“Chocolate!” Scarlet demanded.

August and I looked at each other, then at her, puzzled as ever. She provided no context. Her usual carmine hair looked a bit dull. The same could be said for her attentive and stoic nature. Her brain looked like it was melting.

“Okie,” I raised a brow, “don’t know what’s up with you but, we just came to drop off a couple clones. They’ll do nonstop dungeons, but only S-rank stuff for training.”

Indeed, our plan was to rotate clones about three times per day, so there would always be a clone helping us train and transferring memories to us.

We didn’t plan on staying long, so we left after I made some snacks for Scarlet to drown her sorrows of leadership on. August didn’t tell me what he learnt from Madam Jelly concerning the method he’d use to get stronger. If she knew there was an ascended state for him, then perhaps she was right about me being unprepared in terms of my magical ability.

My base mana power was 1,500%, which meant my intelligence attribute was the same. However, it was ages since I last distributed my bonus primary attributes; I’d end up with more eventually. 1,500% base mana power meant 75 stacks of Purist and Clone.

Before we went to Jynnak to continue our adventures, as badly timed as they might seem, I sat down and contemplated using those attribute points. I had ninety-nine bonus points to spend, which would put my intelligence and base mana power at around 1,600; Purist and Clone would now be capable of 80 stacks.

I reckoned I would improve very quickly once my clone in Yunaris kept using the Scien staff to capture the mana of his targets for me. With that, August and I journeyed to Jynnak, to the country of the dwarves.

At the border crossing to Vaingot, the dwarven country, I took a deep breath. I thought back to the days where we would play without a care in the world. And now look at us, tasked with saving not just our world, but many other worlds as well. Time sure did fly, but I couldn’t be certain that we were having fun.

“Wassup, man?” August asked me.

I squatted down, “We were eighteen years old when Hethekk told us ‘bout Apollyon. We’re twenty-three years old now. Five years have passed, and we have around two more years until the big bad boy appears.”

“Uh,” he put a hand on his hip, “well thanks for the useless update. So, what’s really eating you?”

I chuckled. August changed so much as a person, yet he stayed the same. I shook my head, “It’s nothin’. Let’s go.”

We arrived at a town called Reamer, and the townsfolk certainly had the muscular, hairy, and stocky shape a dwarf was expected to have. Yes, they were a people inept with magic, and so they focused on science and engineering. Just a normal town like this was filled with vehicles, trams, nicely paved roads, hissing from steam everywhere, all sorts of pipes and valves sticking out at the side of their unexpectedly tall buildings.

It was so magical without magic. Certainly, elven architecture was a marvel to behold, because so many of it was built around the workings of magic. But Reamer felt even more impressive. To think a people could advance their lives this far without magic was insane. Just imagining what their capital or other cities looked like tickled my sense of adventure. I licked my lips mentally, already entertaining the idea of bringing dwarven architecture and engineering to Methelia.

Perhaps, the one thing that shocked me the most, or perhaps irked me the most, was their height. I expected a race of people called dwarves to be short, but no. None of them stood below six feet tall, not even the women. But none really surpassed seven feet, which was the average elf height.

So, of course, a scrawny man like me stood out like a sore thumb. At least August had more meat on him than I did, but he would still receive weird stares because of his height. He could otherwise pass as a very bony dwarf. Honestly, their skeletal structure was a bit different. Sure, they had arms and legs like most other races, but they were quite wide, and their limbs were massive in girth. Their hands were gigantic.

So, yes, as we walked along the streets of Reamer, we were the odd ones out. August cracked his knuckles, “You want to deal with this or what?”

“Ugh, it’s always something, huh?” I rued. August was referring to two guards who were tailing us. I wanted to just avoid it and pretend like they weren’t. For once in my adventures, I figured it would be nice to not get mixed up in some unwanted crap. We went over to a merchant who sold trinkets, necklaces, and costume jewellery. A lot of it was made out of metals and stones with bright colours and patterns to attract the eyes.

The two guards who followed us stopped when we stopped. We joked about how obvious their stalking was. “Can we use elven currency here?” I asked the merchant, but she shook her head.

“I’m afraid only bigger business accept Tyrr’s currency. Say,” the woman stood up, “you’re not an elf, are you? You ain’t got them pointy ears.”

“No,” August said, “we’re n–”

A scream pilfered our focus from the conversation. Heads turned like flamingos and eyes zeroed in on a little girl who got caught with a bunch of rolled papers clutched in her arms. “You little thief!” the man who caught her yelled, painting clearly the picture her actions warranted. “You know how much these cost?!” the man fumed. He grabbed her by the collar of her clothes and retrieved a small knife from his pocket.

