My group was herded inside the fort by the mountain and straight underground. It felt like the entire mountain was hollowed out, I could look from the side of the road and see a large sprawling city. The city was divided by a river in the middle of it, with a large decorated bridge connecting them both. It felt like a world inside a dome, where the ceiling above was seemingly endless.

We passed through a few gates, leaving Alph inside a warehouse and we were lead straight to the governor’s office. Well, that’s fine. We could tour the place after we are done with our business. The office was more like a mansion made from different types of stones. Its pillars on the sides were carved with depictions of majestic creatures such as unicorns. Though the dwarves’ personalities had changed, their excellent craftsmanship still hadn’t.

The building was used to having guests as the ceiling was high enough to fit us. As expected of a governor, he had thought of accompanying guests. We walked downstairs towards his office. Obviously, for people who build underground, the lower, the better.

The dwarf who led us knocked onto the door and opened it. We went in and saw a furnitures befitting our size. The governor was sitting on his table. This was not what I wanted.

He had a top hat and a monocle, his face was shaven and he had a black suit on. On his hand was a cup of….t….t….TEA. DAMN THE WORLD!

“Gentlemen, I would like to welcome you to the city of Azkator. I am the governor, Lord Edgar Stonesworth.” He greeted us, fixing his monocle upright. “Lady Asha, I am pleased to meet you. I had heard of many stories in the capital.”

“I must apologize in advance if the furniture we had brought for you is uncomfortable. We have to change furnitures depending on the species and size, you see.” He said as he rubbed his chubby cheeks.

“No, it’s fine, Lord Stonesworth.” Asha smiled as she bowed to greet him. She nudged me and we all imitated her. What nonsense was this? A dwarven greeting would be drinking ten cups of mushroom beer brew!

“I’d like to know why you are here in Azkator. If you’d like, we can discuss this over some tea.” The dwarf smiled as he picked up the bell on his table and rang it. Some dwarves served us some tea as we took our seats.

I looked at the cup and sniffed it. Mushroom tea. Heresy among heresy. I was about to slowly spill the tea to the side when Asha gripped my hand hard. Wait. Stop. I could hear my bones cracking!

“Lord Stonesworth, I would like to be blunt with you. I had acquired a rare ore. Not just any ore, but pure mithril ore.” She explained with a smile while death-gripping my hand.

“My word! That is just unthinkable! There are only a few mithril ore available in the continent, or even the world. I’d like to gaze upon the mithril of which you speak of.” Edgar was dumbfounded. Asha took out the lump of mithril and placed it on his table.

Edgar looked at the lump of ore, inspecting its every edge and corner. He sniffed the lump in the most courteous way as if he was smelling a soup that came from a royal chef. Edgar took out a handkerchief and rubbed his forehead. He proceeded to ran his finger through the lump. Once we was done inspecting, he cleared his throat, then nodded towards us.

“Indeed. This is mithril. Though we had not seen one for many years, the blood of the mountain still ran in my veins. Where did you acquire such thing?” Edgar asked Asha before turning to us.

“I am still unsure, but these travellers requested that I make a weapon out of it. They came from a far away land, and I’m still finding out if mithril is widespread.” Asha replied. Edgar got off his chair and walked towards us. Although I was sitting down, his eye level was just straight of mine. He stood straightly and proudly unlike the dwarves that I know.

“But, why tell me this?” Edgar turned to Asha. He knew that Asha wouldn’t just give him the ore. Spot on.

“I believe that the dwarves of Azkator would have a forge strong enough to handle mithril.” Asha explained, “Also, I am sure the dwarves would at least help me with forging a mithril weapon. Though I claim to be a master smith, it had been years since I handled a rare metal.”

It’s been years? So what, when you were six years old, you were making armors made from mythical metals or what? When I was your age, I was eating mud!

“Indeed. We dwarves are natural when it comes to the bounties of our home. Handling such metal would require a certain level of majesty and pride.” Edgar straightened his suit again as he smirked. He was obviously liking that he gets to boast the pride of the dwarves in front of people from far away lands.

“However, it shames me to tell you that the city of Azkator does not have a forge strong enough to handle something like mithril.” Edgar slightly shook his head, dejected. He got back to his chair and took a bite from a biscuit.

“Then which place has a forge that can melt mithril?” Asha asked. Edgar rubbed his mouth with a handkerchief before answering, “The royal capital, Londonius.”

