I Want To Be A Magic Sword Blacksmith! - Chapter 1

The main character, Eiji, apprentices himself to a dwarf to learn blacksmithing skills in order to make his own sword.

Eiji made a disturbance and does not want be discovered by the Holy Sword Academy, so he hide his true identity and works.

＊　　　　＊　　　　＊

In this wide, wide world, many human species live on separate lands.
There are human races, dwarves, elves, dragonians and many others.
Each of them lives with their own god.

Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses, and in most cases, they decide where to live according to their forte.
So to speak, a territory.

For example, dwarves are good at blacksmithing.
They have thick, strong arms, and blacksmithing skills which were given to them by the Dwarf god Pele.
Because of that only dwarves were allowed to create various things from minerals.
Therefore, dwarves placed great importance on minerals as materials for blacksmithing.
It was so important that they settled in a mine where minerals were produced.

Now, most mines are home to dwarves, and are called “Mining Villages” by other races.

They have a tunnel for digging out minerals, ironworks for smelting iron from the ore and a blacksmith workshop where they turned the refined iron into products.
Everything that is required to process what is excavated from nature into finished products is collected in one village, and the dwarves are in charge of all of it.

It is said that there are as many mining villages as there are mines in the world.

Among them.

There was a small mining village that mainly produced and processed iron.
Naturally, only dwarves worked there.
However, there was only one other race working in the dwarves mine.

It was the human race.

Half a year had passed since the new Sword Master, the guardian of the human race, disappeared without a trace.

＊　　　　＊　　　　＊

“Hey, Eiji! Stop slacking around and carry the ore!!”
“Yes! Right away!!”

Today, Eiji was given hell by his senior Dwarves as well.

At the bottom of the tunnels, the ore is smashed with hammers and melted in the iron furnaces outside to be refined into iron.
For that reason, the ore need to be carried out of the mine.
Eiji was pushing a wheelbarrow full of ore as hard as he could.
He was the only human in a mine where only dwarves worked.
Surrounded by the thick and small dwarves, the human’s slenderness stood out even more.

“Eiji! My hammer broke! Get me a new replacement!!”
“Yes!!”
“Eiji! I’m thirsty! Bring me water!”
“Yes!”
“Eiji! We dug a tunnel and underground water came out!”
“We need to evacuate!”
“Eiji! The tunnel caved in!”
“Wha!?”

As a newcomer who just joined a few months ago, Eiji’s position in the village is the lowest.
He is engaged in hard work in the tunnels and is treated with contempt by the senior dwarves in the same workplace.
The man there seemed to be a completely different person from the one who was praised as a Sword Master in the past by the higher-ups of the pure Holy Sword Academy.

Maybe they really are different person.

So, talking about cave in.
It is when the ceiling or side of a tunnel that has been dug collapses.

“Run! Ruuuuuuuuun!!”

Collapsing tunnels are a common occurrence inside a mine, but if you are buried alive, you will surely die, so on this occasion, regardless of their status or race, everyone will run away together.
The tunnels were collapsing.
Eiji, for example, ran with two senior dwarves who had been injured when they rush to escape, but they were still able to escape to the safe zone normally.

“We should be fine here……”

Working in the tunnels is scary.
Not only is there a risk of collapsing, but if you dig underground, toxic gases can erupt, and even underground water can gush out.
In either case, die due to poisoning from gas inhalation or drowning from underground water is a common occurrence.
The tunnels were a magical world where death was a common occurrence.

“Well, is everyone all right?”

Among those who had escaped from the danger zone, it was Eiji who first had the leeway to check on the safety of everyone.
He counted the familiar faces of the dwarves, who must have been out of breath from running at full speed, as they slumped down.

“…… Good, everyone is here”
“Thanks to you I’m saved, Eiji”

The one who said that was senior dwarf who had broken his leg at the start of the escape and had to be carried by Eiji.

“If you hadn’t carried me, I wouldn’t have escaped from the collapse and would have been buried alive. You saved my life”
“I just did the right thing”

Compared to other races, dwarves have higher muscle strength and endurance skills, but they have lower agility skills.

Therefore, they were running faster than their limits to escape from the collapse, so they were exhausted.

“In this kind of situation, it is advantageous to human who have average skills in all areas. You can handle any situation”
“I’m just a jack of all trades. In a situation like this, goblins or elves with high agility skills would have been able to escape more easily”
“You’re an idiot. Forget about goblins, but there is no way the beautiful elves will come to an underground like this!”

The sound of laughter echoed through the narrow tunnels.

“Is it something you can laugh about!!”

A proclamation came in to the dwarves group.
Moreover, the voice of the proclamation was very high-pitched and sweet-sounding.
It wasn’t surprising because the one who made that proclamation was a captivating beautiful woman.
She was young enough to be called a girl rather than a woman.

“Miss Gyariko……!?”

However, the boorish dwarves froze their body at that girl.
The girl’s name was Gyariko, and she was the daughter of the chief who manage this entire mining village. Moreover, she was also in charge of overseeing the tunnels area.
In other words, the person in charge had just arrived, and this made them nervous.
Naturally, Eiji also stuck his arms to his torso and stood upright.

“The cave-in is a major incident, you know!! You can’t just laugh it off because no one died! Who dug the tunnel!?”
“Hiiiii!?”

One of the dwarves, who had been exhausted, shrank back.
That dwarf must have hit underground water while digging the tunnel and caused the collapse.

“I told you to raise your mining skills up on a regular basis to avoid accidents like this, right!?”

With『Danger Detection』which can be learned with a mining skill value of 500 or higher, it is possible to foresee and avoid underground water veins and gas reservoirs that are buried underground.

In other words, the dwarf who was digging in the lead this time had not reached 500 in drilling skill.

“W-Well, Miss……!”

Eiji, unable to just watch, tried to intercede.

“It can’t be helped, because the tunnel area is also short of manpower. It’s impossible to arrange the vanguards with those who have enough skills”
“After all, they even hire a human like you!”

Gyariko’s strong sarcasm hit Eiji.
Because of that, Eiji was speechless.

“…… Well, fine”

With a sigh, Gyariko’s furious facial expression returned to a cute, girlish one.

“Anyway, it’s a good thing no one died. The tunnel has been buried by the collapse, so the team here will disperse and help with the other excavation. Anyone can do it until the digging skill value exceeds 500″
“Y-Yes……”
“Also……!”

Gyariko’s gaze turned to Eiji.

“You too, thank you for helping our miners. You’re a great help”
“Ehー……?”

Eiji couldn not respond quickly enough to her sudden appreciation and let out a strange sound.

“But, don’t be full of yourself, all right. It’s your fault for causing the collapse in the first place. I won’t give you credits just because it turns out well!!”

Gyariko said that with angry voice and left.
Did she think of Eiji as her enemy or something?