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?'

I hated much more than the Union, it would be none other than the individual that brought me to 'that place' to begin

pain I had

sound of my teeth grinding together

"Huuuu."

deep breath,

was a time for everything and now was not

I headed for the door of

Cli- Clank—

visiting Malvil and seeing how much he progressed on

a new sword, especially since the ones I have been using weren't the right fit for

***

there was one thing that I hated about the fourth level, it would without a doubt be the tremendous

the earth's core, it was

it would feel as

pleasant, to

"You're finally here, human!"

entering the main building of the facility center,

there talking to the secretary, and only greeted me once he saw me

done a couple of days ago."

"That fast?"

but I merely

all of my focus on training instead of anything else.

"Follow me."

goodbye to the secretary, Malvil brought me

over the place and scrap pieces of metal on the floor, it looked as though a storm had raged inside of

the garbage, we soon

Thump—

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

he unfurled the cloth and my eyes paused on the

this the completed

in front of me, if it could

it. Rather, it looked more like

would make it look like a sword, the

tell me that

never show me something like this unless there

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

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

"How beautiful…"

call that

wanted to say those words out loud but I managed to

after a couple of minutes passed that Malvil finally regained

almost lost

I replied with

with that

was

a show of peace, I calmly replied, "Nothing. I was just curious if this was the sword that you were planning

"Of course it is."

small

then pointed towards the long piece of

see that this is the frame of the

yes, I could tell that

ignorance is

before walking towards another counter and picking up a small

walk

me one last glare,

understand once you do

I asked, confusion dying my face. Why

"Just take it."

hammer

"Now hammer the sword!"

I calmed myself down quickly and stared

that Malvil was not someone who would joke about things related to his profession, so without wasting any more time, raising my hand which held onto the hammer, I prepared

mana before you do

even swing downwards, Malvil's voice

"Got it."

all of my mana into the

Vooom—!

suddenly started to glow, lighting up

the metal frame,