CHAPTER 21

"Eliminating those lizards was a piece of cake, at least it is more than that," the voice sounds annoyed, also weak, I imagine that the distance from where it is communicating is very large and very charged with residual magic, despite receiving the message as if it were the complaint of a disinterested and banal person, I know it is not so, the voice belongs to the Dark Lord, which means it is under great stress.

During the last nights I have received dreams, I also imagine Lilith, where our Lord informs us about the progress to enter the castle, many of the protections require long elven readings, or to be able to use his magic to energize the runes of doors and locks, the magics he sends us are so that we can use his knowledge, for example the last one he used against the false lizards, I did not believe it existed, a great explosion, I can still feel the tension of his sword in my hands as he cut the head off the last of the creatures, he asked to send some dead controlled by Lilith to recover the scales, which could be a great improvement in the castle, here, before a civil rebellion, they are not even good for breakfast.

When I wake up, the usual problems await me, nothing to envy any mayor (which I am not), we go out for breakfast, a mushroom stew, sometimes with the meat of some mole they find, from there give instructions on how to prepare defenses, detect their powers, how to use their own magic, then two hours teaching blacksmithing techniques to the young maso, there are still no quality materials, wood for forging is non-existent, Coal and peat is the only thing we have, but we can't waste it, until we get better minerals, we heat the forge with heat incantations, they exhaust them, but they take turns, so while one improves his handling of magic, another blacksmith, defenses composed of women and elders prevent mercenaries from entering, this is what we have been doing for four months, because the real threat is not in the front, they are in the mines, The party ends here in the rocaceleste, they begin with whispers, they all talk about uncles, grandfathers, children who are waiting for them in the shadows, in the deep parts of the mines, where only our eyes, forced to the limit, can distinguish another passage, the materials for the lamps are expensive, the oil even more, the idea of being with torches in a tunnel like the humans terrifies us, we would be left without breathing! Our tunnels are not big, holes of a meter and a half at most, but from time to time they lead to wide galleys, that's where we put our dead after cleaning the interesting mineral veins, that's where the first attacks took place.

People were no longer drunk, that night no one tasted beer anymore, it was a moment of liberation, they explained to me that things had been difficult, at least as I remembered them, but the real bad thing happened when the dead added to the problems, suddenly even going to the water wells or picking mushrooms could be a trip of no return, The dead, at least, did not leave the area, but unlike hobgoblins or some of the predatory beasts (after all, the mines contain hundreds of enemies for the dwarves), they were not so easy to eliminate, especially when you had to crawl down a hundred meters on your knees to get to a possible cave, only to discover that someone had buried his family or some long-dead adventurer, whose remains are waiting for you with a rotten beard and an expression of hatred in their sockets.

 From then on things went from bad to worse, the king continued with this custom of robbery, since there was nothing to produce, little by little they robbed the citizens of their utensils, food, hope, but if we want to face the reprisals we'll need more material, that's what I told myself that day, I explained this to everyone in the following days, no one objected, now only the most experienced are outside, with weapons, with the knowledge I gave them to eliminate the various threats, with determination, while I face the few mercenary troops that come with the gleam of greed on my hammer, I take them all on, stripping them of their armor and weapons, eliminating the Judge that always accompanies them, the armor we recycle into weapons, so little by little we improve the quality of our defense, all the dwarves, apart from the reddening of their skin as a result of eating those "mushrooms of poverty," have now begun to tattoo runes, The young ones understand and some of them start to use magical shields, they don't resist much but they prefer them to have a steel weapon, for this we used some of their coal reserves, but being so miserable we needed them to bring more from the mines.

During the day I keep checking everything, the night elf keeps me informed about the movements of all the enemies, not the ones outside, the few merchants who have paid mercenaries to protect them, they don't like it when I give things away, I'm sure they want something in exchange for snitching, So I'm not surprised when I feel a breeze behind me, that and the disturbing smell of the forest, funny thing, I don't like the forest, but somehow it reminds me that there is something to this madness, she tells me in a low voice that there are guests, with a gesture of boredom I ask if there are more mercenaries, she tells me no, it's an invitation, I'd better go.

In front of the square, a dwarf with clean and elegant clothes is waiting for me, fragile is the word that comes to my mind, he gives me an envelope and runs away, in the envelope, with golden letters, is the invitation I was waiting for, with a pompous, "engineer blacksmith Chapatrueno" and ends "his loving son of platinum secretary of the king mountain of gold third", while everyone is excited, for me is a feeling of an imminent crisis, but I would not miss it for anything, at last I will meet the impostor king.