The large-tunnel pushed deep into the stone, a long and winding stretch that felt as if it moved for endless slithers. Wall-cracks and small-tunnels leaked black-water at its edges, keeping me carefully moving down the center, where it was safer for me to slither about. For the most part, the leaking bits of black-water formed tiny pools in the areas where the tunnel’s floor shifted downwards near the walls; it happened often enough that I doubted it was natural.

Most likely, the Coreless had carved those spots out, leaving channels for the black-water to pool, keeping the dangerous liquid - mostly - away from where it would do me harm. I doubted that [Transient Reanimation] would keep me going if too much of the stuff got on me. Even the [The Endless Cycle] might not be enough, though I wasn’t as sure on that one. Still, the Death Core had proven that my return could - at the very least - be delayed. I didn’t want to risk the possibility that the mana-devouring black-water could stop it entirely.

I turned slightly, winding my way around a small trickle that had escaped, feeling an instinctual discomfort as the black-water came a fang’s length away from brushing my scales. And then, I was past the danger, moving as fast as ever towards the continuing sound of ore-flesh against stone.

A sound that just kept growing louder and more pronounced, even if it was still more slithers away than I could count. Every so often, the large-tunnel split, forking itself in a different direction like the tip of an outstretched tongue. I ignored those forks; though there were a few that showed signs of activity, having the same sounds of ore-flesh and stone that I had been chasing, none of them had even close to the level of the ones that I had been chasing. Compared to the largest source, they were weak. Small.

And, though I planned to bring as many Coreless as I could into the Great Core’s light, it was better for me to ignore those ones for now. I would deal with the largest group first.

===

Yet again, the pickaxe came down. Stone shattered beneath it, and David couldn’t help but flinch. Not because of the shards that rushed towards him, or the dust that tried to plunge into his eyes, but because of what could have been hiding behind that.

Liquid death.

Or pain, anyway. David didn’t have even close to enough mana in his body to instantly die from a little null-water. Nobody really did - or, at least, nobody that David had ever met. And if he had met somebody like that, he would have turned to run.

It would be hard to fill yourself with that much mana and not end up a little…wrong. Though that didn’t stop a part of him from wishing that he had that kind of power. Maybe then, he’d be able to just snap the chains that ran between his legs. That kept him chained in place, forcing him to smash his pickaxe again and again against a wall of stone that might very well be hiding gushing null-water behind it.

Ones that, he had to admit, he might have deserved just a little more than some of his fellow miners.

Maybe David should have found it funny that the punishment for trying to steal a crate of xenlite meant that he was only a short distance away from the largest store of xenlite that he’d ever seen. Like some sort of weird, twisted torture where he was taunted with the very thing that he had wanted, kept just out of reach.

He didn’t.

The mines were no place for laughter - that would be too much of a distraction. Even if, with his muscles burning and all but crying out in agony, he wanted a distraction.

A voice called out, and David flinched at that, too.

“Keep it moving! If I see you slacking again, I'll be petitioning for another half-day added to your sentence,” the overseer shouted at some unfortunate sod. Instantly, the sounds of metal against stone picked up, every other prisoner just as incentivized to keep going as the one that had been called out.

And that was the real torture of the thing; there wasn’t anything physical, not beyond the occasional push or cuffing for the prisoners that the guards felt comfortable in doing so. The ones who had sentences so long that, by the time they were released, there wouldn’t be any possible retaliation for their mistreatment. There couldn’t be.

Spend long enough down in the mines, and an injury from sudden null-water almost unavoidable. Spend even longer, and they added up. Became almost crippling - or worse.

David let his pickaxe fall again, and again, and again, and -

He leapt back with a startled shout, legs straining and the chains between his ankles clanking, narrowly avoiding a sudden gout of null-water. It surged out from the opening in the wall in a great rush, only beginning to slow once the supply began to run low. Luckily, it wasn’t that much, only lasting for a few seconds.

Skies, that one almost went in my mouth, he thought, heart hammering more loudly than the falling pickaxes around him. Even if a little bit of null-water was more than survivable, David had no wish to see what swallowing a bit of the stuff might do to him. None at all.

He gave it a little more time for the flow to fully end, watching as the droplets trickled out of their narrow opening and letting his legs and arms rest. Before long, though, he was handed a narrow funnel and a bucket and told to get to work - this time not on the stone, but on the null-water itself.

Though the miners were mostly searching for xenlite, not null-water, the null-water was now in the way. And that null-water, once moved, might as well move further. There were plenty of null-water pools that could do with some expanding, even if the miners’ efforts could only chip away at that need in tiny bits and pieces. More than one Tower desperately needed it.

Not that David would get to choose where the null-water that had tried to force its way down his throat would go. He was just a miner. A prisoner.

Still, at least dealing with the null-water gave him a little more time to rest. Careful to avoid letting the dangerous liquid touch his skin, David began to gather it up. And if he went a little slower than necessary, well, that was just being extra careful. Nobody was willing to hassle anyone while they dealt with null-water - at least, not after the time Old Arvin got pissed and started trying to splash his bucket all over the guards. It didn’t do too much to them. Mostly splashed against their armor. But that was bad enough; the null-water leached most of the mana right out of the metal, and the few trickles that made their way through the joints were far more painful to the guards, with their higher levels of mana-infusion, than they might have been to most others.

Not that David had any plans of throwing a bucket of null-water at them like Old Arvin. Even that crazy codger was only insane enough to do it once.

Though that didn’t mean David wasn’t above taking advantage of their wariness - especially when he had no desire to have the null-water touch him, either. Slowly, bit by bit, the null-water funneled its way into the bucket. His ears perked as bits of quiet conversation made their way past the din of pick and stone.

“...step things up. Next tithe’s coming up soon, and I don’t want to be the poor fucker that has to tell those assholes we don’t have their xenlite,” the overseer was saying, talking to his second.

“And you think I do?” the man grumbled back, audibly shuddering, even if David couldn’t see it. “That big one that came by last time, what’s his name…you know, looked like he could kill you just by accident? Made the mistake of playing a few hands against him before they left. I swear, before I let him win at the end and take back his money, I thought he was just going to walk right through the wall later that night and take it back himself - and not nicely, if you know what I mean. Crazy fucker.”

“Why’d you even gamble with someone like that in the first place, you Skies-damned idiot. Sure, they’re rich as all hell, but…”

David couldn’t help but perk his ears, straining to listen. If there was one thing he loved, it was money. It was the same love that sent him to the White Towers in search of easy riches, hoping that he could grab some of the wealth of their storerooms for himself. The same love that ended with him in the mines.

But, even if it wasn’t always an easy love, David wasn’t willing to give up on it yet. He leaned backwards, trying to get that much closer in hopes of hearing about the apparently wealthy - and scary, David made sure to remind himself - visitors.

A sudden shriek ended his hopes of hearing anything more.

“M-m-m-monster!”