Supply Chain Stabilization (3)
Supply Chain Stabilization (3)
"Great King-isiyeo! The things from below the mountain have finally gone completely bonkers!"
Mining Foreman Yorim Greg reported to the Dwarf Hold, venting his frustration.
It was indeed a dire situation, as hundreds of miners had returned limping and empty-handed all at once.
"To plunder the land passed down by our ancestors, hmph! Summon the Hold meeting!"
...Strictly speaking, it hadn't been passed down by their ancestors.
Dwarves live for hundreds of years.
And they had only sneakily occupied that land a mere hundred years ago.
But such trivial facts were completely unimportant.
What mattered was only the rage at having their precious land stolen right now.
"Do you know how much technology we passed down to them? Those ungrateful, wild little brats finally did it."
"I knew this would happen one day, tsk tsk."
"This time, we must properly show those things from below the mountain our power and discipline them!"
"Right, do you think we aren't doing it because we can't? It's just that the human technology is so pathetic that there's no need to even bother dealing with them!"
The leaders of each Hold, scattered throughout the cold snowy mountains of the north, gathered and resolved to stand against this outrageous act of occupation.
...Strictly speaking, the dwarves had never actually passed down any technology.
But how could humans, who don't even know tradition or ancestors, make things better than dwarves?
Lunatium's sleek industrial products must surely be copycats made by looking at their own goods.
"Uhm, Great King-isiyeo."
"Greg. Do you have something else to suggest?"
Greg attended the Hold Chief meeting as the key witness to this Northern Invasion incident by Lunatium.
As a young blood of only seventy-eight years, he had quite an open mind for a dwarf.
"They are bastards who don't even know tradition, but they forged their steel harder than they look. Aside from the fact that the tools of my mining team brothers have slightly dulled, there is simply no metal that can follow them in terms of sharpness and hardness."
Even pickaxes and shovel blades contained the dwarf's signature high-quality iron, Rune Iron forged with fairies.
However, Lunatium's living lumps of metal didn't provide any satisfying feedback even when struck with tools containing Rune Iron.
Therefore, he wanted to suggest that since human steel also had sufficiently tough aspects, they should keep that in mind and prepare accordingly.
It was a sincere piece of advice, putting aside his affection for his own race's technology and traditions.
"Keu, kuhahahaha!"
"Wahahahaha!"
"Looking at him again, that friend has a very short and funny beard!"
But what returned was a boisterous laugh from the Hold Chiefs, half-mockery and half-sincerity.
"Kkeuk, living our whole lives surrounded by minerals and fairies is what we dwarves do, Greg."
"The weight of history and tradition living and breathing is not something that disappears easily."
"How could those pieces of trash, born from the hands of clumsy and lacking humans, ever surpass our unique Rune Iron?"
"But Great King-isiyeo. I am not reporting a falsehood-"
"Enough!"
Greg's earnest attempt at persuasion was dismissed before it even began.
The Hold Chiefs, eyes wide with indignation, said.
"Anything more than that is disrespectful to the Ancestor God who has always been with us."
"Young man. Just because you are overflowing with talent, do not insult the way of the ancestors that allowed us to be here today."
"Hmm, hmm. The truth that has remained unchanged throughout the ages is guiding us. Young ones always have to act reckless and get burned to realize. The fact that the ancestors' way was always right."
"The reason we continue to live in these rugged mountains today is because our ancestors walked the right path while going through trial and error. If you think you, Greg, are smarter and more insightful than the tens of thousands of dwarf ancestors who perished in these Ailheim Mountains, then keep in mind that it is a very big arrogance and miscalculation."
"I have thought wrongly, very wrongly, elders...."
Under the unified rebuke of leaders who were hundreds of years old, Greg had to shrink back without being able to say a word.
It was always like this.
Whenever he tried to bring even a little bit of change or innovation, they would bring up tradition and ancestors, forcing him to stick to the old ways.
It was in that same context that Greg would go to the mines where everyone wanted to swing pickaxes and just take a nap.
Because if he found even a slightly more efficient process or method, they would open their eyes wide, find fault, and force him to stick to the old ways.
His forcibly castrated initiative and desire for improvement were what led him to learned helplessness and a sickness of the heart.
"Those wild human bastards. What do you think is the reason they couldn't even touch our mountains for over a century and a half? It's because, unlike us who have adapted here, they didn't have the confidence to adapt to the rugged and harsh mountains."
"The reason they poked us this time is just because those short-lived humans forgot the wisdom of the sages that the mountains belong to the dwarves, and in their stupidity, blinded by their own greed, they are trying to make the mountain their own. You don't need to worry too much."
"Before we even send out our proud mountain army, I should be worried about whether they will run away with their tails between their legs, surprised by the mountain weather that is more barren and harsh than they imagined!"
