"It is not something important. This is only a poor quality resource used as a burning material by the majority of the masses who are unable to use magic. But there is a problem in its usage that diminishes its value as a fuel source. The thick black smoke it produces upon burning can mar any infrastructure and color it black. Moreover, the unpleasant smell and poisonous substances emitted during the burning process lowers its value in the eyes of those who have sufficient buying power. Only those who cannot buy better products like firewood opt for this cheap and difficult to use fuel." Bruce gave a long explanation regarding the fire water as he felt that Zach must be a young master of some hidden force and he might not have seen such a thing before in his life.
Zach felt oddly familiar with the characteristics of this fire water. He felt that he was on cusp of a huge discovery but couldn't be sure. Therefore, he trusted his gut instinct and asked Bruce to show him the place where they mined this fire water from.
Bruce couldn't understand why Zach wanted to visit such an unprofitable place even though he had already explained the characteristics of the fire water to him and how useless it actually was in terms of the sales.
Still, he couldn't exactly say no to Zach after requesting his help.
An hour later, Bruce and Zach got off of the carriage that they used to travel to the fire water mining region. Zach found that the land was strangely damp even though there was no greenery in the vicinity. But that was only natural considering the fact that this land had fire water which was inherently a destructive burning material that released harmful fumes on burning.
The secretary like servant led the path and took them towards the mining area where the field manager would take over the tour of the facility.
There wasn't much manpower as this was an especially neglected produce that was not as profitable as the degree of investment required for its extraction.
The secretary soon switched position with the person who was in charge of this installation.
"This is the exact place from where we extract the fire water. No matter how much we take out, the land seems to be able to produce more of it as it is practically inexhaustible. If only this was some other substance. Even a freshwater reservoir would have been better than this. The value of the land would have doubled if that had been the case."
The man in charge of the fire water extraction plant seemed to be quite low on motivation.
"Let me see. Bring me some of that fire water for inspection."
Bruce indicated to the field manager to listen to Zach's orders and the man rushed off into the distance before coming back with a glass jar in hand.
"Here, this is fire water. It is practically harmless in its liquid form except when you bring it into contact with any kind of fire."
Zach dipped the tip of his index finger in the fire water in order to test it. He rubbed it using his thumb and index finger and couldn't believe what he was seeing. The soapy feel was very familiar to him. Even the color reminded him of something from his previous world.
"Take me to the place where you are extracting this 'fire water'." Zach asked the field manager as he took the jar containing fire water from him in order to confirm whether his conjecture was actually true or not.
The manager didn't think much of it as the Luther family head himself had come to escort this person who looked as young as the young lady of the Luther family. He assumed that Zach was some big shot who had come out into the world for learning.
He led the entourage to the excavation point where several mages were gathered together.
"Everyone on the count of three…one…two…three…"
The mage who was leading them finished his count and all the mages gathered together used their mana to cast a spell simultaneously. But the effect wasn't as exaggerated as their number.
Even though there were a lot of mages there, not a single one of them was higher than F rank. That was the reason that so many of them had been employed for a single job.
"Why are you using such a low end method for extraction? I think a single E rank or D rank mage should be able to handle the job alone. Why bother hiring so many useless mages?" Zach asked as he looked at the extraction process in real time which was by no means even the slightest bit efficient.
It wasn't the field manager who replied to his question but Bruce who already knew the reason behind this.
"Fire water is not a profitable business to begin with. Hiring an E rank mage is more of a financial burden than hiring a hundred or so of such F rank mages. Therefore, in the longer run hiring a plethora of F rank mages can be better for a low profit business resource like fire water. In order to sustain our profit margin, we need to cut costs during the extraction process or it would just cause us to go into loss."
Zach understood the concept behind it but if this fire water was what he thought it was, then this was sheer ignorance on the part of the Luther family and the people of this world who couldn't even bring out it its true worth.
There were two large pipes that had been dug deep into the ground at the extraction point. The mages all summoned their wind element and pumped air into one of the pipes. As a result the pressure gradient forced the oil underground to rise up as a result which was then collected into a cylindrical container that the pipe was connected to.
It didn't take long for Zach to understand the mechanism and therefore, he didn't ask about the excavation process from the field manager.
Zach couldn't help but feel that the manager looked relieved that Zach wasn't asking any more questions.
After checking the contents of the cylindrical container, Zach was more than sure about the true identity of this mineral resource the aborigines called fire water. Their ignorance truly knew no bounds as they had dubbed the most important resource from his previous world as useless and cheap.
This thing they called 'fire water' was in fact oil; raw oil that had yet to be undergo the fractional distillation that could then yield various petroleum products that Zach knew from his previous world.
Thinking of this discovery, Zach couldn't help but remember those oil rich countries that ended up owning half the world based on these resources.
"It seems that the luck of this Luther family hasn't run out yet." Zach muttered to himself as he turned around to face Bruce who had been waiting for him to finish his survey before returning home.
Even Bruce was caught off guard when Zach uttered his next words with a huge smile that covered half his face.
"Bruce, Luther family just found a first class ticket to wealth and power. Your family has the potential to leave behind even the greatest families of this city. Luther family's rise will be too fast for the historians to record it. Mark my words."
Bruce felt as if his tongue had stopped listening to him as no words came out of his mouth as if it had been sealed shut by some external force.
If the words had come out of someone else's mouth, Bruce might have dismissed them as ravings of some mad man. But these same words had been uttered by the miraculous Zach who had shown him miracles greater than the limits of his imagination.
At that moment, Bruce became sure that his family was at the precipice of entering into an era of unimaginable prosperity that had never been seen before; not even during the time when his father used to be the head of the family.
…
A playground somewhere in the middle of Luther family estate
After a lot of discussion with Bruce, a discussion which seemed to have gone over Bruce's head completely, Zach asked Bruce to arrange for the excess servants of the household to gather at one place. For discretion, the place that had been chosen was this playground for the children of those servants.
Scores of servants were jumbled up together even though the playground was wide enough for all of them to stay at a comfortable distance. The fact that they were all huddled up together only told the story of how nervous they were at being called together like this by the master of the household.
"Tsk…his earlier outburst seems to have made them all nervous." Zach thought as he looked at the changed Bruce with a small degree of annoyance.
Zach raised his eyebrows as he tilted his head sideways slightly to signal Bruce to begin with what they had discussed earlier.
Bruce understood the signal instantly and began to play the part he had been tasked with by Zach in his master plan to bring glory to the Luther family.
"Listen up everyone."
Several of the servants began whispering among themselves as soon as Bruce attracted their attention in a loud tone.
"Do you think Master wants to throw us out?" An elderly male who had served the Luther family almost his whole life voiced out his fears.
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