CH 179 Taking the gnomes to the sky island
The tradeoff that the gnomes made for making themselves partly mechanical was that they needed to have compressed air to function. In some cases, running out of air pressure could prove fatal. It depended on how much faith they had in their machines.
Alex wanted to take some of them back to the sky island to see if they could be of any help with finishing up their airships. She had some time, they already took the ores and would refine them in a matter of days. The magical girl took some time in the workshop to create some more cute magic springs and fly wheels to help power more ships. She even got a request from the gnomes to create one in a certain form factor to power an air compressor.
“With this component.” The monk recently accepted the fly wheel. “We might be able to travel farther from the caves and the heat that we use to power the compressors.”
Alex smiled. “This are not hard to enchant. If you could load one of your compressors onto the trailer, we could go back through the pipes and to the sky island. Would that be too much of an ask?”
“Yes.” The gnome looked pensive. “This too is the providence of the great machine. How many crafters do you require?”
“Just a few should be enough to start with.” Alex pointed in the direction of the carriage. “There is a really big vehicle that I’m considering converting, but it is not as important as getting the airships to spread Professor Copperpot’s plague to more places. We have to hit the kingdom to the south next, then if possible try to spread the components across the ocean.”
The half-mechanical gnome nodded.
“Going to the demon queen’s continent might be problematic by air.” Octavius stated. “It might be better to travel under the ocean.”
“Making submarines is not something I’m qualified to do.” Alex shook her head. “Those things can easily turn into a coffin. I don’t want to risk trying to design something that’ll just get people killed.”
“They are not that different from airships.” The gnome stated. “After the demons came, we switched our airship wrights to making them. They don’t have the ability to go far, but we set up supply points on the ocean floor. With these flywheels it should be possible to increase their range a hundred fold. The biggest problem is the water pressure crushing the hull.”
“Will your people help us?” The black-haired magical girl asked. “We could make something together to compress air. What are you using right now?”
“We use the heat from deep below or the pressure from the ocean.” Octavius explained. “Heat escaping turns wheels that pump bellows into canisters.”
Alex blanched at this. “You are using bellows? Not a compressor pump?”
“Pray tell, what is this device?” The gnome looked very interested. “I have never heard of a compressor pump.”
“It is the same principle as a water pump, something spins and the air gets forced in.” Alex didn’t do a great job of explaining.
“Is that not the same as a bellows?” The gnome genuinely asked.
“No,” Alex shook her head. “I have one at the cabin, but it would be easier to show you than explain it.”
They spent a day converting one of the weird bellows compressors to work with a fly wheel. Alex thought it looked like one of those old carnival music carts that someone would crank and it would play a song, sounding like a pipe organ, or a big band. When they had the thing functioning they set it on the flatbed trailer with some of the smelted palladium that the gnomes and blacksmiths refined.
The shipwrights roped the magical girl into making a few more of those wind up motors for the boats. The gnomes were impressed that by just making things cute, Alex’s enchantments could break the laws of physics. The trade off was that the fly wheels couldn’t run constantly and the springs were a bit difficult to design for because of the momentum conservation but the shipwrights liked this and possibly gained some levels by creating some unorthodox designs.
Everyone sorted, Alex asked if Ariel wanted to come visit. “Do you want to head to the sky island for a bit? Maybe your crew could use a break or they could stock some things on the ship. Does it need any repairs?”
“The hull is really sturdy, more than anything I’ve used before.” Ariel looked in the direction of the water. “I would ask you a similar question though, don’t you need to get out there and defeat some demons? Not saying I don’t need the break but have you been out of your fortress lately? I could swing by for a couple days you got a big airship project started yet?”
“Not right now.” Alex smiled. “I was hoping to pawn off upscaling the latest model on the gnomes here. We got a couple that are in various stages of production but they are all toy sized. As for going out hunting demons. I will, but I want to get this swine flu thing rolling as best we can. Everyone says that the demons will strike back so we want to take as much advantage of this lul while they regroup to set these bugs at as many demon inhabited places as possible. ”
Getting some plumber outfits made for the cyborgish gnomes took custom work in each case. But Alex was good enough to complete the task and make them look very plumberish in every case.
Her phone rung with a notification, showing she had leveled up a skill.
“I gained +1 in tailoring.” Alex showed the phone display to Fufi.
