Material Limitations

When Xu Yi walked into the Magic Machine Tool Production Research Workshop, all one hundred dwarves inside were buried in hard work.

These hundred dwarves were now respectively in charge of different tasks. A portion of them continued producing the five types of magic machinery necessary for making the Magic Fan, such as the Magic Thread-Rolling Machine, while the other portion was responsible for researching and forging the new type of magic machinery handed over by Xu Yi.

During this recent period, the focus of research was on the Magic Harvester.

After his conversation with Viscount Leslie last time, Xu Yi became convinced that the prospects for Agricultural Machinery on the Sains Continent were extremely broad, so he immediately set to work on research upon his return.

Moreover, seeing that the Autumn Harvest was about to begin, the first target Xu Yi aimed at was the Small Agricultural Harvester.

This research was conducted simultaneously in two aspects: one was the aspect of the magic array representing the Harvester's power drive, which Xu Yi and Stille researched together, and the other was the aspect of the Harvester's external mechanical structure, which these dwarves were responsible for.

Among these, the work Xu Yi was in charge of was the most crucial. He had to perfectly combine the power of the magic array with the overall Harvester, and to achieve this, a large amount of practical data support was required. For this reason, these days he practically ran back and forth every day between the production workshop outside the city and the Research Institute inside Bunta City.

Hard work naturally had its rewards. Through this period of research, the small Magic Harvester was already taking initial shape. Right now in this workshop, the dwarves responsible for researching the new type of magic machinery had built a Magic Harvester whose appearance bore a one or two-percent resemblance to harvesters on Earth, and they were constantly debugging it.

Seeing Xu Yi walk in, Canby, the dwarf appointed by Xu Yi as the workshop director, walked over.

"Hey, Xu... oh no, Guild Leader, you're here to check on the Magic Harvester again?" Canby raised his thick, short arm and greeted Xu Yi.

"Alright, Canby, just call me by my name." Xu Yi smiled and nodded. "That's right. Didn't you see the wheat in Lord Viscount's fields outside starting to turn yellow? It looks like harvesting will likely begin in less than a month. If we don't speed up and get the Magic Harvester out before the wheat ripens, we'll have to wait at least another half a year."

"Rest assured, the brothers have been working overtime and striving hard these days too. Look, this thing has actually been made already, but there are always some minor issues popping up. Otherwise, it could be sent straight to the fields."

"Discovering problems now is much better than having problems crop up when using it later."

Xu Yi and Canby walked together to the dwarves who were debugging the Magic Harvester. Inquiring carefully, they discovered that the problem they were currently running into was that after the machine operated at high speed for a period of time, it would exhibit a clear lack of smooth operation.

Without even needing an inspection, Xu Yi knew this must be due to a malfunction occurring at the bearings.

Xu Yi was actually quite helpless about this, because this was entirely caused by the material issue of the bearings.

Due to the limitations of current iron-smelting technology on the Sains Continent, alloy steel capable of simultaneously possessing wear resistance and tensile strength suitable for building bearings had not yet appeared.

Whether it was white cast iron or gray cast iron, using them to build bearings that needed to continuously undergo high-speed rotational friction would prove inadequate.

Although the previous Magic Fan similarly required high-speed bearings, because the Magic Fan's power output was small and the resulting pressure was also low, simple Iron Bearings could still cope. However, when switched to a machine like the Magic Harvester that required relatively strong power, problems easily arose.

Xu Yi could not solve the material problem temporarily. After considering it carefully for a moment, he could only adopt a compromise solution, having the dwarves add an extra iron ball roller in the middle of the bearings. This could effectively reduce friction and extend the lifespan of the bearings somewhat.

Of course, this would also cause the output power to weaken relatively, so Xu Yi had to reconsider the revision plan for the magic array to ensure the magic array could output enough power.

Alas, when all is said and done, the industrial system on this continent is simply too thin. If it were like Earth where alloy steel materials alone have over a dozen choices available, how could it ever be this troublesome? Watching the dwarves start getting busy again because of his tiny modification, Xu Yi could not help shaking his head and sighing inwardly.

Thinking of this, Xu Yi naturally thought of the Materials Research Laboratory he established in the Dwarf Tribe.

Although the research funding of five hundred gold coins per month he promised at the time was mostly to secure these one hundred dwarf forging masters, deep down he still held a sliver of hope.

If the dwarves of the Dwarf Tribe really could achieve a breakthrough in Materials Research, then this investment of five hundred gold coins a month would be well worth it.

