In the last ten years of our lives, we were able to experience a myriad of emotions, such as passing our first exams at university, getting our driving licences, dying in an explosion, talking to a god, being reincarnated in another world, being attacked by mutants, exploring mines, mastering the art of runes and in between all these crazy and unfortunate moments of my life. That smile on Neo's face still gives me the creeps.
Before I left the forest, I was in the lab one morning, studying the crimson scales of an older level bear, when Neo came through the door with that smile that caused me so much trouble, the last time I saw her, she proposed to me to master the art of carving runes.
●— Hunt, can you help me remember a little something,— Said the bastard with that little tone.
■— That "Thingy" doesn't remember the great genius of Neo—
●— Do you remember what marks we got in thermodynamics?— That question gave me a bad feeling.
■— No— I said quickly to get back to work.
●— I think I remember getting higher marks than you, but my memory is failing, I'm getting older. —
■— You got a 6.5 and I got a 9.5 — No sooner had I finished the sentence than I realised my mistake.
●— Weeeeell, since you know so much about thermos flasks, why don't you design a magical gas turbine. — Said Neo in a mocking tone.
He may be impertinent, but he's no fool. One night when I had already gone to sleep, he used the supercomputer to create a magical, super-optimised program that allowed us to chat. We could send texts, audios and videos.
By message he sent me a cad file with the plans for a jet engine. The part that bothers me the most about him is knowing that he had something much more complex than a jet engine in his hands.
●—By the way, I want it to fit in the palm of my hand. — Neo said, poking his head out of the door.
■— Your mother is going to do it!.— I threw the bear's scale at him and managed to hit him on the head!
Using a joule Brayton cycle without irreversibilities, the cycle is divided into four stages.
-- Stage 1: Compression.
-- Stage 2: Combustion.
-- Stage 3: Expansion.
-- Stage 4: Cooling.
To achieve compression I had to use Magiston-based technology. To do this on an artificial Magiston plate 3cm in diameter and 2mm thick. I tried to carve the absorption rune. But as the crystal was too small it broke or fractured. The hammer and chisel were not precise and delicate enough for this work.
That same day before lunch I told Neo what the problem was. He got up from the table and went to the workshop. At least he left the food for me (it was his turn to cook).
I continued experimenting with the crimson bear scales. I discovered that they are very bad thermal conductors, they are perfect for creating thermal insulators, they can withstand almost 1500 K.
Almost running and out of breath Neo arrived to interrupt my peace, he brought me a straight grinder.
What surprised me most was that he managed to make a cordless pneumatic grinder. I asked him to make another one and show me the process.
●— To make a grinder we need a motor, electric or pneumatic, don't we, but what if we use magic?—
■— Of course, you don't need a compressor.—
●— I just need to make several aluminium tubes... —
Neo uses an aluminium tube as a housing. With a small grooved cylinder and some steel plates, he manages to make a pneumatic motor. He connected a Magiston battery to an instruction board via magic wire and a Magiston crystal as a mini compressor. With the runes, he managed to suck air from the environment and propel it right into the blades of the motor. And as a clamping method for the burrs, he made a nut on the lathe. He also made a set of diamond dust burs. In order to be able to cut on the artificial Magiston.
To be frank, there was no limit to his creativity when it came to using runes. Moreover, the talent he had for carving runes into small crystals was enviable.
(In the deepest part of the mine we found small traces of bauxite. Although it is not much we have about 300 kilograms of aluminium, 5 bars of gold and 3 of silver, 2 of copper and several tons of steel, although we could have more steel, we are limited by the production of charcoal. Other materials such as diamond and corundum were obtained in the miners' room after the fire trap. Despite all the difficulties we managed to get a good cache of materials).
Although I also managed to create a compressor, I couldn't finish the combustion chamber, I tried all kinds of runes and configurations, but every time I tried to ignite the chamber the crystal exploded. Neo suggested the idea of using alloys or superalloys, but we didn't have a material that could withstand those pressures and temperatures in such a small space.
(The project was left pending for the future. )
Shortly afterwards Neo told me that he wanted to make a contraption that would allow him to fly, and that while I was designing the reactor, he wrote the code for a program that would keep us stable in the air and help us move.
■— Remember that we are not on earth, there is magic here.—
●— But our magic won't make me fly.—
■— Or yes, you give me a while... —
During the last week we were in the forest, I was busy creating a super-optimised magic programme, while Neo was making preparations to leave.
