Chapter 20
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"There are a few things we need to do before we begin business so for the next few days were going to have to stay closed. The first thing we would need is a good supply of iron and charcoal which I'm assuming you have already, but I want to see your purchasing prices."
After James saw the cost of the materials Tobias had been purchasing, he felt lost, and his feelings were reaffirmed thanks to his Frugal title.
[Current material prices are 13 per cent above market prices, System recommends the host locates a new supplier.]
"Where have you been buying your materials from so far?"
"My wife's brother told me he would be able to get me a good deal on them, so I just let him handle the materials purchasing, why?"
"Your wife's brother has been inflating the costs to make some easy money for himself. These numbers are about 13 per cent higher than market prices." James didn't have time to play about, so he just outed the scheme straight away. He would let Mr Franklin do with that info what he will, so long as it didn't affect his schedule.
"That bastard, I wondered why he always had a smug expression around me, well turns out the answer was under my fucking nose the whole time! I wonder how much money that idiots cost me so far." After he thought about the money he had lost, he began to feel depressed thinking of all the things he could have bought his wife and daughter with it to make their lives more comfortable.
"You are free to do whatever you want to him but not on my time I'm going to be paying you well, so I want your best at all times!" James decided to readjust this mans mood while he was down, so he knew that while James was younger, he was the one in charge.
"Why are you worrying about money for now anyway, surely you have enough to send your daughter to school and do whatever the hell else you want, cheer up! Starting quite soon you will be one of the richest blacksmiths in the outer district." James made sure not to forget the carrot after the stick.
"Leave it to me to get the new material supplier you just need to begin making the new material you will be working with, and for that, I need you to sign something." Now came the part that could be the only hindrance in James' plan. he pulled out a shimmering piece of shiny paper and put it on the table in front of him and at the top of the page two words could be seen glowing eerily 'Soul Contract.'
"The agreement for this soul contract will be one simple thing; you may not tell anyone about any of our actions in this shop without my permission, this is to protect my designs and ideas as I am probably the only person who knows some of them. These ideas are what will revolutionise the blacksmithing world so they must be protected at all times."
As the blacksmith saw the contract, he felt cold all of a sudden, like he was about to sign his life away to the devil. But thinking of the terms and checking them himself he realised there was no real risk for him and it was merely a formality to protect James' ideas.
"Fine, I'll sign. You have a pencil I can use?"
After James handed the man the pencil, he had completed the hardest part of his plan, and that was gaining the man's trust. If everything hadn't been played how it had been so far, he might not have been able to get Tobias to sign the contract for fear of ulterior motives.
"Okay, now that's out of the way, here's the recipe to that metal I had you make" after that James handed over a small piece of paper with three lines of writing on it.
Steel Production:
Take an amount of iron, calculate its weight.
Measure out an amount of charcoal dust that weighs 0.60 per cent the weight of the iron, for example, 1kg of iron means 6 grams of dust.
Mix the charcoal dust with the iron in a crucible until molten then stir well and cast into ingots.
James was severely limited by his technology at the moment so had to go with the most basic method he could think of to create steel.
"How are you extracting your iron from its ore?"
"Just throw it into the bloomery with some charcoal and get it heated up mostly."
"Okay, do you have any materials capable of withstanding the temperature needed to melt iron?"
"We have some ceramic pots we use for crucibles when we want to cast metal, will they do?"
"That's perfect for what we need; there is something I need you to make. You can go about it however you want, just follow this diagram and you should be fine. This should be enough money to get it done, in the meantime I'm going to try to find a better supplier for our materials." He gave Tobias 50 Leones which was more than enough but he wanted to let Tobias know he wasn't short on funds, he also didn't want him buying substandard materials.
James handed over two more pieces of paper, one of them detailing the process of roasting and reduction and the other being a diagram of a reverberatory furnace. He needed to get as little impurities in his material as possible for as low input cost as possible.
From what he could tell the most used process in the city was bloomery furnaces which gave low-quality iron with a lot of impurities so to make his metals stand out, even more, he was going to reduce the impurity as much as possible in a short time frame.
On his way out James thought of something and turned around to look at Tobias "If I find out your brother in law is involved in this business in any way I will not hesitate to fire you. Also after memorising the contents of those pages and building the furnace, burn them." James had no time for family troubles and didn't want to have to keep an eye on someone who might be stealing from him.
After spending a few hours collecting info for the system his frugal title found him a supplier that was willing to enter an exclusive supply agreement, as long as he bought all the iron they could supply provided it was of a certain quality which was slightly below the industry standard. That was a blessing for James as he now had a method to increase the purity of his ores.
