Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 8: Upgrades and Reverie

The weeks roll by relatively quickly. As she mentioned, Wenlianna's bankroll is plenty sufficient for them to work on their project, and much of the time, as long as they keep out of sight and don't disrupt any of the Grand Duchess's events, she doesn't pry or disrupt their work.

As for a design, they've opted for something only magic crystals can make possible. The anvils are a fraction of the size of those used in modern technology, but powered by wind-crystal pressurized hydraulics. They have to bury the bulk of the system to ensure it doesn't explode, which is the bulk of Daniel's work as Wenlianna polishes designs and commissions the anvil pieces and the shell of the actual press, which needs to withstand several thousand degrees. Unfortunately, salt's melting temperature is around half of the minimum they need to get good diamond, so they also have to make heating elements for electrical power. Ironically, graphite proves to be highly useful for electrical crystals, since graphite itself is conductive enough not to destroy itself, and graphite is much easier for them to make than the salt crystals. Now, as long as they can sustain both the pressure and temperature, which Wenlianna is also able to make simplistic gauges of so they can maintain conditions as stable as possible, diamonds should begin to form from graphite stones.

Now, it's been six months since they began, and the device has finally cooled. Daniel makes a rig to melt the solvent metals away once they extract the slag-covered mass from the anvils. It's all a slow process, and he has to be careful not to expose the diamond to air, lest it burn itself off as CO2 before the metal can melt.

Thankfully, they only have to get the bulk of the slag off, and then the rest can be ground away, since nothing they have is harder than diamond, assuming a diamond even formed after all of this time.

The moment of truth arrives; Daniel uses a crude file as Wenlianna watches over his shoulder, and even her sisters and the Grand Duchess are watching curiously from a safe distance. Wenlianna mentioned that they were attempting to make a gemstone, which piqued her family's curiosity.

And, thankfully, as Daniel files, a relieving sight reveals itself behind the slag; a glass-like substance harder than any other known substance in this world, and near the top in Daniel's world.

Wenlianna gasps, prying his hands out of the way so she can see. "Is-... Is that...!?" Daniel chuckles, allowing her to take it and inspect it. He says politely, "My Lady, it'll be easier to inspect once it's free of all of the metal."

Still, she eagerly peeks at the small view of glass revealed by the scratches in the metal. "I... I don't believe it..."

"May I finish?"

She quickly hands it back. "HURRY DANIEL!"

He resumes filing, removing the rest of the metal and revealing more and more of the diamond's crystalline sheen. Unfortunately, the hardness of the diamond will undoubtedly chew through the bite of his file, so he has to minimize scraping against the diamond. He also doesn't have a good way to polish its surface, so even though it does stand out from the metal, it's definitely not going to be a particularly beautiful diamond. That said, like his world, they have ways of cutting and polishing diamond, surely, so he doesn't worry about it for now.

Regardless, it still is very obvious what it is, especially because Daniel ensured to keep any discoloring gases like nitrogen away from the carbon by using a metal solvent, a method discovered to keep the carbon from burning, while also dissolving it into a much easier form.

Wenlianna laughs as she cradles the cleaned crystal, seemingly afraid it'll break if she drops it. Its surface is a little damaged, likely from diamond particles being scraped across it from the file, but it's very clearly the same thing as whatever they call diamond in this world. And, it's about the size of a standard salt stock crystal; roughly the size of a person's balled in fingers, minus the meat of the hand. Compared to the diamonds they're used to, it's humongous.