Chapter 68 - His majesty the pope who spreads the holy light (11) (1/2)

Chapter 68

His majesty the pope who spreads the holy light (11)

Translated by: Niladri

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Corrections: Bronze-Beard>> Copper-beard

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With the help of a guide familiar with the structure of the mine, Lu Heng and Ionas soon saw light again. At the entrance of the Stonehenge Mountains, at the foot of the statue of the Forging God, there was a large dwarf settlement, the Spirit Castle 1. This was the nearest dwarf community to the human’s territory, where a large number of transactions between the dwarves and the humans took place.

Swori’s home was in the Spirit Castle. Swori’s father was the most outstanding weapon forger among the dwarves. The biggest weapons workshop in the Spirit Castle was run by Swori’s father.

As for Lu Heng coming to his son’s rescue, the dwarf with a large dark red beard 2 in front of him immediately clasped his fist in his right hand and thumped himself in the chest: “Thanking you on behalf of the copper-beard dwarves, I am Brian Steelhammer.”

It was established that the Steelhammer Father and Son were able to speak on behalf of the Copper-Bearded Dwarves. There were several branches of the Dwarves, and Brian Steelhammer was the leader of the Copper-Bearded Dwarves. Copper-bearded Dwarves were good at forging, but not very good at mining. A few days ago, there was a dispute between the Copper-beard Dwarves and the Iron-pickaxe Dwarves, who were proficient in mining. The angry iron pickaxe Dwarves refused to provide raw ore to the Copper-beard Dwarves.

Brian happened to have taken another big order for weapons, and the stock of raw materials in the workshop was not enough to complete the order. Dwarves have always been the most committed race, and they would die before they failed to deliver their orders on time. So, young Swori wanted to explore the original mine by himself. Lacking mining skills, he thought of going to the abandoned Lalan mine. However, one thing the dwarf boy forgot was that the one thing that copper-bearded Dwarves were less adept at than mining was fighting.

As they sat on the dinner table in the Steelhammer father and son’s house, Brian explained the reason why Swori was in the Lalan mine and raised his glass again: “In short, if you two friends hadn’t saved this silly boy Swori, then I would have had to go to the demonic beast’s dungeon to find him!”

“A toast to two new friends!” Swori also raised his glass. The Dwarves were used to drinking wine as water since childhood, and Swori was no exception.

Lu Heng’s cup contained clear water. He knew that since he was a priest, and the dwarf father and son wouldn’t care about this kind of thing. But for Ionas, who seemed to drink better than the Dwarves, the father and son were more and more drawn to him.

After dinner, Brian’s face hidden under his beard became almost the same colour as his proud beard. The more he drank, the higher the dwarf’s mood rose. He slapped Ionas on the back with his big palm, and Lu Heng doubted that if he had been tall enough, Brian would have called him old buddy as he would wrap his arms around Ionas’ shoulder.

Ionas was friendly to the dwarves, probably because they were able to make weapons and armor to his liking.

“Old buddy.” Even if he failed to grab Ionas’ shoulder, Brian called out the appellation, “Please stay at my house tonight and come to my weapons workshop tomorrow to pick out the weapons that suit your taste. We dwarves are always most generous to our friends.”

The weapons workshop of the Steelhammer family has the oldest history in the Spirit castle. It is said that the trading area for the sale of weapons and armor on the Spirit Castle had been developed with the Steelhammer weapon workshop as the center. Whether the history was actually like this could not be confirmed, but the SteelHammer Weapons Workshop was indeed the first choice for Chambers of Commerce all around the mainland to order weapons from.

Lu Heng stood at the door of the Weapons Workshop and looked at the emblem of the SteelHammer Workshop above, feeling it was a little familiar.

At the entrance of the workshop, there was a long display cabinet, in which all the weapons stored were war hammers, and they were imitations of the same hammer.

“This is the pride of our Steelhammer family. Our ancestors, under the leadership of the great forging god, participated in the forging of the Thunder’s Wrath.” Brian’s voice was strong and proud to introduce to his friends the glory of the Steelhammer family. “Every dwarf who wants to inherit the Steelhammer family must build a copy of Thunder’s Wrath to be recognized.”

“It’s a glorious history. Your family name has been passed down through this legend.” 3 Lu Heng smiled and realized that praising the dwarf’s ancestors and manufacturing skills would make them very happy and facilitate their conversation.

“Sincerest friend of the Copper-Bearded dwarf’s, you’re right!” Seeing that Lu Heng had a deep understanding of dwarf customs and history, Brian was riled up to talk. He thought that the two human friends Swori brought back this time were wonderful. One could drink as much as the dwarves, and the other seemed to have a deep understanding of the glorious history of the dwarves.

Brian took Lu Heng to the front of the display cabinet to introduce him to the makers and the stories behind each replica of Thunder’s Wrath. Lu Heng listened attentively with a smile on his face, and from time to time he talked about some of his own views on the history of the dwarves in the relevant period. Ionas, on the other side, nearly fell asleep during the long narrative.

Lu Heng was truly afraid that he would fall asleep standing up again, which could be regarded as being disrespectful of their ancestors by the fierce Dwarves. Lu Heng looked at the nearby surroundings, and he found a way to stop Ionas from sleeping.

Dwarves have always been careless and negligent, and the Steelhammer father and son were no exception. The weapons workshop could be said to be casual, to put it nicely, and messy, to put it frankly. Except for the row of display cabinets that almost seemed to be giving off light 4, the rest of the place was in line with the style of a dwarf. All kinds of raw ore, metal ingots and weapon casts were strewn randomly on the ground, and anyone could accidentally trip and fall to the ground.