Chapter 28: Preparation Before Battle

Exodus Tales Exodus Tales

“Uncle Marshall, when I was on my way back from Harvest City, I witnessed a village that was attacked by the Orcs. It was located between the Castle and Harvest city.”

When Knight Marshall heard about this affair, he immediately notified his steward Lindsey, “Lindsey, ring the alarm bell now and get all the villagers from all of our territories to enter the Castle for shelter now. When they are inside, make sure you verify their identity as well.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Lindsey quickly said and promptly hurried out.

“Uncle Marshall, I’ve prepared a present for you. I originally intended to give this present to you later for your birthday. But with the current circumstances, we have on our hands, I think you should have it now so that it could increase your strength.” Abel then brought out a deluxe version of an ice magic sword of hundred skills directly from his bag...

When they returned to the castle, Abel went into the operations room and took out another piece of the deluxe ice magic sword of hundred skills which was also originally prepared for Marshall’s birthday. However, he decided to give the deluxe version of the ice magic sword of hundred skills directly to Knight Marshall right now. This was a crucial move for Abel since increasing their fighting strength was what mattered the most right now.

Once again, Abel took out another piece of the deluxe version of the ice magic sword of hundred skills. There wasn’t much time left to lose, so Abel also handed it over into the hands of Knight Marshall.

“A magic sword!” The Knight Marshall pulled out the sword as he gently touched the sword with touched it his fingers. He then hastily shook off the frost on his hand and said excitedly; “Wow, this is a magic ice sword! That’s the good stuff!”

He then turned around and looked undeviatingly at Abel and stated; “Bentham had been researching the forging process of magic weapons for a long time. Looks like his hard work has finally paid off!”

“This was my gift to you. How could you say that it was forged from Master Bentham?”

Abel felt a sense of speechlessness to see that the gift that he made was being said to be made by someone else’s.

Knight Marshall couldn’t believe it. He was speechless for a while.

“Abel, you made this sword?” Knight Marshall questioned him with a sense of disbelief.

Abel remained in silent, he then pointed directly to his own master blacksmith’s medal on his chest. It was then that Knight Marshall has finally just realized that Abel had an extra medal carried on him.

“You’re a Master Blacksmith?” After hearing what Abel said, Knight Marshall was suddenly in doubt of the entire world and his whole existence... Since when could a 13-year-old novice like you can become a Master Blacksmith?

“The trip that I took to Harvest City was for evaluating the weapons I’ve made,” Abel said

“Was this true?” Knight Marshall’s facial expression immediately shifted from being astonished to being wildly excited. He then began to laugh frantically in joy, “Ha, Ha-ha-ha, BWAHAHA! We have a Master Blacksmith here in our own home! Hey, Abel, I want the best magic armor, the strongest magic shield, a magic knight firearm... Oh, I almost forgot, I also want a magical bow too.”

Abel looked at the already overly-enthusiastic Knight Marshall. He headed out of the room without even bothering to look back. According to what Knight Marshalled had requested, it would’ve required all the best blacksmiths in the blacksmith union. All for a silly dream such as this...

All of a sudden, the bell rang heavily, there were 20 soldiers wearing leather armors and equipped with long guns. They rode their horses as they gathered in front of the castle, The Knight Marshall immediately changed into his imitation Blazing sun armor as he jumped onto his personal white warhorse. His horse was way more powerful than any other ordinary warhorses, it was tall and equipped with the deluxe edition of the sword of hundred skills (Abel’s gift). On his hand, he was carrying a knight’s rifle as he stood in front of his squad of cavalry soldiers preparing to give a speech.

“Those filthy Orcs had appeared again. My soldiers, let’s get our weapons ready, together we will defend our homeland from these Orcs!” After hearing Knight Marshall’s motivating address, the soldiers were all aroused and were all ready to go into battle to fight bravely. If anyone managed to slay an orc himself, it would be considered an Outstanding Military Service. In the past, the only way to achieve an Outstanding Military Service was to serve as a guard in Miracle City. Now, this opportunity was everywhere.

To Abel, he thought the soldiers at Harry’s Castle were brave and steadfast. An entire platoon of twenty horses, along with the costs of training for these soldiers... Only the wealthy and powerful people like Bentham’s masters could have afforded such a group of well-trained elite soldiers.

...

At the Bennett Castle, a sweaty messenger quickly approached The Knight Bennett and handed him a parcel. He quickly told the butler to give a small reward to compensate the messenger as he returned immediately back to his room with the parcel.

When the Knight Bennett opened the package, he spotted a large sword and two enclosed letters. One of the letters was from Knight Marshall, informing him about the recent attacks that occurred on the villages as well as to raise their awareness and to scout out for any future Orc attacks that may occur.

The other letter was from Abel, which read “Your birthday present came early.”

When Knight Bennett pulled out a large sword from his package, he immediately recognized that something was different about this sword. The value of the sword he had just pulled out was immeasurable... When he found out that the sword was an Ice magical sword, The Knight of Bennett immediate felt a heart full of sentiment. Even though Abel had become the adopted son of someone else, Abel was still willing to spend a large amount to purchase an Ice Magical Sword as a present for The Knight of Bennett to protect himself after he realized the Orcs were now roaming around.

