“Welcome.” A bronze-haired engineering dwarf clapped his hands as he stopped right in front of a large dwarven metal face, which served as the front of a certain guild building embedded into the side of the cavern of Inkoran-Tazul. “A bit pretentious, but you get used to the aesthetics.”

The bronze-haired Inko was none other than Jadhund Heimhunter, our contact with the railroad guild as well as Ellaine’s third artificer teacher. Her second, after all, was Grimnir using his experience working with the master artificer Broggi, who in turn was building on the foundations Ellaine learned from her mother.

Jadhund and I had a slightly damaged relationship after what had happened in Gazahan-Orn, where he had preferred to deal with the insane hold king and the Luedbrumdar clan in a moderate manner. Unfortunately for him, they had hurt and imprisoned my friends. Peace was not on the table. For what they did to me, I sent their hold into chaos, severely injured their criminal underlings, and then embarrassed and exposed them in front of not only the hold’s citizens but also the Ankoran King.

After what had happened, Jadhund and I had mended our issues slightly; after all, he appreciated I didn’t kill anybody in the process and turned to the King and Queen to uphold the law instead of taking it into my own claws. Well, I guess he still had PTSD when he saw Mom scare his crew back when we first met him in Gleisvale. She had threatened to freeze them up, so … understandable. He thought I would be similar to her, so no wonder he was so passive.

Now with my upcoming concert, we needed his help. Or, at least, the help of somebody used to making manatech from dungeon core pieces. Haruka and Daichi—the ones responsible for researching the video recorder we found in Broggart’s hideout—weren’t like the Revolution Queen. Still, we had some plans to start our own technological revolution.

As such, Ellaine needed to upgrade her knowledge so she could create what we wanted. To do that, we used Jadhund’s connection to enter the railroad guild, situated just beneath the train station, so we could get somebody to teach and give her some tips. Grimnir only knew about traditional mana engineering, while things concerning dungeon cores demanded a different set of skills.

It was like a general doctor trying to do the work of a liver surgeon.

“Well, let’s go,” Grimnir stated with his helmet on, covering his face and beard to not expose himself as an exile. It didn’t matter what had happened in Gazahan-Orn, Grimnir was still an unpardoned criminal to the dwarves.

We entered the railroad guild through their headquarter’s “teeth” gate, only for us to be pushed out just as a bunch of artificers rushed out of the place. They were shouting something about needing to get supplies or something, prompting Jadhund to explain that they were speaking about ordering new parts and materials.

Ellaine asked him why they weren’t using manatech birds as messengers to deliver missives and orders, but he told her they did. The issue was they were currently in the process of making the fifth train, and the railroad engineers weren’t exactly patient. They were excited, and that meant things needed to be expedited to keep up with the schedule.

“Our guild-hired smiths can’t keep up with the demand, since everything requires a ton of pieces. On our honor, every train is supposed to be better than the previous model. Eventually, we will be able to create a version even better than the Revolution Queen’s!” Jadhund explained it with a strong sense of pride. “That means a lot of experimentation. How to make it faster, less expensive to maintain, defenses in case monsters attack. And all that means we need more material. Our smiths have to disassemble and craft, which means we need to rely on the blacksmith guild a lot.”

“Artificers in general need a lot of materials,” Daichi added, looking a bit under the weather considering he had just finished his public service. The Ankoran King was pretty lenient with his punishment, despite the cultural crime of burning a dwarf’s beard. “You’ve seen it during the smithing contest. Ellaine couldn’t start working until we got the metal and gauntlets ready.”

Haruka nodded. “You can’t start working on a machine unless you have the parts first. The hardware for a computer needs to be delivered, only then can you start. If there is a shortage or people start scalping things, it just gets super complicated.”

“Ooh, you get it, Haruka-san! Even my parents had a hard time getting my new GPU when it first came out! My specs were outdated for a month! People were buying things in bulk to scalp them away!”

Oh, PC gaming … Why not just buy a pre-made one?

Nevertheless, their explanations did make it clear to Neill and me why things were so hectic. So it didn’t surprise anybody, once we actually entered the guild, we witnessed dwarves running around like mad in this grand, mansion-like hall. You had porters pushing carts full of ores and and parts from one side to the other, while engineers ran around with scribes noting ideas down on parchment.

