Chapter 51

Shoes (3)

Shoes are extremely important, as they make up one of the key parts of clothing among the three basic necessities of life: food, clothing, and shelter.

Humans, in particular, are bipedal creatures, making shoes essential.

Walking around barefoot could result in stepping on something sharp or slipping and falling.

Since it could put someone in dangerous situations, the importance of shoes could hardly be overstated.

That was why early footwear had to be sturdy and safe above all else.

Otherwise, there would have been no point in wearing it.

Since humans walked on two legs and shoes were subjected to some of the roughest treatment, the requirements for them to properly fulfill their purpose were demanding.

Title) Bought soccer cleats lol

(Photo of soccer cleats with two stripes)

Saved up my allowance and bought some soccer cleats hehe. How are they?

└ Those are knockoffs, aren't they? Why are there only two stripes?
　└ Yeah. There should be three stripes.
└ Ah, shit. I just noticed. Why are there only two stripes?
└ Dude proudly showed off his fakes lolololol
　└ How much did you pay for them?
　　└ 300,000 yura...;;
└ Damn lol

Driven by such public demand, clothing-related industries centered around sports also developed.

Title) Do beastkin wear shoes?

Do they walk around barefoot or something?

└ Suspiciously) We wear shoes too. What, do you think beastkin are savages? ;;
　└ You aren't savages?
　　└ Suspiciously) Sounds like you're the savage, judging by how rude you are. Want me to crack your skull open?
　　　└ Scary bastard ;;;

However, as time passed and technology advanced, shoes also began functioning as a type of fashion item.

Not only did people sometimes sacrifice performance in pursuit of design, they also began wearing footwear originally made for performance simply because it looked cool.

The emergence of sports was the starting point.

Ordinary people valued convenience more than performance, so they did not pay much attention to the actual capabilities of athletic shoes.

At most, perhaps they cared about slip resistance?

└ lololol
└ Of course beastkin wear shoes. It's not like they don't have houses just because they're beastkin.
　└ Then how do they get shoes that fit? Their feet seem to vary like crazy in size.
　　└ Custom-made, obviously. Just look at rabbit beastkin. Their feet alone are freaking long.

The existence of beastkin, in particular, had a major influence on the development of footwear.

There were combat boots worn by soldiers, and then there were safety boots worn by adventurers who traveled through harsh terrain all across the world.

The varieties of shoes were practically endless depending on who wore them and what profession they belonged to.

"So you're telling me to make this?"

"Don't if you don't want to."

"Hey, now. Look at this dwarf. Who said I didn't want to?"

Short stature.

Two muscular arms that looked disproportionately powerful for his size.

Broad shoulders.

And a thick brown beard that could practically be called his trademark.

The brown-bearded dwarf grabbed the shoulder of the dwarf who had turned away.

The dwarf whose shoulder had been caught turned back around.

His eyes were slightly glazed with alcohol, and his nose was as red as a strawberry.

Anyone could tell at a glance that he was drunk.

His red beard went particularly well with his alcohol-flushed face.

This dwarf's name was Gareth.

He was the sort of drunken dwarf commonly found in Mountain, the land of the dwarves.

"You got any ideas?"

"Of course I do. But what do I get out of making this?"

Gareth's friend, Wagner, raised a perfectly reasonable question.

The two had been through thick and thin together for many years, so they usually granted each other's requests without much fuss.

However, the item Gareth had asked Wagner to make was enough to make him question the request before even agreeing to it.

"I don't care that you suddenly showed up asking me to make a pair of high-performance shoes. But anyone can see these are shoes for a human, aren't they?"

Wagner asked as he waved the sheet of paper in his hand.

It was the paper Gareth had handed him containing the requirements for this particular order.

Gareth glanced at the paper and nodded.

"That's right."

"Where the hell did you get a request like this?"

"From the Gallery."

"That damn Gallery."

Wagner frowned at Gareth's answer.

Wagner knew about the Gallery as well, but he had never logged into it even once in his entire life.

He simply saw no reason to.

People overwhelmed by their lives in the real world had no spare time to log into the Gallery.

And entertainment wasn't an issue either, because to dwarves, invention itself was entertainment.

In that sense, Gareth was more than eccentric enough to deserve the label.

A dwarf who had become completely obsessed with the Gallery instead of inventing things.

Even so, his natural talent ensured that he never had trouble making a living.

"What the hell did they offer you to make you accept an order like this?"

"Ah. I probably shouldn't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because it has something to do with booze. Hic."

"Booze?"

The moment Wagner heard that it involved alcohol, his eyes widened with interest.

Dwarves and alcohol.

The two were inseparable.

It went beyond mere personal preference and was considered a racial characteristic. Dwarves were famous for having dedicated alcohol refrigerators or even breweries in their homes.

They had gone so far as to invent not only locomotives but even airships to ensure the smooth transportation of alcohol.

That alone said everything there was to say.

Mountain, the land of the dwarves, was a place where mechanical civilization had developed all because of alcohol.

"Yeah. Booze. You remember that infused liquor I gave you last time, right?"

"Of course I do. That bright red stuff. It was damn good. Slurp."

As soon as Gareth brought up the infused liquor, Wagner unconsciously swallowed his saliva.

He still remembered it vividly.

Gareth had somehow obtained a red herb and brought over a batch of liquor he'd made by infusing it.

Normally, drinking alcohol made intoxication set in and brought on drowsiness, but that infused liquor had done the exact opposite.

The moment he drank it, not only had his entire body filled with strength, but even his mind had felt clearer.

How incredible had the taste been, too? The herb's bittersweet flavor blended perfectly with the alcohol, giving it an exceptionally clean finish.

He could confidently say it was so good that merely imagining it made his mouth water.

"Apparently that human needs shoes this time. He's already stranded somewhere dangerous, so he needs a pair with really good performance."

"Did he say he'd give you booze if you made them?"

"Not booze. He said he'd give me an herb. I'll give it to you if you want."

"Ooh! I'll make them right away!"

The dwarves were actually thinking of a fully matured mandrake as nothing more than an ingredient for infused liquor.

If Grylls had heard this conversation, he would have been appalled, but ultimately would have let it slide as long as they made the shoes properly.

But if anyone else had witnessed this scene?

They would have been foaming at the mouth at the thought of someone treating a fully matured mandrake as a mere ingredient for infused liquor.

But the most important thing in a dwarf's life was alcohol.

It might look like a humble pleasure to others, but to them, that was happiness.

"By the way, what's that herb called? It was bright red and definitely looked medicinal."

"They said it's a fully matured mandrake, but I don't really know. Just think of it as a mandrake."

"Hmm. Mandrake-infused liquor is already delicious, so I guess this one's even better?"

"Probably? I heard you could make a single top-grade elixir with one of those."

"Really? Then isn't it insanely expensive?"

Wagner was puzzled.

Elixirs were extremely expensive items.

To dwarves, alcohol itself might as well be an elixir, but an elixir was still an elixir.

He wasn't particularly interested in such things, so the value didn't fully register with him, but he couldn't help wondering about it.

"Hic! It's really expensive. But think about it."

"Think about what?"

"It's infused liquor made from an ingredient for a top-grade elixir. How could you possibly resist that? It's way more worthwhile than selling it and using the money to drink ordinary beer."

"Oh. I wasn't thinking far enough ahead. You're a genius, as expected."

"You're too kind. Hic!"

One might say the two were perfectly happy encouraging each other's nonsense, but that was simply how dwarves were.

A race that loved alcohol so much it was practically part of their bodies.

A race with a longer natural life expectancy than humans, yet a similar average lifespan because of liver disease.

A race for whom it was virtually impossible to find a single example of someone who didn't drink.

Those were dwarves.

Ordering them to give up alcohol was practically the same as sentencing them to death.

"But this... is trickier than I thought."

Wagner studied the paper Gareth had given him.

Gareth apparently agreed, because he nodded.

"That's why I came to you. I know metal, but I'm hopeless with leather."

"True, but... shoes that are sturdy as a baseline and waterproof on top of that? Slip resistance too? You've basically crammed every performance feature imaginable into these."

Being dwarves didn't mean they were masters of every craft.

Each dwarf had their own specialty.

Gareth's specialty was metallurgy, while Wagner's was leatherworking.

"We'll have to start with high-quality materials. You said this human is stranded somewhere, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then durability has to be high too. If I do it like this..."

Wagner picked up a pen and began sketching out a rough design.

As expected of a dwarven master leatherworker, even his rough concept looked sophisticated.

"There's no avoiding the extra weight if we make them this way. Tell him he'll have to accept that."

"Got it. I'm sure he'll understand that much."

"But where the hell did this stranded human end up that he's willing to give you a fully matured mandrake?"

