Chapter 516: A More Powerful Tool

On the outskirts of the industrial district east of Cecil City, inside a research lab at the Mechanical Manufacturing Institute, Gawain was gathered with Rebecca and Nicholas Egg.

A round, iron-sphere alien floated in the center of the room. Beside him hovered a complex, finely crafted metal model—clearly the chassis of a vehicle. Thanks to Nicholas Egg’s precision machining, every gear and linkage was reproduced with exacting detail. The model demonstrated various movements, driven by magnetic fields.

“This is the finalized universal traction chassis—of course, it’s just a model for now. The actual implementation will require further work from the technicians,” the iron sphere’s voice, tinged with a metallic resonance, explained as it rotated the model so Gawain could see the inner workings. “Based on the previous design, we’ve reconfigured the connection between the magic network unit and the power spine, and added a layer of shock absorption. This allows the chassis to handle more complex and harsh terrain. The shock absorption system is removable; once taken off, it can be replaced with an additional magic network unit to boost output. That way, on relatively smooth ground, it can serve as a traction vehicle for engineering machinery.”

Gawain studied the model and listened carefully, then nodded slightly. “…Not bad.”

The magic-powered vehicle was born. Its first challenge, however, was the era’s rough roads and the difficulty of maintenance.

There were no smooth, sturdy highways in this age. Between cities stretched vast wilderness with no service stations or repair shops. Although Rebecca’s invention of cement had jumpstarted road construction in Cecil, even with the aid of magic, the southern region’s infrastructure was still severely lacking. At present, only three roads in Cecil could be considered “modernized”: a wide cement avenue between Cecil City and Kander, a similar road from Cecil to Tansan, and a newly completed route to the Grant region. Everywhere else was a mess of haphazard roads originally built by southern nobles.

Among these chaotic roads, the best was the “temporary highway” from Tansan to Hosman City, but even that was just an emergency fix—mages and engineers with magic terminals had used spells like “Fossil to Mud” and “Mud to Stone” to level and reinforce it. It was passable for transporting people and goods for now, but in the long run, its durability and scale fell short of Gawain’s standards.

As a legacy of the fragmented feudal system, “roads” were a major obstacle. Nobles built roads within their domains however they pleased, resulting in wildly varying quality and scale, and chaotic layouts. Sometimes, to prevent raids from neighboring lords, they deliberately sabotaged roads at border areas, creating artificial pits, sand patches, and mud traps with magic. Though the southern region was now unified and the old lords had stepped down, these maddening remnants were left for Cecil’s builders to deal with.

Fortunately, this world possessed incredible magical technology. Magic terminals designed for ordinary engineers had become widespread. With spells like “Fossil to Mud,” “Mud to Stone,” and “Weight Reduction,” road construction progressed fairly smoothly. Still, given the conditions in remote areas and beyond the southern region, early magic vehicle chassis had to be designed to handle rough terrain.

“The universal chassis needs to be as adaptable as possible, so we redesigned its dimensions based on the average width of most southern roads—basically, it’s slightly narrower,” Rebecca took over from Nicholas Egg, gesturing as she spoke. “The widest point is no more than 1.8 meters…”

Gawain thought, as expected—1.8 meters was the width of the largest double-horse carriage in this world. Strictly speaking, that was the maximum width including two horses and their harnesses. Though noble roads varied, their widths were roughly similar. Except for small paths and country roads, the narrowest “official” roads never dipped below this figure—any narrower, and large double-horse carriages couldn’t pass.

Cecil’s road construction was built atop old roads, and materials and workers had to be transported by horse-drawn carriages. So the new cement roads were influenced by this width, with each lane roughly the width of a large double-horse carriage plus about a meter of “safety margin.” The magic vehicle’s size had to fit within these lanes to travel safely.

Gawain knew a similar phenomenon had happened on Earth—the original width of horse carriages influenced road standards, which in turn affected the size of early cars and trains. Those vehicle sizes then influenced the dimensions of all transport tools and cargo containers built on early road and rail networks…

Two completely different worlds, yet converging on the same point.

Suddenly recalling his long-absent homeland, Gawain quietly sighed. His thoughts drifted.

