Young Gazel Dwargo

 - Announcement -

I decided to write this chapter and the ones after in shorter paragraphs than the first 3 chapters.

Please comment your preference in regards to paragraph length, so I can rewrite the first 3 to have shorter paragraphs, or rewrite the 4th and subsequent chapters to have longer paragraphs.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy.

 - End of Announcement -

{POV: Dwarin, Dwargon Minister of Technology}

I was in a small meeting room, with two long couches and a table in the middle separating them. The walls were decorated with paintings depicting the late king, the great Guran Dwargo, fighting different monsters.

I had been called by the Minister of Intelligence to the Law Enforcement HQ for, as he put it, 'peculiar and suspicious behavior of a foreigner'. Normally this shouldn't have anything to do with me, the Minister of Technology, but he said it was important for me specifically to come, so here I am.

The white wooden door opened, and Gorrick, one of the rare slim and tall dwarves, entered the room. His dark eyes analyzed my face as he sat opposite to me, taking a sip from one of the tea cups resting on the table.

"Hello minister Dwarin. I apologize for calling you all the way from your department, but this foreigner's situation is strange.". His face did not look panicked, so it must not be an urgent threat to the security of the kingdom. "It's no issue, minister Gorrick. Now, if you would, please explain why you have called me here?".

"Well, you see… ten days ago, a foreigner, of a never before recorded species, with significant strength, according to her aura, appeared at the gates of Dwargon with no ID. On the first day, she basically wandered around, looking like any other monster in a city for the first time, amazed at the sights."

He took another sip from the green tea in his cup. I mirrored him.

"She entered a few stores, but weirdly enough, she spent most of her time in the 'Butterflies of the night'." 

"In case you don't know, it's an expensive club with men as their target audience where they sell alcohol, but mainly the companionship of beautiful elven women."

"After a few hours, she left the establishment and for the first time in decades, she actually bought an ID for 10 gold coins." My face contorted in shock and my eyebrows almost left my head. 

That's absurdly expensive for an ID. She must be from an unknown wealthy family from faraway. He continued to elaborate, fishing a piece of paper and showing it to me. It depicted a beautiful single eyed woman with tan skin and striking purple lines diverging from her eye.

"She is a named monster, called 'Vel' and she is a 'Drakolodon'. She is also extremely old, exceeding the limit for precise calculations of the ID orb." He crossed his legs and crossed his hands after putting down his teacup.

"Anyways. The real 'problem' is that, after, she went to the public library and stayed there ever since." he said as if it wasn't a ridiculous idea.

I blinked. "Are you saying that she has been there for ten days in a row, not leaving even once? Are you sure that the bracelet isn't faulty, or that she didn't remove it?".

He looked at me offended, and then, with a hand on his chest declared. "We are the intelligence department of the mighty Armed Nation of Dwargon! I obviously sent spies to check on her after her cessation of movement on the second day. She is still there even now, and the reason I called you here is not to discuss bracelets, but because she has read all of the books on rune magic available and is now going through the ones on normal magic."

It's highly unlikely that she is a spy. No spy would be unable to hide their own aura. Besides, why would they send such a conspicuous individual with so many distinct and recognizable features? It doesn't make sense.

"If you are worried that she might be a spy…", I started, before he interrupted me. "No. If she was, she would be an insult to all competent spies across the world. I'm more worried about her strength and whether she is just waiting for some kind of signal to attack.". 

Understandable logic. But in consideration, if that were the case, she should still be trying to hide her aura until it was time to attack.

"How about this? I will go speak with her, and knowing of her obvious interest in rune technology, I will offer her a job in my department. This way we can keep an eye on her and if it turns out to be nothing dangerous, I gain a possibly talented employee. It's a win-win situation."

"You know. That's not a bad idea. Just make sure to keep her away from the prince. You know how he has been seen training and asking to be let free in the forest to fight monsters for power and glory."

"Absolutely. Well, I guess I have an obsessive learner to catch, before she sucks the library dry and leaves." We both got up, shook hands and left the room.

I wonder what she's like. At least from her interactions, she seems more civilized than most monsters, but I still need to be careful.

What would a strong monster such as her want, aside from money, in payment to work for someone weaker? I know that monster society works differently than our own. To monsters, might makes right, and most serve the strong.

While the king's lineage contains the strongest dwarves, we don't serve them because of their strength, but because of their ideals and intelligence to achieve them and move our society forward.

Let's start with what she enjoys. I don't have much information, but besides magic and runes, as evidenced by her stay at the library for days on end, she also spent some time wandering the streets on her first day.

