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"Welcome!" A dwarf with a trimmed beard and stylish clothing welcomed them into this massive building, "Your visit caught us a bit unprepared, please do excuse the state of our estate."

"It is no problem," Eldrian replied, "I would actually prefer if we can keep moving. Time is of the essence, after all."

"Certainly," The dwarf replied, "Apologies, I forgot my manors. I am Viggo, the steward of our proud city of Pordor. My lord is currently at the front lines, I hope you will forgive the lack of a proper welcome."

Eldrian nodded, "Can we move to meet them?"

Coughing, Sanja clasped Eldrian\'s shoulder and smiled at Viggo. "Viggo, it is good to see you are well. Have you finally found your soulmate?"

Blushing, the butler nodded.

"I knew it, you had that inner glow."

"We are actually expecting our first child soon." Viggo said, brimming with pride.

"Congratulations! I hope you will invite me to the baby shower."

"Unfortunately, I don\'t think we will be able to host one." Viggo sighed and cleared his head, having momentarily forgotten his post, "Apologies again, please follow me."

Leading the group into the massive keep, Viggo showcased them to their rooms and also offered refreshments. Eldrian quickly got bored and tired of the pleasantries and dived into his mental space to discuss theories with Two.

He woke when Sanja gripped his shoulder and squeezed for the third time.

"What\'s up?"

"You are being extremely rude."

"Sorry, but I don\'t like wasting time. We are just-"

"Building connections and friendships, which is never a waste of time. You are still young, you might not understand. In the world, especially in times like these. Not having any connections is the worst thing you could have done for your future."

"Sure, but-" Eldrian stopped, he wanted to argue his side. However, he realized that it would simply lead to nothing and possibly even cause a rift to form between him and Sanja. "Thank you for the advice."

"Sir Ingvar?" Sanja motioned for him to step forward. "Why don\'t you help our new acting mayor learn a bit more about dwarven culture?"

Looking at Eldrian, the dwarf frowned. During the entire talk Eldrian had been spacing out, in a world of his own. It made it hard to believe he was here on behalf of the kingdom of Taurus.

"I would really appreciate it." Eldrian said, deciding to go with the flow since he was already here. Not thinking about his theories for a few hours might even do him some good.

With Eldrian speaking up, Ingvar nodded.

...

"What do you think of our elf?" Sanja asked Solvi once the two had left, the butler had left earlier to get things organized so they would be able to meet with the local nobles and hopefully the dwarven lord.

"He\'s brilliant and has a unique talent, but... He sucks at connecting with people." Solvi answered without pretense.

"So I\'m not the only one thinking it..." The centaurette sighed realizing that the mission was going to be harder than expected due to Eldrian\'s lack of charisma.

"It won\'t be as bad as you expect." Solvi smiled, "He\'s weird and doesn\'t really fit in, but his passion for magic is universal. Just don\'t expect him to partake in politics or pleasantries, I am pretty sure he would rather burn the room down."

Sanja laughed at the image and remembering how Eldrian had handled politics thus far. He had done wonderfully, but looking back it was only because he seemed to not care about it one bit. He didn\'t mind what they said of him, nor what they tried to do behind his back as long as it did not directly interfere with what needed to be done.

He simply worked on what was needed and relied on those he could trust. Bringing Itireae to deal with Skara was also brilliant. But from a political viewpoint it was a bit extreme, completely burning the bridge while destroying Skara\'s political standing.

It dealt with the immediate problem but could lead to more later on as Skara now had hatred growing towards Eldrian. Though, that would not be a problem if Pelaros was healed and could retake his position as mayor.

"Do you think the dwarves will agree to share resources when they are under so much pressure?" Sanja asked after a few seconds of reflection. The fact that Lord Boran might know Eldrian should help them, hopefully, their relationship had been on good terms.

"I have a feeling Eldrian has a few things to trade," Solvi replied.

"You can\'t mean the cannons!"

"If he only trades that we can consider ourselves lucky."

"What? Why?"

"He\'s been so distracted since he recently made a massive breakthrough. I\'m pretty sure he would share everything he knew if he found a kindred soul, someone who could help him understand."

Sanja sighed, shocked that through all this. Through managing a city and going on a political mission, Eldrian still found time to actually train and even discover something.

She didn\'t ask what it was, understanding that she would never be able to keep up in that area.

\'I\'ll focus on our relationships hopefully I can get enough support so that Eldrian doesn\'t end up bargaining.\' Sanja just believed that Eldrian would be terrible at it. After all, regarding all trades thus far it wasn\'t him but Elizabeth managing things.

...

"This is amazing!" Eldrian exclaimed as he entered one of the floating stalactites, this one was converted into a smithy.

When asked which one he wanted to enter, Eldrian had decided on this one without a second thought. He had no interest in a restaurant, and even less in a luxury room. Whatever that meant.

Moving towards one of the forges, Eldrian watched in awe as the apprentices worked. Naturally, he couldn\'t enter the core of the smithy where the master blacksmiths were, but even just watching these Tier 5 apprentices was amazing.

\'Having them manufacture the cannons would be really nice, but I doubt they would sell it to us at cost. Though, maybe we can negotiate something close?\' Eldrian wondered as he looked at the smithing process with new eyes.

The last time he had witnessed the creation of magical items -his spear in particular- he hadn\'t known anything. With the cannons, while he had learned plenty, the diversity in what was done was not much.

Now he could observe as one apprentice made a shield, another a sword, a team a set of armor. Not a plain set, but an actual set.

\'I wonder how it all links in the end...\' Eldrian mumbled internally as he looked at the individual components that had been completed.

\'It looks like there is some sort of connecting point. Almost like a joining rune.\' Two commented, indicating to the end of the gloves and the start of a gauntlet.

\'Your right! Why haven\'t we seen any of these runes?\' Almost half the runes on the set were unknown to them.

\'Its dwarves?\' Two commented with a shrug.

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