Fairly quickly, they passed into a level thirty zone and then into a level twenty zone. Before long, Joe could see the campfire smoke and hear the loud hustle and bustle of a mining community. As they stepped out of the tree line, Joe marveled at the camp. He had in his mind a rough camp with tents and horse drawn wagons like he’d seen in westerns. But here was a much different story. The forest had been clear cut for a couple hundred yards all the way around the camp. There was a ten-foot wooden wall circling the fort made up of rough-hewn logs. The corners of the enclosure were capped with fifteen-foot-tall guard towers. Joe could see dwarves in the towers with crossbows in hand. The front of the wall had a large wooden gate that stood open and there were dozens of dwarves hauling stone blocks the size of microwaves out and reinforcing the wooden walls by what looked like building a stone wall in front. But even before encountering the walls, fifty yards from the forest edge, was a ditch about six feet deep and maybe ten across. The far side of the ditch was edged in sharpened wooden stakes.
As the group passed through the only gap in the ditch stakes, across a sturdy wooden bridge, Joe could smell pine pitch. If they needed to, the dwarves could light the entire ditch on fire. They’re serious about their defenses. Wow. As they approached the main gate, all of the workers, and Joe could see, the crossbowmen as well, stopped their duties and stared at the group. And more specifically, at Joe.
A dwarf came from the open gate and saw his fellows staring, he yelled at them, “What’re you lot starin’ at?” He stopped in his tracks as the trio of dwarves, Joe and Bixby entered the camp.
Rory, with a huge grin, waved jauntily at the dwarf, “Afternoon, Lyall. Pure dead brilliant day, aye?”
The dwarves all kept watching as the group strode to the gates and Joe took in what more closely resembled a town than a camp. There were one and two-story wooden buildings on either side of the street, some reinforced with stone on the lower levels. The main road cut right through the camp and Joe could see the creek not far off, straight down the road. They had built the walls directly across the creek, much like the fort he and Bixby had originally found. The entire place seemed very much like a cowboy town with a distinct blocky fantasy flavor to the construction.
As they passed the threshold of the gates, Joe received a notification.
You have entered the Stoneshear Sanctuary Zone.
Monsters will not spawn inside the Sanctuary Zone; however, they may enter from outside.
This Sanctuary Zone includes a Travel Stone.
Note, this Sanctuary Zone must be upgraded to a Village before it will have access to a Shoppe or a Class Room.
Joe closed the screen and made a mental note to ask about that later. As they walked down the road, every dwarf that they passed stopped and stared. Some, Joe saw, even grabbed at their necklaces and mumbled words he could not hear. They had gotten to approximately the middle of town when a shout from up ahead went out and the dwarves in that area all backed off of what looked like a construction site. Only two dwarves stood in front of the piles of timber and stone with arms raised and they began to chant. A moment later, the wood and stone began to tremble and shift. Then suddenly, the piles of materials all began moving of their own accord, flew through the air and joined together. Within five minutes an entirely new one-story house was standing there. Joe’s jaw was on the floor. The two dwarves stood panting but gave each other hearty slaps on the back. The other dwarves all stepped in to congratulate the two builders.
“That was amazing!” Joe blurted out.
Iona stepped closer to him, “They’re two of the only six builders we were able to bring. The whole lot’ve been burnin’ Mana and getting’ the camp set. Truly beats buildin’ by hand, although, truth to tell, we’ve plenty of that happenin’ too.”
Kier interrupted their conversation, “We’re here.”
Joe turned to the two-story building that Kier gestured to. It had the same blocky architectural style as all the other buildings, with a squat, wide door. The stone trim and wooden supports had runes carved into them, but whether they were magical or not, Joe couldn’t tell. He thought it more ornamentation than anything else. There was a banner hung to the right of the door, made of very light gray cloth. It had a black border design that looked like knotwork and there was a golden pickaxe depicted at the center. Kier and Rory immediately entered the building and Iona gestured Joe to enter. He looked at the door dubiously and had to crouch down to enter. The doorway only stood at about five feet tall, in fact, even Iona as the tallest dwarf he’d yet to see, had to duck her head slightly.
