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As there was no place to take shelter from the snowstorm in the hidden valley, Lily and the girls returned to the temple again and sat down on the floor to discuss what to do from now onwards.
Shiu offered the tepid tea she had prepared to everyone.
“Madam Kotoka, I’m utterly clueless about ore extraction, but from what Kagura said, it seems like it needs to be transmuted into magatama after extraction,” Lily stated while holding the teacup.
“That’s true. Although I never thought about gaining possession of a magatama ore, the Saionji family actually has two miners who hail from Kansai. They once belonged to one of the imperial smithies that handled a small-sized ore vein, but the vein got expended in less than five years of work when they were young. However, as workers of a magatama ore smithy, they at least possess the physical strength of an early-stage samurai, and at the same time, they are one of the very few miners in Kanto who are proficient in extracting magatama ore. I tasked them with the management of a quarry nearby to Takeshita Town, but I’ll return back along with them at once and also bring a few miners who have been loyal to the Saionji family for many generations and entrust the two with teaching them the extraction method. This is quite a challenging process and is worlds apart from extracting iron ore and the like.”
“Oh…” Lily nodded blankly.
“As for the magatama transmutation process, an onmyōji is required to fill a 100-liter wooden box with the harvested source crystals. It’s crucial to select the best one among them and affix a special charm on it accordingly before putting it down at the center of the box and let it transmute naturally by absorbing the spirit essence of the nearby source crystals, the process taking part over seven days. If the transmutation succeeds, this central crystal becomes a complete magatama while the remaining source crystals deprived of their essence become grade one to grade three raw tamahagane materials based on their purity. Naturally, the majority of raw tamahagane materials aren’t sourced from the waste products of source crystals and are actually extracted from other low-grade iron ores. The raw tamahagane materials are just a byproduct of the process, and in case the transmutation fails, the central crystal disintegrates and leaves only magatama fragments behind for collection,” Kotoka explained further.
“Huh? An onmyōji is also needed?”
“You needn’t worry about that, Lily. Our Saionji family also sponsors a minor onmyōji family who has been quite loyal to us for many generations. Also, the magatama transmutation charm is one of the most basic charms and its result relies on luck rather than the strength of the onmyōji. Even the lowest-ranked onmyōji can create this charm. As Izu Port is relatively chaotic, the Saionji family had this onmyōji family move to the Genji Dojo in Takeshita Town temporarily. This family of three, one elder and two descendants, consist of one low-ranked onmyōji and two onmyōji apprentices, who can handle this task fully. The slowest process is actually the extraction process as the onmyōji just need to create a charm each for the central source crystal1.”
Lily felt relieved after hearing this as there was a chance of information getting leaked if they employed a random onmyōji.
“How many cubic meters of source crystals are required to fit 100 liters of space?” Lily inquired.
“100 liters of source crystals weigh about 150 kilograms approximately while the source crystals extracted from one cubic meter of ore weight up to about 4000 kilograms. However, the extracted ore also includes some impure crystals and other rocks, leaving behind approximately half the original amount of source crystal fragments that are relatively purer and suitable for transmutation once the impure crystals and other rocks are removed. Normally, this amount is enough to fill 1200 to 1300 liters of space. Up to 3 charms can be affixed in a space of 100 liters and 3 magatama are obtained if the transmutation succeeds for all of them. However, it’s a pretty good result normally for 100 liters of source crystals to form 1 complete magatama,” Kotoka explained2.
“Oh…” Lily wasn’t math illiterate, so she calculated the numbers, “100 liters weigh about 150 kilograms and can produce 3 magatama, so 50 kilograms have a chance of forming 1 magatama with a 70% rate of disintegration which produces magatama fragments. This matches with what Kagura said. To make it simple, 100 liters can produce 1 complete magatama and 1 kilogram of magatama fragments while 1 cubic meter of source crystals can produce 12 to 13 complete magatama and about 15 kilograms of magatama fragments. This is indeed a startling amount of wealth!”
“Madam Kotoka,” Lily asked excitedly, “How many cubic meters can be extracted in a single day? Make the miners work overtime!”
“A single day?” Kotoka directed an incredulous look at Lily, “Are you kidding, Lady Lyn-hime?”
“Huh? Why?”
“At present, we only have two master miners from Kansai who can extract the ore and it’ll take at least three months to train the other miners. Otherwise, it’ll most likely lead to the loss of spirit essence during the extraction process and produce inferior products. If we take the time the masters need to train the apprentices, even if we make them work overtime as you’ve suggested, it will still take one year for a master miner to extract one cubic meter of source crystals. The two master miners can at most extract 600 to 700 liters of source crystals over the first three months,” Kotoka explained.
“Eh? Only that much?” Lily asked impatiently.
“Based on the location of the ore vein we’ve mapped at present, we can at most task about two dozen miners with the extraction, and that too only after three months have passed. Once the new miners begin working, the extraction can reach up to a dozen cubic meters in a year at worst and two dozen cubic meters at best. Two dozen cubic meters of extracted ore can produce about two hundred or so complete magatama and 300 to 350 kilograms of magatama fragments. This amount of wealth is enough to really overturn Kanto!”
Lily calculated and arrived at the same conclusion. She was only able to steal three magatama from Tokugawa even though she had risked her life in the process, so it was quite evident that this item was much precious to Furinkazan-level powerhouses. The fact that about two hundred or so complete magatama and 300 to 350 magatama fragments were producible in a year was quite a fearsome thing in itself!
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Even the top-ranked disciple of the Genji Main Dojo of the East was given only 600 grams of magatama fragments in a year! This was the apex powerhouse among the younger generation of the East’s Genji, and they needed to engage in fierce battles with the other disciples of the dojo for a chump change of magatama! Only someone on the level of the Six Swords of the East possessed the ability to obtain 500 grams of magatama fragments in a year and this amount excluded the assets owned by their families.
Kotoka spoke up again when she saw Lily calculate her wealth again, “Listen to me, Lily. Although the magatama and magatama fragments production amount of the East is a huge secret, I have my ways of obtaining information about it. There are only three known magatama ore veins within the eight provinces of Kanto if we exclude yours and they are mostly in the final stages of extraction with two almost close to exhausting up. The largest one is located in an extremely secluded place in Musashi and is occupied by the Minamoto clan. Its extraction produce is about ten cubic meters of source crystals annually.”
“The second one is located in a region bordering Mikawa and Owari, and is under the joint control of the Taira, Tokugawa and Oda clans. It’s said that the Taira clan owns 60% of its produce, but in fact, they’ve extracted this ore vein for a few centuries already and it’s about to exhaust soon. Its annual produce amounts up to around five cubic meters.”
“The third one is located in Suruga and is under the joint control of the Minamoto, Ashikaga and Imagawa clans with them having rights to 60%, 30% and 10% of the produce respectively. However, this ore vein is the smallest among the three. It’s also known that it belonged to Lord Yoshitsune originally and had been extracted for centuries as well, so its annual produce is only about two to three cubic meters of source crystals.”
“Only that much?” Lily asked in astonishment.
“Yes,” Kotoka nudged the bridge of her spectacles up3, “Do you know how huge a wealth obtaining this ore vein means now? The amounts produced by ore veins controlled by the Minamoto clan, the Taira clan and the other influential samurai clans of the East are nothing in comparison to your ore vein! Also, the reserves of your ore vein are even more incomparable to theirs!”