Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Must Break the Egg (1)
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After the battle with Kaluan ended.
Greg and Seria set up a simple campsite nearby and lay down to rest.
"You're really going to do it now?"
"Yes."
"......Heh heh. What a ridiculous guy. Sorry I couldn't help."
"No, it's fine. You two couldn't rest because you were watching over me while I was out cold."
Right after a battle where everyone had risked their lives.
His body screamed in protest, but Regin stood alone and headed toward the center of the explosion.
'I have to do what needs doing.'
Just like after killing the two raiders on the 4th floor.
He planned to sort through and collect the items left behind by Kaluan's party.
It was generally called looting, and it wasn't much different from farming by picking up monster drop items.
'Whether it's monster items or human items, it's all the same.'
From a thorough gamer's perspective, at least.
Regin would have treated them the same way before.
But not now.
"Ugh!"
He'd psyched himself up to do it, but when he actually saw the corpses, his hand wouldn't move.
It was just like when he'd dealt with the raiders' bodies on the 4th floor.
A wriggling nausea rose from deep in his gut, surging up to his throat.
'......Fuck.'
What was this bullshit about monsters and humans being the same?
Monsters weren't human, and humans weren't monsters.
The mummified corpses drained by Kaluan's Blood Drain.
And Kaluan himself, who had turned them into that and then become chunks of flesh.
'......Hoo.'
They had been living people. No matter how much he repeated it to himself, he couldn't deny that they had once been human.
It wasn't some grand sense of justice.
Nor was it because he was someone who lived by chivalry or those kinds of feelings.
'It could have been me.'
A rejection of death.
And a sliver of guilt.
These cold corpses kept dragging out what he'd been trying so hard to push aside.
Regin vomited once, then lifted his head.
'......Blood Drain absorbs all the target's blood upon use. The user's body strengthens simultaneously, with estimated attack power and mana increases at half of the opponent's original stats......'
His mind spun hot.
To clear out the stray thoughts, he relentlessly recited the gamer analyses he'd done before.
"Fuck."
After rummaging through the corpses and their bags for a while, Regin suddenly burst out laughing.
Damn, what a haul.
'Items like the Crystal Orb and all this stuff—how is there so much?'
It was a sacrifice worth tears.
If he sold it, he'd have more than enough for materials again this time. A bountiful loot.
With trembling hands, Regin carefully transferred the items.
'Miss the mana rice......'
If there was someone to pat his back, would it feel different?
Unable to cry or laugh, Regin sat there clutching the bag for a long time.
One relieving point was that if he'd died, he wouldn't feel this guilt.
And that he'd survived again this time.
* * *
"Greg. I didn't get a good look earlier since we were talking from the front......"
"Yeah. The back of the armor is completely shattered. Heh heh. That's why my back keeps stinging."
Regin returned after finishing the looting and took a nap before waking up.
Greg, who had fallen asleep first, had been standing watch. When Regin got up, he saw Greg's back fully exposed.
It looked like the final explosion had blown off his backplate entirely.
"......Embarrassing."
"But you're a dwarf, so your muscles are packed tight. Nothing to be ashamed of showing off."
"Well, humans and we are built a bit differently. Even gladiators sometimes envy dwarf muscles."
Of course, if you jokingly suggested swapping bodies...... almost every gladiator would get serious and shake their head.
Tall gladiators thought longer frames were better for wielding swords.
They didn't even want to joke about swapping with short-bodied dwarves.
"Isn't there that saying? Our dwarf bodies are like compressed gladiator bodies."
"There's a saying like that?"
"It's what those dumb gladiators say, heh heh. To us, it's a compliment. Means no wasted space, fully packed. Makes it easy to work in the forge too."
A very dwarven way of thinking.
Some dwarves spent their entire lives in forges after birth.
There were some like Greg who left the forge to explore, but not many.
"Speaking of which, why did you choose to explore, Greg?"
"Hm?"
"Your armor looks handmade, and your smithing skills seem as good as any dwarf's."
The backplate had been blown off in the explosion, but Greg's back muscles were fine.
That meant he'd mixed the materials well, smelted them properly, and made armor with enough durability to protect its owner from a special bomb.
Just making this armor showed he had the talent to be a master craftsman.
"Hm."
Greg thought for a moment, then chugged his beer.
Half his bag was taken up by beer canteens, and they were already almost empty.
"Want a sip?"
"......"
"Seria's on watch around us. She insisted on doing it herself."
The rich barley scent rising up made his head a bit fuzzy.
Even though the carbonation was mostly dead, it was still tempting.
It was right after a big battle, and the emotions from looting lingered heavily.
"......Just one sip."
Since Seria was watching the surroundings, one sip should be fine.
This place was surrounded by gimmicks on all sides anyway. An open area explorers avoided.
Unless it was that woman who had to hide her appearance or the people chasing her, no one could easily enter.
Gulp.
Exactly one sip.
The amount of beer needed to send shivers through his whole body.
"......Said just one sip?"
"Changed my mind. Just one bottle."
"Heh heh. Go ahead."
