Ch.263Clues Gathering One by One

The meeting with Anastasia to find clues about Technopolis ended with a trim intuition reward… no, an unfortunate conclusion.

Anastasia burst into tears and stormed off, feeling ashamed of her unseemly behavior in front of a man. I managed to calm her down by offering various snacks and drinks.

It’s my little secret that I found her somewhat cute as she drank carbonated beverages with tears welling in her eyes.

For several days afterward, we verified the performance of the “Box of Stopped Time” while gathering information and preparing for our long journey.

The box could store any item that could fit through its opening, except for “living creatures.”

Items placed inside the box maintained their state and temperature, whether hot soup or ice, and remained unaffected even if the box was shaken or turned upside down.

Upon learning this, I decided to prepare various dishes to store in the box whenever I had time.

Starting with pizza, rösti, and french fries that everyone enjoyed, I added hamburgers, fried chicken, beef steaks, various pasta dishes, and more.

With fresh fruit juices and shaved ice desserts inside, the box was practically a portable family restaurant.

One day, as I was holed up in my room completely absorbed in cooking, good news arrived from Northern Fortress.

Though the sender was listed as a general store in Northern Fortress, it was actually a letter from Director Kelly of Nidavellir.

The letter contained information about “Grandorn,” one of the four clues to Technopolis.

Grandorn was the name of a mining city built at the foot of a dormant volcano, far south of Hopmill Farm.

The reason for the past tense is that the mine was completely destroyed by a massive outbreak of Flame Salamanders and magma intrusion caused by ground subsidence.

The surviving dwarves split into three groups and scattered east, north, and west. Those who went north reached the Korkas Mountains and built present-day Nidavellir.

The group that went east arrived in southern Riverside and built a mine called Eisenheim, which is Mina’s mother’s hometown.

In other words, the dwarves of Nidavellir and Mina’s maternal relatives are all descendants of dwarves from this “Grandorn.”

Meanwhile, the group that went west was only known to have settled somewhere, but their exact location remained unknown. If Technopolis was related to Grandorn, Director Kelly believed it might be the achievement of those “dwarves who fled westward.”

Those who settled in Nidavellir had been unaware of Technopolis’s existence, and if the Eisenheim group had been involved, there would surely be more than just a single memo’s worth of records.

“Hmm… a dormant volcano south of Hopmill Farm.”

“Are we going there?”

“No, that would be impossible. Lava flowed in and filled over 80% of the mine.”

“No matter how long ago that was, if we went there now, we’d just find it either filled with volcanic rock or bubbling with lava.”

“Hmm… we can’t reasonably expect to make any meaningful discoveries there.”

“It doesn’t matter. What we need to find is Technopolis, not Grandorn.”

There’s no reason to be disappointed that Grandorn turned out to be an ancient, destroyed mine.

If we could find the dwarves who fled west, our search for Technopolis would make significant progress, and we might discover what the “symbol of Grandorn” mentioned in the records was.

“I’ve never heard of any dwarf mines in Moon Lake or south of Westend Seventh. Perhaps they’re living in hiding like the Nidavellir people, or maintaining minimal contact with pioneers without revealing their origins.”

“We can’t just search the southern region without any clues… I guess we’ll have to wait until we locate the carbonated spring or other hints.”

“Hmm~ If the dwarves living there are keeping tabs on the pioneer cities, there might be another way.”

“What way?”

“If it’s difficult for us to find them, why not make them come to us? Hehehe.”

Mina flashed a mischievous smile and gave a thumbs up.

That afternoon, an unusual request was posted at the Adventurers’ Guilds in Westend Seventh and Moon Lake.

=== Quest: Recruiting Distilled Spirits Tasting and Evaluation Panel ===

Seeking a panel for tasting and evaluating distilled spirits made with special brewing methods.

Client: Jessica Walter (Frontier License B-Grade holder)

Target Participants: Dwarves of drinking age only. Gender irrelevant.

Number of Participants: First come, first served, 5 people. However, only one person per region.

