novelraw Chapter 223
Chapter 223
Chapter 223
The reward for this episode wasn’t all that great.
Unlike the Monster Wave, where I earned nearly a hundred thousand points, I barely received five hundred this time.
‘What’s this supposed to be…’
It was better than nothing, sure—but the whole process and ending left me scratching my head.
Then again, thinking about it, the Author’s real purpose for setting up this episode was to talk to me directly, so perhaps it was only natural that the conclusion felt a little clumsy.
‘What a strange feeling.’
Something about it just felt… off.
Was there something I’d missed? Could this really be all there was to the episode? Just knocking some sense into the dwarves who’d somehow gotten even dumber than in the original and reconciling with them?
With that uneasy thought, I decided to stay in the Dwarf Village a little longer.
But since drawing the villagers’ attention wouldn’t do me any good, I avoided the busy areas and quietly wandered around to observe the village’s condition.
It was quite a peculiar sight.
Since the settlement was inside a mine, I expected it to be pitch-dark—but purple street lamps were installed here and there, making the village surprisingly bright.
Compared to when I first arrived, the lively atmosphere had faded considerably—probably because large-scale construction work was currently underway.
Thanks to that, even though it was evening, the streets were rather quiet, and I could explore the area without much distraction.
The village chief’s house, the mine, the tavern, the shop, the forge.
I scoured the now-silent village, searching for any possible hidden pieces, and before I knew it, it was midnight.
‘No particular gains.’
The dwarves who’d gone out to the construction site were starting to return, and the place grew noisy again.
With no better option, I decided to head back to Hans’s house.
And there—
—I witnessed something shocking.
Rrrrrrrr!
Just as I was about to step inside, a massive excavator rolled past me out of nowhere.
Behind it followed a truck loaded with dwarves.
“……”
Did I come to the wrong place?
Hans’s house exterior had completely changed, so much so that I almost doubted my memory.
It looked exactly the same earlier when the Dwarf Expeditionary Squad had gathered, yet now—after just one trip around the village—it had transformed into something entirely different.
Almost like… a factory.
For a moment, I thought I’d mistaken the location, but then I spotted some familiar faces—
Iri, Miyu, and Evangeline were together.
“Miyu.”
“Ah, Mr. Aaron…”
Miyu’s expression mirrored my own bewilderment.
She must have witnessed the entire process of Hans’s house turning into a factory, yet she still looked utterly baffled.
“M-Mr. Aaron! Please listen to me!”
And then her stream of complaints began.
Apparently, the dwarves had suddenly joined forces with Hans and declared that they wanted to learn human technology.
“So I started teaching them from the basics, you know? I even drew blueprints for them myself! But then…”
“But then…?”
“They started building primitive electronic circuits with their bare hands! They rubbed copper ore between their fingers like this, like this—and somehow made copper wires!”
Technology develops in stages.
To do what bare hands cannot, you create tools that grant greater power—and through those tools, you make even better ones.
In other words, even when creating something new, you need tools to make the tools that make the tools.
But with their immense strength and precise craftsmanship, the dwarves skipped several of those stages entirely.
With just a little knowledge input, they advanced their technology to near-modern levels almost instantly.
And the astonishing part?
They hadn’t even used The River’s power—Source Power.
“At first, they used a truly primitive furnace, right? But they said they were heating the metal to make it easier to work with for casting. The thing is, they hammered half-melted lumps of iron into shape just by pounding on them with hammers!”
Apparently, they’d lifted a fifteen-ton block of metal without cranes, moved it by hand, and even made copper wires by rubbing copper ingots until they came out like noodles.
Even after witnessing it firsthand, Miyu still looked as if she couldn’t believe it.
“So that truck I saw earlier was made that way.”
Then I grew curious.
Even if they’d somehow created modern-looking machinery, they wouldn’t have any fuel like oil—so what were they using as a power source?
When I asked—
“They were running it manually… You couldn’t see from outside, but there’s some kind of pump mechanism inside that people move…”
“…Does that even make sense?”
“I don’t know… They just said they wanted to make it…”
“…What an incomprehensible race.”
“My thoughts exactly…”
In any case, it seemed Miyu had shared every bit of knowledge and technique she could teach under such primitive conditions.
Having spent the entire day instructing Hans and the other dwarves, she was exhausted and desperately in need of rest.
But knowing Miyu’s personality, she couldn’t bring herself to insist on stopping for the day. So I stepped in and told Hans, “That’s enough for today.”
Though he looked a little disappointed, he agreed and arranged lodging for us.
The lodging looked straight out of a medieval fantasy game.
“Rest comfortably. I’ll bring dinner soon.”
Dinner consisted of meat, potatoes, and some grilled vegetables. (Apparently, even this macho race didn’t shun vegetables.)
After eating, we each took some time to ourselves before heading to bed.
The next morning.
I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the door.
“Human friends, come on out.”
“Mm?”
It was the village chief’s voice.
I was still a bit groggy, but after shaking off some sleep and stepping outside, I saw the same truck from yesterday waiting for us.
