Castle of Black Iron

After more than an hour since he left the Wild Wolf Castle, Zhang Tie returned, holding the spear that he had used to kill the wolf.

The three girls were definitely attacked not without any reason.

According to Alice, the four wolves had attacked them without any provocation. When the three of them were washing clothes for Zhang Tie along the stream, all of a sudden, a wolf rushed out of the brushes which were at the lower reach of the stream.

She was very scared at the sight of it, and they all turned to run. After getting a bit farther away, Alice had looked back and found that it wasn’t a single wolf, but four of them chasing after their trio.

Since the beginning of the survival training, packs of wolves had been rarely seen within five kilometers of the Wild Wolf Castle. The whole ordeal became even stranger when Zhang Tie realized that the four wolves this time were the ones from the seven that had chased after him last time.

He could remember it clearly that one of the escaping two wolves was slightly bigger and had a circle of red-brown fur on its neck while one of its ears had a defect. These features were identical to the head wolf’s that had attacked him last time.

That wolf also had the same animosity in its eyes when it glared at Zhang Tie which he could never mistake.

Why would such a pack of wolves appear twice in his surroundings, seemingly targeting him? It was weird. What was most unbearable was that this time the four wolves had almost killed his three beloved girls. Therefore, Zhang Tie made a decision to kill all the wolves. He swore to not stop until he had killed the two escaped that escaped and figured out the reason as to why they had attacked him and his beloved ones.

Previously, Zhang Tie had also intended to start the survival training alone, but out of his desire for a quick increase in strength due to Castle of Black Iron; however, now, Zhang Tie found another reason that forced him to do that. His individual survival training seemed to be just be beginning.

When the other members of Hit-Plane Brotherhood and the girls were preparing for tonight’s wolf meat barbecue with vicious glee, Zhang Tie carried off one dead wolf to the Wild Wolf Castle.

He didn’t stay in the small square outside the Wild Wolf Castle for a long time. Instead, he directly carried that wolf into the Iron Melting Workshop.

It was as boisterous inside the Workshop as before. Since there were four or five times more ores supplied in the past couple of days than usual, the guys in there who had complained about insufficient materials became very excited.

After a casual glance, Zhang Tie saw that a steam machine had almost been completed. ‘That’s really a hard job for these guys,’ he mumbled inwardly

Upon entering the Iron Melting Workshop, but before he could open his mouth, a guy called Peter, who was familiar with him, shouted out, “Ah, here comes our great hot person of the bonfire night party...”

Peter walked out of the Iron Melting Workshop and hammered onto Zhang Tie’s shoulder. “I heard you’ve become very eye-catching in the bonfire night party by having too big-boob beauties! How did they feel?”

“Their embraces felt great!”Zhang Tie also laughed out loudly.

“Just embracing?” Peter lecherously asked.

“What else do you want?”

“Have you...” Peter made a hand gesture that was understandable to every man.

“We’ve not reached that level yet!”

Oozing sweat all over his forehead, Zhang Tie found that men were all the same when they talked about women no matter how socially reclusive they were, even if they were those guys staying in the Iron Melting Workshop all day long.

“Come on, brother, in case of regretting it later!” Peter seriously said before he noticed the wolf tied to Zhang Tie’s back with ropes.

Zhang Tie then found him forcefully swallowing his saliva with eyes fixed onto the wolf. The guys working in the Iron Melting Workshop, they could only get a bit more dried rations than the miners. They might have a chance to eat meat, but less than once a week. Therefore, at the sight of that wolf on Zhang Tie’s back, all of their eyes turned green. People who had eaten wolf meat knew that it tasted almost the same as dog meat. If you were good at cooking, you could also cook it with various seasonings and in different ways, like how you would cook dog meat.

Under Peter’s amazed gaze, Zhang Tie threw the wolf from his back directly at him. “I’ve just slaughtered it one hour ago, so it’s still fresh. If you deal with it now, the brothers here will have meat to eat tonight. There is also enough of it for tomorrow!”

“This… this is for us?” Peter asked with surprise.

“Of course, I took care of it just now and brought it for the brothers here to ask them for a favor!”

“Brothers, we have meat to eat tonight!” Peter burst out into laughter as he shouted towards the inside of the Workshop. Hearing his exclamation, a group of guys rushed out with gleaming eyes.

“Meat? Where...”

“Where is the meat?”

Seeing the thirsty looks, Zhang Tie realized that these guys in the Workshop were truly wolves themselves.

Seeing the wolf in Peter’s hands, a few guys immediately rushed forward and grabbed it. They were closely followed by another group.

“Remember to take some meat to exchange for some wild vegetables from the girls. We need to stew a pot of soup!”

“We need some wild pepper and spices, we will roast a wolf’s leg...”

“The wolf’s penis, remember to keep it...”

Hearing it, Zhang Tie sweated all over again...

Knowing that they were going to eat fresh wolf meat tonight, the whole Iron Melting Workshop cheered up.

“Brother, what favor do you want? Just say it!”

Peter had feared that Zhang Tie might regret his decision, so he let the others take away the wolf before patting his chest and asking what Zhang Tie needed.

