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Book 2: Chapter 72: Sister Arrives and Quest Rewards

"You sure he\'s here, Hazel?" Scott asked. \'That is one big fuck off door. How\'d they meld the stone an\' the brass so well? Is it brass? Might be copper. Looks badass as fuck,\' she heard him think.

Hazel nodded, trying to ignore her friend\'s thoughts. "All the local reports claim he should be in there. I know we don\'t know much even with Emma and George\'s knowledge..."

\'Blame Milindo for being so xenophobic on top of all of its other issues, heh,\' the former daughter of a duke, Emma, thought as images of her dead father flashed through her mind, briefly upsetting hazel a bit.

"... but there should only be one Golden Foxkin in existence. Especially since the rumoured baby in Milindo just turned out to be a Golden Fox," Hazel finished.

Scott nodded.

Alisa, the shortest of the group, scowled. "That wasteland took over a month to cross... I, uh, don\'t want to be that person... but if he isn\'t there..."

Hazel didn\'t even need to read the girl\'s mind to know what she was thinking.

Ben sighed in agreeance. "Here or not, this is where I split from the group. I did my part, so, uh... bye."

Everyone watched in a mixture of disbelief and disgust as the brown-haired leech of their group walked down the road, in the opposite direction of Krieg Moor\'s surface entrance.

The now orphaned noble son of Milindo, George Leston the Third, shook his head. "I thought we got along well with each other..."

\'I knew he was a bad guy... He reminded me of Bastion but I was hoping Emma and I could change this one... To think he genuinely just left as soon as we reached the entrance of the Dwarven Kingdoms...\'

Hazel smiled a little. George\'s mind was always so pure and full of hope.

The fallen noble daughter of Milindo standing at his side chuckled. "He was just scared of Alisa making a rift and Scott forcing him through it if he didn\'t follow through."

That was right, Hazel thought. Their fellow former classmate of Arlith High was a terrible person but his unique skill was incredible. It let him create vegetation out of almost nothing.

A single drop of sweat and some dried up dead dirt could be turned into a full harvest with only a few days of effort. It was thanks to him they could safely cross the Estoplian Wasteland while avoiding the known monster habitats.

"I wouldn\'t have let him die like that," Alisa rebuked. "Even if he is an asshole. Plus, as if I\'d waste my once a month unique skill to randomly teleport him somewhere. That\'s beyond dumb."

Scott scoffed. "I would\'ve. Good riddance. We gonna go enter now though or what? The sooner we meet this guy you\'re sure is Mister McCullen, the sooner we can try to actually figure stuff out like how we\'re going to keep living in this crazy magical world. That, or find a way back."

Emma shook her head and started walking with George quickly following after her. "There isn\'t any going back. I should get a skill for how many times I\'ve recited this to you, Scott. I have literally never heard of a hero ever returning to their world of origin. Right, George?"

"I, uh, I\'m not nearly as well-versed on subjects that extend beyond Milindo as you are..." the young man replied. "But yes. Milindo has summoned hundreds of heroes from Earth in its history. Not a single one has returned. That is the same story for heroes of other worlds, planes of existence, and dimensions, summoned by other empires, kingdoms, clans, and cultures."

Hazel ignored the conversation of her companions as it was one she had heard dozens of times already. She was, of course, very curious as to the how and why she, Scott, Alisa, and Ben, were brought here all at once, but for now, all that mattered to her was finding her brother.

"What the fuck do you mean you\'re on a lockdown?!" Hazel shouted at the dwarves guarding the building right next to the massive door of metal and stone that was dug into the mountainside.

The captain of the guards scowled in annoyance. "Ye \'eard me. Lockdoon means lockdoon. If ye\'r nae ah dwarf, ye\'ve nae business in the Farwinds, \'specially Krieg Moor."

Hazel screamed, "But why?! This hasn\'t happened for over a century!"

She had done her research. It had taken a while for news of Lone\'s appearance at this place to reach them when they were staying in Milindo.

As soon as it had, Hazel immediately made several inquiries at the local library as well as with information brokers and The Adventurer\'s Guild too.

Dwarves were bigotted against non-dwarves, but to a lesser extent than humans were with non-humans. After all, in many human countries, non-humans weren\'t even allowed in unless they were slaves. Of course, not all human kingdoms and empires were so speciesist, but many were.

