Chapter 112 - Rubrum Stone and trial and error (1/2)

Nothing to say this time, enjoy the chapter.

「With this, if we don’t have a converter, we might not even be able to make “steel”…」(Selene)

Is what Selene-san said after she made a few prototype products using the Rubrum Stones as fuel.

In the walls around us, several failed products were lined up.

The ones in the workshop were: her, me and Tobi.

Tobi was raising his hand to get my attention and I approached him. He was being quite annoying.

「Hind-dono, Hind-dono! I’ve been hearing the word steel being thrown around a lot, but what sort of metal is it exactly?」(Tobi)

「I have to start from there!? Even though all the weapons we’ve been using until now were made from steel!? …Fine, I got it. I’ll explain properly so don’t go around making that face. Steels is a type of iron that…」(Hind)

While explaining, I glanced at Selene-san and sent her a wry smile as if to say 「Just continue working」.

Though she would be more knowledgeable about this…oh well, if I get something wrong, let’s get her to correct me.

「The important thing is the amount of carbon that you add on the iron. If we get into the small details of ir-」(Hind)

「I wouldn’t understand it even if I listened to that!」(Tobi)

「I guessed as much! That’s why I’ll explain it in simple terms. Generally, the metal we call steel is iron with approximately 0.02%~2% of carbon in it.」(Hind)

「To be more precise, it’s 0.0218%~2.14%. The ones used for weapons, usually have higher concentrations in them.」(Selene)

「So precise! S-So, with that amount, what’s amazing about it?」(Tobi)

It’s not a matter of if it’s amazing or not.

Depending on the amount, the hardness and the plasticity of the metal will have differences.

Tobi looked puzzled.

「Plasticity? What’s that?」(Tobi)

「In simple terms, it’s how flexible the metal is. If Carbon is high, the metal will harden and it will lose its flexibility, if it’s low, it’ll become really soft. If it’s only hard and not flexible, it’ll easily snap like that.」(Hind)

When I said that, I pointed at a big axe resting on the wall. It was one of the failed products.

It’s durability was ten…something that wouldn’t last throughout a fight.

It doesn’t matter how high the attack power of the weapon was.

「Ah, so that means that the weapons had low durability until now is because…」(Tobi)

「Yup, Tobi-kun, you’ve started to understand. The temperature in the furnace was too high, so a big amount of carbon got into it.」(Selene)

「Because of only that reason, they won’t be flexible and they’ll turn into failed products once you start working on them…」(Tobi)

Selene-san exchanged words with us while feeling like the one she was working on right now was no good either.

Since this is a game, it should be pretty lax with its judgment, that time with the type where we added sand, it was as simple as adding it.

It seems like the game is judging it to be 「Pig Iron」, and that’s the reason it’s become like that.

「It’s not really all that bad. Since the fuel is from a magic stone, there are no other impurities apart from charcoal.」(Selene)

「It’s just that we need to control the firepower. If we use one, it’ll have less firepower than using charcoal, if we use two or more, it’ll be higher than using coal. It’s pretty extreme.」(Hind)

「If we use more than two, there’ll be a chain reaction and the firepower will increase. Since they are magic stones, it’s hard to calculate the firepower.」(Selene)

「This is quite difficult…」(Tobi)

It’s just that, for the axe with a Rubrum Stone attached to it, we have decided to use two of them to craft it.

Albert did say that he was giving it to us, but we decided to use two for it.

Regarding the size of a weapon with an elemental stone, as long as the elements don’t conflict with each other, it’s possible to equip two of them.

Obviously, it’s possible to put two of the same element into it.

Though normally, the effect of the second one is reduced by half.

「That being the case, there’s a converter that manipulates the air and controls the amount of carbon. If I remember correctly, I think there was one if you brought the facility level up to eight…」(Hind)

「Eh, by the way, what century is this technique from? From what I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like something from the middle ages…」(Tobi)

「If I remember correctly, it should be from the nineteenth century? It’s pretty recent.」(Hind)

「I think that’s excessively advanced for a world based in the middle ages…」(Tobi)

「Leaving that aside, let’s take getting to level eight as a necessary expense. Given the circumstances, it’s fine to raise it up to that level.」(Hind)

Right now, the facilities are level six, at level seven, the materials of the furnace should become more durable…in other words, we also have to take into consideration how the furnace has to endure these high temperatures.

The furnace also has durability after all…we’ve had to repair it a lot of times and I thought that it was quite a pain.

The cost for that was 5.000.000 G, well…it’s reasonable.

Then, the capital needed for the important level eight is…

「Geh.」(Hind)