Chapter 183

Vela pulled out an item.

'Huh?'

I was very familiar with it.

'A Gate Opener?'

This item that looked almost like a bottle opener had the ability to forcibly open a gate you hadn't met the activation conditions for. It wasn't a terribly rare item, but neither was it terribly common.

"Where did you get that?"

"In Korea."

"Korea?"

It was a bit iffy to call a Gate Opener a precious treasure, but it still wasn't beginner period appropriate. That thing had already appeared in Korea during the beginner period?

'Well, there's no law saying it can't show up.'

The world I once knew and the world I knew now were different. Rankers had a world of their own that the public could neither approach nor imagine. Even I had already seen two transcendent items.

"That, uh. Um. Wilson, where was it again?"

"D-Tower."

"Ah right, D-Tower. There was a punk doing something similar on the 1st floor of the D-Tower Dungeon."

Ah. Was he talking about the Gatekeeper Lee Sungcheol?

'He got nailed by Vela.'

I suspected that Lee Sungcheol was no longer of this world. Recalling the conversation earlier, it seemed Vela killed him.

'That's right. This is the kind of person Vela is.'

He was neither good nor evil. Pure was more apt. A single-celled organism who liked what he liked and disliked what he disliked.

'Vela killed Lee Sungcheol.'

From that, I could extrapolate that Lee Sungcheol had dropped this Gate Opener.

'Right. That's the kind of world this is.'

I didn't like killing. No, I belonged to the camp of people who greatly disliked it. That was natural for any normal person.

Killing a human, when I didn't even feel good about killing a bug? But that was the kind of world I lived in. A world where no one would bat an eye even if a Player killed another Player. I had to get more used to this world.

"Killing people in another server isn't that great of an idea."

There were bound to be Guardians attached to one specific server, and they usually didn't like seeing Players from other servers kill their server's Players.

Vela tilted his head. "You say the same things as Wilson, huh?" He scratched his head. "Hey, Hyukjin. Could it be that you're an Intermediate Administrator?"

"I'm a Player."

"But how are you like that?"

"Like what?"

"How come I get the feeling you know everything?"

"Didn't you hear that I have Precognitive Eye?"

"You've really gotta wonder what the heck you are."

Vela didn't seem to quite get it, but he quickly accepted it by sheer force.

"Alright then, Mr. Precognitive Eye Archer. What should we do now? I have no idea where to go. I'm bad at directions."

I turned to look at Pedro.

"Mr. Pedro."

"Yes?"

"You see that over there? The Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron."

"Yes…!"

Pedro's eyes were full of greed. The desire to possess that Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron was blazing from him like a bonfire.

"You're bitter and resentful that it's not collectable, right?"

"Of course. That thing seems to be something incredible."

"You should be able to collect it now."

"Huh? How?"

"I gave you the Tomb-Pilfering Shovel."

The Tomb-Pilfering Shovel was a thief class exclusive. But Pedro had the thief class. Master, and thief. I had the feeling they didn't match, but whatever.

Pedro murmured like he hadn't quite understood yet, "The Tomb-Pilfering Shovel is…"

A thief class exclusive, right? I'll make an excuse for you.

"It's exclusive for production class Players, isn't it? Don't you have a production class, Mr. Pedro?"

"...What?"

To be honest, it was a completely ridiculous thing to say. Even its name was 'Tomb-Pilfering Shovel'. The name implied zero connection to the production class. But that didn't matter. This was, after all, a world rife with ridiculous things.

"I do have a production class, yes."

"Then can't you collect it?"

Pedro hesitated a little at my 'what's the issue then' query. He was probably trying to figure out what I meant.

"If it were me, I would have collected it immediately."

People were prone to believe what they wanted, Pedro even more so.

"I bought that item from a certain Player. When the original owner had it, it didn't have a restriction."

If the previous owner, the poor budding thief Gu Sungmin were to hear that, he would probably go bonkers and cuss me to high heaven. However, Gu Sungmin wasn't here. Sorry, Sungmin.

"So I tried getting a refund from the Korean Players Association, and it turned into a heated battle."

