vol 1, chapter 7, copper, iron, and failure

Jo had general Ohba accompanying him and several gatherers with stone tools and baskets. Sada was tasked with guiding them to the copper deposit and through a track of woods the were met with a small cliff that had a dark green color to it.

"malachite." indeed this was a copper deposit and just by the color Jo could tell that it was high grade this alone could give Jo and his people decades of raw copper Jo felt overjoyed because although copper is weaker than iron it's still is better than stone so there production would double and they might be able to gather the materials for a wall.

Although Jo tasked Satake with building a wall around the settlement he wasn't able to or to be more specific it would take longer than Satake's life time to build the wall with stone tools. so Jo postponed it's construction until he had metal tools and with this copper deposit he might be able to gather the materials needed and more.

Jo immediately had people gather the malachite to be transport back to the settlement and sometime later they gathered enough malachite and we're ready for transport.

But on the way back Jo saw something in the distance and decided to check in out. It was a patch of red dirt that was out in the middle of a field he knew from reading an article that the color of materials often showed what it was made and red often means iron or a nearby iron ore deposit.

Jo had Sada use his gathering skills to identify what it was. " Young Majesty it appears to be dirt with a high concentration of something called hematite." Jo felt thrilled but then remembered that hematite was an abundant resource so he would have come acrost it sooner or later as iron is the most abundant resource at least on earth.

He decided to mark this area for mining. And returned to the settlement with his head held high because not only did he find copper but also iron. Next was the furnace and forge for blacksmithing.

Hr also checked the progress of the kiln and saw the builder's were almost finished. Soon the could make pottery. But now he shifted his focus on making a forge to turn raw ore into usable metal. This would be easy for the copper but the iron would be different as the melting point of iron was much greater than copper.

he thought of using those leather contraptions he often she's in depictions of forges or blacksmiths but he didn't know how to make them he also tried asking the citizens but none were blacksmiths although surprising Sada was an apprentice to one but passed away in an accident but he was working on making bronze mirrors and bells instead of weapons or armor and tools so he had no clue how to make iron or normal copper.

Jo was essentially on his own in figuring out how to make a forge for smelting iron. He had no clue we're to begin he never forged before so he decided to cultivate to think of a solution.

he cultivated until the sun fell and even spent the whole night cultivating by the time the sun rose over the next morning Jo heard a {Ding} { congratulations Jo has broken through the first national barrier in cultivation } with this Jo felt a wave of calmness wash over him.

His entire body felt strengthened and his mind sharper. He decided not to wait and began to think of a solution to forging the copper and iron he gathered. Thanks to the break through his thoughts were smooth and he remembered something important and that was charcoal.

Charcoal was a crucial step to making iron as it was the only thing they could make that could get hot enough to melt iron but it also cause the chemical reaction to strip the iron from oxygen turning the iron oxide ore into pure iron and later using the carbon in the charcoal to make steel when further refining iron.

Of course he would use it for the copper but the copper has a lower melting point and just wood which suffice. So Jo resolved himself and once again gathered the builder's and had them construct a ore furnace and a permanent charcoal furnace.

When he was done he remembered that there are some new residents and decided to go speak with them and found a C rank and she also was an expert silk worm farmer but Jo didn't have silk worms so he made her a gatherer and signed the other two to other professions. He felt bad having some talented people but not having the resources they need for there craft.

He would definitely have everything they need in the future once they progressed forward but for now he focused on the task at hand and even added gathering materials for construction and building with the builders.

the whole day past as Jo help throughout the settlement and when the ore furnace was done he had some charcoal being produced to smelt down the malachite. This was an enlightening day for Jo as he began to connect with the residents of his settlement and began to understand things in a more broader perspective as many of the residents were worried about shelter as Jo had Satake construct simple shelters and as there numbers grew they started wanting proper houses to live in.

Thinking about this Jo needed iron faster and had more people helping to achieve acquiring it. so they could make proper tools and start on projects that would help everyone like agriculture and animal husbandry, ect.

by the end of the day they were prepared for the copper and Jo instructed the scholars to watch as they put the charcoal and ore in the furnace stacking them up like a lasagna were charcoal was on the bottom than ore then charcoal than ore all the way to the top.

The in take for the air he used a clever trick he saw on the internet were a simple fan was used to heat up the furnace. the fan was made like a hand drill with a four-way fan sticking out horizontally from the handle and as you would spin it it would create wind he than had it put into a housing unit to channel The air and used a bow drill to spin it.

Once everything was set up he had them begin. He had two air intake to pickup the slack of the other. when the furnace was operating and charcoal was being put in he could see green flames coming out of the top. this meant the copper was beginning to melt and the whole thing was working.

as time past Jo had them poke a hole at the bottom to let slag out and slag began pouring out. He didn't know if it was the same as iron but this should mean it was working. He had someone poke the furnace at the top to help out with the slag draining.

After most of the charcoal was use he had them turn down the furnace and see if there was copper. In the end it was a total failure none of the copper was found and it most likely was mixed with the slag. " Ugg come on this should of work I must have done something wrong." although disappointed the main frustration was the time they needed to gather and build the furnace and making the charcoal as it takes hours to gather the materials do to a lack of efficient tools.

'I need time to think' in the end Jo didn't know how to make copper from raw resources and he heard something.{ Ding } { host has received notification to leave the mystic world and will be departing} and like that he left and was back in his van. and an alarm was going off.

he set the alarm for midnight primarily to see how much of a time dilation there was but he forget and didn't keep track of how many days past. He decided to use this opportunity to learn how to smelt copper and he quickly opened up to the Internet and began his research.

He quickly came across methods for smelting copper in the primitive era. It was stupidly simple as you just dig a hole fill it with charcoal have another hole leading to the bottom of the first and blow air through the second hole it was that simple. and it seems he had to use charcoal as the carbon monoxide produced from charcoal combined with the oxide in the copper to leave behind pure copper. This was good as they use malachite in the example the same resource he had.

he also researched iron just to be safe but he seem to have the idea already and he learned nothing new just different designs. With this newfound knowledge he decided to enter the mystic world again and this time he would succeed on refining copper and iron.

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thank you for reading my work I appreciate that there are people willing to read this even though it's pretty novice in terms of work of course I feel like I have been improving and I decided that the first 10 chapters will be focused on world-building and settling up for the first ark I hope you're all eager to see what I got in store.

thank you.

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