"What the fuck is that?"

"It seems to be smoke."

The vampire turned around only to stare at me for several seconds before shaking his head and moving on. I waded after him through the snow. As I caught up, I gently poked his shoulder. He looked at me and muttered. "What?"

"What do you mean what?" I said and tried my best to keep up. The snow was all around us and reached up to our thighs. It was especielly hard for me to walk as the snow would get stuck in my ribcage and other bones. In the future, I would definitely get something that could keep out the snow. Maybe a light armour or something like that.

"Nothing." the vampire said and shook his head again, a slight smile blooming on his corpse-white face. He looked away from me and glanced at the smoke rising into the sky like a beacon. It came from a valley between two mountains, not too far from us. "Hey, John, why do you think it's smoke there?" he said with a frown. "And no more obvious answers."

"Someone's having a barbeque?" I said jokingly. It was something that just came up in my mind and I found it to be quite funny though I didn't exactly know why.

Ezra's eyes darkened.

"I mean–" I quickly cleared my throat. "–maybe it's travellers like us, setting up a camp?"

The vampire went back to his normal facial expression and nodded. He lightly bit his pink tongue. "It's probably like you say. It's only– I feel that so much smoke is too much for simply a couple of travellers. Heck, If I was out of my mind, I'd say it's an army or something, preparing an attack."

He laughed and I laughed along with him.

"Anyways, let's go down the mountains and take a look." Ezra proposed. "We could take shelter from the winds as well as take a look at who's burning all that wood. Maybe it's someone from the undead faction. If we are lucky maybe we'll find a cave to hide within. If they still pursue us then we will have the advantage in a small cave. Well, less of a disadvantage."

I nodded.

“I do wonder though,” I heard the the vampire mutter as we waded through the snow in the downward slope. “why are they so persistent? Did we kill their king’s heir or what?”

As we came down to the valley and moved closer to the point where the smoke originated from, we began hearing voices. And it wasn’t the kind of voices we wanted to hear.

“Now, my dear skeleton friend, we’re in even more trouble than before,” Ezra said.

I nodded nervously.

“Let’s take a closer look” the black-clothed vampire and crouched down, moving under tree branches with unparalleled swiftness deserving of his kin’s reputation. I followed him.

“This… we need to quickly report this to master!”

We looked out from the bushes, peering at no other than thousands of beastmen. The beastmen had set up a large camp. Hundreds of tents were scattered across the open area of the valley, made from beast skin and held up by wood poles hammered into the hard soil with its frozen crust now broken.

Further to away, as the ground turned into an upward slope, a large tunnel had been created straight through the mountain rock. Beastmen walked in and out, pulling mining carts filled with stone. It was probably where the rest of the beastmen resided, constantly increasing the size of their base in order to fit everyone. After all, the beastmen race was more than just a couple of thousands.

“This must be their main base. The base we've been looking for all this time!" Ezra said and laughed. "No wonder we didn't find them no matter what in the desert. They have been hiding here, in the outer area of the mountain reigners domain!"

"However, this means quite a bit of trouble..."

"What do you mean? Isn’t this good for us?"

“For our faction, yes. But for us, you and I? Right now? Not as much.” Ezra said. “however, if we can successfully relay this piece of news to master, who can then talk with his own master who will talk with the leader of all undead, we will be plentifully rewarded."

“But we need to escape first.” added the vampire. “And it's not possible for us to escape them when they have rested wolves and countless of troops. No, we must hide so that they can't find us. How we're going to do that... I don't know."

We left the beastman camp and searched for a cave. By chance, we found a crack in the mountain rock that seemed big enough for us to squeeze inside. Having no other choice, knowing that the beastmen were not far from us, we entered. The cave was dark and slightly damp. I was barely able to make out the vampire's figure by my side.

Ezra's Pov

I noticed how the skeleton walked cautiously. How he bumped into uneven places in the cave. A laugh escaped my lips. He looked at me with a sour face. Well, technically he always looked at me the same way but I had the hunch he didn't like me laughing at him. He was a skeleton, and so his facial expression would never change. The only changes he ever had was when his bones moved. Like joints and stuff.

