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Reincarnated as a Dwarf Convincing my Father
“Welcome back, Kvalinn. How was school today?” Father was working behind his forge as he had for over a hundred years, and intended to do for a hundred more.Although the forge area had recently undergone one major change lately. After much convincing, I had gotten father to allow me to install a steam powered trip hammer and a third station into the forge room. It made our jobs easier, but it had been an uphill battle to get father’s approval to use valuable steel on it.“It went well, Father.” I put on my smock and filled the steam engine with water. It was heated by a pipe coming from the forge fire chimney so I didn’t need to worry about fuel. “I received an invitation from Bekhi to visit her hometown over the winter break, and I was hoping for your permission to accompany her.”
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Setting out for the surface
A few days later and it was finally time! I made my way to the youth center with my bag full of clothes and weapons. There was no need to bring food, since that was being provided by the trade caravan, so most of my heavy luggage was full of weapons for me and Bekhi.“Good morning, Kvalinn! Oops, I mean. Greetings Kvalinn.” Bekhi bounced up to me with an unfamiliar greeting before correcting herself. Since there was no sun or timekeeping down here, greetings like good morning, good afternoon, good evening, ect. Were never used. Or at least I hadn’t heard them used before today in this world.“Greetings, Bekhi. Where is your luggage?” Bekhi didn’t have any bags or luggage nearby, so I asked an obvious question to cover her misstep.“They’re already on the ca
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Goblin attack
On the second day of travel, there was an event that I had only ever experienced in video games and tv.“Goblin pack!” One of the guards yelled out loudly. “Quickly! Everyone, ready your weapons! There’s about thirty of the blasted buggers!”I slid my round shield off my back, and unsheathed a short sword. In the narrow and dark tunnels, it was best to have a weapon with a short reach, and was easily controllable in combat. Bekhi, however, elected to use the hammer I had given her the other day.“Finally! I’ve been needing to relieve some frustration before meeting with my family.” Bekhi gave the darkness a rather unsettling grin before yelling out. “Com’n! Come and get some!”Wait, is Bekh
Reincarnated as a Dwarf The surface world
Finally, we arrived at the end of the road. There was an extremely large wooden door blocking the end of the tunnel. Kholgaik reached into a bag and started handing something out to everyone. Bekhi passed one to me.“Here, Kvalinn. Put these on.” It turned out to be a set of extremely darkened sunglasses. They weren’t exactly cool shades to wear outside, but instead they were similar to driver's goggles that were worn before cars were made with roofs. Being held together with string and leather. “Since you’ve never been to the surface before, the sudden transition from dark to light could permanently blind you. So keep the sun shielders on during the daytime until your eyes adjust. Although it might be time to go home by that time.” With the goggles on in the dark tunnel, I couldn’t see anything so I had to hang onto the wagon for guidance. The rest of the guards and drivers were in a similar position so we must have looked quite comical. Kholgaik confirmed that everyone had their
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Meeting Bekhi's family
After what felt like five minutes of sleep. I was woken up at dawn by one of Bekhi’s brothers.I reached around sleepily to silence the annoying alarm clock, but my hand only ended up cutting through thin air as the boy dodged around my sleepy blows. “It’s too early to get up. It’s at least half an interval before the waking hour.”“Interval? Waking hour?” The kid seemed genuinely confused by the unknown words until he seemed to realize what I was talking about. “Oh, right! Bekhi mentioned those in one of her letters. Well up here we get up at sunrise to do chores before breakfast. Now wake up!”I was rudely pushed out of bed onto the freezing cold floor. “Alright, I’m up. But I’m not happy about it. Now point me to the fire an
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Left alone in a forge
I returned to the guest room and came back down with my bag of trea-I mean, bag of weapons. Passing them one by one to Dak, who laid them out on the table.“Rune of strength, rune of precision, rune of dancing, rune of laws, rune of sunshine, and rune of starlight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an unusual collection of magical runes before in all my life. We just saw what the rune of strength does, but what about the rest of them?” All eyes focused on me with laser intensity. Mentally probing me for answers.“To be honest, I don’t know.” There was an immediate sigh of disappointment from around the table. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a forge song stuck in my head, I get the urge to alter it, and these are some of the results. And since I can’t use the testing room without te
