The Spirit of Sloth

The Southern Nations have entered the "damp season" during this period.

Throughout the vicinity of the Neck Mountains, a persistent drizzle has fallen, and Shane hasn't seen the sun for several days.

He and Frieren are temporarily staying in a small town called Saddle Town.

This town is situated right next to the Neck Mountains and serves as the final stop before entering the range; moving any further forward, there are essentially no more large towns to be found.

The entire Neck Mountains stretch for over a thousand kilometers, acting as the natural boundary between the Central Continent and the Southern Nations. Once they cross the mountains, they will enter the territory of the Central Nations, where they will follow the Golden Trade Route straight to the Holy Capital to visit Heiter.

However, within the mountain range itself, one might sometimes go hundreds of kilometers without seeing a single village.

Therefore, they must wait for the weather to improve before entering the mountains.

One must know that regardless of the time, entering the mountains during rainy weather is never a wise choice.

Frieren dislikes the cold, damp weather; using the rain as an excuse, she has spent the entire day curled up in her room, clutching a grimoire to pass the time.

When Shane invited her out for desserts, she showed absolutely no interest.

It is clear just how much she loathes this wretched weather.

After finishing breakfast, feeling bored, he began to study his status panel.

[Shane]

Status: Mental Power · Ordinary (No recovery needed)

Traits: [Great Wisdom Looks Like Stupidity (Gold)], [Thought Acceleration (Gold)], [Time Mastery (Gold)], [Strong Luck (Purple)], [Mind Shield (Blue)], [Numerical Mirror (Purple)]

Evaluation: A person.

Shane's gaze fell upon the newly acquired [Numerical Mirror]; there is currently no way to verify the practical combat effects of this mechanical trait.

He has been urgently wanting to find a monster to test the waters lately.

Beyond that, the description in the "Status" column also weighs on his mind.

Because there is nothing like a "newbie guide," he has had to figure out things like trait usage and magic learning bit by bit on his own.

Moreover, since he is unclear about how a Sage actually cultivates, he has no clue how to rapidly increase his mental power, leaving him only able to constantly attempt to Strip traits, hoping that a quantitative change will lead to a qualitative one.

But as it stands, it seems that is far from enough.

At the very least, looking at the panel, aside from the increase in traits, there has been no change in the rating of his mental power.

Rapidly increasing his mental power, learning more powerful [Magic], and becoming stronger is his most urgent priority right now; after all, those perverted demons will attack at the slightest provocation.

"I still need to get my hands on more traits..."

Taking advantage of a break in the rain, he stepped out of the inn to get some fresh air.

On the streets after the rain, the air was slightly cool.

He hadn't walked long before a thin, fine layer of water droplets began to settle on his hair.

It inexplicably added a touch of the melancholic youth to his appearance.

The proprietress of a fruit shop nearby saw him, her eyes lit up, and she waved at him enthusiastically.

"Hey, Shane, would you like some apples?"

"Of course, beautiful lady. Your apples are the best I've ever eaten on my travels."

Hearing Shane's words, the proprietress immediately beamed from ear to ear, even insisting on inviting Shane into the shop to sit for a while.

Originally, 2 copper coins could buy 3 apples, but in the end, Shane managed to buy 5.

This, perhaps, is the charm of language.

After successively patronizing the bakery, the beef jerky shop, and the dessert shop, Shane finally returned to the inn, cradling a massive pile of delicacies he could barely carry.

The time had already reached the afternoon, and Frieren still hadn't stepped out of her room.

Fearing she might starve to death inside, Shane had no choice but to take on the job of feeding her.

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of knocking echoed.

Frieren clutched her grimoire, not wanting to pay any attention.

Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock—

The door was nearly being pounded to pieces.

Frieren let out a sigh.

"Frieren, I remember you know a [Magic to Remove Rust from Bronze Statues], right?"

"Did you smash my door open just to ask me this?"

"Hahaha, I was just worried you were sleeping too soundly to hear me."

Shane hurriedly handed over a fruit-filled cupcake to soothe the elf girl's morning grumpiness.

"I was wandering around town earlier and ran into an old man. He said the copper pot at home had rusted, but there wasn't a craftsman in town who could remove the rust, so he wanted to ask for our help. I figured a copper statue and a copper pot are basically the same thing, so do you want to give it a try?"

"..."

The cupcake in front of her suddenly felt heavy.

Frieren held her spoon, hesitating for a moment, unsure whether she should take a bite.

In the end, relying on her formidable willpower, she struggled to resist the temptation of the dessert and returned the cake to Shane.

"It's too cold out, I don't want to go out. Let's do it another day."

Hearing Frieren's reply, Shane wasn't surprised at all; getting this lazy elf to step outside in weather like this was a tall order.

"I knew you'd say that, so look at what this is."

As he spoke, Shane pulled the rusted copper pot out of his backpack.

Frieren looked speechless.

Since you already brought it back, why bother putting on such an act...

Swish.

Her staff appeared in an instant. Frieren tapped the copper pot lightly, and a breeze-like magic swept across its surface. The rust that had been clinging to it vanished, and the entire pot became bright and clean once again.

Shane couldn't help but give Frieren a thumbs-up.

"Alright, it's solved. Don't disturb my reading, go on, get out of here."

Frieren took back the piece of cake and waved her hand at Shane as if shooing away a puppy, her face full of impatience.

Shane chuckled and pointed at the copper pot.

"Don't be in such a rush. Take a look at the pot now and see if it's any different from before."

What difference could there possibly be?

Frieren glanced at it quite casually.

Then, she sensed something was off. She turned her head back, took a closer look, and then froze in place.

"You should be able to tell now, right? This isn't an ordinary copper pot; it's actually a Dwarf Copper Helmet, just deformed from the passage of time."

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be the unique forging craftsmanship of the dwarves—a product of a dwarven smith."

The reason Shane was so certain wasn't because of anything else.

It was because he could see the item's traits.

[Dwarf Copper Helmet]

Status: Deformed

Traits:

[Iron Head (White Trait)]: Significantly increases physical defense of the head.

[Adaptability (White Common)]: Due to its special material, it possesses excellent shape malleability.

Evaluation: It once belonged to an unyielding warrior.

When the old man had pulled out this helmet, Shane realized things weren't simple. Sure enough, upon asking, he learned that the old man had found it on a mountain when he was a child, decades ago.

As for who had lost it, he didn't know.

But he clearly remembered that when it was found, the ground near the helmet seemed to have been severely damaged, as if it had been crushed by something.

Hearing such an origin, Shane guessed that an unknown battle might have taken place in that area.

That was why he bought the helmet with money and brought it back for Frieren to see; he believed Frieren would surely know something about the dwarves.

One had to know that dwarves, like elves, were a very rare race. He didn't think this kind of dwarven helmet would just randomly appear in some small mountain village.

Just as Shane had suspected, Frieren also realized something was wrong.

The helmet was covered in marks left by blades; this was clearly a helmet worn by a warrior during their lifetime.

She immediately thought of Ize, and she also thought of the dwarven village Ize had mentioned that was once attacked by demons.

After Ize grew up, he returned to the village countless times and searched the surrounding area for that vanished demon, investigating for many years, but he had found nothing.

He had felt great regret over it.

If this helmet was related to the demons from back then...