For the second time in a month, Corco made his way over to the blast furnace on Chukru Island. He hadn't, in fact, become addicted to the heat. Rather, after the inception of the blast furnace, there was another important milestone to celebrate, one the king would have to be present for. Ronnie was busy after all, which only left Corco able to identify their newest creation.

“I'll be fine from here, Quato. You'll make sure no one enters for now.” Although he tried to hide it, Corco could see the relief in his new attendant's face. Even before the banquet, the king had felt troubled by Tama's influence over his inner circle.

Of course, the girl had proven loyal when she had stopped Epunamo's warrior and she had fulfilled all of his orders without question. Still, her headstrong attitude and cleverness did little to endear her to those around. Tama liked doing things alone and had a hard time trusting anyone. Plus, her and Atau were like oil and water.

To solve some of the issues, he had sent her out on missions away from Saniya. Away from the ghost warriors, she would have to work together with his other allies instead. After all, Tama wasn't malicious, only distrustful.

At the same time, Corco would strengthen his own relations with the ghost warriors bit by bit. For good reason, the warriors were still more loyal to Fadelio's family than they were to him. Although a bit of contact wouldn't solve the problem on a fundamental level, it was a good start.

His future plans were interrupted by a wall of heat. No wonder Quato had been glad to be left outside. As always, the city's new foundry was a sauna. Even now when the flames had been extinguished, the heat was still enough to steal Corco's breath.

At least cultivators were sturdy, so he could hold out with only an amber mask and a leather apron. Though he really didn't know how the others did it, most of all Asiro. Even though the red glow was gone and the entire hall had turned into a play of shadows, the king was still spotted by the blacksmith as soon as he entered.

“Asiro greets King Corco.” Asiro's sloppy bow brought his head down to Corco's level for a moment. To the king, this was another reason he wouldn't let his warriors inside here. His father's old servants would never allow this level of disrespect. In fact, the blacksmith was by far the most casual commoner Corco had even met, but he knew it wasn't a sign of disrespect. Rather, this seemed to be the man's natural attitude, which suited Corco just right.

Since the foundry would be one of the most critical projects in any budding economy, his previous self had spent a lot of time on various plans and articles, to remember all the details he could. At the same time, it had also been one of the first pieces of knowledge he had written down back in Arcavia. For such vital information, he couldn't rely on his memory, no matter how good it was. Really, if he could be considered an expert in any piece of engineering, it would be the massive stove before him. As a result, he had spent a lot of time here, to work out the details with Asiro and the group of local stonemasons. His frequent visits had only further eased the blacksmith's attitude.

“Is it finally time to check on our latest build? Looking forward to all the waste.” Corco rubbed his hands.

Even after almost a year of construction, the foundry was far from completed. They were limited by their experience and practical skills, but even more by their lack of good materials and tools. Compared to what he had seen in diagrams online, their furnace was crude, cold and wasteful. Still, if today was a success, it would get them leaps further.

“The coals have been out for a couple hours already, so the heat should be much better with the coke oven. Honestly, downstairs smells pretty bad. We've aired the place out though, so it should be fine.”

“Then let's get to it,” the king smiled in anticipation. A loud whistle from his guide made his shoulders jerk, but the blacksmith was too busy screaming at his numerous apprentices. He wouldn't notice the king's faux-pas.

“Hey, Qura, Mallku! We're looking through the refuse! Come along and give me a hand here!”

“Qura (Mallku) greets King Corcopaca (Corco)!” they said in stereo, before they shared a vicious stare.

Of course, the mighty king wouldn't be interested in the petty squabbles of commoners. He had to sift through some by-products. Hopping from one leg to the other like a kid, Corco followed the commoners down a wide berth of stairs which would lead them underground. As soon as they stepped downstairs, Corco could smell the tarry stink that pervaded the cellar. To him, it was the smell of progress. Soon they were confronted with the massive coke oven they had built to supply the never-satiated beast upstairs. Of course, all of them knew that the king hadn't come for the oven itself.

“To be frank, I still don't understand why we couldn't just vent all of the smoke outside. This sort of stink is really too much.” Asiro moaned as they walked past the over itself and followed its exhaust.

“Yeah, for now it's still pretty bad, but that's only because our tools aren't precise enough. The only reason this place smells is because our pipes leaked. Once we get the leaking under control, you'll be astonished by the results.” The king said as he looked over to the side, to the pipe they had followed along. Inside this pipe would flow contents no less valuable than the steel produced up above. After a few steps they reached a portion where the walls had been opened. Without soul to hold them back, the waters of the Mayura could flow inside, to envelope the lacquered pipe.

“How's our first cooling section going? Any leaks?” To the king's words, one of the workers stepped forward. Like an idiot, Qura bowed so deep his head almost dipped into the water.

“To answer king, the lacquer held well around the water itself, but everywhere else, there were numerous small bursts from the heat. I apologize for my incompetence.”

“Can you get up?” Corco frowned. “We expected that much. Our pipes don't really fit together, they're made from simple iron and we're only using lacquer for now. Still many improvements to be made. Today, I'm only interested in the final step of our distillation.”

