Chapter 151: The Shadow on the Island's Sky (23)

Among the mountains, a secret aircraft research base.

Inside the base there is a semi‑circular mountain passage; following it forward leads to a hidden, narrow valley.

One end of the valley is closed off, the other end is a steep cliff, and inside the valley runs a twenty‑five‑meter‑wide, five‑hundred‑meter‑long paved road of tempered yellow clay.

Woo~~ woo~

Amid the low hum of the motor, a specially made electric car towed a flatbed car, slowly emerging from the underground passage.

On the flatbed lay an odd blunt‑triangular object roughly twenty meters long and ten meters wide.

This object has a circular hole at its tail, and near the blunt‑angled front there is a smooth, transparent bulge.

At a glance, it somewhat resembles an Earth flying‑wing bomber.

One can see that inside the bulge are two slightly narrow seats, front and back, each occupied by a person.

The front seat is Luosen, the rear seat is Flight Master Nifeiluoniya.

This strange thing is, naturally, the rune aircraft built by Luosen.

It looks much like an airplane, but its power is not a propeller; it is jet‑like.

It is called jet‑like because it obtains a jet stream by a method quite different from Earth's jet engines, without complex, precise swirl blades and a rotating shaft.

This approach has both advantages and disadvantages.

The drawback is that thrust is greatly limited; only by increasing wing area can sufficient lift be obtained, so the top speed is naturally also greatly limited.

Here is a common principle: for flight, thrust and wing area are inversely related—the greater the thrust, the smaller the wing area needed; to a certain extent, even a lone stick could fly.

The advantage is a simple structure, greatly reduced manufacturing difficulty, and minimal consumption of magical power.

In the cockpit, Luosen was using a series of minor detection spells to carefully examine every fine component of this small rune aircraft, ensuring everything was flawless.

As the aircraft continually approached the passage exit, Nifeiluoniya seemed a little tense, her breathing growing slightly heavier.

Luosen laughed and said, "Niya, are you scared?"

Luofeluoniya did not deny this: "This is my first time flying without relying on wings, and just thinking that this thing's top speed is more than twice mine makes me a little nervous."

In light wind conditions, her flight top speed is about 180 kilometers per hour; if Luosen transforms into a steel‑iron dragon body and goes all‑out, his speed is slightly faster than hers, reaching 200 kilometers per hour.

However, this blunt‑triangular rune aircraft, whose wing and body are almost fully integrated, has a designed cruising speed of 380 kilometers per hour and a top speed that can reach 500 kilometers per hour.

For an aircraft, this speed is not considered fast—Earth's propeller planes can reach or exceed it—but it is already the limit of what the island can achieve under current conditions.

It is also a super‑high speed that ordinary people in this world can only hope for but never attain.

Luosen smiled reassuringly: "Don't worry, the magical device has ample safety safeguards; even if we crash straight into a mountain, we won't die."

"Although you say that, everything is made by you; I know nothing about it, so of course I still feel uneasy."

"That's also true; then I'll start off flying a bit slower, about the same as our flight top speed, and then gradually accelerate."

"Good."

At this moment, the aircraft was fully pulled out of the mountain passage and turned onto the yellow‑clay road in the valley.

Once the nose was properly aligned, Luosen raised his hand to signal unrelated personnel to stay clear of the valley road.

After a brief wait, confirming that everyone had retreated to a safe zone, Luosen raised his hand and pressed the valve; the gas installed in the compressed gas cylinder instantly hissed 'sss~' into the normal‑pressure rune combustion chamber.

After less than a few seconds, Luosen ignited the mixed air in the combustion chamber.

Boom~~~ whoosh~~~

The initial mixed air produced a weak deflagration, but soon the combustion returned to steadiness.

"This thing is really scary."

Nifeiluoniya wiped the sweat from her forehead; if she weren't wearing an ice amulet and hadn't lost a bet while playing a beach game, she wouldn't be riding this thing.

Luosen gave a hehe smile, his thoughts stirred, and he began to pour magical power into the gust‑wind conversion array.

As the array activated, the flame power inside the combustion chamber was transferred to the airflow in the jet chamber.

Whoosh~~

The jet chamber activated; the front intake began to draw air violently, while the rear airflow blasted out violently.

The ejected airflow is quite peculiar—almost purely transparent, with no color indicating temperature, like a directed high‑speed jet of hot air.

