"You Idiot, why the fuck do you think there were medicine in the baggage, what on earth were you thinking while leaving your wounds to fetter"

Vadima exclaimed as she begun pouring strange concotion into his wound.

"Is it even a problem in a world where healing magic exists, all I have to do is find a healer"

Christopher said as he stood up, he was having a slight fever, but nothing that would stop him from walking further.

"You idiot, do you really want to die, do you even know how far the swamp stretches!"

Vadima shouted in outrage, but non the less continued following behind him.

"Turn to the right, I see a mountain in the distance, maybe we will be able to ge out of this accursed Swamp"

Vadima said, making Christopher turn his head to look into the distance, he could faintly discern the mountain as he focused his eyes, his glasses were long lost in the swampy waters thus his vision was now limited to begin with.

Even though however the mountain seemed to get closer, the swamp didn't seem to want to end even worse there were now some dangerous spots where a person could easily sink into the Bog, as the water was becoming deeper and deeper.

Whether it was lucky or unlucky they had encountered no other monsters on the way, until one day they suddenly made contact with civilization.

"Halt!, what're your purpose be in commin to our mountain humans!"

The one speaking was not visible but the voice sounded human.

"We seek shelter and a place to eat, we lost our way and had to make a pass through the swamps since we lacked a map, but even if we had one, we would still be lost in this damned swamp"

Vadima cursed at the swamp that seemed to be endless.

"Well you are rather lucky, we dwarves have a mine close by, by the way you do have money with you right?"

The voice asked in a rather greedy tone.

"Money is not of the question, we also have a few materials you might be interested in"

Vadima said as she tried to wrestle the bag out of Christopher's hands, which didn't take more than a few moments of her time and then took out a strange ore that looked like a black metal.

"Oh, you got some finy shiny Gulok over there miss"

The dwarf said as he came from over the bushes, in his hands there was a shield and a pickaxe or something that looked similar to one, since there was a shovel at the center making it more like a shovel than a pick, but as he was holding it with the pike in front it was probably more like a pickaxe than a shovel.

"Follow me, the tunnel I came from isn't too far from here"

The dwarf said with a happy expression, as if all the ore in their hands would become his or something.

Christopher wouldn't have been surprised if the dwarf had led them into an ambush, but that didn't happen at least at the entrance of the tunnel.

The small badly made tunnel, didn't look like the famed passages from the mines of moria, in the lord of the rings, it was simply a dried up batch of earth that was being supported by stalagmite pillars on both sides.

"Your friend doesn't look so good"

The dwaft said as they travelled through the tunnel.

"This idiot got his wounds to fetter and is in need of medicine, I have done the basic threatment to stabilize his condition, but the wounds will only get worse then the effect goes off"

Vadima said rather distressed.

Christopher didn't know if she was an idiot for trusting the dwarf so much or him for travelling with her in the first place, he could after all simply ditch her at some point, a pity that he wasn't a vicious person whom would leave a defenceless sleeping woman in the middle of the swamps to sneak away.

"So da lad has a tumor in his head or somethin' well you are probably lucky that our dwarven healers are famous for their healing runes, if you got enough of dat ore you might consider buying one"

The dwarf said as he moved a stange his hand to shine the way, on his hand they could see a strange glowing symbol, this was a rune that could produce light.

There were dozens of those runes on the pillars that responded to his own rune thus making the once dark tunnel into a rather well lit passage.

Of course Christopher would still stumble from time to time since he couldn't see well underfoot without his glasses, but he didn't really mind it, the one that made a fuss out of it was Vadima whom was now carrying the bag with one hand and supporting him with her other hand.

The dwarf looked at them with some interest since he didn't know what to make of these strange visitors, logicaly speaking the swamp tunnel was at the borders with three countries, Nivava and the goblin Klan, thus it wasn't so rare for some people to come by, the most regular costumers of the dwarves were bandits, whom came to trade loot for weapons and food, but the two of them didn't look like bandits, maybe escaped convicts or something would be the answer, in truth if they had no money he would be even more happy, but money was also good, especialy since he acted like a guide.

"The entrance is up ahead, the fee for guiding is one gulok ore"

The greedy dwarf said while stretching his hand.

"From when did the guiding fee rise from gold to Gulok?"

Vadima said in outrage, making the happy dwarf's face turn sour.

"It seems the lady knows her way around here, well then a gold ore it is"

The swindling dwarf said somewhat disatisfied, regretting not killing them and taking all the ore for himself when he could, but it was still good as long as he earned a fee for free.

