Right now I am sitting in a tavern in the frozen peak, drinking my woes away. Sitting right next to me is Eric, who has yet to touch a drop of alcohol even though it wouldn't affect him. The drinks here are quite shit. I don't think that I will get drunk even after drinking an ocean of this shit.

  Talking to him has been kind of annoying but since the man is my only guide, there is little I can do but that. Even the thing that I had come here for, which is shopping has been kind of pointless. None of the shops I visited had what I wanted.

  I can't use the materials that I received to patch up the ship, let alone craft the propulsion formation.

  After my victory at the duel, the nobles were forced to fulfill their agreement which was to allow me into the frozen peak. They did this by making Eric starfall my escort into the fort.

  "Well, soldier Eric. I have to wonder, what happen to all your precious ores?", I ask the man. "With the number of dwarven prospectors that have been in your lands, I would have thought that your markets would be flush with precious ores."

  It is one of the tasks of the black mountain to always keep an eye on the dwarves. Tracking their movement is one of the best ways of knowing what precious stuff belongs to which faction. The dwarves have been swarming this place for the last couple of decades. Now they have cooled off a bit though.

  "Well, every store that you have visited has precious weapons made of mithril, guard.", he replies, his composure breaking. "If you do not consider that precious, I don't know what will be considered precious by you."

  "Well, don't get me wrong, mithril is a useful metal to make a weapon.", I reply. "But, if dwarves want mithril they don't even need to leave their houses. I would have assumed something a bit more rare for them would have moved them into action."

  "Well, the dwarves made a deal with the commander, guard. Anything they found I would assume that the commander has them all in his stores.", he replies, slipping on something interesting.

  "I would have assumed that he has sold them for a decent amount of profit.", I reply.

  "Well, what the commander wants to do is his wish. Regardless, do you think maintaining this fort is a cheap or easy task.", he replies, with a sneer.

  "That is true.", I reply, going back to my drink. I don't point out the fact that the man would have sold off all that ore if he wanted to keep the place running. No, there is something else going on here.

  "How long shall we waste our time here? None of the shops that we have visited have contained what you want.", he speaks, his annoyance barely concealed. Seriously the man's training is lacking.

  "What I want is vital, my fellow. I cannot stop looking for it just because your shops do not have them.", I reply. "Anyway, this is a fort. Why do you have so many shops."

  "Well, that is related to how many families make this place their base.", he replies. "For every noble faction that is present here, there is a shop. Not having a shop would damage our reputation a bit too much."

  "Well, that is quite surprising if I am honest.", I wonder. "I was under the assumption that you nobles were not ones to come to the frozen peak. You need to listen to a commoner here."

  "Well, all you shall find here are bastards, guard. Even the nobles need a place to throw their useless ones.", he replies, a touch defensively. "That is why you shall find the fighting between nobles even more cutthroat here."

  "Is that the reason that my life is at risk?", I ask.

  "Something like that. You are something of a problem to the nobles, if I have to be honest.", the noble speaks. "Let's just say if some radical bastard were to kill you for your crimes, the nobles would punish them by sending them down south."

  Well, it would be more accurate to call that as a reward. The southern border of the snow wind empire is a bloody mess, if I am to be honest but it is a profitable mess. It is the only place you can go to build a reputation in this nation. I am sure that every ambitious person in this country hopes to be stationed there.

  "Well, then it must be quite annoying to have to guard me.", I reply.

  "It would be wise if you do not provoke the nobles too much.", he replies, with a rare bit of passion. "It is only the presence of lord Jacob that you are alive. That too is only because he does not want his honor to be blemished."

  Well, I am sure that Jacob and Eric would be the very first people to stab me in the back if they did not need to fear the commander. The commander would not like to see me killed. He won't mind if am tortured or maimed but he won't see me die.

  Someone at the commander's strength would know of my father and if I were to die, he knows what would happen here.

  "Well, then I will have to bow to the man.", I finally reply, catching the man off guard. They consider being called dependent on others to be an insult. "If only, your markets had what I needed."

  "Why can you not use mithril? Your formations need materials that can allow mana to flow through them. I don't know of anything that allows mana to flow better than mithril.", he asks, a bit shaken from the failure of the provocation.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "Well, can you draw on water?", I ask him.

  "Well, no.", he replies.

  "Using mithril is like drawing on water. I can send in every bit of my mana into the material and still I won't be able to let anything stick to it.", I reply. "Now, dwarves make use of formations even more than us. Their demand for those materials is tremendous. Now, if they came to this place like bees to a flower, I would think that the markets here should be overflowing with those materials.

  This makes the man opposite me pause for a moment.

  "Well, if you consider that the dwarves value these materials so much. Maybe they would have taken it all with them.", he replies, pondering on it. "After all, mithril weapons would be more useful at the moment."

  "Now, you would think that.", I reply, wondering if I should reveal it. Fuck it. "Dwarves are more creative than that. Rather than try and get everything at the same time, the dwarves do not take more than half of any materials that they want. After all, anything that the dwarves give us will finally end up in the hands of the dwarves."

  "Now why would that be?", replies Eric. I can see the man's focus shifting. He does seem to be pretty curious about the dwarves.

