Section 2: The origin of fate

"What can I do about this?" Ashu Rufate still doesn't understand what the Rat God wants him to do? He wants the magic stone mine in Sivania. Ashu Rufate knows that there is a magic stone mine in Sivania, but it is just a vein after all, and it is not much more than the minerals currently owned by the Rat Man. Even if all of them were poached by the Rat Man, it would only delay their race and the doomsday of social collapse by one or two years - not even a year or two.

"No, I don't want these." The voice of the rat god sounded in my mind. "I don't need the minerals in your land, because those are just drops of the bucket for my people and are not worth mentioning."

A new picture appeared in Ashrufate's mind. He saw a fortress built on a dangerous mountain. Or, it was a fortress combined with the mountain. He saw the soldiers patrolling the city walls, the exquisite armor and sharp weapons, and the unrelenting eyes watching the movements outside the city with vigilance.

A lot of information flowed into Ashu Rufate's mind with these pictures. In fact, there was no need for the explanation of the rat god, Ashu Rufate also recognized the identity of these warriors. They were dwarves, a race that was friendly (or at least neutral) to humans. The dwarves lived in mountains, built their own fortress cities on the peaks and shallow underground. They planted crops on the surface and dug minerals into the ground. They were born with the desire to collect wealth and their almost instinctive superb handicrafts. The dwarves can be said to be the most familiar alien to humans. Because for humans, the dwarves are a kind of "friends" without aggressiveness, and there are also a very small number of dwarves living in the human world, living with their own craftsmanship or business acumen.

However, although it is a civilized race, the dwarves are famous for their strong, brave, face-saving, narrow-minded personality traits. However, what is most impressive is their tradition of revenge. At least Ashurufat knew that the dwarves had a "book of hatred" thing, and any crimes committed against them (whether intentional or unintentional, or even only existed in the imagination of the dwarves) would be recorded in the book of hatred, waiting for revenge one day. The content of these crimes is very wide, including all, from large-scale wars to personal harm to individuals, and even a loan defrauded in commercial transactions.

However, Ashu Rufate could not see what the dwarf fortress city had to do with the Rat Man's crisis. He fully understood the conflict between these two races - although one lived in the deep underground and the other lived in the surface underground, it was normal for armed conflicts to occur. Because Rat Man was selfish, and the dwarfs were greedy. They would definitely have conflicts because of a livable underground space, a deep mine vein, or a suitable passage.

Like most alien conflicts in this world, such disputes can only be judged by sword and fire to determine who is right and who is wrong. According to the dwarf's vengeful personality, the rat people must be included in the category of the Book of Hate.

The picture began to become coherent, and Ashu Rufate felt his eyes seem to be separated from his body and wandering independently in the fortress city of the dwarfs. He had no physical limitations, so he could travel through everything, including the solid earth. Then he understood why the Rat God asked him to see this.

Under this fortress city called Karak Grom, there is a very huge magic stone vein. Ashrufate's eyes are not affected by the outside and freely travel through the soil layer, so he can see that this magic stone ore is an impeccable mineral in both quality and reserves.

The periphery of this mineral is some magic stones mixed in the soil, half the size of a fist. Apart from their quality, there is nothing to be noticed. However, as we move towards the central area of ​​the vein, the ore becomes larger and larger, gradually changing from the size of a fist to the size of a human head, from the size of a human head to the size of a millstone, and when we reach the center of this vein, Ashrufate even saw many giant magic stones, each of which was enough to fill a square.

The rat god continued to send relevant information into his mind, and then he understood why there were such a large magic stone veins here. This is because this mineral vein is "growing". Due to the magic wind, special geography, and natural structures under the earth, the dark magic energy in the air settled and condensed in this place in a vortex, and finally evolved into such a large-scale magic stone ore. More importantly, this mine is theoretically endless. Because the black magic energy is constantly deposited, every once in a while, the black magic energy condenses into a batch of magic stones here.

"This is the key to the future destiny of my people." The voice of the rat god came into his mind. "As long as I seize this place, my people will have a solid base, and dangers like this one will never happen again."

But Ashu Rufate still couldn't understand it very much. Because as far as he knew (from books), the dwarves were not interested in magic stones at all. This kind of thing was a dangerous existence for the dwarves. If the rat man came to help them move these dangerous goods, they would probably not be too happy, let alone obstruct them.

"You want me to be a diplomat?" Ashu Rufate asked in surprise.

"No..." The rat god sent new information into Ashu Rufate's mind. Ashu Rufate realized that the situation was not that simple. Karak Grom was not a newly built city, but a very ancient fortress. Tens of centuries ago, the dwarves lost her after a large-scale catastrophe, and the place was eventually occupied by green skins. But recently the dwarves killed them again and regained the fortress after a very bloody battle.

