' = Internal dialogue
¨= Normal speech
* = Sounds / Etc
-Chapter 58-
After the the kids and adults calmed down, I reminded them that we still had to get out of here, and that the High Tinker is nearby.
This made them cheer up considerably. Just knowing that their High Tinker had come all this way to save them from the hands of the nefarious cult and primitive troggs made them feel immense relief.
Yet most of them had thought about the whole situation in-depth. Being highly intellectual beings made it clear that a majority were reminded of the situation as a whole.
They had been kidnapped directly from their homes, placed in cages, and then almost killed by crazed cultists while also losing loved ones along the way; their faces were a clear indication of them thinking this through as some even hesitated to go back to Gnomeregan.
While the majority celebrated their newly regained freedom, we made our way out of the hall with everyone in tow. Oglethorpe, however, was still unconscious, and this made me sling the gnome over my shoulder after treating his injuries; it was a miracle the gnome could still function normally, as he only had one functioning leg, one functional arm, and a collapsed lung, and significant blood loss.
As I was closing the distance toward our destination ahead, which was the large metal door, and just as I was going to punch the door off its hinges, I heard a *THUMP* from the outside. Instinctively, I put up a solid wall of ice in front of us as the door exploded inward towards me and the gnomes.
It struck the ice wall with a dull thud as the narrow hallway shook violently. I prepared for combat for a moment before I heard two heavy footsteps; a large golem took its steps forward with its arms drawn in a swinging motion as its saw-like tools at the ready to rush into combat, but were lowered the moment it could see the wall of ice in front of it. Gelbin had appeared with his mech. Eyes set ablaze with fury.
Before I could say something, a frightened voice came from behind Gelbin and shouted, "I swear! This is where they are! Please don't kill me!"
I recognized that voice. It was the dwarf from before, Gerrig, the one who butchered children because he wanted fresh resources for his rituals.
Without more than a few seconds after seeing the people behind me, Gelbin's arm changed rapidly into what resembled an enormous hammer.
It slammed it down toward the dwarf without hesitation.
It was then I put up an additional wall of ice at that moment to avoid letting the children see the display of gore; I only barely made it before a large splat hit the outer layer.
As the situation outside of the ice calmed down, I released the outer layer. It mixed with the blood and then went into the dirt and disappeared into the ground, leaving only brain matter and limbs and an utterly compressed dwarf in a small hole in the ground, which I quickly covered and buried underneath the dirt.
I sighed as I took down the last ice wall, and cheers were heard among the previously captured gnomes behind me. This made Gelbin's previous tension leave him, as he undoubtingly had gotten the short story of what was going on from Gerrig, the dwarf who now had become a soup of meat under the ground.
Gelbin and his mech walked in front of me and stopped, "I felt the whole damn tunnel shake. What happened down there?" He asked, much of his previous anger gone.
"Two elemental beings were summoned after a bunch of cultists and their leader sacrificed themselves while I was busy saving the captives." I told Gelbin as a bunch of the gnomes behind me nodded appreciatively with confirmation at my brief explanation of what had occurred.
"... I see." he replied, but I doubted he could see, "Did you enter deeper into the camp yet?" I said as I gently put the unconscious gnome down, and several other gnomes stepped forward, picked him up, and carried him over to lay at the entrance of the narrow hallway which had been blown inwards.
"Yes... the dark iron dwarves surrendered when I killed a majority of them by setting up a surprise attack after locating that... dwarf, who set up my ambush and enabled me to get rid of the majority of their forces.
One man escaped during the chaos. They called him Vyral.
Apparently, his assigned squad was not willing to die for the man as they were the first to spill what was going on before I found this dwarf... He had made camp outside their base, and when I found him... he was digging through the stomach of an unrecognizable corpse; his assistant told me that it was a child they had procured from the troggs several days ago." He said with a calm tone that became strained toward his last words.
