Peter turned his attention to the last remaining Earth Elemental Orb, hoping to get some XP but knowing it probably wouldn’t bring a level up. He quickly beat the defenses of the orb, but this time something strange happened. The energy sealed inside didn’t absorb into his form, but instead just dissipated into the earth around him. He tried to cling onto it and force it into his mana pathways, but only some of it stuck around, with the vast majority of it simply vanishing. He thought about it for a second, and then came to the conclusion that since he was no longer an Earth Elemental, those orbs wouldn’t work for him any longer. Perhaps if he had chosen Greater Earth Elemental for his evolution option, he would’ve still been able to absorb it, but it was just incompatible at this point.

‘At least it didn’t attack me, like that ant orb,’ he thought. With that disappointing outcome, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to “cheat” for levels any longer. The thought of having to fight battle after battle to get stronger was a little annoying, but he liked the thrill of it. So, he turned his attention back to the tunnel to see what the dwarves were up to. By this point they had finished packing up the ores and had begun to work on making some side passages in the tunnel.

Peter began helping them out, and with his evolution came an increased sensitivity to the ores around him. This made him able to sense them at a further distance, even beyond where his tremor sense ended, oddly enough. With his help, they made quick progress in tunneling, and packed bunches of ore.

The next several days consisted of the same thing, and Peter got very bored very quickly. They had not seen another monster, which the miners were thankful for, but Peter was sad about. He needed them so he could grow stronger. He began getting impatient, especially when he felt the nearest ores getting further and further away with each passing day. It was looking like they had about mined out this area with their insane mining speed.

Thankfully, he did not go entirely unrewarded.

<>

With <> as his profession, he had managed to get a single level due to the amount they had tunneled and excavated. He had gained a substantial number of Free Points by now, 50, but he hadn’t really needed any extra points anywhere, so he had continued to save them for now.

One day, however, things began to change in the mines. Peter was in a side tunnel in the early morning, preparing for the dwarves to arrive by meandering the tunnel around trying to sense a substantial pocket of ore. He soon heard the normal chanting of the dwarves as they made their way towards him. He soon noticed something odd with the chant, though, and as he listened, he figured out what was different.

The dwarves were chanting their regular tune, but it was all out of beat with each other, and he couldn’t clearly make out the words as he had before. Being curious, he made his way towards them. A few twists and turns later, and he had come upon the group of dwarves, and they were practically stumbling around, none of them looking like they could walk in a straight line. The flushed signs on their faces and slurred speech made it evident to Peter what was going on. The dwarves were absolutely smashed.

They were in no condition to work like this, if they tried swinging around their pickaxes, they would probably end up hitting each other. When the dwarves saw Peter’s form floating towards them, Durgon spoke up in a lilting voice.

“hic! Elemental Peter! It be gooood ta shee ye. hic! A toasht! ish in order for ye, my boy.”

Not knowing how to respond to that, and having no eyebrows to raise, Peter just floated there silently, trying his best to exude a confused aura. Durgon did not pick up on it.

“A toasht, I shay! hic! Where’sh…. Grundhelm, do ye got any… brandy, that’sh ta one.”

Brundhelm smiled widely and slung her bag down from her shoulder.

“O’ courshe I do. Ye thinkin’ I hic! be forgettin’ tha good shtuff?”

Several large bottles of brandy were produced from inside the bag, which quickly made their way into the hands of the dwarves.

“I sherpose ye don’t drink hic! Elemental?” Durgon swayed towards Peter with an extra bottle in his hand.

Peter, still confused, just backed up a little and shook his body back and forth, trying to say he didn’t drink. Well, that and he couldn’t drink. Thinking about drinking, a sudden thought flashed through his mind. ‘Players can’t get drunk, right? That means… these dwarves are NPC’s??’ The dwarves had acted so naturally that he had just assumed they were normal players that were super into the roleplaying aspect of Eternal Realms. That the dwarves might have been NPC’s hadn’t crossed his mind since they attempted to communicate with him. He had begun to think of them as real people, addicted to the game, perhaps, and this realization shocked him to his core. The game prohibited users from logging in while drunk, citing a variety of medical reasons, and while you could get drunk in the game, it just applied a debuff to the players while not affecting their mental state. Which meant these dwarves had to be NPC’s.