Ashrufate knew the Green Skins very well because he once pretended to be Green Skins and became a boss. He knew that Green Skins would never let go of such things. Originally, the Green Skins were a very warlike and aggressive race. Now, with the shame of failure and the desire for revenge, they continued to launch wars to regain the city. The entire Carac Grom has now become a completely militarized fortress and a battlefield on the front line. Green Skins and the dwarves fought countless fierce battles here, and each place on the surface and underground passage is a battlefield for fierce battle between the two sides.

This kind of tense atmosphere of war, a series of records in the Book of Hate, coupled with the dwarves' vengeance and the selfish nature of the rat people, is empty talk about how to reach a diplomatic agreement. What's worse is that if the rat people dig out the magic stone, then Karak Grom is in danger of collapse. The dwarves will never allow this to happen, and the rat people don't have much time - their existing mineral veins are exhausted for a while.

Ashu Rufate questioned in his mind, why didn't he solve this problem early and delay it until now? The Rat God's answer was unexpected - it turned out that the Rat God was sleeping most of the time, but this time it was so serious that the gray prophets temporarily awakened him with the most desperate prayers.

"When I wake up, things have reached this point." The God of Rat seemed to sigh, and seemed to be angry, annoyed the rat people's incompetence.

Ashurufate saw a new picture. In the core city of the Rat Man, the twelve Abyss lords passed the war plan for occupying Karak-Grom. A war seemed imminent. Ashurufate had vaguely guessed that the Rat God had found him, but he was still a little puzzled. Judging from the situation that the Rat God just told him, the Rat people had very large troops, and this war was related to the rise and fall of the race, so they would have to do their best. In contrast, although the Green Skins and Dwarves at the Karak-Grom were all large-scale troops, they were not the power of the entire race, nor could they be the power of the entire race. In terms of quantity, even fifty pairs were more than enough.

The picture continued, although it changed very quickly, Ashurufat could understand what happened. While preparing for the war, the rat leaders were passionate on the surface, as if they wanted to do their best, but they really wanted to organize the army, but they all found reasons to shirk it. What is the solution? The leaders were in a competitive relationship, and civil war was common for the rat people. Every leader hoped that this war would consume the strength of others so that they could gain an advantage in the future situation, so they tried every means to get rid of the obligation of war. The only ones who really promoted the war wholeheartedly were the gray prophets, but the selfishness and viciousness of the rat people made the gray prophets' efforts to mobilize the entire clan's army into a bubble. After a long dispute and chaos, the gray prophet finally barely gathered an army. Of course, although this was also a large army, there was no particularly huge advantage in number.

The result of this war was a tragic failure. The Rat-Man Legion, which launched the attack, first defeated the dwarves' strong defense, and then was unexpectedly raided by the Greenskins when retreating. The latter was originally here to attack the Dwarves, but since these rats were blocking the way, they were happy to fight more. The Greenskins cut off the retreat route and the Dwarves attacked the front. The two mortal enemies, who were irreconcilable, cooperated unexpectedly perfectly at this time. The Rat-Man's troops were blocked between the two armies and were attacked from the front and back, and eventually they were completely wiped out.

When the news of this catastrophic failure came back, the selfish nature of the rat people once again played a role. Not only did they not immediately reorganize a large army to seek revenge, but they immediately fell into a long division and accusation. The gray prophets tried as usual to unify the entire race to achieve the future of this relationship, but unfortunately, they tried all the methods but were at a loss. Although the crisis of exhaustion of magic stones was near, the rat people showed signs of a large-scale civil war. Under the helplessness, the gray prophets could only pray to the rat god in despair, hoping that the great rat god would guide them through this terrible crisis.

"Since you are awake, why don't you guide your own people?" Ashu Rufate asked in his mind.

The rat god clearly stated that he could not keep this kind of awakening for too long.

"So you come to me for a deal? What do you want me to do?"

The Rat God's answer was straightforward. He needed a messenger, and a very capable messenger, to guide the Rats instead, to unify the chaotic clans, gather the power of the entire race, and finally lead them to conquer the Karak Grom, which was built very strongly by the dwarves. As long as this land is available, the Rats will never again experience the crisis of resource exhaustion and racial degeneration.

"What can I get?" Ashu Rufate asked.

"I can send you out of this place and back to the normal world." The rat god returned to his original tone this time. "And, I can awaken your sleeping servant again. Believe me, although it is temporarily sleeping, I believe that only a few existences in this world can awaken it. If no one helps, then you may never be able to receive its service again."

"I may not be able to do what you ask for." Ashu Rufate said.

"As long as you give your all," replied the Rat God. "As for your identity, appearance, etc., it is not a problem. After waking up your servant, I will give you relevant information. I am sure your armor can make you look the right way. In addition, I will give you another important gift. I will pour part of my power into this gift, so that even if your true identity is exposed, it will not cause too much trouble."

"As long as you capture Karak Grom, will the transaction be completed?" Asu Rufate asked the last question.
Chapter completed!