Oh geez, dude, come on. I made a coin of ice with my initials on one side and August’s initials on the other side then flipped it. The almighty coin toss would determine who saved the little girl from getting a knife stuck through her hand as punishment. I won. Or should I say I lost? Anyway, I now had to stop this guy from doing an unspeakable thing to a child.

With some void manipulation, I stopped him from stabbing the little girl’s hand and strolled over. I also cast Enthral on the rowdy man and placed a hand under his wrist, then released the void magic on him. “Now, now, she’s just a little girl.” I then turned to the girl and used a weak Enthral, “You know stealing is wrong, don’t you?” I asked, and the little girl nodded meekly. “Then how about you return his belongings?”

The girl reluctantly gave the papers to me, which I then handed to the man. “Here,” I handed over a health potion, and the man accepted it immediately despite his ignorance about what it even was, “a little something for your troubles.”

The situation was now defused. “I’m Eric,” I introduced myself to the girl, “and that big guy over there is August,” I pointed. “What’s your name?”

“None of ya darn business, buddy,” the girl retorted.

A vein almost popped in my head. Despite her starstruck face when I saved her, she was apparently acting. “I’m sorry?”

“You some person from far away, right? Do your sightseeing, and get out. Don’t get involved in anything here,” she said, brushed me away, and went about her business.

I mean, that was pretty rude, right? What kind of Eric would I be if I just let a child be so rude to me? I was about to follow her and give her a piece of my mind, but something zoomed past my face. My eyes popped out. “Hydra’s glorious ass cheeks!” My head turned one-eighty like an owl, “Fuck was that?!”

The projectile crashed into someone’s wall. It missed me by a few millimetres. A lady came running toward us, apologising along the way to anyone who looked surprised. She was a bit on the plumper side, not that I minded. She was a redhead that had her dull carmine hair tied. She carried what seemed to be the gadget that fired the projectile.

“Wanna start with her?” August asked me.

“Eh, okay. Sounds fun,” I agreed. So, we stood behind her as she tried to pull the metal cylinder out the wall. She couldn’t grip it properly because it was so smooth. Damn, if that thing hit me… “Hey, you almost killed me!” I complained.

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that, pal,” she didn’t even bother looking around.

I got a little agitated, “Well? How are you going to make it up to me?”

She finally had a proper look at me, then her eyes sat upon August. She interchanged, a little confused about our appearance. “Y-you ladies elven or somethin’?”

“You’ll know who’s a lady when I smack my dick across your face!” I threatened.

She tried her darndest to hold her laughter back, “You’re male?”

Are dwarves meant to be this disrespectful?

“Don’t know, but she’s feisty. Seduce her,” Donna’s deranged smile came to mind.

Do you get a hard-on for every woman you see?

“Yes,” she said flatly.

“I find your silence worryin’, pal,” the dangerous dwarf said. “So, what are you two anyway? Where you from?”

“We’re humans,” August pulled the massive bullet out the wall with one hard, an effortless suave about him. “My name’s August, and he is Eric. We’re from another world. Nice to meet you, uh…”

“Miriam, dwarf, inventor,” she introduced herself and took her weapon of mass destruction back from August.

“So, Miriam,” I walked closer to her, “what do dwarves do? What’s your specialty?”

“Drinking,” she replied without the faintest sliver of jest.

My lips curled upwards, as did August’s. “I think I’m in love already,” August shamelessly said.

Before I knew it, the night had fallen and the mead was flowing. We danced with dwarves, although we sucked at it. We reeked of booze and boobs – perhaps we were popular as humans. I couldn’t even recall the numbers of bars we visited, but there was certainly a party at everyone we went to.

~

Something tickled my neck. I squirmed a bit and quickly fell asleep, but the ticklish feeling woke me up yet again. It was Donna’s hair as she moved. I woke up to her in her birthday suit, and she wasn’t alone.

Half of August’s pants was off and he was bareback. A female dwarf’s head laid on his leg. His hand was clutched onto the breast of another one and Qora was sleeping soundly with her head rested on his shoulder. My eyes almost popped out their sockets. Qora was like a daughter to him, so I knew he definitely didn’t want her to see him like that.

I used a little mind magic to ensure she slept soundly and used Convalesce on everyone else to help us recover from the residual alcohol. Donna and I woke him up, then realised we were on the rooftop of some building. Hydra’s lovely tits! I almost hurled at the height and immediately retreated from the edge of the building. Guess that explains why it’s so chilly.

