New Novel Chapter 1: (Patreon)

My heart was steady as I stared down at my foe. I relished the familiar sensation of my weapon in my grasp, a source of comfort within the foreign and otherworldly domain after crossing through the glowing rift. As always, I had come with one purpose, and that purpose was staring right back at me. 

My calloused hands tightened around the handle as I swung down. The iron tip, worn and weathered, struck with precision, rewarding me with a satisfying crunch from my adversary. 

Still, it invited me—taunted me—to strike it again, despite the cracks and splinters sullying its once pristine body. 

“One… more… time!” I grunted, putting the weight of my hip and back into the blow this time. My foe didn’t stand a chance. 

Puffing slightly from the exertion, I leaned back against the cavern wall, taking a moment to catch my breath and survey the domain we were currently working in. 

Surrounding me were high stone walls that arched up and formed into huge stalactites.  The back end of the cavern split off into several smaller tunnels, each masked by darkness. The rocky ground was covered in splatters of blood from the battle, which had taken place just a few days before. If it weren’t for the clusters of glowing purple stones that lined the walls and ground, this domain would’ve had a significantly different atmosphere. 

I looked down at the particular lode of aetherstones that I had been working on, and smirked confidently. “You haven’t had enough yet?”

I wiped at a bead of sweat that threatened to drip into my eye and hacked away once again until the ore finally dislodged from the cavern wall. We were mining aether, a substance only found in the domains.

“Still imagining the aetherstones as the parabeasts, Torrin?” a familiar voice cracked. 

“Ah!” I jumped in fright, spinning around to see who it was, my pickaxe held up like a weapon. 

It was Angelo, shirtless as always, showing off that bulbous beer belly of his he seemed so proud of. “I swear, you scare easier than a street cat.” 

I felt the blood rush up to my cheeks as I stepped away from the aetherstones shards in front of me. I scratched my head, forgetting for a moment that I was wearing a hardhat just like Angelo. “Uhh…” 

“Stop teasing the boy, Angelo. Every one of us does something to pass time in these godforsaken domains,” boomed the clear baritone voice of Mr. Jenson, our supervisor. 

“Yeah!” Theo, another excavator chimed in. “I’ve seen you pretending to sheathe your pickaxe like it’s a war axe or something.” 

“Shut it, Theo!” Angelo retorted lamely. 

Despite coming to my aid, their presence made me even more embarrassed. 

“Yeah, but the normal ones listen to music or just gossip,” Angelo rebutted, holding up his own pair of earbuds as if I was unaware of such things. 

Clearing my throat, I bent down and started collecting the shattered fragments of crystalized ore. It wasn’t the first time I had been caught ‘pretending’ by my coworkers, and I knew there was nothing wrong with what I was doing but…

At age seventeen, I was already the youngest excavator on team. Doing childish things like this was just giving them more ammunition to treat me like a kid. 

I fell into my own thoughts as I filled the cart brimming, ignoring the clamor of the other excavators and the rhythmic clashes of metal on stone. The aetherstones emitted a soft light, which created an aura around the cart and threw strange, multicolored shadows across my uniform.

There was a sort of odd liveliness within the large cavern that seemed incongruent with the mangled imp corpses nearby. ‘Imp’ was a colloquial term for the category of parabeasts that had inhabited this particular domain but, looking at their beady eyes and small wiry frame, they were appropriately named. 

The imps had been piled on top of one another after the dismantling unit had finished harvesting the parts that could be sold or used to craft. 

It was a gruesome sight, but I had never really been bothered by it for some reason. Even when I first joined the excavation unit as a temp, I was unfazed by the sight and smell of the rotting corpses that seemed to make even the toughest-looking recruits gag and vomit. 

While I had been disconcerted by this indifferent reaction of mine at first, I was thankful in the end. It was one of the main reasons why I had been hired as a regularly contracted excavator, despite me still being a student. 

My hand reached for the last remaining aetherstone shard when a spotless, steel-toed boot crunched down on the glowing stone. If I hadn’t pulled my hand away in time, my fingers would’ve been crushed in between, and I knew for a fact that my fingers weren’t as hard as the aetherstone. 

“I heard you’ve been goofing off again, Torrin,” the owner of the boot mocked in his annoyingly deep and nasally voice. 

