BXBX NOVEL Chapter 115 - Rotational Wheel and Bearing
Chapter 115: Rotational Wheel and Bearing
The last point was particularly important. It was precisely because he owned memories from two different worlds that he was able to face this universe, whose physics differed greatly from that of Earth, more easily and that he was able to use ‘this world’s’ experience to overcome difficulties when he was unable to resolve problems using his experience from Earth.
However, Nicholas Egg was completely unable to do the same. This metal ball’s circumstances, compared to Gawain’s, were virtually at another extreme end.
He lost his memories; he had no experience and knowledge that could be effective in the present world; he was captured and treated as a test subject the moment he arrived here. And the most, most important of all, he landed in a place belonging to the scary homo erectus1 with the image of an egg lifeform…
If Gawain having to plant fields and develop technology in a world with different physics was already hell-like tough, then this ball had practically crashed through the ceilings of all the kings in hell and then rolled into the cauldron of the Lord of Hell. The flavor of the soup inside was even mala1 and durian.
Therefore, Gawain could not help but admire this ball’s adaptability and the extent of his mental strength. After encountering such a despairing situation, he actually could still live so peacefully and became an outstanding joker… Could it be because the nerves of metal lifeforms were tougher?
“Hey, hey, why did you suddenly stop talking?” Nicholas Egg’s voice jolted Gawain from his thoughts. This big metal ball circled and floated around the latter. “I still want to hear your suggestions. What do you think I can do? Honestly, I really want to find something to do right now…”
Gawain immediately gave it some serious thought. As a matter of fact, he had been thinking of this before today. This metal ball that came from an alternate world and had intriguing abilities was probably only an experiment source material in the eyes of those Gondor Master Mages, but to Gawain, he was a potential high-technology talent. Only, knowing that this ball had just awakened from a deep sleep and might need some time to adapt and adjust his mentality, he didn’t rush to force him to get to work. However, now that Boss Egg had taken the initiative to mention it, he explained while tidying his thoughts. “You have the ability to control the flow of magical power and metals. These two abilities could both be turned to good accounts here, but I still don’t know the specific parameters of your control over magical power and metals, so it’s not easy to make arrangements.”
“I’m actually not too clear about my control of magical power either,” The metal ball replied. “You people call those energies magical power, but such a thing doesn’t exist in my world at all. When I am affecting the flow of magical power, I am actually just vibrating my own magnetosomes. This is a kind of organ in my body that produces high-frequency magnetic fields. In my world, we can form a protective barrier around our body surface when we vibrate magnetosomes, but I realized that the barrier doesn’t appear here. Instead, I am able to affect the kind of energy called ‘magical power’ that you people speak of and make it ineffective temporarily…”
Gawain cut off the other party right away. “You said magnetic field? You were actually using a magnetic field to influence the flow of magical power?”
“Yes, including the time you mentally conversed with me using magical power. Actually, I used magnetosomes to sense magic fluctuations… but it’s pretty regrettable. Although I can sense magical power and also use magnetic fields to influence it, I am unable to use it to produce spells like those ‘mages’ of yours. That female mage… called Heidi explained to me about spiritual power and spell molds, but I couldn’t understand a word of it.”
Gawain wasn’t bothered by the latter half of the other party’s words. His attention had been completely captured by the truth of ‘magnetic fields affect magical power’, and he sank into a massive dilemma. “Are you sure the ‘magnetic field’ you produced was really the kind of ‘magnetic field’ that you and I know of? You must know, the same noun could be referring to two entirely opposite phenomena in two worlds!’
“That I can really confirm.” Nicholas Egg exerted energy and floated up and down for a moment as if imitating the human action of nodding. “A magnetic field is a magnetic field. Of course, the people of this world seem to have no concept of magnetic fields. They only know about magnetic force, the kind of magnetic force where natural magnets are able to attract ironware. But I’ve confirmed, the magnetic fields that I produce using magnetosomes are the same as the natural magnets of this world… What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know where it went wrong.” Gawain opened his hands with a bitter smile. “I’ve done quite a few experiments using magnetic fields. I never discovered that it could affect the flow of magical power. Could it be that the magnetic field I used wasn’t strong enough?”
