The game was simple – you paid a fixed price. You could then draw a slip of paper with a number and got a bag according to it. Most bags held less worth than the price, obviously, but some were much higher.
“Wanna play?”, the dwarf snickered, rubbing his hands together. “No blanks. Every draw gets something.”
…Which dev had had fun with that again?
“Only once”, Ice awkwardly gave in.
He paid a full gold to reach into the sack with paper slips. There was no way to increase his chances anyway, so he simply pulled out whatever he grabbed and revealed the number to the dwarf.
Twenty-one.The dwarf rummaged around for a while before getting the correct bag. They weren’t worried about getting cheated, this was a dwarf’s honour anyway. Considering he didn’t have much experience, Ice simply handed the bag to Blackstone, whose face turned disappointed.
“Oh well”, she said sadly. “I guess this is a lesson that even the lucky people shouldn’t waste their money on gambling.”
“It’s definitely better to take your fate into your own hands”, Little Droplet agreed.
“How about another try? Just one more…” Bloodless Sunset was still staring at the stall. Ice found the wolfman’s tail wagging and couldn’t help but smile. He placed a hand on the other’s shoulder without a word, but Bloody got the message and his ears drooped.
“So where are we supposed to fi-eeeeee!!!!!”
Blackstone squeaked.
It made everyone flinch. It was a perfect, movie-worthy excited-young-lady-shriek. Blackstone was shaking her hands back and forth, continuing to squeak. Never had they seen such an expression on her face before.
Bloody squinted his eyes as he followed her gaze. There was a store on the other side of the street, an almost painfully sharp smell wafting over to them. “That’s…?”
“Extra spicy hotpot!!! Extra extra spicy hotpot!!!”
“Is that… so weird?”
Blackstone looked downright murderous as she glared up at the beastman, who went into hiding behind Ice.
“Do you know? Do you know?! Do you know how many calories chili base hotpot has?!” Several nearby women seemed to pause at her exclamation and nod to themselves. “Haven has no calories! Haven has no calories! Repeat after me, Haven has no calories! How often do you think am I allowed to eat hotpot given my job?!”
Ice had a rough idea, because he knew how his parents’ diet had been watched when they had been actively working. Not to mention that overly spicy food was forbidden – what if they hurt their stomach? Or their lips swelled? No way. No spicy food!
“I don’t care what you people are doing but I am going to go over there and I am going to eat, and not even a dragon will stop me right now. I’ll call you guys later once I’m done eating.”
In truth, none of them wanted to try stopping Blackstone with how dangerous she looked.
Pleased at not getting a rejection, Blackstone put her hands into her waist. “Spiderlily, do you want to come along? It’s not often that we can eat like this without worry!”
Spiderlily might have turned a shade paler, but she nodded.
“Okay, cool, we are off then! Just poke me in the chat when there’s something important – byeeee!” Blackstone was already walking off as she talked. The bright red of the store didn’t seem to scare her at all, contrary to Spiderlily, who Ice had a feeling stopped to turn down her pain synchronization level.
“Guess it’s just us four left.” Bloody peeked out from over Ice’s shoulder. “Any idea where we can find Machinas? Do they have a convenient town hall here too?”
“No.” Little Droplet shook their head. “All official facilities don’t allow Foreigners and visitors. We will have to ask around.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Huh? How do you know that?”
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“They did?”
“Yes.”
“…Oh.”
“Anyway, the Machinas are a family of blacksmiths or researchers, no? I’d guess that the smiths around here know each other.” Little Droplet placed the leaflet away and pointed down one of the main roads.
Dwarven cities were very orderly divided into quarters with straight streets, making it easy to find places.
Given that the Ant’s Nest was underground, all buildings that caused such a high amount of smoke such as forges were placed in a single quarter. The ventilation system must be absolutely intricate… or not existing at all and the game developers were simply hiding that fact.
The blacksmith quarter was quite well-visited by players. Many players were running around, making orders or comparing prices for materials and armor or weapons they wanted to buy.
