The missing dwarves were easier to find than both Lone and Hamish had first assumed they would have been.

Knowing how tricky Darkness could be, Lone had expected some sort of illusion riddled trap to block them or send them around in circles for days. Soph assured him, however, that her Mana Sensing couldn't detect such a thing.

No, instead, she had actually discovered that inside of a chapel dedicated to the Stone, a spiral staircase led thousands of metres deep down to a large and sprawling hall.

In this hall statues of great dwarves of old lined its edges while rotted shelves and banners were strewn about everywhere.

A broken throne that had been unused for centuries by Lone's reckoning lay at the end of this hall.

In the centre of the chamber could be seen over 200 unconscious dwarves of varying sizes, ages, and even races. Not all dwarves were Stone Dwarves, after all.

Hanging from the ceiling like a chandelier could be seen an ominous glowing ball of purple energy contained within a metal contraption.

After spending so many months under both Grimsley and Wilbur's wings, Lone could identify a lot of metals, both mundane and magical. The material of this device escaped him, however.

"You don't have Stone's Vision, right?" Lone asked his shortest companion.

Hamish shook his head. "Miner's Glory through an' through, sadly. Trust me, ah'd 'ave been one 'ell o' a thief otherwise we ma skillset."

"No doubts here about that. Bets on if that thing is what's keeping them asleep?" Lone asked.

Hamish shook his head. "We both ken 'at tea be true. Ain't nae point in me losin' ma 'ard earned coins."

Lone scoffed. "You're a B-ranker. I bet you're fuckin' loaded."

He took a few cautious steps forward with Soph at his side and with Breena being distinctively further behind all three of them.

The girl was still prone to having her episodes of melding with her own shadow, after all. It made no sense to have her be put on the front lines where she could endanger herself.

"Havin' money doesnae mean ah wannae lose it," Hamish grumbled. "What's the plan 'ere? Ah say we blow 'at thing up," he offered as he gestured to the mass of Darkness energy suspended in the air.

"I'm all for that plan though I don't have any explosive skills. None that don't need magic, at least. Do you?" Lone asked.

Hamish reached into his adventurer's pouch with a grin on his lips. "Nah, but ah dae 'ave some sticks ah the good ol' dy-no-mite."

Soph frowned. "An explosion won't get rid of the energy, just release it. It's, uh, entirely magic. Like, there's no physicality to it at all except the purple glow we can see. I have no idea what it'll do when it's not in that container but I doubt it'll be anything good..."

Lone stroked his chin. "Soph."

"Y-Yes?" she replied hesitantly.

"You always think you're useless and a burden, right?" he asked.

Hamish winced. "Harsh words fae the lassie ya claim tae 'old near an' dear tae yer 'eart."

"Oh, shut up. Soph's always had confidence issues. She knows I disagree with her," Lone countered with a roll of his eyes.

Soph, meanwhile, stuttered as she answered, "Y-Yeah but I am trying my best to b-be more helpful!"

"And you're succeeding," Lone replied with a warm look on his face. "I think you can prove how much you've grown here. We all have a role here, even you, Breena."

"Me?" the teenager looked confused.

Lone nodded. "Yup, though your role is more of a learning one and less so an active one, though you're also plan b."

With that said, Lone went over his idea with them.

Hamish shook his head and sighed again. 'This fox is nuts. Ah was just kiddin' when ah suggested ma dynamite. Not only could it compromise the integrity ah this ol' 'onourin' 'all, but we've nae clue really what the energy will dae when released. Who's tae say once Lone's done these folk'll just wake up, 'ealthy as the day they were stolen away?'

He was regretting not bringing up the idea of potentially just leaving the people here and reporting them to the guild. The professionals who dealt with these kinds of spooky and mystical situations pertaining to topsider gods would be better suited to this.

More so than their ragtag team of freaks, he felt. Still, a part of him felt a rush upon hearing Lone's very simple but also extremely convincing idea.

''E's bold. A lot like Ewan... Ah can almost nae believe ah was plannin' on fadin' intae the stone when we encountered the bats and Milor and then sneakin' off wae ma brothers' bodies,' he thought as he watched Lone affix the last of the dynamite he had been given to the hanging contraption.

Hamish felt less close-minded after this... ordeal. Yes, ordeal was a good word to describe how he felt about this entire last set of weeks.