I had never heard of such city. Perhaps it was created sometime after I kept to myself inside my stronghold. However, we just got to this city. I’d like to at least tour a normal dwarven city before heading towards the capital.

“However, there is one problem. The rail system to the capital had been sabotaged.” Edgar told us. He explained that the rails going from the city to the capital was destroyed by some unknown forces. He wasn’t sure if it was the act of a monster or an outside nation.

“I’ve sent my detectives to find out what had transpired to cause this mishmash. Natheless, I implore you to explore the city.” Edgar suggested. That’s what I wanted to do, anyway.

We started to leave his office and we past by two dwarves with a peculiar hat and cape. They must be the investigators since they started asking about two missing inspectors. There was some arguments coming out of the room we walked out of and it sounded very heated.

We got out of the office and we were told that we were free to explore the city as long as we don’t cause any mess. We looked around the main streets and asked some locals interesting places to visit.

Looking around, unlike Aon, the city had far less travellers. It’s more obvious, because all you had to do was see that there were taller people among the groups of dwarves walking around the streets.

Azkator, as far as I could tell, was just a small trade city. Perhaps due to its close proximity to the holy city Aon. There was some merchants grumbling about how their trips are delayed by the rail problems.

We looked for a tavern to stay until the governor fixes the problem. Afterwards, we looked around the market district to buy souvenirs and supplies. I wanted to get Maven some ingredients, anyway.

As we shopped around the markets, we saw a large stadium with a crowd gathering inside it. We went to take a look and saw a tournament. I was hoping it’d be two drunk dwarves bashing each other with barrels while half-naked, but instead, two dwarves in silver decorated armor riding ponies came to the tournament grounds.

They held majestic lances and the they boasted their look. The crowd was clapping and nodding like civilized people. A dwarven maiden teasingly dropped her handkerchief towards one of the knights from the audience stands and he caught it.

“Mi’lady. You hath caught my eyes. I shall dedicate this tournament to you!” He knelt towards the dwarven maiden as she blushed. I looked to my sides to look at my companions. Sarjay was quietly enjoying the scene to my left while Daggerless was daydreaming to himself on my right going, ‘I wish that was me and my beautiful lovely demoness…’

“Hmm. Perhaps if you spent more time training your body instead of chasing the skirts of women, you would be able to beat me a long time ago.” The other dwarf said.

“You! How dare you insult me! You dare say that I slacked behind my training?!” He took out one of his gauntlet, then his leather glove under it, then a silk glove under it and slapped the other dwarf with the white silk glove.

“You uncouth rat! I formally challenge your honor in this very tournament!” The dwarf who wooed the maiden challenged. The tournament went on as usual and eventually the guy who wooed the girl won, got his honor and a girl and everyone was happy. How boring.

We went into a theatre hall featuring a drama play. I thought that tournament was a drama play! Weird. I noticed that we were out of place with our gear. All the dwarves here wore clean suits and decorated armor while we wore dirty robes with battle-scarred armor. I felt like we should’ve changed after we visited the dwarves. I fell asleep half-way through the play but I could tell that Daggerless enjoyed it, saying that he could write this into a poem.

Our tour went on like that for a few days before I got tired of the place. There wasn’t much in Azkator other than a few entertainment buildings. I went to the governor alone as I let the others continue with their tour.

“What do you mean you hadn’t made any progress? It’s been a few days already!” I complained to Edgar.

“Now, good sir. Patience is a virtue. My investigators are doing their utmost best.” Edgar explained. I wanted to strangle this guy! His investigators better break through the limit of their best.

“How about this? I’ll help you with your investigation. I can tell you that I would help you a lot faster.” I offered the governor. He pondered for a minute and figured it wouldn’t do any harm to allow me to help him for free. Just as he said that, the door knocked and the two dwarves with peculiar hats came in.

“Ah, here you are. Excellent timing. This will be your new assistant in helping you with your investigation.” Edgar motioned towards the two dwarves.

The two dwarves came up to me and greeted me, “Greetings. I am Shardrock Homes. This is my partner, Yon Beardson.” I shook their hands and stared at the dwarf with no beard named ‘Beardson’.

“What brings you here, Homes?” Edgar asked as he fixed up a cigar. He fixed his monocle before lighting up a match.

“I’m here to report to you that we may have a lead to what’s going on with the rails.” Shardrock explained to Edgar. He explained that he and his partner were going to check with the goblin shaft workers to get some clues.