  "Well, everything that the dwarves give you will always be something that you can use only on weapons. Whether that be metals like mithril or materials that can be used to craft formations on weapons. They do this to control the price of their goods, I have heard" I reply, trying to bait for information. "As long as it is a weapon, it will ultimately end up in a dwarf's forge, my friend. It does make one wonder though, where all of these materials are."

  "The commander and his soldiers were the ones that were mainly involved in the process of negotiations with the dwarves. If I remember correctly, the commander had to personally escort them to many of the locations.", he spoke, realizing who he was speaking to as he spoke. His expression turns stony in a single instant, looks like I won't be able to ask the man anything more. "The materials that you want aren't in any of the stores that we have visited till now."

  The man sits there for a few moments as if he is deciding whether he should speak on it or not.

  "Well, there is a shop. Though it is in one of the more shadier parts of the fort.", he speaks finally.

  "How can a fort have a shady place?", I ask.

  "Well, it exists.", he replies. "The person that runs this shop is a friend of mine. She might have what you need. Though you shouldn't pry into her identity."

  "Well, if she has what I want, why would I be worried about who she is?", I reply while getting up.

  (After about half an hour.)

  After reaching this place, I understand why Eric calls this part of the fort shady. Firstly, the buildings here are so close together. It is very claustrophobic.

  Right now, there is barely enough place on the road for me to walk. The roads here are thin enough that I can barely stretch my hand in it. The people here are also quite suspicious. Well, suspicious would be the wrong word. It would be better to call it desperate. Every soldier here has some serious injury or the other.

  Some of them have their hands in splints. Some of them have missing limbs. The only thing that is truly common among them is a sense of desperation. We do not spend a lot of time in the streets, thankfully. Somehow looking at these people left me uncomfortable.

  The shop itself does not deserve to be called a shop unless you consider a table with a few materials placed on it to be a shop. Most of what is on the table is various ores of iron, with a few ores of mithril. With Eric in here, the shop is full. There are going to be no duels here.

  The owner of the shop does not inspire confidence. While, compared to the people outside he is leagues better he is still painfully thin. He looks like a starved skeleton. Even before the shopkeeper can speak.

  "Where is Lady Emily?", Eric asks. His expression is somewhere between annoyance and confusion.

  "She is with her cohort. They have been assigned a mission." He replies. "She will return by the end of the week. Until then I will take care of her ship."

  Hearing this, Eric's expression turns to annoyance. He doesn't speak anymore as he leaves the room.

  "Are you going to even be buying anything?", the shopkeeper asks.

  "Well, that depends on what you have to provide. What you have on the table is nothing special.", I reply.

  "You certainly talk big, bastard. The only reason that I am not kicking you out is because Eric brought you.", he speaks. "Show me that you can pay and I will show you the good stuff."

  Hearing this I feel a twinge of annoyance. I don't like to be called a bastard. I don't reply to this other than throwing a bag in his direction. He opens it and quickly begins to count the mana stones that are present in it.

  "Three class seven mana stones in total. You are certainly a rich man.", he speaks. "Fine, I will show you the good stuff."

  Well, the way the man spoke about it, it seemed as If I was somehow disturbing his peace. He disappears for a few seconds but finally appears with the smallest chest I have ever seen in my life.

  I don't even need Eric to tell me that the man is showing his private collection. No shop, however destitute would have so little to show.

  "I have three things that might be rare.", he speaks.

  "Might be?", I ask.

  "Well, the dwarves have claimed that it is supposed to be very rare. Each is worth ten times the cost of a mithril ore, they said. I don't know their worth.", he speaks. "I am sure something will catch your eye."

  He proceeds to remove a piece of rock from the box. There is nothing special about it other than the fact that there is an abnormally large amount of fire mana that is passing through it.

  "Well, this is supposed to be a piece of mithril ore that has been strengthened by a strain of sun metal.", speaks the man opposite me. "It is supposed to be a very rare metal. You would be able to craft weapons of the fire affinity."

  The material itself is pretty useless. The only thing making it rare is that this is the northern wastelands. You are unlikely to find anything related to the fire element here.

  "Well, I do not want that.", I reply. "Do not show me anything related to Mithril."

  "Fine.", he says, annoyed as he removes a piece of wood from the box.

  "Well, this is a piece of ice bark tree.", he speaks. "It is supposed to be able to channel massive amounts of ice mana into itself."

  "How would you be pricing that.", I ask the man. I can't use it to make a formation core, but I will be able to use it for some other things.

  "Well, I will require at least a class 7 magic stone for it.", he replies.

  "For that, I would be willing to give at most two class 8 magic stones.", I reply.

  "You bastard, that is a fifth of what I stated to you.", he replies, getting agitated. "This is a high quality piece of ice bark tree. I can sell it to the soldier and they would be willing to give five pieces of class seven mana stones for it. It can absorb the chill from your flesh, you know."

  "Well, then and go sell it to them unless you think that they will put you to death", I reply, losing my cool a bit. I do not like to be called a bastard. "I am sure that you must have stolen it from somewhere yourself. Whose grave did you rob."

  Saying this I leave the damn shop in a huff, my guard behind me collecting the bag that I had forgotten there. I almost do not notice the dagger flying at me as my hand moves to intercept it almost on instinct.