Star Forge Titan

All the dwarves in the expedition couldn't help but cheer loudly. Even the scorching heat couldn't dampen their excitement. The pile of iron 'weights' rolled together again, this time not because of the ground shaking, but because they hugged each other tightly, expressing their intense joy.

After the dwarves finally calmed down, Ivan continued:

"At the same time, to completely prevent similar problems from happening again, I need several experts and scholars familiar with the direction of the lava under Gushan, and preferably a few engineers familiar with construction knowledge."

"Sir, what are your plans? Can you tell us in detail?" Upon hearing this, Oriogo immediately took two steps forward and asked with a very respectful attitude.

"Well, restarting the World Forging Furnace cannot completely solve the problem of rising lava. I plan to directly change the direction of underground lava flow, so that when the pressure of the lava layer exceeds the safe value, it can be discharged to the uninhabited area through the newly opened channel." Alvin said.

"Is that possible? We've considered similar methods, but even the most advanced excavators can't penetrate deep into the lava zone. If we rely solely on the power of transcendents, manpower and time will become issues, and there's also the possibility of unexpected situations."

Clearly, the dwarves had already been exhausting their efforts to devise solutions. However, limited by technology, population, and the status of their transcendents, they chose the most conservative yet safest option for preserving their people: abandoning their homeland and relocating their entire clan.

But for Ivan, who possesses the Black Hammer Lemnos, large-scale changes to the terrain are within his capabilities.

"Yes, absolutely." Alvin stood in front of everyone with full confidence.

However, he had no experience studying architecture or working as a miner. If he wanted to solve the problem of magma upwelling safely and reliably, rather than resorting to brute force, he would first need scholars to provide a practical and feasible modification plan. After that, he would definitely need the help of others to gradually solve the various problems that might arise during this project.

Aiwen didn't show any negative emotion about this, easily accepting the objective reality of his own limitations. As an ordinary person before crossing over, he didn't reject cooperation; rather, cooperation was the interpersonal relationship he was most accustomed to.

Similarly, as a time traveler, his identity as a descendant of Titan would not give him any burden of being an idol, so the black-haired boy made his request directly.

"Let me be clear: this time, the earth will be our opponent. As for how to achieve victory against this behemoth, we will need the help of everyone present."

"Please lend me your strength."

Silent, the members who were able to participate in this expedition were the best and brightest in the entire Lonely Mountain Kingdom. In addition to the powerful Warrior King Oriogo, they also included top rune blacksmiths and top engineers.

It can be said that these dwarves are all famous and glorious, and they never lack respect or even reverence from others.

However, when Ivan, a descendant of the Titan, said, "Please lend me your strength," an unprecedented sense of identity and responsibility surged over each of them. The tension and anxiety that had been building up over the kingdom's inability to resolve the crisis were completely cast aside.

At this moment, everyone just wants to work hard!

"No problem, I'll estimate the direction of the magma!"

"Please leave the design of the mine structure to me!"

……

Passionate words like these were heard one after another, and the king, Oriogo, silently rolled up his sleeves, his strong muscles ready to attack with all his strength at any time.

In the end, even Afrediya couldn't help but whisper in Ivan's ear.

"I, I'm the best cook in the entire expedition team!"

Three days later, the giant god holding a black hammer stood beside the lava river bank, surrounded by more than thirty dwarves who were covered in dust and dirt but were worthy of the title of "heroes".

Everyone quietly looked at the endlessly flowing lava. As those who participated in this project throughout, they knew what the scene before them meant. It was a future that was far brighter than they had expected.

Finally, someone could no longer contain his excitement.

"We did it! We actually did it!"

"Praise the giant who shakes the earth!"

"Long live His Excellency!"

"No." Ivan's voice, as loud as thunder, came from above.

In Titan form, its eyes, like giant gems, sparkle with the light emitted by the lava.

"Long live the workers."

Chapter 76 Cheers and Celebrations

Celebration banquet!

Drink a lot!

How can I describe the dwarves' joy afterward as briefly as possible? Just these two sentences are enough.

All the settlements around the Lonely Mountain Kingdom were celebrating with joy. After learning that the crisis of rising magma turning Lonely Mountain into an active volcano was completely resolved, the first reaction of any dwarf was to open the wine!

