Chapter 62 Magic Web No. 1 and the Blacksmith Shop

Feeling the feeling of a big hand rubbing the top of her head, Rebecca suddenly felt a little dazed.

Her first reaction was that she heard it wrong, her second reaction was that the ancestors said it wrong, and her third reaction... took it as a kind of comfort.

It can't be sarcasm, can it?

Miss Viscount, who had never done anything since she was a child, never thought that she would really be praised once.

Seeing Rebecca's reaction, Gawain repeated what he just said, and then laughed: "Don't be stunned, I'm serious about complimenting you, you probably won't realize how incredible you are. talent."

"Really?" Rebecca said blankly, and then blinked her eyes a little embarrassedly, "But I'm just a little clever... Usually it's not useful at all."

Such an outstanding talent was actually classified as a clever... This made Gawain a little speechless.

Rebecca was born too early, but fortunately, Gawain was not too late, and these talents still have a chance to be used.

Gawain took a closer look at the structure of the magic circle after Rebecca's adjustment. Although he was a knight, Gawain Cecil was half a polymath back then, and he also had a lot of research in magic theory and other aspects. , In addition, the Gondor Empire is a country with extremely developed magic technology, and the basic knowledge of magic is also very popular, so this kind of magic formation that is only composed of basic runes is not easy for Gawain to understand. Disaster. After taking a serious look, he determined that Rebecca's adjustments to these runes were quite reasonable. This magic circle had changed from a superficial concept product to one that completely met his expectations and could lay the foundation for subsequent applications. "Prototype", if you want to continue to improve, you can only wait for the test of practice.

Gawain only asked one question: "Have you considered expanding it further?"

"Extend it further?" Rebecca was stunned. "How to expand it? Do you want to draw it bigger?"

"No, it means that it can be connected to other self-charging magic circles with the same framework but different scales, and even use a certain magic circle unit as the basic structure to connect and expand infinitely, and finally form a large-scale that can cover a wider area. Network," Gawain looked at the neatly arranged runes, and vaguely saw the shadows that seemed to be combined and repeated, so he couldn't help but put forward a rather bold idea, "Each magical unit is no longer independent. individuals, but connected together - can you understand that?"

Although she has outstanding mathematical talent and creativity, the concept of this level is still too difficult for Rebecca, she thinks hard, and finally can only frown in distress: "Lord Ancestor, what you said Could something... really exist?"

"Take it as my whimsy." Seeing Rebecca's embarrassed look, Gawain knew that he couldn't be in a hurry, so he decisively stopped the extension in this area, "Now, build Magic Web No. 1 first, Let the smithy start running, and the rest will come later."

"Okay!" Rebecca nodded happily, "I was discussing the blacksmith shop with Hammer just now..."

"Oh?" Gawain raised his eyebrows, he did see what Rebecca was discussing with Hammer just now, but the surprise brought by Magic Web One almost made him forget about it, "You guys What are you talking about?"

"About the new furnace," Rebecca said, raising her head, "I was thinking, if the Magic Web One is up and running, the blacksmith's furnace will be able to draw a formal magic circle, instead of having to use that kind of unusable magic circle. Rune - that way the furnace can be remodeled, right? But I don't know how to strike iron myself, so I had to talk to Hammer to see what he thinks of improving the furnace and workflow..."

The old blacksmith Hammer stood beside him with a bit of reverence, lowered his head and listened to the Lord Viscount and Lord Duke discussing issues there. For a commoner like himself, he could stand here.

Participating in the topic of nobles was both honored and nervous, and when Gawain turned his attention to himself, the old blacksmith really broke out in a cold sweat: he couldn't imagine it at all. What would it be like for a nobleman who had never even pulled a bellows to instruct him to build a blacksmith shop, but he had to cooperate, so he had already prepared a lot of unbelievable requests from Gawain, and he had to lead the way. The apprentices are desperately trying to complete the task...

This is not uncommon, because it is said that a Viscountess from the north had, on a whim, instructed a gardener to trim the nursery, and stipulated that each goldenrod should be divided into two buds instead of three when they bloomed— A dozen gardeners were whipped for it, until the viscountess lost interest in it.

"Don't be nervous," Gawain said calmly, seeing Hammer's nervousness, "Tell me what you think."

"I... I have no idea," Hammer lowered his head and said humbly, "Miss Viscount is really knowledgeable and wise, and the things she designed are things that poor people like us can't understand for a lifetime. It takes a lot of effort for me to learn how to use things, how can I make comments?"

