Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

When the three Military Settlement Officers hurried back to the smelter, Carlos was leading the apprentices in "dismantling" the iron smelting furnace, and Soria was there too.

Carlos's face was covered in forge ash, which had mixed with sweat to form a mud-like substance, smearing his face to look like a calico cat.

Yet the dirt on his cheeks could not hide Carlos's excitement. The young blacksmith, having shaken off his earlier dejection, rushed over to Winters, gesticulating excitedly, "It worked! Sir! It worked!"

Carlos was so excited that he was tripping over his words.

"Soria!" Winters called over the middle-aged blacksmith, "You tell me."

When Winters and the old blacksmith Poltan had gone to Forging Village, Soria did not follow but stayed to watch over the furnace.

It turned out to be a day from dawn to dusk without any "liquid iron" flowing out. Carlos was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, and Soria was somewhat frustrated as well.

For fear of blowing up the furnace, the two decided to put out the fire.

They plugged all the inlets with wet cowhide to smother the flames inside the furnace and decided to break apart the smelting furnace to see what was going on inside.

Upon examination, the flow outlet was blocked by solidified iron slurry and slag, a big clump of iron stuck in the bottom of the furnace with slag wrapped around it, like a baby stuck during a difficult birth.

Carlos had successfully extracted iron from ore, just as the old blacksmith Poltan said, "Just put the charcoal and iron ore together and burn it."

However, the young blacksmith soon encountered his second challenge: he had the iron, but it was stuck inside the furnace and couldn't be extracted. What was he to do?

The answer was only one: Dismantle!

And so the scene before Winters unfolded: six or seven apprentices were wielding pickaxes and hammers, sweating profusely as they chiseled at the wall; accompanied by the "ding ding dong dong" sounds, a massive gap had been broken open at the bottom of the furnace wall.

After knocking open the slag, the red-hot "iron" was exposed—though at the moment, the large mass of iron was still stuck in the furnace and immovable, the opening needed to be further enlarged.

"We'd just finished building it and now we're tearing it down?" Mason asked regrettably.

Seeing the blast furnace he had worked hard to build being forcefully destroyed, the elder apprentice felt a bitter taste in his heart.

Winters' brow knitted unconsciously into a knot, "Isn't this just a big lump smelting furnace? Why do I get the feeling... it's even worse than a lump smelting furnace?!"

"I did it!" The young blacksmith, oblivious to what others were saying, kept repeating to himself, "I did it!"

Winters had just fallen asleep when he was awakened, and was in a particularly bad mood.

Seeing the young blacksmith's frantic behavior, he couldn't contain his anger and kicked the latter's backside, "Successful, you say?!"

Winters didn't kick hard, but at that moment, Carlos was as stable as a post, and toppled over easily.

It wasn't until he crashed heavily to the ground that Carlos became lucid, the pent-up stress and emotions in his heart suddenly breaking like a dam, and he lay there on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

"How could you kick someone?" Mason chided, "He's not one of your soldiers."

"I didn't kick hard," Winters said, feeling extremely aggrieved.

Mason sighed, squatted down, and gently patted Carlos on the shoulder, "You're almost an adult now, what's there to cry about?"

Winters let out a long sigh, and also came to the young blacksmith's side, "Alright, alright, I apologize to you, I shouldn't have resorted to violence..."

It had been a long time since Winters had offered an apology, and he was still somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Soria, the blacksmith, watched as the Settlement Officer apologized to the young blacksmith, his jaw dropping in astonishment.

Forty years ago, if a master hit you, that was that. An apology? Did you also want another slap on the face?

That a Settlement Officer and a young blacksmith could be equals in personality—this was beyond Soria's imagination.

"What kind of master is this? Not a shred of the authority and grace that a master should have!" A voice in Soria's head said with disdain.

"That's how it should be! Haven't the masters been driven away already?" Another voice in Soria's head shouted.

No one knew the turmoil within the middle-aged blacksmith's heart, it was but a minor episode.

Winters and Mason helped the young blacksmith up, who was still sobbing.

"How about this," Winters thought for a moment. "You kick me as well? Then we're even?"

Carlos's tears turned into laughter, and he blew a big bubble from his nose.

It wasn't the kick that had made him cry. He had accumulated too much stress and negative feelings, and unable to control it any longer, it all turned into tears, with the boot on his buttocks being just the last straw.

After all, he was only seventeen.

And Winters, inadvertently treating him as an adult, had placed too much burden on Carlos's shoulders.

Andre sneered, "This kid, is he made of mud? Does he also leak water?"

"It's good that you can laugh," Winters said, holding the young blacksmith's shoulders, a trace of helplessness in his tone, "You... never mind, let's talk when your brother comes back."

After a good crying and a heavy vent, Carlos's spirits were indeed better than before.

While wiping his tears with the back of his hand, he stammered, "I... I really can smelt iron, I truly succeeded."

"What sort of success is this? Don't wipe with your hand! Watch out for eye styes!" Winters pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the young blacksmith's tears, "You dismantle a furnace for every batch of iron? Only I can afford to do smelting at such a cost. If it were a business, you'd have bankrupted me!"

Coming back to himself, Soria explained, "No need to dismantle the whole thing, just a part of it. Mr. Soria and I thought about it—we modify this iron smelting furnace for extracting 'furnace bottom iron'."

Listening to Soria gesture and explain for a while, Winters understood what the two blacksmiths meant—they were making the best of a bad situation.

To put it simply, Carlos and Soria's "blast furnace dream" was brutally shattered by harsh realities. There was no way they could build the blast furnace now, at least the current iron smelting furnace was definitely problematic.