The dwarves Lukka saw on the island were all wearing hammers and leather aprons, and Kuta, the assistant to the mayor, claimed that they were all blacksmiths, but this black-faced dwarf with a large brown beard was the first one he had ever seen who actually had the demeanor of a blacksmith.

Thinking of Kuta's introduction just now, Luca greeted him and said, "Yes, it's us." Are you the mayor here?"

Considering the mayor's age, he spoke much more politely than usual.

The brown-bearded dwarf wiped a handful of ash from his face and deliberately raised his head so that he could see his face clearly: "Am I that old?"

Lukka glanced at it, shook his head and said, "It's too dirty to see." ”

Kuta, assistant to the mayor, hurriedly came up to clear the siege: "This is the mayor's chief apprentice, Jean Hammer. ”

"Oh, hello. Is Mayor Mare there?" Lukka tried to reach out, but looked at the stains on Jean's hand and temporarily changed his gesture to wave.

"Here, come with me. Jean said, turning and walking into the stone house.

Luca was a little worried, although this hut was built according to the habits of the dwarves, spacious and tall, even the height of Daniel and Linde could easily walk in, but after all, it was a simple stone room, and it might be possible to fit a half-giant, but the dozen or so people around him, if they wanted to go in together, it was impossible to look at it.

"Hey, why are you so sluggish, Mayor Mare doesn't have time to wait for you!" shouted Jean inside, and Lukka followed, mentally prepared to let the big crew wait outside if the place was too small.

When he walked through the door, his eyes had not yet adjusted to the suddenly dimming light, and his feet were empty, but fortunately, Ollie beside him quickly grabbed his hand so that he did not faint as soon as he entered the door.

Lukka stood still and rubbed his eyes, and finally realized that in front of him was a passage leading to the underground, which was also built wide and high according to the habit of dwarves, and the steps extended all the way down, and the lights and shadows inside were more than shadows, I don't know how deep.

So, this stone house was just used to cover the entrance to the passage? It really didn't need to be built too big. Lukka thought as he looked around.

Jean's urging rang out again from below the passage, and he took the amethyst staff in his hand and stepped down.

After a little further on, the passage changed angles and was no longer downward, but still oriented towards the interior of the volcano.

"Is this going through a volcano?" Shut up muttered uneasily over Luka's shoulder, the excessively dry air puffing up its feathers.

Luca was also puzzled, and hurriedly walked to Jean's side with two steps and said, "You came out quickly just now, I didn't expect to go so far inside." ”

"I wasn't near the furnace just now!" Jean's voice was loud, even more pronounced in this empty passage, "I'm on duty up there today, or who's going to bring you in?"

"Oh, that's right. By the way, why did the assistant just go back and not come along?" Luca asked.

"He's not qualified!" Jean didn't intend to explain, his attitude towards outsiders like Lukka was the same as most dwarves, and he didn't want to say a word more than he had been ordered by the mayor.

After walking for about ten minutes, there was a sudden turn in the front of the passage, and there was a clearer and clearer sound of metal knocking.

Lukka followed Jean around the corner, and his eyes lit up. Before his eyes could adjust to the sudden change in light, a wave of heat rushed towards him.

He stood there and waited until his eyes regained their usual sight, and found himself standing in a large grotto. The height of this cave is more than ten stories high, the length and width are more than 100 meters, and the stones that make up the cave wall are actually neat pieces of hexagonal basalt.

In the northeast corner of the cave, near the ground, there is a large hole with a diameter of five or six meters, and what slowly flows out of it is not groundwater, but lava in the form of liquid. The lava river follows an artificially dug ditch, starting from the northeast, making a slight bend in the cave, and then flowing back from an identical hole in the northwest. On the floor of the cavern, beside the lava river, there were numerous ditches, each connected to several furnaces of different sizes, and countless dwarves were busy around, and the sound of metal striking was the music of the hammer and anvil in their hands.

Numerous furnaces run from north to south in the hall, each with a number written on it. The closer you get to the north, the warmer it gets, and the fewer dwarves work there. Three circles near the main trunk of the northernmost lava river, there is not a single dwarf left. However, in the hottest part of the entire cavern, clinging to the lava river, there was a huge furnace, and even from a distance of hundreds of meters, Lukka could feel the terrifying temperature radiating from it.

Jean looked at the outsiders behind him, very pleased with their shocked expressions, and his attitude softened a little.

"See the largest furnace in the middle due north?" he said smugly, "that's the mayor's furnace." But he's not here now, you follow me, falling into the lava will affect the heat of the furnace on an entire tributary!"

"Is that place really good enough to accommodate people?" Lukka felt his hair curl.

"Of course you can't do it if you don't have enough level!" Jean said, picking up his pace.

Lukka followed him, whispering among the dwarven blacksmiths.

- "What are those creatures? Have you seen them?"

- "I haven't seen it, it's said that it's a friend of the Undercurrent Chamber of Commerce, and I've come to find the mayor." ”

- "Even if it's the Undercurrent Chamber of Commerce, it's too much, isn't it? Mayor Mare actually allowed outsiders to enter the melting pot?"

- "It's just that we worked hard to get three blacksmith stars to qualify for the melting pot, and they are not even blacksmiths, why?"

- "This can't be blamed on the mayor, he can't get out of his body now, and outsiders who want to see him can only pass through here." ”

- "Speaking of which, how long will Mayor Mare spend at the altar? I haven't seen him in days!"

- "Shhhh

The dwarves spent years by the anvil and listened to the hammer beating, and most of them developed a loud voice, even at a volume that sounded like a whisper to them, enough for Lukka to hear clearly.

The information provided by these words was not enough to piece together all the circumstances, but some of the things mentioned in them made Lukka a little concerned, especially about the altar, which always gave him a vague feeling that something was wrong.

Jean led them through the outermost dozens of furnaces to a passage southeast of the cavern.