Take care," David said to the woman before getting up and knocking on the door. After about a second, the latches on the door began to click then the guard opened up the door.

"Master, I am awake and ready to get back to work," David said before turning to look back at the woman still laying on the bed, "But she might need a little more rest though."

Looking over David's shoulder, the guard could see the mangled woman laying on the bed with a slight smile.

"Damn man, you could even put a smile on her face...you must know how to work it just right," the guard said.

"Yes, Master. I know how to work it just right with the ladies," David said while envisioning ripping the guard's throat out and feeding it back to him.

"You know where to go. Head Guard Helio will be waiting for you," the guard said before shutting the door and re-locking it behind David.

David turned and scurried off down the hallway and toward the staircase that lead to the mines. After about a 5 minute walk down the stairs, David arrived at the entrance to the mines. The same guard at the door recognized David and opened the door right away.

When David entered, the scene looked exactly the same as it did the first time he arrived to the mines. Workers and guards were moving about with purpose....and Head Guard Helio was currently beating one of the slaves. Knowing that he was about to get back to exploring the mines, David stopped at the guard's station just on the other side of the door and received his food and water rations. This time the guard gave him twice the amount that he had received the previous time. The amount surprised David...it seemed like he was being treated a little better.

After squaring away the rations in his satchel, David walked over to the head guard and stood by the side waiting his turn. After a few minutes, Head Guard Helio finished his task and turned to talk to David, "Slave, are you ready to get back to work?"

"Yes, Master. I think I can do better than last time now," David said trying to give the man some hope of riches.

"Good. Go in that tunnel over there," Head Guard Helio said as he pointed to a dimly lit tunnel over to the side. "This tunnel is slightly more dangerous than the last one so move slowly to check for dangers. Here are five beacons for your use. I'll give you ten days to explore this time. Now go."

David immediately went into the tunnel that Head Guard Helio had selected. This tunnel entrance was extremely steep and descended at an almost 45 degree angle for the first 500 feet. David had to use little crevices in the rock to keep himself from sliding down uncontrolled. The floor of the tunnel started to flatten out about the same time the torches on the tunnel walls became less frequent. It seemed like this tunnel wasn't frequented that often. David only passed one group of mining slaves on the way.

After about an hour of slowly walking in the tunnel, David reached a point of absolute darkness. He sat down and entered his soul world. Coming into the soul space, David smiled as he saw Misery's beautiful form. After absorbing the soul of Chaz, Misery had seemed much stronger. David knew it was just a matter of time before he would be able to execute the next phase of the technique and give Misery a new physical body.

"How are you doing, Misery?," David asked.

"Great. Are we back in the mines yet? I need something to eat," Misery asked.

"Yes, we are back in the mines. I want keep with our previous strategy. It worked well. I want to keep performing well to see if they give me another day off out of the mines. If I can stay out of the mines for a bit, you can prey on whoever you want when we get back above ground," David said.

Misery thought any plan that involved her taking the souls of others was a good plan. The pair continued with their previous method of tunnel exploration.

—————————————-

Four days later.

This tunnel seemed much less explored because David had easily used the five beacons to mark the locations of ore deposits in only four day's time. He had also racked up 3 soul stones, 1 medium sized heavenly stone and 6 very small heavenly stones. The medium sized heavenly stone was about the size of two fists and was a very valuable stone that was called a communication stone. The single communication stone could be split into multiple pieces and the holders of those pieces could communicate with each other by injecting heavenly energy into the stone. The bigger these communication stones were then the more valuable the stone was....because it could be broke into more pieces.

The very small heavenly stones were easily identifiable as a basic variety heavenly stones. They were just a concentration of heavenly energy without any special attribute or function. These were the "stones" that were commonly seen as currency in The Other. They were about as round as a thumb and were the most common heavenly stone in The Other. Cultivators would also use these as a concentrated source of heavenly energy when cultivating.

David didn't really care about the stones or ores. Those were just items to use to get in the good graces of his captors. What he really wanted to do was increase his strength and Misery's strength. After 4 days of hunting and killing insect intelligent beasts, Misery's soul was showing wonderful signs of improvement. David estimated that he was at the half way point where she would be ready to form a new body.

He had already marked ore locations with the five beacons and knew that he had more than enough stones to make Mr. Harver and Head Guard Helio happy.

Since he was ahead of schedule, David decided to spend the entire fifth day exploring for his own benefit. In his travel in the tunnel, he came across a very large heavenly stone. The stone was about the size of a human head. David recognized this type of heavenly stone from the book that he had read. This one was a rare stone called a Stone of Strength and had great benefits for promoting the strength of a body. The stone was characterized by the large sapphire looking ovals in the stone.

From what David understood, this stone would be big enough to give around 30 normal soldiers a significant boost in body strength. As soon as he realized what it was, David knew that he couldn't give this to his captors....and he really wanted to absorb some of the power from the stone. David decided to absorb some now. After absorbing once, there would be more than enough power left that he could absorb the stone at every stop on the way back to the main.

