[Snowball Earth]
This was Cocytus's residence.
The structure resembled an inverted beehive, with six ice pillars bursting from the ground around it and radiating a crystal-like glow.
Inside, what came into view was a pure white palace of ice crystals. Not only the walls and ceiling, but even the furniture had been made from ice.
Clang. Clang.
The sound of hammering rang out again and again.
The forge continuously poured out blazing liquid flame, heating the platinum-colored weapon blank until it glowed red-hot.
Cocytus watched the process with complete concentration.
The claws that should have been holding a weapon were instead gripping a smithing hammer.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
With each strike, the blank gradually began to take the shape of a dagger.
Yet just before it was about to be fully formed, Cocytus unexpectedly set the hammer down.
Instead, he picked up an engraving pen from the side, one he had painstakingly forged some time ago and whose quality had reached the divine-class level.
Then, before the blank had time to cool, he swiftly carved several profound runes into it.
"It has reached its limit."
When he carved the eightieth rune, Cocytus suddenly stopped and silently sighed to himself.
As the weapon's creator, he could feel it clearly.
Eighty runes.
That was the absolute limit a divine-class item could bear.
Even using the Platinum Dragon Lord, who wielded Wild Magic, as material only improved compatibility to a certain extent.
It still was not enough to break through that limit.
He set the forged dagger aside and left it to cool and take shape on its own. Then he turned around and looked to the side.
"My apologies for keeping you waiting, Naohara-sama."
Cocytus performed an ancient formal salute.
In his view, making the one he served wait was already discourteous in itself, even if he had been granted permission by a Supreme Being.
"It's fine."
Naohara waved it off.
He understood Cocytus's personality well. With his warrior spirit, he was less like a subordinate and more like a loyal retainer.
Then Naohara turned his gaze to the side and, with clear interest, picked up the dagger that was still cooling.
"Rune characters?"
"I really did underestimate this power."
Under the gaze of his dragon eyes, he discerned the weapon's properties, and a trace of amazement rose in Naohara's heart.
Rune characters.
In Norse mythology, they were mysterious letters obtained by Odin after hanging himself from a tree and offering himself as a sacrifice to himself.
Self-sacrifice sounded illogical at first.
The one making the sacrifice was "Odin," while the one receiving it was the "God King."
It was the present self offering sacrifice to the future self, Odin as a god offering sacrifice to the world's divine proxy.
And what he ultimately obtained were rune characters that contained the mysteries at the very root of the world.
That was how rune characters were described in myth.
As for why Naohara knew all this, it was because the game [Yggdrasil] had originally drawn heavily from real-world mythological settings.
That naturally included information related to rune characters, and he had even looked into it specifically.
Unfortunately, whether because the game shut down or because the developers had discarded it as unused content, information on rune characters only appeared in scattered fragments within certain weapon descriptions.
He had never expected to find a clue in this other world.
Although the historical records were unclear, rune characters were most likely not created by the dwarves. They were probably something the dwarves had obtained by chance.
(PS: The strongest dwarf known to them was probably only a little over level 40, and one of the Thirteen Heroes was once a member of the dwarven royal family.)
(The dwarven treasury guarded for hundreds of years by the Frost Dragon Lord was likely built by someone around that same level, yet ten rune characters were still enough to keep the level 46 Frost Dragon Lord from entering for centuries.)
"I am just as surprised."
"This may be presumptuous to say, but judging from the fact that even a divine-class item cannot bear all of the rune characters, this power may truly be comparable to a World-Class Item!"
Cocytus rose to his feet and spoke in a heavy voice.
Although he had no visible expression, the excitement in his tone was unmistakable.
After all, the power of rune characters was obvious to anyone who saw it.
With this power, he might finally be able to fulfill the goal of his creator, the Supreme Being Warrior Takemikazuchi.
He might be able to complete that abandoned ultimate weapon.
"Even a divine-class item can't bear it?"
"That may not necessarily be the case."
Naohara smiled as he spoke.
Then he opened his mouth, and a weapon flew out from within.
Divine-class item?? [Dragon Destruction Sword]
Ever since he had completely transformed into a dragon and successfully exploited the bug in the Dragon Blood Sacrifice, effectively turning himself into a kind of perpetual motion engine, Naohara had come up with an idea.
He placed the Dragon Destruction Sword inside his body.
Suspended above the dragon crystal, the sword constantly absorbed pure dragon power every moment.
If it had once merely stood at the peak of divine-class items, then after this long period of careful nurturing, the weapon had now faintly surpassed the limits of a divine-class item.
"An evolving weapon, mysterious rune characters, and Wild Magic that rivals World-Class Items."
"When these three are combined, even if it has not become a World-Class Item, it should be very close to one."
Naohara examined the blade as he spoke softly.
The groove at the top of the sword was still empty.
The illusory gemstone inside it had become clearer than before, yet it still had not fully materialized.
The Dragon Destruction Sword was clearly missing something.
However, what exactly it lacked remained unknown.
To be honest, Naohara had once considered embedding a [Caloric Stone] into the Dragon Destruction Sword.
Instead of waiting endlessly like this, it might be simpler and more direct to embed a [Caloric Stone] and turn it into an unconventional World-Class Item.
After all, the number of demons he had been raising was almost sufficient.
Soon he would have enough experience points to activate the super-tier spell [Wish Upon a Star] and convert large quantities of prismatic ore.
However, Naohara quickly gave up on that idea.
Doing so would be like quenching thirst by imagining plums. It might directly cut off the Dragon Destruction Sword's potential to evolve further.
Besides, he was not lacking in World-Class Items.
After thinking it through, Naohara ultimately decided to let things develop naturally.
"Yes. This subordinate will not fail Naohara-sama's expectations!"
Upon hearing this, Cocytus suddenly released a surge of freezing breath.
He understood perfectly well what an evolving weapon represented.
It was something every weapon smith dreamed of creating.
"Naohara-sama, what kind of effect would you like?"
"During the process of engraving rune characters, it is possible to strengthen a specific aspect of the weapon's abilities."
The main function of rune characters was balance.
They served as stabilizing points that ensured the compatibility between Wild Magic and the weapon itself.
However, the process did not require all the rune characters.
Out of the ninety rune characters, roughly seventy-five were enough to guarantee stability.
This meant Cocytus's earlier idea of attaching Wild Magic to weapons had essentially succeeded.
As for the remaining rune characters, they could be used to strengthen certain inherent characteristics of the weapon.
"Since it's the Dragon Destruction Sword, isn't the answer obvious?"
"Enhance the part related to [Destruction], specifically its [Dragon-Slaying] properties."
Naohara casually patted Cocytus on the shoulder as if greeting an old friend and spoke with a smile.
The rune characters were an unexpected bonus.
At the same time, Cocytus's progress in forging skills had also achieved the purpose of Naohara's visit.
After all, in the bold plan he had in mind, Cocytus would play an extremely important role.