Chapter 141

Alright, next up is the dwarves. It’s time to talk about the story of the dwarves who produce and sell iron tools.

The first race in this world to start handling iron tools: the dwarves.

Living beneath the many peaks surrounding Sagarmatha by digging caves into the ground, the dwarves were very focused on solving the problem of living inside caves by paying great attention to traveling merchants.

To the point that there even existed trade guilds made entirely of dwarves.

Hmm, we’ll save that story for another day. For now, let’s focus on the popularization of iron goods due to the expansion of logistics.

Iron, which boasts a strength incomparable to stone or bronze tools. The dwarves, who possessed an exceptional ability to handle such iron, began raking in large profits by riding the wave of smoother distribution.

Previously, dwarf-made iron goods were only known through word of mouth, but now that people had actually seen them firsthand, they became highly sought-after items everyone wanted.

Even a simple dagger showed an extreme difference when comparing a stone dagger to a dwarf-made iron dagger.

When you strike a dwarf-made iron dagger with an easily breakable and blunted stone dagger… guess which one breaks? That’s right, the stone dagger shatters while the iron dagger merely gets slightly damaged.

That’s how dwarf-made iron goods became must-have items.

With the exception of elves and lizardmen, of course.

Elves… I don’t need to explain too much, but aside from a few oddballs interested in iron tools, most elves would shiver at the mere mention of dwarves.

During the Dwarven-Elven Race War… oh right, since the elves won the most recent conflict, we should call it the Elven-Dwarven Race War…

Elven swordsmen wielding spirit swords… now hailed as “sword saints” and their disciples were among the rare exceptions, but generally, elves showed little interest in dwarf-made goods.

Thus, elves mostly used tools crafted from stone or bone.

Still, deep down, they probably know how good iron tools are.

After all, during the Elven-Dwarven Race War, the disparity in equipment often put them in dangerous situations.

They must have realized that using arrows with stone tips against dwarven iron armor rarely caused fatal injuries.

Though receiving a fatal injury doesn’t necessarily mean death for an elf!

Anyway, unlike the stubborn elves…

Lizardmen, hmm… how do I put this? They reject iron tools out of religious sentiment?

According to the lizardmen’s public claim:

“Our ancestor was given an indestructible obsidian spear by the Creator Dragon God, so out of respect, we must continue using obsidian!”

Same feeling.

Hmm… no, that time I casually added an unbreakable enchantment to the obsidian spear as a gift, and they’ve been respecting it ever since. Incredible devotion…

It’s somewhat admirable, but I wish they’d recognize the convenience of iron tools…

At least, that’s what I thought back then.

Putting aside their official stance, after closely observing the lizardmen’s lifestyle, there was a clear reason why they avoided iron tools.

And that reason was none other than their living environment.

Lizardmen primarily live in high-moisture areas like rivers, swamps, and beaches.

Iron’s biggest weakness? It rusts easily in moist environments.

For lizardmen, whose steel-like scales and divine bodies thrive in moisture, this humidity ironically became the biggest limitation preventing them from using iron tools.

It wasn’t because lizardmen were foolish; rather, their environment simply didn’t suit iron usage.

Of course, there were religious reasons too, but mainly it was impractical for their wet habitats.

And they couldn’t exactly relocate to dry areas just to use iron tools.

Choosing between using iron tools in dry environments versus staying in their humid homes without iron tools… this balance game held no meaning for the lizardmen.

Instead, the lizardmen focused on advancing obsidian technology.

They created saw-like weapons by embedding small, sharp obsidian shards into wooden planks, and also made arrowheads and javelin tips from obsidian.

Among these efforts, one particularly stood out: combining obsidian tools with magic.

Previously, lizardman mages specialized in possessing warriors’ bodies with spirits to enhance their power, but after hearing rumors of elves imbuing their weapons with spirits, some mages took on a new challenge.

They attempted to possess obsidian warrior weapons with spirits.

Infusing weapons with spirits having willpower was quite alien to lizardmen, who viewed spirits as friends, and most spirits refused to dwell within weapons.

Except for one type of spirit.

The spirit of Mother Earth.

To earth spirits composed of rock and soil, the obsidian serving as the blade in lizardman weapons was akin to part of themselves.

Thus, the compatibility between obsidian and earth spirits was perfect, allowing lizardmen to strengthen their obsidian blades with the power of earth spirits, making them even tougher and less prone to breaking.

This method—imbuing weapons with spirits—was weaker than spirit possession but had the advantage of not risking losing control of one’s body.

As a result, it spread among warriors less skilled in spirit possession.

Thus, the lizardmen named this technique Spirit Weapon Art and actively adopted it.

Hmm… How did we end up talking about this when discussing why lizardmen don’t use iron tools? Anyway, that concludes our discussion of Spirit Weapon Art.

Still, isn’t it fascinating? The rumor of elven spirit swords reached the lizardmen, inspiring them to create Spirit Weapon Art, a new magical technique.

Indeed, life is interesting…

—

The spell that imbues obsidian blades with earth spirits to enhance weapon durability: Spirit Weapon Art.

Claims that its origin lies in the barbaric spirit magic, spirit swords, used by some elves are completely false.

Spirit Weapon Art and spirit swords are entirely separate techniques, differing even in their approach to spirits.

It’s merely a case of convergent evolution resulting from similar ideas and processes. Spirit swords are not the precursor to Spirit Weapon Art.

As evidence, here are the differences between spirit swords and Spirit Weapon Art…

“Hey! Even if that’s true, you shouldn’t write falsehoods.”

“Oh my, why are you upset?”

“Why? WHY?! Because lizardman Spirit Weapon Art is clearly a lesser version of spirit swords! Its application is limited to lizardmen’s obsidian weapons, and it can only summon earth spirits! It’s just a minor copy of spirit swords!”

The female lizardman smirked and replied,

“Lizardmen don’t need flashy spirit swords. With the Creator Dragon God’s gift of obsidian and spirit communication, along with our robust divine bodies, we can solve any problem. We don’t need to fight by treating spirits as disposable tools like spirit swords do.”

“This is outrageous! Ours is clearly the original! There are records proving it! It appeared in the First Dwarven-Elven Race War! A technique passed down from ancient times!”

At this, the lizardman woman frowned.

“Lizardman magic…”

“We’re talking about spirit swords vs Spirit Weapon Art! Don’t drag all of lizardman magic into this!”

The elf and lizardman woman began growling at each other.

Just as the atmosphere grew tense…

“Hmph… Creator Dragon, please grant me more patience…”

“Did you call me?”

“No, I didn’t.”

The unusually frequent appearances of the silver-haired girl to the lizardman woman somewhat defused the tension.

“Don’t fight.”

“It’s not fighting. Just a light exchange of opinions.”

“Yeah, it’s nothing serious. Ignore it.”

The elf and lizardman woman nonchalantly dismissed it, but the silver-haired girl with a dragon’s horn quietly said,

“You mustn’t fight. Understand?”

“Yes, we’re not fighting.”

“Yeah, it just looks like fighting because we get along so well.”

“And Spirit Weapon Art was indeed inspired by spirit swords. There was no direct contact, just imitation based on rumors.”

Hearing the words of the silver-haired girl, the Dragon Priestess, the lizardman woman closed her mouth tightly, while the elf wore a victorious smile.

– From the adventure records of a certain hero party.