Chapter 225 - Crimson Feather

It didn’t take long for the Hobgoblins’ respect for Gaven to stem not just from the influence of the Silver Milestone of Destiny and True God Blood Oath but from their own hearts.Respecting the strong and obeying the strong.

This was always a Hobgoblin custom.

During a training break, Blood Claw asked with curiosity, "My Lord, since Blackwell Town is abundant in iron ore, why don’t we set up furnaces to smelt iron ourselves? And directly forge our own weapons and equipment?"

While Gaven was integrating into the Blood Claw Army, Blood Claw was eagerly learning about their new Lord and the lands under his control.

Some secrets hadn’t been touched upon yet, but they had already come to understand much about the surface matters.

"I do have the intention," said Gaven, having thought about this for a long time, "but our territory lacks the technical personnel who know how to smelt iron. Not to mention, the Gnolls, with their small stature, aren’t fit for this work. Do any of you know about this?"

"As long as we have the raw materials, there shouldn’t be a problem," confidently said Blood Claw. "Our techniques might not be up to par with the Dwarves, but we can definitely produce a finish product."

"As long as we can produce a finish product, even if the quality is somewhat poorer, we can still multiply our profits several times even if we do not use it ourselves," Gaven paced back and forth. "Let’s do this. Gather the craftsmen in the town who are proficient in this area and let’s have a meeting to brainstorm."

"Right away," said Blood Claw with swift and decisive action, turning around to assemble the relevant personnel.

Gaven then found a chair to sit down, closed his eyes, and entered autohypnosis, preparing to delve deeply into Zhang You’s memories for any knowledge on the subject.

In that era of information explosion, it might be that he had absorbed such information at some point without even realizing it.

Recently, although Gaven’s Professional Level hadn’t increased, his soul consciousness had undergone a series of enhancements.

The merging of the Dragon Oak Mother Tree apparition and the opening of the Dragon Oak Dream Realm had elevated his soul consciousness to a new realm.

His control over the mind had climbed several notches.

Take knowledge indexing, for example.

In the past, Gaven could only use a cumbersome method of slowly recalling and digging to retrieve knowledge, which was time-consuming and laborious.

Now, Gaven simply needed to focus his thoughts on the information he wished to retrieve, and all relevant data would pop up like the activation of a search engine.

He only needed to delve into each memory for perception, which is truly very convenient.

This search turned out to be quite important, as he found a lot of useful stuff.

The Stir-Frying Steel Method, the Pouring Steel Method, the Earth Blast Furnace Steelmaking Method.

There were three methods right off the bat.

The origins of these methods made Gaven somewhat amused.

They were from the online novels that Zhang You was obsessed with, in which authors shared their expertise.

Just theoretical knowledge without a shred of practice.

It now remained to be seen whether they could combine this with the Hobgoblins’ methods of blacksmithing and iron smelting and come up with something new.

Blood Claw returned quickly, followed by eight sturdy and robust Hobgoblins, two of whom had experience with iron smelting, while the other six had been blacksmiths in their tribes, frequently involved in fixing and reforging.

However, these people’s experience came from oral teaching and personal experience; they were helpless when it came to discussing theoretical knowledge.

With no other choice, Gaven simply took them to Blackwell Town, where he found a secluded area in the back mountains to begin hands-on experiments.

Whether it was smelting iron or making steel, neither could be done in a stroke.

All kinds of preparatory work took more than ten days to complete.

The necessary raw materials were cobbled together from various sources.

That which could be solved locally was done there and then.

For the things that couldn’t be solved on site, they turned to the merchants. As long as there was money involved, their power was tremendous. They would even dare to sell ballistae and catapults to the Gnolls, not to mention a few carts of coal.

Just as the steel-making furnace took shape rapidly before their eyes, Gaven, with Blood Claw in tow, left in a rush, assigning these tasks to the Hobgoblin craftsmen.

Anyway, all the theoretical knowledge Gaven had was poured into them over the past few days, so his presence there wasn’t much of an advantage anymore. The rest was up to continuous trial and error.

Under the lead of Gaven and Blood Claw, three hundred Blood Claw Wolf Cavalry quietly infiltrated the mountains.

A large caravan consisting of a hundred wagons, guarded by a hundred elite cavalry, traversed the Northern Horse Path, passed through the Shadow Rift, bypassed Tivandun without entering, turned directly onto High Road, and entered the Rocklands at a leisurely pace.

Leaving aside the hundred elite cavalry for now,

just the banners flapping in the wind atop the wagons were enough to scare off most bandits.

At the center of the banner, a huge blood-red feather fluttering in the breeze—the Crimson Feather flag.

This was the symbol of the large merchant group Crimson Feather. Their reputation in the Moon Sea area was second only to the Santarin Association, and they were called the second Dark Intelligence Net.

Their way of doing business was extremely similar to the Santarin Association.

Similarly, they controlled a city, serving as their base—Far Mountain City.

Similarly, they had their own army, escorting their caravan along the way.

Their actions were equally ruthless and merciless, stopping at nothing.

Once something is referred to as second,

it means it’s very difficult to surpass the first and always aims to do so.

This was the case for Crimson Feather, whose relationship with the Santarin Association was extremely ambiguous.

For the control of the Moon Sea Region, the competition between the two was very clear, and in many areas, it reached a white-hot intensity.

But for the sake of interests, in private, they would collude with each other, exploit one another, and set traps.

