When I was a kid, I’ve been addicted to many mmorpg games. The sole reason what that everything was very complex that even in creating items. You need some materials that also need to be made from different rare materials which make it very fun.

***

I just woke up from partying last night.

Though I said party, it’s only me and the gang in the mansion. We drank some light buzz and ate a couple of sausages that Sora and Sanjeet bought in Berigious. But I really wasn’t expecting to see meatloaf here though.

After that, every one of my knights became wasted. Well, everyone except Amly. For some reason, she doesn’t want to drink and only eat the meat. Not only that, she’s the first one to leave the guest room and went back to her room along with Verma. Normally, she’d be the one who’s the most cheerful here, but at that time, I can’t see any of it. She’s acting really weird. But I can’t say that yet, I still fully don’t know her.

Anyhow, I woke up lying on my chair with my legs and head hanging on the armrests. I feel slightly nauseated because of that and my legs slight feel numb.

And a headache, damn!

When I look to my sides, just like me, Sora and Sanjeet are wasted on where they are sitting on. Sora is lying on his stomach on the table, quite unexpected. And Sanjeet is… for some reason, is buried under a pile of sand.

Where made this sand? No, more importantly, why is this here? I can’t remember anything at all.

“Oh, you’re already awake Sir Key!”

I look at to where the voice came from.

On the hallway, Ghena’s carrying a silver tray with cups and a marble pot on it. Judging from the smell, it’s coffee.

“What the hell happened last night? Seems like what we did was one hell of a party.”

“You were making bets with Sanjeet. But then you were talking in a different language so I didn’t understand.”

Ignoring my lack of etiquette and delicacy with words, Ghena gave me a cup of coffee normally.

But if we’re making bets in English, it’s probably something stupid.

“By the way, where are the girls?”

“Miss Cherlaine is sleeping in your room. Miss Matilda is outside having a talk with an acquaintance.”

“Marie?”

“In the bath with Jane and Lapis.”

I just imagined something good.

“Everyone’s busy huh, might as well be busy too.”

While I take my cup of coffee with me, I also activated my ring to control the sand to lift it above Sanjeet and go outside along with it. Chantless of course.

“Amazing…”

Still, I’ve used magic a lot in front of her. Ghena’s still gets awe over it huh. Isn’t she a magician herself?

***

When I got outside, I’m slightly surprised to see that most of the snow has melted and sparkle on the ground and on the plants outside my mansion like morning dew. But it’s quarter of the day already so I don’t think it counts.

While watching that, I sip my coffee that’s gotten a bit cold. I use magic to heat it up a bit.

I decided to do a bit of stretching since I haven’t done any exercise for a while now.

The bandages are annoying so I removed them. It’s not like I have a wound or anything so it’s not dangerous to rip them to shreds immediately.

I then took notice of my body.

“Huh? Abs, when did I have them?”

I’m slightly confused while looking at my body. It’s very firm and full of muscles. It’s very weird since I’ve never once exercised since I got here in Marzenthura.

Then slightly after that, I remembered that I’m using > almost every day for no exact reason.

“Maybe it’s a side effect?”

Well if it is, it’s one good side effect. I hope it’s the only thing that’s changing.

Looking at the road, I notice something approaching. Judging from the sound of horses cantering, it’s probably someone very important.

Since Ghena’s already behind me, I told her to get me a shirt in a hurry.

***

“It’s been a while your highness.”

“You don’t have to be too modest! I’m not a human who likes being treated as a royalty.”

After saying so, the King of Berigious made a loud laugh.

“So how do you want me to address you?”

“Just call me Teldarg. Everyone here calls me by my name.”

We’re not inside the mansion right now. Instead, we’re staying in the workshop because he has something to show me regarding the Mithril I gave to him.

Miss Mayly is also here. She’s holding two items that are wrapped in thick cloth.

“About the Mithril you gave me, I find it very peculiar during my work.”

“I’m not so knowledgeable about metals and ores.”

Before continuing his talk, he told Miss Mayly to unwrap those two items and put them on the table.

