Ch.20 Age 16: Steam Power and Glass Manufacturing (Patreon)

Thea and my family organized a small birthday celebration for me to commemorate my adulthood. Everyone showed up. Everyone. I'm not just talking about Peggy, Timothy, Tina, and the people we've grown accustomed to. No. Regma showed up, attempting to prevent Chieftain Zora from getting drunk on whiskey, and Seraphin Durendal showed up to give me gifts, blessing me with a sly political wink of approval. Old Man Briggs from the Luminara trade route was his companion, so he hitched a ride to establish a trade route with the soon-to-be wealthiest person in the world.

It felt like an endless chore of pleasing and half-hearted politicking, but that's my life now. I'm no longer a child; I'm the leader of a damn country!

We conducted the coronation ceremony during the celebration, with everyone present to swear me in as king. It was a surreal moment to receive such overwhelming support.

I won’t lie—I liked that part.

After everyone left, I shifted my focus to Sundell. I envisioned the city as the capital of the Everwood Kingdom. Not only was it self-sufficient and had abundant farmland from Goldenspire we could steal... ahem... gaze at, but it was also farthest away from Verdanthall.

So long as we remained in the center of Verdanthall and Ironwall, we were bound to be attacked sooner or later by Veridia due to security concerns. Establishing Sundell as our capital allowed Silverbrook to remain a trading outpost without raising security issues. Therefore, our top priority became fortifying Sundell and constructing a new manor for my parents.

Creating the basic infrastructure of our city was relatively simple. I journeyed around the ten-mile perimeter with earth mages and used our magic to construct ten-foot-tall earth walls. Soon, we would set up towering walls made of 100-foot crimson wood trees.

Ironically, that was the easy part.

Earth mages also dug a new river that flowed closer to our economic district. That way, we could collect water for drinking water for our upcoming water towers and plumbing systems. Securing water in the vicinity is crucial for waterwheels and water supply.

Naturally, I imported my favorite blacksmith.

Naturally, he wasn’t happy about it.

"I'll be honest with you, boss," Carter groaned, arriving on a skywhale and surveying the podunk town we were fortifying. "I was lookin' forward to you being gone so I could find a miss, enjoy an auction, or do literally anything else. Can't you utilize other people and give me a break?"

I was grateful that someone didn’t suck up to me 24/7. That was something I appreciated about Carter.

"I've left something for you and your workers to see," I said, giving him a mysterious smile that he didn't appreciate. "Trust me, you'll love it."

***

A few hours later, Carter gathered his workers, and I demonstrated the process of threshing wheat and separating the kernels. Their eyes glazed over.

Perfect.

“Why are you showin’ us how to process wheat again?” Carter frowned.

I shrugged. “I just thought you guys wanted to see what your baby can do.”

"Wait..." His eyes widened in shock as I showed him their newly crafted mechanical reaper loaded onto a horse outside.

“You can start now, Mayor,” I said.

Mayor Alderic waved, wondering how he got roped into showcasing the mechanical reaper. However, in his sleep-deprived state, he clumsily spurred the horses and made a fool of himself, rocking back and forth while desperately holding on for dear life.

I turned to Carter. "See, even an idiot can reap an entire wheat field with Carter's Mechanical Reaper."

“I heard that!” Mayor Alderic yelled.

The blacksmith workers watched the demonstration in disbelief.

Since everyone was silent and stunned, I translated it for them. "The word 'rich' won't even begin to describe how wealthy you and your team will be in a few years."

"Hey, Mayor!" I shouted to the disgruntled man. "Make sure to show Carter the kernel to motivate them for the next project!"

"Okay!" Mayor Alderic yelled back, grumbling as I walked away.

***

It would soon be fall time, so the possibilities of conflict diminished. Therefore, it was time to prepare for the next spring. In addition to getting the Sundell citizens up to date with canning and importing copious amounts of food for our new operation, we needed to work on a steam engine.

Steam engines work exactly like water wheels, using an outside force to spin a wheel, and the rotational energy does the work. However, while a waterwheel will give someone the force of a river, the normal steam engines for a train can produce 58 tons of force—and that’s just the beginning. Modern power plants still use steam powder to create electricity, showcasing the profound importance of creating it.

Once we created a steam engine, we could create modern-day factories, steam-powered hammers, steamboats, and power saws for Timothy and the carpenters. We could also create stamps and seamless pipe manufacturing using centripetal force for rolling mills, allowing us to pierce and elongate metal. In doing that, we could work on creating boilers, furnaces, and, most importantly—plumbing.

