Chapter 74

Although he said he was going to take Brian to try steelmaking, in reality, Tang En was also at a loss about how to do it. In short, he first took Brian to get some limestone, then went to the charcoal factory to get a batch of charcoal, and finally found a deserted place at the edge of the forest to start the work.

"Big brother, what are you planning to do?"

Brian watched Tang En squat down and study the stones, his face full of confusion. He was clearly supposed to observe and learn, but he couldn't understand anything, let alone learn anything!

"Calcining limestone."

"Limestone?"

"Right, these stones."

Tang En pointed to a few pieces of limestone nearby: "Steelmaking requires quicklime, and these limestone stones will produce quicklime and a gas when calcined at high temperatures."

"These stones? We have them all over the place."

The Ambrose Mountains themselves were a super-large ore vein, and with the dwarves digging around, it was normal to have a lot of limestone.

"Oh, then remember, this stone is essential for steelmaking."

After saying that, Tang En seemed to have recalled enough. He casually waved his hand, and the Mage's Hand lifted the limestone stones into the air. Then, with a thought, a cluster of scorching flames suddenly appeared in the air.

"Hey!? Big brother, are you a mage?"

Brian was very surprised: "From the way you fought before, I always thought you were a warrior!"

"Don't tell anyone else."

Tang En said casually, but his eyes were fixed on the limestone as the temperature of the flames kept rising.

"Why?"

Brian scratched his head: "Mages are much more popular than warriors. If your people knew you were a mage, they would probably admire you even more and be more obedient. If it were me, I would definitely tell them. Why do you want to keep it a secret? Is it to maintain a sense of mystery? Or do you have enemies? Or—"

"Shut up or get lost!"

Tang En's face was full of frustration. Brian was enthusiastic about work and fighting, and he was a good person, but why did he talk so much? Especially after drinking, he was like a dam that had burst, talking non-stop...

Brian said indignantly: "How can you forbid me from speaking? Speaking is a gift from the goddess—"

Silence spell.

Tang En's lips moved slightly, and Brian's voice instantly disappeared.

"Huh? Why can't I speak?"

Brian touched his lips and opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He immediately panicked and started shouting, but still, no sound came out.

Tang En ignored him and focused on calcining the limestone.

Soon, the limestone turned white, and the Mage's Hand gently shook, causing a layer of powdered calcium oxide, or quicklime, to fall off.

With the help of magic, it took only a few minutes for the limestone to be completely calcined into quicklime.

After collecting the pile of quicklime, Tang En turned to look at Brian and almost burst out laughing.

This guy was actually opening his mouth wide and digging inside with his hands, as if he thought there was something wrong with his throat.

Tang En lifted the silence spell and said, "If you talk too much again, I'll make you unable to speak for a day."

"Big brother, I—Hey!? I can speak again! Damn—it's your spell!"

Brian immediately jumped up: "You actually restricted my ability to speak!"

"Spells are used for such moments."

Tang En said sternly: "Do you still want to continue watching?"

"I—"

Brian said dejectedly: "Alright, you win!"

Brian had wanted to fight Tang En, but after thinking about it, he realized that Tang En was not only good at close combat but was also a mage. How could he fight him now!

Tang En then pointed to the pile of quicklime and said, "See, this is quicklime."

Brian leaned in to look: "I've never seen it before."

"Very normal... don't get too close, it can be very problematic if it gets in your eyes."

Tang En said: "When this stuff comes into contact with water, it turns into slaked lime and releases a lot of heat, which is very dangerous."

"Oh? Wouldn't it be great to use it to sneak attack in a battle?"

Brian was just saying it casually, but Tang En's eyes lit up, realizing another use for quicklime.

When he watched "The Deer and the Cauldron," Wei Xiaobao used quicklime to defeat many enemies, showing how powerful it was. The people in Plandar had never seen quicklime and wouldn't know how to deal with it. If he suddenly used this powerful weapon in battle...

Tang En silently noted this and then said, "The quicklime and charcoal are ready, now we can start steelmaking."

"How do we do it?"

"Originally, we should smelt the ore first, but to save time, I got some pig iron ingots from Edgar."

Tang En took out some pig iron ingots, and the magical flames instantly reached over 2000 degrees Celsius, melting the pig iron ingots into a liquid in a short time.

