After discovering that boiling water could not produce enough steam power, Gawain abandoned his plans to build Earth's classic steam engine.

But that didn't mean he had given up on his goal of building a universal, reliable, and simple power machine.

He still remembers how industrial mass production has razed out all inefficient production models, including handicraft workshops, in his native world, and how roaring machines have led entire human civilization from the land into the space age. In factories, where raw materials are poured into the workshop like a stream of water, and tons or tens of thousands of products gush out at the end of a cluster of machines, the power of machines can completely change the way a society works, they can crack mountains and rocks, they can reclaim the sea, they can be stronger, more precise, more efficient, and more tireless than any single human being, and these characteristics are above the natural human being, but they are precisely the true power of human beings.

That is the power of thinking and creating.

Of course, Gawain is also well aware of the side effects of industrial production, such as pollution, such as the pressure on natural resources caused by excessive production efficiency, but the problem can be solved, but survival is not negotiable, just like human diseases can be cured, but you have to refuse reincarnation directly in order to prevent illness......

Therefore, whether it is to withstand natural and man-made disasters including the magic tide, or to make himself more comfortable in this backward world, or to understand the truth of this world, Gawain must light up the technology tree, and in order to light up technology, the most basic thing is to solve the power problem.

Steam propulsion is a no-go road, but many rules in the macro field of this world can still be used, gears can be used, levers can be used, waterwheels can also be used, and thanks to the power of magic, many technological developments that cannot be skipped on the earth and need to be slowly accumulated to achieve can be directly jumped forward here, such as high-quality steel smelted based on magic technology, such as various alloys and crystals that are different from the earth, but have extraordinary properties- It's just that none of these things have been fully used in this world.

In other words, the people of this world have indeed discovered the usefulness of these things in their own technological routes, after all, the people of the other world are not stupid - it's just that due to the limitations of their worldview, they have never thought of using these things in other ways.

Gawain looked at the cylinder structure on the drawing, which he had crossed, and now he wanted to think of a replacement to replace the steam to power the entire installation.

All he can think of is still expansion work, or high-pressure airflow work, but where do these "sources of power" of high temperature and high pressure come from?

He once thought about Rebecca crystal - explosion is also a kind of expansion to put it bluntly, as long as it is used properly, the power of the explosion is also a kind of power, the essence of the internal combustion engine on the earth is actually a continuous "safe explosion" (deflagration) in the cylinder, so can the explosion caused by the Rebecca crystal also be controlled and guided, so as to become the driving force?

But after learning how those crystal explosions worked, he had to give up the idea.

The Rebecca Crystal, which uses magic to produce an explosion, is completely different from the gunpowder on Earth, and the two "explosion" processes are completely different.

The explosion produced by the Rebecca crystal is essentially a "spell", the power of the magic array will drive the energy in the crystal and form an autonomous spell casting process, and this spell effect is the "explosion", so before the impact and expansion, the first thing Rebecca crystal produces is actually a spell effect, so if you stuff such a crystal into the cylinder and trigger the detonation circle, what will be the result?

The cylinder will be detonated as an alchemy product......

Of course, Gawain can make this cylinder extremely strong, extremely heavy, and even so strong that it can't be exploded when it's stuffed with crystals, so can the bursting magic in it be pushed at this time?

No, it will blow up things like fragile connecting rods and pistons as casting materials, as long as they are within the circle's cast range.

What if everything like the connecting rod piston was so strong that it wouldn't be blown up, and only crystals were involved in the magic reaction?

Well, at this point, the device may actually be able to do work, but its size will be extremely large - the outer diameter of its absolutely explosion-proof outer wall must exceed the casting range of the detonation circle, depending on the equivalent size of its core, this outer wall is most likely a sphere with a radius of several meters to tens of meters, and it cannot shrink in the slightest - once it is shrunk, a part of the outside of the device is within the area of effect of the burst spell, and the operator will be detonated if he is standing next to it...... Humans are one of the best magic materials.

Even if there is no operator nearby, the device itself will be shrouded in a constant blast and detonate everything that comes near it.

It doesn't work at all!

And because the "explosion" of this world is so special, the idea of using Rebecca crystals to make guns was also abandoned by Gawain, at least the idea of using this crystal to fire: he couldn't stuff these crystals into the chamber of the gun as propellants, because these propellants will directly create an explosion in the spell effect area during the spell casting process, and when the gun is fine, the person who fired the gun must have exploded, and the person standing next to it should also have exploded......

So what should he use to do the work?

Steam doesn't work, explosions don't work, fuel oil ...... He hadn't heard of anything like oil in the world.

And he had to take into account the machining accuracy of the current world, even if he designed a working prototype, it would be a matter if the blacksmiths couldn't hammer the right parts.

But to be honest, he wasn't most worried about this: he still remembered the Mithril safe he had found in the old mansion of the royal capital, and the complex magic lock in the safe was actually a very delicate mechanism, and the person who made this kind of mechanism was not an ordinary blacksmith, but a rune craftsman with a higher status than the blacksmith who specialized in processing magical items.

