It's been a week since I completed the quest given to me by Kobol King. From then on, I've been working non-stop to improve the living standers of the city.

 

But it isn't only me who gives their everything for the greater good, from oldest dwarf to youngest human, everyone gives their best.

 

Hundreds are dragging huge stone pieces, so we can build a water distribution system fast as we can.

 

Hundreds of hands are lifting their hammers to hit blazing hot iron in front of them for new equipment.

 

Hundreds are cutting forests, and hundreds behind them are processing the soil to create farming fields.

 

And I am in the middle of all of this work, trying to coordinate everyone and use my rusted degree of engineering into use by making plans for many things we are building.

 

My designs range from simple doors to more complicated cog and muscle-powered machines for lifting heavy equipment, and even though I am not that great of an engineer, I am doing my best to create things that are useful to us.

 

"Enemy spotted! Enemy spotted at the horizon!" A man assigned to alert the city if the enemy approaches, moving between places where people gathered.

 

He is informing everyone he could till his body doesn't handle it anymore, but thanks to his efforts, almost everyone is now aware of the situation, the enemy is on our gates, and we shall give them hell!

 

"I will come later." I left the table where I share my plans with ironsmiths, stonemasons, and people who are close to the concept of making a building or equipment.

 

"Fionnlagh! Fly." I jumped back on my Wyvern friend, and he began flying towards the upper part fast as he could.

 

Sadly, this place is two separate complexes, the ancient city is where food, water, and people are, and the upper part is where soldiers stay.

 

Having two separate living areas usually causes problems, as moving between the upper part and city might take around an hour, if you are not riding a Wyvern.

 

But I must remember that this place was once a home for half a million dwarves living inside.

 

"Increase your speed, boy. I want to see what is happening quickest I could." I pat my scaly friend's head.

 

Wyvern screeched and increased his speed with one powerful wing flap.

 

Strong wind caused by this new speed level is quite good. It has freedom in its essence.

 

I even forgot that I was inside a massive hole carved by some ancient dwarfs thousands of years ago and began thinking about my life before.

 

I flew between battlefields, fought in every type of biome I could, and saw every miracle of nature with my eyes.

 

But that war with a noble cause or the nation cheering from my behind is not here anymore. I am still a soldier, but a soldier of a new war. A war which I am still not sure why I am fighting.

 

But eventually, it comes to this, that is my nature, that is why my heretics gave to me, my father was a soldier, my grandpa was, and his father, and his father. I wonder if anyone from our family has ever chosen a profession not associated with the military.

 

Wyvern opened his wings to slow down and softly landed as we arrived at the upper part. A chaotic atmosphere covers the whole place. Soldiers are running around. Some carry boxes filled with arrows or dragging wheel carts filled with rations and weapons.

 

Thankfully I have a man that I can trust. Mel, a knight who joined us months before the revolution, is a trustworthy man and someone who can drill our troops.

 

If I can call the people assigned to guard the entrance soldiers, all of that is thanks to Mel's efforts.

 

"Mel! What the hell is happening." I shout to inform the man about my arrival.

 

And from the above, where we enter the archer pits and balconies looking outside, a voice answered my call. "At the third balcony, my king!"

 

Fionnlagh quickly launched itself to the air and dropped me at the place where Mel is curiously watching outside.

 

"I wasn't waiting for an army that big to arrive. Here my king, look at that." Mel gave a pair of binoculars to me.

 

After some adjustments, I put on the binoculars and began looking towards the hundreds of banners raising from far. "For fucks sake, at least twenty troops are waiting outside."

 

"Yeah and probably twenty thousand more is hiding their presence, but I am not surprised by the numbers. This place is highly protected, and I doubt if they can control the whole place without losing more than half the man they have." I must say that I am surprised by Mel's confidence, but that is a great thing.

 

"Well, dwarfs know how to build a powerful fortress, only if they weren't stupid enough to build one looking directly to open land." If only the land front of us isn't a plain one, the siege would be much easier to fend off.

 

"No, they are not stupid because they build a fortress looking straight to an open plain. Dwarfs are foolish because they destroyed the rough terrain defending themselves."

 

"Well, I suppose it happened quite a long time ago. There is no need to grumble about it. Now, we do not have many archers, also time to train some. How can we stop them from approaching balconies." We might have the advantage as we are on the defense, but against an army twenty times larger ours. Things will be hard.

 

"Only a little amount of enemy can enter inside, we can hold them right there and reinforce our troops in waves, but considering every lost for us permanent, that will be too risky."

 

That ties my hand even more.

 

But I have something inside my head.

 

"I believe you can hold the first attack. I will send a thousand more men to increase your odds. Now, I only need three days."

 

I hastily left the balcony and jumped on Fionnlagh. "Be fast, my friend, to the top floor." If that thing is there, tides of war will change.

 

I suppose Fionnlagh probably sensed my excitement because he is flapping his wings like crazy.

 

And after a short flight, we arrived at the top floor, where Executioner's office is.

 

Soldiers who brought me here stole all my equipment before they arrived, except for one item, which I did my best to hide till the Executioner found and took it from me.

 

Wand of Creation. A magical item with the ability to transform mana into raw materials. Having that means direct access to gunpowder.

 

I entered the room and began carefully searching everything inside for hope to find that, the wooden wardrobe, office desk in the middle, and finally a chest placed at the top of a bookshelf.

 

I raised my wand to the air and began inspecting it. "Now, the fun begins."

 

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"Everyone! Stop what you are doing and start listening to me." I raised the wooden was carrying with me to the air.

 

"As you see, there is one design I want every ironsmith to focus on right now! One half began preparing a mold for that, and the other half began building one for test purposes. Now!"

 

I placed a picture of an iron rocket, a Congreve rocket, to be more specific, something we can produce in masses and rain hell on our enemies with it.

 

But why Congreve rocket and not any other gunpowder weapon? Well, that's because building semi-modern artillery will take too long, and carrying that will be difficult as well.

 

Building rockets, on the other hand, I mean the Congreve rockets, is much easier, and with their ease of carrying and cheap material cost for us, building them seems like the better choice.

 

My strategy with them will be a simple one. Launch hundreds of rockets to the enemy line and break their morale, then launch and cavalry attack commanded by Silvertower to kill the demoralized enemy.

 

"Pull them in, hit them with our rockets, and kill the remaining few. Till they

stop."

 

But my plans don't stop with that. I now have a clear vision in front of me. The only way to defeat the magic and strong armies of this world is through unorthodox means, we must defeat flesh and mana with gunpowder and steel.