End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2), John Gold [ebook reader online txt] 📗

We spend the next six days running along the foothills of the mountains. Every once in a while, we come across abandoned aboveground dwarf settlements. The difference between their technical development and ours is staggering: the dwarves are masters of construction and architecture, and they have aqueducts, drainage systems, beautiful roads, and tall, thick walls. It’s all been abandoned, however, and taken over by skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. One surprising tidbit is that the dwarves left in an organized fashion. They didn’t leave anything behind them, and the walls and gates are just the way they used to be. The undead lost interest as soon as the dwarves were gone.

Giant skeletons stand in front of each of the settlements, their armor half-rotten and enormous clubs in their hands.

Undead, Giant Skeleton, Level 530, local boss

We fight our way through the first couple of cities before avoiding them to look for passageways down into the dwarf mines. Finally, we’re successful. We find one covered by an enchanted boulder, and then spend half the day breaking down the incredible resistance to physical damage and sheer size. The path we unlock is wide enough for four carts to trundle down side by side, though there’s another rock a little way down behind the first. We get to work. Afterward, we head toward Drag, the last inhabited stronghold of the dwarves.

On the evening of the sixth day, we reach the border of the surrounded lands. Undead encircle the walls of the fortress, the same way they encircled the elven shields around the Summer Forest.

Femida is happy we left Fang Island. She needs new opponents to keep leveling up. Working with father stopped doing anything for her after the second day. The rest of the time, she just worked on her battle mastery. Although, Fem has never told me why she needs to know how to fight with a sword.

“Look, Sagie. The Hunters never give you simple assignments, and we’re going to have to kill a whole legion of undead just to get information about the goddess.”

“Yes, but we’re not going to do that. If the priest at the gate looks at us with his magic vision, he’ll notice that we’re wearing armor made with blood magic. That’s not as bad as necromancy, of course, but they’ll still be only too happy to arrest us.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Put on the rags we brought with us from the abandoned cities.”

I change into an outfit perfectly suited for a peasant boy. Femida turns down a dress and goes with pants, trading out a girlish shirt for a country shirt, too.

“Fem, you’re a girl. Why are you wearing that?”

“Clothing for women is designed to accentuate their figure, and certainly not to make getting around easy. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

Lifelong warriors talk like that. And she’s supposed to be a little girl? The inference is clear.

“It hinders your movement, keeping you from moving freely in battle? That’s smart, after all, who knows what’s waiting for us on the other side of the walls?”

Already wearing my new clothes, I take a look at myself. I wonder what kind of effect this has on my attributes. My running speed has dropped appreciably, though I’m still a very strong mage. I don’t touch my available attribute points. It’s hard to say what we’re going to be coming up against. Also, I notice that my derivative attributes don’t climb once they hit the ceiling set by my equipment. I make a mental note to adjust my training so I’m boosting them.

Finding a respawn point is a piece of good news, though there are too many undead guarding it. On the other hand, they don’t pose much of a threat to Fem or me.

Femida runs faster, her running speed attribute up at around 300, so I switch on stealth mode and make use of the commotion to get to the fortress walls. When the crowd of undead takes off after Fem, they leave the left flank open for me.

Since Fem can run four times as fast as me, she quickly gets to the shields set up two meters outside the fortress walls. I have to use amplification to get through the last five hundred meters, dodging blows as I go. In fact, I more fly through the shields than run up to them, crashing into the wall on the other side in the process. A giant skeleton noticed me and sent me hurtling through the air with a powerful blow. Well, now I know that those walking towers have great perception.

***

Dgar, a reinforced aboveground fort, is cut out of an overhang in the cliff. Three rows of monolithic stone walls twenty meters tall were enchanted to protect the central part of the fortress, which is where the city itself is located. The fighters are all occupying the first wall and are unsure of what to expect from a couple of children.

I get up to the gate, the archers already taking aim at me. The guards are prepared to activate the traps they have set to repulse attackers, though the dwarves look absolutely exhausted. Their shoulders are slumped, their weapons held as if they’re ready to die, and it’s only their dwarfish stubbornness that keeps them from throwing in the towel.

“Dvar igri ruosl ap aidna ur?”

Neither Femida nor I understand their tongue, so we reply in our own.

“We’re humans arriving from the Summer Forest with a mission to destroy the altar of Miridia!”

A murmur breaks out on the walls, and one of the dwarves steps forward.

“Why didn’t you come through the portal? You aren’t undead, are you?”

“Ten days ago, we helped clear Silvana Swamp, after which we decided it was simpler to head straight here than go back to the elves. And hey, you’re