The Art of Papermaking

Corvinus's face lit up with a look of understanding.

"Does Uncle Quinn know how to make it?" Corvinus hesitated for a moment, then looked at Quinn with a glimmer of hope.

If Quinn knew about it, he must have seen it, and if he had seen it, he might be able to make it.

"No!" Quinn shook his head firmly.

"I once met a dwarven merchant who had traditional dwarven musketeers under his command."

"But you want to manufacture gunpowder?" Quinn looked at Corvinus and asked.

"Well, I've been thinking about it!" Corvinus did not deny it; he indeed had the idea. In this extraordinary world, cannons and high-yield bombs could still dominate, it just depended on how they were used.

"Besides the dwarves, the goblins also use gunpowder quite frequently. However, I don't recommend you forming a musketeer unit or anything like that. I've heard that gunpowder is very susceptible to moisture and has poor stability. If the enemy has water mages, the muskets in the hands of your musketeers would be nothing more than sticks for burning," Quinn shook his head again.

"Moreover, muskets are slow, deal little damage, and are rarely fatal, especially with a range of less than fifty meters. As far as I know, although the goblins have more sophisticated muskets, the dwarves only use musketeers as a show of force, not as a mainstream military unit."

Upon hearing this, Corvinus remained silent.

He had heard of dwarven musketeers; their muskets might not even be as good as flintlock guns, being a very ancient and primitive type of firearm.

Quinn did not see much potential in gunpowder, and Corvinus was not prepared to explain or argue.

After all, the world system was different here. With extraordinary powers that could be concentrated in one's own body, naturally, there was little research into other means of warfare.

Moreover, he suspected that another reason gunpowder was not widely used in this world was its stability and power.

Gunpowder was composed of one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal, but its stability was very poor. It was prone to moisture, easy to explode, and its low power was also a fundamental issue.

Nevertheless, Corvinus still had great expectations for gunpowder, because apart from black powder, there was also yellow powder. As far as he knew, in his previous life, there were hundreds of types of gunpowder.

As long as gunpowder existed in this world, it was possible to study it. With some effort and time, it could be developed.

Moreover, the basic formula was still available in the store.

"I understand!" Corvinus nodded.

"Uncle Quinn, in that case, I'll take my leave first."

After visiting the blacksmith's shop and the workshop, Corvinus also wanted to check out the animal pens.

"Chief..."

At that moment, Quinn looked at Corvinus with something on his mind but hesitated to speak.

Corvinus glanced at him and asked curiously, "Is there something else, Uncle Quinn?"

"Go ahead and say it. I remember Uncle Quinn is not a man of many words," Corvinus said with a smile.

Quinn nodded, took something out of his pocket, and handed it to Corvinus.

Corvinus took it, unfolded it, and looked at Quinn in confusion, "What is this?"

It turned out that Quinn had handed him the design for a ballista.

He didn't understand why Quinn was returning the design to him.

"Here's the thing, do you have more of this kind of thing?" Quinn asked, pinching a corner of the design.

"Do you need the design?"

"No, it's this kind of thing, the material that records the design. It's very soft, and writing on it is much more convenient than using animal hides," Quinn explained.

"You mean... paper?" Corvinus instantly realized, because the design was recorded on paper, which had been taken out from the system.

He hadn't paid attention before!

This might be the first piece of paper in this world.

There was no paper in this world; animal hides were used for writing. Besides hides, there was also the bark of a special tree, which had been specially processed. Although the bark was not as soft as paper, it was much softer than animal hides. However, this kind of bark was very expensive and mostly used by human nobles.

In comparison, animal hides were the mainstream writing material.

Quinn wanted paper?

Corvinus had to admire Quinn's insight. He hadn't noticed it himself.

"I don't have any more," Corvinus shook his head.

Upon hearing this, Quinn looked a bit disappointed, but he understood. This thing called paper was simply made for recording text. Even the expensive bark seemed like trash compared to it once he had encountered paper.

It was natural that such seemingly expensive paper would be a rare item.

"But I don't have any more, you can make it yourself. Then you can have as much as you want in the future!" Corvinus said with a smile, seeing Quinn's disappointed look.

Quinn's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Corvinus.

Could it be made?

Could this kind of thing be mass-produced?

"This kind of paper can be made," Corvinus looked at Quinn with a firm gaze.

Then, a piece of paper, or rather, a paper-making diagram, appeared in his hand.

"This paper records the method of making paper. You can give it a try!"

Of course, the paper-making method Corvinus had exchanged was the ancient version, the most primitive one. The modern simplified version, without chemical raw materials, was impossible to achieve.

"Is this it?"

Quinn looked at the paper-making diagram in his hand, somewhat astonished. His chief was just too mysterious, having everything.

Seeing Quinn intently examining the paper-making diagram, Corvinus turned and left the workshop.

He had glanced at the diagram briefly. The ancient method required at least three months, which meant it would be at least three months before Quinn could make the paper.

He had asked Quinn to make paper not only because it was convenient but also to make money. There was no paper in this world, and once it was made, it would be another source of wealth.

After leaving the workshop, Corvinus visited the animal pens and then checked out the newly cultivated land.

By the time he got home, it was already afternoon.

Since Corvinus had informed his second uncle, Lothar, he was greeted by a lively household upon his return.

His grandfather, Barnet, had sixteen sons and four daughters.

However, three of his sons and two of his daughters died of illness before they reached adulthood, leaving only thirteen sons and two daughters who grew up.

But after serving as chief for so many years, out of Barnet's ten adult uncles, seven had died in battle and three had gone missing.

Why were they considered missing? Because they had gone out to train and had not returned. For the strong, this world was colorful and diverse, but for the weak, it was like a dragon's lair and a tiger's den.

The three missing uncles were not strong. Given the long time that had passed without their return, death was the only explanation.

As the chief's sons, they were born with more knowledge and freedom than other tribe members. Thus, like his father, second uncle, and fifth uncle, they all had experiences of going out to train, the only difference being the length of time.

As for his two adult aunts, one had been married off in a political alliance, which had been a long time ago. That tribe had been wiped out, and his aunt had disappeared, whether dead or alive was unknown.

The other aunt had married a werewolf from the tribe. However, once an orc woman was married off, she was no longer considered a member of the Silver Mane tribe.

Therefore, he had not seen that only remaining aunt.

Although his seven uncles had died in battle, four of them had been married and had descendants.

Thus, there were many children.

Dozens of younger brothers and sisters, and even more cousins, hearing them call him "big brother" made his head ache.

Corvinus went to the kitchen, where his mother, second mother, and more than ten aunts were. Fortunately, his family's kitchen was large enough; otherwise, it would have been too crowded.