Then he stared at the ceiling, and I noticed the tiredness in his body language as he continued, "The assistant shares the same fate as this despicable monster."
I put a hand on Gelbin's shoulder, which brought the High Tinker back to his senses. I was going to say something but was interrupted by the feminine voice of a gnome who approached Gelbin from behind.
She wore the monocle found inside the beautiful ornament box. She also wore several pieces of ragged-looking clothes stained with dried blood, which blackened the fabric and seemingly stiffened it.
"High Tinker, we have found documents you need to see." She said as her face was practically glued to a note until she saw me, and with a glint in her eye, she walked to the side of Gelbin and gave a court bow before continuing, "I thank you, Lord Medan, without your help... I would still not be... alive..."
"Elgin... I told you to rest among the others... you are not supposed to fulfill your duties as my secretary after such... a harrowing experience, this is an order, please..." Gelbin said soothingly as the dark-blonde female gnome's face twisted into a grimace. Her eyes grew distant for a second before she nodded as tears threatened to fall down her face.
She replied, "Sorry, High Tinker. It was the only thing I could think of doing to prevent the darker thoughts from entering my mind. I will do as you say. Excuse me, High Tinker, Lord Medan."
She then froze mid-stride and turned and walked back beside the mech to look Gelbin in the eye and said, "One last thing, High Tinker, you might want to read the five documents on the top before we return to Gnomeregan; we found them inside a hidden cabinet underneath the bed within the tent... I'm sorry." Then she walked off in the distance after putting a stack of documents into Gelbin's sky golem's arm compartment.
This left Gelbin momentarily speechless before he jumped down the mech and his arm shot into the compartment, grabbed the first document, and speedily read it with record speed. His face paled, then reddened, paled, and this went on until he finished the first document, but as he kept reading and took up the following document, it started to stay red, as his eyes lit up with untold sadness and disappointment, then anger, and in the end... his face grew neutral, and his mouth was a thin line.
He looked at me momentarily before shaking his head and handing me the first document. The introduction already gave away what I needed to know.
—
Addressed to Recipient: Sicco Thermaplugg.
I am happy to inform you that the Senate has decided to accept your proposal.
We have sent our agents into the excavation area in the Blasted Lands to speed up the process of the Shadowforge clan accessing the newly discovered vaults within. Still, to uphold our deal with you, we have sent additional forces to speed up the plans that previously had become invalidated by disagreements between our people.
Our High Interrogator has offered her help in order to make the process of hiding your involvement with this until the rebellion is over; we have also kept our surveillance on the Inventor you previously mentioned.
The Inventor has managed to get a foothold within the shores of Booty Bay. With the help of our contacts, we have managed to secure his life after forwarding specific information to Baron Revilgaz.
We will have him "Willingly" give us the information we need with the help of the High Interrogator until you can stay in touch with us and relay the information necessary in order for us to get a foothold within your domain; you will be hearing from us.
Signed and approved by Ambassador Slaghammer of the Shadowforge Senate.
-Burn the letter upon finish reading.-
—
To me, this was not surprising. I knew of Sicco's involvement in regard to Gnomeregan's incoming destruction. Still, I did not know that he had been seeking the help of the Dark Iron dwarves. It also seems that this letter was recently sent and seemed to be on its way to Sicco himself within just a few days, and even if I told Gelbin about my so-called knowledge of this beforehand... I doubt he would have believed me and instead become suspicious.
The four other letters were instructions, recommendations, and replies from previous letters sent by Sicco; one even described how to continue undermining Gelbin to take over his council while also manipulating him into believing that the situation was becoming more dire than it initially was.
There were even mentions of kidnapping the people close to Gelbin through the means of pre-planned events that Sicco would manipulate to make them happen more smoothly. One of those describes a gnome named Thread Sparknozzle, as he is in the way of several plans made in collaboration with Sicco and the Shadowforge Senate. It was scheduled to happen within this week.
