There was fear in the eyes of the dwarves looking at me.

I'm sure the dwarves will deny it. The fact that they fear a human will create an emotional scar on their pride that cannot be washed away.

But I could clearly feel it.

Of course the fear was not directed at me. It was just the effect of the Dragon Fear. As well as the strength of the 'Bone Dragon [Slayer]'[1] t.i.tle.

Without swinging my sword even once, I made the dwarves believe I was an 'invincible warrior.' I needed to use this atmosphere to my advantage. If I miss this opportunity, I will need to give up quite a lot of the things I want to do.

I put some strength in my stomach and raised my voice.

"All I am trying to do is follow the will of Lord Volca.n.u.s and trek on this path of a blacksmith. Yet you all want to make me your enemy. I guess I have no choice but to kill the dwarves that try to harm me. So make up your mind. Will you be my friend? Or will you be my foe?"

To be honest, it was an empty threat. What kind of ability did I have to kill a dwarf?

But the dwarves felt a strong pressure. None of the dwarves were able to step forward.

It was the same situation for Umbach who created this issue in the first place. Maybe it was because of the fear from the Dragon Fear, but he actually took a step back.

I looked toward Goonto once more. Only Great Patriarch Bangart, Goonto's dad, could resolve this issue right now.

"Goonto, I have received a divine message from Lord Volca.n.u.s to be friends with the dwarves. You tell me. What do I have to do to be friends with the dwarves?"

Once I did that, Goonto stepped forward as if he was saying I asked a great question. He still seemed to be feeling the effect of the fear, but he still managed to look at me and state his request pretty confidently.

"In that case, make this promise in front of Lord Volca.n.u.s. The blacksmith occupation will remain with the dwarves. You will not pa.s.s on the blacksmith techniques to any other human, and cannot take any human on as your successor."

I can make a promise like that even a hundred times if I needed to do so. I have no desire to have a successor, nor the time to pa.s.s on my skills.

I answered in a style that Goonto and the dwarves would really like.

"The only reason I have become a blacksmith is due to the grace of the Lord Volca.n.u.s, and another human blacksmith will require the same grace to achieve this success. There will be no human blacksmith successor. I give you my word."

"Also promise this. You will select a dwarf successor and pa.s.s on your Jewel Alchemy."

Now what? This is annoying. On the other hand, it was a pretty good thing if you think about it. To take on a successor means taking them on as my subordinate.

How well will they listen to me? In addition, dwarves have quite a lot of uses. They should be more useful than even ten human slaves.

It will also make the dwarves treat me as their peer.

"Alright. I promise. If there is a dwarf that wants to learn Jewel Alchemy from me, any of them can step forward. I will pick a few of them and make them my successors."

Seeing me answer so easily, Goonto shouted out to the dwarves.

"Did you hear him? The blacksmith is a dwarf occupation. This human is someone Lord Volca.n.u.s made a special exception to become a human blacksmith. He is not our enemy but our friend."

"A human being friends with the dwarves?"

"No way."

Umbach tried to recreate that tense atmosphere with a few dwarves who listened to him. However, the number of voices died down quite a bit. They just ended up being scolded by Goonto.

"Are you planning on going against the will of Lord Volca.n.u.s?"

The meeting area seemed to be on Goonto's side now.

Umbach slowly lowered his shoulder. The dwarves were sending signals that they will no longer go against Goonto.

Once Umbach stepped back, there were no other dwarves who tried to go against it.

I could finally let out a sigh of relief. But I wasn't completely out of the woods.

Umbach. One day, he will be another hindrance to me. Right now, I have no way to deal with it, but I will figure something out in the near future to make him get rid of that idea for good.

Goonto put his hand out in front of me.

"Human. Make sure to keep your promise. And let's look for Chubach-nim's Solar Blade together. Let's also rescue Akto-nim's soul together as well."

I heard a voice in my head at the same time.

'Huh? What is this fool saying? How dare he try to get a free meal?'

I can handle finding Chubach's Solar Blade on my own. Someone else will just be a hindrance, even if it is someone like Goonto who is stronger than me.

I need to use Goonto's skills elsewhere.

"I will find the Solar Blade. However, if you help me, I will include you as a party member to rescue Akto's soul."

Goonto had a slightly disappointed expression.

"What kind of help do you need?"

"Help me proceed with the quest to become an Expert Blacksmith."

That was not something Goonto could do. Only Great Patriarch Bangart had the power to let me proceed with the quest.

