This world drastically changed since I was last alive.

Once, this realm was home for different races standing as equals and mastering the wild magic. Instead, a wicked and forcefully shaped new type of magic flows in the air now.

Magic forcefully cast into this world with gods once I loved. Their greed, far exceeding ones of mortals, changed the lives of billions.

And ironically, the reason I am alive is their greed. This world is nothing but a game board for the new ten gods. I am a pawn, and my friend Erwin is nothing but a soul summoned for little entertainment.

Their entertainment. Its cost was the lives of my people. After thousands of years of sleep, I woke to see my kin get slaved, massacred, and destroyed. Our language, cultural heritage, almost everything is lost.

My pathetic self is now trying to help a Lich, a creature I once fought against, to change things around. I am unsure who I can trust and who I cannot anymore, I don't know how much this world changed, but I know one thing. My enemy is the ten gods and the Empire that slaughtered my kin.

My name is Skardoir Silvertower, and I once was a ruler of the first dwarven Empire and a legend.

***

I pushed myself out of my bed and moved outside. I am an undead now, and I don't feel exhausted or dazzled, but my body now uses mana as a source of energy to stay alive.

Lowly undead creatures don't have many abilities, and their existence is not complex, so they don't need to rest to draw mana from the atmosphere, but I need to.

I don't sleep but mediate in short.

I can always choose other methods to get more mana quicker, but that may cause overdose, and that's the last thing I want.

Mana overdose is a danger, and I saw many wizards who tried to hold more than their bodies could.

All of them died in terrible ways. Their flesh slowly ripped itself apart while pools of blood flowed out of every hole in their body. I want to avoid such an ending.

Now, a long day waits for me. I have tons of things to forge and countless jobs to finish. There is no more time for me to rest.

***

Hammer up, hammer down. I beat the blazing metal until it takes the shape I want.

"Hopefully, it will be enough."

I placed the metal on a specialized anvil and split it into five long cylinder pieces with my hands.

These are for tanks tracks. At least that's what Erwin told me to, and it's not like I know what a tank is.

And I finished the last batch. Total of two hundred cylinders in a single day! Erwin told me to inform him. It will be good to go and see him.

I exited my forge and began moving through the streets of my city. It is not pretty as it used to be, but things are getting better.

Children are playing, dwarfs and humans working together to build or repair structures. Some Mudwalkers are pulling carriages filled with different things.

But one thing is sure, Erwin is trying to change something, and even though I hate working with a Lich, I don't hate him.

Maybe the past and future are really different, and people are not what we think about them all the time.

"My king!" I heard a dwarfs call. I suppose Erwin is nearby. It will be a lucky coincidence if I encounter him right here.

I turned where the voice came from, but Erwin wasn't there.

"My king, I am so glad that I found you. We need help."

A dwarf not too old, he is panting like a dog and barely putting words together. I wonder what happened.

"I am the king of none. Keep that title for the lich. I have no intentions for stealing his role." It wouldn't be good if dwarfs began calling me their king. I might accidentally sabotage Erwins efforts if this happens.

"Sorry." The dwarf bowed to me. "Old one, we require the help of someone strong in the mines. There is a hostile monster that injured some of our men and killed one of our Mudwalkers."

Killing a Mudwalker is not an easy task. We are talking about a creature at least double the size of an ox. I wonder what monster is responsible for this feat.

Yet, I wonder why this guy came to me first. Erwin or Arthur could be a better choice.

"Okay, where that thing stays, or where did you last see it. My time is limited."

"At mines, my lord."

"This whole goddamn place is a mine, which one, entrance number location, floor give me details."

There are three large mining camps we currently control, northern, southern, and eastern, and each has between five to ten entrances leading to different floors to make sorting things easier.

An old (older than me, which makes at least several thousand years old) but the working system, I am glad somehow it survived to this day.

The dwarf bowed forward. "Sorry, my lord, we encountered it on third Southern mine."

Third Southern mine. We mine precious gems and metals from that place. Well, almost exclusively silver, but that's also important.

"I will go there, but I want you to inform Erwin or Arthur about the situation." In case anything happens.

***

After a short walk, I arrived at my destination, several soldiers standing at the entrance.

They carry a weapon that looks similar to a crossbow with a barrel on top. I suppose it is Erwin's craft.

Soldiers also wear our standard-issue armor. Heavy steel plates with chainmail, top of that, they all wear a leather belt with metal cylinders.

I approached the soldiers and greeted them. "Good day, friends. I heard that you had a monster problem in here."

Soldiers changed their stance and loudly greeted me. "It is an honor, lord Silvertower."

I slowly waved my hand. "There is no need for thanking me. I am just doing what I must, and I have a monster to kill."

Soldiers nodded and moved away from the entrance.

"So, before I go in, what are those things you have."

"This." One soldier raised his weapon. "Lord Erwin calls it a rifle, but he surely speaks lowly of the weapon and says it is nothing but a shadow of its potential."

"So how does this rifle work," I remember Erwin showing me a prototype, but it looks different. I suppose he made some progress on the design. Well, a month passed, that's normal.

"Well, I cannot explain the inner work, but it works like this."

The soldier opened the rifle into two and took a cylinder from its belt, then slid it into a hole inside the rifle's body.

