The simplest mana-conductive ink to produce is simply normal ink mixed with finely crushed mana mana crystals. Of course, this isn’t a very effective method. There will often be gaps between the fine particles, which cause losses of mana.
Slightly better is the ink collected from monster squids, but as it can only be produced in those few coastal cities in Stalia and Enlux, as well as the fact that the squid monsters are difficult to handle, the supply is small.
Then comes the blood of magical monsters. It is impossible to maintain a steady supply, and monster blood often only conducts one or two types of mana effectively – the blood of a water snake conducts water mana efficiently, but other elements… not so much. Still, if you manage to acquire blood from a monster of the same element as you need, it is very useful.
Of course, the stronger the monster, the better the blood is for conducting mana, at least in general. If you somehow manage to get the blood of something like a dragon or a unicorn… Well, even if you didn’t use it, selling it would have you set for life.
-An unknown scholar
We stay the night in the cave: cold, but at least protected from the torrential rainfall. Using magic, I try to hold a fire going on the floor of the cave. Unfortunately, without any wood to fuel the fire, I have to keep it going solely with my own mana.
I have enough mana to keep it going for a long while, but at the same time, I have to stay awake to do that, and I can’t just stay up all night to keep the fire going. After a while, we decide to just deal with the cold.
Pulling my blankets tight around myself, I close my eyes.
A ray of light stretches from the entrance of the cave to where I lay, causing me to awaken. The rain has stopped, and it’s now morning. I start packing up my blankets and, perhaps roused by the noise I’m making, the others quickly get up as well.
We’re just about to leave and head back to base when Jakin cocks his head. “A breeze be coming from the back of the cave. Must come out on the other side of the mountain somewhere.”
“We came this far…” I shrug, and we turn around and venture deeper in the cave. I produce a small flame upon my fingertip to guide our way with its flickering light.
Squeaks echo as rats flee from our presence. We come to a fork in the cave, but we are able to find the correct way simply by watching for the flickering of my flame in the slight breeze. Pulling out my knife, I scrape a mark into the walls of both the path we came from and the path we are going into, and then we continue on our way.
Minutes pass, and so do quite a few forks in the road. The correct path is invariably straight ahead, with paths branching off to the left and right, although the path occasionally changes direction by a few degrees.
Boaz looks at the walls under the flickering firelight. “This cave isn’t natural. The entrance, that was, but this… It be hard to tell because the marks are so ancient, but it was dug, mined out. It’s probably the same for the side paths. Makes you wonder whether they were mining for something, or just digging a tunnel through the mountain.”
“When it’s been this long, who could possibly know something like that?” I say, shaking my head.
Eventually, I find it easier and easier to see the path ahead, and it’s not because my eyes are adjusting to the dim lighting. Extinguishing my finger, I step into the entrance of the cave and regard the landscape below.
The twins and Xiltroth step up next to me to do the same.
Before us lies a system of verdant valleys, walled off by mountain peaks. I have a faint suspicion that there won’t be any entrances like the one we found nearby, although it would be strange if none exist at all. The area is wide and long, the plant life fed by mountain streams and waterfalls.
It looks like a hidden paradise.
Xiltroth is the first to speak. “That isn’t a ruin.”
“No. No it isn’t.” I agree. “Which begs the question: Why is the pathway leading to it abandoned?”
“Let’s ask.” Boaz remarks, setting off down the decrepit trail.
In the middle of the valley in front of us lies a town, noticeably un-ancient and ruined. I would have called it a city, but it lacks some of the features I have come to associate with cities; a large central building - large buildings in general, even. I suppose the central building is large… but only relative to the other buildings; it’s more wide than tall.
Strangest of all is that the place doesn’t even seem to have a wall. How do they keep the monsters out? Don’t they spawn in the valleys?
We make our way down the trail, one side of which is a sheer drop. The path is wide enough, however, that we aren’t at any significant risk of falling off. In fact, even a horse and cart could comfortably travel along this path with a small gap on either side.
