Rino looked at the young earth gnome in his captivity. Honestly, he felt a little sorry for what he did. However, he was really curious about the gnomes hiding in his soon to be abandoned mine. Maybe they could tell him a little more about the dwarves he looked forward to finding at some point in his kingdom building project.

The young earth gnome was still snoozing away peacefully under the influence of a very strong sleeping spell. Rino did not tie him up because he didn't want to give the other earth gnomes the idea that he would abuse his subordinates physically with such an old-fashioned method of subjugation. He was better than that and more creative with his ideas.

It took the gnomes several hours to turn up at Rino's town. Honestly, even the lich did not think they would come this soon. Even if they noticed the young earth gnome's absence and note that Rino left for them almost immediately, travelling such a distance without flying would still take at least two days. Crossing the rocky mountain range wasn't an easy thing to do. Moreover, gnomes had much shorter strides. He was now curious about their travelling methods.

"Master, there are hostile presences detained outside of the town's barrier. What should we do?" Mutt materialised in the stone cottage.

Deciding to put his visitors to the test, Rino gathered his villagers and sent a fairy to act as a messenger to relay his message to the earth gnomes outside his town's barrier. He told the genesis fairies to deliberately leave a hole in the town's borders so that the gnomes could sneak in if they wanted. Rina volunteered for the task and assumed the role of a very pesky messenger with an annoying fake laugh. Impressed by his junior's acting skills, Rino left the acting to her while everyone else got moving.

Acht was summoned, and the shadow spectres assumed their most terrifying forms, pretending to be prison wardens who guarded the young earth gnome. They transformed the tannery into something that looked more terrifying. All the tools they used to process pelts were laid out in the open, and dark dye was poured all over to create an illusion of something else.

Rino left the young earth gnome under their care but told Acht to go easy on the intruders who were here to rescue their slumbering buddy. Then, the lich took a back seat and watched the show unfold from the safety of his vault study through the eyes of Mutt, who skulked in the shadows, following the intruder's movements.

Rina was a great actress. If she ever decided to retire from Kragami's research assistant, she could become a star of the royal theatre in the future. Rino enjoyed the fairy's compelling performance as a villainess.

"You and what army?" Rina mocked, cackling like an overrated madwoman about to end someone's career.

Despite the cliche antics, these young earth gnomes growled in displeasure and glared daggers at her. The oldest of the lot appeared to be a young adult, maybe in his late twenties according to human years, while the youngest present looked somewhere near fifteen, just slightly younger than his captured earth gnome. Truly, the brotherly bonds they shared were touching when the earth gnomes proceeded to throw themselves against the magic barrier, yelling profanities at a lady and daring her to get out of the barriers for a good beating.

Rina continued to taunt them until they were so red in the face with their thoughts full of murder. Then, the fairy pulled at her eye with one finger and stuck out her tongue at them before leaving the enraged gnomes outside the barrier.

After such a great job antagonising them, Rina dramatically paused, almost as if she forgot to say something but the smug look in her eyes told the gnomes otherwise.

"I forgot to mention it earlier because I got too distracted by the sight of stupid hermits with the intelligence of an ape. If you want your dumb brother back, it's best to hurry. We've lacked flavour in our food recently, and the butchers work very quickly."

After the ominous words, she left. Dumbfounded and panic-stricken, the eight gnomes provided Rino with extremely amusing reactions.

The lich could not blame these young earth gnomes for their lack of planning. He was mildly impressed when the oldest gnomes, presumably their leader, urged them to stick together as a group instead of spreading out to search. At least someone in there had enough sense to ensure their survival, and Rino liked him already.

The hastily hatched plan was rather impressive, and Rino knew that the defences had much room for improvement. It was lucky that Noir Province did not meet any underground foe to date. Rino prepared aerial defences but not underground ones. These earth gnomes sneakily pretended to retreat while they bore a hole underground behind the mountain wall that they came from. 

Their strategy worked, and before long, these earth gnomes were scouting the inside of Town Zera, noting the different buildings above just by using a sound and a mysterious listening device that Mutt did not know.

Their level of progress with technology made Rino excited. Initially, he thought about recruiting these earth gnomes for their useful earth magic for mining. However, their knowledge about advanced technology and inventions was far superior to anything Rino knew about. The dwarves might be the closest to knowing what the strange devices were, but they were all dead now. The lich regretted not reading up more about the dwarves' inventions before he destroyed the world.

Then again, learning was a never-ending journey. Even if he read up on them, someone else would come up with something new that he didn't know. Given an eternity, there would still be new things to discover and read up on. There was no reason why Rino would let these earth gnomes go. They had too much potential in them, and the magician felt a common interest with these cheeky little bastards who blew a hole in his stone cottage. 

He should be mad. However, it was difficult to stay mad with them when the gnomes found themselves lost and spooked by his bare interior in pitch darkness. The cat tree loomed over them like a threatening device that promised pain in the dim lights, and the earth gnomes huddled together, trying their best to borrow each other's lacking courage as they felt around for an exit.

Eventually, they found the window, and Rino gave telepathic orders to let the gnomes roam free. The patrolling guards should pretend not to see them and make enough noise so that the earth gnomes would be alerted as they 'sneak around' his town to find their brother.

It was difficult for the gnomes to navigate their way to the 'butchery' in such a huge territory. Thankfully, they were able to avoid close calls with the guards.

Rino was interested in how the earth gnomes used earth magic to dig quickly and hide underground temporarily using a burrowing technique. The underground shelter was very good for camouflaging. If Mutt did not follow them so closely, nobody would know that they've managed to infiltrate the town from beneath.

Unlike Noir Province, the underground of Town Zera was still very undeveloped. With the earth gnomes, that should change soon.

Observing them with interest, Rino ignored how the sun was rising. His shadow spectres would be severely weakened during the day, making it the best opportunity for the earth gnomes to attack and retrieve their comrade.

Of course, that wasn't going to happen. Rino had eight other future workers walking in his territory. He couldn't let them leave this easily. Once they found their brother, they would share the same fate. The magician already instructed the genesis fairies to remain on standby, hidden high above. If earth gnomes had the advantage of burrowing, fairies had the advantage from the skies. They were also armed with projectiles laced with king toad paralysis poison.

After listening in on the 'gossip' of town folks, the gnomes finally found the 'butchery' that their brother might be held in.

There was only one problem, and the eight earth gnomes found themselves shrinking back in fear with four very powerful looking 'butchers'. In all honesty, it was more accurate to call them slaughterers instead of butchers. Who would have thought that hooded reapers were part of this town's residency? They should have come better prepared. It was a little too late for regrets.

"What should we do?" the youngest earth gnome looked at his leader, inspiring others to do the same.

From his study, Rino listened to the leader's reply with interest. What would they do now that they knew the chances of victory were close to none? In a real situation, all eight gnomes could possibly lose their lives on top of failing to recover their brethren. They were lucky so far, but luck did not last forever. Would they call a tactical retreat to regroup with new intel or push it by playing self-sacrificing heroes?