Sword of Dawn

"What if the gods let us fight the heretics? Anyway, I think so, and it definitely has nothing to do with eating too much dream grass before I pray..."——Many people thought so.

But in any case, after all, the sacred covenant has a little more authority than the alliance agreement between several human kingdoms (after all, it is in the name of God). In the situation of hello, me, everyone, it is very common for several churches to get together in big towns, and priests of various factions look up and see each other. The situation is also very common.

It's just that no one would tell the truth about this situation, especially the high-ranking priests of various sects, it is even more impossible to say something in public, "Although there are many gods, my boss is better than you!" "In this case.

Veronica said so.

Gawain didn't know whether the saint princess was implying it on purpose or whether there was a heart that spoke without thinking hidden under the holy and intelligent appearance. Anyway, he was very concerned about this matter, and the one who appeared with Veronica seemed to be a light The cast-like high-ranking priestess made him full of doubts. Under such circumstances, he dared not rashly accept anything thrown by the other party.

As for whether to build churches or introduce churches in the territory in the future, he really doesn't have much resistance in this regard. After all, there are gods in this world, and magic is indeed a part of people's daily production and life. As a pragmatic person Well, even if he doesn't believe in God himself, he won't stop others from believing in God—it's already in such a fantasy world, if he still insists on atheism, it's too idealistic.

It's just that when the time comes, he will definitely strengthen the supervision of the church to ensure that everything is under his control: the magic is true, and it is true that theocracy will affect the political power, and he is not willing to make trouble in this regard.

Just like every qualified time traveler—divine art, in Gao Wen's mind, is used as a means of production.

Of course, it is too far away to plan these things now. When the territory cannot even build a small church, it is better to think about how to control the faith on the land than to think about how to toss the infrastructure, so Gao Wen decided to take advantage of the foreign aggression During the temporary flat period, first lay the groundwork for the territory.

The news about the eastern border brought by Veronica and the others reminded him that in this unsettled world, dangerous things are far more than a simple wave of demons in the wasteland of Gondor. After enjoying 700 years of peace, there are too many things that are about to move under the appearance of peace, and if you want to live comfortably in such a situation, you have to get nervous first.

Gawain returned to his tent—by the way, more and more tents are becoming more solid and warm wooden houses or even masonry houses, and it’s time for his tent to be upgraded—he woke up and was curled up on the mat, breathing Betty, who was sound asleep and drooling, asked the girl to bring over all the drawings he had accumulated in the past few days.

He unfolded these drawings one by one, and then removed the impractical things inside (but not going to destroy it, in case it is useful in the future?), and finally he found what he wanted: it was some kind of simplified mechanism , the metal wheels, connecting rods and cylinders are cleverly combined, and the disassembly and detailed description of these mechanical structures are shown on several sub-drawings, but under the main drawing, there is a line of eye-catching red letters: The initial power cannot Solved, put it on hold for now.

"Go and call Rebecca and Hetty." Gawain looked at the little maid who was standing dazed by the table, "Just say I have something... Forget it, just remember to call them here."

Betty trotted out, leaving Gawain thinking about some semi-finished drawings. Amber's voice suddenly came from behind him: "What are you drawing? Why can't I understand?"

"Some kind of power mechanism," Gawain said without looking up, and at the same time, he slapped the half-elf thief's paw away from his silver seal with ease. Things that move on their own and can drive other mechanical structures, but they haven't been designed yet."

Amber's entire body broke away from the shadow form, and she looked down at the blueprints on the table curiously: "Oh? You mean those puppets powered by elemental cores?"

Gawain shook his head: "No, it's not a thing at all. This is a more general and basic device, but its value is far higher than those puppets...Unfortunately, it still lacks the most important part."

Yep, the part that doesn't boil the water...

Chapter 0101 The silly roe deer has made another contribution!

After discovering that boiling water could not produce enough steam power, Gawain gave up his plan to build the Earth's classic steam engine.

