Having fixed up the power to the shop and the cabin, Alex eyed the castle. “We could use a conduit pipe that goes from the power house to the castle, but it might be better to wait for the snow to melt.”

  Alex felt bad for the people that had to dig post holes to move the power lines. It wasn’t very far and they had skills but still. She was very cold in her fur outfit and it made everything more difficult. Zeke and Trudy’s retives didn’t compin. They got it done as quickly as possible.

  In a surprise turn of events, Aqua coaxed Professor Copperpot out of his biohazard hole to help Alex with pnning a mosquito toy airship. The shop was empty so that might have pyed a part in it.

  “I was thinking we could try a rigid frame.” The magical girl showed the sketch to the gnome. “The box of bugs could have a tch on the bottom and it can open up, like dropping bombs.”

  “That could work.” The gnome pondered, possibly to himself. “But the area around here is so cold. What can be done to keep the inside from freezing?”

  “It can be something other than metal.” Alex suggested. “I wish we had access to some lighter metals but it is mostly brass or iron, or that weird heavy metal Merumeru found. Probably would have to use wood for the box. Not exactly sure what to do for a heat source if that’s needed, I’m thinking of clockwork to power some propellers but that won’t really produce heat like an engine would.”

  “My people would be really impressed with some of these pns.” Professor Copperpot nodded. “I don’t think anyone considered making an airship so small that even a gnome couldn’t pilot it. That would be more like a flying golem. But golems are tricky to use for anything but purpose designed tasks.”

  “I’ve never made a golem.” Alex scrunched up her nose. “But I’ll take that as a complement. This is just a prototype pn.”

  Looking at the drawing the gnome asked. “Do you only have one balst tank?”

  “Ballist tank?” Alex blinked. “It is not a submarine.”

  “I’m not an expert on these things.” He waved a hand. “But usually this style of airship has a way to adjust the level. When I was younger I saw this one with float stones that would move depending on how fast it is going or how the weather is. A captain once told me that the worst thing that can happen is for it to list too much. Your balloon designed ship I don’t think would have that problem because it has ropes and is weighted down low, goes slowly but if it is going to go fast this might be a problem. I’m not sure, my kin would be able to tell you better.”

  The gnome looked like he wanted to say more but grimaced when he tried to open his mouth next.

  “Don’t worry.” Alex gave the professor a reassuring smile. “I’m sure this will take a couple tries to get it right. We’ll keep revising it until we get it right.”

  “Thanks.” The gnome looked over his shoulder. “I’m going to head back. I’m looking forward to your prototype.”

  And with that Aqua bid them goodbye and the pair headed back to their little ir by the pond.

  It took Alex another week to sort through ideas and get help from others to throw together a prototype for a toy rigid airship. She made sure to create the airship as cute as possible. There were lots of drawings of happy birds and the propellers were like the submarine remodel shaped like flower petals. They didn’t have access to hydrogen or helium so hot air was the only avaible lighter-than-air gas avaible to them. Using the old candle decorating trick, the vessel had several woven balst tanks that were inside the rigid airframe. Merumeru, who apparently always had pipes stashed in seemingly nowhere, created a multi pipe valve assembly where the balst bag could be selected for the cute candle to fill with gas. They even scoured up some of the float stones that harpy-Alex collected back when they first headed north. Though those alone were not enough to completely counteract gravity. With her momentum enchantment the thing could be powered by winding up a key, then spinning up the fly wheels. They would go for 10 minutes and a complex gearing system could control the speed the craft flew.

  This would be the first powered flight.

  Merumeru wanted to be the pilot. The cockpit was about the same size as her mini-sub so she could fit in there just fine. To help, Alex gave the slime girl a newly created outfit that made her look like a world war 1 ace, with googles, a leather jacket and dark gloves. It likely gave a +3 bonus to piloting, but Alex wasn’t quite sure because the out was too small to test out and she didn’t have a doll that was the exact dimensions of the Merumeru.

  “Let's see her fly.” Fufi flew around in the cold morning on top of the castle.

  “This is something I haven’t seen before.” Grace joined Alex, took a seat to watch and sipped some tea.

  Everyone found a spot by a window. The toy airship got higher and higher after Merumeru lit the candle and it got to the limit of the lines that held it to the nding that they had put together just for this little test.

  Alex and some of the men untied the lines from their moorings and Merumeru pulled the spring loaded winch that pulled them back up to the ship.

  But that is where the trouble started. The winds on the floating isnds were always blowing and she started to drift away. Being prepared, trained, and wearing fancy new clothes, the plumber slime put the propellers into gear. She turned the rudders and ailerons into the wind. This should have worked but the ship was unstable.

  The nose went down, then it overcorrected back up. The reality that a ship like this absolutely had to stay level to have any control at all became obvious. Trying to get to stop wobbling, she overcorrected the rudder and then it started going back and forth as well.

  “Meru!” Merumeru panicked and undid the locking mechanism that kept the lines aloft.

  The lines lowered the center gravity and made the ship stop wobbling as much. She was able to get it back under control and fly it back towards the nding. But the propellers were going a bit too fast and at this point she overshot the spire.

  A pair of fmingos grabbed the lines with their beaks, flying alongside the hard-to-pilot ship.

  With another circle around the castle and a disengagement of clockwork mechanisms after the momentum died out the fmingos pulled the floating ship back towards the nding.

  Merumeru let enough of the hot air out to allow them to pull it back into dock safely.

