“Hm? When I came to the Dwarven city, I found that it was an empty shell, so I decided to find out why there was nobody around. I looked around and here I am.”
“I, I see…”
“Dwarves were still living here until five years ago. Where are they now? Did something happen? And speaking of which, why not let me take a look at you?”
The Dwarf shifted slowly, but Aura followed him with her eyes.
“Sure enough. It seems you really can see me.”
The Dwarf folded up his cape. That was probably to terminate the effects of the magic. It all seemed quite comical to Ainz, given that nothing had changed from his perspective.
“Then, let’s start afresh. How do you do? I am Aura Bella Fiora, from the Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown.”
“The Sorcerous Kingdom? Forgive me for my ignorance, but is that a Dark Elven Kingdom? Something like that? Oh, pardon me. I am Gondo Firebeard of the Dwarven Kingdom. Pleased to meet you.”
Aura extended a hand. Gondo seemed to pick up on the meaning of the gesture and wiped off his own dirt-stained hand before shaking.
Things seem to be progressing well. Ainz nodded as he watched the proceedings, still sustaining his spell of unknowability.
“Well, I guess we don’t need to be so formal. How about speaking normally?”
“Ohhh! I was about to ask that myself. I am a mere commoner myself. But if you were an important figure, then all I can do is keep quiet.”
Aura saw Gondo’s smile, and she smiled in turn.
“Then, back to the previous question. There were Dwarves still living here five years back. Where did they go?”
“Mm, they all moved to another city three years ago. Is something the matter?”
“Yeah, sort of. I came here with a Lizardman who said he stayed here for a while. He told me about this place.”
“A Lizardman? Five years ago?”
Gondo thought briefly, and then he slapped his palm.
“Ohhh! I didn’t see him myself, but I know that it did happen. It was the first time a Lizardman visited us, so it became quite a hot topic. I believe he was a fellow with an exceptionally thick arm, am I correct?”
“That’s right! That’s him.”
Gondo muttered “I see, I see” to himself over and over again. A look in his eyes suggested that he had lowered his guard.
“The person who was kind to that Lizardman seems to have moved as well. Could you tell me where he went?”
“Well, telling you should be fine… But I’ve heard that Dark Elves don’t dwell beneath the earth, am I right? Even if you knew the underground way there, could you reach it safely?”
“Well, I think it would be fine, but if possible, I’d like to know the aboveground route as well.”
Gondo scrunched up his bearded face.
“Oh, I must apologize. I rarely travel the surface, so I’m not confident in describing the route to Feoh Gēr — that is to say, the city that they moved to. All I can give are rough directions, like so and so kilometers north, and so on.”
“That’s fine too. Actually, I wanted to ask you to lead the way… What if I hired you? You’ll be paid, of course…”
“What an attractive proposal. Still, did you — no, you mentioned the Lizardman just now — did the two of you come here by yourselves? You’re not an adult yet, right? How many people came with you?”
“Quite a few. Still, if we all came in, it would cause problems, so I had them wait at the tunnel entrance.”
“Entrance?…Hm?”
Gondo fell into thought, as though he had just remembered something. Still, that was only for an instant. He cast it aside and continued speaking.
“Well, that’s a relief. Walking by yourself in a tunnel… that’s not a good idea. You’re not an underground-dweller so you probably don’t know, but some monsters can swim freely through the earth. It’s not a place where someone can go alone, you know? Well, if you had my magical gear, you might be able to do something about it…”
He glanced repeatedly at Aura’s outfit to see if she had any magic items.
“Well then, I need to complain to your comrades. Sending a child out alone is a terrible disgrace for adults.”
Gondo turned his back towards Aura and tossed a chunk of rock into a bag which had been laid out beside him.
The bag did not swell up. It must have been a magic item as well. Then, he picked up the nearby lantern, and pulled up the shutter.
A surprising blue glow — a magical glow — illuminated the tunnel. Until now, the two of them had been conversing in complete darkness.
“Then, let’s go. It seems you can see in complete darkness, but a little light would help, right? … Well, it greatly raises the chances of being spotted by monsters, so I don’t recommend it. Do you have a way to flee if a monster attacks? They aren’t very common here, but you can’t rule out the possibility entirely.”
Ainz nodded. The Dwarf did not know Aura’s power, so it was quite admirable for him to take this mature attitude with her. However, Ainz felt that Gondo’s caution was not enough. He should have taken various possibilities into consideration before advising her.
“Don’t worry. I can escape by myself just fine, and I’m not alone either.”
Aura looked towards Ainz. However, her line of sight seemed to be slightly off.
“Hm? Really now? I have a Cloak of Invisibility, so you can abandon me and flee. However, the monsters that burrow through the earth can sense their opponents’ location through vibrations in the ground. Therefore, I wanted to warn you not to move carelessly.”
With a grunt, Gondo shouldered his bag and rose to his feet.
“Let’s go, then.”
Gondo headed forward. Aura and the still-unknowable Ainz followed closely behind.
“Come to think of it, you mentioned earlier that this place was not safe, but wasn’t this once a Dwarven city? What made it so dangerous that you had to evacuate?”
“Well, it wasn’t this city, but our current capital, Feoh Gēr. It lies to the northeast. We spotted Quagoa (Tunnelling Beastmen) nearby. It would be a tragedy if our cities were destroyed piecemeal, so we decided to temporarily abandon this city — Feoh Raiđō.”
“Quagoa? What kind of race are they?”
“Umu. They’re underground dwellers like we are… but they’re troublesome fellows. Things are bad enough between us that it’s kill-on-sight when we encounter each other.”
Gondo rambled on about the Quagoa as he walked through the tunnel. This was probably to keep Aura on her toes as well.
At a glance, they were bipedal demihumans who resembled moles. They were about 140cm tall, weighed about 70kg on average, and they had short but powerful builds.
They were predominantly dark brown, with black and brown being less common. Special colors like blue or red apparently denoted an individual of some power.
They lived in places where light could not penetrate, but their vision was stronger than those of human beings.
Their technology level was low, on par if not lower than the Lizardmen. They could not make armor or weapons, probably because their own bodies — their claws and fur — were superior to subpar wargear.
The fur that covered their entire bodies was about as tough as metal armor, and it could dissipate blows from metal weapons. The fur grew tougher if they fed on rare metals in their youth. One could tell their resistance to damage by the color of their fur.
From a YGGDRASIL player’s point of view, one could say that they probably possessed a racial skill related to damage resistance — in this case, the damage of metal weapons. The question now was how resistant to metal weapons they were. It was unlikely that their damage resistance was broken to the point of complete immunity, but it still warranted investigation.
Then there were their claws — like those of armadillos and anteaters — which could even pierce steel.
“Those guys, huh… I think we found traces of them in the city just now.”