The "Magic Energy" project is progressing even more slowly than expected.

Wald and his assistant Neham's experiments ultimately failed, and there was no real progress for a long time, and Neam continued to learn and improve under the teasing of his peers, but as the head of the magic laboratory, Wald had a lot of other research to focus on, and once the alchemy workshop was almost completed, he needed to adjust his focus there.

"My lord, this year's ore purchases are more than six times higher than in previous years, and it is not surprising that almost all sellers' prices are skyrocketing." When Madeleine and Colin visited the newly built alchemy workshop together, they talked about this year's purchases.

"Expected." Colin had gotten the rough idea from Jennifer. He didn't care too much about the wealthy, the gold coins were useless in the castle, so it was better to let them go out for a walk.

"Only Dadamir, instead of increasing the price, sold us a lot of ore and blackstone almost at cost price." Madeleine added.

"Dadamir ......"

Colin remembered that his father-in-law, Duke Violet, had told him that he could turn to Dadamir for help when he was in trouble.

Although Dadamir was much smaller than Shaya, it was a solid kingdom, and King Edward II was said to be diligent and virtuous, and governed the country well.

It's a pity that like many small countries around him, Dadamir is sandwiched between Tulum and the Western Continent, and his position is rarely biased towards Tulum, so although he has a good relationship with Oliver and the Duke of Violet, he is struggling in geopolitics.

Colin has not actually taken the matter of asking for help too seriously, although Edward II accepted Tulum's help to ascend to the throne, but after so many years, it is no longer ungrateful to be able to stand firmly on Tulum's side, and it may be a little difficult to let the family come up with real money to help, not to mention that Charya's situation has not yet reached that point.

However, to Colin's surprise, the other party took the initiative to help without opening his mouth.

This made him a little unhappy.

You must know that Dadamir itself is not rich, not to mention that he has to constantly deal with pressure from neighboring countries and the western continent.

Seeing that Colin was silent, Madeleine thought that he did not know about Dadamir's situation, and explained: "Dadamir's main source of income is the iron ore in the country, and the fishing industry in the Emerald Lake to increase some income. ”

"There are several countries around the Emerald Lake." Colin recalls the map west of Shaya.

"There are four countries, including Dadamir, and they often get into trouble because of fishing."

In terms of size, this kind of contradiction between small countries can't make any waves on the entire continent, but this is precisely the result of the secret rivalry between the Blue Alliance and the Tulum Kingdom.

The two sides are both rivals and natural allies against Oshik, and their relationship is both friend and foe.

"Did the Duke and Dadamir communicate a lot?" Colin suddenly had some interest in the small country.

"The personal relationship between Oliver and Edward II is good, but at the national level, in order to avoid suspicion, there is no too close contact, although there are some things that everyone knows, but they can't be put on the table, just like those small countries that are against Dadamir, the Blue Alliance will not support it on the surface." Madeleine explained heartily.

"This favor must be written down, and in addition...... Those who sell our ore at a high price also need to remember...... Lady Madeleine, you're bothered with these things. ”

Colin has always maintained the greatest respect for Madeleine, after all, people are not his subordinates, purely for the sake of Duke Oliver's face to stay as a helper, not to mention that she is still Sene's highest-level magician, in terms of personal strength, Colin may not be as good as her. A high-level magician who can be a guest wherever he goes.

After Madeleine left, Colin followed Wald through the alchemy workshop.

Frankly speaking, today's workshops are not very technical, and they cannot associate it with the high-end word "alchemy", except for the integration of all the processes of the blacksmith into a large-scale, assembly-line ironmaking process.

Although there are some prototypes of automation, they are only improved on the basis of existing technology, and similar equipment has been in operation in Gilman for more than two years, but unfortunately it has not been able to be widely promoted due to various problems.

Replacing human labor with machinery is beautiful to say, but there is a key issue here.

Impetus.

The Industrial Revolution was sparked by the advent of the steam engine, which had an improved energy conversion efficiency of 8%, but in this world, even the Burning Demon Set on Gilman's top-of-the-line magic loom was less than 1% efficient.

It is barely reasonable to use it in a small amount of high-value-added products such as gold weave cloth, but it is obviously impractical to put it on real high-power industrial equipment.

In addition, the cost of blackstone is much higher than that of coal on the earth, so that although many industries can achieve mechanical automation with the help of magic patterns, they have not been able to really realize it due to various reasons such as cost.

There are only two ways to solve this problem, either to find very cheap energy sources that can be produced very much, or to improve the efficiency of energy conversion.

The efficient conversion of energy has always been a major problem to be overcome in modern magic art.

Therefore, this set of equipment in the alchemy workshop still relies on manpower to operate.

But even so, for the blacksmiths of Twilight, this large creature of a huge furnace, dozens of anvils, and a variety of incomprehensible equipment gives a sense of breathless oppression.

……

Raff was the first day to come to the Alchemy Workshop.

At the door, he was given a thick blue robe and a pair of shoes that were extremely hard to the touch.

He was then led by a well-mannered-looking administrator, also dressed in a blue robe, and several other companions who had worked in a blacksmith shop.

"My name is Eric, and I'll train you in the next few days."

"I know you're all experienced blacksmiths, but here, the way you 'strike iron' will be different than you used to."

"First and foremost, safety always comes first in the workshop."

"Anyone in the workshop, at all times, must wear the blue robes you wear and the shoes you have been given."

“……”

Despite the importance of knowing what the steward was saying, Raff's gaze was often drawn to the spectacular furnace next to him.

In fact, most of the people who came with him were in this state as well.

The apprentice magician named Eric had apparently received more than one group of blacksmiths, and he didn't blame them for their status, and he would emphasize it again and again when it came time for formal training.

He simply stopped the introduction and led the group all the way inside.

"Raff, look at the big stove......"

"That's probably bellows, it's the first time I've seen such a strange bellows."

"What are these chain-like things for?"

“……”

Raff sighed frequently as he listened to his companion's pointers.

Jerry is a talker, and he can talk to himself for a long time about nothing, let alone in such a fresh environment.

"Hey, are the two people over there also blacksmiths, white and tender, and they don't look like they have much strength......"

Eric didn't care about their whispered discussion, until he heard the last sentence and followed Jerry's pointing, and then hurriedly reached out and pressed his hand: "Don't be blind, that's Lord Lord." ”