Blacksmith Shop

"System check-in!" Roland opened his eyes at dawn and began his daily happy check-in ritual. The system did not offer much he could use at this stage, but it was still better than nothing.

"Check-in successful. Congratulations, Host, you have obtained Lava Forge (Small) ×1."

"Lava Forge? What use is this for adventuring? Where am I supposed to find the ability to forge magical equipment right now... Wait, forging!" Roland had been grumbling about the system when his eyes suddenly lit up.

The next second, Roland rushed out of his tent and ran toward old Ladyl's residence. At that moment, Ladyl was tending to the five Griffon Eggs. Since none of them knew how to hatch griffons, they could only leave the eggs in the care of the mage, the embodiment of wisdom.

The moment he saw Roland running over, Ladyl's previously cheerful face turned pale with fright. He spoke coldly, "Your Highness, no matter how urgent it is, you should at least wait until I finish breakfast. It is not even light out yet, and you came rushing over to urge me to start work?" Old Ladyl looked displeased.

Roland scratched his head awkwardly and hurriedly explained, "Lord Ladyl, you misunderstand. I just happened to obtain a small Lava Forge..."

"My prince, you must not aim too high... With the little wealth we have, we simply cannot afford magical equipment..." Before Roland could finish, Ladyl interrupted him in alarm. In his eyes, Lagrange's last king had gone mad! The kingdom had fallen to such a state, yet he was still thinking about magical equipment. Did he think this was the empire at the height of its power?

"No, I mean, would it be feasible to build a blacksmith shop around the Lava Forge?" Roland asked with an ingratiating smile.

"Pfft!" Ladyl pointed at Roland, having completely forgotten that this was an act of great disrespect. Roland, who came from modern Earth, did not mind what others would consider disrespectful.

"Your Highness... Have you gone mad... Do you know what a Lava Forge is for?" Thinking Roland did not know what it did, Ladyl hurriedly asked in a weak voice.

"I know. It is a furnace used to make all kinds of magical equipment, right? Since it can forge magical equipment, it should be able to forge ordinary equipment too, shouldn't it?" Roland said unconcernedly.

"Do you know that every activation of the furnace requires magic crystals or a mage's mana..." Ladyl felt that Roland was simply indulging in fantasy. Using such a high-end furnace to forge ordinary equipment... Was this the royal family's 'money power'?

"The main thing is, I just remembered that a lot of the soldiers' equipment is worn out. We may not have the means to replace it with new equipment right now, but we can at least repair it, can't we?" Roland said.

"Is it really appropriate to use a treasure like the Lava Forge for blacksmithing?" Ladyl looked at Roland with a strange expression. In his eyes, this was like squandering the family fortune without a second thought.

"But we cannot send soldiers onto the battlefield with blunted weapons and damaged armor, can we? We cannot rely on dwarves forever... It would be better to keep something as vital as equipment in our own hands." Roland did not care about the Lava Forge's consumption. He was the man who had fought his way through Old Forest Road. Along the way, he had obtained nearly a thousand magic crystals from Shadow Giant Spiders. A small Lava Forge did not consume much, and a single One Ring would last for a long time.

"Sigh..." After hearing Roland's words, Ladyl no longer insisted. He merely sighed. He knew Roland was right. Sending soldiers onto the battlefield with that equipment was practically a crime.

"Then, since Your Highness has already decided, why did you come to find me?" Ladyl looked at Roland in confusion.

"I wanted you to come and build a professional blacksmith shop..." Roland said sheepishly.

"..." Ladyl's eye twitched as he desperately resisted the urge to pull out his staff and smack Roland across the face with it. Good grief, had an Earth Mage really become a construction worker? Did mages live such lowly lives now?

The mental suggestion left behind by the system made Ladyl unconditionally loyal to Roland. Even though this truly disgraced a War Mage, Ladyl agreed and went out to choose a site.

"Next comes a whole series of supporting facilities... We can make do with tools, but the anvils will be a bit difficult... Should we borrow a few from the dwarves?" Roland pondered.

"Caslo! Go to Erebor and borrow a few anvils from the dwarves. Buy some steel while you are there." Roland ultimately decided to ask the dwarves for a few. Erebor had plenty of those things anyway, and they were not worth much. He casually tossed Caslo a storage ring capable of holding one hundred cubic meters of inanimate objects. The system had given him that through a check-in as well. To others, a Space Ring was something they could only hope to encounter, but to Roland, it was useless junk among useless junk. Was the One Ring's enormous space not good enough?

As the sun rose, people gradually emerged from their shelters. Fifty Bannaria Archers hastily ate some black bread before carrying fishing nets out to catch fish. The fish in the Swift River had become the lifeline of Flowing City. The remaining archers stood guard, while the Knights of the Holy Radiance Knight Order and the Lagrange City Guards prepared to begin another day of construction. The fewer than one hundred residents also began making food in their homes. Soon, cooking smoke curled through the air, and the entire town brimmed with the feeling of life.

"My lord, the blacksmith's shop is complete. Once you have all the necessary tools, it can be put into normal use." Ladyl blinked over to Roland's side, startling him.

"Oh! All right, thank you very much." Roland thanked him.

"Reno, go survey the residents and see who knows blacksmithing. We need a blacksmith." Roland glanced at Reno.

The newly arrived Lagrange City Guards were still fine, but the Longswords and lances of the Knights who had followed Roland from the beginning had all suffered varying degrees of wear. The Bannaria Archers' arrows had been replenished several times, but the shortage remained enormous. Then there were the Star Silver Steel Armor-Piercing Arrows they had started with... Every arrow used was one less. The battle against Smaug had emptied their stock completely. In the end, Roland had sent people to retrieve them, but they recovered only a few. More than four hundred arrows embedded in Smaug's corpse within the One Ring had been preserved.

"King, this citizen used to be a blacksmith." Before long, Reno returned from his search with someone behind him.

"What is your name?" Roland looked at the cowering man in tattered clothes before him.

"Y-Your Highness... My name is Ren Xiaoqiang..." The man's teeth chattered.

"Do not be afraid. You know blacksmithing, right?" Roland reassured him.

"Yes..."

"Then can you repair and forge weapons?" Roland asked the question he cared about most. If Ren Xiaoqiang could make weapons, then Roland's Swift River Infantry would finally have equipment.

"Yes, yes, yes." Ren Xiaoqiang nodded repeatedly like a pecking bird.

"Mm, good. Once Caslo returns, take him to the blacksmith shop and have him repair the Knights' equipment." Roland instructed Reno.

He turned and walked toward the blacksmith shop. He needed to install the precious Lava Forge. Its greatest advantage was that it did not require fuel. The hellfire lava contained within would automatically release hellfire when stimulated by mana, and the heat of that hellfire was enough to forge most materials.

While Roland was busy installing the forge, the archers who had gone fishing hurried back.