First she entered Kolin's smithy. She is an ancient monster, so she probably recognized the high quality of Dwargon's best blacksmith. The items must have been too expensive, or she simply didn't bring enough with her, as she left empty handed.

Next, she spent hours inside the 'Butterflies' hostess club, that is mainly frequented by men, attracted to the extreme beauty of the elves. Is she attracted to women? I've heard of some alternate lifestyles, like men who are sword swallowers. Could I give her some women as payment?

I shook my head, realizing I was only a few steps away from the library's door. That 's ridiculous. Even ignoring the fact that Dwargon does not condone slavery of any kind, like some of those degenerate human kingdoms, It's probably just a misunderstanding. She is probably just friends with the elves.

I opened the door, and her presence was immediately apparent just by the denser magicules inside. It wasn't enough to harm weaker beings, but it was definitely strong. Rounding a couple bookshelves, I found a dark purple-blue head of hair buried in a mountain of books.

The monster woman was dressed very casually, with light blue clothes, and her deep purple tail was coiled around one of the legs of the chair she was sitting on. Her blue eye went back and forth at a fast pace, not exceeding the human limit, but still impressive.

Her eyebrow scrunched in deep concentration as she read a book with a brown leather cover, presumably on magic. She was currently trying to understand one of the magic formulas drawn on the paper. I cleared my throat, expecting her to stop reading and pay attention to the man in front of her, but her head remained still.

"Excuse me miss. I would like to spea…" Her expression of absolute disgust and annoyance as she looked up, as if I was nothing more than a particularly annoying mosquito that kept stubbornly biting her, quickly disappeared, almost making me believe it had been a trick of the lights.

"Yes? To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" She replied, in a tone that conveyed her annoyance, betraying her efforts to smooth out her face in a serene expression. I underestimate her love for reading if this is the reaction she shows when interrupted.

"My name is Dwarin, minister of technology here in Dwargon, pleasure to meet you, miss…". 

I knew her name was supposedly Vel, but it was just good manners to introduce ourselves before a conversation, even more, one as important as a possible position on the rune researcher or developer sections. In Dwargon, both runic and non-magical engineering were the most sought-after positions.

"... My name is Vel." She replied in a monotone voice with a quirked eyebrow, as if asking me to 'get to the point'. If it were anyone else, I would have walked away for the blatant disrespect, but I told myself that she was a monster, and so she was unaware of our customs.

"... Well miss Vel. I see you have a deep interest in runes…" I sat down in the chair opposed to her, analyzing her beautiful face. "... and I happen to oversee the department of technology. This means that should you wish to, and prove to be qualified, I could hire you for a job as a runic engineer. Are you interested?"

She thought for a moment. If she doesn't accept now, it will be hard to keep an eye on her. Our resources aren't unlimited and we can't spare spies or guards positioned on a single individual for long.

"That's certainly an interesting proposal. But what do I gain from working for you?" Her eye now sparkled with curiosity and I could feel her gaze evaluating me, as if calculating the benefits of the position I offered.

"Well, aside from money, that all employees must legally be paid, we could give you priority access to special or even rare level weapons and armor when they are created." I offered her such, appealing to the first establishment she visited in her stay at Dwargon.

When she stayed silent, I continued quickly and distractedly. "We can't give you women, but…"

"What?" Her face looked bemused, as if I had completely destroyed her thought process.

"Please excuse me. I was distracted and said something offensive. Forgive me." I can't believe I would spout such gibberish at this important time.

"..."

I cleared my throat with a hand over my mouth. "But then, I must ask, what is it that you desire?"

Her blue eye rolled, looking up at the ceiling in thought. After a few seconds I was starting to get worried. Is it possible that Vel doesn't have any desires to exploit? No. That's preposterous. Everyone, monster, demi-human or human has desires.

"Do you have books on more advanced runic magic and technology? I've found that the library is lacking in anything besides the basics."

So all she wants is more books. What an easy request. I don't know why I was panicking when all I have to do is hire her normally, since all runic engineers have access to the Advanced Runic Library. If I pretend like I'm doing her a favor, she might even feel in my debt.

"That's a pretty hard ask to be honest. You know how information is very important and expensive…" she nodded enthusiastically. "... but I can pull a few strings and give you access to the knowledge you wish for."

She smiled wide, showing her serrated teeth and immediately asked. "What do I have to do?"

"I need to ask you a few questions, to assess your runic skill level and where to assign you once you get the job. First, how would you create a device that makes ice?". I was not prepared for the amount of information and the speed at which it came out of her mouth next.

