Although Karien had already implemented standardized assembly line production in the valley factory, most products were still crafted by hand.
Coarse parts were polished by ordinary workers, while finer components were handled by blacksmiths or clockmakers.
Even though Karien had established precise data standards and developed many innovative measuring tools to assist their work, human labor was inherently prone to errors.
Under Karien’s stringent requirements, the defect rate of products produced two months ago had once soared to an astonishing 90%.
Even after optimizing several processes, the defect rate remained at 50%. In other words, out of every hundred elemental grenade shells produced, fifty were unusable.
This inefficiency prompted Karien to task Blass and his team with constructing machine tools.
Machine tools are machines designed to manufacture other machines, encompassing types like metal cutting, forging, and woodworking.
In fact, machine tools weren’t exclusive to the industrial age; in the Kingdom of Durant, primitive versions of such tools already existed in various trades.
Clockmakers, blacksmiths, and carpenters often had their own workbenches to aid their tasks.
Some were simple, others more elaborate, but all fell within the realm of manual craftsmanship. It wasn’t until these workbenches were further optimized and mechanized that they could be considered industrial machine tools.
Mechanized machine tools, naturally, required mechanical energy to replace manual labor.
In Karien’s previous life, the Industrial Revolution had introduced steam engines to generate mechanical energy, later succeeded by internal combustion engines.
Both relied on burning coal or oil to convert heat into mechanical energy.
In this magical world, however, Karien didn’t need to burn coal or oil.
A magic array constructed from fire elements could generate the necessary heat energy, which could then be converted into mechanical energy.
Through multiple experiments and with the assistance of Blass and his team, Karien had already developed an elemental engine.
However, due to the imprecision of handcrafted parts, the engine’s efficiency was very low—one of the reasons Karien hadn’t yet put it into practical use.
To address the lack of precision, machine tools were essential. Even though the elemental engine was inefficient, Karien decided to install it on the machine tools anyway.
If the efficiency was too low, the solution was to increase investment—even if it meant consuming a significant number of elemental coins—to get the tools operational.
Developmental issues could only be resolved through the process of development itself.
“The machine tools you requested have been completed,” Blass said, leading Karien into a newly established workshop in the factory.
He pointed to a row of half-meter-high machines and added, “These fourteen machines were built exactly to your specifications. We’ve tested them all, and they function perfectly.”
Compared to the massive machine tools from Karien’s past life, these machines were only the size of ordinary boxes, with highly specialized functions—essentially enlarged tools.
Progress had to be gradual; Karien couldn’t simply design a multifunctional, large-scale machine tool overnight.
Even if he had the talent to draw such a blueprint, its complexity would render it incomprehensible to Blass and his blacksmiths, let alone manufacturable.
Thus, Karien focused on creating single-function, simplified machine tools.
Each one was dedicated to a specific function, such as cutting, drilling, turning, boring, milling, or grinding.
While these simple tools might not be perfect and could be cumbersome to use, once mastered, they were far more efficient than manual labor—improving productivity by a factor of ten or more while ensuring greater precision.
Once the precision of the produced components improved, these basic machine tools could be iteratively upgraded. Development wasn’t an instant process; it had to start with the basics.
Blass led Karien to one of the machines and turned the crank at the back, saying, “This is the boring machine you requested. Honestly, it’s a bit of a hassle to use this for drilling holes—casting them with a mold would be much simpler.”
A boring machine used a rotating bore to drill holes in components. For instance, it could carve a circular recess in a block of iron.
However, relying on manual cranking alone wouldn’t provide enough speed for the bore to significantly wear down the iron.
Karien stepped forward, turned the crank a few times, and nodded. “It’s sturdy. Shouldn’t be an issue.”
He then removed the crank and crouched down to examine the interface. “Did you grind the crank and boring machine interface to the exact dimensions?”
“Of course!” Blass replied proudly. “We followed your specifications to the letter.”
“Good.” Karien stood up and said, “Bring over the elemental engine we built earlier.”
Blass froze momentarily, realizing Karien’s intention. He quickly instructed his nephew to fetch the previously discarded elemental engine from another workshop.
The engine was compact—about half a meter in length and width—but its weight required two people to move it, thanks to its reinforced combustion chamber and structural stability.
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Under Karien’s guidance, Blass and his nephew aligned the engine with the boring machine’s interface and pressed the activation button.
Soon, with a sharp, clattering sound, the boring machine’s bore spun rapidly. Karien picked up an iron plate, positioned it against the bore, and pushed it forward.
Amidst a spray of sparks, a precise two-centimeter-diameter hole was quickly drilled into the plate. Measuring it with a tool, Karien found the hole to be exactly two centimeters in diameter.
Blass, watching the demonstration, grew increasingly excited. As a blacksmith, he understood the significance of this achievement.
Previously, creating such hole-shaped components required casting with a mold followed by laborious grinding—a process prone to errors, especially for high-precision work.
Now, with the high-speed boring tool, a perfectly precise circular hole could be created effortlessly.
After turning off the elemental engine, Karien smiled and said, “This boring tool can be replaced, right? The one we just used was two centimeters; I recall asking you to make a three-centimeter version as well.”
“We have it!” Blass quickly swapped the boring tool and tried it out. He then tested the cutting machine, milling machine, and grinding machine. Although two of the machines had issues, the rest exceeded his expectations.
“With these machines, I can accomplish tasks that were previously impossible!” Blass exclaimed, brimming with excitement like a child with a new toy.
He eagerly experimented with the tools, crafting a complex component in no time.
“Incredible!” he marveled.
Karien patted him on the shoulder and said with a grin, “Now you see the value of the elemental engine, don’t you?
