[Author's Note] For those of you interested in images for the hammer-axe and sword the king has made they are currently in the works with the artist I commissioned for them. The rough sketches were very promising and I should have more detailed ones sometime tomorrow with the finished models sometime near the end of the week. (It's Monday here.) I have not commissioned any work for the armor or crown directly but they were already in the works with the cover art image, so we will see them there. I will try to work with the artist doing the cover art to see if they can do the armor and crown on their own at a later date if needed.

The first of the group to speak has a scholarly look to him, wearing a robe to just below his ankles with spectacles and a walking staff. He appears to be in his early fifties, whereas the rest of his party appears to be late twenties or early thirties in age. Given the expensive nature of his robes he most likely is some mage or scholar noble who recruited the rest to guard him in his inspection of the Ether event, that being my birth, that brought them here.

"We greet his majesty, Anwirn Gemmolder Brimstone. I am Aelfraed Richwood, a sage from the College of Ether, and these are my companions who secured my safety during my trip here. We were dispatched by his majesty the King Reynard Traisan, the twelfth of his name, of the Traisan Kingdom who is the easterly neighbor to your glorious mountain. The sages, including myself, felt a powerful wave of Ether pass through our capital just a week ago and the source was determined to be this mountain. His majesty immediately tasked us with investigating the cause and to identify if the dormant volcano within this mountain was affected by the Ether that was released. This was in order to gauge if evacuation orders would need to be issued for the nearby towns and villages in the forest at the foot of this mountain. We humbly submit that this was our only goal and were not aware of the dwarven people or their ownership of this mountain."

Definitely a noble, or at least interacts with them enough to know who to speak to a King without tripping over himself or being rude.

"Indeed, there was an event roughly a week ago that would have caused this wave of Ether you sensed. That being my birth and the beginnings of our people, the dwarves, in this world."

"Wha..!"

Ah, it looks like I stunned him with that statement. I wonder what part caused him to adopt such a comically loose jaw. Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy his stunned look for long as he collected himself soon after.

"Your majesty, I wish to verify. Are you saying that the Ether wave was a result of your birth or that the Ether wave was caused by something else and triggered your birth?"

"The Ether you sensed was most likely caused by my evolution from an Elemental of Earth and Fire into the High Dwarf that sits before you now."

The man looks even worse this time, the mere mention of an Elemental was enough to render him pale in the face and weak in the knees it seems.

"It appears that this has caused you some measure of alarm. I am not familiar with human customs, but is the mention of an Elemental worth such a response?"

It seems my question has helped him recover somewhat as he is still pale but no longer unstable on his feet.

"Certainly your majesty, an Elemental is a true force of nature. Elementals with dual attributes are indeed very rare, but even their single attribute relatives are dangerous if disturbed. In the culture of all living races they are known to be nature incarnate, taking the form of clouds of Ether and are without will or want. It is known that you cannot bargain or plead with nature and the same is true of Elementals, no one knows if they can even understand speech. But it is believed that they are capable of some thought and even communication, as groups of Elementals have been observed to share territory and exhibit a hierarchy of sorts dependent on their total Ether and their attribute's relation to the rest of the group. Several races have experienced being driven from villages or towns due to the battles waged when Elementals of opposing attributes meet, and no duel attribute Elementals have ever been confirmed to have opposing attributes such as Fire and Water."

The sage appears to have winded himself to provide this exposition to me, perhaps he is a researcher who is very interested in Elementals?

"Indeed, I do not remember any stable or vivid memories from before I took my dwarven form. So it may indeed be as you say in that Elementals do not have conscious thoughts or can be spoken too. However their actions when forming groups would most likely be from instinct as I would not doubt that the areas where these groups form is rich in natural Ether, obviously a being of pure Ether would be drawn to natural Ether wells that match their attribute. Even I, being of physical body and not just Ether, find being surrounded by fire and stone to be deeply comforting. The knowledge I hold over Elemental behavior seems to have been the only thing that carried over from my time before my evolution, as I feel a distinct irritation at the mere thought of encountering an Elemental of Water. Which is odd given that I have no reason to feel irritated at one given my lack of interaction with any Elementals since becoming the High Dwarf."

The sage appears to have recovered completely during my speech, as he is now looking at me as if I am a subject to be studied. A slightly uncomfortable stare to be subjected to, so it may be best to change the subject for now.

"Regarding our original topic, this wave of Ether that you sensed. It was strong enough even in your capital to warrant this investigation into the mountain?"

Aelfraed coughs lightly, likely trying to bring himself back from his Elemental theories in order to again focus on the important parts of our discussion.

"Indeed that is so your majesty. The amount of Ether within the wave, though diminished from the distance it traveled we expect, was still large enough that even all seven of the Sages within the Kingdom, including myself, would be hard pressed to generate even half of the Ether it carried with it as it passed by."

At this statement one of the men behind Aelfraed nervously whispered to the sage to ask if he should have included that last part, which did not seem to faze the scholar in the least as he waved the man away from him.

"Of course, your majesty, I only shared that detail with you to repay the honesty you have shown me so far in what you yourself have shared."

"Hmm, very well. I can assure you that the volcano is firmly under my control and I will ask that you refrain from entering the volcano or the mountain from any entrance other than the one that you were guided to for this audience. If you can agree to these conditions I will allow your investigation of the mountain to continue unhindered. I also ask that you report to your Kingdom of our ownership of this mountain and that we are open to discussions of trade and visitations if they are willing to negotiate."

"I accept your conditions your majesty and will gladly relay our discussion today to my King."

"Indeed, then I bid you good day children of man and expect good tidings in the future."

I thumped my hammer-axe upon the ground and patiently waited for the mage golem that had not introduced me to finish his speech regarding my name, my soon to be exit from the room and all that those present were required to do before standing up and holstering my weapon then striding out of the room.

—————

About two days later the sage's party had informed my gate guards that they had completed their investigations and were heading back to their capital, at which point the guards handed over the gifts I had prepared for their King. They were less gifts and more boasts of why it would be good idea to befriend us, as it included a paltry amount of the rare metals I used in crafting my equipment and a liquor strong enough to knock out one of the normal dwarves. This would show them that the dwarves are a race capable of forging what they could not, given that a decent human smith should be able to spot the value and difficulty of these metals at a glance.

Interestingly, the liquor was something I could create using the bait when creating traps. I guess the dungeon considered high class liquor to be similar to gold and items when it came to lowering inhibitions and wariness towards traps.

In the two weeks that had passed since my first meeting with humanity I have spent most of my time expanding the dungeon and building residential and recreational areas for my citizens to furnish as they saw fit. Speaking of which, I have also spawned several more sets of dwarves. I gave them first names just like the first 8 but have trouble recalling any by name given my horrible memory for names that carried over from my previous life. The dungeon is now home to over 50 dwarves and 200 golems, split evenly my gender and not including myself. I even got news the other day from gossip with the smiths during a break period that one of them was in a relationship and apparently a baby was already one the way, they sure were fast at getting that started. I wonder how a natural born dwarf will differ from a dungeon born member? Anyway, that increased the list of things I had to do as the next few dwarves were marked down to be healers in order to prepare for the birth and head off any future injury or disease.

And then the day arrived, a messenger had arrived to negotiate our relationship with our human neighbors. And little did I expect the King himself showing up at my door for the talks.