Chapter 52: A World Where Magic Exists

Although the blacksmith shop was under construction, it was far from complete. In Gawain's plans, this wooden structure was not intended to serve as a conventional blacksmith shop as understood in this world. He had temporarily referred to it as such for the sake of convenience.

His vision was to name this establishment the "Cecil Ironworks."

As the only blacksmith in the territory, old man Hummel was somewhat perplexed by the Duke's order to build this "blacksmith shop." In his view, the structure occupied an unnecessarily large area. Aside from an unusually large wooden building, it included an expansive yard measuring approximately one hundred meters in length and width, as well as a wooden shed that had only a few support beams erected. To call such a facility a "blacksmith shop" seemed quite inappropriate to him. However, he dared not suggest that the illustrious founder of the duchy was an uninformed amateur giving misguided orders—though he did think so, he certainly would not say it aloud.

After all, he was merely a commoner, while the Duke was a nobleman who stood on equal footing with the king.

Due to the impressive size of this "blacksmith shop," it had to be placed at the eastern edge of the camp. Its large courtyard extended into the surrounding wasteland, appearing rather absurd as if a portion of a well-organized wooden fence was jutting out. The equipment brought from Tanzan Town seemed pitifully insufficient for such a grand establishment: the supplies filled only a corner of the wooden building, and the sole smelting furnace was placed in the yard, protected by a simple wooden shed against the elements.

For Gawain, the substantial reserved area for the ironworks was primarily a consideration of future production capacity and ease of expansion—this era's traditional blacksmithing setups, where one master blacksmith supervised a few apprentices in a small room with a single furnace, were not what he required.

However, he found himself unable to explain all this to the old blacksmith and his somewhat inept apprentices.

Apart from considerations of capacity and future expansion, Gawain did not intend to follow in the footsteps of protagonists in novels he had read, who typically erected multiple earthen furnaces in their yards. Although he had considered this, having seen Hettie use her magical powers to assist a raft in docking and to reinforce the camp's foundation, he had set aside that idea in favor of allowing the territory's only blacksmith, Hummel, to construct a traditional smelting furnace.

As he entered the blacksmith shop, he found Rebecca waiting, along with the elderly blacksmith Hummel and his apprentices. A few local residents in short shirts stood in the yard, beside a large basket filled with the first batch of ore.

Gawain walked straight to the traditional smelting furnace.

The furnace appeared somewhat rudimentary, approximately one meter tall, clearly divided into upper and lower sections. The lower part was a bulbous structure, while the upper part tapered into a cylindrical shape. The lower section featured two openings: one at the bottom for adding fuel, and another near the cylindrical portion for pouring in ore.

These components were unremarkable, merely representing a standard furnace. However, the uniqueness lay in the side of the furnace.

Three runes were inscribed there.

Each rune was etched onto a piece of black stone, and all three stones had been meticulously polished and adjusted before being affixed to the furnace to ensure they were evenly spaced and parallel along the edges. The bottom stone bore a triangular symbol with a wavy line inside, representing the fire element's initial character from the magic texts. The middle stone featured a diamond shape within a square, indicating the initial character of the earth element. The upper stone displayed a swirling symbol related to the wind element, though it was not the initial character.

In addition to these stones, glimmering dust could be seen among the materials that constructed the furnace; Gawain recognized this as quartz sand, specifically the quartz sand of this world.

Quartz sand is a material with magical conduction properties. While its effects are extremely weak, its affordability allows it to be widely used, even by commoners.

Gawain lifted his gaze to the old blacksmith. "Did you construct this furnace?"

"Yes, yes, my lord…" Hummel replied nervously, gripping his hat tightly and bowing his head. "Oh, I built half of it and instructed my apprentices on the rest…"

Gawain nodded but did not ask further questions.

Magic is an extraordinary power, a domain inaccessible to common folk. Yet, in this world saturated with magical energy, even those unable to cast spells still experience the influence of magic in their daily lives.

Basic applications of magic do not necessarily require knowledge of spellcasting. Everyone possesses some magic within them, and by inscribing a simple symbol on specific materials of particular shapes, anyone can slightly harness those omnipresent wondrous forces.

