Evan left the mission board and walked towards the simulation room door. He still had a thousand points left over from his achievements at the academy.
He spent 8 points to rent the room for 8 hours of real time.
After entering the simulation room, Evan took out spring wheat, barley, and oats.
He spent another 3 points to register the three items in the simulation object.
For simulation speed, 1-100 times faster was free. But Evan increased it to 10,000 times faster than normal time. 10,000 times faster was the maximum limit; to go any faster, he would need to upgrade the simulation room level, which would cost a lot of points.
After the simulation began, Evan found himself sitting comfortably in front of a small house near a farm. Time passed very quickly, with the sun and moon continuously alternating. He watched the wheat, barley, and oats grow rapidly.
After 48 minutes, harvest season arrived. Evan paused the simulation for a moment, paid 5 points to activate the identification feature, identified the wheat that was slightly superior to the others, and planted it again.
He kept repeating this for 8 hours. The results began to show, but the improvement was still minimal. This was normal because this wheat had only undergone 9 years of selective breeding. To truly achieve a superior variety, it would take approximately 200 years of selective breeding or 8 consecutive hours over 22 days using a simulation with 10,000 times the speed.
He spent 16 points per simulation, so he would spend 352 points in 22 days just for wheat.
"But it's worth it," Evan muttered.
Food is one of the important aspects in the progress of a society. In addition, increasing crop yields meant he had more wheat to sell, bringing him closer to completing his mission of 500 marks per year.
Thus, he would earn 500 points, minus the 352 points spent, leaving Evan with a net profit of 148 points and a doubling of his harvest yield.
After Evan exited the Wizard Time Center, he found himself in his room, lying on his bed. Eight hours had passed, and the morning sun was already shining brightly.
Evan woke up and decided to take a morning shower. However, as he passed the dining room, he found a girl placing plates of food on the table.
"Who are you?" he asked the girl.
The girl bowed. "Hello, sir, my name is Celine. I am your maid."
"Oh, I see."
Evan nodded. He didn't know if Celine was his father's old maid or someone new hired by Steven.
Well, it didn't really matter. Having someone to help with his daily needs was normal for a lord.
"By the way, Lord Eisenberg, I've prepared warm water for your bath," Celine informed Evan, realizing he was about to take a bath.
Evan didn't say much; he immediately went to the bathroom and washed himself with warm water. After finishing, he changed his clothes and had breakfast.
After the sun rose a little higher, Evan and Steven went to the blacksmith.
In this world, iron remains the king of metals. This is mainly due to the presence of two unique types of iron.
The first type is adamantite. This is iron that has above-average hardness and toughness. However, the most unique thing about this iron is not its toughness or hardness, but its anti-magic properties.
That's right, adamantite is one of the materials in this world with strong anti-magic properties. This material is usually used as a coating for important buildings, armor for elite troops, and even a prison for wizards.
The disadvantages of adamantite are that its mines are controlled by powerful forces, it has a very high melting point, and it is heavier than average.
Another type of iron is arcanite. This is a unique iron with properties opposite to adamantite. Arcanite is one of the best conductors of magical energy. Arcanite is typically used in the manufacture of magical tools. This type of iron is not as difficult or expensive to obtain as adamantite. Unfortunately, this iron is a little soft, making it unsuitable for use as armor.
If Evan wants to equip his security forces with armor, he unfortunately has no choice but to use ordinary iron.
When Evan asked the blacksmith, he was told that the blacksmith in the village of Einsburg could only make a maximum of 10 pieces of armor per year. Even then, he would have to hire other workers. He suggested that for large orders, it would be better to buy from nearby towns.
Of course, Evan could buy them, but he thought about the future and decided to advance the metallurgy industry in this village.
"Can you show me where our iron ore mine is?"
The blacksmith glanced at Steven and nodded. "Yes, sir."
Accompanied by Steven, a blacksmith, and a coachman, Evan left the village and headed into the forest. He traveled up several inclines before finally arriving at the mine site.
