Vonn told the professional adventurer, Spikes, "Tazo here proved you can pump life energy into the dungeon and it might be gradually changing, but apparently there's a lot of tainting to undo."

Ashfall said, "There was another group in there last week. They got out alive but ran away swearing after getting into the first floor."

Spikes shook his head. "An especially hostile dungeon core with bad treasure. No wonder it's not getting a lot of customers."

Vonn thought. "Actually there's something you can do for money. You know those sound-blasting toad things? Their throat guts are like containers I can pump full of air. If you bring me a few of those in good condition, I'll buy them." He blinked and laughed at himself, thinking, "I'm handing out quests, now."

Tazo suggested, "Try fetching a leg or two from those scuttling things too. They might be usable for propeller blades." She asked Vonn, "Do you suppose the slime beasts are based on the oil we used?"

The adventurer said, "A little of everything, huh? We'll try."

Vonn wished them luck.

#

A paddleboat was easy to set up. Just a small one capable of carrying a few people and their luggage, plus the engine. This was one of the iron models that they knew worked and could mass-produce. Their propeller was carved wood, and was still a tricky job too big for the shop's machines. Mom actually did some of the work with her general Craftsman abilities and Vonn had a bit of Woodworking, but they needed to hire help for it. The quality turned out just [Fair] in the System's judgment, a weak point in their work.

"Why a that shape instead of a simple paddlewheel?" asked one of the Kobold twins.

Vonn explained, "Because the goal is flight. Paddle blades are meant to dip into the water, push against it, then ride back through the air with little effort. So we want to perfect a design that handles continuous resistance. It won't be the same for flight as for water, but close enough to be good practice."

The assembled boat was an evolution of an earlier foot-powered craft they'd done. Nothing too fancy. The outboard motor whirred to life and began churning the water, forcing Vonn and Tazo to shift forward despite the counterweight in the bow.

Kotta was their copilot. He took to the steering quickly as they plowed up the Starry River, confusing the boaters out here on the cold water with sails and paddles. "Faster than wind power!" he said over the noise.

They wound upriver for a distance of around two miles. The crystals shined and the engine beat steadily, making the hull vibrate. "No wonder the plane's bolts kept shaking loose," Tazo said, as they got Kotta to turn them around. Vonn flipped an hourglass and made a note.

Kotta said, "Can I get a land cart from you, for the spring? This works, and I need to travel far."

Vonn didn't let his friend throw off the time measurement. But when he had free attention he said, "You're really doing it, then? Going off to Scaled Nation territory?"

"Ralator strongly suggested it. That if I want to teach, I should do it outside the River Kingdom."

"Ask me after this test trip."

Really, it'd be a bad idea to give him a crude motorbike. If it didn't work, it could endanger him, and if it did work, people would want to capture him to study it. Vonn shook his head and focused.

They got back to the Shieldpoint docks, where people stared from outside seedy tavern patios. "What is that?" they said, huddled against the winter wind.

Tazo smiled and waved. "The style of boat everyone will be using soon."

The experimenters congratulated each other, and guided the boat the rest of the way into the Little Star, westward, to a spot near enough to the workshop. "Got back in one piece!" they called out to Ashfall and the Kobold apprentices.

Birb had flown along for part of the last leg. "Great! Now for the next part."

They all took a break, and Kotta cornered Vonn and Tazo before the two Vulins could confer. Vonn explained the problem with getting a motorized cart. "How about a bicycle? No one's likely to mug you for that. Besides, I'm not confident about a shaking machine like that on rough ground, and the faster you go the more you'd need a road."

"I suppose," Kotta said, but talked Vonn into making a custom model with better tires and springs and a basket.

#

They tested the monster-gut engine too. The material was sturdy and light but it wasn't conducting heat well enough. Vonn had vaguely heard of an engine like this that used inflating, flexible bellows, but was wary of the number of moving parts and potential leak points. It was time for some enchantment.

He and Tazo practiced while Birb watched with her own lesser magic skill. Vonn had mastered the trick of charging a bullet with some element for just long enough to shoot it. The more impressive feats of the Enchanting skill involved one-shot actions such as the slow-fall bracelets Selen had crafted, and continuous effects that worked for months or years while being carried or worn by a person.

For these greater works they needed to use up magicite. The siblings worked together to make Vonn a wand, first. This one was nicely carved wood with little gear shapes burned into it, a gift from Mom.

Tazo had claimed that the new wand she'd gotten recently counted as a birthday gift, but Vonn wanted to make her something better when he could. For now they focused on making this rod into something useful to Vonn. Tazo demonstrated using her own device to help guide the spell-work. She walked him through the process of crushing magicite as part of a spell and pushing that into the wood, leaving behind glittering traces that shined brightest around the gear designs. Vonn waved it around and held it up triumphantly, humming a four-note tune.

Tazo rolled her eyes; by now she knew a few of his otherworld references. "What a strange thing, using a magic wand to build machines."

Vonn began practicing with how the rod acted as a cursor for fine spell control. "Magic is part of the rules of this world. ff we can learn the rules, we can use them."

The next step was to try their skill on a little sample of leather. Hoping to use the gut material just like an iron cylinder, they tried to make it pass heat and cold from external crystals to the pressurized inside. But they soon realized they didn't have the skill to do something that subtle -- to alter thermal conductivity. They owned leather gloves specifically because the material didn't carry heat well, and they were trying to use the gut as a metal substitute.

Vonn drew alternative designs. "What if we stitched two metal plates to the top and bottom of the gut-leather, making something like a barrel or drum? Still much lighter than a solid iron engine."

"We'd need sturdy, airtight attachment."