"Well although I know that one big gold ore is worth more than the fee, I expect you to open the gate for us as well"

Vadima said, making the dwarf's face become even more distorted from anger.

He wanted to gain some free ore but in the end he was forced to work for it in full.

"Well lets go sign the papers, don't you dare however go back on the deal, you know that dwarves value greatly an equal exchange"

The dwarf said, it was too late now to act unruly, if they as much as screamed for help he would not only be punished, but even penalized with some incredible amount of debt.

Vadima was rather surprised when she once more looked inside the bag, in truth there wasn't even a piece of edible food or useful item, all that Christopher had been carrying for the past few days was gold and other ores as well as a few uncut semiprecious stones.

Of course she was there when he first filled the bag, but she didn't care about gold and stuff, only the food and healing concotions.

"Olie, what on earth are you doin' back so soon, aren't you supposed to patrol the swamps till nightfall"

A voice came from inside.

"Dad, I stumbled upon some humans who got lost and are lookin' for shelter"

The Greedy dwarf Olie said humbly.

"Dats ma' boy always likes to help others"

The Gate opened and a grey bearded dwarf came out greeting them.

"Wellcome to our small mine of Lokdin, I hope that you will rest well and work well"

"Work well and rest well!"

Vadima said, as was the typical dwarven greeting.

"Why're you elboin' your old man Olie"

The greybearded dwarf was rather surprised at his son's impulsive action but after some whispering they were both laughing out loud.

"Sorry for the wait, please follow me to the bank and as I heard you will also need a to find a healer"

The grey bearded man said as he led them into the small passage and through another gate.

It was funny how every person whom they met was either the Bearded man's brother/sister or Son/daughter or Nephew/Niece.

"You don't need to be so much on guard, we dwarves are not goblins, we won't kill you just for some stupid materials, by the way I can tell that you two are strong surviving through the swamp to reach our mines with just the two of you, Well it's not a surprise since you have a scout with you"

The dwarf said, having mistaken Christopher for a scout, after all his steps were barely audible even for his ears so he was either a Rogue or a Scout, not like other stealth classes didn't exist, but those were probably the two most probable and since she was a warrior, he couldn't be a rogue, it was impossible for a rogue and a warrior to survive through the swamp without ending sinking in the bogs.

"He's n..."

She wanted to speak, but felt a kick on her foot.

"Whatever, could we go through the documents fast, my companion is in a rather bad state"

"Don't be shy, you lovin' mice should be the famous lovers from stories, I have heard about humans elopin' an' stuff, but this is the first time I have lived to see the sight, such love can hardly be hidden"

The old dwarf's words gave them both a pain in the stomach.

Vadima wanted to shout "Are you blind!", but she didn't since they still needed the dwarf's help and seeing as everyone there were his relatives, shouting at him would be like insulting all the people there.

Christopher chose wisely to simply ignore him and his remarks, after all he had no feeling for Vadima whatsoever, so what if she was pretty, so what if she was sexy, his heart had already turned into stone.

"Well here we are, the Dwarven bank of our Mine, you will register here, you have two choices first deposit all your items for points and secondly exchange minerals for currencies of different races"

The dwarf explained and then went forth to greet the white bearded dwarf behind the counter.

"Father we have guests from outside"

He said while going a strange hand signal with his hand under his beard.

"He's probably secretly telling him that we're loaded?"

Vadima explained the short silence that followed.

"Dear guests our mines are happy to accomodate a lovely couple like yourselves, now please fill this form and give me your valuables for safekeeping, they will be returned to you when exited the mines or materials of similar value"

The dwarf said, making Christopher somewhat anxious for unknown to Vadima reasons, especialy the moment she handed over the bag.

'A pity I really wanted to have those stones made into jewels'

Christopher thought, of course the stones he spoke about were the three semi-precious uncut gemstones.

Of course he had no idea about their value, especialy their value in the eyes of a dwarf.

The dwarf begun taking out one by one the things inside the bag, weighted them, then took a magnifying glass to look at them closer and then recorded three numbers on a piece of paper.

"Oh silver ore, 2.8kg, 3dp"

"Another silver ore, 3.1kg, 3dp"

"Gold ore, 10.2kg, 10200dp"

The difference between the price of Gold and silver in this world was akin to a 1000:1 as it seemed but he couldn't say why.

