My Goodness! You're So Tall!

Kraft entered the dreamscape once more.

This time, the dream took place in a somewhat messy room. However, most researchers were like that, and by comparison, this room was quite tidy.

Most of the furniture in the house was made of wood. The table was covered with parts like gears and bolts. On the wall hung a hunting rifle that was technologically somewhat backward but exquisitely crafted and engraved with beautiful patterns. Beside it, a bookshelf was crammed full of books, and on the very top shelf sat a mechanical doll that was constantly dancing.

Judging by the overall style, this dreamscape seemed to be set in a period similar to Earth's 16th or 17th century. However, the strange suspended chandelier overhead and the dream's protagonist busy near the workbench proved that things were not that simple.

Magic technology? Steampunk? 2077?

More inexplicable terms popped into Kraft's mind.

Without delving into the meanings of those terms, Kraft sighed deeply. The sense of antiquity displayed in the scene, coupled with the vaguely revealed fantasy worldview, made him not hold out much hope for this dreamscape.

Still, he walked over to the dream's protagonist. After all, broadening his horizons was a good thing.

The protagonist of the dream was an old man with white hair and beard. Instead of wearing a lab coat like most researchers, he was dressed in red leather armor, wearing red goggles on his nose, and most importantly...

He was significantly shorter than Kraft, who was only fourteen years old.

However, Kraft didn't pay attention to that. Instead, he was drawn to the blueprints on the workbench.

Unlike the sense of antiquity presented by the surrounding furnishings, the design on the blueprints was exquisite, and its complexity far exceeded the standards expected for this era. Although Kraft couldn't fully understand the blueprint, he noticed that it included the setup for an energy core. This indicated that it didn't require any special abilities to operate. The only question was whether the materials used could be found as substitutes on Earth.

Since he couldn't understand the blueprints, Kraft didn't waste any more time at the workbench. He could always recall the dream memories later and re-examine them once he understood.

He walked over to the bookshelf and glanced at the spines of the books. Unfortunately, it seemed they didn't have a habit of labeling the book titles on the spines. So, Kraft casually picked one out.

"Goblins Who Don't Know How to Innovate"

Kraft: ...

He decisively put the book back on the shelf and picked up another one.

"Gnomish Engineering is the Future"

Kraft: ...

Alright, at least he understood that the mechanical technology here was called engineering, and there were at least two branches...

Kraft looked back at the short old man still busy at the workbench. So, he wasn't a human with dwarfism, but a dwarf by race?

The world is truly vast...

Kraft once again marveled at the wonders of different worlds and continued to browse the books on the shelf.

"Researching with a Gnomish Mindset," "Foolish Goblins Who Only Know Explosions," "Engineering: From Beginner to Grave," "100 Little Tricks for Building an Energy Core," "Biographies of Famous Craftsmen," "Gnomes Who Made Great Contributions to Engineering"...

After reading the titles of all the books on the shelf, Kraft directly picked up "Engineering: From Beginner to Grave" and began to read it.

What the dream protagonist was building seemed quite difficult. In any case, Kraft devoured the thick book "Engineering: From Beginner to Grave" whole, and the dream hadn't even ended yet.

After finishing the book in his hands, Kraft's gains far exceeded his expectations.

Engineering was indeed a scientific technology that didn't require any special abilities to drive. Moreover, for early and mid-stage designs, most of the required materials could find corresponding substitutes on Earth. Even if they weren't available on Earth, similar alternatives could be found without affecting their functionality.

The only thing he regretted was that many later-stage engineering creations required magical materials, and these magical materials were generally used to construct the core. He had no solution for that and could only see if a purely technological core could be used as a replacement at that time.

Although Kraft really wanted to rush to the laboratory and study it thoroughly right away, the gnome's creation was not yet finished, and he couldn't wake himself up. So, he picked up the first book he had pulled out, "Goblins Who Don't Know How to Innovate," and began to read it.

Although the title of this book was full of prejudice, it should be enough for him to understand the goblin branch, which was different from Gnomish engineering.

Unlike Gnomish engineering, which invented all sorts of strange and peculiar gadgets, Goblin engineering was more practical and closer to Earth's industrial system. Their main focus was on manufacturing various gunpowder weapons and accompanying goggles. However, compared to Earth's arms industry, the weapons manufactured by goblins had no particular advantage. It was only the addition of magical materials that made them somewhat special. Those goggles, on the other hand, were quite interesting and gave Kraft a lot of inspiration through analogy.

