Farming with Entries: From Lord to Emperor Chapter 26 - 22: Armor-Piercing Arrow

Rein set off with the hunters to the surrounding mountains and forests to set traps against the beasts that threatened the crops.

Durant headed to Border City with a guard to find texts on Two-legged Flying Dragons.

Luo De stayed in the town to do farm work.

So fernted fertilizer had already been transported to the tilled farmland.

Spreading manure is a skillful task; you can’t just place it recklessly.

Especially when the fertilizer might be insufficient, Luo De needed to control its usage.

The original plan was to use one ton per acre, but in practice, Luo De decided to use half a ton first.

If there were leftovers later, they could be added.

After the farrs transported piles of fertilizer to the fields, Luo De demonstrated personally.

"Shovel half a scoop of fertilizer, quickly release it along the furrow line, don’t use too much force, and the fertilizer will scatter evenly in the furrow."

"If any spots didn’t get enough, adjust by hand for even distribution."

"Use a shovel, not your hands."

Afraid that he wasn’t clear, Luo De purposely emphasized this several tis.

The sll of the fernted manure had diminished significantly, but it still wasn’t pleasant.

After spending half a day teaching the farrs how to spread manure, Luo De personally went to the blacksmith shop to order the blacksmiths to start building a furnace for iron forging

— before returning, Luo De had particularly instructed Durant not to move the iron ore.

If the enchantnt failed because it was not delivered "in-person," that would be a huge loss.

This process involved several thousand pounds of ore, and the farrs were busy tilling, leaving them no ti to help.

Iron forging is a technical job, and slightly older people no longer have the energy to learn forging; even if they help, it would be minor things like making mud.

The future of forging in Frost Leaf Town is to expand, so Luo De simply instructed Otto to gather children aged twelve to seventeen in the town for Hamr to recruit apprentices.

Blacksmith apprentices should be chosen before the children’s bones stop developing, thus making their bodies better suited for repetitive labor.

With daily long hours of training, they could develop muscle mory, specifically strengthening bones like the hand bones, joints, and vertebrae.

The forging process seems simple, but apprentices must undergo rigorous testing.

Apprentice selection doesn’t distinguish by gender, but hands must be large enough to grip the hamr tightly.

Naturally, they must have the strength to swing the hamr and stand while holding forty pounds of iron for two minutes.

Most crucially, they cannot be color-blind, to accurately discern the change in tal colors during forging, thus identifying the right mont for tal shaping.

Besides that, other cities have various rules, like no criminal record, alcohol testing (not drunk with one liter of wheat beer), and preferential treatnt for relatives of blacksmiths within three generations.

These are all ant to monopolize blacksmithing skills, but Luo De, focusing on developnt, disregarded these.

Upon hearing of the opportunity to beco an apprentice blacksmith for free, town residents scrambled to send their children.

So who were too young or too old even tried to bribe Otto with grain, hoping he would speak favorably in front of the Lord.

But Otto dared not accept it.

Previously, Otto found the Lord terrifying when angry, but after witnessing the slaying of the Two-legged Flying Dragon, Otto thought the Lord was intimidating as long as he wasn’t smiling.

Forty-five children were brought in by the townspeople, but only seven were selected as blacksmith apprentices, three of whom failed due to age and strength tests.

People of Frost Leaf Town had just reached above the subsistence line, leading to many children being malnourished, with color weakness and color-blindness common.

Luo De instructed Hamr to teach these children unreservedly, while establishing assessnt criteria:

Those who could independently forge a longsword would be considered graduated, with a twenty percent reduction in their family’s land tax and an annual salary of three hundred pounds of rye.

All apprentices were ecstatic, eager to beco true blacksmiths the very next day.

To accelerate their becoming blacksmiths, apprentices treated Hamr, their teacher, with utmost respect, often showering him with complints, much to Hamr’s awkwardness.

Luo De couldn’t help but sigh internally; human nature was universal.

