3. The lump in the heart
** 3. The lump in the heart
“The Aura wasn’t the problem.”
The man muttered as he looked at the white-stained sword body.
“Whew.”
The dwarf was breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Huh, true. It’s nothing else, the thought that the micro-spirit was melted into the sword body… When I found out about it after putting it in the fire, I felt like I was in a dark mood. Fortunately, I got it out before it was too late!”
After about a month of studying the echoing aura, the two finally figured out the cause.
“The micro-spirit… “
The muttered man habitually touched his lips. It was an act that I did not know whenever I thought of a colleague who left to find his hometown.
The Dwarf, not knowing the meaning behind it, asked indifferently.
“How did the micro-spirit get mixed with the sword body?”
“That’s right.”
The man did not know the details.
It’s just that the micro-spirits didn’t respond to the summons at some point, and the sword started to make a strange sound every time I injected an aura.
Now the situation fits. The sequence of events was clearly recognized. However, not knowing what this little friend wanted was still a wall.
“Why, why the sword body… “
“Mmm.”
It was a difficult problem for a mercenary who had dried up due to lack of sensitivity and a dwarf who was born with macho tendencies regardless of gender.
“Won’t the answer come out once you knock on it?”
A dwarf with a hammer asked.
“If you do, the sword will scream.”
Perhaps physically.
“That sounds kind of scary.”
The dwarf quietly put away the hammer. The thought of the sword being sharpened on the anvil suddenly screaming, isn’t it a chilling sight just imagining it?
“It’s not a demon-possessed sword, and I don’t like that kind of experience… “
A trembling dwarf.
Meanwhile, the man turned his head as if he got a hint.
“A demon-possessed sword?”
When the man showed interest, the dwarf said.
“Ah, have you heard the story of the possessed sword? It’s interesting, but it’s a ghost story from a long time ago that only ordinary dwarves don’t know about. What that means is that demons cling to the sword body that contains the blood of thousands and tens of thousands of lives… “
“A one-line summary.”
“…It became the Ego Sword.”
The dwarf, at a loss for words, muttered dully.
“Ego Sword!”
The man shouted with a rare color.
“Hasn’t my kendo become an ego sword?”
“Ha!”
The dwarf snorted and took out a parchment from his bosom. It was a piece of paper with ‘Ego Weapon Determination Checklist’ Written on it, but the man accepted the paper after putting aside the question of why such a thing was in his pocket.
“Do you really believe that there is such a thing as an ego weapon? Didn’t I tell you earlier? The story of the possessed sword is, after all, just a ghost story.”
“Okay, let’s try this one more time. We.”
“Oh, yes! Let’s try it! If your sword satisfies the dozens of items that cover the ego weapon, I will hold the jang in my hand!”
The time of proof began like that.
First. When injecting an aura, the will of the weapon will be awakened.
The man who confirmed the item infused an aura into his sword body.
ㅡㅡㅡ!
He said, holding out the sword that made a peculiar sound.
“Couldn’t this phenomenon be seen as an awakening of the will?”
“…On hold for now.”
Second. The sword must have gone through sufficient combat experience.
The man who caught the dwarf’s gaze said.
“He must have been in the mercenary industry for eight years.”
“Mmm.”
The dwarf put a check mark on item 2 disapprovingly.
Third. ㅡㅡㅡ…
“ㅡㅡㅡ… “
“ㅡㅡ… “
…
..
.
Parchment with a checkmark until the last item at last.
“Uh uh…..?”
“Kuh.”
The man, unable to hold back his laughter, immediately took out his sword. Then the Dwarf became contemplative and took a step back.
“Me, I said I would crush the intestines in my hands, but I never said I would cut them up?!”
A flutter of parchment that fell from the dwarf’s weak hand. At the bottom of the ‘Ego Weapon Discrimination Checklist’, this phrase was written.
When the owner and the weapon become aware of each other, a true ego weapon will be born.
The man seemed to understand the meaning of the words now.
“I’ve always thought you were just making meaningless noises.”
He was talking to the white-stained sword body.
ㅡㅡㅡ!
The ego of the micro-spirit awakened again after being injected with an aura. It cried more fiercely than ever, as if responding to the man’s will.
At first glance, it seemed like a sacred sight, like the birth of a newborn baby.
Attracted by the beautiful light, the dwarf drool in a daze.
“That wasn’t it.”
The man continues the conversation.
“Listen now. What do you say?”
ㅡㅡㅡ!
