“Hngh…”
I groaned as I felt intense pain in my head. When I looked around, I saw white walls and white beds all around.
“A hospital…?”
I muttered; my mind was still confused.
“Master…?”
A voice called from beside the bed. I craned my head and found Ember and Fang staring at my face with teary eyes.
“Master! We were so worried!”
“Leader! You finally woke up!”
The two jumped to embrace me. Although it was heavy and my body hurt like hell for some reason, I didn’t let out a single groan. I gently patted the heads of the two as they cried while burying their faces in my chest.
It took a while, but they finally calmed down. As my mind was still in disorder, I asked them what happened.
“You don’t remember?”
Fang asked with a quizzical gaze. Her eyelashes were wet, glittering with tears, and somewhat erotic. I shook my head quickly, shaking off my pink thoughts.
Ember and Fang were confused, but they recounted what happened in the underground cave. Apparently, it was I who killed the thousands of demon ground worms that infested the mining area. After killing them, I fainted and was brought back to the surface by the two. I have been asleep for three days since then.
“Wait, how did I kill that many 5th-levels?! And three days?! I was asleep for that long?”
I was shocked to hear this.
“Yes… At first, your heartbeat was so weak that even the dwarves thought you would die…”
Fang muttered before pulling Ember to her side, smiling widely as if proud of her achievement.
“But Ember succeeded in using her Void power to restore your health!”
“It was just a fluke…”
Ember replied humbly, showing an embarrassed expression.
“Thank you, Ember, for working hard to save me…”
However, it was Ember’s turn to shake her head.
“No, it was Fang who did the most work. Without her, we would probably be stuck there for a few hours before rescue arrived.”
“W-Well, I just did what I could…”
Fang acted as if it wasn’t anything, turning her head away and scratching her cheeks. But with how red her face is, it seems that she was just hiding her embarrassment.
I smiled seeing my two cute companions trying to raise each other’s stocks. I gently pulled them into my embrace once more.
For some reason, my head pinged with pain as I did, but I ignored it. I enjoyed the feeling of warmth that the two were sharing with me.
“… You embraced us like this too before you eliminated all the demons down there…”
Ember muttered with a dreamy smile.
“… Yeah… Leader was really cool back then…”
Fang added with a grin. A tinge of red remained on her cheeks.
Although they said that I did all those things, honestly, I can’t remember one bit. No matter how hard I tried, the last memory I had was getting hit by a worm’s tail. When I try to recall what happened after that, my head feels like it’s being split open.
I smiled bitterly and strengthened my hug for the two, pulling their waists closer to my body. They responded similarly, and we enjoyed a brief time of peace.
“Ahem.”
A cough echoed from nearby. When I turned my head, the chief dwarf was staring at me with his hands crossed in front of his chest.
“Finally awake, I see. Should I step out for a few hours?” 𝐞𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺
He further added with an understanding smile. I blinked a few times and tried to view the situation calmly. Noticing how the situation would look to a third party, I gently moved Ember and Fang out of my embrace as I laughed bashfully.
“Hmph. Anyways, the repair of your gun is finished. Follow me when you’re ready.”
The dwarves’ chief, Biran, said with a grin before walking away. He passed through an automatic door and vanished along the corridor.
“This place really is more advanced than even the world in my memory…”
I muttered absentmindedly.
After that, Ember and Fang helped me change from my patient’s robe to my usual attire. My previous armor was scrapped already, though, as it now had a large cut on the chest area.
Ember and Fang then led me toward the workshop. It seems that they were alternatingly watching over me and the repair of the gun, so they were already familiar with the pathways.
Passing through the metallic pathways lit by bright LED-like lights, after a lot of turns and passing through several auto-doors, we finally reached the space right in front of the Forge of the Ancients. Now that we’re seeing it up close, it looks much larger and more majestic than before.
“Over here.”
Chief Biran called from a space where a lot of wares were lined up. Before even walking there, I could already see the finished sniper rifle held in his hands.
“Here, it’s fixed.”
He said plainly as he passed it to me. When I touched the gun, I quickly noticed that something definitely changed. I could feel a powerful will dwelling inside the weapon.
“This…”
I was lost for words. Instead of saying thanks, I decided to play around with the gun. I morphed it to the SMG, the pistol, and the Sniper Rifle mode again. The transition was definitely smoother than in my memory.
When I tried to transform it once more, it turned into a shotgun. This was the fourth form that Fatima told me about.
“It’s definitely fixed! Great work!”
Biran just grinned before snorting.
“Of course it is! Who do you think handled the repairs on that? I did!”
He announced as he puffed out his chest proudly. The other dwarves around us just sighed as they shook their heads. It was probably how he acts normally: proud and arrogant.
“So, what’s the price?”
I asked, ignoring his display. As if he found it uninteresting, he snorted again before walking away and returning to work.
“We don’t need it. While you’re asleep, we already mined everything underground. Your work in clearing the demons there was more than enough payment for us.”
He shouted as he waved his hand dismissively. However, as if he remembered something, he turned around and shouted.
“Also, we found a weird metal inside the gun. We don’t know what it is or what its function was, but we couldn’t remove it. Heck, we can’t even touch it. Literally!”
Hearing this, I felt strangely familiar with his description. I quickly stared at the gun and squinted my eyes, observing the energy flow inside. As I thought, it was there! In the middle of the gun, near the core, is a fragment of the core that I repaired!