The Amber Sword

v5c19Knights and Craftsmen(2)

Brendel was frustrated for a moment but then he rejoiced as he suddenly thought of Bosley and Tharma of this era. Although they were not the best of the best in the whole of Vaunte, they were still first-class masters in Aouine. In the past year, both of them have supported two elite armies in the territory, the Wind Archers and the White Lion Battalion. Now, the armament of this small place, Trentheim, had already been among the bests in the kingdom. This was something other lords did not dare to imagine in the past.

In the past six months, the War of the Black Rose along with the massive influx of refugees from all over, Brendel had begun to get a large number of reserve soldiers in the training camps in Trentheim. As long as he wanted to, he could pull up an army a size not inferior to the private army of the nobles under Duke Radner or Duke Viero. Brendel came from a later era and had experienced the epic and magnificent Slate War, he simply despised the northern and southern noble armies. In his opinion, the army under the third rank could only be called a militia regiment, responsible for local security but not for war. It was for this reason that the armament of Trentheim had now become the main problem in preventing the expansion of the army. In the White Lion Battalion, only sergeant corps could wear low-quality magical armor and next level ordinary white lion armors were limited as the Firbur Group could only produce slightly more than a hundred of them every month. It was even worse for the Wind Archers because they needed to have both a wind archer lock armor and longbow that was limited by the production as well, so the expansion of this army was incredibly slow.

Brendel laughed bitterly at this thought. Fortunately, he did not dare to tell these people his true purpose, otherwise it would not have scared them all to death. In his plan, the core force of Aouine's future army should be the White Lion Infantry, which was also the foundation of Aouine's army and equivalent to the second-tier local legion with the largest base in the Kingdom of Aouine now. As for the fourth, fifth and sixth-ranked soldiers at the back, they would also need to be cultivated. As Aouine's characteristic elite army, he now had a quasi-fourth-ranked soldier like the Wind Archers on hand, if he could convince the Centaurs to join his army and get the design of the Silver Crown Guards' armor and halberd from Eleranta, Aouine would have a real fourth-ranked army with just a little training; the fifth-ranked army would certainly be the Druid's Elder Guards or Ancient Tree Guards, but the Druid was too old-fashioned and thus might not join his chariot, so a more secure consideration was to turn to the Nagas. The four-armed Sirens and Poseidon Guards were weaker than most fifth-ranked soldiers on land, but after all, they were also a class of fifth-ranked soldiers, what was important was that the Nagas had no core conflict of interest with the land people, and the kingdom had a fleet that could become their firmest ally at sea. The Nagas would be likely to rent out their troops and Aouine could hire these overseas troops in the name of hiring. He already had plans in mind when he chose to ally with the Grey Fins Nagas previously and requested the Empire for the frigate's design in exchange after the first battle of Ampere Seale.

The strength of Aouine, with its fourth and fifth ranked soldiers, should be comparable to that of the kingdom in the late Erik Dynasty. At that time, the princess could rely on the central military power to subdue the whole country and make the kingdom highly unified, thus realizing the transformation from local feudalism to centralized power. As for the sixth-ranked soldiers, Brendel still had no clue. In the history of Aouine, there was only one type of soldier above the sixth rank- the Silver Elves Pantheon Sentinels with a quantity less than a hundred. He could only put his hopes in Valhalla now. But once Aouine got its sixth-ranked soldiers, it would be able to stand against Madara. After all, Aouine was not Madara's only enemy, and it could not fight the threat of such a frontier land with its entire nation. Once Aouine gained such a capability, it could force Madara to shift its expansion to other kingdoms, and the ancient kingdom would return to its heyday.

But these plans were an unrealistic dream for Amandina and the others, who saw Aouine as a relatively independent kingdom around Kirrlutz, whose military strength was not weak, but not strong either. It must be known that in the northern Kirrlutz Empire, although the four legions under the direct control of the central government were based on the fourth-rank Imperial Guards, the noble private army, the local garrison’s third-rank Imperial Noble Cavalry and the second-rank Imperial Spearmen that accounted for the largest proportion of the Empire's military strength were still the main force. These local troops faced the same problem as the kingdom, that was, low level of training and collapsing discipline caused by a long period of peace. Except for a few border areas, most of the Empire's army had such problems to a greater or lesser extent, and in the evaluation of the Holy Cathedral of Fire, the combat rating of the Imperial Noble Cavalry had fallen below the lower limit several times in the past two years to be on par with second-ranked soldiers.