This is not spellcasting; the effects, in the eyes of true "extraordinaries," are so trivial they verge on the ridiculous. It is akin to picking up a stick from the ground to use as a cane or grabbing a stone to crack a nut—skills that require no particular finesse. Even illiterate commoners can remember how to draw a few weakly effective symbols. Yet, this small measure of power fundamentally distinguishes this world from Gawain's familiar homeland.

It's like the one degree that can make water boil.

With those three runes, this "traditional smelting furnace" can produce molten iron using only firewood as fuel without the aid of a blower or optimized combustion chamber structure.

If a fire element rune were inscribed on a piece of mithril, the furnace could even utilize straw as fuel!

However, due to the presence of these ancient runes, the people of this world had yet to consider how to improve the efficiency of the furnace from the perspective of enhancing fuel combustion. Their continual improvements had focused solely on the materials used to inscribe the runes and the formats of the runes themselves.

Thus, Gawain chose not to build any earthen furnaces but instead to observe this primitive and backward traditional furnace.

The old blacksmith Hummel grew increasingly nervous in the presence of this nobleman, unsure of the Duke's intentions behind his inquiries about the furnace. He worried whether he had made some mistake, knowing full well that nobles wield power and can be unpredictable. Though the previous lords, including Lady Rebecca, were benevolent, this Duke was a legendary founder—a true warrior and a duke. What might his temperament be?

Just as Hummel was growing more anxious, Gawain finally straightened up and asked his second question: "Under sufficient ore supply, how much iron can you produce daily with this furnace?"

Hummel immediately felt relieved; at last, a normal question had been asked.

"With that ore, I can produce about fifty pounds of iron a day," the old blacksmith replied, a hint of pride in his voice.

However, Gawain's expression turned serious as he furrowed his brow. "Is that all?"

Could the output truly be so low with the aid of those runes?

"That's still a lot?" Hummel exclaimed, then quickly added, "I don't mean to doubt your judgment, my lord, but…"

"It's fine. You don't need to be nervous speaking to me," Gawain reassured him. "I'm your lord here to protect you, not a robber out to kill you."

"Yes… yes, my lord," Hummel wiped the sweat from his brow, then explained, "But that is indeed the limit. The furnace looks large from the outside, but its interior space is actually limited. Additionally, after finishing a batch, it needs to cool down for an hour to allow the runes on the outside to cool down, requiring a complete cooling of the furnace before relighting it… With all these factors, producing fifty pounds of iron really is the limit!"

"Cooling the runes?" Gawain asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yes," Hummel explained. "This is merely a little trick we commoners have inscribed on black stones, and it's nowhere near the level of the true magical runes used by the wizards. They can easily break, especially the fire runes; if they come into prolonged contact with fire, they will crack. Even if we use sturdier materials, it doesn't help. Once a rune breaks, the entire furnace becomes useless, so we must not operate it continuously while smelting…"

"What if we made the furnace larger?" Gawain inquired.

"That wouldn't work either," Hummel replied, troubled, thinking that the Duke was only asking difficult questions. "The runes can only provide a certain amount of heat. If the furnace is enlarged, there wouldn't be enough heat to smelt the ore, and the earth runes would become ineffective, leading to more impurities in the produced iron ingots, making them completely unusable…"

Gawain stroked his chin thoughtfully. "So the limitations on production are entirely due to these runes?"

The old blacksmith blinked, not fully understanding what Gawain meant by production constraints, but he nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, it's the runes."

Gawain turned to Rebecca. "What do you think about replacing the runes with... um, let's just call Hettie over."

Rebecca's face flushed. "My lord, I understand the theory of magic! I just can't construct the spell models…"

"Your theoretical knowledge is adequate?" Gawain raised an eyebrow. "Then how do you propose we solve this problem?"

Rebecca thought hard. "Since you mentioned that the runes are a shortcoming, perhaps we should replace them?"

"Replace them with what?"

Rebecca continued brainstorming. "Actually, these runes have simple functions, like increasing temperature, controlling airflow, and managing impurities. They're also the

 weak variety of runes. If we were to use proper magic circles instead, the efficiency could increase exponentially—and magic circles can self-regulate energy without the risk of self-destruction during continuous operation…"

Gawain raised an eyebrow. "Inscribing a set of magic circles on each smelting furnace?"

"But that's not practical," Rebecca said, sticking out her tongue. "Hettie and I could help inscribe a few magic circles, but… the blacksmiths and their apprentices wouldn't be able to utilize them!"