Chapter 2157: Eastern Dwarves
"Abra Cadabra?" Althea said as a joke, and Garan shook his head and rubbed her head, silently asking her to be serious. In fact, he didn’t need to say this.
This next task was actually quite interesting to Althea, who had an inquisitive mind by nature. How could she not be curious about clever traps found in the middle of nowhere?
Although she knew there were likely people (or creatures) responsible for it and likely still alive in the area, it gave off the feeling of exploring an old temple or something, like Illinois Jane.
Before, they did not have the time to study it because the changes happened too fast. When they tried to pry it open, some sort of alarm went out. It seemed to attract a mob of monsters to them, so they had no choice but to run without looking back.
Althea was an array master, and this was her job to study. While she studied the arrays of the place, Garan led the others to defend them.
Althea saw many, many arrays in a portion of the wall, most of which were unfamiliar to her.
However, arrays had rules in them. Even if you hadn’t memorized them, as long as you understood how every line, curve, or dot worked and what they represented, one could eventually decipher what the array was for.
Some patterns seemed unfamiliar to her, though, so she knew she would take a while.
She looked at Garan, at Sol, and the orcs. "I’ll be depending on you in the next few days."
....
The next few days were definitely a struggle.
This was the windless side of the wall, so they could attract monsters just by standing in place. Now, they had to stay in place so they could only defend.
Garan had long created an ice wall at an awkward angle at the edges, replenishing it occasionally when he had excess energy. These would at least make it difficult for most monsters to cross without hurting themselves a bit.
The orcs were at the edge, ready to claw monsters’ eyes or hearts out. Sol had also settled down at the edge, swiping the monsters trying to climb at the side. They would either fall off, slide down, or get pulled out to be eaten—it all depended on Sol’s mood.
It did, however, learn not to shoot too much unless there was a dense cluster of monsters on a side. That way, the attack could at least be maximized. However, since there was a recovery period, it was not recommended.
The other two wild roots were also not idle; it was just that they had to create a field for them. For example, Althea took out some soil from the space for Truffles to use as his base. It didn’t have to be too big; there just had to be soil that could bury its whole mass.
Apparently, being on home ground gave it more energy, so when it bumped into monsters, the damage was more serious. If damaged, it would also recover faster in soil.
Fortunately, Althea had a large space, and she did have several cubic meters of soil, primarily because the soil in the Hollow Forest contained a lot of compounds very good for plants. So, when she stayed there for a long time, she also dug out a lot of soil, day by day, because why not.
Lily was also working as a fighter rather than a hair ornament this time. There was a nice lower depression nearby that could be filled with water. Althea, a water user who liked to just summon water from her space, took in a lot of water because she had the space for it.
In this case, she happened to have taken a small pond’s worth of water from the large pond Lily was found in.
One person or orc would rest in rotation, but only for a couple of hours. They were also expected to eat and drink during this break. The campsite was next to Althea, who was also tirelessly working, and they were also there to make sure she was eating.
Fortunately, the wild roots could at least feed themselves well. They’d just grab a monster if they needed sustenance and consume them right then and there.
Three days passed by in a flash, and it was early in the morning—just after dawn—when they heard something shift from behind, like a large stone was sliding.
Finally some progress!
...
Inside the wall, activity had already begun.
There was a massive cave complex inside the granite mountain, but it was carefully done and allocated so the sturdiness of the mountain itself was unaffected. Of course, part of that was because the mountain itself was so large that even housing a civilization inside would not cause it to collapse.
At its thinnest section, the stone face granite mountain was at least a hundred meters in depth. There was plenty of space to carve out living spaces in the middle while still having ample thickness that no one would be able to tunnel through to them from the outside.
Xenoan granite was reinforced by aether, making it particularly sturdy. Even when slightly hollowed out, it would not be easy to go through it, even if one was the highest-level powerhouse.
Inside was a massive tunnel system that was pretty much a world on its own.
In terms of area, it was no less than a top village. The population was not that high compared to humans, but—with a population of a few thousand—was still a staggering number considering dwarves were so rare.
There were dwellings that lined the interior walls, from the floor to the high ceilings; there were various gadgets and even small cars. Though the carts weren’t very fast, they were much faster than the inherently slow dwarves.
The elevator from the outside, rarely used, would lead to the foyer area. Inside, there were various carts that went through the rail that traversed the entire tunnel system. The carts on the rail were manually operated, but they connected through every major cavern. This rail had existed for decades.
The day was going on as usual, unaware that people were already deciphering their door outside.
Generally, their watching crystal was not activated for all 28 hours of the day. It consumed energy, and there were only so many of them. Everyone was busy with their own tasks every day.
Speaking of the crystal, a few youths felt a change in themselves after watching the human man fight against monsters, all alone.
Watching him made them realize that there were so many more things out there. They did not even know what humans looked like before they saw the water-freezing person.
Unexpectedly, in one of the caverns, one youngster asked a solemn question.
"Elder, what is our mission?"
They hadn’t questioned this before. It was just how it is, even amongst elves. Unless something unusual happened, they might not know something wasn’t right.
But then they saw those humans and how hard they fought and felt empathy. Were they really as bad as the stories? Some humans might be evil, but these two were okay.
The elder, tinkering with a trebuchet, looked at him and nodded. "Our mission is to open up the walls!"
They had been doing this for as long as anyone remembered.
"Why?"
"That is just how it is."
"Why?"
"So many questions," the elder grumpily said, slapping the heads of the young dwarves questioning him. "Have you done your jobs? Do you want me to hang you upside down?"
The young dwarves flinched in terror and pretty much disappeared in place.
The Elder, Vasto, breathed a sigh of relief.
Dwarves, once promoted to Elder status, would become privy to a lot of things, whether they liked it or not.
They would be granted access to the old records, and they could read all the way to the beginning if they wanted. Elder Vasto happened to be the kind who absolutely loved reading, so he was aware of what had happened back then.
The first dwarves of this tribe had been part of the forces under quasi-elves. At the time, the quasi-elves were already extremely powerful.
Pseudo elves were naturally preferred by the world. Their ancestors sacrificed for the world, and it gave back similarly. This was why many elfblood were considered lucky, though naturally of different degrees and ways. Regardless, even the unluckiest elfblood is definitely much more fortunate than the average human.
As for why the pseudo elves wanted to create a path between the two sides of the walls, it was naturally fueled by hate.
Humans had few natural enemies due to their abilities and strength, especially with the backing of the system and the territories that protected the civilization even further.
Orcs, with their passively strong physiques, were great ways to make the humans suffer and counter their reign.
The dwarves, who were taught to hate humans from a young age, all passionately looked forward to it.