"It’s probably better if you see the process yourself. Co along.”
The dwarves led toward their forge.
Calling it a "forge" felt a bit misleading though. It was just an ordinary house. Granted, that house happened to contain bellows, furnaces, hamrs, and piles of every ore imaginable, but still.
For a race supposedly unmatched in tallurgy, it honestly looked less specialized than an Imperial blacksmith shop. It seed that the line between their living space and workplace didn’t exist at all.
Of course, those thoughts vanished the mont one of them casually shoved his hand into molten tal.
"?"
"Hmm..."
As I stared in disbelief at the sight of soone touching liquid steel barehanded, the dwarf frowned.
It wasn’t because it was hot, but more like he was dissatisfied. He glared toward one of his companions and grumbled,
"You lted weird stuff again, didn’t you? Why’s the temperature so low?”
"Why’re you always blaming when sothing isn’t right? I wasn’t even here today!”
Without exchanging another word, they naturally divided their tasks.
The speed felt less like craftsmanship and more like a factory assembly line calculated down to the second.
"If a human’s using it, we can’t make the alloy too heavy…”
"Hey, don’t make it too sharp. He’ll cut off his own leg putting it in the sheath.”
"You idiot, at this sharpness it wouldn’t even cut bamboo.”
-Fssssssh!
tal lted before being hamred, polished, and refined.
The lump of steel I had brought transford into the shape of a sword in less than 10 minutes.
In an Imperial forge, the quenching process alone would take over an hour. The true master craftsn rely dipped the blade several tis into sothing resembling oil, wrapped the handle in leather with practiced ease, and handed it to .
"This should be more than enough for a human.”
"...Will the quality be alright?”
"Heh."
At my question, the dwarves lifted the corners of their mouths as though they found my naivety amusing and then gestured for to see for myself.
"Well, to be honest, I haven’t really seen many great and fad swords..."
"Then now you will.”
"...?"
Confused by the strange response, I lifted the faintly red-tinted short sword and instantly understood.
"..."
"What do you think?”
I forgot what I was supposed to say. This absurd level of craftsmanship left completely speechless.
No matter how many tis I swept over it with my Tide Sense, I couldn’t find even the tiniest scratch. Not the slightest imperfection
The balance between left and right, top and bottom, had been adjusted with almost obsessive precision. It was a masterpiece of an era. I could confidently say every Knight in the world would gladly pay a fortune to own it.
After turning the sword over a few more tis, I finally ca back to my senses and smiled.
"Um, thank you very much.”
"...Your expression doesn’t look all that happy though?”
The dwarves tilted their heads in confusion at my awkward smile.
One of them smacked the others on the back of their heads, approaching with a benevolent smile.
"You idiots. He said he doesn’t know much about swords. He’s just a brat. Maybe he simply doesn’t understand.”
"Is that so?”
"Listen here, lad. What you’re holding right now is a masterpiece unlike anything any human has ever created or possessed. If you bring that to your emperor, I guarantee he’ll reward you greatly.”
I nodded while listening, then replied—
"Ah, so this level counts as a masterpiece.”
"..."
The dwarf’s benevolent expression instantly twisted.
Seeing the look demanding an explanation, I lowered my head and respectfully held out the sword with both hands.
"My apologies. It’s just that swords around this level are fairly common products throughout the country I call my ho, so I don’t think this quality would be enough to convince our Emperor.”
"P-product?!”
Of all the words, they reacted to "product" the strongest. They stared in utter shock, their eyes as wide as saucers, before they glared at .
"What we make are not products! They’re works of art! And humans cannot create these works of art! Not knowing is one thing, but insults are another!”
"Ah, I’m sorry. I truly had no intention of insulting your honor. But I can prove that this belongs in the realm of a re ‘product.’”
"What?”
"Would you all mind stepping outside for a mont?”
Holding a piece of steel ore in one hand, I spoke casually.
"Even if I’m inexperienced with swords, I’ve secretly watched and learned from the craftsn of the Empire. Give 10 minutes. I’ll make a ‘product’ superior to the sword you just forged.”
I deliberately emphasized the word "product." The dwarves blinked before bursting into incredulous laughter.
"Do you even understand what you’re saying? A brat who barely knows swords thinks he can make sothing better than craftsn who’ve practically bathed in molten steel their entire lives?”
"Yes. That is indeed what I’m saying.”
"—Up until now, we could dismiss this as the childish rambling of an ignorant youth, but from this point onward, that particular remark we cannot let slide.”
The heavily bearded dwarf among the group stepped forward, fiercely glaring at , his eyes positively nacing.
"From this point onward, your words had better carry more weight than any tal in existence. Do you understand?”
"I understand.”
I nodded and gave them the gentlest smile I could offer.
"It seems that after spending so many years trapped beneath this desert, you gentlen have lost your touch.”
As their expressions gradually beca terrifying, I quickly continued.
"If you don’t believe , let’s make a wager. The steel our nation gifted you. Those ores were taken from a newly discovered mine.”
"We know that already. We’ve dug through every land in the world, yet we’ve never heard of tal with such strange properties.”
