Zhukov and Vasily’s groups exchanged stories. Much to the surprise of Vasily, the ashy remains turned out to be the monstrosity from earlier. Apparently Grundolf had been saved by Skreebit, who finished off the monstrosity for good. The ratman then disappeared, apparently by flying through the ceiling. It sounded like pure nonsense.

Zhukov didn’t press the him for anymore details, he was just happy the dwarf was ready to leave. As they were leaving, Zhukov caught a glimpse of the crystal in Vasily’s hands.

“Ahh, so you found one too?”

“Ja, did you have to pry it from ze maw of a horrific foe constructed solely of bone too?”

Hans butted into the conversation, greatly exaggerating how they came across the crystal.

“Uh...no. Grundolf here was mining them from the walls. Apparently they were the reason we came here.

“Oh, really?”

“Yup, he didn’t say much more than that. Well, other than that we’re in for a surprise when we return to the town.”

“Vell, vhat are ve waiting for zen? Let’s get going!”

“Hey, hold on one second. Our torch seemed to have gone out not too long after finding Grundolf here, and I can see you don’t have your torch either…”

“Haha, what a strange thing to happen.”

Hans, Vasily, and Jack laughed nervously after remembering that their torch had too gone out, after they took the crystal from its pedestal

“Oh, I got you covered lads. Here take one of these!”

Grundolf passed everyone a small crystal, to use as a light source.

“Huh, these just might work.”.

The group backtracked through the cavern, encountering little resistance on the way. They stopped at the room where they first encountered the monstrosity, to collect the corpse of Joxil, the gremlin. To their surprise the entire room was covered in darkness, as all the torches had gone out.

“You can rest easy now, old friend. Your town is safe.”

Grundolf had no difficulties finding the corpse of Joxil. He picked the gremlin up and waited for the others.

Before leaving Vasily swapped his broken rifle for one that still had a stock. The group had also set out to gather up what little remained, as Grundolf’s sudden actions had forced them to halt their scavenging earlier.

Zhukov surveyed the carnage once more. The dead numbered nine in this room alone; along with the numerous other corpses there were simply too many for a squadron. Perhaps they were part of a platoon? Though he hadn’t seen anyone who looked like a commander among the dead. Zhukov didn’t think much further, instead directing his attention to the current state of their supplies.

Much of the ammunition they tried to salvage had been damaged in the conflict, but they had still managed to recover a sizeable amount. In total they currently had 26 usable, and fully loaded, en-bloc clips of 6.5x52mm ammunition for their Carcano rifles. They had also managed to recover around 150 rounds of loose ammo.

They continued backtracking their way through the darkened halls of the labyrinth, eventually coming across the other battle site. Here there were even more dead, twelve corpses total. Zhukov and his men began scavenging them too.

“Aw hell yeah, found a M1935!”

Sergei held up his prize, a Beretta M1935. The man he looted it from was dressed a bit nicer the surrounding corpses. It would appear that they had found the platoon’s commander. Now it was no wonder why the survivor’s had seemed so disorganized.

“Vhat is your obsessions vith firearms anyways?”

“A gun will never betray you...”

Sergei spoke with his usual calm tone of voice, yet a hint of sorrow still managed to slip out. He turned his attention back to the corpse, looking for additional ammunition for his new prize.

From this site they managed to collect quite a bit more. In total 31 en bloc clips, along with 200 or so loose rounds. They had also managed to find a still working Breda 30 light machine gun. The Breda 30 was fed by 20 round stripper clips of 6.5x52mm. There had been two of them in the hallway, but the other had its clip jammed in the receiver and could not be recovered. Along with the lmg, they managed to find four ammunition boxes with stripper clips. All together, they salvaged 30 clips for the Breda 30. They moved the clips into two boxes, as each box could hold 15, then took the two with them.

Sergei wasn’t the only one to find a Beretta M1935 either, the two corpses next to the lmgs had also been issued the handguns. Together with the three pistols, they had 8 magazines of .32 ACP, each holding eight rounds. Yakov swapped his rifle for the lmg, a weapon he was more accustomed to using, and took one of the handguns.

The group continued making their way through the labyrinth. When they arrived back outside they were greeted by the sight of the setting sun.

“Well, we made it.”

After hearing Zhukov’s words, Vasily’s stomach growled with hunger. He scratched his head and looked around nervously.

“Hey uh, anyone got any booze?”

