The OP Lich is a Returnee: Omnibus 5 - Books 16-20 (Lich Returnee), page 14
“That’s the thing, though. I figure with the ‘ambient mana generator’ that they’re starting to use on buildings in the Alliance, you could rig a device to supply mana to the summoning, essentially allowing it to run off the ambient mana, instead of the caster’s mana. And you would know better, but I would think that a summoned creature creating physical effects, like using a wind elemental to fill the sails of a ship, would create a greater effect than just the ambient mana generator could.
“According to the information that has been released publicly, the pure-mana engines go at essentially the speed of a horse, covering forty kilometers in a day. My research says that a Spanish Galleon from the age of sail could cover between 120 and 200 kilometers in a day, if the conditions were favorable, and the sea route from Tokyo to one of India’s ports is roughly 7960 kilometers. If you could get anywhere close to the same kind of results from the elementals, that would cut a trip of over two hundred days by well over half, possibly down to as little as forty days! While even slower container ships today would make the trip in thirteen days, they use a great deal of fuel, which is becoming more expensive due to the difficulty of shipping it around the world.”
“Well, Mr. Vavau, I must say I am impressed with your research. Especially since you came here with a project already in mind. The standard researcher contract is simple. Any magic-related developments you make while in the employ of the AMRC are considered joint work on the patents. That means you, and any researchers who joined you in the work, get seventy percent of all royalties from the patent. The remaining thirty percent is split with twenty percent going to the AMRC to further fund the research and any grants we might give out in the future, with the last ten percent going to the crown, as I am putting forth a great deal of my own resources into ensuring this happens, making the Crown of Risen Athelia a silent partner. However, your name will be on the patents, and while the AMRC will help with licensing agreements to interested companies, you will be the primary beneficiary, and they won’t be using your designs against your wishes.”
Vavau laughed. “So, the AMRC and the Crown are both heavily invested in my success, because my success directly helps them, but they aren’t stealing inventions or credit? A lot of companies are going to find talent flocking to Athelia when people hear that.”
“Yes, I was rather counting on that.”
“Where do I sign?”
Chapter 179 – Naval Planning
Three years after my kingdom had swelled with the inclusion of Hawai’i, Athelian Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas Islands, the Pacific had changed dramatically. The rest of the so-called Pacific Island Countries quickly determined that they could not continue as they were before. However, a good portion of them still had ties to countries back in Europe, despite being mostly autonomous. So, instead of the EAA, they turned to each other, forming the Greater South Pacific Cooperative, with Australia at its center.
The EAA and the GSPC quickly entered talks about trade deals and military cooperation. Naturally, I was a part of those latter talks, as was the Troll Patriarch. I had not seen him since his transformation, but the Australian government had kept me apprised of his condition, and we had shared emails back and forth as his control grew. By now, he was capable of appearing in public, and it was believed that my meeting him wouldn’t cause him to backslide. Having a couple kids had settled his instinctive need to breed, it seemed.
The photo op where the Heroes of Life, Shadow, Death, and the Elements Undivided stood together, as a symbol of the defensive alliance between the EAA and the GSPC, sent shockwaves through the world, as one might expect. England and France had the Heroes of Water, Fire, and Light, which helped give Europe a similar magical advantage. Chile became a major player in South America, thanks to the Heroes of Earth. The superpowers of the world that was were very much left out in the cold, and they did not know how to handle that like adults.
Russia turned its gaze to the west, rather than to the east. That much was only natural. After all, my legions were currently on the Alliance borders, and I’d proven to them just how devastating a single legion could be when I destroyed their military base after the kidnapping of my sister. The one time the Russians considered economic measures against the Alliance, my wraiths reminded the Russian president that he was still under observation. Something he’d kept from his advisors up until that point, out of shame.
Fortunately, my wraiths had no problem shaming him in his own office. More importantly, they had no problem instilling fear in those advisors, as other wraiths rose out of the advisors’ shadows, quietly informing everyone that they were under constant surveillance, and any actions against the Alliance would be dealt with promptly. After which, their posthumous successors would be under surveillance, if they weren’t already.
Russia’s influence in the Pacific waned even further as Phantomline partnered with the AMRC and shipyards in Japan and China to begin rolling out a merchant fleet that showcased the height of the Alliance’s magical and technical knowledge. The new container ships were powered by the wind, like it was the age of sail once more, but these vessels were far removed from their elder counterparts. Armor and shield enchantments were worked into their hulls, using advancements of the technology Phantomline already possessed, making their hulls stronger and isolating them from the ravages of Pacific storms. While it would be folly to sail through a typhoon on one, lesser storms would not threaten the ship.
For propulsion, the ships used great sails, with bound Air elementals giving them constant breeze, thanks to Eli Vavau’s work on converting ambient mana to the binding spells. Combined with the shields blocking out competing winds, this gave the ship a sustainable speed of 12 knots, even against prevailing winds. That was roughly half the speed of a ‘modern’ cargo ship, but the fuel efficiency was unmatched.
