Through Bella, I was able to communicate with Isaac and discovered that the Archmage had a device that would allow for the transportation of people and objects from one place to another. It was actually two magical staves that, when activated together, created a magical portal between the two locations and were wide enough for carts to pass through. It can be a little risky, and while Isaac had offered it to the Duke, he had decided upon trusting the sea for the women and children rather than a powerful magical device created by the Archmage when the Archmage was not present to oversee its use. But there would not be time for us to march from the Dwarven Hold to Keelwell before the goblins arrived, and it was impossible to create enough teleportation rings. We had no choice.

  But given this new means of transportation, plans changed and additional dry foods and supplies were to be shipped in Dwarven carts led by dwarven Iglars, a kind of giant, short-tailed lizard used like horses or oxen, but were a better fit for the width, heaviness, and height of dwarves.

  I toured multiple armories and met with the Dwarven masters and shared Red’s armor ideas with them. They were intrigued by the Imperial armor, having read about it in texts, but did not have any examples of it in their halls. They thought that they could do something, but would have to get back with me. In the short couple of hours I spent with them, however, I earned another point in my armorer crafting, advancing me to an apprentice skill level.

  This rapid tour and hands-on practice was followed by a similar experience, but this time with the Dwarven masters of weaponsmithing. I likewise earned another point in my weaponsmith crafting skill, advancing me to an apprentice.

  The gem mines were truly amazing, and they used mining techniques I had never read about before. It was not something that easily found its way into a history book. The dwarves were very secretive, as I well knew.

  Their gem mining started with clearing out a large rectangular room that could be hundreds of yards long and wide. In this space, they then mined downward in patterned holes through a continuous corkscrew technique, searching out caches of gems or other precious raw materials. If a large deposit was located, they mined it carefully and made new hallways and halls out of the space. It was in this way that they were continuously expanding their domains. There were huge sections of the Hold that had been abandoned for centuries. There were many stories about dark creatures that inhabited different sections that either drove the dwarves out or that crept in after the space was abandoned.

  While mages were not common among dwarves, they did exist. The mage guilds in our Hold consisted of all eleven main guilds, with elementalist mages of earth being the most numerous, of course. They were not numerous, but all guilds were represented, and earth elementalists were certainly used in mining efforts.

  A new section would not be approved by the king for mining unless the site was confirmed by a master elementalist, the gem workers guildmaster, and the mining guildmaster. The mountain was rich in minerals. And while it is known as the Copper Mountain, it was formed from a massive block of zebra colored metamorphic gneiss with plates of mica schists. We dwarves love the mica schists because of the chance of emeralds being located in their rich layers. The mountain was cut by massive layers of igneous rocks containing enormous copper ore deposits, which were wrapped above and around by sedimentary layers.

  All this is planned in meticulous detail with expansion space planned out in advance, with several future locations chosen and approved up to a century before the first chip of rock is removed. The space I was standing in now, interestingly, will be used for a new gem guild hall since the other hall is pretty far removed from the central halls. Guild halls are relocated over time as excavations progressed. In general, dwarves expand out in segmented wedge sections, and in the past decade, they have returned to the main halls and started a new expansion outward. These expansions are part of a ten-thousand-year master plan with roughly a thousand years scheduled per segment. These segments, called a carpel or lith, resemble the wedges found in an orange or lime.

  I also learned that the techniques used vary widely based on the individual stage of mining. They begin by flattening out a region where stone is stored and powdered, supplies are stored, and temporary habitations are built. Then shafts are dug down in vertical spirals in search of gemstones. When gemstone is reached, it is mined and cleared with vertical pits created only for access and ventilation. The stone around the gemstone deposit is cleared out in an attempt to estimate the size and quality of the deposit. This location they were showing me had five pits, and the size of the workspace and habitations built nearby showed that the space had been worked for some time.

  Guildmaster Druella Ubermafic was excited to share, “This was the largest emerald deposit ever found, and we easily have another century or more yet to go before the entire deposit is excavated fully.” She noted proudly, “The great hall that is forming below us will be magnificent, and the masons' guild expects to work on it as a monument to the discovery for the next two or three centuries.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  We experienced the dangers of mining moments after her pronouncement when half a dozen trolls emerged out of the furthest corkscrew tunnel. A dwarf miner had the misfortune of stumbling upon an open cave system inhabited by a small troll clan. The trolls emerged like sharks out of the deep.

  A guard in the back was holding off three large trolls with just a stone pickaxe. She was protecting a group of miners and somehow managed to keep all three of the trolls from snatching victims and jumping back into the shafts. Trolls were known to grab one or two dwarves at a time and disappear deep within the mines where none dared to follow.

