The next day...
After celebrating the birth of Carla and Bella, Ben trained in the cave again with Bella watching him from the sidelines. Wendy is still absent, as she wants to continue playing with Carla. Then when training was done, Ben returned to the village with a surprise in store for him.
"A car?" Ben asked, dumbfounded.
What Ben saw in the village was a strange green four-wheeler. It looks like a car, but the front seat was open, while the back seat is covered. The design made it look like a carriage without horses rather than a car.
"This is a magic four-wheel vehicle, a type of transportation for mages. It uses a mage's magic power as fuel to run." Roubaul explained.
"Where did you get this?" Ben asked.
"I told you my friends will help us. Do you want to try it?" Roubaul asked him.
Ben nodded and got into the driver's seat. Roubaul explained the mechanism and he listened carefully. He wasn't that impressed with the energy source though. If a mage needed to use their magic power as fuel, then wouldn't they run out of magic power for battle?
"Hmm, maybe I should learn this thing's mechanism and modify it. Maybe I'll even be able to create a new one requiring actual fuel instead of a mage's magic power.
"Hmm, can I use lacrima crystals instead? It has ethernano in it, right?" Ben whispered.
He knew a lot about automobiles as it was a hobby of his back on earth. Actually, his dad was a mechanic and he learned about cars throughout his childhood. They had a small workshop and his brother inherited it after his dad retired.
Ben quickly adapted to the magic vehicle and took Wendy, Bella and Carla for a ride. They tried it for a few minutes before returning to the village. Ben was exhausted from his training, so he wasn't able to drive for long due to his low magic power.
"This uses too much magic power for a short drive. I really need to learn about this thing and modify it. Who knows I might be able to use my hobby in this new world? This will be fun." Ben grinned.
He likes automobiles, but he will only work on them in his free time. He knew training was important, so he can't neglect it for this project. Besides, he has something that will help him learn about the car faster.
"A.I Chip, can you help me learn the mechanisms faster?" Ben asked the A.I.
[I can, but you need to flow your magic power throughout the car so I can scan all the details and make the blueprint with all the parts' details.]
"Hmm, that will need some magic power, let's do it tomorrow." Ben stated.
Ben decided to scan the car the next day. He did it after going hunting, so he would still have magic power for that. He has no idea how much magic power he'll need for scanning it, so he needed to prepare.
"Let's start." Ben's magic power flowed through the car.
[Scanning started]
Ben's magic power flowed through the car for 5 minutes before it stopped.
[Scan complete! Constructing blueprint...complete! Transferring blueprint copy to brain!]
Ben received the blueprint from A.I Chip and realized the biggest problem at the moment.
"It uses magic power to spin the wheel directly using spells attached to some lacrima. There is no gear at all to reduce the needed energy. A.I Chip, can you make any possible upgrade to the machine using all my knowledge?" Ben asked.
[Yes, process will take a few hours for all possible upgrades.]
"Okay, let's train while it's processing." Ben said.
Ben uncovered more features thanks to A.I Chip. It's more like his 2nd brain with a computer ability, so he's able to multi-task with it. A.I Chip has all his memory and knowledge, so it can think like him and understand him. The only difference being A.I Chip has fast computation and his brain won't be able to catch up with that.
"Hmm, I also need to ask gramps how to absorb energy from lacrima." Ben muttered.
He immediately went to find Roubaul and ask him about it. Luckily he knew just how to do that, and Ben noted all of it with his A.I Chip. There are some methods that Roubaul shared with him and he put all those methods into equations with his upgrade plan.
Ben left the process to A.I Chip and went to train. It would take several hours for A.I Chip to finish that due to all of the data. The process was completed the next day before Ben went to the cave to train with Bella following him.
He focused on his training. After returning to the village, he finally looked at all the possible upgrades. He looked at all the models and it took 4 hours before he found the 3 best models.
"I will make three prototypes on Sunday after I purchase milk." Ben noted.
Sunday
Ben went to buy the milk with the girls in the village. Roubaul gave them some money to buy as much milk as they can. They did what Roubaul asked, and filled their car with milk.
"How will we return? There's nowhere to sit down." Wendy asked him.
"Just sit on my lap and the cats will sit on your lap." Ben answered.
"Ooh, as I expected of Ben nii-san, so smart." She praised him.
"Of course." Ben had a smug grin on his face.
He sat in the driver's seat while Wendy sat on his lap. Then Ben strapped the seat belt over them for safety. For the cats, Wendy will hold them as they're light and they can fly, so they won't fall out.
After returning to the village, they placed the milk in the cold storage room. Then Ben commenced his project to create the prototype. He used wood instead of metal because it was just a prototype.
Roubaul was interested in his project and decided to help out. With the old man's assistance, the work went a lot faster. They finished all 3 prototypes before night time. It's a lot faster than what Ben predicted to be completed in a week. Roubaul was a expert on crafting magic items.
They immediately tried the 3 prototypes out and they all work. Roubaul and Ben were really excited now because these 3 models can be used. They ran the 3 for an hour and noted their results.
"Hmm, they are all good machines, a lot better than the original. But they all have different characteristics." Roubaul noted.
"Of course, they're built differently." Ben told him.
His concept was based on 3 different cars.
1. The first was based on a petrol fueled car, the classic type. It used a weak explosion spell to push the pistons, so it created a petrol fueled car's sound.
2. The second was based on a electric car, so it didn't have any sounds.
3. The third is the upgraded version of the original magic car. Ben used gears to reduce the energy needed to spin the wheel, so it can run longer with the same amount of energy.
"As I thought the classic car's sound is always good. The electric car is always good for the environment, but this car uses magic, so it won't really affect the environment. I guess I'll use the 1st model." Ben declared.
"I never expected you to be able to create these 3 concepts in such a short amount of time and they all work. You even modified the magic absorption spell from the lacrima to be a lot better. Maybe you should stop being a Dragon Slayer and become a magical craftsman instead." Roubaul said.
"No way. I like vehicles, but I don't plan on focusing on them." Ben responded.
"Well that's up to you. So which one will you use?" Roubaul asked.
"The 1st one, but I also want to make the other 2. It's just that I don't have the money to build them. Maybe I would if you allowed me to take jobs outside the village." Ben tried to persuade Roubaul.
"No, you can only do it after Wendy turns 7 years old like we decided. So it will be next year when you're 12." Roubaul reminded him.
"Come on gramps, I want to see the world too." Ben complained.
"No, if you go to see the world, then you need to take Wendy with you, so she at least needs to be 7. Do you want to leave her here without knowing the world while you know it?" Roubaul asked.
"Fine. I'll just train to become stronger so I can protect her." Ben sighed in defeat.
"Good, that's what you should do as her big brother figure. And as for money, how about I show these to my friends? They'll surely come up with a way to turn these into money." Roubaul said.
"You want to sell the concepts?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, we will patent them under your name, so you can continue getting money from the loyalty fee." Roubaul answered.
"Ooh, that's a good idea. Then I'll leave it to you." Ben replied.
"Alright, just focus on your training." Roubaul instructed.
After that, he finally had his concept, so he would be able to construct his own car. Now he just needed to wait for from selling the concept and buy the materials.
"He he, this will be fun." He smirked.