After Ethan and his new allies returned to the cavern they decided that a time of preparation and exploration was in order to understand more of their new home. First all the dwarves moved into the keep which was basically just four thick walls at this point in time, but it was at least secure. Still they wanted to make it an actual living space so the next few days were spent by Ethan working on new rituals to create permanent structure for the dwarves. Which in hindsight proved rather difficult as he needed the ice to be not slippery and even more important not radiate with the oppressing cold it usually had when he used his abilities. To him it was a fun challenge that didn’t involve fighting or risking his life, stimulating his sense of creativity…even if some grumbling dwarves complained when they slipped on the icy floors of his first creations or got their bodies stuck when touching a wall.

  While Ethan was working on giving the dwarves a proper place to live, Andrew was hard at work too, the first action he took was a rapid mine expansion. The dwarves were no mages, they excelled at close quarter combat and so their focus was obviously on weapons and armor. With proper equipment they would improve what was already there. Especially when their abilities came into play which mostly focused on body strengthening or bursts of strength to boost attacks.

  So the first two weeks the leader of the dwarves ventured into the earth with his miners, exchanging his warhammer for a sturdy pickaxe. They even found some new deposits to mine and with luck seemingly on their side no more moles that attacked them during that time. While the work in the mine was back breaking the dwarves with mining specific classes could haul a lot of ore from the earth at once.

  At a different front was the exploration team, because they couldn’t explore the outside worlds the scouts decided to map the massive cavern and as many natural tunnels as they could. After all, their home was in the middle of an expansive tunnel network.

  What surprised everyone was that they even found more dwarves, the system must have been involved as these dwarves didn’t specifically request a remote location and just appeared on a field of green lush grass with the mountains they now called their home in the distance. They had made their way over to them and found a way inside, once they found the cavern with its massive size and moderate climate they decided to make it their new home, so of course Andrew was very curious to meet these new dwarves.

  Just from some interactions with the other dwarves they learned that the mountain range above them was splitting this part of the world in two, in the north where Ethan and the dwarves lived there was a constant winter while the other group seemed to have appeared in a constant spring-like weather. The forest Andrew warned about was situated in the west, wrapping around the mountain range on that side. The east on the other hand was still mysterious as neither group knew something because for the time being it wasn’t relevant.

  The biggest revelation was the existence of magic under the dwarves, at least it seemed to be a form of magic. The new group had a dwarf named Hendrik, he was a tattoo artist in his life before the system and when he got to pick a class he got something called the [Runescribe] which allowed him to engrave, write or paint runes on objects or obviously, tattoo them on skin. How it worked was what interested Ethan the most and he might get the chance to see it in action as the scouts had set up a meeting on neutral ground on behalf of Andrew, now the dwarven lord just needed to get his elven companion.

  Accompanied by five of his warriors Andrew set out to find his new ally, it was still weird how their relationships had developed from capturing Ethan out in the valley to him becoming a valued ally that had aided them more than once so far. Andrew had to admit that he was strong but his character seems to be in flux, only in battle did he show a different side. Determination and even a bit of madness was on display when he wielded his magic against monsters, still Andrew didn’t get the feeling that Ethan was a bad person, on the contrary. In many ways he was intelligent and level headed, at least until he started…researching.

  When they found Ethan he was covered in iron sand and mumbling something, a big smile plastered on his face while he grabbed another handful of sand from the bag one of his soldiers was carrying. In the last two weeks, after he created proper housing for the dwarves, he spent most of his time working on his magic. It was impressive to see the elf conduct rituals or how he tested different things related to his skills. Andrew just used the skills he had and didn’t try to overthink it, Ethan was the opposite of that.

  After fighting the elk where Ethan used wolf shaped ice creatures and those lanky tall scouts he burned with the desire to explore more of his skill. Well currently there was one soldier standing inside of a ritual circle, in its hand was a gruesome looking halberd, the blade serrated and small barbs could be seen on the sides of the blade. This wasn’t a weapon for cutting but to tear apart flesh and bones. The dwarf shivered as inspected the weapon, the cold it radiated made it only worse.