"Oh gulok Ore, a fine speciment, 50kg of weight, 2500dp"

He said 50kg, but the piece of ore was so small it could easily fit into one's palm, it was rather funny how weightless the bag had been on his bag due to his improved physique.

"Wait isn't that too little?"

Vadima suddenly interrupted.

"You probably don't know the exchange rate, I give you my Runeheart oath that the price for Gulok ore has fallen in recent years if you find even a single dwarf or human whom would trade it for more than I let my soul leave my body and join my ancestors"

The oath was heavy and Vadima couldn't but curse the orks and goblins in her mind, it was probably them whom had the monopoly on Gulok or and since the prices fell it ment that there was so much ore that the dwarves didn't know what to do with it.

The dwarves were famous Bankers in the Axis world, they even had a strange communication system and a rather complex exchange rate system.

Of course the most important was their teleportation system, they could teleport items from one location to another through a small room they called the storage room, they simply needed to put some coordinates and the room's door would lead to the storage room with the material they want, of course there was a scandal long ago about dwarves artificialy raising the price of their own ores, but the death of a hundred oathbreaking bankers was enough to discourage further such actions and regain the dwarven credibility of course the remunitions paid had also some effect.

"How can it be such beauty?"

The dwarf said with his eyes peeled as he pulled the first gemstone out of the bag.

"Since the Banker likes it how about your make the proceedure a little faster and this gem can be yours, it's a fair deal..."

Vadima wanted to say but...

"No!"

Christopher had another opinion.

"Are you a dwarf or something?"

Vadima asked him, rather angrily, in truth there were three races that were all over gemstones, one was the goblins, second were the dwarves and third were human Enchanters.

"Why do we have to give it away we can simply wait for him to end counting, there's only fourty stones inside anyways, how long can that take?"

Christopher said somewhat angrily, it wasn't greed that spoke, it was unwillingness to give away what he had been carrying for so long without being given anything in return.

"Oh, the young man has some balls, I like people whom aren't tryin' to lick your balls all the time, but the formal proccedure to allow you into the mines takes two days, one day for for checking if your items are your own or stolen, a second day to check whether you are wanted in any Dwarven mine or owe a debt in any dwarven banks and if there is some troublesome matter you might even need to wait for a third day for a council to decide on your matters"

The old dwarf said while a broad smile could be seen on his face as he politely accepted the gemstone into his pocket.

With one gemstone in his pocket the whitebearded dwarf happily listed the other items until he stumbled upon the second gemstone, this one was smaller, but also even more precious than the one before, he greedily looked at the gemstone and then made a puppy face towards Vadima as if asking for it as well.

Once Vadima agreed the speed at which he registered the stones begun to speed up at a fast pace, the third gemstone he simply listed it in their account, it wasn't nearly as valuable and he could always buy one of those for a low price at any jewelry.

The points they were given were a shoking 104086dp, for Vadima whom undertood the value of these points it was a rather good surprise, especialy since the dwarf chose to forgo the two days stay in a prison cell, which was the regular proccedure.

"Lets go towards the healer first and then to find an Inn"

Vadima said as she dragged him away, she had nothing to identify her or how many points they had she simply dragged him away from the bank and into a broadly lit tunnel.

"You see that simbol over there, that's the dwarven rune for healing"

She said while pointing at a wooden board that was placed near a cave entrance.

Going inside they saw numerous caves, each having a dwarf waiting outside, most of them were females and only one was male.

The dwarves females looked like those Chibi characters, they had large heads and eyes, a smaller body and huge breasts, which they balanced on their arms.

Christopher didn't make them for dwarves, but he didn't really care as long as they could heal him.

"Healing rune for only 119dp"

"Curing rune for only 199dp"

"Regeneration rune only 799dp"

The dwarven women begun talking with voices as if they had inhaled helium or something, it sounded rather funny, but their prices were like a knife in his heart.

"I want Curing rune threatment for my partner here, who's the best one here in curing?"

Vadima asked, truth was that runes weren't omnipotent like magic, runes had a large flaw, that being that they need a skill to be used, the best your skill at a specific rune the more powerful its effect.

For example a mage's fireball with a magicality of X will do X damage.

A dwarf's runic fireball with a runic fireball skill of Y will only do X+Y damage, even if his magicality is 20, Of course you might think that there is no difference whatsoever if they train their respective skills as they level up, well that's wher you are wrong. The reason being that magicality is a stat, meaning that with each level they will either way be able to raise it if they want, but a skill point has eight different skills it can go into, meaning that you might level up your cooking skill instead of your rune spell at some point of time or trying to level up two rune spells simulateneously.

