"T-this is... Baran."

Fang's jaws dropped. I understood why but managed to hide my surprise a little better. The dwarf leading us laughed.

"Hoho, that's right, you know your stuff, Sir Beastman." He nodded, leading us through the massive city gates, beyond them a sight to behold. "Welcome to the once-great capital of the Dwarven Kingdom."

"When you said you had a shop in a nearby settlement, I wasn't expecting this one," I admitted, looking around the magnificent city. The streets were only lit by the moon, the night catching up to us, but the splendid architecture still amazed me. Only dwarves were capable of pulling this off. "I thought it was completely abandoned."

"Completely? No. But mostly, yes." Gomel explained. He lit a torch before leading the way. "The dwarves left the surface when your kind abandoned us, Sir Goblin. They had world-famous architecture and metalworking, but could not handle agriculture."

"I knew we were lost." Fang put his hand on my shoulder. I had a bad feeling about this... "Dio, you had no idea we'd end up in Baran."

"What are you talking about?" I protested, trying to shake his hand off. "I knew we were close to the capital, I just didn't expect him to live here, but as you can see, we were on the right track all along."

"Oh, you headed the wrong way, Sir Dioneras." The dwarf spoiled my plan, handing the torch to Bastion, and lit another one for himself. "But there isn't much left here..."

"So why did you remain on the surface?" Fang asked curiously, letting my shoulder go. "And why did the dwarves move underground if they already struggled to make enough food on the surface..."

"Ah, you would think it's easier to cultivate land up here. Well, I don't blame you, it’s a common misconception." Gomel explained, showing us the way along a massive avenue. The buildings would stand for another millennium, but nature crawled back to reclaim the streets. "Dwarves grow different types of mushrooms or breed fish in underground lakes rich in minerals."

"Oh? I never heard of that..." Fang admitted. His head kept turning to take in the sights. While I never visited the capital, a dwarven city was near my home before the Collapse. The sights stunned me regardless.

"Indeed, grain takes an entire year to grow, and you process it multiple times before you have food on the table, but you can grow new mushrooms every day, and eat it right away." The dwarf educated Fang. "They are very nutritious, you don't need to eat much..."

"So why did you remain on the surface then?" I asked him, suspicious.

"Well... The thing is... I can't stand the taste of it." The dwarf seemed embarrassed. "Ever since childhood, I'd throw up from the fish and mushrooms. It's simply not for me. Give me bread and meat instead."

"Being a picky eater can be a problem..." Bastion nodded. He held his torch high, looking amazed. "But nothing beats starving... We met a human wizard last week, his cooking was life-saving and delicious."

"You sure fell in love with that Lambert fellow," I noted, laughing, but had no criticism for the food he made. We packed a lot of it after he gave us one of the Bags of Holding. It was an excellent parting gift for the long road and gave me an idea. "So you said you have weapons and stuff and like food? How much could we get for that wizard's meal?"

"Hard to say in advance." The dwarf hollered. He combed his thick beard while thinking. There was a sprawling belly underneath. "If it tastes that good, I might give you a spear or a sword for a portion. It usually takes me a day to make 'em when I have the materials all set up... Armors are a bit tricky, the Beastman would be easy, but Sir Goblin and the Ogre would need extra fitting..."

He wasn't idling around, almost running across the main avenue. I couldn't see a single soul, not even animals, which made me wonder, why the rush. The city was quiet, maybe too much so...

"There was another reason why most people left this place." He answered the question before I could ask it. "The truth is, a dungeon appeared right before the Gates closed. It started as usual, the necropolis was reinforced, and the city guard did what they could... But to delve into the abyss, the King called the Emperor for reinforcements. As you might have guessed, they never arrived."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Is it that bad?" The ogre asked. He joined the ranks of the champions long after they stopped exterminating dungeons. They weren't around anymore, no great city existed, that could make one appear.

"It should be all right," I claimed to comfort him. "But some monsters might leave the dungeon to hunt in the area. They are like wild animals, unlikely to attack a group of people with torches."

"While chances are low, they're never zero. Since you are unarmed, I'd rather not risk it." Gomel explained, and I had to agree. "My shop is well reinforced though, two more streets ahead and left, then we should be safe. Have you been in dungeons, Sir Goblin?"

