The iron extraction was going well; the mining crew often worked all daylight hours. Mafu disagreed, saying that there was no need to overdo it.

  But Uther and his crew did not see it that way. Their races were influenced by the animal pact, and thus it was not easy for them to overwork. Uther, as the sole bear-kin among his crew, was stronger than the rest of them but was also the one most easily exhausted.

  The rat-kin and mole-kin were in their right environment underground, and through the system they gained various benefits from it that helped them. The fact that they were using their classes also gave them peace of mind.

  Eventually, Jod had used these arguments to convince Mafu to let them work as much as they wanted to. The orc warriors spent their days sharpening their weapons, patrolling the perimeter, and resting. Jod played the role of an overseer, although he did not need to do anything.

  Jod felt Mafu check in every now and then, as his mind subtly shifted to see things he knew he would not see and perceive on his own. Small bugs scuttling among the roots, the swaying of the trees, and the thumps of a deer-like creature somewhere in the territory.

  Jod and Mafu had spoken less and less as they had gotten used to their connection. They were in a sense the same mind, and at the same time they were not. Feelings, pictures, and emotions flowed between them more than words when they exchanged ideas and plans.

  Suddenly an orc warrior ran into the makeshift camp and yelled for Jod.

  "Jod, there are creatures coming from down the mountain!"

  "Hollow? How many?" Jod felt a jolt of energy surge through him as his body made itself ready for battle.

  "No, it's not the Hollow. They are like you but... smaller?" The orc answered in a confused manner.

  Jod felt Mafu's mind fully descend into him. Mafu conveyed pictures and emotions of a race called dwarves, and Jod knew them from the stories of the Totemkeeper.

  Mafu was very interested in the dwarves, but Jod failed to understand why. If they were metalworkers, that would be useful, but Mafu had some other reason for wanting to meet them.

  Jod called up the orc warriors that had been resting, but the warriors were already up and ready to go. They left a few orcs behind and told them to inform the mining crew and watch over them. Then they started walking towards the visitors.

  It did not take long to find them. The dwarves were not trying to hide their presence, and their footsteps were loudly thumping through the forest. The sound of metal armor scraped in a rhythmic pattern, and grunting voices were sometimes heard.

  As they came into sight, Jod ordered the orc warriors to stand by behind him and walked about thirty meters or so and then stopped.

  The dwarves exchanged looks amongst themselves, and then their leader picked up his shield and his one-handed axe and started walking alone. The dwarves were all clad in full plate armor, with barely the slightest crack in the joints.

  It would be impossible to beat the dwarves without a blunt weapon. Well, Oran could probably still shoot through them easily, but a normal warrior or archer would be easily repelled. The dwarf that walked up to Jod had a short, full brown beard and looked like a kind, middle-aged man.

  His helmet covered his rugged brown hair, and he stood at just above 130 centimeters tall. Jod made a note that when the dwarf walked up, his heavy armor and weaponry did not seem to restrict him at all. He carried it as if he were wearing cloth.

  This made Jod think the dwarf was much stronger than he looked.

  As the dwarf came to a stop, he planted the bottom of his large kite shield into the ground, looked at Jod, and exclaimed.

  "So what the fuck are you doing at our mountain?"

  Jod was stunned. He had expected a diplomatic or aggressive first meeting, but the rudeness and curt way of speaking made him confused. He quickly recovered and decided to answer simply.

  "Mining for iron." Jod looked the dwarf in the eyes and spoke as if he had all the right to be there.

  "Huh. Why mine in our mountain? There are many iron veins in all the mountains around the valley." The dwarf had softened his tone a bit.

  "We had no idea it was your mountain, and it was the iron vein we found. If it is your mountain, why have you not defended it or at the very least made a sign somewhere?" Jod asked, more aggressively this time.

  "Well, we are here to defend it now, aren't we, boy?" The dwarf looked past Jod and inspected the orcs standing behind him. "And why the fuck is a human leading around an orc pack in the first place?"

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "You know of the orcs?"

  "Yeah, from the books. Our ancestors used to fight with them and against them a lot." The dwarf was very unbothered in his way of speaking.

  "Well, to explain our circumstances would take quite a long time. This issue with us mining your mountain—can it be solved without fighting?"

  The dwarf looked at Jod with surprise for the first time.

  "The orcs would rather speak than fight? Aye, we can agree to that. Let's sit down, boy."

  Jod led the dwarves back to the makeshift camp at the iron mine. The atmosphere was still quite tense, even after they all had sat down. Every creature in the makeshift camp was ready to wield their weapons at a moment's notice.

  Jod explained the reasoning behind the need for iron for the orcs, the general situation with the Hollow, and that the orc kingdom was not hostile to anyone but the Hollow.

  In turn, the dwarf introduced himself after learning Jod's name. His name was Gwarth. He started telling the tale of the dwarven people.

