The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 34 Blacksmith Shop

"System check-in!" Roland checked in every morning as usual. Although the system didn't give him much that he could use at this stage, it was better than nothing.

"Sign-in successful. Congratulations, host, you have obtained a Lava Forging Furnace (Small)*1."

"A lava forging furnace? What use is this thing for my adventures? I don't have the ability to forge magical equipment right now... wait, forging!" Roland, who was complaining about the system, suddenly had his eyes light up.

The next second, Roland rushed out of the tent and ran towards the residence of old man Radil. Old man Radil was currently fiddling with the five griffin eggs. Since no one knew how to hatch griffins, the eggs had to be entrusted to the mage who was the embodiment of wisdom to take care of them.

Upon seeing Roland arrive, the previously cheerful Radil turned pale with fright. He said coldly, "Your Highness, even if you're in a hurry, you should wait until I finish my meal. It's not even dawn yet, and you're already rushing me to start work?" Old Master Radil showed his displeasure.

Roland scratched his head awkwardly and quickly explained, "Lord Radil, you misunderstand. I just happened to obtain a small lava forging furnace..."

"My lord, you mustn't be so ambitious... We can't afford magical equipment with our current resources..." Roland's words were interrupted by a terrified Radil. In his opinion, King Lagran had gone mad! The country was in such a state of decline and he was still thinking about magical equipment. Did he really think this was the most prosperous period of the empire?

"No, what I meant was, would it be feasible to build a blacksmith shop with a lava forging furnace as the main structure?" Roland asked with a smile.

"Pfft!" Radil pointed at Roland, having completely forgotten that this was a highly disrespectful act. Roland, from the modern Earth, also paid no attention to this seemingly disrespectful behavior.

"Your Highness...you're crazy...do you even know what a lava forging furnace is for?" Radil asked timidly, thinking Roland didn't know what it was for.

"I know, isn't it just a furnace for making all kinds of magical equipment? I think if he can forge magical equipment, then forging ordinary equipment shouldn't be a problem, right?" Roland said nonchalantly.

"Do you know that each time the furnace is started, it requires magic crystals or the magic power of a mage..." Radil thought Roland was simply delusional. Such a high-end furnace, and you want to use it to forge ordinary equipment... Is this the royal family's "money power"?
“I just remembered that a lot of the soldiers’ equipment is worn out. We don’t have the means to replace their equipment with new ones right now, but we can at least repair it, right?” Roland said.

"Is it really appropriate to use a treasure like the Lava Forging Furnace for blacksmithing?" Radil looked at Roland with a strange expression. In his eyes, this was probably like selling off one's inheritance without a care in the world.

“But we can’t send our soldiers into battle with dulled weapons and broken armor, can we? We can’t rely on the dwarves… It’s better to keep our equipment, such a vital resource, in our own hands.” Roland didn’t care about the consumption of the lava forge. He was a man who had fought his way through the Old Forest, and he had collected nearly a thousand magic crystals from the Shadow Spiders along the way. The consumption of the small lava forge was not high, and one magic ring would last him a long time.

“Sigh…” After hearing Roland’s words, Radil stopped insisting and just sighed. He understood that Roland was right; sending soldiers with those things to the battlefield was practically a crime.

"Then why did Your Highness come to me if you've already made up your mind?" Radil asked Roland, puzzled.

"I just wanted you to come and set up a professional blacksmith shop..." Roland said awkwardly.

"..." Radil's eyes twitched, barely suppressing the urge to pull out his staff and slap Roland across the face. Good heavens, have earth mages really become construction workers? Are mages living such lowly lives now?
The psychological suggestion left by the system made Radil unconditionally loyal to Roland, even though it was really a disgrace for a war mage. Radil responded and went out to choose a location.

“Next comes a series of supporting facilities… We can manage to scrape together some tools, but these anvils are a bit of a problem… How about we borrow a few from the dwarves?” Roland pondered. “Caslo! Go to Irubur and ask the dwarves there to borrow a few anvils. Buy some steel while you’re at it.” Roland finally decided to ask the dwarves for a few; there was plenty of that stuff in Irubur anyway, and it wasn’t worth much. He casually tossed Caslo a storage ring that could hold 100 cubic meters of inanimate objects. This thing was also a reward from the system’s daily check-in. For others, a space ring was a rare find, but for Roland, it was utterly useless. Wasn’t the Magic Ring’s huge space more useful?

As the sun rose, people gradually emerged from their dwellings. Fifty Battanian archers ate some black bread haphazardly before heading out to fish with their nets; the fish in the Swiftstream River had become the lifeblood of Swiftstream City. The remaining archers took on sentry duty, while the knights of the Holy Light Knights and the guards of Lagrange City prepared to begin a new day of construction work. The residents, numbering less than a hundred, busied themselves preparing food at home, and the air was filled with the aroma of cooking smoke, filling the small town with the vibrant energy of daily life.

"Your Highness, the blacksmith shop is finished. You can start using it as soon as you have all the necessary tools." Radil appeared beside Roland in a flash, startling Roland.

"Oh! Okay, thank you very much," Roland said gratefully.

“Renault, go and survey the residents to see if anyone knows how to forge iron. We need a blacksmith.” Roland glanced at Renault.

The newly arrived Lagrange guards were in better condition, but the longswords and lances of the knights who had followed Roland the first were worn to varying degrees. The Battanian archers' arrows, though replenished several times, were still severely depleted, not to mention their initial Star Silver Steel Armor-Piercing Arrows... every arrow they used was one less available. The Battle of Smaug had completely depleted their stock, and even when Roland sent men to retrieve them, they couldn't recover many. However, the more than four hundred arrows that were stuck in Smaug's corpse in The Lord of the Rings were preserved.

“Your Majesty, this citizen used to be a blacksmith.” A moment later, Renault returned after making his rounds, accompanied by a man.

"What's your name?" Roland asked, looking at the timid man in front of him, dressed in tattered clothes.

“Your Highness… my name is Ren Xiaoqiang…” the man said, his teeth chattering.

“Don’t be afraid, you know how to forge iron, right?” Roland reassured him.

"Yes……"

"Can you repair and forge weapons?" Roland asked the question that concerned him most. If he could make weapons, then Roland's Swift Infantry would be ready.

"Yes, yes, yes." Ren Xiaoqiang nodded repeatedly like a kowtowing worm.

“Hmm, not bad. When Caslo returns, take him to the blacksmith to repair the knights’ equipment,” Roland instructed Reno.

He turned and walked toward the blacksmith's shop. He was going to place the precious lava forging furnace. The advantage of this thing was that it did not require fuel. The hellfire lava inside would automatically release hellfire when stimulated by magic. The high temperature of hellfire was enough to forge most materials.

While Roland was busy installing the forging furnace, the archers who had been fishing hurriedly returned.

(End of this chapter)