Throne of the North.

Chapter 519 The Discovery and Utilization of Coal

Nidhogg.

The world was caught in two extremes. The sky was divided into two distinct colors. The blazing golden sunlight filled the sea of ​​clouds above, making the whole world seem to be bathed in a golden ocean.

On the other side, there was a dead silence of white, and the whistling wind brought the chilling frost.

Cold and heat appeared in this world at the same time. The Lord of Dawn and the God of Light displayed their power wantonly, just like the flower of dawn that could bring extremely terrifying power.

The extinction in the North is silent, bringing the deepest despair to life.

In dire straits? This is probably how Nidhogg's world can be described. Ryan's feelings when he entered this world were completely different from before.

"Underground rivers have already flowed into the bottom of those cities. Following your wishes, we have placed those...great substances inside them."

The great substance is naturally the fallen part of Surtur's body. Ryan has never thought of how to use them. The eternally burning flame brings eternal heat and emits light and heat without going out.

Their presence keeps the underground river active, otherwise the North would freeze it and the power of the sun would evaporate it.

Essentially, this is a means of using the gods to fight the gods.

"We found those things when we were digging the river. They were black stones that you can't wash off once they get on you, and they can easily catch fire."

The political officer said respectfully, taking Ryan to their destination, which was a wilderness where the original river course had been changed due to the discovery of coal.

Ryan saw the flames rising into the sky from a distance.

Apparently, the exposed coals began to burn under the sunlight from the sky and have not been extinguished until now.

"The flames from these coals were impossible to put out and we tried many methods."

The civil servant looked a little uneasy because some people died in the process.

Ryan looked at the alchemist and magicians behind him. The alchemist frowned and looked at the magicians.

The realms of these magicians are not high, and they are generally magic apprentices. More than 90% of people on this extraordinary path are at this stage.

They are at this level and are the easiest for Ryan to control. They are so weak and pitiful that they have no say, but they possess precious magic.

"Take away the air and these flames will go out naturally."

Magicians naturally couldn't create a vacuum by just waving their hands, but they learned how to engrave magic circles to prevent air from circulating.

About three hours later, the exposed coal extinguished the flames, and Ryan asked the soldiers to carry huge blocks of ice and stuff them over. Of course, it was the efforts during these three hours that made the world polarized, and a lot of ice could be dug out from the nearby mountains and forests.

"Ensure the humidity. If you want the coals not to spontaneously combust, water them. There's enough water in this world, isn't there?"

Ryan said as he approached the coal mine. He needed to try whether the coal in this world could really be used as fuel.

He grabbed the coal with his fingers and rubbed it continuously until sparks appeared on his hands and ignited all the particles. The flames burned along Ryan's palms, but could not hurt him at all.

"It's more fragile than I thought."

Ryan also discovered that the gas produced by burning these coals was not that pungent.

“How is coal formed?”

Ryan was not very clear. He did not have such a deep knowledge reserve. He simply knew that the stones were formed underground by the remains of animals and plants after a long period of evolution?

In short, the raw materials of coal are the world's plants and animals.

Different animals and plants produce different types of coal.

As for Nidhogg, this world is a dragon civilization, an extraordinary world. The animals here can easily transform into magical beasts, and the plants here also evolve to a higher level because of the feces and energy radiation of magical beasts and dragons.

The substances produced will also change.

The coal was more fragile than Ryan had imagined, but also stronger than he had imagined. It was just a thumb-sized piece of coal that was crushed into powder and had not even been refined, but it actually burned in Ryan's palm for nearly an hour.

The temperature is also terribly high, comparable to the blast furnaces in the frozen land.

"With these things, the Alchemy Academy should be more efficient."

Ryan said to Mr. Rose that he brought the dean of the Alchemy College here because Ryan actually wanted to hand over the coal work to the Alchemy College.

Magicians are too high-end, and it is difficult for magicians who like meditation to be active in the world of ordinary people.

Although alchemists are also like this, they are much more "people-friendly" than magicians.

"If we turn this coal into solid fuel, we can solve all the fuel problems in the frozen land. No, we can even change the world..."

