09-01 Research Starts

A solitary island on the surface of the blue sea, the Hourai Island. This was the base of the Magi Craft Meister, Jin.

Once Jin had returned to the research laboratory he was shocked.

“It’s in bits and pieces…! How could this be!”

The Magi Crystal that was supposed to have contained information drawn out of Marcello was smashed to smithereens.

“Was it the blow from that golem…?”

When Jin had been hit by the Unifilers’ all-purpose golem, Jin who had been wearing the reinforced clothing turned out fine but apparently the Magi Crystal in his outer pocket had received a shock.

Him making just the pocket parts out of a different material as he wouldn’t put hard objects in there had backfired.

“Redoing it is, by now, impossible, huh…”

As he had left the rest of the decision-making to Reinhardt, now he could only give up.

“Well, if there’s a next time then I’ll do it then.”

And so Jin changed his focus and began a.n.a.lyzing the enemy golems.

There was nothing worth seeing in the 15 combat golems that had turned up. He was familiar with their structure. In other words, they were (as far as Jin was concerned) old models that were the archetype for the golems Gon and Gen.

However, the combat-type golem that had appeared later was different. Because somehow it was able to compete with Land-50 in strength.

“Hmm, it’s different starting from the internal structure, huh. It’s even got nearly decent skeleton.”

He confirmed that the skeleton had been made out of steel that had been processed to be harder. But the structure of the joints wasn’t a match for what Jin could make, and the material and such used in the Magical Muscles couldn’t be compared.

“And yet, maybe because of this.”

Jin took out four jewels. They s.h.i.+ned light blue in sunlight, and emerald green in artificial light. There was only one kind of jewel he knew that was like this.

“Elradrite, is it.”

The jewels inserted in the important points of the four limbs had the ability to amplify Magical Energy. Normally up to 20 times.

“So using this it was able to produce the same strength as a Land golem?”

Nevertheless, producing that much strength with normal materials must’ve worked it too hard. And sure enough, the Magical Muscles had deteriorated rather much.

“I see, so every time after it uses its full power it needs to be maintained, huh. That sounds pretty bothersome.”

The evaluation was probably unfair. That’s because they did want to use rare materials like Jin but they weren’t in a situation where they could.

“What a huge Mana Tank though. Isn’t it about ten times larger than a normal golem’s?”

The s.p.a.ce in the chest and abdomen was mostly all taken up by the Mana Tank.

“Hmm, if Elradrite amplifies Magical Energy then there shouldn’t be a reason to use a Mana Tank as large as this…Could it be?”

Jin could only think of a single reason for that, so he took one of the Elradrite crystals in his hand and,

“[Light].”

He used a spell to create light. Normally it was supposed to be as bright as a 100-watt light bulb, but it turned out as bright as the flash in a camera.

“Ah!”

Jin was dazzled and dropped the Elradrite.

“Father, what’s wrong!?”

Reiko came rus.h.i.+ng in from outside the room.

By that time the [Light] had already vanished, so Reiko could only ask Jin what had happened.

“No, it was just a little experiment. Ahaha, I see, so that’s how it was!”

Jin burst into laughter. Reiko simply stared at Jin with worry in her eyes.

“Father…?”

“Oh, sorry. You see, it’s said that Elradrite amplifies magic so I experimented to confirm that. And then, it did amplify the magic. It amplified it, but it also required a corresponding amount of Magical Energy.”

Jin got the feeling from the experiment just now that when he used [Light] it took about 20 times the normal amount of Magical Energy.

“In other words, it certainly might amplify the power of magic by 20 times. However, as it also takes 20 times more Magical Energy, it’s not much of an advantage in a situation where you don’t have enough Magical Energy.”

The fact of the matter was that unless you had a gigantic reserve of Magic Energy like Jin, or an inexhaustible supply of Magical Energy like Reiko and the like, battles would turn into contests decided by a single bout.

And that’s why the battle-type golem had a gigantic Mana Tank.

By Jin’s estimate, it appeared that if the golem had kept grappling with Land for over ten minutes it probably would’ve ceased moving. As its Mana Tank would’ve completely emptied.

“Well, more detailed experiments are probably necessary, but that’s the theory. I’ll leave the rest of the experiments and their verification to Laozi.”

＊ ＊ ＊

Finis.h.i.+ng what he was doing with Elradrite, Jin began discussing the topic he had started with Reiko yesterday, namely, the topic of ‘malfunctioning Warp Gates’.

“Basically, I want to build a Warp Gate that doesn’t require one on the receiving side.”

Jin explained to Reiko.

“It would be excellent if that was possible, wouldn’t it. It would be possible to directly enter the inside of the enemy base.”

