Shen Heng responded, and then together with Shadow Wolf, they put the ore they had mined into a stone box not far away.
Then, one carried the child in his arms, and the other carried him on his back as they walked uphill.
Along the way, you could see people loading and unloading ore, carrying ore boxes on their backs, or still digging frantically.
but...
Suddenly, Shen Heng's gaze fell upon a figure clinging tightly to the rock wall.
The figure was small, appearing to be only at the First Tier.
Unlike other Calamity Beast, it did not go upwards, but instead went deeper into the mine.
Along the way, whenever a significantly larger Calamity Beast passed by, it would stop early, hide its head against the wall, and only continue its journey after the monster had left.
The same thing happened when Shen Heng and his group passed by.
It looks like...
"Is it completely impossible for the Gray Hyena Beast to dig up enough material today?" Shadow Wolf said with a sigh.
Shen Heng paused, his gaze turning to Shadow Wolf.
"Do you remember it? How many days has it been since we mined enough ore?"
"Hmm..." Shadow Wolf thought for a moment and said, "Today seems to be the fourth day!"
"The fourth day?"
Shen Heng repeated it in a low voice, turning his gaze behind him.
In my field of vision, the figure was exhausted and terrified, yet it still lifted its leg and walked step by step into the darkness below.
Inside the mine, there's really only one rule.
The required amount of ore must be delivered daily; failure to deliver will result in penalties based on the extent of the shortfall.
Those with a small shortage will have their food supply cancelled for the night; those with a large shortage will be severely punished; and those with a shortage of more than half will be... killed!
Looking at these three penalties alone, they are not actually too harsh.
After all, the amount of resources that the Black Rat Clan sets for each rank is something that anyone can collect as long as they are willing to put in the effort!
The problem is, when these three penalties are combined, along with only one meal a day...
Violating any of these rules is tantamount to heading towards death.
Without food, the energy consumed throughout the day cannot be replenished;
If the stamina is not replenished, it will be even more difficult to collect enough ore the next day;
If you don't collect enough ore on the second day, it means your stamina won't be replenished the next day.
Having not replenished his stamina for two consecutive days, it would be even more impossible to collect enough ore on the third day...
Repeat this process several times.
For those Calamity Beast that break the rules, death is the only path they can take!
And all it takes to lead them down this path is an accident!
An unexpected event that prevented them from collecting enough ore that day!
This unexpected event is not difficult to trigger.
Punishment by the supervised Black Rat; some physical problem; injury resulting from an argument with other Calamity Beast, etc., are all possibilities.
After all, even a normal Calamity Beast would need more than ten hours a day to complete the required amount, barring any unforeseen circumstances. And what if something unexpected happened?
Therefore, it happens from time to time that Calamity Beast, which was just short of ore delivery for various reasons, eventually triggers the final penalty and is killed!
Of course, it's not entirely without a solution.
You can try your best to mine the required amount of ore one day; or ask other Calamity Beast for help; or find food yourself.
However, none of these three are perfect.
Firstly, finding enough ore to meet the requirements is already difficult enough, let alone finding so much ore after being hungry for a day or even several days.
The second type has quite a few Calamity Beast to choose from, such as the original Coiling Mountain Beast and Shadow Wolf. However, most Calamity Beast are all talk and no action, but when a real problem arises, they immediately run away.
Compared to the first two, the third one is much simpler.
After all, food... the whole mine is full of it, you just need to choose your targets carefully!
If you can't beat them, that's okay; you can ask other Calamity Beast for help.
All they had to do was share the food with the animals afterward and take sole responsibility for killing the Calamity Beast.
Of course, you also need to be able to shoulder this responsibility.
The supervising Black Rat will dump the amount of ore that the dead Calamity Beast were supposed to mine onto you.
If it is determined that you cannot mine the required amount of ore, you will still be killed, and your stats will be allocated to other assisting Calamity Beast.
Therefore, other Calamity Beast will only help you if they feel you can handle the situation.
In short, Calamity Beast often face death because the amount of ore they collect is far from meeting their requirements.
At this point, all sorts of situations will arise.
They might either give up and wait to die; or they might go on a rampage attacking other Calamity Beast; or perhaps, like...
Shen Heng stared back at the figure that was slowly disappearing into the darkness.
Or, like this figure, they might go down during the assembly and hide deep in the mine, hoping to evade the search by the Black Guardian Calamity Beast.
Whether any Calamity Beast survived through this method, no beast knows.
But anyway, the Calamity Beast that chose this method never appeared again!
After taking one last look at the darkness behind him, Shen Heng slowly withdrew his gaze, carrying the ore box, and walked out.
After walking for quite a while, they finally arrived outside.
Unlike the brightness of daytime, the outside world had become pitch black.
Amidst the scattered light, one could see figure after figure stepping downwards.
At the foot of the mountain, a long queue had formed.
Shen Heng and Shadow Wolf descended together, and soon they reached the end of the line.
Then, it moved forward slowly.
One figure after another stepped forward, handed over the ore boxes, and then went to another Black Rat Lord not far away to receive food before finally heading together in another direction.
A place to rest... Shen Heng looked in that direction, then looked away after a moment and looked straight ahead again.
In my field of vision, a figure had just finished handing over the ore box, but instead of immediately collecting the food, he froze for a moment before walking straight in the final direction.
No need to think about it anymore; they just didn't find enough ore.
If they cannot resolve this issue within the next two days, then what awaits them is likely to be the same as the Calamity Beast they encountered before.
The group continued moving forward silently.
Suddenly, a slightly noisy commotion came from above.
Shen Heng looked over.
A group of Calamity Beast, led by a Black Rat, emerged from the area.
Unlike Shen Heng and his group, who brought out ore boxes to hand over, they walked straight towards the place where food was distributed.
Were they Calamity Beast sent to develop the mines?
Shen Heng's gaze moved quickly across the Calamity Beast, and soon landed on one of them.
Open your mouth.
The sound was amplified and transmitted.
" Stone, what did you all do down there today?"