Volume 6 Chapter 13-4 Dwarf’s Treasure
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Magic circles are good because they don’t weigh anything. If you draw them small, you can make them super tiny.
”You, huh. You made something that wastes my teachings.”
Mr. Escalion, who doesn’t like guns, grumbles. But the dwarves around him are playing with the arrowheads they just made.
It might not work in a real fight, but it’s still pretty cool.
”I see. Making it smaller and turning it into an arrowhead is clever. It’s like the fanciest poison arrow ever.”
Sure, it’s expensive to make. But it’s mostly bronze, so not much material. The real cost is the work. If you do it yourself, it’s fine.
This is just a prototype. It’d be weird if people got too excited. You can make it smaller, like for a blowgun…
I used a spell Mr. Gino taught me to make it tiny. The craftsmen shared tips for carving small magic circles, which was fun.
It’s probably a secret, but since it’s for testing limits, no one cares about the details.
Still, Dwarves get too excited. They don’t think much before acting.
Anyway, I made a poison needle two sizes smaller than the arrowhead, perfect for a blowgun. The dwarves were impressed by the tiny needle.
”Isn’t it just smaller? Isn’t it too small?”
”This skill is amazing. It’s too good for humans.”
”It’s not original, but I still like it.”
”No, making it small is pretty original.”
It’s just a smaller version of a poison needle. Some say it’s not original, but others liked it.
I didn’t do it for praise, but it’s still nice to hear.
”Hey, try this.”
The dwarf who teased me with beeswax handed me a heavy metal tube.
It looks like a blowgun but is way heavier. There’s only one hole. What’s this for?
He’s grinning. Is he teasing me? No, maybe testing me.
I can’t appraise it, but I can see inside. It’s all clear to me.
At the end, there’s a cylinder with gears. Turning it compresses air inside.
Pulling it releases the air all at once. It’s like an air gun.
A piston system like a bike pump would be easier.
It’s weird they’re using metal precision instead of rubber seals. How do they handle heat issues?
Oh, I see a small air leak. That’s a relief. Even dwarves aren’t perfect.
”It’s like a mechanical blowgun. In my country, we call it an air gun.”
I was right. He looks happy, even though I figured it out. He seems like a nice dwarf.
The needle fits perfectly in the quiver. It’s a bit loose, but cotton at the end fixes it.
Now I want to shoot it. The dwarves, who love this stuff, are ready for a test.
They bring a pig into a training room. It’s the first pig I’ve seen here.
It’s pink but has scary eyes. Is it strong? It’s bigger than a human and has tusks. Is it a monster?
”If you hit it, we’ll roast it for a feast.”
That’d be a big meal. Over a hundred dwarves are watching. They’d eat it all fast.
Now, I add a potion to the needle and load it into the air gun.
All I do is keep turning the handle. The grip isn’t great, so I’ll fix that later. I’ll make it piston-type like a bike pump. Leather can work as a valve.
I turned it too much, and the air pressure got crazy high. No safety valve? Will it explode?
The pig sees me as an enemy. Its knees are shaking.
Being scared is okay. It’s a fighter. It’s risking its life too.
It’s unfair to attack it, but I doubt I could win in a fair fight.
It’s wary, so I can’t aim for vital spots. But what if I hit its skull?
Let’s try. I aim for its forehead. The needle shoots with a loud sound. It seems not good for sneaking.
The magic activates, but the needle falls without hurting it. The pig steps on it. Huh? Did it fail?
The pig falls over, looking weird, like it’s crying and laughing.
”Top-grade healing potions feel strangely good and bad at the same time. Half of it makes you want to scream in pain, and the other half feels soothing and warm.”
Mr. Escalion explains. It’s not as cruel as I thought. The pig will probably be cooked anyway.
No scars, but the potion worked. A small wound can be used for bait.
It could heal allies too. If it’s advanced, there’s no recoil.
* * *
After that, the excited dwarves started talking about ranged weapons. They asked me about guns from Earth, but I’m not really the person to ask.
All I know is from movies and TV shows. Oda Nobunaga used matchlock guns, which were outdated by the late Edo period, right? Modern guns must be amazing with all the tech advancements, but I’ve heard some WWII-era guns are still in use today.
When they asked about specifics like strength or range, I couldn’t answer much.
Or rather, the dwarves actually knew more. They’ve even gotten their hands on Earth’s guns and machine guns.
There were a lot of accidental discharges because of fire spirits messing around, but they survived using skills that nullify or halve physical damage.
