The kid nervously waited for someone, anyone to at least say something.

He was especially nervous about hearing what Adrian, the one who provided him the blueprints, thought.

Now, you might be wondering what a fifteen year old kid was doing in a dungeon such as this, especially given that he wasn’t part of the military.

According to him, he was in this dungeon because he was excited to play soldier by hiding among the spirit mages’ supplies when he was ten after a visit to the frontier.

The soldiers realized too late and by the time they discovered a terrified child hidden among the supply crates, the dungeon entrance had already closed.

And since then, the boy simply never left....well, not that he could even if he wanted to.

"At first we thought he’d die within a week," One of the older spirit mages muttered from the side while staring at the metallic magic tool before them, "but then, he suddenly contracted a spirit."

No, Spirits.

Earth, Metal and wood.

An absurd combination for someone so young, especially given that something like that was unheard of.

Save for the saintess no one else was capable of contracting multiple spirits.

But recalling the kid in the academy entrance test and now this one, Noelle was feeling less and less special.

Lucian noticed, so he gently grabbed her hand and squeezed it, giving her a smile.

Unlike her, who naturally draws spirits towards her, the three contracted to the kid did so in an act of desperation.

Most or all that were within the dungeon had already formed a contract with another spirit, so before the corruption could fully spread, the three spirits managed to form a contract with the kid.

And to everyone’s surprise, it worked.

Small creatures of his three different elements, no larger than a hand, could currently be seen running around the large metallic structure before the group.

They were the reason why he completed the project so fast, and the result of all that was what stood directly before them.

A vessel.

One specifically designed to travel beneath the black sea.

"..."

Even Lucian remained speechless for a few moments as he stared at it.

The structure itself was compact and oval-shaped, made from several layers of reinforced spirit metal gathered throughout the dungeon.

Unlike ships used on normal seas, this one had no sails, instead, strange rotating mechanisms rested along the sides alongside crystal cores embedded throughout the body.

It looked less like a boat and more like a weapon.

"A submarine?" Aqua muttered as she glanced at the blueprint laying on the table in the kid’s massive makeshift workshop.

"Hmm," the boy nodded, "though I would’ve preferred to name it Underwater boat."

"That’s a terrible name," Darius suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah?" the kid turned towards him with a frown, "let’s see you come up with something better."

"That’s simple," Darius muttered with a grin, "Underwater Boat!"

"That’s what I just said," the kid argued.

"No, you said, Underwater boat," Darius answered, "I said, Underwater Boat!"

"You just changed the capitalization!" Elias shouted.

"That changes everything."

"It literally doesn’t!"

"It literally does."

The two immediately started arguing while pointing fingers at each other.

Meanwhile, Lucian rubbed his forehead with a tired sigh.

Why did the intelligent ones around him always somehow end up being complete idiots in other areas?

Well, he was referring to the kid anyway.... Darius, on the other hand, was far from intelligent.

They continued arguing for a while before Adrian suddenly decided to speak up, "either way, you did a great job."

The young blacksmith immediately paused and nervously turned towards him the moment he spoke up.

"Y-you think it’ll work?" he asked.

Adrian glanced toward the vessel before answering honestly, "you put so much effort on it, so I’m sure it will."

Truthfully, he hadn’t except the kid to be able to create such a vessel, especially given that the blueprint was... extremely simplified, to put it simply.

Adrian had great memory, but turns out, it was a lot harder to draw a functional submarine blueprint from memory, with what little knowledge he had on them.

And yet, the kid was able to refine and even improve on the design, which was definitely praise worthy.

The boy’s eyes widened slightly.

For some reason, receiving praise from the butler seemed to affect him far more than the prince’s earlier compliments.

Lucian folded his arms while continuing to inspect the submarine.

"You really designed this overnight?"

"Yes," the boy answered with a grin filled with pride.

After all, if they manage to escape this dungeon thanks to the submarine, he’d be hailed as a hero.

Which was all he ever dreamt of.

Anyway, calling his skill, talent, was a massive understatement.

Despite spending years trapped in a dungeon with limited materials, he had somehow become the greatest blacksmith among the survivors here.

He could create almost anything after seeing a proper design.

More importantly, unlike the other spirit mages here, the boy clearly had no interest in battle whatsoever.

His eyes only lit up when talking about magic tools.

Even now, while everyone else worried about surviving the black sea, he looked more excited about improving the submarine.

"What’s your name?" Adrian suddenly asked.

"Elias," the boy answered immediately without hesitation.

"Would you like a job?"

"...Huh?"

The entire workshop went silent, even Renelle looked mildly curious, after all, didn’t Adrian already have Alvíss working for him?

"A job?" Elias repeated blankly.

"Yes," Adrian answered calmly, "once we leave this dungeon of course."

Elias stared at him in disbelief.

"You want to hire me?"

"You’re uninterested?"

The kid suddenly raised his hands before him as he shook his head, "n-no, I-I mean yes.... I’m interested."

"Then you’re hired."

The prince lightly clenched his fist before slowly releasing it again.

The royal family would greatly benefit from a blacksmith such as this.

A spirit engineer capable of creating magic tools at this level before even reaching adulthood was an absurd talent.

And yet,

Lucian already knew trying to compete with Adrian for loyalty would be pointless.

Not after what just happened.

The boy was practically glowing from happiness after receiving a single compliment from the butler.

Lucian honestly felt a little jealous.

If Elias had been discovered outside this dungeon, the royal court would’ve done everything possible to secure him immediately.

Unfortunately,

Adrian had gotten him first.

"W-wait," Elias suddenly spoke up again while looking nervous, "what exactly would I even be doing?"

"Creating."

The answer came almost instantly and Adrian glanced around the workshop afterward.

Magic tools of different types lay all around and he could see the efforts put in each and every one of them.

"You have talent," Adrian continued calmly, "it would be wasted elsewhere."

The young blacksmith unconsciously looked toward the submarine again.

Truthfully,

Even the idea of being called a hero never excited him as much as the idea of building something incredible.

A small smile slowly appeared on his face.

"Okay."

Meanwhile, Renelle quietly observed the interaction from the side before suddenly speaking up.

"My butler seems determined to gather strange people."

First it was a terrifying child that was supposed to be on the prince’s side, then there was that strange blacksmith, and then was the red haired idiot

And now, a kid she hadn’t even seen in her previous life.

Adrian thought about it for a second, "perhaps, does it bother my lady?"

"No," Renelle shook her head with a small smile on her face, "I just find it interesting."

"I see," Adrian muttered.

His reasoning for gathering these weirdos around his lady was, at first, to ensure that her fate was changed.

But now that every event was not following the manhwa anymore, it was for another plan he didn’t intend to hell her of just yet.

"Will it be ready by tomorrow?" Renelle suddenly asked while looking toward Elias.

The boy immediately stood up straight.

"Yes!" he answered quickly before pointing toward the submarine, "the outer shell is complete already. I just need to finish calibrating the spirit cores and reinforcing the pressure barriers."

"Pressure barriers?" Darius asked.

Elias looked at him for a second before asking, "you don’t know what those are?"

"No idea," Darius shook his head.

"The deeper they sink into the black sea, the higher the pressure becomes," The young blacksmith explained, "and without pressure barriers, the boat will just implode."

"I see," Darius nodded with a hand on his chin before he asked, "can this pressure be resisted if you’re strong enough?"

"..."

Whilst Elias was feeling a headache coming, thanks to Darius’s questions, Renelle turned towards Lucian and said,

"We’ll start preparing to depart."