Dwarves And Dragons

As the stone block was breaking apart, i saw a bunch of curly maroon hair sticking out from the cracks,

But when it finally broke, we couldn't see what was in the stone block because a cloud of dust had created right after.

"*Cough*, *Cough* More dust?! Stop this alread-*Cough* *Cough*, *Cough*" tries to say baldie while being constantly interrupted by his own coughing. After some seconds, the dust cloud dissipated, and we were finally able to see what was in the stone block.

"What? I'm free?!" I hear a voice from where the stone block was... What is that? It's like a person but... Shorter, much much shorter... "A kid?" I say, thinking out loud, "I'm not a kid!!" Says the short person, "I'm the great dwarf blacksmith, Darius Smith!!".

Now that i look at him better, he doesn't look like a kid apart from his height. He has short and curly maroon hair, black eyes and a full maroon beard that even covered his mouth, he's wearing a pair of reinforced protection glasses on his head, reinforced dark red clothes, and a pair of black gauntlets.

"A dwarf?!" Esclamates baldie, shocked, "Do you know their race?" I ask baldie, "Kind of... I used to play videogames when i was a teenager, and dwarves were one of the fantasy races in some of the games i played..." Says baldie while looking at the dwarf, "Video games? What's that? Anyway, are you the ones who freed me from the petrification magic?" Asks the dwarf while looking at us, "Yes" i respond, "Then, to repay you, i will forge you 3 pieces of the best equipment i can make each!" Says the dwarf, "Wait, why is my forgery so dirty and full of dust?! I can't forge anything like this!" Esclamates the dwarf, angry that the forgery was full of dust,

"That's kind of obvious, since you were petrified and there was noone to take care of it" i say, "What? Then what about my assistant?? He would always take care of my forgery!" Asks the dwarf, "Assistant?, There was only you here, inside that block of stone" i say, "What...? What about the others in the village then?!" Asks the dwarf while rushing to the door, panicking.

*Creak*

He opened the door. "What... Is this place?" Asks the dwarf, shocked and confused, "What? You didn't know you were in The Tower?? But how did you end up here then..." Asks baldie while thinking, "I don't know! What i remember is that while i was forging a magical weapon, i petrified myself by accident..." Says the dwarf, confused.

Could it be that every secret room is a room from outside The Tower?!

"How do i get out of this place?" Asks the dwarf with a serious tone while looking at us, "There are 50 Floors in The Tower, each of them containing a Trial, when you complete all the trials you can leave this damned place, or so the paper we found at the start said..." Explains baldie, "This is the Fourth Floor" continues baldie, "What?! Only the Fourth Floor??! Since when did you start climbing The Tower?" Asks the dwarf, "A few days..." Says baldie, "What?! You guys are too slow!" Esclamates the dwarf, "Let's do this: i will help you by forging the best equipment i can, and you speed up the pace, i can even help you fight!" Says the dwarf, "Seriously?! Let's do it!" Esclamates baldie while doing an high five with the dwarf. They look like old friends meeting each other after some time...

"First of all, we have to clean up my forgery, i can't even forge an arrow as it is now!" Esclamates the dwarf, "But how, we don't have anything to clean..." Asks baldie, "I have some old brooms here, i never use them though. It was my assissant who..." Says the dwarf, looking a bit sad, "We'll help you clean the forge, you think about some equipment you could create for us in the meanwhile. Most of us use swords, i use a spear and a pair of daggers, this guy here uses a warhammer, another companion of ours uses a katana and kunais and another one uses magic" i say while taking the broom in my hands. It was literally an old stick with with some straw attached to one of its ends. "Oh right, i don't know your names yet. As i already said before, my name is Darius Smith! Nice to meet you!" Says dwarf while introducing himself, "My name is Ray Amond, nice to meet you too!" I say, "My name is Adam Cray, nice meeting you!" Says baldie.

Then we started cleaning the forgery...

"Finally, we finished" says baldie, "Yeah, there was just too much dust... Look at this mixed pile of coal and dust, it's huge!!" I say while indicating a pile of coal dust and normal dust, it was taller than Darius! "This place looks cool when it's clean" says baldie while looking at the cleaned forgery. It's actually quite good now, there was a checkboard styled floor made of polished grey stone stone, the walls were made of hardened clay and the table on wich the notes were was made of dark wood, probably even darker than it should have been because of the coal dust it absorbed.

