Stuck in the Muck

Making iron smelting furnaces was incredibly time-consuming. Even after finding two more townspeople to mix clay, it still took over five hours to finish.

This was Thane's first time making such furnaces, so naturally he was slower than the blacksmith.

When the blacksmith's furnace was done, Thane immediately used the system to examine his furnace.

[Name: Fragile Iron Smelting Furnace]

[Grade: Green Excellent]

[Enchantment: Precision Forged Furnace]

"Just as I expected!"

Thane breathed a sigh of relief and excitedly shook the yellow clay off his hands.

As long as his people worked according to his orders, it counted as his participation.

This way Thane wouldn't have to personally build furnaces every time he smelted iron!

But Thane liked to finish what he started—since he'd begun, he'd complete his own furnace.

Without any surprises, Thane's furnace naturally also had the trait enchantment.

"The pig iron smelted from these two furnaces can only be used to forge weapons and equipment—no selling."

Thane gave the two blacksmiths a serious order.

As for forging and repairing farm tools, they'd have to use the previous iron materials.

Thane didn't stick around for the charcoal burning. Otto had already reported this morning that all the manure in town had been cleaned up.

Thane needed to do a thorough walkthrough of the town to see if that wealthy farmer had actually done the job right.

Punishment wasn't the point.

Right now Thane really needed people who could get stuff done. If Otto wasn't up to snuff, he'd need to find a replacement quickly.

"If I remember correctly, Martha is a widow, right?"

After leaving the blacksmith shop, Thane suddenly remembered his promise to Pegin and said to Pamin: "Try hooking her up with Pegin."

"Would that work... these two people have quite an age gap."

Pamin commented carefully.

Pegin was only twenty-four, while Martha, mother of three kids, was already thirty-six.

"You don't get it, Pamin."

Thane chuckled: "This is called the most desperate age meeting the most energetic guy."

Then Thane suddenly realized something and said quietly: "Pamin, you don't have feelings for Martha, do you?"

Although Martha was a mother of three, she had a full figure, wide hips, and gave off that mature woman vibe.

The Loanium Empire had bold, open customs and wouldn't just look down on someone for being married before.

If it weren't for Martha having a nursing infant son, this kind of fertile woman would be very popular.

Faced with Thane's teasing, Pamin lowered his head without speaking.

Thane keenly noticed that Pamin glanced at his missing hand.

Looked like this knight felt self-conscious because of his disability.

But Thane didn't think Pamin was any less than others because of it.

"Pamin, as the chief knight of my territory, if you had a woman to take care of you, you could serve me even better."

Thane suddenly looked seriously at Pamin: "So you'd better pick a wife for yourself soon, or I'll have to assign one."

Since you feel insecure, I'll use the lord's authority.

Actually Thane didn't like forcing couples together, but such an excellent knight as Pamin should have children.

Then in sixteen years, Thane's territory would have another knight.

"Baron..."

"Eliric, do you have a wife?"

Thane directly cut off Pamin and looked straight at Eliric.

Pamin understood this meant the lord was no longer giving him wiggle room and could only reluctantly give up.

"Hey, we're always on the road with the boys—not suitable for women and family."

Eliric grinned: "We'll talk about it when I'm tired of this life."

Thane nodded in agreement, then said: "You could consider settling down here with me."

"Noble sir, I don't have money to buy land and build a house, haha!"

"For you, these wouldn't be problems."

Thane looked ahead: "Eliric, I'm making you an offer. Think it over before you answer."

Eliric was a powerful warrior who, without practicing any breathing techniques, could still go toe-to-toe with Pamin in combat.

Although he ultimately lost, he was still the best among everyone including the guards.

Worth mentioning was that knights in this world didn't just represent honor—they meant power beyond ordinary people.

Knights practiced breathing techniques to enhance physical abilities—strength, stamina, reaction speed, and so on.

By strength from low to high, they were roughly divided into: Knight Squire, Junior Knight, Intermediate Knight, Senior Knight, Elite Knight, and Legendary Knight.

