Chapter 585 – The True Homeland

“If you’re willing to lend me the Star Marrow for a moment, I can give you a large-denomination contribution point card. With this card, you can directly upgrade to Guiding Mentor and unlock all resource cards,” Mo Lan said.

Though it was her first time hearing of a magical material called Star Marrow, that didn’t stop her from recognizing its value through the little Morningstar Dwarf’s description and the magical fluctuations it emitted.

She might not have heard of Star Marrow before, but she had certainly heard of Holy Silver!

This special magical metal—even adding just a tiny amount—could dramatically increase the user’s control over light elemental force and enhance the casting effects of light-element magic.

All of the Angels’ weapons and equipment contained Holy Silver.

Combined with the Angels’ special holy light magic—a variant of light-element magic that was far more powerful in healing, purification, and destructive capability than ordinary light-element magic—

Angels held an overwhelming advantage even against light-element casters of the same rank, or even one rank higher.

Sometimes, they could even seize control of their opponent’s light elemental force and magical control.

Witches who converted magical power into light elemental force for casting still fared somewhat better, but mages who drew upon the ambient light elemental force to cast spells could be suppressed by Angels to the point where they couldn’t even produce a single orb of light.

Such was the terrifying power of Holy Silver.

Unfortunately, Holy Silver had always been exclusively controlled by the Angels. No other race in Valen had ever discovered a Holy Silver mine. Now it all made sense—Holy Silver wasn’t a natural mineral at all. It was a special magical metal forged by Morningstar Dwarves using Star Marrow. No wonder no one had ever found it!

Even the Morningstar Dwarves themselves were a race that had been modified by the Angels using Star Marrow.

Neither Star Marrow nor Holy Silver existed in the Book of Cards. Naturally, Mo Lan wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away.

However, the value of Star Marrow was extraordinarily high—far exceeding the current market price of the Dawn Society’s large-denomination contribution point cards.

The little Morningstar Dwarf needed to survive, and who knew how many light-element magical material resource cards he would need to purchase in the future. Mo Lan didn’t want to take advantage of him.

Mo Lan only intended to borrow the Star Marrow so the Book of Cards could use it as a template, then materialize a {Material Card – Star Marrow} to return to him.

With the light elemental force contained in this Star Marrow, he wasn’t actually on the verge of death as he claimed.

The little Morningstar Dwarf hadn’t noticed that she said “borrow.” He hadn’t even figured out what Guiding Mentor or unlocking resource cards meant. The moment he heard she wanted the Star Marrow, he shoved it into her hands.

Following the Dawn Society’s beginner tutorial, he familiarized himself with all the functions of Dawn Society magic. Among the Level 3 resource cards, he found {Food Card – Dark Rock Ale}. Among the Level 5 resource cards, he found {Material Card – Premium Light Element Gem}. Among the Special-grade resource cards, he found {Material Card – Light Element Essence}.

These treasures that the Morningstar Dwarves depended on for survival could be purchased simply with Gem Coins converted from disposable magical energy recovered by basking in sunlight!

If they had known about this earlier, would his clanspeople have still turned to crystal sand from the lack of light elemental force and Dark Rock Ale?

From the moment Forgestar was born, the Star Marrow had already begun to wither. He had grown up surrounded by his clan’s despairing future. Never once had he imagined that beings like them—with such obvious racial deficiencies—could have a way to live long and free, beholden to no one.

Now he also understood the purpose of contribution points. Without sufficient rank, he couldn’t purchase the higher-tier resource cards.

And contribution points currently had only one means of acquisition: permanent magical energy.

As far as he was concerned, this was an incredible bargain. He had just casually spent the equivalent of 6 Mana worth of permanent light elemental force to sign the contract and join. He certainly wouldn’t be stingy with his permanent light elemental force now.

Though he was still underage, the permanent light elemental force he commanded had already reached the Intermediate level.

However, upgrading himself to Guiding Mentor in one step still left him a bit short on energy.

The large-denomination contribution point card the Witch gave him solved his urgent problem perfectly.

“Thank you! If you’d like, I can forge this drop of Star Marrow into Holy Silver and give it to you,” Forgestar said, still unaccustomed to accepting gifts from others.

“Really?” Mo Lan was overjoyed—she didn’t have any Holy Silver either!

She immediately expended a large amount of disposable Mana to create a {Material Card – Star Marrow}, then quietly materialized it. It was two sizes larger than the drop Forgestar had just given her.

“I have Star Marrow too. Take this batch of Star Marrow, and just forge some Holy Silver for me. The leftover Star Marrow can serve as your forging fee.”

Mo Lan could tell that Forgestar was uncomfortable accepting others’ goodwill, so she found another way to leave the Star Marrow with him.

“And don’t be in a hurry to refuse. With this, you’ll have enough light element reserves to walk out of this mountain and find other places suitable for you to live. There should still be plenty of places in the Sacred Mountains that would suit you.”

“Walk out of this mountain?” At those words, a fierce light of hope burst forth in Forgestar’s eyes. “Yes! I can walk out of this mountain now! I’m going to Durin Volcano to fulfill my clanspeople’s dying wish—to tell everyone that the Riftgold Clan never betrayed the God of the Forge!”

Mo Lan suddenly recalled that she had once read in a Witch’s travelogue from the Divine Descent Era about a Dwarf tribe that had betrayed the God of the Forge and thrown in their lot with the Angels. “Do you know Comet-Tail Riftgold?”

Comet-Tail Riftgold was the name of that Dwarf tribe’s chieftain.

Supposedly, even now, there was still a Stele of Betrayal for the Riftgold Clan standing in the Dwarven Kingdom!

“Of course! He was our first chieftain.” Forgestar crouched down and picked up a piece of light element crystal that still contained a fair amount of light elemental force. “This is the crystal sand that old Chieftain Comet-Tail left behind after he died.”

Only then did Mo Lan notice that names were actually carved into the crystal sand.

Written in Dwarven script: “Comet-Tail Riftgold.”

The crystal sand beneath her feet all bore names too, which suddenly made the soles of her feet feel as though they were burning.

“This little stretch of crystal sand beach is actually our graveyard. Whenever a clansperson died, everyone would pick one grain of crystal sand from their remains, carve their name on it, and toss it into the center of the Lake of Radiance. The light elemental force from the remaining crystal sand would be left by the lakeside for the surviving clanspeople to use.

I was originally going to ask you to help carve my name too! But now—now I can take all of my clanspeople’s crystal sand gravestones back to the homeland they always wanted to return to but never could! Durin Volcano—that is the Dwarves’ true homeland.”

Using the light elemental force from the small puddle that remained of the Lake of Radiance, Forgestar continuously restored his own magical energy, exchanged it for large quantities of Gem Coins, and purchased a small {Spatial Card}. One by one, he carefully collected his clanspeople’s crystal sand into the Spatial Card.

After gathering the last grain of crystal sand, Forgestar patted the Spatial Card and said happily:

“Once I’ve finished forging the Holy Silver for Lady Witch, I’ll take you all home!”