Farming in the Magical World

"Iron Hammer, alright, get down now!"

After waiting for about ten minutes, feeling that there would be no further changes, Lanny somewhat disappointedly told Hammer to stop, and personally took out the crucible and poured its contents onto the ground.

Sure enough, when the sand on the surface was brushed away with pliers, a small amount of viscous liquid was revealed underneath. As the temperature of the liquid decreased upon contact with the ground, it gradually condensed into some small crystalline flakes.

These flakes are milky white and have very low transparency, resembling mica sheets.

He gently pinched it with tongs and it shattered into powder, almost completely obscuring the glass. This made Lanny very unhappy!

He didn't expect that the first experiment would fail, and it seemed to be a serious problem.

"Master, what are these things?" Jimmy peered around, but after watching for a long time, he still couldn't understand what Lanny was doing. He couldn't figure out why the master had gone to so much trouble to melt the sand, and now he was using tongs to crush it piece by piece. What was he trying to do?

The others were also completely bewildered by Lanny's actions, unable to understand what he was doing.

Although they couldn't understand Lenny's purpose, they could clearly see his expression. His face was very ugly, and everyone knew that Lenny was in a bad mood, so they all shut their mouths and remained silent.

Only Cody nodded thoughtfully as he watched Lenny's actions; he seemed to understand what Lenny meant.

Cody walked over amidst the surprised gazes of the crowd, squatted down next to Lanny, reached out and brushed aside the excess sand, carefully examining the parts that had not yet melted.

“You seem to want to melt all this sand.” Cody fiddled with the sand on the ground and spoke with certainty. “The melted stuff should be very useful, otherwise you wouldn’t have ordered me to make a blower so early on, sir.”

“Continue!” Lanny nodded in satisfaction, very pleased with Cody’s analysis, and his anticipation grew even stronger.

With Lanny's approval, Cody perked up and examined the sand on the ground even more closely, slowly uttering his own speculation: "Since the master has made me make a blower and also have us handle coal dust, it seems the key to melting this stuff is the flame..."

Lenny suddenly spoke up to correct him, saying, "Temperature, the size of the flame determines the temperature."

“Hmm, temperature!” Cody didn’t look at Lenny again. He was already in a state of high-speed thinking and was not sensitive to external stimuli. He didn’t even realize that it was Lenny who had interrupted him. He casually echoed the question and continued to speak with a frown.

"The key to this substance melting is temperature, or at least one of the key factors, but it seems that the sand hasn't melted completely yet; only a portion of it has melted."

"Moreover, it's not a continuous section; it's divided into pieces..."

“Then there are a few possibilities.” Cody, now deep in thought, was like Sherlock Holmes, peeling back the layers of the mystery, trying to find the key.

"Either the temperature wasn't high enough, causing incomplete melting..."

At this point, he shook his head again, ruling out that possibility. "No, the melted and unmelted parts are not evenly transitioned; there is no obvious difference between the parts closer to the melt and the parts further away!"

“Well, it seems to be a different story!” With that, Cody tossed aside what he was holding, looked up at Lanny, and said with certainty, “Sir, I think something is missing. That’s why some of the sand melted, while the rest, lacking that element, didn’t show any noticeable change!”

Cody's analysis helped Lanny think outside the box, and he further confirmed that the problem was indeed as Cody had analyzed: the lack of some crucial catalyst, otherwise the sand would not have behaved the way it did.

Although he seemed to have found the key to the problem, he was still at a loss in the face of this situation.

“Yeah!” Lanny sighed, looking at the sand on the ground again, muttering with some distress, “But what’s missing? If only I could have paid more attention in chemistry class before!”

"You only realize how little you know when you need it!" Lanny remarked, unaware that he wasn't using the Kingdom's language.

Lanny's sudden, strange words left the people around him looking at each other, completely baffled. They watched as Lanny frowned in thought, but no one dared to ask him anything. The entire Workshop No. 2 fell into a deathly silence.

