Pre-Battle Preparations

"Uncle Marshall, on my way back from Harvest City, I saw that the village between the castle and Harvest City was attacked by orcs."

Upon hearing the news, Knight Marshall immediately ordered the steward, Linsey, "Sound the alarm and have all villagers from the territory enter the castle. Check everyone's identity upon entry."

"Yes, Master." Steward Linsey agreed and then hurried out.

"Uncle Marshall, I have a gift for you. I had originally planned to give it to you on your birthday, but I'm giving it to you early now in hopes it will increase your combat power." Abel took out a deluxe version of the Ice Magic Hundred Refinements Greatsword, wrapped in soft leather.

When he returned to the castle, Abel had taken a deluxe version of the Ice Magic Hundred Refinements Greatsword from the workshop. It was originally a birthday gift for Knight Marshall, but the current situation was not right. The most important thing was to improve Knight Marshall's combat ability by giving him the deluxe version of the Ice Magic Hundred Refinements Greatsword in advance.

As for the other deluxe version of the Ice Magic Hundred Refinements Greatsword, Abel also decided not to wait for Knight Bennett's birthday and would deliver the magic greatsword to him as soon as possible.

"Magic sword!" Knight Marshall drew the sword, lightly tapped it with his finger, and then quickly shook off the frost on his hand, saying excitedly, "It's still an Ice Magic Sword, a good thing."

Turning to look at Abel, he said, "Master Bentham has been researching how to make magic weapons, and it looks like he succeeded."

"This is my gift, how could it be Master Bentham's?" Seeing his gift being attributed to someone else made Abel feel a bit ashamed.

"Abel, did you forge this sword?" Knight Marshall asked in disbelief.

Abel didn't speak, but directly pointed to the Blacksmith Master Medal on his chest. Only then did Knight Marshall notice the medal that had appeared on Abel's chest.

"You're already a Blacksmith Master?" Knight Marshall was now filled with doubt about the whole world. When did a novice blacksmith who was only 13 years old become a Blacksmith Master?

"I went to Harvest City this time for the master assessment."

"Is this true?" Knight Marshall's expression slowly changed from astonishment to ecstasy, and he couldn't help but laugh heartily, "Haha, we have a Blacksmith Master in our family! I want a full set of top-tier magic armor, I want the strongest magic shield, I also want a magic knight's spear, and oh, I want magic bows and arrows."

Abel looked at the now-crazed Knight Marshall with a wry smile and walked out of the room without looking back. Abel estimated that to fulfill Knight Marshall's demands, they would need to gather the top blacksmiths from the Blacksmith Guild.

"Dong dong dong dong." As the bell rang, twenty cavalry soldiers in leather armor, holding spears and riding warhorses, had gathered in front of the castle. Knight Marshall had put on his imitation Crimson Sun Armor, mounted his exclusive white warhorse, which was much stronger and taller than ordinary warhorses, and carrying the deluxe version of the Ice Magic Hundred Refinements Greatsword gifted by Abel, he stood at the front of the formation with a knight's spear in hand.

"An orc patrol has appeared nearby. My soldiers, pick up your weapons and defend our homeland with me." As Knight Marshall spoke, the twenty cavalry soldiers became excited. They knew that killing orcs meant earning military merits. Previously, they could only earn merits by defending fortresses in Miracle City, but now, merits were within reach.

The military strength of Hari Castle is very formidable. This was Abel's first thought upon seeing the scene. A full twenty warhorses and the cost of training cavalry were something only a blacksmith shop with iron mines and a quasi-master like Master Bentham could afford to maintain such strong soldiers.

Bennett Castle. Knight Bennett took the package from the profusely sweating messenger and, after instructing the steward to reward him, returned to his room.

He opened the package, which contained a greatsword and two letters. One was from Knight Marshall, mainly briefly explaining the orc attack on the village and warning him to be vigilant against orc attacks.

The other letter was from Abel, with only one sentence: "Your birthday gift has been delivered early."

After drawing out the greatsword, Knight Bennett noticed its uniqueness. It was an Ice Magic Greatsword of immeasurable value. When Knight Bennett realized it was an Ice Magic Greatsword, his first thought was how many gold coins his second son, who had become someone else's adopted son, had spent on this gift. And when his second son learned of the orc activity in the area, his first thought was to send him the Ice Magic Greatsword. This made Knight Bennett sigh with emotion.

