Denizens of the Labyrinth

Sadé had walked beside him in silence and by the time they made it back, she still hadn’t spoken a word to him. He almost made to speak to her but a shout from the courtyard drew his attention. He felt a strong presence and once they entered through the small pathway they had made, he saw dwarves. Strong dwarves in beautifully made armour clutching their array of weapons. At the forefront of the hundred dwarves, he saw Frae. Frae the dwarven king of Orevalor waiting and smiling at him.

“Brother you are well!” Frae roared as he pulled Jazmel into a crushing hug.

“I am well.” He smiled and hugged his friend affectionately. He took the moment to turn and introduce his party members; now his faction members too. Frae greeted them all and turned to look around the courtyard of the outpost and whistled. “This place is in need of a lot of work.” Frae squirmed and Jazmel nodded, he had known that too.

“I asked you hear for that help, truthfully. Even at the cost of this.” He pulled out the dwarven coin he had gained from Frae but Frae closed his palm around it and shook his head. “How can I not help you, when you helped me already?” he scoffed and Jazmel looked a little shy, but he offered it again.

“COME ON BOYS! LETS GET BUSY!!” Frae shouted at the hundred such dwarves he had with him and Jazmel looking over them all, could see in the few days he had been gone; they had been using the system extensively. Many of them were filled with Mana, so bright that he almost needed to shield his eyes from seeing it.

“Look.” Frae said and between them a notification popped up.

KING FRAE OF OREVALOR IS OFFERING AN ALLIANCE

…

WILL YOU ACCEPT

Y/N

…

He accepted and the system trilled, and he imagined all that were present gained the same notifications of the confirmation of the alliance shared between the dwarves and the black wing faction. The system between him and Frae flared up again and a new notification showed for him.

OREVALORIAN DWARVES ARE OFFERING HELP IN FORTIFYING YOUR BASE

DO YOU ACCEPT?

Y/N

He again accepted and immediately the system showed what was needed to be sorted. Frae whom was already well versed in this side of the system began calling out orders and commands, his dwarves split up into roving groups.

One such group began moving around the courtyard and began surveying the area, looking at what needed to be repaired and how they could or would repair it. there was around twenty-five of them in this group led by an older dwarf who Jazmel had seen in the mine back in the lost gate but had not learnt his name. he began walking the length of the courtyard and when he had done a full length a notification popped up.

DWARVES WISH TO USE MANA ESSENCE TO REFURBISH THE COURT WILL YOU ACCEPT.

Y/N

12000 MANA ESSENCE NEEDED

…

NOT ENOUGH MANA ESSENCE

…

Jazmel pointed to the courtyard corridor he and Sadé had come from. He explained to Frae that there was a Mana mine in that direction. Frae sent twenty dwarves after the Mana and told them to bring the crystals back but also see the quality of the mine. They left in a hurry, shambling along in their thick armour and hobnail boots.

“What is in the tower?” Frae asked, turning to face Jazmel again; Jazmel explained what was on each floor and Frae nodded at each description. “And below ground?” he asked Jazmel and Jazmel admitted he had not been there.

“Well let’s have a look, come with us boys.” He ordered and the dwarves followed him, Jazmel follow with Sadé and AI rode on his shoulder. When he entered the tower again, he found Baek and Patton descending the stairs. Introductions were made again, and they descended to the lower ground. Underneath the ground floor was a large chamber; massive in size. The chamber was round, it reminded him like the temple beneath the ocean. But this one was empty, there was no pool in the middle, but instead it was just a large expanse of space.

“You can make this into anything you want!” AI shrilled from his shoulder, and he figured what he would need.

“Well, that depends on what you think you’ll need from the faction?” Frae said, and Baek nodded in kind. “Will you keep resources down here, will you add another mine, will you build a vault. What do you hope for when regarding your idea for your faction.” Frae explained and Jazmel nodded, thoughtfully he understood.

“It would be a promising idea to have a forge, we would need to be able to create our own things. Getting the items, we can rely on merchants and hunting. But we need someone capable of making whatever we need.” Jazmel said and Frae coughed, and Jazmel looked at him confused but waiting. “You are literally considering building a forge and you are wondering who would build the best items for your forge and you are surrounded by an array of dwarves.” Frae said with a smile. He was offering his help and Jazmel knew it, but he couldn’t take too much from him. He already had so much help already.

“Don’t look at me like that Jazmel. You saved my people; you helped us return to the labyrinth after being locked away for hundreds of years. It would be an honour for any of us to stay here and help your people build a faction. Don’t be ridiculous, I came to help. We came to help. Let us help.” Frae scolded him, affectionately but it was true. They were friends after all if he couldn’t ask for help. Who could he ask.

“Well, who of you will stay?” Jazmel asked and the dwarves huddled together before three dwarves stepped forward and crashed their fists to their chests in salute. He recognised them immediately, they had released the dam together, but they were completely different now, stronger and before they had the ruddy clay like colour of the other dwarves but instead these three were all darkened and ashen. Like stone or rock.

“We will join you my Lord.” The first fell to a knee, his fist still over his heart.

“What is your name?” Jazmel asked and the dwarf nodded. “I am Gorin, and this is Bolin and Palin.” He beckoned to either side of him. “We will join your faction and help you start a forge here. I ask a small boon though.”

