116 Giving Chase

Just as quickly as they appeared, the swirling flames faded away, revealing an empty, scorched walkway. With a hearty laugh, the heavy metal door swung open on silent hinges, revealing a short, barrel shaped man with a long red beard adorned with decorative copper rings. He was wearing a loose-fitting nightgown and held a straw broom in his rough, callused hands.

"Look at that, nothing left to even sweep up. She really went all out with that door." The stocky man said with admiration in his gruff voice.

As the thickset man stood over where Professor Kal had been 'vaporized', he suddenly felt a crushing pain radiate from his shoulder. "While I do appreciate the warm welcome, I do have to say that I would have been happy with just a cup of wine."

As Professor Kal looked down from behind the bearded man, he grasped his shoulder even harder, causing a pained yelp to come from between the man's gritted teeth. With his inhuman strength, Professor Kal lifted the man up with his one arm before flinging him through the open door and quickly following behind him.

Once inside, Professor Kal quickly scanned his eyes around the large room. Directly in front of him was a water fountain as large as a small carriage, a marble dragon greeted visitors with its open maw, crystal clear water pouring from it and into the basin below. Finely upholstered chairs and sofas dotted the large foyer, assumedly for the comfort of any clientele that would pay a visit to this place. A half-opened door marked the far end of the room, a soft lite emanating from the open slit.

Coughing and sputtering, the bearded man pulled himself from the basin just below the dragon, his clothes sopping wet. "You'll pay for that, ya will!"

With a scoff, Professor Kal cut the air with his hand like a knife, producing a slight whooshing sound but nothing else. Confused, the bearded man turned around just in time to see the marble dragon's head slide off to the side before splashing into the water below.

"It'll take more than just a simple golem to stop me." Professor Kal said as he approached the man with heavy steps. "Now, all I want are a few tools made. I'm sure you dwarves aren't as stupid as you are hairy, are you?"

Looking up at him, the dwarf's eyes glinted with determination. An influx of mana consumed the dwarf's stocky body, causing the area around him to suddenly take on a cerulean hue. With a loud 'pop', the dwarf disappeared from existence, leaving Professor Kal standing there in a flustered state.

"Fucking dwarves!" He cursed, "Now, where did he run off to?" He asked himself as he made his way toward the half open door on the other side of the foyer.

Past the ajar door was an inviting meeting room, more plush furniture sat in the center of the room with a welcoming air, pleading to be sat in. Books rested in tall bookshelves that lined the room, none of them overly obscure, but rare enough to pique his interest. He made a mental note to come back to this room once he had found the vanishing dwarf before continuing with his search.

Using the mana flow within the room, Professor Kal was able to sense a hidden passageway behind one of the many bookcases lining the walls. Hiding a passageway behind a bookcase wasn't a very original idea, but the technique used to conceal it was to be applauded. The hidden passageway, in reality, was not physically there, not unless one activated an unseen array within the room. Once the array was activated, a dimensional tunnel, much like the Warp Gate he used often, would open up, leading to some unknown place.

He only took a moment to uncover the array hidden beneath the plush carpet unfurled across the polished wooden floor. If he could see all of the runes and geometric shapes making up the array, he would have been able to overwrite many of the instructions programmed into it. Unfortunately, his enchanted glasses were locked away within his storage ring, and without access to those, he was unable to fully see the intricacies of the magical array, forcing him to take a more round-about approach.

Moving the rouge carpet aside, Professor Kal placed both of his palms onto the cool floor. Carefully, he urged his mana into the floor, using it to 'feel' for the array. Once his mana encountered the invisible array, its flow would change ever so slightly, using this change in flow, Professor Kal could create a copy of the array within his mind.

Using the map he made, and utilizing his near perfect control over his own mana, Professor Kal went about overriding the array. It had to be said that this array was one of the better ones he had seen as of late. The runes were all perfectly drawn and placed in such a way that no mana was wasted in its operation. The spaces between the runes were filled with smaller arrays whose purpose was to provide a layer of tamper resistance.

But nothing made by man, or dwarf, was perfect; Professor Kal used the small flaws he found within the array to insert his own instructions, effectively taking over the array. Once the magical array was within his control, it was only a matter of activating it to open up the dimensional corridor hidden behind the bookcase.

With an imperceptible click, the bookshelf in question slid smoothly to one side, revealing a swirling blue vortex behind it. Without hesitation, Professor Kal stood from his stooped position and walked through the dimensional corridor.

After a very brief feeling of weightlessness, he found himself standing at the end of a long, dark corridor. An inactive magical array was carved into the stone beneath his feet, most likely the anchor-point for the dimensional corridor. Although it was nearly pitch-black, Professor Kal's eyes could easily lift the veil of darkness.

Taking a step forward, he was forced to crouch slightly due to the low ceiling. Dwarves were notoriously short statured, so it would only make since that they would construct their passageways to suit them, not those of another species. With the top of his head scraping the ceiling, Professor Kal made his way into the darkness.