Since we were building a city from scratch, it would be easy to create plumbing systems. So this winter, we needed to work on creating that steam engine at any cost.

I walked into the Sundell Blacksmith Guild, where Carter was busy bossing people around. They weren’t very happy about it, but everyone knew of Carter’s Steelworks, so they bit their tongues and worked to learn how to make steel while his factory was under construction.

“Alright, you made your point,” Carter sighed, seeing me come in with a folder of papers. “What do you need—what is that?”

“The single most revolutionary thing this world will ever know,” I replied, handing him a series of drawings. “I call it ‘the steam engine.’”

That was true. I couldn’t introduce anything more revolutionary because nothing compared to it.

Railroads and steamboats drastically lowered the cost of traveling to fractions, cutting products that used to cost a dollar to cents. Due to the price drop, everyone could suddenly afford metalwork, clothing, and food items, allowing them to spend their money on other things. Soon, it spiraled out of control, drastically increasing people’s standard of living. From cutting food waste to increasing cross-border communication, these inventions affected every aspect of the human experience.

The steam engine was the industrial revolution. Even today, most electricity that powers the modern world comes from steam engines that spin electricity turbines.

It was truly a remarkable invention.

“No, I mean that,” Carter scoffed, looking at a simple bicycle in my hand that I had created with my omnipotent tool. I often came in with “prototypes” that I “built in a secret lab” with voodoo, but this one pushed what the omnipotent could currently create.

As for the reason people didn’t question it? I was the leader! Things were so much easier when I could explain things with a “Don’t ask questions!” It made things far easier.

“This is a bicycle,” I explained. “It explains how a steam engine works... kinda.”

I sat down on the metal seat. “When you press your foot on this pedal, it exerts force and spins the bicycle’s wheel like water does with the waterwheel.”

Carter furrowed his brow. “That’s common sense now. So why’d you bring in this... thing?

“I’m showing you that anything can spin the wheel, and you can do it wherever,” I explained. “What you’re building is going to push this pedal and spin the wheel, no matter where we put it.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “That means that we won’t need to build next to a river?”

“Correct. Steam hammers will produce exponentially more force than a water hammer, and we can automate the cutting and shaping of metal products once this is done. If you think you’ve benefited from automation, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Carter rubbed his bald head, staring at my smirk. “I’m not sure why I ever question you.”

I shrugged. “Let me just go over some basics on how it works, just so you have a basic idea.”

His eyes became serious. “I know it’s serious if you’re explainin’ it.”

“It’s not difficult, you just don’t want it to explode.” I sent him a chilling smile that sent shivers crawling down his spine. “Let’s get started.”

***

“This is... an oven?” Carter asked, looking at a drawing.

“Yup, just a normal oven that burns coal,” I confirmed. “It heats pipes and releases them out of a normal chimney.”

“You’re just burnin’ coal and sending the smoke away?” he asked.

“Let me finish,” I chuckled, pointing at the area above the pipes. “The fire heats water, making steam and building up pressure. That pressure presses a metal 'foot' called a piston—”

I captured his attention by pointing at my foot on the bike pedal and pressing it down.

“—and it spins the wheel.”

“I got it,” Carter smiled, impressed with himself for understanding 'smart people stuff.'

“This bar itself is called a crankshaft,” I said, pointing at the drawing. “It’s like this pedal in that it takes the pressure from the piston, the metal foot, and turns it into rotational motion. It’s like my foot but more complicated; however, following the directions will create it perfectly.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m not worried about it. I’m curious, though. If steam’s pressin’ this piston thing down, how does it return so you can press it again?”

If water is pressing down at all times, it needs to return to be pressed down again.

“In addition to the crankshaft that turns the wheel, there’s a second rotating bar called a slide shaft. When it rotates, it opens up an exhaust for steam pressure to release and helps push the piston back into its position. It’s similar to using both of my feet to complete the rotation and get the pedal back to where my foot originally was.”

I got on the bike and showed him how I pressed down with my right foot, which lifted the left pedal. When I pressed it down, it raised the right pedal to where I could press it again with my right foot.

“This is the concept, but remember that this is all done with steam. Therefore, you’ll need to perfect the slide shaft. Luckily, these drawings will take care of everything for you.”

