LTW[R] Book 2 Stronghold & Secrets: Chapter 11: Epitomes and Dead Mana Signal

A/N: Four-twelve's friend's name has been changed from Milo to Olim to better serve the reference. I hope some of you got it, btw. I think it's quite clever.

Sadly enough for Lone, there was no time to study Soph's Barrier Magic any further that evening.

Soph herself kept him busy until the last possible moment prior to dinner with her body. After eating, Sophie took control and had her way with him too until the 1st bell rang, signifying that it was 1:00AM.

An interesting fact about the bells in Milindo's cities of Ros, Ranton as well as the dwarven stronghold of Krieg Moor, was that all bells between 22nd bell and 6th bell were dampened by magic to make them barely audible.

That made sense to Lone since it'd be ridiculous to be woken up by a massive bell ringing every hour. Of course, as a foxkin, his advanced hearing rendered the dampening effects null and void.

He just got used to it in Milindo like the sound of a train passing in the middle of the night or heavy thunder. Regardless of this, however, he cursed his high SP. Vigour has its benefits, of course, but those benefits had come back to bite him in the ass.

It being linked to SP directly gave him an ungodly amount of stamina for his respective rank. Now, of course, Lone was a man like any other and he was truly infatuated by Soph and Sophie's adult form, but to him, it was like she was a succubus with no end in sight when her lust was put into question.

Lone groggily got up at 5th bell, thankfully without the help of a nightmare today and he mumbled to himself, "Women are scary. I get that I'm ready so quickly and for so long thanks to my stats but Sophie's stats don't lean towards the physical ones. Sheesh. Must be tough on guys back on Earth who have sexually demanding partners..."

He got out of bed, stretched, then got about to waking Soph. In the back of his mind, he wished Sophie had remained in control when she finally decided to go to sleep since she was a far better morning person.

It took his a good full 10-minutes of constant pestering to awaken the little sleep glutton. "I swear, Kyuubi's only so lazy because of your influence," he said as the two of them walked with Breena by their side, all fully equipped for their adventure.

"You should be more like Breena. She's great at getting up on time," Lone added with a small sigh.

Soph stuck out her tongue rebelliously. "Blame the bed for being too comfy. Your tails too! If I could cuddle them at all hours I don't think I'd ever wake up."

Breena tried her best to distance herself from the conversation by slowing down slightly so she was walking a little bit behind her saviours instead of alongside them. 'Mistress Sophie is weird. Why does she act so differently at times? Half the time she's serious, cool and admirable. The other half she's very... panda like. Cute, lazy, a bit curious but ultimately kind of useless.'

Pandas were, surprisingly, also on Altros. They were rare due to being very weak and succulent but one of their natural habitats happened to be the Crimson Foxkin Clan's land. They were protected there so Breena had plenty of time witnessing the lovely creatures before she was ripped away from that lifestyle.

She knew of Soph and Lone's unique skills, of course. Well, most of them at least, however, she still hadn't really been informed of Soph's mental condition nor her split personality so she'd been left to fill in the gaps on her own.

Likening one side of her to a panda and the other to an admirable role model seemed to work fine for her, personally.

"By the way, Soph, you did prepare everything for Kyuubi to stay in the Summoning Room for a few days on her own, right?" Lone asked. "I get that she's a bit slothful and a smart girl, but she's still a baby fox."

Soph nodded. "Mhmm. I made sure with Sophie that she had enough food, litter and plenty of toys to play with if she feels active."

"I doubt that last one will happen but we can hope I guess," Lone said. "Anyway, looks like we're here."

The group of three had long left the city-proper of Krieg Moor. A very interesting thing regarding the underground mini-kingdom was that, of course, it had no sun but it surprisingly had fields aplenty.

Of course, ever the inquisitive mind that he was, Lone asked Steamforger Wilbur why and how the fields existed.

The answer was simple, really. The why was to cut off any possible reliance on trade agreements with less than selfless foreign nations.

Supposedly the united dwarven councils had once relied on kingdoms from the surface for food supplies and that resulted in many wars for their mineral wealth.

If they removed the cause of such wars and the issues that came with them, then why wouldn't they? That made sense to Lone. As for the how, steamforged artefacts. While a fake sun was indeed present in the city, that didn't actually produce any heat, only light. It also didn't reach out to the farmlands.

