194: High-efficiency production capacity

Renn stood at the highest point of Blackstone Fortress, looking down at this base that was once the headquarters of the Derrick Family's arch-enemies.

He had been here for eight days already. Blackstone Fortress had been completely emptied, and all valuable resources had been packed and taken back to Red River Fortress.

If it weren't for the fact that transporting these stone materials consumed too much manpower and resources—and because Red River Territory usually used mages to petrify buildings, resulting in low demand for stone—this Blackstone Fortress wouldn't have been spared either.

In the entire Blackstone Territory, except for a few small mines in the far south where Renn hadn't sent people to mine, all remaining blackstone ore mines were at full capacity with round-the-clock mining operations.

Every day, a large amount of blackstone ore was mined and transported back to Red River Territory.

Renn prepared to return to Red River Fortress. Klimp had already brought back good news from Rage Bear Fortress: the Ordinance Knights had gone to the western region of Rage Bear Territory to close spatial rifts and had not come north.

Furthermore, the Grand Duke of the Raging Bear expressed approval of Renn's actions and didn't ask too many questions regarding the downfall of the Blackstone Family. He didn't even mention appointing someone to fill the vacant position of Viscount Black Stone.

At the same time, due to Renn's outstanding achievements in eliminating demons and the significant role of Red River Territory in stabilizing the northern border region, Rage Bear Fortress decided not to conscript the Red River Territory's army for subsequent combat plans against the demons.

Karl had only one requirement for Renn: to guard the stability of Red River Valley and its surrounding areas, to monitor every movement within the Black Mountain Range at all times, and to do his utmost to coordinate with Iron Wall Fortress in defending against northern enemies when necessary.

Renn was noncommittal regarding the orders from Rage Bear Fortress and Grand Duke Karl; maintaining the safety and stability of his territory was something he intended to do anyway.

As for the stability of other places and coordinating with Iron Wall Fortress to defend against northern enemies, that would depend on his capabilities.

Renn naturally understood the principle that if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. He certainly wouldn't let anything happen to Iron Wall Fortress, but as for exactly what to do—if some turn of events required Renn's help—it would have to be based on Renn's actual circumstances.

However, he certainly wouldn't respond to Rage Bear Fortress that way. Renn immediately expressed compliance with the orders from Rage Bear Fortress and sent people to once again convey the Derrick Family's loyalty in guarding the border for Rage Bear Territory.

After showing his loyalty and confirming there were no immediate external threats, Renn focused his energy back on the development of Red River Territory.

Montoya was left in charge of Blackstone Fortress; a Gold Rank warrior was sufficient to guard this place.

The Frostfang Legion was stationed at Blackstone Fortress to protect the normal mining of blackstone ore, while the First Legion was stationed across various Black Stone Mining Areas.

The Gale Claw Legion and Storm Steel Feather Legion set out on the return journey with Renn.

On the way back, before the group reached Red River Fortress, Renn received bad news: a spatial rift connecting to the Chaos Demon Abyss had also appeared in Red River Territory.

The spatial rift appeared near the location of the former Sub-Plane Passage.

Upon receiving the news, Renn took the two Titled Legions and rushed directly to the location of the spatial rift without returning to Red River Fortress.

Riding Reck, Renn looked down at the spatial rift below from mid-air and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fortunately, it's only a small spatial rift, otherwise it would be a huge problem!"

The Second Legion had already surrounded the spatial rift. Dozens of demon corpses lay nearby; clearly, some demons had already been teleported through.

Because Red River Territory had the Wolfs Nest and Eagle Fortress, it possessed extremely strong control over the wilderness outside the towns. The spatial rift was discovered the moment it appeared.

Subsequently, the Red River Territory's army completely surrounded this spatial rift, so no demons escaped to cause chaos, and no Demon Legion managed to gather near the rift.

As soon as a demon appeared, it was quickly killed by the Red River Territory warriors surrounded nearby.

After Renn arrived, he began the purification and soon completely sealed this spatial rift.

Afterward, Renn felt that peculiar sensation again. He felt the world become a bit more intimate, and his own strength increased slightly.

"Does this count as being favored by the world, being blessed by providence? If I close a few more spatial rifts, or close some large ones, could I become a legendary Child of the Plane?"

After savoring this strange feeling for a moment, Renn felt an impulse to go to other places to close spatial rifts.

"Lord, will demons no longer be teleported through?"

"This spatial rift has been sealed, so no more demons will be teleported through here. However, we must strengthen patrol monitoring throughout the territory. Such spatial rifts are very likely to appear in other places as well; we must never let down our guard."

"Yes, Lord!"

Having resolved this sudden spatial rift, Renn rushed back to Red River Fortress with mixed emotions.

As soon as he returned, he ordered the Shadow Guards to strengthen monitoring of the territory and had the various legions and the Guard Team increase patrols so they could respond immediately to any anomalies.

spatial rifts were appearing frequently, and now even Red River Territory had a rift connecting to the Chaos Demon Abyss. This further deepened the sense of urgency in Renn's heart.

