The Black Iron Glory
Disappointment and Gift

Chapter 45

Disappointment and Gift

Claude was a little disappointed. Although he had spent most of the week translating the magic book, he had found nothing he expected inside, such as how to become a magus, how to raise one's level in magic, and how to increase one's level in magic, primary magic policy and so on .

Instead, the notebook was more of a collection of blueprints and magical designs. Based on the diagram, it seemed like a magic diagram designed to reduce the consumption of magical energy, or not use it at all, to produce the same effect. The goal was to allow normal people to use magic through the use of certain techniques, such as diagrams of upgraded weapons.

However, it was only Claude's guess based on his weak comprehension in magic. He could only understand basically what the diagram was about using their description translation, but he could not get a clear idea of what the actual function was. Since there were many unknown magical symbols throughout the diagram, Claude could only imagine what they meant.

In addition, many alchemical terms are used in notebooks. That was the key to why Claude couldn't understand most of it. Had it not been for the enhanced weapon scheme he had seen, Claude would have had absolutely no idea what alchemy was. He only managed to find something by guessing based on the description of the weapon's scheme.

In his past life, he had seen a documentary about the making of firearms. They were not much different from matches and were also considered to be early firearms. However, he used a different firing mechanism; a piece of rock instead of a slow match.

Most importantly, both guns used similar barrel designs. Without a good barrel, even the best firing mechanism is useless. Barrel making on the other hand is essential for weapons manufacturing. A rifle barrel, for example, can be made by hammering the barrel over the mandrel with the shotgun's inverted image to create its rugged shape before it will be shaped and refined further. There is also a method that connects three parts of a small barrel into one large composite. There is an even more extreme method that makes rifling by drilling a hole through an iron rod to make a barrel while carving the rifling at the same time. Naturally, this method varies in terms of time and oath.

When firearms were first invented, making upgrades to the barrel was one of the hardest parts. He had learned about the different ways a barrel could be machined. Most of them are based on the modification of old methods for producing barrels in the hope of getting the best effect. Some netizens even went to great lengths to make early firearms with modern technology faster.

However, making gun barrels in this world did not seem to be a big deal. It seemed that all the magi had to do was use alchemy. They only needed to place the materials into a secret formation and heat it up with magical flames. After that, they could use magic to form a melted mixture of materials to create a long alloy rifle barrel inside their secret array.

Had it not been for the modified weapon scheme, Claude would have never known that forming metal was such a simple feat. The reason for that is the large paragraph about the scheme dedicated to the manufacture of rifle barrels suitable by common blacksmiths in a state when magic and alchemy were not available so they could be mass produced. It was then that Claude understood that the true technological advancement of this world was happening in the world of alchemy.

While making one barrel of a weapon was easy through the use of alchemy, and making dozens or even hundreds of them was possible through employing qualified magus in the alchemy arts through the use of money and connections, he said, it was definitely impossible for thousands or tens of thousands of people.gun barrels to be produced on a mass scale. No magus would want to take on such a job. Other than other things, the cost of setting up the secret formation and the magical materials required for such an undertaking was enormous. They also needed magus, a proper alchemist, to carefully control the formation of metal for each gun barrel made.

Trying to make so many gun barrels on that scale without the help of a magi or alchemist was a huge industrial endeavor. On the back of the weapons scheme, the ratio of metals used for the production of rifle barrels was recorded. It is quite clear that the ratio of metals required for secret smelting processes is not suitable for normal smelting. So, Landes suggested seven more metal mixtures in his work and noted that experimentation was needed to figure out which mixture was ideal.

On the next page is a blueprint for a kiln designed for a smelting process that is better to use with the ratio of metallic materials he proposed. It had a tall chimney, a wide fireplace and was described as being made of heat-resistant magic stones that had to be extracted from active volcanoes.

Having a suitable combustion chamber is only the first step. Next is to melt the metal and shape it into a rod shape for hammering. To achieve the same effect of magus manipulating molten metal into a fixed form, a complicated multi-step process is used. The next five pages of the notebook include five machines designed by Landes to replace the acute function that magus performs during that step.

There are machines that rely on wind and hydropower that are made to hammer repeatedly, sawing, drilling and smoothing the inside of each barrel. Some machines rely on complex mechanics powered through repetitive stepping pedals. To ensure that the barrels were made with maximum accuracy, Landes even designed the bits used for drilling and five accurate measurement devices. It was indeed a complicated manufacturing process that required a huge investment.

