"Get out of there now!" A rough looking man with a few scars on his face yelled.

As Sasha, Lily, and Kioxe walk out, they were then whipped by the man.

*crack* *crack * crack*

"Hey Rudi, take your anger out on the boy instead. We need those two blonde headed girls to be ripe for the boss. Beat up the boy, but make sure he has the strength to work." Another man spoke.

"Okay ladies, it's your lucky day. Obediently follow Marco to our boss now." Rudi smiled sinisterly at Sasha and Lily who were already crying from the whipping before.

"Sorry boy, but you see here...I just got this new cat o' nine tails from the boss and can't wait to use it out on you." Rudi stared at Kioxe menacingly.

With just a snap of the whip, it gave a loud crack.

*crack* *crack* *crack*

"Ahhhh! Arghhh! Please Stop!" Kioxe screamed as he was hit for who knows how long.

Rudi was merciless. He didn't care if someone died as long as he got to inflict pain on others. You could say he was a sadist.

"Scream more boy! It was your misfortune to come here where I, Rudi resides!"

*crack* * crack* * crack*

"Ahhhh won't you look at that. Such a masterpiece if I do say so myself." Rudi smirked. Grabbing onto the unconscious bleeding Kioxe and dragging him to the mines.

"You, help him learn of his circumstances and what he has to do from now on." Rudi pointed at a skinny yet ripped boy.

The boy had a very lean body with muscles underneath from the labor he did.

"Yes, Master Rudi." The boy said quickly as he saw the whip behind Rudi's back. Not to mention the blood and cut skin Kioxe received.

"Good boy, now drop and let me whip you ten times for not getting rid of this piece of meat." Rudi pointed at Kioxe.

Although it was impossible for the boy to had drag Kioxe away in such a short moment, Rudi did not care. He just looked for an excuse to whip the boy.

"Yes!" The boy said clearly as to not let Rudi whip him even more than the set number. Going down on all fours, the boy let Rudi whip him ten times without complaining. The boy knew of Rudi's temper and sadistic habits so he did not voice out a single complaint.

*crack* *crack* *crack*

"Thank you master Rudi, I will now get rid of the boy and myself out of your sight." The boy with trickling blood on his back quickly pulled Kioxe away from Rudi's plain eye view.

After going deep into the mine, the boy yelled,"We got another one."

With saddened faces all around they could only nod their heads.

"I'll put him here, someone give me a pickaxe before we get punished for not meeting today's daily goal." The boy said as Kioxe was set upon the corner of the mine.

"Here you go James, don't work too hard. We know you got punished just now. I can smell your blood." Another boy came over and handed a pickaxe.

*cling* *cling* *cling*

The sounds of pickaxes rang. It was like a harmonious song as the noises that came from the impact of their pickaxes echoed thorough the mine.

"Good job boys, we have another tough day tomorrow. Make sure to get enough rest." A tall strong boy encouraged.

"Harrumph!" Kioxe cleared his throat as he woke up.

"Let's introduce ourselves to the new boy first before we all go to sleep." The tall boy suggested.

As Kioxe sat up, with the dim lights coming from the surrounding lanterns, he was able to barely make out the other boys. There were nine of them in fact and all lean too.

"Hello, I'm Tommy! Now the two short boys over there are John and Jack, you could say they're twins. The guy that brought you here is James. Then we have Chad, Henry, Kenny, Cedric, and Dan respectively." Tommy made a fast introduction.

"I'm Kioxe." Kioxe replied.

"First things first, you have to work. Over here, we have to mine two thousand pounds of rocks or minerals per day." Tommy clarified what Kioxe had to do.

"Everyday, we will have one us who will push the cart to Rudi or Marco. Those two are second in the hierarchy after their leader Budeen. We switch off like this as you are guaranteed to receive some punishment from Rudi. If one of us gets a really grave near death injury, then try will get two weeks to recover. That is...if you survive." Tommy explained bluntly.

For Tommy, it's not that he wanted to scare the newcomers, but because he had been here for far too long. Every year, a kid or two would die and be replaced by another new kid that the slave trade kidnapped.

"That is all, you better rest up as it seems that Rudi did quite a piece of work on you. You've got a long day tomorrow." Tommy then left, following the other kids.

