232: A new war has begun

In early spring, the temperature gradually warmed, ice and snow melted, and all things revived. The land of the Northern Border began to glow with vitality and vigor.

March 30, golden calendar 1241, Black Corridor.

"Goodbye, my friend. I wish you a smooth journey. If you encounter any problems or need my help in the future, feel free to come to the Red River Territory to find me. The gates of the Red River Territory will always be open to you."

"Goodbye, my friend!"

Although the parting was somewhat sentimental, it wasn't too sorrowful for the thick-skinned dwarves. In their long lives, one parting was merely for a better meeting next time.

Friends and fine wine were always the best companions for dwarves. At the farewell banquet last night, Renn had entertained his dwarven friends with a large amount of fine wine, and Kudla had drunk to his heart's content.

The Red River Territory was Kudla's favorite among all the human territories he had visited. If it weren't for the sake of his clan's survival, he would certainly have stayed here for a while longer.

Waving his hand, Kudla led his kin toward the east and soon disappeared into the forest.

Kudla had originally planned to only take a short rest for a few days in the Red River Territory, recover from his injuries, and then set off again.

But due to Renn's warm hospitality and persuasion, plus several of his men with serious injuries not having fully healed, the dwarves ended up staying in the Red River Territory for three months, only departing today.

During these three months, Kudla helped Renn completely upgrade and renovate the Forge Workshop in Red River City, and also upgraded the forge area of Molten Iron City.

Molten Iron City was the former Black Iron Town. As the population gradually increased, the former Black Iron Town expanded into the current Molten Iron City.

Located near the black iron mining area, the main role of Molten Iron City was to smelt large quantities of iron ore to supply high-quality iron ingots to the Red River City forge area, while also manufacturing ordinary weapons and equipment.

Through the upgrades and improvements led by Kudla and the dwarves, the efficiency and quality of the Red River Territory's Forge Workshop's output had increased significantly.

Especially the Forge Workshop in Red River City; its furnaces had been completely renovated by Kudla, with unique dwarven runes inscribed on them for enhancement. Now, the Runic Furnaces were capable of manufacturing Gold Rank equipment.

And the craftsmen of the Red River Territory, who had studied under the dwarven rune master Kagaz for three months, had seen a huge improvement in their forging skills.

The most obvious improvements were in Holland and Watt. These two forging geniuses of the Red River Territory received extremely high praise from Kagaz; the dwarven master even considered taking them as apprentices.

If it weren't for the fact that Kagaz had to follow Kudla to the High Rock Hills later, he definitely would have taken Holland and Watt as his disciples.

The three months of advanced study had brought Holland and Watt to the Silver Peak level, with the potential to break through to Gold Rank at any time. Both had developed new innovations and insights into the art of transcendent forging.

In addition to these, Renn personally took two dwarves skilled in prospecting across the entire Red River Territory, finding over a dozen mineral deposits in the Black Corridor and the Black Mountain Range north of Bright Moon City, four of which were transcendent mineral deposits.

The Red River Territory had some transcendent mineral output before, but those transcendent minerals were all associated minerals; for example, rock crystal mines, black Iron Mines, and blackstone ore would produce some transcendent quality minerals.

The output of these associated transcendent minerals was too low, only enough for a very few people to use, and completely failed to meet Renn's requirements.

The discovery of these dozen or so new mineral deposits greatly enriched the variety and quantity of mineral output in the Red River Territory. Although the reserves of the four transcendent mineral deposits were not very large and the types were not the most precious or rare, they were enough to meet Renn's current needs.

As soon as the weather warmed up, Renn began arranging for engineering teams to build roads connecting the mining areas to begin extraction.

The locations of the dozen or so mining areas were all within the Black Mountain Range. Although they were in the peripheral areas, the mountain roads were rugged, so there was still some difficulty in mining smoothly.

To guard these mining areas, Renn also had the Treant Clan specifically send some clansmen to be stationed in the forests near the mining areas; any foreign races approaching would be cleared out by the Treants.

As the days passed, although the various affairs of the Red River Territory were very busy, Renn no longer needed to do everything himself. He devoted more of his time to cultivation and improving his strength.

Several months passed in a flash.

Belmont, who had just inherited the title of Grand Duke of the Raging Bear last year, had gradually become familiar with the position of Grand Duke after nearly a year of tempering. After the initial chaos, both inside and outside Rage Bear City had returned to their previous state.

"Sigh!"

Standing atop Rage Bear Fortress and overlooking the prosperous Rage Bear City for a moment, Belmont sighed deeply.

When he used to represent his father in handling the territory's affairs, everything was in order without any unnecessary trouble. At that time, he thought he already had enough ability to handle all the affairs of the Grand Duchy, and that being a Grand Duke was nothing more than that.

It was only now that he understood that the reason he was so relaxed back then was entirely because his father's tall figure stood behind him. Even if Karl did nothing at that time and just stood there, he was already sheltering him from the wind and rain.

Now his father was gone, and while he sat in the same position handling the same affairs, troubles appeared one after another, leaving Belmont flustered and overwhelmed.

"Father, I can finally appreciate your hard work now!"

Having left his father's protection for less than a year, Belmont had grown so much.

"Your Grace, an urgent report from the border!"

Belmont hadn't finished his lamentations when he was interrupted by his attendant. He turned with an displeased expression to look at the personal attendant who had suddenly burst in.

"What kind of urgent matter has caused you to lose your manners and be so flustered?"

"Your Grace, the Grand Duke of Stag has expelled our personnel stationed at the Magic Stone Vein and unilaterally notified us that he will no longer allocate the mined magic stones to us from now on."

"What!"

Belmont hurriedly stepped forward, took the intelligence from the attendant's hand, and read it quickly.

"That Illegitimate Son really doesn't have a shred of noble virtue. Father's judgment of him was completely correct; he really went back on his word."

Throwing the intelligence aside, Belmont's head buzzed with anger. He had finally managed to sort out the affairs within his territory, and now the Stag Territory had come out to cause trouble, not giving him even a moment to breathe.

"Summon all the nobles to the Thunder Hall for a meeting!"

The share from the Magic Stone Vein was a significant amount of income. The scale of the Magic Stone Vein within that plane on the border was extremely massive, and the magic stones produced were very substantial.

Although the magic stones allocated to the Rage Bear Territory were only a small portion, the quantity was already considerable. Belmont could not possibly give up this portion of the benefits.

When the Raging Bear Family eats meat, the major nobles following behind the Raging Bear Family also get a sip of soup. If the Stag Territory stops the allocation, then the Raging Bear Family has no meat to eat, and the other nobles will have no soup. This was absolutely unacceptable.

The result of the meeting in the Thunder Hall was very simple: war. This result was no surprise; Belmont could not avoid or retreat from it.

"Father, you said I would need to have a fight with that Illegitimate Son. Everything has happened just as you predicted. This time, I will never let you down, nor will I let the raging bear be shamed."

"I will use a glorious victory to prove that I am a qualified Grand Duke of the Raging Bear."

The army of the Rage Bear Territory was rapidly mobilizing, and Belmont was also making preparations. Even facing a true Legend, Belmont was full of confidence.