He was never xenophobic before, so to speak, but he had his reservations when it came to non-dwarves. Lone, a foxkin and a foreign hero to boot, had flipped the script on what Hamish knew about topsiders.

Not only was he entirely uncaring about Hamish's species but was also open-minded enough to forgive him for what could be boiled down to attempted murder via torture during combat.

He couldn't have the heart to do that were their positions flipped. 'It's like 'e doesn't see species, only personality. Mind ye, the cunt's got me in ah contract 'at keeps me fae directly doin' anythin' violent. Still, food fae thought.'

Lone landed next to him and dusted off his knees. "Dusty fuckin' thing. Must be hundreds of years old. I wonder why Darkness started abducting people only recently? For that matter, I wonder how long it's been here? Maybe this isn't the first place it's been given what happened to Four-twelve..."

Hamish shrugged. "Yer guess is as good as mine, but aye, this place is old. Must be one o' the fourth or fifth generation urds. Ah've seen ah few like it afore durin' ma travels ah the Farwinds."

"Huh. If I recall correctly, Krieg Moor is a part of the 17th generation of construction efforts, right?" Lone asked while the both of them observed Soph.

She was busy wrapping the Darkness energy container in a series of barriers, only leaving a tiny hole for the fuse to the explosives that Lone was carelessly handling.

Hamish snatched said fuse out of Lone's hands. "Feckin' amateur. Never be casual with things 'at go kaboom, are we clear? Last thing we wan' is ye settin' off the sticks afore the lassie's done."

Lone grimaced. "Yeah. I should have learned that with Sophie's explosive personality, honestly. My bad..."

"Hah, true enuff." Hamish snorted as he turned his gaze towards Breena.

She was hiding in a corner with half of her attention on the contraption containing the Darkness energy and the other half of her focus lay squarely on the seven sticks of dynamite she had nestled within her arms.

The lass had been tasked with keeping the rest of the goods safe if one round of explosions wasn't enough. Well, that and to see if she could learn something from the energy when it was time for Lone to deal with it.

Honestly, Hamish had to give it to the Golden Foxkin. He was a creative thinker. He struggled in that area. Usually, Kienan managed that in the Black Iron Company.

Keinan was always the one to come up with witty and ingenious ideas that anyone could think of if pointed in the right direction. That's what made him such a great and invaluable member of their team. Now he was a cold, dead corpse sitting inside Hamish's adventurer's pouch.

Shaking his head to steer clear of a line of thinking he honestly didn't want to go down right now, Hamish said, "Looks good enuff, dinnae ya think?"

Lone held his chin. "Yup. I'd say so. Soph's barriers are strong but it's still a relatively new skill. Here's hoping the blast can stay contained within them and don't just rip them to pieces."

"T-They'll hold!" Soph added though Hamish wasn't the least bit inspired.

Lone grinned at her. "I have faith in you."

Hamish didn't. He had no containment skills nor any defensive ones, really, bar his escape focused one.

He wasn't quite sure though if he'd ready himself to fight or flee the moment things went tits up and that scared him more than he would ever be willing to admit.

"T-Thanks!" the human girl replied with a warm smile of her own.

"That's the spirit. It's good to see some confidence coming out of you," Lone encouraged with pride in his voice though he seemed distracted.

'Probably still upset about 'at fight,' Hamish assumed.

It was an uncomfortable thing to listen to, the fox and his missus's more hardcore self bickering. Especially since he found himself actually agreeing with Lone.

Life was dangerous. The fox had a skill that made it so he'd recover from damn near anything bar decapitation. Hell, Hamish wondered if even that would kill him.

Sure, fucking with a Djinn's Wish was never wise but he was trying to save the helpless Breena. It was downright disrespectful to not see the honour in that and just blow up in his face over it.

Doubly so considering Sophie's harsh words regarding the lassie. Breena was the weakest amongst them, sure, but Hamish saw a fire in her like no other. The kind of drive she had to grow was rare beyond measure.

Hamish was still young relatively speaking but he'd met thousands if not tens of thousands of people in his over a century of life. Few, if any, came even close to having the same levels of motivation to grow strong as Breena.

Needless to mention her grit. Calling her a leech had made Hamish's respect for the logical and hardened Sophie to plummet.

That's how he saw the matter, at least. It wasn't his fight though, so he felt it was best for him to act like he didn't know it had occurred. Let the couple sort out the couple's problems.

