Kagrumez Ruins

The 5000 votes Extra that was promised! Sorry for being late.

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"Ladies and Gentlemen, we made it again." (Me)

"... Shut up!" (Alina)

"GOLD SLIDE!" (Jull)

"No way!" (Wulf)

"All that is gold! Again?" (Jorna)

What lied to us at the end of Fahlbtharz was another pile of Gold like the one we took from Haknir Death-Brand's tomb. Maybe a bit smaller but it was all Dwarven Gold coins which have a large price compared to the old Nordic ones.

"Look at these Dwarven Swords!"

"Jon, you are a real gold digger."

"I know."

We uncovered two treasures in four days. What are the chances?... Unless I know beforehand but I don't hide it so they don't believe it. Smart, right?

"Jon, compared to our wealth in Winterhold, this…" Alina said.

"This needs us to expand our vault at least three times if we added it to the other gold in the Cube."

"I was saying, shouldn't we be a bit modest with our luck?"

"... Nope."

"Good, I feel less guilty now."

We started hoarding all that gold into the Cube again.

As we finished with the Gold, there were artifacts. I started sorting them by the quality and the Enchantments. They were mostly not enchanted and got stored in their respective sections in the Cube's main space. We actually have a large armory in there.

The enchanted ones were mostly staves and some swords with minor enhancements but the most important thing her was the 'Visage of Mzund'.

"Wulf, put this on."

Wulfur took the Helm in his hands and felt its weight.

"It is massive."

"I know, right."

It was a large Helm that covered all the head, its appearance was unique as it carried that face which the Dwemer always make for their Dwarven Centurions. [A/n: Check Legacy of the Dragonborn Mod.] The appearance was fearsome and cool at the same time.

"Try to blow out a strong breath… no, not my direction."

Wulfur did as I said, he inhaled from his nose and exhaled a strong breath. With his head in the Visage, he let out a strong breath that turned into the same steam once it got out of the Visage.

"Fuck! What was that?" He freaked out.

"Amazing, right."

He took off the Visage and took his breath.

"This is awesome! I can't do a Thu'um like you but this… this is crazy."

"Of course. But you need to drink water after each use unless your ability gets enhanced. If you keep training on the Meditation Technique I gave you, you will be able to do it again and again."

"Awesome!"

Wulfur is all about Stamina. His power and speed were admirable but his endurance is something else. I tweaked the Meditation Technique I gave him so that his Stamina and Vitality become stronger.

Actually, his training is showing more effect than mine and Alina's. He can already carry things I can't carry with my Aura enforcing me.

"Jon, do you know what is the perfect use for this Visage?"

"Mhm?"

*Five minutes later.*

In a tiny space inside the Cube, Wulfur and I sat down with only towels around our waists. He drank some water then put the Visage on and exhaled a strong steam.

""SAUNA!""

This guy thought of that one his own, I am really proud. We finally have a sauna by utilizing one of the Magical Artifacts left behind by a long lost race of elves. Sounds like the right use to me.

[Visage of Mzund] The wearer has more Stamina and by exhaling strongly, the Visage will let out a Steam Breath Attack called 'Breath of Nchuak'.

***

We left Fahlbtharz and headed south to Kagrumez. From the name, one can understand that it is another Dwarven Ruin and like Fahlbtharz, it is a trial ruin. Seems like the Dwarves of Solstheim were quite the energetic bunch.

In front of the Ruin site, a woman in fit tight black armor under a black cloak was standing there, beside her was a Storm Atronach Horse. This was a Dark Elf from 'Team 0', my bodyguards and secret intelligence who take direct orders from only me as the Boss and Jullanar as their Captain.

"Boss, Captain."

"Ania, I trust you have what Jon needs." Jullanar started bossing around.

"Of course, Captain. Here are all the stones."

"Jon, are these what you want?"

"Yes, they fit the description. Good job, Ania."

"Thank you, Boss."

"Anything out of the ordinary?"

"No, Fort Frostmoth is completely guarded and we are about to get done with receiving all the shipments."

"Fine, tell Ongeim to start loading the ship and make the departing arrangements. We will finish up in a week."

"Yes, Boss."

She took the order and rode away. Team 0 has a lot of Dunmer and Khajiit but it is mainly made of Nords. The Dunmer were the refugees that became citizens in Winterhold and the Khajiit are the ones I tested myself. Khajiit, Orcs and Argonians are mostly not allowed to go into the cities due to xenophobic reasons even in Winterhold but I tend to look for the people with talent and quality, each person has their kind of problems and what I do is to solve these problems for them and use them as my people for repayment. Khajiit love free-spirited easy jobs so I offer them good work conditions and Dunmer want to be seen equal with Nords so I offer them dignity. The atmosphere in Winterhold was a bit awkward but as long as everyone is kept busy in their work they won't remember that they are different races all together especially if their line of work is doing shady business like in 'Team 0'.

Anyway, it was the time to delve into Kagrumez.

Kagrumez is an ancient Arena that the Dwemer utilized to make people and machines fight so it was going to be fun as long as one doesn't get hurt.

The ruins were also built in a so we have to go down the stairs then use the elevator in the middle of the ruins. The Dwarves used elevators like these in mostly everything they built.