Skills and magic that completely block physical attacks are common in games, but seeing them in real life feels ridiculously overpowered.
There are lots of limitations, and in battles against people, there are countermeasures, but they’d be super useful for dangerous experiments and stuff like that.
”Most weapons rely on gunpowder. I can’t imagine a world without spirits.”
”Well, they’re called firearms.”
”Would our weapons work in other worlds?”
”Modern armies don’t use swords. And military knives… Are they for combat? I don’t know.”
”I see. Guns have longer range than bows and can shoot repeatedly. But without magic, it’d be tough.”
”What about cursed weapons? If the enemy king falls, the war is won, right?”
I still don’t get curses vs. magic. Cursed weapons don’t need mana. They get stronger where there’s resentment. Maybe they’d work on Earth too.
The dwarves get excited about going to Earth. They want to make the best weapons.
Now, novels about other worlds might get popular here. I’ll tell Shea-Shea next time.
Anyway, I’m accepted as a friend now. I can learn from other craftsmen. They also steal techniques from each other.
If you want to keep tech secret, you need a private workshop.
Good craftsmen can figure out a lot just by looking. Mr. Gino almost analyzed Earth tools.
”The tech is similar to ours. Maybe a dwarf went to another world before.”
Can I go to Earth from here? If so, I could return someday.
I’d given up on going back, but just the chance makes me happy. I don’t want to go back right away, but I’d like to see my family again.
”In a world without magic, relying on gunpowder and engines makes sense. At least two dwarves went to your world.”
Mr. Gino says this with his arms crossed. If you’re skilled, you can understand the maker just by looking at the tools.
Some of that sounds a bit hard to believe, but there’s no doubt Mr. Gino is extraordinary. With his unmatched skill and overwhelming charisma, even the best craftsmen respect him like a king.
Yeah, I’ve met someone truly rare. For now, I’ll focus all my energy on training without overthinking. An opportunity like this might never come again. I heard the Goddess of Chance only has bangs? Imagining that hairstyle is pretty funny.
Also, they say every meeting is once-in-a-lifetime, right? That feels more fitting.
My next goal is to replicate the small silver golem Mr. Gino gave me. When I told the dwarf craftsmen, they called it reckless, but at least they didn’t laugh at me anymore.
Soon enough, I realized just how reckless it was—I didn’t reach my goal, but I gained a lot along the way.
So, I think it’s okay to aim big. It’s not great to aim for byproducts from the start, though.
* * *
So, it’s okay to aim high. But it’s weird to aim for by-products from the start.
Happy times fly by. There’s a great hot spring here too. Dwarves love hot springs, just like Japanese people. There’s a dining hall, tavern, and soft beds. The benefits are great, but the work hours are brutal.
”Why not build a better training ground here? I’ll handle it.”
Mr. Escalion, who eats and sleeps all the time, occasionally gets motivated.
He doesn’t read the room when motivated, so the craftsmen think he’s annoying. But he’s not disliked, which is a good personality.
To improve his image, I’ve been helping with cooking. Dwarf food is simple but deep. Or is pork cooking just deep?
Even simple simmered pork has perfectly balanced herbs and salt. Grilling, boiling, smoking──basic methods make so many new dishes.
The variety of sausages also makes meals fun.
Losing repeatedly is frustrating, so I made tonkatsu to show off. But they already had something similar. Thanks to maxed skills, it was well received, but I felt a bit defeated.
Japanese food cheat failed. What a shame.
Even with salt, it’s good, but without tonkatsu sauce, it lacks impact.
What bothers me most is that the dish everyone praised the most was the tonkatsu stuffed with back fat I made as a joke. Of course, I don’t play around with food, so I never intended to make something gross.
I mean, it was fresh out of the fryer, and the bursting meat juices are irresistible. Well, it’s way too greasy, but yeah, it’s pretty good. Melted lard is basically meat juice—it’s gotta be delicious. Just way too many calories, though.
Responding to the crazy requests, I kept frying nothing but the back-fat-stuffed tonkatsus. As soon as they were done, they disappeared into the dwarves’ stomachs—along with tons of alcohol.
It’s often said dwarves have ten times the strength of humans. That means they burn ten times the calories, right?
It’s a sight that’d give anyone heartburn, but they’re fine, I guess. They love fatty food anyway.
But even Mr. Escalion was eating and drinking just as much as the dwarves. Is he okay? Well, at high levels, people get superhuman strength, so maybe their metabolism is just wild.
If I ever had to take down Mr. Escalion, starving him out would probably work best. Nah, I’m not planning to take him down, though.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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