Right now I am sitting in a tavern in the frozen peak, drinking my woes away. Sitting right next to me is Eric, who has yet to touch a drop of alcohol even though it wouldn't affect him. The drinks here are quite shit.

The man certainly has taken his defeat at my hands quite seriously. If before he was stoic, now he is a statue barely moving when he doesn't need to be.

Talking to him has been kind of annoying but since the man is my only guide, there is little I can do but that.

After my victory at the duel, the nobles were forced to fulfill their agreement which was to allow me into the frozen peak. They did this by making Eric starfall my escort into the fort.

Meanwhile, the remaining guard would be protecting my troop and the scholars. Well, with how disappointing the markets here have been I have to wonder why I even worked so hard for it in the first place. That reminds me, I had something to ask my escort.

"Well, soldier Eric. I have to wonder, what happen to all your precious ores?", I ask the man. "With the number of dwarven prospectors that have been in your lands I would have thought that your markets would be flush with precious ores."

It is one of the tasks of the black mountain to always keep an eye on the dwarves. Tracking their movement is one of the best ways of knowing what precious stuff belongs to which faction. The dwarves have been swarming the place for the last couple decades.

"Well, every store that you have visited has precious weapons made of mithril, guard.", he replies. "If you do not consider that precious, I don't know what will be considered precious by you."

"Well, don't get me wrong, mithril is a useful metal to have as a soldier.", I reply. "But, if dwarves want mithril they don't even need to leave their houses. I would have assumed something that is a bit more rare for them would have moved them into action."

"Well, the dwarves made a deal with the commander, guard. Anything they found I would assume that the commander has in his stores.", he replies.

"I would have assumed that he has sold them for a decent amount of profit.", I reply. "There should have been some trickle down."

"Well, what the commander wants to do is his wish. Regardless, do you think maintaining this fort is a cheap or easy task.", he replies, with a sneer.

"That is true.", I reply, going back to my drink.

"How long shall we waste our time here. None of the shops that we have visited have contained what you want.", he speaks, his annoyance barely concealed.

"What I want is vital, my fellow. I cannot stop looking for it just because you shops do not have them.", I reply. "Anyway, this is a fort. Why do you have so many shops."

"Well, that is related to how many families make this place their base.", he replies. "For every noble faction that is present here, there is a shop. They would simply not be able to trust anybody that is not one of theirs."

"Well, that is quite surprising if I am honest.", I wonder. "I was under the assumption that you nobles were not one to participate in this battlefield. Isn't it supposed to be quite unprofitable."

"Well, all you shall find here are bastards, guard. Even the nobles need a place to throw their useless ones.", he replies. "That is why you shall find the nobles here quite easy to provoke."

"Is that the reason that my life is at risk?", I ask.

"Something like that. You are something of a problem to the nobles, if I have to be Frank.", the noble speaks. "Let's just say if some radical bastard were to kill you for your crimes, the nobles would punish them by sending them down south."

Well, it would be more accurate to call that as a reward. the southern border of the snow wind empire is a bloody mess, if I am to be honest but it is a profitable mess.

I am sure that every ambitious person of this country hopes to be stationed there.

"Well, then it must be quite annoying to have to guard me.", I reply.

"It would be wise if you do not provoke the nobles too much.", he replies, with a rare bit of passion. "It is only the presence of lord Jacob that you are alive. That too is only due to the fact that he does not want his honour to be blemished."

"Well, then I will have to bow to the man.", I reply, catching the man off guard. I think they consider being called dependent on others to be an insult. "If only, your markets had what I needed."

"Why can you not use mithril? Your magic needs materials which can allow mana to flow through it. I don't know of anything that allows mana to flow better than mithril.", he asks, a bit shaken from the failure of the provocation I think.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Well, can you draw on water?", I ask him.

"Well, no.", he replies.

"Using mithril is like drawing on water. I can send in every bit of my mana into the material and still I won't be able to let anything stick to it.", I reply. "Now, dwarves make use of formations even more than us. Their demand for those materials are tremendous. Now, if they came to this place like bees to a flower, I would think that the markets here should be overflowing with those materials."

This makes the man opposite me pause for a moment.

"Well, if you consider that the dwarves value these materials so much. Maybe they would have taken it all with them.", he replies, pondering on it. "After all, mithril weapons would be more useful at the moment."

"Now, you would think that.", I reply, wondering if I should reveal it. Fuck it. "Dwarves are more creative than that. Rather than try and and get everything at the same time, the dwarves do not take more than half of any materials that they want. After all, anything that the dwarves give us will finally end up in the hands of the dwarves."

