For the next week, Isabella and I slept in shifts to make sure none of the other passengers bothered us.A few times they would encounter us, but ultimately we were left alone. Much to my surprise, at least. Isabella, on the other hand, wanted to trust people more than I did. I couldn't fault her for it, though. Being friendly was something that was slowly slipping away from me.I was becoming more closed off and resentful of others. Distrusting everyone to an extent.As much as I could tell, everything that happened was also affecting Isabella. Her mind was becoming somewhat damaged as a result of the loss, grief, and stress. She coped with it by clinging onto me relentlessly and making friends with others.But I knew the truth.She put on a front of someone willing to protect me and others. Someone willing to shoulder people'a burdens... As a former Princess, it was what she was raised to do. But internally, she was breaking.I recalled the time where I saved her from death by div

We continued walking down the massive hallway until we came to a huge set of double doors. They towered above us."This is...the door to the Water Dragon's sanctum. It's where they would bring offerings and worship her while she taught them. I hope she's okay..." Tareen said."Have you been here before?" I asked."A couple of times. But I would go between here and Kalsa... Wherever there was work..." She replied."Do you know what we should expect?" Rose asked."Well, the water dragon is one of the most powerful beings in the world. She's actually pretty nice, though. Really wise too. I doubt these monsters could actually manage to kill her..." Tareen replied."That's comforting to hear... If she's okay, she might be able to help us destroy the Source of the Black Ooze," I said."Black...Ooze?" Jay said fearfully."The dark stuff on the walls and floor. The stuff spawning monsters and infecting our comrades. That's what we call it," I said."Wait...you mean you two knew about this shi

Once the ship pulled into port, we said our thank-yous and goodbyes, then left towards the mountain.The port was quite busy with mostly dwarves, but a few humans as well.I saw a small number of people with mechanical appendages, as well. So it really was dwarven technology that the Kalsan's used on Arvild...Despite the impending catastrophe, people seemed mostly calm.Perhaps news hadn't spread, yet...There was a large field near the port and the mountain. High walls lined with strange machines that I had never seen before surrounded the mountain entrance as well. The field was barren and cratered heavily.It seemed that the machines might have been weapons of some kind.To be honest, I knew in my heart that they were going to need them. The Black Ooze would one day arrive here.But until then, Isabella and I were determined to spend our lives in peace. One day, when the Ooze arrived, we would fight to the death to protect our new home.Until then, we had time to spare.As we m

Once we had reached the new cavern, Dufoth began walking behind us with the rest of the dwarves."The golems should be appearing soon. Be ready," he said.Almost immediately as he spoke, we heard a loud rumble. Several of them, actually.In the dark, I could see forward thanks to night vision. Isabella kept the cavern lit up with Grand Illumination and Grand Lantern Light for the dwarves.I saw several boulders begin to change shape and we were confronted with a group of huge golems.Not wanting to collapse the caverns, I decided to take it easy here."Assassinate," I said.I teleported within the group of golems and my blade sliced through the crystal in its chest as if it were nothing. As soon as I destroyed the core, the golem fell lifelessly to the ground."FULL MOON SLASH!" I released my second sword as the magic extended them and slashed multiple times within a circle around me. Four more golems fell. "Attack support!" Isabella said, raising her sword.At once, I was cloaked i

In the months leading up until now, we had learned a lot of things.Our construction job was going very well. Woodworking was becoming second nature to us and so was stoneworking.We'd taken to storing construction materials in our inventories as a preparation for working each day. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of my old goblin traps as a result. I would really miss those things. They had so many memories and caused so much death. They saved my life plenty of times in the Lorelei Sewers.Among the things we learned were forging, alchemy, and knowledge of machines.Bronan really was a genius. He had designed a lot of the things used in modern dwarven society. On top of being an amazing metalworker and alchemist, of course. We learned a lot from him about machines.One day, as we were getting breakfast ready, we heard a knock on the door.Once I opened it, I saw Dufoth standing there. His expression was grim.I knew what it meant. It was time.We let him in and he sat down with us.