Section 16 Changes

On the walls of the underground hall, the torches made a slight "crackling" sound.

It was an underground stone chamber, but unlike the filthy and crowded dwellings built by the rat people, it was very clean and tidy. In the light of the fire, your eyes can't see any visible garbage, let alone excrement. The hall is very spacious, with a small high platform in the center, and a staircase carved out of the rock continues to the high platform. At the heart of the platform is a throne carved out of stone.

All sides have been carefully sorted and groomed. The whole hall was neatly arranged, and the floor was paved with marble slabs. But if you look at it with a critical eye, there is still a lot to improve here - there are some cracks in the walls, some untouched natural stalagmites in the ceiling, and even water droplets fall from these stalagmites, accumulating puddles of water on the ground. In the corners, you can also find scratches and chips left by many weapons.

A whole line of guards, armed with heavy armor and two-handed war hammers, lined the steps of the high platform, for at this very moment, the owner of this underground hall was sitting on his throne.

These guards are only about half the height of humans, but they definitely don't give the impression of being "weak". Because their bodies are so thick and strong, they even look like beer kegs. Their long beards extend from the lower ends of their helmets and are braided into one or two braids. This conspicuous feature of the body makes any human being present subconsciously call out their name. "Dwarves!"

That's right, it's the dwarves. In the eyes of humans, the dwarves are one of the few races that cannot be described as "hostile", of course, this is not necessarily the case. Because of greedy instincts or differences in customs, a friendly business negotiation ends in the most embarrassing way – and there are not too many such examples.

But in any case, the dwarves are indeed a race that can coexist peacefully with humans. They have a level of technology that far surpasses that of humans in terms of technology and machinery, especially in metalworking. In fact, many contemporary scholars have verified that the muskets used by humans came from the dwarven arts. Not only muskets, but also the full-body armor commonly worn by knights today was also taught by the dwarven smelting technique. It can even be said that even now, the steel products made by the dwarves are still far better than those made by humans. A pair of full-body armor made by the dwarves is more than three times more expensive in the market than that made by ordinary human craftsmen.

At this moment, all the dwarves in the hall had serious expressions, because they knew that there was important news coming.

At this moment, there was the sound of hurried footsteps at the entrance, and the footsteps echoed in this slightly empty hall, and they did not go for a long time.

Accompanied by footsteps, it was a well-armed dwarven warrior, or more specifically, a dwarven ranger. Ranger is a special term in the dwarven language, referring to the well-armed veteran warriors who are the eyes and ears of the dwarven lords outside of the palaces and halls, serving as scouts and scouts.

"His Royal Highness Prince Hoga. The Ranger came to the bottom of the platform, before the lowest step, and knelt down on one knee.

"How's it going?" asked the dwarven lord on the throne, known as the Prince. "Have you found the source of the strange sound?"

The Ranger shook his head.

"Your Royal Highness, I led my team and carefully searched the various passages. But I didn't find anything. At first, I thought it was the filthy nezumi trying to dig a tunnel to attack us. But I carefully probed every key location. Your soldiers are faithfully guarding their posts, they have not been attacked in any way, and no patrols have been reported missing. Later I suspected some natural phenomenon underground, but we could not find anything like this in the records of our ancestors. At the end of my day, I suspected that it was a conspiracy planned by the greenskins, but in the end I couldn't find reliable evidence. ”

The prince pondered for a moment. "What about the Greenskins, is there any news on that?"

"There is nothing new. Your Highness, we all know about the green-skinned savage monsters, and all I can say is that they are preparing for a massive offensive. ”

"We haven't fought for six months. Have my people slackened?"

"Your Royal Highness, your warriors remain vigilant. Until the glory of our ancestors is restored completely, they will never let the sharp axes and swords rest. ”

The prince nodded in satisfaction. Karak-Grom has two vicious neighbors, the Greenskins from the surface and the nezumi from the Underworld. However, the last unexpected battle allowed him to temporarily get rid of both at the same time. Every time he thinks about it, he can't help but smile.

That's the blessing of our ancestors. At that time, the nezumi army from the Underworld suddenly appeared under the city of Karak-Grom. However, due to the fact that the defenders of Karak-Grom were really on high alert for the Greenskins' attack, the Nezumi raid was immediately resisted. Soon, cannons, bullets, and axe blades formed a strong line of defense, holding back the nezumi attack. Under the blow of the dwarves, the rat people had to retreat in a hurry, but at this time, the greenskin came.

