Very just smiled and said, Oh, you didn't hear what happened in town when the mayor went to inspect. that piece of glass. The appraiser had put into the box with a piece of mana glass he had bought when he first started 50 years ago, and he put it in there to show the mayor that it was almost the same stuff. And then he put an emerald that you guys had put in one of the rocks. Well, when they opened it up and reflected sunlight onto the crystal, it energized the man a glass from the old. prospector and the emerald to the point that the dwarfs wouldn't take them with them. And they handed it back to the mayor. The mayor almost lost half of the City Hall because until the appraiser realized that they were going critical. Do you know what that means? And they all shook their head. It means that more energy was put into those gems than they could hold magical energy. It's supercharged them to the point where they threw them down the well and the well exploded They already have the work order in to repair the wealth. Your magic glass in this mind is probably better than the best one ever recorded. And that was 101% That piece of glass itself exploded and made bombs for a living. One of the humans actually used it in the last war, and they would keep on putting just normal rocks next to it in the sun with a lens on it. The light that went in was converted into magic, and they couldn't swap the rocks out fast enough because they were exploding. And in the end, it literally had the rocks around. It explode That's how they lost the war because they lost that one piece of magical glass. Now, how big do you think that piece of magical glass was that started an entire war between the humans and the elves?
The boys had no clue, but they all guessed bigger than a baseball. No bigger than your body. No, no, no. It must have been huge. It must have been a big piece of glass bigger than a dinner plate.
Larry, hold out a gold coin, and he flung it to them, he said, He's no bigger than this. And a minute ago, you just handed me a piece bigger than your own head.
The gold coin was dropped, and they went stone still and were terrified. And Larry could feel the chaos running within them.
I don't think we're gonna have a week. I think we're gonna have to go back into town as soon as we get back into the cave. So let's just get upstairs and make sure we don't get anybody coming down here and blowing this place up. Because one of the things I didn't really tell you is that the 3 by 3 by 3 compact is a set of laws for the war. There's ways around those laws. And by around them, I mean. you gave hope to an entire species of people on this continent. There might be a couple that are coming here to help bury quickly. And by quickly I mean now. you rang the bell for help. You don't even realize that. So let's go back to town and make it very clear what we found so no one screws this up.
Larry wasn't put out or anything like that, but he wanted to give the boys time to have fun down here before it became like an industrial complex down here. But now realizing what was here. there there was got to be more, but it wasn't until. they calm down. Did one speak up and go. Oh yeah. Don't forget to tell him about the bugs or whatever those things were.
Larry snapped his head over to one and said what bugs were you talking about? And one. explained was they were going through one of the lower levels below 25 by going through some side tunnels and down about 100 feet. They came on the main level of what's down 25 and they had light up for a minute and through the glass they could see legs. They didn't know if they're spiders or ants or what they were because it was very foggy. But the moment that they saw that they turned off the light and they bailed. So in the lower levels there were creatures. They didn't know what they were.
That settled it there as I can't let's go. We're going now. And Larry was like, we're going and they made it back up to cave 4 and then the backroom to their home.
Larry was about to say something, but they just said to be quiet for a second with the finger over their lips. And they went over to the air holes that they removed the stones, and they looked through, and they didn't see anybody. But then all of a sudden, two eyes were looking right through the holes that they had just opened. And all they heard was, hello boys.
They all screamed and freaked out for a second. But Larry was just kinda laughing, and he went over to the rock that was holding the little secret door shut. And he moved in the moment. He moved it. The dwarf heard it, and we pushed on the Rock and moved it out of the way. And then a nice balance. It was impressed. And he popped his head and said, hello there, boys. Don't worry about my name. But me and my boys were the first ones here, so we'd like to let you know how this is going to go down And they saw Larry and they went, are you, by chance, Larry, they're guardian.
And with that, he pulled his head back out and went back into the other room, letting everybody come into the main room where the Ford Wars were sitting around.
Before dwarf stood up and came before their king.s
Larry just stood back and let the three boys stand in front of these men. All. of them went down on one knee and bowed to their kings
The boy said absolutely no clue what the **** to do in Lawry's just in the back, clapping and laughing and didn't say this is awesome. I couldn't have asked anything better guys. They were raised by humans. That's why they shaved their beards. They don't even know. But by the compact they have to keep their beard shaped for one more year. Until they can come out to being dwarves promptly. So for right now, they're human kids, right?
The dwarfs understood and already understood what was going to go down here. So they just looked at the boys and they looked at everything and said this simply, Sir, we understand our duties. How can we help?
Larry pulled out his tags of the four dwarfs, brought booze to so the food the boost came out. And two of these words that had come on their trip were dead tired. So they found the cut out cubby holes crawled in. Emeryl cold, within minutes of having a drink and some food. The leader undescribed for the two dwarves that were there for the little poor man crew that was sent ahead. sat down. around the fire on the table, and they discussed what was going on and how they needed to get everything set up. The boys honestly didn't do a lot of talking. They just listened as Larry did a lot of the talking.
Larry explained to them this mountain. history but then went on to tell a very embarrassing story of how three boys set the entire mountain range on fire, becoming the embodiment of their clan name. And he looked over as a colon fire or fire in coal and the four dwarves that had come in the two of them that were still there were kind of freaked out because they said hold on. We're told it's fire and coal Now, what do you mean they they they get to choose and no one that understood that. But it was then explained to them about the original name and how the symbol had two different house clans attached to it. So this brought up a giant question that no one knew what the name was. But for now they said we'll gladly go with fire and coal unless there's a reason to not do it that way because the clan of coal and fire was the bound. ary mountain is gone. So technically it would be firing coal if you were to do it legally and lawfully. And the boys didn't have a problem with that. That so their family could name. They were okay with that. So they all just agreed to go with fire and coal like everybody else doing. They wouldn't tell anybody about the name change unless it became a legal importance down the road. And if that's the case, maybe they could use that to their advantage. So they all said OK, we're not going to worry about the name for now But you set the entire mountain range on fire
Oh, and don't forget, you also send a billion bats into the local area to college havoc for a solid month, killing things and yeah. their entire population got murdered from the fire. You guys made too. So yeah, you guys did some good damage. You guys lived up to your name and the dwarfs are just howling at this point. The other two had woken up over listening to this and laughing from their bunks. Just absolutely. howling. And now they had gotten a little bit of sleep. They were just laying there, listening. But when Larry started explaining that they had a big **** problem, the two that were still awake basically gave a kick to the other two and said get over to the table to listen to this. You're going to need to know this So they groggily move their **** over to the table and sat between the table and the fireplace.
