If it were iron, subsequent forging would be necessary to form various weapons and tools, whereas copper is cast with molten copper.

However, casting itself is a hassle. Not to mention how to extract the molten copper from the high-temperature earthen furnace and pour it into molds promptly. In the current cold winter, the frigid air would immediately cool the molten copper upon contact, making casting even more challenging.

"Alas, what a pain!"

It was only now that Austin recalled the video he watched in his previous life. In it, the man who refined iron with bare hands in the wild just ended up with a chunk of iron without any method of forging it into weapons and tools afterward.

And now, although copper has been refined, everything that follows can only be designed by himself. Unfortunately, Austin isn't very skilled in these engineering designs.

After pondering for an entire hour, Austin came up with various improvement methods in his mind. Although these methods appeared rather crude, they all had some potential for realization.

However, these methods all require the creation of new ceramic modules.

Under normal circumstances, he could have simply instructed the goblins to create the envisioned modules according to his ideas. But now it's cold winter, outside it's so cold the water freezes instantly, and even the first step of pottery-making—mixing clay—is impossible. Water added to the soil quickly crystallizes and precipitates from the mud, depriving it of any adhesive properties, and the entire mass freezes into a block of ice. In this situation, the first step of creating ceramic modules fails, making it impossible to produce them.

Besides the module issue, there are many improvements to be made to the earthen furnace, causing Austin to furrow his brows deeply.

Thus, Austin briefly explained various rough principles and then left the follow-up tasks to the goblins in the manufacturing workshop.

After all, the copper has been refined; how to make weapons and tools from copper blocks is merely a matter of time. Once the goblins have tried several times, they are bound to produce these copper-made weapons and tools.

After explaining all the upcoming directions in detail, Austin led the two hundred Dragon Nest Beastmen back to the Dragon Nest Base.

This was also Austin's mistake. Without personal experience, he thought refining copper would be easy, believing that one or two successful furnaces could lead to large-scale copper industry, equipping the entire Dragon Nest Tribe with newly-made weapons and tools in a short time. But he didn't expect it to be fraught with difficulties, and the initial goal was only half completed.

What follows is continuous experimentation to find a method to manufacture suitable weapons and tools during the cold winter. Completing such trials is impossible within one or two months.

Since it's an experiment, there's no need to station too many Beastmen here, wasting manpower.

Thus, there wasn't much point in leaving too many Dragon Nest Beastmen, so Austin took two hundred Beastmen back, leaving about a hundred to be stationed there long-term.

This failure served as a reminder to Austin that one shouldn't act too rashly. This time bringing so many Beastmen only proved to be a minor inconvenience. If it were an issue of life and death, the consequences would have been much more severe.

Of course, upon leaving, Austin also took the mercenary captives away from the Copper Ore Base, otherwise, controlling these individuals with only a hundred Dragon Nest Beastmen would be somewhat challenging.

Several days later, after organizing everything, Austin led the large group away from the Copper Ore Base, embarking on the journey back to the Dragon Nest Tribe Base.

This copper refining wasn't a complete failure, at least copper has been separated from the copper ore. It's just that due to the cold weather, progressing to the next step of forging is difficult.

Actually, if it weren't for the cold winter, Austin believes staying there for one or two more days would naturally yield a forging method. But now, he could only leave it to the goblins to manage themselves.

...

The Copper Ore Base isn't far from the Dragon Nest Tribe, about twenty miles. The Dragon Nest Beastmen can cover that distance in about an hour if they hurry. Although the heavy snowfall slowed them down, half a day's journey sufficed to return the main group to the Dragon Nest Tribe.

Nothing major happened within the tribe. As the cold winter began, nearly ten days had passed. The thousands of meters-high cold winds in the sky have been exhausted, and the snowfall has significantly reduced. Though still cold, it's not as freezing as the first couple of days.

The dangerous phase has passed, so during this slower period of cold winter, groups of Beastmen were brought out for large-scale drills. Moreover, the daily military training increased, ensuring the breathing technique training wasn't overlooked.

Overlooking the vast open ground, Austin found his mind relaxing as he saw disciplined and uniformly moving elite Beastmen units.

From above, previously forested wasteland stretches outward with rows of houses, forming a small city within the Kawa Great Forest.

On the vast snowy ground, the well-trained Beastmen formed a dense black sea, creating a thunderous roar.

Further away, fields under cultivation stretched outward.

Two years ago, this was a rippling unbroken green baren forest, and now, it had been transformed by Austin's hands, creating a tribe, a city on this wilderness land.

Although in the entire process of establishing the tribe and later military training, Austin rarely participated, the origins of all this—from military reform, system determination, land cultivation—everything began with Austin. He brought the seeds of his past civilization here, nurtured them, enabling them to flourish and eventually grow to the current state, possibly even into mighty trees in the future.

Since copper refining can't be achieved in one go, and the development of the Dragon Nest Tribe has entered the right track, Austin started considering ways to enhance his strength.

Although there won't be many dangers for the Dragon Nest Tribe in the short term, there is a great secret hidden in the lake near the tribe, which during his last underwater venture, his sixth sense told him that breaking through the peculiar plants known as ghost grasses and seeing the deepest secret inside required reaching gold level life and the natural aptitude of a giant dragon.

Austin is very intrigued by what might be hidden in there.

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