After leaving the ship, Rio walked through the port and reached the exit.
The exit was a massive tunnel heading deeper underground.
’It’s massive and it’s decorated with so many expensive ores... no wonder there is such a high demand for ores in this nation... they are using them to decorate everything...’
Just like how humans like jewelry and diamonds and stuff, dwarves like rare ores and metals and use them to decorate many places.
Rio even saw some dwarves wearing lockets and bracelets made of rare ores that are usually used to build powerful weapons for awakeners.
’Hmm... these lockets and bracelets... they are functioning like artifacts; there seems to be some kind of special alloy used in it created from mithril and other metals...’
’It’s boosting physical fitness and health by promoting recovery and life force...’
While walking through the crowd, Rio naturally ’stole’ one out of habit as a professional thief.
He used his sword intent to thoroughly investigate the properties of that jewelry and then returned it to the old dwarf who it belonged to.
The old dwarf did not even realize that a stranger was walking beside him and even stole his things.
He didn’t even notice that his stolen items were returned to him.
’Err... I seem to have surpassed the level of ’professional thief’s’... should I start calling myself a ’legendary thief’ now?’
While thinking about these weird thoughts in his head, Rio made his way into the city, which was located deep underground.
When Rio exited the wide tunnel, there was a massive pedestal near the city’s main entrance and a massive slate made up of pure mithril placed above the pedestal.
The words carved on the slate were
{Welcome to the City of Treasures, Dharheim!
As a major trade city of the dwarf kingdom, you can find any ore or artifact you desire here!
We welcome every new friend with open arms! Don’t forget to visit the taverns! The wine we have is world-class!!}
And right below that welcoming and happy text, there was another text carved on the slate in even bolder words than the first ones.
{Dogs and the Rex family members are not allowed inside!
If you see a person with dark red hair, please report to the authorities immediately!
We will reward you a custom-made armor and one of the most expensive wines in the world if your information is proven correct!}
Seeing those words, Rio had the urge to laugh out loud, but he didn’t want to get noticed, so he could only cover his mouth and suppress his laugh.
"Pfffttt.... He’s really hated over here; they even agreed to put their prized wines as a reward! That’s insane..."
Dwarves love drinking a lot, and yet they are very muscular and fit; many people across the world even joke that dwarven bodies are 90 percent wine, and the rest is just testosterone!
Even a dwarven baby has more testosterone than a grown ahh man, they are born with muscles!
’It’s a good thing I didn’t bring Link with me or we would have gotten into trouble the moment we stepped on the port...’
Rio shook his head, suppressed his giggles, and walked into the city without any of the guards noticing his presence.
The city Dharheim was called the city of treasures, and Rio understood why it was called that the moment he entered inside.
’They are literally using a rare ore as a f*cking street lamp!? Insanity! How rich is this city!’
’Fleisten’ is a rare luminous ore that is found in S-rank or even higher-level dungeons.
Sometimes it’s also found in places on the planet that have a high density of light elementals in one place.
The dwarven continent has hundreds of active volcanoes, and there is an abundance of light elemental deposits, which creates this ore called ’Fleisten.’
It is very rare and difficult to extract, as it’s highly radioactive, messes with your mind, and spreads out constant mental attacks everywhere.
It’s generally used to create powerful mind attack-type artifacts or weapons, but here in this city, they are literally using this thing as street lamps!
To make something like this possible, you need to create a powerful containment box for the ore so that its harmful effects don’t spread out and get contained.
Which means you will need even rarer ores to make a containment box for it.
’You can literally just steal one street lamp from here and sell it back in the human empire... you will get so much money that you can buy a mansion for yourself!’
Only now did Rio understand why there were two S-rankers stationed in this place; this place is a land of treasures—even a random street light is enough to make you rich.
It’s very possible that thieves appear here often.
’Ahem... I have to suppress my innate urges of a thief! I can’t steal this or I will be too ashamed to show my face to Lia!’
Rio used his sword intent to calm down his mind and retracted his hand, which was almost about to steal the street lamp, back into his pocket.
’Phew... habit is a crazy thing, man; I almost stole it on out of habit...’
Rio wiped away the cold sweat from his forehead and walked towards the interesting-looking architecture in the distance.
There were small shops carved out into the underground cave walls near the edge of the city; many dwarves were either having lunch there, or some were buying other things.
Rio found the one located at the highest spot and sat down.
"I can see the entire city from here... this is a nice spot..."
Rio brought out his tea set and brewed himself a tea; the shop owner didn’t even notice that Rio was sitting in his shop and enjoying the view for free.
While the shopkeeper was busy dealing with other customers, Rio brought out the secret documents that Ashtel had given him and started reading them while sipping tea.
’hmm, oh, so this city is one of the most important trade points of the entire dwarf nation; no wonder the security here is so tight even ten S-rankers might find difficult to invade it...’
’There are powerful space-stabilizing artifacts active at all times, two S-rankers, powerful energy weapons and hundreds of A-rankers wandering and patrolling the streets...’
’This city is more like an impenetrable fortress than a regular city...’
Rio took another sip of the tea and flipped to the next page. It was written that there are several hidden underwater posts nearby this port, and if it’s invaded, many reinforcements can arrive in a matter of minutes.
Also, there is a massive military base located above ground.
When you exit the city of Dharheim, you have to go through a massive tunnel that leads upwards, and there’s a military base located just a few kilometers away from the tunnel’s exit point.
In other words, this city is so heavily guarded that even S-rankers might die here if they tried to invade it.
’It’s even worse than a fortress; I doubt anyone can invade this city...’
Rio shook his head and flipped to the next page.
There he read about the local specialties, and there was even information about the S-rankers stationed here.
’Why the f*ck is this so detailed!? What do you mean that you even know that one of the S-rankers stationed here is cheating on his wife!?’
’Where are you getting this weird information!?’
Rio could not help but roll his eyes while reading the entire document.
It was as if Ashtel had some personal beef with every powerful dwarf of the dwarf kingdom; he had written a weird note about every single one of them at the end of their description.
One of them was about an old dwarf parliament member and the note said,
{This old man is obsessed with young boys; better not wander around him too much... I felt kind of creeped out; he stared at me with those weird eyes... my hand almost slipped, and I almost killed him...}
’Err... what the actual...’
Reading this comment, Rio felt uncomfortable.
’Even boys are not safe out here nowadays. what has happened to this world... perhaps I should have brought my wife to protect me...’
Rio could only shake his head while reading the documents; the more he read, the more weird things he found.
Thankfully, he was able to keep the document and himself out of everyone’s sight with his powers.
After reading the entire document for half an hour, Rio destroyed the document with his sword intent, completely reducing it to nothingness.
Then he got up from his seat and looked at the amazing view.
The entire city was illuminated with ’Fleisten’ lamps, and there were hundreds of forges working non-stop in the underground city.
Thankfully, with the modern technologies, smoke and pollution weren’t a problem, or this underground city would have been uninhabitable due to air pollution.
Rio even saw dozens of taverns, and most of them were filled to the brim with people.
’Everything else is nice.... this city is really crowded though...’