He took out the keychain and walked to the secret door. Facing the keyhole in front of him, Snorri fell into deep thought.
There are five keys in his hand, all of which are forged from meteorite iron. The key handles are engraved with the images of Father God Granni, God of War Grimnir, Mother Goddess Valaya, and God of Rune Blacksmiths Turni. and an anvil of doom.
The heads of the ancestral gods are all in the standard dwarf style, with their eyes open and roaring. It is not surprising that the Doom Anvil, as the most representative artifact of the rune blacksmith, appears on the key to the rune blacksmith guild's storage warehouse.
But in what order should the five keys be inserted? Snorri believed the answers lay in the history he learned as a child.
In dwarf society, every new life is delivered by priestesses in the temple of the mother goddess Valaya. These children will be raised by the priests in the temple for three years before being returned to their families.
(The priests of Valaya are all composed of dwarf women, and their age composition is mainly old and young. Many grandmothers who have lost their fertility in old age but have rich parenting experience will join the ranks of the temple priests to train new ones. At the same time, most unmarried young female dwarves will also come to the temple to learn how to become qualified mothers and accumulate experience for raising children in the future).
This is due to the low fertility rate of dwarves, and every new member is the most valuable asset of the fortress, so it is very necessary for babies to receive the best and most professional care during the most vulnerable stage of their lives.
After being returned to the family, the children can enjoy a few years of carefree happiness. Soon when they are ten years old, they will be sent to a school run by the clan or mountain castle to learn knowledge.
(Large and powerful clans have the conditions to open their own private schools, while children of smaller clans will receive education in schools funded by the fortress lords.) Due to the small population, improving the average quality has become a crucial issue.
The knowledge they need to learn includes but is not limited to Dwarf language, common language, arithmetic, and the foundation of the dwarf race - mining knowledge.
As a member of the Drazkrad clan inherited from the age of the ancestral gods, Snorri also needs to learn history.
For dwarves who pay attention to tradition, they can extol the great achievements of their most proud ancestors, remember the pain suffered by the clan and even the entire dwarf race, and loudly declare a certain specific hatred when killing an enemy. Clearing up is necessary to become a qualified leader.
After completing their studies in the school, the dwarf children will enter the local miners' association for training. After completing the study of theoretical knowledge, ten years of mining practice awaits them.
For the dwarf race who live in underground fortresses all year round, even if they do not eventually become miners, they still need to learn how to live underground and how to face and avoid possible risks. You must know that dangers are everywhere in the underground world. It may be landslides and water leakage from nature, or it may be goblins or Skaven that suddenly appear in the tunnel. No matter how strong a warrior is without relevant experience, they may be swallowed up inadvertently.
(According to legend, there was a famous adventurer known as the Goblin Killer in the Human Empire. He was famous for his rich experience in underground combat. He had solved many underground threats that had destroyed both the Imperial Knights and the Magician Academy.)
After completing the miner's practice, dwarf teenagers who are about thirty years old will enter the guild to start their apprenticeship.
Which guild he joins depends on the abilities and talents he has shown in his previous life. At the same time, the tradition and strength of his clan are also important influencing factors.
There are some extremely conservative clans that do not allow their members to join emerging guilds such as the Engineers Association and the Gunsling Association. There are also some clans that will send tribesmen with less outstanding talents into specific guilds for the sake of certain traditions.
Although the choice is related to the talent displayed, relatively speaking, the stronger the clan, the more likely it is that the talented clan members will join professional guilds with longer apprenticeships but relatively high status after graduation, such as the Rune Blacksmith Guild, Scholars Guild, etc. Associations, etc., while members of weaker clans tend to join miners' guilds, warriors' guilds and other organizations that are easy to get started and have lower thresholds to join the work as soon as possible.
His thoughts returned to the keys and keyhole in front of him, and Snorri concluded that these keys should be arranged in the chronological order of the patterns engraved on the handles.
So the first thing that can be determined is that the fifth key is the Doomsday Anvil, and Tourni, who is both a secondary god and the producer of the Doomsday Anvil, should be inserted fourth.
But how should the three ancestor gods be ordered? According to the tradition of the dwarf pantheon, it should be Gruni, Grimnir and finally Varaya. But Snorri knew it was not that simple. Recalling the memories in his mind, he It reminds me of the story when the rune magic system was first created.
In the time of the ancestral gods, Turni was born. He was Valaya's son for his father God Grani. As he grew up, he found that he was not martial enough compared to his brothers. Powerful, it seems powerless when facing the army of chaos.
Tourni sought help from his parents for this purpose, and Valaya taught him a set of letters that could harness the wind of magic, but during use he discovered that this set of letters needed to be written with a liquid that contained enough powerful energy. Only then can it exert satisfactory power. For this purpose Turni turned to Grimnir, the strongest and most skilled dwarf.
Grimnir decided to help him, and the powerful dwarf god and his son Morgrim slew the world's first dragon, Draxion. After an epic and bloody battle with the four-legged and two-winged beast, Grimnir gave Turni the dragonskin bag filled with dragon's blood. Relying on the powerful power of the dragon's blood, Turni perfected rune magic and joined the ranks of the ancestral gods. This pocket, once filled with dragon's blood, became a treasure.
According to the content of this epic, Snorri decided to put Valaya first, Grimnir second, and Gruni last among the three gods. After inserting the five keys in sequence, the runes on the door shimmered yellow, and the secret door opened silently in front of Snorri.
Entering the door, although he was prepared, Snorri was still shocked by the sight in front of him. The storage room is not big, with a length and width of about ten meters. Several rows of shelves are filled with forging runes, or to be precise, various raw materials needed for forging master-level runes. By the light of the rune illuminators inlaid on the ceiling, Snorri began to tour the guild's treasures.
Raw materials are mainly divided into three categories:
The ore raw material is made of meteorite iron, and all kinds of precious ores that are hard to find outside are randomly placed here like ordinary stones;
The liquid raw materials are stored in belts one after another engraved with runes for preservation. The worst of them are the blood of mutant monsters such as ice trolls and stone trolls. The dragon blood of various dragons and the condensation of elemental creatures are also everywhere. can be found;
The carrier medium of the third type of runes mainly includes the tanned skins of various magical creatures and scrolls made from their skins. The magical energy contained in these raw materials can help the runes engraved on them remain active.
Snorri took enough ingredients according to the regular combinations in his memory, and he also took some extra to confuse the audience. Just as he exited the storage room and was about to close the door, his vision went dark. . .
