In a presidential suite quite far from the base.
The air inside the opulent suite, however, was anything but comfortable. The man seated in the tiger-skin chair had just finished hearing his subordinate's report, and his face instantly darkened. He clenched his fist, eyes full of rage, as if he still could not believe what he had just heard.
-"Hah? What did you say? You lot couldn't even protect him? A pack of good-for-nothings! What the hell am I feeding you for?"
The roar of rage echoed through the whole room. Immediately after, he flung his glass toward the subordinate kneeling before him. The glass struck the man's head hard with a dry crack — but he only bowed his face lower, not daring to utter a single word.
How could he dare resist?
The man in the tiger-skin chair was the big brother that all of them revered and feared. And now, the boss's brother-in-law was dead — and they had failed to protect him. Thinking of the wrath he was about to bear, the subordinate could only secretly curse whichever fool had dared touch the boss's family, dragging all of them into it.
-"Wh... what...????"
The girl seated beside him was hardly better off. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes wide open, as if she still could not take in the terrible news that had just arrived.
The man who had just raged was her older brother — and the one who had just been killed was none other than her husband. The man Helber had struck down was the very husband she had always leaned on.
When the truth was confirmed, the girl collapsed to the floor and broke into wrenching sobs. The grief and panic nearly robbed her of words. To her, this was not merely news of a man's death — it was the sudden collapse of the life she had believed she could go on maintaining.
Watching his younger sister cry beyond all self-control, the man in his rage had no choice but to set his anger aside for the moment. After all, the dead man was his brother-in-law, and the one suffering before him was the little sister he loved with all his heart.
-"There, there. Don't cry anymore. It grieves me too, you know. Now — let me take revenge for you. All right?"
He consoled her gently while drawing his sister into his arms. His voice had softened considerably, but his eyes still hid a fury that could hardly be concealed. To him, this matter could absolutely not be let go just like that. If he could not collect this blood debt for his brother-in-law, then what meaning would the fearsome reputation he had built over all these years even have?
The girl nodded softly within her brother's embrace. Seeing this, the man silently hardened his resolve, and was just about to give his orders when a panicked voice suddenly rang out from beyond the door.
-"Big... big brother, the strategist has arrived."
-"Show the strategist in."
At the word "strategist," the man's expression changed a little at once. He quickly reined in the anger plainly showing on his face, straightened his posture, and waited for the guest who had just been announced.
Before long, a tall, powerfully built middle-aged man in a high-grade suit slowly stepped into the room. His bearing was composed and steady, a stark contrast to the tense atmosphere hanging over the place.
The moment he saw the newcomer, the man in the tiger-skin chair rose at once and stepped forward to welcome him personally. That swift change of attitude showed just how high this strategist's standing was in his eyes.
-"Strategist, you've finally arrived. Come, come — have a seat."
-"Thank you, Lord Barick. I heard that the young madam's husband has met with misfortune — is that correct?"
Once seated, the strategist pushed up his glasses and went straight to the main point. He did not waste words on idle pleasantries, as if he had already grasped most of the situation before stepping into this room.
-"Truly worthy of the strategist — divination like a god! I myself only just learned of it. But I truly intend to deal with the ones who did this!"
Barick said through gritted teeth. The fury in his heart had not cooled in the least — only in front of the strategist did he force himself to keep a measure of calm and listen to what the man had in mind.
-"I know you are impatient, my lord. But there is a piece of news I wish to report to you."
The strategist drew out his tobacco, lit it, and took a long, unhurried drag. The smoke curled slowly outward, making his expression all the harder to read.
-"Do not act rashly. In just two more days, the Blood Moon will descend. You understand what I mean, do you not?"
-"You mean......"
Barick's brows knitted slightly. The anger still burned in his heart, but the strategist's reminder made him begin to consider a different possibility. If the Blood Moon was coming, then this was not merely a dangerous event for anyone unprepared — it might also become an opportunity to settle the grudges that still stood.
The strategist was in no hurry to answer. The two then sat talking for quite a long while, exchanging calculations that no outsider could know. The content of that conversation seemed to give Barick the direction he had been seeking.
The younger sister seated beside them, after hearing what the two were planning, gradually let her expression soften. The grief and fury had not entirely vanished, but in her eyes a little cheer had appeared.
Seeing his sister finally no longer in as much pain as before, Barick also felt a little relieved. After all, as a brother who loved his sister dearly, he did not want to watch her sink further into despair.
Back to Chen Luo.
