Volume 1 Chapter 70 New alloy
“Of course, Xu Yi, his highness and the agricultural department has hoped that since they have provided tax deductions, your Frestech Chamber of Commerce can lower the price of your agricultural magic machines appropriately. At a minimum, make it so that all the nobles with territory in the kingdom can afford it.” Count Sean added.
“I ask Lord City Lord to pass to his majesty that this is something that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce should do. Perhaps you should tell his majesty of our company’s farmer support plan, that way his majesty can understand how much of a responsible company we are.” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“What is social responsibility? Why is there always strange words that come out of your mouth?” Count Sean looked at Xu Yi with a confused look, “Of course I have also reported to his majesty about your farmer support plan. His majesty has greatly praised it and has said that he wants you to further explain it when you make your audience. You should also prepare yourself on this matter.”
“Alright, I will definitely let his majesty completely approve of this place. The best case scenario is if he implements this plan throughout the kingdom.” Xu Yi said with a nod.
“You can raise this when you meet his majesty, but remember that you can’t speak randomly. If you carelessly mention this matter like you did in front of me and that kid Leslie, don’t blame me for not warning you when disaster hits.” Count Sean honestly said, “Xu Yi, you and your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is a company that people pay attention to, at least in our Banta City, so no matter what, you need to be careful.”
Xu Yi looked at Count Sean in surprise. The Lord City Lord wouldn’t casually say something like this and it was a friendly reminder.
“That’s right, I forgot that you are still a magician. The Magicians Guild’s test will be held in Anvilmar next month, you should be participating, right?” Count Sean asked.
“Un, I have already discussed this with Great Magician Camilla, I’ll be participating when the time comes.”
“Good, since you’ll be in Anvilmar next month, you won’t have to go on an extra trip. I’ll send a letter to his majesty telling him of this when I head back. When you head over to take the Magicians Guild’s test, his majesty can also summon you.”
Xu Yi quickly thanked him with a faint smile, “Many thanks to the Lord City Lord for caring about me this much.”
Count Sean gave a cold snort, “I am only taking care of you based on the fact that you invented the agricultural magic machines. If there are no good results with Leslie’s farms next year, you think I will be this polite to you when the time comes?”
Xu Yi laughed, “The Lord City Lord can be assured. Even if I have to go all out, I will let the Lord Viscount have a rich harvest!”
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After two days, Xu Yi went to Master Lanus’ dwarven tribe again.
It was different from last time when he came with Master Lanus because once Xu Yi provided funding, the dwarves provided labour and laid a smooth road to the outside road from the dwarven village. Xu Yi could directly head to the dwarven tribe while riding his horse drawn carriage.
This was the first time many dwarven children of the tribe had seen something like the horse carriage and couldn’t help surrounding it.
Xu Yi passed out the candy he had already prepared and drew a wave of cheers out of the children.
The dwarven tribe chief Siluka came to welcome him with a wide smile, “Chairman Xu, you haven’t come in such a long time, I thought that you had forgotten about us dwarven friends.”
Xu Yi bent over with the same wide smile to forcefully hug Siluka before pointing to Camby who came with him and said, “How could that be? With Camby and those dwarven brothers who I work with daily, I always think of my dwarven friends who are here whenever I see them. I’ve been too busy during this past period, so I didn’t come here. How is it? Has everyone been well during this time?”
“Many thanks to chairman Xu for your bonus, the lives of our tribe is much better than before. Not only are the children not hungry each day, they can also have several sets of new clothes.” Siluka said with a wide smile.
“No, no, no, chief Siluka, that money is not a bonus, rather it is a research fund. Do you understand? Research fund.” Xu Yi deliberately repeated it again.
Siluka had an awkward look on his honest face as he rubbed his head in an embarrassed manner. He lowered his voice to say, “This…..Chairman Xu, I won’t hide it from you, we have tried experimenting based on the method you’ve given us, but we haven’t once successfully refined the alloy metal you mentioned…..Look…..”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. If this research was that easy to succeed in, would he have such a headache over this matter.
He patted Siluka’s shoulder to comfort him, “It’s fine, research takes a lot of time. I didn’t expect you to have any real results in just two short months. You can just keep researching, there’s no rush.”
