The protagonist

Two bags filled with rocks thudded to the ground next to thirty similar bags. Eric placed them in front of a young man sitting with an open book and a pen.

"There are only thirty sacks here. Your team is still twenty bags short," the young man remarked.

"Huh, these bags were only brought by me," Eric said, pointing behind him. "The others in my team are still coming with their share."

"Huh. Do you mean all these bags are your work?" Seeing Eric nod, the young man said, "G-Good work," startled by the amount Eric had brought.

"By the way, did you find anything?" He said.

Eric nodded, apparently remembering something. He pulled out another bag and placed it on the desk in front of the young man. The young man looked at him, then shifted his attention back to the bag, opening it to find twenty mana crystals.

"Twenty?" The young man raised his eyebrows.

"That's all I found, why? Is it not enough?" 

"Hum, no, no. It's actually above average; I guess you were lucky to find so much, but again, you also managed to mine thirty bags of rocks, which is three times more than the average quota, so it's not much of a surprise to be able to find this amount of crystal." The young man said.

"I see, I'm new here, so I didn't know how much was expected of us, so I worked extra hard. It's good to know so I can take it easier next time." Eric sighed in relief.

"Well, you did an excellent job for a rookie." The young man said.

"Yeah, I guess." Eric said while scratching the back of his head, but his mind was on something else, "I managed to find fifty crystals. I gave twenty and absorbed the rest, which increased my magic power by 8 points. I didn't know how many crystals we were supposed to deliver, so I gave him twenty crystals just to avoid suspicion. After all, I did the work of three guys, so it was expected that I would find at least that much.

He really wanted to keep more crystals for himself, but he suppressed his greed so he wouldn't be exposed. Judging by the young man's reaction, he thought it was the right decision to hand over so much.

"Give me your badge," the young man said.

Hearing the request, Eric reached into his pocket, pulled out a small wooden tag, and handed it to the young man.

The young man took it and wrote down the information on it.

The tag contained only basic information, such as his name, occupation, and what team he was on.

After a while, the young man finished writing in his book and handed the tag back.

"Good work today, Walker," the young man said. "I got your name registered. You can go now. After we count everything, we will announce the team scores, and then you can claim your rewards."

"I see, thank you," Eric said, turning and walking in the direction the others were going. The people looked exhausted as they handed over their bags and left the mine.

'It looks like everyone here is a slave.'

While talking to the young man, Eric noticed that he wore the same slave stigma. At first, he speculated that the young man was one of the supervisors, but after seeing the mark, he knew he was wrong; even the captain who attacked him earlier wore the same mark. 

"Well, it would be useless to keep the guards here anyway, because nobody would be stupid enough to try to escape." Eric thought as he left the mine.

*****

"We have finished calculating today's workload."

The captain of the mining team was standing on an old wooden podium, talking to the other slaves gathered in the square, looking at the captain, waiting for his announcement.

"Now I will announce the rankings."

"In first place is group E."

Eric listened with his hands in his pockets; even after hearing that his team was in first place, he still had a bored look on his face.

"Woah."

"We got the first place."

"That's the first time we've won first place."

Looking at the noisy trio jumping for joy, he realized that they were the same people who woke him up.

"So we were on the same team, huh?" He thought.

He understood why they were angry with him when he just woke up, they were afraid that he would drag them down and affect their ranking. They didn't seem to want to be first, but they just didn't want to be last.

"In second place is group A."

"What? How are they in the first place?"

He noticed four guys who seemed frustrated, which he assumed to be the group holding second place.

"Maybe they used to be first; that's why they seem a bit angry." He thought.

"The third place is group G! They are the group that will get the rewards, so let's skip the rest."

"Last place is group F."

"Nooo!!"

Some people seemed relieved not to be last, while the members of Group F screamed in frustration.

"According to our mining team protocol, the supplies and compensation for the work of the last group will be divided among the first, second, and third groups accordingly."

Eric looked at the four men from the last group who had a defeated look in their eyes, but it quickly disappeared after hearing the captain's next words.

"We will now begin to distribute your pay for today's work, so line up and don't cause any trouble."

Eric waited patiently in line, and after he was paid, he walked to an open square filled with carts that would take them back to the city. The wagons belonged to the temple, so he didn't have to pay for the ride.

After finding a relatively empty one, Eric carefully climbed onto the back of the wooden wagon. There were wooden benches on both sides of the wagon, but they were barely enough to lean his back against.

However, his heart was still pounding fast.

'I'm really nervous, aren't I?'

After half a day of working in the mine and talking to various people, the reality of his situation finally hit him. He was here, living in a fantasy novel he had only read about. It was harder for him to come to terms with the reality that he was traveling by horse and cart to a city full of fictional characters.

Should he say that he got quite nervous?

'It's like a kind of lie, isn't it?'

But it didn't feel that bad either. Well, at least he felt more comfortable being here compared to when he was on Earth.

Shortly after...

"Excuse me."

A sudden voice snapped Eric out of his thoughts, and he looked at the man who had just gotten on the wagon.

Eric's eyes widened, and his heart skipped a beat as he recognized the young man. How could he not know him after days of reading about his adventures and struggles.

Here comes the protagonist!