"Johlr! someone needs an expensive cure rune!"

One of the girls shouted in a high pitched voice.

From a cave at some corner came out a Chibi woman whose hair was grey.

She was considered an elder of the dwarves, but only her hair were different from the other dwarven ladies.

"The price is at 1000dp"

Old lady Johlr stated and after Vadima agreed she simply clapped her hands and on the spot a large Runic symbol appeared and flowed into Christopher's body, the Fever begun to subside and he could feel his strength coming back, but he also felt incredibly tired.

"Do you also need healing services?"

The little lady Johlr asked.

"There's no need, he'll get better with time, we'll be staying in this mine for some time, but we might in the future require some regeneration rune engraved"

She said as she carried Christopher towards the resting area, or what the humans called an Inn.

The food was rather strange and the ale tasted like piss.

"You don know that what we are eating is the famous dwarf meatworm and drinking fireworm ale"

Of course Christopher could imagine a large enough worm that could be cut for its meat, but making ale out of a worm was his first, well not like he was a specialist or anything in alcoholic beverages.

"Oh, I've already been informed of the lovely couple, we have a good room for two if you like?"

The Inn keeper a goldbearded dwarf came to greet them with another jug of what was seemingly ale.

"You should try this one, it's the best I have and it's free of charge"

The dwarf said while leaving the jug there for them to taste.

"This is rather tasty"

Christopher said, the drink was very much to his liking, like a sweet intoxicating taste taken out of his dreams.

Vadima was somewhat reluctant to drink it, but after hearing Christopher's evaluation she decided to try it.

The taste was trully enchanting, there was no way to stop drinking.

"How is this Wine called?"

Christopher asked he was simply in love with this wine.

"This is something really good, it's called Elven wine, known for raising the mentality stat of those whom drink it, a simply glass of wine can raise your stat by one, nothing like the cheap substitudes used by the human nobility, of course a bottle of this will cost you 10000dp"

The Innkeeper said while smiling.

Christopher didn't know what to say, he was sort of stingy with his money, but he had a sweet tooth for delicacies, this wine was totaly worth it.

"How much are we talking about?"

Christopher asked, seemingly interested, making Vadima want to punch him in the face, she didn't take him for an alcoholic.

"5litres a barrel which you can take with you on you travels"

The Innkeeper said while taking out a small wooden barrel with a faucet.

"If there was some easy way to carry it, then maybe I would take one or even two"

Christopher explained his reluctance, making Vadima even more angry, why would he even need 10litres of wine it would probably spoil even before he could drink it all.

"By the way you seem like a knowledgable man, do you know of other food that raises stats, for instance what about Magicality or Physique"

Christopher asked, making Vadima whom he could have also asked frown from his stupid question, In truth elven wine wasn't even worth that much if you went to buy it strait from the elven kingdom, but as an exported good, they like to sell it for simply intolerable prices, of course the main reason for the prices is because the wine exported is too small of a quantity, there is even a quota of how much wine is allowed to be exported at a time which is tightly controlled by the elves, thus mentaining a stable price at all times.

"The costumer knows me well, of course I won't charge you with that bottle since I said I would not and there is indeed extraordinary stuff to eat, not long ago, dragon meat made its way to our lowly country, it's said that if you eat dragon meat and drink the blood, you will experience a once in a lifetime boost of 10strength and 10magic"

The dwarf said with pride.

"Already tasted, anything else?"

Vadima said, of course Christopher also felt that it was familiar to something he had already experienced.

"The how about demon cores, it's said that if one consumes a demon core they can raise their stats, of course it has to be purified first, it's a specialty from the Country of Ecclesia, although regular cores only increase one stat point, but with mouthly ingestion you can become really powerful"

The dwarf said.

"Or a bloodthirsty demon"

Vadima added, this was the reason that only Ecclesia itself used the demon cores, although there were some whom liked to gamble with their lives.

"If you say you have magic fruits, they I will fall from the skies"

Vadima said, she of course knew that magic fruits, not the things given to the heroes for wellcoming, those were simple stat food, the real magic food were stuff of legends, they were products that only kings could be allowed to consume.

"Of course our small mines wouldn't have something as precious as magic fruits, even the elves won't sell them to others, all they do is make magic wine out of them, which is even more expensive than the one I just gave you, but even so only elven royalty has a chance to drink magic wine or eat a magic fruit"

The man said, but didn't stop as he had a wide smile on his face.

