After lunch, Jin reached out to the Secret Mobile Unit (SP) he had assigned to Reinhard. His goal was to extract further information from Marcello; more intelligence was always a necessity.
He began with some preliminary inquiries, wanting to discover where the man was being held. Once located, the Secret Mobile Unit could surely manage the rest. However, the report he received was startling.
"Chief, we cannot fulfill that request. The Unifilar prisoners were all executed this morning."
"What!?"
"They were all sentenced to death for the crime of kidnapping a Shouro Empire diplomat."
"Good grief..."
The sheer speed of the executions was unsettling. Jin once again suspected a clandestine connection between the Unifilar and the Celuroa Kingdom. They had likely acted out of fear that sensitive information would leak.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it now. Reaffirming the dangerous nature of the Unifilar, Jin resolved to focus on the tasks at hand. He turned his attention to inspecting Reiko’s damaged railgun.
"What kind of force does it take to bend an adamantite barrel?"
Reiko looked genuinely apologetic as Jin stared at the weapon in disbelief. "I am truly sorry, Father. When I saw you being blown away, I lost all self-restraint."
"Does that mean you actually exerted 1000% output...?"
If she possessed the power to bend adamantite, Jin suddenly had a worrying realization. "Reiko, your skeleton is also made of adamantite. Is it all right?"
The barrel, which was thicker than Reiko’s internal frame, had been warped. Jin couldn't help but feel concerned.
"Yes, it is perfectly fine," she replied.
Despite her assurance, Jin decided to perform a thorough check. He cut off her mana flow, placing her in a state of suspended animation, and began his inspection.
"Just as I thought..."
There was a slight rattling in her joints, and a faint distortion had appeared in the bones of her arms. Whether she had lied to spare him worry or had simply failed to notice the damage, the strain was evident.
"So even adamantite cannot withstand Reiko's 1000% output," Jin mused. He began to ponder how he could possibly increase its structural integrity. "Ultimately, strength is determined by the bonding force between atoms or molecules."
The severing of those bonds was the definition of destruction.
"So, the question is how to increase that bonding force."
Jin recalled that in metallurgy, special metals were often added to alloys to increase tenacity. "Let's give it a try."
With Reiko still deactivated, he summoned Soleil and Luna. "Bring me some adamantite and mithril."
"Yes, Father."
The two girls retrieved adamantite and mithril ingots from the underground warehouse and set them before him.
"Good work. First, just the adamantite."
Using craft magic, Jin fashioned an adamantite test piece: a rod roughly one millimeter in diameter and twenty centimeters long. "Next, I'll mix in one percent mithril."
Using Alloying, he created a blend of adamantite and mithril, forming a second test piece of identical dimensions.
"This should do it. Soleil, Luna—can either of you bend this adamantite rod?"
The answer was immediate and blunt. "It is impossible."
"Right, I figured as much."
Having no other choice, he reactivated Reiko.
"Father?" Upon waking, Reiko looked at Jin’s grim expression with concern.
"Reiko, as I feared, your body has suffered some minor malfunctions. I want to reinforce your frame, but I need to run a few experiments first. I woke you up before finishing the repairs for that reason."
"I would be honored to assist you, Father."
Jin first had her bend the pure adamantite test piece. At approximately 25% of Reiko's current output, the rod warped and snapped.
"Good. Now, try this one."
He handed her the one mixed with mithril. This piece bent at only about 20% output.
"Father, it has actually become weaker," Luna noted.
"Just wait," Jin said. "Now I'll have her try after I do this."
He took another test piece and poured his own mana into it. While adamantite was normally non-interfering with magic, the addition of mithril allowed the alloy to hold a charge.
"I will attempt to bend it now....?" Reiko’s expression shifted to one of confusion. Even when she applied 30% of her power, the rod refused to budge.
As she began to ramp up her strength further, Jin felt the output rising rapidly and hurriedly intervened. "Reiko, that's enough! That's more than enough. Just as I suspected, mana can be used to increase structural strength."
"Strength increases with mana alone? Is it not a Reinforce spell?"
Jin nodded. "I should have explained better. You know spells like Hardening or Reinforce? The principle is the same. They use mana to supplement the bonding force between atoms or molecules."
In metals, elastic deformation occurred when the bonds of the crystalline lattice stretched and returned to place, while plastic deformation happened when those bonds slipped. Standard Hardening or Reinforce spells worked by reinforcing these bonds from the outside.
Adding mithril allowed this reinforcement to happen from within. Jin theorized that by applying Hardening while fine particles of mithril were diffused throughout the adamantite, a network of mana was created using the mithril as anchor points, drastically increasing the overall strength.
While the same process could be applied to pure mithril, its base strength and hardness were so low that the results weren't nearly as dramatic. It was a discovery that had eluded even Jin until now. Furthermore, few would ever think to mix mithril—which cost upwards of 5,000 tolls per gram—with adamantite, which was even more expensive.
