One Hundred Thousand Screws

(A few people have asked about the update schedule, so here it is. Barring anything unexpected, I'll post one chapter between 9 and 10 in the morning and another between 8 and 9 at night. Yes, barring anything unexpected...)

Standing outside the Volcano Smithy, Xu Yi had shaken off last night's misery and was full of energy again.

"Is Master Ranu here?" Xu Yi stepped through the Blacksmith Shop's doors. A wave of heat struck him head-on, nearly forcing the words back down his throat.

Clang!

A tremendous crash of metal rang out from inside the Blacksmith Shop, as if in answer.

Xu Yi walked in and saw a huge furnace blazing in the center of the Blacksmith Shop. Beside it stood a Dwarf whose head barely reached Xu Yi's chest, though he was twice as broad. The Dwarf held a red-hot piece of metal in his left hand and raised a hammer twice the size of Xu Yi's head high in his right, then brought it crashing down.

Clang!

Clang!

As the hammer rose and fell again and again, clear metallic notes echoed through the Blacksmith Shop with a rhythm all their own.

Xu Yi watched the Dwarf's practiced, rhythmic hammering for a while and nodded to himself.

Heinz had been right. When it came to forging, Dwarves were the finest craftsmen on the continent.

When Xu Yi had seen Heinz again today, he had mentioned the problems he faced. Heinz had no solution to the material problem, but he had suggested someone who might help with the craftsmanship: Bunta City's most famous master smith, the Dwarf Ranu standing before him.

Heinz's reminder had made Xu Yi remember that this was the Sains Continent, not Earth. Humans were not the only race here.

Dwarves generally lived together in their own tribes and rarely ventured out, though. Ranu was the only Dwarf smith in all of Bunta City, and Xu Yi had completely forgotten about him.

After Xu Yi had waited patiently for a while, Ranu finally finished forging the piece in his hands. He dropped the now-shaped, red-hot part into a water tank and turned toward Xu Yi.

"Hey, say what you came to say. I don't like beating around the bush." As he spoke, Ranu snatched a waterskin from a nearby table and uncapped it. A strong smell of liquor immediately burst out.

Dwarves loved good liquor, and the stronger it was, the better.

"Master Ranu, I'm here to ask you to make something for me." Xu Yi hurriedly pulled a drawing from his coat and handed it over.

"What is it?" Ranu tipped his head back and took a long swig, then took the drawing and glanced at it. With a cold snort, he flung it aside. "Who told you Ranu would make a few lousy nails for someone?"

Xu Yi chuckled and picked the drawing up off the floor. "Master Ranu, it does look like a nail, but to be precise, it's called a screw."

"I don't care what kind of screw it is. Ranu doesn't make little trinkets like that. You can leave!" Ranu waved a thick arm and turned his back on Xu Yi, plainly unwilling to speak to him.

"Won't you make it, or can't you?"

The moment Xu Yi finished speaking, Ranu whirled around and pointed at him. "Human! Don't think Ranu will fall for that stupid provocation! I said I won't make it, and that's that!"

"Oh? Then if you won't make the screw, will you make this? It's certainly no little trinket." Xu Yi took out another drawing.

Ranu glared at Xu Yi, then held back his temper and took the drawing.

This time, he did not throw it away. Instead, he let out a curious sound, lowered his head, and studied it carefully.

Only after quite some time did Ranu slowly look up at Xu Yi, his face full of confusion. "Hey, human kid, where did you get this drawing? I've never seen anything like it."

"I designed it myself. What do you think, Master Ranu? Can you make it?" Xu Yi asked.

Ranu looked at the drawing and thought carefully. Then his face flushed red. "You made this thing up! How could anyone build it? Listen, kid, did you come here just to waste my time? If you did, get out!"

Xu Yi chuckled. The drawing showed a large excavator. Building one was difficult even on Earth; making one entirely by hand was a pipe dream.

But he had not come to waste Ranu's time. Seeing that Ranu's eyes remained fixed on the drawing despite his anger, Xu Yi said seriously, "Master Ranu, you're a master smith. You should know that even if this can't be built now, it isn't something I dreamed up out of nowhere. And this is the main reason I came to you."

