Chapter 295: Kendall City — New Armor Parts and Red-Eyed Pills

After clarifying the situation regarding the encounter with the Magic Beast from another Steward named Irupachi who was present at Yinyulin Cunzi, Knight Lanisha led her men back to their encampment outside the village.

It was not that they could not borrow lodging from a villager's home in the village; it was simply that Knight Lanisha did not want to linger in the village any longer. She had come here to slay the Magic Beast, and she was not interested in anything else.

Therefore, the encampment for her party was set up in an empty field outside the village.

No villager dared to come and cause them trouble.

After clarifying the situation, Knight Lanisha called several old Hunters into her tent to discuss countermeasures. The Hunters had already worked out several traps and snares based on the information obtained about the Magic Beast, which should be able to effectively lure the Magic Beast into the traps.

"Very well, let us try them one by one according to the strategy we have discussed. We must kill this Magic Beast as soon as possible. Once the Magic Beast enters the trap, you all bring your men to provide support, and I will strike the killing blow!" After arranging the methods and strategy, Knight Lanisha and the Hunters drew their respective weapons and raised them to touch in the air.

They used this method to wish for a successful harvest from this hunting operation.

This simple ceremony was a brief ritual that the Hunters performed every time they set out; it originated from a simplified ritual of the Hunting God Church, and it was said that it could slightly increase the chances of success in a hunt.

Knight Lanisha did not know if it was true, and in fact, the Hunters did not know if it was useful either, but that was what the Church said. It was just a pity that there was no Pastor of the Hunting God Church in Knight Lanisha's team, so they could not securely bless their party.

However, there was no Hunting God Church in the entire Kendall County, so there was nothing they could do about it.

Jier and Todd watched the Militia training until the afternoon. Jier was hungry and had to return to the city to find something to eat. As for Todd, he had to go back to rest, as he still had to work at the tavern in the evening.

On the way, the two discussed Knight Kela's training methods for the Militia. Jier had knowledge from his previous life, while Todd had personally participated in the Militia training.

The two held different opinions on those training methods; Todd felt that Knight Kela was playing with them, spinning them, these young people, around in circles for the onlookers to watch for amusement.

But Jier felt that compared to small-scale combat, if a Militia troop of several hundred people wanted to fight, they had to practice the gathering, dispersing, and movement of such a troop well.

After all, few battles took place on plains. For the mountainous and hilly terrain of Kendall County, this kind of dispersed combat for each unit was very necessary.

"Fine, I can't win an argument with you. I'm off. Are you coming to watch tomorrow? It seems they will still be practicing these things tomorrow," Todd asked before parting ways with Jier.

Jier scratched his head: "Still these things tomorrow? Then I won't watch. It won't be these same things the day after tomorrow, will it?"

"I asked around. A friend who participated in the last Militia training said that Knight Kela might conduct combat training on the third day. Do you want to watch?"

"Of course, then I'll watch the day after tomorrow. If I had known, I would have brought some food. My stomach is growling with hunger." Jier rubbed his repeatedly rumbling stomach, feeling impatient to go and eat something.

They had only watched the Militia eat at noon, and they themselves were still hungry. Todd, however, had eaten before coming in the morning. After returning to the tavern, he would eat a little more and then have to rest early, as he still had to work at night.

After parting, Jier knew that the Merchant Guild's restaurant would have no food left at this time, but it did not matter; he still had prepared food on his handcart. He had only been to Yinyulin Cunzi for a few days, and that food had not been finished yet. Because the weather was cold, he was not afraid of it spoiling.

Using the fire in the kitchen, Jier made a pot of soup in the open space of the Merchant Guild's backyard, then used a Dagger to shave dry, hard Bread into breadcrumbs, making a pot of thick soup to eat.

It contained Frozen Meat, root vegetables begged from the kitchen, and some seasonings. If one ignored the lack of green leafy vegetables, it was actually quite good, especially with a thick layer of Grease floating on the soup, which was quite satisfying in this cloudy weather without a sun.

However, Chef Huini'er only tasted a little of the soup Jier made and shook his head to indicate it was no good; it was too greasy. People like them who did not go out often could not drink such greasy, fat-filled thick soup.

