David's perception had caught the presence of four humans in the cave ahead of him. They were at the very limits of David's soul perception and were steadily removing stones to clear the tunnel. By David's estimate, the group should be at his location in another day and a half. This made David very happy....he finally had a chance to get free of his current situation.

Riding this feeling of satisfaction, David began to formulate a plan for the future. Although he had been trapped for months, his cultivation had seen a large amount of progress. His body strength was at least 6 times greater than three months ago. He had also gained his freedom of the slave collar.

Once he was free and above ground, David had a feeling that he could probably dominate the entire town with his power if he wanted. However, he needed to be smart about the way he handled everything. He didn't want to mess up and bring the entire might of the Diego family down on him at once. At least with the current population of the Manco Oasis, David had some assurance of keeping his life in any situation in the town. Now, he just needed to figure out the best route of attack on these people without drawing too much attention to himself.

After a day's worth of thought and a few conversations with Misery, David decided to just play out the helpful slave scenario to get himself above ground. The plan consisted of showing his helpfulness by making sure the communication stone is brought out with his body. He could tell that his previous effort was appreciated by the Head Guard and mine manager. This new find should earn him some consideration in their eyes. If...at any point...the plan went badly, he could always drop the collar and fade off into the darkness. He'd then be able to hunt and kill his enemies one by one.

To keep with his current game plan, David had managed to reach up with his free hand and refasten the slave collar around his neck. He needed them to know that he was alive and think that he was still under control. By relaxing his usage of the death skill, the collar would recognize his existence and secure its clasps again. All David had to do in order to get rid of the collar was to will his Death Skill into full effect.

He had also tucked the lose pebble into his eye socket under his eye patch. David had spent a considerable amount of time on the item and he didn't want to lose it in the events that were about to happen. He was kind of sentimental.

______________________

The group of three slaves and one guard arrived at the final beacon around two days after David had first recognized their presence. The guard was very excited about the newly discovered ore deposit and was having the slaves work toward removing a few pieces of ore instead of clearing the rest of the tunnel. There was still around six feet of rubble between David's body and the open tunnel.

Realizing that the guard's greed might make the tunnel clearing efforts stop just short of his location, David decided to exert a little effort to shift the rubble trapping him. Pushing with his new strength, the pile of rubble began to move toward the open area.

David's body began to fall forward with the rubble out into the open part of the tunnel. As he fell forward, he quickly pretended to be in a half dead, unconscious state. All he could do was hope that his plan succeeded.

_________________________________

"Look out," the guard shouted at the slaves as they moved to safety to avoid the falling rubble.

"What's that?," the guard said after the dust from the rubble pile began to settle. He could see part of the top half of David's body sticking out of the pile of rubble. Head Guard Helio had told him to check the body if he found it. Figuring that it would be beneficial to dig out the corpse, the guard order the slaves to excavate out the body.

"Stop mining the ore and dig the corpse out," the guard ordered the three slaves.

After a few minutes of moving rubble, the slaves had managed to free most of David's torso.

"Fuck, this is taking too long," the guard grew restless at the slow progress of the slaves. He walked over to David's body to pull it free.

"Shit, his collar is still locked tight....holy hell....he must be still alive," the guard said in astonishment before tugging David's corpselike body free of the rubble.

"What is in his hand?," the guard asked himself as he saw the bag straps locked in David's grip.

With the removal of a few more stones, the guard freed the bag and looked inside.

"Oh my god....I need to get back to the boss quickly," the guard said as he scooped up the bag and David's body and darted down the tunnel towards the main cavern.

His voice echoed back to the three slaves, "Dig out the remaining ore then prepare to move back to the main cavern. I will be back here within the next day and a half."

________________________________

About 10 hours after David's body was discovered, Head Guard Helio came running into Mr. Harver's office with a bag in one hand and a body draped over his other shoulder. After setting the body down on the ground, Head Guard Helio turned and locked the door to the office. Keeping with his usual procedure, Mr. Harver got up and shut his office windows....then he immediately took out an orb from his desk drawer and placed it on top of his desk.

"What the hell, Helio? Why they fuck are you bringing a corpse into my office?," Mr. Harver said in disgust.

"It's not a corpse. He is unconscious and still alive.....the slave managed to hold out for 3 months trapped inside the rubble from the tunnel collapse. How the fuck is that possible?," Head Guard Helio said.

After thinking for a second, Mr. Harver replied, "The slave has mastered the Body of Recovery skill. I assume that he has been using the surrounding heavenly energy to keep himself alive all this time. But he shouldn't be that far off from death. Why did you bring him here? You should have just thrown him out with the trash."

