I really o stop going into dark pces.

  I did have a mp with me this time, a dle burning at the ter and providing some light. Not as much as I’d prefer. The darkness ahead shifted as I pushed forward, shadows dang along the tunnel walls.

  I walked along a rough stoh, maneuvering carefully in a tunnel not much rger than I was. I should be grateful the dwarves who’d carved out this regur passageway had bothered to make it big enough for folks my size. Not too much bigger as my horns scraped against the tunnel ceiling for a third time.

  The problems of taking the smaller tunnels as opposed to the main thhfares. inally the pns had been for all of these to be stantly patrolled, when the invasion had started. Pns ged very rapidly. inally they’d envisioned an underground frontier and already built dwarvelements ready to ize.

  Those were settled now, leftover dwarves and adventuring guilds and an assortment of others flooding in. The rest, including the mines? Less so. ization was going to be a ways off till the Imperial gover was certain the yield from the mines would be sistent. Monsters made that difficult.

  They’d been allies to the Shining Princess, back during the campaigns to depose Her Most Profane Majesty. They’d been firm allies for the decades after until she’d decided to decre them a protectorate and formally part of the empire. The eic issues ravaging the empire at the time most definitely were not part of the reasons to extend the empire’s protective shield to the dwarven kingdoms, as the neers had insisted so many years ago.

  Everyone knew dwarves had money. It had been a fact you didn’t question, even after the idea had taken a few hits. When I’d been pickpocketing oreets a decade ago, the assumption was that if you saw a dwarf, they had wealth.

  If you ventured past that image of them, it turned out that after a drawn-out campaign that took a decade and ended up driving the entire race further underground didn’t tend to leave much wealth behind. Their surface raids hadn’t helped the eic situation; what nd had been recovered had bee bare and without ah, and very few new citizens of the empire had been gained out of the deal. Whoever had decided to sell the idea to Her Majesty that a long drawn-out war would revitalize the ey was unknown, although Duchess Lindisfair’s horse riding act soon after was a det indicator.

  The end of the campaign had led to the Ureet i partially because Imperial officials had bee curious about the stretch of the underground poputed by Infernals instead of dwarves.

  The mines were still here in the dwarven tunnels far below, but other issues were still lingering about. Speaking of those issues.

  My ntern's light illuminated a slick green trail across the tunnel floor. I cautiously poked it with the toe of my boot. Pulling back, my boot seemed to have nothing wrong with it besides the new yer of gunk. The slime probably wasn’t acidic, at least to boot leather.

  I eyed the slime trail. It stank, and from its lime green color, it probably beloo something I wanted no part of. So many creatures made trails like this, but the general rule was the strahe creature, the more dangerous it would be.

  Of course, it shouldn’t be here to begin with. The guilds were responsible for preventing any monsters from the deeper earth from making their here. Meaning this probably inated aboveground.

  It had been bad enough when the only things down here were monsters spawning from the heart of the earth. Over time this pce had also bee a dumping ground for failed experiments. My fellow Biosculptors opped surprisih how utterly iheir creations could be, as well as their own ck of self-preservation. No amount utions seemed to stop them either, you always had one growing some strange abomination in their celr. There was always something new every month, whether it was some strange shapeshifting abomination that absorbed people into itself or mosquitos that drove into your brain through the nose and puppeteered you.

  I suppose only its usefulo the Empire kept it from being publicly banned like Diabolism. From personal experiehis robably the right decision on their part.

  Something gurgled up ahead, a wet, phlegmy sound

  My tail looped around the ntern's handle, leaving my hands free as I crept forward.

  I drew my pistol and saber. After the first tangling with the Purebloods, I didn’t have any ae, and anything else might just scratch it. The gurgling noise grew, along with the sounds of something scraping across the stone.

  A lizard rouhe er, gasping as it wriggled around. Two forelimbs grasped at the stone, pulling it forward while its rear resembled a slug, unduting as it forced itself forward. It was about the size of a wolf, though nowhere near as fast.

  “Not any closer. Back!” I said authoritatively, ons raised. Some Biosculpting creations could uand ands. Even if it couldn’t, animals could pick up when something was threatening them.

