A quarter before noon, four people standing in front of a weapons shop located at the commercial district of the Imperial Capital. They looked up and glanced at the sign of the said shop.
“…Seems like here’s the place.” Michael confirmed the case.
“He’s a dwarf, right? Won’t he be like the stereotypical stubborn and grumpy old man that we read in novels?” Gabrielle said with concerned voice.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, Gabrielle.”
“We don’t know what he would be so we can’t assume yet.”
“You are right.” Lucy and Uriel consoled the concerned Gabrielle.
Each of them carrying the personality that assigned to them by Raphael. Acting how they supposed to be for months caused them to apply the attitude in some situations subconsciously.
They are gradually becoming the person they forged as the time goes by. The adaptation of their own personalities deep into Raphael’s mind doesn’t change the fact that they came from the same root. Meaning they still trust each other and maintain their absolute loyalty towards their creator.
Not long before the wooden door of the shop make a clicking noise and open a little.
“If you are here to buy, it’s closed today.”
A rough voice of a man leaked between the gap. The four didn’t saw the source of the voice immediately because the man didn’t paralleled with their eyes. They lowered their gaze and meet the peeking eyes of the ones talking, a Dwarf.
“…We are not here to patron, we are the ones who were assigned to escort the owner of this shop.” Michael spoke as the representative of the party. “…Are you perhaps Mr. Norm?”
“That is me. If you are my escorts, get inside.”
The Dwarf named Norm opened the door widely to let his safeguards in. The party fascinated by the wonderful weapons line up on the walls.
Swords, axes, spears and so on. All came with different materials, starting from iron to the shining gold. No matter what the metal used, the sharpness and toughness of the weapons are top notch.
(As expected of the artisan dwarves.)
“We haven’t introduced ourselves yet. My name is Michael. Here are the members of our party…”
“Gabrielle.”
“Uriel.”
“Lucy.”
“…We are the B-ranked party Myriad Wings.”
Norm glanced at them sternly before he spoke. “Name’s Norm. A blacksmith and a weapon shop owner. I’ve been seeing various people everyday and don’t see your faces often.”
“…We’re been here since a few months ago, that’s why.”
“I haven’t heard anything about your party, either.”
“…Well, we don’t do dungeon that much and largely do off city missions.” Michael explained with a subtle tone.
Adventurers have their own goals and objectives in life. They have their own ways to achieve what they wanted to attain.
Adventurers who desired fame often go dungeon diving to make a name for themselves. The deeper they goes, the more famous and popular they get. Same goes with their influence and wealth. All the famous S-ranked parties are apparently dungeon crawlers. ．
But their are still adventurers that don’t desire fame at all. Adventurers who don’t dive much dungeons and mostly took outside quest like monster subjugations. May be the reason of either not to attack too much attention, to travel places, or to help others out of kindness.
Although Michael’s party said that they will conquer the Imperial Dungeon, they didn’t put a foot on it once. They thought it isn’t time yet.
Despite not wanting attention, they were standing out due to the breathtaking individuals of their party. Another reason was that they wiped out a notorious B-ranked party, that was known for harassing newbies and low-ranking adventurers, without a beat.
Not only that, they unintentionally bugged off the infamous party away from the capital. The effects of the Dread Fascination feared them too much that they never swore a word of vengeance and get distanced from Michael as far as they can.
“Hmph. Enough with this chitchat. We will shove off right away after I’ve done my lunch.”
“We understood.”
◆◇◆◇◆◇
Half an hour had passed along the southern main road. A road wagon keep its wheels rolling on the wide street southbound along with other vehicles. The sun’s still high and the roads are quite congested with people and transports.
Inside the wooden carriage, five individuals sitting facing each other’s knees. Genders are separated by the wide wooden seats, males on the left and females the opposite.
Norm, who is sitting besides Michael, constantly glancing on the adventurers’ equipment and weapons sequentially. His weapon loving blood boiled upon peeling his eyes off of their articles.