Pamin was an Intermediate Knight, so even with one missing hand, he could still beat Eliric.

Of course, except for Legendary Knights, all other knight levels were still in "human" status—no matter how strong, they couldn't single-handedly defeat a well-trained, well-equipped legion, especially with skilled archers present.

But Legendary Knights were exceptions.

It was said Legendary Knights could kill ten men with one sword and take an enemy general's head amid ten thousand troops.

But these were all written in imperial history—the current Loanium Empire had no such Legendary Knights, and none had been heard of in the entire world.

"Sir, you don't mind that I'm lowborn, a mercenary who fights for gold?"

Eliric lowered his head, his smile somewhat forced.

"You don't just fight for gold."

Thane looked at Eliric: "Weren't you a border city guard squad leader before? You dreamed of becoming a garrison commander."

Eliric's smile faded, somewhat surprised.

This was ancient history—since retiring he'd never mentioned it, only mumbling about it when drunk.

Seemed this noble lord had done his homework on him before.

No wonder he'd been so generous.

"Those were stupid things I said when I didn't know any better—long forgotten."

Eliric scratched his head, then snapped back to himself:

"But I'll seriously consider your offer."

"Don't think too long—I won't always need people."

Thane said, picking up his pace.

During their conversation, they'd circled the town and indeed saw no crap, with scrape marks everywhere on the ground.

Some places still had piss smell, but that was from years of old urine soaking into the soil.

Thane didn't nitpick or punish Otto for the urine smell.

Outside town, they saw pile after pile of manure.

[Successfully collected 4,400 pounds of manure fertilizer, unlocked trait: Master of Humus]

The moment Thane approached the manure piles, the trait completion notification appeared.

Thane immediately opened it to check:

[Master of Humus (Blue): Compost piles you personally build or participate in building have fermentation speed increased tenfold.]

[Next trait: Cultivate 5,000 acres within your territory to unlock: Crop Lord]

Truly worthy of being Master of Humus!

Fresh manure couldn't be used directly on fields—it had to be aged or composted through fermentation, or it would "burn" crops to death.

Hot weather was more conducive to composting, usually taking two to four months.

In places like the Northern Borderlands where nights dropped near freezing, it often took seven to ten months, and even with warmer spring weather, fermentation needed at least six months.

But with the Master of Humus trait, Thane could complete manure fermentation in less than a month.

For the Northern Borderlands' May spring planting, there was plenty of time.

"But this amount of fertilizer isn't enough for cultivating 5,000 acres."

The manure piles before Thane weren't huge—about 3 tons each.

There were fourteen such piles, so all the manure combined was roughly 40-plus tons.

Composting would also add dry grass, sawdust, wood ash, and other organic materials—about two to three times the manure volume.

After water evaporation, half the fertilizer would remain—only about 80-plus tons.

In this era without chemical fertilizer, each acre needed 1-3 tons of organic fertilizer.

Even using just 1 ton per acre, 5,000 acres was a mind-boggling number—Fontdmer Town's manure alone wouldn't cut it.

"Otto, tomorrow find thirty men in town to dig pits, and thirty women to gather grass from the mountains and forests, plus rotted fallen leaves—the more the better."

If there wasn't enough manure, Thane could only add more organic matter.

Maybe his Master of Humus trait could also make ordinary fallen leaves rot faster.

"Tell them to work hard—this time there are not only work points but lunch too!"

"No problem, they'll definitely be pumped to do this work!"

Otto, who hadn't gotten chewed out for the manure, responded cheerfully.

He was now immune to Thane's weird orders—as long as he didn't get scolded or beaten, he'd do anything.

Thane turned and told Pamin: "Have Kralfard pick ten slaves to dig sludge from nearby mud ponds—again, the more the better."

Pamin nodded and immediately went to relay the orders.

Without enough manure, Thane could only choose some farmland for intensive cultivation.

He calculated in his mind how much fertilizer he'd need at minimum to produce 660,000 pounds of grain, while also figuring out where to get more manure.

Thane really hadn't expected that one day he'd be stuck because of manure.