Recruitment Preference: Non-holders of Frontier Licenses preferred.

Quest Details: Taste distilled spirits, complete a questionnaire, and undergo health checks.

Quest Duration: Estimated 15-20 minutes if consciousness can be maintained after tasting.

Compensation: 10 gold + one bottle (500mL) of the final produced distilled spirits.

The distilled spirits used for tasting are extremely high in alcohol content and potency, with high probability of intoxication even for dwarves if consumed beyond the appropriate amount.

Therefore, this evaluation panel will recruit only dwarves, and to accommodate diverse opinions from various regional food cultures and customs, only one person per region will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tasting and evaluation will be conducted in Westend Seventh, and registration can be done through the Adventurers’ Guilds in the Sixth and Seventh Western Cities or by direct meeting with the client.

============

The distilled spirits (Spiritus) tasting quest posted at the Adventurers’ Guild included several mechanisms to carefully select participants.

By distributing the quest only in the Sixth and Seventh Western Cities, we limited accessibility for dwarves from other regions, and the condition of accepting only one person per region allowed us to filter participants by place of origin.

The recruitment number of five was designed to accommodate not only those from Blackforge, Eisenheim, and Nidavellir, but also to leave room for two additional locations.

Since non-holders of Frontier Licenses were not only included but actually preferred, descendants of old Grandorn survivors would certainly contact us eventually if the news reached them.

The quest description contained phrases no dwarf could ignore:

‘This alcohol is so strong that even dwarves get drunk after just one glass’

‘The tasting will only take 15-20 minutes if you can maintain your senses afterward’

The effect of this dwarf-specific provocation was so powerful that it took less than a day for the first participant to appear after the quest was posted.

The first participant was a dwarf blacksmith from “Stings Mine” near the planned site of the Eighth Western City.

Having visited Westend Seventh to deliver alloy ingots, he confidently knocked on our lodging door and boasted of being one of the best drinkers among the dwarves of Stings Mine.

The result: he downed a full whiskey glass of Spiritus in one shot and promptly collapsed.

After about four hours of sound sleep in a separate room, he completed a simple questionnaire and left with a face of complete satisfaction.

Three days later, the second participant appeared—a female adventurer from Moon Lake, originally from Eisenheim like Mina’s mother.

Having discovered the quest at the Moon Lake Adventurers’ Guild, she had forced her companions into an unreasonable forced march to reach us.

The Spiritus, drawn as a toast of honor, rewarded her with six hours of deep sleep and unparalleled satisfaction. She left with a 500mL bottle we had prepared in advance as a two-day reserve, looking as if she had gained the whole world.

Needless to say, we also delivered a spare bottle to the first participant who was still in the city.

Two days later, a dwarf man with distinctive clothing and no Frontier License came to our lodging with a temporary residence permit.

Most dwarves who interact with pioneers prefer dwarf-sized clothes produced in the cities, but this man wore handcrafted upper and lower garments, a poncho, and a sombrero (a tall Mexican-style hat with a wide brim).

Even his backpack was clearly different from mass-produced items, giving off the strong impression that he was unfamiliar with pioneer society rather than simply adhering to tradition or personal preference.

“I heard I could taste some exceptional alcohol if I came here.”

“You’ve come to the right place. You’re our third challenger. Could you tell me your name, age, and place of origin?”

When Mina suggested adding the condition that only one person per region would be accepted for the tasting event, I had expected the condition would prove ineffective.

I thought that dwarves, who love alcohol so much, would lie about their place of origin to gain eligibility.

But according to Mina, dwarves have tremendous pride and sense of belonging to the mines where they were born and raised.

She asserted that they would never falsely report their origins, even if it meant missing the chance to drink the world’s finest alcohol.

“Name’s Morgan Nottingham. Age 53. I’m from a place far south of here… called ‘Grandorn Zwei.'”

Grandorn.

The descendants of those who survived the ruined ancient mine and migrated westward were still carrying on that name.