"Whelp, 'ere goes aboot four gold coin's worth o' explosives. Just ah forewarnin', but if the roof starts collapsing, ah'm bookin' it ootta 'ere faster than ah bloke caught porkin' his neighbour's beloved," Hamish proclaimed as he lit the fuse in his hands.

He only half believed his own words but he felt it was wise to make his intentions known if nothing else.

Lone chuckled as he watched the fire travel up the fuse wire. "Must be nice being able to apply Agility. You could likely outrun the explosion if nothing else."

"Aye, it's got its perks. Nae jumpin' in there tae try tae get Explosion Resistance, eh? 'At's ah real skill, by the by. Feckin' daft one too since tae get it, usually ya 'ave tae lose ah limb or two," Hamish said.

Lone shook his head when the fire had breached Soph's barrier and was quickly approaching the sticks of dynamite.

Soph immediately sealed up her barriers when Lone replied, "As much as I'd love to, I am trying to respect Sophie's wishes. If I were to want that skill, I certainly wouldn't try to get it via something as volatile as nitroglycerin. Maybe fireworks."

A soft look entered Soph's eyes but she was soon straining her expression to contain the massive explosion that rocked the chamber they were in and threatened to shatter her barriers.

In fact, Hamish watched as many did buckle under the force, but she had, by his count, hextuple wrapped the container. four of the six barriers were gone instantly but the fifth held.

It had numerous cracks along it, but it was otherwise fine. The sixth was in perfect condition.

"Feckin' unique skills... Look. The energy's fine as suspected but it cannae escape the barriers. By the Stone, ah wish ah was an 'ero," Hamish commented off-handedly.

At his side, the tall man, Lone, was grinning from ear to ear. "Calls herself useless but is so incredibly powerful she can contain enough explosives to easily topple a skyscraper. You know I love you, right, Soph? You're fuckin' awesome."

The woman barely a foot taller than Hamish himself smiled shyly. "T-Thanks... I, uh, love you too."

"Can you move the energy over to me? Make more barriers to funnel it straight to me too if you can. We don't want it escaping," Lone requested.

Hamish crossed his arms as he let them do their thing. Lone was planning to absorb the energy, the insane freak.

'Ah ken feck all aboot the topsider gods,' he thought as he walked away and found a wall to lean on, 'but even ah can feel how much power is in 'at thing. Any normal person would blow up, die, become a slave to the power. Stone, who kens what else. Fuckin' nuts 'ow 'e's willin' tae risk 'imself tae save these strangers.'

Hamish glanced down at the over 200 unconscious fellow members of his species. 'Came 'ere tae betray the fox an' retrieve ma brothers, ended up watchin' the fuck'r kill dozens ah Balor Demon Bats at H-rank and then proceed tae seal an entire feckin' god in 'is soul. Ah'm nae even asham'd tae say ah'm attach'd tae the weirdos.'

He shook his head and chuckled self-deprecatingly. 'Ye've fallen so far, 'amish. Still, ah'm glad ah didnae paint the Rusty Sprocket nor the guild wae 'is guts an' brains. Well, at least not enuff tae kill 'im. Ah need tae come tae terms wae the fact ma brothers' deaths wae an accident. Lone's good people. So're the lassies...'

Hamish had a lot on his mind. He kept thinking as he watched Lone spend several hours subduing and eventually successfully absorbing the Darkness energy.

"Still mopin'?" Hamish asked.

Lone groaned. "Yeah. How is it fair I didn't get a skill for that? It took fuckin' hours! I mean, I wasn't asking for a primal skill, just... something..."

Soph trotted up to his side and said, "Y-You did get level ups in Darkness Corruption Resistance though."

"A useless skill now that Darkness is my bitch, but I guess beggars can't be choosers," Lone sighed.

He and his group of over 200 people had just arrived at the massive intersection which had 14 Farwind roads leading back to Krieg Moor.

Lone addressed the group following them that his protection ended here and that they were free to return to the city on their own now.

It had been a very long return trip. Still, a lot of Lone's skills had levelled up on the way back. His relationship with Sophie was still in the 'being ignored, best to keep waiting and see' phase, sadly.

As he, Soph, Breena and Hamish walked down one of the 14 Farwind roads, he pulled up his entire notification log from the journey back.