Chapter 67
[Entering Tower Floor 30 (EXTREME).]
Finally, the last of the 20s.
Before I left home, I had already finished deciphering the stone tablet I obtained on the 29th floor.
'The Heart of the Mountain. The souls of the race sleeping there, and the great treasures.'
The moment I saw the word treasure, I headed for the tower.
"The 29th floor was the royal palace."
Since I'd ransacked a royal palace, the next place to appear had to be somewhere even more secret and important than the palace.
There was only one place I could think of.
The treasure vault.
A dwarf treasure vault, of all things. Just imagining it made a smile spread across my lips.
"Since they're dwarves, they should have plenty of expensive items, right?"
I won't be greedy, so I just hope a couple of legendary items pop out.
With anticipation, I focused on the shifting view.
"What, where'd my treasure go?"
But the scene before my eyes was far from a glittering treasure vault.
In fact, it was almost the exact opposite.
"What is this place now…."
A massive cave enclosed on all sides.
But it was bright all around.
Lava flowed over the transparent ceiling, lighting up the cave.
It felt as if I were beneath a volcano.
At the center of the cave sat an enormous furnace.
It was as large as if a mountain had been moved here whole.
However, the furnace had cooled, as if it had not been used in a long time.
Only cold ash and slag filled the surroundings.
I looked around for a moment, then quickly lost interest.
"Where's the treasure?"
I complained without bothering to hide my disappointment.
Then.
Shrrrk.
The ash and trash piled around the furnace began to gather together.
A golem made of ash and dust was born.
As if it had no fixed form, particles kept trickling down from its surface.
Soon, that massive lump reached out a hand toward me.
A bullet of ash fired from its fingertips.
Similar in shape and size to my sand bullets.
"What, are you an ability user of the same type as me?"
I didn't bother to block it.
An auto barrier would take care of a basic attack like this.
Instead of defending, I prepared to attack.
A sharp blade made of sand infused with diamond particles bloomed at my fingertips.
Swish!
The blade split its body in two.
But the severed cross-section fused back together in an instant.
"Tch…."
I clicked my tongue and brought my palms together.
With a clap, dozens of bullets formed in midair.
I snapped my fingers. A synchronized barrage.
Shoo-shoo-shoo-shk-!
Dozens of bullets pierced the golem's body. Holes riddled it.
But that was all. The holes immediately sealed over.
"Damn, so physical attacks really are useless?"
It was the limit of an earth mage.
Whether it was a Diamond Cutter or tungsten bullets.
In the end, it was all a method of shaping sand into physical forms to attack.
Most of my attacks leaned toward physical damage.
The only pure magic attack I had was Weathering.
It wasn't a good matchup against an opponent like this.
"Will this work?"
After thinking for a moment, I came up with a new method.
I drove my staff deep into the ground.
Kuuuurrrrrrumble!
At my will, the sand and stone of the cave floor surged upward.
The walls that rose on both sides of the golem soon took the shape of giant hands.
Clap-!
I clapped loudly.
In sync with my hand, the stone arms moved and trapped the golem in their grasp.
Kagagagagak!
The golem struggled fiercely.
The sound of rock being gnawed away echoed ominously.
Cracks began to spread across the surface of the giant fist.
"Not so fast."
I poured in even more mana.
The sand fist tightened around it even harder.
Compression, then more compression.
Its amorphous body gradually condensed into something harder.
Its half-smoke body transformed into a dense mass.
Finally, when its resistance reached its limit and its torso had curled up into a ball.
I thrust my hand inside.
I could clearly feel it thrashing about.
"Weathering."
An attack that gathered every last drop of my mana.
At my fingertips, a storm of mana burst out like an explosion.
It turned each and every particle of ash into sand.
It resisted fiercely, trying to push back my magic.
The fist holding it cracked open with a sharp sound. Black dust leaked through the gaps.
"Damn, you're still holding out?"
I gritted my teeth.
Even though I was only turning ash into sand, I could feel my mana dropping in an instant.
Which would come first, this thing turning completely to sand or my mana running dry?
The precarious tug-of-war continued.
A warning of mana depletion rang in my head.
My vision began to blur.
But I couldn't stop here.
I wrung out the very last drop I had and poured in my mana.
"Disappear!"
Crack-!
With a sharp sound of something breaking, the resistance pressing down on me vanished as if it had never been there.
At the same time, the giant stone fist lost its strength and crumbled gently away.
In its place, only a mound of fine sand remained.
"Haa… that was rough."
I staggered and braced myself on one knee. All the strength had drained from my body.
Then.
A cool sensation touched my forehead.
It was Chohogi.
Chohogi wiped the sweat beading on my forehead.
The ring wrapped around my finger also sent a signal.
[The Sandworm points out that you were far too reckless.]
At their concern, I let out a snort of laughter.
Unlike my depleted mana, one corner of my heart felt warm.
"It's fine. This much is nothing."
I patted Chohogi's head and got to my feet.
The giant furnace came back into view.
I took a box from inside my coat.
An orichalcum box containing the Heart of the Mountain.
An item that had absorbed the cores of countless machine monsters and was now packed with tremendous heat.
"This should work, right?"
I took the scorching Heart of the Mountain and walked toward the furnace.
And without hesitation, I threw the item into the furnace's dead firebox.
That was the very moment.
Wooooong-!
With a low hum, the air around us began to tremble.
The Heart of the Mountain devoured the last ember left deep inside the furnace and released explosive energy.
A red light began seeping out from the dormant furnace.
The light grew ever more intense, slowly spreading along the complex circuits inside the huge mass of scrap metal.
Kugugugugung-!
At last, the furnace let out a tremendous roar.
Fierce heat filled the entire cave.
