Blacksmithing was a profession that existed in every village, no matter how small, in this era.

The reason is simple, iron has many, many advantages over other utensils - and where there is demand, there will be supply.

Wooden farm tools and equipment are naturally incomparable with iron tools in terms of efficiency and durability, and then replaced with hunting, even the hard arrows that have been charred by the fire are far inferior to the iron arrows in terms of penetration and lethality - even if these are not mentioned, as an ordinary person, to make a fire for cooking, a clay pot made of clay has to be thrown out of front of the iron pot for several streets.

First of all, it is heavier, secondly it is fragile, and finally and most importantly, the thermal conductivity of the clay pot is completely incomparable to that of metal. It takes a few hours to boil the water slightly on the same campfire, and it only takes about ten minutes to switch to an iron pot.

The various needs made the blacksmith profession thrive, and naturally, the task of satisfying their needs came into being.

The camera zooms in on the small town of Chester in the kingdom of Crane, where Henry and Mira visit the first thing they visit early the next morning after a night's rest is this medium-sized blacksmith shop with a master and five apprentices - their armor and Mira's sword need some maintenance, and the sage hopes that the girl will learn something along the way.

Mercenaries who need to maintain weapons and armor are not uncommon and uncommon for the blacksmiths of Chester, and although it is not easy to find a job here, mercenaries will still pass by every once in a while.

Some of them want to go south and see the vast grasslands, while others try to go further. See the legendary Taksanstein Wilderness and have the idea of stealing a priceless dragon egg in this legendary "dragon's habitat". Or better yet, discover the legendary treasures of these gigantic creatures.

Every year, countless ignorant young mercenaries pass by. Rudolph Smith, the owner of the blacksmith shop in his sixties, sent away countless young men who had never returned in his 42 years as a blacksmith, and the eye he developed from this allowed him to clearly judge whether a mercenary really possessed a certain strength.

In the current example, the answer is clearly yes.

The rusty chain mail was removed from the bottom of the leather armor by the apprentices and placed in a large wooden basin containing dry fine sand collected from the seashore, and then a large wooden stick began to stir the entire basin.

It was quite laborious work, and the two apprentice blacksmiths alternated and stirred, letting the fine sand polish the chain mail over and over again. Mira handed her rusty one-handed sword to another apprentice who was older than the two, and in this time it had gone from rusty to completely rusty, and the apprentice in his twenties frowned and observed for a moment with his one-handed sword, and then picked a whetstone from the side. Then I sat down next to the huge water tank and began to polish.

The skill of cleaning up the rust did not need to be prompted by Henry, and Mira began to observe and learn in earnest, and the sage guessed in his heart that for the Roan girl, perhaps it was her little self-esteem that hurt more than the irritability of the equipment being soiled.

The equipment is worn out but has no means and knowledge to clean it up on its own, and although Henry, as a teacher, is also responsible for this to a certain extent, it is ultimately because of her own incompetence.

The cute girls who stared intently at each other and asked questions from time to time added a touch of liveliness to the blacksmith's shop, which was filled with sweat, flames, and steel, and the three blacksmith apprentices who were busy with their work looked at Mira from time to time, and the rest of the two on the other side, who were making other items, also looked back from time to time.

Naturally, Rudolph, the blacksmith and our sage, who were the Mentors, saw it, but they talked in a different direction—or rather negotiated—in relation to these questions.

"Are you sure? This is an opportunity to skip the cost. Savvy people will take it. Rudolph, who was about 1.8 meters old but still looked quite tall despite being over sixty years old, touched his gray bearded chin and said this, and Henry reacted by shrugging his shoulders and not committal.

"Alas......" the blacksmith no longer insisted on it. While busy working on the other side, he proposed to the sage that the plan was to investigate and observe his great sword as the cost of equipment maintenance--the master with more than forty years of experience could naturally judge the peculiarity of Henry's great sword at a glance, let alone the exposed half of the blade, and even the handguards and counterweights, which were also made of steel, showed not the slightest trace of rust.

