The geographical environment of Hakugull Port is very special, like a "bull's horn" stretching out to the North Bay, and the coast guard camp is stationed at the tip of the "Niujiao Peninsula". Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

It takes more than half a day to get from the city of Baiou Port to the location of the military port, and it takes less than an hour to cross the sea.

The next day, Roland and the others went to Dolphin Square to meet Liuba after breakfast, and Liuba also lived up to the trust and got a special pass to enter the military port to visit.

"The military port must have strict secrecy measures, and tourists are strictly prohibited from entering, and you can get a pass, which is not a small face." Veronica looked at Lyuba with a smile, how could a poor painter do such a thing?

"I have a relative who serves in the army, and I ask her to help." Liuba replied quietly, "It's not early, let's go to the dock." ”

After a ten-minute walk to the pier, I saw a sky-blue building sitting next to the breakwater, with two flags flying on the vaulted roof: one with blue dolphins, the flag of the Port White Gull Free State, and one with twelve blue stars, encircling in a circle, the flag of the Bend League.

Lyuba led the group into the building, where the ticket office was directly opposite the lobby on the first floor, and in the lobby there were three rows of benches, where many staff-like people were sitting reading newspapers while waiting for the ferry. There were also hawkers wandering around in the hall, and when they saw Roland and others coming in, they immediately gathered around to greet business, newspapers, tobacco, bread, coffee, and even all kinds of souvenirs and souvenirs.

Lyuba waved her hand to disperse the hawkers, turned back and asked Roland, "Do you want to cross the sea by ferry or on horseback?" ”

"Can you ride a horse at sea?" Roland was a little surprised.

"Of course, there is a sea station opposite the port authority that rents 'aquatic horses', if you are confident in your riding skills, I suggest you try it, riding a horse on the sea is a very special experience," the conversation changed, and Lyuba added, "If you can't swim, then forget it, there is still a certain risk in crossing the sea on horseback compared to taking a ferry." ”

"I'm very confident in my riding skills, and my swimming skills are okay, so it's a rare opportunity to experience sea riding." Roland said happily.

"I can try it too!" Lyudmila has never seen a horse living in the sea...... Seahorses don't count, that thing can't be ridden at all.

"Count me in." Vigraf was also interested.

"Who else wants to try?" Lyuba looked back at Bloom, Nikita, and Veronica.

"I'll forget it, if there is a choice, I don't even want to take the boat." The dwarf shook his head. When he first ventured into the subsidence area, the "Skinning Baron" forced the kobold warlock to open the floodgates and release the water, almost drowning him alive.

Nikita and Veronica are also not good at water, and they feel that safety is the most important thing, so they choose to take the ferry.

"I'll go buy tickets for you first, and then we will go on the road later." Lyuba turned and walked towards the ferry ticket office.

The bay area of Baiou Harbor is calm and unsuitable for sailing ships, and the surface transportation from both sides of the peninsula is mainly barges, but the traditional non-powered barges are too slow, the carrying capacity of passengers (freight) is limited, and the manpower oars are too hard and uneconomical, so most of them are now replaced by ferries driven by magic crystal steam engines, which are commonly known as "small steamers" in the local area.

The structure of the magic crystal steam engine is very special, if you only look at the power device, it is similar to the steam engine in the early days of the industrial revolution on the earth, it is to inject high-temperature vapor into the cylinder to compress the piston reciprocating motion, and the piston is connected to the crank slider to drive the pulp blade to drive the ship forward, but the steam engine in the world of Vares does not use coal, charcoal or oil as fuel, but uses fire magic to heat the boiler to produce a steady stream of steam, and after the steam is done, it is introduced into the condenser tube and re-condensed into water, which is injected into the boiler for recycling. Because of the use of magic heating, the magic crystal steam engine has a huge difference from the steam engine on the earth, that is, it does not need a chimney, and it does not produce billowing black smoke to pollute the environment.

There are many types of fire-based magic, and the thermal efficiency is also different, and ships usually use the "fire wall technique" because it can burn continuously and output heat energy steadily.

The wall of fire spell performed by a normal mage needs to maintain concentration to continue to take effect, and maintaining concentration means that you cannot distract your energy during this period. After all, people's energy is limited, it is impossible for a mage to maintain concentration without sleep, always have to eat and rest, but once the energy is distracted, the wall of fire will soon be extinguished, if this spell is used to burn the stove, either the mage will be exhausted to death, or burn the boiler for an hour or two and then have to rest for a while, and then re-ignite the fire when the mage has rested enough, which of course cannot meet the needs of long-distance operations of ships in reality.

To solve this problem, a new technology needs to be developed to keep the wall of fire working as long as possible without the mage's focus.

