Chapter 50 – Learning How To Manufacture Steel!

We started making another batch of charcoal as soon as the first batch was out of the kiln.

Steelmaking seems to consume quite a lot of charcoal for some reason…

“Wauu, gauaru, waonn.” (Ax, Knuckle, I’m counting on you.)

“Waonn, guruah!” (You got it, Boss!)

“Guruouh.” (Got it.)

I left Ax and Knuckle who have been on good terms lately, in charge of making firewood and supervising the charcoal making team while I went with Barrack and the others to work on the draft furnace.

“Mr. Silver, I’m thinking of making a leather bellow, but… do you have any tanned animal skins I can use?”

Holding my pen, I crouched down and wrote on the ground as usual.

“I have about four pre-dried stomachs from huge boars that I prepared for making water flasks.”

“Then, I’d like to have it.”

“Mr. Grimer, won’t we be needing some hollow trunks for the bellow’s vents too?”

“I’ll go and find some. Mr. Grimer, please start making the bellow, and Barrack, please start making the furnace too.”

With one hand waving and the other holding onto the machete, Joseph disappeared into the trees, followed by the two Kobold escorts I assigned to him.

If anything happened to him, I wouldn’t be able to face Wallace and Liz, so I can’t risk it…

After the Werecat Farmer left, Barrack started digging in a corner of the square using a Stone Axe.

The hole did not seem to be that large, though…

“Hey, that small, floppy-eared guy over there, look closely, okay?”

“Wafuh?”

Over the past few days, the Werecat Craftsmen have become familiar with the Kobold Smith who often accompanied them.

He beckons to Smith to show him the process.

“First, we line the hole with stones and charcoal, then cover it with clay.”

Most of the hole he dug earlier was filled in.

“Then, just like the earthen kiln earlier, we’re going to make a furnace with the furnace opening facing the upwind direction and the impurity outlet facing the downwind direction.”

As Smith stared at him, the Werecat Blacksmith formed a cylindrical furnace from the base to a height of about 1.2 meters and dug a shallow circle in front of the fire pit and outlet. He also drilled holes in the four corners of the furnace to serve as air vents for the leather bellows.

“Well, that’s about it, I guess.”

“Uau, guruo garuah!” (Smith, we’ll help you make one too!)

“Wann, guruah!” Guruoaoh!” (Roger, Boss! Everyone, let’s do this!)

The construction of the simple hearth and furnace wasn’t that difficult, so the floppy-eared Kobolds and I were able to complete a second draft furnace in no time.

“Well, that’s it for today. We still have to let the clay dry after all. By the way, is the fox girl not around today?”

“Ah, she accompanied the kids to bathe in the river.”

“I see. Then let’s make the fire this time.”

Barrack takes a flint and a hammer from his pocket and I take the hemp fiber tinder out of my pouch and hand it to him.

He placed the burning tinder into the mouth of the hearth and blew on it to increase the intensity of the fire, and placed the charcoal in it. The black charcoal turned into a reddish hue and dried the furnace from the inside out.

“Woankuruu garuaoh?” (It’s burning even without fire?)

Smith, sensing the danger from the heat, withdrew his outstretched hand and stared fascinatedly at the unusual object. He continued to watch the coal gradually turn to ashes without getting bored.

“Archer, we’ll be using the ashes from the charcoal so don’t throw it out, okay?”

“Waon.” (Understood.)

I nodded to let him know that I understood.

Just then, Joseph returned with some hollow trunks cut at a reasonable diameter. As he started adjusting them, Grimer brought out the body of the leather bellow, sticks, and some thread.

On its side was a small entrance for air with a round valve made of layers of leather attached from the inside to prevent air from leaking out of it when it was depressed.

“I’ll be putting an anti-backflow valve on the nozzle too, so give me some of those.”

He stretched one of the leather valves, making it take on a rectangular shape. He then glues it to the tip of a short, thin, piece of wood with glue.

“When the air is pumped in, the joint of the leather valve goes up due to air pressure, later the weight of the leather valve closes naturally. Its dimensions allow it to be pushed up when air goes out and pushed down when it takes in air.”

He further cuts a short portion of one of the thicker trunks and expands its cavity using the chisel he brought from Lucua village. Then the thin, valved trunk is inserted and the rest of the sawed-off trunk is inserted on the other side of the cavity and hardened with glue.