The sound of hammers hitting metal created a symphony, often so synchronized that the dwarves must have been working in the same rhythms on purpose. Passing by some open stalls, you could hear them hum along to the beat of their work.
“I like these songs”, Dead Rabbit whispered, watching with fascination.
“Work songs can increase productivity. They stave off boredom, make it easier to keep a rhythm, and spread a feeling of comradeship.” Their little healer raised a finger, explaining like a teacher. “They’re often used to accompany hard work such as farming and can be just a melody or include lyrics.”
“It feels like it’s a tourist attraction, too. Just look around how many players are simply listening.”
Bloodless Sunset was correct. When they looked around, they found a number of players simply sitting at the side, talking quietly or eating.
Well aware they’d disturb someone during their work one way or another, the party stopped at one of the earlier forges. A younger dwarf stopped her work of cleaning swords to approach them with a smile. “Can I help you?”
“Hi. We are searching for a family with the name of Machinas? Do you happen to know where we can find them?”
The dwarven lady leaned her face into her hands and gave them a sheepish smile. “Machinas? Are they expecting you?”
“N-No…”
“Then it’ll be hard for you to meet them, I fear. Do you know about the exhibition going on right now?”
Collective shaking of heads.
“If you go down the street the other way, you’ll get to a rather large building. There’s signs everywhere, too. We are having a yearly exhibition to showcase the best works that this city has – relics, newer ones, everything is included. The Machinas family was involved in creating some of these, including the latest addition. They’re in hiding because so many of you Foreigners tried to find them. Not that they’re fond of people, anyway.”
“What did they make?”
“They used some of the Red Wyvern’s head scales and some other materials to create armguards”, the dwarf kindly told them.
Now it was Bloody’s turn to begin to make high sounds. He was just short of hopping up and down. “Dragon armguard?!”
“Wyvern”, the dwarf corrected automatically.
“Let’s go look. Maybe we can coincidentally find them while we check out the dragon armguards”, Bloody howled, tugging at Ice’s sleeve and half pulling him off already.
“Thank you”, Ice hurried to say to the amused dwarf who waved at them.
Dead Rabbit and Little Droplet had to run after Bloody, who was dragging a helpless Ice all the way down the street. The building the dwarf had mentioned looked like a museum from outside and, as mentioned, there were signs everywhere.
The entrance was free. Display cases of glass were put into rows, alongside signs explaining the item inside. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the place was less of a museum than a fortress from the inside, though – machinations aside, there was half an army watching over the precious items.
And if the players’ reactions were any sign, then the items were good.
It was also funnily easy to find the new wyvern armguard.
Drooling warriors stood in front of it, faces plastered against the glass.
[Armguard of the Ancient Wyvern – Legendary
A pair of armguards created with the scales of an ancient red wyvern, forged in the Everlasting Fires.
- Increases Strength by 5 while equipped (max stat 26)
- Increases heat resistance by 5%
- Increases Defense by 10%
- Effect stackable
- Cannot be broken
- Cannot be worn with other equipment made of reptile-related materials]
“Holy fucking shit.”
“It’s a legendary”, a player close-by sobbed quietly. “It’s a legendary item. This thing is completely broken.”
“The defense increase is a percentage”, someone else literally cried, wiping his tears away. “And it gives you a Strength boost of 5!”
“It can’t break! This is basically a growing-type equipment that will accompany you forever!”
“Is this allowed?” Bloody swallowed heavily. “How is Haven having something like this?”
“Because it’s not for sale.” An elven warrior next to Bloody grimaced. His face was distorted with mental pain. “Pretty much everyone here asked about it already. This is regarded as a new relic – it will stay with the dwarves. They said they’re keeping it in case it might ever be necessary to defeat a bigger evil, just like the war with the wyvern. But it will never be given out permanently.”
“No wonder everyone is searching for the Machinas family when they made this”, Little Droplet commented. “I didn’t know Haven had such an amazing dwarven family.”
