Lady Stone

"What's going on?" Chuck asked as he left his room.

"Master Forest, there appears to be two groups fighting just outside your dungeon."

"Let's go take a look. Crumb let's go."

The group of three then appeared on the top floor before the dungeon entrance.

When they walked out, they could see a wooden carriage 500 feet away in the tall grass. It had a few torches affixed to the front so the carriage driver could see. The beasts that pulled the vehicle had been slain. 4 guards surrounded the carriage in a defensive stance while another 20 circled around them.

The ones doing the surrounding were riding lizard like creatures that appeared to be made from rock. There were two dwarves on each. They all quickly dismounted and pulled out axes and hammers.

"No use runnin' anymore." Said one of the Dwarven who just dismounted.

"Is there a need to go this far?" Asked one of the guards.

"Hmpf. I don't need you to tell me what to do. Wash your neck and prepare to die."

"Any idea how strong they are?" Chuck asked Gareth in a whisper.

"The strongest should be level 18. If I remember right that flag on the carriage should be of a low noble family. This may be some sort of court drama."

"We must protect Lady Stone. Fight with honor men!" Shouted out the leader of the guards.

Chuck could see it now. He saves the day, and the noble lady starts working in his restaurant. She would be a clumsy beauty that worked hard for his approval. She may accidently knock a glass off a table and then bend over to clean it up while he watched her from the kitchen.

'Yes, yes, we must save Lady Stone.'

"Do you think we can save them?" He asked Gareth.

"It shouldn't be a problem." The vampire replied.

"Good, good, let's go."

Chuck ran down the path to where the battle just broke out. Crumb eagerly followed.

The dwarves weren't expecting a sneak attack at all. His knife sunk into the neck of the closet dwarf while Crumb bashed another, breaking his neck as he was sent tumbling into the grass.

Gareth appeared behind a dwarf. His hand went directly through its back and he crushed the man's heart before moving to the next.

"Watch fer' sneak attacks!" Shouted the dwarf that led the attack.

Chuck unleashed half his mana in a flurry of Bloodletting attacks. Even though each strike didn't insta-kill, the five dwarves he attacked lost so much blood that they fell to the ground and they would be dead in a few moments.

Crumbs arms were covered in a green light as his muscles swelled.

*Whack*

*Slap*

*Bam*

His enhanced strength crippled the dwarves he hit. Each one was down for the count.

Gareth strolled through the battlefield claiming lives with ease. A dwarf appeared behind him and struck down with an axe. The vampire turned into a horde of bats and the axe passed straight through the swarm without doing any damage. The swarm then transformed back into Gareth. His hand directly sliced the neck of the dwarf that tried to attack him. The vampire licked the blood from his finger and then turned and killed another.

The attackers were dropping like flies from the surprise attack. The leader of the attackers cornered the guard who spoke out. The man had fallen back. The attacker skimmed his hammer across the ground. As he did so, the dirt it passed clung to his hammer and turned to stone, tripling the size of the face of the hammer. He raised it over head, preparing to smash the guard.

Chuck dumped 15 mana into Bloodletting and sliced out since he wouldn't be able to reach in time.

A red arc of energy flung out from the edge of his knife and flashed through the air.

*Slice*

He missed his target but still did damage. He was aiming for the dwarves neck, but caught his arm. The dwarf dropped his hammer before he could attack. Then Gareth appeared behind him and ripped out his heart. All the attackers were dead.

Chuck walked towards the carriage while Crumb continued to wail on each corpse. At least with this goblin around they wouldn't have to worry about anyone pretending to be dead.

Chuck was in a good mood. He saved a beauty and he and Crumb both advanced a level.

Only a single guard survived the battle. He quickly grabbed his axe and scrambled to his feet.

"What do you all want?" The guard asked.

"We were just lending a helping hand." Chuck said with a smile.

"Nonsense. Why would you risk your lives to help people you don't know."

Chuck looked at Gareth and then Crumb. "I don't think we risked anything."

None of the three took a bit of damage. But that was mostly due to Gareth who was teleporting around the battlefield. He killed anyone who dared to approach Crumb or Chuck from behind.

"Hpmf, thanks, but please leave quickly."

"I am not sure what you are going through, but if you need a place to lay low, you can work in my dungeon for the time being. Don't worry I won't have you work on the top floor. It can be considered relatively safe."

"We don't need charity. We will be fine on our own."

"Don't be rude uncle. They are our saviors. We owe them a debt of gratitude. Besides…"

The door to the carriage swung open.

'This is it! This is it!' Chuck excitedly thought to himself.

"Lady Stone, please stay inside, I can handle this."

Chuck looked and saw a short figure step down from the carriage. The first thing he notice was a braided red beard. Then he saw the large and chiseled muscles that accompanied a bald head.

"Hello, I am Lady Pearl of the house of Stone." Said a gruff and coarse dwarven voice. "We do currently need a place to hide out. We will accept you offer."

'Fucking hell.'

Chuck felt like slapping himself. The signs were there. The guards were dwarves. The beasts that pulled the carriage were the same that the attacker road. Since when was there ever a cute lady dwarf. Such a thing had never existed.

[Do you wish to invite the dwarf, Pearl Stone, and the dwarf, Scooter Stone, to join your dungeon?]

Chuck sighed in his heart. He still invited them because extra hands would always help. And these types of recruits he could pay in shelter and food compared to Gareth who also needed DP.

After the dwarves spoke for a few minutes, they accepted.

"Alright, I will make arrangements for you shortly. Let's clean up first."

Unfortunately, the living mounts already ran away. But there were still two dead rock lizards. They weren't actually made from rock. But there wasn't much edible things in them. The tails though could make a good soup stock.

He cut off the tails while Scooter, and Crumb gathered everything useable. Lady Stone collected her things from the carriage. It was useless without a mount. Her uncle then set it on fire after putting the bodies inside it and around it.

Luckily it was spring and not fall. They didn't need to worry about the grass catching on fire.

Chuck led them into his dungeon. The two dwarves looked around the first floor as they walked. They didn't look disappointed, but neither did they looked impressed. That changed when they saw the restaurant on the second floor.

"Ah! You run a restaurant here. I never knew one existed out here." Lady Stone exclaimed.

"Mmm, we haven't opened yet. The day after tomorrow we will start accepting the public. Give me a few minutes and I will create a few rooms for you two to stay."

"That won't be necessary. We are just staying here till we figure out our next step. We have DP and can provided for ourselves."

Chuck nodded happily. "Sure, sure. Just build your rooms off the hallway over there. If you work while you stay, I will provide your meals. Crumb, go practice making scrambled eggs and then serve it to them."

The goblin nodded eagerly and then went into the kitchen to prepare his first meal on his own. While he did that, Chuck tinkered in the menu.

He made it so that the dwarves could purchase things from the general section of the dungeon store with their own money. He also did the same for Gareth. He then stored the weapons away as well as the rock lizard tails.