My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 10 Wire Brushing Machine

"I need you to make me a device to guide the water flow," Thorne said to Alex.

"Guiding the water flow... no problem." Alex said, picking up Thorne's stone sword and starting to find a quiet place to saw wood.

Thorne nodded and continued to mentally organize the resources he currently had at his disposal.

He planned to use tripwire hooks, trapdoors, and water to create a wire brushing machine—an alchemy machine that would rely on his own alchemical properties to produce a large quantity of wire out of thin air.

However, the tripwire hooks and the scissors for starting the brushing machine require a total of 3 iron ingots. Two iron ingots are used to make the scissors, and one iron ingot is used to make two tripwire hooks. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a single iron ingot, not even a single iron pellet.

However, this wasn't entirely without a solution. He rubbed his somewhat embarrassed face and walked straight towards the villagers who were twisting hemp thread at the edge of the forest not far away.

He remembered that the villagers had placed an iron axe in the center of the territory yesterday. He now needed to find the owner of that iron axe. He had calculated that if he threw the iron axe into the furnace, he could smelt it into three iron ingots.

Now, he needs the consent of the owner of that iron axe.

He quickly arrived at the edge of the crowd. When the busy villagers saw Thorne arrive, they all put down the hemp ropes in their hands, stood up one by one, and stared at Thorne expectantly.

In Thorne's mind, that look was clearly asking him if the wheat they planted yesterday was ripe.

Are we allowed to eat bread now?

Unfortunately, he didn't come here to announce the good news; on the contrary, it might be bad news for these people.

"that…"

He felt his face burning as soon as he finished speaking. He had composed himself by the village, but now he still felt awkward. However, for the sake of building the city gate, he had no choice but to continue, forcing himself to speak.

"Yesterday I noticed an iron axe in the center of our village."

No sooner had Thorne finished speaking than a figure immediately raised his hands: "Me, me, me, my lord, that's my axe. Use it if you need it."

Thorne looked toward the figure, and it was Lester, the first person to come with him to cut down trees yesterday. He also seemed to be there when they were planting wheat.

Well, now I feel even more guilty and ashamed. This person trusted me so much, and now, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'm going to take away his only axe and throw it into the furnace.

Even so, I still have to bite the bullet and keep going.

Thorne took a deep breath, composed himself, and said, "I do need your axe, but I need to melt it down in a furnace to make iron ingots for crafting machines. I'd like to ask for your opinion."

"no problem!"

Thorne, who had expected Lester to refuse outright, was already prepared to pick up his pickaxe and go back down into the mine to try his luck and find some iron ore. However, he looked at Lester with some surprise.

Did Leicester agree?

What should I do? What should I do? I should thank him!

Wow, how embarrassing.

What to do then? Turn around and run, grab the axe and throw it straight into the furnace!

That's not good either, it's impolite. So what should we do...?

"Thorne, come here, I need your help."

Just as Thorne was lost in endless silence and struggle, Alex's voice suddenly came from afar.

Thorne, who was being held captive here by Lester, immediately nodded to Lester as if he had been granted a pardon: "Thank you very much. I have to go over there. By the way, how many threads have you twisted so far? If you have twisted more than three threads, you can go back to the village. Take a rest and we'll have bread for dinner."

After Thorne finished speaking, he turned and fled the scene quickly.

Previously, I hadn't planned to make a wire-making machine, so I intended to rely solely on the villagers to make the bows and arrows by hand.

But now that we've already melted down axes to make wire brushing machines, there's no point in hand-brushing any more wires.

Lester scratched the back of his head. What was there to thank him for?

It's not like the lord didn't make those magical stone axes for them.

This axe, which can fell a tree with just a few strokes and with no effort, is far superior to the iron axe that used to take forever to cut down a single tree.

Oh, right, the lord said that making three strands of hemp thread is enough to return to the village to rest and wait for bread. Does that mean the wheat we planted yesterday is ripe?

Not only Lester thought so, but the other villagers thought so too. Seeing that each of them had three or four strands of hemp thread in their hands, they quickly stood up, dusted themselves off, and headed towards the village.

Upon returning to the village, almost everyone was stunned to see their little village enclosed by a strange rock framework.

Even though none of these people had formally studied any knowledge, their life experience told them that normal stones could not possibly be used to build such a framework that seemed to exist without gravity.

So this is the lord's amazing ability? Like building a bridge in a few seconds, inventing wheat that matures in a day and a half, or smashing a tree with a few punches?

The villagers stared in shock at the square frame supported by only one stone.

But why would the lord want to build such a strange thing? It's amazing, but it doesn't exist. Wait, didn't the lord say yesterday that he wanted to build a wall around the village?

