Novels2Search

Chapter 63

The council was actually quite easy to convince, the second the Vice-Admiral expressed his support, they agreed. The military hierarchy was quite strong here. After that, there were just the details to figure out. That was where things slagged. Althea had asked Nestor to take care of it, but the council had a lot of concerns. And a lot of arguments.

Will the new ship serve in the Diery navy? Will it be sold? How would the spoils be divided? If during a voyage they encountered and dealt with beasts, how would those spoils be divided? The ocean was both a treasure and a huge danger in this world.

Just like animals on the land, marine life also mutated with mana and became stronger. In fact, due to the lack of hunting and threat by sapient species, and plentiful resources in the sea, marine animals were a lot stronger than their counterparts on the land.

A ship needed magically reinforced bottoms because any random fish could tear through normal wood. But there was wealth in that too. The whales and larger animals were a huge source of food, mana-rich food.

The average person could not eat these, but a single whale could level up an entire noble family. And that was very, very valuable to the Diery county, where almost every person was a mage. Or even the Eastern Isles, Althea didn’t know how a half-Elf’s cultivation worked exactly, but this could probably help them.

Althea stayed there for a few days, helping Nestor deal with the negotiation, acting as a mediator between the Eastern Isles and the Garron family, and pretty much just running around calling people. But by the end of the week, the document was signed and ready, there wasn't much to do after that.

... If she was a normal person. Althea had, of course, found herself in the Garron laboratory staring at the ship's ‘plans'.

If the Garron family had told her that their ideas were three ship prototypes, then she would have been a lot more confident. Yes, these were failed prototypes, but this was a huge cost off the table. At least the initial testing could be conducted on them.

“I-I greet her grace, the Countess Guarding Diery!” one researcher shouted at the top of his voice. Althea didn't even have time to wonder why he had taken to shouting before the rest of the researchers began to greet her. The intent became clear, that guy was telling his colleagues that she had arrived.

Had there been incidents where some noble was offended because the researchers were too engrossed in their work to notice the noble entering? That was hilarious, and a bit sad.

"Please, please, return to your work, I am just here to see the research and the lab. There is no need to greet me like this." she said, rejecting their greetings. If she let this go on, they would continue greeting for half an hour. The Empire’s demands for every single person greeting a higher ranking noble was ludicrous in bigger groups. The longer she was greeted like this, the more she found it irritating.

"Do you wish to see the research, your grace?" the researcher said. Althea concentrated on his face for a second, she was pretty sure she had seen him before.

"I do, sir...?" she asked.

"I am just a Journeyman researcher, your grace. I met you a few days during the research negotiation, my Master represented the researchers then." he said.

Althea remembered him. J-something, one of the disciples of an Adept stage researcher. The Garron family might have suffered a blow, but their foundation was strong. Althea had met a dozen Adept stage people in the short time she was here.

Not every one of them was totally loyal to the family, but the fact that they participated in the negotiation showed their inclination.

The researcher, for example, one of the few non-combatants, was just hired by the Garron family. But she knew that his salary hadn't been paid for months, he was still around.

If she could solidify her relationship with the Garron family, then perhaps they wouldn't lose to the Zerolian Duke in power. At least until this group of two hundred and three hundred-year-olds died. That was enough time for an entire new generation of powerful people to pop up.

"If you would share the time, I would be quite pleased." Althea finally replied to the researcher, realizing that she was being rude just standing there.

"Why, I would be honored, your grace." the researcher said.

The researcher led her to a fancy desk. Why was it fancy? Well, it looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. This world was weird this way. The general population had a lack of amenities and a standard of living reminiscent of medieval times. But at the same time, the nobility had a luxury and technology that was rare even in modern times.

The table in front of her was a prime example. An interactive interface that could give an interactive 3-D hologram. A deceptively simple use of mana. The power source was the mana the researcher had provided, and mana served as a natural human-machine interface. But this made a huge barrier for the less mana prone people to use such things.

"The current ship plans have the ship be twice the size of a destroyer, with over seven times its destructive power. " the researcher said, pointing to the ship as he copied the projection against one of the ships. A Light element mage. That was the only way he would be able to copy the projection so easily.

"The ship is a prototype?" she asked.

"Yes, it is made according to our latest specifications. A major improvement from any ship we have made till now in terms of combat capability..." the researcher trailed off.

"But there are problems in it." she completed for him, closing her eyes as she concentrated on the ship.

Mana revolved in the air, not quite as much as there was in Diery these days, but still more than was normally around.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Mana of the world, answer my call, tell me what you see, what you hear. Show me, oh great power of the wind, fire, earth and water what you feel within this gigantic vessel." Althea mumbled under her breath as mana answered her call.

Althea's mind slipped into the mana as it led her to the ship, through its mana circuits, into the water below it, through the several decks, the planks of wood and back to herself.

Althea opened her eyes to look at the researchers staring at her. This was quite a strange thing she knew. Not just that fact that she was seeing through the eyes of mana, but mobilizing so much of it. Althea hadn't lacked mana to breakthrough yet, whenever she called, every bit of mana in her senses would answer. This just seemed normal to her.

But her interactions with Pulsie and the others had told her just how abnormal that was. A person could usually only mobilize a very small amount of mana at once, most people had to rely on beast meat and other mana-rich sources to cultivate.

