A hundred orcs had been assigned to do the mining work. They were an advanced tribe that relied on iron for their weapons and tools, and customarily, the young men and women mined the mountains for the precious ore at least once in their lives. Except for the smallest children, all orcs had even a small amount of experience in mining, and so, when their lord gifted them with the precious talent he called Skill Master, their ability jumped to a whole different level.

Their hands gripped the pickaxe with such power that it was imposible to believe their bodies were originally capable of it. Each swing meant a piece of rock would break— each day would mean a few chunks of iron would be found. Not only had their strength multiplied, but they had also obtained knowledge on things they never thought they could obtain. Things like feeling with your gut when your tools would break became common, and soon, the rush of ecstasy became addicting. The orcs worked for two days straight without rest, in which they obtained a greater stamina. By the third day they had already jumped a level. At the end of the week, each orc had pulled out about 3 tons of ore, ready to be melt down and turned into weapons.

As the swarms of ores came by, the smithing team had to put in an equal amount of effort. With Ubolg on the head, a hundred hobgoblins learned the craft of smithing in nothing but a single hour, and now the horde posessed a hundred [Blacksmith] hobgoblins. With their level came information, techniques, new senses and changes in their body, everything to optimize themselves to the best of their capacity. The forge, however, was still limited. Since the workshop was designed so three people at most worked at the same time, there was no use in having a hundred of them.

"Alright girl, chop it up!"

Suu instructed Erina to swing, and the girl unleashed her powerful strike upon the last of the trees in their way. She pulled out the stump with her same strength, and then the team of builders came by. They took away the logs and processed the wood, gathered the stone and recovered clay from the bed of lakes, and at the end of the fourth day they had alredy built a massive courtyard, an entire hectare in size, with rows upon rows of furnaces created by the artisans. While Ubolg and his trusted helpers finished crafting the hundred anvils, Suu spent no more than three days teaching a simple trick to the hobs.

"This should be useful for you." She lit up a small firebolt on her hand, making the monsters impressed at her power. It was no more than a 0-tier spell of an element she could not control well, but it was enough to entice the hobgoblins. They learned how to cast a spell in a day, and learned how to use it for their advantage in the second. Then, a hundred [Magic Casters] were born out of the blue, with nothing but a girl's instruction.

By the third day, Ubolg and his helpers had ready a hundred anvils, although not entirely made out of iron, but a slab of iron placed on top of sturdy stumps of wood, reinforces by iron bands. They wouldn't last long, but they would last enough for them to use. Their first order was to craft their own tools. After the first day of the second week, every hob had their own. On the second, the production began.

Boxes filled with iron iron mixed in with useless rock kept coming in on waves, and the incessant hammering on top of the anvils continued. If one broke, it was replaced. If the fire died out, they lit it up with magic. If their hands bled out from the pressure— they kept pressing harder. A violent euphoria had taken prisoner the bodies of the smiths and the miners, who couldn't think about anything but their excellent display of skill at their job, so quickly obtained, so easily rewarding.

It wasn't enough to have weapons, but they didn't have time to get armor. At the first day of the second week, Thom ordered every able-bodied hob to be rounded up in the plaza, and him, together with Valta and Erina, smacked them and hit them until their skin hardenerd and tears fell down. At the second day, everyone had obtained [Bark Skin], which granted them at the very least protection against weaker weapons. They couldn't waste time, and at the third day, Thom personally instructed everyone to obtain slashing and thrusting skills.

"Cleave down like you mean it!"

"Hyaaaa!"

"Like you fucking mean it!!"

He received slash after slash of the wooden practice swords, which barely managed to put a scrap on him after receiving more than 4000 blows for three days straight. On the fifth day of the week, they had all obtained some sort of offensive skill.

Suu, on her side, was more fond of teaching magicians how to use their spells, instead of swinging her sword around with the rest.

"Are you all dumb or is it just me?! Concentrate in your breathing, expand your thorax! If you can only fire one miserable spell, what is the point behind all this! You, Hlung, don't think you can slack off!"

"Shut up, filthy human!"

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"Huh?! Strike me, do it! With all of your strength!"

A strike of lightning raged towards Suu with awesome might, a second-tier spell that was impossible to tell apart from certain death. Suu, however, simply faced it head-on, and with the back of her palm, deflected it off into the sky.

"Get your asses back to work! I won't go away from here until you useless shits can cast at least two first-tier spells in a day!"

"Yes!!" The golden hobgoblins replied with vigor.

Although the people under Thom's guidance seemed to advance faster than the rest, no one was left behind. The sheer power recollected from a few days of training had made Thom's aura soar into the sky even more, fed by his servant's power. It was enough proof that things were going correctly.