Goonto looked toward Bangart.

Bangart had just been watching the situation in silence until now.

"That is the will of Lord Volca.n.u.s. As a dwarf, I cannot go against the will of the lord. I will help you with the quest."

Bangart put his hand on my head.

"You are currently on the fourth quest. But your Jewel Alchemy is already over level 5. You are clearly a human who has been blessed by Lord Volca.n.u.s. I hereby confirm that you have completed the fourth quest."

"This is the final quest for Expert Blacksmith. I never even dreamt that I would be giving this quest to a human. Make a contribution that all dwarves can approve of. As you already know, us dwarves would not approve of a human for any random task."

"Will it be enough to find Chubach's Solar Blade?"

"If you succeed, all of the dwarves will sing of your contribution. They will also accept you as a brother and help you out with anything you need."

Find the lost Chubach's Solar Blade.
Should you succeed, you will receive the t.i.tle of 'Dwarf Brethren' as a reward.>

I like this reward quite a bit.
If you think about their skills, the Dwarves or the Shapir are probably the best. Of course the Drake or Peria races might be stronger, but they are pretty much forgotten in the world so we can ignore them.

To be accepted as a brother by these dwarves would be great help for me.

"I accept. However, in order to accomplish it, I need some help from all of you first."

"What kind of help do you need?"

"Please use these to make me a leather armor."

I took out the hide of the Shadow Fox and the Black Scales from my bag.

All of the dwarves' eyes opened really wide. Both the Shadow Fox hide and Black Scales were extremely precious materials.

"What! Where did you get such precious materials?"

"Demon Cave and Golan Park. It was quite difficult to get it."

"I never thought I would get to touch a Shadow Fox hide."

"And look at how many Black Scales there are! At least 30 of them! Just how many Midnight Black Alligators did he hunt?"

I probably hunted around 100 of them. They used to drop pretty often at first, but lately, only one dropped after killing five of them.

I still managed to get a lot of Fairy's Tears so it was a pretty decent haul.

"Of course you'll use a good amount of the Golden Alligator hide too, right? Around how long will it take? I will definitely pay for it."

"Shadow Fox leather armor is extremely complicated compared to other leather armors. It is difficult for even me to handle. It will take at least 6 months of work."

"Then it should be ready by the time I return with Chubach's Solar Blade. And one more thing. I heard that the dwarves can make a weapon that was personalized to a single individual."

A personal weapon. You put in your magic into the weapon's materials so it becomes personalized to you.

If you do that, even if there are two weapons of the same quality, the personalized weapon can unleash between 5 to 15 percent extra impact.

It was something I did not really use in Royal Roader the game. Mainly because you could not sell personal weapons to other people. In addition, you needed to change your weapon when your stats went up as well, so there really was no point.

There were also a lot of updates with new weapons as well.

But my situation is different this time.

My weapon will always be a cutla.s.s. I will not have any reasons to change weapons. Also, if the weapon is good, I will soon have the ability to upgrade it on my own.

Goonto nodded his head.

"It is possible. But personal weapons require Jewels of Fortification, so they are very expensive."

"How much?"

"At least 500 million more than other weapons."

"As you can see, I use two cutla.s.ses. How much will it cost to make two personalized weapons? Also include the cost for the Shadow Fox Leather Armor. I will pay it all now."

"1.6 billion won. I gave you a discount because you will be finding Chubach's Solar Blade. I also gave you a discount for giving us the Golden Alligator meat and hide."

Makes sense. The Jewel of Fortification  was much more expensive than even the Jewel of Luck. If you also consider the cost of labor from Goonto who is at the edge of becoming a Best Blacksmith, 1.6 billion won definitely is not expensive.

I put 1.6 billion won into a coin and handed it to him.

"I should be able to verify the abilities of a Dwarf Blacksmith this time. Please show me the pride of the dwarves. Show me that it isn't all talk when you say you are the Blacksmith race."

I lightly egged him on.

Of course I had no reason to do that. All dwarf blacksmiths always give their best in their work.

"Just leave that to me. I will make you the greatest armor and cutla.s.s. What kind of restrictions should I set the weapons to?"

There was no issues with any agility restriction. No matter how high it may be, it would not be over 1,000.

The problem was strength.

How high could a strength restriction for a cutla.s.s be? I have no issues investing that many points into strength.