“But didn’t you already check the goblins when you started your investigation?” Edgar questioned him.

“Yes, but I received new information and I could also feel that I’m getting close.” Shardrock explained.

“Good. See to it that you finish your task, soon. It should be finished faster with an extra helping hand.” Edgar commented as he huffed.

“What happened to the railroad?” I asked Shardrock. He said that he’s not exactly sure because he only briefly saw the broken tracks. Afterwards, the governor kept everyone from going to the tunnel leading to the broken tracks.

We walked out of his office and Shardrock questioned me, “Have you ever talked to a goblin?”

Goblins, huh. There were many types of goblins and they seemed to follow different masters depending on the region. There was even a region that had independent goblins.

“No, should I be concerned?” I asked him back.

“No, I don’t think so. Just follow me and stay quiet.” Shardrock answered as he guided me to a darker part of the city. The streets started to become less crowded and the roads started to get dirtier. The buildings started to become more and more gray and dull, some already in disrepair.

He brought us to a building with a sign on it. I couldn’t read what was written on the sign, but I entered the building with the two dwarves either way. As I walked out of the entrance, I saw that there were short men sitting around tables watching us. After a brief moment of silence, they went back to talking to each other, albeit softer. The ceiling was just touching my head and I had to slightly bend my body.

I guessed that this was a pub. Shardrock lead us towards the counter and we three took our seats. The stool was slightly too short for me, taking me awhile to adjust to get comfortable. The bartender walked over to us as he was cleaning out a cup.

His skin was green and his nose was large. His ears drooped down and he had no hair on his head. His brown tabard was plain, contrary to the clothings that the dwarves wore.

“Wha’ can I get ye, mates? Some mush teas?” He asked us. It took me a while to understand him because he spoke too fast. Moreover, I spoke Ancient Commons so I had to take some more time processing them.

“Yes, certainly.” Shardrock ordered tea for all three of us. I tried to refuse but he insist that I get some. We waited for a while before a goblin with worker’s clothing came up to the counter and sat next to us.

“Yo’a de’ ‘un called Shardrock, ye?” The goblin tapped the table, looking at Shardrock. What the heck did he just say? I turned to Beardson and he explained that the goblin was confirming Shardrock’s identity.

“Indeed. So that must mean that you’re one of the goblin workers. Want some tea?” Shardrock offered but the goblin refused as he said he preferred something stronger.

“And? Why have you come to us?” Beardson asked the goblin. The goblin looked over his shoulder, checking if anyone was listening in.

“Lissen’ ‘ere closely, mate. Der’s sum’in scary ‘round the rail’oods.” The goblin explained to us. Beardson explained that the goblin was afraid of something around the railroads. The goblin further explained that there had been missing supplies and shipments before the railroad got destroyed. He further took note that the railroad was destroyed haphazardly.

He was nervous, but we weren’t sure why. Shardrock asked him one last question, “Who do you think did this?”

The goblin once again looked over his shoulders, his paranoia already reaching the limit. For once, I understood something he said, “Ferals.”

.

.

.

We were walking towards the railroad station with light from the torches guiding us. We were using an abandoned street to get there.

“Where are we going and what does he mean by ‘Ferals’?” I asked Shardrock as I walked next to him. Shardrock was deep in thought, he looked down with a hand on his chin as he walked.

“We’re heading to the broken tracks, but we’re going to try to sneak past the guards watching over the tunnel.” Shardrock told me.

“What? Why are you sneaking around? Didn’t the governor chose you to personally investigate this case? You could just walk in if you want.” I asked.

“I told you, I wasn’t allowed after that one time I saw the tracks. Besides, I felt like the governor is keeping something from us. What that goblin said is the key to all these.” He said. We got to the station and were trying to get around the guards.

“How good is your magic?” Shardrock asked me. I answered that I was decent at it and he ordered me to try to distract those guards. I cast an illusion spell which mimicked a dwarf.

“Good, sir! Evacuate the premises lest we force you to!” The guards moved to the mimicked dwarf but I made it run around, causing the guards to chase him.

“Your father smelt of pig tail berries and your mother was a peacock!” The mimic insulted the guards. As the guards chased it down with great fury, the three of us snuck into the tunnel.

Inside was dark and damp. The rails were lined neatly but as we went further along the track, signs of damage started to appear.

“This was how far the guards allowed me to inspect the rails...but looking further now, it seemed much more serious.” Shardrock said.

