“If you wish to talk, I will be waiting outside.” The dwarf Grimnir called “Broggi” stepped outside the door almost right after he greeted us, willingly allowing us to remain inside and talk things out alone. Grimnir, though, wasn't thinking straight after his dead cuoso—cousin in dwarvish—appeared before him, and wanted to rush out and immediately confront this Broggi but I stopped him, warning him that it might be a trap.

After all, we didn’t know where we were and why we all ended up here with someone Grimnir recognized as his deceased relative. As such, we took this chance to calm down and gather ourselves, with me explaining to Saori about what happened to me and why my party was unresponsive for nearly a week.

Grimnir, Ellaine, and Neill couldn’t enter the subspace since they were participating in the Event, so they hadn’t known I was in such deep trouble when I ran into the rank S dragonslayers the dragonewts warned me about. The mood got even worse when I told Saori I met the rest of the students and how we had an entire misunderstanding going on.

Rubbing her hand on her face, massaging her temples as she had that “hunter” look on her face. “… I came to help a friend, but hearing all of this certainly brought my mood down.”

“You can say that again, Sensei,” Tatsuya chimed in.

“Did you manage to talk with him without ‘killing him?’” she asked, mentioning that therapy session the boys told me they had with Saori back in the Belzac cave.

He shook his head. “No, because Daisy doesn’t feel he did anything wrong, and while, sure, he shouldn’t, as we know now that it wasn’t his fault, I still can’t forgive him for acting so indifferent about everything. Well, I did learn he is Hestia-san’s cousin, so I won’t beat him up too hard for thinking he can do everything alone. I mean, who does he think he is allying himself with some shady as hell group and dragging everyone else along with him? Aurora is the best option for getting all of us back to Earth.”

Hearing that from Tatsuya did make me feel better. His belief was fuel for my conviction to fulfill Aurena’s divine Quest. I wish Franz had the same thought, instead of trying to “divide the effort” by going separately.

In any case, everybody learning that my other life’s cousin was in this world was a real shocker, but Grimnir quickly brought everybody back to the main topic on hand. Seeing as he had to make sure this “Broggi” was real, he, along with Saori and Kyouya, went to ask his supposedly returned from the dead cousin. Everybody else had to rest or have their injuries treated.

As such, this smithy was filled not with the sounds of banging metal, but that of a bunch of adventurers enjoying some R&R. I for one had three patients to help out, and one of them was fully willing to trade me information for what happened on the expedition’s side. I wanted to know how the Event Quest went, and Ellaine was talkative as always.

“Arrghk! … Thank you,” she thanked me after I put her arm back into her place before healing her wounds. Her exoarmor was still in place, and while it protected her well against most kinds of attacks, a few blunt attacks made it through it and broke her bones. “Urgh, Master Grimnir and I got into a small scuffle with some rank B thugs. This Event hasn’t been nice to us when it comes to making friends.”

Competition breeds excellence most say, and while it was true to a certain extent, it also bred rivalries and animosity … I for one had experienced it enough in my past life. This Event was going exactly how I imagined putting a bunch of highly ambitious and powerful people in a contest where only one party may win. The reward for all the toil would be something too enticing to give up.

Tasianna led the Event Quest expedition consisting of 20 people through eight floors of conflict, involving both brawns and brains. She did me proud as the third member of Aurora, but as Neill and Ellaine had experienced, if you were the front runner with multiple other parties underneath you to support you, the others might get envious. If there was a larger threat, the smaller, trivial rivalries would shake hands and oppose the “tyranny.”

In this case, multiple Saelari, Ankor-Nazta, Artorian, Yeosian, and Estralian parties helped our 20-man expedition force. It was to ensure they got to the very end for the unique Job, and … well, as Pradreo and Skardrvo promised, the dragonewts were also there to kill dragonkin slayers.

As such, everything turned into a three faction war inside the Event dungeon. Our faction, those who banded with the wyvern slayers, and the independents who wanted to stay on the sidelines while the two former factions fought. After all, this competition wasn’t about fighting, it was a race. The first to reach floor 15 would win.

“…” Ellaine suddenly stopped talking as she looked over at Vifi’Yok, who was taking a break, eating a sandwich I made for her while staring at us from afar. “This … is really a surprise.”

“I already told you, she’s … mostly on our side now. I want to believe that, anyways. My cousin blackmailed her, so I think it should prevent her from betraying us,” I replied.

