Chapter 33: Subrace (8)
They were our ancestors.
Our ancestors were curious beings.
Our ancestors were creators of new things.
They were explorers who sought unprecedented new answers amidst the heat where flames and ores mingled.
They were the hungry ones, craving more knowledge, more materials, more discoveries.
Thus, our ancestors roamed the world in search of new answers and picked up pickaxes to uncover the faint answers buried in the ground.
At the moment when the silver wisdom of foresight found those wanderers, they became pioneers treading new paths.
They were Dwarves.
So, descendants, grab your hammers. Lift your pickaxes.
We are pioneers forever illuminating the dark path ahead.
Until the silver wisdom of foresight finds us again, we will walk eternally.
That is who we are, Dwarves.
– A Dwarven Proverb.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“So, you went into the caves because digging through the ground was hard?”
“Y-yeah….”
I rubbed my throbbing head while looking down at the humans face down on the ground.
[Mom. I really want to annihilate them.]
“Didn’t I say that’s not allowed? Keep quiet.”
[As expected, Mom is too kind to humans. You play favorites.]
Just shut it, Sagarmatha. I’m aware of it myself now.
I’m realizing that showing too much favoritism isn’t good.
Maybe I should help other races when I have time….
“To recklessly dig through caves? Don’t you know the concept of moderation?”
“But…. It’s hard to carve through the rock with our stone pickaxes! If it’s a soft cave, we can dig through it as much as we want….”
Oh, the human who’s speaking more fluently than others probably has better intelligence.
Well, that’s way more comfortable than listening to them stammer.
“Well then, why didn’t you dig around the nearby hills? Why the heck did you come all the way to this mountain? Don’t you get that if this mountain gets angry, you all will become little dirt clumps?”
[Yeah. Just a little pressure, and it’s annihilation.]
“Sagarmatha. Quiet.”
I’m talking here.
“But…. Isn’t there a greater mountain than this one?”
[Yeah. That’s true.]
Let’s ignore Sagarmatha’s chiming in.
“We’re looking for something completely new! Something that can change the world! If such a thing exists, we figured it must be inside the greatest mountain!”
Hmm… Considering these humans are still stuck in the Bronze Age, they’re probably looking for iron.
But they don’t have to find iron here. There are plenty of other places.
But did these humans just think, “We must be able to find it in Sagarmatha’s caves because it’s the greatest mountain!”?
Should I call this clever or just plain foolish?
[Yeah. They have a good eye.]
Sagarmatha. Be quiet.
I let out a small sigh and glanced at the humans.
They were covered in dirt and grime—wandering through narrow caves with torches.
Their appearance was downright pitiful.
“Lucky for you, you haven’t gone too deep yet. If you had, you’d all be dead.”
Especially since they lit torches inside the cave. If fresh air hadn’t been coming in from somewhere, they would’ve suffocated in no time.
“There were a few close calls with the cave collapsing, but we managed to get out without major injuries.”
“That’s not the problem! Lighting something like a torch in an enclosed space will suffocate you! You’ll choke and die!”
“Suffocate…?”
Huh. They really don’t have a clue.
“Doesn’t it feel stuffy? Isn’t it hard to breathe deep inside the cave? Can’t you feel that the air inside is different from outside?”
“Well, I guess that’s true.”
“Deep inside the cave, the air you need to breathe gets scarce. You stupidly wandered in here, huh? Seems like you’ve got nine lives or something.”
The humans had nothing to say back to that.
“Carrying torches and stirring up dust with pickaxes inside the cave? If I hadn’t shown up, you’d be cleaning up bodies in a few days.”
“Aren’t torches just dangerous because they’re hot?”
At one human’s question, I shook my head.
“A torch needs more than just wood to burn. It requires something for fire to burn well in fresh air. And that thing is also vital for breathing.”
No need to explain oxygen in detail. Just giving them the idea should suffice.
“So that means… if we put more of that breathing-necessary stuff into the fire, it can grow bigger?”
“Um? Yeah, that’s right.”
“Then, if we make the fire even bigger, can it get hotter?”
“Well… yeah, but…”
“Then, can we melt more things with a hotter flame?!”
What’s up with these kids?
“You can melt things, but…”
“Then we might be able to melt different ores we couldn’t before!”
“If we melt those ores, we might discover something new!!”
“Let’s hold off digging! First, let’s melt the ores!!”
Seriously, what are these guys thinking?
I sighed, feeling a slight headache coming on.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Luckily, the ores they had didn’t melt.
