Let’s make Mancrete!

 
 Now that we got all the materials, we started making the Mancrete next morning.
 In the meantime, I finished distilling water last night.
 With this, the distilled water we need for mixing won’t be a problem. Now, first we combine the distilled water with the magic stone. The magic stone needs to be finely crushed.
 
 ”Could you all give me a hand? I want you to smash this. I also need Keon to oxidize some of this iron.”
 
 Keon’s acid attack was something it was good at. By taking advantage of that special characteristic, substances can be oxidised faster.
 Then, thanks to everyone’s work, the magic stone was able to be pulverised relatively easily. Kobelco also had a lot of power.
 In the end, though, we even made use of the excavator’s crusher.
 
 ”Mogu~?”
 
 Right after we finished that processing, Yambo raised a cry that felt as though he said “Now what?”.
 The others looked on with great interest. So, it was now the workshop’s magic mixer’s turn.
 
 ”This powdered magic stone and distilled water are mixed together in the mixer. This mixer will also be useful for making the Mancrete later on, but this is just a preliminary preparation step.”
 ”Koo~”
 
 Kani watches the manufacturing process with great interest.
 
 ”The magic stone water is mixed like this, but it still has a lot of impurities. We need to turn this into pure magic water, and for that, we’ll use the centrifuge.”
 
 This prefab is equipped with a centrifuge for magic construction tasks. I used this to separate and extract only pure magic water.
 
 ”Now we have the magic water needed for the Mancrete. Next is to make the cement.”
 
 A depression is made in the underground workshop’s floor. And then, this time is the cement materials — the Lime Ammonite’s seashell, the bandages collected from the Plaster Mummy, and the mud collected from the river along the way that is centrifuged to get the needed clay part. And then the iron oxide I asked Keon to make was crushed, put in the mixer and then dried further, and the prep work was finished.
 The cement material that was thus made was deposited into the depression.
 
 ”Normally we’d want to use a furnace. However, here we’ll instead use this magic burner.”
 
 The burner is also used in construction. This is a magic architecture tool that spews flames.
 
 ”It’s dangerous, so everyone, get away from it.”
 ”Kyupi~”
 ”””””Mogu~ mo~gu~”””””
 ”Go-!”
 
 Everyone obediently did as I said. Incidentally, Uni and Kani were riding on my shoulders. THe moles and Keon were on Kobelco. They also seem to like Kobelco’s body quite a lot.
 Now, let’s adjust the magic pressure. A blue flame lights up at the tip of the burner. The fire is blue because it contains magic power. A blue flame that contains magic power his has a higher heat.
 However, it is said that there are few wizards who can produce blue flames using magic. It seems it’s easier said than done because you have to control and incorporate a very high concentration of magic power.
 As for me, I it seems to be a question of “Is that really how it is?”. The formation for the architectural technique wasn’t all that hard.
 Well, anyway, I sprayed the blue flame towards the material I put in the depression. After heating it like this, I got a blackish mass known as clinker by cooling it with magic refrigeration gas.
 With this, the preparations for now are complete.
 
 ”Mogu mogu”
 ”Tsk, Kubota! That not food!”
 
 Kubota the mole put the clinker in its mouth.
 
 ”Peh! Peh!”
 
 Then immediately spat it out. Of course.
 
 ”You ok?”
 ”Mogu mogu~”
 
 A teary-eyed Kubota hugged me tightly. Oh dear, you can’t put just anything in your mouth. I pat him on the head and then move on.
 Clinker is the cement’s preliminary step material. I crush this to pieces once again and mix in the gypsum — alright, now we’ve got powdered cement.
 
 ”At any rate, the cement is done~”
 ”Mogyu~”
 ”Mo~gu~”
 
 Komatsu and Iseki were letting out a cry all over the floor. They were probably expressing their joy.
 Now, after getting this far, the rest isn’t that difficult. All you have to do is put the cement and magic water in the mixer, and mix it together with sand and gravel.
 However, in order to deal with magic water, the mixer needs to be one that architectural techniques have been applied to. This is because cement and magic water do not mix well when simply mixed. Normally, they’d separate immediately if done like that.
 That’s why a mixer with an architectural technique’s effect is needed to properly mix it together. Conversely, if you properly used architectural techniques, it’s not that difficult to make Mancrete.
 Although, according to my master, he couldn’t make it as efficiently as I could.
 Although the method of creating Mancrete was handed down from my master’s generation, and I only made a few modifications to it. I don’t remember doing much, but I remember getting embarrassed by his strange praise.
 Well, some time has passed since then — finally, the Mancrete is ready!
 Mancrete differs from regular concrete in that the finished product has the characteristic of being slightly tinged blue. And it also feels transparent.
 And Mancrete can be combined with techniques to imbue various effects. Colours can also be changed freely. This is also one of Mancrete’s strengths. As well as being magic resistant, although common concrete is considered to be easily weathered and weak to tension, Mancrete has no such weaknesses and is very tenacious.
 In that sense, Mancrete’s strength is that it’s very versatile.
 
 ”Anyway, now we know that Mancrete can be made here too.”
 ”Uni~”
 
 Uni seems happy about the Mancrete’s completion. However, this is only a prototype. When I made it, I could see other things I ought to do when making it.
 Let’s get started on it again…