Jier patted his own body, indicating that a young person like him who was still growing was the one who most needed this kind of soup that kept him from feeling cold after drinking it to fill his stomach.

The chef compared Jier's height and was surprised to find that Jier had grown taller again during these days.

After eating, Jier took a large bag of sharp teeth and fangs extracted from the Magic Beast's mouth and ran to Craftsman Ganna.

Ganna had taken on an Apprentice, and although he himself was only about twenty years old, the Craftsman God Church could not wait to start arranging apprentices for him.

With the rapid development of Kendall City over these years, not counting the various types of armor that were outside the standard for Knights, the maintenance of the guards' armor alone required at least three to five professional Armor Craftsmen, not to mention forging more armor.

The Militia could currently only use heavy wooden armor, which was a necessity; after all, there was no suitable Leather Armor, but they could not let the Militia train and fight wearing ordinary clothes, could they?

So they had organized Carpenters earlier to make several hundred sets of simple wooden protective armor for the warriors' training, barely enough to supply the Militia's training.

Now that they had their own professional Armor Craftsman, they naturally had to hurry to train more.

Ganna and his Apprentice were both very busy. The Apprentice helped out, while he was processing a large number of damaged guard armor pieces sent over. During daily patrols and training, the armor on the guards' bodies inevitably suffered wear and tear. The guards might not have cared at the time, but this time for the Militia training, the guards needed to present themselves neatly, so naturally, a large amount of work on damaged guard armor piled up at Ganna's place.

Fortunately, the guards' armor had backups, so these damaged guard armor parts would just be delivered to the guards' warehouse after completion, and would not hinder the guards' current work.

"Jier! You came just in time. The things you entrusted to me before are done. Donzi, go get the things I prepared yesterday." As soon as Ganna saw Jier enter, he greeted Jier to sit down and then instructed his Apprentice to get the things for him.

"Alright, Master." The fifteen-year-old boy named Donzi was a young man who looked like he was born to be a craftsman. He was not tall, but he had a sturdy build. One look showed he did not do little work at home, which was why he had developed these muscles.

"Your apprentice really looks strong. Looking at it this way, you are a bit thin," Jier joked.

"How could that be? I don't look sturdy, but I am actually very strong; otherwise, how could I have forged your equipment? Besides, I have gained a lot of weight during this period." Ganna patted his stomach and arms, which indeed looked like they had gained quite a bit of flesh.

The Apprentice Donzi brought out a sturdy Wooden Box and opened it. It was a bit empty inside, but that was mainly because, except for a Helmet and the upper body armor, the other armor components had not been forged yet.

Jier took out the newly forged Metal Helmet and upper body armor. Both armor parts had significant weight, and compared to the two parts of the previous Hard Cowhide Armor, they were clearly several times heavier.

Jier touched the metal horns on the Helmet, and the corners of his mouth curled up; he was clearly very satisfied with these three horns.

Not only did it look mighty, but in battle, being hit by this thing would be a fatal blow.

The metal interior of the Helmet was divided into two layers, with the middle layer made of shock-absorbing cork. These corks were wedged into the inner frame of the Helmet and were quite secure.

Then there was the soft leather layer that touched the head. Ganna did not use very soft leather, but rather slightly harder leather as the material for this layer.

Thinking of the other Inner Armor that would be worn on the body later, this was quite appropriate.

Thinking of the Inner Armor, Jier asked Ganna to wait a moment, ran out the door to the Wild Grape Market in one breath, and retrieved the already-made Inner Armor that could fix the external components from the tailor shop where he had previously ordered it.

After paying, Jier hugged the new Inner Armor and returned to Ganna's place.

Putting on the Inner Armor, then putting on the Helmet, and putting on the upper torso part of the iron armor, Jier fastened the connection between the iron armor and the Inner Armor with metal buckles.

Walking, jogging, jumping, crawling, and rolling—there were no major problems.

It was mainly because there were only two parts of the armor, causing the other parts of his body to only show the Inner Armor, which looked extremely strange.

It made Ganna and Donzi laugh uncontrollably; after all, Jier looked truly ridiculous like this.

He knocked on his chest with his fist with a thud-thud-thud sound, and apart from the sound of the collision, there was no other feeling.

Jier laughed along with them; this iron armor was really not bad.

