"Come to the forge," Gorthruk said, finding her mid-lighting-sketch, notebook still open across her knees. "Time to build your prototypes. Rail spikes, track sections, cart frames, wheel assemblies, one working example of each, properly finished, so we can post the recipes and let every smith in the Republic, the Human Kingdom, wherever else, start producing components while your crews are still digging. No sense waiting for the tunnel to finish before we start building what goes inside it."
Arista followed him without argument, notebook and all, genuinely relieved to be back at an actual anvil instead of buried in scheduling charts and lighting diagrams.
The rail spike came first, and came easy, a simple, sturdy design, four-sided head for grip, tapered shaft for driving into the rail bed, nothing that hadn't essentially existed in some form since her very first tutorial attempts at shaping iron.
[Freeform Craft Successful: Rail Spike][Blacksmithing XP +8][Recipe Submitted for Review]
"That one's basically a fancier caltrop," she said, setting the finished spike down. "Simple geometry, easy to mass-produce, no reason every competent smith couldn't churn out hundreds a day once the recipe's public."
The track section took considerably longer, precise rail width, consistent gauge tolerance across every single piece so cars wouldn't derail at a mismatched joint, reinforced underside for load-bearing without excessive weight. She scrapped two attempts before the third came out clean, the same patient, frustrating precision work the chain links had once demanded of her, months ago, back when she was still learning that "close enough" wasn't actually close enough.
[Freeform Craft Successful: Standard Track Section][Blacksmithing XP +35][Recipe Submitted for Review]
"That one's harder," Gorthruk noted, watching her work. "Good. It should be. A track section done poorly derails a train. A caltrop done poorly just... doesn't hurt anyone's foot as effectively."
"Noted. Higher stakes, higher XP, presumably." She was already moving to the next piece, energy building the way it always did once she found her rhythm. "Cart frames next."
The cart frame took the shape of a rigid, load-bearing chassis, considerably more complex than either previous piece, requiring proper weight distribution calculations she pulled directly from her old gravity bike notes, the same fundamental logic of "where does the stress actually concentrate" applied yet again to a completely different machine.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[Freeform Craft Successful: Standard Cart Frame][Blacksmithing XP +52][Recipe Submitted for Review]
Last came the wheel assembly, proper rail wheels, flanged edges to keep them locked onto the track, axle mount precise enough that a full cart's weight wouldn't wobble or bind under load. She thought, briefly, of her very first gear-toothed boring wheel, teeth shearing off one after another from concentrated stress, and built this one with considerably more even load distribution in mind from the very first attempt.
[Freeform Craft Successful: Rail Wheel Assembly][Blacksmithing XP +61][Recipe Submitted for Review]
She set the finished wheel down beside the other three prototypes: spike, track section, cart frame, wheel assembly, laid out in a neat row across Gorthruk's anvil like the components of something far larger than any single one of them.
"...Four recipes," she said, a little breathless from the sheer concentrated crafting session. "Free, once approved. Any competent smith, anywhere, can start producing these the moment they go live."
Gorthruk inspected each piece in turn, testing tolerances with the same exacting scrutiny he'd once given her Damascus billet, nodding slowly at each one.
"Good work. Consistent tolerances across all four, that matters more than people realize, for something meant to interlock perfectly across thousands of kilometers built by hundreds of different hands." He set the wheel assembly down, satisfied. "Submit them. I'll have the Republic's forges running within the day."
[Recipe Approved: Rail Spike][Recipe Approved: Standard Track Section][Recipe Approved: Standard Cart Frame][Recipe Approved: Rail Wheel Assembly][Attribution: Strawberry]
Arista stared at the four approval notifications, then, unable to help herself, glanced sideways at Gorthruk with a grin that had absolutely nothing to do with infrastructure.
"...You know what this means, right?"
"I have a feeling you're about to tell me."
"Passive XP. From every single component built across the entire network, forever, by smiths I'll probably never meet." She was already doing the math again, the same overwhelmed, delighted calculation from days earlier, except now with actual numbers behind it instead of rough estimates. "The caltrop was fun money. This is going to be an entire economy."
Gorthruk sighed, the long, familiar, resigned sigh of a man who had, by this point, fully accepted that every practical solution she offered somehow also doubled as a windfall in her own favor.
"...I am beginning to suspect that's simply how you operate."
"It's efficient," Arista said, entirely unbothered, already sketching notes for the next batch of components. "Everyone wins. I just happen to win a little extra."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter