Starting as an Island Lord – Chapter 152

Chapter 152: Shadow in the Sky of the Island

In the mountains, a secret flying machine research base.

Inside the base, there is a semicircular tunnel in the mountains. Along the tunnel, you will enter a hidden narrow valley.

One end of the valley is closed, while the other end is a steep cliff. Inside the valley, there is a 25-meter wide and 500-meter long steel-hardened yellow clay avenue.

‘Woo~~ Woo~’

With the low hum of the electric motor, a specially made electric vehicle towing a flatbed truck slowly drove out of the underground tunnel.

On the flatbed truck was placed a strange obtuse triangular object about 20 meters long and 10 meters wide.

This object has a circular hole in the tail and a smooth transparent bulge near the obtuse angle head.

At first glance, it looks a bit like a flying-wing bomber on Earth.

It can be seen that there are two slightly narrow seats in the bulge, one in the front and one in the back, with two people sitting on them.

In the front seat is Rosen, and in the back seat is Nephelonia, the flying master.

This strange thing is naturally the rune flying machine built by Rosen.

It looks like an airplane, but the power is not a propeller, but a quasi-jet.

The reason why it is called quasi-jet is that it uses a method different from the jet engine on Earth to obtain jet airflow, and there are no complex and precise vortex blades and rotating shafts.

There are advantages and disadvantages to doing so.

The disadvantage is that the thrust is greatly limited, and only the method of increasing the wing surface can be used to obtain enough lift. The maximum speed is naturally greatly limited.

There is a common sense that, for flight, thrust and wing surface are inversely proportional. The greater the thrust, the smaller the wing surface area. When it is large enough, even a stick can fly into the sky.

The advantage is that the structure is simple, the manufacturing difficulty is greatly reduced, and the consumption of mana is also minimized.

In the cockpit, Rosen is carefully checking every fine component on this small rune airplane through small detection spells to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

As the plane approached the tunnel exit, Nephelonia seemed a little nervous, and her breathing became slightly heavier.

Rosen smiled and said, “Naya, are you scared?”

Nephelonia did not deny it: “This is the first time I have flown without wings, and when I think that the top speed of this thing is more than twice mine, I feel a little panicked.”

In light wind weather, her flying speed is about 180 kilometers per hour. If Rosen transforms into a steel dragon body and sprints with all his strength, his speed is slightly faster than hers, reaching 200 kilometers per hour.

But this blunt triangular rune plane, whose wings and body are almost completely integrated, has a designed cruising speed of 380 kilometers per hour and a top speed of 500 kilometers per hour.

For an airplane, this speed is not fast. Propeller airplanes on Earth can reach or even surpass it, but it is already the limit of the island’s capabilities under the current conditions.

It is also the ultra-high speed that mortals in this world can only dream of.

Rosen smiled and comforted: “Don’t worry, there are enough safety settings on the artifact, even if we hit the mountain directly, we won’t die.”

“That being said, but you built everything, and I don’t know anything about it, so of course I’m still apprehensive.”

“That’s right, then I’ll fly slowly at the beginning, just like our flying speed, and then slowly accelerate.”

“Okay.”

At this time, the plane was completely pulled out of the tunnel in the mountain and turned onto the yellow clay avenue in the valley.

After the nose was in the right position, Rosen raised his hand to signal irrelevant personnel to stay away from the valley avenue.

After waiting for a while, after confirming that everyone had taken shelter in a safe place, Rosen raised his hand and pressed the valve. The fuel gas installed in the compressed air bottle immediately poured into the constant pressure rune combustion chamber with a ‘chichi~’ sound.

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

‘Boom~~~ Whoosh~~~’

The initial mixed air formed a weak deflagration, but soon, the combustion returned to a stable state.

“This thing is really scary.”

Nephelonia wiped the sweat from her forehead. If she hadn’t been wearing an ice amulet, and if she hadn’t lost the bet when playing games on the beach, she wouldn’t be sitting on this thing.

Rosen chuckled, and with a slight thought, he began to pour mana into the Gale Conversion Circle.

As the magic circle was activated, the flame power in the combustion chamber was transferred to the airflow in the jet chamber.

‘Whoosh~~’

The jet chamber started, the front air duct began to inhale violently, and the rear airflow sprayed out violently backward.

The ejected airflow is very peculiar, almost completely transparent, without any color of temperature, just like a directional high-speed jet of heat wave.

