Reincarnated as a Dwarf

First day of school

It’s time! I finally get to go back to school! I raced to get dressed in the clean clothes I had washed last night. I knew this day had been coming ever since being reborn and had been anticipating my second attempt at school life, but I had become especially anxious for this day ever since all my attempts to make 21st century technology had failed. Because what’s in every school? A library! Maybe there was some dwarven technology that could approximate the gadgets from my past life.

“Are you ready, Kvalinn?” Zikruk called out from the entrance of my home. “We’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry!”

Zikruk was at my home this morning to guide me to the school building. One of the things I had apparently inherited from my previous life was my sense of direction, which was so bad back then that I could easily get lost in a grocery store. 

“I’m almost ready. Just need to pack a few more things.” I hurriedly shoved writing materials and some cookies into my bag and went downstairs. In this world, writing materials such as pen and paper were prohibitively expensive, so I was using a makeshift pencil made out of charcoal and a shaved piece of wood. 

“Hurry! Let’s go!” Zikruk led the way at a fast jog. I didn’t get to see too much of the town I had grown up in due to the pace he set, but I could see that the town was relatively small. With no buildings bigger than a couple stories and the inhabitants all seemed to know each other judging from how many people called out personal greetings to Zikruk. 

The school was near the center of the town, right next to the Thane’s keep. I found out later that the school used to be a side building for an ancient city keeper to hide his mistresses in, but the Thane of a few generations ago had converted it into a school for teaching young dwarves, to raise the literacy and survival rate of children. It was a novel idea for the dwarves to attend a school, instead of learning from their parents as the tradition of the ancestors commanded, but after a few centuries people were slowly getting used to it, and one or two branch schools were opening in other small towns under the mountain.

“We made it! I finally get to go to school!” Zikruk excitedly sat down at a desk near a lantern and I took the seat next to him. Since the entire city was underground there were no windows and the only source of light were hanging lanterns in each classroom and hallway.

“Sounds like you are excited to attend.” I remarked as I began unpacking my writing tools, and setting them up on the long stone desk.

“My brothers have told me a lot of stories about their time here, so of course I’m excited! I’ll get to learn the runes, how to fight, and maybe I’ll meet someone to marry here. My oldest brother, Dhovag, actually met his wife here in this very classroom!” Zikruk looked around the room and seemed to be taking mental notes on all the girls in the class.

“Mind if I sit here?” It was Bekhi, the girl who had asked for me to craft a dagger for her at the youth center. At first I assumed she was talking to Zikruk, since I had never been popular, or even noticed, by girls in my previous life. But when I looked at him, he was staunchly ignoring her.

“I don’t mind at all.” I smiled at her as I pushed out the chair next to me for her to sit down. “Unfortunately though, I haven’t had time to make the knife you requested yet. According to my father, the one I made at the youth center would be too dangerous for either of us to even hold onto, let alone use.”

“It’s ok, I looked through what I brought down here and there wasn’t anything I could trade anyway.” Bekhi shrugged it off, but it was clear she still wanted more weapons than just her hammer. 

“So the Elder called you a ‘surface dwarf’ the other day. Does that mean you grew up above ground? What’s it like up there?” I was a little nervous about talking to a girl for the first time in a while, so I decided to go with an easy line of conversation. Plus, I was curious about what the outside world was like. 

Bekhi’s face lit up, but her eyes took on a nostalgic look. “Yep, I grew up in the town of Vesturhildrun, it’s a small town that’s mostly populated by the shepherd and farming clans. It’s very nice, especially when the sun is out and the wind is rustling the grass in the fields. I miss the sun.”

“That does sound nice. Hopefully I can visit it someday and see the sun and grass.” 

“Wait, you’ve never seen the sun and grass before?” Bekhi was more than a little incredulous about my last comment. On the other side of me, Zikruk chuckled.

“Ha! Before last week, he hadn’t even seen the outside of his house. Let alone the surface world that no proper dwarf needs to see.” Evidently Zikruk had to include a derogatory remark about the surface in his quip towards me. I made a mental note to ask my father later if all dwarves held this aversion towards the surface.

Bekhi did her best to ignore the verbal jab, but she still imperceptibly flinched a little before giving me a shy smile. “If you want, I can tell you all about my home town over lunch. Maybe you’ll be inspired to make me a better weapon from my tales.”  

“I look forward to hearing about your hometown then.” I returned her smile with one of my own, although I could feel Zikruk glaring daggers at the both of us. 

Before we could talk anymore though, the teacher entered the room and all the students fell silent before his gaze. He was a tall dwarf of around 4 and a half feet tall, with a balding head, but his eyebrows and beard more than made up for the deficiency. They were exceedingly bushy and pure white, and his beard reached down to his shins. It might have been because of  the excessively unruly eyebrows but it appeared to me that he was eternally disgruntled. 