"Ganna, I am very satisfied with these two parts of the armor you made now. Let's continue. I provide the raw materials and design, and you do the forging." Jier lifted the Faceplate of the Helmet; with a swish, the Faceplate lifted upward, revealing Jier's face.

Ganna gave a wry smile and shook his head, saying: "It won't work now. Look, I have to work with Donzi to fix so many damaged guard armor parts first. Besides, for some reason, the Church has tightened the supply of iron, and I can't even forge an extra Dagger, let alone forge armor."

Jier tapped his head, making a clanging sound. He remembered that Knight Kela had mentioned to him before that he would go to war with him next spring, and the training to become a Knight-rank Warrior would begin at that time.

Jier hadn't paid attention at the time, but now that he thought about it, because there was going to be a war next year, Kendall City had already started tightening the supply of metal from this time on.

"There's no help for it. Since that's the case, let's forge these first. By the way, if I bring the metal raw materials myself, that is, just like these two new armor parts, I bring the iron material to you myself, that should be fine, right? Anyway, after these guard armors are repaired, you won't have much work here, right?" Jier said, pointing to the armor he was wearing.

Ganna nodded: "I can't get iron materials here, but if you bring them yourself, there is no problem. Besides, who said I won't have work later? Teaching an apprentice is also important work."

"Fine, fine, if you say so. This is the production fee for these two armor parts. The price we agreed on, please accept it." Jier took out a Gold Coin and handed it to Ganna.

Because Ganna was only responsible for the manufacturing process of the armor here, and the design and raw materials of the armor were provided by Jier himself, the price was not expensive.

Ganna took the Gold Coin in his hand and showed it off to his Apprentice: "See that? Don't listen to the nonsense of other apprentices; our income as Armor Craftsmen is not small either. After we finish work, we will go together to turn this Gold Coin income over to the management office."

The Apprentice Donzi immediately stared closely at that Gold Coin with a grin; this was his first time coming into such close contact with a high-value precious currency like a Gold Coin.

He hadn't expected that the Armor Craftsman apprentice position, which everyone looked down upon, would actually be so lucrative. His friends who became apprentices in the same batch were probably still being scolded by their master Craftsmen all day long, while he was already working alongside his master.

And he could even receive Gold Coins.

Jier then opened the bag he had brought earlier, revealing the various hard and sharp Magic Beast teeth inside.

Ganna clearly had never seen these things: "Are these the teeth of a wild beast? There are so many; how many wild beasts did you kill?"

Donzi, on the other hand, was startled by these things that looked dangerous just by sight.

Shaking his head, Jier took out two types of Magic Beast teeth, one large and one small, and said: "Do you know about the Magic Beast matter regarding Yinyulin Cunzi in the west of the city earlier?"

Unexpectedly, Ganna did not know, and even Donzi shook his head in ignorance.

It seemed that these Craftsmen were not very sensitive to new information, so Jier had no choice but to briefly explain what had happened before.

"So, this thing is a Magic Beast's tooth, and it's the tooth of one Magic Beast?" Ganna thought about the appearance of a Magic Beast, and imagining what a Magic Beast that could have so many teeth might look like made him feel waves of fear.

Donzi, who was beside him, was also terrified. A large Magic Beast tooth Jier held in his hand was over ten centimeters long, while the small ones were also several centimeters long, yet there was a whole bag full of such teeth.

Just how terrifying must a Magic Beast be to have so many teeth?

Taking the Magic Beast teeth handed over by Jier, Ganna looked at these things in a dilemma: "Then, what do you want to do? What can these things be used to make?"

Jier scratched his head; he hadn't figured out what to do with these things either. These teeth were harder than steel, and it was impossible to modify them using the tools in the workshop, so he could only add iron hoops to the roots of these teeth to fix them, but this would lead back to the predicament of insufficient iron materials.

After thinking for a while, Jier felt that since he hadn't made up his mind yet, he would just let it be for now and talk about it later.

Carrying a full bag of Magic Beast teeth and the new armor and Inner Armor packed in a box, Zhao Ji returned to the Merchant Guild's room.

In the evening, he lit an Oil Lamp, took out the paper he had bought from the general store, and compared the two sizes of Magic Beast teeth in front of him, feeling troubled about how to handle these things.