By the time a buzz set in, Greg was emptying bottles one after another for the first time in a while, staring at the campfire.
"......Until four years ago, I was a blacksmith."
"......"
"But why am I out here wearing the armor I was making myself?"
As if the last sip wasn't enough, he took another and spat out the words.
"Because this is where my daughter died."
"......You had a daughter?"
"She wanted to explore around here. This was the place she wanted to check out."
You could hear the gritted teeth in his voice.
Holding back a sob, Greg said.
"Four years ago, the day the tower portal opened. Right there in front of it, I held my daughter's body."
"......Someone threw your daughter into the portal?"
"Whether she entered it right before dying, or someone brought her body there, I don't know."
"......"
"I just held her, thinking she was unconscious, for a long time."
"......"
"Should've shaken her. Should've held back the apology and slapped her cheeks. Should've tried everything I could."
He spoke in a choked voice.
"I was an idiot and just held her, doing nothing."
Regin silently downed beers one after another.
His own cheeks from earlier felt needlessly sore.
* * *
"......Was your daughter an elf?"
It took about ten minutes before they could talk again.
Greg, who had been staring endlessly at the campfire, began to speak about what his daughter had been.
"Yeah, my girl wasn't a dwarf."
"Love transcending races......?"
"Hm, dwarves and elves usually don't get along. Opposites, you could say. I was the same."
"......"
"Until I met Alicia."
Honestly, it wasn't that surprising a story.
In DAT, most races didn't get along well with other species.
Boasting their superiority was baseline, and pointing out others' inferiority was daily life.
'Completely different races, following different gods, with perfectly opposing values.'
Some races differed completely in food, faith, and goals.
It was natural they couldn't understand each other.
"The first time I felt ashamed of being a dwarf was when my daughter was born. Deep down, I wanted her to be an elf."
"......"
"If it was a son, I'd make him dream of being a great blacksmith like me, but I didn't want a half-breed."
I'd heard even those races sometimes bloomed love.
And you could rarely see half-breeds born that way.
'I'd almost forgotten since I'd hardly seen any, but Greg was one of those.'
Fortunately, the daughter was born a full elf.
Though she had the dwarven curly hair. Even that was charmingly pretty.
"But I learned later she was only elf on the outside."
The problem was no affinity with nature.
Couldn't converse with spirits.
Couldn't even borrow their power. A half-baked elf.
"That's why she stayed only in the forge."
The only place for a daughter shunned even in the elven realm of Celderado was Greg's small forge.
"Did you live there with your wife and the three of you?"
"Alicia died six years ago from the elven plague that swept through."
"......"
Every word felt like stepping on a landmine.
Regin poured beer into his mouth.
"She smiled, saying at least the daughter didn't catch the plague, and closed her eyes. Not as sad a farewell as you'd think."
"......"
"The problem was our lonely-raised daughter yearned for the tower."
"......"
"She read explorers' books left behind and dreamed of their lives. Brushed off forge work and devoured books. The books she read at home rival yours."
"......"
"And she actually became a decent explorer. Earned a title in two years."
"......"
Damn.
Nothing came to mind to say.
Regin just nodded while drinking beer.
"But even that strong girl lost her life. Her end was the tower, always wanting to go higher, know more. Like I said, she closed her eyes mid-conquest."
"......"
"Now I think, where could she have portaled to? If she died inside without portaling, I wouldn't have even seen her last moments."
Clank.
He removed the front chestplate of his armor, revealing his chest.
A tattoo-like pattern not visible from the back was engraved there.
"......Soul Engraving?"
"Races be damned. I thought I had to do what I could."
"You went to the barbarians?"
"Yeah. They do soul engravings. Of course, not being a barbarian, I couldn't engrave her soul, but I figured engraving her name would do."
Looking closely, it was lettering in Dwarvish.
The names of his daughter and wife were inscribed.
"After engraving these names, I decided to explore."
"......"
"I wanted to show these names all the places she yearned for but never saw...... and that's how I became an explorer."
The image of Greg wandering the rabbit warren flashed in his mind.
I'd thought he was just adventure-obsessed.
One of the places his daughter read about and noted, he wanted to check with her name. He learned that now.
"To your path."
Regin toasted with his canteen and continued.
"May the goddess's blessing...... no, the blessings of all things be with you."
The greatest blessing a human like Regin could give.
At the same time, a wish that he become an explorer greater than anyone.
"Thanks. The beer's good today."
"Same here."
"Well, anyway. I haven't quit being a blacksmith entirely."
"Pardon?"
"That black mana stone of yours. If you're not selling it to someone, you'll use it, right?"
"Yes."
"I haven't slacked on smelting such items. If you want, you can ask me."
"I'll visit right away when we get out."
"Good. And I still get the urge to research unusual ores when I see them. That's the difference from my daughter's explorations."
Greg stared into space and drank his beer. Then tossed it out lightly.
"That bracelet of yours."
"......Pardon?"
"If you ask me to smelt something like that unusual ore, I'd find a way to research it no matter what."
The bracelet manifesting the Infinite Inventory. That's what he meant.
Regin's eyes shook rapidly.
"You know this item......?"