The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 683: Bulk Prep

Chapter 683: Bulk Prep

Once the gems were sorted, Amie took the ones that weren’t for the militia directly to the Sect so that they could have the Elders make copies, while the common spell gems were distributed to the Barons to build up their guard teams.

That left Dominic in the forge, and a long list of work to do in front of him.

There were weapons for the Barons’ militias and guards, items for trade to keep up the funding of the Duchy, which seemed to need more with every passing day, and then a few small things that needed repair around the house.

The weapons were the first thing to go, as they were the easiest to do without worry of quantity.

There were never too many.

The first thing he made was more pistols. They didn’t have to be high level, as the majority of the threats that they were going to see in the Duchy were goblins, Hobgoblins and Gnolls, all of which were normally level five or under threats.

Even an uncommon grade level five revolver would deal with them efficiently. Assuming that the user could actually hit their target.

That was the advantage of mana weapons. They didn’t have to worry about munitions, just recovery time between practice rounds. If the user had decent skills, they could usually become passably adept in the course of a few days.

Goblins were safer to deal with from a distance, as he had learned while working with Wiz and Bella.

Dominic simply made batch after batch of level 5 mana pistols of swiftness designed for mana regeneration, his standard bonus, using the one Dwarven forge rune that he was certain of his skill at using.

It was a shame that he didn’t get a chance to learn more from Pops while they were in the forge, but there would be time later.

Now that he was working on his own projects in the forge near the centre of the city, Pops wasn’t under the same level of scrutiny that he was while they were at the Palace, so there would surely be a chance for Dominic to make his way over and gain some new knowledge.

Just not today.

For today’s work, Dominic was slightly altering the casting for the pistols, so that that chamber and the frame of the weapon both showed that they were Wistover Duchy property.

That way nobody got ideas about selling them, and nobody in the region would buy them, even if they were functionally identical to dozens of others that were available to adventurers and wealthy merchants.

It was a small thing, but it would also assure the Barons that when they handed them out they would see them again in combat.

Of course, many of them would also be seen out in the woods, hunting for monsters and wild game. Dominic had noticed many of the hunters and farmers carrying their issued spears with them when they went out, as the area had quite a few wild boars, and the creatures could get nasty when challenged.

But they were also a pest of the highest order, and would completely destroy a garden in under an hour if they came with a pack.

That wasn’t as much of an issue near the city, the boars did try to avoid large groups of humans.

But in the Baronies, or further out at the more remote farms, the got brave enough to approach. And while losing a portion of a crop was painful, losing the garden was a tragedy.

That was the variety in their diet, the essential ingredients to go with whatever they were growing for market.

Dominic let his mind wander as he forged and quality controlled the structure of the weapons, planning to enhance them all by batches, depending on what was required of them at the time.

He knew that they needed hundreds of level five revolvers and spears for the militia. But he also knew that the Adventurers and merchants would want something significantly better, and most likely rare grade.

Some of that work had to be done at the start, as the weapons were being made, as they required magitech circuitry to add features.

But some of it did not, and could be added at the end, with circuitry sketched on the surface, and a magitech orb embedded in the handle area.

It was all a calculated risk that he would run out of what people wanted.

Still, if he did run out, he could just make more and keep the others in reserve. The forge was relaxing, not quite mindless, but intensely focused on predictable issues so that he didn’t have to worry about anything other than the perfection of the weapons that he was creating.

That made it perfect after such a stressful month.

By the time that Amie came back to tell him that dinner was ready, Dominic had the small forge in the Manor grounds filled with half prepared weapons, ready to be finalized with an influx of mana and a bath in monster core infused mana oil.

The spears still needed sharpening, but that wouldn’t take too long, and he would have Amie’s help for the time-consuming parts.

“Alright, let’s go in and see how everyone else is doing. What has my lovely wife been up to all day?” Dominic asked.

“Writing notes to the Barons for the batches of basic enhancement spell gems that we collected. She’s sending them all enough for their personal guard, ten sets each.

That’s enough men to protect a small barony house and compound.

At least, from most things, anyhow.

She thought that it would be better if she wrote them up herself instead of having the maids do it for her. They’re all trained to have beautiful handwriting, but the Princess has a rather unique script, and the personalized service is a nice touch.

That’s a lot of notes to be written, so it’s taken her all day to finish them, even though she kept them short.

The packages are going out in the morning, and they’ve already been sent over to the Merchant’s Guild for delivery. They’ve got trucks making the loop again tomorrow, so everyone should have their gems in a few days at the most.”

Dominic nodded. “Perfect. That’s one more major issue down. How many does that leave us at?”

“About ninety-eight?”

Yeah, that sounded just about right.