There was a big difference between bike pedals and a slide shaft, which used released steam pressure and centripetal rotation to move a piston back into place. However, I was explaining the concept, which was easy to understand, and letting the drawing with the technical stuff get down to the nitty-gritty of how it worked. It was my compromise.

“I got it... I can have this done within the month,” Carter replied. “The metal parts aren’t that complicated. So I’ll place faith in you.”

“Don’t place faith in me,” I cautioned. “You need to release steam, or that thing will explode. Therefore, follow the instructions and take precautions. If you weren’t nearly immortal and I didn’t have minor healing magic, I'd have some other poor schmuck make that.”

Carter’s eyes glazed over when I walked out of the building. “Wait! Can’t you leave me with one of your fancy toys for once? It’s like you bring them in here just to prove I suck at my job and then leave.”

I looked at my bike with a slight smile. “You're the number one blacksmith in the world—even surpassing the dwarves in Dragon’s Peak. Don’t tell me that you want to see something so pedestrian?”

With those mocking words, I walked out of the door.

---

Carter furrowed his brow in resentment as he watched King Everwood disappear. “I couldn’t care less about the metalwork….” he grumbled. “I wanted to ride it.”

---

Once I left, I got back to business.

City planning is critical for a city’s success. It will determine the plumbing systems, trade capabilities, and efficient trash collection and connect buyers and services.

Right now, we are taking care of the most vital aspects:

1. Digging a river for irrigation, plumbing, and wheel production.

2. Building walls with concrete and trees for our new fortress.

3. Importing troops, cannons, ballistae, and steel products for weapons.

4. Creating a manor for my family and close associates.

5. Building new steel, concrete, and woodworking factories.

6. Keeping the workers busy with creating clay pots and with construction.

7. Digging pipelines in advance so we can install plumbing seamlessly next spring.

8. Building a new road through the Crimsonwood Forest, leading to Silverbrook, for ease of shipment.

That’s where I directed most of our time. I allocated the rest to overseeing food import and trade. Luckily, the Everwood Company had extensive trade networks that had already reached Sundell, as it was part of my father’s territory, and we collaborated with them. Therefore, we already had enough infrastructure to make things work out.

With that, watching things slowly complete was just a waiting game.

***

Springtime | Age 15.

King Redfield adopted a wait-and-see approach during the winter, selling us as many crops and trade goods as they could to obtain their money back. At the same time, he banned nobles from attending auctions, which was the real issue, as our prices—while outrageous—were comically affordable compared to what people were bidding.

Since it was winter, Thea, Zenith, Lyssa, and I visited Peggy and Regma, expanding our coffee, chocolate, and cosmetics operations tenfold.

We made a lot of improvements as well. To increase shelf life and flavor, we started importing the beans directly to be roasted in Sundell and allowing people to grind them on the spot. We also improved the technology for making powdered milk to reduce the need for ice mages to use flash-freezing techniques.

Then we celebrated Thea’s birthday by taking a vacation and exploring Valencia since it was summer. We swam in Feyloria, famous for its iridescent beaches made from crushed, colorful seashells. Then we visited Nectaris, which housed thousands of different types of magical flowers that supported their potion and elixir export trade. I didn’t have time to learn alchemy and potion brewing. However, I plan to return or simply hire these people soon—I was severely lacking in magical development, which people would start accelerating to compete with me.

Science was also a vital necessity now. The two would go hand in hand.

After making a political trip as guests of Seraphin and the Aurelian Empire, we returned to spend the rest of the winter in our cozy outpost, playing games and eating, drinking, and dancing with the people of Sundell. It was a festive time filled with excitement and wonder as we built our new cities.

Carter successfully built our first functional steam engine. Now it was springtime, and the real work could begin.

---

“King Everwood wants ye?” A woman holding a baby turned to her gray-haired husband, a man with a leathery face, long beard, and graying, braided hair. “What fer?”

Timothy shrugged. “Reba, that kiddo ain’t never given me the what fer once before pro-to-type comes out. I just work from th’ pictures.”

“What?” Reba furrowed her brow. “How does he expect you to do things if he never gives you the what fer?”

“Th’ pictures,” he shrugged. “But he ain’t never been nothin’ but good to us, so I always trust he’s doing me right.”

Reba bit her lip and held back. “Just don’t let him take away what’s yers. Rudger Woodworkers is yer heart and soul.”

“It’ll be okay, Reba. That youngin’ wouldn’t ask for nothin’ without a whole lotta somethin’.” Timothy smiled, ruffling his little baby’s hair. “We’ll cross that bridge once we get there. Ain’t no harm in hearin’ the good boy out.”