I got some clothes for us through transmutation and we found Miriam sleeping dangerously close to a corner of the rooftop. Once we woke her up, we flew over to her workshop and had breakfast there. Qora was saved a traumatising experience due to my sleeping spell, but August woke her up to eat. She sat on his lap and he fed her.

Seriously, how old is she?

“So,” Donna noshed on some bacon, “how will you get back your schematics?”

Miriam shook her head dejectedly, and played with her scrambled eggs in deep thought. “No matter how I think about it, there’s no legal way to prove they stole from us,” she clarified.

Donna grunted, “Don’t you have the original plans drawn up somewhere? You could dispute it.”

Miriam broke out in laughter, “You must come from quite a just place to even suggest something like that so easily. Ah, I might be jealous.” She cracked her fingers and then shoved a scoop of eggs into her mouth, “Anyway, how come you’re visitin’ this place? We’re not exactly a tourist destination.”

“Well, well, well,” Donna put her hand over her malicious smile, “I wanted to taste some dwarf meat and yours was delicious.”

“Hey!” August covered Qora’s ears, “Phrasing, lady!”

They continued their small-talk, but I was absolutely lost. Maybe they got to know each other last night whilst I was drowning in mead? Why was Donna getting more ass than me? A few other questions swirled about in my mind, but I let the amazing taste of breakfast flatline my ability to listen to their conversation for any possible answers.

However, one topic of conversation ripped my internal monologuing apart and forced me to eavesdrop on what they were discussing. An artefact that cancelled casting. I wondered if it was similar to August’s strange skill to disrupt one’s mana flow and make their casts into poofs. Maybe it’s just legend? Nothing but a rumour? I mean, something like that would be a pretty big deal, right?

Miriam looked a bit despondent as they spoke about the artefact called Burra’s Seal. Her stressed features really showed especially with her dull carmine hair tied to the back. “Just talking about that stuff is taboo here,” Miriam stated.

Taboo? But wh–

“Why?” Qora asked.

“Well,” Miriam smiled at Qora, “a long time ago, some bad people used magic to do bad things to–”

“I might look like this,” Qora cut her short, “and I might act like this around Dad, but I’m still the avatar of space. You may speak as you normally would.”

I’m sorry, did she just say D–

“Okay,” Miriam looked a bit surprised, “well, the identity of those ‘bad’ people became misconstrued as the centuries came and went. All I know is that magic was used to enslave a very large portion of dwarves. It’s a dark past no one likes to discuss, so you’d do best not to bring up stuff like this with strangers,” she warned us, shooting all of us a stern look.

Guess every country has something they don’t like talking about. And Hydra’s ass, Qora called August ‘Dad’!

“She’s been doing that a while now,” Donna pointed out. “You never pay attention.”

Qora, once playful and jovial, became serious and pondered, “That doesn’t make sense. Tell me, Miriam, is what you say common knowledge for all dwarves?”

“Y-yes? It’s even recorded in history books.” Miriam seemed perplexed by Qora’s curiosity. In fact, we all were. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, because dwa–”

Qora got interrupted by some obnoxious bastard kicking open the door even though it was already unlocked and slightly opened, “Miri! We did it!” The bald dude slumped to his knees, overcome with hilariously opposing emotions of bliss and morose. “It’s workin’! The prototype’s workin’, Miri!”

She stood up halfway, stunned at what the man said, and literally dived into the man from where she was sitting! “This is it!” she exclaimed. “This is going to put us back into the annals of greatness!”

“Who cares, Miri?! We’re gonna be rich!”

Their elation made us focus on them, but I made a mental note to ask Qora about what she was going to say.

We went into their workshop – the actual workshop part of it and not the living quarters – and was immediately assailed by the overbearing heat. August’s eyes lit up in childlike anticipation and excitement. It was like a smithy’s dream come true. He forced me to take some pointers from their setup so I could redesign his blacksmithing station at home.

But there was also a hodgepodge of blueprints, schematics, plans, designs, metal casings, tools, and a wide variety of contraptions. It was a tinkerer’s paradise. Even as August was wide-eyed, he still paid attention to the bald dwarf’s rambling about some weird device on a table surrounded by a sea of gizmos.

According to him, it was an engine, one that was much more efficient, powerful, and quieter than the widespread models available. But we had no idea what it was meant to power.

Whilst they stood there and celebrated, we heard someone from the front of the workshop begin to make a fuss.

“You evil little shit! I finally caught ya, eh?!” The workshop’s receptionist looked like she finally saw her chance at revenge.

Oh, what do you know? It’s that rude brat with her hand in the cookie jar again. Well, this is gonna be fun! I spectated the scene with a beaming smile.