  They had once built mountainside cities out of metal and stone, and each city had its own ruler, much like a country. They had no real kingdom or empire, instead preferring to simply come together as a race when a war broke out against any other race.

  In fact, they mostly had quarreled more with each other rather than with outsiders.

  Then came the Hollow. The dwarves called them the Gray. The Gray fell to the dwarves by the thousands. Then more Hollow would come. It was the same history the orcs had lived through.

  The dwarves tried to break through to the core of the Hollow and tried to find where they spawned. They were then beaten back by the giant-type Hollow. They managed to clear out two caves with Hollow in them, but in doing so, the attacks only increased on the dwarves.

  Finally, most of the dwarven cities gave up defending the mountainside cities and retreated into the mountains their cities had been built just outside of.

  They constructed large metal fortifications and increased their mushroom agriculture. Their livestock was brought into the caves, and since then only small parties of dwarves had gone outside.

  In fact, some decades would pass where no dwarf set foot outside of their mountains.

  Hearing this, Jod started to explain about the orcs in a more candid manner. He explained about the refugees from Doloran's world and about Mafu.

  "You are ruled by a mushroom?"

  "Well, yes and no. Technically I am appointed as the king. But Mafu supplies food and dungeons and is kind of the one who signs off on things. It is complicated."

  The dwarves talked in low voices, and some of them laughed a bit. It seemed ridiculous to them that a mushroom could speak, let alone build a kingdom. For a race that mostly subsisted on mushrooms, it made no sense.

  Jod continued:

  "Gwarth, would you like to visit the orc settlement? We would appreciate any allies in the fight against the Hollow, so I would like to invite you to speak with the orc dukes and Mafu about the subject."

  Gwarth looked down on the ground and contemplated the invite for a few seconds.

  "No. I am not the one that should visit; there are other dwarves for that." He looked a bit disappointed. "I will go back to our city and talk to our leaders. Meanwhile, could you stop mining for iron here?"

  "We can stop mining. May I ask why you care about this iron ore vein, though? It has been untouched for a long time."

  "We don't. You mining here might open up paths that lead the Gray into our city."

  "Ah. In that case we will stop immediately until we have spoken with your leaders and gotten permission."

  "Great!" Gwarth slapped his knee covered in plate armor and stood up. The rest of the dwarves stood up with him.

  "We will visit within a week or two, after I have convinced those old fools to go."

  With that, the dwarves started marching out of the makeshift camp and left. Jod felt that the talk had gone quite well, but it was hard for him to read and understand the dwarves' way of talking.

  They seemed so honest and unbothered by things. In fact, they had not even checked whether or not the mining had been stopped. If Jod had been lying, they could just continue their mining.

  Jod would not do that, of course. But the dwarves did not know that. Jod sighed and told the orcs and Uther's crew that they would be suspending their mining for now.

  The group started packing up anything that could be brought with them, and within an hour or so they were already moving back towards the orc settlement.

  ---

  Mafu was excited. He had watched through Jod when he met with the dwarf, Gwarth. The dwarves were exactly like he had expected them to be.

  No fantasy world would be complete without dwarves in Mafu's eyes. The fact that they all wore plate armor and carried heavy weapons was also encouraging. If they could ally with the dwarves, getting good weapons and armor would be easy.

  The blacksmiths that were training in the orc settlement would not go to waste either. There were many uses for metals, and most of the uses were for things other than armor and weapons.

  Rebar, for example, was excellent for construction. Making catapults, ballistae, and trebuchets all required metal parts.

  As Jod came back to the settlement, he almost immediately checked out the third dungeon. For Jod it was quite easy to clear it out.

  But his thoughts about the dungeon yet again were the same as those of Parek. The first floor with the slimes was doable for the average warrior, but floor two onwards was impossible.

  The gnolls were fearsome foes, and a certain strength was needed to even damage their tough hide. The fact that they were rarely found alone was also an issue.

  Floor three was a no-go for everyone except the orc dukes, Jod, Oran, and Otek. The hard-to-predict attacks of the Living Rock would be fatal even to Oran and Otek. They could dodge it, but not tank it.

  Of the three floors, the third floor was also basically useless for material collection. Volcanic rock was not that useful. Gnoll leather was tough and fire immune. The liquids from the slimes were highly flammable and could thus be used for quite a few things.

  Mafu considered the third floor of the third dungeon a failure but still kept it. Maybe some day it will be useful for something.

  If no one hunted them, they would just stay down there after all. Mafu had stopped the mana supply to the third floor.

  After the dungeon run, Jod went to check on Akro and Tenia. Jod had gotten quite interested in the smithy and would often swing by when he had the time.

  Mafu decided to start planning for the meeting with the dwarves.

  "Acid-spitting ants has been unlocked." Athena said.

  Oh, nice! Mafu had completely forgotten about letting Taressa and Athena do that research but now had another thing to look forward to seeing.