She gave him a complex expression as he dropped down to his haunches, saying goodbye to each of his six other children by name and giving them hugs before leaving.

“Don’t forget about Mama!” Reba called out.

Timothy waved in affirmation and walked to his new shop.

Sundell was bustling with energy, even at the end of winter. What was once a small outpost with a population of barely five thousand was now alive, with over ten thousand workers and merchants passing through the area, building houses, and holding public events around the clock.

At the center of it all was Timothy Rudger of Timothy’s Woodworks.

Unlike Carter, who had sold a portion of his business to King Everwood in exchange for the trip hammer, Timothy was still self-employed because there wasn’t much that King Everwood could offer him with the waterwheel.

Sure, it had its uses. Utilizing the technology, he created a drill and a basic lathe using water rotation. However, unlike Carter, his work didn’t require gravity. Instead, it required sawing and lathing, which had limitations because the water didn’t move fast enough to saw through heavy lumber.

Therefore, King Everwood never offered a partnership, and Timothy never brought it up.

That’s just how things were. Today, as he walked through a mile of building construction using his men and labor, he felt satisfied with how far his small woodwork guild had come. It was far larger than any other of its kind in the world, and ditching the guild system had been a boon in more ways than he could count.

“There’s madness in that one, there is,” Timothy noted, tipping his wide-brimmed hat at the quarry makers. “But there’s damn good method with him too.”

He paused, wondering if that was how the analogy went. However, he shrugged and decided to continue his walk. Timothy Rudger was a simple man—but a good man. But simple. Very simple. And good.

When he arrived at his shop, he saw a massive crowd of people outside.

“What’s all this fer?” Timothy asked. “Did I miss somethin’?”

“Nah, you're right on time!” King Everwood yelled, causing an explosion of cheering around Timothy, who looked around in confusion. “I brought you a gift.”

“A gift?” Timothy furrowed his brow. “What fer?”

“So you can do eight times as much work... I mean, as a present.” King Everwood gave him a twisted smile.

Timothy felt a bit suspicious as he walked up. However, when he approached and saw a table with a massive saw blade in the center of it, his eyes widened in shock.

“Does that look mean you know what this is used fer?” King Everwoord smirked.

“Well, I can certainly imagine, I can!” Timothy bellowed, making the crowd burst into laughter. “Did you make a doohickey to make that there metal piece spin?”

“Load ‘er up, boys!” King Everwood grinned, ordering two people with shovels to throw coal into an oven. Then he silently incanted, lighting the coal on fire and causing the water inside to boil.

Anticipation grew within the crowd as the contraption made strange noises until it started chugging. The characteristic noise resulted from the piston moving, followed by the slide valve snapping back, going back and forth. Therefore, it had the same sound whether it was in a train or a steamboat.

At first, it was slow, but as soon as that chugging started, the saw blade began spinning—fast.

Seeing everyone stupefied, King Everwood picked up a piece of wood and casually placed it in front of the blade, causing sawdust to fly everywhere. With a click, the two sides of the wood piece separated, and he showed everyone the clean-cut piece of wood.

“Do you think you could use this, Timothy?” King Everwood asked.

“Hot damn! You bet your sweet arse I can use that there contraption!” Timothy exclaimed, revving up the crowd again with laughter and cheering.

“Good, it’s yours!” King Everwood said. “There are no hidden strings. You’ve busted your ass for me, so it’s time to give back to you.”

Timothy’s eyes widened in disbelief and happiness as he felt the love and support from everyone.

King Everwood, not being good with sentimentalities, clammed up and turned to address everyone. “You've got a shiny new tool. Now do twice as much work!”

With those cheeky words, he started running away while people shared confused emotions and tried to determine if it was a joke. Timothy wanted to reach out to him, but his king stopped and turned to him first.

“By the way, Timothy,” King Everwood said. “Someone in the pottery guild mentioned that your wife’s mother had some type of illness. So I sent a griffin to her to give her soul meat and bring her here until she’s better. I've done the same for your family. I hope you don't mind.”

With those words, he ran away with ghostly speed.

Thea turned to Timothy, studying his profound emotional reaction before giggling in delight at how much of a softy Ryker was. Then, she disappeared with superhuman speed to catch up to him.

As for Timothy, a wide emotional smile spread across his face, "Twice now, I’ve told Reba we’re movin’, and she asks what fer,” he choked. “This right here is what fer.”