She knew Vifi’Yok was on our side for now, but considering how unlucky our party was when it came to encounters, she was rightfully apprehensive of our former enemy. I wanted to think the demonkin wouldn’t betray us, but she kept too much from me to believe in such a naive idea. What if she believed Franz was bluffing and she were to run away?

Too much suspicion wasn’t unhealthy here. I just had to learn how to best use her talents before it all broke down.

“No, no, that wasn’t what I was worried about. You think she noticed?” Ellaine’s eyes glanced at her spell rings, the source of her demonic powers. Up until now, Vifi’Yok had no reason to believe she was anything but a demonkin contractor, not that she had the lust archdemon herself inside her rings. “According to Belzac, Klea hid herself from something, right? I don’t know how to hide the power properly, and I was just using [Whiplash] a moment ago. Do you think it might have leaked?”

I moved my head closer to her ear, whispering like she did. “Klea’Hatma probably isn’t that careless. Vifi’Yok might get suspicious something is going on since she probably guessed we have no demonkin supporter on our side, but she won’t addressed it since, unless she knows about Klea’Hatma, she would never be able to guess what's really going on.”

“No, no!” She shook her head vigorously before pulling me closer, to the point my ears could feel her breathing. “I-I brought my aberration with me.”

I gave her a gaze that should express my complete befuddlement as accurately as possible. Her aberration? That aberration that also acted as her phylactery for her demonic powers? That egg-shaped demonic catalyst once created for the Prince of Envy to have an “extra life” was with her?!

“It’s dormant and in my satchel.” She pointed at the slightly tattered leather bag she was carrying around. It was a wonder it still was functional, considering how much she had been fighting. “Mother gave it to me after you went into the dungeon. The inner stitching is made from mana threads, so we manage to apply a [Silence] and [Odorless] enchantment to suppress people from sensing the demonic mana. But, with the demonkin’s senses …”

Haaa, must feel good to have a rich mom instead of being in debt … Wait.

“I’m more surprised you have it with you, instead of leaving it in the subspace.”

“It can only grow as long as I feed it my mana. The aberration can only work as a phylactery if I allow it to grow, otherwise, it’s just an inedible chocochuckle egg,” she replied, reminding me of the spotted “egg” she showed me when we reunited after my Elyonda trip. “But! Worries and suspicions aside, while the whole Event has more or less been a constant fighting competition, we did procure quite a good amount of rewards for our toil.”

Well, now that was something to make a girl happy! Aside from monster materials, alchemical ingredients, and nice to haves, similar to the reward the dungeon master gave us after we passed floor ten, Ellaine noted how they managed to get some nice gear from all the challenges. While the ingredients were with Kohaku and the other students of the expedition force, Master and the saurians got their first real upgrade in a long time, since Grimnir couldn’t make their gear as he needed so much time for my armor.

The dungeon gear still needed runes and enchantments to reach their fullest potential, but Krim-Slak and Grazlahta especially appreciated just having something more fitting their levels without breaking the bank. Oh, how I wanted to see them in their full glory.

“Hey, girls.”

The two of us turned around when Tatsuya called for her, serving us two wooden cylinder bottles with cream on top. Once we had them in hand, we noted how cold it was to the touch, before he placed a metal straw in them.

“Frap or boba?” He looked at me.

“Boba, but how? Tapioca isn’t grown anywhere in the western countries, and none of the merchant countries know about the starch version. Does an alternative even exist in this world?” I replied before taking a sip, noticing immediately it was iced fulinoe tea with sugar and milk added, simulating bubble tea. Only … I couldn’t feel any of the “bubbles.”

When I noted this to him, he shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right. Just wanted to ask. I would have made some more frappuccino now that we have access to the subspace, again. Even if we can’t enter it, your maids and Asaka are giving us stuff … Uuugh, it makes you miss all the conveniences of your subspace once you go over a week without it.”

Svena, Haati, and Lorena were naturally completely devastated when I was gone without any word for over a whole week. They really made sure I knew about it, before opening the waterworks that I was alright. Yikes, just watching them cry really gave me some complicated feelings, but that was the life of an adventurer.

Speaking of those feelings, it once again reminded me that we managed to survive that ordeal without my subspace. Meeting Vifi’Yok and so on, and now we could sip on some iced tea and recover.