Rune craftsmen are the equivalent of advanced trained blacksmiths and carpenters, although they do not have the ability to cast spells, they have some knowledge in the field of magic, and are usually "workers" trained by magicians to make magic items for themselves.

They are highly skilled at crafting things more intricate than ordinary ironwork, and they know how to safely process all kinds of magical materials.

Although the number of rune craftsmen is small and the cost of crafting things is huge (mainly the cost of magic materials), it is worth it if they can help them build a prototype machine.

Among the hundred technicians from the royal capital, there were rune craftsmen......

As Gawain pondered, two familiar auras appeared in his perception, and the curtain of the tent was lifted, and Rebecca and Hetty walked in.

"Ancestor (Ancestor), are you looking for us?" The two spoke almost in unison.

"That's right," Gawain didn't talk nonsense, and pushed the drawing forward, "Move the chair yourself and sit here, you can look at these things." ”

Rebecca stumbled to move a large chair, and Hetty grabbed a chair from the corner of the tent and flew it this way, stunned Rebecca.

But soon, Miss Ironhead's little loss was attracted by the drawings shown by Gawain.

"What is this?" Rebecca's eyes sparkled, "There are a lot of wheels and linkages...... Is it also a waterwheel? ”

"No, it's a ...... A machine that can generate power," Gawain casually explained, "I have a limited number of ideas, and I'd like to hear your ideas - imagine that a machine, propelled by the most basic units of magic, can produce stable and reliable power, such as making the wheels rotate constantly, such as driving a hammer up and down. You look at these connecting rods and wheels, and this structure -- it's called a crankshaft, and these are things that convert the reciprocating motion of a straight line into the rotational motion of a wheel......"

Gawain patiently explained his thoughts, Hetty listened thoughtfully, and Rebecca's eyes sparkled: she was intrigued by these whimsical designs!

The concept of a mechanical device that runs on the propulsion of magic is not new, this world with extraordinary power has natural advantages in many ways, and naturally there are many things that are "ahead of time" in Gawain's opinion, such as the puppets made by magicians, the automatic door activated by a secret key in the treasure house in the mountains, and the magic lock that can identify the user, which can be seen in the royal capital, these are all applications of magic mechanisms, many of which can even be described as "black technology".

But Rebecca instinctively felt that the "magic power mechanism" that Gawain proposed was not the same thing as those things at all.

The vast majority of its structure is intuitive and straightforward, and does not require the involvement of magic.

Its function and purpose are exceptionally simple, it is to provide power, and this power is to prepare for the next level of machinery.

It regulates, standards, and is clear, abandoning all the parts that allow craftsmen to "play freely", and replacing them with precise numerical indicators like magic rules, striving to achieve the purpose in the most reasonable and concise way, unlike those traditional rune craftsmen or mages, who will put a lot of patterns on the magic items they make, and also go to great lengths to hide those really useful runes in the complex encrypted patterns, for fear of being seen and understood.

Rebecca thought hard for a long time, and one word that often came to her mind was universal.

Just like the Magic Net One, this device is also "universal".

It's not designed as a treasure or a work of art, but like those Rebecca crystals fired in the furnace – it's all about being full and reliable.

Gawain finished explaining his thoughts, and finally pointed to the cylinder structure that had been forked: "Now it's just this step: it needs an initial power source to get this 'piston' moving, I thought about letting the expanding gas do the process, so I designed this sealed 'cylinder', but you don't have to be limited by my mind - from a magical point of view, what kind of spell do you think can create a propulsion force that can be uninterrupted and cyclical as long as there is an energy supply?" ”

Rebecca grabbed the chair and shook her body: "Carve a super small hurricane circle in it?" Blowing hard? ”

Hetty also frowned, thinking seriously: "It's not realistic, the hurricane circle is too complicated, and the airflow it can attract in a confined environment is limited......"

As she spoke, she casually condensed a translucent plastic hand beside her, but then dispersed the magic: "It's easy to push it inside with the plastic hand, but it's a pity that this is a very special spell, there is no corresponding magic array, and ...... It feels weird to have a plastic hand pushing around in the machine. ”

"Hand of Plasticity......" Rebecca rolled her eyes and thought for a moment, suddenly as if she had opened up a little bit of her mind, "yes, you don't have to use airflow...... You don't even need this thing called a 'cylinder'? ”

Looking at Rebecca's brighter and brighter eyes, Gawain couldn't help but rejoice: The stupid roe deer is about to make meritorious service again!?

Hetty was also curious: "What did you think of?" ”

Rebecca happily gestured, "Auntie, do you remember that I had a spell that I couldn't learn......"

Hetty: "Aside from the fireball technique, do you have any spells that you learned in the first place?" ”

"No, at the level of that trick, you thought I could learn it even if I was stupid," Rebecca waved her hand vigorously, "Later, I secretly drew runes in my gloves and pretended to be able to cast spells, and you and my father hung them up and beat ......"

Gawain: "......"

Is it necessary for this girl to be happy like this when she says this?!

And Hettie had apparently remembered what that "trick" Rebecca was referring to was: "Repulsion trick? ”8)