Rebirth in the Magic Continent

13. Underground

The normal Elvira Forest is the private land of the dwarven tribe and is completely closed to the outside world.

The creatures that live in Elvira Forest, apart from the dwarves, are just some ordinary animals and plants and some extraordinary magical creatures that are good at hiding.

The dwarves have their own way of life and have built a civilisation that belongs to them alone.

The Dwarves do not worship the Creator God, and they have a sense of superiority as a race. They do not believe that their achievements are inferior to those of other intelligent races. They are complacent about the Dwarves' innate ability to create things, and they are wary of this ability spreading to the outside world.

Influenced by the ideas passed down through the generations, most dwarves have developed a cloistered character, concentrating on their construction business in Elbera Forest.

At the same time, however, the Dwarves are reluctant to cut themselves off from the rest of the world because of their closed environment.

To reconcile this conflict, the dwarves have developed two ways of communicating with the outside world.

-1-

The Dwarven tribe's only school of architecture has signed an exchange agreement with the Human Empire.

Every year, the Dwarf School of Architecture sends three outstanding students to the Imperial Academy of Aiside for an exchange programme. During the exchange, the three dwarf students will leave three items [made by dwarves] at the Imperial Academy of Aiside for free, and the dwarf students will also take this opportunity to fully connect with outside information.

-2-

In the Abila Forest, there is a place specially built to receive visitors from other races.

This is a specially built underground trading place, officially approved by the Dwarf Chief.

The underground market, which opens once a year, is a convenient way for dwarves and other races to sell and trade goods.

--

The dwarven-owned Elbera Forest rarely sees creatures of other races during normal times.

However, the underground market, which takes place once a year, allows you to meet almost all the races of the Magic Continent in a limited time and area.

Inali heard about the Underground Trade Fair the first year she arrived in Elbera Forest.

Unfortunately, she was in the process of being taught blacksmithing by Mora herself that first year, and she was also new to the forest and had been told by Mora to be careful.

A year ago, on the night that the underground market opened.

Mora had f*******n Kaya to invite Inali to the market.

Inali was too weak in Mora's eyes and had not yet properly inherited the essence of a dwarf. Contact with creatures of other races would bring shame to the dwarves.

Inali was only lucky enough to hear Kaya describe the splendour of the night of the Underground Fair when she returned from visiting the Underground Market.

In fact, if Mora had not left the Abila Forest this year to [visit] the wood sprites, Inari would still not have had the opportunity to attend the dwarves' underground market.

Thanks to Inari nagging Kaya for a whole year, Kaya was forced to remember her for a whole year. Today, in Mora's absence, she was finally able to take Inari to see for herself.

...

-

Always impatient, Kaya gave Inari no time to change her clothes.

Inari was dressed in a dark, earth-coloured craftsman's outfit. She only had time to quickly wrap her messy short black hair into a towel of the same earthy colour, which had been heated on the table before she left, and there was still some black ash from the fireplace on her face and hands.

...

The evening light faded quickly, and the night fell quietly. The dwarf tribe fell silent long before nightfall.

In the darkness, Kaya took out a fist-sized glowing stone, a nightlight unique to the dwarven tribe.

She led Inari through the scattered dwellings, turned into the forest, stepped on the grass, crossed the small stream... and finally stopped in front of a stone wall.

Kaya placed the nightlight in the square recess in the wall, and a dark hole with a rumbling sound appeared in the ground beside it.

Only the first few steps were visible.

Kaya removed the nightlight and held it in her hands again. (Dwarven nightlights are powered by the dwarves' naturally released magic.)

After we go down the stairs, we'll be in the Underground Trade Fair.

...

'Kaya, doesn't the Underground Trading Fair have a gatekeeper? Isn't it a big event that takes place once a year? Doesn't someone have to check the identity of the participants? Don't we have to hide our identities?

Inali threw a series of questions, only to be met with a puzzled look from Kaya,

Inali, what are you thinking, it's just an ordinary trade fair that takes place once a year in the Abila Forest. Outsiders who are allowed to trade have all submitted their applications early and passed the Patriarch's examination, and everyone trades openly and transparently.

... Oh, Inali angrily tossed aside her superfluous speculations, born of outdated past experiences.

How could she hear about the underground marketplace and associate it with the underground black market of the Cultivation World, where treasures can be found that only existed in books read in the past?

After seeing Inali's annoyance, Kaya suddenly seemed to remember something, and after looking up and down at Inali, she clapped her hands together helplessly.

Nalley... don't worry too much about your appearance. Even though you don't really look like a good dwarf, you shouldn't be ridiculed. Look at your blacksmith's outfit today, it's just the right proof that you have the right attitude for a blacksmith's apprentice. Although our father is afraid that you will lose face as a dwarf, it's not so much that you need to hide it.

After this reassurance, Inari felt even more frustrated. Then she suppressed her curiosity and led Kaya straight down the stairs.

They walked down the dark stairs and Inari took the nightlight that Kaya had given her, already filled with magic power. They walked down the stairs in silence, and the entrance above them slowly closed.

At the end of the stairs, a bright light shone slowly. If you looked closely, it merged with the light from the nightlight in her hand.

Kaya naturally took the faintly glowing nightlight from Inali's hand.

Nali, we'll be there soon. The underground trading floor is full of nightlights, so it won't be dark.

...

Inali didn't say anything. She was simply mesmerised by the scene in front of her. It wasn't until she entered this underground trading floor that Inali truly experienced the strange sights of the imagined magical continent.

--

The underground trading floor was suddenly very large. The walls were lined with a dense array of warm yellow night lights, and even though it was night and underground, it felt as if they were bathed in sunlight.

There was obviously more than one way to get to this underground trading floor. Every few metres there were dark holes in the wall, and dwarves holding nightlights led various customers into the underground trading floor.

The spacious but cramped underground trading floor was already filled with densely packed stalls.

Inari saw groups of tiny pixie elves with transparent wings and palm-sized pointy ears flying past behind her; little orcs with fluffy tails scurrying around the stalls despite their parents' calls...

Only the dwarf, as usual, took laziness to the extreme, leaning back in a rocking chair, casually spreading out some of the items for sale in front of him and lazily watching the customers bid on and buy these items.

'Nali, this is the outer area of the marketplace, it's still a small scene. Today, I heard inside information that in the inner field, students from the Imperial Academy will be trading special goods from the Human Empire.

...

Inari was dragged away by Kaja, her eyes still wandering around, and her mind began to echo