“… Delicious.” Ellaine and I complimented Tatsuya’s drink, as it hit just the right spot without being too sweet. I gave him the thumbs up. “If you ever want to open up a coffee or tea branch in this world, just say the word. I’ll get the funding somehow.”

“Where did that come from?” He raised a brow.

“You know why. Franz wasn’t at fault, but his father did give your parents some grievances. Not like I feel guilty or compelled because he’s family, now that I learned about it, but … you know, to our childhood friendship.”

Tatsuya let out a hearty laugh, almost dropping the two other drinks he was holding, but composed himself to reply, “Hehe, nah, don’t worry about it. I did help mom out with the shop, but making drinks isn’t really one of my goals, right now. Besides, there is no real coffee in this world, and I want that. Getting back to Earth, away from all this fighting, is more important to me.”

I nodded, understanding his reasoning. Unlike me, he hadn’t accepted Peolynca as his new home. As stated back when I spoke with Aurena for the first time, I just wanted to visit my parents back on Earth to give them an apology, but my obligations remained in this new world. I had another family I couldn’t abandon.

Once this little moment ended, Tatsuya turned around and gave Neill and the Ankoran King their drinks. Both of them were currently laying on a makeshift bed, recovering from their prior fights. Sis especially needed the rest, as her body was gagging from the Winter’s Gift antidote she took. Similar to me, she was not prepared for the outright rancid taste that remedy caused our tongues, but the venom was already out of her system so it was fine.

“Haaaaaa, my tongue is saved!” Neill let out a long-winded moan, smiling without any reservation.

“Guuuu, I'd have prefered some mead or wine, but I can save that for later.” The dwarven king couldn’t control himself despite his words, indulging himself in the drink until it was half-empty. Once he noticed this, he wiped the cream on his beard off, before looking over at the open [Room] portal. “My men and the rangers doing well?”

Tatsuya nodded, but still frowned. “Your bodyguard, on the other hand … Well, Asaka says she can stabilize him, but he needs proper treatment from Hestia. Whatever that dragonslayer did, his organs were nearly frozen solid. His heart, especially, nearly stopped beating. It’s a good thing his health was so high, but if we delayed treating him for any longer, he probably would have … died.”

“…”

The silence from King Fugnarus made it clear what a threat Galg was. King Fugnarus told me Ungi was level 129 while he was level 119, making them solid rank As when it came to levels. Nevertheless, Galg beat both of them in a two-on-one battle, and nearly killed one of them. Well, considering how he could keep up with Vifi’Yok, even if she was weakened, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

The dwarven king stared at the ground without blinking for a while, before he closed them and hid them behind his hand. “… In a battle, a commander should expect casualties. I thought I had everything covered, but … I hadn’t expected those dragonslayers to kill over 40 rank Bs and Cs by themselves.”

If that wall of human corpses was any indication, including their own testaments, the dragonslayers were fully responsible for the deaths of King Fugnarus’s rescue team. Not to mention, what happened to Saintess Fleindia. Asaka was making sure she stayed alive so we could talk to her later on.

I tried to remind the king that his group had been split apart, with him landing on floor ten with me, but he didn’t accept the excuse. As the leader of the party, he was willing to take full responsibility for everything. 40 people, huh? That was quite a number of dead warriors, knights, and others.

“Well, they should only be three now.” After I failed to reassure the king, Vifi’Yok came over. “Twice you got ambushed by them, Hestia. We never managed to put our plans to ambush them into action … but that has to end in the next encounter.”

“You say that as if that was so easy. Where are we even?” Tatsuya complained. “We’re stuck knowing nothing until we get something out of that ‘Broggart.’ In both cases, we had no reason to expect the dragonslayers, so how can we anticipate where we'll run into them next inside a dungeon where people could be anywhere?”

First was when we met the “Hestia hunting team” in the previous dungeon and just now when they just appeared out of those portals on floor eleven. They were prepared like crazy, while I wasn't able to appraise Galg due to his appraisal blocking skill. Fire and holy wouldn’t work against him, and my scales were naturally resistant against [Corrosive Flames]; the only way to punch through them would be ice and water attacks.

Speaking of ice and water, Tasianna and the others from the expedition forces weren’t here, sadly. According to Ellaine, hers and Grimnir’s situation was similar to Neill, as they were separated due to a gambit to skip floors, so we didn’t know where they were or if they were still together. We weren’t sure if they were on floor eleven to begin with, but I presumed they weren’t, since Grimnir and Ellaine were, and they were teleported to this place with us.