Awareness of each other goes back and forth again and again, bursting with unprecedented brilliance. Air currents rushed around the man whose thoughts had expanded in a trance.
It was the first interaction.
The sword that has been together for many years creates a miraculous synergistic effect with the owner. A storm of aura sweeps through the forge.
“Ohh… !”
A raging wind blows.
The dwarf with flowing red hair instinctively realized.
“I didn’t expect to see this precious sight… !”
She clearly felt that this was the awakening of a hero she had only heard of, through the density of the aura that touched her skin.
Meanwhile, the man heard the voice of the ego weapon ringing in his head.
Alem. Alem. Alem… !
The sword said so. From the moment the sword body began to be dyed white, he had been shouting out countless times.
Alem.
It was originally the name of a man who was the first in the world to reach Master by the standards of the middle dimension.
**
“It’s amazing.”
-It’s amazing!
“An ego weapon that mimics words.”
-An ego weapon that mimics words!
A sword body stained pure white.
Apart from the buzzing aura, the voice of a playful child echoed Alem’s words.
The dwarf who was watching from the side laughed.
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“It’s like watching a father play with a baby, uhm…”
Then, she muttered for a while, then, what she imagined, wiggling her red hair, burst into anger.
“…I’m canceling what I just said!”
I’ve been living with the red-haired dwarf for over a month, but sometimes he shows me something I can’t understand.
Alem thought she was just a hot-blooded racial trait.
Anyway, for Alem, quite happy things happened one after another.
With the acquisition of the Ego Weapon not enough, he has stepped into the unknown. If it was Alem’s actions, it was a path that she would have reached someday, but there was no doubt that there would be a dwarf in the background that could have accelerated the schedule.
Alem bowed her head.
“Thank you. She has received a favor that cannot be fully repaid.”
With this, Alem was able to take one step closer to her goal, which she had hesitated so far.
What is that goal?
“…Are you going too?”
A rare stagnant voice. The Dwarf, who was sitting on a simple chair and looking down at the anvil, said.
“It is said that she has reached a high level, but she will need some time to refine her skills.”
She started listing reasons why Alem shouldn’t go to her front line, one by one.
“Ego Weapon has just woken up, so you don’t know what abilities it has, you have to go to the mercenary guild to renew your horse amulet, and you have to revive your sense of combat, which has been slowed down by helping the blacksmith for a month, and… “
Seeing her fidgeting with her hammer, Alem finally realized.
She knew that she had made a new connection at her forge.
“…I see.”
Alem smiled lowly and stored her sword.
“But I don’t have time.”
“That… “
“Too much time has passed since the war situation deteriorated. Now is the time for someone to step in.”
Alem did not move with logic such as a sense of resonance or a sense of duty.
“There is a precious person there.”
Coincidentally, the area where the demons were supposed to advance included the hometown of an elf colleague who shared the joys and sorrows of life and death with Alem a few years ago. Sooner or later, the Great Forest, which the elves loved, will be trampled by the footprints of demons and disappear from the map without a trace.
“Then I will go.”
Alem had to go.
“To the place where important people are.”
There was nothing to say about her man, who showed her stubborn will. However, the Dwarf kicked his tongue and got up as if he knew that.
“Then I will follow.”
The red-haired girl said so. At her unexpected reaction, Alem hurriedly shook her head.
“No.”
“No way.”
The momentum with which he wielded the hammer was powerful enough to be seen in at least ‘high-level’ horse mercenaries.
“Even if you look at it like this, at one time, you used to go out looking for ingredients yourself.”
The dwarf opened his mouth as if to swear.
“It will never be a burden on your journey.”
“…”
Alem also lost her words at that resolute attitude.
However, the smile on his lips welcomed her new colleague.
**
“Who is this girl?”
“Huh…?”
Alem was taken aback by the elf’s words.
It was a reunion after years. I thought she would welcome me, but as soon as I saw her, she immediately said that.
The dwarf made a misleading statement. Like a blacksmith, his skill at lighting up a raging fire was amazing.
“I am Alem’s ally. I am sharpening his precious sword.”
“A precious…sword…?”
The life in the elf’s eyes gradually faded, then she tilted her head and looked at the man.
Alem, who suddenly received a severe misunderstanding, waved her hand desperately.
“It’s not like that!”
“No, even last night… town!”
Alem couldn’t understand the atmosphere and covered the mouth of the dwarf who was trying to speak out with one hand, and with the other hand he blocked the enraged elf’s attack saying that he had been betrayed and continued to make excuses…
**
A crack formed in her memory.