These apprentices indeed made things easier for Hamr.

Forging iron ore was relatively simple; two or three days into charcoal making, apprentices mostly had it figured out.

Hamr found ti then to craft the armor needed by Luo De, occasionally repairing farming tools.

Luo De also kept busy, selecting a suitable piece of iron to forge a short knife for Rein, specifically to handle the Two-legged Flying Dragon’s corpse.

Once the leather armor was made, Luo De could be at ease.

"Give it a try."

At the blacksmith shop, Luo De handed the short knife without a handle to Rein.

"Yes, my Lord."

Rein respectfully received it with both hands.

Having witnessed the power of the expertly forged great sword, Rein dared not be careless; he imdiately took a piece of pig iron, placed it on a stone, and cut forcefully.

With a swoosh.

The pig iron was cleaved in half, even leaving a knife mark on the stone below.

"It really is forged by you!"

Rein looked incredulously at the short knife, then imdiately realized his slip of tongue,

"Sorry, my Lord, I an, it’s just too unbelievable!"

Luo De smiled, not minding.

Enchantnt in the form of entries is indeed an incredible thing if the essence is not understood.

"Does it have a na?" Rein inquired.

"No."

Luo De planned to forge more blades like these in the future; they weren’t scarce enough to justify naming.

But Rein didn’t understand this, and after a mont of contemplation, he asked, "Can I call it Dragon-Slayer?"

"Whatever you decide."

Luo De didn’t mind, handing Rein a wooden box from his side.

"Inside are four armor-piercing arrowheads for you to use, but you’ll need to personally make the shafts and fletching."

Rein opened the wooden box, finding arrows similar in shape to ordinary arrowheads, flattened and rhomboidal, not slender three-sided prismatic armor-piercing ones.

Armor-piercing arrowheads?

Rein was puzzled briefly, then realized with widened eyes,

"You, you an, these arrowheads are as sharp as the short knife?"

"Yes."

Luo De nodded calmly.

Rein quickly shut the wooden box, carefully placing it inside his cloak.

How valuable were these arrowheads?

With them, Rein could kill a Two-legged Flying Dragon with one shot.

At most, two shots.

"Thank you for your trust!"

Rein joyfully bowed.

He never imagined there’d be such benefits from serving the Lord!

If he knew such treasures were to be received, he wouldn’t have resisted!

His little wealth was negligible compared to such precious arrows!

"Rest assured, I’ll use the best materials to make them!"

As a self-sufficient hunter, Rein wouldn’t need anyone’s help to complete the arrows.

"Once made, rember to test them; if effective, I’ll replenish more for you." Luo De reminded.

"Sure, absolutely!"

The middle-aged hunter, forty-ish, was so excited his hands trembled, clutching the box as he bowed again.

More?

"Thank you for your gift!"

Rein bowed for the third ti in gratitude and then ran off to find suitable materials for the arrow shafts.

These life-saving arrows needed to be completed promptly!

Luo De continued forging the next piece — a single-handed sword for Durant.

At this ti, Otto brought in another large batch of broken farm tools, about twenty to thirty of them.

They broke quickly.

Luo De glanced at Otto, asking, "How many acres have been turned now?"

"About seven hundred acres, my Lord."

"Too slow."

Luo De shook his head, "At this rate, it’ll take a month to till two thousand acres, unacceptable."

"My Lord, we aren’t slacking..."

Luo De gestured to Otto to cease explaining, aware that this was the human physical limit.

After thinking a mont, Luo De took a piece of charcoal and scribbled on a wooden board.

Seeing Luo De’s serious expressions, Otto couldn’t help but move closer to look.

But he couldn’t understand it, whispering, "My Lord, what’s this..."

"It’s a diagram of the curved wooden plow."

After finishing the drawing, Luo De stood up,

"Go, call the carpenters for ."

It’s ti for you primitives to experience the ancient wisdom of agricultural powerhouses.