The dwarven kingdoms, however, allowed non-dwarves to freely travel among the kriegs and urds of the Farwinds provided they weren\'t wanted criminals. They loved foreign adventurers in particular since they could help keep the Farwinds safe and wouldn\'t be considered a lose to the kingdoms if they died.

The dwarf spat on her shoe. "Piss off."

"Hazel..." Alisa called in a concerned tone. "We should go..."

Hazel wasn\'t the type to get enraged so easily, if at all, even. Even right now, she was perfectly calm despite the scene she was causing. Just a few more moments and she\'d be more than happy to leave.

\'The fact that thievin\' bastard cunt o\' ah fox is the reason ah \'ave tae put up wait this shite... Ah need tae ask fae ah payrise...\'

"We\'ll \'piss off\'," Hazel growled. "But tell us when you expect the gates to open! We have business inside."

"Change yer plans then. Outsiders are nae welcome fae the foreseeable future," the dwarf replied. "Now, one mere word ah complaint an\' we\'re takin\' limbs. Children or nae, \'umans are all the same tae us. If it takes losin\' body parts fae ye tae get the message, then so be it."

\'That should be enuff tae scare \'em oof. If naw, then ah suppose we\'ll \'ave to beat \'em upside the \'ead until they pass out. Ah\'m already ah tarnished topsider dwarf, ah dinnae wanna be known fae abusin\' \'uman kids anaw, but ah job\'s ah job. Fuckin\' culture stealin\' skill thief. The fox bastard\'s causin\' so much trouble even when \'e\'s already locked up.\'

Hazel turned around and stormed off with her friends following closely behind her. That much information was as good as a confirmation for her.

The man who looked just like her brother and called himself \'Lone Immortus\' was behind that massive door, and incarcerated to boot. One way or another, he\'d somehow pissed off the entire dwarven people from the sounds of it.

"Well, looks like I won\'t get to meet him again," Emma sighed wistfully. "He was so handsome..."

George looked uncomfortable. No wonder, Hazel thought. He was madly in love with her, after all. Pure and innocent as he was, his thoughts still annoyed the ever-living crap out of her when it came to Emma.

Regardless, a frosty coldness quickly consumed Hazel\'s expression, all traces of her anger and upset were gone as if never they were never there in the first place.

She drowned out the thoughts of her companions that flowed directly into her mind - something that took an immense amount of focus. She needed to think. Specifically, she needed to think of a way to either get inside or somehow contact the mysterious Golden Foxkin.

Both seemingly impossible tasks given the fact their group was made up of exclusively I-rankers except for Emma who was an H-ranker.

"Let\'s split up \'ere," Hamish said.

Lone squinted. By the estimations of his hand-drawn maps, they were about five or so miles from the nearest entrance to Krieg Moor.

"Gotcha. I assume you have your own ways to find out when I\'m leaving on a mission, what mission it\'ll be, and what gear you\'ll need?" Lone asked.

Hamish nodded. "Yup." The dwarf then melded with the stone, vanishing from even Lone\'s Enhanced Vision.

He didn\'t doubt that Soph could still see him with her Mana Sensing, however.

"That isn\'t a racial-exclusive skill," Lone noted to Breena. "You should try to get him to teach you it. It\'ll help you better understand your Primal skill, I bet."

Breena wore a ponderous look. She slowly nodded. "I, uh... I\'ll try. I\'m... doing... one thing at a time..."

Lone nodded back. "Proper pacing is important. Well, both of you get ready. Local immigration is gonna be a fuckin\' bitch."

Soph gave Lone a confused look. "Why? It was easy enough getting out."

"\'Cause they were happy to be rid of me. Probably hoped I\'d die too. Since we were successful and I\'m back... well, I\'d bet a million bucks on them harassing at least me. Hopefully only me," Lone said.

Soph narrowed her eyes. "And if they go for all three of us?"

"Depends on the level of harassment. Remember, I am prepared to teleport the fuck out of here the moment things get unbearable," Lone said, closing the conversation.

Breena held her chin in thought and whispered, "Why one million male deer?"

Lone cracked his neck as he stumbled out of the other side of the immigration office at the krieg\'s entrance. Soph and Breena were waiting for him there and they both gave him concerned looks.

"Lone! Your clothes are a mess!" Soph exclaimed.

