Konbini Ossan Volume 3 Chapter 8 — The Refrigerator, Complete

After asking Arisa to install the cooling plates, I climbed up onto the shop’s roof.

This was to set up the power source for the plates.

From my item pouch, I pulled out a board I had prepared in advance.

It was a sheet of metal with powdered magic stone spread across one side.

The powder was made from luminous magic stones ground down. Even in powdered form, their «Illumination» skill remained effective.

With luminous stones, surface area matters far more than volume.

A large chunk is mostly wasted, so by grinding it down and adhering the powder to the metal’s surface, I could make efficient use of it.

Of course, I used my «Adhesive Liquid» skill to fix it in place. I spread the adhesive, then dusted luminous powder over the top.

As for the sheet itself, it was an alloy called magisteel. The Adventurers’ Guild uses this metal to channel magic power.

Normally, it’s very difficult to obtain, but thanks to my exclusive receptionist Shuri-kun pulling strings, I managed to get some.

Naturally, I paid properly for it. Nearly a third of the shop’s profit went up in smoke.

Between this and the cooling plates, that means almost everything was gone.

Magisteel’s properties are simple. It draws magic power from nearby dense sources, then releases it toward areas with less magic, balancing the flow.

Since it even leaks magic into the air, surfaces that mustn’t discharge magic need to be coated with an insulating paint.

This way, you can target exactly where the power is taken and where it’s sent.

In short, it lets you handle magic like electricity.

The outlet for that flow uses a special filter made from magic stone mixed with several minerals.

This filter only allows one-way passage. That means the magic pulled into magisteel pours straight into the receiving stone.

Since the filter itself barely holds any power, magisteel’s property keeps draining magic indefinitely until the stone is empty.

Apparently, long ago people tried combining magisteel and these filters to create facilities that would harvest unlimited energy from dungeons.

But reality didn’t play along. In places with dense magic, the filter won’t pass anything unless it’s denser still.

Inside dungeons, that meant they couldn’t drain even a single stone — the complete opposite of what they wanted.

The thirst for infinite energy seems universal. Many methods were attempted beyond magisteel, but none ever succeeded.

Thinking about it, luminous stones really are revolutionary.

Anyway, history aside. By coating magisteel plates with luminous stone powder, I could now turn sunlight into an endless stream of energy.

I installed these across the entire roof.

To protect them from the elements, I brushed on another layer of «Adhesive Liquid» as a transparent seal.

Being colorless, it hardly affected the «Illumination» skill.

Naturally, plenty of people noticed me up there fixing plates to the roof. Word spread quickly about the odd cave dwarf doing strange work overhead.

Once the refrigerator is done, the novelty alone would spark talk. “So that’s what that was for!” — people would spread the story on their own.

Once every plate was in place, I connected magisteel wires, running them toward the planned magic storage facility at the back of the shop.

I coated the surfaces with insulating paint, then sealed them with adhesive, finishing the job.

And so, the luminous system was complete. The next step was a facility to distribute stored magic in controlled amounts wherever needed.

Just powering the refrigerator would be simple, but I wanted to use magic for other purposes in the future.

Designing a versatile system now would save me trouble later.

Fortunately, back in college I had studied engineering. Handling magic through magisteel was almost identical to handling electrical current.

Thanks to that, building the system was easy.

In short, I made the supply switchable by sliding insulating plates against magisteel.

The amount of flow could be adjusted by inserting materials with resistance to magic. With several such circuits, multiple outlets could be used at once.

In other words, I had just built outlets and breakers.

With the power supply finished, all that was left was to extend the wiring into the refrigerator.

Between installing the roof plates, building the storage, and wiring the supply system, two days had passed.

Thanks to the extra time, the cooling plates were already installed by Arisa-san.

Next, I applied «Temperature Control» and «Moisture Retention» to the inner walls.

I put in partitions, and added glass doors on the shop side so customers could reach in for goods. Naturally, I enchanted both the glass and the partitions.

The glass doors were given «Shape Memory» and «Impact Absorption» to keep them from breaking easily.

Then I stretched the wiring inside and hooked it up. I even built a dial-based control panel to adjust the cooling plates’ effect. With that, it was complete.

Installing the glass and partitions took one day. The control panel another. Altogether, four days of work.

Now, once we brought in shelves and stocked them, we could start selling.

“Whoa! It’s freezing in here!”

Joan-kun, who happened to be making a delivery, stepped inside the fridge. The interior was set to about two degrees.

The plates tended to frost over, so they would need regular cleaning. Still, the fridge worked perfectly. No cold air leaked outside either.

It was more than usable. I was satisfied.

“Never thought I’d come all the way to another world just to build a refrigerator,” Arisa said, sounding moved.

The cooled space felt less like a fridge and more like an air-conditioned room, especially since shelves weren’t in yet.

After that, the chilled alcohol we stocked became a hit. Adventurers eagerly bought drinks that tasted better cold.

Buying chilled booze as a reward at the end of the day and sharing it with comrades slowly became a tradition among adventurers in the capital.

Even though the price was set much higher than the same liquor at room temperature, it sold daily. That’s just how irresistible cold alcohol was.

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E/N:

Lots of investment for convenience, it IS a convenience store after all 😂. And beer is definitely better chilled although, I've never tried beer in my life 🙃.

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