Chapter 179: Inventing Magic (1/2)
”So, before we start, did your uncle tell you how to bypass the security?” Wang asked as they stood in front of a table where Sonata was spread out. ”I cannot find out with my appraisal.”
”Hm, there are two ways. One; if you hold it at the same time as an allowed wielder, then it won't activate. Two; use a third-party device that I left back on Earth. And I guess there is a third one; to get spiritually linked to it.”
Old Wang let out a chuckle. ”The third is a no-go, ain't it? The second… hm, did you know you could request the System for a property that you might need from your original planet or world? Though it does require a fee.”
Rakna blinked. ”That's a thing?”
[Yes.]
”Yes.”
Alexa and the old dwarf answered positively at the same time. ”…I feel like I should've been told a lot earlier,” he deadpanned.
”But, even without that, it should be fine,” Wang followed up. ”We'll go with the first method. Can you touch the ends while I examine this more closely?”
”Sure,” Rakna walked to the edge of the table and placed his hand on the scarf.
Old Wang then brought out an old-looking box and pressed a button on it. The lid sprang open and several layered magnifying glasses came out of it. A few other compartments with more advanced-looking tools opened on the sides and the dwarf picked two that looked like very small soldering rods with thin cables attached to them.
He leaned over the scarf and lined it up with the loupes. He then switched a small lever of the box on and a sound of electricity built up steadily. ”Now, let's see,” he muttered and used a needle and a power-charged tool to take apart a very small section of the scarf.
He spent about three minutes digging into the material until he grabbed a pincer and extracted a microscopic piece that released a blue glow. He put it on a small plastic plate and used an even stronger magnifying glass to inspect it while Sonata rebuilt itself.
”This is…” He whispered and walked to another section of his smithy with the piece.
”What is it?” Rakna asked as he let go of the scarf.
”Hm,” the old smith mused as a small scanner showed him the composition of the miniature shard of material. ”There is a very intricate chemical compound in this… How is this… No…” He gradually became more and more shocked. He ran to a big crate in the corner of the room and pulled out a large device.
He rushed back to the bench table and placed it on Sonata. The object lit up after a few inputs and scanned the entirety of it before projecting many graphs and results. Old Wang's jaw dropped and Rakna scowled. He was not even sure it was written in any language; that's how incomprehensible it was to him.
But Evelyn seemed to be better off. Her eyes widened. From her upbringing, she had been taught to read this kind of data. She could also tell that a lot of it was unreadable for the scanner. But the other results painted a very shocking picture in her head.
”Um, sir, you said chemical compound… is it one that…”
”That self-replicates, self-analyzes, and self-generates? Yes,” Old Wang affirmed stunned. ”Forget about what I said, kiddo. Your uncle is not a genius. He's a… I don't know, a mad genius scientist.”
”What do you mean?”
”At first, I thought it was thanks to the System's item conceptual conversion that your weapon gained the ability to recreate its own material and absorb others. But I was wrong. This is an ability it had from the very beginning. Even when it was in your world without magic.”
Rakna physically paused when he heard that. ”…but he never told me about something like that.”
”He either wanted you to have the surprise or he had no idea of what he actually made. He crafted a chemical compound that can record molecular structures down to the last atom and mimic that material with a simple supply of energy. This is literally a world-altering breakthrough!” Old Wang said excitedly.
”Of course, this 'Eion' thing is the main reason why your weapon is self-sufficient but even without it, you could use any other sort of energy source to do the same thing. Imagine; you would just need the structure of a material, record it into the compound, then feed it until it grows to be a perfect copy made out of stabilized energy. It's like feeding a cell that can indefinitely grow as long as we give it food.”
”Take your magic for example,” Old Wang raised a finger. ”You use your mana and element to build a recreation of an object and then you reproduce a real material's characteristics with it.”
”Wait, are you implying that-”
”Yes. Your uncle managed to invent magic with science,” the dwarf replied and laughed spiritedly while wiping his sweat away. ”By Hephaestus, this is unbelievable…”
”{Good god, your uncle defies all logic. He might be the smartest being after the legendary Wolder Kristan,}” Fray couldn't help but say. ”{He truly is unrivaled.}”
Rakna sighed deeply. ”That old man might as well be the main character of this universe...”
”Sadly, I don't think I can recreate this compound,” Old Wang said. ”Hm, with your permission, can I send a sample of it to a good friend of mine? If it is ever recreated, I assure you we'll give you full credit, and if you don't want it, you will for sure get a huge portion of the Talys made out of it.”
”Money?” Rakna's ears perked up at that. He squinted his eyes. ”How much are we talking about?”
”Billions. This is revolutionary. Not only is this 'like magic', but it's better than some applications of actual magic and it doesn't need mana to operate at all. We could sell the patent to a trustworthy company and they would make hundreds of billions out of it across the Plateaus.”
”I'm fine with sending it to your friend...”
”Splendid, then I'll-”
”But,” Rakna interrupted him. ”Tell him to keep it a secret even if he discovers how to make the compound.”
Old Wang furrowed his eyebrows. ”Why?”