VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

Chapter 112. Rubrum Stone and trial and error

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「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)

「What’s wrong, Hind-kun.」(Selene)

「50.000.000 G…」(Hind)

「Oh god, did I hear it wrong? Did you just sa-」(Tobi)

「So it’s going to cost 55.000.000 G in total…」(Hind)

The atmosphere in the workshop froze over.

「Thinking about it, starting from level eight, it would be a facility for guilds that focus on crafting…?」(Selene)

「If you had such a facility, you would be able to craft a good weapon just by having a template. It’s designed to craft in big quantities.」(Hind)

「Am I the only one that thinks if you are not hitting stuff with a hammer it doesn’t look very blacksmith-ish?」(Tobi)

「「I(I) also thought that.」」(Hind and Selene)

If we talk about middle ages blacksmithing, it has to be forging.

The strong point of crafting something from just a mold is that the quality is the same all the time, but if we talk about the individuality of each product…

「The big sword Albert-san wants is definitely not that kind of weapon.」(Selene)

「You are right. In that case, should we use one Rubrum Stone and supplement it with charcoal?」(Hind)

「Sounds good. Doing it that way, we’ll also save on fuel. Impurities will also decrease.」(Selene)

「Instead of doing that, how about we just smash a Rubrum Stone in pieces? If we do it precisely, we can just adjust it however we want! Just kidding!」(Tobi)

…

When we heard those words from Tobi, which he tried to dress up as a joke, I exchanged looks with Selene as our mouths were wide open.

「What’s wrong, you two? Did I say something weird-」(Tobi)

「Selene-san. For both of us to not be able to reach such a simple conclusion, it means we are really stupid right?」(Hind)

「Uuh, you are right. I might have thought too hard about it. Why didn’t I realize…?」(Selene)

For some reason, we were too into the idea that this was an 「Item that you can’t adjust」.

I see, even if we smashed them, it would be fine as long as they still retained the ability to produce heat…

I hit Tobi in the back and took up the hammer on top of the table along with a Rubrum Stone we weren’t using.

I covered it in cloth so that the fragments wouldn’t fly around and looked at Selene-san for a final confirmation.

「It might lose its properties as an elemental stone regardless if we succeed or not. You don’t mind, right?」(Hind)

「Yup, give it a try. If it doesn’t work, let’s think of another way.」(Selene)

「Eh? Eh? You two, aren’t you guys deciding too soon? Are you really fine with making use of such a thoughtless remark I made!?」(Tobi)

「Here I go!」(Hind)

「Wai-」(Tobi)

With a vigorous dull sound, I felt in my hand that something had been smashed.

Then I kept hitting it over and over until they were of a suitable size.

It seems like elemental stones inserted in weapons will definitely not break, but as expected, it’s different when they are still materials.

I slowly removed the cloth and took a small piece of Rubrum Stone.

「How is it, Hind-kun?」(Selene)

「Try grabbing one.」(Hind)

「Ah, me too, me too!」(Tobi)

I placed a small piece of the stone slowly so as to not drop them on top of Selene-san and Tobi’s hand.

Tobi made a face as if he had found a bug on the other side of the stone but Selene-san was smiling.

「What’s with this number of windows…?」(Tobi)

「It’s quite inconvenient when it treats every small piece as an individual piece right? However, if these windows are popping up, it means that they still have the ability to produce heat.」(Hind)

「When we are going to use these, do we have to press “yes” on all of them!?」(Tobi)

「No, I said that they produce a chain reaction before, right? If there’s another stone close by when they are being used, the others will activate on their own. There won’t be any problems as long as we activate one and throw the rest in.」(Hind)

「…In that case, let’s try a small one as an experiment, if it looks fine, let’s pick up the stone from the furnace and break it into pieces. This looks like it’ll work out! Thank you, Tobi-kun!」(Selene)

「Thanks, Tobi. Having you here helped us.」(Hind)

「No problem. I’m just glad to have been able to help for a chang-」(Tobi)

After that, it took us a while to get the hang of it…

After about two hours, we finally managed to set the furnace in the condition we wanted.

All that was left was to think how we would forge it properly.

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