Chapter 187 Volume IV - Chapter 32: Inside the Bunker
First, my body trembled violently. Then my eyes flew open. I jumped up from the hard, cold ground I was lying on.
Unlike the bright light I had seen before I fainted, now I was in darkness, but with a faint, dim light that allowed me to see more or less around me.
I was in a cube-shaped room, not very big, I guess. It looked a bit like an old place.
No, I was definitely in an old place.
I squinted for a moment, then looked at my clothes.
They were the same, I was still wearing the same dirty and bloody clothes I had worn in the city. I couldn't dwell on it, though, because just then the lights in the room suddenly switched on as wide as they would go, followed by the sound of the door opening.
Dazzled, I quickly stepped back and looked in the direction of the sound, trying with my hands to block the light source that had suddenly descended into the room.
There was someone, right in front of me. He was a little... small. In short, a dwarf.
"You're... awake, I guess...?"
I waited for a moment at the strange words that came out of the other person's mouth, and then I sighed in realization. He didn't know much of the human language, or rather Lunar, one of the two languages that humans use.
"I know your language. You don't have to force yourself."
After these words in Khral, the language of the dwarves, my eyes finally adjusted to the light and I was able to better examine the figure in front of me.
There was a dwarf before me with long, bushy, brown hair, an equally bushy beard, and brown eyes like his hair. He was dressed in what could be considered the daily attire of a dwarf. Yet it was dirty, just like the one I was wearing. It was covered in blood. Apart from that, there was a look of surprise on his face, which was quite obvious. I suppose it was natural for him to react this way when he saw me speaking his language.
Apart from that, there was another dwarf in the room, whose presence I barely noticed.
This person looked familiar, even if I couldn't remember him exactly.
Hmm... Ha, ah! I remembered.
That armored dwarf I met before I fainted. Except he's not wearing his armor now...
"Knowin' our tongue'll make our job easier. Still, for your comfort, let's talk in Lunar."
Ah... Of course, the way the dwarves speak... Right, it's a bit rude from our point of view.
It didn't sound so strange in the game, but listening to it directly... It's definitely strange. Whatever...
"Sure, that's fine with me."
I focused on Dorhud's appearance. He was blue-eyed, with long, bushy brown hair, just like the other dwarf. He also had a beard and it was long and bushy, just like his hair. He didn't look very old, but considering the age and appearance of the dwarves... he was at least over forty. He was short and built like all dwarves.
"I'm a go then... Gotta look after the other one too."
The dwarf I had helped in the battle nodded to his friend, and then it was just the two of us in the room.
I took a deep breath, leaned my back against the head of my bed, and looked into the dwarf's eyes. He did the same. He was looking at me with hard, piercing eyes.
"Let's start with the easy stuff, human boy."
Damn... I feel like I'm talking to a peasant from my old world.
Should I convince him to speak in their language?
"I am Dorhud, Dorhud Gen'dai. I be a captain in the North Holar Army. And... who be ye?"
Anyway, putting aside unnecessary things... I have no reason to hide myself. I'll tell it like it is.
"Aiden Tenebra, I'm eighteen and I came to Holar for a job. I was only going to stay in the city for two days and then I was going to leave, but then the attack happened... I tried to escape but I had to fight. And then, I saw you. I thought I could create an opportunity for both of us to escape if I could create a gap and... it seems to have worked, at least we're alive. I'm not sure if there is any way for you to confirm the truth of the events during the war, but my name and papers should be in the republic's system."
The dwarf, or rather Dorhud, narrowed his eyes slightly and took a deep breath.
"If we could've accessed the system, we wouldn't be havin' this talk from the start."
Huh? What do you mean, if we could've accessed the 'system'?
Although... Why am I in such a shabby place in the first place? Didn't the dwarves have some seriously overdeveloped technology?
