Chapter 458 Where will the future of the dwarves go?
"No need to go eat. We are not used to human food." He called another dwarf to take over. Kergen wiped the sweat off his face with his apron and sat down on a wooden stool. "If you have anything to say, say it here."

"You just heard what I said about the confusion caused by weights and measures." Horn didn't care and just moved another wooden stool to sit down.

"I understand, but your method will easily leak the dwarven craftsmanship, and I don't want to be a sinner."

Due to the Empire's many glorious experiences of stealing Dwarven technology, they have a morbid defensiveness and post-traumatic stress when it comes to humans stealing technology.

Horn immediately shook his head and said, "You are wrong. Let me ask you, why are you afraid of your technology being stolen?"

As it was close to noon, several dwarves were resting. When they heard this big man in a sleeveless jacket chatting with his uncle Kergen, they naturally gathered around.

Kergen did not drive the dwarves away, but instead said with a straight face, “Once you humans learn a skill, you will forget your master and take away the dwarves’ jobs.

Originally, we dwarves were all wealthy people, and we could have enough food and clothing by relying on the craft of iron forging. It is because of you humans that we have to live in the mountains and become so poor. "

Horn shook his head slowly: "How many of those human technologies were invented by the dwarves?
You know, some skills can be developed over time.

Many times, some technologies are discovered and summarized by humans themselves, not by dwarves.

In human technology, although the technology stolen from the dwarves is crucial, it does not mean that it will not work without the dwarves. Humans can research it out if they spend another hundred years.

As for the thing you said about the apprentice starving his master to death, doesn't it happen among dwarves?

I have heard a lot of such things from Halkin, such as your brother Boga."

"This Jiba kid, why does he tell everything to others..." Kelgen felt a little embarrassed and started muttering.

This Boga is Kergen's younger brother, and Halkin's second cousin. Kergen's father was supposed to pass on the family craft only to Kergen.

But seeing that Boga was both hard-working and filial, his old father softened his heart and eventually passed on some of his core skills to Boga.

Then Borgar took these technologies and defected to the Franks, causing Kergen's family to lose face among the dwarves in the Dragon Sleep Mountains, and his old father died of depression.

"So what? What do you want to prove?" A young dwarf who couldn't stand it stood up and asked.

Horn shrugged: "If nothing else, we can conclude that when it comes to greed and betrayal, humans and dwarves are the same, there is no difference.

As for leaks, it is almost impossible for the dwarves to avoid them on their own, Master Kergan, do you agree?"

"Bring me a cup of mead." Kergen said to the apprentice beside him in a distressed tone, "Despite this, we still have to try our best to slow down the loss of dwarven skills."

"Okay, let me ask you another question. How far ahead of humans is the dwarfs' technology at present?" Horn asked the dwarves present.

"Two hundred years."

"Three hundred years."

"Five hundred years, at least five hundred years."

The dwarves present shouted confidently, and the numbers they shouted out rose and fell.

Only in antiquity and craftsmanship are they currently able to surpass the Imperial humans.

"Master, what do you think?" Horn still had a confident smile on his face.

"Less than a hundred years." After taking a full sip of mead, Kelgen was silent for a long time before answering with a heavy tongue-clicking sound.

The shouts that had been rising and falling suddenly stopped, and the dwarves were all stunned. They did not expect these words to come out of Kergen's mouth.

A dwarf walked slowly forward, stretched out his stubby hand and touched Kelgen's head.

Kergen kicked out with lightning speed, knocking over the young dwarf in front of him.

The dwarf rolled on the ground and stood up again, saying with a wry smile: "I thought you had caught a cold."

"Who would catch a cold in such hot weather?" Seeing the puzzled looks on the faces of the dwarves around him, Kergen sighed and explained, "I didn't say that. Elder Dunak said that."

"Grandmaster Dunak?!"

He was the only grandmaster among the Dragonbear Dwarves. He invented dozens of new crafts and expanded the market for the Dragonbear Dwarves by tens of thousands of gold pounds. "Boys, the development speed of mortal crafts is equal to that of dwarves, or even slightly faster." Kelgen wiped the wine foam from his beard with a handkerchief, thought for a while, and said, "Based on the current situation, in another hundred years, dwarves will have no advantages except to be heavy armored mercenaries."

