The inside of the Dwarven complex was loud and hot. It was a huge space, much bigger than Cedric expected, carved deep inside the mountain. There were fire pits everywhere, glowing orange and red, and the sound of hammers hitting metal was constant—CLANG, BANG, SHHHOOSH.
Cedric felt the heat on his face, which was weird after being so cold outside. He didn't mind it, though, because it meant things were getting done. He quickly found himself in a messy, smoky area where Thoric Stonehand was already talking to a group of shorter, even broader Dwarves. They looked like they hadn't seen daylight in ten years.
Thoric pointed his thick, obsidian-laced finger at Cedric's pouch. "This is the material. It's the Drake Mother hide. It's real. No messing around. You two—Grom and Darr—start figuring out how to cut it without ruining the edge of your best chisels."
Cedric carefully took the preserved hide out of the pouch. The Dwarves gathered around, their beards twitching with excitement. They weren't excited about money; they were excited about the challenge of the material.
"I need a clean, cold spot," Cedric told Thoric. "I have to keep the material in stasis, or the whole thing is ruined."
Thoric just grunted and led him to a small side cavern. It was empty and dark, and felt naturally cold because it was deep inside the mountain rock. This was perfect for Cedric's magic.
Cedric used his Cryo-Mage power, concentrating hard to make the cold smooth and steady, not wild. He made a layer of ice bloom across the floor of the cavern. It was a clear, perfect sheet, and he laid the hide down on it. It looked like a very expensive rug on a clean glass table.
[Cryo-Mage Stasis Field established on Drake Hide Material. Mana Drain: 5 MP per hour.]
"This holds it," Cedric said, wiping the sweat from his brow. It was hard to keep the magic so controlled. "If I leave, the cold stops, and the rot starts. So, we work together quickly."
Thoric looked impressed again, but he hid it well. "We start on your requests now. The siege rams first. We have the alloy ready, but your wood is pathetic."
"We will use the bone from the Drake Mother for the core of the rams," Cedric quickly suggested. "It's stronger than any wood. We just need your forging expertise to reinforce it."
Thoric's eyes lit up. That was a great idea. "Drake bone for the core? You are not as stupid as you look, Lord. Very well. Get your men to start chipping the bone from the main carcass. We begin forging the siege-breaker alloys tonight."
Cedric spent the next few hours with Thoric, drawing diagrams in the soot on the floor. He drew the plans for the siege rams—big, heavy metal tips on bone cores—and then he drew the plans for the Dry-Stonework. The Dwarves built without mortar, interlocking stones so perfectly that the wall was stronger than if it had been glued. It was genius.
Meanwhile, a smaller, quieter Dwarf was given the task of crafting the three Adamantine-laced Hunting Bows for Lysandra and the other scouts. The Dwarf worked with tiny, careful tools, weaving fine metal wire into the wood for extra strength and silence.
As the day ended and the forges reached their hottest, Cedric finally climbed out of the intense heat and back into the cold night air outside the Outpost. He felt good. The Dwarves were working. The construction of the defenses had begun.
He was just about to go back inside when one of Steven's sentries rushed up to him, stumbling in the snow.
"Commander! Sir! We have a problem. A scout returned from the western pass. Not our scout, a strange one. He saw something."
Cedric felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach—and this time, it wasn't the good magic kind of cold.
"What did he see?" Cedric demanded, his voice dropping.
"He saw a group, Commander. Not Barbarians. They were moving too fast, too quiet. Tall, pale, and they were on snow-skis, moving like ghosts through the forest. He said they looked like the old legends... Frost Elves."
Frost Elves were dangerous. They were supposed to be extinct, or at least living way up in the glaciers, not near the outpost. They were known for their sneaky, quick attacks and their powerful ice magic—magic that was much older and more dangerous than Cedric's new, glitched power.
But the worst part was the leader the scout described.
"He was tall, with hair like white snow and eyes like frozen lake water," the sentry whispered, terrified. "And he was wearing armor that seemed to be made of pure, shining ice. He carried a banner, Commander. A banner with a silver wolf on a field of white."
Cedric immediately recognized the description. It wasn't just a raiding party. It was Lord Kaelen, the exiled Frost Elf Lord who ruled the distant, frozen southern islands. Kaelen was known to be just as cunning and calculating as Cedric, always looking for a weakness to exploit.
[New Threat Detected: Lord Kaelen, Frost Elf Lord, has entered the Northern Territory. Priority: Acquisition of Resource Rich Lands.]
Cedric clenched his fist. The Queen wanted him to fail, the Barbarians wanted to raid him, and now a rival Lord—a real, powerful enemy with his own army—was moving in to claim the territory and his new Dwarf workers. Kaelen had been drawn by the same weakness that the Queen had created.
He had expected to fight Barbarians and political corruption, but now he had a direct military rival. He had to assume Kaelen knew exactly how valuable the Northern Outpost was, or at least how valuable the resources around it were, especially the Drake Mother carcass.
"Get Lysandra's bows ready the second they are finished," Cedric commanded the sentry. "Tell Steven to stop all visible construction and make the outpost look as abandoned and pathetic as possible. We need to hide the fact that we have the Dwarves. Tell him to move the remaining Drake bone into the cellar immediately. This isn't a siege anymore. This is a cold, strategic war against another player."
Cedric looked towards the frozen mountains. He had to move faster. He had to get the Dwarven defenses built before Lord Kaelen and his stealthy, quick forces realized that the 'dying' outpost was actually building a powerful, new kingdom.
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A/N - I have updated most of the initial drafts i had and will focus on writing and updating the story more freaquently. So, I'll upload 35-40 chapters in this week and then slow down a little. Though i am not sure about how exactly I'll do that.
Do comment you thoughts. I am a newbie so do tell me where I can improve.
And don't forget to gimme stones.