The rune plane trembled slightly and began to accelerate forward.

The 500-meter acceleration runway is not long, but it is enough for this rune plane to take off.

When the speed was about the same, Rosen pulled the joystick, and the wings behind flipped slightly, pulling the nose up.

The fuselage shook slightly and took off at a small angle.

“It really flew!” Nephelonia exclaimed in a low voice.

She knew that this thing weighed more than five tons.

She didn’t forget her task either, and immediately began to carefully experience the changes in the airflow around the plane, and she couldn’t help but marvel:

“For now, the wind force control is very stable, almost sliding forward in the airflow.”

Rosen didn’t speak, he was closely monitoring the flight status of the plane.

There are three main important parameters.

One is the remaining amount of fuel gas. The second is the operating status of the conversion magic circle.

The third, and most important, is the operating status of the flying puppet.

This flying puppet is the key to the plane being able to fly.

If there is no such thing as assistance, and it is purely controlled by mages, the difficulty of flying will be increased to an incredible level, and then few mages will be able to fly.

It is driven by puppet psychic energy, and the psychic energy is stored in a specially made psychic energy lattice.

Before the flight, the psychic energy will be filled in advance to save the mana of the flying mage.

According to the design, the psychic energy in the psychic energy lattice can support the puppet to run for 3 hours.

For now, everything is normal.

Soon, the rune plane climbed to an altitude of about 500 meters, and the speed also increased to 200 kilometers per hour.

The fuselage is still very stable, and because of the cockpit glass and good sound insulation measures, the cabin is still quite quiet.

Nephelonia commented: “Well~ I can see its benefits now. It saves effort and is quiet. If I fly by myself, my eyes will be almost unable to open at this time.”

Rosen reminded: “Do you feel anything lacking?”

All his flying knowledge came from the two Siren Queens, and so did Laifu’s.

From their point of view, this plane is already the best under the current manufacturing level.

But it cannot be guaranteed to be the best in Nephelonia’s eyes.

Nephelonia calmed down and carefully experienced the changes in the Gale force around the fuselage:

“I feel some flaws, which are the main source of body vibration, but at this speed, it’s not a big problem.”

“Try to speed up.”

Rosen then slowly accelerated.

The combustion in the combustion chamber became more and more violent, the mana consumed by the conversion magic circle became more and more, the vibration of the fuselage became more and more serious, and the posture became somewhat unstable.

◈◈◈

But the fuselage uses the newly developed hardened pure water material, and adopts a variety of reinforced structure designs, so it can still withstand it.

At this time, the plane reached a cruising speed of 350 kilometers.

“There are three minor defects, one is a manufacturing defect, and the other two should be structural defects.”

The noise in the cabin was already very loud, and Nephelonia had to shout loudly.

Rosen also roughly felt it.

The current altitude of the plane is only over 1,000 meters. Looking down from here, you can see the mountains and forests below flying backwards at a very fast speed, and seabirds fly past the fuselage from time to time, and there is a risk of bird strikes at any time.

Although according to the design strength, a bird strike at 350 kilometers per hour should not penetrate the cockpit, but everything is just in case.

So he immediately turned on the specially made lightning bird repellent sonic wave.

Nephelonia asked, “Do you want to speed up?”

Rosen didn’t answer, he carefully experienced the structure of the fuselage, felt that he could still hold on, and said: “I’ll speed up a little bit more.”

He increased the combustion intensity again, and the speed was increased to the designed top speed of 500 in one go.

The wind outside the cockpit began to roar, and the fuselage seemed to be dancing in the airflow, as if it might fall from the sky at any time.

Rosen’s mana was also consumed faster.

Nephelonia calmed down instead, she gripped the fixed handle tightly, and from the chaos, she carefully sensed the surrounding airflow.

Then she really found a few minor flaws.

It doesn’t affect low speed at all, but as the speed increases, it gradually emerges and becomes a safety hazard.

“Rosen, that’s about it. If you fly for a while longer, this thing will fall apart.”

Rosen also had a similar feeling, he began to slow down slowly, and controlled the plane to turn back to the hidden valley.

‘Whoosh~~~~~ Zizi~~’

The plane landed smoothly on the avenue.

“How do you feel?”

Nephelonia has basically adapted, and sincerely praised: “This thing is really fast, it’s like lightning.”