As the dungeon master mentioned, he would teleport the “cheater”—Saori—with her friends to a special location.

… Is the dungeon master truly against us? He’s showing quite a lot of favoritism, if you think about it.

“Hey, whether we can kill those bastards or not, doesn’t matter right now. I’m more concerned why the fuck you are here …” Forced back to reality by Neill’s forceful tone of voice, it became clear her antagonism was once again directed at Vifi’Yok. She knew why she was here, as I told everything.

“Where in Marsven’s name am I supposed to be, huh?” Vifi’Yok snapped back. “Should I try to ignore you? Would that be better? I could if you wanted me to, but at the same time, we’re stuck here together so why shouldn’t I chime in a bit?”

“Oh, I know you can’t be anywhere else. You got blindsided by some otherworldly brat, not to mention how my little sister, who is a whelpling, nearly killed your butt the last time we fought. I know you have to stay and protect her!” Neill was obviously teasing her, finding it humorous considering her smirk. “Good to know your place, ex-Warbringer.”

“Krk!”

I could hear the demonkin’s veins popping …

“Neill, stop it.” I had to intervene. “Whether we like it or not, she is our ally in this. Sure, not the most cooperative, but at least we can rely on her hitting things well. She’s one of the reasons why I survived against the dragonslayers in the first place, so, please, can you not try to instigate a fight? For me?”

“Sure, for you. But I trust this demonkin as much as I trust a dragonslayer making my meal.” Neill continued drinking her ice tea, ignoring how Vifi’Yok was about to explode.

I handed her a donut to calm her down. “I will.”

With these two “cats” occupied themselves with their food and beverage respectively, I looked over at Rajah and his family. The four headed-family were fawning over each other, specially Rajah’s siblings were amazed at how much he grew as a rank B. I wanted to go over to them, but I also had to be here to speak with everybody.

“I suggest we regroup.” The first to break the ice was Ellaine. “The expedition force consists of four Champions—two Goddess Plesia, one Goddess Crustacia, and one Goddess Zephira blessed. Especially Champion Tehmrayn is a trump card we have on hand, considering he’s a rank S who beat another rank S. Not to mention, with Saori back, we really should reunite Aurora, right?”

“You read my mind!” I cheered at that last remark, finding it equally important to bring my party back together. It had been too long since the five of us fought together.

“If we want to get out of here, we better listen to some proper info, then. Well, speaking of the smith …” King Fugnarus pointed to the entrance of this smith, where we saw Saori and Kyouya appear from it, waving for us to come over. After we packed everything up, we went out of this place, where we saw Grimnir sitting on a chair, crestfallen while the inko dwarf sitting in front of him silently stared at him.

That was “Broggi,” and while he did share similar features to the person in the first video recorder on our video recorder, he wasn’t as homeless-looking. He didn’t look like an unkempt NEET who had never taken a step out of his house for months on end, nor did he look like an engineer who had never taken a bath before.

He was, rather, clean as if he had just taken a shower with an extremely trimmed down beard not usually seen on dwarves not named Grimnir. King Fugnarus, for example, had his beard go right down to the bottom of his stomach, with almost half of it petrified into stone hair. Meanwhile, “Broggi’s” beard looked two weeks old and with his short hair cut, he looked like any regular human man, just shorter and with stone skin on his ears.

“He asked us to show him the video recorder,” Saori stated. After some reluctance, I nodded and took it out, causing him to smile as he received it gently, treating it like his most treasured item.

“Ahhh, Goddess Chihiro’s recorder. I am happy to see it cleaned and maintained. Hmm, you’ve opened it, right? Who did it?” he stated, sounding exactly like the person we heard on the video. He even played the recording where he filmed himself to further prove it!

It became even harder to not believe this person was “Broggi” but Grimnir mentioned how he personally witnessed his cousin die and even sent his body back to his clan. No complaints were given, so if Broggi’s body was somehow snatched away during the delivery, somebody should have noted it. For example … his father.

Hmm? That seems too much of a coincidence. No, keep it to yourself for now.

“I did, with Mister Metosei Gunnisor from the railroad guild,” Ellaine stepped forward, telling the truth.