Gawain looked at him and shook his head: "Of course you don't know about magic, but the stove and the anvil are what you know best. You are an expert in this regard, and we will respect your opinion."

Respect...a civilian opinion?

Hammel thought for a while that he had auditory hallucinations, but seeing the very serious expressions on the faces of Gawain, Hetty, and Rebecca, he finally confirmed that it was true—or at least the Duke did say so. .

So he could only bite the bullet: "I think... I think that since the stove will be heated by real magic in the future, instead of modifying the old stove, it's better to start from scratch and make a brand new one. out of the stove..."

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: "Brand new?"

Hammer grabbed his arm and tried to express his thoughts clearly and clearly: "Since real magic is used, there is no restriction of the original runes - first of all, the furnace can be bigger, There will be a lot more steel smelted at one time, and since the magic circle will not be broken, the furnace does not need to be turned off and cooled all the time, maybe it can be kept burning, which saves the cost of reheating. Time consuming. But then you have to use it all the time…”

Gawain listened attentively, interrupting only when he encountered a part that he thought could be suggested, while Hammer said all his thoughts in one breath.

At first, he stuttered and made mistakes due to nervousness, but he soon became smoother and smoother, and when he was about to finish speaking, he was completely surprised.

He didn't expect that Gawain was really listening to what he had to say—a grand duke, a true nobleman, a figure that ordinary people would never even dare to think of, actually standing in this messy place, listening to a man like himself. The opinion of the common people, and it was not a disguised listening, because Gawain not only nodded while listening, but even raised some detailed questions and suggestions from time to time!

Those questions and suggestions made Hammer confused from time to time: is this really an aristocratic man who has never touched a bellows and a hammer? Why does he know so much about steel smelting?

Although many of these questions sounded a bit fanciful to Hammer, there is no doubt that those questions are closely related to the actual situation of steel smelting - by no means "The goldenrod should be divided into two buds when they bloom. Not three" this kind of nonsense!

After Hammer finally finished speaking, Gawain breathed a sigh of relief and stared into the eyes of the old blacksmith.

The old blacksmith became nervous: "Old...Master..."

"How many years have you been a blacksmith?" Gawain asked suddenly.

"Three... It's been almost thirty years," Hammer replied quickly, "but people like us can't remember exactly the year..."

"A 30-year-old blacksmith, I didn't expect you to have so many innovative ideas," Gawain was a little confused, "It stands to reason that these ideas are easily generated by young talents with unlimited ideas, how can you Think so much?"

Hammer opened his mouth, and only spoke after a few seconds: "...Master, I'm not afraid of your jokes, these ideas of mine are actually not new, they have been accumulated for many years..."

Gawain showed an interested expression: "Tell me about it."

"I've been a blacksmith for decades, and I really can't understand anything about furnaces and steel. If I say habit, I've really used it for a long time." The wrinkles on Hammer's face were crisscrossed, and he squeezed out a smile. "But I still remember when I was an apprentice - my father was a blacksmith in the village, and I learned the craft from him. One year, the lord asked us to make a batch of fine iron, and I volunteered to make it myself. Furnace, my father felt that I had studied for many years and should be on my own, so he let me try it, but it went wrong."

Hamilton paused, then said, "I was so impatient that I didn't wait enough time for the furnace to cool, and then heated it up again - and the rune shattered.

"As soon as the rune is broken, the furnace is completely scrapped. It is the most valuable and most important thing in the blacksmith shop. My father was furious and hung me at the door of the shop for a long time. He almost beat me to death. He said he didn't kill me. The only reason to kill them directly is that once they are killed, no one will help the family work, and no one will inherit the blacksmith shop...

"That year, we failed to fulfill the lord's order, and my father was beaten dozens of times in the castle..."

Obviously, this incident during the apprenticeship left a deep imprint on Hammer's heart.

And when he was punished by his father, and when he saw his father go to the castle to receive the punishment, many thoughts about the blacksmith's furnace began to sprout in his heart.

Fortunately, thirty years have passed, and those buds have not completely withered in Hammer's heart-maybe they have withered, but Rebecca's plan to "paint a magic circle on the furnace to replace the runes" made this man. Hope resurfaced in the old blacksmith's heart.

To be able to re-emerge hope, this is already a pretty good breakthrough.

Since the old blacksmith wasn't as immobile and reluctant to accept new things as he feared, some things seemed ready to start.