Day 18.
Grom stood in the middle of the courtyard, his massive arms crossed over his chest. He looked like a bear judging a circus act.
He stared at the 2-meter tall Blast Furnace.
He stared at Kael, the skinny potter covered in soot.
He stared at the pile of ugly, rough cast-iron pickaxes.
"You call this a forge?" Grom spat on the ground. "It looks like a chimney built by a drunk goblin."
Kael flinched, offended. "It melts rock into liquid fire! It creates iron faster than any smith!"
"It creates garbage," Grom picked up one of the cast-iron tools. He didn't even test it. He just looked at the grain. "It's brittle. You melted it too hot. You poured it into wet sand so it cooled too fast. The crystal structure is a mess. If I hit a dragon with this, the dragon would laugh."
Rian stepped forward. He wasn't angry; he was pleased. Grom knew his stuff.
"That is why you are here, Grom," Rian said. "This machine gives us quantity. You will give us quality."
Rian pointed to the pile of Charcoal and the raw "Pig Iron" ingots that came out of the furnace.
"We need to cut the Petrified Trees in the South to get the Silica Sand beneath them," Rian explained. "Regular axes shatter on contact. I need a saw. A saw hard enough to cut stone-wood, but flexible enough not to snap."
Grom looked at the ingots. "You want High Carbon Steel. Hard, but not brittle."
"Exactly," Rian handed him a blueprint. "Can you do it?"
Grom looked at the drawing. It was a long, two-man crosscut saw with jagged, W-shaped teeth.
"If the iron is pure... I can do it," Grom grunted. "But I need a real anvil. And a hammer that weighs more than a spoon."
The First Spark
That afternoon, the courtyard turned into a concert of metal.
Rian had set up a temporary open forge next to the Blast Furnace. Grom didn't use the bellows himself; he had two strong serfs pumping air until the coals were white-hot.
Grom took a glowing red bar of iron from the fire with tongs.
He didn't hesitate.
CLANG!
The sound was different from anything the serfs had heard. It wasn't a dull thud. It was a singing ring that echoed off the castle walls.
Grom was an artist.
He didn't just hit the metal; he guided it.
Hit. Turn. Hit. Fold. Hit. Flatten.
Rian watched with his System active.
[Ding! Observation: Master Smithing Technique]
Action: He is folding the metal to align the grain.
Effect: Removing microscopic air bubbles. Increasing density.
Carbon Control: He is judging the carbon content by the color of the sparks (Spark Testing).
"More air!" Grom roared at the serfs. "It's getting cold!"
He worked for four hours straight. Sweat steamed off his body in the freezing air, but he didn't stop. He took the rough, ugly iron Rian gave him and beat it into submission.
Finally, he plunged the glowing blade into a barrel of oil (not water, to prevent cracking).
HISSSSS! A massive cloud of white smoke erupted. The smell of burning oil filled the yard.
Grom pulled it out.
It was a Saw Blade. Six feet long. Dark gray. The teeth were sharp enough to cut a hair floating in the air.
"It is done," Grom panted, wiping his forehead with a dirty rag. He looked exhausted but alive. His eyes shone with a pride that had been missing for years.
Rian walked over and touched the cold steel.
It was smooth. It was perfect.
[Item Analysis: Tempered High-Carbon Steel Saw]
Grade: B+ (Masterwork)
Durability: 500/500
Attribute: Hardness Level 8 (Can cut Petrified Wood).
"Kael," Rian called the potter. "Fit the handles."
The Test: The Stone Forest
An hour later, a small expedition team stood at the edge of the "Dead Forest" to the South.
The trees here were gray and lifeless, their bark turned to stone over centuries of mineralization.
A normal axe would bounce off these trunks.
Grom and the strongest guard, Garrick, took positions on either side of a massive petrified oak tree. They held the handles of the new saw.
"Pull!" Rian ordered.
Scritch... Scritch... ZZZZT!
At first, the sound was harsh. But then, the steel teeth bit into the fossilized wood.
White dust flew out, not sawdust.
ZZZT! ZZZT! ZZZT!
The saw sang. It didn't dull. It didn't snap.
Grom and Garrick found a rhythm. The blade ate through the rock-hard trunk inch by inch.
Ten minutes later...
CRACK! BOOM!
The massive stone tree toppled over, crashing into the snow and exposing the earth beneath.
The serfs cheered. "Timber! Stone Timber!"
Rian walked to the hole left by the tree roots. He knelt and grabbed a handful of the white, sparkly sand revealed underneath.
Silica Sand. (Essential for Glass).
Rian stood up and looked at Grom. The blacksmith was leaning on the tree, smirking.
"Not bad for a mud tower's iron," Grom admitted grudgingly.
"And not bad for a drunkard's hammer," Rian shot back with a grin.
Rian looked at the fallen tree, then at the sand in his hand.
"Hance," Rian commanded. "Bring the carts. We harvest the sand for the glass. And we take this stone-wood back."
"What for, My Lord? It won't burn," Hance asked.
"No," Rian tapped the rock-hard log. "But if we cut it into planks... we can build walls that arrows can't pierce. Or floors that never rot."
[Ding! Resource Unlocked: Petrified Lumber & Silica Sand]
[Kingdom Tech Progress: Glass Age Initiated]
Rian looked at the setting sun.
Now he had the Iron, the Tools, the Skill, and the Raw Material.
"Tomorrow," Rian whispered. "We make the greenhouse transparent."
End of Chapter 16