Chương 36: The Lazy Elf

The southern countries entered a period of "return to spring" during this time.

The entire area around the Neck Mountains was shrouded in continuous rain, and Shane hadn't seen the sun for several days.

He and Frilian temporarily settled in a small town called Fuan.

This small town is located next to the Neck Mountains and is considered the last stop before entering the Neck Mountains. Further on, there are basically no more large towns.

The entire Neck Mountain Range stretches for over a thousand kilometers, forming a natural boundary between the Central Continent and the Southern Kingdoms. Crossing the mountain range will lead them into the territory of the Central Kingdoms, where they will follow the Golden Trade Route straight to the Holy Capital to visit Haita.

However, within the mountain range, sometimes you might not see a village for hundreds of kilometers.

So they had to wait for the weather to improve before entering the mountains.

It's important to know that going into the mountains on a rainy day is never a wise choice, no matter the time.

…………

Frilian disliked damp and cold weather, so she would use rainy days as an excuse to stay in her room all day, holding a magic book and killing time.

Xia En invited her to have dessert, but she showed little interest.

This shows how much people hate such terrible weather.

After finishing breakfast, feeling bored, he began to examine his own control panel.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

【Xia En】 Status: Mental Strength - Normal (No Recovery Required) Entry: [Great Wisdom Appears as Foolishness (Gold)], [Accelerated Thinking (Gold)], [Time Management (Gold)], [Strong Luck (Purple)], [Closed Brain (Blue)], [Numerical Mirror (Purple)] Evaluation: A person.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Shaen's gaze fell on the newly acquired [Numerical Mirror], the practical effect of which could not yet be verified.

He's been eager to find a monster to test his skills lately.

In addition, he also paid attention to the description in the "Status" column.

Because there was no "beginner's guide" or similar tool, he had to figure out how to use the terms and learn magic on his own, little by little.

Moreover, since it is unclear how the "Sage" cultivates, there is no clue as to how to quickly improve spiritual power. The only thing to do is to keep trying to peel away the entries, hoping that quantitative change will lead to qualitative change.

But it seems that it is far from enough at present.

At least from the panel, apart from the increase in the number of entries, the rating of mental strength has not changed.

Improving his mental strength quickly, learning more powerful magic, and becoming stronger are his most pressing needs right now, since those freaks from the demon race could attack at any moment.

"We still need to create more entries..."

Taking advantage of a break in the rain, he went out of the hotel to get some fresh air.

The air was slightly cool on the streets after the rain.

Before long, a thin layer of fine water droplets began to fall from his hair.

It inexplicably added a touch of melancholy to his youthful appearance.

The owner of a fruit shop next door saw him, her eyes lit up, and she waved to him enthusiastically.

"Hey, Shane, want some apples?"

"Of course, beautiful lady. Your apples are the best I've ever had on my travels."

Upon hearing Xia En's words, the proprietress beamed with joy and kept inviting Xia En to come in and sit down.

Originally, 2 copper coins could buy 3 apples, but in the end, Shane managed to buy 5.

That's probably the charm of language.

After visiting a bakery, a pork jerky shop, and a dessert shop, Xia En finally returned to the hotel with an enormous pile of food that he couldn't carry any more.

It was already afternoon, and Frilian still hadn't left her room.

Fearing she would starve to death inside, Xia En had no choice but to take on the task of feeding her.

dong dong dong.

A knock came at the door.

Frillie held the magic book, ignoring it.

Thump thump thump thump thump— The door was about to be smashed down.

Frillie sighed.

…………

"Frilian, I remember you know a kind of magic that can remove rust from bronze statues, right?"

"You broke down my door just to ask this?"

"Haha, I was just worried you were sleeping too soundly and wouldn't hear me."

Xia En quickly handed over a fruit-filled mini cake to soothe the elfin girl's morning grumpiness.

"I was strolling around town when I met an old man who said his copper pot had rusted, but there was no one in town who knew how to remove rust, so he wanted to ask us for help. I figured copper statues and copper pots are probably similar things, so why don't you give it a try?"

"..."

The small cake in front of me suddenly felt heavy.

Frillie held the spoon, hesitating for a moment, unsure whether she should take a bite.

In the end, with her strong willpower, she managed to resist the temptation of the dessert and returned the cake to Shane.

"It's too cold, I don't want to go out. Let's do it another day."

Hearing Frillie's answer, Shane was not surprised at all. It was rare for this lazy elf to go out in this kind of weather.

"I knew you'd say that, so look what this is."

As he spoke, Xia En took out the rusty copper pot from his backpack.

Frillie looked speechless.

Now that you've already gotten it back, why are you still pretending...?

Swish.

The staff appeared instantly, and Frilian lightly tapped the copper pot. A spell as gentle as a breeze swept across the surface of the pot, and the rust that had been clinging to it disappeared, leaving the entire pot shiny and clean once more.

Shane couldn't help but give Frillie a thumbs up.

"Alright, it's resolved. Don't disturb my reading, hurry up and go."

Frillie took the cake back and then slapped Shane a few times with her hand, as if shooing away a puppy, looking impatient.

Xia En smiled and pointed to the copper pot.

"Don't rush, look at the copper pot now, what's the difference between it and the one before?"

What else could be different?

Frillie glanced at it casually.

Then she sensed something was wrong, turned back, took another careful look, and froze.

"You've probably noticed by now that this isn't an ordinary copper pot. It's actually a copper helmet, but it's been around for so long that it's become somewhat deformed."

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a casting technique unique to the dwarves, and it was made by dwarven craftsmen."

Xia En was so certain for no other reason than this.

Because he can see the helmet entry.

[Dwarven bronze helmet] State: Deformed Entry: 【Iron Head (White Attribute)】: Greatly increases the physical defense of the head.

【Adaptability (White Standard)】: Due to the special material, it has good shape flexibility.

Evaluation: It once belonged to an indomitable warrior.

When the old man took out the helmet, he realized that something was amiss. Sure enough, upon asking, he learned that the old man had found the helmet on the mountain when he was a child, and that it had been decades since then.

He didn't know who lost it.

But he clearly remembered that when he found it, the ground near the helmet seemed to be badly damaged, as if it had been crushed by something.

Hearing this origin story, Xia En guessed that an unknown battle might have taken place in that place.

So he bought the helmet and brought it back to show Frilian, believing that Frilian must know something about the dwarves.

You see, dwarves, like elves, are a very rare race, and he didn't think that such a dwarven helmet would just appear in some small mountain village.

Just as Shane had suspected, Frillie also realized that something was wrong.

The helmet was covered with marks left by swords and knives, clearly indicating that it was a helmet worn by a warrior in his lifetime.

She immediately thought of Azer, and also of the dwarf village that Azer had mentioned, which had been attacked by demons.

After growing up, Aize returned to the village countless times and searched for the vanished demon in the surrounding area for many years, but to no avail.

He was very sorry about this.

If this helmet is related to the demons of yesteryear...