Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Dwarven Prowess, Assorted Kimbap

I traveled to Gillieta once more with Maxim.

We arrived at the highest point of the fortress I had visited before.

Maxim left me there and went to gather his family's dwarves.

In the meantime, I admired the dwarven underground city from atop the fortress.

'It is still a work of art, even looking at it again.'

The fact that such a massive city had been built underground was astounding.

Each building had been constructed with extraordinary detail.

'The architecture is entirely Baroque in style.'

Truly befitting a city built by a race renowned for their craftsmanship.

While I was taking in the sights, the Eckard family members arrived, their backpacks and bundles loaded to the brim.

"It is good to see you again."

"We greet our liege."

When one person greeted me, the entire group followed in unison.

"We greet our liege!"

Maxim must have already instructed his family to address me as their liege.

The group totaled sixteen.

More than last time.

Before, there had been children and elderly among them.

This time, they were relatively young.

"Sir Maxim, the numbers have grown. There are some faces I have not seen before."

"The dwarves you saw last time were my immediate family."

"Ah."

"This time, I have gathered those from both the direct and branch families who possess either great strength or exceptional skill."

"I see. Understood."

Maxim introduced each one.

I greeted them all after the introductions.

Then —

"Shall we go?"

"Yes, my liege."

I opened a Gate portal leading to the interior of the Rift restaurant.

The Eckard family dwarves all stepped through.

'Before, transporting sixteen people would have been out of the question.'

But with Acresia at S-Rank, the Mana required for portal transport had been drastically reduced.

On top of the increased Mana reserves and improved efficiency from the dual Mana core, I could probably handle thirty people.

"Let us go in as well."

"Understood."

We stepped through the portal to the restaurant.

The restaurant was closed for business today.

Closed, but I had still prepared food.

A welcome banquet for the dwarves.

Upon arriving, the dwarves gazed at the spread covering five connected tables and licked their lips.

"The smell is amazing......"

"My mouth is watering."

"There seem to be a lot of dishes I have never seen before."

I addressed them.

"Well then, everyone from the Eckard family, please take your seats."

"Us?"

"Really?"

"Yes. This is a welcome banquet for you."

Currently present in the restaurant were Ria and Rin, of course, as well as the S-Rank trio and the entire knightly order.

All here to welcome them.

"Please, sit down."

When Ria smiled and said this, they took their seats.

'These are the people who will be working hard for me and my family. The least I can do is this.'

I introduced each of my companions to the dwarves one by one.

The banquet followed.

We ate, drank, and mingled together.

The dwarves ate with continuous exclamations of admiration.

So delicious that some even had moisture forming at the corners of their eyes.

'I am glad they are enjoying the food.'

After the welcome banquet, I brought the Eckard family outside the restaurant.

They gazed at the surrounding scenery with wonder.

"So this is the high-floor Rift's plains......"

"It looks so peaceful."

"There are a lot of people camping in the area."

"So we will be developing this place. Building fortress walls and all."

During the meal, Maxim had explained to his family what the work ahead would entail.

It would undoubtedly be grueling labor.

I figured they might already be intimidated.

But instead —

"I am looking forward to it."

"Finally, some real work."

"I have been waiting for a day like this!"

Having a goal had filled their faces with eagerness and enthusiasm.

Just as I loved running a restaurant and creating food, perhaps they found joy in construction.

I then headed toward the two mobile housing units I had set up for the three front-of-house staff.

Beside those units, with some distance, I opened Acresia and placed four 9-pyeong mobile housing units to serve as the dwarves' lodgings.

'I need to purchase four more.'

Four people sharing a 9-pyeong unit was too cramped.

Two per unit was just right.

At 36 million won per unit, the expense was manageable.

After the Eckard family members inspected the mobile housing, Maxim's younger brother Maron said,

"Oh, these are remarkably modern dwellings. Not bad as temporary lodging."

Temporary?

Were they planning to build their own homes separately?

As if reading my thoughts, the perceptive Maxim said to me,

"Dwarves only feel truly at ease when living in caves, dungeons, or underground. Haha!"

"I see."