With those words, he quickly returned to safeguard his new present and spread the news to Reba that their families were now safe and under the protection and healing of King Everwood.

---

Within Sundell, one location was far brighter than the others—even at night. Just from the windows, it always looked like a rave was taking place, with endless colors bouncing in random directions as the fire flickered from within. On the outside was a sign that read: Sundell Glass Blowing, but a large glass sign that read "This is Kaley’s House Now" covered it.

Normal, respectable people would regularly point out that the glass sign didn’t cover the original sign and that it was harder to read as a result. However, people who knew Kaley understood that she did that just to remind people that it used to be someone else’s, but it was now hers.

Inside the building, glass blowers looked like they were on the edge of a mental breakdown as a blonde woman with blue eyes, a ponytail, and a twisted grin danced around, putting up stunning glass art of various colors that sparkled in a myriad of distracting colors outside the window as the forge inside sent flickering flames into the room.

Glass blowing is a strange art form but elegant and fascinating.

It begins by creating glass in a forge. The recipes for each type of glass are different. However, for a basic soda-lime glass composition, glass makers might mix 70-74% silica, 12-16% sodium carbonate, and 10-15% limestone.

While molten silica is all that’s technically required to make glass, sodium carbonate is used as a fluxing agent to lower the melting point of the mixture, making it easier to melt and shape and more durable. The limestone is another fluxing agent that helps stabilize the mixture and allows for resistance to temperature changes. These two factors show how chemical compositions have been used for millennia as a recipe for building and shaping things with science.

After melting the glass, the glassblowers take a hollow tube called a blowpipe, gather molten glass from the forge around it, and bring it out.

Once out of the forge, the glass makers take it over to a steel table and shape it into a rounded mass called a “gather” or a bulb.

The fun part comes next—glass blowing. Glassblowers then blow air through the hot tube, stretching the glass like a balloon! By rotating the blowpipe and controlling the air pressure, the glassblower can determine the size and shape of the “bubble.”

Elongation is where the art comes in. To elongate the tube, the glassblower reheats the gather in a furnace to make it pliable and then stretches the glass by pulling the blowpipe away from the furnace, causing the molten glass to get longer. They use various tools, including paddles and tongs, to shape it further, twisting, pulling, and molding it however they see fit.

Lastly, once it's in the right shape, the glass tube is placed in a kiln for a process called annealing, where the glass is slowly cooled to relieve internal stresses and make it more durable. If this isn’t done, and the glass cools too quickly, it shatters.

That’s what the glassblowers were doing around midnight when there was an abrupt knock on the door.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Kaley stopped her dancing and turned to the door. “Whoever could be knock, knock, knocking at our lovely little door?”

The already stressed-out glassblowers wiped their brows, their pulses racing. They were already at their wit's end, and now, near midnight, while learning strange new techniques, someone was knocking on the door. Their hearts pounded, and their breaths became shallow.

“Coooooom~ing!” Kaley sang, dancing to the door, opening it slightly, and peeking her head out. “Oh! Good King Everwood! What brings you to this lovely abode at night when people would question lewd play?”

King Everwood frowned. It wasn’t because he was bothered by the comment. More—

“Claim lewd play, and I’ll rip out your throat and make a flute with it,” Thea growled.

Kaley turned to the grumpy maid with cat ears with an innocent expression. “Oh, my, my. Please do not misinterpret, Lady Lockheart. I merely aim to say that people may claim such a thing when a handsome young man comes knocking at a beautiful young maiden’s door at night.”

“AHEM!” King Everwood harumphed, cutting off the vicious stare-off between the women. “We came here to bring you tools for our next product line. Can we come in?”

Kaley blinked twice, and then her eyes widened, seeing hot steam billow from their breaths. “Oh, yes, right, absolutely, of course!” She swung open the door.

CRrreeeaCkkKKkKkk!

The cold wind ripped through the room, cracking cooling glass jars on the tables like thin ice underfoot. Due to glassmaking being in its early stages, the annealing wasn’t well regulated, so the glass cracked from the thermal shock of going from hot to cold.

“Woooooops.” Kaley giggled, ignoring the exasperated glares from her new workers. However, when everyone saw that the person she was whispering about flirtatiously was the King, their expressions paled with discontent. She acted that way around everyone, but they didn’t think she’d act that way around the king!

