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Chapter 559 - The Benefits Trade Can Bring

"What do you mean?" Eldrian asked.

"Whoever made these are still clearly novices in both runesmithing and formation creation. They skipped learning how arrays worked, immediately trying to make a formation while adding runes haphazardly." Thesolis explained.

"Which explains why the mana supply has to be precise or it will mulfunction," Solvi added.

\'Their right, even after just reading through two books, I can tell that they rushed to making before understanding. But considering they just think of this as a game to enjoy and maybe make some money off of. It is understandable that they would rush in.\' Two added.

Eldrian wasn\'t even going to touch on the fact that Two had already finished two books. Instead, he just nodded like it was normal to finish two books in like two or three hours.

"The materials used are also far... What were they even thinking? But, I can understand how it works after looking at it. It uses the shockwave of an explosion to project those cannonballs, correct?" Solvi commented and asked.

"Yes, the cannon barrel focused the shockwave, or rather the pressure from the explosion. Forcing the cannonball forward at high speeds."

"And they used mana crystals to fuel this explosion rune, which also activated these hardening and shock absorption arrays... Why would they-" Solvi shook her head in disagreement.

It might sound like a good idea to try and make everything work as one but unless you truly knew how to, it would be far better to just make each part work independently towards the same goal.

Eldrian nodded, adding what he could while trying to piece everything together. His lacking experience in the area of crafting was clear. Especially compared to Thesolis and Solvi\'s; a Tier 6 formation master and Tier 7 -nearly Tier 8- blacksmith.

Finally, after around an hour of discussion, the two felt that they had what they needed to try and make their own. Unfortunately for Cadhan and his friends, they didn\'t know how to make their designs hidden, not one bit. Everything they did was as clear as the day before these two.

Their wish to keep their research to themselves was quickly going to disappear. And with it the possible profits.

"Are we going to start?" Thesolis asked, but Solvi shook her head in denial.

"No, you need to go get some rest. You\'ve been up all night for the past week, constantly fixing broken formations and arrays. I\'ll work with Eldrian to get the blacksmithing done, your work will only be after."

"I\'m helping?" Eldrian questioned.

"Yeah, this is too big for me to forge on my own. And if you can work your dynamic magic, then things will become far easier. In any case, worrying about trade secrets when we are about to die makes no sense."

Smiling, Eldrian couldn\'t agree more. Following Solvi back to her smithy, they got to work immediately. "They used a combination of black steel and Chrysos Gold to form the cannon barrel. Though why I don\'t understand. Neither is particularly good in doing what it needs to do."

"What do you mean?" Eldrian asked.

"Black steel is basically steel but more mana conductive. If you want it to focus on absorbing and concentrating the pressure from the explosion then normal steel will be fine and ten times cheaper. It is also easier to form." A sentence Solvi would later come to regret.

"The chrysos gold was used as the base to form the arrays on, which is just so so dumb. Sure, it looks good. but chrysos gold works far better as a catalyst than a base."

All that Solvi could do was shake her head in disapproval of the design.

"I\'m going to ask you to fuel the furnace, you know how, right?" Solvi asked as a few apprentices brought in boxes of materials.

Naturally, they didn\'t have any ingots the size of a cannon. Everything was going to need to be combined to size. The apprentices were also going to start doing the same in other rooms. But waiting for them would delay the first cannon massively.

"Never tried it, but it should be simple. Like connecting with a mana crystal?" Eldrian asked as he placed his hand on the side of the furnace. He could immediately feel a sort of connection forming with him and it as he focused on it, similar to the connection you got with a magic weapon.

Focusing on this more, Eldrian started pouring in his mana.

"Woah! That\'s more than enough!" Solvi slapped his hand from the furnace before he could add even more. "We want to heat up the metal, not melt it."

"Ah, sorry." Eldrian withdrew his hand while looking at the flames with curiosity. \'That was only fifty mana, does it enhance magic or is mana that efficient?\'

It also became clear to Eldrian why they had to form, instead of casting the iron. There was no equipment to cast with, everything had to be made by hammer.

\'I hope it will work, but it sure is smarter to start with this than jump straight to more expensive materials.\' Eldrian thought, hoping that the lack of magic metals wouldn\'t be a problem.

Slaving together, the two managed to form an ingot; or rather slab of iron of appropriate size, halfway through the day. At first, Eldrian only needed to regulate the heat of the furnace, latter however he also needed to help maneuver the massive slab of steel.

By the end, another assistant even had to come to help them with this.

"Right, now we need to form it like a barrel." Solvi frowned, she had been wracking her brain on just how to accomplish this. She had done her best to combine the ingots in a way that gave her a hollow center, but getting into it was not going to be easy.

\'Casting it will be so much easier, but not sure if cast iron will be able to withstand the extra explosive power from adding magic to the cannon.\' Eldrian pondered when they took a break he brought this up.

"I know of the technique, but it is mostly not used since the quality is shit compared to-"

"I know, it is also why I didn\'t bring it up immediately. But what if we make cheaper versions to simply bulk up our numbers. We can use them as backups or simply as a display to scare the undead. And on top of that, most anyone with blacksmithing experience should be able to do it." Eldrian countered.

"That is a good point, and if we use unprepared iron it won\'t even cost five gold per cannon. Though, we might actually run through our iron stockpile before needing to worry about the cost."

"If that happens we can just trade through the Chosen from other kingdoms and even empires." Eldrian countered, and upon hearing this Solvi\'s eyes flew wide.

"I finally get it now." She mumbled.

"Get what?"

"What you told Pelaros and the other. That we should stop underusing you. None of us considered the fact that we could use you guys to import goods. You should be able to realize how massive that is in a siege."

Eldrian nodded, "Wait, how much food does the kingdom have left?"

"I\'m not sure, but from what has spread through the city; one or two months, max."

\'Really, how did no one even think of that? Why aren\'t their merchant players?\' Eldrian wondered, and there were but they were all normally limited to their kingdom. Making use of the teleport system to jump from city to city.

Organizing trade between kingdoms was not something that had been done, not yet. Moving through teleportation from kingdom to kingdom was simply too expensive and traveling between them would take weeks or even months. Few people were willing to spend that much time just traveling.

AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.