Early the next morning, Frieren was dragged out of bed by Shane.
As they had agreed the day before, they were going to the nearby mountains to look for clues about the dwarf helmet.
"Couldn't we go in the afternoon?"
Frieren looked thoroughly unwilling.
Shane ignored her.
The air after the rain was chilly.
The two of them followed a narrow path. Since it had just rained, there were plenty of puddles along the way.
Shane carefully avoided them.
Frieren stumbled along behind him, still half-asleep and paying no attention to the path. She kept stepping into puddles, and the spell to dry her clothes had been in constant use the whole way.
Well, knowing magic certainly had its perks.
After carefully climbing onto a huge boulder, the two of them finally reached the place the old man had said he found the helmet.
Just as Frieren had expected, the area was full of furrows left by axe blows.
Shane touched the marks on the rocks beside him. The deepest was half a meter deep, while even the shallowest was as deep as a finger. Despite decades of wind and sun, the sharp edges were still visible.
He couldn't help but marvel. Every dwarf really was born with incredible strength.
"The marks vary in depth. The warrior must have nearly exhausted himself by the time he was chopping here."
There was a hint of sadness in Frieren's voice.
She had traveled with Eisen for ten years and knew very well how strong dwarf warriors were.
These marks might seem unbelievable, but compared with the average dwarf warrior's strength, they were still too "ordinary." Most likely, the warrior had left them while fighting desperately on the brink of death. He must have fought the monsters to the very end...
The two of them continued searching the area.
Unfortunately, so much time had passed that they couldn't find anything else besides the marks on the rocks.
Pitter-patter—
The rain started again.
Frieren couldn't help shrinking her neck. "This damp, chilly weather really isn't suitable for going outside."
Shane looked around. "There's an overhanging rock over there. Let's take shelter underneath it."
Before he had even finished speaking, Frieren shot into the air and darted over in the blink of an eye.
Shane: "..."
They sat around the campfire.
The two of them watched the mountains through the curtain of rain, bored out of their minds.
Shane had a vague feeling that there was more to this helmet than met the eye.
Like the elves, dwarves were few in number, but their history stretched back a long way.
In countless fantasy stories, dwarves were always linked to "treasure" and "legendary weapons." Shane was very interested. If he could find a dungeon full of Magic Tools or battered equipment, he could farm some more traits.
"Frieren, did Eisen ever tell you about dwarf history or any stories about them?"
"Eisen didn't talk much. He'd occasionally mention his hometown, but he never told me any stories about the dwarves. I did hear some things from Flamme, though..."
Frieren hugged her knees and scooted forward a little, moving closer to the fire.
As she basked in its warmth, she recounted the history Flamme had once told her:
Before the Demon King ordered the extermination of the elves, the dwarves had actually been the first race they wanted to wipe out.
Unlike the elves, who had few desires and preferred to live secluded lives, the dwarves were warm and hospitable. They loved dealing with humans, especially doing business with them.
Dwarves were skilled at finding iron ore, smelting iron, and forging. They were also good at inventing and creating things. The Demon King had once tried to win them over, but they refused.
Their reason was perfectly in keeping with dwarf character: demons were not as clever as humans.
Before the Unified Empire era, the dwarves had created a magnificent "Steel Civilization." They had even begun experimenting with large machines, hoping to make human society more convenient.
But this immediately aroused the Demon King's suspicion.
Demon spies infiltrated the largest dwarf settlement. Somehow, they incited an internal war, and the dwarves began to splinter and fight among themselves, greatly weakening their strength.
The demons took advantage of the chaos to launch a massacre against the dwarves. In less than a hundred years, the dwarves had been divided and destroyed.
The surviving dwarves fled into human society, hiding their identities and living quietly.
It was because they had witnessed the dwarves' fate that the elves chose to side with humanity from the very beginning.
Unfortunately, even that hadn't spared them from the Demon King's slaughter.
Frieren seemed to recall her childhood and grew somewhat downcast. She didn't continue.
Shane sighed.
Whether elves or dwarves, they had all been victims of this thousand-year "war between humans and demons."
Before long, the rain stopped.
During this season of persistent drizzle, the weather was always as changeable as people's moods.
The two of them continued wandering through the mountains.
From a distance, Shane spotted a small village with smoke rising from its chimneys.
The village was nestled among the trees, with only a dozen or so households.
Shane went over and asked an old woman at the village entrance if she knew any local stories or legends about dwarves.
He wanted to see if he could find any useful clues.
"An outsider?"
The old woman's attitude immediately turned cold when she saw Shane. She looked him up and down, then turned around and shut the door in his face.
Shane was taken aback.
Had he said something wrong?
He tried knocking on the door of another house. But when the resident opened the door and saw him, they didn't say a word before shutting it again.
This struck him as strange. His face had always been popular. People from eighty to eight usually took to him right away. Why wasn't it working as it should today?
"I don't think it's your fault."
"Maybe a secluded mountain village like this just doesn't like outsiders showing up."
After hearing that, Shane nodded, finding the explanation quite convincing.
Just then, a door ahead of them opened a crack. A chubby little girl poked her head out and looked both ways.
Then she squeezed through the gap and came bouncing over to Shane.
The little girl gave an embarrassed cough, then cautiously held out her chubby little hand and opened it in front of Shane.
"Big brother, you're so handsome. You're the best-looking person I've ever seen."
"I found this in the woods earlier. It's as pretty as you are, so I want to give it to you!"
A strangely shaped hazelnut lay in the girl's chubby palm, glowing with a faint blue light.
Shane picked it up to examine it closely. He had never seen a hazelnut like this before.
He was just about to say something when a woman rushed out of the house behind the girl, grabbed her, and dragged her back inside.
"..."
Shane looked at the hazelnut, then at the firmly shut door, unsure whether he should go return it.
Frieren noticed what Shane was holding.
She immediately grew interested.
"There are blue hazelnuts here, too. I haven't seen one in so many years."
"Is it some kind of unusual magical material?"
"No, it's just an ordinary hazelnut."
Ordinary?
Shane scoffed inwardly. What was ordinary about it? How could there be blue hazelnuts in the world, especially ones that looked this strange?
Were you trying to fool me?
"It really is an ordinary hazelnut."
"It just happens to grow on the back of a Sky Vein Dragon. Looks like a Sky Vein Dragon passed through here recently..."
Before you continue