Erina wasn't left behind. She had been tasked with teaching the orcs, but her fighting style was so brutal that even with a wooden sword every orc in the village ended up obtaining [Bark Skin] before any other offensive skill. Her own job class skill went up to [Sword Emperor II] after just a few weeks of battle, but she was quickly waved off by Thom, who told her she must have been quite close to that goal before obtaining skill Master. After she told him that now the bonus to her sword skills was of 50,000%, the man almost jumped off a cliff.

As for Suu, Thom had lost grasp of her strength from the beginning. Since he couldn't feel her magic energt or anything related to it, he could only base himself off the reactions from the people who could. The girl was extremely attuned to earth-based spells, but that didn't mean she could not learn any other. From practical spells to absurdities like changing the physical structure of a creature, the girl demonstrated an incredible talent with magic. Djkavan had vocalized many times how jealous she was of the girl.

What impressed Thom the most, however, was that she continued her training regimen with Erina every day without fault. Ten punches to the gut, five throws against a hill, two slashes from a sword. Even when Erina's strength had become feracious, the other girl's didn't seem to fall behind.

"It's been two weeks."

Valta jumped down from a tree, landing beside Thom. He smiled at her carelessly, but he knew those words implied urgency. "I know." He said. "Attacks against us have been uncommon at the very least. I don't think they're attempting to finish us off before we actually start any confrontation."

"The month is a deadline you stablished." Valta touched the man's chest with her finger. "Miel may attack before that. Or after."

"Yeah. I prefer starting this up myself."

"Do you have any plan?"

"I was hoping you and Erina could help me out with that..." He smiled at her. The woman nodded in return.

Firstly, breaching the walls wouldn't be easy no matter what. Since their only entrance was through the north, they couldn't take hold of any nearby structures and set camp there. Thom doubted hobgoblins could climb ladders and attack a wall brimming with archers and swordsmen, while fending off the boiling liquids being poured from the windows and the hijacking attempts. The skilled archers from the towers and walls could easily down hobs and orcs standing in an open field, even in movement. Although entering through the air was a possibility, there was just a certain amount of people him and the crystal girl could carry, and it wasn't nearly enough.

They would need siege weapons, powerful ones. They needed to be resistant as to not be broken by magic range attacks, and easy to use so the carriers wouldn't be killed before even making it to the gates.

An idea came to him as he was checking his memories, and hastily headed towards the main workshop in the orc camp. He figured that, in reality, he did not need a siege weapon. Since he already had one, all he needed was a proper ram head. As he explained the details to Ubolg, the orc in charge of the forge, several different emotions seemed to appear on his face. Excitement dawned on him as the explanation finished, and giving a thumbs up to his master, he immediately put himself to work.

"I'm counting on you!" Thom smiled.

"It'll be ready for when you need it!" Ubolg returned the gesture.

As he headed back from the camp he came across Suu, who proudly smiled at him and waved. "Yo! I've got some good news for ya!"

"Did something good happen?"

"I assaulted someone!"

"H-Hey..."

"A trader of sorts. He seemed to be coming from the inner part of the city, said something about having to deliver before the peek of winter. I'm not sure about anything else he brought, but I, being the smart girl that you love, relieved him of these!" She proudly handed over a small pouch that sounded like clackering bottles, immediate arousing the man's curiosity. He grabbed it and opened it to confirm with his own eyes, and saw the inside full with at least ten red potions in flasks the size of a thumb, crimson red in color.

"Ho...! They're pretty good quality too..." Clear happiness was expressed in his smile as he took one to look at it. "I guess these should do for the people we truly want to keep alive, for now."

"Hehe, aren't I awesome?"

"Right." He put the potion back with a smile and tied the pouch to his belt. "I'll reward you when I can. Now, there was something I've been meaning to ask."

"Yeah?"

"About the orcs and the hobgoblins... How many people are we actually counting with?" Thom's eyes turned serious as he dropped his question.

"I see... From the orcs, only about five hundred of them have told me they would fight. Djolk leading, of course. He's the most excited about all of this." She placed her hand on her hip and sighed. "From the hobgoblins, most of them are on board with this. They started it, after all. With the exception of half of the black horde and a few more from the golden, we've got close to three thousand hobs to fight. "

"That's less than I thought..." Thom bit on his nail. "I was counting with the hobs, to be honest. But after the attack they suffered before it makes sense that they cowered. I can't really force them either, since I was the one to make the mistakes that lead to this."

"Hey, it's fine." She smiled warmly at him. "Valta and Erina are here, and you're too. We definitely won't lose this, we wouldn't even if it was only the four of us."

"Right." He shrugged with a snicker.

"But let Valta do the strategy."

"... Right."