After Zhang Tie finished saying his request, Peter let out a sigh. “Just that? Okay, follow me in, I promise to satisfy you!”

After gifting them the wolf, undoubtedly, Zhang Tie had become the most popular person in the whole Workshop. Many guys greeted him.

Peter took him directly to the area where a pile of finished goods were placed. Pointing at those goods carried over from the Iron Melting Workshop, he said, “ These are all made of low-carbon steel. They’re much better than the first batch of goods. Despite the fact that we cannot control the carburization technique to a high degree, there is still a difference between these weapons and those from the factories in Blackhot City; despite our products having some defects, they’re qualified enough to be used as short spears for throwing!”

In the finished products area there were mainly goods like cutlery, swords, and protective equipment produced by the guys from the Workshop. The weapons had both poor looks and poor quality, causing few people to be interested in them.

Lying about, there were also several lances. Because of their simple processing method, the group of long lances really looked like something; however, it was estimated that few people would like to exchange for lances anymore here. Therefore, these products were just piled up here in great quantities like scattered straws to be bundled.

Here was exactly where Zhang Tie’s target lay—he sought a throwing lance.

The lances were most easily produced, and the most popular products in this Iron Melting Workshop during the survival training. For commoners, when they were alone, these lances weren’t too powerful; however, when going hunting in groups, especially in groups of dozens of people or more than one hundred, these lances could be very effective and aggressive. Based on the chance that even a blind cat could meet a dead mouse, these lances could play a great role in sieges.

Peter pulled out of one of the lances from the pile and put it into Zhang Tie’s hand.

Holding it, Zhang Tie felt that it was truly much better than the long spear that he had used to throw at the wolf. Besides, this lance was only 1.3 m in length. In hand, it would be much easier to control.

The entire lance was mainly just an amplified embroidery needle. Its streamlined pointed head was directly connected to a wooden rod without any decorations. The only confusing point was that the wooden rod connected to the lance head was not completely straight, instead, it was composed of four sections of different thickness: thicker, slimmer, thicker, slimmer. Glancing over the other lance rods, Zhang Tie found that they were all in the same shape. It made him a bit confused.

“Why do your lance rods look like this? Shouldn’t they be as straight as those of long spears?”

“You’ve not used a lance before?”

“Not yet!”

“You should know that this design method had been accepted by people before the Catastrophe. Based on aerodynamics, this kind of rod with sections of different thicknesses would suffer less from air resistance when sent flying and so will fly stabler. Besides, it will fly farther and be more powerful than one whose rod was of the same thickness. More than that, not only are lance rods produced this way, but even the arrow rods that require the strictest processing method would be produced in this way!”

Zhang Tie had never expected that the production of a lance rod could require so much knowledge. However, hearing it had existed before the Catastrophe and was related to aerodynamics that he had never heard about, Zhang Tie didn’t pay much attention to it any longer so as to avoid being called illiterate. These guys who were good at smelting and producing weapons in the Iron Melting Workshop truly had some talents in some aspects.

“How about that? Do you want to have a try in the field behind the Workshop...”

“No need. Just select some good ones for me!” Zhang Tie said, shaking his head. He didn’t want to expose his real strength in front of the public.

Holding the lance, he suddenly thought about something and silently fixed his eyes onto a lamp cover forty steps away from the gate of the Iron Melting Workshop. Then he sensed that mysterious connection between him and the lamp cover forty steps away like the one some time ago between him and the wolf’s neck.

He was not confident about it, but he surely knew that he could immediately hit that lamp cover using his lance. As long as he had enough strength, he could then precisely throw the weapon in his hand at the target. This skill seemed to have become instinctual, as simple as taking a breath or walking.

Even Zhang Tie himself was confused about the reason behind it. He only knew that some weird changes had happened to his body. If he considered his own body as a machine for a moment, he felt that one hour ago, a switch on his body was suddenly turned on, causing him to become instinctually aware of how to throw lances. It seemed that with any item in hand, after a simple estimation of its weight, he could throw it wherever he wanted...

God knew what had happened to him!

……

“Is one bundle of them enough?” Peter asked generously.

“No, it’s too much, I only need six of them!” Hearing Peter’s words, Zhang Tie was almost frightened as a bundle would contain 12 lances at the least. He didn’t need that many at all.

“Well, it depends on you. The heads are easily produced. They need very little steel. The wooden rods are also easily made. We have tools here. If they don’t work, just take them here; I’ll exchange them for new ones for you...”

“Fine, next time when I get some more meat, I’ll share it with you guys too!”.

“Okay!” Peter smiled widely. “Brothers, did you hear that? We will always have meat to eat from today on. This black-haired tough man could easily kill three wolves!”

Hearing Peter’s praise, Zhang Tie also smiled. He felt that although these guys were introverted and not talkative, they were really easy-going. If you treated them well, they would treat your well too. He felt very comfortable getting along with them since, in a way, he was a similar person.

When he left the Iron Melting Workshop, he carried six lances with him. Peter had even gifted a container for him to hold his lances. With this lance container on his back, he could move with ease.

However, when he returned to the tree base, Zhang Tie saw an uninvited person - Burwick.