The rich aroma of alcohol permeated the streets, as if the entire Dwarven Kingdom had transformed overnight into a giant brewery. White, yellow, red, black, green, gold, and even [Dwarven swear word] colorful! Drinks of varying strengths were freely available, seemingly for free.

Of course, it is not ruled out that some tavern owners took the opportunity to clear out their overstocked inventory...

The streets were lined with people and lights, and from time to time, drunken dwarves would sing side by side. On such a happy day, even if they sang a vulgar tune with lyrics so crude that the dwarfs would blush, at most they would only be laughed at and cursed and a few empty wooden barrels.

As for the Stone Palace, where the royal court resided, the finest scholars, the finest craftsmen, and the finest warriors were essentially no different from the drunks singing songs on the streets outside. They also sang loudly, drank from large bowls, and ate meat with hearty mouthfuls. At best, they at least remembered to wear clothes and pants, not being as "open-minded" as the drunks on the street.

Ivan sat on a large stone chair that the dwarves had brought from the warehouse. It was said that this chair was originally intended to be placed in the temple. Considering his relaxed posture, it was the only thing that was relatively suitable.

Before the banquet began, he vaguely felt that the dwarves who had seen his giant form seemed very restrained.

This change wasn't exactly a change from rude to respectful, but it did make one sigh at the sheer audacity of these guys. Before entering the Lonely Mountain, even though the dwarves knew of their identities as descendants of the Aven Titan, they were at best respectful and didn't seem particularly unusual. They even had a subtle air of seeing something truly special.

However, after witnessing the true form of the giant god, whose power was so great that he could move mountains (literally), the dwarves, led by those who had witnessed it on the scene, truly realized the majesty of the legendary giant god, and their attitudes changed significantly.

This is not surprising. Even if they have heard many related legends since childhood, the giant god who shakes the earth is just a character in the story for most dwarves and does not have much sense of reality.

When a super engineer can carve a tunnel directly inside the mountain with a hammer, the [Dwarven curse] is really enough to shock the dwarves for a hundred years.

At that time, the problem faced by Alvin and others was, simply put, to calm down a pressure cooker that was about to explode.

The idea of ​​concluding the problem is not difficult. Just let it explode on the spot and it will calm down immediately.

Of course, considering the "pressure cooker" sitting beneath the Lonely Mountain Kingdom, if it exploded, it would inevitably take all the dwarves above it, and even the entire Lonely Mountain, with it. Therefore, to calm this pot, it must be allowed to explode according to the prescribed rules. The specific method for this is to renovate the pot, dig a new magma channel, and prepare supporting "water" facilities such as dams to guide the magma, so as to release the accumulated pressure underground in the Lonely Mountain in an orderly manner.

The specific design requires rich experience. Even for the dwarves who have been digging underground mines for years, it takes a lot of effort to complete the corresponding design in a short period of time.

But once Alvin started the construction, they could no longer hold back.

The young Titan descendant struck the underground tunnel with a hammer at random. Not only was the speed incredibly fast, but its structure was also stable enough to remain unshakable for a hundred years. Many key performance indicators, including earthquake resistance, also reached theoretical limits.

Even the dwarven scholar who designed the tunnel was stunned by this. He had never imagined that a construction company could replicate the design blueprint 100% perfectly in reality. Without this, the tunnel's performance in all aspects would never reach its theoretical limit.

Even the usually calm scholar was like this, and the engineer who saw the scene almost popped his eyes out.

Honestly, even if Ivan blew away the entire Lonely Mountain with a single blow, the dwarves would still shrug and say they understood. Looking across all of Palladia, powerful transcendents capable of such a feat are few and far between, but not entirely absent.

But one hammer opened a perfect tunnel, another hammer created a zero-error elevation dam, and the third hammer directly knocked out a sturdy, durable and heat-insulating semi-underground observation bunker on the side. This operation was truly beyond imagination and unheard of.

At that moment, similar thoughts suddenly emerged in the minds of every dwarf.

This gentleman should be placed in the temple and worshipped!

In fact, just after Alvin sat down, an old dwarf with superb craftsmanship came to the corner of the banquet hall. He gestured and began to carve a small sample based on his appearance sitting on a tall stone chair to determine the shape before making a large statue.

Soon after the banquet began, the uncomfortable feeling of awe and alienation instantly vanished. The dwarves' rough nature, combined with the effects of alcohol, and after two glasses of strong liquor, all the awe, alienation, fear, and abnormality were thrown out of the atmosphere or stuffed into the stomach of a dog.

