Brain Overload

"May the forge never go cold, and honor endure forever!"

Oh, heavens—old Barn felt his heart take a direct hit. It was perfect as their clan's motto. How had he never thought of it before? He really suffered from not reading enough books.

That line alone deserved a toast. He downed his beer, white foam coating his beard.

After refilling his cup, he went to see what exactly was on that magic device.

Eight youngsters sat around the machine. In front of each was a chessboard-like illusion, a row of cards, and various bits of information.

It looked a little like wizard chess. Barn did not like that sort of game—it took too much thinking, and if there was even a slight gap in skill, there was no chance of winning. Not exciting at all.

He quickly found the source of the sound. On one girl's board stood a full six dwarves.

She had taste.

Though he did not particularly like human women. At barely five feet three, they did not even weigh one hundred sixty pounds, their waists were thinner than his legs, and they did not have beards. Far too small and frail.

But choosing dwarves to fight meant she had good judgment. Dwarves were always the finest warriors.

There were also two orcs besides the six dwarves. That was no problem. As long as they were not pointy-ears, dwarves could fight alongside any warrior.

At the very front of the lineup stood a powerful warrior gripping a heavy hammer.

Oh! Look at that handsome red beard. This had to be Sutter Forge, exactly like the illustrations he had seen. That motto suited Sutter perfectly—and it suited him too.

The basic rules were easy enough to understand. Spend gold to refresh the cards, buy cards to summon pieces, gather three copies to upgrade a piece, and equip one's pieces with magical gear.

There were additional effects if enough pieces shared the same class or race. Once the timer ran out, players were matched in pairs, and their pieces began slaughtering each other automatically.

Dwarves could strengthen the equipment they wore, while warriors increased armor and attack power.

It suited dwarven warriors perfectly. Barn watched with growing excitement and took another huge gulp of beer.

On the board, Sutter swung his heavy hammer and flattened a Drow darting about everywhere.

"Oh!" Barn cheered together with the young dwarves. This was how dwarven warriors fought. Those Drow lurked in the shadows, striking here and there like flies, but in a real fight, were they not still just one hammer blow away from death?

This was incredible!

Far more exciting than wizard chess.

Wisdom, strategy, passionate combat, plus a little luck—was there any more perfect entertainment? He had to find out where this thing came from. Their clan needed one—no, lots of them!

A dragon appeared on the board, lifelike in every detail.

To be honest, Barn did not dislike dragons. Dragons were greedy, sure, but what race was not? At most, they coveted different things.

Those pointy-ears went on and on about having no desires, yet when they saw a precious instrument, did they not treat it like an ancestor?

At least dragons were openly greedy. As for other creatures, who knew what underhanded methods they might use for the sake of greed?

Could dwarven warriors defeat a dragon?

A group of dwarves crowded together, tensely watching everything unfold on the board.

Twenty seconds later, the dragon fell with a crash.

"Oh!" Another round of cheers erupted. Wooden mugs clinked loudly together, followed by a chorus of gulping.

"I finished mine!" A young dwarf was the first to turn his mug upside down.

"Ha! Give the lad another cup, on me. If I were fifty years younger, none of you could outdrink me!"

After several cups, the dwarves grew even more animated. They even let out rhythmic battle cries behind Aisha, cheering on the dwarven warriors on the board as they fought for first place.

In the game, only one final opponent remained.

"We're champions!"

"Dwarves are always the best!"

The countdown ended, and the enemy attacked. Barn immediately saw that the other side was made up of those detestable pointy-ears, cowards who only dared to hold bows and shoot from afar.

The forge would crush them!

Yet the scene he had expected did not appear. The moment battle began, a whirlwind swept Sutter into the air.

What was this?

Elven trickery. It had to be elven trickery!

A few seconds later, Sutter landed and slowly built up magic power. He finally unleashed his skill, but all the other warriors had already died. Only Sutter struggled on, chained under countless crowd-control effects until he could not move at all. He died before he could even swing his hammer.

