It was early in the morning. A haze of ash covered the land as usual, and while the scorching canyon was as dry and muggy as ever, the monsoon winds blowing from the other side of the mountain brought a cold snap on the cliffs in the northwest corner of the canyon.

Sentinel Prissan Grey Bronze crouched in a sheltered depression on the hillside, watching intently at the path leading down the mountain.

Although it was July, the pit he chose obviously could not completely block the cold air rushing down from the glacier, and a bone-chilling wind blew, and the gray copper couldn't help but shiver. This made him miss the warm environment of Darkhearth, and to be honest, he was very unhappy that the leader Opheste chose to build a camp on this cliff, you know, even if it was better to camp at the foot of the mountain.

He looked back at the thalmsged tower in the middle of the bustle, which would be their base for a long time to come, at least until they recaptured Darkforge. The snow line is about a hundred meters above the Thurin Watchtower, and beyond that, there is a snow and a glacier that does not melt all year round.

Prisser Grey Bronze had always feared that an avalanche would wipe out all their winter's hard work, and he believed he was not alone.

At that moment, he heard the sound of neat singing coming from below the path, and he turned his head sideways and pressed his ear to the ground, which was trembling slightly, as is the case when many people are advancing at the same time.

"Alert! Someone's coming! He jumped out of the pit and shouted at the camp.

There was chaos in the camp, but the Thorium Brotherhood was not without fighting, and the black iron dwarves who were working ran over with weapons in hand, some of them directly holding the hammers used to beat iron.

"What's going on?" Orphest was the first to ask. He is the leader of the entire Thorium Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood's escape from the Dark Furnace was organized and planned by him.

"Somebody's coming this way, a lot of people." Prisan Grey Bronze reported that he pointed to the winding path that led down the mountain. Although the trail was difficult to transport large goods, the Brotherhood had no intention of widening it—it was difficult to find such an easily defensible terrain.

Ophorst stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down, and a few minutes later, a team appeared in his field of vision. There were dwarves, humans, and a handful of gnomes in the group, and Orpheste even saw an elf in their midst.

It's not an army, a lot of people are in rags, they look like a bunch of refugees, or fugitives.

Still, there were a few of them in armor, and a human came out of them, tall and strong, with a resolute face, his burqa looking tattered, with holes in it, and a bow peeking out from behind his shoulder. He raised his hands in the air, signaling that he had no weapon in his hand.

"Salute to the Thorium Brotherhood!" The human shouted, looking tired and haggard, but still holding out his pleading, "We are fugitives from the melting pot, beg you to give you some food and water, and if you can, a place to rest, for the sake of the Titan Forger." ”

"I am Opherst, the leader of the Thorain Brotherhood," Opherst replied, stepping forward, "Sue me, who are you, and why are you here?" ”

"My name is Diego Asnar, and I and these slaves escaped from the melting pot, and after a brutal battle, we escaped from that hell."

"Sounds tough," Orphest nodded, frowning as he surveyed the other's bow and hatche, "we can allow you to enter this camp, but only after disarming. ”

"Look, I'll just say these black iron dwarves aren't good birds! I'm not going to lay down my arms anyway, that would remind me of a pig to the slaughter. Tanok Frosthammer muttered in the background, saying that he didn't have even the slightest trust in his distant relatives. In fact, Diego had been in a state of reproach since he made the decision to turn to the Brotherhood of Thorgin, and in the eyes of the Copperbeard Dwarf, all Black Iron Dwarves were evil and deserved nothing but to be smashed into meatloaf or chopped into meat sauce.

"Shut up, Tanok!" Diego commanded, and he stepped forward and handed over his bow and axe first, and there was a commotion in the crowd, but out of trust in Diego, they all came up and piled their weapons together. Frosthammer glanced at everyone, sighed helplessly, and threw the hammer in his hand, smashing it into a small noise.

Several members of the Thor Silver Brotherhood approached and caged them together, but instead of taking them away, they were left to pile them there.

The Black Iron Dwarves exchanged glances and lowered their weapons. Although they themselves are not rich - in fact, they are also facing difficulties, but at least they are not embarrassed enough to ignore the difficulties of these fugitives. At Orpfist's assignment, some of the fugitives were led to the camp's largest building, the forge of the forge, which could accommodate quite a few people. Some of the Black Iron Dwarven women prepared kettles, porridge, and stews. The fugitives quickly settled in and around the forge shed, eating the food and water brought by the Black Iron Dwarves and sharing the blankets they had sent. Some had just fallen asleep on the blankets, the last of their strength drained by the two days of flight.

Diego and Masrae, along with Tarnock Frosthammer, followed Orpheste to a smaller room, where Diego saw the great blacksmith Born Knight and the second-in-command of the Thorsilver Brotherhood, Scranger, already waiting. Looks like the Black Iron Dwarves are planning a small meeting.

Although he was already very familiar with several important members of the Thor Silver Brotherhood before the crossing, Diego listened to Orphest's introduction like a real stranger.

"Thank you." Diego said heartily, "I know you are also facing difficulties, and I am very grateful for your help. He paused, then took a letter from his pocket and handed it to Bonnet, "But I think I can help." ”

"For the sake of serving Kazgros together, we won't watch our dwarven relatives suffer, and this is what sets us apart from other Black Iron Dwarves." Born Knight replied, taking the letter from Diego and glancing at the sealing wax on it, which emblazoned the Blackhammer family's hammer badge.

Born Knight spent about five minutes reading the letter, then handed it to Orphest, who only skimmed through it roughly.

