For those of you still in the dark, each week Hive account@splinterlands will host 3 weekly challenge which is the Battle Challenge, Social Media Challenge, and the Art Competition challenge, and everyone is welcomed to join in 2 weekly and get some delicious Hive upvote! So without further ado, let's jump to it!

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Another Splinterlands Weekly Social Challenge! I failed to get into a disciplined routine of early post as intended, a week after I declared the intention, but hey, I did write another, if I may praise it myself, good fanfic this time! While it strays from the previous stories of CL Invasions like the Massacre of the Chaos Dragon or Alvar VS Adelade, this week we will explore the life of an Alpha card, The Kobold Miner!

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Spreading across the middle of the Burning Lands is the Molten Mountain Range, a domain well-known for the unforgiving heat and unending smog, yet still thrives thanks to its abundance of precious ores and minerals. Needless to say, it is a very dangerous place and there are occupational deaths almost every day during mining season. If any dared to venture close enough, then they would be able to hear the continuous banging sound of pickaxes against the hardened earth, echoing, reverberating from deep inside the earth.

“KANGGG”

“CLAankK”

“CLANG"

In one of the countless mining shafts, a group of slave miners; kobolds, ants, and various other races unfortunate enough to end up here can be seen toiling away, drenched in sweats, to reach their daily quota. Correction, they don’t even have the chance to drench in sweat, as the unbearable heat evaporates them almost instantly, such that literal steam seems to be coming out of their bodies.

At an almost isolated corner of the mine:-

“Aaaaahhhhh, tired. Dead tired. I wonder how long I’d been swinging my pickaxe here.“

Ruddy sighs while having a monologue with himself, yet his trained hands never stopped. He had been working for far too long, longer than he would have preferred, longer than he would have liked. But what choice do he have? He is but a slave, and his flaming owner just happened to also own this flaming shitty piece of practically well-exhausted mine. There’s almost nothing left in here, yet there’s no rest nor food before filling in the daily quota. Another heavy sigh passed through his dry mouth.

It was then that his trusty pickaxe swing sent a different sensation. One that’s not a bedrock, finally. Peering through the cracks of the rocks, he saw a fiery glint. Ruddy would have quickly mine them out if they were rubies, but nope, not for this one.

“Pssst, new guy, over here. Sigh, really, them bastards. You shouldn’t be put to work too long before you get accustomed with the heat. Here, mine these ores and get your rest.”

“A-are you sure? Thanks!”

Seemingly desperate to exit the mines, the unsuspecting kobold quickly mined the red ores and hurried away to leave.

“Foolish youngling. Any kobold worth their pickaxes know not to mess with Fire Diamonds. Getting too close and catching a Fire Curse is too risky. Hell, he might even be dying now. In fact, I hope he do, since any tempered miners also know Fire Diamonds means a gold vein is nearby, and now it’s all mine.”

And sure enough, Ruddy was right. It only took him a few tens of minutes to find the gold vein, almost an hour to mine a substantial amount, and a solid 2 hours to properly hide the vein. From now on, he can just slack and pretend to work for some time, before filling his quota and exiting. It’s his big break!

Before submitting to the overseers, Ruddy made sure to hide a small piece of gold inside his mouth. An unthinkable act for the slaves miners, punishable by death if discovered. Yet it is a risk Ruddy is willing to take, for he is unlike those other losers.

For Ruddy Erz have a dream, a dream to finally see the sunlight. Other kobolds are satisfied slaving away their entire life, for their master, for the Torch, proud to be a miner, but not for Ruddy. He had always harboured this thought ever since he read the torn journal excerpt of a miner who migrated to Draykh-Nahka which states:

“I’d rather be a slave to the Gloridax than free in the Burning Lands.”

“Being a slave there is better than being free here? Hell, I’m not even free here, I'm a slave! Just how pleasant are the world outside there?“

While that tiny bit of gold might not be enough for his great escape, it’s definitely a big step for the ambitious kobold, and Ruddy dreams of one day going out with a big sack of gold, to finally enjoy his life-

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Extra notes and references!

1. Copied the fiery page divider from https://www.splinterlore.com/the-burning-lands/the-caves-of-molten-mountain Thanks!

2. A lot of the story reference and ideas come from the official lore! Feel free to check out! https://www.splinterlore.com/encyclopedia

3. There’s a legend that says you could get a fire curse if you are too close to a red diamond and
   don’t have noble blood in your veins. The kobolds miner believed this and thus always make use of new recruits to handle them since they don't wanna risk themselves. (pg 141-144 of the encyclopedia).

4. “I’d rather be a slave to the Gloridax than free in the Burning Lands.” -Kobold Miner, while migrating to Draykh-Nahka. (pg 112 of the encyclopedia).

5. Thanks to Hive account@brainlagx for the allowing me to use the great artwork of the kobold miner and the dream bag of gold! Check out the art post here! @brainlagx/kobold-miner-3d-fanart

6. I got the name Ruddy Erz somehow from the word Crude ore, where Erz is German for ore, and Crude is just too crude for a name, so I went for Ruddy which is cuter, not to be confused with the Ruddy, which is the half-breed child of a male Cinder Elf and female Efreet. (pg 136 of the encyclopedia).

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