If only he could master this craft. Becoming famous with this is almost a sure thing.

It's hard to ask for it, since people don't agree. Then there is no choice but to give up - the idea of forcible seizure is thrown out of the clouds without even a moment, as mentioned earlier. Rudolph can easily tell if the opponent has real strength.

A morning was spent chatting and watching, and amid the sweaty gasps of the two apprentices and Mira's thoughtful expressions, the chain mail and long sword that had become shiny again were handed over, along with some tips on maintenance.

Grease is a good material for keeping weapons from rusting less quickly, most commonly tea tree oil, which is often used to brush the surface of wood, but in the hands of most mercenaries who can't or can't afford to buy them, the fat from the roasting of preyed animals is also a good material.

Brushes made of pig hair can be used to maintain them on the outside of metal armor or weapons, but the downside is that they don't smell so good, so most traveling mercenaries and adventurers will add crumpled mint or plant roots to neutralize the stench - not only for their own comfort, but also to a certain extent to avoid the carnivorous beasts and monsters that are attracted to this food-like smell.

Mila humbly studied and quite politely reciprocated with a big smile and a sincere "thank you", making the blacksmith apprentice who had sharpened her sword feel healed, and then, just as Henry was about to pay and leave, Rudolph thought for a moment. Another decision was made.

"We're going to get paid, and we're going to mine on the swamp. Come and be your guard. ”

The blacksmith, who was over half a hundred years old, said this, and Henry glanced at Mira. Nodding.

......

Time passed, and it was afternoon in the middle of the day.

Unlike the magnetite or hematite extracted directly from the mountains on the side of Avenella, the iron ore used by the blacksmiths of the Rideira region is not as comfortable and superior in all respects as the plains and mountains, except for life and in all kinds of resources for development.

The group of six set out from the back door of the blacksmith's shop in the centre of Chester Town, with three apprentices carrying large rattan baskets, and Rudolph, as master, carrying an old wooden stick - Mila and Henry were not riding horses, because the roads here were more suitable for hiking and the distances were not particularly far.

It took a lot of time to get on the dirt road, which was still a road, and it was very narrow. The tall reeds on both sides were also the top that Henry could see.

In the middle, it was obvious that the weeds had been polished away by years of walking, and the road was only as wide as a man, and both sides were covered by tall reeds, so that only the other unknown environment in front and behind could be seen, so even in broad daylight, several people were a little frightened, after all, there were many large reptiles with human creatures on the menu in the vicinity.

There are more than a dozen species of crocodiles known in the Ridera, and in addition to the dinosaur that Henry killed last time, there are many different habits and distribution ranges ranging from more than one meter to seven or eight meters long, and other species are also found everywhere.

But they're not the most feared, the flattened crocodile is a lumbering creature that even if some individuals have the ability to sprint, they only flick their tails and run a short distance.

than to pursue. Crocodiles are more like ambush hunters - so the most dangerous creatures to the local humans are not them, but dragon lizards.

Some scholars believe that even if the dragon lizard is stained with the dragon character on one side and the lizard on the other, it is actually not so intimate with the dragon or the lizard. A growing body of fossil evidence suggests that this long-misunderstood large reptile should actually be considered a primitive crocodile.

It has longer legs and a taller, thinner body, and scales that resemble crocodiles. This large reptile, which can reach a maximum length of six meters and is about the height of a war horse, even brown bears, let alone humans, have to bow down when they gallop.

Flexible body coupled with cunning mind. Coupled with a strong sense of smell, the dragon lizards in the swamp are responsible for the disappearance of countless villagers and adventurers every year.

The way to avoid them is very simple. Just borrow from the territory of a large crocodile like a dinosaur. The cunning dragon lizard will avoid the territory of predators larger than its own size, and while this behavior is often jokingly referred to as "choosing whose table to jump on", it is undeniably quite useful.