Ranu snorted, but his expression softened a little.

He could see that Xu Yi was telling the truth.

The machine on the drawing looked wildly fanciful, but every part had been marked out in detail. It even had remarkably precise specifications. This was no idle sketch dashed off on a whim.

And by Ranu's reckoning, it was not entirely impossible to build. The Sains Continent's current forging techniques simply were not advanced enough.

"All right, kid. What exactly are you here for?" Ranu asked.

Xu Yi handed him the first drawing again.

"I wasn't joking. I came to ask you to make this screw."

This time, Ranu did not get angry. He took the drawing and examined it closely.

Earlier, he had only glanced at it, seen a tiny object, and tossed it aside. Now that he studied it properly, he realized that this little thing called a screw was anything but simple.

At first glance, it looked much like an ordinary nail. A closer look, though, revealed fine threads winding around its entire length at perfectly even intervals. They ran all the way down, intricate and precise, nothing like a plain, smooth iron nail.

After studying it for a while, Ranu asked, puzzled, "Hey, kid, why put such complicated grooves on a nail? To make it look pretty?"

"Of course not." Smiling, Xu Yi took out yet another drawing and handed it to Ranu.

It was one of the design drawings for the Second-Edition Variable-Speed Magic Fan, though it showed only part of the fan housing's joint, including the nut and the threaded opening in the housing.

Ranu looked over the drawing and immediately saw how it worked.

"So that's it! This is brilliant! With a hole like this, you just turn that screw into it and the pieces stay fastened together. It'd be easy to take them apart, too. Hey, kid, whoever came up with this is a genius!"

As a master smith, Ranu could see at once how much the screw's design would change forging.

At first, he had dismissed the tiny Screw. Once he saw the matching nut and threaded opening, his opinion changed completely.

He looked up at Xu Yi's smiling face and froze. "Don't tell me you came up with this."

"I did," Xu Yi admitted without hesitation. "So, Master Ranu, are you willing to make Screws now?"

Ranu glanced at the drawing again and nodded. "For an idea this brilliant, I'll make an exception and help you. Tell me, how many Screws do you need?"

Smiling, Xu Yi held up one finger.

"It can't be one. Ten, then? Hmm... I'll need to make a mold first. That should take about a week," Master Ranu mused.

"More than ten." Xu Yi shook his head, still smiling.

"A hundred? That won't make much difference. Once the mold's ready, a hundred won't take much longer than ten. Let's say ten days."

"Heh, Master Ranu, you've got it wrong. Not a hundred. One hundred thousand."

"One hundred thousand?!" Master Ranu's already large eyes widened as he stared at Xu Yi, looking ready to spit in his face. "I'd just started to think you were serious about asking for help, but you're still here to waste my time! One hundred thousand! Do you expect me to spend the rest of my life making your damned Screws?"

Xu Yi wiped his face, his smile unchanged, and pulled another drawing from his coat.

"Of course it would be a waste for a master smith like you to spend your whole life on little things like Screws. I actually came to ask you to build this Magic Thread-Rolling Machine."

"Magic Thread-Rolling Machine? What the hell is that?"

Puzzled, Ranu took the drawing. One glance was enough to make his expression turn serious.

"This... now this looks like a proper piece of work..."

"What do you think? Can you build it?"

This time, Ranu did not answer immediately. He studied the drawing for a long while and thought it over before slowly replying, "I'll have to work on it. I'm afraid I won't be able to make it anytime soon. By the way, kid, what's it for?"

Xu Yi pointed to the drawing of the Screw. "It produces these."

"Oh? No wonder it's built like this." Ranu nodded in understanding.

"Master Ranu, if possible, I'd like you to build this machine as soon as you can. Of course, I'll make sure you're satisfied with the payment."

Ranu waved an arm dismissively. "We can talk about payment later. First, tell me how this thing works. It's so complicated, but half the markings on your drawing aren't clear. How am I supposed to build it for you?"

Xu Yi could not help laughing to himself. I adapted this Magic Thread-Rolling Machine specifically for conditions on the Sains Continent. If I'd brought over an Earth version unchanged, even a Dwarf master smith famous across the continent would have been completely lost.