I Inherited the Basement of the Tower - Chapter 74

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Inherited the Basement 1 of the Tower – Episode 74

“The Solar Knight approaches! We must complete the Knight’s Sword at once!”

The colossal Blacksmith’s Forge in the Ignare Mountain Range churned with heat and urgency.
Young Eltos gazed at his ‘dwarf father’ with an anxious expression.
Yahwi and I shared the same unease.

“…Yeah. We need to finish this quickly.”
“Ah, Master. That is… I can cook reasonably well, but this sort of thing is…”

Inside that dwarf father’s body sat Yahwi, who had wielded nothing but swords his entire life.
Yahwi broke into a cold sweat under the weight of Eltos and the dwarves’ expectant gazes fixed upon him.
There was no way he could perform the delicate hammer strikes of a master blacksmith.
I whispered to Yahwi, careful not to be noticed by Eltos.

“Just pretend you know what you’re doing.”
“Ahem, cough! I’ll finish it.”

Yahwi reluctantly grasped the sacred mineral with tongs.
Then, raising the heavy hammer awkwardly in his other hand, the moment he prepared to strike with all his might—

“Kyaaaah! What are you doing, Father!”

Eltos shrieked and urgently seized Yahwi’s arm.

“Your grip angle is all wrong! If you strike like that, the entire form of the sword we’ve crafted so far will shatter! You know this better than anyone!”
“Tsk, ah. Well, you see… I’m just not in form today…”

Yahwi fumbled through his excuses.
The other dwarves, who had been guzzling beer like water in the sweltering heat, began muttering with serious expressions.

“Why is he suddenly acting like that?”
“Why are his hands so stiff? Has he gone senile?”

According to the original timeline, Eltos should have taken the hammer and struck the mineral with crude but powerful force.
His dwarf father would then have refined it delicately to complete the holy sword.
But even before I could intervene, Yahwi’s clumsy handling was already causing precious time to slip away.

“The Solar Knight has arrived!”

Finally, the Solar Knight had shown up.
The entrance to the Blacksmith’s Forge erupted into chaos, and I watched the Hero Party clad in white armor pour through the doors.
Yet I found myself smiling.

‘This is actually perfect.’

【Fourth Task Clear Condition: Eltos survives.】

In the original timeline, the Solar Knight received his perfectly forged blade and departed the Blacksmith’s Forge without hesitation.
So when Mount Ignare erupted, the Hero Party failed to save Eltos and headed straight for the Demon King’s Castle.
But now, the Solar Knight’s blade remained incomplete.
He would be forced to wait here until his weapon was finished.
And if the volcano erupted during that time?
Surely that righteous Hero Party, sworn to protect the Empire, would come to the aid of Eltos and the dwarves in their hour of peril?
That was my flawless logic.

‘With Barkalor absent now, if such a powerful Solar Knight aids us, Eltos’s survival is guaranteed.’

The moment my thoughts concluded—

Rumble—

A tremendous roar shook the entire mountain range beneath our feet.
Everyone in the Blacksmith’s Forge looked up in alarm toward the volcano.
One dwarf chuckled with relief and spoke.

“Oh, just the usual tremors. Nothing serious—”

BOOM—!

Before he could finish, Mount Ignare erupted.

‘It’s beginning.’

A terrible explosion as if the mountain’s spine were snapping.
In the next instant, a torrent of lava erupted and poured down.
Massive holes tore through the ceiling and walls of the Ignir Forge, and crimson lava crashed down like a tsunami.
It was the moment of the Ignir Mountain Range Forge’s destruction.

“Ahhhhh! Run, get away!”
“It’s lava!”

I reflexively turned my gaze toward Eltos.
As expected.
True to the original history, he was rushing forward with his massive body to block the hole and save the dwarves.
If left to his own devices, terrible burn scars that would never fade for a lifetime would be etched across his broad back.
He would meet his destined death that way.
And then he would be saved by Nix’s miracle.
But.

‘That’s what happens in the original history.’

Now it was a quest.
His survival was the clear condition.

“Stop.”

At my shout, Eltos halted with a puzzled expression and turned to look at me.

“What are you saying, little one! You should run away quickly!”
“…Little one?”

As I responded in bewilderment, Eltos casually lifted me with one hand and slung me over his shoulder like baggage.

“Your height has grown quite a bit, hasn’t it? How did you grow so much from father’s bloodline? Are you perhaps an adopted son like me?”
“…Ah.”

Only then did I realize whose body I had entered.
It appeared I was the biological son of the dwarf whom Eltos called ‘father.’
While everyone else was fleeing in panic.
Eltos spotted a warrior clad in white armor and urgently called out to him for salvation.

“Solar Knight! Please, I beg you, help us!”
“….”

But the Solar Knight remained silent.
The face of this supposedly virtuous and righteous warrior bore no trace of confusion or compassion.
Only a coldly calculating gleam flickered in his eyes.

“First, give me your sword.”
“Ah, yes! If you use this, it should help! Though it’s still incomplete, so it will break after only a few uses!”

Eltos thrust forward the incomplete holy blade that Yahwi had been holding, crying out urgently.
The Solar Knight’s eyes narrowed as he accepted the weapon.

“…Incomplete, then.”
“Why, why are you—?”

Eltos swallowed hard, his throat dry.
Gurgle, gulp.
The lava continued its relentless assault in that very moment, devouring everything in its path.
Watching the Solar Knight’s cold reaction, I suddenly understood something.
If this man remained here waiting for the sword to be completed, it would only lead to a far more catastrophic outcome.

“Let go, Eltos.”
“…!? Kid!”