Some of the addresses on the letters described to be delivered to a fortress with the name of "Angor" which was one of the headquarters of the Dark Iron dwarves supplying the ones down here with equipment and explosives.
After reading all those documents, we started on the first sheet of paper under the five. This one... was actually about me, or rather, partly about me, but what surprised me the most was the other person. It was the bounties regarding a man and a woman living in the other continent that seemed to have built a solid foothold within the regions of Azshara with the wealth stolen from the dead nobles of Lordaeron and that the Lord of the Blackrock spire, Victor Nefarius had put out a bounty of over fifty-thousand gold for the heads of either him or the "fake" Princess Menethil.
Apparently, I had kidnapped the Prince of Stormwind. And I returned him shortly after the Royal advisor's soldiers had chased me off.
I couldn't do anything but chuckle at the situation and how the Black dragonfight was portraying me, 'Now I know who Onyxia had been staying in contact with as a consequence of me visiting Stormwind and maiming her personal guard, not that this is a surprise, I knew this clearly, but having it confirmed was another thing.
Or perhaps she had realized out she had been robbed blind and went crying to her brother? I guess I will find out in the future.
Gelbin had noticed my chuckle and gazed at me tiredly as I handed it to him. As he read it, his eyes widened when he saw the bounty, and he asked, "Did you really kidnap the young prince?"
I smiled a little and nodded, but before he could ask a follow-up question, I replied, "Well, to some degree, but my adoptive daughter refused to follow the plan we had when we went to Stormwind; as a result, the prince joined us for a brief visit to the regions of Azshara, but don't worry, he was returned within a few hours, and if I wanted to kidnap someone... do you believe normal people would be able to stop me?" I explained casually with a slightly dark undertone with a hint of humor.
This made Gelbin pause before he smiled wryly and shook his head. As we had looked through the five documents plus an additional one, we thought it was time to start our walk toward Gnomeregan. The gnomes had begun to grow restless.
After explaining to Gelbin that I wanted to make an impromptu visit to this so-called Angor fortress, he nodded when hearing my reasoning. If the dark irons had a way to send messages to their leaders, we would deny them that luxury.
When we concluded our talks, I was exiting the camp. At the same time, Gelbin had started escorting his people. That's when I heard a shout coming from my side, and then something akin to a rifle going off resounded through the area.
I could actually see the bullet head toward a part of the camp that gave me an odd sense of Deja vu, and that's when I realized... that's the direction where they had put all the explosives.
Without any hesitation, I attempted to stop the round projectile in its path toward the heap of explosives, but I was too late; my hastily put-up ice cracked as a bullet flew past it; even if it had slowed the projectile down, It was still heading toward its destination.
Just as it was going to hit something that looked like a bottle of nitroglycerin, I clenched my hand as the earth in front of it rose to the rescue; the bullet hit the mud-like wall and sank into it.
'Damn! That was close!' I thought, then I saw the bottle of nitroglycerin dip forward and crash into the ground due to the hastily conjured earth wall.
A massive mist of white shot out of my body as I dumped around [15,000 MP] into the ice as I felt the shockwave throughout the area. Even as I managed to layer the whole heap of explosives in ice that seemed to stop the remaining continuation of explosions, the damage was done; as the tunnel shook, large stalactites fell from the ceiling, and the area began its collapse.
The voice in the distance was now laughing madly until I could hear a wet *SQUELCH* as I turned my gaze to where the voice came from. Turned out it was the dark iron dwarf with the name Firehammer. he looked like both fire and hammer tried to separate, as he had been the one to shoot the bullet but was now impaled from head to toe with a sharp stalactite that seemed to almost cleave him in half.
Then started one of the most chaotic moments of my life; defending roughly 500 gnomes while escaping the collapsing tunnel was by no means going to be an easy feat.
