WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 011

──────

Probability Is Always an Independent Trial

* * *

I couldn't remember the last time I'd woken up to a scent this sweet.

Especially when it was a woman's scent.

Not Ruby's, of course. Dolores's.

I looked over and found Ruby and Dolores already gone, the blanket folded neatly.

Dolores's spot was the same. All that was left on her pillow was her scent.

Ruby's chattering voice carried in from outside.

Guess I'm the only one who slept in.

Better go wash up.

"Morning...."

"Whoa, sleepyhead's up."

"Yeah, morning to you too...."

Sleepyhead, first thing in the morning.

Dolores smiled and waved.

"I'll go wash-"

Naturally, I turned to head for the washroom outside, when-

Dolores caught my shoulder just as I moved to leave and spun me back around, toward the inside.

Toward the cabin's own washroom.

"Wash up here."

"...Okay."

This time, I didn't refuse.

Learned helplessness, I guess you could call it.

I'd learned yesterday that resisting wouldn't do any good anyway.

Standing at the sink, the little kid's face in the mirror was starting to feel familiar.

Little shit's not bad-looking, actually.

I called out to Yuna while washing my face.

"What's Eriel Plaza?"

I'd heard it was where we were headed today.

Figured it'd help to know ahead of time. Not the Tower, though, apparently I was too young for that.

So, naturally, the Outer Tower it was.

[Good morning, brother!]

[One sec]

While I rinsed my face, a hologram popped up.

[Eriel Plaza. The biggest commercial plaza outside the Tower, right next to the Empire.]

[Climbers, merchants, nobles, mercenaries... whatever you're doing, you end up passing through here. Pretty much everything traded in the Empire passes through this plaza.]

"Gear too?"

[Obviously. Weapons and armor, materials, magic tools, clothes, food, information, all of it.]

[Even mercenary contracts.]

[There are seven districts alone. Don't go picturing some little country market just because it's called a plaza.]

I nodded while brushing my teeth.

One surprising thing about this world: outside of the scenery, the infrastructure was all there.

The toothbrushing I was doing right now was part of that.

Well, whatever.

I figured I could just think of it as heading to a department store or an outlet mall.

I could tell things apart just by looking, so I'd just pick out something decent enough.

I wiped my face down roughly with a towel and stepped back outside.

There were clothes to change into waiting by the door, and this time I just put them on without a fight.

"All dressed?"

"Yes."

Dolores and Ruby were already dressed and ready to go.

She was wearing a dress even whiter than usual.

Ruby was next to her, putting on her shoes. Her expression, and honestly the way she moved, made it pretty clear she was excited.

Outings are the best, I guess.

Even more so when you're a kid.

I walked over and pointed down at Ruby's feet.

"Your shoelace is untied."

Her little shoes had these cute laces on them, and one side had come undone.

Dolores smiled without a word and crouched down in front of Ruby to tie it for her.

Tch, total spoiled brat.

She's thirteen, she should be able to do this herself.

"Hey, do it yourself."

"......."

"How old are you, anyway."

Of course, I said it while carefully watching Dolores's reaction.

Just in case she was the type to enjoy this sort of thing. But she only smiled at what I was doing, without stopping me at all.

In that case, maybe.

She just didn't know when to cut the spoiling off.

I'll help her out, then.

"......."

Ruby's face turned red and blotchy.

Guess she didn't actually have a comeback.

I crouched down carefully in front of Ruby.

"You sit too."

Ruby crouched down, reluctantly.

I picked up one end of the lace and showed her slowly, step by step.

"Like this, cross them into an X, wrap it once, and pull."

Ruby copied me. Her fingers were too short, and the lace kept slipping out.

"It's not working...."

"Then you just keep doing it till it does."

Ruby bit her lip and grabbed the lace again.

This time she managed the cross, but lost it again on the wrap.

"It's fine. It's your first try."

"......."

Her eyes stayed locked on my fingers, determined not to miss a single move.

I showed her once more, and this time she kept up pretty well.

- Fwip.

It was ugly, but the knot held.

Still, she's doing pretty well.

"Not that hard, right?"

"...Yeah."

"See, you can do it."

Ruby looked down at her own toes and nodded.

Her voice had been quiet, but the corners of her mouth had lifted just slightly.

Honestly, calling her a brat was one thing, but this much made her seem pretty cute and sweet, if you asked me.

She'd accepted some random kid who'd suddenly barged into her life, practically overnight, hadn't she.

After living alone with Dolores all this time, she'd have every right to be jealous.

- Pat, pat.

I didn't stroke Ruby's head the way Dolores would, I just patted it a couple times.

And then.

"Eck."

"Eck?"

This little punk.

It wasn't until I stood back up that I realized Dolores had been quietly watching the whole time from behind us.

Ruby shot up and spun around to Dolores, breaking into a delighted grin, and threw herself at her.

"Teacher, I did it!"

"Well done. I'm proud of you."

I got up too, more or less, and turned to go.

