We moved slower than I expected and reached Iron Mountains only twenty six days ter. After reaching the mountains, I ordered them to kill the horses so we could use them as additional food supply. Some of the humans hesitated, but after one of them fell on earth, when colr inflicted pain on him for taking too long, the rest followed my order.

  Titan stepped forward and looked at the mountains.

  - Those are Iron mountains are they not?

  - Yes, - titan was able to keep up with our slow ride. He was patient and calm man, and I started to like him. His stamina was impressive. He could run for half a day without rest and his strength was also one to be admired. With level six, he had highest level among my followers.

  - Iron Mountains! Are you pnning to kill us all? Those mountains are infested with monsters. We are going to die out there, - stepped forward elf. Among my sves he turned out most disappointing. Regur meals and fresh air allowed them to regain some weight and mostly took care of their mencholy, but also some of worst parts of their characters resurfaced. Elf was bitter and mostly arrogant.

  - I am pnning to do whatever I want to do with you sve.

  - I am not a sve! I was kidnapped by bandits and sold into svery. I do not deserve to be a sve!

  - Yes! - I raised my voice: - I do not doubt that most of you have sad stories! Maybe you committed crimes, or maybe you were too week, stupid or just unlucky, but you ended up as sves and this is only your fault.

  - How can you say that? I am your fellow elf!

  I sighed and casted Lightning. Elf's burned corpse fell on the ground, and small fires covered remnants of his bow. Female elf screamed and fell on her knees. She covered her eyes and started crying. I looked at my sves and straightened my shoulders.

  - Yes, you might die in the mountains, and your life definitely will not be easy. But you all have to make a choice now! You can except that you are sves and follow my orders with the best of your ability and without compining, or you can die right now. Worst thing that will happen to you in the mountains is slow and painful death by monster hands, or I can kill you right now!

  - What are you pnning to do with me? - asked dwarf. That was his first question, since the beginning of our journey.

  - You have Bcksmith skill, so that should be obvious. You will work in the forge. In your case your worst fate is death by monster hands, or by mine hand. Your best fate, you sill die as an old man and legendary bcksmith. That is mostly up to you and the gods. But whatever your future will be, you will never leave Iron Mountains and die in them, from old age or from violent death.

  - As long as I can work in the forge, I will follow you, - lowered his head dwarf.

  - How could you kill him? Your fellow elf? - sobbed female elf.

  - Yes, he was my kin. My brother elf. Now, if I did this to him, imagine what I can do to the rest of you. All of you, - I looked female elf in the eyes and she averted her eyes: - Now you can take some time and burry the elf. But after short rest we are going to the Iron Mountains.

  - We do not have any shovels, - mentioned one of the humans.

  I sighed and casted Life magic spell that created small hole near elf's body.

  - Here, now use your hands to cover him with earth, - I approached the body and kicked it inside the hole.

  My sves slowly approached and started to throw ground on him. Female elf did not move and continue crying, but then she screamed and fell on the ground holding her colr. I looked at her with surprise, but then realized that my st words were an order. I did not mean it so, but decided not to revoke my order. After second time when colr inflicted pain on her, female elf got up and started to help others with the burial.

  After that I ordered them to cut the horse meat in smaller pieces and pce it in my Female purse. This amount of meat will st us for a long time, but my magic purse was almost at its capacity.

  Our walk through the mountains was slow. With this speed, according to my calcutions, we will need at least two month to reach the bcksmith cave. We had more than enough food, to st us six or seven month. Much longer if I use Horn of prosperity every day.

  After half a day walk we stopped for a rest. After everyone was settled in and got their portion of the food, I approached titan. He always got the same amount of food as the rest of us. It probably was enough to keep him alive, but was not the amount of food that grown up titan needed.

  I transferred some of my mana to Horn of prosperity and turned it over. Seven pieces of cheese and bunch of dried plums fell out of it. I handed the food over to titan. He gnced at me, but showed the food in his mouth.

  - It is Horn of prosperity. Artifact that creates food once a day. Should be enough to keep you well fed, - he again gnced at me, but did not say anything: - I decided to put you in charge of my sves. Consider these additional rations your reward, as long as you perform your duties good.

  - Is that an order?

  - Consider it as one. Also we will be attacked by monsters from now on. Probably at least once in two days, maybe less or much more. When they attack, I will cast Slow spell on them. Stronger ones I will handle myself, but I will leave weaker ones to all of you. You will take charge of their formation.

  He looked at me and nodded.

  - I'll do what I can.

  - Good.

  - What you said about your home, forge for a dwarf, is that true?