Gelbin helped, though, as his mech launched thin missiles that exploded falling stalactites, "You've had those the entire time?!" I shouted as we ran, and the already overloaded pillars that supported the ceiling and walls cracked and almost collapsed entirely if I did not actively hold them in place with a layer of hardened earth. This was only temporary, though, as the weight of the ceiling and walls kept increasing, and the parts we had already passed closed themselves shut with the unforgiving mountain's collapse.
"Yes! But I did not dare to use them in fear of causing damage to the tunnel's infrastructure! But there is no longer any need to avoid that from happening!" Gelbin shouted at me as he franticly fired at the falling rubble. At the same time, I attempted to use fire as a means of destroying the small pieces that escaped his notice.
After... draining that creature's fire into my own, I had most likely been able to push my Attunement higher. As a result, it improved my control drastically, as my fire flew into the air above the gnomes and directly evaporated the rubble into a dusty layer that made most of them cough as they ran.
The rubble... was honestly not rubble; it was boulders the size of the gnomes themselves, aka not very big boulders, but they could smash the people below to a meaty pulp.
*RUMBLE* The entire tunnel shook intensely, making even me stumble on my feet as when I felt it, the whole ceiling had started to cave in. We could also see the signs of the exit in the distance, which was rapidly closing in on itself due to the stone and dirt.
'Oh damn, this might be bad!' I thought as my hands rose toward the ceiling, and I put the majority of my remaining MP pool into what I wanted to happen next.
A thick white mist started from my feet. Within mere moments, it surrounded everyone as significant impacts of a rock hitting something solid resonated through the makeshift structure of an ice tunnel directly towards the exit.
It was several hundred meters long, and for every second, I felt the entire thing shake; I had to concentrate mainly on keeping the tunnel of ice stable as the gnomes passed me by as they ran.
Gelbin, however, stayed behind and shouted, "What are you doing!? We need to move!" I replied with gritted teeth as I felt warm blood pool inside my cheek. The strain of holding up hundreds of tons of pure mountain wrath attempting to bury me was quickly proving itself to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.
I looked at Gelbin, gazed at the mech, and forced my following sentence out with gritted teeth, "Let me... hold your... mech, and we... rush toward the... entrance when your... people... have crossed... more distance!"
As I had to continuously channel the mana, which I recovered each second, into the ice structure, it was extremely tough to move freely.
Gelbin shook his head at my reply. I had not expected the High Tinker to stay behind like he did. It gave me a proper look at his character, and I could see why he was appreciated by his people; he did not flee to save his own life but instead stayed behind to help someone he had only met a day before.
As the gnomes finally reached the exit, I prepared to move to Gelbin. I was met with a mechanical arm grabbing my own as I heard engines flare to life, and blue light appeared on the mech's back as I listened to its engines burst to life as flames exited the back.
Then, without further notice, the sky golem leaned forward as it held my arm, and we shot towards the exit.
"You had this all along!?" I yelled as we shot like a missile toward the exit, "Yes! But you need to prepare something to stop us becoming roadkill on the wall!" Gelbin shot back.
'Wait... don't tell me...'
As blue flames intensified as they shot out of the mech's back uncontrollably, I realized that Gelbin had no way to stop the sky golem from crashing into the corner after the exit, as I no longer kept channeling my mana into the icy passage, I heard it crumble behind us as we flew toward the exit that was rapidly closing in.
"SHIIIIIIIIIIT!" Both of us yelled as we crashed into the wall with a *BOOOOM*, which was slowly turning into soft mud the further in we sank. I felt that one, so did the sky golem's metal plates as the cockpit started bending inward from the strain.
After the tunnel of ice shattered and the ceiling caved in the entire tunnel section, Both Gelbin and I were deeply imprinted into the wall, which had softened, albeit slightly.
His mech's back was still glowing blue and was reaching the melting point as the engine wouldn't shut itself off; suddenly, the shell that covered Gelbin inside his cockpit opened, and he shouted, "HEY! CAN YOU FREEZE IT OVER? IF YOU DON'T, IT'S GOING TO EXPLO-*COUGH* -DE!" Gelbin ended up swallowing a piece of muddied earth as he completed his shout.
