Ryan led the hunters out to set traps in the surrounding forests to deal with the wild animals threatening their crops.
Pamin took a guard and headed for the border city to hunt down books about wyverns.
Thane stayed in town doing farm work.
Some fermented fertilizer had already been hauled out to the plowed fields.
Spreading manure was a real art—you couldn't just chuck it around willy-nilly.
Especially now when fertilizer might run short, Thane had to watch how much they used.
Originally he'd planned for one ton per acre, but when it came time to actually do it, Thane decided to spread half a ton first.
If they had extra left over, they could always add more.
After farmers hauled the fertilizer in piles out to the fields, Thane personally showed them the ropes.
"Scoop up half a shovel of fertilizer and spread it quick along the furrows. Don't go crazy with it—the fertilizer will spread out evenly in the furrows on its own."
"If some spots don't look right, adjust it by hand to make it even."
"Use the shovel, not your bare hands."
Worried he wasn't getting through to them, Thane hammered it home several times.
Fermented manure didn't smell nearly as bad, but it sure wasn't perfume either.
After spending half a day teaching farmers how to spread manure, Thane personally went to the blacksmith shop and told the two smiths to start building furnaces and smelting iron.
—Before Thane got back, he'd specifically told Pamin not to mess with the iron ore.
If not giving orders face-to-face meant no "participation" and screwed up the enchantment, that would be a massive loss.
The work involved in smelting these thousands of pounds of ore was no joke. Farmers busy with plowing didn't have time to lend a hand.
Smelting and smithing were skilled trades. Older folks didn't have the energy to learn smithing, and even helping out they could only handle small stuff like mixing clay.
Fontdmer Town's forging was definitely gonna expand down the road, so Thane had Otto round up kids aged twelve to seventeen in town for Pegin to pick apprentices from.
Blacksmith apprentices had to be chosen before kids' bones stopped growing, so their bodies could better adapt to doing the same motions over and over.
Through daily long-term training, they could develop muscle memory and beef up specific body parts like hand bones, joints, and spine.
The smithing process looked simple enough, but apprentices had to pass tough tests.
Picking apprentices didn't care about boy or girl, but hands had to be big enough to get a solid grip on hammers.
Strength-wise they obviously had to be able to swing hammers, and when standing they had to hold an 88-pound weight at arm's length for two minutes.
Most important was not being colorblind—they had to spot metal color changes during forging to know the right timing.
Other cities had all sorts of extra rules like clean criminal records, booze tolerance tests (one liter of ale without getting plastered), giving priority to folks with blacksmith relatives within three generations, etc.
But those were just to hoard smithing know-how. Thane couldn't afford to worry about that stuff right now if he wanted to grow.
Hearing the chance to become blacksmith apprentices for free, townspeople fought tooth and nail to get their kids in.
Some whose kids were too young or too old even tried bribing Otto with grain, hoping he'd put in a good word with the lord.
But Otto didn't dare take it.
Before, Otto thought the lord was scary when he got mad, but since coming back from slaying the wyvern, Otto felt the lord was intimidating even when he wasn't smiling.
Townspeople brought forty-five kids, but only seven finally made the cut as blacksmith apprentices, with three of those failing strength tests because they were too young.
Fontdmer Town's people had just gotten above barely scraping by. Lots of kids were undernourished, and color weakness and colorblindness were pretty common.
Thane required Pegin to teach these kids everything he knew and set up grading rules:
Anyone who could forge a longsword on their own would graduate, their family's farmland taxes would drop by twenty percent, and they'd get 660 pounds of rye salary every year.
All the apprentices were pumped, wishing they could become real blacksmiths tomorrow.
To become smiths as fast as possible, the apprentices kissed up to their teacher Pegin big time, constantly doing him favors, leaving Pegin completely flustered.
Thane couldn't help but shake his head at human nature—same everywhere.
These apprentices also made Pegin's job way easier.
Smelting iron ore was pretty straightforward work. Starting with making charcoal, apprentices basically had it down in two or three days.
This freed up Pegin to forge the armor Thane needed and fix farm tools now and then.
Thane wasn't sitting around either, picking out good iron to forge a short knife for Ryan, specifically for butchering the wyvern carcass.
Getting that leather armor made ASAP would put Thane's mind at ease.
"Give it a shot."
In the blacksmith shop, Thane handed Ryan the short knife that didn't have a handle yet.
"Yes, my lord."
Ryan took it respectfully with both hands.
Having seen what the Fine Steel Claymore could do, Ryan wasn't taking any chances. He grabbed a piece of pig iron, put it on stone, and chopped down hard.
Slash.
The pig iron got cut clean in two, and even the stone underneath had a knife mark.
"You really did forge this yourself!"
Ryan stared at the short knife like he couldn't believe his eyes, then caught his slip:
"Sorry my lord, I mean, this is just too crazy to believe!"
Thane smiled and didn't get bent out of shape.
Trait enchantments really were unbelievable if you didn't get how they worked.
"Does it have a name?" Ryan asked.
"Nope."
Thane was gonna forge tons more blades like this in the future. They weren't special enough to bother naming.
But Ryan didn't know that. After thinking it over, he asked: "Can I call it Dragon Cutter?"
"Whatever floats your boat."
Thane didn't care, grabbing a wooden box from nearby and handing it to Ryan.
"These are four armor-piercing arrowheads for you. You'll have to make the shafts and fletching yourself."
Ryan opened the box. The arrowheads looked pretty much like regular ones—flat diamond-shaped, not the skinny three-sided pyramid shape of typical armor-piercing arrows.
Armor-piercing arrowheads?
Ryan was kind of confused, then it suddenly clicked, his eyes going wide:
"You mean these arrowheads are as sharp as this short knife?"
"Yep."
Thane nodded like it was no big deal.
Ryan quickly slammed the box shut and carefully tucked it against his chest.
How much was this box of arrowheads worth?
With these, Ryan could take down a wyvern with one arrow.
Two tops.
"Thank you for trusting me!"
Ryan bowed like his life depended on it.
He never thought signing up with the lord would pay off like this!
If he'd known about treasures like these, he wouldn't have fought it!
His measly possessions were nothing compared to these priceless arrows!
"Don't sweat it, I'll make them with the best stuff I can find!"
As a hunter who did everything himself, Ryan didn't need anyone's help to finish the arrows.
"Remember to test them when you're done. If they work out, I'll hook you up with more." Thane reminded him.
"Yes, yes!"
The forty-something hunter was shaking with excitement, clutching the box and bowing again.
More?
"Thank you for the reward!"
Ryan bowed a third time, then booked it to find good materials for arrow shafts.
Life-saving arrows like these had to be made right away!
Thane kept working on the next item—Pamin's single-handed sword.
Right then Otto showed up with people carrying another huge batch of busted farm tools—twenty or thirty pieces.
Breaking way too fast.
Thane looked at Otto and asked: "How many acres have been plowed so far?"
"About 700 acres, my lord."
"Too slow."
Thane shook his head: "At this rate it'll take a month to plow 2,000 acres. That won't cut it."
"Sir, we haven't been goofing off..."
Thane waved for Otto to stop explaining, knowing this was the best humans could do.
After thinking it over, Thane grabbed some charcoal and started drawing on a wooden board.
Seeing Thane's serious look, Otto couldn't help leaning in to watch.
But he couldn't make heads or tails of it and asked quietly: "My lord, what is this..."
"Curved moldboard plow blueprints."
After finishing his drawing, Thane stood up:
"Go get the carpenter, and make it snappy."
Time to let you folks experience some ancient wisdom from an agricultural powerhouse.