Welf pushed himself off the dirty stone floor, wiping a smear of grime from his cheek. He walked over to Noah, carrying the borrowed longsword.
Noah hadn't swung a weapon, but tossing him that blade at the exact right second saved his life.
"Thank you."
The red-haired youth offered the longsword back, holding it respectfully with both hands.
"Use it for now," Noah said, not taking the hilt. "You can give it back when we get to the surface."
"Huh? Are you sure?" Welf looked shocked. "Letting a rookie like me use a divine weapon like this?"
"Divine weapon?" Noah raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused.
"Yeah!" Welf's eyes practically sparkled. "This sword is the sharpest thing I've ever seen. It's gotta be a First-Grade Armament, right? It's a total masterpiece! Sure, on the outside, it just looks like plain iron, but a blade this strong couldn't possibly be made of just basic ore. They must have folded some insanely rare materials into the core!"
Noah rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little awkward. "No, not at all. It's literally just an iron sword."
He had simply used his skill to enhance it to +5.
The edge was incredibly sharp, and its durability blew a normal blacksmith's work out of the water, but the base material remained cheap, common iron.
If he had to be honest, the guild wouldn't even rank it as a Third-Grade Armament.
It was basic beginner gear.
If a normal iron sword was white-grade trash loot, this was like getting an orange-grade weapon as a pre-order bonus.
The quality was better, but the level requirement was still zero.
Seeing Noah's deadpan expression, Welf's face fell and a wild thought crossed his mind.
"Wait... did you forge this?"
Noah gave a small nod.
He walked past Welf and placed his hand on the discarded, oversized greatsword lying in the dirt.
"Smelt-Iron."
In the blink of an eye, intense heat and crackling lightning wrapped around the massive weapon.
The nearly two-meter-long slab of iron glowed white-hot, lost its shape, and melted down into a useless, smoking lump of slag on the Dungeon floor.
"Ah! My greatsword, Ryuryuko!" Welf screamed.
"Huh?" Noah blinked.
"What did you do to my beloved blade! What is this? Magic?" Welf threw himself onto his knees in front of the cooling iron lump, looking like he was about to cry his eyes out.
Seeing the older boy look so crushed, Noah actually felt bad.
He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Listen, that thing was going to shatter into pieces after one more hit. If you didn't want to die down here, you needed to throw it away. Until you make something better, just use the sword I'm lending you."
"Eh?" Welf looked up, totally lost.
"For a sword that size, your heat treatment was a disaster," Noah explained, his tone shifting into a lecture.
"You chased raw hardness and totally ignored the internal structure. The core was already full of micro-cracks before you even swung it. Why would you give a name to such a piece of garbage?"
"Is... is it really that bad?"
"You should be glad we teamed up before you got yourself killed."
Welf swallowed hard.
He wasn't stupid.
He could picture exactly what would happen if his weapon snapped in half while a monster was jumping at his throat.
He had nearly died fighting a single, weak Goblin bare-handed just a minute ago. But with a proper sword, he killed it in one swing.
When he thought about it like that, losing his greatsword was a blessing in disguise.
Frustrated, Welf punched the stone wall. "Dammit! The Goblins in the Dungeon are way too strong! They're nothing like the ones in the woods, They're faster and meaner."
Seeing Welf finally taking things seriously, Noah offered some advice. "Take this chance to learn. The monsters born in the Dungeon are leagues above anything you'll find on the surface."
"Understood."
...
Armed with the +5 iron sword, Welf tore through the upper floors like a god of war.
His swings were light and fast and the monsters couldn't put up a fight.
Even armored beasts known for their tough shells got sliced right in half. Wielding the best sword he'd ever touched, Welf started to feel invincible.
"Hey, Noah," Welf called back after clearing another room. "We're already down on the fifth floor. The guild told me not to go past the fourth."
Noah picked up a magic stone from a dead monster and tossed it in the air. "The truth is, nothing down here can take a single hit from you right now. Am I wrong?"
"Well, that's all because of this sword..."
"Exactly."
"Hey!"
"So, what do you want to do?" Noah asked. "Stop here? We've only been down here for four hours."
"Only four hours?"
Welf felt like he'd been fighting for at least eight.