"He said he got stranded in the Forest of Four Seasons. I don't really know much about it either."

"Tsk, tsk. Of all places, he had to end up there."

Wagner had heard of the Forest of Four Seasons before.

A forest that was a labyrinth in and of itself, one from which no one could ever escape once they entered.

Having custom-made shoes probably wouldn't increase the man's chances of survival by much.

But even increasing those odds a little would be enough.

"Finished estimating everything yet? Hic! So how long will it take?"

"I've already got suitable materials, so about a week should—"

"Hey. Look at this."

Gareth cut Wagner off and headed somewhere.

Wagner watched him curiously, but when Gareth soon returned carrying something, his eyes widened.

"Th-That's...!"

It was a uniquely shaped glass bottle of the sort one might see in the Central Plains.

Its middle was narrow while its upper portion widened outward.

Inside it was a plant with something resembling a human face, its mouth stretched wide open.

And as if that weren't enough, the container was filled to the brim with red liquid.

It was the infused liquor Gareth had made using the fully matured mandrake.

"Hic! If you shorten the deadline, you can drink all of this."

"A-Ahem. Then three days..."

"Plus the crab he'll be sending tomorrow as a drinking snack. He said he'd give me some."

At those words, Wagner's expression turned serious as he raised one index finger.

"One day."

What dwarves needed wasn't more money.

Liquor made from rare ingredients.

That was all they needed.

"Good. Then we'll drink this after you're completely finished. If you half-ass the shoes, the deal's off. Keep that in mind."

"Who do you take me for? Just wait. I'll make you a damn spectacular pair of shoes."

"Good. I'm counting on you."

Wagner disappeared into his workshop for a while to begin making the shoes.

Gareth didn't return home.

He didn't mind staying behind as both a supervisor and drinking companion.

'He said it's the Forest of Four Seasons, so there must be herbs even better than a fully matured mandrake there, right?'

He stared at the fully matured mandrake liquor.

Just one glass was enough to make strength surge throughout his entire body.

Perhaps there were even better ingredients out there.

And if he made liquor with one of those?

His mouth watered just imagining it.

'It doesn't even have to be booze. A good drinking snack would be enough.'

The fully matured mandrake was one thing, but he was looking forward to the snacks too.

Hadn't Grylls caught a huge fish yesterday and then a crab today?

Mountain was a country surrounded by mountains, so its people had little opportunity to come into contact with the sea.

Naturally, seafood was expensive, and the best option was usually to obtain it through the Gallery auction house.

But even that wasn't particularly appealing because of the notoriously brutal transaction fees.

'Should I see what he's doing right now?'

Recently, Gareth had started enjoying his interactions with Grylls.

Hadn't the small favor he'd done for him unexpectedly been repaid with a fully matured mandrake?

Even without the mandrake, though, it was entertaining.

[Honestly, demons make better booze these days. Agree?]

"This bastard?"

But there was one thing Gareth could never ignore: bait.

He immediately opened the post.

By the time he entered, countless users had already gathered and were fiercely arguing back and forth.

A particularly large number of users were throwing fits, and it wasn't difficult to guess that most of them were dwarves.

Dwarves could tolerate people making fun of them for being short or whatever else.

That was simply a racial characteristic, so there was nothing they could do about it.

But anything involving alcohol—especially brewed alcohol—was absolutely intolerable.

It was basically their berserk button.

The topic resurfaced on the Gallery whenever people got bored.

└ Let's be real, demons do make tastier booze. Demons were the first ones to invent refrigeration and freezing magic too~
└ Passing Dwarf) Dwarves were the ones who integrated that magic into machinery. Get your facts straight.
└ Yeah, sure~ But without demons, you couldn't even make refrigerators~
└ Dwarven booze is honestly just bitter. Demon booze is sweet and actually tastes good lol
　└ Don't you guys miss out on the fun of having a beer while watching sports? lololol

Eventually, Gareth could no longer contain his anger and slammed his fist hard against the table.

Just another peaceful day on the Gallery.

***

"Why is this guy throwing another fit?"

Grylls had polished off three crabs in no time with his animal companions.

Now he was resting while browsing the Gallery.

As he browsed, he noticed a post with an unusually large number of comments. When he opened it, he found a full-blown shitshow underway.

The argument was about how alcohol made by demons tasted better than alcohol made by dwarves.

'Is it like saying Chinese-made kimchi tastes better than the kimchi we make at home?'

If that was the case, he could understand why they were so angry.