"A little adjustment here… And there… And finally, my latest invention is complete!"
Promestein moved back as she invited her fellow scientists to see her latest invention for themselves. Chrome, Lily and Lucia got closer to try to identify which item was it amongst the numerous curios and tools that were covering the workbench.
"Mmh. I admit, this new magic-powered fire makina seems interesting. Although its range seems short for fighting, it could be useful to melt down small metallic parts."
Promestein sighed. "I'm not talking about the wielder. I'm talking about this!"
She pointed to a metallic pair of shoes. Her three fellow scientists twisted and turned around to try to see what the particularity of this piece of equipment was without touching it, lest it would risk exploding in their face.
"Soooo, it's a pair of shoes made of metal. Do they protect more than those with Rainbow Crystal?"
"No, their protective abilities are currently slightly subpar. It is an issue I intend to change with the next version. In any case, the uniqueness of these shoes doesn't rely on this aspect."
"I suppose it has to do with the holes behind them?" Lucia pointed to the back of the shoes.
"Precisely!" Promestein smiled enthusiastically. "I had taken a few minutes to consider what took us the most times during our adventures… The answer was obvious from the get go: We spend almost two third of our time travelling! I decided to search for ideas on how we could decrease this time by a great deal, and here is the solution!" She gestured to her rocket shoes once again. "I estimate we would be able to move around ten times faster, and since we would also dodge encounters by virtue of being too fast to get caught, we would also gain even more time by avoiding all bandits and monsters that try all too regularly to attack us as well!"
"There's only one pair and we're always at least four though…"
"Thanks you for your intervention Chrome…" Promestein glared at the small necromancer who ignored her, still too focused on the shoes. "Theses shoes are currently an untested prototype. As they're slightly expensive to produce, I want to test them to see how effective they actually are."
"I'm too afraid to ask, but how do they work exactly?"
"It's simple! They use the wearer's mana as fuel to propel themselves, and are activated simply by stomping three times on the ground! If you don't have any more questions, I will test- have someone test them!"
The angel scientist stepped away so fast and so energetically with her new creation in hand that none of her colleague had the time to stop her, leaving only an empty hallway to answer Chrome's next question.
"And how do they stop?"
Promestein was now walking through the hallway of the Pocket Castle in desperate search of a volunteer to test her invention. The first resident she encountered was Succubus. Promestein didn't even consider asking her to be her test subject, as the succubus could naturally fly which would decrease the interest in her invention. Besides, the nymphomaniac monster was a bit of a disaster when it came to dealing with makinas, and had more often than not a tendency to make them explode.
After a minute of search, she stumbled on Kitsu. The two-tailed, kunoichi in training was in a deep discussion with Rami as the latter was counting tales of her past adventures with her friends while she herself was recalling good times at the Kitsune School. Sensing an opportunity as the duo was alone and isolated, Promestein got closer. She just hoped that the air-headed kitsune would be smart enough to wear them correctly and follow her instructions…
"Greetings!" Her booming voice surprised the duo who jumped from their chairs, startled. "Would one of you happen to be interested in testing my rocket boots?"
"Sorry! I have to go... huuuuh... I have to go check on Rumi and Rami! I just remembered that they wanted to go to Midas Village to get some milk!"
The small blond imp jumped from her own chair and started running at an impressively high speed toward the exit, confirming Promestein that she wouldn't likely need her invention, and, more importantly leaving her alone with Kitsu. The small fox recoiled uncomfortably when Promestein nearly shoved the boots in her face.
"They'll make you able to run very fast! Don't you want to try them?"
"Huuuh… No, thanks… I just remembered I have some important stuff to do…"
"But what could be more important than making science progress?!"
"Training."
Promestein jumped in surprise and turned to see two yellow eyes hidden behind a mask itself barely an inch from the face of the scientist.
"We're supposed to have a hiding exercise with Nanabi in Yamatai. She would be quite displeased if she learned that one of our younger trainee is away because a scientist needed her for her experiments."
Minamo's cold tone intimidated the angel scientist who was now stumbling to find her words in front of the red kitsune kunoichi that was standing proudly in front of her, her arms crossed.