The villagers quickly began to chatter amongst themselves, and eventually they all came to the same conclusion: this was probably the framework of the city wall that the lord had planned for them in advance, and all they had to do was move stones to fill the framework.

If it were up to them before, they would definitely have all eleven people, and all one hundred and eleven faces would have been unwilling to build a city wall.

But now, looking at the vast wheat field across the river from the village, which was mostly scorched yellow with only wisps of green remaining and looked like it was about to ripen, they all had only one thought.

City walls are great! City walls should be built!

Unfortunately, slogans are just slogans, and reality is different. Even if everyone wants to build a magnificent wall right now, that will have to wait until they have enough to eat.

Clearly, the wheat field is not yet fully ripe, and as for the city wall, we'll have to wait until after we've had our first full meal.

The crowd shifted their gaze from the city wall framework and the wheat field to Thorne, who was building a strange thing with blocks next to the waterwheel.

Alex was also busy there, setting up a water track made of wooden planks next to the waterwheel. Water was drawn into the track through a constantly rotating water bucket on the waterwheel, and then flowed into the machine that Thorne had made.

That strange machine was like an incomprehensible book to them. Well, they couldn't understand ordinary books either. In short, it looked simple but couldn't possibly be that simple. Perhaps it was some kind of magical altar?

It was a four-meter-long structure made entirely of stone, with a two-meter-long pool for the water pipes that held the incoming water. Two trapdoors made of wood firmly separated the water from the other side of the structure.

Outside the trapdoor were two protruding stones, and between the two stones were two strange hooks.

There were two levers on the stones to the left and right of the two trapdoors, which looked like they were used to open and close the trapdoors. Although they did not see any mechanical connection between the levers and the trapdoors, that was the impression.

At this moment, Alex jumped off the waterwheel, grabbed the lever on the right, and looked at their lord.

After completing the strange altar, their lord Thorne straightened up, smiled at them, and asked, "Who will give me three threads?"

Lester was always extremely enthusiastic about such things, and he quickly ran over and handed all four strands of thread he had hand-twisted to Thorne.

"Thank you," Thorne said after taking the line. He then picked it up, tied a knot, and hung it on the two strange hooks on the two rocks.

After hanging up, he took out a strange pair of scissors with sharp edges and serrations, looked at Alex who was already holding the lever, grabbed the lever himself, and then picked up the scissors.

"Ready? I'll count to 321, I'll cut the scissors, and then we'll pull the lever together." After Thorne finished speaking, he quickly realized that something was wrong.

The wire brushing machine, tripwire hook, and scissors in front of us were all forged from Lester's iron axe. So, it's only right that Lester participates in such a ritualistic event as turning on the wire brushing machine.

After all, it's a tradition of the Royal Capital Alchemy Association to have the shareholders who have invested in such a ritualistic event attend.

He waved to Lester, handed him the strange pixelated scissors, and kept his grip on the lever.

"I'll count to 321, then you use scissors to cut the middle line hanging on the tripwire hook, and then we'll start the lever."

Before Thorne could finish speaking, Lester exclaimed in surprise, "Ah! My lord, I can't do it."

"three!"

"My lord, no one has ever taught me how to use this thing," Lester said anxiously.

"two!"

"Don't make it so difficult, be smart, or the water will overflow," Alex said to Lester, frowning as she gripped the lever.

"one!"

Lester's eyes widened instinctively. Why would the lord entrust him with such an important task? This was a magic altar! What if he messed it up?

Even if it's something important that I really need to do myself, I should have been taught beforehand. Now look what happened! Why did I have to stand so far forward when I had nothing better to do? Now I'm ruined, ruined! One life, ten lives wouldn't be enough to pay for it.

But before he could figure out how many lives he would need to compensate for the machine he had damaged, a snapping sound pulled him back to reality.

Click!

As the scissors cut the line, Thorne and Alex, who were holding levers next to the machine, simultaneously pulled the levers down.

As the two trapdoors flipped upwards simultaneously, strangely, the water did not pour out directly. Instead, it remained obediently inside the machine, as if some invisible force had imprisoned it within.

Lester was somewhat bewildered; he couldn't understand what kind of power this was.

However, his puzzled look was quickly obscured by a line that suddenly flew out.

The thread he had cut back then, for some unknown reason, seemed to appear out of thin air as a delicate, snow-white cotton thread, landing directly on his sweat- and grime-covered face. It kept multiplying and growing longer, seemingly without end.

"What is this?" Lester asked blankly as he removed the thread from his face and looked up at the lord standing beside him, smiling.

His current doubts are not only about the strange machine, but also about the amazing person in front of him.