Initially, mages tried to use other spells with the wall of fire in an attempt to prolong its burning time, but the results were not satisfactory. Later, some people changed their thinking and started to add spell casting materials to the wall of fire from the direction of alchemy, and by changing the composition and ratio of the materials, they tried to make the wall of fire last longer after being out of focus.

This technology emerged at the beginning of this century, and finally broke through the bottleneck 20 years ago, and truly obtained a formula with practical value - using magic crystals as the main material, combined with several other mineral ingredients, and formulated into medicinal powders to assist in casting, which can greatly extend the duration of the fire wall.

Through countless experiments, the mages have discovered a rule: the duration of the wall of fire is proportional to the amount of the crystal, and the stability of the wall of fire is proportional to the purity of the crystal. If you use a large number of magic crystals with a lot of impurities as fuel, the wall of fire can indeed burn for a long time, but the temperature of the flame is not stable, and it may burn fiercely for a certain period of time, and it is dying for a certain period of time, and it cannot output heat stably.

In order for the wall of fire to burn steadily, the higher the purity of the magic crystal, the better. Most of the natural magic crystals are less than 10% pure, and this purity cannot maintain the steady burning of the fire wall, so it is impossible to provide stable heat energy for the steam engine. Therefore, the key to the process of the magic crystal steam engine is to purify the magic crystal, and the progress of this technology is not smooth, until more than ten years ago by an archmage named Alberton Weinstein made a breakthrough, successfully obtained the magic crystal with a purity of up to 20%, which can fully meet the needs of ordinary magic crystal steam power devices.

In fact, 20% is not the limit of this technology. Historical documents prove that as early as the Arcane Age, humans discovered similar purification techniques, and at the peak of the Arcane Empire, they even mastered the magical technology of purifying magic crystals to nearly 50%, and only on the basis of that technology, human fleets could easily shuttle through the dimensional barriers and expedition to other realms.

Unfortunately, with the collapse of the Arcane Empire, the civilization level of the world of Varess has greatly declined, and many technologies have been lost, and the Magic Crystal Pure Craft is one of the most regrettable losses. Archmage Alberton Weinstein's discovery is, in a way, true to what his rivals criticize: "The lack of ingenuity in technology itself, and the fact that it is only temporarily leading the quest to revive arcane civilization." ”

PS: About the Constant Wall of Fire

There is a very useful 5-ring arcane called "Magical Constancy" in the DND3 version of the rules.

This spell can make several spells work for a long time, and if you don't actively interfere with it, the spell can work forever, and the wall of fire is one of the spells that can be constant.

If the rules are followed, then the constant wall of fire will become very simple, and the cost of the follow-up investment will be equal to zero.

What does this mean?

It means that the steam engine will become the cheapest perpetual motion machine, and the industrial development model of the whole world will be turned upside down, and where will human society go? Forgive me for being stupid, if you continue to deduce in this direction, it can be described as a thousand things, cutting and untidy, and the socio-economic structure will be completely changed, many of the blueprints that can be referred to on the earth will no longer be applicable, and the whole story will be detached from the basis of reality and become unsustainable.

Please note: I am not unconditionally against perpetual motion machines.

In a fantasy world where magic is prevalent, it is self-deception to completely reject a perpetual motion machine, isn't the golem a perpetual motion machine? Isn't the Lich a perpetual motion machine? Isn't the high-level maze lock a perpetual motion machine?

I'm not worried about perpetual motion machines, but about "cheap perpetual motion machines". Golems, lichs, and locks are all very expensive, and they are unlikely to be widely used in the story where the protagonist is active, nor will they have a decisive effect on the average productivity of society.

But the constant fire wall technique + steam engine is different, this cost is relatively too cheap, if it exists, there is absolutely no reason not to be popularized, otherwise it will violate the general logic of the development of social productive forces.

That's why I limit the firewall technique in the book to be not constant by the usual means, but to be fueled regularly, which is more like a miniature nuclear power plant than a perpetual motion machine. According to this house rule, there are references to follow in the direction of the next technological development.

In the final analysis, I set the overall tone at the beginning of writing this story, trying to depict a fantasy social painting of the pre-industrial era that is as colorful as possible and close to reality, and maybe a little steampunk. The whole story is deformed in a direction that goes against my original intentions, which is something I don't want to see.

If you follow another line of thought, what kind of social picture does the constant fire wall technique + steam machine deduce? I haven't gone down this road, but I have a hunch that if I continue to deduce, I will come up with many wonderful ideas, and if any of my colleagues are interested, I might as well put pen to paper and deduce it myself to see where this road will eventually lead. (To be continued.) )