Bear School Astartes

The heavy wooden beer mug as big as a human head took Belengar some effort just to hold steady with one hand, while Tishaya simply had to use both hands to cradle it.

And in the Investigation Team, these beer-filled mugs were basically all being held one in each hand by people like Belengar.

The people here have such a high average level of physical fitness! Is it because they eat too well?

Tishaya was sitting by the stone slab bar of the Weapon and Mountain Cat Pavilion.

The whole slab of stone had been roughly turned into both bar counter and cooking counter, and stone blocks were shaved flat to serve as stools.

Clearly this was a setting completely at odds with the Female Warlock’s usual refined and luxurious habits, yet paired with the sea breeze of the New Continent’s night and the fresh grassy tang wafting over from the Ancient Tree Forest, somehow everything felt very comfortable.

Tishaya’s fork was skewering a huge steak, a big cut of meat so plump and juicy that with just a little shake, meat juices would splatter everywhere, the fat and lean marbling beautiful and abundant.

Tishaya was totally not good at dealing with this kind of giant chunk of meat, and right now she was a bit flustered, holding the fork up with both hands.

"Oh! Not used to it, meow?"

The head chef of the Weapon and Mountain Cat Pavilion, this chef whose body size far exceeded that of a normal Elu Cat, and who was one-eyed with a vicious-looking face, was at this moment resting a paw on the sword hilt on his back as he spoke.

"Should’ve said so earlier, meow! I’m really curious about the eating habits in your Otherworld too! It’s just that last time that brat Lann was way too easy to feed, he’d eat anything, so I didn’t learn any of your cuisine knowledge at all, meow!"

Grumbling as he spoke, the head chef with the headscarf drew the Broken Sword from his back and easily cut the steak in front of Tishaya’s spot on the bar into smaller chunks.

Although for the Female Warlock they still counted as "hearty chunks of meat," at least she no longer had to struggle to get them on the fork.

And when she put a chunk of meat into her mouth, Tishaya’s impressions grew even stronger.

The seasoning and ingredient handling were rough and unrefined in style, but because the quality of the ingredients was just too amazing, it practically let one taste the vibrant Life Force of the creature they’d come from.

So Tishaya, who had practically eaten her way through the northern courts from ancient times to the present, actually raised an eyebrow at this moment, clearly quite pleased.

Rong Buqiu was helping out in the head chef’s back kitchen.

The Three-Floral Kitten had taken off its armor and tied a headscarf around its head.

Speaking of which, human chefs tie headscarves and wear hats so hair won’t fall into the pot, but for a chef like an Elu Cat whose whole body is fur, what’s the point of just tying a headscarf?

Lann had always been baffled by this, and what baffled him even more was that the cat rice made by Elu Cats... actually had no cat hair in it!

Rong Buqiu had once done odd jobs under the head chef, so by now it was quite practiced.

Besides, its two former partners from the Thief Adventurer Group were also busy here at the moment.

One of them had joined the Weapon and Mountain Cat Pavilion after the Adventurer’s Group disbanded, specializing in handling spices.

The other was helping out at the Plant Research Institute, responsible for taking care of the various plants propagated by cuttings from that "little Ancient Tree."

The three little cats were chatting and laughing away, not looking like they were working at all, more like they were just playing around.

Belengar, on the other hand, was still sharing a table with the Phase Two Team leader, the two of them glaring at each other... mainly Belengar glaring at the other guy.

"Pff—hahaha!" The Phase Two Team leader heartily wiped his wire-brush-like beard, shaking off the beer foam on his hand as he laughed. "So that ’base blade’ was forged by you, old man? That’s awesome!"

"That sword had definitely chopped something really impressive before, but no matter how I asked Lann, he always had that ’don’t want to talk about it’ look on his face."

The Phase Two Team leader’s thick, muscular arm wrapped around Belengar’s shoulders, as familiar as if the two had been drinking buddies for years.

In appearance, the Phase Two Team leader, who had toiled by the forge till now, looked older and more robust than Belengar.

But after Tishaya explained Belengar’s age, the other side seemed to default to seeing Belengar as a "senior citizen" too—and that really wasn’t wrong.

Belengar had originally not planned on giving any face to this guy who had taken it upon himself to alter his craftsmanship, but now suddenly realized he simply could not break free from that thick arm hooked around his shoulders.

After downing two more mugs, he actually started to feel a bit of mutual sympathy.

"The biological fusion effect of Valyrian Steel is just too good. I’d already thought that once Muddy Stream chopped something truly extraordinary, it would undergo some changes, but I didn’t expect you to cut in line before I could get my hands on it!"

Belengar’s long face was full of an expression of regret so strong it was almost maddening.

"Things were urgent back then!" The Phase Two Team leader clinked his mug against Belengar’s again without asking, laughing it off. "Besides, when it comes to monster materials from our side, they still have to be handled by blacksmiths from our side."

"You have no idea how much I suffered trying to fuse the Extinct Dragon materials into Muddy Stream·Destruction!"

"Over here, it’s commonplace for blacksmiths to be unable to control those still-living monster materials; if things go wrong, you can get yourself killed!"

"I know your level." Belengar waved his mug dismissively, speaking flatly. "When it comes to using these monster materials, you’re much better than me—you couldn’t possibly fail to control them."

