“That still doesn’t explain why they’d want the Dungeon to break though…” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “How do they profit from that happening?”

“It could be any one of a thousand things. They could own stakes in a potential new mine that hasn’t been tapped yet, and this mine getting destroyed would force the king to approve its opening. I know all of them own plenty of rental properties in Grenwall, a Dungeon Break would force the people living around here into those rentals.”

“I’d bet it’s a combination of a few things, but the bottom line is that they don’t want us to succeed. Do you know what that means?” He tapped the side of his head as I shook my own cranium. “It means I want to succeed even more now than I did before.”

Raiju and Ylsa, who looked much less embarrassed, wandered over to join us. My bonded companion looked up at me with narrowed eyes. “Are all manlings, besides you of course, stupid?”

I blinked a few times before responding. “I mean, they can be. So can I, and I don’t hide that fact.” I shrugged. “No matter how high someone’s [Wits] stat is, they can still have dense moments.” I frowned as I leaned in close to her and whispered. “What’s this about?”

“Ylsa doesn’t like it when manlings stare at her. It makes her feel like I do when my fur has a lot of dirt in it.” She shivered involuntarily. “She doesn’t want to ever have puppies because she likes manling-vixens more than manling-toms and manling-toms don’t seem to respect that.”

Got it. Ylsa is interested in women, not men. If I remember right, her culture is very family focused, so that might be why she’s out here in the foothills.

I nodded to Raiju before looking up at the blushing Ylsa. “I can’t say I blame you, I much prefer vixens to toms just like you. However, I think I prefer when the vixen I might be interested in prefers toms, or toms and vixens.” I winked and Ylsa nearly collapsed in relief.

I hurried to her side to support her and she waved me off. “I’m so glad you understand, Storm-Blessed.” Her voice shook. “Part of my duty if I were to ever encounter a servant of the forgotten goddess in my travels,” she gulped, “was to tie them back to our people by blood at all costs.”

“You have nothing to worry about with me on that front.” I shrugged. “My goddess wants you by my side, and I think you’ll be a better wing woman the way you are than if you were interested in toms.”

Jaegan’s cackle stopped me before I could continue. “Boy, if you’re blooded at this point, I’ll eat my beloved staff.” He waited, as if I’d give him some kind of reaction, and I think I disappointed him.

“Can’t say I am, though I’ve never met someone who felt… right?” I shrugged. “I had a few flirtations with young women on vacation, but I’ve never pursued anything more than a chaste kiss on the cheek from them. I think I’m waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet. You know?” I looked at him and Ylsa to gauge their reactions.

Ylsa nodded knowingly while Jaegan just shook his head. “Ah the blessing of youth, wasted on the young!”” He chortled. “Anyway, it’s time for us to eat and then get to bed.”

“Agreed.” I focused on the remaining [Sylphs] and asked them to continue their previous observation patterns after pouring a bit more Mana in to replace their lost numbers. “The elemental detection system is back up, we should be good to enjoy dinner and get some rest.”

***

The following morning, we left at first light and flew the rest of the way to the mine in just a few hours, arriving well before lunch. As we did, I reviewed the notifications that’d popped up during the battle with the assassins after willing the System to condense them into groups.

[Summon Elemental is ready to Evolve. Please choose one of the following for it to evolve into:

Skills

Summon Grand Elemental

Summon Elemental Swarm

Summon Elemental Behemoth

Unique Skills

Elemental Pactlord]

[You’ve acquired new Skills with Skill Dominance:

Shearing Gale

Arcane Cannon (Acquired from Evolved Skill Arcane Battery)]

[Storm Knuckles Unique Skill acquired with Skill Dominance

Storm Knuckles cannot be slotted until a higher Skill Mastery is reached.]

