Chapter 20

Heart-Pounding Pottery (3)
"May it go well!"

Marylia prayed as she lit the fire in the furnace.

At last, it was time to fire the pottery!

As the furnace heated up, she began to carefully place the pottery inside.

"... Not all of it will fit at once, huh"

Given the large quantity she had made and dried, it was impossible to fit everything in at once. She packed as much as she could, knowing she'd have to fire the rest in batches.

Despite the challenge, Marylia happily placed the pottery in the furnace, one piece at a time. She then kept the fire burning gently for a while. If she fired it too quickly and at too high a temperature, the pottery wouldn't heat evenly, causing it to crack. It was essential to warm the furnace and pottery gradually, allowing the temperature to rise slowly.

Once she felt the pottery had warmed up sufficiently...

"Alright, let's do this."

Marylia had the golems start working in front of the furnace, operating the bellows to maintain a high temperature. In moments like these, golems were incredibly useful. Unlike Marylia, who couldn't keep the bellows going for hours on end, the golems worked tirelessly, without any distractions, keeping the fire blazing as the temperature inside the furnace continued to climb.

Watching the process, Marylia silently prayed again, "Please, let them fire without cracking!"

For Marylia, pottery was always a bit of a gamble.

She had taken every precaution she could: gradually raising the temperature, adding crushed pottery to the clay to prevent shrinking, and thoroughly drying the pieces to avoid steam explosions during firing. But still, Marylia lacked the experience and knowledge needed to guarantee success.

That's why she relied on repeated trials... and a lot of hope!

While the golems diligently tended to the furnace, Marylia went out for a bit of plant gathering. The season for wild raspberries was ending soon. There might still be some apricots left. The wild herbs were flourishing, so she picked the soft, edible parts to bring back.

With summer approaching its peak, the wild herbs would start to wither by fall. Marylia knew she would need to gather and dry as many edible herbs as possible to store for the future.

"Oh my, another type of berry!"

In a green area a little way inland from the rocky coast, Marylia discovered a different kind of berry. On closer inspection, she realized the tiny, charming berries were a type of bilberry.

It was still early in the season, so most of the bilberries weren't ripe yet. But among them, she found a few small, blue-purple berries and popped one into her mouth. The wild fruit's strong tartness, rich aroma, and slightly lacking in sweetness spread across her taste buds. It was delicious in its own way.

"So, this area has acidic soil..."

Bilberries thrive in acidic soil, even in nutrient-poor environments, such as soil with volcanic ash.

"If bilberries are growing well in this acidic soil, then... yes!"

Marylia looked around eagerly and soon spotted a flash of red.

"I found lingonberries too! Haha, so many berries!"

These were lingonberries, also known as cowberries. Like the bilberries, they were still a bit early in the season, so most of the fruits weren't ripe yet.

But with these discoveries, Marylia knew she wouldn't have to worry about snacks during the summer. Delighted, she did a little happy dance.

"It seems this deserted island isn't so bad after all. Though, I have a feeling someone might have lived here a long time ago. Hehe..."

It was possible that someone had brought these berry plants to the island long ago. If all these berries, along with raspberries, silverberries, and apricots, were originally native to the island, it would indeed be quite a stroke of luck.

However, given the island's current state, it seemed unlikely that anyone was living here now. Marylia felt a slight pang of disappointment but quickly cheered herself up, thinking, "It might be fun to imagine my neighbors from long ago," as she made her way back to her base.

Once she returned, it was time to focus on the pottery. Pottery was the priority.

She let the fire in the furnace die down naturally. Rapid temperature changes could cause the pottery to crack.

While waiting, Marylia took advantage of the downtime to visit the pond and collect fish caught in her traps. This would be her lunch.

She made a soup with a small amount of salted meat, roasted Peryton bones for broth, fish meat, and wild herbs. After that, she dried the fish bones for future broth, roasted more Peryton bones in the furnace's embers for tonight's soup, and all the while, she anxiously paced around the furnace.

"Ahhh~ I'm so curious~ so curious~... I know that worrying won't change anything, but I can't help it..."

Marylia couldn't settle down. She was anxious about how the pottery was turning out.

But she couldn't check on the pottery just yet. She had to let the furnace cool slowly and wait until the temperature dropped enough to touch the pottery, which wouldn't be until evening at the earliest.