Well, once, maybe. Now, sections of the path have crumbled edges and water trails making it impassable for wheeled vehicles. It’s still easy enough for people, though.
Reaching the bottom, we set off towards the town. Almost instantly, what I’d thought to be a bunch of mossy boulders lifts itself from the ground and rumbles towards us, standing a bit taller than me but almost three times as wide.
It looks like some sort of mossy rock golem, and it doesn’t appear friendly.
“Flank it! Something that heavy can’t possibly move fast.” I shout, pulling out my warhammer.
Xiltroth pulls out his dagger – his staff would be more likely to shatter than do damage on this thing - and starts to dash around it.
The golem reaches out to grab him with a mossy hand, but as expected its movements are quite ponderous, and Xiltroth is easily able to roll under the granite limb, slashing at its leg as he passes.
With a screech, a shallow scratch appears on its leg. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do much damage to this one!” Xiltroth calls out from behind it.
The golem starts to turn. Great, it looks like it isn’t intelligent, either.
Stepping forwards, I raise my warhammer over my head and slam it down onto the thing’s head. Cracks web out from the point of impact, but it doesn’t shatter.
It stops turning towards Xiltroth and starts to turn back to me.
“Leave this to us!” Jakin shouts. “Just keep distracting it!”
“You sure?” I ask.
“Sure!” Boaz calls back. “It’s just a rock. We’re going to mine it.”
I shrug as Jakin steps close and strikes at the golem’s shoulder a few times with his military pick. He steps back as the golem moves towards him, and Boaz comes in from the other side to mine the other shoulder.
Me and Xiltroth barely have to do anything as the twins alternate, and the golem twists slowly this way and that, evidently unable to cope.
Soon enough, Boaz strikes into its rocky shoulder and grunts, leveraging the pick. With a crack, an entire arm comes off. Barely a moment later, its other arm comes off, leaving it to look at us helplessly with its stony gaze, unable to do anything.
Half a minute later, it topples to the ground with only a single leg remaining. The twins move on either side of it and start mining its chest.
The golem’s single leg fruitlessly pushes at the ground as the cavity in its chest deepens. The dwarves start to go slower, as if they are archaeologists trying not to break a relic they know is somewhere just under the surface.
“Is there something in there?” I ask.
“Golem core.” Boaz grunts, concentrating as he chips tiny pieces of rock away. “It basically be a mana crystal, except it be perfectly spherical, and a bit larger than the crystals yeh can usually mine. Magi love ‘em.”
I nod appreciatively as the glowing blue crystal is slowly revealed. After a while of carefully chipping at the stone around it, Jakin reaches in and smoothly pulls out the golem core.
As soon as he does, the golem stops moving.
“I wonder, if you put it back, will it start moving again?” I muse aloud.
“Dunno. No harm in seeing, though.” Jakin fits the golem core back into place, but it doesn’t resume motion. “Nope.” He says, pulling it back out.
The golem core is a crystalline sphere, about the size of a tennis ball. It’s almost completely transparent, and a dim glow emanates from within it. Carefully placing it into a pouch, Jakin places it into his pack.
“It’s quite a nice crystal, isn’t it?” I remark.
“Hm.” Jakin grunts. “I prefer amethysts myself.”
Boaz scratches his beard. “That was a lot easier than I remember it looking.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You’ve fought them before?”
Boaz shakes his head. “We’ve seen them being fought. We used to be miners, and golems like these were fairly common. It always looked so difficult when the guards fought them off.”
“That’s because they fought them in tunnels back then.” Jakin thumbs the point of his pick, checking it for damage. “They practically filled up the tunnel, making it impossible to get behind them and use their stupidity against them. In a tunnel, it be like fighting a wall with arms. Out in the open, it be little more than a practice dummy. Made of rock.”
