The journey took several days, I'm sure I could have reached the Gates of the Dwarven Mountains in less than two days, but after so many questions, from this elf annoyance, from the hunting stops, from the undead that don't stop attacking at different times, everything has become a nuisance, I'm getting angry, annoyed, worried, but also fatter from all the food, so I'm grateful to be fighting with these stupid zombies.

The undead attacks are quite unpredictable for me, if I was on my own I'm sure I'd have them within five meters before I'd notice them (unless they stumble, groan or do something that gives them away), but with the Slayer's company it becomes monotonous, suddenly she stops and climbs up the trees, she comes back and says calmly "fifty are coming our way, it'll take an hour to get there", normally I'd give a stale mug of beer for that information, I could run ahead, only that when I'm sleeping, when I'm defecating, when I'm talking, I prefer to eliminate them and continue on my way, so I prepare some previous snacks, I drink water that comes from I don't know where (I still don't trust her, so I clean it without her noticing, nothing has appeared yet, but I won't neglect myself), I do calisthenics so that my bones feel warmer than the rage that consumes me, and I wait for them. After eliminating the enemies (humans, peasants, soldiers or even some animals that fell prey to this plague) I put everything away and we continue on our way, this situation would not delay so much but apparently it is an elven custom to eat three times a day! I, who ate once in the city and spent days on the road with nothing but a bit of dried meat, am suddenly feted with berries, seeds, stews of various meats, tree sap with sweet flavors, in short, my muscles have a little more resemblance to those of the dwarves and less like a stump with arms.

At the end of the third week, I saw the first watch posts.... Empty, I am not surprised, these outposts are built of local stone to protect the various cargoes, they were not intended to be habitable beyond a night or two, they had a spring, a few threadbare blankets and perhaps a rustic forge, With a lump in my throat I look at broken hammers, saddlebags with nothing in them, wooden wagon wheels, many dwarves passed through here, but they no longer do, though I do not like it, I know the reason, the surviving dwarf kings must have raised taxes.

When I am a few kilometers from the entrance I turn off the main path, before the barrage of questions I answer my admirer that there is a cheaper entrance than the main one, I have almost thirty gold pieces product of looting the pockets of the attackers, but I do not know if they appreciate human money here or worse, if there is still law, which when I left this place was already an illusion in itself.

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At the entrance for the dark dwarves, as humans and even other dwarves liked to call us, was occupied, but it was not by people from the villages, in this case they wore cast iron armor and scarred faces, that and the drawing of the crown of five peaks told me a lot, inside I cursed everyone, my anger in itself great increased a few degrees more, I'm afraid I can't avoid killing dwarves who steal the freedom of others.

Just as I began to see how to eliminate two hired musclemen without being seen that I was going to eliminate them, I felt a breeze next to me, immediately I could see how their bodies collapsed without movement, curious I approached to find them unconscious, in fact their "royal" shield belonged to the dwarf king, they had privatized the exit of my people, Those who sought the open air, those who could not leave through the main door, made do with the air that gives this ventilation tunnel, or like me when I fled, crawled through it, are beings with more need to be free, from nearby I see the darts embedded in their eyes, I was very quick to load their weapons and incapacitate them, they were also one-eyed, However, these "guards" can remain at their posts as long as they have weapons to support them, so my hammer reddens from the melted rune, with four blows I break a couple of low quality axes and the breastplates, I am concerned that their skin has no traces of melanin, which indicates that they are not upper class dwarves, they are middle class warriors, they should not have fallen to these posts, Those who worked here were laborers, simple people who did this to earn a little food by letting the dwarves who wanted to escape, most of them returned for fear of the immensity, but we did not return, my wife and I escaped from this hell for the cost of a piece of boar meat, but now you can clearly read the price list as if it were the traditional exits, the words are marked in my mind as I say:

"Gate to the mines, price list on XXX of the year 1XXX:

-entry leave with the guards three ores of iron or its equivalent in weapons

-Exit: one silver ore

Note: The tunnels have dangerous beasts and toxic fumes, we are not responsible for the death of those interested in entering, the company will take any belongings left by the body and will be used to feed the scum".

Barely ten meters from the entrance, with a faint clarity in the walls of a vent no more than one meter eighty meters high, I find one of those who did not manage to escape, tormented by the toxic fumes coming from the city that mistreated him to the point of wanting to flee, In his hand he holds his only fortune, a piece of copper and a stone knife, he says nothing, his gaze goes out while he sees something behind me, I thought I saw the elf, but when I turn around I see a sign that was not in my time fifty years ago:

"So you want to leave, you miserable dogs! To get out of here you will have to pay with everything you have of metal and face the guards, if you survive you will have the right to flee you cowardly traitors to the king!"

Sick, weak and with stone weapons against two dwarves... this place holds horrors beyond what I expected, the help they ask for should not only be against the enemy but to save them from themselves.