Chapter 149: Professional Gremlins
Owen had previously manufactured a batch of large mechanical puppets for road construction and demolishing the ruins.
It was fine at first, but later on, it turned out to be a lot of trouble.
With continuous use and wear and tear, these mechanical puppets constantly had minor issues, clearly indicating that Owen’s design had many flaws.
It was quite normal, actually. Many of these things were cobbled together by Owen from other things. As long as they could move, it was fine. He didn’t consider the overall coordination at all, so it was normal to have flaws.
What was even more troublesome was that these flaws couldn’t be solved just by brainstorming. It was necessary to consider the overall balance, making modifications little by little until a certain balance was achieved.
It was like building a car. It wasn’t enough to just have a good engine. Otherwise, when you stepped on the gas pedal, the engine could explode.
Real industrial products, even the way the screws were tightened had its own particularities. The things Owen made didn’t even have a place to change the oil. It would be strange if there were no problems.
Obviously, Owen didn’t have the patience to try slowly. He didn’t have the ability, and he was even unwilling to be a mechanic. It all depended on the goblins to figure it out on their own. Many of them were blown up in the process, and many lost arms and legs. However, they did gain some experience and managed to keep those mechanical puppets moving.
Now that there were gremlins, this could be completely left to them.
Innovation might not be their forte, but optimization and repair were definitely the gremlins’ strengths, especially since Owen could provide a large number of blueprints. The gremlins were very happy to take over these jobs.
Professionals were indeed professionals. Even though they had never come into contact with these mechanical puppets before, the gremlins wielding wrenches still disassembled them in a very short time and drew quite detailed blueprints.
The overall structure of the puppets didn’t change much after that, but more effort was put into the details. The overall look became more coordinated. For example, the wires and oil pipes were arranged in a decent manner, greatly enhancing the power output of the mechanical puppets and reducing various types of wear and tear.
After giving these mechanical puppets a complete maintenance, the gremlins even planned to build a puppet factory to produce optimized mechanical puppets. For this purpose, Owen specifically exchanged for a Synthesis Furnace for them, and then the gremlins became even more motivated.
Then Owen had a brainwave. Now that the territory had a decent amount of strength, some things could be taken out. So he had the gremlins specifically produce a batch of steam machinery to enhance the territory’s productivity.
After dealing with these matters, Owen finally couldn’t hold on any longer and slept for a whole day and night before waking up.
Although he woke up, he didn’t want to open his eyes. He lay lazily in bed, not wanting to move. Maybe it was because of Dier’s seal beside him, Owen thought. After all, the seal was so deep, so heavy, like being pressed down by two mountains. Although it was soft and fluffy, hadn’t he heard of the saying “softness overcomes hardness”? So it was normal that it was difficult to break free from the restraints.
After dawdling for an unknown amount of time, Owen finally struggled to get out of bed.
Dier got up first, poured the water that had been warming by the fireplace into a basin, and gently wiped Owen down before helping him into his robe.
Owen, who wasn’t planning to work today, habitually indulged his nature. After all, apart from the house elves and slime maids, only his women could enter and exit the castle. Hmm, did Charle count as his woman?
Owen was a little conflicted. Thinking of the aura that Charle unintentionally released, and the ancient evil template she had fused with, he felt that he wasn’t perverted enough to ignore these things. It seemed that his three views and bottom line were still there. It was truly gratifying.
With a hint of relief, Owen went to his study and started fiddling with his figurines.
After obtaining the alchemist profession, although much of the profound knowledge made him dizzy, he gradually mastered some of the basics. After fusing with puppetry, he had a lot of inspiration.
These inspirations weren’t mature enough, so Owen didn’t directly start working on them. Instead, he experimented on the small figurines, and the results were pretty good.
Just as Owen was getting into it, Maya came.
“Alright, time to work, huh?” Owen put down the figurines and said somewhat helplessly, just like a man forced to work overtime.
After half a pot of tea, Maya wiped the table and began to report on her work.
“Master, the construction of the Grand Cathedral of Divine Light is going smoothly. It is expected to be completed before the autumn harvest. The initial version of the Bible has been placed on your desk. If there are no revisions needed, it can enter the printing stage. In addition, the newly established Templar Knights’ residence has been completed. You can inspect it at any time.” Maya reported on the events of the past period one by one, so that Owen wouldn’t be unaware of the current situation in the territory.
“Hmm, you handle these. The next focus is the preaching of the Grand Cathedral of Divine Light. We must plan in advance to avoid those messy religions from outside coming in.” Owen, slumped in his chair, instructed listlessly, while rubbing his temples with a headache. Obviously, excessive brain use made him feel stressed.
The development of the territory wasn’t easy. Besides agriculture, commerce, and the army, there were many other things that needed attention.
For example, Owen chose to open Green Shade Town to accommodate those restless adventurers and limit their destructive power.
Allowing the potentially dangerous Black Hand to settle in was to block those messy dark forces. After all, it was better to introduce a big crocodile than to have chaos.
Spending effort to create the Grand Cathedral of Divine Light was to target foreign religions and avoid attracting the attention of gods.
Owen didn’t know what he would face in the future, but he knew there were many, many difficulties ahead.
Sighing helplessly, Owen slumped even further, not even bothering to cover his open robe. Anyway, Maya’s evaluation of him was “cute”. Although it wasn’t the “exquisite” and “petite” of the chicken-man, he was too tired to complain. Now he had accepted his fate.
Religious matters were handled by priests and monks. Even if Owen wanted to intervene, he didn’t have the ability. After all, fooling people also required talent. Just looking at the Bible with him as the protagonist made him blush. It was really exaggerated.
The production in the territory was also going smoothly. Although it wasn’t a wise choice to mobilize a large number of people to build the cathedral near the autumn harvest, when those strange mechanical things appeared in the farmland, people were surprised to find that puppets could actually be used this way.
Based on the blueprints of the harvester that Owen had exchanged for, the gremlins completed production after some modifications. The trial results were good, so soon more and more steam harvesters appeared in the golden wheat fields.
After replacing some parts, these steam harvesters could also be used for cultivation. They were multi-purpose agricultural mechanical puppets, far more efficient than human labor.
Many merchants and pioneers were tempted after seeing this scene, but after getting closer to observe, no one mentioned buying them.
It was fine if they were all metal, there was still some hope. But looking at the complexity of the structure, one could tell that this thing was definitely not hammered out by a blacksmith.
It turned out that this thing wasn’t a farming tool for commoners at all, but a toy for nobles.
Although these people gave up, there was one person who was even more tempted.
