Chapter 19 – Malduhr

Our carriage continued down the path for another half day before we started to approach a city. My first impression was mixed. The towering walls, over 40 feet high, exhibited majesty and splendor. The green fields outside the city seemed tranquil and pleasant. As we approached the city, the line of destitute people degraded that perspective. There were dwarves, humans, elves, and beastkin all in the line. The majority of them seemed to be wearing rags.

"These are people from the town of Descara," explained Cedric, the dwarf. "The town was completely ransacked and pillaged by a group of goblins. It may have been the same goblins we encountered on the road since the town was in the south."

My knowledge of the local geography was obviously limited. Although I tried not to reveal too much, my travel companions had figured out that I was not a local. Most assuredly not a local! Initially, they were surprised by my lack of knowledge. I was trying to use the information I had attained from the introductory guidebook, but that was still very limited. I did not know which direction the elven continent could be found. I did not know the status of the war between the four races and the fiends. I did not seem to have a grasp yet on the extent of technology and advancement. I knew nothing of the ores and metals that were used in the dwarven kingdom. When the potion maker, Dossil, tried to talk to me about materials that I had acquired, I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. It suddenly seemed easier to just wander the forest with Bliss. My little flowkra companion seemed to be very supportive to my lack of worldly knowledge. Hopefully, the city of Malduhr would have a good resource for this needed knowledge. Perhaps a library or bookstore of some kind? The dwarves clearly loved to advance in their different pursuits of knowledge. The three with me were all practicing alchemy, blacksmithing, and potion making. The refined Danika Shatterfall did not seem to have the perceived rugged character I imagined for being a blacksmith. Perhaps that was just my bias towards the idea of a dwarven blacksmith.

Our carriage rode past all the lined-up refugees. I wanted to ask why but decided to trust my companions. Cedric Shatterfall was riding in front with Midnight, leading the horses to the gate. The dwarf seemed to be giving instructions to the black wolfkin. Upon our arrival at the gate, a military officer approached our carriage. Overtop his clothes was a set of thin green metal armor. My Analyze Vision and Engineer Vision combined to give me full details on his equipment. It was masterfully made of mithril. This metal was explained to me by the dwarves as being one of the most valuable available in Vando. It seems that mithril was used for protecting the officers in charge while regular soldiers wore steel alloy armor. Unlike the expectations in my imagination, iron was far too heavy and bulky to be used by soldiers for the militaries in Vando. This was logical since civilization had progressed into many technologies. Mana crystal technology was especially important to the dwarves. Mana crystals were found in dungeons or dropped by dungeon monsters. The use of mana crystal technology had progressed to provide city lighting, communication crystals, advanced alchemy, enchanted blacksmithing, and even a rare projection technology that allowed the king to speak with the people in the city. Vando did not have the science of Earth but it still had a great deal of technological advancement. There were even trains and street cars powered on mana crystals. Occasionally, the wealthy would be seen with a self-powered vehicle. Unfortunately, this was still a new invention and had a lot of bugs in its design. The amount of enchanted mana channels needed to make a vehicle would demand a lot of space. Having a train or street car progress on a straight rail at regular intervals was much easier to fabricate than a system that would allow a vehicle to steer, stop, and accelerate. I wondered if my Engineer Vision might be able to help with vehicle design.

The officer that approached us was apparently the captain of the guard. His initial suspicious stare was quickly replaced with relief.

"Please enter, Prince Cedric! Open the gates!"

Our carriage was pulled forward into the city. Wait, "Prince" Cedric? I stared at him with a stupefied look on my face.

"Yes Airey. I'm a prince. And my cousin here is also a princess of this kingdom. The king is my uncle, Danika's father. My father was a duke but was killed in an assassination. Since his death, my two sisters and I have been staying in the palace with my mother and uncle's family. Dossil here is also from a noble family in the upper echelons of the kingdom. It was not a coincidence that we were the dwarves that were kidnapped. Our lives would have been valuable in ransom."

My mind was spinning with the idea that my three dwarven traveling companions had all been very important. I wanted to know more but was quickly distracted by the cityscape. The buildings were not short and quaint. In fact, most buildings would likely have been comparable to an American city on Earth. Most of the buildings seemed to be 10 stories high with glowing mana lines running down the stone sides. As I examined the mana channels, Engineer Vision told me that the mana was always stabilizing the structural integrity of the building. Even hurricane winds would be resisted by the mana channels. It really was impressive to marvel over the city streets as well. The sidewalks were over ten feet wide. Pedestrians occupied the sidewalk from all four races. Some of the beastkin were on the larger size like the elephantkin that thundered by. The wide sidewalks suddenly made sense!

I offered to disembark now that we had made it to the city, but Danika stopped me.

"Please don't leave us yet. We want you to meet my uncle and receive the fair reward for saving royalty."

"Huh?"