“What kind of a problem are we talking about?” Vin asked, casually leaning against the metal couch and doing his best to look like he wasn’t absolutely freaking out on the inside. As much as he wanted to ask if Nohral’s small problem was in any way related to a certain petian, he wasn’t dumb enough to incriminate his friend like that.

  “Something he does not want discussed where others might hear,” Myndra said bluntly, her eyes narrowing as if she could tell he was hiding something.

  “Fair enough,” Vin chuckled nervously. “Can I at least ask why he wants my help? No offense, but you guys seemed just a bit untrusting of outsiders.”

  Myndra stared at him for a few seconds longer, letting the silence linger as her frown deepened slightly. Vin couldn’t shake the feeling she was waiting for him to crack and start spilling his true plans about how he was only here to destroy Valdora from the inside. After it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, she finally answered.

  “I don’t know the details, but Nohral mentioned it’s because you claimed to be an Explorer. Now stop asking questions and come with me.”

  “In that case, you guys go on ahead without me!” Shia said, giving the dwarf her best award winning smile. “We elves are particularly sensitive to heat, so I think I’m going to stay here and do some meditating where it’s… well, not colder, but less hot I suppose.”

  Grunting, Myndra turned and began walking. Vin could only assume that was her version of ‘suit yourself,’ and he quickly followed after her. Just before the door could close behind him, he heard Shia mutter directly in his ear via Whispering Wind.

  “I got Scule, you deal with that.”

  Vin didn’t even get the chance to nod before the guards slammed the door shut once more, cutting off line of sight and ending the spell.

  As they walked, Vin did his best to ignore the almost literal blanket of heat bearing down on him. He thought he’d get some small amount of relief from his soaking wet clothes, but the blistering heat dried them within moments. If he hadn’t been walking through a town of people going about their daily lives down here, he would have called this temperature unlivable.

  Resistance lvl 18! 1,800 exp gained.

  Well that’s something, Vin thought, wiping away his sweat and dismissing the notification at the same time. Honestly, he’d been shocked his Resistance hadn’t leveled up sooner from this ridiculous heat, but he supposed the closer it got to twenty, the more difficult leveling the skill was going to become.

  Despite the winding and maze-like alleyways Myndra took him through in order to avoid the populace, thanks to Mental Map, Vin quickly realized they were not headed in the direction of the large building they’d been in earlier.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Nohral’s problem is something he would prefer to keep private from the rest of Valdora,” was all she said, not even turning around as she led him further and further from the center of town.

  Myndra tried her best, but it was impossible to keep him completely isolated from the other dwarves on their way to wherever it was they were going, and they passed by a few as they walked. Most gave Vin curious looks, but the moment their eyes landed on Myndra and her frown they quickly found something else to occupy themselves with, as though they wanted nothing to do with the armored woman.

  That’s some reputation… Vin wasn’t exactly getting the sense that the other dwarves were fleeing in fear of her or anything, but more so that they knew trouble often followed her and they wanted no part in whatever mess she’d been tasked with cleaning up this time. Maybe she’s basically whatever these people’s version of a sheriff is.

  It wasn’t long before they hit the edge of town, and Vin suddenly found himself standing directly in front of the Crater wall. Unlike the area with stairs that they climbed down to enter Valdora in the first place, this section was a near vertical cliff face. Nobody was climbing that anytime soon without magical assistance.

  Based on the slightly more run down buildings and lack of general noise, it sounded like this portion of town was all but abandoned for whatever reason.

  “So…” Vin said, scratching his head as Myndra stopped and looked around as if to ensure nobody was following them. He’d call her paranoid, except they had been followed by quite a large crowd the first time they’d walked through town. “...Where is Nohral?”

  “In here.”

  Raising a fist, Myndra punched the crater wall, and Vin flinched back at the sudden bang of her metal clad fist connecting with solid rock. Before he could ask what the hell she was doing, he froze as a large chunk of the rock wall melted away, revealing Nohral standing at the mouth of a small cavern.

  “Ah Myndra, thank you for fetching him so quickly,” Nohral said, smiling at Vin before glancing around. “Where are the others?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Relaxing back in the house you so graciously let us use!” Vin quickly answered, sweating for a reason entirely unrelated to the unbearable heat. “Myndra said you only asked for me because I was an Explorer, so we figured they were fine to hang back.”

  “I suppose the fewer people who know about this the better,” Nohral said, reaching into a pouch at his side and popping a gleaming chip of metal into his mouth. The crunching of teeth on metal was slightly disturbing, but Vin tried to keep his face neutral as the dwarf made short work of the metal chip. “Of course I don’t expect you to keep it a secret from your friends, but you will see what I mean in just a moment.”

  Nohral motioned for him to come inside, and Vin ducked under the dwarf sized entrance that had been magically created, blinking as he stood up inside a small cave of some sort.

  The first thing he noticed was that the temperature within the cave was actually a bit more bearable than within the Crater proper. Small cracks in the stone floor revealed tiny rivers of lava flowing within them, illuminating the cave in a warm, flickering orange. As soon as Myndra entered behind him, Nohral reached out to either side of the entrance he’d created, laying his hands on the exposed rock.

