Chapter 168: The Dishonored Dwarf.

Chapter 168: The Dishonored Dwarf.

"And? What do you want, lasses? the taz dwarf, or undermountain dwarf in Common, grumbled in a gruff voice at us. His orange hair and beard were wild and unkempt, looking like he had just woken up. Come on, speak up already. Do you have any idea how damn early it is?! Dammit, go away.

W-Wait, wait! Hold on, please! I shouted out as he was about to close the door. He huffed as he stopped and looked at us. We are here for blacksmith business.

No rock hair. Im not working. And with those words, he slammed the door shut in front of our face.

It isnt that early, come on.

I knocked on his door once again, but he didnt answer it this time. After trying it once again to no avail, I sighed and looked over to Tasianna. What did he mean by no rock hair, I wondered aloud about his last words to us.

I am not acquainted with the details, but do you possibly remember the rock-like parts in Kraftjas and Ognis beard and hair? Also the rock-hide on every dwarfs ears? I nodded to Tasiannas question. Well, according to something I read in a book, dwarves were born inside the depths of the earth and mountains. Legends written down by dwarves say that they were molded from rock and given flesh and blood from ancient earth elementals, meant to act as representatives for them to commune with the other sentient races of Peolynca. Although, from what I heard, dwarves have changed their worship from these elementals to Goddess Crustacia after the Earth Goddesss descent to this world.

Is that why they have those rock-like features on their bodies? I asked.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

At least it would explain the ears, I believe, although you might want to take this legend with a grain of salt, Lady Hestia. However, what he meant by rock hair was the fact he is missing rock-like hair in his beard and hair, a sign of having been cast out and shamed by a god in Goddess Crustacias pantheon, Tasianna continued by reminding me what we heard in the blacksmith guild, specifically when they mentioned he was abandoned by Bleidla, the Blacksmith God. It is a custom for dwarves to turn their beards and hair into stone using some mixture, depending on their influence in Goddess Crustacias or her subordinate gods churches. In fact, Goddess Crustacia has turned the beards and hair of her saints and champions into stone as a sign of her favor, which led to the dwarves adopting this idea.

And when he mentioned no rock hair

He confirmed the rumors that Bleidla or some other god was not looking at him favorably.

I scratched my head, feeling a bit down at this news. Well, that is a bummer. It makes him seem less credible as a blacksmith. Still, he is a dwarf, right? We should give him a chance at least.

Lady Hestia, you are stereotyping him. Not all dwarves are good blacksmiths. Taz dwarves can be great miners and tazlok wheat farmers instead of being blacksmiths.

Yeah, now that she mentioned it, I am letting fantasy culture influence me a bit Still, we need a blacksmith.

I took out the token Kraftja and Ogni gave to me, showed it to Tasianna to ask if it would work, since it was made by two inko dwarves. Tasianna mentioned tazics and inkos do not get along when it comes to artisan opinions, but since all blacksmiths served Bleidla one way or another, our stubborn blacksmith here should at least give us a chance.

So, I knocked on his door again, calling out that we had a dwarven token of trust with us. After trying it once more, shouting even louder this time, I finally gave up and complained that we had to go to another blacksmith on the list since this one was a dead end.

As we were about to leave, the door of the RV-like wagon opened and a stocky man with two ram-like horns showed himself. His expression looked a bit stressed as he peeked his head out. Dammit, if you came all the way to not have to deal with human steel, then come in already. Just watch out for the door slamming.

Is he a tsundere?

Tasianna and I shrugged. Since it was our reason for coming over to the slum district in the first place, refusing wasnt something we considered as we entered his carriage. Also, with how much of a tsundere he was, I really wondered what he was about to show us.

The inside of the dwarfs carriage was quite spacious, naturally, since the taz was extremely stocky and needed more room to move around and do stuff. As I said before, the carriage was similar to an RV the outside had wheels for transportation, although there were no equerochs, while the inside was like a one-room apartment.

There was an open storage room with his rations and crafting materials, a table with scraps of food, an empty tankard, no kitchen in sight, a large king-sized bed in the very back, and a working station with what seemed like manatech on it were the most notable. However, for a blacksmith, there was a severe lack of a smelter or forge in his RV. There was an anvil, a welding wheel, a utility belt with tongs and hammers, and barrels full of different weapons, so that gave it the weapon shop vibe Id hoped for.

It could probably fit five people inside, and if he were to expand it a bit more, it might be able to carry more than five people.

However, how was he supposed to forge weapons or armor without a place to smelt ores and metals?

And the confusion on my face was quickly noticed by the owner of the RV. What is that face for, huh? Looks less appealing than a humans? Of course, we tazongs let our work do the talking, not the unnecessary glamour or decorative weapons. Hmph.

Oh, sorry about that, Mister. I do have a question though. How do you smelt stuff without a forge or foundry? I asked.

The taz raised an eyebrow at me, stroking his beard as he wondered what I meant by that. You, a dragonewt, have never seen a taz hammer before? Hmph. Guess youve only visited inkos. Instead of disappointed, he sounded sad as he scoffed at my lack of worldly experience. While shaking his head, he went over to his smithing area, picked a random sword from his weapon barrels and went over to the anvil.

He sat down on a chair and held his sword up. Move to my side, he told us while waving his hand to the left. Once we were no longer in front of him, the taz took a deep breath before exhaling; however, instead of air, what came out of his mouth was a stream of flames.

Oh! Thats right, Tasianna did mention tazics were flame breathers!

His flame breath was like a small stream, quickly disappearing after it touched the sword. I wasnt sure how well a taz could control their fire, but seeing him having no issues with it, I could imagine him working like this for hours and hours. The flame was also pretty hot, being able to melt the sword after a minute or so.