Although Qura raised his head, his eyes were dull. No doubt he hadn't understood a word.

“You're training them, are you?” Corco raised a brow towards Asiro.

“Ahaha.” From his master's vicious hit, Qura's head bowed again. At first Mallku snickered, but Asiro's stare calmed him down just like his companion. “They're a bit slow, but they're good kids. I'll bring them up to speed as fast as I can.”

For now, Corco wouldn't bother with the training of the apprentices. He already had too much on his plate anyways. Instead, he moved on, both with his steps and with his explanations.

“You know, if we get to fix the leakage issues, you wouldn't be so dismissive towards this side project anymore. The stuff we pump out in the air around here makes for perfect fuel. Pump that into our blast furnace and we can get the temperature a couple hundred degrees higher, easily.”

“Really? In that case, we should begin to use it right away! I would not mind a slight smell. The foundry can't get much worse either way,” he heard the enthusiastic voice of the blacksmith behind him. At the same time, Corco looked to the chimney which would carry some of the expensive gases out of the building.

“We can't,” the saddened king shook his head. “What do you think happens when there is a leak and the gas ignites? I don't want to kill all of my blacksmiths now that you're just getting the hang of things.”

“Understood.” Even though he had heard about his own death, the blacksmith still sounded calm.

“Anyways, we'll have to take apart this entire thing after today. Scrub away all the tar before it can gunk up the machinery. Then we gotta take a closer look at the individual parts, to see if we overlooked any damage. With any luck, we can soon start to replace parts.”

“Wouldn't that be a bit hasty? We have only just finished our first burn with the equipment,” Asiro said.

“Wait, do we have to take this thing apart after every run?” Mallku whined. As Corco turned to face his subjects, his shoulders dropped.

“Yes, we have to do this after every burn. I'm not taking any risks here, and we're only in the experimental phase anyways. Plus, with how little coal and iron we have available right now, we can only fire the foundry for a couple days every month. What are you gonna do the rest of the time? That long gap in between uses is perfect. You can all go to school, to learn more theory, while you can also clean the place and take apart the individual pieces, to further improve efficiency.”

“King Corcopaca, cleaning is fine, but I don't think the school-”

“We've stored the by-products in there,” Asiro interrupted Mallku, and pointed towards a door in the corner of the room. Right after, he presented his apprentice with another stern look.

“Then please,” Corco said.

“Please follow me, King Corcopaca,” apprentice number two said, bowed and rushed ahead. Once they had entered, the king saw himself confronted with the condensation of their work. A box, and several large barrels, as well as a table and some glasses on top. Again he smiled, and removed his mask. Not only would he need to see colors for this, he would also need his nose.

“This is everything?” he asked Asiro.

A look over the blacksmith's shoulder revealed the young apprentices.

“Everything these servants could find inside the compartments of king's design, King Corcopaca,” Qura bowed.

“Yes, getting all of the gunk together was a lot of work!” Mallku added.

“Okay, that's enough showing off. Go clean up, we'll need to get the furnace ready for another run tomorrow,” Asiro shooed them away.

“Of course, master.”

“These servants will excuse themselves, King Corcopaca!”

While Asiro had fooled around with his servants, Corco had started to judge the various substances before him. First, he found a box filled with tiny white granules. Although there was no doubt about the value of the ammonium sulfate, Corco's eyes dragged his body over to the waist-high steel drums behind.

Right away the king opened the first barrel, to find a viscous, black liquid.

“King Corco, how does it look? Did we find what you were searching?” Asiro asked.

“This first one is... tar, probably. It's not worthless, but not what we're looking for.”

As Corco stepped up to the second barrel, his fingers began to tingle.

“The second barrel should be the one from the last step of distillation,” Asiro explained.

With a tremble and a frown, Corco opened the second lid. At once his eyes grew and his frown smoothed.

“This one...” Hopeful, the king stared at the brown liquid. Although it wasn't all too clear, when he swirled the liquid around, he could see an iridescent shimmer on the surface. Even before that, the smell had already reached his nose. All by itself the distinctive smell of gasoline introduced itself to him, for the first time in this life.

“You're sure this is from the separating funnel?” he asked.

“Yeah, should be. I mean, that's how we put them in here at least.”

Even though there was only a sliver of the liquid at the bottom of the barrel, Corco began to grin.

“Next time we label them. Still, if you're sure, then I know what this is.”

Corco picked up one of the glasses from the table and began to scoop up some of the precious liquid.

“I think, he smiled from ear to ear, we just purified the world's first glass of benzene. Well, technically it's BTX, and technically I'm mostly interested in the T for now.”

“King Corco, what-”

“Asiro, go ahead and label the rest of this stuff, I'll look at it later. This one takes priority! I'll see you tomorrow!” Like a whirlwind, the king swept through the underground halls of the forge and left, together with his newest treasure.

Behind him, he heard a whimper of “but I can't read,” but at this point, he had more important things to do. No matter what, Ronnie had to see this right away. If everything went according to plan, they would soon create something new.

So far, all throughout his life, he had only copied products from others. Soap from Arcavia, porcelain from Chutwa, none of it had been anything new. For the first time, Saniya would create a unique product in this world, the first of many.