With these machine tools, you’ll be able to produce more precise components. Use them to create even finer elemental engines and machine tools.
Once we distribute them to every worker, their efficiency will improve exponentially!”
After familiarizing himself with the machine tools, Brass quickly called in the other blacksmiths to teach them how to use these new tools.
The other blacksmiths were just as excited once they understood the concept, eagerly taking turns to experiment with the machines.
“Uncle, let me give it a try too!” Brass’s nephew exclaimed excitedly.
Brass responded by gently kicking his nephew’s rear with his boot, saying, “Off you go! Didn’t you hear the boss say we need to produce more elemental engines?
Hurry up and get the molds we used last time to cast a fresh batch of rough parts—we’re starting a major project here!”
“Oh…” Brass’s nephew sighed, reluctantly tearing his gaze away from the operating machine tools before hurrying off to the casting workshop to begin preparing the new batch of elemental engines.
Karien was very pleased with the efficiency of Brass and his team.
In truth, as long as their personal interests weren’t at stake, these blacksmiths were surprisingly adaptable to new innovations.
After all, their work had long since gone beyond simple forging and hammering.
With Karien’s demands growing increasingly complex, the blacksmiths often encountered new problems that required novel solutions. These new tools provided the answers to many of their challenges.
After assigning new tasks to Brass and his team, Karien teleported back to Red Leaf Academy. There, he gathered his theoretical students to embark on a new inscription project.
Karien needed to mass-produce three types of magical devices: elemental grenades, magitech rifles, and magitech belts.
Among these, the demand for elemental grenades was the highest. However, the magical chips required for the grenades had already been assigned to the inscription department of Gallon Research Institute.
The grenade casings were being produced by the valley factory, and with the machines now in operation, production efficiency would soon improve.
Thus, there was little concern about grenade production.
The real challenge lay in the magitech rifles, particularly the core inscriptions within them. Unlike magical air conditioners or elemental grenades, the magitech rifles did not rely on a single magical chip.
Instead, they used a fully integrated circuit board, onto which several chips were soldered to connect the barrels, trigger, and elemental currency compartment.
Previously, Karien had personally inscribed all the circuit boards and chips for the rifles.
But with a target output of 10,000 rifles, it was impossible for him to handle the workload alone. This was why he sought collaboration with the Gallon Research Institute.
For now, the Institute was assisting with the inscription of grenade chips, but in the future, they would also handle inscriptions for magitech belts and, eventually, magitech rifles.
To prevent the core designs of the rifles and belts from being replicated by the Institute, Karien planned to divide the inscription work.
Some parts would be inscribed by his own students, while the final assembly would also be entrusted to them.
“Zorky, I’m leaving the absorption chips to you.
This is what the finished product should look like,” Karien said, handing a chip from the magitech rifle to one of his students while demonstrating the inscription process.
Zorky, a slightly chubby student with glasses, nodded intently, carefully observing every detail of Karien’s demonstration.
Zorky was one of Karien’s theoretical students and, like Karien, had very low elemental affinity. Though not entirely devoid of potential, his low affinity made it nearly impossible for him to become a magus.
Despite this, Zorky had shown exceptional aptitude in theoretical studies.
Under Karien’s guidance, he had mastered foundational magical theories and excelled in understanding the principles of physics.
Among all the students, Zorky was the only one who had begun to grasp the intricacies of logical arrays.
Karien held Zorky in high regard and patiently mentored him, hoping that one day Zorky would become a pillar of the Mechanical God Church during its technological revolution.
“Do you understand?” Karien asked.
Zorky and the other theoretical students nodded, indicating their comprehension. Karien then distributed the prepared materials and instructed them to begin inscribing.
The target was 10,000 magitech rifles, which meant 10,000 absorption chips.
With a team of ten students, each would need to inscribe at least 30 chips daily to meet the deadline. And this didn’t even account for the other chips that needed to be produced, so the workload was immense.
Without the cooperation of the Gallon Research Institute, completing the rifles within a month would have been impossible.
After delegating some of the inscription work to his students, Karien returned to his room to tackle one of his most critical tasks: the Mechanical God Church’s covenant.
To ensure magical devices wouldn’t be misused and to expand the influence of the Mechanical God Church, Karien decided to introduce a ranking system for his magical devices.
Any device above Tier 3 would require a faith covenant to be signed before use.
During his demonstration at the royal palace, Karien had used a teleportation orb to place a mark on a soldier’s abdomen, enabling the covenant’s activation.
However, this process required Karien to remotely activate the soldier’s belt each time, which was far too cumbersome.
Karien needed a more streamlined solution—one involving authorization.
His idea was to lock Tier 3 magitech belts with a password embedded in the user through a faith covenant.
When the user wore the belt, it would query the embedded password, granting authorization and unlocking the device. Removing the belt would relock it.
To implement this concept, Karien planned to use the electrical waves generated by lightning elements to enable wireless signal transmission.
The password would be transmitted via these signals for authorization. However, the current generated by lightning elements was unstable, so Karien had been researching ways to stabilize it since mastering logical arrays.
His most promising approach involved leveraging the "magnetization" property of earth elements to modify the magnetic field of the lightning element array, thereby stabilizing the voltage through electromagnetic induction.
Once the voltage was stabilized, the current would follow suit.
In essence, he needed to create a transformer.
However, physical transformers were too bulky to implant into humans. Karien needed to design a magical array that could replicate the transformer’s functionality.
While the concept was sound, implementing it was highly challenging.
Karien had previously attempted to create a "transformer" array, but the results were always imprecise.
Now, Karien was determined to refine the transformer array and minimize its margin of error to a workable level.