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nChapter 146 – Connection (6)

n“I was able to easily find the city of the Dwarves, because all the entrances to the underground world was near the birthplace of the two heroes.”

n“Did you perhaps come to Diaz when you heard they were tracking us down?”

n“That’s right. Instead of finding you guys, I found the entrance heading towards the underground world.”

nAt Elrick’s reply, Artpe and Maetel felt complicated emotions. When they started looking at their surrounding, they caught sight of the Dwarves. The Dwarves were slowly getting used to the sun. The Dwarves stretched before they started moving once again.

n“Let’s install the square first!”

n“Hey. Wait a moment. What are you going to install?”

nHe hoped he had heard wrong, but that wasn’t the case. The Dwarves once again moved to various locations on the square. They started touching and manipulating the floor of the square. Surprisingly, the ground started becoming dyed with the same color as the square.

nThe Mana, which was used to create the barrier around the square, started pouring out into the land. The nature of the surrounding land started to change. Artpe watched the Dwarves manipulate the Mana with his Read All Creation. Despite doing this, he had no idea how they were able to do what they were doing!

nNo, that wasn’t important right now….

n“Hey, hey! You can’t just willy-nilly do as you please!?”

n“Our ancestors made many preparations for the day when we were free to come to the surface. One of the preparations was to pick a land where we will reside. This place has a lot veins of metals, and it has been very blessed by mother nature. It is a living environment that is well suited for Dwarves . Our ancestors made a deal with Diaz, so we possess ownership of this range of mountains. The only thing left is for us to create a city here.”

nThey probably weren’t lying. However, did they still hold the ownership of this land after couple hundred years? That was the question. On the other hand, there were tens of thousands of Dwarves over level 200 that were capable of fighting. Even if the entirety of Diaz attacked them, the Dwarves would have no problem defending their territory.

n“We’ll be able to do this on our own from now on. Thank you for helping us, my friends.”

n“If you guys hadn’t cleared the Abyss, we wouldn’t have been able to exit that place. It was a matter of time before the Shadows acquired more power than us. We probably would have been swallowed by them. You can visit us any time. We will become your strength.”

n“Ah. Also….”

nOne of the Dwarves hesitated before he opened his mouth.

n“I heard from Elrick that the heroes of this era have made their appearance. If you come across them, could you ask them to look us up? By the look of your abilities, I’m sure you will cross paths with the heroes.”

n“Why are you looking for the heroes?”

n“We want to help them defeat the Demon King.”

nThe eyes of the Dwarves turned menacing.

n“If the Demon King isn’t defeated, beings like the Shadows of Sinners will crawl out into the world again.”

n“It isn’t just the Shadows of Sinners. This time our world might really be dyed with Demonic energy. If we want to protect our race, we have to attack the Demon race.”

nWhen he saw the willingness to fight from the Dwarves, Artpe was inwardly satisfied. He nodded his head. As expected, the guidance of the Winter Queen was superb. The Dwarves were more trustworthy than any human nation. Moreover, she had directed him towards a group that was always on the hero’s side.

n“It’s us.”

nIt was time for him to tell the truth to the Dwarves.

n“What?”

n“It’s us. To be precise, we are the heroes.”

nAt Artpe’s unexpected words, the Dwarves just blinked their eyes. Artpe and Maetel didn’t say anything. They just emitted their Hero’s Aura. It was one of the benefits that came with being a hero. The Dwarves recognized what they were seeing, and their jaws dropped open.

n“They really are heroes! Of course! We were wondering how humans that weren’t heroes possessed so much power! We never thought about the possibility of them hiding their identity!”

n“Oh oh oh. This is the first time I’ve seen a hero·····!”

n“Elrick, did you know about this!?”

n“No wonder. You had such a hard on for the heroes, yet you meekly decided to join another party. I should have seen it for what it was!”

n“Hey! Put down your axe! Don’t get angry with me! They wanted to prove their skills to you. They didn’t want to use their reputation that comes along with being heroes. I did as they asked!”

