“I’d like to introduce everyone. This is Jin-kun, who will be joining our ranks starting today.”
“I’m Jin. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
Rokou handled the introductions.
There were about seven members in the research laboratory. From among them, a middle-aged man stepped forward and gave Jin a firm pat on the shoulder.
“I’m the laboratory chief, Karion. Welcome, Jin.”
“Welcome!”
“Glad to have you!”
The others echoed the sentiment, seemingly welcoming him—at least on the surface.
“Well then, Karion, I’ll leave the rest to you,” Rokou said, departing as soon as his piece was said.
“Jin, is that golem behind you one of your own creations? It’s quite a piece of work,” Karion remarked, studying Hope intently.
“Thank you very much.”
“We’re currently running two projects in parallel. Having someone with your skills join us is a huge help. Come this way.”
Karion guided Jin into the main area of the research laboratory. The space was roughly the size of two tennis courts, with several golems lined up in one corner. Among them, Jin spotted a few types that looked somewhat familiar.
“First, we have the unit analyzing the golems used by the Eastern Countries.”
About ten damaged golems were lined up here, clearly mid-analysis.
“And over here is the unit developing our latest models.”
Karion pointed toward three golems lying on workbenches, evidently in the middle of assembly.
“I’d like to have you start with the analysis unit.”
“Understood.”
Jin headed over to the row of damaged machines.
“Welcome, Jin. To jump straight into it, do you recognize any of these?...Ah, forgive me. I’m Raig Armor, the analysis unit leader.”
Raig Armor seemed like an affable, pleasant young man.
Jin scanned the ten golems. “I feel like... I’ve seen this one and this one before.”
To the best of his memory, those two were remarkably similar to the models used by the Unifilar.
“Hmm, that’s perfect. We suspected those two were particularly high-performance models ourselves. We were hoping to prioritize their analysis.”
“They’ve certainly seen better days,” Jin noted.
The exteriors of both units were in tatters. One was missing its left leg from the hip, and the other was missing its right arm from the shoulder.
“They were reportedly golems dispatched to quell a conflict five years back. We were lucky enough to recover them, but even though we want to replicate them, we simply can't.”
Raig Armor spoke with a trace of frustration in his voice.
“Hmm...”
Jin leaned over to peer into an opened chest cavity. “The control core is missing.”
“Yeah, a different team is analyzing those. That side of the project isn't progressing very well either.”
“I see...”
Jin peered deeper into the internal structure. “May I touch it?”
The unit leader gave an immediate nod of approval.
“In that case, excuse me.”
Jin moved with practiced efficiency, disassembling the exterior plating from the chest down to the arm.
“Whoa?!” Raig blurted out, startled by the sheer speed and precision of Jin's work.
“...As I suspected. These ones use biological materials.”
“W-What?! B-Biological materials? What are those?”
Raig seemed genuinely stunned by the term.
“Materials harvested from magical beasts,” Jin explained.
“From magical beasts?...I see... So that was the secret.”
Raig Armor went on to explain that they had been completely stumped regarding the nature of the muscle-related materials until now.
“Ah, I suppose biological materials weren't used in the Mercana Principality either.”
“Correct. For starters, there are very few magical beasts in this region, so such materials don't really circulate here.”
For reasons unknown, magical beasts seemed to be absent from this part of the Lauren Continent. Jin surmised there might be a correlation with the concentration of free ether in the area.
“Well, they're clearly being used in these golems. Are there truly no biological materials available in the Jagus Principality?”
“There are... probably some? But we wouldn't even know how to use them.”
“Is that so?” Jin was genuinely surprised.
“I'm afraid I have to admit that this region is quite far behind when it comes to magi-craft.” Raig’s tone was heavy with regret.
“I... think I understand why.”
Jin had been mentally mapping out the Jagus Principality's approximate location. Since the Mercana Principality was on the Pandor Continent, this place was likely at the western tip of the Lauren Continent, presumably connected to the Lashier Continent by a narrow isthmus.
To the east of this region lay countries like Mitsuho and Fusou—nations with very little connection to magic. Consequently, there were few magi in this country, and specialty materials likely didn't arrive very often.
(I suppose this place is a magical backwater,) Jin thought to himself. He kept the observation private, knowing it would only cause offense if spoken aloud.
“Then how do you obtain your magi-crystals?”
At Jin's question, Raig’s face soured as if he had just swallowed a bitter pill. “...Almost all of them are imported from the east.”
Evidently, magi-crystals were just as scarce in this land. The only thing they had over the Mercana Principality was a decent supply of metal resources.
“But you can still build golems without biological materials, right? In fact, biological materials can be quite temperamental when it comes to maintenance.”
While it didn't affect Jin's creations, biological materials tended to degrade quickly in environments with low free ether concentrations. Conversely, they lasted much longer if stored where free ether was abundant.
Because of this, the golems and automata Jin built were equipped with high-performance ether converters and magi-reactors as a rule. They gathered a large amount of free ether from their surroundings before converting it into mana.
A 'mana tank' was a refrigerated storage unit that maintained an ether ratio of twenty percent or higher to allow for the semi-permanent preservation of magical materials; imagining Jin's golems as those units stripped of their cooling function wouldn't be far from the truth.
“True, we can build them. However, the output of the golems we produce falls far short of the combat golems we’ve heard about from the Eastern Countries.”
“Really? Could it be that they're being utilized incorrectly?”
Jin had spoken without much thought, but it was Karion, not Raig, who lunged at the comment.
“Jin! What exactly do you mean by that?!”
Jin found himself slightly taken aback by the chief's sudden intensity.
“Y-Yes....Well, if you're trying to generate power using metallic magical muscle, I believe it comes down to three things: first the material, second the shape, and third the processing.”
“Is that so? And just how much of an improvement do you think that would make?”
“Let’s see... I think you could expect a difference of two to three times the current output.”
“That much?!...Jin, I find that a bit hard to believe. Could you perform an experiment to prove it?”
“Certainly. Just let me check what materials you have available.”
Jin began cataloging the supplies on hand.
“There’s plenty of mithril... and you have copper, zinc, tin, iron, nickel, chromium, cobalt, manganese... You actually have a fairly good selection.”
From the assortment, Jin picked out mithril, copper, and tin.
“I’ll create an alloy with these. The mixing ratio will be...”
“Oh, I see.”
“Mithril in bronze... 1.5 percent? Is such a tiny amount really enough?”
“Increasing the quantity doesn't necessarily improve the results,” Jin explained.
“Hmm, this is quite educational.”
As Jin continued his easy-to-understand explanation, Karion watched him with a complicated, somewhat bitter expression.