"Ah, uuuh, well, in that case, I don't suppose you…" Promestein looked at the kitsune's feet and was greeted by the sight of two fox-like paws. It was only at that precise moment that she realized one of the major issue with her plan, namely that her shoes could only fit people who had human feet, and only one precise size. She looked up again to see Minamo's enigmatic glare. She wanted to say something, but in front of the kunoichi's intimidating presence, she excused herself and ran away with both kitsunes gazing at her back, boots still in hand.
"Sooo-"
Kitsu was interrupted by a loud grumbling noise that escaped from her senior's stomach. The latter was holding her composure and remained immobile, but Kitsu could see a bead of sweat running down on her cheek.
"No, I didn't skip my breakfast this morning because I wasted too much money in attempts to create a kudagitsune again."
The silver fox refrained from commenting and proceeded to pull out her own purse. It looked like she had to support her senior once again…
Promestein was walking in the lobby of the castle when she got approached by Melk. The slug girl was curious about the contraption that was present in Promestein's hands, and while the angel did recognize that she could use the speed boost, she was also forced to accept that there was no way for the slug to equip them. After an awkwardly long moment, she decided to revise her strategy to find volunteers, and left a note on the board.
"Need people with two feet to test boots to move around extremely fast. Come see me at my laboratory."
The next day, she reaped the fruit of her labor as several monsters arrived to offer their help, as well as an anonymous letter from someone who accused her of being a segregationist against people that had more than two feet.
An hour or so later, she was outside in the desert in the middle of the Safina region and accompanied by Eva. She was surprised to see the succubus interested in her creation, and she suspected that the latter only wanted to see if she could sell it herself for a good amount of money. Still, after spending a minute complaining that the shoes were too small and grumbling all the while, Eva had Promestein's invention at her feet, ready to be used.
"So, to activate it, you need to jump three times."
Eva looked quizzically at Promestein, wondering if she wasn't mocking her before noticing that she was still wearing her usual absent expression. She jumped three times with much difficulties, but the shoes didn't activate.
"No, faster. You have to skip more than jump actually."
"Hurgh, they weigh a ton! Couldn't you have made them lighter?"
"It's a prototype. I must first see if they effectively work."
"…Wait, they won't explode in my face, will they?"
"No! Since when did my inventions explode?!"
"Since you tried upgrading Mei's cleaning makina. And fixing that automatic arbalest. And-"
"Okay, I got it, I'm sure they won't explode!"
Probably.
Maybe.
I have no idea actually.
"Now, please try activating them!"
Eva sighed and skipped three times. When she finished skipping, the boots spurted anticlimactically…
…Before propelling Eva at high speed. Promestein realized that she had forgotten to take the mass distribution into account when she saw that the succubus was bent backward by the propulsion force. Her change of position modified the trajectory of the boots, and after a few seconds, she was spinning uncontrollably in every direction, crying as loudly as her lungs allowed her to.
"HOOOW DO YOU STOOOOOOP?"
It's only when Eva screamed that Promestein realized another flaw with her design. She completely forgot that people would want to stop once they reached their destination.
"It will stop once you'll run out of mana! Use magic to deplete your mana faster!"
Eva casted a few spells, and Promestein could swear that the succubus was trying to aim at her as she kept throwing fireballs around. Eventually, the boots stopped, but not before slamming the succubus at a sonic speed in the ground, creating a large shockwave as she formed a crater in the soft sand.
Feeling slightly concerned, Promestein reached the edge of the large hole to see Eva planted face first into the ground, her head completely swallowed by the sand around her.
"Are you alright?"
A muffled voice answered her. "…I'm going to need a few things: A mermaid to heal me, a large amount of money for damages, a good drink to forget today, and another test subject for your crazy experiments."
Promestein nodded silently as she took down notes. In her enthusiasm, she didn't notice the small, silent form watching them from afar.
At the very least, this one won't be hurt
As her next volunteer, Promestein had chosen Lime, the young-looking slime girl that was almost always hanging out by the entrance of the Pocket Castle. She considered that the morphologic adaptability of the slime would help her fit in the shoes without difficulty, and that should the shoes spin uncontrollably once again, the impact was unlikely to even really hurt her.
However… She had other issues. Promestein wondered if the slime still had the brain of a child or if she was mocking her, but she simply didn't manage to activate the boots no matter how many time the scientist explained her.
