Chapter 234 — Tyre's Curiosity
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 3
Only by shaping every link in the industrial chain and setting them all running in their proper places, only by thoroughly establishing a system of division of labor, cooperation, and assembly-line production, could the territory escape the traditional workshop-artisan mode of production and be freed from that inefficient, hugely wasteful hodgepodge of production.
In the Rune Foundry, Tyre watched with astonished eyes those neatly arrayed machines, watched as hexagonal standard substrates were fed onto the stamping presses. With a great crash, a heavy steel hammer, driven by a flywheel, struck the surface of the substrate, pressing intricate rune indentations directly into the relatively soft substrate material. These substrates were then immersed in a mixed solution of quartz sand and hot resin to fill the rune grooves with mana-conducting material, while the excess solution on the substrate surface would be scraped off and recovered in the next step. Once the mana-conducting material in the grooves had solidified, the substrate was polished by machine to ensure that no mana-conducting material remained anywhere outside the rune grooves to affect the spell's effect. If the rune substrate was relatively simple, the processing was complete at this stage; if it was more complex, some manual steps were still required—inlaying crystals into reserved grooves, for instance.
This was utterly different from the way the land-dwellers made things that Tyre had heard about, and it could not help but remind her of the processing plants in Antavien that had been restored to operation.
While Tyre was examining the production scene in the Rune Foundry with curiosity, Gao Yang was just as intently observing the siren's reaction.
Curiosity appeared on her face, which set Gao Yang's mind somewhat at ease—things were developing in the direction he had hoped.
He did not mind in the least letting Tyre see the so-called "technical secrets" of his territory. In fact, if this normally indolent siren were willing, he would have no objection even if she wanted to see the original design blueprints of the Magic Web.
For this siren came from a society manifestly far more advanced than human civilization; the place she lived was even more developed than the elves' Silver Empire.
He was not at all worried that Tyre would steal any technology—or rather, if she did take an interest in some technology of Cecil's, Gao Yang would only be all the more pleased.
Only by arousing this siren's curiosity and attention could he open up a discussion with her on technical matters. Loath as he was to admit it, human civilization was plainly a "low-level civilization" in Tyre's eyes, even though the siren lady herself bore not the slightest intent of discrimination or contempt. Yet the gap in technological level between the two was itself an established fact, one that needed no verbal glossing.
Under such circumstances, Gao Yang needed to make some attempts—to see whether the "arcane industry" taking shape in the Cecil territory could interest Tyre. If she were interested, then technical topics would be easy to broach.
When the moment seemed about right, he came to Tyre's side. "How does it feel?"
"Very…" Tyre opened her mouth. She had meant to compliment him with "advanced," but it quickly occurred to her that Gao Yang probably had no need of such flattery, and that the factory's state was hardly yet deserving of the word "advanced." So she chose another phrasing. "An interesting mode of production. So you humans have already begun using this method to mass-produce magical items? I thought you were still making magical tools in workshops and magic laboratories… That's what our previous 'wandering sister' said when she came back."
"In fact… everywhere else on this continent is still like that for now," Gao Yang said with a bitter smile and a shake of his head. "What you see before you should be the only place that uses machines to mass-produce magic arrays."