Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 235: Collecting materials

I spent my days on a relaxed schedule, alternating between being cooped up planning and studying in the workshop, and spending time with everyone.

In the end, rather that being a triple hulled ship, I decided that the aircraft’s design would have wings attached to a large cruiser and then a propulsor would be installed on the wings.

The large cruiser section would have a streamlined design a ship is known for as well as an aerodynamic shape.

This is because I thought there wasn’t much to land in on the sea.

「It’d fly through the Valley of the Wind.」

「Where is the Valley of the Wind?」

「Nah, it’s nothing.」

Laeva ended up hearing me talk to myself. There’s no way I could explain an old Japanese anime[1] to her.

And so, I drew up who knows how many designs that I felt would go with the gunship.

After this, I have to think of a mechanism that would operate the elevator and the rudder. In addition, I’d have to develop a magic device to keep the airframe afloat, a propulsor, and a barrier for repelling aerial monsters.

「This looks like it will need a very large magic crystal.」

「Right? To produce our desired speeds, we’d have to process a magic stone the size of a dragon’s at the very least.」

「Hmm, do we have stock of dragon-type’s magic stones?」

「About that, I have a bit of an idea.」

We have stock of large magic stones, but I was thinking whether I could process magic stones that were small but of greater purity into a large magic stone using 『Synthesis』.

When Laeva asked what we would do, her eyes were filled with anticipation, so we’ll try experimenting.

What I took out of my item box were the magic stones of Skeleton Generals, which we had secured many of in the Cathedral Labyrinth. Soon after, I invoked 『Synthesis』 on two of them.

A small magic circle around 20cm in diameter shined and the two magic stones combined, turning into one magic stone a size no larger than a ping pong ball.

「Ooo!?」

「It’s a success.」

I’ve been trying to synthesize magic stones for a long time, but I just found the process to make it succeed.

「So synthesis is possible if it’s the magic stones from the same species of monsters, huh? What a breakthrough!」

「It isn’t simple though.」

Yes. This isn’t that simple. Even magic stones from the same monsters have inconsistencies in their quality. Synthesizing these uniformly with precisely controlled magic power depends on the competency of the practitioner.

With Laeva’s help, we first removed impurities from all of the Skeleton Generals’ magic stones.

「Is there anything I can do to help as well?」

As it was safe inside the Sanctuary, I didn’t need an escort, so Sophia who was often by my side had offered to help.

「……let’s see. Could you get coal and mithril ore from Gnome and Spirit Tree sap from Dryas?」

「Understood. I will arrange for it immediately.」

Happy to have been entrusted with a task, Sophia left with a skip in her step.

Laeva and I continued to work in silence. Magic crystals were synthesized one after the other[2].

Eventually, we completed 3 basketball sized magic crystals and 1 magic crystal that was over 60cm in diameter.

「It’ll be fine to put off filling it with magic power for now. Let’s think of a mechanism for steering first.」

「That would be the wise. Filling this many magic crystals with magic power will be laborious.」

「For the time being, I plan on creating a magic device that would make it possible to fill it with mana from the atmosphere.」

The mechanism for collecting and filling natural mana was something already implemented on golems and the like. If we disregard the fact that the target magic crystal was remarkably different in size, existing method are being reused so it wouldn’t take that long,

The 3 basketball[3] sized magic crystals were for the propulsor that applies Wind attribute magic. The largest magic crystal was for the magic formula for floating the aircraft.

「So you’ve divided the 『Fly』 magic.」

「Yes, we’ll make use of the wings’ dynamic lift, rudders, and elevators in addition to wind magic to control the airframe. Separating Float magic is more efficient for magic power consumption.」

「Takumi-sama, as it is unlike a carriage, what will we do with the brakes?」

「Ahh, ……brakes are necessary, huh.」

Like the driving force of a single engine fighter, I plan on installing 1 magic device gushing wind at the rear of the main body. And a floatation device on both ends of the wings.

「Let’s make the magic device that would be installed on the wing tips be capable of reverse thrusts.」

「That is a good idea. Movement efficiency would improve, and the ship would be equipped to fight even a wyvern in the sky.」

「Oh yeah. Just in case, let’s come up with weapons assuming there will be air battles.」

Laeva and I talked about the specs to be incorporated into the airframe, and the design finally began to take shape.

***

Footnotes:

1. Reference to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika), I may have mentioned this before being a good show. A must watch ?

2. I’m not sure / forgot where a magic stone ends and a magic crystal starts because of how the author uses the terms. Takumi has made magic crystals that were comprised of trash magic stones from all sorts of monsters before, but these magic stones all come from the same monster, so is that why he still pertains to them as magic stones?

3. Probably a typo or inconsistency, raw says softball, but they made basketball sized ones. Thanks SF-san for pointing this out.