A Curse of Competence

15

^^ the first Flying Ship's design ^^

I had never been a very rash person, in my first life; I had always been methodical, calm, collected, and I always had an in-depth plan for every single thing I did, no matter how seemingly trivial. That caution was, for the most part at least, thrown to the winds in this life. I'd discovered the presence of deities, -or at least beings of great power,- and I'd conversed with them about the Skills I'd need to be a Platinum existence in a World made of Aluminum, forgoing my irritation at being born in such a high station in return for the knowledge that I wasn't 'meant' for anything: fate was a lie, everything was cosmic coincidence, and the only things even approaching fate was the concept of quantum attraction, wherein certain attached atoms pulled towards each other imperceptibly, giving the illusion of destiny when you met the same person multiple times in a massive world. All of these things were very freeing to me, releasing me from my assumed obligation to make the world a better place: the gods hadn't summoned me here, they only provided a gravitational pull that made sure my soul didn't scatter into the long dark, and instead came towards their planet, and where I landed was pure coincidence. I had no obligation to fight some great evil or cure a plague, I was only here to relax and enjoy my second life, exploring this lovely sandbox world until there was nothing left to explore, even though I couldn't possibly see it all in my lifetime.

To facilitate seeing as much as possible, I needed to be able to fly above hurricanes and through gales, and I needed to be able to traverse rough terrain as well. My master plan? A flying ship, using barriers to greatly increase the perceived surface area of the ship, and then using my control of said barrier's via my Wings of the Gale Skill to fly. To power this, very little was required, as the barrier could absorb more or less 97% of the mana it needed from pure gravitational energy and kinetic energy. The remaining 3%, however, had to come from something else, though that assumed that the speed of the craft didn't exceed 10 meters per second, or 36 kilometers per hour. That was a respectable average speed for any craft in this world, especially if it didn't need to rest at night or during meals, so speed was a secondary or tertiary concern at best. Protection was the first concern, and comfort was the second, making speed and maneuverability the third.

Protection was the easiest, as I designed the hull of the ship to have individual barriers enchanted into every plank of the hull just like my armor, layering over in ten layers thick on the hull and keel with fifteen concentrated at the prow, just in case I ever needed to ram a flying enemy like a Dragon or a Wyvern. These barriers would also act as air-and-water-proofing and atmospheric control, making the interior especially airtight and hermetically sealed, while preventing any heavy winds from blowing us off course or humidity from even dampening the interior. Comfort, the second consideration, was severely influenced by the success of the first consideration, while the magical lamps, flameless ovens, temperature control devices, and other such things that I would have to craft myself would all be powered by my Engine, which I still had to re-design after learning more from Demos about the faults of my first blueprint. As for Speed, it wasn't that difficult, really, to increase: thick aluminum pipes emitting enriched oxygen would be ignited to create a proto-jet-turbine, greatly increasing forward movement speed and momentum if it was needed, at the expense of some comfortability; much like airplanes, the interior would adapt after a bit if there was a gradual increase in speed, so I wasn't incredibly worried.

The fourth concern was Power: Powering the Ship was not originally an easy task, due to the obvious constraints of my mortal coil; even 3% of all the Magic being used on the ship would be difficult for me to maintain without Demos' help, and even with his help, trying to power all those spells would require us to personally touch the Runes that powered the Spells, meaning someone had to crawl all over the hull and touch the Runes while we were flying... that was a rather galling notion, but I had a possibly ingenious (depending on the results,) epiphany, looking at the empty hilt crystal of the Wyvern Dagger. "Demos? Can you try to put some of your Mana within this crystal? It accepts my mana, and holds it for me, but I need to be certain that other wizards can use it as well."