"But what I do know is a place that makes elixirs, they might not be like the famed Greddor elixirs, but believe me they are worth your time"

The dwarf insisted.

"All you dwarves know to concote is fucking drugs, don't act as if it's a secret, all the backsteets are filled with your special elixirs"

Vadima said repulsively and sarcasticaly.

"I swear on the my rune heart, the man makes stat raising elixirs, some even better than the ones created by the ogres, even if you bring the best upraiser you will hear that his elixirs are the real deal"

The dwarf said swearing, making it hard for Vadima to retord. In truth she wanted to curse at him, at all the dwarves, each time she was winning with arguments they simply swore an oath to die if they were lying and won one over her, weren't they swearing a little too easily, did they alter the oath or something in the last decade.

Of course she couldn't ask such a rude question, it would be like blaspheming inside the temple, in Ecclesia it meant death in the dwarven territories it was exile from all their mines and tunnels.

"Then I will have to see the man, but before that do you know anything about magic bags or something that could help with holding things inside"

Christopher asked making Vadima want to facepalm herself.

"Just fucking shut up, If you want an adventurer backpack all you need do is join the adventurer guild, you will be given one for free"

Vadima said in anger, it was all common knowledge after all and even the dwarf was terrified by her fiery temper.

"I have heard that love can make people blind, but you should really think returning her home and elope with some other girl, I know this time of women they are not worth it"

The Innkeeper wispered this advice to Christopher whose face begun to bloat as he tried to hold his laugher with one hand covering his face.

"Don't you dare badmouth this noble lady, behind her back of have you becided that you have decided to part with your manhood?"

Vadima said with her sword in hands, it was a large two handed sworld, that was around the height of an average man, it would be practicaly hard to use it without a high enough physique, especialy since it was made out of Gulok ore, which was incredibly durable and heavy.

Of course to her words Christopher couldn't hold it back and begun laughing, it was simply too cliche, he couldn't keep it back especialy since she acted like a stereotypical warrior lady from movies, did she really think that such threats held some weight or something, might as well kill him, why bullshit with playing mental games just to feel herself supperior it was simply to amusing for him.

"You shut up, I swear that after we get a map and provision I'm going my own way"

Vadima stated, of course she awaited for him to stop her or something.

"Then how about parting right now, we can divide the money in half, each takes his own part and spends it as he likes"

This was Christopher's answer, he of course didn't give a shit about anything at the moment, the adventurer guild sounded good enough and after gaining a few skill books and equipment he would simply go towards the Dungeon pillar, it wouldn't be impossible to reach the Demon king and slay him. Simple and naive thoughts like those traveled through his head.

"Alright, lets go to the bank and do just that"

She said decisively and of course after they went and did some additional paperwork, dividing the 103080dp into two parts, each one of them ended up with 51540dp, Christopher then went and a regular Inn room for the month food involved for only 100dp and went to the alchemist the Innkeeper suggested.

The Place where the alchemist lived was a cave that was rather high, he had to take an uphill path and then pass a few twists and turns to arrive a rathe shaddy cave, there was too little light here and he could see junk all over the place, this didn't even look like a store at a first sight, of course under more carefull examination there was a counter under the trash lying around.

"Is mr Kulriodar inside?"

Christopher asked.

"It's Kurlidandr you insolent human, what do you want inside my store?"

A hoarse and angry dwarven voice came from the dwarf.

"I was told that you sold powerful elixirs that could raise stats and even more"

Christopher answered somewhat irritated, but he really wanted some elixirs.

"Hm, I don't know you seem somewhat weak, too weak for one of my elixirs"

The dwarf that suddenly emerged from the trash said.

He wore a leather helm on his head and two googles hung on his head, his beard was hidden under his grey lab robe and on his hands he wore leather gloves.

"Do you sell elixirs or not?"

Christopher asked once more.

"I sell, I sell, in truth I sell anything that you can see in these piles"

The dwarf scientist said, but sighed in disappointment as he saw that Christopher didn't seem so interested in his junk.

"What's this?"

Christopher suddenly asked, seeing something interesting in the trash.

"That's not for sale, I was looking for that all day, this is a purified demon core, an ingredient I use for making elixirs, it's rather expensive, even the smallest of them costs 1000dp"

Kurlidandr explained.

