1.
Gale was the representative of both climbers and the Enchant Room’s customers.
No one particularly disputed that.
A man seeking the pinnacle of 3-star equipment.
4-star and 5-star equipment were things most climbers could never obtain in the first place….
Which meant Gale, who had spent such an enormous sum, was more than qualified to serve as their spokesperson.
"Gale."
Elliott held out a teacup.
No steam rose from it.
Usually, those seated in Elliott’s reception room were burning up inside.
Either their equipment had just been destroyed, or they had come here with doubts about the Enchant Room.
That was why he could not offer them hot tea.
"You should explain yourself first."
But the man before him did not even reach for the teacup.
Gale.
His real name was… Deoric.
He likely had a family name, but he did not use it.
Born the illegitimate child of a prestigious family, he had built a climbing party and made his way to this position.
"Why is it possible to enchant unique equipment? Didn’t you say you would never accept it because the destruction chance was too high?"
Enhancing low-level equipment beyond +5 and enchanting unique equipment had something in common.
The Dwarf Company accepted neither.
After all, the odds were supposedly too low for enchantment to be possible.
"There is no point calling it an error when someone has just collected the auctioned item from the plaza."
As the CEO of the Dwarf Company that operated the Enchant Room, Elliott had contemplated countless responses to this situation.
But every one of those answers and considerations had collapsed today, the moment that item was successfully auctioned.
Someone really exists who enchants and supplies unique equipment.
"Gale."
"Speak."
"Do you know where the art of enchantment originally came from?"
"Is that important right now?"
"It is."
Elliott placed a hand on the table.
"Enchanting was originally a technique of the Sun Dwarves… We are merely imitating it."
"…"
"We gathered records and remnants… consulted the last surviving enchanter, and reproduced it in our own way. Precisely to the extent of that enchanter’s abilities."
"… Hm."
"Therefore, the figure of 3 stars that we gave was the limit of what we knew. We had no way of knowing otherwise. But now that such equipment has appeared…"
Elliott raised his head.
"We must admit that we were wrong."
"Admit it?"
Gale’s brow lifted slightly at those words.
"… That a new, exceptional enchanter has emerged among the Sun Dwarves."
"And?"
"We will find and hire this dwarf."
Slide.
Elliott pushed a document across the table.
"These are the number of attempts made by each customer whom our internal data estimates challenged 3-star equipment at +10 or higher. From +10 onward, we consider them customers who have challenged endgame equipment."
"…"
"If you bring us unique equipment in the future, we will enchant it free of charge for precisely the number of attempts you made."
Gale looked down at the document.
Beneath his name was a number.
The number of times he had blown up equipment in this room over ten years.
"And if you cannot find the dwarf?"
"Then we will issue a full refund for the costs of all attempts at +10 or above."
Elliott was confident.
Finding a Sun Dwarf enchanter was no different from finding gold buried in one’s front yard.
The race was already in the Company’s grasp, and the money they lived on came from the Company.
Besides.
The terms and conditions guaranteed headquarters six months to respond to unforeseen variables.
Everyone read and signed those terms before receiving an enchantment.
That was why the climbers did not immediately resort to force.
"…"
Furthermore.
If they genuinely wanted a full refund,
they would also have to sign a contract promising never to use the Dwarf Company’s Enchant Rooms again.
Even if an outstanding dwarf appeared….
There was only one place in the world that performed enchantments.
Asking climbers to put their names on that contract was, in effect—
Give up climbing the Tower.
No different from telling them to stop climbing altogether.
Even if they attempted enchanting again through a proxy enhancement service….
Wouldn’t they ultimately just be handing their money back to the Company?
There was no need to stop them.
"…"
"Kahahahaha!!"
Bang!
Gale burst into laughter as he slammed his palm down on the table.
Elliott’s eyebrow twitched.
"Kahahaha! Hahaha!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gale repeatedly pounded the table with his palm.
"… Gale."
"No, forgive me."
He wiped at the corner of his eyes.
"I will stop being angry. It isn’t entertaining, either."
The terms had stated from the beginning that the Company bore no responsibility for results caused by enchantment.
Before coming here, Gale had also assumed he would not get a clear answer.
"Your company is in a position where it must find that dwarf. Otherwise, the Company will be shaken."
"…"
"Is that right?"
"It is."
"That is what I thought."
Gale met Elliott’s eyes.
"Then how about this?"
"…"
"If I find that person first, or another group does, then that person will not be your employee, correct?"
"… But the dwarf race belongs to our Company—"
"I know. I know the Company has the dwarves on a tight leash."
Gale curled up the corner of his mouth.
"This is going to get interesting."
Then—
Bam!
The door flew open.
The person who entered was a human employee in a suit.
Had a dwarf employee opened the CEO’s door like that, he would have been severely punished on the spot.
But a human employee was another matter.
"My apologies, Gale, but just a moment…"
Yet Gale smiled and forgave the breach of etiquette.