A blush appeared on Siluka’s face.
With how simple the personality of the dwarves was, the more uncaring Xu Yi was, the more uncomfortable they felt.
Camby was anxious looking at this, but he knew it wasn’t right for him to say anything for the tribe chief. He could only keep scratching his head and letting out a sigh.
Seeing the response of the two dwarves, Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a smile. If this was back on earth, the organization in charge of the research would find all kinds of ways to avoid taking responsibility, saying that they met difficulties and would need more investment.
But when it came to the dwarves, just a trivial five hundred gold coins was enough to make them feel this uncomfortable.
Actually Xu Yi had used this five hundred gold coins each month to pull in the dwarven craftsmen and now the hundred dwarves led by Camby had a value of over five hundred gold coins each month.
Not to mention that these dwarves had grasped the techniques to make the top of the line production magic machines and normal magic machines. This wasn’t something that could be valued with gold coins.
Camby had even told Xu Yi that several companies had secretly contracted him. They said that they were willing to give Camby and the dwarves under him a salary of twenty gold coins a month if they were willing to join them, but Camby had flatly rejected them.
Seeing that Siluka and Camby were a bit embarrassed, Xu Yi thought about it before waving his hand, “How about this, tribe chief Siluke, let me see the results of your research. Perhaps I can give some advice to you.”
Chief Siluka nodded, “Yes, yes, yes, chairman Xu understands this topic the best. If you look at it, perhaps there will be a pleasant surprise.”
Xu Yi and Camby were led by Siluka to a giant cave which hit them with intense heat waves.
Looking carefully, this over ten meter tall cave had a size that was bigger than a football field and there were all kinds of small and large furnaces made of stones inside the cave. At this time, most of the furnaces were filled with flames and the dwarves beside them kept adding more things into the furnace.
“Chairman Xu, look at this, we have begun experimenting with your methods, but we’ve never had any success. Later our clansmen have been adding different things into the iron liquid, creating all kinds of……Un……It can be considered the alloy you mentioned. But not a single one has met the requirements of the steel alloy you mentioned before.” Siluka was somewhat embarrassed as he gave his introduction.
“Oh? All kinds of different alloys? Where are they? Let me take a look.” Xu Yi asked in an interested voice.
“Here, they are all over there.” Siluka brought Xu Yi to a corner of the cave, pointing at the pile of iron lumps in front of them.
Xu Yi looked over the iron mountain that was twice his size and his eyes couldn’t help falling onto an iron ball that was reflecting the light.
He climbed onto the iron mountain to take it. Xu Yi was surprised to find that other than some parts that contained some impurities, the outside surface of the ball was very smooth. There was a silver glow to the surface and it didn’t have the rusty stain that normal iron things would have.
Xu Yi looked over the iron ball and found that this ball was very light. Reaching out to hit it, there wasn’t an echo from an empty core, which proved that the inside was quite solid.
“This thing is iron?” Xu Yi was a bit confused.
Siluka took an iron hammer and forcefully smashed down on it. The iron ball only slightly changed shape and it didn’t show any signs of cracking, so it could be seen that the iron ball was quite firm.
“Damn, what kind of alloy is this? It’s actually this strong?” Xu Yi couldn’t help becoming excited. He asked Siluka, “Chief Siluka, how was this iron ball made?”
Siluka took the iron ball from Xu Yi’s hand and found a mark at the bottom of the ball. He raised his hand to call over a dwarf with a long beard.
“Murru, was this iron ball made by you? Chairman Xu is very interested in it, tell us, how did you make it?”
The eyes of the dwarf called Murru lit up and he expectantly looked at Xu Yi, “Chairman Xu, this thing is useful?”
Xu Yi nodded, “Although we have no way to test its performance right now, based on what I just saw, it should be useful.”
Murru excitedly said, “Then that’s great! We’ve tried many things and have tested several thousand formulas, but we’ve never made the steel alloy you mentioned before. I never thought that there would be one that would be useful!”
Siluka glared at him, “Stop wasting words. Chairman Xu asked you how to made it, properly answer him.”
Murru suppressed the excitement in his heart. He looked at the iron ball and tilted his head to think about it before slowly responding, “This thing was actually made when I accidentally poured a cup of silver leaf liquid in……”