The 12 Venerable of Davalon, the first Dwarfian Kingdom on the surface are like 12 great symbols of honor for the people who live there, even the King of Davalon needs to show considerable respect when talking to them.
The benefits that they can earn inside the kingdom were above the royal prince and princess of the kingdom. But those who had built the kingdom themselves, how could they be moved by such things?
They all lived freely in their time, sharping their skills, traveling from one place to another to learn and discover new things, they had no interest in status or entering politics, but would their decedents and inheritors be the same?
A lion's son can be a lion but it cannot copy the temperament of the king at birth. An inborn King? It's just a phrase used to hide the incompetence of a prince who became the king because of the bloodline.
Not all the venerable left behind descendant, but the title would be passed down, the 12 Venerable left behind 12 inheritance ground in Davalon and also at other places those who cleared the trials got their card, the card was the chance for the inheritor to inheriting the venerable' signature technique and if they succeed in inheriting their signature technique then they would become the next venerable. After becoming venerable, their family and many more people started using this title to earn status, make connections… for benefits, for fulfilling their desires.
As a result, the families of those inheritors turned into big clans that claimed to be direct and qualified inheritors of the venerable. Once someone had given in to their desires and tasted the feeling they cannot stop, so those families started to train their younger generation in a way that they could master the artifact refining techniques in a particular way that could help them inherit the venerable' title again later on and their clan could keep the status.
But there were still not 12 clans when there were 12 Venerable because the trial left behind by some of them for inheriting the title was too hard and strange for the inheritor candidates to solve. Their hardness level was so high that people started to doubt if those venerable were even willing to pass down their titles.
One of those venerable was… Alfred D Wolford.
His trial is now seen as a joke. Till today not a single one had succeeded in passing his trial ground much less succeeding his signature technique.
With time people eventually gave up on trying to inherit his title.
Then one day, which is today, someone comes to Davalon with the card of Venerable Wolford that can also serve as the proof of passing the trail and use it as an Identity Proof to enter the underground city.
The old dwarf couldn't put what he was feeling in words.
He felt like the whole kingdom was being thoroughly insulted by the young man in front of him.
The feeling he got was similar to when we see someone chasing a housefly with a Gatling-Gun in their hands.
The other dwarves were also stunned.
Rex turned and looked at them in confusion, he was feeling a little embarrassed from all the gazes directed at him.
[Dwarves don't have any interest in males, do they?]
The second he heard these words, Rex inwardly shivered.
"You people, what are staring at. Listen you guys I am a married man who loves his wife- wives and I also have a mischievous five-headed kid, moreover, I don't have any interest in males, so remove those dirty thoughts from your minds. And yeah, I verified it right? So I am going in, don't try to stop me," Rex said in a loud tone, he then took out a bag filled with spirit stones, placed it on the side then dashed inside the igloo.
Everyone's face became dark.
Especially, the old dwarf, if it was before he would have taken out his shoe and throw it at Rex's face but things were different now.
He took a deep breath then scanned through all the peoples in the surrounding.
"No one will spread what has transpired here today, understood?" The dwarf shouted.
"Understood!" All the guards shouted in unison.
The old dwarf saw them following his orders but was hesitant inside, he knew that although they were his trained men, it won't be surprising if there were one or two moles hidden within them.
After a moment of thought, he took out a wooden talisman and sent a message.
He then ordered all the guards to go into seclusion immediately and not to come out until they are told to, after doing that much he ran into the igloo to follow Rex.
When Rex entered the igloo, he found a tunnel going downwards. He dashed forward and soon came to a hemispherical room, the room was also made of crystals, the surroundings were visible due to the dim light emitted by the crystal walls.
A transmission array platform was present at the center of the room.
It was an advanced version of the transmission array created by dwarves that can be used without having to load it with spirit stones every time after the use.
Rex stepped on the platform and the array below his feet shined, just at this time Rex looked at the tunnel and saw the old man running towards him.
'They still haven't given up? Do I have to resort to Mind Control after all?' Rex thought.
"Friend wait!" The old dwarf shouted and waved his hand at Rex.
Rex almost jumped back in fright.
'Friend? What medicine he had eaten in the morning? Or is it because of the card?' Rex thought.
The old dwarf came to Rex and stood on the platform with him. The array had already started so before Rex could speak, they both disappeared from their place and appeared in the Underground Vrusallon.
Rex opened his eyes and looked around, he was standing on the transmission array platform near a wall, he scanned his surrounding and realized that he was inside a stadium-like place, it was an oval-shaped area but was tens of times bigger than a stadium.
There were also several gigantic tunnel entrances around the edge having equal distance from the adjacent ones. They were for entering and exiting this area.
Rex then thought of something, it was an underground city so how was there daylight here, he looked up.
