174 – Sacrificial Ritual – 7

“For a Letan to have their achievement recognized… That is rare, but impressive.”

Tilla, who stood by Gi-jun’s side before he knew it, muttered.

At her words, Gi-jun could also understand the situation.

Perhaps, at this moment when the end of the quest was declared, Unika seemed to have received a reward after having the achievements she established in this overflow recognized, separate from the rewards received by the summoned.

Indeed, it was only natural; with all the officials scheduled to be appointed to Uralta having fled except for her, had she not remained in Uralta alone, mediating between the Letans and the summoned, and commanding and leading them to stand against the overflow?

Although things had gone smoothly since she was backed by Gi-jun’s halo, it was a clear fact that she had played a major role in the process of fending off the overflow.

“If Ji-hye had seen this, she would have said something about it being like a Pokémon again.”

Gi-jun quietly muttered as he watched the horn on Unika’s forehead emit a brilliant five-colored light, covering her entire body.

Although it was a fact Gi-jun already knew from having evolved his rank several times himself, unlike Pokémon, even when a person’s rank grew, their appearance did not change dramatically.

Instead, the body was adjusted to a state closer to perfection; as a prime example, although Ji-hye had been just an ordinary College Student A when they first met, since Gi-jun had forced her to train and she had even grown to the Rare grade, she was now in a state where one could believe it if she were called a model.

Of course, if he told her directly, she would put on airs, so he had absolutely no intention of ever telling her.

“Phew…”

As Unika, whose physical condition had originally been better than Ji-hye’s, grew to the Unique grade, she came to possess an appearance so beautiful and perfect that one would truly believe she was an angel descended from heaven.

The reason why the expression ‘angel’ popped up immediately was because a pair of pure white wings had sprouted on her back after she finished her growth!

“Wings?!”

Not satisfied with just a unicorn’s horn, she had even laid her hands on the wings of a pegasus; what a greedy person she was.

But no sooner had Gi-jun had that thought than Unika reached her hand to her forehead and snapped off the horn, which had grown even longer and more beautiful during the growth process, with a clean snap!

…She had changed her line of business from a unicorn with wings to a pure pegasus.

“I award this horn as a reward to Jun, the hero of Gratia, who made the greatest contribution in this overflow.”

Unika held out her horn to Gi-jun, even putting forward a plausible excuse in case anyone said anything for no reason.

Wondering if she really had to go this far, Gi-jun could not bear the gazes focusing on him, so he approached Unika and took the horn.

As the distance between the two narrowed, Unika whispered in Gi-jun’s ear in a low voice.

“For a Monoceros-kin woman to break her horn and present it to a man before her wedding, she would normally have nothing to say even if it were misunderstood as a marriage proposal, but…”

“You said it was just an old custom with no meaning!”

“I’m glad you remember. But it is a relief. Since I am able to deliver it in the form of a reward like this, there will be no cause for misunderstanding, will there?”

Unika’s eyes were smiling playfully as she spoke.

She had an expression that showed she had no doubt the opposite of her words would happen.

No matter how he thought about it, he felt that delivering the horn to Gi-jun in front of the public was not to avoid misunderstandings, but to create them…

Faced with her beauty that had become even more dazzling as her rank grew, he felt frustrated that he didn’t even want to refute it.

—She must have been quite frustrated about not being able to bathe with the contractor last night.

‘No need for that kind of explanation.’

Gi-jun, who responded bluntly to Lucy’s needlessly sharp guess, sighed and spoke.

“Let’s all take a hot spring bath together later. All of us, in broad daylight.”

“I do not know why you are suddenly saying such a thing, but I gladly accept that proposal. I will also be careful so that no useless misunderstandings spread due to this incident.”

Unika answered slyly, smiled brightly, and finally set him free.

Nobles were scary.

That sly resourcefulness was terrifying!

* * *

Although the summoned, centered around Gi-jun, had received the rewards of the overflow and felt that this matter was completely finished, the Letans still had plenty of work left.

Not only did the reconstruction of Uralta still have a long way to go, but above all, there was the important sacrificial ritual.

While Glittertoss hammered the orichalcum day and night, the other dwarves also moved frantically.

Making a large metal altar and moving it to the volcanic crater was their mission.

“Larger, brighter! If we are to erase the traces of that cursed bastard and receive the grace of Lord Ptah, an altar of this scale is not enough!”

“But will that fellow Glittertoss be able to do well?”

“He made the hero’s weapon, and that is enough! Don’t doubt him and just do your job for now!”

“……So is ‘that hammer’ really in Glittertoss’s hands right now?”

