During this period, the southern lands had entered the damp season known as "returning humidity."
Around the Neck Mountains, it rained endlessly. Shane hadn't seen the sun for several days.
He and Frieren were temporarily staying in a small town called Fu'an.
This town lay right beside the Neck Mountains and served as the last stop before entering them. Beyond this point, large settlents were almost nonexistent.
The Neck Mountains stretched for over a thousand kiloters, forming a natural boundary between the Central Lands and the southern nations. Once they crossed the range, they would enter the territory of the Central Lands and follow the golden trade route straight to the Holy Capital to visit Heiter.
But within the mountain range, it wasn't unusual to go hundreds of kiloters without seeing a single village.
So before entering the mountains, they had to wait for the weather to improve.
After all, no matter the situation, entering the mountains in rainy weather was never a wise choice.
…
Frieren disliked cold and damp weather. Using the rain as an excuse, she stayed in her room all day, curled up with a grimoire to pass the ti.
Shane even invited her out for desserts, but she showed little interest.
That alone showed just how much she hated this kind of weather.
After breakfast, bored out of his mind, he began studying his panel.
————
[Shane]
Status: ntal Power · Normal (No recovery needed)
Attributes: [Wisdom Under a Simple Mask (Gold/Legendary)] [Accelerated Thinking (Gold/Legendary )] [Ti Manipulation (Gold/Legendary )] [Great Luck (Purple/Epic)] [Occluncy (Blue/Rare)] [Nurical Mirroring (Purple/Epic)]
Evaluation: A human.
————
Shane's gaze settled on the newly acquired [Nurical Mirroring]. The practical effects of this chanic-type attribute still couldn't be verified.
Lately, he was itching to find a monster to test it on.
Aside from that, the "Status" description also bothered him.
Without anything like a "beginner's guide," he had figured out how to use attributes and learn magic entirely through trial and error.
And since he had no idea how a Sage was supposed to train, he had no clear thod for rapidly increasing his ntal power. The only thing he could do was keep extracting attributes, hoping that quantitative change would eventually lead to qualitative improvent.
But so far, it didn't seem to be enough.
At least judging from the panel, aside from gaining more attributes, his ntal power rating hadn't changed at all.
Rapidly increasing his ntal power, learning stronger magic, and becoming more powerful—that was his most urgent goal. After all, those deranged demons would attack without warning.
"Still need to get more attributes…"
Taking advantage of a break in the rain, he stepped out of the inn for so fresh air.
The streets after the rain were slightly cool.
Before long, a thin layer of fine droplets settled onto his hair.
For so reason, it gave him the air of a lancholic young man.
A fruit shop owner nearby spotted him, her eyes lighting up as she waved enthusiastically.
"Hey, Shane! Want so apples?"
"Of course, beautiful lady. Your apples are the best I've had on my travels."
Hearing that, the shop owner bead with delight and eagerly invited him inside to sit.
Originally, two copper coins would buy three apples. In the end, Shane walked away with five.
Such was the charm of words.
After making stops at a bakery, a dried at shop, and a dessert shop, Shane finally returned to the inn, arms full of food he could barely carry.
By then, it was already afternoon, and Frieren still hadn't stepped out of her room.
Afraid she might starve inside, Shane took it upon himself to feed her.
Knock knock knock.
The sound of knocking echoed.
Frieren hugged her grimoire and ignored it.
Knock knock knock knock knock knock—
The door was about to be smashed in.
Frieren sighed.
…
"Frieren, I rember you know a spell to remove rust from bronze statues, right?"
"You nearly broke my door just to ask that?"
"Haha, I was worried you were sleeping too deeply to hear ."
Shane quickly handed her a fruit-filled sponge cake to calm her morning grumpiness.
"When I was wandering around town earlier, I t an old man. He said his bronze pot got rusty, but there's no one in town who can remove it, so he wanted to ask for help. I figured a bronze statue and a bronze pot are basically the sa, so… want to give it a try?"
"..."
The small cake in front of her suddenly felt heavy.
Holding the spoon, Frieren hesitated, unsure whether to take a bite.
In the end, relying on sheer willpower, she resisted the temptation and handed the cake back.
"It's too cold. I don't want to go out. Another day."
Shane wasn't surprised at all. Getting this lazy elf to leave the house in such weather was no easy task.
"I knew you'd say that. So take a look at this."
As he spoke, Shane pulled the rusty bronze pot out of his bag.
Frieren stared at him speechlessly.
Since you already brought it back, why go through all that trouble…
Swish.
Her staff appeared instantly. With a light tap on the pot, a breeze-like spell swept across its surface. The rust clinging to it vanished, and the bronze regained its bright, clean sheen.
Shane couldn't help but give her a thumbs-up.
"All done. Don't disturb my reading. Go, go."
Frieren took back the cake and waved him away like shooing a stray dog, clearly annoyed.
Shane smiled and pointed at the pot.
"Hold on. Take a closer look—what's different about it now?"
What could possibly be different?
Frieren gave it a casual glance.
Then sothing felt off. She turned back and looked again—carefully this ti—and froze.
"You see it now, right? This isn't an ordinary bronze pot. It's actually a bronze helt. It just got deford over ti."
"If I'm not mistaken, this is a unique dwarven forging technique. It's the work of a dwarf craftsman."
Shane was so certain for a reason.
Because he could see its attributes.
[Dwarven Bronze Helt]
Status: Deford
Attributes:
[Iron Head (White/Common)]: Greatly increases physical defense of the head.
[Adaptability (White/Common)]: Due to the special material, it has good shape-malleability.
Evaluation: It once belonged to an unyielding warrior.
When the old man had first taken out the "pot," Shane had already sensed sothing unusual. Sure enough, after asking, he learned that the old man had picked it up in the mountains as a child—several decades ago.
As for who had lost it, he didn't know.
But he clearly rembered that when he found it, the ground around it had been heavily damaged, as if sothing had crushed it.
Hearing that, Shane suspected that an unknown battle had taken place there.
So he bought the helt and brought it back for Frieren to examine. He believed she would know sothing about the dwarves.
After all, dwarves—like elves—were a rare race. He didn't believe such a helt would appear randomly in a small mountain village.
Just as he expected, Frieren also realized sothing was wrong.
The helt was covered in marks left by blades. It was clearly sothing a warrior had worn in battle.
She imdiately thought of Eisen—and of the dwarven village he once ntioned, the one that had been attacked by demons.
After growing up, Eisen had returned to that village countless tis, searching the surrounding area for the demon that had disappeared back then. He had investigated for many years, but found nothing.
He had always regretted that.
If this helt was connected to that demon back then…
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