Seeing that the point is relatively undamaged, Jakin slips it back into his belt. The golem, now little more than a pile of rubble, is left behind as we continue on our way.
Not encountering any other monsters, we soon reach the outskirts of the town, the grass being replaced by very orderly fields. These, again, don’t have so much as a fence surrounding them. A tiny figure in one of these fields speeds towards us.
“Hey, misters!” He shouts excitedly, skidding to a halt in front of us. “Who’re you? Where’re ya from?” He asks, before looking at me. “Woah! I’ve never seen a gnome as tall as you before! You must be three times my height!”
He isn’t exaggerating – he barely comes up to my knees. His ears are pointed, similar to an elf’s, and his messy hair jumps about as he hops from foot to foot in excitement. He doesn’t look at all put off by our armour or weapons, and I smile despite myself.
Taking off my helmet, I say, “That’s because I’m not a gnome. I’m human.”
His eyes widen, and he shakes his little fists in excitement. “A human? Here!?” He yelps. “It’s been…” His eyebrows screw up, concentrating, before he obviously gives up on trying to remember. “A long time since other people have been around here. A long, long, long long long long time.” He belts out.
His eyes widen even further, so much that I’m afraid they’re about to pop out of his head. “Hey, does that mean I’ll be written into the history books!? First person to meet a human in I forget how long! Only ten, and I’m already in the history books! Yes! Good job, Dex!”
“Dex!” A voice calls sharply. “What have I said about running off during work!”
Dex turns around and shouts back, “But dad! It’s a human!”
“What have I said about lying, Dex?” The figure in the middle of the field shakes his head, walking towards us. “Humans haven’t been seen around these parts for two hundred and sixty-four years.”
Then he gets close enough to accurately see our height. “Sorry son, looks like you were right, after all.” He rubs Dex’s hair, messing it up even more. The man is taller than his son, but he still only just reaches my waist. He shifts his gaze towards us. “So, what’s a human, a demon, and...?” He trails off, unable to see what the twins are under their armour.
Jakin takes his helm off. “Dwarves.” He says gruffly.
“Two dwarves,” Dex’s father nods, “doing in these parts?” he asks curiously, with a slight hint of wariness within his eyes.
“A happy accident.” I explain. “We were following an ancient path, expecting to find some old ruin at the end of it, when we got lost in that rain yesterday. Ended up in a cave, followed it through and found this valley.”
“Hmm…” He nods.
An explosion goes off somewhere in the town and a green plume of smoke starts to rise in the air.
“Is that normal?” I ask in alarm, pointing.
Dex’s father looks over his shoulder towards the town, then back at us. “Yes. Unfortunately. Shouldn’t be a problem. So, what do you chaps do? You look awfully…” He glances pointedly at our suits of armour and weapons. “Heavily armed.”
“We’re adventurers.” I say.
“Adventurers, eh?” He says, nodding. “What’s that?”
I rub my forehead. “Mostly, we make a living fighting monsters, selling the materials, that sort of thing. But we also do things like providing an escort for people who need to go into a dangerous area, or fight bandits… Odd jobs that might need fighting expertise.”
“Oh…” He nods, actually understanding this time. “Not many problems with monsters around here, but I imagine there’s some herb gatherers that wouldn’t turn away an extra hand or two.”
“Why is that, by the way?” I ask. “I can’t help but notice you don’t have a wall around your town.”
“Oh yes.” He nods proudly. “The alchemists came up with this powder some one hundred and eighty-nine years ago. Didn’t seem like it had any medicinal uses, until they figured out that monsters absolutely abhor the scent of it. We sprinkled it around the town, and none of them even ventured close to the wall. After that, the wall seemed an unnecessary cost, so we took it down.”
“That sounds incredibly useful.” I nod in appreciation.
“It is.” He smiles. “You plan on staying here long?”
