BXBX NOVEL Chapter 116 - Metal Master
Chapter 116: Metal Master
Its core was filled with the radiance of magical power. The Repulsion mechanism that could be described as austere was carrying out a to-and-fro movement under the effect of a simple magic circle and a series of mechanical structures. The heavy sprocket wheel was spinning swiftly, driven by the connecting rod and crankshaft. The speed it was spinning at exceeded that of any windmill, waterwheel, or crank handled by manual labor. He knew very well how heavy that big metal wheel was. It was something that could easily break a person’s bones once it was set spinning, yet it was being driven, and it was done so in a breeze.
Meanwhile, the two rune craftsmen beside him saw more and also thought of more.
They were servants cultivated by mages. If runemasters were said to be the ‘electronic engineers’ in designing the blueprints, then rune craftsmen were ‘mechanical engineers’ responsible for producing the mechanical parts of the magical mechanisms. Their knowledge in this aspect naturally exceeded that of the average blacksmith.
Rune craftsmen manufactured all sorts of mechanisms and magic articles in everyday life; they were naturally no strangers to knick-knacks like Repulsion magic circles that were part of the most fundamental aspects of their craft. However, they’d never thought this simple, minor spell-level circle could actually produce such a miraculous effect. With just a set of effective mechanical structures, it was enough to make the Repulsion magic circle that could originally only be used to push gear doors or traps of falling rocks to automatically cycle and toggle. Even though the entire Magic Powered Engine was driven by magic circles, its intrinsic theory was completely different from any former magic article!
In the Magic Powered Engine, magical power was no longer the sole, entire driving force. Magic was no longer being used in a raw manner but had been transformed, amplified even, using even more ingenious and indirect ways into something more… functional.
In the beginning, when they’d been asked to work together with a group of blacksmiths and blacksmith apprentices, the rune craftsmen harbored, to a certain degree, some resentment. However, upon seeing the finished product of the Magic Powered Engine, their resentment was unwittingly replaced by a kind of enlightenment. They finally realized what that female supervisor named Heidi meant when she told them to ‘cast aside all old thoughts and conventions, and submit to the new order of this land’ when they’d just arrived at this territory. Compared to the wholly new things they were seeing on this land, those rules and conventions were really unworthy of mentioning.
A blacksmith apprentice stared at the Magic Powered Engine that was continuously operating with unblinking eyes. He could not help murmur, “This is what we made—”
Hummel quickly cut off his apprentice. “No, this is the Duke, Viscountess, and Madam Heidi’s intelligence.”
“No,”—Gawain interrupted Hummel—”all of you made this, no need to doubt it. Credit belongs to every person who has contributed labor. Hence, not only will the people who contributed to the manufacturing of the Magic Powered Engine receive monetary rewards, they will also receive glory. Every one of your names will be taken down and made into a nameplate to be mounted on the first generation of Magic Powered Engines and noted in the Cecil historical records.”
The craftsmen and apprentices looked at one another. Hummel twiddled his own beard with force and didn’t even feel it when he accidentally pulled out a few strands. It was not until the rune craftsmen from the capital who had seen much of life bowed and gave their thanks did the old blacksmith finally return to his senses and quickly followed with his thanks.
While Gawain retracted his gaze and watched the Magic Powered Engine prototype machine that was still operating normally with emotions of joy and excitement that was difficult to repress.
Its noise was very loud; the sprocket wheel also led the whole machine to shake violently in its rotation due to errors in the precision of the parts; these were problems that could not be avoided. Gawain could confirm that a considerable amount of motive power of this machine was being wasted in the friction of those parts that fell short of specifications, and its output power and overall life-span would have to take a discount too. However, these were all minor details. Most importantly, this machine was operating as he had expected.
He’d first resolve the problem of having none and then consider the good and bad of it.
Gawain looked at that primitive machine in near enchantment, but all of a sudden, a hint of doubt and worry appeared in his eyes.
Only, this minute change in emotion disappeared very quickly.
And on the other side, Heidi had begun testing the power of this machine. She used either the Sculpture Hand or a gravity spell to add pressure to the output shaft of the machine. After repeating that a few times, she could not help but speak in admiration, “This machine is very powerful. I tested it briefly. When it spins at full speed, it can even pound a steel piece that weighs half a ton into a vertical piece and pull it up. If we were to use the pulley system or speed-reducing gear, its power could be expanded many more times. Also, we used relatively cheaper rune materials, and the connecting rods were also made of common steel instead of the sturdier purple steel. Thus, it has significant room for improvement.”
Rebecca was incapable of the various support magic that would be useful, nor could she throw a big fireball at it to test the health bar1 of the machine, so she scratched her chin and wondered about something more practical. “Lord Ancestor, what do you think the machine can do?”
Gawain glanced at the girl with an amused smile. “Share your views.”