There was even a reception where people were signing magic contracts, trying to preserve their copyrights on ideas. Jadhund mentioned there was a mage’s guild in the Hub area of the city, and described how having them in Inkoran-Tazul meant they could enforce magic contracts with ease. Even if dwarves couldn’t be mages, they did benefit from Aleistunum’s presence here.

“We dwarves lead the world in manatech, while Aleistunum leads in alchemy and magic,” Grimnir stated, repeating what nearly every mage’s guild member had mentioned.

In any case, with Grimnir hiding his face, people weren’t giving him a second look at all. The Earthshakers, those heavily-armored dwarven warriors looking like mobile tanks, were a thing, after all. Right now, Grimnir kind of looked like one of them, so people probably mistook him for our bodyguard. It was better this way, since people wouldn’t insult him.

As such, we continued into the railroad guild without any interference, allowing us to witness the guild’s smithy and artificer workshop. We couldn’t see the new train, sadly, as it was a trade secret until it could be publicly presented. When it came to their products and work, the guilds of Ankor-Nazta were beyond unreasonable.

Thankfully, due to our contact in Jadhund, we weren’t immediately kicked out, allowing us to go and meet with the person responsible for the artificers of the guild. In other words, we got to meet with Jadhund’s boss and one of the best dwarven artificers you could find.

Jadhund knocked on the stone door with a metal handle. “Master, I’m here.”

After waiting a few seconds, he pushed it open with his entire body, moving the heavy door until it was wide enough for all of us to enter. Once in, we instantly noticed how dark the room was, but also how warm it was. Almost like a sauna.

At the same time, the artificers working outside this room instantly turned off the lights, darkening everything as they laid down their tools. Jadhund then placed a finger on his lips, asking us to be quiet as he gestured us in.

With my night vision, it was easy enough to see through this veil of darkness and notice the desk full of papers at the end of the room. Next to it was a couple of shelves with items on them; from the glow of mana, I presumed they were manatech. Still, they were dim, not bright enough to work with.

Which meant my attention was naturally drawn towards two separate areas. One looked like a magma seam flowing through a see-through tube inside a fireplace, probably the reason why it was so warm inside. The other area, though, was manned by a single Inko as low sizzling sounds resounded from there. A bright blue manatech lamp illuminated the workstation, shining light onto the objects the man was working on.

“Wrench.” The working dwarf raised his arm, holding his hands open as if he wanted something. Before I could ask what was happening, Jadhund walked over to the shelves and grabbed a wrench, before throwing it over to the man, who dexterously caught it. “Thanks.”

He continued his work without noticing us, prompting his apprentice to explain what was happening in a whisper. “Master likes it quiet and warm when he works. The door is thick to stop the heat from escaping, and the silence runes keep things from annoying him.”

“He’s not like most dwarves. He dislikes the celebrative nature of our culture. Not even alcohol,” Grimnir grumbled, sounding like he knew this person.

And speaking of the devil, the man himself didn’t let this slide. “I’m also the sorta dwarf who doesn’t care that ya are here. Close the bladdarg door. Freezing me toes.”

The artificer had a soft, gentle tone to him, completely different from most males dwarves with their deep, growly voice. He had the same accent as both Jadhund and Grimnir, but it was far easier to listen to him than the former two.

When he turned around after Grimnir closed the stone door, he revealed himself as an actual grandpa, as in, he had enough wrinkles and grey hair to seem like a senior citizen. His beard, like most dwarves, was petrified but long enough to reach down to his legs, making him a “longbeard”—a respected elder or a very old man. His long face hair was also held together by a single metal bracelet with the emblem of a train on it.

As an Inko, he was less bulky compared to Grimnir, but he just oozed an aura of respect, different from the Ankoran King and Queen who exuded authority. He didn’t seem intimidating or overly charismatic, but it felt like you could rely on this person. Like a very handy and resourceful grandfather who just has the ability to fix everything.

“Zuekluk … Grimnir. I never thought you would show your damn face here again.” However, the first thing he did once the door was closed was to belittle Grimnir like many people in this nation. Still, it was clear both knew each other, considering the old man recognized him through his voice alone.

Grimnir took off his helmet before bowing before the longbeard. “Master Metosei. Lads and lasses, this is Metosei Gunnisor, one of the three elders of the railroad guild and the Church of Chihiro. Department leader of the artificers, train engineers, and smiths.”

