The trip back through the tunnels was exhausting. The only breaks we had were for Zevrack to place traps from his backpack in any tunnels he thought the stonemen may pass through. I was surprised at just how many he had, be they the bear trap looking ones, simple poisoned caltrops, or an interesting contraption that fired needles upward if stepped on. His placement of the traps served the dual purpose of harrying our foes as well as lightening his pack. I’d thought he was quick on his feet before, but once his pack was nearly empty he was hard to keep up with even in the brief stretches where I was able to stand straight and move at full speed.

Elle was another story. After only a short time I’d had to take on carrying her pack as well as my own. She was huffing and coughing for long portions of the journey, sweat pouring off of her. When we were halfway through she actually collapsed, but quickly picked herself up, gritting her teeth.

I stopped her, and Zevrack made a show of putting down another trap. Taking a bit of extra time with it while I gave her water and we let her catch her breath. When we went to move again, she tried to stand, but collapsed.

I rearranged my and her packs, and bent down. “Hop on.”

She didn’t make any fuss about pride, and instead stood herself up just long enough to land on me. I pushed myself up, using my arms to support her, and from there we started back toward Mykas.

There were a few points where I had to let Elle down for us to crawl through tunnels, but for the most part she stayed put on my back. Being a dwarf made her not quite line up for it the way a human woman might have, forcing me to lean forward at an awkward angle, but I managed. Over the next quarter of the journey I found myself dripping with sweat, both mine and hers, and at a certain point we threw our packs into Zevrack’s, which had emptied enough to fit our gear.

It was hard going, and I stopped being capable of any thought beyond putting one foot in front of the other. My back ached and my muscles screamed at me, but I kept moving. When Mykas finally came into view, Elle told me she could walk the rest of the way, but I pushed through until we made it to town, collapsing on the edge of it as several dwarf guards and kobolds approached.

…

I awoke to the taste of ice in my mouth and a stone ceiling lit by mushrooms. Someone was moving my mouth up and down to make me chew something. I reached up and grabbed their hands, gently and took over. I could feel my stamina rapidly returning and a kind of cool energy start to suffuse my body. I looked down and saw the elder with the mushroom crown observing me. Seeing how the fungus grew out of him up close was unsettling, but I managed to stay impassive when I saw the seams where his skin ended and they began.

“Finish eating that,” he said.

I complied. Chewing a few more times before swallowing what I could tell was some kind of mushroom cap. As I did, that cool energy gradually became jittery, and intense. I took a few moments to try and calm down, but found that I couldn’t do so. “What was that?”

“A very small piece of an old deadcap.”

“Deadcap?”

“Yes, and unfortunately they are appropriately named.”

I jumped out of the bed I was in and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Why?” I felt as if I’d drank ten cups of coffee brewed with energy drinks instead of water.

He remained impassive. “It’s okay. Your body should be able to handle it. It’s non-lethal in the amount I gave you. I wouldn’t have used it, but we needed to make sure you were up before the stonemen arrived.

I nodded, and released him. It must’ve been the dwarf equivalent of smelling salts. I found my way to my things and started re-equipping pouches and going over my inventory while at the same time pulling up my notifications.

Congratulations! Your strenuous efforts have been rewarded! You’ve gained +1 Str and +1 Con

Fantastic. Carrying Elle through the caves had apparently allowed me to reach the threshold of increasing my physical stats without leveling. I felt amazing, though that was probably mostly the meth-shroom. I finished strapping everything and left the room. Mushroom crown was waiting for me outside of it. “Where are Zevrack and Rockelle?”

“In the town center making preparations.

“You uh, got some more of that mushroom.”

He raised his eyebrow. “I’m concerned it’s not having the effect I was expecting. With us it usually just restores a bit of vitality.”

I forced a deep breath. “It’s not meant to make you feel like you can wrestle a bear?”

“Uh, no.”