“It’s just a form of concentration I use to pass by time, Hugh,” I said, my heart suddenly pounding. “I’ve still been working.” 

“It’s Mr. Vadorn to you, Torrin,” he stressed with a smirk, obviously enjoying the fact that he was able to look down on me for once. “And I don’t like your tone.” 

I stood up, reminding him that I was a head taller than him. Though my heart still hammered in my chest, I instantly felt more confident and less threatened. Standing over him was probably the most I could do to irk him without being actually punished for it—it wasn’t my fault that I was a good five inches taller than him—but it made me feel better.

“I don’t need to remind you that it’s because of my father’s grace that you’re allowed to work here, right?” he said, jabbing his dirtless finger to my chest. 

“Yes… Mr. Vadorn,” I said, keeping my voice as calm as possible.

“Good.” Hugh nodded, satisfied. “Still, I don’t blame you for fantasizing about something so obviously out of your reach. It’s a blessing for you to even be an excavator of the Vadorn Guild, much less a member of the infantry unit.” 

He kicked the aetherstone shard underneath his feet before walking away. 

Meanwhile, I stared down at the glowing stone with clenched fists before letting out sigh. He was right. I should be thankful for even being part of the excavator unit. 

The conditions weren’t pleasant but they were relatively safe and the compensation was better than any other job I would be able to find with my experience and background—or lack of background, I should say. Also, constant exposure to high levels of aether radiation made my body a bit stronger. 

“Torrin!” one of the older excavators called out from a few yards away. “I found another lode here. Bring the cart over and let’s try to knock this one out before our shift is over.” 

“Yes, Mr. Choi,” I said, tossing the aetherstone into the cart before pushing it towards the amiable Korean man. 

We got to work on hollowing out the small cavity filled with aetherstones. As we began to hack away at the stone, we fell into a synchronized rhythm—the product of countless hours of repetitive labor—and we were able to empty it out in less than two hours. 

I sank down on the hard ground, leaning back on the cavern wall. 

“Here, Torrin. Thanks for the help.” Mr. Choi tossed me a thermos. 

I flinched at the sudden action, but managed to catch it. Without even asking what was inside, I popped open the lid and chugged the contents. A chill ran down my esophagus and I winced as the icy numbness crept into my brain, but I didn’t stop drinking. 

Suddenly, I remembered this wasn’t mine and immediately pried myself away from the thermos. I handed it back to the korean excavator, who was old enough to be my father. “S-Sorry Mr. Choi. I think I drank a little too much.” 

He chuckled before patting my shoulder. “No worries. You saved me a couple hours by doing this with me. It looks like we can enjoy a little break before our shift ends tonight.” 

“It’s an honor to hear that from one of the best excavators in this unit,” I replied with a courteous smile. It wasn’t even flattery since Mr. Choi really was one of the fastest excavators in our unit despite his age. 

This was the difference in being an actual wielder—to able to properly utilize and control the aether in the body. It was one thing to have a body strengthened by the natural radiation of aether, which had been flowing out from the glowing, tower-like rifts for almost sixty years now, but to be able to harness that intangible essence to do superhuman feats was something only the truly talented or inherently gifted could accomplish. 

We sat side-by-side and watched as the other excavators in our unit of thirty finished up their lodes.

“Umm,” I hesitated before asking. “Can I ask you a personal question, Mr. Choi?” 

“Did you want to ask what it was like being part of an infantry unit?” he asked back with an amused smile. 

I laughed wryly. “How did you know?” 

“I overheard your scuffle with the little Vadorn heir,” he said before taking a swig from his dented thermos. 

“It’s alright if you don’t answer,” I added. I had heard that this sort of topic could be sensitive to some people. 

He laughed, his crow’s feet blooming. “Don’t worry. There really isn’t a tragic backstory tied to why I’m here hitting these shiny stones.” 

Mr. Choi held out the thermos in his hand which, after a brief moment, began emitting a soft white glow similar to that of an unused aetherstone. 

I sucked in a sharp breath, amazed by the feat; I’d only seen glimpses of power like that on TV. 

“If you’re impressed by this, you’ve really got a long way to go,” Mr. Choi chuckled as he lowered his hand. “The reason I quit the infantry unit of this guild was simply because… I was scared.” 