Working in the mine wasn't all too hard. Although Kioxe was unable to use Nahlia as it gave such clean cuts to the wall that it would arouse suspicions, Kioxe was a septem user. All Kioxe had to do was use his life energy to fix his body up. That meant that Kioxe was able to work for hours everyday and train his soul at night. He didn't need to get much sleep as the life energy produced from his soul would keep Kioxe at peak condition.

Even if it was the case, Kioxe had made sure to not heal his wounds from Rudi too soon. It would arouse suspicions from the other kids and get him killed if Rudi found out. After having lived in the mine for two years or so, Kioxe was able to confirm that the leader of this large trade organization was actually a sixth stage septem user. The amount of life and soul energy the man had would probably overwhelm Kioxe in a second.

As for Rudi and Marco, they were both amazingly fifth stage septem experts. With the whip being obviously Rudi's septem. It turns out that the cat o' nine tails was obtained after Rudi had reach the fifth stage. Kioxe could still remember the death of Tommy like it was yesterday. On Tommy's fifteenth birthday, Rudi used a steel whip to mutilate his body and kill him in just two whips. It turns out that the rule was to kill any that reached the age of fifteen as they could cause future harm or retaliate.

As for the other kids, John and Jack had died from exhaustion. The work was too much for the two eight years old to handle. As for James, Chad, Henry, Kenny, Cedric, and Dan, they had all died in the span of three years after Kioxe had arrived. Tommy's attitude was understandable after Kioxe witnessed the atrocities himself.

New kids would get kidnapped and forced into hard labor almost every couple months or so following the death of one of the kids in the mine. Although Kioxe had grown fond with some of the kids, he had made sure not to grow too fond as it would only depress him even further.

There was even one time where a kid who was in the second stage of septem at just the age of eleven was kidnapped and brought to the mine. Although Kioxe warned him right away after he dared blatantly showed off his septem in the mine, he still couldn't handle the sadistic ways of Rudi and actually attacked him. The sneak attack had injured Rudi, but not much as Rudi could use his strong fifth septem stage life energy to heal his body. As for the boy, he was tortured with for five days and nights. You could hear his screaming moans for days on end.

Other than that kid, there was only a few other septem users. Though they were on the first septem stage and their life energy wouldn't amount to much. When you were found out about being a septem user, another fellow would snitch on Rudi just so he wouldn't get tortured for the month. It truly was a pitiful thing.

As for Kioxe, he didn't just get physically stronger, he had reached the fourth stage. Although after fusing with the moth and mantis shrimp, it turns out to his surprise that a strong body only further help develop the soul. Although taking in such extraordinary abilities should have slowed his soul cultivation, he was more or less still able to reach the fourth stage.

For his fourth stage, Kioxe had decided to fuse with the adamantium buckler that he had bought from Kalini port. Since there wasn't anything worth in the mine to fuse with, the buckler surely was a good choice. As for the reason why Kioxe still had his interspatial ring, it was because all interspatial rings were different from each other in looks. With varied looks, it was hard to tell which was a ring and which was an interspatial ring.

The ring Kioxe had was relatively plain and simple. So Rudi didn't think much of it other than a junk decoration. The ring that Rudi wore surely was much more extravagant.

Having reached the age of ten, Kioxe had already gotten enough time to reflect on his life so far. Kioxe had decided to forgive himself and treasure his third septem. He had thought that Kane was still with him. The mantis shrimp was what you could say Kane's eyes and Kane's gift to Kioxe.

Looking around him, Kioxe mentality had also changed. Although he was still kind, he had decided that the world is just cruel. With that, he had shut himself from others emotionally.

"I've got four more years...." Kioxe muttered.

"It would be great if I could reach the fifth septem stage on time. Only then would I be able to escape from this wretched place." Kioxe prayed.

If he wasn't at the fifth stage then, there probably wasn't going to be a chance for Kioxe to face off against Budeen, the sixth stage septem user that controlled the slave organization. Surely, Kioxe could handle Rudi and Marco, but the unknown expert was someone he didn't want to fight against.

Sitting down with his legs crossed, Kioxe closed his eyes in meditation.

Author's Note:

So I fell asleep for a long, long time. I think the fatigue kicked in and said go to sleep. So I obeyed like James would obey Rudi....I submitted to the great God of sleep. As a sorry though, I was like a long chapter! A longer chapter than usual to make my readers forgive me. xD

Now as always, hope you enjoy! ;)