The first stop of the tour through the base was the armory, it was located lower in the rock than the living quarters but still above the room with the oven and the golems.

The armory was a huge open hall with neatly organized weapon racks and armor stands. The weapons and armor sets had all kinds of different sizes, from a very small set, which only someone of the size of a child could wear, ranging up to huge sets of armor that presumably were made for Mencur-Besh. Most of the equipment was made from very dark, almost black, steel.

TehLulz asked: "Fire, Aurone had a knife that was made from the same kind of metal as most of the stuff in here. What's up with that?"

Fire answered: "This is a special kind of steel, most just call it dark steel but the closest equivalent to its real name in the demonic language would be something like 'firesteel'. It is made by mixing regular steel with obsidian and blaze powder, then the metal is woven into the right shape."

"Woven?" Ambigious asked.

Fire took a chestplate from an armor stand and handed it to Ambigious, who was surprised that it didn't weigh nearly as much as he had expected, the texture of the armor also felt strange.

Fire explained: "The metal isn't solid, there is a lot of air inside. Firesteel armor combines the advantages of leather armor and plate armor, being lightweight, flexible and highly protective at the same time."

Fire demonstrated this by taking a bow from a weapon rack and shooting a set of armor point blank. The arrow stopped as soon as it hit the metal and then fell down. The spot where the arrow had hit was now dented slightly inwards but straightened itself out within the next few seconds.

Ambigious was impressed: "Wow, some people would give a lot to have something like this in real life."

Fire nodded and led them along further, passing racks with all kinds of weapons on them. They entered another section of the armory, this one was in a separate room and a lot smaller than the first one.

Shadow explained: "This is where we store some of the stranger weapons Fire has created or found."

freeZe pointed at something that looked like a shield with a drill coming out of it, she asked: "What the hell is that?"

Fire smiled: "Exactly what it looks like, a shield with a drill. It's as useless as you think it is." He shrugged. "I was asked to make three of those, the commissioners paid good money. In the end they themselves noticed that it wasn't that good of an idea but a group of crafty enchanters were able to turn one of them into a somewhat decent mining tool."

The rest of the room had similarly strange weapons and pieces of armor in it, Fire walked past and said a few sentences about each one.

"This armor has an intricate system of small pipes and needles inside that supply its wearer with potions automatically. It worked well but it was a pain to maintain, the pipes just kept gumming up all the time."

"This ball of dark orange goo may not seem like much but it was one of the more successful things in this room. It is able to transform itself into any shape its holder wants, the only limitation being its total mass. This was more of an experiment, a very resource intensive experiment, which is why I will never make another one of those."

Fire added: "Unchosen, TehLulz, Ambigious, on the way out you can take a look at some of the weapons, you will choose some of those when the training begins."

After they were done with the armory, Fire and Shadow lead the others into a different room, this one seemed to be a long corridor with a polished stone floor. On one side the walls were lined with tanks that had different liquids of all colors in them with taps underneath, everything was neatly labeled. The other side had drawers with various materials in them.

Unchosen said: "I assume that this is the potion area."

Fire replied: "Yes, actually this is where all of the ingredients are stored. The potion storage is a bit further ahead, come."

As the group came into to the end of the corridor they stood before a tall wooden door which swung open without a sound. Behind the door was a fairly large circular room, the floor, walls and ceiling were made from obsidian and all around the walls were different devices. The room seemed to be the laboratory where Fire made his potions. Three more doors led out of the room.

Fire explained: "The potion storage is behind those doors. The first one is where beneficial potions are stored, the second one is storage for poisons and the third one is where I put potions that don't really fit into the other two categories. For example there is a potion that turns into a sentient slime when spilled. It's a pet of sorts but its main function lies in testing liquids for harmful substances, you just put one drop into the slime and if it turns red you know you shouldn't drink whatever you tested."

Unchosen replied: "So, this is where I will learn to brew potions?"

Fire nodded.

After leaving the potion area Fire and Shadow showed the others different parts of the base like the enchanting area or the smithy.

The last room they went to was a simple, fairly small room with a wooden floor, the walls lacked the usual engravings, it was in general much simpler than the rest of the base.

"Seems underwhelming." Ambigious noted.

Shadow said: "Don't let the first look deceive you, this is probably the room that contains the most magic in the entire base, just watch."

Before Ambigious could complain about more magic, the entire room seemed to expand. The door behind them disappeared, the walls and ceiling seemed to fade out into blackness, the wooden floor turned into grass, trees and rocks grew out of the ground, lastly the blackness around them turned into a blue sky with some clouds in it. They were suddenly standing in the middle of a forest.

Before anyone could properly react to the sudden scenery change, they saw a group of five armored, mounted warriors charge at them from between the trees.

Unchosen tried to evade the lance that was pointed directly at him but he was too slow. Just when he expected an impact, the lance went right through him and its owner followed. A few moments later the warriors and their horses disappeared into smoke. They were just incorporeal projections.

Ambigious, freeZe, TehLulz and Unchosen couldn't do anything but stand there with open mouths.

"Okay, that is really impressive." Ambigious admitted.

Fire said: "You do not want to know how long Shadow worked on infusing magic into this room so that this would be possible. Granted, that was a few thousand years back. This will be where you will have your combat training, this room enables us to train under different circumstances and against realistic enemies, next to the intangible projections you have seen, there are also ones that are corporeal."

"This is awesome." TehLulz replied, the others agreed.

The room shrunk down to its original size and shape, Fire and Shadow turned to leave.

Unchosen wanted to know: "I still have one question, how will we learn all of those combat and crafting techniques in this little time? I once read that it takes years to master sword fighting."

Fire smiled and answered: "By doing just that, reading." He got some confused looks. "The books in the library are no different to issues you would buy anywhere else on the server. In content that is, the books themselves are indeed different. The books in the library are enchanted so that the reader learns what the book is about just by reading it attentively."

Shadow added: "This can sometimes lead to unexpected effects, right freeZe? I hope you liked Thornhook's book, did you reach the section about ghouls?"

freeZe replied: "Yes I did." She shuddered at the memories.

Fire said: "It's getting late. Time to eat something."

The others wondered how Fire knew it was getting "late" since they were underground but they all agreed on the second part of his statement. Hungrily they followed Fire into the lounge.