He stroked his beard, showing some mild interest in her. “Oh, I see. You cleaned it well, then, lass. Never thought a human would be able to make such a solid clean, especially with how small and delicate everything is considering what Goddess Chihiro strived to do. Hmph, that old coot Gunnisor still has it in him to teach people.”

“Nah, not him.” Grimnir raised his head, showing eyes reddened and puffy from crying, and pointed at “Broggi.” “Your apprentice. Her name is Ellaine, remember it, you bashthuda.”

“Mine?” The dwarf raised a brow, before sizing up Ellaine, only too look even more confused.

“Master Grimnir taught me your techniques. Through your notes and documentations; I’ve read them all, I believe … Master Broggart?”

Astonished by what she said, “Broggi” froze on the spot, staring at Ellaine without moving a muscle. He kept looking like this until he nearly dropped the recorder, hectically correcting his posture to assure it didn’t fall. He then clutched it tightly to his chest, carrying it as if it was a newborn. He blinked, before loosening up.

“Ha, ha …” His breathing was ragged, probably since his “treasure” nearly fell down ‘cause of his own clumsiness. “Girl. Uh, a malfunctioning of the mana wires due to an overload of mana flowing through them, causing the circuitry to break down and damage the mechanical piece. What do you do?”

Ellaine tilted her head at that questioning, looking over at Grimnir as he gestured her to look at “Broggi.” She did so, nervously glancing around before letting out a deep sigh. “Put on protective gear, first, as the mana ‘knot’ could destabilize the machinery, causing it to explode. Locate the knot once you are protected, remove it by cutting the mana link. Remove the circuitry surrounding it and check on the battery, making sure the breakdown didn’t damage it. Use a 10cm mana conducting hook to test out the conductivity of the issue. If everything is above 80%, then the pieces are at fault and it’s the smith’s mistake. If it’s below, then too many wires were attached, causing too much stress on the entire item.”

“Exactly! You even took my wording on it! Never. Blame. Your. Own. Wiring. The smiths ruin most of the pieces anyways; either a lackluster quenching, terrible balancing of eoriant and arcanuit making it too mana conductive, or they just fucked up the bladdarg hammering!”

“Oi, bashthuda!” Grimnir stood up, picking up “Broggi” by the scruff. “I ain’t forgetting that way you spoke to me. Smith’s mistake?! You crazy? The fact of the matter is that we do what we can to appease you artificer’s demanding requests. You want this, you want that, always asking for more until you test it out and it doesn’t work! You think I got the time to make the 50th piece of junk so you can test out if it can handle the full throttle of six mana batteries?”

“Pah!” he smacked Grimnir’s hand away, pushing him back on the chair before bashing his fist into his chest. “Ya punk, you think you get to say that? Ya got the hands of a master, but I’ve been working in this workshop for months now, and I ain’t seeing the problem. If you just listen better, everything will work out! Right, lass?! This damn fool probably scuffed things up once or twice!”

“W-well, not exactly. Master Grimn—” But Ellaine couldn’t finish before Grimnir struck back, pulling “Broggi” by the beard.

“Crustacia give me patience to endure this fool of a Luedbrumdar! She may have learned from your techniques, but I was the one to teach her everything! Everything! Down to the damn wiring that I can’t do cuz of me Taz hands! You know who could have done it better? You!” He pushed his cousin onto his chair. “You! You fool! If only you hadn’t faked your damn death … Pah, you think I WOULD BELIEVE THAT?! WHO ARE YOU … and why did you assume my cuoso’s appearance and mimicked his memories?”

“… Grimnir. I am not dead, I made a dea—”

“LIAR!”

“Woah!” I let out as Grimnir was about to punch “Broggi,” only for a wolfkin to suddenly jump out of his shadow and grab his arms, pulling him away while he was kicking and shouting.

“Thank you, Sarasa,” Saori said to her third fenrir, before grabbing Grimnir’s fist and tightening her grip around it. Slowly but surely, he calmed down, not wanting to hit one of his friends. “It’s alright.”

I forcibly pulled his hand away, turning away from her. “It’s not … I told myself to act better for the lass and lad, but look what I devolved back into. That pitiful, angry zuekluk who would drink to forget, showing none of that skill he meticulously trained for over 60 years. I … thought I made peace.”

“… Apologies, cuoso,” “Broggi” said.