But that didn't mean he gave up his goal of making a versatile, reliable, and simple powered machine.

He still remembers how in his home world, how industrial mass production razed all inefficient production modes including manual workshops, how roaring machines led the entire human civilization to rise from the land and enter the space age .In the factory, raw materials are poured into the workshop like flowing water, and tons and tens of thousands of products will be spewed out from the end of the machine cluster. The power of the machine can completely change the way a society operates. They can break mountains and crack rocks. They can also fill the sea and flat rivers, they can be more powerful, precise, efficient, and tireless than any single human being, and these qualities that are superior to natural people-just reflect the true power of human beings.

That is the power of thinking and creating.

Of course, Gao Wen is also very aware of the side effects of industrial production, such as pollution, such as the pressure on natural resources caused by excessive production efficiency, but problems can be solved, but survival is not negotiable, just like human diseases can be cured, but you It is unreasonable to directly refuse to reincarnate in order to prevent illness...

Therefore, whether it is to survive natural and man-made disasters including the demonic tide, to make life more comfortable in this backward world, or to understand the truth of this world, Gao Wen must set up a technological tree. Get up, and in order to light up the technology, the most basic thing is to solve the power problem.

Steam propulsion is a dead end, but many rules in the macroscopic field of this world can still be used, gears can be used, levers can be used, waterwheels can also be used, and thanks to the power of magic, many rules that cannot be used on the earth The technological development that is skipped and needs to be accumulated slowly can be directly advanced here, such as high-quality steel smelted based on magic technology, such as various alloys and crystals that are different from the earth but have exceptional properties—— However, these things have not been fully exploited in this world.

In other words, people in this world have indeed discovered the usefulness of these things in their own technical routes. After all, people from other worlds are not stupid—it’s just that due to the limitations of their worldview, they never thought of using other methods to Use these things.

Gawain looked at the cylinder structure on the blueprint, he had already marked the structure with a cross, and now he wanted to find a substitute to replace steam to power the entire device.

What he can think of is still the work done by expansion, or the work done by high-pressure airflow, but where do these "sources of power" of high temperature and high pressure come from?

He once thought about the Rebecca crystal—explosion is also a kind of expansion, as long as it is used properly, the power of the explosion is also a kind of power. The essence of the internal combustion engine on the earth is actually a continuous "safety explosion" in the cylinder. (deflagration), then can the explosion caused by the Rebecca crystal also be controlled and guided, so as to become the driving force?

But after learning the principle of those crystal explosions, he had to give up this idea.

The Rebecca crystal that explodes by magic is completely different from the gunpowder on the earth, and the two "explosion" processes are also completely different.

The explosion produced by Rebecca's crystal is essentially a "spell". The power of the magic circle drives the energy in the crystal to form an autonomous spellcasting process, and the effect of this spell is "explosion", so when the impact Before the expansion, the Rebecca crystal first produced a spell effect, so if such a crystal was stuffed into the cylinder and triggered to detonate the magic circle, what would be the result?

The cylinder will be detonated as an alchemical product...

Of course, Gawain can make this cylinder extremely strong, extremely thick, even so strong and thick that it cannot be exploded if it is filled with crystals, then can the explosion magic in it produce a boost at this time?

No, it will blow up the relatively fragile connecting rods, pistons and other things as spell-casting materials, as long as these things are within the range of the magic circle, they will not be spared.

What if the connecting rods, pistons, and everything were so strong that they wouldn't blow up, and only the crystals were involved in the magic reaction?

Well, this device may really be able to do work at this time, but its volume will be extremely huge - because the outer diameter of its absolutely explosion-proof outer wall must exceed the casting range of the detonation circle, depending on the equivalent size of its core, The outer wall is most likely a sphere with a radius of several meters to tens of meters, and it cannot shrink in the slightest—once it shrinks, a part of the outside of the device is within the range of the explosion spell, so if the operator stands by The operator will be detonated... Human beings are one of the best magic materials.