"Speak freely!"
A riot?
That was Elliott’s guess as he leaned closer.
The employee, white as a sheet and trembling….
"… The mana crystal mine in the Kargon Mountains on the 89th floor…"
"…"
"It has come under an air raid."
The Kargon Mountains.
Together with the Velua Mountains in the Outer Tower, it accounted for the bulk of the Company’s mana crystal supply.
"Th-the workers… the instant they had all gone outside…"
"…"
"Enormous arrows rained down from the sky, and a typhoon…"
"… Arrows."
Giant arrows.
Wind.
Elliott cautiously turned his gaze forward.
Gale.
He was smiling wide enough to show every tooth.
Only then did Elliott notice.
Since when had it been?
Gale’s palm… was still embedded in the table.
Creeeak…
The table had split wide open around his palm.
"Something…"
Slide.
Gale looked at him and slowly pulled his hand out of the desk.
Clatter…
Fragments of the shattered table fell from his palm.
"It seems something unpleasant has happened?"
Giant arrows. Wind.
There were not many people capable of carrying out an air raid on that scale.
Yet the man before him was perfectly capable of it.
Had this entire conversation been an alibi?
Watching him, Elliott tilted his head slightly.
"… It would seem so."
Gale rose from his seat with a broad grin.
"Well, I hope you did not pull such idiotic shit without being prepared for at least this much."
"…"
"I will see you in six months… Ah."
As he was about to leave, Gale stopped beside Elliott and looked down at him.
"I sincerely hope you find that enchanter… before anyone else does."
Thud!
How long had it been since he left?
The employee stood beside Elliott, doing nothing but watching his expression.
The Kargon Mountains… had never been fitted with defensive facilities in the first place.
Only a high ranker could stop a high ranker’s attack. It simply was not cost-effective.
More importantly.
All climbers were customers of the Company.
There was only one place to get enchantments, so why would anyone attack it?
Countless interests were intertwined here, and some people even built businesses around them.
In other words… touching this place meant earning the hatred of powerful figures.
But the rule had been broken.
"No casualties… and no alibi, either."
Shaking his head, Elliott said,
"… Every Verdandi guild member who comes here from now on."
"… Yes."
"Lower all their enhancement rates."
"Yes…"
And.
The mine in the Kargon Mountains was an extremely sensitive place.
It was connected to lava, so if it suffered a powerful impact, excavation could not resume immediately.
At least six months.
An ironic number.
Fortunately, they had a surplus of mana crystals.
And the Dwarf Company still had a mine under contract with the Imperial Family.
"… The Velua Mountains."
Because that mine existed, Elliott added in a low voice.
"After next year’s contract renewal, increase the target extraction volume for the Velua mine."
"Understood."
After all, those mountains….
Belonged to the Company.
2.
All the transactions were completed through my burner account… no, through Mama’s Tower system.
In other words, all the money went to Dolores.
From the subspace Dolores opened in midair—
Thud!
Clink!
A pile of gold coins dropped down with a heavy thud.
"Exactly 18,055,150 gold."
Apparently, auction houses in this world did not charge fees.
The full eighteen million gold came in without any loss.
"Wow…"
I was speechless.
Until a few days ago, my entire fortune had been Kim Yuna.
"Congratulations, Lionel."
Squeeze…
She pulled me into a tight embrace.
I wrapped my arms around her back.
"You could take some of it, you know."
"I knew you would say that, so I already took a little."
"…"
"Hehe, I am joking."
So this woman knew how to joke, too.
"What do you plan to do with this money?"
After releasing me, Dolores asked carefully.
I had promised to buy Ruby exercise equipment, but….
Why would I buy that with money?
First of all, I doubted this world even had high-end exercise equipment like that.
I could make it myself. I would need plenty of cushioning so Ruby did not hurt herself.
A Smith machine seemed like the best option… though I did not know why, I had a feeling Ruby would eventually tell me to throw the Smith machine away. She looked like she would insist on free weights.
So once I had money, there was something I wanted to do first.
I had been feeling this for a while now.
My current age was holding me back too much.
I wanted to enter the Tower, but there had been no way because I was not old enough yet.
But during Abyss’s shady docking incident last time, I remembered something they had said while disguised as a dwarf.
There is a way to enter the Tower even if you are not old enough.
I wanted to know what it was.
And after digging through everything I could find,
"A Tower Invitation Ticket."
"… The Tower."
I learned that such a wonderful method existed.
Apparently, one could obtain it as a reward while climbing at an incredibly low probability, or find one somewhere else.
Essentially, it was an item that could invite someone who had not been chosen as a climber into the Tower once.
I did not know whether this was the fair and proper method Abyss had meant.
"…"
It was probably not.
Either way.
That was what I needed.
It was limited to residential areas, but I was not planning to climb anyway.
There was more demand than I expected. First, since this was a world with a noble class… tourism and showing off.