Jimmy looked at his apprentice with a curious expression on his face.

For him, being able to follow the master's train of thought was of paramount importance. He felt that Cody should be able to understand what the master was saying, since Cody and the master had the most and most compatible conversations here.

But to his surprise, Cody gave him a barely perceptible shake of his head.

Cody didn't understand Lenny's last sentence either, but Lenny's distress was obvious, and it wouldn't be wise to ask at this point.

After pondering for a long time without any clue, Lanny could only clap his hands, stand up, and prepare to try again.

Isn't it said that failure is the mother of success? Now that we've found the mother, let's look at her face a few more times, and we'll eventually find this unfortunate child.

He simply refused to believe that if the ancients could successfully make glass through unconscious actions, how could he, through conscious experimentation, combined with scientific thinking and experimental methods, not be able to make a small piece of glass?

This time, he made some minor adjustments to the experimental process.

First, the amount of sand was halved, both to reduce waste and to minimize the impact of impurities on the results.

Then, right from the start, Zach poured in the coal powder that had already been prepared, and immediately put the human beast Iron Hammer on the blower, ensuring that all conditions were maximized from the beginning, minimizing the impact of time factors.

I refuse to believe it won't work! Watching the hammer pound against the hand-operated blower, Lanny gritted his teeth and hardened his resolve.

This experiment was clearly not as easy and pleasant as the first one. Lenny stood to the side with a serious expression, staring intently at the furnace, which made everyone else feel heavy-hearted. Even Jimmy, who was the most talkative, dared not speak easily, and the atmosphere became somewhat gloomy.

As time ticked by, beads of sweat began to trickle down Iron Hammer's face again, but Kolani didn't notice him, his eyes fixed on the crucible in the furnace.

Without Lanny's permission, Hammer dared not slack off. He gritted his teeth and persevered despite the soreness in his legs. He knew that since the master had not called for a stop, it must be a critical moment!

"Alright, Hammer, that's enough!"

The next moment, Lenny's voice finally rang out. Hammer felt as if he had been granted a pardon. He was panting heavily and trembling as he climbed down from the blower. He even needed his apprentice Zach's help to get down, clearly exhausted.

Lanny glanced at Hammer's trembling legs and the idea of ​​developing a new driving method flashed through his mind. After all, human power has its limits, and water power and steam power are more reliable!

However, he quickly turned his attention back to the matter at hand.

The results of this experiment were not significantly different from the previous one. Only about a quarter of the sand in the crucible had melted, and the molten crystals were still milky white rather than transparent.

Lanny had always thought that, due to the strangeness of this world, the main difficulty in making glass might lie in temperature, and he had made some preparations for this.

However, judging from the results of these two experiments, things are probably not that simple, and temperature is probably not the only difficulty!

Looking at the half-finished product in front of him, he was filled with all sorts of speculations.

In the end, he still felt that there must be some kind of catalyst missing, otherwise even if the temperature was not high enough, not to mention the unmelted part, the melted part should not be in this state.

But what exactly is missing?

He didn't get a single possible answer to this question until he returned to the castle hall and sat down.

"Honey, what's wrong with you?"

Tiffany's voice rang in his ears, and he was surprised to find that Tiffany had come over and sat down next to him at some point.

"Oh, why did you come down?" Seeing Tiffany's worried expression, he quickly forced a smile.

Tiffany had been in a bad mood these past few days, and he didn't want his own affairs to affect her. He could handle these things on his own; why add another person to the burden?

"I'm fine now. I'm sorry to have worried you these past few days!" Tiffany said apologetically, gently taking Lanny's hands in hers.

They had been married for several months and had been intimate for quite some time, so she was no longer shy about physical contact.

Looking at Lanny so close to her, she suddenly realized that her handsome husband probably had a lot of worries on his mind.

Thinking about how much she had worried and troubled him just two days ago, Tiffany felt a pang of guilt.