Even without an operator nearby, the device itself is enveloped in a constant explosion that detonates everything that comes near it.

It doesn't work at all!

And because the "explosion" in this world is so special, the idea of ​​using Rebecca crystals to make guns was also given up by Gawain, at least he gave up the idea of ​​using this crystal to launch: he couldn't use these crystals Stuff it into the barrel of the gun as a propellant, because these propellants will directly create an explosion in the area of ​​effect of the spell during the casting process. When the gun is fine, the person who shot it must have exploded, and the person standing next to it should also explode. ...

Then what should he use to do work?

Steam doesn't work, explosion doesn't work, fuel... He hasn't heard of anything like oil in this world until now.

Moreover, he had to take into account the processing accuracy of the current world. Even if he designed a usable prototype, it would be a problem if the blacksmiths couldn't knock out suitable parts.

But to be honest, he is not the most worried about this aspect: he still remembers the mithril safe he found in the old mansion in the capital. The complicated magic lock in the safe is actually a very sophisticated mechanism. The ones working in such institutions are not ordinary blacksmiths, but rune craftsmen who specialize in processing magic items and have a higher status than blacksmiths.

Rune craftsmen are equivalent to blacksmiths and carpenters who have received advanced training. Although they do not have the ability to cast spells, they do have some knowledge in the field of magic. They are usually "workers" trained by magicians to make magic props for themselves.

Their craftsmanship is superb, able to forge things more sophisticated and complex than ordinary iron, and they know how to safely process various magical materials.

Although the number of rune craftsmen is small, and it costs a lot of money to build things (mainly the cost of magic materials), but if they can help themselves create a prototype, it is still worth it.

Among the [-] technicians from the capital, there are rune craftsmen...

While Gawain was thinking, two familiar auras appeared in his perception, and the curtain of the tent was lifted, and Rebecca and Hetty walked in together.

"Ancestor (Master Ancestor), are you looking for us?" The two of them almost spoke in unison.

"Yes," Gao Wen didn't talk nonsense, and directly pushed the blueprint forward, "Pick up a chair and sit here yourself, you guys have a look at these things."

Rebecca ran to move a big chair, while Hetty made a casual move, and the evocation hand grabbed a chair in the corner of the tent and flew towards this side - Rebecca was taken aback I was taken aback.

But soon, Miss Tietou's little disappointment was attracted by the drawings that Gao Wen showed.

"What is this?" Rebecca's eyes sparkled, "There are many wheels and connecting rods...is it also a water wheel?"

"No, it's a kind of machine that can generate power," Gawain explained casually, "I have limited ideas, and I want to hear your ideas—you can imagine a kind of machine that uses the most basic magic unit to propel it. , can produce stable and reliable power, such as making the wheel rotate continuously, such as driving the hammer to move up and down. You see these connecting rods and wheels, and this structure-it is called the crankshaft. These things can combine the linear reciprocating motion and the wheel's Rotational motion transforms into each other..."

Gawain patiently explained his thoughts, Hetty became thoughtful after hearing this, and Rebecca's eyes sparkled: She became very interested in these imaginative designs!

A mechanical device driven by magic power—this concept is actually not new. This world with extraordinary power has natural advantages in many aspects, and naturally there are many things that are "beyond the times" in Gao Wen's view, such as magicians The magic puppets made by them, the automatic gate activated by the key in the treasure house in the mountain, and the magic lock that can identify the user's identity that I saw in the capital at the beginning, these are all applications of magic organs, and many of them can even be used. Use "black technology" to describe it.

But Rebecca instinctively felt that the "magic power mechanism" proposed by Gawain was completely different from those things.

Most of its structures are intuitive and direct mechanical structures that do not require magic power to participate.

Its function and purpose are extremely simple, it is to provide power, and this power is to prepare for the next level of machinery.

