plumnovel #764 - Very secret
#764 - Very secret
When Horn entered the study, he happened to see Dunak holding a fountain pen up to the light to observe it.
"This is called a Dick fountain pen," Horn introduced. "A quill made of steel, but it's not very good to use yet. It either leaks ink or runs out of ink, and it often tears the paper."
Running his rough fingers over the surface of the nib, the old dwarf scraped it against his skin: "Is Dick the name of the inventor?"
"Yes, also a dwarf, Halkin's cousin."
"How much money can he make from this patent?"
"The production rights for Langsand County sold for 400 gold pounds," Horn poured a cup of black tea for the old dwarf. "Currently, there are probably two workshops in trial production. A Dick fountain pen costs about 2 gold pounds, but no one buys it."
Dunak suddenly licked the tip of the pen with his tongue. After a moment, he suddenly asked, "Is it stamped with heavy steel, then cut open with a hot ray, and then quenched in a water-based potion to eliminate internal stress?"
Horn glanced at the Privy Council monk at the door. The shock in the Privy Council monk's eyes explained everything.
"Hmph, trivial tricks." Dunak jumped onto the sofa in Horn's office, curiously touching this piece of furniture he had never seen before. "Two grains of hard copper soldered to the nib will prevent it from piercing the paper and leaking ink."
"Take note of that, let Dick and the others try it out."
Having been in this world for so long, Horn had a rough understanding of the metallurgical classification system here.
Including the dwarves, they always divide metals into four types: gold, silver, copper, and iron. All other metals are derivatives of these four metals.
For example, mithril, mercury, orichalcum, refined iron (steel), etc. Whichever metal looks like which, that's what it is, gold or silver.
Most metallurgical methods are wet methods, using various potions to extract and replace metals.
Some metallurgical processes are quite slow. For example, steel actually needs to be carburized with carburizing agents and wood ash little by little.
It takes more than twice the time and manpower of a blast furnace, the efficiency is too poor.
Seeing that the people in the room had left, Dunak suddenly took out a lamp from his bosom.
"This is?"
"A Lamp of Silence." Dunak reached out and dragged the low table closer to him. "Within the range of the light, our voices will not be transmitted."
Horn glanced at this thing in surprise. Dwarves also have a lot of good treasures in their hands.
"Before we begin our conversation," Dunak's voice was deep and somewhat mysterious, "have you seen the dragon beneath the City of Celestial Maidens?"
"You know there's a dragon beneath the City of Celestial Maidens?" The old dwarf's first words startled Horn.
A Dragon Worship Sect dwarf elder actually knows that there really is a dragon in this world?
"Of course I know. Besides me, the other four elders of the Dragon Worship Sect all know," Dunak rolled his eyes. "We worship the ancient dragons, not that little lizard that ekes out a living."
Horn was even more surprised: "Isn't Lady Cynthia a dragon?"
"She is a dragon, that's fine too." The old dwarf shook his head, his beard shaking with him. "But she only has the body of a dragon. Have you ever seen a savage raised by monkeys? Cynthia is that type."
So Cynthia is a dragon who lost her knowledge inheritance, but didn't she say she knows dragon language magic?
Seeming to guess what Horn was thinking, the old dwarf said bluntly: "Dragons have bloodline inheritance, but they also need adult dragons to explain it. That's why we Dragon Worship Sect dwarves are the true inheritors of the dragons."
Dragon Worship Sect… inheritors… dragon language magic…
Horn seemed to understand something. He took a sip of coffee to calm his nerves, and then asked, "Have you Dragon Worship Sect dwarves always used dragon language magic for forging?"
"You're quite smart, but dragon language magic is a stupid name. The correct translation should be 'Aether Deduction Based on the Dragon Language Information Network'."
"So your key metallurgical technologies all rely on dragon language?"
"Partly, and partly inherited from the dwarven gods.
It's just that we don't have a natural furnace like a volcano, so we have to use dragon language forging.
Humans have thought about it for a lifetime, racking their brains trying to figure out how to make a metal, but it's actually a magical creation, isn't that ironic?"
Horn opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.
Dunak picked up the black tea and took a sip, looking down at the brown tea soup: "Now you know why we are unwilling to make the process public, right?
Do you know why the Dragonblight Mountains are called the Dragonblight Mountains? Do you know why we call this kind of ore Dragonbone Shards?"
Horn was stunned by his question: "You're not saying that Dragonbone Shards are real dragon bones, are you?"
"To be precise, the Dragonblight Mountains are the graveyard of ancient dragons, and Dragonbone Shards are minerals derived from dragon corpses, the medium we use to cast dragon language magic."
These dwarves are really using dragon remains for alchemy!
No wonder they regard Dragonbone Shards as sacred objects, no wonder they worship dragons, now it's clear.
Just like monks must worship Messiah to use divine arts, dwarves must worship dragons to use special forging techniques.
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However, in this way, making this secret public would be a rather heavy burden for the dwarves.
"Now you know our difficulties, right?" Dunak said lightly, "I can work for you, but I cannot make the core metallurgical technology public, let alone record it in a patent."
"I understand." Horn nodded. "Your metallurgy is already valuable enough knowledge for us."
However, since the dwarves, like Cynthia, use dragon language magic, do they know anything about Starforged Gears?
"Have you heard of Starforged Gears? The kind of metal that can connect the rotation of celestial bodies?"
"Never heard of it, can you let me see it?"
Horn directly lifted the floor of the room, pointing to a Starforged Gear the size of a washbasin: "Here."
This gear is used for water supply and is not currently working.
The old dwarf immediately approached, touching and licking it, making Horn step back a few steps.
"This is a never-before-seen metal. Where did you get it?" Dunak raised his right hand. "I swear not to spread it."
Horn originally didn't want to tell him, but after all, this old dwarf might have clues about it, so he still told the old dwarf.
However, he concealed various key information, including the wolf girl and the aether spire, and added a lot of false content to embellish it.
"I see." Dunak stroked the gear. "This is a completely new material. The dragon language forging techniques we have do not have any relevant content."
Horn's face darkened: "So Cynthia is lying to us?"
"Not necessarily, no one knows how much Cynthia has learned from her inheritance.
According to what you said, since that witch created this gear, she might have used dragon language magic.
Although alchemy developed from dragon language, it has undergone a lot of transformation in the meantime, and the routes are already very different."
"Alright." Horn opened his mouth, about to ask again, but heard a rapid knock on the door.
"Sorry." Apologizing, Horn stood up and opened the door. "Didn't I say, unless it's extremely urgent, don't…"
Before he could finish speaking, the Privy Council monk leaned close to Horn's ear and whispered rapidly for a while.
In an instant, Horn's face changed drastically.
"What do you mean? What did you say happened to Shattered Stone Plain?!"