The inside was furnished with a minimalist style. No pictures or major ornaments adorned the walls. The first floor was an open plan room, on the left side of the room was a stone staircase leading to the second floor. Each corner of the room had a lamp that glowed with a steady, unwavering light. The right side of the room had two enormous wooden tables covered in various parchments and maps and from a brief glimpse, building plans. The back of the room held a beautifully crafted marble desk with one of the glowing lanterns hanging above it. Seated at the desk was a dwarf in a grey and red tunic with a large blonde beard. This one’s beard had beads woven into it of various colors and he wore a cloth skull cap over his long blond hair. He looked up through spectacularly bushy blonde eyebrows. His eyes narrowed at seeing Joe and Bixby. He pointed a meaty finger and loudly said, “Oy, what’s all this then?”
Kier stepped forward and said, “This’s Joe an Bixby.” He said gesturing. “Joe, this’s Duggan, our Camp Overseer.”
Joe stepped forward and offered his hand, “Pleased to meet you sir.”
“Ye can cut the sir crap, I ain’t nae poncy knight nor noble.” Duggan seemed reluctant to take Joe’s hand, but with the other three dwarves watching the interaction, he grudgingly accepted the embrace. “Ye got a right strong grip there fer a lanky longlegs.” He said with a genuine tone. He looked at Kier and glanced at the others, “So’s you brought me a human? Whyfore?”
Kier answered, “Well, tis a strange story, but Joe’s a local. He was left out o’ the tutorial.”
“Har! An pull t’other one! Ye take me fer a dummy?”
Rory smacked his hand on the desk and leaned in towards Duggan, “S’truth ya idjit! Kier truthed him an we all took a peek at his Status. So shut yer pie hole an take a look at his Status afore ye sit there lookin’ like an arsehole.”
Duggan gave Rory a glare and then focused on Joe. His expression changed from angry to astonished in seconds. “Oohya bugger!” He stood up and came around to look at Joe closer. “My brains are reelin’ at your titles, boyo!” He turned to look at Kier, “And nae a wink of the tutorial?”
Kier shook his head, “Still level zero.”
Duggan seemed to deflate a bit as he peered at Bixby next, shook his head and made his way back to his seat. “Ah must be drunk. This cannae be right.”
Iona chimed in, “Duggan, the tutorial’s gonna be over in a few days an’ the humans’ll be sproutin’ up like randy fairies an’ it’ll be a free for all. It’ll be pure barry ta have made friends.” She looked up at Joe, “Assumin’ you’re willin’ ta parlay on our behalf with your people?”
Joe stood hunched over and uncomfortable and finally sank to one knee and leaned on the desk. “If I understand you right, you want me to introduce you to my fellow humans to, what, open trade talks?”
“Aye, that’s the right of it.”
Joe sat in thought for a few minutes as the four dwarves looked on expectantly. “Yeah, I’m willing to do that, but it’ll cost you fifty thousand gold.” He cracked a devilish smile.
Duggan began sputtering, “Ye’re a nutter! Fifty thousand?!”
Iona and Kier both laughed out loud, while Rory dropped to the ground laughing. He rolled around and held his belly with tears in his eyes. “The mad lad has a ballsack made o’ mithral!”
Joe waited for the laughter to die down and he said, “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. They do say that turnabout is fair play.” He smiled at Duggan, “Look, if it helps you guys out, then yeah, I’ll do it. Maybe in return, I can learn more about the System from you and hopefully get a hot bath somewhere?”
Duggan looked on confused as Rory stood up and said, “Oy laddie buck, that was pure class.”
Kier turned to Duggan, “I’ll explain later. Fer now, do we have an accord? Can ye let the others know to not ruffle Joe’s jimmies while he’s here?”