So what these boys, I don't think, realize, is that they super heated some of the rock, which then crystallized. Normally you would be able to see through the rock, but due to the extreme amount of heat and time a large amount of the tunnels on your here are turned to glass.
This made the dwarves kind of **** themselves right here, thinking that there's more than like a couple of pounds of this last in like one or two spots out there was caves, multiple caves of glass. And then. Larry dropped the bomb on them and he said, Oh yeah, I'm going to buy a forget to mention that these guys found a way of activating bioluminescent crystals that are in lace inside the glass by adding a small amount of oxygen. After their intelligence, after they realized they had activated it, they sealed it. Now the whole structure is slowly allowing that small amount of oxygen no more than a gold coins worth to flow through the system. It's now lighting up the system slowly, which is. then putting a leg light through the glass and they're radiating everything with magic. That's why you can smell it because and feel it. Because when they close the main entrance. Oh yes. And I forgot at one point these kids were afraid of everything. So they closed the main entrance to their mind and they now use the back door here to get in and out so that no one could find it. They all just looked at Larry and said, oh, that's not the best part. The boys went down 200 feet and there was something moving down there with legs and or spider. You pick. We don't know yet. Oh yeah. And they might have magic shooting onto them right now. What Larry wasn't expecting was the look on the dwarfs faces
The burst dwarf the leader of the the foreman expedition looked at his others, and he just discounts, and they just nodded their head with a giant **** **** eating grin on their face. And they're just like, it **** does. Call it.
They just, everybody was waiting at the main leader, literally just got up. One grabbed his helmet, put it on his head, went to grab his backpack off of his bunkery and said, I was the leader of this expedition. I am hereby enacting. three by 3 by 3. Compact under extreme contact. of danger. I am hereby activating the war initiative. This. will be informed to all three of the major entities on this continent. Good day to you. I will be back. And he looked at his other three doors and he said you 3 keep these 3 safe. Learn everything and you are in charge of keeping everybody out of the mind. I recommend if this is actually what's going down here that you send all of our people that come into the forest to find all the other cave openings and they all claim one. Hey Larry, how do you buy land in this town?
Larry Swaldon said, just talk to my uncle, the mayor. He works for the Great Church. Just tell him what you're doing. And there will be. no question asked. And because this mountain is part of the horde, I'm going to say we're going to go for a little bit of a walk. Me and you as that you leave town to go tell people. And I'm going to tell the mayor what's going down here and we're going to preclaim all the the places on the mountains. But I need exact locations when your people get here and they do the excavation of the areas, find all the cave openings because think of this. What happens if the the soot from the fire leaves one of those shops, those cave shops and like, it's down into there You could have another Mount Doom explosion. Mount Doom is gone. It destroyed an entire mountain. There's nothing but a lake there. Now, that was the only glass. mine on. record from over 10,000 years ago.
The other three doors that had come with. the captain said, no, we will not, sir. We're coming with unit counter. Talk to the mayor and make sure we're on the same page before we come back to take care of these guys. Now, guys, I'm expecting you can stay here for a day without anybody being around. And I'm not worried about you. You've been digging this mind yourself, so I'm not worried. Just if something goes wrong, hide swear to God, if you want sleep in the back and lock the door. If you know what I mean We're going to go into town, talk with the mayor, and then I'll be back with these guys in a bit. Larry said to the boys.
As they left, the boy felt something, because Larry led, but the four dwarfs were right behind him. And without even thinking about now, all started to go into lockstep. And the. short, little dwarfs men and this big human Velvet world felt poorly probably 5060 feet around them, and as soon as they were out of range they stopped feeling it. But for this short amount of time, the boys could feel the heartbeat the. emotions that these men. were putting into every football they did. This was a Marsha pride for them. I'd for some reason the boys were crying and they didn't know why they felt good and happy and whole. But they did understand that yet they just felt something that they didn't understand, but they liked it. and they were drunk and tired. So taking Larry up on his idea, They jumped into the backroom. and obviously went to sleep with the fireplace, but out and everything. If anybody came looking, they'd hear it and they could look at it.
As Larry and the four dwarfs got to the mayors office, City Hall. they entered, and the mayor was actually talking to his assistant and saw them come in and waved them in. And Larry just said, come on, guys. And they went up.
