Torsten came along to ask about the plows. Seeing me sit there looking as though I was sleeping he probably got mad or who knows what the hell got into him.

  “Oi! Cato! How are the plows coming along? Why are you wasting time here and not working?”

  I ignored him. I didn’t care for his tantrums. The news of war and my plans to introduce centrifugal casting were enough trouble for me, I didn’t have the nerves or energy to deal with this guy as well. In my mind the system was taking shape. From the smelting crucible a slide for the metal to flow on and into the cylindrical mold. The cylindrical mold would be kept at a slight inclination on rollers. The inclination ensures the metal flows down and forms a long tube. A neck is placed in the lower part to stop the metal from flowing out while a bicycle mechanism could be used as a preliminary spin source. Here people could use aether to enhance their physical strength so perhaps a lever system using gear transformations to obtain speed from torque would be better…

  Of course Torsten didn’t take kindly to being ignored. He kept shouting at me but I was unfazed and unmoved.

  “Very well if you act as if I’m not here then my fist won’t be there when it hits you either!”

  He readies himself and throws a punch. I instinctively relax my neck muscles and let my head fall to the side. His fist brushes past my face, past my ear and collides with the smooth stone slabs forming the wall of the forge. A sharp cracking sound could be heard. It somehow felt wet and a bit muffled. Surely it was not the stone that produced that sound…

  One second later my guess was confirmed by Torsten’s wretched cries of pain. Hitting the wall with so much strength cause some problems and judging by the sound from earlier, he probably broke a finger.

  I opened my eyes feeling slightly sorry. If I hadn’t ignored this fool, he wouldn’t be in so much pain. In a certain sense it could be considered that I aggravated him… What a hateful situation. I raised to my feet and went to him.

  “Torsten! Get up! Come on, it’s not hard.” I help him get up from the ground. He was twisting and crying while holding his hand.

  “Stay the hell still I’m trying to help you moron…” I forcefully held his hurting hand and used aether to verify the situation inside. The bones of supporting the pointer and middle finger were cracked and the knuckle of the middle finger was squashed. I quickly acted and gave him a preliminary treatment.

  “The plows are done. Go ask your grandmother to treat it better, I’m not good enough and you better not use that hand and be careful. The wound is there even if it doesn’t hurt.”

  “Let go already!” He yanked his hand out of my grasp and grimaced in pain.

  Seeing his expression I face-palmed what the hell is wrong with his head? Is it so hard to think and consider what others say before acting? Well it’s not like there is anything I can do about it. I can only give advice, as for others listening… It’s up to them. I can’t force it.

  “Go, go. Or do you need some other stuff from here? If you do I’ll tell you. Just hurry, whatever it is, or you risk having a paralyzed finger…” At the mention of a paralyzed finger his face looked terrified. But soon anger overtook him again.

  “And who’s fault would it be!? Just shut up and leave me alone!” He stormed to the entrance of the forge and pulled on a rope.

  The rope was something that Stig thought about. Not all villagers could enter the forge so if anyone had

  a more urgent request or someone came to pick someone up they could pull on the rope and ring some bells near the work stations inside. This came after my last clash with Torsten. So in a way it could be said that this was especially done for him.

  Big headache this guy was for me… I guess he’ll be the only one celebrating my leave… At least someone would be happy I guess… Anyway I passed by him and entered the forge. I took a special piece of coal and used it to draw on a wooden board. It took the rest of the day but I managed to sketch out my idea. It was enough for now, tomorrow would be the day to present this to Fjorn…’I wonder what face he’ll make when he sees it…’ I thought gleefully.

  Of course I wasn’t ready for his excitement at the idea…

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The next day I came forward and presented the design to Fjorn. I swear I only saw brows shoot up so high on Eld-Mother Edith when I spoke my first words.

  “Boy do you have any idea ‘bout how amazing this is? How did I not think of this?“

  “I thought it wouldn’t have much use in fact… After all I never saw you do anything of the like… Just thought it is interesting.”

  “Boy we can have better water transportation in large quantities! The dwarven cities have always been troubled by this. Mining and polishing gemstones requires water too… With the leaky system we have now… The mine feels damp and the expansion is hard… We mine in great depths were minerals have been bathed in aether for a long time. There water helps cool the environment otherwise how long can a human resist even with enhancement? This new technology… can you imagine how important this is now?”