Beneath the wire-brush beard of the one-eyed, bald giant of a man, the corner of his mouth curled into a straightforward, delighted grin.

For someone truly obsessed with their craft, nothing is more exhilarating than receiving recognition from another highly skilled artisan.

"But when it comes to control over steel, and to imbuing mysterious power during the process, you’re still way behind."

Belengar snorted as he spoke.

"I’ve seen the Muddy Stream·Destruction you modified. When you were doing the reforging and recasting, you must have used some simple ritual, right?"

As soon as the Old Demon Hunter said that, the previously merry Second Squad Captain instantly turned solemn and serious, staring at him with blazing eyes.

A real expert, huh!

Back then, in order to melt down the [Muddy Stream] that wouldn’t budge even in flames, the Second Squad Captain had used a method he’d seen during his wandering studies in the Old Continent.

Using a ritual to draw out the power of the earth’s dragon veins, suppressing and purifying that legendary black dragon weapon.

But there was no doubt that at the time, the Second Squad Captain had only seen the surface of that ritual.

He didn’t have enough background in mysticism to understand the deeper meaning behind it.

After all, in this world, blacksmiths mainly focus on turning biological materials into weapons and integrating them. All those spooky mystical things are usually handled later by specialists like shrines and Priests.

And the creator of the base material for this [Muddy Stream·Destruction] in front of him... not only was his forging skill top-notch, even those mysterious theories looked like something he was completely at home with!

Without another word, the burly one‑eyed, bald, bearded man pulled out a small bottle of yellow liquid from his pocket and, in a friendly and familiar way, poured it into his own and Belengar’s mugs.

The beer, originally a golden amber, didn’t change at all after the liquid was added. Only that subtly bitter hop aroma turned so sharp that just one sniff made a refreshing chill shoot straight up into your skull!

"My secret way of drinking, heh heh." The Second Squad Captain casually set the now‑empty bottle aside. "[Energy Drink] with beer—crisp and refreshing! Come on, let’s chat some more!"

The Second Squad Captain wasn’t the type to flatter and fawn just to find topics. Even when asking for advice, he stayed as bold and straightforward as ever.

And Belengar just happened to like people who were that direct and forthright.

The Old Demon Hunter took a sip of this "secret drink," and immediately felt as if a cool, refreshing breeze was rising right off the top of his head.

"Let me tell you, if it was just about handling that... uh, what was it called, the [Fog Nest Master]’s corpse, that brat Lann wouldn’t need me at all. This is Tishaya de Veris we’re talking about!"

Belengar said with absolute certainty.

"I’ve pretty much figured it out—he brought me along just so the two of us could meet, and then see if we could team up to handle the loot from his latest adventure."

"Loot? What kind of loot?"

The Second Squad Captain rubbed his hands together in anticipation. The strange goods Lann brought from the Otherworld had already blown his mind last time, and eventually became that Greatsword he was so proud of.

So what would it be this time?

"Dragon scales and dragon hide." Belengar didn’t bother being mysterious. "He wants to make a set of armor."

The Second Squad Captain raised an eyebrow. He’d originally wanted to say that if there was one thing the New Continent wasn’t lacking, it was dragons—there were so many it was a pain to deal with them.

But being straightforward didn’t mean he was stupid. The Second Squad Captain instantly realized that the "dragon" the other man was talking about clearly wasn’t the same thing as the dragons here.

Sure enough.

As Belengar relayed Lann’s description of Smaug, the Second Squad Captain’s expression turned very interesting.

When it came to the simplest, most obvious point—the size—that one‑eyed bald hulk’s expression was still under control.

Big? Sure, a body length of over a hundred and forty meters was huge, but not enough to make him completely lose it.

After all, how long had it been since that elderly Molten Mountain Dragon died?

But right after that, as more and more of Smaug’s information came out of Belengar’s mouth layer by layer, that uncovered eye of his just kept widening.

Even [Muddy Stream·Destruction] couldn’t break through its defenses head‑on, and could only hammer and slice at the tiny scales at the joints of the wings.

So far, the Second Squad Captain had forged quite a few sets of armor in the New Continent, and had even modified the Old Continent–style armor patterns.

But he had never seen a material with such outstanding defensive performance.

He’d forged [Muddy Stream·Destruction] himself, hammer by hammer—he knew exactly what kind of power it packed.

Even the Extinct Dragon’s massive horns couldn’t completely shrug it off!

And more importantly...

"You’re saying that dragon... that very same one..." The Second Squad Captain asked again, hesitating.

"It talks? It hoarded the treasure vault of a wealthy Kingdom? And just from sleeping on that pile of gold for decades, that gold alone could torture people into falling deep into greed, until they broke down and went insane?"

"Yeah, sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? I said the same thing at the time."

Belengar joked.

But in the Second Squad Captain’s lone eye, a blazing fire had already begun to roar.

"Just something that had long‑term contact with that gold, and it can torture people into sinking into greed until they break down"... in his eyes, that overlapped quite a bit with a certain set of legendary equipment.

Of course, the Second Squad Captain absolutely didn’t think Smaug’s scales and hide were as cursed or as powerful as that set.

But as a pioneer on the path of forging, before challenging that ultimate goal that was still far out of reach, picking something with a few similar traits to practice on first... that sounded like a damn fine idea.