Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 15: The Mechanic Does His Best to Survive

Fort Peony is a moderately sized valley fortress barring the only known path through the mountains at the north end of the mountains separating the allied kingdoms and Empire from the demon wildlands, with whom they are at war. It's so far out of the way and difficult to traverse, very few attacks take place. And, in order to provide a more ceremonial fortress to man, it's relatively robust and secure. Many lesser noble women and daughters have chosen it, and all but given it a reputation, as a sort of Women-only base on the edge of the frontier. It's not strictly women only, but when choosing manning, the Commanding Officers have held to the tradition, as the main base at the other end of the valley is meant to receive warning and prepare if Fort Peony is going to be overrun.

As night falls, Daniel yawns and makes his way towards the back of the barracks building. Most of the women have already turned in, excluding watchstanders, so it's the least populated the base is, as far as people walking around. Daniel's personal storage cubby, which had only his blanket before he was locked outside of the base for the night, is of course empty, so he's not going to sleep particularly well this evening. Instead, he decides to wear himself out and keep himself distracted with more work.

He requested permission already to use the smithy in the night, since it'll keep him out of the way, and he was even willing to begin heating up any equipment in the early morning, but the blacksmiths refused. That said, he's got a different project in mind for the moment.

He inspects the control unit of the barracks building's central air. It consists of a heating crystal, a cooling crystal, a wind crystal, and a mana crystal. And, from the gossip he's overheard -rather, the regular grumbling about it-, the crystals were already replaced, meaning it's anything other than the one thing Daniel definitely can't fix.

He carefully and quietly disassembles the control unit, which houses the mana crystal and the mana delivery conductors, which are some kind of metal tubing. They don't contain anything inside, but mana travels best in tubing for reasons Daniel has not yet learned. And, while it is fairly flexible, it also has a fatal flaw.

It's easy to dislodge, especially from the internal connection.

Sure enough, Daniel can see the tubing where it's dislodged. He pulls the pliers he borrowed from the smithy, and he places the connection back into its socket, gripping down to close the clamps. He then uses metal wire to tightly bind the connections of both ends of the circuit for each of the connections leading the main mana connection and the various control switches. This way, even if it's dislodged by being hit during a battle, it should still stay connected and work.

Thankfully, it's not the first such central air Daniel has worked on. Wenlianna had him look at the Stalvaltan estate's central air unit, and they have a handy panel on the outlet that changes colors with temperature, and this one even has a target temperature etched into the surface, likely once everyone found a comfortable zone. Daniel adjusts the controls until the panel matches the gradient desired, and he leaves it run. They'll be able to adjust it the next day when they realize it. IF they realize it.

Next is the bathhouse. He has to be extra careful with the communal wash area, as it's a shared space, and men's bath is right around this time. He makes his way in, checking the log. Sure enough, it's occupied. It's about a one hour window that the men can take their baths using water scooped from the water heater, which is outputting heat, but not very much.

Daniel enters with his equipment still with him, and he gets dirty looks from the two men that are present. Daniel remarks quietly, "Don't mind me. I'll only be a minute." He uses a wash basin to wash off his arms, and then he reaches in, finding the heating elements. They're warm, but definitely not hot. While he's worried the mana crystal isn't conducting well, he'll look at that last. More than likely, the protective heat caps that protect the gem housings are coated in buildup.