When facing strong outside forces trying to enter the Moon Sea Region, they were firm allies, never giving other forces the chance to intervene in the Moon Sea Region. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs ɴovᴇl(ꜰ)ir(e).nᴇt

There were currently no such "strong dragons" in the surrounding area, hence their relationship leaned towards the former situation.

Compared to the Santarin Association,

Crimson Feather truly deserved to be called the second.

Not only was their overall strength inferior to that of the Santarin Association, but so was their level of malevolence.

At least it hadn’t reached the point where everyone was clamoring to attack them, even if they entered Komeer’s territory, the Purple Dragon Legion would turn a blind eye.

If it were the Santarin Association’s caravan, even if it didn’t bring armed cavalry, entering the territory would be impossible.

The leader of the Crimson Feather Cavalry was a young man named Clive, about thirty years old, but with a resolute expression and weathered by many experiences. After circling the caravan,

he rode up to a wagon at the center of the convoy and said in a low voice to Darcy, the relaxed coachman casually smoking, "Commander, ever since we entered the Rocklands, my eyelids have been twitching non-stop. I feel like there’s something off about this mission."

Although Darcy seemed somewhat unconcerned, he instinctively tapped his pipe and sat up to ask, "What seems off? Let’s hear it."

He had managed to stay in the dangerous business of trading for over thirty years thanks to his caution, care, and willingness to listen to advice.

Especially when it concerned security matters, it was always right to listen more, particularly when it came from the security chief.

"Those Tyranny Believers have their own caravan, so why would they need us to transport goods?" Clive referred to the Santarin Association when he mentioned the Tyranny Believers.

"You’re talking about this matter!" Darcy let out a long sigh of relief and said with a laugh, "Ever since we left the Shadow Rift, we’ve run into several Purple Dragon Patrol Teams along the way. You should be the clearest about this. Do you think those Tyranny Believers could pass through such frequent checkpoints without giving themselves away?

Once they reveal their track, losing the goods is the least of their worries. The real fear is having their entire caravan exterminated as bandits. Do you think they would risk all those valuable goods?

Our good relationship with Komeer is our biggest advantage here in Far Mountain City."

Clive shook his head and said, "Commander, that’s not what I’m talking about."

After hesitating for a moment and glancing around, the cavalry leader lowered his voice even more and said, "What really bothers me is that I don’t trust that group of Tyranny Believers. I’ve heard that their way of doing things is getting dirtier by the day—they often rob other people’s goods and then sell them at a high price to the victimized merchants eager to fulfill their contracts.

Sometimes, they even replace the robbed merchants and cooperate with the buyers directly, then turn around and extort those merchants who failed to fulfill their contracts. I’ve heard of many small and medium merchants being driven to ruin."

Darcy’s eyes involuntarily narrowed as he said, "I’ve heard these rumors too, so what you’re worried about is..."

"I’m worried that they might play the same trick on us, robbing the goods when we’re about to reach the destination, and then turn around to accuse us, demanding compensation." Clive revealed his greatest concern.

"Would they really be that bold?" Darcy’s pupils involuntarily shrunk again. "If they’re not careful, this could spark a full-scale war between the two sides."

"Those maniacs are capable of anything," Clive snorted coldly.

"The goods are already underway; it’s a bit late for these concerns." Darcy filled his pipe with tobacco ash again, pondering, "We must be on guard against this possibility. But even if they were to act, they wouldn’t do it in the Rocklands. They need us here to get through the checkpoints and forts guarded by the Purple Dragon Legion."

Clive agreed with this analysis and nodded his head, "If they really want to act, the most suitable place would be near the Goblin Margins, Far Sea Marsh, or Tun Marsh, where they can take advantage of the Monster Tribe to attack and then blame everything on those creatures after the fact. It’s their usual method."

"In that case, we have nearly ten days to prepare," Darcy mused. "Let’s plan for both scenarios, send someone back to Far Mountain for reinforcements, and call for two, no, five squads of elite cavalry. If the Santarin Association’s bastards abstain from such dirty tricks, fine. But if they try, not only do we have to cut off their claws, but also catch them red-handed, which will make it easier for city Lord to hold them accountable later.

After reaching the next large Purple Dragon fortress, we’ll stop and wait for reinforcements. I believe they wouldn’t dare attack us here in the presence of the Purple Dragon Legion."

"Commander, your arrangements are very comprehensive. I’ll dispatch someone right away," Clive sighed with relief. What he feared most was that Darcy wouldn’t care about his opinion and remain indifferent.

Before Clive could take action, several scouts with bright red feathers in their helmets rushed back frantically, shouting as they ran, "High alert, high alert, the road ahead is blocked, the road ahead is blocked."

As the message spread, not only did the nerves of the armed cavalry tense up, but the coachmen also couldn’t help but draw their weapons.

A blocked merchant road was often a precursor to battle.

It was a common tactic used by bandits and Monster Tribes.

The goal was to detain the caravan in place to facilitate their ambush.

This time was no exception.

The scouts’ loud shouting sounded the charge.

Countless monsters emerged from behind the ridges on either side of the trade route, waving all sorts of weapons, and screeching as they charged towards the Crimson Feather caravan.

The monsters were a diverse group, containing goblins, hobgoblins, and even orcs and jackalwere, but the gnolls were the most numerous, making up nearly a third of them.