What they brought were swords that are made of Mithril. Both are made by Teldarg so they’re considered expensive. I wonder what they came here for with it.

“The sword with silver ivory glow is the Mithril you gave me and the other one that’s silvery yellow is a Mithril that came from another kingdom. From your perspective, which one looks sharper?”

I look at both swords. Both do seem to look like they’re really sharp and powerful, but something’s telling me that one is way more durable than the other despite being the same mineral.

“The one with the ivory glow, it looks like it can even cut through steel.”

“Correct. And not only that, it’s very durable that it can withstand magic attacks even without enchantment.”

Amazing! It makes me want to have this sword.

“Can it really withstand magic attacks?”

“Not even a scratch. You can even try it yourself.”

Oh! I’m getting thrilled to test it.

So that I could test its durability and sharpness at the same time, I make it stand on a tool which could hold it tighter than a man’s grip. I also include the other sword since Teldarg wants to test its durability too.

“Okay, here I go. >”

Extending my right arm, an armguard with a long blade appeared. Somehow, it surprised Teldarg and Mayly.

“So this is the power I heard that pushed back a god… I’m losing my confidence in my sword if you showed me that.”

While I was measuring my distance properly before swinging my arm, I heard such words from Teldarg with surprised intonations.

Well, there’s no actual need for explanation anyway so I’m just going to keep the misunderstanding going. It might even help me in the future.

I lined up both swords which is facing the right. The first one that will touch my blade is the silvery yellow blade and the second one is the sword that’s made from my Mithril. I did it like that since there are only two handles in the sword shelf.

It’s not like I’m expecting both swords would get cut though.

“Okay, here I go!”

Using an under-hand slashing attack while letting out a roar, I accurately swing my arm’s blade to the center of the first sword. I’m expecting a strong resistance since it’s made of Mithril.

However, that expectation was smashed as the first sword bents before breaking into two when my blade hit. It didn’t even cut my momentum and went straight to the second sword. However, that second sword succeeded in repulsing my attack like nothing. But it still got itself chipped when my blade touched.

“No-no way, a sword made of Mithril easily gets cut in two!”

Behind me, Miss Mayly lets out words of surprise while covering her mouth.

On the other hand, Teldarg was rendered speechless as he watched his sword’s other half falls to the ground with a half open mouth and about to pop-out eyes.

And just like them, I, myself, also find it very shocking.

***

“It was weaker than I expected. I’m really sorry for breaking your sword Sir Teldarg.”

“No, you shouldn’t apologize.”

After we recovered from the shock, Miss Mayly picked up the precious pieces of the broken Mithril sword while Sir Teldarg and I discuss about the Mithril I gave him.

“Back to the main topic, the sword made from the Mithril you gave me is quite a precious one. My gut can tell that it’s the rarest of the rare of the Mithril mineral. Anyone could tell after seeing you cut the other sword like butter. How did you even manage to refine it without losing its purity? Wait, no. Where did you obtain such Mithril?”

Teldarg’s curiosity is leaking out since he’s barraging me with questions.

He looks like a kid that found something new to play with.

“If I tell you, would you keep such information a secret? I can’t freely give it since the person who’s in-charge of guarding doesn’t like getting attacked. It’s not like I’m threatening you, I’m just being cautious for the other party.”

“In my name as the king of Berigious, I shall keep such information undisclosed without your permission.”

While saying so, he put his fist on his chest while standing tall. He doesn’t have to do that though.

He listened to every word I said about where I obtained the Mithril, how I obtained it, and about the third party who is the original owner. When he heard that the third party was a persona of a [Dungeon Core], he was really surprised. But when I told him how I obtained it, his expression became quite complicated.

“Can you repeat that? Magic is outside my expertise so can you explain it to me in another way so that I could understand it?”

“Well, going back from the start. Before I started to collect the Mithril, I used magic that controls the earth to gouge out the huge lump of Mithril. Second, since I found it really hard to smash it into smaller lumps, I had to develop a new magic that could cut it instead.”

“So you didn’t use any tools for mining, but cut it with magic instead?”

