"And be King of us Dwarves!"



"""""" king ah!?""""""



　Suddenly the chief of the dwarves wanted me to be king.



"No, no, no, no, why would you do that?



Yes, master, you're jumping the gun. First of all, let's ask this monk about the dwarf who taught him the king's karma.



　The other dwarves are in a hurry to rebuke the chief.

　Thank God. There were decent people.



"Oh, yes. I was in a hurry."



　You really are in a hurry.



"Please tell me. Tell me about the dwarf who told you of the deed!



　At any rate, I'm relieved that the king and all that has been going on is behind us.

　However, the dwarf who taught me the art of blacksmithing is a person from a previous life.



"I met him when I was really young. I don't know where he is now.



　Let's fool them into thinking I'm traveling or something.



"Oh, I see... ...... then I still want you to be my king!"



"""""Please do me a favor!!!"""""



"Why the heck not?



　Wait a minute!　Isn't this the part where we look for a traveling dwarf and ask him to be the king?

　And with the other dwarves in the same boat!

"For us dwarves, it is the skill of the smith that is important. It doesn't matter what race you are!"



"Too much hesitation ......"



"How could dwarves build a nation with this kind of thinking?"



"Simply because there has not been a smith beyond us dwarves for thousands of years."



"Yeah, like that."



　Liliela and the others in the back were satisfied with the explanation of the situation from the dwarves, but I'm not interested in that!



"I am the chief only because I happen to be the best blacksmith in the village. Then it stands to reason that if someone else comes along who is better than I am, he will be the new chief. And you come to us with the karma of a lost king. I want you to be the king who leads us Dwarves!"



　This is getting ridiculous!

　Oh, my God, what am I going to do?



"Wow!　That's my brother!　I never thought I'd be king of the dwarves!"



　I haven't become one yet, Mr. Gyro!



"How can you be impressed under the circumstances?"



　Mina-san is a bit taken aback by Gyro-kun's innocent exuberance, but I'd like to see her support us if she can!



"Please guide us Dwarves and grant us the works of your great ancestral spirits, O King!"



"""""Yo, King!!!"""""



"No, I'm not a king!"



　Let's see, at a time like this, ...... is the way to go!



"Then I will teach you the blacksmithing skills that my master taught me, and the best of you will be the king.



　A friend of mine from a previous life once told me that in such a situation, you have to shift the subject.

　In this case, since I possess the lost karma of the Dwarf King, I am fit to be king, and if I spread the word about my skills, I should be able to get other people qualified to be king and out of the center of the frenzy!



"Oh, how merciful ...... we worship you as a great and honorable king who has revived old works."



"""""Thank you, Your Honorable King!!!"""""



Hmmm!　Is this a problem solved?

　Anyway, I am no longer obligated to lead them as king of the dwarves, so I guess that's good. ...... good, right?



"So let's start by matching your skills with the skills I've been taught."



"""""" Yes!　His Majesty the King Emeritus! """"""



"I've heard of honorary nobility, but I've never heard of an honorary king!"



　......I still wish you wouldn't do that.



　I'm not sure I want you to do that.



"Well, today I will explain about collecting materials from the World Tree."



"""""" Yes, His Majesty the Honorary King of Lex!!!"""""



　I was going to start by explaining to the dwarves the art of blacksmithing, but then I noticed a problem and decided to start with the training of material extraction.



　The problem is that the dwarves can only process the young bark of the world tree.

　When Mr. Gyro asked me how to gather the materials, the chief of the dwarves said that he would use the young bark of the world tree. But that did not mean that they would use the young bark as well, but that they could only use the young bark.

　They also said that they could not gather hard bark themselves.

　The dwarves of this village had lost not only their blacksmithing skills but also their harvesting skills.



"It is easy to peel the hard bark. Find the weakest line in the material, run the blade along it and ...... at once!　See, it's easy, isn't it?"






"""""" Lex the Honorable His Majesty the King!　I have no idea! """"""



"What?"



　That's funny. If I were a dwarf, I should be able to figure out how to do this just by looking at the process.

　The dwarf who taught me this technique said that dwarves can instinctively understand the structure of things, and that adults would be able to understand it right away if they practice it.

　Well, what else did he say? ...... Oh yeah.



"It's kind of an application of body enhancement magic. If you look closely at the material, the magic gathered in your eyes will enhance your vision and allow you to understand the structure of the material.



　Dwarves are said to have excellent appraising abilities.



""""""Honorable King Lex, it's not easy when it comes to body enhancement magic!



　Hmm?　What do you mean?　Dwarf body enhancement magic is a kind of tribal trait, and should have been used since birth. ......



"Chief, come here for a moment and take a good look at this material. Please look at it while thinking about where the blade should be placed to make a cut.



"ha,ha ......"



