Chapter 543: Resource Demand

The first material shortage problem Lucas decided to tackle was that of metals, specifically the most commonly used Mortal Grade irons and coppers.

Something that had surprised Lucas quite a bit was how advanced the study of smelting was in the Rockwell Kingdom.

Although there was nothing like precisely derived formulas as the study of chemistry and metallurgy were basically non-existent, it was clear that the blacksmiths of the kingdom were no slackers when it came to experimenting.

Recipes for certain highly-valuable alloys were normally kept as carefully guarded secrets by their discoverers, but processes to create more common smelted products, like steel, were actually quite widely shared.

In fact, Braxton had over 20 different steel recipes he taught to all the smiths and apprentices who worked under him.

Of course, the grumpy old blacksmith kept the more advanced variants of steel to himself and those closest to him, but Lucas saw nothing wrong with that.

According to his inherited memories, such practices were common even in the other universe. For instance, the composition and manufacturing method for the crystal-metallic armour used to protect the hulls of interstellar warships was never publicly disclosed, obviously.

All of this, however, was only applicable to Mortal Grade metals and alloys.

Anything regarding Spirit Grade materials was basically the exclusive property of powerful forces and the Spirit Smiths they employed.

Perhaps in the bigger nations or the Empire, knowledge of Tier 1 or Tier 2 Spirit Grade materials was more widely distributed, but in a Mid-Sized Kingdom like the one Lucas lived in, it was unthinkable for such information to be publicly available.

All this was to say that Lucas’ intention to massively increase the supply of basic Mortal Grade metals and alloys wouldn’t run into any roadblocks from a confidentiality perspective.

Economic and political opposition, on the other hand, would probably be ferocious, but Lucas’ big plan to deal with that was to simply move too fast for anyone to stop him.

Once he established a method to produce massive quantities of cheap, high-quality Mortal Grade steel and distributed that method to his allies, there would be no going back.

Although the process to refine steel from iron, carbon, and a variety of other elements was ’common’ knowledge, it wasn’t like every house had pots or pans forged from high-quality stainless-steel.

At most, it was reasonable to expect that noble houses above the Count-rank regularly used Tier 2 and Tier 3 Mortal Grade steel in everyday life, or for Captain-rank officers in the military to have a full set of armour forged from similar quality metals.

Lucas aimed to change all that.

He hoped that one day, steel would be so abundant that everyone would be able to afford it and the products made from it if they desired.

That, however, was going to take a lot of time, effort and experimentation as, quite frankly, he only had a vague idea of how to accomplish this.

As for items made from Spirit Grade Metals, that would have to wait until he conquered the Mortal Grade.

One problem at a time, one problem at a time...

.....

In order to increase the supply of metal, the first problem that needed to be tackled was the pitifully inefficient mining methods currently being used.

Put simply, all mining in the Rockwell Kingdom was done manually.

Miners, whether they were hired labourers or slaves, spent all day swinging pickaxes against hard rock.

If they were lucky, they did so outside in open-air mines.

If they were unlucky, they would have to do this in underground tunnels where the risk of accidents and death was substantially higher.

After chipping away enough metal-rich rock, said rocks were loaded onto carts by the same workers and wheeled out of the mines to be processed.

Rinse and repeat.

The existence of cultivation did improve this process somewhat, but not by much as almost all miners were just Body Tempering Realm Mortals.

Why, you might ask?

Because if someone could afford to not be a miner, where they had to risk their life doing back-breaking labour in extremely uncomfortable conditions, they would.

Almost everyone who reached the Vein Opening Realm could find better ways to support themselves than working in the mines.

Hell, even joining the army or city guard where you had to fight Wild Beasts, capture criminals, or even kill bandits was statistically less dangerous and less exhausting than being a miner, not to mention it generally paid better as well.

Basically, if you found someone in the Vein Opening Realm working in a mine, they were probably a slave and thus had no other choice.

Exceptions existed, of course, such as foremen and supervisors, but such people were much more ’managers’ than they were ’miners’.

Given the existence of things like Skyships, Lucas assumed that Spirit Tools, or rather, Spirit Machines, capable of greatly increasing the efficiency and safety of mining could be built, but he also assumed with a fair degree of confidence that no such machines existed on Servist.

Operating Spirit Tools was incredibly expense, while Body Tempering Realm Mortals were, for lack of a less demeaning description, ’cheap’.

Tens of thousands of people across the Blue Sky Continent were injured in mining accidents every year, while thousands of them died, but if you confronted some wealthy mine owner, commercial organization, or noble family with that fact, their response was likely to be ’and so?’.

Death was common amongst the weak.

Death was common even amongst the strong.

Death was just common on Servist, and everyone knew it.

That was the way it had always been, and the way it was ’supposed’ to be, so why try to change it?

Some mines were safer than others, true, but they all operated under the assumption that every year, some of the labour force would have to be ’replaced’ due to ’attrition’.

Only someone like Lucas, who knew for a fact that there was a better way, would even bother trying to do anything about this.

And that, was why he had come to Torren Ridge, home to the biggest mine in the entire South-East Province, one that was under the joint control of several noble houses, but with the Balfour Family having the majority stake at roughly 65%.

In other words, this was the perfect place for Lucas to introduce reforms and innovation.

As long as he could prove here that his way of doing things was better, then wide-scale adoption of his methods would be much easier to implement.

Fortunately, while both he and his otherworldly benefactor knew almost nothing about mining, Lucas did have a secret weapon up his sleeve, one that he was certain would revolutionize mining in the Rockwell Kingdom.

Why was he so confident? Because this very machine had already revolutionized mining in the other universe.