If Knight Bennett knew that this Ice Magic Greatsword was forged by Abel himself, what color would his intestines, already green with regret for giving away his second son, turn?

When Abel arrived at the blacksmith shop today, everyone, including his senior apprentice Gaden, treated him with utmost respect. They first bowed and addressed him as Master Abel, which gave Abel a headache. However, his current status prevented him from being overly humble, as he now represented a group – the top blacksmiths on the continent.

Abel shut himself in his private workshop. All along, Abel had very low requirements for his equipment. Although he could forge Hundred Refinements weapons, he had never forged a weapon specifically for himself. The only one he currently had was an Ice Magic Greatsword made during his master assessment.

Why didn't Abel forge weapons and armor for himself? Firstly, Abel himself was not in any immediate danger and never thought he would need them. Secondly, his body was still growing rapidly, and some equipment made now would be a waste. As his body grew, his height and arm length would change. If he forged equipment for himself now, it might become unsuitable after a year.

However, in the current situation, it was highly possible he would encounter combat, even life-and-death battles. Abel decided to forge some defensive equipment just in case.

Abel first wanted to test an idea. He put on thick gloves, placed a ceramic bottle into the furnace, and after heating it for a while, took it out with iron tongs. He then poured cold water from a basin onto the ceramic bottle that had just come out of the furnace. Almost simultaneously, Abel put the ceramic bottle, which had been doused with cold water, into the Horadric Cube.

Upon opening the Horadric Cube, Abel found that the ceramic bottle had not changed at all after entering it, as if time had frozen the moment it was taken out of the furnace and doused with cold water. Upon closer inspection, he could see faint cracks on the bottle's surface.

Abel's heart stirred, and the ceramic bottle appeared in his hand. The moment it appeared, the ceramic bottle shattered with a crack and fell to the ground in pieces.

"Success!!" Abel rejoiced in his heart.

Next was forging the magic greatsword. Abel's speed was already very fast, taking about 5 hours on average to make a magic greatsword. During the forging process of the first Ice Magic Greatsword, Abel intentionally messed up some runes and added many useless rune lines. These lines intertwined, constantly intersecting. As the magic power from the sapphire reached the center of the runes, a white light flashed, and Abel quickly put the greatsword into the Horadric Cube.

In the following time, Abel worked at full capacity to forge an extremely large Hundred Refinements Shield, 30 centimeters thick. If Abel were not a Level 5 Apprentice Knight, he would not have been able to lift this shield.

Abel picked up the shield, went to an empty storeroom in the blacksmith shop, invigorated himself, and stood in a corner, holding the shield in front of him.

He then took out the failed Ice Magic Greatsword from the Horadric Cube. The moment he took it out, Abel threw the greatsword and mentally counted, "One, two, three."

Just as he reached three, a loud explosion sounded outside the shield, followed by a clatter as if the shield had been pierced by countless arrows. After it stopped, Abel poked his head out from behind the shield. This explosion was much more powerful than the previous one. First, he saw fragments embedded in the stone-built wall, some only leaving a small hole.

And when Abel looked at his shield, he broke out in a cold sweat. The Hundred Refinements Shield was covered in dense small pits, all caused by fragments, with depths that could fit a finger joint.

If Abel had been holding a shield that wasn't reinforced, he might have been injured by the explosion of the greatsword.

He hadn't expected that simply adding some rune circuits would increase the explosive effect so much. What would be the consequences if such a greatsword were thrown into a crowd?

Abel could imagine the scene then; no one would have survived such an explosion.

Of course, this thing had to be stored in the Horadric Cube. Therefore, this weapon could only be Abel's secret weapon, and anyone who saw it had to die. The Horadric Cube was Abel's most important secret, and Abel's success was largely due to the Horadric Cube's assistance.

Abel did not return to the castle to rest that night. He stayed up all night forging three Explosive Greatswords and storing them in the Horadric Cube. Abel also researched how to protect himself.

Abel thought of the grenades from his previous world. The explosion of these weapons had similarities to grenade explosions. Based on the knowledge Abel had acquired during that era of knowledge explosion, the safest place after a grenade explosion was the ground. Although there would be some collateral damage, the attack received would be the least.

Drawing inspiration from the principle of tanks deflecting shells with angled armor in his previous world, Abel created a much smaller shield that could be hung on his waist. At the moment of explosion, a person could reduce the number of times they were hit by lying on the ground, and then use the small shield at an angle to deflect incoming fragments.