　I call the chief dwarf and ask him to take a closer look at the bark I have cut out.

　I then observe the dwarf chief looking at the bark.



"Ji ......"



　I pay attention to the overall flow of magic, especially the flow of magic around the eyes.

　As a result, I found a problem in the dwarf chief.



"I knew it!"



"Yes?　What is it?"



"I was just looking at the flow of magic inside the chief, and I saw that the magic in his body was hardly moving at all.



"Magic?　What kind of ...... is that?　We Dwarves can't use magic, so we don't have any magic.



　Both the chief and the dwarves tilted their heads, wondering what he was talking about.

　I guess this is where I'm wrong.



"No, dwarves can use magic too.



"""""" Eh?　We can use magic too?



"Is it true?　Your Majesty the Honorable King Rex?



　The dwarf chief rolls his eyes and asks me if it's true.



"...... Can you stop calling me the Honorary King for now?　It's too long."



"So, Master Lex, then?"



　Will His Majesty ever go away?



"If possible, please do away with His Majesty, too."



How about "Honorary Master Lex?"



"Well, that's ......."



　After getting myself together, I give a lecture to the dwarves on how to use body enhancement magic.



"It is true that dwarves are not good at magic that flies around and attacks the enemy. But that is because of the characteristics of the Dwarven race.



"Race characteristics?"



Yes, Dwarves specialize in a kind of magic called "physical enhancement" which strengthens the body. You are highly suited to magic that interferes with your own body, but not to emission magic that interferes with the outside.



"Oh, I didn't know that."



　The Dwarves, hearing about their characteristics for the first time, roll their eyes in amazement.



You are good at strengthening your bodies with the earth and fire attributes related to blacksmithing, but not so good with the water and wind attributes. This is a matter of racial aptitude, so you don't need to worry about it.



　This is true not only for Dwarves, but also for other races.



"Humans have an aptitude for all attributes when considered as a whole race, but other races have a skewed aptitude for all attributes. Humans can use the attributes they are not good at if they try hard enough, but many other races are not suited for them and cannot use them at all. But many of them are stronger than humans in the attributes for which they are suited."



"So they can't use other attributes, but they specialize in the ones they can use."



"That's what I mean. And dwarves can detect weaknesses in their materials by unconsciously applying physical enhancements to their eyes. The reason why they can extract ore efficiently in the mines or defeat hard demons so easily is because they know the weak points of their opponents as well as their muscular strength.



"I didn't know that!"



We've been looking for weaknesses without knowing it!



"However, as I mentioned earlier, it seems that you are not strengthening your bodies, which should be a matter of course.



　This is my guess, but I think that young Dwarven children unconsciously understood the flow of magic power by watching the adults' blacksmithing while using body strengthening magic.

　Just as they learn how to walk and speak by watching their parents.



　But when the civilization collapsed, the dwarves who escaped from the white plague lost the adults who had the skills.

　And the surviving children had no choice but to learn and improve their skills by imitation.

　Ironically, however, Dwarves are born blacksmiths, so they could make something reasonable without any physical training.



　So the dwarves grew up without knowing the basics that were important to them.




　Just as there is no way to learn a language in a place where no one speaks.



"So I'm going to ask you all to practice strengthening your bodies again.



"Honorary Master Lex, what exactly is the training?"



It's easy. We're going to ask you to do an extension of what you've always done.



""""""Extension of what we've always done? """"""



"Yes. When blacksmithing, the act of adjusting the fire of the furnace, the act of working the metal. We ask them to imagine what it feels like when they are lighting a fire or bending metal with their magic power.



　Yes, magic training from the beginning!　It would be difficult for them to understand if I ask them to do something like that, so I have to make them imagine from something familiar to them as much as possible.



"What about spells and such?



"We don't have time to cast spells when blacksmithing, so we'll ask you to do it without chanting.



"No chanting?



　The dwarves are puzzled if they can really use magic without chanting.

　In the first place, the dwarves in their previous lives used magic by feel, so they already know that they don't need spells.



"Ah, this brings back memories! We used to be like that.



Yes, it is. And then the gyros exploded."



"""""" explosion!?""""""



　Hearing Mina's mutterings, the dwarves are startled.



"Mina-san, you mustn't say things that scare them.



"Sorry, sorry."



"Instead of worrying about it, you should do it. Try it first."



　I tell the bewildered dwarves to give it a try.

　However, it's hard to do without any support from them, especially when all they have to offer is verbal explanations.

　I offer a little help.

　I remember the first time I learned body enhancement magic from ......



"The Many Melt Sphere!"



　I magically create a large number of super-heated fireballs that float around the dwarves.



"Lex, Honorary Master, what in the world is this?



"They are fireballs as hot as the flames of a furnace. If you can detect the flow of the fireball's magic and find the weakest part of it, you can cast your magic on it to stimulate the weakest part. Then the fire will be extinguished.



