Chapter 32 - Manifestation of Ambition (2)
I finally managed to establish a means to mass-produce the raw materials that supported my modest ambition.
I had acquired everything I needed. Next, I had to prepare the necessary facilities to craft the magitech tools.
I held amicable discussions with the foremen of the Smith Guild and secured their permission to set up a smithy within the Fortress. This was also essential for preparing the strong flames required for my work. To establish a new furnace, I had to request approval from the guild and formally register it.
The owner of the furnace had to be decided, and a person responsible for it had to be registered; otherwise, the people living nearby wouldn’t feel at ease. Even for smithy owned by nobles, the same registration process was required. This was mandated by the kingdom’s laws.
The reason I needed my own smithy was tied to the unique properties of magic crystals. I had confirmed that magic crystals could be melted and sintered by heat, reverting to a single substance.
Through experiments at the Alchemy Tower, I had verified that placing crystal powder into a mold and sintering them at high temperatures would produce a transparent and uniform material. It was a technology I developed when creating the magic battery capable of holding marquis-level mana, which I had used in the refrigerated storage unit I gifted to my classmate from a high count’s household.
However, magic crystals wouldn’t sinter when exposed to flames created by magic. This made sense since magical flames were essentially the materialization of mana. As flames generated by magic were composed of mana, the energy was easily absorbed into the crystals, preventing the temperature from reaching the sintering point.
On the other hand, flames derived from something like charcoal produced proper sintering. If the issue were purely about temperature, Flame Magic should have sufficed. Yet, based on empirical evidence, I concluded it was impossible. Such is the mystery of magic. Understanding the physical laws of this world had been quite a challenge.
Thus, the smithy was the essential facility I needed to consistently achieve the high temperatures required.
Around the time the smithy was completed, I received authorization from my classmate for the joint use of the patent rights for the mana-blocking paint. With all the necessary components now in place, I had secured the legal authorization—the essential "backing"—to start producing magic batteries in my beloved homeland.
To enable the mass production of magic batteries, I painstakingly compiled document after document, sending them one by one to the royal capital. Each was reviewed, and eventually, they were returned along with a certificate of approval.
It had been quite an ordeal, but now I could confidently proceed with large-scale production. The first item I produced was the magic battery, designed to hold mana equivalent to that of a baron to a viscount—a level of internal mana typical of lower-ranked nobles. There was a reason for this choice: without abundant mana, magitech tools wouldn’t function. This was especially true for the magitech tools used by the soldiers of knightly families.
--- A mana outage would be a serious issue.
The Enchantment Magic I intended to use consumed a significant amount of mana. The individuals capable of sustaining such demands were those with baron-level or viscount-level internal mana. However, in a frontier region like this, it was like asking fish to fly to find many individuals with such reserves. Hence, the magic batteries with a capacity equivalent to lower-ranked nobles’ internal mana were the solution.
When I held the first completed product in my hands, I couldn’t help but grin. When I confirmed the continuous release of the designated amount of mana, I felt as though I was soaring to the heavens. I was certain this would drastically reduce the attrition rate among the troops.
Conversely...
I didn’t feel significant challenges in crafting magitech tools. It was simply a matter of gathering materials lying around and improvising. My memories from my previous life proved highly useful here. All I had to do was detect the reactions of the surrounding monsters or magical beasts, which was an easy task. These creatures possessed an organ within their bodies akin to a magic storage organ.
--- In that case, all I needed to do was locate the mana concentrated in those organs.
I didn’t need to craft any specialized, high-level rune like [Search Magic]. All I required was a simple [Mana Detection Circuit]. The difference between the intricate, complex circuit of "refined [Search Magic]" and the haphazard composition of the [Mana Detection] circuit—the same one used in magic stoves—was like night and day.
The real challenge was figuring out how to bring the concept into reality. Fortunately, I recalled something from my previous life that might be useful. It was a product prominently featured on the cover of a gaming magazine. Though I’d never handled one myself, I remembered reading about it in an article from a magazine my coworker had left behind. Whether such a device actually existed or not, I couldn’t say. But the idea was there, described vividly.
It was a device that created a virtual reality right in front of the user, immersing them completely. I think it was called VR goggles. In my previous life, the quality of such a device depended on its resolution and how lightweight it was. But in this world, weight didn’t matter—soldiers would be the ones using it, after all.
For the headpiece, I used the skull of an insect-like magical beast for the outer shell. I adjusted the eye section so that the back of the beast’s compound eyes would align with the wearer’s vision. When worn, the device resembled a helmet. Well, it was just a rough prototype. I decided to turn a blind eye to its appearance for now. Over time, I would find several areas for improvement, so as a makeshift creation, it was good enough.
I added quilting as cushioning material inside the helmet to improve comfort. I then carved out the left portion of where the beast’s compound eyes had been and thinned the right section from the inside. Over the thinned section, I applied a layer of mana-blocking paint as a base, which prevented interference from other spells or circuits on the display area.
Next, I prepared some clay, pressed it onto the interior to form a mold, and then filled the mold with a thick layer of crystal powder. This was sintered at high temperatures in the smithy’s furnace. Afterward, I inscribed a circuit onto it, drawing concentric circles with basic cross-shaped lines. The top portion aligned with the user’s front, the bottom with their back, and the sides corresponded naturally. I inscribed the Magic Detection Circuit at the center of the helmet, where the magical beast’s horns had been. The output would provide only two pieces of information: "direction and distance."
This data was displayed on the thin, sintered magic crystal plate behind the right compound eye. I configured it so that, depending on the orientation of the user's head, the direction that their face was facing was always displayed upwards.
Even small magical beasts with hard-to-spot internal mana would appear as red dots on the sintered magic crystal. The distance could be gauged by counting the number of concentric circles. The brightness of the red dots varied depending on the concentration of mana in the target.
--- Dim for less power, bright for more. This allows us to assess the threat level of a target.
I carved out a space in the helmet for a magic battery, essentially a battery case. From there, I used crystal powder to create a "conduit" for transmitting mana, connecting it to the inscribed Magic Detection Circuit. Along the conduit, I embedded two additional circuits: Magic Activation Circuit and Magic Deactivation Circuit.
This setup allowed the device to be activated when needed and shut down when not. I gathered everything together and fitted it into the helmet made from the magical beast's head. With just two buttons—one for turning on and one for turning off—it was straightforward to use.
Five units of "Prototype No. 5."
After creating them... I believe it was fortunate that I had a conversation with the Old Man.
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