There was no sky, it was like he was inside a very big mine, the ceiling was more than 100 meters above him, countless colorless crystals were growing out of the ceiling. The light emitted by those crystals was bright as sunlight, if one doesn't look up they might not even realize that they were underground.
The temperature, flow of air, moisture in the air… everything felt natural.
In front of him was a market, shops and stalls were arranged in rows and columns, they were in a matrix formation.
The market was bustling with buyers and merchants. Rex saw the several elven beauties he was looking for, every single elf women he saw had a young girl like appearance, some were blonde, some had green hair, a few had white hair and there were even those with silver hair.
It was because of their subspecies, there are forest elves with green hairs, normal ones are blonde, white hair is mostly for dark elves and silver are for high elves who are like born noble but have low fertility rate so their number was the lowest.
It was the trading season, so a lot of people from the elven kingdom comes to trade resulting in so many elves coming here.
"Sir, is it your first time coming here?" The old dwarf asked with a smile. He first called him a friend but then after thinking that being overfriendly might cause dissatisfaction and backfire he chose to respectfully address Rex as sir.
"Yes, seriously man do I look like some thug to you? Why are you chasing me for so long?" Rex said. The second he had heard the old man calling him 'Friend' his attitude towards the old man had changed, he also wanted to confirm his doubt.
"Hehe… No sir, it's not because of that. You have a card handed down by the 12 Venerable generations if we let you wander alone here like any other person then it would be disrespect to 12 Venerable' authority, so how about you let this old man accompany you?" The old man said with a smile.
'As I thought, this old man is trying to sail with me to raise his status. Looks like this card had way more importance than just a discount in price. Hmm… In fact, it's better to have such relation, a profit-based relationship is better than him getting all friendly for nothing and he can also act as my trouble avoiding shield while I am here,' Rex thought.
"I see, so you should know about the places here… right?" Rex asked.
"Hahaha... Of course, sir I was born and lived here all my life. Let me start from my introduction, I am Olaf, I'm responsible for the security management of the city entrance here," Olaf said with a smile.
He knew that after the news goes out there would be many who would come to get the piece of the pie so he took the head start and approached Rex.
"Then Olaf, I am in a little hurry, that's why I want to go to a place where I can buy these things at once and I want to do it quickly," Rex said as he handed the list to Olaf.
The list contained a lot of things starting from, spirit grade herbs, transformable clothes, precious metals to edible goods only found in this region.
Olaf looked through the list and stroked his beard a few times before replying.
"Finding all these things at the same place may be harder for a normal person but for Sir… We should first go to Bond Of Steel tower, we could find most of the things there and if my guess is right sir will be able to get the rest of the things too," Olaf said in a meaningful tone.
"Let's go then," Rex said.
"Sir, don't rush, I have called for a carriage, it should arrive any moment now," Olaf said.
"Carriage? No need," Rex said and waved his hand.
The blue Desert Queen that was lying peacefully in inventory until now appeared on the ground before him.
The door on Rex's side automatically opened, Rex stepped in and sat on the driver's seat.
"How long are you going to stare like that? Come sit here quickly, don't waste my time," Rex said.
Olaf didn't understand what was this weird carriage but he still followed Rex's order and sat on the seat next to him.
If it was before Rex wouldn't have taken out the car to act low key but now that he had begun to understand the value of the card he changed his mind, for him, it was an opportunity to make free money and name for Frozen Flame.
Rex changed the gears and kicked the accelerator, the engine of the car gave out a low roar, and the car dashed forward.
...Vroomm...Vrrooooommm.....
The sound of the engine seemed to have a certain charm to it as it attracted the attention of several people in the market, and when the car dashed into the distance, it again surprised them, it didn't have any beast pulling it but it was still moving so fast and smoothly, it's blue color, three pair of big tires, its overall design, the onlookers found these things quite amusing. Moreover, they had never seen such a thing before which greatly piqued their interest in it.
Rex was directly going to enter one of the big tunnel-like passageways but when he saw so many onlookers staring at him, an idea came to him, he decided to put on a display, he changed the gear and increased the speed heading towards the wall in front.
Olaf who was in shock until now saw it and his eyes widened.
"Sir, look ahead, there is a wall, right... turn right," He quickly said.
"Hehe... No need, just tighten your seat belt and keep sitting," Rex said, he moved his hand down and grabbed the emergency brake lever.
The second, the car accelerated everyone's eyes got locked on to it, they felt some pity for the beautiful carriage that was about to crash, but they were also inwardly... excited. After all, the carriage wasn't theirs to begin with, so why would they like someone else to have it, this is called... jealousy.
But contrary to their expectation, when Rex was some distance away from the wall, he pulled the brake and spun the steering wheel.
..Sccrrrreeeeccch...
The friction between tires and ground gave a low pitch sound as the car took a long drift, making a perfect curve then heading on the road into the gigantic tunnel on the side of the wall.
The only thing that got left behind was complete silence...