"You have to skip three times while wearing the boots."
Promestein mimicked the action by jumping three times on the same spot. Lime repeated the same, but she just expanded her slime and the shoes didn't move an inch in the process.
"No, the boots have to leave the ground each time, slam down, and that three times.
"Wait, I think I got it!"
Promestein was almost elated to see that indeed, Lime jumped with the shoes three times. She was almost ecstatic when she heard the shoes starting. And then she instantly deflated when they flew on their own for a short distance before crashing on the ground. Promestein suddenly felt heavily tired as she looked disappointed at her shoes before she turned toward Lime.
"You can't stay inside the shoes as they move?"
"No, they're flying too fast." Lime slithered to recover the little part of her that remained as the scientist's mind was filling with visions of herself slamming her own head with the shoes repeatedly.
As hindsight was setting in, she started scribbling notes at lightning speed on her pad.
Project Maximum Speed is a ludicrous failure. The shoes can only fit a limited number of monsters. A non-negligible part of those monsters can't use them (slime) or have no reason to use them (succubi). Tests revealed too many adjustments are needed to make the shoes viable to use. Time required estimated at several months before being able to start mass production. Ressources required amounting to five hundred thousand gold. Time spent on project useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless.
"Are you alright?"
Promestein looked up to see Lime's concerned eyes.
"Yes. Let's just forget what happened today and get something to eat."
"Yay! But… The boots?"
Promestein made a dismissive gesture. "They'll be for the first monster that sees them."
As soon as they disappeared, a small brown form showed up, her large green eyes studying the boots that were freshly abandoned. Gnome grabbed them, and checked their insides to try to understand better how they worked, but shrugged when she couldn't understand any of their mechanism. She slowly put them on and used her power over earth to fill them so that they would fit perfectly. She then jumped three times just like the volunteers did, and the boots started.
Gnome was moving at high speed, hovering slightly above the dunes of the desert while keeping her balance. She started moving northward at high speed, continuing even as the dirt plains north of Sabasa disappeared to make way for the sea. She kept charging forward all while hoping that the boots would not randomly give up on her and throw her headfirst in the cold maw of the ocean. After barely a few minutes, she landed on the mountains south of Grangold and stopped pouring mana in the dirt in her shoes, slowing down and eventually stopping. She took a rest and removed the shoes. As she looked at their insides, an idea made its way to her mind. Maybe she could use them to escape Sylph's pranks next time the fairies wanted to play with her…
She put them back on and started moving around the continent to make herself more at ease before starting to make her way back to the Forest of Spirits. It's only when she was hovering over the ocean once again that she noticed that the shoes were unusually hot. The Earth Spirit started to panic but kept going in hope of reaching land. Her hopes were dashed away when the shoes exploded and catapulted her in the sky. Somehow, she landed in the Forest of Spirits head first, and even before she could pull herself from the ground, she knew she was in trouble.
"Yaaaay! Gnomey has come to play with us!"
Promestein sighed as she sat back in front of her workbench. This day was a disappointment and a loss of time… Ah, well, she could still work on creating a new makina. As she checked her table, she noticed wet, metallic scrap that she couldn't remember. It looked like a titan had furiously jammed them into the table. Promestein tried to pull them out, but didn't manage to make them budge an inch before she was forced to call on Lucia to assist her.
"Do you happen to know anything about it? I mean, who could have done that?"
"I have no idea. I can't even tell what this is…" The blue-haired alchemist tried to pull out the scrap with all the might her tentacles afforded her. "And seriously, I wouldn't piss whoever did that! It's embedded in your bench!" She stopped herself and sighed. "Sorry, but you'll have to use a makina to cut it out and to smooth out the table's surface. You haven't any idea who could have done it? I mean, it's a little too violent to be a fairy's prank. I can only think someone has one hell of a grudge against you right now."
Promestein shrugged. "Well, I had Eva's help to test some equipment earlier. But…" She looked at the jammed metallic slabs. "I can't imagine this one coming from her."
"Me neither. I'm out to fetch a plasma scythe. If we calibrate it correctly, we should have no problem removing that metal slab."
Lucia moved away while Promestein scratched her head, still confused about the enigma presented in front of her.
The answer was barely a doorway away, as Gnome was looking at Promestein with evil eyes.