Hyper-Dimensional Player-Chapter 398 - 25: Soul Forger—Moradin!

The tunnel ahead has completely collapsed.

Since Bert, the Esoteric Practitioner, is here, the other injured individuals are not in much trouble. However, all the machines are damaged, and with so many casualties, it’s impossible to continue digging for now.

"There should be a large underground cavity below."

Tassia was dismantling the dwarf mechanized body in front of her. She gathered the silver-white metal fragments and handed them to Bert beside her, saying, "Is it the legendary Mithril?"

"Magic metal from the Mysterious Era?"

This Esoteric Practitioner reached out, inspected it, and nodded affirmatively, "It is Mithril."

"Legend has it that dwarves are very adept at using Mithril."

The hired relic scholar is now dead, leaving only Bert, the Esoteric Practitioner, to make judgments. He had joined the group voluntarily some time ago, and they quickly found common ground due to his healing abilities.

Tassia glanced at the silent Duncan beside her and slowly said, "Then there must be a buried dwarven city down there."

At this point,

She motioned for the other survivors to gather around and then looked around, inquiring, "Let’s hear everyone’s opinion."

"Should we report this ancient ruin to the Mechanical Divine Sect?"

"Or should we excavate it ourselves?"

When mentioning the Mechanical Divine Sect, Tassia’s gaze fell on Duncan, as if observing his expression for any changes.

After all, he’s the only official Mechanical Cultivator here.

She herself was almost removed from the sect.

Bert also observed the expressions of others. Previously, when Tassia was dismantling the dwarf mechanized body, he was meticulously studying the engraved enchantment patterns, looking hungry for knowledge. He seemed very interested in the mysterious knowledge of the ancient times.

He definitely didn’t want to hand this place over to the Mechanical Divine Sect.

At this time, a bearded mercenary was the first to speak, "I disagree with reporting it to the Mechanical Divine Sect."

"We lost so many people just to dig this much."

"Reporting it to the church will at best get us some leftovers."

As his words fell, others nodded in agreement, having bled on the knife’s edge. They wanted to gamble big since their lives were on the line. Who knows, they might just get a chance to reach the upper zone and bask in the sun of Nest City’s upper levels.

Soon, everyone’s gaze fell on Duncan.

Duncan knew he had to make a statement. He slowly said, "I also don’t think we should report it to the church."

He’s also very intrigued by the secrets below.

Mythical Era ruins might just yield something valuable if uncovered.

Hearing this, Tassia breathed a sigh of relief and said in a deep voice, "If we continue digging on our own, we don’t have enough manpower now."

"Moreover, such a large ancient ruin requires more excavation equipment."

"We need to find some allies."

From her tone, it seemed likely that they could call in more help, probably from other rebellion members in the lower levels of Nest City.

At this moment, Bert also spoke softly, "There might be a Divine Hall from the ancient era below. I can find a way to inform others from my sect to come and assist."

"If we don’t report to the Mechanical Church, the more help we have, the better."

The area they were in seemed to be a large dwarf ruin. Nobody knew when it was buried. Duncan couldn’t observe it in detail through his god-like perspective, relying only on strategy maps to discover some dark underground caverns.

At this point, the strategy map had marked out a rough area range.

—— Dwarven Pantheon (Ancient Ruins).

They had likely dug into the dwarven Divine Hall area, but other areas weren’t yet accessible. Excavating such a vast ancient ruin requires a significant amount of manpower and resources.

Tassia looked deeply at the esoteric practitioner Bert beside her and said solemnly, "Then leave some people to guard the ruins for now."

"Meanwhile, we’ll find a way to recruit more people."

No one knows what’s underneath.

But there’s no doubt that the risks and rewards are proportional. This underground ruin has been buried for at least three epochs, and discovering even a little could yield abundant rewards. The existence of dwarves was already legendary in the Mysterious Era. Afterward, with the first industrial and magical revolutions, almost all mythical creatures became history.

With consensus reached, Tassia quickly left with two others, while Bert returned alone to the lower levels of Nest City to recruit more esoteric practitioners from his sect to help.

Duncan chose to stay put, continuing with small-scale underground excavation.

"What caused it, really?"

"For such a large dwarven city to be reduced to ruin?"

Duncan manipulated the mechanical arm behind him, carefully moving aside the collapsed giant stone. The wall’s damaged patterns were visible here, with what seemed like some carvings on the surface. However, due to the passage of ages and tectonic movements, a significant portion had been destroyed.

Excavating below requires large machinery.

Duncan dug for a while and managed to retrieve a bronze goblet from the corner, which seemed to be a ritual artifact. From a collapsed edge, a section of a statue’s broken finger was exposed, about one and a half meters in diameter. The statue must have been enormous.

"This place should also be a geonode."

"Dwarven civilization was highly advanced."

Through his god-like perspective, Duncan judged the buried range of the ancient ruins. Based on his calculations, just the Divine Hall area covered the size of a large town.

Completely excavating this place would be an enormous project.

After working for a while without any gains, he decided to study the combat techniques he just acquired.

—— "Defense and Attack (Basic Specialization): A combat skill that balances offense and defense. Dwarven defenders hone this combat skill over long periods until it becomes an instinct."

—— "Fierce Attack (Basic Specialization): A burst combat skill that allows your next attack to have astonishing lethality but loses some accuracy."

—— "Flowing Slash (Basic Specialization): After knocking down an enemy, you can immediately launch an additional attack on a nearby target."

These are not particularly advanced combat techniques.