"Well what elixirs do you have for sale then?"

Christopher asked.

"Well I do have ten different types except of course if you are looking for drugs, then I would advice you to turn around go back the road you came and take the downhill, I'm a respectable alchemist not some drug dealer!"

The dwarf shouted, thinking of Christopher as some drug addict.

"Do you have some bad habit shouting like a madman all the time?"

Christopher asked even more irritated than before.

"Only when I'm angered by some idiot that comes inside asking stupid questions!"

The dwarf shouted once more.

"I wouldn't ask questions if some stupid dwarf had taken out some stupid elixirs and explained what each of them does and how much they cost!"

Christopher shouted back at the dwarf but after that simply begun calming himself down, it simply wasn't worth the stress dealing with this dwarf.

"Alright, alright I have ten original elixirs, five of them for stats and three for skills and two for some bodily alternations"

The dwarf said as he took out a large case that held dozens of potions in rather spectacularly made glass containers, there must have been at least a hundred inside the case, but the most surprising staff was that the case appeared out of thin air.

"So name price and effect of your elixirs"

Christopher stated.

"This red one and the Orange are two similar potions to increase physique, the downside is that they decrease mentality for the red and magicality for the orange, the green increases mentality by decreasing physique and the Blue and Purple increase Magicality by reducing physique and mentality"

The dwarf said while explaining the first five elixirs with some disatisfaction.

"Aren't they defective elixirs?"

Christopher stated it bluntly, in general elixirs increase stats and don't decrease them, meaning that they could not exactly be called elixirs at least that's what their teacher had told them.

"Well I'm not proud of them, but with my tight budget that's all I can make, the ones in the front are the prototypes, their effects are worse than the ones in the back, the final conversion rate is gaining 1 point for losing half, without any side effects, meaning that if you drink an orange and blue elixir you will get a 0.5 gain in both physique and magicality, a red and green will gain you 0.5 in physique and mentality"

The dwarf said rather proud of himself

"Then how much Dp would you need to make a complete elixir?"

Christopher asked somewhat interested.

"I don't know you can't expect of an artist to create a masterpiece simply because he wants to create one, It's divine inspiration that allows art to exist"

The dwarf said looking at the ceiling of his own cave.

"What if I invest in your business, I have at my disposal 50000dp, Of course I don't know their true value, but if you can supply me with elixirs I could dive into the dungeon pillar for some loot"

Christopher's thoughts were rather naive as always, he had heard of investments and the world of shareholders, but he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Wait my good friend, you say you have 50000dp, well that could buy us some muscle and help with a lot of problems lets first go to the bank, whom did you say that sent you to me?"

The dwarf said his eyes sparkling with hope and aspiration.

"The Innkeeper"

'whose name I don't really know'

He thought as he hadn't even asked his name.

"Must be my brother, he's been doing business selling fake elven wine for ages, adding some of my elixirs inside to make dwarven ale taste like wine, he's a despicable fellow, don't ever buy wine from him, they are all immitations and if you hear him swear oaths that he has elven wine, then it's true, he does have it, but won't sell it to anyone"

The dwarf said to his new friend making it evident why the dwarf was so generous in gifting them a bottle for free.

"By the way if you want to erase a skill, remove a skillpoint or mutate a skill the three elixirs are not bad, but the side effects are somewhat painfull, since you will be bedridden for a day or two at the least"

The dwarf said showing the next three potions, of course Christopher was rather interested in his strange creations.

"The last two are rather unique, this one acts similar with the evolution curse, giving some trait of another race to you, I call it the mutation elixir, but this last one is my masterpiece, you see this small bottle that only contains a droplet, this is the monster blood, it can give you the trait of a monster, incredible isn't it, in a way with this you can become half dragon or another race that would normaly be impossible, a pity that dragon blood is so damn expensive, all I have are lesser beasts"

The dwarf said in disappointment, but Christopher's eyes lit up by the word "Dragon blood", the Inn keeper had mentioned something about dragon blood before, so if he could gain the traits of a dragon then wouldn't he be really powerful.

"Lets go to the bank first, since we will be partners in the future, by the name my name Is Christopher"

He said with a wide smile on his face satisfied with befriending a rather interesting dwarf whom could become really useful.

"hold your horses a little and come help me pack, after we enter the bank we are leaving this dumphole, there's no reason staying here, we will be going to Rune King's mountain, if I open a store in the main street there, I can earn millions in a matter of days"

The Dwarf said fascinated by his idea.