Sergei started laughing.

“Haha, I’d like to see you sate a hunger like that with alcohol!”

“I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again!”

Vasily’s absolute confidence in his statement caused everyone to erupt into laughter.

“Damn it Vasily, your alcoholism will kill you before hunger does!”

“A life without alcohol, is a life I’d not like to live.”

The group decided to set up camp in the ruins, as Grundolf said it would be too difficult trying to lead them through the darkness. They gathered up twigs and relit the Italian’s fire. Vasily took one of the tuna rations they had gotten from the Italians, spearing the can on his bayonet and holding it up over the fire.

“That poor rifle…”

Sergei mumbled to himself after seeing the display. Instead of copying Vasily, he took his knife and started carving a branch. After feeling satisfied with his new spear, he poked two holes in a can of tuna, then drove the makeshift spear through the holes.

“Look Vasily, you can do like this and not end up with food smeared all over your bayonet.”

Vasily looked at the can then turned his eyes back to his cooking meal, uncaring.

“Too much work…”

Sergei sighed and went back to heating up his own tuna. The others also joined in, apparently taking the tuna cooking as a challenge.

“Hehe, you guys call that efficiency? Looks like you still have a lot to learn…toss me your pliers Sergei.”

“Who the hell cooks with a pair of pliers?”

“Me…”

Sergei gave Zhukov a questioning look, he shook his head and shuffled around his uniform. After a few moments of searching he pulled out a pair of pliers and tossed them to Zhukov.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, but...try not to kill us.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry this isn’t dangerous, this is cooking!”

“Zat is not very reassuring…”

Zhukov laughed manically as he took out five loose bullets. He used the pair of pliers to grab the tip of the bullet, then started wiggling it back and forth. Eventually the bullet’s tip popped off. He repeated this with another four bullets.

“Ooh, is this some sort of human ritual?”

“Sorry Grundolf, the only ritual these blokes have is drinking.”

“Huh, someone say it’s time to drink?”

“Vasily, your food is burning~”

“Its called being thoroughly cooked, Yakov.”

“Whatever you say~”

Vasily would’ve continued to cook the tuna longer, but Yakov’s shit eating grin was disturbing him. He brought the can back out of the fire and opened it with his knife. Much to his dismay, Yakov was right. The tuna had been charred.

Vasily shrugged and gave Yakov the middle finger, tossing a piece of the tuna into his own mouth. He quickly spit it back out though, as he had forgotten the food was still hot.

Meanwhile, Zhukov was continuing his madness. He opened a can of tuna, then scraped the insides out. After pouring the gunpowder from the bullets into the can, he replaced the tuna and lid.

“Oh, scheiße!”

Hans and the others watched with horror as Zhukov nonchalantly tossed the tuna bomb into the fire. Everyone except Zhukov and Grundolf ran and ducked for cover. After a few moments the gunpowder ignited, sending an explosion of tuna up into the air. Grundolf looked up at the raining tuna with amazement. He stuck out his tongue, as if to catch a piece of tuna like a snowflake. Though instead of tuna, the lid of the can landed on his face.

“Aww…”

After their shenanigans were over everyone went to sleep. They were sleeping in shifts as one person needed to stand watch.

…..

The night passed calmly, without danger. Under the light of the rising sun, they set off through the forest, following after Grundolf.

They soon heard the neighing of horses, signaling that they were growing closer to their destination. The horses seemed to have survived, though they weren’t too happy having been left out in the cold overnight. They calmed down after seeing Grundolf appear from the brush though, playfully nudging the dwarf with their noses. Grundolf gave them both a pat on the head, then went to the back of the cart to grab them some hay. After the horses were fed, everyone gathered up in the cart and they sent off, back to Kelturm.

With nothing but time to waste on the way back, Zhukov started interrogating the dwarf.

“So you wanna tell us the point of all this now?”

Grundolf nodded his head.

“Aye, suppose it’s only right. Now, where to start...”

“How about telling us what the hell those crystals are.”

“Ah, these magic crystals.”

Grundolf pulled out one of the greenish-yellow crystals. It was no bigger than the tip of a thumb, yet it was apparently more valuable than a life.

“A magic crystal?”

“Aye, it may look small, but it contains more power than you could ever dream of.”

“So...it’s a power source of sorts then?”

