Whether You Call Me a Guardian Dragon or Not, I’m Going to Sleep

Well, next we'll look at the dwarves. It was time to talk about the story of the dwarves who produce and sell iron goods.

The dwarves were the first race to start handling iron in this world.

The dwarves who have dug caves and settled under the various peaks surrounding Sagarmatha were very concerned about the merchants in order to solve the problem of living in the caves.

So much so that there was even a guild of dwarves.

Hmm. I'll tell that story separately later. For now, the first thing to talk about is the popularization of iron due to the expansion of logistics.

Iron, which boasts a strength incomparable to stone or bronze, was a material that the dwarves, who had excellent abilities in handling it, began to make a lot of money by riding the wave of smooth distribution.

Before, dwarven-made iron goods were only known through word of mouth, but now they have become a popular item, as people can actually see the real thing, not just hearsay.

If you compare an ordinary dagger to the stone dagger used before and the dwarven iron dagger... the difference is extreme.

Even if you strike a stone dagger with a dwarven iron dagger, the one that breaks is the stone dagger. The iron dagger would only have a slightly damaged edge.

Except for elves or lizardmen.

As for the elves, you can probably guess without saying much. Except for a few eccentrics who are interested in iron goods, they usually shudder at the mention of dwarves.

In the dwarf-elf tribal war... oh, in the recent war, the elves won, so the elves should be mentioned first.

Except for the elf swordsmen who wielded spirit swords and are now revered as elf champions, there were very few who showed interest in dwarven goods.

So the elves mainly used items made by grinding stone or bone.

Well, even if they ignore it, they actually know how good iron tools are.

There have been numerous occasions in the elf-dwarf tribal war where the difference in equipment has been dangerous.

Even if they attach stone arrowheads to wooden arrows, it is not easy to penetrate the dwarven iron armor and inflict a fatal blow.

Well, even if it's a fatal blow, they don't die!

Anyway, unlike the elves who stubbornly refuse iron goods,

the lizardmen... how should I put it? They refuse it for a religious-like reason?

The lizardmen, who are fond of using tools made of obsidian, have this kind of public claim:

[The Creator Dragon God has given our ancestors an unbreakable obsidian spear, so we must use obsidian to show our respect for her!]

Something like that.

Hmm... no, when I gave the obsidian spear the magic of indestructibility, I just casually did it as a gift, but they are still respecting it. Wow...

It's a bit admirable, but I hope they would recognize the convenience of iron goods.

I've had such thoughts before.

Putting aside the public claims, when I looked closely at the ecology of the lizardmen, there was a clear reason why they refused iron goods.

That reason was none other than the living environment of the lizardmen.

The environment where lizardmen mainly live is a humid one, such as rivers, swamps, and beaches.

And the biggest weakness of iron goods is... that they are easily rusted in humidity.

The humidity, which is the biggest constraint for the lizardmen with their scaly bodies and physiques, was the reason they could not use iron goods.

It's not that the lizardmen are stupid and refuse iron goods. Of course, there are religious reasons as well, but they couldn't use them because they didn't fit their living environment at all.

But it's not like they can move to a less humid environment just to use iron goods.

Iron goods and living in a non-humid environment vs. not using iron goods and living in a humid environment. Such a balance game has no meaning for the lizardmen.

Instead, the lizardmen began to focus on developing obsidian.

They made weapons like saws by inserting small, sharp obsidian pieces between wooden boards, and used obsidian arrowheads and spearheads.

Particularly impressive among these efforts was the combination of obsidian weapons and magic.

Previously, the existing magic of the lizardmen involved possessing the bodies of warriors with spirits to draw out their power. But some shamans heard rumors of the elves fighting by imbuing their weapons with the power of spirits, and they challenged this new attempt.

It was to possess spirits in the weapons made of obsidian used by the warriors. Pushing a spirit with its own will into a weapon was quite foreign to the lizardmen who regarded spirits as friends, and in fact, most spirits refused to remain in the weapons.

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Except for one type of spirit.

The earth spirits.

For the spirits made of rock and soil, the obsidian blades used in the lizardmen's weapons were like a part of themselves.

Thus, the compatibility between obsidian and the earth spirits was excellent, and by having the earth spirits reside in the obsidian blades, the lizardmen were able to make their blades more durable and sturdy, blades of obsidian that did not break easily, utilizing the power of the spirits.

And this method... imbuing weapons with spirits had less power than spirit possession, but the advantage was that there was no risk of the spirits taking over their bodies.

This spread among the warriors who were unskilled in spirit possession and could not possess spirits in their bodies.

And so the lizardmen named this magic "spirit weapon art" and began to use it actively.

Hmm... I wonder how the story strayed from the reason why the lizardmen couldn't use iron. Anyway, let's stop here about the spirit art.

But it's really interesting. The rumors of the elves' spirit swords spread to the lizardmen, and the lizardmen imitated that method to create a new magic called the spirit weapon/martial art.

Indeed, life is fascinating.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The magic of possessing earth spirits in obsidian blades to enhance the weapon's strength. The spirit weapon art.

The claim that its origin is in the barbaric spirit magic, the spirit swords used by some elves, is completely wrong.

The spirit weapon art and the spirit swords are separate techniques, and the attitude towards spirits is different.

It was just a coincidence that similar ideas overlapped and converged through a similar process. The spirit swords are not the origin of the spirit weapon art.

As evidence of this, the differences between the spirit swords and the spirit weapon art...

"Hey, you shouldn't write lies, you know."

"Oh my, why are you saying that?"

"Why? Because the lizardmen's spirit weapon art is just a lower-tier version of the spirit swords! The usable weapons are limited to the lizardmen's obsidian weapons, and the spirits that can be possessed are limited to the earth spirits! It's just a minor copy that only has a part of the spirit swords!"

At the elf's words, the female lizardman chuckled and said,

"The lizardmen don't need those flashy spirit swords. We have the obsidian and the magic of communicating with the spirits given to us by the Creator Dragon God. And the lizardmen's sturdy bodies alone can solve all problems. We don't need to use the method of using spirits as tools like the spirit swords."

"That's too harsh! It's clear that this side is the original! It's even recorded in history! It appeared in the 1st Dwarf-Elf Tribal War, a technique passed down from ancient times!"

At those words, the female lizardman frowned.

"The magic of the lizardmen..."

"What I'm talking about now is the spirit swords and the spirit weapon art! Don't bring in the entire magic system!"

The elf and the female lizardman to growl at each other.

As the atmosphere grew tense,

"Phew... Creator Dragon God, please grant me more patience..."

"Did you call me?"

"No, I didn't."

The atmosphere was slightly calmed by the silver-haired girl, who seems to appear frequently around the female lizardman.

"Don't fight."

"We're not fighting. It's just a light clash of opinions."

"Yeah, it's nothing, so don't worry about it."

The elf and the lizardman spoke nonchalantly. Watching them, the silver-haired girl with the dragon's horns spoke softly.

"You mustn't fight. Understand?"

"Yes, we won't fight."

"Yeah, we just seem to get along so well that it looks like we're fighting."

"And the spirit weapon art was indeed influenced by the spirit swords. There wasn't direct exchange, but it was just the result of imitating the rumors."

At the words of the silver-haired girl, the Dragon's Priestess, the mouth of the female lizardman was firmly closed, and the elf wore a victorious smile.

- From the adventure records of a certain hero party.

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