After she recovered for a while, she opened the cockpit, climbed onto the fuselage, and began to mark various parts of the fuselage with a charcoal pencil.

“The circle is a big problem, the cross is a small problem, and the cross circle is a problem that arises at extreme speed. There are 8 places in total, but I don’t know how to change it. After all, I have never flown so fast.”

“We have to try it over and over again.”

Rosen felt his mana, there was still 90% left, and the burning gas cylinder in the plane was still sufficient, so he said: “Then let’s change it over and over again.”

The parts that need to be modified are not large, and the degree of modification is also small. Transformation can be used for direct processing, so it is modified on site.

After the modification, it will be tested directly in the sky.

For the next time, the two tried over and over again, fine-tuning little by little.

Change from morning to night, if it is not finished in one day, continue the next day.

After five days of continuous work and dozens of experiments, the shape of the plane is basically the same as it was five days ago, but very precise adjustments have been made to the details.

These adjustments seem inconspicuous, but they are the real essence of this rune plane, and they are also the biggest threshold for others to imitate.

At this moment, it can finally run stably at a top speed of 500 kilometers.

After taking to the sky again, this rune plane was like a fleeting shadow, swiftly streaking across the sky, advancing 140 meters in the blink of an eye.

The posture is particularly stable, the airflow is extremely stable, and the fuel and mana consumption are much less than the initial version.

In the back seat, Nephelonia felt the roaring wind outside the cabin, and at the same time experienced the tranquility and peace of the airflow in the cabin.

Between extreme movement and extreme stillness, there is only a thin layer of transparent glass.

Turning her head, she saw the clouds flying backwards beside her, and looking down, she saw White Sturgeon Island, which had become a bit smaller.

Unknowingly, they had reached an altitude of 6,000 meters, which is also the ceiling of this rune plane.

She couldn’t help but sigh: “The magic of the new era is truly great!”

This is something she can never achieve no matter how she flies, she wouldn’t even dare to think about it in her dreams.

But Rosen shook his head: “It’s not great enough, there is still endless potential for improvement, especially since we don’t know the real mystery of the magic circle.”

“You are really insatiable, but this is probably the driving force behind the advancement of magic.”

After carefully experiencing it again, she asked, “At top speed, how long can your mana last?”

“About 4 hours. If it is a high-level mage, it is estimated that it can only last for ten minutes, but if it is cruising speed, a high-level mage can last for 1 hour.”

Obviously, although a high-level mage can drive it to fly into the sky, it cannot fly for a long time, and the combat time will be very short.

The current solution is to equip two high-level mages, and use mana recovery potions as an aid to control the relay.

Nephelonia thought about it carefully: “That means being able to make a round trip within more than 400 kilometers, which can cover Shire County.”

Rosen nodded: “Almost, but the range is still too short.”

In this regard, the motor propeller aircraft currently under development can fly much farther because it involves fewer conversion magic circles and less reliance on mana.

But the mechanical structure of the motor propeller aircraft is much more complex and precise, and it cannot be built in a short time, so it will not be able to catch up with this Virland civil war.

He secretly thought: “Let’s use it first, and when the island’s machinery manufacturing level reaches a certain level, we will find a way to improve it.”

Pull the nose and descend back to the flying machine base.

After getting off the plane, he found the high-level mage in charge of making the plane. It was a Kao man named Todd:

“Just produce according to this standard. Time is running out. Build as many as you can.”

Rosen estimates that he can get about 10.

Todd nodded, and then asked, “My lord, do you want to install weapons?”

“Of course we have to install them. Some are equipped with psychic weapons, and the others are equipped with Master Lightning Crossbows.”

Psychic weapons are made of high-level lightning lattices combined with psychic meteorites. One is a ‘stun bomb’ and the other is a ‘deterrent bomb’.

The island is good at making lightning lattices, which are small in size and large in capacity.

The artificial synthesis of psychic meteorites has also been realized, but the output is very small, and only two can be equipped at present.

If you really want to fight a large-scale battlefield, this little air force is not enough, and it can only be used as a deterrent for the time being.

Todd asked again: “My lord, should we give it a name?”

Rosen had already thought about it: “The one with psychic weapons is called Roarer. The one with Master Lightning Crossbows is called Lightning.”

This rune plane is naturally Rosen’s second trump card against the Southern Alliance.

At this time, there is still one and a half months before the Southern Alliance goes north.

It’s time for him to prepare his last resort.