Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

^Now with that out of the way,^ Zhen Liu began to say as he released himself from Lythero's grip and picked up some loose stones that were left in his cell. ^I'm going to test something.^

Once the stones were in his hands, he began to infuse them with [Chaos] and transformed them into zako marbles.

After doing so, he walked up to the cell doors.

"Hmmm."

Now that he had the time to look over the cell door proper, he could see that they were designed with reaction in mind as opposed to prevention. In other words, as long as he didn't actively attack the bars, then the aether arrays won't activate.

"I guess that means I can just...boop."

As such, he was able to push his hand directly through a hole in the cell door and drop his stone zakos marbles on to the ground.

Once they reached the floor, they immediately transformed into tiny stone figures that ran off in multiple directions.

While Zhen Liu would've preferred to use ghost-type zakos, these stone-type ones were more likely to blend-in in an underground mine like this.

'Alright, little guys, go and figure this horrible place out to me.'

Evidently, he was going to get those answers and then some.

"Oh, if you guys wanna go to sleep, go right ahead. I'm probably going to stay up for a bit to process everything the zakos see," Zhen Liu informed the others.

^Alright.^

^Tell me if that arena is worth a damn,^ Olstenna asked Zhen Liu before rolling over to sleep. ^I'm fairly certain we're going to end up there tomorrow.^

"A fair assumption."

__________________________

*Bing-Bong*

We interrupt this chapter to inform the reader that the following scenes may be considered... unnecessarily brutal to get through.

As such, it was determined that a warning would be placed here just in case.

We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, thank you.

...

Man, we hadn't done one of these in awhile.

|I've been busy.|

Right...

*Bing-Bong*

__________________________

The Mines of Malevolence was a twenty-four worksite.

This meant that at all hours of the day, regardless of rain, shine, or a rampant plague curse that turned half of the populace into boil-covered zombies begging for death, some portion of its massive slave population was always working to dig up [Malevolent Gold] or some other type of accursed ore from the bowels of the earth.

All while under the "loving" care of the overseeing kaijin. Even though they were several times stronger than the average slave, and could easily do the work of a hundred in an hour, this power was used to order hundreds of people over the course of several dozen hours.

None of the kaijin were given any regulations or rules when it came to their duties over the slaves, only a quota.

As such, each of the kaijin had their own unnecessarily cruel methods of organizing and managing their units of slaves.

For example, some made use of waste water as a substitute for an alarm.

[WAKE UP! IT'S TIME FOR THE NIGHTSHIFT!]

"Bah!"

[Move!]

"Whatever happened to alarm bells?"

"They do that in another unit..."

"Ugh! This smell will linger for weeks!"

"Who cares, it keeps the smell of rotting corpses away..."

"I think my eye got infected."

"Maybe you'll die sooner than me..."

Other of the more vocally-inclined kaijin preferred to act like demented roosters, or were demented roosters, and wake up their slaves via [Chaos] enhanced screams.

Needless to say this ear piercing pain would cause them to scream and wake others through their screaming.

[SCREEEEEE!]

"GAH!"

"WHY?!"

"NO MORE SCREAMING! JUST LET ME DIE ALREADY!"

But a vast majority of the kaijin in the mines were martially and physically inclined.

As such, they simply beat and whipped their slaves into action, submission...or death.

[Wake up!]

"Aaaahhh!"

[Wake up!]

"NO!"

[WAKE UP!]

"..."

"Mommy?"

[Oh great, another one dead...you there, child. You have one minute to mourn your mother, then I expect you to dump her in the corpse pit as soon as possible,] the kaijin ordered once he realized that his whip had accidentally shattered the slave's skull. [Now move.]

Sadly enough, this alarm call was the least miserable part of the day for these slaves.

Well, the second least miserable part of their day.

Sleeping was a fairly terrible time as well, but at least the slaves had an opportunity to either die peacefully or disconnect from the world.

[Breakfast time, meat! Make sure to eat a lot, or else you won't be able to work.]

"How can anyone eat this?"

"You just close your eyes and imagine the crunching to be something baked...and not something shelled..."

"Who cares..."

The meals of these slaves consisted namely of a questionably made soup that was made from the local fruit and fauna in the region.

The poisonous and cursed properties had been thoroughly watered down until they were mostly safe for human consumption, but this came at great cost in terms of flavor and edibility.

More often than not, somebody dies during these meal times and their bodies are disposed in a timely manner...usually. Sometimes, one of the kaijin will just eat the corpse, bones and all,for everyone to watch.

This grotesque display would normally trigger responses of disgust from the newer slaves, feelings of apathetic numbness from the older slaves or, in the case of those who had been down in this mine long enough, elicit feelings of intense hunger.

After all, sometimes one had no choice but to eat the corpses of their friends and families and such a taste had a habit of haunting one's memories.

Work was probably the worst part of the day for these slaves.

For hours and hours on end, the slaves would have to break through veins of ores and minerals in order to gather things like [Malevolent Gold], [Azure Lead] and [Sorrowful Copper].

Powerful, dangerous materials that could be used all sorts of incredible aether treasures...but was also wealth that they would never be able to benefit from.

Every drop of sweat and blood, every calloused hand and every injury did nothing more than fill the pockets of an overlord that they only met once.

"All of this gold...it could be used to fix a nation."

"Instead, it profits the guy who owns our lives...and empower the monsters that make us miserable."

"Great..."

This observation, made by a suffering slave, was true in more ways than one.

The monsters outside of the mines, the factions and sects that knew how to use these accursed metals, would buy up these materials in bulk and make all sorts of aether treasures that they would then use to inflict misery and pain onto others.

In turn, they would profit from these ventures and then buy even more evil metals from the [Mines of Malevolence].

As for the monsters inside the mines...the slaves only knew part of the story.

They knew, through the efforts of a failed rebellion, that their kaijin overseers were empowered by cores made of [Malevolent Gold] and that the mine's owner was the crafter of these wretched orbs.

However, what they didn't know, was that they were a key component to the process as well.

Negative emotions normally enhanced the power of [Malevolent Gold], whether it's in the ground or in the process of being forged, but when mixed with a little bit of [Chaos], something...peculiar happens.

The slaves were unaware of this change because of the sheer misery of the place, but the [Chaos] enhanced [Malevolent Gold] was sapping a bit more than negative emotions.

"Hey...are you okay? You look a little...soulless..."

"I'm fine...just... tired..."

The longer the slaves worked in these mines, the more that they were exposed to the kaijin and their awful [Cores], the less and less the people seemed to care about anything.

They didn't seem to react to the horrible treatment as negatively as before, they never seemed to care about eating anything better than their awful soup, they didn't even seem to notice that their friends died before their eyes and some even stopped wanting to sleep altogether.

If a normal aether warrior were to check on these people, they would be able to sense that while they still had their souls but they would feel that something important was missing.

Their [Desire].

That didn't sound like a bad thing, especially to those who wanted to live without [Desire], but there was a massive difference between having one's [Desire] taken away and having one willingly relinquish their [Desire].

Not only that, but [Desire] was what fueled the basics of life.

A [Desire] for food allowed one to understand hunger and seek means of sustenance.

A [Desire] for sleep is what allows to understand the importance of rest and seek places of comfort.

[Desire] is what makes the living want to live in the first place.

And without [Desire], why, the living would be no different from machines.

...

'Not a lick of [Desire] in this entire mine...why?'