“Anything.” Jazmel offered and the dwarf smiled.

“I ask that you let us bring our families here, we would hate to leave them.” Gorin asked and immediately Jazmel helped him up from his kneeling position. “Of course, you can, in truth. We are just setting up; we barely have living quarters set up. But if they do not mind living rough while we set up our space. They are welcome.” Jazmel offered and with a salute he and the other nodded and turned back to thank their friends.

“Jazmel.” Frae called and he turned to face him. “You need to give Gorin the position of Forge master, let him build the forge as he needs.” Jazmel agreed and flicking the system screen up, he pulled offered the three dwarves positions in the Black Wing Faction.

…

WILL YOU OFFER FORGE MASTER TO GORIN OF OREVALLOR

Y/N

…

Jazmel accepted and the system chimed and changed again.

CONGRATULATIONS!

…

A FORGE MASTER HAS BEEN SELECTED

…

GORIN THE FORGE MASTER OF THE BLACK WING FACTION IS REQUESTING ACCESS

WILL YOU PROVIDE A LAYOUT PROVISION FOR A FORGE?

Y/N

Jazmel accepted and the system shrilled a song of confirmation and immediately Gorin got to work, the layout provision appeared as a schematic before him and he and the other two began to figure out what how they needed the forge before letting the system work on it.

GORIN TIER II SEEKER HAS JOINED YOUR FACTION

AS HE IS THE FIRST OUTSIDER TO JOIN

A BONUS WILL BE OFFERED!

…

THE FORGE WILL NOT COST ANY MANA ESSENCE

ONCE CREATED MANA ESSENCE WILL BE ESSENTIAL TO GROWTH!

DO YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER?

Y/N

Jazmel grinned and immediately he accepted. Gorin clearly got the same notification because he and the other two began working even harder on the layout schematic.

GORIN HAS OFFERED THE TITLE BLACKSMITH TO BOLIN

GORIN HAS OFFERED THE TITLE BLACKSMITH TO PALIN

…

CONGRATULATIONS!

EXPERIENCE IS KEY WHEN BUILDING A FACTION

AS ALL MEMBERS OF THE FORGE ARE HIGHER THAN A TIER I

A BONUS HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE FORGE!!

…

ITEMS WILL BE EITHER TIER I OR II WHEN COMPLETED IN THIS FORGE

UPGRADE THE FORGE TO RAISE THIS!

Jazmel gawped at the screen, he was so shocked that he turned and explained to Sadé and Baek what the system stated.

“Let’s leave them to build their forge.” Frae said and leading his fifty odd dwarves back up and out of the tower, Jazmel followed with Sadé and Baek on either side of him. Patton decided to head back to the map room and continued to climb the tower.

DING!

…

THE MANA MINE HAS BEEN FORTIFIED AND THE MANA CRYSTALS ARE BEING COLLATED

CURRENTLY YOU HAVE;

MANA ESSENCE

4500/60000

Jazmel wasn’t surprised at how limited his current supply of Mana essence was, he was hoping that the mine would allow him to build a steady reserve, and this was a bigger hope than he thought. But to his joy, dwarves who had delved into the mine were already on their way back, carrying; pulling and dragging crystals from the mine. Jazmel asked AI what to do with the crystals and it explained that he simply had to pull them into the central node like a storage ring.

“That seems quite messy though?” he said, and it agreed but sighed. “You need to repair the faction more and then it will allow you to connect with the mine and the source will allow you to pull from the mine. For the time being, it will have to be manually.” It explained and he nodded, noting that there was still a lot of work to do.

“Can I give your dwarves some quests to do?” Jazmel asked and Frae smiled. “They are hungry for hunting, any chance at new monsters and levelling up, they are invested.” Frae growled and Jazmel nodded. He raised the system screen and looking at the tasks. He presented everyone with the same quest.

BLACK WING FACTION QUEST!

HUNT THE TIER I AND TIER II MONSTERS AROUND THE OUTPOST!

…

MAKE IT SAFE AROUND THE WALLS WHILE THEY ARE BEING REPAIRED!

…

REWARDS;

STATS

EXP

Immediately the dwarves roared and rushed out the front gates of the courtyard, all the remaining dwarves hurried out to hunt, two remained as guards for Frae and looking at their Mana. Jazmel could tell they were amongst the strongest. They were ashen grey like Gorin; his new forge master. Jazmel asked and Frae laughed.

“Oh, it’s part of the tier tribulation, as you know. We were out of the system for a long time and as such when we connected, we all had lots of stats and exp to move around. Then we had to pick classes and traits. It was a lot to do, but thankfully after the troll swarm. We had a lot of resources to tier up. But with the same resources, we had the same classes offered to most of us. They are the Golem Guard; they are a kings guard if you will.” Frae explained and Jazmel nodded, understanding but a little sad that they all shared the same sort of classes.

“Don’t make that face! We are only glad to have the system and they can change their skills and class with hard work and grit!! No dwarf is worried about this, I can assure you.” Frae said, reading his emotions easily. Sadé who was still standing beside him giggled a little and Frae winked at her. “Don’t let your sadness upset the pretty little girly.” He said and Sadé and Jazmel both looked away, suddenly embarrassed at their closeness.