Ch 3. Magitech Fan

"Phew~~"

Xuyi lets out a long sigh of accomplishment, and puts down the metal file. When he wipes off the sweat on his forehead, only does he realise that his hands are full of oil stain and he had smeared it all over his forehead. He doesn't care much of the stain, and contentedly admires his handiwork.

In front of him sits a misshapened iron lump of a fan. It consists a rectangular base stand, supporting a hollow casing made of sparsely interspaced wires, which encases three equidistantly pivoted blades of a fan.

It took Xuyi half a month just to develop the fan blades. After successfully redesigning a Sigil to power the fan in place of electricity, Xuyi unexpectedly faced a more serious setback----- the metalworking involved with the fan's component parts, which took nearly 80 percent of development time.

It is very hard to model his fan according to what he has seen on Earth, because there is no suitable plastics or alloy crafting technology. The only available alternative is ironware.

On top of that, the craftmanship in this world is a far cry from the finesse he has gotten used. Consequently, the prototype of the fan extremely crude, almost ugly.

This is only the first prototype... it needs not be perfect, it only needs to function well enough," Xuyi shrugs, and consoles himself.

After some final inspections, he picks up a slightly murky, thumb-sized power crystal, and carefully inserts it into the power socket, and slips the lid on. This simple process has him drenched in sweat. 

He wipes his face with a handkerchief, hesitates briefly, and presses the power switch.

"Clack!" 

Xuyi immediately senses the flow of magic from within the fan, and a few seconds later, a pale green radiance slips through the cracks on the fan.

Xuyi perks up, and nervously fixates on the fan blades. A little while later, the fan blades vibrates a bit, and began to slowly rotate.

At first, the blades rotate very slowly. But it gradually picks up speed, and eventually the three blades blurs into a circular disc. Wisps of breezy wind, which billows Xuyi's robe, gave him a refreshing reprieve from the summer's heat. Xuyi silently enjoys the pleasant breeze and the sense of accomplishment. 

Moments later he waves his fists in the air like a madman.

I did it!

###

Xuyi's colleagues eyes him curiously. What's with him today? Smirking like a fool, and cradling a...lump of iron?

"Hey, Xuyi! What's that?" asks Reim, pointing at the magitech fan, unable to contain his curiousity.

"Oh, this is a magitech fan. I made it in my free time," replied Xuyi.

"Magitech fan?" All his colleagies is more baffled than ever.

Reim glanced at the fan, and tried to check for the slightest flow of magic in the fan, but sensed nothing.

"What does this...magitech fan..thing do?"

Xuyi, does not answer, but placed the magitech fan on a table close to Reim. Then he began, "The heatwave is worsening these few days, isn't it? So I made this fan to let us cool off a bit".

He then jabbed on the power switch.

His colleagues are all wizards, so they can naturally sense the flow of magical energy eminating from the sigil in the fan, but this flow is very weak, so it is clear that a sigil is for a very rudimentary spell.

They were surprised to within see that this stange lump, an even stranger three-leafed clover-shaped object not only began to seemingly move on its own, but is spinning faster and faster.

"Wow!!" Xuyi directed the fan at Reim just now, so he is first to feel the gust of cooling air. He couldn't help blurting out. "This feels good!"

"Is that...breeze?" They notice Reim's robe billowing, and began to gather where Reim is standing.

Upon reaching the front of the fan, they too felt the breeze. Everyone is at least slightly damp from sweat (some are drenched), and upon being brushed by the breeze, they feel a splash of cool.

After while, everyone bursted out with questions.

"Hey, Xuyi, how does this thing move? Is it the sigil?"

"That's not right? I too sensed the sigil activating, but I have never heard of a spell with a rotating effect."

"Then it must be Xuyi who redesigned the sigil. Am I right, Xuyi?"

"You be very good at sigils to perform redesigning. But why is your Wizardry level so low?

...