[Active Skills - Mastery

Skill Dominance - 27%]

Looks like I still can’t slot [Unique Skills], but I can’t say I’m surprised by that. It looks like [Skill Dominance]’s growth has slowed down. I’m only getting half a percent per regular [Skill] and one percent with [Unique Skills]. It’s surprising to see [Summon Elemental] ready to evolve already, but I guessI did copy it from an upscale version of a [Skill Scroll] and Mom’s a master of the [Skill] already, so it kind of makes sense, but for it to evolve into a [Unique Skill]? That was unexpected.

For most of the flight, I hemmed and hawed about what to evolve [Summon Elemental] into but, in the end, I couldn’t turn down those two words, [Unique Skill], and had to pull the trigger on [Elemental Pactlord]. The moment I made my decision, my vision went black and I felt Dominus’ presence within me. It felt warm, like a mother’s touch on a cold night when she pulls your blanket up to tuck you in.

“I don’t have long, but I wanted you to know you’ve made me proud. Most who summon elementals treat them as disposable tools to dump Mana into, but you showed those you summoned respect. Always remember, a proper Suzerain serves his subjects as much or more than they serve him.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

As my vision returned to normal, her voice left me feeling warmer than I had since leaving home. I made Dominus proud. I’m on the right path. Ahead, the mountains grew larger and I knew I only had another minute or so to look at my new [Unique Skill] before we landed.

[Elemental Pactlord is a Unique Skill earned by impressing one or more Elemental Monarchs. In your case, you’ve impressed all four primary Elemental Monarchs. Elemental Pactlord has two modes and the passive is always online. Elementals will never attack you or those bonded to you or who have sworn fealty to you, even those controlled by enemy casters. In addition, wild elementals will gather around to serve you if they are within your [Divine] / 100 miles.

The active portion of Elemental Pactlord allows the user to summon any variety of elemental they could possibly want from the standard four types, to the simple mixes of steam, mud, mist, lava, lightning, and sand, to the esoteric annihilation, the sturdy metal, or the bright radiant, etc. This function is nearly the same as Summon Elemental, but the Mana cost is halved and there are now far more options.]

Despite myself, I whistled. “Damn, now that’s a [Unique Skill].”

I rubbed Raiju’s ears as she started to spiral down toward the scar in the foothill Verdant called a gold mine. “Ready for some fun?”

“More time inside, away from the wind and sun?” She laid her ears back to cover my hand. “No, but for you I’ll go.” She bumped my hand to encourage me to keep petting her.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been in a mine, but I’m kind of excited to dive in. It feels like I’m getting closer to my dwarven heritage.” I really dug in to rub Raiju’s shoulders, making her shiver with pleasure. “Dad didn’t really lean on it, so I’m kind of flying blind when it comes to that part of myself.”

When we got closer to the mine’s entrance, it became obvious that something was wrong with it. Despite numerous buildings outside the entrance, we didn’t see a single person walking around. That’s strange, if something came through and wiped out the miners, the buildings should be trashed as well, but they all look fine.

I had Raiju let me off near the largest building near the mine and, after putting away the [Cloud Carpet] I walked in to look around with Jaegan at my heels. Ylsa and Raiju decided with a shared look to stay outside to guard us, which didn’t really surprise me. Both of them were more at home in the mountains than they were inside buildings.

It soon became clear that the building we’d entered was supposed to be an office. A number of desks stood in the entrance chamber, but they stood empty, with only a few scattered pieces of paper to show anyone had ever been there.

“People leaving in a panic don’t leave mostly clean offices, do they?”

I frowned as I turned to look at Jaegan, who had a similar expression.

He shook his head. “You’d be right there, boyo. Something here stinks of bureaucracy!” He stomped his foot before charging into the door at the back of the room with a board above it labeled Overseer.

I followed him in and, while he rummaged through the large desk at the back of the room, I checked the smaller desk in the corner opposite the doorway we’d entered through. I hit paydirt right away as I pulled open the single drawer in the top of the desk to reveal a letter with a broken seal.

While Jaegan swore up a storm as he searched the overseer’s desk, I pulled on some gloves, just in case, and slowly picked up the letter before opening it.

