Chapter 379 - 379: Second Trial?

So they simply spent two full days resting at the inn.

During that time,

the elderly Elf woman who served as Administrator of the local Elf community came to visit him, saying something about giving thanks—many Elves from that community had been aboard the airship that day, and as for whatever Odin had done, the old woman seemed used to it by now, only sighing a few times.

"There's bound to be something even crazier coming," she said.

"It's fine."

Isagi was already prepared for it.

If anything, that made things feel easier. Before, he'd been thinking he'd need to gather intel, maybe even sneak into some "classified zone" of the Magic Kingdom, and get tangled up in all sorts of complicated business.

But as it turned out,

it seemed like he only had to wander around this city casually and the so-called "trial" would come find him on its own.

That worked out fine, Isagi thought—he'd even told the girls to just treat it as a sightseeing trip.

The whole group found that a little hard to swallow.

Alfia especially had, by now, come to somewhat understand why this guy always talked about dangerous-looking things as if they were nothing at all.

And so,

two mornings later,

on the first morning after Isagi had fully recovered, he decided to head out and wander around again.

It wasn't entirely without purpose, though—after all, as the capital of the Magic Kingdom, Altena was quite vast.

Just strolling on foot through all its long streets could easily eat up an entire day, so over the past two days Isagi had kept flipping through that little "tourist pamphlet."

Eventually he found somewhere that looked pretty interesting.

It was the place he'd already heard about—an ancient-era shelter located deep inside the Sanya mountains. Aside from the sections converted into tourist attractions, it apparently still housed a considerable number of "forging workshops."

But unlike the forges of Solingen or Orario, which mainly produced weapons and gear for adventurers,

these were places that built "Alchemy Puppets."

That kind of thing had originally relied on the Development Ability of Mystery—something only people like Fels or Miss Asfi could ever manage to create.

But after generations of technological refinement by the Magic Kingdom,

even ordinary craftsmen could now build Alchemy Puppets with a certain degree of independent action.

These Alchemy Puppets served as one of the nation's primary military forces, deployed all across the country to keep the peace and protect towns and villages from Monster attacks.

Apparently,

many other nations and nobles on the continent wanted to buy Alchemy Puppets from the Magic Kingdom too, to protect their own towns or territories.

And within the mountain ridge,

there was even an Alchemy Puppet factory open to visitors.

Isagi was pretty interested in that, and since he happened to hear that Miss Asfi was heading there today too, the two of them decided to go together.

Ever since the boy had dropped his little "bombshell" earlier,

the girls, thinking it over, had decided he was probably right—and that the great god Odin's "trial" didn't really seem to concern them anyway.

So,

even though they were still worried, under Isagi's reassurance and "encouragement," the past couple of days they'd all gone out to have fun anyway.

Today was much the same.

By the time Isagi woke up, only Miss Asfi was left at the inn—apparently everyone else had gone shopping with the goddess Aphrodite.

Something about Riveria and Lefiya having asked for it, probably because a trip like this didn't come around often.

For mages, the Magic Kingdom had plenty of "specialized" things that simply weren't available back in Orario.

They apparently needed to have something custom-made.

It all seemed rather formal and secretive, and it looked like it had something to do with the magic they'd been researching lately.

Isagi had heard about it too—something called [Primordial Magic].

Rare as it was,

after all three mages had leveled up to Lv.8, the abilities their "power of wishes" manifested had turned out to be strikingly similar—maybe, in some sense, the source of magic really was "the same" for everyone.

Isagi honestly had no idea what any of it meant. Listening to Lefiya and the others talk about it felt like sitting through a college calculus lecture—he couldn't follow a word.

So he simply gave up trying.

All he knew was that Lefiya and the others were racking their brains trying to "stabilize" the thing—after all, they'd need to use it when it came time to fight the Black Dragon...

By the time they headed out, it was already afternoon.

He'd made Miss Asfi wait a little, mostly because after waking up he'd needed to wash up and eat.

The result was that

by the time they actually made it out onto the streets, it was already close to three or four in the afternoon.

Not that it mattered much—apparently that ancient ruin in the mountains, along with the forging workshops, also had inns to stay at, the kind with "tourist-district flair," similar to the inn from their earlier airship trip.

No doubt something would go wrong by then.

