Ch.318Chapter 318 – Solve One Problem, Another One Appears

When I opened the warehouse door with high expectations of perfectly restored artifacts, only to find an empty space beyond, my left and right brain began spinning wildly.

‘What’s this? Did my ability fail?’

For the first time since coming to this world, I wondered if I had failed to use my ability.

I clearly saw the forge being completely repaired.

And I even drove iron posts into the ground to fix everything inside the forge.

Yet when I opened the warehouse door inside the forge, there were no artifacts that should have been there—only an empty space greeted us.

Something was definitely wrong.

But strangely, the craftsmen who should have been furious about the missing artifacts had an odd reaction.

“Hmm. The warehouse has been restored quite nicely, hasn’t it?”

“All the broken pieces inside have disappeared too. I’d say it’s been perfectly repaired!”

The craftsmen seemed unconcerned about whether the artifacts were in the forge’s warehouse.

Instead, they were admiring the warehouse’s outer walls and ceiling, marveling at how perfectly they had been repaired.

“Excuse me, isn’t there a problem here?”

“A problem? There’s no problem. The forge has been perfectly repaired—what could possibly be wrong?”

Why was I more confused by the craftsmen’s insistence that nothing was wrong?

“There’s nothing inside the warehouse.”

I told the craftsmen what I found strange.

“Oh, that?”

Yet their reaction remained oddly indifferent.

“Lord Firebeard’s artifacts that were in the warehouse have all been moved to a specialized museum for safekeeping.”

“What His Majesty requested from you, our benefactor, was simply to repair this forge itself.”

“Haha…”

So that means there were never any artifacts—Lord Firebeard’s works—in this forge to begin with?

‘No, wait. Come to think of it, they asked me to repair the forge, not restore any artifacts.’

I remembered that Ironbeard had only asked me to fix ‘the forge,’ never mentioning anything about artifacts inside it.

‘So I was just making assumptions on my own…’

It was slightly embarrassing, but not a major issue.

“Lord Firebeard truly had remarkable architectural skills as well.”

“Look at these carvings, aren’t they exquisite? We still have a long way to go before we can follow in his footsteps.”

The dwarf craftsmen were completely absorbed in examining Lord Firebeard’s warehouse.

I quietly slipped out of the warehouse to let them appreciate it in peace.

“Hahaha. Benefactor! Truly remarkable. To think you could restore his forge so perfectly.”

“There was nothing inside the warehouse.”

“Of course not. We moved all of his works to the museum because the forge had burned black and was at risk of collapse.”

“You couldn’t repair it yourselves?”

I looked at Ironbeard as I asked.

With their skills, I thought they could at least maintain its current state without collapse.

“Unfortunately, if we had touched it, the carvings inside the warehouse would have been damaged, so we couldn’t risk it. Moreover, repairing the warehouse would require at least dozens of people to enter, which might have accelerated the collapse.”

Hearing that they couldn’t work on it due to preservation concerns and safety, I had nothing more to say.

“Well, thanks to you, Lord Firebeard’s forge has been repaired. Now it’s time to restore his real artifact.”

“What?”

Wait a minute, does this mean there’s something else I need to fix besides the forge?

“Why so surprised? The forge was merely a pretext to bring you here. The real objective, which couldn’t be disclosed to the public, is something else entirely.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Another artifact that required my presence here. I had no idea what it could be that necessitated calling me, but I decided to follow Ironbeard for now.

Exchanging greetings with dwarves we passed, I followed Ironbeard until we reached the royal palace where he resided.

“Follow me. We keep his artifact deep within the palace.”

“Ah, yes.”

I followed Ironbeard toward the palace, and he expertly opened a secret passage to guide me through.

Following him down a staircase, we soon reached a dead-end corridor guarded by what appeared to be an extremely thick metal door.

“Wait a moment. I need to unlock it.”

Ironbeard said this and strode forward, skillfully disengaging the door’s locking mechanism.

After about five minutes of unlocking, the iron door blocking the corridor opened very smoothly.

As the door opened, I could see an object encased in a transparent glass container.

“Do you see it? That object is Lord Firebeard’s greatest masterpiece among all his creations.”

A masterpiece—also called a magnum opus—the one unique item created in a craftsman’s lifetime.

And that very thing was confined within that glass container.

I walked slowly toward the artifact alongside Ironbeard.

“Hmm, the power emanating from the artifact must be tremendous.”

“Hoho, you can feel it too? To withstand the pressure of that artifact… Impressive.”

Ironbeard chuckled, saying even their craftsmen needed a hundred years of training to withstand such force.

Only after slowly advancing with him to the front of the glass container could I finally see what Lord Firebeard’s artifact was.

The identity of Lord Firebeard’s artifact and masterpiece was a massive greatsword with blue lightning flickering across it.

A sword so enormous that I wasn’t sure if a person could even hold it with one hand.

I wondered why such a sword was made, and more importantly, why they wanted me to fix something that looked perfectly fine on the outside.

“Lord Firebeard saw something in a dream one day. A warrior in golden armor wielding a massive greatsword that was difficult to hold even with one hand, scattering blue lightning while fighting countless enemies.”

“So this sword is…?”

“It’s modeled after the very sword that the warrior in golden armor was holding in his vision. But the term ‘masterpiece’ isn’t used lightly—even he found this sword difficult to handle.”

Hmm, does the sword have a consciousness of its own?

“We too tried to handle this sword somehow, but its power was no joke. And after Lord Firebeard disappeared, the pressure and lightning power emitted by the sword became too strong for us to control anymore.”

In other words, they want me to stabilize this sword again.

“Can you do it?”

“I believe I can.”

I’m not sure what the sword’s original state was, but it certainly wasn’t emitting power and shooting lightning like it is now.

‘Let’s give it a try at least.’

I approached the sword with my hammer in hand.

As if sensing what was about to happen, the sword began emitting an even stronger aura and shooting more lightning.

But who am I?

I’m someone who lives under the same roof as that mighty Heavenly Horse.

Compared to the Heavenly Horse’s aura, this sword’s presence is utterly insignificant.

When the Heavenly Horse was training me, oh, it was truly hell.

And even then, I later learned it was holding back for my sake…

Let’s put aside these stray thoughts. Now is the time to deal with this.

“I’ll remove the glass container then.”

“Understood.”

As Ironbeard removed the glass container, lightning began shooting in all directions.

“Are you alright?”

“Just a slight tingling sensation.”

Fortunately, although I was hit by the lightning emitted by the sword, it didn’t affect me at all.

The lightning you emit is nothing compared to the occasional slap on my back from the Heavenly Horse.

I pushed through the pressure and lightning emitted by the sword and brought my hammer down on its body.

After the sound of metal striking metal rang out three times, an intense light filled the underground chamber.

“Ugh.”

Not a faint light, but a very bright one—something significant had happened.

As the light faded and my vision recovered, I could see what had happened to the sword.

“The sword’s appearance has changed. As if this was its original form all along.”

The lightning flowing through the sword disappeared, replaced by lightning-shaped patterns engraved on the blade.

Moreover, the sword’s size had decreased, now about the size of a one-handed sword.

Ironbeard picked up the sword and sighed in relief when nothing happened.

“Thank you. The sword seems to have finally returned to its original state. This one should now be displayed in the museum.”

“It was nothing.”

I thought my job was done now that Lord Firebeard’s lightning-emitting sword had been restored to its original state.

However…

[Are you the one who fixed the sword containing my power?]

I never expected a being in golden armor to appear before me.

Who are you?