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"There are a few things we need to do before we begin business so for the next few days were going to have to stay closed. The first thing we would need is a good supply of iron and charcoal which I'm assuming you have already, but I want to see your purchasing prices."
After James saw the cost of the materials Tobias had been purchasing, he felt lost, and his feelings were reaffirmed thanks to his Frugal title.
[Current material prices are 13 per cent above market prices, System recommends the host locates a new supplier.]
"Where have you been buying your materials from so far?"
"My wife's brother told me he would be able to get me a good deal on them, so I just let him handle the materials purchasing, why?"
"Your wife's brother has been inflating the costs to make some easy money for himself. These numbers are about 13 per cent higher than market prices." James didn't have time to play about, so he just outed the scheme straight away. He would let Mr Franklin do with that info what he will, so long as it didn't affect his schedule.
"That bastard, I wondered why he always had a smug expression around me, well turns out the answer was under my fucking nose the whole time! I wonder how much money that idiots cost me so far." After he thought about the money he had lost, he began to feel depressed thinking of all the things he could have bought his wife and daughter with it to make their lives more comfortable.
"You are free to do whatever you want to him but not on my time I'm going to be paying you well, so I want your best at all times!" James decided to readjust this mans mood while he was down, so he knew that while James was younger, he was the one in charge.
"Why are you worrying about money for now anyway, surely you have enough to send your daughter to school and do whatever the hell else you want, cheer up! Starting quite soon you will be one of the richest blacksmiths in the outer district." James made sure not to forget the carrot after the stick.
"Leave it to me to get the new material supplier you just need to begin making the new material you will be working with, and for that, I need you to sign something." Now came the part that could be the only hindrance in James' plan. he pulled out a shimmering piece of shiny paper and put it on the table in front of him and at the top of the page two words could be seen glowing eerily 'Soul Contract.'
"The agreement for this soul contract will be one simple thing; you may not tell anyone about any of our actions in this shop without my permission, this is to protect my designs and ideas as I am probably the only person who knows some of them. These ideas are what will revolutionise the blacksmithing world so they must be protected at all times."
As the blacksmith saw the contract, he felt cold all of a sudden, like he was about to sign his life away to the devil. But thinking of the terms and checking them himself he realised there was no real risk for him and it was merely a formality to protect James' ideas.
"Fine, I'll sign. You have a pencil I can use?"
After James handed the man the pencil, he had completed the hardest part of his plan, and that was gaining the man's trust. If everything hadn't been played how it had been so far, he might not have been able to get Tobias to sign the contract for fear of ulterior motives.
"Okay, now that's out of the way, here's the recipe to that metal I had you make" after that James handed over a small piece of paper with three lines of writing on it.
Steel Production:
Take an amount of iron, calculate its weight.
Measure out an amount of charcoal dust that weighs 0.60 per cent the weight of the iron, for example, 1kg of iron means 6 grams of dust.
Mix the charcoal dust with the iron in a crucible until molten then stir well and cast into ingots.
James was severely limited by his technology at the moment so had to go with the most basic method he could think of to create steel.
"How are you extracting your iron from its ore?"
"Just throw it into the bloomery with some charcoal and get it heated up mostly."
"Okay, do you have any materials capable of withstanding the temperature needed to melt iron?"
"We have some ceramic pots we use for crucibles when we want to cast metal, will they do?"
"That's perfect for what we need; there is something I need you to make. You can go about it however you want, just follow this diagram and you should be fine. This should be enough money to get it done, in the meantime I'm going to try to find a better supplier for our materials." He gave Tobias 50 Leones which was more than enough but he wanted to let Tobias know he wasn't short on funds, he also didn't want him buying substandard materials.
James handed over two more pieces of paper, one of them detailing the process of roasting and reduction and the other being a diagram of a reverberatory furnace. He needed to get as little impurities in his material as possible for as low input cost as possible.
From what he could tell the most used process in the city was bloomery furnaces which gave low-quality iron with a lot of impurities so to make his metals stand out, even more, he was going to reduce the impurity as much as possible in a short time frame.
On his way out James thought of something and turned around to look at Tobias "If I find out your brother in law is involved in this business in any way I will not hesitate to fire you. Also after memorising the contents of those pages and building the furnace, burn them." James had no time for family troubles and didn't want to have to keep an eye on someone who might be stealing from him.
After spending a few hours collecting info for the system his frugal title found him a supplier that was willing to enter an exclusive supply agreement, as long as he bought all the iron they could supply provided it was of a certain quality which was slightly below the industry standard. That was a blessing for James as he now had a method to increase the purity of his ores.