Lone nodded. "Made me pull up my trouser legs, take off my boots, lift up my shirt. The works. Had to make sure I hadn\'t \'stolen another steamforged artefact\' while in Urd Siltal."

"Brutes," Breena mumbled in a sad and angered tone.

Lone shrugged as he started fixing his messy appearance. "Could have been worse. Could have been strip-searched. This much is fine. Let\'s head to the guild, yeah? The sooner we turn in the quests, the sooner we can enjoy the next two days todgether."

Soph looked about ready to swap with Sophie and do something she\'d later regret, but she ultimately sighed and said, "You\'re too patient."

Lone smiled. "I did kinda wrong the entire dwarven people. I can handle at least this much in return."

"... \'Handle too much, and we will come out and snap some necks\'. She, em, Sophie told me to, uh, tell you that," Soph sheepishly recited.

"Hah! Her being like that is why I\'m not worried. You two have my back. Well, three. Right Breena?" Lone asked.

The teenager looked mortified at the thought of such a responsibility but she nodded regardless. Clearly, out of some feeling of obligation and not out of feelings of friendship or anything else.

\'Baby steps,\' Lone thought as he finished rearranging his clothes. He then started heading straight for the local branch of the guild.

The gazes and whispered words were just as bad upon entering the guild as they were when they had left for the mission to Urd Siltal.

\'Same is better than worse. I\'m half surprised Sheelda McStuderson didn\'t get people to spread rumours to make the commonfolk hate me more,\' Lone thought, making the best of the situation while he approached a reception desk.

Once it was his, Soph, and Breena\'s turn to be served, he immediately pulled out two prepared items. One was a necklace, the other was a big sack.

He opened the sack to show its contents to the guild employee and he then stated, "143 sets of Shienling ears. That\'s all of them from Urd Siltal." Lone then pointed to the necklace. "And that\'s the heirloom item for the other quest we accepted."

The employee nodded. "Give me a minute to process this. In the meantime, can you fill out this form to state everyone\'s contributions? Please don\'t try to lie on it either. All documents are verified through magic at one point or another."

Lone raised an eyebrow as he watched the dwarven man walk over to some shelves behind the counter. "I know that. That felt like an unnecessary warning..." he grumbled before he got to writing in Western Stone Dwarvish.

He wasn\'t overly fluent in the language, but he was good enough from his own studies and the handful of lessons with Hamish to fill out a form or two.

Lone finished long before the employee did. He put himself down as having a 90% contribution rate while both Soph and Breena got 5% of the credit. Hamish got none since he hadn\'t accepted the quest with them.

He felt that was a fair distribution of percentages since Soph and Sophie had only trained a little bit on three or four Shienlings, mostly focusing on tending to Breena\'s wounds. Breena herself did nothing but train, while Lone on the other hand slaughtered the good majority of their targets.

Finally, the employee returned to the counter. "I\'ve verified the heirloom and the ears. Here. Five gold coins and 50 silver coins for the reclamation of Urd Siltal. 70 silver coins for the heirloom retrieval quest."

Lone pocketed the five gold and 120 silver coins quite happily. \'This is enough for us to get by comfortably for at least a month, probably more if we stretch it.\'

Even if his new residency was free of charge, Lone still had two rooms at The Rusty Sprocket to pay for, after all.

The employee took the form Lone had filled out and looked at it carefully. "Given the contributions listed, no new plates shall be issued. Your quest completion rate is still at 100%, as is miss Vladimirovich\'s... that\'s a tough name to say. Miss Redtail, your quest completion rate has increased from 80.77% to 81.48%."

\'First time hearing that brought up. Maybe he only mentioned it because Breena\'s rate isn\'t perfect? Time for some quick maths... 22 completions and five failures, right? That\'s totally right. I wonder if Dexterity lets me think more clearly... Maybe Agility? Anyway, that means Daisuke failed five quests while with her and did 25 in total, 20 of which were successful. Only two with us, well, three, but the tailor job is still on-going. The situation in Urd Grun, and now in Urd Siltal for the completed two. I wonder how the success percentage affects plate promotions?\' Lone\'s mind raced.

The employee gave Lone one final sentence, "The guildmaster wishes to see you, Lone Immortus. She\'s waiting on the second floor."

\'Ah, done figuring out if they can find where Gilbert, Grimsley, and Shana, are? Fingers crossed for good news,\' Lone thought as he nodded.