Chapter: 141
Well, next up is the dwarves. It’s time to chat about the story of the dwarves who produce and sell iron goods.
Dwarves were the first race to start working with iron in this world.
The dwarves, who dug caves and settled beneath the various peaks surrounding Sagarmatha, were really focused on merchants to solve the issue of living in caves.
So much so that there was even a guild made up entirely of dwarves.
Hmm. I’ll save that story for later. For now, let’s get into the popularization of iron thanks to expanding logistics.
Iron, which boasts a strength that makes stone and bronze blush with embarrassment, was handled exceptionally well by the dwarves, who started riding the wave of smooth distribution and raking in big bucks.
Previously, dwarven-made iron products were pretty much a secret passed around only by word of mouth, but now it’s not just hearsay anymore, and people are eager to get their hands on the real deal.
If you compare a regular dagger to the stone dagger folks used before versus the dwarven iron dagger… well, the difference is like night and day.
Even if you smack a stone dagger with a dwarven iron one… guess what breaks? Yep, the stone dagger. The iron dagger? Just a little nick on the edge, like a bad haircut.
So, dwarven iron goods became the hottest items on the market, almost impossible to find. Well, unless you’re an elf or a lizardman.
As for the elves, you can probably figure it out without me saying too much. Unless you’re one of the few oddballs interested in iron goods, just mentioning dwarves makes them shiver in fear.
In the recent dwarf-elf tribal war… ah, the elves won that one, so let’s give them their dues first.
Except for the elf swordsman who wielded the spirit sword and is now celebrated as the Great Elven Champion, there were hardly any elves who showed interest in dwarven items.
So, elves mainly stuck to tools made of stone or bone.
Truth be told, even if they turn up their noses, they know deep down how handy iron tools are.
There’ve been plenty of times in elf-dwarf tribal wars where the difference in equipment nearly cost them dearly.
Even attaching stone tips to wooden arrows doesn’t easily pierce through dwarf iron armor to get a fatal hit.
Well, they might not die from a fatal hit!
Anyhow, unlike the elves who stubbornly refuse iron goods,
the lizardmen… how should I put this? They kind of refuse for religious reasons?
The lizardmen, who love their obsidian tools, make a claim like this:
“The Creator Dragon God gifted our ancestors an unbreakable obsidian spear, so we shall honor them by using obsidian!”
Something like that.
Hmm… you know, when I casually gave the obsidian spear a little touch of indestructibility as a token gift, I didn’t expect them to hold it in such high regard. Wow…
It’s a little impressive, but I wish they’d recognize how convenient iron goods are.
I’ve had thoughts like that once in a while.
Putting the public claims aside, when I looked closely at the lizardmen’s ecology, there was a clear reason they refused iron goods.
That reason? Their living environment.
Lizardmen primarily live in humid places like rivers, swamps, and beaches.
And the biggest flaw of iron goods? They rust easily when it’s wet.
The humidity, which poses a huge constraint for the scaly lizardmen, is what really keeps them from using iron goods.
It’s not that lizardmen are fools refusing iron goods. Sure, there are religious reasons, but it was more about how unbelievably unsuitable it was for their living environment.
But they can’t just up and move to a non-humid area to use iron goods.
Iron goods versus living in a humid area? For lizardmen, it’s not even up for debate.
Instead, the lizardmen began to crank up their focus on developing obsidian.
They made saw-like weapons by sandwiching tiny, sharp obsidian shards between wooden planks and used obsidian arrowheads and spear tips.
The effort that stood out among all of this? The combination of obsidian weapons and magic.
Traditionally, the magic that lizardmen practiced involved possessing the bodies of warriors with spirits to amp up their strength. But then some shamans caught wind of elves fighting by infusing their weapons with spirit powers and thought, “Hey, let’s give this a whirl!”
They were trying to possess spirits into the weapons crafted from obsidian.
Pushing a spirit with a will of its own into a weapon? That idea felt a bit off for lizardmen who usually considered spirits more like buddies; most spirits outright refused to stay in weapons.
Except for one type of spirit.
The earth spirit.
For the earth spirit, made of rock and soil, obsidian, playing the role of a blade in the lizardmen’s weapons, felt like a piece of itself.
And so, the chemistry between obsidian and earth spirits turned out to be fantastic! With the earth spirits residing in the obsidian blades, lizardmen were able to make their blades tougher and more resilient, creating obsidian blades that barely break!
Moreover, this method… infusing weapons with spirits may harness less power compared to full-on spirit possession, but hey, no risk of the spirits stealing your body, so that’s a plus!
Lizardmen who weren’t too good at spirit possession began to adopt this way of doing things.
So, they dubbed this magic “spirit weapon art” and started using it like it’s their new favorite toy.
Hmm… I’m really not sure how this ended up as a tangent from why lizardmen didn’t use iron. Anyway, let’s wrap it up about the spirit art here.
But isn’t it fascinating? The tales of the elven spirit swords spreading to lizardmen, leading them to mimic the technique and create a fresh magic called spirit weapon art.
Indeed, life is full of surprises…
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
The magic of possessing earth spirits in obsidian blades to boost the weapon’s strength. Spirit Weapon Art.
The claim that its origin lies in the barbaric spirit magic, the spirit swords used by some elves, is undeniably off the mark.
Spirit Weapon Art and spirit swords are entirely separate techniques, and their attitudes toward spirits are different.
It just so happened that similar ideas overlapped and converged through a similar process. Spirit swords aren’t the original of Spirit Weapon Art.
For evidence, let’s look at the differences between spirit swords and spirit weapon art…
“Hey. You can’t go writing lies, you know.”
“Oh my, why are you saying that?”
“Why? Because lizardmen’s spirit weapon art is just a lower-tier version of spirit swords! The weapons they can use are limited to lizardmen’s obsidian weapons, and they can only possess earth spirits! It’s just a minor copycat version that steals a bit from spirit swords!”
At the elf’s words, the female lizardman chuckled and said,
“The lizardmen don’t need those flashy spirit swords. We’ve got the obsidian and the magic of connecting with spirits, a gift from the Creator Dragon God. Plus, with our sturdy bodies, we can tackle any problem without needing to swap out spirits like they’re tools, unlike your fancy spirit swords.”
“That’s a bit harsh! It’s clear this side is the original! It’s even written in history! It appeared during the 1st Dwarf-Elf Tribal War! This technique has been passed down since ancient times!”
The female lizardman frowned at that comment.
“The magic of the lizardmen…”
“Right now, we’re only talking about spirit swords and spirit weapon art! Don’t drag the entire magic system into this!”
The elf and the female lizardman started to growl at each other.
As the tension rose in the atmosphere,
“Whew… Creator Dragon God, grant me more patience…”
“Did you call me?”
“No, I didn’t.”
An odd peace was restored by the silver-haired girl who seems to pop up around the female lizardman quite a bit.
“Don’t fight.”
“We’re not fighting. Just a little disagreement.”
“Yeah, it’s nothing, so don’t sweat it.”
The elf and the lizardman spoke as casually as ever. Watching them, the silver-haired girl with dragon horns softly chimed in.
“No fighting, got it?”
“Yes, we won’t fight.”
“Right, it’s just that we get along so well it looks like we’re about to fight.”
“Oh, and spirit weapon art did take some cues from the spirit swords. There wasn’t any direct exchange, just some rumors that got tossed around.”
At the silver-haired dragon priestess’s words, the female lizardman clammed up while the elf wore a smug smile of victory.
– From the adventure records of a certain hero party.
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