Lord of Rot

The light cavalrymen murmured amongst themselves, but they all reached the same conclusion: Leech, with his strength and the Horse-headed Eagle Rocket, would be absolutely terrifying!

Leech put on his armor and jumped into the saddle. The comfortable saddle complemented his riding skills, making it easier for him to display his superb horsemanship.

An attendant handed him a lance. Leech nodded, gripping the reins in his left hand and the lance in his right.

"Rocket!"

With a gentle shake of the reins, Leech signaled Rocket, who began to trot forward.

Another shake of the reins and a squeeze of his legs against Rocket's belly gave it a further signal, and Rocket began to pick up speed.

Leech lowered his lance.

Rocket was now at a full charge. To the onlooking Soldiers, Leech and his Horse-headed Eagle became a white blur, covering a vast distance in an instant.

THUD!

THUD! THUD! THUD!!

The sounds of his lance striking the straw targets came in rapid succession.

They whipped their heads around to follow Rocket's figure. Obstacles were no hindrance to it at all; leaping over the cheval de frise seemed like a simple, natural act.

When Rocket came to a stop, it wasn't even breathing hard.

After all, it had the body of a creature built to soar through the sky. The stamina of an eagle is already among the best in the animal kingdom, to say nothing of Rocket, a Magical Creature.

"I need to upgrade my equipment, too," Leech remarked.

'The lance is too light and not long enough.'

'And it's not sturdy enough.'

'Only an Extraordinary blacksmith like Chuina can forge a weapon for me. Anything made by an ordinary smith would be a one-use item at best.'

'This time, I'll have Chuina forge a set of barding for Rocket. While she's at it, she can reforge my armor—I should switch to full plate as well. And a new weapon,' Leech planned.

He left the onlooking cavalrymen completely dumbfounded.

Now they were certain: Leech alone could probably wipe out an entire company of heavy cavalry!

Leech nodded to Little Joel and the others, instructing them to continue their training, before riding away on Rocket…

Rocket spread its wings. Betty's Alchemy Workshop, a destination that usually required a long ride on horseback, was reached in the blink of an eye.

When he arrived, he found Chuina sitting by the entrance, staring listlessly at the sky.

"Not busy, Chuina?"

"Ah, Lord!" Chuina jumped, startled, and shot to her feet.

She explained awkwardly, "Miss Betty told me to wait out here. I don't have much work at the moment."

"Perfect. I have a job for you."

Leech dismounted and led Rocket over to Chuina. "I need you to forge a set of barding for Rocket," he said. "I've already prepared the design schematics."

The design wasn't just for protection; it was also incredibly stylish, a fact confirmed by three consecutive nods of approval from Rocket himself.

One can only imagine how flashy it looked.

"Yes, Lord!" Chuina was overjoyed to be forging again.

"Also, I need a new weapon," Leech said. "My strength is considerable, so you'll have to put some extra thought into the design. I need it to be very heavy, and also extremely durable."

A heavy weapon would inevitably be large.

But if a weapon is too large, its blade is bound to break.

"How heavy do you want it?" Chuina asked.

She was very strong herself, and when she combined that strength with the forging flames from her Extraordinary power, her smithing results far surpassed anything from a normal workshop.

'If she weren't his only Extraordinary blacksmith, Leech would have loved to replace his entire production line to craft exquisite weapons and armor. But that was impossible.'

"We'd better test it," Leech said, unable to give a precise number. He only knew his strength was absurdly high.

The testing method was simple. Chuina grabbed the blank of a two-handed sword, brought over a few Iron Ingots, and raised her hammer.

Flames suddenly erupted from the hammer's head.

CLANG! CLANG! She struck the ingots a few times.

The Iron Ingots were forge-welded onto the sword blank.

"Give it a try, Lord."

"Mm." Leech took the "sword" and gave it a couple of swings.

'It felt terrible in his hands. In a real battle, a simple hammer would be more effective. But since this was just to find a comfortable weight, it would have to do.'

"How is it?" Chuina asked.

A typical two-handed sword weighed about three pounds, while a one-handed sword was around one pound.

Yet the Iron Ingots Chuina had casually added already brought the weight of this two-handed sword up to twenty pounds.

An ordinary person would get tired just carrying a twenty-pound sword for a short distance. If they tried to swing it in a fight, they'd likely die of exhaustion before they even hit an enemy.

"It's okay," Leech said, "but not heavy enough. Make it five times heavier."

"One hundred pounds?" Chuina reacted as if he'd named an absurd weight.

She advised, "Lord, a weapon that heavy will be unwieldy in combat. You won't be able to utilize any proper techniques."

'Some people can lift several hundred pounds, but their weapons still wouldn't be heavier than three pounds. It's not that they can't lift more, but that anything heavier is unsuitable for combat.'

'As a Transcendent, the Lord could certainly handle a heavier weapon, but twenty pounds should be the ideal limit.'

'A twenty-pound weapon in his hands would be like a greatmaul; no Knight would dare face him head-on.'

'But if it were one hundred pounds… no one would want to be on the same battlefield as him.'

"That's right, one hundred pounds," Leech confirmed with a firm nod. "This weapon's main purpose will be for charging, not for dueling."

'Only if it's heavy enough will it have devastating power in a charge.'

'He could feel that his strength had grown again recently. While he hadn't absorbed much of the potion's residue still in his system, the absorption was at least steady.'

'Leech's Extraordinary power was the body-enhancement type. His requirements for weapon weight would only grow higher in the future.'

"I'll give it a try," Chuina said, raising her hammer once more.

After a flurry of hammering, she presented Leech with a crudely forge-welded slab of iron that resembled a small door.

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