The Road to Wealth: Forging

Chapter 16 The Road to Wealth: Forging (Please continue reading)

The year 1005 of the Holy Radiance Calendar, the month of budding.

It has been some time since Li Wei broke through to the third level of the breathing technique.

During this time, Li Wei diligently studied the miscellaneous books about wizards and those related to animal taming that Sir Fred had collected for him.

His animal taming skills improved rapidly.

This was the first time Li Wei had ever experienced improving his proficiency simply by reading books.

Before long, the skill of beast taming was mastered.

Li Wei —————

Beast Taming: Tier 2 (1/5000)

……

I only read a small portion of Livy's books on animal training.

The Emerald Kingdom has many circuses, each with its own unique understanding and techniques for animal training. Li Wei benefits greatly from reading these books. Furthermore, various ethnic groups, especially those living in wild areas like mountains and grasslands, possess advanced animal training skills. Therefore, Li Wei feels he can quickly raise his animal trainer level simply by reading these books.

In addition to reading, he would also apply some of the theories in the book to the practice of Three Little Bears, which would also increase his proficiency.

Li Wei's breathing technique, however, only increased by a few hundred points in the past month.

To reach the 10,000 mark and break through to the Knight level, it would normally take about two years.

"The Black Serpent's Secret Medicine needs to be put on the agenda."

Li Wei was starting to have a headache; the territory's cash flow was only a few dozen gold coins.

Besides these, there are the dozens of cows and over a hundred sheep on the estate. The total value of these animals is no more than a hundred gold coins, and they cannot be sold. These are the foundation upon which the serfs depend for their survival, and also an important source of dairy and meat products for Li Wei.

Li Wei would never do something as short-sighted as draining the pond to catch all the fish.

If Li Wei hadn't sold the wolf pelts he hunted for a good price during this period, he might not have been able to make ends meet.

"Get rich, get rich, how do I get rich, or rather, how do I use my skill level panel to get rich?"

Just then, Sir Fred entered, looking worried, and said, "Young Master Levi, the little blacksmith Milan has asked about his father again."

"His father is doing well in the Wild Boar Gang and is already the chief blacksmith. I've already said I'll definitely find a way to save his father, but given the current situation... wait a minute."

Li Wei suddenly remembered something, and he and Sir Fred rode the only two horses in the territory, rushing to the blacksmith Milan's house.

At this moment, the young blacksmith Milan looked worried. It had been more than a year since his father was captured by the Wild Boar Gang. Although the lord had said he would help him rescue his father, there had been no sign of him doing anything.

"Little Milan, are you still worried about your father?" Li Wei, dressed in a black cloak and knight's armor, rode slowly towards them on a large horse.

"My lord, yes...yes," Little Milan said, kneeling on the ground.

Li Wei helped Milan get back on her feet.

"I understand how you feel, but your father is safe with the Wild Boar Gang right now. The territory is going through a difficult time, and we can't start a war with the Wild Boar Gang yet. If we had fifty sets of knight's armor right now, I could lead the Fred Knights to storm the Wild Boar Gang and rescue your father."

Li Wei said calmly.

Xiao Milan lowered her head, her voice trembling: "Fifty sets?"

In this world, fifty sets of armor are something that even some small earls might not be able to produce, let alone a small baronial territory like Li Wei's.

Moreover, with Xiao Milan's skills, he was not qualified to forge armor and other items that required superb blacksmithing skills; those were things that only formal blacksmiths could create.

But in Blackwater Valley, the only official blacksmith was his own father, Old Toby. Old Toby could only forge two sets of armor a year... Fifty sets would be an astronomical number, requiring an enormous amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.

"Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to help you."

"Starting tomorrow, you will move into the castle and teach me forging and smelting techniques."

Li Wei said.

"Ah?...My lord, how could you trouble yourself with such dirty work?"

Milan exclaimed in surprise.

"It's settled then."

After Li Wei finished speaking, he visited the blacksmith shop, carefully observed the forging process, took the only introductory book on forging from the blacksmith shop, and left with Knight Fred.

"You really intend to learn forging?" Sir Fred asked, both amused and exasperated.

"Yes," Li Wei said.

This world is plagued by constant wars and has extremely low productivity.

Most of these territories are characterized by a self-sufficient, small-scale farming economy.

Li Wei had thought it through. If they developed other agricultural products, they would definitely not be competitive, especially since Blackwater Valley was not suitable for agricultural development in the first place.

However, if one can develop forging skills, from the most basic farm tools to weapons and even armor, it definitely has a very good future.

As a lord, he knew how valuable armor and weapons were.

If I can develop the forging industry within my territory, then I won't lack money when I start my cultivation.

The reason I am so confident is naturally because of my proficiency panel.

As he spoke, Li Wei opened the proficiency panel.

An additional skill has been added to it.

Li Wei————

Forging: Tier 1 (1/1000)

……

Li Wei had always been limited by the world's aristocracy, believing that these manual labor tasks were for servants, so he never thought of using the proficiency panel to practice his forging skills.

But he's desperately short of money right now. There's nothing he can do; his territory lacks both talent and resources.

So I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands, since I had nowhere to release the brute strength and energy I had gained from practicing breathing techniques.

He had just observed the entire forging process at the blacksmith's shop in Little Milan, and sure enough, a new skill appeared on his proficiency panel: Forging.

"As long as it appears on the proficiency panel, it's simple, just grind it out."

……

Over the next few days, Li Wei sent men to move the blacksmith's shop, and had Little Milan and the other blacksmith apprentices move the forging equipment around his castle. He also built a makeshift blast furnace to facilitate his own forging practice.

Little Milan was flattered and surprised. He never expected that the lord would be willing to be his apprentice. This was too approachable.

And so, Li Wei needed to acquire more and more skills that required him to work hard.

However, he knew the relative importance of each factor.

Breathing techniques should always come first, followed by the Golden Cross Slash, and then forging and taming.

In just one month, Li Wei's forging skills reached the second tier.

It was much faster than he had imagined.

These kinds of life skills can be learned too quickly by grinding experience.

It's much easier than combat skills.

In his previous life, Li Wei had heard that if a person could concentrate on one thing for a thousand hours, they could easily master many things that are difficult for us to understand.

Time is the best teacher, and human potential is far greater than we imagine. Continuous practice is the most important key to mastering all of this.

Add to that a cheat-like feature that rewards hard work with a constantly positive feedback proficiency panel.

Learning these common skills was a piece of cake for Li Wei.

Three months later, he had successfully forged a knight's sword of excellent quality, no less than the one that Milan had given him.

Of course, what is considered "high-quality" by this world's standards would have been considered garbage in the previous life, since the smelting technology was backward and it was impossible to produce high-quality iron.

Li Wei didn't know how to improve these things, and the proficiency panel couldn't create advanced smelting technology from scratch.

Regardless, this perfect forging directly increased his proficiency by 100 points.

This was the first time that Milan, who had spent four years as a blacksmith's apprentice before successfully forging a fine knight's sword, experienced the diversity of the world.

(End of this chapter)