The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 463

Chapter 463: Options
“Why don’t I make more of the Quality Increase orbs, while everyone else forms parts from clay? By the time there is a full batch made, I should have at least one orb made, and it doesn’t need to be bonded to work.” He suggested.

The orb wasn’t one of the more difficult ones, it was just Dominic’s unique misunderstanding that made all the difference in the way that it operated for transmutation spells.

The problem was that it might not do that for anyone else.

It certainly hadn’t for the mages.

If he had to make all the raw materials himself, it would certainly give the Duchy a solid claim on profits from the airships, but it really would be a hassle for Dominic himself.

So, it was with great anticipation that he handed over the orb for the Techno Wizards to test it.

“Alright, it might be a matter of focus. We know that this is supposed to make Cart Bright, at least if you have the transmutation spell at the same level as Dominic.

So, we should just need to maintain the image of what we need as the spell activates, and…”

Another small block of clay transformed, and the dwarves smiled. “And exactly that. We’ve got just the material that we need.

This is going to revolutionize airship design. It’s so much stronger and lighter than even aluminum that we can add all the safety features without sacrificing cargo capacity.

Alright, gents, let’s start making the tubing extruder so we can transform clay. It will need a thinner wall than planned. Then the side panels. Those were always going to be thin, but the cargo container will feel more sturdy if we leave them the same with better materials.

We will start with the cargo hold, so we can bring the Guild rep back in when it’s done to verify that it meets their requirements.

That’s only going to take half of us. The rest can start working on those bypass turbines and the rotating mounts. They’ll take the most time out of everything once the tooling is built.”

Everyone spread out, working on tooling or preparing clay. Dominic joined the team that was making the turbines that would propel this massive airship to glory, though the level of precision needed and the pure number of parts involved made them a daunting task.

“I can see why everyone was hesitating. These really are a specialty product. Even if we included design instructions, half the airship engineers couldn’t even begin to rebuild them.”

“That was what I was worried about. If we sell an airship that nobody else can fix, it’s never going to catch on with the merchants. They need it not only reliable, but repairable if they’re attacked.

That’s the advantage to the steam tractors.

There are plenty of mechanics and blacksmiths who can do at least the basic repairs on them anywhere that they go, and most convoys will travel with one. But crew on an airship is limited, so unless we train the mechanics ourselves to send them with the ship, they’re not going to find any.”

The younger engineer shrugged. “Well, we can always ask the school to train some. The whole goal was to find good jobs for everyone, right? Well, there has to be at least one or two students who would love a career as an airship engineer.

If you go to the major cities, you’ve got to be from a Noble born engineer’s family to even have a shot at that apprenticeship.

But here in Wistover, we can just hire some and train them to go out with the airships. Just present them to the buyers, and they can hire them directly from us when they’re trained.

They’ll even be able to travel with an airship from new, so they’ll know every bit of it inside out.”

“That’s a brilliant idea. Once we get the first sets of tooling and design jigs built, you can go pick up some promising apprentices. A couple more hands will help with the construction, and then they can move along to work on the airship when it is finished.

We do have a Master here that can make them a trade skill core, right? I mean, we can ask Pops to make them a blacksmith core, but it would be better if they had an engineer’s trade skill core.

Not just for the respect, but for the embedded skills that go into it.” Dominic suggested.

“Yeah, the old man can. We’ve also got a master blacksmith, he’s working on the tubing extruder. All of us are peak Journeymen or better. All that I need is a true masterpiece to make the transition.” The youngest of the Dwarves, still a few decades older than Dominic, agreed.

“Build first. I will go look for apprentices to take in and ship out once we have the basics built.” One of the older Dwarves insisted.

That was the end of that discussion, and Dominic focused on creating a template for the turbine blades. Making them all identical would make it easier to replace them if they happened to get damaged, and it would allow them to carry a few spare blades, in case a rock or bullet was sent through the internals.

Fortunately, other than the turbine blades, and the shaft that they rode on, the rest of the internals weren’t all that subject to damage.

“You know, this is a multipurpose design. We could eliminate some of the extra functions, and make it easier to operate. We’re going to be firing it with magic, right?

This design will work better with direct magitech heat if we’re going to be using it to move air.” Gully noted.

“Well, there goes our plan to use steam to drive everything.” The younger dwarf sighed.

“Not necessarily. We can mix and match by customer orders. But it really would work better with a high intensity fire spell in the chamber. The only issue would be that it would need something to get it started spinning, while steam would do that with pressure.”