Name: Alex Parker
Class: Magical Girl
Level: 7
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Strength: 11
Constitution: 9
Dexterity: 17
Intelligence: 14
Cuteness: 27
Skills:
Cleaning: 4
Cooking: 2
Dancing: 2
Tailoring: 5 (+1 skill up)
Toymaking: 6
Feats: Empower Doll
Crafting: Force Imbuement
Possess Doll
Puppet Contingency
Spells: Animate Doll
Magical Girl Transformation
Lesser Grow Plants
Traits: Mental Resistance: 4
“What is that strange tile?” Octavian sounded intrigued by the phone in Alex’s hand. “It can show you insights into your soul?”
“It is from my world.” Alex turned the cart and trailer back into a card. “Luna modified it a bit to make it more useful in this world.”
“A divine artifact.” The gnome lowered his head in reverence. “You are a very blessed outsider.”
Merumeru, carried a big scroll, it looked to be made it in the gnomish style with metal accents and a bronze scroll case.
“What’s that?” Alex asked.
“Meru.” Merumeru answered.
“Ah, she got plans from the gnomes for an instrument.” Ariel translated. “One of those pipe organs that they were using in the worship service.”
“That sounds like a hard project.” Alex looked at the brave little slime girl. “I bet if you can get it working, Grace can play it.”
“Who is grace?” Ariel asked.
“She is a magical girl that we found.” Alex stepped into the pipe and climbed out the outside to Bob and Martha’s farm.
Everyone else followed and they counted heads to make sure no one got left behind.
Ariel didn’t let the subject drop though. “There is another magical girl? Why didn’t you tell us? We could use some more help clearing out demons. I’m sure she could use the levels.”
“Grace was captured by the demons.” Alex lowered her voice. “Let's just say she’s dealing with some trauma from that experience.”
Fufi introduced the gnomes to Bob and Martha. They gave them a bit of a tour. The gnomes were very interested in the grotto. None of them had ever seen a place of worship dedicated to Luna before and were impressed with the detailed craftsmanship and how they incorporated the stream at the bottom of the ravine into the architecture.
“If anyone wants to ask Luna for a class.” Ariel stated to the gnomes touring the temple. “They can do that here.”
“Would it be worth it to make one on the island?” Alex considered aloud.
Fufi shook her beak. “Nothing is preventing us, but building lots of hollowed places encourages other deities to do the same. Remember that Luna is not well thought of by both the gods of light and dark. And if you are doing it, an otherworlder, then it looks like she is taking an extra strong hand. Besides, coming all the way out here to ask for a class shows Luna that they are willing to put some effort into petitioning her.”
The last thing they did before heading to the island was answer awkward questions about the lone apple tree. The gnomes were fascinated by the idea that it could produce lightning. They hadn’t seen something like that. Which led to more questions about how it was used to charge a phone, which led to more questions about circuits and batteries. Eventually, Alex had enough and they headed through the portal pipe back to the island. In which everyone promptly got dunked in cold water of the castle’s basement like usual.
Merumeru happily splashed around in the water. For her it was fun, like a waterpark ride.
Alex climbed out of the water and used her featherduster to dry herself out, after which she used a rope to get the gnomes out of the water. They couldn’t float. So with their short stature, it made it difficult to get to the surface of the water by swimming.
“You didn’t mention we’d be dumped in a dark pool.” One of the soggy gnomes sounded accusatory.
“Sorry.” Alex apologized and dusted the gnome off, leaving him dry. “I’m used to it at this point. Consider it a security measure. Though I don’t think that is what Merumeru had in mind when she made it.”
“Can demons use these portals?” Octavius shifted his clothing, looking a little uncomfortable going from the whole transition from dry, to wet, to dry again.
“Not sure.” Alex answered. “But Professor Copperpot said that his attempts to bring captured imps to the island didn’t go well. Whatever Magical Girl Cosmos did when bringing this here causes them to be dismissed back to hell when they are here.”
The gnomes had great reverence for said magical girl. After a chorus of praise for her accomplishments from ages past they made their way upstairs to the main lobby. Maids and the three nobles greeted them and the gnomes were assigned rooms. Alex showed them around the castle and the grounds, to the workshop and the big area for working on airships that they had constructed and finally the vehicles and hydro generator.
“Are these the blessed machines the prophet spoke of?” Octavius’s voice was filled with reverence.
“Huh?” Alex looked around.
“That’s just a generator we threw together.” The black-haired girl chuckled. “It mostly works by vaguely being correct and having a cute facade.”
“I can feel it does something incredible, something this world has never seen.” The gnome wailed and fell to his knees.