Wahahaha-!
The Hold Chiefs laughed and chatted complacently, confident of victory before even fighting.
For some reason, Greg felt that he wanted those old folks to be severely.
And very, very harshly taught a lesson this time.
///
Northern Mountain Range, Hill 395.
"Oh, I can feel it, this one."
Shields can also make excellent snow shovels.
Kwajik!
I dug into the ground with mechanical intuition.
Ung-ung-ung....
Sure enough, a glowing Runestone was buried at quite a distance from the surface.
Wajangchang-!
I easily smashed the blue-glowing stele with my fist.
"It's exciting to think I only have 394 more to break."
[W-what on earth is that? And more importantly, how did you find it, Trixie-nim...? The road scan didn't pick up anything!]
"The whole area is just calm rocks. If there's a part where magic power feels this intense, how could I not find it?"
[Eeeeeeek?? Y-you can detect magic power...?! I know Trixie-nim is special, but as far as I know, the human-specific magic engine cannot be imitated by existing Lunatium technology?? What are you talking about, really.]
"Just assume it's possible because it's me."
[That would make me feel better ㅠ No matter how much I peel back the layers, the General Director keeps revealing strange things that are outside of expectations....]
Leaving aside Elara, who was sniffling in helplessness after learning to give up.
Runestone.
The dwarf's unique medium for rune magic.
It acts as a storage battery that gathers mana scattered in the natural world into a single point.
All of the dwarves' rune-based technology originates from using this Runestone as a medium.
Naturally, it was a top-secret of the dwarves that even Elara, who knows this and that, couldn't possibly know.
Fortunately, thanks to reading the novel, I knew the identity of the runes.
There was a scenario in the novel where the female lead eventually overcame a crisis with dwarf equipment and Runestones.
Something about utilizing Runestones and equipment hidden in the mansion in advance to counter an assassin—what she said doesn't matter.
"Do you see it, Elara? There are fairies stuck all over this place."
[...I don't see anything on the screen.]
"I suppose it was too high-level a demand to make of a moronic AI that can't even see the flow of magic power. I'm sorry, Elara."
[Ugyaaaaak seriously! You're the one who's exceptional, Trixie-nim!!]
Leaving the useless Elara aside, I observe the fairies.
As the stele breaks, the fairies that had been trapped inside scatter brilliant colors of magic power of all sorts and show curiosity toward me.
Fairy.
The core of rune magic.
Magic lifeforms that have gained will by gathering mana wandering in the natural world.
'To think they'd actually trap these poor little friends to use them, those nasty things.'
The dwarf race was as greedy as they were sturdy in appearance.
In exchange for their naturally robust bodies, the human-species-specific magical talent had degraded.
If dwarves couldn't get magic efficiency and failed, couldn't they just ignorantly pour in magic power?
Rune magic was created after they threw a tantrum trying to use magic by any means necessary with that line of thinking.
The principle is simple.
Fairies are beings filled with mana.
If you use fairies as biological batteries and utilize them as the source of magic activation, you can perform miracles called magic, albeit in a limited way.
And the Runestone is, in a sense, a cage that captures and traps fairies like this.
'So that's why they don't come down below the mountain.'
Because they are cowards who only want to fight on their home ground where they have pre-planted Runestones.
Rune Iron, equipment crafted with rune-engraving techniques?
It's like they've embedded localized Runestones into the weapons.
That's why they are already more powerful than swords made in the Empire's artisanal forges, but they become even harder and sharper in places where Runestones exist.
Because they can connect to the external battery, the Runestone, and emit high output.
Therefore, by using the simple and ignorant method of digging them all out and smashing them myself, I should be able to turn the confident dwarves into scarecrows.
"Shoo, shoo. I'm busy. I know you're thankful and grateful to me for freeing you, but it's troublesome, so please leave now. Go live a free life somewhere."
-...!
The fairies that had been trapped in the stele were somehow flapping their wings and sticking to my body, showing no intention of leaving.
Physically, it's not like they're hindering my movement, but there is a very big inconvenience in that it's distracting.
That was when it happened.
"Huh?"
Paaaa-!
In the blink of an eye, the fairies voluntarily melt into my body and disappear.
No.
The Runestone was naturally made of minerals.
And since I am a machine, I do contain minerals.
"...I went through the trouble of freeing you, so what are you doing making me into a Runestone? Are you all confinement fetishists?"
Inside my body, no, inside my chassis, I feel a surging, pure magic power I have never felt before in my life.
At this rate, it feels like I could not only detect magic power but actually use magic.
"Heh, this is truly fucked up."
The number of steles I have to dig out is no longer 394.
It has become 394 magic potions that I have to eat up.