119 Sooty

Ahead of us laid a huge industrial town filled with huge factory looking building and numerous industrial chimney bellowing out thick black sooty smoke creating a blanket of thick grey smoke above the city.

As we approached the outer walls of the city the sheer size of Puxtonworth became apparent, arriving at two immensely huge gates made of on huge piece of solid metal easily as tall as a house. All along the top of the walls laid square holes in the overhang. Along the face of the wall lined humongous lifeless metal Golems standing side by side each holding a double sided axes facing the ground infused into the wall. With two noticeable larger Golems standing dormant beside the huge metal gate holding a large metal hammer in one hand and a similar double bladed axe in the other.

"Halt!!!!" A Scottish sounding voice shouted out to us as five stout heavily armoured Dwarves walked out with two small gnomes in robes at the back. "Aye what brings you here." the dwarf at the front asked Professor Annabelle.

"Just a school trip." Professor Annabelle answered him with a gleeful tone..

"Aye could I see some documentations??...." The dwarfed asked.

"Sure here it is." Professor Annabelle pull out a black piece of paper and passing it to him.

The dwarf spent a few minutes reading over there paper. "Aye everything seems in order here." He replied passing the paper back to her. "When y'all enter just wait at the entrance while I sort out guards for your visit." the Dwarf replied smiling.

The dwarf turned around giving the gnomes a nod. "All clear, Open the gates!." the dwarf voice shockingly boomed with the volume of A megaphone.

Suddenly the door erupted with sounds of huge mechanisms in motion and before long the two huge doors began opening slowly outwards.

"Aye of you all wouldn't mind waiting inside while I sort out the papers for ya?" The dwarf informed us and began leading the way in.

"Ummm thank you Mr..." Professor Annabelle questioned following him.

"Captin Doldrun Ironbrand." The dwarf replied.

"Ohhh very nice to meet you I'm Professor Annabelle." Professor Annabelle replied.

"Aye nice to meet you too. Please be aware our town is a little.... hectic.... so brace yourselves." He chuckled laughing loudly walking into a side building.

"Okay children..... Gather up." Professor Annabelle said to us. "Now safety is on.... but please be aware it doesn't stop you from getting hurt.... so let's try not to start trouble." Professor Annabelle warned us.

"Yes professor." majority of the class replied.

"Good good.... remember we are only here to socialise.... and maybe try and make a friend or two.... In fact anyone who brings back a friend gets extra points for their house." Professor Annabelle smiled.

Starring ahead of us there was still another giant gate in front of us flanked by two large lifeless mechanical golems similar to the two outside.Numerous dwarves and gnomes heavily armoured and well-armed patrolled this huge entrance most likely linked to the outer walls of the city.

From beyond the gate the sound of an extremely bustling city hummed through the door.... "Yeah the city is very busy and crazy....." Jay said noticing my interest.

"Why are there so many lifeless robots statues??...." I asked curiously.

"Ohhh I asked about that last time... apparently if the city was under siege or attack.... runes surrounding the city will activate causing them to come to life." He answered.

"Woah....." I replied staring at them in awe.

"Yeah.... dwarves and gnomes are known for their mechanical genius." Helen replied also looking at the statue.

"Yup.... this city is extremely well defended." Grace said looking around.

"This is so awesome!!!!" Daisy yelled in glee.

"How are you still so excited??..." Jay asked her.

"You'd feel different if you spent most your life like me stuck in a cult and in a church.... I never got to see the outside world much!!!" Daisy replied.

"Yeah ignore Jay.... he's never excited about anything." Helen chuckled.

"I'm sorry….." Jay apologised to Daisy looking really upset with himself.

"Alright!!!! Here's your papers..... And here are your guards." The captain came out with a set of young looking dwarves guards clearly less experience and less armed." please do not stray too far from your guards and if any trouble arises please report to the guards as soon as possible." the captain informed us. "And without further ado welcome to our great city Puxtonworth." The captain said welcoming with an open palm as the large gates began to slowly rise open.

"Okay children!!! You all have two hours!" Professor Annabelle informed us.

"Where should we go???..." Jay asked turning go us.

"The bar we went to was pretty fun." Daisy suggested with a giant smile.