The solution was one that Steamforger Wilbur had actually come up with himself in his youth. He'd supposed led a team that tirelessly worked to create portable fake suns. However, these suns actually worked like the real one and could help sustain vegetative life unlike the one's used by kriegs as light sources.

The fake suns used for light were genuine massive steamforged constructions that used magic to produce the light, so the plants couldn't consume that light under threat of over 90% of the crop dying, according to Steamforger Wilbur.

Lone, Soph and Breena had passed many of the fields supported by they own little eco-systems and they - mostly Lone - marvelled at the sight of the numerous steamforged artefacts that were used to aid in the agricultural efforts, the portable mini suns included.

Finally, they had come across the 14th entrance to the Farwinds of Krieg Moor. The entrance itself was an isolated cavern with a 50-foot tall ceiling.

A giant and very intricately muraled gate of metal lay at the end of the chamber. On either side of the walls of the room could be seen a pair of massive stone dwarves, one of which had a complex mechanical pickaxe on his back while the other had his right arm outstretched and in his grasp was the handle of a mysteriously designed lantern.

"Dwarven architecture sure is beautiful," Lone muttered. "Really, these statues are amazing... Really putting stuff like The Thinker or the Liberty Enlightening the World to shame. I wonder if they represent real people?"

"They sure do," a gruff voice answered.

They all turned to see a beardless and heavily scarred dwarf staring at them. Of course, this man was Four-twelve.

He was leaning against the entrance to the cavern and on the floor next to him was a massive backpack.

He kicked himself off the wall and picked up his rucksack before putting it on and saying, "We call 'em Epitomes. Dwarves who've mastered something so perfectly that even the blue screens can't do their ability justice with just a silly skill system."

He gestured his head to the statue on the left and said, "Epitome Brugar the Stout. Fuck'r was known as the pioneer of mining. Legend goes he carved out the Farwinds all by himself with his trusty pick. I don't know if that's true or not but what's for certain is that all of the caves he ever excavated provide kriegs continent-wide with ore and rare minerals. Even to this day and he died hundreds of thousands of years ago."

"That's incredible. And the other one?" Lone asked, his inner historian eager to learn more. "I'd wager an... explorer? Maybe a guider of some sort?"

"Interested in our culture, eh?" Four-twelve asked with a grin. "That's Epitome Frumgear the Keen - the world's best explorer, as you guessed. At least, according to the dwarves he was. Bloke supposedly discovered 95% of all of the ancient ruins the Farwinds connect to. Dedicated his life to it. Hence why his statue is here since like Epitome Brugar, he's a key part of what make the Farwinds what they are."

"There are more Epitomes?" Lone asked.

"Oh, aye. Plenty. A few hundred, at least. Small number when you think about how many hundreds of thousands of years have passed since the dwarven races united," Four-twelve said with a shrug. "In fact, little old Krieg Moor might birth a new one soon. Or death one, heh."

"Death one? What does that mean?" Lone asked in confusion.

"Folk only get epitomized when they die. Every dwarf gets his life reviewed by the local council who then passes on noteworthy life records to the grand council. Boring shit if you ask me," Four-twelve replied.

"You know, dwarves may just be my favourite species thus far. This kind of culture is right up my alley," Lone joked as two notifications filled his vision.

[The host has witnessed the magnificence of Epitome Brugar the Stout and has listened to a portion of his tale. Moment added to the [Ordinary moments and sites of history witnessed or created] list of the skill [Historical and Cultural Appreciation].

Learn more about Epitome Brugar the Stout to upgrade the tier of this moment.

Stat bonus from moment: 5 Strength.]

[The host has witnessed the magnificence of Epitome Frumgear the Keen and has listened to a portion of his tale. Moment added to the [Ordinary moments and sites of history witnessed or created] list of the skill [Historical and Cultural Appreciation].

Learn more about Epitome Frumgear the Keen to upgrade the tier of this moment.

Stat bonus from moment: 5 Luck.]

'Kind of would have preferred new knowledge but can't complain about free stats,' Lone thought before he said, "By the way, sorry for being a bit late. I didn't expect it to be as long of a walk it was from the city to here."

"Don't worry about it. I've been waiting for ages to bury Olim anyway," Four-twelve shrugged.