Duggan, looking a bit perturbed said, “Aye, that’ll do.” He addressed Joe, “As long as ye’re here, you’ll behave yourself. Start no trouble, you’ll get no trouble from me. Take ‘im to the Crooked Shaft and let Sophie know.” He waved a dismissive hand, “Now get your arse’s out of my hair!”
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The group left the office and Rory clapped a meaty hand on Joe’s back, “Your’re my favorite human, I’ve ever met.”
Iona looked at Rory with a raised eyebrow, “He’s the only human you’ve ever met, ya idjit.”
“Aye, and so’s he’s my favorite.” Rory took Joe by the elbow and led him into the street. “Let’s getcher to the Crooked Shaft an’ a fair meal.”
As they walked, passing dwarves slowed their steps to gawk at Joe and Bixby. This gave him an opportunity to gawk back. While normally a very private person, he walked unflinching in their scrutiny. He’d had a craptastic month and the last thing he gave any shits about were people staring. The dwarves he saw he began to categorize into three groups. One group all wore simple leather and cloth outfits that were stained from manual labor. These he figured were builders. Another group, probably administrators wore nicer garments and walked with a bit of authority and the third were the warriors. Each of these were outfitted in various types of armor and openly carried weapons. After a few minutes, he added a fourth group as he saw a pair of dwarves wearing leather aprons and they were covered in dirt. Joe classed these guys as miners.
As they walked to the inn, Joe looked down between two buildings and saw a small courtyard with a travel stone in it. Stopping the group, he asked, ”Hey, is it okay if I go attune to your travel stone?”
Kier looked surprised, “How’d you know about Travel Stones?”
“I ran across one in the mountains and attuned to it. My giant friend told me they were safe.”
Kier looked at his siblings, all of them got knowing looks on their faces. “An’ this stone’s in the middle of a level one hundred zone?”
“Uh, yeah. Is that a problem?”
Rory blurted out, “Nary a problem. Just good ta know tis there.”
Iona quickly inserted, “I’ll take him. You two go on ahead an get us a table.”
Kier and Rory nodded and walked on. Iona steered Joe and Bixby to the courtyard with the stone. “What was that all about? They seemed weird about the travel stone.”
Iona stopped and gazed up at Joe, “One thing you need ta know about dwarves is that we’ve got a great streak of greed a’times. When they’re high enough level, they’ll want ya to take ‘em to that stone so’s they can hunt. Higher level monsters means more loot an’ gold.”
Joe nodded, “Ah, I can see how that could be helpful to get into and out of a high-level zone easily.” He walked up to the Travel Stone and placed his hand on it.
Would you like to attune to the Stoneshear Travel Stone? Y/N?
Joe chose Yes and felt the same small amount of Mana drawn from him and into the stone as had happened at the first one. The star map opened with a glyph in the center representing the Elder Mountain Travel Stone and this time there was another glyph representing the Stoneshear Mine Travel Stone. A dim shimmering silver line connected the two glyphs. The rest of the map continued to be hazy and undefined.
The three walked back to the main street and over to a wide two-story building. Over the main doors was a sign that had some sort of runic writing on it, but the image was unmistakable. It depicted a brown, triangular mountain like any child would draw, but it had a thick, crooked silver line that bisected it. At the bottom of the mountain, in the center the silver line stopped at a pair of gold coins. The double entendre was not lost on Joe. Iona opened the door and a blast of sound and smells assaulted Joe. Bixby actually winced as they were led inside.
“Oy! Getcher lanky bahookie’s over here!” Rory shouted and waved from a table towards the back wall of the inn. Inside was an open floor with a bar at one end that led to a kitchen. At the other end was a staircase that led to an upper floor. The main room had a high raftered ceiling and the stairs led to what Joe assumed would be the back half of the Inn and its rooms. The smells were a mixture of wood smoke, cooked meat and a sweet tobacco that reminded Joe of cigars. About a quarter of the tables were full of boisterous dwarves all drinking, eating and smoking from thick pipes. The laughter was abundant and, overall, the room seemed cheerful and lively. Joe could only imagine what the place would be like when it was full. He glanced down to check on Bixby, who was sniffing the air like crazy, his tail wagging. Whatever it was that he smelled, he obviously liked.
