A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

"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. I’m not working.” And with those words, he slammed the door shut in front of our face.

… It isn’t that early, come on.

I knocked on his door once again, but he didn’t 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 Kraftja’s and Ogni’s beard and hair? Also the rock-hide on every dwarf’s ears?” I nodded to Tasianna’s 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 Goddess’s descent to this world.”

“Is that why they have those rock-like features on their bodies?” I asked.

“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 Crustacia’s 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 Crustacia’s 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 wasn’t 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 dwarf’s 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 I’d 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 human’s? 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 you’ve 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! That’s right, Tasianna did mention tazics were flame breathers!

His flame breath was like a small stream, quickly disappearing after it touched the sword. I wasn’t 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 wouldn’t 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 won’t impress anybody, and if it can’t 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 let’s 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 blacksmith’s evaluation but a tazong won’t.”

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.

“You’re 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 knight’s 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, it’s sturdier than any of the raw mana minerals. Heard it’s 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. It’s 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, it’ll at least get skills to resist fire and earth elements,” he smacked the armor as he said that. “Still isn’t 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 wasn’t 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. Marsven’s 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 doesn’t 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 mage’s 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 caster’s 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 you’ve 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 couldn’t move, where I would have had a good chance to end them if not for the timely arrival of the battalion’s 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 I’d already seen myself, but something still piqued my interest though. “Mister Dwarf?”

“Grimnir. Use that from now on,” he grumbled.

“Hestia is my name. This is Tasianna,” I introduced us in return. “Anyway, Mister Grimnir, while you mentioned the material and description of the gear impeccably, you still haven’t mentioned any attack and defense values.”

“…”

One of the advantages of [Blacksmiths Appraisal] over [Identify] is its ability to show the attack and defense power of a piece of weapon or armor like what you see in video games. Somehow, my [Identify Lv. 10] not only merged into my [Mana Eyes] — making it my appraisal skill now — but I also gained a lesser version of the [Blacksmith’s Appraisal]. I have literally no idea how it happened, it was so random and there wasn’t even an explanation for it. It was in an incomplete form, which I guess must mean that Bleidla hasn’t blessed me yet.

As that was an important ability for a blacksmith while crafting their works, enabling them to also charge a fee during an appraisal, so it wouldn’t be a proper appraising session without some numbers. And with how much his eyes were darting around, my curiosity turned into suspicion.

I pointed toward the orc knight armor. He finally said, “…Vitality value is 571 and Wisdom value is 401.”

…

Voldunna Black Full-Plated Armor

A thick armor made from voldunna ore, granting the wearer resistances against sundering, fire, and earth. The armor grants moderate heat resistance but will cool down the wearer too much in cold temperatures

Vitality Power: 541

Wisdom Power: 399

Skill: [Sundering Resistance Lv. 5] [Piercing Resistance Lv. 2] [Fire Resistance Lv. 7] [Earth Resistance Lv. 5] [Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 2] [Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 2]

That proves it. He doesn’t have [Blacksmith’s Appraisal].

A blacksmith without [Blacksmith’s Appraisal] meant he wasn’t blessed by Bleidla himself. The lack of rock hair and his own admittance that Bleidla was “laughing at him” were already a dead giveaway, but still, if those actually were guesses then they were surprisingly accurate. Daaaaamn.

Should I say anything?

As I was contemplating whether I should say anything about this or not, Grimnir suddenly huffed, “Hmph. Enough, put all of this back into your inventory and show me what you wanted me to smelt. While you do that, don’t mind me getting a drink.” The bravado he showed until now was all gone as he walked over to a mead barrel and poured its alcoholic content into the empty tankard on the table.

Once the foam was overflowing, he brought the tankard to his mouth and chugged everything in one go, swallowing and swallowing with no stops. Once it was empty, he slammed the tankard on the table and burped loudly, unconcerned of the eyes looking at him right now. “What? A tazong works the best after a drink. Now, where are th-burp-the things you wanted me to smelt? Show them already.”

