We found the location of the Forge of the Ancients, which means that the ones who could repair Fatima's gun are somewhere nearby. Just as Ember and Fang passed through the illusion, a loud voice rained down upon us.
"Trespassers! Name yourselves!"
A deep and intimidating voice echoed around. As the sound was bouncing all around the wide cave, we couldn't pinpoint where the voice was coming from. Deciding that staying quiet is a foolish thing to do, I quickly answered.
"I'm Will, a tamer! These two are my tamed beasts, Fang and Ember!"
As I replied, a loud series of laughs from various people could be heard echoing.
"Ha Ha Ha! You? A brat who's still wet behind the ears claims to be a tamer? Stop dreaming, brat."
Another voice echoed; it was different from the previous one.
"Hmph! You better go home and suck on yo momma's tits! This place isn't somewhere a kid should be in."
A third voice said with disdain. Hearing the last comment, I felt a bit aggravated. Before I realized it, my mouth was already flapping.
"Sorry, but I can't do that. I'm an orphan, you see. If you can lend me your mommy, then maybe I'll enjoy sucking on her tits instead."
Shortly after, a crashing sound echoed, followed by the sound of glass shattering.
"Y-You brat! You dare?! Wait for me; I'll come down there and teach you a lesson!"
A few moments after that, only grunts and some unintelligible words were heard. After they calmed down, the same voice that called at us the first time echoed once more.
"You're funny, lad. Enter."
As he said that, the wall beside us moved to the side like an automatic door, revealing a metallic passage that leads to a bright space. After confirming that Ember and Fang were prepared for whatever came to them, we slowly entered the passage.
While walking down the long metallic passage, I was looking around in awe. No matter how I look at it, this level of technology is straight out of science fiction. The dim lights that lined the top corner were similar to yellow LED strips, which gave both a familiar and an out-of-place feeling.
At the end of the passage, a wide space was present. It was a white-walled area with several levels sticking outward like terraces. All over the place, hundreds of small men were walking around busily.
"Ah, over here, brat."
A deep-sounding baritone voice echoed once more. Looking at the source, there was a brown-haired dwarf about a meter tall waving at us from a second-level terrace. Other dwarves were visible around him through the transparent floor they were standing on. One of the dwarves was even lying on the glass-like flooring, suppressed by three others.
I quickly led Ember and Fang to an elevator-like implement. I pressed a button with the number 2 written on it, and the doors quickly closed. After a short bout of the familiar feeling of moving upward, the door opened again.
We quickly passed through the connecting pathways and headed for the one where the brown-haired dwarf was.
"Ooh, to think you can use our facilities with no problem... Isn't this your first time here?"
As soon as we reached them, the dwarf with a deep voice asked. Looking around, he was the one with the most important-looking atmosphere. He's probably the leader of this group.
"It's a coincidence. It just happened that I was familiar with a similar object."
I said it as an excuse. Even if I claimed that I knew it since it looks like an elevator from Earth, I doubt they'd believe it.
"That aside, how did you guys figure out our location? We had a powerful illusion set up, and there's even a trap that makes one lose their sense of direction. It should be almost impossible to discover our place."
The eyes of the brown-haired dwarf turned sharp as he asked. In response, I took out the compass that God Zehion gave me and showed it to him.
"It's thanks to this-"
"Leave, now."
Before I could even finish my words, the brown-haired dwarf dismissed me. Not only he, but all the other dwarves around him were looking at the black compass with faces full of disgust.
"We have no services to offer to someone sent by that dumbass."
The dwarf turned around and was about to return to his table. I don't know what happened, but it looks like the dwarves know that this compass belongs to God Zeshion. What the hell did he do to get hated by the dwarves to this extent?
"Wait, please! Only you guys could repair my weapon!"
I said this as I took out the gun from my storage ring. As soon as it appeared, the dwarves all around went "Oooh!" and quickly ran with wonky steps towards my side.
"T-This is! A gun! It's a gun in pristine condition!"
"Amazing! To think a specimen this good was still around, this calls for a celebration!"
"This gun... It's still usable! Do you have bullets?! Can you try and shoot it for us?!"
Their enthusiasm immediately did a 180. It seems that they were already ignoring the fact that God Zeshion was involved with me. I took out a single bullet and showed it to them.
The brown-haired dwarf snatched the bullet from my hand and quickly chambered it with seemingly familiar movements. He then aimed the gun at a nearby wall and pulled the trigger.
"W-Wait! The recoil-!"
Before I could warn him, the bullet was already embedded in the wall. The brown-haired dwarf was sent flying backward and even fell to the first level. As we peeked over the railing, he was lying on the ground, just laughing maniacally as he raised the rifle in his hands.
"Great! Really great!"
He keeps on shouting. The other dwarves were drawn to the loud, explosive noise of the gun firing and were looking at us with excited expressions.
The brown-haired dwarf then went to the elevator and returned to our side.
"It's still powerful even when broken. What a robust design."
He said this as he kept flipping the gun over and over as he inspected it. A few moments later, he finally nodded his head.
"You want us to repair this, don't you? Rest assured, we'll definitely repair this!"
As he claimed, the other dwarves cheered loudly. They seem happier about repairing the gun than even I, the current owner.
"However, we lack the metal to use for its repair."
With a frown, the brown-haired dwarf claimed.
"It's a dangerous area underground with demons running about. Do you think you can get a few kilograms' worth of ore from there?"
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m