Chapter 160: The Visit

“Where’s the injured dwarf?” 

Owen asked the moment he dismounted his horse.

A soldier who came forward to take the reins pointed toward a wooden hut and replied.

“Inside, my lord.”

The group entered the hut and finally saw the injured dwarf, Tithion.

Without hesitation, Theresa stepped forward and kindly said to Sally, who was tending the wounds.

“Please allow me to handle the patient. I can use divine healing magic.”

After noticing Theresa’s priestly robes, Sally stepped aside to make room for her.

While Theresa began chanting her healing spell, Owen spoke with the lizardman squad leader from the transport convoy. He confirmed that no one else was injured and also asked about the two dwarves’ background.

The lizardman leader didn’t know much—he had simply been told by Acting Chieftain Kerman to escort the two dwarves here, apparently for some sort of technical exchange.

After gathering the details, Owen walked over and said with concern.

“My friends from the Dwarven race, I deeply regret that you were attacked and injured.”

“You’re the lord the lizardmen spoke of?” 

Tithion looked up at him.

“That’s right.” 

Owen nodded. 

“I am Owen Eisen, Marquis of Bianshu Town.”

“I’m Tithion, a citizen of the Kingdom of Femit Gon.”

“And I’m Sally,” 

The other dwarf added.

After their introductions, Tithion immediately blurted out impatiently,

“Marquis Eisen, I heard that you—”

“Wait, Tithion, don’t be so hasty.” 

Sally interrupted, raising her hand to stop him.

“We came here rather suddenly—they must have questions of their own.”

Indeed, Owen had many.
He asked.

“Why were you two in the Mysterious Forest? And why did you come here with the lizardmen?”

“Ugh, do I have to tell it all again?” 

Tithion groaned.

“If you don’t want to, I’ll do it,” 

Sally said sharply, glaring at him before stepping forward to explain their recent experiences.

“What?! You’re building a fourth underground city—Nuva?”

Owen was astonished. The site was said to be north of the lizardmen’s territory, not too far from Bianshu Town.

“Yes,”

 Sally replied. 

“We discovered another massive piece of Luminous Magic Stone, perfectly suited for construction. We’re planning to build the new city beneath it.”

The other three underground cities were also built beneath such stones, so this wasn’t a secret.

The Luminous Magic Stone was a wondrous mineral—it glowed at sunrise and dimmed with sunset.

Rare light-element mages could use it to amplify their spells.

According to Winston’s research, the light it emitted had the same composition as sunlight.

Thanks to that, dwarves could even grow crops underground—the stones served as the “sun” of their subterranean world.

“All done,” 

Theresa announced as she finished the spell.
The wound on Tithion’s back had already scabbed over.

“Oh! It doesn’t hurt at all now!”

Tithion happily stood up, touched his back, and said gratefully.

“Thank you, human priest!”

“It is my duty.” 

Theresa replied with a gentle smile.

Tithion quickly put his shirt back on, then stepped up to Owen, meeting his gaze.

“All right, you’ve asked your questions. Now, Marquis Eisen, would you let me speak with the blacksmith who created those ‘fire guns’? I’m quite a renowned weaponsmith myself back in Rudolf. A technical exchange like this would surely benefit both sides.”

Owen already knew from Sally that Tithion had witnessed the power of the muskets while among the lizardmen and had come here out of pure curiosity.

And in Tithion’s eyes, Owen could clearly see a burning passion— the relentless pursuit of a craftsman eager to master new weapons.

The Kingdom of Femit Gon had many skilled dwarven blacksmiths, and if Owen could use this opportunity to establish a cooperative relationship with them, it would not be a bad thing at all.

Thinking so, Owen smiled faintly and replied.

“Master Tithion, in fact, the one who created the muskets wasn’t a single person, but a group of people. If you’re interested, I can take you to visit our armory.”

“A group of people? Hmm…”

Tithion didn’t think long before nodding in agreement.

“Alright then, I’ll go with you to this armory of yours.”

“Lord Owen,”

Mapel suddenly interjected from the side.

“Are you really planning to take them to the armory? That might not be a good idea… it’s an important place, after all.”

Her concern wasn’t unfounded—after all, the armory produced vital military weapons, and letting outsiders visit it so casually wasn’t exactly proper.

“It’s fine, Mapel.”

Owen, however, didn’t seem too worried.

The dwarves were not an aggressive race; they had always remained deep within their underground cities, focused on refining their crafts rather than invading others.

Besides, since Nuva—their new underground city—was so close to Bianshu Town, Owen wanted to open communication and cooperation with them as soon as possible. That was why he was being so friendly toward Tillion.

Afterward, the group departed for the armory, led by Owen, and made it there without any trouble.

There, Tithion witnessed an entirely new production system — standardized manufacturing — which completely shattered his previous notions of craftsmanship.

In his experience, weapon-making was always a process where one blacksmith took full responsibility for a weapon from start to finish, with perhaps an apprentice or two assisting.

But here, he saw a process where each worker was responsible only for making a specific part, and all the parts were later assembled into a complete musket.

With Owen’s permission, Tithion picked up one of the muskets and examined it closely.

“This musket isn’t like the one I saw in the Lizard Tribe—it looks like it loads bullets and powder from the rear.”

He quickly noticed the difference and pulled back the breech to open it.

“Impressive—you spotted that so fast.” 

Owen said with admiration. 

“This is the new generation of muskets. Loading from the back is much faster than the old front-loading design.”

“Indeed it is.”

Tithion nodded, then asked.

“Marquis Eisen, who designed this new musket? It’s so brilliantly crafted that even I can’t help but admire it.”

“I did,” 

Owen replied shamelessly, taking credit once again. He had no other choice—he couldn’t exactly tell them the design schematics came out of nowhere.

“You?!” 

Tithion stared at Owen, eyes wide in astonishment. 

“Among humans, you must be some kind of super genius!”

“Thank you for the compliment,” 

Owen said modestly.

As Tithion continued looking around, his attention was caught by a loud, massive machine constantly turning and drilling straight through a solid iron pipe.

He circled it curiously and asked.

“What powers this machine? I can’t figure it out.”

“It runs on steam.” 

Owen explained.

He briefly described how the steam engine worked.

After hearing it, Tithion was utterly stunned, frozen in disbelief.

It took him quite a while before he finally murmured.

“Since when did humans become capable of creating such machines…? This far surpasses even the craftsmanship of us dwarves.”

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter