3 Spaceship Construction Research Group Part 1

At 0900 sharp of the next day, Linneia waited for her team inside of Roland's new study. She stood quietly beside the sitting ancestor king, just like a competent assistant.

Her nervousness from yesterday's news has dissipated. Her mind was sharp again after a day of rest and focus. She spent the rest of her time formulating a proposal filled with action items they needed to complete.

Roland was reading through the proposal seriously on a tablet-like device mounted on his table. He just finished reviewing the list of witches and their corresponding abilities in the Witch Union file.

The number of witches joining the union was very high, a few thousand, to date.

They have been segregated systematically according to their type, affinity, power level, and the number of times their magic core being evolved. As usual, the number of assistant witches was three fold higher than combat witches which delighted Roland immensely. They were the backbone that propelled the prosperity of Grayscale Empire on a high-speed railway track.

[This girl has a bright future. Her mind operated well like a conventional scientist.] He nodded satisfactorily with the tabulated list and proposal.

A knock resounded on the door.

"Come in." Roland responded.

"Your Majesty Ancestor King!" A group of ten witches curtsied together neatly.

Linneia took a step forward and turned around to face her ancestor confidently.

"I proposed two main methods for space travel. We will divide the team to two; the first team will be the Spaceship Construction Research Group, while the latter will be the Interstellar Gate Research Group as written in the proposal." Linneia explained to Roland.

"And what is the relevance for making two groups for this?" Roland tested Linneia's competency while he probed the witches in front of him with his mental powers.

To his surprise, all the witches in this group had a second or third level of evolved magic core although the majority looked barely twenty. As his empire grew larger and stronger by the day, the education level of the citizens of his empire has grown higher and higher. This proved to be very beneficial towards the evolution of the witches' magic core as they understood their own gifts at a deeper level with the help of the advance knowledge.

"We have been focusing on development for the betterment of the empire and its citizens. Although we haven't branched out towards space exploration, preliminary research has been conducted with minimal funding. Namely, we already have a series of flying vehicles in operation for military and public use in the last ten years ago."

Linneia walked respectfully to the front of Roland's study, took a flat circular metallic device from behind her neck, and placed it on top of the table. The metallic device floated five inches above the table and produced a 3D hologram diagram of flying aircrafts and hover cars of differing models with their specifications.

She attached a metallic skeletal glove on her hands and started to turn the diagrams in 360 degrees. She zoomed in a couple of specifications which she thought was the best among the best designs.

"Besides that, innovation on space storage had been successful since three centuries ago. Recently, there has been a breakthrough in the space storage technology where we can store living things inside." Linneia recapped all the notable advancement that occurred during her great grandfather's absence.

The diagram of 3D vehicles disappeared and were replaced by a row of circular white objects with a single gray button at the middle each.

After the button of the first object was pressed by Linneia, the scenery showed row after row of wheat field in a vast space cultivated under artificial light and sprinklers.

She pressed a button of the next circular white object beside it. The scenery was the same, but the fields were replaced with corn.

Roland was truly intrigued. They have really come far.

Afterwards, Linneia introduced the witches one by one to Roland.

"The core of the hovering vehicle has been developed by Anya, one year after she became a witch and evolved her magic core for the first time. Her gifts evolved into an affinity towards mechanical restructuring with a auxiliary power of mechanical mind; simply put, she could talk with machines and resonates to each parts individually or as a whole so she never make mistakes in designing and assembling to date. This was eleven years ago."Linneia gestured Anya to come forward.

A beautiful lady in her early twenties with silver gray hair and purple iris came forward to greet Roland. She was the definition of a northern beauty. She wore a standard high ranking military uniform with a midi skirt while her hair was tucked in a neat bun. She saluted Roland using the standard military salute.

"Anya is the best flying engine core designer that we have. Currently, she is working on a dreadnought level engine for military purposes. Because her work was 80% done, a spaceship for intergalactic travel might be done before the interstellar gate. So, I believe we should give her a chance to modify her design to fit our criteria and proceed with manufacturing after reviewing."

Roland nodded with the lengthy explanation.

"Just being able to fly is not enough, how about speed? If the spaceship was too slow, we will still die before we could exit the solar system." Roland voiced his concern. He was hoping for a clean and simple teleportation device rather than a spaceship.

"What I can see, the flying vehicles can only move within the atmosphere. You do know, space has different characteristics compared to the planet's atmosphere." Roland spoke his mind.

"That is why we have Zaleha over here." As Anya stepped back, a sweet girl with milk-coffee colored skin and big brown doe eyes came forward and curtsied Roland again. A slightly wavy hair was loosely tied beneath both of her ears into twin-tails enhancing her natural beauty. She wore a loose beige blouse with a long dark brown skirt.

[Ah..a southern Asian beauty. Truly a feast to the eyes. So exotic.] Roland suddenly remembered a short vacation to the southeast Asian region he had taken during his university year before he transmigrated. It was too long ago but still fresh in his mind due to his unusually strong mental powers. Her ancestors must've originated from the southern desert clans and had migrated to Neverwinter during his previous conquest for petroleum.

"Zaleha, or we usually called her Zac is a speed specialist. Any moving object she touched will be increased or decreased in speed at her will. She can even magnetize her gift on an item so that it could keep the needed speed at a constant rate at prolonged period of time."

Roland was amused. This was just like the Flash, an OP Flash. "How fast can you go at maximum?" He directly asked the witch.

With great composure, she answered confidently. "I don't know, your Highness Ancestor King. I have never tried my hardest. The fastest I have tried was Mach 20."

Roland nearly choked on the tea served to him at that moment. "Really? Can you change direction? How long can the magnetization lasts? Can you do it on a large vessel?" A series of questions spilled from his mouth.

Zac gave the ancestor king an exasperated smile. "Not sure, but we will test it soon. My powers are a bit extreme. I can't go all out since I could accidentally hurt everything in my path. What I'm sure of, Mach 20 was me doing things without even trying."

Linneia added, "Additionally, her auxiliary gift was coupled with titan strength. The magnetized object was automatically strengthened. Even diamond, the strongest mineral present shattered into smithereens when it collided with a nail-sized moving magnetized standard glass ball. Moreover, the strengthening effect is permanent."

Roland's mouth was agape.

[You're pulling my legs! Are you kidding?! This was the definition of a hybrid between The Hulk and The Flash.]

He could see the positive outcome for the spaceship construction research team. He understood what Linneia wanted to tell him.

As long as they could build a functional space vessel with the appropriate speed, they could enhance each vessel using Zaleha's power regardless of the materials they use. What they truly needed to do was to test the efficacy of the enhanced vessel in space as well as the limit of her power.

His eyes sparkled as he can already see the light at the end of the tunnel.