"After the pig iron is melted, we blow charcoal and quicklime into the liquid..."

On Earth, coke is commonly used for steelmaking, which is produced by high-temperature and high-pressure dry distillation of coal. Tang En had never heard of coal in Plandar, so he didn't consider coke. However, using charcoal for steelmaking is actually more effective, although it consumes a lot of charcoal. But... the endless Radia Forest and Emerald Forest next to Ellington are the best sources of charcoal.

As long as they plant more trees as they use them, they won't bother the elves...

Brian scratched his head: "Why do we blow in charcoal and quicklime?"

"Because iron is not pure. The iron ore... how should I explain it?"

Tang En was frustrated. Should he teach Brian some basic chemistry?

"Iron ore is actually a compound called iron oxide. The process of melting iron ore is essentially removing the impurities. The higher the melting temperature, the more complete the reaction..."

Tang En wanted to explain the oxidation-reduction reaction, but seeing Brian's blank face, he decided not to.

After all, his own chemistry knowledge was only half-decent...

When blowing in charcoal, to increase the reduction, Tang En used a wind spell to blow a large amount of air into the liquid—ideally, pure oxygen should be used, but Tang En had no way to produce and store gases...

Producing pure oxygen is relatively simple. He could use an electrolyzer to electrolyze pure water, with hydrogen gas at the negative electrode and oxygen gas at the positive electrode. Even if he didn't know which was the negative and which was the positive electrode, he could just try it out...

But the problem was storage.

Tang En had no way to produce high-pressure storage tanks to store the gases...

So he could only use the simplest method, blowing in a large amount of air.

"As for why we blow in quicklime, it's to make the impurities in the liquid coagulate and form slag, which can then be removed. See? Those rolling things on top? That's the slag formed from the quicklime."

Tang En indicated for Brian to look closely at the slag. As the Mage's Hand stirred, many lumps floated on the surface of the iron liquid. Brian looked closely and was surprised: "These pig iron ingots were made by Edgar and me, and there are still so many impurities?"

"Of course, many things can't be seen with the naked eye, but that doesn't mean they don't exist."

Tang En shrugged, his eyes fixed on the flames above the iron liquid. When the flames weakened and became faint, Tang En filtered out all the slag—using magic made this process very convenient.

Actually, the steelmaking process is much more complex, but Tang En only remembered this much. He couldn't recall the other complex steps.

After stirring the iron liquid to ensure the carbon powder and iron reacted fully, Tang En decided to shape it.

As for other processing... well, well.

After stopping the magical flames, Tang En used his magic to shape the iron liquid into square blocks, which cooled and were neatly arranged.

Brian leaned in to touch them: "Big brother, is this steel?"

"Um, probably—"

Because his memory was fuzzy and he wasn't an expert, Tang En wasn't sure if his attempt was successful. However, he couldn't lose face in front of Brian, so he smiled proudly and waved his hand, "—of course! To be precise, it's a carbon-iron alloy, but... you don't need to worry about the name. This is steel, yes, definitely steel!"

"But it looks just like the pig iron ingots."

"The difference is significant... go back and try making some weapons with this steel."

Tang En manually smelted several dozen kilograms of "steel," which was enough for Brian to experiment with.

"No problem!"

Brian was very interested in testing new materials and wanted to know how superior this "carbon-iron alloy" was.

As they started to return, Tang En was deep in thought. If he could produce some practical steel this way, the next step would be to consider building a steel mill. Before that, he needed to solve the problem of how ordinary workers could achieve some of the more important processes.

Blowing in charcoal and quicklime could be done with magic-assisted tools, and removing slag could be achieved with high-temperature-resistant magical metal tools. Stirring could be considered by adding a magic array at the bottom of the steelmaking furnace, controlled by a simplified switch to regulate the output of magic...

After going through the process in his mind, Tang En sighed deeply. With his limited knowledge, he could only do so much. If even he produced substandard steel, he would have to consider other methods—Plandar was a world with magic, and it was normal to have some strange and special alloys, perhaps even better than steel?

After returning to Ellington, Brian immediately started testing the properties of the steel. ===PS: Almost forgot to update... finished voting~~~~

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