Hearing Mr. Harver's reprimand, Head Guard Helio smiled and pulled a large stone out of David's bag. He then slammed it down on Mr. Harver's desk, "Because of this!"

Looking at the stone on the desk, Mr. Harver let out a hiss of air.

"He found this in the tunnels? A communication stone of this size is worth a small fortune," Mr. Harver said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Yes, I know. This is one hell of a payday. This slave has to be one of the best scouts that we have ever had. He also marked five really nice ore deposits within the tunnel. Between this run and the last one, he has probably netted us more income than the last two years combined," Head Guard Helio said, "That is why his unconscious, half-dead body is in this office right now. I actually couldn't bring myself to toss him out.....he is worth too much to causally throw away."

"I see....Do you think that he can be nursed back to health?," Mr. Harver said, "Considering the cost of another good scout, I don't mind spending a little to get him back in tip top shape."

"It shouldn't take much," Head Guard Helio said, "If his Body of Recovery is strong enough to keep him from dying after being trapped for 3 months, then he should recover fully in a week or two."

"Okay...it is an easy decision then," Mr. Harver said with a bit of excitement in his voice, "Send him over to the medical building for care. I will cover the bill. He has already returned the money I put out for him by 10 times. If I can get a bit more profit out of him, I do not mind spending a little."

______________________________

"Yes, he is still alive," one nurse said.

"Oh my god, I have never seen someone in a condition this bad," the other nurse replied.

"Quickly, go get a small nourishment stone from storage. Although this is a slave, Mr. Harver has authorized full care of the patient. Apparently, this slave is very good at his job," a nurse said to justify the expenditure of resources.

Nourishment stones were another really common heavenly stone that was used to support long term isolated cultivation or in this case the care of an incapacitated hospital patient. From a value standpoint, they were slightly more valuable than a standard 'stone' used for transactions. These nourishment stones were a very common item found in most cultivators' possession.

The two nurses scrambled back and forth tending to David's body. The nurses cleaned David's wounds and even bathed his body.

After a few minutes wait, an additional nurse came into the room with a small stone in her hand. She pressed the stone to David's chest and began using her own heavenly energy to force the nourishment of the stone into David's body.

It only took about an hour before the stone was completely used up. David's color looked much better but he still looked like a corpse. His body was very skinny with exposed ribs and spine. His face had slimmed to the point that his cheekbones could be seen clearly.

Eventually, the nurses started to calm down as David's condition seemed to stabilize. The nurses felt a sense of accomplishment once their task of tending to David's immediate needs was complete....they felt as if they had saved a life. Little did they know that they had just given a very conscious man an extreme test of his will power.

______________________________

The first day free from the tunnel.

Ever since David's body had fallen out of the rubble in the tunnel, he had actually been conscious and aware of the things going on around him. To David's delight, the events after his body was found actually exceeded his expectations. His captors had been so excited about the communication stone that they had even sent him to the very well maintained medical facility for care.

The hospital gave him his most extreme test of determination to play the role needed for his plans to work. Because he was in such bad shape, David had expected to have broken bones set, skin stitched up and maybe a surgery. He could handle the pain to pretend his unconsciousness but He hadn't really considered all that would take place at the medical building.....He was doing good until.....the nurses had stripped him down and started giving him a sponge bath. He had to concentrate extremely hard as they scrubbed his manhood while they discussed its size and shape. David had almost lost control several times during their ''cleaning'. He actually started to fear for these women's safety...

In addition to the intimate touching from the nurses, David also had to restrict his Body of Recovery skill when the Nourishment Stone was being used. He could have instantly drained the stone and healed his injuries immediately with the supplement of the stone. However, he wanted to spend the full two weeks in the hospital, so he had funneled the energies mostly into his internal organs and bones. He had left the condition of his skin and muscles only slightly improved to keep his corpselike appearance.

After about two hours of manipulation and care by the nurses, David was left alone in his private care room. As he lay in a comfy hospital bed, David finally felt relaxed. He got the full care and it was quite enjoyable. He had been in a hospital several times in the past, but this time was different. He had chosen to end up in the hospital bed. From the conversations of everyone around him, he knew he had at least two weeks to play out this drama.....he knew that he had two weeks to quietly wreck havoc upon this desert oasis.

David entered his soul space as he lay in his hospital bed.

Coming into the dark world, he smiled as he saw an eager face waiting for him.