Chapter 27: Another Breakthrough, Ironmaking In the Blast Furnace
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Mcgee first took out some meat pieces back in the wooden house and gave them to the little Spirit Fox and the Spider Queen.
Unlike the little Spirit Fox and the others, the Steel Fairy preferred to eat cooked food rather than raw meat.
This made Mcgee a little happy because, in the future, someone would share the barbecue with him.
After eating and drinking to his heart’s content.
Mcgee thought of the rich iron ore in the Rift Valley again.
Such an extremely precious resource, he would only feel at ease after gathering them.
However, his home area’s current level could not expand to the forest where the Rift Valley was located.
Mcgee looked at the resources in his inventory and then shook his head.
There was not enough iron ore, so his home could not be upgraded to a level two home for the time being.
So the problem came back to the iron mine in the Rift Valley.
There was a pile of treasures in front of him, but he could not eat them. Mcgee was distraught.
Looking at the surplus stone and wood in his inventory, Mcgee patted his head and thought of an excellent idea!
A blast furnace could be built with stones to smelt the iron ore.
But in this way, a new problem appeared.
Without coal, the high temperature produced by wood burning was not enough to smelt iron ore.
At this time, the little Spirit Fox, who had eaten and drunk enough, burped contentedly and laid on the side leisurely to bask in the sun.
Mcgee saw it and immediately had a countermeasure in mind, so he hurried over.
He picked up the little Spirit Fox and then said to the other beasts behind him, “Let’s go and mine iron ore.”
The Spider Queen, who had just finished eating and drinking, could be said to be full of energy. After hearing Mcgee’s order, she hurriedly took her little cubs and chased after him.
When they arrived at the Rift Valley, Mcgee turned his head and said to the Spider Queen.
“You can’t help much with the iron mining. You guys stay near the Rift Valley and make some traps to surround the rift place and guard against others entering the Rift Valley!”
The Spider Queen nodded happily and led the little spiders to set up traps nearby.
The Steel Fairy said to Mcgee when she saw him preparing to mine the iron ore, “If you can’t use the ore in the depths of the iron ore mine, don’t touch it for the time being. With me around, as long as you don’t damage the roots of the ore, the iron ore will continue to produce new ores.”
Hearing this, Mcgee immediately smiled.
There was a lot of good news today. But, then, he turned his head and said to the Steel Fairy, “With such a large iron mine, the exposed iron ore in the surroundings is enough for me to use for a long time. I won’t hurt its foundation at all.”
Hearing this, the Steel Fairy nodded with satisfaction. It was still worried that Mcgee would do something like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
When they arrived at the front of the Rift Valley, Mcgee began to choose a flat land nearby to build a blast furnace.
If they continued to walk in, the thin oxygen in the Rift Valley would affect the fire.
Mcgee began to take out the stones and build them one by one.
Then he said to the little Spirit Fox, “Dig a hole next to it and put a water bomb in it.”
Around the Rift Valley, there was ready-made red clay that could be used as cement.
After wetting the red clay with water, a blast furnace made of stone was made of red clay. A small hole was left on the top of the furnace. Thus a towering furnace was made!
Besides being used to make iron, a blast furnace was also the best choice for burning charcoal.
The blast furnace had just been built, and the red soil still contained a certain amount of moisture. Therefore, it could not withstand the burning of the fire directly, as that would cause the stone to crack.
Therefore, they had to wait for the blast furnace to dry naturally.
Fortunately, today’s weather was perfect, and it was estimated that the blast furnace would soon be used.
Mcgee also took the opportunity to collect raw iron ore.
[System Notification: You have found iron ore, do you want to collect it?]
“Collect! As soon as Mcgee finished his sentence, a long progress bar appeared.”
“The speed of collecting iron ore is frighteningly slow!”
[System Notification: Since you don’t have any mining tools, the speed of collecting iron ore is very slow. I suggest you try again after you have prepared the tools.]
After seeing the notification, Mcgee gave up on the idea of directly mining iron ore.
Then, he took the little Spirit Fox and started to dig up the exposed iron ore nearby.
With the little Spirit Fox’s super mining ability, Mcgee soon got a pile of scattered iron ore.
[System Notification: You have collected iron ore X 100.]
After collecting the iron ore, Mcgee turned his head and said to the little Spirit Fox.
“Little Spirit Fox, let’s go.”
Back in front of the blast furnace, the red soil outside the blast furnace had been completely dried.
Compared to dry in the shade, the downside of drying in the air was that there were some fine cracks on the surface, but the effect was not big.
Mcgee first took out a few pieces of wood and threw them at the bottom of the blast furnace. Then he put the raw iron ore on top of the wood.
After throwing in ten pieces of raw stone and seeing that the wood was already covered with a layer, Mcgee stopped.
“Little Spirit Fox, light up the blast furnace!”
The little Spirit Fox heard it immediately. A head-sized red fireball was sent into the bottom of the blast furnace!
“Don’t blow it up!”
Mcgee quickly reminded her.
The little Spirit Fox looked at Mcgee’s nervous look and could not help but complain to Mcgee, “I’m not stupid. If I blow up the blast furnace, you’ll beat me up!”
Mcgee did not retort because if Spirit Fox really blew up the blast furnace, he would really lose his temper.
As the fireball was sent into the blast furnace, the wood in the blast furnace instantly burned up.
The dry wood burned fiercely in the blast furnace, and a long flame shot up into the sky from the exit of the top of the blast furnace!
Mcgee hurriedly said to the little Spirit Fox, “Put that lump of iron ore on the exit on the top!”
The exit was reserved for adding iron ore and increasing the intensity of the fire. However, the intensity of the fire was enough now. If the fire were not blocked, the heat would escape from the exit.
As the top was blocked, the temperature inside the furnace began to soar rapidly.
As the little Spirit Fox sent fireb.a.l.l.s one after another into the furnace, the iron ore inside was burning with a bright red glow.
It had even begun to melt.
The little Spirit Fox was an expert at playing with fire, so it was naturally very resistant to heat.
Mcgee retreated a long-distance away. There was nothing he could do. It was really too hot near the blast furnace.
The little Spirit Fox complained to Mcgee while taking care of the blast furnace.
“Exploitation! You are mercilessly exploiting me!”
Mcgee also felt that it was not good to look at it like this, so he turned around and continued to collect iron ores.