I quickly pointed my arm toward it as I was pushed just as hard into the wall as he was and managed to embed the exhaust pipes that had been starting to turn crimson on the sky golem's back.
As the pipes froze over, we both fell backward as Gelbin's mech crashed to the ground while still holding my arm that had turned slightly blue as the arm clamped down on it as we crashed.
After laying there momentarily, staring with empty eyes at the poorly designed cave ceiling, I said, "I want a vacation..." I couldn't see Gelbin reply to that, but I could almost feel his agreement to that statement.
"... Do you by any chance have any lightning magic in that repertoire of spells you have shown lately? Because I am ashamed to admit... I'm all out..." Gelbin said as his voice had the same tone of being absolutely done with today.
I couldn't help but chuckle and then checked my mana, [MP: 432/46,480] and replied, "Sure... give me a minute though, this ceiling was strangely comfortable to look at..."
"... With that, I can agree..." He replied with a chuckle, then after charging his mech slightly and going back down to almost zero mana, several dozen gnomes had started to approach to look if we were injured and required help.
But they were waved off by Gelbin, whose sky golem had managed to get back on its feet. At the same time, I just stared at the ceiling for a moment before I got back to my feet. We started making our way around the corner and into the familiar chamber of the female keeper from before.
There sat the three dwarves, Baelog, Eric, and Olaf. All three looked exhausted and ready to pass out as they were covered from head to toe in blood and gore.
Gelbin walked over and put his mech in standby mode as he asked, "What... happened?" Eric looked up with an empty look in his eyes as he started recounting what had transpired after Gelbin left, which was basically an hour-long fight between the dwarves, dark irons and a small horde of troggs.
Eric pointed toward a corner of the room where four corpses lay toward the cold stone wall with their necks slit as blood pooled underneath; one was even without a head, which was placed beside its body.
"The four seemed surprised at finding the camp back where we came from... empty, and when we tried to warn them that we wanted no trouble and were with someone called Gelbin, they went on the offensive..."
"After dealing with the troggs... the dark iron... they attacked Olaf... and that's when we had no other choice... we tried to avoid more conflict as we were tired... but when they realized we were not aiming to kill, and instead tried to disarm them... they cut their own throats, when Olaf decapitated their leader by accident..."
While Eric was talking, Gelbin stared at the four corpses coldly and replied, "No... you three did Gnomeregan and me a favor by ridding us of this... threat." Then he turned to Eric and said, "May I ask the three of you to do me a favor? I will pay you well."
This time, the dwarf Olaf stepped up before Eric, and his eyes landed on Gelbin. The dwarf nodded with a severe look in his eyes; Eric, the only one who actually spoke properly, said in his place, "What Olaf wants to convey... is the fact we do not need payment; we will do what you ask as long as it does not go against our morals..."
This made Gelbin snort as he replied, "No, all I want to ask of you three... is to bring news to Ironforge, King Bronzebeard, specifically, and you will be rewarded, if not by me, then by him.
Then Gelbin started to write on a note as he took a pencil from his belt and started scribbling down on a sheet of paper for a few moments before he handed it to Olaf, who received it and gave a stern nod in affirmation.
As the High Tinker sent the three dwarves off, he looked at me and asked, "Still going to deal with that Angor place? From what information I know of that stronghold is the fact that it has had a recent overhaul, but it was never clear who had occupied it. We had at first thought it was orcs... But it's clear now, the ones from the Blackrock Mountains have gained a solid foothold in our part of the region..."
Then Gelbin continued, "You would be doing us a favor yet again at this point, and I honestly do not know what to give you as recompense for all this trouble..."