“Greetings, first year students. I am Rongrim Loremaster of the scholar clan. For the next ten years I will be teaching you the wisdom of the ancestors in the form of history, runes, and simple math. Since today is your first day of school, we will keep things simple with introductions. Each of you will come to my desk and demonstrate you know the correct greeting meant for an Elder. Failure is not an option.”

Elder Rongrim’s voice rumbled through the room like a slow moving but dangerous avalanche. He let his eyes slowly pan over the students, making sure that each of them got the unspoken message that he would not accept lazily given or sloppy greetings. Once he was sure that everyone in the classroom was completely under his control, he gestured at a student in the front row to begin the introductions. 

One by one, the students left their desks and gave their name and clan to Elder Rongrim. If they were from crafting clans, like the weapon, armor, and jewelry clans, they would give the Elder an item of their craftsmanship. And if they were from more esoteric clans like the merchant, scholar, and warrior clans, they would show him a sample of their work or training. These gifts weren’t just a symbolic apple on the teachers desk, the title of Elder meant that a dwarf was either extremely knowledgeable, or extremely powerful, but most of the time it was both, if the Elder felt you weren’t worthy of learning from them they simply wouldn’t teach you. So it was extremely important to display to the Elders that you had talent and were worthy of their ancestral wisdom.

I found out during the introductions that Bekhi was from the Shepherd clan, and for her gift to the Elder, she gave him several mutton sausages and some lamb jerky. My mouth watered at the sight of the tasty food and I instantly knew what she could trade for my weapons!

Since I was sitting next to her, I made my way to the front once Bekhi returned to her desk. Pulling out my hammer, I respectfully gave the ceremonial greeting, and presented him with one of the best steel daggers I had ever crafted.

After scrutinizing the dagger for several minutes, Elder Rongrim set it aside with a sigh of disappointment. “I received a very interesting letter from Elder Threrburk last week about your abilities, Kvalinn. Please see me after class so we can discuss them in greater detail.”

Bowing politely, I returned to my seat. 

“What did you do?” Zikruk whispered to me in concern. “Did you somehow insult Elder Threrburk when I wasn’t around?”

“I don’t think so. Maybe he just wants to ask about the knife I made at the youth center. I didn’t make one for Elder Rongrim since my father said it was too dangerous.” 

“You didn’t give the Elder the deadliest work you could give!?” Zikruk asked incredulously, and also a bit too loud.

“Zikruk Aundarordson!” Elder Rongrim bellowed. “Do you have something that you need to say to me or the class?” Zikruk hurriedly shook his head. “Then keep silent in my classroom!”

It took quite some time, but eventually all the students had gone through the introduction process with Elder Rongrim. A couple of my peers had fumbled their lines, or given inferior gifts to the Elder, so they were going to be staying after school to clean. 

Once the last student had returned to their seat, Elder Rongrim stood up with a grunt, and grumbled about old age. “Now that the introductions are complete, get to know your fellow students. They will be your companions for the next ten years of your lives. And when the king sounds the call to war, you will find comfort in knowing that your comrades went through the same training as you, and can be trusted to hold the line.”

Elder Rongrim resumed his seat, and while the other kids around me began chatting among themselves, I went to the front of the classroom. I just hoped I wasn’t in too much trouble on my first day of school.

Picking up a piece of parchment from his desk, Elder Rongrim looked at me with furrowed brows. “Kvalinn Ekgorsson. According to this letter from Elder Threrburk, you were able to create a runed weapon in under thirty minutes without any casualties or damage to the youth center while using a regular forge. Normally this would’ve been discounted as the gods playing their usual tricks. However, your fathers exclusive merchant, Aundarord Silverbasher, recently applied for a license from the Thane to sell runed weapons, and your father provided over a thousand runed arrowheads of varying power to the Warrior Clan. Obviously you have the ability to create runed weapons, and while the dagger you provided to me earlier is of excellent quality for someone your age, it’s clearly not the best you can do.”

I swallowed nervously, not knowing if I was in trouble for being able to make runed weapons or for not giving one to the Elder. I was also a little unsure if it would be wise to give a weapon to a teacher that could only make you drunk. Before I could say anything though, Elder Rongrim continued.

“After consulting with Elder Thrikrondromm of the Rune Smith Guild, he entrusted me with this.” Elder Rongrim took a worn and ancient piece of parchment from his desk and carefully slid it toward me so that I could see it. But since I still couldn’t read this world's language yet, I couldn’t understand it. “This is from his sacred runebook. It contains precise instructions on how to craft the rune of sharpness. Since I have yet to teach you how to read runes, we will work together until you have memorized these instructions.”

We spent the next half hour going over the parchment. Elder Rongrim would read out a portion of the forge song, and would keep repeating it until I had it memorized. He would then move on to the next portion and the next and the next. It was fortunately rather short for a forge song, but it was still an annoying way to memorize something. I resolved to learn how to read this world’s writing as soon as possible.