Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 47 [Frostfire as the Furnace, Legion Forging Armor]

Inside the dwarf camp, the previous battle had taken a heavy toll.

The injured were carried indoors for treatment. The doctor used a red-hot iron block to stop the bleeding from the wounds and sprinkled medicinal powder on them to allow them to heal.

The fallen comrades were neatly laid out on the ground, and the survivors wiped the blood from their faces and gathered their broken limbs.

Thorin stood in the center of the camp, his arm armor torn open, exposing his muscles, but he refused to be bandaged.

Lin Qi stood behind him, his hand gripping the battle axe slightly.

His gaze swept across the battlefield. The black mist on the ground had dissipated, but the eerie residue on the corpses of the orc enemies still made him uneasy.

"The statistics are in." Thorin's report was slightly choked with emotion, and he didn't turn around.

"Ten were killed in action, nineteen were seriously wounded, and almost everyone was injured."

"We held our ground, but we lost."

The defensive line was not breached, but morale was severely damaged.

This was not an evenly matched battle.

This is a drain on resources.

The enemy traded their lives for greater power.

As night fell, Thorin, Lynch, and Master Brock sat inside the command tent.

An oil lamp was the only source of light.

"Those things... they're immortal." Thorin picked up a blood-stained cloth and vigorously wiped his battle axe, trying to wipe away the sense of powerlessness he felt during the day.

"No, they will die," Lynch said, correcting the statement.

"I killed one of them, the leader."

"But if you kill him, his power will dissipate and be absorbed by his companions, making them stronger."

Lynch looked at Thorin, and then at Brock.

"In terms of attrition, we simply can't compete with those monstrous orcs."

Master Brock raised his head, his cloudy eyes revealing a solemn expression.

"You're right, child. I've also analyzed similar things from the residual energy in those dwarf wounds."

"It's a living, greedy aura that devours and corrupts life."

This old blacksmith, who had devoted himself to forging, had never felt so powerless in his life...

"Traditional weapons, no matter how sharp, cannot eradicate it."

"Pure bravery is meaningless in its presence."

Silence fell inside the tent.

All three understood that they had encountered an enemy they could not defeat.

An enemy that defies all logic and subverts the rules of war.

"Then let's try another way," Lin Qi said, breaking the silence.

He placed the mysterious battle axe on the map table.

"Since we can't overpower them with strength, we'll break their rules."

Thorin looked up: "How will you destroy it?"

"Isolation. At this point, there's no point in hiding the secret of this axe anymore," Lin Qi said.

"It can break things down because I understand the composition of matter through this axe. By the same token, I can also understand those black things through this axe."

Fingers traced the smooth surface of the battle axe.

"From my observation, their transmission is not direct; it requires an intermediary, just as in forging sometimes requires the use of external objects. What we need to do is sever this intermediary."

Master Brock has lived a long and eventful life, so his comprehension ability is naturally extremely high. He understands what Lynch is saying immediately.

"You mean... to add a barrier to our weapons and armor that can't be penetrated by that stuff...?"

"A good idea, it can be done with runes." Master Brock immediately perked up, picked up the carving knife and a piece of charcoal beside him, and began to draw on the table.

"Isolation, Disruption, Purification... these are all ancient protective runes, but to imprint them on every piece of equipment, we need a more efficient method."

"Frostfire Forging Technique." Lynch and Brock uttered the name almost simultaneously.

"That's right!" Brock slapped his thigh. "Frostfire Forging isn't just about forging; we can engrave runes directly into the gold! Making every shield, every piece of armor, an independent protective magic circle!"

Commander Thorin listened to their conversation and saw a glimmer of hope for victory.

Instead of relying on individual heroes, they draw upon the power of the entire dwarf race.

"I need your help, Master." Lynch looked at Brock. "I can decipher that structure, but I need you to translate it into the language of runes."

