"Down!" Stone yelled. His mineral's instincts were drawing him deeper into the underground.
"Up!" Dafur shouted back at the pebble in his hand. He wanted to live.
"Stone, he is right. Let's go up. We will die deeper down. You cannot even imagine the horrors that lurk there. That lake Monster was a prime example. We need you to level up and evolve. And I need time to train too," Lucifer reasoned.
"I want down! I don't like up!" Stone stubbornly repeated.
"Why?" Dafur and Lucifer asked in unison.
"It's wrong! And traitors! Constant movement! Annoyances!"
Lucifer facepalmed and groaned. "We go up, you stubborn moron!"
"Down!"
"Up!"
They bickered like that for a few precious minutes.
"You know what? Up there, it will be easier to level up! More good feelings!"
"Easier?" A crack appeared on the Stone's iron-clad defence of constant repeating 'down!'..
"Yeah! Imagine that!" Lucifer knew he was making a mountain out of a molehill. There was another reason he did not want to go deeper into the Abyss; he knew jackshit about that place, bar the general knowledge.
"Wait for a minute, why am I askin' a freakin' piece of pebble about t'is?" Dafur muttered and reflexively wanted to stroke his beard. "Dornus dammit! Mae beard…" he sobbed. He missed that beard so much… It was almost like a loved pet. No… not almost… It was a loved pet…
"Well, seems like we don't have an option," Lucifer commented, satisfied as the dwarf made the decision for them..
"Tche!" Stone clicked his imaginary tongue.
"Where did you learn this?"
"What?"
"Being stubborn, cheeky and clicking the tongue when you have none."
Stone mentally shrugged and Lucifer felt a rage swelling inside of him; so, in the end, he was raising a teenager.
The climb took a whole three hours. The 4 metres wide and 7 metres high shaft was steep and without stairs. The path was wholly abandoned, however, Dafur could discern traces of usage and even cart tracks.
"Luci, I have decided," Stone proclaimed as they swayed in the pocket.
"Hmm? On what?"
"I will find out more things that feel good."
"Really?!" Lucifer joyously exclaimed. "Ambition! He has ambition! With that, I can work with! Gods did not abandon me!" He inwardly danced.
"Loud!" Stone protested as in was not as much inwardly as Lucifer thought.
They arrived at a circular small cave. Next to a natural fountain and tables with stools was a small house carved into the mountain. Against them were four shafts, marked with dwarven runes.
Dafur examined each rune separately. "Hmm… three shafts lead towards outposts of the Army of the Abyss. No way It'll come close to them. One leads… I don't know that runa but looks menacin' and I don't wanna find out…". He paused at the last rune, with bulging eyes. "Dornus ass! This one leads to the Arn-Dul's maze!" He could not believe his luck.
Dafur put Stone and the keg on one of the tables and tapped it. He deeply inhaled the beer's smell and opened the tap above his mouth.
"Luci?"
"Yea?"
"What is he doing?"
"Getting drunk."
"Oh, does that feel good?"
"Sometimes, yes. From what I was told."
"Do you think I can get drunk?"
"What do you think? You can't drink or eat. And doesn't need to, you little monster! No, Monster! Plus, I don't want to deal with a drunken you." He inwardly shivered.
Meanwhile, Dafur sang a dwarven song about mining and beer between chugging down the whole keg.
"Mine~, mine~, mine~, metal, stone, gem!
Drink~, drink~, drink~, the beer is plenty!
Break~, break~, break~, the goblin's head!"
Nobody said that dwarfs were good composers or singers.
Dafur was slapped with a bluish wall and a high-pitched "Loud!".
At that moment, they heard hurried steps from the shaft they came from.
☁☁☁☁☁☁
Chaotic druegars' village
It took three hours to placate Shul-Gahat. Many villagers must have been sacrificed for this. After the Monster was done with their devouring, he sank back to his lake and closed his single eye.
Inside a temple, an explosion reverberated as the 4th-rank shaman's mana discharged from him.
"Darkul dammit! What happened?" The leader of the village exclaimed as he returned from the hunt with experience and resources. The village was in heavy disarray. Many dead bodies were piled up before the temple while Shaman-Ganra was losing his shit.
"Chief! Ya are back!" One of the guards shouted over the square for everyone to notice. They surrounded him and talked over each other.
"In the Darkul's ass, what happen'd here?!" The chief thundered, agitated. He rapidly walked towards the shaman. The crowd stepped back from him, forming a corridor, "Shaman-Ganra! Explain! Now!"
"Chief-Tadra…" The shaman abruptly turned towards him, his rage receding.
"So?!" the chief impatiently inquired.
The shaman explained everything with the nearby guards adding a few details.
On the village leader's face appeared a grave expression, "How many?"
"Five high-levelled and three mid-levelled guards, twelve villagers, and someone ransacked mae temple."
"What?!" The chief exclaimed, his mouth slightly gaping. Such significant losses were unheard of.
"Shaman-Ganra! The blighted druegar is missin'!" One of the guards came before them.
"What blighted druegar?" The chief was confused.
"Ah, I forgot… We found a crazy, blighted druegar near the Shul-Gahat's lake. He said somethin' about losing his stones there," the shaman grinned at the joke. He was still angry but did not dare to show it before the chief.
Chief-Tadra blinked a few times, trying to hold his laughter. Next, he handed out orders to his elite guard squad. This was not a good day for him. Not only was his class rank-up delayed by the prey that ran away, but when he returned, he found this mess.
"We shoulda send a few guards for that druegar. He can't be too far away and could know why Shul-Gahat awakened so soon," the shaman proposed.
The chief nodded in agreement and called out, "Guard-Jarka!"
"What do ya wanna, chief?" She stood up in attention before him.
"Go with Shaman-Ganra; he'll prepare a new hunt."
"As ya wish," she answered and left with the shaman back to the temple. It was cleaned up by his assistants. The shaman was fuming. Many of his riches were gone.
The shaman split the group into two. One group would go up, the other down. He would be going down with three elite hunters, while Guard-Jarka, a 3rd-rank warrior, would go up with two hunters.