Of course, the Empire still had fifth-rank Pegasus Cavalry, fifth-rank Grail Cavalry, sixth-rank Sword-wielding Crusaders, sixth-rank Holy Oil Knights , Cathedral austere bhante, and even Royal Griffins, Royal Astrologers, Cathedral priests that were more than the seventh-rank and infamous upper-ranking forces like the Compassion Flame Knights with the tenth-rank and above. But these armies were deterrent forces, often in small numbers. Not to mention that in great empires like Farnezain and Sanorso, these huge empires, high-ranking soldiers were the prerogative of the empire, a game between the great powers. Once a small country like Aouine had soldiers above the sixth rank, it was basically to change the current continental order. Aouine was so rich in fame that even the Bugas were concerned about such a small kingdom, precisely because it once had the White Lion Infantry and a whole system of the Cathedral Guards.

But that was just a flash in the pan, nearly ten centuries have passed and nothing like it has ever happened in the history of Vaunte.

So whether it was Amandina, Kodan, or the mercenary leaders under Brendel, no one thought about it and only felt that their lord was being a little too idealistic. Brendel also did not bother to explain to them as his goal was never in the present. Such goals like purging the country was not worth mentioning, the northern nobles seemed to be a great threat, but with the growth of Valhalla they were nothing. The most important thing was that the future of the kingdom would depend on whether Aouine could build such an army to finally emerge from its established destiny.

Brendel never forgot that the decadent nobles of Aouine was what sunk the kingdom, but truly, it was the rising and dangerous enemy to the east that brought about its demise.

He was in power, arbitrary and unhurriedly carrying out his plans to expand his army, but underneath the apparent stability, he was actually more anxious than ever. Time did not stop waiting for anyone, in fact, there were signs that the development of history was not waiting for him, but instead it was developing more rapidly because of his arrival- the surrounding countries of Aouine had started to move, but the development of his territory was slow. Amandina and the others noticed this and reminded him both explicitly and implicitly to relax his demands and expand his army as soon as possible. How could he not understand this? The question he had was what was the point of recruiting cannon fodder?

They simply did not understand what kind of an opponent Aouine was facing now.

The whole kingdom was still looking at the coming era of war and chaos with an old perspective, while in fact, Madara, Kirrlutz and even the Wind Elves and Farnezain were rapidly completing military reforms in this era of dramatic change before the arrival of the Great Demonic Wave. Bromantonu Rose that was in darkness came first, followed by the Farnezains, then Sanorso, who were head-on enemies of Madara. But it was an empire. The empire's depth and the strong support of the Holy Cathedral of Fire allowed it a grace period for failutre. On the contrary, Aouine did not have this strong and deeply established strategies.

Aouine could only learn from Madara, that it must be a step ahead of things, otherwise it would perish in the end.

This war was a harbinger, the real beginning originated three years later in the second War of the Black Rose, but that was something that happened in history. Brendel did not dare to guarantee that the second War of the Black Rose in this era would not start earlier. But in this war with the Bloodstaff, he must do his best to feel out how big the gap was between the kingdom and this era's Madara. Of course, it was best to give Madara a warning, so that the other party would not belittle and look down on the kingdom. This way, those skeletons might take more time to think before launching the second war of the Black Rose.

Every minute of time was a hope of salvation for Aouine.

So Brendel must be cautious and strengthen their own strength as much as possible before the war. With the addition of a group of master craftsmen like Babu, it had undoubtedly given him confidence, and he was simply overjoyed. Trentheim suddenly gained more than ten craftsmen with levels like Bosley and Tharma and that certainly meant something - an exponential increase in production, especially of magical equipment. Its significance? The first step of his plan was finally on track.

Let the White Lion Guards become the foundation of the kingdom's central army.

Brendel thought for a while before coming back to his senses, as if he had snapped out of his long thought before asking, "Lord Babu, can the Valurian Warrior Hall be put into operation right now?"

"As long as the materials are available, it can be done anytime." Babu replied.

Brendel immediately took out a set of White Lion Armor from the sub-dimensional cave, pointed to the armor and asked Babu, "Lord Babu, how long would it take you to produce a hundred sets of such armor?" Brendel took out the White Lion Armor that was not possessed. Babu took a glance at it and shook his head contemptuously, "We will not produce armor like this, I think this kind of paper mache armor has no value at all."

The fuck. Though this set of armor was a little shabby, but at least it was the latest double-hinged armor designed by Bosley, with a Defense of up to 5 in the white plate armor. It was supposed to be something to be proud of, he did not expect it to look like paper in Babu's eyes. Who are you joking? Why not put a set of paper in front of me right now? Brendel swore in his mind but he did not show the slightest change in his facial expression. He took out another set of armor that was possessed meant for non-commissioned officers and asked, "What about this?"

"This barely made it.," replied Babu, "I remember I once built a toy set for my son, probably similar to this one."

Brendel almost coughed out blood. He finally understood. Although these giant craftsmen's EXP and level were limited, their insight still remained at an extremely high level. They were simply evaluating these armors with their perspectives of that era, it is then to nobody's surprise these look like paper in the eyes of the Cloud Giants that once existed on the earth. Then these giant craftsmen would have been shocked to see an armor that was not possessed.