"Even though ya lent us a hand durin' the retreat, we couldn't manage to escape completely. Caleuche let out a partin' shot afore landin' down, blockin' our path. That's why we parted ways. We're beneath the ground, in a bunker."
His strange speech confuses me a lot... Still, if I understand correctly, we are not in a safe place... it seems."
"Are we in a safe place?"
"Sort of... depends on the situation. It hinges on whether they can find this place."
Ah...
I gave myself to the hard wall, then my lips curled upward.
Hahahah...
This is my first time in this war, and things are already going wrong...? Am I stuck here at the very beginning of everything?
I paused, took a deep breath, and focused.
I'm starting to ramble too fast. I need to calm down.
"Anyway, let's stop this empty chattering. You aided me in battle, not only saving my life but also displaying a mighty strength. From this point onward, it's up to you what you'll do. Even if we can't escape from here anytime soon, when our food runs out, we'll have to try something."
"So you're asking whether to fight or hide?"
Dorhud simply nodded.
"You know the 'system' humans use, right?"
Dorhud nodded, momentarily taken aback by my sudden question.
Of course, he knew. How the different races used mana and how they were empowered by it was something he had been taught in childhood, if not an extreme secret.
For example, other races don't have the 'system' that humans use. This 'guide' that we control by thinking is something unique to us humans and also to human hybrids.
The 'grade' system of the other races also differs from one another. Especially dwarves... They are not a race that can do superhuman things only with their bodies because they cannot even feel mana properly, let alone use it freely.
They use their own artifacts, technology, weapons equipped with runes, advanced robots, armor, and many other things in battle. In short, a dwarf's fighting power depends entirely on what they have at their disposal. That's why they use a system called threat level.
"My general level is D-, although I can increase my raw strength to D+ with factors such as my ascension skill, which you saw in battle."
Dorhud smiled slightly at my words.
"So, what yer tellin' me is that I'm not gonna hide, in fact, I'm all set to fight outright."
I offered my smile back to the hulking dwarf.
"Exactly."
Dorhud put his hand firmly on my shoulder. His smile widened even wider.
"I took a likin' to ya. Still... we ain't in the best of shape, we're just four folks includin' the doctor ya just saw. So, don't let yer guard down."
I nodded slightly and Dorhud turned to the door, satisfied.
"Rest up till evenin', then we'll talk about what we're gonna do along with the other two."
With that, he left the room and I was all alone inside. A silence fell over the room and I couldn't help feeling like I was in a vacuum.
'Sith, are you awake?'
There was no sound for a while, but I felt a slight ripple inside me, inside my mana.
'Sith?'
Sith appeared in front of me, emerging from my chest with a faint glow. His eyes were dazzling, he looked sleepy.
'What happened...? Ah, you're awake.'
'Exactly, do you know exactly where we are?'
He waited a moment, yawned slightly, and then put a hand to his chin.
'After helping that armored dwarf, he quickly grabbed you and ran away. Then that huge ship in the sky opened fire. Then... I don't remember exactly. I think the dwarf carrying you got behind something. When things calmed down a bit, he started moving again. But I was so sleepy I couldn't take it anymore, so I fell asleep. And now... here we are.'
When Sith summarized what had happened, I let out a deep sigh, leaned back against the hard wall, and squinted my eyes slightly.
'I'm sorry Aiden, I... I feel so tired. I need to get some more sleep.
'No problem.'
And with that, he took the form of a marble of light again and entered my chest. An uncomfortable, unsettling silence fell over the room again. So, I closed my eyes, and then started to think.
I'm trapped in a bunker, in a situation where I'm not sure how I'm going to end up, and even if the enemy isn't looking for us specifically, if they somehow come across us, we're going to meet our end directly.
We need to escape before that happens, or at least I do. If Caleuche opened fire before we landed, it can't be far away, so we're right on the enemy's doorstep.
I squinted, thinking about the uncertain future made no difference. It only tired my mind.
For now... I must rest, as Dorhud said.
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