"Can we go somewhere else???..." Jay asked looking annoyed at the thought of returning.

"Sure!!!" Helen said agreeing with Jay.

Slowly everyone begrudgingly began making their way into the extremely busy town, somehow it was even busier than the trade district in Tripola.

"The town is a little cosy." I said to everyone weaving through the immensely dense pavements, if it wasn't for the majority of individuals being Dwarves and Gnomes I would have easily lost sight of everyone.

The city was absolutely dotted with innumerable bars and pubs filled with drunk patrons having a blast.

"So what happened last time??...." I asked Daisy.

"Well you know Jay..... He somehow managed to offend a gnome..... And well this particular gnome was abit frantic.... and found what Jay said extremely offensive and punched him." Daisy began to explain.

"Yup.... and then Jay fell into some stout dwarves knocking over their drinks." Grace added.

"Yup then racial slurs began to getting flung and fists started flying all over the place." Daisy explained laughing.

"It was all pretty fun watch." Grace smiled.

"You all could have done more than just sit and watch taking sips of your drinks." Jay blurted out to them.

"It was all too funny to be honest." Grace laughed.

"Hey!!! I did help all I can there was just too many!!!" Daisy replied honestly.

"So anything interesting in this city???..." I asked curiously looking around. "It's so crowded...." I asked trying to weave my way through patrons giving the drunk ones a wide berth.

"This is one of the main mining cities..... Aspa has a huge demand for metals especially rare metals." Grace answered.

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Slowly our class began splitting off going their own ways into various buildings and bars.

"Where do you think we should go???.." Helen asked looking back at us.

"Ohhh can we check out one of the small ships with the cool little gadgets??...." I asked noticing the abundance of shops filled with tiny gadgets and gizmos.

"Ughhh..... Another gnome...." Jay replied grunting.

"Let's give it a look!!" Helen said smiling pulling Jay to the shop I pointed at.

"Sure sure…." Jay agreed getting dragged in.

The quaint little shop looked exactly like one of those old family owned toy shops, filled with one of a kind gadgets, gizmos and toys, with a small bell above the door ringing as we entered, the smell of antique wood and metal gently wafting in the air.

"One moment please!!!" an elderly male voice yelled out to us from behind the counter.

From the look of the shop it looked a little worn, shelves slightly dusty, displays are slightly untidy and the floors were riddled with age, worn and uneven. Just from a glance a small flying gizmo looked extremely similar to the ones in Arcadia Infirmary but more mechanical, a small glass face showing the intricate cogs and mechanisms lying dormant ready to be activated.

"Ohhh hello!!!! A set of new faces!!!" A small gnomish old gentle man walked in dressed in a white shirt brown trousers and a big green overcoat, with a thick white beard and a pair of spectacles hanging off his neck by a chain. "What can I interest you youngsters in?..." He smiled getting up on a tall chair to see over his counter.

"Hi!!! Could you show us around your lovely store?....." Daisy asked with a gleeful smile.

"Well..... I have a great deal of inventions! For example I have this little fella!" He said pulling out a small form his pocket. "Now this little fella is designed to follow a unique substance that leaves some sort of lingering substance in the air." He explained pulling out a tiny device giving it a small click and dragging it along the table placing it on the other side. Releasing his hand revealing a tiny small bronze pill bug like machine. Like magic the pill bug sprang to life slowly following the exact route towards the transmitter at a surprisingly sprightly pace. "As you can see this little fella is extremely good for tracking people or things.... and their exact path they took...." He smiled.

"Woah!!! So cool!!! And there is no Arcanum needed?" Jay asked in complete astonishment.

"Yup.... this is all done mechanically zero trace of Arcanum required….. After an initial winding it also has my top secret design allowing its own movement to sort of recycle the energy to make it last much longer than ever thought possible!" He smiled extremely proud of his invention.

"Follow me I'll show you some other things I have." He said jumping off his stall walking around the counter towards us.

"By the way I'm Jay and this is Emilia, Daisy, Helen and Grace." Jay said introducing us.

"Ohhhh hello! I'm Balefire Tarren but people call me Sooty." He smiled to us and carried on leading us to a corner of the shop.