The Strongest Spellblade

“The sprocket are weld on,” I said slowly in Dwarven.

“The sprocket is welded on,” Anerac corrected me. After resistance training, I didn’t want to focus on anything complicated. Having simple study sessions with the young dwarven man was a good way to unwind. Also, I needed to work on my Dwarven Language to eventually learn Dwarven Runes. He also wanted to work on his teaching skill.

“The sprockets connect the man…manifold assembly,” I said.

“Good. You are getting better,” he replied.

“I am done. Two hours of this and my brain is cooked,” I muttered.

“I still say you should learn Driving instead. A much better skill,” Anerac said in Eldarin, sparing my brain from further suffering.

“One day, maybe. There is so much I have to learn and work on,” I said.

“Well, you are getting better. And I need to increase my Teaching skill, since I want to teach Driving,” Anerac said.

“Really?” I asked while closing my eyes to try and let my brain rest. I felt constantly exhausted from pushing myself in my training every day.

“You have to get a tier 4 Driving skill to be licensed to teach and that also means you can become a professional driver. Testing out the latest vehicles for the corporations,” he explained.

“I don’t get it, how do these corporations even work?” I asked. Human society didn’t have large corporations like the dwarves did, the nearest comparison would be nobles and the government.

“Other races are often confused. Since we dwarves have the best craftsmanship, we have formed corporations, that focus on a piece of technology, trying to refine it and make it even better. Corporations have home cities, but compete across all dwarven cities to get market share. Undercraft has a lot of competition, especially in the magical carriage industry,” Anerac explained.

“And these corporations are in charge?” I asked.

“They manage technology. But then there is a City Council in each city to make sure things are livable. Sometimes corporations can go a bit too far and they make sure wealth doesn’t flow away from us dwarves while also ensuring overall city planning. Then you have the War Council, for defense reasons. They take most of our taxes and work closely with the Corporation Council. These three councils run things in each city and coordinate with other dwarven cities. There is a National Council with one dwarf from each city to give guidelines and make sure similar standards are used,” Anerac explained.

“Councils, but isn’t that risky if a legend decides to overturn things?” I asked. That was why humans used a nobility system. Legends could get results very quickly without wrecking the population like my mother did against Crownsmith.

“Legends get a spot with the War Council they are based in if they want. Using the latest technology in Balde’s Maw and to defend our boarders. If you humans start making trouble again, well you better be ready for our Dwarven Battle Carriages to crush everything,” he declared with obvious pride.

“So, your cities are independent like different nations?” I asked.

“No. All dwarves are united under the flag of the Dwarven Confederation. Back before the war against you humans and the Eldarin Empire, we were more divided. Like fingers spread apart on a hand, now we are a single fist,” he explained. Clearly taking a lot of joy in explaining all this to a human.

“Perhaps. But are there are supreme legends among the dwarves?” I asked.

“No, but there are many that are close. We have our own legends. And our technology will make up the difference,” Anerac declared. One serious swing of my mother’s blade and the city of Undercraft would be no more than a smoking pile of rubble.

While I admired his confidence, against someone of her strength, skill, and power, I couldn’t see how technology would make the difference. But trying to argue that my mother was superior wasn’t an argument I wanted to have. She could win her own arguments and carry her own reputation without my help.

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“So, you drive for a living?” I asked changing the subject.

“And race! My magical carriage isn’t the newest but I have some of the best skills. It isn’t just Driving, but there are other skills out there as well,” he said.

“What, really?” I asked.

“Yep. That’s my secret. Well, I am sure other people have figured it out as well. The public skill list will update soon enough. The College of Advancement doesn’t miss much. But can you keep a secret?” he asked and I nodded. “Drifting.”

“Drifting? Like floating?” I asked.

“It is when a magical carriage is moving across the ground in another direction other than the one it is facing. You can get some really tight corners using the Drifting skill. Got a couple of others, but they are known. No one drifts but me, since it is really hard on the wheels. One mistake and they will blow apart,” he explained.

“And that is bad?” I asked.

