Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: The Dwarf's Grudge
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Even convincing a child throwing a tantrum about not wanting to go to the hospital wouldn't have been this difficult.
Kang Jin-hyuk had that impression as he reluctantly stepped into the dungeon.
The dwarf was just as dumbfounded.
"You don't need arrows anymore, do you?"
The dwarf clicked his tongue loud enough for others to hear.
"That pointy-eared girl doesn't even want to see my face, huh? Well, the feeling's mutual."
What I do is fine, but what others do is unbearable.
The dwarf expressed his feelings boldly without a shred of shame.
"She curses whenever she sees your face, so of course she doesn't want to come."
"If she didn't want to get cursed at, she shouldn't have been born a pointy-ears."
"Lucia's a half-elf, though?"
"Yeah, yeah. Half pointy-ears blood still flows in her veins."
What an intense hatred.
At least he treated her like a person, so it seemed better than how black people were treated in medieval times.
"What's your beef with the elves that you hate them so much?"
"Long ago, those pointy-eared bastards sold us out to the dragons."
"Pardon?"
Attacking the dwarves' mines, full of technology and resources, was better than some worthless forest.
That was the elves' ploy to appease the dragons.
They openly turned the arrows toward the dwarves to protect their own forest.
Hearing that history, Kang Jin-hyuk could understand the dwarf's loathing.
The dragons had enslaved the dwarves and plundered their mines.
But just as a meddling sister-in-law is more hated than a scolding mother-in-law, it was natural for the resentment to target the elves.
"Still, Lucia wasn't the one who did it."
Kang Jin-hyuk wanted to mediate between them.
But all he got was a sharp snort.
"Even if that girl had nothing to do with it, I did. I lived through that incident myself."
The dwarf spat out his rage as he shrugged off his upper clothes.
Kang Jin-hyuk, wondering if this was some strip show, panicked for a moment before falling silent at the sight of the countless scars on the dwarf's body.
The wounds etched across his entire body were proof of decades of slavery.
Forgiving elves and their descendants while carrying those marks wasn't easy.
He knew in his head that Lucia was innocent, but seeing her long ears made his boiling anger uncontrollable.
The fact that he wasn't swinging his hammer and starting a fight was him showing maximum mercy.
"Tell her to be grateful I'm even making arrows. If I had my way, I'd skewer her neck with a spit instead."
The dwarf put his clothes back on and spoke in a chilling voice.
Having seen the emotional chasm with his own eyes, Kang Jin-hyuk couldn't meddle anymore.
"Got it."
Kang Jin-hyuk nodded and handed over the ores Lucia had entrusted to him.
Despite the hefty pouch, the dwarf lifted it effortlessly with one hand, as if it were filled with cotton.
"What do you want made from this?"
"Arrows heavy enough to withstand strong winds."
"Why? Planning to pierce through a storm?"
"Uh... something like that."
There wasn't much difference between a blizzard and a storm—just whether the wind carried water or ice.
"Arrows unaffected by the wind... Just throw a spear instead, you damn fool."
No matter how heavy the iron, an arrow was still an arrow.
It was impossible to make one completely immune to wind.
"I just don't get why you insist on shooting arrows."
The dwarf grumbled but accepted the unreasonable request.
He didn't understand the purpose, but making them was easy, so no reason to refuse.
"How long until they're done?"
"If you're fine with arrow-shaped junk, I could finish today. For something decent, tomorrow evening."
"Then I'll come back tomorrow evening."
After leaving the forge with the commission set, Kang Jin-hyuk spotted Lucia around the corner.
With her hearing, she could've caught every word from that distance.
She must have heard the dwarf agree to make the arrows.
Lucia's expression wasn't bright.
Kang Jin-hyuk could guess why.
"Didn't you know why the old man was so prickly?"
"I didn't realize he was a victim himself."
He knew the atrocities the elves had committed against the dwarves.
But he thought it was ancestral history for Lucia, with the dwarf holding a grudge as a descendant.
If it happened to him personally, that changed everything.
"I was planning to smash that shorty's forehead someday."
Lucia realized the dwarf's reaction was justified as a victim, so her urge faded.
"I thought elves were a peace-loving race."
After hearing the dwarf's story, Kang Jin-hyuk felt his illusions shatter.
"They do love peace. The problem is, it's peace just for themselves."
"Selfish."
Kang Jin-hyuk glanced at Lucia's eyes as he spoke.
Even half-blood, badmouthing her kin wouldn't sit well.
But contrary to his expectation, Lucia readily agreed.
