Kraft entered the dream again.
This dream took place in a somewhat cluttered room, though most researchers were like that. Compared to them, this room was already fairly tidy.
Most of the furniture in the room was wooden. The table was covered with parts like gears and bolts. A technically outdated but exquisitely crafted hunting rifle, engraved with beautiful patterns, hung on the wall. The nearby bookshelf was packed full of books, and on its very top sat a mechanical doll that danced nonstop.
Judging by its overall style, this dream seemed to belong to an era similar to Earth's sixteenth or seventeenth century. Yet the strange floating chandelier overhead and the dream's protagonist busying himself near the workbench proved that things were not so simple.
Magic technology? Steampunk? 2077?
A few more inexplicable words popped into Kraft's mind.
Without dwelling on their meaning, Kraft let out a deep sigh. The sense of age displayed by the setting, along with the faintly revealed fantasy worldview, did not give him much hope for this dream.
Still, he walked over to the dream's protagonist. Whatever the case, broadening his horizons was good.
The dream's protagonist was an old man with white hair and beard. Rather than wearing a white lab coat like most researchers, he wore red leather armor and had a pair of red goggles perched on his nose. Most importantly...
He was much shorter than even fourteen-year-old Kraft.
However, Kraft paid no attention to that. Instead, his gaze was drawn to the blueprint on the workbench.
Unlike the old-fashioned atmosphere of the surrounding furnishings, the design on the blueprint was exquisite, far more complicated than the standards of this era should allow. Though Kraft could not fully understand it, he spotted the setup for an Energy Core. That meant this thing did not require any special ability to operate. The only question was whether the materials it used could be replaced with substitutes found on Earth.
Since he could not understand the blueprint, Kraft did not waste time at the workbench. He could always call up the dream memory later and look at it again once he understood it.
He went over to the bookshelf and glanced at the spines. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no habit of putting titles on book spines here, so Kraft casually chose one and pulled it out.
"Goblins Who Don't Know How to Innovate"
Kraft: ...
He decisively shoved the book back onto the shelf and picked another.
"Gnome Engineering Is the Future"
Kraft: ...
Well, at least he had figured out that the mechanical technology here was called engineering, and that it had at least two branches...
Kraft looked back at the short old man still working at the bench. So he was not a human with dwarfism; his race was actually gnome?
The world really was vast...
Kraft marveled at the wonders of different worlds once more, then continued browsing the books on the shelf.
"Researching with a Gnome's Mindset," "The Stupid Goblins Who Only Know Explosions," "Engineering: From Beginner to Burial," "A Hundred Little Tricks for Constructing an Energy Core," "Biographies of Famous Craftsmen," "Gnomes Who Made Great Contributions to Engineering"...
After looking over every title on the shelf, Kraft directly picked up "Engineering: From Beginner to Burial" and began reading.
Whatever the dream's protagonist was making seemed rather difficult. Even after Kraft skimmed through the thick volume of "Engineering: From Beginner to Burial," the dream had not ended.
After finishing the book, Kraft's gains had already far exceeded his expectations.
Engineering truly was a science-based technology that required no special abilities to operate. Furthermore, in early- and mid-stage designs, most required materials had counterparts on Earth. Even if Earth lacked them, similar substitutes could be found without affecting their functionality.
The only thing that disappointed him was that many later engineering creations required magical materials. Those materials were generally used to construct the core, and there was nothing he could do about that. He could only see later whether a purely technological core could replace them.
Although Kraft wanted nothing more than to rush to the laboratory and study this properly, the gnome had not finished making his creation yet, and Kraft could not wake himself up. So he simply picked up the first book he had pulled out, "Goblins Who Don't Know How to Innovate," and began reading it.
Though the title was full of prejudice, it should still be enough to help him understand the goblin branch that differed from Gnome Engineering.
Unlike Gnome Engineering, which invented all sorts of strange gadgets, Goblin Engineering was more practical and closer to Earth's industrial system. Its primary focus was producing various gunpowder weapons and matching goggles. However, compared to Earth's firearms, goblin-made weapons had no real advantage. They only seemed somewhat special after magical materials were added. Those goggles, on the other hand, were rather interesting, and they gave Kraft quite a few ideas by analogy.
