Enzo froze in his motion of wiping his face.
He raised his head and met Monica's vertical pupils that seemed to be able to see through time. The remaining embarrassment and fake smile on his face instantly faded away, leaving only a complex expression of being completely seen through.
There is shock, helplessness, and a trace of deep-seated confusion isolated by time.
He was silent for a few seconds, his shoulders slumped slightly, and he let out a long sigh. The sigh echoed in the empty cave, carrying a sense of dust spanning hundreds of years.
"……well."
He lowered his head, his rough fingers unconsciously stroking the seemingly ordinary adamantine hammer at his waist.
The voice was much deeper, less greasy and jumpy than before, and had a more real sense of vicissitudes.
"You saw through me... That's right, old man... No, I am indeed not a dwarf of your time."
He raised his head, his eyes a little vague, as if he was looking through the rock wall into the distant past.
"A few hundred years ago... I can't remember exactly how long it was."
"Back then, I was just an ordinary miner apprentice of the Graybeard Clan in this mithril mine, learning some mining and basic forging skills from my master." His voice was filled with reminiscence.
"Until that night... a burning stone fell from the sky."
A trace of fear and apprehension flashed across Enzo's eyes. "That wasn't an ordinary meteorite! It carried a kind of... cold and violent force, smashing directly through the depths of the mineral vein!"
"The earth was wailing, the rock formations were crumbling like biscuits! The icy groundwater rushed in like an angry beast, destroying the tunnels and drowning countless tribesmen who had no time to escape..."
"What's even more terrifying is... those damn bone leeches that slipped in through the groundwater from the Rot Dragon Swamp!"
He gritted his teeth, his fists unconsciously clenched. "They parasitize the lone tribesmen like a plague, turning them into monsters that only know how to gnaw on ore and flesh! The mine has become hell!"
"I was... lucky, or rather unlucky. I was blown away by the shock wave and fell into a huge crater created by a meteorite. I escaped."
Enzo's voice trembled slightly. "In that pit... there's lingering icy star magic brought by the meteorite, and also... something even more profound, something that attracts me even more."
His gaze involuntarily fell back on the small hammer in his hand, and his expression became extremely complicated, a mixture of awe, confusion and a hint of fate.
"That's it... a fragment of ore wrapped in a strange dark magic, lying quietly at the bottom of the pit, emitting... a calling."
"I was terrified at the time and just wanted to find a weapon to defend myself. This 'black stone' was the only thing in the pit that was useful... I don't know what I was thinking, maybe I was scared to death, or maybe it was the guidance of the dark magic... I forged it... into a hammer."
Enzo's speech became very slow, as if he was trying hard to recall that vague and strange moment.
"It felt strange... It wasn't like my hands were forging it. It was more like... the ore itself was guiding me, or rather... it 'transformed' itself into the shape of the hammer."
"The moment the hammer took shape... my world changed." He smiled bitterly, with deep self-mockery.
"My mind was filled with a trove of knowledge and power that didn't belong to me, and my body seemed to have been reshaped... And then, I became some 'Dark Forge Guardian'. A dark creature under the command of the Soul Forger God!"
"Then..." He pointed around, "The remaining star magic in the crater was too overbearing, rushing over like a tidal wave. All I remember is that everything went black... and I knew nothing. When I... when I woke up for the first time, I heard a raging battle outside."
Enzo had a strange expression on his face:
"I quietly crawled out to see... Wow! A group of guys wearing gorgeous armor, with an average strength of level five, were besieging that bone leech that had just taken over the entire mine and grown to an incomparable size! The fight was so intense! Holy light, flames, frost, space blades... were flying everywhere!"
He smacked his lips, as if still savoring the intensity of the battle:
"Unfortunately, those guys looked powerful, but in the end, they were unable to defeat the powerful Bone Leech King. They were slaughtered to pieces by it, and the rest fled in a panic. The mine returned to its dead silence... and then, I fell asleep again."
Enzo spread his hands, his face showing a sense of exhaustion and absurdity after a long time.
"Look, that was me just now... It was the second time I woke up. As soon as I opened my eyes, I felt the aura of that stupid big Bone Leech King become extremely violent. It was almost digging out the core of the Mithril vein! Then I saw you guys... and found that two of you are actually Shadow-type..."
He looked at Mark, his eyes filled with complex and inexplicable emotions, including fear, suspicion, and a premonition of being drawn into a larger vortex.
“…You all know what happened next.”
Enzo finished his story and let out a long breath, as if he had unloaded the burden of hundreds of years.
He once again tightened his grip on the Dark Rune Forging Hammer. The cold touch seemed to be the only anchor between him and this strange era.
Although he had only had a brief contact with Enzo, Mark could still see it.
This kid with a big beard is a real chatterbox.
Whether in battle or at any other time.
Enzo is much more talkative than I am. Perhaps in the future, when facing the enemy, I can let Enzo perform the art of verbal persuasion on my behalf.
It also helps to share some of the enemy's firepower.
"For hundreds of years, both of your professions have only been at level three or four. It seems you're still just a child," Mark concluded.
"child?!"
Enzo Graybeard's dark face instantly turned purple. He jumped up suddenly, his short, thick fingers almost poking Mark's nose, and saliva splattered:
"Bullshit! I just slept for a few hours! Do you know how many thrilling forging duels I've experienced in my dreams over the past few hundred years?! My head is filled with the lost rune tome!"
"It's just that my body hasn't had time to grow yet! Once I eat normal food for a few years, I'll be fully grown. Then I'll let you know how the dwarf legend was born!"
He was so angry that he turned around in a circle, waving his fists to express his dissatisfaction.
However, his face, with its thick beard but still a bit childish, coupled with his frustrated look, not only failed to increase his persuasiveness, but instead confirmed Mark's evaluation of him as a "child".
Anna burst out laughing at the side, and even Xiao Mu bounced Mark's shoulder happily.
However, Monica's attention did not stop at Enzo's age.
In her extreme state of mutation, she instantly grasped the seemingly insignificant details in the dwarf's words.
"The last time you woke up," Monica stared at Enzo and asked, "you saw the people besieging the Bone Leech King. Their average strength was level five?"
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