Reginald,

You and your workers are to report to a new mine located at the star on the enclosed map immediately. Get the new iron mine up and working within a fortnight or leave Verdant, I don’t care. This is your last chance, if you fuck this up, I won’t be able to protect you anymore, nephew or not.

Councilman Robert Rubble

To my disappointment, the map wasn’t with the letter, but I hoped it’d be enough to at least point a finger at the council for the king to look at. I looked over the letter a couple more times before tossing it on the wide desk Jaegan was still rummaging through.

“Found a letter from Councilman Robert Rubble, if you’d like to read it.”

He jerked his head up so fast he slammed it on the bottom of the desk with a large thumping sound. “Oww!” He howled with pain as he stood up with his head in his hands. “What does it say? I can barely see straight.”

“Rubble’s nephew, Reginald, is apparently some kind of fuckup and he was put in charge here. He and his crew were sent to some other mine site two months ago.” I frowned. “Thing is, it’s an iron mine, not a gold mine. I know mining is kind of universal, but aren’t gold and iron vastly different in value as well as gathering methods?”

I may not have grown up among dwarves, but I did at least a little bit of research into the topic of mining as a kid. Gold mines had large machines to tumble rocks with water to gather gold while iron mines were more traditional, pickaxes on stone in search of a nugget of metal. They couldn’t have been more different while still being considered mining.

“You’re right. Something here stinks.” Jaegen whimpered. “And it’s not just my sense of depth perception. The council had this place abandoned.” He held his head. “Take one more look through Reginald’s desk and see if I missed anything while I go sit outside and nurse the bump on my head.”

“Gotcha, will do.” I smiled as the old man hobbled out the front door with his hands up to his noggin. I spent the next twenty minutes going through every desk and chest in the building, but found only a handful of coppers and a pair of ratty grey socks I left behind.

Defeated, I wandered out to find Jaegan being berated by Ylsa.

“...and that’s why you’re always getting injured! You’re careless!” She sounded pissed.

I wandered out and she flashed up to look at me and my skin went cool before her face went placid. She bowed to me. “Forgive me. I was merely admonishing our companion for his lack of care regarding his own welfare.”

“Don’t let me stop you, I’m going to check the other buildings out.” I saluted her, earning me one in return, before moving to the second of five buildings around the mine’s entrance. Behind me, I heard Ylsa start to wind up again to tear Jaegan a new one.

Old man really fucked up now. Ylsa’s not going to let him go on this one, is she? Her class may be [Mountain Tempest], but if someone told me it was [Grief Warrior] I’d believe them.

The next four buildings provided even less help, with all four picked clean of anything of interest. When I eventually left the last building, I found Jaegan sitting with his head between his knees while Ylsa glared at him.

“Enough’s enough. Ylsa, cut Jaegan some slack. He hates the damn council, so he got a bit excited when I said one of those bastards’ family members ran this place.” I shot her a moderate glare. “I’d have done the same thing he did if someone was talking about my grandfather behind my back.”

“It’s not quite the same thing,” Jaegan groaned as he sat up, “but I appreciate the thought.” He slowly levered himself up to his feet where he swayed before finding his balance a few moments later. “That’s it. There’s nothing else to do.”

I shot him a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“We have to go into the mine and close the Dungeon.” He looked at me with a shrug. “If we do, we get paid and I really like getting paid. Especially when my payment is freedom.”

“Can’t argue with that logic.” I looked around at Ylsa and Raiju. “Are you guys ready to dive into the mine and then the Dungeon?”

They both nodded and I looked back to Jaegan with an expectant look. “Well? How are we going to find the entrance to said Dungeon?”

With a flourish, Jaegan produced a large folded piece of canvas. “I found a map in that desk!”

I looked out at the abandoned buildings and sighed. “It’s late, but you’re right. We can just camp in the mine before the Dungeon entrance if we need to.” I stood up with a smile. “Time to go Dungeon hunting.”