"Do not worry about restrictions, I will match it. Just make the attack strength and attack speed as best as possible."

"I understand. But it will take at least two months to complete it."

That was plenty of time. I needed to go deeper into the south for about two to three months anyways.

Goonto's Twin Blades should be completed by the time I return.

"I will come back in about two to three months. But which direction do I need to go in order to reach the Perry Desert?"

"Perry Desert? Is there a reason you are looking for the deserted land?"

"I have something to do there. I know the general direction, but not the exact direction It would be great if someone could serve as a guide."

"Even us dwarves do not enter there because of the Desert Ants."

Goonto shook his head as if he was trying to stop me.

Someone who was trying to kill me a moment ago was now worried about my life.

"I have received Lord Volca.n.u.s's blessing. I am not worried about some stupid Desert Ants."

"The decision is yours. Go up the large mountain in the south. No matter what mountain you climb, you will be able to see Perry Desert. You won't even need a guide to find it."

"Is that so? Thanks."

"Let's head to the smithy first. I need to use the Jewel of Fortification to put your magic into mithril."

Goonto took the lead. I followed behind him.

There were a lot of dwarves in the meeting area, but n.o.body could stop Goonto or me. Everytime we moved, the dwarves even moved to the side as if a miraculous road was created.

The smithy was of course in the Volca.n.u.s Temple. I managed to arrive at the smithy in a few steps.

Goonto moved around efficiently as he finished the preparations.

The preparations were simple. He just needed to gather some refined steel, a Jewel of Fortification with a Fortification Index of at least 6, and a Jewel of Luck with a Luck Index of 9 percent to help increase the success rate.

Of course all of these were expensive items.

"Put your magic into here."

It was a simple process to put magic into it. Just put your hand on it and use magic. Mithril is the material that absorbs magic the best, and the Jewel of Fortification multiplies it by six times.

However, there was an issue. I put both the Jewel of Fortification and Jewel of Luck together and used my magic, and it felt like all of my strength was being sucked into the mithril.

'So difficult!'

It also took a really long time.

I didn't realize personalizing minerals was such a hard job.

I was able to finish it in one go because cutla.s.ses tended to use a lot less minerals in comparison to other weapons. If I was trying to make a personal greatsword or something large like that, I would have had to do this at least two or three times.

I put all of my magic into the mithril before moving my hand away from it.

It took over 10 minutes to get it done.

But it was really hard. It drained all of my strength that I was even feeling lightheaded.

"It is dangerous to move in your current state. Make sure to get a good rest until at least tomorrow morning. I will ask the temple to prepare a residence for you."

"Thank you."

I managed to get a residence in the temple with Goonto's help.

As expected of a Dwarf Temple, even the residences were in underground tunnels.

However, once I went in, it was so clean and organized that it was hard to believe I was underground.

That, and the fact that I was completely exhausted, made me just want to quickly go to sleep.

'Should I get some rest?'

But there was a noise that interrupted my sleep.

Knock. Knock.

Even the dwarves knew to knock on doors.

"Who is it?"

The door opened and a pretty young looking dwarf entered. Well, by young looking, they are still at least twice my age.

"I want to learn Jewel Alchemy."

It was not just one. Once this one left, someone else entered as if they had been waiting, and then another one after that.

A total of twenty one dwarves visited me like that.

This was quite a large village, but I didn't expect so many dwarves to visit me. There were probably no more than 5,000 total dwarves in this village. So for so many dwarves to desire Jewel Alchemy to the point they were willing to be a human's successor…

They really were the blacksmith race.

Each time someone came, I recorded their name and gave them a general response.

"What is your name?"

"Haguchu."

"Haguchu. I will remember it. If you become my successor, I will contact you separately, so go back and wait."

The storm-like successor requests were resolved like that.

'Now I should be able to get some rest.'

I put the blanket down and laid down on the floor.

Even blankets made my dwarves were spectacular. It seems to be made of bird feather, but it was extremely light and fluffy. Just laying down made me feel like I would fall asleep.

But.

Knock. Knock.

'What? There's still more? They should have all come at once if they were going to come.'

This is the last one. In fact, I should probably put a note on the door that says 'resting, do not disturb.'

"Enter."

The door slightly opened and a dwarf entered.

But it was a dwarf that I did not expect to see.

"You……are Umbach?"
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[1] Author only put Bone Dragon. So I inserted Slayer as it seemed to be what he was referring to.

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Translator : Miraclerifle

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