If it had only been four hours, it was barely noon.
Was it because they were killing everything so fast? He glanced over his shoulder at the leather pack on Noah's back.
He expected it to be bulging with loot.
But it was completely flat.
"Noah, how much Valis do you think we'll get for the magic stones we collected today?"
"Hmm?" Noah didn't look up. "I've got about thirty small ones left. Probably around thirty thousand Valis."
"Thirty?" Welf froze. "No way. How do we only have thirty? We fought our way through five whole floors!"
Noah shrugged. "Oh, there were a lot more, but I ate them."
'Ate?'
Welf stopped walking.
His brain completely short-circuited. First off, were magic stones even edible? Second, when did he eat them? They hadn't let each other out of their sight all morning.
Even if he did eat them, wouldn't Welf have seen him chewing on rocks?
"Don't worry," Noah said. "I'll make sure you get your fair cut."
Welf was a blacksmith, but he was still a broke rookie.
Working as an assistant barely paid the rent. He needed cash badly, and since the rest of the Hephaestus Familia hated his guts, he wasn't getting any special commissions.
To Noah, thirty thousand Valis was pocket change.
Giving Welf all the money from the remaining stones was super generous. If Noah was greedy, he would have charged a rental fee for the sword, and Welf would be going home with empty pockets!
"Alright," Welf nodded. "Let's keep going."
"No," Noah said, surprising him. "Fighting here isn't the best use of your time right now. Let's head to the mining spot on the map and gather some quartz. It's a solid material, way better than the common stuff you find near the surface."
Materials!
Even though Welf wasn't a master smith yet, his instincts kicked in.
His eyes lit up.
Most common materials needed special, high-level processing techniques to be useful, and he didn't know how to do that yet.
Since he didn't have a cheat skill like Truth Seeker to understand exactly how a metal worked, he had to learn by trial and error and it will took years.
Most blacksmiths spent their whole lives doing it.
Plus, good materials were expensive, so mining them yourself was the best way to save money and turn a real profit.
They slowed their pace and took a break to eat lunch while they walked.
Sitting down to eat on a dangerous floor was asking to get killed.
The monsters respawned way too fast down deep. But up here, you could actually find empty hallways.
To veteran adventurers, the upper floors felt like a relaxing walk in the park.
Suddenly, Noah stopped and he threw a hand out to stop Welf.
"Get your sword ready."
"Wh-what's wrong?" Welf asked, gripping his hilt tight.
He had no idea how Noah always knew when trouble was coming.
"They're here."
Swish.
Several fast, black shadows with glowing eyes crawled out of the darkness, scurrying along the stone walls right toward them.
"!"
Welf had never seen them in person, but he recognized the drawings from the guild's books.
"War Shadows! There's a ton of them!" Welf took a step back, cold sweat dripping down his neck.
He counted them fast.
"Seven... no, eight of them! This isn't a fight for one guy to have!" He looked over at Noah in a panic.
Noah reached behind his back and unslung his massive gun, the Annihilator.
"I agree, so i'll give you a hand."
"Alright!" Welf's morale shot through the roof.
He didn't know how strong the kid was in a real fight, but seeing Noah look so calm made him think dealing with a few upper-floor monsters would be a breeze.
Noah loaded a heavy magazine with a loud clack.
"You can go now."
"Got it!" Welf yelled.
Noah had told him he was a rear guard.
That meant he was a mage, right? Telling Welf to charge meant he needed time to chant a big spell from the back line.
Welf just needed to buy him some time!
"Woooah!" Welf screamed, hyping himself up as he charged right at the pack of eight War Shadows.
Behind him, Noah raised his gun and pulled the trigger, a series of bright flashes lit up the dark tunnel.
Suddenly, Welf's speed exploded!
He launched forward like he'd been shot out of a cannon!
Two War Shadows leaped at him, their sharp claws aimed right at his face.
'Crap!' Welf panicked. 'What's happening? Why am I moving so fast? Wait, I'm gonna die!'
The black claws were inches from his eyes.
Right before they hit, a violent storm of wind exploded around Welf.
It acted like an invisible shield, blowing the monsters' attacks away and protecting him from the strike.
"Magic?"