he asked softly.

“For what reason?”

“If you give me time . . . I will tell you.”

“Can’t you hear me?”

Merlin didn’t want to get involved in complicated things.

Whatever the reason they waited for him, it must have been something bothering him.

I was just about to rip the rent out and move on quietly, but as things got bigger and bigger, I wanted to get out of my feet.

But at Guffin’s next words, Merlin’s face hardened slightly.

“Maybe this has something to do with you as well.”

“with me? ···Are you sure?”

“Well… I’m guessing you’re not sure if you’re the real owner of this place.”

Merlin’s eyebrows twitched.

‘It has something to do with me.’

Well, that’s why I’m saying that I’ve been waiting for the master of the barrier.

Merlin scratched the back of her head at Guffin’s gaze as she stared intently at herself.

All you have to do is listen to the story.

After that, I could listen to the story and decide.

“Whoa… let’s end this short.”

“Follow me.”

When permission was granted, Guffin took the lead.

Merlin followed him silently.

They headed to the high-rise building where Guffin and Merlin had been living.

The two immediately got on the elevator.

beep-

Guffin’s finger pressed several buttons in turn.

OK···.

Wei Ying-

The elevator, which always went up, showed a completely different reaction.

‘Are you going down?’

I thought there was no basement.

But it was hidden.

An elevator going down that long.

“It goes down too deep.”

“·················ogue.”

Merlin’s murmurs kept Guffin silent.

He just stood still.

after a while.

rattle-

The elevator stopped.

And the door slowly opens on both sides.

Merlin’s lips twitched open at the scenery beyond.

He murmured as if he had realized.

“…that’s why there was no forge in the city.”

The sight before Merlin’s eyes.

It was a huge forge.

A huge furnace emitting a red light in the center.

A dark red liquid that constantly flows out of it.

It was a space and facility hundreds of times the size of a typical blacksmith.

“Huh?”

After stepping out of the elevator, something caught Merlin’s attention.

It was the corpse of a foreign object being thrown into the furnace.

Merlin grinned.

“I was hoping for this too…”

Merlin’s eyes touched the corpse of a foreign object placed on a gigantic, automatically moving belt.

It was a family that recognized the peculiarity of the foreign body in the fortress wall.

Merlin asked to confirm this.

“Are all the minerals produced in the city made of that foreign material?”

“Yes. The outer shell of that creature, depending on how it is handled, is much stronger than any other kind of steel.”

Merlin nodded at Guffin’s approval.

‘When I asked what this city was made of, it was that.’

In other words, the dwarven city was built up with the corpses of foreign objects.

“Come this way.”

Guffin entered the smithy and led Merlin.

While following him, Merlin’s eyes were focused on scanning the forge.

land- land-

Dwarves hammering all over the forge.

Merlin’s legs, who were walking while looking at them, came to a standstill.

“uh···?”(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

His gaze was fixed on one dwarf and he thought it would fall.

earth earth-

A dwarf making something while sweating.

Merlin put his name in his mouth.

“scone···?”

The dwarf Merlin was looking at was none other than a dwarf who had recently rushed into another dimension.

Merlin’s footsteps immediately turned to Scone in the rising absurdity and curiosity.

As he hammered her, the scone, who felt a smirk, raised his head and stared at Merlin.

“Huh? Something, little wizard?”

“Scon, how are you…?”

At Merlin’s question, Scone tilted her head again.

“What are you talking about. Have you been drinking since noon?”

“No, I’ve definitely seen it…”

Guffin’s hand rested on Merlin’s confused shoulder.

“I’ll explain everything, so come along.”

Merlin left her curiosity behind and followed her Guffin.

the place it arrived.

It was right in front of the hot furnace.

A Guffin who opened the small door at the bottom of the furnace.

His hand slipped into it.

“········································································?!”

Something came out of his hand as he rummaged through the furnace boasting tremendous heat.

It was a lump of metal the size of a head with a darkened color.

A mineral that has not yet been smelted.

There were many emotions in Guffin’s eyes looking down at it.

Regret, anger, pain, fear, sadness….

Eyes mixed with all kinds of emotions.

Guffin, who looked down at him for a long time, opened his mouth.

“Isn’t it strange? It came out of this hot furnace, but it didn’t hold the slightest bit of heat.”

