Year 1005 of the Holy Brilliance Calendar, the Month of Germinal.
It had been some time since Levi's breathing technique had broken through to level 3.
During this period of time, Levi had been carefully reading the miscellaneous books about wizards and beast taming that Sir Fred had collected for him.
His beast-taming proficiency increased rapidly.
This was the first time Levi experienced an increase in his proficiency just by reading books.
Not long after, he broke through in his beast taming skill.
Levi --
[Beast Taming: Level 2 (1/5000)]
..
Levi had only read a small portion of the books on beast taming.
There were many circuses in the Emerald Kingdom, and each of them had its own unique understanding of beast-taming techniques. Every time Levi read these books, he would gain a lot of benefits. In addition, there were various ethnic groups, especially those who lived in wild areas such as mountains and grasslands. Many of them knew advanced beast-taming techniques. Therefore, just by reading books, Levi felt that he could level up as a beast tamer.
Apart from reading, he would also apply some of the theories in the book to the practice on the three little bears. These could also increase his proficiency.
As for Levi's breathing technique, he had only gained a few hundred proficiency points this month.
Under normal circumstances, it would take him about two years to break through to knight level.
"The Black Snake Secret Medicine has to be put on the agenda."
Levi started to have a headache. The current cash flow of the territory was only a few dozen gold coins.
In addition, there were dozens of cows and more than 100 sheep in the manor. The total value of these things was not more than 100 gold coins, and they could not be sold. These were the basis for the survival of the serfs and also an important source of daily milk and meat products for Levi.
Levi would not do something like draining the pond to catch the fish.
If Levi had not sold the Mountain Wolf hide he had hunted for a good price in the past, he might not have been able to make a living.
"How can I get rich? Or rather, how should I use my proficiency panel to get rich?"
At this moment, Sir Fred walked in and said with a worried face, "Young Master Levi, Little Blacksmith Milan asked about his father again."
"His father is living well in the Wild Boar Gang now. He's already the chief blacksmith. I've already said that I'll definitely think of a way to save his father, but the current situation... wait."
Levi suddenly thought of something and rode the only two horses in the territory with Sir Fred to Little Blacksmith Milan's house.
At this moment, Little Blacksmith Milan looked worried. It had been more than a year since his father was captured by the Wild Boar Gang. Although the lord said that he would help him save his father, he had not seen any movement from the lord.
"Little Milan, are you still worried about your father?" Levi was wearing a black cape and knight armor. He was riding a large horse as he slowly approached.
"My Lord, t-that's right." Little Milan knelt on the ground and said.
Levi helped Milan up.
"I can understand your feelings, but your father is safe in the Wild Boar Gang now. The territory is in a difficult period now. We can't start a war with the Wild Boar Gang yet. If we have 50 sets of knight armor now, I can lead Sir Fred to kill the Wild Boar Gang and save your father."
Levi said calmly.
Little Milan lowered his head and said in a trembling voice, "50 sets?"
In this world, 50 sets of armor were not something even a small earl's territory could afford, let alone a small baron's territory like Levi's.
Moreover, Little Milan's skills were not enough to forge armor, which required excellent blacksmith skills. That was something that only official blacksmiths could forge.
However, in Black Water Valley, the only official blacksmith was his father, Old Toby. Old Toby could only forge two sets of armor in a year. Fifty sets was an astronomical figure. It required an extremely huge amount of manpower, materials, and financial resources.
"Don't worry. I'll do my best to help you."
"From tomorrow onwards, you will move into the castle and teach me the skills of forging and smelting."
Levi said.
"Ah? My Lord, how can I trouble you with such dirty work?"
Little Milan said in surprise.
"It's settled then."
After Levi finished speaking, he toured the Blacksmith Shop and carefully read through the forging process. He then took the only introductory forging book from the blacksmith shop and left with Sir Fred.
"Do you really plan to learn forging?" Sir Fred didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Yes," Levi said.
In this world, wars were constant and productivity was extremely low.
Most of the territories were self-sufficient farmers.
Levi had thought about it. If he developed other agricultural products, they would definitely not be competitive, especially since the Black Water Valley was not suitable for agriculture.
However, if he could develop forging, from the most basic farming tools to weapons and even armor, it would definitely have a very good future.
As a lord, he knew how valuable armors and weapons were.
If he could develop the forging industry in the territory, then he would not lack money for his own cultivation in the future.
The reason why he was so confident was naturally because of his proficiency panel.
As he spoke, Levi opened his proficiency panel.
There was an additional skill on it.
Levi --
[Forging: Level 1 (1/1000)]
...
All along, Levi had been limited by the knowledge of the nobles in this world and thought that these physical labors were done by servants, so he had never thought of using the proficiency panel to practice forging skills.
However, he was too short of money now. There was no other way. The territory lacked talents and resources.
Therefore, he could only do it himself. It just so happened that he had nowhere to vent the brute force and energy that came from cultivating the breathing technique.
He had just observed the entire forging process in Little Milan's blacksmith shop. As expected, a new skill appeared on his proficiency panel: Forging.
"As long as it can appear on the proficiency panel, it'll be simple. Train hard and it'll be done."
...
In the next few days, Levi sent people to move the blacksmith shop and asked Little Milan and the other blacksmith apprentices to move the forging equipment near to his castle. He also made a local smelting blast furnace so that he could learn forging more easily.
Little Milan was also flattered. He didn't expect the lord to be willing to be his apprentice. He was too friendly.
Just like that, Levi had more and more skills that he needed to work on.
However, he knew the importance of this.
The breathing technique was always the first, followed by the Golden Cross Slash, then it would be forging and beast-taming.
In just a month, Levi's forging had reached level 2.
The speed was much faster than he had imagined.
Life skills like these required a lot of experience.
It was much easier than a combat skill.
In his previous life, Levi had heard that if a person could focus on one thing for 1,000 hours, they could easily grasp many things that were difficult to understand.
Time is the best teacher. The potential of humans is far higher than we can imagine. And continuous practice is the most important key to mastering all of this.
Coupled with the extra effort, there would definitely be a reward, and the proficiency panel would always provide positive feedback.
It was a piece of cake for Levi to learn these normal skills.
Three months later, he had successfully forged a fine-grade knight's sword, which was not inferior to the one that Little Milan had given him.
Of course, this world's fine grade would only be considered trash in his previous life. After all, the smelting technology was backward, and it was impossible to produce high-quality iron.
As for Levi, he did not know how to improve these, and his proficiency panel could not produce advanced smelting techniques from scratch.
No matter what, this perfect forging directly increased his proficiency by 100 points.
This made Milan, who had been a blacksmith apprentice for four years before successfully forging a fine-grade knight's sword, feel the difference in the world for the first time.