A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 576 The Heavenly Ladder is Ready

"Holy crap!" some of the Sky Knights members blurted out, only managing to suppress their exclamations after receiving a death stare from Tanya.

Witnessing your own 20-meter iron ring explode in mid-air is a very rare thing.

It's pretty cool, saves me the trouble of having to fly it out and dismantle it later.

Fortunately, there were enough spellcasters present to successfully control the situation; otherwise, all eight heavy-duty airships and one carrying air knights would have been destroyed at once, and the twenty-meter diameter ring device would have ended its existence as shotgun pellets.

"Control and tracking team, adjust the test vehicle's attitude and attempt recovery. The first segment of the Sky Ladder Ring is disintegrating. Repeat, the first segment is disintegrating. Safety team, activate contingency plan."

"Received by the monitoring and control team."

"Security team received."

Failure is normal during the testing phase. After all, this is entirely Rorschach's wild idea, and every step must be 99.9% certain. Any mishap could cause the entire system to explode.

The "Sky Ladder" project team at the space center recovered the exploded test ring. Although it had undergone several modifications and optimizations, it unfortunately failed the test when it reached the high-speed vehicle testing phase.

Next came the part where the design team was sweating profusely, with several mages and engineers discussing things together:

"At the moment of charging, all lines and circuits will be filled with magic with extremely high energy density. Because the teleportation array is activated for a very short time, it will be working at full capacity before it reaches a steady state."

"We might need to find a way to incorporate a pre-charge phase to passivate the instantaneous power 'peak'."

The above was based on the dwarven engineers' assessment of the working conditions. The mage from the Tower of Stars suggested other possible factors that could cause the teleportation ring to disintegrate:

"Due to the high-speed passage of the aircraft, the effects of spatial distortion may have exceeded our expectations. Although the details of the entire component under the potential field are still unclear, it is certain that there was a moment when enormous stress was transmitted within the component, tearing the support structure apart."

Their analysis was very logical and they even presented fragmented samples for analysis, which was quite convincing.

"Well said." After patiently listening to the design team's reflections, Luo Xia offered his valuable opinion: "Why weren't these factors considered before testing?"

"Well"

"Um"

Facing the "excellent tower friend," the mage of the Tower of Stars forced a smile and argued, "Actually, we did consider that, but during the actual testing, all the indicators exceeded our expectations, both good and bad."

The second valuable suggestion came: "Then why not conduct a real load test on the ground first? We could easily build a horizontal teleportation array on the ground and then launch simulated aircraft from it, right?"

"Yes, why didn't you think of that?"

So you call it "Heavenly Ladder Ring Staircase"? You're all so single-minded, only thinking about going to heaven, huh? Luo Xia wanted to say more, but in the end, he held back: "Never mind, I haven't been following up on the project lately, and I've been under a lot of pressure. You've all worked hard, please keep up the good work."

However, he added, "The engine project team even knows to conduct ground testing."

The dwarf engineer immediately chimed in, "Didn't they say the test vehicle almost flew off the ground?"

"You think you can hear anything? You think you can talk?!" This dwarf was brutally beaten up by his colleagues in the design team.

After testing and improvements, the project continued.

The new design passed ground testing and was subsequently tested in the air. This time, it was a teleportation ring system with two doors, one for entry and one for exit.

Unfortunately, doors cannot be stacked together; this is a consensus among all mages with common knowledge of spatial magic: never pass through two portals at the same time.

The airship's maximum altitude is approximately 15 kilometers, enough only to support the first ring of steps. However, that's sufficient; the construction of the "sky ladder" proceeded smoothly, like stepping on the right foot with the left:

The heavy-duty aircraft starts from the first ring step, releases the second ring step at a position about fifty kilometers above, and then releases the third ring step from the second ring step.

To meet the demands, the Sky Knights received a new mission. The instructor told them, "You have passed the required training and successfully mastered the assembly and disassembly of the first level. But an even greater test lies ahead."

"The good news is that the next task only requires installation, not dismantling. The bad news is that your working conditions will be even worse than they are now."

From the second ring stage onwards, they can be barely considered to be in low Earth orbit, where they neither need nor can they possibly rely on airships for support.

They will float in the air for extended periods with the support of the [Hovering] component, and will activate their engines to adjust their attitude and lift off as they descend.

The Sky Knights' equipment was also upgraded to that of Space Knights, who wore bulky protective suits.

Simply say, "Mage, I want to be an astronaut," and the mage will grant you your favorite [Resist Otherworldly Damage], [Elemental Resistance], [Protection from Energy Damage], and [Stone Skin].

They carried a bunch of scrolls and activated them one by one, then, with the help of others, put on their cumbersome uniforms. The Stone Skin spell caused a slight numbness in the extremities of the Sky Knights members, and combined with the heavy protective suits, they were really not very agile.

"With so much protection, what's the point of having these clothes?" someone complained.

The person in charge heard the complaint and glared at the guy: "There are so many protective effects, and the duration of each effect is different. I don't know if there are any conflicts when the effects are stacked together."

"And what Master Rorschach said, that oxygen, anyway, it's something you need to breathe, it doesn't exist in the sky, so we have to put it in your backpack, and this clothing can't leak air, it's so expensive."

"If you think you're absolutely sure, you can just not wear anything after you finish rolling it up."

"That's alright, I'll put it on, I'll put it on right now."

Originally, all the magic arrays should have been integrated into the protective suit, but unfortunately, due to time constraints, there wasn't enough time to design the circuits, so we'll just leave it like this for now. Anyway, the time spent working outside won't exceed five minutes.

After creating a micro-weightless environment in the stasis field and water, they hurriedly got to work. The first ring lit up, and the small rocket shot out, reaching the predetermined altitude almost instantly.

The side nozzles begin to spin, and the steel cables, pulled by the counterweights, unfurl to form a supporting mesh structure in a 20-meter diameter ring. Once fully deployed, an enchantment will harden and fix it in place.

Then the components and (space) knights were released and began to assemble at the edge of the support net.

This process is repeated eight times in four groups, until the final five-level teleportation ring is ready.

"Time's up, begin recovery." The aircraft issued a notification, and the winch began to turn, pulling the riders back to the crew cabin.

At this moment, they were hundreds of kilometers above the ground, with clouds beneath their feet and the magnificent metamorphic dust streams and the starry sky refracted by them above their heads.

Through the glass enclosure, Tanya opened her eyes wide, wanting to linger a little longer at this unforgettable spectacle.

(End of this chapter)