Silent all the way, Henry took the lead, Mira stood in the middle, fragmentary footsteps intertwined, the girl clutched the hilt of her one-handed sword and was ready to pull it out, while the sage in front of her was strolling leisurely.

The gap between the two can be seen at this point, even if Henry has taught Mila some little knowledge about identifying danger, but the girl who has witnessed these large reptiles several times ago is still nervous and cold sweating.

Fortunately, there was no attack until the end of this road, the spring breeze blew through the reeds and swayed gently, and the surrounding environment was peaceful and peaceful, not like a huge dragon lizard lurking there. Rudolph walked past Henry to the front, and with his staff he brushed away the reeds, and went on.

There are very few areas in the Ridaira region where high-quality ore can be mined, and these areas are usually occupied by merchants or aristocrats.

For civilian miners and blacksmiths, limonite, which is a secondary ore, is the only convenient accessory.

After a little exploration, Rudolph found some traces on the ground nearby.

"Iron ore is always inseparable from water. The old blacksmith muttered, as if to himself, and the men behind him did not answer, but followed him as he stepped on the soft dirt and walked forward.

Rudolph probed and poked with the old stick in his hand, leading the group out of about twenty meters away, and then stopped at what looked like a dry riverbed.

The two sections of the riverbed were already overgrown with reeds, and the difference in height was not particularly large, less than two meters, but just as the old blacksmith was about to slide down the dirt, Henry reached out and grabbed him by the collar.

"What?" Rudolph steadied himself and looked back at Henry, the sage raised one hand and pointed to the reeds opposite, and everyone else followed his instructions and saw a puppy-sized reptile crawling on the opposite bank of the dry riverbed more than three meters wide.

"You're such a big man, but you're afraid of such a little cub?" Rudolph furrowed his golden eyebrows and looked rather dissatisfied, while Henry glanced at the other party calmly and explained, "Dragon lizards have parenting behavior, and if the baby is there, the mother animal is probably nearby. ”

"Shhh

"Whoa—" Mira ducked behind Henry, and the others tried to back off, but the sage stopped them in a steady voice.

"Don't show weakness. "We have a numerical advantage, and it's out to find the young, not to hunt," he said. Don't show weakness, but don't behave abruptly either, as long as it doesn't irritate it, it will quickly leave with the cub. ”

The sage's explanation reassured them a little, and his words were fulfilled once more, and the huge dragon lizard stared at them for a moment with its yellow-green vertical pupils, then gently picked up the trembling cub in its mouth, and turned its head into the reeds again.

"Whew...... I thought I was going to die. "Yes, yes," the three blacksmith apprentices sighed, while Rudolph turned his head and looked at Henry with a frown that was tighter than before: "You kid, it's not easy. ”

"Actually, I'm a sage. Henry shrugged, and the old blacksmith laughed back.

After a while, after checking the movement and making sure that it was safe, the group went down to the dry riverbed and began to pick up the ore from the embankment.

Although several of the blacksmith apprentices sped up for fear that the dragon lizard would turn back again, they did not run into each other again until they returned to a place where they could see the town's cooking smoke.

The day flew by, and as he returned to the inn to wait for dinner after saying goodbye to the blacksmiths, Henry noticed a thoughtful look on Mira's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and Mira turned her head and stared straight at the sage with those sparkling eyes.

"If the teacher used a sword, he could have killed it, right? She said this, the "it" in her words clearly referring to the dragon lizard she had encountered earlier, and Henry nodded.

"But it's better not to do it. The girl continued, "I can't tell, but I just think that being able to solve a problem without fighting is much stronger than simply playing with a sword." ”

She said with a fine little frowning brow nodding like an old-fashioned scholar, and the sage smiled slightly, reached out and touched her head.

"That's true, Mira. ”

"That's true. ”

......

R: Today's double shift, the second shift will be delivered at 16:00 (to be continued.) )