Brendel immediately had a sense of frustration, feeling despised. He could not help but breathlessly said, "Lord Babu, how much of this armor can you build? I urgently need such a batch of armor for my army."

"Lord, you should just address me as a craftsman," replied Babu. He was a man above the world, but he was not a fool who did not understand courtesy in human interaction. When he saw Brendel's expression, he had guessed what kind of mistake he had made and replied, "Rest assured, my lord. The forging technology is really simple for us, and it should be no problem to build 2000 sets of this kind of armor in a month."

Brendel was shocked. He looked around the Valurian Warrior Hall and then at Babu, if this guy was not famous, Brendel would have thought of him as some liar. A hall with only this size and around ten craftsmen… They ARE Godsmiths, but 2000 sets? Are they going to make 2000 low quality armors? How’s this possible? Even if Bosley and Tharma did it themselves, they would need around half a month to finish one armor. It must be known that Bosley and Tharma were not the only ones that kept the entire Firbur Group’s production running, there were a large number of craftsmen in Firbur.

“2000 sets? Just all of you here?” He asked, as he felt his mouth dry out.

“Oh, no.” Babu shook his head, “Lord, you’ve misunderstood the situation. In this hall there are countless Elite Elf craftsmen, it’s not only just now. We can get the Elite Elves to come work in the Warrior Hall. Although this Hall still looks shabby, making 2000 armors with that quality would not be a problem.”

Brendel finally cleared his confusion after Babu’s explanation. This Valurian Warrior Hall could get Elite Elves to work here, similar to Monica’s Vortex of Light. But the Vortex of Light was different. The Warrior Hall could only have more craftsmen after the expansion, and Babu as well as the others here were the leaders of the craftsmen. He suddenly became excited. 2000 White Lion Armors? Possessed ones? This meant that the White Lion Legion could finally start recruiting at a big scale. Although new recruits would not be as reliable as old recruits, as long as they wore these possessed armors, the worse they could be was at the second rank. If not, why would the third-rank Kirrlutz noble cavalry still be at the second-rank after they had hit rock bottom? Of course, it was because they relied on equipment. Equipment usable by the empire’s local troops and the noble’s private army was made available on a large scale to standard troops in Aouine. Despite needing a fortune, but at least a problem that could be solved monetarily was not a problem to Brendel at the moment.

Some things could not be bought with money, anyway.

Giving the Wind Archers of half this amount was enough to build an army of fourth-ranked archers. If they could rush it a little, it might even be possible to expand the army to one more time its size. An army made up of 1200 archers in the Year of the Sword? Brendel’s eyes were shining with excitement and joy. Hr rubbed the corner of mouth quickly so that no one would notice the saliva flowing out, making Medissa who was at the side burst out in laughter.

But it was at this moment a hint of unharmony arose in the hall. “Lord, forgive me for saying this. All these that you want to make are useful and are wasting this holy hall’s worth.” The sound of the person was rough and loud, Brendel turned his head immediately. It was Gorju the Godsmith, a name he had never heard before. But the tone of speech made it obvious that his status was not inferior to Babu. Brendel quickly asked, “Why do you say so?”

Brendel was in fact a little frustrated. Of course he knew asking these Godsmiths to make such ‘toys’ was despising their capability, but what could he do? On one hand, he did not have any better design paper and materials; on the other hand, they were around the same EXP level as Bosley and Tharma, according to Babu. Brendel certainly thought all they could do now was to quickly expand the two elite armies.

Maybe they could spend half a year or a few months building ancient-level or even Fantasy-level equipment, but what was the point? Brendel was not looking for a certain individual's capability.

Unexpectedly, Gorju shook his head. “Lord, it seems like you still don’t understand our true value.” He paused, then pointed at Bosley and Tharma who were not far away and continued, “It has been long since we returned to the earth, we’re unsure of what happened in Vaunte during the time, but at least we understand it is not common to find craftsmen like these two masters. If you want to, recruiting 8 or 10 of them wouldn't be a problem. Is this all you think of this hall’s value?”

Brendel was slightly shaken. He realized this guy was implying something else and looked at Babu.

The Godsmith then slowly nodded and continued, “Lord, as I’ve said before, this hall was named the Valurian Warrior Hall because it represented the rest place of brave warriors in the legends. Providing these brave warriors weapons and armors are just a part of it.”

Brendel finally understood and quickly responded, “Are you saying, creating equipment is just one of this building’s functions… and that this is also a next?”

“Nexts need a Magic Pool to function, Lord.” Babu shook his head.

“Then what exactly do you mean?” Brendel was confused again.

“Well, Lord, have you heard of something called Valkyrie?”

Babu asked word by word.

…...