The following night, Jin teleported back to the laboratory once again. He surveyed the expansive room.
"With a laboratory this large, having only Reiko here is inefficient," Jin remarked.
Reiko responded immediately. "While Mother was alive, there were many maid golems, but they were deactivated after her passing as they were no longer needed."
"Ah, so I just need to reactivate them?"
"That is correct. Would you like to inspect them?"
Following Reiko's lead, Jin was guided to a room in the basement.
"It is here."
"Whoa..."
Lying inside were about twenty female-type golems. However, most of them were in poor condition; limbs were either decaying or missing entirely.
"They're quite damaged."
Unlike an automata, a golem deteriorates rapidly if it isn't operational and circulating mana through its frame.
"It'll be faster to just build new ones."
"Indeed. I apologize for my lack of proper management," Reiko said.
"It's fine. I'll use them as a reference, so could you carry out that one over there? The one that isn't damaged."
"Yes, please leave it to me."
Even under normal conditions, Reiko possessed five times the strength of an adult male. She lifted the golem effortlessly and carried it to the workshop.
"That’s a huge help. For some reason, no matter how much I train, I can't seem to put on any muscle."
When Jin let the comment slip, Reiko turned to him with a puzzled expression.
"Father, were you not aware?"
"Eh?"
"Since Father's body is largely supplemented by mana, your current physical state is essentially locked in place."
"So you're saying... no matter how much I train, I won't gain muscle?"
"Yes."
"What a revelation..."
Thinking about it in the context of his knowledge, it made sense. In essence, Jin's body was a mass composed of mana.
"Wait, if that's the case, why do I still get thirsty and hungry?"
"Since your bodily functions remain as they were, you still require water and nutrients as normal."
"Ah, I see... Wait, then what about Physical Reinforcement Magic?"
Among the techniques of Craft Magic, there were spells for physical reinforcement. Extra strength was often a necessity when crafting large objects.
"In Father's case, such spells would be largely ineffective."
"I figured."
Jin had tried using Physical Reinforcement Magic back in Kaina Village, but because he didn't possess a "physical" body in the traditional sense, it had almost no effect. He had simply assumed he was incapable of using that type of magic.
"Rather than reinforcing your body with magic, it would likely be far more efficient to activate the mana already present within your body."
This kind of logic was difficult for Jin to grasp, as he was still acclimating to the nature of magic.
"I see, activating internal mana. There wasn't a spell like that in the records, was there?"
"No. However, since Mother created many new types of Craft Magic herself, I believe Father is capable of doing the same."
"Is that so? Well, I'll give it a shot eventually. First, let's deal with this golem."
Jin redirected his focus to the task at hand.
"The material... is this brass?"
"Yes. Mother mentioned it was ideal for general work."
Looking at the golem—which had turned black with rust and was spotted with patches of green verdigris—Jin made the assessment without even needing to use Analyze.
"Hmm, brass, huh? Personally, I think cupronickel would be a better choice."
"Cupronickel? What kind of material is that?"
Reiko asked, tilting her head. When Jin had transcribed his knowledge to her, he hadn't been able to transfer everything, so her curiosity was natural.
"Cupronickel is an alloy of copper and nickel. It has better corrosion resistance than brass and is softer, so I think the movements will feel more natural."
In Jin's original world, fifty-yen and one-hundred-yen coins were made of cupronickel.
"Nickel? What is that?"
Again, this was something Reiko didn't know. It suggested that either his predecessor hadn't known of it, or the knowledge was buried in Reiko's lost memory sectors.
"Wait, I saw a whole pile of it in the warehouse the other day."
Jin led Reiko down to the basement storehouse.
"It should be right here."
There, he found a mountain of silver-gray metal ingots.
"So this is nickel. If I recall, this is the metal left over after arsenic has been separated."
"Arsenic, huh? That's a bit scary."
Setting the arsenic aside, he had her carry the nickel to the workshop, along with a corresponding amount of copper.
"Mix seventy-five parts copper with twenty-five parts nickel."