  I saw two things firsthand. First, dwarves were extraordinary warriors. All dwarves, regardless of guild, whether mage or miner, priest or merchant, all served their terms on The Wall and learned to fight with several weapons. With nearly fifty years of required service from each dwarf broken up over seven seven-year terms, they got to be good with their chosen weapons. Each dwarf spent around a quarter of their lives in military service to the Hold. It was culturally expected.

  Second, I had heard of the regenerative abilities of trolls, but it was fast and terrible. The dwarves tried to attack one troll as quickly and fiercely as they could to prevent their regeneration, which would start the whole thing over again. I saw both a success and a failure within a minute of each other.

  One troll had ventured out further than the rest and was set upon by a dozen dwarves with weapons designed for this kind of battle. Roughly half of them closed in and attacked with axes, while the other half attacked with Dwarven Copper halberds from further away. The troll was overwhelmed and was cut down.

  Another group with fewer dwarves attacked and severely injured a troll, cutting off an arm and a leg. But the troll had made a trumpeting sound and went still. The dwarves attacked with renewed effort, but the troll was covered in stone, and they were literally hacking at what appeared to be a large stalagmite, but one made of granite and not limestone.

  I was told that trolls are usually attacked by stealth, and sometimes the missing dwarf was not even noticed until the next shift roll call. But this troll clan attacked all together. They really had swarmed out of the hole like a pack of sharks.

  And then it dawned on me. I could use a lesson in a very different location for good use today. Trolls had to be in contact with the ground to regenerate.

  That was their weakness. Not a major one when you are always underground, surrounded by earth on all sides. But it was a vulnerability that could be exploited by an enchanter who used this trick on a different kind of shark.

  I pointed at the nearest troll, who had just made the trumpeting sound, and used a SUS levitate ring on it. As I lifted it up and away from the ceiling, floor, or wall, I quickly reached for a bag of rings in my robe pocket. I had made a collection of these rings not long ago to share with the Watch Commander and Ranger Commander for scouting purposes, but had not delivered them yet.

  One by one, I put on a ring and levitated a troll. As soon as each was off the ground, the dwarves swarmed it and cut it into pieces.

  It was only after the sixth and last troll was destroyed that I saw an arm sweep out of a different corkscrew mine and grab an unsuspecting miner from behind.

  Nobody else saw him get taken.

  “Follow as you can!” I shouted as I ran and dove into the mine shaft headfirst, my staff stretched out before me for light.

  I plummeted for only a couple of seconds before I triggered another levitate SUS ring that I had replaced on my battlestaff while the troll was getting pulverized.

  The spiral mine shaft was not smooth and had edges and ledges. I needed to slow my descent and control it a bit more, or get shredded as I fell. I kept the troll in my sight until I had to slow my descent slightly.

  Soon, it was out of range and pulling further away.

  Still, I plunged into the dark. The calls of the dwarves above grew fainter.

  If you insist on taking these plunges, at least do it with some backup. Bella thought angrily at me.

  I’m busy right now, Bella. I sent to her through clenched teeth, trying to keep up my speed but also avoid the rocky outcroppings.

  I heard a cry and saw a flash of flame below.

  As I approached another ledge, I saw there was a crude hole in the wall, and an oil mixture was burning brightly.

  The miner used an Ignite spell on a flask of oil to mark where the troll entered its tunnel lair. Bella explained.

  I set my levitate to neutral and crawled into the tunnel. Both trolls and dwarves were wider than I was, so I fit easily, but it was rough going, and my hands were scratched and bleeding long before I emerged into an open space. Fortunately, it was not too far.

  “Beware!” A dwarven voice yelled as a troll jumped out of hiding above the opening and pounced on me.

  “Bless you, Simon!” I cried out as my Avoid First Strike SUS ring activated. “I really can’t have too many of those,” I said with a grin after some acrobatics and slipping through the clawed hands of the very large and very hungry troll.

  I slid to a stop between the troll and the miner.

  “Thanks for the warning,” I said, not turning around. I kept my eyes on the troll as it began to circle us.

  It was big, had magical protections, and I doubted it was alone. I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time, and without backup.

  “Can you move?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Came the response, accompanied by rapid breathing.

  “Stay behind me, and we circle as it circles. If it lunges at me-” I began.

  “And it will.” The troll hissed in a thickly accented and broken dwarvish.

  “It speaks dwarven!” The miner shared unnecessarily.

  I realized that I did not have another levitate ring on the staff, and I had shoved them in my robe pocket. I could try to reach for one, and if it didn’t attack, I could…wait…why wasn’t it attacking me?