The first step to building a good blacksmith workshop was to secure a reliable forge. 

Rino had no problems with building a forge. He only had a problem building a stone forge that the daily quest system insisted. In fact, he also had problems with the stone quenching basin because Rino could easily build a brick cooling trough by the furnace in his wall. Hence, he decided to get these useless builds out of the way just for the sake of completing the quest.

Nobody questioned why Rino was back down in the dwarven mines when he came stomping in. Although there were no travelling restrictions for miners to go to the grand furnace room or blacksmithing workshop, nobody went there unless they needed to retrieve stored items.

Met by a mountain of sorted gold and silver ores when he entered the grand furnace room, Rino wondered if he should ask the renovation team to work on expanding storage within the dwarven caves. However, he was here for an entirely different reason.

Passing the storage mess, Rino turned left into the dwarven smithing workshop. They had good structures available, but more importantly, Rino needed their tools.. Specifically, he needed a bellow to improve his current furnace. As for the forge, Rino decided it could go outside the stone cottage for now. It was easier to knock a hole in the existing wall and build a thatched hut as an extension than restructuring his cottage.

After observing the difference between a forge and a furnace, Rino decided that the temperature control and airflow made them different. A forge had an endless supply of airflow that helped heat the metal up but not melt them. Forges and furnaces were used interchangeably, but a foundry was different. The grand furnace room that Rino dubbed before was a great foundry room meant to melt metals down into liquid so they could be poured into moulds for cooling.

Seeing how the gods probably had no idea about the differences, Rino decided to make the stone forge a foundry outside his blacksmith workshop. That way, he could create a little area to cool his metals while migrating his mould storage issues.

Studying the insides of this grand foundry, Rino learned that, unlike the forge or furnace, the foundry had little openings and a very controlled air supply. It was similar to his oven, and the metal bars were baked inside until they turned into liquid, ready to be poured into moulds. Several racks inside the foundry and some dish-like material were used to contain the molten metal liquid.

According to the tutorial, the casts were made from ceramic, and Rino didn’t understand why. The dwarves also used a similar material that Rino recognised as clay from the river banks. Although they were rather brittle and could shatter when dropped, clay and ceramic had higher melting points than metals. They could still contain the molten metals and retain their shape in the fire, making them perfect for cast moulds and foundry racks.

Glass also has a very high melting point, but unlike ceramic, it gets bendy and stretchy when heated even if it has not turned into liquid. They cooled quickly, and Rino decided against using it as a building material. Compared to ceramic and clay, glass was significantly more brittle.

Stealing the design to modify it, Rino copied it into his sketchpad and moved to the next obstacle. He had to learn how to build an anvil.

Surprisingly, making an anvil wasn’t hard at all. Just like making a sword or a bolt, the anvil was formed by using a breakable cast. The dwarves kept a carved wooden replica of an anvil around in the storage room full of tools and miscellaneous items that Rino found. From there, it wasn’t difficult to put two and two together.

There was only one thing bothering Rino. According to the stone anvil tutorial, it only had two major thighs to note. The stone anvil had a flat face that Rino assumed was used for striking heated metal. In addition, there was a horn at the side that the lich had no idea what it was used for. However, he assumed that the sharped shape might be used for bending metals into softer shapes used in armour pieces.

The wooden anvil design created by the dwarves was slightly more complicated. In addition to the rectangular flat surface for hammering and the horn shape at the front, there was also a step down before the horn shape and two holes at the other end of the anvil. Rino scrutinised the holes and noticed that one was rectangular while the other was round. He could not understand why these minor additions were made, but he could imagine how the dwarves made their hooks using the step to bend metal at a sharp angle before cooling and twisting them into a curve using the holes at the other end.

In reality, Rino wasn’t too far off from the truth. Sketching the dwarves’ anvil design on his sketchpad and stealing a wooden model, Rino decided to create two anvils. The stone anvil was for making simple things such as bowls, steel plates and maybe shovels. The detailed dwarven anvil would be used to create things that required more details, such as armour, hooks, angle plates and possibly weapons.

