A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 635 Sixty-Three Years Later

North of the North, lies the ruins of the Dwarven Confederation. For sixty-three years, this place has been devoid of the protection of weather magic, and deathly silence and blizzards have raged as ever.

"Uncle, how about this one?"

"Give me."

The boy received instructions from the dwarf uncle to hand over what he had found in the ruins. The dwarf took it; it was a wine jug.

"It's just a pot, nothing special." Even knowing it was over sixty years old, the dwarf couldn't resist unscrewing the lid and smelling it. Hey, it does have a faint smell. He then examined the material; it was an oxidized, blackened metal, probably impure silver.

"But the pot isn't deflated at all."

"Even if it's perfectly intact, it's still just a pot." The dwarf was about to toss aside the item the boy had picked up when he suddenly understood what the boy meant: this was ruins, and an ordinary silver pot would have been flattened long ago. But now it wasn't even badly shaped. The dwarf examined it closely by the light of his headlamp and exclaimed in surprise, "I must have misjudged it."

Beneath the blackened silver skin was a gleaming sheen, shimmering with iridescent light, clearly crafted from fine gold. It's unclear why the original owner, wanting to discreetly conceal their wealth, had plated the gold wine jug.

"Good lad." The dwarf wanted to pat the boy's head, but the boy was already seventeen years old and he couldn't reach him at all.

They were a pair of scavengers; the human boy was named Alek, and the dwarf uncle was Vog. The tall and short pair cautiously explored the ruins, sometimes encountering a persistent stench of decay, in which case they would quickly detour.

"One, two, three." Alek and Vogel exerted their strength and together lifted the lead sheet blocking their way. Suddenly, a strong blast of cold air rushed in from the lifted lead sheet, and the flying snow cut like knives on the boy's freckled face.

They arrived in the city center, at the ruins of the grand elevator. Then, an unexpected situation arose: a deafening siren pierced the wind and snow from above.

"Damn it, let's go!" Vogel originally planned to seal the lead sheet and continue deeper into the ruins, but after the siren sounded, he changed his mind, took a sledgehammer from behind him, and smashed the fasteners around the lead sheet to pieces, completely disregarding the risk of collapse.

Bang! After kicking aside the lead sheet, the dwarf pulled the boy into the icy snow.

The boy looked up and saw the interlocking steel frame structure, bearing the accumulated snow, creaking in the wind and fragmenting the sky above the collapsed hole. He felt a strange sadness, trying to imagine what the city used to look like.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and climb up." The dwarf urged Alek to take out his climbing equipment from his backpack. At this moment, they were like professional adventurers, extremely skilled whether they were going deep underground or climbing upwards.

Alek knew why Voge was in such a hurry; when they climbed to the upper middle level of the ruins, they could already hear eerie roars.

There are many indigenous people here who cannot rest in peace. Although the authorities have tried to clear the area, there are always gaps that cannot be detected, and these spirits linger here. Although they have become less active in recent decades, the earth-shattering sound of a steam horn like that just now will surely awaken these living corpses.

They were almost at the top. The boy's palms were sweaty, and his lean, powerful body was taut with every muscle. Walker, though bulky, was clearly stronger and silently continued his ascent.

Something was pushed down, a series of thuds echoing through the steel frame ruins of the large elevator. Alex's heart clenched; this was the symphony of death, a chain reaction that would awaken more zombies with each thud, which would then move toward the sound, creating even more noise, before finally surging in in a frenzy.

With about thirty meters to go, he estimated the distance to the entrance of the rubble, threw out the climbing rope, and successfully secured the grappling hook to the exposed metal piece.

Ha! Ha! A breathy sound came from beside Vog; a zombie had discovered them! Vog was a few meters slower than Alek and now faced a decaying, withered claw protruding from a crack in the rubble. Because of its proximity to the ground, the cold prevented the corpse from oozing pus or nourishing microorganisms; instead, it was shriveled and broken, exposing grayish tendons and mutated, sharp nails.

Damn it! The dwarf reached for the pistol at his waist, but the zombie was faster, its claws reaching for him. To dodge, the dwarf released the rope in an instant, rappelling several meters. Even so, he avoided the attack, but the distance between him and the exit and Alek had increased.