When we use magic we waste a lot of mana because we are not able to measure how much mana we spend. Or how much mana we use to create etherana geometries. The best solution is to let the supercomputer keep a close eye on the mana.
At the beginning of this adventure I had the ability to calculate that worked on its own, like diaphragmatic breathing. Or the blinking of the eyes. Even if we are breathing and blinking we don't notice it because we do it without being conscious. If I thought of a count I would get the result in milliseconds.
With a little patience and practice, I managed to program a code that exactly replicates a fireball. A small sphere, like a marble. This little sphere was able to compete with any of the , of the forest mutants. The program took into account the inner and outer diameter and the amount of mana used to create a thin layer of etherana, completely filling the inner sphere with mana.
The last and most difficult part was to get the super optimised magic programme activated, or as Neo calls it, superconjurors.
It took a few hours, but at the touch of a button on the supercomputer screen, a (Mini Fireball) appeared. Finally, I just had to place this super spell on a shortcut on my Hub.
Subsequently, I set about creating a new magic function as part of a super-optimised magic program designed to enable flight. This function was to be complementary to the crystal-based movement program that Neo developed.
My first step was to generate a layer of aetherana around the user. However, defining an "aetherana clothing or
armour" that perfectly covered the body was too expensive, it wastes a lot of mana, but it is not the most efficient way to use an aetherana sphere surrounding the user.
To control the system, I carved seven runic inserts, one for each degree of freedom of movement (forward-backward, left-right, up-down, and the three rotations). After about three hours of work, I managed to design an accessory to be placed on the back of the neck, which contained the following components:
-6 Magiston crystals:
-3 for linear displacements (x, y, z).
-3 for rotations (roll, pitch, yaw).
-1 larger central crystal: Functions as an emergency mana battery, in case the internal reserve runs out.
Neo's magic programme was in charge of flight management, working as follows:
1. The system detected changes in the volume of mana within each crystal.
2. If the volume of mana increased or decreased, a pulse was generated in the corresponding direction.
3. The magic program constantly monitored the adjustments, ensuring that the movements were smooth and stable.
The etherana sphere acted as a complex structure, within which air currents were controlled. The sphere drew air in
through upper tubes and expelled it through lower and side tubes to maintain flight and stabilise the user. The
adjustments were fully automatic, thanks to the ability of the Supercomputer, which regulated the air distribution as if it were an autonomous nervous system.
This flight system, although not the most efficient, allowed us to move with precision and maintain our balance
effortlessly.
One day, I placed the device on the back of Neo's neck and taught him how to use the super-optimised magic program, (Fly). The excitement on his face was evident, his eyes shone with the intensity of someone who was about to break his limits.
(Mana consumption is not linear," I explained to Neo while adjusting the program's parameters. "In fact, it follows this equation: Speed (km/h) = 145 × ln(x) + 80 or Mana Point (MP) = e^( (V-80)/145 ) - 100. Which means that, if we increase the mana consumption, the speed does not go up proportionally, but stabilises at a certain point.").
His talent was undeniable. While it took me three hours to master flight, Neo managed to levitate in just 45 minutes.
Still, he didn't rush to take to the skies. I guess he didn't want to be the first to do it. He said we had to fly together.
The program regulated energy efficiently. At 280 km/h, our top speed, it consumed 6.62 mana points per minute (400 mana points per hour), giving us exactly 1 hour of range and a range of 280 km.
If we slowed down, the mana consumption also decreased, which meant we could fly for longer and cover longer distances. For example, at 180 km/h, the consumption was almost 199.3 MP/h ~ 200 MP/h, which allowed us to fly for about 2 hours and travel up to 360 km before running out of mana.
No matter how much we optimised the system, it was impossible to exceed 300 km/h. At that speed, the etherane armour reached its structural limit, and the airflow within the system was no longer efficient. The micro thrusters could not compensate for the turbulence, resulting in extreme instability.
For now, 280 km/h was our optimum speed: any attempt to go faster brought us dangerously close to the limit of
efficiency and control.
Before leaving, I collected the medals of the fallen knights and we looked around the mini-village we had built. Although we hardly spent any time in the hut, it was still our first home. We didn't want anyone to destroy it, so we created a hill over the whole place, hiding it from the world. We also sealed the entrance to the mine, making sure that no trace of our presence would be exposed.
For the last time, I read the funeral prayer for the knights and the miners. Then, without looking back, we activated (Fly) and got out of that damned forest.