As Guffin said, the ore taken out of the furnace did not even show a red glow.

Showing this to Merlin, he asked.

“How long do you think we’ve been putting this metal in the furnace?”

“Well···.”

“What a ten thousand years old…”

“········································································?!”

Merlin’s eyes widened in an unimaginable amount of time.

In the meantime, Guffin’s story continued.

“Even though we constantly heated this block of iron while moving our bases in the middle, it endured a whopping 10,000 years.”

It seemed clear that there was a story behind the mineral that looked nothing special.

Guffin smiled bitterly.

“The story I will tell you is about the foolish dwarven king.”

“·················ogue.”

“The story of an incompetent and foolish king who is so foolish…

Guffin’s story began with a low voice.

“…about ten thousand years ago. The dwarf clan had a great slope. At the young age of two hundred and twenty-five, an outstanding talent who set foot in the realm of the transcendent was born. A young and ambitious young dwarf wanted to gather his scattered clans and establish a single kingdom.”

“········”

“I wanted to build a kingdom where I could achieve wealth and fame with what I created and my skills by driving out the old savvy dwarves who were obsessed with the folly of craftsmanship. That’s because the things the Dwarves made were of great value to other races.”

There was sadness in Guffin’s eyes.

“The young dwarves had great power and great skills learned from the best blacksmiths. He gathered dwarves who shared his will and built up a power… After 30 years, he succeeded in unifying all his clans and creating a kingdom. That was… the first dwarven kingdom… Gollion.”

land- land-

The sound of hammering blended into Guffin’s story like a small melody.

“The Gollion Kingdom, which was built like that, stood at the pinnacle of all wealth on the continent. Many races, including humans, packed up Baribari gold and went looking for Gollians. It was enough to be said to have swept up all the gold on the continent.”

“·················ogue.”

“Gollion became a holy place for blacksmiths on the continent, and it grew rapidly, and 50 years later, arrogance settled in the heart of the one called the first Dwarf king.”

“Oman?”

“Yes. Pride… that there is no mineral in this world that the dwarves could not handle, and that there is nothing that the dwarves could not make… it was arrogance.”

“Hmm… of course it is.”

Considering the peculiarities of being a Dwarf, Merlin thought that it was not arrogance, but a confidence they could have.

But Guffin shook his head as if that wasn’t the case.

“No, that was arrogance. That’s why they did things they shouldn’t have done.”

“···········?”

“The Dwarves opened a portal to the current world as there were no minerals they could not handle. And sent an expedition to another dimension. Composed of a race other than a clan.”

“········································································?!”

Merlin’s eyes widened at Guffin’s words.

I do not know what method was used 10,000 years ago, but artificially opening the portal was quite possible.

But getting into it was another matter.

Merlin asked with a hardened face.

“Did you do that crazy thing with your own mind?”

“I have summoned people who are not sober. With overflowing gold. There are a lot of people who are willing to pay billions of dollars.”

Many dimensions exist in the world.

No one knows what that number is.

Even if the connection to one of the dimensions was successful, there was no guarantee that it would be connected to the same dimension again.

Even if the connection was maintained, no one knew what variables would occur in other dimensions.

For this reason, when opening a portal and exploring it, it was usually to send an inanimate creature.

But now, Guffin had pushed a living being, not a creature, into another dimension.

‘This is what just made me die.’

Merlin asked in a cold tone.

“Did you explain to them what they were doing?”

“·················ogue.”

Guffin without an answer.

That was enough of an answer.

Merlin said absurdly.

“Ha… So who came back?”

“No.”

That was the answer Merlin had expected.

However···.”

“Until the last portal opens again.”

those bound by steel (5)

those bound by steel (5)

Years to send hundreds of dimensional expeditions.

It was a time when everyone thought there was no hope for repeated failures.

Tsuzuzu-

A crack occurred in the secret space of Gollion’s Imperial Palace, which drove the search party to another dimension.

“What, what?”

“Call the researchers right now!”

blatantly-

A crack that slowly spread into the air for a long time.

“Car, portal?”

“Who opened the portal today?”

Dwarves were talking here and there.

But no one opened the portal that day.

Just at that moment, the Dwarf King who was passing by arrived.