When they entered the office, the door was stopped behind Larry side by side. And Larry didn't stop. He went in. He went right over to the mouth, and he told his uncle, come here. And he just pointed to the whole area on top of the mountain. He said, I need to buy this right now. And it has to be put away. And the mayor said, no, you don't And boy was like, yeah, I do. I have to do this right now. You don't understand. I'm the mayor said, no, you don't understand. And he said, stop
The mayor went over to his wall, and he had these little. cabinet. slash wine holder type area where you would roll up a piece of paper and put it in. He pulled one out and he handed it to Larry. And when Larry unrolled the thing, he knows 1st have the old school club and leather and wax stamps on that. This was only done very rarely. So he started to read it. And after he started to read it, his eyes just bulked right out of his eyes. And he looked over at the dwarves and he went **** Oh, let's see if this flies right he....ded over the piece paper to the thre Oh, let's see if this flies right here. Right now. So he handed over the piece paper to the 4 Dwarfs
They held it in front of them, and the four of them read it together. And it was like watching all rainbow of all emotions. 1 would get mad that one would get sad, then the other one would get sad, then the other one would get mad. It was, it's like watching someone go through withdrawal in fast forward. In the end, they all were angry, but they weren't angry. And they looked at it and they went well played, Sir. Well played. We can accept this. You will be informed. by our king of the consequences for this action. But I think it was the right thing to do. And we thank you for doing this properly. I understand what's in this missive and I will pass it on to the king. Thank you, Larry. And with that, the 4 dwarfs left. Larry and the king holding the piece of paper And Larry just handed a piece of paper back to the mayor and said, I can't believe you put an IOU in the kids name and gave them the entire mountain for the clan.
The mayor just smiled and said, hey, there's no price on this. They just owe me. Hopefully, if it comes down to me losing my town versus this piece of paper, I'll keep my town.
Larry smiled and just said you go have yourself a great day. I'm going to grab some stuff and head back up to the boys. 0 and I should let you know. And as he's leaving, he just tells his uncle. We kind of guess the war packed. The three by three by three. compact says if there's something severely that could harm the people the mountain, the horde or the town this is reason to allow an army to come down and eradicate that pest No people that live here are considered pests. Only things that are monsters can be considered that anything with intelligence cannot be killed
When the mayor hears Larry start repeating off legal **** he knows something's up and he just kind of focuses on danger and he just looked at Larry and goes, what did they find? How bad is it?
Ohh, it's not that bad. The whole mountain's a giant bomb, and there's something with legs more than four down there. So, yeah, we got to basically corton off the entire mountain range so that no light gets in the wrong spot. Because after they landed on fire, there's a lot of glass down there. And by a lot of glass, I mean, if the wrong chunk of light gets in there, the. the easiest thing would be if this place was exploded. The worst if a new Manuel popped up and that's on the light side of what could actually happen here. So yeah, we have a ticking time bomb here. We're all just going to make this work, aren't we? Uncle.
The bear just said nothing with his mouth, a open like a fish, Larry just left. And once the mayor came back to his senses, he popped his head out and said, I'm going to step out for the rest of the day. You might want to come downstairs for the conversation I have to have with your husband. And then do you want to start running in adventures guild here in town? And he looked at her dead serious in and said, like, for real? Do you want to do it?
For half a second, she thought he was being not serious. And then she realized he was being serious and she said, yeah, sure, but he was going to help you.
Oh, and he said that's easy with the amount of people that are going to be showing up shortly. I don't think we're going to have a shortage of people that we can hire to help us out. So you are hereby giving permission to hire 10 people to help you out in the next couple of days. Whoever shows up on. Yeah, I'm going to go talk to the other owners of businesses in town here. Let them know we have a. we have a monster infestation inside the mountain. We don't know if they're sentient or not. And also. maybe a ton of glass. An actual ton. If not, maybe more.
She pulled behind him But from that point on, for the rest of the day, until she left, you could smell just a little bit of urine in the air when you're around her. She would admit to a pee herself just a little bit, but it still happened in the mirror. and the mayor wasn't going to say anything. He. already picked twice that morning. So this is definitely not a day to be drinking.
The mayor went around to people that he could trust from the old crew. His pirate crew, and he let them know what was going on When they went into war mode, they knew exactly what they meant. It wasn't more than an hour or two before the whole town didn't feel like a ghost town. But the hustle and bustle was that of. having reason, having purpose, having drive and having fear, giving you energy to move a little hard, a little bit faster, a little bit stronger, a little bit more accurate with your everything He missed this feeling and he realized he could feel everybody in town The mayor realized that the Magic coming off the mountain was growing and he realized Larry wasn't lying to him If he looked around town, he started to notice the plants being just a little bit more greener. And the. clouds being a little bit more fluffy and the wind being just a little bit stronger. Whoa. He realized his town was changing already. What would tomorrow bring? And without he walked into town. to talk to everybody.
Larry and the 3 dwarf men walked to the inn and got food and a helping for the boys for take out.
At the same time as Larry is at the bar and in getting food. He talked with everybody there and explained until one year is up. The boys are human. and they're just kids. I know the age of fourteen.
One of the people that worked there didn't know Wiley were doing that and honestly asked Larry why they were pretending the kids were human.
And it was one of the rules in the three by 3 by 3 compact said that if someone from another race came into the territory of another race and claimed land, they. had to give the right to the landowners the king of that to buy it from them. But if you. were human and after a year no one thought that judgment. then the king didn't have to be paid because it was a town that would belong to him. and also the dwarves because whoever won the financial battle would be in control of the town. But because they didn't fight it being owned by humans, which it was Larry until the year was up, which then it would go to the kids if they called them the Kings and they did all the stuff that they everybody wanted you for the next year they would. not be able to make sure that the horde was kept for the kids and the king could literally come and buy it out from under them by law. So until that time was up the kids had to stay hidden because to see a dwarf that wasn't shaving in a human town was **** obvious. Really just very, very obvious.
So the young kid working at the end said, oh, so if I see a dwarf that shave and don't stand anything and adrenal like a human person and just wink, wink, nudge, nudge, I understand because it's probably the kids and. when he said probably the kids, the three. dwarfs and Larry all wicked each other and he said you you're exactly right. Exactly right here. And they threw him a silver coin. They said go. You did good. Have a go. Just be good. And they told the kid to take off and they didn't want to talk to him anymore. But they had to talk to each other.
The three dwarves looked over at Larry and said, Do you know that some of the clanists have been given permission to come here And Larry knew of the clanless, and he knew something about that was tugging at the back of his mind that he knew. And he looked up and he said, do they shave? And all 3 of them said, well, a matter of fact, some of them out of. screwing up so badly. or honestly, some of them burnt their face so bad they couldn't have a beard. So due to reason, some dwarfs dust don't have beards, and they're shunned because of it If anything, those words might be showing up very shortly.
