Overgeared

“Father!” A boy with a bright smile ran over. His beautiful blue eyes were like jewels, and his dark hair accentuated his white skin. It was the appearance of Reinhardt’s greatest celebrity, Prince Lord, who attracted the hearts of women every time he appeared on the street.

“Lord!” Grid held Lord in his arms and ruffled the wavy hair. Lord might be 14 years old, but he was still a cute kid in Grid’s eyes.

“Hehe.” Lord rubbed his cheeks against Grid’s chest with a happy expression like a cat in the sun.

“You have to take care of your dignity.” Then a teacher in charge of discipline came over and admonished the boy who wanted this time to last forever.

Grid made a dark expression and picked up the blushing Lord who was slowly stepping back.

“What is dignity between a parent and child?”

“Your Majesty, I’m sure Queen Irene will be sad.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. It isn’t like this every day. Irene should understand.”

Grid drove away the teacher and checked Lord’s details.

He hadn’t gone through his adulthood ceremony so there were still limitations on his level and stats. However, he had acquired 12 skills that were S-grade or higher. There were more than 10 different types of skills.

This was truly the power of a continental genius.

It was possible he would become the secret weapon that would sustain the Overgeared Kingdom as Lauel wished.

However, Grid wondered if this was something to be really happy about.

A shadow was cast on Grid’s face.

‘How hard must it be every day?’

Braham and Piaro. Mercedes, the Overgeared Guild members, and Kraugel.

Grid knew because he had been watching geniuses of all ages.

They were the same as him.

The reason they were at the top of the fields wasn’t just because of their talent. It was also because of their efforts.

They went to bed later than others, and opened their eyes earlier than others to study. This was how they reached their present point.

It was the same for Lord.

Was this child really happy when he had to meet the expectations of other people before he was even an adult?

Grid had this thought and asked seriously, “Lord, what is your dream?”

“Naturally, it is to become like you, Father! The ultimate warrior! Additionally, the best blacksmith and a great person respected by the people!”

“......”

Could this be the damage of teaching by cramming?

Lord might have mistaken the wishes of the people around him for his dream.

It was the moment when the heartbroken Grid thought he should have a deeper conversation with Lord.

Lord exclaimed, “It is also to make my girlfriends happy!”

“......”

Grid shut his mouth. He shifted his gaze and hundreds of beautiful women greeted him.

The Rebecca’s Daughters candidates—they grew up from girls and were now mature beauties.

Grid pondered on it and asked a question, “Can you... handle it?”

“Of course!”

Did Lord know what he was answering?

Lord’s expression was so clear that the flustered Grid quickly let go of his worries.

‘He is a continental genius. He can afford it whether it is 200 or 300.’

Grid thought he should make more money if he didn’t want to become poor after giving his grandchildren pocket money.

Grid shook his head and pulled four small dolls out of his inventory.

They were the artificial elementals from Talima.

“So cute!”

Lord’s girlfriends exclaimed with excitement.

Fire, wind, earth, and water.

It was because the artificial elementals expressed their individuality with colors that matched their attributes, and they looked cute.

“What is this?”

Lord had learned elemental techniques from Sticks.

Some people said that Grid was the ultimate all-rounder, but from Grid’s perspective, the true all-rounder was Lord.

Lord wondered, “Do you feel the elementals in the dolls?”

“As expected, you are aware of it. They are called artificial elementals. They are collected using Talima’s magic engineering. Unlike actual elementals, they are classified as a material. However, they are much more obedient, so keep them by your side. They will surely be useful.”

“Yes! I’ll be friends with these kids!”

Lord smiled widely. Then he held the dolls in his arms and sniffed them.

Grid cocked his head. “Does it smell bad?”

“No? These kids were in Father’s arms and they smell like you.”

It was an answer that allowed him to feel Lord’s sensitivity.

Unfortunately, Grid was rather dull emotionally.

‘Is his sense of smell developed because he is a genius? Certainly, a good sense of smell is a useful talent.’

Satisfy’s monsters were very diverse. He heard that people with a good sense of smell didn’t easily get attacked by monsters because they could smell the monsters, which smelled different. There were also the low-quality people who gave off a bad smell.

“Then I’ll be going. It is time for Teacher Damian to visit.”

For years, Damian had been teaching Lord divine magic. Grid was thankful that he visited Reinhardt once a week to tutor Lord.

“Yes, go ahead.”

Grid said goodbye to Lord and went to Irene.

He tried to make the most of the fun he had in Talima, but Irene’s expression wasn’t comfortable.

It was because she heard that Grid fought against a high ranking great demon alone before he headed off to Talima.

“Please don’t overdo it.”

“... I will be careful.”

Recently, some religious organizations in the United States started to argue that Satisfy’s NPCs had souls. Their souls were born of human hands rather than god’s, and the religious organizations were worried that the NPCs wouldn’t go to heaven after they died. Instead, they would wander around. Of course, most people thought it was just dogs barking nonsense.

However, Grid was often confused and unsettled.

The more he knew the NPCs, the more he thought of them as living beings. The more he respected and communicated with them, the more he wondered if they really had souls?

Since ancient times, how many civilizations believed that gods inhabited objects?

Especially if the object was an NPC who was the same as a human.