I looked all over the tunnel. Instead of calling it a tunnel, it was more like a large cave system. We walked until we saw where the tracks had really been messed up. They were mangled, chomped and in pieces.

“Shardrock, here! I think it’s blood!” Beardson notified Shardrock, lighting a puddle of liquid with his torch. He walked over where Beardson was and put on leather gloves. He dabbed the tiny puddle of liquid with his fingers and smelled his the tips.

“This...this smells very odd.” Shardrock commented. He lead us through the trail of liquid, a bit further away from the rails. Eventually, it lead to a smashed crate with some barrels opened. The smell was strong, but I knew what it was. I didn’t need light because I had undead night vision. I could see that the top of the barrel was smashed open.

I walked over to an upright barrel, took out a cup from my pouch and scooped some liquid from the barrel. I took a sip, then realized what it was. The strong taste that should have been everywhere in the dwarven city. Beer.

But it didn’t taste like the beer that most aboveground nations make. This was genuine dwarven beer brewed from special mushrooms grown underground. This didn’t make any sense. The dwarves in the city all drank tea or whatever that wasn’t alcoholic. What was this doing at the rails?

“What is it?” Shardrock asked me. I was about to answer but realized some footsteps that didn’t belong to us...and it was coming fast.

“DUCK!” I shouted at Shardrock. He quickly responded and dived down as something leapt towards him and missed. Shardrock let go of his torch during the dodge, dropping it onto the floor. That ‘something’ missed its fall and rolled around the ground but quickly recovered, standing on all fours.

Impossible. This was a feral? They call what the dwarves are supposed to be a feral?! Indeed, that ‘something’ was a half naked, fully bearded, crazed and drunk dwarf.

The drunken dwarf roared at us in its garbled voice. His veins on his head could be clearly seen and his entire body, covered in hair, was muscular. He ran towards Shardrock and tried to claw him, but it got deflected by Shardrock’s shortsword.

Beardson took out the crossbow from his back and cocked it towards the drunken dwarf but he noticed another feral was coming to him. He rotated his body and fired, missing his shot. He quickly dodged the feral that leapt at him and took out his sword as well.

The feral tried to swipe from his left with his sharp claws but Beardson rolled backwards. In one swift movement, he loaded his bolt. He aimed not at the feral in front of him, but at the feral that was about to chomp Shardrock’s throat. The feral turned his head just in time to dodge the bolt and he roared angrily as his prey escaped.

With the cup still in my hand, I started conducting with one hand. In the dark, shadows somehow had formed at the cave walls. I concentrated on the two ferals, drawing mana from the environment. The two ferals noticed the change in mana in the air, and noticed me. They got on all four and started charging at me.

I could see their teeth were extremely sharp and their eyes were fully white. The beards just made them look scarier. Now, this was the dwarves I knew!

Alas, I had to put them down lest they eat my partners. I clasped the air with my hand, like a crab closing its claws, and the shadows flew from the walls towards the two dwarves and caught them mid-air.

They struggled viciously, but slowly their energy left their body and they fell asleep. I put them down slowly. They snored real hard and itched themselves in their sleep.

Shardrock and Beardson stood up, straightening themselves with ragged breathing. The ferals were fast and strong, and they would’ve been torn apart if not for my spell.

“What’s going on, Homes? Where did all these alcohol come from?” Beardson asked.

“Corruption, my Dear Beardson.” Shardrock panted. He sheathed his sword and patted himself clean, “You could connect it all. The governor’s reluctance to allow the investigations to go further, alcohol that we weren’t aware of and how the goblin refused tea.”

“That’s it! The governor’s been producing beer and selling it off to the aboveground nations!” Beardson concluded. I was about to join them when I heard clapping, but not from any of us three.

From the darkness, the governor Stonesworth came out, “Well done, Shardrock Homes.” Besides him were a few dwarves in plated armor, with their weapons out.

“Stonesworth. You knew that dwarven beer was the best in the land, but you should’ve also known that it’s toxic!” He pointed at the unconscious ferals. Toxic?! How was being a little drunk being subject to toxicity?! Alright, perhaps ‘a little’ was being too generous. This didn’t make any sense, drinking alcohol was a natural thing for dwarves to do.

Before I could think about that, I should worry about that governor first. I was still in the dark, and I doubted that he saw me. I realized that the cup of beer was on my hands. I created a theory in my head and wanted to test it out with some live subjects. The governor and his men were distracted by the two investigators.