"Thanks. This is Sophie and this is Breena," Lone said, introducing his party.

Four-twelve nodded and pulled off his backpack before taking a sealed urn out of it. He then passed the urn to Breena. "You're the weakest, right? Just hold this and make sure it doesn't break."

"Your friend's ashes?" Lone asked.

"Yeah. That's Olim," Four-twelve answered.

Breena wore a slightly concerned look but still accepted the task. "I... I'll try to be careful."

"Can't ask for more than that. Well, time's a-wastin'. Let's go. The branching path Olim was born in is a bit of a ways in, though like the quest notice said, only danger's Darkness Spawn. You know what they are and how to fight 'em or you need a briefin'?" Four-twelve asked.

Lone smiled in shame slightly and replied, "Unfortunately, I have never heard of Darkness Spawn before coming to the krieg. I'd be pretty glad if you could let my team and I know what to expect."

"No worries. Everyone starts somewhere. Better to be ignorant and askin' than ignorant and arrogant," Four-twelve mumbled before he started to explain the monsters to Lone.

As the four of them walked, Lone received a telepathic message from Sophie who was now in control of her and Soph's body.

'This dwarf, he lacks magic. We did not even know he was in that large cave when we first arrived until he spoke,' she said.

Lone had a small desire to refute that it was just a 'large cave' but he could hear the urgency in Sophie's tone so he replied via The Summoning Room's telepathy with, 'Is that important in some way? I'm splitting my attention from Four-twelve so forgive me if I don't immediately pick up on what you're trying to say.'

'No, we understand. Put simply, all things have magic in them. We believe Soph has told you as much once or twice in passing, but we must emphasize that means everything. Even corpses, grass and the walls surrounding us. This... thing, it has no magic in it at all,' Sophie claimed once again.

She looked at the short beardless man's back and narrowed her eyes uncomfortably beneath her helmet. 'It unsettles us more than we can accurately convey, Lone. It is like we are blind to him. Never before have we been unable to see our surroundings with our Mana Sensing. Were it that our eyes still did not work, he would be a ghost to us. He is magically invisible and it concerns us greatly.'

"Ah, I see. That certainly explains the bronzy-brown colouration of these bricks. Thank you, Four-twelve," Lone replied verbally to the still chatting dwarf as he nodded slightly to Sophie. 'I see. I understand why that would unsettle you. Honestly though, we know far too little about this world to make a judgement call now.'

Sophie frowned. 'Can we not simply abandon this quest and do another? We are... uncomfortable in his presence.'

'For all we know, Sophie, he could have a strange disease of something that masks or removes all traces of mana from his body. I don't think we should jump to conclusions like this. This is a good quest for us to stretch our legs, earn some more points towards our next adventurer promotion, and it's also a chance for me to grow stronger through killing these Darkness Spawn,' Lone countered.

He glanced down at his fully-armoured lover and sighed faintly. 'If there is any trouble whatsoever, like, at all, I am willing to Mental Destruction him and then you teleport us out, okay? I promise you, I am not doubting your intuition but this is important to me. I took on the quest, I want to finish it. Four-twelve, thus far, seems like an okay guy.'

Sophie fumed a little internally before she finally grit her teeth and nodded. 'Fine, but only because we trust you and value your opinion. We know it means a lot for you to commit yourself to murder again after what happened in Milindo and we truly appreciate it.'

'Haha, thank you. You don't need to be so considerate of me though. I'd likely struggle to kill a kid, good or evil, sure, but a fully grown man with malicious intentions against us? I didn't hesitate to kill King Heidron and I felt no guilt in doing so. This will be the same if you're right,' Lone answered with so little emotion that it scared even the mentally-hardened Sophie.

'We... we see,' she replied then stopped communicating via The Summoning Room.

"So, Four-twelve, the notice said you'd share war stories. I assume you've been topside since you lack most of your accent. Got any interesting tales for a curious foxkin?" Lone asked with a slight grin on his lips.

The dwarf chuckled a bit. "Yah know, I like you, Ninetails. I do have a story or two, in fact. This one time, I was workin' as a merc for this big fuck-off goblin that rules a kingdom full of the green little fuckers. Crazy, right? A kingdom of goblins... Anyway, we were up against a clan of pissed of Bengol War Trolls..."