"Hey, I am talking to you slave," Head Guard Helio said in an angry tone.

David instantly snapped out of his good feeling and spoke, "Apologies, Head Guard Helio. I was left puzzled over the fact that I get to work for such an impressive man." David tried flattery.....sometimes that worked.....sometimes it didn't.

"Oh.....so I am impressive....I like that...," Head Guard Helio said with a smile.

"Harry, take this slave over to the side and explain to him the role of a scout in the mines. See if he has the mouth for such flattery after he finds out what his task will be down here," Head Guard Helio said before turning around and resuming beating the tied up slave in front of him.

Harry brought David over to a quiet area of the open cavern and began to explain what David's tasks would entail.

"David, you are not that lucky to be selected for a scout position. Even though we call these mines, they are mostly tunnels left behind by ancient sand worms as they dug through the ground. As far as we know, the giant sand worms no longer exist in this area but their tunnels travel for hundreds of miles underneath the desert. Your job is to patrol the tunnels ahead of the groups of miners to check for hazards and resources. If an unstable part of the mine exists or some creature is lurking in the tunnel, you are to travel back and report to Head Guard Helio. Head Guard Helio has control over your slave collar that can be used to track you throughout the tunnels. If you try to escape, he will know. He will also know if you sit stationary for too long and can give you a jolt of pain through the collar. I suggest that you scout like intended to prevent yourself from getting tortured."

"Harry, is it okay for me to ask you a few questions?," David said a little hesitantly.

"Sure, ask away. But you better be quick or Head Guard Helio will get angry," Harry said.

"What exactly are we mining in these tunnels? What sort of creatures could I encounter in here? and How often do I need to report back to Head Guard Helio?," David asked.

"Oh...those are good questions. The Manco Family mines a variety of ores and minerals from the mines. However, the real money maker for the family is elemental and heavenly stones. Although these two are rare, they can be quite a financial boon to the family. Anything that doesn't look like the standard stone on these walls is a potential deposit of something good. If you want to get in the good graces of Head Guard Helio, be sure to tell him of any good veins of ore or minerals that you find in your scouting."

"As far as creatures are concerned...I would just say that it is the usual cave wildlife. Spiders and scorpions are the most common, but there have been sightings of other creatures.....so be on the lookout."

"....and you will usually need to report back to Head Guard Helio every three to five days. He will allow you to rest for 7 hours out of a day, so find a good secure spot to sleep. You can check with the guard near the entrance and he can give you some survival bars for sustenance and some water to drink," Harry finished up, "Alright, go check in with Head Guard Helio to see where he wants you to start."

"Thanks, Harry," David said, "you have been very helpful."

"No problem, Night," Harry said, "that's how I stay alive." Then Harry turned and left.

Trying not to get ahead of himself, David walked behind Harry to the guard near the entrance. After a brief discussion, the guard gave David two survival bars, a large jug of water and a small ragged cloth satchel to carry at his side. After getting his supplies, David walked back over to Head Guard Helio to get his orders.

He stood next to the man for a minute before his presence was acknowledged.

"Oh, your back already slave," the guard said, "You ready to get started with your new job?"

"Yes, Master Helio," David said in a submissive manner, "Harry had told me to come ask you for a recommendation on a starting tunnel."

"Well...how nice of Harry....come here first," the man said as he reached for David.

It took a lot of strength for David not to pull away from the man's grasp....he knew if he pulled away that he would be beaten. Head Guard Helio grabbed David's collar and clipped a small beacon to the loop on the side.

"After 3 days have passed, you can use this beacon to guide you back to this room. Once activated, the beacon will emit a slight glow. The glow will get more intense the closer you get to this cavern. In 6 days, you better report back to me with some good findings or you will get beat. If you find anything noteworthy in your scouting, place one of the markers at the location and activate it. Do not use these for anything other than hazards or ores," Head Guard Helio commanded as he handed David three orbs that looked similar to the clip on his collar.

"Now, you see that one tunnel straight ahead. That will be your first tunnel to explore. Go now...find something good slave," Head Guard Helio said as he waived David along.

David entered the tunnel as directed and continued moving along the torch lit tunnel. Along the way, he passed several groups of miners that were digging out ore from the walls. Each had only glanced his way before getting back to work mining. After a few hours of walking, David eventually came to a point where no torches lit the tunnel.

David stopped for a second to develop a plan. Now that he was in the tunnels, he could tell why Mr. Harver had said he would make a good scout. If he was a normal Foundation Stage darkness cultivator, he could see in the dark because of his Shadow Skill and detect threats with his Doom Skill. Luckily for David, he had abilities that no one knew about. With his eyes fixed on the darkness of the tunnel ahead, he circulated his heavenly energy and turned himself into the shadows of the tunnel.

It had been a long time since David had executed his shadow skill and the feeling was almost intoxicating. As he started to shift into the darkness, David could feel a large amount of heavenly energy in the tunnel shooting towards him. The energy rushed into his body and almost knocked David to his knees.