That's when Dolores leaned in and whispered quietly behind me.

"Lionel, I didn't realize you'd know how to tie a lace-up shoe."

"Ha-ha... I'm just good with my hands, I guess...."

I brushed it off, vaguely.

Stepping outside the cabin, a carriage was already waiting.

I'd wondered how we'd be getting there. Turns out it was a carriage.

Calling it an ordinary carriage didn't feel quite right, though. Something about it was off.

Something glowing blue was carved into the wheel axles.

It was a carriage, but instead of horses, there was a stone embedded inside, glowing blue. Behind it sat a driver, same as any normal carriage.

Some kind of engine, maybe.

A horseless carriage, huh.

[It's a carriage built with magic engineering. Runs on a mana stone. Apparently about three times faster than a normal carriage]

Guess even horses are out of a job now.

Dolores opened the door like it was nothing.

"Climb in."

The inside was more spacious than I'd expected.

Four seats and one small table. Thin curtains hung over the windows, and a basket of fruit sat on the table.

Ruby hopped in first and claimed the window seat.

I sat across from her, and Dolores climbed in last and shut the door.

- Whrrm.

The mana stone hummed, and the carriage began to move without a sound.

The scenery stayed the same until we left the orphanage grounds.

Barns, fields, dirt roads, more barns.

But before ten minutes had passed since the carriage started moving, the view outside changed.

The dirt road turned into stone pavement.

"How much longer will it take, do you think?"

It's not anything else.

I'm definitely not carsick or anything like that.

"It won't take long."

"I see."

Before I knew it, wooden houses were sliding past beyond the window.

I leaned against the window and was just about to close my eyes when-

"Lionel."

Dolores called my name.

"Ruby."

She called Ruby too.

Ruby stopped mid-chew on the grape she'd been crunching and looked up at Dolores.

"Once we're back from the plaza, we're heading to the territory."

"......."

"......."

The territory. The Dolores Duchy.

I'd already heard about that last night.

"From now on, the three of us will be living together."

The three of us.

Ruby's eyes went round.

She looked at me, then at Dolores, then back at me.

"...Together?"

"Yes."

"Lionel too?"

"Lionel too."

Ruby froze for a moment, and then-

"......Mm."

Without another word, she picked up another grape and popped it into her mouth.

Aside from chewing a little faster than before, there was no other reaction.

Didn't seem like a no, at least.

I didn't have anything to say either.

Guess I've already got two new family members.

Well, if we're family now, harmony's probably important.

I held my hand out toward Ruby.

"Let's get along, Ruby."

Ruby stared at me for a long moment, and then-

reached across the table and took my hand.

"......."

"......Eat."

There was a grape pressed into my palm.

What is this.

I took it, and ate it.

"Tasty."

"I didn't ask that."

This little punk?

Dolores laughed quietly.

The carriage kept rolling on.

* * *

The 88th floor.

The first floor of the Sun Dwarves, the residential district.

Dwarf Company's first floor.

The Enchant Hall.

A vast, white hall, with no clock in sight.

Dozens of rooms lined the walls of the enormous circular hall, arranged in a ring.

Every door stood open, and light spilled out from inside.

- Rrrrrr, clang!

A familiar sound rang out across the whole hall.

The sound of machines hammering away at gear inside the enchant rooms.

The sound of the single largest evaporation of money anywhere in the Tower.

And then.

- Crash!

"Fuck!"

A scream tore out of room seven.

Then came the sound of something slamming into a wall.

Whether it was the man who'd just cursed, or the wreckage of his gear, no telling.

- Rrrrrr... clang!

- Crash!

"Ah... I'm gonna lose it...."

A groan from room twelve too.

Just from the sounds echoing through the hall, you could tell success from failure.

- Rrrrrr... clang!

- Ba-da-da-bam~♪

"Nice!! Man... should I go for +16 too...?"

"Not bad at all. Worth a shot."

Even the dwarf in room three, subtly nudging the customer toward +16.

For reference, past +16, the odds of gear breaking spike sharply.

The dwarf knows it. The customer knows it too.

And yet the dwarf asks, and yet the customer nods.

[Full responsibility for any Enhancement attempt rests with the customer.]

With that one line, Dwarf Company was untouchable.

Climbers scaling the Tower filed one by one into the rooms, each sitting down across from a dwarf.

Gear placed on the enchant machine before the dwarf.

Praying it wouldn't shatter.

Holding their breath.

Praying.

Cursing.

A scene that looked like a gambling den, to anyone watching.

That was exactly why there was no clock.

What told you it was time to leave shouldn't be the gear, it should be an empty wallet.

And yet.

Originally, enchanting hadn't been like this at all.

You'd sprinkle enchant dust over the gear.

and the blacksmith would strike it themselves, with a hammer.

Until the dust soaked into the gear.

Blow after blow, with care put into every one.

There was certainly an element of luck to success and failure, but for the most part, it came down to the blacksmith's focus and skill.

Dwarf Company had moved every part of that process onto machines.

