“You will pay for killing our king!”

Emerging from the distance were the surviving Kobold Commanders, with a retinue of kobolds and a squad of… dwarves?

I considered it within the realm of possibility that the kobolds would attack us again looking for revenge, but from what I knew about dwarves from Commander Isaac, it seemed highly uncharacteristic for them to leave their high elevation mountain fortress and actually fight us on open ground. Dwarves preferred to be fortified and fight on their own terms.

There weren’t many of them here, though.

“All hands on deck! Let’s show these limp dicked knob noses the consequences of messing with the army!” Commander Isaac roared, as eloquent as ever with his cursing.

Soldiers scrambled for their weapons and armor, and the dwarves emerged from the forest. The most noticeable thing on the dwarves was their armor. Having been conditioned by fantasy novels to expect dwarves to be master blacksmiths, I was surprised to see that their armor was not the sleek and shiny plate armor, carefully smithed by a dwarven master smith.

Their armor was carefully crafted, but in a far different style. Pieces of metal were held together with a complex system of springs and joints and metal straps, forming an aesthetic that could most accurately be described as steampunk in nature.

No time to dwell on that, though. Dwarven equipment was up for grabs as per the contract, so it was time to get down to business.

“Love whip,” I muttered, summoning the familiar black whip in my hand. It was starting to feel like an extension of my own self, as I continued to gain combat experience with the whip and learned the intricacies of wielding the S-rank demonic summoned weapon.

“Humans, you never learn eh?” a dwarf said, spitting at his feet. “We’ll send yer kind back to where you belong!”

Huh?

The dwarve’s words confused me. From what the fine print on the Imperial Court’s draft notice said, this was supposed to be a preemptive assault on a dwarven outpost, because they were looking to take advantage of the disaster level event to attack humanity.

What the dwarf just said seemed to lend more credence to the fact that humans already poked at this dwarven settlement before, and were back at it again, while the dwarves had no plans at all to attack human territory. Books was probably right about the Imperial Court’s trustworthiness. They must have lied, and created this expedition for a different purpose.

But for now, I was guilty by association along with the rest of the army. I had to fight.

[Souls: 124]

My soul bank was steadily increasing as well, having accumulated by killing the Kobold King and some kobolds and orcs back at the Battle of Mountain. The second I hit 1,000 souls I was going to pick up the [Phantom] skillbook from the dimension room shop.

These poor dwarves and kobolds were going to feed my soul bank. It did briefly cross my mind that I was the evil one in this situation, but seeing blood splattered all over Commander Isabelle’s gloves as she danced between kobolds with a knife in each hand, I was probably a lesser evil in the presence of greater evils.

“Watch yer step, you stinking lizard!” a dwarf shouted as a kobold staggered by an arrow backed into him.

“Shut your mouth, dwarf,” the kobold responded, ripping the arrow out of his chest with his hand.

The commanders and officers on the front line cut down kobolds with ease, but the dwarves were a bit hardier due to their stout physiques and metal armor. I needed to move fast if I wanted to collect souls and experience.

“Open inventory.”

With a few quick taps on the interface, I equipped my [Iron Platebody Set], which brought my physical defense to 117 and vitality to 119 when the +20 bonuses from the [Kobold King Slayer] achievement were factored in. That was slightly more than the base resistances a cleric without any armor equipped had at my level.

I ran through the camp, stepping over camping equipment as I rushed towards the first enemy I saw. A dwarf in a flat viking helmet grunted at me while brandishing a green tinted battle axe.

“Human,” the dwarf growled. “You’ve come to the wrong region.”

Swoosh.

The dwarf’s tinted battle axe swung across and hit me in the arm with a loud clang. It was just so cumbersome fighting in heavy armor, but I had no choice.

“Love Whip, restrain.”

The whip snaked around the dwarf’s torso, but the muscular dwarf resisted and pulled apart the whip before it could fully bind it. Right as the dwarf broke through, it swung at me again.

Restrain is now level 2.

…

Apparently my understanding of Eclipse’s system was completely wrong. Skills could be leveled up with usage, or something like that. You never knew for sure what triggered a level up with how convoluted the skill system was in this game.

“Ye humans and your fancy party trick magic,” the dwarf grunted. “If you had real heart, metal and stone would be enough.”

The dwarf’s name was highlighted in red, meaning that it was dangerous. But that really didn’t mean much since every single monster I’d come across so far was red except the cows and chickens back at the beginner village. This fucking game was a joke.

Metal clang on metal as the melee grew in size. I telekinetically pulled back my whip into my hand and lashed at the dwarf, who took the blow head on with his jointed metal armor and charged at me, knocking me down to the ground.

I rolled on the ground, dodging the dwarf’s punches, and extended my palm.

“Thunderbolt!”

The magic circle appeared around my left hand before dissipating as the dwarf’s armored gauntlet slammed me in the head, making me bounce inside my helmet.

“Summon cat!” I shouted in a panic.

Meat Shield appeared above the dwarf and began viciously clawing at its helmet.

“Thunderbolt!”

Again I tried to cast the magic, but the spell was interrupted by a dwarven fist to the face.

“Dimension Ripper!”

I swiped at the dwarf with my left hand, which connected with the dwarf’s armor with a slap.

Mana: 482/607

Mana: 0/607

The greenish tinted armor didn’t even show a sign of a dent.

“Hah. Parlor tricks are nothing against adamantium armor!” the dwarf declared proudly. He gripped his battleaxe close to the head and slammed it down at me.

I twisted my wrist and telekinetically commanded my whip to jerk me from underneath the dwarf’s body, just like I did to Eric at the Battle of Mountain.