These guys even started lining up to arm wrestle Alvin. Even if they lost, they'd grin like idiots and run off with their wrestled hand held high. "Goddammit, are you some die-hard fan who's come to an idol's handshake event?" Alvin was certain the expressions on these guys' faces were pure, genuine joy.

After a while, most of the dwarves dispersed after losing the arm wrestling match, and then Oriogo the Golden Bearded came to Ivan personally carrying a whole barrel of single malt whiskey.

Both ends of the oak barrel are painted white, with some colorful numbers printed in the middle, which indicates the brewing time of this barrel of wine. The arc-shaped words on the edge are the brand of the winery that produced and brewed this barrel of wine.

"..." Seeing this, Ivan nudged Afrediya beside him with his elbow without any expression.

This venerable Demon Lord was currently engaged in a desperate struggle with countless plates of dwarven specialties. Beside her, a tall pile of empty plates represented the victims of previous duelists. Such a swift, quick, yet graceful eating style could only be achieved by a beautiful ancient dragon maiden who had undergone a thorough training in royal etiquette.

Can an uneducated wild dragon out there do this? He simply doesn't have the ability!

"What's wrong?" Afrediya looked at Ivan in confusion, and subconsciously licked the sauce from the corner of her mouth at a high speed that was difficult for ordinary people's dynamic vision to capture.

The sophisticated movements and skillful postures make one wonder what kind of etiquette education the royal family of Elrond taught them! How to quickly grab food while maintaining an elegant posture? Considering the harsh environment of the north, this seems to make some sense.

Just as Alvin was about to complain, he suddenly fell into serious academic thinking. However, Afrediya didn't care about it at all and excitedly shared with him the delicious food she had just tried.

"Let me tell you, even though these beer-baked pork ribs may look ordinary, they taste amazing."

Like most gourmets, Afrediya's expression became more serious as she spoke, and she would occasionally spit out a few names related to seasonings.

"Emmmmm, the marinade probably uses a mixture of red spices from the Great Wilderness Forest, mixed with chili sauce. Oh, and a hint of apple cider vinegar. Judging from the taste, the cooking method should be low-temperature slow roasting. It probably started last night and roasted for at least three hours."

"Your Majesty, do you like it? I can ask the chef to copy the recipe later." Oriogo said at the right time.

"Really? That's great. I think we can try replacing the simple ribs with a whole Ice Boar King, roasting each part uniformly at different temperatures, perhaps we can derive a different flavor." Afrediya suddenly paused, coughed lightly and very deliberately, then gracefully picked up the napkin and wiped the corners of her mouth that she had licked so hard that even flies would not bother to come.

Oriogo nodded and said nothing. At this time, the greatest courtesy was to keep smiling.

"Ah, I'm a little thirsty. I'll go get a glass of grape juice." Afrediya nodded slightly with a dignified manner, then quickly stood up and left.

After watching her leave, Alvin coughed lightly.

"So, your majesty, what is the matter?"

"Huh." Oriogo was silent for a moment before he let out a long breath.

"According to ancient traditions." The Stone language of the Earth People came from the mouth of the Dwarf King, and the sound sounded like solid stones colliding with each other.

"I should offer the sacred mead at this time to prolong the oath between the Earth People and the Giant God, so that the sacrificial fire will never be extinguished and the loyalty will last for ten thousand years."

Suddenly, Oriogo switched back to the common Huma language that everyone in Palladio was more accustomed to.

"But that stuff isn't that good, so I brought over a barrel of whiskey."

Patting the open oak barrel on his shoulder, the eyes of this king, who was still young by the standards of a dwarf, lit up.

"This is great stuff, aged in sherry casks, with a bouquet of aromas paired with complex notes of plums, dried pears, dried apricots, paraffin, distant sea breeze, peat, chocolate, cherries, and dark fudge. It's soft on the palate, sweet on the aftertaste, and incredibly firm and powerful in the mid-palate. It's incredibly firm and powerful!"

The two looked at each other, and then found that the surroundings had become unusually quiet.

Looking up, I found that all the dwarves present had tilted their heads and pricked up their ears towards me, and some of their ears were even moving.

"[Dwarf swearing] When did you all get Deinonychus ears? I only have this one bucket! Just one bucket!"

