Chapter 54 - Iron Problem
"Here you go Mortal, it was worse that I had originally thought, well, I will skip the details come, take a look at it" Said Hephaestus while giving the cane back to Alfonso.
Alfonso took the cane and the familiar feeling of relieve make him smile.
"Feels good" Thought Alfonso while grabbing his leg.
Alfonso noticed that the changes in the cane, however, he decided to consult the system, sure enough, the results shocked him.
[The Cane of Chronos(2% restored)
Remark: By the hands of the god Hephaestus, The cane of Chronos has recovered a little bit of his past glory, however, because the materials that Hephaestus used were too common, the improved mas minimum.
Remark 2 : The cane of Chronos can now freeze the time on your injury in a range of 5 meters.]
Also, was delighted with the upgrade of his cane.
"Its not a lot of improvement but is something" Thought Alfonso.
Alfonso decided to test the new cane, he left in the floor and walked three steps away from it, indeed, he could still feel the powers of the cane even if he wasn't touching it.
" Not bad, not bad at all" Thought Alfonso.
"Thanks Hephaestus" Said Alfonso.
"No problem, however, I must that I used all the iron that you gave me just to repair the cane" Said Hephaestus.
Alfonso was stunned. He remembered that he gave Hephaestus all the iron that the previous lord of Wasteland Valley had accumulated.
"He practically used the amount of 20 swords just to repair the cane…" Thought Alfonso.
In fact, Alfonso was worried about this, it wasn't only the iron, Wasteland Valley had a lot of problems, the main one however, was that it didn't have any natural resources, for example, the nearest town, Tulip, may not have mines but it has a natural environment for agriculture, Alfonso had to adapt the ground of Wasteland Valley, in order to use it, just like this, Wasteland Valley wasn't near any coaster so commerce with other towns was just a dream, it didn't have any mid were they could extract resource like iron or gold and finally, it didn't have a natural resource of food, well ,now that they had Artemis, the jubila Forest became one.
"This is really troublesome, I need a lot of resources if I want to build a kingdom, however, the nearest town that provide this kind of resources was Arcadia, however, Arcadia was a 1-month trip from here, given the fact that I can't transport a large amount of resources in one go, and even If I could, It will be to eye-catching" Thought Alfonso.
Arcadia had a mine where they extract iron and gold, it was a prosperous town because of this, and what's more, the first princess of Leitol, Alfonso's sister, was the who protects this city.
"Every prince in Leitol had 2 or more cities under their wing, my dear sister is in control of Arcadia, well, just in name thought, that freak is only interesting in war, so she leaves everything to her commanders" Thought Alfonso.
After that, He, Demeter and Ribeiro went to the manor, Hephaestus decided to stay on the workshop while Artemis when back to hunting.
Just when they arrived, Alfonso was surprised that Deferio and Cerberus were in the hall waiting for him.
"Hello, Alfonso"
"My lord, I, Deferio, feel honored to see you."
Cerberus and Deferio greet Alfonso and the rest, they went to the hall and Alfonso sat on his throne, Cerberus took his position on Alfonso's lap.
"Deferio, is nice to see you, how are you?" Asked Alfonso.
"Thanks to your majesty efforts, we are all alright, however, this time I came here to inform his majesty something" Said Deferio.
"What is it?"
"The equipment that we have is already worm out, in fact, a lot of our swords have broken" Said Deferio with a solemn expression.
"...How did this happen?" Asked Alfonso.
"Well….." Said Deferio while looking at Cerberus.
"Ok, ok, I will explain" Said Cerberus.
"You see, I planned a new kind of training with the soldiers, I used my Bluemoon, to create an illusion on them, I let them see an illusion of their worst enemy, so they were battling for the whole night before collapsing, the catch is that every time they kill their enemy, another one will appear and will have learned mistakes of the previous one," Said Cerberus.
"Wha-! Cerberus, that's dangerous! What is they actually kill someone!" Said Alfonso.
"Don't worry, I and Deferio were on the battlefield, so there wasn't any accident" Said Cerberus.
"Still! If something went wrong the soldiers could get seriously injured or the wolves could get stabbed!"
"Anyway, because they get too focused on it, some of them started hitting trees and the already worn out blades broke." Said Cerberus.
Alfonso and Cerberus discussed for a long time before they both made a compromise, Alfonso will let Cerberus continue their training with the condition that Cerberus made them used a wooden sword instead of a real one.
"Well…. Shit, now what?" Thought Alfonso.
Alfonso was in an awkward position, just a few hours ago, Hephaestus had used all the remain iron on Wasteland Valley for his cane.
"Your majesty, I can go to Arcadia to retrieve the iron" Said Ribeiro.
"No, if you want to go to Arcadia you have to past Tulip, I don't want anyone to recognize you..."Said Alfonso.
After thinking for a bit, he looked at little blue who was resting on his head.
"Little blue, do me a favor and call Artemis and Cat one here" Said Alfonso.
"Chirp~"
Little blue lazily got up and went on his way, after two hours, Artemis, Cat one and little blue were back.
"Alfonso, What's the matter"
"You majesty Alfonso Lockheart, did you call me?"
Surprisingly enough, Cat one get used to living in Wasteland Valley, Alfonso was very confused about this, just because he offered a little bit of gold, she quit from her previous life on Tulip Town.
"That's is strange indeed." Thought Alfonso.
"Cat one, I have a mission for you, go with Cerberus to Arcadia and bring back Iron, remember do it carefully, I don't want anyone know that Wasteland Valley still exist, got it?" Said Alfonso.
"I understand" Said Cat one.
"Woho~, its been a long time since I traveled, this will be fun" Said Cerberus while moving his little tail.
"Very well then, you will go tonight, Cat one, how many weeks will you need?" Asked Alfonso.
"...… One month" Said Cat one after thinking for a while.
"That's fast" Thought Alfonso.
Well, it wasn't that surprising, the speed of Cat one and a normal person couldn't compare after all.
With that, Cerberus and Cat one were to Arcadia City to retrieve the materials.