“Sigh...”

He had made up his mind not to think too deeply.

Grid let out a breath as he shook off his thoughts and moved to the smithy. Then he sent a whisper to Yura.

-I’m sorry. I’ll think I’ll have to learn how to craft a magic engineering gun later.

Originally, Grid planned how to craft a magic gun from Cradle. However, he was forced to postpone it because the scientist Margaret wasn’t in the laboratory.

She didn’t even attend the party celebrating the liberation of the empress’ soul so she couldn’t be urged.

-Why are you apologizing? I’m just grateful for your concern.

-Thank you.

He finished his conversation with Yura, walked a bit further, and arrived at the smithy. Grid left Mercedes to guard the surroundings, and Panmir and the other blacksmiths welcomed him.

He gathered together all the craftsmen and brought out the ether diamonds.

“Can you smelt this?”

“It isn’t impossible... however, I think the probability of success is less than 20%.”

It was a material that even the dwarf craftsmen were hard to work with.

Grid thanked Panmir for his honest confession and gave the craftsmen 10 ether diamonds.

“Try it.”

“Isn’t this a mineral that is only obtained from Talima? The loss of such a precious item will be too great...”

“If it can help you grow then it isn’t a loss, even if I lose a billion won.”

Grid had easily smelted most minerals from the beginning, but it was different for ordinary people.

Many minerals that were obtained at an expensive price were wasted after they failed to be smelted.

This was why blacksmith players only bought minerals that were easy to smelt and made items to be sold for money.

It was a smart way to increase wealth, but it wasn’t very helpful for growth.

It was because compared to smelting a mineral that was easy to smelt, smelting high difficulty minerals gave more skill experience.

“Thank you for all your work.”

“It was nothing.”

Grid smiled at Panmir and the craftsmen and left the smithy.

The next people he met were Lauel and Rabbit.

“Use them properly.”

“This is what Ke ong mentioned...”

A total of 98 artificial elementals was placed on the round table.

Lauel and Rabbit’s eyes sparkled when they checked the performance.

“It will save a significant amount of labor in each area.”

“I’m glad that we can save money on labor costs.”

Grid told them, “In the future, 52 additional elementals will be added every year. You should know this.”

“Is it impossible to produce it in the Overgeared Kingdom?”

“It isn’t possible. It can only be made by the dwarves, regardless of skill.”

“Um... Unfortunately, it can’t be helped.”

Busy. He was busy. He left Lauel and Rabbit, who were discussing how to extract the ultimate efficiency from the artificial elementals. Then his next stop was Braham’s study.

Braham looked picturesque as he read by the sun-drenched window.

“Isn’t it strange for a vampire to love the sun?”

“Bah. Tell me why you came here.”

“That... is there any way to get through the dragon’s barrier with Teleport? It seemed to be a barrier that blocks movement magic arrays and disturbs the coordinates.”

“It is impossible at the level of that school’s long-eared person. Even if a person lives for a thousand or ten thousand years, they won’t be able to pass the dragon’s barrier.”

The school’s long-eared person meant the one Grid normally used as a means of transportation, the academy’s principal, Sticks. Even Grid didn’t have the guts to use Braham as a movement vehicle.

Therefore, Braham seemed to think that Grid was referring to Sticks’ Teleport.

Grid rephrased his question, “Braham, what about your Teleport?”

Braham finally raised his gaze from the book. HIs red eyes staring at Grid were as cold as usual. It was like cold wind.

“A lot of magic is derived from the dragons. A prime example is Polymorph and Teleport.”

“Then... are you saying your Teleport won’t work either?”

This was bad. Grid might not be able to interact with Talima as Antrino feared.

Grid’s face was stiff when he noticed something strange.

Braham’s eyes changed. An eager desire had settled in his eyes.

“The ultimate purpose of my magic is to kill a dragon.”

The purpose of punishing hell and honoring his mother’s soul was because he was her child, the purpose of killing Marie Rose was a type of arrogance, but killing a dragon was the aspiration of the legendary magician Braham.

Surviving a dragon—Braham was often proud of this achievement, but it was only hypocrisy. In fact, Braham wanted to get rid of the past. His ego was too strong to tolerate his old self who ran away without looking back.

“I...”

Braham approached and grabbed Grid’s wrist.

Subsequently, the scene in front of Grid changed.

It was a huge cavern that was hard to measure the size.

Grid and Braham stood in this cavern.

“This place...?”

Grid’s eyes widened as he looked around in a flustered manner.

The sight that surprised him wasn’t the mountain of treasure piled up one one side of the cavern.

Four artificial elementals were cleaning with brooms everywhere.

Grid noticed something from the appearance of the artificial elements who had darker and more beautiful colors than those from Talima.

“D-Don’t tell me.”

It was as expected.

[You are the first player to enter Fire Dragon Trauka’s nest!]

“Oh, these look pretty good?”

“......!”

Grid was frightened. The guardian of Talima—Braham was talking about none other than the four artificial elemental kings.

Braham spoke to Grid who was lost in absurdity, “A dragon’s barrier? Bah. This body has surpassed it a long time ago.”

...No, why was this person so imposing?

There wasn’t only one or two things to tackle.

Grid stared at this thief who was talking with a smile.