29. Gran Cappadocia (2)
#29
The group gathered together around Didican. Didican who was fumbling with the wall of the furnace pressed down on a specific section. The building seemed to be slightly vibrating and the floor where the four people were standing began to slowly disappear.
“What?!”
“Gyeong.”
Marya startled hugged Asher. Creaking sounds were heard from all directions.
– Coo coo coo coo…
The floor which was slowly descending was soon completely swallowed up by the walls surrounding it. Didican who saw the embarrassed look chuckled.
“It’s an elevator made using magic stones and pulleys. “It is the fastest passage leading to the blacksmith shop beneath the ground.”
“I guess there’s a passage somewhere else too?”
“yes. The locations are a secret but there are probably dozens of them. “Our biggest customer is Grancia but we also receive many requests from other customers.”
The elevator went down a dark vertical passage for a long time. When I looked up the doorway had already become as small as the moon. Only Sita’s eyes sparkled like red jewels.
Kang…kang…it seemed like the sound of metal clashing was coming from somewhere.
Eventually the view became clear. A cool breeze blew.
“Welcome. “In the largest blacksmith shop in the islands.”
The elevator which had left the rock passage was now descending on steel supports. The eyes of the three people widened regardless of who they were. A sight I could never have imagined unfolded before my eyes.
“What is all this?…”
It appeared to be a space secured by remodeling a huge pupil. Stalactites and stalagmites the size of houses were sprouting here and there. The luminescent moss covering the wall of the pupil served as a light source.
Five or six stone buildings were sprouting up like mushrooms all over the cave. It looked more like a village than a blacksmith shop.
Between the buildings big-headed dwarves were bustling about. He was a dwarf an underground craftsman. Didican said as if he was proud.
“Gran Cappadocia. This whole place is a blacksmith shop. Most of the members are dwarves but there are also other races like me.”
In one corner of the village bubbling lava pooled like a lake. The dwarves were scooping out lava with specially treated buckets.
thud. Soon the elevator stopped. Didican said looking down at the three people.
“Now follow me. I’ll take you to the best blacksmith. But is the inspirational vacation over?”
Didi Khan looked around her with his ears up. He shouted at the dwarf carrying lava in the distance.
“hey! “Do you have inspiration today?”
“Didican you damn bastard! Are you the one who stole the invisibility enchantment scroll? “I’m not going to do something stupid like say it’s invisible armor or something!”
The dwarf was furious. The three people looked at Didican at the same time. Didican raised his index finger in front of his snout for a moment and shouted again.
“That can’t be possible! “Do you have inspiration?”
“What do I know! “Now that the vacation is over I guess I’ll just sit back in my usual spot!”
The dwarf walked away grinning. The lava bucket held in both hands swayed precariously. Didi Khan grinned and turned his head.
“Well the vacation is over.”
“Do you think differently from other blacksmiths?”
“Of course. I don’t deny the fact that our old friends are rare masters but stagnant water tends to rot. “We must do our best to develop better technology.”
Didi Khan even nodded his head with a stern expression. Ronan was slowly starting to like this furry creature. The group following Didican stopped in front of a huge cube-shaped building.
“This is so… inconvenient.”
Ronan shook his head. The surface of the stone cube was so smooth that not even flies could land on it.
I couldn’t even guess how they made it. On the top of the cube was a long chimney that reached up to the ceiling. Didican said triumphantly.
“Genius right? This is a work that Doron whom I am going to meet now created when he was young. “It must have been about four hundred years ago.”
Asher took a deep breath.
“Four or four hundred years?”
“okay. “He’s probably the oldest among the dwarves living on the island.”
Considering that the average lifespan of a dwarf is around 300 years this was truly surprising.
The cube had no windows and only a wide door. It was the moment Didican opened the gate. A wave of red light poured down on the four people.
“evil! My eyes!”
“It’s hot!”
“Piyat!”
Ronan raised his hand and covered his eyes. The rays were hot enough to burn her face.
Nothing was visible in the red light. Didi Khan took a deep breath and shouted towards the source of the light.
“Old Man Doron!! “You’re a guest!!”
