Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 526: Dharheim, The City of Treasures. Part-1.

The entire journey to the Dwarf Kingdom was peaceful and cozy.

With today’s level of technology, it only took a few hours to reach the dwarf kingdom even with its slow and steady pace.

Usually, ships have to fight a few monsters along the way, and that is one of the main reasons why there are always weapons and awakeners stationed on the ships of every type.

Encountering monsters on the sea route is the most common and major cause of delays in transportation.

Even though many nations work together to secure the fixed sea routes, the number of monsters in the sea is just too much; one or two lucky ones manage to slip through the net every once in a while.

Due to this, most ships hire awakeners and equip them with energy weapons to deal with any possible threats.

Awakeners who have either retired for some reason or don’t want to continue raiding dungeons choose these escort jobs often.

Not every awakener is a fearless and courageous warrior who will jump into battle without hesitation; they are also human beings, and they also have emotions no matter how strong they are.

Many awakeners who fear risking their lives, or those who have families waiting for them at home, take these safer jobs, which is a win-win scenario for the awakeners and the employer too.

Rio’s ship did not encounter a single monster; the main reason for that was not that there were no monsters in the vicinity.

It was because Rio was blasting ’Sword Intent’ into his flute to play music loudly, causing monsters to flee from the mere sight of the ship instantly.

The ship captain could only sigh and shake his head at this scene when he saw that the other awakeners who he had hired were just standing there dumbfoundedly, as they had nothing to do at all.

Quite a few of those awakeners knew Rio, and some even asked for autographs.

Rio was in a good mood today, so he gave one to everyone.

By the time he got bored of his flute, the ship had already reached the territory of the dwarf kingdom.

Unlike the human empire, the dwarf nation had an entirely different architecture style.

When the ship docked at the port, Rio noticed that unlike the futuristic human empire ports, the one here was closer to nature.

The port was carved into a plateau facing towards the sea; the entire port was carved into stone and decorated with rare metals and rocks that were very expensive.

The continent on which the dwarf nation is located is much smaller than the others, but it is a place that is rich in rare minerals, metals, and many other things.

Dwarfs have been mining here for centuries, and even today, half of their entire economy depends on mining and finding rare ores from the dungeons.

The main reason why dwarves and humans trade so little is because they are both competitors, and they are both working in many similar fields.

Humans have become very technologically advanced, and they have more people to farm the dungeons of rare ore and minerals; the dwarf nation’s economy also depends on the same thing.

So, the two nations have to treat each other as competitors; they are both trying to dominate the global markets, and they often play geopolitical moves on each other too.

The ship that Rio came on belonged to one of the very few companies of the human empire that had a business in the dwarf kingdom.

Rio jumped down on the deck as he saw the ship stop on the dock.

’Err... I was given a room, but I ended up sitting on the roof the entire time... that’s kind of embarrassing...’

Hiding his embarrassment, Rio walked over to the ship captain’s side.

"This place is really fascinating... this is the first time I have seen such unique architecture..."

Rio was fascinated by the amazing carvings made all over the stones, and each carving was depicting some ancient hero or warrior of the Dwarf race.

There were even carvings about the inventions that the dwarves had done in the past.

For example, one of the major inventions that changed the tide of the entire demon extinction war was the ’miasmic soul fluctuation detection device,’ or ’MSD’ for short.

This device was an artifact that could scan the soul fluctuations of a person and detect whether their soul was corrupted by miasmic corruption or not.

Back in the era of King Allen, demons used to infect people with demonic curses, which could convert the infected into servants of demons, and this kind of curse would affect the soul directly.

(This is a prototype, weaker version of the curse that affected Lia’s mother and Kira...)

Awakeners could resist it, and strong ones were even immune to this kind of curse, but ordinary people were the easiest targets, and many demons used to infect and turn them into their subordinates.

The ’MSD’ was an artifact that could detect whether they were infected with miasmic corruption or not.

This soul fluctuation artifact later on became very popular and evolved into an artifact that many organizations use nowadays to test the ’talent’ of an awakener.

That awakener talent testing device is, in fact, capable of telling whether you are infected by miasma or not.

Lia and Kira were also once tested with the same device, but not to mention the device detecting the corruption, even SS-rankers could not have found their corruption, as it was something cast with the power of someone even stronger than SS-rankers.

...

"Of course! When you go to visit other places later, you will notice even more fascinating things!"

"Oh, don’t forget to visit the Tower of Sea Gazers located far off in the south of the nation... I haven’t gone there myself, but people say that it’s a fascinating place..."

Rio also knew a bit about the ’Tower of Sea Gazers’; after all, that place was mentioned in the original novel.

It was one of the only few places on the planet from which you could watch the ’Sea of Endless Miasma’ far away in the distant universe using a powerful telescope or something.

The ’Sea of Endless Miasma’ exists many many light-years away, and only that one spot on the entire planet gets the clearest view of it, as that spot aligns perfectly with the direction of the sea of miasma at particular times of the year.

"Yeah, I will go there if I get the chance..."

Rio nodded his head at the ship captain and waited for the ship to dock.

"So, will you be leaving soon? How about having lunch with me and everyone else?"

Rio was thankful for the offer, but he did not want to intrude into the parties of ship staff.

Most of them knew him, and when he came in front of them, they would all flock over to him, which would make the place chaotic.

Rio does not want to be noticed too much by anyone on this mission.

"I will do it next time; I have work to do. Thank you for escorting me till here."

Rio handed over the key of the room that he never even used; the ship captain saluted Rio once again before saying,

"I hope you succeed in your mission, ’Hero.’ I am sure that whatever mission you are on must be very crucial and important; I will pray for your safety..."

"Please come back safely; my ship can only stay here for half a year at most. After that, the dwarves will not let us stay here any further even if we make excuses. please come back in that limited time..."

Rio nodded his head, and just when the ship docked at the port, Rio’s figure blurred and completely disappeared as if he had never even existed in the first place.

The entire port was equipped with heavy security, and many security officers rushed over to thoroughly check if everything was right with the ship and its workers before letting them enter the nation.

Rio, on the other hand, walked past them in broad daylight, and no one stopped him.

He uses the space around him and the light elementals to make sure that no one can see him.

His presence became nil, and his body made no sounds when he moved; it was impossible for even an early SS-ranker to detect Rio in this state unless Rio got super close to them and triggered their intuition.

While walking, Rio scouted the area.

Except for humans, there were elves and other races too; it seemed that the dwarves were more open to trade with other nations than humans.

Well, it wasn’t anything to be surprised about, as humans were their competitors. What surprised Rio was that the safety of this port was insanely high.

There were powerful space-stabilizing artifacts installed around it, and there were hundreds of guards wandering around.

In fact, Rio even sensed the presence of two S-rankers from the control room in the distance.

’Why the f*ck are two S-rankers stationed in just one port? Isn’t that overkill?’

Even human nations’ cities rarely have more than one S-ranker stationed inside them, let alone just a single port.

The presence of two S-rankers in this place is definitely something strange.

’Err... forget it, it’s got nothing to do with me; I have a more important mission to do...’