“We’re bringing gifts that I’m sure… your people will appreciate,” King Everwood said, glancing at the people around the furnaces, each with bloodshot eyes from sleep deprivation and panic. They looked at him as a savior just for saying something so understanding.

Kaley frowned. “Don’t give me another one of those fancy contraptions. I’m an artist. Art-tist. Thus, I refuse to let it be spoiled by another one of your... Oooooooooh, what’s that?!”

King Everwood smiled and pulled out a large pillar, around four feet tall and as thick as a dinner plate. “This is called a draw tower. Not only will it allow you to shape cylinders, but it also allows you to thin it out and elongate it. That way, when you do your glass blowing, you can work with something far longer and uniform for making your art.”

Imagine an ice cream cone. While the ice cream is thick, it slowly gets smaller because of how the mold is set up—that’s how a draw tower works. The “die” or shaping tool allows glass blowers to increase or decrease the amount of glass that goes into each cylinder.

They used the same technology at Carter’s Steelworks to create steel wire.

“Gimme, gimme, gimme!” the blonde squealed, grabbing and hugging it. “I’ll cherish it!”

His eyes glazed over, noting that she hadn’t seen how it worked.

When she was done with her squealing, she looked at him with a grave, dead expression. “So what’s the catch?”

“It also acts as a mold to make jars,” King Everwood responded. “That way, they all come out the same size. It’s not ideal, but making jars sucks and takes away all the fun and love in the art of glass blowing. I’m sure you’re tired of the ceaseless orders.”

When the glass goes into the tube, the air gets blown through it until the glass shapes into the mold.

Imagine you put a water balloon into a cup of water and then fill it. As it expands, it takes on the form of glass despite being a balloon—that's the same concept.

Using these molds was the next step in the standardization of glass parts.

That said, the “art” of glass blowing is creating the bubble, spinning the glass, and blowing in the right amount of air. As soon as glass blowing is done from a steam engine, and the glass is made from molds, we’ll remove that entirely and just turn it into a glass stamping operation.

Kaley’s spasming face abruptly stopped at his strange argument, and she started squealing and hugging it again. “I hate jar making! You’re so considerate and loving for making something so—” She looked up, saw Thea’s face, and froze. There were layers of horror that a person could feel looking at someone’s expression, and the cat woman in front of her looked like a gangster was coming to collect retribution. “I love it…”

King Everwood ruffled Thea’s hair and rubbed her ears, making her life-threatening scowl turn into cute giggling and unintentional purring that was endearing and horrifying when juxtaposed against what they saw just moments prior.

“I also brought you a fan,” he said, pulling out a metal turbine. “This turbine will spin the blade and cool the area gently, allowing precise heat control during and after the glass blowing.”

Everyone in the room turned to him in shock.

“No way….” Kaley gulped.

King Everwood set the small coal-powered steam engine on the ground and lit the coal already inside it. Soon, the chugging began, and the fan started spinning, sending a light breeze through the room and making Kaley and the others scream, screech, and haw over the invention. Just having wind flow in the room was a dream come true! After all, if it got too hot or cold in the room, the glass would crack, so they were in blacksmith-type conditions!

“Yes way,” King Everwood chuckled. “As for getting back to the ‘art’ of glass blowing, I need you to make these.”

Kaley looked at the drawings with excitement brimming and madness swirling in her eyes.

“Beaker, Erlenmeyer Flask, Test Tube, Burette, Distillation Apparatus, Condenser, Separatory Funnel, Desiccator, Petri dish, Filter Funnel, Evaporating Dish, Thermometer, Buchner Funnel….”

King Everwood gave her thirty drawings of different glass equipment used in labs around Earth. The time had finally come: he had reached the age of science.

—

[A/N: This was a super challenging chapter, hence the delay. XD As technology advances, the descriptions will focus more on analogies, bare minimum explanations, and a need for community help.

I’m an entertainer writing a novel I envision as (fun learning… no, really!), AKA, “Murder Hobo and Yandere Cat Teach Politicians Science the Hard Way.” Ahem. To keep people engaged, I focus on explaining how things work rather than the intricate details of their creation. For example, I'll touch on how steam engines move pistons and spin flywheels but won't delve deep into double-acting cylinders or centripetal force. I research topics based on my understanding and break them into manageable parts. If I miss something or make a mistake, I appreciate the help of knowledgeable individuals. I aim to entertain while educating to the best of my abilities. So please help me; that way, we can ensure this novel never loses its shine!]