I glance over my shoulder at my companions. To a man, they shrug. “A few days, probably? We’ll want to buy some supplies…”
Buy… Money…
I hit myself at the realisation. “You probably don’t use the same currency as us, do you?”
“Dunno.” He digs around in a pocket in his pants – pockets! – and fishes out a coin. It’s copper, same as the lowest denomination back in the five kingdoms, but instead of being circular, it’s a… eight, nine, ten: decagon.
“Different.” I frown. “We’ll have to earn some coin before we can buy anything, by the looks of it. We’ll have to stay for at least a week, then.”
The gnome nods and turns to Dex. “Son, run to the council hall and tell them to call a town meeting.”
Dex, who had previously been sulking at being left of the conversation, perks up instantly. “Kay!” He dashes off, leaving a faint trail of dust behind him.
“That boy has so much energy, I doubt even he knows what to do with it all.” He says fondly, before noticing my questioning gaze. “Hasn’t been any visitors for two hundred and sixty-four years. There’s another gnome village further up north, but we rarely have travellers passing between us. Any inns shut down over two hundred years ago. We’ll have to find you a place amongst the townsfolk where you can stay. That, and you are the first non-gnomes in this place for... well, I said that already. It’s best if we introduce you to the people, rather than giving them a heart attack when they meet you in the streets… Introductions!” He exclaims. “Where’s my manners? The name’s Jack.” Jack extends a hand up to me.
“I’m Aaron.” I take off my gauntlet – his hands are small compared to mine, even without it – and shake his hand.
“Xiltroth.”
“Jakin.” “Boaz.” The twins accidentally introduce themselves at the same time.
“Xiltho-” Jack attempts. “Sorry, I’m never going to be able to remember a name that long. Mind if I call you Xil?”
Xiltroth smiles. “Sure.”
“Well, we should get moving. Knowing Dex, he’s probably already there, dancing in anticipation for us to arrive.” Jack smiles, leading the way down the road.
We soon pass the farmlands and paddocks – the paddocks have fences – and come to residential buildings. Then a market. And finally, the council hall. As Jack predicted, Dex is just outside, anxiously shifting from side to side.
Spotting us, he zips over instantly. “Hey you’re here! The council wants to see them before calling the meeting, just in case.”
“I thought they would.” Jack sighs. “I just hoped to speed it up a bit. I still have half a field to weed, and it’s going to take long enough as is.” He scratches his head and opens the door. “Follow me.”
He walks straight through the door. I, on the other hand, have to stoop down to get through it. “These doorways are going to be terrible for my back.”
“I don’t see a problem.” Jakin says smugly as he strides through the doorway. “Perfect height.”
Boaz and Xiltroth follow just behind us, and Xiltroth also has to bend over to get through the small doorway.
Inside is a wide space filled with orderly rows of chairs facing a long bench, again with chairs behind it. While the chairs facing them are all empty, these chairs are populated with gnomes of varying genders, ages and appearances, save one.
“It’s true, then?” A bespectacled gnome with tufts of white hair on either side of his otherwise bald head asks. “Right. I motion that we should call a town meeting.”
All the gnomes raise their hands, including Jack.
“Right. Motion passed.” States the bespectacled gnome. “Dex, would you mind spreading the word?”
“Yessir!” Dex jokingly salutes before running out the door.
“Right. Take your seat, Jack, and we’ll get this started.”
“Will do.” Jack trots up and sets himself down on the empty seat.
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re on the council?”
“Sure am.” Jack replies, scratching his nose. “Representative of agriculture.”
Pushing up his spectacles, the same gnome interrupts. “Right. Jack, could you tell us what you know?”
“Sure, Len. I was out in the field weeding, when Dex…” Jack starts telling the whole story from the beginning. Len takes notes as he listens.
By the time he finishes, people are already starting to filter in. Quite a few of them gasp in surprise as they see us standing near the council with all our weapons and armour, while others are quietly grumbling. After a while, one of the female council members speaks up. “Do we have everyone?”