Peter floated to the ground and lay there for a while as the dwarves began singing and partying down in the mine. He had played the game and knew the NPC’s were very lifelike, but this was a whole different level. Without a tag to differentiate players and NPC’s like he had when he was a player still, it was almost impossible to tell the difference.

‘Dreamworld Interactive really did make the best AI ever seen. It’s unreal and uncanny.’ He thought. ‘To think these people have lives that never get seen by players. That they drink, and mine, and sing, for what? I get going all-out to make a realistic experience, but… isn’t this too far? How much server capacity do they have, to simulate the lives of thousands of NPC’s every second, no stuttering, no delay, no mistakes. It just feels too… alive. Too realistic, if I may. Treating them like real people seems to be the correct move, but it feels strange to know they are NPC’s and still treat them like real people.’ Peter let out an internal sigh. ‘Maybe I can just try and forget NPC’s and players and all that. It’ll help put my mind at ease.’ What that, he mentally sectioned off the topic for review at a – much – later time.

He turned his focus back to the dwarves, still in their revelry. The liquor flowed, as did their lips, and Peter managed to finally figure out what was going on, and why the dwarves were partying.

As it turns out, they had been promoted. Due to their (Peter’s) diligent work in this mine, their achievements had been recognized and they were being hailed as blessed by Durnok, the god of mining. There was no other explanation for their extreme speed, and the dwarves hadn’t wanted to speak of Peter, lest he be attacked.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Peter remembered them saying they would warn the other dwarves not to mess with him, but perhaps they had changed their minds, deciding secrecy was best. Peter didn’t mind much, as he had no desire to be set upon by a horde of dwarves. He was kind of sad, however, because the dwarves were talking about their homeland. Evidently this mine was a place they sent newbies, or those who had worked in the mines for a while, but they hadn’t progressed much in their ability. Since these dwarves were being promoted, they were scheduled to head back to the capital city in a couple days, to be reassigned to a new mine network.

In the past week Peter had grown rather attached to the dwarves, even though it was mostly only Durgon and Brundhelm who had talked to him. Now that they were leaving, he didn’t really know what to do with himself. As he was thinking about what he ought to do, he heard Durgon call out to him.

“Ye be comin’ with us, surely, Peter? We got thi’ far only ‘cause ye be helpin’ us. I woul’, of course, be happy to show ye the city, Duragrim, in all its splendor under tha mountains.”

Peter was taken aback for a moment, his whole thought process thrown into disarray. He was… invited too?

His mind flashed back to his experiences throughout school. Because of his disability, he was often discriminated against. He wasn’t invited to the “parties”, or to the social events, and he didn’t get out much. Especially in his later years, when the disease spread to more and more of his body, he wasn’t able to go anywhere. He had a few close friends, and he had a great time with them, but he hadn’t been invited to go anywhere, almost since he had his first diagnosis. Some of this was his inability or people discriminating and not wanting the “cripple” to join their little clubs, but some of it was even his parents fault. They were super concerned about the progress of the disease and didn’t want it to get worse through him going around and running.

Now, though, he was being invited not just across town to a park or an arcade, but across hundreds of miles to a different city, to explore with his new friends. The idea excited him to no end. He wished he would be able to see, fully see, and he imagined what the trees and grass outside would look like, the mountains as he approached them, and the city under the mountains stretching as far as the eye could see. Sadly, he wouldn’t be able to see that, but he would still get to experience it. And that was enough for him.

He - shakily due to his excitement – wrote “YES” onto the wall, accepting the dwarf’s invitation.

“Good!” Durgon said, “getting’ ye in migh’ be a problem, though. Maybe ye could hide in a cart o’ ores, an’ we coul’ smuggle ye in?” He turned his head to the other dwarves. “What do ye al’ think?”

“I thin’ it’s a grand ideer,” Brundhelm said. Rurik just grunted in acceptance.

“It’s been a help, I cannae deny it.” Thromar said. “As long as we keep on eye on it, ta make sure it don’t cause any trouble, I’m fine wit’ it.”

“Then it be decided! Good, good.” Durgon looked at Peter. “We’ll be back in two days, Elemental. If ye have anything left to do aroon’ ‘ere, get it done.” Durgon smacked Peter on the back. “Oh, an’ ye shoul’ compact ye form, to fit in one of our bags.”

Peter nodded. He wasn’t looking forward to being stuck in a backpack, but it would all be worth it soon. He didn’t really have anything here that needed to be done, so he decided that he would wander around looking for monsters to fight in the next two days.