Larry raised his beer muggy, said to dwarfs and facial acne. And all of them were disgusted, but then realized what he was getting at. And he they just raised their mug. Yes, yes. Dwarven acne, you'd say, I like that. And they all laughed in a conspiracy method for the simple fact that they knew. for the kids, after a while, should be able to come into town. with all the shaved dwarves that we're going to be showing up shortly.
They took the Food, and they headed back to see the boys. And when they got back, the boys were hiding in the back, and they gave them into the all clear. And when they came out, they gave the boys the the food. They were so hungry. They've been eating ration food to have something that they were about to eat it colder. But Larry said, hey, hold on, hold on. And there was so much magic in the room. He just put his hand over the three bowls, and he just started moving his hand around them. And the error around them started to warm up. And the edges of the Bulls kind of got a little crispy in that he stopped. And he just took a spoon and mixed all the bowls, and they were now slightly warm. They weren't cold anymore. They weren't boiling, but they weren't, they weren't tap warm either. They were a little bit warmer than that.
The dwarves all looked at Larry and said, ok, we knew you could do some magic, but are you a Grand Magus?
He said no I failed out of the Magic Academy because my magic was 2 chaotic. I don't. know what it is, but this mountain is so magical. I think because of the glass that it doesn't take much like there's so much magic here. It's it's not hard to do anything. like and he just put his hands across some one of the walls and it just softened and smoothed out. It's like I'm not even trying hard.
The dwarfs literally all went to the rock themselves. And they're like, we know how to morph rock, and we can't do it. So why the hell can you do it?
Larry and the older dwarfs had no clue why
It was not until 2 said “ When I look at you Larry, you have. a glow around you. When I look at the three older dwarfs here, I don't see any glow around them. Does that make a difference? And what does that glow mean?
Two knew it was magic, but he didn't know why Larry had it. And the others didn't. And then it hit them all at the same time that the dwarfs had used up all the last magic to keep their horses, which were tuned to them, going to get here and drain their reserves. They were just had no reserves for mana
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Larry worked with the six dwarfs from that point on to make a game plan on what they wanted to do. And the dwarfs that have come advised that the first thing they should do is get everybody looking for those cave entrances and seal them up. After that, they can open up the main. mining shop that with buried. and that by that point more people would be coming and they would be more telling people what to do than doing it themselves. And Larry disagreed and said K for now, everybody is at a long day. We're all just going to hang out here and then tomorrow we're going to go down in the caves and we're going to go cave hunting. And two, can you please show us around using your magic site and we'll see if we can find anything else special
All three boys were just super happy that they're going to go do this and they weren't afraid of the dwarves anymore and they were having a great time and they had someone to look up to like Larry and. everything was going so good. So. they just spent the next couple days not making their home in a family place, but making it a place where they enjoyed everybody's company and they went down into the mine and they started literally mapping it out. And the moment the three older dwarfs were shown to the glass, they dropped to their knees and started praying his they understood how dangerous what they were a little these standing on was when they saw when they saw the glowing crystal their jaws dropped. They didn't just have glowing crystal that. was 100 percent pure liquidized manacrystallized So that was a little crystals in there where the outside was solid, but the inside was liquid, which means that when you activated them, they basically were battery that were unstable. on their good days. that they made it balance out and they hadn't blown themselves up was a miracle and it was impressive to boot.
Larry advised the three older dwarfs that the three younger ones were going to take them to where they saw the left. legs and the older ones that don't even worry about it. We understand they're there. We're not ready for them, so let's not start a fight or give them something. So Larry then told them about the liquid room and when he described it, they had heard it before, but they didn't understand when they realized that they were in a glass orb of man a glass surrounded by a liquid that went black when it had no manner and clear when it was filled up with some manner. They realized that they had found their way into a geode with a manner, glass bubble on the inside of it. It was literally a focusing lens. One. candle in that room. If it was just left to go, might have enough energy to destroy the entire mountain So they realized that they. needed to figure out how to how to be down here without light.
When they had all gotten back, one of the older dwarfs said that he was going to go stay in town. So if any of the other people from the clan showed up, they'd have someone to direct them and tell them what was going on. So he. wish them all a good night. He said that he would swap out with someone else tomorrow and all three of the older dwarfs agreed to that. And over the next three days, there would always be someone in town to. direct man. ners of the Klan to start hunting for their own cave entrances. Supposedly there was 100 of them. They had to find if not more.
Over the next week or so, anybody that came into town was told to leave the boys alone and were told about the shaving of the beards and about all the rules. And we're told to keep their **** mouth shuts.
One or two randoms from. randoms from the dwarfing kingdom had made it there A small group from the Great Church had shown up, but had found that they had a new church to work on and started to work on immediately The randoms that showed up actually got hired by the church instantly to help them do the repairs as they needed laborers And because there was always dwarfs working on buildings whenever someone showed up from out of town, they would look up and yell and the dwarfs would always point them to the end where the ringleader was for the group, who would then let them know where to go. And every single one of these dwarfs after meeting with their representative town, we're told to go say hello to the mayor, show their have magicrespects and open up the bank account. They were told to start. There was only one person that showed up without any money. and the ability to start up the account. So they were given a promissory note to. the older dwarf that was in the in and they returned that dwarf gave him the younger dwarf that didn't have anything a gold coin and said give this to the mayor after that come back to see me and I'll get you work so you have a place to sleep and live for going forward and this this kid even know more than 16 or 17 he had been in the mines for six years and that was hard. He had no more family. It was just him. So when this opportunity was given to him he just started and he Kinda hopped a train, if you would, except this was a carriage that was being driven by. ten horses and had skis overgrass instead of wheels. It was a ride he would never ever want to do again, but he had one hull of a blast riding it.
