Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?
Chapter 545 - 373: Giant Blacksmith: Friend, Free

Chapter 545: Chapter 373: Giant Blacksmith: Friend, Free

"I see, you’re feeling uncertain about the future and unsure how to decide on matters concerning your friends."

By the bonfire, under the watchful eyes of King Gwyn’s statue, Solar, transformed into a golden spiritual body, spoke after listening to Elsa express her troubles.

Elsa admitted she had spoken out of impulse when she asked for advice, and when questioned about why she wanted strength, she shared the concerns she previously expressed to the Onion Knight.

She didn’t feel much at the time, but now she feels a bit ashamed.

The reason is probably because Solar was so gentle and approachable, genuinely helping her analyze the problem to find a solution.

Listening to someone earnestly analyze a problem she felt was not worth mentioning truly made her feel a bit embarrassed.

"Your problem is that you feel the current team and leader have changed significantly compared to before, making you want to leave, but you cannot abandon those you know," Solar said, "and you also don’t have a precise goal for the future."

Elsa nodded repeatedly, almost asking, "Do you have any insights?"

"Sometimes it’s not the people who change, but it’s you who have awakened and realized they were always like this."

Solar stood up, "Among your problems, the most important is to decide what to do for the future. Once you find a worthy goal to strive for, other worries will be solved naturally."

Elsa continued to nod. But then, how could one find a goal?

Unfortunately, regarding this question, Solar couldn’t make the decision for her; life’s significant matters ultimately need to be resolved by oneself.

Elsa felt a bit disappointed, but she understood her issues couldn’t be solved through mere chatter. The root cause seems to be her own indecisive character.

If she could be more resolute and have stronger action ability, she wouldn’t encounter such issues.

Though the emotional problems couldn’t be solved, Solar was able to guide her on martial art training.

Moreover, he was quite happy to help others.

Yanor Londo has many advantages, mentioning just one: the strong monsters here can provide a substantial amount of souls for adventurers.

The souls provided by a single giant guard here can be comparable to killing in and out through the Gollum groups in Fran Fort seven times, due to Gong Qiying’s deliberate suppression of soul amounts in front area zones.

As a hero, Elsa’s stats are relatively monstrous when facing most ordinary people, but in the Painting World, where strong stats are average, she is not outstanding, only sharing a table with the Stone Statue Ghost.

Before this, she did not have the awareness to level up, believing her current strength was sufficient. But now, she realizes how far she is from being adequate.

Set a small short-term goal, increase strength by five ranks first, as for Life Force, it’s not important, merely the difference between dying in one strike and two, and Ornstein could undoubtedly pierce an adventurer to death with one perfect thrust.

However, upgrading her rank is something Elsa must consider herself. What Solar needed to do was provide her with technical guidance.

Elsa is currently a pure greatsword warrior, so was it possible, to teach her something different?

Her oath is already as a Sun Warrior, how can she not use the iconic Thunder Spear?

The Thunder Spear, which relies entirely on arm strength to throw in parabolas, may be better suited to her monstrous power than Luminous Stone Magic Gravel and other magic.

Thus, Solar had already devised a training plan for her.

A hundred throwing postures for the Thunder Spear, sixty-six rolling techniques, the force exerted when drawing the sword, and...

Each specialized training had to be conducted in practice; the giant guards of Yanor Londo were the best sparring partners, their Big Shields seemed enchanted with unknown magic that even weapons couldn’t leave a scratch on them, as if causing no harm, but they would react to the force of attacks. These were perfect sandbags.

Before starting the training, Solar took Elsa on a tour of the castle, exploring paths they hadn’t explored before defeating Ornstein and Smough, training in practice.

Then, they encountered another friendly "person."

"Clang clang clang..."

It’s a giant, or a giant blacksmith.

His enormous body sat on a seemingly small stool, holding a hammer that was probably the size of one of his fingers, seriously pounding and forging weapons.

The scene looked a bit comical, but with Elsa’s perspective, she found the giant blacksmith quite cute in this manner.

Just now, a Dull Forging Stone had been dropped by the giant guard, might as well enhance the Sword Corpse Greatsword here.

Before she could speak, the giant blacksmith suddenly turned his head toward her, extending his hand with a gruff voice:

"Weapon, give me, forging."

"Ah? Oh." Elsa handed over the Sword Corpse Greatsword, intending to take out the Dull Forging Stone from her pocket, but the giant blacksmith started forging on his own.

Huh, don’t adventurers need to provide the forging stones here?

While hammering, the giant blacksmith said:

"Haven’t seen, people, forging, free once, making friends."

Giants as a race seemed not very skilled in speaking, but he made his meaning clear enough for them to understand.

"Alright, we’re friends now, hahaha!" Solar responded cheerfully before Elsa could react.

The giant blacksmith glanced at Elsa, she nodded too, "Friends, friends, we’re friends now."

Hence, the blacksmith sped up his weapon-forging rhythm; enhancing weapons at Andre the Blacksmith required half a day, but the giant only hammered for a few moments then returned the Sword Corpse Greatsword to Elsa, and took Solar’s weapon to start forging.

