Crumble!

The wall gave way and a cloud of dust covered the miners, who shouted in alarm at the destruction.

“Evacuate!”

Panicked footsteps and squawks filled the dwarven mines as the cave structure started to give way. Nothing out of the ordinary prompted this landslide. When this happened, the adept labourers were mining at a new section for stone and laying new rail tracks for the improved minecarts. Nobody was expecting it, least of all, Rino.

From above, Phil cringed as the compromised structure collapsed onto Rino’s minions. Some of the weaker and slower labourers were trapped beneath the stones, while others stepped over them. There were casualties as Rino’s mana kept trying to heal their physical wounds while they groaned in agony at being consistently impaled by sharp rocks and broken pieces of metal.

Rino was in the secret library when he heard a low rumble in the distance. All of a sudden, there was a very disturbing sense of foreboding when the spike in chaotic feelings invaded his mind through his subordinates’ soul bonds.. If it was merely one or two individuals, Rino would filter that out. However, hearing over thirty distressed calls for help and some in increasing agony made the lich drop what he was doing.

Were they under attack?

Watching his mana level, Rino concluded that something big was happening but not big enough for the more important combatants to be mobilised. Sheila was already at the site, giving Rino a detailed report of what she saw while the other drows and even earth gnomes who came with them started helping to evacuate the trapped shadow workers.

When Rino finally arrived at the sight on Mutt’s back, the sabre tooth wolf quickly helped with the rescue mission. The drows and earth gnomes were doing well to clear the path, but they were not fast enough.

Looking at the hole in the ground and the pile of dirt that fell through, Rino tried to see what caused the ground structure to fall through. According to the site surveyors, this area was safe to dig and build on. There was enough stone and solid ground spaces beneath them that Kamiya’s clan helped to reinforce. They even laid the mana web array through, but whatever was underneath this stretch of new mine appeared unnatural.

Jumping down, Rino’s dark vision kicked in. Even without light, he could still make out several shapes in the darkness while the rescue party busied away.

Looking up, Rino could see why they fell through the hole. It was simply this one spot that wasn’t reinforced with rocks. The flimsy wooden trapdoor buried beneath the guise of stone flooring could not hold up the weight of several trolls laying the new rails.

The hole in the ceiling turned out to be a trapdoor with some broken ladder that led upwards. His subordinates managed to stumble upon a new section of the mine from a secret entrance that nobody knew existed until now.

Previously when Rino sent Bink and one of the espionage experts to recce the area, they told Rino that it was a half-abandoned tunnel project. The dwarves stopped digging the tunnel for some unknown reason, and it was left undeveloped because there were no mineral veins detected in the vicinity.

Thinking back, he should have found it suspicious. The more odd a creation, the more suspicious it should be in the dwarven mines. Rino experienced it many times while he was exploring it in those two weeks. However, he was too focused on transcribing the dwarven stone plates that he overlooked how there could be a trap hidden in plain sight.

He felt slightly apologetic to those who were injured, but not all that happened was bad. The fact that his subordinates stumbled onto an unexplored dwarven secret that Rino did not find was exciting. 

As the rescue party pulled out all the trapped members underneath the huge rubble pile, Rino took a quick gander around the new secret area.

The new area had many crates and strange creations. There were bars of metal stacked on pallets that remained intact despite the years. Initially, Rino thought that this was a secret storage room. It was full of dust in corners and knick-knacks. 

However, the number of proper equipment for working with metal made him question what kind of place this was. The tools were nothing like the bulkier hammers and anvils in the grand furnace room or smithing workshop. Workbenches were lying around, and chairs that told Rino this was more than just a storage room.

What kind of work would the dwarves use this place for if this wasn’t a regular storage area or smithing room? There were no fireplaces or water sources around. The room was very dry, and the ventilation here was poor. The air was stale, and the well-preserved wood condition told Rino they were doing something delicate here.

The size of the tools used here lying around the workbenches was also small and fragile looking. What Rino thought was a small lockpick at first glance turned out to be a very tiny chisel. There was also a miniature hammer and some very small and thin knives in a set.

It took Rino a long time to understand how these tools were used.

After waking thrice around this new workshop, Rino finally spotted a difference between the bars and weapons hidden in the room.

Those bars were so covered in dust that without light, Rino thought they were copper bars. However, when he summoned a small light spell using a pre-carved rune, Rino saw that the metal bar wasn’t brownish or reddish. If anything, it was closer to yellow.

Could this be…?

Glancing back to ensure that his subordinates were still busy with the cleaning up duty, he turned back to the mountain of yellow metal bars. In his previous world, just a nugget of this yellow metal would make neighbours kill each other. A wife would plot her husband’s murder if a rich man tossed them a coin made from this precious metal.

Yet, in this world, the dwarves stacked them up in the open like nothing. Maybe it wasn’t stacked up in the open. This workshop was hidden under a trapdoor in what appeared to be an abandoned mineshaft. If Rino wasn’t looking for new stone mining sites, they might not discover this until later. 

Gold!

This metal was gold, and Rino could finally understand why the tools in this workshop looked very different.

Dwarves loved their metals. That was almost universal lore. However, their love for metals varied from world to world. Back in Rino’s previous world, their love branched into something that bridged magic and technology. In this world, the dwarves’ love for metal branched into something closer to art.

Art might seem useless at first glance. Back in his old world, Rino always scorned jesters, singers, dancers and painters. However, as a noble, he was forced to learn a thing or two from established teachers as part of his etiquette lesson. Art was the language of gods and a way of the upper class that Rino thought of as an utter waste of time.

However, he was beginning to see why art was important in this world. With art, Ubel created the offering station statue. With art, they created a highly efficient grindstone. With art, the dwarves created low-levelled artefacts to breathe life into their creations.

Yes, that’s right. On these workshop benches were tools for crafting. They were the tools that Ubel did not know he needed. Every line that was carved spoke of immense concentration. Every little chiselled curve engraved a tiny piece of the crafter’s soul.

In this workshop, the tools of man were given a chance to become tools blessed by gods. The carvings on the small dagger handles and dagger sheathe were incomplete. However, Rino could see how different it was from a regular plain wooden scabbard for the blade. The metal on the blade also had a small signature carving near its hilt.

This must be the name of the smither engraved into the sword collection. Back in his previous world, Rino often heard stories of god smiths who only forged a limited number of weapons in their life and never more. Those weapons were said to possess their owners and had a will of their own. If someone unworthy tried to steal or use them, the weapons would place a curse and kill their owners until a worthy weapons master came along.

It was such a strange tradition that eastern warriors must be buried with their weapons after death to prevent them from turning into vengeful corpses after death possessed by their weapons. Rino almost tried to defy the tradition just to see if they would really turn into zombies.

Needless to say, the magician’s tower did everything it could to stop their crazy court magician from dismembering a dead eastern swordmaster just to confirm the rumours.

Now, there were no magicians or empires to stop him from testing the tale out. Rino wondered if he could groom a swordmaster with the special sword collection created by dwarves. If they were good, he would invite them to join his shadow empire and offer them the position of a royal bodyguard just for kicks.

Oh, who was he kidding? Rino shook his head at how crazy his thoughts were becoming ever since he came to this world. He was so crazy that it almost sounded sane.

These dwarven relics should not be so easily given away. As a matter of fact, Rino turned around and chased everyone else out of this workshop. He called dibs on everything here, and anyone who disagreed would simply just have to agree with him.

Having absolute authority felt good, and Rino wasn’t beneath abusing it.