“Daichi-san is probably waiting for you behind the portal. Maybe give him a wave and that you’re okay?” Saori suggested, causing the old dwarf to nod. Once he went into the smithy, she turned to me and the others who weren’t here for the initial talks. “That was how it went for a long while.”

“But, Grimnir is probably 80% sure this really is his cousin Broggart,” Kyouya stated. “We checked his memories, and he is able to recall events only he and Grimnir shared. Grimnir couldn’t find any flaw in anything we mentioned, except for—”

“Why he faked his death, right?” King Fugnarus stepped forward. “I understand why Grimnir is satisfied with this. I too would like to question you, ‘old friend.’”

Old friend?

He drew closer, but unlike his calm or more goofy appearance when he addressed Grimnir and Ellaine respectively, he scowled at King Fugnarus, looking at him similarly to how Neill looked at Vifi’Yok. However, the latter was undeterred and sat down where Grimnir sat.

“On the day I exiled you from Inkoran-Tazul, what did we speak about? … Not even Ungi or wife knows about it, so if you truly are Broggart, then you should know.”

“Broggi” leaned forward. “You asked me if I found anything worthwhile in the Goddess Chihiro’s workshop. I told you, ‘You should have never become the Ankoran King, you child murderer.’”

Hmm? What is this about?

King Fugnarus stood up. “This is Broggart. Whether he’s undead or not, he has his memories.”

Wait, what?! Hold on!

But Saori stopped me. “I also checked his Profile. He’s not undead or anything. Just ‘Inko Dwarf.’ Nothing seemed awry, he was also at level 59, five levels higher than before his ‘death.’”

So this is … Broggart, huh?

“You can believe me if you want or not.” He stood up, his sour face still contorting his face before he looked at Ellaine. It was awkward he was showing her, but it was a smile nonetheless. “Well, I know this is weird for all of you. You must have questions for why you are here. Come. I want to show the lass here my workshop! Might as well get some answers for it, aye?”

“Might as well.” Vifi’Yok joined in immediately without asking anybody else, but even I couldn’t reject his offer. I was quite curious about things.

Grimnir joined us eventually after he was done, handing me over my [Room] runes before telling me to be more careful with them. “They take a lot of time to make,” he told me, before showing me a chuckle. Was he hiding his worries behind a joke?

Nevertheless, we boarded a minecart train, similar to the ones you could find in any dwarven city for quick transportation. After activating the lever, the carts slowly began to move along a rail, moving us through what looked like a mine.

“All of you are currently on the 14th floor, right over Manethala’s lair—your goal if you want to gain your unique Job. Well, it’s currently closed, and while I am on good terms with him, the old drake won’t let you through that easily,” Broggart began.

“Bladdarg,” Grimnir called him out. “Good terms? Manethala? We broke into the one place he wanted to keep us out of us, including how he nearly killed us in a rampage after we showed ourselves, and you call that good terms?! I knew it, you are a damn—”

“Close yer trap, cuoso, and let me end my bladdarg explanation.” He threw a nearby rock at his cousin, causing it to crash right against one of Grimnir’s ram horns before it flew away. “Even former enemies can become allies if the opportunity shows itself. He and I share a goal, currently, and to achieve it we must work together. It’s that plain and simple.”

I glanced over at Neill, who was sitting next to me, causing her to roll her eyes. She couldn’t bury the hatchet. Well, I couldn’t admonish her for it, since this was Vifi’Yok’s third chance with me, so if she blew it, I would really rip off her last arm. Then Franz could do the rest, depending on what he was planning on doing, but if possible, I would rather avoid the cruelness of such an action.

“But, I guess you still are all wondering how it got to the point, or why I am stuck inside this dungeon, right? Well, to answer your question—yes, I did fake my death.”

“BULLSHIT!” Grimnir shouted.

However, Broggart ignored it. “I made a deal before, well, I ‘died.’ See, I never really told this to anybody, but my valto had some shady dealings behind the scene. I was supposed to be his heir, but everybody in the bladdarg clan knew I wasn’t going to be wasting the best years of my life sitting in some room, trying to settle every single matter and issue for the clan and its connections. I am not a people person; manatech and gnomes are always easier to deal with.”

