“I’m sorry.” Pait sighed. “I wish I had more information. The deep dwarves were a mysterious people. They came up to the surface suddenly without warning. They ended up coming into conflict with Esmore.”

“I had heard they were all but wiped out, that was Esmore?”

“It was all three countries, Esmere, Dioshin, and Osteria. This was naturally a long time ago before the Demon Lord Aberis conquered the south. The animalkin have always been fiercely territorial, so when the deep dwarves began to surface, they rejected them completely, even going so far as to collapse caves. Their murinekin are quite effective fighters in tunnels, and they were able to force the deep dwarves to retreat.

“Naturally, the dwarves were mining and interpreted the deep dwarves as impeding on their territory. There had always been resentment and hatred toward deep dwarves, who had access to more precious metals, and richer mana veins. They often lorded it over the dwarves, or at least that how the dwarves saw it. Suffice it to say, they did not welcome them.”

“What about Osteria?”

“This was before the mass settlement of humans into Osterian lands, os it was mostly just Osterians, the giants of the plains. Osteria has always had a history of xenophobia. They wouldn’t have even allowed the humans to settle there if their numbers weren’t overbearing, and the Imperial Cloud Meadow too threatening. It was their resentment of humans taking the land that had caused them to join the Demon Lord Aberis’s side.”

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Although Aberis had only come into existence a mere twenty to thirty years prior, giving the impression that this entire country only had a history of a few decades, it seemed like there was a cause and effect that resounded through history. The Demon Lord Aberis had turned on his father Aberon. He fled south in the womb of Calypso, convinced her to betray one of the previous Bandit Hero’s, and use his power to set up a stage for his rebirth.

Then, the Osterians, salty over humans migrating out of the Imperial Cloud Meadow into their plains, joined forces with the Demon Lord Aberis, who began a campaign to take over the south. His arm broke on the mountains of Esmore and the forests of Dioshin, and he was only finally destroyed by a coalition of the Hero King, the Princess Hero, and the Maid Hero, who defeated him. Yet, he was able to invade the Princess Hero’s womb, and once again stoked Osterian resentment until two separate countries formed from the wreckage of Osteria, Aberis and the Ost Republic.

It was strange how history all seemed to come together. Events happening in the north ended up changing events to the south forever. It was all connected across time and space.

“All connected…” My eyes widened. “Of course.”

“Deek?”

“I’m so dense! I know how to find Garnet and Terra. Why didn’t I think of it sooner?”

“How?” Pait narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“I need to learn the Deep’s history! I need to follow the lore.”

“Deek, the records going back that far are limited. Maybe if we went to the dwarven city of Ossenheim, their great library might have some information…”

“No! I mean here. I need to see the lore of the Deep, the memory still drifting in this place, I need to read the streams of mana…”

“How?”

“How else do you absorb large amounts of mana? You build a dungeon!”