Going Back to the Castle

Once returned to the Harry Castle's main hall, Abel told everything that he saw to the Knight of Marshall. At the same time, he's also brought the map that was drawn on the parchment paper.

Thankfully enough, the Knight of Marshall was able to read some of the characters that were used by the orcs. He had recognized some of the locations marked on the map and was able to point out some of the more crucial routes for those invaders.

The Knight of Marshall walked around the room whilst having an extremely intense expression on his face, "This map is way too important for us, Abel. With this in our hands, we can effectively stop these orcs from ever entering into the realm of mankind."

"I don't think the orcs are going to be too easy to fight off this time," Abel said with concern, "I'm not sure about the exact numbers, but the wolfriders I've faced are all at least above rank six. We won't have enough archers for them if they keep coming at this pace."

The Knight of Marshall wasn't too worried. If anything, he was very optimistic about this whole situation, "Why, of course, we're not going to take on them all. Here's the deal: I give this map to the Lord of Harvest City, and we do fend off the invasion this time and have enough dead orcs on our hands, Abel, you are going to be anointed as a Lord."

The Knight of Marshall then said with a more serious tone, "For now, Abel, you are not allowed to be out without a company. Whenever you leave the castle, you must let someone know first and bring some guards with you. As for that mount wolf you've picked up...well, um, don't tell the others about it. I'll tell the others to keep their mouths shut as well."

"Once they've reached a certain rank, mount wolves tend to stay loyal to their owners," the Knight of Marshall sighed, "Same with that one. That being said, there's always going to be someone who would try to take it back."

"Whatever you say, Uncle," Abel said without complaint. For all intents and purposes, the Knight of Marshall knew a lot more than he did about how the nobles were like. Besides, Black Wind was still a puppy. Once it had reached full size, Abel would've grown so strong already that no one could take anything away from him.

To be honest, however, this kind of thought process just showed how little the Knight of Marshall and Abel knew about the Blacksmith Guild. If Master Bentham was here, he would've warned these scoundrels about the severe consequences of crossing a human with the title of a "master blacksmith."

"Do you still have those large beast traps with you?" the Knight of Marshall asked. While he was well aware of how terrifying the wolfriders were, he was very interested in finding ways to slow them down.

"I don't have them with me now," Abel replied without expecting to be asked about his traps, "I've set up all ten of them in the forest behind the castle. I did mark them, though. If you want to, I can retrieve them by tomorrow."

"Can you have the other blacksmiths make it for you?" the Knight of Marshall asked urgently.

Abel shook his head, "Probably not, I think. There's a special technique that I've used to make one of the parts."

Having become a master blacksmith himself, Abel knew how far technology had progressed in this world. That being said, not many people could make a metal spring the same way as he did. To produce the special metal that was needed to make a spring, one would have to use a large amount of carbon to reduce the steel's durability, meanwhile ensuring that its elasticity was maintained. Forget the humans, only masters dwarves could handle work as delicate as this.

"Can you make a lot of these traps for me, Abel? I know they are meant for hunting, but they could also be great defense tools if we lay them around the castle.

"Yes," Abel affirmed, "all I need to do is to make the more complex parts. You can have the other blacksmiths make the simpler parts."

"Sure, sure. Make as many of those crucial parts. Do it whenever you have free time. I want those traps in place as early as possible," the Knight of Marshall said impatiently, "Go tell the patrol squad where you've set up the trap, and they will get them for you. And don't go out for the next few days. I've already moved the blacksmith shop into the castle. Things are going very dangerous outside the castle."

At night, after returning to his bedroom, Abel got some warm sheep milk from Lindsay and fed it to Black Wind. In order to not spill it, he's also asked for a sheet of gerbil skin.

A gerbil was kind of like a rat. Because of how thin and soft its skin was, it was often used to make all sorts of small textile objects. With that mind, Abel asked the maid to make a pacifier for him. While the resulting product was not very aesthetically appealing, he did get himself a very useful feeding bottle in the end.

With the pacifier next to its mouth, Black Wind started suckling for some sheep milk. Its premature teeth bit hard onto the bottle, and its tiny face looked very satisfied when it was doing so.

Abel never had a pet when he was living on Earth. He didn't know the feeling of having a pet, and he's never understood the people who would treat pets like they were their own children. For a while, though, he's really thought of Black Wind as his own baby. 

Meanwhile, the Knight of Marshall had sent the parchment map to Lord Dickens. To fully earn Lord Dickens's trust, he even had his men sending a whole dead body of a worgen. To be honest, if it wasn't because of how urgent things were, he would've paid the visit himself in person.

The next morning, after waking up from his bed, Abel came to the de facto blacksmith shop that was set up in the castle storage. With the help of Master Bentham and the other men, he gathered up all the blacksmiths and began instructing them on the parts that were to be made.

By now, Abel had become quite familiar with creating his beast trap. For the large, thick springs that were essential to this piece, he would spend a whole day making fifteen replicas of them. He did this for three days. The other blacksmiths were quite fast, too. Under Abel's instructions, they, too, managed to make all the other parts after three days.

Having assembled all the parts together, Master Bentham started filing the edges of all the teeth on the traps. This was so that the blades would dig deeper when the prey had fallen for it.

Thanks to how experienced the patrol squad was, the other ten traps were also retrieved back from the forest. There were now twenty-five beast traps ready for defending Harry Castle.

To test the effectiveness of his new trap, Abel threw a branch on top of the pressure pad, which, in a blink of an eye, was penetrated by its razor-sharp teeth. If the branch was the leg of a mount, then the worgen riding on top of it would've immediately lost the ability to move. All in all, it was a result that the Knight of Marshall was very satisfied with.

And that should've just about end the invasion right there. To begin with, orcs would've never attacked a castle with just a few squads on their side. The walls were too high for their steads to have any use, and a forced pushed would only result in unnecessary casualties. They were not technologically advanced enough to develop any sort of siege engine. With all that out of the way, the only asset that they had were their wolves, but even a rank seven wolfrider couldn't jump over a castle gate.

As powerless as the orcs were against a fort, the Knight of Marshall had everyone concentred to the center of the Harry Castle. He reinforced some of the castle's weak spot with the large beast raps, especially in the forest somewhere thirty meters behind the fort. If the orcs were looking for an invasion, he would need to stop them from having any access to a large amount of timber. If the traps were activated, the scouts would know the direction of the attack right away.

After finishing the traps requested from him, Abel was finally spared with some free time of his own. Instead of taking a break, though, he decided to reminisce about his last encounter with the worgen.

Looking back, that fight with the worgen had really made he understood his difference to someone with an official occupation. Yes, a rank five Novice Knight was only a rank away from an official occupation holder, but a rank five Novice Knight could not multiply his powers with combat qi.

Despite its injury, that worgen had completely outpaced Abel in every conceivable way. Honestly, he was being completely dominated at the time. If it wasn't for his luck, he wasn't even sure if he would stand where he was right now.

Once having reached the rank of a beginner occupation holder, one could utilize his combat qi to increase his physical strength. On the other hand, an intermediate occupation holder could channel his combat qi to his weapon. It was the same technique as the one that the Knight of Marshall had used outside of Harvest City. By loading his energy onto his heavy sword, both the power and the sharpness of his weapon were increased by double. That just showed how insane this technically was.

Things didn't stop there, though. After becoming an advanced occupation holder, one could essentially launch mid-range attacks with his combat qi. On the battlefield, he could even overpower an army of about a hundred men.