Barin instinctively thought of the clay jars his clan used to produce sulfuric acid. Even the largest of those jars could hold no more than two barrels of water, and every time they were heated, they had to worry about the temperature getting too high and cracking the jars. Not only was the sulfuric acid produced in small quantities, but its purity also fluctuated wildly, and excessive impurities often affected its use. Compared with the Chemical Factory before him, the dwarves' method of producing sulfuric acid was more than backward—it was downright primitive.
The shock he had experienced at the Iron Smelting Plant had not yet fully subsided when he suffered another blow. Barin felt as though a boulder had been placed on his chest, making even breathing feel heavy. As he looked at the lead chambers and pipes operating without pause, the color gradually drained from his face. His earlier hopes of gaining an advantage in the trade negotiations had been doused like a bucket of cold water and completely extinguished.
Helson Viscount noticed Barin's dismay but did not deliberately comfort him. He merely said to the factory manager, "Sorry for the trouble, but could you tell us more about the uses of sulfuric acid? It would help Mr. Barin learn more about it." The factory manager nodded and began introducing sulfuric acid's applications in removing rust from iron, purifying ore, dyeing textiles, and more. With every use he mentioned, Barin lowered his head a little further. Some of those applications were precisely what he had used that morning as evidence to boast about the Miraculous Liquid, while others were things he had heard of for the first time. Clearly, humans had advanced much farther than the dwarves in their use of this liquid.
In the face of humanity's