Adrian spent the next week running experiments on his new device. He tweaked the internal components so the cooling process would stop at a specific point. He managed this by adjusting the carved grooves on the metal plates to control exactly how much cold air circulated inside the box.

After a few days of trial and error, he created two different models.

The first was the freezing refrigerator. It dropped the internal temperature to negative 20 degrees Celsius. This model was built specifically to store meat for months on end.

The second model was a keep fresh refrigerator. He set this one to sit right at 1 degree Celsius, just slightly above the freezing point of water. It was meant to keep vegetables and dairy products fresh for a long time.

He also made a major upgrade to his original design. Instead of using steel rods and plates, he switched everything over to copper. Copper conducted heat much better and provided easier cooling. The circulating air easily absorbed the low temperature from the copper and distributed it evenly throughout the box.

With this final change, his devices were complete.

While he was busy building appliances, the adventurers he had hired went to work. The public notice never actually mentioned that Adrian was offering knight manuals, but the adventurers gladly spread the news themselves.

Because of their big mouths, a massive crowd formed in front of Adrian’s house exactly one week later.

Adrian walked out and looked at the sea of people before he raised his hands to quiet them down.

Then, he spoke, "Everyone silence." he said and the people went quiet.

"Now form a line but before you make your decision, I would like to explain the situation here."

"Before you all get too excited, let me explain the catch," Adrian said in a loud, clear voice. "Every single one of you has to sign a blood pact. Only after you sign this pact will you receive the knight’s manual and the benefits I promised." he said and then realized that he never told them about the benefits so he explained that too.

Not a single person rejected the offer. They just scrambled to form a neat line in the dirt.

Damian brought out a wooden table and Adrian placed a massive pile of blood pacts right on top of it.

The men walked up one by one. They pricked their thumbs with a small knife and pressed their bloody fingerprints onto the parchment. Adrian just stood to the side and watched the process unfold in silence.

Once every single person was done, he handed out copies of the new manual.

"This is the Iron Knight’s Training Manual," he told the crowd. "Starting tomorrow, you will all gather at the open training field behind my mansion."

The mansion was completely renovated now, leaving plenty of room for a proper barracks and a training ground.

"Claire will be overseeing your training," Adrian added. "Follow her orders."

Everyone agreed and headed back to their homes.

Adrian grabbed the stack of parchment and counted his newly signed blood pacts. The final count was 424.

’I’ll have 424 soldiers starting tomorrow.’ he thought with a grin. ’If I include the 200 soldiers the viscount lent me, that gives me a total force of 624 men.’

For a barren territory, this was a massive military force.

He went back inside the house to finish his storage project. He linked to the system screen again and created a brand new room inside the dungeon just for his refrigerators.

He didn’t put them in the same room as the gacha wheel or the mana crystal generator. This new room was completely hidden and incredibly huge. It was essentially an underground warehouse divided into three different floors.

He filled the first two floors entirely with the freezing refrigerators to stockpile meat. The top floor was filled with the keep fresh refrigerators for vegetables, fruits, and dairy. Compared to the prototype, each of these boxes were huge. Almost three to four times the size.

Creating all of these massive appliances used up a lot of the stored mana in the dungeon. But Adrian didn’t even sweat it. The daily mana produced by his citizens using the gacha wheel easily covered the expenses.

With the storage issue solved, he needed actual food to put in it.

"Damian," Adrian called out from his study.

The butler walked in a moment later and bowed. "Yes, my Lord?"

Adrian placed a heavy leather bag on the table and it landed with a loud clinking sound of silver coins.

"Send a messenger to Viscount Alexander’s territory," Adrian ordered. "But before you do, hire five strong mercenaries from a neighboring city to act as his escort."

Damian looked at the bag of silver and nodded. "What is the order, my Lord?"

"We need meat," Adrian said. "Tell the viscount I want to buy cattle, chickens, and pigs. Make sure the messenger knows they all have to be delivered alive."

Damian looked slightly confused. "Alive, sir?"

"Meat spoils during travel," Adrian explained. "Live animals don’t rot on the road and we can just keep them here until we need them."

"Understood. I will arrange it right away." Damian said before picking up the bag and leaving the room.

The messenger delivered the request to Alexander, and the viscount easily agreed to the deal. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

When the messenger returned a few days later, he didn’t bring the animals yet. Instead, he brought a letter from the viscount.

Adrian opened the letter and read through it.

It said that he didn’t have to worry about sending money upfront. The viscount promised to send all the livestock using his own men as an escort so the goods wouldn’t be stolen or damaged by local bandits. He would simply write up a receipt of what Adrian owed, and Adrian could pay the bill later using iron and steel ingots.

’This guy really knows how to do business.’ Adrian thought as he folded the letter. ’Now I just have to wait for the food to arrive.’