"Now why would that be?", replies eric. I can see the man's focus shifting. I wonder what political intrigue managed to distract this man so much.

"Well, everything that the dwarves give you will always be something that you can use only on weapons. Whether that be metals like mithril, or materials that can be used to craft formations on weapons. They do this to control the price of their goods, I have heard" I reply, trying to bait for information. "As long as it is a weapon, it will ultimately end up in a dwarves forge, my friend. It does make one wonder though, where all of these materials are."

"The commander and his soldiers were the ones that were mainly involved in the process of negotiations with the dwarves. If I remember correctly, the commander had to personally escort them to many of the locations.", he spoke, realising who he was speaking to as he spoke. His expression turns stony in a single instant. "The materials that you want aren't in any of the stores that we have visited till now."

"Well, I am sure that there are other shops in this place.", I reply. "Well, getting what I want is beneficial to us both. As long as I get what I want I am not particularly bothered about leaving the guest room. It would certainly make life easier for you and I can get started on my work."

"Well, there is a shop. Though it is in one of the more shadier parts of the fort.", he replies.

"How can a fort have a shady place?", I ask.

"Well, it exists.", he returns. "The person that runs this shop is a friend of mine."

"Well, if he has what I want, why would I be worried about who he is?", I reply while getting up.

(After about half an hour.)

After reaching this place, I understand why Eric calls this part of the fort shady. Firstly, the buildings here are so close together. It is very claustrophobic.

Right now, there is barely enough place in the roads for me to walk. The roads here are thin enough that I can barely stretch my hand in it.

The people here are also quite suspicious. Well, suspicious would be the wrong word. It would be better to call it desperate. Every soldier here has some serious injury or the other.

Some of them have their hands in splints. Some of them have missing limbs. The only thing that is truly common among them is a sense of desperation.

We do not spend a lot of time in the streets, thankfully. Somehow looking at these people really left me uncomfortable.

The shop itself does not deserve to be called a shop, unless you consider a table with a few materials placed on it to be a shop. Most of what is on the table is various ores of iron, with a few ores of mithril. With Eric in here, the shop is completely full. There is going to be no duels here.

The owner of the shop does not inspire confidence. While, compared to the people outside he is leagues better he is still painfully thin. He looks like a starved skeleton.

"Are you going to even be buying anything?", the shopkeeper asked.

"Well, that depends on what you have to provide. What you have on the table is nothing special.", I reply.

"You certainly talk big, bastard. The only reason that I am not kicking you out is due to the fact that Eric brought you.", he speaks. "Show me that you can pay and I will show you the good stuff."

I don't reply to this other than throwing a bag in his direction. He opens it and quickly begins to count the mana stones that are present in it.

"Three class seven mana stones in total. You are certainly a rich man.", he speaks. "Fine, I will show you the good stuff."

Well, the way the man spoke about it, it seemed as If I was somehow disturbing his peace. He disappears for a few seconds but finally appears with the smallest chest I have ever seen in my life.

"I have three things that might be rare.", he speaks.

"Might be?", I ask.

"Well, the dwarves have claimed that it is supposed to be very rare. Each is worth ten times the cost of a mithril ore, they said. I don't actually know their worth.", he speaks. "I am sure something will catch your eye."

He proceeds to remove a piece of rock from the box. There is nothing special about it other than the fact that there is an abnormally large amount of fire mana that is passing through it.

"Well, this is supposed to be a piece of mithril ore that has been strengthened by a strain of sun metal.", speaks the man opposite me. "It is supposed to be a very rare metal. You would be able to craft weapons of the fire affinity."

"Well, I do not want that.", I reply. "Do not show me anything related to mithril."

"Fine.", he says, annoyed as he removes a piece of wood from the box.

"Well, this is a piece of ice bark tree.", he speaks. "It is supposed to be able to channel massive amounts of ice mana into itself."

"How would you be pricing that.", I ask the man.

"Well, I will require at least a class 7 magic stone for it.", he replies.

"For that, I would be willing to give at most two class 8 magic stones.", I reply.

"You bastard, that is a fifth of what I stated to you.", he replies, getting agitated. "This is a high quality piece of ice bark tree. I can sell it to the soldier and they would be willing to give five piece of class seven mana stones for it. It can absorb the chill from your flesh, you know."

"Well, then and go sell it to them unless you think that they will put you to death", I reply, losing my cool a bit. I do not like to be called a bastard. "I am sure that you must have stolen it from somewhere yourself. Whose grave did you rob."

Saying this I leave the damn shop in a huff, my guard behind me collecting the bag that I had forgotten there.

I almost do not notice the dagger flying at me as my hand moves to intercept it almost on instinct.