"So, may I have your permission to eventually build homes underground in this bedrock zone? We will proceed slowly so as not to interfere with the main work."

"Granted."

I then set up a portable storage unit at a distance from the homes.

I retrieved the Gate portal entrance I had installed behind the house and reinstalled it inside the storage unit.

Maxim asked me,

"Then, may we begin work today?"

"Starting today, already......?"

"Yes. We would like to enter the dungeon first and begin quarrying erdotte stone. Everyone, myself included, is itching to get to work."

At their head of house's words, the Eckard family dwarves responded.

"That is right."

"We are more comfortable inside tunnels than above ground."

They seemed genuinely sincere.

Their faces were full of anticipation — much like mine when I traveled the world visiting famous restaurants to study food.

They were excited at the prospect of entering the erdotte stone dungeon.

"Very well. Please go ahead. And there is no need to ask my permission for every little thing. Work when you want to, rest when you want to. If you need or want anything, just tell me."

"Understood."

Then I would tag along and observe.

I was curious to see how dwarves worked.

'I had been wanting to see their abilities firsthand.'

What kind of capabilities allowed a small number of them to claim they could build fortress walls?

A few days ago, I had offered to procure modern construction materials for Maxim — rebar, H-beams, cement, and the like.

He had declined, saying they would make their own.

Instead, he had requested that I open a Gate portal to Gillieta whenever he wished.

This was so they could retrieve blacksmithing supplies, stockpiled iron ore, and various other ores from their family-owned warehouse.

I had agreed.

Setting that aside, the Eckard family dwarves gathered their pickaxes, chisels, and hammers and entered the dungeon portal.

I followed behind.

Upon entering the dungeon, everyone's expressions visibly relaxed.

'They really do prefer dungeons and underground spaces.'

They did not seem to like the surface much.

They inspected the erdotte stone and began working.

Then I doubted my own eyes.

CRACK!

Maxim's brother Maron placed a chisel against the wall and struck it with his hammer. A cruciform fracture spread over a meter across the wall.

He had not even seemed to strike that hard, yet the wall had split in a precise cruciform pattern over a long distance.

He moved along the wall, tapping at approximately one-meter intervals top to bottom and side to side.

Before long, the expansive erdotte stone wall looked like an enormous grid — a giant Go board of fracture lines.

"Incredible......"

Even Ria would have trouble replicating that.

Maxim came up beside me and said,

"My brother Maron is an exceptional sculptor."

"A sculptor — that is impressive. But how is such a technique possible?"

"Dwarves do not use magic like dragons or humans. Nor can we use spirit magic like the elves."

"Then what kind of technique do you use?"

"We use rune alchemy inscribed on our tools. Like this."

Maxim walked over to the wall that Maron had precisely fractured into a giant grid pattern and swung his pickaxe.

THUNK!

He struck the wall, but nothing seemed to happen.

Then he stepped back two paces.

HUMM!

A Mana-like light spread through the fracture lines of the grid pattern.

RUMBLE!

Massive cubic blocks of erdotte stone, roughly one meter on each side, detached from the wall and tumbled to the floor.

With a single pickaxe strike, Maxim had cleanly separated the back face of the erdotte cubes that Maron's chisel and hammer could not reach.

"Wow......"

It was like watching heavy machinery quarry marble at a quarry.

No — even heavy machinery could not achieve this.

Maxim showed me the head of his pickaxe.

"If you look here, you can see an alchemy rune fragment embedded in it. Dwarves can use special powers through tools inscribed with alchemy runes."

"Fascinating. Could I use such power too, if I wielded a tool with alchemy runes?"

"That is not possible. Alchemy runes can only be powered by dwarves who possess gloum. Gloum is an energy source used by dwarves — similar to Mana."

"I see."

"Furthermore, even among dwarves who can use gloum, those with a low gloum level face restrictions on which alchemy rune equipment they can operate. In other words, low gloum means they cannot use high-tier alchemy rune gear."

So even among dwarves, not just anyone could wield advanced alchemy rune equipment.

He then put on gloves inscribed with alchemy runes and, together with his brother, lifted one of the massive cubic erdotte stone blocks and carried it away.

