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?'

If there was someone whom I hated much more than the Union, it would be none other than the individual that brought me to 'that place' to begin with.

'The pain I had suffered there…'

The sound of my teeth grinding together sounded across the room.

"Huuuu."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

There was a time for everything and now was not that time.

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

Cli- Clank—

Right now, my priority should be visiting Malvil and seeing how much he progressed on my sword.

I wanted to leave for the elven domain with a new sword, especially since the ones I have been using weren't the right fit for me. They just broke too readily.

***

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

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

Every time I went there, it would feel as though I was inside a steaming hot sauna.

It wasn't pleasant, to say the least.

"You're finally here, human!"

Upon entering the main building of the facility center, Malvil came to greet me at the door.

Well, it was more like he was already there talking to the secretary, and only greeted me once he saw me coming in.

"Took you long enough... I was already done a couple of days ago." He grumbled, looking at me with a peeved expression.

"That fast?"

He sounded quite annoyed, but I merely shrugged my shoulders.

Couldn't be blamed, I put all of my focus on training instead of anything else. Though, I was impressed by his speed.

"Follow me."

Bidding goodbye to the secretary, Malvil brought me to his workroom.

Just like 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 on the floor, it looked as though a storm had raged inside of the room.

Fortunately, I was already used to this. Stepping over the garbage, we soon paused in front of a large desk.

Thump—

Dropping a long object that was covered in a thin white cloth onto the table, producing a dull sound, Malvil slowly unfolded the sword.

The moment he unfurled the cloth and my eyes paused on the sword, my face twitched slightly.

"…Is this the completed sword?"

It took me a while to process the…sword in front of me, if it could even be called that.

It looked nothing like it. Rather, it looked more like a burned stick.

With no sharp edges, no grip, and completely nothing that would make it look like a sword, the thing that was in front of me could not even be considered one.

'Don't tell me that he failed?'

But that was impossible. With Malvil's pride, he would never show me something like this unless there was something more to it.

As my thoughts paused there, I looked up to Malvil who was looking at the sword with traces of satisfaction on his face.

Extending his finger forward and tracing it over the body of the piece of metal, Malvil muttered to himself.

"How beautiful…"

'Really? You call that thing beautiful?'

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

It was only after a couple of minutes passed that Malvil finally regained himself and coughed slightly.

"Keum…sorry about that, almost lost myself there."

"…Right," I replied with a forceful smile.

"Oy, what's with that look?"

But it appeared that my face was quite obvious as Malvil glared at me.

Raising my hands in a show of peace, I calmly replied, "Nothing. I was just curious if this was the sword that you were planning on forging for me."

"Of course it is."

Malvil slammed his small hand on the table.

He then pointed towards the long piece of metal.

"Can't you see that this is the frame of the sword?"

"Well yes, I could tell that much."

"Sigh, ignorance is such a bliss."

Shaking his head, Malvil interlocked his hands behind his back before walking towards another counter and picking up a small white hammer that was adorned with tiny blue, red, and green crystals.

He then proceeded to walk towards the sword frame.

Throwing me one last glare, he handed me the hammer.

"Here, you'll understand once you do it."

"You're giving that to me?" I asked, confusion dying my face. Why in the world was he giving me the hammer?

"Just take it."

Obviously annoyed by my question, Malvil shoved the hammer in my hands and pointed at the sword frame.

"Now hammer the sword!"

Seeing just how serious he was being, I calmed myself down quickly and stared at the sword frame.

I knew 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 to hit the sword with it.

"Inject your mana before you do it."

But before I could even swing downwards, Malvil's voice traveled through my ears.

"Got it."

Closing my eyes, I channeled all of my mana into the hammer.

Vooom—!

The gems embedded on the hammer's side suddenly started to glow, lighting up the room in beautiful myriad colors.

Once that happened, pointing towards the metal frame, Malvil shouted, "Now! Hammer the sword right now!"

Snapping out of it and nodding in response, I swung my hand downwards.

Clank—!

A loud metallic ring swept throughout the room as the hammer in my hand came into contact with the sword frame.

"Again!"

Malvil shouted after the ringing in the air dissipated.

Clank—!

Without saying anything, raising my hand once again, I swung the hammer and a similar ring swept through the room.

Once the ringing sounded disappeared, Malvil once again shouted.

"Again!"

Clank—!

Raising my hand again, I once again swung.

Clank—!

"Again!"

Clank—!

"Again!"

Clank—!

And so for the next three hours, the same scene repeated again and again as I continued to hammer the metal.

TWIIIING—!

Smashing the hammer one more time, another loud ring rang out and a bright light suddenly enveloped the room.

"Move back."

As soon as the light appeared, pushing me back, Malvil snatched the hammer from my hands and once again hammered the sword frame.

Clank—! Clank—!

With each swing, his arm became faster and faster, and before long, the bright light that came from the sword enveloped the entire room, blinding me completely.

"Give me your arm."

He shouted before I felt a small hand grasp my wrist and bring me forward.

I was completely blinded by this point, so I had no idea what he was trying to do, but it was at that moment that I felt a sharp sting coming from the tip of my finger and a strange worm-like feeling suddenly enveloped my body.

It felt like I was being constricted, or stung by a viper. I couldn't be sure, because my senses were going haywire.

But that feeling didn't last for long as all the remaining mana inside of my body suddenly got sucked out of me, and headed like a torrent towards the sword, to the point where I felt the pain.

"Ughk!"

"Resist the pain! We're almost done!"

Malvil shouted from the side as my knees buckled up slightly.

"Ukh!"

Letting out another groan, one of my knees gave out and I fell to the ground, but thankfully, supporting me from the side was Malvil, as his big, burly hands pushed me up from below.

"I…I can't last much longer," I weakly muttered, trying my best to remain awake. Every second that passed felt agonizing, and slowly but surely I was feeling all the energy in my body getting sucked out of me.

"Done!"

TWIIIIIINNG!!!

Thankfully, right before I passed out, Malvil removed my hand, and another crisp ring rang out throughout the room.

"Haaa….haaa…."

Falling down on the ground, I tried to catch my breath as sweat dripped down from the side of my face.

'What kind of demonic rite was that? You making a sword or what?!' I screamed inwardly. Unfortunately, I couldn't speak, and exhaustion had overtaken me.

Before long, once I managed to rest for a good minute, I finally opened my eyes.

"What do you say?"

It was then that I saw it.

My new sword.