Parallel Vol. 4 [LEGACY EDITION]

Chapter 38.1: The Chained God (1)

Beneath Wazir River,

04:51 a.m. 18th Banem 1092.

Beneath the Wazir river lay a series of interconnected, maze-like tunnels. Unlike most dwarven creations, these tunnels lacked any inkling of beautiful craftsmanship. The walls and ground were crude, rough and bumpy. The space between the walls was tight and small, inducing a sense of claustrophobia within any who walked within them. Even worse, the vents seemed to have malfunctioned over time, leading to a severe drop in clean, breathable air.

*cough* *cough*

"Are you alright, dwarf?" Ragnaf asked as he observed the coughing Rudega. This was what, the fourth, fifth time that the dwarf had fallen into a coughing fit? It seemed the air was getting even thinner, so much so that a member of race used to living underground was beginning to feel its effects.

"I'm fine," assured Rudega as he cleared his throat. "We're at the lowest point, so the air's a bit thin is all. It'll improve in an hour or two."

"Uh-huh," Ragnaf acknowledged with a short grunt. He looked at the walls around them and marveled at the dwarfs' abilities. "How did you guys manage to do this?"

Rudega flashed a proud smile. "What, you mean the tunnel? Most dwarfs are born with an innate ability to control and manipulate earth." He held out his right hand, and a section of the ground rose in front of him. "It makes it much easier to dig through the earth." Rudega manipulated the earth to return to normal and then said, "Of course, that's not all there is to it. We also draw from several millennia worth of mining and excavation knowledge. It's one thing to push earth out of the way, it's another to know where you can push, and where you can't. To this day, there is probably no other race that can claim to know the earth as well as we dwarfs do."

Ragnaf snorted. "No one's competing with you. What good is building tunnels except for hiding?"

"Try not to be so closeminded," Rudega chastised with a smile. "Imagine the consequences of a tunnel built from one town to another in secret? You could completely bypass their walls and invade the town."

"I've never heard of anything like that," Ragnaf retorted. "Someone would have done it if were possible."

"Oh, it has been done in the past," Rudega asserted. "But it was quickly countered by mages who began to scan the earth for large spaces. Still, it is an effective tactic for smaller towns."

Ragnaf shook his head. "We're strong enough to take down small towns on our own. Why would we need to build a tunnel? That'll take too long."

"There's the conundrum really," Rudega confirmed with a light shrug. "It's not effective on large cities, but too costly for small towns. This is why we only use it within our own cities, and to provide escape routes."

"Hmm... It's still impressive though," Ragnaf remarked. Just as he spoke, they reached a section of the tunnel that opened up to a bridge, underneath which a thick, dark-blue, liquid flowed. The tunnel picked up once again at the other end of the bridge, but the orc was drawn to the immense, suffocating power emanating from the river below. "What's that?"

"Liquid mana, but my people call it, Amrita," Rudega replied, his eyes growing solemn as he observed the river.

"Liquid mana?" Ragnaf murmured. "What's that?"

"You know that mana exists in all living creatures right?"

Ragnaf nodded.

"Well, some halben researchers once found out that our bones and flesh accumulate mana over our lifetime," Rudega explained. "This mana remains even after death, which is why some creatures' bones are innately enchanted when processed into weapons. The researchers theorized that over time, some of these bones break down into liquid mana or amrita. However, I'm not sure if that's true or not."