Chapter 100: Frost Blade
After taking a walk around the road under construction in Hekou Town, Rhodes did not stay in the town for long.

Instead, he turned and came to Mole Town.

The Knight Loren was in charge of stationing in Mole Town. When Rhodes arrived, he was busy training the longbowmen and crossbowmen of the Third Divine Archery Battalion.

Rhodes picked up a crossbow from the weapon rack next to him.

After stepping on the string, he raised his hand and aimed at the wooden stake fifty meters ahead.

As he pressed the trigger of the crossbow, the short and thick crossbow arrow shot out and pierced into the wooden stake.

Rhodes could clearly feel the vibration of the crossbow, which was stronger than that of an ordinary crossbow.

The reason for this is that unlike the kingdom's conventional wooden crossbows, this is a steel crossbow.

The crossbow is made of steel sheets forged in Moletown.

"With a pulling force of over 500 pounds, the power of the crossbow arrows shot out is not as strong as that of a 50-pound bow. It is indeed less powerful."

Rhodes felt a little regretful after observing the power of the crossbow.

The steel sheet has poor rebound performance and its energy conversion efficiency is too low, which is far inferior to a qualified wooden crossbow.

Even if he increased the poundage of the steel crossbow as much as possible, the final power was limited to this, not much stronger than an ordinary crossbow.

There is no hope of improving the quality of the steel sheets. If you want to increase the power, you have to increase the pulling distance.

Make the crossbow longer? Rhode did arrange for a blacksmith to make it.

But the crossbow was more than five meters long and needed a capstan crossbow pulled by six oxen.

That thing is used for defending the city. There is no need to increase the bow length of an ordinary steel crossbow.

That would reduce the number of crossbowmen that can stand within the unit distance, which would in turn reduce the crossbowmen's DPS output.

Although the steel crossbow has many shortcomings, it is favored by Rhodes, so its advantages are naturally more obvious.

Compared to the selected wood that needs to go through several processes and be slowly polished.

With the iron mine in Moletown, the batch-produced steel sheets have overwhelming advantages in terms of price and production speed.

Not only that, Rhodes had previously established a Craftsmen's Guild and implemented a unified management model for all blacksmiths and apprentices, which came into play at this moment.

Rhode said to the head of the Craftsmen's Guild who had come over:

"How are the standards for standard weapons established?"

The blacksmith bowed and replied respectfully, "Sir, according to your request, Mole Town has already established four standards: standard long sword, standard spear, standard heavy armor and standard steel crossbow."

"Based on these four criteria, the weapon's components are disassembled and completed by specialized blacksmiths who teach their apprentices."

To be honest, the blacksmith was quite confused when he first heard this request.

This goes against his traditional blacksmithing philosophy.

Why should we disassemble all the parts of a weapon and assign them to different apprentices? Isn't this just adding to the burden?
But he couldn't go against the lord's will.

But after a month of the process, the blacksmith was shocked by his production situation.

The long sword and spear are secondary, the key is heavy armor!
Originally, it took a blacksmith and five apprentices half a month to make a piece of heavy infantry armor.

It can be disassembled according to the adults' process, and the breastplate, arm armor, leg armor and helmet are each made by a dedicated apprentice.

After mastering the forging process, the assembly of various components can directly double the production capacity!
In one month, nearly two hundred sets of heavy infantry armor were produced.

This is the result of the lack of unified standards at the beginning, which led to the scrapping of many components. Otherwise, it could have been even higher.

Looking at the lord in front of him, the blacksmith felt admiration.

As expected of the aristocratic elites from the kingdom's big cities, with just one simple arrangement, they doubled the production efficiency of Mole Town.

The only pity is that this method can easily lead to apprentices being wasted.

But it was not a big deal and the blacksmith did not care.

It is considered good enough for an apprentice to have something to eat. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for a blacksmith to teach the apprentice the real skills without more than ten or twenty years of hard work.

After listening to his introduction, Rhodes nodded with satisfaction.

After the standards were unified, the assembly line production of weapons went well.

In the absence of manpower, Rhodes could only solve the productivity problem from an institutional perspective.

As for the apprentices on the assembly line, as long as they really want to learn, the Craftsmen’s Guild will provide internal professional guidance and assessments.