“You, scared?” I was surprised. Compared to a nervous bundle of fear and tension like me, Mr. Choi was the epitome of confidence and composure.

He looked at me, his drooped and weary eyes full of wisdom. “My wife had just had our first baby, but being the young and foolish man that I was—hoping to make a name for our immigrant family—I ignored the fact that my talents were mediocre.” 

“Mediocre?” I echoed, startled. Judging by the inhuman speed and ease that he struck the aetherstone lodes without damaging his pickaxe, it looked like he was here just as a hobby.

“Mediocre would be putting it generously. I saw that my limit was barely being able to imbue my aether onto an object—and that’s the bare minimum needed to be part of any infantry unit worth a dime.” Mr. Choi let out a sigh before continuing. “As God would have it, the night after I had gotten into a fight with my wife, after she had begged me to quit the infantry unit, I nearly got killed.” 

“Killed? What happened?” I asked, shuffling closer in anticipation.

Just as he was about to answer, the large brass bell rang, signalling the end our shift. 

Mr. Choi got up first and held out a hand for me to grab. “I guess that story is for another day.” 

I was disappointed, but he was right; we’d see each other in our next shift. I grabbed Mr. Choi’s rough hands, noticing that they felt different from mine, and he pulled me to my feet. 

I stepped out of the large glowing rift, fairly used to the jarring sensation of going through the interdimensional portals that connected different domains to our world. Immediately, I was greeted by a refreshing gust of wind.

The simple fact that the air didn’t smell like a mixture of rotting corpses, sweat, and port-a-potties put me in a great mood, despite knowing that I would soon have to see them. 

Putting my hard hat back on the rack alongside all the other excavating equipment provided by the Vadorn Guild, I picked up my phone from the electronics cabinet and lined up behind Angelo. 

“Sweet, sweet payday,” he sighed in joy. “First thing I’m going to do is hit a bar or club and find me a lady to take home.” 

“Don’t you mean strike out once you’ve spent all of your paycheck buying girls drinks?” Theo teased, turning back. “Seriously. Lose the belly and shave once in a while, and maybe you’ll have a chance.” He flexed his thick muscular arms, driving home his point. 

“Hey! I’m looking for a lady that’ll accept me for who I am,” Angelo rebutted, playful punching Theo’s thick bicep. 

“What a romantic, right Torrin?” Theo responded sarcastically. 

“Maybe tonight will be his lucky night,” I shrugged, caring little about the often exaggerated tales of courtship—mostly just attempted courtship—told by Angelo during every lunch break we had together. 

By the time I reached the front of the line, the sky was splotched in a haze of orange. It’d be sunrise soon, and I had school. 

Letting out a sigh, I turned on my out-of-date phone; it didn’t even have access to the internet. Twelve missed calls from her. Damn it, now I really didn’t want to go back to that house. 

“Here you are, Torrin. Good work tonight,” Mr. Jenson said as he held up the white envelope. It was easy to tell mine from the others because it was thicker than the rest—not because I made more money, but because I didn’t have a bank account to deposit into so I was stuck carrying around cash… not that it really mattered. 

Before I could reach for it, Mr. Jenson leaned close and tucked the envelope into my oversized coat pocket. “It’s not much, but I put in a few extra bucks. Buy your sister something nice.” 

My eyes widened. 

“Don’t worry, I made sure not to let Mr. Vadorn, Jr. know.” He winked.

“Th-Thank you, Mr. Jenson!” I said, a smile tugging at my lips.

“Didn’t I tell you to just call me Frank?” he chuckled, tousling my matted hair. “Now scram! You don’t want to be too late back home.” 

I nodded, my hands pressed over my chest where the white envelope was. Glancing back over my shoulder as I walked away, my eyes absorbed the all-too-familiar sight of the rift. 

The distorted, glowing pillar of light was twelve feet tall at least and visually warped the space around it. From where I was I could just hear the dull, monotonous thrum emitted by the rift. Even though I’d grown up with them and traveled through them, I was still completely fascinated by the rifts, a phenomena that had wreaked havoc throughout the world, spilling out parabeasts of all shapes and sizes, only to be transformed into commercial sites and constantly harvested for the invaluable commodities within. 

Humans really were able to adapt to just about anything.