As I placed a piece of my scales, a tuft of Saori’s white fur, and some of my obsidian on Grimnir’s desk, he nodded approvingly and wiped the mead foam from his beard away before giving a look at what was on the table. He licked, smelled, and pressed onto them with his fingers, all to test out whatever he was doing.

As he was doing that, Tasianna suddenly noticed something on the workstation a bit further away from us. She walked over there while Grimnir was preoccupied and questioned him after seeing what was there.

“Sir Grimnir, are you possibly also an artificer?”

His attention taken away from the monster materials before him, he grumbled at Tasianna, “Hmph. Tried. Taz hands are too large and not dextrous enough compared to those from inkos. I have ideas, but everything I make just turns out wrong. At least runesmithing and blacksmithing don’t require me to be that precise.”

Artificer, runesmithing, and blacksmithing? The guy has quite the set of skills. I wonder, can Ellaine learn something from him? After all, what is his definition of only ‘trying?’

“Are these scales yours, lass?” he asked me, prompting me to nod. “Hmph, you got me here. There is something under them, some sorta flammable dust, which means these scales have to be hard and fire-resistant enough to endure that. Dragonewt scales. Didn’t expect you to show them to me, but I guess dragonewts love making their armor from their own scales.”

I waved my hands in front of me, showing him that wasn’t the case. “Ah, no, you misunderstand. These scales are for armor for a friend. Since we are adventurers, she will need more protection, and I thought my scales are the best for the job.”

“Hmph. Well, regardless, my flames can’t smelt these. The tuft of wolf hair can probably be used for something, but the dark mana flowing through it makes it unlikely that anything except dark elemental equipment could be produced. This purple glass mineral, though, is some solid mineral. Where did you find this? I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

His reaction was exactly like Ogni’s, something I expected since I was the only one who could create this corrosive obsidian right now. Unlike my scales, he didn’t mention anything about not being able to melt it, which led me to believe he would be able to produce some gear with it.

“Sorry, that’s a secret for another time,” I decided to hold back from telling him anything yet. “How about we finally speak business? Would you be able to make some gear with them? We might not have enough materials with us right now, I think, but there is a dungeon nearby so we can probably get them.”

However, he snorted and gave a short “Can’t” as the reply. When I asked him to explain why he couldn’t, he groaned, scratching his oily hair in frustration as he spoke, “Don’t get me wrong. That’s some good stuff. If we melt the armor and weapons you just showed me and combine them with monster materials, then we can probably produce something marvelous. Something Bleidla would smile at… But, if you want any of that, go to some other tazong to make them for you.”

“There are only humans in this city, Mister Grimnir,” Tasianna answered, causing him to frown.

“Tch, I rather my pride take a hit than cause Bleidla to scorn me again. If I take your request and botch it, then everything I’ve done to gain back his favor will be gone. And you know why? Cause I stole the chance from somebody more promising in his eyes,” Grimnir slammed his hand on the table.

“So?” I looked at him with a quizzical face. “Even if all those rumors were true and that you were abandoned by Bleidla, does it really matter? I mean, you’re obviously experienced, Mister Grimnir, so why should it matter if Bleidla likes you or not? We can always acquire more of the materials we’d planned to use, and try again, so we won’t be that angry, at least, if you aren’t charging us for it. Your [Blacksmithing] skill should be high, and that’s all we really are looking out for. The gods don’t control our lives, so why don’t you try our request out?”

Although, people might think me crazy for saying that with a white robe, it is the truth, right? Sure, Aurena did reincarnate me and was initially planning to use me however she wanted, but I managed to gain my autonomy and the freedom to say these sorta things. I have not been smited yet. Aurena herself even said that the gods can watch and guide mortals, but they were never allowed to fully intervene in our lives.

Giving people skills or offering Divine Quests was their way to guide us, even installing someone as a saint or champion was a way for the gods to offer people a different way of life. However, any of this could only happen if we first accepted it. At the end of the day, we were the drivers of our own fate and only our skills mattered in the grand scheme of living.

