The New Dark Lord 2: An Isekai Progression Fantasy by Ian B. Urns & A. C. Erinle

Author:Ian B. Urns & A. C. Erinle [Urns, Ian B. & Erinle, A. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2025-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-seven

In hindsight, it really, really had been impulsive to smash his ship into the side of that fortress. Swick had almost known it at the time, however deep his drunken rampage had been, and every passing day after the incident only made it more overwhelmingly apparent to him just how great an error he’d made.

Skyships were a technology beyond virtually anything else. Few could repair one, and virtually none could build a new one from scratch. Shaiagrazni had seemed to consider them primitive things.

Well screw him, because apparently he needed this piece of primitive technology. Swick just had to get it off the ground again.

“Your thrust is fine,” the engineer told him calmly. “Better than fine, actually. Whoever worked on it last did a good job. But there’s something off still.”

“I know there’s something off still,” Swick snapped. When he’d tried to last take the ship off the ground, it had worked. For all of a second. Then the poor thing had started rocking, shivering, shaking. It had been all he’d been capable of just to plant it back down before it shot off in one direction and rammed another fucking building.

And he still didn’t know why. Thus the engineer.

“I think it’s with the vectoring,” the man continued, apparently heedless of Swick’s irritation. He was a tall man, taller even than Swick, and kept his face concealed behind one of those masked cowls so popular in the east. Nonetheless, the occasional flash of bronze skin was easily visible beneath the fabric.

“Vectoring?” Swick asked. The engineer sighed, but subtly. It was nice of him to hide his irritation at being forced to speak with a mere plebian, really.

“The, uh, aim, direction. For the thrust, I mean. Normal skyships automatically compensate for that in the air. They’d have to, or else they’d just start barrel-rolling after takeoff. Yours though doesn’t seem to be capable of it.”

Which, Swick realized, explained why it had almost started barrel-rolling after takeoff. Interesting.

“So fix it,” he suggested. Another sigh.

“Do you know how to set something up so that it not only pushes off against a mobile mass like the air, but also compensates for that same mass moving in response to being pushed, as well as any tiny, sudden changes in direction caused by the wind hitting it from either side?”

Swick did give it a thought, as best as he could manage, before confidently giving his answer.

“No.”

“That’s a coincidence.” The engineer grunted. “Because I don’t either. As far as I know, basically nobody does. Which is a big part of why we can’t make skyships anymore. You might’ve thought about that before breaking yours.”

Had an edge to him, this one, but Swick didn’t mind that so much. Years among pirates tended to leave a man inoculated against most forms of misanthropy, and this case was paired with a fairly promising level of actual practical understanding. There was very little he wouldn’t forgive in exchange for that of all traits.

“Can you work it out?” he asked, made optimistic by the fact that the engineer hadn’t just up and fucked off.

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