　Yes, it is easier to visualize if you have the real thing in front of you.

　In my case, I was thrown into a burning volcano, kicked off a cliff with strong winds like a storm, or thrown into a maelstrom that could shatter a huge ship in order to learn the physical strengthening of each attribute, right?

　......Yeah, I guess I didn't want to remember that.



"The flow of magic ...... is hot."



"Ki, go away, go away. ...... hot, hot."



"It's an image of adjusting the fire power of the furnace..."



　The dwarves look at the superheated ball of flame floating around them, searching for the flow of magic power.



"Go away, go away!　Hot ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!"



"...... Nu?"



　Yes, Dwarves are good with fire.

　A few of the good guys have already started to understand the flow of magic.



"Oh, I feel like Lex's hellish training has begun."



"Lex-san is rather merciless when it comes to training."



　So don't say anything to scare us, Megli and the others.

　Dwarves?　What more is there?　They're looking at us with a look on their face.



"It's okay. We won't do anything scary!"



""""""I'm already unconvincing!?""""""



　Huh?　And we're only at the beginning?

　But if you look at it, there are still people who are not quite sure what to expect.

　For those people, please visit ......



"Clay body!"



　Climbing up from the ground, the clods of earth bury the bodies of the dwarves as if they were wrapped around them.

　Of course we are careful not to suffocate them.



"Whoa!　What is this?



"Ugh!　I can't get up!



This lump of earth is fragile at its weakest point. So please get to know the feeling of the weak part of the soil and its magic power on your skin. Then you will be able to move the soil freely.



　I call it Operation Fureai!　It's a reenactment of the events that led to Mr. Gyro being able to use his physical enhancements triggered by healing magic!






"Move it!　Move this!



"Yes!"



"Ya, I'll try it!　Move it!



"d*mn, my nose is itching and I can't put it on!　Oooohhhh!　Please!　Move!　Get out of the way!



"This is turning into a hell of a spectacle."



"Cuw!"



　I don't know why Gyro-kun and Mohamofu are looking at me with distant eyes, but I'm not training that hard, am I?

　It's a lot safer than throwing a bunch of demons out with their whole bodies tied up.

　However, I was a little too gentle, wasn't I?　

　It's a pity that it's not the same as mine, but maybe I should try to be a little more serious about it.



"Well then, if everyone hasn't used their physical enhancements by the evening, we should increase the number of balls of flame and raise the temperature. Also, let's increase the amount of soil and fill all but the mouth and nose with it.



""""""!?""""""



　As I announced this, the dwarves looked as if the end of the world had come.

　The next moment, the dwarves began to practice their strengthening magic with a seriousness that was unmatched by anything I had ever seen.



Get the hell out of here!



Move!""""""



"Yeah, I guess it was the same as when I taught everyone the body enhancement magic."



"Like us?"



"That's right. When it was decided to teach the body enhancement magic to everyone, aside from Mina and Norbu who are magicians, all the warriors doubted whether they could really use magic if they were not magicians, didn't they?"



"Uh, sure."



"In the same way, the dwarves in this township were skeptical that they would ever be able to use magic because they had forgotten that they could do it. That's why they weren't serious enough, except for those with good instincts who could sense magic easily.



"I see what you mean.



　Mr. Megli nodded his head in agreement at my explanation.



"Cool down!



Move!



　And then, just as the sun was about to set...

　A flickering flame.

　A clump of earth moved.



"""""" It moved!



　After that, it was quick.

　Once one of us could do it, we had reason to believe that we really could do magic ourselves.

　As a result, the Dwarves, who were in tune with their magical powers and consciousness, succeeded in activating their body enhancement magic.

　And when we let the dwarves who learned the body strengthening magic try to peel the hard bark of the World Tree once more, ......



"Oh!　I can cut it!　I can cut!"



"Wow!　I can see how to cut the bark of that d*mn hard world tree in my hand!"



　It was as if I had been at my wit's end at first, and now I could peel off the hard bark of the World Tree.



"If you apply the body enhancement magic, you can improve your blacksmithing skills as well as your gathering skills. I will teach you that tomorrow.



　Strengthening the body is the basis of the dwarves' blacksmithing, no, the basis of everything.

　Their blacksmithing skills will improve dramatically after they learn this.

　Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that they will regain their lost skills.



His Majesty the Honorable King Lex!



I told you not to do that.



　And so the dwarves regain their lost skills.



"Oh, once you get used to it, you'll learn how to skin a hard skin without using body-enhancing magic.



""""""Yes!



"Don't worry. You don't have to rely on magic power to cut most things, just find the eye of the material and put the knife to it."



""""""It clearly looks like it's too difficult!!!""""""



It's easy once you get used to it, okay?