  “Stone Shape,” he muttered. With surprising ease, Vin watched as the dwarf worked the stone as if it were no harder than clay, reforming the wall and sealing them inside the hidden cave. Unlike Vin’s Stone Wall spell, Nohral managed to recreate the wall as if it had never been altered, returning the entrance to the same state it was in before and flawlessly hiding the cave from anyone that didn’t already know it existed.

  “Why all this secrecy?” Vin couldn’t help but ask, watching the dwarf carefully examine his wall for any flaws as he crunched down on another metal chip. “What’s in this cave that’s so dangerous you have to go to these lengths to keep it hidden? And what exactly am I supposed to do about it?”

  “As I’m sure you know, when The Shattering happened, our small town of Valdora and the surrounding land were snatched up from our world, deposited on this new one by the very Gods we worship,” Nohral said, completely ignoring his questions. “Despite the fact that almost none of us will ever willingly leave the Crater, thanks to Vaghel, we quickly learned the truth as to what happened. None of this is news to you, correct?”

  “No, it’s the same everywhere we’ve gone,” Vin nodded. “The name changes, but everyone experienced the same cataclysmic event. Their small portion of the world they lived on was stolen away and used to create Edregon, and their levels reset by the Gods.”

  Vin technically knew even more than the dwarf did thanks to his direct conversation with the Goddess, but he saw no need to go around advertising that just yet. He wasn’t exactly close friends with the dwarves or anything after all.

  Satisfied with his work on the wall, Nohral turned to him, frowning. “What if I told you that wasn’t all the Gods did?”

  Vin stared at the dwarf, wondering just what the man knew. “What do you mean?

  “This cave you’re standing in right now?” Nohral said, opening his arms and gesturing to the walls all around them. “...this didn’t exist prior to The Shattering.”

  “Huh?” Vin blinked, wondering what he was getting at. “You’re saying the Gods didn’t just move your fragment from your world to Edregon… But put a new cave in the Crater as well?”

  “Not exactly new, no. The cave always existed, but it was much smaller than this, and it ended after going only a few dozen feet into the side of the volcano. In fact, it was a popular... meeting spot for young dwarves looking for a few minutes alone away from prying eyes,” Nohral admitted, a slight chuckle escaping him. “Hard to find privacy within the Crater before you own your own house after all.”

  Vin heard Myndra grunt behind him, and Nohral cleared his throat, the rough skin of his face turning a faint pink. “Apologies, that bit probably isn’t really relevant. The point is, this was once a small cave that didn’t really go anywhere. Now however…”

  Nohral paused, gesturing toward the dark tunnel illuminated by small streams of lava that stretched off and down into the ground. “Now it leads… somewhere else.”

  “So according to you, after snatching up your fragment, the Gods decided to renovate your ‘make out cave’ for some reason?” Vin clarified, finding this entire story a bit ridiculous. Based on how Nohral and Myndra had tried to keep them from interacting with the other dwarves, part of him wondered if this wasn’t just some oddly elaborate plan to get rid of them one by one. But if that was the case, he felt like they could have easily come up with a few dozen ideas that were simpler than whatever the hell this was. They had access to a giant pool of lava for crying out loud.

  “Essentially, yes,” Nohral nodded. “I will say, the tunnel isn’t empty. Before I discovered it, a small handful of lavaskips and molten men burst forth from the cave entrance, killing dozens of dwarves in our weakened state before we were able to put them down. It was while I was heading the clean up effort that I discovered the strange addition to the cave and realized that had to be where the monsters came from. After that, I ordered this portion of the town to be abandoned and sealed off the cave. Only three dwarves in the entire Crater are aware of the strange tunnel. Myself, Myndra, and Deorer.”

  “Deorer?” Vin asked, thinking back to the angry smith that had snatched up Alka. Nohral and him hadn’t exactly seemed to get along all that well. “Why does he know?”

  “I needed someone to investigate the tunnel, and only a master smith has the defenses required to survive going toe to toe with such monsters without risking severe injury or death,” Nohral explained. “Myndra is by far our most capable warrior, but fighting skill does one little good when your opponent is a being half made of magma.”

  “So what did Deorer see down there?” Vin asked, envisioning the angry smith yelling at a lava monster desperately trying to melt through his seemingly fire proof skin.

  “Nothing. He refused to investigate,” Nohral sighed. “Deorer and I don’t exactly have the best relationship. When I made my request, he told me to… Well, suffice to say, he refused. Said to just keep the cave blocked off if I was that concerned.”

  “Not to tell you how to run your town, but why not listen to him and just keep it blocked off? Wouldn’t that solve the problem without risking anyone’s life?”

  Nohral hesitated, as if unsure if he truly wanted to tell Vin whatever he was about to share. After a moment, the dwarf must have decided he was in too deep already, as he sighed.

  “I need to know where the tunnel leads… Because there’s more than just monsters down there. A few weeks back… something else walked out of the tunnel.”

  “Something intelligent.”

  was entirely unrelated to Scule and Reginald! Crazy how that happens sometimes!

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