New chapter of Single Old Man is out! (1/1 chapter)

 

 

Ice Maker

(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)

“Now then, time to get started on my first job.” (Gentoku)

I quickly sketched a blueprint and headed to the workshop on the first floor.

The workspace was spacious. A table sat in the center, and the walls were lined with spanners, wrenches, and various tools necessary for processing magical devices. I had some of my favorite tools replicated and hung them on the wall. The chairs and table along the wall were for magic stone processing. There were several carving knives and a lamp to light the workspace.

First, I went down to the underground materials storage and grabbed a goblin magic stone to begin processing.

“On this guy… I’ll engrave a character.” (Gentoku)

Now then, what character should I carve? Magical characters use kanji. For cooling, maybe “冷” (cold) or “凍” (freeze). “氷” (ice) could also work. Since I have plenty of goblin magic stones, I’ll carve each one with an ice-related character.

“It’s nice and easy to just carve the kanji characters. It’s like cheating in a way.” (Gentoku)

After carving the characters, next came the “box” for cooling. From the materials storage, I brought out a refrigerator large enough to hold about ten 500ml plastic bottles upright. It was water-cooled, but just circulating water wouldn’t cool it enough. So, I removed the water pipes and added iron plates to improve the cooling effect. Then I swapped out the magic stone linked to the water-circulating device’s switch with one engraved with “冷” (cold), shut the door, and flipped the switch.

“…Yeah. Only the magic stone gets cold. It’s not that it doesn’t cool, but… maybe better sealing… Ah, that’s it.” (Gentoku)

I removed the magic stone and added “冷風” (cold air) instead of just “冷” (cold), then set it in place. I smeared flexible slime onto the refrigerator door and hardened it, creating a nice seal. Then, when I flipped the switch… there it was, cold air.

“With a higher-quality magic stone, it’ll cool even more. Goblin magic stones… well, hard to tell without a thermometer. Anyway, I need an ice-making tray… a modular one would be good. Guess I’ll draw up a diagram.” (Gentoku)

I divided the inside of the refrigerator into tiers, separating an ice-making section and a freezing section. For the ice tray, I processed some iron plates. Stuff like this was totally my thing. I gave it a quick boiling sterilization, filled it with water, placed it in the freezer, and hit the switch. Cold air started blowing. I also filled a cup with water and stuck it in there too.

“Alright. This should do for now… Let’s give it a couple hours and see what happens.” (Gentoku)

Now then, will it actually produce ice?

 

—

 

Two hours later.

“Hmm…” (Gentoku)

In conclusion, no ice had been made. A thin sheet of frost had formed, but there was no solid ice. This was basically just a refrigerator. If I poured too much magic into it, the stone wouldn’t hold up. Since I planned to sell it as a product, it needed a certain level of durability. Goblin magic stones were common and cheap, but for an ice maker, I’d need something higher quality.

“Let’s see… Ah, right. I don’t have any other magic stones yet.” (Gentoku)

Back at the Alexandrite Trading Company, I used to use magic stones from wolves and orcs too, but this was still the first day. I didn’t have all the materials on hand.

“Alright. I don’t like leaving things half-done… Time to head to the Adventurer Guild.” (Gentoku)

I grabbed my jacket and left the workshop.

 

—

 

I arrived at the Adventurer Guild. It was a bit far from the warehouse district. Since walking was a pain, I took a shared carriage. There were carriage stops all over the country, kind of like bus stops, and carriages from the shared carriage guild transported passengers.

Well, not important right now.

When I entered the Adventurer Guild, the receptionist was a beautiful onee-san…

“Hm? Oh, Gentoku. What brings you here in the middle of the day?” (Hexen)

…or not. A middle-aged receptionist with slicked-back white hair and a mustache was leaning on the counter. I raised my hand lightly.

“Yo, Hexen. I’m shopping. Got any magic stones?” (Gentoku)

“Ah, what is it this time? Running errands for the young lady again?” (Hexen)

“Nope. I’ve gone independent. From today, I’m a sole proprietor.” (Gentoku)

“Huh. Well… congrats, I guess?” (Hexen)

Hexen was the Adventurer Guild’s middle-aged receptionist. We got to know each other after a few visits. He wasn’t secretly the Guild Master or the strongest adventurer or anything.

