Naveck explained that dwarves were an ancient race. For thousands of years, they had been content living in the mountains to the far North. Only within the last couple of centuries had clans been increasingly migrating south for new resources, finding heavy resistance and contention for those same resources with the Kobold race.

“Can you tell me about the first dwarf?” Malik asked.

Naveck scratched his bald head, “That’s a topic that is constantly up for debate. All we have are simple carvings that tell the tale and can be interpreted in different ways. See, there were twelve that appeared around the same time. Before us, ice giants ruled the North. Over time, they mysteriously began to die out. But when the last one died, it shattered into twelve pieces. From those pieces arose twelve dwarves. So, we all have a bit of giant’s blood in us. However, the leader, simply named ‘Dargun’, is widely believed to be the First Child and set the tone for our culture as the first, and greatest blacksmith in our history. It gets trickier as the story goes, but the twelve are all revered in their own ways.”

Malik desperately wanted to know more, but their conversation was cut short as a gasping dwarf scrambled over the edge, “Ah, the bloody surface always makes me feel nauseous,” the dwarf complained.

“What took you so long, Themo?” Naveck asked as he helped pull him away from the fissure.

“Some of the others were too scared to climb and needed some encouragement,” he said with a huff, then saw Malik. His reactions were similar to Naveck’s. A bit of nervousness, but polite.

After Themo, seven more dwarves emerged, all appearing traumatized by the climb and being on the surface in general. They all gave Malik an awkward bow then broke off into a group. There were murmurs that there was nothing here and that they may be better off going back down to dig toward their original tunnel.

“It’s an option to consider, but up here we can find food and water. Don’t forget, we still need to search for Garok,” Themo said to the Rune Crafters and miners.

Malik turned his attention back to Naveck while Themo dealt with the others, “So, tell me all that happened down there,”

Naveck went on to explain their whole ordeal. Including Garok’s treatment of the other dwarves.

Malik’s frown deepened, “It sounds like this Garok was not a good man. I must admit, I’m relieved that he didn’t join you. That aside, it appears you have no choice but to help me eliminate the infestation if you want to dig him up.”

Naveck nodded, “Aye, it looks that way. We were hoping you had warriors up here. We’ll just have to do our best I suppose.”

The volume of the other dwarves’ arguing and complaining rose, forcing Naveck to step in.

“Alright, I think we’re all tired and hungry. Malik here has been surviving on beetle meat. I think we can manage to cook some up and add a little dwarven pizazz,” he said with a clap of his hands.

“You three, go gather some wood. Let’s get a fire going and celebrate our survival and new friendships,” Themo ordered. The three Rune Crafters didn’t argue and went trotting off toward the tree line.

Malik couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed at the complaining of the other dwarves. His emotions were plain on his face and didn’t go unnoticed.

“Ah, sorry. They’ve been through a lot, and the surface always makes dwarves a bit snippy,” Naveck said.

“It’s fine. I’ll let you get acclimated while I go hunt. But, I’d like to talk about the buildings you agreed to help me with.”

Naveck brightened, “Sure, it’ll be good to do something productive and feel a bit normal.”

Malik nodded in thanks, “First, I would like a place for me to sleep and keep important things. You can build a similar structure for yourself and your friends. I’ll be needing the extra space soon anyway,” he said without offering further explanation.

“We’ll be needin tools, but I think we can make some crude imitations fairly easily. Once you have a smithy, we can make them properly. We can set up a temporary housing structure, but that too will be crude until we have better materials,” Naveck said, appearing excited about the project, he shook Malik’s hand.

“Good. Now, I must be off. I’ll come back soon with more food,” Malik said and turned without waiting for a response. He knew that the Altar Point was unlikely to have regenerated, so he couldn’t summon Zahid. However, he wanted to check the map and made his way to the Altar.

Malik opened his Founder’s Log and found that there was another section in the index labeled “Contractors”, then flipped the pages to it.

