The Max Level Hero Strikes Back!

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“This is all I can do for you. Its state is exactly like before, right when the ‘Thousand-day Blacksmith’ first handed it over to the dwarves. The rest is up to you,” Davey said.

“But… We can’t even work on the finishing touches with our current level of skill,” Golgouda replied.

“Then, you have to learn.” Davey smiled.

Golgouda had an eager expression on his face. “C… Can you teach us those skills?”

“I’m willing to do that for a trade. You’re okay with that, right?” Davey asked.

“Of course! I would sell my soul to the devil if I could catch up to our ancestors’ skills!”

“T… Teach me! I will do anything you say!”

“Teach me! N—No, please teach me, wise teacher!”

The other dwarves were eager to learn as well.

‘Man, look at the change in attitude.’

“Alright. Then…”

No one regarded Davey as a mere greenhorn prince anymore, since the dwarves had seen what he could do with their very own eyes. They’d probably still struggle to believe it without first-hand experience, because it was hard to believe that a young human who was barely an adult was an expert blacksmith.

The dwarves stared at Davey nervously as he was thinking.

“Then, we’ll start after we finish my work.”

The dwarves felt relieved, their knees almost buckling.

Davey felt bad, but he had his own priorities. He did come here to ask for the dwarves’ help with repairing the territory’s facilities, but there was still something with far more importance than that.

“Your work?”

“Actually, I have come to this village to borrow the Great Furnace.”

“The Great Furnace?”

“I have to finish these weapons because I was kind of asked to do so.” Davey pulled out two cloth-wrapped weapons from his backpack.

“Is that a sword?”

As Davey unwrapped the objects, the dwarves’ eyes sparkled; they had instinctively felt that the weapons weren’t finished.

“Hm…”

“Amazing!”

“Wow…”

The dwarves were known to be the craftsmen of the century, despite being less skilled than their ancestors. Looking at the incomplete swords, they widened their eyes in shock and surprise. They looked on as Davey unwrapped the two dull swords and pulled them out.

***

-Why does everyone give you such a look whenever you show them something? One day, I think you’re going to get arrested for blasphemy.

It was really starting to seem like a bad omen, but Davey wasn’t afraid. ‘Do you think I’d be afraid of God’s punishment, especially when I have a stigmata?’

-Tsk tsk. The real punishment doesn’t come from God, but people.

The dwarves stared at Davey because of the amazing talent he had shown, but they were now only staring at the two incomplete swords in his hands. The two swords were too long to be daggers and too short to be called longswords; they weren’t designed like the common swords in this continent. Still, the craftsmen had already recognized what they were.

“H… Hey… W—What is that sword?!” Out of all the surprised dwarves, it was none other than First Elder Golgouda, the best craftsman in the Yellowstone Tribe, who asked Davey.

“How does it look?” Davey asked.

“Are you kidding? What is… No way, did you make this?!”

“Hm, I didn’t make it, but I will be the one finishing it.”

It was just a fact of the matter. Even if he had the materials, Davey wasn’t skilled enough to make something like this; after all, these twin swords had been made by Surtr, the ‘Thousand-day Blacksmith’, near the end of his life.

“T…Then, the craftsman who made this sword…” Golgouda asked.

“He died. A long time ago.”

“Ahem! I—I apologize.” Perhaps Golgouda jumped to conclusions, but he nodded with a bitter expression and backed away after listening to Davey’s reply.

Davey had no need to feel guilty, since it was true that Surtr was dead. He couldn’t help but chuckle, seeing an old dwarf get flustered after thinking he had hit a nerve. Davey said, “He’s been dead a long time. It’s already been thousands of years.”

Perhaps Golgouda understood what Davey was implying. He widened his eyes. “Thousands of years ago? N—No way, are you…!”

The problem was that the sword’s potential exceeded its initial design due to the long period of aging from abandonment.

-Aging? It’s not even alcohol.

‘All things created with the mana crafting method need a certain time to age. The Primordial Inferno… No, the sword that will be newly crafted needs a few months to settle down before it can be worked on again. And it’ll have to be meticulously maintained during that time.’

-Is that so?

‘Well, there is a clear difference in the difficulty of maintenance and crafting.’

Wondering about how he should finish the swords, Davey squinted and slid his fingers down the side of the blade. To be honest, he needed some time to think about it, because the swords had a lot more potential than he had expected. Even if the swords only retained 10% of their original condition, he couldn’t help but feel nervous about working on something so great. He didn’t have a lot of time to work on them, so the swords’ quality would ultimately depend on how much effort and skill he could put into them in a short amount of time.

“H—Hey! Do you have the materials to finish them?” Golgouda asked.

“Hm? No, I don’t. I’m planning to use an alloy with mithril, so I was going to borrow some from here.” Davey didn’t expect to be given any exquisite materials, but since this was a dwarf village, he would probably be able to get some high-quality mithril. He wanted something like orichalcum or adamantium to finish the swords off, but it was difficult to obtain something that luxurious.

However, that problem was solved unexpectedly.

