After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 1497

Chapter 1497: Leaving it to Fate

A/N: Huhu I am so sorry but it’s another 1 chap today! It’s long tho! These darned natural disasters are just coming one after another! Grrrr I do think it’ll be as usual moving forward tho~

That said, so many places were hit by tsunamis and earthquakes this week! I hope everyone is alright!!! (We’re far from the sea, but we’re prone to earthquakes)

Stay strong, everyone! Our houses, too! Aja! Aja!

Anyways, back to the story!

...

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The dwarves looked at each other, but they reluctantly touched it in the end. They poked and grabbed, but let it go as if it were poisoned. But, seeing as nothing happened, they became bolder and bolder until they completely took it.

They studied how it was folded and then stared at its workings. They were smart and could somewhat understand, and the enlightenment made for a curious sight.

Otto had very, very, good memory. When Oslo showed off and explained how it worked (which was something he had also just understood at the time), Otto did not forget it.

"It’s a curious thing, so helpful, yet actually so simple," he said. "A contraption of metal and wood. You push your legs on something called ’rotating levers’ and the whole thing rolls forward by a huge amount with little effort.

"There is no trace of aether beyond what is innate in the materials. It just works so well on its own. Isn’t it curious?" he asked, and he could see the dwarves’ eyes sparkling. "There are many things you can create without aether, and that is something our people do best."

According to the books he had read (he wished he had read more to be honest), Otto could surmise that they’d be just as interested in these aetherless mechanical things just as much as they would be interested in certain aether tools.

It was said that dwarves technically could not have professions like humans did, but they had a deeper sense of arrays due to their close connection with elves in ancient times. It was just instinct, like how humans were just social animals by default, with few exceptions.

So, even if it wasn’t counted by the system, people still saw dwarves as official weaponsmiths and creators.

At the same time, it was also why they were instinctively dependent on aether manipulation.

It was like their minds were wired to always consider it, which was also why—Otto inferred—they could take years to create anything.

Dwarves had, historically, only created complex things. This was why the ones without much power or successful magical function—like that trebuchet he heard about before—were counted as rejects and no longer explored.

That was not sustainable at all, he thought, but how easy would it be for them to go against instinct and intuition?

Opening their minds like this was a risk, of course. What if the dwarven clan decided to expand to non-magic items and decided to sell it to others? However, if they were going to explore this route, Alterra was the best path, and he must water that the seed he planted in their minds.

Otto stood up and smiled. "That’s my gift," he said. "You can go if you want, but you can also stay if you want—"

"WE WON’T!" they immediately answered, almost too hurriedly, and they quickly gestured to head out. This disappointed many people, who looked at them in pity.

"Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?

"You have a home with us!"

"We’ll be waiting for your visits!"

The three teenage dwarves flinched, not knowing how to handle such attention. The unknown was always scary, however, so they found their little feet moving faster than before.

Faster in their standard, of course. They were, unfortunately, still very slow.

A line of watchers couldn’t help but see them off, and they were amused because the show would last longer than they thought, considering how slow the dwarves moved.

Pitter, Patter, Pitter, Patter

"Lol, so cute."

"They walk like penguins haha."

The three dwarves: "..."

By the time they reached the gates, Otto was there again, as well as many others. It wasn’t difficult to stand in front of them, even with a leisurely pace.

This time, it was Silvia who kneeled down. The three dwarves did not hate Silvia. She was the one who lent them her phone, after all.

That said, she also guaranteed the phone would not work for long outside their hometown, so when she took it back, they were regretful but not too desperate.

They weren’t fools. Obviously, asking for that weird tool was asking to be lured into a trap! PSH—

Still, it was not a magic tool—they could instinctively tell, but it worked like one. They remembered the ’bike’ and wondered how many more things they could do without having to use aether?

It was so difficult to integrate aether into everything, and more difficult to make it function a certain way. They had a Hall subject that taught them how to do it, and the class lasted 10 years at least!

If they could create things without that limit—

NO! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

It was an irregularly-shaped stone of sorts that occupied a portion of the space. One of them had to carry it with both arms, so the other two would guard him as best as they could. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

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