Setting Off Again

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

Serie had fully recovered without any lingering aftereffects, and Som said he had stayed long enough, so Rhode officially prepared to set out on another adventure.

Of course, this time their team had two more members.

"Noyun, listen to the adults here and wait for me to come back, okay?"

Standing at the village gate, Norn bid his sister a reluctant farewell.

"Mm, then when will you come back, big brother?"

Norn fell silent for a moment.

He had no idea when he would return from this expedition—or even if he would return at all.

But there was something he had to do.

He didn't want to only protect the safety of this one village.

To do that, he needed to become much stronger.

"When big brother is strong enough, I'll come back." Norn crouched down and gently ruffled his sister's hair. "Then I'll teach you some powerful magic, okay?"

According to Serie, his sister also had talent for learning magic.

But she was still too young to accumulate enough mana in her body, so she couldn't even cast the simplest spells.

Noyun tugged at her brother's sleeve with her small hand, reluctant but nodding firmly. "I'll wait for you!"

Erik couldn't stand it anymore and grumbled gruffly, "Hey hey, this isn't a farewell forever, don't make it sound like we're not coming back."

At that moment, Erik was carrying a large pack on his back. Supplies for five people were no small matter, and even basic necessities took up a lot of space.

Adventure wasn't about setting off empty-handed.

It was like going on a road trip by bike—you didn't just hop on a bike on a whim and go.

At least you brought your phone.

So you could call a ride to take you home if you decided to give up.

Serie crossed her arms and added flatly, "Calling it a farewell forever isn't wrong. It's entirely possible we won't come back."

Even she had accepted Rhode's request for adventure with the mindset that she might never return to the Elf Forest.

It could only be said that with more people around, Serie had a knack for missing the mood.

But Rhode didn't correct her. He just quickly smoothed things over. "Alright, alright, time to set off."

Norn exchanged a few more words with the reliable elders of the village before rejoining the group.

After bidding farewell to the villagers who had come to see them off, the five of them officially began their journey.

And so, buried in the long river of history, the legendary hero team was officially formed.

The Saint marches forward, the Sage seeks survival, the Godslayer sleeps eternal, the one who walks into darkness proclaims death, and the honored one wears a crown of glory.

But for now, none of the team members knew that yet.

As the village faded into the distance and they left the territory of Gremir Forest, Som asked, "Where's the first stop?"

"The Dwarven Kingdom ruins." Rhode spread out a map. "If I'm not mistaken, the number of monsters there will be much lower than before."

"What do you mean?" Som was a bit puzzled.

He remembered that place had long become a stronghold for monsters, so it should have been crawling with them.

"Because of the war," Serie explained from the side.

"According to Kraft, the war between the monsters and the allied forces has already begun. If that's the case, most of the monsters should have been deployed to the front lines," Rhode added.

In truth, both the monsters and the Demon Race were in chaos.

After all, the Demon King hadn't appeared yet in this era. None of the Demon Race submitted to each other; they were all just claiming their own territories like mountain lords.

But among these territories, the Dwarven ruins had the largest concentration of the Demon Race, already faintly showing signs of becoming the First Demon King's Castle.

If nothing unexpected happened, the first Demon King of the Demon Race would likely emerge from among them.

"I see." Som quickly grasped the reasoning. "I heard that the dwarves' ancient forging techniques were also lost in that attack. That was supposed to be the dwarves' very foundation. I wonder if they can be recovered."

From the very beginning of the Mythical era, the dwarves were renowned across the entire continent for their powerful forging techniques.

Countless races spared no expense to commission the dwarves to forge mighty weapons. It was said the dwarves even created a weapon capable of harming the gods, but unfortunately, with the fall of the First Dwarven Kingdom, its truth could no longer be verified.

"Doesn't your forging technique rely on people, not secret recipes?" Rhode voiced his confusion.

In his view, as long as the people survived, the technique wouldn't be lost—it would be passed down.

Unless you were playing that ancient imperial tomb game.

Where you had the builders killed off right after they finished, then it truly wouldn't be passed down.

But when the Dwarven Kingdom fell, quite a few dwarves escaped. Wasn't there a single one among them who understood forging?

Som shook his head. "I wouldn't know about that. The axe maintenance technique I use now was learned from the old man."

"Fair enough."

"Can outsiders learn your forging techniques?" Norn asked tentatively.

"Theoretically no, but in practice they've been lost for centuries. There are no Dwarves left on the continent who know them."

Som's meaning was simple.

There were no Dwarves on this continent who knew the ancient forging techniques anymore, and even if other races wanted to learn, there was nowhere to do so.

But Som added another sentence: "If those techniques really did appear in the hands of another race, I imagine the Dwarf clan chieftains wouldn't just sit by and watch."

Norn's gaze dimmed slightly.

"If it were the pure, original technique, that would indeed be risky. But if we dismantle and break it down, the Dwarves probably wouldn't be able to tell."

Rhode's words gave Norn a glimmer of possibility. He looked at the other man, who smiled back at him, as if guessing what was on his mind.

Perhaps he should find some time to talk with him.

Teaching them magic unconditionally, even going on adventures with Elves—maybe the other man harbored the same goal as him.

Unlike Norn's concerns, Erik was more interested in something else: "I heard the Dwarven Ruins are packed with treasures?"

"That's right! They say there's a statue carved from gold, inlaid with all kinds of gemstones, over ten meters tall. And even a treasure vault with the floor paved in gold coins, like an ocean of them."

Gold wasn't widely circulated in this era, but the Dwarves couldn't resist these shiny yellow things, including all sorts of gems.

So whenever other races commissioned weapons, they would bring large amounts of gold items.

"Good heavens! Just thinking about it makes my eyes dazzle."

No matter the era, people loved shiny things. Even in a barter-based village, Erik was no exception.

"Besides gold and gems, is there anything else?"

Rhode was more concerned about other treasures. After all, he couldn't take these things with him, and even if he wanted to, he couldn't carry much.

"That, I don't know."