Maro woke up to three angels sitting by his bedside.
"Hello Ladies" he said as he sat up
They all ran over to hug him
"Ladies, ladies please… I'm alright"
"Yeah only thanks to Katarina's Ice and our healing… you owe us big time" Valleria said while holding him tighter
"Thank you, to all three of you. How long have I been asleep?"
"Only one night… the sun came up an hour or two ago"
"Any developments on the underground front?" Maro scratched his head
"No, Kadrin is leading men to block off any mining tunnels and hunting down the last of the Goblins… they haven't started the looting yet." Katarina smiled
"Fuck, where is Gnarlo… that little thief is going to take everything when no one is looking, where are my clothes" Maro was flustered trying to find his clothes, the best part of combat was the looting afterwards, he didn't want to lose out on anything cool.
Suddenly a wine skin slapped him in the balls as he was bending over to pick his clothes up.
"Ooooooooffff" Maro collapsed
"Here I am" Gnarlo jumped out, "you're lucky I waited for you"
Maro healed his nuts, got dressed and then with 0 warning, smacked his crown off his head and then sprinted to the lower levels.
Gnarlo ran after it "No, I waited for you, it's not fair"
The ladies sighed, sad they couldn't keep Maro to themselves for a little bit… They each went back to their work.
It took hours to go up the stairs but Maro was jumping entire flights down… Gnarlo would catch up eventually. But Gnarlo surprised him a lot, he was somehow keeping up by jumping off the stairs and into the shadows.
Out of breath they found Kadrin instructing men to seal another mining tunnel.
"wheres … the … loot" they were exasperated
Kadrin hugged Maro deeply and then pat Gnarlo on the back
"It's done, this is the last major tunnel… let's go to the main room and check it out together" Kadrin calmed the two of them down.
In the fortress commander's room they found a hidden bottle of dwarven whiskey, which they promptly opened up and passed amongst each other in an early celebration.
They found the commander's journal useless to Maro as he couldn't read Dwarvish but Kadrin was ecstatic. The journal recounted the Commanders' last days up until the retreat against the demons…. The Dwarves had escaped via a tunnel going north to another fortress in the mountain chain… Nice, they had a clue as to where to eventually expand.
And then in a secret compartment embedded into the wall, they found a beautiful two-handed great maul… it was made of a weird white metal alloy with a lot of gold inlay… beautiful dwarf treasure. Maro handed it to Kadrin who gave it immediately back to Maro.
"Its yours… wield it… you are an honorary Dwarf… besides a maul that big isn't meant for group combat its more for individual combat… for you… besides you broke your greatsword" Kadrin thanked him
"Thank you Kadrin, I will cherish it…"
"What the hell, what do I get, the room is empty" Gnarlo complained
"You get fuck all, where were you anyways? Too busy being depressed after being tenderized by being in the middle of a Troll fuck session?" Maro laughed
"I was busy issuing orders to our new spies and scouts, as soon as brewery production picks up, we'll make their back story as merchants. They will get past any city guard with kegs of beer in the back… especially a delicious dwarven recipe that was recently found again" Gnarlo said with pride
"Okay you passed, but look harder if you want something for yourself" Kadrin muttered.
He slapped Maro on the back.
"I forgot to mention, we found the forges and good news, our ancestors had large warehouses of mined ore and even a lot of processed ingots of metal, guess Goblins thought they were useless… every Dwarven Forgemaster in our ranks would love to craft you proper Dwarven plate armour. We even found refined Mithril… it would look good with your new maul."
"In fact…let's take your measurements right away… I don't want the Dwarves' debt to you to grow any further… It's time to pay it back" He smiled and hugged Maro again.
Kadrin called in some Dwarves and while they were feeling Maro up, Gnarlo went off on his own to see if he could find anything for himself.
Maro kissed his teeth, seeing Gnarlo sneak away but he was happy. The fortress was theirs and he was going to get a suite of Mithril plate armour in Dwarven fashion. There hasn't been a new anything made of Mithril for centuries as the Dwarves lost access to their Mithril mines.
After the measurements were done, Maro practiced swinging the Maul in the air, already an expert using it due to his perk…
He wanted to test out [Holy Judgement] as well but when he started infusing his maul with the spell it started glowing golden yellow, runes on the maul became visible in a bright gold light… Kadrin instinctively kneeled.
Kadrin got up "I didn't know that was even real… the runes placed on the maul were ancient dwarven magic… this is a legendary weapon of the Dwarves, Maro… It responded incredibly well to your holy magic… I have to believe now you were fated to wield this maul… I have to read this journal to see if it is mentioned…"
Infused with Holy power, he wanted to see what the Maul and his spell did, so he gently tapped it against the solid stone door of the room… the door exploded into a million pieces and then holy energy radiated outward healing and inspiring everyone in the vicinity. Kadrin looked at his armour as the holy energy passed by, it shone and reflected the light, like it amplified the spell… They would have to run tests… but the maul was incredibly powerful… he strapped it to his back.
"Kadrin… when you and your men are done down here… one week of festivities… That's an order!"
Kadrin spat on the floor and laughed, took a swig of the dwarven whiskey and handed it back to Maro… here you finish it
Maro chugged the last quarter of the bottle, burped and handed it back to Kadrin.
Maybe he's just a tall dwarf, Kadrin thought, impressed.
Maro ran after Gnarlo
He found him looking at some iron and steel ingots…
"Gnarlo, one week of partying after Kadrin is done down there, lets head back up" Maro said, already slightly drunk
He cast a quick heal on his liver before he got even more drunk.
"Hey Maro, I think we should work to get a branch of the adventurer's guild to open up shop here… they are an independent organization, that way we can attract any adventurers in the area… also there would be a lot of missions posted for resource gather and killing beasts in the mountains… no one is close by."
"Also we are technically criminals, not like we can visit the guilds in the cities all the time… eventually we will be found out even more so when they link Maro the Gladiator to Maro the LIberator… dumbass"
Maro palmed his forehead… an oversight. He snitched out his own crimes to all the gladiators trying to impress Katarina
"Smart Gnarlo, then we can even pretend to be adventurers when we are bored… but lets do it after our party"
"Why the hell would I miss our party… I don't work during holidays" Gnarlo scolded him
Heading upstairs Gnarlo mused "we're like the three kings of our respective races and this is like our new mini kingdom… I'm king of two races actually and I've already had my crown minted haha"
"We're like a triumvirate" Maro said, while thinking of Rome
"A what? You idiot" Gnarlo punched his thigh
"A power sharing agreement between three great men"
The two of them chatted for a while as they climbed the massive stairs up.
They spread the news to everyone, once Kadrin and his crew were done securing everything down there, Party for one week.
Everyone began to prepare.
Maro headed back home to break the news to the ladies himself…