Everyone starts looking around, and someone pipes up, “I don’t see Ren anywhere.”
Nobody voices the negative, so the councilwoman turns again to Dex. “Could you…”
“Nuh, nuh-uh.” Dex crosses his arms. “I don’t like him. His house is stinky.”
“Please Dex?” The councilwoman pleads.
“Nup!” Dex pouts.
“I’ll give you one of my pastries…” She offers smilingly.
“DEAL!” Dex zooms out of the door.
“Where does he get all that energy?” A voice asks wonderingly.
After a minute, Dex returns, tugging a reluctant gnome through the doorway.
After they are both seated – Dex taking a seat a considerable distance away from the gnome, Ren – the meeting begins.
“Right. Everyone, thank you for coming. As you can see,” Len gestures to us, “for the first time in two hundred and sixty-four years, one-hundred and seventeen days, we have visitors of other species.”
A wave of ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s comes from the townsfolk.
After it quiets down, Len resumes speaking. “We have Aaron, a human, Jakin and Boaz, both dwarves, and Xil, a demon. They are adventurers, which, of course, have not existed among our people for four hundred and eighty-seven years. For those who are not familiar with the histories, it is an occupation mainly based around killing monsters.”
Some of the people in the audience visibly relax when they realise that our armaments aren’t for fighting people.
“Naturally, as this is such a rare event, there are some questions we would like to ask our visitors. If you have questions, I would ask that you wait until the council has finished asking ours. With that said…” Len shifts to address us. “I must admit, I am curious as to how you reached here. We had thought that the only ways in and out of the valley had been sealed.”
“We sheltered from the rain last night in a cave. It had a tunnel in the back, we followed it and ended up in the valley.” I explain again.
“A cave?” Len says curiously. “In approximately which direction?”
“South. Maybe a little to the east.” I reply, scratching my head.
“Ah yes, we have records of that tunnel.” Len nods in recognition. “I had thought, however, that it had been sealed by an earthquake some two hundred and forty years ago… Undoubtably one of the main reasons we haven’t seen any visitors for so long.”
Well, it was sealed. “Jakin accidentally triggered a bit of a rockslide that uncovered the entrance.”
“Ah, I see.” Len nods, noting it down. “Right, that’s it for me.”
Another gnome speaks up. “Is it likely that we will see more people coming from now on, now that you know where we are?”
After thinking for a moment, I reply, “I doubt it. To be honest, we ourselves have been secluded from civilisation for a while now. And the cave is quite remote in comparison to our homeland.”
“Excellent.” He exclaims. “We don’t have the infrastructure to support more than a few visitors right now.”
The council asks a few miscellaneous questions, and then we have to answer another half-dozen from the townsfolk before everyone’s happy.
“Right. So, is there anything else?” Len asks.
“Ah. Yes.” Jack perks up. “They said to me earlier that they want to buy supplies, but their money is different from ours. So they’re looking for work, and a place to stay for a while.”
One of the councilmen frowns. “We don’t have any spare housing. Is there anyone that is willing to house these four for the duration of their stay?”
For some ten, twenty seconds, nobody raises their hands, and I’m afraid that we’ll have to camp outside of town. We camp all the time, but when there’s a town right next to us? That would be disappointing.
Finally, a single gnome raises their hand.
“Ren?” The councilman says in surprise.
“Yes, me. What, am I not allowed to?” Ren asks dryly.
“No, of course, of course you can. I was just…” The councilman stops himself. “Your house should have enough room to house some guests. Very good.”
“Right.” Len states, flipping through his papers. “Anything else?”
Silence.
“Meeting dismissed.”
People begin to stand up from their seats and file out the front doors. Ren walks up to us. He has no facial hair – including eyebrows – and his frizzy white hair is powdered with black flecks. “Well, come to my house, I guess.”
I think we have found the culprit of the explosions in town.
