Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 25: The Fire of Zilmoza

The client this time was a blacksmith group called “The Fire of Zilmoza.”

They were a community centered around Elder Zilmoza, based in Dura, along with his disciples. In short, blacksmiths who had been rooted in this town for a very long time.

Their designated meeting spot was a plaza near the east gate.

“Hey, look at that. It’s the Levi sisters.”

“That white-haired kid’s the rumored dragon-slayer, right? They really formed a party…”

Several parties who looked like fellow adventurers were whispering about us, loud enough to hear clearly. Since this was a D-rank equivalent request, they were probably around that level.

The trip to the destination would take a little over a day each way, so several wagons loaded with food and bedding for the round trip were waiting.

Besides the other adventurers, there were a few blacksmiths—the clients themselves. Among the burly, muscular men who wouldn’t look out of place as adventurers, I spotted a familiar face.

“…Egiy?”

“Ah, Haro-san. Good morning!”

The guild appraiser Egiy was there.

Her tall, slender build already made her stand out, and being a woman only made it more obvious.

She noticed us, trotted over, and bowed to Zaria and Noiche a moment later.

“I-I heard Zaria-san and the others took the request—I feel so much safer! Please take care of us starting today!”

“Yeah, sure. That’s the plan, but… wait, aren’t you a guild employee?”

“Blacksmith apprentice is my real job! The guild is just… part-time…”

Oh right, she was part-time.

If she was a blacksmith, her knowledge of monster materials and the random metal scraps she sold me made perfect sense. Still—

“An elf blacksmith!? That’s rare!”

Zaria blurted out exactly what I was thinking.

Elves were a forest race—long-lived descendants of fairies who preferred wooden staves, bows, and leather armor.

They disliked metal. Anything forged with fire was completely out of the question.

I looked over the blacksmith group.

Centered around a stout dwarf who seemed to be the elder were humans, a dog-headed beastman, and the elf Egiy. The races were all over the place.

Then the leader—the dwarf—strode straight toward us.

He must have overheard our conversation, because he jumped right in.

“Elves ain’t hated by iron. Elves just hate iron. So if one don’t hate it, she can swing the hammer just fine.”

“Wah! M-Master, good morning…!”

Egiy jumped, spun around, and bowed deeply.

An old dwarf with a white beard. Short in height but massive in presence thanks to his muscles. An exotic curved sword hung at his waist.

His sharp eyes swept over us.

“Levi house noble sisters, and the kid who supposedly killed a dragon. Name’s Zilmoza. Countin’ on ya this time. Sorry, but I ain’t good with fancy words.”

“No problem.”

“We’ll talk casual too, cool?”

Noiche and Zaria were their usual selves. Blacksmith Zilmoza grinned and nodded that it was fine.

I bowed and said, “Please take care of us.”

We were apparently the last to greet, because Zilmoza immediately gave the order. The wagons started moving, and the adventurers followed.

“W-Wah! It’s already starting…!”

“Egiy, you should probably go.”

“Y-Yes! Master, wait for meee!”

We watched Egiy dash off toward the blacksmiths, then looked at each other and started walking at the rear of the wagons.

The goal of this expedition was a magic metal called Keel ore.

It was notoriously difficult to mine and handle, so you couldn’t just leave it to random adventurers. That’s why the request was to escort specialists to the site.

Clients and supplies rode the wagons; adventurers walked around them in rotating shifts.

With this many people making noise, monsters usually stayed wary and kept their distance—

“Zaria, more goblins.”

“For real? There’s a lot of them lately.”

—but from the way the adventurers up front readied their weapons, we could tell it was another encounter.

As Noiche said, the monsters that appeared were goblins—greenish-gray skinned imps.

They only came up to a human’s waist, but their strength surpassed a human’s, and some were smart enough to use tools and even magic. Absolutely not to be underestimated.

Fighting broke out up ahead, so we moved in to help.

“Rise, Celestial Sphere of the Pole Star”

Barrages were Noiche’s specialty, as expected.

She gripped the pendant I’d given her—“I’ll borrow this”—and unleashed countless dark-blue magic bullets all at once. They pierced goblin vital points one after another.

Zaria charged to the front line and mowed through goblins like a war goddess. She held a longsword in one hand, its blade faintly cloaked in rose-colored magic power. Still in practice, apparently.

With this firepower, honestly we didn’t even need to try that hard—

“I’ll join too. Chainsaw Crown”

—but I figured I should get some experience.

I deployed a magic circle, turned the ink into spinning blades, and flew them out. I sliced the face off a goblin drawing its bow from a distance.

The ink returned like a boomerang; I caught it and sniped the next ones from afar.

As expected, the goblin extermination ended in no time. Everyone was used to it.

Zaria went to report to the clients on the wagons. Noiche, staying behind, suddenly tilted her head.

“…Isn’t Ink bigger?”

“Huh?”

I hadn’t really noticed.

To check what she meant, I put Ink back in the bottle… huh? It did look a little fuller?

It used to fill about four-fifths of the bottle, but now it was packed right up to the cork.

“Does Ink multiply?”

“No, never. It can absorb liquid and swell temporarily, but it always returns to normal size…”

…Plus I had taken some of Ink’s body to make Noiche’s pendant, so the volume should have decreased by that amount.

Yet here it was—increased instead. What was going on?

“…Could it be the dragon blood?”

If Ink had gained some irregularity recently, that was the only thing I could think of.

Dragon blood was an extremely powerful magic catalyst and also the source of a dragon’s terrifying regeneration.

Had it been affected? Or absorbed? Gaining the dragon’s full regenerative ability—using magic power to multiply and regenerate flesh—would be way too convenient to hope for…

“Let’s test it. Noiche, try pouring magic power into Ink.”

“Okay, got it.”

I took Ink out of the bottle again. Noiche touched it and sent magic power in.

The instant she did—Ink grew.

“Wah!?”

It pulsed heavily, trembling, then ballooned outward.

Noiche quickly let go, and the growth stopped.

“It… started multiplying with magic power…?”

“…This needs testing.”

Ink had roughly doubled in size. I put half back in the original bottle—of course the other half was left over.

I had no choice but to grab another bottle and hang it from my belt. It actually multiplied.

“…What are we gonna do?”