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Crushing defeat
I was then dragged out of the workshop by my collar to a temporary arena area that had been set up in the town square. An announcer was waiting at the center of the ring, and he yelled out excitedly to everyone in a loud voice once we were in the circle.“And here comes the town's number one! Thredak Fieryrage! He appears to be wielding a new weapon today, a small hammer that doesn’t look too destructive. He must be going easy on his opponent today. Speaking of his opponent, we have a dark dweller who accompanied Thredak’s daughter here in search of fresh food, so we can’t fault him on good taste. Wielding his smith hammer, we have Kvalinn Ekgorsson! Place your bets everyone, how long will it take for Thredak to beat the ambitious young dwarf?”“Wait, aren’t you going to bet on me winning?” I protested. The
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Halfling's Haven
Inside the tavern, pretty much the entire town was there partying. It was the very picture of a fantasy tavern, with a long bar with several huge casks of beer behind it, and long, sturdy tables that everyone was sitting and eating at. It was apparently the tradition to get a drink there after the yearly matches and games, before returning home for the last few days of the New Year’s celebration.“Welcome, Dak, and family! Welcome! Your victory out there was marvelous to behold! A true masterpiece of battle.” The bartender called out a friendly greeting to Dak, before noticing me standing next to Bekhi. “Well who’s this? Did young miss Bekhi bring home a sweetheart?”There were several laughs throughout the room, and even from Bekhi’s family, while Bekhi blushed at the joke. I was about to formally introduce
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- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Home again in darkness
“Good morning, Kvalinn. Ready to go back to school?” Bekhi seemed to be back to her normal self, and was washing dishes in her usual outfit. “How are your burns doing? Think you can make the trip back down to Nurnwuhr?”“I’m feeling a little better, but I’m not looking forward to three days of walking.” I was still feeling very stiff, and my hands were wrapped up with burn ointments, so the trip back home would probably be very long and very, very, miserable. “No need to worry about that.” Dak walked into the kitchen with a traveling bag on his back and weapons strapped to his side. “As thanks for making the weapon, I’ll be paying Kholgaik to let you ride on one of the wagons.” “Why do you look prepared for a trip, Dad? Are you going down to trade food for mead with the humans down the mountain?” “Not this time, Bekhi. I’m going down to Nurnwuhr with you and Kvalinn. I’ve got to explain to Kvalinn’s father why his son is coming back burned and unable to work. Plus, I’ve got to repo
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Going back home
It wasn’t until the next morning that I woke up again. By that point, I was the only one who hadn’t recovered enough to be taken from the tavern, so I woke to see the dining room completely empty.“Hello?” I tried getting up from the table to see the room better, but was hit by several waves of pain from my back. Judging from the sensation, the burned and damaged skin around the rune of protection was still working on healing itself, and since the rune covered most of my back, there was a lot of skin to heal.“Kvalinn!” Bekhi scrambled up from the cot she had been sleeping in nearby. “Get back down or you’ll move the poultices!”I gladly followed her instructions, and let my head fall back onto the waiting pillow. I could feel Bekhi moving any of the
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Snow Wraiths, pt2
As I struck the final blow, and sang the final note, a pain unlike I had ever felt in this life radiated from the rune of forging. It was as if I had stuck my hand into a bucket of dry ice, with spikes of pain encapsulating my entire hand instead just the rune lines. It was so painful, that my voice cracked as I yelled in pure agony.“Kvalinn!” Dak rushed from where he had been guarding the door to check on me. “Kvalinn! Are you ok? What happened?”“N-never rush a f-forge song.” I croaked out, my throat evidently hadn’t recovered from the shout. “Help me up. I need to make sure the rune was successfully applied.”Dak and Grildem supported me as I looked over the hammer. Fortunately for our continued survival, a rune of fire was glowing on the head of the warhamme
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Snow Wraiths