With category one of his blacksmith workshop settled, Rino teleported back to the Genesis Tree and looked for Kamiya. He had a message for Ubel in Spudville and a list of things he wanted the wraith king to craft.

“Make haste with this order,” he told the rabbit monster. “I need it in two days, three days at most. The sketches for all the moulds are inside this spatial ring and a wooden model for the anvil is in this bag.”

At the same time, Rino left the crafting of the stone anvil to the wraith king, who should be coming personally to deliver the items. Rino sent Kamiya away to make arrangements for the speedy delivery while communicating his needs to Ubel telepathically.

Reassured that someone more capable was taking care of the crafting portion required for the quest, Rino caught an earth gnome who was just getting off his work shift to find Bink.

In less than ten minutes, Rino heard a knock on the door outside the blacksmithing workshop. He was still studying how he could modify the existing furnace when Bink entered.

“You summoned?”

Nodding, Rino invited the little man to the kitchen. There was nobody in the cookhouse at this hour, making it perfect for their discussion.

Bink took a look at the various sketches in Rino’s notebook while the lich made them coffee.

As Rino set the steaming mugs in front of them, Bink could not help but ask why Rino was suddenly interested in reviving the dwarven culture. The earth gnome leader was both excited but also apprehensive about this new development. Rino was a powerful lich, and the undead empire would flourish even without researching technological developments.

The dwarves and earth gnomes developed science and mechanical technology because they believed it would save their declining race from the harvesters. Every race had a unique way of trying to survive doomsday. Some races preferred to breed crazily, while others avoided improving themselves so that the harvesters would not target them. Monsters hid in living caves and formed a society of their own away from the harvester’s reach, and those who were not welcomed in living caves trained themselves to outrun, swim or fly from the harvesters.

Rino had no requirement to battle them. Yet, his progress seemed to point towards war with the omnipotent bringers of extinction. Nobody has successfully won against the harvesters yet, and it scared Bink to know that the lord he served was trying to be the first to rebel against fate.

“What do you think of these designs?” Rino asked after they both took a sip of the bitter beverage.

Bink made a face at the bitterness of the scalding liquid, and Rino chuckled. Despite being much younger than his adopted son, Rino felt that he had a more mature palate than the earth gnome did.

The earth gnome leader hesitated to answer at once. These designs were splendid! Nothing could beat the inventions of dwarves, and the lost dwarven technology was salvaged thanks to Rino’s ability to recover the abandoned mine. However, his happiness was hanging on the line with the promise of war soon.

“The designs are nothing less than brilliant, my lord. The dwarves were the best, and even after they left, we still could not beat them. However, may I ask why we are trying to bring back the lost technology of dwarves? Will there be war soon?”

The earth gnome’s question surprised Rino. War? He wouldn’t want to do anything so tedious. War benefitted nobody. Yet, he could understand the gnome’s concern. The dwarves were obsessed with finding a way to kill harvesters that they dedicated their whole lives to that research. However, even as they faced inevitable extinction, they failed.

“No,” Rino reassured Bink. “There will be no war if I can prevent it. I just want to bring the dwarven science back because there is great merit in their creations. Not everyone can use magic, and with their metalwork, we could make tools to take the load of manual labour. Places that could not be reached before like under the water, in the skies and through the mountains could become a possibility if we study their works well.”

Surprised that Rino wasn’t looking at bringing back forged weapons to arm up against the harvesters, Bink’s enthusiasm returned as he shared his thoughts with Rino about the sketches.

Truthfully, Rino never thought that far about fighting the harvesters. He barely knew anything about them, but if they proved to be a threat to his empire, he might have to get rid of them. For the time being, he was more focused on completing all his daily quests by the deadline to avoid another punishment.