She reached out her small hand and gently stroked Lanny's furrowed brows, her voice soft, "I'm sorry, you already have so many worries, and I'm still so insensible..."

“It’s alright, we’re husband and wife, aren’t we?” Lanny raised an eyebrow, interrupting Tiffany.

Looking at Tiffany's haggard face, he knew that this blow had been quite a blow to her. Since she was now willing to come downstairs to eat, she had obviously begun to move on, so he naturally did not want to bring up these things again.

He then changed the subject, looking at the butler standing beside them serving their meal. "Frank, how's the expansion of the guard going? Also, have you found any apprentices for me?"

Seeing that Lanny had gotten down to business, Tiffany let go of his hand and stopped bothering him, turning to eat her own food.

Upon hearing his question, Frank first served Lanny a bowl of soup before bowing and recounting the details.

Following Tim and Lanny's advice, this recruitment will primarily take place in Black Mountain Village.

He didn't spend much effort promoting the other villages because they hadn't responded very actively before.

Yes, that's what Lanny calls it. It's a strange but clear way of saying it, like propaganda or dissemination.

However, judging from the response to the publicity over the past two days, the reaction from the other villages was beyond his expectations, with many young people inquiring about the specific benefits and training details.

This puzzled Frank until one of the young men made a casual remark that made him realize the truth.

"This place has food and drink, and we get paid. Plus, we don't have to worry about not having work the next day. Isn't that great!"

Yes, becoming a member of the security guard means that although ordinary members only receive 2 silver coins a month, they have no worries about food and drink. That's all they have left over, which is much more than farming or hunting at home.

Previously, people were hesitant to come mainly because they were worried about losing their lives on the battlefield. However, as news of the battle with the Grummans spread, people realized that this security force was completely different from the previous auxiliary troops.

As young people of this era, they aren't actually afraid of working hard. What they fear is losing their lives in a muddle. Since this problem no longer exists, they are naturally much more enthusiastic.

After the promotion ceremony, Lanny had Frank receive his monthly salary ahead of schedule, which put an end to everyone's last worry, and naturally, more people inquired about the details.

On the contrary, Black Mountain Village, having experienced the first Battle of Dragon Ridge and the second Battle of the Castle, has seen a significant decrease in the proportion of young people. In addition, they are not short of food due to their proximity to the Black Mountain Forest, and are relatively better off than other villages. Therefore, the number of people who came this time is probably the smallest.

"Judging from the publicity, there should be quite a few people signing up tomorrow!" Frank said confidently.

"Okay, tell Uncle Tim that he'll be in charge of registration tomorrow, so make sure you're prepared!" Lanny nodded in satisfaction and casually gave a few more instructions.

"By the way, did you reach an agreement with the hunters in Black Mountain Village on your trip? About buying their game?" Lanny suddenly remembered the issue of the guards' diet as he cut a piece of unidentified meat.

Frank quickly reported that everything was settled. They had reached an agreement with about ten hunter families, and their daily hunts would be sold directly to the castle. The castle would then deliver the game after the hunters gathered each evening.

Lanny frowned, feeling something was amiss. The weather was getting hotter, and Black Mountain Village was quite a distance from the castle. The prey would probably arrive at the castle in the middle of the night, and if it wasn't dealt with promptly, there might be some problems.

The two were discussing serious matters, and Tiffany wasn't in a position to interrupt. However, when she heard the topic of food came up, she suddenly remembered that she had said she would help Lanny with this aspect, but because of... she hadn't done anything about it.

Seeing Lanny's meticulous concern, she felt a pang of sympathy and, unusually, interjected, "Darling, how about I handle this? Didn't we agree before that I'd take care of the guards' food?"

Lanny was reluctant to agree, but then she thought that things were on the right track now, so it wouldn't hurt to let her give it a try, so that she wouldn't be bored all the time and start overthinking.

He nodded and looked at Tiffany with interest. "What are you going to do? The number of prey each day is not small. If not handled properly, there could be problems."