Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode

Clyde stared at Hammer for a few seconds that seemed too long to the Dwarf. Hammer kept turning his head away from Clyde because he couldn\'t bear to see his gazes that were full of piercing suspicion.

"Where can I get the materials?" Clyde asked.

"You see, there are places called Ruins. Those are remnants of a world that was never completely destroyed after the Selection Stage," said Hammer.

"Among those worlds, there are some that still have good materials. And it\'s even better than those worlds are no longer being watched over by World Masters or Celestials."

"You\'re not trying to put me in a dangerous situation, are you?" Clyde said in a cold tone. From the way, he spoke Hammer seemed to have picked up on the tendency that Clyde would give a great amount of retribution if he tried to set him up.

"N-No! Absolutely not! Don\'t worry. I\'m not someone who would do something like that." Hammer immediately said by waving his hand in front of Clyde\'s face to show his sincerity.

"I hope so. Alright. I\'ll be leaving now." Clyde then stood up. "Show me how to get there."

Hammer jumped to his feet and then clapped his hands together. "Very well. But before that, you should at least equip yourself with decent equipment. Let\'s go to my place!"

Hammer eagerly walked ahead of Clyde. The Dwarf even raised his fist with that big grin.

Clyde had not had the chance to say the question about whether the Dwarf had decent equipment because he had doubts about it.

But Clyde thought that even though the pieces of equipment weren\'t as decent as Hammer said, he still had to gear up if he wanted to go to that place called Ruins.

Clyde followed Hammer until he finally arrived at a brown building that occupied a large part of the land. There was smoke rising from the house\'s chimney and various sounds of metal clashing.

"This is my place!" Hammer said.

This place looked just as he had expected. This is a smithy but it turns out the activity in it is not as busy as Clyde thought.

The clanging sound came only from three hammers being swung rapidly and repeatedly. The workers there - most of them Dwarves though there were a few humans - turned to Clyde as he entered the building with Hammer.

Then a question popped into Clyde\'s mind.

"You never ask for help from other people besides the senior members to find your materials?" Clyde asked.

"No. You\'re the first person I asked to look for materials." Hammer shook his head.

"Why?"

"Because the other guys aren\'t strong enough yet. They\'re much more at risk if they go to the Ruins," Hammer said. "But you are different. Besides your body having a strong defense, you also have an enormous amount of Mana and can control it well."

Clyde didn\'t say anything else because he knew it was true.

They then entered Hammer\'s private room. Then Hammer showed me his proud collection of weapons and equipment.

Although actually, there weren\'t many of them and in Clyde\'s eyes their quality didn\'t look too high. But Clyde understands because this is as far as Hammer can get with those bad materials.

"I know what you\'re thinking," said Hammer. "But these are the best things I could create from all the materials I could get my hands on."

Hammer said as if he could read his mind, Clyde wasted no time and looked directly at the weapon hanging on the wall. He was looking for something he could use well.

Clyde knew that he had [Skill: Weapon Mastery] which was already at max level and he knew that the Skill still functioned properly after the battles he had before. So Clyde thought that whatever weapon he chose wouldn\'t be a problem.

"What kind of world will I visit next? What monsters are there in it?" Clyde asked. He wouldn\'t leave unprepared even if he had enough strength.

"Oh right," said Hammer then took a thick notebook from his desk. Hammer could lift the book with just one hand without any problem and open it with another hand.

"Let\'s try with the lowest difficulty Ruins. What do you think?" Hammer asked.

"Sounds good." Clyde naturally wanted to see the description of the Ruins and what he would find there. So choosing the lowest level of difficulty is the best choice.

"I want you to look for Iron Ore on Earth #599. The ruins are the same as the Earth you came from. The monsters there are zombies and dinosaurs, and there are a few Drakes who are still alive.

The World Masters didn\'t even bother to clean up that world after destroying it. So you could say that Ruins is pretty stable."

Clyde nodded after hearing Hammer\'s explanation.

"Iron Ore in that Ruins can\'t be called excellent. But it\'s definitely better than what I can find here."

Clyde nodded again. Then he picked up two swords that looked decent among the others. Then, because the risk of the swords breaking was quite big, Clyde took two daggers just in case.

Clyde wears a set of light leather armor. Then wrapped his body with a brown coat. After that, all the preparations were finished.

Hammer gave her a necklace with a rough-looking green gem pendant. The pendulum is just like a gem that is cut and tied with a rope.

"You can come back by breaking the stone. After that, you will come back to this room. Pretty convenient, right?" said Hammer with a big smile.

"So, I can also go to the Ruins from this place?" Clyde asked.

"Of course!"

Hammer ran to the corner of the room and opened a cloth covering another portal like the one in the center of the city.

The portal seems smaller and only enough for one person. The arrangement of the runes etched on the edges also appeared to be different.

"I built this portal myself," Hammer said proudly.

Clyde walked toward the portal and he immediately saw glimpses of the shattered world across from him. The sight seemed almost identical to what it had in his old world.

Hammer gave Clyde a backpack and a pickaxe. Clyde immediately slung it on his back and stepped into the portal.

After Clyde disappeared into the portal Hammer let out a long breath. His large hands clasped together in front of his chest.

"I wish you good luck, young man."

~~~

Clyde set his feet on the ground that seemed to be used to be a hill in the middle of a forest. A few trees and pieces of earth were still flying about freely.

Clyde found it all very strange. He could still stand normally as if gravity was still functioning in this place. But the trees and the ground floated freely as if not bound by gravity.

All of this seemed like a dream because it was so abnormal. But Clyde immediately ignored it all and started walking. This world is basically destroyed and abandoned so he shouldn\'t expect anything to go on normally here.

He kept walking until he was intercepted by a group of dinosaurs. Based on his knowledge, Clyde knew that those dinosaurs were raptors.

There were five raptors and they noticed Clyde\'s presence as soon as he stepped into their territory. Their reptilian eyes stared at Clyde with bloodlust. They immediately took Clyde as prey.

Accompanied by screams akin to warcry, the dinosaurs dashed their long, slim legs toward Clyde.

Clyde drew one of his two swords from the scabbard. "Hopefully this sword doesn\'t break immediately."

He lunged at the five raptors at lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, Clyde was right in front of the raptors and started swinging his sword.

Clyde thought he would be able to cut them easily. However, it turns out that the raptors are smarter than he thought. They have good fighting instincts so they can dodge Clyde\'s attacks by jumping sideways.

"Oh? Not bad," Clyde threw a remark that no one could hear. Then he kicked the ground and spun in the air to avoid the two raptors that were attacking him from his sides.

As soon as he landed, Clyde poured his Mana into his hand and immediately his left hand was covered in flames.

He turned and threw a fireball at one of the raptors.

*BOOM*

The Raptors were thrown away with their bodies scorched so that most of their flesh was burned. However, it\'s still alive and running again to attack.

Clyde saw it all and it looked like he had to really destroy the raptors so they couldn\'t get up again.

Previously Clyde could channel fire into his sword to increase the power of his slashes.

But right now what he was holding wasn\'t the Elderglass Sword so there was a high chance that this sword would break because it couldn\'t take his Mana. So he can\'t do that.

Clyde let out a torrent of fire at the raptors that were charging toward him. The torrent of fire instantly incinerated them and the raptors let out a pitiful scream.

Clyde didn\'t stop and pierced through the flames while slashing his sword.

~~~