Jeez, he really does sound like a recluse. Fitting his former appearance. ‘Valto,’ huh? Dwarvish for father, so Maagneil that bastard, huh? I should probably bring it up now—

“And after my father went mildly insane after I was exiled, his dealings and issues got worse, to the point he had to ‘sell’ my talents to his dealer to make sure he wouldn’t get killed. Well, they would have killed me too, if I hadn’t accepted it, so it wasn’t like I could do anything else,” Broggart interrupted my thought process.

I knew it! Maagneil that bastard really deserves the worst parent ever trophy! Piece of crap, that piece of dung!

I completely forgot what I wanted to bring up at this very moment where I understood Broggart too well. He really sounded like he hated that scum! Truly the correct way to treat that person, but the course of the storytelling quickly changed to the point he reminded me I should have probably spoken up sooner.

“Well, as you can see, I’ve been stuck inside this place for a while now. Probably, hmm, a year? Yeah, yeah, I’ve been working on what my valto’s employer wanted for that long, and that’s why I got all of this set up. The proof for that is in the dragonewt lass’s head, since she met him in the other dungeon, right? Where she fought the earth elemental emperor?”

“WHAT?!” King Fugnarus’s and Grimnir’s head snapped over to me.

“Uuuuuuuh …” Broggart, that dwarf, caught me off-guard! “I swear, I wanted to tell you guys about it eventually. It sort of … slipped my mind. I mean, the boys knew about it!”

I looked over to Tatsuya and Kyouya for help, but they completely ignored me, looking over at the ore veins inside this mine. These two traitors!

“Guhahaha! Well, it doesn’t really matter, right now. I’m gonna spit it out, anyways.” Just as he almost sank me, he rescued me from drowning under the two dwarves’ glare! This Broggart knew how to manipulate people. “Before I continue, again, sorry about everything, cuoso. I really didn’t mean to fool you, but I had to fake my death. Didn’t you think it wasn’t weird how I feel into that ravine and ‘died?’ Me? I might be an Inko, but we dwarves are made from harder stuff! Dying from cracking my head, pah!”

“… You weren’t wearing a helmet. That drop would have killed me if I cracked my spine and head,” Grimnir wanted to rebuke, but it didn’t dissuaded Broggart.

He knocked on his head, causing that usual skull knock sound. “Hard as ever … but, seriously, I do apologize. That video … I-I probably should have deleted that recording when I last visited the shrine. Had a chance to go out when valto was trying to deal with you and your friends. Visited my shrine to Goddess Chihiro, cleaned it … everything to await you … aside from deleting that recording.”

… Ooooooooooooooooh, didn’t Haruka mention how the shrine where we found the video recorder was unusually clean despite supposedly being decrepit and abandoned? It makes sense now.

Probably realizing it too, Ellaine, the boys, even Rajah made an “aha” sound. Everybody but Grimnir, who only remained silent. He didn’t seem intent on shouting for this part.

Until he finally caved in, replying meekly, almost too quiet for us to hear over the sounds of tracks. “Why didn’t you?”

“For Goddess Chihiro. I was the first person to ever use the recorder since I managed to repair it. I couldn’t delete the one proof for one of my greatest achievements back then, before we finished the blasthammer.”

That sounds selfish.

“Sounds like you, cuoso.”

… Alright, alright.

Grimnir didn’t smile, but that dejected, crestfallen look returned. I hoped his inner turmoil wasn’t leading him down somewhere, and while I wanted to support him, I couldn’t as Broggart finally continued.

“Which brings me to the prime question here: tell me, non-dwarves, do you know why the first waves of dwarves are nowadays considered ‘nobility?’”

“Brogg—”

“You can shut up,” Broggart immediately silenced King Fugnarus. “This isn’t your court, Fugnarus. You can’t play king inside Manethala’s lands, so keep that abrasive temper of yours sealed. I don’t need ya causing another incident to kill off another of my apprentices.”

“Huh?” Ellaine and I let out, before we looked over at King Fugnarus, followed by Saori giving him an inquisitive stare. However, he stayed silent, acting exactly as Broggart wanted.

“Good, he can listen to me, but not his wife. Got himself in this situation cuz of that temper of his, probably.” With that snarky comment, Broggart composed himself, snapping his fingers to bring our attention back to him. “With no one to stop us, let me give you some insight on dwarven history the wisewoman council and the nobility wished to hide from the rest of the world. The story of a generous man who watched how monsters evolved into the race we call ‘elves nowadays.’”

“An origin story?” Saori’s interest was immediately piqued. It was good to see her nerdy historian side was still there.

