Struggle in the Steam Age

"My name is Lawrence August, a member of the Commonwealth Science Association. You are now safe and on a ship transporting the wounded. This ship is on its way to the temporary hospital established in William Island Middle School." As a dwarf who seemed to be of high status, Lawrence could feel the uneasiness emanating from him because he was captured just now.

Since people in this world have an obvious class concept, Lawrence simply revealed his identity and what the ship is going to do now. Sure enough, after Lawrence revealed his identity as a member of the Federation of Science Society, the dwarf in front of him immediately calmed down.

"I know you, Mr. August, the youngest member of the Federation of Sciences." Speaking of which, the dwarf slowly stood up against the side of the ship, and then introduced himself, "My name is Eugene Bofors Volcano, owner of Bofors Gunpowder and Metal Works. Recently supplying ammunition for a war."

volcano? The name immediately brought back Laurence's memory, and he remembered that his two revolvers were produced by the Volcanic Company, which indeed belonged to the dwarves.

It is best to be straightforward when chatting with dwarves, so Lawrence directly asked his inner doubts. "May I ask what is your relationship with the Volcano Gun Company that makes the Volcano Pistol?"

"That's our family's property." The dwarf named Eugene also saw the handle of the Volcano double pistol protruding from the holster under his ribs, so his tone was filled with pride. "However, gun manufacturing belongs to our family line, that is, my uncle. I only inherited these two small gunpowder manufacturing factories and metal processing factories from my father who unfortunately died in an explosion accident. "

The volcano family is one of the dwarf royal families, which means that the dwarf in front of Lawrence is still a member of the dwarf royal family. Different from humans, the countries of the dwarves are often small city-states in history, and the families that rule the city-states can be called royal families, so their royal families account for a much higher proportion of the population than humans.

The reason why the dwarves' country is a small city-state is related to their preference to dig out large spaces in the mountains to build dwarf cities. In the past, it was difficult for such cities hidden in the mountains to communicate with other cities. As a result, this small city-state with few people was gradually formed.

However, nearly a hundred years ago, when the dwarf city-states in the northwest of the Old World began to use steam engines to replace a large amount of manual labor. In politics, they also united to imitate humans to form a republic, which was recognized by other intelligent races. This can be seen as the most important impact of the Industrial Revolution on dwarves.

"If you can provide ammunition for the military, your factory should be very good, because if I remember correctly, the military has very high requirements for weapons and ammunition." Lawrence said with a smile after recalling a lot of knowledge about dwarves , then he asked. "By the way, I would like to ask, why were you caught by that group of murlocs just now?"

"Hey, it's not that I was careless today." The dwarf Eugene said after slamming the guardrail on the ship's strings, "To tell you the truth, because my factory has better quality than other factories, but the cost is high. Quite a lot. So the quartermaster warned me that after this conflict with the murlocs is over, they will stop purchasing ammunition and weapon parts from me."

"The competition in the civilian market is very fierce, and the profits are relatively meager. And the working capital in the factory was almost spent for the promotion of my extraordinary career and the design of new weapons. So in desperation, I can only try Designing a few new weapons to save my factory."

"Just now, after selling my new weapons, I happened to pass by the data center on my way back to the factory in a one-man carriage from the command center. Unfortunately, I bumped into the group of murloc attackers. Although I used a pistol He knocked down five or six murlocs with the handle of the seat in the car, and was finally captured by the murlocs when he was outnumbered."

"This is really unfortunate." Safiel shook his head sympathetically after listening to the dwarf's narration. Just now Lawrence and Safiel discovered that this dwarf should be a superhuman, but since he can be seen by a group of rabble The murloc could roughly guess that this dwarf should not be a superhuman who prefers to fight.

Although most of the superhumans are good at fighting, it doesn't mean that all superhumans are like this. According to an incomplete statistic from the Demon Hunters Guild, at least one-fifth of the human Transcendents choose occupations that have nothing to do with combat.

But this doesn't mean that extraordinary people of non-combat professions are not important. On the contrary, the abilities possessed by these non-combat transcendents play an irreplaceable role in the manufacture of various transcendent-related materials and the logistical work of the transcendent.

During this chat, the barge under his feet docked at the pier of the temporary hospital. After all the wounded were properly placed, the dwarf Eugene strongly invited Lawrence and Safiel to his factory for supper.

"You saved my life, I must always express my gratitude." The dwarf said boldly. "Although I'm relatively tight on funds now, I still have money to treat my savior to a good meal."

"Okay then!" Lawrence and Safir nodded and agreed. On the one hand, it is not appropriate to refuse the kindness of the straightforward dwarf at this time, and on the other hand, they happened to meet when they were going to have dinner tonight. The murlocs made a surprise attack. As a result, they didn't stop fighting and then rescuing the wounded. They have been busy until now it's past 8:00 pm and they just drank a few sips of water on the boat. Now Lawrence and the others feel a little hungry.

Because now the entire Huguang City has entered a state of war, especially after dark at night, the entire city is under a curfew. Although Lawrence and the others had a curfew pass, all means of transportation in the city were basically out of service, so Lawrence and the others could only walk to Eugene's factory.

Unlike Eagle Fort, Huguang City is an industrial city, so all the street lamps besides the latest popular gas lamps are kerosene lamps. Under the dim light, the three chatted while walking quickly on the cobblestone path filled with a faint smell of kerosene.

"—You should really look at my new invention. It is an epoch-making weapon, but unfortunately it doesn't quite meet the requirements of the military." Ou Ren kept talking all the time. All kinds of new inventions, because Safiel is not interested in this, he has been holding his sword and walking behind, looking around vigilantly, to avoid the sneak attack of the murlocs.

"Are we here?" At this time, the three of them crossed a stone bridge, and a gate appeared in front of the three of them. Above the gatepost was a metal sign painted with white paint on one side. The sign was written in black paint. Bofors Gunpowder and Metal Works.

"Yes, it's here." Ou Ren, who was talking endlessly about his own design, immediately fell silent, then took out a key from his waist and opened the iron door. "Come in, my friends."

After the gate was opened, Lawrence found that the factory was distributed on two unconnected islands, connected by two small bridges with steel frames in the middle, and at the same time, there was a simple small dock on each of the two small islands. for cargo transportation. The light is still on in the not-so-tall red brick factory building, and at the same time there is the sound of metal clashing.

"This is my factory, but after this week's time is over, I may never see such a busy scene again." Ou Ren, who seemed to be in good spirits along the way just now, seemed a little depressed at this time, but the optimism unique to dwarves The spirit quickly cheered him up. "Okay, let's not talk about this now, let's go to have supper."