“If you don’t want to burn to death, don’t think about useless things. If we get on that man’s good side somehow, he might let us hold it at least once!”

All the blacksmith workshops in Uralta grew noisy with the sounds of lighting fires, smelting metal, and hammering without rest.

Naturally, since the materials required for it were substantial, the summoned who had not gained much profit from this overflow accepted their requests to escort them to the mine shafts scattered across the mountain range, or performed duties such as exterminating the monsters that had filled the shafts when the overflow occurred.

Perhaps also due to Gi-jun’s influence, Unika, who had successfully concluded her deal with the king and had been appointed as the highest official of Uralta, also bustled about while fluttering her newly obtained wings.

Her work mainly consisted of thrusting the king’s appointment letter in the faces of the noble officials who only showed up to claim their positions after the overflow had completely ended, and forcibly expelling, imprisoning, and reporting those who could not accept their rightful punishments.

“Nobles are truly amazing. Seeing how they solidify their positions like that, never letting a chance opportunity slip away.”

Looking out the window of the city hall at Unika, who was flying around diligently to deal with and repel every noble visiting the city hall, Tilla spoke in an admiring voice.

Holding a glass containing fruit juice that Gi-jun had made for her in one hand, she emptied it cleanly and did not forget to request a refill while holding out the empty glass to him.

Gi-jun, who pulled out orange juice from his inventory and poured it for her, spoke as he watched a noble who had been kicked out of the city hall grinding his teeth and stomping his feet.

“Unika is indeed amazing, but I think those officials who ran away only to reappear with such shameless faces are even more incredible.”

“If Lady Unika had not quickly secured the evidence and communicated with the royal family, they would have been able to return without any issue for now. Of course, their relations with the locals would not have been very good… so it is a foolish move.”

Meanwhile, Lora, the only Letan remaining in the Lumen party, evaluated them from a slightly different perspective than Tilla or Gi-jun, who could only shake their heads at the nobles’ shamelessness.

For reference, unlike Tilla, she was drinking strawberry juice.

Apparently, after being bitten by a vampire, she had instinctively come to seek only the color red.

“Since Uralta is a place where the native dwarves hold strong influence, even if they had returned, they wouldn’t have lasted long. Especially since it is a royal territory directly under the crown, not a fief they can manage at will.”

“To put it the other way, Unika, who is supported by the highly individualistic natives, might really become the lord of Uralta someday.”

“Indeed, and if she were to marry Lord Jun, it would be even more certain…”

Saying so, Lora stared intently at the unicorn horn resting on the table.

As if they had been waiting for those words to come out, the gazes of the other party members gathered around the table also focused on it all at once, prompting Gi-jun to speak in a solemn voice while drinking his share of grape juice.

“I have told you multiple times, but it was not a proposal.”

“But other people will think so. The dwarves as well. In that sense, she acted quite wisely. By breaking her horn and giving it to Lord Jun in a public setting, and making Lord Jun accept it, she acted as if there was a deep connection between the two of you.”

Although Lora had clearly seemed to be praising Unika just a moment ago, at some point she was radiating a sticky, overflowing hatred!

“A very… masterful move. Yes, very…”

“Drink your juice and calm down, Lora.”

“I think it would be better if I had some alcohol.”

Although he sighed at the sight of her, who had never touched a single drop of alcohol before meeting Gi-jun, now actively seeking it, he decided to gladly play the bartender tonight for the sake of managing his party member’s mental state.

“Fine, I will make you a delicious cocktail…”

Thinking that it would be fine anyway since he was scheduled to be a bit free for the time being, Gi-jun sighed.

Indeed.

That was also the reason why the Lumen party was gathered around the table in the garden they had created on the rooftop of the city hall, sharing juice together.

They had originally come to Uralta to get equipment crafted from dragon materials, but while they had only ended up with a pile of additional materials, it would still take a long time to actually make the equipment, which unintentionally gave them some leisure time.

“Aren’t we going to a dungeon? I heard there are quite a few around here.”

Eun-shin spoke while drinking coconut water.

Gi-jun firmly shook his head as if he had been waiting for those words.

“We leveled up a lot while hunting in the overflow, the divine beast, and even the orichalcum golem, right? Rather than trying to level up any further right away, it will be better to train by practicing skills and adapting to our greatly increased stats. And once we get new equipment, we will also need time to break it in.”

“Ah—now that I hear you say it, I think so too.”

“It is the way my master trained me, so trust it.”

“I see! I will only trust you, Hyung!”

At the words of the ‘master’ who had exerted a massive influence on creating Gi-jun’s current physical beauty, Eun-shin immediately nodded, dreaming of a swimsuit date with Ji-hye this summer.

