The third night on the Endless Continent felt incredibly peaceful within Orion's territory. The transparent, pitch-black protective dome muffled the roars of the wild monsters outside, leaving behind a soothing, magical silence.
In front of his steel-hard Wooden Cabin, Orion stood admiring the pile of materials he had just unloaded from his storage ring. Two thousand Black Iron Ingots were stacked neatly like a miniature pyramid, reflecting the torchlight with a lethal gleam.
Kael, Lyra, Garrick, and Seraphina stood in a circle, guarding the perimeter like royal sentinels. All of them could sense the anticipation radiating from their Lord.
Orion took out a palm-sized bronze medallion engraved with the symbol of a crossed sword and shield. It was the [Hero Summoning Token (Bronze)].
"Regular troops kill enemies," Orion muttered, recalling the description from the system manual he had skimmed earlier. "But Heroes... Heroes lead the war."
He gripped the token tightly and channeled his intent. "Use the Hero Summoning Token!"
WHOOSH!
The token in Orion's hand shattered into bronze light dust that floated into the air. The dust did not move toward the Summoning Gateway; instead, it gathered in the empty space right in front of Orion, forming a pillar of light that pierced the night sky.
The air around the pillar became intensely hot, smelling of burning charcoal and incandescent metal. The sound of a giant hammer striking an anvil echoed from within the light, each strike creating a small shockwave that made the ground tremble.
When the light slowly subsided, the silhouette that emerged was not a tall, handsome knight or a beautiful mage.
A dwarven figure, standing one and a half meters tall, stood there. However, despite his short stature, his body was as wide as a double door. The muscles on his arms looked like chiseled boulders, covered in burn scars. He had a blazing red beard tied with steel rings and wore a thick, fireproof leather apron. Over his right shoulder, he carried a massive sledgehammer that was almost as large as his own body.
The dwarf opened his eyes—eyes that glowed like a roaring hearth—and immediately planted his hammer into the ground, dropping to one knee before Orion.
"Thorek Ironborn, Rune Master of the Ember Mountains, hears the call of destiny. My hammer is yours, My Lord!" his voice was hoarse and heavy, yet filled with a fiery passion.
[Hero Summoning Successful!] [Name: Thorek Ironborn] [Title: Rune Master (Hero)] [Rarity: Bronze] [Level: 1] [Strength: 28 | Agility: 10 | Physique: 25 | Mana: 20] [Hero Skills:]
Rune Forging (Active): Can engrave ancient magic into the weapons and armor he forges, granting additional magical attributes.
Metal Mastery (Passive): Increases forging speed by 300% and minimizes material failure rate.
Fire God's Blessing (Passive): Immune to mid-tier fire attacks and below (Synergizes with workspaces). [Loyalty: 100% (Absolute)]
Orion's eyes widened as he read the statistics. Not a war general, but a Blacksmith Hero! In strategy games, non-combatant Heroes were often considered trash if pulled in the early game because they couldn't protect the territory.
But to Orion Vance, Thorek was the most crucial puzzle piece that had just dropped from the heavens.
Orion's Absolute Synthesis talent could synthesize materials, but he couldn't turn a lump of iron into a shaped sword. He needed a base object. If he had a thousand iron swords, he could synthesize them into a divine sword. And Thorek... was the printing press for those base objects!
"Stand up, Thorek," Orion greeted with a rare, wide smile. "You arrived at the perfect time."
Orion walked over to the pile of Black Iron Ingots and pointed at it. "As a Rune Master, what do you think of this metal?"
Thorek approached the iron pyramid. He squinted, then picked up one of the ingots. He sniffed it, tapped it with his finger, and his eyes instantly bulged.
"By the Ancestors' Beards!" Thorek exclaimed, his voice trembling. "What kind of purity is this?! There isn't a single speck of slag in it! This is flawless-grade Black Iron! Where did you obtain metal this pure without a heavenly smelting facility, My Lord?!"
"I made it from chunks of raw stone this afternoon," Orion answered casually, a statement that nearly made Thorek drop the metal bar.
"That... that is the authority of the Creator Gods!" Thorek stared at Orion with a gaze that had shifted from mere loyalty to absolute reverence. He wasn't serving a human; he was serving a nascent god!
"Metal this magnificent requires an equally magnificent furnace," Orion continued, not giving Thorek time to digest his shock. He took out the [Blueprint: Blacksmith Furnace (Bronze)] from his ring.
[Construction Requirements: 2,000 Wood, 2,000 Stone, 100 Black Iron Ingots, 10 Basic Magic Crystals.]
The cost was astronomical. A hundred Black Iron Ingots alone were worth tens of thousands of wood on the auction house. However, Orion's current capital was practically bottomless.
"Build."