That story alone. got that young dwarf a new job with the dwarf in the inn, so That night. when the **** change happened, the older dwarf took the brand new apprentice store that he had basically accepted up to the boys. cabin because there was enough room up there.
Larry being bored while they were all gone had actually started practicing on his geomancy and actually it started pushing into another cave off to the side where the boys had actually dug out, not knowing there was a cave there. And they were able to make another couple of rooms. And over the next couple of days, larry had popped through a couple more side rooms and made this into a small, little, actually cozy little multiple. room department for, well, almost a half dozen to a dozen people
When they showed back up at the house and. everybody was inside He. just said, hey, everybody, I got another one for the house and he just brought in the kid and he put his hand on the kids head and he made him bow to everybody. And the three young boys came up to him and. this older boy looked at them and realized that he was looking at the three kings and he dropped to his knees and put his head to the floor so fast that he actually all broke the skin and started to bleed a bit. He was grateful to have a place to call his new home.
Three was about to say something, but before he could, One stepped forward and approached the boy. Instead of lifting him up, One simply placed a hand on his forehead.
A small amount of energy flowed from One’s hand into the boy. When he pulled away, both of them—One, on his hand, and the boy, on his forehead—had a little bit of blood. The wound was still there, but instead of fresh and bleeding, it had turned pink and sealed itself. It wasn’t a perfect heal, but it had closed.
Everyone stared at One as he looked down at his hand, then at the boy, then back at his hand. Finally, he muttered, "It just felt like the right thing to do."
Larry started laughing. "If you just did that, you probably have magic of the mind like I do. But yours is likely mind and soul—meaning you can heal. Very impressive, young king. Very impressive."
With that, Larry pulled out some candy and chocolate. The boys had tasted chocolate before, but the kind they had bought wasn’t very good. This, however, was different. The moment they tried it, they were hooked, devouring every bite of the chocolate bars he handed them.
Nearby, an older dwarf—still young but older than the three—watched in silence. These are my kings, he thought. They’re so young. A deep sense of responsibility settled over him. He realized that, as their older brother, he had to protect them. A nurturing instinct awakened within him.
He turned to the older dwarf beside him and said, "I understand now. I know what I have to do."
But the older dwarf didn’t need words to understand—he already knew. Their purpose was clear: to keep the young kings safe, to teach them what it meant to be dwarves, and to guide them through the dangers ahead. Not all dwarves were good, and there were enemies out there who would see them dead before the war ended in a year. That was something they couldn’t allow.
For the next week. The Boys would take. different members of the dwarven expeditionary party down into the tunnels when they would map it out. They found things that they said they wouldn't talk about because the door said that they were too special to be told just yet, but they marked them all down in a piece of paper and said that only the Kings and they knew the paths they went to and they were marking them out on a 3 dimensional map like the Great Kings had to do for their great hordes. And because there were so many micro caves everywhere. the only way they were able to navigate some of these places at this point was because you could see the magic flowing from cave to cave. The cave come from below and they haven't even made it down past the cave where they. saw the creatures with the legs, and that's where the the magic led to. So they had to at one point go through there to get lower. So they're all like OK, what do we want to do and what are we going to do and how is this going to be? And it wasn't until couple days later with, say, five days later, they're all in their little hut and The person the dwarf that was taken care of the town for the day came to the house and he didn't let them in. But what he did is he said this is our base camp. You're not allowed to go in the house unless it's emergency and knock before you come in and please be respectful of the owners of this house and everybody, all the doors that had shown up and were brought to the cave knew exactly what they meant. They were told their first job was the massively spread out over the top of this mountain range and find all the case. It was number 1 most important thing. What they were then to do is record where they are and then start closing them up and or putting it so that no light can get down. And the moment these people were told the light part, they realized that this is safety reasons. But air has to flow through some of them. So they all realize that this was something to do with the clan of glass because they only saw stuff like that around the royal palace that used the magic of the clan of the glass.
You have to understand the moment the party started in a dwarven capital. Knowledge was shared, and everybody understood what they were going to be doing. They were thinking they're going to go and find a small day. But the moment they're told that they had to plug up the whole mountain range, they realized that this could be Mount Doom again. I'm this scared to shut out of everybody that their new home could be Mount Doom and it could blow so very quietly. And they said nothing to no one. They were permitted not to speak to this, to anyone ever. This was a national secret, and they all started to go out. No, one in the cabin thought there was more than one or two or three people But there was over 40 people that had shown up. They were all sent to start claiming the mountain and hunting and making small camps.
Literally a day later, there was a knock on the cabin door and all the kids were downstairs, but there was the two elder dwarfs inside, and Larry was down with the kids. Well, it was some of the hunters. They had killed two bores, and they only needed one because it would have gone bad if they kept it. So they brought the other one for the Kings.
The Knights knew out of respect for people doing this. What to do and they had brought in paper. They basically in a book started recording all the gifts people were bringing to these kids. And this is something they definitely could use things that they couldn't use. They would probably turn them away for now, but food and a full bore. Now the two dwarfs saw what was going down. and they were starting to get their magic back, but it was still super light in them, even going down and being around the glass. Something was just they were saff. It was more abnormal than anybody was like. Maybe it was the area they're in because Larry had been here longer, but all the doors that came here, they they all complained that they were very drained here and they made. no sense. But the Kings and Larry had magic. So did they have to attune to the mountain? And the moment one of the older dwarfs in charge real. ized that. maybe having the clan up harmonics come was exactly what was needed. But what if they tuned it wrong so that. was now a thing to be brought up to them when they got here. But they wouldn't be there for another two months. The first that were coming were the Guardians and they hadn't even shown up yet.