"Yiven, go and call Holland for me!"

Yiven's talent for magic was quite good; he was now a Black Iron Rank mage. Usually, besides studying and practicing spells at the academy, he served as Renn's attendant in Red River Fortress.

After becoming a mage, Yiven's mental power had increased significantly, and he was much sharper as an attendant than before. Renn was very satisfied with this young attendant.

"Never mind, Holland is probably still busy. I'll go to the Forge Workshop personally!"

Stopping Yiven who was about to go call him, Renn personally headed to the Forge Workshop.

The situation was getting more and more tense, and Renn wanted to expand the army again. It had only been a month and a half since the last major expansion. Renn wanted to know if the territory still had the potential for expansion, so he wanted to see the current state of the Forge Workshop.

Just as he neared the Forge Workshop, Renn felt waves of heat hitting him.

The large number of forges made the temperature in the Forge Workshop area much higher than in other nearby areas. Most of the craftsmen here wore very little; besides necessary clothing and protective gear, they wore nothing else.

"Lord, you've arrived!"

Holland and Walt hurried over upon receiving the news.

Holland had now become the manager of the Forge Workshop in Red River City. His father, the old manager Arnold, had been sent by Renn to Black Iron Town to manage the Forge Workshop there.

"How has the workshop been lately? What is the current output, and are there any difficulties I need to resolve?"

Red River Territory now had over a thousand ordinary blacksmiths and twenty-nine transcendent blacksmiths. Among them, Holland and Walt were Silver Rank transcendent blacksmiths, while the rest were all transcendent blacksmiths below Silver Rank.

"Lord, there are currently no problems with either of the two workshops. Labor is sufficient, and the blackstone supply has been replenished."

"After the modifications you made to the workshop's production model, the current output efficiency is more than double what it was before, and the production of ordinary weapons and equipment has greatly increased."

With the rapid expansion of the Forge Workshop's personnel, the previous production method where a few individuals forged everything themselves became outdated. Renn had suggested an assembly line production method. After becoming proficient with it, the assembly line greatly improved the efficiency of ordinary weapon manufacturing.

Holland and the others were shocked by the high efficiency of this new production method and had quickly adopted it.

"The weapons and equipment for the four major legions of over ten thousand people have basically been fully equipped after a month and a half of working overtime. Next, we will step up the equipping of the Guard Team and Militia with appropriate gear."

"The output of transcendent weapons is relatively low. Because the manufacturing process requirements are too high and there are too few transcendent blacksmiths, the assembly line method hasn't brought about a significant increase in output."

"Currently, Walt and I can only forge about a dozen pieces of Black Iron Rank and one or two pieces of Bronze Rank transcendent equipment per day."

"As for enchanted weapons, the number is about the same. However, the number and strength of the enchanter team led by Lady Fiona are constantly improving, so the quantity of enchanted weapons will also increase rapidly."

"But on our side, due to raw material limitations, the number of Bronze Rank transcendent weapons won't increase much, and Silver Rank transcendent weapons cannot be produced yet due to manufacturing condition constraints."

Walt interjected, saying, "If we're talking about problems, the main ones right now are these two: improving the conditions for transcendent weapon forging and the supply of transcendent mineral raw materials."

Facing these two problems, Renn also felt a bit of a headache.

"I don't have a lead on improving the transcendent weapon forging conditions yet, but rest assured, I will find a way."

"As for transcendent minerals, there will be news soon. I won't make you wait too long."

The transcendent minerals Renn had collected previously were sporadic, and even with the subsequent spoils of war, there wasn't much.

Strictly speaking, dismantling the Holy Lords Palace had yielded many transcendent minerals, but those were reserved for the future Mage Tower; Renn hadn't thought about using them to forge transcendent weapons.

The Iron Mine in Black Iron Territory did contain some transcendent minerals, but the content was very low. The amount mined was pitifully small and couldn't solve the problem at all.

To get large quantities of transcendent minerals, one had to find a transcendent mineral vein. After over two hundred years of development within the Red River Valley, no transcendent mineral veins had been discovered.

However, the surrounding Black Mountain Range had not yet been developed, so the probability of it containing transcendent mineral veins was relatively high. Renn had already sent people to explore for some time; whether they found anything would depend on luck.

If there were any, it would solve a major problem. If not, Renn would have to find another way.

"The manpower at the Forge Workshop still needs to increase. We must continue to ramp up the training of blacksmith apprentices. I need greater output. I'll continue sending more people your way later."

"The equipment for the Guard Team and Militia can wait a bit. I plan to expand by a few more legions. Tell Arnold that he must forge more weapons and equipment as quickly as possible."

Hearing the news that Renn was going to expand the army again, Holland and the other man were startled. Seeing Renn's serious expression, they knew the importance of the matter.

"Yes, Lord. We will do our utmost to meet the territory's needs."

The output of the Forge Workshop made Renn very satisfied, and it also solidified his resolve to expand the army.