Night fell, and Frost Axe finished a day's work before leaving the underground dwarf city for Nolan aboveground.
"Great Elder, I'm going to drink these guys under the table today. I'll be going on ahead!"
"Quit talking nonsense and get lost."
Frost Axe glared at the young dwarves. Watching them disappear around a street corner in Nolan, he stroked his graying beard and let out a sigh.
He was even older than the city of Nolan itself. He had been one of the first dwarves to discover the Underground Ruins, a pioneer of its development, and... one of Nolan's founders and builders!
From the days when Nolan had been nothing but a small village where spellcasters gathered to becoming the most prosperous city in the world, Frost Axe had lived through far too many troublesome matters that made him blow his beard and glare.
But times changed. No matter how long dwarves lived, they still aged. Even as the Great Elder of the Frost Axe Clan, he was no exception.
With Frost Axe's aged body, he could no longer be like those young dwarves, drinking beer from huge wooden mugs in taverns and baring his arms for an arm-wrestling match once they had drunk their fill.
The older one got, the more one liked to seek excitement. Dwarves were no exception to that rule.
In recent years, Frost Axe had enjoyed wandering Nolan's streets and observing the changes in the city he had built with his own hands.
The preparations for the World Expo had brought many new faces to Nolan recently. Every street Frost Axe visited seemed to have several new stores, though most sold clothes for women or those troublesome things spellcasters used.
Today, he had found a tavern on Commercial Street—a tavern called Hearthstone.
Dwarves had their