The people that had shown up were. very hairless humans, but were very short. Yes, that's what they were that. around 40 doors were willing to shave off all their body hair and these people almost like monks had done it and they looked like monks too. All the same robes and everything. And they showed up when they had shown up in town in a group. They were asked. to go see the dwarf in the past. in the tavern. And they said, but we're not dwarfs. We're just short humans. We're dwarfed. We're dwarf people. We're short. humans, And every single one of the people working, looking at them was flabbergasted and just. they were incredulous. They were trying not to laugh at how bad that they were playing this up. But they were playing it up right. So they said then you have to go see the mayor. And they all went and saw the mayor and they screwed up because each one of them handed a gold coin to the mayor and said, hey, mayor, we'd like to move to this town. And with 40 gold coins, they were each open to bank account. I were like absolutely human short people. You can live anywhere you want. Do you need help finding where to live and blah, blah, blah, blah. And he just said, blah, blah, blah, blah to them. And they went, thanks, Sir. Goodbye. And they all walked out. And they knew that the mayor was in on it. The mayor knew they were in on it and they were expecting some short humans to show up shortly to help up with labor. After that, they all went directly to the in and they basically put a piece of paper down with the dwarf on duty. He just picked them all up. They all went to eat and get food and drink And because they were not dwarfs, they drank fruit juice and water. The bartender looked at all of them and just said absolutely fruit juice and water beer mugs came out with a farathi head on the top of them all. And they just nodded to him and said thank you There was no one there to see this. So it was just them and he was making good coin after that. The dwarf. The one in charge had sorted through all the papers and started rattling off jobs and numbers on the pieces of paper. They didn't have names. They just had numbers. Five digits. It was really weird that it was. And actually, I know, no, they weren't allowed to do because they had learnt from other wars that people were tagged with numbers and treated like property. So that was not an O. K. Thing. So he was a. was about to start reading out names. He looked at. He said all I hope is none of you have these numbers tattooed on you, do you? None of them raise their hand but one of them did get up and go directly to the old door. And on his knuckles he showed them to him. But what the dwarf saw when he looked at the knuckles with a mathematical code 3.1415
He just gave that to work a quick nod, knowing that it wasn't against. the rules to have math as is number, and he understood why he picked that number too. Now, so he approved it and he said OK and he literally just started reading out numbers and said you're going to be helping with the great churches buildings and he read out 12 names. He then split up another 12 and then in another 12. by the time he was done, there was six crews out there, a dwarf craftsman and workers that are just going to plug away fixing this town up. They were all told at the end of their shift that would be brought back here and food would be provided for their wages for the day. And then after that, they'd all be led back out of town to one of the camps that they were setting up. But for the rest of today, they were all going to go back to the camp and make sure that they had a place to sleep and that everything was set up and spend the day getting set up there And there was a town store here that they can all use and grab supplies to go back up It all made sense. So tomorrow they'd start their job today. They get cleaned up and set up. So after all this, everybody said they had one hour to get their supplies and meet back in town center. And once they were all done, they all. walked up to the kids little. hole in the world who had now gotten quite big because every once in a while, Larry would come back and then try his luck at pushing through a wall. And he was finding little sub rooms because secretly between him and 2 2 is telling him where the thin spots were. So it made him look real good and had a lot of fun doing it.
The people all were showed where the main. entrance to the mine would be and they were told that there was another crew that were going to be up on the mountain doing work. And if they wanted to do mountain work, let them know and they could take 1 or two days every week or 2 just to go do mountainwork. They needed the whole place. recorded properly and they would prefer to have two man to three man cruise go out for safety. There was. six people instantly put up their hand and they said okay perfect. I got three different two man groups and I'll pair you off with a person that's already going up there. How much do you want to do?
Two hands went up with the two fingers and. then four hands went up with three fingers. He recorded it and asked for their numbers and he found the sheet. She recorded it down. He said OK and now he led them off to the left of the camp to wear. their starting their own logging and basically the dwarven cab site. They were going to find one of the cave entrances and then we'll start building a stronghold. But the first thing they got told was they are not allowed to go in the mountain without talking to someone because of things they found in there. They don't want anybody dying or causing a mount doom.
That warning about Mount Doom rattled everybody because one of the stories that went around was about the clan of glass. And how. 10,000 years ago, there was another impaired chunk of the continent that got blown away when one of the mountains got supercharged and basically turned into a giant bomb.
Everybody that heard this knew that this was a possibility. So it wasn't a shock, but to see them so scared of it and so make your rules are ready. Dwarfs realize that were rules were made to stop people from doing stupid things. And that means that this was a very precious mountain, and they really had to do it. So after hearing that, almost all of them put up their hands and had the two fingers go up. So he just went to all the papers and wrote two beside all of them and said, thank you very much. Just look at it done a lot quicker What I'll actually do then is I won't start you for 5 days, and you guys are all gonna live out here living off the land, going back in the town. But I want you on that mountain, finding every cave. I want you closing them up from light. And if they've got an air flow, leave it going. But make it to the low, no liking go in. Make it so we can keep things from coming out too. There are monsters. down below when we know them, we have not seen them up above. No one has. So we haven't broken into their territory yet, and we're not going to. So the idea is just be careful what you find and just let us know anything you might find. You never know what little thing could be super important.
One of them is a **** **** and said, Hey, I write stories for a living. And this is called foreshadowing. What kind of crap did you guys already find down there? I don't want to play this game.
He got cheering and a couple of paths on the back from people, but the. dwarf, who's in charge, looked at them all and just said no, he's absolutely right. We don't want to play this game, so do not start screwing around and he didn't give out any more information, but he was just dead serious. The laughter all kind of stopped at that and they realized this was a touchy subject that they might actually have. One of them looked at the old man and said Sir will the army be here soon then? The old dwarf just smiled a toothy grin and said, son welcome to the army.
