Alien world

Chapter 1218 140. New Means of Transportation

For the next three days, Annan was not only unable to sleep or eat, but was also extremely anxious.

This made Olmedo very confused.

She rarely saw Annan so passionate about something.

"For that steam engine? What's it good for?"

“It can increase our transportation speed.”

"We have built a road, right? There is also a port and a tunnel under construction."

"It's different." Annan shook his head. "If there is such a ship, its speed is between 100 and 200 miles per hour, and it can carry 1000 tons, or million pounds of cargo, or transport thousands of people, what would your reaction be?"

"Can the steam engine you mentioned do that?"

"That's right!"

Annan excitedly tore off a piece of white paper and drew a pattern.

"Is this... a snake?"

"This is a railroad track, used to carry a 'train', just like the sea." Annan continued to draw the locomotive and carriages on the railroad track: "This is a 'train', which is what I call a ship. The locomotive pulls the car body behind it and travels on the railroad track."

"How big does a steam engine have to be to pull so much cargo?"

"Not very big."

Olmedo believed Annan, but she couldn't believe that a non-magical machine could pull such a huge car body.

Annan didn't blame her. Humans couldn't imagine things they had never seen.

“You’ll know when you make it.”

Annan imagines the future of Liberty City: it will have a variety of means of transportation, and people can come to Liberty City at any time by boat, train, airship, or portal.

The influence of Free City is already very great. At least many places in Middle-earth that are not remote have heard of it. But knowing is not enough, they must see it. This is what Commercial Street is doing, and the best way is to let them set foot on the land of Free City.

But the world of Allen is so huge that Wilheim, the birthplace of the main race, is just a "world island", and the Allen continent is just a major part of the world.

It would take months for Annan to conduct trade with his distant friends.

To realize the vision in your mind, you either need to create a portal or shorten the distance between each other.

The former is that the wizard tower in Free City is not high enough, while the latter is that Annan is doing so.

Finally, on the third day, Annan went to the mushroom house to find Michael. This time, he did not evade and made a real "steam engine", or a magic energy machine?
Without the steam part, the appearance of the magic energy machine was much simpler, like a metal box: there were several magic runes in the box, the runes were against the levers, and the levers were connected to the gears.

When it comes to actual use, the gears will drive the wheels.

In front of Annan, Michael activated the magic runes: the complicated and mysterious runes lit up, and then released power to push the lever, which turned the gear and spun at a constant speed.

Annan pumped his fist in excitement.

Michael didn't understand why Annan was so excited, nor did he know what this was for, but at least it was easier to deal with than the steam engine that had confused him before...

"What kind of magic rune is this?"

"Thrust rune."

"There is such a rune?"

"Do you know a lot of runes?" Michael asked back.

Annan was speechless and paid attention back to the thrust rune.

The prototype of the magic machine has been released, and the next step is to make it meet Annan's needs through continuous improvement. For example, it is easier to make it bigger, stronger, and with more thrust runes. This is easy to achieve. The thrust rune is not a complicated magic rune, and it is not even as difficult to cast as the "magic machine" that Annan requires.

Annan spent a whole day in the blacksmith shop, and in exchange for two barrels of distilled liquor, he asked Bronzebeard to lead several dwarf craftsmen to make a magic machine, a locomotive, and rails according to his requirements.

Annan placed the test site at the construction site of the new school, which will make it convenient to dismantle it when the time comes.

A few days later, Michael told Annan that the trial magic energy machine he had been dreaming about was ready.

It is nominally a trial model, but its size is exactly the same as the official model. When placed in the alchemy room, it is just a large black box... just like Michael's goblin machine.

As Michael activated the thrust rune, the lever drove the gears to rotate in a beautiful and almost regular manner, but beauty is always short-lived. Annan, who was obsessed with the rotation of the gears, found that they were getting slower and slower until they stopped completely.

"How long has it been?"

"three minutes."

"Why is it so short?"

"How much magic power can you expect a magic rune to store?"

That's true. If magic runes never stop, there's no reason why I would be the one to invent these.

Therefore, additional energy is still needed to power the magic runes.

"We can install crystals that can store magic power to power the runes."

"Magic crystal? It's not stable."

To the extent that the magic crystals produced in Liberty City are used as bombs or to amplify the power of mountain copper cannons.

“There’s always a way to make it stable.”

Annan did not plan to climb the technology, or magic tree, from scratch... He did not believe that Wilhelm, who could even make alchemy for top-level creations like the Arcane Energy Core, could not make a stable magic crystal.

If all else fails, the Magic Stone will do. Use whichever one offers the best value for money.

Annan went to Wilhelm to purchase, and the merchant did have more stable crystals for sale, but they were not as good as the Philosopher's Stone.

The advantage of magic crystals is that they can store a large amount of magic elements and choose to release them in small amounts or all at once, and can also be used as spells in times of crisis. The disadvantage is that after being released, they either turn into ordinary crystals or require complex alchemy to infuse magic power.

The advantage of the magic stone is that it can be used repeatedly, and even runes can be engraved to restore magic power. The disadvantages are that it has a limited storage capacity and after being smashed, it will only fill the surrounding magic elements for a period of time.

Obviously, the Philosopher's Stone was more in line with Annan's expectations. It didn't matter if the storage capacity was limited, the quality was not enough but the quantity could make up for it.

Moreover, the magic stone wizard tower can be made, saving a lot of money.

Annan waved his hand and told Michael that there were enough Philosopher's Stones and he could spend them as much as he wanted as long as he could conduct the second experiment in a short time.

In the next few days, the locomotives and rails were completed one after another, and a piece of land on the construction site was lent to Michael for testing.

In mid-June, Michael sent someone to tell Annan that everything was ready.

Excited Annan called his eldest sister and Olmedo and went to the construction site to inspect the birth of the first train in Liberty City.

In a corner of the construction site, there was a strange-shaped vehicle that made Annan miss it and puzzled Olmedo and others...?
Because its wheels are too small, and they are placed on two rails that extend for dozens of meters. Moreover, what kind of car would be made entirely of metal, like a metal behemoth?
"Is it safe?" Annan asked Michael.

"Who in Liberty City can hurt you?"

"That's true." Annan asked him how to maneuver, and then boarded the train to the surprise of his eldest sister and Olmedo.

Annan wanted to personally control the first voyage of this steel behemoth.

(End of this chapter)