Chapter 43: Chapter 42: a snide dwarf

It only took another hour before we arrived at the mining town, though calling it a town might be a bit generous. It’s just a collection of houses for people to use while working in the mines. A couple of barracks for sleeping, a couple warehouses and an area for processing hauls from the mines.

As we approach, the sound of fighting can be heard. We assumed it to just be the sounds of people working stone, but once we get closer we hear a scream of pain.

I immediately use my mana thruster to get to the fight, and only a moment later I stand on top of the building that was between us and the scream. On the other side I see three dwarves and a large man being surrounded by four rock golems, three of which have mana on the same level as the ones we fought so far, the last one is a bit bigger, and doesn’t have mana.

I cast an area heal on the group and prepare mana spikes. In short order, the three smaller golems have their cores destroyed. Since I can’t sense the core of the larger one, I opted to aim at the center of its bulky torso.

The largest one survives the hit, but a deep crater is formed, exposing the deep yellow crystal core.

Just as I prepare to fire another spike, I hear a deep voice shout “Don’t you dare to destroy the core!”

I just halt for a moment, processing the odd request, all while the group below spreads out to surround the larger golem. Should I just disable it then? I channel a paralysis spell on it, adding ample amounts of mana and it freezes in place. The group jumps on the opportunity and start to dismantle its limbs.

Once I see that they are safe, I use my flight spell, which is still fairly mana inefficient, and fly down to land next to the group, flapping my wings for effect. Only one of the group have any mana, the dwarf in question only have a bit more than Jo does.

The oldest dwarf turns around to greet me while the rest of them start on harvesting the golem’s core. 

“Greetings, my name’s Murdoc and thank you for stepping in when you did.”

He then did a short bow with his head before saying “but ya could have saved the cores” in a low voice.

 I glare at him for a moment after he said that, before introducing myself. That is also the point at which James and Jo decided to make their appearance, by running around the corner of the building, which is obviously one of the barracks from this side. The harvesting of the core also finished at that point and we did a group introduction.

Their group consists of Murdoc, his apprentice, his wife’s apprentice, which were the two dwarves and Garth, the bear-kin. They were here because they ran out of workable jewels back at the jewelry workshop, and seeing as the shipments stopped, they recruited their friend Garth and went to fetch some themselves.

They have apparently defeated multiple golems before and Mikki, the mage apprentice, carries their cores in her inventory.

Seeing as we just arrived, and they could use a break from the beating they got, we enter into the barracks, which thankfully have a common room at one end with a table and a couple of couches.

Jo and the apprentices took to a conversation and James took a liking to the equally burly Garth, so that left me conversing with Murdoc for the evening.

He was fairly shocked by my mana glasses when I offered him some mead, though he didn’t consider the mead to be anything special.

“What kind of magic be ya casting, lass? Never seen mi wife do anything like it.” He asked, while holding the green mana glass in front of his face.

“Nothing special, just basic mana manipulation.” I say.

“Nothing special she says, when I’ve never seen anyone else manage to form anything other than blobs of mana.” he comments, before muttering “Typical elves, they say it’s nothing special, but then it’ll take a millenia to master.” Before taking a sizable sip of the mead.

I’m starting to dislike him, though not enough to say anything. Also, how long do us elves live? I don’t remember what it said in the lore, only that it was the longest lived race, alongside some variants of demons. Guess I’ll ask James or David later, though David is probably the more reliable source now that it’s no longer a game.

Our conversation peters out after that and we just listen to what the others talk about. The apprentices talk about what they are learning, with Jo being the only one who is actually being taught to fight, the other two are learning the art of jewelry and gemcraft in general. 

While we sit there, I take out a piece of fruit to snack on, and Murdoc comments something about elves and fruit. Really annoying fella. Can’t I just not listen to him? Hang on, I don’t have to. I silently take control over the glass he’s holding, and cast a sleep spell on him.

A couple seconds later he keels over and starts to snore, and I put the glass on the table. Mikki turns to me and looks on almost in panic, which causes the others to look as well. She then proceeds to explain to her less magically inclined friend that I cast a complex spell on Murdoc.

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“I just put him asleep so I didn’t have to listen to his snide comments.” I say while charging a teleportation spell. Just before I disappear outside the wall, I turn to Jo and say “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Once outside, I fire off my mana thruster straight up into the air, and then transition to my flight spell. I just continue up into the air for a good while, enjoying the sunset.

After a bit, I decide that I’m far enough up and halt my ascent. This is probably the longest I’ve flown with it, and I work on improving it for a little while.

“Nice sunset we have.” I hear David’s voice coming from beside me.

“Yes” I say without turning to look at him.

“Feeling alright?” he asks me.

“How long do elves live?” I ask him since I don’t want to get into just how annoying I find Murdoc’s comments to be, especially since they were all wrong.

“That depends, but theoretically you could live to be eight or so centuries.”

“And how long do dwarves live?”

“Two or three centuries, based on their lineage”

“And humans live one?”

“With magic being a thing, hundred and fifty is doable.”

“Huh…” I guess I’m going to be around for a long while then, and James and Jo are not.

I can only sigh at that revelation. We just hover there for a while, and when the sun finally passes below the horizon, I’m down to a quarter of my usual mana, have improved my spell a lot and have had one existential realization.

I simply stop my spell and fall down. I reach such a speed that I don’t trust my fall damage reduction, though it probably would do just fine, so I use dimensional impulse to stop.

The golem that had walked into the area in front of the building has its core shattered by a spike and I calmly walk back into the barracks, finding the others where I left them, which Murdoc snoring loudly, and the glass I left on the table has disappeared, leaving a wet spot.

I ignore their questioning looks and walk up the stairs to the second floor to pick a room to sleep in. Most of the rooms are either locked or dirty, but near the end I find one that’s acceptable, and with an application of cleanse, the bed is usable.

Before I get to lock the door, James knocks on the still open door.

“You alright?” he asks cautiously.

“Yes, I’m fine. Murdoc apparently has something against elves, and while I was out enjoying the sunset, I had a talk with David. Apparently I can live for most of a millenia, while you and Jo cannot. Just a bit much to swallow, so I’ll go to bed early”

“I see… We’ll need to talk more about this later though.” he says with a strained smile while closing the door.

I sigh, lock the door, magic away the armored robe that I’ve worn for too long, and promptly jump into the bed and fall asleep.