After I gave every one a bit of time to rest and recover, I gathered them up and brought them up to speed on everything that had been going on. They had already heard bits and pieces from each other and understood the general situation, but explaining it all in one go was also good.

“So, ultimately, that’s the situation that we’re in.” I finished my spiel. “Of course, none of you are obligated to stay. If you’d like to flee to the surface, Chalm will welcome you. You won’t need to experience what your ances- ahem… what your friends experienced when they tried to integrate with the surface.”

“How can we leave someone else to clean up our problem?” One of the deep dwarves spoke up.

“It was us who started this problem. We need to finish it!” Another added.

“We’ll fight! And we’ll win!”

It seemed like deep dwarves were especially resilient…. Or it was more accurate to say that by default those that had survived to this point would be extremely stubborn. They immediately wanted to help. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what they could do right away, so I had to calm them down. Once they were over their shock, they were quite loud and boisterous. I could see Pait losing his patience too, and I began to understand where the stories about Esmere and Dwarves not getting along came from. I had taken for granted how quiet Pait and Dav were until I had a group of deep dwarves in my soul.

When they got into my alcohol, it became a big problem. They started singing and dancing, and I eventually removed them from my soul world so I could get some peace and concentrate on the lore the king had given me. At that point, I had created the dungeon and was allowing it to grow. However, I felt that the lore the king had given me was essential for keeping Twilight back. Yet, after 12 hours of trying to crack it, I couldn’t.

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It wasn’t like the blessings that quickly adhered themselves to my soul. This was separate from me, and not intended for me. This was something personal to the king, the last bit of lore he had protected. He had given it to me rather than allow it to fall into Twilight’s hands, and there had to be a reason behind it.

“I’m sorry, but I only have the slightest memory of you,” Sapphire spoke hesitantly as she entered my room alongside her mother. “I only half remember anything.”

I opened one eye as the pair entered the dungeon’s safe room I had restored out of the one that once belonged to King Diorite. Terra was the one currently acting as my guard, so if she let them come in, there was probably a good reason.

“Did you need something?” I asked.

“My lord, the dwarves are becoming impatient. It has already been two days. There are only twelve left before Twilight comes, and yet they haven’t done a thing.” Lapis explained.

“I’m sorry.” I sighed. “The king said I need to merge my soul with the lore to unlock my true potential. I’ve been trying, but the lore he gave me has told me nothing. The lore in blessings binds itself so easily, yet as soon as I try to bring this lore close to my soul, it seems to repel greatly. Soul Merging is fare more difficult than I thought?”

“Soul merging?” Lapis frowned. “This sounds familiar…”

I nodded. “It’s the fifth level skill from the Soulsmith job. Resurrecting 300 souls, after your monster forces them into their former body, and compounded with a 10X experience multiplier, is a good way to level Soulsmith rapidly.”

“Master, do you need to merge with this lore?” Sapphire asked. “What would you have done with it before he told you about soul merging?”

“I would have…” I blinked and then sighed. “I would have fed it to the dungeon!”

Sometimes, the best plans were simple plans.