Of course, the Greenskins had come to attack Karak-Grom. However, the hordes of rats stood in front of them, so the greenskins did according to their simple-minded logic - all those in their way were enemies. A big battle broke out between Greenskins and the Nezumi, while the Dwarves were in a safe position, discreetly attacking both sides with ranged fire (of course, the vast majority of attacks fell on the Nezumi).

The outcome of this war can be imagined. The nezumi were eventually annihilated by this flanking situation, and the next step, the dwarven army swarmed intact and easily crushed the greenskins, who had become exhausted from the battle with the nezumi. The entire Karak-Grom wilderness is covered with the corpses of dwarven enemies. It was a great and glorious victory, and the small price paid for it made all the dwarves overjoyed. It was this great victory that allowed Karak-Grom to finally change the situation of a three-day skirmish and a five-day war, and enjoy the next six full months of peace.

But, as the Ranger captain said. The greenskins are not going to give up. They must be planning a new plan against Karak-Grom. But as long as there is another victory, as long as there is another victory, then the green skin is no longer a problem. The motives of the nezumi are unclear - but they should not dare to come again after such a crushing defeat.

However, the strange sound of underground excavation recently makes people feel inexplicably uneasy.

The strange noise had appeared a few months earlier, and when the initial report arrived, Prince Hoga paid little attention. Because the dwarves consider themselves to be the best miners in the world and the best at digging tunnels. For subterranean geological formations, it is all too familiar. The first time the nezumi dug underground tunnels and launched a surprise attack, they had a surprise advantage, but with the dwarves' knowledge of geological structures, they couldn't give the nezumi a second chance.

The dwarves quickly dug defensive tunnels, setting up sentry posts, observers, or simply soldiers in all possible locations that could be used by the nezumi to attack. Because of this, the rat-men tried to dig tunnels and raid many times, but they were immediately intercepted by the dwarves and suffered heavy losses.

"But is it possible that the rats are burrowing in an unguarded position of our army?" asked the prince.

"His Royal Highness Prince Hoga!" the Ranger Captain accentuated his tone. "At this point, I can guarantee that it is impossible. Since our last raid, we've taken full control of the area. All possible excavation areas of the rat people have been contained, and we have set up corresponding guard posts. You took the most competent miner captain in charge of the job. We should not doubt his ability and experience. ”

"You're quite right. Prince Hoga replied. "We shouldn't doubt ...... But in the other areas, although most of them are thick rock formations that cannot be excavated, there are still some areas of soft soil. It is not possible to dig large tunnels in soft soil, but if you dig narrow small tunnels, you will not have any problems. ”

"What's the point of digging a narrow tunnel?" replied the Ranger Captain. "Even if the nezumi did, they wouldn't be able to rely on small holes that could only pass one or two people at a time to transport the army. And if there are not many rat people, then what danger are they to us? The most important thing is ...... The sound of digging coming from the ground is definitely not the sound of digging soft soil. It's more like digging a rock formation. ”

"Digging up rock formations?" Prince Hoga hesitated. "But even if we had our engineers do this kind of excavation task, it would take a long time. ”

"Exactly, so His Royal Highness the Prince. I think it's possible that this strange sound is caused by some geological phenomenon in the Underworld, in the depths of the earth that none of us can reach. The evidence is that while we can't be sure where the sound came from, we can believe that it has been in place. ”

"Well, tell the soldiers, be vigilant about the underground defenses. Any changes must be reported. "Prince Hoga came to a conclusion. "We should focus our attention on the greenskins. Hasn't the location of the Greenskin's base camp been discovered yet?"

Originally, the dwarves could only rely on Karak-Grom's tight defenses, but that has changed. In the last battle, after completely annihilating the raiding Nezumi Legion, it also inflicted heavy damage on the Greenskin Legion. So that the dwarves already have the capital to launch a counterattack, at least they can formulate a plan for field warfare.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness the Prince. ”

"Get me an engineer...... Let the Grand Forge, Naragrim, come and see me!" said Prince Hoga to his men after the Ranger Captain left.

After a short moment, Naragrim came to the prince. He was a very old, gray-haired old dwarf who wore no armor. He simply bowed in front of Prince Hoga instead of curtsy. This is because he is a great foundry. This title represents his status, and only the best master craftsmen of the dwarven clan can receive this title. In the dwarves' minds, the status of the Great Forges is no worse than that of lords and kings, and even the High King cannot make them kneel.

"Master Naragrim, I want to know when the underground passage will be completed?" asked Prince Hoga.