The Sword Corpse Greatsword seemed to become sharper and stronger. This was the immediate feeling she had upon receiving the reinforced weapon, joyfully thanking the blacksmith.

The Giant Blacksmith was the third person to show her concern since she entered Yanor Londo, the first two being the Brass Woman and Solar, which made her feel the fatigue of adventure fading.

Although the Monsters here are strong and troublesome, everyone she encountered here was good; Solar goes without saying, the Brass Woman appears cold and aloof but gives her earnest advice, and the Giant Blacksmith offers a free enhancement the moment they meet.

One can’t help but sigh how pure the folk customs were in the past; now, morality has degraded, society has declined, and you wonder how guys like Patch manage to survive.

"Forge, must do it again."

"Haha, I’ll definitely come back!" Elsa noted the place, waved goodbye, and described her feelings with a classic student’s essay phrase — she felt warm and fuzzy inside.

Helping others and being helped turned out to be such joyful experiences, she began to enjoy this feeling.

The Giant Blacksmith gifted a free enhancement, adding up all the Forging Stones, and the Sword Corpse Greatsword was enhanced twice this time, leaving very noticeable scars on the Stone Statue Ghost’s hard skin, much more powerful than before the enhancement.

With the enhanced weapon by her side, plus the guidance and protection from Solar, she dared to confront three giant guards at the same time.

When she first simultaneously defeated the three giant guards, reaping sweat and Solar’s praises, a confident and glowing smile appeared on her face.

"I’ve decided..." Elsa muttered softly.

"What’s up?" Solar couldn’t hear clearly.

"Nothing, nothing, let’s go find the next enemy!"

She waved her hand, supplementing the unsaid words in her heart:

Unless the Royal City explodes, Elsa will not leave!

She wants to quietly strengthen herself here and become the Ten-Mile Slope Sword God after she leaves!

With Solar as the teacher, these would undoubtedly be no problem.

Just like that, Elsa is going to be "lost" in the Painting World for a while.

Meanwhile, are others entering the Painting World too?

Yes, my friend, yes.

Gong Qiying spent spiritual power modifying the permission of the [Must Win to Leave World], not changing the effect but copying dozens or hundreds of Painting Worlds created using permissions and placing them at the Yilushier bonfire, except for the initial big bridge bonfire.

Although adventurers still have to explore the Painting World alone, fortunately, not just one person can explore it, while the whole world just waits outside the painting; as long as adventurers separate from the ones entering the Painting World, they can enter a Dungeon "World" where nobody has entered the Painting World yet.

And now, a plain old adventurer came in this way.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?

He was originally following Fingerley after finishing today’s invasion and hunting sinners event, just enough to collect the evidence-of-oath ears, intending to exchange rewards at the Dark Moon Altar.

Ten ears can be exchanged for the Dark Moon Ring, twenty ears for Miracle · Dark Moon Light Sword, and as the Dark Moon Sword, he has long coveted that thing, but frankly, collecting twenty ears isn’t easy.

Especially now, adventurers often involved in invasion activities have become experts, mastering all commonly used invasion techniques and being adept at hide-and-seek, resulting in him possibly not netting even one ear in a day— it’s that exaggerated.

They are all disciples taught by the same Dungeon after all, undetectable by each other’s moves.

Finally, today he collected enough ears and happily offered them to the altar, only to get an unexpected item instead of the Dark Moon Light Sword:

[Dark Moon Priest Ring]

[A ring bestowed to the priests of Shadow Sun, Dark Moon God Gwendolin, its wearer can enhance magic comprehension]

[Shadow Sun Gwendolin is among the Ancient Gods remaining in Yanor Londo, with very few followers]

No way, he’s specialized in melee combat; why is he being given a ring related to magic?

Despairing, he leaned back against the wall behind him, not noticing it had turned into a painting.

When he came to his senses, he had already arrived in Yanor Londo.

Before he could be awed by the rare breathtaking scenery before him, he was engulfed in a frightening situation being chased by the giant guards.

Luckily, he is a Hound Step player, being an assassin turned warrior, skilled in Combat Skills like Maru used to infiltrate shadows.

In terms of parkour ability, overall, he’s even stronger than Elsa, but under the pursuit of giant guards, he didn’t even have time to sit by the bonfire with the Brass Woman.

He not only missed the bonfire but mistook the Brass Woman for a Monster upon seeing her, slashing several blows instantly.

Consequently, the bonfire became unusable, and Brass Woman chased after him; seeing her wielding the Dark Moon Light Sword, the adventurer then realized she was a Dark Moon Sword as well.

Currently, in panic, he turned the rotating staircase mechanism and reached Yanor Londo’s lowest level, finally finding a bonfire he could use.

However, the subsequently appearing Solar was in a hostile state towards him...

As for why, it’s the same reason he slashed Brass Woman earlier, he also attacked Solar in Ulashiro...

"Can I apologize to you? Please, stop chasing me!"

In his haste, the adventurer’s hand wearing the Dark Moon Priest Ring touched King Gwyn’s statue.

The next second, the statue vanished, revealing a set of descending steps.

And at the end of the path is a white Fog Gate.