Unlike Sarak Monastery, the construction of the Temple of the Bear God took at least half a year to complete, and this is not counting the harsh winter season, because during the coldest two months of the year, almost all outdoor activities are canceled, and even if Rod raises his salary, no one wants to do it, because it can't be done at all, and when Blackhammer Fort is at its coldest, it is sprinkled with ice. None of the works could be carried out. Therefore, if this period is deducted, the construction of the Bear God Temple will take at least eight months or more, and everything must go smoothly, and there will be no problems such as the project being interrupted, the workers getting sick, or the building collapsing.

You know, buildings are like this, low-rise buildings are fine, but high-rise buildings are different, especially three-story buildings, each additional floor, the difficulty doubles. Even though Rhodes invented something like cement, many ideas could not be put into practice without qualified engineers.

However, at present, the Bear God Temple is not in a hurry to be built, after all, even without this temple, the people of the North know about the existence of the Bear God, which was originally the protector of Lady Keishrie.

Besides, the construction of the temple does not have much economic benefit, so it can be postponed for a while. Rhodes remembers that there was a temple to the bear god Ersun in the Ring, but there were not many people praying in the temple, and over the years, the god of the Empire, Yurick the White Wolf, had spread widely in Kislev, and there was a tendency to replace the native religion.

Originally, Rhodes also planned to build sewers to improve the sanitation of Blackhammer Castle. Don't always have a manure collector pull a cart full of manure to dump outside the city, it's unhygienic, and every time the manure truck passes by, the town stinks and the smell is unbearable. But the construction of the Abbey of Sarak and the Temple of Ersun cost four quarters of the fiscal surplus, leaving the idea of a sewer on the back burner. Wait until the beginning of spring next year to see if there are conditions to start construction.

Before the cold winter arrived, Rhodes wanted to do only one thing, strengthen the defenses of Blackhammer. Because the last full moon of winter is when the evil moon comes. Although almost a year has passed, the terrifying images of the beastmen attacking the city in the evil moon last year are still vivid in my mind. Rhodes believes that many people who lived through the war still have fresh memories of that battle. That night, the Beastmen attacked the city with a thick battering ram, not only breaking the ice wall, but also nearly taking the castle. But this year, in the Evil Moon, Rhodes believes that he has the strength to hold off the attack of the Beastmen, because of the opening of the trade route in Dulong City, Black Hammer Castle has obtained a valuable war resource - firearms. The dwarven muskets of Dulong City may not be as accurate as the Empire's smoothbore guns, but they are definitely enough in terms of power.

Just in case, Rhodes also bought some additional kerosene, and if the beastmen attacked the city again, they could be forced back by oil fire when they were close enough. At the same time, Rod also asked the carpenter and the blacksmith to cooperate to make a frenzied weapon to defend the city - the rolling log. To put it simply, you find a thick tree trunk, round it, and have a blacksmith drive the nail into it, so that you can make a rolling log that can be rolled from top to bottom.

One can imagine the devastating force of a giant log that would normally take several people to lift from the city walls, combined with the horrific nails covered in it, enough to crush the beastmen to pieces.

In order to get the most out of the logs, Rhodes also had his soldiers tie ropes to the ends of the logs, so that the logs that rolled down could be recycled and smashed into the enemy repeatedly.

Compared to last winter, Blackhammer's defense capability has improved by several notches. Rhodes believes that there will be no need to borrow troops from the Ring and Heidelberg this year.

......

As winter approached, Blackhammer Castle welcomed its first refugees from Erlengrad. As Laheim said, these people all have one thing in common – fear.

Fear drives these people who had lived in big cities to take refuge in remote places like Blackhammer.

And through the descriptions of these refugees, Rhodes can already clearly understand what is really happening in Errengrad. That's about how it happened – a few months ago, vampires appeared in Erlengrad, an important trading port city north of Kislev. In the past, vampires have also existed occasionally, and they have lived by sucking human blood, but unlike in the past, the vampires that appear in Erlengrad this time are not isolated individuals, but appear in groups.

They were brutal and bloodthirsty, biting to death quite a few city residents. In order to find the vampires and calm the panic in the hearts of the populace, the city officials of Errengrad sent additional guards and soldiers patrolled the streets to keep the city safe. However, the number of vampire killings has not decreased, but has increased, and sometimes these monsters hiding in the dark even kill the patrolling guards.

So, in desperation, the mayor of Errengrad ran to the capital city of Kislev to report the situation to the Ice Queen, hoping that the queen could send troops to suppress these vampires. However, the Snow Queen did not agree.

A few days later, it was discovered that mysterious men in black had begun to appear in the city of Errengrad, hunting down murderous vampires. But these men in black are few in number, and they all operate at night, and no one sees their true faces.

After the appearance of the Man in Black, the vampire killings did subside, but only a month later, more vampires emerged from the darkness and killed more Erengrad civilians. The aristocrats began to panic, fearing that one day a vampire would come to the door, kill them, and rob them of their property. So, the nobles began to put pressure on the municipal officials. Demand the complete eradication of vampires.

But the Queen's army was delayed in arriving. With Erlengrad's own strength, it was no longer possible to control the situation. In desperation, the municipal magistrates of Erlengrad brought in a mysterious religious team to exterminate the vampires.

"They're mysterious, just as mysterious as the Men in Black, but there are more of them than the Men in Black. Moreover, it is an organized and systematic massacre of vampires, they are rarely seen during the day, but they are often seen fighting vampires at night. Moreover, each of them wore a long gray or brown cloak with their faces covered. Wear some simple weapons, but fire is a must. Also, they pray. They usually pray before fighting, and even if the vampires rush up, they will wait until they are done to fight the vampires......"

So says one refugee who fled the area.

Mystical religion to fight vampires. Such an organization, Rod guessed that it was either a witch hunter or a Moorish. Considering that witch hunters were not fanatical religious believers, Rhodes guessed that it was more likely that the mayors of Erlengrad had invited Moorish men into the city. These people are followers of the Grim Reaper, whose duty is to protect and guide the souls of all the dead, ensuring that they are safely transported to the dark and tranquil Shadow Kingdom. Vampires, on the other hand, destroy the process of normal death to some extent, as long as they are not severely traumatized by external forces, they are almost immortal and do not age...... In addition, some vampires can also resurrect and manipulate the undead with the help of dark rituals, which is essentially against Moore. So, it is easy to understand that the Moorish believers are against the vampires.

It is conceivable that if the mayors of Errengrad really couldn't resist bringing the Moors into the city, then the melee with the vampires would be very tragic. In the streets and alleys, all kinds of dark corners, even the sewers of the city, there may be a war between vampires and humans all the time.