CHAPTER 479: CHAPTER 457: WHERE SHOULD THE DWARF’S FUTURE GO?

"No need to go for a meal, we can’t get used to human food." Kaelgen called another dwarf to take over, wiped the sweat from his face and body with his apron, casually pulled up a wooden block and sat down, "Whatever you have to say, just say it here."

"You’ve already heard me talk about the chaos caused by the measurements." Horn wasn’t particular, he just pulled up another block and sat down.

"I understand, but your method could easily leak dwarf craftsmanship, I don’t want to be a sinner."

Due to the Empire repeatedly stealing dwarf crafts, they have a pathological defensive psychology and post-traumatic stress about humans stealing technology.

Horn immediately shook his head and said, "You’re mistaken, let me ask you, why are you afraid of your crafts being stolen?"

As it approached noon, several dwarves were resting, and when they heard this big shot in sleeveless clothes chatting with old uncle Kaelgen, they naturally gathered around.

Kaelgen didn’t disperse the dwarves, but instead said with a stern face, "You humans learn the craft and forget the master, snatching away the dwarves’ work.

Originally, we dwarfs were all wealthy, relying on iron-smithing craft to eat and dress well, it’s you humans who caused us to have to live in deep mountains, so poor."

Horn slowly shook his head, "How much of human craftsmanship was actually invented by dwarves?

You know, some skills can be summarized over time.

Many times, some crafts were discovered by humans themselves and not by dwarves.

In human craft, the technology stolen from dwarves is key, yet not indispensable without dwarves, humans can study and figure it out in a hundred years.

As for learning apprentices and starving masters, doesn’t it happen among dwarves too?

I have heard Harbin talk about many such incidents, like your brother Boga."

"This Jiba kid, why does he talk about everything..." Kaelgen’s old face was somewhat embarrassed, and he murmured.

This Boga is Kaelgen’s brother, also Harbin’s second uncle, originally Kaelgen’s father should only have passed down the family’s craft to Kaelgen alone.

But seeing that Boga was both diligent and filial, his old father softened, and eventually passed down part of the core technique to Boga.

Then Boga took these techniques and defected to Falan, causing Kaelgen’s family to lose face among the dwarf community in the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range, and his old father died in depression.

"So what? What are you trying to prove?" A young dwarf who couldn’t stand it stood up and asked.

Horn shrugged, "Not saying more, but we can agree that in greed and betrayal, humans and dwarves are the same, no difference.

As for leakage, relying on dwarves alone is almost unavoidable, Master Kaelgen, do you agree?"

"Get me a cup of honey wine." Kaelgen said glumly to a small apprentice beside him, "Even so, we must try to delay the loss of dwarf crafts."

"Alright, then let me ask you a question, how far ahead is dwarf craftsmanship compared to humans now?" Horn asked the dwarves present.

"Two hundred years."

"Three hundred years."

"Five hundred years, at least five hundred years."

The dwarves present shouted confidently, the numbers rose one after another.

Only in antiquity and craft can they still stand above the Imperial people.

"Master, what do you think?" Horn still bore a confident smile.

"Less than a hundred years." Drinking a full mouth of honey wine, Kaelgen was silent for a long time before answering in a heavy plosive tongue.

The shouting quickly fell silent, the dwarves stunned, never expecting these words to come from Kaelgen’s mouth.

A dwarf slowly walked forward, reached out a thick and short hand, and touched Kaelgen’s head.

Kaelgen kicked out lightning-fast, flipping the young dwarf.

The dwarf rolled on the ground and stood up again, grinning, "I thought you came down with a cold."

"On a hot day, who catches a cold?" Seeing the dwarves around him confused, Kaelgen sighed and explained, "It wasn’t me who said it, it was Elder Dunak."

"Dunak Grandmaster?!"

He is the only Grandmaster among the André Dwarves, invented dozens of new crafts, expanded a market worth tens of thousands of pounds for the André Dwarves.

"Boys, the rate of development of mortal craftsmanship has matched dwarves, even slightly quicker." Using a handkerchief to wipe the foam off his beard from the wine, Kaelgen pondered for a moment, before saying, "With the current situation, in a hundred years, the only advantage left for dwarves will be to become Heavy Armor Mercenaries."

The heavy topic quickly suppressed the heated atmosphere, the dwarves hadn’t even come out of their daze.

If it was Kaelgen who said it, it could still be drunken complaints, but spoken from the peak of dwarf artisanship, Elder Dunak, it carried different credibility.

The era has changed? The glory of dwarves is about to vanish? How could this be possible? How could the thousand-year-old tradition of dwarves perish?

"Master Kaelgen, is this true?"

"What will we dwarves do? My child is only five years old, by the time it’s my grandson’s generation, wouldn’t it be..."

"Master, say something."

"The pure blood El people of the same era as dwarves are dead, why wouldn’t dwarves face the same fate?" Bowed, Kaelgen looked at himself in the honey wine, the confusion in his eyes was clear to see.

"Why do you think the elders are cooperating with the tall woman, isn’t it because she promised to settle dwarves down the mountain and monopolize a region’s steel industry?"

Unlike the Furnace Dwarves in Furnace Plateau, who still have volcanoes and mine veins to rely on, and can return home if need be.

Humans can’t bring the volcanoes and mine veins home.

But André Dwarves are different, they were exiled by the Furnace Dwarves as a heretic group.

If their crafts emptied out and they weren’t allowed to settle or buy land on the plains, they could only be trapped in the deep mountains to wait for death, even captured as slaves.

How could the Dragon Worship Sect elders cooperate with the Female Grand Duke just because of a few hostages, they merely facilitated the meeting environment with the elders.

The real collaboration was when Moliat gave the dwarves a chance.

A chance to integrate into human society, a once despised choice for dwarves.

Yet the current situation does force them to bow their heads.

"So we have two conclusions, first, your crafts were stolen by both humans and dwarves, second, even without stealing, dwarves’ craft advantage is slowly shrinking, right?" Sitting across from Kaelgen, Horn looked enviously at the dwarf honey wine Kaelgen held.

"...Yes."

"Can I offer some suggestions?"

Kaelgen didn’t speak, Horn assumed he was tacitly agreeing: "First issue, thieves exist in all races, there’s a mature response to them, which is to send someone to punish.

Of course, they might not be caught, but it can minimize the occurrence of such events, dwarves can’t enforce this because human realms support the thieves.

The Dwarf Realm can’t match human realms in force, so they can only watch the theft unfold, within the dwarf realm itself, familial ties prevent effective punishment.

A thief who steals, unless caught by the victim, gets a harsh beating, otherwise, if they run far and the victim can’t catch them, there’s no solution."

At first, Kaelgen was still wallowing, but listening, he lifted his head, tightly focusing on Horn.

This talk truly hit the mark, dwarves are helpless against theft due to their inability to effectively punish.

Because everyone covets their craft, and dwarves have abrasive temperaments, almost no one is willing to speak for them.

"Second issue, dwarves being caught up in craft by humans is inevitable, unless you breed like humans.

Otherwise, with the current human civilization level and population, birthing enough artisans and geniuses isn’t an issue.

Talent is the key driver of craft advancement, and humans aren’t much dumber than dwarves, just need time to ferment civilization into craft.

Unless the ancient Giant Dragon you worship descends, I fear it’s unsolvable."

"You propose suggestions when both problems are unsolvable?"

"I haven’t finished." Horn nodded at the young dwarf who spoke and then faced Kaelgen, whose expression was gradually serious, "Do you have time to listen now?"

"Go ahead, I have time all afternoon today." Rubbing his knees, Kaelgen leaned forward slightly, answering seriously.