"Impossible, this is impossible! How could great dwarven warriors lose to pointy-ears? It was all trickery! If they fought again, the dwarves would definitely win!" Barn roared in dissatisfaction.

"Why don't you play, then?" Aisha looked thoroughly impatient.

Dwarves never refused a challenge, especially in front of other dwarves.

He stroked his red beard, then sat down grandly in the seat Aisha had left behind.

Running his hand over the surface of the magic device, he immediately knew it was no ordinary material. Such fine materials, yet such terrible workmanship—the craftsman who made it was not even qualified to be his apprentice.

After briefly getting used to the controls, the game officially began.

For the first time in his life, he felt that the night had passed so quickly.

Three hours. Two eighth places, two seventh places, and one sixth place.

Barn had to admit that this game had something to it.

Thankfully, he had a thick beard and dark skin. Otherwise, everyone would have seen that his face had turned bright red.

Especially after Aisha disdainfully remarked, "What a joke."

He was the best craftsman in the clan, and the second sharpest mind after the High Elder.

But this round would wash away his shame.

Though he only had nine health left, he now had a two-star Sutter. The quality of his lineup was not high, but he had all the synergies.

Most importantly, he also had a dragon egg. It would hatch next round.

According to the description, dragon eggs could drop exceptionally valuable items.

He had to survive this round. He had to...

For once, the brave and fearless dwarf began to pray.

Sutter, hold on!

The dwarven hero still fell, but the other side had only one piece left as well.

The attack came, and his health dropped by eight.

"Whew—"

Barn let out a long breath. He had barely survived. Now it was his turn.

The dragon egg shattered, spilling gold coins and several pieces of equipment across the ground.

Refresh, search—damn, I missed one. I need this, I need this, refresh... huh, should I take this one?

Dense beads of sweat formed on Barn's forehead as the seconds ticked away.

He panicked.

Who else was supposed to go in this lineup again? Why was there an empty slot? Right, there was equipment too. Who should get this equipment...

Time ran out.

His opponent appeared.

It was over. All over.

He struck the magic device in frustration.

In an instant, all the illusions vanished.

"Seriously, I already opened the dragon egg. Shouldn't this round count as my win?" Barn spoke at only a third of his usual volume.

He rarely lied, but for some reason, he could not stop himself this time. This thing was bewitching.

Meanwhile, the other players scratched their heads in agitation.

"You broke the magic device. Do you know how expensive this thing is?"

He knew very well. No one understood the prices of different materials better than he did. But in his eyes, the workmanship of this magic device was bad enough that they should have paid him to take it.

"I'll just fix it."

"You say you can fix it, so you can? Who are you? Do you know how many people worked to make this thing?"

"That only proves those people were incompetent. I'm Barn Forge. There isn't a magic device I can't repair."

"You say you are, and that makes it true? Is that Sutter over there, then?"

"How am I supposed to prove it?"

"Not only do you have to repair it, you also have to make it smaller. It needs to become a standalone machine. They say a Forge can turn decay into wonder, so you had better not use any overly precious materials either."

"Of course I can." Barn did not hesitate for even a moment.

"Good. Then sign the contract."

After Aisha and the others left, Barn's assistant said, "Master, I think they set this all up to provoke you into coming out of retirement."

"Of course I know," Barn said with an unconcerned smile. "But this magic device is genuinely interesting, isn't it? Even without the contract, I would improve it. Something so fun should not be held back by such clumsy craftsmanship."

As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves and began taking it apart.

He quickly found the source of the problem: a component that had been deliberately tampered with. There was also an envelope beside it.

Inside was a check and a letter addressed to: Dear Mr. Barn Rodell Forge.

"Interesting people," Barn said, turning to the apprentices and assistants behind him. "Whoever planned this, that fellow is exactly my kind of person."