Thomas pondered for a moment, then said to the Dwarf:
"When I went to the Du tribe, there was no one left. But fortunately, there were no bodies, so they were probably all captured alive."
Luban slammed the stone bowl down in grief and indignation, his eyes bloodshot.
His voice trembled with resentment:
"Those people pretended to be a merchant caravan to trade with us. We exchanged weapons for wine, never expecting them to put a sleeping drug in it. When we fell asleep, they attacked.
My tribesmen risked their lives to hold them back so I could run out to the nearest tribe for help. Along the way, I was struck by a knight and fell into the river. He thought I was dead, so he didn't pursue me."
His rugged face was streaked with tears, which he wiped away with his hand:
"Those vile humans captured all the young ones in the tribe first, otherwise, even if we had been drugged, we wouldn't have let them off easily! I'm so useless. The chieftain and everyone else risked their lives to let me escape, yet I couldn't go back to save them."
After being caught by the knight riding a lion beast, his chest was dealt a fatal blow.
Fortunately, the Dwarf's body was robust. The river water washed him away and woke him up. He climbed ashore and ran towards Thomas's tribe, but on the way, he fainted from excessive blood loss, only managing to find a hidden mountain cave to hide in.
"How cruel, not even sparing the children," Eric cursed angrily.
Truly a despicable bunch, with no martial honor.
Thomas let out a sigh.
When he and Max arrived, the Dwarves of the Du tribe had all been taken away. Only scattered bloodstains and a few human corpses remained on the ground. They had searched the surrounding area and confirmed that the perpetrators had gone far.
He led Max back, preparing to discuss a rescue plan with the tribesmen. If these detestable mercenary groups weren't taught a lesson, they would only become more outrageous in the future.
Max pondered for a moment, then asked, "What is the strength of these people?"
Luban understood his intention and excitedly jumped to his feet, his height just reaching Max's while he was sitting. He looked at the few tribesmen before him, and his speech became flustered:
"They, they have several hundred people. The most formidable are a Great Swordsman and a Wind Magus. The other lion beast knights and warriors are all mid-level.
They surrounded us from the sky and the ground; there was no way to escape..."
The Dwarf choked up, disregarding the wound on his chest that was splitting open:
"If you can rescue my tribesmen, I'll do anything you ask! Whether it's runic weapons or rare ores, I can give them to you!"
So, would an iron wok be possible...
Eric thought weakly to himself but ultimately didn't dare to say it out loud.
Thomas patted Luban's shoulder comfortingly:
"Don't worry, Luban. Even if they have a Wind Magus, such a large group can't leave quickly. With the speed of us Snow Wolves, we can definitely catch up to them."
The matter couldn't be delayed. Max stood up and said solemnly to Michael, "My father and I will lead the pursuit. The tribe is in your hands."
They couldn't take all the warriors; a reliable person had to be left behind in the tribe to ensure its safety.
Time flew by; it had been seven days since Thomas and Max led the warriors away.
Eric felt the atmosphere in the tribe was a bit tense. It was understandable; given the leg strength of the Snow Wolves, it was normal to worry when they still hadn't returned.
But he recalled the plot of the story. Max was the main character; nothing would likely happen to him.
This part of the story seemed to only briefly introduce how Max rescued the Dwarves and earned their goodwill, laying the foundation for his and Michael's future journey across the continent.
The goodwill of the Dwarves, huh...
Eric stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Dwarves were perfect craftsmen, skilled in everything from finding mineral veins and smelting metal to forging weapons. Befriending them was incredibly important!
Knowing that everyone was safe, he started to get busy with his own affairs. The unfired bricks and tiles he had made earlier were now dry.
He carefully stacked them into the wood-fired kiln, piling them to the top, then sealed it with yellow mud, leaving only a smoke hole. He felt lucky again for having built the kiln near his house, as firing bricks required keeping a fire going for three days and three nights straight.
He fed firewood into the kiln's opening and lit the fire. The mud-plastered top quickly released a large amount of steam, while the smoke hole slowly puffed out plumes of green smoke. Eric found a wooden plank to fan air into the opening.
He remembered watching a blogger who fired his own bricks; the person had made a wooden bellows to increase the temperature and shorten the time. It was just that the device was too complicated, he really couldn't make one.
Luban, whose injuries had mostly healed, curiously followed this miraculous little beast to see what he was up to now.
This thing in front of him didn't look like it was for making food; on the contrary, it resembled a Dwarf's forge, only it was made of mud and stone.
Seeing that the Snow Wolf tribe's little beast seemed to be having trouble, he walked over and asked, "What's wrong? Is there anything I can help with?"
Eric's eyes lit up, and he quickly invited Luban to sit down:
"Luban, could you please help me make a tool to blow air into this hole? I want to increase the fire's temperature so the fired bricks will be harder and sturdier."
Luban honestly stroked his beard. "This tool is very simple, of course I can make it for you. It's just that someone needs to pull it constantly, and it also consumes a lot of firewood. You could use black stone to burn; black stone has a high temperature. We use it for smelting ore."
"Actually, it's best to use fire magic," Luban said regretfully. "Set up a magic circle, and with just a few magic cores, you can have a continuous source of fire. It's a pity we Dwarves don't have that talent."
"Black stone! It's coal!" Eric jumped up in joy, his eyes shining brightly.
How could he have forgotten? Dwarves naturally needed coal for smelting; it was very difficult to reach such high temperatures with wood.
He squatted down, somewhat embarrassedly scratching the ground with his hand. He couldn't help it; having been a wolf for so long, he had picked up bad habits even in human form:
"So... could I use some? I can trade things for it, sugar or anything else is fine!"