  “Ruuuu.” Merumeru jumped into Alex’s arms for a hug.

  “I told you it would be a little different than your submarine.” Alex patted her on the head.

  A few more days, a few more tweaks and they got the prototype mosquito airship to a more functional state. The control sensitivity had to be adjusted and the shape needed some tweaking. The valve system needed to be in an easier pce to operate. Buttons, gears, belts and springs got added and several more test flights were done until the little airship that functioned like a carrier craft for mosquitos could handle the wind enough to get going.

  “Meru ru ru ru!” Merumeru spoke into a walky-talky that they had fished out of a box.

  “You doing okay?” Alex stood out in the cold and communicated with the slime girl.

  “Ruuu.” The crackled voice came back.

  “She’s made it to the edge. Currently going 30 knots.” Aqua transted.

  Alex nodded and pressed the talk button. “Can you make your way back okay? How is visibility?”

  “Me me ruuuu me meee.” The slime girl radioed back.

  “Visibility is not great but she can make her way back.” Aqua looked off in the direction she guessed Merumeru was.

  “Slow down and make your way back to the nding.” Alex instructed. “If you get too far out into the clouds it is going to be impossible to tell which way is what.”

  “Ruuu me me ruuu” was the slime girl’s answer.

  “Ah,” Aqua snickered. “She’s following the fmingo so she’s going to be just fine.”

  Merumeru made it back to the castle with no accidents, demonstrating the improved control sensitivity they had worked on for weeks. As the rigid airship approached the designated spire, she skillfully maneuvered the flower-petal propellers to arrest her momentum. She lowered the mooring rope, and Alex, along with several men, caught it to secure the small vessel. They tied the airship off by the mooring line, finally getting the toy airship back into the nding after its most successful powered flight to date.

  A whole floor of the castle was set aside to maintain the little ships. Alex made some more of doll-based conveyor belt assembly lines that ran off of wind up fly wheel momentum enchantments. They could feed metal into them and the dolls would turn them into frames, propellers, or gear shafts. Currently two other of these toy airships y in various states of assembly. Now that they had a working prototype, ramping up production would be the next step. Sadly, Merumeru had run out of pipes that she had stashed in her pipe storage so to complete a second ship they’d have to find more raw materials.

  “Where are we going to find enough resources to actually have a chance to defeat the demon queen?” Alex compined to the small group of people that were slowly milling about.

  Yvne came forward and answered. “Magical girl Alex, war is expensive. This is why humanity decided to give up freedom for a mockery of peace. That being said, the rge steel boxes could be used to finish framing these flying vehicles. Otherwise we’ll need to trade with someone that has a mine.”

  Alex tapped on a piece of metal. “Merumeru found some paldium. There is a portal pipe that goes near where that is.”

  “Meru!” The slime girl commented. “Ruuuuu”

  “She doesn’t like that stuff.” Aqua transted. “Says it is heavy and makes her feel sick trying to turn it into shiny bits.”

  “We could make some toys that can mine it.” Alex considered, visualizing what modern mining equipment looked like.

  “But that would cost more resources.” Yvne mentioned.

  “The st time we did that.” Fufi added, “We used the carriage to carry the ores so it is not something that can be done easily.”

  “I wish I could get some more of these cards.” Alex held up the carriage card and gred at it. “Does anyone know of a dungeon that drops them?”

  “Spacial dungeons sometimes dropped simir items." Aqua pondered the question. “The dungeons have to be charged though. Elven abandoned nds likely would be the pce to try to find one, but if the special mage that kept it going is long gone then the dungeon would have been used up too by looters.”

  “Getting a dungeon made by Luna was such a special blessing.” The bck-haired magical girl crossed her arms. “I wish I could have gotten more out of it, but no use trying to look at what might have been.”

  “Understand the problem is not an easy one to fix.” Yvne expined. “The fact that adding rge loads of ore causes the isnd to start sinking, the way that things used to work was human kingdoms would trade food for gnomish inventions because they are racially advantaged to create those things whereas humans pyed the role of cultivating rge plots of nds on the surface.”

  “Why are gnomes so much better than humans in inventing things?” Alex asked the former baroness.

  “I don’t know all their secrets.” Yvne pauses, considering. “Just that they are longer lived and can get higher levels?”

  Aqua gave her answer. “I’ve heard that they are more racially adapted to living underground. So they live closer to ore and can smelt it underground. But for food they can only get things like fish or fungus so it makes sense to focus on their strengths and trade for things they can’t get as easily.”

  “There is only about a month left of winter.” Fufi waved a wing. “Is there anything else you’d like to prepare while we are here Alex?”

  Alex checked her phone. Apparently she has missed a notification.

  [Toymaking +1]

  “My toymaking leveled up.” Alex showed the notification. “That reminds me, I wanted to try to make a bigger doll, with lots of range of motion.”

  Name: Alex Parker

  Css: Magical Girl

  Level: 7

  Sex: Female

  Race: Human

  Strength: 11

  Constitution: 9

  Dexterity: 17

  Intelligence: 14

  Cuteness: 27

  Skills:

  Cleaning: 4

  Cooking: 2

  Dancing: 2

  Tailoring: 4

  Toymaking: 6

  Feats: Empower Doll

  Crafting: Force Imbuement

  Possess Doll

  Puppet Contingency

  Spells: Animate DollMagical Girl Transformation

  Lesser Grow Pnts

  Traits: Mental Resistance: 4