“Well. Let’s count this as a boon and move on.” I jog walked out of the house and found myself near the center of town. I saw dozens of dwarves and kobolds milling about. A large number of the dwarves were taking whatever belongings they had and heading for the mushroom field cave. The Kobolds were moving back and forth with tools, strange vials, and long wires. The dwarves that weren’t evacuating were carrying weapons and hustling around trying to do anything they could to help. We were a far cry from the force the stonemen were planning on bringing our way.

Eventually, after asking six dwarves and four kobolds, I was able to locate Zevrack and Elle who were each involved in separate discussions involving numbers and strategy. Elle looked up as I approached.

“Cor! You’re alright!” she said.

“Alright? I’m fantastic.” I bounced over to her, actually leaping over a few kobolds as I did. “How’re you?”

“I’m okay. I was able to recover a lot riding on your back. I’ve given everyone all the information I was able to glean from the stonemen settlement and we’re working on defenses now.”

Zevrack joined us. “The Buried claw has been laying traps all around, though many of us have gone into the tunnels to strike and retreat as they grow closer.”

“How long was I out?” I asked.

“Two hours,” answered Elle.

“How much time do we think we have until they get here?”

“Two hours, maybe more. Depends on how well the Buried Claw hamper them,” she said.

“Then we can count on two. My father is leading those in the tunnels,” said Zevrack with the kind of absolute certainty I couldn’t help but believe.

I turned back to Elle. “How many of them are coming?” I asked.

“More than one hundred,” she answered.

“How many do we have?”

“Thirty four dwarves, maybe fifty Kobolds.”

I let out a heavy sigh. Those weren’t good odds. Particularly since most of the dwarves had earned their first skill ranks with weapons within the last day. The kobolds were likely a better prepared group, but even they seemed mostly focused on traps and cunning rather than pitched battle. “I’m going to do a quick walk around the perimeter.”

I left them to their preparations and started running in a wide circle around the town. The majority of it was open, with only narrow gaps between buildings that effectively made them walls. What gaps there were now had traps all throughout them, on top of additional traps spread out seemingly at random spots around the town. I was able to avoid them myself with my trap sense skill. Aside from that, dwarves and kobolds were armed and taking positions at various choke points, literally digging in in some cases. We had the advantage of home turf, but I still wasn’t certain it was enough. I climbed onto the top of one of the buildings, my body still full of the wired cold energy I’d received from the deadcap.

Most of the buildings were rather large and built of solid stone, looking almost as if they’d been carved from one solid piece. From my vantage I was able to tell that Mykas was shaped almost exactly like a funnel. A line of buildings that widened as they reached the town square and the cave that led to the fields. So far, all of the preparations involved setting traps on the ground, or digging in for a ground assault. No one was looking up.

I hopped down from the second story, rolling as I did and whispering “parkour” softly to myself. It was very lame, but I was high on mushroom and saying a word that only had meaning on my homeworld felt oddly grounding. I ran to the pantry where I found Lokren organizing people, writing furiously in his book as he did.

“Lokren!”

My sudden appearance startled him, and he made an unfortunate line of ink across his book before looking up in annoyance. “Yes?”

“Bidents, spice bombs, rocks, numbers of each.”

“Fifty bidents, we ramped up production when so many warriors took them we didn’t have enough for farming, ten or so boxes of spice bombs, and rocks…” He looked around dramatically at the floor and the walls, “A lot. Why?”

“I need them.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, have them set aside. I need to find Galgrum.” I left Lokren confused behind me, but I was sure he’d have those items set aside anyway.

It took me two laps through the town to find Galgrum, but I found him walking some recent conscripts through basic sickle strikes, trying to get them to gain a rank before the stonemen warparty arrived. “Galgrum!”

He turned his attention to me. “Cor! Good to see you up.”

“Great to be up! Listen, I have a plan. How many men do you think you could put on the roofs?”

“Roofs? Why would we put people up there?”

“Exactly! I don’t think the stonemen would expect us to be up there. I don’t think they’re used to wide open spaces like this cavern, they wouldn’t expect you to strike from above, particularly if we make them think you intend to stand your ground in the streets.”

Galgrum belted his sickle and put his full attention on me. “Go on.”