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  Crossing his arms to keep the cold away that constantly radiated from Ethan when he started to use his magic. The circle lit up with the pale blue light he came to know.The familiar glow of the iron sand lifted into the air, but instead of a ghostly copy the iron sand itself lifted itself into the air and floated around the soldier. Slowly at first the circle shrank down until it was only a fraction of original size while still rotating, then something was starting to change.

  The iron sand lost its glow and rushed into the ice soldier, turning the white ice gray and then into a deep black. Only when the last tiny particle, the last speck of iron sand was gone did the ritual end. Ethan and Andrew both held their breath for something to go wrong but nothing happened. Ethan rushed to the soldier and inspected it with glee in his eyes. “Andrew, can you hit it with your warhammer? No need to hold back at all!” He stepped aside and presented the soldier to the dwarf.

  Andrew wanted to ask some questions but he decided to wait until Ethan wasn’t focused on his project. He pulled his warhammer from the belt and stepped forward, taking Ethan’s words to heart he took a deep breath and flexed his muscles. With a war cry he launched his strongest attack, supported by his skill [Shattering blow]

  The hammer hit the ice soldier right in the middle, cracks spreading over its surface, pieces broke off and a large part started to crumble around the head of his hammer.

  But to his surprise and shock the soldier was still standing. Behind him Ethan cried out.

  “FUUUUUCK YES!” Ethan exploded with frost from the excitement, “I knew it! Fuck you system for being so damn unclear with anything!” Ethan walked up to the soldier who was already in the middle of being repaired by a skill. The deep black coloration got a bit brighter as the iron sand inside of it was used to repair the damage.

  “I love ritualism, it changes everything…oh Andrew why are you here? I thought we would soon have some kind of meeting?” Ethan tiled his head, asking himself why Andrew had this deadpan expression on his face. “Well anyway thank you for helping me out, I knew your attack would hit hard enough to have an effect.”

  The dwarf sighed and rubbed his face. “Yes we have a meeting. I was on my way to get you because we still have ways to travel before we’re there. You know walking takes time?” Andrew raised an eyebrow and was confused why the elf was so relaxed.

  “What do you mean? We’re flying there, no need to rush things you know?” Ethan looked just as confused why Andrew thought they would walk. He focused back on his soldier, giving it commands, testing if it moved the same as his other soldiers. After that he commanded them to do some sparring matches to see how well his new creation would fight.

  “Do you have a plane or something? I don’t see one so please enlighten me on how we will fly there.” Without even looking back at the dwarf Ethan just said one word. “Magic?”

  “I don’t think this was a good idea!” Andrew barely kept his balance while he, his warriors and Ethan floated on a large disk made of ice through the cavern.

  “What if it breaks?!”

  “It can’t break, stop worrying about it.”

  “W-what if we fall from the sky?”

  “Well I control it so we won’t fall, stop worrying about it.”

  “But wh-”

  Ethan sighed and rubbed his temples. “We won’t crash, fall or break apart. I created this disk, I control it and in no way will we have an accident. And no! If someone says I jinxed it now can fuck right off.”

  He sighed again, those dwarves were worried about nothing, he used this in the tutorial all the time. Of course he had to admit that the mana cost was a lot higher with the added weight but no need to tell that to the dwarves. His confidence after the experiment was way too high to think anything would go wrong for now. Especially since he would learn about a new kind of magic in the near future. While he valued Andrew and his dwarves he still had a goal in mind, raising his own army for the war that was to come. While Andrew promised to support him he still was hesitant to believe the dwarf.

  He wouldn’t make hasty decisions, he promised to become a good leader all the way back in the tutorial, the blood soaked desert still fresh in his mind. The necklace seemed to burn against his skin as he suppressed another sigh. When he spotted lights in the distance he was glad for the distraction and lowered the disk towards the ground, landing not far away from the delegation waiting for them.

  Andrew stepped down from the disk and turned to Ethan. “Let’s hope we can grow our little settlement a bit more.”