Ryan's voice gradually became quieter, and he murmured, yes, he wanted to find coal in order to reduce his people's dependence on firewood, but this thing is essentially an energy source that changes the course of history.

A more advanced energy source than wood and stone.

"Perhaps, the Alchemy Academy can really become a tower that changes the world."

Ryan looked at Rose, who didn't quite understand, but Ryan's confidence swelled at this moment.

"It took the Imperial Capital City's magic academy a hundred years to develop to its current size and become a holy place for magicians to learn. But if you can develop this thing, Mr. Rose, you will become the god of all alchemists."

Ryan clenched his palms, letting the burning coal go out, then opened them again, delivering the black coal into Rose's hands.

"I hope this thing can become a trump card against the North as soon as possible."

Professional matters should be left to professional alchemists and craftsmen. In the Frozen Territory, Ryan has sent the roster of all craftsmen to the Alchemy Academy. From now on, the craftsmen in the Frozen Territory are a subordinate professional organization of the Alchemy Academy, jointly managed by Rose, the dean of the Alchemy Academy, and Brock, the chief craftsman.

Ryan called it the Ministry of Works.

When this incident happened, it did cause some repercussions, but Master Ryan's authority in the Frozen Territory was unshakable.

The main reason was that when he was building the ship, he saw the collision of civilizations brought about by the cooperation between alchemists and craftsmen, which was extremely beneficial to the development of the Frozen Territory.

"Everyone is looking at the world in the south. A war breaking out in the south will focus everyone's attention. But one day, they will come to the north at all costs just to learn the power here."

Ryan turned and left, and the words he left behind made many people breathe rapidly. They had great faith that Baron Ryan could do it.

"Keep looking. There is definitely more than just a little coal in this world."

It is necessary to explore more coal in this world before the northern snow and wind from the sky above completely cover the land. Ryan even arranged for ships to go out to sea again and enter the ocean to search for coal mines hidden on the seabed.

"Energy pressure is not something that my frozen soil professor is alone in facing."

Ryan did not return directly to the frozen land, but began to inspect the cities of Nidhogg. He was thinking that the population of Norris Continent was too large.

For example, his frozen land territory, the territories of the nobles of the empire, and one-third of the land in Norris that belongs to humans actually live in a population that exceeds the limit that can be sustained under current production conditions.

Why? Of course, it was because the great nobles were always able to discover other worlds, capture and domesticate humans from other worlds, and turn them into their slaves and cheap labor.

They will all be concentrated on Norris Continent.

However, in the Norris continent, even in the most prosperous empire, a barony, plus two or three lords, could not support a population of more than three thousand. But in reality, the population in those baronies must exceed this number.

The firewood, food and corresponding production conditions needed for three thousand people are all big problems.

This problem has always existed, but it has not yet erupted. As more and more people appear on the Norris continent, this contradiction will cause a terrible disaster.

In fact, this contradiction has already been revealed once.

This is the emergence of the lordship system.

The emergence of the lordship system determined that the status of the five classes of nobles would be raised to a higher level, while allowing more people to possess titles and become nobles, thus possessing a distinguished status.

Why did the Lordship system come into being? It was because the great nobles no longer had more territory to reward their offspring or the knights who had followed them for generations. In general, there were too many wolves and too little meat. There were too many nobles, but not enough land for them to consume.

In essence, it is the result of insufficient division of energy, power, wealth, and authority. This is because a large number of nobles fled from the north to the south, and because the nobles from other worlds who entered the Norris continent impacted the rules and hereditary authority of the local nobles.

The conflict first broke out at the level of rulers, that is, the aristocracy, and then began to spread downwards.

The lordship system was one of the signs of this, but because the nobles' rule was stable and their aristocratic existence was justified, they adaptively supported the outbreak of this conflict.

But no matter how much you can eat, if you keep eating without vomiting, there will be a day when you can no longer hold on. When the population contradiction breaks out completely, this will be another extraordinary world, and no one knows what will happen then.

All of Ryan's historical memories are of no use to this extraordinary world.

He can only prepare for it. No matter what happens at that time, he has the most powerful army and the most powerful logistics, so he is not afraid of any disaster.

