Wizard Farming Guide

Chapter 100 Frost-Clad Blade

After touring the roads under construction in River Mouth, Rod did not linger in the town.

Instead, they went to Mole Town.

The officer in charge of stationing troops in Mole Town was Knight Loren. When Rhodes arrived, he was busy training the longbowmen and crossbowmen of the Third Divine Archer Battalion.

Rhodes picked up a crossbow from the weapon rack next to him.

After stepping on the string, raise your hand and aim at the wooden stake fifty meters ahead.

As he pressed the trigger, a short, thick bolt shot out and embedded itself in the wooden stake.

Rhodes could clearly feel the vibration of the crossbow, which was greater than that of an ordinary crossbow.

The reason for this is that, unlike the kingdom's usual wooden crossbows, this is a steel crossbow.

The crossbows are made from steel plates forged in Mole Town.

"With a draw weight of over 500 pounds, the crossbow bolts fired are still less powerful than those fired from a 50-pound bow; the power is indeed a bit lacking."

Rhodes observed the power of the crossbow bolts and felt somewhat regretful.

The steel sheet has poor resilience and low energy conversion efficiency, making it far inferior to a qualified wooden crossbow.

Even if he tried to increase the tension of the crossbow as much as possible, its final power would only be so-so, not much stronger than an ordinary crossbow.

There's no hope of improving the quality of the steel sheet; to increase its power, the drawing distance needs to be increased.

Make the crossbow longer? Rhodes did indeed arrange for a blacksmith to forge it.

But that was a crossbow, more than five meters long, which required six oxen to pull it.

That thing is for defending the city; there's no need to upgrade to crossbows for ordinary steel crossbows.

That would reduce the number of crossbowmen that can stand within a unit distance, thus lowering the crossbowmen's DPS output.

Although the steel crossbow has many drawbacks, its advantages are more obvious given that it has won Rhodes' favor.

Compared to carefully selected wood that requires several processes and slow polishing, this is much better.

With the iron ore mine in Mole Town, and the mass-produced steel sheets, they have an overwhelming advantage in both price and production speed.

Moreover, the Craftsmen's Guild that Rhodes had previously established, which implemented a unified management model for all blacksmiths and apprentices, came into play at this moment.

Luo Dechai, the leader of the artisan guild who had rushed over, spoke up:

"How well have the standards for standard-issue weapons been established?"

The blacksmith bowed and respectfully replied, "Sir, as per your request, Mole Town has now established four standards: standard longswords, standard spears, standard heavy armor, and standard steel crossbows."

"Based on these four standards, the weapon is disassembled into parts, which are then taught to apprentices by specialized blacksmiths."

To be honest, the blacksmith was quite puzzled when he first heard this request.

This contradicts his traditional blacksmithing philosophy.

Why would you disassemble a weapon into all its parts and assign them to different apprentices? Isn't that just adding unnecessary burden?

However, he could not disobey the lord's will.

But after a month of processing, the blacksmith's production situation gave him a shock.

Longswords and spears are secondary; the key is heavy armor!

Originally, it would take a blacksmith and five apprentices half a month to forge a single piece of heavy infantry armor.

It can be disassembled following the adult procedure, with the breastplate, arm armor, leg armor, and helmet each crafted by a specialized apprentice.

Once the forging process was mastered, the assembly of various components doubled the production capacity!

In one month, nearly two hundred sets of infantry heavy armor were produced.

This was the result of inconsistent standards at the beginning, which led to the scrapping of many parts; otherwise, it could have been even higher.

Looking at the lord before him, the blacksmith felt a surge of admiration.

As expected of noble elites from the kingdom's major cities, a simple arrangement doubled the production efficiency of Mole Town.

The only downside is that this method can easily lead to apprentices neglecting their studies.

But it wasn't a big deal, and the blacksmith didn't pay it any mind.

An apprentice is lucky to have food to eat. Under normal circumstances, a blacksmith would never be able to pass on his true skills to an apprentice without ten or twenty years of hard work.

After listening to his explanation, Rod nodded in satisfaction.

After the standards were unified, the assembly line production of weapons proceeded well.

Faced with a shortage of manpower, Rhodes could only address the productivity issue through institutional reforms.

As for apprentices on the assembly line, as long as they are genuinely interested in learning, the artisan guild will provide them with internal professional guidance and assessments.

