The President called.
Along with the news I’d been expecting, I heard something completely unexpected.
‘The Dwarves are searching for information on the Thousand-Year Brew?’
Right now, a Portal is shimmering before my eyes.
It’s not the Portal to Eliya Kasia opened in the warehouse—this is a Portal I’ve never seen before.
A few minutes ago, when I climbed the mountain to scout out the area where the Elves would live from now on, it happened.
Since it’s private land, a strong group had put up barbed wire along the border, and right inside that fence, within my land, a Portal had formed.
‘When did this appear?’
Just as the President had said, the Portal didn’t shine with the usual blue light, but with golden light.
The very Golden Light Portal where Dwarves are said to appear.
Unlike the Blue Light Portal, which bursts with monsters and pulses with energy as if about to explode, this one sends out a calm, gentle wave, as if to say it isn’t dangerous at all.
‘A Secret Dungeon. And Dwarves! I’m excited. Maybe I can get the Thousand-Year Brew again?’
I stepped closer to the Portal and was about to reach out, but stopped.
Come to think of it, the way Han Suyeon told me about how she got the Thousand-Year Brew…
She only said she got it in a dungeon. So why are the Dwarves looking for information on that liquor?
Could it be…
‘I’ll just remember this location and come back with Jinsu and Kasia.’
As I drew back my hand and turned around, a rough hand shot out from inside the Portal, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me in.
“Wha—!?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected force, I lost my balance.
There’s a churning feeling, my vision goes black, and then slowly returns.
- %#&^$^%*#&!
A shout rings out right in front of me, loud enough to burst my eardrums, and I instinctively cover my ears.
“Argh! That scared me!”
I look around, but all I see are stone walls.
What was that noise just now?
When I turn around, the shimmering Golden Light Portal is there.
“Damn. Did I get dragged into the Portal…?”
I try to hurry back through the Portal to return to Earth before anything happens, but something snags my clothes, stopping me.
What the…?
-$%! @#& (^$%&! ^&$%^&@%^&!
A shout so loud it feels like my ears might burst.
This time, I can hear it clearly.
The sound comes not from in front of me, but from below.
-$%? $%^@$%&@$*(? $^@$%&@.
I look down, and see a man with a wild mane of hair gripping the hem of my clothes, tilting his head as he fiddles with a necklace around his neck.
He’s short—his head barely comes up to my waist—with tangled, unruly red hair and a beard just as long.
He looks like someone with way too much hair to manage, just left to grow wild.
‘No way—Kasia was talking about… a dwarf! No, a Dwarf! It’s definitely a Dwarf!’
Maybe because of that thunderous voice, my ears are ringing and I’m hearing echoes.
I-I need to escape!
“Uh, sorry. I’ll be going now.”
But my body won’t move an inch.
“Um… could you please let me go?”
-Ah! Now you can hear me!
“Eek!”
The Dwarf, who had been speaking an incomprehensible language until just now, is suddenly speaking perfect Korean.
“How can you speak Korean…?”
-Thanks to this necklace. Wahaha!
Startled by the Dwarf’s laughter, I step back, covering my ears with both hands.
-Eh? Earthlings really have no backbone! How come you all cover your ears like you can’t stand listening to me! Tch!
His voice is so booming, it gets through even with my ears covered.
“It’s not that, it’s just… you’re way too loud! Please lower your voice a little!”
At my words, the Dwarf goes, “Oh!” and mouths a silent apology.
But there’s no middle ground.
“Now it’s way too quiet. Anyway, can I go back now? I wasn’t planning to come in here—”
-First you say it’s too loud, now it’s too quiet. Fickle as a boiling pot of porridge! I can’t adjust everything to your taste! And where do you think you’re going!
“I’m not running away… Like I said…”
-Hold it! You! You drank the Thousand-Year Brew, didn’t you! Am I right!
“H-how did you…?”
-I can smell it, I can smell it. Don’t try to fool my nose!
The Dwarf sniffs the air, circling around me.
-Where did you get it? Did you acquire it yourself?
“No, not really. I got it as a gift and drank it.”
-Is that so? Then tell me this. How did you know the drink’s name was Thousand-Year Brew? It’s written in Dwarvish!
“My friend read it for me. She knows the language…”
-Huh? What race is your friend?
“El—”
-No way, don’t tell me it’s an Elf!! That fussy, big-eared pest is your friend!?
