Snorri awoke to the sound of screaming. It took a few seconds for him to realize it was himself who was screaming. He was drenched in sweat and both his hands were clenched on the arm of the large, comfortable chair he had passed out in. He relaxed slightly as the pain receptors in his brain slowly stopped telling him that his body was on fire, and finally managed to stop screaming. “You survived,” came Arracop's bemused tone, “I truly am shocked,” the spider honestly told the gnome. Snorri spat on the floor of the office and wiped the sweat from his face. He felt no different. “What did you do to me?” Snorri spluttered.

“You... were cured,” said the spider slowly, as if speaking to a child. “If you don't believe me, check for yourself.”

Snorri paused for a moment. “How?” he asked slowly, as if he knew the spider would think it was a stupid question. “Activate the Appraisal skill... Target yourself,” hissed Arracop. Snorri sighed; it was something he, and for that matter every gnome, had tried at some point. The unique quirk of the appraisal skill was that when used on oneself, it never displayed anything. Reluctantly, Snorri activated the skill. “Appraisal,” he muttered aloud, not bothering for non-verbal activation for something he knew to be a fruitless effort.

Snorri’s jaw slumped open in shock as sparkling golden text appeared across his vision. The small gnome took a few seconds to recover from his shock before he began to read:

Name: Snorri Snorrison

Species: Gnome

Age: 21 years old

Level: 5

Stats:

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 1

Skills and Abilities:

Intelligence 1: Appraisal

Intelligence 2: Enhanced senses

Intelligence 3: Basic Invention

Intelligence 4: Enhanced Memory

Strength 1: Basic Combat (Melee and weapon throw)

Snorri blinked. It was a lot to take in. He imagined the professor's reaction when he finally managed to tell him all this information when he heard Arracop’s thoughtful clicking, followed by a soft mutter of “oh, that's how you did it... makes sense now.” Snorri hesitated at that. He hadn't expected the spider to be able to see something only he himself could see. He theorized the spider may be able to view the world through his eyes. “Did what?” Snorri asked curiously.

“You have Enhanced Senses,” Arracop said, as if that was all the explanation he intended to give. “All gnomes have enhanced senses...” said Snorri slowly, trying to press the spider for somewhat more of an explanation. A long sigh rang through the back of Snorri’s head. “When one screams ‘dodge’ at one's bearer, it is rare that the bearer lives... I wondered how you were able to sense your enemies' blades... it appeared you must have heard them,” the spider wheezed. Snorri blinked. He hadn't considered how many times he had seemingly avoided death during the battle of the classroom, but now as he replayed the fight in his head, he saw the spider in his mind was right. He had seemingly been combining the enhanced sense skill with the basic combat skill. That alone it seemed had been enough to deal with the goblins, for now at least.

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“So...” Snorri asked hesitantly. “Those things are goblins?” he asked, more for clarification than anything else. “Yesss,” hissed Arracop. Once again, as if stating the totally obvious. Snorri stood up, testing his weight on the leg he had been stabbed and then burned in the hours before. To his shock, the pain he had been expecting never erupted. He peered down at the wound. It was covered in a rusty-looking metallic substance. Snorri winced at the thought of how unhygienic and corrosive it looked, but he was grateful for the lack of pain nonetheless. “So, there're going to be more of them in the mountain?” asked Snorri as he crossed the room to a large, ornately crafted oak cabinet, a heavy-looking padlock hanging from its handle. “Undoubtedly... the goblins never march to battle with fewer than a thousand in number. I would imagine they have broken through in several places within the mountain,” Arracop said in the tone of somebody teaching a young child that two plus two equals four.

Snorri thought for a while, staring at the padlock. Before he lifted Arracop high into the air with both hands and brought the chained pommel down with all his strength, smashing the padlock to the ground. The cabinet’s door swung open with a low, guilty-sounding creak. Snorri began to rifle through the professor's most intimate stacks of notes and papers. In normal times, it would have been an expellable offense, but this was hardly normal times. Not anymore. Snorri flicked through centuries of scientific notes before he found a large rolled-up scroll somewhere towards the back of the cabinet. Snorri pulled it out and unrolled the parchment on the desk. Snorri focused his eyes on the thinly lined image on the parchment, a large triangular diagram in dark black ink revealed itself as Snorri blew a large cloud of dust free, red lines crisscrossing across the shape, each carefully labeled in Gnomish. Snorri breathed in hushed awe.

Until now, Snorri had only read about this map in heavy textbooks in the academy library. In the history of the Vault Technician Guild, it was the only artifact ever to have been stolen. Orin’s Map had disappeared around three centuries ago. Snorri chuckled as he thought of the old man slipping it under his beard and making his way out of the museum. The only map to have all passages under the mountain viewable; it explained how the professor had seemingly always been in the right place at the right time. “What is the plan?” came Arracop’s voice, apparently just realizing what the parchment was. Snorri thought for a moment before he pointed to a series of small oblong shapes at the bottom of the triangle. “This is the academy,” said Snorri slowly, running his eyes over the map once again and committing it to memory. “If, and it's a bit if, we can make it to here,” Snorri said, gesturing to the largest oblong in the academy section. “Where is that?” interrupted Arracop impatiently.

“The great hall, it's where the students eat,” Snorri answered, as if in deep thought, before adding, “if there’s anyone left, that's where they will gather.”

“This is... Unlikely,” Arracop cautioned the gnome.

“It’s... Irrelevant,” the little gnome said determinedly. “From there, we take a service tunnel to the industrial sector.”

“WHY?” came the spider's frustrated voice. “I see no other tunnels leading onwards from there.”

“If anyone had a working lift platform, it will be in the sector; the engineers had a direct link to the upper levels,” Snorri explained, gesturing vaguely to the top of the triangle. Snorri rolled up the map and began to stretch out his limbs. He pulled his plain leather work bag from where it lay on the floor and placed the map inside. He considered bringing the bag with him before thinking better of it. It would slow him down and was too heavy and too big to have swinging from his back during combat. Snorri stashed the bag under his small desk. As he un-barricaded the door, he made sure to completely cover his hiding place with the large of the two desks. Hopefully, he would come back for it later.

“Now, my champion,” roared Arracop’s voice as Snorri opened the door. “TO BATTLE!”