Ethan followed the dark tunnel for quite sometime, the further they went the more sounds could be heard in the distance. At first it was a rhythmic beating like someone smacking two stones together. Then he heard loud slams when something heavy hit the ground and a few moments later the voices of people talking. He couldn’t understand what they said because he was still too far away…and his perception sucked big time.

  Behind him he could still feel the object pressed into his back, a gun by accounts of his soldier getting destroyed by gunshots. What changed was the number of people behind him, during their long walk more people joined until he was certain there were at least five people following him, all of them probably holding guns pointed at his back.

  When the darkness finally receded he found himself looking at a large cavern, it seemed to extend forever with large natural columns holding up the ceiling. The dark stone looked tough and ancient like this cavern had existed for thousands of years already. The width of it was not that impressive compared to its length but what made him open his eyes wide were the people he heard before and now he finally had an answer for all the beating.

  Before him were actual dwarves, hundreds of them all working on different things like ants they converted the front part of the cavern. Despite being freshly out of the tutorial they were already working on homes, some had set up mobile forges and others were handing out provisions. It looked like a settlement in the making. The beginning of the cavern walls were already covered in rudimentary tunnels which would become mines by Ethan’s guess, some of them barely reaching a few feet deep into the tough stone while others were as dark as the tunnel he just walked through.

  Behind him the group grunted as they rolled something in front of the tunnel, he could hear the grinding of stone on stone as they sealed the cavern. Ethan sighed, escape seemed impossible for now so he walked again when the barrel of the gun was pushed into his back once again.

  They walked down a winding pathway towards the ground of the cavern where Ethan was met with a lot of stares. Most seemed just curious but some held open hostility, why he couldn’t say but he hoped some answers would present themselves in front of him. The group that captured him led Ethan through the camp towards a big tent that was covered in a blocky script he couldn’t read, there two dwarven warriors stood at attention, each of them holding a gruesome looking halberd in their armored hands. While their armor was just gamberson, chainmail and gloves it still was better than what Ethan had.

  He was pushed into the tent and was surprised to be suddenly alone, nobody followed him inside or made sure he didn’t do anything stupid. But in the next second he knew why he wasn’t guarded anymore. From behind a red curtain stepped a dwarf. He wore chainmail without sleeves, showing off arms bigger than Ethan’s thighs. A long black beard braided and decorated with rings made from iron covered his angular face. His eyes had the color of amber and seemed to look right through him.

  The dwarf carried two mugs in one hand, each of them filled to the brim with a golden liquid. He gestured to a table to the side and made his way over. Putting the mugs down he sat cross legged on the ground and waited for Ethan to do the same.

  Without a choice he sat down too, copying the pose of the dwarf who pushed a mug in front of him and raised his. “To new beginnings!” he shouted, his voice sounding like stones getting crushed to gravel. Ethan raised his own mug, offering some words that rang truth with him. “To a new world.” They clinked their mugs together and each of them drank. The cold liquid, which was actually some kind of beer, filled Ethan’s stomach. When he sat his mug down he sighed and savoured it for a moment longer before focusing back on the dwarf.

  “Do you mind telling me why hundreds of dwarves are here in the middle of bumfuck nowhere? Because I’m sure there is not much around here besides snow, ice and stone.” He took another sip from his mug and sighed again.

  The dwarf leaned forward, resting on arm on the table as he started to speak. “That is exactly the reason why we are here. I don’t know how your tutorial was but let me tell you a bit about ours. First off I’m Andrew, yes I know it sounds weird with the whole dwarven thing going on but I get to it. So before all of this…” he waved his mug around gesturing to the world in general, spilling some beer on the table during his gesture. “...I worked at a large coal mine in the US, it was back-breaking work but it was honest and we made a living to support our families which actually lived right next to the mine so we could spend time together. Well then the tutorial came and all the people in and around the mine were dragged into the same one.” He emptied his mug and put it down, grumbling into his beard for a moment.

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  “Well we were offered a choice, a unique scenario if you will, a race change and classes fitting for us…simple mine workers. All of us accepted and we woke up in a simple mining town, our races were changed and we were offered classes. What we only learned afterwards was the racial feat of dwarves, our normal classes can both be production focused and fighting focuses, a dual focus class as the system calls it. What we don’t have are subclasses though which is a bummer but understandable.”

  He lifted his mug for another sup and found it empty again, he took both mugs and went behind the curtain again, coming back with them filled back to the brim. He sat down and took another sip before continuing his story.

  “Where was I? Ah yes, dual focus class. So we gathered and actually discussed the offered classes with some picking classes they were generally interested in. We shared knowledge and everybody managed to pick a class that called to them. With the choices made we had lots of miners, smiths, weapon and armor makers, farmers and so on and so forth. But there was one simple problem, we weren’t alone in the tutorial.”

  He looked Ethan straight into his eyes, his fingers stroking his long beard before taking a deep breath. “You must have noticed the open hostility some people showed on the way here, yes? Our tutorial was a contest, a game if you will, us dwarves against a group of elves. We didn’t know them from before or anything so to us they were simply strangers to us but the tutorial changed that.”

  “The elves wielded powerful magic and we had superior armor and weapons. The next year we spent working, crafting and fighting those elves with everything we had. The thing with dwarves is, we flourish in conflict because our classes level faster when we’re at war because of the mentioned dual focus. Production has to increase, fights happen constantly and you need more of anything in war times.”

  “At the end when that rift appeared in the sky we got one last quest to destroy the enemy faction for a bonus, well after a year of constant conflict we had prepared everything for one last fight. Our armor was polished and oiled, the weapons sharp and sturdy, the soldiers fed and focused…then we fought our last battle. It was….a bloodbath, dozens of people died and in the end we won but only because we had someone with a demolition class working on blast charges that we threw at the elven soldiers after they charged our frontline, their confidence became their downfall.”

  He took another long sip from his mug and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. The dwarf, Andrew, looked older the longer his tale was. “When we finished the tutorial we had choices to make. Instead of focusing on an individual we chose to strengthen all of us. We picked a remote location with enough materials to get a head start and now…we’re here and thought that nobody would find us for a long time and then you showed up.”

  The mug slammed onto the table, empty once again. “An elf looking like a textbook wizard accompanied by soldiers made from ice, of course we thought you were one miracle survivor of the tutorial but the more I looked at you I realized you’re different from them.”

  He stood up and gestured for Ethan to do the same, he didn’t hesitate and jumped to his feet, swaying a bit from the strong beer. “Well I don’t know any other elves, at least not in this new world. But I also didn’t know it was possible for dwarves to show up in the here and now. What I can tell you is that there is another war on the horizon, one I intend to win…” Ethan followed the human turned dwarf behind the curtain where a simple bed and an armor stand stood at one side. A wash basin and normal clothes on the other.

  “A war you say? Well I don’t know if we’re up for it but you’re welcome to stay here for the time being, as long as you can handle some angry stares. It’s not like we hate elves outright but we lost good people because of people that looked like you. It will take time. Who would have guessed that racism was still a thing in a fantasy world.” The both went outside through a flap in the tent and stood in front of a field where dwarves trained with wooden weapons, each of them only dressed in some pants as they fought.

  “You see we never stopped honing our skills, if you don’t work you train…I don’t know what you want here elf but as a former human I welcome you here. Maybe we even become allies.” Andrew looked over the dwarves focused on training, he seemed like a good leader and might make a strong ally. It seems he is itching for a new fight, a man like him was always driven by something, just like Ethan was with magic.

  “Thank you Andrew, time will tell what happens in the future, personally I look forward to it.”