“Did you sleep well?”
“So-so.”
“That’s good, then. Nothing much, just thought you folks should see how the construction’s coming along. It’s almost done now.”
“S-surprisingly fast, isn’t it?”
Fast? That was beyond fast—it was absurd.
From a human standpoint, construction work usually takes months, even years.
And yet, they were nearly done after a single day?
The explanation made it even more ridiculous.
“We pulled an all-nighter, y’see.”
“……”
Was that even possible after just one night? Well… maybe by dwarf standards, yes.
Still too tired to think deeply about it.
“Well, better to see it with our own eyes.”
“Agreed.”
As we waited a bit longer, Iri appeared from another room, bringing Miyu and Evangeline along.
Miyu was half being carried under one arm, while Evangeline was slung over the chief’s back. Both of them still looked half-asleep.
There was this vibe—like a mom dragging her sleepy daughters to school. Of course, if I actually said that out loud, I’d probably get punched, so I wisely kept my mouth shut.
Iri glanced at me with a mildly reproachful look and murmured,
“Mr. Chairman…”
“I’ll carry Miyu.”
I lifted Miyu into my arms and climbed into the truck.
The ceiling was so low I had to hunch over, and the seats were far too cramped for the truck’s size.
I soon understood why—behind the seats, there was a strange device.
It looked like something taken straight out of a mining cart system. Two dwarves were there, sweating profusely as they pumped levers up and down.
Just as Miyu had said, the truck was literally powered by manpower—well, dwarf-power.
“Then let’s get going~.”
The driver pressed the accelerator, and the dwarves began pumping even faster. The truck moved at roughly thirty kilometers per hour—not exactly smooth, but at least it moved forward. And more importantly, it didn’t break down.
Before long, we arrived at the construction site—and once again, I was met with an incredible sight.
Over a hundred dwarves were all digging in unison.
Their speed far outstripped that of any human, shoveling away the earth with terrifying efficiency that rivaled, if not exceeded, heavy machinery.
There was even a massive drill-like contraption—and, unbelievably, that too ran on sheer dwarven strength.
What was fascinating was that, despite being hand-operated, the machine still worked faster than ordinary digging.
“This is impressive,” I said in genuine awe.
The Village Chief puffed up proudly.
“Right? Hanies and Soserin said it’s all thanks to that lady over there. She’s quite something. Oh—and you too, of course.”
“Me?”
“Didn’t you provide a huge number of [Mystic] corpses? I don’t know where you got that much material, but thanks to that, we could even rebuild some of the ancient machines our ancestors once crafted. The equipment’s quality improved a lot.”
For something like that, most of what I saw were just shovels and pickaxes. It probably had less to do with the tools and more with the race itself just being ridiculously strong.
Still, there was no need to argue, so I just nodded quietly. The Village Chief smiled, pleased, and continued.
“The villagers made a unanimous decision.”
“About what?”
“They said they’d help fix—or rather, enhance—your body with Source Power.”
“That’s good news.”
“The construction’ll be done by this afternoon, so grab a bite and wait around. I’ll come fetch you. Oh, and Hanies said this lady here wants to learn how to handle ‘Source Power,’ right?”
“She does.”
“That’s fine, but I’ll warn you now—it’s no easy task. We dwarves naturally breathe Source Power into everything we make. It’s instinct, not something that can be learned through theory. In fact, aside from Hanies and me, no one in the village can even see Source Power.”
“So it’s that difficult to observe?”
“As you know, we just build by feeling, by intuition.
No matter how smart the lass is, it’s hard to learn how to manipulate something you can’t see or touch.
I’m just saying this so you won’t be too disappointed later.”
“Understood.”
“That’s good enough. Now, back we go!”
At his signal, the driver turned the wheel, and we left the construction site.
We’d just gotten close to the village again when—
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
Miyu’s mechanical tail began making strange noises. She was still half-asleep, but the sound startled her awake.
Then, upon seeing the reaction from her tail, her eyes went wide with excitement.
“Ah! It worked! It worked!”
“Worked? What do you mean?”
“I succeeded in detecting Source Power! Last night, Evangeline and I stayed up modifying the mana sensor in my tail to find traces of Source Power!”
“You had the tools for that?”
“Of course! Thanks to the ‘Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong 4 Multi-Tool’ you gave me, Mr. Aaron! I always carry it around!”
“…You always carry it, huh.”
Beside me, Iri muttered, sounding somewhat exasperated.
Then the Village Chief jolted in surprise.
“W-wait, is that true?”
He closed his eyes, taking a deep, meditative breath—and then nodded in amazement.
“It’s true. The flow of The River has returned to this area. My word… to create something like that overnight… This lass really is a genius!”
The Village Chief turned to me as if asking for confirmation. I smiled faintly and gently patted Miyu’s head.
Blushing from the praise, Miyu giggled awkwardly, “Ehehe…”
The Chief grinned wider.
“She’s good enough to be made an honorary dwarf!”
“A-ah, that’s a bit much…” Miyu replied, flustered.