The dwarves finished their partying soon after and starting packing up to go back to the surface. They bid goodbye to Peter, and headed off, singing their tune slightly more in tune this time.

For the next two days Peter wandered around the mines, looking for ores or monsters. He managed to find one ant monster, the same as he had fought previously. He finished it off using the same strategy as before, melding into the walls to hide himself and sending <> after <> at the monster.

All the ant could do was scrabble and claw at the place Peter had most recently melded into, but by the time the ant attacked, Peter was long gone. He defeated it in a couple minutes, but didn’t have any use for the materials it dropped, and he didn’t gain a level.

The two days passed slowly, but eventually the time came. He made his way up the mineshaft, in the direction the dwarves had come and gone from, and stealthily approached the entrance of the mine. He heard noises from out front, sounds of armor clanking around and the voices of dwarves. He had to quickly hide himself as a group of dwarves – not the ones he knew – came down the mine and headed into a different section of the mine.

After a couple minutes, he finally caught sight of Durgon, alone, as he descended into the tunnels. Peter followed him, until they lost sight of the tunnel entrance, and made himself known by poking his body out of the floor in front of Durgon. By this point he had shaved away most of the ore holding himself together, so he was very small, and could fit inside the pack Durgon carried on his back.

“Good ta see ye, Elemental. I told my people I was comin’ down ‘ere to pray to Durnok. They seemed to buy it, but I cannae spend too much time ‘ere. Quick, get into the bag.” Durgon held out his sack and Peter floated forward and got into it. He couldn’t meld through the material, so when the drawstring was pulled closed over his body, he was truly stuck. Thankfully, using <> he could still see around him, so he wasn’t stuck and blind.

Once Peter got in the bag, Durgon knelt down and chanted in an unknown language for a minute or so. Then, he got up and hoisted the bag over his shoulder.

“Ye’ll forgive me for nae talkin’ to ye much soon. I dinnae want someone to hear us.”

Peter had no way to respond. He saw the scenery around him changing as they made their way back up the tunnel, eventually making it to the entrance and out. The main entrance was guarded by two dwarves, one with a hammer and the other a pike. There was a collecting of other dwarves hanging around, some miners, some sales-dwarves. A mini market had been set up, allowing those working in the mines to come out and eat a lunch or dinner, along with some basic supplies being available. The ground was still bare, as they were still in the Wastelands, albeit just barely. Durgon hopped onto a cart, had a few words with the driver, and they were off. The travelled to just outside the beginning of the Wastleland, where grass had begin to grow more vigorously, and small trees could be seen. The cart stopped, and the dwarf dismounted and paid the driver. He made his way into the small town, and Peter saw the architecture around him. He seemed to recognize it, and with a bit of thinking he remembered. This was Dustfall, a starter town. He hadn’t started here, but Maria had, and he had visited it once before.

Durgon walked into the heart of the town, and entered into a large building. Peter could make out the lettering on the front of the building with <>, which said “Miner’s Guild.” Once inside, Peter saw a small collection of people sitting at tables or milling about. Most were dwarves, but he could see some humans among them as well. No elves in sight, however. Peter looked around and made out the Brundhelm and the other sitting at a table off to the side of the room. Durgon also saw them and made his way over.

“I’m back!” He said, which got the attention of the other.

“Good,” Thromar said, “We be leavin’ in little less than fifteen minutes. The carriage has arrived, we just be waitin’ for the announcement.”

“Right. In tha’ case, I’ll order a beer an’ wait.” Durgon replied. He set Peter down in the bag, and headed off. Peter dared not move with so many people around him, so he contented himself with observing. There seemed to be about 15 people all waiting and sitting at tables in the room, with some other people coming and going. There was a bar at the back left of the room, next to it a set of windows. People were going up to the windows to deliver their ore and receive payment. Peter was amazed that independent workers could get paid like this, being able to mine ores by themselves and deliver them for their market value, instead of being employed. He wondered if this is what Durgon and co. did, or if they were a part of a larger company.

Durgon soon came back to the table with his beer, and chatted while drinking. The dwarves seemed very excited to set out, and the anticipation was building by the minute. Finally, after about twelve minutes of waiting, the front doors burst open loudly and a shout was heard.

“FOR THOSE DEPARTING TO DURAGRIM, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY OUTSIDE. WE WILL DEPART IN 5 MINUTES.”

It was time to go on a journey.