Even without [Blacksmith’s Appraisal], it couldn’t take away how many years Grimnir had as a blacksmith. Tasianna mentioned dwarves also had an extended lifespan, similar to the other long-living humanoid races like the elves, dragonewts, and fairies. Who knows how old this guy was?

“Hmph. I don’t need a lass lecturing me on how to live my life. Hmph!” he grumbled once again, but seemed to have calmed down. “… Even if I wanted to, the piece of gear I can make won’t amount to anything you might expect, lass. A hammer is a blacksmith’s most valuable tool — the most important part of bending metal and to bash the impurities away and add any monster materials.”

“Then make one. You are a blacksmith, after all, Mister Grimnir,” Tasianna said rather bluntly.

He shrugged and smacked his hand on his knees, looking at us while shaking his head. “I have one, look over there.” He pointed at the utility belt I saw before, holding onto two hammers. “But they are made of some normal metal and steel. Not even out of eoriant. A blacksmith’s hammer has to be made out of superior metal, and I had gotten too used to mine. Another jest of Bleidla, cursing me to get a laugh out of it. He knows the value of my hammer but didn’t do anything when I lost it forever in a damn gulch.”

“Better hammers make better equipment?” I wondered aloud.

He nodded. “Yeah, simply put. The right tools for the right job, and I need a good hammer that doesn’t melt or bend when I increase the heat. I’ve been requesting from the hunter’s guild for one of their people to hunt a material down for me inside the dungeon. I came to this place ‘cause I heard a monster in the depths had it around. The name ‘Emerald-Flare Forest’ sounds like a jest if you only visited the upper floors, but once you make it past floor ten, you’ll know why they gave it that name. A molten rock that can only be found somewhere beyond floor 15, rumored to not only be extremely heat resistant to the point I can raise the temperature to whatever I want, but also hard enough to resist the toughness of monster materials.”

“Jeez, floor 15? Where adventurers could encounter B rank monsters if they're unlucky? Well, I can’t say I blame the guild for not being able to produce something like that. Does Cedarraille have any B rank hunters right now?”

“A bunch of C ranks, at least. The guild mentioned they have multiple B rank hunters but all of them have banded together to enter the dungeon in Griffonpeak to fulfill some high-ranking, confidential Quest. My guess is a noble,” he explained. “I can fight, sure, but at best I’m a C rank adventurer. Going in there alone would be suicide, no matter how much I crave that rock. Either I stay patient and ask the guild every day whether the hunters have returned or I go around and hire some hunters from some other city. Too bad I’m short on funds from a lack of customers.”

Well, that is true…

While it might be impossible for us to actually bring him more customers, there might be a way for us to help him out anyway. The Aurora way.

“Mister Grimnir, do you have a party bracelet?” Once he confirmed my question, I handed him my ID, only hiding the sensitive parts while displaying the power I had. Seeing his impressed face, I continued. “My party has another B rank level member and Tasianna here is a decent C rank. Our last member is a bit weak right now but I’m planning to train her up until then. What do you say? We will need some equipment from you first though, oh, we can pay of course.”

“… Are you sure? Forgetting the fact I’m gonna ask a bunch of young lasses to help me, probably going down there will be a real task. It’s gonna be dangerous.”

“You’ve seen my Mana and my storage. I have healing spells and combat ones. In an endurance run like dungeon diving, I already have a ton of necessary abilities to lighten our load on the trip,” I pointed out, then I suddenly got an idea to fully convince him. “How about this; you need to meet with whoever you’ll be working with anyways. You’ve met Tasianna and me, but you don’t know our two other teammates. Come with us and let me introduce you to them before we continue anyway. Deal?”

“Gahahahaha!” For the first time since we came into his RV, Grimnir laughed boisterously and loudly similar to Kraftja and Ogni. It seemed I was able to convince him. “Worth a try! Worth a try! I won’t go and abandon Crustacia for Aurena, but bladdarg, if she sent you to try to win me over, I’m honestly tempted here, gahahahahaha! Lead the way, Hestia and Tasianna!”

And so, we accidentally accepted a “Quest” in our training montage.