nA brief commotion occurred, but everyone calmed down soon. They didn’t have to go on a roundabout process of finding the heroes, so this was beneficial to the Dwarves.

n“We’ve prepared a lot of things we wanted to give to the heroes…..”

n“However, the improvement we made to your equipments makes it dubious as to whether you need these items….”

n“Ah. I know what you guys can do.”

nAt that point, Artpe thought about Silpennon’s party. Of course, they were also a massively overgeared party. They were able to acquire Artifacts thanks to Artpe’s instructions. Silpennon’s party possessed equipments as powerful as the equipments possessed by Artpe’s party. However, the Dwarves were able to make improvements to their gears, and they had become stronger. There was no reason why the Dwarves couldn’t do the same for Silpennon’s party.

n“I have party members, who are moving separate from us. I’ll contact them. When they visit you, I want you guys to look over their equipments.”

n“If it is just that, we are willing to do it. However, it isn’t enough. It won’t satisfy our… That’s right. All your equipments are perfect now. Therefore, we will make you some auxiliary equipments. Some of the work has already been done, so…. Could you wait for around four hours?”

nHe had never expected them to strengthen the reward the party had received for completing their Quest. He had no reason to refuse their offer, so he readily nodded his head.

n“All right. If it is four hours, we can…. In fact, we have something to do around here.”

n“······yes.”

nArtpe gave a meaningful glance towards Maetel. It seemed she was thinking the same thoughts as him. She carefully extended her hand, and she linked hands with him.

n“We grew up around this region. We’ll make a brief visit to our hometown.”

n“I really want to go with you….”

n“There must be a reason why the two of them wants to go there by themselves. Let’s just do our own thing here.”

n“B…but!”

nSienna held onto Vadinet. This was why Artpe and Maetel was able to leave without much difficulty. They saw Elrick wave his hand in goodbye.

n“Do you think everyone is doing well?”

n“If the town wasn’t attacked by monsters, everyone should be fine.”

nThey were going back to their village, but he didn’t want to get tangled with the villagers. Artpe placed a camouflage spell on both of them. Maetel didn’t object to what he was doing. She missed the village, but she really didn’t have any attachments to the villagers.

nArtpe and Maetel had lived in this nameless mountain village, and it would have taken them around two hours to walk there. Artpe and Maetel was able to reach the village in two minutes using Blink.

n“Ah. It’s still the same.”

nWhen they entered the village, a delighted smile appeared on Maetel’s face. Monsters hadn’t sacked the village. No outsiders had even visited this isolated mountain village. It would have been more surprising if something new had occurred in the village. Artpe let out a bitter laughter as he looked at his surrounding.

nThe village really hadn’t changed. If he could point out a change, the people had changed. The adults looked three years older. Some looked much older. Then there were the children (The memory of them were faint.), who had played a game of heroes with Artpe and Maetel. The children had grown a lot.

n“Tree? We are going to the tree again? We went to the tree yesterday, and the day before….”

n“I really hate that tree.”

nArtpe and Maetel had completely become adults. On the other hand, the other children were a bit slow in growing up. It really brought home the fact that Artpe and Maetel had grown an unbelievable amount. Artpe and Maetel strided towards the village containing lousy level 1 villagers.

n“Artpe, this is the same. That too. We used this tree to mark our height. Waaa.”

nThere really was so little here that he wondered if he had a mistake coming here. On the other hand, Maetel was having fun, so he decided it was worth it. Artpe smiled lightly towards Maetel, who had a firm grip on his hand.

nAt that moment, he could feel a faint trace of Mana from somewhere within the village. It was coming from a small cottage that was located at the boundary of the village. It was where Artpe had lived.

n“······Maetel.”

n“Yes! Kyaa!?”

nMaetel was in front of the tree that was used to measure the height of the village children. She was trying to measure her own height when Artpe grabbed her hand. He used Blink. In the next moment, they arrived in front of the cottage. He didn’t hesitate as he opened the door, and he entered the cottage. His gaze headed towards the message they had left behind on the wall of the cottage.

n“Huh? Artpe, this is….”

n“That’s right.”

