Chapter 182 (2/2)

Lesya hadn’t intended to stay for a very long time inside Border Town, as long as he could see Karl, his longtime friend, and see how he was faring with his life here in exile, he would be satisfied.

But reality was always different than you expected.

When he had reach Border Town by boat, he saw Karl was already waiting for him at the dock. Previously, van Bate had been a distinguished mason in King’s City and was even a powerful contender for becoming the next leader of the guild. When he compared him with his former appearance, Lesya saw that his temples had turned white and his face had a few more wrinkles to it, but his body wasn’t thin. Instead he was very sturdy, his face even burned full of spirit.

After they had exchanged their greeting, Karl didn’t take him to a noisy and messy site, but unexpectedly led him to an apparently new residential building. Where he handed him his keys with the words: “This house is yours. Put your luggage away first and then we can go to the pub and have a drink.”

… And then in the pub, out of Karl’s mouth Lesya heard a series of incredible stories.

Karl, with his status as a civilian was recruited by Lord into working at the city hall, not only becoming an official with a fixed monthly salary, but also the construction-sector executive!

“If you stay, you will also receive the possibility of entering the city hall!”

“Provided with free housing!”

“After ten years of work, you also get a retirement allowance! Are you asking yourself what the benefit of a retirement allowance is? It means that you will get money without even having to work!”

Lesya had thought that Karl was just drunk and speaking nonsense, so the results afterwards weren’t as he had expected… Karl was speaking the truth.

“Open the slag discharge port, clear the slag!”

After the work was done, none of the problems envisioned by Lesya had appeared. On top of that, not only did they immediately get their money from the Lord, but the Lord also reacted exceptionally fast. Whenever they had a request, they would always get their answer on the following day. Plus, this was also the place they produced an alchemical product called cement, with it, he could easily bond bricks, allowing the construction process to advance by leaps and bounds, here he could experienced a kind of unprecedented carefree feeling, like never before.

Just within a month, Lesya had already built five blast furnaces, and three additional shaft furnaces for iron smelting.

The shaft furnace was the result of his hard thinking during the years after the disbandment of the mason guild. It was the product made using all of his gathered experience, he had already thought that he could only pass it on as a blueprint, never would he have dared to believe that he would one day see it erected before his very eyes.

The modified shaft furnace was nearly two meters high and had an internal diameter of about 75 cm. The lower parts of the furnace’s body was provided with a number of air nozzles, which could be used for drawing in air by using bellows and ventilation, leaving the bottom for the slag discharging port and the leaving port for the molten iron. Next to the shaft furnace they had erected a ramp made out of sand and gravel, making it convenient for them to feed, and also to observe the situation within the furnace.

Today was the first day where the shaft furnace would be put into use. According to the usual practice, before it was officially opened, it had to undergo a smelting test.

During the trial they had intermittently opened the slag discharging port more than ten times, and had also added new charcoal two times, coming to the conclusion that the furnace had passed its inspection – the molten iron was now flowing into its sink.

The slag mouth opened smoothly, and the temperature had met the high temperature needed for smelting iron, so there was no need to continue wasting charcoal. After all, to reduce loss, during the furnace test they had used the waste ore they had collected in the corner of the yard.

After opening the iron discharging port and letting the molten flow out, Lesya announced the furnace shutdown.

…

Two days later, when the furnace chamber was cleaned up by townsfolk they also excavated several pieces of dark stone. Under the high-temperature baking, the other wastes had been discharged several times, only these pieces of ore were left, after they were thrown in they almost hadn’t changed at all, only their surface had become more bright, just like black ink.

Lesya could also not determine what this black ore was, he only knew that it was a waste product of the mining process. Yet its shape and appearance were really pleasing to the eye, not resembling anything useless. But if it was useful and they were unable to melt it, how should they create artifacts from it? Unable to come to a conclusion of his own, he straightforward picked out a block of the most preserved ore, covered it with a cloth and sent a man to the castle to give it to Roland Wimbledon, the Lord of Border Town.

Perhaps the well taught Lord will know the answer.