"Oh right, what are those notes? There are some drawings too..." I say, "That's the project of the magical sword i was creating, i ended up petrifying myself in the process though..." Says Darius, "Anyway, now that my forgery is clean, i will make you the best equipment i can! You said you used a spear right? I could make some upgrades to it for now, bring it here" says Darius.

Since it's stored in the Bracelet Of Gluttony, i can't take it out now, i'll get out of the forgery while faking to go to the armory and then take it out, "Yes, wait here a second" i say while leaving the room.

*Inventory Open*

i mutter those words in my head and, as i do so, a blue screen full of slots appears in front of me. Where's my spear... Found it, wait. There is something next to my spear, it looks like a red crystal... It's the crystal that Domo created with his skill while he was unconcious! I take it out together with my spear and enter the forgery.

"Here's my spear" i say while handing my spear to Darius, "Hm? WHAT?!" Esclamates Darius, "What?" I ask, "T-That gem in your hand... Do you know what that is??" Asks Darius, "You mean this red crystal? I don't know" i respond, "THAT'S A DRAGON CRYSTAL!!!!" Screams Darius, "What's a Dragon Crystal?" I ask, "A Dragon Crystal is a rare gem found in a strong dragon's heart, it holds all of the dragon's magical power and even its soul! It's basically their entire being!!!" Esclamates Darius, "Only three Dragon Crystals have been obtained in the Non-Human World!!" Continues Darius,

"Non-Human World?" Asks baldie, "Yes... The Non-Human World is the side of the World that those greedy humans haven't conquered... They probably even forgot that other intelligent races like us exist since so much time has passed... Oh, by the way, what race are you from? The Intelligent Slimes? Or the Shadow Creatures? That human appearence you have would be explainable since you could change shapes" asks Darius, "We're Human." I say.

The room goes silent for three seconds...

"EEEH?!?!" Screams Darius, "BUT THIS IS THE NON-HUMA-, Oh right, we're in The Tower. BUT STILL, ARE YOU REALLY HUMANS?!" Continues Darius while screaming, "Yes, we are" says baldie with a straight face, "But weren't humans greedy creatures that even killed their own kin for riches and power??" Asks Darius, shocked and confused, "There are people like that too, unfortunately... But not all Humans are the same you know? There are kind ones too! They are a bit rare though..." Says baldie while being conflicted in deciding if to say good things or bad things about humans, "Wow... I didn't know that..." Says Darius while pondering in his head.

"Anyway, we were talking about the Dragon Crystal right? What can we do with it?" I ask, "... *Ahem*. We could create an Ego Weapon!" Says Darius after finishing thinking and clearing his throat, "Ego Weapon? What's that?" Asks baldie, "It's a weapon containing a will, in this case, the dragon's will. It a powerful weapon that outclasses every normal weapon and even many magical weapons with just a strong monster's will. But with this crystal we could create the strongest Ego Weapon ever!!! It would contain a Dragon's Soul!!!" Esclamates Darius, excited,

"Seriously?!! Let's create it now!" Esclamates baldie, "Unfortunately, we can't. I need the best materials just to make it contain the dragon's will, let alone use it." Says Darius, "How rare are those materials?" I ask, "They're almost impossible to obtain for a normal person... We need: A dragon's tooth, Some Fairy Queen enhancing powder, A World Tree's root, An Everwill Fire's spark, A Conducting Shadow Aura spell scroll and... One of the Demon King's horns." Explains Darius,

"What?!! The Demon King's horn?! How would we even obtain that?!?" Esclamates baldie, "That's why i said it's impossible. Even if someone was somehow able to abtain those, the forging process would take long and it would have to be perfect, it even needs a constant and ordinate Mana supply while forging." Says Darius.

*Sigh* an there i tought i could have the best weapon ever...

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. DOMO! Domo's skill could exchange powerful materials into those!!!

"No, it's not impossible.." i say, "What?! How?!" Asks Darius, hoping i had found a way to obtain the materials, "... Because i have obtained this Dragon Crystal in The Tower!! If we complete the trials, we could obtain those materials!!" I esclamate, "Really?!!? I'll forge you some armors right away, you prepare to conquer the next floor, NOW!" Says Darius while taking his hammer and pointing it to the forgery's door as to say that we had to leave, "Alright! Let's go!!!" Esclamates baldie while lifting his warhammer up into the air.

We then left while calling the others and telling them to prepare for the next Trial...

Chapter 20-End.