While using alchemy to produce a small number of barrels was more profitable, this new manufacturing process was far superior when it required tens of thousands. There was no need for magi, no need for an alchemy array, no need for many precious magic ingredients. Even the workers involved only had to pass simple training to be able to produce countless barrels according to the set standards.

Claude recalls that a hidden diary entry in the cookbook stated that Baron Regius Au Syr had asked Landes to modify the process of making weapons five years before the time of writing. He even wanted commoners to be able to make standard weapons without relying on magi and alchemists. It looks like the notebook that Claude now contains the design made to the request of Regius Au Syr.

Only when the baron had this new manufacturing process was he able to increase his brotherhood in the war against the magi. They finally had a weapon they could use against them: a match gun. More importantly, the creation of those weapons did not require the involvement of the Magi. Even the Magi were unable to stop the proliferation of those weapons and that was how the baron was allowed to form his own weapon unit with over eight thousand people.

Claude put down his notebook and let out a long sigh.

If he was a magus who knew something about alchemy, then the notebook would be an extremely valuable treasure to him. There are many designs inside the notebook that can reduce the consumption of magic power. It was a pity that Claude was not a magus, but a normal high school student with some magic talent.

Of the 38 pages made of leather filled with secret writing, Claude only understood the ones related to the upgraded weapon. After all, they were designed with the aim of letting even common blacksmiths make weapons to standard. The rest of the diagram was much more difficult for him to decipher, such as the input of magic power, the layout of the secret alchemy diagram, magic crystals and the materials required for the process and so on. They're nothing to him except goob.

He was like a high school student getting a university textbook. While he could recognize the words within, he did not understand what it meant collectively. That was especially the case when he saw the alchemy calculations and runs scattered throughout the diagram as well as the units they used in the calculations. Without going through hard training on the field, there was no way he could understand them.

If only I had a beginner's guide to magic or something. . . I might be able to become at least a low rank magus through self-study in that way, Claude thought. But even he knew that this was just a fantasy. The various nations of Freia saw magi as an incarnation of evil and forbade everything that had to do with them. Even the word 'magic' itself is somewhat taboo. How could there be books with magical knowledge just lying somewhere?

The only good thing that arises from that is that Claude gains a better understanding of the ancient Hez after destroying his brain for a week to translate that notebook. After all, the Hebraic language is a descendant of ancient Hez and there are many similarities between the two. Right now, Claude would be able to understand roughly a book written in the ancient Hez even without the help of a dictionary.

"Claude, it's dinner time" Angelina called from outside her room.

Claude jolted from his mind. She forgot the time during her deep focus and did not even hear her brother's footsteps from outside.

“Alright, I'll be down soon.” He got up from his chair and stretched his body when he heard his sister coming down.

After cleaning his desk, Claude went down as well.

Morssen sat at the dinner table. As he looked at Claude, he instructed, "Claude, go to the carriage outside and bring the wooden crate behind for me."

Ferds have no horses or chariots. It was not that they had nowhere to park one, Morssen simply did not want to spend that much money to build a cage and hire a coachman. Morssen once made some calculations and found that the cost of eating two horses over the course of a year was higher than how much it cost a horse to buy. The fact that he needed a coachman to take care of his horse made it even more unfit to have his own carriage.

Morssen believed that he would not need a carriage, considering he did not leave the Whitestag often. Buying and maintaining a car is also not a small thing. The elements would break through the carriages quickly and a new coat of paint had to be applied. Hiring people to paint cost money and he found it too difficult to paint it himself.

The town hall also had many carriages and Morssen was allowed to use them due to his position as chief secretary. He could tolerate the appearance of a worn-out carriage in the city hall. In addition, Morssen also likes to drive his own train home. He thought that it made him seem more grounded and he could greet the townspeople while he was there. Claude on the other hand thought that the only reason Morssen liked to drive home was because he was too stingy to pay the fee to the coachman.

The train parked outside their house belonged to the city hall. At night, a coachman hired by the town hall would come to escort him back and come to pick up Morssen the next morning as usual. Claude opened the rear cabin of the carriage and saw a long wooden crate that stood taller than Claude himself. However, it was rather thin and not too heavy.

He took the crate into the dining room and asked, "What's inside?"

Morssen said, "Open up and look. It's a gift for you."

A bounty? Claude hurriedly opened the crate and inside was a long black match on top of the straw bearing.