Nobles and wealthy people bought them.
Second.
Early education.
This part was kind of funny.
Climbers only qualified once they came of age.
And from the day they qualified, they immediately started from Floor 0.
They were thrown into a place they had never seen before, breathing air they had never breathed before, and climbing their first floor.
"…"
So wealthy households, climbing parties, and families with means took their children there beforehand.
Like going on a field trip. It had the feel of a school excursion.
They saw what the residential areas looked like, as well as climbers in the climbing zones viewed from the residential areas, scaling the Tower.
In the end, even if they climbed later, they began from different starting lines.
The third reason was….
Business, apparently.
There were just too many varieties for that one.
Broadly speaking, I supposed mine counted as business too.
What I was most curious about, naturally, was the dwarves’ floor.
I wanted to see just how horribly they ran the Enchant Room for the odds to be like that.
And I wanted to visit a floor where Sun Dwarves lived, too.
Having reached that conclusion, I confidently told Dolores, but….
Dolores held out her hand to me.
Without thinking, I took it.
Squeeze.
Then Dolores held out her other hand to Ruby, who stood beside us sipping lemonade.
Squeeze.
Without a word, she took one hand in each of hers and began walking.
The place she led us to in silence was her office.
Dolores opened a drawer in her desk.
Rustle.
She took something out and set it on the desk.
Tap.
Tap.
Two… sheets of stationery.
I looked down at them.
Two luxuriously wrapped envelopes.
One was slightly faded in color and bore fold marks.
It felt as though it had been kept for a long time.
But the other one… was crisp and stiff.
Dolores opened the envelopes.
Inside was….
Luxurious golden paper.
The exact appearance from the photos I had looked up in the community.
There were Tower Invitation Tickets inside. Two of them, in total.
"One is Ruby’s."
Dolores spoke quietly.
"And one is Lionel’s."
I took a moment to choose my words.
A Tower Invitation Ticket generally cost five million gold.
Of course, listings were scarce and almost always carried a premium, so the actual price must have been even higher.
The old one must have been there for a long time.
For Ruby… presumably.
Which meant the new one… naturally.
Had been bought after I arrived.
Rustle.
Dolores stroked Ruby’s head and mine.
"I originally intended to tell you in a year. But…"
She bent down to meet my eyes.
"… If Lionel wants to."
"…"
"You can go anytime, really."
Then she rose and walked deeper into the office.
This time, she headed toward….
Click, click.
The safe.
Dolores took something from inside.
Holding the paper she had taken out preciously against her chest, she carefully approached me with both hands….
Then held it out to me.
"It is an appraisal certificate."
An appraisal certificate….
Written on the paper called that was:
─────────────────
[Apprentice Blacksmith’s Warming Gloves] [★☆☆☆☆]
─────────────────
『I made them with great care while thinking of Dolores….』
- Apprentice Blacksmith L -
─────────────────
The appraisal certificate Dolores had received to determine whether my gloves were genuine.
It had that somewhat embarrassing Origin Script written on it.
So she had kept this.
But then.
Beneath that.
When I lowered my gaze to the bottom of the paper—
─────────────────
『To the descendant who has taken their first step.』
[Compatibility 100/100]
[Heirs of Fire]
─────────────────
『To the descendant who has taken their first step.』
『You are clumsy. Yet you are undoubtedly hot.』
『Please, do not grow cold.』
『If you should lose your way, come to Voldr’s workshop——』
— Creator of the appraisal device, 7th Head Craftsman Voldr —
─────────────────
There was an unexpected message… written there.
"… Voldr."
"This was something I had intended to give you later as well."
Rustle.
Dolores brushed the edge of the paper with her fingertips.
"But now, I think… you know the timing better than I do, Lionel."
With a tender expression, she stroked my head.
If you lose your way, come to Voldr’s workshop.
It was a message from the 7th Head Craftsman to me.
If I asked myself whether I had lost my way….
I did not really know.
The gap between rest and work.
I still did not understand why I needed to rest. If I could move, I just wanted to swing a hammer.
The gap between enchanting… and crafting equipment.
It was clearly the moment to make a hammer.
But after seeing Harngar’s hammer recently, it felt as though anything I made would be meaningless.
Maybe because I had seen something too overwhelming.
Even if I made one… it was obvious it would be compared to that.
Could I make something perfect?
That was what I had thought then.
It had also been a while since Harngar last came to my mindscape.
He had said he could not come often, so I understood.
Still, devoting myself only to making Dolores’s underwear… felt a little like running away.
If I made a better hammer, I could surely make her underwear better, too.
Then.
"Losing your way does not have to be something grand."
"… Mm."
Dolores gazed at me calmly.
"I’ll go."
"All right."
Dolores turned around, took hold of a golden invitation,
and handed it to me.
A Tower Invitation Ticket soon rested in my hand.
"… A hammer."
A hammer for me.
Lionel’s hammer.
It seemed it was time to make one.
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