"The concotions will be named as Altering Elixirs or lets make it Altexirs or something catchy, yes, Altelixir that would be the new brand, begin packing"

The dwarf said as he directed Christopher to do his bidding, of course two pairs of hands were better than one, thus he simply complied.

On their arrival to the bank however a desperate Vadima awaited for his rescue.

"You need to lend me money, I don't want to work in the mines for the rest of my life, I'm too young and beautiful to die in the mines!"

She shouted while hunging on him like a drug addict.

"Well I was walking the steet and then I reached the dwarven smithy, dwarves are famous for their smithing craftmanship, thus I went inside to look at weapons and of course I fell in love with the sword at fist sight, it was the perfect weapon, but the price was 55000, of course it was a rare bargain that comes from Gods themselves, you have to loan me 4000, since I sort of have already bought it, yes I know that it was an impulse on my side, but it's not a regular sort, just look at it"

Vadima showed a regular two hande sword, there didn't seem to be anything special about it, but when the dwarf next to him saw it, he cursed out loud.

"What idiot would sell this beauty for only 55000, that's a crime punishable by death, he should be hung on the streets and spit on by every dwarf that passes him by!"

"Isn't that so, I too couldn't hold myself but then I remembered that I'm a little short on dp, so please help me this once"

She said in a rather pathetic tone.

"Since you are his woman of course he has to pay for his woman's sword, what sort of man is he if he doesn't even do so much for his woman!"

The dwarf scientist was rather intense, but Christopher was more puzzled as to why every dwarf who met her said that she was his woman, was it the way she acted or something else.

"Yes, yes, take responsibility!"

Vadima said, being even more shameless than usual for some reason, were 4000dp such a large amount, well he did remember 3kg of silver only viving a meager 3dp, but wasn't that because silver was underprised or something.

"Whatever, I don't care, by the way we are going to the capital, as per our agreement you can go wherever you want"

Christopher said making her happy, but the dwarf's face suddenly warped with an intense sense of being cheated.

"Wait isn't she your woman?"

The dwarf asked.

"Did I ever say she was, we were merely traveling together, before our carriage crushed, then we were attacked by wild goblins as we walked all the way till here"

Christopher explained.

"What shameless woman wears the blood or another male than her own husband, this darn swindler just swindled me of 4000 gold, does she thinks that she can go away without paying them back!"

Vadima's face became grim as she heard the dwarf's words, it was true that she had forgotten to clean her clothes, but only now did she remember the world famous dwarven bed play, infamous for its gore and blood, some females even kill their husbands in bed if they are too weak.

"Oh, could you please eplain to me what you're talking about, since we came for some reason many dwarves have mistaken us for a couple"

Christopher said.

"You see when a couple decides that they like one another they then go to the..."

The dwarf was suddenly shut by Vadima's hand, muffling words through her fingers.

"It's a misunderstanding! we human's don't have the same tradition as you dwarves!"

Vadima said in indignation, it was true that she wanted to force him to help her to repay her debt, but she didn't try to deceive the dwarves, the blood was on her because she tended to Christopher's festering wounds.

"Whatever I too believe that you have to pay your debts, so you will be going with me to the dungeon for loots, we are setting a shop in the capital, if tell me your name again"

"I'm Kurlidandr"

The dwarf said rather irritated, the man next to him couldn't even remember the name of his own partner.

"Whatever lets go inside"

Christopher said while trying hard to remember the dwarf's complicated name

"Oh isn't that Kurlidandr, did you come to pay off your debt, or did you decide to increase it again?"

The White bearded dwarf asked rather surprised seeing Kurlidandr in the company of the human "Couple", unless of course if they agreed to pay off his debt, which would be a rather happy occasion for himself.

"Oh, right the debt, I had completely forgotten"

Suddenly Kurlidandr's face went grim, as if the debt that the whitebearded guy spoke about would become a large problem in some way.

"Well the young miss has 55000dp debt in total, subtracting from her own dp, she had she now owes 3460, so since her boyfriend would probably wouldn't allow for her to become a miner I will continue and sub..."

"Wait patriarch, the woman is not his girlfriend, she's just a travelling companion, thus I would like to ask for you to form a contract for the young man's sake"

The dwarf said making Vadima want to smack him into a pulp, but since he wasn't telling lies, she held herself back.

"Non the less the young master will be paying my and the lady's debts isn't that right master?"