The Dwarf shouts so loud he goes up on his tiptoes, crossing his arms and glaring at me.
“She’s my friend, yes. And she’ll be my neighbor on Earth soon, too.”
-Living together on Earth!? As neighbors!?
The Dwarf yells again, unable to believe it.
My ears are really going to fall off at this rate.
“If you don’t believe me, that’s fine.”
-Elves would never leave nature behind…
Muttering to himself, the Dwarf starts pacing around me.
His bushy head, circling at my waist height, is dizzying and makes my stomach queasy.
-Anyway, let’s talk about that later. The Thousand-Year Brew! How did it taste?
Looking closely, I see drool at the corners of his mouth.
‘Why is he suddenly drooling? Is he imagining the taste of the brew?’
A race that can salivate this much just from imagining a taste—how fascinating.
“It’s the best liquor I’ve ever had in my life. It was so refreshing, it felt like my whole body was being purified.”
-Tch. A failure, then.
A failure?
Did I mishear him? He’s making a face and gestures that show obvious disappointment.
“What do you mean, a failure?”
-We don’t need a purifying taste! It’s got to be cool enough to tear your throat apart. Tch.
The Dwarf pulls a worn notebook from his back pocket, grabs a pen in his thick, short fingers, and draws two lines to cross out something inside.
Then, at the end of a bunch of incomprehensible scribbles filling the notebook, he adds a single line.
“What are you writing?”
-Huh? Oh. We Dwarves keep records of every liquor we brew. Since we age them for a thousand years, it’s easy to forget.
“Then what did you just write?”
-‘Tasteless.’ By the way, do you have any of the brew left? I stored five bottles, but they’re all gone.
“I only had one bottle. I think it was supposed to be the last.”
-Ah, well, can’t be helped. I still wanted to taste even a failed batch.
Even though it’s like I stole something precious that took a thousand years to age, he lets it go.
Isn’t that brew supposed to be extremely rare?
The Dwarf, scratching his beard like it was nothing, finally introduced himself.
-By the way, I haven’t asked your name. I’m Brogan the Red Hammer! Human, what’s your name?
“I’m Do Minho.”
-Do Minho? Sounds like a girl’s name! By the way, have you heard the Dwarves are looking for information about the Thousand-Year Brew?
Gulp.
Is he scolding me for trying to run away even though I knew they were searching for it?
“…Yes, I’ve heard.”
-Then you’ve also heard we’ll reward you with an Artifact in exchange for information, right!
“What? Oh, uh, yes, I heard…”
-Then you can’t get away without a reward! I was going to give you one anyway. Wahaha! Here, pick one!
Huh?
He’s offering a reward this easily?
And do these words even count as ‘information’?
-Choose!
I’d better pick before he changes his mind.
Among the items he brought out were common things like weapons and equipment, as well as all sorts of mysterious objects whose abilities I couldn’t guess.
But I’m not a Hunter, so none of these are useful for me.
Should I pick one for Minjun…?
“Hmm… I don’t see anything I can use.”
-What! After looking at these amazing Artifacts, you say that!
“They all look great. But isn’t an Artifact only meaningful if the user can use it? I don’t have a fighting job or anything.”
I suppose that makes sense. So what’s your job?
“I’m a farmer.”
-Farmer… Farmer, huh… Wait a moment.
Muttering to himself, the Dwarf disappeared down a long, dark passageway ahead.
I waited for a long time.
With no sign of his return, I muttered to myself without realizing.
“What, did he just run off without giving me anything?”
Apparently not a nobleman, his voice boomed from beyond the passage.
-I didn’t run off, you rascal!
Soon, the Dwarf waddled out, his hands full of all sorts of random items.
-What about these? I had a hard time finding them.
What could he have brought?
Looking at the items in his hands, I could see he’d really thought about it and chosen carefully.
“Are these farm tools?”
-Ho! You recognized them at a glance?! I thought I smelled familiar earth and the scent of the Thousand-Year Brew—so you really are a farmer! Wahaha!
I didn’t really recognize the Artifacts’ uses.
I just guessed they were farm tools because he’d heard I was a farmer, and my guess was spot on.
“Are you a dog or something? How can you tell everything by smell?”
-After countless years with earth, metal, and liquor, you can tell just by smell.
Dwarves live for well over a thousand years.