“Sure, it may be toxic. But I use the goblins to make and move them. It just happen so that two of the inspectors got too suspicious. I was hoping that if I delay you both long enough, I would’ve gotten rid of the evidence. I even thought that having that abovegrounder would make things complicated.” Edgar shrugged.

“So that’s what happened to the two inspectors. You were that one that turned them into this! No wonder you wouldn’t release information about those two missing inspectors!” Beardson angrily reproached. He aimed his crossbow at Edgar but two of the plated knights also had their crossbows aimed at the two dwarves.

“Stonesworth, you know that making, possessing or trade of beer was a violation of the royal law, enacted by the first queen of the United Fortresses, Her Majesty Ellysa I, 500 years ago!” Shardrock mentioned. The one who banned alcohol was a queen who founded this nation? Ajax mentioned about being careful of the dwarven queen. But which queen was he referring to? The current queen was Ellysa VI, though.What could this mean? I need to get to the capital, soon.

“So? It wouldn’t matter if you’re all dead. No witnesses, no crime. I’ve won, Mr Homes.” Edgar gave a wicked smile. However, Shardrock just shook his head while smiling.

“No, Lord Stonesworth. I’ve won.” Shardrock said. Edgar noticed that I wasn’t anywhere near his sight. He sensed a presence behind him. As he turned, I splashed him with the cup of beer.

I wasn’t exactly thinking at that time. It just occurred to me it would’ve been funny. I was sneaking around because if I used magic, the dwarven knights would kill Shardrock and Beardson. Even if I get rid of any witnesses, it wouldn’t be too hard to pin the crime to me.

“Ah! Preposterous! Have you gone mad? I’ll have you killed, as well! Then you will regr-...What’s happening to me?!” Edgar started to scratch himself everywhere. I wasn’t sure how dwarven anatomy worked but I am sure this was very strange.

As he scratched his face, hair started to grow fast. His back started to arch and his brows became bushier. The harder he scratched his face, the faster the beard grew. His cursing started to become harsher and more crude, with every word accompanying some spit.

The plated dwarves didn’t know how to react. They stood dumbfounded as Edgar became more crazed. He tored his jacket and shirt off, showing off the growing chest hair. At this rate, he looked like he was trying to compete with a lycan in terms of hairiness.

With his bulging muscles, he swung his fist towards a plated knight, causing him to collide onto another knight and knocking them out cold. One knight tried to swing his mace but his mace got stopped by Edgar’s hands.

He roared at the knight and kneed him through the plate armor, rendering it useless. The knight got down curled up and moaning in pain. The last knight tried to defend himself against Edgar but the crazed lord was faster. The feral got behind the knight and started to strangle him with his beard. He wrapped the knight’s neck with the beard and they struggled.

Beardson shot his crossbow towards Edgar, causing the feral to drop the knight to avoid the bolt. The knight plopped down unconscious. Edgar ran on all four towards Beardson, ramming him with his head. The injured Beardson got up again, but just barely as his legs struggled to keep him up.

Shardrock threw a rock at Edgar to get his attention. He prepared his sword to meet Edgar, rushing towards him. Edgar dashed towards him and prepared to claw him. Shardrock raised his sword to strike down the feral, but as his blade was about to meet Edgar, the madman took a chomp out of his sword!

Edgar clawed at Shardrock who just managed to defend himself by using his arms. Shardrock fell onto the floor and was looking up to the half-naked dwarf. The dwarf was breathing hard like an animal. His beard was soaked in sweat and dirt.

He raised both of his fists to slam Shardrock and…

I hit the feral on the side of his neck, hitting his pressure point. The feral got dizzy fast and got unconscious. I checked up on Shardrock and just saw he had light wounds.

“Well, you took your sweet time, good sir.” He panted hard.

“I don’t know. I feel like I’m just a side character in a story that just joined in halfway.” I sighed as I looked over the dwarves on the cold, damp cave floor.

“Well, without you we would’ve been dead by now.” Homes straightened himself and offered his thanks to me. Eventually, the chief of the guards came with a group of guards to find out what the noises were.

Luckily for us, the chief wasn’t part of the governor’s plans and he advocated for justice. He had the governor and his goons arrested on site. Moreover, he assured me that the rails would be fixed soon now that they knew what the problem was.

I went straight towards the tavern I was staying in. My companions, who were in a different room from Asha, were exchanging picture gems with each other. Sarjay asked me where I had been but I ignored him and plopped onto my bed, mentally tired.