It is standardized, standard, and clear, abandoning all the parts that allow craftsmen to "play freely", replacing them with digital indicators that are as precise as magic rules, and strive to achieve their goals in the most reasonable and concise way, unlike those traditional ones. Like rune craftsmen or mages, they will put a lot of patterns on the magic items they create, and they will try their best to hide those really useful runes in the complicated encrypted lines, for fear of being seen to and understand.

After thinking hard for a long time, Rebecca finally came up with a word that Gawain often said to himself: versatility.

Just like Magic Net One, this device is also "universal".

It was not designed as a treasure or a work of art, but like those Rebecca crystals fired in the kiln area-it needs to be large and reliable.

After Gao Wen explained his thoughts, he finally pointed to the crossed cylinder structure: "Now there is only one step left: it needs an initial power source to make this 'piston' move. Expanding gas to complete this process, so this airtight 'cylinder' was designed, but you don't have to be limited by my thoughts - from a magical point of view, which spell do you think can create a A reciprocating propulsion force?"

Rebecca grabbed the chair, shaking her body back and forth: "Carve an ultra-small hurricane circle in it? Blow it hard?"

Hetty also frowned, thinking seriously: "It's not realistic, the hurricane circle is too complicated, and the airflow it can induce is limited in a closed environment..."

While talking, she casually condensed a translucent evocation hand beside her, but then dispersed the magic: "It would be easy to push inside with the evocation hand, but unfortunately this is a very special Spells, there is no corresponding magic circle, and... it feels weird to have an evocation hand inside the machine to push around."

"Hand of Evocation..." Rebecca rolled her eyes and thought for a while, and suddenly seemed to open her mind a little, "Oh, it doesn't have to be airflow...or even this thing called 'air cylinder'?"

Looking at Rebecca's brighter and brighter eyes, Gao Wen couldn't help but feel happy: the silly roe deer is going to make a contribution again! ?

Hetty also became curious: "What did you think of?"

Rebecca gestured happily: "Auntie, do you still remember that there was a spell that I couldn't learn..."

Hetty: "Apart from fireball, which spell did you learn back then?"

"No, at that level of tricks, you thought I would be able to learn it no matter how stupid I am," Rebecca waved her hands vigorously, "Later, I secretly drew runes in my gloves to pretend that I could cast spells, but you Hang up and fight with dad..."

Gao Wen: "..."

Is it necessary for this girl to be happy when she says this? !

And Hetty obviously remembered what the "trick" Rebecca was referring to: "Repulsion trick?"

Chapter 0102 The Magic Engine

Tricks are basic techniques that are listed outside of official spells and can be performed by apprentice-level mages. Usually, their learning difficulty is extremely low, and the spell models that need to be constructed are so simple that children of even a few years old can understand them. But correspondingly, its effects are extremely limited, and its functions are very single. Even many tricks are not practical in combat or work, and can only be used as a supplement to formal spells or "pre-school education".

Gao Wen already knew several very interesting "tricks", such as the pre-trick "Dyeing" of Transfiguration, which can dye the target's hair into a random color, but it has no lethal effect other than dyeing, and it can only It lasts for two hours; or the trick "mind training" purely for tempering mental strength, immediately after casting, a phantom will be summoned in the caster's own field of vision, and this phantom will immediately begin to read aloud the youthful sadness written by the caster when he was a child Literature, which has been chanted until the caster actively stops the effect of the spell, has an incredible effect on tempering the mind...

Well, this is Gawain's own understanding of youthful sorrow literature. In the cognition of the local mages, this phantom will mainly talk about all the failures and stupid mistakes in the life of the caster, because the phantom can only be read by the caster himself. See, so this is probably a kind of psychological suggestion, a technique between spells and technology. It is quite effective for tempering the spirit, introspecting, and summing up experience, but most people are not willing to learn this.

For official mages, they are unwilling to call people who only master tricks the same as themselves "spellcasters". Those who perform a few tricks on the street to deceive ignorant civilians, and even rely on a few tricks to fool country knights Most of them are lame apprentices, and even apprentices don't take it as something to be proud of mastering a few tricks—but correspondingly, if they can't even master a few tricks, it must be shameful...

Rebecca is obviously a titan in the world of mages.

And the repulsive trick that almost caused her a psychological shadow in her childhood is a rare and powerful one among all kinds of tricks.

It is one of the precursors of force field spells, and it is a variant of the "mind shifting" which is also a trick. It is also a training technique for later practice of a series of spells including gravity manipulation, levitation, and evocation of hands. The function of the repulsion trick is to push away the items in front of or around the caster (the specific effect depends on the type of rune bytes added when building the spell model), and the weight of the pushed away items depends on the magic power of the caster. It's one of the few tricks that can make a difference in combat -- push enemies away, or throw them off balance.

Gawain knew about this trick, but he didn't expect it at all.

All he could think about was the work done by the expanding gas, or the high-temperature and high-pressure airflow—even if he occasionally flashed the model of the electric motor, he couldn't get in touch with the most basic "repulsion trick" in the world.

Watching Rebecca describe her thoughts with great interest, Gao Wen reflected on himself with a self-deprecating attitude——

Don't overestimate the open mind and experience of the "traveler". These ideas and experience may have miraculous effects, but in many cases it will also become the shackles and stumbling blocks of the traverser himself, just like him this time: Originally Gawain Cecil had the repulsion trick in his memory, but why couldn't he think of it?

Because Gawain's brain is full of classic engine models on Earth...

Rebecca has never seen a steam engine, and she doesn't know what an internal combustion engine is. She doesn't even understand why Gawain insisted on adding a sealed cylinder to the machine, so her thinking is not limited by this at all - she only needs Gawain Put forward a big idea, and then add her own good brain and magic knowledge of this world, she can come up with a more perfect solution.

Of course, one of the most important reasons for this is that Rebecca is really talented. As far as her advanced ideas are concerned, in this world, as long as she does not starve to death, it is possible to become a great person, at least it can be printed in the history books. The kind of two class hours, but there is no denying one thing: how stupid are people from other worlds?

People just didn't think in that direction!

Hetty was also enlightened by Rebecca's idea. She took a piece of paper and sketched runes and lines on it: "That's right... the repulsion trick is also very suitable for converting into a simple magic circle. In fact Many magical mechanisms, such as automatically opened doors and the most common floor traps, are all driven by repulsion tricks—it's just that no one has ever thought of converting this power into a continuously operating, standardized machine... Ancestor, your wisdom and thinking are really unfathomable."

As she spoke, she handed over the sketch drawn in her hand.

The back of Gao Wen's head was sweating because of Heti's praise: I haven't finished my self-examination yet...

He took Heidi's sketches, glanced at them, and found that not only the simplest repulsive magic circles were sketched on it, but also the cheapest combination of materials that could complete the corresponding magic effects was marked under them.

It's really worthy of being a diligent and thrifty family - if Hetty is missing from the camp, I don't know how much money will be wasted.

The heads of the three of them got together and began to discuss with great interest the "repulsion trick", which is an extremely basic thing in magic. Rebecca first pointed to the cylinder on Gawain's original drawing: "If you use the repulsion trick, If it’s a trick, then the sealed metal tube can be removed directly, or at most a protective cover to prevent foreign objects from falling in can be left, so it doesn’t need to be so tight at all.”

"We can engrave the repulsive magic circle on one end of this base, let it push this thing called 'piston'," Heidi was also interested in research, "but how can the pushed away piston come back? "

"Use inertia, the inertia of this iron wheel, it is called flywheel," Gawain pointed to the flywheel connected to the piston, "it is connected to the piston through the crankshaft, when the piston moves away from the repulsion circle, the flywheel rotates and resets the piston. "

Amber stared at the side for a long time. At first, she didn't understand at all, but after the three of Gao Wen discussed and discussed, she finally saw some clues: after all, the basic principle of this machine is not complicated, and its main structure It was just a bunch of basic wheels and connecting rods, and as a thief, Amber often dealt with various traps, so she was not too unfamiliar with those wheels and connecting rods.At this time, seeing everyone discussing the issue of piston reset, she quietly said from the side: "What about the process of the piston approaching the repulsive magic circle again? At this time, the magic circle is still pushing it out—but at this time, the big wheel is about to turn." Only after the last half lap can we continue to work hard, so at this time the machine is competing with itself, right?"

"That's right..." Heidi frowned upon hearing this, "Naturally, the repulsive force circle is needed to push the piston away, but when the piston resets, the repulsive force circle will cancel out the useful power..."

"'Useful power' is called 'work'," Gawain took this opportunity to instill the terms he was familiar with, and at the same time, he had already thought of how to solve the problem of machines "competing with themselves"—for four-strokes on the earth Engines or other classic engines need exhaust to depressurize the cylinder during the piston reset process, but for this machine, he needs to stop the repulsion circle at the moment the piston resets, "Rune trigger, we can use rune trigger To control the repulsive force circle——when the piston moves away from the base of the power mechanism, the rune trigger is turned on, and when the piston is driven back by the flywheel and approaches the base, the rune trigger is interrupted..."

Various magic symbols popped up in Hetty's mind again: "But how to control it? The flywheel spins fast, and the piston moves fast. With such a quick-response magic formula, the position of the rune trigger needs to be switched in an instant. This requires advanced The runes of..."

As a result, before she finished thinking on this side, Rebecca said casually: "Tie the rune trigger to the piston. When the piston is close to the base, the base will be connected, and then the piston will be pushed away. Push it away as soon as it gets close." , Push away as soon as you get close... Wow, bouncing around."

So what kind of picture has emerged in this girl's head so that the words "bouncing jumping" come out?

Hetty and Gawain stared at Rebecca together. The former was amazed at the ingenuity of this solution, while the latter marveled that the silly roe deer is such a genius in science and engineering—how did she manage to be seamless between magical knowledge and mechanical knowledge? Can you jump out of your current thinking and get results in new thinking in an instant by switching between them?Doesn't her mind need to be cooled?Or are these two parts of knowledge running simultaneously in her mind?Which one is used when there is a solution?

And Rebecca shrank her neck from being stared at: "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no, this is a very good way," Hetty quickly waved his hand, "and I have more thoughts: Why do we only engrave a repulsive force circle? The piston needs to move back and forth, so we can completely The other end is also engraved with a repulsive circle, so that the piston can do two boosts in one reciprocation..."

Gao Wen also carefully looked at the sketch on the table, thinking about the position of the rune trigger in his mind, and suddenly had some ideas: "In addition, it is not the best way to fix the rune trigger on the piston, which means that it is It will only be turned on for a moment in one operation, we can connect it to the shaft of the flywheel, and let the two runic circles at both ends of the piston be controlled by this trigger, and use a 'toggle' device to switch the position of the trigger That is to say, when the flywheel turns to the whole process of the first half circle, the runes are inside the first magic circle, and when the flywheel turns to the other half circle, the runes connect to another magic circle, so that the piston The first repulsion circle is active the entire time it is being pushed away from the repulsion circle, until the piston reaches the furthest point - at which point the first repulsion circle closes, the second opens, and the piston reverses direction , what do you think?"

Rebecca opened her mouth, looked at Hetty, then at Gawain, and suddenly became depressed with her mouth flattened: "Sure enough, I'm still the stupidest..."

"You're not stupid at all!" Gao Wen was dumbfounded by this girl who was habitually inferior, "You were the one who opened up the idea of ​​the repulsion circle, and your aunt and I were just hammering on this foundation. .”

Rebecca continued to keep her mouth flat: "But the idea of ​​this machine was brought up by your ancestors."

"But if it weren't for your inspiration, my machine would probably be just a blueprint forever." Gao Wen laughed, "Don't you think you are very powerful?"

"Really?"

Gawain and Heidi nodded with a smile: "Really."