Of course, the ships did not rely solely on sails to move. For one thing, trying to sail through modern ports, with the high level of traffic they often saw, was problematic, to say the least. And redundant systems were always welcome when far from potential aid. To that end, the ships had two motor systems, as well, for use in port, or if something damaged the masts. The first used the same mana engines that many cars in the EAA were now using (especially the newer models, which had been gradually increasing the top speed that the engines could reach), but the second was an ‘old-style’ fuel motor, so that, even if something cut off the ambient mana, the ship would not be becalmed.
The issue of aggressive sea creatures like the Great Steel Sharks was a worry, until it was discovered that, for whatever reason, they did not recognize ships under sail as potential meals. While attacks on the ships happened at the normal rate while using the fuel motors, the mana engines cut the rate of incidents in half, and the ships under sail were almost completely untouched. The researchers went on and on about possible reasons, but most of them basically boiled down to something about the motors calling to the sharks, like how normal sharks could sense blood in the water.
That meant that, once we had more of the new ships in the water, or old cargo ships retrofitted to the new style, the East Asian Alliance would be able to corner the market on oceanic trade. At least for a while. There were plans for sail-powered container ships already in existence, but without the enchantments to strengthen the ship, block opposing winds, or keep elementals pushing the sails, they were vulnerable to the weather, which was still settling into new patterns after magic’s release back into the world. Eventually, though, someone would figure out the enchantments, but being the first to market was huge.
But the merchant marine wasn’t the only thing a seafaring nation needed. Risen Athelia now stretched across the seas, and that meant I needed to be able to create a navy that would protect my waters. The question was how much Earth technology I should use, and how much I should rely on magic, and what form that this navy should take.
Modern naval doctrine focused primarily on carrier groups, with other ships providing escort and defense to the larger ships. This was because of the way air power had changed warfare forever during the twentieth century. Another factor in why carrier groups were favored over other formations was force projection. It was easier to send a flight of bombers to destroy a target overseas than it was to commit ground forces, but bombers did not have infinite range, which is why they used carriers as way to strike deeper than one could get from an airbase on the ground. Especially if the country that air base was in didn’t like the politics of you destroying targets from inside their borders.
However, that really wasn’t an issue for me. I was not interested in playing world police, so there was no reason for me to build up that kind of force projection capability. And, if someone pissed me off to the point I thought making an example was worthwhile, then I had no problem sending an undead dragon to make people understand that annoying me was an incredibly bad idea. Ideas of ‘reciprocity’ and ‘mutually assured destruction’ only mattered when there was anything that someone could do to hurt you, or where destruction didn’t actively add to my power, since anyone who died in an attack on Athelian soil would rise again to make the ones who attacked pay. Especially if that meant sending undead troops against the country they served in life.
So, what would my navy be for, if not projecting power across the world? The primary needs were scouts, transports, and defense against aquatic threats. Sure, there was some danger from other countries and their navies, but my main concern was aquatic creatures, and pirates. And modern jet fighters and bombers were ill-suited for those kinds of threats. Helicopters were a potential answer, but you ran back into the fuel concerns, again.
Fortunately, I did not need to do all the brain work myself. After all, I had a lot of very intelligent people working for me, some of whom had been conducting military affairs since before I was born. So, I put together a simple list of requirements, involving the intended threat types, and the need to be as independent as possible when it came to fuel, and favoring tactical mobility over strategic mobility. Strategic mobility wasn’t an issue, since a different form of the magic which allowed teleportation could open portals large enough for a fleet to pass through. Assuming you had the power to fuel the spells, of course. But that needed either a very powerful mage, or ritual magic, which were options Risen Athelia had that other countries didn’t, yet.
Two competing proposals came to me, one from the AMRC, and the other from the Athelian Spire. Unsurprisingly, both recommendations used ideas drawn from the recent advancements made in the country. However, they both went in different directions.
The AMRC proposal used airships possessing the same armor and shield capabilities as the new cargo ships, which helped offset the dangers of having a lighter-than-air craft getting punctures in the thing which made it lighter than air. As far as maneuverability went, the four mana engines which each operated independently gave it the potential to turn on a dime, and move at a fair pace (130 kmh) around a target area, but it certainly wasn’t getting from, say, Tokyo to Beijing in four hours, which was roughly the length of time a passenger jet took for the trip, and certainly wasn’t anywhere in the neighborhood of a military jet’s speed.
This design was armed with four dual-mounted machine gun turrets as point defense, and it had a passive camouflage ability that allowed it to blend in with the sky around it, as well as emission absorbing enchantments, giving it the radar cross-section of a sparrow. But its primary ‘weapons’ were drones and the strike teams that could deploy from it. Well, technically the airship’s primary weapon was the large cannon at the bow based on the ‘spellgun’ designs I’d made, allowing it to either fire imbued ammunition, or spells. However, there was a limit to how much ammunition the big gun could carry without throwing off weight calculations, and charging the gun for using spells was not going to be something non-mages could do quickly, or often. Still, a giant ‘fuck you’ gun was always a nice way to send a message, even if you only fired it a couple times.
