Chapter 88: Chapter 86 Bow and Arrow Manufacturing (2nd update, please subscribe)
At this moment in the Dragon Nest Village, aside from the tall brick and tile structure of the central administrative hall, goblins were also busily reconstructing and modifying the wooden and straw houses around it.
This reconstruction plan had been ongoing ever since Austin vanquished the Centaur Tribe, though of course it could only progress slowly, with most of the work involving gradual modifications to the original wooden and straw houses.
As a result, aside from the central administrative hall, some of the other houses appeared to be a mix of brick, wood, and straw materials. This ancient, rustic Otherworld style always gave Austin a peculiar feeling.
However, after the renovations, each house had a reasonable layout, and with the combination of bricks and stones, they were somewhat better equipped to handle fires. Austin had no choice but to begrudgingly accept this.
In Austin’s ideal vision, the Dragon Nest Village would have the tiled roof structure of Jiangnan from his past life, but for now, given the current manpower of the Dragon Nest Tribe, this was the best that could be achieved. Austin understood the wisdom of patience.
After all, the newly established Dragon Nest Tribe had many tasks requiring urgent attention and could not afford to spend too much precious manpower on housing.
The goblin manufacturing workshop was not far from the plaza. It was an area for producing items like wooden spears and stone tools that the tribe needed for daily life. This "workshop" was just a construction site with a large canopy to provide some shade and protection from the rain.
On both sides of the workshop were piles of timber, serving as the raw material for making various tools.
Within the entire workshop, the ground was littered with fragments and debris, primarily offcuts from the manufacturing process. Once these scraps accumulated, they would be moved to the kitchen for burning or to the mushroom room for fostering mushroom growth.
In the center of the canopy, there was a massive flat stone, on which were piled various rough manufacturing tools made by the goblins, such as stone axes, stone chisels, grinding stones, millstones, and so on.
At this moment, Austin was with a group of goblins gathered in a corner of the manufacturing workshop, picking up a bent bow arm and trying to bend it back with force.
"Your Highness, according to those centaurs, the oak they use for their bow arms requires a year of curing in the shade, and must undergo several processes, making it impossible to manufacture longbows in a short time."
A goblin with a crafty look on his face babbled on the side. His name was Gulu, an early member of the Dragon Nest Tribe. Due to his high level of awareness and some managerial skills, along with a bit of technical expertise, he became the manager of the manufacturing workshop.
"However, arrows can be manufactured relatively quickly. Because there is a large demand for wooden spears, we’ve developed a very complex grinding wheel tool. By altering the groove sizes of this tool, we’ve significantly increased the speed of arrow production."
As he spoke, Goblin Gulu proudly showcased the very complex grinding wheel tool to Austin, claiming it was a tool developed after a lot of brainstorming by the goblins.
However, when Austin saw the grinding wheel, his eyelid twitched slightly. It was not very complex; it was just a granite stone the size of a washbasin with a hole drilled in the middle and supported by a very hard ironwood axle. By rotating wooden handles on either side, the stone was spun to sharpen the tip of the wooden spears.
Despite its simplicity, Austin couldn’t just invent it out of thin air. It was a tool thought up by the goblins after long, tedious labor, an inspiration sparked during repeating tasks.
Of course, the grinding wheel tool was very crude. It required hand torque for power, which was exhausting, had very primitive transmission methods, and the supporting axle wore out very quickly, needing frequent replacement.
Yet, it was indeed a product of the goblins’ true wisdom, rather than a reproduction based on Austin’s past world knowledge.
Having a beginning is always a good thing for the future.
Upon seeing this primitive grinding tool, Austin immediately thought of improving the transmission method to a gear system, powered by foot pedal or even further by utilizing a water wheel.
However, the issue was with the materials.
As Austin mused, Goblin Gulu couldn’t help but boast on the side:
"With this grinding wheel, the time we used to make one wooden spear has now been increased to more than three. The arrows used by the centaurs are essentially just smaller wooden spears. The centaurs said that making one arrow took them half a day, but after our grinding wheel modifications, we can make at least twenty in a day."
The arrows used by the centaurs weren’t just simple things. Without iron for arrowheads and in a world where most creatures had tough skin, simple wooden or bamboo arrows couldn’t penetrate. Thus, the arrow shafts used by the centaurs weren’t easy to manufacture.
The material for making arrow shafts was a tree that the centaurs called "Arrow Wood," growing in rocky wastelands, about the size of a toe, straight as an arrow. Both its weight and quality were comparable to iron, and most importantly, near its roots, it formed a bump suitable for sharpening into a sharp arrowhead, making the entire trunk a qualified arrow shaft.
These arrow shafts had lethality close to that of steel-made arrows, which was one reason the Dragon Nest Beastmen suffered significantly when attacking the Centaur Tribe.
However, while these arrow shafts were incredibly lethal, their steel-like quality made them extremely difficult to manufacture. To the centaurs, each arrow was almost like an heirloom tool.
This was why centaurs rarely used bows and arrows in battle. Their pride was one reason, but the high cost was another.
Now, the goblins had accelerated the grinding process through the grinding wheel tool, drastically increasing the arrow shaft production speed—tens or even hundreds of times faster than the centaurs.
"Very good, ingenious. I’m glad to see you’ve learned to think independently. Who came up with this idea? They deserve credit."
Austin couldn’t overlook the goblin who invented this tool. The knowledge from his past life was limited, and the future path would require the Clan to tread new paths through trial and error.
For now, the goblins were evidently doing a good job.