"Move your asses, you worthless pieces of dogshit!"
The chief of the mines roared, his voice echoing across the gathering.
"Today is the day you receive your runes. Don't waste your time dreaming about anything else. Every single one of you will receive the same rune. You were born insects, and you'll die insects!"
Every boy and girl in our town receives a rune upon turning ten.
The runes come from monsters hunted by the military. A person can only absorb one rune in their entire lifetime, and the ability they gain depends entirely on the rune they receive.
For people born into poverty, however, there is no choice.
We are all given the same rune—the Ordinary-Rank Storage Rune.
It comes from the Mine Mole, a blind, six-legged monster that thrives deep within the mines. The creature's natural ability is to store rocks and soil inside its body, allowing it to tunnel through the earth with ease.
That same ability is forced upon us.
Once we receive the rune, we are handed a pickaxe and sent into the mines. Dig. Store the ore. Carry it back to the surface.
That is the life waiting for every child born here.
"ARRRGGHHH!"
A boy collapsed onto the platform, screaming in agony before coughing up a mouthful of blood.
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Silence fell over the crowd.
Fear spread like a disease as everyone watched his lifeless body.
"Another failure," the overseer said coldly. "Throw the trash away. Next."
Although the rejection rate for an Ordinary-Rank Rune was low, children like us rarely had healthy bodies. Years of hunger and malnutrition turned even the smallest chance of failure into a death sentence.
"Next!" Sab.
My neighbor.
My childhood friend.
She climbed the platform with trembling legs. Her hands shook as she reached for the white rune.
Please... please... I don't want to die...
I couldn't hear her voice, but I could read the desperate prayer on her lips.
The rune dissolved into white light the moment she touched it.
Her body glowed faintly.
A glowing symbol slowly engraved itself onto her forehead before fading beneath her skin.
She had succeeded.
The tension left her body all at once, and she collapsed onto her knees, gasping for breath.
"Good," the overseer sneered. "Don't disappoint me, girl. There's plenty of work waiting for you."
Sab struggled to her feet and stumbled off the platform, her legs still shaking.
"Next... Cole Silvervein."
I froze.
My name.
It was my turn.
As I walked toward the platform, an old memory surfaced.
"Son... no matter what the world says, you are a Silvervein... and you are my son."
Those were my father's final words.
He was a miner, just like everyone else. Years of breathing dust and smoke deep underground had destroyed his lungs. Even as he struggled to breathe in his final moments, his eyes never lost their pride.
I had never understood why…