Michael was lying on his bed in the Parched Lands, when all of a sudden, he felt a disturbance in the air.
He quickly sat up and used his Supreme Skill: Mana Gathering, allowing him to gaze past reality and peer through the invisible elemental mana present in his vicinity.
From what he could see, there was no immediate danger inside the village or even in the Parched Lands. The distress seemed to have come from a faraway land, somewhere away from the Kings region.
He immediately checked in on his family with his clones and was relieved to find out that they were fine, with his mother and father sleeping deeply into the night.
ChatJK2, can you tell me what happened?
[According to the agitation of Earth mana in the surroundings, there was a large displacement in the tectonic plates of the very ground itself, leading to the shifting of the land.
After some calculations, I have deduced the problem to have occurred near the border between the Kings and Queens region, directly on the mountain ranges separating the two.]
With such a large change in landscape, Michael was sure that there could have been a lot of innocent people caught up unprepared from this natural disaster.
When he looked at the country map in his mind, he saw that there were a couple of dwarven villages directly bordering the mountain ranges that could have been affected the most by the earthquake.
He immediately changed places with his clone in Castelle's shadow, transporting his real body to Reborn's main office in Kingsbridge City.
"Sorry to bother you so late this night," Michael said as he appeared behind Castelle, who seemed to have been burning the midnight oil.
"It's no worries, Young Master. I was just finishing up some paperwork for our eventual expansion to the Queens region," she said, with clear eye bags above her cheeks.
"Sorry to say this, but I think you're gonna have to postpone that for a little bit. Something has happened in the mountains…"
Michael explained everything ChatJK2 told him to Castelle.
Being the sharp Business Manager that she was, Castelle immediately knew that a lot of businesses would get disturbed by this disaster.
And most unfortunate of all was the Dwarven Kingdom, which seemed to have taken the full brunt of the earthquake's aftermath.
"Can you send some people to see if there are any families affected by this? I want to help them," Michael said with worry on his face.
Castelle immediately nodded her head. "I will send for some of our employees to scout the area as soon as possible. I will send word to you when we have more information."
Michael knew that with such a large disaster, time was of the essence. This couldn't wait till tomorrow morning.
He closed his eyes and sensed all of his clones hiding in the shadows of other people.
ChatJK2, can you find me a clone nearest to the Queen's region?
[Certainly. There is one single Reborn peddler currently trying to bypass the landslide region.]
"I'll be going now, Castelle. I have to see this for myself," he said as his body suddenly turned into pure darkness that soon merged back into Catelle's shadow.
…
…
…
Michael emerged out of the Reborn peddler's shadow, who continued to walk away from the landslide, none the wiser that Michael had just magically appeared behind him.
The soles of his feet burst out with air mana as he started to float in the air, allowing him to traverse the landslide with ease.
He looked down and saw what seemed to be a spilled muddy soup made out of unrooted trees and large boulders, leading towards the Dwarven Kingdom in the distance.
His eyes shone with a golden light as he activated his Supreme Skill, trying to sense the presence of Light mana in the area.
Thankfully, the absence of dark mana told him that there weren't any casualties from this disaster.
He continued to float forward, looking down and trying to sense for any survivors looking for help.
After a few minutes, he came across what looked to be the remnants of a small village.
Roofs of stone houses were peeking out of the muddy landslide, chimneys were sticking out of the wreckage, and there was even a metal statue of the Dwarven King floating among the debris of metal and stone that once made up this village.
After further inspection, he saw a large collection of light mana hiding inside one of the houses that stood tall even with the onslaught of the landslide.
Michael slowly floated down and inspected the dwarven architecture. They seemed unable to escape the house because of all the debris and scrap blocking the entrance.
With a single wave of his hand, Michael created a giant magical hand made out of pure mana called [Mage Hand], which easily shoveled away all the dirt and mud obstructing the door.
Once everything was gone, he stepped into the entryway and knocked on the door.
Slowly, the wooden door creaked open, showing the presence of a burly dwarf with a brown braided beard.
The dwarf adjusted his eyes as he looked at Michael.
"A human?... I would have never expected a human to save us from our predicament."
Upon saying those words, more and more dwarves peeked out of the door and gazed at Michael, the human that freed them from being buried alive.
It wasn't that they were ungrateful, but they all expected a fellow dwarf to be the one to save them.
But it seemed that this human valued their life more than other fellow dwarves. Otherwise, they would have been saved hours ago.
"Thank you, human. What is your name?"
The first dwarf offered his hand to Michael.
"Call me Michael," he said, shaking the dwarf's hand.
"My name is Thrain Ironhand. I, and my fellow villagers, must apologize for our behavior upon meeting you. We mean not to be rude. But as you can see, we are in a state of emergency. We have lost everything we have built up in all our lives. We have lost our homes, leaving us with no bed to sleep on."