บท 348: Years went by
Hera quickly pulled up her tablet. Finlay just said that they have been working together for close to a decade. This had to be a lie. There was no way that they spent so long o top of the ice just waiting for him to return. However, just by looking at the date and the clock, she calmed down. It had been just a bit over an hour since they entered the dungeon, and that matched with the watch in her tablet.
"Guys, look at the clock. Everything is OK," Hera told the rest of the party with a sigh of relief.
"Fucking hell, that scared me," Blue gasped.
"Fucking hell? We talked to the guy for half an hour, and you are already speaking like him," Alex rolled her eyes.
"I'm a sponge, Ok? We spend time with someone. I get some of their habits," Blue shrugged.
"That's bullshit. Why aren't you saying sweetie like Helena does or something then?" Alex asked.
"Fine. I liked his accent. Is it so wrong of me to try it out?" Blue gasped.
Finlay chuckled, seeing the scene, "You are still the same as the day I met you. Now stop horsing around, and let's keep going. We have much to do," The dwarf pulled a bag with enough tools for everyone, and once more, in that monotone text-to-speech voice gave the instructions for the party. When he was done with that, he started talking normally again, "I can't imagine how long it would take to finish this without you lot. It's just a shame you can't sculpt for shit."
"We are doing our best," Leo shrugged.
"After ten years, I expected you best to improve, but you're still shit," Finlay laughed.
"We could stop if we are just in the way," Hera said. Even if he wasn't actually alive, she didn't like how he was speaking to her friends.
"No, no. I appreciate all your help. I really do. It would be very lonely to be here on my own."
"That's true. But why are you here anyway?" Hera asked.
"Ah, it's a long story."
"We have time. Besides, if we don't talk, I'm going to end up sleeping while standing up," Blue replied.
"You do have a point. Well, I was born in a dwarven kingdom, in a big city under a mountain. Life was good. Well… good enough, at least. There was some trouble here and there, a noble being an arse every now and then, but nothing too complicated. I was, am a sculptor. I can make great statues, and one of them caught the eye of the king. I was invited to live in the noble district, and honestly, it was pretty fun. I had a lot of fame, money, and people listened to what I had to say. I was setting things up to bring my mother to live with me. You see, she was in one of the lower cities, and to allow a commoner to live among the nobles, you have… had to pay a significant sum. Before I could gather all that money, a fire broke down in the city. One of the mines was ignited, and in just a few minutes, everything went up in flames. I tried to go after my mother, but the king grabbed everyone in the noble district and pushed us to go through a doorway. That arse had a hidden doorway from the entire city. It was his way of having a secret passage out if things went south," Finlay stopped for a moment, "I tried to get away from those guards. I really did. My mother was down there, and I had to help her."
Hera couldn't help but notice the similarities with the city where the people of Borodin were from. Luckily, there was an easy way to confirm that, "What was the name of the city? The one that burned down I mean."
"It is… was called Kul Dorul," Finlay replied with a sigh.
"Hera… isn't that…." Blue turned to the explorer.
"Yeah. It's the same city from the Weeding Disaster," Hera nodded.
"Wait, you mean that he and the people from Boothudurn came from the same place?" Alex asked.
"It seems like it," Hera turned to Finlay again, "What happened after you crossed the doorway? Where did you end up?"
Before the dwarf could reply, all the tools shattered again. Hera and the others didn't realize, but they had made considerable progress while hearing Finlay's story. The tunnel they were making now already resembled the one they saw when entering the room, although it was still shorter than it was supposed to be.
"Let me grab more tools. We can continue this story later," Finlay got up and headed down again without saying anything, leaving the humans to talk among themselves.
"Ok, this is bad, isn't it?" Alex turned to Hera.
"Yeah, I think so," Hera was scratching her head.
"Why bad? The people from Boothudurn might have more relatives somewhere," Blue asked.
"True, but since they were all part of the same kingdom, the current king of this other city might say that Boothudurn should be a vassal state," Leo replied, understanding why Alex and Hera were so worried.
"Exactly. We don't know if the people of that other city have an interest in Boothudurn, and by the way, Finlay talks about the king. I doubt he would just let them be," Hera explained.
"But we don't even know if that city is still around. Not to mention that the king Finlay is talking about should be dead already," Blue said.
"Yeah, but I don't think a king like that would leave descendants that don't follow his footsteps," Leo added.
"What should we do then? If that civilization still is around, we have to tell the people of Boothudurn, right? At the very least, we need to tell Rutigan," Blue turned to Hera.
"I… Really don't know. I agree with you, but if that is going to mess up their life, I don't want to be the one to tell them," Hera sighed.
"Wouldn't that be even worse? What if those dwarves show up out of the blue? Or if they figure out that connection?" Alex asked.
