Child of Destiny

Chapter 2264: Consulting the Saint Blacksmith Again

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Shin could not help but raise his brows when he saw where the young dwarf had brought him.

It was neither the forge where a blacksmith could usually be found nor the special room containing the hidden teleportation formation connected to an unknown volcano—the same place where [Yamato] had been reforged.

Instead, the young dwarf led him into one of the inner rooms connected to a hidden passage.

Seeing this, Shin could only shake his head. "This little smithy sure has a lot of secrets."

It did not take long before they reached a wooden door at the far end of the dark corridor.

"Master is waiting inside, Lord Envoy." The young dwarf bowed respectfully before gesturing toward the door.

Shin briefly nodded before reaching for the doorknob.

Click!

The moment he opened the door, a dim light greeted him from within.

And there, sitting in the middle of the room, was the old dwarf he had come to find.

The corner of Shin’s mouth twitched beneath his mask when he saw the scene before him.

The supposedly respected Saint Blacksmith of the Saint Heaven Kingdom was currently slouched lazily in a wooden chair, casually chugging a massive mug of liquor.

Several wooden barrels and empty mugs were scattered across the floor.

One corner of the room was so cluttered with them that it had practically formed a small mountain.

"Just how much has he drunk?" Shin could not help but wonder.

He had always known that dwarves had two great passions—one was forging while the other was drinking.

The heat of the forge and the constant clanging of metal seemed to ignite something within them, driving them to devote themselves to their craft as though forging were some kind of sacred ritual.

Liquor, on the other hand, brought out an entirely different kind of passion.

He briefly shook his head before walking forward and greeting the old dwarf. "Sir Berlin."

Berlin casually glanced at him before smirking. "So you’re back."

Without saying anything else, he poured another mug of liquor from a nearby barrel and pushed it toward Shin.

"Give this one a try! It is something the King granted me after I finished his previous commission," he said proudly.

Shin stared at the mug for a moment before politely shaking his head. "I don’t think that would be appropriate, Sir. I’m still not old enough to enjoy such fine liquor."

Hearing the polite refusal, Berlin merely smirked and did not press the matter. "Tsk! Tsk! Too young indeed."

He then chugged the liquor in a single gulp before continuing. "You Humans are too weak when it comes to these customs."

"Isn’t it better to start young so that you can enjoy it properly once you come of age?" he added, shaking his head. "If you start too late, you’ll only end up ruining the experience."

He then grinned mischievously. "Heh! It’s disrespectful to the fine liquor!"

After emptying yet another mug, Berlin shifted to another topic. "I’ve heard that you prevented yet another disaster caused by the heretics of the Demonic Churches."

"It looks like you’ve been having quite an eventful adventure outside," he added before glancing at Shin’s sheathed sword. "It’s good to see that you two have been enjoying your lives."

Shin was somewhat surprised. "Sir Berlin has already heard about that?"

Berlin smirked. "What do you take me for, kid? I have plenty of connections as well."

He then casually dismissed the topic before moving on to another one. "So, what brings you here? Don’t tell me you’ve already collected all the materials for the Divine Armor."

Hearing this, Shin could not help but laugh bitterly. "Please don’t tease me, Sir. Collecting those materials has never been easy."

Among all the materials required to create his Divine Armor, he had only managed to collect the sets from the Trinity Apes and the Four Mountains.

He was still missing the sets that were supposed to be harvested from the boss monsters known as the Four Kings of the Sea and the Three Legendary Birds.

He still had no idea where to find either of them.

There were also the materials that were supposed to come from suspected high-level World Bosses—existences ranked even higher than Emperor-Class Bosses.

Shin had absolutely no idea where to begin searching for them.

His encounters with the previous sets had been nothing more than fortunate coincidences.

Only now was he beginning to understand just how difficult it was to obtain the complete Divine Armor.

Arthur and Leonard, who were following similar questlines, were struggling with their own Divine Armor quests as well.

Both of them had become stuck without knowing what to do next.

Even Arthur, who possessed a solid clue regarding the location of one of his Divine Armor pieces, seemed to be going in circles.

He had already completed a series of quests based on that clue, yet he still had not even caught a glimpse of the piece he was looking for.

Berlin smirked once again as he chugged another mug of liquor. His face was already beginning to turn red, yet his eyes remained surprisingly clear.

Truly worthy of Dwarven’s fame when it came to handling liquor.

Wiping his mouth with his short but muscular arm, the old dwarf finally asked, "So, what do you want me to forge this time?"

Every time Shin visited him, the young man would always ask for his help with forging something. And every time, the item he brought was more troublesome than the last.

However, Berlin was never one to complain.

If anything, he looked forward to these visits.

Everything Shin brought to him always managed to pique his interest, from reforging the Inheritance Sword of the Nephilim Race to crafting a dimensional token connected to the Phantom Island and the mysterious independent realm under Shin’s control.

Given his experienced eyes, Berlin could also tell that every piece of equipment Shin was currently wearing was extraordinary in their own right.