"Kotaz Blackhammer praises you in his letter, and there is no doubt that you have gained his friendship, which means that you have also gained the friendship of the entire Thorium Brotherhood," Orphest said with a smile on his face, seeing in this letter the hope of the Thorium Brotherhood to get out of its present predicament, "As you can see, the Thor Silver Brotherhood has never been stingy in helping the Dwarven Brothers in need, but at the same time it will not refuse the help of its friends. ”

"Unreserved help." Diego added that he knew what the Thorain Brotherhood needed most at the moment and decided to help them in that regard. He was deeply moved by the selfless rescue of the dwarven relatives by these Black Iron Dwarves, who were also facing difficulties. In these Black Iron Dwarves, he saw a quality that was not inferior to that of the Copperbeard Dwarves, which those depraved Black Iron Dwarves who had been enslaved by the Fire Demon did not possess, and there was no doubt that some noble spirit inherited from the time of the King of the Mountains was awakening in these members of the Brotherhood of Thorsilver, a power full of human brilliance.

"But I noticed that you weren't with these slaves," Ophort glanced at Tanok Frosthammer, who looked at him with a blank expression, perhaps the friendliest expression a bronker could make, "you just happened to be passing by the Melting Pot, but I have to admit that your help to these slaves is a great act of kindness!" ”

Tarnock Frosthammer couldn't have agreed more with Orphest's words, the Copperbeard Dwarf had changed his mind about the Thor Silver Brotherhood almost immediately, and this was the first time he had agreed so much with a Black Iron Dwarf.

"That's right," Frosthammer nodded incessantly, turning to look at Diego and Masrae sincerely, "The Frosthammer family will always remember your kindness, and if you have the opportunity to come to Karanos, we will do everything in our power to repay you." ”

"I also noticed that at the end of his letter he mentioned that you want us to help you build a weapon, can you tell me what kind of weapon it is?" After waiting for the excited Copperbeard Dwarf to finally calm down, Orphest asked reservedly. The Black Iron Dwarves are always confident in their weaponmaking, and in fact, this is what most people think of the Dwarves, and the sophisticated weapons created by the Dwarves are often highly sought after and have no price in the human world.

"A musket, I lack some necessary materials, I hope you can give me some help," replied Diego, which was somewhat unexpected by the dwarves, for the dwarves' craft was undoubtedly more rare than the materials, and the human seemed to have to build it himself, did he think that his craft could rival that of the dwarves?

"As for the pay, you can look at this." Diego took a package from the elf next to him and handed it over. Oppfist noticed that the package was irregular in shape, with large black spills on it.

"Head? Whose? Orphest, with his sophistication, asked quietly.

"Just look at it." Diego said with a smile as he placed the package on the table and opened it slightly, revealing the objects inside. Due to the shrinkage caused by blood loss, the skull appears somewhat distorted, but retains its approximate appearance.

"It's Mattorius, this traitor!" The blacksmith shouted in surprise, and he immediately recognized who the head belonged to.

"Give me this head, and I'll hang it on the edge of the platform of the watchtower, so that everyone can see what happens to the traitor!" Scranger said, taking the head from Orphest's hand and rushing out of the room, a few minutes later a loud cheer could be heard from outside the room.

"It's a great gift." Listening to the cheers outside the door, Orphest said with satisfaction, "Born Knight will take you to the warehouse, where you can choose any materials. ”

However, Diego soon experienced the plight of the Thorium Brotherhood, and in the warehouse where rare minerals were kept, Diego saw only a few black iron ingots and a small pile of Mithril ingots, the number of which was even in the single digits.

Born Knight said with some embarrassment, "You know, we were in too much of a hurry when we retreated from Darkhearth, and we barely carried any supplies, and these ingots were mined after we arrived here. ”

"Enough, far more than I need." Diego comforted him, and after a moment of selection, he took four or five black iron ingots, two silver ingots, and one Mithril ingot from the warehouse, which was nearly half of the dwarven treasury.

……

Note: Gnomes are not another name for dwarves, they are another race of Azeroth, although they are shorter than dwarves, but compared to the dwarves' stout bucket stature, they appear to be much more agile and slender than dwarves, like humans who have been reduced by half to normal proportions.

The eccentric gnomes are one of the most peculiar races in the world. As a result of their active development of new technologies and the creation of magical intelligent projects, every living dwarf in the world has become a legend. In the thriving tech city of Gnomeregan, gnomeregan, gnomes and their dwarven neighbors share the mineral resources of the Danmoro Mountains. While the dwarves in Ironforge are equally skilled in technology and meching, the great and magical ideas are the work of the gnomes, including most of the dwarven weapons and steam vehicles.

In the second war, the gnomes helped the human coalition, but strangely, they refused to provide a single soldier to help the human coalition against the invasion of the Burning Legion. While their designs helped defeat the Burning Legion, the dwarves and humans were shocked by the gnomes withdrawing their valiant troops and pilots......

After the end of the war, the human coalition finally discovered the reason for the sudden withdrawal of the gnomes: an ancient and savage threat, the mutant stone palatin, emerged from the ground and invaded Nomorigan. The gnomes knew that their allies' priority was to defeat the Burning Legion, so they had to withdraw their troops and fight alone. Despite their heroic struggle to save their beloved homeland, Nomorigen eventually fell.

With the fall of Nomorigan, almost half of the gnomes died. The remaining gnomes fled to the dwarven Ironforge to save their lives. Once again summoned by the Human Alliance, this tech-savvy race has joined the Human Alliance. The gnomes work on the design and development of new weapons to help them retake the ruined city of Miè.