At this point, David had come to a decision to absorb the entire stone of strength and the three soul stones. He knew that just the communication stone would be make his captors extremely happy.....and in turn give him some more benefits. Letting his greed get the better of him, David tried to pull the stone from the wall. After some effort, the stone was eventually freed.

Having broken free the stone, David immediately sat down to start absorbing a bit of the strength from the stone. He felt a warmth surge through his body. After about 5 minutes of absorbing, David realized that he had reached his limit and could no longer absorb any more. Looking at the stone, nothing had really changed, just a small bit of energy was missing. David's strength didn't increase that much but he felt that he gained maybe a 100 pounds of strength.

David loaded the new heavenly stone into his bag.....and just as he was about to move off, he felt a vibration in the cave. Immediately, he realized that this was something similar to an earthquake. He needed to get out of the tunnels. David started running back down the cave towards his previous beacon.

When he was about 10 yards from the ore beacon, the tunnel surrounding David started to collapse burying David in a pile of rubble. Luckily for David, the part of the tunnel that fell had only been enough to trap David.....he wasn't crushed to death. Trying to free up part of his body, David realized that he could move one of his arms, but the rest of his body was pinned by the falling rubble. He was trapped in the tunnel.

________________________________

After about 30 minutes following the ground tremor, Mr. Harver showed up in the main mine cavern to find out the damages from Head Guard Helio.

"Helio, what is the situation in the tunnels,?" Mr. Harver asked the head guard in the dusty cave.

"We had a pretty bad ground tremor. Seven of the forty two tunnels collapsed. We have three confirmed slave deaths and two slaves that are unaccounted for. Two of the tunnels should be able to be cleared pretty easily by the looks of them. The other five will require some time and some labor," Head Guard Helio stated the current situation.

"What about our new fortune finder?," Mr. Harver said worried that something was wrong with his new cash cow.

"His collar is currently motionless, so he is either trapped or dead," Head Guard Helio said. A look of disappointment immediately flashed on Mr. Harver's face. Seeing that his boss wasn't happy, Head Guard Helio continued, "He did set off all five beacons before he stopped moving, so those ore deposits can still be salvaged if we clear out the tunnel. Also, I was thinking that he may have a few more stones in his satchel like last time, so we will need to find his body."

"Ohhhh.....great. If the profits are similar to last time, we can go buy another mine scout. I didn't know that this one would be so profitable though. It is a complete loss that he is now dead. How long will it take to excavate that tunnel and access the ores and body?"

"That tunnel is pretty difficult, so if I assign four slaves to the cleanup.....probably about three months," Head Guard Helio.

"Good....proceed with the clean up. I will try to get a few more slaves to replace the ones that you have lost, and let me know as soon as you start reaching those beacons," Mr. Harver said before walking towards the exit of the mines.

________________

At the same time in the tunnel, David was in a slight panic. Was he going to end up trapped in this tunnel forever? After about 5 hours of being trapped by the rubble, David finally came to grips with his situation. He couldn't count on anybody to come rescue him. So he had to try to figure out a way out of this mess himself if he could.

Assessing his situation, David looked at the condition of his body first. He had a few bumps and bruises that were already healing but overall he wasn't in that bad of shape. The worst part of everything was that his movement was restricted for almost 80 percent of his body. He could slightly move his head and neck and one of his arms. In his assessment, he realized why part of his body hadn't been completely trapped by the falling rubble. The large communication stone in his bag had kept the two larger pieces of rubble from completely smashing his right side.

With a move of his hand, he realized that he had access to the soul stones and stone of strength heavenly stone in his bag. He could also reach his remaining rations and water. This gave David some hope for survival. He was going to absorb the stones to see if it offered him any benefits. Although he could touch the communication heavenly stone.....he knew that trying to absorb it would make his situation worse...if it crumbled...then the rubble would collapse and completely restrict his movement.

David calmed himself realizing that he had some options to pursue. He entered his soul world to discuss everything with Misery. It was sure nice to have someone to talk to about his ideas.

"Misery, the mine collapsed and I am trapped. My plan is to absorb the soul stones and heavenly stone of strength....to see if that allows me to break out of here," David said.

"Oh....that sucks. Are we going to end trapped down here forever?," Misery asked in concern.

"Not unless something apocalyptic happened on the surface. Then someone should be down here eventually.....I just don't know how long that will take," David said.

"Okay, maybe use the soul stones first so that your range will increase for me to hunt beasts," Misery suggested.

After thinking for a bit, David realized that Misery did have a point. Why not take this opportunity to train both Misery and himself?

After his brief discussion with Misery, David decided to start absorbing the soul stones immediately. The wider his soul sense range than the more chances he would have at gathering the souls of spirit beasts for Misery and himself.

Although he didn't know the exact situation outside, he knew that if the mines were not entirely destroyed then people would be sent for the ores marked by the beacons. He was only a few yards from the last beacon so the only thing that he felt his rescue depended on was when they managed to get to the beacon. He had hope that he wouldn't be trapped down here forever...