The mother in law gifts me a mountain for a new beginning
Chapter 45 - The Smelting Was Successful!

Chapter 45. The Smelting Was Successful! Lynn was Ready to Occupy the Iron Ore!

Lynn meditated for an entire day as the boosting effect from the magic sword was impressive. This was a surprise, as Lynn would now be able to grow faster. Two days passed by. With a total of 3,300 points, Lynn evolved 36 half beast warriors! Now, the warriors who followed him numbered to 123 beasts.

Buno finally arrived that day after his slow travel with the first shipment of goods. Lynn was excited to be able to activate a magic crystal lamp. In this world, candles were only lit at night as they were dim but with the magic lamp, the soft light was bright enough to illuminate a room.

Once he installed the lamp, Lynn’s castle was bright as the light could be seen even with the sunlight shining through the whole in the castle. Lucy was also pleased, as she could close the window during the day and still have bright light inside the building. Lynn let her play in the bedroom by herself and left the castle. He searched for Hammer and found him.

“I have finished building the earthen furnace for you. Come and have a look,” Lynn directed.

Hammer followed Lynn to the corner of the village in surprise. There, they were greeted by a stove that was less than half a person’s height. The furnace was completely dry with a cylindrical body and an open mouth. This would be used for blasting and slagging.

In order to keep the flames going hot, Lynn made a device similar to a hair dryer and attached it to the furnaces blower. Now, the air would be used to keep the temperature at the correct heat throughout the smelting process. Hammer looked at Lynn in shock.

“Master Lynn. I admire your knowledge. How did you know about earth furnaces?”

“I have also bought greystone. The charcoal is also ready, along with a forging hammer, a clamp, and a flat bluestone. There should be no shortage of tools.”

The charcoal was to be used as fuel. The charcoal came from burning wood and was placed in a sandpit to be covered in pine. In the incomplete combustion process, the water would be removed and the wood would turn into charcoal.

The greystone was a white stone that was common and cheap. It was one silver coin for twenty pounds, and you could buy it in a blacksmith’s shop. This ore could be melted with iron to create a stronger alloy. Lynn had mediocre chemistry knowledge in his previous life, but he could infer that the greystone should be calcium carbonate. Sᴇaʀᴄh the NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

When presented with high temperatures, calcium carbonate would produce calcium oxide. The oxide would then react with the impurities in the iron ore to form hydrochloric acid. The blacksmith’s slag allowed for such a thing.

Hammer was originally a little complacent from his knowledge on smelting technology, but right then he was convinced by Lynn’s knowledge. Lynn took out some cyan powder from a broken sword and addressed the man.

“Alright, let us start smelting. Just let me know if you need more people.”

“It is good.”

The smelting process was actually pretty simple, and Hammer put in the first layer of charcoal into the stove. Then, raw iron and limestone powder were placed in and ignited. The temperature of the stove gradually rose, and after a minute the charcoal began to burn more brilliantly. Then, new charcoal was added along with more raw material powder. The furnace was allowed to continue burning, and the process continued multiple times.

The raw material powder would have to go through several chemical reactions during this process, and it would take a large amount of time to complete everything. Lynn guessed it would be at least a few hours. Lynn was interested at first, but quickly became bored.

“Call me when the smelting is done. I wish to meditate right now,” he said.

“Do not worry, Lord Lynn,” Buno said with a nod.

Around four hours later, Buno came to inform Lynn it was about time. Lynn decided to take Lucy to watch the show. At this time, the temperature around the stove was high but there was a slight chill in Lynn’s territory. So, Lynn put on some thick clothing.

When the group arrived, they saw that Hammer and his assistant who worked on blowing air into the furnace were profusely sweating. For four hours the air needed to be continuously blown, which consumed a lot of physical strength. Lucy leaned in and looked at the smith in curiosity, but the smell of sweat and smelting made her wrinkle her nose. Lynn smiled and stroked her silver hair.

“Okay, it is going to start,” he stated.

Hammer nodded and took the clamp. Hammer ordered the few half beast warriors next to him to knock open the earthen furnace from top to bottom, which allowed a number of sparks to fly out. Lucy hid behind Lynn since he was a friend to flames and did not find them uncomfortable. He stood still and watched.

When the furnace was about two thirds open, Lynn saw that there was something inside. The earth was broken down, but there was a red soft iron sitting inside the remains of the furnace. Hammer stepped forward and skillfully knocked out the hydrochloric acid. The final product was rough iron.

It took more than four hours for one furnace to make the iron, which meant that the output was extremely low. The end result of the one furnace was a single large piece of soft iron. The iron had burned to a white hot state and was relatively malleable, so Hammer used his skills to divide it into two pieces using his hammer.

After the iron was divided into blocks, the process of smelting was considered complete. Normally, this step required limestone powder to be used on the iron ore, but the end result with Lynn’s method still resulted in iron nuggets. Now, the remaining steps were nothing more than common forging of the iron alloy.

The iron needed to be heated and repeatedly hit by a hammer into the desired shape. By beating the hot iron, carbon and other impurities inside of the ore would be oxidized and separated from the base. This process would gradually raise the quality of the iron.

Hammer proved his abilities to Lynn, and also proved that there were no problems with his ideas. Iron could be made using this method, and then it could be forged into a weapon. However, the efficiency was a little low, as the crude iron that was smelted in half a day’s time was thirty kilograms. It also took longer to forge.

The problem of output could be solved by scale, as Lynn only needed to add more smiths to the process. Fenglin Village once had a small population of only two hundred and sixty people, but now it had soared to five hundred and sixty. These extra hands could be arranged to help them smelt as the difficulty was not that challenging. This would allow output to increase through the scale of production.

Lynn’s requirements for the equipment were not that high as the orcs did not have much need for quality weaponry.  All they needed were tools of war that were heavy and strong enough to be swung at the enemy. The low quality needed would immensely reduce the time required for forging.

”I will be responsible for your daily meals,” Lynn said to Hammer. “One pound of meat and three pounds of flour will be alloted to you. All you need to do is make weapons as fast as you can. Make me three hundred epees!¹”

Hammer was gratedul to Lynn and had every confidence he could fulfill his wishes. All of the refugees had not had enough food to eat, and were treated in a horrible manner as slaves, but Lynn was granting them plenty of food. Hammer swore his allegiance to Lynn for his generosity.

Hammer needed to gain plenty of rest in order to meet Lynn’s expectations, as he wanted to create weapons that would honor Lynn’s kindness. Lynn arranged a place for Hammer to sleep, and then found Buno and the half beast warriors. A total of 123 fighters amassed before Lynn, however there were only 20 of them that were equipped with weapons. Lynn guessed this would be enough, and gave a command.

“Go! Hunt the class three monsters and occupy the iron ore!”

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