  I was surprised that Fjorn already thought so far ahead… ‘What is this? Did he already know of it? Has he seen similar stuff used? Where? He only mentioned two types of casting before and said those were all…’ Seeing my puzzled face Fjorn continued.

  “We dwarves are renowned for our skills in crafts. Especially for mining and metal working. As such with our cities all over big mineral veins we devised many ways to bring water. Among them are pipes. What you made here is a very smart way of making those large ducts that get water from special made locations to the cities.”

  “Oh…” I was a bit numb… somehow the stereotype of dwarves being advanced in technology was proven more and more to be true… But Fjorn didn’t care for my lack of surprise and went on.

  “We made by pouring metal sheets then rolling those. It caused a lot of trouble when trying to connect them head to head… Your machine simplifies it all into standard forms! I have to send this back!”

  “Ahem!” I coughed to bring master Fjorn out of his dreams.

  “Hm? Are there problems?”

  “Would it really be a good idea to spread this so easily if it’s such a big deal? Isn’t it better to first wait a little longer?” I had selfish reasons for asking for delays… After all if war were to break out wouldn’t I be giving to the enemies new technology? Whom could I go to complain too if this ended up killing me…

  I was suddenly happy I did not try to make a steam engine powered version. I do not even want to imagine what kind of fuss Fjorn would cause at that time… Besides steam was lacking in my eyes. If I could figure out how to use aether to fuel an engine without continuous control from a person then… That would be worth showing… Otherwise it would only be stealing merit from others.

  “Delay at the very least until we have a working contraption. What point is there in sending something that hasn’t been tested.” I quickly added. It was enough that I make Fjorn reconsider and wait. He’ll naturally think that sharing this now would not be a good idea for me.

  With this valid, but weak, reason I covered up the fact I knew about the war. Fjorn also froze hearing my words. Soon though he regained his composure and fell into thought. It did not take long for him to speak again.

  “You are not wrong. We will work on this first and try to make it work. I’ll see then if I’ll send word back…” His voice was heavy and he once again had a hint of tiredness in his voice. He caught himself and got angry with me. “Enough of this! To work! Don’t think I forgot your embarrassing performance from yesterday! Get back to casting!”

  To me, who was happily enjoying the fact that my entire plot worked this came like a bucket of cold water… ‘Damn it worked too well!’

  I did not dare delay and went back to the crucible to draw metal into bars. With all my concentration I tried to maintain the speed but it was hard… In the first place the mixture was not homogenous so it took a great deal of insight to know when the viscosity would drop and when it would grow. I kept going too slow or too fast. But compared to yesterday I no longer had prematurely broken bars. I had necks formed or bumps and the shape was a bit off here and there, but my last ones were relatively useable…

  “Good! Good! You’re making good progress boy!” Said Fjorn after he made me stop again.

  I was reeling from the pain. Even with aether the physical damage accumulated from such high intensity work was hard to avoid… Luckily the dangers of injuries was also greatly reduced. Strictly speaking this was all due to my own low level of control. In theory one could move their body entirely through aether with no need for muscles at all. As such it was apparent I was lacking in physical strength and mastery.

  Of course pure aether movement was a rumor and something that only domain powerhouses achieved but it was nice to dream and think big.

  “Can I start using aether to regulate the flow then?”

  “Don’t even think about it! What do you want to only know how to use aether? Learn to rely on all your senses and use this body of yours! Even Domain powerhouses are reliant on their body to live so stop trying to cheat out of it.”

  “But I’m not… Yet why make things harder for yourself when they can be easy?”

  “It’s called building a foundation, boy! No matter what a strong body will do you well! Stop I don’t want to hear any more complaints from you! If I do I’ll give you a good spanking and discipline you! It can be seen on you that such things lacked in your education.”

  My mood dropped. ‘What do you know you old shortie! When I was little in my past life I was beaten with belts, thick computer cables, and the coiled cords from old office phones... I’d like to see you smug after receiving a good beating with one of those!’ I thought silently.

  “Go go, No point in staying here and inhaling these fumes! Go back and help your mom home!”

  “Alright… See you tomorrow master.”

  I quickly left. With all my sourness but I couldn’t help but be happy when thinking back to these times when I was so carefree… Even Torsten was cute back then. Too bad they did not last much longer…

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