Looking at it objectively, this airship design was perfect for pirate hunting, long-range reconnaissance, and infiltration. A portal could drop one of these airships off, near the border (or over it, if necessary), and the stealthy nature of the airship would allow it to slip away, heading wherever it was needed, and then deploying drones or special forces to deal with threats. And over the open ocean, they could hunt pirates, tracking them back to their base, and then descending from above to wreak havoc. Definitely a keeper, but not really ‘face of the navy’ material.
On the other hand, the Athelian Spire proposal was much more… traditional. As in, almost age of sail traditional. The design was a two-masted ship made of steel. It had armor, shield, and the wind elemental enchantments of the cargo ships, as well as the same redundant propulsion systems, though adjusted to military power, and capable of being run while under sail, allowing it to temporarily reach speeds of 30 knots. Additional enchantments added enhanced stability. And, of course, it had modern sensors, including radar and sonar.
For weapons, the ship boasted turrets fore and aft, each with two fifty-centimeter guns, capable of firing normal (or imbued) ammunition, or spells. The ammunition stores for each turret were increased by spatial enchantments, much like my dimensional storage, powered by the ambient mana. If the ambient mana were cut off, it would still have limited ammunition in ‘real space’, and the ability to fire spells, but obviously things would not be up to full speed. Three machine gun mounts on each side of the ship provided some point defense, and there were crows nests atop the masts, where marksmen with spellguns could have their say.
It also had a single gundeck, with thirty guns, giving them fifteen guns on a side, in addition to the turrets with the main guns. They were only capable of firing 5kg projectiles, and their spell shots were half the strength of the main guns, but they could fire more quickly, and volley fire still meant something, even in modern times. And spells didn’t need to be aimed directly in order to hit.
According to the proposal, this was for a corvette, a smaller ship, but the main guns could reach over the horizon with regular ammunition, and the enchanted cannons on the broadside could hit up to two kilometers away with physical ammunition. Of course, with spells, all the guns could hit anywhere between the ship and the horizon, including under the water, if they had a good enough sonar reading. It may be classed as a corvette, but the ship was a beast. Perfect as the start for my new navy.
I wondered what the Athelian Royal Navy’s battleships would look like, when we eventually got around to making them.
Chapter 180 – New Blood
My crafters were nearing the end of their progression to Master Enchanters. It had been five years since I started training them. By their current progress, I figured that they had a year or two left before they would be ready to place their own runes in the Rune Dictionaries, and become Master Enchanters.
Naturally, I did not want Athelian Arms to lose all its current crafting staff at once. That would cause an unacceptable drop in output before new crafters could be brought up to speed, after all. Instead, I decided to take on a second round of crafters. It was a good precedent to set now, for the future. Each time one of my people grew close to earning their Mastery, I would bring in a new student in their field.
When I put out a notice that I would be accepting new enchanting students, I had expected a veritable avalanche of applications, and I was not disappointed. Even with the entry requirements of an individual already being a master of their chosen craft, and their needing to come to Japan, and work in my studio until I released them, there was no shortage of applicants. After all, even though the basics of enchanting were getting out into the world, now, thanks to Phantomline, and the Athelian Spire had basic courses on imbuing and enchantment, everyone knew that those who learned from me, directly, were probably the best mortal enchanters out there, and they wanted to be part of that legacy.
Naturally, narrowing the list down to just a few names was a difficult task. I decided that, for now, I would go with a set of seven new students, just as I had seven in the first group. Likewise, I would try and get people from the same fields as my current students, so that there would be some contiguity. And, of course, I would pull students primarily from Risen Athelia, the EAA, and other friendly countries.
Etena Maiava was a master woodworker and sculptor from Athelian Samoa. She worked primarily in traditional styles, but was not limited to such works. At 26, she was young for a master crafter, but she had been training with woodworking and carving since she was twelve, so it wasn’t like she hadn’t put the work in. I was interested to see what new perspectives she would bring to the studio.
Mana Ano was a master glassworker and artist from Hawai’i. He did both glassblowing as well as making stained glass pieces. His influences were primarily native Hawai’ian and American or European in nature, which gave his work a different feel from the work of Fujii Shihi, my current glassworker. That was more than acceptable, of course. Being exposed to different styles and influences would improve the work of both crafters.
Yu Jun hailed from Shenzen, in Imperial China. He was a blacksmith, but focused primarily on traditionally-forged swords and other weapons of that sort. That provided a nice contrast to Dennis Kant’s traditional German blacksmithing style, and I was interested to see what they would come up with in collaboration, or competition.