"No worries, John. Look." I used chantless magic to conjure a small flame inside my hand. Although my race is vulnerable to fire magic, it was only on a larger scale. The skeleton looked at me and if he had eyes, I suspected they would be widened. His bones seemed rigid and I laughed again.

"Magic," I said and pointed at the fire in my hand. "It's quite amazing. A wonder of the world."

The skeleton cleared his throat. I found it funny how he always did that. It didn't sound like someone clearing a throat at all. It was more like the sound of two bones pushing toward each other, causing a deep, raspy sound. Maybe it was something he did a lot in his past life.

"Can I also learn magic?" he asked me.

I put my hand in the air. "Skeleton Mages can but I'm not sure about you. I don't have any way of finding out either."

"Okay." He said and nodded resignedly.

We walked further into the cave. I saw that John was still very careful about where he stepped. It was probably an effect of having stepped wrong a couple of times before I used magic to create a flame. I smiled. Even though we had only travelled a couple of days together, I liked this little skeleton. I always found skeletons as annoying, pestering little bastards that understood nothing. But maybe they were more like John, just that they were less sentiment and couldn't speak.

The cave was very orderly and didn't seem naturally formed. Ice covered the walls stalagmites hung from the ceiling, glistening from the flame in my hand. It was strangely quiet in the and not even the sound of wind reached our ears anymore. Well, my ears. John didn't have any and never would.

Suddenly, I stopped. The skeleton stopped after me as well, probably just as dumbstruck as me.

As I gazed forward, I saw two bronze doors depicting two dwarves holding one fierce great axe each, guarding the passage. Calling the doors gigantic was an insult. The doors were several meters wide and tall.

How anyone could erect these doors was a mystery in my eyes. I glanced at John and nodded. "We've got no other choice. Though I don't think it will work, let's try to open the doors and see what's behind them."

We walked forward and pushed. Just as I wondered if I had to unseal my blood seals and enter my true form to increase my strength, the doors swung open. Both the skeleton and I fell flat-faced on the ground. I heard a couple of bones break beside me. I guess skeletons were just as fragile as they looked and that John was no exception.

John's POV

[You have entered a dungeon.]

The Tomb of Dwarven King Thalgraes Heavyhand

Long ago, when dwarves fought against dragons, there was a kind dwarven prince who's best friend was the son of the red monarch. They often met and played in a small lake lit up by luminous rocks. However, Alrunenth and Thalgraes's friendship didn't last long. Their fathers, the red monarch, Ailzrarth the fire dragon, and the iron king, Aramid Heavyhand, soon discovered this forbidden friendship. In an attempt to sever the friendship, they constrained their children within their respective domains. Years passed and the friendship dawned. But against all odds, when the red monarch and the iron king died, the two friends came to power. And as they met on the battlefield, everything that existed was that old friendship, shining more brilliantly than all those years ago. And so, the dragons and dwarves laid their grudges and hatred behind and joined together as one people, following the steps of their two great leaders.

Here lies the tomb of the great unifier, Dwarven King Thalgraes... You have received a boost for being the first one to discover The Tomb of Dwarven King Thalgraes Heavyhand

Boost: Explorer

*Double XP for 7 days within the instance you discovered.

As I crawled up from the rock-hard floor after falling, I couldn't help but be totally awed. We had entered a great hard so big it was hard to make a guess large it was. The roof stretched for tens of meters up and there was a gigantic shining gemstone in the top that worked as a sun. Ezra seemed just as baffled as me when he made that flame of his snuff out.

The floor was made of some type of ore, clearly laid over the cave rock, and golden linings covered the walls which were likewise made of the same ore, mixing the colours of brown, gold and red together in a fantastic blend. In the far end of the hall, there was a staircase leading downwards, likely leading to the inner tomb of the deceased dwarven king.

Two statues stood guard outside the staircase. The statues depicted a strange type of monster. I didn't know what type of creature it was. They had wings like birds and hands like a human and held one gigantic halberd each in their hand.

As I inspected one of the statues' faces, I seemed to notice a movement.

Was it my imagination?

No– as I clearly noticed them opening their mouths in unison, I knew it was real. "In accordance with the king's last will..." they said with voices that didn't sound living at all. "All unworthy intruders shall be executed without exception."