The whip coiled around my arm once and tugged hard. I felt my arm nearly dislocate as it violently jerked me across the ground several feet away.

Meat Shield reappeared from a portal in front of the dwarf’s face.

“Check out my new ability, nyang~”

WOOOOSH.

What the heck?

Fire poured out of the small black cat’s mouth, singing the armor clad dwarf. Well, seems like she got a buff at level 30 too. My pet just upgraded into a small dragon.

I got back on my feet and lashed at the dwarf again. My whip connected with the adamantium armor.

[22 damage]

“They’re retreating!” a soldier shouted from the side. The dwarf I was fighting also began back away slowly, before turning around and running.

“Focus the kobolds!” Commander Isabelle yelled while throwing kunai at the front. “Ignore the dwarves, focus the kobolds!”

“Don’t let those bastards get away! All units, forward!” Commander Isaac roared.

Spells and flaming arrows lit up the night sky and descended upon the retreating Kobold Commanders and dwarves, and an eruption of shouts came from the army regiments as warriors and tanks charged forwards.

“Doing alright there, champ?” asked Donovan, who was jogging beside me.

“Yeah,” I nodded while downing a mana potion.

Hundreds of soldiers descended upon the valley as we began a mad pursuit of the retreating dwarves and kobolds, arrows flying through the air as warriors caught up to some of the wounded straggler kobolds. Just as Commander Isabelle specified, none of the dwarves were remotely hurt. It was really only the kobolds and one of the Kobold Commanders that were falling.

“Open the gate!” a dwarf shouted when he reached the base of the mountain.

The mountain itself began to creak and groan, as a colossal section of stone moved to the side, creating a massive entrance into the inner mountain itself. A hollowed out fortress was revealed within.

“Get in, get in!” dwarves from within the fortress yelled, as kobolds and dwarves alike ran for safety through the revealed entrance. With a groan, the stone began to move back in place.

“Close the gate! Hurry!” shouted the dwarves, as they ran towards the giant mechanical gear that functioned as the door’s opening mechanism.

“Hmph. Fools,” Barak said. A giant magic circle appeared in the air in front of him, and our entire army dove to get out of the way of what was coming.

SWOOSH.

A meteorite the size of two and a half men shot into the fortress base, crashing into the interior with a resounded bang. Immediately, the stone gate stopped closing as the dwarves operating the mechanism were caught in the area of effect.

Without missing a beat, Commander Isabelle skirted across the mountain wall, completely defying gravity, and dove into the fortress.

“Incoming!”

Boulders fell from the sky, as the army managed to ripple away from the impact craters reasonably well due to our practice this afternoon against the smokescreen fireballs. The army’s mages slung up spells towards the area where the boulders were coming from, but the elevation was too high to reach with spells for novice mages.

I followed the mob of soldiers through the colossal door and into the fortress.

You have discovered a new location.

You have gained a level.

The inside of the fortress was astounding, as various large tubes and gears adorned the entirety of the inner wall. Metal ladders and various contraptions that I couldn’t understand at a glance were everywhere, as smoke billowed out of some of the contraptions and dwarves ran across the first and second floor. Only some of them were fully armored, while the others were dressed in normal clothes.

Meat Shield was torching a dwarf with her new fire breathing ability, and Commander Isabelle was on the second floor already, engaged in combat with a few armored dwarves with her daggers in hand.

Our warriors flooded into the dwarven fortress, trying to find a way past this entrance room and into the inner bowels of the fortress.

Click. One of the soldiers just stepped on a trap.

One of the walls began to shift open, as a stone rolling sphere with metal fixtures the size of an entire room began accelerating towards us. I was not completely surprised that the dwarves had enough foresight to booby trap their own base, however excessive that seemed. The dwarves were meticulous in their preparation and excellent engineers by what I could tell, so it made some sort of sense.

CRUNCH.

A few unfortunate soldiers were killed by the rolling sphere, as it went straight outside and crushed some of our archers and healers as well.

“Get onto the second floor! Their tunnels are here!” Commander Isabelle yelled at the top of her lungs.

I grabbed one of the ladders and began climbing. My armor was getting in the way, so I unequipped the helmet and legs and only left the torso on. Trying to be creative, I shot out love whip in an attempt to pull myself up like a lasso, but the whip failed to wrap itself around the metal railings and slipped. As expected from a succubus weapon, the whip was only effective against living creatures.

“Bloody humans, back again eh?” an armored dwarf said vehemently while in combat with Commander Isabelle. “Didn’t learn your lesson the last time?”

Commander Isabelle laughed. “You won’t be so lucky this time, dwarves~”

Several of the officers and three of our commanders managed to make their way to the second floor now, and a fierce battle ensued.

The rest of the soldiers were still climbing up the railings like myself.

“Drop the oil!” a dwarven voice shouted from somewhere above.

To my horror, vats of hot oil were being tipped over towards the ladder and myself.

“Summon cat!” I yelled, just in time to [Jump on Cat] several times away from the trajectory of the oil.

Thud.

[50 fall damage]

I landed on my back on the first floor again, but it could’ve been much worse. Pained screams erupted from the ladders as several of our soldiers were injured. Donovan was among them, although luckily he wasn’t the first on the ladder, so only his arm was scalded.

A soft hand reached and touched me on the shoulder, and my body glowed in a warm light, restoring my health. I looked back to see a female healer dressed in white cleric robes.

Your magic resistance has increased by 10.

Your vitality has increased by 10.

“Hope this helps,” the female healer said to me as she applied a few buffs.