MTLNOVEL Chapter 1480: Dwarves!
The room was a bit dark, and the play of shadows made them look extremely big. If Fos hadn't seen a peek of one of them under the robe, he wouldn't know what they were.
He was still a bit scared, though. This was the fear of the unknown, especially with whatever they did that destroyed a protection charm in one go!
Fos and the others groaned, in pain, and they could hear the rash whisperings of the three mysterious figures.
"They're humans!"
"I thought it was those beasts again!"
"It's not my fault! They came in so quietly!"
"The recoil for that weapon is strong, idiot! Can you move your arms?"
"What to do? Maybe there's more outside!"
"The weapon will take another half day to regenerate aether!"
"Do we just kill them so they don't alert anyone else?"
At this, the three dwarves turned to Fos and the others simultaneously, giving them goosebumps!
Dwarves were not necessarily stronger than they were, but the weapons in their hands were—at least at their level—no joke!
Fortunately for them, Obi was nearby and felt the energy wave, appearing next to them.
The figures were intimidated immediately, at least indicating their levels were much lower than that of Obi's.
The blonde stared, and took out a magic tool rope from his space (the same type that had been used on Baku all that time ago). He even tied all three in an intricate self-adjusting knot that he learned in the Alterran barracks 'survival training guide' sessions.
"WHATT!!"
"AHHH!"
"NOOO!"
"So violent, considering you're trespassing."
"..."
He then dragged them outside to the light and saw their complete appearances. They were also quite small, only up to the waist of an average man.
They were all bearded with white hair, though they didn't look old. Rather, they looked quite young with decent skin and not a wrinkle on their face.
They had stout physiques, with a particular bias on the upper body. Their arms seemed strong and muscular, but their legs were tiny, so their pace factor was probably a few inches.
This made them really, really, slow.
Every step Obi took, they needed several just to follow.
Obi couldn't drag them around either to speed them up, right? In the end, he got impatient and gave the rope to Fos instead.
"LET GO UGLY HUMAN!!!"
"I'LL SHOOT YOU AGAIN IF YOU DON'T!"
"Ugly—"
Fos: "..."
Poor Fos had to suffer the bruises he gained from the attack, and now he had to suffer bruises in his ego, too.
"We'd rather die than serve you humans! May you all be pummeled by a hammer on the head!"
"May you all be run over by our mega tank!"
"May you all be squashed by a rock golem's feet!"
Obi couldn't help but look at them. "Now those are very interesting curses…"
"EEK!"
"Darn humans! Greedy humans!"
They legitimately looked so angry that their white beards seemed to energize as well. The few Terrans with Obi even looked to the clouds and wondered if there'd be lightning because the hair reaction seemed like static electricity.
The dwarves' faces reddened and they looked like they were going to explode. Maybe they would? Could dwarves self-explode like elementalists?
Obi honestly didn't know, but he'd rather be safe!
"Calm down! We swear we won't capture you!" he said with gritted teeth. "You attacked the people who lived here originally, don't you think it's just right to secure you?!"
Dwarves were quite a small and well-hidden race, and not that many people knew about them. Probably only his older brothers, his father, and some patriarchs would know.
Obi frankly never really cared enough to find out, and that was biting him in the arse right now.
Anyway, as they dragged-slash-escorted the dwarves to the plaza where the barbeques were, the people around naturally took a double-take and started staring at the odd creatures.
"What are those?"
"White goblins?"
"Bearded goblins?"
The dwarves gasped. "We are obviously bigger than those little ones?!"
Then, a gasp. "I think they're dwarves!?"
"Whoa, seriously? Weren't they like, extremely rare?"
"If so, then we've seen them all now?"
"No, orcs, not yet!"
"Half-orcs count!"
"I never imagined to ever see one at all!" another mumbled while chewing on his bbq. "What an honor!"
"Totally not goblins. I dunno who even mentioned it."
"It's true, they're pudgier. Look at those little legs—"
The three dwarves reddened again. "Curse you, humans! You keep insulting us!"
Unexpectedly, most of the whispers that followed were actually quite positive, and the dwarves' ears twitched as they listened.
"I heard they're very smart."
"Very creative."
"I want to see their creations."
This calmed the dwarves down a bit, and one of them looked like he was seriously considering showing off.
At this, the other one—who seemed like their leader—bit his ears.
"GAH!" he yelled, turning his head to glare. "What was that for?!"
"Calm down, you rockhead! Do you think they won't steal our things?!"
"Oh…" Then the dwarf glared at the humans. "You dare fool me!"
The random passerby humans: "..." What did we do?
Fortunately, before the misunderstandings worsened, the local diplomat,
Silvia, stepped forward.
She and Rowan were nearby and saw the commotion. They watched and observed the interactions for a while, and Silvia judged that the dwarves were mostly just…scared and guarded.
As a diplomat, she and the others in her team had naturally done their research about the various races of this world. The dwarves naturally didn't have a good impression of humans—quite the opposite, actually.
Their bias was deep and, in most cases, they would never truly trust or cooperate with a human willingly.
But they hadn't met them, the Terrans, yet.
Silvia approached with her eyes sparkling with curiosity, and everyone let her have this stage.
She took something out of her space. It was a phone.
It wasn't hers of course. It was owned by one of the earlier prisoners of war back from Fargo's war. They sold it for some atonement points. But did that matter whose it was?
She simply turned it on and played one of the saved videos of a tourist attraction—a theme park.
The dwarves' eyes widened as they stared at the phone. Both the item itself and the contents it was showing were definitely piquing their interests.
She smiled. "What about give and take?"