Not having to crouch made Joe feel better about being inside with the rowdy dwarves, but as he sat at the table, he was reminded of the height difference between himself and those around him. He took a few moments to situate his legs to a comfortable position in the short chair at the short table, but finally managed to sort it out. Bixby simply sat on the floor, his head well above the table height.
Iona took a chair next to Joe and Rory hoisted a wooden mug full of something brown and probably alcoholic, took a huge swig and let out a loud belch. Iona rolled her eyes, but Joe detected a hint of a smile. Kier pushed a mug towards Joe with a smile, “Take a swally o’ this pint o’ heavy. It’ll get you out yer tree.”
Joe took the offered mug and took a sniff. Surprisingly it smelled like a stout malt beer and after a month drinking water, Joe’s mouth watered at the thought of something different. He patted Bixby, held his mug aloft and said, “Cheers.” He then drank deeply of the heavy beer. Oh. My. God! That is amazing! The beer tasted slightly bitter but had hints of something sweet and nutty. Partway through his first sip, he decided to just quaff the entire thing. After he finished, he slammed the mug back onto the table as he’d seen Rory do.
Rory yelled out, “Oh aye an’ we’ll make a right proper dwarf of you! You see that Kier, the lad can drink!” He clapped Kier on the shoulder and added, “An he’s got a right scruff going for him too!” He pointed to Joe’s face, “You keep growin’ that an’ you’ll look almost as handsome as myself.”
Joe smiled at the praise as Kier said, “Rory, you’re out of your mind thinking the man wants ta look like you when he can look like a real dwarf.” He preened his beard and gave Joe a wink.
Iona, after taking a swig of her own beer shook her head, “You’re both mad with it.” She turned to Joe, “I think they’re both just a bit jealous because you smell better than either of them.” Rory sniffed himself then guffawed and smashed his mug against Iona’s.
Joe smiled and then was startled as someone stepped up beside him and dropped a large metal platter in front of him. The plate held a large slice of steaming brown bread, a generous hunk of white, flaky cheese and several slices of some red meat that he could not identify. More trays were dropped in front of the others as Joe looked to see their server. The dwarf was about four feet tall and wide like the rest, but what astonished him was this one was wearing a dress with her ample cleavage on display. The top barely contained the woman’s assets. That and the gorgeous brown beard spilling over her chest. Joe almost did a double take, but remembered his manners, “Thank you ma’am.”
She dropped her last tray on the floor in front of Bixby, this one held several large cuts of meat. Bixby, tail wagging immediately started to devour the offering and growling happily. The female dwarf cocked a hip and crossed her arms, which only pushed her cleavage up even more, and with her closeness, Joe was sure to get an eyeful. “An you’re the longlegs what got the camp in such a tizzy?” She leaned in and gave Joe a thorough look up and down. Then her eyes went slightly vacant, and he knew she was Inspecting him. After a second, she stepped back with an appraising eye and gave Joe a wicked smile, “Well, even though you look the cat’s elbow, if you fancy a shag, I’ll jangle your bones.” She then turned on her heel and sauntered away.
“Haw! Better to bust out than rust out!” Rory guffawed. “Who knew the prettiest maid in camp has her knickers pulled for a human. Just how high is your Charisma?”
Joe called up his Status screen, “Um, thirty-three.”
Rory, almost spit his beer, “You’ve got to be talkin’ out yer fanny flaps! Nae wonder her knees is squeaky.”