Noticing the behavior of the dwarf, Michael opened his mouth. “…Would you like to take a look?”
“…If you don’t mind.” Norm thought for a while as he fold his thick arms from years of hitting the hot iron before he spoke.
Michael take off his saber, including the scabbard, from his waist and handed it over to the enthusiastic dwarf. He can let others inspect it for the reason of its lack of effects and enchantments.
Unlike the weapons Raphael made for himself and his sister, the weapons the four are wielding don’t have special effects. Except for Uriel’s ebony staff, it was enchanted with Ownership for a hidden function of it.
Norm slightly pulled the mithrill blade from its leather scabbard and observe it sternly. “The nobility of this blade is outstanding. The hilt was crafted with such details and artistic design. The sharpness, durability and all…”
The dwarf inspect every inch of the sword and had entered in his own world, muttering some jargon terms that a few people might know. He snapped back to reality and turn his face to Michael.
“The quality of the sword clearly surpassed that of what dwarves are capable of. I can assume it reached Unique-grade. Where on earth do you got this splendid sword?”
Norn could not helped but ask the originality of Michael’s blade. Michael, who had a script for such encounter, spoke with a neutral voice.
“I don’t know where it came from or how he acquired it, but it is the sword of my father of his glory. He handed it over to me before he died. It’s basically our family heirloom.” Is what Michael revealed.
“Nothing about its craftsmen?”
“…I never asked about that from him.”
“Well, it can’t be helped.” Norm scratched his head. “Whoever forged this weapon, his must be a great craftsman.”
(Actually, it was SirBoss who made it.)
The reason of its quality was probably the forging techniques and the machineries that Raphael used. Aside from that, the metals used were the items he got from dungeon conquests, materials of high quality and void of impurities.
Before they noticed, the rental carriage of Norm had passed the Imperial Capital’s south main gate. Something clicked into place inside Michael’s mind and turn his way to Norm.
“What route we will trail?” Michael asked what is on his mind.
“For the route, we will be taking the shortest. We will follow this highway and stop at the southernmost of Primaria.” He replied as he is handing back the sword.
“…So we will trek the Rashi Mountain Range, huh.”
The Rashi Mountain Range is longest range of mountains in the Northern Continent. A natural landform that put a long barrier that separate the northern and southern part of the landmass, begins at the west coast through the Kingdom of Boulder.
“Are there any problems passing the mountains?”
“Hm? No problems at all.” The ladies nodded at Michael’s words.
“Good. I hope our trip will be as peaceful as the blue sky.”
The carriage passed some towns and villages as they are marching southbound. Since the distance are far from the capital, monsters frequently appeared due to the lack of patrols. But any hostile monsters they encountered were easily dealt by the escorts.
After traveling for four days, they crossed the borders of the Theocracy. They continued their way and spending days on the road. They often spent a night at some sacred cities they passed to rest they bodies.
Norm covered their lodging expenses of the inns they stopped, it’s his responsibility to accommodate his escorts. Michael and Norm had their own rooms while the ladies slept in the same room. Of course, they made sure they erected a noise barrier to avoid leaks.
Spending a week of journey, they ultimately reached a saddle between two mountains. It’s one of the trading route that ran between the northern and southern part of the continent.
The trail that they tracked was the easiest and safest way to go back and forth of the mountain range. Some trails are somewhat more dangerous geologically and biologically.
The monsters lurking around the path they took were at most A-ranked, relatively an easy task for the party. But have to show difficulty to prevent the true strength being comprehended.
Throughout ip, they encountered and fought assorted monsters, with an A-ranked Wolf Sovereign as the most powerful. Of course, the corpses of the monster they looted were given to the members of Myriad Wings, the hunted it after all.
Michael and the ladies can’t just showed their Inventory to Norm, that skill is what most merchants wanted to acquire. They used a spacious magic bag to cover up their abilities, Norm also have it by the way.
They hiked and walked for another week through the space between two mountains before stepping on the soil of the Dwarfen Kingdom of Doria. The journey of more than half a month’s about to come close.