“It seems like many tasks that are dull and repetitive yet require a lot of strength can be left to it. For example, letting it replace the mill? Drive that huge saw in the sawmill? Its strength is certainly enough, and there’s no need to take into account the influence of the wind direction or river water at all!”
Gawain added, “There are so many uses to it. It can drive the waterwheel. It can tow the mine carts over in the mine. It can be used to draw water from the mine caves. It can drive big hammers to beat and forge steel. When fitted with a suitable mold, it can even directly press a piece of steel into armors or the parts for a certain item like molding cookies. It can even be put in the brick-kiln yard to move other machines to press unfired bricks instead of having a dozen serfs use wooden molds to shape them one by one…”
Gawain casually mentioned the uses that he believed were most important right now, whereas the people around him had sunk into bewilderment. They’d never had the concept of using machines to replace manual labor; even if there were things like windmills and watermills in this world, they were rather basic and crude operations. How could they be able to come up with all sorts of machines that could be linked with the Magic Powered Engine all at once?
But Hummel, upon hearing about using machines to drive big hammers as well as forging and pressing steel plates into armors or spare parts, his eyes could not help but light up. His professional instincts instantly had him realizing that this was a bright path.
Whereas Rebecca’s eyes had been sparkling the whole time. Basically, each time a usage popped out of Gawain’s mouth, a pile of levers and bearings would follow and appear in her mind. Although those items had yet to be assembled into a usable machine, she believed that as long as she gave herself some time, she would be able to come out with every one of those things that Ancestor had conceptualized!
But just then, Heidi frowned and spoke up with some worry. “The key is we’ve only got one machine… Manufacturing a new Magic Powered Engine consumes time and labor. Moreover, it has to be located within range of the Magic Web to operate. That makes it a problem.”
While speaking, she pulled the handle and cut off the energy to the Magic Powered Engine, making it gradually quieten down. The noise from this thing was exceptionally loud; as it spun, the people around it had to shout to converse with one another.
“Laying out magic webs shouldn’t cost too much. After all, they’re all fundamental runes, and we have ready-made blueprints. But the difficulty of building the machine is a problem… Mainly because forging these spare parts manually takes too much time.” Gawain rubbed his chin. “Yet this is something that cannot be helped. We still need to use manual labor to forge…”
Just then, a voice with a metallic trill suddenly chimed in, “Cough cough, I have something to say.”
Nicholas Egg who was a silver luster from head to toe floated over slowly.
Rebecca was delighted once she spotted this shining metal egg. “Egg Egg, you have an idea?!”
“I’m not called Egg Egg!” Nicholas Egg instantly took off two to three meters in the air (if there wasn’t a roof stopping him, he might have flown even higher). The voice coming from inside the sphere was exasperated. “You’ve at least got to address me by Boss Egg!”
Rebecca wasn’t intimidated by this ball at all. “Alright Egg Egg, do you have a solution?”
Nicholas Egg: “…”
“Don’t keep at loggerheads with her. Talk about your solution.” Gawain cut short this squabble that was about to begin and looked very solemnly at the metal ball that was slowly descending to a normal height. “I know you specialize in controlling metals, could it be…”
“Yes, I finally know what I can do here!” Nicholas Egg’s voice sounded especially merry. As he spoke, the clanging sounds of all sorts of metals hitting together sounded from various spots in the shed. Those leftover bits and pieces of metals piled in the corner that were to be thrown back into the furnace were floated one by one and pulled near this silver metal ball. “I can help you with forging!”
As his words fell, those metal pieces floated in the air let out creaks and crackles one after another; as if there was a massive pressure acting on their surfaces, they slowly deformed. Gawain very quickly realized that such distortion wasn’t only due to an external force — some metals had shown clear signs of melting; they weren’t only being pressed, they were being forged!
Just a few minutes later, these metals become spare parts of all sizes with delicate and complicated structures and all sorts of weirdly shaped trifles. There were even lifelike metal sculptures of every person present.
The wooden shed became completely silent.
Nicholas Egg seemed to be very pleased with the results of his demonstration. He triumphantly placed all those spare parts on the ground and then put the metal sculptures into every person’s hand. “How is it? Isn’t this efficiency much higher than yours?”
Hummel took the metal sculpture belonging to himself, and his hands involuntarily began to tremble. Such a powerful ability… Would this territory still need blacksmiths in the future?!
Was it really just as the feudal lord had said the previous time — that blacksmiths who swung hammers to forge things were becoming useless? They were becoming useless so quickly?
The rune craftsmen present also had the same terrifying thought; even Heidi and Rebecca, apart from their shock, felt that with this ball, all the craftsmen in the territory who had dealings with metals were about to become jobless…
Except Gawain. Though he was also astonished by the rapid speed with which Nicholas Egg molded the metal forms, his attention was quickly focused on another aspect—
He looked at the strikingly vivid metal sculpture in his hand; he looked at its eyebrows and hair which had been shrunk according to a strict proportion. He abruptly lifted his head and fixed his eyes on Nicholas Egg. “How precise can you be?”