Michael was surprised with the King’s straightforwardness. “That easy?” he asked him. “I thought the Dwarven Kingdom was closed off.”
Biru nodded his head, keeping his arm outstretched for Michael to take. “It was. But what you’ve shown me in this village made me understand why our Kingdom hasn’t prospered these past millennia.
I thought that I was protecting our kingdom by closing it off. But now I understand that we’ve just impeded our own progress.
So, Michael. Help us and we will help you.”
Michael always wanted to have a good relationship with the Dwarven Kingdom. He just never thought it would be this easy. After all, he hadn’t even done anything yet. Their King voluntarily visited their village and made up his own mind.
He smiled and took the Dwarven King’s hand. The two leaders of civilizations, one budding and one established, shook hands to symbolize their cooperation.
The Dwarven King laughed and heartily smacked Michael’s back. “Hahaha! This is the beginning of a fruitful endeavor!” he said. “And before we sign a contract, I want to invite you into our kingdom and see what we have to offer. It’s only fair.”
Michael would not say no to that. Seeing the inner workings of the Dwarven Kingdom would allow him to see what no human had ever seen before. He was especially curious as to how they produced the best metals and crafts in the world.
“Let’s go!” Michael said excitedly.
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…
The next day, Michael and Biru journeyed forth to the Dwarven Kingdom using the automobile, with Fudge as their driver.
Of course, before they left, the Dwarven King asked a favor from Michael to bring with him crates and crates of beer for his collection. Michael agreed, so long as he paid for the costs using Damascus Steel.
“HAHAHA! If that’s what it takes, then I shall send a shipment of Damascus Steel every month in exchange for reserving my own production of beer!” Biru said.
After a few days, they finally reached the Capitol of the Dwarven Kingdom and were met with a lot of weird stares and amazed expressions as Michael finally showcased the true worth of the automobile.
“A carriage with no horse?!”
“What is that metal craft? Is it alive?!”
“And the name on the side of the door…Reborn? Is that the same Reborn as the beer I’m drinking right now?!”
Whenever they went, a lot of dwarves stopped hammering their tools and walked out of their houses to follow the strange carriage.
Finally, the automobile stopped in front of the royal castle where they were met with the anxious stares of the King’s advisors.
The Dwarven King first stepped out of the door, garnering gasps from the dwarves that crowded the streets. But they would have never expected the next person to get out of the car.
It was a human!
From the looks of it, the Dwarven King and the human were on good terms, with their King welcoming the human as if he were his guest.
“Your Highness! What is the meaning of this? Why have you brought a human with you?” his advisors asked hurriedly.
The Dwarven King presented Michael to his advisors and the crowd. “This is Michael, and he is the leader of the paradise in the Parched Lands. Not only that, he is the mind that brought us the nectar of the gods: beer!” he proclaimed, with his voice booming to the entire Capitol.
“I have brought him here to establish an alliance between us, allowing us to exchange resources, knowledge, and even culture.
Do not worry, my dear citizens. Once this alliance is successful, you will all be able to buy beer without having to hide from the authorities. You will learn the charm of baseball. And most of all, you will be able to purchase your own automobile like this one!
This alliance will bring forth a revolution in our kingdom! We will prosper. Together!”
The Dwarven King raised Michael’s hand to the crowd.
Clap..clap…clap clap clap CLAP CLAP!
The crowd began to cheer and shout, which was mostly started by a few drunkards who celebrated the fact that they could buy all the beer they wanted.
But soon after, more and more dwarves were caught up in the celebrations. They had seen the wonder of this strange metal contraption called an ‘automobile’, and as craftsmen themselves, they appreciated the complexity of the machine.
And of course, by this point, the rumor of the paradise in the Parched Lands had already spread far and wide to the Dwarven Kingdom. They have heard wondrous stories from that place, but they’ve always refrained from going because of the restrictions in their kingdom.
But now, with this alliance, they could finally visit this ‘paradise’ for themselves.
“We want beer!”
“We want to visit Paradise in the Parched Lands!”
“Hooray! Hooray!”
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After the celebrations died down, the King led Michael to the different parts of the Dwarven territory. He showed him the mines, where the dwarves dug up precious metals. It would then get sent to the forges, where the craftsman would make it into a specific product.
Finally, he was led to the very castle, which was built upon a giant active volcano spewing out lava and smoke at all times.
But strangely enough, Michael noticed that the smoke didn’t pollute the entire kingdom. It somehow vanished into the clouds without ever a trace of it coming back down to contaminate the ground.
He asked the King about this, and as it turned out, there was kind of a symbiotic relationship happening between the smoke coming from the volcano and the clouds up above.
“The clouds are made up of simple creatures, too small to even see in the naked eye, and have no complex thoughts to make them sentient. They sustain themselves by consuming the hot smoke of our volcano, and in turn, the creatures rain down elemental mana upon our kingdom, making it rich with magic.”
Michael couldn’t believe his eyes. Just like the King said, this place was indeed rich with elemental mana such as Water, Air, and Earth, even though the kingdom was mostly made out of forges that produce Fire mana.
There should have been an imbalance, where Fire mana was dominant and Water mana was scarce, just like in the Parched Lands. But in this place, there was equilibrium.
His mind suddenly lit up in a flurry of ideas upon learning of the existence of these creatures.
These clouds could solve the lack of water mana in the Parched Lands!