Doomsday Pillars

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Even though the three guests were already very satisfied with the prospect of the magic raisins, the next place that Devita brought them to made the spirits flare up even more.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

The next place Devita brought them to was a weapon production factory. They stepped in, forming all kinds of conjectures.

Could it be…? They thought to themselves.

The location that they were visiting this time was in the east of StarBase, not far from the Doomsday Pillar of Bali. It was a very, very hot warehouse building.

In this one building, there were ten furnaces. Each furnace had ten workers. And it was quite apparent that all the workers in this room were not ordinary workers..

All of the workers here had broken through the limits of the Mortal Realm and reached the Earth Realm.

This time, it was President Rico who acted like a child who was visiting a famous entertainment venue for the first time.

President Rico went straight to a shelf and took a random sword.

[Sword - Tier 1 - Hardened]

[80 centimeters long, weighs 5 kilograms]

"Hardened? This is my first time seeing such a thing... And... is this an artificial Tier 1 sword?"

"That is indeed the case, President Rico. That sword is one of our first successful batches..."

Devita explained that this was the main project of StarBase.

Alex believed that in order to save the world from the apocalypse, they couldn't just depend on a handful of elite fighters.

The main obstacle in overcoming the apocalypse's challenges and threats in his previous life was the lack of weapons to penetrate or cut through the monster's body. Even high-caliber bullets were not powerful enough to kill the orcs that were only creatures of the initial stages of the apocalypse's challenges. Some creatures that mutated in the first year also had hard skin that was extremely difficult to penetrate. Meanwhile, Tier 1 weapons were very expensive and could only be owned by the strongest fighters. Ultimately, those who were not fortunate to own at least a decent artifact weapon would be the first ones to become victims. That became the reason why Alex believed that this Tier 1 weapon manufacturing project was incredibly vital for the survival of mankind.

These three guests couldn't understand what Alex was using to produce these Tier 1 weapons. But of course, that was to be expected, since this was never heard of here.

In short, Alex had told them the proper method to melt the Tier 1 weapons that could be obtained from the Doomsday Pillars. Of course, these materials couldn't be found anywhere in this world, so Devita had to spend 200,000 spirit stones to buy a thousand more weapons from the Doomsday Pillar.

"Buy the heaviest but cheapest ones," was the simple message Alex left her.

The three people were stunned to hear that… They felt that there was no way that it was just as simple as melting those heavy equipment and then making lighter ones for the masses to use.

A Tier 1 large saber which weighed 13 kilograms with the price of 150 spirit stones could be melted into five Tier 1 short swords.

"...."

Of course, to melt down weapons and create new ones, which were quite great, were not all that Alex planned. Alex pushed it a level further.

[Hardened]

Tier 1 weapons were weapons with stronger materials. Tier 2 weapons had additional effects, while Tier 3 weapons were weapons with special abilities with them.

The advantage that Tier 2 weapons had compared to Tier 1 weapons was not only the additional effect they provided, but also their materials. The materials for higher-tier weapons were undoubtedly better.

The Tier 1 weapons currently available on the Doomsday Pillar were only strong enough to take on the challenges of the first year of the apocalypse. It was inevitable that in the future, these Tier 1 weapons would become useless.

With the normalization process at a certain hot temperature and immediate cooling with hot oil with additional special ingredients, the material of these Tier 1 weapons underwent crystallization, increasing the hardness of these weapons.

This particular material was the blood of mutated bats found in the islands of Maluku. That was why Alex told Cahya to go on an expedition to the islands before the pillars arrived.

Actually, it was not only mutated bat blood that could be utilized. There were other mutated animals in South Africa and North China that had similar to the same effects, but these bats were the closest to Indonesia. This information could be found in the science library of the second hall of the Doomsday Pillar. Of course, in Alex's case, he knew about it because in Alex's previous life, this method became known in the second year of the apocalypse. At that time, the base of the fighters from China had begun to make them.

These [Hardened] Tier 1 weapons were just as powerful as Tier 2 weapons. It was just that unlike real Tier 2 weapons, these Tier 1 weapons had no special effects.

Only those with physical strength at least equivalent to those in the intermediate Earth Realm were strong enough to forge these weapons.

Half the people in this room, those in charge of wielding hammers and forging, had already reached level 10 of the Earth Realm. If that weren't the case, these hardened Tier 1 weapons would not be able to form properly at all.

A furnace with ten workers a day could only make five weapons. And currently, there were only four similar buildings in the StarBase with a total of 40 furnaces and 400 trained workers. The StarBase was currently capable of producing 200 pieces of Tier 1 hardened weapons every day.

"How many of them are ready for use at the moment?" asked President Rico with interest. This was a completely new thing for him, and he could clearly see how important this was for their survival in this apocalypse. 

"Soon, we'll have hit the target of 5,000 swords," Devita informed.

"What about other weapons or equipment? Spears? Shields? Arrows?" President Rico inquired further.

Devita shook her head. Currently, the spirit stones they had on their hands were limited, and these short swords were the most sought-after solution.

President Rico tried to swing the sword several times and checked its sharpness compared to ordinary iron swords. Testing it, he saw that this sword could easily cut an ordinary iron sword, while a Tier 1 sword was able to withstand a dozen of its attacks before the ordinary Tier 1 sword broke too.

"What a great weapon, what a great weapon!"

Rico looked very enthusiastic about equipping his fighters with these weapons.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but at the moment, we don't have a way to prepare the same workshops in your respective cities. How about we talk about this further at the StarBase?" Devina suggested.

The three guests were also greatly interested, and they knew that this would bring significant changes, so they agreed, "Okay."

These swords would be something that they would absolutely need in order to face the apocalypse with its challenges and threats. The three guests glanced at each other, extremely curious as to what Devita would offer them.

Before walking to the base, Devita also showed them the factory for the creation of protective clothing from mutated animal skins.

The craftsmen separated two types of skins. Both of them used the same design, which was the medium leather protection armor. These armors were made out of the skin from high-grade mutated animals or medium-grade mutated animals. These body armors were quite a suitable combination to complement the Tier 1 hardened weapons.

While they were on their way to the StarBase via the Doomsday Pillar towering over the front of the east entrance, hundreds of residents were seen coming out of the pillar.

From quite a far distance, they could hear a rumbling sound, as though dozens of tanks were approaching them. The three guests were immediately on guard.

"Please be at ease, President. They are our allies."

Five giant mutated bears ridden by five fighters approached them.

The fighter at the front was holding a long spear. After they were at a certain proximity, he descended from the bear and greeted them respectfully.

"Welcome, President Rico."

They were Rama and the Balinese martial arts masters.

"A gallant fighter," exclaimed the regent in acknowledgment.

[Rama]

[Male - 28 years old]

[Earth Realm level 15 - Medium stage]

[Spirit Energy - Fire - High stage]

[Spirit Talent - A]

The four martial arts masters who joined them had all reached Earth Realm level 15, and each of them had C spirit talents.

"Rama, I heard that you were chosen by Alex to challenge this pillar. How many floors have you completed?"

"We have now completed the 20th floor. But Alex specifically gave orders not to go up to the next stage before the fighters have reached at least level 20," Rama answered.

President Rico knew that Alex had sent numerous teams to collect artifacts all around the island of Bali and other islands. Alex should have lots of artifacts for his fighters. But it seemed that the opponents on the 21st floor would prove to be more difficult than the ones on the previous floor.

After passing by the pillar, they finally arrived at the east gate of the StarBase, or the gate that was named Pillar Gate ever since this base was built.

The base currently looked more like a fortress than a city.

"Let me take you around," offered Devita.