Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 357 - Sealed Small World Of The Ren'duans

The latter stared back in silence, challenging the Gatekeeper to speak first.

“How tempered are you?”

****

I could feel my brow raise in surprise as out of all the questions I expected to be levied at me, this one wasn’t in the top ten.

Heck, it wasn’t even in the top 100. If I had to give it a number, it would be around 357, beating out, ‘Does this forge make me look fat?’ which sat comfortably at 356… get it? They’re sitting because they’re fat. Ha!

“Well!?” the Gatekeeper’s expression turned into mild annoyance.

I could feel the temperature fluctuate between hot and very hot with his words. Fire bellowed from his mouth between each vocable and I was tempted to tell him how cool it made him look, but I held myself back in deference to his godly chin.

“Ninety-Nine Perfected Tempers, the hundredth is newly attained,” I said after a while.

“Not bad,” responded this Chad of a man.

“Show me,” he then ordered.

Count that as something else I wasn’t expecting to hear. Did he want me to just strip down right here right now for him?

I mean, the Chin wants what the Chin wants I guess. Does this make me bi-chincurious? I don’t even know anymore.

“You’re wearing shadow silk robes, just do it!” Captain Chadeus roared.

“Oh yeah.” I slapped my forehead for my stupidity. Don’t judge me, I legit forgot. It was the chin I tell ya! That thing’s a lethal weapon.

Regardless, I took out the hammer and was once more impressed with its weight. It was obvious at this point that the weight of the hammer changed somehow in response to my somatic essence cultivation.

It was heavy enough for me to feel the strain but not enough to hinder me in my use of it, whether it be for cultivation or battle.

I remained seated and took a deep breath.

Dum!

My cauldrons were all out and I could sense their unique orbits as I ran the Foundation Forge Body Tempering Art.

I felt the somatic essence gushing throughout my body, and I released a breath of bliss in response. Honestly, they didn’t tell you how it felt when you did this and I consider it a crime. This feeling isn’t something you ever get used to.

I could also feel the weight of the hammer rise to account for my increase in strength.

‘Breaking Mundane Forging Heaven!’

I banished all necessary thoughts to focus on this simple task. This might appear like simple forging, but this technique was filled with profundity, I knew that. Being distracted here served no one, less of all me.

‘Jade Forging, Nine Tempers!’

C-C-C-Clang!

The hammer landed on my body in a tempest of blows that appeared to coalesce into one. In less than a second, the First Verse was done.

‘Sapphire Forging, Ninety-Nine Tempers!’

C-C-C-C-C-C-C-Clang!

Afterimages of the hammer came about as I moved my hand in tandem with the operation of the Second Verse!

CLANG!

As the Ninety-Ninth Temper landed, I could feel the reverberations of the shockwaves as they travelled throughout my body. My bones trembled under their bludgeoning and grew stronger as a result.

Each temper I learned was a transformation of sorts that was its own move, while also being part of a whole. So every time I performed these, my mind worked to comprehend them all the same.

Vrrrm!

The hammer trembled as I drove it for the next in this sequence.

‘Ruby Forging, Nine-Hundred and Ninety-Nine tempers!’

Bam!

Half of the hammer’s face landed on my body, sending a portion of its power elsewhere.

“Incredible!” the Chad of Chads before me clapped his hands while a wide grin split his face. His jawline was immaculate… just had to say it.

“So the inheritance of the Hellfire Forge Clan has not been lost!” He yelled in what I could only assume to be jubilation. I dunno, the fire that escaped his mouth between every other word made it even harder for me to gauge where he was at… emotionally speaking.

“Good stuff!” He said once more before looking upwards to release a heaven-shaking laugh.

Before long, he steadied his gaze on me once more. “Where did you find this inheritance? In a bunch of ruins? Could you… pass them on to others?”

Aaand I’ve been rubbed the wrong way. No amount of chadiness could make giving away my cultivation technique—the thing I’ve been charged with from my master—okay.

“I’m sorry, but my master wouldn’t appreciate it,” I told him. Honestly, if it was anyone else with a lesser chin, I wouldn’t be so kind.

“Y-Your master!?” the Gatekeeper’s eyes bulged in shock. “Your master is alive!? You’ve met a living member of the Hellfire Forge Clan!? Then it must be a legacy disciple! Accept my apologies!” He then cupped his fist as if he was truly sorry for what he just asked.

“I-It’s okay,” I said to him. The load of this man’s chin dipping so low weighed greatly on me. Plus… I felt better after the apology. What can I say? I’m a simple man with simple needs.

“I had no idea that your master was alive,” he said after a while. “I thought you simply inherited it from some ruins. I know it's considered taboo to ask for someone’s secrets like this. I never would have done it if I had known that the sect still stands and that a disciple from there still lives. You must understand that this cultivation technique holds a special place amongst us Ren'duans.”

“Why?” I was tickled curious by this confession. “I was under the impression that Ren'duans were extremely prideful in their blacksmithing and forging abilities. To the point that you’re all fanatics of it. I’ve even heard that you considered your forging tools to be more important than your wives—if you all even have such a thing—and that the rare metals in your possession were more precious to you than your own children.”

I got most of this information from Violet Flame Noble. He was the only one I could talk to whom I considered the resident expert on this race.

“They’re not far off from the truth,” he admitted with a wry smile. “I guess you’re wondering why a race such as ours would be so respectful and in awe of the blacksmithing techniques of another race.”

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me even a little curious,” I told him. It didn’t make sense, all things considered. This is the race that quite literally wrote the book on forging if nothing else. What could anyone teach them? What could anyone create that would engender such respect and deference from them?

Master had told me to check with them for clues on what happened to the missing chapters of the cultivation technique, but that was about it.

“Do you know the true origin of your hammer skills?” he asked me with a grave expression.

“The forging technique?” It seemed that master of mine had good reasons to send me here.

He nodded, “The Breaking Mundane Forging Heaven Technique.”

I went silent at this. I never told him the name of my hammer technique. Whatever he told me from this point on, I had to pay close attention to.

He took my silence as consent to continue. “It is the last remnant of the Ren'duan small world.”

“What? The small world of the Ren'duans? You people have a small world?”

Honestly, that’s so awesome!

Wait… he said the last remnant of that world. That either meant they got REAL unproductive since then, or they, and by they I mean the aforementioned small world, went the way of the dinosaurs.

Not gonna lie, considering the lesser of two evils here, I was rooting for chronic laziness.

“That’s right,” Sir Chad continued with this conversation. He was apparently undaunted by my inner monologuing—as a true Chad should. “It’s a remnant of great import to us as our world is now sealed.”