I was awoken the next morning at dawn by one of Bekhi’s brothers. I was expecting to be taken to the barn for chores, but instead, Dak met me by the front door. “Good morning, Kvalinn. I’ve arranged for you to use the local forge today. So go grab whatever you were writing yesterday and get ready to fill all the requests we made. And remember Bekhi’s warning. No making anything that’s not a weapon! Humbart doesn’t need any more help in the kitchen of The Halfling’s Haven.” For a minute, I wondered how he had arranged to use the town smith when it was still pre-dawn, but then I remembered that he had sent one of his kids on an errand yesterday after dinner and that’s probably when he sent the message. I went back upstairs to get my notes of everyone’s requests. Each member of the family seemed to want a different weapon with a different rune so it was going to be a long day. Just as I was putting on the several coats that were being lent to me, the door burst open with a bang that
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Goblin attack, again
On the second day of travel, when we were halfway to Vesturhildrun, we were attacked by goblins. If there had been any landmarks on the featureless gray walls, I would have suspected that it was the exact same place we had been attacked last time. “Goblin attack!” Came the loud cry from the guard who was tasked with listening for their scratching claws. “Goblin attack! Ready your weapons! Protect the mole-mules and Kholgaik, we don’t get paid if the cargo doesn’t make it!” There was a loud clattering as the twenty guards prepared their shields and weapons and got the wagons into a defensive position. I had a short sword this year, but this time there was no magical rune on it so I’d have to depend on my training. Bekhi expertly twirled the hammer I had given her and grinned in anticipation at the upcoming conflict. Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Dark Tunnels
“Good morning, Kvalinn!” Bekhi waved to me cheerily from the wagon train. “Do you have any more fun weapons for me? Maybe something with a little more heft than last time.”I handed her the hammer with the Rune of Travel on it. “Not sure what it does, but it’s at least heavier than the hammer of strength.”Bekhi gave the hammer a few experimental swings before strapping it to her side. “It doesn’t explode or burst into fire, so that’s a point in its favor. Can’t wait to see what it does!”“Hopefully we will not find out on this trip.” Kholgaik, the boss of the expedition again, strode up with his usual dour face. “The goblins have been especially active lately, and several trade caravans have been attacked recently.”
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
A trip to the surface?
“That will be all for today. Next year will be your final year, so prepare your best work for our inspection. At the end of next year, you will be presenting your work to the Thane himself. Do not bring dishonor upon your teachers or this school by displaying inferior work.” Elder Rongrim sat down at his desk and began working on paperwork.“Yet another year over, and another year where you barely stay out of trouble.” Zikruk put away his school supplies with a sigh. “I was sure that you’d be exiled over that last rune you made. The Rune of Insomnia that kept everyone awake for three days straight had both the Elders, and the rest of the town calling for your blood.”“I don’t know. It may have been torture, but at least it was productive torture.” Bekhi weakly defended me. She had spent the three sleep
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Back to school
“Goblins grog, Kvalinn. You look horrible!” Zikruk looked at me with shock and surprise as I slid into my desk chair with an exhausted thwump. “What happened on your trip to the surface?!”“It wasn’t my trip to the surface.” I sleepily started to unpack my school bag. “I forgot to prepare the gifts for the Elders until last night, so I was up all night working.”“Are you ok, Kvalinn? It’s not like you to not prepare for today weeks in advance.”“I’m fine, and more importantly, I had lots of delicious food while on winter break.”Fresh eggs, fresh meat, bacon, smoked ham. Mhmmmm.“Really?” Zikruk looked at
- Reincarnated as a Dwarf
Trapped by snow
The next few days passed peaceably. The storm kept up unabated so we were prevented from doing much more than sitting around the fireplace and eating meals. It felt very odd for me to be inactive for so long, since my father and I worked pretty much non stop from dawn till dusk, but it did feel nice to take a vacation for the first time in this world. “Are your bags packed, Kvalinn?” Bekhi was waiting for me in the kitchen on our last day in Vesturhildrun. I nodded, expecting that we would be leaving momentarily since the trade caravan would be going back home soon. But Bekhi just told me to put my bag by the door. “We need to be ready to go the second there’s a lull in the storm.” “But won’t we be late to meet Kholgaik at the surface door? Is he going to wait for us?” Bekhi just shook her head. “Nope, but this i
