“Kvalinn. Take a seat.” Elder Thrikrondromm didn’t have more than a couple empty beer mugs on his desk, and his face only radiated a little murderous rage, but he was flexing his hand as if he had just finished writing a novel with pen and paper. Once I was seated, he took an extremely large book and gently placed it on my desk.“This is my book of runes.” The Elder said in a solemn voice. “After what I witnessed the testing room turn into yesterday, it is clear to me that teaching you the theory behind the runes is insufficient for now, and I must teach you how to craft a stable rune, before your power and ambition bring down the mountain upon us.” I reached out tentatively to touch the book. It was the first one I had seen since I had been reborn in this world and I was filled with excitement. The cover seemed t

The days of school seamlessly merged into weeks, and the weeks into months. Down deep in the mountain, there was no sunrise or sunset, the weather always stayed the exact same, and dwarves were genetically programmed to always be working. So the only way to keep track of the passing of time was the annual new year's festival. It was a two week long celebration where families would gather to drink astounding amounts of beer while boasting of their deeds performed during the year. Usually my father and I would spend that time working and just get a slightly higher quality cask of beer to celebrate the new year. So I was a bit surprised when Bekhi came up to me with an invitation a week before the new year’s break.“What was that, Bekhi?” I cleaned out my ear with my pinky to make sure I hadn’t misheard her. “I said, would you like to join me in visiting my family on the surface? There’s a merchant expedition that is going to Vesturhildrun, but the merchant in charge doesn’t want to br