“Yes. The magic I used was really dangerous since the huge lump of Mithril would resist it and redirect. It took me almost an hour just to cut 5 meters deep.”

About the magic I used to harvest, I called it >. It’s a combined magic of Fire, Water, Wind, and Arcane. This magic has three processes. Using the element of the Fire, I created a burst of flame that’s about 500 degrees Celsius to roast the lump of Mithril. But since I found out that it becomes a regular metal when I roast it too much, I used the Mana Burn of Arcane Magic that creates a thread thin flame to cut it not only the physical nature of the Mithril, but also the [Ether] that is contained inside the Mithril. After the roasting part, I then move to the second step which is the Reduction. I use the Wind magic runes to air-starve the Mithril and further increase the fire’s temperature three times stronger than before so that it would become pure Mithril. Lastly, I use the Water magic > as Flux to contain undesired minerals and chemicals that came out during the process. I did this since Marie was with us during the whole time.

Despite sounding like a really useful magic, it has a downside. With all those functions combined into one spell, its magic consumption is very terrible that only I could use it. Well, others can use it, if they had mana equaling 50 magicians and memorize a 10 paged chanting verse. Even so, they can only maintain this magic for only 5 minutes.

“I still don’t understand, but I get that even by you, you had a hard time harvesting the Mithril. But what surprises me is that you didn’t go through the process of smelting.”

“I did, the second and third process is considered smelting since I’ve shaped them using the lasers.”

While saying so, I invoked a lesser version of > from my index finger creating a flower like illusion which is made out of a center flame of red and green rotating because of the air inside a small half-prism of indestructible water barrier.

“I see now. But which part of the lump did the one you gave me came from?”

“The center. I felt like the centermost was harder so I thought it might be more valuable than the outside.”

“Well that explains why I had to forge it 5 days straight. Its durability is nearly close to the legendary metal because of its purity.”

“Legendary metal? What’s that?”

Since its new information, I asked him with a serious tone.

His face became filled with amusement since he didn’t think that he could also surprise me. I’m a human you know, I could still be surprised.

After that, he pulled out a something from inside his thick clothes.

“It’s Orichalcum. It’s called a legendary metal because it’s almost something that doesn’t exist.”

Ooh! It’s like something straight out of a game… wait a minute. It IS something that came from a game.

“What’s with that expression?”

“No, nothing. Leaving me aside, why did you say that it’s something that ‘almost doesn’t exist’?”

What he showed me was a dagger with inscriptions on its blade. Obviously, it’s magical since I could read a dozen magic scripts on it. But what amazes me is that its color is deep blue. It’s Royal Blue to be accurate.

“It’s said to be something that almost doesn’t exist because this metal is not mined. This metal is a combination of magic properties and physical materials and rare minerals.”

That sounds really familiar. I think I heard Matt mentioned this topic once.

“Is it called [Alchemy]?”

“Oh! You know your stuff. As expected of a magician!”

Well, I don’t actually remember everything about it.

“There are a lot of Alchemic formulas, but the one to create Orichalcum is only known to a few magicians. One of those magicians is your grandfather. This dagger is something that came from the Orichalcum ingot that he created. I think it was too hard for him to create more so he immediately stopped after making this. Since he found it useless for him, he gave it to me. Turning the Orichalcum Ingot into this dagger along with engraving the magic script took me six months to finish.”

“I can understand why it became useless for Grandpa.”

But it does make me curious on how to create Orichalcum though. Maybe Grandpa has a book for making it. I must look for it when I get back to the Duchy Capital.

Since our topic became astray again, I asked him about what he came here for.

“I’d like to ask for another bar of this Mithril. It’s been a while since I’ve worked using a high grade mineral.”

“Oh, that.”

Everything just came back to me.

The reason why I plainly offered the Mithril bar was for this. To think that I could forget my main objective of coming here in Berigious, I guess I’ve become too busy to remember it.

How many things have I forgotten?

“Actually, I’m willing to give you supply of Mithril ores in large quantities. Only if you mine it yourself using your own tools and people.”

“That’s not a problem. But I can tell that you have something that you want.”

Impressive, I didn’t think that he can immediately see through me.