Of course, as a mechanical engineering expert, Xu Yi knew deeply that Materials Research did not have a shred of trickery to it; it could only be improved step by step in an orderly fashion, and it was simply not something that could be rushed.

Fine, a so-called mechanical engineer inherently exists to solve these problems. Completing tasks under limited conditions is the very meaning of my existence. Thinking of this, Xu Yi habitually cheered himself up in his heart.

Immediately afterward, he thought that because of this small modification, he had to make corresponding alterations to the magic array as well. And upon thinking of modifying the magic array, Xu Yi naturally thought of the two young women currently in the office.

"Oh no, I got so caught up in the work here I almost forgot about the two of them." Xu Yi slapped his thigh, pulled Canby over to give a few instructions, and hurried out of the workshop to return to the office.

"Sorry, I was held up..." Xu Yi pushed open the office door, just about to express an apology, but suddenly saw that both Akali and Avita were slumped over the desk, concentrating intently on thinking and making alterations to the Magic Array Blueprints in front of them, so he immediately stopped the rest of his words.

Xu Yi had been standing at the door for quite a while before Akali, who seemed a little tired, straightened up and stretched lazily. Only then did she notice him.

"Eh? Lord Guild Leader, when did you get back?" Akali asked in surprise.

Hearing Akali say that, Avita also came to her senses, turned her head, and looked at Xu Yi.

Xu Yi smiled slightly. "I've been here a while, but seeing that both of you looked so focused, I didn't disturb you."

"What's there to disturb?" Akali reached out with her small fist to knock on her head and complained, "Lord Guild Leader, these blueprints you gave us are really troublesome. Avita and I have been thinking about them for half the day and haven't even finished one. Do you think we're too stupid, unable to solve even these problems?"

"How could that be." Xu Yi laughed heartily. "To tell you the truth, these problems actually took me several days of effort to solve back then. If you could solve them all in such a short time, would you believe that even if I had to pay a salary of one hundred gold coins a month, I would still keep you here?"

Akali couldn't help casting Xu Yi a sidelong glance. "You clearly knew we couldn't do it, yet you deliberately offered such a high salary to whet our appetites."

Avita, however, noticed something else. "Lord Guild Leader, do you mean these blueprints are actually problems you've already solved? Then... could you let me take a look at the solutions?"

Xu Yi shook his head. "I'm afraid that won't do, because the final solution can currently be considered our guild's secret, and it won't be shown to others casually."

Avita let out a disappointed "oh" and lowered her head.

"Of course, if you officially join our guild, then these secrets won't be secrets to you anymore," Xu Yi smiled again.

Akali said dejectedly, "Lord Guild Leader, the blueprints you gave us are so difficult. Now I'm afraid that even if we wanted to join your guild, you wouldn't want us anymore, right?"

"That's not necessarily true." Xu Yi smiled and shook his head. "Can you let me see your solution approaches first?"

Taking the blueprints handed over by the two, Xu Yi looked at them seriously for a moment, and could not help nodding in satisfaction.

Although these two did not provide complete solutions, from the approaches they left behind on these blueprints, Xu Yi could completely tell that they were indeed worthy of graduating from the Lampari Royal Academy. Their understanding of magic arrays was very much in place, and the approaches and attempted solutions they proposed had reached a fairly high standard, even coming very close to the solution Xu Yi finally researched.

Moreover, from the approaches of the two, one could also see that their personalities indeed had differences.

By comparison, Akali's thinking was more lively and freewheeling. Her plans included some extremely bold ideas that could even be called whimsical.

Avita, on the other hand, was slightly more conventional, but one could see that her foundational skills were extremely solid. Every step of her solution approach had a solid groundwork, and her overall conception was nearly perfect.

If Avita were given enough time, he believed she would ultimately come up with a realistic, viable plan.

After reading these blueprints, Xu Yi was in an extremely good mood.

Although these two of Stille's classmates could not be considered powerful mages, just as Stille had said, they were both fully capable of handling the Research Institute's current work.

If they joined, coupled with Stille, Xu Yi would have three more reliable helpers, which would definitely greatly improve his efficiency in magic array research.

Thinking of this, Xu Yi put down the blueprints, met their expectant gazes, flashed them a bright smile, and said, "I must say, both of you are outstanding and fully meet the work requirements of the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Magic Research Institute. Now I would like to ask you a question in all seriousness. Are you willing to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild?"