If you are willing to work hard to learn, you still have a chance to change your destiny.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have it. As a worker on an assembly line, at least you will have enough food and clothing.

In comparison with the times, it can be considered happy.

The price of a set of infantry heavy armor is 85 silver coins.

After comparing the profits of swords and spears, the forging time and transportation costs, Rhodes temporarily asked the blacksmith to stop forging heavy armor.

Mobilize manpower to forge swords, spears and crossbows.

The former was to sell to pioneer knights to save money, and the latter was to keep for himself to form a crossbow formation for city defense. At night, after finishing the arrangements in Mole Town, Rhode sat in the room and cast his eyes on himself.

He took a quartz tube from the cabinet.

There are golden rays of light sealed inside, like flowing liquid gold.

"A total of 120 standard units of mottled divinity."

Rhodes looked at the quartz tube, which was his harvest from his time in the Northern Territory.

It was originally preserved for research on the stable reproduction of explosive bacteria.

However, the research has been slow to progress, and the imagined artillery technology will have to wait for some time.

Rhodes decided to absorb it himself first and strengthen his own strength.

Using meditation, he absorbed the mottled divinity into his own body and could feel obvious changes in his body.

His heart was beating violently, and the rapidly flowing blood made his skin turn red, with steam rising from the surface of his body in the cold winter.

The moment he stepped into the realm of the Extreme Knight, Rhodes suddenly felt a change in his blood.

A unique magical fluctuation is brewing within it.

"Is the bloodline of the second-level knight awakening?" Rhodes carefully felt this state.

According to the records in the family library, the limit of human beings is the first-level extreme knight, and the road ahead is cut off.

If you want to become stronger, you must bathe in the glory of your ancestors and awaken your noble aristocratic bloodline under the witness of the great nobles.

Rhodes didn't quite understand what it meant before.

But after seeing the barbarians strengthened by the cold wave, he had some ideas.

The various noble families in the kingdom probably also have similar artifacts that can strengthen blood power and allow the Extreme Knight to break through to the second level.

Taking the most famous Rosedale as an example, after the royal family broke through the second level, they were called Sky Knights.

Sky Knights control gravity; the sky is their exclusive territory; other creatures cannot fly without permission.

After the great nobles of East Sea Port broke through to the second level, they were called Storm Knights.

Ride the sea storm and travel freely on the turbulent East China Sea.

In addition, other great nobles also have their own exclusive second-level professions.

And only descendants who inherit the family bloodline can be promoted.

The mottled divinity in Rhodes's hand came from the so-called Lord of Winter of the White Frost Cult, and activated the bloodline of the Grand Duke of North Frost.

But the number is insufficient, and after reaching the highest level, there is no successor, which is far from enough for him to step into the second level.

After losing the input of external power, the fluctuations of magic power in the blood began to subside.

But it doesn't matter, Rhodes has already memorized the trajectory of this fluctuation.

He stood up and left the room, quickly walking to a hillside outside Mole Town.

The moonlight tonight is exceptionally bright, illuminating the hillside.

In the biting cold wind, Rhodes looked at a huge rock in front of him and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Knights must reach the second level before they can use their bloodline abilities, because they cannot control magic power on their own.

But he is different.

Rhodes used his own magic power to outline that special trajectory in his arm.

As he drew his sword and raised it above his head, icy white mist spread out from his body.

The mist continued to rise, outlining a three-meter-tall white horse above his head.

The white horse incarnation raised its front hooves and gathered the icy magic in the surrounding space while neighing.

"Frost attached to the blade."

The ice magic absorbed by the white horse incarnation condenses into a sword blade.

Rhodes swung his sword violently, and a dazzling frosty sword energy gushed out, spreading twenty meters away.

As the sword energy slashed down, the boulder in front that was more than two meters thick was split into two.

Rhodes stepped forward and tapped the broken surface of the boulder.

The next second, the huge rock with frost on its surface began to shatter on a large scale and scattered on the ground.

This is a lethal skill that can only be used by second-level knights.

Rhodes relied on magic control to be able to use it in advance when he was the Extreme Knight.

It was just that the loss of his magic power was too severe, and a single sword energy drained all his magic power.

(End of this chapter)