Before anyone could reply. They heard grunts coming from the side of the iceberg. Using the same path that they took when they got in the room, Finlay was walking up. His beard and hair were now mostly white, one of his eyes had glazed over, and he had to use a cane to walk around.
"My dear friends. I still can barely believe you have joined me through all these years," Finlay smiled to the group.
"Hey, Finlay. How long has it been since we meet each other?" Hera asked already with her tablet on hand. Even if she expected that there wouldn't be any weird time issues, she wanted to be sure.
"Now? I believe it's been over 150 years since I first saw you in my cabin. I must thank you all for keeping company to an old man while he works on such a ridiculous endeavor," Finlay chuckled.
"Don't say that. It's not ridiculous," Blue protested.
"Oh, Blue. I'm well aware of the stupidity of dedicating my entire life to try to make a doorway. At least, this gave me peace and freedom from the king's grasp."
"What is his name, by the way?" Alex asked.
Finlay stopped for a moment, "I honestly do not know. He never revealed his name, not to me at least. I guess he feels like being called 'King' is better than being called by his name. Either way. I do not wish to think about him on such a good day. I feel that we may be close to finishing. Maybe today will be the day."
"Really? Are we that close?" Leo asked.
"My memory might not be the same, but I am sure that the iceberg is very close to what I was shown by the fortune teller," Finlay dropped his bag full of tools to the side and gestured for everyone to come to pick the ice picks.
"And what is going to happen after you are done? The doorway will work?" Blue asked.
"I ask myself that same question every day. I hope it does. I hope this gives me a way out of this room so I can find a nice place far away from that kingdom to live the rest of my days," Finlay sighed.
"Don't talk like that. You don't look a day over 160," Hera joked, trying to lighten up the mood.
"Ha! If you want to flatter someone Hera, at least make the lie believable," Finlay laughed while he started carving the ice in front of him.
The group kept asking questions about the room, what was going on in the kingdom, and why Finlay decided to come here to make a doorway. Unfortunately, most of his answers didn't help clarify the situation that much. According to the dwarf, the kingdom was just crap because the king didn't know what he was doing, and since he only saved the nobles, they lacked the manpower to keep a city running. Finlay grew tired of everyone's insistent demands and sought out advice from the fortune teller of the kingdom. There he saw the vision of the doorway in this place, along with the massive block of ice. To flee the city, he told the king that the vision he had was actually about the mountain itself, and by making a sculpture on its name, he could bring the mountain's blessing for the kingdom. However, for that to work, he had to go alone and finish his task on his own. The second part of that fake vision was just an insurance. He doubted any of the nobles would be willing to risk themselves to travel through the spirit-infested forest. On the other hand, Finlay already knew that the spirits would leave you alone as long as you didn't do anything to bother them.
When he reached this room and saw the iceberg's size, he decided to build a cabin first and then start working on the doorway. For 100 years, he worked alone trying to make the doorway, but the constant rain erased most of his progress every night. During that time, he was only able to clear out the small plateau that they were standing on. A small area just 10 meters wide that served as the footing for everyone when they arrived.
As he spoke, it became clear that those time skips that he was having were just to reflect how old he was when he reached the same point on the work that the group achieved in a few minutes. It made sense since Hera had never heard anything about a dungeon that took more than a lifetime to complete, and even with the rain, she expected that the rate at which the water was freezing again would be slower than it was when Finlay was doing carving the iceberg outside the dungeon.
While they talked, the group continued carving away at the ice, and Finlay gave the instructions. However, now it wasn't that same text-to-speech voice that came from the dwarf, but his own voice that explained what they should do and tried to teach them the best ways to go about not just carving the ice but sculpting it. Hera was particularly interested in the techniques that could give a specific texture or pattern to an object. Suddenly, Finlay asked everyone to stop. The doorway was almost done, and he just needed to do the finishing touches, and the dwarf wanted to do that himself. He made the doorway frame and using a ladder that he brought up, he made the small area on top where the crest of the room would be, with everything done. Finlay stepped back to admire his work. Tears came down his face.
"I guess this is it," he chuckled, "Thank you for helping an old man complete his work. Even if this is just a dungeon for you."
"Wait. You know this is a dungeon?" Leo gasped.
"I do."
"Then… what's going to happen to you when we leave?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. Maybe I'll just be gone, maybe I'll forget everything and start over when the next group arrives. Maybe I'll just stay here alone," as he spoke, the doorway they had created started to glow. The frame changed colors, and the doors opened, showing a white landscape filled with fresh snow. The crest on top changed and revealed a group of white dunes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have completed the dungeon quest.
By assisting Finlay to carve out the ice, you have helped him create a doorway to a new room.
Rewards:
50 000 gold, Finlay's gift
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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