Basic Smelting Backpack

Kerry was in a bind. This matter was neither big nor small. It was not big because the two sides had not yet reached the point of fighting to the death, but it was not small because this was essentially the other side shutting its doors to South Australia Island. If South Australia Island wanted to develop, relying on Little Nose Bay Port City was the best choice. Now that path was blocked, leaving Kerry with only two options.

First, bring gifts and Gold Coins to Little Nose Bay Port City's lord, Jim Green, and apologize.

Second, find another way out.

Kerry would never apologize. Not in this lifetime. Only by finding another way out could he maintain his way of life.

The only thing in Kerry's territory that could be traded was the recently discovered Copper Ore. Since Little Nose Bay Port City to the north was no longer an option, he would go south to the Jili Merchant Alliance islands.

Kerry refused to believe that an alliance of merchant states like this would be unable to find a construction team to help with its development.

After arranging for his old butler, Carson, to return and rest, Kerry went to the docks. Members of the capture team were stationed there for long periods to receive the jellyfish they caught. Every day, Kerry came here once or twice to collect the jellyfish and put them into Alchemy Preservation Bottles.

"You there, go find Mike and tell him to come to the castle for dinner tonight," Kerry instructed a fisherman at random.

"Sorry, my lord. I heard from Old Bach that Captain Mike went back to Little Nose Bay Port City today to buy new fishing gear. He probably won't be back until tomorrow."

Kerry had appointed Mike captain of the capture team. Hearing that Mike was shopping in Little Nose Bay Port City, he knew the man would soon come back to him with a long face.

Little Nose Bay Port City had now imposed a trade blockade on South Australia Island, so nothing could be bought there. Kerry said nothing more and simply went back to wait for Mike.

Speaking of which, Unit 001 would be pushing back a small boat loaded with Copper Ore tonight. He had to wait at the southern dock. Not having instant communications was a real nuisance. Next time the exchange opened, he would see whether he could buy a radio or something. That would make things much more convenient.

This world had Magic Crystal Phones, whose full name was Resonant Magic Crystal Communicator. They were telephones invented by mages. Since mages needed vast amounts of money, their predecessors had invented crystal communicators that created resonance by injecting magic power into alchemical crystals.

After magic power was injected and resonance energy generated, they could provide instant communication. In other words, mages had opened a telecommunications company in this world.

But Magic Crystal Phones were too expensive—far beyond what Kerry could afford right now. With the money needed to buy one, Kerry estimated that he could buy several radios from the Dimensional Exchange.

The key was that both sides had to own one of these communicators. If Kerry wanted to contact Mike the fisherman, owning one Magic Crystal Phone was not enough; he would have to equip Mike with one as well. The problem was that Mike's entire net worth was less than ten Gold Coins, while even the cheapest Magic Crystal Phone cost 1,000 Gold Coins.

Unit 001 arrived right on time that evening, dragging a fully loaded small boat behind him. Kerry had thought Unit 001 would come back later, but based on Unit 001's report, he learned that the boat had actually been fully loaded twelve hours earlier.

Unit 001 had been ordered to return after twenty-four hours, so he had arrived at the port exactly on schedule. Kerry really wanted to grab that half-man, half-machine fellow from the day he had set up his stall and ask him properly, Is this what you call high-level AI?

In truth, Kerry had misunderstood. The robot's AI was advanced, but when given clear orders, it carried them out rigidly.

In any case, the first shipment of Copper Ore had safely reached his territory. Kerry had not yet seen what the Basic Smelting Backpack could do. Since it was already night and there was no one at the southern dock, he had Unit 001 smelt some ore right there so he could take a look.

Unit 001 removed a huge backpack from his back, shaped like a tortoise shell, and laid it flat on the ground as if setting down a giant pot. The flat side faced upward and the curved shell faced downward. Support legs automatically extended from inside, turning the tortoise shell into a giant pot.

The scene that followed left Kerry utterly dumbfounded.

Unit 001 casually grabbed a huge chunk of ore and tossed it into the pot. A glowing shield resembling an energy barrier appeared over the pot's opening.

It seemed to serve as insulation and soundproofing. The ore was larger than the opening and even larger than the entire Basic Smelting Backpack, yet the energy shield enclosed it completely like a soap bubble. Once the shield stabilized, its light slowly dimmed while the ore inside grew redder and redder. Clearly, the copper smelting had begun.

A scene straight out of science fiction appeared in this sword-and-magic world. Kerry felt no sense of incongruity at all. He had never experienced anything like this in his previous life, so he could simply treat it like a science-fiction movie.

After just under twenty minutes, the energy shield began to shrink. An outlet at the bottom of the giant pot started releasing Copper Ingots that had just been cooled and were still smoking. The ingots emerged one after another from the bottom, looking like droppings, and were automatically stacked neatly. Ten formed a pile, and each time a pile was completed, an auxiliary Mechanical Arm appeared and pushed it aside.

Unit 001 caught each pile of Copper Ingots as it was pushed out and placed it in an open area nearby. Before long, more than a hundred Copper Ingots had been neatly stacked there. There were also several smaller piles, consisting of other nonferrous metals contained in the ore.

This Basic Smelting Backpack could not only smelt ore but also separate the metals during smelting. The smaller piles mainly consisted of iron and lead, along with trace amounts of Gold Coins.

When Kerry discovered that there really was gold, he jumped for joy. "Ha-ha, I knew there'd be gold!"

Kerry had originally planned to sell the Copper Ore directly to the Jili Merchant Alliance, but he had changed his mind. It seemed that smelting everything into ingots would maximize his profits.

Generally, ore was sold at different prices according to its content.

For Kerry, the market was a deep pool, but this method could save him a great deal of trouble and time. Now that he could directly smelt Copper Ingots, the process was relatively time-consuming, but he could sell them directly at market prices. He would not have to worry about being cheated—he would neither gain an unfair advantage nor suffer a loss.

At the time, Kerry had only noticed that there was a Basic Smelting Backpack, but the backpack had come with no specific explanation. He had felt somewhat uneasy after selling it to Unit 001. Now that he had seen how effective it was, he immediately decided that when the exchange opened next time, he would buy several more specifically to increase his productivity.

At that moment, Unit 001 suddenly spoke. "Report: Backpack energy consumption is 0.0038%. At the current energy consumption rate, the backpack can continue operating for 385 days."

Unit 001's sudden report pulled Kerry back to reality. He still did not know how much a backpack cost, but the fact that it could only run for a little over a year was far less than Kerry had expected. He had always thought that a miniature nuclear-powered backpack could last for decades.

It seemed he was going to become a long-term customer of that half-man, half-machine fellow. Kerry did not particularly like that man. His eyes had been ice-cold.

"Unit 001, smelt all the Copper Ore tonight. Then guard this place and don't let anyone steal it. I'll come pick it up tomorrow." It was around eight in the evening, but on this island without nightlife, it already felt very late. After giving Unit 001 his orders, Kerry returned to the castle to rest. He had already decided to set out for the Jili Merchant Alliance tomorrow. He wondered how much he could sell after a full day and night of mining and smelting.

Sorry, I was working on a contract just now, so I'm a little late. Everyone can read in peace now.