Then the light and heat disappeared. Ronan removed his hand from covering his eyes. A chaotic yet strange landscape caught my eye.
“What is all this?”
The landscape of the blacksmith shop resembled a nest made of woven weapons instead of tree branches. Spears swords daggers polearms… piles of weapons of all types filled the square space.
At the center of the steel nest was a large white anvil. In front of him stood a round rice ball holding a hammer.
“A guest?”
Onigiri raised his head. He was a very small dwarf. A fluffy pure white beard covered all parts of the face except the eyes.
The dwarf called Doron opened his mouth.
“You seem to be a very anticipated guest Didican. “As long as you bring it to me directly.”
“Yes if it weren’t for this armor I would have been crippled. “It was the first time I’ve ever seen a speed sword.”
Didican pointed at Ronan and laughed. Doron limped towards Ronan.
“Look at me here.”
Doron took Ronan’s black iron sword without a word. Doron sighed after seeing the black iron sword cut in half.
“Didican. “Is this child really my guest?”
“huh?”
“What is this…you’re carrying around a piece of trash called a knife.”
Doron threw the black iron sword behind his back without saying a word. The black iron sword that went into the huge furnace melted into black molten iron.
“inspiration. “What is this now…”
“Give it to you too.”
“What?!”
Doron took turns checking the weapons of Marya and Asher. Doron heaved a sigh in succession and threw their weapons into the brazier. Asher and Marya screamed as they saw the two melting swords and staff.
“My my my my wand!”
“What are you doing?”
Ronan laughed. While looking around he picked up a short sword rolling on the floor.
“After living in a tunnel for four hundred years my brain must have grown moldy.”
Ronan took long strides toward Doron. It didn’t matter since I couldn’t use the black iron sword in the first place but the rest of the weapons were clearly fine. Doron opened his mouth.
“It just worked out well. “While you are holding the sword try swinging it.”
“what?”
“Is the young man already deaf? Even if it’s just in the air go ahead and swing it.”
Doron clicked his tongue and urged. Ronan glared at Didican with murderous intent.
Didi Khan was waving his hands with all her might letting Doron know that he had no ill will. Ronan having cooled off his anger sighed.
“Ha…okay.”
“Okay come on…”
It was before Doron finished speaking. Ronan’s hand disappeared from sight. It was the first lesson of imperial swordsmanship that he learned in his first lesson.
The tip of the sword fell vertically and stopped exactly in front of Doron’s eyes. Wedge! A belated sound was heard. Asher and Maryah covered their mouths.
“Aaaah!”
“Ro Ronan! what!”
It would not be surprising if the cornea was cut due to wind pressure. If Doron had tilted his head even the tip of a tee he would definitely have gone blind. But there was no change in Doron’s expression.
“This is…”
“What do you think you bastard?”
In other words it was Ronan who was embarrassed. He looked quickly back and forth between Doron and the sword he had just swung. Doron said placing his hands on both waists.
“That thing is a knife.”
Ronan couldn’t say anything. It was on a different level from the swords I had wielded so far. The sword was not so stable that it felt like drawing with a ruler and the weight balance was perfect.
This is what I randomly picked up. There were hundreds and thousands of these famous swords lying around. Ronan gently placed the short sword on the floor.
“…I have no choice but to admit it.”
“That goes for me too.”
“what?”
“Didican. Where did you get this monster from? “You are definitely my guest!”
Doron shouted in an excited voice. Didican looked at the two people and breathed a sigh of relief.
“I told you. “It’s really no joke.”
“Would you like to try one more time? Now let’s do this this time.”
Doron held out a long sword to Ronan. Ronan performed a second sword strike without saying anything.
This time it was Nabirose’s spinning sword. Shriek! A sword strike that was incomparably smoother than usual split the air. Doron tilted his head.
“Hmm? “It’s a familiar swordsmanship… Are you perhaps Nabiroze’s friend?”
“friend? Do you know Instructor Nabirose?”
“I know. By the way did you say you were an instructor? Have my old ears finally broken?”
“No I’m an instructor at Phileon Academy.”
Doron’s eyes widened. He stroked his beard a few times and let out a low laugh.