Oriogo cursed, unable to laugh or cry. As for the Deinonychus he mentioned, they were carnivorous creatures that lived in underground caves. The darkness had severely impaired their vision. Conversely, their hearing had been greatly enhanced, allowing them to easily detect even the slightest sound. This made the Deinonychus one of the most dangerous predators in the underground environment.

How much do the dwarves, who burrow underground and mine all year round, hate these animals? They hate them so much that they use them as insults.

"Your Majesty, according to the ancient and established law of free drinking, I challenge you to the barrel challenge! As long as three fingers touch the barrel in the guardian's hand, you will unconditionally receive at least 3 ounces of wine."

"Just one bite! One bite! Absolutely no more than 3 ounces! Any more, I'll compensate you!"

"Damn it, old man Docot, why are you joining in the fun? I shouldn't have..."

Only then did Ivan fully understand the dwarves' thirst for good wine. The so-called "drinking rule" originated from a tavern brawl, the exact time of which is no longer reliable.

The process can be simply described as a group of drunkards fighting over a bottle of good wine that suddenly appeared. Afterwards, it was discovered that five cabinet ministers had their legs broken, three rune blacksmiths were beaten into coma, and two princes had their arms broken due to excessive force.

The Dwarf King at that time was furious about this, and with a pair of black eyes from being beaten by the victor, he issued a new decree, or rather, he completely established an originally agreed rule as a new decree.

That is to replace the chaotic and disorderly scramble for good wine with a barrel challenge based on the rules of free drinking.

Of course, the so-called barrel challenge can only reduce the intensity of the fight and prohibit the use of extraordinary abilities such as spells to avoid really beating people's brains out.

But in the final analysis, no dwarf would give up the opportunity to have a share of a bottle of good wine that appeared unexpectedly.

The banquet quickly got out of control. Oriogo the Golden Beard jumped onto the table with his hands high on the wine barrel, cursing. The obviously drunk dwarf drunks who shouted "Long Live the Law of Free Drinking" followed him. It looked like a group of zombies chasing a poor survivor.

"So, what were you originally going to say to me?" In the confusion, Alvin shook his head helplessly.

"Loyalty!" Oriogo tried his best to stand taller than the wine barrel, and at the same time kicked a drunk who was trying to climb up by pulling his belt with a force that was not enough to kill him.

"[Dwarf swears] In the name of Goldbeard Oriogo, I pledge my eternal loyalty to you, until my death. Damn it, don't pull my pants! Even if I turn into stone and mud, this loyalty will not... [Dwarf swears] I am your king! I order you to stop!"

"Your Majesty, [Dwarf Curse] That's pure malt whiskey brewed 20 years ago from the Black Dragon Bowmore's Old Cave! 20 years ago from the Black Dragon Bowmore's Old Cave! Where on earth did you, with a beard less than half a meter long, get such top-notch stuff?! In short, even a king shouldn't refuse a barrel challenge issued in the name of the Divine Law of Free Drinking!"

"Rebellion! The cabinet, the prime minister has rebelled!" Oriogo roared and spat at his ministers, trying to force them back in this way, but a drunkard was obviously not afraid of just saliva!

Ivan stared at the chaotic scene in front of him in amazement. He slowly stood up and spoke to Oriogo across the chaotic crowd:

"I don't need loyal servants." All the dwarves froze in disbelief. Afrediya seized the opportunity, transforming into a dragon and snatching the wine barrel from Oriogo's hands.

Then, the tall black-haired boy opened his arms to everyone, with an extremely sunny smile on his face.

"But I welcome a new loyal friend."

Aa ...

The next second, cheers mixed with "Evil dragon, let go of my wine barrel" almost overturned the entire palace.

Chapter 77: The Furnace Opens Again

The feast lasted all night, and when the sun rose the next morning.

Ivan shook hands vigorously with the dwarf king Oriogo and said goodbye. There was no need for much conversation between men. Behind him, there were a large number of other dwarves who were either waving or throwing their hats and helmets high into the air to see them off.

If the Lingzi Terminal is truly a completely replicated gaming system, then Alvin should now be able to see messages such as 'The Lonely Mountain Kingdom's reputation level has reached Revered'.

However, after bidding farewell to the dwarf and returning to the medium-sized airship, the Traveler, Ivan had no time to check the information. He and Afrediya were accepting the protests led by Heidi and the others (cats) left behind on the ship.