Chapter 356: Chapter 107: Practical Application

"There are no issues with the energy circulation. It’s just that the energy loss from Soldier Weapon No. 1 during operation is a bit severe.

Of course, this is all acceptable. It’s normal for a Magic Array to have some margin of error; we can just improve it later.

For now, it looks like this Array shouldn’t have any major problems," Falan said, walking over from where he was maintaining the Magic Array.

Robson listened and nodded, then looked toward the Blacksmith, Thorne, who stood to the side.

Robson had discovered Thorne in his own army. His ancestors had all been Blacksmiths.

Coincidentally, Thorne himself was a Soldier with sixth-rank military honors. After an evaluation, Robson appointed him as the head of the Widder Mountain ironworks.

"Since the Array is ready, go find a few skilled craftsmen and have them see how user-friendly it is," Robson said.

Thorne gazed at the massive Array before him. He had never imagined that a blacksmith shop could one day look like this.

It was less a blacksmith shop and more of a Steel Mill.

This "blacksmith shop" was at least a thousand square Book Rulers. One Book Ruler was about the same as a meter from Robson’s past life, making the area a thousand square meters.

The most conspicuous feature inside the entire "blacksmith shop" was, of course, the massive Melting Furnace at its center.

The Melting Furnace was nearly ten meters tall. Robson had forged its basic framework with Magic, and the smelting environment inside was created using various kinds of Magic to make it more resistant to high temperatures.

At the base of the Melting Furnace were some strange contraptions, including blowers and other miscellaneous items.

As for the Magic Arrays, Robson had buried them all underground. The maintenance system for the arrays was located outside the Steel Mill, and Robson planned to station a Mage there later to oversee their daily operation and upkeep.

The weaponsmithing area was on the east side of the Steel Mill.

To be precise, it was beneath the eastern side.

According to Robson’s design, after the Steel Mill produced steel, Soldiers would drop it directly into the weapons factory below. From there, Soldiers inside the factory would transport it to the front of a Magic Array to be worked on by the craftsmen.

"This... My lord, can I be the first to try it? I mean, if this thing can really work, it would be unbelievable..." Thorne looked at Robson, his voice filled with apprehension.

Robson nodded.

"Of course. All of this was prepared for you," Robson said with a smile, then looked over at Falan.

Falan understood implicitly. He walked to a box guarded by several Soldiers, took out a Magic Transmitter from inside, and then left the Steel Mill.

Robson said nothing, so no one followed him.

Before long, Falan returned inside. Under everyone’s watchful gaze, he went to the main gate of the Steel Mill and pulled down a large valve above the entrance.

Immediately, everyone heard a low humming sound. Robson looked toward Gall.

"It’s time. Have the Soldiers bring in the things we prepared earlier," Robson said.

Gall nodded and walked out of the Steel Factory.

Soon, Soldiers began filing in carrying water vats, followed by other materials like coke.

Steelmaking required water—a massive amount of it. There was only a small stream near the mine, and due to time constraints, the Magic Array for pumping water from it was not yet complete.

But even if it were finished, a single stream could hardly satisfy the Steel Mill’s demand for water.

There was nothing Robson could do about this; you couldn’t have your cake and eat it too.

It was foreseeable that, in the future, water resources would likely be the main factor limiting steel production.

Once his territory expanded and he could spare more manpower for transporting minerals, Robson could move the Steel Mill to the shore of Dong’er Man Lake.

But for now, he lacked the manpower. Furthermore, there was no road between Dong’er Man Lake and Widder Mountain, which would make transport exceedingly difficult.

The Soldiers poured the water into the designated areas.

Then, groups of professionally trained Blacksmiths, led by Thorne, gathered beside the Melting Furnace.

Following the craftsmen’s orders, Kobolds poured iron ore into the Melting Furnace.

That’s right—Kobolds were also involved in the iron-smelting process, mainly due to a manpower shortage.

Hauling iron ore was exhausting work that required many able-bodied young men. Most of the able-bodied men under Robson were Soldiers, the territory’s combat strength.

Since the territory was still in its fledgling stages, Robson had them participate in construction projects, but he knew he couldn’t afford to spare them for such labor later on.

Conveniently, the Kobolds, who fed on Demonic Qi, were strong and sturdy. Though not as good as a proper able-bodied human, each one was worth about half a man.

At first, the craftsmen were resistant to having Kobolds as their assistants. But they later found that these creatures were reliable and never complained, no matter how much they were verbally abused.

This was perhaps due to the Kobolds’ innately subservient nature, or maybe they just couldn’t understand the insults.

When Robson learned of this, he couldn’t help but marvel. ’These Kobolds are practically born to be beasts of burden.’

The current number of Kobolds in the territory was certainly not enough to keep up with its development. They weren’t even enough to maintain basic operations at Wild Mine, to say nothing of other tasks.

That was why Robson planned to take a trip to the Beastman Grassland later to see if he could bring back some "local specialties."

After all, there was no such thing as peacetime between the Frank Kingdom and the Beastman Empire; "peacetime" simply meant there were fewer skirmishes.

Next came the addition of various other materials. Some had to be added at the start, while others could only be added once the furnace was burning. Robson didn’t understand the specifics.

Under the combined efforts of the Mages and Blacksmiths, everyone felt the surrounding temperature suddenly climb. The closer one stood to the Melting Furnace, the more intense the heat became.

However, the temperature didn’t rise indefinitely. Before long, fluorescent blue Magic Runes began to glow on the surface of the Melting Furnace.

Robson and Falan climbed to the top of the Melting Furnace and looked down. The furnace was emitting some unknown gas, perhaps just moisture from the air.

With the Melting Furnace fully activated, the entire Steel Factory roared to life.

Operating this Steel Factory required roughly three Mages and several dozen Blacksmiths. Robson had already made them run through the procedures in a drill.

Now, during the actual operation, only a few minor issues arose.

Robson could see the Fire Runes inside the Melting Furnace shining with incredible brightness, along with some other strange runes. The only one he recognized was the Reinforcement Technique that prevented the furnace from collapsing.

He had personally installed that technique; Falan and Kosen had handled the rest.

This was the startup sequence for the Melting Furnace. According to Falan, the process would take an entire day, during which the power of the Fire Runes would cause the temperature inside the furnace to climb ever higher.

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