"Something like that happened?"

Of course not. But I could just write it into existence. The Korean Players Association basically belonged to Sungshin, and Sungshin would actively cooperate with me. I could create events that hadn't happened.

"Yes. There should be a record of the incident if you check with the Korean Players Association."

Actually, me saying such pointless things in this much detail should be suspicious. However, Pedro didn't doubt me. He probably wanted to believe what I was saying.

"I see," Pedro said. "So that's what happened. Actually, when I first saw it, it was a thief class exclusive."

That's right. That's what the shovel always has been, and your subclass is thief. You're taking the bait nicely.

"But listening to your words seems to have fulfilled a condition. It's now restricted to production classes only."

"As I thought. Whenever it changes owners, whenever special conditions are met, the restriction conditions are set to randomly change."

"I think that must be because it's a legendary item."

Yeah, nope. It was always a thief exclusive item.

"In that case, shall I try collecting this?"

* * *

In the end, Pedro successfully collected the Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron. The market was still developing right now, but Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron was a valuable material that was worth more than its weight in gold.

"We need to go to the dwarfs' castle, the Winter Castle," said Pedro.

"The Winter Castle?"

I knew about it. A natural fortress the dwarfs made to block the attack of a dragon… was the setting, but that actually had no meaning.

'A dragon never even appeared in the dwarf forest's crisis scenario.'

Not even a speck of dragon scale showed up, and yet, that scenario nearly caused the Winter Castle's downfall. I didn't know the details because it happened in a foreign server, but that was the gist.

'They evaluated themselves too generously compared to their actual strength. Block the attack of a dragon? As if.'

It would probably change later, but for now, dragons were classified as one of the strongest lifeforms on Earth. Granted, mankind hadn't come in direct contact with a single dragon. We only knew from various objects and circumstances that powerful beings called 'dragons' existed.

In any case, the important thing was that the dwarfs had an extremely high evaluation of their own strength. Meaning, they couldn't see themselves objectively. It was the crystallization of their high pride.

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that they looked down on and disdained others because of their excessive pride was a problem. Pedro seemed to be keenly aware of this as well.

"A lot of unpleasant things are probably going to happen. It's just that as a manly man, I've looked past them with a magnanimous heart."

We walked through the forest made of steel.

"They're extremely rude and condescending folk, you see."

Pedro had probably gone through a lot. And yet, he likely went around with his head bowed because there was still so much to learn from the dwarfs.

"Vela, please just keep your mouth shut. If you act up, it's over."

"Are dwarfs good at fighting?"

"Isn't it obvious from the way a manly man like me is just taking it with my mouth shut?"

"No. Why would a manly man just take it? You have to fight."

"A true man knows when to act and when to back down. Would a bogus man like you know that?"

"..."

Vela looked like there was a lot he wanted to say, but he refrained. It was pretty amusing to see the Fight King so helpless with his childhood friend.

"Anyway, don't act up. Got it?"

"Tch." Vela shrugged. "I'll level up and wreck them all."

He might be weak now, but he could just get strong and beat them up later. That seemed to be Vela's mindset at the moment. Nothing fazed this guy, seriously.

"Even if you do that later, for now, keep your mouth shut and crawl. That's what'll help us. Got it? Where's your promise? It can't be that you're hankering for manly man's beatdown, is it?"

"G-Got it."

Vela waved his hand with exasperation, looking very annoyed by Pedro's nagging. It was like watching a middle schooler listening to his mom's nagging.

"That's the Winter Castle," Pedro said.

Cliffs surrounded it on all sides, surging up so high their tips reached the sky. Sparks were coming off from the areas touching the clouds.

'A place covered in steel, clouds, and snow.'

That must be why it was called the Winter Castle. The castle was truly imposing.

'The walls are taller than most buildings.'

I observed the Winter Castle with Observer's Eye. With its sturdy construction and the sense of oppression it gave off just by looking at it, the Winter Castle constructed by the dwarfs certainly seemed capable of fulfilling its role as a protective castle.

"The gatekeepers over there are super bad tempered. They're siblings, and I very nearly ended up attacking them. If not for my teacher, I really would have beat the shit out of them."