However, with his knowledge reserves and the current overall development environment of the world, he cannot come up with those high-end things.

Looking at the tall and burly knight attendants around them, these cold weapon warriors would not give up for any reason.

Because they are extraordinary.

Ryan doesn't have to worry about the day when he will be suddenly eliminated.

only……

"I heard that at the southernmost tip of the southern land, at the southernmost boundary between the human territory and the [Forestland] where the elves live, there is a kingdom of dwarves. Are those dwarves able to forge terrifying long-range weapons?"

Because of the recent events in the Kingdom of Sera, Ryan once again paid attention to the alien races in this world other than the orcs.

Elves, dwarves, and even the sirens who are said to be attacking the empire at sea. Ryan is very curious about these alien races different from humans, but the only elven slaves he has seen are the aristocratic castles, and he can't tell the difference in civilization at all.

Ryan was very curious about how the powerful elves could snatch a vast forest from humans and make it their own territory. As for the dwarves, they were in a dilemma, but they could not survive in the cracks. It was said that the Church once led humans to attack the dwarf kingdom, and the elves of the woodland also attacked the dwarves.

Without exception, the final result is that the land with a large number of volcanoes still belongs to the dwarves.

Ryan was too far away from that place and had not seen any dwarves until now. Even in the empire, there were very few dwarves. They would only appear in small numbers on the west coast at specific times.

This is what his father-in-law, Viscount Meléndez, told him.

Why the West Coast instead of the Imperial City? This is not difficult to guess. To the West Coast, you can go by sea. The powerful dwarves are not afraid of the pirates on the sea. However, going to the Imperial City will waste more resources and time.

It's just a cost issue.

The sky was polarized, and Master Ryan on the ground was thinking about poetry and distant places, and the colorful civilization of the extraordinary world.

The alchemists hid in dark and damp corners, gnawing on hard bread and looking worriedly at the black coal in front of them.

"We can just burn this stuff, but it's wasteful and unsafe. In a few days, all the houses in the frozen land will be burned to ashes, and we'll be dead by then."

"Dean Rose must have a way, right? I heard from Lord Ryan that we can try to exchange coal with other substances, and we have to make these things more durable, convenient and safe according to the proportion?"

Ryan thought that the new energy source would take some time, but he still underestimated the innate extraordinary abilities possessed by those alchemists.

Ryan had been wandering around Nidhogg for seven or eight days. When he was about to return to the Tundra Territory, Rose came to him again with the finished product he needed.

Looking at the black thing that Rose placed in front of him, which looked like a stick of ink, wasn't the solution he gave him before honeycomb coal? Why did it end up like this?

and……

Ryan casually drew out the knight's sword from the servant next to him and chopped at the ink strip.

……

It’s not broken. This is a knight’s longsword produced by the Frozen Territory. How could it not be able to cut this piece of coal?

"What did you use?"

Ryan couldn't believe that a mere lump of coal could turn into this.

Rose answered truthfully:
"Dragon blood, dragon scales, and the skin of a third-level giant python monster, plus a batch of dragon blood wheat ears that have matured recently."

After hearing this, Ryan's face turned almost as black as the coal.

He looked at Rose and said:
"The things you mentioned are enough firewood for 10,000 people for a year."

So among the materials used to produce this thing, the coal that Ryan had been searching for so hard for is actually the cheapest?
Is it still fuel? Why not just go home and take out those treasured dragon bones and burn them as firewood.

Of course Rose understood, so she came up with another answer, a gray, spherical, porous thing similar to a honeycomb.

"One can burn for a whole day and can provide a high temperature flame of up to 600 degrees."

"It's just that it's made of coal, feathers of a thick-feathered bird, dung from northern war horses, and sawdust from trees. During the burning process, some fine dust that is difficult to see with the naked eye will be produced."

According to Rose, he himself couldn't explain the principle, it was just that some of his alchemists' talented alchemists used alchemical tanning to create this thing.

Ryan once again felt the frenzy of so-called alchemy.

Should I prepare some cauldrons for these alchemists, and then when I want something, I can just throw it in and boil it to get the result?

In any case, the ranks of livestock in the Tundra Territory have added a new flying creature.

(End of this chapter)