Isagi had already braced himself mentally, while Asfi, for her part, just found the whole thing a little hard to accept.

As far as she was concerned,

this trip to the Magic Kingdom really hadn't amounted to much trouble so far.

Sure, her own god Hermes was said to be imprisoned, but Asfi knew perfectly well that the great god Odin wasn't actually going to lock him in some dungeon cell, starve him half the week, and leave him huddled alone in damp straw with nothing to do.

If it really were like that, honestly, good.

Asfi even thought there was nothing wrong with rescuing him a little later—let him suffer some more first, heh.

Serves that irresponsible god right, always working his Familia members to the bone, running them ragged twenty-four hours a day!

In truth, though,

Hermes was probably just being held under house arrest by Odin somewhere in the castle, maybe even in some luxurious estate. Aside from not being allowed to leave—which he probably didn't want to do anyway—there was nothing uncomfortable about it at all. He was likely having a grand old time.

Hmph!

Just thinking about it was irritating.

Naturally, Asfi figured that since this was a rare vacation for her, she ought to enjoy it properly.

Sure, being with Isagi meant she'd probably run into some "trial" or other.

But Asfi was curious too.

What kind of trial would the great god Odin come up with for the boy next?

With that thought in mind,

the two of them crossed the long streets, heading straight toward the distant mountains.

The farther they went, the more an air of antiquity settled over them. In Altena's old town, brick-and-stone houses tinged a deep red were everywhere.

Apparently,

these were built from a local ore, mined from deep within the "Molten Cave," coated in solidified magma.

It was extremely hard—not on the level of Orichalcum, the hardest metal in the world, but since it occurred naturally and in huge quantities, it saw widespread use. Its main purpose, beyond the houses the locals had built with it centuries ago,

was building Alchemy Puppets.

At the end of the long street,

stood an enormous stone bridge—and not just one. Several more stone bridges were visible to either side, all connecting to the interior of the mountain.

The whole structure sloped upward; calling it a bridge almost undersold it—it was more like a ramp of stairs.

People came and went across the long bridge.

Even at this evening hour, plenty of locals and tourists were still around.

Both sides were lined with little shops. Besides local specialties of the Magic Kingdom, Isagi even spotted Orario's national dish—fried potato balls—and his own burgers. Someone had probably visited the Hostess of Fertility back in the city and brought the idea over here.

Isagi bought a double beef burger and found it still didn't taste as good as the ones at his own place, which put his mind at ease.

The fried potato balls, though, were interesting.

There was a local "green sauce" flavor—cool and refreshing, with a touch of spice, kind of like mint. It was pretty good.

Isagi bought several in one go, planning to bring some back for Ais and the others to try.

He wasn't sure whether the golden-haired girl, used to the sweet cream-and-red-bean flavor, would be able to stomach this one.

The stone bridge leading into the mountain's interior turned out to be longer than it looked.

Isagi figured he and Miss Asfi had walked for at least ten minutes before they finally reached the end.

The entrance itself was tiny.

Barely wide enough for a single ordinary carriage to pass through—anything larger simply wouldn't fit.

The surrounding walls, ancient stone fitted together without a single gap, spoke to the place's past as a "last stronghold." Apparently the stone gates that once stood here had already been torn down; otherwise the entrance would have been even smaller—at its narrowest, barely enough for a single person to squeeze through.

Isagi and Asfi joined the line,

shuffling slowly forward amid the noisy crowd.

By this point,

it really did feel just like being on that airship trip before—genuinely like a vacation.

It was a bit stuffy and hot, though.

Fortunately, some kind of device—working like air conditioning—kept sending down cool bursts of air from overhead, or Isagi and Asfi might have regretted coming.

Slowly,

they inched forward with the crowd for several minutes,

until at last the view opened up before them, revealing an enormous cavern glowing with a deep red light.

The first thing Isagi's eyes landed on

was a waterfall of red magma slowly pouring out from a crack in the cliff face ahead, like a wound splitting open.

Of course, this wasn't some feat of nature—it was an artificial landscape engineered by the Magic Kingdom. Still, it was genuinely breathtaking.

Waves of heat rolled over them.

Fortunately,

once inside the mountain, those air-conditioning-like magic devices from before became even more numerous, with cool breezes drifting in from every direction, tempering the scorching air considerably.

