Chapter 472: Turning Point (2/2)
“We will call such isotopes ‘Magi Isotopes’. The water contained in the Pelshika found in Hourai Island, that is, its hydrogen and oxygen, are probably Magi Isotopes. I believe that the reason for this is that the very soil of Hourai Island may act as a catalyst for such elements to turn into Magi Isotopes.”
“…”
“…”
“I see, I think I sort of get it…”
Other than Jin -actually, Jin included, no one could say for sure that they had fully understood the logic behind Laojun’s hypothesis.
Still, they could at least feel that they were standing at a major turning point in the long history of magic and Magi Engineering.
“If we are going to use it as an energy source, we don’t have to make it solid, right?”
Jin opened his mouth after a brief period of silence.
“Yes. I’ve been wondering if it would be okay if I changed the Ether Converter so that it could use the Ether found in this ‘solution’ instead of drawing it from the air.”
“…J-Jin, wouldn’t you be able to get an extraordinary output from that?”
Realizing the meaning of Laojun’s words, Reinhardt jumped in, sounding somewhat excited.
“Yeah. If we refine mana from a ‘solution’ that has a higher Ether concentration higher than the one found in air… And if we ignore the Mana Driver’s durability, I think we should be able to get about 100 times more output than usual.”
“…”
Everyone was lost for words once again. Jin realized that this “solution” would be as easy to handle as petroleum was on modern Earth, which can produce a high output of various fuels, such as atomic fuel.
“My Lord, how should we call this ‘solution’?”
Laojun’s voice broke the silence.
“Since it’s a solution that contains Ether, how about ‘Ether Water’?”
“Come on, Jin, that’s too simple!”
Saki disagreed with the name without a moment’s delay.
“…E.W.?”
That was Elsa’s proposed name. E from Ether, W from water. It was slightly better than “Ether Water”, but the party still felt that it should be a little different than that.
“How about ‘Ethenol’? There’s no particular meaning to it, it just sounds similar to Ether and it has a nice ring to it…”
“I see, it does sound good. What do you guys think?”
Reinhardt nodded at Stearleana’s suggestion. Seeing him nod, Berthie soon followed. Therefore, they decided to name the new solution “Ethenol”.
Returning to the main subject…
“So now we should see how we’re going to crystallize this Ethenol.”
“Very well. Since it is originally water, it will certainly become solid if frozen. However, at room temperature, it will melt again and return to its liquid state.”
At this point, Elsa noticed something.
“But the Magi Crystals found in nature are supposed to contain mana, not Ether…”
“Ah.”
“That is true.”
It seemed that Jin and Laojun had the same misunderstanding. The experiment they had conducted the other day had demonstrated that what was entering the gaps in the material made of Magi Atoms was Mana.
The Ethenol was a ‘solution’ in which Ether would enter the gaps between the molecules of substances made of Magi Isotopes. It was similar, but different.
This was still a very useful discovery, so the result was satisfactory nonetheless.
“Then, we just have to find a way to generate Mana with an Ether Converter and then secure that mana.”
“That’s right. I’m wondering if there’s something we can understand from the phenomenon that a Magi Crystal’s color changes depending on its attribute.”
Mana itself has no magical attributes. However, Magi Crystals change color depending on their attributes, e.g. fire, water, earth, wind, light, darkness, and so on.
So once again, they decided that Laojun would be conducting various experiments in order to better understand this phenomenon.
＊ ＊ ＊
After the technical talk was over…
“So, another demon, huh…”
Jin first told Reinhardt about the demon they had met in the Celuroa Kingdom, Androgias the Wild, and then about the other one that Elsa already knew about but the others didn’t: Alciel the Puppeteer.
At the same time, he talked about the gravity, destruction, and enslavement spells by the demons.
“The magic used by the demons has a different arrangement and structure from ours, so it takes time to analyze it.”
He then explained how he had been rearranging the format his own spells used.
“So that’s how you were able to counteract Androgias’ gravity magic that day.”
Saki reprimanded Jin for having forgotten to explain it to her later like he had promised.
“Sorry.”
After apologizing to her, Jin continued his explanation about demons. There were some things that some of them already were aware of, but he wanted to make sure that everyone was up to date with all of the information they had at the moment.