Keir leaned over to Joe with an impressed look on his face, “That there’s Sophie. She owns the Crooked Shaft. And I have never seen her offer a kip to none afore. Many a dwarf has tried and many a dwarf has slept alone.” He saluted Joe with his mug, “Ye could do worse than to take a tumble with her.”
This time it was Joe’s turn to blush. He stammered, “I’m honored, I think. But I think I’ll have to pass on her, um, generous offer.”
Rory with a mouthful of bread, “S’matter she not your type laddie?” He smirked and said, “I bet you’re nae used ta lasses wantin’ ta sink the link, eh?”
While Joe took a bite of food and took a minute to collect his thoughts, Iona spoke up, “Joe, yer said ye’d want to know more o’ the System, aye what?”
Joe gave Iona a look of gratitude as she changed the subject. He took a swig of beer, “How do I get a class?”
Keir answered, “You needs to get to a Class Room and that’ll get you sorted.” When Joe looked confused still, he added, “Every Village, Town and City has a Class Room. It’s a System made building what allows people to claim or swap or add a Class. You cannae get a Class any other way. I’d offer you ours, but we donnae have one yet as we’re still nae a village.”
Iona added, “But give it a week or so an’ we’ll fair enow have one ye c’n use.” She said it kind of quickly and then took a sip of beer while giving Joe a look he did not understand.
“What about a human town? Will the rest of my people return with access to a Class Room?”
Rory packed a pipe full of tobacco and said, “Tis nae likely. They’ll be scarpered as soon as they return. The System is a big ‘ol cadger and ain’t got love for none. Your kin will be hard pressed to survive, let alone build a city. Oh, they may be some lucky bastards what’ll be able to purchase a Sanctuary Zone, but it’ll take them a fair bit to build up to getting a Shoppe and a Class Room.” He lit a match and began puffing on his pipe which, in turn let out some smoke that somehow reminded Joe of his grandfather.
“Wait, so the people coming back from the tutorial will be, what, just dropped randomly back into the world?” Joe asked incredulously.
Iona refilled Joe’s mug, “Nae at random. They’ll be placed back at where the System snatched ‘em from.” Joe looked at Iona’s expression of what could have been either sorrow or pity. He wasn’t sure which.
Kier looked at Iona with an expression that Joe couldn’t read and then said, “The problem your kin face is that if they were on a boat, say, then that’s where they’ll be returned. Only tis been a full circle and that boat’s not there nae more. And with the world merges, the landscape’ll be much changed to boot. They could be dropped in a level one hundred zone and get eaten by an Ogre or something. I’m sorry to say, Joe, but you’ll lose a lot of your people just from them being returned to hazardous places. That is them what survives the tutorial.”
“I take it the tutorial is pretty dangerous, then?”
Kier answered again, “From what I understand, most races lose people to apathy more than anything else. And not everyone chooses a combat class. Some choose to take a utility class, like builder, or smith.” He gestured at the room in general, “Mithra knows more than half our own are Miners and Builders.”
“Well, shit.” Joe sat in thought and idly scratched Bixby’s ruff.
Iona asked, “You’re worried about your family?”
Joe, pulled from his melancholy thoughts, glanced at her, “Yeah. I need to at least try to get home before my sister gets back. I have no idea if she even survived the tutorial. And she has a young son. How does the tutorial deal with children? Are they forced to fight monsters too?”
Iona’s voice grew soft, “Nae. The wee ones are left in the tutorial village in a Sanctuary Zone. You needs to be the age of majority to claim a Class.” Her voice got a tad bit quieter, “It’s the coming back that’s deadly. Once out of the tutorial, tis up to the adults to care for the wee bairns. Not many make it.”
Rory took a puff of his pipe, “I’ll tell you what. You two stay here for the night and tomorrow I’ll join you in finding your family.” Suddenly his eyes light up, “Well, shag me running if I dinnae just get a Quest!” Kier and Iona both also checked their screens and received the same one.
“A quest? What’s that mean?”
“It means, you got some company on your journey home.” Kier answered with a smile.