“Yeah, traveling would become staggeringly easier. It would be great if we could warp to an arbitrary location and establish a regular Warp Gate there.”

“Indeed.”

And so, the people who had personal experience with malfunctioning Warp Gates, Jin and Reiko, began considering the details.

While being supported by Laozi, they put together the theory. With Laozi’s processing power it was trivial to do something like construct the theory while experimenting with Elradrite.

Then Ann came along. Until now, she had been working together with Laozi’s Automata. Specifically, she was checking the ideas and plans Laozi suggested.

Ann whose train of thought was different was useful in a time like this. However, as her processing power was remarkably lower than Laozi’s, she was inevitably a bottleneck on how much time it took.

“Master, Elder Sister, what would you like me to do?”

Lately Ann had not hesitated to call Reiko her ‘Elder Sister’. Although from outward appearances the exact opposite was true.

Then Jin explained things to Ann too. She then said,

“It’s necessary decide on a system of coordinates to point at a specific point in s.p.a.ce, isn’t it?”

Ann was capable of logical thinking like this. Incidentally Jin did things by intuition, and so Reiko and Laozi had inherited that from him.

“I see, that’s definitely true.”

Jin then reminisced about the lessons he had taken in high school. When you speak of three-dimensional coordinate systems, the first one that comes to mind is the XYZ coordinate system. Width, height, and length.

“There was something else too, if I recall correctly it was the polar coordinate system or something like that. Azimuth, alt.i.tude, and length, was it.”

The terminology was dubious, but the way of thinking was correct.

“In this situation it’s probably better to use the polar coordinate system and use the sending side as the origin.”

Using the sending Warp Gate as the origin, just determining the distance, direction, and alt.i.tude (angle) would be enough.

“In that case, it’s necessary to convert the coordinates of already-known locations to polar coordinates, isn’t it.”

Ann also gave advice on the necessary matters.

“Yeah, an exclusive arithmetic unit…A Control Core will be necessary.”

In this way a control system was fully planned out.

However, what was essential was whether or not one could materialize in the destination or not.

According to Jin’s understanding, the theory behind Warp Gates was that they linked together two points in s.p.a.ce. By no means did he plan to disa.s.semble the atoms and reconstruct them at the destination.

“Right, the receiving Warp Gate’s primary purpose is as a marker, hmm. So let’s build something that can recognize a location from a distance. In other words, that would make the receiving side not need any components.”

The receiving side and the sending side had identical devices, it was simply that on a return trip the receiving side became the sending side.

“With one-way travel a receiving component isn’t needed. So then if the magic formation or Magi Formula that worked as the landmark could be remotely controlled…”

Jin pondered the problem frantically.

“Father, isn’t determining the distance the hardest problem?”

Reiko spoke.

Certainly, he understood that the direction could be determined intuitively like when shooting with the railgun. But, the distance.

“You’re right. Right now there’s three ways to consider. One is the intersection of straight lines coming from two points.”

Jin said.

“That, and the amount of Magic Energy the sending side uses.”

Reiko said. Then,

“And the point where attracting and repelling forces meet, right?”

Ann remarked with a clear voice. It was the same principle as that of the [Barrier].

“In any case, long distances will be difficult, huh. I guess it’s necessary to start experimenting with distances that are within sight.”

It seemed to be impossible to, for example, suddenly warp from Hourai Island to Celuroa Kingdom.

Jin then began building a prototype.

He used a normal Warp Gate with some remodeling as the sending side.

Usually, it would be linked to the receiving Warp Gate with a faint Magic Energy connection. Instead of this weak connection, a magic formation would be configured to use large amounts of Magic Energy to create the marker point.

“We’re to determine just how far we can simplify that magic formation, right?”

While receiving Ann’s advice, the first prototype was finished just past noon.

Jin warped to Kunlun Island where Elsa was waiting to have lunch. Reiko came with him, and Ann stayed to do the pre-trial checks.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Jin-nii, come in. Thanks for saving Rai-nii last night. Because of that? You’re a little late today, no?”

“Oh, I was kind of in the middle of something.”

After Jin’s excuse Elsa gave him a glare.

“Jin-nii, you really are obsessed with craftsmans.h.i.+p.”

She said. Reiko then informed Elsa.

“Even though Father made Elsa-san wait for him, please have him eat properly. Otherwise he’ll quietly skip two meals without thinking. Because it looks like today is going to be an all-nighter.”

“Jin-nii, that’s no good. It’s bad for your health.”

After being criticized by both Reiko and Elsa, Jin scratched his head and,

“A-alright, I’ll be careful.”

He apologized.

He then briefly told Elsa about last night. Jin of course stayed silent about getting struck.