“Originally, they were researchers. It’s because they are diving deep into the properties of the materials they use that they have gotten so far.” The guards all around were very willing to talk about their own smiths. Proud, the guard smirked and thumped his chest. “A good couple, those two. One wife’s the researcher, the other’s the blacksmith.”
Little Droplet took a step towards the guard and bowed slightly. “If we might be so rude… We are urgently searching for the Machinas family. We don’t wish to bother them, but we are coming to ask about Thea Machinas.”
The guard spread his fingers. “No can do, little guy. Everyone could say that.”
“Then, would it be possible for someone else to give them a message on our account? They could approach us if they deem it necessary.”
“Hmmmm.” The guard stared at Little Droplet, who smiled harmlessly. “Fine. Write it down, I’ll see what I can do. Come back tomorrow.”
The healer scribbled a few quick sentences on a piece of paper.
Dead Rabbit almost clapped. “I wouldn’t have thought of that!”
“It’s because you think too static”, Bloody said, clicking his tongue. “If you’d deal with common game NPCs, a no is a no. In here, it’s all about how you’d convince a real person to contact someone for you. The best way is to stay courteous in approaching.”
“By taking a step back and handing over information, we are handing them the decision of approaching us or not.” Ice supplemented his own view on the matter. “This automatically puts them in charge and elevates their position. It’s more likely to have a good result than forcing anything.”
“I see! You have to teach me all these tricks sometime!”
Seeing his little brother look at the Ice Emperor with sparkling eyes, Bloody crossed his arms. “Hey, I also said some good stuff!”
“Yeah, but you’re not as cool.” Bloody wanted to complain, but Dead Rabbit shot him down before he could. “You can’t deny that he is awesome.”
Bloody’s eyes flickered over to the mage, who returned the gaze. The beastman’s left ear flicked once. In the end, Bloody only mumbled something under his breath but didn’t try to fight his little brother’s words again.
“Ice is popular”, Little Droplet giggled.
“I’m not…”
The healer laughed at the mage’s awkwardness. “You are! And for a good reason. Who doesn’t like a talented but kind person? I’d say, in all of Haven, Ice is definitely special.”
“Agreed!” The fanboy at the side shouted his agreement.
“Well, true”, said fanboy number two. The older one.
Ice wondered if he was blushing, hearing the praise. He stopped at a corner outside of the exhibition hall, leaning his staff against the wall to fix his sleeves.
He really shouldn’t have, but there were habits you developed from mostly roaming outside, alone.
The first one to react was Little Droplet, who stood almost opposite of Ice.
When the healer’s eyes and mouth widened, Bloody was the one who sensed something off immediately. By the time Little Droplet made a sound, the beastman had already whirled around – just in time to see Ice’s staff vanish into nowhere.
An item belongs to the one who holds it, and the owner can put it into their inventory if they have a space.
There was a reason why mages never put down their staffs or found ways to fixate them onto their bodies. Sadly, Ice wasn’t one of those players.
“Motherfucker!” Bloody’s dark curse came out as a shout. “Thief!”
Author’s Note
Gosh we are so close at the end of the first arc.
I like how my last A/N was literally just “well I’m worried if people are gonna like the way I’m wrapping this up” and two people interpreted it as me planning to kill someone off. I’d never do that…!…….. …
Little Theater
Little Droplet: “Totally not suspicious item”
Bloody: “Yep. Never gonna see it again.”
Little Droplet: “Certainly the only time it will ever appear.”
Bloody: “Of course.”
Ice: “I am confused”
Whaaat?? Catch the thief!!
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
….Bloody’s ears drooping….cute!
omggg I love that Blackstone was so down to eat spicy hotpot XD
drooling warriors in front of the wyvern armguard….hahahahah
..!!! gasp! who would dare steal the Ice Emperor’s staff???
Ice, you could have become rich(er).. but the dice said no D:
Tf? Who dares to steal his staff? Dx
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter!
thanks for the chapter <3
Gasp! His staff…
Huh, a thief?!
Thank you for the chapter <3