Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 156

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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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156
“Collapse the mine.”
It was the first command Dallobit issued to Keldric the moment he returned to the kingdom.
“What?! Didn’t we agree to release the goblins if we lost the match?!”
“I said we wouldn’t use slaves anymore! I never said we’d release them! Destroy it right now!”
While most of the dwarves had grown fond of Newus thanks to the machines Jae-in displayed during the exchange match, Dallobit’s twisted rage—his pride utterly crushed—burned even fiercer.
“Accept those filthy creatures as citizens of great Ailstobic? Have I lost my mind?!”
“Then… please send them to Newus instead!”
Keldric realized it was impossible to reason with Dallobit and proposed an alternative.
“If I send refugees, how much do you think that cursed earthling will demand in return? Will you pay it?”
“This cannot be!”
“You dare defy my orders—I, the king of Ailstobic—multiple times over some wretched goblins? Is anyone here?!”
Four heavily armored knights of Dallobit’s personal guard entered.
“Imprison the traitor in the Underground Prison!”
At Dallobit’s command, the knights seized Keldric’s arms and dragged him away.
“No… this cannot be! This cannot happen! You demon! They are living beings too!”
Keldric cursed as he was dragged away, but Dallobit’s expression remained cold and resolute.
“Prepare the explosives immediately.”
As Keldric was taken away, Dallobit issued orders to the captain of the Knight Order.
“Your Majesty, won’t the king of Newus notice?”
“So what if that one man is strong? He wouldn’t dare wage war against the great Dwarf Kingdom. And certainly not over already dead creatures. We simply stop using slaves from now on.”
The captain was uneasy, but unwilling to share Keldric’s fate, he obeyed Dallobit’s command. Besides, he had no desire to be treated the same as goblins—unless it was someone like Jae-in.
The knight imprisoned Keldric in the deepest level of the Underground Prison. The walls were thick and solid stone, and the bars were forged from an alloy; escape was impossible without a Master-rank swordsman.
“No! Dwarves! This is wrong! Come to your senses!”
Keldric shouted through the bars at the knights and prison guards.
“Dallobit, beloved by the flame, is the rightful king of the dwarves. We cannot defy him.”
“Don’t you see? If this continues, the dwarves will not survive!”
Keldric continued to cry out.
The prison guards, knowing he could never escape anyway, covered their ears and climbed back up.
“Damn it!”
Trapped in his cell, Keldric, frustrated by the dwarves’ stubborn refusal to listen, slammed his fist against the floor.
Boom!
“Huh?”
The solid stone floor cracked and caved inward.
“What is… this…?”
No matter how hard Keldric’s fists were, they should never have been capable of shattering a prison floor made from carefully fitted stone blocks in a single blow.
“Could it be…?”
Keldric drove his fist down again, and this time the floor shattered even more dramatically.
“Have I… been blessed by the earth?”
He hadn’t noticed while swinging the pickaxe in a frenzy, but the fact that his bare fists could shatter stone and deform its shape was unmistakable evidence of receiving the earth’s blessing.
“Guard! Guard! Look at this! Look at this!”
But no one came.
“With the blessing of the earth, this is nothing!”
I struck the bars with my bare fists.
“Ugh!”
The bars bent slightly, but my knuckles throbbed with pain.
“They made it unnecessarily sturdy! If only I had a hammer!”
The alloy bars, already forged and hardened through processing, could not be bent by bare hands, no matter how blessed by the earth one was.
Abandoning the bars, Keldric struck the ground and dug a hole beneath them with his bare hands.
And I kept digging deeper.
The more I dug, the more I trusted my strength and grew accustomed to the earth’s blessing, the faster my pace became.
“Keldric. Where are you? Keldric!”
A voice called out just as I’d dug enough space to squeeze my body through.
“Urum! Grodmek!”
They were young dwarves, at least not bound by tradition.
“What about Dallobit?! Haven’t you broken out yet?!”
Keldric spoke while still cramped in the small hole.
“That’s right. Not yet. But what are you planning?”
“I’ve received the blessing of the earth.”
“You have?!”
“That’s how I managed to dig through the ground.”
“First, pull me out.”
The hole was still too small, and my body was stuck. Urum and Grodmek grabbed my arms and pulled me free.
“Since I’ve received the blessing of the earth, the other dwarves will listen to me. The damage caused by Dallobit is immense, and many harbor grievances. Lend me a hammer.”
“Here.”
Urum handed Keldric a spare hammer.
Keldric gripped the hammer’s handle tightly. Thanks to the earth’s blessing, my hands holding the hammer appeared larger and stronger, filling me with confidence.
“Let’s go!”
The three dwarves ascended to the surface.
“Where did the prison guards go? Did you do something?”
We climbed to the upper levels ready for a fight, but there was no one.
“No. We just bribed our way in to check on you.”
“Where did everyone go….”
Boom!
The underground prison stairs shook from an explosion.
“What?!”
“Get out! Everything’s collapsing!”
When the three emerged from the prison, they discovered thousands of goblins locked in combat with dwarves.
The goblins hurled explosives, pushing the dwarves back.
No matter how fine the dwarven soldiers’ weapons were, with explosives raining down from all directions, they couldn’t advance easily.