This heavy topic immediately dampened the hot atmosphere at the scene, and the dwarves had not even woken up from their trance.

If it was Kergen who said it, it might just be drunken grumbling, but coming from the mouth of Dunak, the top dwarf craftsman, the credibility is different.

Times have changed? Is the glory of the dwarves going to disappear? How is this possible? How could the dwarves, who have been passed down for thousands of years, disappear?
"Master Kergan, is this true?"

"Then what should we dwarves do? My child is only five years old. By the time my grandchildren are born, won't they be..."

"Master, please say something."

"All the pure-blooded Aiel people of the same era as the dwarves are dead. Why shouldn't the dwarves suffer the same fate?" Kelgen lowered his head, looking at himself in the mead, the confusion in his eyes clearly visible.

"Why do you think the elders wanted to cooperate with the tall woman? Wasn't it because she promised to let the dwarves settle down in the mountains and monopolize the steel industry in an area?"

Unlike the dwarves in the Furnace Plateau, they still have volcanoes and mineral veins to rely on, and if things really don't work out, they can return to their hometown.

It is impossible for humans to bring volcanoes and mineral veins back home.

But the dragon-worshipping dwarves are different; they are a heretic group expelled by the furnace dwarves.

If their skills were lost and they were not allowed to settle down and buy land in the plains, they would probably be trapped in the mountains and wait for death, or even be captured as slaves.

How could the elders of the Dragon Worshipping Cult cooperate with the Grand Duchess just because of a few hostages? The hostages were only the environment to create a meeting with the elders.

The real cooperation was that Meliati gave the dwarves a chance.

An opportunity to integrate into human society, an opportunity that the dwarves once disdained to do.

But the current situation has forced them to bow their heads.

"So we have two conclusions. First, if your skills were not stolen by humans, then the dwarves would have stolen them. Second, even if they didn't steal, the dwarves' technological advantage is slowly shrinking, right?" Sitting opposite Kergen, Horn looked at the dwarven mead in Kergen's hand with some envy.

"……Yes."

"Can I make a few suggestions?"

Kergen didn't say anything, so Horn took it as his acquiescence: "The first problem is that thieves exist in all ethnic groups, and there is a mature way to deal with them, which is to send people to punish them.

Of course, it is possible that they cannot catch him, but they can reduce the possibility of such incidents to a minimum. The reason why the dwarves cannot implement it is because the human kingdom is on the side of the thief.

The dwarf kingdom is no match for the human kingdom in terms of military strength, so they can only sit back and watch the things being stolen. As for your own dwarf kingdom, there are many relatives and relatives, so it is impossible to punish them effectively.

If a thief steals something, he will be beaten up only if he is caught by the owner. If he runs far away and the owner cannot catch him, there is nothing he can do about it.”

At first, Kergen was still complaining to himself, but as he listened, he raised his head and stared at Horn.

This statement really hits the nail on the head. The reason why the dwarves are helpless against the theft of craftsmanship is that they cannot punish them effectively.

Because everyone coveted their technology, and the dwarves had bad tempers, almost no one was willing to speak up for them.

"The second question is, there is nothing you can do about the dwarves' skills being surpassed by humans, unless you are as fertile as humans.

Otherwise, with the current level of human civilization and population size, it would not be a problem to produce a sufficient number of craftsmen and geniuses.

Talent is the main factor in advancing technology. Humans are not much dumber than dwarves. They just lack the time to transform civilization into skills.

Unless the ancient dragon you worship comes down to earth, I don’t think it can be solved.”

"You can't solve either of your problems, what suggestions do you have?"

"I haven't finished yet." Horn nodded to the young dwarf who was speaking, and turned to Kergen, whose face was becoming increasingly solemn. "Do you have time to listen now?"

"You tell me, I'll be free all afternoon." Rubbing his knees, Kelgen leaned forward slightly and answered seriously.

(End of this chapter)