The mine was about 3 km from the village. The first 2 km were through gentle grasslands, but the last 1 km entered a forest that was uphill and winding.
The entrance to the mine was 2 meters high and 1.5 meters wide. For the first 10 meters, the height and width were quite good. However, after that, the ceiling and walls of the mine narrowed. Reaching the 20-meter mark and beyond, Evan had to duck to enter the mine. Feeling the difficulty, he quickly returned outside the mine.
"My Lord, to widen and utilize this mine would require so much labor; it would be cheaper for us to just buy armor," Steven advised.
Hearing Steven's reminder, Evan chuckled softly.
"It seems you've forgotten one thing, Uncle Steven..."
He raised his hands and clapped them together. At that moment, the ground in front of him shook and split open to the left and right. Steven was shocked when he saw this, staring in disbelief at the split ground in front of him.
"I am a wizard!"
Evan grinned. This was the earth-splitting technique, usually used to create traps or make holes in the ground to hide in. Although the technique looked extraordinary, Evan had actually only shifted the ground one meter to the left and right. To turn this mine into an open pit, this technique would need to be used hundreds or thousands of times.
Fortunately, Evan had time. He could do it slowly.
"Now I understand why your father spent hundreds of marks to send you to wizard school," Steven sighed. Although he had heard about how extraordinary a wizard was, this was the first time he had seen it firsthand.
"Sir! With your power, the mining process will be much easier!" The blacksmith spoke enthusiastically.
Evan then used the earth-splitting technique nine more times before running out of energy. He went home for lunch and a rest. He returned here in the afternoon to use the earth-splitting technique ten more times.
He continued repeating this activity until the twelfth day, when he finished. He opened the first layer 100 × 100 meters wide with a depth of 2 meters, the second layer 90 × 90 meters with the same depth, and so on until 20 × 20 meters. He had formed 9 layers with a total depth of 18 meters in the shape of an inverted pyramid.
He did not forget to add a sloping road from the top to the bottom point, 3 meters wide. This was used as a road to transport the mined materials. The slope was adjusted so that it was not too difficult to climb. In addition, he also created a 10-meter-deep vertical hole 2 × 2 meters wide for water drainage in case of rain.
After that, he also widened the road from the mine through the forest to the grasslands.
He completed everything in 15 days.
Evan employed 10 people as miners and 5 more to guide the oxen pulling the carts. Fortunately, it was not planting or harvesting season, so there were quite a few people who were unemployed.
The 10 miners could produce about 5 tons per day, or about 150 tons per month.
Meanwhile, each cart is pulled by 2 cows and controlled by one person, all of whom form a team. Evan planned to have four teams, each of which can lift 625 kg in one trip. So each team can complete two trips with a total transport of 1250 kg, for a total of 5 tons for the four teams in a day.
All the iron ore would then be stored in a prepared warehouse.
But that wasn't the end of it.
"I think you should rest first, My Lord."
"Steven, doing this is like training my abilities," Evan rejected Steven's suggestion.
Once again, Evan used the earth-splitting technique. This time for coal. Coal is well-known and often used for cooking or lighting fires. However, its large-scale use in blast furnaces is something that has never been done before.
It's not because they're stupid, but because coal cannot melt adamantite.
In Jannover, the city where Evan went to school, adamantite was smelted using sunstones, a special type of ore that had accumulated fire-type magical energy. Even in its initial state and lowest quality, this stone could generate heat of up to 1500 degrees.
The wealthy use sunstone, while the poor cannot afford to mine on a large scale.
Back to the coal mine, the mine here is more open than the iron mine, so Evan only needs to open two layers, with the top layer covering an area of 100 square meters with a depth of 2 meters, and the second layer covering an area of 50 meters with a depth of 2 meters and a 2-square-meter hole with a depth of 10 meters as a water reservoir in case of rain.
The coal mine is closer, 1.8 km from the village, and further away, this coal mine is located on flat land, not in a forest, so he does not need to level the road.
Evan again hired 10 miners and 4 transportation teams to solve this mining problem.
Evan solved the coal mining problem in 8 days.