The Author's POV

330 Inferno 1

Inside of a dark room, a loud slap echoed.

-Smack!

"Oy, wake up."

With a bald head, a white beard that was so long it felt like it hadn't been cut in months,and bluish-purple skin, a creature resembling a dwarf spoke in a hoarse tone.

"If yer don't wake up within a minute's time, I'll make you feel something worse than the previous smack."

A vicious aura revolved around the blue-colored dwarf as he looked in front of him. A frail old dwarf sat there.

Bald head, braided hair, and wrinkling face;the dwarf was none other than Jomnuk.

The only dwarf that knew the access code of the security system. At the moment, he had both eyes closed shut and his hands were strapped on top of a large metallic chair. He wore a one-piece grey clothing and all of his beard hair was unbraided.

Since artifacts were hard to identify, they decided to strip Jomnuk of everything.

Although his mana was sealed because of the poison, it was still best to remove all of the items that he was wearing.

-Smack!

The blue dwarf once again smacked Jomnuk in the head.

"Yer finally coming to your senses?"

This time, the blue dwarf finally managed to get a reaction. Jomnuk's eyes twitched slightly.

It wasn't long before he finally opened his eyes.

Upon opening his eyes and staring at the blue dwarf in front of him, a frightened and bewildered look appeared on Jomnuk's face.

"Huh? Where am I? What is going on?"

Moving his body, Jomnuk found that he was bound to the chair he seated.

"What the-?!'

"Haha, you finally came to your senses."

Taking pleasure in Jomnuk's struggle, The blue dwarf flashed a sadistic smile.

Hearing the blue dwarf's words, Jomnuk finally came to his senses. He looked at the duergar and asked in a worried tone, "W-Who are you?"

"Hehe, let me introduce myself..."

Plack! Plack!

Tapping onto something, the dark room was instantly lit up by bright white lights.

Once the lights turned on, Jomnuk was finally able to see his surroundings.

But upon witnessing what was inside of the room, a look of horror flashed in his eyes.

Because the whole room was one massive device connected to a helmet.

"Y-you're insane!"

Bam-!

Smacking onto the metal armrest of the chair,the blue dwarf leaned closer.

"My name is Karl Kullam and as you can probably tell, I am a Duergar."

Walking towards the back of the room and taking the helmet, Karl flashed an evil smile.

"Although I'm not exactly famous among you dwarves, amongst us Duergars, I'm extremely well known."

Walking back towards Jomnuk, he dangled the helmet in his face.

"If you want to die peacefully, tell us how we can access the main defensive systems. If you refuse to do so..."

-Spurt.

all over the

"Huh?"

expectations, in what should've been a pained and desperate

chill ran down

his eyes off of Karl, Jomnuk took note of

at Karl, he muttered in a voice completely lacking an ounce of fear, "Is that all you've

Pui-!

spat towards the right side of the

"Oh?"

shook his head and shrugged off the

like you still got some grit

Karl lifted his

right hand was the

to say that again while looking at your face. Where are

"..."

Karl, Jomnuk did

towards the helmet-like device in his hand. Raising his hand and shoving the device on top of

see…the device on your head is my own creation, and

Clank-!

helmet

still in the development stages, I

he spoke, Karl

the

been successfully kidnapped,

that they would task him with the job of extracting

of the greatest dwarven

care about the war nor for the information to disable the defensive system, all he cared about was Jomnuk's

his hands together, Karl could no longer contain his

-Ding!

he pressed onto the top

to extract all of

should just about

"Huh?"

his head, to Karl's shock and horror,a

Impossible! Your mana was supposed to be

his hand toward Jomnuk's direction, Karl took a step

were supposed to have captured, started emitting mana

to last at least

Something was terribly wrong.

speed was unbefitting that of a dwarf as he reappeared right in front of Karl. His

"Khh.."

the air. No matter how much he struggled, Jomnuk's grip was far too strong. It wasn't long before Karl's already blue face turned a deeper

But, Jomnuk's grip was far

eyes turned white

away from Karl, Jomnuk clicked

got to make this

grabbed at it and pulled forcefully. In a fluid motion, Jomnuk's face ripped apart. Underneath, was a youth

figure was none other than Ren, who was considerably shorter than his

himself as Jomnuk he took a potion that decreased

"Huuu..."

didn't waste time.Taking out his

followed after was a subtle blue glow

"Done."

retracted

mask on his face, Ren did not channel his mana quite yet. He was currently low on mana, he needed to conserve

Clank-!

his

not so far from

of the room with her finger pressed on a small device that stood at the top left corner of the

"You done?"

"Yes."

as she took her finger away from the small

tsk tsk. Being so cold all the time, who knows if that's the secret to your skin. Getting a little warmer might not hurt, you know. I know I annoyed you, but still!' Ren cursed internally. Still, he had to give credit where

"Good," He smiled.

someone paid close attention, the moment Ren smiled, one

fact that Ren had been slapped in the face, one might think that Karl was the one responsible for the missing tooth. But, in fact, the

that the Duergars would strip him of everything he had, he knew that he couldn't have Angelica