It couldn't get any worse; his rope was also gnawed through by the zombies.

The dwarf heard roars from three sides. "I'm doomed," he thought to himself.

For decades, scavengers have roamed the cities of the Dwarf Confederation, digging up all sorts of valuable items. Apart from precious metal products, any artifacts with inscriptions or exquisite patterns can fetch a good price.

Vog was one of them. He inherited his father Singrev's abilities and the hammer, and went about his business alone after his father became unable to work. Until he adopted a human orphan, and when the child turned 14, the two began to work together to traverse the ruins.

"Go! Go." Vogel resigned himself to his fate; scavengers mostly died in accidents. He thought for a moment, then shouted at the boy, "Don't come back after you get out. This line of work is impossible to make."

As he spoke, he swung his hammer and smashed the zombie-like creature into a pulp. However, Vog was having particularly bad luck today. Not to mention the culprit, there was the sound of the steam horn. Now, he had crash-landed at the end of a tunnel, and monsters were coming in droves from the darkness.

Alek was also in a hurry and planned to make an emergency landing. However, the rope beneath him was gone, and all that remained was the head of a zombie that had sprung out from a crack in the rock. He was furious and stomped on the head of the rope as he descended to the end.

A few meters from where Vog had crash-landed, he planned to pull out a spare rope and throw it to Vog. The dwarf, catching a glimpse of the boy out of the corner of his eye during the battle, shouted anxiously, "You idiot! You can't even walk like this! Do you know why my dad and I always travel alone? Don't fucking hesitate!"

After pulling out his pistol and firing a rapid round, Vogel yelled, "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

"A minor male human and an adult dwarf Delta team were spotted descending to conduct a rescue."

"Received. Be careful of the complex situation in the ruins."

Just as the scavenger master and apprentice were in despair, three swiftly moving air cavalrymen descended from the sky. One of them picked up Alek directly, while the other two landed on the platform where Vog was. One of them pulled out a small metal tube from his chest sling, pulled the safety, and threw it at the advancing horde of undead. Instantly, a swarm of lightning forks pierced through countless targets and illuminated the pit.

The remaining air knight grabbed Vog's right arm: "Please cooperate with the rescue and let go of the heavy weapons and backpack."

"Then you might as well let me die here."

The knight who threw the lightning weapon turned around, heard Vog's speech, nodded to his colleague, grabbed the dwarf's other arm, and the two successfully took off.

Leaping out of the death-filled crater, the air knights brought the two rescued individuals onto the "Silver Dragon" airship.

"It was you who sounded the whistle!"

"We're issuing a warning, Mr. Vogel," the captain, familiar with the dwarves, explained. "A 'Roar' missile will soon land in the vicinity. All units, prepare for jamming. We're returning to port as quickly as possible."

The airships traveled south, braving the harsh winds and snow to reach their stronghold, the capital of the Dahlberg border Count's territory, and its only remaining urban settlement. Even during the day, searchlights were needed to illuminate the sky and guide the airships.

"Kid, come with me to the stern." Alek's air knight, now dismounted her maneuvering gear, but still wore sunglasses, tapping her fingers on the frame: "Do you have this?"

"I have snow blindness goggles." Alek took out the goggles he made himself. The main body was a thin bone plate with a horizontal groove in the middle, which he would wear when moving on the snow-covered ground.

"I'll give you one then."

Alek carefully took the sunglasses and put them on, then went to the stern, puzzled. Through the porthole, they saw only a vast expanse of white.

Do you know what a "roar" is?

"It's said to be a very powerful bomb, specifically designed to deal with legion-level monsters."

"That's right, when the people on the ground can't handle it, it will fall from the sky."

As it spoke, a point of light burst forth on the horizon behind the "Silver Dragon" airship, followed by a mushroom cloud. The flying snow was propelled by the blast wave, suddenly accelerating, and the sound slammed against the glass.

"The landing point is getting closer and closer to the city," the air cavalryman said worriedly.

(End of this chapter)