Rewards and more dangers

Thus after hearing the dwarf called Bhurk talk about very mysterious and elusive things with such confidence they both got to be really excited and ansious to be taught magic, actual true magic from a mage at that!

"Well then, may I know the name of my rescuers to whom I am deeply grateful towards?" (Bhurk)

"Name is Ralph and Noah, this handsome one is Ralph and that perfectionist freak is my friend, Noah!" (Ralph)

"Handsome one? only if you are talking about frogs, among them I am sure is hard to find a more handsome than you!" said Noah with a grin.

And so after getting acquainted to each other they started the climb back to their base with the dwarf.

"Hmmm I see you both are human, I never seen one of you on this realm before, seen many of my kin some elves and even some quicky gnomes but not a human yet. Where if I may ask do you come from?" (Bhurke)

"Well... Its a sad history really... I guess you could just call us refugees or survivors of a now dead world..." (Ralph)

"Our world got destroyed by greedy men that left the rest of us to die... they came here too, we need the strenght to fight them in the future..." explained Noah about their current situation.

"I see... I am sorry for remind you of such things, I will do my best so you can have justice for your world and people..." (Bhurke)

As they went on the path back, noises and tremors were heard not far from them, coming in the same direction of their path. Making them draw close in a cautious and battle ready stance in case of trouble.

The scene which they came upon was three girls fighting against dog sized moles that kept pouring out of a deep hole on the ground, the vicious creatures would jump without regard for their own safety upon their prey brandinshing their sharp front teeth in the momentum of their jump.

The girls were putting up a fight bu throwing stone spikes and compact air strikes to drive them back, but clearly were losing ground.

"Ralph, take defense and cover me to take doen the hole!" said Noah decisively while accumulating mana on his hands and running toward the mole spitting hole.

Ralph not hesitating to follow him, opened a trail as soon as the moles spotted them, causing them to divert their attention on two fronts and become confused at whom to jump on first.

Seeing their coordination the experienced dwarf was very intrigued at how such kids could fight without hesitation with a well practiced teamwork.

'The two of them could most likelly take atleast a squad on their own if they attacked with the element of surprise, for such age it is indeed impressive!' (Bhurk)

Seeing the two boys going ahead without hesitation the girls switched from defense to offensive in a way to divert and pressure the moles into a tight spot, this was all in accord to their special ops training that was frequently being drilled unto them by their two teachers.

It didnt take long before the moles were driven back to their hole on a collective air push and then the tunnel was collapsed by Noah undermining its structure.

"W-what were you all doing here?" said a nervous Ralph knowing that they would have to give explainations and be suffer the punishment of harsher training, something which he wanted to avoid like the plague.

"Are any of you hurt? How did you get here?" said a mix of perfectionist Noah with big brother Noah.

"N-noah!! What are you doing down here?? Its dangerous, and who is that bearded dwarf?!" (Ana)

"Big brother is being bad again... He didnt take me along to explore..." murmured a dejected Sophy to her self.

"You guys are always making trouble so we had to after you so that you wouldnt get into danger, you boys are always stupid when you get bored!" (Laura)

"Calm down, calm down all of you... Jeez, one at a time... So, this guy is Bhurky, he says hes a great magician and he will teach us magic! true actual mystic magic!! Oh and he was a rock on an altar when we found him..." said Ralph on such a carefree manner as if it was just a common and uneventful thing.

"Bhurky? Well I guess you can call me that little lad... So all you children are from the same place and have snuck in here? There are guardians with you then? (Bhurk)

"Oh, yes they three came from the same shelter as us, our two instructors were the ones that took to teaching us... they came from te group that betrayed our world, but they actually were the ones responsible for our scape from it, they left this place's coordinates and sent it all over the place, only us and 2 more kids made it here in this last 2 years." (Noah)

After all the trouble was settled and they came back to their base only to find Joseph and Stephen with a stern and disaproving look they had to end up explaining Bhurk's situation and getting a very heavy workload as punishment, even the girls didnt get scot free, though receiving less punishment then the two troublemakers.

After a long talk and getting to know each other, Stephen and Joseph agrees in letting Bhurk teach them magic and even going so far as trying to get him to help them to watch over the kids before he had to leave, all thanks to Joseph's negotiating prowess that linked kindness and guilt inducing soft comentaries about the role of teachers and their responsabilities.

+++++

Meanwhile in a deep dark and silent shelter stood a lonely man among bodies with a scorning and contemptious look at the corpses of his fellow survivors.

"Well now, this worked way beyond my expectations, those plans were VERY smart indeed... humans and their weakness are always exploitable no matter how hard they try... might as well become something else! I guess the right term would be a Lich in those old tabletop games? Oh i guess i became Chaotic Evil as well. HuHUhuHu!"

Around this man stood many orbs, the essence of those that died in this room, of those he betrayed and deceived into sacrificing themselves believing they were giving hope to their children with such act.

"Now, just need to digest the banquet and then wait for the seedlings to grow, but before that..."

Sitting in a lotus position, the crazed man started to project his soul outside his body and go deep into the ground searching for a facility from which he was expelled previouslly, the one that gave rise to all of the lust and greed of his people, the Ruins of Enlightment.