The dwarf begun to sulk and begun calling Christopher master for some reason.

"Well your debt to date is 43081dp, after the subtraction you young man have 4899dp left, would you like to take them in gold or would you prefer it in another material?"

The old patriach asked of course his face was glued on Kurlidandr, whom was probably the most experienced out of them in dwarven affairs.

"Master we should first hire an escort goup, since our funds have dimminished by so much we can no longer think of establishing ourselves in the capital, well since you are strong and wanted to go to the dungeon, why not establishing our base of operations in the dungeon, there are even rumors that heroes have begun descending the dungeon, maybe we can gain some dp by selling them my concotions, I'm sure that in a few years time we can easily make a killing"

Kurlidandr suggested.

"How much will that cost?"

Christopher asked not exactly knowing.

"It depends on the individual, most people wouldn't stay in this place willingly, they have a rather large debt, but there are some whose debts aren't so great, but are still sent to this place where minerals are sparse, if you clear their debts, they will become our escort, I estimate that we could get around 48-49 people, of course we at most need a group of eight and since we are already three only five people are needed, I would recomend looking at the adventurer guild, there are experienced people there whom will escort you for free if you clear their debts"

The dwarf said.

"So around 500dp will be spent on the escorts, then we have 4300dp for supplies?"

Christopher asked.

"Nope, we should transport 3-4 thousand dp to the the destination, of course that's after we have finished with the supplies, but we will need at least 3000dp when we arrive there, so I recomend to buy supplies with prudence"

Kurlidandr said.

"Well we should go buy supplies then"

Christopher said.

"Patriach are the contracts ready?"

Kurlidandr asked the whitebearded old man making Vadima want to curse at him even more, why did he even want to follow that idiot whom forgot even what he ate a minute ago.

"Whatever, to begin with I don't care about that woman, I think she will be more of a burden rather than help, but bussiness is bussiness, since she owes me 3460dp, there's no way around it, she can only blame herself for buying a stupid sword"

Christopher said as he was about to sign.

"Say another word about the sword and I'm gonna gut you with it, I'm sure that the dwarves here will understand my feelings, even the smith himself will be willing to pardon me for such an insult to dwarven culture"

"Oh so dwarves are so stupid as to go into slavery for a single good sword, so if I take that sword and give it to the elder here he will willingly become my slave or will the blacksmith whom made it even know if you use that sword to cut tomatoes at home, what exactly is an insult to culture, let me say what insult to culture is, what is an insult to dwarven culture is buying a sword to use it to mine rocks in a mine, would you be able to even use it if you were mining, let me ask you another question about insulting culture, accepting bribes is an insult to culture don't you try lecturing me about insulting culture, when the people themselves don't respect their own culture how do they expect others to do so"

The patriach's face begun to twist a little, "the truth hurts" was the right phrase to express his current situation.

It was true that most dwarves didn't abide to cultural rules and became more modern and unrestrained, corruption was also a problem but the most important thing was that they didn't care about their creations anymore, they didn't even name them like in the ancient days, since materials nowadays weren't hard to get like then, the craft had also fallen, in the old days a sword like the one that woman held would be called a masterpiece and kept by the craftsman as a signature of his talent for generations to be proud, but today it was sold at a saleout for not even half its real value, this was the degredation of their own culture that had long begun, in a few years even the oath to the Rune heart would become a farce to trick merchants, some dwarf swindlers have already touched such taboos, what could he say about the young man whom wasn't even a dwarf belittling a masterpiece that was put on a saleout.

In truth the Patriarch wanted to go and punish the smith, but he didn't have the authority for such a matter, he could only hold it inside and hope that the sword will become famous in a "woman's" hands. Another feeling of nausea came over the patriarch.

In truth dwarven women were only good at too things, healing and cooking.

The dwarves had no women warriors, or at least didn't encourage women to become warriors, of course it wasn't forbidden, but being a woman warrior made people look at her as if she was a lesbian in our modern society, weirdly.

Even Kurlidandr whom wanted to rebuke had nothing to say, since his own brother used petty tricks to overcome one of their greatest taboos.

As for Vadima, she was shocked to the core, she was a muscleheaded warrior, she had never thought things deeply before, but she knew that countless ancient traditions have been altered or even abolished with time, although she couldn't tell if that was bad or good.

"Elder I presume that our business here is done, we will see you later to transport some points to another location, I hope to trouble you in preparing the papers for later"

Christopher said as he turned away, leaving the shocked people behind.