"You dug through the land, which is exactly why you missed it. That particular mine is beneath the sea.”
"B-beneath the sea?”
The dwarves imdiately started whispering among themselves.
"Beneath the sea? I guess we’ve never tried digging there before…”
"Wouldn’t there be so under lakes too?”
"You idiot. Under a lake isn’t any different from under the ground."
"So humans used so kind of weird magic to reach a place that deep? Seriously, humans are really strange creatures.”
-Clap.
I brought my hands together once to get everyone’s attention, then said the thing I knew they’d want to hear the most.
"However, what we brought here was rely ore scraped from the very entrance of the mine. Mining hasn’t even properly begun yet, and our investigations have revealed minerals unlike anything ever seen or recorded before.”
"...Never seen before?"
"Yes. And if the sword you forged turns out to be of higher quality than the one I created, I’ll make sure ownership of that mine will be transferred to you.”
The dwarves imdiately looked intrigued.
But the grumpier-looking ones still weren’t willing to bite so easily.
"Even though there’s no chance of that ever happening, what if your sword turns out better?”
"Hmm."
I tilted my head as if I’d never even thought about that.
"In that case, just make another one."
"...What?"
"As I said earlier, I need proof that I t all of you. So if I win, simply forge another sword that satisfies . I want nothing else.”
"Has this bastard gone insane? Do you even own the rights to that mine?”
"I’m a fairly important person myself. If I were lying, then how could I possibly have brought such a dangerous criminal here, bound and captured?”
"H-huh. I suppose you have a point.”
The mont I brought up Brimdal, the dwarves imdiately accepted the explanation.
"What are the conditions?"
"I shall work within the sa ti fra. I’ll forge a sword here in 10 minutes. Then we compare it against yours under equal force. Whichever blade gains damage or breaks first loses. What do you think?”
"I’ll warn you now. No matter what tricks you use, whatever strange nonsense you do with the tal, you won’t surpass our work. We once forged a copper sword that sliced through steel ingots like pudding.”
"In that case, you should start preparing to excavate those new ores.”
At that point, their anger completely disappeared from their eyes, with utter greed replacing it. One by one, the dwarves began leaving the forge.
"You’d better not go back on your word!”
"What a foolish human..."
"He probably has so talent and got overconfident. Aren’t humans just a race that lives by being full of themselves?”
"They’re just uglier, shorter-lived elves. No redeeming qualities whatsoever.”
......That last remark hurt a little more than expected.
The heavily bearded dwarf who remained scratched his neck while watching the others leave, looking thoroughly displeased before glaring at again.
"What are you plotting?”
"Hm?”
"You capture Brimdal, bring ore our race has never seen before, and criticize a perfect sword. No matter how I look at it, you’ve got an ulterior motive."
"Then wouldn’t I have included sothing else in the wager?”
I spread my arms innocently.
"It’s not like I asked for sothing impossible if I win. All I asked for was another sword. If you win, you gain the rights to a mine. If you lose, you spend another 10 minutes forging. Is there so kind of problem with that?”
"Hmm..."
The dwarf still stared at as if sothing bothered him, before eventually, and quite reluctantly, leaving the forge.
-Thud.
The door shut, and I was left alone beside the furnace.
"...This is so damn exhausting."
Letting out a sigh, I walked toward the furnace.
At least provoking the dwarves had succeeded.
Now ca the next step. I had to beat them through my sword’s quality alone.
Was that possible?
'Absolutely not.'
The blade they had made was among the finest weapons I had ever seen.
I’d barely even handled solid tal before, much less molten steel, so how could I possibly beat them?
Using seawater to secretly cut their sword at the mont of impact wouldn’t work either. If an obviously inferior sword defeated a superior one, they’d imdiately realize sothing was wrong.
I had to create a blade the dwarves themselves would acknowledge as a masterpiece and then win a genuine contest between masterpieces.
Fortunately, that much was possible.
Since the material I would use wasn’t tal.
"...What?"
I reached into the cup and grabbed Nightchaser by the back of her neck, pulling her out.
Apparently reading sothing from my expressionless face, she imdiately started dangling from my fingers with a nervous look.
"Hey, you can enter anything, right?”
"Why did you drag out just to ask this nonsense? It’s not like I can enter literally anything.”
"Regardless, your current form is just a fake Linl extracted from my mories, right? Which ans you can imitate other things as well.”
"...I’m no longer an Outer God. What remains of my power is just a tiny, faint fragnt. I have absolutely no idea what you’re plotting, but stop right now.”
"You see, I’m actually not that good at forging swords, so I figured I should just use so exceptionally high-quality materials instead.”
I seized Nightchaser even tighter using my Authority of Creation.
She twisted wildly in panic, trying to escape, and then I moved her toward the molten steel.
"If you prefer becoming the Emille Bell, I can arrange for that as well.”
"..."
From the mont the dwarves accepted the wager, they had already lost.
It was only natural.
Because those ignorant dwarves had no way of knowing about the advanced concept known as an Ego Sword.
User Comments
0 comments from readers