Smart. Using your own flame breath to heat up your metal will save you the hassle of having to get a forge working. It also makes sense for an RV not to have something that heavy to continue being mobile.

The moment the taz was done showing off, he threw the molten sword on the ground like some trash, not even bothering to cool the metal down. Thankfully, the floor was made out of metal as well, so the RV probably wouldnt burn down, but it was still a shame to see him care so little for something he made.

When I voiced this out to him, he scoffed at me once more before grumbling, Better as molten metal than in the shape of a weapon. That junk wont impress anybody, and if it cant even impress some milk-drinking adventurer, then Bleidla will just continue laughing at me. Hmpf.

It looked sturdy enough.

The taz then scruffed his hair before turning over to us, looking a bit annoyed about something. Anyway, why are you two lasses here, huh? Even the fact a wind elf and dragonewt are so deep in human territory is weird, but who am I speak? Come on, spit out your business and lets get it done with.

No need to be so hasty, Sir Dwarf, Tasianna answered. We are here to inquire if you could inspect some equipment for us and if you can smelt a special material.

Hmpf. Imagine asking if a tanzong can smelt something or not. Hear me, wind elf; taz or inko, the both of us can endure higher temperatures than what any human can take. Come, throw your stuff on the table. A bladdarg human will make you pay for a simple blacksmiths evaluation but a tazong wont.

He certainly had the gusto and confidence of a blacksmith, reminding me how Ogni used to speak in that deep, Scottish-like accent to inspect my obsidian. When I took out a couple pieces of equipment from my storage, the taz looked at me with full-blown surprise, widening his eyes like a goldfish.

Youre a void-touched? he said after pausing for a moment. Level two at least with that [Storage Magic]. Can you do anything else? Level 5 portals? Level-Ahem. My apologies.

The moment he began to act eccentric with his fascination of my [Space-Time Magic], Tasianna and I had to step back while giving him a look that showed we were a bit weirded out by the sudden outburst. He quickly took ahold of himself and apologized, saying we should forget what just happened. Which we did.

Hmm, voldunna metal. Stuff comes from the south, where the Human Empire is located, the taz said after inspecting the black orc knights armor we salvaged from the grimgarian battalion. Blacksmiths blessed by Bleidla the Blacksmith God received a skill called [Blacksmith's Appraisal], which acts like [Identify] for equipment. Not any good as a metal for manatech, as it only has below-average mana conductivity and insulation, but on the other hand, its sturdier than any of the raw mana minerals. Heard its cheap in the south but costs a bit here in the north. Eoriant is a good replacement alloy.

So far so good.

How well can it resist fire?

Great. Its mined from inside mountains and volcanos located in a desert, and the closer it is to those volcanoes, the better the quality. If you were to turn this into armor, itll at least get skills to resist fire and earth elements, he smacked the armor as he said that. Still isnt strong enough to resist some good heat though, ahahaha!

He then went through the rest of the stuff we got from that battle, including the weapons and catalysts. While it wasnt exactly his field of work, he still did what he said he would, although with a lot of grumbling, Hmph. Catalysts, huh? Might be better to ask an enchanter or whatever. Marsvens symbol on the ring, probably some cultist or grimgarian. There seems to be a broken enchantment attached to the inside of the ring, looks like it doesnt work anymore. The description has it recorded though.

He was right.

Ring of the Shadow Guardian

A ring made to gain favor with the God of Darkness, Marsven. An alchemical stone was attached designed to channel a dark mages mana to cast spells faster. A protective charm was enchanted on this ring, caused by a shamanic ritual in the worship of Marsven by granting a sliver of his goldy power as a shield of shadow. Drains 90% of the casters maximum mana as a cost and can only be used once. It resonates with any other [Ring of the Shadow Guardian], amplifying the strength of the shield.

Skill: [Dark Magic Efficiency Lv. 5] [Mana Efficiency Lv. 8] [Dark Amp] [Dark Resistance Lv. 5] [Ring of the Shadow Guardian (Broken)]

I guess if it really is a gift from Marsven, then it would make sense why my [Symphonie des Feuergottes] failed to break through it. For the cost of nearly killing themselves by draining all their mana away, the grimgarians spell better have a strong effect, otherwise I would call it a waste of time. No seriously, if this enchantment actually used up 90% of your maximum Mana while youve already spent a bit already, you could kill yourself with [Mana Stress] or [Arcane Corruption] and blow your limbs off from it. I still remember how that happened to the garm matriarch.

And the effect did show back then. The shamans were weakened to the point they couldnt move, where I would have had a good chance to end them if not for the timely arrival of the battalions elite units. I wonder if [Omnictus] could have broken through that massive shield?

Back to reality, while I was glad to hear the taz was able to look at the equipment, confirming everything Id already seen myself, but something still piqued my interest though. Mister Dwarf?

If you guys enjoyed this chapter then, please follow the story. If you guys want the story to grow, then giving it a rating or a favorite will do wonders: Rawr

Thank you for reading this chapter.

PayPal

Patreon

Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter

RSS

About the author

1 Fictions 7 Posts 1 Threads

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 3:19:00 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

Achievements

Comments(13)

Set Compact

Log in to comment

Log In

Load Comments

Log in to comment

Log In

Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100%

Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50%

Font Family

Default Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion

Font Color

Indent

Color Scheme

Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White

Paragraph Spacing

Close

Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0).

Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation?

Give Reputation Close

Royal Road is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Royal Road is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Dark Light Create a support ticket

Contact Us by Email

Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising

Royal Road 2013-2022

Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status

Tap again to scroll to the top!