I wrenched myself free from Eltos’s iron grip.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I stretched both hands toward the empty air.
An overwhelming curtain of darkness.
I desperately blocked the torrential cascade of molten lava.

‘I’ve never tried this before. But with a Darkness stat of 66—!’

I can do this.

Ssssshhhhh—!

Darkness and lava collided, releasing acrid steam and scorching heat that billowed upward.
I endured the searing pain while simultaneously casting another skill.

“Lord’s Baptism!”

Whoooosh!
Dense tendrils of darkness extended from my fingertips, coiling around Eltos’s massive frame.
The Solar Knight’s sword remained incomplete.
In other words, the blacksmith still had an opportunity to perfect it.

“Eltos! The Solar Knight’s sword is still unfinished! Complete it with your own hands!”

I cried out as if spitting blood.
Eltos sensed something in the contradiction between the nocturnal magic enveloping his body and my command to complete the blade, and he gasped in horror.

“B-but…! If I forge with this darkness, then it’s no longer a sacred Solar Knight’s sword…!”
“That’s exactly why! Stop talking and run!”

At my sharp command, Eltos, hammer in hand, turned his gaze toward the retreating Solar Knight.
As if a final hope remained, he attempted to persuade him.
Foolishly.

“Solar Knight? You’re not just leaving us behind, are you?”
“I am the Solar Knight. I have a mission to defeat the Demon King. If the Solar Knight’s sword has limited uses, I cannot waste them in this trivial place.”

The Solar Knight’s voice was cold, without the slightest tremor.

“I cannot forfeit the chance to save the world to save you.”

The young giant Eltos cried out in desperation, unable to comprehend.

“No, what are you saying! If you just save us first, we can restore the usage limit ourselves!”
“….”
“If you wish, we can even create a perfectly completed Solar Knight’s sword anew!”

At that desperate cry, the Solar Knight, who had been turning away, stiffened.
Then he turned his head, looking down at Eltos and me with a cold gaze.

“…I see. You should have said that sooner.”

Shing—.
The Solar Knight’s hand moved toward the sword’s hilt.

“I’ve become tainted. If there are survivors, the truth that I tried to abandon you will be exposed.”
“What…?”
“Everything is for the noble will of the White Horse Tower. I must be a flawless Solar Knight.”

Eltos’s eyes widened with despair and disbelief.
I held back the cascading lava while letting out an inward scoff.

‘Just as I thought. That bastard is no saint.’

He’s merely a repugnant human who must appear virtuous before the masses.
The forces of light have always been this way, and he’s no different.

“Go, Eltos! Destroy him!”

As my command fell.

“Uuuaaahhhhh-!”

Eltos roared like a beast, tears of blood streaming down his face.
Around us echoed the desolate landscape of his homeland Ignaar being swallowed by scorching lava, and the screams of the craftsmen.
Eltos channeled his boiling rage.
He swung the hammer of darkness, amplified by the lord’s blessing, savagely toward the Solar Knight.

Whoosh—! Clang!

Yet that devastating blow was blocked far too easily by a single thin slash from the Solar Knight’s blade.
The Solar Knight’s expression remained unchanged.
Eltos didn’t give up and charged forward like a madman.

Clang! Clang! Crash!

The hammer came down relentlessly.
The Solar Knight deflected every attack with ease, but.
With each collision of Eltos’s hammer, the ripples of my ‘darkness’ contained within it gradually began to seep into the incomplete Solar Knight’s blade.
Yet the arrogant Solar Knight, completely oblivious to this subtle change.
Continued to push Eltos back without any shift in expression.

“Gahhhhh! Help me!”

In the meantime, screams erupted from the dwarves who had been attempting to evacuate outside to escape the scorching heat.
The mages and paladins of the Hero Party were mercilessly slaughtering the fleeing dwarves with overwhelming force.
This was an ending that Eltos had never known in the original history.
At this point, he would have been dying while blocking the lava with his back, and shortly after, he would have been rescued by Nix and dragged to the Temple.

Crunch.
My teeth ground together.

‘Those bastards.’

I could not contain my rage and attempted to unleash Nix’s power to sweep them away.
But.

Ding!
【You have already deviated too far from Nix’s memories.】
【You can no longer use Nix’s power.】

“…Damn it.”

I spat out a curse.
True, during the second task, there was a parallel flow with Nix’s original memories in that I witnessed Yahwi dying.
But now I had failed to complete the Solar Knight’s sword before meeting him.
And in the end, I had even drawn out his hypocritical true nature, greatly twisting history itself.
This place was no longer Nix’s memory.
It had become a new history altered by my intervention.

Clang!

I gazed at the Solar Knight’s sword that Eltos had already struck with his hammer ten times.
That sacred blade, which was said to never break, had already lost much of its original white radiance, and now dark energy rippled across its surface.

‘The dark energy has permeated well. If that’s the case, then there must be another solution to overcome this situation.’

I smiled grimly amidst the roiling heat of the lava.
And then, I activated the Black Dragon’s detection skill inscribed upon my soul.

“Close to ink, black in nature.”

A deep, resonant hum—
My five senses began to transcend the boundaries of my flesh, expanding ever outward.
Beyond the crumbling Blacksmith’s Forge, past the roiling Ignare Mountain Range.
Into the very darkness of that distant Demon King’s Castle, where the Empire’s tendrils could never reach.
And finally.
I found the familiar trace of magical power I had sought for so long, and that antiquated voice.

I spoke to him inwardly.

‘Elder, can you hear me?’

After a moment of silence.
A foreign response—courteous yet coldly measured—echoed back into my mind.

-Yes, Master. You are there. Wait. I shall come at once.

He comes. The Demon King.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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