  The lizard hissed and surged forward. I pulled the trigger on the pistol, the roar of firing gunpowder filling the room. The sudden smoke couldn’t obscure the bullet hole sprouting in the lizard’s head. It didn’t halt, still charging.

  I nearly bit my tongue as I tried to back up. There wasn’t room to maneuver here. I timed my ssh with the saber, aiming for the scales along its neck. The bde bit deep through the scales. It didn’t care, jaws trying to close on my face. I screamed back, pushing with the saber. Blood poured out of the hole in its forehead. I moved my tail, the coal ntern smming into its eyes.

  The light flickered, shadows pying across the lizard’s face as its teeth closed only inches away from my face. I’d dropped the pistol, hand going for a dagger. It lunged again, jaws going for my head.

  Suddenly it shrieked, falling into the floor and spshing in a sudden pool of liquified rock.

  I didn’t give it a ce to do anything. My saber cut again at the neck, and then I lunged forward, dagger going straight into the beast’s eyes.

  It wailed and shrieked, no longer focused on me. I fell back, leaving the on stu there as it rammed into the walls. It tio sink, till only the top half of its body protruded from the ground. Its movements slowed, the screaming weakened, aually, it slumped over.

  I approached cautiously, prodding it with the tip of my saber. ion. I grabbed my dagger and pistol, stowing them back away, and examihe corpse. I briefly sidered dragging the corpse with me but settled for cutting some scales loose and sealing some blood in a vial.

  I didn’t want to be around if even more of these creatures were lurking iunnels. Although at least this was retively minor in terms of the creatures these tunnels could spawn.

  The stone… had frozen, like a roiling ke suddenly frozen in an instant. I prodded a wave of sediment with my saber, but it refused to budge. Damnations. I did not his to bee a thing again.

  I chose to focus on the creature instead, taking a few more samples before tinuing on my way. I’d been lucky, but it was a good indicator of why the Delver’s Guilds were ba the city.

  One problem had bee apparent as soon as the dwarves left the city. Without them guarding the Underground, the various creatures they regurly fended off had made a return. inally army regiments had kept most of the new Dwarf Quarter clear, but the empire had new surface flicts to fight instead. Leaving their newly gaierritory filled with monsters.

  Adventuring was in the middle of a minor renaissance as a result, which had to irritate Her Majesty. Despite her own adventuring days as an exile, i decades, she’d made it very clear that she sidered monster hunting and ruin-delving a responsibility of the state. Especially as the number of ruins to delve into had dropped over the decades. Until the Dwarves had gone further underground, most adventurers headed to the ies, and the Guilds went with them.

  Now they were back, although for how long eion. Maybe the streams of creatures from the dark depths would keep them busy for years as they lived off the bounties put on these creatures' heads. Maybe they’d exhaust them and be finished in a few more years.

  Until then, the underground was theirs.

  It took awenty minutes of tight tunnels before I reached one of the rger ones carved out of the rock. Smooth stowenty feet high and three times that across f the walls and roof, occasionally broken up by aunnel’s entrand rock statues of various dwarf figures carved out of the rock.

  Most of those were beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Edges and ers began to round as the rock was worn away. What dwarves had chosen to stay with the empire didn’t feel fident enough to maintain them, apparently. I couldn’t bme them, the general mood towards dwarves wasn’t very positive these days. Monsters bursting from the underground iermath of the war hadn’t helped with that. Not their fault, but most didn’t care, and the Empress certainly didn’t want to intercede on their behalf.

  Familiar ground beiread there.

  The tunnel was empty. I was arriving after the m rush of people who actually worked here. Guests were a on occurre typically took tuhat didn’t lead from the Infernal District. Hells, people going to one of the Dwarf settlements from the same general dire would circle around, finding other tuo take here.

  It did make for a nice quiet walk iunnels.

  Part of the stone wall shifted, and I took a few steps away from it. The surface had gone from solid stoo the surface of a pond. A sidewise pond made out of rock.

  I’d be more upset if I didn’t know what this was.

  “Not ied,” I addressed whatever spirit had just decided to crawl through the walls. Probably damn powerful to leave a visible mark on the mortal world. “How about you just keep moving through, and I’ll pretend I didn’t see you?”

  There was no reason spirits should be following me around. I’d done my level best to make sure this body was as uo perform magic as possible. Diabolism would only work because that had been half-clericism, half-magecraft, and me keeping the focus. The imp was still around, but I kept him quiet, and until the throat-biting i, he’d stayed quiet.

  There should be no reason any other spirits were ied in me. I couldn’t evehem anymore with how much I’d tried to Sculpt that ability out of myself.

  Nothing else happened. If the spirit had chosen to stay arouhe best I could hope for is that it remained quiet. I tinued my walk dowunnel. It took only a few more minutes for the gate to e into sight.

  The gate to the dwarvelement was effit for its goal, which was keeping people the hell out. Thick sbs of granite, split down the middle, only openable from inside and with the help of ented meisms. The amount of force to break this open would o be massive, and it was hardly a surprise the few gates that had been shattered were still in their broken state.

  A single human stood guard at a hastily structed wooden booth in front of the gate, half-pte and a halberd at his side, both glowing faintly with runes. Surprising. You’d think after three years, they’d have repced the booth by now.

  “Hello, Mr. Jebediah,” I greeted the gate guard. He was hard to miss with the half-pte on. You didn’t see that these days uhe owner had them loaded up on entments or adin. “Been having a busy day?”

  Joe Jebediah was in his te forties, grey just beginning to mix in with his hair as he leaned on his halberd. “No busier than usual. You here on business?”

  I half-smiled. “Business, yes. Guild business, no, and not likely for a while.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Something for me to keep an eye on?”

  “Oh, not really. Local gang issues. If they choose to start anything down here, my already low estimate of their intelligence will sink even lower. More pertily, I did enter a monster on my way here. A lizard monster of some kind, probably a rogue Biomancy experiment. Didn’t seem too harmful, but figured I should let you know.”

  Joe stiffened. “Just some kind of lizard? Didn’t do anything weird, did it?”

  “I couldn’t tell. I tried to drive it off, then killed it pretty quickly. Came up to about my waist, didn’t really do much besides charge me and try to chow down. Had tentacles, so probably some Biomancer’s pet they abandoned. Would have grabbed the corpse, but I’m in a bit of a rush. If anyone else wants to try arieve the body, best of luck to them.”

  “Probably some new signees,” Joe said with an amused tone. “Lot of them feel real apprehensive about heading deep down, they make themselves useful running odd jobs. Anyway, just o mark you in the book, and you head inside.”

  “Not a lot of traffic today?” I asked while he dragged out the logbook. Typically there was a lio get in through the gates.

  Joe sighed. “You just missed the rush. Took forever to clear them, but it’s either that or have the Imperials shut us down. Have you seen some of those new security automatons they’ve been demonstrating at the Ironworks? Think they could get one of those to take over?”

  “Hrrm,” I signed my name in the logbook and checked the time off the clock hanging from the cavern ceiling before adding that as well. “I’ve seen a few. Especially those new ogre-sized ones. Of course, those have their own issues. Were you there for the arm-wrestling demonstration?”

  He nodded eagerly. “The o week? Very impressive, mao outwrestle that ogre in two seds.”

  I nervously chuckled as I wrote dowreet I’d ehe tunnels from. “I was not at that one. I was at one a few months bad well, it outwrestled the ogre in a fra of that time. And also nearly ripped their arm off.”

  Joe winced. “Ah. Well, it didn’t do that this time, so I guess they’re improving the design.”

  “Yeah, but they aren’t that skilled at anything they aren’t programmed to do, what they prehend is still pretty limited, and on top of that, expensive as hell. I think you’re stu gate duty for a while longer Joe.” I handed him back the logbook. “I’m good to head inside?”

  He took it back, quickly reading my entry. “Yeah. Usual warnings: be careful, and don’t provoke any fights or something simir like that. If you don’t start anything, you aren’t responsible for it, but restraint is appreciated by everyone. Got any idea how long you’ll be in here?”

  “Should only be a few hours,” I said as he knocked oes with his halberd. From inside came the sound of moving gears. Granite sbs began to move, opening a gap.

  “Well, wele back to the Delver’s Guild.”