After closing it, he moved a little away from other soldiers and pointed the weapon towards a space far away.

"Be careful with the sound." The soldier pressed to a trigger with his finger, and a sound of an explosion echoed through the cave.

But that's not all. A projectile hit the ground with high velocity and raised some dust.

"Not impressive as I expected it to be, but good enough, I suppose." I pat the man's shoulder twice then entered the mine.

Let's find the thing disturbing our process.

***

This place has a familiar scent. Guess that happens when your mother gives birth to you inside a mine tunnel, and you spend half of your life inside another one.

I don't complain about that. My birth was a unique case. My mother and father got lost in the seemingly endless cave tunnels, and a monster was following them from behind.

After two days of running, they got into an unmapped area, where the monster finally cornered them.

My mother was pregnant to me at that time, and because of all the things she needed to endure, I was born early, right before the monster chasing us.

My father sacrificed his life while trying to keep the monster away, but my exhausted mother didn't manage to use my father's sacrifice. Both me, a weak, early-born infant, and my mother were standing defenselessly.

Yet, for some reason. Kobold King decided to save our lives by killing the monster.

My mother told me that he suddenly appeared from the ground and killed the monster with one move of his finger.

Other than killing the monster, he saved me with a spell, then fed me with the monster's flesh, which I suspect is the main two reasons for my size and strength.

I once asked why he saved me, but Kobold only told me that I must know the answers for certain things, so I never asked about it again.

"Help. Is there anyone nearby!" A voice echoed inside the cave.

There is still one fishy thing about it. Word got said in perfect old human common.

That can only mean one thing. A creature that can mimic the voice of its prey, and I only know one that can live long enough to eat someone who speaks old languages.

Angler Mimics.

I must go and exterminate it before it kills anyone.

I increased my speed and arrived at where the call for help came, and as I expected, a human was lying on the ground.

Specifically, a human wearing armor that doesn't fit the current age. It has large gravings of God Of Wind, a forbidden god.

This mimic is most likely hundreds of years old.

According to what I learned, humans betrayed my kin two hundred years ago. That is probably the last time one entered here.

And Great Cleansing happened only twelve years later. (A crusade against gods currently known as Forbidden ones, one example being Goddes of Mercy.)

In my hypothesis, increased population, Erwin's existence combined with taming of Hollows caused monsters living deeper parts to move towards here.

I began moving towards the mimic. With each step I take, its voice is getting sharper and more powerful.

"Help! Please, don't leave me here. Anyone? Please, anyone! I don't want to die, mother!"

Disgusting creature.

And at the moment I got into its range, mimic immediately jumped to the air and attacked me with a black tentacle-like limb coming out from its mouth.

I cathed the limb and slammed the monster to the ground. Then I hastily drew my maul and smashed the creature.

It gave one last scream before dying, but it didn't last that long.

Yet, this mimic is not what I am after.

I must go deeper.

Far as I remember, the current working silver mine is still a couple of floors below from where I stand.

Back to walking

****

Sounds of pickaxes hitting the raw ores, deaf ending sound of rusty minecarts, and a single song coming from the mouth of multiple people.

I arrived at the mining ground.

"Dig, Dug, pillage the ground. Thanks to the father below, we raise our pickaxes to glorious gold."

Ah, an old dwarven work song singed by both human and dwarven miners. While it is odd that they don't sing "Oh the silver veins of home," which is more fitting to what they are mining, "Gold from below, a gift of the father of dwarves." is a timeless classic.

"Oh, gold, pretty gold, let me dig you up and make you shine. Into the dragon's mouth (a furnace used for melting metals with high melting points.)

I can hardly keep myself from joining them and their song, but let's not disturb them. I will talk with their supervisor and give them the details about the rock monster and possible mimics.

"You!" I shouted to a man watching the mining process. "Come, we need to talk."

The supervisor began moving towards me to greet me as he saw me.

"I hope it is nothing bad, Lord Silvertower. Seeing your presence this down below sure makes me anxious."

"And you are right to be anxious. I am here to terminate a monster, yet on my way, I encountered with other creature's even I am not informed about."

The supervisor looked at the miners working. "Is that threat is close to our location."

"I am still searching for it, but it will be best for your man to take whatever you dug until now and leave the mines. Also, be careful and don't go if you hear words calling for help. There are now mimics infesting our mines."

Supervisor bowed forward. "Got it, sir." Then he turned towards the working men. "I have news, people! We are ending our shaft early today for security reasons. Grab all of your equipment and raw ores you mined, and we march to the exit."

Good thing I have taken care of that. "Be careful, and open your eyes for mimics."

I left the miners and began going even deeper to the mines.

A fishy smell is coming to my nose.

And shortly after, I found my target.

A creature resembling a giant crab with a rock formation on its back is currently feasting on the Mudwalker it killed.

But this is weird. I know these creatures, they are Stone Claws, and they usually don't eat meat but consume minerals from the rocks.

I reached to my maul and began turning it in my hand. "Well, well, well. So you are the thing aching my head so much."

The creature stopped eating and got up. It screeched strong enough to shake small pebbles on the ground. "You need to do better than that to scare me, little friend."