Hovering behind one of the thousands of ancient gravestones was a transparent squared jawed dwarf warrior with a thick beard that reached his belly.
Both Fluffball and Nox, although slightly worn out from the fight, were now on full alert.
“Grrrr!” Fluffball let out a low warning growl after he was unable to smell any scent from the floating ghost.
From the heavy armor the dwarf spirit wore, as well as the aura that Akira could now feel emitting from the spirit, he was sure that it was an ancient spirit. The helmet he wore had three miniature stone hammers welded to the helmet making it look like three horns.
Akira tried inspecting his name and level but failed. [??? LVL: ???]
“Who are you?” asked Akira as he warily watched the ghost from behind his shield.
“I see you are on friendly terms with the wind spirits. Quite an achievement with their temperaments,” said the dwarf ghost. His voice was like that of stone grating against stone, rough and brutish.
“I don't know if I would call it that. They kept getting in my way and I had to fight them until I was out of the mountain,” said Akira.
“Thank you for killing that thing,” said the ghost pointing to the remains of the Chimera. “It has been desecrating the battlefield for several years now.”
Seeing that the dwarf had no intention of speaking his name, Akira gave up and decided to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while.
“What ancient battlefield is this?”
“Mine entire clan lies here along with me. This battlefield is where mine clan made our last stand to stop the darkness from wiping out the rest of the dwarf clans in their surprise attack. We were only half successful. The army that was sent here was defeated but everything was contaminated, with the dark aura giving birth to many dark spirits and creatures that breed in the darkness.”
“Dark spirits? We didn't encounter anything like that around here...” said Akira looking over to Fluffball.
“Yap!” said Fluffball, agreeing with him.
“That creature you killed was good for but also bad for this area. It was sucking in all the dark aura as well as absorbing all the dark spirits and creatures that it came upon. Over time the place has become cleaner while the creature got stronger. It was only a matter of time before it left this battlefield and it would have most likely caused a catastrophe for the dwarf kingdom. For that, I thank you for stopping such a catastrophe.”
“I really didn't do it for that reason. It attacked me so I had to defeat it,” said Akira.
“It matters not your intentions, only the results. I was only able to helplessly watch on as it desecrated the graves of my fellow clansmen. That thing gave me the same feeling as the darkness from the past. You must not let such a thing spread or countless civilizations will be lost as it was in my time.”
Akira didn't dare let him know that the current situation was already far worse than just a strong monster causing problems since the infected had already spread all over the northern continent.
“You are looking for a way to return to the mainland, yes?” asked the ancient dwarf.
“Yes,” said Akira, nodding.
“Follow me.”
With that spirit started to move in the direction which they had been trying to escape earlier.
Akira, Fluffball, and Nox were still on high alert as they followed behind the ancient ghost still unsure of his intentions. For now, they felt he was not an enemy, so they still walked along with him.
They encountered no creatures or other spirits while they continued walking in the quiet white mist for another hour.
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“That is the entrance that is most likely to allow you to reach your desired destination,” said the ancient ghost stopping just outside the entrance of a stone tunnel at the base of the ice mountain.
Akira was hesitant to enter the place since the spirit had stopped outside.
“I am unable to leave this battlefield. I thank you again, with your help, I feel as if my task has finally been completed,” said the ancient ghost.
With that, the ancient ghost dissipated into the white fog with a contented smile on his rough face.
The entrance to the tunnel was blocked by a thick layer of ice but it was nothing to Akira. He slammed his warhammer repeatedly until the ice was removed revealing an ancient stone door.
Akira took hold of the stone handle carved into the ancient door and with his full strength, he started pulling. It took him over ten minutes of starting and stopping to pull the door open wide enough so that he could pass through.
“Yap, ” said Fluffball.
“You're right we can't let other things come up through the tunnel,” said Akira.
He spent another few minutes trying to pull the door closed to stop anything from following them.
As they walked up the dark stairs Akira thought about the normal gems he had gathered. What powers did they hold that the chimera would go berserk wanting to obtain what he had?
“Huh?” Akira stopped walking and looked at a thick flat stone that was blocking his way forward.
He placed his hand on the smooth stone and felt around for a handle or some type of button to move it, but found nothing.
As he was inspecting the stone he felt a vibration go through the stone. He stopped inspecting the sidewalls and placed his hands on the flat stone trying to sense what was going on.
With each second the vibration was growing stronger, a short time later he started to hear the sound of something hammering on the stone.
Something was trying to get through!
Akira and Fluffball all moved away from the stone seconds before it exploded into large chunks.
Before Akira could react, something jumped through the hole heading straight for him!
***
“HaHa! The guild master will surely promote me to an officer! With this large haul of resources, our guild will be able to complete the current stage!” said a male demigod standing over the dead body of a monster.
“Hey! We helped!” said a pouting female.
“You only gave me the gold coins to buy better equipment. I am the one that is doing all the killing. Don't worry I am not so selfish that I would not repay your kindness. I'll pay back the gold you gave me and put in a good word to the guild leader. Who knows, you may even be able to join my party as sub-officers when I get promoted.” said the male demigod as he grabbed everything in the large pile of loot on the ground and placed it into his endless bag
***
Deep In the cold underground sewers of Froit, there were many pathways that led down deep into the ground. If one were to follow them a large network of Nest colonies would be found without much effort.
This was the home of the demon race the Ratmen.
In one of the deepest and darkest nests, a large fat Ratman with graying fur that had once been a deep black shivered as he looked at the 50 or so dead Ratmen warriors at the entrance of his throne room.
The remaining 200 ratman warriors just inside the throne room swarmed to protect the Ratking.
“Have we proved our strength to you?” asked a female in dark robes with a hood covering her face.
“Reee chee ree!” said the shivering Ratking, acknowledging the two dark-robed figures' power.
“Weak,” said a male voice coming from the second dark-robed figure.
“We have an offer for you. Help us with this and we will help you expand your territory out of the dark underground,” said the female dark-robed figure.
***
The dark figure slammed into Akira and latched its arms around him and...
… Kissed him.
“I knew you were still alive!” said Mileena.
It took Akira a few seconds to realize that the messy-haired creature latched onto him was indeed Mileena.
“Yap!” said Fluffball greeting Mileena as he passed through the hole to join the Dwarves that stood there watching the two with great interest.
Akira walked through the hole and nodded to the Dwarves while Mileena continued to hang onto him.
“Let's return as quickly as we can,” said Akira, not showing any embarrassment.
After piling the ruble back up to temporarily block the hole, the 20+ dwarf warriors lead the way out of the dust-filled barracks.
As they passed a large statue near the entrance to the tunnel they all bowed and muttered several reverent words in old dwarvish.
Seeing the statue, Fluffball's head cocked to the side before he looked back at Akira.
“Yap?” asked Fluffball.
“It does look like him...” said Akira.
At the base of the statue, was a name and a short sentence.
[King Derv Stonehammer. Savior of the Dwarven kingdom.]