Skill increased You increased your skill: Athletics [2/100]

The blue box that had popped open, just as we climbed the last set of stairs and stood in front of the Thane’s seat, the High Hall of Clan Ashenforge, seemed to mock me. I had gained the Athletics-skill a long time ago, when Sigmir and I had just met and been forced to run away from her tribe, running for days on end, pushing me past my limits. It had devolved over time, because I had never really used it, whenever I had needed to push my body, I had used Blood Magic to strengthen it, which didn’t count as pushing the physical body, for the purpose of Athletics. But now, in the dwarven Hold, I didn’t want to use Blood Magic, just in case someone was watching who might identify what I was doing, causing us problems.

Which resulted in a burning pain in my Avatar’s thighs, which had never climbed more than a single flight of stairs and even those occurrences had been rarities. The others were in a similar state of annoyance, although for a different reason. For them, the stairs had an incredibly annoying length and height, built for the diminutive physique of dwarves, forcing them to focus on every step or risk to stumble.

The dwarves around us seemed to carefully hide their amusement, but I had a strong inclination that it was there. Not that it mattered. There was just not enough snow and ice around to make my displeasure known.

The High Hall itself was strangely unimpressive, a little larger than the other buildings but I had a feeling that we only saw a small part of their architecture, an entrance-hall so to speak, with the rest of the building hidden underground. Otherwise, each dwarven building was merely a square block of about five on five meters, with a flat roof on which you could walk using stairs on the side up the slope. In comparison, the High Hall was maybe eight meters wide, most of which was taken up by a gate.

Again, we were allowed entry by the guards inside and my theory was quickly confirmed. Inside was what looked like a ready room for guards and, to my unending annoyance, another flight of stairs, this one leading down. Maybe that was the reason dwarves got a bonus to endurance or something, they loved climbing stairs. It was there that we ran into a small snag, mostly that the stairs and tunnels within the mountains were sized for dwarves. A race that had a height-range between a meter and maybe a meter and a half had no need to build tunnels in which two-meter twenty tall, Giantblood had comfortable room. She would have duck the entire time and fully bend over, just to get through doors. Even Adra and Rai would have to make themselves smaller, in order to fit.

“Helmaic, is there a place where my companions can rest easily, that way they don’t need to squeeze into your tunnels?” I asked.

The dwarf looked at my companions, looked at the tunnel and his face fell, making it obvious that he had simply forgotten about that small, architectural problem.

“I think there was a building built for traders, coming in from the outside. It’s down on the mountain, your companions can rest there.” he suggested and I heard a soft groan from the others, at the prospect of climbing back down the all the stairs we had just climbed up.

“That would work. Maybe they can just rest outside, in the sun, while I have my talk with the Thane?” I asked, with a small grin on my face.

“Yes, we can do that. I’ll ask someone from the kitchens to bring them something to eat and drink, that way they can enjoy the day.” Helmaic picked up on the idea and nodded, quickly sending a dwarf to another place. The others looked a lot happier with the prospect of sitting outside, in the warm spring-sun, instead of climbing down the stairs again.

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After giving Sigmir a quick kiss, I followed the dwarves into the mountain. The tunnels were quite interesting, a lot different from the architecture outside. The buildings outside had been undecorated, smooth stone-blocks, solidly build but boring. The tunnels we were walking in, on the other hand, had beautifully carved decorations in the walls, bas relief depictions of dwarves, doing all kinds of things, from fighting to smithing, and were illuminated by gorgeous wrought-iron lanterns, shedding a clear, white light. The lanterns were obviously magical and a short peek with Lenore’s sight allowed me to see more and again, I was impressed, the magic had been worked into the metal, in a way that made it look natural.

As un-impressed as I had been with their architecture above ground, they made up for it with the work they had done underground, hidden from the world.

We continued through the tunnels for a minute or two, Helmaic walking with me, pointing out a few particular pieces of artwork and soon, we were at a nicely decorated door. Helmaic told me it was the Thane’s office and knocked on the door. I was a little surprised that there were no guards insight but maybe that was just not necessary in the Hold. A voice bade us entry, speaking dwarven, which I officially didn’t understand. At least that was how I played it.

Inside was a sturdy desk at which a dwarven woman sat, hair in a bun and with a pair of glasses, screaming secretary. I had to hide a chuckle at the way some programmer had apparently added earthen cliches to Mundus, instead looking around while Helmaic explained who I was and what I was doing here. The Thane’s antechamber was decorated in a similar fashion as the tunnels outside, but with a few stone benches, for people to wait on. They were currently empty, but after a he exchanged a few sentences with the secretary, Helmaic told me that we’d have to wait a few minutes before the Thane had time for us. So we sat on one of the hard benches, in a way reminiscent of any Earth waiting-room, ever.

Luckily the wait was truly just a few minutes, not the “few minutes” one had to wait at the doctor, that took multiple hours.

Inside, waiting next to a wide desk, made from dark granite, was a single dwarf, with some gray in the hairs on his head and beard. He was wearing an elegant tunic made from some dark cloth with simple trousers boots. The only weapon in sight was hung behind his desk, a war-axe with a shield next to it. The way the light reflected of the weapon’s edge made me think that it was quite sharp and the sturdy look made it obvious that it was a real weapon, not some sort of decoration.

“Greetings, Morgana.” the dwarf greeted me, while offering his hand.

“Greetings, Thane Ashenforge.” I returned his greeting and we exchanged a solid handshake. There was a feeling of strength and solidity, for lack of better word, making me think that the dwarf was a lot stronger and heavier than he had any right to be. Maybe it was a class-thing.

“We have done as you asked us, and dealt with the undead in the swamp and even managed to find and defeat the source.” I told him, triggering the quest turn-in.

I could see his eyes going wide when he scanned the text, especially when he came to the amount of money he now owed us. We had destroyed a lot of undead in that first week, when we had constantly looked for them in the outer layer of the swamp. And that was in addition to the amount the system had calculated for the Will-o-Wisps and the double-boss.

“There were that many undead?” he asked, concern clear in his voice.

“Why, my Thane, what does it say?” Helmaic, who had come in with me, asked.

“We owe these adventurers a lot, not just in coin but in gratitude. You said that some twenty undead nearly overwhelmed your group when you entered for the first time?” the Thane asked, looking to Helmaic who nodded in response.

“You faced less than a percent of the forces in that swamp.” the Thane told him and now it was Helmaic’s turn to get pale and give me a bow in gratitude.

“I will send someone to get your coin, and I will send someone to the crafters, so they can talk to you, so the items they will craft for you can adequately express our gratitude. Please, sit and tell me what was the source for the infestation, what was going on there?” he asked, gesturing to a comfortable couch. As I walked over, I glanced at the message that the quest was complete and I had gained EXP, albeit a lot less than I had anticipated. I would have to take a closer look, later. For now, I had a report to give.