The old dwarf leaned back on his wooden chair, rocking it a bit as he let out a deep breath. In the process, he revealed the items on his workstation. Outside of his tools, there was the object he was working on—some sorta open metallic cube with mana wires and a spherical catalyst inside of it. There was also a small figurine of a kimono-wearing dwarven woman holding tools and an orb, meant to represent Chihiro, Goddess of Ingenuity.

“… Pardon the memory; I’m getting on with my years. Thing is, heard from Jadhund I was supposed to greet some proper, interesting guests.” He sounded pretty polite. “Not a zuekluk and … two high elves and five humans. Not too sure what I am supposed to expect here with these kids.”

Aaaaand that was rude. Well, I guess I didn’t really look the part since I was a human right now. As such, Neill and I looked at each other and released mana mist from our bodies, changing back to our dragonewt forms.

[Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Once the mist was gone, I greeted the old man. “Sorry about that. With all the possible dragonslayers, we didn’t really want to catch their attention … You don’t look too surprised.”

Nonchalantly, Metosei shrugged as he kept rocking his chair. “You’ve seen enough transforming dragonkins when you get to my age. I see you’re on your pilgrimage, lass. That your sister or cousin?”

“Sister. Also, she’s not on her pilgrimage yet. It’s complicated,” Neill answered, before she turned to Haruka, Daichi, and Ellaine and clapped. “Come on, you three. The longbeard is already getting bored of us, so let’s hurry up before he ignores us.”

“Gahaha! You’ve been here already, that’s for sure!”

Taking this as our cue, I opened my storage, finally drawing the dwarf’s attention as I pulled out the video recorder and handed it over to Ellaine. With it in hand, she, Haruka, and Daichi moved forward with Jadhund standing next to them.

“Master,” Jadhund began. “This is Ellaine, a noble kid from Artorias. She’s Grimnir’s artificer apprentice, meaning she’s currently learning Broggart’s techniques. I gave her some tips and advice, too. Talented. Quite committed.”

“Broggart, huh?” Metosei eyed Ellaine up and down, before pointing at the video recorder. “Grimnir, don’t tell me this is what I’m seeing here? No wonder Bleidla cast you away after what you and that idiot Broggart did!”

“I hope this isn’t a problem,” I stepped up, causing the dwarf to crackle.

“Gahah! Took that the wrong way, lass! I can see when something was made by Queen Dravlia without even checking it. Wasn’t old enough to meet her, but you’re in the railroad guild here. We are followers of the Revolution Queen! We study her techniques, skills, and craftsmanship.” He then stood up, coming closer as he eyed the video recorder with a sense of wonder. “And this … this is authentic! You see here, uneven screws! All her later work seem rushed, since she knew she only had a limited time left to live.”

Metosei then went on a long tangent, describing every single detail on the recorder while adding small tidbits about Goddess Chihiro. About how she liked softening edges out as it made it look more “modern,” while insisting on coloring all her work. Functionality mattered to Chihiro, but appearances were also as important.

It got to the point that Jadhund had to forcibly stop the old man, telling him exactly who we were and why came to his workshop in the first place. This, naturally, shock Metosei as he hadn’t actually expected otherworlders to be here. He had heard the Church of Aurena had summoned “Heroes” to this world, but he thought it was just propaganda.

However, when he heard our names, he quickly asked us to prove we came from Earth. Or, to be more precise, from Japan, as that what his only Earthen reference point. He noted how our description sounded like a far cry from what Chihiro had written down, noting how computers and the internet weren’t fully developed, and how streaming was a completely foreign topic.

“70s. 80s. Actually, she loved rock and roll, right? Which means, she was probably born in the 60s, since she managed to experience how it first came to Japan in the 70s,” Haruka guessed after all the information we had gotten about Chihiro to pinpoint from which year she was born. When I asked her how she knew so much about rock, her face reddened. “As I said, I spent quite a lot of time with my grandparents when I was small … You just hear these things.”

“Her father is a known rock fan,” Daichi nonchalantly revealed the truth, causing the small girl to flinch and punch him.

“Will you! Stop!”

However, her little tantrum didn’t faze the leveled Daichi at all. He might be a mage, but he was laughing with his higher stats, especially after he started doing physical work under Grimnir’s tutelage. Now that I thought about it, he was slowly turning into a muscle mage.

