Volume 9 - Chapter 1 – Research Starts (1/2)

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 analyzing 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 shined 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 space 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 rushing 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.”

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Finishing 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.