Boiling molten metal gushed from the furnace's huge outlet like a waterfall.
Then, something began to rise from within the flowing metal.
It was the shape of a person.
"Dwarves…."
They dragged their lava-red bodies and walked out of the river of molten metal.
As their bodies cooled from the searing heat, their glowing red skin turned as hard as rock.
A race reborn with the furnace's flames.
Before long, they had multiplied into the dozens and filled the cave.
I silently watched the scene.
A moment later, a dwarf of the most imposing stature parted their ranks and stepped forward.
A helmet and armor adorned with gold. A long braided platinum beard.
It was the Dwarf King.
The king approached me and bowed his massive body in respect.
"I thank you, mage. Thanks to you, we dwarves have been freed from a long curse."
"It just sort of happened."
"You are our benefactor. Dwarves never forget a debt."
The king wore a satisfied smile.
But that expression didn't last long.
The moment his gaze landed on the staff in my hand and the pendant around my neck, his expression hardened.
'Root of the World Tree' and 'Glittering Leaf of the World Tree.'
Clear wariness appeared in the Dwarf King's eyes.
"... Benefactor, where on earth did those items come from?"
Huh…? What?
I tensed up at once.
The Dwarf King had just been calling me a benefactor and thanking me.
It took less than a second for the warmth to disappear from his eyes.
It wasn't blatant hostility or anger.
Apparently, he wasn't shameless enough to point a weapon at his benefactor, at least.
Instead, the suspicion directed at me was unmistakable.
The mood of the other dwarves surrounding us was the same.
The cheers of the dwarves cut off as if they had never happened.
The Dwarf King opened his mouth.
"Benefactor. I cannot help but ask one thing."
His gaze bore into me as if it would pierce straight through my eyes.
"The staff you're holding and the leaf around your neck smell of the cursed pointy-ears. It's a smell we dwarves have known for thousands of years, one we can never forget. Would you care to explain how that's possible?"
I answered as calmly as possible.
"... Yes. I got them from the elves."
A stir rippled among the dwarves at my answer.
I asked cautiously.
"By any chance... are dwarves and elves not on good terms?"
The king snorted the moment I finished asking.
"Not on good terms? You state the obvious! Who could possibly get along with pointy-ears?"
The king gave his beard a single sweep with one massive hand.
"Those bastards are such a sneaky, cunning race!"
The king's voice grew louder.
He began pouring out his complaints about the elves.
"They've never once held a hammer, just cowards who fire toy bows from far away!"
The dwarves around him nodded in agreement. Shouts of support erupted from all around.
"That's right!"
"Those who know nothing of the sacred value of labor worked for with sweat!"
"Just lazy bums cooped up in the woods!"
"A stupid race whose nutrients all went to their height and ears instead of their beards?"
"As expected, dwarves are the greatest race. That's scientifically proven!"
"Make dwarves great again!"
I was speechless at their race-based remarks.
Suddenly, one word from the status window that had appeared for the pendant flashed through my mind.
[Special Title: 'Hero of the Elves' has been added]
Ah, maybe I shouldn't have worn this after all?
If I'd known they were this bunch of hardheads, I never should've done it.
After his passionate tirade, the king asked me again.
"So I ask you, benefactor. What exactly is your relationship with them?"
At that moment, a brilliant idea struck me.
'Should I just say this? That I actually killed all the elves and stole their treasure.'
If dwarves hate elves that much, wouldn't that make me the one who avenged their enemy?
The truth? That doesn't matter much.
If believing a lie makes both sides happier, wouldn't that be enough?
Just as I was about to open my mouth,
the ring wrapped around my finger vibrated faintly.
[The Sandworm warns that this is not a good idea.]
[The Sandworm explains that dwarves can see through lies.]
Damn.
I cursed inwardly.
Why were these guys such a pain in the ass?
In the end, there was only one choice.
I took a moment to steady my breathing.
Then I calmly began telling them about everything I'd experienced, from the late teens through the 20th floor.
"The elves I met had already fallen…."
I told them about the elves who had lost the World Tree and become dark elves.
About the process of climbing to the 20th floor to purify the tainted World Tree.
And finally, about planting the World Tree seed and meeting them.
I laid everything bare, exactly as it had happened.
As my story went on, a heavy silence hung in the cave.
The dwarves simply listened in silence.
When I finally finished, the Dwarf King stroked his beard and spoke.
"What a... tragic story."
"Pardon?"
It wasn't a mocking voice.
The king's voice carried solemn sorrow.
I was a little surprised by the unexpected reaction.
"We dwarves know well the pain of a race slowly disappearing, since we've experienced it ourselves."
He genuinely felt sorry for what had happened to the elves.
"The fact that you saved them and restored the World Tree is truly fortunate."
I couldn't believe my ears. Fortunate? Really?
No way.
Seeing my puzzled expression, the king let out a hearty laugh.
"You're serious, right?"
"Of course! If those fellows had all vanished in such miserable shape, whose skulls would we have smashed to prove our greatness?"
"Ah, that kind of fortunate."
"Waaah!"
"Only steel! Only dwarves!"
At the king's shout, the surrounding dwarves all slammed their war hammers into the ground and cheered.
I quietly watched the scene.
They were a race I couldn't make sense of.
Then I felt a faint vibration on my finger.
[The Sandworm says it understands your confusion.]
[The Sandworm recalls that it too once had followers similar to them.]
'Followers? You had subordinates?'
[The Sandworm recalls that it too once had a time of similar glory.]
I snorted at the Sandworm's words.
Sandworm being worshipped by dwarves? I couldn't picture it at all.
But what it said next was rather interesting.
[The Sandworm suggests it can tell you how to win their favor.]