“Heh just like you said after being stuck in a tunnel for hundreds of years my sense of time has become dull. “It seems like just yesterday when I made that kid’s sword.”
“What about that Dae Tae? “It’s ridiculously wide and long.”
“okay. Bigeom (飛劍) Urusa. “It was one of the top ten masterpieces of my life.”
Doron told the story of the time when he was making Nabiroje’s Great Taedo. He said that he accepted the request to make a weapon only after checking all of Nabirose’s sword skills and Aura.
“It’s not just Ursa. I also made the sword of the Duke of Grancia Pale Lord and Escamone the long spear of former Imperial Knight Commander Aston. “Ah I’m finally starting to feel better now.”
“Then old man are you making weapons tailored to each individual?”
“yes. Every warrior has a different way of fighting and naturally has a different way of handling weapons. “Honey try swinging it too.”
“yes? Me?”
Marya pointed at herself. She shrugged her shoulders once and picked up two short swords similar to the ones she was using.
“…Then will I do it?”
Doron nodded his head silently. Shriek! Her characteristic strong sword reminiscent of her whirling wind drew a stroke in the air. After swinging about twenty times Marya opened her eyes wide.
“Wow…what is this sword? “It’s really really good isn’t it?”
The reaction was like seeing Ronan from before. I have never seen a weapon so light yet well-balanced. Doron looked at her Marja’s arm with interest.
“You’re much stronger than you look.”
“Thank you… Do you ever plan on selling the weapons lying around here? “If you deal with our merchants…”
“sonny. “The weapon that suits you is not a short sword.”
“yes?”
Doron shook her head. While digging through a pile of weapons he pulled out a greatsword. It was smaller than the one used by Braum a second-year senior but it seemed heavy enough.
“Are you telling me to use this?”
“okay. “I’m going to try swinging it once.”
Marja held the hilt of her sword with a puzzled expression. It was my first time holding a great sword so I wasn’t used to it.
“Hmm…!”
Marya somehow holding her position swung her greatsword. Whoa! A light slash tore through the air. Ronan curled his mouth and admired her.
“oh. surely.”
“Do you understand what I am saying?”
Ronan nodded her head. Because he had not properly learned how to use a large sword his posture was somewhat awkward but the speed and stability of swinging the sword were completely different from those of dual swords.
Marya was equally surprised. He really felt like he could handle it like his own limb if he just got used to it a little. Ronan asked.
“Then what should I swing?”
“It doesn’t matter what type of weapon you have.”
“sure?”
“The material is the problem. “I don’t know how many types of material there are in the world that can withstand your swift sword.”
Doron sighed. Ronan’s sword strike was faster than any swordsman he had ever seen. He began to rummage through his accumulated experience.
“Is it also mithril…? No orihalcon might be better. “Is there any cloud iron left for alloying?”
“I don’t care about the price. “It’s not like I’m paying for it anyway.”
“In the beginning I didn’t care about things like price. If you were going to question something like that you should have gone to one of the cheap workshops uptown. Hmm…what is really better? “It’s like a monster’s carapace or scales…”
‘scales?’
It was the moment I heard the word scales. A flash of light flashed in Ronan’s mind. He took off his coat out of nowhere and started shaking it off.
“Ro Ronan…what are you doing?”
“Just stay still. “I definitely took care of that…”
All sorts of things were sticking out of the coat which had more than eight pockets. A bite of biscuit a crumpled sock a rattling coin etc… Ronan grinned as he finally found what he was looking for.
“I found it.”
Ronan approached Doron clutching what he had found. He was still muttering to himself and contemplating a subject.
“No no. The blue wyvern’s scales are so plump. Then what…”
“Young Master. How about this?”
“hmm?”
Ronan held out his hand. Doron tilted his head.
Thin pieces that looked like fragments of something were placed on Ronan’s hand. It was as black and beautiful as a black pearl.
“What…is this?”
Even though I have been a blacksmith for over 400 years it was a material I had never seen before. Ronan smiled as he stroked Sita.
“It’s the eggshell that he broke out of.”
“Pyeol-ah.”
Sita pressed her face into Ronan’s hand. Doron’s eyes widened.
“An eggshell? “Is this what you mean?”
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