Maybe I have too many isekai fantasies. I used to think all Guild receptionists were beautiful women. Well, that doesn’t matter.

Hexen tilted his head.

“The Alexandrite Trading Company’s been growing like crazy this past year, right? Bet the pay was good. Why’d you go independent?” (Hexen)

“Just felt more comfortable living a relaxed life making magical tools in a small shop. Anyway, magic stones. What do you have now?” (Gentoku)

Adventurers hunted monsters outside, then brought the materials to the large processing facility next to the guild. The processed materials were sold, giving adventurers income and allowing people like me, magical tool engineers, to buy components. The processing facility sold pre-treated items like hides and bones on the spot, but rarer parts went through the guild, so you had to ask like this.

Hexen put on his glasses and flipped through a memo pad.

“Right now, the rarest ones we’ve got are from a Hunting Wolf and a Metal Orc. We’ve got the usual goblins, wolves, kobolds too.” (Hexen)

“Hmm… Got anything above the Wolf tier? Around three stars?” (Gentoku)

Magic stones were ranked by star tiers. Goblins were one star, Wolves and Orcs were two stars. The Hunting Wolf he mentioned was five stars, pretty high. The highest was ten stars. But ten-star stones came from dragons or other top-tier fantasy creatures. You might see one or two per year, and big companies snapped them up fast. Famous magical engineers used those. For people like me, the highest we could hope for was seven stars.

“For three stars… We’ve got some Dela Condor magic stones. Oh, there’s twenty in stock. Ah, that’s right, yesterday the S-rank adventurer team ‘Scarlet Camellia of the Crimson Tsubaki’ turned in a bunch.” (Hexen)

“Whoa, S-rank? That’s crazy.” (Gentoku)

“Yeah. A whole flock attacked them, but they wiped them out. They’re heading to a dungeon outside town today.” (Hexen)

“I’ll take them. All 20.” (Gentoku)

“Got it.” (Hexen)

I pulled some bills from my wallet.

Thankfully, in this world the currency was called Sedol, but the value was about the same as Japanese yen. They even had bills and coins like Japan.

“Three-star magic stones, 1,000 Sedol each. Twenty makes 20,000 Sedol.” (Hexen)

“Right. Give me a receipt too.” (Gentoku)

After buying the stones and paying, Hexen gave me a claim ticket. I could bring this to the processing facility next door to get the stones.

“Well then, Hexen. Treat me sometime to celebrate my grand opening.” (Gentoku)

“Sure. Once the wife gives me allowance again. You should hurry up and get married too, Gentoku.” (Hexen)

“Shut it. I’m a proud bachelor. I like living alone.” (Gentoku)

I waved lightly and headed out. When I entered the building next door–…

“Red Oak, being delivered!!” (??)

“Ufufu, what lovely meat.” (??)

“…Hurry up and cut the parts.” (??)

Three girls stood happily at a large processing table. One was a red-haired girl in a bikini armor with twin tails. Another was a blonde girl in a white nun’s outfit, a bloodstained rod strapped to her back. The third was a short-haired, black-haired girl in a blue ninja outfit.

Oh, wait. Could this be… that Scarlet Camellia of the Crimson Tsubaki they mentioned earlier?

“Ehehe~! Red Oak meat means yakiniku party tonight!! Blanche, Ao!!” (Rosso)

“Yes. Ufufu, Rosso’s so excited.” (Blanche)

“…Glutton.” (Ao)

“Shut up! Hey old man, hurry up and carve it and give us the meat already!” (Rosso)

On the table was a massive five-meter-long orc.

Wow… At that size, you could probably get a seven-star magic stone out of it. Well, girls like that have nothing to do with me. They’re the type of party you’d see in a harem with a young isekai protagonist.

I didn’t even glance at them and handed my claim ticket to the sales counter. Then, I received a bag containing 20 magic stones.

“Alright. With three-star stones, I can make something real good. Let’s get back and finish this ice maker.” (Gentoku)

Feeling giddy, I left the processing facility behind.

 

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(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)