Gi-jun, who smirked at the sight of the fellow who remained unchanged and naive despite the passage of time, suddenly narrowed his eyes at the sound of hammering drifting from beyond.

‘A sacrificial ritual… I wonder if Ptah will actually react.’

* * *

Two days passed since then, and Glittertoss completed the sword made of orichalcum.

The dwarves gathered in one place appraised the sword, and soon realized that the sword was made of the same material that Glittertoss’s father, Glitterfinger, had used in the past.

“As expected, this is made of divine metal…!”

“Where on earth did you father and son obtain this?!”

“Now I can tell you to some extent.”

Some dwarves marveled at the quality of the sword, while others were shocked upon realizing the identity of the material.

Glittertoss explained to all of them with a serious expression.

“Orichalcum was in a dungeon near Uralta. But my father, who obtained the orichalcum, did not reveal that fact until the end. …Because it was too dangerous.”

Glittertoss made a fairly plausible excuse.

If they learned that orichalcum lay dormant in the dungeon, the dwarves would have thrown themselves into the dungeon without caring for their own lives and died; fearing this, Glitterfinger had hidden the fact until the very end.

The dwarves, who realized within themselves that they would throw away their lives even now if they found out the location of the orichalcum, did not dare to refute those words.

“So that was why you asked the hero to fetch that metal.”

“That is correct. And the hero succeeded in bringing back enough orichalcum to craft a sword like this.”

“Urgh, did even the hero suffer hardships…?”

Of course, although it was true that the dungeon had been difficult, all the danger factors inside had long since been removed.

The reason why Glittertoss, who had heard about the dungeon’s situation from Gi-jun, hid the truth was extremely simple.

Because he intended to secretly visit the place alone later and gather the orichalcum grains embedded throughout the cave.

“If that is the case, I understand. I will not ask for the location.”

“Because what is important now is offering this sacrifice to Lord Ptah.”

“It is perfect. It is the most perfect sword I have ever seen in my life. Perhaps it even surpasses Glitterfinger’s…!”

The dwarves all nodded with grave expressions, agreeing with Glittertoss’s words, but of course, everyone’s true feelings were different.

They were resolving to find the location of that dungeon somehow so that they too could hammer orichalcum.

One saving grace was that, although they were blindly obsessed, they were not fools and had no intention of entrusting the collection of orichalcum to outsiders.

After all, if the fact that orichalcum lay dormant in Uralta were to be revealed, Uralta would head straight toward destruction.

‘The hero.’

‘He is the hero. We must approach him somehow and ask him to mine orichalcum for us!’

‘I want to craft a Legendary-grade longsword too!’

Leaving behind the dwarves who were getting far ahead of themselves, Glittertoss moved his feet.

Since the altar meticulously crafted by the dwarves had already been moved near the volcanic crater, all they had to do now was head there and perform the ritual.

“May I participate?”

“Of course! You, Administrator, have the right to receive Lord Ptah’s blessing!”

“And the same goes for the hero who protected Uralta… Ahem.”

In addition to the dwarves, Unika and the Lumen party were also invited to the ritual.

Of course, from the dwarves’ perspective, they only wanted to invite Gi-jun, who held Ptah’s sacred relic, but fearing that he might reject it if they only invited him, they had invited the people around him as well.

In any case, from the perspective of Unika, who managed Uralta, it was an event that would establish her authority, so she was only too glad.

“Ah, as expected, the heat has died down quite a bit.”

“Perhaps it is because the volcano’s essence has been completely drained.”

Since it was a volcanic zone, the heat grew more intense as they climbed toward the summit—but the Lumen party, who had already experienced worse than this, casually exchanged such words.

Since the Pupil and even the divine beast were all dead, the volcano would no longer become excessively hot or erupt day after day.

However, Glittertoss, who overheard those words beside them, groaned and spoke.

“That is why we must perform the ritual all the more. If the heat of the volcano cools down too much, we cannot produce a good flame.”

“Was there some kind of field buff?”

“You could say that. Blacksmiths were able to obtain better results just by hammering iron here. However, the moment the evil god and the divine beast that had resided in the volcano died, we all felt that powerful heat disperse.”

“So that means it wasn’t just because of your faith in Ptah that you hurried.”

Avoiding Gi-jun’s steady gaze, Glittertoss coughed dryly and turned his head.

“Look, it is the crater.”

Before they knew it, they were at the summit of the volcano.

A massive lava lake welcomed them.

It was today’s ritual site, where they would throw in a sword instead of a ring.