The old dwarf could not help but wonder what kind of interesting toy Shin had brought him this time.

Shin nodded before finally stating the purpose of his visit. "I want to ask for your help in forging a compass, Sir Berlin."

"Oh!? A compass?" Berlin repeated, his interest immediately piqued.

Just as he had expected, Shin had once again brought him something unusual.

"That’s right, Sir." Shin nodded before taking out the blueprint he had obtained from Felicia and Felix.

He then helped the old dwarf clear the table, moving aside the wooden mugs scattered across it. He even used his Fire Elemental Mana to evaporate the liquor that had spilled across the surface before carefully laying the blueprint down.

Berlin did not need Shin to explain anything.

The moment his eyes landed on the blueprint, he already had a general idea of what kind of item it was.

The old dwarf frowned as he carefully examined the complicated design. For several moments, his expression remained serious.

Then, his eyes suddenly lit up.

From merely a glance, Berlin could already tell that this was no ordinary blueprint.

The complexity of its design alone suggested that it was at least a Saint-Level or Sage-Level blueprint.

"Interesting~!" A smile gradually spread across the old dwarf’s face as he skimmed through the blueprint.

The excitement in his voice was enough to make his drunkenness recede considerably.

"What an interesting compass," he muttered once again before turning toward Shin. "Lad, do you know what this thing is used for?"

Shin paused. He honestly didn’t.

At first, he had assumed that the compass was related to opening the sealed portal inside the Glacial Cave.

However, after taking a closer look at the blueprint, he quickly dismissed that possibility.

Even though Shin wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about forging, his ’Duplicator’s Eyes’ and ’True Sight’ had given him enough exposure to various items and their structures to develop a basic understanding of them.

From what little he could decipher, this compass wasn’t designed to help them open the sealed portal.

It was designed to locate something.

The problem was that he had no idea what that something was.

"I don’t know either," Shin admitted honestly.

Berlin’s smile widened slightly. "This toy you brought me is meant to help you track the movements of a certain creature—more specifically, a sea creature."

Shin slightly inclined his head to the side.

"That’s about as far as I can tell from the blueprint at a glance," Berlin continued. "I don’t know exactly what creature it was originally designed for."

He tapped the blueprint with one of his fingers. "But whoever created it clearly had a specific target in mind."

Berlin’s expression gradually became more serious as he examined the intricate formations once again. "Give me a moment. I might be able to narrow it down."

"Hmm... But if I had to make a guess..." Berlin’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the blueprint.

He traced one of the intricate formations with his finger before continuing. "This compass isn’t actually designed to track a location."

Shin’s brows rose slightly.

"It is designed to detect a specific mana signature." Berlin tapped the center of the blueprint. "See these arrays?"

"They aren’t measuring direction in the conventional sense. They’re filtering the surrounding mana and searching for a particular frequency. Once they detect a matching signature, the compass will be able to determine its general direction and track its movements."

He paused briefly, his expression becoming more serious. "Which means whoever designed this compass already knew what kind of existence they were trying to find."

Shin’s eyes narrowed.

Berlin then leaned closer to the blueprint.

"The problem is that the mana signature this compass is designed to detect is extremely unusual."

He pointed toward several of the smaller formations surrounding the core.

"It has characteristics associated with spatial displacement, aquatic mana, and something else that I can’t identify completely."

"The spatial component is especially strange. It suggests that the target isn’t merely moving through the sea..." Berlin slowly raised his head. "It is moving between dimensions."

Shin’s expression underneath the mask changed slightly.

Berlin stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"There aren’t many sea creatures capable of doing something like that. And based on the design of this compass, the closest match I can think of is the Vanishing Cosmic Lord."

"The Vanishing Cosmic Lord?" Shin repeated.

Berlin nodded. "It’s a sea monster said to possess the ability to move between different realms."

He tapped the blueprint once again. "I’m not saying this compass was definitely made to track it. There are probably other existences with similar characteristics."

"However, if I were to compare the mana signature this blueprint is trying to detect with everything I know about creatures from the Fog Sea..."

He grinned. "The Vanishing Cosmic Lord is the closest target."

He then turned toward Shin with a curious expression. "Are you planning to catch that thing?"

Before Shin could answer, Berlin continued. "If that’s the case, you’ll probably need a special net capable of capturing it."

He grinned. "Want me to make one for you?"

Shin remained silent. His mind was still processing everything Berlin had just revealed.

The purpose of the compass, the creature it was meant to track, and most importantly, its connection to the sealed portal.

It finally made sense.

The compass wasn’t meant to open the portal. It was meant to locate the creature required to progress the quest.

After a while, Shin turned toward the old dwarf.

Berlin was already giving him a mischievous grin.

Shin immediately understood what that expression meant. "What task do you want to entrust me with, Sir?"

There had never been such a thing as a completely free lunch in this world.

Not even between close friends.

Berlin’s grin widened even further after realizing that Shin had understood his intentions.

"Simple." He leaned back in his chair before casually raising his mug. "Help me catch another monster that can only be found in the Fog Sea."

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