The summer air was sweltering. Only the gentle mountain breeze offered a bit of cool relief.

From his post on the watchtower, Levi gazed into the distance. Beyond the dense mountain forest before him lay the vast, open grasslands.

The Feder Tribe was situated just on the outskirts of the Kas Mountain Range, so from a high vantage point, one could easily see the plains.

Shadows from the clouds rolled slowly across the land. A patch of sunlit ground, once shrouded in shade, would soon be illuminated again.

Everything upon this land was in constant flux, but the land itself remained unchanged. So it had always been, and so it would always be.

The Southern Northern Territory and the Southern Territory were on the brink of war. The Debei Royal Court’s position was unknown. The Wilderness was rife with danger, home to a complex web of powers. From ancient times to the present, no king had ever managed to unify it.

Feeling his own smallness against the vastness of the world and the turbulence of the current political climate, Levi’s chest swelled with heroic ambition.

He couldn’t help but recite into the oncoming mountain wind:

"Tonight, a madman sharpens his blade, the Emperor’s star flickers, and the Fire Planet rises high. Truly an age of great struggle..."

"Levi, what are you talking about?"

A voice called out. At some point, Baisitina had come up behind him.

The Lord remained expressionless. "I said I want to eat steamed cheese. A big block would be best."

"What kind of dish is ’cheese’? Is it good?" Baisitina asked, a look of confusion on her face.

"It’s not a question of whether it’s good or not. It’s that... knowledge is power!"

"Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Me? I was looking for a place to enjoy the breeze. I didn’t expect to find you here," Baisitina said with a smile, gathering her white hair as it was tousled by the wind.

"Well, you can enjoy the breeze then. I’m off to increase my Power."

Baisitina froze, watching the Lord’s retreating figure vanish in a flash. ’Is cheese really that good?’ she wondered.

Perhaps she couldn’t understand the cringeworthy embarrassment of a man caught in a fit of grandiose delusion, the kind of awkwardness that makes you want to dig a hole with your toes and disappear into it.

...

The Lord was surprised to find he’d made it back in time for lunch, and a few familiar faces were already there.

The diet of the Feder Remnants was quite plain compared to that of the Beastmen. Most of them ate bread with goat’s milk and some berries, which was enough to sate their hunger.

Zat and his men, on the other hand, were tearing into roasted lamb ribs with their bare hands. Surprisingly, young Mier was right there with the Beastman Barbarians, eating just like a Beastman and completely lacking the elegance of the Feder Remnants.

Levi truly didn’t get it. The kid had the build of a Warrior and ate like a Warrior, yet he freaking loved to mess around with design and engineering.

"Brother-in-law! Come grab some meat, fill your belly! Auntie Lizhen’s roast is delicious today," Mier called out, holding up a roasted lamb leg. His mouth was greasy, and his collar was stained with oil.

Levi sat on a stool, picked an unfamiliar berry from a plate, and popped it into his mouth. "Mier, take me to see the iron mine you found."

He had been at the Feder Tribe’s camp for nearly a day. He’d spent last night resting, only to be awoken by an attack from the Evil Fang Tribe. Only now did he have time to check on the main objective of his trip: the iron mine.

"Of course, Brother-in-law." Seeing that Levi didn’t object to the name, Mier began to use it more frequently and naturally. "Follow me."

After a quick meal, Mier led the way toward the back of the camp.

Zat and Muto, two bumpkins who had never seen an iron mine before, quickly scarfed down the rest of their meat in a couple of bites and hurried after them.

The camp of the Feder Remnants was built in a flat-bottomed canyon, flanked on both sides by steep cliffs.

The camp was shaped like a gourd; the entrance was only a few dozen yards wide, but the canyon opened up the deeper one went.

"The iron mine is at the back of the camp. We only found it because of a landslide," Mier explained. "Most of the houses in the camp were destroyed in the slide, but thankfully they were empty homes we’d built in advance. No one was living in them."

Mier explained as he led the group to the very rear of the canyon.

At the back was a relatively low, sloped hillside. Some of the Feder Remnants were on it, chipping away at the rock to extract ore with iron pickaxes.

It was undoubtedly an open-pit iron mine; there was no need to dig shafts to get to the ore. In fact, the entire mountain was likely rich with iron.

This pleased the Lord. Open-pit mining was far safer and simpler than digging shafts into the earth.

"We only discovered this iron mine a little over a month ago," Mier said, his tone a bit helpless. "So even with enemies at the gates, we’re still mining and forging equipment day and night to increase our strength."

"When we first found the ore, we were ecstatic, but we didn’t let it go to our heads. We strictly forbade anyone from spreading the word."

"But secrets never stay secret for long. We only kept it under wraps for about half a month before the Dala Tribe found out. After that, the news spread like wildfire."

Mier figured that by now, every power in the Kas Mountain Range probably knew they had found an iron mine.

Levi nodded. The ground was littered with the ruins of collapsed houses. It was obvious they were too pressed for time to have cleaned up yet.

Having seen the mine for himself and feeling reassured, Levi hurried over to where the Feder Remnants were smelting the iron.

A wave of heat washed over him before he even got close.

On the flat ground stood rows of disposable furnaces built from clay. The Feder Remnants tossed chunks of ore into furnaces over ten feet tall, then constantly pumped simple, cowhide bellows up and down to maintain the high temperature.

In reality, smelting iron was far from being as simple as it looked.

The raw ore couldn’t be used directly. It had to be repeatedly fired in a furnace, reducing the impurities until it formed a proper iron bloom, which could then be used to make weapons.

And that was just to produce common iron. Obtaining a Fine Steel Iron Ingot took even more time and involved a much more complicated process.

It was no wonder, then, that crafting a full suit of Plate Armor took several months at least.

’Thinking about it that way, a few hundred Gold Coins for a suit of Plate Armor doesn’t seem so expensive after all,’ Levi mused. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"We definitely don’t have enough time to make Armor now, so we’re just forging Iron Spearheads and Iron Arrowheads."

Mier explained as he led Levi into a small hut.

Zat and Muto also ducked their heads and squeezed inside.

"Holy shit."

The moment he entered, Levi was stunned.

The hut was about the size of a living room from his past life, and its walls were covered in all sorts of weapon schematics—Lances, Longswords, and more.

There were even detailed blueprints for various types of Armor. But what shocked Levi most of all was the design for a Bed Crossbow he found on the workbench in the middle of the room.

It was detailed down to every last component, with clear markings showing how they all fit together.

The sheer precision and detail within the design were not the product of a simple flash of inspiration. This was a masterpiece born from countless hours of research and experimentation.

"A genius... A true genius! A talent you see once in a million!"

The Lord, his eyes opened for the first time, murmured in awe.

A faint smile touched Mier’s lips. He gently stroked the blueprint, his touch as tender as a mother’s caress.