When the plot-skips players into the game world

Logically speaking, this small village that housed fewer than a thousand people shouldn't have been too extensive.

Moreover, Hayna's family home wasn't located on the periphery of the village but at the very center, in the most favorable environment.

As Aiwass and his companions followed Hayna, they didn't feel they had walked very far... but upon reaching Hayna's doorstep, they looked up to find the moon already high in the night sky.

——Unbeknownst to them, it was already deep into the night!

Aiwass and Sherlock exchanged glances, then turned to look at Lily, who also showed a surprised expression. They silently confirmed with each other the disarray in the village's timeline.

But for now, they could only ascertain that such confusion definitely existed without the ability to analyze its patterns in detail——the only certainty was that Hayna, a local, was completely oblivious to any anomalies, but they, as outsiders, could all feel it...

As the group approached, the light spilling out from Hayna's family blacksmith shop was visible. Inside, it was brightly lit, yet no sounds of conversation could be heard from outside.

"Mom, I'm back."

Hayna directly pushed open the firmly shut blacksmith shop doors. Her voice was somewhat weary, lacking the excitement of when she first arrived home.

Lights were on outside, but there was no one around. Only various completed weapons were carelessly hung on the wall, while heaps of pliers, kitchen knives, iron hooks, cramps, saws, and scythe heads, along with scraps of iron tools, were messily laid out on tables or hung on racks, like harvested wheat.

Some of them were already tarnished with rust; yet they were not removed but simply placed alongside other tools.

Chunks of pig iron were carelessly piled in one corner of the wall, whereas cast iron ingots were neatly stacked in a pyramid shape on the floor in another corner.

Hayna led them through the front of the shop, heading toward the back house.

But upon entering, Sherlock immediately felt something was amiss.

... Why is it so cold in here?

Then he scanned the room and his eyes widened in surprise.

——Why is your furnace indoors?

This caused Sherlock to pause on the spot, bewildered for a moment before he could comprehend why.

Therefore, as they passed by the stove and furnace, Sherlock specially reached out to test the temperature inside.

Cold as ice.

Not only was there no fuel filled, but even the ash had been specially cleaned out——Sherlock's hand touched it, yet he barely felt any ash.

Sherlock raised an eyebrow and silently took note of this detail.

Nowadays, you hardly see any blacksmiths on Glass Island, as blast furnaces and steam hammers have taken over their jobs. Not only is the efficiency higher, but the ironware produced is also of better quality and more consistent.

The blacksmiths who are still active are either those Extraordinary Craftsmen who can forge Extraordinary Weapons or the rural blacksmiths who make affordable farming tools for farmers.

The rarer the profession, the more it sparked Sherlock's interest. He had specifically researched this area.

——The stove is one thing, but can a furnace be extinguished?

These craftsmen were not traditional blacksmiths, but came from the Path of Devotion, holding the Extraordinary Profession of "Blacksmith." They could summon Fire Spirits associated with them—the Extraordinary creatures nurtured by the Flame Celestial Marshal of the Path of Devotion.

These Fire Spirits, with the intelligence of children, could help them in their Extraordinary forging—melting some materials that were difficult to melt, or incorporating exotic materials into the raw constructs that could not be infused through conventional smithing techniques.

Because even becoming such a "Blacksmith" would not grant the corresponding recipes, and a blacksmith without recipes was useless.

Hence, the profession of "Blacksmith" and its advanced version "Magus Craftsman" are usually passed down within a single lineage—and the Magus Craftsman from Avalon who forged the Elf Short Sword was an elf from the Holy Nation, his disciples spanning multiple generations were native Avalonians.

This was one of the aids sent from the Holy Nation when Avalon was founded.

However, even if Sherlock was not familiar with blacksmithing... he understood logic.

He realized from a logical standpoint that something was amiss—

If there was pig iron in the house, it meant that the local blacksmith did not use the finished cast iron bought from the city but smelted the pig iron himself from iron ore, indicating that the furnace was not just for show but indeed in use.