The rune aircraft trembled slightly and began to accelerate forward.

The 500‑meter acceleration runway is not long, but it is already sufficient for this rune aircraft to take off.

When the speed was about right, Luosen pulled the control stick; the rear of the wings dipped slightly, lifting the nose.

The fuselage gave a slight shudder and rose off the ground at a small angle.

"It really took off!" Nifeiluoniya exclaimed softly.

She well knew that this thing weighs over five tons.

She also hadn't forgotten her mission; she immediately began to sense the airflow changes around the aircraft, then clicked her tongue in wonder: "As of now, the wind control is very stable—it's almost like gliding forward within the airflow."

Luosen said nothing; he was closely monitoring all flight parameters of the aircraft.

There are mainly three important parameters.

First is the remaining gas; second is the operating condition of the conversion array.

Third, and most important, is the operating condition of the flight puppet.

This flight puppet is the key that enables the aircraft to fly.

Without its assistance, relying solely on mage control would raise the flight difficulty to an unimaginable degree, so hardly any mages could fly.

It is driven by puppet spiritual energy, which is stored in a specially made spiritual‑energy crystal lattice.

Before flight, the lattice is pre‑filled with spiritual energy to conserve the mage's magical power.

According to the design, the spiritual energy in the crystal lattice can roughly support the puppet's operation for three hours.

As of now, everything is normal.

Soon, the rune aircraft rose to about 500 meters altitude, and its speed increased to 200 kilometers per hour.

The airframe remained very stable, and thanks to the cockpit glass and good soundproofing measures, the interior stayed quite quiet.

Nafeloniya commented: "Hmm~ I now feel its benefits—it saves effort and is quiet; if I were flying myself, my eyes would almost be unable to stay open by now."

Luosen reminded: "Do you feel any shortcomings?"

His flight knowledge all came from the two queens of the female demons, and Laifu was the same.

In their view, this aircraft is already the best possible given current manufacturing capabilities.

But it cannot be guaranteed to be the best in Nafeloniya's eyes.

Nafeloniya calmed down and carefully sensed the changes in the wind force around the airframe: "I feel some flaws; this is the main source of airframe vibration, but at this speed the problem isn't serious."

"Try accelerating."

Luosen then gradually accelerated. The combustion in the chamber grew more intense, the magic power consumed by the transformation circle increased, the airframe's trembling grew more severe, and its attitude became somewhat unstable.

But the airframe uses newly developed hardened pure‑water material and multiple reinforced structural designs, so it can still hold up.

At this point, the aircraft reached a cruising speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

"There are three minor flaws: one is a manufacturing defect, the other two are likely structural defects."

The cabin noise had become very loud, so Nafeloniya had to shout loudly.

Luosen also roughly felt it.

The aircraft's altitude is only over 1000 meters; looking down, the forests below flash by at extreme speed, and occasionally seabirds swoop past the airframe quickly, creating a constant risk of bird strike.

Although, according to design strength, a bird strike at 350 km/h should not penetrate the cockpit, one still fears the worst.

He therefore immediately activated the specially made lightning bird‑deterrent sound wave.

Nafeloniya asked: "Should we accelerate further?"

Luosen didn't answer, carefully felt the airframe structure, sensed it could still hold, and said: "I'll speed up a bit more."

He once again increased the combustion intensity, jumping straight to the design maximum speed of 500.

The wind outside the cockpit began to howl, the airframe seemed to dance in the airflow, as if it might flip over from the sky at any moment.

Luosen's magic power was also being consumed faster.

Nafeloniya, on the contrary, calmed down, gripping the fixed handles tightly, and from the chaos carefully sensed the surrounding airflow.

Then, indeed, she discovered several more minor flaws.

At low speed they have no effect, but as speed increases they gradually appear, becoming a safety hazard.

"Luosen, that's about enough—fly a little longer and this thing will fall apart."

Luosen had a similar feeling; he began to gently decelerate, steering the aircraft back into the hidden valley.

'Whooo~~~zzz~~'

The aircraft landed smoothly on the main road.

"How does it feel?"

Nafeloniya had basically adapted, and she praised sincerely: "This thing is really fast, practically like lightning."

She briefly rested, then opened the cockpit, climbed onto the fuselage, and began marking various spots with a charcoal pencil.