These experienced wizards direct all their attention on the wizardry side of the magitech fan, and none of them thought of the mechanical principles at work.

This is the case of the traditions in Conaissance Continent. Magic rules. Destructive magic rules. Non-destructive elements of magic was never in mind.

It was Venna who has senses something is off.

"Xuyi, is a power crystal connected to the sigil? Otherwise, how could the sigil maintain the spell for so long?"

"Yes, you are right." Xuyi powers off the fan, and slides the lid off the power socket. He removes the small piece of power crystal, which has lost most of its radiance due to being almost depleted of energy. 

"If I am not mistaken, this power crystal is hardly even a medium-grade?" Venna is quite sure of her appraisal.

"Yeah. I couldn't afford a higher grade power crystal," said Xuyi self-deprecatingly.

Venna asks for the power crystal for a closer inspection, and then pointed at the magitech fan, "If you don't mind, can I disassemble the fan and a look at the sigil?"

Xuyi politely shakes his head, "I can let you disassemble the fan, but to reassemble it is quite difficult." Upon noticing the disappointment in Venna's face, "but you can have a look at my technical design sketches. It includes the sigil design as well."

"Uh..." Venna took some time to ponder, and then resolutely declares: "I'll buy the fan." 

Everyone was shocked by Venna's decision.

"Venna, if you are interested with the sigil's design, didn't Xuyi offered to show you the technical drawing? Why the hassle?" Reim feels that Venna is acting strange.

Venna insists on buying, "It's not the same. Xuyi, state your price."

Xuyi can see that Venna wants to dig deeper into what to her is novel application of wizardry, and to satisfy her obsessive interest in wizardry.

But Xuyi have not thought of a proper price. 

If he only takes material cost into consideration, expense cost is a mere 30 silver for the whole fan's construct; inclusive of the wooden base and the metal framing. Labour costs, for the forger and blacksmith stands at below 1 silver.

But the most significant cost is for R&D.

More than half a month of Xuyi's idle time, was poured into this project. He had went through over a hundred pieces of paper designing and redesigning the perfectly functioning Sigil.

The structural design of the fan incorporates  Earth's modern technology, which is nonexistent and invaluable here in Conaissance Continent.

"What's taking you so long, This is just a piece of iron, how much could it worth. Since Venna likes it, just ask for a token price. I'll pay for her." urges Reim impatiently.

Venna shoots a glance at Reim, but says nothing. Although she is very interested with this magitech fan, but she expects to pay but a few silver for it.

Xuyi raised two fingers and said, "Two gold coins." Xuyi decides to treat the prototype as a merchandise, and discounts the R&D costs.

He is sure that Venna could not gleam the core structural design from the prototype. All in all, she will not be able to reproduce the fan due to her lack of engineering knowledge.

Xuyi may see the price of two gold coins as a reasonable price, but his colleagues thought otherwise.

"Two whole gold coins?!" Reim waves his arms in exasperation, "Are you crazy, Xuyi? Two gold coins for this ugly lump?" Reim realises he was being rude, and quickly recomposes himself, "I mean, this new creation of yours is a novel one, but i cannot see how it is worth two gold."

All the colleagues chimes in agreement. Venna keeps her silence, but her frown makes her opinion crystal clear.

Xuyi can only sigh helplessly. The people of Connaisance is not accustomed to the concept of artisanship, could not appreciate the fan for its true worth.

Coming from the perspective of a wizard, a level 1 sigil, no matter how cleverly redesigned, could not worth the two gold. But as a professional engineer, he couldn't bear to see the fruit of his research to be humbled by a cheap pricing.

Hence he could only shrug off their critique, "If you will not accept my asking price, let's call off the deal and not take heart of it," he said with a friendly smile. "My initial intention is to share my invention, and make our workplace more comfortable. It is just too hot in here."

Just as Venna is about to bargain for a lower price, a lucid voice cuts in, "Two gold coins. Consider it yours!"