"There are a few things we need to do before we begin business so for the next few days were going to have to stay closed. The first thing we would need is a good supply of iron and charcoal which I'm assuming you have already, but I want to see your purchasing prices."After James saw the cost of the materials Tobias had been purchasing, he felt lost, and his feelings were reaffirmed thanks to his Frugal title.Current material prices are 13 per cent above market prices, System recommends the host locates a new supplier."Where have you been buying your materials from so far?""My wife's brother told me he would be able to get me a good deal on them, so I just let him handle the materials purchasing, why?""Your wife's brother has been inflating the costs to make some easy money for himself. These numbers are about 13 per cent higher than market prices." James didn't have time to play about, so he just outed the scheme straight away. He would let Mr Franklin do with that info what he will, so long as it didn't affect his schedule."That bastard, I wondered why he always had a smug expression around me, well turns out the answer was under my fucking nose the whole time! I wonder how much money that idiots cost me so far." After he thought about the money he had lost, he began to feel depressed thinking of all the things he could have bought his wife and daughter with it to make their lives more comfortable."You are free to do whatever you want to him but not on my time I'm going to be paying you well, so I want your best at all times!" James decided to readjust this mans mood while he was down, so he knew that while James was younger, he was the one in charge."Why are you worrying about money for now anyway, surely you have enough to send your daughter to school and do whatever the hell else you want, cheer up! Starting quite soon you will be one of the richest blacksmiths in the outer district." James made sure not to forget the carrot after the stick."Leave it to me to get the new material supplier you just need to begin making the new material you will be working with, and for that, I need you to sign something." Now came the part that could be the only hindrance in James' plan. he pulled out a shimmering piece of shiny paper and put it on the table in front of him and at the top of the page two words could be seen glowing eerily 'Soul Contract.'"The agreement for this soul contract will be one simple thing; you may not tell anyone about any of our actions in this shop without my permission, this is to protect my designs and ideas as I am probably the only person who knows some of them. These ideas are what will revolutionise the blacksmithing world so they must be protected at all times."As the blacksmith saw the contract, he felt cold all of a sudden, like he was about to sign his life away to the devil. But thinking of the terms and checking them himself he realised there was no real risk for him and it was merely a formality to protect James' ideas."Fine, I'll sign. You have a pencil I can use?"After James handed the man the pencil, he had completed the hardest part of his plan, and that was gaining the man's trust. If everything hadn't been played how it had been so far, he might not have been able to get Tobias to sign the contract for fear of ulterior motives."Okay, now that's out of the way, here's the recipe to that metal I had you make" after that James handed over a small piece of paper with three lines of writing on it.Steel Production:Take an amount of iron, calculate its weight.Measure out an amount of charcoal dust that weighs 0.60 per cent the weight of the iron, for example, 1kg of iron means 6 grams of dust.Mix the charcoal dust with the iron in a crucible until molten then stir well and cast into ingots.James was severely limited by his technology at the moment so had to go with the most basic method he could think of to create steel."How are you extracting your iron from its ore?""Just throw it into the bloomery with some charcoal and get it heated up mostly.""Okay, do you have any materials capable of withstanding the temperature needed to melt iron?""We have some ceramic pots we use for crucibles when we want to cast metal, will they do?""That's perfect for what we need; there is something I need you to make. You can go about it however you want, just follow this diagram and you should be fine. This should be enough money to get it done, in the meantime I'm going to try to find a better supplier for our materials." He gave Tobias 50 Leones which was more than enough but he wanted to let Tobias know he wasn't short on funds, he also didn't want him buying substandard materials.James handed over two more pieces of paper, one of them detailing the process of roasting and reduction and the other being a diagram of a reverberatory furnace. He needed to get as little impurities in his material as possible for as low input cost as possible.From what he could tell the most used process in the city was bloomery furnaces which gave low-quality iron with a lot of impurities so to make his metals stand out, even more, he was going to reduce the impurity as much as possible in a short time frame.On his way out James thought of something and turned around to look at Tobias "If I find out your brother in law is involved in this business in any way I will not hesitate to fire you. Also after memorising the contents of those pages and building the furnace, burn them." James had no time for family troubles and didn't want to have to keep an eye on someone who might be stealing from him.After spending a few hours collecting info for the system his frugal title found him a supplier that was willing to enter an exclusive supply agreement, as long as he bought all the iron they could supply provided it was of a certain quality which was slightly below the industry standard. That was a blessing for James as he now had a method to increase the purity of his ores.