  - Yes. I traveled through Iron Mountains a while ago. There is a house and fertile ground around it. Monsters will be a problem of course, but pce is well protected, as long as we can make some repairs. But we will need at least two month to get there.

  - That will not be easy.

  - Well, luckily for you, you have B rank adventurer on your side.He looked at me with surprise. I kept my adventurer tag under my shirt, and bunny-girl was the only one who saw it.

  - Enough rest, we continue! - I got up, and we continued our long journey.

  Time was approaching evening, when pack of horned wolves run out of the corner of a cliff towards us. I casted Slow spell and prepared my bow.Titan stepped forward and raised his axe.

  - Female elf, use your arrows. Everyone else form the line. Mage-kid use your Magic arrow.

  Titan stepped forward and lowered his axe of first monster's head. He split wolves skull and pulled out his axe to face next opponent.

  Mage kid was concentrating on his spell, but he needed too much time. Female elf shot twice, but only wounded the wolves. Wolves reached humans and they used their swords to hit them. They managed only to wound the wolves. I sighed and casted Stone skin on humans. I also used my bow and wounded some of the wolves. Titan killed two more of them, but got bitten in the leg. Two wolves tried to run around the humans, and I casted Paralysis restraining both of them.

  Human line broke, and I used my arrows to dispose of the wolves. Dwarf killed two of the them, and titan finished one more. Humans did wound the wolves, but none of them managed to kill anyone. Elf managed to shoot one of the wolves in the neck, and he fell down heavily bleeding. Mage kid used his Magic arrow, but missed. I killed two of the st wolves with my arrows before they could kill anyone. All humans, bunny-girl and titan were wounded, but at least they all survived.

  I sighed, that was disappointing.

  - Bunny-girl kill those two, - I pointed at immobilized wolves.

  - But...- They cannot move, my magic will keep them that way. Now hurry up.

  She nodded and carefully approached the monsters. She sshed at their necks, until they fell on the ground, with partially severed heads.

  - Next time try to stab them in the necks. That will be easier and just as deadly.

  She paled, but nodded. I used Cure spell and healed everyone. Most of them looked at me impressed by my magic abilities. I shook my head and took out leveling crystal from my magic purse.

  - Everyone who killed at least one use this, - I pced leveling crystal on the ground.

  - Is that a leveling crystal? - asked titan.

  - Yes. But all of you are forbidden to tell anyone that I have one.

  Dwarf looked at me strangely, but pce his hand on the crystal.

  Dwarf, female elf, titan and bunny-girl leveled up by one level. Dwarf got level five, but except titan's the rest of my sves had barely any levels. And as commoners they will have barely any change in status until level ten, which could be impossible feat for them.

  We continued our journey. Monster attacks were regur. I had to use my spells to fight of them. Most of my companions were almost useless. Titan was the best warrior among them. Dwarf was good with his axe, and female elf's archery slowly improved. Kid mage needed too much time to cast his spells, and his Magic arrow missed most of the time. Given opportunity I used my Paralysis spell to immobilize monsters and let the weakest sves kill them, so they could level up, but such opportunities were not always avaible.

  We lost farmer, when swarm of flying monsters that resembled rhinoceros beetles attacked us. Other sves many times were heavily wounded, and some of them were poisoned by monsters. Almost all of them would have died without my spell that could heal them and detoxify poisons. Mason's arm was bitten off by a monster, and I had to use up my Gods mead on him. But at least we slowly traveled towards our goal and managed to reach Bcksmith cave without losing anyone else. By the end of the journey titan managed to break level cup and reached level ten. Rest of the sves were above level five and mage kid got to increase his Earth magic skill to basic level. I also liked the bunny-girl, because of her cute looks, and gave her preferable treatment, to increase her level to nine.

  We stopped on the top of one of the hills, and I allowed everyone to take in the view.

  - You are home now. This is the Bcksmith cave, your permanent home from now on.

  - I was starting to think that your home is a myth, - admitted titan.

  - I would not call it a home, - said impressed dwarf: - This is a bloody castle.

  - It is. And from now on it is also your home.

  We carefully approached castle, but I did not see any monster tracks near it. My View air spell also did not reveal any presences. At least no one made a ir out of a castle.

  - You can chose rooms for yourself and rest for today. Tomorrow we will get to work.

  - What kind of work? - asked titan.

  - First you will restore walls around the castle. Then fix the pace, make crop fields from the nd around it. Your job is to make it a home for yourselves, that you can survive in without me. Titan, choose people who will stand on guard. One of you must always be on the lookout for the monsters.

  - I understand, - nodded titan.

