Chapter 120 - 41: [Forging Competition]

Chapter 120: Chapter 41: [Forging Competition]

Originally, this was a heavy, greasy, and salty dish created by the wife of a Blacksmith in the ancient Empire. She used the heat from her husband’s forge, placing minced meat and onions on a large iron pan, covering it with flatbread, and setting it on top of the furnace to bake slowly using the radiating heat. Being a Blacksmith was grueling manual labor; after a busy day by the fire, they would be starving and drenched in sweat, making heavy grease and salt indispensable. To make it easier to eat during the brief rests while waiting for iron billets to cool, the dish was later modified into a pie-like shape that could be eaten by hand.

Unexpectedly, as time passed, furnace pies gradually became a signature food of the Empire. They could be served on the dining tables of nobles and also appeared in the iron ovens of commoners. The Ederic People especially respected Blacksmiths and loved the craft of forging. During the autumn Caster’s festival, they would go so far as to slaughter sheep and cows, slice cured meat, and use the freshly harvested and ground coarse wheat flour of the season to bake several large batches of furnace pies.

However, a crust made through this half-pan-fried, half-baked method tended to be tough and hard, and the coarse wheat crusts found in the civilian streets of the Empire were exceptionally thick. Despite looking quite old, Old Duke had teeth even stronger than those of the chimera Magical Beast Dwarf Horses pulling the Exile caravan. Politely adjusting his round, gold-rimmed glasses, he opened his mouth, revealing bright white teeth, and tore off a huge chunk of the thick furnace pie. He chewed with great relish, his mouth dripping with grease.

"Elder Duke, why are you here as well? Shouldn’t you be at the camp outside the town?" Samael suppressed the urge to make a snarky remark in his heart—a handsome old man of the Demon Race was still of the Demon Race, not just any ordinary handsome old man.

"We won’t be able to leave anytime soon anyway, so we might as well watch some interesting shows. Leaving a few people to guard the camp as a mere formality is enough; the rest of the tribe is strolling around the festival too," Old Duke said. He stuffed the rest of his onion and fried meat furnace pie into his mouth and took out a handkerchief to elegantly wipe his lips. "Who could refuse watching a forging competition of the Ederic Empire? Oh, except perhaps if there was a beast gladiatorial show in the Supar Empire, a sailboat race in the Floren Kingdom, or a grand choir High Mass in the Holy Light Church Country..."

"You truly are well-traveled and knowledgeable, Elder Duke," Samael nodded. "In my homeland, it is believed that reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles are equally important. Traveling is a vital way to understand the world."

"It’s not good to always have a destination in mind. If you’re blocked on the road, then just enjoy the scenery along the way." Old Duke put away his handkerchief and leisurely gazed at the competition. "The Caster’s festival is also a major feature of the Empire. If we were in a region adjacent to the Dwarf City-States and fortresses, the festival would even be co-hosted with the Dwarves. Alas, although Dwarves have excellent craftsmanship, their cooking skills are truly nothing to compliment. In the end, it’s their racial nature not to enjoy life, so it’s their own loss."

"However..." he lowered his voice. "Knight Samael, what do you intend to do by entering the Caster’s Hall?"

"There might be... something very important to me inside." Samael hesitated for a moment.

"There’s nothing special inside the Holy Hall." Old Duke looked at Samael. "It’s merely a building for religious rituals. Usually, the Priests worship the forging Holy Fire inside, keeping it burning eternally. From time to time, they take in some talented young Blacksmiths and casting apprentices to train their smelting skills within the Holy Hall. Beneath the Holy Hall is a massive tomb where the divine remains are buried."

"Divine remains?" Samael caught the keyword.

"They call it the corpse of a dead god," Old Duke explained, emphasizing those words. "Of course, it’s probably just some dried mummy they picked up from who knows where."

"It’s divine remains! And you call that nothing special?" Samael said in surprise.

"Divine remains aren’t anything rare. Many Holy Halls around the world have so-called divine remains... Gods are truly cheap, dying all over the world," the old man threw his hands up, looking completely nonchalant. "So I think they just dragged in a decayed mummy to enshrine. Humans are prisoners of their own egos; they always need an excuse for everything they do, even if it’s completely fabricated.

"They need a god as an excuse, so they enshrine one. Who cares what that god actually is? Isn’t having an excuse enough? The Emperor of the Founding Country established the tradition of worshipping the Caster simply to ensure that the Ederic Empire’s military and agriculture would always have the strong and powerful backing of steel."

"No, I suspect that the divine remains of the Caster might be the real deal..." Samael mused.

He thought, "Does that mean the so-called [Authorized User] is an ancient god? The original builder of the alien colony?"

The red dot on the UI’s positioning radar and the pop-up prompt were still flashing. To unlock more of the database, he had to scan the [Identity Code] of that deceased high-level user.

Samael had just walked a full circle around the Caster’s Hall and found no entrances other than the main gate. The windows on the ground floor were entirely sealed with stained glass mosaics depicting religious scenes. However, from the second floor upwards, there were windows that could be opened. The roof also featured two massive, tower-like, hexagonal chimneys made of white stone bricks—likely a design meant to ensure the ventilation necessary to keep the forging Holy Fire burning eternally. But how was he supposed to climb in? Have a suit of Nether Copper Armor CLANK CLANK CLANK its way up the chimney, pretending to be Santa Claus arriving early to scope out the place?

"If you need to find a way into the Caster’s Hall and have plans for the divine remains, then I suggest you achieve your goal during the three days of the festival," Old Duke said calmly. "These Holy Halls that house so-called [Divine Remains] are usually heavily guarded, and their tomb passageways remain tightly shut."