Chapter 132 [Episode 68] Team Rush 1
@Team Rush.
Khukhukhu.
Sang Hyuk was holding the key of the Ink-Black Dragon.
The way to control the Sky-grade Ship was simpler than he thought. It was not that difficult to control the Sky-grade Ship at least as long as you were competent enough to get a driver's license.
Unfortunately, Sang Hyuk had never held the key of a Sky-grade Ship in his past life. Honestly, the Sang Hyuk of the past did not play much in the Middle Layer.
Sang Hyuk was only able to board a Sky-grade Ship for a few times because he had become a victim of an accident less than a year since the Skyway opened and the world was divided into Hagye, Middle Layer, and Heavenly World. ***
However, he roughly knew enough to operate his Sky-grade Ship. And because of that, he could skip the tutorial of the Sky-grade Ship operation.
Sang Hyuk grabbed the key of Ink-Black Dragon and slowly began to launch the Ink-Black Dragon into the sky. Currently Ilya (I think the author got typo and wrote Eli) was in the power room. She was making sure that the Magic Armor Dark Black Wings mounted in the power room was properly energizing and was ready to put in a 'Magic Stone', that was prepared beforehand, when the power gauge fell below a certain level.
Naturally, the Sky-grade Ship needed to be supplied 'energy' to fly. If we talk about it like a car, the Magic Armor was an 'engine'. And the Magic Stone was 'fuel'.
Of course, Magic Stone was not the only fuel. If it was urgent, the power gauge went up even if he put in more advanced items.
However, the Magic Stone was the best fuel to use in terms of price and efficiency.
The person who will pilot the Sky-grade Ship and the person who will supply the power to the engine.
Ink-Black Dragon could only move with two people. Originally, Sang Hyuk was trying to make the ship more compact so that one person would be able to do both controlling and fueling… But, the ship ended up with a more complex structure than he intended, and the power supply could not be controlled remotely.
Thanks to it, the minimum number of passengers was 2 instead of 1.
In this way, the bigger and more complex the ship, then the minimum number of passengers or the recommended number of passengers are increased.
"Let's just take a light 15-minutes flight for today."
Flying the Sky-grade Ship to the sky was all about money.
The Ink-Black Dragon for example, to power the Ink-Black Dragon flight for one hour, it needs 30 pieces of Magic Stone even if you only used intermediate grade Magic Stones.
One piece of the intermediate Magic Stone was 100 gold, so it cost 3,000 gold for an hour of flight. It was roughly 180,000 won in cash.
In simple comparison, the fuel cost was much worse than the best sports cars. This is why it was hard for ordinary users to create a Sky-grade Ship.
Of course, because Sang Hyuk's Ink-Black Dragon was high level, so that it devours more Magic Stones than the usual Sky-grade Ship.
If it was the Sky-grade Ship of the 'solo' size, which ordinary users dream of, it could fly with 10,000 won per hour for its fuel cost.
In contrast, for the quadra sized heavenly Sky-grade Ship, it needs about 500,000 won per hour, but it had about a 50 to 100 people capacity so it could not help but need that much fuel.
Sang Hyuk had been constantly gathering the Magic Stone from a long time ago because he knew this would happen. Even now, NPCs of Gold Mountain continue to steadily buy Magic Stones.
So, there would be no case of the Ship won't fly because it lacks Magic Stones.
But today was the first time, so he was just going to check it out and end the flight shortly.
The test flight was successful.
The overall performance was just as promised in the specifications, and he liked it. Even Ilya did a good job unlike during the dungeon attack.
Although he doesn't know what will happen in case of an emergency during the flight, but at least it would be enough to fill the minimum number of passengers.
However, Sang Hyuk finished his test flight and started to think about the other problems.
That is…… not the minimum number of passengers, but it was a matter of getting the recommended number of passengers.
"Even with the minimum number of passengers I don't have any problem with starting a voyage…… But when I think about it again, when I hunt Sky Whales, I definitely need a gunner and I need a way to deal with a lot of the parasites that live on a Sky Whale. Hmmm… After all…. Will that be the best?"
Actually Sang Hyuk has been having this problem for quite some time.
As originally planned, it would be correct to fill only the minimum number of passengers. Of course, it will be a little harder when hunting Sky Whales, but so far, it was somehow enough to do it alone.
It was not impossible. It was often used as an emergency vehicle if it needed.
But recently, the idea has changed a lot.
Especially after the Krakon event, he decided to receive Gye Baek and Dark Knight's help.
"The sure thing is that both of them are trustworthy enough for me to turn my back to them and fight…."
Because of his previous experience, Sang Hyuk did not easily trust anyone. But now, if it was Gye Baek and Dark Knight, he can trust them.
It was Sang Hyuk's style to not easily to trust someone, but once he trust them, he will keep his faith until the end.
"If I bring these two people aboard the Ink Black Dragon, then I've filled the recommended number of passengers……. Gye Baek's bombardment ability is undoubtedly an asset and at the same time, Dark Knight who can deal damage well, can be a great help in dealing with the parasites."
The benefits of getting them into Ink-Black Dragon were bigger than Sang Hyuk expected. Of course, there were disadvantages as well. But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages if things are adjusted properly.
"I don't need any items below a certain level anyway. But Gye Baek and Dark Knight need such items. Then I give up most of what I don't need and instead I just take with me some essential things."