“You’re quite perceptive.”

“Don’t underestimate a 300 year old dwarf, kid. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. Just looking into your eyes, I can tell that you have something you want.”

He laughed at me as he put back his dagger back under his clothes.

“Since you’ve already seen through me, I’ll just go straight to the point. I want to have the [Immortal Sword of Giants].”

After saying that, Teldarg froze with his hand on his pocket. Miss Mayly is also the same.

“Why do you know that?”

I see. It’s the kind of information that isn’t widely known.

“Only people of high prestige like the Kings of Marzenthura, Heroes, Grand Magus, Temples, and Elves know about the Sacred Treasures. Don’t tell me… you’re aiming to become a [Hero] too?”

Okay…. I didn’t expect the latter part. I thought that I would be treated like a villain or some or the sort. With the treatment of being a heretic and all, this is the first time I’ve gotten a positive view.

“Before we continue discussing about it, I’d like to clear up the misunderstanding first. I’m not aiming to become a hero. The temples have considered me a heretic so it’s already impossible even if I’m going to aim for it. I’m only here because I’ve made a deal with a God.”

“Deal with a God? Which God?”

I immediately poured cold water over his excitement since it’s not something that he should keep up, especially now since he’s breaking the wooden table because of his excitement.

“Goddess of the Void, Lithius, my deal with her is to gather all the things you called Sacred Treasures to unseal her. All to punish the Gods that has tricked her.”

While saying those, Teldarg and Mayly gulped their saliva. It seems that they grasped what I’m trying to say, they look at each other with complicated expressions.

“Does that also mean that, just like your Grandfather, you’ve been branded a heretic?”

“Yes, and as of now, they are still amassing their power to fight against me. As you may have already known, I’ve been attacked by the God of the Wind Elthesius yesterday which caused a commotion here in Berigious. I know that as King, you don’t want anything that could harm your people. So if ever I’m able to obtain the Immortal Sword of Giants, I will immediately leave this place.”

Teldarg couldn’t immediately absorb the barrage of information I gave him that he fell silent.

Crossing his arms, he thought of this matter deeply in front of me.

“I’m going to discuss this first with the council. This isn’t something that I decide myself. However, I would like to propose a deal.”

“Anything, as long as I can obtain the sword, I’ll accept any deal.”

Teldarg asked for the sword from Mayly. After that, he put the sword on the table while making a stern expression towards me.

“If ever the council would approve of you, I would like to create a business partnership.”

“Business partnership, which kind?”

“Don’t play dumb! You own a dungeon full of Mithril, I’m sure that you’re going to sell it sooner or later so I’m making sure that us dwarves would obtain it first.”

“Oh that huh… Well you were right. I’m actually thinking of selling that dungeon to the King of Valeshtyre Kingdom. Even if it’s within a buffer zone, I’m that dungeon’s lord so I’m the one controls it.”

It’s only a bluff. Although some parts were true, selling the dungeon to the Valeshtyre Kingdom isn’t. I have a lot of things planned for that place and the Mithril in it.

Hehehe! I wonder how many things I could get from Teldarg after I said that?

It looks like he felt threatened over losing the Mithril; he leaned on the table making cracks on it while making a desperate expression.

“P-please! Don’t give it to the other Kingdoms! I’ll grant you anything aside from the sword! I want to have those Mithril! If you want, I could give you one of our secret contraptions.”

After saying that, Teldarg receive a fist on his head from Mayly that knocked him out cold which also broke the wooden table. For some reason, she’s really angry.

But hitting a King, is that fine?

“Even if you’re a King, I can’t let my husband make stupid decisions!”

Ah! I see. She’s the wife.

I guess even in this world, the wife is still superior to the King.

But a secret contraption, it sounds really interesting. If possible, I’d like to know about it.

“We can discuss about this later on. For now, I’d like to send my stupid husband back to the palace. If you have some questions, we can talk about it later in the Trading Guild.”

After saying those words, Miss Mayly left the workshop while carrying Teldarg on her shoulder.

I never thought that I could see something like that here.

-End of Chapter-