Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Although it was a holiday, Malin always felt as if there wasn’t one, because early in the morning, he had to crawl out of his warm bed, leave the Mage Tower with the dissatisfaction and regret of Clovis, and for the next month, his schedule was already packed. Malin’s journey today started with a visit to the workshop in the morning.

Speaking of the workshop, Malin’s workshop now seemed more like a part of this city. Looking outward from the city’s first layer of walls toward the northwest, rows of chimneys, the clamorous hydraulic forging machines, and carriages transporting various materials filled the streets. Dwarves, humans, giants, gnomes, and half-humans in work clothes were everywhere in the streets and workshops.

Malin even saw some highlanders from the North; these fellows also sent some craftsmen over. However, considering they had never been in contact with firearms before, Malin had them start from scratch as apprentices.

As for the elves – these tall and skinny individuals possessed magical array inscription and enchanting capabilities that other races couldn’t match. Therefore, they often sat in clean rooms, working alongside those dwarves who were the most skilled at dwarven rune enchanting, doing what they do best.

As Malin walked by, the craftsmen were all hard at work. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to greet Malin; the noise in the area was so overwhelming that they had to use large, headset-style noise cancellers during work. These devices significantly reduced noise, but wearing them and trying to greet someone in such an environment became an impossible task.

Therefore, Malin simply waved at the craftsmen who looked his way.

They too smiled and waved their hammers back.

These craftsmen were part of teams that made various large components, mainly responsible for the parts of cannons and battle mage heavy magical armors.

Compared to these craftsmen and apprentices, the ones Malin saw after crossing the intersection - who were using lathes to manufacture gun barrels - seemed much more genteel. They were the true blue-collar workers, and firearms had become Malin’s flagship product. Now, in the South, Farol Principality, Sydney Union, and even their northern neighbors were all massively drafting troops. They needed to train enough soldiers before the Tide of the Dead truly arrived. Soldiers in the North were striving hard to conquer the last strongholds of the Chaos Kingdom – if these Chaos forces received a large number of reinforcements before the Tide of the Dead truly struck, it would be a swift downfall.

Thus, even Farol Principality dispatched almost ten divisions to the fight, and while training their soldiers, representatives of the Farol military also used their own eyes to confirm the gap between their army and their northern friends.