“Aye, you could say that. They are mainly used by the Hub’s sorcerers, though they do have...other uses. For example heating a furnace, lighting a torch, or even...growing food.”

Zhukov thought back to the first town they went through. He remembered the crystal embedded into the tree and the torches that lit up automatically at night.

“Then these crystals...they were for your town?”

“Aye, you guessed right. These crystals, they hold massive amounts of power within, but that power is finite. Depending on what they’re are used for they can last anywhere from thousands of years, to only a few minutes. Kelturm’s crystal was on its last legs, if we didn’t get a new crystal then all hell would’ve broken loose.”

“Why didn’t you just get another from the Hub then? From what you were saying they sounded rather commonplace.”

“Ha, if only that were true. Only sorcerers and nobles, the upper class citizens, have the funds to purchase such expensive items. When we sent off to find a better life, we only had the funds to purchase a used crystal. We simply don’t have the funds to do such a thing again.”

“These crystals, are they really necessary for your town to thrive?”

“More than you’d think. The town’s crystal does everything from producing food to heating homes. Without it, it would be impossible for our town to exist in these wastes. It’s impossible to farm out here, and there is barely any game to hunt.”

“So, instead of evacuating the town and returning to this Hub place, you decided to risk everyone’s life on a hunch?”

“Ha, we left that damned place for good reason. Besides, we didn’t have the supplies to make the trip. Half the town would ended up dead from cold, or hunger. I assure you, Joxil and I thought of that, but it was to be a last resort.”

“I see, it sounds like you don’t exactly like this hub place?”

“You’ll see if you ever make it there. Life is good for the rich, while every moment is struggle of survival for the poor. I’m sure you’ll ask me why that is, so I’ll just give you a rundown on the Hub.”

“Sure. More information is always useful.”

“Alright then, you see the Hub is more than a city, it’s an entire country, underground. The Hub is divided into nine levels. The only entrances are located at the first floor, the top, and the ninth floor, the bottom. These levels are also the locations of the guard and the slums. The second and eighth floors are inhabited by the lower class. Then you have the third and seventh floors, which is where the middle class and craftsmen are located. Next, you have the fourth and sixth floors, the nobles and sorcerers live there. Finally you have the fifth floor, an entire level for those council bastards.”

“The Hub is run by a council?”

“Aye, a council of bastards that is. Every level has two representatives which are a part of the council, except the fifth floor. So, in total there are 16 council members. Funny thing is though, not a damn one of them is from the floor they represent. They were born and raised on the fifth floor”

“So, it's more a council of kings than a council of representatives?”

“Aye, works as well as you think it does.”

Zhukov thought of another question that had been bugging him for a while.

“By the way, what is with your obsessions with trees?”

“Our obsession with trees? Oh, you mean the trees of life! I’m not sure how much you remember me telling you about world tree…”

“You told us that there was something eating it, then it was killed by the...great one or something.”

“Aye, that’s how the legends go. The thing is though, the Hub was actually created underneath the world tree.”

“What?”

“Yup, you see the world tree is still around today, growing on the rocky mountains that the Hub was built under. We take saplings from the tree and grow them in places of worship, as a way of giving thanks to the world tree.”

“Why do you embed those crystals into the tree then?”

“It’s a tradition that stems back to the days of old, also helps with managing a city’s magical power. The roots spread far throughout the city you see. By the way, we’ll be arriving at Kelturm in a few hours.”

Grundolf’s comment had reminded Zhukov how long they’d been sitting in the back of the cart for. He looked up at sky, noticing that the sun was already setting. Apparently trip from Kelturm to the ruins had taken an entire day. No wonder Grundolf had taken them in the middle of the night, had they left in the morning they would’ve been forced to look for the ruins in the dark.

Time passed, eventually the night divided the day, leaving them in darkness. The dwarf seemed to have no problems driving through the night, nor did he need a source of light in the darkness of the labyrinth.

“Hey Grundolf, you seem to be fine seeing in the dark, why’s that?”

“Haha, I was born and raised in the Hub, human! Millenniums of living underground left most of us with better night vision.”

“Ah, I see.”

Zhukov looked over the men in the back of the cart, everyone except him and Grundolf had drifted off to sleep.

“By the gods...”

Zhukov looked over to Grundolf, finding the latter with his mouth open wide in shock. He turned his head to see what the dwarf was surprised about, and found Kelturm appearing over the horizon.

“Oh shit…”

Kelturm was in flames.