Warhammer Fanfic: Starting with a Core Cabin

Not long after, the Skaven were driven out of the ruins by the dwarves. The dwarves used dynamite to collapse the tunnels the Skaven had dug, completely sealing off the area—it was impossible to kill all of them. Having battled the Skaven for hundreds of years, the dwarves knew very well that these rats had dug tunnels almost everywhere beneath the entire continent. Unless the world itself was destroyed, completely wiping them out was basically a pipe dream.

But for the dwarves, this was enough.

"Great job, big guy!!" Brock shouted, carrying an axe stained with Skaven blood and flesh in one hand while patting Duanmu Huai's leg with the other. Dwarves weren't tall to begin with, and compared to Duanmu Huai's towering 2.5-meter frame, Brock was about the size of a small dog. Even if he jumped, he couldn't reach Duanmu Huai's knee.

"I never thought you'd be so capable!" Brock grinned broadly. To be honest, at first, he had only hoped Duanmu Huai could help ease some of the pressure. After all, this guy, clad in heavy armor and wielding a massive warhammer, clearly wasn't someone to mess with. As long as he could attract the Skaven's attention, things would go smoother for the dwarves.

But Brock never expected Duanmu Huai to charge straight into the fray, taking on the Skaven's fiercest attacks head-on and firmly drawing their attention. This gave the dwarves the breathing room they needed to unleash their full power. It could be said that Duanmu Huai deserved much of the credit for their relatively easy victory against the Skaven horde this time.

Not to mention…

"You even killed that stinking rat's hero!"

"Hero?" Hearing this, Duanmu Huai blinked in surprise. He did recall receiving a system notification during the battle—something about earning 1500 experience points—but at the time, he was too busy playing whack-a-mole to bother checking. Now, hearing Brock mention it, he still felt a bit confused.

Brock laughed heartily, then waved someone over. Soon, a dwarf came carrying a Skaven head.

"It's him! Deathmaster Snikch! I never thought he'd die by your hand—hahahahaha!!" Brock roared with laughter. Deathmaster Snikch was a well-known, high-ranking assassin among the Skaven, famous for his stealth and lethality.

Brock had clashed with him several times before, and each time ended in failure. The reason was simple: this master assassin was just too strong, and even dwarf armor couldn't withstand his trio of poisoned blades. But this time, that menace was actually taken down by Duanmu Huai.

At this moment, Brock felt as satisfied as if he'd downed an entire bottle of firewine in one gulp.

With Snikch dead, those filthy rats lurking beneath the Grey Mountains would surely think twice before causing trouble again!

"That wasn't my doing—Olgis killed him." Duanmu Huai corrected. Hearing Brock's explanation, he finally understood why that rat had been so tough, and why even his hammer hadn't managed to crush it outright.

Even if the enemy was an agility-focused assassin, a hero unit like that was probably level 35 or above. Duanmu Huai was only level 21. Even with the Thunder Warhammer's high attack power, it was unlikely he could one-shot an elite like that.

Fortunately, with Olgis's help, they had unexpectedly taken out a major hidden threat. After all, Skaven didn't just love poison—they were masters of assassination too.

Duanmu Huai didn't want to be constantly targeted by an assassin master, so it was just as well that he was dead now.

"Well, that's your credit too! I'll report this to the High King—he'll be very pleased!" Judging by Brock's expression, his hatred for that assassin master ran deep.

Duanmu Huai recalled that the dwarven High King supposedly had a little notebook specifically for recording the names of enemies, crossing them out one by one after they were killed. He wondered if that assassin master had made it onto the High King's grudge list.

"From now on, you are friends of the dwarves! We're always generous to our friends. Whatever you want—just say the word!"

Hearing Brock's words, Duanmu Huai's eyes lit up as he turned to look at him. "Mr. Brock."

"Just call me Brock. We've fought Skaven together—we're brothers now! No need for formalities!"

"Alright then, Brock… Are you planning to explore the ruins next?"

"Hmm…" Brock paused for a moment, then looked around and nodded. "Yeah, we are. We also need to check whether those rats left any junk behind and clean it up."