"'Circles are major problems, crosses are minor ones, and circle‑crosses are issues that appear at top speed—eight in total. But I'm not exactly sure how to fix them, since I've never flown this fast before.'"

"We need to test it over and over."

Luosen checked his magic power—still at ninety percent—and the fuel canister inside the aircraft was still adequate, so he said: "Then let's keep revising it repeatedly."

The parts needing modification are not large, the required changes are small, and using the Transformation Technique we can process them directly, so we'll modify on site.

After the modifications, we'll go straight up for a test flight.

In the following time, the two of them tested repeatedly, making tiny adjustments bit by bit.

From morning till night, if a day's work wasn't finished, they continued the next day.

It lasted five days; after dozens of experiments, the aircraft's outward shape remained basically unchanged from five days earlier, but the details underwent very precise adjustments.

These adjustments may seem insignificant, but they are the true essence of this rune aircraft, and also the biggest hurdle for others trying to imitate it.

Now it can finally run stably at its maximum speed of 500 kilometers per hour.

After another takeoff, this rune aircraft shot across the sky like a fleeting glint, advancing 140 meters in the blink of an eye.

Its attitude was especially stable, the airflow extremely steady, and fuel and magic power consumption were greatly reduced compared to the original version.

In the rear seat, Nafeloniya felt the howling wind outside the cabin while also sensing the tranquil, peaceful airflow inside.

Between extreme motion and extreme stillness lies only a thin layer of transparent glass.

Turning his head, he saw clouds flying past behind him; looking down, the White Sturgeon Island appeared somewhat smaller.

Before they knew it, they had reached an altitude of six thousand meters, which is also the ceiling of this rune aircraft.

She couldn't help exclaiming: "The magic of the new age is truly great!"

This is a height she could never reach no matter how she flew, not even daring to imagine it in her dreams.

Luosen, however, shook his head: "It's not great enough; there's endless potential for improvement, especially since we still don't know the true secret of the magic ring."

"You're really never satisfied, but this is probably the driving force behind the progress of magic."

After again sensing carefully, she asked: "At top speed, how long can your magic power last?"

"About four hours. If it's a High‑tier Mage, they could probably last only ten minutes, but at cruising speed a High‑tier Mage could manage one hour."

Obviously, a High‑tier Mage can pilot it into the sky, but they couldn't stay aloft long, so combat time would be very rushed.

The current solution is to equip two High‑tier Mages, assisted by magic‑recovery potions, and operate in relay fashion.

Nafeloniya thought it over: "That would mean being able to go back and forth within over 400 kilometers, covering Shire County."

Luosen nodded: "Pretty much, but the range is still a bit too short."

In this regard, the electric motor propeller aircraft currently under development, which involves fewer transformation circles and thus lower reliance on magic power, can actually fly much farther.

However, the mechanical structure of the electric motor propeller aircraft is far more complex and precise, cannot be built in a short time, so it won't be ready for this Weilan civil war.

He secretly thought: "Let's use it for now; when the island's mechanical manufacturing capability reaches a certain level, we'll think of ways to improve it."

He pulled back the nose, then descended back to the aircraft base again.

After getting off the aircraft, he found the High-tier Mage in charge of aircraft production, a Kao person named Todd: "Just produce according to this standard; time is short, however many we can make counts."

Luosen estimated they could produce about ten.

Todd nodded, then asked: "Lord, should we equip weapons?"

"Of course we need to equip weapons. Part will be equipped with spiritual weapons, another part with Master's lightning crossbow."

Spiritual weapons are made by combining high-tier lightning lattice with spirit meteorite; one type is a 'dizziness bullet', another is an 'intimidation bullet'.

The island's production of lightning lattice is its strength; the lattice is small in volume but large in capacity.

Spirit meteorite has also been artificially synthesized, but the yield is very low; currently only two can be equipped.

If we really want to fight a large-scale battlefield, this amount of air power is far from enough; for now it can only be used for intimidation.

Todd asked again: "Lord, shouldn't we give it a name?"

Luosen had already thought of it: "Those carrying spiritual weapons will be called Howlers; those carrying Master's lightning crossbow will be called Lightning."

This rune aircraft is naturally Luosen's second trump card against the Southern Coalition.

At this time, there is still one and a half months until the Southern Coalition marches north.

He also should prepare his final move.

(End of chapter)