The Guards each took one of the rifles, then loaded a bag full of lead shot.
"Good work, Master Smith. These will serve beautifully to clear the path." One of the Royal Guards commended.
Dominic just tapped the Apprentice level Trade Skill Core in his bracelet and bowed in appreciation. Flattery would get you far in the world, and the Royal Guard wasn’t above making friends with a promising Royal employee.
Especially one that the Princess favoured.
Dominic had no idea what sort of intelligence they had gathered during the last day, or what they had even been doing, as he hadn’t stuck his head out of the forge wagon.
But what he did know was that he still had over half of those Ogre Cores sitting in his storage cube, along with one spare rifle, and a bit of time to work on more gear to improve his Smithing skills.
With the windows of the wagon open, it wasn’t quite so stifling in the forge.
The additional light was a pleasant change, as well as the ventilation. But more importantly, Dominic could see the squads coming in and out of the camp, hunting for traces of Monsters.
It was most of a kilometre to the trees, with a number of small farms in between. That took the patrols a little over ten minutes to cross, each of them headed out in a different direction.
The extra strength and stamina from the magical Gems that the soldiers socketed in their gear made a huge difference to long-distance travel.
It was all small squads leaving the area, but after they had been attacked by such a significant force on their way here, Dominic presumed that the orders would be to immediately retreat and relay enemy movements.
Dominic noticed that the reservists preferred spears and broad swords with shields as their standard equipment, or perhaps that was all that they had been trained with.
But none of the spears were magical. They had gotten all the rejects from the attempts to send magical weapons to the city guard.
That was a bit of a pain, as attempting to quench a failed weapon again wouldn’t change anything. But they also hadn’t broken enough of them to justify him making a whole new batch of spearheads with their limited spare metal.
So Dominic practised his craft, repairing gear in peace, until the craftsmen were called for dinner. Soldier Soup, they called the stew that the army had put on, and Dominic sighed as he realized it was mostly rice and beans. Hopefully, it was somewhat spiced, but you never knew what the humans would come up with.
Most of their food was mildly flavoured, where Dominic liked the vibrant flavours of dried peppers and citrus fruits.
He caught himself quickly. He was with the Cygnia City Army and Princess Alexis on this trip. There was no ’humans versus me’ on this trip. Just bumpy rides and plenty of mediocre food.
Very mediocre food, as he discovered. It seemed that while the stew pot had a large portion of game bird in it, the closest thing it had seen to seasoning was a bit of garlic.
Dominic had just washed his bowl when the sound that no soldier wanted to hear began to echo through the woods.
The sound of war drums.
They were somewhat faint, but still instantly recognizable. With every passing minute, they got closer, but they were also moving from left to right through the woods, bypassing Aramos Village to attack the city.
Princess Alexis was just getting ready to marshal her forces to make a move on the force when war drums began on the other side of the grasslands around Aramos Village.
Then, the worst possible outcome happened.
Both sets of drums began to approach, and they would be meeting in the middle, right where Aramos Village stood.
"Get the followers into the village."
"Everyone stock extra ammunition."
The orders began to roll in, and Dominic found himself swamped with requests for everything that his transport had in stock.
He had all the extra lead balls for the riflemen, but the camp supporters who would normally distribute munitions had just been ordered into the city. So, that left him to hand out the bags of ammunition, the last of the weapons under repair, and to fire up the forge in preparation for the next round of requests.
Beside him, the old gunslinger who was doing the unit’s leather repairs was just as swamped, as the wagon on the far side was full of rations, and the workers had all left.
Everyone was preparing for a long fight, and that involved grabbing snacks for their pockets, as well as water. They would need it before the fight was over.
Dominic could see farmers running for the town, carrying children or bags of essentials.
Hopefully, they would make it in time. The town would certainly lock the gates before the fight actually started.
Dominic waved as Wiz’s family ran past, then noticed Bella and Wiz on the city walls.
The big Crusader had a longbow in his hands, and a whole barrel of arrows set between him and the next archer over.
So, the Aramos Village guard would hold the walls, while the soldiers under Princess Alexis would engage the converging forces right where they were camped.
Orders were being shouted to get the troops into position, while the gunslinger looked longingly at his pistols.
"If only I had a bit better luck in this life. Did you see that lovely young lass with the Rare pistol yesterday? The one that reloads with mana?" He asked.
"Bella. Yeah, I know the one. But she’s young enough to be your granddaughter." Dominic teased, attempting to lighten the mood.
The old gunslinger laughed. "I’m not after her, you little brat. That gun. If I had a pair of those, I could just go wild without ever running out of ammunition."
Dominic sighed. Those revolvers took half the day to make, if not more. By the rate that the drums were approaching, they had about fifteen minutes left before the battle.
So, he just smiled back at the old man. "Well, if we still have wagons full of spare parts after this, I’ll see what I can do to make you a Mana Revolver or two. No guarantees that they’ll be of that same quality."