Magi Craft Meister 561
16 Resolution With The Demons Arc
17-10 Dialogue
Having heard the reason for Jin’s visit, No. 700672 nodded profusely.
“The ‘failure’, huh? What exactly are you planning to do?”
“Oh, before we start talking about that, please have this.”
Jin presented 10 bottles of restorative medicine to No. 700672.
“These are rich in Ether.”
A smile began to form on No. 700672’s face.
“Oh, this is the same medicine I took last time. Thank you.”
He immediately opened one of the bottles and drank its contents.
“Hmm, I can feel it working already. Thank you.”
Seeing his father getting better brought a happy smile on Neige’s face as well.
After that was settled, Jin began to speak.
“The other day, the ‘failure’ used an Ether Stampede.”
“What? I remember that blue-haired Automata mentioning something about the Ether Stampede phenomenon. Can you tell me more about it?”
“Sure.”
So Jin shared everything he knew about the Ether Stampede.
No. 700672 pondered for a while, then it seemed that his thoughts were finally settled, and opened his mouth so as to speak.
“So that’s the Ether Stampede, huh… It’s certainly a huge threat. Neither Neige nor I would be safe from it.”
Neige tightly grabbed No. 700672’s sleeve.
“It’s a weapon created by that ‘failure’, so I had never heard of it before.”
No. 700672 closed his eyes, seemingly thinking about something. Then he opened them up again and stared at Jin.
“So what you want to know is how to defend against it?”
“That’s the main idea, yes. More specifically, would you happen to know of a way of turning spells and Mana back into Ether?”
“Hmm… In other words, you’re looking for the means to manipulate Ether?”
“That’s what it comes down to, isn’t it?”
No. 700372 cast his eyes downward for a brief moment and thought about it. Then he raised his face once again, this time staring at Reiko.
“It seems to me that this Automata here is using both an Ether Converter and a Mana Driver, am I correct?”
It seemed that No. 700672 was able to determine Reiko’s power source with just a glance at her.
“I see she-s running with a splendid level of efficiency, but my masters used something called ‘Magi Reactor’.”
“A Magi Reactor? …Is it something that can convert Ether into Mana and at the same time Mana into energy?”
“That’s right. You catch on quick. A single Magi Reactor can do the work of an Ether Converter and a Mana Driver at the same time. So it’s logically more efficient.”
Jin explained that he understood the theory behind it very well, and that he had already considered making such a device. However, he had also considered the fact that it would be very difficult to control, and it could easily go haywire, so he had abandoned the idea.
“I see, so you have already contemplated making something like it. If you could make it easy to control, you wouldn’t have to worry about it going haywire, correct?”
“That makes sense.”
No. 700672 nodded and continued talking.
“Well, that’s the answer to your first problem. If you want to be have complete control over Ether, you’re going to need ‘*****’, but… Well, that simply doesn’t exist in this world.”
“What’s that?”
Jin couldn’t get that word, so he asked for it to be repeated. No. 706672 nodded with a know-it-all look on his face.
“I… can’t even begin to describe the notion of ‘*****’. But it was a common substance in Hale, my masters’ home planet. In common words… I suppose I could call it a ‘mental catalyst’.”
“A mental catalyst…?”
Jin could somehow imagine what kind of thing this “mental catalyst” was.
“I think I have a general understanding of how magic works, and that mental waves are a type of magical wave. Well, if I could only use that substance, I would be able to control Ether more efficiently.”
However, this substance didn’t exist in this world. Jin quickly changed his state of mind after realizing that there was no point factoring in a substance that was impossible to procure.
“Well then, let me tell you about something, and see how much of it you can understand.”
No. 700672 started talking while looking at Jin’s eyes.
“All magic is caused by magical power.”
Jin nodded silently.
“Then, what is this magical power? It is an invisible, powerful wave.”
This was consistent with the hypotheses made by Jin and his colleagues. Jin nodded again.
“Since magical power is essentially a wave, there are various wavelengths, wave heights, and waveforms.”
No. 700672 looked at Jin’s face, confirmed that he was following along, and then continued.
“It is this very magical power that collects the Ether that exists in the environment. This magical power is what turns Ether into Mana, and it is also this magical power that turns Mana into magic.”
“Right.”
For the first time, Jin voiced his understanding as he nodded.
“Those are three separate roles, but they’re all handled by this magical power. So, how can magical power do so many different things?”
No. 700672 looked into Jin’s face as if testing him out.
“The things it does would depend on the wavelength, wave height, and waveform that you mentioned earlier, correct?”
No. 700672 nodded satisfactorily toJin’s answer.
