"You're back so soon." Thor put away his hammer and looked at him with curiosity. "Did you find the Temple of Hephaestus?" Aiden nodded. "Of course. Not only did I find it, I even entered the Temple of Hephaestus." "What?" Thor's eyes went wide with disbelief. "You actually went inside? Then did you receive Hephaestus' guidance? Does that mean… we can finally return to the Temple of Hephaestus?" His voice began to shake. He stared at Aiden with desperate intensity, longing for a positive answer. "That…" Aiden shook his head calmly. "No. I'm sorry, Thor. You may… never be able to return." "Why?" Thor froze, completely unprepared for that answer. "Because the Temple of Hephaestus has already been destroyed." Aiden let out a soft sigh. After such a terrifying battle, when even an entire world had collapsed, how could the Temple of Hephaestus have survived? "Destroyed? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Thor cried out in shock. "The temple carries Hephaestus' strength. With Hephaestus' supreme power, there's no way it could be destroyed! Even that terrifying creature couldn't do it. When our ancestors entered, that monster was already unable to act. How could the Temple of Hephaestus be destroyed? You must be joking, right?" Watching Thor's violent reaction, Aiden sighed. He understood all too well how important Hephaestus was to the Dwarves. They had waited for thousands of years, hiding in that lightless forest, surviving on raw ore, enduring such a miserable existence for so long, all for the sake of a single hope, divine guidance. And in the end, this was the answer they received. Anyone in their place would have struggled to remain calm. And Aiden knew even better that Hephaestus had never truly cared about the Dwarves' fate. How could such a god ever send them guidance? From the very beginning, the Dwarves' waiting had been doomed to end in tragedy. If Aiden had not killed the two eerie bosses in Leafport, prematurely stopping the eerie creatures' invasion and causing fate's butterfly to beat its wings, this race would have slowly gone extinct in endless waiting. "I'm not joking," Aiden said. He took out Hephaestus' Staff. "This staff is what I found inside the Temple of Hephaestus. Thor, I understand how you feel, but you really can't go back." "This…" What Aiden did not expect was what happened next. Thor's pupils suddenly shrank. He lunged at the staff like a madman. The despair and hysteria from moments ago vanished without a trace. "Hephaestus' Staff is in your hands, and you still say you didn't receive his guidance? Hahaha!" Thor laughed loudly as he stared at the staff. "I told them! I told them Hephaestus never deceived us. He said he would send an envoy to guide us!" "An envoy?" Aiden froze. Judging by this reaction, Thor had clearly misunderstood something."That's right." Thor nodded solemnly. "Our ancestors said the divine staff is Hephaestus' most important possession. If you weren't an envoy, how could you have obtained something like this? There's no need to say more. You must be the envoy sent by Hephaestus. And…" Thor leaned in and sniffed. "I can clearly smell Hephaestus' presence on you. Your Excellency, there's no need to joke. Tell me, what guidance did Hephaestus give?" Well… Aiden fell into deep thought. Hephaestus was long dead. What guidance could there possibly be? If he had to say something, did screaming once before dying count? The scream had been pretty miserable, too. Naturally, none of that could be said out loud. After a brief pause, Aiden spoke. "If we're talking about guidance, then yes, there was some." "What?" Thor's big, shining eyes widened, like a student waiting for the final bell after school, filled with hope.Aiden lied smoothly, his expression unchanged. "Listen to the envoy." "Of course." Thor nodded rapidly. "That goes without saying, Mr. Nighthale. Even if you hadn't said it, we would have obeyed. And what else?" "That's it." Aiden spread his hands. Thor thought for a moment, then sighed in admiration. "I never imagined Hephaestus would trust you this much, Mr. Nighthale. No wonder he entrusted such an important divine staff to you. It seems he believes you will lead us toward the light." "Naturally," Aiden said with a smile, nodding. Even though everything he said was fabricated, his goal was simply to bring the Dwarves under his command to craft equipment for him. But in truth, compared to blindly worshiping a god who did not care about them and slowly dying away in the shadows, this path was infinitely better.