Chapter 774 774 Engine Lit
”Alright everyone, the jig is made, the cranes are ready to go, and I have created a nice stockpile of Mana Crystal here for the workers to use. Are we ready to begin the construction, or should we start it tomorrow when the morning shift comes back?” Wolfe asked.
The witch next to Wolfe smiled. “That’s mostly up to you. We need you to cast the arrays as we build the airframe, so we can only work until you want to sleep.”
“Alright then, I will stay up and watch you work, then build the arrays as you complete the spells. At my rank, it’s easy enough to just duplicate the spell as you complete it.” Wolfe explained.
“In that case, we will do the fun things first. Let’s start with the engines. All six of them are identical, so once you set up the spells for one of them, we can just finish our shift making the other five while you sleep. It will be perfect, and we won’t waste any time.” The witch explained.
“That works for me. I’ve made engines before, so this shouldn’t be too terribly difficult. You just assemble them as you like, and leave the rest to me.” Wolfe agreed.
With the amount of mana crystal he had left here for them, they should be able to make more than one entire aircraft without running out of mana, it was just a matter of time to do the casting and assembly. The advantage to that huge pile of dense crystal was that it could be refilled by any passing higher ranked magic user, including off-duty staff at the base.
It would give them a perpetual mana supply for production, and it could be siphoned off to create other things, like the fighter jets that they were planning to work on once the supply of cargo planes was finished.
They could also use it to recharge the airplanes that landed here, instead of waiting for the spells to refill them naturally. Wolfe briefly considered doing the same for this pile of Mana Crystal, but a spell that was strong enough to keep that filled when it was being used intensively would imbalance the whole area as it focused mana into the crystal.
That would cause issues with the spells that were being cast, as the mana would try to flow back to the crystals, and it would cause issues for the relic spells that were in the nearby home of the Lumix Family.
Those ruins hadn’t let many people in, but he didn’t intend to let them be damaged by the activities of his people outside.
The engines on this plane were no more complex than the other turbofan engines Wolfe had created. Because of the magic fuel, the process was actually very simple, and the majority of the details were for lubrication of the rotating parts. The entire fuel system on the original was replaced with an array linked to controls in the cockpit, and all six arrays would be linked when the construction was completed.
They worked for most of an hour, carefully constructing and testing the new engine, which spun to life happily as they added a bit of mana to the Inscriptions that Wolfe created for them.
“If we had a more powerful Magi other than you, we could do all this initial setup ourselves, but none of the others are at a high enough level with Fire and Air magic to get the engine setup right.” The witch sighed.
“It is a small drawback. You won’t be able to change the design either, will you? What I create as an Array is what you will have to use because it’s a multi-layered one that Witches can’t create on their own.” Wolfe sighed.
“But on the bright side, this way is much more mana efficient than having us do our own inscriptions. The less mana it uses, the longer the flight time, and soon we will be able to simplify the spells ourselves.
We’ve already worked out how to simplify the Arrays on the smaller propeller planes to use electromagnetism without your exclusive Array.
Of course, only like three people can cast it other than the Fae, but still, it’s got to count for something.”
Electromagnetism required Adept knowledge of lightning, and it was impressive that three of the witches were even at that level, but they had been studying hard with the Fae and Demonic instructors.
“Should I try making these with just arrays that the witches can do on their own? It would allow you to do experiments to improve efficiency and alter the arrays to work better.” Wolfe suggested.
The witches considered it for a while, then shook their heads. “No, it’s better this way. We want them all to be identical so that if there is any damage, we can immediately replace the part. If we start letting the builders customize and optimize them, it will defeat the purpose.
We might ask for your help later, though, to make improvements on an experimental design.”
Wolfe and the witches completed the first engine, and the night shift staff got ready to make the second. They had already shift staff got ready to make the second. They had already done extensive testing to make sure that the first worked the way they wanted, they just had to be sure that Wolfe’s copy worked identically, or they would have to disenchant the first one and build it from the inscribed arrays so it would match the rest of the engines.
“Goodnight and good luck to you all. I will see you in the morning.” Wolfe announced as he turned to leave.
“You mean actual morning, right? Not ten minutes to noon because it was too comfortable in bed?” One of the witches asked, making the others giggle.
“What she’s trying to say is, do we have permission to wake you up for breakfast?” Another clarified.
“Yes, but not before the sun is up. If you wake Cassie before the sun is up, bad things happen.” Wolfe agreed.