The amount of dust sprinkled, the number of strikes, the pressure, the temperature, the machine handled all of it.

The dwarf just pressed a button.

It was fast. Time efficiency had improved overwhelmingly.

Naturally, seeing as every task a person used to do had simply been cut out.

And.

One more thing had become possible.

The amount of enchant dust sprinkled onto the gear....

could now be adjusted.

And above that Enchant Hall.

A place never visible from below.

The hall's noise only drifted up faintly through the floor, a low hum. The room itself was quiet.

The 88th floor could be seen through the window below.

Rivers of lava flowing, conveyor belts turning, mass-production lines breathing fire.

A beautiful sight, and this room sat above it all.

"...So?"

The one seated in the chair spoke.

"Puram didn't seem to have any intention of talking."

The dwarf in a suit reported, head bowed.

The very same dwarf who'd been to Puram's verification office.

"Keeping his position secure surely isn't purely out of sentiment."

The chair creaked.

The seated figure leaned forward and picked up the documents on the desk.

"...Guess he needs a little wake-up call."

The dwarf in the suit couldn't answer.

The one he'd bowed his head to.

The legs of the one in the chair stretched out long beneath the desk.

Too long to be a dwarf's legs. They were human.

The screen in front of him showed a shot through the window of Puram's verification office, the verification machine glowing brightly.

"An Heir of Flame. Didn't think something like that could actually still exist, in this day and age."

The hand flipping through the documents. Long-jointed, smooth, without a single callus.

A hand that had never once held a hammer, gripping the dwarves' entire business.

"Guess we'll have to track them down."

The man set the documents down.

Ever since dwarven techniques had been put onto mass-production lines, there'd been no end of talk and trouble.

The Traditionalists ground their teeth, the master craftsmen left, and those who stayed got shoved into corners, like Puram.

But the revenue was on a completely different scale.

The days of forging one sword a day with a single hammer, against the days of stamping out a hundred swords a day with a single machine.

You didn't need to ask which one was the actual business.

But an Heir of Flame, huh....

The man's fingers tapped slowly against the desk.

Elite-crafted gear was a different class entirely from mass-produced gear. That much he knew.

The problem was, nobody knew where that gap actually came from.

The process couldn't be analyzed, and since the gear itself couldn't be obtained, it couldn't be replicated either.

Up until now, exactly.

"If they caught an Heir of Flame, dug the technique out of them, and put it on the production line."

the man murmured, watching the light of the verification machine on the screen.

"Elite-grade gear, mass-produced. Might actually be possible."

The dwarf in the suit lifted his head.

Something flickered across his eyes, just for a moment.

"...An Heir of Flame's technique isn't the kind of thing that's suited to mass production..."

"Are you a dwarf, or a businessman."

"......."

The man stood up.

"That's not for you to decide."

Beyond the window, lava flowed.

Every ore would pass through this floor. Every material would pass through this floor.

If there was one thing that grated on him.

it was that the one who'd brought in the gear was the Ruler of the 5th Floor, Dolores.

No denying she was a troublesome one to deal with.

"...No need to rush."

The man switched off the screen.

"A blacksmith always comes back here eventually, after all."

Materials.

Ore.

Whatever it turned out to be, they'd come looking.

That was when.

- Bang.

"Elliot! High Ranker Sakpung's about to attempt +20 on his Mana-Imbued Vambrace!"

"...+20."

The man called Elliot swiveled his chair around.

"How many times, now?"

"Four attempts so far, four breaks."

The Mana-Imbued Vambrace.

One of the high-tier archer-class pieces of gear, it amplifies the strength of a bowstring draw when worn.

It really was the most suitable gear for pushing high Enhancement levels on.

A unique piece of gear, if it breaks, there's no fixing that. But the Vambrace was a high-tier item you could get your hands on easily enough.

And the fact that he'd gone and gotten his hands on four of them.

"That's some serious obsession."

From what he'd heard, every other slot besides the vambrace was already past +20.

The last piece. There was no way he'd back down.

─────────────────

[+19 → +20]

[Success Rate 16%]

[Break Rate 15%]

[Failure Rate 69%]

─────────────────

A real-time probability display floating in front of him.

People trusted these numbers alone when they attempted an enchant.

"He's really done a lot of these."

'Sakpung.'

Maybe this time it'll work out. Is that what he's thinking?

But unfortunately, probability is always an independent trial.

"Drop it."

At Elliot's order,

the machine in room nineteen, where Sakpung was waiting, cut the amount of dust it would sprinkle on the gear down to a tenth.

And then.

─────────────────

[+19 → +20]

[Success Rate 2%]

[Break Rate 29%]

[Failure Rate 69%]

─────────────────

Five breaks in a row? That kind of thing happens easily enough.

"2 percent. Will you push it through?"

Go for it.

If it works out, he takes it.

...And if it breaks, he can just buy another.

From where?

"The Mana-Imbued Vambrace, increase production."

Obviously. From Dwarf Company's own shop.

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