Contractors:

Naveck Runeheart

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Themo Trimbeard

Werander Grimgrip

Bogart Copperbane

Eltig Duskgranite

Grazel Runespear

Yaval Bluntstrike

Varin Warbrow

Orvel Gravelbrand

Looking over the names, Malik recognized the first two. The others were obviously the other dwarves. He thought the names were very colorful and wondered what his future gargoyles would choose when the time came.

It was nice, but mysterious, that the Founder’s Log was able to discover their names. There wasn’t much more information, so Malik went to the map. With a contented sigh, he saw that there was a small red dot inked into the map where he put the beast cores.

Now that his curiosity was satisfied, he desperately wanted to go practice flying and hunt for food. After seeing Naveck’s level and stats, he promised himself that he wouldn’t return until reaching Level 5.

Springing from a crouch, Malik began to pump his wings once more. He was able to get a fair distance above the peaks, the air biting, then began to glide toward the treeline. It didn’t escape his attention that the dwarves had watched him with open jaws, enchanted at the sight. The three dwarves gathering wood below him nearly dropped their piles as they watched.

Gliding over the trees, Malik darted his eyes around, looking for any movement. Indeed, he saw some, and sadly they weren’t tasty treats. Instead, they were clumps of traveling beetles. Closest to his settlement, the beetles scurried about, ranging from levels two to five. As he got further out, he saw their groups grow in size both physically and in number, even spotting a level twelve. The ones further out sometimes carried the carcasses of a beast and returned to various holes in the ground.

Malik found that he only needed to pump his wings two or three times to regain his altitude, making it easy to glide and conserve his energy. Even though that was a nice revelation, he was concerned with the scene below. The beetles were picking his mountain clean of any wildlife.

At his low level, he was too weak to attack the larger groups, so he turned back toward his settlement and decided to start thinning out the weaker ones. Hopefully, this would help stymie their growth as well as help him level.

He spotted a group of three Level 3 Beetles scuttling closer to his settlement, heading toward the spot where the dwarves had just been gathering wood. Those rotten little insects are trying to hunt on my territory, Malik thought, making his blood boil.

Malik tucked his wings and dove, cutting through the air like a hot blade. The ground flooded closer into Malik’s vision than he knew was possible. Confidence replaced with panic, he aborted the dive and opened his wings, knowing that the impact would have killed him. This didn’t stifle his rage, however. Closing his wings once more, Malik dropped the final fifteen feet between the trees, straight onto the bug’s back. The creature crumbled with a crack. The other two snapped their mandibles at him.

The level three beetles proved to be too slow as Malik sidestepped one, using Rake along its side and kicking the other. Dancing between the two, he made quick work of them with his claws. Only pausing to collect their beast cores and tuck them between his leg and greeves, he launched himself into the air again.

Filled with bloodlust, Malik hunted four more similar packs. After that last pack, he felt his chest fill up and burst with the intoxicating feeling of a Level Up.

Racial Skill Unlocked:

Gargoyle's Descent

Absorb 30% impact damage from aerial dive. Release damage on target with next attack

Malik’s heart thudded as he read the skill. That would do incredible damage if he could survive landing from a dive. Right now, he didn’t think he would be able to. He needed to boost his Vitality for this to be useful. If he managed to do so, he imagined that he could take out much larger targets. Perhaps for this level, he would focus most of his points on Vitality. After all, ever since he had his first taste of the stat, it called to him.

After some deliberation, Malik put two points into Dexterity and three into Vitality. The rush of blood flow threatened to send him into another rampage, but Malik knew that he needed to calm himself before doing something foolish. Taking a deep breath, he went over only his basic stats to calm his nerves.

Name

Malik

Race

Gargoyle

Class

Founder

Level:

5

Vitality:

7

Strength:

7

Dexterity:

14

Energy:

3

Satisfied, he flew back to the first group he had killed and started to drag one of them back to his settlement. He hated to waste all of their carcasses, but he now had enough cores to finally build his Incubation Chamber.