'Holy shit, what the fuck is happening?' David thought as he sat on the ground worried that he might fall down. The heavenly energy was steadily pouring into his body. As a few minutes passed, the energy started pass through his body and head towards David's soul. The energy started to coagulate into a small sphere. The small sphere seemed to be the concentration of the shadow skill's concept, heavenly energy and darkness elemental energy. After forming, the concept orb started to orbit his soul. After about 15 minutes time, David sat there completely amazed by what had just happened.

'I think that I just broke through to Demigod of Shadow,' David thought as he could feel the large amount of heavenly energy being concentrated near his soul. He felt so much stronger. The focus of heavenly energy into his body had increased his physical strength greatly. David estimated that his physical strength should have increased by at least four times. His punch should easily have 4 tons of force. David also picked up a fist sized rock from the ground and squeezed. With a bit of effort, the rock crumbled in his grip.

The presence of the Demigod concept orb near his soul was also a great increase to his soul strength. With a reach of his soul perception, David could sense almost 500 feet down the tunnel. That was a 10 times increase from his previous soul perception distance.

'Awesome,' David thought as an electric pain suddenly shot through his neck and brought him to his knees and out of his shadow form.

"Fuck...I must have stayed still for too long. Too bad the advancement to Demigod couldn't get rid of this collar. I will have to find a way to get rid of this thing.....If it is gone, I have nothing to keep me here," David thought with a smile as he got up and started walking into the dark tunnel.

With a thought, his entire body shifted into shadow and he vanished into the tunnel.

After traveling for a little while, David realized that the only thing visible in his shadow form was the collar and beacon on his neck. The slight glow of the beacon was annoying and would give his position away to something in the tunnel. A few minutes of thinking, David came out of his shadow form. He took out his bottle of water and mixed a little with some stone dust on the ground to form a paste. He smeared the paste onto the beacon and soon the glow emitted was covered. David also smeared some of the paste onto his collar to breakup the smooth outline of the metal ring. After a few minutes, the rock paste had dried forming an almost cement like covering on both the collar and beacon. David was very happy with the result. He turned into shadow again and proceeded on his journey into the tunnel.

Besides the fact that David was a slave forced to work in the mines, he was actually enjoying himself. He was alone, he just had a great leap forward in cultivation, he had some sort of freedom, and he got to use the shadow skill which always comforted him. It wasn't that bad.

As David moved along in the tunnel, he had not come across anything out of the ordinary. In the darkness, David could tell that the walls were the same and there were no threats ahead. He needed to gain favor with Head Guard Helio. It would make his activities in the mines easier in the future.

After traveling in the tunnel for several hours, David realized that it was probably night time in the outside world. Considering that he was aloted time to sleep in the tunnels, David sat down to rest. After waiting about 20 minutes with no pain, David assumed that Head Guard Helio must have left the mines and went back home to sleep.

David closed his eyes and entered his soul space. To his amazement, he could now sense both the inside of his soul space and the external world at the same time. David's soul has its own space inside. The space inside his soul was where he went when he dreamed. In exploring this new ability, David had also realized the nuances of his perception skill.

When David focused to see other dream orbs, he was actually extending his perception out from inside his soul space while in a dream state. This application of soul perception gave him the ability to see part of other people's souls if they were also in the dream state...and he could freely travel around to interact with the dream orbs in the limits of his soul perception.

When he was awake in reality, his soul perception would give him awareness of the conditions around him. With his advancement to Demigod, David could overlap the different perceptions at will. This ability had many practical applications and David was thrilled.

"What are you so excited about?," a sultry voice came from his side as David was in thought about his ability.

Startled David jumped back into the darkness and turned around. Misery was standing beside him. David had almost forgot that he had someone else residing in his soul.

"Hello Misery...I was just excited. I can sense both my soul world and the external world at the same time with my soul perception...and I promoted to Demigod in my Shadow skill earlier today," David said.

Misery stared at David for a second before saying, "That is wonderful, Master. Let's celebrate by going to find me another soul to eat."

David looked at the sexy woman for a second before laughing, "Okay...I will see if we can find something for you...but we are probably about a mile underground now, so I don't have high expectations...oh and don't call me Master anymore. I have developed a real bad taste for the word...you can just call me Night from now on.....after we get out of this whole slavery situation, I will start going by that name.....David just doesn't suit me much anymore."

"oooo.....ooooo....Night.....I love it.....great name," Misery said before continuing, "Now can we go look for a soul to eat."

"Glutton," David said before focusing in on the soul world perception.

To David's surprise, four glowing orbs appeared at a location in the maximum distance of his soul perception.

"Oh boy, you found some," Misery said before running over to the nearest one to look inside.

" Hey...Hey...Night...what kind of dream is this?," Misery said as she practically straddled the glowing orb.

As David neared, he could feel that there was a slight difference between this orb and the ones that he had seen before, "I don't know let me check it out first."

Walking up to the orb, David lowered his face to contact the surface to look inside. He was complete perplexed by what he saw inside.

Coming back into the soul space, David looked at Misery and said, "Well...that's a first."

"What?.....What is it?," Misery asked.

"Shove your face in and find out," David said getting a little aggravated at the woman's overexcited nature.

Misery reached forward and plunged her face into the orb.

After a minute, she pulled her face out...."Night, is that what I think it is?"

"Yep," David said with a grin, "Yes, it is."