  - Good. Also third and fourth floor will be for me, so choose rooms on the first two. And there is a well in the basement. Make sure there are no monsters in the basement first, just to be safe.

  I showed him direction where door to the basement was located and went to the fourth floor. Mithra's chapel was still there and nothing has changed in the castle. I used Scatter artifact power spell on the altar, and it moved aside. Behind it was hidden book. It was red with emblem of the gold sun in its middle. Book of light. I put the magic book in my magic purse and went to the secret treasury.

  First I tried using Scatter artifact power spell, but it had no effect. I took out my Barrier destroyer sword and stabbed it into the wall. Light fshed from the wall and temporarily blinded me. I blinked several times and took out my sword from the wall. Small crack from my sword allowed me to peek inside the treasury. Just as I hoped, barrier that protected it was destroyed. I stepped back and used Magic arrows to break the wall.

  Scared sves run upstairs attracted by the noise, but I ordered them to leave.

  Treasury was empty. Graig cleaned it out, but I already knew that. I casted spell on treasury' wall and it revealed another secret room. It was empty, but in its floor was carved magic circle. The same magic circle that Mage guilds use for their teleportation spells.

  I pricked my finger with my dagger and let drop of my blood to fall on the floor. Magic circle glowed. Now, as long as I can get master level Wisdom skill and learn Guild portal spell, I will be able to come here whenever I want.

  I did feel little disappointed. I hoped to find more artifacts in the second secret room, but no luck. I spend the evening exploring the castle and chose for myself one of the rooms on upper floor, which had a beautiful view from it.

  Next day I gathered my sves and took out the instruments that I bought in Agron. There was a shovel, anvil, tools for carpentry, farming, bcksmithing and also more weapons and arrows.

  - Find a pce where to store them. Dwarf chose a pce for your forge. I will leave you all enough food for two weeks. So start turning this pce into your home. I will return in a week or so. Try not to die until then. Titan will be in charge, so listen to him.

  - Where are you going? - asked titan.

  - Do not worry about that. Now, get to work.

  I left them and went to the third floor. It was time for me to get to work that I was paid for. My spell opened secret passageway and I used long dark tunnel to leave the Bcksmith cave. The exit was hidden behind another wall. I used Scatter artifact power spell to open the exit. It led me to a narrow passage, which led east from the castle. I used Dispel to close the exit behind me and went to the dungeon.

  Secret passageway door looked like part of the steep mountain, and without knowing about the entrance, it was impossible to find it. I looked around. Dungeon was supposed to be two days walk from the castle. At a distance, I noticed something that looked like a narrow road. When I approached it, I felt magic that was surrounding the route. Probably King of Iron Mountains casted it, to preserve his road to the dungeon. It led me through the mountains and even across some small bridges. Without magic they would have colpsed long ago, but thanks to the Herculian's spells, they were still usable. Half a day ter, I reached small ke. It was located in a small valley, and I used opportunity to rest there.

  There was enough space, and I took out the whistle that Mithra gave me. I blew in it, but did not hear anything. Whistle turned to dust that scattered across the valley. So, one use artifact. Three hours ter, I was losing the remnants of my patients, when giant bird covered the sun. It was light red, with golden wings. Twice my size, with huge talons and dogs head. Simurgh's wings created wind that blew dust in my eyes. I covered them and waited for the king simurgh to nd.

  - You must be Avone, - king simurgh looked at me, with his intelligent eyes.

  - Yes. Does all simurgh can talk? - I asked out of curiosity.

  - No. Only those who manage to evolve and grow stronger. Mithra told me that I need to help you, and that you my help us to reduce number of the monsters that pgue the surrounding nds.

  - Just by small amount, but yes. Should we make a contract now?

  - Yes.- I have never done that. You will need to tell me what I need to do.

  - You do not have Summoner skill?

  - No.

  - I see. Then you should know, that contract with me will reduce your mana points by one hundred, and it will stay that way, until our contract is ended. Also, in order to summon a simurgh, you would need a hundred mana points. But in order to summon me, you will require at least three hundred mana. Are you powerful enough to do that?

  - I am, - reduce of my mana was inconvenient, but I could afford that.

  - Good. Then let us hurry little elf. I wasted enough time getting her. Now share your mana with me. I will accept it, and accept you as my master. That will complete our contract. But keep in mind that I will only take you from any pce of this continent to this pce and them bring you back, when you are ready. That will be extent of our contract. Also I will carry only you, and as long as we are connected you will not be able to make a contract with anyone else.

  - I understand.

  King simurgh lowered his head, and I touched his forehead. I allowed my mana to flow into him and be both glowed. King simurgh straightened and nodded.