He still had another half of his sentence that he’d yet to finish — other than using magnetic fields to influence magical power, his experiment using a magnetic field to produce electricity didn’t succeed either…
“Strength? I don’t think it matters. The magnetic fields produced by magnetosomes aren’t strong.” The metal ball said as he swayed here and there. “Perhaps it’s because of the frequency. You didn’t use a high-frequency magnetic field, did you? I remember a thousand years ago, those ‘Master Mages’ had used an oscillating magnetic field to scan me. How high was the frequency again…? Millions of oscillations per second? That seemed to be the highest frequency they could get out, but it wasn’t even a tenth of the magnetosomes’ frequency. Why don’t you try putting in some effort and increase the frequency of the magnetic field a little?”
Veins in Gawain’s temples bulged. In such an atrocious place in a medieval era where the technology of various periods was lost to them, where would he go to make a high-frequency magnetic field at tens of millions of hertz?!
Nicholas Egg was probably the only high-frequency source in this world that could produce a magnetic field of that frequency!
Knowing that they could not create a test environment that matched the criteria at this moment, Gawain silently noted this down in his heart. Following that, he wanted to ask the other party about his ability to control metals. However, just as he was about to speak up, he suddenly saw the door of the brick-kiln yard being pushed open. A doofus… fireball launcher… Iron-Headed… Rebecca dashed over in a haste.
“Lord Ancestor! Lord Ancestor!” The Viscountess shouted excitedly while she ran. “Come quickly! Quickly follow me!!”
Watching this girl’s excited manner, Gawain’s first reaction was to dodge to the side. He feared that this doofus would suddenly go crazy and swing seven to eight big fireballs at his face…
When Rebecca arrived before him and finally managed to catch her breath, Gawain then took his time to ask her, “You finally blew up Heidi’s laboratory with a fireball?”
“Huh… Ah?!” Rebecca was startled by Gawain’s words when she’d just gathered her breath. She quickly waved her hands forcefully. “No, no! I’m very careful — listen to me, the Magic Powered Engine that you proposed, we’ve assembled it!”
Gawain’s initially rather calm expression was instantly replaced by shock and surprise.
“Already completed?! Has it been tested?”
“Not yet.” Rebecca swung her hand. “We’re waiting for you to go test it! But Aunt Heidi had already tested all its individual parts, all done according to the blueprints, and they could achieve the corresponding effect. There should be no problem—”
“Stop talking. Let’s get moving.” Gawain could not suppress his excitement anymore. Dragging Rebecca, he headed to the outside of the brick-kiln yard; only halfway through did he remember that there was also a ball. Thus, he turned back and gestured. “You come too, you come too — Take a look at the good stuff we designed!”
Probably no one would’ve imagined that the ‘assembly shop’ of the first-generation Magic Powered Engine would be simple and crude to this extent.
It was a wooden shed located beside Cecil Steelworks. Other than having some soldiers keeping guard, one completely wouldn’t notice any difference between this and the other sheds. There was also nothing that could make one associate it with high technology or sophisticated magic. Except for the most precise part of the runes which were completed in Heidi’s laboratory, all the remaining parts of the Magic Powered Engine relied on the blacksmiths and rune craftsmen to hammer into shape with their hands. Therefore, there were neither machine tools nor precision molds here. Rebecca and Heidi led the craftsmen to complete the manufacturing process of the prototype machine through the most primitive and most strenuous way.
If there wasn’t magic in this world to aid them, especially Heidi’s flame and sculpturing spells that were of significant help, the final assembly and welding work of the prototype machine would probably also be a problem.
Regardless of the world, the birth of any invention didn’t come easy.
In the empty central space of the ‘assembly shop’, a big piece of burlap covered the object that was less than two meters tall. Its outline was rather peculiar. Gawain could vaguely make out that it was probably the sprocket wheel structure under one of the slightly bigger projecting pieces, but its true features were still being covered.
