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2024-10-29 19:42:56The next morning I woke up with a mild head cold. Most likely it was the penalty for a dwarfs body after spending so long in sub freezing temperatures. I made a mental note to never make another rune of snow ever again, and since I had overslept I was forced to run to school.
Fortunately, dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances. So I was able to land in my seat a few seconds before Elder Rongrim entered the room.
“Kvalinn! Why are you late? You’re never late!” Bekhi whispered to me in concern as I took my normal seat next to her. “Are you alright? You look a little flushed.”
“I’m fine, testing the rune yesterday made it freeze in the testing room and got me stuck in there for a while. But it’s nothing serious. I just need to stand closer to the fire for a couple days.”
“Kvalinn Ekgorsson and Bekhi Mubrimssdottir!” Elder Rongrim boomed out. “Do you have something to say to the class?” Both of us hastily shook our heads. “Good! Stay silent while I’m teaching the class.”
Elder Rongrim seemed crankier than normal today, and his eyebrows bristled in anger at the slightest disruption. Not wanting to be the target from one of the many empty beer mugs piled high on his desk, Bekhi and I became as quiet as church mice.
After class was over, Elder Rongrim sat down at his desk with an audible thud and waved halfheartedly to indicate our break was starting. He then began a futile search to find a mug that had any beer left in it.
“Kvalinn, what did you do yesterday?” Zikruk asked. “All the Elders that I’ve seen around school are acting the same way as Elder Rongrim. And the only thing that could cause a fuss this early in the year is you. So what happened?”
Several students leaned over their chairs and their desks to hear my answer, evidently they were as curious as Zikruk was. I didn’t want to start any wild rumors, so I kept the story as simple as possible.
“I didn’t do that much to cause a fuss. I gave Elder Thrikrondromm a weapon with an experimental rune, I tested it in the testing room and it caused a bit of a mess.” I shrugged to indicate it wasn't that big a deal. Zikruk wasn’t buying it though.
“What was the rune you used? Was it one of the fire runes? Or did you use one of the more destructive runes? Please tell me you didn’t use the rune of foul luck!”
“No, nothing that destructive. Remember when Bekhi told us about snow? The white powder made of frozen water that falls from what she called the sky? Well thanks to her description I was able to make a rune of snow.”
“And…?” Zikruk raised an eyebrow, waiting for the rest of the story.
“And it kinda got out of control in the testing room and filled the testing room with snow and ice. I’m sure it will melt, eventually.”
Zikruk, and all the other students, simultaneously looked away from me and glanced at the Elder who was slumped over his desk, blearily shaking a mostly empty tankard. They then looked back at me with a mix of suspicion and caution.
Most of the students dispersed to pursue their own conversations with their friends, but one of them walked up and introduced himself.
“Greetings, Kvalinn Ekgorsson. I am Grodin Grigmardsson of the tools clan. May our dealings bring honor to both our clans.” After I returned his greeting, Grondin continued. “I overheard Zikruk mention that you can make fire runes, is that correct? My father is in the engineering guild and is constantly complaining about the costs of fuel to run the engines. Would you be able to make a rune that isn’t destructive but just hot enough to heat water?”
“Wait, did you say engines?” My ears perked up at the mention of machinery. Depending on what they were, I might be able to return to my original goal of advancing this world's tech!
Grondin picked up on my enthusiasm, and was a bit nonplussed. “Yes? The engineering guild has been working on developing an engine that runs off steam for centuries. Thane Vonor set up the guild with that purpose when he established the school, but the cost of fuels has always hindered development. But if you can make a rune to heat the water then it would help my fathers work considerably.”
I felt myself grin in excited anticipation. Steam engines! The first step on the road to industrialization and civilization! Railroads, steam boats, hot air balloons, and factories! All that would be possible with the knowledge of steam engines.
“Kvalinn, that grin is very creepy.” Bekhi poked one of my cheeks. “What are you thinking about to make that face?”
“Back up, Grondin.” Zikruk said in warning. “When Kvalinn makes that sort of face, he is usually about to test a new rune. But I’ve never felt this much danger coming from him before.”
“It’s not that bad, Zikruk.” I protested, attempting to prove my innocence before grinning in earnest to get down to the brass tacks. “Now, Grondin, how hot does the rune need to heat up to? Rune crafting is a bit risky so far so I’ll need all the details you can give me.”
Grondin then began giving me some of the specifications of the dwarven model of the steam engine while I took notes on a board. So far in my experiments on making magic runes, they were usually influenced by whatever song I was singing while making them, and making them precise enough for a steam engine would be extremely taxing.
“Kvalinn Ekgorsson!” Elder Rongrim’s voice boomed practically directly into our ears. “What do you think you are doing?! We are still attempting to clear the testing room from your last rune test! NO! MORE! EXPERIMENTAL! RUNES!” He grabbed the board I was writing on and broke it over his knee. Not satisfied with that, he threw the pieces on the ground in a rage, and stamped on them until there was nothing but splinters left. The amount and variety of swear words Elder Rongrim uttered while stamping was quite impressive, some of them were potent enough to cause physical pain to the students.
Break wasn’t even close to being over at that point of time, but it didn’t matter. Everyone fled from Elder Rongrims outburst, myself included, and went to their next classes early.
Advanced combat was nearly the same as yesterday. With both Elder Dworhick and Bekhi trying to kill me in the name of training. The only difference was that Elder Dworhick had us practice fighting today while wearing armor, and because that wasn’t enough torture for us, it was weighted armor to further exercise our muscles. Needless to say, I stumbled out of class extremely battered and sore.
Is the secret to the fabled dwarven hardiness? They just torture their kids until they’re made of stone?
My next class was Rune Theory with Elder Thrikrondromm, and I just hoped that he wasn’t as angry as Elder Rongrim had been earlier.
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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 t
Reincarnated as a Dwarf Additional Classes
“Kvalinn Ekgorsson. You are late.” The Elder growled out at me. The Elder in charge of the class, Voghigg Bronzebellows, somehow seemed even crankier than Elder Rongrim had been earlier. “If you are going to miss the first day of class due to illness, then don’t waste my time by being late for the second day.”“My deepest apologies, honored Elder. It will not happen again.” I brought my hammer head to my forehead, it was the deepest sign of apology a dwarf could give.“Hmph. Don’t let it happen again. Take the desk beside Grondin and sit down.” I nodded a greeting to Grondin before taking the seat and unpacking my writing materials. Elder Voghigg stood up from his desk to begin his lecture. He was rather tall and skinny for a dwarf, with a long face and thick glasses. And with various tools stuck in his beard and around his belt, he was the epitome of a nerdy dwarf. Unfortunately the lesson started off with a bit of history instead of getting directly to the fun stuff.“Over five hun
Reincarnated as a Dwarf History of the Dwarves
The days of school seamlessly merged into weeks, and the weeks into months. Down deep in the mountain, there was no sunrise or sunset, the weather always stayed the exact same, and dwarves were genetically programmed to always be working. So the only way to keep track of the passing of time was the annual new year's festival. It was a two week long celebration where families would gather to drink astounding amounts of beer while boasting of their deeds performed during the year. Usually my father and I would spend that time working and just get a slightly higher quality cask of beer to celebrate the new year. So I was a bit surprised when Bekhi came up to me with an invitation a week before the new year’s break.“What was that, Bekhi?” I cleaned out my ear with my pinky to make sure I hadn’t misheard her. “I said, would you like to join me in visiting my family on the surface? There’s a merchant expedition that is going to Vesturhildrun, but the merchant in charge doesn’t want to br
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.”
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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
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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
