Chapter 68#

His Holiness the Pope Who Scatters Holy Light#

With a guide who knew the mine passages well, Lu Heng and Aionas soon saw the light of day again. At the entrance to the Giant Stone Mountain Range, beneath the statue of the God of Forging, lay a large dwarven settlement known as Whisky Keep. It was the closest dwarven gathering place to human territories, and the bulk of trade between dwarves and humans was conducted there.

Soli’s home was in Whisky Keep. Soli’s father was the most outstanding master weaponsmith among the dwarves. The largest weapon workshop in Whisky Keep belonged to him.

In gratitude for the two of them having saved his son, the dwarf standing before them — a stout fellow with a magnificent dark red beard — slammed his right fist against his chest. “On behalf of the Bronzebeard Dwarves, I thank you. I am Brian Steelhammer.”

The Steelhammer father and son had every right to speak on behalf of the Bronzebeard Dwarves. There were several branches of the dwarven race, and Brian Steelhammer was the leader of the Bronzebeards. The Bronzebeard Dwarves excelled at forging but were not particularly skilled at mining. Several days prior, a dispute had erupted between the Bronzebeard Dwarves and the Ironpick Dwarves, who were adept at mining. The enraged Ironpick Dwarves refused to supply raw ore to the Bronzebeards.

Brian had also coincidentally received a large weapons order, and the workshop’s ore reserves were insufficient to fulfill it. Dwarves had always been the most honor-bound of races — the thought of being unable to deliver an order on time was agonizing beyond words, worse than death itself. So the young Soli, his blood running hot, set off to find raw ore on his own. Lacking any mining skills, he thought of the abandoned Lalann Mine. But this single-minded young dwarf had forgotten one thing: besides being poor miners, the Bronzebeards were also poor fighters.

At the Steelhammer family’s dinner table, Brian recounted the reason Soli had ended up in the Lalann Mine, then raised his cup. “Regardless — if not for you two saving this boneheaded lad of mine, I would have had to go digging through monster dung to find him!”

“To our two new friends!” Soli raised his cup as well. Dwarves had been drinking alcohol as if it were water since childhood, and Soli was no exception.

Lu Heng’s cup held plain water. Knowing he was a priest, the dwarf father and son didn’t make a fuss about it. However, they both found themselves increasingly impressed by Aionas, whose drinking capacity appeared to rival that of a dwarf.

After dinner, Brian’s face hidden beneath his beard had turned nearly the same shade as his prized facial hair. The more he drank, the more boisterous he became. His thick hands pounded against Aionas’s back with loud thwack thwack thwack — Lu Heng suspected that if Brian were tall enough, he would have draped an arm around Aionas’s shoulder and called him “old buddy” right then and there.

Aionas was quite friendly toward the dwarves, probably because the dwarven race could forge weapons and armor to his liking.

“Old buddy.” Even though he hadn’t succeeded in draping his arm over Aionas’s shoulder, Brian still used the term. “Stay at my home tonight. Tomorrow, come to my weapons workshop and pick out whatever weapons suit you. Dwarves have always been the most generous of friends.”

The Steelhammer family’s weapon workshop had the longest history in Whisky Keep. It was said that the trading district in Whisky Keep devoted entirely to selling weapons and armor had developed around the Steelhammer forge as its center. Whether that was truly how history had unfolded was impossible to verify, but it was an undeniable fact that the Steelhammer Workshop was the first choice of every mercantile guild on the continent for ordering weapons.

Lu Heng stood at the entrance of the workshop, gazing up at the Steelhammer crest displayed above, feeling it looked somewhat familiar.

Just inside the entrance stood a long row of display cabinets, each housing a warhammer — identical warhammers, every single one.

“This is the pride of our Steelhammer family. Our ancestors participated in the forging of Thunder’s Wrath under the leadership of the Great God of Forging.” Brian’s rough voice boomed with pride as he introduced his family’s glory to his friends. “Every dwarf who wishes to inherit the Steelhammer name must forge a replica of Thunder’s Wrath to earn recognition.”

“What a glorious history. Your family surname must have been passed down from that legendary era, no doubt.” Lu Heng smiled as he spoke. Praising dwarven ancestors and craftsmanship was a surefire way to get them to gladly open up.

“The truest friend of the Bronzebeard Dwarves — you are absolutely right!” Seeing that Lu Heng seemed well-versed in dwarven customs and history, Brian’s enthusiasm for conversation was fully kindled. He thought the two human friends Soli had brought back this time were simply wonderful — one could drink like a dwarf, and the other actually seemed to have an in-depth understanding of dwarven glorious history.

Brian led Lu Heng to the front of the display cabinets and introduced the forge-master behind each replica of Thunder’s Wrath along with the story behind it. Lu Heng listened attentively with a smile, occasionally offering his own views on the history of the dwarves during the relevant era. Meanwhile, Aionas, beside them, was slowly dozing off amid the lengthy narration.

Lu Heng feared he would fall asleep standing up, which the hot-tempered dwarves would surely interpret as disrespect toward their ancestors. Lu Heng surveyed his surroundings, and a plan to stop Aionas from sleeping took shape in his mind.