These days, The Knight Bennett was already filled with regrets for letting Abel get adopted. If had realized that Abel had forged this sword himself, who knows how much more regretful could he get.

...

When Abel traveled to the blacksmith store earlier today. Everyone who saw him including his apprentices was all gazing at him differently. They all seemed to obtain a sense of respect for Abel. People were now addressing him as Master Abel, but he seemed to be stressed whenever he heard people calling him by the title of “Master”. However, Abel was no longer an undistinguished ordinary blacksmith, he was now a “Blacksmith Master” which required him to be less humble and modest about his identity as he was now representing an entire community, the highest of the Blacksmith Union.

When Abel went back into the store, he went into his dedicated operations room and locked himself inside... Ever since he started forging weapons, he always had a low requirement for his equipment. Although he could forge a sword of a hundred skills, he had never truly forged a customized weapon for himself. The only sword that he had with him was the magic ice sword which was forged during the blacksmith examination.

Why didn’t Abel forge weapons for himself? Firstly, Abel himself was not in any particular danger back then. He had never thought that it would be in use and it would be wasteful to leave it there to rust. Secondly, his body was growing speedily due to puberty. This meant that the equipment that he made now would be wasted as the equipment that he crafted would not be able to fit him as he grew even one year older.

However, in the current situation, the chances of a battle happening were extremely likely. So Abel finally decided to forge a few pieces of protective gear just in case. By doing so, the new equipment would greatly enhance Abel’s chance of remaining alive... The upcoming battle looked as though it would determine the life and death of Abel and everyone he knew.

Firstly, Abel had to experiment a little bit with his current concept. He then wore some very thick gloves and placed a ceramic bottle into the furnace. After it was burning for a while, he took out the ceramic bottle with iron clamps, then directly threw a bucket of iced water at it. Almost at the same time, Abel stuffed the ceramic bottle in the Horadric Cube and pressed start.

Although Abel saw that the ceramic bottle had entered inside the Horadric Cube. There was not a change ever since Abel took it out of the furnace. After remaining silent in deep thought, suddenly Abel realized that the body of the Ceramic Bottle seemed to have some cracks them.

As soon as Abel moved a single heartbeat, the ceramic bottle appeared on his hands. At the same time, he slammed the Ceramic bottle into a pile of debris and as it fell to the ground, everything was shattered to pieces.

“It worked! Abel rejoiced and immediately felt a sense of relieve and satisfaction in his heart.

Now, Abel had to forge a piece of a large magic sword, the current pace he had right now was considered very quick already. Normally it would take around 5 hours on average to forge a magic sword. He was fast enough now to take 5 hours to make a big magic sword. With the magic sword now in the process of being forged, Abel intentionally wanted to write a few runes differently. He added a lot of useless strokes connecting in the most complicated way. During the final step when he was leading the magical power of the blue gem to the center of the Runes, the moment before the white light flashed, he shoved the sword into the Horadric Cube.

With the leftover time, Abel worked extremely hard to create an oversized shield of hundred skills. The shield was as thick as 30 centimeters, if Abel wasn’t a level 5 knight, he wouldn’t even be able to lift this gigantic shield.

Abel then took the failed magic ice sword that he just made from the Horadic Cube. This time Abel had learned his lesson, the moment he took out the sword, he threw it outside and he counted slowly”1,2,3” in his head...

When Abel counted to 3, he heard a loud Bang outside the shield, followed by a chaotic noise of “Ding Ding Dong Dong” it sounded like the shield being strike by a thousand spears. After the noise had stopped, Abel peaked his head from the back of the shield. The explosion was much larger this time. The large stone wall was pierced with countless scattered pieces, some even seemed to have made a small hole on the wall.

When Abel saw his shield, he was so deeply shocked that his entire body felt like they were drenched in cold sweat. There were holes everywhere on his shield and the holes looked as if they were hit by bullets, it was even deep enough to put a finger through.

If Abel wasn’t holding an extra thick shield, he might have been heavily wounded from the blast of the sword.

Abel couldn’t believe that by adding a few runes circuits, the effect of the explosion would’ve increased by such a significant amount. “What would have happened if a sword like this were thrown in the middle of a crowd?” Abel thought to himself.

Abel could only imagine the catastrophic accidents it would’ve caused. No one could’ve survived a blast that strong.

Of course, such a highly dangerous weapon had to be stored in the horadric cube, so a weapon like this could only be Abel’s secret weapon. The Horadric Cube was the most important secret of Abel his success was entirely aided it’s with the assistance. Therefore, Abel would not let anyone who had a glimpse of it remain alive

In the evening, Abel did not return to the castle to rest. He stayed up the entire night to forge three pieces of exploding swords to be stored within the Horadric Cube. In the meantime, Abel had also learned self-defense and how to properly protect himself.

Abel suddenly thought about the grenades in the original old world. The explosion that had just occurred was similar to the explosion of grenades. According to what Abel learned from the era of the explosion, the safest place to survive after a grenade exploded would be on the ground even though there would be shockwaves.

Based on the original world’s concept of the tank cannon-bounce shells, Abel built a much smaller shield that could be hung around the waist. During the explosion, the person could reduce the number of damage in an explosion by lying on the ground, and then using the small shield to bounce off the pieces of debris at different oblique angles.