He used Fusion to create the alloy. The reddish hue of the copper shifted into a brilliant silvery-white.
"So this is cupronickel. It truly is 'white copper.'"
Yellow brass was made by mixing copper with zinc. While that turned red copper yellow, nickel could turn copper white even at a mere ten percent concentration.
"I'll use this as the base to build the golems."
The primary difference between a golem and an automata lay in their structure. While an automata possessed a skeleton and skin—even if not quite human—a golem was fundamentally composed of its base material and a nucleus.
However, the previous Magi Craft Meister, Adriana Barbora Tsetse, never settled for such simple constructs.
"She used magi-crystals for the eyes, didn't she?"
"Yes, Mother enjoyed changing their colors for her own amusement."
The color of a magi-crystal changed depending on the magic attribute it held. Jin hadn't really been thinking about that when he rebuilt Reiko.
"Alright, then how about red, blue, green, yellow, and purple?"
"I think that would be lovely. I shall go fetch them immediately."
Red represented a strong fire-attribute, and blue was water-attribute. Green signified the wind-attribute, while yellow was earth attribute. Finally, purple represented the lightning-attribute.
Using the original golem as a template, Jin fashioned five bodies out of cupronickel. The interiors were hollow, reinforced with internal ribs. Since Jin's sense of aesthetic design for faces was catastrophically poor, he made them exact replicas of the original golem. He intended to distinguish them by their eye colors and clothing.
"Father, I apologize for the wait. It took some time to find crystals of the perfect size."
"I just finished the bodies on this end too."
He began setting the eyes into the five cupronickel golems—but only after meticulously engraving the necessary magi-formulas.
"Alright, next is the golem nucleus."
Normally, a golem moved according to the magi-formula engraved on its nucleus, powered by the mana stored within it. However, Adriana Barbora Tsetse had developed golems that could operate semi-permanently by incorporating an ether converter and a mana driver.
The nuclei were milky-white magi-crystals, which were compatible with all attributes. The rainbow-colored crystal he had used for Reiko was a high-grade version; the milky-white ones were a slightly lesser grade. Even so, a single one was valuable enough to purchase an entire mansion.
He applied several other minor improvements as he went. Since he only had about three hours a night, it was impossible to finish them in one go. He spent his days working or playing in Kaina Village, then returned to the laboratory at night for a few hours of production. In this manner, he spent several days crafting the maid golems.
On the fifth night.
"They are finally complete," Reiko observed.
"No, not yet," Jin countered.
"Eh?"
"I just won't feel right if they aren't wearing clothes."
When Jin said that, Reiko knit her brows.
"Father... have you perhaps grown tired of me?"
Whether it was Hanna's influence or something else, Jin felt that Reiko's emotions were becoming increasingly rich.
"How did you reach that conclusion? It's just a matter of aesthetics."
"I see. I am relieved."
Reiko hurried off to fetch fabric. Watching her go, Jin muttered to himself.
"Please don't turn into a yandere..."
Simple undergarments, black one-piece dresses, and white apron dresses followed. Finally, he added the white brims—the headpieces that served as the universal symbol of a maid. Jin crafted the first set, and by having Reiko produce identical copies, all five outfits were finished in no time.
"Phew, finally done."
"Thank you for your hard work, Father."
"Alright then—'Activate'."
The five maid golems sat up in unison.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Master."
They bowed perfectly together.
"Right. Your names will be... let's see. Ruby, Aqua, Topaz, Perido, and Amez."
He named them according to their eye colors. For Jin, it was an appropriately functional naming scheme.
"Reiko, I'm going back to sleep, but I want you to stay here a little longer. Teach them their duties and distribute the workload."
"Yes, Father."
"We look forward to your guidance, Mistress," the golems chimed.
As constructs that obeyed Jin's mana unconditionally, they recognized Reiko—who emitted the same mana signature—as a superior existence.
With this, the labor shortage at the laboratory was finally addressed, and the restoration of the facility began in earnest.