"Yeah. A filthy, narrow-minded race."
She didn't just admit it—she piled on, so she didn't seem fond of elves either.
"Did something happen to you?"
"Not really..."
Her face screamed story, undermining her denial.
Kang Jin-hyuk had no intention of prying into what she didn't want to share.
* * *
The dwarf's arrows were completed just as the ordered mountaineering gear arrived on time.
Kang Jin-hyuk laid out the items like a market stall and carefully checked for anything missing.
"Good, everything's here."
He picked out a set of winter clothes and handed it to Lucia.
Receiving the pile, she tilted her head.
"Why so many clothes?"
"Don't you need at least that much to climb a snow-covered mountain?"
"You're not telling me to wear them all at once, are you?"
"Then what, just one layer?"
Lucia grumbled that layering up like this would hinder movement.
But once she put them on, her mind changed quickly.
"What are these made of? Even layered, they're easy to move in, and I feel light."
"All the pinnacle of modern science."
He'd already stowed emergency rations and relief supplies in his inventory.
"I let the guild know in advance too..."
Kang Jin-hyuk ignored the echo of Seo Sang-ho's wail in his ears.
Guild duties were important, but a bigger problem loomed right now.
"Is the guild the issue when there's a mountain in my fridge?"
Kang Jin-hyuk opened the fridge door, bent down, and entered.
The moment his foot hit the snow, a fierce wind sliced his cheek like a blade.
Entering at the weakest blizzard phase let him survey the surroundings.
"Looks like mid-mountain level."
"Yeah. If we push without resting, we can reach the base in two days."
Lucia's bright eyes caught sights invisible to Kang Jin-hyuk.
In the blinding snow, her vision was a huge help.
"No rush, so let's take it slow."
He was an S-rank-plus hunter, and Lucia matched him, but rushing down a mountain in this weather was dangerous.
Lucia agreed, leading them on a smoother but longer path instead of the rough, steep one.
But a smooth path didn't guarantee safety.
After walking some distance, Lucia sensed a presence and stopped.
"Something's there."
Kang Jin-hyuk sensed it too.
Following Lucia as she drew her bow, he gripped his baseball bat with gloved hands.
Even through the thick gloves, the chill of the metal bat seeped into his palm.
"Touch it bare-handed, and you'd get frostbite instantly."
To warm it, he summoned his aura in advance.
The bat's mana storage meant no more worrying about consumption.
"No normal person would come to a hellhole like this, right?"
"Then it must be monsters."
"Probably, but we shouldn't attack until we confirm."
The silhouette glimpsed through the blizzard walked bipedally, like a human.
It could be some avid mountaineer, so no hasty moves.
Kang Jin-hyuk stayed alert, waiting to identify the approaching presence.
As it drew closer, Lucia's eyes clearly made out the figure.
Confirming its identity, she released her drawn bowstring right there.
The special arrow sliced through the wind, piercing the vital spot hidden by the snowstorm.
"Grrraaaah!!"
The scream echoing through the mountain was inhuman.
Certain it was a monster, Kang Jin-hyuk charged forward, swinging his bat at the silhouette.
Only when the bat crushed its skull did he identify it.
"What is this? A yeti?"
A massive ape-like creature covered in white fur.
It closely resembled the yetis said to inhabit the Himalayas.
"Yeah, a yeti. Looks like it saw us as prey."
Hearing Lucia, Kang Jin-hyuk was baffled.
A real yeti.
Not just novel monsters—even legendary creatures existed here as monsters.
From another dimension, no less.
‘Were all those mythical beasts actually monsters from here?’
He couldn't dwell on the suspicion flooding his mind.
"Rooaaar!!"
The rear yetis, realizing their comrade was down, roared and gathered the scattered pack.
Heavy footsteps thundered from all directions.
Soon, dozens of yetis surrounded Kang Jin-hyuk and Lucia.
"Isn't this too many?"
"Scared?"
Lucia teased, and Kang Jin-hyuk chuckled.
"Not scared, but picking them off one by one will delay us getting down the mountain."
"Hmm... That's a problem."
Yeti hides were warm but stank, ruining their value.
Lucia didn't want to waste time on worthless monsters.
"Run?"
"How do we shake them in this snowy mountain?"
Kang Jin-hyuk pulled a flashbang from his inventory as the answer.
"Close your eyes and cover your ears."
Lucia complied, and he detonated it immediately.
Blinded by the sudden light, the yetis screamed in agony and panicked.
Kang Jin-hyuk and Lucia broke through the encirclement, dashing toward the mountain base.