If you're willing to put in the hard work to learn, you still have a chance to change your destiny.

It's okay if you don't have any. Being a factory worker on an assembly line means you won't have any problems with food and clothing.

Compared to other times, they can already be considered fortunate.

A set of infantry heavy armor costs 85 silver coins.

After comparing the profits from swords and spears with the time required to forge them and the cost of transportation, Rhodes temporarily ordered the blacksmiths to stop forging heavy armor.

They mobilized manpower to forge swords, spears, and crossbows.

The former was to sell to the pioneer knights to raise money, while the latter was to keep for their own use, to build a troop of crossbowmen for city defense.

That night, after finishing his arrangements in Mole Town, Rhodes sat in his room and looked at himself.

He took a quartz tube off the cabinet.

It contained streams of golden light, like flowing liquid gold.

"A total of 120 standard units of mottled divinity."

Rhodes gazed at the quartz tube, his haul from his time in the Northern Remnant.

It was originally intended to be preserved for research on the stable propagation of blastocystis.

However, the research has been slow to progress, and the envisioned artillery technology will have to wait for some time.

Rhodes decided to absorb the energy himself first to strengthen his own power.

Using meditation, he absorbed the mottled divinity into his body and could feel obvious changes in his body.

His heart was pounding, and the rapid flow of blood turned his skin red, with billowing steam rising from his body in the cold winter.

The moment Rhode stepped into the Extreme Knight realm, he suddenly sensed a change in his bloodline.

A unique magical fluctuation is brewing within it.

"Is this the awakening of a second-tier knight's bloodline?" Rhodes carefully sensed this state.

According to the records in the family library, the limit for humanity is a first-tier Extreme Knight, beyond which the path ahead is cut off.

If one wishes to become stronger, one must, under the witness of a great noble, bask in the glory of one's ancestors and awaken one's noble bloodline.

Rod didn't quite understand what it meant before.

But after seeing the barbarians strengthened by the cold wave, he had some ideas.

Within the various noble families of the kingdom, there are likely similar artifacts that enhance bloodline power, enabling Extreme Knights to break through to the second tier.

Take the most famous example, Rosdale. After royal children break through to the second tier, they are called Sky Knights.

Sky Knights control gravity; the sky is their exclusive domain, and no other creature may fly without permission.

After breaking through to the second tier, the great nobles of East Sea Port are called Storm Knights.

Riding the storms at sea, one can freely traverse the turbulent East China Sea.

In addition, other noble families also have their own exclusive second-tier professions.

Furthermore, only those who inherit the family bloodline can be promoted.

The mottled divinity in Rhodes's hand comes from the so-called Lord of Winter of the White Frost Order, and activates the bloodline of the Grand Duke of Northern Frost.

However, the number was insufficient, and after advancing to the extreme realm, there was no follow-up, far from enough for him to step into the second tier.

After losing the input of external power, the magical fluctuations in the bloodline began to subside.

But it doesn't matter, Rhodes has already memorized the trajectory of this fluctuation.

He got up and left the room, walking quickly to a hillside outside Mole Town.

The moonlight is exceptionally bright tonight, illuminating this hillside.

With the biting wind blowing, Rhodes' gaze fell on a huge rock in front of him, and he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Knights must reach the second tier to use their bloodline abilities, because they cannot control magic on their own.

But he is different.

Rhodes used his magic to trace that special trajectory on his arm.

As he drew his sword and raised it above his head, icy white mist emanated from his body.

The rising mist outlined a white horse, over three meters tall, above his head.

The white horse transformed, raising its front hooves and gathering icy magic from the surrounding space with a neigh.

"Frost adheres to the blade."

The icy magic absorbed by the white horse's incarnation condensed into a sword blade.

Rod suddenly swung his sword, and a dazzling frost sword aura burst forth, spreading twenty meters away.

As the sword energy slashed down, the boulder, more than two meters thick, was split in two.

Rod stepped forward and gently tapped the broken side of the boulder.

The next second, the frost-covered boulder shattered and scattered across the ground.

This is a lethal skill that can only be used by a second-tier knight.

Rhodes can use his magic to control the ability to use it ahead of time when he is an Extreme Knight.

It was because the damage to his magic was too severe; a single sword strike drained all of his magic.

(End of this chapter)