“Super bad. The magical carriage will flip. So, I have had to spend a fortune on wheels, but I leveled up the skill to Focused Drifting. No one can handle turns better than me,” Anerac explained.

“How does that work? Don’t magical carriages follow the direction of the wheels?” I asked.

“You have to be going fast enough and hit a sharp angle. Then turn in the opposite direction.” I tried to think over that and just shook my head.

“I am not a driver, I am a spellblade, or at least one day,” I replied and Anerac chuckled at this.

“Don’t worry. No one else really gets it either. You have to feel it,” he explained. I would bet The Mathemancer could explain drifting, but I wasn’t about to start an argument and ruin a perfectly good conversation.

“Races are big then?” I asked.

“Once a month, and they are huge. The risk is high, but they are the fastest way to gain levels related to driving skills. All the serious drivers participate, hoping to out level the rest. Also, corporations like to show off during the races. But things have been difficult,” Anerac said.

“Difficult how?” I asked.

“I need sponsors. But it has been tough. I don’t have the connections. One big crash and I am done for. I finished my last two races, but I really want to win,” he explained.

“I wish you luck. I can’t help you and my mother doesn’t care about such things,” I replied. While I would listen to Anerac’s concerns, I wasn’t about to invest my money into his racing.

“Ah, no, I wasn’t asking. Just have to win a race and things will turn around,” he replied. I mentally wished him luck, but I wanted nothing to do with all that nonsense. I had my own skills to figure out. While racing and driving magical carriages sounded exciting, it wasn’t what I envisioned for myself in the future.

I wasn’t a dwarven corporation and I didn’t have a lot of wealth I could easily spend on my own. While I could make money from the Dungeon, I had my own expenses to worry about. The training hall wasn’t cheap.

It was time for me to go to work on my Focused Meditation and go to sleep. My schedule had some leeway to rest after the daily training session, but there was always more to study or work on. That was the downside of having so many skills.

I had to level all these skills while individuals like Anerac only had to focus on a select handful. But that was the difference between being the best in a highly competitive and dangerous profession and just driving magical carriages. While I had no doubt his job was dangerous to a certain degree as well, it wasn’t the same as adventuring.

The dungeon was actually trying to kill adventurers. The dangers Anerac and the racers faced were ones they created on their own. But it wasn’t a competition where death for one side was the guaranteed outcome.

Still, I could appreciate his passion and insight into dwarven culture. The Eldarin Empire had left bitter memories with the dwarves. They had been crushed in multiple battles, pushed back, and enslaved. While all of this was over a millennia ago, all races still remembered the horrors of the Eldarin Empire.

It did a lot of good in terms of stability, growth, and knowledge. The foundation of the College of Advancement came from the Eldarin Empire. But there were just too many negatives to overlook. While the dwarves and elves had tried to reclaim their lost territory when the Empire fell they didn’t have the population.

Anerac was a single child, with his mother having only one child. The cost of food and other living expenses was quite a lot in their underground cities. Dwarves also tended to gain physical stats more easily compared to humans. That made having children much more difficult. Humans were more neutral in terms of stat gain. While individuals could gain some stats more easily than others, the generalities of each race had long been studied and were known.

Even with their technology, the dwarves just didn’t have enough children compared to humans. The nobility knew this and the birth rate was closely monitored. My father had explained this was a carry over of policies from the Eldarin Empire when it had collapsed. While the Empire itself had broken apart, the nobility inherited quite a bit of the culture.

I had no doubt that these Dwarven Battle Carriages would be sold to human nations. Their remaining cities were too well defended and the dwarves too entrenched without a behemoth like the Eldarin Empire to dig them out. They were focused on earning money. While there was dwarven pride, that wouldn’t be enough to win any kind of war against the far greater number of legends that humans had on our side. Even if only a tenth of the human legends fought, that would equal the dwarven legends if I had to make an educated guess.

And even if they made powerful weapons, skills were far more versatile. That was why legends were legends. Perhaps in the far future there would be a legend reliant on technology, but that seemed a far greater weakness than just relying on basic equipment.