Sighing, "I'm so curious!" she headed towards the fields. There was something she always did at times like this.

"Ahhh~... even when I'm restless, you guys are so helpful."

As she poked, the slimes’ bodies responded with a bounce and jiggle.

This calmed her down a bit. While distracted, she thought, "Maybe I'll do a bit more tilling in the field..." and started moving her body. Once she got to work, she found herself less and less preoccupied with the pottery.

Work was truly wonderful. And slimes were equally wonderful. Marylia tilled the field and played with the slimes, jiggling them over and over gain beside her.

And so, evening came.

"It's about time... right?"

Marylia opened the furnace with bated breath. Inside, she found a collection of beautifully fired clay pieces.

She carefully removed each one, inspecting every part of the Terracotta Golem components and the many pots she had made, checking for cracks or breaks.

"Hmm, the ones mixed with sea sand are cracked. But they were at the very bottom, so maybe the intense heat caused them to break... Or perhaps it's the salt in the sand that affected them..."

Unfortunately, some pieces had cracked. Those mixed with sea sand or ash had broken. However, it was hard to tell if the problem was with the sea sand or ash, the position in the furnace, the intensity of the heat, or even the drying process. Only repeated trials would provide any certainty.

"The ones kneaded with brine are unchanged. The ones mixed with pottery powder turned out well, nice and sturdy. And... the ones with river white sand have a different texture..."

The ones mixed with river sand had a whiter finish compared to the others. When she flicked them with her fingernail, they made a high-pitched sound, indicating they had been fired solidly.

"Like porcelain."

Yes, they looked almost like porcelain.

… Which meant...

"So, that white sand... could it be feldspar or quartz particles?"

Marylia quickly began hypothesizing about the identity of the sand.

White sand could either be limestone or, more likely, feldspar or quartz. Given how the pottery had turned out—almost like porcelain—it seemed highly probable that the white sand found in the river was indeed feldspar and quartz.

Feldspar and quartz are essential materials in porcelain and glazes.

Quartz helps materials melt more easily, while feldspar melts into a glassy substance. When mixed with clay and fired, the result is thin, hard, and durable porcelain.

Of course, porcelain is made differently from pottery. Apart from the different raw materials, the most significant difference is the firing temperature.

For bisque firing porcelain, a lower temperature is preferred than that for pottery. After that, the final firing is done at a higher temperature than pottery to achieve a glassy finish. The pieces mixed with sea sand or ash that cracked may have been fired at too high a temperature.

Perhaps the temperature was a bit low for porcelain and a bit high for pottery. Marylia nodded to herself, thinking, "More research is necessary."

Satisfied with her conclusion, her thoughts continued.

"Which means... it could be that granite was crushed upstream."

If feldspar and quartz sand had accumulated in the river, it was reasonable to think that a large amount of feldspar and quartz was present upstream. The first thing that came to Marylia's mind was the presence of granite.

Granite, known to form from volcanic activity, is a beautiful stone with a white base interspersed with black, gray, and pale pink crystals.

Granite forms when lava cools slowly deep underground, and it contains feldspar, quartz, and iron sand.

… In other words...

"If the granite was crushed, there should be iron sand somewhere too..."

Marylia had quickly deduced where iron sand might be located on the island.

However...

"... Well, there are still many things missing for iron production. Sigh..."

Even if she had an idea of where the iron sand might be, she couldn't immediately start producing iron and creating an Iron Golem. To process iron, she needed more Terracotta Golems, more bellows, a larger furnace, and, above all, a lot of charcoal and iron sand!

It would be inefficient to attempt this with only a small amount of materials. Marylia wanted to produce iron in one big batch when the time came.

So, for now, iron sand wasn't her main concern.

"But you know, err, porcelain. If I mix more of that white sand into the clay, I might be able to make proper porcelain!"

Porcelain.

It could be thinner, lighter, and more durable than pottery, and she might be able to mass-produce it.

Furthermore... if she could reliably produce porcelain, she might even be able to create a Porcelain Golem.

Marylia's pottery and golem-making were on the brink of advancing another step!

"And also, umm, if there's feldspar, then glaze! I can make feldspar glaze! I could apply glaze to the fired pots and fire them again! Then I'll have pots that won't let water through!"

Marylia was also beginning to consider making glazed pots instead of just unglazed ones!

With this, she would be able to store liquids!