“Correct. How else did the current races become sentient, right? Well, it all started with the elves, and this is really something anybody can read from a book. Lass, mind telling us?”

Nobody answered before Ellaine realized it was her he was speaking about. “Me?! Uh, uhm, well, this part of history is rarely repeated since it’s so long ago, but to be specific, elves were monsters turned sentient, similar to how dragons were intelligent, only that elves lost their ability to evolve. I-I do know humans were a sort of ‘mutation’ from elves and that they separated themselves over soooo many years ago, but that is where my knowledge ends. Nobody in the Empire studies this subject, believing it’s all elven hearsay.”

“Yeah, yeah, the Imperials think humans are ‘pure’ beings, and that they were born alongside the elves as two of the three first sentient beings, with the dragonkins being the third. Well, it’s all antique history that nobody really cares about anyways. History that far in the past has nothing to do with the future, so it doesn’t matter how elves and humans came to be.”

“I do.” Nobody but Saori cared about the subject, and she wanted everybody to know about it. “I mean, why have I never heard about this before? Ah, right, I have mostly researched ‘recent’ history.”

Ignoring her, he continued. “However, nowadays, we know about how dwarves, beastmen, grimgarians, and demonkins were created, since it’s ‘recent’ enough for people to care about. One of them, the dwarves, were created by the earth elemental emperor, as he was jealous he couldn’t create proper children like beings made from flesh. Faefolk are loosely related, after all.”

It applied to fairies and lesser faefolk, this rule would apply to elementals as well. They just popped into existence, similar to monster spawning.

“We dwarves—Inkos and Taz—were the first couple waves. His ‘imperfect results’ since we couldn’t harness mana and use it like the other races. It is kinda obvious, I guess, since this whole inability to create mana caused us to strive more than enough in the very beginning.” He sighed. “But, sadly, when he made the last few waves of his ‘perfected children,’ molded after himself in appearance, he underestimated the complexity of life. He was the ruler of the earth, the lifespring of the world … but when he made the ‘perfect’ creation, their lifespan was too short for them to work as a sentient race similar to the elves and humans. They couldn’t make enough babies before all of them died from old age. Perfection? Flawed.”

“… And that is why the major clans consist of the oldest dwarven families, correct? Since imperfection was considered flawless? Or something like that?” I stated.

King Fungarus nodded. “The emperor forgot about us when they found out their ‘perfect’ creation was a flawed being. They isolated themself from us, but we still prayed to them. It all changed when Goddess Crustacia banished him, usurping his throne as the primarch of the earth element. We have prayed to her ever since, knowing she was a face we could see and speak to. Sadly, even she couldn’t fix our race's inability to expel mana.”

“Maybe that is how creatures made from earth and soil were allowed to even exist, Fugnarus?” Everything became quiet as this small moment ended, allowing us all to soak in what had been told to us. “… Philosophy aside, the point I am trying to make here is that my valto and his employer successfully managed to revive the real earth elemental emperor. They require it to make something for them, and that is why they have allow it to grow. Well, after its defeat by the hands of the dragonewt lass, they still managed to get what they wanted.”

The minecart suddenly stopped just as Broggart was about to reach the climax. He told us to leave the carts, leading us into a nearby tunnel before we stopped at a small hut, similar to the smithy from before. He opened the door, and in it, he revealed his artificer workshop. A huge desk was placed in the far end of the room, fitted with multiple tools I couldn’t identify at first glance.

“Fugnarus, listen to me, for I am not lying here.” Broggart let out a deep sigh. “The creation I am working on for them requires an immense fuel source, something that an ordinary battery cannot create so easily. To create something that can transcend our current technological limits, valto’s employer suggested delving into history for the first being who ruled over this world’s rocks and ore. He found out that Goddess Crustacia did not kill the earth elemental emperor, for it was too connected to the very world to eliminate without repercussion.”

He turned around. “He needs an ore that has no limit to its mana absorption. We want him to recreate the ‘perfect’ dwarf, for the reason why their lifespan was so short was that they could absorb and expel mana better than even the elves. An impossibility to create a tool to kill even the dragons. To threaten the son of the Black Tyrant of the Skies.”

Weapon? What is that supposed to mean?! Kill us?

“Grimnir. All of you. I have something to ask of ya.” His face tensed up. “You must kill my father and destroy his invention.”