Magic vehicles were revolutionary transport tools—far stronger than current horse carriages. With these powerful, tireless machines, the southern region’s development would leap forward. But having only them was still far from enough.

The southern region was neither very large nor small, but its elongated shape made east-west transport especially difficult. To build the four new industrial cities along the “cross axis,” Gawain needed to coordinate massive amounts of materials and personnel: ore from the Tansan-Cecil area, timber from Grant, stone and magic materials from Peipo, plus the huge influx of migrants from population relocation projects. Currently, most of this relied on river transport centered on the Baishui River. But river transport had natural limits. As cities grew and the cross axis extended east and west, raw material sites far from waterways would inevitably need to be connected. Gawain had to find more efficient transport methods.

Magic vehicles were flexible and convenient, ideal for short distances and small loads. But under the pressure of the entire southern region’s development, their capacity would be insufficient.

Of course, people in this world and era probably wouldn’t think so—magic vehicles were the most advanced, powerful transport they’d ever seen. But Gawain had witnessed something even better: the kings of land transport that ran on rails, capable of hauling thousands of tons at once, the lifeblood of industrial societies.

Trains.

Compared to those, magic vehicles naturally paled in transport capacity.

After all, magic vehicles weren’t created solely to solve southern transport problems—they were a supplement. Their true purpose was to usher in a revolution in transport, to replace traditional horse carriages, to build agricultural and engineering machinery, and even to prepare for military war machines.

Gawain knew that on Earth, trains appeared long before practical internal combustion cars (excluding early experimental steam-powered locomotives). This was because Earth’s steam engines were crude and low-tech compared to the precise, compact, efficient internal combustion engines. Meanwhile, cars required a long period of development for supporting technologies like tires, batteries, and spark plugs. These historical facts dictated the sequence. But in this world, many developmental patterns would differ, and the order of inventions naturally changed.

Steam engines were impossible here, but rotary magic energy engines suddenly emerged—high-efficiency power sources akin to internal combustion or electric motors. At the same time, thanks to this world’s technical foundation and Gawain’s guidance, the complex magic vehicle appeared earlier than trains. But that didn’t mean trains were unnecessary.

In fact, the southern region needed trains now and had the technical base to develop them.

Having lived here long enough, Gawain had learned to discard some old assumptions and see the truth beneath the dark, backward surface of this special era. The world’s technological reserves were far richer and more advanced than he’d imagined. The problem was that these technologies were concentrated in the hands of a few or scattered in fragments among isolated intellectuals—a result of the collapse of the ancient Gondor Empire. This “over-concentration” and “fragmentation” made society appear far more backward than its true technological level.

Understanding this, Cecil’s rapid technological progress made sense: many developments weren’t from scratch but mass production of existing “upper-level” tech or reconstruction and transformation of fragmented knowledge. To be honest, if Gawain’s “scientific mindset” were transplanted to a place like Typhon, with its strong foundation and abundant talent, their development would outpace Cecil’s.

Still, Gawain respected the researchers’ talents and efforts and maintained utmost trust in his research teams. He knew science was incremental—gradually, as fragmented tech was rebuilt and magical theories refined, this land would one day shake off Gondor’s shadow and enter realms even the great archmages of the Spark Era never reached.

“Ancestor? Ancestor?” Rebecca’s voice suddenly came from beside him, pulling Gawain from his reverie.

“What are you thinking about?”

She leaned close, her face full of concern and curiosity.

Realizing he’d drifted too far, Gawain cleared his throat and adjusted his expression. Then, thoughtfully, he said, “Rebecca, you know, magic vehicles aren’t actually the most powerful land transport…”

Rebecca blinked. “You mean… bigger magic vehicles? With multiple engines linked together pulling a huge trailer?”

“…Not quite. That would be a larger vehicle, but its operating principle is completely different,” Gawain chose simple words to describe something never before seen in this world. “Imagine a vehicle with a magic engine ten, twenty, maybe a hundred times more powerful than a magic vehicle’s engine, pulling a dozen or more carriages across the land…”

Rebecca’s eyes widened. “That’s impossible! The ground would collapse! What about turning? What about bumps?”

“That’s why it runs on tracks—rails laid on the ground, made of steel grooves or guides. They distribute the heavy load, reduce wear on metal wheels, and improve stability…”

(End of chapter)