With their current level of civilization, they couldn’t create flames that hot.
They were just fanning a campfire a bit. That won’t melt various ores.
Well, a few ores did melt, but…
“We need it hotter… we need to blow more wind…”
“But how? Everyone’s arms are about to fall off from fanning!”
“Ugh… we need to find something… but it’s not easy.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to dig caves and mine useful ores? Maybe there are other ores that will melt with the flames we’ve blown.”
“That’s true, but…”
The humans having their little meeting glanced at me before returning to whispering among themselves.
“If we try to enter the cave, that person will stop us. She says the mountain will get angry.”
“But… why does she stop us?”
Exactly. Why am I stopping you fools?
They just charge ahead, ignoring their lives.
Should I just throw my hands up and leave them to their fate? Sigh.
[Mom.]
“Hm? Why call me? Sagarmatha. Are you managing to keep those humans from digging through your cave?”
[For those idiots, I’ll allow the surrounding mountains.]
“The surrounding mountains?”
The towering Sagarmatha and the few peaks rising around it.
Is that what she means by allowing them?
[As long as it’s not me.]
“That’s quite selfish of you.”
[It’s fine to dig the other peaks. And… those fools. They do have quite the eye.]
Hearing Sagarmatha, I let out a small sigh. Is she acting like this just because she got a bit of praise? How did this kid get to be such an easy mountain?
[Of course, I won’t allow myself.]
“Okay, I’ll pass that along.”
Well, even if they start digging, it won’t be a walk in the park.
The issue of oxygen supply and various other problems still haven’t been solved. And they can’t properly smelt iron since they don’t have the firepower for that anyway.
So… um…
Wait.
If I just tweak these humans a bit…
Maybe they could become Dwarves?
I thought for a moment.
They love digging. They’re curious. They enjoy metal smelting and the like.
Honestly, with just a little adjustment, I could create the Dwarves I have in mind?
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Creating a race from scratch is no easy feat, but if there’s another race that can serve as a basis, it isn’t so hard.
That was the case with the Elves.
Even without my interference, unexpected races like Giants and Beastmen might arise. But those situations are downright disasters.
“So, using my power, I can change you.”
I presented this idea before a crowd of humans.
These were the ones who had tried to dig through Sagarmatha, along with numerous humans following them.
“You might get a bit shorter, but your bodies will become much sturdier, and your strength will increase. If you want anything else, I can make it happen. What do you say?”
A perk that other races don’t get? Have I ever outright offered to change them like this? If they have a needed ability, I can give it to them in spades?
It seems like without this, the kind of Dwarves I’m imagining just can’t exist!
Short, sturdy, strong, and bearded—Dwarves! If there are Elves, there should be Dwarves too!!
At my words, murmurs began to bubble up among the humans.
“Even if you say you’ll change us…”
“What on earth are you talking about…?”
“It’s a bit difficult for us to accept such claims….”
Hmm. So it seems they’re not accepting it easily after all.
Honestly, it’s unlikely they’d easily accept such suspicious offers.
“It’s great you’re promising to make us sturdier, but becoming shorter still isn’t really okay.”
“Being shorter might make exploring caves easier. I see that positively.”
“If we get stronger, maybe we’ll handle pickaxes better?”
Amidst the murmurs, one hand shot up.
“I lost an arm in a cave-in. If I accept your offer, can you give me back my lost arm?”
A one-armed human. Someone filled with the desire to regain what was lost.
Seeing him, I nodded and said.
“That’s totally possible. You’ll have the chance to gain the bodies you desire in exchange for a bit of height.”
I drew upon my magical power and enveloped the human, then regenerated his severed arm.
The grotesque sight of the skin at the amputation site disappearing while bone and muscle regrew horrified some humans, but the regenerated one looked on in awe at his arm being restored.
After a short while, as the arm was fully regenerated, he clasped it and said, almost in tears.
“Thank you… I’ll do anything. I don’t care about height.”
The miraculous sight of a severed arm being regenerated. At that, people started raising their hands one by one.
“Can you help us withstand hotter flames?”
“Of course.”
“I love making things—can my handiwork improve?”
“Sure can.”
“I struggle with lighting fires; is there an easier way?”
“My uncle got crushed by a rock and got seriously hurt! Please keep rocks from hurting us!”
“Fanning to stoke the fire is tough; are there any better methods?”
Really, these humans have a lot of demands.
“Such greedy creatures. Fine. I’ll grant you as much as I can.”
And so, they were reborn anew through my hands.
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