Chapter 37: Thriving
Iron Fortress, Forging District.
"Clang! Crash! Boom!!"
Hundreds of discordant metallic shrieks intertwined, the cacophony piercing through every corner of the district. Inside the newly erected, massive foundry, hundreds of Tier 3 Skeletons were forging with a fanaticism bordering on religious fervor. They swung heavy iron hammers, their sole focus being the glowing metal slabs on their anvils.
Sparks erupted like fireworks throughout the factory.
One hammer, swung with too much force, missed the center and struck the edge of the anvil. The white-hot metal slab spun into the air like a lethal frisbee, splashed into a nearby cooling vat, and sent up a plume of scalding steam.
Another hammer missed its mark entirely. Carried by its own momentum, it swung in a full circle and smashed into the user's own shin bone with a sickening crack. The skeleton looked down at its shattered tibia, nonchalantly snapped it back into place, and resumed hammering.
Elsewhere, two skeletons working side-by-side saw their hammers collide in mid-air. The massive recoil sent both skeletal apprentices flying backward. Their hammers escaped their grip—one went spinning through the roof, leaving a jagged hole, while the other whistled toward the central high platform.
Paul was on that platform, putting the finishing touches on a red-hot breastplate. Hearing the wind behind him, he didn't even look back. He simply sidestepped to the left by a single pace. The hammer flew past him and embedded itself deep into a stone wall.
"I've told you! Confirm the trajectory before you swing! No un-telegraphed free-swinging!" Paul roared.
His face held no anger, only a burning passion. Before him was a mountain of iron ore; behind him were countless apprentices. For a blacksmith, this was the Kingdom of God.
"The curve! A breastplate needs a curve to deflect impacts! I didn't tell you to flatten it into a pot lid!" Paul yelled at one skeleton. "And you! That's an arm guard, not an iron pipe! Do you want the soldier's hand to get stuck inside forever?!"
Paul shifted his weight, feeling the reassuring rigidity from behind. A pair of undergarments forged from pure iron hugged his body, providing absolute physical defense. This was his most important invention since arriving at Iron Fortress—a product of a very painful lesson.
Just yesterday, as Paul was rushing to save a skeleton that was trying to use its own skull as a helmet mold, a strange sound had come from behind him.
"Sizzle—"
The smell of scorched meat accompanied a thin wisp of smoke. Paul's body froze. Slowly, inch by inch, he looked down at his own backside. A skeletal apprentice was holding a red-hot iron rod against him.
Greed had placed a [Blood Protection] on the humans—a defensive ward that activated during lethal strikes. It could withstand any attack below Tier 2, but it wasn't perfect against "minor" accidents.
"You..." Paul's voice had trembled.
"Test," the skeletal apprentice had answered succinctly.
A second later, Paul had exploded. "Guards! Guards! Seize him! Bury him! Send him to the Re-education Zone immediately!!"
Since then, "Iron Briefs" had become standard equipment in the Forging District. At least for Paul.
Kaito had given Paul no production quotas. He knew that expecting a country blacksmith and a bunch of single-minded skeletons to mass-produce high-end armaments immediately was unrealistic.
There was only one mission: Learning.
Paul had to learn management and design. The skeletal apprentices had to learn how to swing a hammer and identify tools. They were using mountains of iron ore to "brute-force" their proficiency levels.
The results were obvious. Initially, these skeletons would tear the bellows apart just by pulling them. Now, they could at least produce iron swords with a recognizable shape. Even if the blades were full of nicks, they could still cut.
Now, Paul and his Bone Legion were challenging a new project: Armor.
Skeletons needed defense more than weapons. Their weaknesses were blunt-force trauma and Holy Magic. A heavy blunt hit could shatter their structure, and Holy Water could scorch their souls. A proper set of full-plate armor would drastically reduce blunt damage. Furthermore, the insulating properties of metal would render a Priest's pride-and-joy—Holy Water—mostly useless. Splashing Holy Water on iron armor would, at best, give the plate a nice polish.
"It's done!" Paul suddenly let out a cry of pure joy.
