Chapter 172 – The Homeland!?

“Hey, Brother Mappa! Where are you going!!”

Haines shouted as he ran after him. His voice was like a wolf’s howl, and it echoed far.

However, Mappa was far ahead, and he did not even look back as he dashed forward on his metal horse.
And since the gap between him and the Undead was increasing, it was probably a good thing.

“Ah, he’s so fast! In fact, I want one of those! Hey, wait! Old Mappa!”

Fule shouted after him.

“A horse that doesn’t get tired, huh…? That is quite interesting.”

Ashton said with a hint of jealousy as he watched Mappa’s ride. He must be angry that someone was able to outrun him like this.

I would not have been surprised if Mappa had made the metal horse by himself.
He had probably not made one before because it was simply unnecessary with the limited space we had on Sheorl. Either that, or he lacked the materials.
However, there was also the possibility that Mappa just picked it up from somewhere.

“There’s no space on the island, even if we did have something like that. But still, look how fast it is… I can’t even catch up.”

It was unusual to see Haines sweating this much.
The other Cave Spiders also looked quite tired.

“All of you, don’t press yourselves too hard. Besides, the Undead won’t catch up with him anymore.”

I told them. But then again, we didn’t know what kind of dangers lurked in the place that Mappa was headed.
And so Haines and the others did not slow down as they continued to run.

We were all worried about Mappa.
It wasn’t because of his contributions on the island. We would all be just as worried if it were any other resident.

However, no matter how fast we ran, we could not catch up.
Just then, I saw a massive cliff slowly become visible from the corners of my vision in the direction that Mappa was headed.

Guardian Ogus pointed at the wall-like cliffs.

“That is it. Zenranbara, the valley where the ancient temple lies! Over there!”

And so the Cave Spiders headed in the direction that Ogus was pointing.

As they continued, we reached what looked like a narrow ravine.
This seemed to be the entrance of the ancient temple.

I cast Shield on everyone and we carefully moved forward.
There was no magic energy in the area to detect, and it also seemed to be free of enemies or traps.
But I could see the familiar shape of Mappa’s energy in front of us, so he must be headed in the same direction.

“This place is kind of…”

Fule looked at the walls of the ravine and let out a sigh of wonder.

When we first entered it, it had seemed like an ordinary ravine. It was made of stone and there were small rocks on the ground that looked like they had fallen from above.
However, the deeper we went in, we noticed that the floor and walls became covered in metal plates. And then we saw doors in the walls.

Guardian Vanessa explained.

“From what we understand, the people who labored at this temple had houses. But before they came here, this place was…”

In other words, like the temple, it was made a very long time ago.

The patterns that were carved into the walls were a design that I had never seen in Sanfaris.
While some were hard lines and angles, there were also realistic flowers as well. We became completely taken in by the richness of the artwork.

However, a certain man’s face entered my mind.

“Mappa… He too…”

Mappa also had incredible artistic sensibilities.
Not just with sculptures and handicraft, but you could even see it in his sword hilts and the shapes of his pickaxes.

Just then, Fule muttered.

“Hey, that…”

Fule was looking at a sculpture carved out of the wall.
It was of a roundish man who had short arms and legs.
He also had long hair and a bushy beard.

“Doesn’t he look like Old Mappa?”

Fule was right.

After a while, we started to see even more of the statues.
They weren’t just on the walls, there were some that were in the center of the road and were made of bronze. And without exception, they all had a similar build to Mappa.

However, there was one glaring difference, which was that they all wore armor or clothes. Not a single one was naked.

Well, it was likely that Mappa was just special. Yes. He was just very different.

But other than the lack of clothing, it was clear that Mappa was a dwarf in every sense of the word.

“Ah. So they are all dwarves… Huh?”

After some time, I could see that there was a clearing up ahead.

“This place!”

I couldn’t help but shout.

When we came out of the ravine, we saw that there was a vast basin spreading out in front of us.
And in this basin, and in the walls that surrounded it, were clusters of glimmering, golden houses.
And in the center was a tower that was also gold. And at the very top, there was a statue of a man who had his fists in the air. He too looked like Mappa.

“This…there’s no doubt about it now. It’s the home of the dwarves.”

Dwarves. People from Sanfaris knew about dwarves.
They were good at making things, and were supposed to have built a civilization that surpassed humans.
They liked a golden metal that was similar to Orichalcum, and they used it to build houses.
Of course, they were seen more as mythical beings, and no one had ever discovered any of their ruins.

However, since I knew that Mappa and the slimes we found under Sheorl were dwarf survivors, I no longer saw those stories as mere myths.

I was certain of it. This place was built by the dwarves.

Ashton muttered as he gazed at the city in astonishment.

“Could it be…that this place is Mappa’s homeland?”
“It’s possible. In any case, let’s chase after Brother Mappa!”

Haines said, and I nodded.

“I can sense numerous presences here. They are likely Undead.”

Mappa continued to ignore everything as he ran.
But according to the guardians, this place was inhabited by monsters. So I assumed that it was the Undead that I was sensing.
In any case, we would not be welcome here.

That meant that even if this was Mappa’s homeland, the others would already be…

I was even more worried about Mappa now. I had to catch up with him.

“All of you. Be careful.”

Ashton nodded and said,

“Aye!”

And so we headed towards the center of the city in order to catch up with Mappa.

Next Chapter

The Cave King will live a Paradise Life -Becoming the strongest with the mining skill?-