“Keep throwing! Either we die or they do!”
“How did these failed creations of the gods obtain explosives?!”
The Knight Order captain who had come to imprison the goblins and demolish the mine was now fleeing from the bombs, shouting in desperation.
“Idiots! The mine is overflowing with materials—why couldn’t you make them?!”
Chabkitz hurled explosives while bellowing, his powerful arm sending his bombs farther than anyone else’s.
The goblins, despite their grueling labor in the mines, had gathered minerals like luminous ore and ground them into powder to craft explosives. Though they lacked the blessings of earth or the favor of fire that dwarves possessed, their manual dexterity, unity, and sheer determination rivaled any dwarf’s.
“Ha… haha! It seems I won’t need to intervene after all?”
Keldric felt shame for how the dwarves had abused these people until now.
Simultaneously, he felt ashamed of himself for having believed the goblins were weak creatures in need of his help.
Yet pride in them burned far brighter than that shame.
The goblins seemed to be pushing forward, but when Dallobit and the Knight Order committed their full forces, the tide of battle shifted.
The dwarven shields that had shattered against Ji-seok were far superior—the escort knights’ shields easily deflected these crude explosives.
The Knight Order advanced in formation, blocking the bombs while throwing axes and spears rained down from the rear, striking at the goblins.
“The Knight Order! Retreat!”
The goblins withdrew back into the cave.
“No… this cannot be! Dwarves! Stand down!”
Keldric charged forward with his hammer, but his lone voice was lost in the chaos of battle.
Keldric leaped high into the air and brought his hammer crashing down onto the stone floor.
The solid stone rippled outward like waves from the point of impact.
“Everyone, stop!”
Both sides, startled by the trembling earth, heard Keldric’s voice and ceased their attacks.
“King Dallobit! Stop this at once and release them!”
“Keldric! I’ve forgiven you several times for your skill, and now you betray us to side with the goblins?!”
“I’m not betraying anyone! Can’t you see I’m doing this for the dwarves?! If you harm them like this, do you think the King of Newus will simply accept it?”
“Are you selling out our nation?!”
At Dallobit’s words, Keldric’s patience finally snapped.
“You’re the one destroying our nation! Don’t you see the goblins you despised have risen up? Don’t you see they rival the humans you looked down upon in their craftsmanship?!”
“I can hear no more! As King of the Dwarves, I shall execute you on the spot!”
Dallobit charged at Keldric, wielding a one-handed axe and shield.
Seeing Dallobit rush toward him, Keldric swung his hammer in panic, but the warrior king’s axe was far too swift for a pure blacksmith like himself.
The axe drew closer and closer, leaving no time to blink.
Yet as Dallobit swung the axe horizontally, his body suddenly stiffened and was pressed downward, his axe striking the floor instead.
Meanwhile, Keldric’s hammer descended toward Dallobit’s head.
Dallobit was shocked as cold sweat broke across his body and his form was pinned, but he raised his shield to block Keldric’s hammer.
Crash!
The hammer shattered the shield and struck Dallobit’s head, caving it inward as the king collapsed to the ground.
“…Did he just… break Dallobit’s shield?”
As king, Dallobit wielded the finest shield available. The sight of it shattering in a single blow sent tremors through the dwarven ranks.
“Dwarves! Hear me, Keldric, blessed by the earth! We have lost our way! We enslaved races like the goblins, scorned humanity, and neglected to hone our craftsmanship! Can you not see the result before your eyes?!”
As the dwarves listened to Keldric’s words, they slowly lowered the weapons they had gripped so tightly.
“The King of Newus is not like the mad Emperor of the Empire! He possesses the will to share his technology! Now is not the time to fight them! We must hone our craft and defeat our common enemy together! Let us make Ailstobic, not the Dwarf Kingdom, a nation where the greatest artisans dwell!”
Some dwarves agreed with Keldric’s words because he had received the blessing of the earth, others lowered their weapons out of fear of Newus, and still others because he had defeated the late Dallobit through sheer skill.
* * *
“Brother, aren’t you going down?”
“No. This Keldric fellow seems decent enough. It should ease my concerns about the Dwarf Kingdom going forward.”
“But to interfere from such a distance—that’s quite impressive.”
Bae Na-young and I had crossed the Mountain Range to the mines upon hearing news of the uprising, and we were observing the situation as Keldric, a dwarf, began his speech.
“I’m growing accustomed to exerting my presence from afar now.”
Of course, the fact that Dallobit wasn’t particularly formidable had helped considerably.
“Brother, do you think the dwarves will behave themselves now?”
“I hope so. I have too much to do as it is.”
“You mean searching for Eres?”
“Exactly. Let me call Jae-in and we’ll research this together.”
I returned to Derham with Bae Na-young and began our investigation with Jae-in, putting our heads together.
“You mentioned the chairman was once pulled into Eres’s space from the Dark Temple, correct?”
“Yes. Eres was holding Aither there.”
“What if we tried going there? It seems Eres doesn’t pull people from just anywhere, so the Dark Temple might be something special.”
“Let’s give it a try.”
I set out for the Dark Temple, bringing Bae Na-young and Jae-in with me.

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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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