Dwarves had always been carefree and casual, and the Steelhammer father and son were no exception. To put it politely, the workshop was “relaxed” — to put it bluntly, it was a chaotic mess. Everywhere except that one row of nearly gleaming display cabinets was thoroughly dwarven in style. Raw ore, metal ingots, and unfinished weapon blanks were piled haphazardly on the ground — one careless step and you would trip and fall flat on your face.

Lu Heng spotted a pile of debris on the ground, deliberately caught his right foot on it, and stumbled sideways toward Aionas. Aionas’s reflexes were swift; he caught Lu Heng in an instant.

“I was too engrossed in what Brian was saying and didn’t watch my step.” Lu Heng flashed Aionas an apologetic smile. “Could I trouble you to keep an eye out for me?”

Aionas wore an expression that said I really can’t do anything with you and extended his hand to Lu Heng.

If Brian weren’t standing right there, the great dragon lord would no doubt have said something like, The Great Dragon Lord doesn’t mind doing a small favor for a treasure, Lu Heng thought to himself. Did race really shape personality this much? He thought of Shikong’s always-calm, unruffled face, then looked at Aionas, who wore every single thought on his face for all the world to see.

【Little Assistant, do you have a recording function?】

【I absolutely did NOT record this golden dragon’s childish behavior so I could enjoy it later and then go post an anonymous rant about it on the forum!】

【…Remember to send me a copy of the recording.】

Once Shikong had recovered all his memories and arrived in the same plane as him, the only way to see him lose his composure again would be through this secret technique. That would be its own kind of romance, wouldn’t it? Lu Heng thought slyly.

“This is my proudest work — the replica of Thunder’s Wrath.” Brian’s booming voice rang out. It was clear he was immensely satisfied with this piece, as some of the dust on the ceiling had been shaken loose by his loud voice and was now drifting down onto the crystal covers of the display cabinets.

Brian hastily grabbed a soft cloth and carefully wiped the dust away. “Although it can’t compare to Thunder’s Wrath, which was polished by divine power, in both appearance and texture this is the most faithful replica in the Steelhammer family’s history.”

“It does indeed look remarkably similar to what’s recorded in the historical chronicles. I have always admired this sacred artifact that once accompanied the God of Forging in battles across the world,” Lu Heng said. “May I take a closer look?”

“Go right ahead. This replica was refined from the sturdiest black iron ore — not even a dragon’s tooth could leave a scratch on it.” Brian was genuinely generous to those he considered friends. After all, the last time Soli had snuck this replica out to show off to his friends, he had come back and received a thorough beating.

To prove that his replica of Thunder’s Wrath was the finest, Brian retrieved another replica from nearby and placed the two side by side.

At the sight, Lu Heng confirmed several suspicions he had harbored. Compared to the previous replicas, Brian’s version bore the closest resemblance to the genuine sacred artifact in Lu Heng’s possession. It was almost identical — even the crest at the base of the hammer handle was exactly the same.

Indeed, the crests engraved on the handles of all the earlier replicas bore the current dwarven racial emblem. But Brian’s replica featured a crest that, while subtly different from the modern dwarven emblem, matched the one on the sacred artifact perfectly.

Lu Heng’s fingers moved subtly, casting a divine spell — Mind’s Eye. To onlookers, Lu Heng appeared to merely be admiring the warhammer before him. But in Lu Heng’s vision, the crests at the base of both warhammers slowly floated upward and overlapped in midair. Then the identical portions faded away, leaving only the differences visible.

The goblin racial crest!

Even though it had been transformed in shape, Lu Heng recognized it at a glance — it was the same goblin crest he had seen on that mysterious small black box not long ago. And this transformed goblin crest, Lu Heng had just seen it moments ago as well — on the signboard at the entrance of the Steelhammer Workshop.

Brian Steelhammer actually had connections to the goblins. Lu Heng couldn’t help marveling at his own luck. He had been worrying about how to gather intelligence on the goblins, and it turned out the random dwarf youth he had picked up in the mine happened to have ties to them. The only problem was that goblin matters had always been a sensitive topic among the dwarves. How was he supposed to extract information from Brian?

Lu Heng fell into a troubled reverie. Before he could figure anything out —

He heard Aionas say: “Brian, we’d like to meet your green-skinned friend.”

Oh no.

In his earlier moment of distraction, Lu Heng had completely forgotten that Aionas, who was still holding his hand, was sharing his Mind’s Eye vision. Aionas had seen the transformed goblin crest too. Lu Heng had never kept anything from him, so it was only natural that Aionas had guessed what Lu Heng intended to do next.

The problem was that the Dragon Lord’s approach was simply too blunt. Asking so directly would put the dwarves on guard. Getting any further information out of them would then become immeasurably harder.

“What green-skinned friend?! There’s none! I didn’t hire any goblin engineers!” Brian shook his head rapidly and waved his hands wildly to sell the denial.

Well. The dragon race and the dwarven race — their thinking truly clicked together in the most perfectly incompatible of ways.