‘How lucky.’

“W—Wait! I’ll lend you my workshop! Although I am not very skilled as compared to you, I have maintained it meticulously! There are plenty of tools for you to use your full abilities!” Golgouda offered.

“Hm?” Davey was puzzled, since a personal workshop was a sacred space to a craftsman.

Golgouda shouted passionately, “And I have something that you can use for the finishing material!” Golgouda wasn’t cooperating just because Davey was going to teach him; his eyes were filled with the desire to see the finished work of Surtr, the ‘Thousand-day Blacksmith’. The Primordial Inferno didn’t seem to concern him any longer.

‘Excuse me. Out of everyone, you shouldn’t be the one to act like that.’

The dwarves stared at Davey, curious as to what he was going to show next. They were almost like dogs excitedly wagging their tails.

“If it’s you… You might be able to make a sword that matches up to the divine sword! Just wait!”

The dwarves stared at Golgouda in shock as he ran off somewhere as fast as he could.

“No way, Grandpops Golgouda!”

“Is he going to bring that out?”

“He’s crazy! He’s going to bring the thing that he even hid away from the elders?!”

Davey looked puzzled as he heard the dwarves shout in shock. ‘How great is it that they are making that big of a fuss over it?’

Davey’s question was answered as soon as Golgouda ran over and handed him a small object. He could feel the mana, which was intensely unique and different from the usual kind.

“What…is this?” Feeling the unfamiliar kind of mana, Davey squinted and unwrapped the cloth to see something white. Although it was for a mere second, he realized what the object was almost instinctively.

-Bones?

‘What the hell.’

“These are the bones of a dragon that my ancestors have left me. It seems that it has absorbed mana for quite some time.”

Davey was dumbfounded at the unexpected finishing material he had received. It had been a long time since he was this shocked.

“Yes, it is my family’s treasure that has been passed down from generation to generation. I have looked after it because there wasn’t anyone who could use it, but… You…” Golgouda looked at Davey with twinkling eyes. He knew the dragon bones were absolutely perfect for the incomplete swords, which had been circulating mana and aging for thousands of years.

“Wow.” Davey was truly astonished. He wasn’t as good a craftsman as Surtr, but that didn’t mean that Davey couldn’t do what Surtr had been able to do; it was common for the student to outperform the master in the craftsman’s path. He felt that this could very well create an extremely great weapon.

***

“Ahem! W—Wise teacher! Let’s have a talk!” One of the dwarf elders, who was awkwardly glancing around, approached Davey hesitantly. “Uh… Hm. I understand that Grandpops Golgouda has helped you with a lot of things…”

“Yes, I am honored to have received many gifts from him.”

“Right. Don’t you think that he would feel a little uncomfortable if you were to use his workshop when you already got the finest material out there? So…why don’t you use my…”

“Y—You grandpa!” Golgouda shouted.

“Shriek!”

“Get lost! I already called dibs on him!”

“Hmph! How could you take all the honor for yourself?”

“That’s right! This is tyranny!”

“Our workshops can match up to yours! This is up to the wise teacher to decide!”

“W—What?!” Golgouda shouted.

The atmosphere got riled up in seconds, and the dwarves looked like they could start a fight at any minute. Dwarves were known to be hot-tempered, so they would really end up in a fistfight if Davey just left them to keep bickering. It seemed like progress wouldn’t be made unless he put a stop to these dwarves, who were fiercely arguing as if they had a death wish.

“Now, now. Everyone stop,” Davey said.

“Ahem!”

“Since Elder Golgouda offered his place first, it would be right to use it.”

“Ahem! If you say so…”

“If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask! I will get it to you!”

“Ah! It’s a very small amount, but I have orichalcum!”

“What! You grandpa?! T—Then, I will use my family treasure, too! I will give you the 100-year-old Torcilim reagent!” Sixth Elder Perdom shouted as if he was in a large auction.

“Hmph! 100 grams of adamantium! It is our family treasure! I could boast about it for decades if it were to be used in the last work of the ‘Thousand-day Blacksmith’!”

“Look at this guy! You think that’s important?! It’s the family treasure! Family treasure!”

“Hey, you grandpa! It’s better to invest it and raise the prestige of our family, rather than letting it rot somewhere! And is that the reagent in your hand? You always threw your hammer at me whenever I asked to see it!” Seventh Elder Ranselle shouted, not backing down.

The elders kept yelling. It became a competition of who could offer the best thing; now, everyone hopped on the bandwagon and began shouting, presenting Davey with what they had. Individually, the materials offered weren’t as notable as the ancient dragon bones that Golgouda had offered, but they all added up into a significant haul.

‘Wow.’ Davey couldn’t help but let out a gasp of astonishment as the dwarves went on. Even if they were dwarves, it was still difficult for them to accumulate fine materials. Extremely rare metals such as orichalcum or adamantium were very valuable; few craftsmen could even see these materials in their entire lifetime. Only tiny amounts could be found at once, so it only became a sizable amount over the accumulation of generations. It was truly something that deserved the title of a family treasure.