Below the platform, a skeletal apprentice held up a finished product. It was... an extremely "abstract" breastplate. It was covered in hammer marks of varying depths, the edges were warped, and one side sat higher than the other.
Paul leaped down from the platform and snatched the armor. He turned it over, tapped it with his finger, and checked the thickness against the light.
"Not bad! It's ugly, and the thickness is uneven, but it looks like armor! It has a curve! It has a neck guard!" Paul pounded the skeleton's shoulder excitedly. "Keep it up! You'll be back by the Lord's side in no time!"
The Soul Fire in the skeleton's sockets brightened visibly. Paul watched this hopeful scene with satisfaction, completely failing to notice another flying hammer whistling past his scalp.
Iron Fortress, Agricultural Zone.
A plot of land was cordoned off by a wooden fence. A sign hung there, with words written in a shaky script: [Re-education Demonstration Zone].
An elderly villager squatted by the dirt, looking at a "radish" that consisted only of a skeletal head sticking out of the ground.
"Hey, Bones. Why'd you get planted today?" The villager took a bite of his bread.
The Soul Fire in the skull turned toward the sky, answering in a monotone voice. "Conducted an experiment regarding thermal conductivity and biological tissue reaction."
"Speak English."
"Got curious. Branded Master Paul's ass with a red-hot iron rod."
The villager's hand shook, nearly dropping his bread. The mental image sent a chill from his tailbone straight to his skull.
"Serves you right!" the villager muttered. He stood up and instinctively covered his own backside as he walked away.
For the rest of the afternoon, while the villager guided other skeletons in sowing and tilling, he maintained a very strange posture. He always stood directly behind the skeletons or directly in front of them. He scanned every movement with extreme vigilance, never exposing his flanks or back to a single bone-rack's reach.
There were two other silent skeletons in the Re-education Zone. One had mistaken a companion's head for a wooden stump during sword practice and split it open. The other had been caught trying to teach a chicken how to use a Soul Link.
Yes, the Empire is truly thriving today.
Meanwhile, the Valley Base.
Kaito, Lust, and several hundred mages from the Arcane Legion were busy surrounding a massive magic circle drawn on the ground.
"A Teleportation Array is theoretically possible," Lust had said.
It was because of that one sentence that Kaito had smacked his forehead and immediately dragged the Arcane Legion into a research frenzy. Of course, this was uncharted territory. Both Kaito and Lust had caused numerous blunders in practice.
"Report, My Lord! Circuit No. 3 is experiencing mana congestion! It might be because that skeleton stepped on it earlier!"
"My Lord, I believe a reverse-spiral structure could increase stability," Lust suggested, pointing to a corner of the blueprint.
Kaito took a look and waved a hand. "Makes sense. But it's too complex. Let's aim for 'functional' first, then 'perfect'!"
After countless revisions and arguments, the first version of the Teleportation Array was finally completed. Kaito looked at the thirty-meter wide circle consisting of intricate runes and rubbed his hands together.
"Lust! Inject Mana! Let's witness a miracle!"
Lust issued the command. Dozens of Skeleton Mages raised their staffs, guiding their Od toward the energy nodes. The lines of the array lit up one by one, glowing with a ghostly blue light.
However, the light lasted less than three seconds before turning a violent, piercing red. Unstable red lightning began to crackle and hiss above the formation.
Kaito saw the signs and yelled, "Not good! NIGERUNDAYO! (RUN!)"
At his command, Kaito was the first to bolt. Behind him, several hundred skeletons scrambled on all fours to escape the perimeter. The scene was pure chaos.
"BOOM—!!"
A deafening explosion shook the entire valley. A pillar of red energy shot into the sky, blasting a massive crater into the center of the clearing. The dozen mages closest to the center were instantly disintegrated into raw bone meal by the shockwave.
After the explosion, the valley fell into silence.
A moment later, the Soul Fires of the powdered mages began to reform on the spot. They stood up, wobbling and clicking. They immediately went back to work, clearing a new patch of ground to draw the second Teleportation Array.
"We'll draw it here this time," Kaito said, pointing to a new spot. "The mana alignment back there was cursed."
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you