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"Sadly, she barely knows a hundred words," I said. "I already learned half of them observing people, but I guess she was trying her best to help me.

"I heard from her that Imani knows more. Well, she was here for a longer time, so it shouldn\'t come as a surprise, but somehow that woman seemed unfathomable at times. I don\'t know how she kept over a hundred slaves to settle under her in the first place."

"She\'s plenty resourceful," Cameron agreed. "But I think you\'re giving her more credit than she deserves. Yes, she did a great job, but she hadn\'t done it alone, and. . ."

Cameron\'s voice trailed off as I gave him a look. He looked around suspiciously, then continued in a quieter tone, finding none eavesdropping. "She had secrets of her own."

"Like how she became so physically strong," I added.

"It\'s not just strong, she\'s freakishly strong," Cameron corrected.

Supposedly, this world had this effect on people. Either you grow and adapt to the environment, or you die unable to do so.

I was almost twice as strong of the time I was summoned. True, I was a lanky fellow, with no muscle mass in the beginning.

Anyway, at the rate at which I was growing, I would leave Cameron in the dust in a month or two, courtesy of the potion Ol\' Theodore fed me.

Train. Adapt. Survive. These were the three rules of this world. If you\'re slow or incompetent in any of the former two, your survival would be in jeopardy.

The potions helped me tackle the adaptation thing as I almost finished adapting to this world\'s higher gravity and peculiar environments. My skin hadn\'t got thick enough to shrug off the hot environment, though.

"Her physical prowess isn\'t natural," Cameron continued. "Yes, she had been here for longer than most people and survived. Time is a factor in adaptation, but there\'s something unnatural about her."

"Are you certain?" I asked. "Or do you feel this about every beautiful woman you meet?"

Cameron gave me a disdainful look. "Please, I\'m not a hormonal teenager," he said, venomously accusing me, "who can\'t stop talking about a girl who helped his shit."

I had nothing to offer as a defence of his comment. Although I had mentioned nothing relating to her wielding magical energy, I talked more than a handful of times about her, especially to Cameron, my only sane neighbour.

"And for your information, I\'m married, quite happily, actually. We had a baby coming and I. . ."

Cameron\'s voice trailed off as his mood turned a darker shade. Well, from the look on his face, I could see how spiteful he was of this place. No less than me, even though his physical suffering had been lower than mine.

"I hate this place," Cameron said grudgingly.

I guess it was only natural for him to hate the torture, the suffering, the enslavement, not to mention it had pulled him out of his successful life, happy family, and unborn child.

In contrast, I was more of a failure, though I never considered myself one. Well, I was a failure in social conduct and giving fucks about the family business.

"You never talked about your life on earth," I said.

"You either."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

"No," Cameron said, gritting his teeth.

A silence drew between us as I found Cameron dealing with his flash of emotions. He was good at controlling them. At last, he sighed in resignation and turned to me.

"We already have a name for our child," he said quietly, even though he didn\'t want to express anything about it. "Jane, my baby girl, I can\'t even see her face now. . ."

I opened my mouth to say some words of reassurance or even a word of consolation, but I barely managed anything. There was no assurance, nor consolation.

Thankfully, Cameron didn\'t need my assurance. He was a grown-up man and knew how to deal with his issues.

Well, all I managed was to let out some words about my life, wishing it would make him feel better.

"I can\'t say I have left behind anything like yours," I said. "A girlfriend, probably, but nothing serious. She\'ll get over me within a week. As for family, I had everyone. More than a normal family should have to be honest. Mother, father, step-parents, uncle, aunts, cousins, step brothers and sisters.

"My parents have been separated for about a decade now. I kept in touch for most of the time, though I had been growing distant since I was admitted to the university. . . I guess this is no different, just a terrible struggle with terrible perks and labour."

I laughed humourlessly and cursed myself for being terrible at being honest. Well, Cameron gave me a nod and expressed he appreciated it, which was a lot since he had been my only friend in this terrible world.

Well, I interacted with Elea more than enough to call her a friend as well, but there was always the notion of her only interacting with me for other reasons—like keeping tabs on the spiral mark—which kept me a healthy distance away from her.

"Well, we need to get back to work," Cameron said as he stood up.

I did as well. We moved to the hotter region, where mining was a bit easier with plentiful crystals to pick. Pushing the trolley was always difficult as the day progressed. It was getting more and more filled with those gleaming crystals as we got tired of picking them.

That day would have ended with nothing, in particular, to note save for us opening up about our past, unfortunately, that was not to be.

It was the second time I learned about the dangers of mining.

A huge bombardment echoed from the east side abruptly, pulling me out of my stance. My first thought had been the earthquake, even though there was a clear resounding bombardment.

Then the ground and ceiling shook.

__________________

Finally done, it\'s 4.30 in the morning. . . and I have a heachace.