Pedro emphasized it again and again, saying that the dwarfs looked down on people, so we just had to deal with it. The closer we came to the Winter Castle, the more massive it loomed. It felt even bigger than its actual size, like it had become a living giant and was pressing me into the ground.

'The Winter Castle.'

I couldn't observe everything with my current abilities. But this Winter Castle surely had 'hidden settings' as well. I didn't know what those were, but I knew they existed.

'What is this feeling?'

My heart began to quiver strangely. A thrill coursed through my body, almost like I was facing my first love.

'There's definitely something.'

After coming here in person, I could tell. It would take time to figure out what it was. We went closer. The Winter Castle didn't have a physical entrance, but I did see two dwarfs in front of a magic circle I could feel was an entrance.

They were just 130 centimetres tall. But their muscles were overwhelming for their short stature. Even their hair seemed to be made of buff muscles. They had helms that looked like Viking helmets on their heads.

All the hair on their bodies was dark red, down to their eyebrows and lashes. What was interesting was that their eyebrows were so long they covered the eyes, and their dark red beards grew all the way down to their bellies.

From their very first words, they were rude.

"Who the heck are you?"

"Your identities?"

Interestingly, even without using a Translation Marble, I could understand their language, as could Vela and Pedro. It was a really minor detail, but I didn't miss it.

'There's something here.'

The dwarfs were hiding a secret I didn't know.

"Haa, the smell of humans. Disgusting."

"It's nasty, so nasty."

The two dwarfs were apparently twins. No wonder they looked the same. I couldn't read their names or levels because they were far stronger than me.

"If not for the Elder's orders, I'd have smashed in your artless heads on sight."

"Wouldn't it be better to make them slaves?"

"Hm. That does sound like a fine idea."

"These guys are pretty good-looking, so they would also make fine decorations."

They said everything and anything with no restraint in front of the people involved. I didn't get all that mad. This was the kind of race dwarfs were.

"But what should we do about them, Brother?"

I didn't get mad at their insulting words, but I nearly felt a vein pop upon hearing that 'brother'. These two were fraternal twins—one was a man, and the other was a woman, even though they looked, by all accounts, completely identical.

'I did hear their genders can't be distinguished by appearance.'

Apparently, those words were spot on.

"The Elder said to only let in guys that smell like iron."

"But only one of them smells like iron?"

"Right? That guy's the one doted on by the Elder. Then shall we kill the other two?"

"Isn't it better to capture them and make them slaves? We can also make them living sculptures."

I read Pedro's status. He was extremely anxious and fearful of these two dwarfs.

I stepped forward, which made Pedro flinch. He was already fearful, but became even more scared. Where did your manly man pride go, Mr. Pedro?

'It's alright.'

I was well aware of the dwarfs' natures. I hadn't come all the way to the Winter Castle with zero countermeasures. I valued my life.

"You guys will have no choice but to let me in."

The 'brother' of the twins scowled. He raised his axe high.

"You're suddenly talking down to us? Are you asking for death? You bastard who doesn't even smell like iron, how dare you…!"

If I was hit by that axe, I would die on the spot. I took another step forward, as if I weren't afraid of that little axe at all.

"You will regret it if you kill me."

"Hmph! Why would I? Seeing as you like to blather nonsense, looks like we'll have to start by cutting out your tongue."

The dwarf waddled forward with his short legs. He was waddling, but the power I could feel from his stride drew a stark contrast. It was like a lump of muscle was toddling towards me.

I stared calmly at the dwarf. He stopped right in front of me and raised his axe.

"I'll cut off your tongue, then turn you into a statue and admire my work."

"You'll regret it. Because I know where Millenium Lava is."

That was when someone appeared from within the Winter Castle. This place had no physical door, but someone popped out from the castle wall.

Pedro seemed to know who they were.

"Teacher?"

An elder, dwarf nobility, made an appearance. Seeing as Pedro called them 'teacher', this dwarf must be 'Elder Bufafa'.

But this elder began to say something strange. The scenario I had drawn out started to go slightly awry… in a very good way.

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