Chapter 115 — The Spinning Wheel and the Bearing

"Say no more, let's go," Gao Yang, unable to contain his excitement any longer, grabbed Rebecca and strode out of the brick kiln factory. Halfway there he remembered there was still a ball, so he turned and waved. "You come too—come see the fine thing we've designed!"

No one could have imagined that the "assembly workshop" of the first-generation mana engine would be as crude as this.

It was a wooden shed beside the Cecil Ironworks. Apart from a few soldiers standing guard, there was nothing to distinguish it from any other shed, and inside there was nothing to suggest high technology or cutting-edge magic: except for the most delicate runic portions, which had been completed in Heidi's laboratory, every part of the mana engine had been hammered into shape by the hands of blacksmiths and runesmiths. So there were neither machine tools nor precision molds here; Rebecca and Heidi, together with the craftsmen, had completed every machining step of the prototype by the most primitive and laborious means.

Had this world not possessed magical assistance—had Heidi's flame and evocation spells not lent no small help—even the final assembly and welding of the prototype would likely have been a problem.

In whatever world, the birth of any single thing is never easy.

In the open space at the center of the "assembly workshop," a large piece of coarse burlap covered something less than two meters tall. Its outline was somewhat strange; Gao Yang could only vaguely make out that beneath one of the larger bulges there should be a flywheel structure, but its true face remained hidden.

The old blacksmith Hammer and Heidi both stood beside the prototype, and with them stood several others—some of them Hammer's apprentices, and two others the runesmiths newly joined to the domain, come from the royal capital.

"Rebecca insisted on running off to fetch you herself," Heidi said, nodding to Gao Yang with a trace of apology. "The child is a bit rash."

"She wanted to bring me the good news in person—that's understandable," Gao Yang drew a breath and looked at the prototype. "Uncover it. Let me see."

Heidi waved a hand, and a translucent evocation hand surfaced in the air and swept the cover cloth aside in one motion.

Beneath it was a machine of outlandish appearance.

It vaguely bore the shadow of its "distant relative" on Earth: there was a large flywheel, and connecting rods, cranks, and a crankshaft structure linked to the flywheel. Yet it was utterly different from any power machine in Gao Yang's memory of Earth: it had no cylinder. In its place, at the machine's midsection, was a "repulsion mechanism" composed of slide rails, a piston, and bases. The piston was a square block of iron, with four slide rails passing through its four corners, each end fixed to a base; on the side of each base facing the piston, a faintly flickering magic circle could be seen. Beyond the outer edges of the two repulsion circles extended runes, and a long metal plate connected the two repulsion circles; the runic trigger structure upon it remained connected to one of the repulsion circles, and this metal plate in turn connected through a connecting rod and a shifting device to the crankshaft of the flywheel.

Each time the crankshaft turned half a revolution, the runic trigger would be tripped, and the corresponding rune would establish a connection with one of the repulsion circles; then, once the crankshaft turned another half revolution, the runic trigger would leave that circle and enter the connection range of the other, activating the opposing repulsion mechanism...

Besides the runic trigger used to "switch the direction of repulsion," another runic trigger controlled the "total energy" of the two repulsion circles. It too was governed by a connecting rod, and its control lever was located on the side of the machine.

The special repulsion mechanism spared this machine the need for a cylinder structure, and thus circumvented the greatest precision threshold: mechanical precision. In its place, it demanded precision in magical runes—and that happened to be "this world's" specialty.

Heidi gazed at the mana engine before her somewhat absently. It had an appearance and internal workings utterly unlike any magical creation in this world; even though she herself had taken part in its manufacture, she could not help but be a little lost in thought at this moment. But she quickly came back to herself and looked at Gao Yang: "Ancestor, please pull the lever."

This place lay at the edge of the Cecil Ironworks, and an engine placed here could receive energy from the magic net perfectly well. Though there was no "amplification panel" as in the ironworks courtyard to boost transmission efficiency, for a low-power validation model, this energy was already sufficient.

Gao Yang, however, shook his head: "This we designed together. You two come with me."

Heidi looked somewhat hesitant, but Rebecca had no such reservations at all—she could no longer contain her curiosity. With Gao Yang's permission she darted two steps to the machine's side and waved vigorously: "Aunt Heidi! Come quick!"

Heddy smiled, cast off her lingering hesitation, and came to stand beside Gaoyang.

Three hands came to rest together upon the handle that governed the master energy linkage; then Gaoyang counted down from three, and the three of them pressed the handle down as one.

In an instant the mana circuit was connected, and the repulsion mechanism at the engine's core kindled to life. As one of the magic circles flared, that crude, plain "iron-block piston" began to move slowly before everyone's eyes.

As though to drive the heavy flywheel, it moved very slowly at first; but once the flywheel stirred to life, the piston raced to the far end of the entire repulsion mechanism, and the rune trigger for switching over took effect as well. The magic circle that had lit first went dark, while another repulsion circle brightened almost at the same instant.

The flywheel completed one full revolution, then spun faster and faster, faster and faster, until the whole machine was shaking and roaring with a tremendous din, yet it was truly, unmistakably running!