We descended underground again and found ourselves in a storeroom-like place. There were all kinds of broken dwarven machines and metal bars. Wulfur and I didn't let one thing in place and hoarded everything… even the shelves… because they are big and also made of Dwarven metal. Anyway, as we finished we kept going down a stairway and we didn't come across any hostile dwarven machine.

As soon as the stairway ended, we arrived at an open space with a central platform and also a lot of surrounding high ones. This was the arena I mentioned before. On the central platform, there was a pedestal with a 3x3 grid, each point was a socket that would fit something inside.

"So! What now?" They asked.

"Look at that gate." I pointed to the gate in the east. "Let's check it out first."

As I showed them the gate we found another 3x3 grid with to points highlighted.

"The Middle Left and the Bottom Right." I said and went back to the pedestal. "Now show me what Ania brought."

I took the small box from Jullanar an inside it there were nine crystal stones in it, these were known as the Resonance Stones. Each one would fit on any socket in the pedestal grid.

"Okay, get ready."

I said and placed two Resonance Stones. Once I did so, a cage rose from the ground and surrounded all of us.

"Jon."

"I know, don't panic, we can teleport out if things went bad."

The cage held up for a while then went down, the walls around the arena started to move and we could hear some machines walking on them. With that, the first round of the fight for survival began. We formed a circle formation all with weapons in hand.

From the platforms on top, Dwarven Spider started jumping down and they were followed by Dwarven Ballistas.

"Go for it!" I shouted and we charged each to his fancy.

What met me was a Dwarven Sphere, it also ruched at me but avoided attacking directly and tried to make a circle and shoot me with its crossbow but I wouldn't let it go that easily. Parkour was still in my blood and I avoided each bolt it shot at me finally reaching it and performing a Superman Punch with my free hand that had a 'Thunder Cookie' spell charged.

My alarm spell sensed danger and I avoided right away as there was a Dwarven Ballista shooting at me while keeping its distance.

"No, you won't."

Before it shoots another one, I used 'Electrohand', grabbed it with my lightning hand all the way over me and slammed it on the ground to pieces.

Each one of us was going with his or her style as it would be bad if we centered ourselves in one place and got all shot at. Jull used her crossbow to shoot down all the ones that came towards her, Wulf and Jorna waved their large hammers idiotically, Nefertiti took a liking on a big steel axe and used it in her Werecat for, she looked super deadly, my lady fair, Alina, was using a mace and a magic, finally the awesome me was magic and unarmed combat.

It was fun but the Dwarven machines were kinda unending until we finally finished our first round.

"I am so tired." Jull sat down catching for breath.

"Yes, the Dwarves indeed has a lot of metal to spare." Jorna sat beside her in worse condition.

We started healing each other and I focused on Nefertiti who really hurt herself.

"Wanna go back and have a nap?"

"No."

"Wanna eat something?"

"No."

"Wanna destroy some machines?" I said and tickled her chin.

"Purr… yes."

She was larger than her normal cute self but she was still the little devil who would purr whenever she gets tickled… but this time she was carrying a large axe and very happy with it. She even switched to her Human Form and waved the axe a few times then went back again to the Werecat Form deciding it was better that way.

Anyway, I am happy that she found something interesting.

"Let's see the gate."

We went to the gate again and found it open this time, behind it, there was a corridor that led us to another storeroom that we started looting.

"Hooman, that lever."

"Oh yes, that. Wulf, come here."

There was a lever and behind it was a metal wall, once we used the lever, the door moved down and Dwarven Spider appeared behind it.

"Whoa!" I stopped everyone from blowing it to pieces.

"What?"

"This thing is not hostile, it is friendly."

"What? A friendly… machine?"

"Wulfur, go try it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, go."

He nodded with a smile and went forward towards the Dwarven Spider.

"Hey, you seem friendly." Wulfur talked to the Dwarven Spider.

The spider let out steam as a response.

"Oh! Follow me then, I'll call you Spidey."

"Nice naming, Wulf."

"Oh boy, why do boys love strange things?"

It seemed that the team had some conflicting opinions about a Dwarven Spider coming with so we stored it in the Cube with an order to sort out things in there. There is no way would let such a study subject go to waste.

We then took the pattern for the next round's grid and went out to place the stones on the pedestal.

This round had fire traps all over the place and we got burned a few times but we managed to fend off the horde of machines. Its reward was an access to another storeroom and a Dwarven Sphere that Wulfur took too. He would go insane about anything Dwarven.

The third round was full of Lightning traps and the floor got submerged with water so it was too deadly to move around a lot else we would get electrified. Still, that didn't stop us from levitating or teleporting or merging with our own shadows. It was a hairy third round but we passed it.

This was the last round and we got access to the final storeroom and there was a unique artifact waiting for us.

"This is for you, Jullanar."

"For me?"

She didn't receive a lot like Alina but she always boasted about getting the Ring of Arcana. This time, I wanted to give her this amazing bow.

It is the [Dwarven Black Bow of Fate], each arrow fired from it can drain the targets Life Force and Magicka and the shooter would absorb them.

This elegant Black Bow was much like Alina's Bloodscythe and Soulrender. A worthy bow for a worthy shooter.