  - Be proud mortal. You have contracted Simurgh king. Summon me, and I will come little one.

  He jumped in the air and flipped his wings. Soon giant holy bird disappeared into the horizon.

  I grimaced. Little elf. Mortal. That overgrown bird sure talked big. But with all of its size, evolution and age, it still was useless to deal with monster problem. Geesh, he came to me asking for my help to fight monsters that were too much for him to handle and still thought that he is better than me. Talk about arrogant or ignorant. I shook my head and went towards the dungeon. I used my View air spell as practice and noticed eight life signs in front of me.

  I casted Conceal on myself and carefully approached them. Eight drakes made a camp on the road. They were sleeping right in my way. Annoying. And there were a lot of them. At my level, I could kill one of them with my sword, but not eight drakes.

  I casted Slow on drakes. They woke up and noticed me, but I had enough time to cast Lightning. One of the monsters was struck by lightning. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it. Blood came out of his mouth, and drake fell on the ground. Other drakes roared and run towards me.

  With advance level Earth magic, my spell lowered their movement speed by half and with my spell power stats it sted long enough for me to slowly retreat and use my lightning spell to kill them. I killed six drakes, when my Slow spell stopped working. I run back towards the castle, until I was able to recast it and then kill remaining drakes using my lightning spell. I had to take some time thinking how much I wanted their magic stones and their skin. Finally I decided to take some time collecting their magic stones, but leave rest of the monster materials. Their hide was burned by the lightnings and was too much trouble to collect it. I spend a night in the mountains and only reached the dungeon entrance next evening.

  Unlike other dungeon entrances this one had glowing red barrier in front of it's entrance. I found a stick nearby and poked the barrier. Stick easily passed through and, when I took it out, it was undamaged. I carefully touched entrance with my pinky, but nothing happened. So I took a deep breath and went through. Barrier let me through, and I immediately went outside. Just in case, I crossed it several times, but nothing changed. Partially assured by that, I went inside the dungeon.

  Wide passage led me to dark cavern. It reminded me Grimsburg dungeon that also used to have many passageways that led to many caverns.

  I crossed three caverns, when I run into horned wolf pack. Getting rid of them was easy. I used my Slow spell on them and then casted Haste spell on myself, while using my bow to reduce their numbers. I used the same run and shoot tactic that I used against the drakes, but this time I used my bow instead of magic.

  I continued my dungeon exploration until I got to the cavern covered with spider webs. I casted protection and enhancement spells and then used fireball to burn the webs. Fire did not spread, and I tried to burn it with my Life magic. It started fire, but it spread slowly and barely burned. Then web owner appeared. It was giant spider. He was higher than me and reminded me a floor guardian from Cemetery dungeon. I panicked and run away.

  I looked back. Spider was following me. I used Slow spell, but it did not work. Lightning, my most powerful spell, I could not use, because there was not enough space in the cavern. I tried Freeze spell. Ice covered one of the spiders legs, but monster broke the ice and continued chasing me. Freeze spell did not even slowed him down. Blind and Petrification spells turned out useless too. What the hell was wrong with this dungeon. A monster on the level of a floor guardian and on the first floor.

  I used stamina potion and prepared Magic arrow. At least spider could not catch me while I was running. I turned around and used Magic arrow aiming at monster's leg. But spider managed to avoid the bst of magic energy and continued chasing me. Half an hour, or two stamina potions and one more mana potion ter, I managed to damage four of his legs and killed it using half a dozen lightning spells. I was able to use Lightning spell because we were already outside the dungeon, on the road that led back to my castle. I carefully approached the spider and stabbed its head with my sword, in case it was just pretending to be dead.

  Like I thought his magic stone was the size of magic gem. I sighed and went back to Bcksmith cave. I was far from ready to even try to go to that dungeon.

  I took a different root back and got back too days ter, and waved to female elf, who was standing at one of the windows and keeping watch.

  I went to my room, pnning to get some sleep, but before that decided to read Book of light. I kept reading in and, by the time I finished reading it, I realized that it was already morning.

  According to the Book of Light there were three level five spells. Until now I never heard about level five Light magic spells. I never heard or read about such spells and until now believed that there were only four Light magic spell levels.

  All three spells were powerful, but had their own restrictions. The time limited use, enormous amount of required mana, and they were impossible to cast without master level Intelligence skill. I will definitely learn them in the future, but for now there were a lot of more useful spells that I could learn.

  I closed the book and got out of the bed. I did not get any sleep at all, but there were too many things that needed to be done. I yawned and get out of bed. It was time to get to work.