The system instantly siphoned 2,000 Wood, 2,000 Stone, 100 Black Iron Ingots, and 10 Basic Magic Crystals from his inventory.
The earth trembled once more. Bronze light descended from the sky, carving out a space in the empty clearing not far from Orion's Wooden Cabin. Formations of firebrick assembled into a large dome, a metal chimney rose high, and in the center, a magical hearth powered by Magic Crystals ignited with incredibly hot, blue flames. A solid steel anvil materialized alongside rows of heavy tools.
[Construction Complete!] [Facility: Blacksmith Furnace (Bronze)] [Description: An advanced workspace. The magic fire within can soften metals from Black Iron to Bronze tiers. Increases the quality of forged weapons by 15%.]
Seeing the roaring furnace, Thorek seemed to lose his mind. He tossed his combat sledgehammer aside, sprinted toward the furnace, and caressed the anvil like a long-lost lover.
"My Lord! Give me an order! My hands are itching to forge this pure metal!" Thorek shouted enthusiastically.
"Use these Black Iron Ingots," Orion commanded, allocating 1,000 units near the furnace. "I need longswords. Standard issue, with maximum sharpness and durability. Ignore the ornaments. I only need efficiency. Make me two identical swords as fast as you can."
"Two swords? Easy!"
Thorek immediately grabbed two black iron ingots with metal tongs, tossed them into the roaring blue flames, and began pumping the bellows.
[Passive Skill: Metal Mastery activated! Forging speed +300%]
In less than twenty minutes—a process that would normally take days for a human—the iron glowed red, was pulled out, and hammered on the anvil.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The rhythm of Thorek's strikes was like magical artistry. The metal was flattened, folded, and shaped with microscopic precision. Thorek then used a special awl to scratch a single line of glowing Runes along the blades as they cooled in a barrel of oil.
Ssssssss!
"Done, My Lord!" Thorek wiped the sweat from his forehead, presenting two longswords that emitted a cold, lethal aura.
[Iron Rune Longsword (Black Iron)] [Quality Tier: Flawless (+15% damage from Furnace effect)] [Special Attribute: 'Wind's Edge' (Rune Engraving) - Increases slash speed by 10%.]
It was an elite weapon that would make any Lord in the World Channel willing to murder their own sibling to obtain. Thorek stared at his masterpiece with pride.
"Incredible, Thorek. Two identical masterpieces," Orion praised, taking both deadly swords from the dwarf's hands.
"However," Orion continued, his eyes glinting with the reflection of the blue fire from the furnace, "Your masterpiece is merely the base canvas for the art of my creation."
Orion held one sword in his left hand and one in his right. He stepped back, allowing Thorek, Kael, and the others to witness the miracle firsthand.
"Forge of Genesis: SYNTHESIS!"
The cosmic energy cube exploded from Orion's palms, swallowing the two elite swords Thorek had forged. The Origin-Grade purgatory fire flared, tearing apart the black iron atoms, fusing them back together, and burning them with exponential density. The runes engraved on the blades shrieked, evolving from basic wind magic into a storm trapped within the metal.
The black gleam faded, replaced by a lethal bronze luster adorned with green crystalline patterns running down the blade.
When the process was complete, a single new sword was born. The aura it emitted was so powerful that the surrounding wind seemed to part on its own.
[Synthesis Successful!] [2x Iron Rune Longsword (Black Iron) -> 1x Bronze Storm Sword (Bronze)] [Quality Tier: Local Legendary] [Special Attribute: 'Whirlwind Caller' - Every slash has a chance to create a bladed vortex of wind that damages surrounding enemies.] [Additional Attribute: Ignores 30% of the enemy's physical armor.]
Clank.
Thorek dropped his iron tongs onto the floor. His legs trembled, and he fell to his knees once more, this time with tears pooling in his eyes.
"Forging metal beyond the boundaries of natural rarity... You do not need a furnace, My Lord. You are the Heavenly Forge itself," the dwarf sobbed, feeling his life was complete after witnessing such a miracle.
Orion tossed the Bronze Storm Sword to Kael, who caught it with trembling hands full of awe. With this Bronze-tier weapon, the destructive power of Kael (who was still at the Black Iron tier) would skyrocket far beyond his own level.
Orion looked back at Thorek and his roaring bronze furnace.
"Listen, Thorek," Orion's voice echoed with absolute authority. "The first Beast Tide is arriving in four days. I need a non-stop production line. Forge swords, shields, bows, and armor. Use all the metal I brought. And I... I will synthesize every single one of your creations until our army becomes a legion of gods."
That night, while the rest of humanity wept while searching for firewood, the sound of Thorek's hammer echoed throughout Orion's Territory, singing a symphony of destruction for anyone who dared to set foot on the land of the Synthesis Lord.