Yet, to produce high-quality iron, the furnace required a sufficiently high temperature.

This type of domestic furnace was not the industrial blast furnace found in factories, and these mortal blacksmiths were not Transcendents—they could not summon Fire Spirits. Therefore, to raise the furnace temperature high enough to produce iron of acceptable hardness, they needed a long preheating time and an approach of gradual temperature increase through heat accumulation.

And this requires a massive amount of fuel—in other words, a great deal of money.

Once the furnace is extinguished, reheating it to a usable temperature takes a long time of preheating. This consumes a tremendous amount of money and time as well.

Therefore, the forging furnace inside the blacksmith shop, as well as the smelting furnace outside, are generally kept lit. That's why one can immediately feel the intense heat upon entering.

For this very reason, the smelting furnace is placed outside—the temperature is so high that if it were inside, not only would it cause intense discomfort for people, but it would also pose a fire hazard.

Seeing this scene, an idea immediately sprang to Sherlock's mind—

Hayna's father…is he a Transcendent?

Only a Transcendent who can summon a Fire Spirit wouldn't need such a crude method of heating…right?

But this made Sherlock feel puzzled.

—Your family are blacksmith heirs, why did you run all the way to Avalon to learn something??

Isn't the magus craftsman formula from your family of more value to inherit?

And…

Hayna has the Adaptation for the Path of Devotion? How come I didn't see it?

Or could it be that she's not the biological child of her parents?

Sherlock was filled with confusion.

After Hayna entered the back room, a harsh scolding voice of a middle-aged man immediately followed, "Your mother asked you to receive guests, why haven't you come back from playing outside until now! Don't you know what's out there after dark in the village?!"

Hayna bit her lip in a slight show of grievance, leaning against the wall near the door without saying a word.

She felt annoyed too, but could not retort—because indeed, she felt she had done something wrong from the outcome. Yet she also found it somewhat inexplicable… because she genuinely didn't know what she had done to cause this situation.

Aiwass followed closely behind Hayna and also entered.

This was the first time Aiwass had met Hayna's parents—

But just one look, and Aiwass was immediately astonished.

Aiwass's greeting abruptly stopped, "Uncle, hello…"

…How short.

Lily, too, was taken aback for a moment, and Sherlock couldn't help but utter a surprised "huh."

—Because Hayna's father turned out to be a Dwarf!

He had skin like grey marble, pure white beard and curly hair. A large nose, big ears, and a pair of tiny eyes. He was currently sitting on the lovely deep red sofa, with his legs swinging like those of a mischievous child, yet still swinging nonstop.

…He was the very image of a quintessential Dwarf.

The experience was also Aiwass's first real-life encounter with a Dwarf.

The only discordant note was that the relationship between Elves and Dwarves is very poor. In countries dominated by Dwarves, you won't see Elves approaching; similarly, in countries led by Elves, you also won't see many Dwarves.

Avalon is clearly the latter—the overly diligent Avalonians, overly eager to please, even go further than the Elves themselves in their extremism.

Elves merely disdain and are hostile towards Dwarves, but the Avalonians go a step further—they have expelled all Dwarves from the country to show their goodwill towards the Holy Nation.

After all, there were originally few Dwarves in Avalon, so this gesture was made at no loss.

Presently, a large number of Dwarves are concentrated in the Eternal Frost Empire to the north of Avalon. And with Eagle Cape Village being at the northwest corner of Avalon, it is indeed possible that some Dwarves might have smuggled themselves in…

That also explained why Hayna, despite having a "blacksmith" heritage, still chose the official path of a Transcendent.

Because this old blacksmith who could pass on the heritage to Hayna was fundamentally not a regular blacksmith from the Holy Nation, but rather an unlicensed, and very likely a smuggled, Transcendent—which meant that not only was the heritage he held illegal, but his very existence was illegal as well!

—That is, Hayna's dad!