Leaving this cute sight out, Neill asked the Metosei why he didn’t seem fazed at all when we described what had happening in Gazahan-Orn. He told us he didn’t really care what sorta drama was happening in another hold, saying his life was here in Inkoran-Tazul. The less we worried about everything happening around us, the less angry or annoyed we would be.

“Now, here’s the thing. Grimnir deserves to be exiled; rules and laws are established for a reason! You start breaking them, you start sending all this bladdarg into anarchy. The guilds live and die by the royal family’s intervention, and if there’s no control then every single guild will get more aggressive with the prices.” He slammed his knee, scowling as he gave his opinion on things. “The thing is, I ain’t a fan of the Church of Bleidla! Those damn smiths make things just worse, if ya ask me! The Earth Mother brought Queen Dravlia to our world to help our technological progress, and she did it! She got an apotheosis for her damn work! And those smithing bastards think they can just block it off? Stop us from actually learning more from her work?! Earth take them!”

The soft-spoken dwarf went ballistic, showing his full disdain for the other major subordinate god religion in Ankor-Nazta. It was clear he didn’t care about the video recorder being here, he only cared that Grimnir broke the rules in the first place.

“This ‘video recorder,’ as you otherworlders called it. It’s something fine! Show me! Come on, lads and lasses! Show it!” He hurried gestured us over to his desk, where he pulled up his [Crystal of the Divine System]. “You want help with this project of yours, ya gotta pay me. Pay me in curiosity!”

And we did just that, but instead of using his crystal, I pulled out mine to show the videos we recorded. Metosei watched them all, eagerly envisioning what was going on as these were being filmed. One of them was even the rhytilic alloy video, where he noted he hadn’t seen such a material before, causing Grimnir to stop it before any details were shown.

At this point, Metosei pretty much understood what he wanted, satisfied he actually met some “interesting” guests as Jadhund promised him. He then turned to Neill.

“So, Princ—” he started, but was quickly silenced by my sister. Wafting her finger, she then pointed at Ellaine.

“It is a project the three of us wish to begin for a future event. As such, I do need to improve on my ability as an artificer; in addition, I must learn how to work and handle dungeon core-made items,” Ellaine asked for tutorship, before Daichi came forward.

“We also want to make more of them. One isn’t enough, but Ellaine is worried she might break it if we were to reverse engineer it, so—”

“I’ll do it,” Metosei interjected with widened eyes. “No need to pay, I’ll gladly do it for free!”

“A-are you sure?!” Haruka stammered a bit at his confidence.

“Lass, I’ve studied and worked with Goddess Chihiro’s inventions for my entire life now. Since I was a wee lad. My father worked under the Revolution Queen herself, so I have first-hand knowledge from that ‘Golden Age.’” He bumped his chest with his fist, huffing with pride. “I might not the best artificer in the entire Ankoran mountain range, but there currently isn’t a clear ‘top.’ We are all good, and I am here to grind that niche to reach the top. This ‘filming’ thing as you call it, seems like untapped potential. Like the ‘photography’ Goddess Chihiro once wrote down.”

It was clear at this point the Church of Chihiro knew a lot, and by that, I meant Chihiro did a lot to spread Earth’s influence on this world. It also was clear that Chihiro followers were clearly addicted to such fascinating tech. Even Jadhund couldn’t exactly hide it after a while, wanting to pounce on the recorder and reverse engineer it himself.

“Lass—Ellaine, right? You’re the group’s primary artificer, not Grimnir?” Metosei asked.

“Yes, that is correct. If you wish a demonstration of my skills, sir, you may check Master Grimnir’s blasthammer or I can show it to you now.” Despite confronting one of the best artificers she could possibly find, Ellaine didn’t cower back. Instead, she showed her confidence in her own ability, a stark contrast when I first met her.

Curious, Metosei gestured to do so, prompting Grimnir to lay his weapon on the table. Ellaine then began to open it up, showcasing the wiring and connections between the individual parts. I honestly had no idea what was going in there, but Metosei, Jadhund, and Metosei were all having a deep conversation about it. Even Daichi and Grimnir chimed in when the quality of the smithing was brought up.

“Did you teach the lass that damn technique of yours, Jadhund?! I told you how clumsy it is but you keep butchering it! Human hands can do it since their fingers are smaller, but ya’s damn sausages! Bladdarg!”

