The Author's POV

Rumble—

With a low rumble, the ground shook and the doors of Henlour opened up.

Without saying anything, we entered the gates.

"Welcome back."

Greeting us at the entrance of the city was another dwarf. By now, most people already knew who we were, and hence, whenever they saw us, they would greet us.

"Thank you."

Greeting them back, we once again entered the city.

Rumble—

It wasn't long before a low rumble sounded again and the gates closed shut behind us.

"Go get some proper rest. We will start our preparations for the elven domain over the next few days."

"Got it."

The first thing we did was go back to our own residences to get changed.

Having stayed in the nearby forests for over a month, everyone needed to get a proper bath.

Although our tents were indeed advanced, they still didn't have showers built in them. As such, whenever someone needed to wash, they would need to go to a nearby river to get cleaned.

Actually, I did briefly pass by Henlour a week ago to talk to Malvil about my sword, so it was only a week for me.

"Huam."

Once I arrived at my residence and separated myself from the others, I headed for the shower.

Turning the valve on, I let the warm water fall on my tired body, which had a couple of scars on them, before i relaxed completely.

Once I was done with the shower, drying my hair with a clean towel, I sat on the bed.

As I sat down, the water droplets that dropped down from my body traced down my toned body before they reached the clean bedsheets, wetting them.

"Let's see if anyone contacted me during all this time."

Opening my desk drawer, I took out my watch and booted it on.

Since there was no signal outside of the city as the dwarves tried to limit most outside communications, I had no idea about what had happened while I was gone.

It wasn't even a moment before a long string of text appeared on my watch. All of them coming from the same individual.

"Oh, Malvil called me."

'Is he finished with the sword?'

Him calling me only meant one thing: the sword was almost ready.

After the incident with Inferno, and after spending nine months improving my swordsmanship, I was finally able to convince him into forging a sword for me.

Not many had such a privilege, and so I was very happy with this development.

"That aside, I also feel much better now that I no longer have the tracking device inside of my head working."

Thanks to Jomnuk's coaching, Ryan was able to develop to the point where he could now easily hack into my chip and tamper with the device.

He could turn it on and off whenever he wanted to. This was a great piece of news to me as I could definitely make do with it in the future.

Especially at the conference where I was going to meet up with the Union.

With the chip tracking device off, they would of course be unable to tell that I was 876, but for sure I was going to let them understand that they had messed with someone extremely petty.

Well, that was granted if the opportunity for it came. If there wasn't, I could just wait for later.

'Right, that fucker will also be there…'

Recalling a certain face inside of my memories, my lips tugged upwards.

'I've still got quite the score to settle with you, don't I?'

whom I hated much more than the Union, it would be none other

pain I had

of my teeth grinding together sounded

"Huuuu."

took a deep breath, trying to

everything and now

up and quickly getting changed, I headed for the door of my

Cli- Clank—

Malvil and seeing how much he progressed on

wanted to leave for the elven domain with a new sword, especially since the ones I have been using weren't

***

hated about the fourth level, it would without a doubt be the tremendous

being so close to the earth's core, it was extremely

as

pleasant, to say the

"You're finally here, human!"

entering the main building of the facility center,

he was already there talking to the secretary, and only

couple of days ago." He

"That fast?"

annoyed, but

of my focus on training instead of anything else.

"Follow me."

to the secretary, Malvil brought

in the previous times that I had been there, it was a mess. With equipment sprawled all over the place and scrap pieces of metal

the garbage, we soon paused in front

Thump—

that was covered in a thin white cloth onto the table,

eyes paused on the sword,

the

a while to process the…sword in front of me, if it

nothing like it. Rather, it looked more like

edges, no grip, and completely nothing that would make it look like a sword, the thing that was

tell me

pride, he would never show me something like this unless

there, I looked up to Malvil who was looking at the sword with traces of

his finger forward and tracing it over the body of the piece of metal, Malvil muttered

"How beautiful…"

You call that thing

wanted to say those words out loud but I managed to keep my mouth shut throughout the whole

of minutes passed that Malvil finally regained himself

about that, almost

I replied with

what's with

that my face was quite obvious

of peace, I calmly replied, "Nothing. I was just curious if this

"Of course it is."

his small hand on

the

that this is the frame of the

yes, I could tell that

is

back before walking towards another counter and picking up a small white hammer

then proceeded to walk

me one last glare, he handed

you'll understand once

confusion dying my face. Why in the world was

"Just take it."

hammer in my hands and pointed at the sword

"Now hammer the sword!"

just how serious he was being, I calmed myself down quickly

his profession, so without wasting any more

your mana before you do

swing downwards, Malvil's

"Got it."

eyes, I channeled all of my

Vooom—!

embedded on the hammer's side suddenly started to glow, lighting

the metal frame, Malvil shouted, "Now! Hammer the sword