Fun Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord (Novel) - Chapter 125 - The Dwarven Furnace

Chapter 125 – The Dwarven Furnace

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Since Habel said he wanted to do smithing in a calm environment, we decided to build the smithy not in the adventurers’ town but on the outskirts of Seat Village. As for Rango, it seemed he had taken the merchant apprentices with him to go sell furniture to Kusara’s inn. Since I had permitted payment on credit, there probably would not be any issue of them not having enough money.

Meanwhile, the moment he heard we were building a furnace, Habel immediately started listing what would be needed.

“Silica stone, nitrate, red clay, and the magic stone of a fire-resistant magic beast. The crystal that forms in tiny amounts inside the heart, that is. It’ll cost a hell of a lot, but these materials are absolutely necessary.”

“We have them.”

“You do!? Wha-! There’s a huge amount of magic stones, and that should’ve been the hardest thing to get…!?”

At the materials, Habel raised a cry of surprise along with his astonishment. Since I had told the Bell-Rango Company to prepare a blacksmith’s shop, the materials for building the furnace had been gathered too. If there was any problem, it was only that they had assumed the furnace would be built in the adventurers’ town, so transporting the materials looked like it would be difficult.

The other dwarves had come along as well, and they were looking around Seat Village with curiosity.

“These are all buildings I’ve never seen before.”

“The town over there was the same, but I can’t tell what materials were used.”

Leaving the dwarves having that conversation to the side, Habel looked over the outskirts of Seat Village, our destination, and solidified the image of the furnace.

“If we’re going to melt orichalcum, we need a big furnace. A tall furnace. There are two stupidly huge towers over there, and if it were that big, it’d be bigger than the biggest furnace in the dwarven nation. Even so, building that would take ten, maybe twenty years. For now, we’ll make a blast furnace for iron ore about three meters tall.”

Saying that, Habel started sketching a simple blueprint on the ground. Watching him, I spoke up.

“Habel, got a minute?”

“Hm? What is it… oh, right, that. I decided I’m going to forge something here that surpasses the weapons and armor you made, Va… Lord Van. You could say that means I’m becoming one of your people, so drop the honorific speech.”

For some reason Habel said that while noisily scratching at himself, so I nodded with a laugh.

“All right, then, once more. Is that bigger furnace something that takes time to make because there aren’t enough materials?”

When I asked, Habel waved one hand and changed the drawing he had been making on the ground. While drawing something like a chimney, he pointed around its upper and lower parts.

“No, that’s not it. You simply put in top-grade blue coal and the ore material alternately through here, but unless the temperature inside the furnace exceeds two thousand five hundred degrees in the lower part, orichalcum won’t even soften. For iron, two thousand is enough, and with mithril the position where it’s drawn out from the furnace matters more than the temperature, but that isn’t the case for orichalcum. More than anything it’s temperature, then pressure. That’s why a tall furnace is necessary. But for that very reason, you have to build it while making pretty fine adjustments for things like wall thickness and center of gravity.”

While explaining, Habel finished roughly drawing the diagram on the ground and folded his arms with a grunt. Unexpectedly, the drawing Habel had made was quite good, and it really did look like a blueprint.

There was a side-view cross section, and a circular hole that seemed to be the tip of the chimney. The very bottom spread out in a rounded shape, and it seemed to be made so that melted metal would collect in the place where the temperature rose the highest. In addition, something like a straw was inserted from the side, but perhaps it was made to put something in from outside. Also, the very bottom seemed to have a hole opening to the outside of the furnace.

“You light the fire from here and draw out the melted metal from there. This little rod is the air hole. From here, you need to keep putting in crushed charcoal and air constantly. If you put an air-blast box designed tightly with no gaps right beside it and keep stepping on it from the left and right, it works as a mechanism to send air into the furnace. There can be up to four of these air-blast boxes, but even two will somehow work.”

Habel kept adding things to the diagram as he explained. As expected of a professional, he knew an incredible amount.

“…With this, maybe I can make it after all. Come take a look together and confirm it.”

“Huh?”

Leaving behind the puzzled Habel, I looked at the pile of materials. Naturally, I had never handled this quantity before, and since there were materials I had never seen before, I couldn’t predict it, but lately I was in excellent form. I felt like I could make it work somehow.

Thinking that, I touched the pile of materials and poured magic into it. Based on the conclusions I had reached so far, things with density and things with poor magical conductivity were very tiring. Out of the materials this time, the magic stones felt the most tiring.

So first, I decided to try making the lowest section solidly. I crushed the silica stone and nitrate to bits and mixed them into the red clay, and the magic stones too I turned into powder form and scattered through it finely. At the same time, I made the outer wall of the lowest section while driving pillars into the ground.

“Wha, wh-wh-wh…”

I could hear Habel’s astonished voice, but I couldn’t let my concentration break now. It was tiring enough to feel as though the materials were sucking the magic out of me.

The height was still only about two meters, but the diameter of the lowest section was over ten meters. I had made the walls thick like castle walls, but how about it?

“Whew, I’m tired… Habel, how’s this?”

When I said that and pointed at the completed part of the furnace, Habel stared at the half-built furnace with his eyes and mouth wide open.

“…This is astonishing. But at this rate, I might be able to work as a smith in a month!”

I nodded with a wry smile at Habel’s words.

“Yeah. I think we can build the furnace just fine in a month.”

There was also the device for sending in air, so if I could get that much time, it would help. Thinking that, I answered, and Habel grinned, showing his teeth.

“Ohhh! Ten days to build the furnace! Two days for the air-blast boxes! Three days for the firing! After that, we’ll test the furnace’s condition with iron, silver, and mithril! And then, one month from now, orichalcum!”

“…Eh, by one month you meant that…”

Hearing Habel’s terrifying answer, I was struck for a moment by the sensation that my consciousness was about to drift away.