“Will you shut it with that, Master?! Focus on what the hell is going in there! Connecting wires to the runes in an efficient manner with no complications, it will shoot out what it needs to!”

However, they were mostly arguing between each other. All this artificer work could be interesting, but I had the same mindset to this as engineers building their stuff. It was interesting, just not for me.

So, I mostly turned my mind out until Metosei brought up the crystal, telling me if I wanted to make stuff with dungeon cores, then I needed it to have the correct functions for them. As such, he connected his [Crystal of the Divine System] with mine and pushed some buttons on the blue screen.

Once it was done, he activated ours and navigated to these new functions, opening them up for everybody to see. As I stared at the blue screen, I noticed the window was completely empty and looked a bit like an internet browser with the menu bar on top. A few buttons were there which allowed empty prompts to be produced, which Metosei used to write some words on.

After creating three more, he began connecting them together until he was happy. He then pressed the “Start” button and then—

“Welcome to Peolynca.” Suddenly that message showed up on the blue screen, causing Haruka and Daichi to stare at it with their mouths agape.

Metosei noticed their surprise, raising an eyebrow to them. “Mages should understand it better, since it’s pretty similar to creating custom spells. The big issue is that you need to connect everything together to—”

“This is just programming!” Haruka and Daichi shouted before they looked at each other.

“Th-that’s the blueprint scripting system, right?” Haruka asked in bafflement.

Daichi nodded. “Well, it’s different. Seems more freeform and less restrictive, since it can create stuff like the party bracelets.”

“And the fact this world has mana! Electricity and radio waves aren’t the major connectors in this world, it’s magic! We need to account for magic! Daichi!”

“I am a mage! Hestia-san knows how to make custom spells!”

“Mana links are created! If I can understand the mathematical principles and how mana effects physics, then I can probably do something here! I-I need to read a book! Ella-chan, book, please! Book on magic and mana, do you have one? Oh wait, we can ask Mister Kushlek’zar for that!”

“Guys!” I stopped the two as they were about to charge out of the room, telling me to calm down. “What is going on here?! Breathe in, breathe out! Tell—”

Haruka grabbed my shoulders, shaking me with all her might. “We might know how to stream your concert using the recorder and the crystal, Hesti-chan!”

“Wait, what?! Already?” We came here to find out if we could turn the recorder into a streaming setup, but the fact those two figured it out this quickly was not something I expected.

“It’s just a theory!” Daichi chimed in, correcting her. “We don’t know it yet unless Ellaine can make what we need and Mr. Metosei can teach us how to properly operate this! If we can, that means we can—”

“Music video!” I shouted!

“Yes!” Both cheered along with me, confirming my thoughts after I cut off the technical part of everything. I just needed to understand the summary!

It was a plan, and a bloody good plan at that! If this could work, that meant I could potentially level up from being a normal idol to a music video selling one! What was this feeling? I felt … hyped up about the future. The future of technology!

As such, that was it for me being here. I hated to admit it, but I was hopeless when it came to all the technical stuff. I just knew how to use it and I liked using it. Well, thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about this since I had techies with me! That was the purpose of a party, after all. Division of labor and expertise!

So, we left Ellaine, Daichi, and Haruka behind with Metosei, while Grimnir mentioned wanting to talk with Jadhund a bit. As such, we dragonkins were left to our own devices. Since we actually didn’t have anything more to do today, we decided to just retire. I wanted to train a bit more, to be honest, before idol practice with Tasianna and Ellaine.

“Welp, I guess—”

“Princesses!” Was the first thing Neill, the twins, and I heard when we exited Metosei’s workshop, followed by our noses suddenly picking up some peculiar scents.

Neill and I turned around, only for our eyes to widen as we grimaced at our surprising greeters—dragonewts. And not just any, but a group led by a black and a silver one.

“Clan Nordor representatives! We lower our tails before our clan’s illustrious princess!”

“Clan Kargryxmor representatives! We lower our tails before our clan’s second and third princess! We kneel before your rage!”

Advertisement A note from AbyssRaven

Video recorder. Also, Ellaine and two of the students got themselves a Crystal expert to teach them!

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Chapter RSS About the author 1 Fictions 7 Posts 1 Threads AbyssRaven Follow Author Tuesday, April 4, 2023 12:37:29 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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