Inside Balin's forge workshop.
When the vehicle Lin Gui had commissioned was slowly pulled out of the warehouse, everyone froze.
Because its appearance... was truly bizarre.
As a whole, it looked like a long, narrow little boat.
But the sides of the hull, the stern, and even the top were crowded with exactly twelve pairs of metal vanes.
These vanes varied in shape—some were as wide as glider wings, while others were as long and narrow as blades.
They were folded and layered around the hull, making the entire vessel look like a huddled metal monster bird.
The hull was very narrow, less than one person wide, and its length was barely enough to accommodate three people.
There was no extra space to store cargo.
The entire hull was forged from a matte, dark grey alloy without any decoration.
A distinct cylindrical structure was embedded at the stern.
The caliber was quite large, and its surface was engraved with complex flow-guiding runes.
That was the muzzle of the wind pressure cannon.
Theia walked a circle around the little boat, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows.
She suddenly reached out, gripped the gunwale with one hand, and easily lifted the entire boat off the ground.
"It's this light?!"
She put the boat down in surprise and clapped her hands.
She estimated the weight to be less than two hundred kilograms.
"This is it?"
Theia's tone was full of doubt.
"This thing... I feel like I could nail something like this together with wood myself."
"Except for this cannon muzzle on the butt which looks a bit impressive."
Grom, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but lean in closer as well.
Compared to a complete amateur like Theia, he was better able to see the craftmanship within.
The materials for the flying vessel were undoubtedly the best steel.
It was just... this construction.
He touched the cold metal vanes.
"Are there... a bit too many of these wings attached?"
"And this boat is too small; it can't carry much cargo."
"Besides, how come I don't see any concealment runes?"
Balin stood with his arms crossed, his face filled with gloom.
He should have been grandly showing off his skills to the human brat.
He should have built a top-tier vehicle comparable to a skyship from the City of a Thousand Towers.
According to his original concept, it should have been at least the size of a Wheelless Train carriage.
But who would have thought that after Lin Gui actually joined the tuning process...
All of his plans had been led astray.
In the end, they had tinkered together this tiny little thing.
Lin Gui had requested it to be "small" from the start, but this was too small!
The most ridiculous part was that, to control the size and weight, Lin Gui had strongly insisted on removing all the concealment rune devices that took up space.
Something that could be considered the most important part of any vehicle used to traverse the wilderness had just been discarded by Lin Gui like that.
Grom, who had tapped and prodded his way through a full circuit, finally couldn't help but lean over and whisper in Balin's ear:
"Chief, you're not scamming the kid, are you? You haven't added any of the major components that should be there."
Balin replied speechlessly:
"Was it that I didn't want to add them? I added them, damn it, but then this kid, whose brains must have been caught in a vice, demanded I take them out!"
Grom was stunned.
"Why??"
"Because they would increase the weight of the vehicle, thereby affecting the speed driven by the wind pressure cannon at the back."
Balin watched Lin Gui, who was examining the flying vessel, and said:
"What he wants isn't a vehicle in the conventional sense at all, but a carriage that can race through the wilderness at breakneck speeds."
"Racing through the wilderness? He's crazy! It might be fast with a wind pressure cannon driving it from behind, but if he crashes right into the head of an Epic demon, he'll still be dead meat."
Grom was bewildered.
"Keep in mind, this flying vessel doesn't have the blessing of concealment runes!"
Balin was also very curious about this question.
As an Epic expert, he was well aware of the various dangers in the wilderness of Akara,
and he also knew that for the other party to do this was almost like playing a joke with his own life.
But the man had done it anyway.
Setting aside safety for the moment, the space alone left Balin quite perplexed.
That narrow flying vessel could barely fit three people.
Even if this kid was just delivering a letter,
where would he put the supplies for overnight stays and the materials for covering their tracks in the wilderness?
If nothing else, what about that wooden box that had been floating behind his butt for the last few days?
Where was he going to put it? Was he planning to sell it all?
Or did he intend to let the wooden box float behind the flying vessel again?
He feared that the moment the flying vessel started accelerating, the wooden box would be left far behind.
In short, concerning the birth of this vehicle, the forge master himself—Fortress Lord Balin—was even more puzzled than Theia and the others.
Only Lin Gui, who had put forward the requirements and actually brought this flying vessel into existence, knew why it was designed this way.
Storage of supplies would not be a problem once he completed the long-term commission.
As for concealment... with the addition of the flying vessel's extreme speed and the cover of the Shroud of the Gloomy Night,
Lin Gui now had some measure of confidence in flying over the heads of Epic demons.
Therefore, Lin Gui's only requirements for the vehicle were absolute speed
and a level of maneuverability that could perfectly coordinate with Levitation.
Lin Gui climbed onto the flying vessel.
The hull was narrow, so he had to sit in sideways.
The places for his feet were two shallow grooves embedded with anti-slip patterns.
Standing in front of him was a short pillar topped with a transparent crystal;
the pillar's body was covered in fine adjustment runes.
By his right hand was a strange steering wheel;
it wasn't round but polygonal, with each corner corresponding to a combination mode for the vanes.
Under his feet it was even more complex: three foot pedals on each side,
respectively controlling the expansion, retraction, and deflection of the various vanes.
The entire boat was so small it was almost custom-built for him alone.
He gripped the steering wheel with both hands, and his mana surged slightly.
Levitation was activated silently.
The flying vessel quietly left the ground and hovered at a height of half a foot, incredibly stable.
Seeing this, Balin pulled a chain by the wall.
The heavy metal doors of the forge workshop slid open slowly.
Outside, the layered rock cave scenery of Shield City was revealed.
Passages wound in all directions, and lights were scattered like stars.
Seeing that Lin Gui intended to conduct a test flight directly within the city,
Grom's expression changed, and he hurriedly stepped forward.
"Wait! The city may be spacious—"
"But this boat has a wind pressure cannon!"
Grom's voice was urgent.
As a high-level dwarf, he was all too aware of how much thrust that thing had.
To put it this way, that thing could blow a dwarf a thousand meters into the sky.
Grom estimated that once Lin Gui pressed the magic crystal to start the wind pressure,
he would probably crash headlong into the rock wall opposite before he could even react.
And the opposite rock wall was at least ten kilometers away from here.
However, Balin raised a hand to stop him.
"Don't panic."
He stared at Lin Gui's hands as they operated the controls and said in a low voice:
"Haven't you noticed?"
"He activated Levitation without even an incantation."
Looking at Lin Gui on the flying vessel, Balin's eyes were full of amazement.
Having read Freya's letter, he knew that this mere High Rank little mage could perform chantless casting of Levitation.
But seeing it with his own eyes, he still couldn't help but praise him.
This little fellow's trick was something that even the Wind Tower Master couldn't pull off.
Considering the boy's age was under thirty, he expected that old fellow would be fuming if he knew.
That old mage who had taken residence in the Wind Tower for 'improving' Levitation,
and considered himself the absolute number one in that field of magic,
probably couldn't imagine, even from ten thousand miles away, that in this remote place,
there was a young mage who had surpassed him in this regard,
leaving him in the dust by an untold distance.
After hearing Balin's words, Grom suddenly woke up to the fact.
That's right!
As a mage, where was the sound of the incantation when the kid Lin Gui activated his magic?
Rate on N.U.