"I haven't, Fang was," I noted. The beastman in question scanned the area around us. Until recently he was taken in by the sights, now he looked for danger.

"I wouldn't take on one that was left alone for a decade..." He claimed. "I hear the monsters can get stronger or evolve. Besides, we always had at least one or two casters with us. Some creatures are only vulnerable to magic. I don't want to run into one like that here."

"See, Omerta is always missing when you need her." I tried to ease the tension with a laugh. I saw movement from the corner of my eyes, but it disappeared by the time I turned. The wolves came to mind, even if my body healed, I still saw their deadly teeth...

"You were the one who fired her," Fang argued, glancing in the same direction. "Which was either dumb or a stroke of genius, I’m not sure yet."

"The witch had ambitions but wasn't a bad kid," I noted as we reached the next street. The dwarf took a left turn and sped up even more. I could easily guess which one was his smithy. It had makeshift walls and obstacles surrounding it. "I wouldn't want my life to depend on her again, but she might make a fine ambassador there. And her brother or whatever will keep an eye on her... That is quite the shop you have there."

"Why thank you. I've been running it for a good fifty years..." The dwarf grinned. We reached an imposing mansion that looked more like a palace than a smithy, although every building was quite the masterpiece in this city. "Not as many customers lately, that is why I opened another one three day's walk from here... But this has tools and resources I couldn't get anywhere else."

"We made it." Fang declared once we were inside. The door was locked and braced behind us, and we took deep breaths before looking around. My heart still needed some time to calm down, but we didn't meet anything scary. "That was a good little jog for the night..."

"Welcome to my humble shop. As I always say, better safe than sorry." Gomel grinned, placing his torch into a holder on the wall.

If the outside was imposing, the inside looked amazing. He kept using the place the same way since the Collapse. It had huge furnaces and the best smithing tools I have seen, and the walls were lined with impressive weaponry and armor pieces.

"It's a shame this fine city was abandoned, but to be fair, Baran had nothing else going for it than the teleportation Gate at the center. It provided trade, and goblins cultivated the lands, but no ores or crystals nearby. The only thing people could mine here was stone..." He explained while dusting off some of his tools. He lit a few more torches and showed us around. "The dungeon was probably the deciding factor, even before trade with the outside world died down completely, the dwarves left this place for other cities. Mostly underneath the mountains."

"Why didn't they migrate to the north like other humans?" I asked curiously, mostly aware of the events that unfolded after the Collapse. But the reasons eluded me. Technically, I was still the chief of staff, and the Demon Lord's armies needed every piece of information, I gathered along my way home.

We brought news about Nateaser, the conference, and their inventions wherever we went, but not about the Goddess... Also, the New Order wasn't widely known around these parts, nor popular, so we unanimously agreed to keep quiet about being part of it.

"I don't know the definitive answer as I’m not a fan of politics. Why were some decisions made instead of others? Maybe stubbornness, or the longing for freedom..." The dwarf pondered. He led us to his dining hall which wasn't huge by the shop's dimensions but could easily house a dozen or two guests at a time. "Your kind also left in hopes of freedom. Isn't it, Sir Goblin?"

"I don't think it's the same..." I shrugged. "The Collapse brought the Lesser Races freedom from slavery. They up and left their former masters... In comparison, the humans had a unified empire and they let it fall apart. I don't see what they gained from this?"

"You don't need to be a slave to lose freedom," Gomel claimed. "I never owned one, yet at some point this shop had over fifty hands working in it nonstop. But I paid my taxes to the King, and he paid to the Emperor... Now I pay to no one. Hard to tell, if it was worth gaining my freedom like this. How about yours, Sir Goblin?"

"You got me there..." I admitted. We all sat down around his table, the Bag of Holding soon opened, and we put the food on display. They were frozen in time inside that magical item, still fresh, and smelled just as great as when Lambert made them for us. "I worked as a shepherd, roughly a hundred miles north in the mountains. I wasn't doing that bad for myself, and you could say, I'm still a shepherd..."

"Oh, so I'm a sheep now?" Fang laughed, handing out the dishes.

"You are a wolf disguised as one," I noted jokingly, but the old dwarf got me thinking. "Was it better or worse under Cranta for me specifically? It's hard to tell... And I never even thought about how my masters did under the same rule. Not sure if I'm free even right now..."