Chapter 384 (1/2)
When Gimli flew a dozen meters away, the other dwarfs stood rooted to the spot in shock. Gennady's and Lenny's eyes nearly popped out of their heads. Even the guards were shocked. How could a harmless girl with no cultivation (judging by their sensations) give such a powerful push?
«Leila, what are you doing, silly girl?» – Kyon barked.
«But he… He grabbed you by the collar! I just wanted to help!» – Leila said resentfully, her eyes bulging with fear. She had acted reflexively! Leila didn't like the arrogant dwarf pressing Zosimos!
«He didn't grab me, he was trying to reach me!» – Lovr snapped. – «I had everything under control!»
«Human trash!» – Dorin yelled as he came to his senses. – «Guards, take her!»
The nine dwarf guards in gilded armor took a step forward.
Leila squeaked in fear and shivered. It was so stupid of her! What had she done?
Kyon bravely stepped between Leila and the overdeveloped brothers dwarfs and exclaimed, spreading his arms: «Hands off my daughter! She didn't mean to hurt you!»
«Take him, too!» – The third brother yelled furiously.
As the guards rushed forward, a loud commanding voice ordered: «Stop!»
Gimli shook himself from the dust, approached Zosimos and roughly poked him in the c.h.e.s.t with a thick knobby finger: «I'll ignore your daughter's disgusting behavior if you explain to me how you found the answer to my question!»
«Did he really give the correct answer, elder brother?» – Baladin said, surprised.
«You will let them away with such insolent behavior and disrespect?» – Dorin gasped.
Kyon cracked a smile: «Gimli, I could answer your questions using my knowledge of chemistry. This science is quite difficult to understand, and it will take me some time to explain it with more details. Let's save it for last? How about after we take the factory tour?»
Gimli gave him a scorching look but agreed: «Alright.»
The tension in the air lessened significantly.
Leila looked at Zosimos' broad back with wide-opened eyes. She found his concern really touching. It was nice to know that he would always protect her! Leila had a vague feeling that she had never experienced this before, which was stupid, right?
«What's your family name?» – Gimli asked.
«I am Zosimos. No family name.» – Kyon replied, surprising the dwarfs once again.
«I must admit, Zosimos, you have extensive knowledge for someone from the human race.» – Gimli said reluctantly.
Soon, the five dwarfs, the man, and the two girls passed through the main entrance. The nine guards stayed outside, following Gimli's order.
Kyon whispered to Gennady to make someone bring a Tesla coil and some magnets. They would help him save time for explaining some of the nuances.
The eight of them walked along a long corridor. The three great brothers were surprised to see the complete absence of anything superfluous or unnecessary in the decor. Even the light crystals were embedded in the ceiling, or rather, in a simple but ingenious mirrored contraption that distributed the light in the room. A curious technology.
Gennady went to a large steel door and proudly waved his hand as he opened it: «Behold! The smelting shop!»
The three brothers found themselves in a huge room with the wonderful lighting they had just seen and caught their breath. They expected to see a typical smelting shop with chaotically placed furnaces, rails with trolleys, ropeways loaded with containers, drains and pipes, the constant sound of pouring metal, high temperatures, and sweaty workers, but that was not the case! Relatively tiny ovens were placed like chess pawns. Cranes were hanging from the ceiling without disturbing anyone. The pipes were hidden underground, out of sight. The workers looked neat, with relaxed smiles on their faces. The atmosphere was unusually calm with no shouts or loud noises. Everything looked so perfect that the three dwarfs were speechless.
«Greetings to the great brothers dwarfs!» – A horde of workers yelled in unison...
«What's this?» – Gimli cried out. He thought it was impossible to surprise him. He had promised himself to remain calm even if he saw something unusual, but it was beyond him to keep calm among this minimalism and simplicity!
Kyon sounded impassive when he said: «A network of underground vacuum tubes connects sixty-four furnaces of SSS rank. Those are cranes for loading metal into the furnace. And those…»
«What do you mean SSS rank?» – Dorin exclaimed. – «It is known that the best furnaces in the world are in our factory! Hence, they were assigned an S rank!»
«That's the thing. Our furnaces are more efficient than your furnaces of S. Hence, they had to be assigned a non-existent SSS rank because if they were of S rank, yours would be of C or even D rank.» – Zosimos replied matter-of-factly.
Kyon walked up to the furnace and pointed at it: «The efficiency factor of this furnace is almost one…»
«But it's impossible!» – Gimli interrupted him. – «Even if it's made of ultra-low thermal conductivity materials and equipped with heat-insulating barriers, a good percentage of heat will still be lost in fuel combustion along with smoke!»
«Did you see any smoke from our factory pipes?» – Lovr asked.
The three brothers were taken aback. Indeed, there was no smoke! But how was it even possible?
Kyon continued: «There is no smoke because we do not use fuel. Our factory, including the furnaces, is powered by electricity.»
«Electricity?» – The three brothers asked in unison.
«It's one of the most useless forms of energy in the world! Electricity is a weak resource that is difficult to extract. Moreover, it turns into ash or melts everything that it passes through! You can't use it without consequences, especially on a factory-wide basis!» – Gimli retorted.
«It's because you use direct current. An inverter can make it variable, changing its properties and it can move along an enchanted copper wire without any resistance. With alternating current, you can heat furnaces, produce thrust of thousands horsepower, illuminate the factory and even purify impure metals by electrolytic refining…»