The look on all of their faces was. Pierce up joy to get their records expunged. A new hope and often. a job with the dwarven military a government job Hell yes. All the ones that will be here to defend the horde will. earn the right to be called soldier. that nowadays. was respected throughout any of the areas on this continent. and respected by each of the races. It was a goal ball dwarfs to get a job that paid you to drink. God loved the dwarven government.
It was decided to leave the main. entrance to the mine, right beside their house, closed for now, until they were ready to open it properly. But that did not stop to and Larry from having fun with their little house in the. mountain. But it wasn't until Larry started pushing his way closer to the outer edge where there would be outside air, not raw. Did he come across something that Was a game changer for? the doors that didn't have magic?
What had happened was Larry had asked to where the thin wall was in one of the side rooms that he had popped into. And he said, no, nothing along the sides of the waltz, but up and then to the left. And there's some weird magic coming from there. So, Larry worked his way up, and he made a little crappy, fair case, and he got up, and it was glass, but not maniglass. Just normal sand glass. And he realized that he was working a little bit above. where the kids had their cabin built into the wall. He was about 10 feet above theirs, into the right And he's basically doing a lap around the top of there. And as he got closer to. where the entrance to the cave was he found a room no bigger than 5 by 5 But it had an entire burn mark going through it from one hole out to another 1. And the moment Larry popped into it, he noticed that there was fresh air coming into it. So he broke the glass and rock. And what he broke, there was no magic in it. But it was, it was magic was coming through. It was porous. And she said stop. Don't break anymore. because the light from their candle was in the room activating maniglass right above their house. It wouldn't take much for a beam of light to come in. Saturate that pocket and then let it just saturate their little cave. Larry hearing this thought. Hold on a second and he put his hand near where the outside wall should be And he closed his eyes and he just thought about it. And he couldn't move the glass, but he didn't want it. It disturbed it. It broke it. It made it non functional. If you screwed around with the glass. If you broke in, it seemed to work. But not if you use magic to break it. So he put his finger and he started to push and he just kind of found some stone and pushed through and he made one solid little light. It was only about half a foot thick between the outside world and this little cave. The moment you did that, a small beam of light entered and he wanted to do this. But he also took something and he plugged the whole really quick. That one little bit of light that came in lit up the whole room and now the rock behind and on the other side of this cave was now slow glowing for a couple moments. Larry. just sat down in this room and said hold on a second. I want to try something.
He then started feeling around the room for all the stone and he started to tell it to come to him and it started freaking liquify and he was able to pull out all the stone out of the room and leave nothing but man a glass. He. laughed his **** off. He wrapped himself around the bottom and he made a bull and he made it so that when you got into the room, you sat in this bowl and above you was managast. He then shoved more stone back in that little hole, but he made it so that it was a plug. You could literally pull out, but it had a little lock, so it wouldn't fall out if even there was ground shaky. You had to physically lift it up and twist just like a little lock. Larry, I'd be getting really good at playing with the stone and doing small things. So after setting this up and sitting there and testing this, you realize this was a chamber just to infuse someone with man a real quick. So he called 1 of the the older dwarf guys and he said, come here and try this and explain what he had done on the dwarf was a little bit worried, but shocked. But he's like, I'll give it a try. So he didn't open up the whole to the outside world and let light in what he did is he just sat there trying to. feel everything in the room. and he said he felt it. He could feel a lot better in this room than any other room, but he still couldn't move it. So Larry said OK, pull up the pen. I just stand in that room for a one minute, not even a minute. After about 30 seconds, 1 that hole.
After seven seconds by 8 the plug was already being shrugged back in. The room was glowing. The dwarf feeling this he felt hot. He started stripping down to his underwear right there. And you could see some of the tattoos on his body had gone from being dark under the skin to being glowing as he looked down with them. He said they haven't done that since the day I had them installed. Wow. And he just, he was on literal. fire, but not literal fire. His skin was crawling with energy and his body. It was like looking at the veins in your skin. He. just sat there and Larry had his head stuck in this thing and he was watching it. Guys, how is it? Are you OK? How are you feeling? And Larry's getting a dose of this too. Larry's just on cloud 9 because his power for the mind was understanding what this guy was thinking. So he was not listening to his thoughts, but his emotions were there and he was happy. He was sore and uncomfortable. But as he sat there practicing, you could see him breathing in and then breathing out. Larry, you could watch and the room around him. It was almost like the room started to suck in and out and in and out and in and smash all the crystal in the room. Crack. this now gave them a piece of information. They both of them wished they hadn't gotten because when that glass cracked, it didn't explode. It was broken by magical means, which means that it was fine. But all the energy that was hidden behind that glass on the rock that was attached to now how to weigh out and that room filled with a baby blue greenish mist that was almost toxic to them. It was so potent. But Larry had been sucking it in for a while, so he just it was he was like smoking a bowl and doing a line of coke and then having the best sex of your life. He was just rocking. roll on the dwarf, on the other hand, look like you was on fire and having a fever. And the both of them knew instantly when this happened to get the hell out and they got the hell out as they were removing themselves. The mist was leaving the cave and was being pulled out with the air Larry grabbed the dwarf and they left the gear in that room. He just got the dwarf out and went 2CAVES over and back into there and they closed their little entrance with magic. It wasn't hard. It was super easy. Just like liquid putty just over the whole and it was gone. Larry looked at the dwarf who basically. was having a **** **** trouble breathing just. laid there on the ground in a lot of pain and they just said catch your breath. Don't pat it. I Larry just went over to him and the two of them had a moment of pure calm. Larry calmed him down. And by doing that the the the dwarf calm down enough that it was a re occurring self replicating. feeling of calm between the two of them.
They didn't know how long they sat there, but a couple minutes later, the other dwarf that was there watching all this said, what the hell was that? And why do I feel nauseous right now? What did you choose idiots do?