After all the bustle, he had finally finished setting up the turrets. The defense system at the intersection had gradually taken shape — but for Chen Luo, that was only one part of the entire Blood Moon preparation plan.
He had no intention of resting. Right after checking over what he had deployed, Chen Luo immediately returned to the second floor of the base to continue the work still left undone.
There, he began kneading a compound of rune earth, gravel, and sand in a ratio of 1:4:4. His hands kept turning, pressing, then kneading the mass of material, adjusting its binding quality until the mixture reached the proper state. The work looked simple, but to produce a material that could meet his crafting requirements, every step had to be performed with care.
The rune earth he had obtained came from that floating island. Although the remaining amount was not large, by Chen Luo's calculations it was still enough to complete the Smelting Forge he had been longing for.
This was exactly the thing he had wanted to build for a long time.
The ability to restore used equipment, and to forge new equipment in the future — both carried enormous significance for him. If he could build a complete crafting system, he would no longer be entirely dependent on equipment obtained from outside. Compared with merely searching for ready-made items, personally holding the power of crafting would give him far more options in the battles to come.
Thinking of this, Chen Luo threw himself into the work with even more zeal. He observed the Alvibion Tome while following the necessary instructions to build the Smelting Forge.
-"Hmm... it's like this, and then like this..."
He murmured as he carefully set each brick into its proper place. His deft hands adjusted the bricks, filling in the gaps, while carving grooves of different shapes into their surfaces.
Those grooves were not carved at random. Chen Luo was trying to replicate the structure he had once seen on the bricks used to build a Smelting Forge. In his memory, the appearance of those bricks bore special channels — and after careful observation, he had determined that they were the mana capillaries, the thermal capillaries, and the Rune-energy capillaries.
For someone who wanted to build equipment that could operate stably over a long time, mastering details like these was indispensable. Slip up even a little in the arrangement, and the operating efficiency of the entire furnace could be affected.
And so, although the work was rather fiddly and time-consuming, Chen Luo showed not the slightest impatience. He patiently checked each brick, comparing it against what he remembered, and only then continued to the next stage.
-"Next comes this... this... this......"
With each operation, new components gradually appeared. Some looked like nothing more than an ordinary block of material; others had shapes so strange that an outsider could hardly guess their purpose. And so Chen Luo kept himself busy from one task to the next, utterly absorbed in the process of building.
The people standing around exchanged looks, their hearts full of doubt. They had witnessed Chen Luo demonstrate many different abilities, but watching him build a pile of strangely-shaped equipment with his own hands still left them unable to make sense of it.
Especially when he completed a furnace shaped like a neat square box, black as charred coal — quite a few people involuntarily wrinkled their faces. From its appearance alone, no one could imagine what the thing was even for, let alone understand why Chen Luo had spent so much effort building it.
Aside from the group of children and Anthony, there seemed to be no one who knew what on earth he was making.
Even so, no one spoke up to stop him. After everything Chen Luo had demonstrated, everyone understood that sometimes the strangest-looking things could produce effects far beyond imagination. Moreover, if even he was seriously preparing for the Blood Moon, then they had all the less reason to doubt what he was doing.
Time drifted on.
After more than half a day of tireless work, Chen Luo finally completed the Smelting Forge, along with a portion of the advanced crafting system. There were still many types of workbenches left to finish, and he could not complete all of them in one go. However, the important items before him were basically done, including the main workbenches, along with an anvil and a grinding wheel.
Looking at the results before him, Chen Luo finally let out a soft breath of relief. The crafting system was not yet complete, but at least he had laid the foundation for the plans to come. Once he had more time and materials, he could continue adding the missing pieces, step by step perfecting the entire system.
Just then, Mana walked over close, unable to hide the surprise in her eyes as she looked at the freshly completed equipment.
-"Huh... so you even know metallurgy and forging, on top of everything else?"
Mana's question drew the attention of everyone around at once. Only now did they gradually understand the purpose of the pile of equipment Chen Luo had been busy building for half a day.
So he had been building a system for crafting and metallurgy!
This craft was not something particularly rare — but for a young man like Chen Luo to build a Smelting Forge with his own hands, and even prepare a portion of an advanced crafting system, truly left people astounded.
Looking at the equipment arranged before her, Mana grew even more curious about what possibilities they might hold. She had always known Chen Luo was no ordinary person, but each time he revealed one more new ability, she felt more and more that what she knew about him was merely the part of the iceberg floating above the water.