I shrugged and replied, "I wouldn't mind working with you to create something like that." I pointed at his sky golem, which made his eyes grow stern, but before he could interject, I continued, "A watered-down version, of course; it would not do anyone any good if they, by any chance, landed in enemy hands." Gelbin was still leaning toward denying that request but soon held his hand to his forehead as it looked like he was getting a headache.
"Fine... I will even make a replica of mine fit for someone of your size, and I will give you the blueprints of a watered-down version that can be mass-produced if you let me study that... artifact of yours..."
This time, I had to consider, as I replied, "Deal, but only when I am here; I will not be leaving that behind, no matter what." Gelbin nodded and smiled, then reached out with his hand and questioned, "Deal?" I reached out and stated firmly with a grin, "Deal."
Then, after clarifying parts of the deal, we split up as he led his people back into Gnomeregan and prepared for some... drastic solutions.
I started making my way out of the dungeon with the three dwarves following me as they were also going in the same direction toward Ironforge.
So, as we walked, I checked over today's gains and notifications.
—
[Gasherikk(Elite) (Level 53) Slain]
[Stonevault Cave Lurker(Level 42-47) x233 Slain]
[Jadespine Basilisk(Juvenile)(Level 33-37) x 112 Slain]
[Stonevault Pillager(Level 37-46) x138 Slain]
[Revelosh(Elite) (Level 55)] Slain
[Stonevault Ambusher(Level 44-53) x49 Slain]
[Jadespine Basilisk(Elite)(Level 50) Slain]
[Grimlok, Stonevault Chieftain (Level 57) Slain]
[Twilight Cultist(Level 55) Slain]
—
[Prince Skaldrenox(Level 135) (Abyssal Lord(Boss)) Slain]
{Fire Affinity Absorbed 54%}
—
[Baron Kazum(Level 137) (Abyssal Lord(Boss)) Slain]
{Earth Affinity Absorbed: 34%}
—
-Attunements:
-Fire - 82% [Tier III] Fire - 44% [Tier IV]
-Water - 22% [Tier III] Water - 35% [Tier III]
-Earth - 6% [Tier III] Earth - 44% [Tier III]
-Air - 81% [Tier III] Air - 96% [Tier III]
-Arcane - 100% [Tier IV]
—
[Excess experience gained: 13 Levels]
[Excess total experience: 38 Levels]
—
Passive: Heart of Azeroth {Upgrade!}(+)
-You can now absorb the lifeblood of Titans and beings alike to gain bonuses. {Changed}
{New!} [Can now absorb the lifeblood of Titans, Elemental Beings, Old Gods, Light/Dark Alignment Spirits.
{Negative Effects can occur upon absorption of Evil Aligned Beings.}
—
[New!] [Tier IV] Fire Trait
-Fire [Tier IV] = Your fire has gained the ability of Heat Infusion. You can infuse objects, beings, body parts, or powers with heat, empowering and energizing them and allowing you to manipulate their qualities and efficiency.
-Thermoreception: You can now perceive thermal signatures.
-Bio-Heat Infusion: You can channel your [Fire: Tier: IV] to infuse heat into almost anything.
You can now imbue Attunement: [Fire: Tier IV] into whatever you choose with extraordinary efficiency.
[Defensive and Offensive power is based on current tier: IV]
-Attacks with the properties of fire will not be able to hurt you unless its base Attunement is higher than your own.
-You can now absorb fire up at the level of your Attunement Tier: IV
{Can still be injured if said fire has different attributes than your own.}
—
{Next Tier Trait Reward: Tier VIII(8)}
—
{Next Tier Availability: Water/Earth/Air}
—
'Oh, I took those creatures' affinity with their element? Or.. part of it? Interesting. Hmm... so I must wait until an Attunement reaches Tier VIII for the next trait? That isn't really that bad, all things considered...'
'Welp, I'll celebrate the fact that no more rogues or the like will be able to sneak up on me in the foreseeable future. Valeera will be pissed, hah' I thought as I could imagine Valeera's futile attempts at stabbing me in the future.
—Chapter 58 End—