Chapter 98: The Grind
[Day 1 - The Cleanup]
The Scrapyard wasn’t just a pile of junk; it was a puzzle.
"Move it! Put your backs into it!"
General Thorgar’s voice boomed across the yard. Under his command, the thirty rescued loyalists weren’t acting like recovering prisoners; they were working like a machine.
They stripped the armor off broken golems. They pulled mana cables from the dirt. They sorted bolts, gears, and pistons into massive piles.
In the center of it all, Master Orin had built a makeshift blast furnace out of a hollowed-out engine block.
"More heat!" Orin roared, shirtless and sweating, shoveling coal and mana crystals into the fire. "This scrap metal is low-grade iron! If we want Mithril quality, we need to cook the impurities out!"
Isabelle stepped up. "I can help."
She pointed her hands at the furnace.
"Fire... Intensify."
WHOOSH.
The orange flames inside the furnace turned a blinding, chemical blue. The temperature spiked instantly.