Now that things were settling down on the lines, and the extra forces that had come to try to breach where the fresh weapons ran out had been defeated, Dominic turned his wagon back to the city gates.
He was going to have to make it back to the smith’s quarters in the Palace and get everything packed up and ready in three hours, then have lunch before the assembly at noon for the forces to head out on their hunting trip.
Now that he knew that the majority of the Royal Princes would be accompanying the groups, it had a wholly different feel than when he thought it was just some reserve guard regiments going on a walkabout in hopes of finding something.
They wouldn’t send such well-trained and respected members of the Royal Family out without an excellent reason, Dominic assumed.
It might be some sort of test to see if they were qualified for the roles that they were taking on in the future, or even the ones that they held now, but it did seem like the King of Cygnia was taking the possibility that an outside force was organizing the Ogres and Goblins against him very seriously.
For once, Dominic even managed to return to his room from the front lines without any blood at all on him.
But he still went for a shower, enjoying the last hot water he was likely to see for a while, unless one of the rigs had a proper shower rigged up instead of stopping by a river.
It wasn’t like travel showers didn’t exist. The stores even had multiple options in both mechanical and magical heating devices, but for a travelling military group the temperature of the water was less important than the quality, and they didn’t want to waste stored water unless they had a water witch or a wizard with them that could replace it.
Once he decided that he smelled decent enough, Dominic packed a few of the scented soaps in his Inventory Cube and looked around for anything else that he might need.
He traded the "lucky" tempering oil with the oil from the sealed bucket for his travelling forge setup, and then double-checked his belongings. It looked like the important stuff was all here. He didn’t own enough to have to consider how much would fit in the cube. A few outfits, the tools and his pile of spare parts and trash drop items came to a little over half its capacity.
Today’s Hobgoblins hadn’t given him anything good but the mana cores, but that was enough to keep his forge working with his usual efficiency. Or, he could feed them into his new spell book and start levelling it up. With every spell cast at the same level, he would be at a huge advantage once he had a few more spells and some levels into the book.
Dominic did briefly wonder why it worked for him, when Pops had said that the device was defective and shouldn’t actually be able to attune to anyone, so it shouldn’t ever have spells higher than level one, but no matter how long he examined it, the device was a mystery to him.
He would need some books on the Artificer’s trade to understand how it worked.
On his bed was a rectangular wooden box, with his name on it, written in Pop’s precise script. Dominic tossed it in his Inventory Cube to inspect later, when he needed a surprise or kind act to brighten his mood, and decided what he would likely need to wear for the day.
Armour, definitely armour. If they were going hunting, that meant they were at risk of being ambushed.
With his Cogwork Armour on under his uniform coat and a hat firmly affixed to his head with hairpins, he was ready to head out to meet his travelling companions.
Dominic stopped in the kitchen on his way, where a massive woman blocked his way.
"What do you need, Adventurer?" She demanded.
"I’m headed out with the reserve regiments, and I was hoping to get something for the road. I’m Master Weaponsmith Pops’ apprentice." Dominic explained.
The massive woman, who smelled more like an ogre than most of the ogres did, smiled down at him.
"I like that. Keep calling him Pops, it keeps that old bastard humble. Alright, I’ll get you a bag full of meat buns so you don’t have to starve with the slop the soldiers call stew." The head cook agreed before stomping away across the kitchen.
The bag that she returned with would certainly feed a dozen people for the day, and it would take up the majority of the spare space in Dominic’s Inventory Cube, but he could see apples, bread, cheese, and what looked like a whole smoked ham in addition to the large bag of meat filled steamed buns that had been promised.
"There. Now you don’t need to worry too much about food. You will be in the forge carriage anyhow, so no need to worry about how to heat or cook it." The chef insisted.
"Thank you, I won’t forget this generosity." Dominic replied.
"Then I’ll be counting on you the next time I need a knife replaced. You have no idea how much of a pain it can be to go through requisitions."
Dominic chuckled. "I think I can save you that trouble. Knives aren’t that difficult to make, and I have plenty of practice getting razor sharp edges on tools, not the hack and slash edges on swords."
The kitchen staff waved goodbye to Dominic as he jogged off to the training grounds to meet the teams, but secretly they were all praying that he would be alright. He was much too bubbly to be going into combat, in their opinion.
The old soldiers were always hard men who had seen too much and came back bitter and jaded. It would be a shame for a cheerful and helpful young smith to end up like that.
On the field, rows of soldiers and carriages were lined up in orderly rows, and there was a Palace Clerk at the front of each line with a placard indicating what team they belonged to.
A staff member greeted Dominic at the front of the field with a clipboard.
"Name and department?" he asked.
"Dominic Wavemates, Weaponsmith." he replied.
The staffer checked his clipboard, then pointed down the line. "You’re in group six under Princess Alexis. Your carriage is the fifth in line, check it to make sure that there aren’t any essential tools missing. We have had some issues with the apprentices from other departments pilfering the good tools to replace their own."
Dominic nodded and headed for his ride. There was a guard standing outside the door, waiting for him to arrive.
"Ah, Apprentice Smith. I’m sure the receptionist warned you, there was an incident this morning. We’ve been watching the trade wagons since then, but please let me know if your wagon is missing anything." He greeted Dominic.
"What other trades are travelling with the reserves? It’s a bit uncommon to bring trades with you for a mission." Dominic asked.
"We’ve got a leather worker, technically a shoemaker, to do leather armour and tack repairs, and a witch of some sort that’s supposed to be helping with potions."
He looked at his list, then shook his head. "Scratch that. No potions for us. Our witch is Advisor Morgana, the Techno Witch. But that means she can fix the things that shouldn’t be repairable in the field, which is better than a few healing potions."
That was most likely true, since they had at least a few clerics with them, Dominic could see the church wagon from here, with the white robed clerics standing out front. One of them was wearing chain mail under his robes, and carried a brutal looking two-handed flanged mace, so the clerics weren’t all heals, but that was the primary purpose of their presence.
The interior of his carriage was immaculate, with the tools neatly laid out in rows, waiting for him to inventory them and put them away for transit. It had all the good stuff, the magical forge, all the usual tools, a compressed gas torch, a handful of threaded die sets for rebuilding important bolts, and some spare metal if the part couldn’t be salvaged at all.
Dominic stuck his head back out the window and gave the guard a thumbs up. "It looks like they didn’t mess with this one. Everything seems to be where it was left. I’ll start putting everything away and let you know if there is a spot left empty that shouldn’t be."
It was a quick process, and everything was away and waiting for the last of the group to arrive before the official noon assembly time.
They were only missing a few people now. Some of the camp supporters were late, and the shoemaker seemed to be missing in action, possibly hiding until after they left so he couldn’t be forced to go along.
A new leather worker was found a few minutes later, an old cowboy from the saddle maker’s shop, according to his uniform, but he had a [Gunfighter] trade skill core, and the leathery skin you could only get with decades in the sun.
All that mattered to Dominic was that that man could stitch a straighter row than he could so that he wouldn’t be asked to do the Leatherworker’s job as well.
"Group Six, we’re heading out now." Princess Alexis shouted, and with a series of clunks and bangs as the carriages were shifted into gear, they began to roll.