Reincarnated as a Dwarf

Rune Class, take two

“Kvalinn. Take a seat.” Elder Thrikrondromm didn’t have more than a couple empty beer mugs on his desk, and his face only radiated a little murderous rage, but he was flexing his hand as if he had just finished writing a novel with pen and paper. Once I was seated, he took an extremely large book and gently placed it on my desk.

“This is my book of runes.” The Elder said in a solemn voice. “After what I witnessed the testing room turn into yesterday, it is clear to me that teaching you the theory behind the runes is insufficient for now, and I must teach you how to craft a stable rune, before your power and ambition bring down the mountain upon us.” 

I reached out tentatively to touch the book. It was the first one I had seen since I had been reborn in this world and I was filled with excitement. The cover seemed to be made of the hide of some type of reptile, later I found that it was bound in dragon skin. Opening to the first page, I saw that instead of being filled with paper or parchment, the words were carved out of thin sheets of mithril, the runes stood out slightly against the surface, like braille but with runes instead of the dots.

Yippee! More runes to make! I wonder if I can modify any of them to play Doom Eternal? Heck, I'd settle for playing Oregan Trail on a magic floppy disk.

Anxious to learn more about the runes, I went to pull the book closer to me but was stopped when Elder Thrikrondromm slammed the cover shut and began lecturing me in a fierce tone. 

“Do you think the secrets of the Rune Smithing Guild are so freely given? No! In opening this book, and learning from its wisdom. You will be binding yourself to join the rune smithing guild when you come of age, and if you break our rules, then you will be forced to shave your beard, your tongue will be cut out, and then you will be cast out of the mountain. Not even allowed to even acknowledge yourself as a dwarf, or speak our tongue. Do you accept these terms? Bear in mind, Thane Throdhengrun is growing concerned about your abilities, and the knowledge that I shall be teaching you is the only thing preventing him from investigating further.”

Elder Thrikrondromm’s voice softened a little after delivering that lecture. “There are a lot of benefits to being part of the rune smithing guild. You will be part of the most exclusive guild in all the dwarven kingdoms, the respect and prestige that will bring will allow you to work with kings and emperors without worrying about grudges or power. If you are so inclined, then you can charge exorbitant prices for your weapons and achieve ridiculous levels of wealth. Or you can claim some overrun mountain and set yourself up as king, and arm your subjects with runed weapons, there are not a few instances of that occurring in the Book of Records. The final benefit is shared knowledge. At your current age, it will be impossible to convince any in the guild to share their wisdom with you, but as you mature, you will gain your own exclusive knowledge and runes that can be traded within the guild. Now, choose your fate, Kvalinn Ekgorsson.”

There wasn’t much of a choice, but regardless of that, it barely took me a minute before reaching for the book of runes with an excited smile. “I look forward to joining the rune smithing guild when I turn fifteen.”

My comment caused Elder Thrikrondromm to snort in amusement, and then chuckle for several minutes. I wasn’t quite sure why, but I was happy that the dour mood had lightened.

What's so funny? Don't the reincarnated heroes get called adults at fifteen? What am I missing?

“Kvalinn, only humans consider their offspring adults at fifteen. According to the book of laws, you won’t be an adult until you are thirty, and won’t have to join the guild until you are at least seventy winters old. If you attempt to join before that, then no one in the guild would take you seriously.”

Right, I forgot. All those other heroes reincarnated as human, while I got put into a dwarf's body. 

Elder Thrikrondromm chuckled for a few minutes more as he imagined a fifteen year old dwarf asking to be admitted into the ranks of the guild. It must have been an amusing mental image, because he kept laughing to himself for longer than I thought was funny. Eventually he returned to teaching mode, and began teaching me how the runes worked. 

To start the lesson, Elder Thrikrondromm told me a bit about the gods in this world. When a god died, their body exploded into tiny particles, spreading their celestial essence across the world thus allowing them to return to life after a certain amount of time, albeit with drastically reduced power that took millenia to recover. These particles were the basis of magic, humans and other species were able to use these ‘god-particles’ to cast magic spells for both war and daily life. But since Dwarves had been created without the ability to use magic, dwarven rune smiths used their forge songs and force of will to coax the gods power into the weapons.

“Back when the world was younger, and the gods possessed infinitely more power, my teacher's teacher was able to make a rune powerful enough to destroy entire armies just by humming the forge song. But since the gods have been relatively peaceful for the last few millennia, there is less power in the air and it’s harder to force it into runes. The only reason you are able to create magical runes at such a young age is due to the rune of forging on your hand.”

I jumped in my seat in surprise and shock. The runes on my hands and back were supposed to be the ultimate secret that I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone! How did the Elder know about them? Noticing my surprise, he grunted in annoyance.

“Don’t compare me to your father, who prefers to pay attention to nothing to his forge. The day after your first day of school, I summoned him to the school under the authority of the Thane and grilled him about your abilities. Once I assured him that anything he shared with me would not go any farther, he revealed the secret of your runes.” Thrikrondromm sighed in contemplation. “With your birth, the gods are either playing their biggest prank yet, or have made their final mistake. I just hope that my descendants don’t curse my name for teaching you rune smithing.”

After a few minutes of contemplative silence, Elder Thrikrondromm continued with the lesson. Instructing me to turn to a specific page and memorize the forge song and ingredients required to craft a stable rune of heat. 

The rest of the lesson was spent memorizing the details of the rune. I was allowed to take notes for myself to help learn the information, but due to how secretive the rune smithing guild was, I was forbidden from taking the notes outside the classroom. 

At the end of class, the Elder glanced over my notes. “Well done, Kvalinn. Return here after school, you need to clean up the mess you made in the testing room.”

Since the lesson had run a little late, I didn’t have time to ask what he meant by that. So I put off the thought until later. Besides, I had much more exciting things on my plate today. I was finally getting to go to engineering class! It would surely be my first step on the long road towards civilization.