"Now for the optimal ratio."
After several experiments, he determined that a 1.5% mithril content provided the maximum reinforcement.
"All right. I shall name this alloy 'magi-adamantite.'"
He found that when reinforced with a maximum mana charge, the alloy achieved roughly five times the strength of standard adamantite.
"Okay, Reiko, go back to sleep. I'm going to rebuild your skeleton using this magi-adamantite."
"Yes, Father."
Thus, Reiko’s internal frame was officially upgraded to magi-adamantite.
Next, Jin set out to create a new weapon to replace the ruined railgun, making it even more formidable. His new design utilized an oblong shell rather than a spherical one, and he incorporated rifling within the barrel. By crafting the barrel from magi-adamantite, it would resist the internal wear caused by firing adamantite projectiles.
He also changed the propulsion system from a slingshot style to a spring-based mechanism. Essentially, the weapon had evolved from a simple slingshot into a high-powered rifle. For the spring, he utilized the actual muscle tissue of a Sea Dragon. He had several intact muscles left over from the butchering process—likely from the creature's wings.
The wing muscles possessed a fascinating trait: they extended when mana was applied. The rate and force of this extension varied with the amount of mana provided. While Jin had initially assumed all muscles reacted this way, he found that limb muscles contracted when exposed to mana, much like human tissue.
"I suppose they use magic to spread their wings," he conjectured. Though he wasn't an expert on magical creatures, it was a functional working theory. More importantly, he saw a use for it. "I’ll let the muscle contract naturally without mana, then suddenly flood it with magic to make it snap forward and launch the shell. Yes, that should work."
Since speed was paramount, he incorporated one of the Elradrite stones he had recovered to act as a focused boost during the firing sequence. The entire barrel was forged from magi-adamantite, and he increased the caliber to five centimeters.
The weapon was now sturdy enough to withstand being swung as a club even at Reiko's 1000% output—though Jin hoped such a dire situation wouldn't arise again anytime soon.
"All right, Reiko. Give it a test fire."
"Yes, Father."
Standing before the laboratory, Reiko aimed toward the eastern horizon and fired the new weapon—now designated a magi-cannon—at full power.
With a thunderous boom, a hole was punched through the distant clouds, and a shimmering trail of ionized air marked the projectile's path. The boost provided by the Elradrite was staggering.
"Well... that was intense. Did it actually reach space this time?"
While he couldn't take precise measurements, anyone watching from orbit would have observed a small object punching through the atmosphere. Its muzzle velocity was Mach 80—roughly 27 kilometers per second. Even accounting for atmospheric drag, it had easily exceeded the planet's first cosmic velocity.
"Reiko, do not use full power again unless I specifically order it. Understood? Do not use it."
Jin made sure to emphasize the point.
Meanwhile, Reinhard was overwhelmed with administrative chaos.
He first had to explain the kidnapping to the Celuroa Kingdom Security Guard. To prove their story, he was forced to return to Stearena’s villa in Dali. The sight of the wrecked golems and automata, the evidence of the struggle, and the condition of the guards' remains in the mortuary finally convinced the local authorities.
The captured Unifilar members proved to be an even greater headache. Since Reinhard hadn't been seen with Jin, he maintained a policy of total ignorance regarding their savior. As a foreign diplomat, the authorities didn't press him too hard for details, which was a mercy.
However, the captured cultists spoke incessantly of the one who had defeated them. Since Jin had been wearing a helmet, they couldn't identify him, and Reinhard kept his mouth shut. While the authorities harbored suspicions, the name "Mysterious Golem Master" began to circulate.
As an aside, Reinhard and Stearena were never informed that the prisoners had already been executed.
"So, the one who saved us was truly Jin-kun?"
Reinhard and Stearena were finally relaxing over a cup of Te-e in the remains of her villa.
"It is such a shame. I truly wanted to speak with him again," Stearena sighed.
"Well, you were unconscious the whole time, so it couldn't be helped."
Perhaps due to the mana-sealing collar, Stearena hadn't woken up until the next morning. It was only after she had finished the two doses of recovery medicine Jin had provided that she finally regained consciousness.
"Say, Stearena, are you sure you're feeling all right? Is there something wrong with your health?"
"Eh? Why do you ask?"
"I was just worried. You were out for an incredibly long time after we were rescued."
She tried to dodge the question at first, but Reinhard’s persistence eventually wore her down.
"Actually... I haven't been feeling well for quite a while. I'm always so lethargic, and I get these sharp, stabbing pains inside."
"Have you seen a healer?"
"Yes. It feels better for a few days after they treat me, but the pain always comes back."
"I see..."
"But honestly, I feel unusually wonderful right now. Perhaps it's just because you're here with me, Reinhard-kun," she said with a smile.
Neither of them realized that her chronic ailment had been cured by Jin's medicine, and it was likely they wouldn't realize it for quite some time.