The old blacksmith Hummel and Heidi both stood beside this prototype machine. There were also some other people standing beside them: amongst them were Hummel’s apprentices, while two others were rune craftsmen from the capital who’d just joined the territory.
“Rebecca insisted on running to get you herself.” Heidi nodded towards Gawain slightly apologetically. “This child is simply a little impetuous.”
“She wanted to inform me of this good news personally. It’s understandable.” Gawain took a breath in and looked toward the prototype machine. “Lift it. Let me take a look.”
Heidi waved her hand. A translucent Sculpture Hand then emerged in the air and lifted the piece of cloth.
It was an odd-looking machine beneath it.
It had vague traces as a ‘distant relative’ of a real one on Earth, with a large sprocket wheel as well as the connecting rods, cranks, and crankshafts that were connected to the wheel. Yet, it was entirely different from any motive-power machine from Earth in Gawain’s memories — there was no cylinder, but in its place was a ‘Repulsion mechanism’ in the middle of the machine composed of a sliding rail, piston, and base. That piston was a square piece of metal with four sliding rails cutting through its four corners and fixed on a base on the two ends. Shimmering magic circles could be seen on the side of the base that was facing the piston, and on the outer edges of the two Repulsion magic circles were runes that extended outward. A rectangular metal plate connected the two Repulsion magic circles. The rune-trigger structure and one of the Repulsion magic circles remained linked, while this metal plate was also connected to the crankshaft of the sprocket wheel through the connecting rod and prod mechanism.
Each time the crankshaft turned more than half a circle, the rune trigger would be prodded. The corresponding runes would connect to one of the Repulsion magic circles until the crankshaft moved past the remaining half of the circle. The rune trigger would then leave this magic circle and enter the linking range of another magic circle, activating the Repulsion mechanism opposite it…
Other than the rune trigger used to ‘toggle the direction of repulsion’, there was another rune trigger controlling the ‘total energy’ of the two magic circles. It also relied on the control of the connecting rod, and this rod was located on the side of this machine.
The special Repulsion mechanism allowed this machine to not require an air-cylinder structure, which also evaded the highest threshold of precision — mechanical precision. Replacing that was the demand for the precision of the magic runes, and that happened to be the specialty of ‘this world’.
Heidi was rather absorbed as she stared at the Magic Powered Engine before her. It had an outer appearance and inner mechanization that were entirely different from any magic article in this world. Even though she’d participated in the manufacturing of this engine, she still could not help but blank out at this moment. However, she returned to her senses very quickly and looked at Gawain. “Lord Ancestor, please push down the gear.”
This place was located on the fringes of Cecil Steelworks. The engine was totally able to receive the energy from the Magic Web here. Although there weren’t any of those ‘amplification boards’ from the Cecil Steelworks yard to boost the efficiency of the transfer of energy, for a low-power validation machine, this energy was enough.
However, Gawain shook his head. “We designed this together. You two come with me.”
Heidi appeared to be slightly hesitant, while Rebecca didn’t even give it much thought; she could no longer repress her curiosity. With Gawain’s permission, she scurried over to the machine and even gestured fervently. “Aunt Heidi, come quickly!”
Heidi smiled. Setting down all hesitations, she walked to Gawain’s side.
Three hands were placed together on the handle controlling the total energy. Then, Gawain counted to three, and the trio used force to push the handle down.
The magic circuit was instantly connected. The Repulsion mechanism which was the core of the engine was lit up; then one of the magic circles brightened. That simple and crude ‘steel piston’ started moving slowly before everyone’s eyes.
It seemed that because it was setting the heavy sprocket wheel in motion, its initial movement was very slow. But when the sprocket wheel began moving, the piston swiftly shifted to the end of the entire Repulsion mechanism. The rune trigger used for toggling also took effect. The magic circle to first light up was extinguished, while another Repulsion magic circle lit up almost simultaneously.
The sprocket wheel spun an entire round; then it went faster and faster and faster. Though accompanied by a loud noise and forceful shaking, the entire machine really began to operate!