The researchers were quite shocked at the phenomenon. The mana in the laboratory had activated collectively, disrupting quite a few machines that were conducting observations.

"I apologize." she said. "I forgot about how big of a disturbance that would cause."

"What...did you do, your grace?" the researcher asked hesitantly.

"I sensed the ship using my mana." she said. "A special ability of mine you might say."

Althea turned to the researchers that were staring at her. "If I am not wrong, the ship has a buoyancy problem. The ship tends to sink and needs magic to keep it afloat. That is why you have so many mana currents running throughout the ship.

But that makes it more vulnerable to disruption, so you had to increase the density of defenses. That is still well enough, but the defenses consume mana too. That came to the current situation where the ship needs an excessive amount of mana to run."

The researchers began discussing among themselves. "Oh, there are more problems, largely minor ones, but I do think the others can be solved easily if we deal with the power requirement."

What she didn't say was that the amount of power the ship required was far, far too ridiculous. The mana current was ingenious, she hadn't seen it before.

The Diery palace was layers of spells on spells, interacting with each other using the ambient mana, altering the natural cycle and using the Druid understanding of mana to make paths for the mana to flow and activate spells.

The ships pathways had a more physical substance, and used some kind of mana conducting substance. But it was a pity that just like the palace, it needed too much mana. Even an Adept could not adequately supply it. Perhaps a Grandmaster could, but where were they going to find one? And a Grandmaster was probably more effective without a ship.

"What do you mean buoyancy, your grace?" the researcher asked.

Althea looked at him suspiciously. A ship-researcher did not know buoyancy? Did they use a different name?

"The tendency of an object to float is buoyancy. The buoyant force is the what makes ships float, in this case it is insufficient to counteract the ship's own gravity." she explained.

The researcher frowned. "This sounds similar to the floating force. There has long been a theory that something in water offsets the gravitic forces for us, this was known as floating force. But what exactly affects it is unknown."

The tables glowed as the researcher directed his mana to it, making diagrams, numbers and calculations appear. Althea's face paled.

"Could you please tell us what you know about this force, your grace?" the researcher asked the dreaded question.

Oh no, had she just been asked to explain fluid mechanics? That was...a bad idea. But 'why do iron ships float' had been an exam question for five years. This she could explain.

Althea looked at the papers in front of her. The documents said that the force was proportional to volume, but it would also increase and decrease in different parts of the sea. There was a question mark beside density that showed that they at least had some idea to it.

Althea gently pressed a finger on the table and wrote down, in messy finger on tablet handwriting,

F=-pgV

ALthea just hoped that she didn't have to explain that other, much bigger thing. But an excuse had occured ot her.

"I came across this mention in one of the books, I don't know much about it. But I can explain a little to you." she said.

"The p refers to fluid density, g is acceleration due to gravity and V is the volume of the ship." she said.

The researchers nodded, but she could see that they were doubtful. After all, this much they had figured out, but there were too many real life variations in ships.

"The major factor in making a ship float is the relative density of the ship. The relative density of a ship depends on the amount of air it has, air is less than water and can reduce the relative density by a lot.

Perhaps we can add places with more air to reduce the average density of the ship. I do not know exactly what will be needed, but it can certainly help." Althea said, hoping that they wouldn't ask her exactly how it works.

For real, the knowledge she 'knew' seemed quite insufficient. At the end of the day, she was a high school student not a ship researcher.

The researchers headed towards her, seemingly intent at discussing. Althea suppressed a sigh, she would have to answer at least a few questions.

"So we have to just add more air to make it float?" one researcher asked, sending a little mana to the table. The ship widened to include more rooms and less walls.

"The formula does not represent that." another researcher noted.

"The other factor is how much water the ship displaces. The lower relative density lowers the ships tendency to sink, the increased volume increases the buoyant force." Althea said. "The more water the ship displaces, the more the buoyant forces, this also comes under one of the laws of nature. An applied force has an equal reaction in the opposite direction."

"That is true." a new voice said. The Adept researcher. Althea watched him pull at his gray beard in thought, and then shoot a little mana at the prototype ship. The ships propellors, the things that floated it by propelling it from below stopped working.

And then the wood grew, growing by a huge hollow area. The sinking ship bounced upward by the force of the displace water. The ship was even higher in the water than before.

Althea hid a smile. Yes, she was saved!

And then it began to sink again. Althea mobilzed mana, trying to see what was happening. And suddenly the ships started sinking faster. So she withdrew her mobilization, her brows furrowing as she tried to sense what was happening. There were two forces interacting there. Water mana, that supported the buoyant force and acted upwards. And another. A type of mana she did not realize. Gravity?

The Adept researcher laughed, a long merry laugh as his large belly moved with him.

“The mana must be what was confusing our calculations. And the reason why the floating force varied from place to place. The amount and type of mana acting on the ship would vary based on it. A few mana stabilizers and converters should fix that.”

The Adept researcher turned to her. "Countess, please follow me to the research room. I think with your help we may be able to finish this ship."

Althea smoothened her expression, trying to hide her fear. Oh dear. Oh dear. What had she just done? How in the world was she going to survive this research meeting with her incomplete knowledge?