A nozzle is then created, with the thicker trunk in the middle and the slender ones on each end. The leather bellow is completed after the wooden parts are glued to the leather body.

“Alright, the anti-backflow valve is working well. It’s complete!”

“Thanks, Mr. Grimer. Please work on the remaining leather bellows too.

He repeated the same process, and before long, all 4 leather bellows were completed.

And the next day, we finally started the first steelmaking operation in the settlement.

(…Back then, we traveled to the eastern mountains to look for iron ore, but we were faced with a setback because of the strong monsters we encountered in the Balberra forest, among other things. Now that I think of it, I wonder how Muriel is doing?)

I continued to work even when I suddenly remembered the red-haired mage. In front of me, the fire jumped out of the 1.2-meter tall furnace opening as the coals were tossed into it.

“Now, add more charcoal to the top of the furnace! Let’s fill it up from top to bottom with charcoal!”

Under Barrack’s direction, Grimer and Joseph threw more coals into the top of the furnace.

“Archer, start pumping in some air with the leather bellows.”

I instructed the floppy-eared Kobolds to use the bellows to pump air into the furnace. After two hours of adding more coals from the top of the furnace, it finally warmed up, and the flames appearing from there turned orange.

“We’re going to send air into the flames to maintain their current color, so keep them orange until the end!”

And then, iron sand was poured inside when the level of the coals went down.

“Mr. Grimer, please pour equal amounts of the iron sand when the coals decrease! Joseph, please take care of the lime dust.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Alright!”

The two shoveled in the lime dust and the iron sand into the top of the furnace, and Barrack immediately piled the coals on top of it in a similar manner. They repeated the same action as the coals continued to decrease.

Barrack would poke the corners of the furnace from above with his steel rods to make sure there were no holes in it.

“Hey! The small, droopy-eared guy, get out of the way!!”

“Wafuh!?”

When Smith went to take a closer look at Barrack’s work, the latter scolded him, and he freaked out and curled his tail in surprise.

“Tsk, not enough air… The temperature’s dropping! What the hell are you guys doing!!”

“Gurua, guruuunn!” (Boss, we’re at our limit!)

“U, auu…” (It’s impossible…)

“Kuu, ruua!?” (It’s still not enough!?)

The floppy-eared Kobolds who have been pumping the leather bellows since earlier became exhausted.

I’m sorry, I was so engrossed in watching the process and forgot to tell you guys to switch places…

“Garuah!” (Alright, change!)

“Waonn!” (OKAY!)

I let the one-year-old Kobolds take over from the floppy-eared Kobolds and used my wind magic to temporarily strengthen the fire.

“Wofu, oaann!” (O wind, blow wild!)

When I directed the wind into the fireplace, the flames in the furnace shot up and its color returned to orange.

“Alright, let’s keep the fire like that!!”

Eventually, after feeding the furnace with lime powder and iron sand about 30 times, we were almost done with processing the steel. Impurities dissolved in the sludge that flowed from the furnace outlet and collected in the circular depression that had been dug earlier.

From there, they stopped feeding the iron sand and coal was added several times, and we stopped introducing air to it when the level of the coal was almost half of the furnace.

“You can stop pumping air into it now. Good job, guys. Let’s dismantle the furnace!”

When the Werecat Blacksmith destroyed the draft furnace using the Wooden Mallet in his hand, a lump of red-hot iron was revealed from the inside.

“Now, let’s hammer it in!!”

Using wooden sticks, the three Werecat craftsmen hoisted the lump of iron into a nearby tree stump. Of course, the wooden sticks and the stump caught fire, but… will they be alright?

Tssssss

Joseph poured water from a clay bottle into the lump of iron, causing some steam to rise from it.

“SHAAAH!!”

With a spirited shout, Barrack swung his hammer down!!

clang, clang, clang

Repeated blows were applied to the sponge iron and the remaining impurities in it were knocked away.

Before long, a high-purity lump of iron was formed.

“… Fuu, I guess this is good enough.”

Later on, this iron block would later be re-finished on a flat stone and transformed into Lancer’s new spear.

With the blacksmithing work done, the farmwork led by Joseph was completed without any hitch. They stayed for about half a month training the members of my pack and went back to Lucua village after.

Of course, we came along and escorted them back to their village.

During that time, I met the Village Chief of Lucua village for the first time, Liz asked me to train with her, and many other things happened, but… That’s a story for another time.

And as the days passed peacefully, I forgot to be vigilant, and trouble came knocking at our door…