"Using a big condensation chamber, where you continuously gather new humid air from outside, through the use a weak air rune, you could inscribe "

"Using weak ice runes, inscribed in a big chamber, you could cool the water enough for it to condense and drop into another compartment where water will gather. Now, of course, the dry air needs to be replaced, so, create two openings in the condensation chamber, and using one finely attuned wind rune or two more basic ones, regulate the entrance of humid air and exit of dry air."

"To finish it off, in the freezing chamber, where the condensed water gathers, use one ice rune, tuned to chill only the small chamber and to only seep heat up to the freezing point of water.

"All of this, of course, assumes that the device is to be used in low magicule density environments and supplied only by the ambient magicules. That's why, compared to the overall size of the machine, the amount of ice it produces is small, but the creation of water through runes costs a big amount of magicules not present in most environments. Ice runes can also be relatively expensive, and so the ones responsible for freezing the water need to work in a small area."

What the Hell???

That would work, but that's a much more elaborate answer than what I wanted and expected. I was assuming the existence of unlimited magicules and the best physical environment, in this hypothetical scenario.

A simple water rune and an ice rune would have sufficed, but because I didn't specify that magicules could be supplied by the device user, she created a whole new device, to use only the ambient magicules. Now that I think about it, after crunching some numbers mentally, it would totally work.

"Humm. Did I get something wrong? Maybe it's because I didn't specify the rune pathways and the different mana frequency interactions between runes, but I don't have enough knowle…"

"Wait, wait, wait a second." She looked at me in surprise at being interrupted. I can't look like an incompetent by admitting that her answer to an elementary question, that she replied to so readily, stumped me for a few moments.

"Your answer was perfect. Exactly what I expected from such a studious person like you." The tip of her lips curved up. "I am satisfied by your expertise, and would like to hire you as Junior Runic Engineer."

"You can expect a starting salary of 50 silver, and per our deal, access to the Advanced Runic Library. All you have to do is show your ID to the receptionist and he will let you in. Any other issues I should be aware of?"

There was a small pause as she remembered something. "I don't live in Dwargon, as you probably already know, so I might spend long stretches of time outside. Would this be acceptable?"

Curious, but understandable. I thought she was from very far away, but she might live closer than I actually thought. "Well, as long as you meet the monthly quotas assigned to you or your team, it's all good."

"By the way, as a junior engineer, you can join a team lead by a senior or work on your own, however, before being promoted, you can't head a team. If you feel the need to be away for a whole month and can't meet the quota, speak to a superior and you'll be excused for the required amount of time, with no pay of course."

She got up and extended a hand. "I agree to this arrangement. I believe this is what people do in such situations…" she said, before I accepted the handshake. Her hand was much stronger than she looked, even considering her aura.

Afterwards, I told her to follow me so I could show her the facilities she will be working in for the foreseeable future. It was curious how different her thought progress seemed to be compared to normal people.

We continued to talk about the various different types of runes and their applications on our way. Apparently she really did learn all she could from what the library had to offer.

Which wasn't much. She knew about the basic runes. Water, wind, earth, fire, ice and communication. What was impressive was the way she used them to solve problems I didn't know I had.

For example, we are taught to assume that a device is always to be activated and used by a person, the reason being that the ambient magicules in populations devoid of monsters are low. Because of this, it's hard to create complex machines that work with ambient mana.

Except, she didn't have this preconception, so she could think of ideas that had ambient mana in mind. Some were even pretty revolutionary, but probably not possible right now for several reasons. Such as resource unavailability or the various chaotic interactions between different runes in complex machines.

We were now inside the technology complex, a big, wide building that housed all our surface level, public technology research and development. This isn't to say that they're less useful than the private, secret ones; just that those tend to be related to the military.

"Hello Dwarin. I see that you have quite the interesting lady for company.", a voice came from behind us and I immediately tensed. It was one of the most recognizable voices in the kingdom.

Me and Vel turned around and I bowed before the prince. He was a tall young dwarf, taller than me by almost two heads and just slightly shorter than Vel. His skin was a slightly darker shade of brown than that of the lady beside me.

His hair was black and his captivating eyes a deep blue. He carried himself with the posture of a king, even though he wasn't one yet, and hopefully not for a long time.

 "Greetings your highness…" I straightened up and continued. "This is a monster, named Vel of the species Drakolodon. Before your highness asks, no, I have never seen one before, nor does the intelligence department have any records of one."

The prince seemed to think for a second. "Hmmm. Very interesting. My name is Gazel Dwargo and I challenge you, Vel, to a duel. For the security of my kingdom, I will expose your true nature with my sword." He said, grabbing the sword at his waist.