Closing the book "Goblins Who Don't Know How to Innovate," Kraft felt somewhat fortunate that he had dreamed of Gnomish engineering. Because even excluding the prejudiced parts of the book, Goblin engineering wouldn't be of much help to him. Instead, many of the magical items in Gnomish engineering greatly interested him.

He turned to glance at the gnome who was still busy. His creation was more than halfway done and looked like it was going to be a robot.

Kraft scratched his head.

The blueprint he saw earlier clearly showed the shape of a car.

However, this was also in line with the gnomes' engineers' impulsive nature.

Although he was curious how the gnome managed to build a robot from a car blueprint, Kraft had only briefly flipped through the engineering-related books. It was still quite difficult for him to understand the gnome's "magic operation," so he turned back and decided to read for a while longer.

This time, he would pick a thinner book. Kraft's fingers slid across the bookshelf. The robot was clearly nearing completion, and there wasn't enough time for further study. So, he decided to find a different type of book to relax his mind.

Finally, Kraft chose "Biographies of Famous Craftsmen." While relaxing, he could also get a glimpse of the specific situation in this world.

Then, as he was flipping through it, Kraft realized...

He seemed to have dreamed of this world before?

Because some of the names and certain major events that appeared in this book were something Kraft had encountered before from an Orc blacksmith. However, that Orc's home had too few books, and he had learned most of it from conversations with the Orc named Saru Nu Gang and others.

Thinking about the visitors of different races at the Orc blacksmith's shop, the races mentioned in this book like Night Elves, Dwarves, Chromatic Dragons, as well as villainous forces like the Burning Legion and the Lich King, Kraft subconsciously scratched his head.

"The composition of this world is truly complex..."

Because in the dreamscape, Kraft could automatically learn the languages mastered by the dream's owner, in addition to the Common Tongue, Orcish, and Trollish he had learned from Saru Nu Gang before, Kraft also learned Gnomish, Dwarvish, and parts of Elvish and Human Language here.

"More useless knowledge has been gained..."

Especially Elvish, which was probably the most frequently appearing race in the dreamscape besides humans. And the Elvish of different worlds varied. The Elvish Kraft had mastered now exceeded ten different dialects.

From the worldview presented in the book, engineering seemed to be a not-so-important branch in this world. The main theme was still magic and swords, which explained why this world had such a strange technological tree.

Furthermore, according to the introduction in this book, the owner of this dreamscape didn't seem to be an unknown figure. Master Craftsman Ovosbak, a leading figure in the Gnomish Engineering system, even single-handedly created the Ironforge Squirrel Rampage Incident.

After finishing the character log, the creation of Ovosbak was nearing completion. Generally, dream content involved manufacturing completion, testing, passing or failing tests, and then it would end. Occasionally, it would extend for a little while, but the chance of that happening was slim.

Kraft leaned closer to Ovosbak. The master gnome artisan was building a robot with a rather bizarre appearance. It was significantly taller than Ovosbak himself. Instead of a head at the very top, the robot had a seat and a control console.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so tall!"

Ovosbak climbed onto the robot and cheered happily in a high-pitched voice.

Only then did Kraft understand that the robot's peculiar design was actually a mimicry of Ovosbak's own attire.

Fine, as long as you're happy...

Kraft twitched the corner of his mouth as he looked at the rather stream-of-consciousness design.

As Ovosbak pushed a lever on the control console, the Ovosbak Robot made a "chug-chug" sound, and thick black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe behind it.

"Forward, my precious!"

The Ovosbak Robot shakily lifted its foot and began to move around inside the house.

"Yippee! Now, enter combat mode!"

Ovosbak excitedly pressed a few buttons on the console. A mess of various weapons emerged from different parts of the Ovosbak Robot's body, and then...

Its joints began to spark.

"Huh?"

Ovosbak's smile suddenly froze.

Kraft's heart also leaped in alarm.

This plot! I've seen this at Professor Agasa's place!

"BOOM!!!"

As expected, the Ovosbak Robot exploded, and Kraft was jolted awake by the event.

"Shit!"