"Then… could I look around the ruins a bit myself? Maybe I'll find something interesting?"

"Oh?" Brock raised an eyebrow at Duanmu Huai's request, but after thinking it over, he nodded.

"No problem! Take whatever you like—we dwarves are never stingy!"

"Thanks." Duanmu Huai let out a sigh of relief. The reason for his request wasn't because he'd suddenly developed an interest in archaeology.

On the contrary, while the dwarves were still unaware of the truth, Duanmu Huai had already noticed at a glance that these ruins were very likely the remains of an Old One facility.

The so-called Old Ones were the creators of ancient times in this world. Legend said they created the human, elf, and dwarf races.

In reality, the Old Ones weren't gods or creators—but rather an advanced extraterrestrial civilization with incredible technological prowess. It was said they resembled giant frogs and possessed power at the pinnacle of both science and magic.

The Old Ones came to this world to create species capable of fighting against warp demons and Chaos. Elves, dwarves, and other races were all part of this great experiment.

But then something went wrong. The interdimensional portal the Old Ones had built in this world collapsed—and Chaos flooded in.

Realizing things were going south, the Old Ones didn't bother cleaning up the mess. They abandoned the entire experimental ground and fled, faster than a third party caught in bed by someone's spouse. Pants optional.

Afterward, Chaos poured into this world in full force, nearly bringing it to destruction.

In the end, however, the surviving native races united and defeated the forces of Chaos, sealing off the warp with a massive ritual known as the Great Vortex, thus saving the planet.

All of this was pieced together later by players through archaeology and hidden lore.

And after that, the Old Ones never showed their faces again.

Even after several game updates, players still couldn't find any trace of the Old Ones. At the time, some players even speculated whether these guys were hiding somewhere in the far corners of the universe—or if they had failed to escape and been wiped out by the warp evil gods. Or perhaps the development company had simply dug a plot hole and forgotten to patch it.

In any case, although the Old Ones ran away, many of their technological relics remained scattered across the ruins of this world—including a complete technological evolution path! After all, the Old Ones had fought Chaos for countless years and had accumulated a wealth of experience in battling it.

As a result, their technology was extremely effective against warp evil gods and Chaos corruption. In the player tier lists, their tech was generally ranked T1, and some rare examples were even rated T0. The best way to obtain this tech was to locate Old One technological relics in the ruins, take them to the [Inquisition Library] for analysis, and then construct them.

Before transmigrating, Duanmu Huai had known of several locations where Old One relics definitely existed—but at the time, those places were being contested by large guilds. As a lone player, he couldn't afford to seize or even use them. Furthermore, all the sites Duanmu Huai knew about were in Cathay.

As for whether the Grey Mountains had Old One tech ruins… that remained to be seen. But... wouldn't he know once he looked?

Now that he had Brock's permission, Duanmu Huai felt at ease and began wandering through the ruins. He was quite familiar with the layout of Old One ruins, as most shared common design elements. It was like a modern person entering a Fallout wasteland and instantly recognizing which buildings served what purpose.

But before that...

Duanmu Huai opened the system interface and quickly wrapped up the quest.

[Timed Quest: Disinfection – Completed!]

[Quest Evaluation: Quite Outstanding]

[Player gains 3000 experience, additional 2000 bonus experience]

[Level increased to LV22 | Attribute Points +1 | Specialization Points +1]

[Gained additional specialty: (Relentless Pursuit)]

[Relentless Pursuit]: +5% critical chance and +15% critical damage when attacking enemies with debuffs.

How to put it…

After once again allocating attribute points into Strength and leveling up Space Marine Combat Training, Duanmu Huai stared at the new specialty with a somewhat conflicted expression. It was actually something he could start using immediately. In simple terms, it meant—taking off his helmet and fighting bare-faced.

His Intimidation skill, now at LV3, was already enough to inflict a debuff on enemies. That meant he could continuously trigger the Relentless Pursuit effect. But… if he did that, what about his face?

To save face, or to become stronger… that is the question…

For Duanmu Huai, this was truly a difficult choice.

(End of this chapter)