nThe message, which was engraved on the wall, was still there. However, there was magic placed over several letters. This was the Hero’s Mana. To be precise, it was a spell that illuminated only when it came in contact with the Hero’s Aura.

n“Is it my dad?”

n“A wandering merchant knows how to use Mana….? If so, it really would be interesting. However, we can’t confirm that it is ahjussi with this.”

nIn Artpe’s previous life, Maetel’s father had been dead at this point in time. At the very least, that was what his research unearthed. This was obvious, but he had never seen or experienced the Mana of Maetel’s father.

n“Artpe~”

n“Wait here.”

nArtpe activated his Hero’s Aura, and he activated the spell placed on the surface of the wall. In the end, the letters started to light up in a predetermined order.

nHe could have just left behind a letter, yet ahjussi decided to leave behind a message by putting on airs! Artpe grumbled as he pieced together the letters in order to complete the message.

n“‘When you are ready, come find me at Nirotacid in the Demon world.’ ······too much effort was put into this. This is too dumb to be a trap.”

n“What is Nirotacid? Is it something you eat?”

n“It is a place where you get eaten.”

n“I don’t want to be eaten unless it is by Artpe.”

n“Where did you learn to talk like that!”

n“V…Vadinet said she would be fine being eaten if it is Artpe…….”

nArtpe decided to give Vadinet a harsh punishment later on(He was afraid that Vadinet might like being punished by him). He decided to keep his thoughts on the Nirotacid.

nNirotacid.

nIt was one of the most dangerous place in the Demon world. Unless one was a Demon of significant caliber, one wouldn’t even dare to step one’s foot in the city.

nHot winds that were over 200 degrees Celsius blew there. At times, storm with knife-like sands swirled around this city. It was considered to be the hell of the Demon world where monsters over level 350 swarmed. If this was some plan to lure the two heroes to their death, it was such an obvious and dumb ploy. He would have sneered at it.

nThat was why he entertained the idea that this wasn’t a trap. On the other hand, this might be a plan to exploit such a thought process in order to kill them…..

n“Is it my dad? It must be my dad, right? I want to see my dad. Artpe has to see him too. You have to bow to him before we have our wedding.”

nMaetel was already excited at the idea of reuniting with her father. There were several parts of her words that worried him, but Artpe had come to a similar conclusion as her.

n“Yes. We have to go find this person. If it is a trap, then it is a trap. If it isn’t a trap, we have to check the identity of this person.”

nIf it was a trap, someone had made a mistake in putting it here. The strength of the hero’s party was at its highest right now. If this was a hero’s tale, the author would have been stabbed by the readers for **ty power balance.

n“Still, we should visit Zestbar just in case.”

n“Yes, I’ll do as Artpe says!”

nArtpe was confident that they could smash any trap sprung on the two of them. However, this wasn’t the case for his other party members.

nFirst, he had to raise the strength of his party members in Zestbar, then they would enter into the Demon world. They’ll go straight towards Nirotacid. They’ll kill any Demons or monsters they face in the process. They’ll have grown to the point where they would be able to search the confines of Nirotacid in a leisurely fashion.

n‘Nirotacid. It really is a very excellent choice. As someone that always put my safety as a priority, I never dared to go to Nirotacid.’

nArtpe was well-informed in regards to most regions in the Demon world. However, Nirotacid was one of the few exceptions. Even if there was nothing there, they won’t know anything until they get there. If… If this message was left behind by Maetel’s father and if he really alive in that city…..

n“Things are getting complicated again….”

nWhat would his level be? Was he alone or did he have comrades? Why didn’t he step forward in the previous life….

n“No! It won’t be Artpe! First, we’ll have around five kids, then…..”

n“I don’t know which words I should deny first!”

nHer father was a key word, and it had triggered her idle imagination. She had already thought past her wedding, and her delusions were reaching its zenith. She had a slightly dangerous expression on her face as she kept smiling. He flicked her forehead lightly. As always, he let out a big sigh.

nSomehow or other, the reasons to leave for the Demon world kept mounting.

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