Larry informed him and the only sane dwarf in that room went outside to look, and he literally above the cave coming out of the stones where they had pulled the the trigger was a small bit of magical fog coming out all over the stones. Now you would think it would just blow down the mountain like normal. But no, something in the pile of rocks just sucked it up like a vacuum and you could see it and all just get sucked in. The dwarf just looked at when crap and he knew he'd have to go figure it out, but there's still miss coming out. So you just let it be sucked up. If he had to get a bomb out of there or it exploded, maybe we clear up the kit for them. But he went in and told them what was happening and then went back out to watch the mist. By the time the mist was done, Larry and the other dwarf had come out and were. watching as the last of the mist got sucked in. They always. went over to the pile of rocks and dug where they saw it. The mist disappearing and what they found. was a piece of normal rock that was just glowing. So Larry took it, went into the the house, into the backroom, into the K system And then he went down one of the side tunnels of a cave 3 where there was absolutely nothing but rock and they had checked it with magic and he just put that rock in there. He then took a little bit of magic and he put up pieces of rock that were very thin like little wires. It would stop most things. But if anything was going to break through it, they were going to know. So if that rock started doing stuff, they would know. they didn't know what that magic was going to do to that rock. The worst that could happen is that it would explode.
When Larry came back in, he asked the dwarf that had gotten sick, how he was feeling and his work just said, stop yelling, please. Just stop yelling.
Everybody stopped talking and just started smiling at them and he asked why you smiling at me and. Larry put his hand over his mouth and as quietly as he could, he said. I wonder if you had good hearing when you were a child. The Dorset, of course I had good hearing, and he said it so quietly he thought he was yelling The dwarfs magic hearing was coming back. He just got zapped and he he wasn't good for the next two days. They had him in the bed and he would go out puke, come back in, eat some food, pass out, wake up, put his head in a cold water to cold down. He just basically got way too much manner, way too quickly. And Larry, he wasn't wasting this. He went into town for the next few days. I was basically reading everybody and understanding what was going on and he was basically committing chaos But all in the name of the three kings and then. he got some more supplies and went back to hang out with them during
By this time, messages and made it back to the dwarven king. And with the knowledge of an enemy in the under. neath, the underground. this was not celebration. This was a dialect coloration of war. The old school. but not against the three races This was to protect the mountain range. And with that. the three by 3 by 3. Compact wasn't broken, but it was amended with a true declaration of war. And this was sent off to the other races. With that being done, the Guardians, 100. of them and 100 of the army were told to move out immediately. They would continue on with the 3 by 3 by 3 compact. But for right now to fulfill, they were sending the maximum. They're allowed. 100 auxiliary, which the Guardians were and 100 of the army.
To see the parade of people leaving to hear the banging of the weapons of the Spears on the ground as they. as they left in Lockstep drove the city to absolute theory and viver the. people were working 14 hour days not because they wanted to help out, but because they had so much energy and they needed to burden, they wanted to do things with their talents and they felt energized And honestly, with so many people leaving, it felt lonely at times. The streets weren't as packed, but there was still thousands and hundreds of thousands of people in these towns under this mountain. So to have a couple hundred here and there go just kind of gave hope to the rest of them when it was time to go.
When the human and. elf representatives, kings and Queens received the Declaration of True War. What happened was that of pure and other happiness, because there was no other reason for them to play shadow games Both of the. races sent the normal about the people they would send 20 and 20. So 40 people from the dwarfs usually the elves and the humans. They didn't know that the dwarfs maxed out and did 100 and 100 so they didn't know that they were sending 40 to take on 200 more. or less. Yes, this was a human land, but the **** showed that they were about to walk into was gonna be marvelous.
Because they were all sending their armies. This opened up all three. adventures to come and the adventures guilds were all informed by each of the Kings. This made an open call to arms to go dumpster diving in the bottom of a mountain and get loots to do it But the rules were always the same. Everything had to be sold back to the horror that it came from, and they would. pay you for it. And they had appraisers there that were a 3rd party to make sure that everybody got a fair deal on what they were bringing out.
They were all informed that man a glass would not be permitted to be removed from the mountain at this time. due to the volatility of it and they didn't want the town or her another World War to happen. So everybody that agreed to that was allowed to go and be part of the well. the giant army of different races that were coming. And do you think the adventures from the other races other than the top three, the Big Three, the ones that you don't hear much wouldn't be sending people the? minotaurus. Oh, they were sending at least five of their youngins to prove themselves. And in return, they wanted one piece of man. The glass to be sold to them so they could return the magic they had lost so many years ago. They asked these five miniatures to bring back magic to them.
The lizardmen. had an age secret that had run out of power to get even one piece of man a glass would allow them not just to play more islands, but to increase the population by a hundredfold.
The elf king, He sent a very direct message to one of his oldest friends, Adam. Magical Academy and let him know that he had a line on some magic glass and that he recommended that this acquaintance of his 5. or 10 or 20 of their best artificers, aka people that made magical items using maniclass and other items to pork town as soon as they could with at least 100 gold on them each. And this was to repay the favor of him introducing him to his wife. This was a long time debt that was hereby being paid.
The professor who read this message took it directly to the head of the academy, who read it and said no, I will not just send 510 or 20 Let's go. Let's have a competition and let the best of the best go and represent us there. I know the elf cake will want a castle there and a magic academy. Let's go make that happen. He's been dreaming of that for years. I could see the gears in his head turning. I will. take 50 of the brightest students we have. And 10 of them. The top 10 will be given the right to start their own divisions at the new school once it's built as teachers. They will have to finish all the schooling here, but they have a job offer if they make it to the top 10 in this competition.
The professor was just shocked and so happy that he ran out and. the professor just started shouting to everybody. He's just he lost his mind The chairman of the school just looked at the window laughing and said if we can just turn on the machine in the basement and maybe just maybe we can finally get into the old library again.
End of chapter 1