After considering for a long time, looking at the full bag of teeth, he recalled the scene inside the Magic Beast's mouth he had seen during his previous battle.

That terrifying sight of sharp teeth everywhere gave Zhao Ji a fleeting inspiration.

He paced back and forth in the room, then took out all the small Magic Beast teeth and laid them all out on the floor and the bed of the room.

Looking at the small Magic Beast teeth spread over such a large area, Zhao Ji had an inspiration.

Could he stack these slender teeth, which were like small Daggers, layer by layer to make a Cloak with Magic Beast teeth as the raw material?

The hardness and toughness of this material were extremely high, at least exceeding steel, while the weight was much lighter than steel. Used to make a Cloak, it would be very difficult for an enemy's weapon to penetrate the protection of this tooth Cloak and hurt him.

Coupled with the full set of Iron Armor he wore underneath, this combination of his armor and Cloak would both take into account defense and have a very intimidating appearance.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji hurriedly drew his idea bit by bit on the paper.

Soon, a rather ferocious and terrifying Cloak made of Magic Beast teeth appeared on the paper.

Although his drawing skills were poor, just by drawing it out so concisely, he could feel the strong sense of oppression this Cloak brought to people.

What should he call it? Such a majestic piece of equipment would seem a bit lacking without an equally majestic name.

Fiddling with a small Magic Beast tooth, Zhao Ji thought for a long time and finally came up with a name.

"Man-Eating Spider Tooth Cloak"

Although it lacked the image of that Magic Beast specifically ambushing from the sky, it basically displayed the source of the material for this Cloak.

This made Zhao Ji very satisfied; he wrote this name on the blueprint of the Cloak in capital letters.

The next day, Zhao Ji followed an address given by Jamula and found the Honey he needed at a general store in the wealthy district. Honey was very expensive, and since he wasn't using it for eating, he only bought a small jar.

He then bought a small set of stone tools for grinding plants at the Stonemason workshop.

Returning to the Merchant Guild, Zhao Ji took out all his dried Red-eye Mushrooms and used a small stone mortar to grind them into powder.

To avoid inhaling the fine powder of these dried Red-eye Mushrooms during production, Zhao Ji tried his best not to stir up any dust.

He crushed all these dried Red-eye Mushrooms bit by bit and then put them into a covered Wooden Bowl.

Then he took out the finest wheat flour he had bought, mixed it with the heated and stirred Honey, and kneaded it into small, semi-solid patties.

He then used a small spoon to add the powder of the dried Red-eye Mushrooms into the middle of these patties bit by bit.

Then he closed the edges to wrap the powder inside.

Immediately after, he used his palms to roll them into the shape of small round balls.

He placed them next to a window that had been left slightly ajar, letting the cold air outside freeze these small pills until they were hard.

Zhao Ji made them one by one, finishing them one by one, and finally used up all the powder of the dried Red-eye Mushrooms. He counted them, and in total, he had made fifty or sixty of these small pills.

Although he didn't know how long the medicinal effect of this thing would last, he could just try it out whenever there was a battle later.

Taking out a small wooden bottle, Zhao Ji rubbed a layer of fine wheat flour on the outside of these small pills to ensure they stayed dry, then put all these small pills inside.

Taking out a Charcoal Pencil and a red pigment, Zhao Ji first drew a big eye on the outside of the small wooden bottle, and then used the red pigment to paint the white part of the eye inside red.

Good, it was finished.

Putting this thing into his combat Backpack, Zhao Ji specially sewed a small fixed pocket for it in the Backpack himself and stuffed it in firmly; Zhao Ji felt that another part of his various combat preparations was complete.

He ate the Honey mixed with fine wheat flour in small bites, lying on the bed, pondering where there could be a sufficient source of iron materials.

Bingxun Pass? It looked like it was managed by Kendall, but it seemed it wasn't; there should still be some iron materials being used there. Moreover, it was the starting and ending point of the Shanglu for Kendall County, and with people coming and going from the south and north, there must be Merchant Guilds transporting large quantities of metal raw materials.

In addition, speaking of Bingxun Pass, Zhao Ji remembered another place that definitely had enough iron materials, and if Zhao Ji went to get them himself, it seemed it wouldn't cost any money.