The king rose from his throne while holding the necklace in his hand, went to the center of the royal hall, knelt down, and touched the middle of the hall with his right hand filled with the power of Humanity's Flame.
Strangely, the fire did not destroy anything. Rather, it awakened an ancient mechanism hidden in the center of the hall. When the flame touched it, the ground beneath the emperor's feet moved and slowly descended with him downward.
The emperor watched this, remembering the first time he had descended to this place many long years ago, on the first day of his coronation, when he carried Humanity's Flame within him.
The emperor came out of his thoughts when he felt that he was about to reach his destination, and indeed, after a few moments, he arrived. It was a vast hall resembling the one above his head, but what was different was the spear standing in the middle of the hall.
The emperor went to the center of the hall while holding the necklace, praying in his heart that the material from which the necklace was made would be the same as the material from which that spear was made.
The emperor reached the spear and looked at it; the spear was broken and cracked. When the emperor saw the spear in that condition, he sighed and said to himself:
"If I can repair the spear, the human race will regain its sacred weapon."
A strong feeling of excitement overwhelmed the emperor, so he tightly and nervously gripped the necklace and brought it closer to the spear. When the necklace approached the spear, the spear glowed slightly with a white color, as if it were recognizing the material from which the necklace was made.
When the emperor saw that and the spear's reaction to the necklace, joy and delight filled him, and he said loudly:
"Finally, after all these centuries, I will be the emperor who repairs the sacred spear!"
The emperor thought about this and imagined his power when he would wield the restored spear and fight with it. But after some time of thinking, he looked at the necklace and said to himself:
"I must obtain more of that ore at any cost."
The emperor thought for a long time and came up with a well-crafted plan, then hastened to carry it out. As the emperor ascended back to the surface by the same way he had descended, he thought about the results of his plan, and that it might ignite a war between the races on the continent of Mira. He decided to distance himself from the conflict that would occur. In the end, he would only take what he wanted without showing himself in the picture.
The emperor smiled a dangerous smile when he thought about the amount of chaos and losses that the other races might suffer, and that it might even reach the point of the dragons' intervention and their anger at the chaos that could occur. When the emperor thought about the dragons' anger, he strengthened his resolve to reap the benefits without participating in the conflict or chaos, so as not to anger the dragons or become entangled in the turmoil.
After a few days of the emperor thinking about his plan and executing it, a strange rumor spread throughout the continent of Mira that the dwarves had discovered the ore from which the ancient weapons were made and were hiding it and wished to monopolize it for themselves.
When the rumor spread, many did not believe it. But after some time, and after people confirmed that the dwarves had held a great celebration in their royal palace to celebrate the discovery of a new ore, doubts and rumors increased, and many people began to believe these rumors and accused the dwarves of selfishness and betrayal.
Most of them said that the other races were fighting on the front lines in the Fallen Isles, while the dwarves were stealing and hiding the ore. They accused them of betrayal for that act.
When the King of the Giants and the kings of the other races heard that rumor, they wished to verify its truth, so they sent envoys and messengers to ask about the matter in the land of the dwarves.
Inside the palace of the Dwarven King, the king was shouting in anger, saying:
"I do not know what is happening! What is the matter with these rumors? And who spread them?"
The ministers were silent out of embarrassment, unable to answer their king's question. But after a period of silence, one of the ministers spoke and said:
"My lord, I believe that the matter of the rumors and who spread them is the same one who stole the necklace made from the newly discovered ore."
The Dwarven King reduced his anger and said in a voice filled with confusion:
"And how do you know that?"
The minister replied in a confident tone:
"Because the events follow one another, my lord."
He paused briefly to make sure everyone in the meeting hall was listening, then continued, saying:
"The one who stole the necklace wanted to know what it was made of, and what material was used. After he confirmed that the material used to make the necklace had not existed before, and learned of its power and rarity, he decided to spread false rumors to turn the other races against us, and force us to sell the newly discovered metal without benefiting from it first, or even knowing its rarity."
After the king and the ministers heard this, they found that his words could indeed be what had actually happened. But after the king thought for a moment, he looked at the minister who had spoken and said to him:
"Then, what do you think? Should I sell the new metal or not?"
The minister spoke quickly in an anxious tone:
"Of course not, my king. We do not know the power of the new metal, or even its rarity. How can we sell it without sufficient testing? We would be the losers if we sold it for a cheap price, or if it were a rare element and we ran out of it."
The king looked at him and said:
"Then, what do you suggest we do?"
The minister looked at the king, then turned his gaze to the ministers in the hall and said in a strangely calm voice:
"Since when have the dwarves sold an element or metal they did not wish to sell, my king?"