'That block looks like it weighs at least three tons, and the two of them are carrying it with ease......'

Those gloves must be alchemy rune gloves that enhanced strength.

All around the dungeon, dwarves claimed their spots and began quarrying stone.

Their abilities were every bit as impressive as the Maxim brothers'.

'At this rate, they could really build a stone fortress wall in no time.'

The dwarven race's prowess was truly remarkable.

Each one of them was a piece of heavy machinery unto themselves.

I spoke to Maxim as he carried stone.

"Please stack them in one spot for now. I will collect them all at once with Acresia and place them wherever you need."

"Understood, my liege."

***

The next day, I began preparations for the lunch service.

Today's menu was a genre the Rift restaurant had never featured before.

'Street food.'

The star was kimbap.

Ria and I had come to the restaurant early in the morning to prepare ingredients.

"Ria, sit down and rest. I can handle this alone."

"I want to help. Rolling kimbap is fun."

"But you must be tired."

"I heard that in our country, when kids go on field trips, mothers pack kimbap for them."

Ria had said "our country."

"That is right. Kimbap is the standard choice."

"So I want to practice ahead of time and learn how to do it properly."

"All right, then."

Recently, Ria had been studying Korean language and culture with even more dedication.

Partly to teach Rin, and partly for the sake of the child they hoped to have in the future.

She seemed to want to learn kimbap for the same reason.

Even with her busy schedule, she studied in her spare time. Today, she had come to the restaurant two hours earlier than usual to help with preparations.

Together, we cozily prepared the kimbap ingredients.

Today's kimbap varieties would be:

Classic, fresh tuna, tonkatsu, flying fish roe, spicy pepper, bulgogi, rolled egg, and mentaiko.

I would serve two pieces of each variety so customers could sample all eight.

'Kimbap is not the only thing on the menu.'

I would also be making its soulmate — tteokbokki.

In my experience, foreigners generally did not enjoy the texture of rice cake sticks.

However, they tended to like the texture of potato-based gnocchi.

So I would make gnocchi tteokbokki.

First, I boiled potatoes, drained the moisture, mashed them well, then spread them out to let the remaining moisture evaporate.

I added sifted all-purpose flour, egg, and Parmesan cheese, then kneaded into a smooth dough.

I stretched the dough into a long rope, cut it into pieces, and rolled each one against fork tines to shape them — gnocchi, done.

Next, I prepared the tteokbokki sauce.

Not the standard red pepper paste tteokbokki, but a fusion sauce combining red pepper paste and tomato sauce to suit international palates.

'Essentially, it is gnocchi pasta with red pepper paste.'

Since today's concept was street food, street food it was.

I also par-fried an assortment of tempura in hot oil.

And prepared bonito broth for dipping.

Preparations complete.

Service began.

As pre-reserved customers filed in and took their seats, I rolled the kimbap while Ria sliced it.

'Ria is actually better at slicing kimbap than I am.'

With a subtle layer of Aura on the blade, each cut was clean, and the kimbap cross-sections came out beautifully at rapid speed.

I arranged two pieces of each variety on a plate.

Added a bowl of the pre-made bonito broth.

And plated the gnocchi tteokbokki as well.

'She is one capable wife — does everything so efficiently.'

Thanks to her, all I had to do was roll kimbap and fry tempura.

We showed off our flawless teamwork as we blazed through orders.

"Seon-u Opp— I mean, Chef. The customer feedback on today's food is incredible."

I had told Jeong Ye-rim to call me Chef rather than Oppa while working.

"Of course. It is kimbap."

There was no way it could be polarizing.

Foreigners who disliked kimbap usually disliked the taste of seaweed itself.

They found the marine or fishy flavor off-putting.

But when you used premium roasted seaweed like gopchang-gim, it was a different story entirely.

And this was seaweed that Ria and I had toasted sheet by sheet ourselves.

Jeong Ye-rim watched me rolling kimbap and said,

"But Chef, your hands are seriously fast. Way faster than the aunties at Kimbap Heaven. And the rolls look gorgeous."

"Thanks. I will make plenty extra, so once this round is over, please deliver some kimbap to the dwarves in the dungeon."

"Will do."