"I need you too, son." Brock stood up, his eyes burning with the fervor of a blacksmith facing the ultimate challenge.

"Your divine axe is the eye of truth that sees through all illusions; we need it to verify the effects of the runes."

"I'll go prepare right away!" Thorin turned and walked out of the tent.

He roared outside, "Pass on my orders! All craftsmen and blacksmiths, assemble immediately at the forge workshop!"

"Fire the furnace! Bring out all the spare black iron ore!"

"We will rebuild our legions!"

The order was given, and the camp erupted in noise once more.

But this time, it's hope.

Inside the furnace workshop, all the furnaces were lit, and Lynch and Brock stood side by side in front of the central forging table.

Thorin brought tissue samples collected from the corpses of the Black Tide warriors; the tissue was still wriggling slightly.

Lynch extended his battle axe, the blade hovering above the sample.

The structure and transmission methods of the Kuroshio Current... all information unfolds in its mind in a comprehensible graphical form.

"It's like a net," Lynch described the scene he "observed."

"The black energy flows between individuals through a special frequency."

Brock took the charcoal pencil and quickly wrote and drew on the slate.

More than a dozen different combinations of runes were drawn on the stone slab, and then crossed out one by one.

"No, it's too complex and can't be applied on a large scale..."

"Then simplify it," Lynch said.

After Lynch's repeated analysis and feedback, Brock's pen finally stopped.

A new rune, simple in structure yet imbued with a unique rhythm, appeared on the stone slab.

It looks like a closed ring with disordered lines inside.

"Let's call it the 'Static Rune'." Brok panted heavily; such a problem was still too physically demanding for an elderly dwarf.

Thorin walked over and placed a Black Tide Bone Shield, which he had captured in the battle, on the forging table.

Brok personally performed the operation, using the Frostfire Forging technique to imprint the first Stasis Rune onto the inside of a dwarven round shield.

He then had a warrior hold a bone shield and, simulating the Black Tide, strike the dwarven round shield.

"Clang!" The black tide was activated, and black mist surged toward the dwarf's round shield.

But upon contact with the round shield, the black mist seemed to have hit an invisible wall, bounced off, and dissipated into the air.

It was not absorbed.

"Success!" Cheers erupted in the workshop.

Thorin grabbed the dwarf beside him and pounded his back.

"Everyone change gear!" Thorin roared. "I want every Iron Guard equipped with one of these shields!"

The entire camp has entered a state of production.

Lynch went from being a soldier to an engineer.

Not only do they need to work with Brok to optimize runes, but they also need to guide other blacksmiths to master the secrets of Frostfire Forging.

He moved between each forge.

But his work doesn't stop there.

At dusk, he called over a few craftsmen in charge of the camp's construction, and they left the camp and went to the outer hillside.

"Here." Lynch drew a mark under a huge rock with his battle axe.

The craftsmen were puzzled.

"Craftsman of the Rock Heart, is there a problem here?"

Lin Qi remained silent, only focusing the blade of his battle axe on the base of the rock.

He analyzed the internal structure of the mountain once again and found several weak load-bearing points, intending to use them to lay a trap.

"Watch closely." He infused the battle axe with an extremely weak deconstruction force.

"Boom—" The several-ton rock, along with the surrounding mountain, experienced a small landslide, blocking a narrow path leading to the camp.

The craftsmen stared wide-eyed.

"This...this is a landslide?"

"It's a trap." Lynch sheathed his battle axe. "A controlled trap."

He took out a small device he had made using his battle axe abilities from his pocket—a metal disc the size of a palm.

He buried it underground and then made a trigger gesture.

"I call it a 'shock trap.' We can lay them out in large numbers around the camp."

"It doesn't need to be very powerful. It just needs to cause a small-scale collapse when the enemy passes by, disrupt their formation, and create an opportunity for our crossbowmen to attack."

Lynch wanted to use knowledge and industry to fight against the seemingly insurmountable chaos.