As the capital of the Dwarf Kingdom, Aulnida is an exceptionally large city, with only the Starting City rivaling it in size.
Moreover, the city has a very distinctive layout: like other dwarf towns, the outer district is carved into a mountain, with the city built inside it.
But within that, there is another, slightly smaller mountain, constructed by dwarves using manpower.
It sounds unbelievable, but the inner mountain really is a “mountain within a mountain”—the dwarves hollowed out the mountain and then brought in additional stone from elsewhere to create it, at least according to the NPCs in the city.
The Dwarf Kingdom’s palace stands atop this “mountain within a mountain.”
According to the NPCs, the palace was built with materials of extremely rich and varied colors, some of which even change over time.
However, because the city is built inside the mountain, the palace mostly appears black from the outside.
…
“Whoa—although I’ve been to the entrance before, it still feels impressive,”
Akimi whispered as he looked at the grand palace gates.
Asuna nodded in agreement.
While a large, beautiful palace alone isn’t particularly shocking, the combination of its unique environment and somewhat physics-defying construction techniques makes it feel like a wonder that exists only in fantasy.
At that moment, the NPCs assigned to escort and guard the palace approached Akimi and Asuna.
However, contrary to their expectations, the NPCs were not dwarves but normal-sized human NPCs.
This discrepancy became even more pronounced once they entered the Dwarf Kingdom palace—inside, Akimi and Asuna saw only human NPCs.
It was extremely strange that the palace at the center of the Dwarf Kingdom capital had no dwarves.
As if anticipating their thoughts, the NPC named Cleia, who led them into the palace, explained: “Although officially this palace still belongs to the Dwarf Kingdom, its management has long been handed over to humans.”
After a pause, Cleia continued, “As for why, the Dwarf Kingdom has effectively ceased to exist. Most dwarves remain in their gathering places, while a few are scattered across various towns. In fact, rather than saying the Dwarf Kingdom is gone, it’s more accurate to say the concept of ‘kingdom’ is gone.
Whether it’s the Dark Elves’ ‘Ulsura Kingdom,’ the Forest Elves’ ‘Cares-Or Kingdom,’ the humans’ ‘Nine United Kingdoms,’ or the dwarves’ ‘Aulnida Underground Kingdom,’ these realms have long since collapsed and disappeared.
Among all races, humans retained the most influence after the ‘Land Severing,’ naturally becoming the strongest race.
Elves and dwarves gradually dwindled, eventually retreating to their last strongholds.”
After listening to Cleia’s explanation, Akimi and Asuna became wary.
While most of what he said is public knowledge to any player, NPCs should not have access to such detailed historical information.
Up until now, the only NPCs Akimi and Asuna knew who had such knowledge were Kizmell.
Sensing the flicker of suspicion in Akimi and Asuna’s eyes, Cleia showed a faint smile.
“There’s no need to be so wary. I’m merely telling a story, and it has no relevance to the upcoming challenge, so there’s no need to dig deeper.”
Cleia’s explanation, meant to clarify his words, only heightened Akimi’s suspicion.
Fumika stared at Cleia’s blue armor and asked, “Do you also tell all this to other challengers?”
“Not exactly. Certain conditions must be met. Counting you two, five challengers so far have met them.”
Cleia paused briefly, smiling, but seemed unwilling to dwell on the question.
He then pointed toward the main hall and said:
“The area ahead is where the challenge takes place. You two may proceed.”
Akimi felt a bit annoyed and huffed softly. “Even the NPCs are riddle people—so irritating.”
—————-
At first, Akimi wasn’t worried about this so-called challenge at all.
After all, they were in a safe zone; as long as players remained conscious, there was no real danger, so no matter how difficult the challenge, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Moreover, their basic stats were already absurdly high.
If they couldn’t complete it, that would simply mean the challenge wasn’t meant to be finished at their current stage.
It wasn’t until he and Asuna stepped onto the circular platform in the center of the main hall that things became more complicated.
As the platform descended into the “mountain within a mountain” and then split to carry them in two different directions, Akimi realized this wasn’t going to be simple.
According to Argo, the challenge she had completed required defeating twenty monsters within ten minutes and obtaining a key from each of them.
Normally, this wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
However, the monsters Argo faced all had high defense and massive health, making it impossible for her—whose strength stat was extremely low—to defeat them within ten minutes, let alone collect the keys.
Now, Akimi looked at the challenge success conditions on the system panel and, for the first time in a while, felt genuinely exasperated.
The requirement stated: “Survive among the monsters for ten minutes, waiting for your partner to complete the challenge. If your partner fails to finish within ten minutes, the challenge fails.”
That alone would have been tolerable, but the most infuriating part was a note: “If the challenge fails, leaving the Dwarf Kingdom palace is prohibited until the challenge is completed. Each player may attempt the challenge once per day.”
“What kind of joke is this?”
Akimi gritted his teeth and muttered through clenched teeth.
— The end of the Chapter–
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