And they each choose one thing and devote their whole lives to it.
Metal forging, Artifact making, brewing, construction…
Brogan is one of those master craftsmen.
Even a simple answer carries an air of expertise.
“Are all Dwarves craftsmen like you, Brogan?”
-Wahaha! We’re all craftsmen! We’re good with our hands, whatever it is!
A natural-born talent, different from other races down to their genes.
‘If it was before I became superhuman, I’d have been envious, thinking I had no talent or usefulness at all.’
But ever since I gained the ability to commune, I’ve been able to meet plants and guardians only I can nurture, so I don’t feel that way anymore.
“So, how do I use this?”
-That’s a Dimensional Watering Can. If you link it in advance, you can draw water from anywhere and sprinkle it whenever you want.
“Wow… That’s pretty nice. Then what about this?”
-That’s a Field Temperature Regulator. Set up the pillar in the middle of the field and a membrane spreads out to cover the whole field. You can control the temperature inside at will. There was a set, but…
Brogan rummaged through the farm tools he’d brought and found a metal sphere.
-An Artificial Sun. It doesn’t have the heat of the real sun, but it radiates the same light energy.
“Wow, they all seem great.”
-Wahaha! Of course! We Dwarves can make anything we can imagine with just our hands!
I was curious about the other farm tools, but after hearing how to use them, they were just high-quality tools—not as special as the three he introduced.
“I can only have one as a reward, right?”
-Humans and their greed, tch. Of course! Do you know how hard these are to make! You even drank all the Thousand-Year Brew!
I tried to push my luck, but Brogan wasn’t having any of it.
If anything, he’s the type to hold grudges in a subtle way.
‘A watering can that can draw limitless water, a greenhouse that maintains temperature, an artificial sun that gives light energy even without sunlight. All of them are essential for farming. It’s hard to choose.’
If I have to pick, it’s between those three, but it’s harder than I thought.
First, the watering can.
It’s hard to evenly water everything every time.
I can only ask Kasia for help so many times—she stumbles every time she uses spirit magic, so I can’t keep asking her.
Besides, the Porti Field needs to be watered with regular tap water.
What about the greenhouse?
In Korea, where there are four seasons, being able to freely control the temperature would be a huge advantage.
And since Korea has clear day and night, the Artificial Sun is probably the least useful, so I’ll exclude that…
Snore~ Fwooo~
As I spend a long time thinking, Brogan flops down and starts snoring.
‘Hmm…’
I look back and forth between the watering can and the greenhouse pillar, one in each hand.
‘Honestly, I want to take them both.’
But if I get friendly with skilled Dwarves like this, they might help me later. Okay, I’ve decided.
“I’ve made my choice.”
-Eh!? Slurp. Finally decided, huh?
In the blink of an eye, Brogan had fallen into a deep sleep; now he wipes the drool from his beard and sits up.
“I’ll take the watering can.”
-Good choice.
A good choice, indeed.
Still, it’s a little regretful.
The greenhouse pillar would have come in handy, too.
-Hmm. So you wanted the Field Temperature Regulator as well? But a promise is a promise! The reward is only the Dimensional Watering Can! Instead…
Brogan suddenly rummaged in his chest for something.
‘Wait, why is he sticking his hand in his clothes… What’s that scratching sound…’
Is he scratching?
-Ahem. From what I know, humans are greedy, always wanting more than they get.
Finally, he pulls out a crumpled little piece of paper.
-But for holding back your greed, I’ll give you a special bonus.
It doesn’t look like anything special—a single piece of paper, with a bit of red chest hair stuck to it.
“This is… the bonus?”
Disappointing.
Is he telling me to go collect more red chest hair or what?
Maybe it has a hidden function.
-Yes. If you tear that, a Portal to the Dwarf Village will open. Tear it whenever you need the Dwarves!
The moment when I’ll need the Dwarves…
Nothing comes to mind right now, but being able to head to a village full of master craftsmen could come in handy.
-Now go! We’re done here!
As soon as I received my reward, Brogan pushed me toward the Portal, hurrying me out.
At the end, he nearly booted me out by the knees.
Usually, they kick you in the butt.
‘For a second, I thought I was going to be tortured by a Dwarf. But I even got a reward—he’s a good Dwarf, isn’t he?’
I really like this watering can.
I can’t wait to go back and try it out.