However, unlike the combat skills obtained from the First World, the abilities Duncan acquired from the Dwarf Mechanized Body formed their own system. They were all light blue marks and existed as a kind of basic combat specialization. They weren’t confined to simple moves but were a kind of instinct developed after a certain level of physical training.

If one were to compare, the closest ability would be the ’Arrow Deflection’ of the First Human Form, which is purely due to training to the fullest—comprehensive body reflexes can deflect flying arrows.

"Defense and Attack is more like a combat stance rather than a specific move."

"After entering the state, the ability to parry, block, and dodge is greatly enhanced."

When Duncan tried to enter the state of Defense and Attack, a unique BUFF mark appeared on the projection page — a sword and shield mark, which displayed ’Parry Block Dodge +5’.

Then he switched to the Fierce Attack state, and it also had a BUFF mark, displaying ’Damage Greatly Enhanced +1 to +10’.

This is pure brute strength creating miracles.

Without being confined to any move, every strike is a miracle of force, trying to unleash all the body’s power as much as possible. If combined with a frenzy state, it would be as fierce as the Hulk.

"Interesting."

"The dwarves’ combat skills actually resemble the various battle stances of Warcraft warriors."

First enter the corresponding combat stance, and then display the various combat techniques you have mastered. In different combat situations, respond with various combat stances.

It feels like they developed this system of combat techniques after hacking at each other with cold weapons for thousands of years.

For Duncan, Defense and Attack is a defensive stance, and Fierce Attack is a frenzy stance.

As for the last one, Flowing Slash, it’s a combination of combat skill and bodily instinct. To put it simply, after hacking at many people, you become more adept at hacking, and after you’ve killed one, you can conveniently kill a second.

"This combat system demands extremely high physical qualities."

Duncan mastered it proficiently after a short time, switching between two combat stances quite easily, with strong mobilization of the body.

Useful.

Even if the First Human Form was engraved, close combat ability would be further enhanced.

Dimension Space.

After checking the other two projection pages, Duncan put the Third Human Form in custody and began to dig on a small scale along the dark area ahead, excavating the ancient relics.

No one knows how long it took.

With the metallic sound from the digging tool controlled by the Mechanical Arm, he then brushed away the stones in front of him and saw a corner of a furnace buried underground.

—"Soul Furnace (Ancient Curiosity): It is said that the Father God of Dwarves, Moradin, once created the first dwarves using metal and fire."

(Ritual artifact from the Mythical Era.)

(The ancient runes engraved on it represent the forging of flesh and the forging of souls.)

(Dwarves were born from metal and fire, and through the countless tempers of the Dwarf Father God, hammered their flesh as hard as a rock, Moradin used the furnace to forge the first dwarves’ souls, giving them a tenacious spirit but also making them stubborn like a stone in a latrine pit.)

(The Soul Furnace is the sacred object of the Dwarf Father God. Legend has it that the real Soul Furnace can imbue weapons with souls but requires a trial to use.) [Note: Similar to the Artifact Spirit of the East, injecting the soul.]

(It is said that the Dwarf Father God’s Forging Hammer can easily shatter any armor.)

Is this a big find?

Duncan hurriedly cleared the stones, looking for the ancient runes engraved above, which surprisingly were seven or eight points similar to the Rune Language, a lot of which he could understand the meanings. Earth’s dwarf origin is Nordic Mythology, where dwarves excel at crafting divine artifacts and mastering the Rune Language.

"Metal... fire... forging the bodies of my people..."

"Lava... earth... tempering the souls of my people..."

"Praise the great Father of Forging, Master of Many Hammers, Soul Forger—Moradin! ..."

When Duncan silently recited the sacred prayer above in his mind, his heart surprisingly trembled slightly. Simultaneously, the First Human Form also sensed something, with some wondrous resonance appearing in the Forging Domain from the God of Forging—Gwanu.

Both possess divine positions of forging.

But this Soul Forger is more powerful!

His forging is a concept; weapons, armor, curiosities, divine artifacts can be forged, as well as flesh, soul, mind, and will.

"This must be a being of strong divine power!"

"Below should be the Divine Hall dedicated to Moradin, possibly corresponding to the Pantheon within Rome."

A conceptual forging ability.

If reported to the Mechanical Divine Sect, his status would probably rise dramatically.

But Duncan definitely wouldn’t do that, who knows what could be dug up below, there might even be dwarf divine artifacts!

Dig.

Dig hard.

Duncan personally began to dig, all the way downwards, digging for a whole day and night, eventually uncovering a strange hammer on the side of the furnace, below which was a collapsed altar.

The shape of this hammer somewhat resembles Sol’s Mjolnir.

But it wasn’t heavy at all, and there wasn’t a hint of rust on it.

—"Soul Forging Hammer (Sacrificial Artifact): Ritual artifact of the Dwarf Glory Seeker—Soul Forger Clan, capable of reforging the souls of mortals."

—"Trait-Soul Forging: Activate this curiosity using a sacrificial ritual, and the Trial Taker must endure its attack. With each attack endured, as long as the Trial Taker does not perish, their willpower will be strengthened. After enduring three heavy hits, the Soul Forging ritual is completed, granting themselves the special specialization of [Steel Will]."

(Must hold the ritual beside the Soul Furnace Ritual Objects.)

(One of the two major rituals of the Father of Dwarves faith, one to reforge the soul and the other to reforge the flesh. Only those who pass the test are true Iron Guardians of the dwarves.)

There should be another hammer nearby.

.........

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