Before them lay a massive pit.

The magma waterfall plunged straight down into it, seemingly bottomless.

But looking down, they could make out many suspension bridges and floating stone platforms scattered across the great pit, like a scattering of islands suspended in its center.

On them stood houses, workshops, taverns, inns...

Likewise,

the farther down one looked, the more of those wound-like red waterfalls appeared in the cliff face.

Anyone standing amid it all would feel a strange, indescribable sense of wonder.

Isagi and Asfi began descending the spiral staircase carved into the cliff, and soon discovered that besides the crack pouring out lava, one side of the cliff also had a sizable circular tunnel.

It measured at least ten meters across.

Walking inside, they found one enormous cavern after another, with towns built within them.

The floating islands at the center of the great pit turned out to be just the "outer perimeter" of this fortress inside the mountain. The true main body was these cavern towns of varying sizes, honeycombed deep into the rock and all interconnected, like an ant colony.

Both Isagi and Asfi felt

that the place was somewhat reminiscent of the Great Waterfall region of the Dungeon.

Only these caverns within the cliffs were enormous—supposedly, all put together, they could easily house tens of thousands of people.

Of course, nowhere near that many people lived here now.

Most of the area had long since been abandoned, leaving nothing but crumbling houses and old architectural ruins.

A large portion of it was now the so-called "tourist district," open for visitors to explore.

They didn't rush in right away.

Isagi and Asfi first had dinner at a tavern within the great pit, enjoying the most authentic Dwarven home cooking on offer—hearty and heavily seasoned, even a bit too salty, but tearing into big chunks of meat like that was still incredibly satisfying.

The beer was quite good too, though fiery strong. Asfi took just one small sip and her pretty face flushed red instantly—clearly she couldn't handle it.

Isagi thought, honestly, it was pretty cute.

Once night fell, the cliff cracks that had been spewing magma began scattering ice-blue frost and snow instead.

Isagi was honestly startled when he stepped outside and saw it.

What kind of magitech was this now?

It was pure showmanship—pure white snowflakes glimmering with pinpricks of deep blue light, cascading down like a waterfall, set against the crisscrossing floating-island buildings scattered through the pit, their lit candles casting a warm orange glow.

The whole scene was breathtakingly beautiful.

This era just didn't have cameras, or Isagi figured every tourist around would have been snapping photos nonstop.

It really was gorgeous.

But Isagi and Asfi's real target was the ancient building clusters within the cliffs.

Following the signs, they crossed a suspended bridge and, along with the flow of the crowd, entered a massive tunnel—after which the ring of hammer on steel gradually grew clearer.

As mentioned before,

there were still Dwarven and human blacksmiths—no, craftsmen—living inside the mountain.

They forged Alchemy Puppets along with their accompanying weapons and gear, and some of them had simply lived here so long they didn't want to move out.

Passing through that massive tunnel,

what came into view was a sprawling stretch of low, single-story houses more than ten meters below, packed so densely and stretching so far that the end was nearly invisible—genuinely like an ant nest.

The workshop chimneys were tall and long, running straight up to the cavern ceiling—there was probably some complex system of "pipes" up there venting the smoke out of the mountain.

This area was even livelier.

Dwarves were natural-born drinkers—Isagi had only ever heard Miss Riveria complain about it before, but now he finally got a real sense of what she meant.

The air was thick with the smell of alcohol everywhere.

Even the air-conditioning-like ventilation devices scattered all around couldn't clear it out.

Even the cool breeze blowing toward them carried the distinct sour tang of fermented "wheat drinks," sharp and fiery—probably because Dwarves loved their strong liquor.

Still,

the houses here had real character.

They even felt familiar to Isagi, giving off a vibe like Orario from a thousand years ago.

He and Miss Asfi wandered around the town inside the mountain for quite a while, buying some small trinkets crafted by Dwarven artisans, along with a few traditional items, like some sort of iron-beard mask.

They had a genuinely good time.

Still,

both Isagi and Asfi found themselves curious—given how things stood now, what kind of trial would Odin possibly throw at them next?

Surely he wouldn't go so far as to bring the entire mountain down?

Isagi figured that would be a bit much—there was no way it'd go that far...

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