This is not good. Between the two, both have a powerful aura. Vel's is probably bigger, but she doesn't have a weapon, much less a legend-grade sword like the prince's.

It is also true that Gazel is still very young, at least compared to Vel who is thousands of years old.

"I don't enjoy fighting weaklings, so why should I fight you? There is nothing for me to gain and all to lose. If you find me to be of a 'bad' nature, you'll kill me or exile me, and if not, nothing changes."

Oh dear god. Only an uncultured monster would speak this way to royalty. Why am I so unlucky!

Gazel's face gained a slightly red hue as he clenched his teeth. "I should jail you for insubordination, but I'll let this one pass as long as you fight me. If I deem you, a monster, to be worthy of Dwargon after the fight, I will let you remain here." His voice sounded strained through his teeth.

She gave a long sigh. "Well. Gazel Dwargo. I will fight you with the condition that if I win, you give me permission to call you whatever I want from now on." She replied with a smirk on her face.

This is going in a weird direction, but as long as no one gets too hurt in the duel, what she asked for is not actually that detrimental. It might be humiliating to prince Gazel, but he should take this as a lesson if he loses.

The prince scoffed. "What a ridiculous thought. You might be strong, but you would never win against the might of Dwargon's legendary sword. I accept your nonsensical condition."

The drakolodon seemed confused and amused at the same time. I guess she wasn't expecting a condition like this one to be accepted. But the prince isn't like most pompous nobles. If he believes he has to do something for the kingdom, he will endure anything.

Or maybe he just got too heated. Who knows?

We arrived at one of the large auditoriums, with a wide empty space in the middle, ment for showing off new large and complex runic devices. The two duelists stood at opposite ends, surrounded by red cushioned chairs.

"Where is your sword?", the prince asked.

"I have never held a sword, and won't be needing one to fight in this duel. Minister, you can start the countdown whenever you want." she called out to me.

His highness was whispering underneath his breath, but didn't interfere with my countdown.

"Three, Two, One…"

"Duel!"

Gazel shot forward faster than my eyes could see and swung his sword diagonally. The sword only split air as Vel sidestepped to her right, her expression bored, but not distracted. The prince used his momentum to chain a few more attacks together, failing to connect to his target.

Vel's eye followed the sword through every movement, and she evaded all sword swings with pure speed. She didn't seem to be very skilled in a sword fight, but her pure speed outclassed the prince's so much that it didn't matter.

Suddenly, Gazel rooted his body to the ground, squared his feet and rotated his hips with the sword, using his whole body to swing the most powerful strike yet. A diagonal strike from Vel's left side. His sword seemed to shine a light blue, illuminating his opponent's face.

Vel's face looked almost ethereal when illuminated like this, and her previous bored expression now had a small smile.

She quickly raised her left arm, slapping the sword with the back of her hand.

The sword literally exploded, and the force of the explosion made his sword fly out of his hand and embed itself on the ground, leaving a crack and half of the blade covered under the stone ground. The blade stopped shining.

Then, she looked at the prince's astonished face and concentrated on something. The ground under the prince shattered, creating a small crater as he stumbled forward under the effect of what looked to be heightened gravity. All muscles on his body tensed as he did his best to not fall to the ground or kneel before the powerful monster in front of him.

After a minute, where Gazel tried to move forwards, but could barely stand, he slowly raised his right hand.

"... I admit defeat.", he said with a heavy voice.

Immediately, the pressure surrounding his highness dissipated and he stood straight. He gazed at her face, probably looking for any hints of mockery in her expression. She was just looking back with an impassive face.

"So, Gazz, is my nature good enough to work for your kingdom?" She said exasperatedly. The prince stiffened at his new nickname and clenched his teeth. He didn't say anything for a moment.

"I would prefer not to be called such an embarrassing nickname, but I did give my word." He said begrudgingly. "I give you permission to call me whatever you want. Also, what was that pressure?".

She thought for a bit. "That was one of my skills, called [Gravity Manipulation]."

"I understand. I cannot delay my journey to the forest any longer. For the security and prosperity of my kingdom I will get stronger and achieve glory." He said, pumping his fist.

"Thank you for opening my mind to my own incompetence. It was a pleasure to meet you Vel." He said, before leaving the auditorium, presumably to speak to his father, the king.

We most likely underestimated her strength seeing how easily she beat the prince while knowing almost nothing about sword fighting. But the fact that she isn't hiding her strength makes her less likely to be hostile to the kingdom.

After the duel I showed her the facilities, which she was pleased with, fiddling with various devices and inspecting the runes present. At the end, I showed her the runic library and her smile was so wide I could almost imagine her squealing in happiness.