"Are you Paladin or a demon?" the Dwarf blacksmith blurted out, his words dripping with disrespect. "One in fifty? Absolutely impossible!"
His assistant quickly grabbed his arm. Unas now held the same status as Hill Lord in the Dark Iron Kingdom, and a commoner blacksmith, no matter how skilled, could not be so rude.
Unas seized the opportunity to lash out, "You want to accuse me of being a demon? That's absurd! I refuse to cooperate with you."
"My lord, please calm your anger," the assistant hurriedly bowed and apologized. "Master Stone only spoke rashly in a moment of anger and had no intention of insulting you."
"Yes, yes, yes," Stone Greystone nodded repeatedly, realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry, it was just a slip of the tongue."
Unas remained indifferent, and his assistant changed the subject, "We heard that you acquired all of Fran's collection, and we are all very envious. Among them is a Warhammer that is said to have been used by the Mountain King. Although it is damaged, the Mountain King is an idol of many Dwarves, and it has a very high collection value."
What are you trying to say?
Stone seemed to understand his assistant's meaning and quickly replied, "This damaged Warhammer is just a piece of scrap metal to you, but it's priceless to me. If you would give it to me, sir, I would accept one-fiftieth of its value."
Unas rummaged through his backpack and found a massive, cracked gray hammer, clearly an antique, which was indeed of no use to him.
But he also became wary. The other party's attitude changed so quickly, which was really strange. Could it have been premeditated?
They deliberately set their sights on Adamantite from the start, but their real objective was the damaged Warhammer. This was a classic feint.
Unas tentatively said, "Actually, I don't want to give up a single gram of Adamantite. How about this, the Mountain King's Warhammer plus five thousand Gold Coins, and this deal is yours."
The two Dwarves whispered among themselves for a moment, then the assistant said, "Twenty thousand Gold Coins plus Warhammer, my lord, this is already a losing proposition for us."
You're still scrambling to do a losing business? Do you think I'm a fool? And you gave up on Adamantite so readily? Something's definitely wrong. Unas's suspicions grew, and he didn't want to waste any more words with this shrewd merchant.
"Sorry, I don't have the money and don't want to do this deal anymore. Oh, by the way, how's the progress of my custom-made armor? It's been almost half a month and I haven't heard anything. Could you please help me follow up? Goodbye."
After uttering those words so casually, Unas turned and strode away without looking back, not giving the two Dwarves a chance to speak.
After he walked away, the two Dwarves looked at each other and began to blame one another.
"Has our true purpose been exposed?"
"It's all your fault, you were too impatient!"
"It's no use blaming me, what do we do now?"
"There's no other way but to ask the president to step in."
Unas returned to his territory in the Mining District and told Luther and the others who stayed behind about the good news of his appointment, which naturally caused a great uproar.
Frank immediately took out a map of the Searing Gorge, and the group began to study Unas's new territory.
Firewatch Ridge appears as a fairly large mountain range on the map, but it is located very far from Blackrock Depths, almost on the northern border of Searing Gorge and Dun Morogh.
Frank, a man of wide experience, said, "I've traveled through there several times when I was a merchant. The terrain is complex and treacherous, the environment is quite harsh, and it's the perfect hiding place for all sorts of bandits and fugitives. It's a chaotic area that neither the Dark Iron Dwarves nor the Bronzebeard Dwarves want to deal with."
"Are there any special local products?"
Frank shook his head. "Aside from a little bit of iron ore, I haven't heard of any other specialties."
This "Lord of Holy Light" title is indeed just a nice-sounding title. It's useless to have barren land that breeds bandits and robbers. Unas doesn't have time to deal with it for the time being.
The atmosphere suddenly turned somewhat tense, Luther cursed, "These Dark Iron Dwarves are definitely no good!"
Although Unas was slightly disappointed, he still smiled and said, "It's nothing serious. It sounds like a terrible place, but it might be useful to me."
His plan was that if there were nowhere else to grind experience points in the future, he would go there and kill some bandits or something.
Frank said, "Actually, if a safe road could be cleared out, that would be a good smuggling route."
Smugglers really haven't forgotten their old ways, Unas shook his head. What kind of lord leads the way in smuggling?
He took out the broken Warhammer from his bag, recounted his encounter with the two Dwarves, and asked, "I carefully examined the area along the way and found nothing unusual. Do you think I misjudged those two Thorium Brotherhood members?"
The Warhammer was passed around among the men, and nothing seemed amiss; it was just a damaged Warhammer covered in cracks.
Frank even went to see an old human blacksmith to check, but he found no problem.
"Call Fran over. It seems only he can answer our questions. I'm just afraid that old man is pretending to be stupid."
The once-important figure was now dressed in coarse clothes, showing no trace of his former wealth. Surrounded by onlookers, Fran, who had rushed over, bowed timidly.
"This Warhammer was part of your collection, remember?"
"Every item in my collection is deeply imprinted in my mind, sir. Of course I remember; this is the Warhammer once used by the Mountain King."
The account matched that of the two Dwarves, so it seemed neither side was lying. Unas nodded in satisfaction. "Could you tell us its history?"
Modimus Anvilmar, the Mountain King, is a name that has been passed down through generations of Dwarves. Bronzebeard, Wildhammer, Dark Iron —no Dwarf, regardless of tribe, fails to hold this name in high esteem.
He is widely recognized as the most powerful Dwarf Warrior in history, the first and only king of all Dwarves, and the founder of an unprecedented Dwarf Empire. Unfortunately, after his death, the Dwarves fell into disintegration.
The most famous legends about him are "Avatar" and "Thunder Hammer". In battle, the Mountain King can transform into a god-like giant to crush all living beings, and his Warhammer can unleash endless lightning strikes to destroy enemies. These two abilities made him undefeated in his lifetime of battles.
The Avatar has been passed down among the Dwarves, and a few exceptionally gifted individuals, like Rendaen, have mastered it. The Dwarves have also tried to imitate the Thunder Hammer, and the lightning bolts emitted by the Iron Golems and the Lightning Flying Hammers of the Wildhammer Tribe are all results of their research and imitation. However, its true secret has never been discovered.
"This Warhammer was once used by the Mountain King. Perhaps it holds the secret of lightning, but I have consulted many renowned masters for their research, yet none of them have made any useful discoveries. It is merely a damaged souvenir and cannot unleash lightning at all."
Fran recounted the history of the Dwarves and frankly shared his views on Warhammer.