“Yes. The biggest difference here would be the wavelength. In other words, the frequency. By the way, while meager, all mages can emit magical power by themselves. Let’s call this a ‘mental wave’.”
“Right.”
“These mental waves are the exclusive magical power that a mage can create to turn the surrounding Ether into Mana and Mana into energy to fuel their spells.”
Jin sensed what No. 700672 was trying to convey to him and redoubled his focus.
“Then, the process to activate a spell… Well, you seem to know this already, so let’s skip this part.
Up to this point, Jin had a firm understanding and followed along nicely. Seeing this on Jin’s face made No. 700672 seem a bit happy.
“Hmm, you have a very strong comprehensive ability. Let’s keep it up, shall we?”
“Sure.”
No. 700672 grinned.
“So what is this energy? With Fire-type magic, it’s heat energy. With Wind-type magic, it’s kinetic energy… Do you see?”
No. 700672’s expression became even more joyful after seeing that Jin’s face as he nodded didn’t look like he was just pretending to understand.
“The magical power we call ‘force of will’ is amplified into a much stronger magical power that rules over energy. This would be an explanation of magic from another angle.”
Jin had a hunch that they were finally approaching the core of the matter.
“The frequency of the magical power that can be used depends on its attribute.”
No. 700672 was talking about the same thing that Jin had been discussing with Saki the other day on Hourai Island.
“Well then, what frequency do the mental waves have?”
Jin and his friends didn’t understand that much either. This is because they couldn’t quantify magic waves.
There was an Automata named Donna back at the Magi Craftsman Guild in Egelia Kingdom who was said to be able to read and understand the special characteristics of different types of magic..
However, she could only do so at a superficial level, and it was not a true analysis of every aspect of magic.
As an example, one could ask what is the relationship between AM radio radio waves and voice data.
Radio waves, which are carrier waves, have frequencies of about 530 kHz to about 1600 kHz, and their wave heights and waveforms represent voice data.
Since the human audible range is between 20 Hz to 20 kHz, it could be said that the carrier wave has a frequency of 1000 times or more than that of what human can actually hear.
Although this would not count as a detailed explanation of the principle behind radio waves, audio signals are extracted from radio broadcast waves through a process called demodulation.
But returning to the original topic…
The magical power that can be perceived by the general public could be seen as the “audio signal” in the previous example, and the “carrier wave” here is usually too high in frequency to be detected through normal means.
That was exactly what the explanation of No. 700672 was.
“Mental waves have a considerably high frequency among magic powers.”
This was the first time Jin had heard such a theory, and his gleaming eyes were proof of his excitement. Seeing this, No. 700672 asked to test Jin out with a question.
“What attribute of Magi Crystal are you using for your Automata’s Ether Converter?”
“A generic one.”
Upon hearing that, No. 700627 shook his head.
“I thought as much. After all, that’s an easy mistake to make.”
“What did you say!?”
Reiko had been silent so far, but hearing Jin’s work being challenged like that was something she simply couldn’t endure.
Her reaction caused Neige, who was clinging to No. 700672, to glare at her.
“Reiko, it’s okay… I understand. You mean I should be using a Light or Dark Magi Crystal instead, correct?”
Upon hearing that, No. 700672 nodded with contentment.
“That’s right. Dark-attribute Magi Crystals seem like the best choice due to their high frequency, but Light-attribute Magi Crystals are empirically known to be the most efficient.”
Of course, generic Magi Crystals also have the Light attribute within them. But since all other attributes coexist as well, they are less efficient in terms of usability.
“But this is only for Ether Converters. There isn’t a ‘most efficient’ Magi Crystal attribute when it comes to using spells, so generic ones will do just fine.”
“I see.”
The information Jin had learned thus far was very useful.
“Now, with this, you seem to have understood quite a bit about the power to manipulate and control Ether through what I’ve told you so far.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Jin quickly nodded.
“Well, how do you control magic power? Of course, the source is mental power. You can’t exceed the limits of their frequency. How would you go about it?”
“How indeed? Right now, I don’t have the means to tell a magic wave’s frequency.”
“Hmm, that’s quite frankly put… Neige, please guide him.”
“Yes, Father.”
Such a simple exchange was enough for Neige to understand what her father wanted her to do. She then took one of Jin’s hands and pulled it, leading it to the front of one of the “windows” attached to the wall.
“Unleash some of your magic power towards that ‘window’. The color it changes into will tell us a lot.”
“Got it.”
Jin gathered magic power on his palm and directed it at the window.
“Oh!”
No. 700672’s voice came out with a surprised tone. Jin, however, didn’t understand what he was supposed to be suprised about.
“What’s this?”
The dark window was glowing in a bright blue color.