Closing "Goblins Who Don't Know How to Innovate," Kraft felt fortunate that he had dreamed of the gnome branch of engineering. Even after setting aside the book's prejudiced portions, Goblin Engineering was not especially helpful to him. Gnome Engineering, on the other hand, had quite a few marvelous gadgets that interested him.
He turned and glanced at the gnome still working. The creation was already more than halfway complete, and it looked like some kind of robot.
Kraft scratched his head.
The blueprint he had seen earlier was clearly shaped like a car, wasn't it?
Still, that fit the gnome engineers' tendency to act on whatever whim struck them.
Though he was curious how the gnome had turned a car blueprint into a robot, Kraft had only skimmed a few engineering-related books. Trying to understand the gnome's wild maneuvers was clearly beyond him, so he turned back around and planned to keep reading.
This time, he would choose a thinner book. Kraft ran his finger along the shelf. The robot was obviously nearly finished, so there was not enough time to continue studying in depth. He planned to find another type of book and relax his mind.
In the end, Kraft chose "Biographies of Famous Craftsmen." While relaxing, he could also learn more about this world.
Then, as he flipped through it, Kraft realized...
I think I've dreamed of this world before?
Some of the names and major events in the book had also come up when he was with an orc blacksmith before. However, there had been too few books in that orc's home, so Kraft had mostly learned them by overhearing the orc named Saru Nu Gang talking with others.
Thinking of the visitors of several different races who had come to the orc blacksmith, as well as the Night Elves, dwarves, Chromatic Dragons, and other races mentioned in this book, along with villainous forces such as the Burning Legion and the Lich King, Kraft subconsciously scratched his head.
"This world really is a complicated mess..."
Because, within dreams, Kraft could automatically learn the languages known by the dream's owner, in addition to Common, Orcish, and Troll, which he had learned from Saru Nu Gang, he now learned Gnomish, Dwarvish, and parts of Elvish and Human Language.
"More useless knowledge..."
Elvish in particular. It was probably the race that appeared most frequently in dreams besides humans, and the Elvish of different worlds varied as well. Kraft now knew more varieties of Elvish than he could count on one hand.
Judging from the worldview presented in the book, engineering seemed to be only a relatively unimportant branch in this world. Magic and swords remained the main theme, which also explained why this world had such a strange technology tree.
Furthermore, according to the book's introduction, the owner of this dream did not seem to be some nobody either. Master Craftsman Ovosbak, a pillar of the Gnome Engineering system, had even personally created the Ironforge Squirrel Rampage Incident.
By the time he finished the biographies, Ovosbak's construction was nearing its end. Usually, the dream's content consisted of finishing the creation, testing it, and then either passing or failing the test before ending. Occasionally, it lasted a little longer, but that was rare.
Kraft moved closer to Ovosbak. This gnome Master Craftsman had made a robot with a rather bizarre appearance. It was much taller than Ovosbak himself, and instead of a head, it had a seat and control panel at the top.
"Oh my God! I'm so tall!"
Ovosbak climbed onto the robot and cheered happily in a shrill voice.
Only then did Kraft understand. The robot's bizarre appearance was actually imitating Ovosbak's own outfit...
Fine, as long as you're happy...
Kraft's mouth twitched as he looked at the thoroughly abstract design.
As Ovosbak pushed a lever on the control panel, the Ovosbak Robot let out a chugging sound, and thick black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe behind it.
"Forward, my darling!"
The Ovosbak Robot shakily lifted a foot and began walking around inside the room.
"Yahoho—! Now, enter combat mode!"
Ovosbak excitedly pressed a few buttons on the control panel. A heap of messy weapons sprang out from all over the Ovosbak Robot's body, and then...
Sparks began flashing from all its joints.
"Huh?"
Ovosbak's smile suddenly froze.
Kraft's heart also skipped a beat.
This plot! I've fucking seen it at Professor Agasa's place!
BOOM!!!
As expected, the Ovosbak Robot exploded, and Kraft jolted awake as a result.
"Fuck!"